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Ravens star cornerback hit with massive fine for taunting Steelers playerJaime Harrison, in a letter to members of the party’s powerful Rules & Bylaws Committee, outlined the process of how the party will elect its new chair. Harrison said in the letter that the committee will host four candidate forums — some in person and some virtually — in January, with the final election on Feb. 1 during the party’s winter meeting in National Harbor, Maryland. The race to become the next chair of the Democratic National Committee, while an insular party affair, will come days after Trump is inaugurated for a second term. Democrats' selection of a leader after Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 loss will be a key starting point as the party starts to move forward, including addressing any structural problems and determining how to oppose Trump. Members of the Rules & Bylaws Committee will meet on Dec. 12 to establish the rules for these elections, which beyond the chair position will include top party roles like vice chairs, treasurer, secretary and national finance chair. The committee will also use that meeting to decide the requirements for gaining access to the ballot for those top party roles. In 2021, candidates were required to submit a nominating statement that included signatures from 40 DNC members and that will likely be the same standard for the 2025 campaigns. “The DNC is committed to running a transparent, equitable, and impartial election for the next generation of leadership to guide the party forward,” Harrison said in a statement. “Electing the Chair and DNC officers is one of the most important responsibilities of the DNC Membership, and our staff will run an inclusive and transparent process that gives members the opportunity to get to know the candidates as they prepare to cast their votes.” Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts Two Democrats have announced campaigns for chair: Ken Martin, chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and a vice chair of the national party, and Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor and current commissioner of the Social Security Administration. Other top Democrats are either considering a run to succeed Harrison or are being pushed by party insiders, including former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke; Michael Blake, a former vice chair of the party; Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin; Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. ambassador to Japan and a former Chicago mayor; Sen. Mallory McMorrow, majority whip of the Michigan Senate, and Chuck Rocha, a longtime Democratic strategist. The next chair of the committee will be tasked with rebuilding a party demoralized by a second Trump victory. They will also oversee the party’s 2028 nominating process, a complex and contentious exercise that will make the chair central to the next presidential election. Harrison, of South Carolina, made clear in his letter to the rules committee that the four forums hosted by the party would be live streamed and the party would give grassroots Democrats across the country the ability to engage with the process through those events. He also said he intends to remain neutral during the chair election. This story has been corrected to show that McMorrow is a senator, not a representative.
NoneNoneThe TOI Entertainment Desk is a dynamic and dedicated team of journalists, working tirelessly to bring the pulse of the entertainment world straight to the readers of The Times of India. No red carpet goes unrolled, no stage goes dark - our team spans the globe, bringing you the latest scoops and insider insights from Bollywood to Hollywood, and every entertainment hotspot in between. We don't just report; we tell tales of stardom and stories untold. Whether it's the rise of a new sensation or the seasoned journey of an industry veteran, the TOI Entertainment Desk is your front-row seat to the fascinating narratives that shape the entertainment landscape. Beyond the breaking news, we present a celebration of culture. We explore the intersections of entertainment with society, politics, and everyday life. Read More Morning habits that can help improve concentration and performance at work Graceful snaps of Helly Shah Statement wedding jewellery inspired by ardent gemstone lover Nita Ambani Elegant snaps of Malavika Mohanan 10 simple ways you can boost productivity at work Vaani Kapoor's winter formal styling sets the next big fashion trend 10 authors who went viral on social media in 2024 Rasha Thadani's all-black look exudes chic elegance 8 tips to protect home garden in winters
LAS VEGAS -- The Milwaukee Bucks are making a return trip to the NBA Cup semifinals after falling short in Sin City last season. This time around, they'll have the responsibility of stopping one of the game's great entertainers in Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks. Young rolled a pair of imaginary dice over the New York Knicks' midcourt logo in the closing moments of the Hawks' 108-100 win in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, a nod to the Hawks' trip to Vegas. It was yet another example of Young's showmanship, something the Knicks have seen firsthand over the years. The Bucks also got to experience a bit of Young's big-game prowess in the 2021 Eastern Conference finals, but Young suffered an ankle injury in Game 3 of that series and wasn't the same the rest of the way. If "Ice Trae" has it his way, the Bucks will be the latest victim of his prime-time heroics on Saturday night. Even if he doesn't like to linger on the memories of that series. "I don't let past things make me mad (and I don't) hold a grudge on those things," the 