lucky wheel

lucky wheel Valverde's coaching philosophy is known for its emphasis on solid defensive organization, possession-based football, and effective use of set-pieces. His meticulous approach to preparation and attention to detail have earned him the respect of players and fans alike. Under his guidance, Barcelona displayed a dominating style of play that saw them consistently compete at the highest levels of European football.A growing list of foreign policy challenges faces Trump in his second termThe oddest news RNZ covered in 2024

A collision between a high-speed passenger train and a fire engine on Saturday in Florida left three firefighters and multiple train passengers injured, authorities said. The crash happened at 10:45am in crowded downtown Delray Beach, multiple news outlets reported. The Brightline train was stopped on the tracks, its front destroyed about a block away from the Delray Beach Fire Rescue engine, its ladder ripped off and strewn in the grass several yards away, the reported. The fire engine was responding to an emergency call at the time of the accident, per . The Delray Beach Fire Rescue said in a social media post that three Delray Beach firefighters were hospitalized and reported to be stable, per the . Palm Beach County Fire Rescue transported 12 people from the train to the hospital with minor injuries. A spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board said that agency is still gathering information about the crash and hasn't decided whether it will investigate. The NTSB already is investigating two crashes involving Brightline's high-speed trains that killed three people at the same crossing early this year along the railroad's route between Miami and Orlando.6th China-France Cultural Forum shows importance of staying curious and respectfulAs players delve deeper into the game, they will uncover hidden secrets and mysteries, unlocking new abilities and powers that will aid them on their quest. From ancient relics to powerful enchantments, the world of "Deal Your Soul! The Hero's Journey" is rich with lore and legend, waiting to be discovered by those brave enough to seek it out.

Stock market today: Rising tech stocks pull Wall Street to another record

Israeli attorney general orders probe into report that alleged Netanyahu's wife harassed opponentsAnthem Blue Cross Blue Shield reverses decision to put a time limit on anesthesia

Protests in the streets, turmoil at City Hall, corruption trials galore, historically bad baseball and a massive influx of buzzing arthropods unlike any seen since the 1800s. No wonder so many Chicagoans sought peace at the sidewalk altar of a once-airborne rodent that imprinted itself into a slab of concrete — and into the city’s heart. In a year that had the national spotlight squared on Chicago, the Sun-Times saw it all. Here’s how we’ll remember 2024. Chicago shines for DNC Even Chicago’s famously mercurial weather cooperated through all four days of the Democratic National Convention , which went off without a hitch despite weeks of intraparty uncertainty heading into the spectacle. Mayor Brandon Johnson earned high marks for shepherding a smooth week for thousands of delegates and media from around the world, while Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling enjoyed rave reviews for keeping a reasonable lid on massive protests that mostly focused on the war in Gaza. The made-for-TV pep rally took on heightened excitement following President Joe Biden’s late withdrawal from the race, while some local flair was injected into the national conversation. The party’s new nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, vetted Gov. JB Pritzker as her potential running mate . Pritzker fell short of the ticket and Harris fell short of the White House, leaving Democrats scratching their heads — just like some local business owners, who felt left out of the convention’s much ballyhooed economic boost . Brandon Johnson’s sophomore slump The DNC provided a rare highlight for the first-term mayor, who could warrant his own top-10 list for bad news cycles in 2024. Fault lines started showing early in the year when voters rejected Johnson’s Bring Chicago Home referendum, nixing higher taxes on expensive real estate transactions — money that would have been used to help shelter the city’s unhoused population — and delivering the first major roadblock to his progressive agenda. Johnson saw his City Council support erode as he moved to shut down the city’s controversial ShotSpotter gunshot detection system, and again when he had to defend elevating a top aide with “a history of calling the police “f---ing pigs.” A revolving door on the fifth floor of City Hall included Johnson’s firing of a longtime confidant and spokesman accused of sexual harassment and antisemitism. And don’t forget Johnson’s pick for school board president who lasted all of one week before a troubling history of social media posts — inexplicably missed by Johnson’s office during the hiring process — led to a swift ouster . The political chaos came to a crescendo late in the year as an emboldened Council, by a stunning 50-0 vote, shot down the $300 million property tax hike Johnson had included in his proposed 2025 budget — breaking a campaign promise not to raise them. After a series of budget concessions, Johnson scrapped any property tax hike to win Council approval for a budget that relies heavily on one-time revenues and nickel-and-dime fee increases. Meanwhile, Johnson worked for months to force Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez out of his post , installing an entire school board that voted Dec. 21 to fire him — before the city’s first-ever elected board members had a chance to weigh in. The move raised fresh questions about the overwhelming influence of the Chicago Teachers Union. Preparing for Trump’s return Donald Trump’s resounding victory to retake the White House put officials on notice in Democratic-dominated Illinois, where the Republican president-elect saw a marginal uptick in voter support . Advocates for Illinois’ thousands of undocumented residents braced for the wave of legal questions raised by Trump’s promise of mass deportations, as the incoming administration’s border czar declared Chicago ground zero immigration enforcement raids. The city’s LGBTQ community grappled with similar concerns about the effect of a second Trump term on marriage and parental rights , while health care providers prepared for Illinois to take on an even greater role as the Midwest’s main island of abortion rights . Officials also raced to lock up key federal transit funding for an extension of the CTA Red Line, the type of assistance from Washington that Democrats say Trump may be keen on withholding from the city that has served as his preferred political punching bag. Landmark corruption cases One multi-generational poster boy of Chicago politics saw his federal corruption case come to a head while the fate of another hung in the balance to close out 2024. Ed Burke reported to a downstate prison to begin serving his two-year sentence for racketeering, bribery and attempted extortion convictions , tied to the longtime 14th Ward alderman’s strong-arming of developers to hire his private law firm. Mike Madigan spent weeks in a courtroom listening to federal prosecutors map out his sprawling web of influence as speaker of the Illinois House for jurors who will soon be tasked with deciding if Madigan wielded it to squeeze companies for payments to his political cronies. Natural wonders Cicadas and tornadoes and geomagnetic storms, oh my! Mother Nature kept things interesting for Chicagoans with the first dual-emergence of periodical broods of cicadas in more than 200 years, inundating some parts of the area with the very noisy , mostly harmless and debatably tasty insects. They crawled out of the ground shortly after the latest solar eclipse bedazzled the Midwest, drawing thousands of people to the path of totality that just narrowly missed the city. Some of the freshly unearthed cicadas were still around for the first in a series of rare aurora borealis displays powered by intense solar storms, igniting the northern lights over Lake Michigan even downtown. But the natural marvels weren’t all friendly. Thirty-one Chicago-area tornadoes in July set a new record as more frequent bouts of heavy rain and flooding provided a sobering reminder of the looming impacts of climate change. Up-and-down year for CPD It was a mixed bag for Snelling in his first full year at the helm of the Chicago Police Department. Overseeing a seamless DNC earned the freshman superintendent a growing drumbeat of support from Council members across the political spectrum, especially with his department on pace for fewer than 600 homicides , the lowest yearly toll since before the COVID-19 pandemic. But the killing of 26-year-old Dexter Reed in a hail of 96 bullets during a traffic stop raised new questions about the use of force in the ranks, and a federal monitor last month reminded officials that the department is far behind in its long-running reform effort, reaching full compliance with just 9% of the steps laid out in a consent decree . Domestic violence questions Horrific murder cases put officials’ handling of domestic violence under the microscope, highlighting issues that advocates say have persisted for decades. After 11-year-old Jayden Perkins was killed while defending his mother from an ex-boyfriend who’d been released on parole a day earlier, Gov. Pritzker pushed out two Illinois Prisoner Review Board members and tried to bolster that panel’s domestic violence training . Dozens of elected officials have joined a chorus calling for the reassignment of the Cook County judge who could’ve detained a man before he allegedly killed his wife, Lacramioara Beldie , in Portage Park. Advocates say there has been a spike in such attacks in the past year , increasing the lawmakers’ urgency to pass long-stalled legislation that would require law enforcement to promptly remove firearms while serving orders of protection. Ebb in new arrivals of asylum seekers The influx of thousands of migrants from the southern border that once overwhelmed the city’s social safety net slowed to a trickle under tighter Biden administration deportation policies, ending months of acrimony over city spending that highlighted racial divides in Chicago. Concerns over Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sending busloads of migrants to Chicago to embarrass the city during the DNC never materialized. By year’s end the city had closed its migrant landing zone completely as it merged shelter systems for newly arrived asylum seekers and homeless people who have long lived on Chicago’s streets and in its alleys, parks and viaducts. Chicago teams struggle inside and outside the stadium White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf threw his hat in the public financing ring with a splashy pitch for a new South Loop ballpark , but got shut out by state lawmakers who have rejected giving a dime to either them or the Bears — who rolled out their own renderings of a shiny new lakeside dome . That sent the McCaskeys back to the drawing board to consider the old Michael Reese Hospital site, or Arlington Heights, where the team finally reached a property tax deal with local school districts that could grease their suburban wheels. Neither team helped make their case on the field, either, with a pitiful Sox lineup recording the worst season in modern Major League Baseball history and the Bears firing a coach midseason for the first time while squandering what was supposed to be a competitive rookie season for quarterback Caleb Williams , who was drafted first overall in April. Rat hole Rat hole ( noun ) — rodent-shaped imprint on a Roscoe Village sidewalk that drew hordes of curious onlookers for several months in 2024 to the glee of Chicago social media users and chagrin of neighborhood residents. The latest entry into the Chicago lexicon was inscribed in January when photos of the four-legged sidewalk stamp — which some argue was actually left by a squirrel — went viral online, drawing tourists to the 1900 block of West Roscoe with offerings of coins, and prompting at least one couple to tie the knot . The city removed (but preserved) the pseudo-sacred sidewalk in April at the request of nearby residents none too pleased with round-the-clock foot traffic. What’s next for the rat hole? We’ll see in 2025. Other major 2024 stories CTA President Dorval Carter ’s seat got hotter as head of a transit agency beset by long wait times, understaffing and looming budget crises. The city mourned Chicago police officers Luis Huesca and Enrique Martinez , killed on duty in separate shootings. Tipped workers saw their minimum base wages increase en route to eventual parity with the standard minimum wage, in a win for Mayor Johnson and his progressive allies and a loss for restaurant owners . Plans moved forward to transform the long-vacant U.S. Steel South Works into a sprawling quantum computing campus as Illinois positions itself as the Silicon Valley of the nascent technology. Hackers stole the personal data of more than 800,000 people in a cyberattack on the Lurie Children’s Hospital network, causing months of headaches for patients and their families. Chicago rap star Lil Durk was charged in a California murder-for-hire plot. The Illinois Supreme Court overturned actor Jussie Smollett ’s conviction for staging a hate crime, sparing him five months’ jail time. And Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard’s south suburban media circus played on, with federal investigators circling her push for no-bid contracts to a construction company linked to multiple corruption investigations, among other questionable spending.

How major US stock indexes fared Thursday, 12/5/2024

As the football world continues to speculate about Son Heung-min's next move, one thing is certain: he is a player of immense talent and potential. With the support of his fans, teammates, and coaches like Hong Myung-bo, Son will continue to make a significant impact on the pitch and cement his legacy as one of the best players of his generation.Director-General, the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Prof Eghosa Osaghae, speaks with BIODUN BUSARI about President Bola Tinubu’s foreign trips, among other diplomatic matters concerning Nigeria and other countries What is the significance of foreign trips embarked on by President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima considering the resources these travels gulp as Nigerians face hardships? Have you thought of the benefits, the dividends, and the profits of these trips that from all that we know outweigh and outstrip all the resources that went into those travels? In other words, as we say, every investor knows that you invest money, and you expect returns. So, if these trips have yielded the kind of returns regarding our foreign direct investments and the various things that have been attracted to the country, I think that’s the way to go. It’s not to say in terms of the opportunity cost. If they were home, the money could go around, but the money they were able to attract would multiply. There’s a multiplier effect. So, first, the dividends of those trips are obvious. Then, of course, the dividends for the entire country; the welfare of the citizens, and our overall development and economic growth far outweigh what you consider to be the costs. In any case, why should the president and his vice president, and in fact, even any Nigerian official travel at this time? Economic diplomacy and the attraction of foreign direct investment are fundamental to the government’s articulation of our national interest. Don’t forget also that Nigeria is a big player in the world. Nigeria is a clear African leader. Nigeria is a host African leader. For a long time, Nigeria was missing in action. So, the time has come to regain lost balance and reassert Nigeria’s giant status in Africa. But all of those ones are only additional. The primary reason for going out to seek direct investment and attract external resources to the country is for the profits that have come from these. With security issues in Nigeria, do you think foreign investors will come? You can be in a village and have all of your local resources ploughed back into the things that you are doing. But think of that village going outside to other villages and seeing what can happen when they all work together. In today’s world, shared prosperity is the name of the game. There is no way our local resources in circulation locally can meet the kinds of needs that we have as a country. To fight insecurity, you need the kinetic angle, you need weapons; you need technology, and you need AI. You need those kinds of investments which we don’t have in abundance. So, there is no way we will not go out to look for support, even to fight insecurity. We will not go out to seek support, even for infrastructural renewal and development. Don’t think it’s only when the president and the vice president travel that Nigeria is pursuing its interests in terms of economic diplomacy. Security diplomacy is a complement to economic diplomacy. So, you can have all your money here, but we don’t produce weapons, not enough to fight the level of insecurity that we have. We don’t have the technological base or the kinds of weapons that we require. All of those things need external collaboration and support. Don’t forget that terrorism, banditry, and others are cross-national problems. They are transnational in character. Therefore, if you’re going to address them, you must address them globally. You must address them within the ambits of the national space. That’s the global space. These are not things we can tackle, acting alone or in isolation. So, those people can only be one-tenth right. We need all the support that we can get. Speaking about insecurity, recently, rebel groups overthrew the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad. The same thing happened in Afghanistan in 2021 when the Taliban overthrew the Afghan government. Is this not a concern as Nigeria has battled security challenges for over a decade? Both our internal mechanism and external support can collaborate. When I talk about external support, there’s no country today in the world, including the United States of America, Russia, and China, that can fight on its own. Everyone needs global collaboration in one way or the other. It could be regional support, sub-regional support, or bilateral support. But the way conflicts have come to the world today shows that collaboration is required. You talk about Afghanistan; you talk about Syria; look at the externalities of the crises in these countries and how external forces have played into that. Our military is adequate but needs collaboration. I may just tell you that one of the distinctions of the Nigerian military is its prowess in the area of not only unconventional war but also asymmetrical war. Even countries like America and others are glad to learn from Nigeria how we have excelled in these forms of war. The reason Nigeria is such a popular destination for peacekeeping operations is that it has been recognised that Nigeria has always succeeded where so-called sophisticated weapons have failed to happen. So, in the area of capabilities, the world is aware of Nigeria’s strength in these forms of war. But terrorism, banditry, and violent extremism are not Nigerian characters. They are not only about Nigeria. They have cells, proliferation, and networks that are global. That’s why we talk about information sharing, intelligence sharing, and so on. You’ll be surprised that many of the things that happened in Syria or are happening in Afghanistan or Yemen are better known outside of these countries than they are known within. What are your views about how ECOWAS under President Bola Tinubu treated the three military-ruled Sahelian countries of Malli, Burkina Faso, and Niger Republic as regards Nigeria’s insecurity? It’s unfortunate that we had this kind of development in these three countries that you have mentioned. There is very little that is Nigerian in the kind of responses and interventions that we have had. Be it the military or intervention, or its so-called alliance of the Sahelian states, the three of them have now come together to pull out from ECOWAS. I mean, it’s unfortunate. Related News Nigeria, others lose investments to inefficiencies – W’Bank Nigeria has no military pact with France, says Ribadu FG expresses concern about Mozambique election crisis But there is nothing pretentious in Nigeria about what is going on, and what has happened. Nigeria’s involvement in these matters has been at two levels. One is at the national level or the bilateral, the other is at the ECOWAS level, the regional level, and by extension, the global level. At this time, Nigeria is the chair of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State. Therefore, our president is the chair of ECOWAS. The ECOWAS has an existing framework in terms of its protocols, treaty, and the articles of both the protocol and the treaty that are directly related to the developments in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. One of them is the protocol on good governance and constitutional rule. That protocol says that ECOWAS will not tolerate unconstitutional intervention. ECOWAS is committed to democracy and democratic rule. ECOWAS recognises the power of the people, popular sovereignty, and so on. When these things happened, they were not happening only in these three countries. ECOWAS has been in the driving seat of not just the advocacy, but also the defence of democracy and democratisation, and human rights. This has been a redefining factor. Nigeria’s involvement is a different layer. Remember that Niger is Nigeria’s next-door neighbour. Niger has been very closely tied to Nigeria. The ties are historical, they are ethnic, and there are families across the boundary that are closely related. The religious ties are very strong. Remember that even the governors from Niger pay homage to our governors and vice versa. Nigeria and Niger have serious strategic linkages. Nigeria has been supplying Nigeriens electricity for all that time. Don’t forget that Niger is a landlocked country. Niger and Burkina Faso need good neighbourliness to be able to have access to the sea. For a long time, that was not happening. Nigeria is of strategic importance to Niger. Nigeria and Niger were involved in the multinational task force against Boko Haram because these terrorist movements are transnational. So, in terms of direct security, Nigeria needs Niger just as much as Niger needs Nigeria. So, Nigeria has had backdoor diplomatic engagements with Niger despite the ECOWAS position. Are you saying the pulling out of the Niger Republic from the ECOWAS will not affect its diplomatic ties with Nigeria? Well, if what you mean is our security challenges in terms of banditry, Boko Haram, the new Lakurawa, and so on, yes, of course, because these groups don’t have national boundaries. They crisscross national boundaries. So, once they’re in Nigeria, they’re also in Niger. They’re in Chad. They’re in Cameroon. They’re everywhere. They can spread to Burkina Faso and Mali. That’s the experience; that’s the history. That’s what we have seen. So, there’s no way Nigeria and Niger will not have to work together. There’s no way Nigeria and Niger and Burkina Faso and Mali and Chad will not have to work together. These differences but steps have been set in motion and things have been done to address them. Everything cannot be on the pages of newspapers. Even at the last ECOWAS summit, the president of the ECOWAS council said there was a moratorium. For six months, they will continue to use the good offices of the President of Togo and the President of Senegal to see how much we can get from these forms of diplomacy. So, all hope is not lost at all. Even these three countries have not said that pulling out of ECOWAS means they will no longer respect the protocol of free movement of persons and goods. That is still very active. Those informal movements continue to go on. The volume of trade between Nigeria and Ghana and Nigeria and Benin and Nigeria and Niger and Ivory Coast and others in West Africa cannot be stopped. They are challenges to ECOWAS, but the forces that brought ECOWAS together in 1975 are not lost at all. The final thing I want to say is that people think that this alliance of Sahelian states is a contradiction or is parallel to ECOWAS. It is not. The Francophone countries have parallel associations and alliances and organisations that exist side-by-side with ECOWAS. They haven’t threatened ECOWAS. So, all we are hoping for is that the countries see a good reason to come back to ECOWAS. But the point is that the fight in the Sahel is not only for and about these countries. We are directly involved in Nigeria because we are close to Niger. Whatever happens in Niger will spill over to Nigeria. Whatever happens in Nigeria, we will spill over to Cameroon. So, these are the organic connections that we all have. What do you think of the relationship between Nigeria and the United States if the former joins the BRICS, knowing Russia and China are members? BRICs have existed, and there’s nothing that says that BRICS is anti-America. BRICs is, as they define it, a global South coalition. The Global South coalition is an alliance that opens more options for countries of the Global South. BRICS is not a Nigerian creation, and BRICS was not anti-America, that was not the spirit of BRICS. The countries in BRICS are Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Now, all these countries are not just in BRICS because they are in problems or trouble with America. That tells me that BRICS has not been anti-America in any way. Therefore, it is not likely to change the contour or the trajectory of Nigerian relations with America and the West. The point is that BRICS is one of the imperatives of global relations that uphold a unipolarity or bipolarity. What BRICS represents is a global south platform that emanates from the kind of theoretical and practical imperatives that led Bolaji Akinyemi in the 1980s to propagate the idea of the concept of medium power. The global south requires some kind of platform that allows it to enjoy options. These options are not potentially Western or Eastern or ideologically potent. It is now BRICS plus because of other countries joining over the years. Now, what BRICS Plus represents is to offer options to less developed countries in terms of economic opportunities, in terms of credit, in terms of loans, and so on. It’s better to have these opportunities than not to have them at all. So, BRICS is the concept. So, BRICS comes with a lot of opportunities for Nigeria, just as it has been for countries that have joined it. It offers a good option. It’s an option, a multilateral option to all the other ones that we presently belong to. Nigeria has quite a range of choices and decision-making choices.Title: Clear Economic Policy Direction Next Year to Enhance Extraordinary Countercyclical Adjustment

NEW YORK — Stoli Group USA, the owner of the namesake vodka , has filed for bankruptcy as it struggled to contend with slowing demand for spirits, a major cyberattack that has snarled its operations and several years of fighting Russia in court. The company in its bankruptcy filing said it is “experiencing financial difficulties” and lists between $50 million and $100 million in liabilities. Stoli vodka and Kentucky Owl bourbon will continue to be available on store shelves while the company navigates the Chapter 11 process, which only pertains to its U.S. business. Until 2022, Stoli was sold as Stolichnaya in the United States, which loosely translates to “capital city” in Russian. The company shortened its title following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and boycotts against Russian-branded vodkas . Stoli Group’s founder, Russian-born billionaire Yuri Shefler, was exiled from that nation in 2000 because of his opposition to President Vladimir Putin. Intel announced on December 2 that CEO Pat Gelsinger has resigned after a difficult stint at the company. The once-dominant chipmaker’s stock cratered as it missed the AI boom and was surpassed by most of its rivals. The liquor has long been marketed as a Russian vodka, but its production facilities have been in Latvia for several decades. Stoli Group is a unit of Luxembourg-based SPI Group, which owns other spirit and wine brands. “The Stoli Group has been targeted by the Russian Federation since it was formed nearly 25 years ago,” said Stoli Group CEO Chris Caldwell in a statement. “Earlier this year the company and our owner were both named by the Russian state as ‘extremist groups working against Russia’s interests.’” Its ongoing legal battle with the Russia government has forced Stoli to “spend dozens of millions of dollars on this long-term court battle across the globe with the Russian authorities,” according to its court filing. Caldwell also said that Stoli’s global operations has been a “victim of a malicious cyber attack” that has forced the company to operate “entirely manually while the systems are rebuilt.” A slowdown in demand for alcohol has crushed several company’s bottom lines following the pandemic when people were stuck at home and stocked up. Stoli’s filings said that it has seen a “decline and softening of demand for alcohol and spirits products post-Covid and especially beginning in 2023 and continuing into 2024.” Stoli Group USA, maker of Stoli vodka, has filed for bankruptcy due to slowing demand for spirits, a major cyberattack, and ongoing legal battles with Russia. The-CNN-WireTM & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.

Angel Reese catches fire on the court as she scores four straight 3-pointers in less than 20 secondsProtests in the streets, turmoil at City Hall, corruption trials galore, historically bad baseball and a massive influx of buzzing arthropods unlike any seen since the 1800s. No wonder so many Chicagoans sought peace at the sidewalk altar of a once-airborne rodent that imprinted itself into a slab of concrete — and into the city’s heart. In a year that had the national spotlight squared on Chicago, the Sun-Times saw it all. Here’s how we’ll remember 2024. Chicago shines for DNC Even Chicago’s famously mercurial weather cooperated through all four days of the Democratic National Convention , which went off without a hitch despite weeks of intraparty uncertainty heading into the spectacle. Mayor Brandon Johnson earned high marks for shepherding a smooth week for thousands of delegates and media from around the world, while Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling enjoyed rave reviews for keeping a reasonable lid on massive protests that mostly focused on the war in Gaza. The made-for-TV pep rally took on heightened excitement following President Joe Biden’s late withdrawal from the race, while some local flair was injected into the national conversation. The party’s new nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, vetted Gov. JB Pritzker as her potential running mate . Pritzker fell short of the ticket and Harris fell short of the White House, leaving Democrats scratching their heads — just like some local business owners, who felt left out of the convention’s much ballyhooed economic boost . Brandon Johnson’s sophomore slump The DNC provided a rare highlight for the first-term mayor, who could warrant his own top-10 list for bad news cycles in 2024. Fault lines started showing early in the year when voters rejected Johnson’s Bring Chicago Home referendum, nixing higher taxes on expensive real estate transactions — money that would have been used to help shelter the city’s unhoused population — and delivering the first major roadblock to his progressive agenda. Johnson saw his City Council support erode as he moved to shut down the city’s controversial ShotSpotter gunshot detection system, and again when he had to defend elevating a top aide with “a history of calling the police “f---ing pigs.” A revolving door on the fifth floor of City Hall included Johnson’s firing of a longtime confidant and spokesman accused of sexual harassment and antisemitism. And don’t forget Johnson’s pick for school board president who lasted all of one week before a troubling history of social media posts — inexplicably missed by Johnson’s office during the hiring process — led to a swift ouster . The political chaos came to a crescendo late in the year as an emboldened Council, by a stunning 50-0 vote, shot down the $300 million property tax hike Johnson had included in his proposed 2025 budget — breaking a campaign promise not to raise them. After a series of budget concessions, Johnson scrapped any property tax hike to win Council approval for a budget that relies heavily on one-time revenues and nickel-and-dime fee increases. Meanwhile, Johnson worked for months to force Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez out of his post , installing an entire school board that voted Dec. 21 to fire him — before the city’s first-ever elected board members had a chance to weigh in. The move raised fresh questions about the overwhelming influence of the Chicago Teachers Union. Preparing for Trump’s return Donald Trump’s resounding victory to retake the White House put officials on notice in Democratic-dominated Illinois, where the Republican president-elect saw a marginal uptick in voter support . Advocates for Illinois’ thousands of undocumented residents braced for the wave of legal questions raised by Trump’s promise of mass deportations, as the incoming administration’s border czar declared Chicago ground zero immigration enforcement raids. The city’s LGBTQ community grappled with similar concerns about the effect of a second Trump term on marriage and parental rights , while health care providers prepared for Illinois to take on an even greater role as the Midwest’s main island of abortion rights . Officials also raced to lock up key federal transit funding for an extension of the CTA Red Line, the type of assistance from Washington that Democrats say Trump may be keen on withholding from the city that has served as his preferred political punching bag. Landmark corruption cases One multi-generational poster boy of Chicago politics saw his federal corruption case come to a head while the fate of another hung in the balance to close out 2024. Ed Burke reported to a downstate prison to begin serving his two-year sentence for racketeering, bribery and attempted extortion convictions , tied to the longtime 14th Ward alderman’s strong-arming of developers to hire his private law firm. Mike Madigan spent weeks in a courtroom listening to federal prosecutors map out his sprawling web of influence as speaker of the Illinois House for jurors who will soon be tasked with deciding if Madigan wielded it to squeeze companies for payments to his political cronies. Natural wonders Cicadas and tornadoes and geomagnetic storms, oh my! Mother Nature kept things interesting for Chicagoans with the first dual-emergence of periodical broods of cicadas in more than 200 years, inundating some parts of the area with the very noisy , mostly harmless and debatably tasty insects. They crawled out of the ground shortly after the latest solar eclipse bedazzled the Midwest, drawing thousands of people to the path of totality that just narrowly missed the city. Some of the freshly unearthed cicadas were still around for the first in a series of rare aurora borealis displays powered by intense solar storms, igniting the northern lights over Lake Michigan even downtown. But the natural marvels weren’t all friendly. Thirty-one Chicago-area tornadoes in July set a new record as more frequent bouts of heavy rain and flooding provided a sobering reminder of the looming impacts of climate change. Up-and-down year for CPD It was a mixed bag for Snelling in his first full year at the helm of the Chicago Police Department. Overseeing a seamless DNC earned the freshman superintendent a growing drumbeat of support from Council members across the political spectrum, especially with his department on pace for fewer than 600 homicides , the lowest yearly toll since before the COVID-19 pandemic. But the killing of 26-year-old Dexter Reed in a hail of 96 bullets during a traffic stop raised new questions about the use of force in the ranks, and a federal monitor last month reminded officials that the department is far behind in its long-running reform effort, reaching full compliance with just 9% of the steps laid out in a consent decree . Domestic violence questions Horrific murder cases put officials’ handling of domestic violence under the microscope, highlighting issues that advocates say have persisted for decades. After 11-year-old Jayden Perkins was killed while defending his mother from an ex-boyfriend who’d been released on parole a day earlier, Gov. Pritzker pushed out two Illinois Prisoner Review Board members and tried to bolster that panel’s domestic violence training . Dozens of elected officials have joined a chorus calling for the reassignment of the Cook County judge who could’ve detained a man before he allegedly killed his wife, Lacramioara Beldie , in Portage Park. Advocates say there has been a spike in such attacks in the past year , increasing the lawmakers’ urgency to pass long-stalled legislation that would require law enforcement to promptly remove firearms while serving orders of protection. Ebb in new arrivals of asylum seekers The influx of thousands of migrants from the southern border that once overwhelmed the city’s social safety net slowed to a trickle under tighter Biden administration deportation policies, ending months of acrimony over city spending that highlighted racial divides in Chicago. Concerns over Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sending busloads of migrants to Chicago to embarrass the city during the DNC never materialized. By year’s end the city had closed its migrant landing zone completely as it merged shelter systems for newly arrived asylum seekers and homeless people who have long lived on Chicago’s streets and in its alleys, parks and viaducts. Chicago teams struggle inside and outside the stadium White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf threw his hat in the public financing ring with a splashy pitch for a new South Loop ballpark , but got shut out by state lawmakers who have rejected giving a dime to either them or the Bears — who rolled out their own renderings of a shiny new lakeside dome . That sent the McCaskeys back to the drawing board to consider the old Michael Reese Hospital site, or Arlington Heights, where the team finally reached a property tax deal with local school districts that could grease their suburban wheels. Neither team helped make their case on the field, either, with a pitiful Sox lineup recording the worst season in modern Major League Baseball history and the Bears firing a coach midseason for the first time while squandering what was supposed to be a competitive rookie season for quarterback Caleb Williams , who was drafted first overall in April. Rat hole Rat hole ( noun ) — rodent-shaped imprint on a Roscoe Village sidewalk that drew hordes of curious onlookers for several months in 2024 to the glee of Chicago social media users and chagrin of neighborhood residents. The latest entry into the Chicago lexicon was inscribed in January when photos of the four-legged sidewalk stamp — which some argue was actually left by a squirrel — went viral online, drawing tourists to the 1900 block of West Roscoe with offerings of coins, and prompting at least one couple to tie the knot . The city removed (but preserved) the pseudo-sacred sidewalk in April at the request of nearby residents none too pleased with round-the-clock foot traffic. What’s next for the rat hole? We’ll see in 2025. Other major 2024 stories CTA President Dorval Carter ’s seat got hotter as head of a transit agency beset by long wait times, understaffing and looming budget crises. The city mourned Chicago police officers Luis Huesca and Enrique Martinez , killed on duty in separate shootings. Tipped workers saw their minimum base wages increase en route to eventual parity with the standard minimum wage, in a win for Mayor Johnson and his progressive allies and a loss for restaurant owners . Plans moved forward to transform the long-vacant U.S. Steel South Works into a sprawling quantum computing campus as Illinois positions itself as the Silicon Valley of the nascent technology. Hackers stole the personal data of more than 800,000 people in a cyberattack on the Lurie Children’s Hospital network, causing months of headaches for patients and their families. Chicago rap star Lil Durk was charged in a California murder-for-hire plot. The Illinois Supreme Court overturned actor Jussie Smollett ’s conviction for staging a hate crime, sparing him five months’ jail time. And Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard’s south suburban media circus played on, with federal investigators circling her push for no-bid contracts to a construction company linked to multiple corruption investigations, among other questionable spending.

In an unprecedented move to promote traditional Chinese culture and education, ByteDance, the technology company behind popular apps such as TikTok and Toutiao, has announced a generous donation of 25 million RMB to support the compilation and digitization of "The Collection of Confucian Classics" at Peking University. This significant contribution signifies ByteDance's commitment to preserving, promoting, and enriching the cultural heritage of China.

WeChat, often referred to as China's super app, is a multifunctional platform that offers a wide range of services beyond just messaging. For our 25-year-old woman, WeChat is her virtual playground, where she can chat with friends, share moments from her daily life, and stay updated on the latest trends and news.

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