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Lam Research Corporation Comments on Newly Announced Export RegulationsHard-hit by rising imports, steel sector eyeing policy initiatives to safeguard its interests in 2025
Miller puts up 24, SMU downs Longwood 98-82
Tweet Facebook Mail Police in the US are looking for a man they believe tried to rob a bank but failed to leave with any money. The attempted robbery occurred on December 17 in Loveland, in Northern Colorado. Local police released an image of the suspect, who was dressed in a brown hoodie, a green baseball cap and sunglasses. READ MORE: Olivia Hussey Eisley, star of famed 1968 film Romeo and Juliet, dies aged 73 Police in the US are looking for a man they believe tried to rob a bank but failed to leave with any money. (CNN) They allege the man walked in to a First National Bank branch and handed the teller a handwritten note. But his handwriting was allegedly almost completely illegible and the teller had difficulty reading it. While the teller was struggling to read the note, the man reportedly got frustrated. He then quickly left the bank without any money. DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP : Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play .ESPN's Bill Barnwell named Tennessee Titans coach Brian Callahan as one of seven NFL coaches in danger of losing their jobs at the end of the 2024-25 NFL seaosn. The article comes on the heels of Tennessee's 42-19 loss at the hands of the Washington Commanders (8-5). A non-contest from the start after a 21-0 first quarter in favor of Washington, the defeat dropped the Titans to 3-9 in Callahan's first year on the job. Titans nightmarish season continues Special teams, plagued by fumbles and penalties, nuked the game. Tennessee had zero answers, defensively, for both the Washington rushing (267 yards, 3 TDs) and passing (207 yards, 3 TDs) attacks. Two false start penalties on both starting offensive tackles killed the first drive, followed by a punt, a Tony Pollard fumble and Jha'Quan Jackson losing the ball on a later kickoff return ensued. 28-0 was the score five minutes into the second quarter of a game that the Commanders had in hand. "It's crushing, to be honest," Callahan said on Sunday in postgame. "Improvement is not always linear, but I did not think we were going to look like that today. I'm disappointed in that. I'm disappointed in myself. I thought we were making some strides, and that we'd come play really good against a good football team on the road again and we didn't do that." Five games is enough time for Callahan to put himself on more solid ground ahead of next year, but there will be an offseason filled with difficult decisions ahead. Improvement must come quickly. The Titans are 30th in scoring margin (-9.3) in 2024 and losing by an average of 15.3 points per loss. Credibility is at stake. This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.
Colts QB Anthony Richardson ruled out for Sunday's game against the Giants
By Ricardo Brito and Anthony Boadle BRASILIA (Reuters) - Harley Sandoval, an evangelical pastor, real estate agent and mining entrepreneur, was arrested in July 2023 for illegally exporting 294 kilos of gold from Brazil's Amazon to the United States, Dubai and Italy. On paper, the gold was sourced from a legal prospect Sandoval was licensed to mine in the northern state of Tocantins. But police said not an ounce of gold had been mined there since colonial times. Using cutting-edge forensic technology, along with satellite imagery, Brazil's Federal Police said it was able to establish that the exported gold did not come from the Tocantins prospect. Instead, it had been dug up from three different wildcat mines in neighboring Pará, some on protected Indigenous reservation lands, according to previously unreported court documents dated November 2023 seen by Reuters. The prosecution is one of the first in Brazil using the new technology to tackle clandestine trading that may account for as much as half of the gold output of Brazil, a major producer and exporter of the precious metal. Illegal gold mining has surged at thousands of sites in the Amazon rainforest, bringing environmental destruction and criminal violence to the region. Seizures of illegally mined gold have surged seven-fold in the past seven years, according to Federal Police records obtained exclusively by Reuters. Sandoval, who has been released pending trial and continues to preach with his wife at a Pentecostal Evangelical church in the central Brazilian city of Goiania, denies the allegations. He maintains there is no way to establish where the gold was mined once it is melted down into ingots for export. "That's impossible. To export gold one always has to melt it down," he told Reuters by telephone. THE DNA OF GOLD Historically, gold is notoriously difficult to trace, especially once metal from different