26-year-old Young said. "Yeah, I'm young. I'm not super young anymore, where I like, let those things really affect me. "I remember it like it was yesterday. It definitely hurts, but I mean, this is a new team. I'm part of a new team. They're a different team. So I can't let my past affect my mental and my focus on right now, because it's a totally different team and totally different place." Young is averaging 21 points per game to go along with 12.2 assists, numbers that have only been equaled by Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas over the course of an entire NBA season. He's gotten a fair bit of help too, most notably in the form of 19.8 points and a team-high 10.1 rebounds per game from fourth-year forward Jalen Johnson. The Hawks earned the No. 3 seed in NBA Cup knockout play after going 3-1 in the East Group C stage. Atlanta's among the hottest teams in the league at the moment, having won seven of its last eight games overall. The Bucks, on the other hand, are the only team of the four remaining that made it to the NBA Cup semifinals in Las Vegas last season. They had a short trip, falling 128-119 to the Pacers, but the hope is that last year's experience better prepared them for all of the outside hoopla that comes with this stage. At the very least, they have a much better understanding of what winning the NBA Cup would entail. "I think last year, most people didn't even understand what was going on until they got to the final stages," Bucks star Damian Lillard said. "When we got to the game against New York last year, where the winner got to go to Vegas, we started to have a better understanding of what was on the line. "Coming into this season, I think everybody understood better. Everybody cared more, not just because it's an opportunity to win money. Even though it's not the ultimate goal, I think it gives you an edge. We want to be the last team standing in it. We want to win the money. We want to continue going in the right direction as a team." The Bucks entered Tuesday's quarterfinal as the East's top seed in NBA Cup play, going 4-0 in East Group B play despite a turbulent 2-8 start to the season. They've won nine of their last 11 games and eclipsed .500 for the season by beating the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday and the Orlando Magic on Tuesday. Giannis Antetokounmpo sits atop the NBA scoring leaders as of Friday afternoon, averaging 32.7 points and a team-high 11.4 rebounds per game. Lillard has also played at an All-Star level, averaging 25.8 points per game in addition to 7.6 assists. Bobby Portis (13.2 ppg) and Brook Lopez (11 ppg) are the only other Bucks averaging double figures. --Will Despart, Field Level MediaHarris disappears from spotlight, vacations in Hawaii after election loss
Gray Television (NYSE:GTN.A) Shares Down 4.7% – Should You Sell?The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped nearly 400 points on Monday after President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, laid out his priorities – including tax cuts. In his first interview as Treasury nominee with The Wall Street Journal , Bessent said he will also focus on imposing tariffs, cutting spending and keeping the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency. By Monday afternoon, the Dow was up 0.9% and the S&P 500 was up 0.3% following the news. The longtime hedge fund manager said he is focused on making Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent, as well as eliminating taxes on tips, social security benefits and overtime pay. “Bessent himself is a very prominent investor and has a stellar track record which makes him a great choice, and the markets are responding to the excitement about how they think he will handle fiscal policy and interest rates,” Ted Jenkin, co-founder and business consultant at oXYGen Financial, told The Post. On Friday, Trump nominated the seasoned hedge fund manager , who has studied economic history for around 40 years, as US Treasury Secretary. That’s despite protests from Elon Musk, who donated millions to Trump campaign efforts and rallied in swing states on the president-elect’s behalf. Musk had dogged Bessent as a “business-as-usual choice,” and threw his support behind Howard Lutnick , who Trump ended up nominating to head the Commerce Department instead. Investors and Wall Street bigwigs have largely applauded the nomination of Bessent, who worked at George Soros’ firm before starting his own, because he is seen as the “moderate” choice, Mahoney Asset Management CEO Ken Mahoney said. Trump has ruffled feathers with some of his controversial nominations, including Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to lead the health department , former Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general and former Fox News personality Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense . “Disruption is the goal when it comes to ripping DEI out of government, or getting the politics out of the Justice Department, but not when managing our banking system or world financial markets,” Kenin Spivak, chief executive at SMI Group, told The Post. “Bessent is an experienced, steady, capable expert in all aspects of the department he has been chosen to lead.” Spivak said investors view Bessent as the wise choice and expect him to advise Trump to use restraint when implementing some of his economic policies. The president-elect has pushed for massive tariffs of 10% on all imports and 60% on goods from China. Economists have warned the outsize tariffs could reheat inflation. Bessent, meanwhile, had viewed tariffs as a negotiating tool, saying earlier this year that the “tariff gun will always be loaded and on the table but rarely discharged.” “[Bessent] talked about gradual tariff changes, which