Stock market today: Wall Street rises at the start of a holiday-shortened weekStock market today: Wall Street rises at the start of a holiday-shortened weekThe Gophers football program continued to address its needs along the offensive line on Saturday, getting commitments from Washington left tackle Kahlee Tafai and Kentucky left guard Dylan Ray out of the NCAA transfer portal. ADVERTISEMENT The U has four starters leaving after this season, including both tackles — Aireontae Ersery to the NFL Draft and Phillip Daniels in a transfer to Ohio State — and both senior guards Quinn Carroll and Tyler Cooper. The Gophers have added 13 total players through the transfer portal, including right guard Marcellus Marshall (Central Florida). Tafai, who is listed at 6-foot-5 and 330 pounds, moved into the Huskies’ starting lineup during his freshman season in 2024. He has three years of eligibility remaining. A native of Lawndale, Calif., Tafai played 267 offensive snaps in the Big Ten last season but had a low 38.5 overall grade from Pro Football Focus in his first extensive college experience. He also played a few snaps at right tackle a year ago. ADVERTISEMENT Ray, who is listed at 6-6 and 310, has played more than 1,000 snaps over the last two seasons for Kentucky after beginning his career with two years at West Virginia. He started 10 games for the SEC program in 2023, but only two last year. The Noblesville, Ind., native had a near-average grade of 57.5 from PFF in 2024. He has one year of eligibility remaining for the U next fall. ______________________________________________________ This story was written by one of our partner news agencies. Forum Communications Company uses content from agencies such as Reuters, Kaiser Health News, Tribune News Service and others to provide a wider range of news to our readers. Learn more about the news services FCC uses here .By Ashton De Santis, director – inventory partnerships, The Trade Desk Australia’s Upfronts season brought a wave of new energy to the advertising world. With advertisers facing mounting pressure to prove real business impact, this year’s sessions put measurement and accountability at the heart of the conversation. Publishers doubled down on the value of premium content from BVOD to live sports and challenged the dominance of less impactful channels such as social media. Nine’s new partnership with independent market mix modelling (MMM) solutions and Foxtel’s alliances with Kantar and Adgile signal an industry change away from vanity metrics towards more meaningful business outcomes. This renewed focus on measurement is setting the stage for an exciting year ahead. In particular, for brands that have moved away from upper-funnel strategies in favour of short-term performance campaigns due to tightening budgets, this shift is a game-changer. With consumer confidence poised to grow in early 2025 and inflation slowly easing, brands may look to unlock bigger budgets. But with these opportunities comes responsibility – marketers must show that every dollar delivers growth. More granular insights can help turn marketing into a measurable growth engine, reinforcing its vital role in driving long-term business success. Case in point: Kellogg’s proved the real business impact of BVOD by leveraging Unpacked by Flybuys retail data in their advertising strategy. By targeting Flybuys’ high-value audience segments – from low-sugar buyers to cereal enthusiasts and health food shoppers – they effectively reached new potential customers. The campaign demonstrated how BVOD ads directly translated into sales at Flybuys’ retail partners and resulted in a 156% surge in conversions for Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain brand and an impressive 187% sales boost for brands like Coco Pops. The Upfronts also debunked the myth that TV as a whole is in decline, proving that total TV remains a force in advertising. With publishers introducing technology that enables seamless cross-channel activation, campaigns can now unify across BVOD, SVOD, live broadcast, and streaming all under one cohesive strategy. However, despite these advancements, the challenge of fragmented measurement persists. To unlock greater efficiency, brands will need tools that integrate data across devices and publishers, including their own first-party data. Industry identity solutions like Unified ID 2.0 can bridge these gaps by targeting and measuring their audience across the wider publisher ecosystem. Let’s keep in mind that Aussies spend 64% of digital media time on the open internet, from video and audio streaming to online news to apps. This presents a massive opportunity for advertisers. So while publishers are proving the value of premium content, the real impact will come from optimizing investments across the entire open internet. For advertisers ready to embrace the future, the playbook is clear: premium content across the open internet, unified measurement, and a relentless focus on real business outcomes. – Top image: Ashton De Santis
As a nation moving through the last days of 2024, we face challenges that slice like a scalpel through our values and identity. It’s easy to dismiss the Federal Government as hopeless when the daily news cycle has brought more evidence of what the Prime Minister and his team did and what we, as the alleged power-holding voters, believe they should have done. Cast your mind back to the Bob Hawke era, his approach often described as pragmatic but with a broad social vision. No one was left behind on his watch and even death threats to his family did not dilute his passion for being pro-Israel. Anthony Albanese’s cautious approach to the top job, due in part to the wallop he got when the Voice referendum failed in 2023, means inertia has well and truly set in. Albanese bet his political capital on a proposal that was poorly executed. That means the fallout from the referendum has continued to shape Australia’s 2024 political landscape, making it harder for our leaders to find ground on critical issues. Indigenous communities are still waiting for meaningful action on health and education. And the rest of the country is still wondering how a government wasted so much on a project that achieved precisely nothing. Culture wars and acute frustration over the cost of living is enmeshed in the very fabric of our society and it has only intensified, reshaping the way we view our country and each other. Some might see this as progress because we are too “traditional” and not “blue sky thinking” enough but I feel many of us this year have identified an erosion of what it means to be Australian. This is especially true in regional and rural areas where the decent and hardworking are feeling marginalised by what they view as a liberal overreach. And marginalised is quite the way to describe the year that was 2024 for Australia, with a renewable energy crusade dishing up the threat of blackouts and our PM taking his sweet time to support our Australian Jewish community. It has been a year rich in farce and fury. The push toward net-zero emissions has meant the left and The Greens grinding our gears about the moral imperative of climate action. But this distraction for the government, in particular globetrotting Energy Minister Chris Bowen, has delivered us declining investment in coal infrastructure twinned with dwindling energy security. Have you ever faced Christmas wondering if the oven will die in a blackout while the turkey is basting and roasting? Me neither. Bowen preached to international audiences about Australia’s green ambitions while families were cursing their electricity bills. Meanwhile the 2024 Rental Affordability Index indicated that housing was more unaffordable than ever, with median rents in Australia surpassing $600 per week. Younger Australians are still locked out of the property market, staring wistfully at the avocado on toast they’re apparently still told to sacrifice in order to achieve the great Aussie dream. Every January we have the same cultural flashpoint about “toxic” Australia Day on the 26th and it never gets fixed. We had it this year and we’ll have it next year. No other country punishes itself like this, calculating who will be triggered by celebrating our national day. From cancelling mothers and fathers in childcare centres and recently the word Christmas in local government electorates, 2024 also marked peak identity politics. But most egregious remains the Albo go slow for supporting our Jewish community on these shores. It still baffles me and no doubt government inaction meant anti-Semitism moved from threat to day to day reality on the terror dial. Anti-Semitism remains a horror show for the entire Australian population. Amid these blunders we saw countless examples of communities coming together to help those in need, whether it was farmers rallying after devastating floods, locals banding together to support businesses hit hard by rising costs and those moments of horror such as Westfield Bondi and a burning synagogue. Our political class may seem hopeless but ordinary people are stepping up where their leaders failed. Will 2025 be the year we finally get action over ideology, practicality in favour of politics and results instead of rhetoric? Yes, let’s see. Louise Roberts is a journalist and editor who has worked as a TV and radio commentator in Australia, the UK and the US. Louise is a winner of the Peter Ruehl Award for Outstanding Columnist in the NRMA Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism and has been shortlisted in other awards for her opinion workThe experience of getting a period is hardly thrilling, especially if it comes with bloating, cramps, and irritation. But PMS symptoms aside, one of the more exasperating (and sometimes embarrassing) parts of menstruation involves leaky underwear. Yet for generations, women just did their best, hoping their pads wouldn’t shift and tampons would hold under heavy flows. Those were the old days. Today, a new generation of women is saying, “Enough with this.” In an era of freedom, why should any woman be made to feel ashamed just because she menstruates? The answer, of course, is that she shouldn’t. And she shouldn’t have to deal with flow leaks, either, which is why Knix has become such a welcome innovator in the intimate apparel scene. The Knix story began in the early 2010s with the vision of entrepreneur Johanna Griffiths. Tired of an undergarment market that had flash but lacked comfort and practicality, she launched Knix. Although the company’s lineup of products includes bras, activewear, and swimwear, its leakproof underwear and lower-waste period solutions are the differentiators that have put Knix on the map. If you’ve never heard of leakproof panties, there’s a good reason: It’s a new concept. These aren’t just underwear that hugs every curve and ridge of the body, though. They’re also outfitted with a special liner designed to absorb up to about nine tampons’ worth of flow depending on the style. Plus, they feature a triple-layer technology that wicks away moisture, locks in liquid, and prevents leaking. From an efficiency perspective alone, Knix has the menstrual marketplace covered. What could be easier than slipping into leakproof underwear that has a built-in period “safety net”? However, Knix didn’t earn 40,000+ five-star reviews just because it's leakproof underwear worked. The brand has invested serious energy and commitment into doing everything possible to gain customers’ trust, including implementing several principles. 1. Knix undergarments are both functional and fashionable. Creating leakproof underwear is one thing. Making them look cute and feel great is another. Knix clearly understands that some prefer to have matching bras and panties when they can. For that reason, Knix makes it simple to mix and match all the garments it sells. Customers can pick the right shape, style, and fit for both their tops and bottoms. That way, they don’t have to compromise on quality to get style. It’s worth mentioning that Knix has focused on creating an extensive collection for every body type. And they use real bodies to showcase how their apparel actually looks on a typical human. In fact, Knix notes on its site that it was one of the first brands to bring honest-to-goodness real people into its images. 2. Knix has no time for period shaming. The days of making women feel at fault for their periods is over, and Knix is bringing menstruation out of the shadows. Obviously, its leakproof underwear is a great start. But the company is dedicated to pushing the conversation even more into the open. Take the company’s Sport Your PeriodTM initiative in partnership with former Olympian and advocate, Megan Rapinoe for example. Knix learned that 1 in 2 teens will skip sports or drop out all together because of their period. Periods in sport are still a taboo topic despite the fact that they are a reality for almost all menstruating athletes. Knix is paying athletes competing at the national or global level between July 18 and November 1, 2024, to share their experiences with their periods while competing. This initiative was created to open up the conversation about periods in sports. Because the more people talk about periods in sports, the more they normalize periods in sports, and the more they can keep teens playing the sports they love. 3. Knix is bringing Gen Alpha into the fold. To help the next generation move beyond the idea that they need to feel uncomfortable about their periods, Knix offers apparel for teens. Like the products meant for adults, Kt by Knix offers leakproof underwear, swimwear, activewear, and ‘Period Kits’ , focused on the needs and bodies of younger customers just beginning their menstrual journeys. The company’s positioning in the teen market is particularly revealing. Why? It shows just how passionately and authentically Griffiths and the rest of the leadership team believe in the business’s mission. Additionally, it makes room for teens (and their families and friends) to have important conversations around women’s wellness concerns. 4. Knix keeps raising the inclusivity bar. Knix doesn’t rest when it comes to seeking ways to show customers of all ages that they’re supported by the brand — including those whose relationship with their periods is ending. Specifically, Knix has unveiled a perimenopause collection for customers in their 40s, 50s, and beyond whose menstrual flows may be annoyingly uneven and unpredictable. It’s not enough to call this a novel campaign. It’s a completely different (and refreshing) way of acknowledging how menstruation affects every body differently. Plus, all of the Knix products aimed at customers experiencing the signs and symptoms of perimenopause have the same aesthetic appeal as the Knix signature line. In other words, Knix invites anyone who menstruates to feel sexy and confident every day of the month. The company is on a path to help in the menstrual and women’s health and beauty space. And it’s all because one woman said “no more” to a history of unnecessary period shame and discomfort.GREENWICH, Conn., Dec. 03, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- XPO (NYSE: XPO), a leading provider of freight transportation in North America, today reported certain preliminary LTL segment operating metrics for November 2024. LTL tonnage per day decreased 4.0%, as compared with November 2023, attributable to a year-over-year decrease of 4.2% in shipments per day and an increase of 0.2% in weight per shipment. Actual results for November 2024 may vary from the preliminary results reported above. About XPO XPO, Inc. (NYSE: XPO) is a leader in asset-based less-than-truckload (LTL) freight transportation in North America. The company’s customer-focused organization efficiently moves 18 billion pounds of freight per year, enabled by its proprietary technology. XPO serves approximately 54,000 customers with 611 locations and 38,000 employees in North America and Europe, with headquarters in Greenwich, Conn., USA. Visit xpo.com for more information, and connect with XPO on LinkedIn , Facebook , X , Instagram and YouTube . Forward-looking Statements This release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terms such as “anticipate,” “estimate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “should,” “will,” “expect,” “objective,” “projection,” “forecast,” “goal,” “guidance,” “outlook,” “effort,” “target,” “trajectory” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terms. These forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and analyses made by us in light of our experience and our perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors we believe are appropriate in the circumstances. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause or contribute to a material difference include the risks discussed in our filings with the SEC, and the following: the effects of business, economic, political, legal, and regulatory impacts or conflicts upon our operations; supply chain disruptions and shortages, strains on production or extraction of raw materials, cost inflation and labor and equipment shortages; our ability to align our investments in capital assets, including equipment, service centers, and warehouses to our customers’ demands; our ability to implement our cost and revenue initiatives; the effectiveness of our action plan, and other management actions, to improve our North American LTL business; our ability to benefit from a sale, spin-off or other divestiture of one or more business units or to successfully integrate and realize anticipated synergies, cost savings and profit opportunities from acquired companies; goodwill impairment; issues related to compliance with data protection laws, competition laws, and intellectual property laws; fluctuations in currency exchange rates, fuel prices and fuel surcharges; the expected benefits of the spin-offs of GXO Logistics, Inc. and RXO, Inc.; our ability to develop and implement suitable information technology systems; the impact of potential cyber-attacks and information technology or data security breaches or failures; our indebtedness; our ability to raise debt and equity capital; fluctuations in interest rates; seasonal fluctuations; our ability to maintain positive relationships with our network of third-party transportation providers; our ability to attract and retain key employees including qualified drivers; labor matters; litigation; and competition and pricing pressures. We caution that our operating results for November 2024 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for future periods. All forward-looking statements set forth in this release are qualified by these cautionary statements and there can be no assurance that the actual results or developments anticipated by us will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that they will have the expected consequences to or effects on us or our business or operations. Forward-looking statements set forth in this release speak only as of the date hereof, and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements except to the extent required by law. Investor Contact Brian Scasserra +1-617-607-6429 brian.scasserra@xpo.com Media Contact Cole Horton +1-203-609-6004 cole.horton@xpo.comUS Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was unanimously backed by his caucus on Tuesday to continue his role in the next Congress. It marks the fifth re-election as party leader for Schumer, a 74-year-old New York senator, who has led the Democrats in the upper chamber since 2016. Next year, however, he will head the minority party after Republicans managed to unseat a handful of senators and take a vacant seat, securing a 53-strong majority. Schumer said he was “honored and humbled” by the trust placed in him by his colleagues to lead them “during this crucial period for our country.” Schumer pledged to work with Republicans whenever possible. “As I have long said, our preference is to secure bipartisan solutions wherever possible and look for ways to collaborate with our Republican colleagues to help working families,” he said in a statement posted on Meta’s Threads social media platform. “However, our Republican colleagues should make no mistake about it, we will always stand up for our values,” he added without elaborating. The announcement appeared to receive a mixed reaction at best, with numerous Threads users flocking to Schumer’s thread to vent their anger. The discontented users accused the senator of being unable to provide the Democratic caucus with strong enough leadership and urged him to step down before he leads “us over another cliff.”
‘You Are Doing What Will Please You’ – David Kumi Denounces EC’s Disregard for Public Concerns
Georgia QB Carson Beck declares for 2025 NFL draft - ESPN
There's no denying that Angel Reese is one of the most popular athletes across America right now. The Chicago Sky forward is coming off an incredible rookie campaign that earned her All-Star nod. Things are definitely looking up for the 22-year-old in terms of both her career and her fame. Being one of the most high-profile personalities in sports does have its drawbacks, though. While Reese has been actively building her brand by being a constant presence on social media, the former LSU superstar recently revealed that there are still some things that she wants to keep hidden from the public eye. In an X post on Nov. 15, Reese called out intrusive fans as she talked about keeping personal relationships private . According to the 6-foot-3 forward, she's decided not to "openly share that part of my life" with her supporters -- a notion that she doubled down on in a recent episode of her podcast. "I would never post my relationship ever on social media," Reese told guest Mikey Williams, a college basketball star, on Thursday's episode of her "Unapologetically Angel" podcast. "... People be too invested in your relationship. They be trying to follow stuff. It's just..." To be clear, Reese may have been speaking in theory here, and it does not seem like she's neither confirmed nor denied that she is currently in a relationship. What is clear, however, is that if she ever is, she is determined not to share anything about it on social media. For what it's worth, Reese was recently linked to Detroit Pistons big man Jalen Duren after the two were supposedly caught vacationing together. Reese, however, denied being in a relationship with the No. 13 overall pick of the 2022 NBA Draft, saying, "I’m not nobody’s girlfriend." Related: Angel Reese Breaks Silence on Rumors About Her Love Life Related: Teresa Weatherspoon's Strong Statement on Chicago Sky FiringNYE 2025: Watch fireworks at these spots in the UAENone