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CNN's Jake Tapper talks to Former Defense Secretary William Cohen about President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of defense Pete Hegseth, and the controversy surrounding allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman in California.ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Josh Allen threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score, and the Buffalo Bills clinched the AFC's No. 2 seed with a 40-14 rout of the unraveling and undisciplined New York Jets on Sunday. The Bills put the game away by capitalizing on two Jets turnovers and scoring three touchdowns over a 5:01 span in the closing minutes of the third quarter. Buffalo's defense forced three takeaways overall and sacked Aaron Rodgers four times, including a 2-yard loss for a safety in the second quarter. Allen had a short and efficient outing, finishing 16 of 27 for 182 yards with a 30-yard TD pass to Amari Cooper and a 14-yarder to Keon Coleman before giving way to backup Mitchell Trubisky with Buffalo leading 33-0 through three quarters. And Trubisky piled on by completing a 69-yard touchdown pass to practice squad call-up Tyrell Shavers 2:23 into the fourth quarter. Allen's two-TD passing outing was the 64th of his career to match Peyton Manning for the third most in a player's first seven NFL seasons. Patrick Mahomes holds the record with 67 two-TD outings in that span, followed by Dan Marino's 65. Allen also became the NFL's first player with five consecutive 40-TD seasons, while his 1-yard score was the 65th rushing TD of his career, matching the team record held by Thurman Thomas. The five-time defending AFC East champion Bills improved to 13-3 to match a franchise single-season record, and will open the playoffs hosting the conference's seventh-seeded team in two weeks. The outing was a meltdown for Rodgers and the Jets (4-12), who will finish with five or fewer wins for the seventh time over a 14-season playoff drought - the NFL's longest active streak. Rodgers, who entered the game with 499 career TD passes and looking to become just the fifth player to reach 500, instead was shut out and replaced by Tyrod Taylor with 12:37 remaining. Discipline was an issue for a Jets team that fell to 2-9 since Jeff Ulbrich took over as interim coach. New York finished with 16 accepted penalties for 120 yards. Taylor accounted for New York's only points with a 9-yard TD pass to Garrett Wilson and a 20-yarder to Tyler Conklin in a game played in blustery, unseasonably warm conditions, with temperatures in the mid-50s Farenheit (10 Celsius) and winds gusting up to 35 mph (56 kmph). Rodgers finished 12 of 18 for 112 yards with two interceptions after entering the game having thrown only one in his past eight outings. He was also sacked four times, pushing his career total to 568, moving ahead of Tom Brady (565) and into first place on the NFL list. The outing became a comedy of errors for the Jets. Trailing 7-0 after Allen's 1-yard run, New York's three possession of the first half ended with turning the ball over on downs Buffalo's 24; Rodgers being intercepted at his own 17 by defensive tackle Jordan Phillips; and being sacked for a safety by A.J. Epenesa. The bottom fell out to close the third quarter when Rodgers' being intercepted by Christian Benford led to Cooper's leaping TD grab put Buffalo up 19-0. James Cook scored on a 1-yard run on Buffalo's next possession with 1:15 left, and Coleman's touchdown with 12 seconds left in the third was set up after Wilson lost a fumble. The Bills finished their third season with a perfect record, and first since 1990, by going 8-0 at home. They've won 11 straight regular-season home games dating to last season since dropping a 24-22 decision to Denver on Nov. 13. Jets CB Sauce Gardner aggravated a hamstring injury in the first half and was ruled out in the third quarter. Jets : Close the season hosting the Miami Dolphins. Bills : Play their regular-season finale at the New England Patriots. The CBS New York Team is a group of experienced journalists who bring you New York web coverage on cbsnews.com.
