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TOKYO (AP) — Troops surround South Korea's parliament overnight when the president declares martial law. He accuses pro-North Korean forces of plotting to overthrow one of the world’s most vibrant democracies. Lawmakers voice outrage and vote to end the declaration, and the president lifts the decree before daybreak. President Yoon Suk Yeol spread fear and confusion through South Korea overnight by issuing his sudden edict late Tuesday, the first martial law declaration since more than four decades ago when the country was controlled by a dictatorship. The declaration, the rushed vote by lawmakers to overturn it and the president's lifting of martial law soon afterward were moments of high drama for an unpopular leader who has struggled with political deadlock in an opposition-dominated parliament and scandals involving him and his wife. While there was no direct evidence presented, Yoon raised the specter of North Korea as a destabilizing force. Yoon has long maintained that a hard line against the North is the only way to stop Pyongyang from following through on its nuclear threats against Seoul. Amid the surreal scenes of troops massing around parliament, here are some things to know as this story unfolds: Immediately after Yoon's declaration the military chief called in key commanders for talks. South Korean troops set up barricades and then made their way into parliament. The leader of the main opposition, which controls parliament, ordered lawmakers to return to the building, where they eventually voted to lift the declaration of martial law. Yoon lifted the martial law decree around 4:30 a.m. during a Cabinet meeting. Yoon's declaration had been accompanied by an accusation that the opposition was engaged in “anti-state activities plotting rebellion.” But he did not explain what that means, and provided no specific evidence. The vague statement is reminiscent of the heavy-handed tactics of the South Korean dictatorships that ended in the late 1980s. A series of strongmen repeatedly invoked North Korea when struggling to control domestic dissidents and political opponents. The opposition lambasted Yoon's move as un-democratic. Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, who narrowly lost to Yoon in the 2022 presidential election, called Yoon’s announcement “illegal and unconstitutional.” But the sudden declaration was also opposed by the leader of Yoon's own conservative party, Han Dong-hoon, who called the decision “wrong” and vowed to “stop it with the people.” “The people will block the president’s anti-constitutional step. The military must be on the side of the public in any case. Let’s resolutely oppose it,” Kim Dong Yeon, the opposition party governor of Gyeonggi province, which surrounds Seoul, wrote on X. Average South Koreans were in shock. Social media was flooded with messages expressing surprise and worry over Yoon’s announcement. “Martial law? I thought it was deepfake content, but is it really a martial law decree?,” one X user wrote. “I first thought about a war with North Korea when he said he would impose a martial law,” another X user wrote. There were quick claims that the emergency declaration was linked to Yoon’s political struggles. His approval rating has dropped, and he has had little success in getting his policies adopted by a parliament that has been controlled by the opposition since he took over in 2022. Conservatives have said the opposition moves are political revenge for investigations into the opposition leader, who is seen as the favorite for the next presidential election in 2027. Just this month, Yoon denied wrongdoing in an influence-peddling scandal involving him and his wife. The claims have battered his approval ratings and fueled attacks by his rivals. The scandal centers on claims that Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee exerted inappropriate influence on the conservative ruling People Power Party to pick a certain candidate to run for a parliamentary by-election in 2022 at the request of Myung Tae-kyun, an election broker and founder of a polling agency who conducted free opinion surveys for Yoon before he became president . Yoon has said he did nothing inappropriate. South Korea became a democracy only in the late 1980s, and military intervention in civilian affairs is still a touchy subject. During the dictatorships that emerged as the country rebuilt from the destruction of the 1950-53 Korean War, leaders occasionally proclaimed martial law that allowed them to station combat soldiers, tanks and armored vehicles on streets or in public places to prevent anti-government demonstrations. Such scenes are unimaginable for many today. The dictator Park Chung-hee, who ruled South Korea for nearly 20 years before he was assassinated by his spy chief in 1979, led several thousand troops into Seoul in the early hours of May 16, 1961, in the country’s first successful coup. During his rule, he occasionally proclaimed martial law to crack down on protests and jail critics. Less than two months after Park Chung-hee’s death, Maj. Gen. Chun Doo-hwan led tanks and troops into Seoul in December 1979 in the country’s second successful coup. The next year, he orchestrated a brutal military crackdown on a pro-democracy uprising in the southern city of Gwangju, killing at least 200 people. In the summer of 1987, massive street protests forced Chun’s government to accept direct presidential elections. His army buddy Roh Tae-woo, who had joined Chun’s 1979 coup, won the election held later in 1987 thanks largely to divided votes among liberal opposition candidates. AP writers Kim Tong-hyung and Hyung-jin Kim contributed to this story.Awarded industry-first design win from a top-four hyperscaler SANTA CLARA, Calif. , Dec. 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Pure Storage (NYSE: PSTG), the IT pioneer that delivers the world's most advanced data storage technologies and services, announced financial results for its third quarter fiscal year 2025 ended November 3, 2024. "Pure Storage has achieved another industry first in our journey of data storage innovation with a transformational design win for our DirectFlash technology in a top-four hyperscaler," said Pure Storage Chairman and CEO Charles Giancarlo . "This win is the vanguard for Pure Flash technology to become the standard for all hyperscaler online storage, providing unparalleled performance and scalability while also reducing operating costs and power consumption." Third Quarter Financial Highlights "Our third quarter results exceeded our expectations on revenue and operating income, demonstrating the sustaining strength of our business models," said Kevan Krysler , Pure Storage CFO. "We remain focused on driving both near-term results and long-term value creation through disciplined investments and innovation that position Pure as the leader in transforming the data storage landscape." Third Quarter Company Highlights Industry Recognition and Accolades Fourth Quarter and FY25 Guidance Q4FY25 Revenue $867M Revenue YoY Growth Rate 9.7 % Non-GAAP Operating Income $135M Non-GAAP Operating Margin 15.6 % FY25 Revenue $3.15B Revenue YoY Growth Rate 11.5 % Non-GAAP Operating Income $540M Non-GAAP Operating Margin 17 % These statements are forward-looking and actual results may differ materially. Refer to the Forward Looking Statements section below for information on the factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from these statements. Pure has not reconciled its guidance for non-GAAP operating income and non-GAAP operating margin to their most directly comparable GAAP measures because certain items that impact these measures are not within Pure's control and/or cannot be reasonably predicted. Accordingly, reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures guidance to the corresponding GAAP measures are not available without unreasonable effort. Conference Call Information Pure will host a teleconference to discuss the third quarter fiscal 2025 results at 2:00 pm PT today, December 3, 2024. A live audio broadcast of the conference call will be available on the Pure Storage Investor Relations website . Pure will also post its earnings presentation and prepared remarks to this website concurrent with this release. A replay will be available following the call on the Pure Storage Investor Relations website or for two weeks at 1-800-770-2030 (or 1-647-362-9199 for international callers) with passcode 5667482. Additionally, Pure is scheduled to participate at the following investor conferences: Wells Fargo 8th Annual TMT Summit Date: Wednesday, December 4, 2024 Time: 1:30 p.m. PT / 4:30 p.m. ET Chief Technology Officer Rob Lee 27th Annual Needham Growth Conference Date: Thursday, January 16, 2025 Time: 9:45 a.m. PT / 12:45 p.m. ET Founder & Chief Visionary Officer John "Co z" Colgrove Chief Financial Officer Kevan Krysler The presentations will be webcast live and archived on Pure's Investor Relations website at investor.purestorage.com . ---- About Pure Storage Pure Storage (NYSE: PSTG) delivers the industry's most advanced data storage platform to store, manage, and protect the world's data at any scale. With Pure Storage, organizations have ultimate simplicity and flexibility, saving time, money, and energy. From AI to archive, Pure Storage delivers a cloud experience with one unified Storage as-a-Service platform across on premises, cloud, and hosted environments. Our platform is built on our Evergreen architecture that evolves with your business – always getting newer and better with zero planned downtime, guaranteed. Our customers are actively increasing their capacity and processing power while significantly reducing their carbon and energy footprint. It's easy to fall in love with Pure Storage, as evidenced by the highest Net Promoter Score in the industry. For more information, visit www.purestorage.com . Connect with Pure Blog LinkedIn Twitter Facebook Pure Storage, the Pure P Logo, Portworx, and the marks on the Pure Storage Trademark List are trademarks or registered trademarks of Pure Storage Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. The Trademark List can be found at purestorage.com/trademarks . Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Forward Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding our products, business and operations, including but not limited to our views relating to our opportunity with hyperscale and AI environments, our ability to meet hyperscalers' performance and price requirements, our ability to meet the needs of hyperscalers for the entire spectrum of their online storage use cases, the timing and magnitude of large orders, including sales to hyperscalers, the timing and amount of revenue from hyperscaler licensing and support services, future period financial and business results, demand for our products and subscription services, including Evergreen//One, the relative sales mix between our subscription and consumption offerings and traditional capital expenditure sales, our technology and product strategy, specifically customer priorities around sustainability, the environmental and energy saving benefits to our customers of using our products, our ability to perform during current macro conditions and expand market share, our sustainability goals and benefits, the impact of inflation, economic or supply chain disruptions, our expectations regarding our product and technology differentiation, new customer acquisition, and other statements regarding our products, business, operations and results. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on potentially inaccurate assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected or implied by the forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. The potential risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from the results predicted include, among others, those risks and uncertainties included under the caption "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in our filings and reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available on our Investor Relations website at investor.purestorage.com and on the SEC website at www.sec.gov . Additional information is also set forth in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended February 4, 2024. All information provided in this release and in the attachments is as of December 3, 2024, and Pure undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law. Key Performance Metric Subscription ARR is a key business metric that refers to total annualized contract value of all active subscription agreements on the last day of the quarter, plus on-demand revenue for the quarter multiplied by four. Non-GAAP Financial Measures To supplement our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements, which are prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP, Pure uses the following non-GAAP financial measures: non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating income (loss), non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP net income (loss), non-GAAP net income (loss) per share, and free cash flow. We use these non-GAAP financial measures for financial and operational decision-making and as a means to evaluate period-to-period comparisons. Our management believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide meaningful supplemental information regarding our performance and liquidity by excluding certain expenses such as stock-based compensation expense, payments to former shareholders of acquired companies, payroll tax expense related to stock-based activities, amortization of debt issuance costs related to debt, and amortization of intangible assets acquired from acquisitions that may not be indicative of our ongoing core business operating results. Pure believes that both management and investors benefit from referring to these non-GAAP financial measures in assessing our performance and when analyzing historical performance and liquidity and planning, forecasting, and analyzing future periods. The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for our financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP, and our non-GAAP measures may be different from non-GAAP measures used by other companies. For a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP measures, please see the tables captioned "Reconciliations of non-GAAP results of operations to the nearest comparable GAAP measures" and "Reconciliation from net cash provided by operating activities to free cash flow," included at the end of this release. PURE STORAGE, INC. Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (in thousands, unaudited) At the End of Third Quarter of Fiscal 2025 Fiscal 2024 Assets Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 894,569 $ 702,536 Marketable securities 753,960 828,557 Accounts receivable, net of allowance of $956 and $1,060 578,224 662,179 Inventory 41,571 42,663 Deferred commissions, current 86,839 88,712 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 204,485 173,407 Total current assets 2,559,648 2,498,054 Property and equipment, net 431,353 352,604 Operating lease right-of-use-assets 157,574 129,942 Deferred commissions, non-current 210,671 215,620 Intangible assets, net 23,039 33,012 Goodwill 361,427 361,427 Restricted cash 11,249 9,595 Other assets, non-current 99,504 55,506 Total assets $ 3,854,465 $ 3,655,760 Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity Current liabilities: Accounts payable $ 102,021 $ 82,757 Accrued compensation and benefits 155,652 250,257 Accrued expenses and other liabilities 141,846 135,755 Operating lease liabilities, current 47,941 44,668 Deferred revenue, current 897,174 852,247 Debt, current 100,000 — Total current liabilities 1,444,634 1,365,684 Long-term debt — 100,000 Operating lease liabilities, non-current 146,390 123,201 Deferred revenue, non-current 784,282 742,275 Other liabilities, non-current 68,573 54,506 Total liabilities 2,443,879 2,385,666 Stockholders' equity: Common stock and additional paid-in capital 2,821,010 2,749,627 Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) 1,023 (3,782) Accumulated deficit (1,411,447) (1,475,751) Total stockholders' equity 1,410,586 1,270,094 Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 3,854,465 $ 3,655,760 PURE STORAGE, INC. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (in thousands, except per share data, unaudited) Third Quarter of Fiscal First Three Quarters of Fiscal 2025 2024 2025 2024 Revenue: Product $ 454,735 $ 453,277 $ 1,204,714 $ 1,161,978 Subscription services 376,337 309,561 1,083,608 878,838 Total revenue 831,072 762,838 2,288,322 2,040,816 Cost of revenue: Product (1) 154,970 126,770 385,446 343,588 Subscription services (1) 93,180 83,321 284,168 244,541 Total cost of revenue 248,150 210,091 669,614 588,129 Gross profit 582,922 552,747 1,618,708 1,452,687 Operating expenses: Research and development (1) 200,086 182,100 589,396 549,923 Sales and marketing (1) 255,830 231,707 757,069 696,885 General and administrative (1) 67,319 64,729 213,551 192,944 Restructuring and impairment (2) — — 15,901 16,766 Total operating expenses 523,235 478,536 1,575,917 1,456,518 Income (loss) from operations 59,687 74,211 42,791 (3,831) Other income (expense), net 17,156 5,184 50,684 23,619 Income before provision for income taxes 76,843 79,395 93,475 19,788 Income tax provision 13,204 9,006 29,171 23,915 Net income (loss) $ 63,639 $ 70,389 $ 64,304 $ (4,127)
Dean McCullough took on his third Bushtucker Trial in tonight’s episode (November 21) of I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! Having quit his first trial as he shouted “I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!” and only managed to secure two out of 10 stars in a trial with GK Barry, he was out to prove himself tonight. His third trial saw him locked in a box, similar to his two other trials, where he had to turn stars off a screw using only his mouth and tongue while being accompanied by various critters. Throughout the trial, he had to move from box to box and was met with different critters in each one. He also had to make a chemical reaction while ants were biting his hands. View this post on Instagram A post shared by I'm a Celebrity... (@imacelebrity) Since Dean is frightened of creepy crawlies and bigger critters, he asked Ant and Dec not to tell him what was joining him in the box which was secured around his head. The trial called Lethal Lab saw the BBC Radio 1 presenter take four stars back to camp. Each star means more food for the celebrity campmates while no stars means they have to eat rice and beans. Going back to camp was a much better experience for Dean this time around as he was able to celebrate with his campmates, knowing he’d supplied food for the camp’s evening meal. View this post on Instagram A post shared by I'm a Celebrity... (@imacelebrity) On arriving back to camp, Dean was ecstatic with his success in Lethal Lab and the other celebrities celebrated his win with him. After earning four stars, Dean had fish guts put inside the box with him and quit the trial with "I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!" Meanwhile, the campmates were ordered to give up their contraband after McCullough smuggled teabags into the jungle, while Tulisa Contostavlos gave up a bag of seasoning which radio presenter Melvin Odoom had distributed to her. I’m A Celeb viewers react to Dean’s Lethal Lab trial Viewers took to social media platform X to share their thoughts on Dean’s performance. One said the trial was easy: "So they gave him the easiest challenges we’ve ever seen on I’m a Celeb so he can win some stars lol". Another person commented: “He’s actually doing it, I’m surprised." Recommended reading: Are campmates allowed make-up on ITV's I'm a Celebrity? Banned items revealed What is Dean McCullough's net worth as he takes on I'm A Celeb jungle? 'My life fell apart': I'm A Celeb's Tulisa Contostavlos opens up about 2013 arrest A third said: "Are you serious?? On the fish guts!" The latest series of I’m A Celebrity has a wide range of popular stars including Danny Jones, Coleen Rooney, Melvin Odoom, Oti Mabuse and Barry McGuigan to name a few. I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! airs every night at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.The Kerala BJP is witnessing internal turmoil following a humiliating defeat in the Palakkad Assembly bypoll. Party leaders, both covertly and overtly, have criticized the state leadership for its dismal performance in a constituency where the BJP was seen as having a strong chance of victory. After polling concluded on November 20, BJP state president K Surendran had expressed confidence in a comfortable win. However, the election result served as a stark setback, highlighting the party’s inability to capitalize on its decade-long influence in the Palakkad municipal region. The loss has exacerbated discontent within the party, exposing internal rifts and dissatisfaction among its ranks. The BJP’s vote share in Palakkad has dropped significantly, erasing gains made over the past decade. In 2016, Sobha Surendran garnered 40,076 votes (29.08%), while in 2021 E Sreedharan increased the tally to 50,220 votes (35.34%). This time, the party’s vote count plunged to 39,246 (28.63%), 830 votes fewer than in 2016. Advertisement The defeat has led to calls for accountability. Many leaders have intensified their criticism of K Surendran, with demands for him to take responsibility. BJP national council member N. Sivarajan hinted at top-level failures, stating, “The party’s foundation is intact, but its leadership needs strengthening.” State committee member CV Sajani also criticized the leadership, stating on Facebook that “BJP is no one’s waqf property.” Similarly, Palakkad district committee member Surendran Tharoor noted failures in candidate selection and campaign strategy. BJP vice president B. Gopalakrishnan publicly questioned Surendran’s role in the defeat. Another critical voice came from BJP state committee member Sandeep Vachaspati, who pointed out the irony of vote leakage occurring under the direct supervision of the state president. The decision to field C Krishna Kumar as the candidate, despite local opposition, has drawn ire from party members. Many believe that if Sobha Surendran had been nominated, the outcome would have been different. Local leaders felt that bypolls require a non-controversial, widely accepted candidate, which the state leadership overlooked. Adding to the BJP’s woes was the departure of Sandeep Warrier, a prominent leader who joined the Congress just before the election. His exit, coupled with allegations of factionalism within the BJP, has caused further damage. Warrier accused Surendran and a coterie, including former union minister V Muraleedharan and Krishna Kumar, of undemocratic practices and fostering internal discontent. The BJP’s alleged compromises with the ruling CPI(M) have also alienated its base. The failure to pursue high-profile corruption cases involving CPI(M) leaders and their allies has led to accusations of political collusion, further demoralizing cadres. Political observers argue that the central BJP leadership must also bear responsibility for the crisis. Prakash Javadekar, the party’s Kerala in-charge, reportedly dismissed Warrier’s grievances, a decision now seen as a missed opportunity to prevent his defection. The defeat in Palakkad underscores a broader challenge for the BJP in Kerala: addressing internal discord, regaining its core base, and rebuilding trust among cadres and supporters. Advertisement
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StockNews.com Begins Coverage on SigmaTron International (NASDAQ:SGMA)Anfield Energy Inc. Announces Shareholder Approval of Plan of ArrangementStudio City Enters into Senior Facilities AgreementUS President-elect Donald Trump's promise to impose a 60% tariff on imports from China and a 10-20% tariff on all other imports has triggered a public debate about whether such policies are really so bad. After all, a tariff is a consumption tax, and most economists favour taxes on consumption over income taxes. But tariffs have significant drawbacks. Since they tax only imported products, they distort markets by shifting resources from more efficient foreign producers to less efficient domestic firms. This inefficiency comes at the expense of consumers, and like most consumption taxes, tariffs are regressive, placing a heavier burden on low-income households. Still, tariffs do have political appeal. Critics of globalisation in advanced economies have long argued that the efficiency gains from recent decades of trade liberalisation have been modest relative to the disruptions caused. While US consumers benefited from lower prices on imported goods, particularly from China, these widely dispersed gains were less salient than the concentrated pain of factory closures and job losses in regions exposed to import competition. The problem with such arguments is that they ignore the current macroeconomic context. Inflation over the last three years has increased consumer sensitivity to price changes. Voters today will be far more attuned to the inflationary pressures of tariffs than they were in the past. While proponents of new tariffs claim that China would bear the brunt of the financial burden, the evidence from the 2018-19 tariffs shows otherwise: US consumers bore most of the cost. Even if US prices remained unchanged, unintended consequences could follow. If broad-based tariffs led to a sharp depreciation of China's currency, the stronger dollar would make Chinese imports relatively cheaper. This may partly offset the higher prices caused by tariffs, but it would undermine the original goal of making US manufacturing more competitive. Meanwhile, the stronger dollar would hurt US exports, worsening the trade deficit. This suggests that the multiple goals currently advertised for tariffs -- reshoring manufacturing, reducing the trade deficit, generating revenue, lessening America's reliance on China, and forcing China into negotiations, all while minimising the impact on consumers -- often conflict with one another. This is because tariffs affect the US economy through prices. To boost US competitiveness or reduce the deficit, tariffs must raise import prices -- a politically toxic outcome today. Reducing America's reliance on China is also complex, given that Chinese-made intermediates are embedded in many goods exported to the US from third countries. Since 2018-19, China and several "bystander" countries have registered robust export growth despite tariffs. The proposed new tariffs might affect only direct Chinese exports to the US, not to other countries. The argument for tariffs as a revenue-generating mechanism is interesting and novel (in the sense that it has not been used for many centuries). But it does not hold up. Tariffs cannot possibly replace income taxes as a source of revenue: the scale of the income tax base is roughly an order of magnitude larger than the scale of imports. Still, tariffs could generate some government revenue, with China potentially bearing part of the cost. If used as a short-term negotiating tactic, they could apply some economic pressure on China. Strengthening the United States' negotiating leverage is the most compelling argument for tariffs. The 2018-19 tariffs led to the "phase one" agreement, a planned de-escalation in exchange for Chinese commitments to import more from the US and address concerns about intellectual property and technology transfers. But the 2018-19 tariffs were far from cost-free. They poisoned US-China relations, escalated tensions, pushed China into an alliance with Russia and Iran, and fueled anti-Asian sentiment domestically. They eroded America's relationships with allies who were not consulted and who found themselves also targeted by specific tariffs. And when all was said and done, the phase one deal's full impact was never realised. The disruption to trade from the pandemic meant that China fell far short of its commitments to purchase goods from the US. Today's tariff proposals risk repeating history, only on a grander scale. The incoming administration will face a wary, inflation-sensitive public and a Chinese regime that is well prepared to pursue large-scale retaliation. Whether tariffs become a negotiating tool or a source of greater economic disruption depends on how the administration balances competing objectives. Reason and strategic foresight will be crucial. ©2024 Project Syndicate Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg, a former World Bank Group chief economist and editor-in-chief of the American Economic Review, is Professor of Economics at Yale University.