sources has been melted together, erasing the original signatures. After that, it can easily be traded as a financial asset or be used in the jewelry industry. But investigators say that's starting to change. A police program called "Targeting Gold" is creating a database of samples from across Brazil that are examined with radio-isotope scans and fluorescence spectroscopy to determine the unique composition of elements. The technique, long used in archaeology, was pioneered in mining by University of Pretoria geologist Roger Dixon to help distinguish between legal and stolen gold. The program developed in partnership with university researchers includes the use of powerful light beams from a particle accelerator at a Sao Paulo lab to study nano-sized impurities associated with gold, be it dirt or other metals like lead or copper, that help trace its origins. Humberto Freire, director of the Federal Police's recently-created Environment and Amazon Department, said the technology allows scientists to analyze "the DNA of Brazilian gold." "Nature has marked the gold with isotopes and we can read these unique fingerprints with radio-isotope scans," Freire said. "With this tool we can trace illegal gold before it gets refined for export." The program has helped fuel an increase in gold seizures since leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office last year — up 38% in 2023 from 2022, according to government numbers seen by Reuters. New Brazil central bank gold market regulations, including mandatory electronic tax receipts for all trades and tightened monitoring of suspect transactions, have also helped, according to Freire. "We estimate that around 40% of the gold that is extracted in the Amazon is illegal," he told Reuters. Brazil exported 110 tonnes of gold in 2020 worth $5 billion, according to official data, ranking among the world's top 20 exporters. Last year, exports were 77.7 tonnes, a drop the government attributes to improved enforcement of illegal mining. INDIGENOUS TENSIONS Lula's predecessor, far-right President Jair Bolsonaro weakened environmental controls in the Amazon. That triggered a new gold rush in Brazil, spurred by record world gold prices that were driven up by geopolitical tensions and central bank purchases, led by China. Prices have continued to new highs, trading at around $2,650 per ounce on Friday. Gold rushes have been a hallmark of mineral-rich Brazil from its Portuguese colonial past. But the latest surge in wildcat mining beginning during Bolsonaro's administration has been unprecedented. Satellite images show there are some 80,000 such prospects today in the Amazon rainforest, more than ever registered before. Once dominated by prospectors with gold pans, artisanal mining in Brazil has become an industrial-scale activity with heavy excavating machinery and million-dollar river dredgers. Criminal organizations fly people, equipment and gold into and out of the region with helicopters and planes that land at clandestine airstrips. Their excavations often leave behind gaping ponds of sludge contaminated with mercury, used to separate the gold from dirt and other minerals. Last year, thousands of miners who invaded the Yanomami territory, the country's largest Indigenous reservation on the northern border with Venezuela, brought violence and disease that caused malnutrition and a humanitarian crisis among the tribe, prompting Lula to send in troops. But many returned this year after the military pulled out. Lula, who has pledged to stamp out illegal gold mining, tried to fight back by deploying special forces of the environmental protection agency Ibama into Indigenous reservations and forest conservation parks. Police say cracking down on the organized crime gangs that back the wildcat miners is the next step in staunching an illegal trade that feeds the jewelry and watch industry in Switzerland, which buys 70% of Brazil's exported gold, according to government trade data. Amazon neighbors, including Colombia and French Guiana, are considering adopting the Brazilian gold analysis method to deal with their illegal gold trade and European governments have shown interest, including Switzerland and Britain, the top importers from Brazil after Canada, police and diplomats said. Brazil accounts for just 1% of gold imported by Switzerland, a global trade hub for the metal, and "measures are in place to import only legally mined gold," a Swiss embassy statement said. The embassy said it has set up a working group with other importing countries to study traceability and anti-counterfeiting tools. A 2022 study by non-profit watchdog Instituto Escolhas found that 52% of the gold exported from the Amazon was illegal, nearly all from protected Indigenous reservation lands or national conservation parks. A vibrant lobby for informal gold mining has survived Bolsonaro in Brazil's Conservative Congress, where pending