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In a crucial political maneuver, Poland's centrist Civic Coalition, overseen by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, conducted its primary on Friday to decide its presidential candidate. The candidates in contention were Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, known for his liberal stance and active participation in LGBTQ+ pride parades, and Radek Sikorski, the current Foreign Minister. Sikorski, leveraging his background in defense and foreign affairs, argued that his experience positions him as a definitive choice amid regional security concerns, particularly with the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. However, his candidacy wasn't without controversy, as his wife, Anne Applebaum, has publicly criticized Donald Trump, potentially complicating US-Polish relations. The political stakes are high as Tusk aims to install an ally in the presidency to advance his legislative agenda. The winner of this primary is poised to become a significant contender against the opposition led by Law and Justice, with the presidential election anticipated in May. (With inputs from agencies.)Inside the Gaetz ethics report, a trove of new details alleging payments for sex and drug use
Christopher Nolan is following his Oscar-winning “Oppenheimer” with a true epic: Homer’s “The Odyssey.” It will open in theaters on July 17, 2026, Universal Pictures said Monday. Details remain scarce, but the studio teased that it will be a “mythic action epic shot across the world using brand new IMAX technology.” It will also be the first time that an adaptation of Homer’s saga will play on IMAX film screens. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Get the latest local entertainment news, dining reviews, and more delivered right to your inbox every Thursday.
Price-to-book value is irrelevant, according to conventional wisdom. The common argument states that all that matters is Central Bank liquidity and the total addressable market. It has been a powerful story with massive tailwinds from technology and politics. Today, intangible assets, like intellectual property and brand value, matter the most. Critics claim that only “dinosaurs” use price-to-book value, and most of them are extinct. None of the biggest fund managers or self-proclaimed experts on the internet pay attention to the price of tangible book value. “Value investing is dead,” they say, “and even if it weren’t, metrics like EBITDA and adjusted non-GAAP cash flow measures would be much more important than asset value.” I write some version of this column every four or five months, as this remains the widely accepted opinion. That may be true if you’re managing billions of dollars and need to dump millions of shares instantly to justify your existence. If you feel compelled to be part of the tribe and own all the same stocks everybody else does, deep-value investing based on tangible book value is probably not for you. However, if you’re an individual investor looking to grow your wealth to finance the life that’s important to you, then deep-value investing isn’t only alive, it's probably your best choice. If you want to achieve high returns without sitting in front of screens or losing sleep over market volatility, the deep-value approach may be ideal for you. The heart of deep-value investing is buying companies that trade for the value of their assets minus all debt and obligations. Unlike most analysts who rely on earnings forecasts, deep-value analysts approach the matter from a credit-first perspective. The simple truth is that a credit-first, deep-value approach to investing has outperformed the market over almost any measurable period. The market has just experienced one of its best decades ever, with index fund investors earning over 13%. For every dollar the successful index fund investor has earned over the decade, investors who used the combination of credit and value would have earned $4.39. 2024 has been a fantastic year for large-cap stock investors, yet deep-value investors who focused on credit have performed even better. At no point in this journey would you have owned the stocks everyone loved. Over two decades, you would have owned few tech stocks. Your holdings would have been old-economy stalwart businesses that everyone ignored. Many of them would have been acquired by private equity firms and strategic buyers who recognized the value of adding these businesses to their existing operations over the years.. You would own more stocks at market bottoms than at market tops, as bargains become scarce as markets move higher. Today is no exception. While you won’t own any high-tech companies on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence, you will own companies that will be key providers of the energy needed for the economy to grow and support the expansion of AI and other technologies. Consider PBF Energy Inc. PBF , one of North America’s largest independent petroleum refiners and suppliers. Headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, the company owns and operates a diverse portfolio of refining assets strategically located across the United States. PBF Energy also operates a logistics subsidiary, PBF Logistics LP PBFX , which provides transportation, storage, and terminal services to support its refining operations and third-party customers. The stock currently trades at less than 60% of its tangible book value and has a strong credit profile. It pays a dividend yield of 3.6%, so investors collect cash while waiting for the price to reflect the company’s value. The decline in the stock price has attracted significant buying from