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Israel launches new strikes on Lebanon as leaders draw closer to ceasefire with HezbollahBy Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island will be connected by subsea cable to the northern garrison city of Darwin, a project backed by Alphabet's Google that Australia says will boost its digital resilience. Christmas Island is 1,500 km (930 miles) west of the Australian mainland, with a small population of 1,250, but strategically located in the Indian Ocean, 350 km (215 miles) from Jakarta. The cable announcement comes as the Australian and U.S. militaries upgrade airfields in Australia's north, where a rotating force of U.S. Marines will be joined by Japanese troops next year. Google's vice president of global network infrastructure, Brian Quigley, said in a statement the Bosun cable will link Darwin to Christmas Island, while another subsea cable will connect Melbourne on Australia's east coast to the west coast city of Perth, then on to Christmas Island and Singapore. Australia is seeking to reduce its exposure to digital disruption by building more subsea cable pathways to Asia to its west, and through the South Pacific to the United States. "These new cable systems will not only expand and strengthen the resilience of Australia's own digital connectivity through new and diversified routes, but will also complement the Government's active work with industry and government partners to support secure, resilient and reliable connectivity across the Pacific," said Communications Minister Michelle Rowland in a statement. The other partners in the cable project include Australian data centre company NextDC, Macquarie-backed telecommunications group Vocus, and Subco. Subco previously built an Indian Ocean cable from Perth to Oman with spurs to the U.S. military base of Diego Garcia, and Cocos Islands, where Australia is upgrading a runway for defence surveillance aircraft. Although 900 km (560 miles) apart, Christmas Island is seen as an Indian Ocean neighbour of Cocos Islands, which the Australian Defence Force has said is key to its maritime surveillance operations in a region where China is increasing submarine activity. The new cables will also link to a Pacific Islands network being built by Google and jointly funded by the United States, connecting the U.S. and Australia through hubs in Fiji and French Polynesia. Vocus said in a statement the two networks will form the world's largest submarine cable system spanning 42,500 km of fibre optic cable running between the U.S. and Asia via Australia. (Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Editing by Lincoln Feast.) Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters .Donald Trump was not only the host for Friday’s dinner with Justin Trudeau and his team — he was also the disc jockey. Controlling the music from his iPad at the dining table in Mar-a-Lago, the president-elect entertained musical requests. Trudeau, sitting beside him, reportedly brought Trump up to speed on the various versions of Leonard Cohen’s legendary “Hallelujah,” though it’s not clear which rendition of the song ended up being played. Trudeau and LeBlanc discussed trade and the border over dinner with the president-elect at his This is not the scene that many expected to see between Trump and Trudeau, who have famously and publicly crossed swords in the past. But it sends a message — as it was supposed to — that Trudeau can deal with Trump back in the White House; never mind what Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said last week about Canada needing someone else in charge. Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc was at the table, too, for the Mar-a-Lago dinner and recounted to CBC anchor Rosemary Barton what he witnessed in terms of the personal dynamics between Trump and Trudeau. LeBlanc described them as “warm” and “cordial.” “I saw very much the mutual respect and warmth between the two leaders. I thought it was very positive. It was the first time I’d seen the two of them together in a sort of prolonged way like that.” LeBlanc said that Trump asked Trudeau to catch him up on personalities on the world stage, presumably those new to the scene since Trump left office in 2021. That’s an interesting position for Trudeau to find himself in — again. Four years ago, he was having these same types of conversations with then-new president Joe Biden, with Trudeau filling in what had happened to U.S. diplomatic relations during the Trump years. Trudeau has now spoken to Trump four times this year. He called him after the assassination attempt on Trump in the summer and from all accounts, it was a warm and friendly call. They spoke again soon after Trump won re-election in early November. Then last Monday, when Trump sent up the incendiary social-media post about tariffs coming to Canada and Mexico, Trudeau got on the phone again. It was during that call that the two men made arrangements for Friday’s surprise summit at Mar-a-Lago. This is a lot more contact than Trudeau had with Trump when he first was elected in 2016. Though senior officials from Canada did shuttle back and forth to Washington to keep in touch with the Trump team before the president was inaugurated, the two leaders themselves didn’t sit down together until Trudeau went to Washington in February 2017. It’s also more contact than Trudeau had four years ago with Biden, when he was the newly elected president. They had a quick call after Biden’s victory and then a longer conversation — Biden’s first with a foreign leader — not long after the inauguration. Then again, Biden wasn’t threatening Canada with tariffs even before getting to the White House. All this increased contact between Trudeau and Trump can be seen very much as a product of Trump’s eagerness to get back into the White House and his vows to get down to business as soon as the Jan. 20 inauguration is over. Trump hasn’t been doing many media availabilities, but Mar-a-Lago has been a swirl of activity. The fact that he set aside the Friday night after Thanksgiving to host Trudeau and his team is not a small thing. Is it encouraging for Canada’s case against the tariffs? With the mercurial Trump, it’s perilous to predict, but the convivial gathering isn’t discouraging. Trudeau and his team are under no illusions that it is going to be any easier to deal with Trump this time than it was during his first four years. The prime minister made that point clear in his call with first ministers last week — convened to co-ordinate a federal response to Trump’s tariff threat. New Brunswick’s new premier, Susan Holt, said in a CBC interview that Trudeau described how the tariffs — if Trump follows through — would be a “heart attack” to the Canadian economy. LeBlanc told reporters and the House of Commons on Monday that while the Friday night dinner wasn’t a negotiating session — no papers in front of them, for instance — it was an important step in forging relationships with Trump and some members of his cabinet. LeBlanc said he has already heard from Howard Lutnick, Trump’s pick for commerce secretary, who was also at the dinner and the two men are due to keep in touch within the coming days. There will be bigger requests to make of Trump and his White House in the months ahead, beyond just musical requests at dinner. If Canada does get Trump to hold off on tariffs, that may be a good time to play “Hallelujah.”
