WASHINGTON — The House shut down Democrats' efforts Thursday to release the long-awaited ethics report into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, pushing the fate of any resolution to the yearslong investigation of sexual misconduct allegations into further uncertainty. The nearly party-line votes came after Democrats had been pressing for the findings to be published even though the Florida Republican left Congress and withdrew as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., was the sole Republican to support the effort. Most Republicans have argued that any congressional probe into Gaetz ended when he resigned from the House. Speaker Mike Johnson also requested that the committee not publish its report, saying it would be a terrible precedent to set. While ethics reports have previously been released after a member’s resignation, it is extremely rare. Shortly before the votes took place, Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., who introduced one of the bills to force the release, said that if Republicans reject the release, they will have “succeeded in sweeping credible allegations of sexual misconduct under the rug.” Gaetz has repeatedly denied the claims. Earlier Thursday, the Ethics panel met to discuss the Gaetz report but made no decision, saying in a short statement that the matter is still being discussed. It's unclear now whether the document will ever see the light of day as lawmakers have only a few weeks left before a new session of Congress begins. It's the culmination of weeks of pressure on the Ethics committee's five Republicans and five Democrats who mostly work in secret as they investigate allegations of misconduct against lawmakers. The status of the Gaetz investigation became an open question last month when he abruptly resigned from Congress after Trump's announcement that he wanted his ally in the Cabinet. It is standard practice for the committee to end investigations when members of Congress depart, but the circumstances surrounding Gaetz were unusual, given his potential role in the new administration. Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., the committee chairman, said Wednesday that there is no longer the same urgency to release the report given that Gaetz has left Congress and stepped aside as Trump's choice to head the Justice Department. “I’ve been steadfast about that. He’s no longer a member. He is no longer going to be confirmed by the Senate because he withdrew his nomination to be the attorney general,” Guest said. The Gaetz report has also caused tensions between lawmakers on the bipartisan committee. Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the panel, publicly admonished Guest last month for mischaracterizing a previous meeting to the press. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing and said last year that the Justice Department’s separate investigation against him into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls ended without federal charges. His onetime political ally Joel Greenberg, a fellow Republican who served as the tax collector in Florida’s Seminole County, admitted as part of a plea deal with prosecutors in 2021 that he paid women and an underage girl to have sex with him and other men. The men were not identified in court documents when he pleaded guilty. Greenberg was sentenced in late 2022 to 11 years in prison. Among President-elect Donald Trump's picks are Susie Wiles for chief of staff, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state, former Democratic House member Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general. Susie Wiles, 67, was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and its de facto manager. Trump named Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of state, making a former sharp critic his choice to be the new administration's top diplomat. Rubio, 53, is a noted hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, and was a finalist to be Trump's running mate on the Republican ticket last summer. Rubio is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries,” Trump said of Rubio in a statement. The announcement punctuates the hard pivot Rubio has made with Trump, whom the senator called a “con man" during his unsuccessful campaign for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. Their relationship improved dramatically while Trump was in the White House. And as Trump campaigned for the presidency a third time, Rubio cheered his proposals. For instance, Rubio, who more than a decade ago helped craft immigration legislation that included a path to citizenship for people in the U.S. illegally, now supports Trump's plan to use the U.S. military for mass deportations. Pete Hegseth, 44, is a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” and has been a contributor with the network since 2014, where he developed a friendship with Trump, who made regular appearances on the show. Hegseth lacks senior military or national security experience. If confirmed by the Senate, he would inherit the top job during a series of global crises — ranging from Russia’s war in Ukraine and the ongoing attacks in the Middle East by Iranian proxies to the push for a cease-fire between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah and escalating worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea. Hegseth is also the author of “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” published earlier this year. Trump tapped Pam Bondi, 59, to be attorney general after U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration. She was Florida's first female attorney general, serving between 2011 and 2019. She also was on Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment trial in 2020. Considered a loyalist, she served as part of a Trump-allied outside group that helped lay the groundwork for his future administration called the America First Policy Institute. Bondi was among a group of Republicans who showed up to support Trump at his hush money criminal trial in New York that ended in May with a conviction on 34 felony counts. A fierce defender of Trump, she also frequently appears on Fox News and has been a critic of the criminal cases against him. Trump picked South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a well-known conservative who faced sharp criticism for telling a story in her memoir about shooting a rambunctious dog, to lead an agency crucial to the president-elect’s hardline immigration agenda. Noem used her two terms leading a tiny state to vault to a prominent position in Republican politics. South Dakota is usually a political afterthought. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, Noem did not order restrictions that other states had issued and instead declared her state “open for business.” Trump held a fireworks rally at Mount Rushmore in July 2020 in one of the first large gatherings of the pandemic. She takes over a department with a sprawling mission. In addition to key immigration agencies, the Department of Homeland Security oversees natural disaster response, the U.S. Secret Service, and Transportation Security Administration agents who work at airports. The governor of North Dakota, who was once little-known outside his state, Burgum is a former Republican presidential primary contender who endorsed Trump, and spent months traveling to drum up support for him, after dropping out of the race. Burgum was a serious contender to be Trump’s vice presidential choice this summer. The two-term governor was seen as a possible pick because of his executive experience and business savvy. Burgum also has close ties to deep-pocketed energy industry CEOs. Trump made the announcement about Burgum joining his incoming administration while addressing a gala at his Mar-a-Lago club, and said a formal statement would be coming the following day. In comments to reporters before Trump took the stage, Burgum said that, in recent years, the power grid is deteriorating in many parts of the country, which he said could raise national security concerns but also drive up prices enough to increase inflation. “There's just a sense of urgency, and a sense of understanding in the Trump administration,” Burgum said. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran for president as a Democrat, than as an independent, and then endorsed Trump . He's the son of Democratic icon Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated during his own presidential campaign. The nomination of Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services alarmed people who are concerned about his record of spreading unfounded fears about vaccines . For example, he has long advanced the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism. Scott Bessent, 62, is a former George Soros money manager and an advocate for deficit reduction. He's the founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management, after having worked on-and-off for Soros Fund Management since 1991. If confirmed by the Senate, he would be the nation’s first openly gay treasury secretary. He told Bloomberg in August that he decided to join Trump’s campaign in part to attack the mounting U.S. national debt. That would include slashing government programs and other spending. “This election cycle is the last chance for the U.S. to grow our way out of this mountain of debt without becoming a sort of European-style socialist democracy,” he said then. Oregon Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer narrowly lost her reelection bid this month, but received strong backing from union members in her district. As a potential labor secretary, she would oversee the Labor Department’s workforce, its budget and put forth priorities that impact workers’ wages, health and safety, ability to unionize, and employer’s rights to fire employers, among other responsibilities. Chavez-DeRemer is one of few House Republicans to endorse the “Protecting the Right to Organize” or PRO Act would allow more workers to conduct organizing campaigns and would add penalties for companies that violate workers’ rights. The act would also weaken “right-to-work” laws that allow employees in more than half the states to avoid participating in or paying dues to unions that represent workers at their places of employment. Scott Turner is a former NFL player and White House aide. He ran the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term in office. Trump, in a statement, credited Turner, the highest-ranking Black person he’s yet selected for his administration, with “helping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities.” Sean Duffy is a former House member from Wisconsin who was one of Trump's most visible defenders on cable news. Duffy served in the House for nearly nine years, sitting on the Financial Services Committee and chairing the subcommittee on insurance and housing. He left Congress in 2019 for a TV career and has been the host of “The Bottom Line” on Fox Business. Before entering politics, Duffy was a reality TV star on MTV, where he met his wife, “Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy. They have nine children. A campaign donor and CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Write is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking — a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. Wright also has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change. He said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight.” The Energy Department is responsible for advancing energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States. Wright also won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm. Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term. President-elect Donald Trump tapped billionaire professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon to be secretary of the Education Department, tasked with overseeing an agency Trump promised to dismantle. McMahon led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s initial term from 2017 to 2019 and twice ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut. She’s seen as a relative unknown in education circles, though she expressed support for charter schools and school choice. She served on the Connecticut Board of Education for a year starting in 2009 and has spent years on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. Brooke Rollins, who graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in agricultural development, is a longtime Trump associate who served as White House domestic policy chief during his first presidency. The 52-year-old is president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a group helping to lay the groundwork for a second Trump administration. She previously served as an aide to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and ran a think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Trump chose Howard Lutnick, head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and a cryptocurrency enthusiast, as his nominee for commerce secretary, a position in which he'd have a key role in carrying out Trump's plans to raise and enforce tariffs. Trump made the announcement Tuesday on his social media platform, Truth Social. Lutnick is a co-chair of Trump’s transition team, along with Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who previously led Trump’s Small Business Administration. Both are tasked with putting forward candidates for key roles in the next administration. The nomination would put Lutnick in charge of a sprawling Cabinet agency that is involved in funding new computer chip factories, imposing trade restrictions, releasing economic data and monitoring the weather. It is also a position in which connections to CEOs and the wider business community are crucial. Doug Collins is a former Republican congressman from Georgia who gained recognition for defending Trump during his first impeachment trial, which centered on U.S. assistance for Ukraine. Trump was impeached for urging Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden in 2019 during the Democratic presidential nomination, but he was acquitted by the Senate. Collins has also served in the armed forces himself and is currently a chaplain in the United States Air Force Reserve Command. "We must take care of our brave men and women in uniform, and Doug will be a great advocate for our Active Duty Servicemembers, Veterans, and Military Families to ensure they have the support they need," Trump said in a statement about nominating Collins to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. Karoline Leavitt, 27, was Trump's campaign press secretary and currently a spokesperson for his transition. She would be the youngest White House press secretary in history. The White House press secretary typically serves as the public face of the administration and historically has held daily briefings for the press corps. Leavitt, a New Hampshire native, was a spokesperson for MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump, before joining his 2024 campaign. In 2022, she ran for Congress in New Hampshire, winning a 10-way Republican primary before losing to Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas. Leavitt worked in the White House press office during Trump's first term before she became communications director for New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump's choice for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been tapped by Trump to be director of national intelligence, keeping with the trend to stock his Cabinet with loyal personalities rather than veteran professionals in their requisite fields. Gabbard, 43, was a Democratic House member who unsuccessfully sought the party's 2020 presidential nomination before leaving the party in 2022. She endorsed Trump in August and campaigned often with him this fall. “I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community,” Trump said in a statement. Gabbard, who has served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades, deploying to Iraq and Kuwait, would come to the role as somewhat of an outsider compared to her predecessor. The current director, Avril Haines, was confirmed by the Senate in 2021 following several years in a number of top national security and intelligence positions. Trump has picked John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman who served as director of national intelligence during his first administration, to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency in his next. Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence during the final year and a half of Trump's first term, leading the U.S. government's spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic. “I look forward to John being the first person ever to serve in both of our Nation's highest Intelligence positions,” Trump said in a statement, calling him a “fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans” who would ensure “the Highest Levels of National Security, and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.” Kash Patel spent several years as a Justice Department prosecutor before catching the Trump administration’s attention as a staffer on Capitol Hill who helped investigate the Russia probe. Patel called for dramatically reducing the agency’s footprint, a perspective that sets him apart from earlier directors who sought additional resources for the bureau. Though the Justice Department in 2021 halted the practice of secretly seizing reporters’ phone records during leak investigations, Patel said he intends to aggressively hunt down government officials who leak information to reporters. Trump has chosen former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to serve as his pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency . Zeldin does not appear to have any experience in environmental issues, but is a longtime supporter of the former president. The 44-year-old former U.S. House member from New York wrote on X , “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI.” “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water,” he added. During his campaign, Trump often attacked the Biden administration's promotion of electric vehicles, and incorrectly referring to a tax credit for EV purchases as a government mandate. Trump also often told his audiences during the campaign his administration would “Drill, baby, drill,” referring to his support for expanded petroleum exploration. In a statement, Trump said Zeldin “will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.” Trump has named Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as the new chairman of the agency tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband. Carr is a longtime member of the commission and served previously as the FCC’s general counsel. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and President Joe Biden to the commission. Carr made past appearances on “Fox News Channel," including when he decried Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' pre-Election Day appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” He wrote an op-ed last month defending a satellite company owned by Trump supporter Elon Musk. Trump said Atkins, the CEO of Patomak Partners and a former SEC commissioner, was a “proven leader for common sense regulations.” In the years since leaving the SEC, Atkins has made the case against too much market regulation. “He believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that are responsive to the needs of Investors, & that provide capital to make our Economy the best in the World. He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. The commission oversees U.S. securities markets and investments and is currently led by Gary Gensler, who has been leading the U.S. government’s crackdown on the crypto industry. Gensler, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, announced last month that he would be stepping down from his post on the day that Trump is inaugurated — Jan. 20, 2025. Atkins began his career as a lawyer and has a long history working in the financial markets sector, both in government and private practice. In the 1990s, he worked on the staffs of two former SEC chairmen, Richard C. Breeden and Arthur Levitt. Jared Isaacman, 41, is a tech billionaire who bought a series of spaceflights from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and conducted the first private spacewalk . He is the founder and CEO of a card-processing company and has collaborated closely with Musk ever since buying his first chartered SpaceX flight. He took contest winners on that 2021 trip and followed it in September with a mission where he briefly popped out the hatch to test SpaceX’s new spacewalking suits. Rep. Elise Stefanik is a representative from New York and one of Trump's staunchest defenders going back to his first impeachment. Elected to the House in 2014, Stefanik was selected by her GOP House colleagues as House Republican Conference chair in 2021, when former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was removed from the post after publicly criticizing Trump for falsely claiming he won the 2020 election. Stefanik, 40, has served in that role ever since as the third-ranking member of House leadership. Stefanik’s questioning of university presidents over antisemitism on their campuses helped lead to two of those presidents resigning, further raising her national profile. If confirmed, she would represent American interests at the U.N. as Trump vows to end the war waged by Russia against Ukraine begun in 2022. He has also called for peace as Israel continues its offensive against Hamas in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon to target Hezbollah. President-elect Donald Trump says he's chosen former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker to serve as U.S. ambassador to NATO. Trump has expressed skepticism about the Western military alliance for years. Trump said in a statement Wednesday that Whitaker is “a strong warrior and loyal Patriot” who “will ensure the United States’ interests are advanced and defended” and “strengthen relationships with our NATO Allies, and stand firm in the face of threats to Peace and Stability.” The choice of Whitaker as the nation’s representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an unusual one, given his background is as a lawyer and not in foreign policy. Trump will nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel. Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel's interests as it wages wars against the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah. “He loves Israel, and likewise the people of Israel love him,” Trump said in a statement. “Mike will work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East.” Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2016, has been a popular figure among evangelical Christian conservatives, many of whom support Israel due to Old Testament writings that Jews are God’s chosen people and that Israel is their rightful homeland. Trump has been praised by some in this important Republican voting bloc for moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump on Tuesday named real estate investor Steven Witkoff to be special envoy to the Middle East. The 67-year-old Witkoff is the president-elect's golf partner and was golfing with him at Trump's club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15, when the former president was the target of a second attempted assassination. Witkoff “is a Highly Respected Leader in Business and Philanthropy,” Trump said of Witkoff in a statement. “Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud." Trump also named Witkoff co-chair, with former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, of his inaugural committee. Trump said Wednesday that he will nominate Gen. Keith Kellogg to serve as assistant to the president and special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. Kellogg, a retired Army lieutenant general who has long been Trump’s top adviser on defense issues, served as National Security Advisor to Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence. For the America First Policy Institute, one of several groups formed after Trump left office to help lay the groundwork for the next Republican administration, Kellogg in April wrote that “bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties.” (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib) Trump asked Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, Trump announced in a statement Tuesday. The move puts Waltz in the middle of national security crises, ranging from efforts to provide weapons to Ukraine and worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea to the persistent attacks in the Middle East by Iran proxies and the push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah. “Mike has been a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy agenda,” Trump's statement said, "and will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of Peace through Strength!” Waltz is a three-term GOP congressman from east-central Florida. He served multiple tours in Afghanistan and also worked in the Pentagon as a policy adviser when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates were defense chiefs. He is considered hawkish on China, and called for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its involvement in the origin of COVID-19 and its mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uighur population. Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner , was a vocal spokesperson during the presidential campaign for Trump's priority of mass deportations. The 39-year-old was a senior adviser during Trump's first administration. Miller has been a central figure in some of Trump's policy decisions, notably his move to separate thousands of immigrant families. Trump argued throughout the campaign that the nation's economic, national security and social priorities could be met by deporting people who are in the United States illegally. Since Trump left office in 2021, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organization made up of former Trump advisers aimed at challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others over issues such as free speech and national security. Thomas Homan, 62, has been tasked with Trump’s top priority of carrying out the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history. Homan, who served under Trump in his first administration leading U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was widely expected to be offered a position related to the border, an issue Trump made central to his campaign. Though Homan has insisted such a massive undertaking would be humane, he has long been a loyal supporter of Trump's policy proposals, suggesting at a July conference in Washington that he would be willing to "run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.” Democrats have criticized Homan for his defending Trump's “zero tolerance” policy on border crossings during his first administration, which led to the separation of thousands of parents and children seeking asylum at the border. Former Rep. Billy Long represented Missouri in the U.S. House from 2011 to 2023. Since leaving Congress, Trump said, Long “has worked as a Business and Tax advisor, helping Small Businesses navigate the complexities of complying with the IRS Rules and Regulations.” Former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler was appointed in January 2020 by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and then lost a runoff election a year later. She started a conservative voter registration organization and dived into GOP fundraising, becoming one of the top individual donors and bundlers to Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign. Even before nominating her for agriculture secretary, the president-elect already had tapped Loeffler as co-chair of his inaugural committee. Dr. Mehmet Oz, 64, is a former heart surgeon who hosted “The Dr. Oz Show,” a long-running daytime television talk show. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate as the Republican nominee in 2022 and is an outspoken supporter of Trump, who endorsed Oz's bid for elected office. Elon Musk, left, and Vivek Ramaswamy speak before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at an Oct. 27 campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York. Trump on Tuesday said Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Ramaswamy will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency" — which is not, despite the name, a government agency. The acronym “DOGE” is a nod to Musk's favorite cryptocurrency, dogecoin. Trump said Musk and Ramaswamy will work from outside the government to offer the White House “advice and guidance” and will partner with the Office of Management and Budget to “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.” He added the move would shock government systems. It's not clear how the organization will operate. Musk, owner of X and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has been a constant presence at Mar-a-Lago since Trump won the presidential election. Ramaswamy suspended his campaign in January and threw his support behind Trump. Trump said the two will “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” Russell Vought held the position during Trump’s first presidency. After Trump’s initial term ended, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, a think tank that describes its mission as “renew a consensus of America as a nation under God.” Vought was closely involved with Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term that he tried to distance himself from during the campaign. Vought has also previously worked as the executive and budget director for the Republican Study Committee, a caucus for conservative House Republicans. He also worked at Heritage Action, the political group tied to The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Dan Scavino, deputy chief of staff Scavino, whom Trump's transition referred to in a statement as one of “Trump's longest serving and most trusted aides,” was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 campaign, as well as his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. He will be deputy chief of staff and assistant to the president. Scavino had run Trump's social media profile in the White House during his first administration. He was also held in contempt of Congress in 2022 after a month-long refusal to comply with a subpoena from the House committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. James Blair, deputy chief of staff Blair was political director for Trump's 2024 campaign and for the Republican National Committee. He will be deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs and assistant to the president. Blair was key to Trump's economic messaging during his winning White House comeback campaign this year, a driving force behind the candidate's “Trump can fix it” slogan and his query to audiences this fall if they were better off than four years ago. Taylor Budowich, deputy chief of staff Budowich is a veteran Trump campaign aide who launched and directed Make America Great Again, Inc., a super PAC that supported Trump's 2024 campaign. He will be deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel and assistant to the president. Budowich also had served as a spokesman for Trump after his presidency. Jay Bhattacharya, National Institutes of Health Trump has chosen Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health. Bhattacharya is a physician and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, and is a critic of pandemic lockdowns and vaccine mandates. He promoted the idea of herd immunity during the pandemic, arguing that people at low risk should live normally while building up immunity to COVID-19 through infection. The National Institutes of Health funds medical research through competitive grants to researchers at institutions throughout the nation. NIH also conducts its own research with thousands of scientists working at its labs in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Marty Makary, Food and Drug Administration Makary is a Johns Hopkins surgeon and author who argued against pandemic lockdowns. He routinely appeared on Fox News during the COVID-19 pandemic and wrote opinion articles questioning masks for children. He cast doubt on vaccine mandates but supported vaccines generally. Makary also cast doubt on whether booster shots worked, which was against federal recommendations on the vaccine. Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, Surgeon General Nesheiwat is a general practitioner who serves as medical director for CityMD, a network of urgent care centers in New York and New Jersey. She has been a contributor to Fox News. Dr. Dave Weldon, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Weldon is a former Florida congressman who recently ran for a Florida state legislative seat and lost; Trump backed Weldon’s opponent. In Congress, Weldon weighed in on one of the nation’s most heated debates of the 1990s over quality of life and a right-to-die and whether Terri Schiavo, who was in a persistent vegetative state after cardiac arrest, should have been allowed to have her feeding tube removed. He sided with the parents who did not want it removed. Jamieson Greer, U.S. trade representative Kevin Hassett, Director of the White House National Economic Council Trump is turning to two officials with experience navigating not only Washington but the key issues of income taxes and tariffs as he fills out his economic team. He announced he has chosen international trade attorney Jamieson Greer to be his U.S. trade representative and Kevin Hassett as director of the White House National Economic Council. While Trump has in several cases nominated outsiders to key posts, these picks reflect a recognition that his reputation will likely hinge on restoring the public’s confidence in the economy. Trump said in a statement that Greer was instrumental in his first term in imposing tariffs on China and others and replacing the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, “therefore making it much better for American Workers.” Hassett, 62, served in the first Trump term as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He has a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and worked at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute before joining the Trump White House in 2017. Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.Big Spring's Aidan Sallie, right, looks for room to shoot around Archbishop Carroll's Ian Willliams during the second quarter of the PIAA Class 4A first-round game at Big Spring High School. Sallie was the Bulldogs’ ticket to a memorable and wild 2023-24 ride. As a junior, he averaged 22.4 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game and eclipsed 1,000 points for his career. In addition to the individual accolades, the guard-forward combo helped usher Big Spring to a program-best 19 wins, the Bulldogs’ first PIAA tournament appearance and their first District 3 final since 1963. Sallie was tabbed a Class 4A All-State second team selection and was named the Mid-Penn Colonial All-Division Player of the Year. 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As part of it’s efforts at further popularising the second tier League as well as give it international recognition, the board of Nigerian National League ( NNL) has signed a partnership deal with leading sports platform, Sofascore. The deal will allow, the company to download NNL matches, players, results and statistics on its official website for their millions of users worldwide as well as in their soft care Editor app which allows local tournaments to be visible to Sofascore. According to the deal which was signed on behalf of the NNL by the Chief Executive Officer, Emmanuel Attah and Karto Levak on behalf of Sofascore, it makes the company the official technical partner of the football body. The deal also allows Sofascore to display it’s logo or their promotional materials such as flyers and banners as well as include Sofascore logo in all official communications where the League partners are visible. The deal which both parties agree is to achieve mutual business and economic benefits will help in showcasing the league and it’s players to the outside world through the Sofascore app. Speaking on the landmark agreement, Chairman of NNL, Mr. George Aluo, described it as a welcome development. He noted that the deal will help to make the NNL more attractive as many people within and outside the shores of the country will have the opportunity of getting more information about the league on the official website of the partners.
MADRID (AP) — Real Valladolid beat Valencia 1-0 and rose off the bottom of La Liga on Friday. Moroccan forward Anuar scored with a solo effort after 19 minutes. “It's a sense of relief because we needed the three points,” Anuar said on broadcaster DAZN. “It was like a final, and fortunately, we managed to come out on top.” Valladolid's Juanmi Latasa was sent off 12 minutes from time after a video review showed he used an elbow, but the home side managed to hold on for the win against a toothless rival. It was a welcome three points for caretaker coach Álvaro Rubio and his first since replacing Paulo Pezzolano, who was fired at the start of December. Valencia replaced Valladolid on the bottom of the table. Valencia has only two wins in 15 league games, but two games in hand. AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccerOdisha Crime Branch arrests private bank employee in connection with Rs 2.3 cr fraud
A multibillion-dollar plan to create “clean” hydrogen from brown coal and ship it to Japan is on the brink of collapse, according to Japanese media reports suggesting that Kawasaki Heavy Industries has withdrawn from the trial, blaming procurement delays. The controversial plan was billed as a lifeline for the Latrobe Valley’s ageing brown coal industry. Under the plan, hydrogen would be extracted from coal, creating the world’s first liquefied hydrogen supply chain. Kawasaki Heavy Industries has reportedly withdrawn from plan to create “clean” hydrogen from brown coal sourced from the Latrobe Valley. Credit: Eamon Gallagher Proponents said the joint venture, led by Japan’s largest industrial conglomerates, would use commercially unproven CO2 capture and storage technology to sequester carbon in the Bass Strait. It was also to send the super-cooled hydrogen extracted from coal in purpose-built bulk carriers out of Hastings to Kawasaki in the Asian nation’s industrial heartland. The Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain project (HESC) was a partnership between international fossil energy companies, including Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd (KHI), Royal Dutch Shell and AGL. Japanese outlet Nikkei reported that Kawasaki Heavy Industries had abandoned its bid to establish an international supply chain to procure hydrogen from Australia because it had become “difficult to procure hydrogen in Australia within the deadline”. “With the completion of the demonstration test by fiscal year 2030, as originally scheduled, being an absolute requirement for ensuring competitiveness, the company has changed hydrogen procurement to domestic,” Nikkei reported. “It has also downsized its hydrogen carriers and is now steering toward a more ‘realistic’ solution.” Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio raised doubts about the project last year at an Australian Financial Review Energy and Climate Summit, saying it was not clear that the proponents would be able to adequately capture the carbon from the coal and safely sequester it. “That is a question that is yet to be answered,” she said. The AFR reported that Kawasaki Heavy Industries’ chairman Yoshinori Kanehana told a separate event last year that his business had been focused on winning “social license” from Victorian communities and hoped to avoid “ideological divides”. Friends of the Earth gas campaigner Freja Leonard said Kawasaki Heavy Industries’ decision to withdraw indicated the project wasn’t financially or practically feasible. “It’s just an absolute nonsense to use brown coal in a climate crisis to produce hydrogen,” she said. “Hydrogen is notoriously difficult to contain. It’s incredibly expensive to produce, and any project that expects to successfully ship hydrogen from one country to another without significant leakage is doomed to failure.” A commercial-in-confidence report on the proposal compiled by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources in 2022 and released under freedom of information laws argued the plan was broadly supported in the Latrobe Valley. “There are a limited number of groups within the Latrobe Valley that do not support the use of fossil fuels and are against CCS [carbon capture and storage],” it stated. “However, the predominant sentiment in the Valley is one that supports the HESC [Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain].” Identifying challenges getting stakeholders like the local council on board, the report noted that the HESC had “revised [its] messaging”, “highlighting the carbon neutrality” the project could achieve by combining biomass with coal. This, it said, “softens the image of HESC as a coal-driven project”. Under the plan, the cooled hydrogen would have been piped more than 150 kilometres from Gippsland to the Port of Hastings and shipped to Japan. In January 2022, according to the confidential report, hydrogen was successfully generated under trial from brown coal and biomass. However, it reported cost overruns and lengthy delays to the trial. More to come Get to the heart of what’s happening with climate change and the environment. Sign up for our fortnightly Environment newsletter.
WASHINGTON — The House shut down Democrats' efforts Thursday to release the long-awaited ethics report into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, pushing the fate of any resolution to the yearslong investigation of sexual misconduct allegations into further uncertainty. Matt Gaetz talks before President-elect Donald Trump speaks during an America First Policy Institute gala at his Mar-a-Lago estate Nov. 14 in Palm Beach, Fla. Alex Brandon, Associated Press The nearly party-line votes came after Democrats had been pressing for the findings to be published even though the Florida Republican left Congress and withdrew as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., was the sole Republican to support the effort. Most Republicans have argued that any congressional probe into Gaetz ended when he resigned from the House. Speaker Mike Johnson also requested that the committee not publish its report, saying it would be a terrible precedent to set. While ethics reports have previously been released after a member’s resignation, it is extremely rare. People are also reading... Shortly before the votes took place, Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., who introduced one of the bills to force the release, said that if Republicans reject the release, they will have “succeeded in sweeping credible allegations of sexual misconduct under the rug.” Gaetz has repeatedly denied the claims. Earlier Thursday, the Ethics panel met to discuss the Gaetz report but made no decision, saying in a short statement that the matter is still being discussed. It's unclear now whether the document will ever see the light of day as lawmakers have only a few weeks left before a new session of Congress begins. Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts It's the culmination of weeks of pressure on the Ethics committee's five Republicans and five Democrats who mostly work in secret as they investigate allegations of misconduct against lawmakers. The status of the Gaetz investigation became an open question last month when he abruptly resigned from Congress after Trump's announcement that he wanted his ally in the Cabinet. It is standard practice for the committee to end investigations when members of Congress depart, but the circumstances surrounding Gaetz were unusual, given his potential role in the new administration. Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., the committee chairman, said Wednesday that there is no longer the same urgency to release the report given that Gaetz has left Congress and stepped aside as Trump's choice to head the Justice Department. “I’ve been steadfast about that. He’s no longer a member. He is no longer going to be confirmed by the Senate because he withdrew his nomination to be the attorney general,” Guest said. The Gaetz report has also caused tensions between lawmakers on the bipartisan committee. Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the panel, publicly admonished Guest last month for mischaracterizing a previous meeting to the press. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing and said last year that the Justice Department’s separate investigation against him into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls ended without federal charges. His onetime political ally Joel Greenberg, a fellow Republican who served as the tax collector in Florida’s Seminole County, admitted as part of a plea deal with prosecutors in 2021 that he paid women and an underage girl to have sex with him and other men. The men were not identified in court documents when he pleaded guilty. Greenberg was sentenced in late 2022 to 11 years in prison. Here are the people Trump picked for key positions so far President-elect Donald Trump Among President-elect Donald Trump's picks are Susie Wiles for chief of staff, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state, former Democratic House member Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general. Evan Vucci, Associated Press Susie Wiles, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, 67, was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and its de facto manager. Evan Vucci, Associated Press Marco Rubio, Secretary of State Trump named Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of state, making a former sharp critic his choice to be the new administration's top diplomat.Rubio, 53, is a noted hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, and was a finalist to be Trump's running mate on the Republican ticket last summer. Rubio is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.“He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries,” Trump said of Rubio in a statement.The announcement punctuates the hard pivot Rubio has made with Trump, whom the senator called a “con man" during his unsuccessful campaign for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.Their relationship improved dramatically while Trump was in the White House. And as Trump campaigned for the presidency a third time, Rubio cheered his proposals. For instance, Rubio, who more than a decade ago helped craft immigration legislation that included a path to citizenship for people in the U.S. illegally, now supports Trump's plan to use the U.S. military for mass deportations. Wilfredo Lee, Associated Press Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, 44, is a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” and has been a contributor with the network since 2014, where he developed a friendship with Trump, who made regular appearances on the show.Hegseth lacks senior military or national security experience. If confirmed by the Senate, he would inherit the top job during a series of global crises — ranging from Russia’s war in Ukraine and the ongoing attacks in the Middle East by Iranian proxies to the push for a cease-fire between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah and escalating worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea.Hegseth is also the author of “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” published earlier this year. George Walker IV, Associated Press Pam Bondi, Attorney General Trump tapped Pam Bondi, 59, to be attorney general after U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration.She was Florida's first female attorney general, serving between 2011 and 2019. She also was on Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment trial in 2020.Considered a loyalist, she served as part of a Trump-allied outside group that helped lay the groundwork for his future administration called the America First Policy Institute.Bondi was among a group of Republicans who showed up to support Trump at his hush money criminal trial in New York that ended in May with a conviction on 34 felony counts. A fierce defender of Trump, she also frequently appears on Fox News and has been a critic of the criminal cases against him. Derik Hamilton Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security Trump picked South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a well-known conservative who faced sharp criticism for telling a story in her memoir about shooting a rambunctious dog, to lead an agency crucial to the president-elect’s hardline immigration agenda.Noem used her two terms leading a tiny state to vault to a prominent position in Republican politics.South Dakota is usually a political afterthought. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, Noem did not order restrictions that other states had issued and instead declared her state “open for business.” Trump held a fireworks rally at Mount Rushmore in July 2020 in one of the first large gatherings of the pandemic.She takes over a department with a sprawling mission. In addition to key immigration agencies, the Department of Homeland Security oversees natural disaster response, the U.S. Secret Service, and Transportation Security Administration agents who work at airports. Matt Rourke, Associated Press Doug Burgum, Secretary of the Interior The governor of North Dakota, who was once little-known outside his state, Burgum is a former Republican presidential primary contender who endorsed Trump, and spent months traveling to drum up support for him, after dropping out of the race.Burgum was a serious contender to be Trump’s vice presidential choice this summer. The two-term governor was seen as a possible pick because of his executive experience and business savvy. Burgum also has close ties to deep-pocketed energy industry CEOs.Trump made the announcement about Burgum joining his incoming administration while addressing a gala at his Mar-a-Lago club, and said a formal statement would be coming the following day.In comments to reporters before Trump took the stage, Burgum said that, in recent years, the power grid is deteriorating in many parts of the country, which he said could raise national security concerns but also drive up prices enough to increase inflation.“There's just a sense of urgency, and a sense of understanding in the Trump administration,” Burgum said. AP Photo/Alex Brandon Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran for president as a Democrat, than as an independent, and then endorsed Trump. He's the son of Democratic icon Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated during his own presidential campaign.The nomination of Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services alarmed people who are concerned about his record of spreading unfounded fears about vaccines. For example, he has long advanced the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism. Evan Vucci, Associated Press Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, 62, is a former George Soros money manager and an advocate for deficit reduction.He's the founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management, after having worked on-and-off for Soros Fund Management since 1991. If confirmed by the Senate, he would be the nation’s first openly gay treasury secretary.He told Bloomberg in August that he decided to join Trump’s campaign in part to attack the mounting U.S. national debt. That would include slashing government programs and other spending.“This election cycle is the last chance for the U.S. to grow our way out of this mountain of debt without becoming a sort of European-style socialist democracy,” he said then. Matt Kelley, Associated Press Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Labor Secretary Oregon Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer narrowly lost her reelection bid this month, but received strong backing from union members in her district.As a potential labor secretary, she would oversee the Labor Department’s workforce, its budget and put forth priorities that impact workers’ wages, health and safety, ability to unionize, and employer’s rights to fire employers, among other responsibilities.Chavez-DeRemer is one of few House Republicans to endorse the “Protecting the Right to Organize” or PRO Act would allow more workers to conduct organizing campaigns and would add penalties for companies that violate workers’ rights. The act would also weaken “right-to-work” laws that allow employees in more than half the states to avoid participating in or paying dues to unions that represent workers at their places of employment. Andrew Harnik, Associated Press Scott Turner, Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner is a former NFL player and White House aide. He ran the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term in office. Trump, in a statement, credited Turner, the highest-ranking Black person he’s yet selected for his administration, with “helping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities.” Andrew Harnik, Associated Press Sean Duffy, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy is a former House member from Wisconsin who was one of Trump's most visible defenders on cable news. Duffy served in the House for nearly nine years, sitting on the Financial Services Committee and chairing the subcommittee on insurance and housing. He left Congress in 2019 for a TV career and has been the host of “The Bottom Line” on Fox Business.Before entering politics, Duffy was a reality TV star on MTV, where he met his wife, “Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy. They have nine children. Jacquelyn Martin, Associated Press Chris Wright, Secretary of Energy A campaign donor and CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Write is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking — a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market.Wright also has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change. He said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight.” The Energy Department is responsible for advancing energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States.Wright also won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm. Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term. Andy Cross, The Denver Post via AP Linda McMahon, Secretary of Education President-elect Donald Trump tapped billionaire professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon to be secretary of the Education Department, tasked with overseeing an agency Trump promised to dismantle.McMahon led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s initial term from 2017 to 2019 and twice ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut.She’s seen as a relative unknown in education circles, though she expressed support for charter schools and school choice. She served on the Connecticut Board of Education for a year starting in 2009 and has spent years on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. Manuel Balce Ceneta, Associated Press Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, who graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in agricultural development, is a longtime Trump associate who served as White House domestic policy chief during his first presidency.The 52-year-old is president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a group helping to lay the groundwork for a second Trump administration. She previously served as an aide to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and ran a think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Evan Vucci Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce Trump chose Howard Lutnick, head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and a cryptocurrency enthusiast, as his nominee for commerce secretary, a position in which he'd have a key role in carrying out Trump's plans to raise and enforce tariffs.Trump made the announcement Tuesday on his social media platform, Truth Social.Lutnick is a co-chair of Trump’s transition team, along with Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who previously led Trump’s Small Business Administration. Both are tasked with putting forward candidates for key roles in the next administration.The nomination would put Lutnick in charge of a sprawling Cabinet agency that is involved in funding new computer chip factories, imposing trade restrictions, releasing economic data and monitoring the weather. It is also a position in which connections to CEOs and the wider business community are crucial. AP Photo/Evan Vucci Doug Collins, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins is a former Republican congressman from Georgia who gained recognition for defending Trump during his first impeachment trial, which centered on U.S. assistance for Ukraine. Trump was impeached for urging Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden in 2019 during the Democratic presidential nomination, but he was acquitted by the Senate.Collins has also served in the armed forces himself and is currently a chaplain in the United States Air Force Reserve Command."We must take care of our brave men and women in uniform, and Doug will be a great advocate for our Active Duty Servicemembers, Veterans, and Military Families to ensure they have the support they need," Trump said in a statement about nominating Collins to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. John Bazemore, Associated Press Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, 27, was Trump's campaign press secretary and currently a spokesperson for his transition. She would be the youngest White House press secretary in history.The White House press secretary typically serves as the public face of the administration and historically has held daily briefings for the press corps.Leavitt, a New Hampshire native, was a spokesperson for MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump, before joining his 2024 campaign. In 2022, she ran for Congress in New Hampshire, winning a 10-way Republican primary before losing to Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas.Leavitt worked in the White House press office during Trump's first term before she became communications director for New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump's choice for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Ted Shaffrey, Associated Press Tulsi Gabbard, National Intelligence Director Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been tapped by Trump to be director of national intelligence, keeping with the trend to stock his Cabinet with loyal personalities rather than veteran professionals in their requisite fields.Gabbard, 43, was a Democratic House member who unsuccessfully sought the party's 2020 presidential nomination before leaving the party in 2022. She endorsed Trump in August and campaigned often with him this fall.“I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community,” Trump said in a statement.Gabbard, who has served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades, deploying to Iraq and Kuwait, would come to the role as somewhat of an outsider compared to her predecessor. The current director, Avril Haines, was confirmed by the Senate in 2021 following several years in a number of top national security and intelligence positions. Evan Vucci, Associated Press John Ratcliffe, Central Intelligence Agency Director Trump has picked John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman who served as director of national intelligence during his first administration, to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency in his next.Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence during the final year and a half of Trump's first term, leading the U.S. government's spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic.“I look forward to John being the first person ever to serve in both of our Nation's highest Intelligence positions,” Trump said in a statement, calling him a “fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans” who would ensure “the Highest Levels of National Security, and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.” Manuel Balce Ceneta, Associated Press Kash Patel, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel spent several years as a Justice Department prosecutor before catching the Trump administration’s attention as a staffer on Capitol Hill who helped investigate the Russia probe.Patel called for dramatically reducing the agency’s footprint, a perspective that sets him apart from earlier directors who sought additional resources for the bureau. Though the Justice Department in 2021 halted the practice of secretly seizing reporters’ phone records during leak investigations, Patel said he intends to aggressively hunt down government officials who leak information to reporters. José Luis Villegas, Associated Press Lee Zeldin, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Trump has chosen former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to serve as his pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.Zeldin does not appear to have any experience in environmental issues, but is a longtime supporter of the former president. The 44-year-old former U.S. House member from New York wrote on X, “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI.” “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water,” he added.During his campaign, Trump often attacked the Biden administration's promotion of electric vehicles, and incorrectly referring to a tax credit for EV purchases as a government mandate. Trump also often told his audiences during the campaign his administration would “Drill, baby, drill,” referring to his support for expanded petroleum exploration.In a statement, Trump said Zeldin “will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.” Matt Rourke, Associated Press Brendan Carr, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission Trump has named Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as the new chairman of the agency tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband.Carr is a longtime member of the commission and served previously as the FCC’s general counsel. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and President Joe Biden to the commission.Carr made past appearances on “Fox News Channel," including when he decried Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' pre-Election Day appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” He wrote an op-ed last month defending a satellite company owned by Trump supporter Elon Musk. Jonathan Newton - pool, ASSOCIATED PRESS Paul Atkins, Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission Trump said Atkins, the CEO of Patomak Partners and a former SEC commissioner, was a “proven leader for common sense regulations.” In the years since leaving the SEC, Atkins has made the case against too much market regulation.“He believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that are responsive to the needs of Investors, & that provide capital to make our Economy the best in the World. He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.The commission oversees U.S. securities markets and investments and is currently led by Gary Gensler, who has been leading the U.S. government’s crackdown on the crypto industry. Gensler, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, announced last month that he would be stepping down from his post on the day that Trump is inaugurated — Jan. 20, 2025.Atkins began his career as a lawyer and has a long history working in the financial markets sector, both in government and private practice. In the 1990s, he worked on the staffs of two former SEC chairmen, Richard C. Breeden and Arthur Levitt. AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File) Jared Isaacman, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, 41, is a tech billionaire who bought a series of spaceflights from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and conducted the first private spacewalk. He is the founder and CEO of a card-processing company and has collaborated closely with Musk ever since buying his first chartered SpaceX flight. He took contest winners on that 2021 trip and followed it in September with a mission where he briefly popped out the hatch to test SpaceX’s new spacewalking suits. John Raoux, Associated Press Elise Stefanik, Ambassador to the United Nations Rep. Elise Stefanik is a representative from New York and one of Trump's staunchest defenders going back to his first impeachment.Elected to the House in 2014, Stefanik was selected by her GOP House colleagues as House Republican Conference chair in 2021, when former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was removed from the post after publicly criticizing Trump for falsely claiming he won the 2020 election. Stefanik, 40, has served in that role ever since as the third-ranking member of House leadership.Stefanik’s questioning of university presidents over antisemitism on their campuses helped lead to two of those presidents resigning, further raising her national profile.If confirmed, she would represent American interests at the U.N. as Trump vows to end the war waged by Russia against Ukraine begun in 2022. He has also called for peace as Israel continues its offensive against Hamas in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon to target Hezbollah. Jose Luis Magana, Associated Press Matt Whitaker, Ambassador to NATO President-elect Donald Trump says he's chosen former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker to serve as U.S. ambassador to NATO. Trump has expressed skepticism about the Western military alliance for years. Trump said in a statement Wednesday that Whitaker is “a strong warrior and loyal Patriot” who “will ensure the United States’ interests are advanced and defended” and “strengthen relationships with our NATO Allies, and stand firm in the face of threats to Peace and Stability.” The choice of Whitaker as the nation’s representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an unusual one, given his background is as a lawyer and not in foreign policy. Andrew Harnik, Associated Press Mike Huckabee, Ambassador to Israel Trump will nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel.Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel's interests as it wages wars against the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah.“He loves Israel, and likewise the people of Israel love him,” Trump said in a statement. “Mike will work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East.”Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2016, has been a popular figure among evangelical Christian conservatives, many of whom support Israel due to Old Testament writings that Jews are God’s chosen people and that Israel is their rightful homeland.Trump has been praised by some in this important Republican voting bloc for moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Oded Balilty, Associated Press Steven Witkoff, Special Envoy to the Middle East Trump on Tuesday named real estate investor Steven Witkoff to be special envoy to the Middle East.The 67-year-old Witkoff is the president-elect's golf partner and was golfing with him at Trump's club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15, when the former president was the target of a second attempted assassination.Witkoff “is a Highly Respected Leader in Business and Philanthropy,” Trump said of Witkoff in a statement. “Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud."Trump also named Witkoff co-chair, with former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, of his inaugural committee. Evan Vucci, Associated Press Keith Kellogg, Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia Trump said Wednesday that he will nominate Gen. Keith Kellogg to serve as assistant to the president and special envoy for Ukraine and Russia.Kellogg, a retired Army lieutenant general who has long been Trump’s top adviser on defense issues, served as National Security Advisor to Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence.For the America First Policy Institute, one of several groups formed after Trump left office to help lay the groundwork for the next Republican administration, Kellogg in April wrote that “bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties.”(AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib) AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib Mike Waltz, National Security Adviser Trump asked Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, Trump announced in a statement Tuesday.The move puts Waltz in the middle of national security crises, ranging from efforts to provide weapons to Ukraine and worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea to the persistent attacks in the Middle East by Iran proxies and the push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah.“Mike has been a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy agenda,” Trump's statement said, "and will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of Peace through Strength!”Waltz is a three-term GOP congressman from east-central Florida. He served multiple tours in Afghanistan and also worked in the Pentagon as a policy adviser when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates were defense chiefs.He is considered hawkish on China, and called for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its involvement in the origin of COVID-19 and its mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uighur population. Ted Shaffrey, Associated Press Stephen Miller, Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner, was a vocal spokesperson during the presidential campaign for Trump's priority of mass deportations. The 39-year-old was a senior adviser during Trump's first administration.Miller has been a central figure in some of Trump's policy decisions, notably his move to separate thousands of immigrant families.Trump argued throughout the campaign that the nation's economic, national security and social priorities could be met by deporting people who are in the United States illegally. Since Trump left office in 2021, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organization made up of former Trump advisers aimed at challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others over issues such as free speech and national security. Evan Vucci, Associated Press Tom Homan, ‘Border Czar’ Thomas Homan, 62, has been tasked with Trump’s top priority of carrying out the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history.Homan, who served under Trump in his first administration leading U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was widely expected to be offered a position related to the border, an issue Trump made central to his campaign.Though Homan has insisted such a massive undertaking would be humane, he has long been a loyal supporter of Trump's policy proposals, suggesting at a July conference in Washington that he would be willing to "run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.”Democrats have criticized Homan for his defending Trump's “zero tolerance” policy on border crossings during his first administration, which led to the separation of thousands of parents and children seeking asylum at the border. John Bazemore, Associated Press Billy Long, Internal Revenue Service commissioner Former Rep. Billy Long represented Missouri in the U.S. House from 2011 to 2023. Since leaving Congress, Trump said, Long “has worked as a Business and Tax advisor, helping Small Businesses navigate the complexities of complying with the IRS Rules and Regulations.” AP file Kelly Loeffler, Small Business Administration administrator Former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler was appointed in January 2020 by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and then lost a runoff election a year later. She started a conservative voter registration organization and dived into GOP fundraising, becoming one of the top individual donors and bundlers to Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign.Even before nominating her for agriculture secretary, the president-elect already had tapped Loeffler as co-chair of his inaugural committee. Branden Camp Dr. Mehmet Oz, Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, 64, is a former heart surgeon who hosted “The Dr. Oz Show,” a long-running daytime television talk show. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate as the Republican nominee in 2022 and is an outspoken supporter of Trump, who endorsed Oz's bid for elected office. Matt Rourke, Associated Press Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to advise White House on government efficiency Elon Musk, left, and Vivek Ramaswamy speak before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at an Oct. 27 campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York.Trump on Tuesday said Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Ramaswamy will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency" — which is not, despite the name, a government agency.The acronym “DOGE” is a nod to Musk's favorite cryptocurrency, dogecoin. Trump said Musk and Ramaswamy will work from outside the government to offer the White House “advice and guidance” and will partner with the Office of Management and Budget to “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.” He added the move would shock government systems. It's not clear how the organization will operate.Musk, owner of X and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has been a constant presence at Mar-a-Lago since Trump won the presidential election. Ramaswamy suspended his campaign in January and threw his support behind Trump. Trump said the two will “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” Evan Vucci, Associated Press photos Russell Vought, Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought held the position during Trump’s first presidency.After Trump’s initial term ended, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, a think tank that describes its mission as “renew a consensus of America as a nation under God.”Vought was closely involved with Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term that he tried to distance himself from during the campaign.Vought has also previously worked as the executive and budget director for the Republican Study Committee, a caucus for conservative House Republicans. He also worked at Heritage Action, the political group tied to The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Evan Vucci, Associated Press Additional selections to the incoming White House Dan Scavino, deputy chief of staffScavino, whom Trump's transition referred to in a statement as one of “Trump's longest serving and most trusted aides,” was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 campaign, as well as his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. He will be deputy chief of staff and assistant to the president.Scavino had run Trump's social media profile in the White House during his first administration. He was also held in contempt of Congress in 2022 after a month-long refusal to comply with a subpoena from the House committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.James Blair, deputy chief of staffBlair was political director for Trump's 2024 campaign and for the Republican National Committee. He will be deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs and assistant to the president.Blair was key to Trump's economic messaging during his winning White House comeback campaign this year, a driving force behind the candidate's “Trump can fix it” slogan and his query to audiences this fall if they were better off than four years ago.Taylor Budowich, deputy chief of staffBudowich is a veteran Trump campaign aide who launched and directed Make America Great Again, Inc., a super PAC that supported Trump's 2024 campaign. He will be deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel and assistant to the president.Budowich also had served as a spokesman for Trump after his presidency.Jay Bhattacharya, National Institutes of HealthTrump has chosen Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health. Bhattacharya is a physician and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, and is a critic of pandemic lockdowns and vaccine mandates. He promoted the idea of herd immunity during the pandemic, arguing that people at low risk should live normally while building up immunity to COVID-19 through infection. The National Institutes of Health funds medical research through competitive grants to researchers at institutions throughout the nation. NIH also conducts its own research with thousands of scientists working at its labs in Bethesda, Maryland.Dr. Marty Makary, Food and Drug AdministrationMakary is a Johns Hopkins surgeon and author who argued against pandemic lockdowns. He routinely appeared on Fox News during the COVID-19 pandemic and wrote opinion articles questioning masks for children. He cast doubt on vaccine mandates but supported vaccines generally. Makary also cast doubt on whether booster shots worked, which was against federal recommendations on the vaccine.Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, Surgeon GeneralNesheiwat is a general practitioner who serves as medical director for CityMD, a network of urgent care centers in New York and New Jersey. She has been a contributor to Fox News.Dr. Dave Weldon, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and PreventionWeldon is a former Florida congressman who recently ran for a Florida state legislative seat and lost; Trump backed Weldon’s opponent.In Congress, Weldon weighed in on one of the nation’s most heated debates of the 1990s over quality of life and a right-to-die and whether Terri Schiavo, who was in a persistent vegetative state after cardiac arrest, should have been allowed to have her feeding tube removed. He sided with the parents who did not want it removed.Jamieson Greer, U.S. trade representativeKevin Hassett, Director of the White House National Economic CouncilTrump is turning to two officials with experience navigating not only Washington but the key issues of income taxes and tariffs as he fills out his economic team. He announced he has chosen international trade attorney Jamieson Greer to be his U.S. trade representative and Kevin Hassett as director of the White House National Economic Council. While Trump has in several cases nominated outsiders to key posts, these picks reflect a recognition that his reputation will likely hinge on restoring the public’s confidence in the economy.Trump said in a statement that Greer was instrumental in his first term in imposing tariffs on China and others and replacing the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, “therefore making it much better for American Workers.”Hassett, 62, served in the first Trump term as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He has a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and worked at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute before joining the Trump White House in 2017. Jose Luis Magana, Associated Press Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox!(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Maximilian Brichta , University of Southern California (THE CONVERSATION) Rockets aren’t the only thing Elon Musk is sending into the stratosphere. After a three-year plummet, Dogecoin is blasting off again , jumping 250% since the election of Donald Trump – part of a broader wave of optimism in the industry , due to Trump’s courting of crypto advocates during his campaign. Trump’s informal appointment of Musk to what he calls the Department of Government Efficiency – D.O.G.E for short – also helped pump the dog-themed meme coin . This isn’t the first time Musk, who styles himself as “ the Dogefather ,” has fueled interest in Dogecoin. In May 2021, its price shot up in anticipation of Musk’s guest appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” During one skit, Musk played a financial analyst in conversation with a Weekend Update host, who repeatedly asked him, “What is Dogecoin?” After some obfuscation, Musk’s character finally admitted that it was a hustle. The price of the coin went into a freefall . Just over a year later, it had shed over 90% of its peak value . The losses hit small investors hard. In 2022, one of them filed a class action lawsuit against Musk for market manipulation and insider trading, though the case was dismissed in August 2024. Why has Dogecoin – a meme coin that was never meant to be taken seriously as an investment – seen such extreme swings in value? We’re all in this together Dogecoin was launched in 2013 to spoof bitcoin and a slew of other cryptocurrencies that were claiming to disrupt the traditional world of finance. Two strangers from across the globe met online , copied the code of an existing coin, and branded it with the already popular Doge internet meme – a picture of a Shiba Inu dog surrounded by fragments of broken English: “wow much coin.” Although their main goal was to make the coin pointless and undesirable, it became one of the most popular and enduring cryptocurrencies on the market. Following Dogecoin’s previous surge in 2021, I studied how its fervent network of influencers and everyday investors worked together to draw tremendous attention – and capital – to the joke currency. To understand the appeal of these absurd investments, you have to look at the time and energy that users invest into these networks and the rewards, both financial and social, they get in return. Meme coins are collaborative enterprises. Members of these online communities have an economic incentive to become outspoken boosters: The more the value of Dogecoin rises, the more their investments grow. But they also receive social validation from other meme coin investors when they pump up the coin. In other words, behind every meme coin is a collective of strangers on a communal mission to make more money. Dogecoin and its imitators have been described by their leadership as crypto movements , shared journeys and community-owned projects. Beyond branding the assets with culturally resonant images, whether it’s a Shiba Inu dog or Pepe the Frog , successful crypto ventures are characterized by complex webs of trust. Trust in the technology. Trust in its potential for future appreciation. And trust that those holding power in the networks won’t exploit the rest. This loyalty is woven among a global network of users who collaborate around the clock to promote their coin and demonstrate their unwavering commitment to its success. In times of price appreciation, the collective buzzes with elation . During price dips, community members mutually reinforce their comrades’ – and their own – beliefs that this is just a bump in the road and that their collective efforts will eventually lead to a handsome payoff. Even in the coldest of crypto winters , this ritualistic behavior helps these speculative communities endure. Community serves as a substitute for financial loss. The investment strategies in these communities – and the conviction in their payoff – involve repeating and reposting what others have said, like any traditional internet meme. Trolling traditional valuation The real value of meme coins cannot be understood in the same way as traditional assets, such as stocks and physical commodities. These types of assets have fundamentals, such as a company’s financial statements, or public demand for basic goods, from coffee to oil. Conversely, the fundamentals of meme coins are reflected in their network activity, such as daily active users, and less concrete metrics, such as social sentiment and mindshare – how much public awareness a coin has generated compared with its rivals. Of course, the valuations of traditional assets are also affected by these social factors. The difference is that meme coins offer little by way of productive activity. They add nothing to the economy. Occasionally, their leadership will build financial services around them , but these are generally added as afterthoughts, especially as a way to drum up more speculative excitement. Meme coins troll the traditional conventions of valuation and mock the edicts and dogmas of mainstream investors. And that’s exactly the point. Participation in meme coin communities – or any crypto community, for that matter – entails embracing an alternative economic experience. They are speculative sandboxes for playing outside of the conventional rules of investment. Who let the Doge out? Musk is the quintessential meme coin influencer. As the richest man in the world, he’s viewed by many as a paragon of savvy investing. His massive following extends far beyond Dogecoin’s social network. And his promotional efforts are playful – so playful that the judge in his class-action case dismissed his Dogecoin tweets as mere “puffery” and that “no reasonable investor could rely upon them.” Dogecoin previously reached the peak of its memetic momentum when Musk appeared on “Saturday Night Live.” Now, instead of sitting at the Weekend Update news desk cracking jokes, he’s sitting in Trump’s office advising the president-elect. In other words, Dogecoin’s memetic resonance has ascended from pop culture to politics, helping it capture a bigger slice of the public’s mindshare. While Dogecoin has specifically benefited from Musk’s proximity to Trump, the broader crypto market is leaping with optimism for a crypto-friendly administration. Speaking at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in July, the GOP candidate ensured he’d make the United States “ the crypto capital of the planet .” After pouring $131 million into this election cycle , the crypto industry can now claim 274 pro-crypto members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 20 pro-crypto U.S. senators. Between Musk buddying up with Trump and a shifting regulatory environment, the dog can once again run free. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/dogecoin-is-a-joke-so-whats-behind-its-rally-243686 .
Kroger ( KR 1.33% ) Q3 2024 Earnings Call Dec 05, 2024 , 10:00 a.m. ET Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks: Operator Good morning and welcome to The Kroger Co. third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. [Operator instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the conference over to Rob Quast, senior director, investor relations. Please go ahead. Robinson C. Quast -- Senior Director, Investor Relations Good morning. Thank you for joining us for Kroger's third quarter 2024 earnings call. I am joined today by Kroger's chairman and chief executive officer, Rodney McMullen; and interim chief financial officer, Todd Foley. Before we begin, I want to remind you that today's discussions will include forward-looking statements. We want to caution you that such statements are predictions, and actual events or results can differ materially. A detailed discussion of the many factors that we believe may have a material effect on our business on an ongoing basis is contained in our SEC filings. The Kroger Company assumes no obligation to update that information. After our prepared remarks, we look forward to taking your questions. In order to cover a broad range of topics from as many of you as we can, we ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question, if necessary. I will now turn the call over to Rodney. W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer Thank you, Rob. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before we begin, I'd like to provide an outline of our discussion topics this morning. I will start by sharing a recap of our third quarter performance and highlight how we continue to advance our go-to-market strategy, which powers our value creation model and drives long-term sustainable growth for our shareholders. Then Todd will cover our financial results for the third quarter and walk through updates to our full year guidance. And finally, I will close with some comments on our pending merger with Albertsons. Turning first to our performance. We delivered strong third quarter sales results, led by our pharmacy and digital performance, which reflects the versatility of our model. Customer engagement remains strong. Our convenient seamless shopping experience, along with incredible customer value through low prices, personalized offers, and great quality Our Brands products, drove growth in both total and loyal households. As we entered the last quarter of 2024, we are focused on providing the quality, fresh, and affordable products that make holiday celebrations special. Customer spending habits continue adjusting to current macroeconomic factors. As inflation normalizes, our premium and mainstream households are feeling more confident and are returning to their pre-pandemic shopping patterns more quickly. Mainstream households are the primary driver of our positive customer engagement trends. While overall consumer settlement remains low, expectations are improving, which positions us well for the holidays and into next year. As we said, near term, some customers are managing macroeconomic uncertainty. Spending from budget-conscious households remained under pressure as the effects of multiyear inflation and higher interest rates have had a larger impact on these households. Therefore, we expect it will take longer for these households to feel the benefits of economic improvement. Kroger is delivering on its long-standing commitment to provide customers with the value they are seeking. We are helping customers save in multiple ways, including competitive shelf prices and loyalty discounts, personalized offers, fuel rewards, and an expanded multitiered Our Brands portfolio. Digital offers are an important way we deliver savings to customers, and engagement continues to grow with 5% more digital offer clips so far this year, and that has led to 14% more savings for Kroger customers. We are always creating additional ways for our customers to save. This quarter, we celebrated and thanked our customers with a customer appreciation week, offering new great deals. And to help our customers enjoy a memorable Thanksgiving, we lowered the price of Thanksgiving meals for the third consecutive year by creating a meal bundle that served a group of 10 people for less than $5 per person. We are focused on executing our go-to-market strategy to deliver a differentiated customer experience through our focus areas of fresh, Our Brands, personalization, and seamless. We appreciate our associates' continued efforts to elevate the customer experience and bringing this strategy to life by improving on our key priorities of full, fresh, and friendly again this quarter. I would now like to cover how we are enhancing our go-to-market strategy. We are seeing long runways for growth in many areas of our strategy, starting with fresh. Customers connect strongly to our Fresh for Everyone brand promise, which is a key differentiator for Kroger. Improvements across the supply chain as part of our end-to-end fresh initiative are increasing days of freshness. For example, bagged salads now offer customers more than seven days of freshness. Customers are noticing, and it has led to identical sales in produce of more than 3% this quarter. In addition, we constantly evaluate new ways to apply data and technology to provide an even better fresh experience and deliver more days of freshness for our customers. One of the ways we are doing this is through recent implementation of RFID-embedded labels on bakery items. These labels provide us with greater insights into our fresh inventory, resulting in consistently fresher items and higher in-stock levels. We have seen encouraging results, including higher sales in locations and categories where we have piloted the RFID labels, and we look forward to scaling this to more stores. Turning to Our Brands, I would like to step back and talk about the significant investments we've made in Our Brands and how those investments are delivering value to both customers and shareholders. For years, the grocery industry offered private label products, with the primary goal of creating products at lower price points. Several years ago, we recognized an untapped opportunity for growth in these products and envisioned a future where our private label products would match or exceed the innovation, quality, and recognition of national brands, which is why we coined the phrase Our Brands. Guided by that vision, our teams built distinct and recognizable brands that our customers want and love, providing more value and meeting unique product needs that national brands cannot fill. Recently, we focused in on refining Our Brand architecture to optimize the portfolio and ensure each brand plays a unique role on the shelf. The successful addition of Smart Way, our new opening price point brand, played an important role in rounding out our multitiered portfolio and offering an attractive alternative to national brands at every price point. The next phase of the work involved refreshing designs and packaging, enhancing brand equity, and reinforcing quality and improving the shopability. For example, to reinforce our long-standing guarantee of quality and freshness, we are placing guarantees on labels across our Kroger-branded products. Innovation remains a driving force for Our Brands' growth. We utilize our data and insights to understand customer trends and meet increasing demands by consistently introducing new items to our portfolio, with a focus on growth areas, including free-from, organic, and multicultural. This innovation enables us to differentiate ourselves from both national brands and other private label brands, creating destination items that help build customer loyalty. Our manufacturing capabilities will continue to be an important advantage for Our Brands. With oversight over the quality and the supply, we can develop unique and differentiated products while keeping costs low, allowing us to pass the savings to customers while preserving our ability to grow margins. A true win-win for customers in Kroger. This quarter, Our Brands continued to deliver strong financial results, which Todd will cover in more detail. Next, to personalization. Our Kroger Plus program provides our loyal customers access to savings and rewards that, in turn, drive traffic to our seamless experience. As customers become more engaged, we gain deeper insights into customer trends while creating the data that enables us to grow Kroger Precision Marketing and deliver more effective promotions and relevant product recommendations. We are working to grow Boost, the next level of our loyalty program, through new benefits. And this quarter, we announced the addition of Disney+, Hulu, or ESPN+ streaming benefits with Boost annual memberships. Turning to seamless. Digital sales grew 11%, driven by an increase in both households and traffic. Within digital, delivery sales grew at 18% and continues to outpace other channels. Boost is one of the important ways we are increasing e-commerce penetration, providing customers an affordable membership model for free delivery. Increasing e-commerce penetration is important to our model as households who shop with us digitally and are in our stores are our most loyal customers and increase retail media monetization opportunities as well. As our digital business grows, particularly in our delivery network, it continues to have a larger impact on our financial results. Improving profitability is a key priority and becoming even more important to our financial model. Over nearly a decade, we made significant investments in our digital capabilities: building out our own properties, creating distribution channels in both pickup and delivery, investing in automation, enhancing personalization, and introducing an industry-leading retail media network. While each of these capabilities required significant investments, we now have a unique digital experience that our customers enjoy. Moving forward, we are committed to growing volumes, utilizing automation, and introducing new technology that will create efficiency gains while helping us narrow the profitability gap between online and in store. Narrowing that gap will generate meaningful operating margin benefits and help drive shareholder value over the next several years. By executing our go-to-market strategy, we are building loyalty, increasing customer engagement, and creating more growth opportunities. First, with alternative profit businesses, which had another solid quarter, Kroger Precision Marketing continued to deliver the most significant growth from our alternative profit businesses. Next, in health and wellness, as the pharmacy industry continues to transform, Kroger has a unique opportunity to play a bigger role in helping patients live healthier lives while growing our share of the industry. We are excited about this area of the business, and its performance this quarter demonstrates we can grow this business profitably in a way that supports our customers to live healthier lives. Sales and profitability this quarter were well ahead of last year, led by growth in both GLP-1s and vaccines. Our strong growth in vaccines reflect patient trust in Kroger to vaccinate them and their families during the start of the cold and flu season, the peak quarter of the year for vaccinations. Our health and wellness teams did an excellent job this quarter in building awareness around our vaccine capabilities, growing share, and administrating significantly more vaccines this year versus a year ago. These helped offset the product mix pressures from GLP-1s. Our vaccine efforts are leading to new patient scripts, which is important as these customers are more likely to become loyal households and spend more across the store. We appreciate our associates for their continued efforts to elevate the customer experience by delivering on our key priorities of full, fresh, and friendly. Team consistency leads to a better customer experience, and we are excited about another quarter of improvement in retention. Our focus on retention reflects a holistic strategy, including investments in wages and benefits, as well as enhancing the associate experience through training, technology, and career development opportunities. With that, I will hand it over to Todd to take you through our third quarter financial results. Todd. Todd Foley -- Interim Chief Financial Officer Thanks, Rodney, and good morning, everyone. Kroger's third quarter results reflect the durability of our model, with strong pharmacy results that helped offset lower fuel profitability as we cycled strong fuel results from a year ago. As we head into the final quarter of the year, we are narrowing the ranges on our identical sales without fuel, adjusted FIFO operating profit, and adjusted EPS guidance. The strength of our model gives us confidence in our ability to deliver on this full year guidance. Before I walk through our third quarter financial results, I would like to start off by covering a couple of items from the quarter that affected our financial results. First, during the third quarter, we finalized the sale of our Kroger Specialty Pharmacy business for $464 million. The sale reduced total company sales in the third quarter by approximately $340 million compared to the same period last year, and annualized sales will be approximately $3 billion lower going forward. KSP was a low-margin business. As a result, the sale of the business increased both Kroger's gross margin and operating general and administrative costs as a rate of sales. It had no material effect on operating profit. Second, on a year-over-year basis, the combined hurricane season and port strike had approximately a 20-basis-point favorable impact on sales as customers stocked up in anticipation of these events. These events had an unfavorable impact on OG&A. Together, this did not have a material impact on total operating profit. I'll now take you through our third quarter financial results. We achieved identical sales without fuel growth of 2.3%. As Rodney mentioned earlier, identical sales without fuel were led by strong pharmacy and digital sales. We're also encouraged by the continuation of positive customer metric trends, including increases in total and loyal households. Our Brands had a strong quarter with sales outpacing national brands again this quarter, led by mid-single-digit growth in our most premium brand, Private Selection. Customers continue to demand premium products but, at the same time, are looking for value. Our Private Selection brand is a perfect solution by offering our customers premium quality at an attractive price. These results demonstrate the breadth of Our Brands portfolio and the ability to meet customers' needs for quality and value. Digital sales delivered another quarter of double-digit growth, led by 18% growth in delivery solutions, driven by our customer fulfillment centers. The CFCs are offering customers a superior digital experience with excellent in-stocks, fresh items, and a white-glove on-time delivery. CFC growth was driven by a significant increase in households and trips, as well as an increase in basket size. Our third quarter identical sales without fuel results were affected by the Boar's Head recalls that began in the second quarter. We acted quickly with the safety of our customers in mind as soon as we became aware of the situation. Boar's Head is a strategic supplier, with brand-loyal customers that are an important driver of our deli sales. As a result, some customers have temporarily migrated away from the category. It will take some time for those customers to resume their prior purchasing behavior, and we expect this to remain a headwind to sales in the near term. The unfavorable sales effect from Boar's Head this quarter was largely offset by the favorable sales impact from the hurricane and port strike. Turning to margins. Gross margin was 22.9% of sales, and our FIFO gross margin rate, excluding fuel, increased 51 basis points compared to last year and was ahead of expectations. The increase in rate was primarily attributable to the sale of Kroger Specialty Pharmacy, Our Brands performance, and lower shrink, partially offset by lower pharmacy margins. The result reflected Kroger's ability to improve margin while being competitive on price and helping customers manage their budgets. The OG&A rate, excluding fuel and adjustment items, increased 22 basis points, driven by the sale of Kroger Specialty Pharmacy and increased incentive plan costs, partially offset by the continued execution of cost savings initiatives. Excluding the sale of Kroger Specialty Pharmacy, fuel, and adjustment items, our OG&A rate to sales would have been nearly flat year over year, demonstrating that our model can leverage expenses when we achieve our long-term id sales without fuel goal of 2% to 4%. This is made possible by our relentless focus on productivity and cost savings initiatives, which remain an essential part of our model. These initiatives are focused on simplification and utilizing technology to enhance the associated experience without impacting the customer experience. This quarter, we launched a new, internally developed, generative AI-powered sell-through tool, which helps us better manage inventory in both fresh and center store departments through real-time insights tracking sales and shipments. This enables our teams to increase freshness on shelves and prioritize sell-through, optimizing both sales and margins. Looking ahead, we plan to further enhance the AI capabilities on this platform by extending into improved forecasting and end-to-end inventory management. During the third quarter, we recorded a LIFO charge of $4 million, compared to a charge of $29 million for the same period last year, due to lower expected year-over-year inflation. Adjusted FIFO operating profit was 1.02 billion, and adjusted EPS was $0.98 per diluted share, an increase of 3% compared to last year. Fuel is an important part of our strategy. Fuel rewards through our Kroger Plus program help build customer loyalty. Fuel sales were significantly lower this quarter compared to last year, attributable to a lower average retail price per gallon. Fuel profitability was also meaningfully behind a year ago as a result of fewer gallons sold and lower cents per gallon margin. I wanted to provide a brief update on inflation as it remains a topic of interest for many investors. Inflation was down slightly in the third quarter compared to the second quarter but remains around 1%. We expect inflation to remain consistent in the fourth quarter. I would now like to provide a brief update on associates and labor relations. During the third quarter, we ratified new labor agreements for Dillons Columbia and Missouri clerks; Central Division, Ottawa, and Streator clerks; Northern Illinois meat clerks; Fred Meyer Portland retail stores; and the Foods Co. contract in Northern California, all covering nearly 13,000 associates. We respect associates' right to collectively bargain. We're also communicating to local unions. And coming to the table with proposals that do not balance investing in associates with keeping groceries affordable for our customers and supporting a growing and profitable business model are untenable. These proposals stand in the way of operating our business in a way that ensures job security and advancement opportunities for associates. Turning to cash flow. Kroger continues to generate strong adjusted free cash flow or consistent operating results. Free cash flow generation is an important part of our model and is enabling us to invest in our business for growth. At the end of the third quarter, Kroger's net total debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio was 1.21, compared to our target range of 2.3 to 2.5. Our strengthened balance sheet provides us flexibility to pursue growth and enhance shareholder value. We continue to take a disciplined approach to deploying capital, prioritizing the highest growth opportunities that strengthen our business and deliver solid returns for our shareholders. We're committed to maintaining our investment-grade debt rating, increasing our dividend over time, subject to board approval, and returning excess capital to shareholders when we are able to do so. I would now like to provide some additional color on our outlook for the rest of the year. After delivering solid third quarter results, we're narrowing the ranges of identical sales without fuel, adjusted FIFO operating profit, and adjusted EPS guidance. Additionally, we have updated our guidance for adjusted effective tax rate and expect it to be 22.5%. We now expect identical sales without fuel for the year to be in the range of 1.2% to 1.5%, with quarter-to-date trends signaling we will be near the midpoint of this range. Identical sales without fuel results year to date have largely been in line with our expectations, with Q3 being slightly ahead of expectations due the favorable effects from the hurricanes, the port strike, and strong vaccine growth during the peak season for immunizations. Our expectations for fourth quarter identical sales without fuel are consistent with our forecast at the beginning of the year. We expect Q4 identical sales to remain strong but sequentially lower than third quarter, partially due to the cycling of weather benefits from the fourth quarter of 2023 that are not built into our current forecast for Q4 2024. We now expect adjusted FIFO operating profit to be in the range of $4.6 billion to $4.7 billion, and adjusted net earnings per diluted share is expected to be in the range of $4.35 to $4.45. Looking to next year, we are in the process of finalizing our 2025 business plan. While we still have many unknowns, we do expect Kroger to deliver FIFO operating profit growth on a stand-alone basis. During our fourth quarter earnings call, we plan to share our full year 2025 outlook in more detail. In closing, we are happy to deliver another quarter of strong results, which reflect the resilience of our value creation model. While macroeconomic conditions remain uncertain, our model has multiple levers, which enable us to navigate any environment, including grocery, health and wellness, fuel, and alternative profit businesses. This gives us flexibility in the ways we create shareholder value and confidence in our ability to generate attractive and sustainable returns for shareholders. I will now turn the call back to Rodney. W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer Thanks, Todd. Before I open it up to Q&A, I'd like to speak briefly about our pending merger with Albertsons. First, I would like to express my appreciation for our associates and their incredible commitment. It has been a long journey, and our associates have done an excellent job serving customers and running the day-to-day operations of our business while also preparing for the merger. I would like to extend a special thanks to those who supported the litigation in federal and state courts, both the associates who testified and the teams who prepared a compelling case about the meaningful and measurable benefits of the merger. Our teams are ready to ensure a seamless transition for our customers and associates from day one. It is exciting to see the complementary strengths of both Kroger and Albertsons organizations. And we look forward to combining these strengths to provide customers with an even better experience. As we await the court rulings in the regulatory challenges to the merger, we remain confident in the facts and the strengths of our position. The retail industry continues to be more competitive. And we know how our customers shop. Every day, they are making decisions on where to eat and where to buy their groceries. They shop at a wide range of competitors, from Costco to Amazon to dollar stores, and they eat at restaurants. They shop digitally and brick and mortar. And as I've said before, we remain committed to closing the merger because it will provide meaningful and measurable benefits for customers, for associates, and for communities across the country. And we look forward to bringing these commitments to life. Regardless of the outcome of the trials, Kroger is operating from a position of strength. And we are optimistic about our future. Our business is more diverse than ever, and our value creation model provides us with multiple ways to drive sustainable growth. Our strong free cash flow and strengthened balance sheet provides us with the ability to invest in our business and enhance shareholder value. With that, Todd and I look forward to taking your questions. Because we are still in litigation, we will not be taking questions on the merger this morning. Questions & Answers: Operator Thank you. [Operator instructions] Our first question for today comes from Simeon Gutman of Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Simeon Gutman -- Analyst Good morning, Rodney, Todd. My question is on the P&L for 2024. If you take out the extra week lap and then you pull out some of the merger-related costs, the big ones, it looks like the core business is growing pretty nicely on EBIT and really nicely, potentially mid-single, even high single-digit percentage. And that's despite lower fuel profitability, and the environment has been pretty tough. So, first, is that a fair characterization? And is it mixing the way you would have thought between the core business and the alternative? Thanks. Todd Foley -- Interim Chief Financial Officer Great question, Simeon. Thanks for that. And I think that's a fair read on how you've described it. You know, we were obviously very happy with the results that we've seen coming from not only the core business but inclusive of pharmacy. We're particularly pleased with the results we saw in the pharmacy. You heard Rodney talk about it today. So, despite that lever in fuel giving us a headwind this quarter, we were pleased with the core growth coming from the core business and see that continuing. The mix relative to alternative and core business, I think the growth expectations that we have around the alternative profit business are relatively consistent to what we expected to see. And so, I think that those are -- continue to be as balanced as we expected going into the quarter. W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer And, you know, longer term, as everyone knows, the alternative business -- profit businesses, we continue to see a great opportunity, and the margins on that business is meaningfully higher than the supermarket business. And the whole flywheel between our brick-and-mortar business and our seamless business, pickup and delivery, is the engine behind driving that continuation there, which we're very excited about. Todd Foley -- Interim Chief Financial Officer That's a great call, Rodney. We saw the digital growth, again, at low double-digit growth, which is an important part of the growth that you talked about, Simeon. And that -- again, when you talk about mix in our business and our omnichannel, that low double-digit growth is right on what we expected and helps drive both the core business and the alternative profit, as Rodney described. Simeon Gutman -- Analyst And the one follow-up, this is more toward a comment Rodney made. All year, we talked about the mainstream, the premium, and the lower end. It felt like there may have been an inflection whereas the mainstream has been resilient and the premium has been healthy. I thought your comments today on mainstream inflected a little more positively. I'm not sure if that's reading too much in. Lower income sounds about the same. Curious if that's fair. W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer Yeah, the mainstream customers certainly performed -- connected with us better in the third quarter than the second quarter. How much of that is driven because of things we did and how much they're just feeling better, we don't know. Now, they're telling us they feel better. And certainly, customers that are on a budget continue to be under a lot of strain. And the cumulation of inflation and other aspects and higher interest rates have affected -- continue to affect them more. And I think the other thing that's always important to remember is that customer, in many cases, are starting out in careers and things and they don't have as many physical assets on -- you know, a house or a little bit of savings and those things, and those inflation obviously affects that person a little harder than others. Thanks, Simeon. Operator Our next question comes from Rupesh Parikh of Oppenheimer. Rupesh, your line is now open. Please go ahead. Rupesh Parikh -- Analyst Good morning and thank you for taking my question. So, just going back to your guidance, so you did narrow the operating profit range to the lower end of the range for the full year. So, just curious what's driving that. W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer Todd, I'll let you start. Todd Foley -- Interim Chief Financial Officer Yeah. Well, you know, with one quarter left, Rupesh, we wanted to try to narrow the range because there should be less variability in our expectations. When you look at the sales part of the guidance, down at 1.2 to 1.5, I think that's pretty consistent with what we've been thinking for the year. The midpoint on that range is a tick higher than I think what we have been thinking before. And frankly, when you look at where we expect to be in Q4, I think that's right on how we've been thinking about it all year, relative to all of that. Q3 actually is the one that was really strong. And we talked about -- Rodney talked about the pharmacy and the digital growth there, particularly in the vaccine space. We were really pleased. We've been working hard to grow our vaccine business, and we saw that throughout the quarters early in this year. But with Q3 being that key vaccine -- you know, Super Bowl season for vaccines, we were really pleased to see that that growth continue and that it paid off in that point in time. So, that's where we saw Q3 being really strong and that Q4 guidance being really what we expected. When you look at it on the EPS side of our guidance, Rupesh, again, we narrowed the range there. We took a nickel off the top side and the bottom side. And really, that midpoint of the range is pretty consistent with where we've been thinking about it for the year. As we think about that range and some of the key factors for that range in the fourth quarter, a couple of key things that we're keeping an eye on. One is weather. We alluded to it in our prepared comments. There were several meaningful weather events a year ago that, you know, drove some benefits. And we just don't forecast weather, you know, on a forward-looking basis. So, if we see the number and magnitude of weather events in the fourth quarter this year, I think that would be something that could push us toward the higher end of that range. And then the other one is fuel. Certainly, we -- you know, fuel tends to be pretty volatile, and we've