bills propose legalizing wildcat mining. For now, though, gold samples from across Brazil are being added to a database with the help of scientists at the Federal Police's criminology institute lab in Brasilia, where forensic expert Erich Moreira Lima oversees microscopic scanning of gold nuggets that are kept in a safe. "Now that we have a team set up, we hope to analyze the 30,000 gold samples the Brazilian Geological Service has collected. In a few years, we should have mapped all Brazil's 24 gold producing regions," he told Reuters. Geologist Maria Emilia Schutesky and her team at the National University of Brasilia's geosciences lab conduct mass spectrometry scans on gold samples to identify associated molecules, such as lead, to place the gold's origins. "We researchers seek a 100% ability to trace gold, but that is more than what the police needs to prove a crime, which is just to establish that the gold does not come from where a suspects claims it is from," Schutesky said. (Reporting by Ricardo Brito and Anthony Boadle; Editing by Christian Plumb and Claudia Parsons)
BOSTON — A private consultant hired by the state is recommending Massachusetts not authorize sports betting kiosks at bars, restaurants and other venues, citing a lack of revenue from the machines in other states and the societal impacts of expanded gambling. The report by the Spectrum Gaming Group, which was hired last year by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, concluded that “there is little to no economic upside for kiosk hosts and the Commonwealth itself while there is an increased risk of negative social impacts.” Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.Clean energy investors have endured yet another torrid year as traders continue shunning the alternative energy sector. The solar sector, in particular, highlights the negative sentiment pervading renewable energy investing: According to a by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the U.S. is on track to add close to 40 gigawatts of solar energy capacity in 2024--more than double last year’s tally and more than triple what was added in 2022. The solar sector is clearly booming, yet solar stocks have badly underperformed, with the sector’s popular benchmark, (NYSEARCA:TAN), having returned -35.3% YTD vs. 24.3% by the . The upcoming Trump presidency is considered bearish for renewable energy investing. For years, Trump has never hidden his disdain for clean energy, repeatedly lambasting Biden’s historic (IRA), describing it as the “biggest tax hike in history”. Trump has pledged to rescind any “unspent” funds under the IRA after he ascends to the Oval Office. However, there are some pockets within the renewable energy universe that are looking quite promising. Here are 3 renewable energy stocks that outperformed in the current year and could do it again in 2025. (NASDAQ:WAVE) is a wave energy company that develops wave energy conversion (WEC) technology that converts ocean and sea waves into clean electricity. WAVE shares have been surging after the company from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for its wave energy project at the Port of Los Angeles in California. The company will install eight wave energy floaters on the piles of an existing concrete wharf structure on the east side of the port's Municipal Pier One. According to Eco Wave, securing the final permit marks the completion of two key milestones in its agreement with (NYSE:SHEL) which is expected to boost the company's revenues in Q4 2024. Related: European Gas Prices Soar as Putin Says a New Ukraine Transit Deal Is Unlikely Europe is the global leader in blue energy, with of global investments in ocean energy over the last decade flowing into the continent. That’s great news for Eco Wave Power because the company is well-established in the region. Indeed, the company’s first operational wave energy plant was developed in Gibraltar with EU funding. Eco Wave Power is currently developing a 20 MW wave energy project in Porto, Portugal as part of the country’s plan to generate 85% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. Eco Wave Power established a subsidiary in Portugal in 2020 and kicked off the licensing process. In March 2024, the company to start construction and committed to completing the project within two years. One of the newer companies in the space, (NYSE:GEV) was incorporated in 2023 after being spun off from (NYSE:GE). This Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company deals in energy equipment manufacturing and services. GE Vernova operates under Power, Wind, and Electrification segments. The company is well-positioned to profit from sustained growth trends as a supplier of power generation assets. Two weeks ago, GE Vernova for FY 2024 revenues and free cash flow, and also raised guidance for 2025 revenues, free cash flow and adjusted EBITDA margin. The