had been a fear and a talking point of Trump adversaries,” Mahoney told The Post. “This ideology of ‘massaging’ in tariffs and seeing how things go makes much more sense.” Mahoney said less intense tariffs could help foreign policy – which was “a mess in every way with the Biden administration” – by encouraging fair trade practices while still gaining leverage over other countries. Another one of Bessent’s popular proposals is what he calls the 3-3-3 rule, inspired by former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who revitalized Japan’s economy with a threefold policy. Bessent’s three goals are to slash the budget deficit to 3% of gross domestic product by 2028, boost GDP growth by 3% through deregulation and produce an additional 3 million barrels of oil per day, according to the Journal. “We also like to hear his policies around reducing the budget deficit and getting that under control, as we know there is a massive debt and spending problem within the government,” Mahoney said. “He also wants to increase oil production...so it is possible lower energy costs balance out the possible inflationary effects of tariffs.”The presumptive Secretary of Education is married to a man whose former employee alleges he forced her to perform sex acts with his friend for an hour and a half after he . The presumptive Commerce Secretary preemptively sued his former assistant in 2018, after her lawyer threatened to publicize “not pretty” she’d received from him and his wife. The presumptive Health and Human Services director’s explanation for a former nanny’s breasts while holding her hostage in a kitchen pantry was that he “had a very, very rambunctious youth”; he was 46 at the time. The White House efficiency czar, currently a defendant in a putative class-action lawsuit filed by eight former employees who him of perpetrating an “Animal House” work environment of “rampant sexual harassment,” and paid a quarter of a million dollars to a flight attendant who says he got naked and asked her to touch his erect penis in exchange for the gift of a horse. And of course the presumptive Defense Secretary was who was tasked with monitoring what she described to police as his “creeper vibes” after a at which he was a keynote speaker, just a month and change after the birth of his fourth child with a woman who was not his wife at the time. (Reader, she married him.) The aggressive rapeyness of the second Donald Trump administration is so tyrannical it’s almost enough to make a girl wistful for Matt Gaetz, the Florida congressman who withdrew his name from attorney general contention yesterday (to make way for the ) amid an orgy of leaks from two investigations into his sexploits with a 17-year-old procured by a convicted sex trafficker friend. Multiple witnesses testified that Gaetz did not actually know the 17-year-old was underage, you see, and that he ceased having sex with her when he found out. I don’t have a lot of warmth in my heart for Barack Obama, but America will always have the fact that he was never a world-renowned horndog. When he took office, as I remarked a year ago in an , the entire culture was dominated by networks of organized sex abuse. The was run by an unabashed sex predator. The second-coolest clothing brand was run by a . The predominant underwear retailer was a front for Jeffrey Epstein, who was propositioning young women while literally serving a supposed “prison sentence” for sex crimes. The Vatican was helmed by a guy who spent his entire career covering up sex abuse accusations. Republicans had just lost control of Congress to revelations over their complicity in the of a prominent Florida congressman and others; the Speaker of the House at the time quietly stepped down and would later be revealed as a systematic child sex abuser while he was a high school wrestling coach in the 1970s. The Abu Ghraib scandal showcased ritual sexual humiliation as a top American export. One-fifth of female veterans were diagnosed with disorders stemming from . Insatiable serial rapists ran the and the music business; children's television was dominated by an , and so we would learn was the , , organized , and of course just about every sector and obscure subsector of high and low finance. During the Obama years millions of manufacturing jobs were wiped out, income inequality gaped, opioids consumed whole communities, and the titans of finance who collapsed the economy through fraud went unprosecuted, but “rape culture” retreated. Kid Cudi stole Diddy’s girlfriend, Kendrick Lamar made rap poetry again, the star of the era’s top-grossing movie franchise in the Dakotas getting arrested for protesting oil pipelines. “Wokeness” in those early days conveyed a kind of vigilant neo-wholesomeness. It seemed in those days self-evident that sexual abuse was just a subset of dehumanization and exploitation that helpfully, unlike most forms of exploitation, happened to be illegal. And the moral core of resistance liberalism was a rejection of dehumanization in all forms. Where both Hillary and Trump had tried semi-successfully to redirect rape culture backlash against one another and other enemy tribes—the apocryphal “Bernie Bros” for Hillary, immigrants for Trump—the Pussy Hats found the apex of their cultural cachet fighting for someone they didn’t know: mothers whose babies had been seized at the border and warehoused in massive colorless child prisons, per a policy that had been somehow initially enacted under Barack Obama. It is so easy to forget now how the success of that movement led Ivanka Trump to lobby her father to issue an executive order 18 months into his presidency that ended the separations. During the pandemic again, resistance outrage on behalf of the invisible “essential workers” brought immediate material