In 2020, a conspiracy theory spread across social media claiming that online home goods retailer Wayfair was involved in child trafficking . People claimed that odd pricing and certain product names were evidence of the theory. VERIFY reader Leslie emailed us to ask if Wayfair was ever involved in the sex trafficking of children. THE QUESTION Is Wayfair involved in the sex trafficking of children? THE SOURCES National Center on Sexual Exploitation DeliverFund , a nonprofit intelligence agency that uses technology to help law enforcement fight human trafficking Polaris , organization that operates the U.S. National Human Trafficking hotline Original VERIFY reporting in 2020 Statement from Wayfair Statement from Wayfair to the BBC in 2020 THE ANSWER No, there is no evidence to support the claims that Wayfair was involved in the sex trafficking of children. WHAT WE FOUND When the conspiracy theory first spread in 2020, people on social media pointed to Wayfair products with strange names and disproportionately high prices as proof that the online furniture store was involved in child trafficking. These products included a “Samiyah Storage Cabinet” priced at over $14,000 and a “Duplessis Zodiac Sign Astrological Constellation Personalized Throw Pillow” at $9,999. At the time, people claimed that these products shared the names of girls that were reported missing. The theory followed that the products had high prices because they were fronts for selling the missing girls. Wayfair told the BBC in 2020 that the prices were accurate for the industrial grade cabinets and were the result of a glitch in the case of the pillows. Wayfair gave VERIFY a similar statement when asked to comment in 2024. "There is, of course, no truth to these claims," Wayfair told VERIFY. "The products in question are industrial grade cabinets that are accurately priced. Recognizing that the photos and descriptions provided by the supplier did not adequately explain the high price point, we temporarily removed the products from the site to rename them and provide a more in-depth description and photos that accurately depict the product to clarify the price point. We also corrected another pricing issue that was resulting in other products such as throw pillows being priced incorrectly. Multiple news outlets published stories to debunk the theory. " The viral social media posts frequently linked products to girls who were no longer missing. Multiple anti-trafficking groups said the claims were unproven and likely false. “We believe that the accusations being leveled against Wayfair regarding sex trafficking are lacking credibility in significant ways and, in many places, demonstrably false,” the National Center on Sexual Exploitation said at the time. In 2020, VERIFY found that the family of Samara Duplessis, a missing girl purportedly linked to the overpriced pillows, reported she was back home a couple of months before the Wayfair conspiracy became widespread. When VERIFY searched Wayfair for “Duplessis” products in 2020, we found the name attached to a number of different items that were considerably less expensive than the pillow. When VERIFY searched Wayfair’s site again on Dec. 2, 2024, we found it’s using the “Duplessis” name for at least one product, a rug selling for $144.99 , years after the missing girl was found. As for the reference to the cabinets in the original rumors, people claimed that there was a missing teenager from Ohio named Samiyah, too. But VERIFY was unable to find any evidence that a girl by that name was missing, and a teenager some people believed to be Samiyah refuted that she was missing in a video posted to her Facebook account. Wayfair told the BBC in 2020 that the expensive cabinets were “industrial size,” meant for business or commercial use and that the $14,000 price point was accurate. “We have temporarily removed the products from our site to rename them and to provide a more in-depth description and photos that accurately depict the product to clarify the price point,” Wayfair told the BBC in 2020. Another example of a missing teenager’s name possibly matching a Wayfair product was Mary Durrett to a Durrett coffee table. But she went missing in 2017 and was found safe two days after she was first reported missing. The claim connecting her to the coffee table listing was posted three years later. Many anti-trafficking organizations addressed the rumors in 2020. They all said the claims lacked credibility. “We identified early on that this was a likely hoax or a case of overexuberance by someone who did not have the expertise and data-driven approach that DeliverFund has,” Michael Fullilove, chief of operations for DeliverFund , a nonprofit intelligence agency that uses technology to help law enforcement fight human trafficking, said in 2020. “Based on the original source of the information, we were able to use open source intelligence techniques to determine that it was highly unlikely that the trafficking of children was taking place through the sale of expensive items on Wayfair,” Fullilove said. Polaris , which operates the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline, said the claims were unsubstantiated and did more harm than good. People overwhelmed the hotline to make reports related to the conspiracy, increasing wait times and potentially denying trafficking victims from reaching the hotline. The theory also resulted in harassment and privacy intrusions of people mistakenly believed to be victims, as well as broad sharing of online