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Buying a house in 2025: your how-to guideIPSWICH: Ruben Amorim did not pull any punches after a disappointing start to his career in the Manchester United dugout on Sunday, admitting the troubled club will “suffer for a long time”. If that is not what frustrated fans want to hear, the evidence from the underwhelming 1-1 draw at lowly Ipswich was stark. The visitors got off to a dream start when Marcus Rashford scored from close-range in the second minute after a fine run from makeshift wing-back Amad Diallo. But United quickly went off the boil, looking ponderous in attack and uncertain at the back, with Omari Hutchinson giving third-bottom Ipswich a deserved equalizer at the end of the first half. Neither team could find a winner after the break. “We are going to suffer for a long period, and we will try to win games,” Amorim told his post-match press conference, seeking to temper expectations. “This will take time, but I know we have to win games. We could have won, we could have lost if it were not for (goalkeeper Andre) Onana. “We have to understand that and think and be pragmatic that these guys had two days to train and to change so much.” United, languishing in 12th place in the Premier League, are already 15 points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool after 12 games and six points adrift of fourth-placed Arsenal. Fanfare Amorim arrived in Manchester earlier this month to much fanfare after replacing the sacked Erik ten Hag. He is touted as one of the most exciting young coaches in Europe after winning two Portuguese titles with Sporting Lisbon. Amorim is the club’s sixth permanent managerial appointment since Alex Ferguson retired in 2013 after leading to United to a 20th English title. And at 39, he is the youngest United boss since Wilf McGuinness followed Matt Busby in 1969. But, for all the hype around Amorim, United’s flat performance in blustery conditions at Portman Road showed the scale of the task he has to take them back into the Premier League’s elite. In mitigation, Amorim had just days to work with his full squad after the international break. And he pleaded for patience as he gets down to business. “It’s hard to expect anything now,” he said. “It’s not a surprise, but you have to see it in-game. “So that’s why I was a little bit anxious, because you cannot understand what will happen in the game. “I felt that. I felt that they were trying, they were thinking too much during the game, and that is normal.” United next face Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt at home in the Europa League on Thursday - which will be his first taste of a match at Old Trafford. Amorim said he would have to find a way to train his players alongside a cascade of matches both domestically and in Europe over the coming months. “With this schedule, we need to rotate the team,” he said. “So we’ll try to use that to train, to improve the team, and to win matches. “So that’s the point. Without time, we have to find the time.” I think this is the only way.” He admitted it would take time for the players to get used to the specific demands of his 3-4-3 formation, but said they had to take risks now to ensure long-term prosperity. “Next year in the same stage we’ll be here with the same problems,” Amorim said. “Or we start now, we risk a little bit, we suffer a little bit and in the next year we will be better at this point. So we have to risk it a little bit.”- AFP
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Scott Saxberg is a hockey guy, a pick-up game grinder whose childhood dream of achieving NHL glory as a player did not pan out, but worked out nonetheless when he and a bunch of Alberta business tycoons bought the Phoenix Coyotes in 2013 for US$225 million. They sold the Coyotes four years later for US$300 million in what at the time was regarded as a financial win. But that is not how Saxberg, who made his money in the oilpatch as co-founder of Calgary-based Crescent Point Energy Corp . (now Veren Inc.), which he left in 2018 with an $18-million severance package, views the transaction. More than the dollars and cents, what itches at him most in hindsight are the bad business bounces that preceded the team’s sale. For example, a new arena on the campus of Arizona State University was proposed, but did not get built under the Albertans’ regime, and then there was the 2015 NHL draft lottery when Connor McDavid became an Edmonton Oiler, not a Coyote. With a dash of luck and a new arena, Saxberg believes he would still be an NHL owner. As it is, he has plenty of money, but not the billionaire sums required to buy into the big leagues these days. “Don’t tell my wife, but I still wish I owned the Coyotes,” he said. “It is every kid’s dream.” But like a good grinder, Saxberg kept digging, and he discovered there are lots of other opportunities and other teams on the lookout for reasonably wealthy individuals who possess a love of sport, an appetite for alternative investments and, importantly, a capacity to write big cheques, such as the one the Calgary oilman scratched off this past July when he plunked down $500,000 to become a minority part-owner of SC Preussen Münster. Never heard of them? It’s a German second division soccer club, whose chief executive, Markus Sass, happens to be a Detroit Red Wings fan, not to mention a fan of North Americans with deep pockets. “I am a hockey guy,” Saxberg said. “The only real insight I have in relation to the soccer team is that you need to score more goals than the other team to win.” For most ordinary folks who are scraping to save enough nickels for some far-off retirement date, the thought of dipping into, say, your registered retirement savings plan to buy into a professional soccer team in Germany, or any team in any league anywhere, is a non-starter. The archetypal sports owner is someone who isn’t like you. Instead, they inhabit the rarefied air of a private box, crammed with a bunch of yes-men and a celebrity or two, all circulating in close proximity to an almighty wealthy individual who owns the team. Some team owners are faceless, soulless, but not clueless corporate entities that are invested in the belief that franchise valuations across the five North American big leagues seem on a skies-the-limit valuation trajectory. Case in point: the Coyotes that the Albertans bought for US$225 million are now the Utah Hockey Club and cost the team’s current owner, technology baron Ryan Smith, US$1.2 billion to acquire. In short, there is a perception of supreme exclusivity attached to sports ownership and there is also money to be made, but what may be surprising is that depending on the club, an investor does not necessarily need to be a billionaire to get in on the game. “There’s a lot of North Americans looking for sports investment opportunities overseas,” Bob Malandro, the founder of Whitecap Sports Group, a Florida-based sports investment banking firm, said. The New Yorker’s elevator pitch is that his firm, which has been around since 2016, buys and sells sports teams and percentages thereof. These deals happen all the time, according to Malandro, and they typically fly beneath the radar and are bound by non-disclosure agreements unless a celebrity is involved and a franchise sees value in making a splashy announcement. His typical client is a high-net-worth individual or family office in the market for an alternative asset to round out their portfolio. “In many cases, there’s a little more risk involved with these types of investments, but there’s certainly more reward — potentially,” he said. “The ideal scenario is the investor has some fun with the asset. You know, they feel like they are involved in the club, even if they’re a small minority stakeholder, and they get to enjoy it on different levels, and not just financially.” Shelling out several hundred thousand dollars for Amazon.com Inc. stock may be a fairly safe bet to make, but tracking the ebbs and flows of the stock market doesn’t quite hold the same appeal as having a few beers while watching your investment drub a hated opponent. Once upon a golden age, Münster, which is majority owned by the community, delivered plenty of thrills to its fans. Founded in 1906, the club stood alongside the glitterati of German soccer and captured the 1951 national championship before gradually sliding into competitive irrelevance. That long narrative of decline has lately shifted to one of renewed hope, both on and off the field, as Münster has played its way up the ranks from Germany’s fourth tier to a place in the second division. The novel twist in a regional feel-good story — given the tradition-governed landscape of German professional sports in which the idea, briefly floated, of auctioning off a slice of soccer’s broadcasting rights to a foreign equity firm sparked national protests — is that a group of 16 North Americans, which includes CEOs, Wall Street wheelers and dealers, a dentist and a former oilman, now own 30 per cent of a second-tier soccer club in a picturesque German university city that 99.9 per cent of their family members had never heard of prior to them making the investment. “Like most good ideas, investing in the club was a plan hatched over a beer in my German cousin’s backyard,” Nick Semaca, a former director of McKinsey and Co. and now part-owner of Münster, said. He retired in his 50s to do what he really wanted to do: buy a minor league baseball team. The Joliet Slammers were a money loser that the 66-year-old turned into a money-maker and recently sold for a “comfortable” return. (The new owners also include funnyman Bill Murray). Semaca turned his attention to German soccer in 2022, and with the help of his German cousin, Ulrich Linnebank, who is a lawyer and a University of Münster alum, they did what due diligence they could prior to him emailing the club’s chief financial officer to discuss the possibility of investing. “Why us?” the CFO replied. The hottest sports properties among North American investors in 2024 have been North American soccer teams generally and women’s sports specifically, according to Malandro. The 2026 World Cup is coming to the continent soon, while the WNBA has Caitlin Clark, a once-in-a-millennium talent, to help sell its game as well as a new franchise in Toronto bankrolled by billionaire Larry Tanenbaum of Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment Ltd. fame to look forward to in 2026. But Europe is a different and arguably more attractive beast for those with a little surplus cash. Even soccer clubs that have fallen on hard times have a history that is often reflected in the present day by a strong community connection and a rabidly loyal fan base. For example, Münster’s fans prefer standing at games over sitting. Win or lose, they start singing before kick-off and don’t stop until the final whistle. Contrast Münster to the good old hockey game, where fans rise for the singing of the national anthems, but may or not join in with the scoreboard prompt to kick up a round of Stompin’ Tom’s The Hockey Song. European clubs are also located in, well, Europe, in cities such as Münster, which is a pretty enough spot, but also less than three hours from Amsterdam, a not-insignificant geographic selling point that may resonate more to an investor than buying a piece of a C-list North American expansion soccer team playing in a D-list league in a run-of-the-mill faceless American suburb. Münster plays one step below the Bundesliga, home to global soccer giants such as FC Bayern Munich. Clubs in the second division can wind up competing against the big guns if they play their way up the ladder as well as in league-wide tournaments. However remote, reaching the big leagues is an intoxicating possibility, but that’s not the reason the North Americans bet on Münster. The city of 300,000 is cut through with bike paths; the streets are devoid of litter; the pedestrian-only town square appears pulled from the glossy pages of a travel brochure, with cobblestones underfoot and soaring church steeples towering above; unemployment rates are low and personal incomes are high; and, as self-reported by the locals, people are happier here than the national average. That sunniness shines through in conversation with Markus Sass, Münster football club’s 42-year-old managing director. He loves his soccer, yet, unlike most Germans, the game that hooked him in as a kid was hockey, a passion that stirred a childhood fascination with Canada that he pursued by spending an eight-month stint as a student at Western University in London, Ont. “I became a fan of the Red Wings because I liked the team’s crest so much, but I don’t really have time to follow hockey anymore,” he said. He has been