gains to nursing home aides, delivery drivers and meatpacking plant staffers in the form of hazard pay, government checks and a new sense of their importance within the broader community. But powerful forces wanted desperately to absorb the “resistance” into the profitable realm of insular partisan tribalism we know as “identity politics.” A random moment lodged for whatever reason in my hippocampus was the afternoon a gaggle of female attorneys with “I believe Christine Blasey Ford” pins on their handbags filed into happy hour at my obscenely expensive restaurant. I believed her too, one thousand percent, but the pins were... just a bit much. Years later I’d watch Brett Kavanaugh, in all his heinous glory, pompously inveighing against opponents of the deal that enabled the Sackler family to abuse the bankruptcy code to keep their multibillion-dollar fortune legally off-limits to the hundreds of thousands of families their opioid empire’s deliberate conspiracy had torn apart. Clearly his high school boorishness had been merely a harbinger of a legacy that would ultimately prove much darker. But as long as the affluent teenagers who’d been victimized by his like grew up to become corporate lawyers and lobbyists, no one was really incentivized to spell out those connections. When some genius at Kamala HQ concocted “We are not going back,” every woman who believed Christine Blasey Ford knew in a visceral sense exactly what that meant. After raking DJT over the coals for schtupping Stormy Daniels 18 years ago and attacking E. Jean Carroll in the Bergdorf dressing room the same year Bill attacked Monica with that cigar, "back" is exactly where the elites wanted to go. In Pete Hegseth, with his crusader tattoos and membership in the Erik Prince groupchat and entire post-military career bankrolled by the Koch network, with his 2002 article in the Princeton Tory arguing that sex with an unconscious person does not constitute “rape” and his two-year lobbying campaign to —a man by a Navy SEAL colleague as “perfectly ok with killing anybody that was moving” who had been turned in by six members of his platoon because he was that “freaking evil”—we might have perhaps the purest distillation of right-wing rape culture in all its arrogant, white nationalist glory. Except, of course, it is now November 2024, and so for the past 412 days since the Israeli defense minister announced he was cutting off all food and water to 2.5 million largely innocent refugees, I have watched the forces of a thousand Eddie Gallaghers unleashed each day in the effort to dehumanize Palestinians into extinction. From November and December when we watched the IDF bomb every hospital and school in Gaza, to January when we saw the first large-scale protests to stop the entry of aid trucks into the territory, to the slaughter of more than 100 Gazans lined up for flour and the surgical assassination of foreign aid workers in the spring, to the emphatic and self-righteous calls by journalists for the IDF to adopt an explicit pro-sexual assault policy after ten prison guards were punished for sodomizing Palestinian detainees with hot metal rods. By the end of October, Gaza as a place cannot be said to exist, and all that defined the lives of the 2.5 million who once lived there has been obliterated, but the continued drive to destroy has only swollen, expanded to encompass Beirut and Damascus and even Amsterdam. This week Ha'aretz reported an “alarming rise” in rape inside Israel, especially among people under 18 who had been displaced from the south after October 7; forgive me if I am not alarmed. Throughout all of this Joe Biden and Secretary of State Tony Blinken and their whole coterie of indistinguishably robotic flacks have stood unflailingly behind Netanyahu and his genocidal band of Jewish supremacist freaks, even as they openly plotted to sabotage his presidency in favor of one that might funnel the same tens of billions with more explicit enthusiasm and I guess, cooler tattoos. This week, when the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense secretary and Bernie Sanders in three ceremonial votes against sending any more offensive weapons to Israel, President Biden slammed the court as “outrageous,” labored behind the scenes to smear the senators as treasonous saboteurs and issued a formal statement consisting of little more than an unabashed dog whistle to Jewish supremacy: “Whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence—none—between Israel and Hamas.” For thirteen months now, a Democratic presidential administration has been toiling to remind Palestinians and anyone who might sympathize with them that they are not by the standards of the ruling class fully human: “Your body, my choice,” as the Trumpists would say. Which brings me to the challenge ahead. Trump and his cabinet of sickos are about to spend the next four years doing some sadistic, heinous things. And yet the fact remains that the bar has been set by bankrolling a brand-new ICC-certified genocide; that’s the achievement of Joe Biden. And if we want our countrymen to unite in rejection of the cruelty around which Trump has built his brand, we cannot pretend the Democratic Party of 2024 represents a spotless alternative. We are not going back.