Joe Rogan left stunned as Navy pilot reveals secret tech powering drones over New Jersey' READ MORE: Mystery drones spark fury on Capitol Hill By STACY LIBERATORE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM Published: 20:16 GMT, 18 December 2024 | Updated: 20:16 GMT, 18 December 2024 e-mail View comments A former Navy pilot has weighed in on the drone sightings in New Jersey as the mystery rages on. Ryan Graves, a former lieutenant, appeared on the Joe Rogan Podcast where he discussed possible technologies powering the drones, which would allow them to avoid detection. He told Rogan that law enforcement has been unable to pick up the objects with their infrared systems, suggesting the drones are using 'some type of signature management' to reduce heat emissions. 'We do this in fighter jets... where we cover the engine to essentially make it harder to see, but to have zero ability to detect or lock onto these objects is not the technology I'm familiar with,' said Graves. The pilot pointed how the objects are not behaving like normal aircraft , such as their High-G force maneuvers that include sharp turns, climbs and dives. 'Then they remain in the area for another five or six or seven hours and still have the battery life or whatever's propelling them to then go over the ocean to a point where they're untrackable again. I'm not really familiar with that type of capability,' he said. Graves became a household name in the UAP world in 2023 when he became the first active-duty pilot to come forward publicly about regular sightings of UAP. He testified in front of Congress that year, claiming to have had firsthand encounters or knowledge about secret government programs involving technology that is 'non-human.' 'The word on the street is that these objects appear to be coming from over the ocean , said Graves during the podcast. Ryan Graves, a former high-ranking intelligence official who testified under oath to Congress about UAPs, appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast Tuesday to share his take on the mysterious drones in New Jersey 'There's senior congressmen, Coast Guard personnel, law enforcement [who are] seeing a large number of these come from somewhere over the ocean . 'I don't know if that means necessarily they're popping out of the water physically or if they're coming from some unknown location in the water and then proceeding over the coast.' 'They are flying very low, in some cases they seem to be operating as a group in the vicinity of each other. They are emitting energy or not so you know like radio communications or their own. 'It's unknown I've poked on that front and best I can tell the government doesn't know either.' The sightings began mid-November with the first sightings over Picatinny Arsenal in Rockaway. Rogan said that 'it is so weird' that the drones are a mystery to the White House. Graves offered some explanations, suggesting that the drones might be using cameras to measure their surroundings instead of radar, which is more easily detectable. He told Joe Rogan that the drones are able to manage their heat signatures, allowing them to go undetected by the government The former Air Force pilot pointed how the objects are not behaving like normal aircraft, such as their High-G force maneuvers that include sharp turns, climbs and dives Read More EXCLUSIVE Uncovered files reveal secret operation at center of drone invasion... and why White House can deny it 'They could have a self-contained navigational system with their onboard maps and they're using cameras to map where they are,' he said. Rogan asked if the technology would make them completely autonomous, to which Graves said: 'Exactly.' 'I could imagine a fully self-contained autonomous drone system that is doing something potentially with passive sensors that allows it to operate without emissions, which is going to make it harder to track,' he said. Rogan asked why the powers of be have not put a stop to the drones, and the former pilot said it all comes down to the laws in the US. While the White House has yet to provide the public with answer, it has been holding classified briefings on the matter. 'Because of that they essentially need a warrant in order to wiretap these,' Graves said, explaining that is the feedback he has received. '[They need a warrant] to even intercept these signals that they may or may not even be emitting to be able to determine where they're going.' He explained that base commanders have to submit a request to the Secretary of Defense, making it 'a super politically charged situation.' 'If they take action and shoot one of these down even with this the Secretary of Defense's permission you know they're on the hook if that thing takes out a school bus or otherwise damages someone's property kill somebody,' said Graves. Graves imaged the drones have 'a self-contained navigational system with their onboard maps and they're using cameras to map where they are, Rogan began the Tuesday podcast by discussing the different narratives surrounding the mysterious sightings. 'The scariest one that I've heard is that their drones are looking for gamma radiation because there's a missing nuke. Let's address that one first please,' he said. Rogan had been quiet about the New Jersey drones until John Ferguson, who runs Saxon Unmanned, posted a TikTok video claiming the craft was looking for either a gas leak of 'radioactive material.' Graves told the podcaster that he has interacted with individuals who work on weapons of mass destruction and they told him that 'there's not a loose nuke or other type of weapon of mass destruction that these objects are pursuing right now.' 