PV football readies for opening round of CIF state playoffs1 / 6 Reliance Infrastructure | The company's unit, PS Toll Road Private Ltd, received notices from Axis Bank and IDFC First Bank on Friday. The two banks have invoked the right of substitution under the Concession Agreement for six-laning the Pune Satara section of NH-44 in Maharashtra, for and on behalf of lenders of the PSTR citing alleged DSRA defaults by it. 2 / 6 Axis Max Life Insurance | The insurer's unit, Max Life Pension Fund Management Ltd (Max Life PFM), announced plans to discontinue its operations as a pension fund manager and a point of presence under regulations set by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). The decision follows a brand-related ambiguity between Max Life PFM and Axis Pension Fund Management Limited (Axis PFM), a pension fund management entity within Axis Bank’s group. 3 / 6 JSW Energy | The energy behemoth announced the acquisition of O2 Power, a renewable energy platform, in a transaction valued at ₹12,468 crore, marking its largest acquisition since inception. The deal will significantly expand JSW Energy’s generation capacity by 23%, increasing it from 20,012 megawatt (MW) to 24,708 MW. 4 / 6 Utkarsh Small Finance Bank | The lender said it will sell a portfolio of non-performing assets (NPAs) and written-off loans to an asset reconstruction company (ARC). The portfolio under consideration consists of unsecured stressed microfinance institution (MFI) loans with an aggregate outstanding principal of approximately ₹355 crore as of September 30, 2024. 5 / 6 IOL Chemicals | The company's board approved to split the company's shares in the proportion of 1 share into 5 shares. This means that for every stock investors hold in the company, it will be subdivided into 5 shares. 6 / 6 Hero MotoCorp | India’s largest two-wheeler maker extended its partnership with US-based premium motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson Motor to co-develop and manufacture a new motorcycle as well as expand the existing co-developed model - X440 - into new variants.
Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new position in PTC Therapeutics, Inc. ( NASDAQ:PTCT – Free Report ) in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 18,806 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $698,000. A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. raised its holdings in shares of PTC Therapeutics by 6.0% in the third quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 472,288 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $17,522,000 after buying an additional 26,773 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC increased its position in shares of PTC Therapeutics by 433.9% in the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 22,359 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $830,000 after acquiring an additional 18,171 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans purchased a new position in PTC Therapeutics in the 3rd quarter worth $1,450,000. KBC Group NV lifted its position in PTC Therapeutics by 29.2% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,232 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $83,000 after acquiring an additional 504 shares during the period. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its stake in PTC Therapeutics by 40.0% during the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 15,130 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $561,000 after purchasing an additional 4,325 shares during the last quarter. Analyst Ratings Changes Several brokerages have recently issued reports on PTCT. Barclays raised their price objective on PTC Therapeutics from $31.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. StockNews.com lowered shares of PTC Therapeutics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. UBS Group started coverage on shares of PTC Therapeutics in a report on Monday, August 26th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $47.00 price objective on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of PTC Therapeutics from $51.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Baird R W raised shares of PTC Therapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, PTC Therapeutics has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $44.69. PTC Therapeutics Stock Down 2.7 % Shares of PTC Therapeutics stock opened at $43.88 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.38 billion, a PE ratio of -7.39 and a beta of 0.63. PTC Therapeutics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $22.47 and a twelve month high of $47.24. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $40.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.27. PTC Therapeutics Profile ( Free Report ) PTC Therapeutics, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of medicines to patients with rare disorders in the United States and internationally. The company offers Translarna and Emflaza for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy; Upstaza to treat aromatic l-amino acid decarboxylas (AADC) deficiency, a central nervous system disorder; Tegsedi and Waylivra for the treatment of rare diseases; and Evrysdi to treat spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in adults and children. Further Reading Five stocks we like better than PTC Therapeutics Stock Average Calculator The Latest 13F Filings Are In: See Where Big Money Is Flowing How to Find Undervalued Stocks 3 Penny Stocks Ready to Break Out in 2025 Stock Sentiment Analysis: How it Works FMC, Mosaic, Nutrien: Top Agricultural Stocks With Big Potential Receive News & Ratings for PTC Therapeutics Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for PTC Therapeutics and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .Strange lights in the sky, little green men and crashed vessels secreted away to government labs — the relatively modern history of UFOs is replete with conspiracy theories and allegations of coverups. But beyond the endless arguments between believers and debunkers over what could be behind the phenomena, the fact remains that many people have looked into the sky and reported seeing things they cannot explain. So what do UFO reports tell us about ourselves? To discuss UFO sightings, how and why they first emerged, and the ways they tie into the cultural and political trends of the past and present, Live Science spoke with Greg Eghigian , a professor of history and bioethics at Penn State University, whose new book, " After The Flying Saucers