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have secured the conviction of six individuals for offences related to internet fraud, including the possession of fraudulent documents. The cases were prosecuted by the Benin Zonal Directorate of the EFCC The convicts, identified as Precious Okeleke, Austine Iwuner, Saint Felix, Ododo Mathias, Idahosa Kelvin, and Bankole Adaranijo, faced one-count charges stemming from their involvement in cyber-related crimes. Meanwhile in a separate court rulings, the defendants pleaded guilty to the charges, leading the prosecution counsel—F.A. Jirbo, I.M. Elodi, and K.Y. Bello—to request their conviction. Defence lawyers, however, urged the courts to temper justice with mercy, citing the remorseful attitudes of the accused. On December 10, Justice W.I. Aziegbemhin sentenced Precious Okeleke to two years’ imprisonment with the option of a ₦200,000 (£200) fine. The following day, Justice F.A. Olubanjo handed Austine Iwuner a similar two-year sentence but with a ₦500,000 (£500) fine option. Saint Felix and Ododo Mathias were each sentenced by Justice Erhabor to three years in prison or a ₦200,000 fine. READ ALSO: EFCC arrests man for defrauding Australians of $8m On December 12, Justice Aziegbemhin convicted Idahosa Kelvin and Bankole Adaranijo, sentencing them to two years’ imprisonment with a ₦200,000 fine option. The convictions are part of the EFCC’s intensified efforts to curb cybercrime, which has drawn international scrutiny in recent years. The antigraft agency also announced recently the arrest of a suspected online fraudster, Osang Otukpa, for allegedly duping 139 Australians to the tune of $AUD8,000,000. Otukpa was arrested by the EFCC at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos upon arrival from the United States of America on Friday, December 6, 2024 A statement on Friday by the EFCC Head of Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale, said Otukpa used five names which are Ford Thompson, Oscar Donald Tyler, Michael Haye, Jose Vitto and Kristin Davidson , to scam the victims. He added that the suspect lured his victims on social media to invest in his rogue cryptocurrency investment platform, Liquid Asset Group. EFCC said the fight against internet fraud remains a priority, as such crimes undermine the nation’s reputation and economic stability.
Endeavour Silver (NYSE:EXK) Shares Up 3% – Here’s What HappenedAdvertisement Jack Smith wants to end his major criminal case against Donald Trump. Trump was facing prosecution over his actions to try to overturn the 2020 election results. Smith said Trump's 2024 victory necessitates ending the prosecution before he is sworn in. In back-to-back filings on Monday, special counsel Jack Smith sought permission from federal judges to abandon both of his cases against President-elect Donald Trump. Smith said the long-standing Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president necessitated ending his DC-based 2020 election-interference case and the Florida-based case alleging Trump improperly retained classified documents from his first administration. Related Video Here are all the trials Trump faces and how they could affect his election Smith's move to dismiss both cases likely spells their end, though theoretically either case could be revived in four years. "The Department's position is that the Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated," Smith wrote in relation to the election-interference case. "And although the Constitution requires dismissal in this context, consistent with the temporary nature of the immunity afforded a sitting President, it does not require dismissal with prejudice," Smith wrote in the filing. Advertisement Trump greeted the news with a parting shot at the "political weaponization" that he said allowed the cases to be filed to begin with. "The American People re-elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate to Make America Great Again," Steven Cheung wrote in a press statement. "Today's decision by the DOJ ends the unconstitutional federal cases against President Trump, and is a major victory for the rule of law. The American People and President Trump want an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and we look forward to uniting our country." Smith said Trump's attorneys agree with his move to dismiss.Bitcoin even more buoyant
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump said he can't guarantee that his promised tariffs on key U.S. foreign trade partners won't raise prices for American consumers and he suggested once more that some political rivals and federal officials who pursued legal cases against him should be imprisoned. The president-elect, in a wide-ranging interview with NBC's “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday, also touched on monetary policy, immigration, abortion and health care, and U.S. involvement in Ukraine, Israel and elsewhere. Trump often mixed declarative statements with caveats, at one point cautioning “things do change.” A look at some of the issues covered: Trump has threatened broad trade penalties, but said he didn’t believe economists' predictions that added costs on those imported goods for American companies would lead to higher prices for U.S. consumers. He stopped short of a pledge that U.S. households won't be paying more as they shop. “I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t guarantee tomorrow,” Trump said, seeming to open the door to accepting the reality of how import levies typically work as goods reach the retail market. That's a different approach from Trump's typical speeches throughout the 2024 campaign, when he framed his election as a sure way to curb inflation. In the interview, Trump defended tariffs generally, saying they are "going to make us rich.” He has pledged that, on his first day in office in January, he would impose 25% tariffs on all goods imported from Mexico and Canada unless those countries satisfactorily stop illegal immigration and the flow of illegal drugs such as fentanyl into the United States. He also has threatened additional tariffs on China to help force that country to crack down on fentanyl production. ”All I want to do is I want to have a level, fast, but fair playing field,” Trump said. He offered conflicting statements on how he