seen that this year. And really, we have fuel expectations to be pretty in line with where they were last year. And frankly, from a gallon trend and from a cents per gallon trend, in the fourth quarter, we're pretty consistent sequentially from where we've been performing over the last few periods. So, if we have variance in the fuel profitability, either positive or negative, I think that could lean us toward the top or the bottom end of that range, respectively. W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer Todd said this, but I think it's important to just highlight it. You know, if you look at the range for the year, fuel in the third quarter was a tougher quarter than what we expected it to be, and that really -- relative to the top side. And the other thing that Todd mentioned, we don't budget weather because we just don't know. Obviously, there's been some major storms, but those storms haven't been in places where we operate stores. So, it really hasn't affected us so far. And generally, that's a positive when we have weather because people eat at home as opposed to going to restaurants. Rupesh Parikh -- Analyst And then my very quick follow-up question, just on the Boost membership, you added the Disney perk as well, just, you know, overall, are you guys happy with the signups that you're seeing and the retention with that program? W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer I would say we're very happy, but the thing that I guess I get more excited about is the potential because it's an incredible value for customers and customers love it and they -- and we have a high renewal rate and a high NPS score. So, our job is to continue to educate more customers on it. So, I'm really more excited about, you know, the opportunity going forward and the overall deeper connection with customers. So, great question. Thanks, Rupesh. Operator Thank you. Our next question comes from Leah Jordan of Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Leah Jordan -- Analyst Good morning. Thank you for taking my question and thanks for the commentary on inflation this morning and how you're thinking about it in the fourth quarter. But as you plan with your vendors, seeing if you can add more color on how you're thinking about inflation into next year. You know, what are you seeing across categories in hearing from those partners? Todd Foley -- Interim Chief Financial Officer Yeah. No, a great question. Maybe still a little early to think about next year. But, you know, if you think about where we were this year, obviously, coming into the year, we were coming out of that crazy disinflation that we had a year ago. And inflation has played out more or less the way we expected. It's maybe a little bit less than what we expected, but it's been relatively stable at just under 1%, maybe even saw, I think, a slight step back in Q3 relative to Q2, which, as we said, we expect to see for next year. As we look to next year at this point, looking at, you know, both some of the macro and governmental studies, as well as conversations with vendors, again, it's still early to tell and we might see a slight expansion to inflation next year but really don't expect to see anything meaningfully different or inconsistent with what we're kind of seeing right now with inflation. W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer We are continuing to see CPGs be a little more aggressive on trade dollars. And, you know, over time, you know, that obviously affects inflation a little bit as well. Leah Jordan -- Analyst Great. Thank you. And I just wanted to follow up on some of your fresh initiatives. I know you've been working on improving days of freshness in produce for a while, so great to see some improvement there. But it seemed like the RFID tags within bakery is new to me. You know, just wanted more color there. You know, what degree of lift are you seeing when you add that to the category? How many of your stores have it today and how should we think about the rollout over time? W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer Well, we are -- you know, as I mentioned, we're testing it. We're happy with the initial result. The benefits are as much helping our associates be able to do their job a little bit easier. And, you know, it's too early -- it's early enough to be excited about the potential. It's too early to say, you know, this much we can budget in terms of what we would do. But, you know, the thing that we're excited about for our customers, it's helping us make sure we have fresher product for the customer and stay in stock better. And, you know, it's super exciting. You know, we will look at other areas of the store to see what kind of opportunity it is. The cost per tag is still higher than we would like. So, we still need to continue to work on focusing on the getting the cost per tag down. But positive early results really early in the process and excited about the potential. Thanks, Leah. Operator Thank you. Our next question comes from Ken Goldman of J.P. Morgan. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Ken Goldman -- Analyst Hi. Thank you. I wanted to follow up on the topic of next year, I appreciate it's too early to -- for specifics, and I'm not asking for any numbers. But to Simeon's question, you agreed that it's a fair read that the core underlying business is doing very well -- I think those were the words -- despite when you ex out the merger cost and the digital mix and fuel and so forth. And you talked a little bit about inflation being sort of steady and predictable and consistent in that low single-digit range. Are there any other unusual tailwinds or headwinds that we should consider, just directionally, as we think about next year? Just trying to get a sense for what would kind of throw you off from having another, you know, reasonably good year. You did say that operating profit would be up, but you didn't kind of tell us how much, and your longer term amount goes 3% to 5%, of course. W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer Yeah, and it's -- it would be way too early to tell you specifics. And obviously, we're awaiting for the ruling on the merger, which will affect guidance as well. The other thing that -- I guess, from a positive standpoint that I'm excited about, in the third quarter, we opened or expanded the most number of stores that we've done I think it's actually in a quarter in seven years. And as you know, last year, we talked about it that we will open more stores this year than we have in several years, and we would expect to continue to open more stores. And so far, the stores that we've opened, we're happy with the way they're connecting with customers and we're happy in terms of the volumes they're creating and the early read on, you know, the profitability of the stores as well. So, over time, we would hope that that would continue to be a tailwind. And obviously, on seamless, we continue to see that as really critical to our five- or 10-year future to be awesome there. And we still have a lot of work to do to make -- where we're indifferent, whether somebody shops with us online or in store, and we'll continue to put a lot of effort there. In terms of headwind, Todd, I'll let you -- anything that you can think of that's -- Todd Foley -- Interim Chief Financial Officer I can't think of anything unusual headwinds or tailwinds as we sit here today, frankly, Ken. But, you know, going into next year, part of what has us optimistic and feeling good about the strength of our value creation model is a lot of the momentum we have in the things that are in our high-growth areas today. We've talked about a lot of them already. It's pharmacy. It's our digital business. It's our alternative profit. And we have good momentum in those spaces and are executing on those. And from a headwind standpoint, we're going to continue to invest in the business, we're going to invest in price. You've heard Rodney say it before, we assume every year is going to be more competitive than the last, and that view hasn't changed. And so, we'll continue to engage in customers, make sure we're delivering value to them by investing in price and investing in their shopping experience. And we're committed to continue to invest in wages. So, some of those are headwinds. They're just the parts of our model that is we deliver the value in our model through all their different value propositions, we're able to use that to invest in the business to keep the flywheel moving. Ken Goldman -- Analyst OK. Thank you for that. And then speaking about price investments, you know, Rodney, you mentioned that CPGs continue to be a little bit more aggressive on trade dollars. Your largest competitor or -- you know, in food retail -- we'll see if the judges agree that it's a competitor or not. But your largest competitor in food retail had more kind of commentary last week or this week about, you know, how they would like to see more of those price investments from key vendors. Rodney, your tone, you know, since I've known you has always been more sort of agnostic about that. You know, if investor -- if your vendors don't invest with that, you'll be happy to sell customers more private label. I'm just curious where you stand in terms of are you content with the level of price investment or are you more just sort of agnostic and saying, look, whatever our vendors want, it'll play out either way beneficially for you. W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer Yeah. I guess a little bit of both. The -- if you look at tonnage growth in CPGs, there's a lot of CPGs that cannot be satisfied with their tonnage growth. And I believe that trade dollars and being more aggressive on partnering with us to make sure the right customer gets access to those benefits is good long term for the customer, long-term benefit for both of us on tonnage. If they're not willing to do that, it really gets back to the comment that we talked about. Our Brands, and, you know, Todd and I both mentioned it, had a strong quarter. The profitability of Our Brands is, you know, several 100 basis points higher than national brand. And if the CPGs are willing to continue to give up share to Our Brands, we're OK with that because what we find is once a customer tries Our Brands, the repeat rate of customers coming back is incredibly high because what they find is they have -- there's no compromise on quality and they have a great value for the money. So, you know, at the end of the day, the customer wins when they buy Our Brands. But it really is -- we try to run a business where the customer decides what they want to buy as opposed to forcing them to buy something. Thanks, Ken. Operator Thank you. Our next question comes from Ed Kelly of Wells Fargo. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Edward Kelly -- Analyst Hi. Good morning, everyone. W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer Good morning. Edward Kelly -- Analyst Curious about the gross margin. You've had a couple of good quarters, you know, on the gross margin front. I think you admit this quarter was better than expected. How are you thinking about gross margin in Q4, and then, you know, even like into -- I don't know, you're not going to get next year, but sort of like the outlook for the gross margin? And I'm talking like ex-Spec Pharma divestiture and maybe, you know, just talk about the puts and takes around that. Todd Foley -- Interim Chief Financial Officer Yeah. No, great question, Ed, and I think you hit on a key part of thinking about it, excluding KSP. You know, we talked about, you know, it was a strong quarter in gross margin, and about half of that year-over-year benefit was a result of the divestiture. But the other piece of it really came -- we highlighted both of them. Rodney -- layers in well with what Rodney was just talking about -- was our growth in Our Brands. We continue to have Our Brands sales growth outpacing national brands, and that is always going drive, you know, solid margin expansion. And so, that's certainly what we saw again in the third quarter, very similar to what we saw in the second. And then shrink had another nice quarter. So, we've got, you know, cautiously optimistic on the progress we're making there, but we are making progress in the shrink space that really helped us in the third. As we look to the fourth, I think, you know -- excluding KSP, I think, overall, we'll probably be slightly favorable in the fourth. Reflecting KSP, when you pull that out, I think we'll probably be relatively flat on that, relative to some of the puts and takes, again, if we over-indexed in things like Our Brands and whatnot, but we may be a little bit favorable. But overall, I think we'll be relatively consistent, relatively flat year over year on the margins in Q4. W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer I totally agree with everything Todd said, and Todd said the big pieces. I would also add a couple of smaller pieces that's helping on gross margin that should continue is, if you look at our warehouse and transportation costs, we continue to make some progress there. And the customer continue to buy more value-added product, and fresh continues to grow as well. So, those are things that help on mix, in addition to things that Todd talked about. Edward Kelly -- Analyst And just to -- Rodney, a quick follow-up. This one is for you, and you kind of hinted at it or talked about it. But, you know, Albertsons would be a transformational deal. How do you feel about Kroger's position, you know, if the deal is rejected? And do you need to hunt for something else more transformational or is it just simply more prudent to double down on what you have and reward shareholders for their patience with return of capital? W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer Yeah, it's a great question. You know, if you look at the balance sheet capacity that we have, there's probably no -- nothing else that would be transformational that would use the balance sheet capacity that we would have. So, I don't know that we would be out there trying to find what's the next Albertsons. As you know, and you just said it, we try -- we've always made sure that we don't need to do mergers to make our business successful. And that was one of the reasons that we've always been proud of what Kroger has done. We're super excited about Albertsons and the potential, and we believe we will be able to add a ton of value for giving customers better value. The people there, we'll be able to provide security, and grow our business and create additional career opportunities and support communities. But if it doesn't happen, we'll continue to go on. As you know, we always will continue to look at how -- ways to grow the business. Mergers is always one of those ways of growing the business. But we try to make sure that we only do a merger when it makes sense. And we're not chasing something, and we won't get in a position where we are having to chase something. So, great question, and thanks, Ed. Operator Thank you. Our next question comes from Michael Lasser of UBS. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Michael Lasser -- Analyst Good morning. Thank you so much for taking my question. As of the second quarter, Kroger had made a point in its presentation that it was on track to deliver more than 20% media growth this year, and that line was removed this quarter. So, is it right to interpret that the media growth, which is an important driver of the alternative revenue stream, is starting to slow perhaps as there are more platforms for advertisers to choose and direct its advertising dollars? And if that's the case, how does Kroger accelerate that element of its algorithm in order to support the long-term outlook for the business? Todd Foley -- Interim Chief Financial Officer Yeah, let me start there, Michael. Thanks for the question. It's a good call. We do still expect to see our retail media growth be in that 20% range for the year. It's still a fast-growing part of our business, and the outcomes that we're seeing continue to demonstrate that we're well-positioned for that growth. You know, as we look at those CPGs that are advertising with us, we see the outsized return on ads spend that they're generating. And so, that's why I say we're able to demonstrate and we're seeing those results. And not coincidentally, the sales for those CPGs at Kroger are strong. And so, I think the proof points continue to be there, but as you say, there's a proliferation of options as everybody's kind of got their own flavor of what this is. So, I think we just need to continue to demonstrate that to CPGs because I think the proof will be in the results. W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer Todd's last point, to me, and if CPGs are listening, and that's the only reason why I'm adding on top, the CPGs that increased spending the most had the highest tonnage growth with us on -- which, to me, is it shows you the power of our platform. And, you know, Todd said it. I just wanted to double down on it. Michael Lasser -- Analyst OK. And my follow-up question is what do you need to drive -- what do you need to happen in order to drive the -- back -- Kroger to achieve the sales piece of its long-term algorithm in 2025? This year, there's been a contribution from the GLP-1 drug, some storm-related spending. Perhaps don't -- won't -- those won't be as meaningful contributors next year. So, is it that you would be banking on, A, market share stabilizing and is that realistic; and B, some acceleration in inflation to offset what have been driving the -- some of the comp this year? W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer Yeah, we wouldn't -- we would not be dependent on inflation. And it's really -- we continue to double down on the customer experience. And when we find that we improve the customer experience, our business follows that or the customer rewards us for that. And it's -- you know, it really gets back to -- you've heard us say it a million times -- full, fresh, and friendly. The other thing that we're increasingly supporting is allocating capital to growth areas, and that would be, you know, storing; obviously, continuation of seamless. Our online business continues to have outside growth. And then specific projects that support cost reductions and sales opportunities. Todd Foley -- Interim Chief Financial Officer Yeah, I agree with everything you said, Rodney, especially the storing, which you hit on earlier as well. You mentioned GLP-1, and that certainly has been part of this year. But as we sit here today, I think we continue to expect to see growth in that area as more manufacturers get in the mix and the supply continues to become more available and more and more patients continue to utilize that drug. So, I think we'll still see -- expect to see growth in the GLP-1 space as well for the -- at least near future -- foreseeable future. W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer Thanks, Michael. Operator Thank you. Our next question comes from John Heinbockel of Guggenheim Partners. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. John Heinbockel -- Analyst Hey, Rodney, can you talk about the -- you referenced in your release the initiatives -- productivity initiatives on in-store order selection. How broadly is that rolled out? And when I think about how much you can take the cost per order down, can you take that down double digit from where we are today? W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer Over time, we would certainly expect to take it down double digit from where we are today. And when I talk about over time, I'm talking about over the next two or three years. And it's -- we still have a reasonable amount to roll it out. Now, as you -- you followed Kroger long enough to know that we will start -- whenever we roll something out, we start with the biggest opportunity places first. So, it's the highest volume locations and those kind of things. The thing that I think is fascinating and exciting is if you look at the fundamental things behind the software, we're learning that we can actually use that same technology in other areas of the business. And I would hope that we'll continue to find those kind of opportunities. So, I feel, you know, confident and comfortable that, certainly, well, you know, double-digit-type stuff of improvement. But, you know, our team is not going be satisfied until they get to where it's indifferent, how somebody shops with us. Operator Thank you. Our next question comes from Michael Montani of Evercore ISI. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Michael Montani -- Analyst Yes. Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. I just wanted to ask first, did I miss the fuel CPG contribution for this quarter? Wondering if you could give some added color there. And then just had a follow-up. Todd Foley -- Interim Chief Financial Officer Yeah. Thanks, Michael. We don't typically -- we stopped a few quarters ago given -- giving details around CPG. You did catch on to the point that -- I think that Rodney brought out that both gallons and CPG were down in the third quarter, again, with some of the volatility in fuel. But as we looked at the fourth quarter relative to our expectations versus a year ago, we think fuel will be a little bit -- our expectation is that fuel will be a little bit more stable year over year in Q4, and that's supported by some of the trends that we've seen over the last few periods in both gallons and margins. Operator Thank you. Our next question comes from Rob Dickerson of Jefferies. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Robert Dickerson -- Analyst Great. Thanks so much. Rodney, you know, I know you said upfront and it seems like consumer settlement is still low, but maybe, you know, there are some green shoots. Maybe it's improving a little bit. So, I'm just wondering kind of as you got through the Thanksgiving holiday and then as we're kind of, you know, in a real time in the current holiday season, like have you seen any, you know, incremental, almost like sequential traffic improvement in the actual retail stores? W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer We feel good about where we are. The thing I guess I would say that we still don't quite under -- it'll take time as there's five less shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. So, we feel good about where we are. We're tracking a little bit better than where we thought we would be. But we still are cautious because of the five less shopping days and how does that play out. And as you mentioned, we are seeing the customer -- most of the customers are starting to feel a little bit more relaxed and comfortable in terms of where they stand and what's coming, what -- how things look going forward. Operator Thank you. Our next question comes from Jacob Aiken-Phillips of Melius Research. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Jacob Aiken-Phillips -- Melius Research -- Analyst Good morning, everyone. Thanks for the question. I just wanted to go back to inflation a little bit. So, you showed that you were able to kind of leverage SG&A given, like, flat comps, excluding KSP. How do we think about that relationship going forward in terms of wage inflation and wage investment? And then also, with tariffs, aware of the view that it could be a self-fulfilling prophecy in terms of, like, people buying stuff and causing inflation, even if there aren't actually tariffs happening. I just wanted your thoughts on that. Todd Foley -- Interim Chief Financial Officer Yeah, I'll start with the wage investments. It's a great question. You -- we've talked a lot about how important it is for us to invest in our associates because they're so critical in delivering our customer experience. But, you know, we will continue to balance those wage investments with the other profitability enhancement items that we say. So, in any inflationary environment and in any sales leverage environment, you know, we've demonstrated that our model enables us to pull the levers to be able to balance those wage increases accordingly over time. So, given the comments that we've said with fairly balanced inflation, we think we'll be able to leverage our SG&A, including wage investments. Rodney, I don't know if you want to comment on tariffs. W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer Tariffs, for us, you know, first of all, you know, the effect on us is probably a little less than most companies. And we buy products internationally, but it's pretty modest. If you look in the fresh departments, it's, you know, less than 20% of the stuff. If you look in the center store, it's a fraction of that. So, we would see the tariffs affecting others generally more than us, and we feel like we'll be able to manage whatever is done because our competitors will have to deal with the same thing. Thanks, Jacob. Operator Thank you. Our next question comes from Chuck Cerankosky of Northcoast Research. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Chuck Cerankosky -- Analyst Good morning, everyone. Rodney, you mentioned that the mainstream and premium customers were pretty close to spending how they had been before COVID. But they are also, from what I can observe, the groups that are more likely to be going to restaurants, which seem to be doing fairly well right now. How do you sort of offset that with Kroger's prepared food offerings and maybe what changes are you making in those categories? W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer Well, first of all, we believe that that's a huge opportunity. You know, our market share -- you know, half of meals bought at a restaurant is consumed in a car or at home. Actually, I think it's a little over half. So, we see that as a huge opportunity. I would say we're trying a lot of different things. We've -- we're working with a couple of outside companies trying to help us there. But, you know, to me, it's more of a -- we -- in the future, we have a bigger opportunity than we've been able to unlock so far, and we believe it's a huge opportunity because what we've found is that a customer can buy a meal from us and it's usually the cost is one-third to one-fourth versus going out to a restaurant. So, it's -- for us, it's a great opportunity, but we're just scratching the surface. Operator Thank you. At this time, we'll take no further questions, so I'll hand it back to Rodney for any further remarks. W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer Thank you for all the questions. And as always, we have a lot of our associates listening in. First, I would like to send our thoughts and prayers to those impacted by the recent hurricanes. I would also like to take a moment to express my gratitude and appreciation for our dedicated team of associates, especially during this time. They just did amazing things on supporting communities. And as you know, our stores are vital to each community we serve. And during these types of times, our customers rely on us to provide them with food and other essential items. And I am so proud of our associates who have stepped up to be there for our customers, communities, and each other. Thank you for everything that you do for Kroger and our customers and thank you for everyone joining us today. We wish you a very happy holiday season, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year. Operator [Operator signoff] Duration: 0 minutes Call participants: Robinson C. Quast -- Senior Director, Investor Relations W. Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer Todd Foley -- Interim Chief Financial Officer Rodney McMullen -- Chair and Chief Executive Officer Simeon Gutman -- Analyst Rupesh Parikh -- Analyst Leah Jordan -- Analyst Ken Goldman -- Analyst Edward Kelly -- Analyst Ed Kelly -- Analyst Michael Lasser -- Analyst John Heinbockel -- Analyst Michael Montani -- Analyst Robert Dickerson -- Analyst Jacob Aiken-Phillips -- Melius Research -- Analyst Chuck Cerankosky -- Analyst More KR analysis All earnings call transcriptsGophers coach P.J. Fleck explains trick play call on game-defining drive in Penn State lossDear Sen. Duckworth: If We Have Bigger Issues Than Bathrooms, the Left Should Stop Trying to Invade Them
-- First Half Revenue of $85.7 million , increase 1.5% year-over-year -- -- First Half GMV of $107.3 million , down 7.0% year-over-year -- SHANGHAI , Dec. 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Jowell Global Ltd. ("Jowell" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: JWEL), one of the leading cosmetics, health and nutritional supplements, and household products e-commerce platforms in China , today announced its unaudited financial results for the six months ended June 30, 2024 . First Half 2024 Financial and Operational Highlights [1] "Total VIP members" refers to the total number of members registered on Jowell's platform as of June 30, 2024 and June 30, 2023. [2] "LHH stores" refers to the brand name of "Love Home Store". Authorized retailers may operate as independent stores or store-in-shop (an integrated store), selling products they purchased through Jowell's online platform LHH Mall under their retailer accounts, which provides them with major discounts. First Half 2024 Financial Results Total Revenues Total revenues for the first half 2024 were $85.7 million , representing an increase of 1.5% from $84.4 million in the same period of 2023. Our weighted average unit price was $5.16 per unit for the first half of 2024, which represented an increase of 4.2% as compared to $4.95 per unit for the same period of 2023. Our health and nutritional supplements revenue for the first half of 2024 increased by about $11.1 million , or 182.1%, as compared to the same period of 2023. The increase in health and nutritional supplements revenue was mainly due to the increase in sales of premium brand health and nutritional supplements. We have stepped up our promotions on these items during the Chinese New Year holidays in the first half of 2024 in an attempt to offer more promotional discounts in response to the overall market downturn. First Half Ended June 30 % 2024 2023 change Revenues (in thousands, except for percentages) US$ US$ YoY* Product sales • Cosmetic products 19,768.5 29,495.5 (33.0 %) • Health and nutritional supplements 17,190.7 6,094.2 182.1 % • Household products 48,438.7 48,473.1 (0.1 %) • Others 286.4 343.4 (16.6 %) Total 85,684.3 84,406.2 1.5 % * YOY—year over year Total cost and operating expenses were $89.6 million in the first half of 2024, a decrease of 1.5% from $91.0 million in the same period of 2023. Operating Loss Operating loss was $4.0 million for the first half of 2024, compared with the operating loss of $6.6 million in the same period of 2023. The decrease in operating loss for the first half of 2024 was mainly due the decrease of marketing expenses, as well as reduction of operating expenses as discussed above. Net Loss Net loss was $3.8 million , a decrease of 47.1% compared with net loss of $7.1 million in the same period of 2023, which was mainly due the factors mentioned above. Loss per Share The Company computes earnings (loss) per share ("EPS") in accordance with ASC 260, "Earnings per Share" ("ASC 260"). Each of the Company's Preferred Share has voting rights equal to two Ordinary Shares of the Company and each Preferred Share is convertible into one Ordinary Share at any time. Except for voting rights and conversion rights, the Ordinary Shares and the Preferred Shares rank pari passu with one another and have the same rights, preferences, privileges and restrictions. For the first half ended June 30, 2024 and 2023, respectively, the Company had no potential ordinary shares outstanding that could potentially dilute EPS in the future. Cash and Cash Equivalents For the first half of 2024, the Company reported a net loss of $3.8 million , a negative operating cash flow of $41,012 and an accumulated deficit of approximately $29.8 million . The Company's principal sources of liquidity are sales revenues, proceeds from a private placement and a registered direct offering. As of June 30, 2024 , the Company had cash and restricted cash of approximately $0.8 million , held by the variable interest entity (VIE) Shanghai Juhao Information Technology Co., Ltd. ("Shanghai Juhao") with banks and financial institutions inside China as the Company conducts its operations primarily through the consolidated VIE in China ; the Company's working capital as of June 30, 2024 was $13.4 million . Due to the uncertainty of the current market environment, management believes it is necessary to enhance the collection of its outstanding accounts receivable and other receivables, and to be cautious in terms of its operational decisions and project selections. As of October 31, 2024 , approximately $1.8 million , or 62%, of its accounts receivable balance as of June 30, 2024 were collected, and approximately $9.9 million , or 93%, of its advances to supplier balance as of June 30, 2024 were utilized. In addition, the Company's Form F-3 registration was declared effective on August 31, 2022 , and the Company may also seek equity financing from outside investors if necessary. Based on the latest business plan of the Company, Shanghai Juhao has reduced its promotion efforts and marketing expenditures since the second half of 2023, which reduced the cash used in operating activities. Management believes that the above-mentioned factors, including cash on hand of approximately $0.8 million , will provide sufficient liquidity for the Company to meet its future liquidity and capital requirements for at least the next twelve months. About Jowell Global Ltd . Jowell Global Ltd. (the "Company") is one of the leading cosmetics, health and nutritional supplements and household products e-commerce platforms in China . We offer our own brand products to customers and also sell and distribute health and nutritional supplements, cosmetic products and certain household products from other companies on our platform. In addition, we allow third parties to open their own stores on our platform for a service fee based upon sale revenues generated from their online stores and we provide them with our unique and valuable information about market needs, enabling them to better manage their sales effort, as well as an effective platform to promote their brands. The Company also sells its products through authorized retail stores all across China , which operate under the brand names of " Love Home Store " or "LHH Store" and "Best Choice Store". For more information, please visit http://ir.1juhao.com/ . Exchange Rate The Company's financial information is presented in U.S. dollars ("USD"). The functional currency of the Company is the Chinese Yuan, Renminbi ("RMB"), the currency of the PRC. Any transactions which are denominated in currencies other than RMB are translated into RMB at the exchange rate quoted by the People's Bank of China prevailing at the dates of the transactions, and exchange gains and losses are included in the statements of operations as foreign currency transaction gain or loss. The consolidated financial statements of the Company have been translated into U.S. dollars in accordance with ASC 830, "Foreign Currency Matters". This press release contains translations of certain RMB amounts into U.S. dollars ("USD" or "$") at specified rates solely for the convenience of the reader. The exchange rates in effect as of June 30, 2024 and December 31, 2023 were RMB1 for $0.1403 and $0.1412 , respectively. The average exchange rates for the six months ended June 30, 2024 and 2023 were RMB1 for $0.1407 and $0.1444 , respectively. Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the Company's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, and a number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by words or phrases such as "may," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "target," "aim," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "potential," "continue," "is/are likely to" or other similar expressions. The Company may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual reports to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. These statements are subject to uncertainties and risks including, but not limited to, the following: the Company's goals and strategies; the Company's future business development; financial condition and results of operations; product and service demand and acceptance; reputation and brand; the impact of competition and pricing; changes in technology; government regulations; fluctuations in general economic and business conditions in China and assumptions underlying or related to any of the foregoing and other risks contained in reports filed by the Company with the SEC. For these reasons, among others, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements in this press release. Additional factors are discussed in the Company's filings with the SEC, which are available for review at www.sec.gov . The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date hereof. For investor and media inquiries, please contact: Jowell Global Ltd. Ms. Jessie Zhao Email: IR@1juhao.com Jowell Global Ltd. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS June 30, December 31, 2024 2023 (Unaudited) ASSETS Current Assets: Cash $ 805,344 $ 1,250,281 Accounts receivable, net 2,344,481 2,401,056 Accounts receivable - related parties - 47,040 Advance to suppliers 10,050,688 3,506,432 Advance to suppliers - related parties 12,493,792 9,874,545 Inventories 4,508,515 8,198,402 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 1,075,591 1,384,758 Total current assets 31,278,411 26,662,514 Long-term investment 3,709,340 3,888,377 Property and equipment, net 845,579 681,942 Intangible assets, net 532,810 634,655 Right of use lease assets, net 1,506,729 2,019,300 Other non-current asset 638,723 895,775 Deferred tax assets 512,175 515,364 Total Assets $ 39,023,767 $ 35,297,927 LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY Current Liabilities: Short-term loan $ 210,473 $ 423,567 Accounts payable 2,791,515 3,765,230 Accounts payable - related parties 280,530 194,818 Deferred revenue 11,691,812 2,309,957 Deferred revenue - related parties 40,000 47,059 Current portion of operating lease liabilities 1,475,947 942,989 Accrued expenses and other liabilities 975,072 782,048 Due to related parties 414,585 528,472 Taxes payable 1,487 58,233 Total current liabilities 17,881,421 9,052,373 Non-current portion of operating lease liabilities - 1,032,235 Total liabilities 17,881,421 10,084,608 Commitments and contingencies Equity Common stock, $0.0016 par value, 450,000,000 shares authorized, 2,170,475 issued and outstanding at June 30, 2024 and December 31, 2023, respectively * 3,473 3,473 Preferred stock, $0.0016 par value, 50,000,000 shares authorized, 46,875 issued and outstanding at June 30, 2024 and December 31, 2023, respectively * 75 75 Additional paid-in capital 52,687,182 52,687,182 Statutory reserves 394,541 394,541 Accumulated deficit (29,768,863) (26,039,567) Accumulated other comprehensive loss (2,153,720) (1,843,970) Total Jowell GlobJowell Global Ltd. 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