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Remembering Jimmy Carter, the only Democratic president to win Texas in nearly 50 yearsEdifier continues to establish its reputation as a premier audio brand by winning multiple awards at the esteemed Visual Grand Prix ( VGP ) 2025 in Japan , showcasing its dedication to innovation and excellence in audio technology . RICHMOND, BC , Nov. 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Japanese VGP Awards, often dubbed the "Oscar in the Audio Industry," are the largest and most credible audio-visual honors in Asia , organized annually by Ongen Publishing Co. Ltd. since 1987. These awards aggregate evaluations from numerous countries, providing consumers with trustworthy guidance for their audio and visual purchases. Edifier's accolades at the VGP Awards underscore its significant contributions and innovation in the audio sector, solidifying its reputation as a leading brand in the industry. Stanley Wen , Edifier's CTO, expressed his pleasure upon receiving awards at the VGP 2025. "These awards provide the recognition that underscores Edifier's commitment to product development and its mission to provide high-quality, exceptional audio products to consumers. Edifier is humbled to be acknowledged yet again at the prestigious VGP awards. This is a reflection of our dedication to excellence in audio innovation." The Edifier M60 was a Special Prize Winner and Gold Award Winner. The M60 is a compact 2.0 desktop speaker optimized for high-resolution audio reproduction, making it an ideal enhancement for any desktop setup. Boasting a total output power of 66W (RMS), it delivers impressive sound quality through its 1" silk dome tweeter and 3" long-throw aluminium diaphragm mid-low drivers, all wrapped in a sleek design that complements modern aesthetics. The Comfo C (EDF200161) open-ear clip-on design earbuds were a Gold Award Winner. Each earbud features a three-axis sensor, allowing flexible use in either ear for added convenience. Weighing just 5.8 grams each, the design accommodates various ear shapes and sizes, ensuring a comfortable and secure fit for all users. Additionally, the 12mm dynamic driver with a titanium-coated composite diaphragm delivers dynamic, detailed, and powerful sound, enhancing the overall listening experience. Another Gold Award Winner was the W800BT Pro . The Edifier W800BT Pro headphones offer a premium listening experience with hybrid active noise cancelling technology and Hi-Res audio support. They feature AI call noise cancellation, and with an impressive 45 hours of playtime on a single charge and fast charging capabilities, these foldable over-ear headphones provide both convenience and comfort. Also recognized was the Edifier MR3 2.0 monitor speaker system which boasts Hi-Res audio certification and a flat frequency response ranging from 52Hz to 40kHz, delivering a robust 18W x 2 (RMS) total power output. With their advanced acoustic design, precise tuning, and high-quality craftsmanship, the MR3 speakers are an ideal choice for home studios, video editing, and everyday listening. The final Award Winner was the NeoDots True Wireless earbuds. The NeoDots integrate Hybrid driver units (BA and 10mm dynamic drivers), digital signal processing, and active crossover. This combination provides superior, balanced sound with high resolution and low distortion, achieving an impressive noise cancellation depth of up to -48dB. With Bluetooth V5.4 for enhanced connectivity, the NeoDots support multipoint connection, allowing seamless switching between music, videos, and calls across two devices simultaneously, making them a versatile choice for any user. The VGP awards celebrate outstanding products that significantly impact the industry with innovative technology and design, highlighting Edifier's ongoing development and expansion of its product offerings. With registered international trademarks in over 70 countries and a globally diverse workforce supported by distribution partners and resellers, Edifier continues to strengthen its presence in the audio market worldwide. About Edifier: Edifier specializes in premium sound systems that showcase technological innovation and design elegance, delivering outstanding audio experiences through a wide range of headphones, speakers, and music systems, for personal entertainment and professional excellence. Established in May 1996 in Beijing , Edifier is the brainchild of a small group of enterprising music lovers. Over the past 25 years, Edifier has been guided by the "passion for sound" principle, which helped the brand emerge as a world-class designer and manufacturer of award-winning sound systems. Today, Edifier serves audio lovers worldwide through its distributors in over 70 countries, with operations in North America , South America , Europe , the Middle East , and Asia Pacific . More information about Edifier is available online at www.edifier.com . View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/edifier-scoops-5-honours-at-prestigious-visual-grand-prix-2025-302317109.html SOURCE Edifier
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Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who were tapped by Republican President-elect Donald Trump to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency, have revealed plans to wipe out scores of federal regulations crafted by what they say is an anti-democratic, unaccountable bureaucracy. Getting rid of federal agency rules can be a monumental task, according to experts. Here is a look at the hurdles and legal challenges Trump could face if he follows through on the panel's recommendations. WHAT ARE DOGE'S PLANS? In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece published on November 20, Musk and Ramaswamy said they and "a lean team of small-government crusaders" embedded at federal agencies will review regulations to identify ones they deem invalid. The review will be guided by a pair of recent US Supreme Court decisions that placed significant limits on agencies' rulemaking powers, they said. DOGE will present its findings to Trump, who could issue executive orders immediately pausing enforcement of specific rules and directing agencies to repeal them, according to the op-ed. Federal regulations impact every facet of American society, from education, healthcare and immigration to environmental pollution, drug safety, tax policy and labor rights. Musk and Ramaswamy said DOGE will also recommend mass layoffs across federal agencies and identify billions of dollars in government spending that is invalid because it was not authorized by Congress. They said they are aiming to complete the panel's work by July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the country's founding. CAN THE PRESIDENT REPEAL REGULATIONS? Trump cannot rescind rules on his own and would instead have to direct agencies to do so, which in most cases would not be legally binding, according to legal experts. If an agency opted to repeal a rule, the process would be governed by a complex law, the Administrative Procedure Act, that lays out the procedures for doing so. Agencies often repeal rules adopted by previous administrations, but the process is lengthy, complicated, and legally fraught, and many agencies likely lack the resources needed to repeal a large number of rules at once. To rescind a rule, the APA requires agencies to release a detailed proposal, including legal justifications and potential costs, and accept and respond to public comments. That can take months or longer. Agency rules can also be wiped out by Congress with the president's approval, but only within a short period after they are enacted, so that process cannot be used to eliminate older rules. WHAT CAN TRUMP DO TO BLOCK RULES FROM BEING ENFORCED? There are federal laws authorizing the president to block certain agency rules, such as some immigration regulations. Otherwise, any call by Trump to stop enforcing a rule is more of a recommendation, though one that a loyal appointee may be likely to comply with. Agencies and their politically appointed heads have some latitude in setting enforcement priorities. But they are legally bound to enforce the law in many cases, and cannot stop enforcing a regulation as a way around the cumbersome process of repealing it, experts said. And, any effort by Trump and his appointees to cease enforcement of rules by agencies will not prevent individuals from filing lawsuits alleging violations of them. Many agency regulations are issued pursuant to laws that allow for private lawsuits, such as environmental and wage laws. WILL AGENCIES BE SUED FOR REPEALING RULES? Moves by Trump and his appointees to eliminate existing rules will be met with legal challenges, as many progressive groups and Democratic officials have made clear. Lawsuits seeking to block repeals or reinstate rules that have been rescinded have become common, and typically claim that agencies failed to adequately justify eliminating them or did not respond to concerns raised in public comments. The first Trump administration was rebuked on several occasions for not following those procedures in eliminating Obama-era policies. If Trump follows through on DOGE's recommendations, it would likely trigger a flood of lawsuits across the country, yielding mixed results. Trump appointed 234 judges in his first term, including dozens to appeals courts, and many have shown deep skepticism of the administrative powers long wielded by federal agencies. Opponents of Trump's policies could turn to friendlier courts with more Democratic appointees, mirroring a trend of conservative and business groups bringing challenges to the Biden administration in certain courts in Texas. HOW WILL THE SUPREME COURT DECISIONS GUIDE DOGE'S WORK? In a 2022 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that agencies cannot address "major questions" with broad economic or societal impact without explicit permission from Congress. And in a landmark June ruling, the court overturned its own precedent and said courts no longer were required to defer to an agency's interpretation of an ambiguous law. Musk and Ramaswamy said their review will focus on regulations that are invalid in light of those decisions, which were seen as major victories in a campaign by conservative groups to rein in the "administrative state." But the Supreme Court's holdings in those cases were nuanced, and it will take years for courts to sort out how they apply to individual regulations, lawyers and other experts said. Many regulations are explicitly authorized by Congress or have been upheld by courts on their merits rather than out of deference, making it more difficult to justify repealing them under the recent Supreme Court rulings. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.) Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the worldJoin this golf club and you’ll get 7 ‘home’ courses across the USBy BILL BARROW, Associated Press PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Newly married and sworn as a Naval officer, Jimmy Carter left his tiny hometown in 1946 hoping to climb the ranks and see the world. Less than a decade later, the death of his father and namesake, a merchant farmer and local politician who went by “Mr. Earl,” prompted the submariner and his wife, Rosalynn, to return to the rural life of Plains, Georgia, they thought they’d escaped. The lieutenant never would be an admiral. Instead, he became commander in chief. Years after his presidency ended in humbling defeat, he would add a Nobel Peace Prize, awarded not for his White House accomplishments but “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” The life of James Earl Carter Jr., the 39th and longest-lived U.S. president, ended Sunday at the age of 100 where it began: Plains, the town of 600 that fueled his political rise, welcomed him after his fall and sustained him during 40 years of service that redefined what it means to be a former president. With the stubborn confidence of an engineer and an optimism rooted in his Baptist faith, Carter described his motivations in politics and beyond in the same way: an almost missionary zeal to solve problems and improve lives. Carter was raised amid racism, abject poverty and hard rural living — realities that shaped both his deliberate politics and emphasis on human rights. “He always felt a responsibility to help people,” said Jill Stuckey, a longtime friend of Carter’s in Plains. “And when he couldn’t make change wherever he was, he decided he had to go higher.” Carter’s path, a mix of happenstance and calculation , pitted moral imperatives against political pragmatism; and it defied typical labels of American politics, especially caricatures of one-term presidents as failures. “We shouldn’t judge presidents by how popular they are in their day. That’s a very narrow way of assessing them,” Carter biographer Jonathan Alter told the Associated Press. “We should judge them by how they changed the country and the world for the better. On that score, Jimmy Carter is not in the first rank of American presidents, but he stands up quite well.” Later in life, Carter conceded that many Americans, even those too young to remember his tenure, judged him ineffective for failing to contain inflation or interest rates, end the energy crisis or quickly bring home American hostages in Iran. He gained admirers instead for his work at The Carter Center — advocating globally for public health, human rights and democracy since 1982 — and the decades he and Rosalynn wore hardhats and swung hammers with Habitat for Humanity. Yet the common view that he was better after the Oval Office than in it annoyed Carter, and his allies relished him living long enough to see historians reassess his presidency. “He doesn’t quite fit in today’s terms” of a left-right, red-blue scoreboard, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who visited the former president multiple times during his own White House bid. At various points in his political career, Carter labeled himself “progressive” or “conservative” — sometimes both at once. His most ambitious health care bill failed — perhaps one of his biggest legislative disappointments — because it didn’t go far enough to suit liberals. Republicans, especially after his 1980 defeat, cast him as a left-wing cartoon. It would be easiest to classify Carter as a centrist, Buttigieg said, “but there’s also something radical about the depth of his commitment to looking after those who are left out of society and out of the economy.” Indeed, Carter’s legacy is stitched with complexities, contradictions and evolutions — personal and political. The self-styled peacemaker was a war-trained Naval Academy graduate who promised Democratic challenger Ted Kennedy that he’d “kick his ass.” But he campaigned with a call to treat everyone with “respect and compassion and with love.” Carter vowed to restore America’s virtue after the shame of Vietnam and Watergate, and his technocratic, good-government approach didn’t suit Republicans who tagged government itself as the problem. It also sometimes put Carter at odds with fellow Democrats. The result still was a notable legislative record, with wins on the environment, education, and mental health care. He dramatically expanded federally protected lands, began deregulating air travel, railroads and trucking, and he put human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy. As a fiscal hawk, Carter added a relative pittance to the national debt, unlike successors from both parties. Carter nonetheless struggled to make his achievements resonate with the electorate he charmed in 1976. Quoting Bob Dylan and grinning enthusiastically, he had promised voters he would “never tell a lie.” Once in Washington, though, he led like a joyless engineer, insisting his ideas would become reality and he’d be rewarded politically if only he could convince enough people with facts and logic. This served him well at Camp David, where he brokered peace between Israel’s Menachem Begin and Epypt’s Anwar Sadat, an experience that later sparked the idea of The Carter Center in Atlanta. Carter’s tenacity helped the center grow to a global force that monitored elections across five continents, enabled his freelance diplomacy and sent public health experts across the developing world. The center’s wins were personal for Carter, who hoped to outlive the last Guinea worm parasite, and nearly did. As president, though, the approach fell short when he urged consumers beleaguered by energy costs to turn down their thermostats. Or when he tried to be the nation’s cheerleader, beseeching Americans to overcome a collective “crisis of confidence.” Republican Ronald Reagan exploited Carter’s lecturing tone with a belittling quip in their lone 1980 debate. “There you go again,” the former Hollywood actor said in response to a wonky answer from the sitting president. “The Great Communicator” outpaced Carter in all but six states. Carter later suggested he “tried to do too much, too soon” and mused that he was incompatible with Washington culture: media figures, lobbyists and Georgetown social elites who looked down on the Georgians and their inner circle as “country come to town.” Carter carefully navigated divides on race and class on his way to the Oval Office. Born Oct. 1, 1924 , Carter was raised in the mostly Black community of Archery, just outside Plains, by a progressive mother and white supremacist father. Their home had no running water or electricity but the future president still grew up with the relative advantages of a locally prominent, land-owning family in a system of Jim Crow segregation. He wrote of President Franklin Roosevelt’s towering presence and his family’s Democratic Party roots, but his father soured on FDR, and Jimmy Carter never campaigned or governed as a New Deal liberal. He offered himself as a small-town peanut farmer with an understated style, carrying his own luggage, bunking with supporters during his first presidential campaign and always using his nickname. And he began his political career in a whites-only Democratic Party. As private citizens, he and Rosalynn supported integration as early as the 1950s and believed it inevitable. Carter refused to join the White Citizens Council in Plains and spoke out in his Baptist church against denying Black people access to worship services. “This is not my house; this is not your house,” he said in a churchwide meeting, reminding fellow parishioners their sanctuary belonged to God. Yet as the appointed chairman of Sumter County schools he never pushed to desegregate, thinking it impractical after the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board decision. And while presidential candidate Carter would hail the 1965 Voting Rights Act, signed by fellow Democrat Lyndon Johnson when Carter was a state senator, there is no record of Carter publicly supporting it at the time. Carter overcame a ballot-stuffing opponent to win his legislative seat, then lost the 1966 governor’s race to an arch-segregationist. He won four years later by avoiding explicit mentions of race and campaigning to the right of his rival, who he mocked as “Cufflinks Carl” — the insult of an ascendant politician who never saw himself as part the establishment. Carter’s rural and small-town coalition in 1970 would match any victorious Republican electoral map in 2024. Once elected, though, Carter shocked his white conservative supporters — and landed on the cover of Time magazine — by declaring that “the time for racial discrimination is over.” Before making the jump to Washington, Carter befriended the family of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., whom he’d never sought out as he eyed the governor’s office. Carter lamented his foot-dragging on school integration as a “mistake.” But he also met, conspicuously, with Alabama’s segregationist Gov. George Wallace to accept his primary rival’s endorsement ahead of the 1976 Democratic convention. “He very shrewdly took advantage of his own Southerness,” said Amber Roessner, a University of Tennessee professor and expert on Carter’s campaigns. A coalition of Black voters and white moderate Democrats ultimately made Carter the last Democratic presidential nominee to sweep the Deep South. Then, just as he did in Georgia, he used his power in office to appoint more non-whites than all his predecessors had, combined. He once acknowledged “the secret shame” of white Americans who didn’t fight segregation. But he also told Alter that doing more would have sacrificed his political viability – and thus everything he accomplished in office and after. King’s daughter, Bernice King, described Carter as wisely “strategic” in winning higher offices to enact change. “He was a leader of conscience,” she said in an interview. Rosalynn Carter, who died on Nov. 19 at the age of 96, was identified by both husband and wife as the “more political” of the pair; she sat in on Cabinet meetings and urged him to postpone certain priorities, like pressing the Senate to relinquish control of the Panama Canal. “Let that go until the second term,” she would sometimes say. The president, recalled her former aide Kathy Cade, retorted that he was “going to do what’s right” even if “it might cut short the time I have.” Rosalynn held firm, Cade said: “She’d remind him you have to win to govern.” Carter also was the first president to appoint multiple women as Cabinet officers. Yet by his own telling, his career sprouted from chauvinism in the Carters’ early marriage: He did not consult Rosalynn when deciding to move back to Plains in 1953 or before launching his state Senate bid a decade later. Many years later, he called it “inconceivable” that he didn’t confer with the woman he described as his “full partner,” at home, in government and at The Carter Center. “We developed a partnership when we were working in the farm supply business, and it continued when Jimmy got involved in politics,” Rosalynn Carter told AP in 2021. So deep was their trust that when Carter remained tethered to the White House in 1980 as 52 Americans were held hostage in Tehran, it was Rosalynn who campaigned on her husband’s behalf. “I just loved it,” she said, despite the bitterness of defeat. Fair or not, the label of a disastrous presidency had leading Democrats keep their distance, at least publicly, for many years, but Carter managed to remain relevant, writing books and weighing in on societal challenges. He lamented widening wealth gaps and the influence of money in politics. He voted for democratic socialist Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in 2016, and later declared that America had devolved from fully functioning democracy to “oligarchy.” Yet looking ahead to 2020, with Sanders running again, Carter warned Democrats not to “move to a very liberal program,” lest they help re-elect President Donald Trump. Carter scolded the Republican for his serial lies and threats to democracy, and chided the U.S. establishment for misunderstanding Trump’s populist appeal. He delighted in yearly convocations with Emory University freshmen, often asking them to guess how much he’d raised in his two general election campaigns. “Zero,” he’d gesture with a smile, explaining the public financing system candidates now avoid so they can raise billions. Carter still remained quite practical in partnering with wealthy corporations and foundations to advance Carter Center programs. Carter recognized that economic woes and the Iran crisis doomed his presidency, but offered no apologies for appointing Paul Volcker as the Federal Reserve chairman whose interest rate hikes would not curb inflation until Reagan’s presidency. He was proud of getting all the hostages home without starting a shooting war, even though Tehran would not free them until Reagan’s Inauguration Day. “Carter didn’t look at it” as a failure, Alter emphasized. “He said, ‘They came home safely.’ And that’s what he wanted.” Well into their 90s, the Carters greeted visitors at Plains’ Maranatha Baptist Church, where he taught Sunday School and where he will have his last funeral before being buried on family property alongside Rosalynn . Carter, who made the congregation’s collection plates in his woodworking shop, still garnered headlines there, calling for women’s rights within religious institutions, many of which, he said, “subjugate” women in church and society. Carter was not one to dwell on regrets. “I am at peace with the accomplishments, regret the unrealized goals and utilize my former political position to enhance everything we do,” he wrote around his 90th birthday. The politician who had supposedly hated Washington politics also enjoyed hosting Democratic presidential contenders as public pilgrimages to Plains became advantageous again. Carter sat with Buttigieg for the final time March 1, 2020, hours before the Indiana mayor ended his campaign and endorsed eventual winner Joe Biden. “He asked me how I thought the campaign was going,” Buttigieg said, recalling that Carter flashed his signature grin and nodded along as the young candidate, born a year after Carter left office, “put the best face” on the walloping he endured the day before in South Carolina. Never breaking his smile, the 95-year-old host fired back, “I think you ought to drop out.” “So matter of fact,” Buttigieg said with a laugh. “It was somehow encouraging.” Carter had lived enough, won plenty and lost enough to take the long view. “He talked a lot about coming from nowhere,” Buttigieg said, not just to attain the presidency but to leverage “all of the instruments you have in life” and “make the world more peaceful.” In his farewell address as president, Carter said as much to the country that had embraced and rejected him. “The struggle for human rights overrides all differences of color, nation or language,” he declared. “Those who hunger for freedom, who thirst for human dignity and who suffer for the sake of justice — they are the patriots of this cause.” Carter pledged to remain engaged with and for them as he returned “home to the South where I was born and raised,” home to Plains, where that young lieutenant had indeed become “a fellow citizen of the world.” —- Bill Barrow, based in Atlanta, has covered national politics including multiple presidential campaigns for the AP since 2012.Sapta Shakti Command organises run to honour Army veterans in Jaipur
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Stock market today: Rising tech stocks pull Wall Street to another recordI'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! was thrown into chaos as a mouse infiltrated the camp during the night, causing a stir in the Monday (December 2) episode. During the hit show, Maura couldn't hide her displeasure after noticing a mouse scurrying across kitchen equipment and crockery. The drama escalated when the rodent darted under her bed, prompting a startled response from the ex-Love Island contestant, now aged 34, who exclaimed: "I'm not really up for a Trial at this time of the night!" Upon realising some of the evening's fruit hadn't been packed away, Tulisa expressed her frustration, insisting: "Camp maintenance should be putting everything back in the trunk. They gotta step it up!" In contrast to the nocturnal excitement, Melvin seemingly had a restful night, waking up refreshed and declaring: "I feel like a new man to be honest!" Audiences at home took rapidly to social media to broadcast their thoughts on the incident. One fan posted: "if i saw those mice id be OUT of the jungle so fast #ImACeleb." (sic) Another humorously remarked: "I'm not up for a trial at this time of night #ImACeleb." (sic) One more voiced their horror, saying: "The mice? ? I'd actually break down, because what do you mean mice are running all over my things? #ImACeleb." (sic) An additional comment questioned the responsibility of camp duties: "How is a camp maintenance job to put dishes away. Surely you just do that after washing up #imaceleb." (sic) And another viewer admitted: "If I saw mice running around I would scream too." (sic) That morning, Dean became the second celebrity to exit I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! With his departure came a wave of emotions among the campmates. Oti expressed: "He just brought us all together, he was the life of the camp." Meanwhile, a stunned Danny commented: "I thought he was final four, final three!" Tulisa, feeling the void left by Dean's high spirits, remarked: "You can definitely feel that Dean has left the camp. It's almost a little bit too chilled out, dare I say. "Didn't think I'd ever see the day that I'd be waiting for some musical theatre in the morning! " And Richard light-heartedly added: "Who's going to not fetch our water now?!" The duo Ant and Dec delivered the news of the eviction, which was a toss-up between the Radio 1 DJ and the Irish retired boxer Barry McGuigan, on Sunday night's show, reports . After his eviction, the Northern Ireland DJ declared he was content to head home, having embraced the jungle experience fully. Come Monday morning, during an appearance on ITV's Good Morning Britain, he reflected: "I did it for my mum to make her proud." To remove this article -LG’s new lamp puts a mini garden inside your home
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Protections for workers and reducing seabird bycatch are critical measures being sponsored by New Zealand when the 21st Western Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) meeting, which begins Thursday in Suva. The WCPFC brings together Pacific Island states and the distant-water fishing nations to discuss the welfare or otherwise of fish stocks, particularly the various tuna species, in the region. New Zealand intends to lead or co-lead on three issues. In a statement, the Ministry for Primary Industries said New Zealand wants a new measure adopted requiring fishing vessels to implement binding crew labour standards. It said New Zealand is leading work to strengthen the rules to prevent the capture of seabirds by long line vessels fishing in the region. New Zealand is also backing the implementation of standardised electronic monitoring on vessels. It said this would mean data can be collected for compliance monitoring and be used for research. The Ministry said New Zealand also wants to see improvements to the rules governing transhipment at sea, particularly for longline vessels. Non-governmental organisations, such as, the Pew Charitable Trusts are also strongly in favour of these measures, and say clearer rules around transshipment will help.
A Perth couple died while “selflessly” saving one of their daughters from drowning at a treacherous beach near Walpole, it has been revealed. Curtin University professor Mohammad Shahidul Hasan Swapan, 44, and his wife, Sabrina Ahmed, 40, were pulled from the ocean at Conspicuous Beach in Nornalup, about 17km from Walpole, at 2.40pm on Saturday. Friends of the couple say the pair, who were on holiday with their young family, had dived into the water to save their daughter from drowning. She survived. But despite desperate efforts from first responders to revive her parents, they could not be saved. A friend of the pair, a 42-year-old man who also dived in to help, was also pulled from the water in distress but he survived. He was rushed to Denmark Hospital where he remained in a stable condition on Sunday. “The magnitude of this tragedy is beyond words,” a tribute for the couple posted online said. “This is, without a doubt, one of the most heart-wrenching losses the Bangladeshi community in Perth has ever experienced. They were a wonderful couple, deeply respected and loved by everyone who knew them. “Please keep their two young daughters, their extended family, and their friends in your thoughts and prayers.” Dr Swapan was an associate professor at Curtin University’s School of Design and the Built Environment. Sustainability expert Peter Newman worked alongside him and said everyone at the university was in shock. “He was a beautiful, gentle leader who loved his kids and loved his job and we’ll all miss him,” he said. Dr Swapan’s wife was also an academic who studied planning and development at Khulna University in Bangladesh before the couple moved to Perth in 2011. Manjimup Shire president Donelle Buegge said the accident was an absolute tragedy, particularly at this time of year. Conspicuous Cliff is about 100km west of Albany on a rugged stretch of the WA coast exposed to strong seas and massive swells. “Unfortunately it is a pretty rough coastline, but it’s summer and it’s warm and there’s no lifeguards there,” Ms Buegge said. “It is a popular fishing beach and I’m surprised people were swimming there.” Royal Life Saving research found that drowning cases peak during the summer months, with most occurring between Christmas and New Year. Last summer 26 per cent of all Australian drowning deaths occurred during this period. There have been 26 drowning deaths recorded since December 1. “The festive season is a time for relaxing, social gatherings and celebrations, but we know this is the riskiest time to be around water,” Royal Life Saving Australia chief executive officer Dr Justin Scarr said. “So it’s also when we need to stay most vigilant around water. “The dangers are heightened when people travel, visit unfamiliar locations, or celebrate near water, and the risk is highest on public holidays, particularly Christmas Day and Boxing Day, which consistently record the highest drowning rates.” The tragedy comes as Surf Life Saving launched a new Beach Passport in a bid to reduce drowning deaths. The passport is available in multiple languages and tailors information to different age groups.The new, 12-team College Football Playoff brings with it a promise to be bigger, more exciting, more lucrative. Perfect or 100% fair? Well, nobody ever believed that. The first expanded playoff bracket unveiled Sunday left a presumably deserving Alabama team on the sideline in favor of an SMU squad that finished with a better record after playing a schedule that was not as difficult. It ranked undefeated Oregon first but set up a possible rematch against Ohio State, the team that came closest to beating the Ducks this year. It treated underdog Boise State like a favorite and banged-up Georgia like a world beater at No. 2. It gave Ohio State home-field advantage against Tennessee for reasons it would take a supercomputer to figure out. It gave the sport the multiweek tournament it has longed for, but also ensured there will be plenty to grouse about between now and when the trophy is handed out on Jan. 20 after what will easily be the longest college football season in history. All of it, thankfully, will be sorted out on the field starting with first-round games on campuses Dec. 20 and 21, then over three succeeding rounds that will wind their way through traditional bowl sites. Maybe Oregon coach Dan Lanning, whose undefeated Ducks are the favorite to win it all, put it best when he offered: "Winning a national championship is not supposed to be easy.” Neither, it turns out, is figuring out who should play for it. The Big Ten will lead the way with four teams in the tournament, followed by the SEC with three and the ACC with two. The lasting memory from the inaugural bracket will involve the decision that handed the ACC that second bid. Alabama of the SEC didn't play Saturday. SMU of the ACC did. The Mustangs fell behind by three touchdowns to Clemson before coming back to tie. But they ultimately lost 34-31 on a 56-yard field goal as time expired. “We were on pins and needles,” SMU coach Rhett Lashley said. “Until we saw the name ‘SMU’ up there, we were hanging on the edge. We're really, really happy and thankful to the committee for rewarding our guys for their total body of work." The Mustangs only had two losses, compared to three for the Crimson Tide. Even though SMU's schedule wasn't nearly as tough, the committee was impressed by the way the Mustangs came back against Clemson. “We just felt, in this particular case, SMU had the nod above Alabama,” said Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel, the chairman of the selection committee. “But it’s no disrespect to Alabama’s strength of schedule. We looked at the entire body of work for both teams.” Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne was gracious, up to a point. “Disappointed with the outcome and felt we were one of the 12 best teams in the country,” he said on social media. He acknowledged — despite all of Alabama’s losses coming against conference opponents this season — that the Tide’s push to schedule more games against teams from other major conferences in order to improve its strength of schedule did not pay off this time. “That is not good for college football," Byrne said. Georgia, the SEC champion, was seeded second; Boise State, the Mountain West champion, earned the third seed; and Big 12 titlist Arizona State got the fourth seed and the fourth and final first-round bye. All will play in quarterfinals at bowl games on Dec. 31-Jan. 1. Clemson stole a bid and the 12th seed with its crazy win over SMU, the result that ultimately cost Alabama a spot in the field. The Tigers moved to No. 16 in the rankings, but got in as the fifth-best conference winner. The conference commissioners' idea to give conference champions preferable treatment in this first iteration of the 12-team playoff could be up for reconsideration after this season. The committee actually ranked Boise State, the Mountain West Champion, at No. 9 and Big 12 champion Arizona State at No. 12, but both get to skip the first round. Another CFP guideline: There’s no reseeding of teams after each round, which means no break for Oregon. The top-seeded Ducks will face the winner of Tennessee-Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. Oregon beat Ohio State 32-31 earlier this year in one of the season’s best games. No. 12 Clemson at No. 5 Texas, Dec. 21. Clemson is riding high after the SMU upset, while Texas is 0-2 against Georgia and 11-0 vs. everyone else this season. The winner faces ... Arizona State in the Peach Bowl. Huh? No. 11 SMU at No. 6 Penn State, Dec. 21. The biggest knock against the Mustangs was that they didn't play any big boys with that 60th-ranked strength of schedule. Well, now they get to. The winner faces ... Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl. Yes, SMU vs. Boise was the quarterfinal we all expected. No. 10 Indiana at No. 7 Notre Dame, Dec. 20. Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti thought his team deserved a home game. Well, not quite but close. The winner faces ... Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. The Bulldogs got the No. 2 seed despite a throwing-arm injury to QB Carson Beck. But what else was the committee supposed to do? No. 9 Tennessee at No. 8 Ohio State , Dec. 21. The Buckeyes (losses to Oregon, Michigan) got home field over the Volunteers (losses to Arkansas, Georgia) in a matchup of programs with two of the biggest stadiums in football. The winner faces ... Oregon in the Rose Bowl. Feels like that matchup should come in the semifinals or later. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football