would approach the justice system after winning election despite being convicted of 34 felonies in a New York state court and being indicted in other cases for his handling of national security secrets and efforts to overturn his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden. “Honestly, they should go to jail,” Trump said of members of Congress who investigated the Capitol riot by his supporters who wanted him to remain in power. The president-elect underscored his contention that he can use the justice system against others, including special prosecutor Jack Smith, who led the case on Trump’s role in the siege on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump confirmed his plan to pardon supporters who were convicted for their roles in the riot, saying he would take that action on his first day in office. As for the idea of revenge driving potential prosecutions, Trump said: “I have the absolute right. I’m the chief law enforcement officer, you do know that. I’m the president. But I’m not interested in that." At the same time, Trump singled out lawmakers on a special House committee who had investigated the insurrection, citing Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. “Cheney was behind it ... so was Bennie Thompson and everybody on that committee,” Trump said. Asked specifically whether he would direct his administration to pursue cases, he said, “No,” and suggested he did not expect the FBI to quickly undertake investigations into his political enemies. But at another point, Trump said he would leave the matter up to Pam Bondi, his pick as attorney general. “I want her to do what she wants to do,” he said. Such threats, regardless of Trump's inconsistencies, have been taken seriously enough by many top Democrats that Biden is considering issuing blanket, preemptive pardons to protect key members of his outgoing administration. Trump did seemingly back off his campaign rhetoric calling for Biden to be investigated, saying, “I’m not looking to go back into the past.” Trump repeatedly mentioned his promises to seal the U.S.-Mexico border and deport millions of people who are in the U.S. illegally through a mass deportation program. “I think you have to do it,” he said. He suggested he would try to use executive action to end “birthright” citizenship under which people born in the U.S. are considered citizens — although such protections are spelled out in the Constitution. Asked specifically about the future for people who were brought into the country illegally as children and have been shielded from deportation in recent years, Trump said, “I want to work something out,” indicating he might seek a solution with Congress. But Trump also said he does not “want to be breaking up families” of mixed legal status, “so the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back.” Long a critic of NATO members for not spending more on their own defense, Trump said he “absolutely” would remain in the alliance “if they pay their bills.” Pressed on whether he would withdraw if he were dissatisfied with allies’ commitments, Trump said he wants the U.S. treated “fairly” on trade and defense. He waffled on a NATO priority of containing Russia and President Vladimir Putin. Trump suggested Ukraine should prepare for less U.S. aid in its defense against Putin’s invasion. “Possibly. Yeah, probably. Sure,” Trump said of reducing Ukraine assistance from Washington. Separately, Trump has called for an immediate ceasefire . Asked about Putin, Trump said initially that he has not talked to the Russian leader since Election Day last month, but then hedged: “I haven’t spoken to him recently.” Trump said when pressed, adding that he did not want to “impede the negotiation.” The president-elect said he has no intention, at least for now, of asking Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to step down before Powell's term ends in 2028. Trump said during the campaign that presidents should have more say in Fed policy , including interest rates. Trump did not offer any job assurances for FBI Director Christopher Wray, whose term is to end in 2027. Asked about Wray, Trump said: “Well, I mean, it would sort of seem pretty obvious” that if the Senate confirms Kash Patel as his pick for FBI chief, then “he’s going to be taking somebody’s place, right? Somebody is the man that you’re talking about.” Trump promised that the government efficiency effort led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will not threaten Social Security. “We're not touching Social Security, other than we make it more efficient,” he said. He added that “we're not raising ages or any of that stuff.” He was not so specific about abortion or his long-promised overhaul of the Affordable Care Act. On abortion, Trump continued his inconsistencies and said he would “probably” not move to restrict access to the abortion pills that now account for a majority of pregnancy terminations, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. But pressed on whether he would commit to that position, Trump replied, “Well, I commit. I mean, are -- things do -- things change. I think they change.” Reprising a line from his Sept. 10 debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump again said he had “concepts” of a plan to substitute for the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which he called “lousy health care.” He added a promise that any Trump version would maintain insurance protections for Americans with preexisting health conditions. He did not explain how such a design would be different from the status quo or how he could deliver on his desire for “better health care for less money.” Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Jill Colvin and Michelle L. Price in New York contributed to this report.