sexual abuse material of real victims never connected to the Wayfair conspiracy, Polaris said. Polaris pointed out that trafficking is rarely perpetrated by a total stranger who kidnaps children and is instead usually perpetrated by people the victims know or even love and trust. Scenarios where the trafficker locks up or imprisons the victim with literal shackles make up a minority of trafficking cases despite it being the common public perception of trafficking, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation said. Traffickers usually groom their victims and keep them captive through forms of psychological abuse, manipulation and coercion that can be difficult to identify. There are real cases in which sex trafficking is perpetrated online, usually through prostitution sites and pornography websites, according to the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation said in 2020 that traffickers were increasingly using “popular social media apps such as Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok to identify, groom and exploit children in the online space.” Anti-trafficking organizations say that sharing viral, unsubstantiated trafficking rumors online is generally unhelpful to trafficking victims. What’s more helpful, these organizations say , is to learn how to identify real, common cases of trafficking to spot victims who need help.
North Branch, MN, Dec. 16, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tim Davis, a seasoned entrepreneur, has turned his family into a powerhouse team at the North Branch Dickey’s Barbecue Pit . With Tim and his wife Sue at the helm, their son Seth as General Manager, and their daughter Hannah leading marketing efforts, the Davis family has transformed their location into a cornerstone of the community since opening in April 2024. “Our family dynamic is the foundation of our success,” said Tim Davis, franchisee. “Everyone brings their strengths to the table, and together we’re building something we’re incredibly proud of—not just for us, but for our community.” Tim and Sue Davis purchased the North Branch location after seeing it as the perfect opportunity to combine their entrepreneurial spirit with a love for great barbecue. With a background that includes real estate franchises and other business ventures, Tim saw something unique in Dickey’s. “The decision to join Dickey’s wasn’t just about the product—it was about the people,” said Tim. “The Dickey’s corporate team provided unwavering support throughout the process, from training to daily operations. That personal touch made all the difference.” The Davis family has made their Dickey’s location a testament to collaboration and teamwork. Seth Davis, General Manager: With a passion for food and smoking meats, Seth has become the driving force behind the kitchen operations. Hannah Davis, Marketing Director: Leveraging her business and marketing degree, Hannah has taken the lead in connecting with the community through events, promotions, and catering. “Dad handles the business, Seth focuses on the food, and I handle the marketing,” said Hannah Davis. “It’s a perfect balance. We each bring something unique, and that collaboration is what makes this work.” Sue Davis, a school principal, also contributes by helping with catering deliveries and providing strategic input. Together, the Davis family is creating a legacy of quality barbecue and community involvement. Like any business, the journey hasn’t been without challenges. From navigating equipment repairs to managing labor costs, the Davis family has tackled each hurdle with determination and support from the Dickey’s team. “You learn quickly that financial discipline and adaptability are key,” said Tim. “Dickey’s provides the resources and guidance we need to overcome obstacles and continue growing.” The Dickey’s system has been instrumental in helping the Davis family succeed. “Dickey’s commitment to quality and tradition is what sets the brand apart,” said Tim. “From the smoking process to the customer service, everything is designed to ensure an excellent experience.” Roland Dickey, Jr. , CEO of Dickey’s Capital Group , praised the family’s efforts. “The Davis family embodies the spirit of Dickey’s—hardworking, innovative, and community-focused,” he said. “Their ability to create a welcoming environment while staying true to our brand’s values is exactly what makes our franchisees so successful.” For the Davis family, their Dickey’s isn’t just a restaurant—it’s a gathering place for the North Branch community. They’ve prioritized building relationships with their neighbors and supporting local events, making Dickey’s a true community hub. “We’re here to serve more than just barbecue—we’re here to serve people,” said Hannah Davis. “Our goal is to create memories and make every guest feel like part of the family.” Laura Rea Dickey , CEO of Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants, Inc., highlighted the family’s impact. “The Davis family represents what makes Dickey’s so special,” she said. “They’ve seamlessly blended entrepreneurial vision with the heart of a family business, creating an experience that resonates with their guests and their community.” As the Davis family continues to grow their business, they remain committed to upholding Dickey’s values of quality, community, and tradition. “Our journey with Dickey’s is about more than just business,” said Tim. “It’s about creating a legacy for our family and a gathering place for our community. With the support of Dickey’s, we’re excited for what the future holds.” About Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants, Inc. Founded in 1941 by The Dickey Family, Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants, Inc. is the world’s largest barbecue concept and continues as a third-generation family-run business. For over 80 years, Dickey’s Barbecue Pit has served millions with its signature Legit. Texas. Barbecue.TM Slow-smoked over hickory wood-burning pits, Dickey’s barbecued meats are paired with a variety of southern sides. Committed to authentic barbecue, Dickey’s never takes shortcuts—because real barbecue can’t be rushed. With over 866 restaurants across eight concepts in the U.S. and several countries, Dickey’s Barbecue Franchise and Dickey’s Restaurant Brands continues to grow under the leadership of Roland Dickey, Jr., CEO of Dickey’s Capital Group, and Laura Rea Dickey, CEO of Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, Inc. Dickey’s has been recognized on Newsweek’s 2022 "America’s Favorite Restaurant Chains" list, Nation’s Restaurant News 2024 top fast-casual brands for value, and USA Today’s 2021 Readers’ Choice Awards. The brand has also ranked in the Top 20 of Fast Casual’s “Top 100 Movers and Shakers” for four of the past five years. Additional accolades include Entrepreneur's Top 500 Franchise and Hospitality Technology’s Industry Heroes list. The brand has been featured by Fox News, Forbes, Franchise Times, The Wall Street Journal, and People Magazine . For more information, visit www.dickeys.com . For information about becoming a franchise partner, visit www.dickeysfranchise.com . Attachment Hannah Davis, Seth Davis, Tim Davis and Sue Davis in front of the North BranchUS budget airlines are struggling. Will pursuing premium passengers solve their problems?
Judge rejects request to sideline SJSU volleyball playerA bankruptcy judge on Monday delayed a hearing in conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ effort to stop the satirical news outlet The Onion from buying Infowars, keeping the auction sale up in the air for at least another few weeks. Jones alleges fraud and collusion marred the bankruptcy auction that resulted in The Onion being named the winning bidder over a company affiliated with him. A trustee overseeing the auction denies the allegations and accuses Jones of launching a smear campaign because he didn't like the outcome. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez had been scheduled to hear an emergency motion to disqualify The Onion's bid on Monday, but put it off until either Dec. 9 or Dec. 17. That's also when the judge will hear arguments on the trustee's request to approve the sale of Infowars to The Onion. Lopez said it made sense to have one hearing on both requests. “I want a fair and transparent process and let’s just see where the process goes," Lopez said. Lopez could ultimately allow The Onion to move forward with its purchase, order a new auction or name the other bidder as the winner. At stake is whether Jones gets to stay at Infowars’ studio in Austin, Texas, under a new owner friendly to him, or whether he gets kicked out by The Onion. The other bidder, First United American Companies, runs a website in Jones’ name that sells nutritional supplements. Jones continues to broadcast his show from the Infowars studio, but he has set up a new location, websites and social media accounts as a precaution. The trustee shut down the Austin studio and Infowars' websites for about 24 hours last week after The Onion was announced as the winning bidder, but allowed them to resume the next day, drawing more complaints from Jones. Jones declared bankruptcy and liquidated his assets after he was ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion to relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. He was ordered to pay damages for defamation and emotional distress in lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas after he repeatedly said the 2012 shooting that killed 20 first graders and six educators was a hoax staged by actors to increase gun control. Proceeds from the liquidation are to go to Jones’ creditors, including the Sandy Hook families who sued him. Last year, Lopez ruled that $1.1 billion of the Sandy Hook judgments could not be discharged in the bankruptcy. On Monday, he denied a request from Sandy Hook families to make the full $1.5 billion not dischargeable, meaning the debt cannot be wiped clean. Also Monday, lawyers for the social media platform X objected to any sale of the accounts of both Jones and Infowars, saying X is the owner of the accounts and it has not given consent for them to be sold or transferred. Jones' personal X account, with 3.3 million followers, was not part of the auction, but Lopez will be deciding if it should be included in the liquidation. Jones has praised X owner Elon Musk on his show and suggested that Musk should buy Infowars. Musk has not responded publicly to that suggestion and was not among the bidders. Jones was permanently banned from Twitter in 2018 for abusive behavior, but Musk restored Jones’ account on the platform he has since renamed X in December last year. Jones alleges The Onion’s bid was the result of fraud and collusion involving many of the Sandy Hook families, the humor site and the court-appointed trustee. First United American Companies submitted a $3.5 million sealed bid, while The Onion offered $1.75 million in cash. But The Onion's bid also included a pledge by Sandy Hook families to forgo some or all of the auction proceeds due to them to give other creditors a total of $100,000 more than they would receive under other bids. The trustee, Christopher Murray, said that made The Onion's proposal better for creditors and he named it the winning bid. Jones and First United American Companies claimed that the bid violated Lopez’s rules for the auction by including multiple entities and lacking a valid dollar amount. Jones also alleged Murray improperly canceled an expected round of live bidding and only selected from among the two sealed bids that were submitted. Jones called the auction “rigged” and a “fraud” on his show, which airs on the Infowars website, radio stations and Jones' X account. He filed a counter lawsuit last week against Murray, The Onion's parent company and the Sandy Hook families in the bankruptcy court. In a court filing on Sunday, Murray called the allegations a “desperate attempt” to delay the sale of Infowars to The Onion and accused Jones, his lawyers and attorneys for First United American Companies of a “vicious smear campaign lobbing patently false accusations.” He also alleged Jones collaborated with First United American Companies to try to buy Infowars. Lopez’s September order on the auction procedures made a live bidding round optional. And it gave broad authority to Murray to conduct the sale, including the power to reject any bid, no matter how high, that was “contrary to the best interests” of Jones, his company and their creditors. The assets of Infowars' parent company, Free Speech Systems, that were up for sale included the Austin studio, Infowars' video archive, video production equipment, product trademarks, and Infowars' websites and social media accounts. Another auction of remaining assets is set for Dec. 10. Jones is appealing the $1.5 billion in judgments citing free speech rights, but has acknowledged that the school shooting happened . Many of Jones’ personal assets, including real estate, guns and other belongings, also are being sold as part of the bankruptcy. Documents filed in court this year say Jones had about $9 million in personal assets, while Free Speech Systems had about $6 million in cash and more than $1 million worth of inventory.
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ESTERO, Fla. (AP) — Al Green scored 19 points and Sean Newman Jr. added seven in the overtime as Louisiana Tech knocked off Southern Illinois 85-79 in a first-round contest at the Gulf Coast Showcase on Monday night. Green had three steals for the Bulldogs (5-0). Kaden Cooper scored 18 points and added 12 rebounds and four steals. Amaree Abram went 8 of 13 from the field to finish with 18 points, while adding six steals. Kennard Davis led the way for the Salukis (2-4) with 16 points, 10 rebounds and three steals. Southern Illinois also got 15 points and eight rebounds from Jarrett Hensley. Ali Abdou Dibba also had 12 points and two steals. Cooper scored 12 points in the first half and Louisiana Tech went into the break trailing 31-27. Abram's 16-point second half helped Louisiana Tech close out the six-point victory. NEXT UP These two teams both play Tuesday in the six-team, round-robin tournament. Louisiana Tech squares off against Richmond and Southern Illinois faces Eastern Kentucky. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .No. 2 Auburn arrives for prove-it game at No. 9 Duke
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Following Hunter Biden pardon, prosecutors push back against criticism of caseIt is a snowball gathering speed. Or may-be it’s a mudslide gaining momentum. Or maybe it’s a virus. Whatever it is, it seems to be birthing more and more litigation across mostly North India. It certainly seems that keeping the “country on the boil” is back in favour as a tried, tested, easy and successful strategy for the “Hindu Right”, led by the BJP and the nearly 100-year-old voluntary social service outfit RSS. On a mission to hoist India to the “pinnacle of glory” by reorganising history, chronically litigious Hindu outfits like the International Hari Har Sena Sri Ram Sena, Hindu Sena and a bevy of lawyers and fervent petitioners have filed a slew of cases, in war mode in district courts across North India. The demand is straightforward: demolish and dig up 30,000 sites where believers are certain temples were built over and mosques established. By adding Ajmer Sharif, the shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, that needs to be dug up to reportedly uncover a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, the Hindu Right has outdone itself. Among the devout, it is usual to place “chadars”, a sheet, on the grave of the Sufi mystic. Among those who have done so in recent times are India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and tens of thousands of devotees from all across the world. When Mr Modi sent the chadar, duly captured on camera, it was believed he was trying to appease Muslim voters ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Others, however, have prayed and visited Sufi shrines, including the Fatehpur Sikri dargah near Agra, like former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his partner Carla Bruni, who prayed for a child and indeed had one. Hindutva or Hindu fundamentalism, or Hindu revival — though why something that flourished for millennia needs rev-ival is a mystery, because it never faded, verged on extinction, though it was in danger of being eclipsed by Buddhism around and after Emperor Ashoka's times. But in