'Otherwise they'd be working in a skiff nonstop to make that go away,' he added. The response, however, did not hit home with Rogan who questioned if Graves' sources were being truthful. 'How [did] they persuade you? Just by saying 'that's not the case' or have they given you any information that leads to this conclusion,' Rogan asked. Graves replied that the people he spoke to would be the ones responsible for finding the nuke or weapon of mass destruction. The mayor of Belleville, Michael Melham, had said on Fox TV's 'Good Day New York' Tuesday that the drones may be looking for radioactive material. ' It was a shipment. It arrived at its destination. The container was damaged, and it was empty,' Melham said. The mayor was referring to an alert from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that said a piece of medical equipment used for cancer scans went missing on December 2 during transit through the state. The device, known as a 'pin source,' contained a small amount of Germanium-68 (Ge-68)used to calibrate a medical scanner's accuracy. The pin source contained about 0.267 millicuries (mCi) of Ge-68, which is a very small amount that would only cause harm during close and prolonged exposure. The material emits low-energy gamma radiation, making it useful for calibration purposes in medical equipment. New Jersey Joe Rogan Share or comment on this article: Joe Rogan left stunned as Navy pilot reveals secret tech powering drones over New Jersey' e-mail Add comment
MacKenzie Scott gives rare third gift to medical debt relief groupBitcoin’s soaring value has caught the attention of high-end fashion brands and retailers, prompting further interest in offering cryptocurrencies as a means of payment to tap in to fresh pockets of wealth and build loyalty with crypto investors. Until recently, only a handful of luxury brands including LVMH LVMH.PA watch labels Hublot and Tag Heuer as well as Kering-owned PRTP.PA fashion brands Gucci and Balenciaga have experimented with crypto payment offers. In recent weeks, upscale French luxury department store Printemps announced it was teaming up with the world's largest crypto exchange, Binance and French financial tech company Lyzi to accept cryptocurrencies including bitcoin and ethereum in its stores in France — becoming the first European department store to do so. The move, coming as bitcoin rises, has been noticed by other brands and retailers who are showing interest in joining in. "There have been quite a few calls — it's generated interest," said David Princay, president of Binance France, who said the company is in talks with other luxury labels. Luxury lighter and pen maker S.T. Dupont told Reuters it aims to accept cryptocurrency payments in two Paris stores before the holidays. Earn rewards on your spending: Best credit cards for shopping In the realm of experiences, cruise company Virgin Voyages began this month offering its first product accepting bitcoin as a payment option — a $120,000 annual pass for up to a year of sailing on its cruise ships. Regulators have long warned that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are high-risk assets, with limited uses in the real world. High volatility has been another barrier to wide adoption as a means of payment. But pledges of support from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who is expected to bring in more friendly e-currency regulation, have fueled record-breaking rises for bitcoin. S&P analysts say the narrative is starting to shift, noting that blockchain innovation in financial markets could increase predictability for cryptocurrencies. Seeking innovative branding Luxury labels have long sought to cater to affluent shoppers from the tech industry by opening stores in upscale Silicon Valley malls and issuing products like the Hermes HRMS.PA Apple Watch, for example, which combines signature, stitched leather straps of the French Birkin bag maker with tech giant Apple’s AAPL.O connected timepiece. Now, new wealth generated by bitcoin's recent highs — topping $107,000 on Monday — comes as the luxury industry faces its biggest slump in years and searches for new sources of growth. Offering cryptocurrency payments can be a way for companies to brand themselves as innovative rather than “a stuffy old brand that's only selling to the boomers,” said Andrew O’Neill, digital assets lead analyst at S&P Global Ratings. The payment option remains largely symbolic. Retailers usually reconvert the funds to euros or dollars to offset risks of volatility, while for most shoppers, payment methods are seen overall as “something that’s been solved” already by such transaction platforms as PayPal PYPL.O or Venmo, said O'Neill. But for bitcoin investors who have seen a strong rise in the value of their investment, luxury goods — a designer handbag or high-end watch — are an obvious choice for diversifying one's portfolio, analysts say. In a sign of growing interest from designer labels, Balenciaga recently issued a leather card holder designed to hold “Stax” hardware from crypto wallet company Ledger. The black leather accessory, which retails for 350 euros ($368), includes a keychain and Eiffel Tower charm and an NFC chip fitted underneath the brand logo. Ledger’s Stax Crypto hardware, its recently developed higher-end hardware with a curved touch screen, sells for $399 at Best Buy BBY.N. The company’s “Flex” hardware, which resembles