Mantis scores 17 points off the bench as Maine downs Holy Cross 80-55SHREVEPORT La. - Drones are becoming a more frequent sight in the skies, but their presence is raising questions and concerns. The ArkLaTex is no exception. KTBS 3 has received multiple drone videos from viewers in the area, all wondering the same thing: What’s going on? This follows an incident in New Jersey last night, where a video surfaced on social media showing lights in the sky. The video, which has sparked speculation online, has people asking: Who is flying these objects, and are they drones at all? The footage, which is difficult to discern, shows lights that a local drone pilot says could belong to an aircraft. “Most aircraft, including drones, are required to have lights,” the pilot noted. One video, viewed more than a million times on X, claims to show an unidentified object flying near Barksdale Air Force Base. However, there is no confirmation of its authenticity. The video does not provide clear evidence that it was filmed near Barksdale, and the base is located in restricted airspace. “You are not allowed to fly drones there without specific waiver permission from the FAA,” drone pilot Jim Christie said. “Many drones have technology like geofencing built in, which prevents them from entering restricted airspace.” Federal agencies are facing increasing pressure to explain these unexplained drone sightings in New Jersey and closer to home.
Gophers football players are preparing to play Wisconsin for Paul Bunyan’s Axe on Friday, but three key pieces peered beyond the blinders to shore up their commitment to Minnesota on Monday. Quarterback Max Brosmer and offensive lineman Quinn Carroll — two sixth-year seniors — said they will play in the Gophers’ to-be-determined bowl game, bucking a growing trend of players skipping postseason games to prepare for shots in the NFL. ADVERTISEMENT Brosmer, a transfer from FCS-level New Hampshire, said he will “definitely” suit up. “It’s another opportunity for us to play as a team,” said Brosmer, who threw for 2,426 yards, 15 touchdowns and five interceptions in 11 games this season. “It’s a compilation of what you have worked on all season.” Carroll said he respects higher-level prospects who might opt out and protect their draft stock, but he wants to get back to a “standard” of players not skipping the games. “My goal ever since I came here was to be the leader, be the standard all the time, and I don’t want it to become a standard that we don’t play in the bowl game if we have NFL aspirations,” said Carroll, who has played three seasons at Minnesota after three years at Notre Dame. “Obviously it’s different for guys who are maybe touted a little bit higher or think it will be better off for them to start working on the next step, whether that is combine training or what have you. But that is one opportunity that I’m blessed with to play with the guys and I’m going to take full advantage of it.” Left tackle Aireontae Ersery is a prime candidate of a Gophers player who might want to safeguard a higher draft stock and limit injury exposure by sitting out the bowl game. The possible first- or second-round pick has not said what he might do. For example, former U center, John Michael Schmitz opted out of the Pinstripe Bowl in 2022; he was drafted in the second round by the New York Giants. Meanwhile, Gophers fifth-year defensive lineman Jalen Logan-Redding said he will return to Minnesota for 2025, instead of trying his luck in the NFL. “Coming back next year is definitely going to be the best for me and being able to maximize all my opportunities and exhaust eligibility,” Logan-Redding said. Logan-Redding said he talked with fellow D-lineman Deven Eastern, who has one more year remaining, about pairing up in 2025. ADVERTISEMENT “We talk a lot about it,” Logan-Redding said. “... We are excited for it, honestly. Not only continuing to build the D-line, but just continuing to build on the experience that we already have. We’ve seen the amount of destruction that we can create when we are focused. Me, Dev and, of course, (Anthony Smith). He would be pissed if I didn’t shout him out.” Smith, who has two more years of eligibility, has been one of the U’s best players in the last month. He has 23 total pressures and five sacks, including one sack in each of the last three weeks. ______________________________________________________ This story was written by one of our partner news agencies. Forum Communications Company uses content from agencies such as Reuters, Kaiser Health News, Tribune News Service and others to provide a wider range of news to our readers. Learn more about the news services FCC uses here .More than 40,000 local participants engaged in various sports across Sutherland Shire during this year's winter season. or signup to continue reading Football (soccer) had the most number of registered players (20,280), followed by rugby league (6108), netball (4642), basketball (2065), athletics (1683), Oztag seniors (1550), baseball (1433), AFL (1175), water polo (1066), rugby union (655), hockey (391) and archery (154). A Sutherland Shire Council report said the figures were provided by local sporting associations via a participation survey issued in August 2024. The reported earlier this year that female participation in soccer in the shire had skyrocketed. More