Mexican billionaire and activist investor Carlos Slim, who owns 23% of the company. Another example lies in shipping. Everyone claims the shipping business is terrible, arguing that China will never make, sell, or buy anything ever again, and that trade tariffs will bring global trade to a screeching halt. While I have no idea how things will play out for the global economy given China’s ongoing difficulties or the looming prospect of punitive tariffs, I do know that Genco Shipping GNK trades for less than the value of its ships and has a strong balance sheet. The fundamentals of the business are fantastic despite the industry’s negative perception. Genco Shipping is a leading provider of dry bulk shipping services. Based in New York, the company operates a modern and diversified fleet of dry bulk vessels. As of October 2024, Genco’s fleet comprises 42 vessels, including various sizes of freight carriers. The fleet has a total carrying capacity of approximately 4.45 million deadweight tons and an average age of 11.9 years. Genco continues to execute its comprehensive value strategy, focusing on paying substantial quarterly cash dividends, making voluntary debt repayments, and opportunistically growing and renewing its asset base. In line with this strategy, the company acquired the Genco Intrepid, a high-specification 2016-built 180,000 dwt Capesize vessel, delivered in October 2024. The stock yields over 10% at the current price and trades for just 65% of tangible book value and 8 times earnings. Wall Street pays very little attention to these stocks, and internet pundits have no idea these companies even exist. Deep-value investors who understand the power of valuation, credit, and patience could do very well with both of these stocks. © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Madonna King is the co-author – with Cindy Wockner – of Bali 9: The Untold Story . I spoke to her on Thursday. Fitz : Madonna, I know you know the story of the Bali Nine backwards. After the 2015 executions of two of their number, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the rest of us have just about forgotten that most of the others remain in prison. Can we begin by you tightly summating the story, before we concentrate on the latest developments? MK : This group of nine young Australians came to infamy in 2005 – less than a year after Schapelle Corby ’s arrest – for trying to smuggle heroin out of Bali and into Australia. And they didn’t actually even all know each other. They were from Brisbane, Illawarra, Newcastle and Sydney. Madonna King co-authored a book about the Bali 9. “Every single one of them ... wanted to find this sense of belonging.” Fitz : So, as a group, these were not hardened career criminals? MK : Definitely not. Most of them just wandered into the whole thing. And these kids – for different reasons, on different promises – decided to get on a plane and go to Bali. After a week of holidaying, they were taken into a dingy hotel room and had packs of heroin plastered to their body, their thighs, their stomach, and five of them then set off for the airport in three different taxis. Two lots of mules were in the first two taxis and Andrew Chan, one of the organisers, without any drugs on him, was in a third taxi. Fitz : Oh, the horror! We know what’s happened to Corby, just for smuggling marijuana, and here we are, with heroin strapped to our bodies, approaching Indonesian customs! MK : Two of them – Renae Lawrence and Martin Stephens – were initially quite cocky. They passed a drug dog on the way in. They would have passed more than one sign warning of the death penalty for drugs. But they kept going, all the time while being monitored, and then – just before they climbed onboard – they were searched. All up they had more than eight kilograms of heroin strapped to their bodies. That’s a lot of heroin. In current terms, it amounts to 80,000 street deals worth $4 million. And suddenly, all of the swagger evaporated. One started crying. They knew they were in all sorts of strife. Fitz : Did I mention the HORROR? And did we ever find out who was the Mr Big, or Mrs Big for that matter, behind the whole thing? MK : There was a woman who police in Bali had their eyes on. They knew her name, they knew she was from Thailand, and they tried to get her, but somehow mysteriously, they never did and she was never charged. There were also several other people in Australia downstream who were later charged – with barely any publicity – most of them from Brisbane. They went to jail for various short periods and have now been out for years and years. Fitz : In the meantime, on the ground, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were identified as the ringleaders? MK : Yes. They were a couple of boys from Homebush High, who kind of knew each other at school, but no more than that. Sukumaran really intrigues me. School references labelled him as “honest, reliable, responsible, punctual, with high standards”. He took part in the national maths and science competitions. He was a gold medal winner in karate. He was in the school’s second grade rugby team. He gave blood in the annual school appeal. He was a volunteer for the Salvation Army Red Shield appeal. This wasn’t a kid who you expected in 2015 to be shot in the dead of the night by an anonymous marksman, just because he fell in with a bad crowd and made a decision that he went to his death ruing. Andrew Chan, right, and, and Myuran Sukumaran, left, pictured in 2006. They were executed by firing squad in 2015. Credit: AP Fitz : I do remember Sukumaran seemed to have, despite the extremity of his circumstances, a certain dignity, a certain courage in his public pronouncements, starting with his expression of deep remorse? MK : Yes. Both of them were incredibly apologetic. Andrew Chan actually turned to religion, and became a pastor. Before his arrest, Chan had got into some teenage trouble, and was a small-time thug in some ways. But they had both got themselves into a situation where they were sucked into a syndicate that was trafficking heroin. In jail though, even the Indonesian authorities said they were both fantastic in mentoring other people. They knew what they’d done was wrong and in their cases, it wasn’t fake. It wasn’t because they were facing a firing squad. They actually had time to sit in squalor and look at what they’d done. Both of them saw their families, perhaps particularly their mothers, absolutely destroyed. Imagine being told your child is going to be lined up in a field at some time without anyone there, and shot? I feel sick even saying those words. All the Bali Nine parents were hardworking. In the case of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the parents were good people trying to give their child a better life, and they’ve each had to live with the consequences of one absolutely stupid (and criminal) decision by their sons. Fitz : Speaking of stupid decisions, what about the others, like the son of the notably Christian parents, Scott Rush? Somebody must have said to him, “Scott, here’s the plan.” But what on earth was in it for him and the others to go through customs with heroin strapped to their bodies? MK : About $5000 each. The Australian government is negotiating with Indonesia for the repatriation of the five remaining members of the Bali Nine (from left) Martin Stephens, Si-Yi Chen, Michael Czugaj, Matthew Norman and Scott Rush. Credit: Composite: Nathan Perri Fitz : That’s it? They’re risking the death sentence, on a million-dollar consignment, in return for just $5K? MK : That’s all. And in one case, Michael Czugaj – this kid from Brisbane who’d never been overseas, who was one of I think nine siblings – he met one of the others at a nightclub in Brisbane, went home, got his passport without his parents knowing where he was, and left for Bali. A few days later his parents get a phone call, turn on the news and find out their son’s been arrested for drug trafficking! He and Scott Rush knew each other at school, through sport, but not particularly well, and both of them had been in a little bit of trouble here and there, but they were young kids. And Scott Rush comes from a strong, united family. Fitz : Again, an extraordinary fate, for young men with such grounded backgrounds. MK : Exactly. But that’s the point. It wasn’t necessarily what kind of family they came from that put them there. I had young children myself at the time, and when I was doing the book with Cindy Wockner I became obsessed with trying to get to the bottom of “why these nine? What’s to stop my own children, or anyone’s children one day going down the same path?” In some cases, their parents loved each other so much that they still held hands while their children were sitting on death row or in court in Bali. In other cases, their parents despised each other so much that despite their kids being in this much trouble, they never even picked up the phone to each other. That broke my heart. So you can’t say they’re from a good family or a bad family, or a divorced family or a together family. This was more about the kids themselves. Fitz : And did you find the unifying thread? MK : Two things ... Firstly, every single one of them wanted to belong, whether it was in a tiny street gang, or working with others, or on a holiday to Bali that someone promised at a nightclub in Brisbane – they wanted to find this sense of belonging. And the other thread was an absolute lack of confidence. They had no confidence in themselves. I remember talking to one parent, and there was a picture of their child on the wall, and I said, “Oh, they look like they were a bit sporty when they were young”. And that parent’s response was, “But they would have never made it really, look at their knobbly knees”. I was quite taken back. Then they handed me a photo album of their child, and I’m going through it. I said, “Oh my God, that smile could light up a room”. The response from the parent was,“yeah, but look at the crooked teeth.” Fitz : That would break your heart! MK : It did, but they weren’t being mean. This parent loved their child. But I got on the plane and I cried all the way back to Brisbane, thinking,“How do you actually bring your child up so they know right from wrong?” You can’t compliment them all the time, but I think kids lean into what they learn. And I think what Briony Scott said in that fabulous interview you did with her last week is so true. They’ve got to be confident, and they’ve got to be able to make decisions without wanting to fit in at any cost. And if we thought it was bad 20 years ago, social media has made that demand for girls to fit in at any cost, a thousand times worse. Fitz : So on the night in question, is it fair to say that because the Australian Federal Police tipped off the Indonesian authorities, their cards were always marked and, as we say in rugby, “shits was trumps on the blind”? MK : I don’t understand rugby, but this group – almost every one of them – was known to the AFP. They didn’t have all the evidence, but they were tracking them. They knew where they bought their tickets, where they were headed, and why. Fitz : So here’s my key question. Why not arrest them on landing in Australia? They’re Australians, so let them face Australian justice. Beyond not spending 20 years in a hell-hole, there would have been every chance that the two men executed could have come back here, paid their dues, and gone on to live fruitful lives. Wouldn’t that have been the decent thing to do? MK : I think Australians are very split on that, and I can really see both sides. But one thing many have pointed out is that we have agreements with various countries – not only about drugs, but terrorism, too – and we have to be careful about breaching those agreements for our own ends. Because the boot can be on the other foot at other times, and could we be expecting them to not share information with us about illegal activities in our country planned by Indonesian nationals? Fitz : As a matter of interest, do you personally accept the sheer absurdity of the whole so-called “war on drugs”? For every massive drug bust like this, the only result is that it drives up the price on the streets to make even more fabulous profits for the puppeteers and the whole thing will go on until such times as sanity prevails and drugs are treated as a health problem, not a criminal problem. All the war on drugs does is drive the whole thing underground, where it is truly dangerous. MK : No, I don’t. For the six or seven years after the Bali 9 were arrested, we talked to our children every second night over the dinner table about the importance of the law, about the influence of friendships, about getting in the wrong crowd, about making a decision that they might regret for the rest of their life. We all used these kids to teach our own kids about the perils of drugs. But I can also see how, after having paid such a long and heavy price, it’s time to bring them home, because the lesson in their arrest has been lost. Teenagers now have never heard of them. Fitz : And what do we know of their likely fate once back in our brown and pleasant land? MK : Not much. I do think the Opposition is right to ask questions about the deal. We deserve transparency and accountability. Will they serve more time? Under what circumstances are they being transferred back here? Does this change the agreements we currently have with Indonesia? Have we offered anything in return? Personally, I would love them to be visiting schools and explaining the mistake that they made. But I think before they arrive on a plane, Australians deserve to know what the deal involves and what is their future. Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter .
ALLIANCE, Ohio - Mount Union remained unbeaten with a 42-7 win over John Carroll on Saturday in the second round of the NCAA Division III football playoffs. The Purple Raiders (11-0) used suffocating defense paired with John Carroll’s early mistakes put the Blue Streaks (9-3) in a hole they couldn’t climb out of. The win improves Mount Union’s record versus Carroll in the playoffs 4-0. “The fact that we committed penalties and things like that I think it was just, we kind of were in our way at times,” said John Carroll head coach Jeff Behrman. “Offensively and defensively we didn’t get the stops we needed to get, we just didn’t execute.” John Carroll and Mount Union have faced off 45 times dating back to 1920. Their most recent meeting was Sept. 21 at Don Shula Stadium, where Mount Union came out on top, 37-31. Saturday’s matchup had different circumstances and higher stakes. This win earned Mount Union a third-round playoff appearance against Carnegie Mellon. Turnovers and John Carroll’s inability to get third-down stops allowed Mount to set the tone early on Saturday. The 21-point deficit at halftime was too much for the Blue Streaks to overcome. Tyler Echeverry, who had had 13 carries, 176 yards and three touchdowns in the regular season meeting, got going during the opening drive with 44 yards and a touchdown. Going into halftime he had 124 yards and three total touchdowns. Rossy Moore put the Purple Raiders up 14-0 following a Kaleb Brown strip-sack. Moore scooped the ball up and recovered it for a 30-yard touchdown. The Blue Streaks answered with their only score of the game. Nick Semptimphelter connected with Evan McVay, who broke multiple tackles and juked defenders for a 34-yard gain to set up the score, a 12-yard touchdown catch for Dorian Facen Jr. Early in the second quarter, Echeverry got into the end zone with another touchdown run while shrugging off multiple defenders. After stopping John Carroll on fourth down near the goal line, Mount Union put together a scoring drive. A 40-yard run for Echeverry put the Purple Raiders on the goal line, where he caught a 2-yard touchdown pass for a 28-7 halftime lead. John Carroll found some bright spots defensively. Jacob Hufnagel was able to reel in an interception, but Mount Union got the ball right back after Brandon Yanssens broke into the backfield and forced a fumble and Garet Cramer recovered. RECOMMENDED • cleveland .com Mount Union vs. John Carroll football preview: What you need to know about playoff matchup Nov. 29, 2024, 5:00 a.m. NFL Black Friday best game, player prop picks for Raiders vs. Chiefs Nov. 29, 2024, 11:00 a.m. Mount Union took advantage of the short field, converting a fourth down on the goal line. Darnell Williams came out of the backfield wide open to catch a 1-yard touchdown pass. Mount Union went into the fourth leading 35-7. Mount Union’s Shaun Thomas has the final touchdown late in the fourth on a 4-yard run. “I’m really proud of their preparation during the bye, and then once we confirmed we were playing John Carroll they really attacked it,” said Mount Union head coach Geoff Dart. “That’s not always an easy thing during Thanksgiving week. We just played really really good football, and we beat a really really good team. So we’re excited to move on to the next round,”