It's almost time to trade in Santa hats for sparkly 2025 tiaras, and so you should start locking down plans for New Year's Eve — otherwise you could be left sitting alone watching Times Square celebrations from your couch or standing in line outside a crowded bar as the clock strikes midnight. If your pals aren't game to host a house party or you've been blocked from reveling at a rental by Airbnb's anti-party technology , there are tons of options at venues across Philadelphia where you can throw down. In case your wallet is looking a bit thin after Christmas shopping, we've rounded up some of the soirées with admission prices that won't break the bank. MORE: Museum of the American Revolution to offer family-friendly activities throughout winter break Here are 10 bars, restaurants and venues across Philadelphia hosting New Year's Eve bashes with admission that costs less than $100. Be sure to grab your tickets in advance because some events could sell out and others may increase ticket prices as the date gets closer. Brooklyn Bowl | 1009 Canal St. Snacktime, Philly's seven-piece band that will soon be featured on Jason Kelce's talk show, is playing at a New Year's Eve celebration at Brooklyn Bowl in Fishtown. The party, called "Snacktime 2025: A Spaceluv Odyssey," will include "intergalactic" performances, themed drink specials, a special guest DJ and limited-edition merchandise. The show starts at 8 p.m., and tickets start at $43 on Ticketmaster . Brü Craft & Wurst | 1318 Chestnut St. The festivities at the German-style beer hall in Center City run from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. and feature music by a DJ. General admission starts at $70, which includes an open bar and champagne toast at midnight. Event company Joonbug is hosting the Brü party, as well as parties at other Philly bars like U-Bahn and Tradesman's, both located next door. Bank & Bourbon | 1200 Market St. Located in the Loews hotel in Center City, Bank & Bourbon is hosting its own NYE party from 10 p.m. to 2 p.m. featuring DJ music. Tickets start at $75 and include a half-bottle of champagne and champagne toast at midnight, plus fancy hors d’oeuvres like caviar sandwiches, shrimp cocktail, truffle burger sliders and spicy tuna tartare wontons. Concourse Dance Bar | 1635 Market St. (back entrance) The festivities at the Center City dance bar, which has ball pits and a room dedicated to ice sculptures, run from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Tickets start at $95 and include an open bar and champagne toast at midnight. Craft Hall | 901 N. Delaware Ave. To ring in 2025, Northern Liberties' Craft Hall is teaming up with Morgan's Pier, the Penn's Landing waterfront bar that's closed for the season, on their fourth-annual collaborative bash. The party runs from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. and includes live music on the bar's lower level, and DJ music at the upstairs dance floor. Tickets start at $95, and include an open bar, party favors and hot dogs all night long. Khyber Pass Pub | 56 S. 2nd St. At Khyber Pass Pub in Old City, the event company Riot Nerd is hosting a "Goth New Year's Eve Dance Party" from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. There will be three DJs on hand spinning all types of "dark tunes," plus there will be themed drink specials. General admission starts at $21.71 and includes a champagne toast at midnight. If goth vibes aren't your thing, Riot Nerd is hosting other NYE parties in Philly, including a "Y2K NYE Party" at World Cafe Live; an "80s/90s/00s Dance Party" at The 700; and a "Charli XCX & Chappell Roan Dance Party" at Underground Arts. Lucy's | 1720 Chestnut St. Located near Rittenhouse Square, Lucy's is celebrating its first year in business with a NYE bash from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. complete with a DJ and dance floor. Tickets start at $95 and include an open bar. NOTO Philadelphia | 1209 Vine St. The nightclub on Vine Street will host its year-end party from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. with DJ music and a dance floor. Tickets start at $70 and include an open bar and champagne toast at midnight. The Twisted Tail | 509 S. 2nd St. The Society Hill eatery that serves Southern-style cuisine is hosting a "Burlesque & Blues" New Year's Eve event complete with live music and burlesque performances. General admission to the party starts at $30 and includes a champagne toast at midnight. There are also prix fixe dinner packages available in the restaurant. Wicked Wolf | 1214-1216 Chestnut St. The party runs from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. at the Center City sports bar, which will have a DJ spinning music all night. Tickets to Wicked Wolf's NYE bash start at $99 and include snacks early in the night and a champagne toast at midnight. Follow Franki & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @wordsbyfranki | @thePhillyVoice Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Have a news tip ? Let us know.The company's total expenditure in FY24 was Rs 540.76 crore. It was Rs 687.93 crore in FY23. New Year: E-commerce company Snapdeal has managed to cut down its loss to Rs 160.38 crore in FY24 from Rs 282.20 crore in FY23. Apart from this, the company's Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation (EBITDA) loss