Came " (Oxford University press, 2024), is one of the first social histories of UFOs, or unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). Here's what he had to say. Ben Turner: A lot of people assume UFOs entered public consciousness with the Roswell incident . But your book says otherwise. When did it all begin? Greg Eghigian: I think when we look at this as a social phenomenon — not just simply someone saw something strange in the sky, but that the object was made by somebody, and that one of the probable scenarios is they were extraterrestrials — we can mark the moment that starts to evolve in June 24, 1947. The private pilot Kenneth Arnold sees these objects [that day] over Washington state when he's flying his plane. He lands and reports it to the military and to journalists. When asked how they flew, he answered that these things flew kind of like saucers skipping across the water. Then, within a day or two, a journalist comes up with this great headline: "Flying saucers." Once we had flying saucers, everything else fell into place. Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox. BT: But then Roswell happened just a few weeks later. How did a fairly small city in New Mexico become famous all over the world for UFOs, while Arnold's name remains relatively unknown? GE: Here's the thing about Roswell that a lot of people don't realize. The story that came out of Roswell is that some material had been retrieved around an Air Force base there that they believe could be from a crashed flying saucer. Within a day, the Air Force rolls that back, saying that it's not the case, the people who first found it were mistaken. The reality is that the people who were on the ground and found this stuff were not terribly qualified to talk about it. They didn't understand what they had, literally, in their hands, and the people who usually dealt with the material were actually off at a conference. When they did finally get a chance to look at it, they said, "Oh this is pretty mundane stuff," and they corrected themselves. So the Roswell thing gets a lot of air play, a lot of global news coverage for about 24 to 48 hours, and then it disappears. It's not really ever talked about, and leaves very little imprint on the UFO world for decades. It's then only in the late 1970s that some ufologists (and this is a very common thing in the UFO world) go back over the records, dig deeper into the story and believe that they found all these contradictions in it. That's when Roswell became a focal point. BT: Looking at the period of history where all of this kicked off, we have growing Cold War rivalry, the new existential threat of nuclear weapons, McCarthyism, fear of communism and Soviet Russia. It seems like a time that's ripe for paranoia and conspiracism. How much is all of the UFO stuff tied into that? GE: Oh, it's very tied in. I make the point in the book that I don't think the UFO phenomenon as we know it would exist without the Cold War. There are a variety of reasons for that, but one of the often forgotten aspects of this is World War II. WWII and the Cold War bring a number of critical things to the table for how UFO stories were built. Firstly, you have big governments. Big governments and big militaries. You look at the United States federal government in 1900 and it's not a big thing, it's not this monstrosity. By 1945, the U.S. government was a large bureaucracy with a big military. Secondly, what WWII taught everybody was that this institution can have secret programs that build remarkable technology, like the atomic bomb , as well as new kinds of airplanes such as jets. And of course, both conflicts also have a lot of spying. So when the UFO phenomenon emerges, the initial thought of just about everybody is that it has to be one of these superpowers. This has to be somebody doing surveillance. That's also a lot of the ways it's still spoken about today: Who's doing this? Who's keeping it a secret? What are their intentions? And could it harm us? So it's very much a part of it, and it haunts the story of UFOs for decades. BT: There are also interesting preludes to the Kenneth Arnold moment in 1947. One thing that flashes to mind is Orson Welles' 1938 radio broadcast of the "War of The Worlds ," which caused a mass panic that aliens were actually invading. Why did flying saucers take off in 1947 and not earlier? GE: I think the game changer is the atomic bomb. That something could be invented that we had no idea about, that is just presented to the world, and has this enormous destructive power that could wipe out all of humanity almost in an instant. When you ask why now, some people will respond that alien visitors have always been here and we're just noticing them now. But the argument that's usually presented is that it's probably because they [the aliens] saw us explode atomic bombs. This makes us capable of being conversed with, or a possible threat down the road. BT: There's an appeal to a higher power in it too, right? In a time when religion is falling by the wayside, after all the horrors of the past century, people were looking for something that could save us from ourselves. GE: There are certainly people who believe exactly that. The figure who lays all of this out is the psychologist Carl Jung. In the late 1950s, he wrote one of the first, and still one of the best, scholarly books on the topic . It makes this argument that, real or not, what they [UFOs] represent to people is this idea of salvation from something, at least that's the hope. By the early 1950s you see the beginning of UFO religious communities, almost all of them tied to the New Age Movement. BT: Everything you've said so far makes this seem like a firmly mid-20th century American phenomenon. I confess to having been partial to the History Channel's "Ancient Aliens" back in the day. Do sightings stretch across cultures and into the past, as they claimed? Or is that a post-hoc narrative? GE: This is a question that people debate pretty vigorously. There's no question that people reported seeing strange things in the sky dating back to ancient times. The most famous example is probably meteorites. For a long time the idea that rocks could fall from the sky seemed patently absurd, until people found out the reason is because there are a lot of rocks in space. The problem with going backward in time and retrospectively looking at stuff and saying: "Aha! Here's another example of a UFO," is that it's deeply, deeply problematic from a historical standpoint. Most of the time it involves an unintentional, and