Exclusive -- Rep. Warren Davidson: Pete Hegseth the 'Kind of Guy We Need Leading the Department of Defense'
Stock market today: Wall Street hits records despite tariff talkNoneTesla CEO Elon Musk lost his bid to get his 2018 CEO pay package reinstated on Monday when a Delaware judge upheld her prior ruling that the compensation plan was improperly granted. The package, worth about $56 billion, was the largest compensation plan in U.S. history for a public company executive. Musk attorneys attempted to sway the judge in the Delaware business court after the trial to reverse her opinion rescinding the CEO’s pay plan. Tesla had conducted a shareholder vote to “ratify” Musk’s 2018 pay plan at the EV maker’s annual shareholder meeting in Austin, Texas, in June. Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick wrote in her opinion on Monday that, “Even if a stockholder vote could have a ratifying effect, it could not do so here.” The judge approved a $345 million attorney fee award for the lawyers who successfully sued on behalf of Tesla shareholders in order to void the pay plan. “We are pleased with Chancellor McCormick’s ruling, which declined Tesla’s invitation to inject continued uncertainty into Court proceedings and thank the Chancellor and her staff for their extraordinary hard work in overseeing this complex case,” attorneys from Bernstein, Litowitz, Berger & Grossmann, the firm representing the plaintiff, said in a statement. Musk can appeal the decision to the Delaware Supreme Court. Following McCormick’s decision in January to void the plan, Musk lashed out at the court, posting on X, “Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware.” The company then held a shareholder vote to reincorporate in Texas, and officially shifted its incorporation there in June. In response to Musk’s motion arguing that Tesla’s ratification vote for his pay package should lead her to reverse her prior opinion, Judge McCormick wrote, “Were the court to condone the practice of allowing defeated parties to create new facts for the purpose of revising judgments, lawsuits would become interminable.” Despite the setback, Musk has seen his net worth jump considerably in recent weeks. Excluding all of the options wrapped up in the pay package, Musk is more than $43 billion richer since Donald Trump’s election victory last month. Tesla shares have soared 42% in the four weeks since the election on optimism that Musk’s coziness with the incoming president will lead to policies favorable to his companies. The Tesla stock Musk still holds is worth close to $150 billion based on Monday’s closing price. That alone, not including his SpaceX stake, would put him among the world’s wealthiest people.As preparations were being made to entomb former Syrian president Hafez al Assad in a mausoleum nearby, a young Imam sat on the steps of the mosque and sighed, before confessing a dangerous theological and political truth. “As Alawites we’re not Shi’a Muslim you know? We’re not strictly speaking very Muslim really. Under Assad we just subscribed to all that to create a power block with Shi’a in Lebanon, and in Iran, to support our minority rule. “We see all men of genius - Jesus, Plato, even Shakespeare - as manifestations of the divine. We’re not lying about being Muslim, but we’re also theologically Christian, and Jews,” he explained 24 years ago in the mountain village of al Qardahah. Syria’s Alawites kept that quiet. For decades Hafez, and then his son Bashar, saw being part of a “Shi’a crescent” that tied them to Tehran and Lebanon as their best means of survival. Many Christians fell in with them out of fear of the Sunni majority. As Syria collapsed into civil war in 2012, Bashar the dictator’s henchmen did everything they could to increase the sectarian rivalries that had always threatened to tear the country apart. They figured they’d survive longer if they emptied their prisons of Islamist political detainees, let the Kurds do their own thing, and murder the rest with help from Iran and Russia. No matter that this led to the emergence of the so-called Islamic State in eastern Syria with its harvest of blood and horror, a secession of Kurds (who then got attacked by Turkey) and the gangsterization of the whole country, the Assads survived another dozen years. But with Russia distracted in Ukraine and Hezbollah hammered by Israeli airstrikes, Syria’s Sunni Islamist-led opposition has swept the Assads away in less than a week. No wonder Syrian minorities, especially Alawite and Christian, are celebrating the end of dictatorship by joining in with shouts of “One Syria. One Nation. We are One People!” as loud as they can. Now’s not the time to highlight your difference if you’re different in Syria. Syria’s tragedy is that it’s not one nation and that almost none of its neighbours see any advantage of it emerging from the death of the Assad regime as anything other than a mess. Israel’s doesn’t want a stable Syria as the Jewish State has occupied the Syrian Golan Heights since 1967, and captured more in 1973. It won’t ever allow Damascus to return to the eastern banks of the Sea of Galilee. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, might want to see the back of the more than three million Syrian refugees his country has absorbed - but he also wants a free reign to attack Kurdish groups on Syrian territory. He’s been backing Syria militia who continue to do that, right now. He would not be able to do that if Syria settled down into a democracy. He might, however, back Sunni Islamist parties if they seize power - in return for a joint operation against the Kurd-ruled Syrian region of Rojava. Iran may have lost its proxy in the House of Assad - but it’s other Hezbollah puppets in Lebanon and in Iraq will continue to destabilize Syria just as they have in Iraq - to prevent Sunni hegemony. And, of course, parts of an unstable Syria would be useful for Iranian groups to attack Israel, which means that Lebanon’s Hezbollah will continue to keep the country off balance. The drive against Assad has been led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham under Abu Mohammed al Golani. His movement began life as a branch of Islamic State and al Qaeda but formally split from the latter in 2016. It’s carefully cultivated its political image, won plaudits for its administration of areas under its control and reached out to protect minorities. As the likely head of a transitional administration in Syria’s fractured hydra-headed rebel movement, al Golani may try to stick to a moderate political agenda. But this will be a struggle. Chaos in Syria from an Israeli, Turkish, Iranian and Shi’a perspective would be better than stability and a steady transition to, of all things, democracy. Chaos is much easier to achieve. “The future is ours,” Golabni said as he led celebrations in Damascus on Sunday. Who he means by that is not, yet, clear. But uniting the whole country that will get a lot of help to continue to tear itself apart will take the kind of genius the Alawite Imam in Assad’s home town said was evidence of the divine.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rose to records Tuesday after Donald Trump’s latest talk about tariffs created only some ripples on Wall Street, even if they could roil the global economy were they to take effect. The S&P 500 climbed 0.6% to top the all-time high it set a couple weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 123 points, or 0.3%, to its own record set the day before, while the Nasdaq composite gained 0.6% as Microsoft and Big Tech led the way. People are also reading... 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Stock markets abroad mostly fell after President-elect Trump said he plans to impose sweeping new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China once he takes office. But the movements were mostly modest. Stock indexes were down 0.1% in Shanghai and nearly flat in Hong Kong, while Canada’s main index edged down by less than 0.1%. Trump has often praised the use of tariffs , but investors are weighing whether his latest threat will actually become policy or is just an opening point for negotiations. For now, the market seems to be taking it more as the latter. The consequences otherwise for markets and the global economy could be painful. Unless the United States can prepare alternatives for the autos, energy products and other goods that come from Mexico, Canada and China, such tariffs would raise the price of imported items all at once and make households poorer, according to Carl Weinberg and Rubeela Farooqi, economists at High Frequency Economics. They would also hurt profit margins for U.S. companies, while raising the threat of retaliatory tariffs by other countries. And unlike tariffs in Trump’s first term, his latest proposal would affect products across the board. General Motors sank 9%, and Ford Motor fell 2.6% because both import automobiles from Mexico. Constellation Brands, which sells Modelo and other Mexican beer brands in the United States, dropped 3.3%. The value of the Mexican peso fell 1.8% against the U.S. dollar. Beyond the pain such tariffs would cause U.S. households and businesses, they could also push the Federal Reserve to slow or even halt its cuts to interest rates. The Fed had just begun easing its main interest rate from a two-decade high a couple months ago to offer support for the job market . While lower interest rates can boost the economy, they can also offer more fuel for inflation. “Many” officials at the Fed’s last meeting earlier this month said they should lower rates gradually, according to minutes of the meeting released Tuesday afternoon. The talk about tariffs overshadowed another mixed set of profit reports from U.S. retailers that answered few questions about how much more shoppers can keep spending. They’ll need to stay resilient after helping the economy avoid a recession, despite the high interest rates imposed by the Fed to get inflation under control. A report on Tuesday from the Conference Board said confidence among U.S. consumers improved in November, but not by as much as economists expected. Kohl’s tumbled 17% after its results for the latest quarter fell short of analysts’ expectations. CEO Tom Kingsbury said sales remain soft for apparel and footwear. A day earlier, Kingsbury said he plans to step down as CEO in January. Ashley Buchanan, CEO of Michaels and a retail veteran, will replace him. Best Buy fell 4.9% after likewise falling short of analysts’ expectations. Dick’s Sporting Goods topped forecasts for the latest quarter thanks to a strong back-to-school season, but its stock lost an early gain to fall 1.4%. Still, more stocks rose in the S&P 500 than fell. J.M. Smucker