declined by 88 per cent to Rs 16 crore in FY24. It was Rs 144 crore in FY23. The reason for the reduction in the company's loss is the decline in expenses. The company's total expenditure in FY24 was Rs 540.76 crore. It was Rs 687.93 crore in FY23. The employee benefits expenditure of the company in FY24 declined by 48.5 per cent on YoY (year-on-year) basis to Rs 158.4 crore. It was Rs 307.53 crore in FY23. During this period, the company's advertising expenditure was reduced by 23.5 per cent on YoY basis to Rs 70.37 crore. Snapdeal's operating income increased by 2.1 per cent to Rs 379.76 crore in FY24 from Rs 371.96 crore in FY23. Market services have the biggest contribution of Rs 252.55 crore to the company's revenue. However, it decreased by 9.6 percent on YoY basis as compared to FY23. The company's enablement income increased by 14.8 per cent year-on-year to Rs 103.36 crore in FY24. The company's income from other items has increased 8 times to Rs 23.85 crore in the last financial year. According to the stock exchange filing, Snapdeal has reduced its stake in Unicommerce. The company had raised Rs 33 crore from the secondary sale of 3.4 per cent stake during May-June 2024 ahead of the IPO and Rs 81 crore from the sale of 9.2 per cent stake under the offer for sale in the IPO that came in August 2024. Snapdeal is one of India’s leading e-commerce platforms. Founded in 2010, Snapdeal focuses on the value commerce market in India and has served more than 10 Crore online shoppers over the past 14+ years. Stay informed on all the latest news , real-time breaking news updates, and follow all the important headlines in india news and world News on Zee News.
Pakistan was haunted by political uncertainty, economic instability, a deteriorating security situation and troubled relations with neighbours in 2024. But what defined the year were not just these perennial ills but the country’s inability to tackle incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan. Amid political turbulence, Pakistan hosted a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) conclave, which was also attended by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar — the first high-ranking Indian minister in nearly a decade to visit Islamabad amid frosty ties between the two neighbours. The last Indian foreign minister to visit Pakistan was Sushma Swaraj. She had travelled to Islamabad to attend the 'Heart of Asia' conference on Afghanistan in December 2015. In his address at the SCO event, Jaishankar said, "If friendship has fallen short and good neighbourliness is missing somewhere, there are surely reasons to introspect and causes to address." He also said if activities across borders are "characterised" by terrorism, extremism and separatism, they are hardly likely to encourage trade, energy flows and connectivity in parallel. His remarks were seen as directed towards Pakistan, which has troubled relations with all its neighbours. If the year began with Iran conducting missile strikes within Pakistan in January, targeting Baloch militants, it ended with Pakistan carrying out airstrikes in Afghanistan, killing at least 46 people, including women and children, according to Afghanistan’s Taliban government. Pakistan says the target was militants. Pakistan witnessed a series of terror attacks, particularly in troubled Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces in 2024, among the toughest years for its security forces. According to the details shared with Parliament by the interior ministry, 924 people were killed and 2,121 injured in 1,566 terrorism incidents in the first 10 months of the year. At least 573 dead and 1,353 injured belonged to law enforcement agencies, including the army. On the economic front, Pakistan was on the verge of default in 2022 and only averted it due to the timely intervention by the International Monetary Fund. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif takes credit for pulling the country back from the brink of bankruptcy and turning around the economy. In 2024 inflation came down to single digits, policy rates reduced from 22.5 to 15 per cent, foreign exchange reserves improved, and the stock market made record gains. But it was jailed former prime minister Imran Khan who often hogged the headlines. In the elections in February, independent candidates backed by Khan's party surprised everyone by winning more than 100 out of the 226 seats in a hung parliament. And then the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz threw in a surprise, nominating Shehbaz Sharif as the prime ministerial candidate instead of the party supremo and three-time former premier Nawaz Sharif. As the PML-N and the Pakistan Peoples Party struck a power-sharing deal to form a coalition government led by Shehbaz, Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf: decided to sit in the Opposition. Khan was arrested in August 2023 after his conviction in a case of corruption and has remained behind bars since then. Contrary to expectations, his popularity swelled in 2024, proving right his words — uttered before he was ousted as PM in 2022 after losing a trust vote in Parliament — that he would be “more dangerous when out of power.” Recently, after his party workers staged a march to Islamabad – triggering a crackdown on them by the authorities — the