sometimes outright deliberate misreading of documents, artifacts or paintings. I've seen very good art historians, for instance, talk about paintings and say: "Oh my gosh, these things are clearly flying saucers!" When the objects they're referring to are objects in a particular religious ritual. or serve as a very symbolic trope. So it's very, very difficult to do that stuff [accurately]. BT: This touches on the methodology in your book. You take an agnostic approach: You don't take reports at face value, but neither do you dismiss them out of hand. How does one go about impartially assessing a UFO report? That's going to seem like a weird concept to people. GE: Yeah it is strange to people, and I know a lot of people who still don't like that I do that. For me, as a historian, it's partly the idea that I don't feel qualified to adjudicate some of these matters. I think some of these things have to be done by a meteorologist, a physicist, an astronomer or an engineer — someone who is far better qualified than I am to say what's possible and what's anomalous. But the other part is that this is the way I get to the things that most interest me, which are human beings. I say in the introduction of the book that UFOs don't make history, people make UFOs make history. That really is the main point; it's that I'm interested in the human part of that history. As far as we know today, UFOs don't have a natural history, they have a human history. Everything about them is related to our perception of them, our speculations and our discussions about them. The social fact of the UFO is very real, and it needs to be chronicled now. Whether these things also have a natural history I'm going to leave up to the researchers who do that stuff for a living. BT: When you work through these reports, I'm sure some of them on their surface are obviously bogus. But others come from people, pilots for instance, who have no interest in UFOs and are speaking out at significant personal and professional cost. Have you come across any real headscratchers? GE: Yeah a lot of them can be, or at least certain elements of them. Back in the 1950s, there was one case that the U.S. Air Force looked into that really set them back on their heels. These two seasoned civilian pilots for Eastern Airlines, reasonable fellows, who saw this very strange object during a flight, they could even make out details from it and it was like nothing they'd seen before. That's eerie and strange. They didn't have any explanation for it and certainly had no call to make it up — they weren't seeking fame and that wasn't a time you could make any money off this stuff. Then there's the case of Lonnie Zamora in the 1960s, he was a police officer in the American Southwest who stopped his vehicle because he thought he saw a crashed car. He sees this strange object with people in a kind of white uniform working around it. Then they flit off in it. By everybody's assessment at the time, he was a mild mannered guy, very cool headed and with absolutely no interest in publicity. He comes across as very sheepish in the radio interviews. That's another case where you sit there and think it's hard not to believe he saw something. Then you try to come up with explanations for what the possibilities could be. BT: How do the reports evolve over time? Do they change as the culture surrounding them comes into sharper focus? GE: Some things don't change that much. The overwhelming number of them are seeing patterns of lights, orbs or spheres of some kind that move in a strange way then whoosh away with no sound . That remains relatively unchanged from the beginning. But people also see cigar shaped things or triangles. A lot of these things are common across the world. What has changed more dramatically over the years and over different areas, has been the description of the occupants of these vessels, the aliens themselves. Early on in the 1950s and 1960s, a very common thing would have been to talk about seeing what appeared to be robots — looking like the Tin Man from the "Wizard of Oz." We don't tend to see robots anymore. Another very common thing during the 1950s and 1960s were what were dubbed, "little men." They weren't really described as green but little and usually gendered male for some reason. They typically stood at about 4 feet [1.2 meters], and in places like Malaysia, they were under 6 inches [15 centimeters] tall. Another very common thing in their descriptions was they were wearing old divers suits. Then you get to the 1970s and 1980s, and there's a veritable zoo of creatures: things that look like insects; in South America and [in] the Soviet Union big hairy creatures that look like a Bigfoot or a Sasquatch are particularly common. The one we have come to know as "the gray" is not all that common until the publication of Whitley Strieber's "Communion" book in 1987, from that point the idea of what an alien looks like really crystallized. BT: That's got to be one of the things debunkers point to: the fact that the culture is shaping what people see makes it easier to call it a mass delusion. GE: Yeah, the debunkers look at it and do that. What debunkers would like to do is to get even more concrete than that and say why somebody would see something at a particular time. They say there was a television show two weeks before someone's sighting. Then the person comes back and says I never watched it, and they go back and forth. I firmly believe that the media of all sorts plays a formative role shaping the way people think, talk about and even see things. But from my standpoint, this is where I might deviate from the debunkers. I don't think that simply explains things away. It just means that people are human beings, they are doing what we always do. When something happens to us that is really bizarre or unexplainable, it's not a surprise that what we tend to do is turn to analogies and to metaphors. It helps us to say, "Well, this was a little like this." BT: These debates persist up to the present day, but things have changed a lot too. We're sitting at the tail end of our own UFO — or should I say UAP — wave. And this time, after U.S. Navy footage of mysterious flying objects was released in 2017, we've seen a very different reaction from officials. There have been Senate hearings , task forces set up, and NASA has even been roped in . What happened? Is it because everyone in the U.S. government now also grew up on UFO lore? GE: A number of things have changed that have led to this becoming something seen as legitimate to ask questions