had one of the biggest gains and climbed 5.7% after topping analysts’ expectations for the latest quarter. CEO Mark Smucker credited strength for its Uncrustables, Meow Mix, Café Bustelo and Jif brands. Big Tech stocks also helped prop up U.S. indexes. Gains of 3.2% for Amazon and 2.2% for Microsoft were the two strongest forces lifting the S&P 500. All told, the S&P 500 rose 34.26 points to 6,021.63. The Dow gained 123.74 to 44,860.31, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 119.46 to 19,174.30. In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady following their big drop from a day before driven by relief following Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary. The yield on the 10-year Treasury inched up to 4.29% from 4.28% late Monday, but it’s still well below the 4.41% level where it ended last week. In the crypto market, bitcoin continued to pull back after topping $99,000 for the first time late last week. It’s since dipped back toward $91,000, according to CoinDesk. It’s a sharp turnaround from the bonanza that initially took over the crypto market following Trump’s election. That boom had also appeared to have spilled into some corners of the stock market. Strategists at Barclays Capital pointed to stocks of unprofitable companies, along with other areas that can be caught up in bursts of optimism by smaller-pocketed “retail” investors. AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 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Trump can’t guarantee tariffs won’t raise US prices, won’t rule out revenge prosecutionsNone
The funeral Mass of a young Donegal man who died in a crash last weekend has heard how he was talented sportsman and was full of life. Tiernan Doherty of Convent Road, Carndonagh died in a single-vehicle crash on the R244 Mountain Road at Ballinlough, near Buncrana shortly after 5am on Sunday morning. The 18-year-old was the only occupant of the car. Tiernan was the son of Kevin and Louise and had three younger brothers – Kyrin, Cohen, and Keegan. A massive crowd of mourners young and old piled into Sacred Heart Church, Carndonagh on Thursday afternoon as the community united to bid farewell to Tiernan. Among the crowd were pupils from Carndonagh Community School, representatives from Carndonagh FC and CLG Charn Domhnaigh, and the wider sporting community throughout Inishowen. Fr Con McLaughlin led the service and admitted he was ‘lost for words’ over the tragic loss of Tiernan and how it is not fair ‘that parents bury their own children.’ The mass was concelebrated by Fr Peter Devlin and Fr Charlie Logue. Fr McLaughlin explained that Tiernan had just passed his driving test and was on his way to Buncrana to collect friends when the crash happened. “He had just passed his driving test. He was on his way over to Buncrana after responding to a phone call from his friends. “He got up out of his bed early in the morning and headed across to pick them up in the people carrier. “I can’t help but think of them too,” said Fr McLaughlin. Fr McLaughlin said he attended the wake over the course of the last few days and there was a sense of silence among Tiernan’s family and friends. “First thing I noticed on the approach was two tents on each side of the main door and the tent on the left hand side was filled with his friends. “The interesting thing about it all was none of them were saying anything. Silence. “I tried to speak to them and they just politely answered. “What had happened was too much for them to process in their minds. “Their friend was taking away suddenly and cruelly. “When we are young, the world stretches out in front of us with all its challenges, all its possibilities. Death is in the distant future, we don’t even think about it. “When it comes to the young, we cannot process it. “Going into the house, Louise was sitting at the head of the coffin, again silent and broken hearted. “Out in the hallway, his father Kevin was standing there, quietly shaking the hands of those who came to sympathise with him. “Very few words passed,” said Fr McLaughlin. Tiernan Doherty. Fr McLaughlin continued by explaining that tragedy and death is unfortunately no stranger to the family as Tiernan’s uncle had also been killed in a car crash in 2008. “His uncle Kenny was also tragically killed in a car accident. He just 27 years of age,” said Fr McLaughlin. The congregation heard that Tiernan was outgoing, full of life and at just 18, he had everything to live for. From a young age, he showed a great interest in the construction industry and had worked with his father. He had his own aspirations of becoming a plasterer and he was completing an apprenticeship for that trade. He was also a keen sportsman and played GAA with CLG Charn Domhnaigh and soccer with Carndonagh FC. “He excelled on the football field,” said Fr McLaughlin. "I noticed the team trophies at the foot of his coffin. “Young people think that death only comes to old people but that is why it is so hard to process life being taken away at such a young age,” said Fr McLaughlin. Referring to the large number of tragedies that have occurred this year in Inishowen, Fr McLaughlin said it is too much for a community to process. “Today we ask God to protect all our people and our young people on the roads to keep them safe. “Nobody wants to have to answer the door, the dreaded