twenty-first century In-dia, some people believe it needs kindling to keep it burning. Reviving temples suspected or believed to have been destroyed is the new and supplementary agenda of Hindutva. A new archaeology has been established in service of Hindutva. Thanks to former Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, the starter or spark or kindling was his 2022 decision to overturn the 1991 law, which sought to “prohibit conversion of any place of worship and to provide for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on the 15th day of August 1947”, otherwise known as the Places of Worship Act. While the law was meant to be tamper proof, the former Chief Justice, who seemed to fuse his piety with his professional responsibilities, decided that digging into the foundations of Varanasi’s Gyanvapi Masjid to uncover a “Shiva linga” was perfectly in order. The outcome of the reversal and its consequences are four dead and several injured in UP’s Sambhal over a dispute on what lies below the Shahi Jama Masjid. The claim by a mahant was followed up by a lawyer, who is involved in other places of worship disputes, starting with the Gyanvapi, Mathura’s Shahi Idgah Mosque and the Sambhal dispute. Having retired and thus free to presumably pursue his pieties in private, instead of in front of a camera that turned his devotions into a public spectacle, the retired Chief Justice can now watch from the sidelines the consequences of his decision. The Hindu Right in pursuit of Hindu revival, aided and abetted by a judiciary that brandishes God to support its decisions that are fundamentally flawed, as in the Ayodhya land dispute, is now part of the archaeology of Hindutva. To legitimise the digs and gigs, advocates and various litigants have a judiciary that is willing to overturn the law to enable what the law said could not be done. So, claims can be confidently made that legal proceedings will progress faster than a “bullet train” and that justice, as defined by them, will be done. Hindutva archaeology is essential to the project of “de-Islamisation”, as Mujibur Rahman calls it in his recent book, Shikwah e Hind. Digs and gigs are the window dressing required to legitimise the supplementary project to avoid committing what the apex court led by former Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi described as a “heinous crime”, of mosque demolition in the Ayodhya case. The law and the taxpayer are vulnerable to being used as a tool of cynical exploitation of sentiment since the Hindu revivalists are essentially a bunch of freeloaders ra-ther than philanthropists or zealous crusaders. With the courts turning into the revivalist’s fa-vourite tool, the changes proposed to the law on Waqf properties will certainly add to the thousands of cases that are already in the judicial system over land and other disputes relating to Waqf-administered properties. The choice for the Narendra Modi government is simple: it can support the supplementary project of mosque demolition-temple rebuilding and do so by abandoning the Constitution and its basic structure of which secularism is a part. Or, he can rein in the Hindu Right and demolish the supplementary project. He can follow the route he has adopted on the Waqf issue or duck responsibility, albeit temporarily. If that is a choice too stark for the Prime Minister, he can resort to playing cat and mouse with the secularism project and the supplementary project of Hindutva. Legalising the demolition of Muslim places of worship on the pretext of unverified claims to temples buried under them is a political problem; it is not a problem that the judiciary can solve. The choice and decision that the Modi government has to make is simple. It can either amend the 1991 Places of Worship Act and open the floodgates to the new archaeology that Hindutva is trying to establish; or, it can, in Parliament, in this Win-ter Session, unequivocally declare its commitment to upholding the 1991 law. Any waffling on this as a government is unacceptable. Flawed and weak as the attempt may have been, from within the ranks of the BJP there was a move to throw out the words “secular” and “socialist” added through the 42nd Amendment in 1976. The Supreme Court, currently headed by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, has thrown out the petition. It does not mean that another petition will not be filed at a different time to which the apex court’s response could be different. The Places of Worship Act reversal is a case in point; mischief can be made whenever there is a convergence of ideas, ideologies, politics and petitioners.Trump's Tariff Threats Loom Amid Global Trade ConcernsENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — What's stoking the Denver Broncos' surprising surge is the growing connection between rookie quarterback Bo Nix and veteran wide receiver Courtland Sutton. Whenever the Broncos (7-5) need a clutch catch, a key flag or a timely touchdown, Sutton is usually the one delivering it like he did Sunday when he caught eight passes on 10 targets for 97 yards and a pair of touchdowns that sparked the Broncos' come-from-behind 29-19 win at Las Vegas. “Courtland played tremendous,” coach Sean Payton said. Again. “He’s just reliable,” Nix said. “He's just always there when you need him.” Sutton's size (6-foot-4 and 216 pounds) and experience (he's in his seventh NFL season) make him an ideal target and safety valve for the rookie QB whose confidence is growing by the week. “He’s smart. He’s savvy. He makes plays when the ball’s in the air,” Nix said. “You can trust him. When it’s up in the air, it’s his or nobody’s. It’s not going to be a pick.” Nix's first touchdown toss to Sutton was an 18-yarder that allowed the QB to break Marlin Briscoe's 1968 Denver rookie record of 14 TD passes, and the two connected again with 5:30 left to make it a two-score game. The Broncos trailed 13-9 at halftime and Nix said they knew they had to get the ball into Sutton's hands more in the second half after he had caught the only pass thrown his way in the first half (for 17 yards). “Didn’t target him (much) in the first half,” Nix said. “We come out and say, ‘Look, Courtland, this is your half.’ We take over the game. He goes for two touchdowns. That just kind of speaks for what he means to our team.” Sutton has been on a tear after since he wasn't targeted a single time in Denver's 33-10 win at New Orleans on Oct. 17. (Payton mentioned as recently as last week what an anomaly that game was because there was a heavy diet of plays for Sutton that just didn't pan out for various reasons.) In his six games before that goose egg, Sutton had 21 catches on 49 targets for 277 yards and a touchdown. In the five games since, he's caught 36 of the 48 balls thrown his way for 467 yards and three TDs. Plus, he threw a touchdown pass to Nix on a “Philly Special” at Baltimore in Week 9. “I think we're just scratching the surface,” Sutton said. Thanks in part to the chemistry between Nix and Sutton, the Broncos are in position for the seventh and final playoff spot entering December. The passing game, thanks to the Nix-Sutton connection. The running game. Javonte Williams had just 2 yards on eight carries and Audric Estime ran three times for 15 yards against the Raiders' run-heavy fronts and a steady diet of blitzes. Jaleel McLaughlin saved the day with seven carries for 44 yards. OLB Nik Bonitto. His 10 sacks make him the first Denver defender with double-digit sacks since 2018, when Von Miller did it. Once again, the Broncos' special teams, with the exception of K Wil Lutz, who hasn't missed a field goal attempt or extra point since his protection unit cratered at Kansas City three weeks ago and allowed the Chiefs to block what would have been the game-winning kick as time expired. On Sunday, the Raiders had a successful fake punt and a 59-yard kickoff return. Payton isn't saying much about the injuries to DE Zach Allen (heel) and CB Riley Moss (knee) except that to him they're not serious setbacks for either player. 2 — The Broncos are two games above .500 for the first time since starting the 2021 season with three wins. The Broncos host Cleveland (3-8) on Monday night ahead of their bye week. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
If “ rawdogging ” flights and “ gate lice ” bugging airline staff weren’t enough for bizarre travel trends this year, there’s a new type of passenger causing chaos in the airport – those playing “check-in chicken”. The latest category of flyer applies to travellers who wait to book a seat until check-ins are almost closed in the hope of scoring the best available seats. That’s the coveted extra legroom chairs and roomy exit row aisles in most cases. According to Chelsea Dickenson, The Cheap Holiday Expert, leaving it last minute to check in online for a Wizz Air or Ryanair flight is usually a foolproof way to secure extra legroom or a seat up front. She claims these airlines, which charge extra to pre-book seats, split up parties travelling together by placing them “in the bad seats”, leaving the best spots on the plane up for grabs. In a TikTok video, Chelsea says: “Essentially, what they do is they palm off the middle seats or the back of the plane in the hope that you will then pay to change your seat and if you sit tight and wait, you will see that the only ones left are extra legroom seats and the ones at the front of the plane.” However, the last-minute strategy is, of course, not without risk for those who jump on the TikTok trend. The boarding hack works best when “chickens” keep a beady eye on the check-in seating plan throughout the day, Chelsea adds. Chelsea warns travellers playing chicken with check-in not to leave it until the last minute as an overbooked flight could leave you without a seat. “Wizz Air and Ryanair both have a fairly high average load factor - around 94% - and so planes are often close to full,” wrote the travel blogger. The “check-in chicken” boarding hack follows a crackdown on “gate lice” by American Airlines . AA announced this month that it is expanding its new technology to control “ gate lice ” – keen passengers with an itch to line up at the gate before they are called to board a flight. More than 100 airports across the US will now use the boarding tech over the busy Thanksgiving and Christmas travel period after successful trials in Albuquerque, Washington and Tucson last month . The new software will not accept the boarding pass of passengers before their group number is called and will make an audible sound to alert gate agents that they have broken boarding protocol. A message will also be displayed on the screen for airline staff, who can then instruct cutting-in customers to stand aside until their group is called to board. For more travel news and advice, listen to Simon Calder’s podcastLast holiday for Biden White House celebrates 'a season of peace and light'
BigCommerce to Present at Upcoming Investor ConferencesPASOK-Movement for Change (KINAL) will table an amendment for the extraordinary taxation of excessive bank profits, party leader Nikos Androulakis said on Monday. Speaking at the Ikonomikos Tachydromos Forum 2024, he clarified that "it will not be an excessive measure, since it does not contain a fiscal nature alone, but a political one as well. While people pay for high prices and small and medium-sized businesses are in dire straits, in Greece we have the greatest gap between deposit interests and loan interests, and large fees as well, after having provided billions in constant recapitalizations." Androulakis called on banks to show a social sensitivity, "something they have not done to date," he said, "while they have already handled a lot of money from the Recovery and Resilience Fund. Therefore, our initiative is both of a fiscal and political nature." At the same time, the party leader also announced a new legislative initiative by PASOK to manage the distortion in the real estate market and the rapid increase of rents due to the golden visa program of foreign investments. "We proposed that the golden visa program not be linked to short-term rentals. In other words, whoever buys a house on the golden visa program, this should be meant either for self-use, or for long-term rental. Tomorrow (Tuesday) I shall reintroduce the proposal, with the addition of an amendment that provides that when the golden visa holder comes to renew it in five years, they cannot lease the property short term," Androulakis said. He cited the Bank of Greece speaking of oligopoly practices at the expense of consumers in four sectors - banks, food commerce, private health, and energy. When "we have done almost nothing to deal with these, then someone has to assume initiative," he said, adding, "if the prime minister does not have the courage to do it, we shall do so. And we shall see in Parliament that New Democracy deputies, who a few weeks ago said they had a more social attitude than the New Democracy economy team, I invite them tomorrow to show this social attitude by voting overwhelmingly for PASOK's fair amendments in the taxation bill." Androulakis also said that he will raise the country's greatest issues during his meeting with the prime minister on Wednesday, such as the economy, inflation, housing, and the rule of law.
Camara 8-13 0-0 21, Jones 2-3 0-0 4, Kelly 10-18 0-0 20, Berry 1-7 4-4 7, R.Johnson 8-14 4-6 23, Gibson 1-2 0-1 2, Oden 2-6 0-0 6. Totals 32-63 8-11 83. B.Johnson 7-13 3-5 23, Kidd 4-8 1-1 9, Bethea 3-8 0-0 6, Blackmon 4-11 0-0 9, Staton-McCray 4-8 3-4 13, Swartz 4-6 4-4 15, Cleveland 1-2 0-0 2, Djobet 1-2 0-0 2, Ugochukwu 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 28-59 11-14 79. Halftime_Charleston Southern 45-37. 3-Point Goals_Charleston Southern 11-24 (Camara 5-10, R.Johnson 3-6, Oden 2-4, Berry 1-3, Kelly 0-1), Miami 12-33 (B.Johnson 6-12, Swartz 3-4, Staton-McCray 2-4, Blackmon 1-8, Cleveland 0-1, Djobet 0-1, Ugochukwu 0-1, Bethea 0-2). Rebounds_Charleston Southern 31 (Kelly 11), Miami 27 (B.Johnson 8). Assists_Charleston Southern 15 (Kelly 6), Miami 16 (Kidd, Djobet 4). Total Fouls_Charleston Southern 14, Miami 14. A_3,244 (8,000).COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A fight broke out at midfield after Michigan 13-10 on Saturday when players attempted to plant their flag on the OSU logo and were confronted by the . Police used pepper spray to break up the players, who threw punches and shoves in the melee that overshadowed the rivalry game. One officer suffered unspecified injuries and was taken to a hospital, a police union official said. After the Ohio State players confronted their rivals at midfield, defensive end Jack Sawyer grabbed the top of the Wolverines' flag and ripped it off the pole as the brawl moved toward the Michigan bench. Eventually, officers rushed in to try to break up the fracas. Ohio State coach Ryan Day said he understood his players' actions. “There are some prideful guys on our team who weren't going to sit back and let that happen,” Day said. The two Ohio State players made available after the game brushed off questions about it. Michigan running back Kalel Mullings, who rushed for 116 yards and a touchdown, said he didn't like how the Buckeyes players involved themselves in the Wolverines' postgame celebration, calling it “classless.” “For such a great game, you hate to see stuff like that after the game," he told Fox Sports in an on-field interview. “It’s just bad for the sport, bad for college football. But at the end of the day, you know some people got to — they got to learn how to lose, man. ... We had 60 minutes, we had four quarters, to do all that fighting.” Ohio State police said in a statement that “multiple officers representing Ohio and Michigan deployed pepper spray.” University police said they will continue to investigate the brawl. Brian Steel, president of the police union representing officers in Franklin County, that an officer was injured. “Officers are authorized to use pepper spray to stop assaults and protect themselves and others,” Steel added. Michigan players could be seen rubbing their eyes after exposure to the chemical irritant. Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said both teams could have handled the situation differently. “So much emotions on both sides,” he said. “Rivalry games get heated, especially this one. It’s the biggest one in the country, so we got to handle that better.” ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up . AP college football: and
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