about, and considered, even in academic circles, to be respectable to discuss. One thing is the reality of new surveillance and sensors to detect surveillance. In the United States, China and Russia there is an awareness of those technologies and, of course, a Keeping up with the Joneses attitude about them. The proliferation of drones is one thing. Drones are everywhere now. I was speaking to a Swedish ufologist a few years ago and he said that the number of sightings that involve drones has skyrocketed. On the extraterrestrial dimension, since the late 1990s astronomers have found out that exoplanets are pretty ubiquitous. That introduces the idea that planets are really all over the place, and that habitable planets are really pretty likely. I think that's made it easier to conceive of these things as possible. I've heard debunkers say they believe it's probable that there are extraterrestrial civilizations out there, they just don't think they're visiting us. You also have people who are actively involved in lobbying people to take this seriously. There's Robert Bigelow, the billionaire, who's funneled a lot of money into this cause. Lobbyists now have the ear of certain politicians in America who see this as a valuable issue to them in some ways. I think you have to always be a little cynical about politicians — they tend to be very pragmatic, and the fact that they come to this subject doesn't necessarily mean they're interested in UFOs, but in other things they can achieve. BT: What are politicians trying to achieve by embracing it? GE: I could conceive of them using this as a way to say they're going to keep money away from the military because they're not being honest brokers about this. The number one thing I keep hearing over and over again, from people on these committees and those who are maybe less interested, is spending and classification. U.S. military secrecy has been a big priority since at least WWII, certainly since the Manhattan Project, and it's only increased over the years. Then 9/11 really doubled, tripled down on that. This makes the UFO/UAP thing a great example for all these folks to say, "We've got all these whistleblowers saying all this stuff is going on. We haven't heard anything about it. You're keeping this from us. It's all supposedly classified. So we want in." BT: One of the frustrating things about covering these questions is that you get task forces that are essentially military task forces. People come out to say all kinds of spooky stuff , and when they're probed further they say we'll tell you the rest behind closed doors, and no we won't allow scientists into the bases where we saw this. Now that NASA 's involved, do you have more faith for civilian science projects to get to the bottom of things? GE: Yeah, spot on. I agree with you completely. It's why I always tell people that, personally, I don't think these military intelligence branches will be key to addressing these questions. I don't think you're ever going to get it from them. I'm also not someone who believes in full transparency, sometimes it's important to keep secrets. NASA's endorsement of research in this area is unprecedented, and I think it's very welcome. I know a lot of scientists who have started to try to conduct research along these lines. The problem we have is it has not translated into funding yet. A lot of the current efforts are on shoestring budgets and it's unclear whether that money is ever going to be forthcoming. So far, at least in the United States, it has not been. But there is a hope among a lot of researchers that that will change, because the climate has changed. Civilian scientists and researchers are going to be the key, because we operate in a world of transparency, with an openness that contractors and government don't have. BT: Do you think we'll ever get a solid answer? GE: I suspect we will be revisiting and speculating over this for a good long time to come. The world's been at this for over 75 years, and the most seasoned ufology veterans will tell you that not a lot has changed. If there is an opportunity for serious, empirically driven researchers to get involved, maybe then we'll actually start to see some real progress. But until that time, it seems to me we're still stuck in a cycle where we largely rely on hearsay and references to evidence that never turns up. Or, as you say, people saying I've got some information, but I can only tell you behind closed doors. That just leaves us with the mystery, which I know some people are satisfied with. Editors note: This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. After the Flying Saucers Came: A Global History of the UFO Phenomenon $15.99 on Amazon If you enjoyed this interview with Greg Eghigian, you can read more about the history of UFO sightings in his new book, "After the Flying Saucers Came." It's a fascinating account of the global cultural phenomenon.
NoneCarmel Sepuloni says coalition Government needs a ‘kuia’ at Christchurch Labour conference
The Latest: Police believe gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare CEO has left New York CityWelcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk , an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail. In today’s edition, national political reporter Bridget Bowman and senior congressional reporter Scott Wong examine the House GOP's math problem after the final race call of the 2024 elections. Plus, we dive into the latest with Pete Hegseth's embattled bid to lead the Defense Department. Sign up to receive this newsletter in your inbox every weekday here. Democrats flip final House seat of the 2024 elections, narrowing Republicans’ majority By Bridget Bowman and Scott Wong The final race Washington was waiting on from last month’s election has officially been called: NBC News projected Wednesday morning that Democrat Adam Gray defeated GOP Rep. John Duarte in California’s 13th District after weeks of ballot counting. The result means Republicans will control 220 seats to Democrats’ 215 next year. That will leave Republicans with even less margin for error as they try to advance President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda, as they can lose only two votes on legislation if Democrats are united in opposition. Further complicating the math for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is the fact that Trump has chosen two sitting GOP members for his Cabinet: Elise Stefanik of New York to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and Mike Waltz of Florida to be national security adviser. And Republicans are already going to be down a lawmaker in the new Congress. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., resigned from the House last month after Trump selected him to be the next attorney general. But Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration amid allegations of sexual misconduct. He has said he does not plan to join the next Congress even though he won re-election in November. If the Stefanik and Waltz resignations happen simultaneously, Johnson could be operating with just a one-seat majority: 217 to 215. The special general elections in Florida to replace Gaetz and Waltz won’t take place until April 1. Once Stefanik resigns from Congress, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul has 10 days to declare a special election in New York, which must occur 70 to 80 days after the proclamation, according to state law . Read more → Pete Hegseth, Trump’s embattled defense pick, vows to fight on By Scott Wong, Frank Thorp V and Rebecca Shabad Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s embattled pick for defense secretary, brushed aside suggestions Wednesday that he would drop out and said he had spoken to Trump, who he said urged him to “keep going, keep fighting.” “I spoke to the president-elect this morning. He said: ‘Keep going, keep fighting. I’m behind you all the way.’” Hegseth told CBS News in the Capitol. “Why would I back down? I’ve always been a fighter. I’m here for the fighters. This is personal and passionate for me.” But his nomination appeared to be in serious jeopardy Tuesday and Wednesday after a series of news reports raised more questions about his treatment of women and his history with alcohol. On Wednesday, Hegseth’s mother, Penelope Hegseth, defended her son on “Fox and Friends” and addressed a 2018 email she wrote amid his divorce that accused him of mistreating women for years. The New York Times published details of the email last week. Hegseth showed no signs of calling it quits, holding a flurry of meetings with lawmakers on both sides of the Capitol and engaging in a media blitz to salvage his nomination, including writing an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal titled: “I’ve Faced Fire Before. I Won’t Back Down.” In response to the allegations, Hegseth referred reporters to an interview he recorded on former Fox News host Megyn Kelly’s SiriusXM show earlier in the day, in which he said he does not have a drinking problem and denied that he raped a woman in Monterey, California, in 2017. “Absolutely not. Absolutely not,” he said when he was asked whether he raped the woman. “I’ve been honest about that encounter, starting with law enforcement. ... I may have been drinking, but I was cognizant of enough to remember every single detail. “I’m not here to say that my conduct was good,” he continued. “Being in a hotel room with someone that’s, you know, not the person you’re with is not OK. I own up to that.” Hegseth also said he is “not going to have a drink at all” if he is confirmed as defense secretary, saying he wants Trump, senators and U.S. troops to know that he can be called 24/7 and will be “fully dialed in.” NBC News reported Wednesday morning that Trump is considering replacing Hegseth amid the opposition to his nomination. Others Trump could tap to lead the Pentagon, sources familiar with the decision-making said, are Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa; Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn.; and Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., his current pick for national security adviser. Read more → The Trumpification of Joe Biden By Chuck Todd President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter has earned plenty of criticism — and most of it, even the harsh partisan-tinged kind of criticism, has real merit. There’s no defense of the pardon beyond this one: He’s a father, and what parents wouldn’t use whatever power they had to help their children in crisis? I’m not going to pretend that, facing a similar circumstance, I wouldn’t have made the same decision — do whatever it takes to protect my child even if it means destroying my own legacy. That is what makes criticism of Biden’s decision complicated. There’s a human element to this that’s tragic on so many levels. It truly does meet the definition of “Shakespearean,” an overused description in today’s world that nevertheless is a perfect fit for this event. Now, the question is: How much damage has Biden done under the auspices of protecting his son? Presidential acts are permission slips. Once a president has done something unprecedented, it means there’s a precedent. And once one president tries something and gets away with it, I promise you, a future one will try something similar. Well, welcome to a new precedent. The president has now overturned a jury of fellow American citizens, not some kangaroo court, who convicted his son. And he cleared him of not just the charges he has faced, but also of any future charges he could face from anything he may have done over a 10-year period from 2014 (when Hunter first tried to do business in Ukraine) to now. Who knows whether Donald Trump grants pardons before he leaves office that read almost identical to the Hunter Biden pardon — but that he makes the dates to June 15, 2015 (the day he rode down the escalator), to Jan. 20, 2029, his last day in office? Whatever the chances are, they have surely gone up. More importantly, Biden has now borrowed Trump’s rhetoric to describe what he views as Hunter’s experience with the justice system. What kind of precedent will we have set if both parties accept the premise that whoever’s elected is going to politically prosecute his or her opponents? It’s part of Biden’s rationale for the pardon. And it will surely be Trump’s rationale for future pardons. What’s the general public supposed to think of the justice system now? The leading Republican in the country (Trump) and the leading Democrat in the country (Biden) have both claimed the system is unjust because of politics. Read more from Chuck → ⚖️ Related read: The judge who presided over the California tax fraud case against Hunter Biden called out the president for mischaracterizing and minimizing the charges against his son in announcing why he was pardoning him. Read more → That’s all from the Politics Desk for now. If you have feedback — likes or dislikes — email us at politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com And if you’re a fan, please share with everyone and anyone. They can sign up here .
The gunman who stalked and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fled New York City by bus, police officials told CNN on Friday. Video of the suspected shooter leaving the scene of the shooting Wednesday showed him riding a bicycle to Central Park and later taking a taxi cab to a bus depot, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told CNN. Here's the latest: The gunman who killed the CEO of the largest U.S. health insurer may have fled the city on a bus, New York City police officials told CNN on Friday. Video of the suspected shooter leaving the scene of the shooting Wednesday showed him riding a bicycle to Central Park and later taking a taxi cab to a bus depot, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told CNN. “We have reason to believe that the person in question has left New York City,” Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. The gunman who killed the CEO of the largest U.S. health insurer made sure to wear a mask during the shooting yet left a trail of evidence in view of the nation’s biggest city and its network of security cameras that have aided authorities piecing together his movements and his identity. A law enforcement official said Friday that new surveillance footage shows the suspect riding the subway and visiting establishments in Manhattan and provided more clues about his actions in the days before he ambushed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson . The gunman’s whereabouts and identity remain unknown Friday, as did the reason for Wednesday’s killing. New York City police say evidence firmly points to it being a targeted attack . ▶ Read more about the search for the gunman In many companies, investor meetings like the one UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was walking to when he was fatally shot are viewed as very risky because details on the location and who will be speaking are highly publicized. “It gives people an opportunity to arrive well in advance and take a look at the room, take a look at how people would probably come and go out of a location,” said Dave Komendat, president of DSKomendat Risk Management Services, which is based in the greater Seattle area. Some firms respond by beefing up security. For example, tech companies routinely require everyone attending a major event, such as Apple’s annual unveiling of the next iPhone or a shareholder meeting, to go through airport-style security checkpoints before entering. Others forgo in-person meetings with shareholders. ▶ Read more about how companies protect their leaders Those images include New York’s subway system, a law enforcement official said. In establishments where the person was captured on camera, he always appeared to pay with cash, the official said. The official wasn’t authorized to discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. — Mike Balsamo Medica, a Minnesota-based nonprofit health care firm that serves 1.5 million customers in 12 states, said it’s temporarily closing all six locations. The firm has offices in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska and North Dakota, and employs about 3,000 people. Employees will work from home, Medica spokesman Greg Bury said in an email Friday. “The safety of Medica employees is our top priority and we have increased security both for all of our employees,” a statement from Medica said. “Although we have received no specific threats related to our campuses, our office buildings will be temporarily closed out of an abundance of caution.” Bury also said biographical information on the company’s executives was taken down from its website as a precaution. The insurer cited the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in its announcement about the Dec. 12 event. “All of us at Centene are deeply saddened by Brian Thompson’s death and want to express our support for all of those affected. Health insurance is a big industry and a small community; many members of the CenTeam crossed paths with Brian during their careers,” Centene CEO Sarah M. London said in a news release. “He was a person with a deep sense of empathy and clear passion for improving access to care. Our hearts are with his family and his colleagues during this difficult time.” Centene Corp. has grown in recent years to become the largest insurer in Medicaid, the state- and federally funded program that covers care for people with low incomes. Insurers manage Medicaid coverage for states, and Centene has more than 13 million people enrolled in that coverage. The insurance company also said it’s focused on ensuring the safety of employees and assisting investigators. “While our hearts are broken, we have been touched by the huge outpouring of kindness and support in the hours since this horrific crime took place,” the company said. But he said Friday that he’s confident police will arrest the shooter. “We are on the right road to apprehend him and bring him to justice,” Adams said on TV station WPIX. Later, it removed their names and biographies entirely. Police and federal agents have been collecting information from Greyhound in an attempt to identify the suspect and are working to determine whether he purchased the ticket to New York in late November, a law enforcement official said. Investigators were also trying to obtain additional information from a cellphone recovered from a pedestrian plaza through which the shooter fled. The fatal shooting of Brian Thompson while walking alone on a New York City sidewalk has put a spotlight on the widely varied approaches companies take to protect their leaders against threats. Experts say today’s political, economic and technological climate is only going to make the job of evaluating threats against executives and taking action to protect them even more difficult, experts say. Some organizations have a protective intelligence group that uses digital tools such as machine learning or artificial intelligence to comb through online comments to detect threats not only on social media platforms such as X but also on the dark web, says Komendat. They look for what’s being said about the company, its employees and its leadership to uncover risks. ▶ Read more about the steps companies take to protect their leadership Police said Thursday they found a water bottle and protein bar wrapper from a trash can near the scene of the ambush and think the suspect bought them from a Starbucks minutes before the shooting. The items were being tested by the city’s medical examiner.
Fears for Gaza hospitals as fuel and aid run low
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court seemed likely Wednesday to uphold Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for minors. The justices' decision, not expected for several months, could affect similar laws enacted by another 25 states and a range of other efforts to regulate the lives of transgender people, including which sports competitions they can join and which restrooms they can use. The case is being weighed by a conservative-dominated court after a presidential election in which Donald Trump and his allies promised to roll back protections for transgender people. The Biden administration's top Supreme Court lawyer warned a decision favorable to Tennessee also could be used to justify nationwide restrictions on transgender health care for minors. Supporters of transgender rights rally Wednesday outside the Supreme Court in Washington. In arguments that lasted more than two hours, five of the six conservative justices voiced varying degrees of skepticism over arguments made by the administration and Chase Strangio, the ACLU lawyer for Tennessee families challenging the ban. Chief Justice John Roberts, who voted in the majority in a 2020 case in favor of transgender rights, questioned whether judges, rather than lawmakers, should weigh in on a question of regulating medical procedures, an area usually left to the states. "The Constitution leaves that question to the people's representatives, rather than to nine people, none of whom is a doctor," Roberts said in an exchange with Strangio. Justice Neil Gorsuch, who wrote the majority opinion in 2020, said nothing during the arguments. The court's three liberal justices seemed firmly on the side of the challengers, but it's not clear that any conservatives will go along. People attend a rally March 31, 2023, as part of a Transgender Day of Visibility, near the Capitol in Washington. Justice Sonia Sotomayor pushed back against the assertion that the democratic process would be the best way to address objections to the law. She cited a history of laws discriminating against others, noting that transgender people make up less than 1% of the U.S. population, according to studies. There are an estimated 1.3 million adults and 300,000 adolescents ages 13 to 17 who identify as transgender, according the UCLA law school's Williams Institute. "Blacks were a much larger part of the population and it didn't protect them. It didn't protect women for whole centuries," Sotomayor said in an exchange with Tennessee Solicitor General Matt Rice. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said she saw some troubling parallels between arguments made by Tennessee and those advanced by Virginia and rejected by a unanimous court, in the 1967 Loving decision that legalized interracial marriage nationwide. Quoting from that decision, Jackson noted that Virginia argued then that "the scientific evidence is substantially in doubt and, consequently, the court should defer to the wisdom of the state legislature." ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio, left, and plaintiff Joaquin Carcano address reporters after a June 25, 2018, hearing in Winston-Salem, N.C., on their lawsuit challenging the law that replaced North Carolina's "bathroom bill." Justice Samuel Alito repeatedly pressed Strangio, the first openly transgender lawyer to argue at the nation's highest court, about whether transgender people should be legally designated as a group that's susceptible to discrimination. Strangio answered that being transgender does fit that legal definition, though he acknowledged under Alito's questioning there are a small number of people who de-transition. "So it's not an immutable characteristic, is it?" Alito said. Strangio did not retreat from his view, though he said the court did not have to decide the issue to resolve the case in his clients' favor. There were dueling rallies outside the court in the hours before the arguments. Speeches and music filled the air on the sidewalk below the court's marble steps. Advocates of the ban bore signs like "Champion God's Design" and "Kids Health Matters," while the other side proclaimed "Fight like a Mother for Trans Rights" and "Freedom to be Ourselves." Four years ago, the court ruled in favor of Aimee Stephens, who was fired by a Michigan funeral home after she informed its owner she was a transgender woman. The court held that transgender people, as well as gay and lesbian people, are protected by a landmark federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in the workplace. The Biden administration and the families and health care providers who challenged the Tennessee law urged the justices to apply the same sort of analysis that the majority, made up of liberal and conservative justices, embraced in the case four years ago when it found that "sex plays an unmistakable role" in employers' decisions to punish transgender people for traits and behavior they otherwise tolerate. Demonstrators against transgender rights protest Wednesday during a rally outside of the Supreme Court in Washington. The issue in the Tennessee case is whether the law violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, which requires the government to treat similarly situated people the same. Tennessee's law bans puberty blockers and hormone treatments for transgender minors, but allows the same drugs to be used for other purposes. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the administration's top Supreme Court lawyer, called the law sex-based line drawing to ban the use of drugs that have been safely prescribed for decades and said the state "decided to completely override the views of the patients, the parents, the doctors." She contrasted the Tennessee law with one enacted by West Virginia, which set conditions for the health care for transgender minors, but stopped short of an outright ban. Gender-affirming care for youth is supported by every major medical organization, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association. For many trans and nonbinary people, bathrooms can be complicated places to navigate — a fact highlighted by the death of 16-year-old Nex Benedict in Oklahoma. Oklahoma is far from an outlier when it comes to failing to provide safe and equitable bathrooms for transgender people. According to the Movement Advancement Project, which tracks LGBTQ+ policy, 13 states have a policy that prevents transgender people from safely or legally using public bathrooms. But data shows that even in states with trans-friendly policies, transgender and nonbinary people report high rates of harassment in public bathrooms. Advocates say everyday people can have a big impact in interrupting discrimination in gendered restrooms. The 19th shows how anyone can help prevent abuse. Sex-segregated restrooms have historically been a hostile space for Tat Bellamy-Walker, a Seattle-based journalist and Black gender-fluid trans person. In graduate school and at journalism internships, they had to go far out of their way to find all-gender single-stall restrooms they could use safely. "You never forget being told you don't belong in a restroom, you never forget not having a place to dispose of sanitary products if you're on your period in the men's bathroom," Bellamy-Walker said. "It's just clear you do not belong in public spaces." Allies can help tremendously by locating and pointing out gender-neutral bathrooms to friends or family who might need them. This is especially important for people planning events or parties. Make sure your space has safe bathrooms. Carrie Soto, a South Dakota parent of a transgender child, said she lives by the mantra "see something, say something." That means speaking up when there is bullying and harassment and volunteering to accompany a trans/nonbinary friend or family member when they have to head into a public bathroom. "Validate a trans person's fears and anxiety about the situation," Soto said. " If [my daughter] uses a gendered restroom and feels anxious, I go with." It may seem obvious, but transgender health advocate Jamison Green notes this step can really help trans people feel safe. Consider first that according to 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey , 59 percent of trans people avoided using a public restroom due to fear of harassment. Data from 2022 found that 6 percent of trans people said they were physically or verbally attacked while trying to use a bathroom, while 4 percent were denied access to a bathroom. "If you see someone who you clock as trans or nonbinary, just smile or pay them a non-provocative compliment. ... Wish them good day or good evening, and move on," Green said. "Of course that only goes for the women's room! In the men's room, talking is extremely rare." Green recommends that cisgender people offer a kind, silent nod. Twenty-two states and Washington, D.C., allow residents to opt for "X" gender markers on their IDs in addition to selecting "M" or "F." Still, in every state, regardless of laws, most bathrooms in government buildings, schools, businesses, places of worship and cultural institutions are gendered. Advocates say people can help change this by simply asking businesses and building owners for more options to accommodate all genders. "Advocacy is the most important part of the fight for transgender rights," Lambda Legal notes in its guide to restrooms. "And if employers adopt pro-trans policies proactively, instead of waiting for a transgender person to pave the way, there's much less chance of having problems down the line." The internet is full of rants not appropriate for a news article about people using the only single-stall gender-neutral bathrooms available not for safety but for ... well, pooping. As a result, gender-neutral bathrooms, especially in airports, are almost always occupied. There are many reasons why a cisgender person might need a single-occupancy bathroom (accessibility, illness, child care and, yes, even a little more privacy). Just like accessible stalls, it's a kindness to leave gender-neutral restrooms unoccupied when you don't need them. Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox!Eagles’ Jalen Hurts claims beef with A.J. Brown was made up: ‘BG knows he spoke out of place’Erdogan: The march of the “armed factions” towards Damascus continuesClara Strack and Georgia Amoore each scored 21 points on Saturday to help No. 16 Kentucky beat visiting Western Kentucky 88-70 in Lexington. Teonni Key netted 15 points, Amelia Hassett paired nine points with 12 rebounds and Saniah Tyler scored 11 off the bench for the Wildcats (11-1), who won their fourth straight game. The Lady Toppers (9-3) got 18 points from Alexis Mead, 14 from Acacia Hayes, 11 from Destiny Salary and 10 from Josie Gilvin. Western Kentucky has lost three of five following a 7-0 start. Kentucky used a 9-0 run in the second quarter to take a double-digit lead that it held for the rest of the game. Strack bookended the surge with a layup and a 3-pointer that pushed the hosts ahead 36-22 with 1:01 remaining in the first half. The Wildcats' lead peaked at 23 points after Amoore scored five straight late in the fourth quarter to make it 88-65. Saturday marked the final nonconference game for both teams this season. Kentucky hosts Mississippi State to begin Southeastern Conference play on Thursday, while Western Kentucky starts its Conference USA slate by hosting Liberty the same night. --Field Level Media
Shocking moment van ploughs through front of house then crashes into multiple cars
Luigi Mangione, 26, was charged with murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Following his arrest, various claims about him circulated online, including speculation about an online manifesto that allegedly explained his motive for the killing. The post, attributed to "LM" on the blog site Substack, is titled “The Allopathic Complex and Its Consequences" and has been shared in various social media posts crediting Mangione as the author. This is allegedly Luigi Mangione’s manifesto. pic.twitter.com/uOFsGA6Nki VERIFY reader Tony texted us asking if the manifesto published to Substack is real. THE QUESTION Is the viral online post on Substack appearing to be written by Luigi Mangione real? THE SOURCES THE ANSWER No, the viral online post published to Substack appearing to be written by Luigi Mangione isn’t real. WHAT WE FOUND Luigi Mangione had a three-page document with him when he was arrested that police say speaks to his alleged motive at the time of the killing, but claims the manifesto posted online was authored by Mangione are false. VERIFY analyzed excerpts of the handwritten document and found it doesn't match any of the language in the fake online manifesto. Substack also said it removed the account because it violates the platform’s content guidelines, “which prohibit impersonation.” During a Dec. 9 press conference , New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the handwritten document Mangione had on his person when arrested “speaks to both his motivation and mindset.” When asked if the handwritten document was posted online, the New York Police Department’s Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said, “Don’t know if it's online. As of right now, it's a handwritten three-page document.” While police haven’t publicly released the handwritten document, excerpts have been reported by various news outlets such as the Associated Press , The New York Times and CBS . According to these reports, the document was either independently reviewed or described to reporters by sources close to the investigation. The New York Times summarized the excerpts they reviewed, saying the handwritten document called Thompson’s killing a “symbolic takedown” of the healthcare industry and also referenced corruption and “power games.” CBS reported Mangione criticized the disparity between U.S. healthcare costs and life expectancy rates. We compared the quoted excerpts from the reports to the Substack manifesto posted online and found none of the language from the handwritten document appears in the manifesto. The fake manifesto also lacks any reference to healthcare costs or life expectancy rates. Substack didn’t provide details on when the account was removed from the platform, but VERIFY was able to use archived pages captured on The Wayback Machine to determine the account was likely created while Mangione was in police custody. The Wayback Machine allows users to view and access snapshots, or screenshots, of websites. This screenshot archive from The Wayback Machine of the Substack account attributed to Mangione was captured at 9:43 p.m. ET on Dec. 9. Text on the Substack page archived indicates it was created about two hours earlier, during the time Mangione would have been in custody. At around 1:45 p.m. on Dec. 9 , the NYPD announced Mangione had been arrested as a person of interest in Thompson’s murder. He was arraigned on Dec. 9 around 6:30 p.m., according to court records. The VERIFY team works to separate fact from fiction so that you can understand what is true and false. Please consider subscribing to our daily newsletter , text alerts and our YouTube channel . You can also follow us on Snapchat , Instagram , Facebook and TikTok . Learn More » Follow Us Want something VERIFIED? Text: 202-410-8808
Notre Dame vs. USC score: Live game updates, college football scores, NCAA top 25 highlights today - CBS Sports‘World at dawn of third nuclear age’, armed forces chief warns