a mini Amazon Kindle, sells for $249 while the “Nano” version, which looks like a USB key, sells for $79. Reaching younger clientele Gregory Boutte, chief client and digital officer for luxury conglomerate Kering, has described the group’s strategy when it comes to technology as “test and learn” rather than “wait and see." He emphasized the embrace of new technologies as key to reaching younger and Asian clientele. Kering’s star label, Gucci, has since 2022 made purchases available through 10 cryptocurrencies for most of its products in the United States. Printemps is working to expand its crypto payments service to New York City, where it plans to open a multibrand retailer in the Wall Street district in March. Bitcoin's rise in late 2021 prompted an initial flurry of interest from luxury brands with Tag Heuer, headed at the time by LVMH luxury scion Frederic Arnault, as well as Gucci, accepting payments in cryptocurrency the following year for some purchases in the United States. One crypto advocate who recently used digital assets to make luxury purchases is Eunice Wong, an investor and influencer known as "Eunicorn." Wong said she used cryptocurrency to buy several high-end watches this year including an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak model. But she is not interested in being drawn in by high end brands seeking to build a closer client relationship, preferring to bypass traditional retail stores and sales routines. That takes too much time, in her view. “If I will buy, I'll buy on the secondary market, not through them,” she told Reuters. “I want it now.” Reporting by Mimosa Spencer in Paris; Editing by Matthew Lewis
Green hydrogen is often proposed as a climate-friendly alternative to natural gas for energy production. However, a green hydrogen economy is not yet in place and may take years to develop, if it happens at all. To sustain small natural gas power plants ahead of a hydrogen economy, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and power-plant service provider Power Service Consulting (PSC) have tested micro-turbines capable of burning hydrogen, natural gas, or both. Hydrogen retrofits slash costs and time Peter Kutne, head of the Gas Turbines Department at the DLR Institute of Combustion Technology, highlighted the advantages of retrofitting gas turbines for hydrogen use to reduce emissions. He noted that building a new 15-megawatt gas turbine power plant takes about six years and costs $31 million (€30 million). In contrast, retrofitting an existing plant takes just 1.5 years and costs roughly a tenth of that amount. Moreover, the two organizations have achieved what is claimed to be the first commercially viable retrofit of a gas micro-turbine, enabling it to run on both hydrogen and natural gas. This innovation aims to prepare for a future when green hydrogen becomes widely accessible. The Retrofit H2 project used 100 kW micro-turbines due to their high power-to-weight ratio. These turbines are commonly used in remote areas, as backup power for hospitals, and for heating in hotels and swimming pools. They can also power facilities like breweries or waste treatment plants that use waste methane as fuel. However, burning hydrogen in a natural gas turbine is akin to using gasoline in a diesel engine—fundamentally incompatible and highly hazardous. Hydrogen burns much hotter than natural gas and has a lower flash point, which can easily damage a micro-turbine’s combustion chamber with intense heat and shockwaves. Burner design reduces emissions, stabilizes flames To address this, engineers developed a jet-stabilized burner optimized for hydrogen. Unlike conventional setups, the air and fuel injectors are arranged in a ring, generating a backflow in the chamber. This helps mix exhaust gases with the new air/fuel mixture, lowering temperature, reducing nitrogen emissions, and stabilizing the flame. In turn, this reduces the temperature in the combustion chamber and produces fewer nitrogen oxides. The re-circulation of the exhaust gases also effectively stabilizes the flame. The concept is scalable and suitable for various turbine types and sizes, the DLR points out. So far, the system has been run in a pilot plant in Lampoldshausen using pure hydrogen for about 100 hours. DLR researcher Martina Hohloch explained that the high chemical reactivity of hydrogen presents significant challenges. “We were eager to see how the turbine would perform with the new combustion chamber system outside the laboratory environment. The tests have shown that we can start up with pure hydrogen without any problems and that the system achieves the full operating range from partial to full load,” Hohloch added.Speaking at the New York Times DealBook conference, Altman addressed concerns about Musk's announced role heading a new Department of Government Efficiency in the incoming Donald Trump administration, and whether he might use it to favor his own companies. "I may turn out to be wrong, but I believe pretty strongly that Elon will do the right thing," Altman said. "It would be profoundly un-American to use political power to hurt your competitors and advantage your own businesses." Even if there are "lots of things not to like about him... it would go so deeply against the values I believe he holds very dear to himself that I'm not that worried about it." Musk, an OpenAI co-founder who later departed the company, is currently suing Altman's firm and Microsoft, claiming they shifted from the project's original nonprofit mission. He has since