The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, visited a popular nail salon to get a trendy manicure with intricate designs and bold colors. Excited to show off her new nails, she spent hours admiring the artwork on her fingertips. However, a few days after getting her nails done, she started to notice redness, swelling, and pain around her nail beds.One of the most common sentiments expressed by analysts is that the Trump 2.0 nominee cabinet is notably more cohesive and streamlined compared to its predecessor. With several key positions being filled by individuals who have previous experience in government and a deep understanding of policy-making processes, there is a general consensus that the new cabinet is better equipped to navigate the complexities of governance. This bodes well for the efficient implementation of Trump's policy agenda, as the inherent expertise of these appointees is expected to translate into more effective decision-making and execution.
They’ve had enough. A movement in a myriad of rural counties across deep blue states such as Illinois and California to split off and form new states appears to be gaining some steam in the wake of the Nov. 5 election. Conservative residents of the rural regions are taking note of their peers fleeing to lower-taxed and less-regulated red states but they are ready to stay put — pining for a divorce with the urban sectors of their state. A group dubbed the New Illinois State has drafted a new constitution and championed plans to “Leave Illinois Without Moving.” On Election Day, seven rural counties in Illinois voted to contemplate splitting off from the state. “There’s a lot of people in Chicago, and I think that they make a lot of decisions that affect people downstate,” Phil Gioja, from Iroquois County, told the Wall Street Journal. “It’s just sending a message that, ‘Hey, you know, there’s people that would like to be part of the conversation, and often aren’t.’” In Iroquois County, about 73% of voters backed the idea of banding together with other counties in Illinois, except Cook County, which encompasses Chicago and forming a new state. Chicago is home to about 40% of Illinois’ population. While Gioja doesn’t anticipate a separation soon, some backers of a rural divorce think that an opening will come. “We always believed that our best opportunity to negotiate our way out of Illinois was when Illinois was approaching that financial cliff — it’s been on a path toward it for years,” G.H. Merritt, who chairs New Illinois State told the outlet. Out in California, a similar movement has taken root as well. The New California State organization hopes to splinter off the counties outside the Bay Area, Sacramento and Los Angeles. “I’m so flipping excited,” Paul Preston, who founded New California State, told the Wall Street Journal. Preston bashed the Golden State to the outlet as a “one-party communist state, and technically, they have seceded from the Union already.” But his and other like-minded movements face an uphill battle. To win statehood, they would need the green light from state legislatures — difficult to lock down from the states where they’d like to splinter off. Hawaii was the last state formally added to the US. There have been efforts by Puerto Rico and Washington DC to attain statehood, but none of them have garnered much steam. Following the Nov. 5 election, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has visited red counties and told voters: “Message received.” “I don’t care who you voted for. I care about Trump supporters, I care about Robert Kennedy Jr supporters, I care about Tucker Carlson supporters, I care about Charlie Kirk supporters, I care about Ben Shapiro supporters, I care about all people,” Newsom said during one of his stops. Out in Oregon, the Greater Idaho movement is hoping to reconfigure state lines so that rural counties past the Cascade mountain range can join their conservative-run neighbor Idaho. “The State of Oregon has said we’re not going to talk about it and are basically holding people in Eastern Oregon captive against our wishes,” Matt McCaw, executive director of Greater Idaho, told the outlet. A similar movement had taken place in three Maryland counties — Garrett, Allegany and Washington — which asked to join West Virginia and got support from Gov. Jim Justice (R) back in 2021. None of those counties have moved over. The urban-rural divide has long had ripple effects in domestic politics. President-elect Donald Trump enjoyed a major advantage over Vice President Kamala Harris in rural areas. Trump, 78, also managed to chip away at the Democrats’ long-held grip on urban centers, dramatically reducing the margins in traditionally blue states relative to the 2020 election. Throughout his campaign, the 45th and soon-to-be 47th president assailed liberal-run cities, claiming that they were overtaxed, rife with crime and falling apart. Originally published as Rural counties in California, Illinois push to secede from Democrat states to separate from liberal-run cities after Trump’s win: ‘so flipping excited’
Mumbai: For the first time, private sector banks as a group met priority sector lending targets, including sub-targets for major heads in 2023-24, particularly in agriculture, according to central bank data. Although all bank groups managed to achieve their stipulated overall targets and sub-targets, private sector banks did better than their public sector peers. ET Year-end Special Reads What kept India's stock market investors on toes in 2024? India's car race: How far EVs went in 2024 Investing in 2025: Six wealth management trends to watch out for For the public sector, private and foreign banks, the target is 40% of adjusted net bank credit or credit equivalent of off-balance sheet exposure, whichever is higher. For small finance banks, the target is higher at 75%. One of the reasons for the private sector banks to achieve their priority sector target is that they are now allowed to invest in priority sector lending certificates (PSLCs). These are issued against banks' priority sector loans under various sub-targets and general categories. Banks use PSLCs to guard against shortfalls. The total trading volume of PSLCs climbed 26% in FY24, primarily led by PSLC-General. Among the four PSLC categories, the small and marginal farmers category registered the highest trading volume, partly reflecting specialisation by a few banks in lending to this category of borrowers and the inability of other banks to meet sub-targets through direct lending, the RBI said in its report on Trends and Progress of Banking. 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In FY24, they accounted for 49% of total sales as compared with 21% in the case of public sector banks , the RBI said. Nominations for ET MSME Awards are now open. The last day to apply is December 31, 2024. Click here to submit your entry for any one or more of the 22 categories and stand a chance to win a prestigious award. (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel )