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WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — Jordan Jones scored 20 points as Cent. Conn. St. beat Holy Cross 69-56 on Saturday. Jones added six steals for the Blue Devils (6-3). Abdul Momoh scored 12 points and added three steals. Devin Haid had 12 points and shot 4 for 8, including 3 for 5 from beyond the arc. Max Green led the Crusaders (5-5) in scoring, finishing with 15 points and seven rebounds. Tyler Boston added 13 points and five assists for Holy Cross. Caleb Kenney finished with 12 points, nine rebounds, two steals and three blocks. Cent. Conn. St. took the lead with 6:53 remaining in the first half and did not give it up. The score was 38-25 at halftime, with Haid racking up 12 points. Cent. Conn. St. pulled away with an 11-3 run in the second half to extend a six-point lead to 14 points. They closed out the victory over Holy Cross from there, as Jones led the way with a team-high 14 second-half points. NEXT UP Cent. Conn. St.'s next game is Sunday against Rhode Island on the road, and Holy Cross visits Quinnipiac on Tuesday. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .
Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of National Vision Holdings, Inc. ( NASDAQ:EYE – Free Report ) by 2.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 1,900,371 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 45,754 shares during the quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC owned 2.41% of National Vision worth $20,737,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. raised its position in shares of National Vision by 115.7% during the second quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 2,479,245 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,453,000 after purchasing an additional 1,330,023 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in National Vision by 85.6% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,761,767 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,062,000 after purchasing an additional 812,513 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in National Vision by 28.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,975,854 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,952,000 after purchasing an additional 656,656 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in National Vision by 3,645.8% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 609,701 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,652,000 after buying an additional 593,424 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 DIFC Ltd bought a new position in National Vision in the third quarter valued at approximately $2,858,000. National Vision Price Performance National Vision stock opened at $10.57 on Friday. National Vision Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $9.56 and a twelve month high of $24.11. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The company has a 50 day moving average of $11.20 and a 200-day moving average of $11.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $832.39 million, a PE ratio of -52.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.41. National Vision Company Profile ( Free Report ) National Vision Holdings, Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates as an optical retailer in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Owned & Host and Legacy. It offers eyeglasses and contact lenses, and optical accessory products; provides eye exams through its America’s Best, Eyeglass World, Vista Optical, Fred Meyer, and Vista Optical military, as well as Vision Center branded stores; and offers health maintenance organization and optometric services. Further Reading Five stocks we like better than National Vision 3 REITs to Buy and Hold for the Long Term Buffett Takes the Bait; Berkshire Buys More Oxy in December Trading Halts Explained Top 3 ETFs to Hedge Against Inflation in 2025 What Are Dividend Champions? How to Invest in the Champions These 3 Chip Stock Kings Are Still Buys for 2025 Receive News & Ratings for National Vision Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for National Vision and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .Wanting to supercharge your portfolio with some ASX shares? If you are, then it could be worth checking out the two listed below that Bell Potter rates very highly. So much so, it has named them as picks on its Australian equities panel this month. Here's what the broker is saying about these shares: ( ) The first ASX growth share that is being tipped as a buy is Gentrack. It is a growing specialist software provider to energy utilities, water companies, and airports. The latter includes providing flight information display systems (FIDS) at airports such as Queenstown, Adelaide, and Sydney Airport. Bell Potter likes the company's recurring revenue and sees growth opportunities in data management and modernised IT infrastructure. It said: Gentrack provides billing products and Customer Relationship Management solutions to energy and water utilities and has robust growth prospects attributed to recurring revenue and one-off projects related to digital transformations. Specifically, the emergence of renewables and battery storage is increasing complexity in data management and contributing to the need for modernised IT infrastructure supporting earnings growth for GTK. The broker has a buy rating and $11.50 price target on Gentrack's shares. Based on its current share price of $9.60, this implies potential upside of 20% for investors between now and this time next year. ( ) Another ASX growth share that gets the thumbs up from the team at Bell Potter is Life360. It is a rapidly growing family connection and safety company that aims to keep people close to the ones they love. Its category-leading mobile app provides users with location sharing, safe driver reports, and crash detection with emergency dispatch. At the last count, the company had a whopping 76.9 million monthly active users (MAU) across more than 170 countries. From this, there were almost 2.2 million paying circles underpinning quarterly revenue of US$92.9 million. And with the company launching an advertising business to monetise its vast user base, Life360's strong growth is forecast to continue long into the future. Commenting on the company, Bell Potter said: Life360 operates a market-leading app that provides communication, driving safety, and location-sharing features. With over 70 million monthly active users and 2 million paying circles, the company has significant growth potential as it continues to rapidly monetise its customer base. Bell Potter currently has a buy rating and $26.75 price target on its shares. Based on its current share price of $21.00, this implies potential upside of 27% for investors over the next 12 months.By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Jimmy Carter, the earnest Georgia peanut farmer who as U.S. president struggled with a bad economy and the Iran hostage crisis but brokered peace between Israel and Egypt and later received the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work, died at his home in Plains, Georgia, on Sunday, the Carter Center said. He was 100. “My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” said Chip Carter, the former president’s son. “My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.” The Carter Center said there will be public observances in Atlanta and Washington. These events will be followed by a private interment in Plains, it said. Final arrangements for the former president's state funeral are still pending, according to the center. Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, served as president from January 1977 to January 1981 after defeating incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 U.S. election. Carter was swept from office four years later in an electoral landslide as voters embraced Republican challenger Ronald Reagan, the former actor and California governor. Carter lived longer after his term in office than any other U.S. president. Along the way, he earned a reputation as a better former president than he was a president - a status he readily acknowledged. His one-term presidency was marked by the highs of the 1978 Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt, bringing some stability to the Middle East. But it was dogged by an economy in recession, persistent unpopularity and the embarrassment of the Iran hostage crisis that consumed his final 444 days in office. In recent years, Carter had experienced several health issues including melanoma that spread to his liver and brain. Carter decided to receive hospice care in February 2023 instead of undergoing additional medical intervention. His wife, Rosalynn Carter, died on Nov. 19, 2023, at age 96. He looked frail when he attended her memorial service and funeral in a wheelchair. Carter left office profoundly unpopular but worked energetically for decades on humanitarian causes. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 in recognition of his "untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development." Carter had been a centrist as governor of Georgia with populist tendencies when he moved into the White House as the 39th U.S. president. He was a Washington outsider at a time when America was still reeling from the Watergate scandal that led Republican Richard Nixon to resign as president in 1974 and elevated Ford from vice president. "I'm Jimmy Carter and I'm running for president. I will never lie to you," Carter promised with an ear-to-ear smile. Asked to assess his presidency, Carter said in a 1991 documentary: "The biggest failure we had was a political failure. I never was able to convince the American people that I was a forceful and strong leader." Despite his difficulties in office, Carter had few rivals for accomplishments as a former president. He gained global acclaim as a tireless human rights advocate, a voice for the disenfranchised and a leader in the fight against hunger and poverty, winning the respect that eluded him in the White House. Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts to promote human rights and resolve conflicts around the world, from Ethiopia and Eritrea to Bosnia and Haiti. His Carter Center in Atlanta sent international election-monitoring delegations to polls around the world. A Southern Baptist Sunday school teacher since his teens, Carter brought a strong sense of morality to the presidency, speaking openly about his religious faith. He also sought to take some pomp out of an increasingly imperial presidency - walking, rather than riding in a limousine, in his 1977 inauguration parade. The Middle East was the focus of Carter's foreign policy. The 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, based on the 1978 Camp David accords, ended a state of war between the two neighbors. Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland for talks. Later, as the accords seemed to be unraveling, Carter saved the day by flying to Cairo and Jerusalem for personal shuttle diplomacy. The treaty provided for Israeli withdrawal from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and establishment of diplomatic relations. Begin and Sadat each won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1978. By the 1980 election, the overriding issues were double-digit inflation, interest rates that exceeded 20% and soaring gas prices, as well as the Iran hostage crisis that brought humiliation to America. These issues marred Carter's presidency and undermined his chances of winning a second term. HOSTAGE CRISIS On Nov. 4, 1979, revolutionaries devoted to Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, seized the Americans present and demanded the return of the ousted shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was backed by the United States and was being treated in a U.S. hospital. The American public initially rallied behind Carter. But his support faded in April 1980 when a commando raid failed to rescue the hostages, with eight U.S. soldiers killed in an aircraft accident in the Iranian desert. Carter's final ignominy was that Iran held the 52 hostages until minutes after Reagan took his oath of office on Jan. 20, 1981, to replace Carter, then released the planes carrying them to freedom. In another crisis, Carter protested the former Soviet Union's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by boycotting the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. He also asked the U.S. Senate to defer consideration of a major nuclear arms accord with Moscow. Unswayed, the Soviets remained in Afghanistan for a decade. Carter won narrow Senate approval in 1978 of a treaty to transfer the Panama Canal to the control of Panama despite critics who argued the waterway was vital to American security. He also completed negotiations on full U.S. ties with China. Carter created two new U.S. Cabinet departments - education and energy. Amid high gas prices, he said America's "energy crisis" was "the moral equivalent of war" and urged the country to embrace conservation. "Ours is the most wasteful nation on earth," he told Americans in 1977. In 1979, Carter delivered what became known as his "malaise" speech to the nation, although he never used that word. "After listening to the American people I have been reminded again that all the legislation in the world can't fix what's wrong with America," he said in his televised address. "The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America." As president, the strait-laced Carter was embarrassed by the behavior of his hard-drinking younger brother, Billy Carter, who had boasted: "I got a red neck, white socks, and Blue Ribbon beer." 'THERE YOU GO AGAIN' Jimmy Carter withstood a challenge from Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination but was politically diminished heading into his general election battle against a vigorous Republican adversary. Reagan, the conservative who projected an image of strength, kept Carter off balance during their debates before the November 1980 election. Reagan dismissively told Carter, "There you go again," when the Republican challenger felt the president had misrepresented Reagan's views during one debate. Carter lost the 1980 election to Reagan, who won 44 of the 50 states and amassed an Electoral College landslide. James Earl Carter Jr. was born on Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, one of four children of a farmer and shopkeeper. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946, served in the nuclear submarine program and left to manage the family peanut farming business. He married his wife, Rosalynn, in 1946, a union he called "the most important thing in my life." They had three sons and a daughter. Carter became a millionaire, a Georgia state legislator and Georgia's governor from 1971 to 1975. He mounted an underdog bid for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination, and out-hustled his rivals for the right to face Ford in the general election. With Walter Mondale as his vice presidential running mate, Carter was given a boost by a major Ford gaffe during one of their debates. Ford said that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration," despite decades of just such domination. Carter edged Ford in the election, even though Ford actually won more states - 27 to Carter's 23. Not all of Carter's post-presidential work was appreciated. Former President George W. Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, both Republicans, were said to have been displeased by Carter's freelance diplomacy in Iraq and elsewhere. In 2004, Carter called the Iraq war launched in 2003 by the younger Bush one of the most "gross and damaging mistakes our nation ever made." He called George W. Bush's administration "the worst in history" and said Vice President Dick Cheney was "a disaster for our country." In 2019, Carter questioned Republican Donald Trump's legitimacy as president, saying "he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf." Trump responded by calling Carter "a terrible president." Carter also made trips to communist North Korea. A 1994 visit defused a nuclear crisis, as President Kim Il Sung agreed to freeze his nuclear program in exchange for resumed dialogue with the United States. That led to a deal in which North Korea, in return for aid, promised not to restart its nuclear reactor or reprocess the plant's spent fuel. But Carter irked Democratic President Bill Clinton's administration by announcing the deal with North Korea's leader without first checking with Washington. In 2010, Carter won the release of an American sentenced to eight years hard labor for illegally entering North Korea. Carter wrote more than two dozen books, ranging from a presidential memoir to a children's book and poetry, as well as works about religious faith and diplomacy. His book "Faith: A Journey for All," was published in 2018. (Reporting and writing by Will Dunham; Additional reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Bill Trott, Diane Craft and Lisa Shumaker)
Daily Post Nigeria Shehu Sani blasts El-Rufai over his response on alleged Tinubu’s nepotism at NNPCL Home News Politics Metro Entertainment Sport News Shehu Sani blasts El-Rufai over his response on alleged Tinubu’s nepotism at NNPCL Published on December 29, 2024 By John Gabriel Former lawmaker, Senator Shehu Sani, has blasted the immediate past governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, over his recent comments made via his social media handle on allegations of nepotism at NNPCL against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. DAILY POST recalls that Farooq Kperogi, a US-based Nigerian professor of journalism, had accused Tinubu of governing Nigeria with a Lagos mindset, saying that Tinubu chose to dominate the economy with people from the South-West the way former President Muhammadu Buhari loaded the security sector with northerners during his tenure. Former Governor Elrufai later shared Kperogi’s post on his X handle and wrote, “Two wrongs don’t make a right,” adding that sensible inclusion trumps senseless exclusion. Reacting to El-Rufai ‘s shared post, Sani, via his X handle, wrote: “There were people who were silent when Buhari was fielding political offices with his kinsmen and have now found their voice to speak out when the equation doesn’t favour them.” The former lawmaker, who represented Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the 8th Senate, overtly referred to El-Rufai, adding: “Let’s not make reference to the nepotism that marginalised Southern Kaduna for eight years. Kaduna was an apartheid state for eight years.” According to Sani, anyone can talk or criticise President Tinubu on issues of alleged lopsided appointments or nepotism, but certainly not El-Rufai. Related Topics: El Rufai NNPCL Shehu Sani Tinubu Don't Miss Rivers: Your wife, daughters in government — Wike replies Odili over ‘private estate’ remark You may like Involve AU, UN in tension with Niger over terrorism allegations – APC chieftain to Tinubu You wouldn’t have shared Kperogi’s article if Tinubu made you minister – Aisha Yesufu tackles El-Rufai Appointments: Two wrongs don’t make right – El-Rufai reacts to Tinubu’s alleged bias for Yorubas Publish your assets – SERAP tells Tinubu Tinubu’s economic policies will yield positive results in 2025 – Oyintiloye APC stalwart says Tinubu’s govt exacerbated Nigeria’s woes Advertise About Us Contact Us Privacy-Policy Terms Copyright © Daily Post Media Ltd
The King is scheduled to attend the show at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Friday which will see Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish present a musical number from their new show The Devil Wears Prada – based on the 2006 Oscar-nominated film. Cast members Vanessa Williams, who plays Miranda Priestly, and Matt Henry, who stars as art director Nigel, were among those posing on the red carpet ahead of the performance which showcases an original score by Sir Elton. The variety show will also see debuts from British singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor with her hit track Murder On The Dancefloor while Eurovision winner Nemo is also featured on the bill. Also posing on the carpet were US magicians and comedy duo Penn and Teller, whose performance marks their 50th anniversary. Comedy will come from Ted Lasso star Ellie Taylor, writer and comic Scott Bennett, Scottish comedian Larry Dean and political comic Matt Forde – who posed on the red carpet with a crutch after undergoing surgery for cancer on his spine. Among the arrivals was TV presenter Lorraine Kelly, who will make an appearance in this year’s show with her Change And Check Choir led by Wet Wet Wet singer Marti Pellow. The choir, made up of women from across the UK who detected their breast cancer through Kelly’s campaign, will perform Love Is All Around, which is being re-released to raise awareness of breast cancer early detection. It comes hours after Camilla insisted the “show must go on” after pulling out of attending the performance on Friday evening as doctors advised that she should prioritise rest. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “Following a recent chest infection, the Queen continues to experience some lingering post-viral symptoms, as a result of which doctors have advised that, after a busy week of engagements, Her Majesty should prioritise sufficient rest. “With great regret, she has therefore withdrawn from attendance at tonight’s Royal Variety Performance. His Majesty will attend as planned.” A royal source said the Queen was “naturally disappointed to miss the evening’s entertainments and sends her sincere apologies to all those involved, but is a great believer that ‘the show must go on'”. “She hopes to be back to full strength and regular public duties very soon,” the source added. The Royal Variety Performance will air on ITV1, ITVX, STV and STV Player in December. Money raised from the show will go to help people from the world of entertainment in need of care and assistance, with the Royal Variety Charity launching an initiative to help those with mental health issues this year.
Their ages vary. But a conspicuous handful of filmmaking lions in winter, or let’s say late autumn, have given us new reasons to be grateful for their work over the decades — even for the work that didn’t quite work. Which, yes, sounds like ingratitude. But do we even want more conventional or better-behaved work from talents such as Francis Ford Coppola? Even if we’re talking about “Megalopolis” ? If Clint Eastwood’s “Juror #2” gave audiences a less morally complicated courtroom drama, would that have mattered, given Warner Bros.’ butt-headed decision to plop it in less than three dozen movie theaters in the U.S.? Coppola is 85. Eastwood is 94. Paul Schrader, whose latest film “Oh, Canada” arrives this week and is well worth seeking out, is a mere 78. Based on the 2021 Russell Banks novel “Foregone,” “Oh, Canada” is the story of a documentary filmmaker, played by Richard Gere, being interviewed near the end of his cancer-shrouded final days. In the Montreal home he shares with his wife and creative partner, played by Uma Thurman, he consents to the interview by two former students of his. Gere’s character, Leonard Fife, has no little contempt for these two, whom he calls “Mr. and Mrs. Ken Burns of Canada” with subtle disdain. As we learn over the artful dodges and layers of past and present, events imagined and/or real, Fife treats the interview as a final confession from a guarded and deceptive soul. He’s also a hero to everyone in the room, famous for his anti-Vietnam war political activism, and for the Frederick Wiseman-like inflection of his own films’ interview techniques. The real-life filmmaker name-checked in “Oh, Canada” is documentarian Errol Morris, whose straight-to-the-lens framing of interview subjects was made possible by his Interrotron device. In Schrader’s adaptation, Fife doesn’t want the nominal director (Michael Imperioli, a nicely finessed embodiment of a second-rate talent with first-rate airs) in his eyeline. Rather, as he struggles with hazy, self-incriminating memories of affairs, marriages, one-offs with a friend’s wife and a tense, brief reunion with the son he never knew, Fife wants only his wife, Emma — his former Goddard College student — in this metaphoric confessional. Schrader and his editor Benjamin Rodriguez Jr. treat the memories as on-screen flashbacks spanning from 1968 to 2023. At times, Gere and Thurman appear as their decades-young selves, without any attempt to de-age them, digitally or otherwise. (Thank god, I kind of hate that stuff in any circumstance.) In other sequences from Fife’s past, Jacob Elordi portrays Fife, with sly and convincing behavioral details linking his performance to Gere’s persona. We hear frequent voiceovers spoken by Gere about having ruined his life by age 24, at least spiritually or morally. Banks’ novel is no less devoted to a dying man’s addled but ardent attempt to come clean and own up to what has terrified him the most in the mess and joy of living: Honesty. Love. Commitment. There are elements of “Oh, Canada” that soften Banks’ conception of Fife, from the parentage of Fife’s abandoned son to the specific qualities of Gere’s performance. It has been 44 years since Gere teamed with Schrader on “American Gigolo,” a movie made by a very different filmmaker with very different preoccupations of hetero male hollowness. It’s also clearly the same director at work, I think. And Gere remains a unique camera object, with a stunning mastery of filling a close-up with an unblinking stillness conveying feelings easier left behind. The musical score is pretty watery, and with Schrader you always get a few lines of tortured rhetoric interrupting the good stuff. In the end, “Oh, Canada” has an extraordinarily simple idea at its core: That of a man with a movie camera, most of his life, now on the other side of the lens. Not easy. “I can’t tell the truth unless that camera’s on!” he barks at one point. I don’t think the line from the novel made it into Schrader’s script, but it too sums up this lion-in-winter feeling of truth without triumphal Hollywood catharsis. The interview, Banks wrote, is one’s man’s “last chance to stop lying.” It’s also a “final prayer,” dramatized by the Calvinist-to-the-bone filmmaker who made sure to include that phrase in his latest devotion to final prayers and missions of redemption. “Oh, Canada” — 3 stars (out of 4) No MPA rating (some language and sexual material) Running time: 1:34 How to watch: Opens in theaters Dec. 13, running 1in Chicago Dec. 13-19 at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St.; siskelfilmcenter.org Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.Canaan Inc. Signs Agreement with AGM Group Holdings Inc.S&P/TSX composite down nearly 250 points, U.S. stock markets also fall
What to watch for as the 49ers look to save their season with victory over the Rams in Week 15
What is ‘check-in chicken’? The latest TikTok travel trend explainedTORONTO — Canada's main stock index lost nearly 250 points Thursday, led by weakness in energy and base metals, while U.S. markets also fell. The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 246.99 points at 25,410.71. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 234.44 points at 43,914.12. The S&P 500 index was down 32.94 points at 6,051.25, while the Nasdaq composite was down 132.05 points at 19,902.84. “I think the markets had some time to now digest where rates could be going into the near term,” said Adelaide Chiu, portfolio manager, vice-president and head of responsible investing at NEI Investments. On Wednesday, the Bank of Canada announced an outsized half-percentage point interest rate cut and signalled it would slow the pace of cuts going forward. “With the policy rate now substantially lower, we anticipate a more gradual approach to monetary policy if the economy evolves broadly as expected," said Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem. And in the U.S., the monthly report on consumer inflation came in largely as expected, helping set the stage for a quarter-point cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve next week. Globally, interest rate cuts are moderating as inflation reaches targets, Chiu said. On Thursday, the European Central Bank cut rates by a quarter of a percentage point while the Swiss National Bank cut by half a percentage point. A year ago, market watchers couldn’t have predicted just how much equities would rise in 2024, said Chiu. “Earnings growth itself has been quite modest, but the market has done very well,” she said. “It’s really a movement of the interest rates that has really impacted valuations for a lot of these companies in the market.” Now, the news is largely focused on the incoming U.S. president and whether his threatened tariffs will come to pass, Chiu said. The Canadian dollar traded for 70.48 cents US compared with 70.65 cents US on Wednesday. The January crude oil contract was down 27 cents at US$70.02 per barrel and the January natural gas contract was up eight cents at US$3.46 per mmBTU. The February gold contract was down US$47.30 at US$2,709.40 an ounce and the March copper contract was down a penny at US$4.20 a pound. -- With files from The Associated Press This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2024. Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD) Rosa Saba, The Canadian PressPublished 5:11 pm Saturday, November 30, 2024 By Data Skrive The South Carolina State Bulldogs and the Xavier Musketeers take the court for the only game on the college basketball schedule on Sunday that feature a ranked team. For picks against the spread, check out the rest of this article below. Place your bets on any men’s college basketball matchup at BetMGM. Sign up today using our link. Bet on the Xavier-South Carolina State spread—or any other NCAA men’s basketball matchup—with BetMGM ! Not all offers available in all states, please visit BetMGM for the latest promotions for your area. Must be 21+ to gamble, please wager responsibly. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, contact 1-800-GAMBLER .
The health and wellness retailer will open the doors to its relocated store in High Street, Brentwood, on Wednesday (December 4). The new 1,173 sq ft store will have a fresh look and feel, with more of Holland & Barrett's latest ranges of health and wellness solutions, including leading brands and their new food range. The new store will also have a women's health coach to offer a deeper level of expertise and confidential support on hormone health. READ MORE: High Street, Romford opening for Habitat for Humanity shop ReStore Store manager Samantha Perry said: "This is an exciting new start for us all at Holland & Barrett Brentwood in our new prominent location. "Our teams have worked together to create a fresh, welcoming space for our customers and we hope you love the new store as much as we do. "Our expert colleagues have over 20 years of combined experience at H&B and have received additional training, enabling them to offer our customers personalised advice across health and wellness. "We look forward to welcoming our regular and new customers and supporting the community on their wellness journeys." Holland & Barrett Brentwood was previously located at Unit 17 in The Baytree Centre . The new high street store has been refurbished with sustainability in mind, such as being refitted using mild steel, a 100 per cent recyclable material, along with FSC certified wood. To celebrate the relocated store opening, there will be the chance to win wellness goodie bags on December 4 and 5, plus opportunities to sample H&B’s new food range on December 6 and 7 between 10am and 3pm. This latest opening is part of Holland & Barrett’s ongoing investment in its retail stores – including refits, relocations or opening new stores. Holland & Barrett has invested around £70 million in the transformation of its stores, technology and new product development including the opening and renovation of more than 200 stores in the UK. The store is located at 37 High Street, Brentwood, CM14 4AJ.Steve Bannon held his microphone out to the crowd. “Should (Mike) Johnson be speaker of the House?” he asked. “Nooo,” came the reply, as Bannon, the longtime ally of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, spoke at a Dec. 19 “AmericaFest” rally of Turning Point USA, a right-wing advocacy organization. Bannon, who said at the event that Johnson “has got to go,” spoke in Phoenix as the U.S. House debated an end-of-session spending package. Congress ultimately passed a Johnson-endorsed, stopgap funding bill signed by Democratic President Joe Biden on Dec. 21 to avert a government shutdown ahead of the holidays. But Bannon’s remarks foretold likely challenges to Johnson. As the opening of the new Congress approaches on Friday, Johnson’s leadership is being questioned by, among others, Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, who heads the House Freedom Caucus, and Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, who previously led the hard-line conservative group. Neither will commit to backing the Louisiana Republican. The speaker will help determine whether Trump can succeed on an agenda that includes policy shifts on taxes, voting and border policy. Underlying the GOP’s turmoil is how closely it should work with Democrats, if at all, particularly on spending issues. “The political class is infected with a malignant cancer. That cancer is bipartisanship, right?” Bannon told the crowd. Johnson, he said, “doesn’t have what we call the right stuff, right? That combination of guts and moxie and savvy and toughness.” Bannon, who previously served four months in prison for defying a congressional subpoena, is awaiting trial in a case alleging he was part of a scheme to dupe donors who contributed to help build a wall on the Mexican border. Other Republicans have also questioned Johnson’s leadership. Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican, recently floated a proposal to elect billionaire Elon Musk, a Trump adviser and ally, as speaker. The speaker is not required to be an elected House member. The election will occur after the new Congress assumes office on Jan. 3. “Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk,” Paul posted on X. “Think about it ... nothing’s impossible. (not to mention the joy at seeing the collective establishment, aka ‘uniparty,’ lose their ever-lovin’ minds).” As Congress raced to avoid a shutdown before Christmas, Musk was instrumental in sinking an earlier spending proposal by House Republicans — Democrats also backed it — to head off a government shutdown. The package contained about $100 billion in disaster aid, including a federal commitment long sought by Maryland lawmakers to pay the full cost of replacing the Francis Scott Key Bridge following its March collapse. Musk, citing a pay increase for Congress among other objections, attacked the bill on X, his social media platform, calling it “dead.” Johnson, who has supported Trump, then pitched the alternative that was ultimately approved. He needed a deal acceptable not only to most Republicans but also to Democrats, whose votes were required because the GOP majority was so slim. The final package included the Key Bridge funding commitment but neither the pay raise nor a Trump proposal to suspend the debt ceiling — the amount the government can borrow. Republicans won a “trifecta” — control of the White House, House and Senate — in the November elections, and Trump has claimed a broad mandate for such proposals as mass deportation and reducing the civil service workforce. But his party has split among hard-line spending watchdogs and those more prone to work with Democrats on shared priorities. Among those repeatedly protesting spending levels are Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds and Harris, the only Republican in Maryland’s congressional delegation; his district includes Harford County, the Eastern Shore and a piece of Baltimore County. Harris chairs the Freedom Caucus, a group that has focused on fiscal conservatism since its inception. Donalds recently posted on X: “It’s time to clean house. It’s time to slash spending & cut debt.” Harris also expressed concerns during the recent negotiations, saying in a written statement that he believed the Key Bridge replacement should be funded, “but with a $2 trillion-dollar annual deficit left from the Biden administration, we should look to offset any cost with savings elsewhere.” Harris did not respond to correspondence seeking comment on Friday. The party was similarly divided in 2023 when its far-right voting bloc expressed dissatisfaction with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California, saying he had not forcefully resisted the Democratic agenda. Johnson, who replaced McCarthy, said at the time that he would emphasize bringing up individual spending bills instead of putting funding measures into a large package as executive branch spending authority is about to run out. But Congress needed such stopgap bills in September and again on Dec. 21 to fund the government in three-month increments. ©2024 Baltimore Sun. 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NFL world reacts with excitement, surprise, questions after Bill Belichick is hired to coach UNCJimmy Carter rose from a Georgia farm to become president of the United States and a Nobel Prize-winning peace and human rights activist. Carter became the nation's 39th president in 1977, defeating President Gerald Ford in the election more than two years after the Watergate scandal drove Richard Nixon from the Oval Office. He lived longer than any other U.S. president. > 24/7 San Diego news stream: Watch NBC 7 free wherever you are Jimmy Carter, the Georgia peanut farmer who became a U.S. president and a Nobel Prize-winning activist for peace and human rights, has died. He was 100. Carter's post-presidency had been widely seen as more successful than his time in the White House, and he called it " more gratifying ." even into his 90s, crusading for human rights, writing books, building homes for the needy with his own hands, teaching Sunday school, and traveling the world in the pursuit of peace. Carter graduated from the United States Naval Academy, participated in the Navy's fledgling nuclear-powered submarine program, and served two terms as a Georgia state senator and one as governor before he was elected to the White House. He became the nation's 39th president in 1977, defeating President Gerald Ford in the election more than two years after the Watergate scandal drove Richard Nixon from the Oval Office. Carter had been on hospice care for more than a year. Money Report Jimmy Carter quotes: ‘I could have wiped Iran off the map' 4 ways to stop making life more difficult for yourself, from a Zen Buddhist monk His family announced in February 2023 that he had entered end-of-life care in his home after a series of hospital visits. His wife, Rosalynn , who had been diagnosed with dementia in early 2023, briefly entered hospice herself at age 96 before dying on Nov. 19. Carter turned 100 in October, bringing a new flood of tributes and accolades. His grandson Jason Carter said it was gratifying for Jimmy Carter to see a reassessment of his presidency and legacy. After losing his reelection bid in 1980, he remained active in public issues, including speaking at age 95 in support of Joe Biden at the virtual Democratic National Convention in August 2020. Some commentators viewed him as the nation's "most successful ex-president." He wrote more than 40 books , including "Faith," which he released when he was in his mid-90s. Days after his 93rd birthday, he offered to go to North Korea amid a nuclear crisis in an attempt to establish a permanent peace between Pyongyang and Washington. And at age 96, he denounced Republican efforts to restrict voter access in his home state. Carter lived longer than any other U.S. president, surpassing the late George H.W. Bush, who died in November 2018 at age 94. When Carter reached that milestone in March 2019, Carter Center spokeswoman Deanna Congileo said he was still active. "Both President and Mrs. Carter are determined to use their influence for as long as they can to make the world a better place," Congileo said at the time. "Their tireless resolve and heart have helped to improve life for millions of the world's poorest people." U.S. stock markets have historically closed for a day of mourning to honor the death of a president. James Earl Carter Jr. was born Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia — the first U.S. president born in a hospital. His father ran a general store and invested in farmland. His mother, known as "Miss Lillian," was a nurse. Carter attended the U.S. Naval Academy. During one of his visits home from Annapolis, his younger sister Ruth set up a date with their neighbor and lifelong friend. Upon graduation in 1946 from the academy, he married that young woman, Eleanor Rosalynn Smith, when she was 18. (On July 7, 2023, the Carters celebrated their 77th wedding anniversary , marking a record-long marriage for a first couple.) In the Navy, he served on submarines in the Atlantic and Pacific fleets and attained the rank of lieutenant. He joined then-Capt. Hyman Rickover's nuclear submarine development program. He did graduate work at Union College in reactor technology and nuclear physics and became senior officer of the pre-commissioning crew of the second nuclear submarine, the Seawolf. After his father died in 1953, Carter resigned from the Navy and returned to Georgia, taking over the family farms and becoming active in local politics. He served in the Navy Reserve until 1961. Elected governor in 1971, he was considered one of the leaders of the "New South" — a progressive who condemned racial segregation and inequality. During his presidential campaign, he ran as an outsider, hoping to capitalize on the anti-Washington sentiment in the post-Vietnam/Watergate era. "My name is Jimmy Carter, and I'm running for president," a beaming Carter said in the opening of his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in July 1976. He offered to create jobs in a nasty economy with a 7.9% unemployment rate, and to set a squeaky-clean example as a born-again Christian from outside the Beltway, unblemished by Washington's scandals. On the eve of the election, however, he gave an interview to Playboy magazine in which he made this shocking confession: "I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times." Still, the man with the huge smile and genteel Georgia drawl handily won the Electoral College by 297-240 but received only 50.1% of the popular vote to Ford's 48%. Once in office, Carter empowered his running mate, Walter Mondale, to transform the vice presidency into a policy-driving office. On the domestic front, in addition to stagflation and recession, Carter had to deal with the Love Canal ecological disaster in Niagara Falls, New York, which led to the creation of the environmental Superfund. He also ended federal price regulations for airlines, trucking and railroads; signed the bailout of Chrysler in 1979; and elevated the Department of Education into a separate Cabinet-level agency. One of his biggest domestic problems was the festering energy crisis, which stemmed from the Arab oil embargo that began during the 1973 Middle East war. He termed the crisis "the moral equivalent of war." In symbolic gestures, he wore a Mister Rogers-styled cardigan, turned down the White House heat, installed solar heating panels in the executive mansion, created the Department of Energy and pressed for tax incentives for installation of home insulation. In international affairs, he campaigned for human rights, successfully concluded the Camp David peace accords between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, negotiated the return to Panama of the Canal Zone, established full diplomatic relations with communist China and reached an agreement on the SALT II nuclear arms limitation treaty with Moscow. Then came the fateful end of the year 1979: The disastrous 444-day Iranian hostage standoff began in November, and the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in December, resulting in Carter's call for a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. The seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by radical student followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on Nov. 4, 1979, and the subsequent siege made the Carter administration seem impotent. Even the first lady recalled during a CNBC interview in 2014 that she urged her husband to "do something, anything!" Five months into the crisis, Carter ordered a military mission, Operation Eagle Claw, to rescue the American hostages. The mission ended in humiliation: In the process of aborting the plan because of operational difficulties, a U.S. helicopter crashed into a transport plane at the desert staging area, killing eight servicemen. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who advocated diplomacy over force to resolve the hostage crisis, resigned. "I know this is a matter of principle with you, and I respect the reasons you have expressed to me," Carter said in a handwritten note to Vance. The crisis finally ended with the release of 52 Americans on Jan. 20, 1981, the day the man who ended Carter's single-term presidency took the oath of office — Ronald Reagan. Before the 1980 election between Carter, Reagan and independent John Anderson, Sen. Ted Kennedy waged an unsuccessful challenge to the president for the Democratic nomination. In a 2014 interview with CNBC, Carter said he probably would have been easily reelected had he rescued the hostages. "It would have shown that I was strong and resolute and manly," he said. "I could have wiped Iran off the map with the weapons that we had. But in the process a lot of innocent people would have been killed, probably including the hostages. And so I stood up against all that advice, and then eventually all my prayers were answered and all the hostages came home safe and free." Summing up the Carter presidency, former aide Stuart Eizenstat wrote in a 2015 op-ed in The New York Times that the nation's 39th president had numerous accomplishments. "It is enormously frustrating for those of us who worked closely with him in the White House to witness his presidency caricatured as a failure, and to see how he has been marginalized, even by his fellow Democrats," Eizenstat wrote. "His defining characteristic was confronting intractable problems regardless of their political cost." Carter remained active after he left Washington at age 56. He and Rosalynn volunteered for Habitat for Humanity , building affordable housing for the needy, and he established the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and The Carter Center in Atlanta. Founded in 1982, the center has sent observers to monitor elections in more than three dozen countries. The center has also led health efforts, including the push to eradicate the tropical parasitic Guinea worm disease. The center's motto is "Waging peace. Fighting disease. Building hope." "I still hope to outlive the last Guinea worm ," Carter told CNN in May 2018. (He came close. The Carter Center reported there were only 13 human cases in 2023.) Carter, who also taught at Emory University, traveled extensively to promote peace, human rights and economic progress. In one mission, President Bill Clinton secretly dispatched him to North Korea in 1994 to help mediate a nuclear dispute with dictator Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Un's grandfather. In 2002, Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize for what the awards committee called "his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development." However, his actions were not always well-received. His efforts in his long campaign for peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors included the 2006 book "Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid," which was perceived as antisemitic and biased against Israel. In particular, one sentence provoked an outcry: "It is imperative that the general Arab community and all significant Palestinian groups make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals of the Roadmap for Peace are accepted by Israel." In an interview with NPR , Carter was asked about the passage. "That was a terribly worded sentence which implied, obviously in a ridiculous way, that I approved terrorism and terrorist acts against Israeli citizens," he said. "The 'when' was obviously a crazy and stupid word. My publishers have been informed about that and have changed the sentence in all future editions of the book." (It became: "It is imperative that the general Arab community and all significant Palestinian groups make it clear that they renounce all acts of violence against innocent civilians and will accept international laws, the Arab peace proposal of 2002, and the ultimate goals of the Roadmap for Peace.") In the 2014 CNBC interview, Carter said the Camp David Accords and other peacemaking stood among his greatest achievements as president. "I kept our country at peace, which has happened very rarely since the Second World War, and I tried to work for peace between other people who were not directly related to the United States, like between Egypt and Israel. I normalized diplomatic relations with China, and I implemented a very strong human rights commitment that brought about a change throughout Latin America, for instance, from totalitarian military dictatorships to democracies," he said. "So I would say the promotion of peace and human rights were the two things that I'm most proud." Had he been elected to a second term, he told CNBC, "I could have implemented very firmly the peace agreement that I negotiated with Israel and its neighbors that was never fully implemented." "I'd like to be remembered as a champion of peace and human rights. Those are the two things I've found as a kind of guide for my life. I've done the best I could with those, not always successful, of course," he told CNBC. "I would hope the American people would see that I tried to do what was best for our country every day I was in office." Survivors include sons John "Jack," James "Chip," and Donnel "Jeff" and daughter Amy. Jack ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in Nevada in 2006. Jack's son Jason lost a bid for Georgia governor in 2014 to then-incumbent Republican Nathan Deal. Carter's brother Billy, whose antics stirred up unwanted attention during the Carter White House years, died in 1988. On Aug. 12, 2015, the former president revealed that he had melanoma and that surgery on his liver confirmed that it had metastasized there and to his brain. A week after his cancer diagnosis announcement, Carter held a remarkably frank news conference at the Carter Center to discuss his prognosis and the prospect of facing death. "I've had a wonderful life, I've had thousands of friends, and I've had an exciting and adventurous and gratifying existence," he told reporters. Illustrating that peace of mind, the former president took this picture when he returned home from the news conference: After four months of treatment, including targeted radiation and immunotherapy, Carter announced in early December 2015 that a subsequent brain scan showed no signs of the original cancer spots and no new ones. Then in March 2016, he announced he no longer needed regular cancer treatments. Months later, in July, he addressed the Democratic National Convention by video, urging people to vote for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump . And at an Atlanta Braves game in September 2015, the former first couple was caught on the "kiss cam." Former President Jimmy Carter smooches wife on Atlanta Braves' kiss cam http://t.co/eq5KbHftsn #NBCNightlyNews pic.twitter.com/QT5Prl6T8f In 2019, at age 94, Carter fell in his home and broke a hip when he was preparing to go turkey hunting. "President Carter said his main concern is that turkey season ends this week, and he has not reached his limit," the Carter Center said. He underwent hip replacement surgery but had to cancel plans to resume teaching Sunday school six days after the accident. Later that year, just before a planned week at an October 2019 Habitat for Humanity project in Tennessee, the 95-year-old Carter fell in his home while heading to church. Although he suffered a black eye and needed 14 stitches in his head, Carter appeared 400 miles away at a concert that night in Nashville to support the project. Wielding a power drill and other building tools, he soon joined the volunteer construction crews. Then, two weeks later, he fell in his house and suffered a pelvic fracture. But in another two weeks, he was back at church, giving a lesson on the Book of Job and talking about facing death during his 2015 cancer treatment. "I obviously prayed about it. I didn't ask God to let me live, but I just asked God to give me a proper attitude toward death. And I found that I was absolutely and completely at ease with death. It didn't really matter to me whether I died or lived," Carter told the congregation of 400 people at Maranatha Baptist Church on Nov. 3, 2019, according to the church's feed on Facebook. "I have since that time been absolutely confident that my Christian faith includes complete confidence in life after death." During the Covid pandemic, the Carters decided not to travel to Biden's inauguration, but weeks later, they were fully vaccinated and were back in their usual seats in the front pew of Maranatha Baptist for Sunday services. " It's hard to live until you're 95 years old," Carter told People magazine days after reaching that milestone. "I think the best explanation for that is to marry the best spouse: Someone who will take care of you and engage and do things to challenge you and keep you alive and interested in life." — Michele Luhn and Lynne Pate contributed to this report. Also on CNBC U.S. to send $1.25 billion in weapons to Ukraine, pushing to get aid out before Biden leaves office 5 things to know before the stock market opens Friday German president dissolves parliament for Feb. 23 snap electionsBlackbaud Announces Impairment Charge Related to EVERFI AssetsOpposition fighters are closing in on Syria’s capital in a that has taken much of the world by surprise. Syria’s army has abandoned key cities with little resistance. Nervous residents in Damascus describe security forces on the streets. The state news agency has been forced to deny rumors that President Bashar Assad has left the country. Who are these ? If they enter Damascus after taking some of , what then? Here’s a look at the stunning reversal of fortune for Assad and his government in just the past 10 days, and what might lie ahead as Syria’s 13-year . The aim? Overthrow the government This is the first time that opposition forces have reached the outskirts of the Syrian capital since 2018, when the country’s troops recaptured the area following a yearslong siege. The approaching fighters are led by the most powerful insurgent group in Syria, , or HTS, along with an umbrella group of Turkish-backed Syrian militias called the Syrian National Army. Both have been entrenched in the northwest. They launched the shock offensive on Nov. 27 with gunmen capturing Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, and the central city of Hama, the fourth largest. The HTS has its origins in al-Qaida and is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the United Nations. But the group said in recent years it cut ties with al-Qaida, and HTS has sought to remake itself in recent years by focusing on promoting civilian government in their territory as well as military action. HTS leader Abu told CNN in an exclusive interview Thursday from Syria that the aim of the offensive is to overthrow Assad’s government. Possible rifts ahead The HTS and Syrian National Army have been allies at times and rivals at times, and their aims might diverge. The Turkish-backed militias also have an interest in creating a buffer zone near the Turkish border to keep away Kurdish militants at odds with Ankara. has been a main backer of the fighters seeking to overthrow Assad but more recently has urged reconciliation, and Turkish officials have strongly rejected claims of any involvement in the current offensive. Whether the HTS and the Syrian National Army will work together if they succeed in overthrowing Assad or turn on each other again is a major question. Others take advantage While the flash offensive against Syria’s government began in the north, armed opposition groups have also mobilized elsewhere. The southern areas of Sweida and Daraa have both been taken locally. Sweida is the heartland of Syria’s Druze religious minority and had been the site of regular anti-government protests even after Assad seemingly consolidated his control over the area. Daraa is a Sunni Muslim area that was widely seen as the cradle of the uprising against Assad’s rule that erupted in 2011. Daraa was recaptured by Syrian government troops in 2018, but rebels remained in some areas. In recent years, Daraa was in a state of uneasy quiet under a Russian-mediated ceasefire deal. And much of Syria’s east is controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led group backed by the United States that in the past has clashed with most other armed groups in the country. Syria’s government now has control of only three of 14 provincial capitals: Damascus, Latakia and Tartus. What’s next? Much depends on Assad’s next moves and his forces’ will to fight the rebels. A commander with the insurgents, Hassan Abdul-Ghani, posted on the Telegram messaging app that opposition forces have started carrying out the “final stage” of their offensive by encircling Damascus. And Syrian troops withdrew Saturday from much of the central city of Homs, Syria’s third largest, according to a pro-government outlet and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. If that city is captured, the link would be cut between Damascus, Assad’s seat of power, and the coastal region where he enjoys wide support. “Homs to the coastal cities will be a very huge red line politically and socially. Politically, if this line is crossed, then we are talking about the end of the entire Syria, the one that we knew in the past,” said a Damascus resident, Anas Joudeh. Assad appears to be as allies Russia and Iran are distracted by other conflicts and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah has been weakened by its war with Israel, now under a fragile ceasefire. The U.N. special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, seeks urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an “orderly political transition,” saying the situation is changing by the minute. He met with foreign ministers and senior diplomats from eight key countries including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Egypt, Turkey and Iran on the sidelines of the Doha Summit. President-elect Donald Trump in his on the developments in Syria said the besieged Assad didn’t deserve U.S. support to stay in power. “THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT,” Trump posted on social media. ___ Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed. Cara Anna, The Associated Press