launched xAI, reportedly valued at $50 billion, making it one of the world's most valuable startups. Altman said that the court battle was "tremendously sad" and that he once saw Musk as "a mega hero." Musk became a close ally of Trump during his campaign, spending over $100 million to boost his presidential bid and joining him at rallies. Since the election victory, he has been a frequent presence in the Trump transition and was reportedly on the line when Google CEO Sundar Pichai called the president-elect to congratulate him on winning the election. The tycoon's businesses have deep connections with governments -- both in the United States and elsewhere -- and his new position has raised concerns about conflict of interest. During the interview, Altman also lowered expectations for the importance of OpenAI's models achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), a benchmark of human-level intelligence the company has long set as the goal for its technology. "My guess is we will hit AGI sooner than most people in the world think, and it will matter much less," he said. "A lot of the safety concerns that we and others expressed actually don't come at the AGI moment... AGI can get built. The world goes on mostly the same way," he said. arp/aha
The former Tory chancellor, now chairman of the British Museum, suggested Sir Keir Starmer had contributed to a warmer spirit of the negotiations over the famous ancient artworks. Greece has long called for the return of the Marbles, also known as the Parthenon sculptures, and maintains they were illegally removed from Athens’ acropolis during a period of foreign occupation. The British Museum – where they are currently on display – is forbidden by law from giving away any of its artefacts, and the Government has no plans to change the law to permit a permanent move. But under Mr Osborne’s leadership, the museum is negotiating the possibility of a long-term loan of the sculptures, in exchange for rolling exhibitions of famous artworks. No 10 has indicated the Prime Minister is unlikely to stand in the way of such a deal. Speaking on Political Currency, the podcast he hosts alongside former Labour politician Ed Balls, Mr Osborne said the museum was “looking to see if we can come to some arrangement where at some point some of the sculptures are in Athens, where, of course, they were originally sited”. He added: “And in return, Greece lends us some of its treasures, and we made a lot of progress on that, but we’re still some distance from any kind of agreement.” The Greek government has suggested negotiations with the museum have taken a warmer tone since Labour came to power in the summer. Mr Osborne appeared to concur with this view and praised Sir Keir’s hands-off approach, adding: “It is not the same as Rishi Sunak, who refused to see the Greek prime minister, if you remember, he sort of stood him up. “So it seems to me a more sensible and diplomatic way to proceed.” Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek premier, discussed the Elgin Marbles with Sir Keir when they met on Tuesday morning at Downing Street, he said after returning to Athens. Mr Mitsotakis has signalled his government is awaiting developments on the negotiations. A diplomatic spat between the Greek leader and Mr Sunak emerged last year when the then-prime minister refused to meet his counterpart. Mr Mitsotakis had compared splitting the Elgin Marbles from those still in Athens to cutting the Mona Lisa in half. The marble statues came from friezes on the 2,500-year-old Parthenon temple and have been displayed at the British Museum for more than 200 years. They were removed by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century when he was British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Some of the remaining temple statues are on display in the purpose-built Acropolis Museum in Athens, and Greece has called for the collections to be reunited.
Shares of Spyre Therapeutics, Inc. ( NASDAQ:SYRE – Get Free Report ) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the seven analysts that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $51.50. SYRE has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Guggenheim raised their price objective on shares of Spyre Therapeutics from $50.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective on shares of Spyre Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Spyre Therapeutics from $50.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Spyre Therapeutics Institutional Trading of Spyre Therapeutics Spyre Therapeutics Trading Down 1.7 % Shares of NASDAQ:SYRE opened at $23.67 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $29.41 and a 200 day moving average of $28.48. The company has a market cap of $1.22 billion, a PE ratio of -3.17 and a beta of 2.82. Spyre Therapeutics has a 12-month low of $18.54 and a 12-month high of $47.97. Spyre Therapeutics Company Profile ( Get Free Report Spyre Therapeutics, Inc, a preclinical stage biotechnology company, focuses on developing therapeutics for patients living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). It develops SPY001, a human monoclonal immunoglobulin G1 antibody designed to bind selectively to the a4ß7 integrin being developed for the treatment of IBD (ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease). Recommended Stories Receive News & Ratings for Spyre Therapeutics Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Spyre Therapeutics and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .
Cowboys G Zack Martin, CB Trevon Diggs out vs. CommandersOpenAI has just made interacting with its star AI chatbot, ChatGPT, as easy as picking up the phone or sending a text. No longer confined to a web browser or app, users in the US can now dial 1-800-CHATGPT (1-800-242-8478) to engage in a spoken conversation with the AI. For those outside the US or preferring text-based interaction, ChatGPT can also be reached via WhatsApp by messaging the same number. This move marks a significant step towards making AI more accessible and integrated into our daily lives. My First Phone Call with ChatGPT As someone who has been following the development of AI language models with great interest, I couldn’t resist trying out this new feature. Dialing the number, I was greeted by a surprisingly natural-sounding voice, clearly synthesized but with a friendly and engaging tone. I started with a simple question, “What’s the weather like in San Francisco today?” The response was immediate and accurate, providing details on temperature, wind conditions, and even a suggestion to bring an umbrella due to the chance of rain. Intrigued, I moved on to more complex questions, asking for summaries of recent news events and even philosophical discussions on the nature of consciousness. While the responses were generally impressive, I did notice some limitations. Occasionally, the system seemed to struggle with understanding the nuances of my questions, leading to slightly off-topic answers. However, this is to be expected with any AI system still under development. Why Phone Calls and WhatsApp? The choice of phone calls and WhatsApp as new interfaces for ChatGPT is a strategic one. Here’s why: Limitations and Future Potential While the launch of phone calls and WhatsApp access to ChatGPT is exciting, it’s important to acknowledge the current limitations: Despite these limitations, the potential of this technology is immense. Imagine a future where you can: The Rise of Conversational AI OpenAI’s move to integrate ChatGPT with phone calls and WhatsApp is part of a broader trend towards conversational AI. As AI language models become more sophisticated, we can expect to see them increasingly integrated into our daily lives through various channels. This raises important questions about the future of human-computer interaction and the role of AI in society. OpenAI’s decision to make ChatGPT available through phone calls and WhatsApp is a bold move that pushes the boundaries of AI accessibility. While the technology is still in its early stages, it has the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with AI and access information. As conversational AI continues to evolve, we can expect even more innovative applications that will transform our lives in ways we can only imagine.
Wade Taylor IV scored 15 points and dished out 10 assists and C.J. Wilcher added 14 points as No. 13 Texas A&M throttled Abilene Christian 92-54 on Saturday afternoon in College Station, Texas. The Aggies (11-2) were in charge from the jump, forging a 19-point lead at halftime and never looking back. Texas A&M scored the first points of the second half, was up by 28 with 13:23 to play and cruised to the finish line while winning its seventh straight game. Taylor's output moved him into second place on the Aggies' all-time scoring list. His 1,779 points are now behind only Bernard King, who had 1,990 from 1999-2003. Andersson Garcia and Zhuric Phelps added 12 points each for Texas A&M, which appears to be hitting on all cylinders heading into its Southeastern Conference opener at home against rival Texas on Jan. 4. Phelps added 10 rebounds and seven steals for the Aggies. Quion Williams led the Wildcats (8-6) with 14 points. Abilene Christian missed its final six shots and went the last 5:24 of the game without a point. The Aggies made a statement in the early going by scoring the game's first nine points over the initial 3 1/2 minutes, with seven of those coming from Coleman. Abilene Christian fought back to within 16-12 after Dontrez Williams' layup with 12:12 left in the half. But A&M swung back, producing a 14-0 run capped by Garcia's layup with 8:51 to play in the half to pull away to a 30-12 advantage. The Wildcats again cut into their deficit, pulling to 30-19 when Cade Hornecker hit a layup with 6:26 to play until halftime. A&M boosted the lead back to 17 points after a pair of free throws by Taylor and got two more from the charity stripe to take a 48-29 edge to the break. Wilcher led all scorers in the half with 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc while Garcia hit for 10 points for A&M while making all four of his shots from the floor. The Aggies outshot Abilene Christian 61.5 percent to 40.7 percent before halftime. Quion Williams and Leonardo Bettiol paced the Wildcats with seven points each in the first half. --Field Level Media
Argentine Senator Edgardo Kueider was detained in Paraguay in the early hours of Wednesday with US$200,000 of undeclared cash while attempting to cross the International Friendship Bridge into Brazil. His detention has caused political uproar and sparked questions about his continuity in the House. The senator for Entre Ríos was stopped for a routine check on the triple border between Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil. Oscar Orué, head of Paraguay’s National Directorate of Tax Revenues, said Kueider was unable to explain or provide evidence for why he had over US$200,00 and AR$600,000 (US$576 at the official dollar exchange rate) on hand. The sum is well over the limit for undeclared cash. “He did not cooperate during the process, in the sense that he wouldn’t say what it was for, why he was bringing it, for what purpose. That will be determined in our internal inquiry,” Orué said