former cricketer threatened mass ‘civil disobedience’ by his supporters if his major demands were not met. These include the “restoration” of the “mandate” he believes he got in the February parliamentary elections to run the country. His supporters see 2024 as a disaster for electoral politics and democracy, pointing at the “blatant disregard” of popular opinion reflected on the ballots. Some in power also concede this. In a recent interview with Dunya News, senior PML-N leader Mian Javed Latif accepted that “we had lost the elections”. Talks began recently between PTI and the government, but few believe that Khan’s demand to restore his “stolen mandate” will be met. Consequently, the country could continue to face strong political headwinds in 2025. With the traditional challenges still intact, the government now faces another: how to tame a ‘cornered tiger’.
70 Native American athletes set to play in Texas All-Star football game at The Star
The year 2024 has witnessed significant milestones in China-Zimbabwe cooperation in the agriculture sector, a cornerstone of Zimbabwe’s economy. Trade between the two sides increased, while China’s support for Zimbabwe’s technical expertise and human resources development in the agriculture sector also expanded. According to the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency, a national investment promotion body, the agriculture sector sustains more than 60 percent of Zimbabwe’s population, provides 63 percent of raw materials for the manufacturing sector, generates 30 percent of export earnings, and contributes 15 percent to gross domestic product. In a bid to further open China’s market to Zimbabwean agricultural products, a trade protocol on the export of Zimbabwean avocados was inked during Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s state visit to China in September, ahead of the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Rodwell Choto, an avocado farmer from Bindura, Mashonaland Central Province, is among those preparing to meet the expected surge in demand from China. “Exports to China will give us foreign currency, our economy will grow, and our livelihoods will improve,” Choto told Xinhua in a recent interview, noting that avocado farmers are ramping up production. According to the Horticultural Development Council, an organization representing horticultural exporters in Zimbabwe, the Southeast African country is projected to produce a record 6,000 metric tons of avocados in 2024, with its avocado industry set to expand the growing area from the current 1,500 hectares to 4,000 hectares by 2030. This builds on earlier successes, including a 2022 trade agreement enabling the export of fresh citrus to China, which saw its first shipment in 2023. “This is a chance for African agriculture now to become part of the global food value chain,” said Christopher Mutsvangwa, politburo member and secretary for information and publicity at the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) party. Zimbabwe’s tobacco sub-sector has also flourished in 2024, bolstered by China’s market access. Tobacco, an important economic activity and a major foreign currency earner for Zimbabwe, Africa’s largest tobacco producer, saw exports to China rise 38.3 percent to 790 million U.S. dollars in the first nine months of 2024, accounting for 40.6 percent of Zimbabwe’s total exports to China, according to data released by the Chinese Embassy in Zimbabwe. The overall trade figures between Zimbabwe and China grew 25.6 percent to 3 billion dollars in the same period, the Chinese embassy added. Despite these significant milestones this year, a severe drought has caused crop failures and livestock losses, greatly undermining the agriculture sector. In response, China launched a project to drill 300 boreholes in four provinces of the country. “These boreholes will not only provide safe water to the affected community, but will also serve as a stepping stone towards resilience building in view of the current El Nino-induced drought, and will also save the lives of our livestock which is also in dire need of water,” said Zimbabwe’s Minister of National Housing and Social Amenities Daniel Garwe. China’s support extends beyond infrastructure to human resource development. Collaborative efforts have focused on capacity building and technical assistance to enhance agricultural productivity. As part of this initiative, Zimbabwean officials and professionals have attended seminars and workshops in China, equipping them with skills to modernize agriculture. Jotamu Dondofema, director of agricultural education in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, and Rural Development, is among the officials who attended a seminar on the construction of green, low carbon, and circular economic systems in China this year. “This program has already yielded significant benefits. We have witnessed large numbers of successfully trained personnel, improved technologies in the agricultural value chains, the establishment of renewable energy sources and systems, and information and technology-sharing platforms anchoring capacity-building initiatives. These efforts have enhanced the employability and competitiveness of Zimbabwean professionals while also promoting the adoption of green technologies and sustainable practices,” Dondofema said.