too busy with other things, including becoming a new father and finding North Americans to invest in Münster, an idea he credits Semaca for bringing forward and helping to execute. Following his initial query note to the team’s CFO and the bemused reply, the New Jersey native explained that his interest in the club wasn’t entirely out of left field. His German cousin was also keen to invest and his mother had been born in a nearby town. Being a good McKinsey alum, he had also done some homework before any money changed hands. “People look at sports investments and they will say, ‘Oh, is it your hobby, is it something to do for fun?'” he said. “Look, if I wanted to do something for fun, I could just buy a damn season ticket, OK? And so I look at it as a business, because unless you are from the royal family of Qatar or the Saudi private investment fund, looking at it otherwise just doesn’t make sense, and I would argue if you don’t run a sustainable business, eventually, something bad is going to happen.” His point? There is a lot of potential business on the horizon in Münster. The city is building the team a new, $130-million stadium to replace the relic that is there now and increase the seating capacity to 20,000 from 12,000. The new building will feature premium seats, plenty of standing room for the diehards and tasty grub, and offer advertisers more opportunities to interact with fans, both in-game and digitally, while generating substantially greater revenues than the current building. “Our stadium today is really, really uncozy; it is like an antique,” Sass said. “And this is why we cannot compete budget-wise with clubs with more modern stadiums, because they make, like, five to six million euros more than us just in gate money.” Money is king in German professional soccer since money allows a team to buy better players. There is no salary cap. The higher a team finishes, the greater the payout percentage from broadcasting deals, and the greater the odds that the team’s valuation increases. Münster is currently worth about $20 million. Teams at the top of the second tier have values closer to $90 million. Having a team on the rise, a community-funded stadium coming in 2028, a loyal fan base, 120 years of history, an affluent local population, a major anchor sponsor that is also a major local employer, and a surrounding region where Münster is the only professional soccer game in town — and a cousin nearby to keep an eye on the proverbial store — was enough to sell Semaca on an initial buy-in. He has since upped his ownership stake in the club and started planning more trips to Europe from his Chicago home. “It has been a lot of fun so far,” he said. “None of us have gone in there and been writing million-dollar cheques; it has been more like, ‘Let’s dip a toe in the water, and let’s see what happens with this thing.'” The perks also flow in both directions. Sass said the injection of North American capital was necessary to help modernize the team’s operations, invest in digital infrastructure, recruit best-in-class employees and have some spare cash on hand to spend on players as the team entered its first season of division two play. Along with the money has been the added brainpower the investors bring to the mix. Sass is mid-career, while both Semaca and Saxberg have been there and successfully done that in business and the business of sport. In other words, they know some things, their ideas and input are welcome, and Sass said he is beyond grateful for the mentorship. But the beauty in the arrangement for the Germans is that the ideas, good, bad or otherwise, that the investors float forth can be adopted or completely ignored if they don’t resonate for whatever reason. Under German soccer’s so-called 50 per cent plus one vote rule, a club’s members, a.k.a., the thousands of regulars who pay an annual due of around $200 and elect a board to run the team, which operates as a non-profit with a for-profit business arm, have the final say over any decisions. “Culturally, there have been no issues because no one single investor can come in and change the direction of the club, completely change the club’s identity or relocate it to another city, and all those things that you occasionally see happen in North American sports, that can’t happen here,” Sass said. “People have been very relaxed about the foreign investors coming in because they have no say, but they do bring money, and that’s the best combination possible. It is win, win, win, as long as we can keep our promise and develop the club further.” Malandro enjoys telling the story about what a club’s development can mean for the patient investor. All leagues, even the NFL, were, at some point, startups with no guarantees, he said. He has one client who bought a $250,000 minority stake in a major North American professional sports franchise some 40 years ago or so, when player salaries were more in line with senior executives than with Hollywood movie stars. This client was a fan at heart and enjoyed the perks of going to games for years, celebrating wins and losses alongside other bigwigs, while being in close proximity to professional athletes. Eventually, the client relocated to a warmer clime and stopped going to games, so he called Malandro, who went to the market, found a buyer and came back to the seller to congratulate them on a US$40-million return on their US$250,000 initial investment. “There are myriad reasons why people decide to sell,” he said. “The most common is that they have simply held the asset for quite a while, have enjoyed it to capacity and feel like the time is right to exit, given current market values. Sometimes they relocate and don’t attend games any longer or feel the same connectivity to the team. This could also be impacted by their age, and the fact that they are considering estate planning strategies.” Back in Calgary, Saxberg is more into near-term planning. He is in his early 50s, has three young kids with a fourth on the way at home, and two adult sons from a previous marriage. Having sold the Coyotes and been priced out of the NHL, he enlisted his eldest, Graeme, to help find the next ownership opportunity in sports. The search led to Malandro’s firm and several intriguing possibilities the Saxbergs took a pass on — a Swiss hockey team, a Major League Soccer franchise, a professional pickleball league — before Münster appeared on the radar. Saxberg is an active mentor in the startup space and an investor in an array of small companies. He has staked renewable energy outfits, a design company specializing in health and wellness, an artificial intelligence play in the food-and-beverage industry, a maker of women’s tights and 30-plus other startups, with seed capital funding in amounts ranging from $250,000 to $1.5 million. Any one of those investments, and hopefully more than one, could grow up to be big deals, or they could go bust. “We look at Münster almost like a startup,” he said. “The team has just moved up leagues, they are learning how to manage a larger group of investors, and they are well run and they are serious.” Further enhancing the team’s value proposition in Saxberg’s view is the networking possibilities that being an investor affords. He is gregarious, a fan of European business culture and a networker who sees the business of soccer as potentially leading to other business. “The team’s main sponsor is a logistics company with a venture capital arm and they invest in new technologies, so there’s a natural relationship there that, ‘Hey, I can help connect them with companies that I’m mentoring,’ because you just never know.” What Saxberg does know is that a few years down the road, once the kids are a bit older, he wants to move the family to Münster, not full time, but for just enough time for them to gain an enriching experience and for the minority owner to catch a bunch of Münster games in the club’s new stadium, which is preferable to getting up at 5:30 a.m. in Calgary to watch them online as he does now. “I’m learning German; it might take me five years to be able to speak a sentence, but I’m trying,” he said. “I view the investment as a long-term commitment, and the biggest thing for me is meeting and experiencing new people, and, at the end of the day, it is Europe, so what’s not to love?” • Email: joconnor@postmedia.com Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the business news you need to know — add financialpost.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here .Posts area Latest 1 of 1 Go to latest Pinned post from 5.02am Hundreds of bridge crashes caught on camera as drivers told to do better By William Davis New footage of vehicles slamming into rail bridges in Queensland has been released amid a push to improve driver awareness. At least 386 bridges or protection beams have been hit by vehicles in the past 12 months, causing train and road delays. Police and multiple government departments are leading a blitz this week to improve awareness among drivers in high-risk areas. “Just last month we saw a car narrowly miss being crushed after a truck got wedged at Corinda – next time maybe we won’t be so lucky,” said Travis Cooper from Queensland Rail. “We’re not mincing our words – drivers, know your height, plan your route and obey the signs and rules.” Latest posts Latest posts 5.17am Lidia Thorpe has ‘no regrets’ despite Senate suspension By Olivia Ireland Independent senator Lidia Thorpe says she has no regrets about throwing papers at One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, which got her suspended from the chamber for a day. Speaking on Nine’s Today program, the maverick senator walked through the press gallery joking about her “suspension badge” before speaking on the Senate fallout from yesterday. Independent senator Lidia Thorpe leaves the Senate chamber on Wednesday morning. Credit: AAP “It’s been a horrible week, and when you’re subjected to racism, which I have been since I was a kid ... I stand up against it and that’s what I did,” she said. Asked if she had any regrets, Thorpe firmly said she did not. “No, not at all,” she said. We all have a responsibility to stamp racism out. Senator Hanson gets away with so much she is a convicted racist. She has worn a burqa in the chamber. She baits me regularly with racial taunts and what she did to Senator [Fatima] Payman was questioned. Her legitimacy in this place.” Continuing the media rounds, Thorpe dodged a question on ABC News Breakfast about whether she planned to come back to the Senate today despite being suspended. No one tells me the rules around here until I break them. I think they make it up as they go along and that is part of the problem. That is why we called for an inquiry into Senate procedures so that we are not responding to hate speech all the time and having all these disruptions.” 5.09am Parliament set to pass social media ban for under 16s By AAP Children younger than 16 are all but set to be banned from social media, with federal parliament poised to enact the world-first legislation. The Senate is expected on Thursday to pass the laws that would ban young people from platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok with bipartisan support. However, there has been concern that the proposal has been rushed through parliament without proper scrutiny, given that Australia would be the first country to implement such a ban. The ban would come into effect one year after the laws pass the parliament, with trials of age-verification technology still done by the federal government. Criticism had been levelled at the ban after an inquiry into the laws ran for just three hours, with people only given one day to hand in submissions and a lack of consultation with young people themselves. While the bill has enjoyed bipartisan support, several coalition members have broken ranks to raise concerns. Tasmanian Liberal MP Bridget Archer crossed the floor to vote against the ban in the House of Representatives, while coalition senator Matt Canavan has also criticised the laws. 5.01am A warm and wet end to the week Brisbanites wake to another cloudy day today, with the mercury forecast to hit a top of 30 degrees. There’s a higher chance of showers today than there has been this week so far, so don’t forget your umbrella. Tomorrow and the weekend look to be even wetter again. Here’s the outlook into the weekend and beyond. Advertisement 5.00am This morning’s headlines at a glance Stories making the rounds beyond Brisbane this morning: Bikies ran amok in the CFMEU , and they’re not going to leave quietly. Efforts to clean up the troubled union are encountering resistance as the extent of past problems becomes clearer. Independent senator Lidia Thorpe was suspended from the chamber for a day for throwing papers at Senator Pauline Hanson in fury, after the latter was accused of spreading hatred by Senator Fatima Payman. In Canberra, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has intervened to scupper a deal with the Greens over environmental reform that Labor promised at the last election, circumventing his Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek. Elon Musk, US President-elect Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jnr, Mike Johnson and Robert F. Kennedy enjoy a McDonald’s meal aboard Trump’s private plane. Credit: @DonaldJTrumpJr/X It was a picture that revealed more than just Donald Trump’s inner circle. What does the president-elect’s diet consist of? Breakfast – nothing. Lunch – nothing. Dinner – a McDonald’s, KFC, pizza or a well-done steak. Twelve Diet Cokes a day, and snacking on Doritos. Here’s what happened when The Telegraph’s Gareth Davies tried it for a week. And a man who could be the NRL season’s most important buy has revealed why he changed clubs, as Brisbane Times Sports Reporter Nick Wright dissects who stands as their new side’s most crucial purchase . 4.55am The top stories for today Good morning, thanks for joining us for Brisbane Times’ live news blog. It’s Thursday, November 28, and we’re expecting a partly cloudy day and a top temperature of 30 degrees. In this morning’s local headlines: After an eight-month inquiry, the Senate transport committee’s 229-page report on aircraft noise has been tabled in parliament . In Olympics venue news, Dykman Consulting is working on a submission to the Crisafulli government’s 100-day review that envisages a “golden triangle” inner-city Games transport area , with the Gabba becoming the Brisbane Arena, a Suncorp Stadium upgrade and a Main Stadium at the eastern end of Victoria Park. Local primary school students have joined the fight against the development of a 24/7 McDonald’s on Nudgee Road in Hendra. Credit: Courtney Kruk Primary school students have added their voices to a chorus of locals opposing the proposed development of a 24-hour McDonald’s on Nudgee Road , staging a protest outside Hendra State School on Wednesday afternoon. Dozens of mums, dads and bubs have turned King George Square into a parking lot for prams as they gathered to sing songs and read stories in protest of Brisbane City Council’s decision to cut local library reading programs . Barry Parade Public House is one of the best-looking bar openings in years. Credit: Markus Ravik And a sophisticated neighbourhood boozer has opened in what many would consider a relatively unknown byway between the CBD and Fortitude Valley. Take a look inside Barry Parade Public House. Latest 1 of 1 Latest Most Viewed in National LoadingAPA Corp. stock outperforms competitors despite losses on the day
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Children of the wealthy and connected get special admissions consideration at some elite U.S. universities, according to new filings in a class-action lawsuit originally brought against 17 schools. Georgetown’s then-president, for example, listed a prospective student on his “president’s list” after meeting her and her wealthy father at an Idaho conference known as “summer camp for billionaires,” according to Tuesday court filings in the price-fixing lawsuit filed in Chicago federal court in 2022. Although it’s always been assumed that such favoritism exists, the filings offer a rare peek at the often secret deliberations of university heads and admissions officials. They show how schools admit otherwise unqualified wealthy children because their parents have connections and could possibly donate large sums down the line, raising questions about fairness. Stuart Schmill, the dean of admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote in a 2018 email that the university admitted four out of six applicants recommended by then-board chairman Robert Millard, including two who “we would really not have otherwise admitted.” The two others were not admitted because they were “not in the ball park, or the push from him was not as strong.” In the email, Schmill said Millard was careful to play down his influence on admissions decisions, but he said the chair also sent notes on all six students and later met with Schmill to share insight “into who he thought was more of a priority.” The filings are the latest salvo in a lawsuit that claims that 17 of the nation’s most prestigious colleges colluded to reduce the competition for prospective students and drive down the amount of financial aid they would offer, all while giving special preference to the children of wealthy donors. “That illegal collusion resulted in the defendants providing far less aid to students than would have been provided in a free market,” said Robert Gilbert, an attorney for the plaintiffs. Since the lawsuit was filed, 10 of the schools have reached settlements to pay out a total of $284 million, including payments of up to $2,000 to current or former students whose financial aid might have been shortchanged over a period of more than two decades. They are Brown, the University of Chicago, Columbia, Dartmouth, Duke, Emory, Northwestern, Rice, Vanderbilt and Yale. Johns Hopkins is working on a settlement and the six schools still fighting the lawsuit are the California Institute of Technology, Cornell, Georgetown, MIT, Notre Dame and the University of Pennsylvania. MIT called the lawsuit and the claims about admissions favoritism baseless. “MIT has no history of wealth favoritism in its admissions; quite the opposite,” university spokesperson Kimberly Allen said. “After years of discovery in which millions of documents were produced that provide an overwhelming record of independence in our admissions process, plaintiffs could cite just a single instance in which the recommendation of a board member helped sway the decisions for two undergraduate applicants." In a statement, Penn also said the case is meritless that the evidence shows that it doesn't favor students whose families have donated or pledged money to the Ivy League school. “Plaintiffs’ whole case is an attempt to embarrass the University about its purported admission practices on issues totally unrelated to this case," the school said. Notre Dame officials also called the case baseless. “We are confident that every student admitted to Notre Dame is fully qualified and ready to succeed,” a university spokesperson said in a statement. The South Bend, Indiana, school, though, did apparently admit wealthy students with subpar academic backgrounds. According to the new court filings, Don Bishop, who was then associate vice president for enrollment at Notre Dame, bluntly wrote about the “special interest” admits in a 2012 email, saying that year's crop had poorer academic records than the previous year's. The 2012 group included 38 applicants who were given a “very low” academic rating, Bishop wrote. He said those students represented “massive allowances to the power of the family connections and funding history,” adding that “we allowed their high gifting or potential gifting to influence our choices more this year than last year.” The final line of his email: “Sure hope the wealthy next year raise a few more smart kids!” Some of the examples pointed to in this week's court filings showed that just being able to pay full tuition would give students an advantage. During a deposition, a former Vanderbilt admissions director said that in some cases, a student would get an edge on the waitlist if they didn’t need financial aid. The 17 schools were part of a decades-old group that got permission from Congress to come up with a shared approach to awarding financial aid. Such an arrangement might otherwise violate antitrust laws, but Congress allowed it as long as the colleges all had need-blind admissions policies, meaning they wouldn't consider a student’s financial situation when deciding who gets in. The lawsuit argues that many colleges claimed to be need-blind but routinely favored the children of alumni and donors. In doing so, the suit says, the colleges violated the Congressional exemption and tainted the entire organization. The group dissolved in recent years when the provision allowing the collaboration expired. The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org .What happens when 'The Simpsons' join 'Monday Night Football'? Find out during Bengals-Cowboys
The Chinese regime sanctioned 13 U.S. defense companies and six executives on Dec. 5 in response to the U.S. government’s latest arms sale to Taiwan. In announcing the sanctions, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the planned arms sale “interferes in China’s internal affairs, and undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” The companies targeted include drone makers such as BRINC Drones Inc. and Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems Inc.Others include Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc., Rapid Flight LLC, Red Six Solutions, Shield AI Inc., SYNEXXUS Inc., Firestorm Labs Inc., HavocAI, Neros Technologies, Cyberlux Corporation, Domo Tactical Communications, and Group W. The regime also sanctioned six senior executives from Raytheon, BAE Systems, Alliant Techsystems Operations, Data Link Solutions, and BRINC Drones. The sanctioned individuals are banned from entering China. All entities’ assets in China will be frozen, and all individuals and companies in China are banned from doing business with the sanctioned entities. The Epoch Times has reached out to the targeted companies and individuals for comments, and did not receive any response by press time. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has never ruled Taiwan, although it claims sovereignty over the self-governed island and hasn’t ruled out taking the island by force. In recent years, the CCP has stepped up its military preparations to invade the island nation, and has conducted military drills encircling Taiwan. Although the United States does not have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, it maintains ties with Taipei under the Taiwan Relations Act and the U.S. “Six Assurances” to Taiwan, which recognize Taiwan’s right to self-determination and allow Washington to sell military equipment to Taiwan for the its self-defense. In 2018, President Donald Trump signed the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act, committing to “regular transfers of defense articles to Taiwan” to help the island meet “the existing and likely future threats from the People’s Republic of China.” The recent $385 million arms sale plan was the 18th arms sale under the Biden administration. President Joe Biden has also approved arms donations using presidential drawdown. On Nov. 30, Taiwan’s Presidential Office thanked the United States, calling the Taiwan–U.S. security partnership “a critical cornerstone for peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.” Researchers at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR), told The Epoch Times that Beijing’s largely “symbolic” sanctions will not stop U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. Chung Chih-tung, assistant research fellow at INDSR’s Division of National Security Research, said the United States has continued to sell arms to Taiwan despite Beijing’s protests since 1979 because strengthening Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities via arms sales is “an integral part of the U.S. policy to deter China” from invading Taiwan. Moreover, amid the increasingly tense U.S.–China relations, “Taiwan has an irreplaceable importance in the U.S. geostrategy of containing China,” he said. Wang Shiow-wen, assistant research fellow at INDSR’s Division of Chinese Politics, Military and Warfighting Concepts, said increased U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan will likely continue because of Beijing’s expansion of its military capabilities. “The military capabilities on the two sides of the [Taiwan] Strait is very imbalanced. The United States not only won’t stop arms sales to Taiwan, it will more likely sell more and better weapons to Taiwan, particularly when the United States is transitioning to a new administration,” she said. “It has little to do with the trade war and more to do with the balance of military power in East Asia,” she said, adding that the United States cannot allow Beijing to compromise U.S. defense in the first island chain via Taiwan, or absorb the chip-making powerhouse and use it as leverage against the world. It’s Lai’s first stopover on U.S. soil as president during a state visit to the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, and Palau. Beijing later criticized the United States for allowing him to transit through Hawaii.
Caiwei Chen is a reporter who covers tech, the internet, and society. Her work has been seen in publications including Wired, Rolling Stone, Protocol, Rest of World, and more. She is more online than she would like to admit.Nike's Black Friday sale is offering up to 60% off sneakers, including Dunks, Air Max 90s, and Air Jordan 1s
Nevada’s has accused its former legal representation of a conflict of interest in its patent dispute with California’s , and filed a motion to have the firm disqualified from the case. The concerns a of Willful Patent Infringement by Jumio Corporation, filed on June 14, 2024. Per the text, “FaceTec alleges herein that Defendant Jumio makes, uses, offers for sale and sells in the United States products, systems, and/or services that infringe one or more claims of each of the FaceTec Patents-in-Suit.” Said patents include a broad scope of tech classified as liveness assurance, liveness checks, and pretty well everything associated with biometric liveness detection software. In another twist, the actual tech that FaceTec says infringes on their patent belongs to the UK’s . Having explored a partnership in 2019, parted ways. Jumio pursued a with iProov, which, per the complaint, “thereafter deployed for Jumio a liveness detection technology that infringes on FaceTec’s patent rights.” FaceTec over the infringement in 2021, prompting iProov to file a countersuit in 2022. Now FaceTec claims that Jumio, having failed at prior efforts to develop its own , is using FaceTec’s proprietary liveness detection as a model. “Like iProov’s infringing liveness detection technology – and for similar reasons – Jumio’s own-branded liveness detection technologies include multiple aspects that are copied directly from FaceTec and that infringe the FaceTec Patents-in-Suit.” Having crawled through the Northern District of California court system, the case has now reached a boil, with FaceTec calling out its former legal representative, , for representing Jumio in the dispute. FaceTec says that since the firm has previously represented it in matters concerning the same patent, its working for Jumio constitutes a – and a “betrayal.” “Defendant Jumio is well aware of both FaceTec and its patented technology,” it says. “Jumio is a direct competitor of FaceTec and provides competing biometric liveness detection software products.” With Perkins Coie having crossed the floor, FaceTec Washinton’s , Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, among the world’s largest IP law firms, as international counsel. | | | | |
, /PRNewswire/ -- NASA continues to advance its campaign to explore more of the Moon than ever before, awarding Firefly Aerospace to deliver six experiments to the lunar surface. This fourth task order for Firefly will target landing in the Gruithuisen Domes on the near side of the Moon in 2028. As part of the agency's broader campaign, Firefly will deliver a group of science experiments and technology demonstrations under NASA's CLPS initiative, or Commercial Lunar Payload Services, to these lunar domes, an area of ancient lava flows, to better understand planetary processes and evolution. Through CLPS, NASA is furthering our understanding of the Moon's environment and helping prepare for future human missions to the lunar surface, as part of the agency's Moon to Mars exploration approach. "The CLPS initiative carries out U.S. scientific and technical studies on the surface of the Moon by robot explorers. As NASA prepares for future human exploration of the Moon, the CLPS initiative continues to support a growing lunar economy with American companies," said , deputy associate administrator for exploration, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in . "Understanding the formation of the Gruithuisen Domes, as well as the ancient lava flows surrounding the landing site, will help the U.S. answer important questions about the lunar surface." Firefly's is scheduled to launch no earlier than and will land near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille within Mare Crisium, on the northeast quadrant of the Moon's near side. Firefly's includes two task orders: a lunar orbit drop-off of a satellite combined with a delivery to the lunar surface on the far side and a delivery of a lunar orbital calibration source, scheduled in 2026. This new delivery in 2028 will send payloads to the Gruithuisen Domes and the nearby Sinus Viscositatus. The Gruithuisen Domes have long been suspected to be formed by a magma rich in silica, similar in composition to granite. Granitic rocks form easily on Earth due to plate tectonics and oceans of water. The Moon lacks these key ingredients, so lunar scientists have been left to wonder how these domes formed and evolved over time. For the first time, as part of this task order, NASA also has contracted to provide "mobility," or roving, for some of the scientific instruments on the lunar surface after landing. This will enable new types of U.S. scientific investigations from CLPS. "Firefly will deliver six instruments to understand the landing site and surrounding vicinity," said , manager of the CLPS initiative at NASA's Johnson Space Center in . "These instruments will study geologic processes and lunar regolith, test solar cells, and characterize the neutron radiation environment, supplying invaluable information as NASA works to establish a long-term presence on the Moon." The instruments, collectively expected to be about 215 pounds (97 kilograms) in mass, include: Through the CLPS initiative, NASA purchases lunar landing and surface operations services from American companies. The agency uses CLPS to send scientific instruments and technology demonstrations to advance capabilities for science, exploration, or commercial development of the Moon. By supporting a robust cadence of lunar deliveries, NASA will continue to enable a growing lunar economy while leveraging the entrepreneurial innovation of the commercial space industry. Two upcoming CLPS flights scheduled to launch in early 2025 will deliver NASA payloads to the Moon's near side and south polar region, respectively. Learn more about CLPS and Artemis at: View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE NASA
Kathmandu, Dec 25: The Association of Tamu (Gurung) Journalists has honoured six journalists for their contribution in journalism. They were honoured at a programme organized here Wednesday. Even an annual publication was released on the occasion. Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Gurung, honoured the journalists with cash prizes and copper plaques. Devraj Gurung and photo journalist Barsha Shah were honoured with 'Former Chief of Army Staffs Chhatraman Singh-Kamala Gurung Journalism Award' in the function. The award carries a purse of Rs 20,000 each. Similarly, the Aadikavi Harka Bahadur Gurung Memorial Journalism Award was conferred on Shila Gurung of Parbat; the Laxmi Gurung Journalism Award on Ganesh Gurung (Suren) of Myagdi; and the Bhandra Kumari Ghale Journalism Encouragement Award on Apekshya Gurung of Kaski. Each award carries a purse of Rs 10,000. Likewise, Tamu Lhosar Organiser Journalism Award was presented to Niru Gurung of Butwal. It is the cash prize of Rs 12,000.(RSS)
The surge in sightings of unidentified flying objects along the East Coast — including above nuclear power plants and the US Capitol — has panicked residents, frustrated local officials and raised serious national security concerns. While these aerial objects may prove to be harmless, their mysterious origins and unexplained nightly intrusions underscore the increasing threat posed by unmanned aerial systems, or UAS. As drone tech advances faster than countermeasures, the United States must deploy more robust detection, tracking and mitigation technologies, especially around critical infrastructure and sensitive sites. Some of the most effective tools for addressing this growing challenge may come from an unexpected source: Israel, which has honed cutting-edge technological advances during its ongoing war. Israel has long been at the forefront of counter-drone technology due to its unique security needs. Yet even the most technologically advanced countries today have vulnerabilities that constantly require new solutions. On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas laid the groundwork for its assault on southern Israel by using inexpensive commercial drones to drop explosives on cameras and communications infrastructure along the Gaza border. Since then, Israel has been facing an array of malicious drone infiltrations. In July, Houthi operators in Yemen flew an Iranian-made UAV more than 1,200 miles and crashed it into a residential apartment building directly behind the US embassy’s Tel Aviv branch, killing an Israeli civilian in his bedroom. Days later, Hezbollah published video footage captured by its reconnaissance drones of Ramat David Airbase, at which the terrorist group launched missiles in September and October. Most recently, Hezbollah slammed a kamikaze drone into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private home. In anticipation of unmanned enemy threats, Israeli startups have pioneered systems designed to detect and neutralize drones in real time. These technologies have been improved over the past 14 months of defending Israel’s skies against UAS incursions from Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Iran. Rogue drones often evade traditional detection technologies. Radar and camera systems work well on clear days and in non-urban environments, but experience significant performance reduction in urban areas, non-line-of-sight conditions and inclement weather. They also have a high false-alarm rate, often misidentifying birds and other objects as small drones. And while radar can detect drones that emit no electronic signals, its hardware is heavy and expensive, limiting wide deployment. R2 Wireless, a plucky Israeli startup founded by electrical engineers, has developed advanced systems that can passively detect drone communication signals. This scalable software solution enables operators to pinpoint drones in all environments and under all conditions — and can also identify their make, model and operators. R2 Wireless technology has been deployed in Israel to identify drone threats near borders, around cities and above critical infrastructure, and its system could certainly give New York and New Jersey officials a powerful tool to help solve their aerial mystery. Long-term, R2’s tech provides a compelling strategic solution to be layered into America’s air defense systems, alongside existing radars, cameras and other detection methods. In fact, NATO recently invited R2 to participate in a multi-layered counter-UAS exercise alongside prime global defense companies. Perhaps the most theatric of Israel’s counter-drone innovations is Robotican’s Goshawk system, an aerial interceptor designed to hunt down and neutralize enemy drones. Goshawk uses an autonomous drone equipped with nets that it automatically releases to capture drones in midair, minimizing collateral damage while ensuring that the intercepted drone can be analyzed for intelligence. One of the more concerning conclusions to draw from the recent US drone sightings is that they are seemingly flying untracked and unmanaged across our skies. As drone usage becomes more widespread, the need for unmanned traffic management systems is becoming indispensable. Airwayz has developed a platform that can coordinate more than 1,000 drones at a time in a complex environment. It has proven critical in managing Israel’s increasingly crowded airspace during the war. This technology not only brings order to drone traffic, but can also predict flight paths and behaviors to sound early warnings of suspicious drones. Of necessity, Israel’s war has proven to be a sandbox for testing modern defense innovation, including the ability to combat the complex challenges presented by drone warfare. The mysterious drone sightings highlight a growing vulnerability. The US would be wise to tap Israel’s battle-tested drone defenses for a modernized approach to safeguarding America’s airspace and protecting our communities. Aaron Kaplowitz is president of the United States – Israel Business Alliance, which connects Israeli technology solutions to US challenges.Buying a house in 2025: your how-to guideHotel worker digs in the works