knock, in the early hours of the morning. “Then we think of a group of people who we take for granted – fire services, paramedics, gardaí, all these people. “I am sure that so many of them are traumatised by the awful scenes they have to witness at accidents, one kind or another. “We thank God for them, their courage and their enduring professionalism,” said Fr McLaughlin. Holding a picture of Tiernan up to the crowd, Fr McLaughlin said the picture would help people remember Tiernan’s short life and he encouraged mourners to trust that he is now at peace. Symbols of Tiernan’s life were brought forward to the alter to symbolise the things he loved most in life including sporting trophies, a jersey and a photograph of him playing football. His remains were then taken from the Sacred Heart Church for burial at the adjoining cemetery to the sound of ‘Beat you There’ by Will Dempsey. Tiernan is survived by his parents Kevin and Louise, his younger brothers Kyrin, Cohen, and Keegan, his girlfriend Kaylah, his grandparents Sean and Maureen, his aunts, uncles, cousins, extended family, friends and neighbours. Gardai continue to appeal for witnesses to the collision to come forward. A spokesperson for gardaí said, “Any road users who may have camera footage (including dash-cam) and were travelling in the area between 4.30am and 5.30am are asked to make this footage available to investigating Gardaí. “Anyone with any information is asked to contact Buncrana Garda Station on 074-9320540, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any Garda Station.”MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- Tua Tagovailoa threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Jonnu Smith in overtime and the Miami Dolphins overcame Aaron Rodgers' first 300-yard passing game in nearly three years to beat the New York Jets 32-26 on Sunday. After Jason Sanders tied it with 7 seconds left in regulation with a 42-yard field goal, Tagovailoa quickly moved the Dolphins (6-7) down the field and they beat the Jets for the ninth straight time in Miami. That came after Anders Carlson gave the struggling Jets (3-10) — who were eliminated from postseason contention for the 14th straight year — the lead with a 42-yarder with 52 seconds remaining. But Malik Washington put the Dolphins in great position to help set up Sanders' field goal with a 45-yard kickoff return to Miami's 46-yard line. Tagovailoa was 33 of 47 for 331 yards and two TDs. He had just one incompletion on Miami's eight-play, 70-yard scoring drive that was capped by Smith's fourth touchdown of the season. Smith didn't have a catch before catching three for 44 yards on the winning drive. Rodgers was 27 of 39 for 339 yards, ending a drought of 34 regular-season games without a 300-yard passing game — dating to Dec. 12, 2021, while with Green Bay — and had a TD pass to Davante Adams. But Rodgers could only watch from the sideline in overtime as the Jets never got the ball after blowing a second straight second-half lead. Rodgers and Adams connected for a 3-yard score in the third quarter, the pair's 79th touchdown in the regular and postseason. They passed Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown for the fourth-most by a quarterback-receiver duo in NFL history. Adams finished with nine catches and 109 yards. The Dolphins trailed entering the fourth quarter, but Tagovailoa connected with Tyreek Hill for a 4-yard TD and Jaylen Waddle caught the two-point conversion to tie it at 23. Hill caught 10 passes for 115 yards, and Waddle added 99 yards on nine catches.. The Jets took a 20-15 lead in the third on Adams' touchdown that was set up by a 42-yard pickup by Garrett Wilson, who beat cornerback Jalen Ramsey on a double move to get open. A 40-yard field goal by Carlson later stretched New York's lead to 8 after the Dolphins went scoreless in the quarter. The matchup pitted the Jets' No. 2-ranked pass defense against Tagovailoa, the NFL's most accurate passer, and Miami's No. 9-ranked pass defense against the four-time MVP Rodgers who has had a subpar season. Both quarterbacks were strong and the teams played rather evenly at first, with each scoring on their first three possessions. The first punt of the game was on Miami's first drive of the second half, and the Jets scored on their first five possessions. Tagovailoa had just three incompletions in the first half and was 3 for 3 on Miami's final drive of the second quarter, moving the Dolphins into field goal range in 45 seconds to set up a 57-yarder by Sanders, which tied the kicker's career best. Sanders also made kicks of 39 and 24 yards, and De'Von Achane had a 2-yard rushing touchdown on Miami's opening possession. Rodgers moved the Jets inside Miami's 20 three times in the first half. Isaiah Davis ran for a 17-yard score, and Carlson made field goals of 28 and 30 yards. Wilson caught seven passes for 114 yards. Jets: RT Morgan Moses injured his wrist during pregame warmups. He started, but was replaced during the game by Max Mitchell. ... WR Irvin Charles left with a knee injury. Dolphins: LT Terron Armstead left early after apparently tweaking the knee that sidelined him this week in practice. ... WR Dee Eskridge (knee) and LB Anthony Walker Jr (hamstring) were also injured. Jets: At Jacksonville next Sunday. Dolphins: At Houston next Sunday. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL