api bookmaker
Elevate your roast potatoes to show-stopping status with this chef's secret. When it comes to the art of the perfect Christmas Dinner or a sublime Sunday roast, the spotlight often falls on the roast potatoes , hailed as the pièce de résistance of the feast. Amidst a myriad of personal hacks and tips that many swear by for golden, crispy perfection – from anointing them with different fats to a bold Marmite glaze before their oven pilgrimage – one culinary expert claims to hold the key to transforming the humble spud into an "epic" taste sensation. The Great British Menu champion and proprietor of Benedicts Restaurant in Norwich, Richard Bainbridge, has divulged to The Mirror his game-changing ingredient that promises to infuse your roasties with unparalleled flavour. His festive ritual? A generous dusting of crushed Chicken OXO stock cube over the potatoes and turkey prior to roasting , a move he swears elevates the taste to "epic" proportions. And for those looking to jazz up their starters, Bainbridge suggests a novel twist: crush frozen raspberries and sprinkle them atop a classic prawn cocktail. The pro offered insider knowledge to get you ready for the kitchen, sharing essential tips for organisation and preparation, not just for Christmas but any time you're hosting a grand dinner. His golden rule is to prep as many side dishes ahead of time as possible and pop them in the freezer; this includes pastry, cranberry sauce, mincemeat, and brandy butter, reports the Mirror. He highlighted: "When it comes to any large party or when you are required to cook for large numbers preparation is essential, for example, two weeks before Christmas you should start writing your to-do list and making any items you can in advance so that the day before and the morning of, the bulk of your preparation is complete and you can be calm and relaxed with a glass of Sherry in hand as no one likes to see a stressed chef." Bainbridge elaborated: "In the lead-up to Christmas homemade pastry is a store cupboard must. Make it in advance and it can be kept for up to three months in the freezer, perfect for those emergency canapés." Celebrity chef Tom Kerridge also suggests making mincemeat ahead of time, as well as Christmas cake, pudding and brandy butter, which he claims can be preserved for ages due to the high booze content. He said: "Mincemeat is another great store cupboard essential which can be made at the end of the summer... if you're that organised, while Christmas cake, Christmas pudding, and brandy butter are some of the greatest things about Christmas and as they contain so much booze the flavour can be preserved for ages." He added: "The brandy butter can be whipped up in a large batch and used all year round - my mum will still be finding uses for it next July."
The piece of technology sits unassumingly on top of the helmet of veteran quarterback Sam Darnold during most practices at TCO Performance Center. It allows the Vikings to capture footage in real time, providing a peek into the past for the man at the forefront of the future. “It’s super cool,” Darnold said. “It’s a really amazing tool to be able to use.” Though the Vikings are very much keeping the focus on this season with big goals in mind, they also have started laying the foundation for next season with the help of a GoPro camera. “This is the first time I’ve done anything like that,” Darnold said. “It doesn’t really feel like anything when it’s on my helmet.” That’s arguably the biggest part of its appeal. The fact that the GoPro camera weighs much less than a pound means it doesn’t interfere with anything the Vikings are trying to get done on a daily basis. It exists more or less as an accessory for Darnold at this point, taking video from his perspective whether he’s calling a play in the huddle, making a check at the line of scrimmage or scanning the field after the ball is snapped. That has been extremely useful for rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy as he continues to work his way through his recovery from a knee injury that ended his rookie campaign before it even got started. The ability to see everything through the eyes of Darnold has helped McCarthy train his brain even if he isn’t able to experience it firsthand. “The mental reps are of utmost importance,” McCarthy said a couple of months ago. “Just watching film from that perspective is really good.” This is the best option for the Vikings right now. Originally, after selecting McCarthy with the No. 10 pick in the 2024 draft, the Vikings hoped he would be able to get live reps himself this season. Instead, after McCarthy had surgery to repair a torn meniscus, the Vikings are doing everything in their power to make sure he’s ready for next season. That’s something head coach Kevin O’Connell has stressed whenever McCarthy’s name has been brought up. “We wanted to make sure we’re maximizing every moment for him,” O’Connell said. “We thought, ‘How do we make sure we’re doing the things that we need to do to ensure that he’s in the best possible position when he is healthy?'” The use of a GoPro camera is simply another resource the Vikings have at their disposal. “We’ve done a lot of different stuff that maybe we don’t do with a 10-year veteran quarterback,” O’Connell said. “Just to make sure that we’re farming an ideal learning environment for him to hit the ground running when he’s healthy.” As soon as the GoPro camera captures the footage from a particular practice, McCarthy can go back and watch it, getting a feel for what life is like in the huddle, at the line of scrimmage and after the ball is snapped. Sometimes the Vikings will even put it on in their war room, where there’s a gigantic screen that takes up an entire wall. That grandiose display is something offensive coordinator Wes Phillips appreciates because it makes it feel like McCarthy is inside the helmet. “It’s pretty cool to watch in there,” Phillips said. “It gives him a chance to see it a little bit more from that perspective.” Some of the other creative ways the Vikings have kept McCarthy on track include allowing him to be a part of the dialogue that goes on between O’Connell and Darnold during games. He was cleared to travel with the team for the first time last month, for example, so he was in attendance at SoFi Stadium when the Vikings suffered a 30-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. Just getting a glimpse of what it feels like in the heat of battle will go a long way for McCarthy as he continues to develop. “I’m really excited about having him with us,” O’Connell said. “Any and all areas we can find to maximize those chances, we’re going to use it.” All the while, McCarthy has also been attending meetings, asking questions to O’Connell, Phillips, quarterback coach Josh McCown, assistant quarterbacks coach Grant Udinski and anybody else he can find in their office at TCO Performance Center. “He’s great about saving some questions he has,” Phillips said. “He’ll do that off to the side, understanding that guys are getting ready for the game.” Though the Vikings would’ve loved for McCarthy to be able to learn everything firsthand as a rookie, they are making the most of their current situation, ensuring their young quarterback of the future is completely prepared heading into next season. “Obviously he wants more than anybody to be there physically,” Phillips said. “He’s doing everything he can to be ready when his time comes.”
Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen returns to a tournament after a dispute over jeans is resolvedManchester United Foundation to be targeted in Ratcliffe costs purge
The leader of Sinn Fein has expressed determination to form a government of the left in Ireland as she insisted her party’s performance in the General Election had broken the state’s political mould. Despite Mary Lou McDonald’s confidence around shaping a coalition without Fine Gael and Fianna Fail – the two parties that have dominated the landscape of Irish politics for a century – the pathway to government for Sinn Fein still appears challenging. With counting following Friday’s election still in the relatively early stages – after an exit poll that showed the main three parties effectively neck-and-neck – there is some way to go before the final picture emerges and the options for government formation crystalise. Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader, Simon Harris, has dismissed talk of a Sinn Fein surge and said he was “cautiously optimistic” about where his party will stand after all the votes are counted. Meanwhile, Ireland’s deputy premier and Fianna Fail leader, Micheal Martin, insisted his party has a “very clear route back to government” as he predicted seat gains. The counting process could last days because of Ireland’s complex system of proportional representation with a single transferable vote (PR-STV), where candidates are ranked by preference. The early indications have turned the focus to the tricky arithmetic of government formation, as the country’s several smaller parties and many independents potentially jockey for a place in government. Ms McDonald told reporters at the RDS count centre in Dublin that she would be “very, very actively pursuing” the potential to form a government with other parties on the left of the political spectrum. The smaller, left-leaning parties in Ireland include the Social Democrats, the Irish Labour Party, the Green Party and People Before Profit-Solidarity. Ms McDonald said her party had delivered an “incredible performance” in the election. “I think it’s fair to say that we have now confirmed that we have broken the political mould here in this state,” she said. “Two party politics is now gone. It’s consigned to the dustbin of history and that, in itself, is very significant.” She added: “I am looking to bring about a government of change, and I’m going to go and look at all formulations. “If you want my bottom line, the idea of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael for another five years, in our strong opinion, is not a good outcome for Irish society. “Obviously, I want to talk to other parties of the left and those that we share very significant policy objectives with. So I’m going to do that first and just hear their mind, hear their thinking. But be very clear, we will be very, very actively pursuing entrance into government.” In Friday night’s exit poll, Sinn Fein was predicted to take 21.1% of first-preference votes, narrowly ahead of outgoing coalition partners Fine Gael and Fianna Fail at 21% and 19.5% respectively. Prior to the election, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael both ruled out entering government with Sinn Fein. Fine Gael leader Mr Harris rejected suggestions Sinn Fein had broken new ground. He told reporters in his count centre in Greystones, Co Wicklow: “Certainly we haven’t seen a Sinn Fein surge or anything like it. “I mean, it looks likely, on the figures that we’ve seen now, fewer people, many fewer people would have voted Sinn Fein in this election than the last one. “In fact, I think they’re down by around 5% and actually the parties, particularly the two parties, the two larger parties in government, are likely to receive significant support from the electorate. So definitely, politics in Ireland has gotten much more fragmented.” He said it was too early to tell what the next government would look like. “I think anybody who makes any suggestion about who is going to be the largest party or the construct of the next government, they’re a braver person than I am,” he said. “Our electoral system dictates that there’ll be many, many transfers that will go on for hours, if not days, before we know the final computations at all. “But what I am very confident about is that my party will have a very significant role to play in the years ahead, and I’m cautiously optimistic and excited.” Fianna Fail’s Mr Martin told reporters at a count centre in Cork he was confident that the numbers exist to form a government with parties that shared his political viewpoint. Mr Martin said it “remains to be seen” whether he would return to the role of Taoiseach – a position he held between 2020 and 2022 – but he expressed confidence his party would outperform the exit poll prediction. “It’s a bit too early yet to call the exact type of government that will be formed or the composition of the next government,” he said. “But I think there are, there will be a sufficiency of seats, it seems to me, that aligns with the core principles that I articulated at the outset of this campaign and throughout the campaign, around the pro-enterprise economy, around a positively pro-European position, a government that will strongly push for home ownership and around parties that are transparently democratic in how they conduct their affairs.” Asked if it would be in a coalition with Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Social Democrats, he said that would be “racing a bit too far ahead”. The final result may dictate that if Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are to return to government, they may need more than one junior partner, or potentially the buy-in of several independent TDs. Mr Martin said it was unclear how quickly a government can be formed, as he predicted his party would gain new seats. “It will be challenging. This is not easy,” he added. The junior partner in the outgoing government – the Green Party – looks set for a bruising set of results. Green leader Roderic O’Gorman is in a fight to hold onto his seat, as are a number of party colleagues, including Media Minister Catherine Martin. “It’s clear the Green Party has not had a good day,” he said. The early counting also suggested potential trouble for Fianna Fail in Wicklow, where the party’s only candidate in the constituency, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, is considered to have a battle ahead, with the risk of losing his seat. Meanwhile, there is significant focus on independent candidate Gerard Hutch who, on Saturday evening, was sitting in fourth place in the four-seat constituency of Dublin Central. Last spring, Mr Hutch was found not guilty by the non-jury Special Criminal Court of the murder of David Byrne, in one of the first deadly attacks of the Hutch-Kinahan gangland feud. Mr Byrne, 33, died after being shot six times at a crowded boxing weigh-in event at the Regency Hotel in February 2016. A Special Criminal Court judge described Mr Hutch, 61, as the patriarchal figurehead of the Hutch criminal organisation and said he had engaged in “serious criminal conduct”. The constituency will be closely watched as other hopefuls wait to see if transfers from eliminated candidates may eventually rule him out of contention. In the constituency of Louth, the much-criticised selection of John McGahon appeared not to have paid off for Fine Gael. The party’s campaign was beset by questioning over footage entering the public domain of the candidate engaged in a fight outside a pub in 2018. The Social Democrats have a strong chance of emerging as the largest of the smaller parties. The party’s leader, Holly Cairns, was already celebrating before a single vote was counted however, having announced the birth of her baby girl on polling day.How a GoPro camera has helped the Vikings keep rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy on track
Day 4 at the 2025 World Juniors was the best slate of games yet, with the top eight seeds coming into the tournament all in action. Here are the day’s standouts and analysis from The Athletic ’s prospects writers Scott Wheeler and Corey Pronman. • Sweden defeated Switzerland 7-5 in a chippy game that saw 18 minor penalties assessed. Red Wings prospect Axel Sandin-Pellikka, Hurricanes prospect Felix Unger Sorum, and Canucks prospect Tom Willander all had three points apiece for the Swedes. Capitals D prospect Leon Muggli had three assists for the Swiss. • Finland defeated USA 4-3 in overtime. Golden Knights prospect Tuomas Uronen scored the overtime winner and the Finns outshot the Americans 44-33. • Czechia defeated Slovakia 4-2 to improve to 3-0. Kraken prospect and Czechia captain Eduard Sale scored twice. The Czechs now have the best goal differential in the tournament (+18) heading into their New Year’s Eve matchup with Sweden. • Canada beat Germany 3-0, requiring an empty-netter for a second straight year against the Germans. Kings goalie prospect Carter George stayed perfect, pitching his second shutout of the tournament and making 25 saves. Defensemen Oliver Bonk ( Flyers ) and Caden Price (Kraken) scored for Canada. Mathieu Cataford (Golden Knights) had the empty-netter. Advertisement Canada lays another egg It took Canada 120 minutes to score a five-on-five goal against Latvia and Germany at the World Juniors. It bounced off the back boards and in off German goalie Nico Pertuch’s skate. Read that again. One five-on-five goal in six periods and an overtime. Four goals in total. Against Latvia and Germany. And in both games, almost the entire team looked aimless and disorderly, like they didn’t know where to be or how they wanted to play. The shots have been perimeter and the selection has grown increasingly forced. Their most talented players, the ones who had to make plays for them when they brought so few playmakers, don’t look like themselves. Sam Dickinson, who has dominated the OHL by playing a freewheeling style — sometimes to a fault — looks like a timid shell of himself and like he has been told not to be himself. They brought all of these mobile D and none of them are getting up in the play or killing plays early in the neutral zone, often retreating. Bradly Nadeau is in a second unfamiliar spot on the power play now (moved from the bumper to the net-front) and didn’t make his first real skill play until a flash in the offensive zone to set up a Tanner Howe chance midway through the second period of their third game. If you’re an NHL club, after how poorly things went for Matt Poitras on last year’s team and now Nadeau on this year’s, why would you want to loan your kids to play for Hockey Canada instead of for you right now? Two nights ago, head coach Dave Cameron talked about 6-8 goals worth of chances in a 3-2 overtime loss to a team they beat 10-0 a year prior. He gave “credit” and “full marks” to Latvia and their goalie. Do the Germans, who Team USA pumped 10 goals past on Boxing Day in a game they didn’t look good in themselves, also get “credit” and “full marks?” — Scott Wheeler Group A wide open We’re four days into the tournament and every team in Group A has now lost a game, leaving the door wide open for any seeding 1-3 into New Year’s Eve. Here’s where things stand: Eklund raising draft stock Hutson in early conversation for top D award The pre-tournament favourites for the top D award were undoubtedly Wild star prospect Zeev Buium and the award’s reigning winner, Swedish captain and Red Wings star prospect Axel Sandin-Pellikka. Sandin-Pellikka has had a strong tournament and leads the Swedes in goals (four), points (seven), shots (22) and plus-minus (+6) through three games. But Capitals second-rounder Cole Hutson and not Buium has been Team USA’s best defenseman. He has been outstanding with the puck on his stick all tournament long making things happen with his feet and creating the inches of space he needs to execute. After scoring a beautiful bar-down goal surfing across the offensive zone against Finland on Sunday, he now has six points of his own through three games. But it’s his calm, steady play defensively that has most impressed me. He has defended at a high level and the results match the eye test, too: Team USA has outscored the opposition 9-0 at five-on-five through three games with Hutson on the ice. The only two goals against he’s been on the ice for came on the power play on Sunday after he’d just stepped onto the ice for a bad change as Trevor Connelly turned a puck over, and at three-on-three in overtime after he blew a tire. He was still named USA’s player of the game. I know Hutson has talked, despite having 14 points in 16 games as an 18-year-old freshman at BU (tops among all under-19 D in college hockey and fifth among all under-19 skaters) about how he wants to be better than he has for the Terriers at points. But he has been good for them and excellent for Team USA here in Ottawa. He plays a more competitive style defensively than his older brother Lane does and while there are questions to ask about whether that will work against NHLers, he defends hard at this level. I’ve seen NHL upside this week. — Scott Wheeler Czechia emerges as a contender Coming into this tournament, Czechia was thought to be in the clear second-tier of teams, and likely not to challenge Sweden for the top spot in Group B. We will find out how their game goes on New Year’s Eve, but all indications are it’s going to be very competitive. Czechia’s performances against Switzerland, and today against Slovakia, have been arguably more impressive than what Sweden did to those teams. Czechia isn’t a star-studded team, but they’ve shown they have quality depth. A blue line full of mobility, size and smarts, and three lines of forwards who can make plays. On top of that they have a top-tier goalie in Michael Hrbal (Utah). Fellow Utah prospect Vojtech Hradec and Blues prospect Jakub Stancl have been surprise top scorers in the tournament to date. Czechia looks like a legit medal contender. — Corey Pronman (Photo of Canada’s Luca Pinelli and Germany’s Nico Pertuch: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)Manchester United Football Club is to cut the funding it provides to its charitable arm as part of a purge of costs being overseen by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, its newest billionaire shareholder. Sky News has learnt that the Premier League club plans to inform the Manchester United Foundation that it intends to curb the benefits it provides - which totalled close to £1m last year - from 2025 onwards. Sources close to the situation said a substantial element of the support given to the Foundation by the club would be axed, although Old Trafford insiders insisted on Sunday that it would still provide "significant" support to the charitable wing. A decision is said to have been made by the club's leadership to proceed with the cuts, with the Foundation expected to be informed about the scale of the reductions in the coming weeks. In 2023, the club paid the MU Foundation nearly £175,000 for charity services, which include managing the distribution of signed merchandise to individuals raising funds for charitable causes. Manchester United also provided gifts in kind amounting to £665,000 last year, which were understood to include use of the Old Trafford pitch and other facilities, alongside free club merchandise and the use of back-office services such as the club's IT capabilities. The MU Foundation works in local communities around Manchester and Salford to engage with underprivileged and marginalised people. Its projects include Street Reds, which is targeted at 8- to 18-year-olds, and Primary Reds, which works in school classrooms with 5- to 11-year-olds. It also organises hospital visits to support children with life-threatening illnesses. Read more from Money: Starmer throws down gauntlet to watchdogs with growth edict Shoppers complain about Easter eggs already on shelves Searchlight shines on £140m funding package for insurer Wefox The disclosure about the latest target of cost-cutting by Sir Jim's Ineos Sports group, which now owns close to a 29% stake of Manchester United, comes just a day after The Sun revealed that an association set up to facilitate relations between former players, would see its club funding axed. A similar move has been made in relation to funding for the club's disabled fans' group, while hundreds of full-time staff have been made redundant in recent months and costs have been slashed across most areas of its operations. People close to the club anticipate further cost-cutting measures being introduced as soon as next month. One club source said it remained "proud of the work carried out by the Manchester United Foundation to increase opportunities for vulnerable young people across Greater Manchester". "All areas of club expenditure are being reviewed due to ongoing losses. "However, significant support for the Foundation will continue." Sir Jim has injected $300m of his multibillion pound fortune into Manchester United, although it will need to raise substantially more than that to fund redevelopments to Old Trafford or a new stadium. Last year, the club, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, lost more than £110m, with sizeable interest payments totalling tens of millions of pounds annually required to service its debt burden. The men's first team has seen an alarming run of results under Ruben Amorim, who was appointed to succeed Erik Ten Hag in the autumn. Follow our channel and never miss an update United have lost three of their last four matches - the exception being a derby win away at Manchester City - and lie 14th in the Premier League table. Mr Amorim has acknowledged that he could face the same fate as Mr Ten Hag unless results improve. Be the first to get Breaking News Install the Sky News app for free Dan Ashworth, who was brought in from Newcastle United FC as sporting director in the summer, left after just five months. Manchester United declined to comment formally on the proposed cuts to the funding of its charitable arm.
Homebound Seniors Living Alone Often Have Trouble Getting Care
DUP minister rejected suggestion licensing laws could be relaxed for jubileeJharkhand Assembly Elections: CSDS-Lokniti SurveyConversational artificial intelligence tools may soon "covertly influence" users' decision making in a new commercial frontier called the "intention economy", University of Cambridge researchers warned in a paper published Monday. The research argues the potentially "lucrative yet troubling" marketplace emerging for "digital signals of intent" could, in the near future, influence everything from buying movie tickets to voting for political candidates. Our increasing familiarity with chatbots, digital tutors and other so-called "anthropomorphic" AI agents is helping enable this new array of "persuasive technologies", it added. It will see AI combine knowledge of our online habits with a growing ability to know the user and anticipate his or her desires and build "new levels of trust and understanding", the paper's two co-authors noted. Left unchecked, that could allow for "social manipulation on an industrial scale", the pair, from Cambridge's Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence , argued in the paper published in the Harvard Data Science Review. It characterises how this emergent sector dubbed the "intention economy" will profile users' attention and communicative styles and connect them to patterns of behaviour and choices they make. "AI tools are already being developed to elicit, infer, collect, record, understand, forecast, and ultimately manipulate and commodify human plans and purposes," co-author Yaqub Chaudhary said. The new AI will rely on so-called Large Language Models or LLMs to target a user's cadence, politics, vocabulary, age, gender, online history, and even preferences for flattery and ingratiation, according to the research. That would be linked with other emerging AI tech that bids to achieve a given aim, such as selling a cinema trip, or steer conversations towards particular platforms, advertisers, businesses and even political organisations. Co-author Jonnie Penn warned: "Unless regulated, the intention economy will treat your motivations as the new currency." "It will be a gold rush for those who target, steer, and sell human intentions," he added. "We should start to consider the likely impact such a marketplace would have on human aspirations, including free and fair elections, a free press, and fair market competition, before we become victims of its unintended consequences." Penn noted that public awareness of the issue is "the key to ensuring we don't go down the wrong path". jj/gil Nvidia Meta Apple This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
“ARK appoints Warren Buffett as CEO” (and other headlines investors won’t see in 2025...)
Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen returns to a tournament after a dispute over jeans is resolvedTORONTO, Dec. 02, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Timbercreek Alternatives LP, a subsidiary of Timbercreek Capital, and Aspen Properties today announced the closing of the previously announced acquisition of the 1 Palliser Square Office Building in Calgary, Alberta for the purpose of converting approximately 418,000 square feet of office into 418 residential units and amenities. 1 Palliser Square is a 27-storey, vacant B-class office building centrally located next to the Calgary Tower, with direct access to residential amenities, entertainment and transit. The project is part of the City of Calgary’s Downtown Development Incentive Program designed to transform vacant office space into new rental housing stock. The acquisition was completed though a joint venture called 1 Palliser Square LP (the “LP”). As part of the acquisition, the LP completed a private placement offering of units for total proceeds of approximately $21.6 million. Raymond James Ltd. and Canaccord Genuity Corp. acted as co-lead agents and joint bookrunners on behalf of a syndicate of agents, which included, Richardson Wealth Limited, Wellington-Altus Financial Inc. and iA Private Wealth Inc. Founded in 2000, Timbercreek is one of Canada’s leading alternative asset class investment managers, focused on debt and equity investments in high-quality, value-add commercial real estate in Canada, the United States and Europe. Through active and direct investment, Timbercreek employs a thematic approach to deliver compelling risk-adjusted returns for their investors and partners, leveraging the diversified expertise and relationships of their highly experienced team to invest capital across a wide range of asset classes. Timbercreek’s team of 50+ investment professionals have extensive domain expertise in these markets and combine an entrepreneurial growth focus with institutional risk management. Since 2000, the Timbercreek team has deployed more than $18 billion in equity and debt investments focused on value-add real estate, on behalf of their broad range of capital partners. Timbercreek has offices in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, New York, Dallas and Dublin. Aspen Properties is a fully integrated and privately held boutique real estate company with over 25 years of experience in owning and managing real estate in downtown Calgary and Edmonton. Driven by an entrepreneurial spirit, Aspen is committed to creating and delivering inspiring amenity-rich real estate with innovative technology and processes that help people thrive and contribute to the development and sustainability of the communities they serve. Together with their investment partners, Aspen Properties owns and manages approximately 4.25 million square feet of office space and nearly 3,800 parking spaces in downtown Calgary and Edmonton. Aspen’s portfolio is comprised of 15 buildings—eleven in Calgary, three in Edmonton and a development site in Calgary. Timbercreek Alternatives Fraser McEwen President Aspen Properties Scott Hutcheson Executive Chair of the BoardDespite Mary Lou McDonald’s confidence around shaping a coalition without Fine Gael and Fianna Fail – the two parties that have dominated the landscape of Irish politics for a century – the pathway to government for Sinn Fein still appears challenging. With counting following Friday’s election still in the relatively early stages – after an exit poll that showed the main three parties effectively neck-and-neck – there is some way to go before the final picture emerges and the options for government formation crystalise. Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader, Simon Harris, has dismissed talk of a Sinn Fein surge and said he was “cautiously optimistic” about where his party will stand after all the votes are counted. Meanwhile, Ireland’s deputy premier and Fianna Fail leader, Micheal Martin, insisted his party has a “very clear route back to government” as he predicted seat gains. The counting process could last days because of Ireland’s complex system of proportional representation with a single transferable vote (PR-STV), where candidates are ranked by preference. The early indications have turned the focus to the tricky arithmetic of government formation, as the country’s several smaller parties and many independents potentially jockey for a place in government. Ms McDonald told reporters at the RDS count centre in Dublin that she would be “very, very actively pursuing” the potential to form a government with other parties on the left of the political spectrum. The smaller, left-leaning parties in Ireland include the Social Democrats, the Irish Labour Party, the Green Party and People Before Profit-Solidarity. Ms McDonald said her party had delivered an “incredible performance” in the election. “I think it’s fair to say that we have now confirmed that we have broken the political mould here in this state,” she said. “Two party politics is now gone. It’s consigned to the dustbin of history and that, in itself, is very significant.” She added: “I am looking to bring about a government of change, and I’m going to go and look at all formulations. “If you want my bottom line, the idea of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael for another five years, in our strong opinion, is not a good outcome for Irish society. “Obviously, I want to talk to other parties of the left and those that we share very significant policy objectives with. So I’m going to do that first and just hear their mind, hear their thinking. But be very clear, we will be very, very actively pursuing entrance into government.” In Friday night’s exit poll, Sinn Fein was predicted to take 21.1% of first-preference votes, narrowly ahead of outgoing coalition partners Fine Gael and Fianna Fail at 21% and 19.5% respectively. Prior to the election, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael both ruled out entering government with Sinn Fein. Fine Gael leader Mr Harris rejected suggestions Sinn Fein had broken new ground. He told reporters in his count centre in Greystones, Co Wicklow: “Certainly we haven’t seen a Sinn Fein surge or anything like it. “I mean, it looks likely, on the figures that we’ve seen now, fewer people, many fewer people would have voted Sinn Fein in this election than the last one. “In fact, I think they’re down by around 5% and actually the parties, particularly the two parties, the two larger parties in government, are likely to receive significant support from the electorate. So definitely, politics in Ireland has gotten much more fragmented.” He said it was too early to tell what the next government would look like. “I think anybody who makes any suggestion about who is going to be the largest party or the construct of the next government, they’re a braver person than I am,” he said. “Our electoral system dictates that there’ll be many, many transfers that will go on for hours, if not days, before we know the final computations at all. “But what I am very confident about is that my party will have a very significant role to play in the years ahead, and I’m cautiously optimistic and excited.” Fianna Fail’s Mr Martin told reporters at a count centre in Cork he was confident that the numbers exist to form a government with parties that shared his political viewpoint. Mr Martin said it “remains to be seen” whether he would return to the role of Taoiseach – a position he held between 2020 and 2022 – but he expressed confidence his party would outperform the exit poll prediction. “It’s a bit too early yet to call the exact type of government that will be formed or the composition of the next government,” he said. “But I think there are, there will be a sufficiency of seats, it seems to me, that aligns with the core principles that I articulated at the outset of this campaign and throughout the campaign, around the pro-enterprise economy, around a positively pro-European position, a government that will strongly push for home ownership and around parties that are transparently democratic in how they conduct their affairs.” Asked if it would be in a coalition with Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Social Democrats, he said that would be “racing a bit too far ahead”. The final result may dictate that if Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are to return to government, they may need more than one junior partner, or potentially the buy-in of several independent TDs. Mr Martin said it was unclear how quickly a government can be formed, as he predicted his party would gain new seats. “It will be challenging. This is not easy,” he added. The junior partner in the outgoing government – the Green Party – looks set for a bruising set of results. Green leader Roderic O’Gorman is in a fight to hold onto his seat, as are a number of party colleagues, including Media Minister Catherine Martin. “It’s clear the Green Party has not had a good day,” he said. The early counting also suggested potential trouble for Fianna Fail in Wicklow, where the party’s only candidate in the constituency, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, is considered to have a battle ahead, with the risk of losing his seat. Meanwhile, there is significant focus on independent candidate Gerard Hutch who, on Saturday evening, was sitting in fourth place in the four-seat constituency of Dublin Central. Last spring, Mr Hutch was found not guilty by the non-jury Special Criminal Court of the murder of David Byrne, in one of the first deadly attacks of the Hutch-Kinahan gangland feud. Mr Byrne, 33, died after being shot six times at a crowded boxing weigh-in event at the Regency Hotel in February 2016. A Special Criminal Court judge described Mr Hutch, 61, as the patriarchal figurehead of the Hutch criminal organisation and said he had engaged in “serious criminal conduct”. The constituency will be closely watched as other hopefuls wait to see if transfers from eliminated candidates may eventually rule him out of contention. In the constituency of Louth, the much-criticised selection of John McGahon appeared not to have paid off for Fine Gael. The party’s campaign was beset by questioning over footage entering the public domain of the candidate engaged in a fight outside a pub in 2018. The Social Democrats have a strong chance of emerging as the largest of the smaller parties. The party’s leader, Holly Cairns, was already celebrating before a single vote was counted however, having announced the birth of her baby girl on polling day.