in an interview with Radio 780 AM . He also explained that Kueider had not been taken to jail but was awaiting a summons at his hotel in the Paraguayan border city of Ciudad del Este. Kueider was elected to the Senate in 2019 as a Peronist representative but has consistently voted with the ruling party La Libertad Avanza. He was one of two Peronist senators to vote in favor of President Javier Milei’s flagship Ley Bases law, earning condemnation from within the party. “This is how votes are obtained for laws that harm the great majorities and the interests of the nation, or the absences that prevent the repeal of the Decrees of Necessity and Urgency that condemn millions of Argentines to poverty or allow the Minister of Economy to put the country back into debt,” wrote former president and vice president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in a post on X titled “Democracy at a price.” She currently leads the Partido Justicialista , Peronism’s largest party. https://x.com/CFKArgentina/status/1864349132347068651 According to C5N , the national anti-laundering office PROCELAC has filed a case against Kueider in Argentina to investigate where the money came from and potentially prosecute him for smuggling or money laundering.Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:VLRS) Given Average Rating of “Buy” by Analysts
Israeli hospital says Netanyahu has undergone successful prostate surgery
New Delhi: Opening another point of friction with an important ally, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah has dismissed the Congress party’s vehement objection to electronic voting machines and echoed the BJP’s defence—you can’t accept election results when you win and blame EVMs when you lose. “When you get a hundred-plus members of Parliament using the same EVMs, and you celebrate that as sort of a victory for your party, you can’t then a few months later turn around and say, We don’t like these EVMs because now the election results aren’t going the way we would like them to,” Abdullah told PTI in an exclusive interview on Friday. Told that he sounded suspiciously like a BJP spokesman, Abdullah reacted with, “God forbid!” He then added, “No, it’s just that... what’s right is right.” He said he speaks based on principles rather than with partisan loyalty and cited his support for infrastructure projects like the Central Vista as an example of his independent thinking. “Contrary to what everybody else believes, I think that what’s happening with this Central Vista project in Delhi is a damn good thing. I believe constructing a new Parliament building was an excellent idea. We needed a new Parliament building. The old one had outlived its utility,” he said. He said parties should not contest elections if they do not trust the voting mechanism. “If you have problems with the EVMs, then you should be consistent in those problems,” he said while replying to a question about whether he thinks that the opposition in general and the Congress, in particular, is barking up the wrong tree by focusing on EVMs. After its loss in the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly polls, the Congress has expressed doubts about the EVM’s infallibility and the election outcome. It has demanded a return to the paper ballot. Abdullah’s comments add to his National Conference party’s unhappiness with the Congress, which was allied with it during the September Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. NC officials have privately said that the Congress did not do its bit during the campaigning and left all the heavy lifting to them. Still, the NC won 42 seats in the 90-member Assembly, and the Congress got six. The chief minister emphasised that electoral machines remain the same regardless of the election outcome, and parties should not use them as a convenient excuse for defeat. “One day voters choose you, the next day they don’t,” he said and gave his own example of facing defeat in Lok Sabha polls while winning a majority in the September assembly polls. “I never blamed the machines,” he said.One of the leading causes of accidental death worldwide is drowning. Every sailor who joins their country's navy knows there's a risk of drowning, since most roles will place them in a spot where they're surrounded by water. No matter how good a swimmer you are or how long you can hold your breath, drowning can happen to anyone, but the men and women who serve aboard submarines have a mental fortitude the average civilian only wishes they had. It takes a certain kind of person to serve on a submarine. Being a submariner isn't the same kind of life sailors experience on surface vessels. It's similar, but not identical. Not only can it get claustrophobic, everyone has to operate at 100% efficiency all the time. One small mistake can be the difference between life and death for everyone on board. But it's not always in the crew's hands to keep the ship operational. Mechanical failures have sent submarines to the ocean floor; poorly handled torpedoes can explode. On the surface, an explosion means injuries and potential death. Underwater, if the hull is punctured, it means almost certain death. Even with today's advanced technology, working on a sub is risky. And it's not always enemy subs you have to be careful of. Losing a submarine and its crew is bad enough. But losing them without any known cause is even harder for a navy and family members to deal with. In May of 1968, that's what happened to the Skipjack-class attack submarine USS Scorpion (SSN-589). After finishing up a deployment in the Mediterranean, the Scorpion headed back to its home port of Norfolk, Virginia. The submarine's last known position came in on May 21, roughly 50 miles south of the Azores, an island group in the North