The government has begun a political purge to rid the Israel Defense Forces of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's
Kalypso Media announced its plans to back in 2018, and by 2023, it had a . With Claymore Game Studios at the helm, the real-time tactics experience was returning with the name , bringing back the original squad and modernized gameplay for current-gen platforms. However, its original 2024 launch window is no longer attached to it. Announced today, is now coming in March, 2025. "Your thoughtful feedback during the Playtests and Demo of has helped us immensely and we are getting ready to tackle many of your points, including performance optimization, AI behaviour, and voice-overs, just to name a few," the studio explains in an update post. "We know you have all been patiently waiting to embark on new missions, but we believe this is the best decision for the game, the team and for YOU, the players." While thanking players for its feedback, the studio also into what exactly it's doing to make sure the game is ready for launch next year. Below are the nine highlighted areas that received the most feedback, and how those elements are being improved upon by the developer: is now coming out on PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4 in March, 2025. It will also be available day-one across Xbox and PC Game Pass subscription services of Microsoft.The Calgary Board of Education said overall attendance rates are up across the board, which the district said is a key predictor of learning excellence. According to the CBE’s Annual Education Results Report (AERR), students were absent 11.7 per cent of the time in the 2023-2024 school year. This is 0.7 percentage points lower than the 2022-2023 school year, which saw 12.4 per cent absenteeism. Students who are English As Additional Language Learners (EALs) were absent around 11.4 per cent of the time in the 2023-2024 school year, while those with special education needs were absent 15.6 per cent of the time. Mike Nelson, a superintendent of school improvement, said the overall improvement in attendance rates indicates that current processes for addressing student absenteeism are providing positive outcomes. According to the AERR, the CBE’s Attendance Team supported 174 schools with 658 students experiencing attendance concerns, the report said. Less than 10 per cent of students who were consulted needed additional intervention through the Provincial Attendance Board. Nelson also said that the improvement is a key indicator of learning excellence at the CBE. According to the National Center for Education Statistics in the U.S. students who attend school regularly have been shown to achieve at higher levels compared with peers who chronically miss school. Kindergartners who constantly miss school were associated with greater absenteeism in subsequent years and lower achievement in reading math and general knowledge. Children with higher levels of absenteeism throughout their childhood also have higher high school dropout rates. A 2023 study published in Frontiers In Education also suggests that chronic absenteeism is associated with deficits in academic and social-emotional functioning and the effects can last several years. “We, of course, will continue monitoring attendance data and collaboration with students, parents, community partners, and this will help build to the success,” he told trustees at a Nov. 26 board meeting. However, Grade 10 to 12 students continued to see the highest rates of absenteeism. More than six per cent of these students were missing more than half of their high school classes, and many were absent for reasons that aren’t clear because the school didn’t receive contact from legal guardians. Grades 1 to 3 and Grades 4 to 6 students tend to miss less school than Grade 7 to 9 and Grade 10 to 12 students, the report added. Jennifer Turner, another superintendent of school improvement, said the district will continue to work with parents to drive home the importance of regular school attendance. “We know that we do have robust processes in our schools. They may work with our Attendance Team, but [mostly] through our assistant principals, guidance counselors and teachers,” she said. “If a student misses a certain number of days, [Attendance Team members] either connect with that independent student or their parent and if it continues, they use guidance counselors to try to leverage those relationships to improve attendance.” Turner also noted that students with identified special education needs are often absent from school due to medical appointments, treatment and therapy outside of the school environment. Staff are working with families to better understand the reason for the absence and the duration of the absence, as well as making plans to ensure that the student can keep up with school work during their absence. “We are not aware of any legal concerns as a result of [the absence] not being identified, although school staff do take a consistent relational approach with those families to ensure that we are understanding and finding ways to pull them back prior to moving forward through the more formalized attendance process,” she added.Lululemon Athletica Inc.'s chief executive is confident his company is well on its way to addressing some of the concerns customers and analysts had earlier in the year about a lack of newness in the brand's product assortment. After reorganizing the retailer's product team and introducing a new reporting structure, Calvin McDonald said Lululemon is on track to reach historical levels of newness by the first quarter of its fiscal 2025. "I feel good about the quality and quantity of newness the teams have planned and I believe we are well positioned for spring," he said on a Thursday call with analysts. Newness — how fresh a brand's products and styles appear to consumers — is one of the key ways retailers draw in customers. To give the impression of newness, apparel companies often experiment with colours, prints, patterns and silhouettes. Some also partner with celebrities or other brands to launch product lines that attract shoppers. Lululemon's efforts to boost newness have so far focused on new detailing applied to some of its Define jackets and the release of its velvet Scuba hoodies, satin running tights and shorts and waffle knit apparel. "The guest is responding very well to that," McDonald said. In August, he conceded that Lululemon's womenswear division had struggled with “reduced newness,” which impacted conversion rates — typically the percentage of people who visit a store and make a purchase before leaving. Lululemon's product assortment this year has focused largely on its staples — yoga pants, scuba hoodies and sports bras — while the company also saw continued success with its belt bags. However, there were some missteps. When Lululemon outfitted Team Canada at the Olympic Games in Paris, the uniform was criticized for resembling uncooked bacon or looking like it had been blood-spattered. Lululemon also paused sales of its Breezethrough product line of tights and other activewear in June. Many of the line’s pieces featured a long V-shaped waistband in the front and Y-shaped seam in the back that some consumers complained was unattractive and produced a “whale tail” look. Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said in a note to investors that he feels many of the newness issues "have largely been corrected." "Across the third quarter the women’s range felt fresh and interesting and there was more than enough to grab the attention of shoppers," he said, adding it had improved the company's conversation rate and average basket size, a measure of how much consumers spend. "In our view, Lululemon deserves praise for the quick course correction." Some of that correction was reflected in Lululemon's third-quarter results, which were released Thursday and showed the brand earned US$351.9 million in its latest quarter as its revenue rose nine per cent. The Vancouver-based retailer, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, said its third-quarter net income compared with US$248.7 million a year prior. Its diluted earnings per share for the period ended Oct. 27 amounted to US$2.87 compared with US$1.96. Lululemon's third-quarter revenue totalled US$2.4 billion, compared with US$2.2 billion a year ago. McDonald said the results "exceeded our expectations" and reflected strength the company has seen in its shorts, skirts and leggings in seasonal colours. Saunders felt it was a "solid quarter," in part because Lululemon's comparable sales increased by four per cent overall and its international revenue increased by "a stellar" 33 per cent in overall terms. McDonald said that the company will enter Italy next year using a company-owned model, but will also expand to Denmark, Belgium, Turkey and the Czech Republic under a franchise model. In the latest quarter, however, there was weakness in the Americas, where Lululemon's comparable sales fell by two per cent. "There is much more competition in the US market and our data clearly show that even relatively loyal Lululemon consumers are shopping around more widely," Saunders said. "This problem isn’t going to disappear over time, if anything it is going to intensify." Shoppers, he said, had become "more constrained and pickier" because of inflation and high interest rates. "While most Lululemon shoppers are far from being hard-pressed, they are still impacted by inflation and have modestly reduced the volume of things they buy," Saunders said. He felt Lululemon should respond by leaning into categories like menswear, which Lululemon has increasingly been expanding through new styles and even partnerships with NHL teams. In more recent months, the company also introduced a range of Disney apparel. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 5, 2024. Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press
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