than 6000 girls and women playing soccer in the shire, amounting to 36 per cent of all players - the highest female participation in Football Australia. In 2024, there has been an increase of 39 girls only teams for u/6 to u/11, an increase of 32 teams in Youth Women's and an increase of 11 Senior Women's teams. An example of the popularity of the sport was sisters Casey 29, Jaime, 26, Cleo, 24 and Amber, 20, Cottrell-Dormer playing in the same team for Cronulla Seagulls. The council's Sports Services 2024 Winter Season report said a total of 84 sports user groups had submitted 150 requests for sports field useage, resulting in 136,000 allocated hours. The report said fields were closed for an average of seven and a half weekends due to rain events, which included several significant rainfall occurrences. May was the worst month, with fields closed for 12 days. "Despite these challenges, the facilities achieved an impressive 81 per cent open rate throughout the season," the report said. The council was successful in securing funding through four grant applications, totalling $345,000 and had supported six clubs with their grant applications. Cricket Australia provided a total of $120,000 ($40,000 for each site) for practice net upgrades at The Ridge, Glenn McGrath Oval and Anzac Oval, Engadine. The NSW Government Office of Sport provided a one-off Grant $225,000 for a floodlighting upgrade at Gwawley Park Sports Field. Unsuccessful grant applications were made to the state government for floodlighting upgrades at Captain Cook Fields ($615,000 request) and Buckle Reserve, Menai ($200,000 request). The 2024 Winter Season report is the first undertaken by the council. Going forward, these reports will be produced for both summer and winter seasons, providing valuable comparisons, insights and updates on the management and utilisation of sports facilities. St George and Sutherland Shire Leader reporter covering politics, urban affairs, council, development and general community news.Email: mtrembath@theleader.com.au St George and Sutherland Shire Leader reporter covering politics, urban affairs, council, development and general community news.Email: mtrembath@theleader.com.auOpenAI’s legal battle with Elon Musk reveals internal turmoil over avoiding AI ‘dictatorship’
Voyager Therapeutics, Inc. ( NASDAQ:VYGR – Get Free Report ) COO Robin Swartz sold 6,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.65, for a total value of $36,725.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 112,328 shares in the company, valued at $634,653.20. The trade was a 5.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link . Voyager Therapeutics Stock Down 2.9 % Shares of VYGR opened at $5.74 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $313.55 million, a P/E ratio of 8.08 and a beta of 0.90. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $6.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $7.01. Voyager Therapeutics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $5.19 and a 52 week high of $11.72. Voyager Therapeutics ( NASDAQ:VYGR – Get Free Report ) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The company reported ($0.16) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.45) by $0.29. Voyager Therapeutics had a return on equity of 8.33% and a net margin of 15.80%. The business had revenue of $24.63 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.63 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.59) earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Voyager Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.89 EPS for the current year. Institutional Trading of Voyager Therapeutics Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades Several research firms have recently issued reports on VYGR. Leerink Partners assumed coverage on Voyager Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $15.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Voyager Therapeutics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Wedbush started coverage on shares of Voyager Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, November 29th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $11.00 target price on the stock. Leerink Partnrs raised shares of Voyager Therapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price objective on shares of Voyager Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $17.00. Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on VYGR About Voyager Therapeutics ( Get Free Report ) Voyager Therapeutics, Inc, a biotechnology company, focuses on the treatment of gene therapy and neurology diseases. The company's lead clinical candidate is VY-TAU01, an anti-tau antibody program for the treatment of alzheimer's disease. Its product pipeline includes superoxide dismutase 1 silencing gene therapy, which is in preclinical trial for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; tau silencing gene therapy, which is in preclinical trial for the treatment of alzheimer's disease; and vectorized anti-amyloid antibody, a gene therapy targeting anti-amyloid for the treatment of alzheimer's disease and is in preclinical trial. Featured Articles Receive News & Ratings for Voyager Therapeutics Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Voyager Therapeutics and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .