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mega casino WOODBRIDGE, N.J., Dec. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Northfield Bank, wholly-owned subsidiary of Northfield Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFBK), announced today that Steven M. Klein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York (the “FHLBNY”) for a four-year term. Mr. Klein’s term will commence on January 1, 2025 and end on December 31, 2028. Mr. Klein stated, “I am humbled and honored for the support and confidence the New York members of the FHLBNY have placed in me to continue to serve and advocate for the critical mission of the FHLBNY to provide reliable liquidity to its members in support of housing and local community development.” Mr. Klein serves as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Northfield Bank. Mr. Klein is responsible for leading strategic planning and execution related to lending, deposit gathering, technology deployment, risk management, customer and employee experience, and branding. He is a member of the New York Bankers Association, a member of the ABA Government Relations Council, and previous committee member of the ABA Community Bankers Council. Mr. Klein also is a board member of the New Jersey Bankers Association and past immediate Chair. He is a Trustee of the Northfield Bank Foundation, whose mission is to promote charitable purposes within the communities Northfield operates, focusing its efforts on projects to support education, health and human services, youth programs, and affordable housing. Mr. Klein also serves as a Director and Executive Committee member of the Staten Island Economic Development Corporation, a Director of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, and a Trustee, Executive Committee Member and Finance Chair of the Richmond University Medical Center. He is a Certified Public Accountant, and a member of the AICPA. Mr. Klein earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Montclair State University. About Northfield Bank Northfield Bank, founded in 1887, operates 38 full-service banking offices in Staten Island and Brooklyn, New York, and Hunterdon, Middlesex, Mercer, and Union Counties, New Jersey. For more information about Northfield Bank, please visit www.eNorthfield.com. About the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York The Federal Home Loan Bank of New York is a Congressionally chartered, wholesale Bank. It is part of the Federal Home Loan Bank System, a national wholesale banking network of 11 regional, stockholder-owned banks. As of September 30, 2024, the FHLBNY serves 338 financial institutions and housing associates in New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The mission of the FHLBNY is to provide members with reliable liquidity in support of housing and local community development. Media Contact: Damien Kane 732-499-7200 x2503 SVP, Director of Marketing dkane@eNorthfield.comJD Martin Expands Representation of Dialight into North and South Carolina

Bright pink color, a new typeface, and a missing cat in its emblem – Jaguar’s rebrand campaign has been the talk of the town since its launch. It certainly divides opinions for a car maker with a rich history of nearly 100 years. How do you decide if a marketing campaign is an absolute hit? Of course, if it gets the world talking about you, it must be a hit, right? But what if the world is collectively mocking you? But hey, bad PR is still PR, eh? So it’s safe to say that the metrics which decide if a marketing campaign is a hit or a miss are, after all, subjective. During Miami Art Week earlier this month, Jaguar debuted its daring rebrand alongside the . The focal point of the event was its new "Copy Nothing" revamp, which brought bold fashion and vibrant aesthetics to usher in a new age before going all-electric. Jaguar intends to completely transition away from internal combustion engines, and adopt a new design and technology philosophy in order to become an all-electric premium brand by 2025. The brand's identity is being completely redefined as part of this makeover, which goes beyond simple electrification. I have to say, Jaguar's redesign has done more for the company than any other in recent memory. After all, it got people talking about Jaguar, at the very least. Jaguar’s managing director Rawdon Glover said, "If we play the same way that everybody else does, we’ll just get drowned out. So we shouldn’t turn up like an auto brand." While it did get the world talking about Jaguar, the move was widely criticized, with some claiming it was damaging the brand's legacy and others complaining that Jaguar had not actually displayed a car – which was the whole crux of this campaign. You have to understand that car badges are more than merely ornamental accessories. They impact people's decisions to buy the vehicles. According to recent data, daily sales of Jaguar have reportedly decreased by 9% since the British brand's controversial rebranding earlier this month. shows that in the seven days after Jaguar's "Copy Nothing" rebranding on November 19, the average number of used Jaguars sold per day was just 133. By contrast, used Jaguar sales averaged 146 at the beginning of November, representing an 8.9% discrepancy. Leaving the sales and the car in question aside, let’s put our focus on the rebrand itself. Now it’s not every day you see a historical brand commit to a full-scale rebrand. From the logo to colors, and even the company vision – Jaguar’s rebranding is more than just a madman’s marketing campaign. Jaguar was criticized by certain X users for being "woke" and deviating from its typical demographic. Lulu Cheng Meservey, co-founder of Rostra PR group, called the rebrand "disastrous," saying "It's possible a marketing exec read too many think pieces about how millennials shop based on values and forgot that people want cars that are really well built." For me, personally, the core message has been lost as a result of the campaign’s direction, which has alienated its older core audience. And why the company wishes to undermine its core clientele is beyond me. Alright, if you feel you are losing out on a certain group, strive to win them over, but not at the expense of others. From a business perspective, it's ludicrous to be so polarizing and ignore your main client base. The whole rebrand campaign appears to be a well-made fashion concept with juvenile taglines that have no real substance for a car manufacturer. I’m not half as offended by the quirky colors as I am with Jaguar for not presenting itself as a carmaker first and as a luxury brand second. But it’s important to understand why Jag opted for a rebrand. The company has been experiencing a steep decline in sales – less than 67,000 Jaguar vehicles were sold globally last year, which is almost half of the total sales during the fiscal year that coincided with the onset of COVID. Per , there are currently only 122 Jaguar dealerships in the United States, a sharp decrease from a peak of about 200. So, it’s easy to see how perfectly Jaguar's rebranding initiative aligns with the company's major product transition. Thus, it should come as no surprise that Jaguar declared it was "not afraid to polarize." It's not like the company didn't know it would lose a major chunk of itds existing customer base. "We anticipate that 10 to 15 percent of our current Jaguar customers will follow us," Glover stated in an interview earlier this year. So, I come back to where I started – it's tough to say if Jag's rebrand campaign was a hit or a miss. You can't deny that the campaign can be seen as a huge success if all that the company wanted to do was to get people talking about it – without even releasing any cars yet. Controversy is a weird thing. It certainly gets you headlines. If you’re Jaguar and that’s all that you wanted, bravo. Source:Daily year-round service will seamlessly connect our guests between the nation's capital and one of our key West Coast hubs SEATTLE , Dec. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Alaska Airlines is proud to announce new nonstop service between San Diego International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), becoming the only airline to offer this direct route and enhance connectivity to the nation's capital. Tickets will soon be available for purchase on www.alaskaair.com . On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Transportation approved our application as part of the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2024 to operate roundtrip service between San Diego and DCA. For nearly 40 years, we've proudly served San Diego with the exceptional and caring service that we're known for. We've connected our guests to DCA since 2001 and today offer nonstop service from Seattle , Portland , San Francisco and Los Angeles . "We are pleased the DOT sees the value of Alaska providing direct service between San Diego and DCA, and we thank the many leaders, local businesses and organizations who supported our bid," said CEO Ben Minicucci. "This new route reflects our commitment to San Diego , home of the nation's largest military community, and offers our guests a seamless travel option to our nation's capital." "Today is a great day for the San Diego Region with the announcement of a new, nonstop flight to Washington, D.C.'s Reagan National Airport. This flight will further connect our growing defense, research and innovation economies to our leaders in the Capitol," said San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria . "Securing this flight was a team effort by our partners from Alaska Airlines, the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, and our congressional delegation. I especially want to thank U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker for selecting San Diego as one of the five new DCA flight slot recipients." As the carrier with the most nonstop destinations from San Diego , Alaska will offer 40 nonstop destinations and more than 70 peak-day departures when our new service to DCA begins. Together with our Global Partners, we offer one-stop service from San Diego International Airport (SAN) to more than 330 destinations.* Currently, SAN has the greatest number of passengers of any U.S. airport without service to DCA. Whether you're flying nonstop or catching a connecting a flight at SAN, www.alaskaair.com has options for what works best for you: you can book flights on 22 partner airlines or redeem Mileage Plan miles, all on our site. "We are very pleased Alaska Airlines has received approval to begin nonstop service between San Diego International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport," said Kimberly J. Becker , president and CEO, San Diego County Regional Airport Authority. " San Diego has been the largest origin-destination market without service to Reagan National Airport and it has significant defense, biotech, and communications technology sectors that require efficient access to the core of the national capital region. This new nonstop route will greatly enhance the connectivity between these two strategic regions for business and our leisure passengers." Alaska's elevated travel experience offers a blend of comfort and caring service for a seamless journey, including no change fees, the most legroom in First Class* and Premium Class, satellite Wi-Fi and the most generous Mileage Plan with the fastest path to elite status. Savor the best of West Coast-inspired food and beverages, including complimentary snacks and chef-curated meals. With access to Alaska Lounge locations for members and First Class guests on flights more than 2,000 miles, you can unwind in ultimate comfort before take-off. Building off our newest Lounge in San Francisco , we're set to nearly double our footprint in 3 years. We recently announced a plan to continue expanding our Lounge program, including in San Diego and Honolulu , followed by a new world-class Lounge in Seattle to support international service. We'll begin with an expanded Anchorage Lounge early next year and open our new Portland Lounge in 2026. In September, we began adding more Premium Class seating across our mainline fleet, including our 900ERs, 800s and MAX9s. We plan to increase our 737-800 First Class seats from 12 to 16 to make it easy for our guests to upgrade and meet the demand for premium seating. In First Class, our new premium seating will provide a calf rest, new seatback device holder, 6-way headrest with neck support and USB-C charging capabilities. In our 737-800 Main Cabin and Premium Class, guests will continue to experience comfort and convenience at every seat with improved features, including new device holders with built in cup holders, USB-C charging and a 6-way headrest with dedicated neck support. About Alaska Air Group Alaska Air Group, Inc. is based in Seattle and comprised of subsidiaries Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Holdings, Inc., Horizon Air and McGee Air Services. With our recent acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines, we now serve more than 140 destinations throughout North America , Central America, Asia and across the Pacific. We are committed to safety, remarkable customer care, operational excellence, financial performance and sustainability. Alaska Airlines is a member of the one world Alliance. With one world and our additional global partners, our guests have more choices than ever to purchase, earn or redeem on alaskaair.com across 30 airlines and more than 1,000 worldwide destinations. Book travel throughout the Pacific on Hawaiian Airlines at hawaiianairlines.com . Learn more about Alaska Airlines at news.alaskaair.com and Hawaiian Airlines at newsroom.hawaiianairlines.com/blog . Alaska Air Group is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as "ALK." View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alaska-airlines-selected-to-connect-san-diego-and-ronald-reagan-washington-national-airport-with-nonstop-service-302334277.html SOURCE ALASKA AIRLINES

WASHINGTON — Drivers and airline passengers without reindeer and sleighs better make a dash for it: it's beginning to look like another record for holiday travel in the U.S. The auto club AAA predicts that more than 119 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home between Saturday and New Year’s Day, which would top the previous holiday-season high set in 2019. The two weekends on either side of Christmas look to be some of the most crowded times on the road and at airports. Trade group Airlines for America also foresees record travel , saying it expected U.S. airlines to carry 54 million passengers during a 19-day period that started Thursday and ends Monday, Jan. 6. The number would represent a 6% increase over last year. A government shutdown that could start as soon as Saturday would likely be too close to the holidays to immediately affect flights and airport operations, but that might change if a shutdown dragged on. Airlines expect to have their busiest days on Friday and Sunday, and on Dec. 26, Dec. 27 and Dec. 29. Flight traffic is expected to be light on both Christmas Day and New Year's Day. The slowest U.S. air-travel day this year — by a wide margin — was Thanksgiving Day. The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen 40 million passengers over the holidays and through January 2. About 90% of Americans traveling far from home over the holidays will be in cars, according to AAA. “Airline travel is just really high right now, but most people do drive to their destinations, and that is true for every holiday,” AAA spokesperson Aixa Diaz said. Gasoline prices are similar to last year. The nationwide average Thursday was $3.05 a gallon, down from $3.08 a year ago, according to AAA. Charging an electric vehicle averages just under 35 cents per per kilowatt hour, but varies by state. Transportation-data firm INRIX says travel times on the nation’s highways could be up to 30% longer than normal over the holidays, with Sunday expected to see the heaviest traffic. Boston, New York City, Seattle and Washington, D.C., are the metropolitan areas primed for the greatest delays, according to the company. Because the holiday travel period lasts weeks, airports and airlines typically have smaller peak days than they do during the rush around Thanksgiving, but the grind of one hectic day followed by another takes a toll on flight crews. And any hiccups — a winter storm or a computer outage — can snowball into massive disruptions. That is how Southwest Airlines stranded 2 million travelers in December 2022, and Delta Air Lines suffered a smaller but significant meltdown after a worldwide technology outage in July caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. Many flights during the holidays are sold out, which makes cancellations even more disruptive than during slower periods. That is especially true for smaller budget airlines that have fewer flights and fewer options for rebooking passengers. Only the largest airlines, including American, Delta and United, have “interline agreements” that let them put stranded customers on another carrier's flights. This will be the first holiday season since a Transportation Department rule took effect that requires airlines to give customers an automatic cash refund for a canceled or significantly delayed flight. Most air travelers were already eligible for refunds, but they often had to request them. Passengers still can ask to get rebooked, which is often a better option than a refund during peak travel periods. That's because finding a last-minute flight on another airline yourself tends to be very expensive. “When they rebook you, they will pay for the fare difference. If my flight to visit grandma that I booked six months ago for $200 gets canceled, and I turn around and book a flight four hours from now for $400, I have to pay that difference,” said Sally French, a travel expert at consumer-affairs company Nerdwallet. People traveling on budget airlines with fewer flights and no partnerships with other carriers may face a difficult choice in the event of a canceled flight . “They will put you on the next outgoing Spirit or Frontier flight, but that could be a while from now. Sometimes waiting three days for that next flight is not going to work for you," and paying more to rebook on a big airline might be worthwhile, French said. Some airlines are taking advantage of a provision in the new Transportation Department rule that defined a significant delay as three hours for a domestic flight and six hours for an international flight. According to Brett Snyder, who runs the Cranky Flyer website, airlines that previously issued refunds for shorter delays — Delta, United and JetBlue, for example — are now using the government standard. Delayed flights increase the risk that bags will get lost. Passengers who get separated from their bags should report it to the airline and ask what the airline will cover. Links to the customer-service plans of major U.S. airlines are at the bottom of this page . A government shutdown could occur if Congress doesn’t pass a funding bill with a midnight Friday deadline . Most TSA workers at airports, air traffic controllers and customs agents are considered essential and would be required to work without pay in the event of a shutdown. More uncompensated workers might call out sick the longer a shutdown lasts, which could lead to longer security lines and other delays. That appeared to be the case several weeks into a government shutdown that started in December 2019. "While our personnel have prepared to handle high volumes of travelers and ensure safe travel, an extended shutdown could mean longer wait times at airports,” TSA spokesman Carter Langston said in a statement. AAA advises travelers to “continue with their holiday plans, even if the shutdown materializes,” spokesperson Diaz said. “Airport operations will continue as normal, but perhaps run a bit slower than usual, so travelers should be aware of that.” Airline fares were up 4.7% in November, compared with a year earlier, according to U.S. government figures. But early 2025 is a good time to start planning next year's trips, including for spring breaks and summer vacations. “Because travel is so popular, you're not going to find anything that feels very rock-bottom, but January and February are great times to plan for March, April and May,” Laura Motta, an editor at travel-guide publisher Lonely Planet, said. “If you want to go to Paris in the spring, you need to be thinking about that in January." ___ AP Reporters Mae Anderson in Nashville, Tennessee, and Mike Pesoli in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

Europe's native oyster ecosystems have 'collapsed,' scientists sayThe wine , finally, was on the move. For two weeks, a team of 14 professionals had been in the mountains, methodically transferring thousands of rare bottles from a cavernous cellar into a nondescript box truck that shuttled the cargo to a pair of tractor trailers several miles away, tucked in a private way station overseen by an armed protection detail. Even the security team didn’t know what they were guarding. All they saw were scores of black-wrapped pallets slowly filling the giant holds. When the last of the wine was finally secured and the drivers strapped in, the semis, each escorted by an armored truck, rumbled past the steel gates and then diverged, assigned to separate routes down the mountain, across more than a thousand miles and three state lines, headed for California. In Boston, Brahm Callahan received a GPS ping every 30 minutes with the trucks’ locations and the temperatures inside the cargo bays; they were holding steady at 55 degrees. The deal had been nearly two years in the making and killed and resurrected over half a dozen times during that span. Callahan, master sommelier, 35 years old, had seen some of the most incredible wine collections in the world, but never anything like the cellar he had just bought. He knew from the moment he stepped inside it that he would never encounter another collection so miraculous, so meticulously curated, so impeccably cataloged and stored, and so impossibly stocked with unheard-of rarities. Now he and his partners were about to take possession of the entire haul. The first step of the plan was nearly complete. The trucks would converge again at a bonded warehouse in Sonoma County, where Dan O’Brien, 40, was waiting to take possession of eight figures’ worth of wine while trying not to think about all the money they owed, or everything that needed to happen before they could pay it back. First, the wine had to show up as planned—the convoys were taking separate routes at the insistence of the insurance companies, to mitigate risks such as avalanches and hijackers—and then the designated portion, several thousand bottles of valuable rare wines, had to make its way by boat to Hong Kong in time to be received and cataloged for a Sotheby’s auction in February. The various lots needed to sell for enough to cover the money they owed to the hard-money lender who had financed the deal at terms that would make a loan shark shudder. From his condo in Boston, Scott Leverenz ran the numbers again, out of habit. He took into account the projected auction figures, that Mafia rate of monthly interest, the roughly $700,000 they had already accrued in legal fees, the potential appreciation of the remaining portfolio, and every other variable he could think of. As usual, Leverenz, 34, was gaming out the worst-case scenario, but the numbers looked good: Even if the total from the auction came in at the low end, and even assuming it took the full 90 days to collect all the money, the three of them would hit their target: They could use the sale of the bottom two-thirds of the cellar to clear the debt and keep the most valuable top third—millions of dollars of wine—for free. The wine arrived in Sonoma as scheduled, where it was stored for 72 hours before being taken to Oakland and put on a container ship headed to Hong Kong, due to dock just before Christmas. It was late November 2019 and the juice was running. The loan would reset every 30 days, the principal growing each month alongside the compounding interest in a convoluted death trap of penalties, fees, and clawbacks. Time was not on their side. Shortly after the wine arrived, the news began reporting an unknown respiratory illness killing people in China. The country would lock down a few weeks later. Callahan, Leverenz, and O’Brien had just borrowed $12.5 million to buy a store of wine that now might as well be on the moon. The Crew Callahan first outlined his plan to Leverenz one morning in 2016 in the Amtrak bar car heading back to Boston from Philadelphia. They were fending off hangovers after a Guns N’ Roses concert; neither had slept. But kicking ideas back and forth across a bartop was how they had always done their best thinking, going back to when they first met as Boston sommeliers in 2009. Callahan had made master sommelier by 30, pin number 222 of 228 in the world at the time. There is nothing achievable in the wine world above it. The final examination, administered by the Court of Master Sommeliers, is like trying to prove a physics thesis by doing backflips, meant to plumb the depth of one’s theoretical understanding, sensory abilities, and practical skills simultaneously. Callahan had lived like a monk while studying for it, forgoing shaving and taping laminated study guides throughout his apartment—on tables and mirrors, lining the cupboards, inside the shower—so there wasn’t a minute he couldn’t be learning. In the blind-tasting portion alone, candidates must correctly identify six different wines by grape variety, country of origin, district, appellation, and, finally, vintage. Not only had Callahan passed the test, he had eventually become a member of the Court. Leverenz had a head for numbers. He and Callahan had both passed through Grill 23 & Bar , a revered Boston steak house that operated as a sort of elite boot camp for those forging a career in wine. Unlike most restaurants with encyclopedic wine lists, Grill 23 actually moved the juice, and opportunities to taste rare and notable vintages were frequent. Leverenz went on to become a somm and wine director for some of Boston’s top restaurants before managing national sales for major importers; he also traded in rare and fine wines. Having experience in both buying and selling had stripped away the varnish of romance that dazzled so many people into ostensibly bad business decisions: Leverenz liked to say that the best way to end up with a million-dollar winery was to start with a $2 million winery. He loved the industry and wasn’t immune to the glamour, of course—he just preferred to understand it for what it was, and to make a profit off of it when he could. Like Callahan and Leverenz, O’Brien had cut his teeth at Grill 23 and had a natural allergy to all of the stupid money sloshing around the wine industry, though unlike the other two, he wasn’t much for sitting on appreciating assets for the sake of a tidy profit down the line—he’d rather drink a Dujac Grand Cru immediately after buying it, maybe with a burger. With his beard and glasses and easygoing grin, the onetime Boston somm now looked the part of an affable San Francisco garage winemaker, but there were few areas of the industry he hadn’t touched, from developing wine programs for luxury hotel groups to producing blends for private-label clients to revamping a historic Calistoga vineyard as COO. He had extensive experience buying, storing, and transporting wine—easier said than done given that alcohol is a highly regulated substance, which makes moving it across state lines a costly, time-consuming, and tediously complicated bureaucratic process. He had the bonded storage, insurance premiums, and drawers full of licenses and permits to attest to that. Callahan had worked with both separately, but despite all being Grill 23 alums, the trio had never worked together until now. They sealed their partnership over omelets and coffee at a grungy diner down the street from an impound lot. The Plan What Callahan pitched was this: Raise enough money to buy a white whale of a cellar, a highly secretive monster collection somewhere in the Rocky Mountains—one of those murmured opportunities that surface from time to time in the tight, clubby world of master somms and elite collectors. It supposedly contained vast quantities of vanishingly rare wine, the kinds of bottles that simply didn’t come to market anymore or were never supposed to have existed in the first place: unheard-of large-format Burgundies; decades of Hermitage; massive stores of cult Champagne. The collector had started acquiring in the ’80s, back when you could just show up in Vosne-Romanée, knock on the door of some family producer that had been making Burgundy in the region for hundreds of years, and walk off with however many cases you felt like shipping home. Provenance and documentation were said to be perfect. And yet the cellar had been quietly on the market for some time, with no takers. Why? First, the asking price, a vast sum even in the voracious world of high-stakes wine collecting, kept rising—first $8 million, then $10 million, now likely more—the longer the collection sat and the more the wines inside kept appreciating. More challengingly, it had to be all in one go, to one buyer: no cherry-picking, no allocation, a single check for the entire lot, non-negotiable. The seller didn’t need the money and seemed in no rush to part with the wine. Normally, anyone walking into a cellar with an eight-figure check is going to expect to set some of the terms of the deal, so the sheer ego slap delivered by the take-it-or-leave-it nature of the offer cleared a host of private buyers from the table. Resellers are more pragmatic, but it was still a huge amount of cash, and a significant chunk of the inventory wouldn’t reach peak profitability for years; gray-market prospectors rarely buy and hold, preferring to flip bottles for quick profit rather than leave capital tied up in a basement. Callahan figured he had a way to leverage the volume of the cellar. A collection of that size and caliber would otherwise take decades to procure, and this one was said to be composed of some of the best-performing wines on the market, heavily over-indexing for Burgundy, Northern Rhônes, and Champagne. If you could price the inventory correctly, acquire it at reasonable value, then engage an auction house to move the most immediately profitable tranches of wine in one push, you could repay the loan plus interest while holding on to the best long-term investments. Essentially, between loan, acquisition, and auction, you could triangulate an extremely small aperture through which it would be possible to come into a few million bucks’ worth of unbelievable rare wine, for free—but if you miss the window, don’t bother preparing for impact. Taking on the whole thing at once meant they could play the long game. The cellar had such vast stores of specific vintages that you could effectively corner the market, taking advantage of short-term price fluctuations by strategically liquidating bottles at their most lucrative while continuing to accrue yearly appreciation on the rest. The remaining top slice of inventory, the cream of a once-in-a-lifetime crop, could be used as the basis for a wine-backed investment fund, or a high-end wine retailer. Or, put the profits into a négociant winery, buying grapes or juice and bottling under their own brand, and for private labels. Or, depending on how the auction went, all three. But first they needed to get their hands on a whole lot of cash. The Money You can’t just walk into a bank and ask for, say, $10 million to buy a bunch of fine wine—or Picassos or vintage Ferraris or ancient Sumerian manuscripts—even if everyone knows they’re going to appreciate. It’s just not what banks are set up for, which mostly is to deal in simple, stable assets like homes and cars and small businesses. So Callahan went to Dave S. instead. Callahan first met Dave S. over a magic trick of sorts at Grill 23. A bearded, broad-shouldered hedge-fund type, he had ordered a beguiling 1998 Bordeaux, a great Right Bank vintage—enough to pique Callahan’s interest. Either this guy made a lucky guess, he thought, or he knew something about wine. Dave S. knew enough to see an opportunity to stump the somm. He pulled out his phone and flashed a picture of himself from a recent shooting weekend, barely hoisting a gargantuan Nebuchadnezzar of ’67 Château d’Yquem—had Callahan ever seen a bottle like that in person? Callahan said he had, and then did Dave S. one better: He told him where the picture had been taken. The hedge funder, who was a professional magician in his youth, felt the hairs go up on the back of his neck—now that was a magic trick. Callahan explained that he knew the total number of bottles of ’67 Yquem in the 15-liter format in existence, plus who owned them around the world—including a certain prominent billionaire with three in his New Jersey cellar, which is where Dave S. was standing in the picture. He and Callahan became fast friends after that. Yet despite his decades allocating capital and executing complex financial deals, Dave S. wasn’t the one to finance this play—but he knew who was. The guy who connects the pipes that make the money flow. The man they called the Plumber. When the federal government needs to underwrite some sprawling, unprecedented, staggeringly complex program—say, a nationwide rebate for used-vehicle trade-ins, with all the labyrinthine financing that entails—the secretary of the Treasury picks up the phone and calls the Plumber. A math whiz since his teens, he was legendary in New York banking for never assuming risk and always making money, a deal-structuring genius who could put 28 hooks into you without your ever realizing, until God forbid something bad happened and suddenly your pecuniary guts were sliding all over the floor. The Plumber had a sideline in exotic investment plays—heady, esoteric, out-of-the-box stuff. Like backing the acquisition of a multimillion-dollar wine cellar for an unprecedented flip. Dave S. didn’t mince words: The numbers would have to work, down to the penny. These people didn’t care about wine except insofar as it represented collateral for the deal—and as a regulated substance it made for complicated surety. The path of custody would need to be rigorously established and precisely controlled, and execution would have to be flawless or the various frictions would eat them alive: First, the buyer needed to assess and document over 12,000 bottles of wine, checking fill rates and bottle stamps and backtracking the ownership trail, then take and retain legal control of it through several stages of storage and transport across state lines and national borders—a notorious minefield of red tape—all while insurance, taxation, fees, governmental regulation, and the rest gnawed away at the bottom line from all angles. Every shipment, every transaction, every license, every insurance policy, every fee—thousands of variables—had to be accounted for, across all conceivable scenarios, until the sale was complete, the money collected and transacted, and everyone repaid. And the three of them were going to be put through their paces. The Plumber’s people needed to understand who they were giving their millions of dollars to. Did they have a grasp of the details? Could they problem-solve under pressure? Were their industry contacts as solid as they claimed? The Plumber only dealt with people vibrating at the highest frequency, Dave S. said, and his crew would mess with them—changing deadlines at the last minute or giving them 24 hours to turn around a half dozen pages of analysis for no reason—just to see how they reacted to stress. The deal would come down to numbers, sure, but it wasn’t the only consideration. The Plumber wanted to know: How badly did they want it? Which meant, even as Callahan and Leverenz were cautiously wooing the seller with polite correspondence and the occasional highly orchestrated visit, and O’Brien was laying the groundwork for the eventual possession and transport, they were simultaneously being put through rigorous crash courses in debt financing and tax law. The seller, meanwhile, was rarely available and seemed to have a knack for going dark the moment they felt any momentum begin to build. The deal was always under threat of collapsing from one end or the other—either because the seller had walked away or because the loan-to-value ratio had tipped a cent into the red and the money did. At one point, the deal hinged on whether Callahan could procure luxury portable toilets on short notice; at another, the cost of an overlooked California permit—the difference of maybe a few thousand dollars in a deal worth millions—was enough to get the Plumber’s people to start packing up, until O’Brien realized he had the necessary paperwork via another company he owned. This dragged on for months. Then a year. Then longer. The motivation to press on, reenergized every time Callahan and Leverenz were able to inspect the wine, was that the cellar was even more impressive than advertised, unlike anything either had seen in both quality and scale, in fundamentally pristine condition. The attrition rate of unsellable bottles due to oxidation, lack of proper documentation, breakage, or improper storage was basically nil; even the small percentage of bottles they couldn’t send to auction—say, due to a detached label—they knew to be genuine. And then, just like that, a switch flipped and it was go time. The seller agreed to the terms; in response, they wired $1 million into an escrow account as a sign of good faith. A short time later, a cashier’s check in the low eight figures was delivered by hand to the seller’s lawyer; there was the flurry of planes and trucks and boats; and the plan for a massive 90-day flip was in motion at last—until Covid reared its head and the entire world came screeching to a halt. The Auction The early days of pandemic lockdown for Callahan, Leverenz, and O’Brien were pretty much the same as for everyone else—awkwardly wiping down groceries, uncertain about whether you were supposed to buy masks or not buy masks because medical personnel needed them. Without its normal daily punctuations, time became a run-on—except for that charged moment every month when they recalculated what they owed to the Plumber. That always had a way of standing out. The monthly interest alone, which had started around $110,000, had jumped to $115,000, then to over $125,000, then to $130,000. The months dragged on. February came and went. Then March, then April, then May, then June, the debt ballooning. Dave S. kept the mood up: Keep finessing the numbers, keep working the plan, these are just obstacles, you’ll find your way around. The Sotheby’s people pushed the auction, then pushed it again, then said they weren’t quite sure when it would take place despite being very upbeat that it would, in fact, happen; they were storing a gargantuan haul of wine they weren’t selling and so were as desperate as anyone to see it all across the auction block. Finally, the dates were set—a two-day affair, July 5 and 6, 2020. There was only one problem: Online auctions were still a fairly new format, and a remote wine sale of this size was unprecedented. Hong Kong is 13 hours ahead of the east coast of the U.S. and 16 hours ahead of the west, which meant that it was July 4, America’s Independence Day, when the Summit: A Complete Cellar auction kicked off in Asia. O’Brien was at a backyard cookout in California wine country; Callahan and Leverenz were at a party at Dave S.’s house in Massachusetts. Everything they had done to this point, work now measured in years, hinged on these results. Had their proprietary valuation system—based on an intricate matrix of scarcity, reputation, current and future market interest, time to peak drinkability, and profit potential—priced the wine correctly? Difficult enough to gauge under normal circumstances, but this situation was sui generis. There was literally nothing to compare it to. As it turned out, it was a perfect storm. The stir-craziness of isolation, collector appetite bottled up to bursting, and a global customer base newly comfortable with spending serious cash over the internet meant that the entire wine world was watching—and desperate to bid. It was a frenzy from the opening hammer. The guys streamed the action on laptops, O’Brien holed up in a TV room as the party carried on outside, Leverenz and Callahan roaming the halls of Dave S.’s sprawling house and dipping into his pool in between calculating conversion rates. The numbers exploded from the jump and never relented, with world records shattering one after the other. In the six-liter format alone, a 1989 Ramonet Montrachet hammered for over $61,000, a 1999 La Tâche for over $90,000, and a 1990 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Richebourg for over $154,000. The final sale clocked in over $15.6 million; they would clear $3.1 million in profit, minus some additional friction, while still holding what they considered to be the most valuable third of the original cellar, calculated to be worth between $3.5 million and $4 million. Of course, they couldn’t actually get their hands on the money yet, which would be collected in dribs and drabs by the auction house over the next 90 days and deposited into a Hong Kong bank, in Hong Kong dollars. That currency is pegged to the U.S. dollar and therefore reliably stable—unless the President of the United States starts antagonizing China by threatening to decouple the HKD, as then-President Trump did later that month. It was a new emergency: If Trump carried out his threat, the stroke of a pen would catastrophically evaporate their profits—meaning that, despite an auction bonanza far beyond their most optimistic projections, which set scores of world records, the three would still find themselves deeply in the red. The bulk of the wine was gone, they were out of money and had paid off virtually none of the debt—which was still accruing all sorts of replicating interest and spring-loaded fees. Even the inventory they had held back was out of reach: Until he got his money back, everything belonged to the Plumber. This was the point at which O’Brien tapped out. Whatever happened between now and the end, he said to Callahan and Leverenz, whether it all worked out or everything collapsed, he didn’t need to know. He would be in California. Wake him when it was all over. Coda On a warm Boston night this past May at Grill 23 & Bar, I sat with the three cofounders of Faucet Wine —CEO Brahm Callahan, CFO Scott Leverenz, and COO Dan O’Brien—as they recalled the party they threw when the dust finally settled. Callahan and Leverenz had gone back to the Plumber asking for a $1 million hedge against the currency decoupling, and he was only too happy to oblige: The move further protected his investment, and the interest charged on the extra million would net him even more profit. In the end, Trump moved on from poking China, all of the auction money was collected, a check was issued from the Hong Kong bank and converted to U.S. dollars. All outstanding bills were paid. The Plumber was made whole. For the first time, some four years after Callahan had initially launched his scheme on the train, they were money good. They even wound up making a tidy six-figure profit from the hedge thanks to all the volatility. The victory party took place in November 2020, still at the height of Covid, when congregating in person required nasal swabs and temperature checks and weeks of negotiation. A small group gathered at O’Brien’s house. The celebration was wine-country casual—tiki torches, a sprawling deck overlooking a creek, dogs clambering up and down stairs, a rap-heavy playlist bumping in the background—though few if any Sonoma Valley cookouts before or since have poured a magnum of 1990 Bâtard-Montrachet alongside a 1949 Musigny from Camille Giroud. Or a dream-haunting 1974 Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet “Les Ruchottes.” And these were just some of many astonishing and wondrous vintages. They were the best of the authentic but unsellable stock, plus a small number of bottles they had held back for themselves, even if it sliced into the profit margin. The three had survived a long swim with some of the biggest sharks in the financial world, but they were ultimately all wine geeks at heart: If now wasn’t the time to finally taste your greatest-hits list of once-in-a-lifetime vintages, when would be? O’Brien in particular relished the chance to share these treasures with his friends and neighbors—farmers and blenders and small winemakers who otherwise might never get the chance to experience a 1971 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Romanée-St.-Vivant or a 1991 Chave “Cuvée Cathelin.” As he watched the fall sun inch below the horizon, sitting with friends and contemplating some of the greatest wines ever made, all seemed right with the world. They were in the black. He could exhale at last. And now, finally, they could get to work. Securing the auction money wasn’t the end of things, after all, but the beginning. They still had a company to build. The profit from the sale eventually produced Faucet, a wine-focused venture-capital fund with a portfolio of proprietary businesses, from négociant winery Where With All to investments in rare bottles to the Sonoma Valley producer Gail Wines . There’s even a fine-wine purveyor, Berkeley and Stuart , named after the intersection where Grill 23 sits, and where each of the partners got his start in the industry. Where, in some sense, it all began. Callahan is now an investor in that restaurant and stores some of the group’s wine there. After dinner, he walked me through the cellar, showing off various bottles. One label stood out, faded yellow and black, with an image like an Art Deco clamshell opening over a twinkling cosmos. It read: “25th Anniversary, Windows on the World, 1976–2001,” part of a store Faucet had acquired of custom Veuve Clicquot produced for the famous restaurant that once straddled the 106th and 107th floors atop the North Tower of the World Trade Center, which collapsed into rubble along with everything else on September 11, 2001. Another marvel in a seemingly never-ending saga of them. As I walked down the steak-house steps into a humid late-spring evening, passing under the lamplit street signs, a snippet from the auction catalog popped into my head: “Put simply,” wrote Serena Sutcliffe, honorary chairman of Sotheby’s Wine, “it would be beyond comprehension if it did not exist in reality.” Exactly so.The Scottsbluff School Board approved the next steps in its elementary modernization process on Monday evening. The district has worked to modernize its neighborhood elementary schools over the last few years, with its current focus placed on Westmoor Elementary School. Westmoor renovations began over the summer , mostly in the form of technology and quality of life upgrades that would have an immediate impact on the student experience. Finance director Marianne Carlson explained on Monday that the upcoming work at Westmoor will include adding a secure vestibule to the building’s front office, installation of a fire suppression system, flooring replacement, paint, new LED lighting, relocation of the kitchen and various other improvements. Four bids were presented to the board for that work, with the lowest bid from Anderson-Shaw Construction approved at a total of around $3.89 million. The project will be paid for out of several funds, including the Building, Depreciation and Qualified Capital Purpose Undertaking funds. Funds obtained from the School Safety and Infrastructure Grant will also be utilized for the secure vestibule. The board approved another bid for sitework on the preschool playgrounds that will be installed at the district’s new Education Center — formerly the SWBC building. Anderson-Shaw Construction was the low bidder on that project as well, coming in at just under $294,000. Bids are currently out for one set of playground equipment to be installed at that location. A second set of equipment will be transported from the preschool site at Bearcat Stadium. Scottsbluff schools will soon become participants in Jobs for America’s Graduates, a professional and technical education program that is expanding to schools all over the state, including Gering High School . Other Panhandle schools utilizing the JAG program include Banner County, Kimball, Alliance and Hemingford, according to information presented Monday. District curriculum and instruction director Mike Mason emphasized the benefits of the JAG Nebraska program, which include students having a higher likelihood of employment after graduation, lowered risk of poverty and more annual earnings brought into the community. “There are many benefits, not only for the students, but also for the school and community,” he said. The board authorized participation in the JAG program, which will include hiring two full time positions — one at Bluffs Middle School and one at Scottsbluff High School. Those positions will be fully paid for by JAG Nebraska for the first two years, resulting in no employment cost for the district. If the program is continued, the district will contribute $10,000 each for the educators’ compensation in years to come. At the conclusion of Monday’s meeting, superintendent Andrew Dick offered thanks to local law enforcement agencies for their response and cooperation during the Friday, Dec. 6 hoax emergency call at SHS. “If you drove by SHS or BMS, you would have seen law enforcement from the Scottsbluff Police Department, Nebraska State Patrol and Scotts Bluff County Sheriff's Office,” Dick said. “They were here in a short amount of time, they were able to canvass the neighborhood between SHS and Longfellow, knock on doors and look at vehicles to ensure that we could lift the secure (status). So a very heartfelt thank you to the partnership we have with those entities.” The next meeting of the Scottsbluff school board will take place on Jan. 13, 2025, at 6 p.m. in the board room at Scottsbluff High School. Contact Fletcher Halfaker: fletcher.halfaker@starherald.com , 308-632-9048. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! 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By Francesco Fontemaggi, Stuart Williams and Alice Hackman for AFP President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday vowed to name a new prime minister in the coming days to prevent France from sliding deeper into political turmoil, rejecting growing pressure from the opposition to resign . Macron adopted a defiant tone in an address to the nation, seeking to limit an escalating political crisis after Prime Minister Michel Barnier's government was ousted in a historic no-confidence vote. Contemporary France's shortest-serving premier, Barnier resigned after Wednesday's parliamentary defeat in a standoff over the budget forced his government to step down, the first such toppling of a French administration in over 60 years. Macron now faces the task for the third time this year of selecting a new prime minister and did not come up with a name in his address. "I will appoint a prime minister in the coming days," he said, adding this person would be charged with forming a "government of general interest" with a priority of passing a budget. He also lashed out at the French far right and hard left for uniting in an "anti-republican front" to bring down the government. He said lawmakers had "knowingly" chosen "to topple the budget and the government just days before the Christmas holidays". The French presidency said earlier that Barnier and his ministers would remain "in charge of daily business until the appointment of a new government". 'Do the impossible' Limiting any impression of political chaos is all the more important for Macron given that on Saturday he will host world leaders - including US President-elect Donald Trump - for the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris after a devastating 2019 fire. Pointing to how the edifice was rebuilt within the five-year timeline he had set, Macron said: "It's the proof we're able to do great things, that we can do the impossible." In an unusual move, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, France's top diplomat for just two-and-a-half months, urged unity in a message on social media, saying "instability is vulnerability" at a time of international uncertainty. A majority of lawmakers on Wednesday supported the no-confidence vote proposed by the hard left and backed by the far right headed by Marine Le Pen. Barnier's ejection in record time came after snap parliamentary elections in June resulted in a hung parliament. No political force was able to form an overall majority and the far right held the key to the government's survival. The trigger for Barnier's ouster was his 2025 budget plan, including austerity measures unacceptable to a majority in parliament, but which he argued were necessary to stabilise France's finances. On Monday he forced through a social security financing bill without a vote, but the ousting of the government means France is still without a budget. 'To the end' New legislative elections cannot be called until a year after the previous ones in summer 2024. But while Macron has more than two years of his presidential term left, some opponents are calling on him to resign to break the deadlock. According to a poll by Odoxa-Backbone Consulting for Le Figaro daily, 59 percent of French people want the president to step down, while a survey by Harris for RTL put the figure even higher, at 64 percent. Bur Macron said: "The mandate that you gave to me democratically (in 2022 elections) is a five-year mandate and I will exercise it fully, right up to the end. "The 30 months we have ahead of us must be 30 months of useful action for the country." But he admitted his decision to call snap parliamentary elections this summer that resulted in a hung parliament "was not understood". "Many have blamed me for it and I know, many continue to blame me. It's a fact and it's my responsibility," he said. Hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon said that Macron was the "cause of the problem" in France "and would go due to the force of events" before his term ends. Barnier is Macron's fifth prime minister since coming to power in 2017. Each successive premier has served for a shorter period and, given the composition of the National Assembly, there is no guarantee that Barnier's successor would last any longer. Loyalist Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu and Macron's centrist ally Francois Bayrou have been touted as possible contenders, as has former Socialist premier and interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve. Bayrou, who leads the MoDem party, had lunch with the president at the Elysee, a source close to him told AFP. -AFP

Nominees for Trump's administration continue to make their rounds on Capitol Hill, where they've been holding meetings and courting favor for days. Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to direct the FBI, was in meetings with lawmakers the same day that current Director Chris Wray announced he would resign at the end of President Biden's term. Patel met with Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, on Wednesday. Before the meeting, he told reporters he was ready to begin work immediately if he's confirmed. Wray's departure may make Patel's path to confirmation easier. And some Republican Senators have told Scripps News they see no reason their colleagues would object to Patel's nomination during confirmation hearings. "I think this is a great development," Sen. Josh Hawley, R-MO, told reporters. "I think this is long overdue and much needed. I look forward to confirming his successor." "I don't know what the opposition to Kash Patel really is," Hawley said. "I understand he is a conservative, and I understand my liberal colleagues don't like that. But a conservative just won the election." RELATED STORY | FBI Director Christopher Wray says he will resign at the end of Biden's term Meanwhile, Pete Hegseth, Trump's nominee for secretary of defense, continues to meet with lawmakers. There is not as much discussion of potentially replacing Hegseth as the nominee as there was last week. Sen. Susan Collins told reporters on Wednesday that she had asked Hegseth numerous questions about allegations of sexual assault. His comments on Wednesday also suggested his stance on women serving in the military has shifted. Before he was nominated to be secretary of defense, Hegseth made comments on the Shawn Ryan Show Podcast that women do not belong in combat roles. “I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn’t made us more effective. Hasn’t made us more lethal. Has made fighting more complicated,” he said at the time. On Wednesday, Hegseth told reporters "I look forward to being a leader for every single member of this Pentagon, men and women."Justus McNair's midcourt 3-pointer at the buzzer gives Valparaiso a 76-73 win over Western Michigan

Lower Similkameen Indian Band hosted a successful Community Christmas Dinner"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum." Section 1.10.32 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum", written by Cicero in 45 BC "Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?" 1914 translation by H. Rackham "But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?" 1914 translation by H. Rackham "But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?" To keep reading, please log in to your account, create a free account, or simply fill out the form below.

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that the U.S. military should stay out of the fast-escalating conflict in Syria, where a dramatic rebel offensive reached the capital and threatened the rule of Syria’s Russian- and Iranian-allied president. “THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT,” Trump declared on social media. As world leaders watched the stunning rebel advance, with its potential to alter the balance of power in the Middle East, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser separately stressed that the Biden administration had no intention of intervening. “The United States is not going to ... militarily dive into the middle of a Syrian civil war,” Jake Sullivan told an audience in California. Sullivan said the U.S. would keep acting as necessary to keep the Islamic State — a violently anti-Western extremist group not known to be involved in the offensive but with sleeper cells in Syria’s deserts — from exploiting openings presented by the fighting. Insurgents’ stunning march across Syria appeared to reach its goal hours after both men spoke, with rebels entering Damascus after claiming many of the country’s other major cities within roughly 10 days. The head of a Syrian opposition war monitor said early Sunday that Assad left the country for an undisclosed location. Trump’s comments on the dramatic rebel push were his first since Syrian rebels launched their advance late last month. They came while he was in Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral. In his post, Trump said Assad did not deserve U.S. support to stay in power. Assad’s government has been propped up by the Russian and Iranian military, along with Hezbollah and other Iranian-allied militias, in a now 13-year-old war against opposition groups seeking his overthrow. The war, which began as a mostly peaceful uprising in 2011 against the Assad family’s rule, has killed a half-million people, fractured Syria and drawn in a more than a half-dozen foreign militaries and militias. The U.S. early on closed its embassy in Syria and imposed sanctions over the brutality of Assad’s conduct of the war. The insurgents are led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which the U.S. has designated as a terrorist group and says has links to al-Qaida, although the group has since broken ties with al-Qaida. The insurgents met little resistance so far from the Syrian army, the Russian and Iranian militaries or allied militias in the country. The Biden administration said the ease of Syrian opposition forces’ capture of government-held cities demonstrates how Russia’s war in Ukraine and Iran’s and Iranian militias’ fight against Israel in Gaza and Lebanon have diminished them. “Assad’s backers — Iran, Russia and Hezbollah — have all been weakened and distracted,” Sullivan said Saturday at an annual gathering of national security officials, defense companies and lawmakers at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. “None of them are prepared to provide the kind of support to Assad that they provided in the past,” he later added. The U.S. has about 900 troops in Syria, including U.S. forces working with Kurdish allies in the opposition-held northeast to prevent any resurgence of the Islamic State group. Gen. Bryan Fenton, head of U.S. Special Operations Command, said he would not want to speculate on how the upheaval in Syria would affect the U.S. military’s footprint in the country. “It’s still too early to tell,” he said. What would not change is the focus on disrupting IS operations in Syria and protecting U.S. troops, Fenton said during a panel at the Reagan event. Syrian opposition activists and regional officials have been watching closely for any indication from the incoming Trump administration on how the U.S. would respond to the rebel advances against Assad. Robert Wilkie, Trump’s defense transition chief and a former secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, said during the same California event that the collapse of the “murderous Assad regime” would be a major blow to Iran’s power. In his post, Trump said Russia “is so tied up in Ukraine” that it “seems incapable of stopping this literal march through Syria, a country they have protected for years.” He said rebels could possibly force Assad from power. The president-elect condemned the overall U.S. handling of the war but said the routing of Assad and Russian forces might be for the best. “Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!” he wrote in Saturday’s post. An influential Syrian opposition activist in Washington, Mouaz Moustafa, interrupted a briefing to reporters to read Trump’s post and appeared to choke up. He said Trump’s declaration that the U.S. should stay out of the fight was the best outcome that the the Syrians aligned against Assad could hope for. Rebels have been freeing political detainees of the Assad government from government prisons as they advance across Syria. Moustafa pledged to reporters Saturday that opposition forces would be alert for any U.S. detainees among them and do their best to protect them. Moustafa said that includes Austin Tice, an American journalist missing for more than a decade and suspected to be held by Assad. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham renounced al-Qaida in 2016 and has worked to rebrand itself, including cracking down on some Islamic extremist groups and fighters in its territory and portraying itself as a protector of Christians and other religious minorities. While the U.S. and United Nations still designate it as a terrorist organization, Trump’s first administration told lawmakers that the U.S. was no longer targeting the group’s leader, Abu Mohammed al-Golani.

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Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt warned that artificial intelligence (AI) could eventually reach a “dangerous” stage, urging humanity to be prepared to step away if needed. “When the system can self-improve, we need to seriously think about unplugging it,” Schmidt said Sunday in an interview with American television network ABC News . Schmidt, looking ahead to AI’s potential, predicted that computers may one day define their own objectives. “It’s going to be hugely hard. It’s going to be very difficult to maintain that balance,” Schmidt said, acknowledging how rapidly AI systems are advancing. The American channel also highlighted China’s progress in AI development, to which Eric Schmidt noted that while the US previously held the lead, China has caught up in the past year and is now poised to surpass American technological programs. Schmidt emphasised the importance of the US reaching critical AI milestones first, as AI “scientists” begin to conduct their own research independently of humans. “The Chinese are clever, and they understand the power of a new kind of intelligence for their industrial might, their military might, and their surveillance system,” Schmidt said. He stressed the need for greater intervention to establish guardrails for AI rather than leaving its oversight solely to tech leaders like himself. “Humans will not be able to police AI, but AI systems should be able to police AI,” he said. Regarding the competition with China, Schmidt suggested that President-elect Trump’s administration could benefit US AI policy. Last month, as artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance rapidly, its benefits and risks are becoming increasingly evident, said Arvind Narayanan, Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University. Speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit , Professor Narayanan addressed AI’s rising influence, its potential dangers, and the need for responsible regulation and usage. In June last year, a survey highlighted a divide among top business leaders regarding the risks AI poses to humanity. Conducted during Yale University’s CEO Summit and reported by CNN, the survey revealed that 42 per cent of CEOs believed AI could lead to humanity’s extinction within 5-10 years. Yale professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld described the survey results as “dark” and “alarming,” CNN reported. Out of the 119 CEOs surveyed, 34 per cent believed AI could destroy humanity within ten years, while 8% felt this could happen in just five years. However, some CEOs expressed no concerns about such outcomes.DocuSign shares surge 18% on earnings beat and strong guidanceOur in Depth Review of the Canon EOS R1 Flagship Camera

Sri Lanka to soon formulate national policy on visits by foreign research vessels: Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister

Chargers QB Justin Herbert does not practice because of left ankle injury

The new president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, has appointed Kimberly Ann Guilfoyle, the ex-girlfriend of his eldest son Donald Trump Jr., as ambassador to Greece. PUBLICIDAD “I am pleased to announce the appointment of Kimberly Guilfoyle as the United States Ambassador to Greece. For many years, Kimberly has been a close friend and ally. Her extensive experience and leadership in the fields of law, media, and politics, along with her sharp intellect, make her highly qualified to represent the United States and safeguard its interests abroad,” Trump announced on Tuesday through his social network Truth Social. PUBLICIDAD Kimberly Ann Guilfoyle is a lawyer and prosecutor, and she is also known for being a television personality in the United States. She got engaged to Trump's eldest son in 2020. Three months ago, Daily Mail published photos of Donald Jr. holding hands with socialite Bettina Anderson in Palm Beach, Florida. When journalists asked Guilfoyle about this, she appeared surprised and said she didn't know. However, the alleged rift between the lawyer and her eldest son has not been an obstacle for Donald Trump to appoint her to his cabinet. It is evident that she has always gotten along well with her former daughter-in-law. "The new elected president said, 'Kimberly is perfectly qualified to foster strong bilateral relationships with Greece, promoting our interests in matters ranging from defense cooperation to trade and economic innovation.'" New Ambassador to Greece, appointed by Donald Trump Before her appointment as the new United States Ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Ann Guilfoyle spoke out on her X account, stating that " it is an honor for me to accept President Trump's nomination to serve as the next Ambassador to Greece and I look forward to obtaining the support of the United States Senate. President Trump's historic victory brings hope and optimism to the American people and freedom-loving allies around the world ". He added that "it was the democratic values born in Greece that helped shape the foundation of the United States, and now we have the opportunity to honor that history by bringing better days here at home and abroad. As ambassador, I hope to fulfill Trump's agenda, support our Greek allies, and usher in a new era of peace and prosperity." Kimberly Ann Guilfoyle and her relationship with Donald Trump's eldest son Kimberly Ann Guilfoyle and Donald Trump Jr. got engaged in December 2020. Media reports suggest that four months later, they bought a $15.5 million mansion located by the sea in Jupiter, Florida. Although after Donald Jr. was photographed with Bettina Anderson, he continued to appear in public with Guilfoyle, the Daily Mail pointed out that they have not been seen together since November 12 and are no longer living together.EDMONTON - Alberta’s Opposition NDP says the province would become the most corrupt and secretive government in Canada if potential ethics rule changes become law. United Conservative Party legislature committee members are urging the government to exempt most political staffers from being bound by conflict of interest rules. Those rules currently limit how much staffers can accept in the form of gifts and spell out if they need to be reported. NDP justice critic Irfan Sabir says if adopted, the proposals would mean no one would know who might be buying the government. He says loosened restrictions made last year already shield the government from being transparent and it would be worse if the new rules went ahead. The push comes after multiple ministers said they accepted hockey playoff tickets from a medical supplier involved in a $70-million deal to purchase medication from Turkey that has yet to be delivered. UCP backbencher Grant Hunter says Alberta is an outlier among the provinces in including senior public servants under ethics rules.

Patriots to wear navy-silver combo again in Week 12 vs. DolphinsUS President Joe Biden on Sunday said deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad should be "held accountable" but called the nation's political upheaval a "historic opportunity" for Syrians to rebuild their country. In the first full US reaction to Assad's overthrow by an Islamist-led coalition of rebel factions, Biden also warned that Washington will "remain vigilant" against the emergence of terrorist groups, announcing that US forces had just conducted fresh strikes against militants from the Islamic State organization. "The fall of the regime is a fundamental act of justice," Biden said, speaking from the White House. "It's a moment of historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria." Asked by reporters what should happen to the deposed president, who reportedly has fled to Moscow, Biden said that "Assad should be held accountable." Biden -- set to step down in January and make way for Republican Donald Trump's return to power -- said Washington will assist Syrians in rebuilding. "We will engage with all Syrian groups, including within the process led by the United Nations, to establish a transition away from the Assad regime toward independent, sovereign" Syria "with a new constitution," he said. However, Biden cautioned that hardline Islamist groups within the victorious rebel alliance will be under scrutiny. "Some of the rebel groups that took down Assad have their own grim record of terrorism and human right abuses," Biden said. The United States had "taken note" of recent statements by rebels suggesting they had since moderated, he said, but cautioned: "We will assess not just their words, but their actions." Biden said Washington is "clear eyed" that the Islamic State extremist group, often known as ISIS, "will try to take advantage of any vacuum to reestablish" itself in Syria. "We will not let that happen," he said, adding that on Sunday alone, US forces had conducted strikes against ISIS inside Syria. The US military said the strikes were conducted by warplanes against Islamic State operatives and camps. Strikes were carried out against "over 75 targets using multiple US Air Force assets, including B-52s, F-15s, and A-10s," the US Central Command said on social media. Earlier, Biden met with his national security team at the White House to discuss the crisis. Assad's reported departure comes less than two weeks after the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group challenged more than five decades of Assad family rule with a lightning rebel offensive that broke long-frozen frontlines in Syria's civil war. They announced Sunday they had taken the capital Damascus and that Assad had fled, prompting celebrations nationwide and a ransacking of Assad's luxurious home. A Kremlin source told Russian news agencies that the deposed leader was now in Moscow, along with his family. The US military has around 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq as part of the international coalition established in 2014 to help combat the Islamic State jihadist group. It has regularly struck targets in the country including those linked to Iranian-backed militias. Tehran was a major backer of Assad's government. Biden also confirmed US authorities believe the American journalist Austin Tice, who was abducted in Syria in 2012, still lives. "We believe he's alive," Biden said, but the US has yet "to identify where he is." bur-sms/mlm