US stocks take a breather, Asian bourses rise in post-Christmas tradeGift to advance Trading Program at A-State
Innovative immunotherapy shows promise in early clinical trial for breast cancer December 5, 2024 Kent State University A groundbreaking phase one clinical trial explored a novel cell-based immunotherapy for breast cancer. The study focuses on a new treatment approach that aims to harness the body's immune system to enhance patient responses and reduce the need for conventional chemotherapy and its associated toxicities. The trial involved 12 patients with locally advanced stage I-III HER2 breast cancer. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIN Email A groundbreaking phase one clinical trial exploring a novel cell-based immunotherapy for breast cancer has been accepted for publication in JAMA Oncology. The technology tested in the trial was co-developed by Gary Koski, Ph.D., professor in Kent State University's Department of Biological Sciences, and Brian J. Czerniecki, M.D., Ph.D., chair and senior member in the Moffitt Cancer Center's Department of Breast Oncology. The study focuses on a new treatment approach that aims to harness the body's immune system to enhance patient responses and reduce the need for conventional chemotherapy and its associated toxicities. The trial involved 12 patients with locally advanced stage I-III HER2 breast cancer. This research builds upon insights gained from previous studies funded by a Department of Defense Breakthrough Award research grant. "We are hopeful that we will be able to use this new immunotherapy instead of chemotherapy, or at least dramatically reduce the need for chemotherapy, for all types of breast cancer," Czerniecki said. The immunotherapy leverages dendritic cells, critical components of the immune system that normally identify infection and mobilize other elements of immunity to repel a microbial attack. By removing some of these dendritic cells from the body, biochemically reprogramming them for anti-cancer activity and injecting them directly into breast tumors, the researchers could trigger a powerful, organized immune system attack on the cancer. This led to the significant shrinkage of tumors before standard chemotherapy was administered. Eight out of the 12 patients demonstrated at least a 50% reduction in tumor volume after just six weeks of immunotherapy. This treatment produced only minimal side effects, primarily mild flu-like symptoms, compared with the severe side effects often associated with traditional chemotherapy. "These exciting results are the culmination of nearly 30 years of collaborative research between my laboratory and Dr. Czerniecki's," Koski said. The researchers have already begun a larger phase two trial to test higher doses of the immunotherapy, further exploring the potential effectiveness of this new technology. The published clinical trial was supported by the Moffitt Breast Cancer Research Fund, the Don Shula Foundation and donations from the Pennies in Action organization, which has raised approximately $7 million over the last decade to support this innovative cancer research. This unique funding model allows patients to directly contribute to advancements in treatments that may benefit them and others in the future. Story Source: Materials provided by Kent State University . Original written by Jim Maxwell. Note: Content may be edited for style and length. Journal Reference : Cite This Page :
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has died. He was 100 years old and had spent more than a year in hospice care. The Georgia peanut farmer served one turbulent term in the White House before building a reputation as a global humanitarian and champion of democracy. He defeated President Gerald Ford in 1976 promising to restore trust in government but lost to Ronald Reagan four years later amid soaring inflation, gas station lines and the Iran hostage crisis. He and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, then formed The Carter Center, and he earned a Nobel Peace Prize while making himself the most active and internationally engaged of former presidents. The Carter Center said the former president died Sunday afternoon in Plains, Georgia.
Five Last-Minute Gifts Under $50 for Your Techy FriendsNone