Atlantic. The sub was supposed to be stateside six days later, and when there was no word by then, the U.S. Navy initiated a search for the vessel. It wasn't until October that the Navy's oceanographic research ship Mizar (T-AGOR-11) discovered parts of the Scorpion's hull 400 miles southwest of the Azores, at a depth of 10,000 feet. That's far deeper than the sun can penetrate. There had been 99 sailors aboard. None survived. The death of the USS Scorpion remains an unsolved Cold War mystery to this day. None of the Navy's several investigations has yielded conclusive results. The generally accepted cause was uncontrolled flooding that led to an explosion, but the Navy may never discover the truth. Despite what Tom Clancy wrote in his 1984 novel "The Hunt for Red October," the Soviet Union rarely named its submarines. The subs were typically given a designation consisting of one letter and a series of numbers after. Thus, K-8. The K-8 was part of the USSR's November class of submarines, the Soviets' first real attempt at creating a nuclear attack sub. K-8 was the third November-class submarine to come off the assembly line, entering service in 1960. So when it sank a decade later — with four nuclear torpedoes aboard — it was a blow to the country for national security reasons. In April 1970, K-8 was participating in a wargame displaying the USSR's international reach when everything started to go wrong. Both of K-8's nuclear reactors had to be shut down and it was forced to surface after it was struck by two fires that, along with flooding, killed eight of the crew. When the rest of the crew followed their captain's orders to abandon ship, a rescue vessel showed up to tow K-8. But bad weather made the trek to port significantly more difficult, and much of the crew reboarded to try to keep the sub afloat. After three days, they failed, and K-8 sank to a depth of around 15,000 feet. It became the final resting place for all 52 crewmembers. [Image by pliskin1 via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC0 1.0 ] The USS Thresher (SSN-593) was the first nuclear attack submarine of its class. In 1963, it conducted a series of deep-dive tests off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, testing its rated depth of 1,300 feet. It wasn't alone during these tests. A submarine-rescue vessel, the USS Skylark (ASR-20), was nearby in case anything went wrong. But there's only so much a surface vessel can do if everything goes wrong. Skylark received a series of garbled transmissions from the Thresher that reported minor technical difficulties. Then these communications abruptly stopped. The Thresher was gone and with it all 129 crew, officers and civilian technicians aboard. But what had happened? A deep submergence vehicle, the bathyscaphe Trieste II, along with the USS Mizar (AK-272), discovered Thresher's imploded remains around 8,400 feet deep. Evidence pointed to the culprits being piping failure, power loss, and issues with the sub's ballast tanks. This caused the Navy to create its Submarine Safety Program, known as Subsafe. Its goal is to ensure quality of all critical systems, including the hull, to prevent similar tragedies. Submarine disasters aren't restricted to half a century ago. As recently as the turn of this century, the Russian nuclear guided-missile submarine Kursk experienced its own tragedy. Russia had boasted that it was an unsinkable submarine that could stay afloat even after a direct hit from a torpedo, but in August 2000, two explosions occurred on the sub and crippled it, forcing it 350 feet below the Barents Sea's surface. The worst part of this story is that Russia could have rescued 23 of the crewmembers had they acted sooner. The other 118 crewmembers apparently died instantly in the explosion, but those 23 survivors fled to a rear compartment, where they were safe for a brief period. But the Russian navy waited hours before launching a search-and-rescue mission and refused assistance from other nations for a week, dooming those survivors, since an investigation eventually determined that all of the initial survivors had died of carbon monoxide no more than eight hours after the explosions. A two-year investigation concluded that the explosion was caused by torpedoes using unstable hydrogen peroxide as their fuel. But that didn't stop conspiracy theories from arising before the investigation was complete, or Russia from later pointing fingers at a collision caused by a NATO sub. It's not always an explosion or sinking that's catastrophic to a submarine and its crew. Sometimes it's the lack of oxygen. In May 2003, Chinese fisherman saw a periscope protruding from the water. They attempted to make contact, but the fishermen couldn't establish any kind of communications, so they called the People's Liberation Army Navy to the scene. The sub turned out to be a diesel-powered Ming-class submarine, not one of China's newest attack submarines , and it hadn't made contact for several days. However, that didn't strike the navy as peculiar because Changcheng 361 was participating in an exercise that required it to be radio silent. When investigators boarded the outdated submarine, they found all 70 crewmembers slumped over at their stations. There was no sign of a struggle, explosion, or any kind of foul play. China didn't release many details beyond mechanical failure as to the cause of the issue, but the report unleashed speculation that the sub's diesel engines had malfunctioned, suffocating the crew. Moreover, if 70 sailors were aboard, it would have been over capacity, as the Ming class was only supposed to hold a crew of 57. As a result of the sinking, China removed the PLA Navy's Commander Shi Yunsheng and Political Commissar Yang Huaiqing after the investigation concluded.