company now sees FY 2024 revenues trending towards the higher end of guidance of $34B-$35B; adjusted EBITDA margin of 5.5%-6.0%, narrowed from its previous outlook for 5%-7%; and free cash flow trending towards higher end of $1.3B-$1.7B guidance. For FY 2025, GE Vernova has forecasts revenue in the range of $36B-$$37B, up from prior guidance of mid-single digit growth implying revenues of $35B-$37B; adjusted EBITDA margin of high-single digits and free cash flow of $2B-$2.5B, up from $1.2B-$1.8B previously. " ," GE Vernova CFO Ken Parks said. (NASDAQ:TSLA) is one of the largest manufacturers of electric vehicles on the planet. TSLA stock is trading close to an all-time high with the strong bullish vibe being driven by the view that the Elon Musk-led company will benefit from a Trump Administration that will be friendly to the process of securing autonomous vehicle approvals as it looks to grow the robotaxi fleet rapidly over the next two years. However, Wall Street is more cautious about the shares, assigning TSLA a Hold rating and an average price target of only $259.66, considerably lower than the current price of $421.44. Some bears have pointed out that a similar monster rally in 2021 was followed by a drop of more than 70% over the next 18 months.Week in politics: Matt Gaetz steps down, new cabinet picks
Bears general manager Ryan Poles was granted a reprieve complete with a second swing at hiring a head coach in Chicago. Poles will interview candidates and select a replacement for Matt Eberflus, who was fired Friday after the Bears' sixth consecutive loss and fourth of the season decided on a final play. "Ryan Poles is the general manager of the Chicago Bears, and he will remain the general manager of the Chicago Bears," president and CEO Kevin Warren said Monday. "Ryan will serve as the point person of our upcoming search for a head football coach. We will closely, we will work together on a daily basis to make sure we have the right person as our head football coach." Warren said the McCaskey family provided "all the resources" to build a championship environment. He confirmed that Thomas Brown, who a month ago was passing game coordinator before replacing Shane Waldron as offensive coordinator, will serve as interim head coach and shift from the press box to the sideline starting this week. Warren did not say whether Brown would automatically receive an interview for the full-time coaching position, which he said "will be the most coveted head coaching job in the National Football League." Poles said consideration will be given to candidates with the plan to develop rookie No. 1 pick Caleb Williams, but there are no set plans to involve the quarterback in the interview process. He said the Bears showed great progress through two seasons but couldn't sustain growth. "At the end of the day, we just came up short too many times," Poles said of firing Eberflus, his pick to be the Bears' head coach in January 2022. Brown promoted wide receivers coach Chris Beatty to interim offensive coordinator on Monday and announced that defensive coordinator Eric Washington will be the defensive play caller, a role Eberflus previously held. Trailing 23-20 on Thanksgiving Day, the Bears were within field-goal range when quarterback Caleb Williams was sacked. With 32 seconds remaining, Eberflus elected not to use his final timeout as Williams heaved an incompletion down the right sideline as time expired. "When you look at the end-of-the-game situations, detailing to finish in some of those moments. We all know a lot of games come down to those critical moments where we weren't able to get over the hump," Poles said. Eberflus said after the game that everything was handled properly and held a press conference via Zoom on Friday voicing confidence he'd have the team ready to play the 49ers this week. But three hours later, he was fired. Warren admitted the franchise could've handled the timing better, but clarified there was no decision on Eberflus' status at the time of his media session. "The decision was made to terminate the employment of head coach Matt Eberflus," Warren said 72 hours later. "We try to do everything in a professional manner. That decision was made on Friday." "Coach Eberflus had his press conference, we had not made a final decision. I think you know me, you know Ryan you know George McCaskey. One thing we stand for is family, integrity, doing it the right way. In retrospect, could we have done it better? Absolutely." Eberflus, 54, went 14-32 in two-plus seasons. The Bears (4-8) travel to San Francisco (5-7) in Week 1. --Field Level Media( MENAFN - EIN Presswire) Tiffany Chang Kneron ... Visit us on social media: Facebook LinkedIn Instagram YouTube Legal Disclaimer: EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above. MENAFN29122024003118003196ID1109040152 Legal Disclaimer: MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.