Our Experts A pressure washer is one of the best ways to deep clean super dirty home areas or hard to reach places. Most commonly, people use pressure washers to clean the deck, driveway, house siding, roof, gutters, fences, or cars. They can even remove mold and mildew from items such as lawn furniture. Since gas-powered pressure washers tend to be more powerful and produce a higher PSI than electric ones, a gas-powered model will work best. But they can be more expensive. CNET tested, evaluated and curated this list of pressure washers for differing needs including best electric, best gas-powered, best portable and even a budget pick. Our Picks Best pressure washers This Westinghouse model -- an affordable option among the variety of gas-powered pressure washers -- has great specs and performance, but it's also so devoid of overwhelmingly positive or negative features that it's easy to overlook. Here are the highlights: lowest price tag, largest engine, detergent tank and all five interchangeable nozzles included. Everything else about this residential pressure washer cleaning unit is entirely middle-of-the-road. $135 is a fairly low buy-in for the pressure washer game. If you're looking for a nongas unit on the cheap, this might be what you're looking for. As far as numbers go, this one has a 1,850 psi rating, which is the lowest of the standard body type electric-powered pressure washers, but when you're using it, it feels like it gives as much as any of the other units. This unit doesn't have any outstanding features, but it does have a fair amount of power packed into a small package. It sports a suitcase-style retracting handle and is overall compact enough to be stowed away on a shelf somewhere. Although you can clean some tough grime from concrete, this wouldn't be my first pick for that task unless it was a very small area. Otherwise, this Black & Decker model can handle most other common pressure washer jobs. If you have the need to move from location to location with your pressure washer often, and you don't necessarily need the higher cleaning power of a gas unit, the DeWalt DWPW2100 is a great option. This thing folds up like a suitcase, retractable handle and all, stores all accessories and cords/cables onboard and you're off, wheeling your way to your next destination. Its performance is on par with other similar-spec units, but I feel like the biggest win here is portability. I do also like that the storage for the different nozzles is attached to the wand itself. The price tag is a little high, but if you need this kind of mobility with your pressure washer, chances are the few extra bucks are worth it. I do enjoy the idea of adding a pressure washer option to cordless tool ecosystems. You already have the batteries and tool storage options, and having a readily available pressure washer (just add a hose from a tap or to a bucket you've gathered water in) is great for quick cleanup jobs. The main drawback with this form of pressure washer would be its overall power. Containing everything in the palm of your hand does have its trade-offs, so don't expect to de-grime your concrete patio or driveway with these tools. They are great for worksites where you accumulate lots of associated debris, or maybe light yard waste. Again, the fact that you can carry a water container with you to a remote area where water is otherwise unavailable will undoubtedly appeal to some people. Don't worry about your batteries. These cordless tool versions have a built-in housing to protect that sensitive electronics area from direct water exposure. All things considered, this guy ticked enough of the right boxes to come out on top as the best pressure washer. The assembly is easy enough out of the box, and the power washer itself is heavier (no plastic frame pieces) and sits low to the ground, giving it a solid feel. Of all the units I tested, this one felt the most balanced to me as I moved it around. Enough of the others felt unbalanced or wobbly for this to be a determining factor. It's priced just below the overall average price of all units I tested, and that says something since its water pressure output and engine size are among the top specs overall. The spray wand is nothing special, but tool storage is fine, and it ships with all five standard spray gun tips (not all of them do). There is also an attached detergent tank, which I think is great, even though I don't often use detergent with my gas washer. This specific model is no longer available at Tacklife, but one with what may be the same build (and same specs) is available through The Home Depot as a Simpson PowerShot-branded model. Other units we've tested Here is a list of the other washers I've tested to date, in no particular order: How we test pressure washers Testing pressure washers isn't an exact science. Mostly I sprayed stuff. A lot of stuff. The evaluation started when I opened each box. A couple of the pressure washers were packed so well you'd think they were solid gold, and for a couple of others, I'm surprised there weren't more broken pieces than I ended up with (which was just a couple of small plastic covers). I then had to assemble each washer from the pressure hose to the wand nozzle tip. I like to assemble things so that part of the process wasn't so bad. There aren't too many surprises when it comes to pressure washer builds. It's either going to be an upright gas-powered pressure washer cart or a low and wide (and usually heavier) type of model. For the electric models, assembly was generally more complete out of the box. Usually just a couple of plastic covers or handles to attach. I like the integrated hose reel on this unit. As well, I'm a fan of the spray wand dock with the additional tip support at the bottom of the unit. All but a couple of the units made good use of current efficiencies in the assembly process, such as spring-loaded pins or other geometrically snapping pieces. The outlier, from the lesser-known brand Teande, still relied on bolts and lock nuts for everything. It came with a screwdriver and wrenches, but I still spent as long assembling that one washer as I did all the others combined. The Rock&Rocker electric unit also relied largely on physical screws for assembly. My favorite thing about this unit is its ability to effectively store and transport all of its pieces. Shown here are the spray nozzle tips with integrated storage on the spray nozzle handle. The next thing I looked for was how they handled the different pressure nozzle tip types. A big contention point for me is when a manufacturer decides to offer less than the five standard nozzle tips. It's often the yellow 15-degree tip that gets bumped, and for me, that's the money tip. I have lots of concrete outside of my house and using anything other than a yellow tip would take me forever to finish. The yellow tip is probably the one I use the most overall, not just for concrete. Yes, I'm aware you can buy one for a few bucks, but they probably only cost a few cents to make. A major note on this topic: For electric pressure washers, the standard seems to be offering the turbo tip and two to three other tips, almost always excluding the red tip. This is likely due to the normally lower-than-gas-models' psi range, but I still like the options, even at the lower pressure ranges. I was excited when I reached this point with the Ryobi gas-powered pressure washer and its five-in-one nozzle design. Imagine all five tips being available at all times. My excitement faded when I realized that Ryobi, like so many others, had neglected the 15-degree tip and in its place had a second soap and detergent surface cleaner nozzle. Plus one bonus point for a five-in-one. It lost one point for no 15-degree option, plus it lost 10 points for getting my hopes up. The Craftsman CMCPW250D1 comes with a five-in-one tip that includes the 0, 15, 25, 40 and soap tips. Speaking of surface cleaner soap and detergents, they've gotta go somewhere, and the best place is an onboard reservoir. I don't often use detergents with my pressure washer. When I do, and when I need to move, it's annoying to deal with the hose (even when the washer has a hose reel), the spray nozzle wand, the bucket of detergent and the high-pressure washer itself. With an onboard reservoir, you can just move the gas pressure washer while still holding the wand, letting the pressure washer hose drag behind you. I love the simple efficiency of it. The Teande was on my bad side after the assembly process, but I did like that it tried including two detergent reservoirs, each separately controlled. The Teande's double reservoir. Having two separate reservoirs allows you to load two different types of detergent simultaneously. This is handy if you have varied hard surfaces you're trying to clean, and need to switch back and forth. Otherwise, with a single reservoir, you'd be forced to deplete the first detergent entirely before loading the second. The rest is really just an inventory game. All the models have power washer hoses and spray wands. As previously mentioned, only the DeWalt stood out in those categories. They all have wheels, varying engine sizes, extra parts, oil and so on. The Craftsman did have one unique feature that I liked: a rope guide for the engine pull cord that moved the resting spot for the pull handle up above the engine on the frame closer to you if you were standing behind it. After so many hours of dealing with pressure washers, I was happy not to have to bend over quite as far to start this one. Performance With each washer, I used multiple nozzle tip varieties for each activity. I started with a section of concrete driveway. The green tips were often too light to get the surface as clean as it could be. The red tips, although effective, only clean a small area at a time. Enter the yellow tip, which provides a great balance of focused pressure and spray width. Although there's only a difference of a few hundred psi between most of these washers, there were occasionally noticeable differences between them when I used the same tip. My best guess is there's a difference in the manufacturing of the tips themselves. The most consistent tip is the 0-degree red tip. With so little room for variance, the red tip felt the most consistent between units overall. Every washer was an appropriate surface cleaner for the concrete, but it was most difficult for the ones that left out a 15-degree tip (so you then had to rely on the red tip). Here you can see the width of the fan made by the yellow 15-degree tip versus the 0-degree red tip. After the driveway test, I ran each washer through a gauntlet: where the large concrete slabs meet each other to form my driveway, I've let the happy little weeds grow in anticipation of this day. No weed was a match for any pressure washer with a red tip until you get to the electric units. Their lower psi means they will struggle with some of the tougher weeds. I had a couple of wood options to try out. The first was a hardwood-based plywood. The second was a section of 1x12 construction-grade lumber (mostly pine around these parts, I believe). One thing I can tell you: Never use a red tip on wood. The jet spray rips through it like a tiny tornado. Once I backed down to the yellow tip, it was interesting to see how the water could bring back a fresh-cut appearance. Even the yellow tip will begin to skin these boards if you hold it in place for longer than a second or two. Most other tips are appropriate for wood applications. The bigger surprise for me came with vinyl siding. I staged a small wall with some basic (read: cheap) vinyl siding. I was excited for the carnage to come, but it never did. I tried to damage that siding -- 4,200 psi with a red tip at point-blank, the best I had -- but there wasn't a scratch. Pressure washers are wonderful options for cleaning vinyl siding; they are so much faster and more efficient than any manual method. I'd always worried about accidentally chewing through the siding if I got too close or chose the wrong tip, but my concern was misplaced. I still wouldn't recommend going after your siding with a red tip, but most anything else should be fine if you follow the manufacturer's guidelines. Pressure washer FAQs The answer partially depends on what level of cleaning you're looking for. If you have maybe yard clippings or other loose dirt and/or particles that you're looking to remove, almost any pressure washer will do the trick. If you're looking to revitalize your concrete and brighten the color by removing that baked-in grime, you want to look for something over 2,000 psi. You can get the job done at or just below that number, but it will take a bit longer. 2K+ will speed the process up. Look into using a turbo rather than a standard tip, or even an aftermarket concrete cleaner attachment for pressure washers to make it go even faster. A pressure washer uses water at ground temperature. A power washer uses a heating element to heat the water before spraying it out. Because of the heat, power washers are more suited to removing stains containing living bacteria, like mold. Most residential washers are pressure washers and not power washers. For a gas pressure washer, add a fuel stabilizer following the instructions in your manual. Also, follow the manual for instructions on how to clear any detergent. Finally, run a pressure washer pump saver through your washer by connecting it to the hose inlet. The engine doesn't need to run during this step, nor does the spray wand or high-pressure hose need to be connected. Once you see the white foam coming from the high-pressure hose connection, you're done. For an electric pressure washer, you can omit the fuel stabilizer step. You can use almost any type of liquid soap or detergent with a pressure washer, although there are pressure washer-specific detergents for jobs of all types. Your pressure washer will have a siphon hose or basin of some type, which you fill with the desired soap. Make sure any detergent cutoff valves are on, and then you can run the pressure washer as you normally would. If you're planning on using a pressure washer regularly, here are a few tips. Know what your target uses will be. Plan your purchase around those. For me, that includes looking at aftermarket tips. There are a lot of options out there to make your life easier. Detergents can help. If in doubt, start with the white 40-degree tip and work your way up. Wear protective gear. Consider other upgrades if you'll be spending lots of time behind the spray, such as a new wand or high-pressure hose. Also, if you're new to the game, check out my beginner's guide to pressure washing .AI is a game changer for students with disabilities. Schools are still learning to harness it
Why Monday is the most dangerous day on a building siteFor Makenzie Gilkison, spelling is such a struggle that a word like rhinoceros might come out as “rineanswsaurs” or sarcastic as “srkastik.” The 14-year-old from suburban Indianapolis can sound out words, but her dyslexia makes the process so draining that she often struggles with comprehension. “I just assumed I was stupid,” she recalled of her early grade school years. But assistive technology powered by artificial intelligence has helped her keep up with classmates. Last year, Makenzie was named to the National Junior Honor Society. She credits a customized AI-powered chatbot, a word prediction program and other tools that can read for her. “I would have just probably given up if I didn’t have them,” she said. Artificial intelligence holds the promise of helping countless other students with a range of visual, speech, language and hearing impairments to execute tasks that come easily to others. Schools everywhere have been wrestling with how and where to incorporate AI , but many are fast-tracking applications for students with disabilities. Getting the latest technology into the hands of students with disabilities is a priority for the U.S. Education Department, which has told schools they must consider whether students need tools like text-to-speech and alternative communication devices. New rules from the Department of Justice also will require schools and other government entities to make apps and online content accessible to those with disabilities. There is concern about how to ensure students using it — including those with disabilities — are still learning. Students can use artificial intelligence to summarize jumbled thoughts into an outline, summarize complicated passages, or even translate Shakespeare into common English. And computer-generated voices that can read passages for visually impaired and dyslexic students are becoming less robotic and more natural. “I’m seeing that a lot of students are kind of exploring on their own, almost feeling like they’ve found a cheat code in a video game,” said Alexis Reid, an educational therapist in the Boston area who works with students with learning disabilities. But in her view, it is far from cheating : “We’re meeting students where they are.” Ben Snyder, a 14-year-old freshman from Larchmont, New York, who was recently diagnosed with a learning disability, has been increasingly using AI to help with homework. “Sometimes in math, my teachers will explain a problem to me, but it just makes absolutely no sense,” he said. “So if I plug that problem into AI, it’ll give me multiple different ways of explaining how to do that.” He likes a program called Question AI. Earlier in the day, he asked the program to help him write an outline for a book report — a task he completed in 15 minutes that otherwise would have taken him an hour and a half because of his struggles with writing and organization. But he does think using AI to write the whole report crosses a line. “That’s just cheating,” Ben said. Schools have been trying to balance the technology’s benefits against the risk that it will do too much. If a special education plan sets reading growth as a goal, the student needs to improve that skill. AI can’t do it for them, said Mary Lawson, general counsel at the Council of the Great City Schools. But the technology can help level the playing field for students with disabilities, said Paul Sanft, director of a Minnesota-based center where families can try out different assistive technology tools and borrow devices. “There are definitely going to be people who use some of these tools in nefarious ways. That’s always going to happen,” Sanft said. “But I don’t think that’s the biggest concern with people with disabilities, who are just trying to do something that they couldn’t do before.” Another risk is that AI will track students into less rigorous courses of study. And, because it is so good at identifying patterns , AI might be able to figure out a student has a disability. Having that disclosed by AI and not the student or their family could create ethical dilemmas, said Luis Pérez, the disability and digital inclusion lead at CAST, formerly the Center for Applied Specialized Technology. Schools are using the technology to help students who struggle academically, even if they do not qualify for special education services. In Iowa, a new law requires students deemed not proficient — about a quarter of them — to get an individualized reading plan. As part of that effort, the state’s education department spent $3 million on an AI-driven personalized tutoring program. When students struggle, a digital avatar intervenes. More AI tools are coming soon. The U.S. National Science Foundation is funding AI research and development. One firm is developing tools to help children with speech and language difficulties. Called the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education, it is headquartered at the University of Buffalo, which did pioneering work on handwriting recognition that helped the U.S. Postal Service save hundreds of millions of dollars by automating processing. “We are able to solve the postal application with very high accuracy. When it comes to children’s handwriting, we fail very badly,” said Venu Govindaraju, the director of the institute. He sees it as an area that needs more work, along with speech-to-text technology, which isn’t as good at understanding children’s voices, particularly if there is a speech impediment. Sorting through the sheer number of programs developed by education technology companies can be a time-consuming challenge for schools. Richard Culatta, CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education, said the nonprofit launched an effort this fall to make it easier for districts to vet what they are buying and ensure it is accessible. Makenzie wishes some of the tools were easier to use. Sometimes a feature will inexplicably be turned off, and she will be without it for a week while the tech team investigates. The challenges can be so cumbersome that some students resist the technology entirely. But Makenzie’s mother, Nadine Gilkison, who works as a technology integration supervisor at Franklin Township Community School Corporation in Indiana, said she sees more promise than downside. In September, her district rolled out chatbots to help special education students in high school. She said teachers, who sometimes struggled to provide students the help they needed, became emotional when they heard about the program. Until now, students were reliant on someone to help them, unable to move ahead on their own. “Now we don’t need to wait anymore,” she said. This story corrects that Pérez works for CAST, formerly the Center for Applied Specialized Technology, not the Center for Accessible Technology. The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org . Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
OKLAHOMA ST. (4-2) Jennings 2-3 5-6 11, Ousmane 3-8 5-8 11, Brantley 2-5 5-6 9, Davis 0-0 0-0 0, Thompson 1-9 5-7 7, Avery 5-11 3-4 15, Dean 5-8 2-2 13, Newman 1-3 2-2 4, Keller 1-2 2-4 5, Suemnick 1-1 1-2 3. Totals 21-50 30-41 78. NEVADA (6-1) T.Coleman 2-9 2-2 6, Davidson 9-16 4-7 23, Love 5-5 1-2 11, DuSell 3-5 0-0 8, Sanders 7-10 10-13 27, Rolison 1-3 0-0 3, Hymes 2-3 0-0 4, McBride 2-3 0-1 4, Bailey 2-2 0-0 4. Totals 33-56 17-25 90. Halftime_Nevada 40-33. 3-Point Goals_Oklahoma St. 6-21 (Jennings 2-3, Avery 2-8, Dean 1-2, Keller 1-2, Newman 0-2, Thompson 0-4), Nevada 7-18 (Sanders 3-5, DuSell 2-4, Rolison 1-2, Davidson 1-4, T.Coleman 0-3). Fouled Out_Davis, Rolison. Rebounds_Oklahoma St. 27 (Ousmane 6), Nevada 31 (T.Coleman, McBride 6). Assists_Oklahoma St. 8 (Brantley 3), Nevada 14 (T.Coleman 8). Total Fouls_Oklahoma St. 23, Nevada 26.How a blunder in Netflix's Squid Game Season 2 created a chaos that nearly ‘ruined a woman’s life’
NEW YORK (AP) — What a wonderful year 2024 has been for investors. U.S. stocks ripped higher and carried the S&P 500 to records as the economy kept growing and the Federal Reserve began cutting interest rates. The year featured many familiar winners, such as Big Tech, which got even bigger as their stock prices kept growing . But it wasn't just Apple, Nvidia and the like. Bitcoin , gold and other investments also drove higher. Here's a look at some of the numbers that defined the year. All are as of Dec. 20. Remember when President Bill Clinton got impeached or when baseball's Mark McGwire hit his 70th home run against the Montreal Expos? That was the last time the U.S. stock market closed out a second straight year with a leap of at least 20%, something the S&P 500 is on track to do again this year. The index has climbed 24.3% so far this year, not including dividends, following last year's spurt of 24.2%. The number of all-time highs the S&P 500 has set so far this year. The first came early, on Jan. 19, when the index capped a two-year comeback from the swoon caused by high inflation and worries that high interest rates instituted by the Federal Reserve to combat it would create a recession. But the index was methodical through the rest of the year, setting a record in every month outside of April and August, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. The latest came on Dec. 6. The number of times the Federal Reserve has cut its main interest rate this year from a two-decade high, offering some relief to the economy. Expectations for those cuts, along with hopes for more in 2025, were a big reason the U.S. stock market has been so successful this year. The 1 percentage point of cuts, though, is still short of the 1.5 percentage points that many traders were forecasting for 2024 at the start of the year. The Fed disappointed investors in December when it said it may cut rates just two more times in 2025, fewer than it had earlier expected. That’s how many points the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by the day after Election Day, as investors made bets on what Donald Trump’s return to the White House will mean for the economy and the world . The more widely followed S&P 500 soared 2.5% for its best day in nearly two years. Aside from bitcoin, stocks of banks and smaller winners were also perceived to be big winners. The bump has since diminished amid worries that Trump’s policies could also send inflation higher. The level that bitcoin topped to set a record above $108,000 this past month. It's been climbing as interest rates come down, and it got a particularly big boost following Trump's election. He's turned around and become a fan of crypto, and he's named a former regulator who’s seen as friendly to digital currencies as the next chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, replacing someone who critics said was overly aggressive in his oversight. Bitcoin was below $17,000 just two years ago following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. Gold's rise for the year, as it also hit records and had as strong a run as U.S. stocks. Wars around the world have helped drive demand for investments seen as safe, such as gold. It's also benefited from the Fed's cut to interest rates. When bonds are paying less in interest, they pull away fewer potential buyers from gold, which pays investors nothing. It's a favorite number of Elon Musk, and it's also a threshold that Tesla's stock price passed in December as it set a record. The number has a long history among marijuana devotees, and Musk famously said in 2018 that he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share . Tesla soared this year, up from less than $250 at the start, in part because of expectations that Musk's close relationship with Trump could benefit the company. That's how much revenue Nvidia made in the nine months through Oct. 27, showing how the artificial-intelligence frenzy is creating mountains of cash. Nvidia's chips are driving much of the move into AI, and its revenue through the last nine months catapulted from less than $39 billion the year before. Such growth has boosted Nvidia's worth to more than $3 trillion in total. GameStop’s gain on May 13 after Keith Gill, better known as “Roaring Kitty,” appeared online for the first time in three years to support the video game retailer’s stock, which he helped rocket to unimaginable heights during the “ meme stock craze ” in 2021. Several other meme stocks also jumped following his post in May on the social platform X, including AMC Entertainment. Gill later disclosed a sizeable stake in the online pet products retailer Chewy, but he sold all of his holdings by late October . That's how much the U.S. economy grew, at annualized seasonally adjusted rates, in each of the three first quarters of this year. Such growth blew past what many pessimists were expecting when inflation was topping 9% in the summer of 2022. The fear was that the medicine prescribed by the Fed to beat high inflation — high interest rates — would create a recession. Households at the lower end of the income spectrum in particular are feeling pain now, as they contend with still-high prices. But the overall economy has remained remarkably resilient. This is the vacancy rate for U.S. office buildings — an all-time high — through the first three quarters of 2024, according to data from Moody's. The fact the rate held steady for most of the year was something of a win for office building owners, given that it had marched up steadily from 16.8% in the fourth quarter of 2019. Demand for office space weakened as the pandemic led to the popularization of remote work. That's the total number of previously occupied homes sold nationally through the first 11 months of 2024. Sales would have to surge 20% year-over-year in December for 2024's home sales to match the 4.09 million existing homes sold in 2023, a nearly 30-year low. The U.S. housing market has been in a sales slump dating back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. A shortage of homes for sale and elevated mortgage rates have discouraged many would-be homebuyers.
Xore’s Boxray on-stream analysers provide fast and accurate on-line elemental analysis on slurry, electrolyte, leaching solutions or even process water. The company’s X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) measurement concept with established good properties, combined with the latest detector technology is the foundation for the analysers’ performance. With proven technology and high availability, the Boxray analysers let the customer focus on process control, productivity and profitability. State-of-the-art, on-stream analysers for mining projects The Boxray 24 on-stream analyser can measure 24 sample streams in eight minutes with the same accuracy and repeatability as slower systems. All sample streams have completely separated paths from the primary sampler to their individual measurement cells in the analyser, which eliminates any chance of cross-contamination between the samples. The intelligent sample handling also enables the analyser to measure continuously without waiting for the measurement cells to be filled or flushed. The secondary sampler tanks feature pots for composite samples on the backside. These pots drain the water from the sample to save drying time for the laboratory personnel. On the front side of the tanks there are taps for spot samples. The tanks also have light fixtures to provide laboratory and service personnel with a good working environment. Versatile analyser for high-grade mining samples The Boxray Compact uses the same measurement technology as the Boxray 24 and is capable of handling up to 16 sample streams. It uses two multiplexing secondary sampler tanks handling eight measurement streams each, going to two measurement cells. With this configuration you can keep high-grade samples in one secondary sampler tank and measurement cell, with the low-grade samples in the other. This reduces risk of cross-contamination and is a less complex and more affordable solution than the Boxray 24. The secondary sampler tanks for the Boxray Compact features pots for composite daily samples, which drain the specimen to save drying time for the laboratory personnel, taps for spot samples and light fixtures for a high-quality working environment. The Boxray Compact is also suitable for applications other than slurry, such as monitoring copper content in electrolyte at a copper smelter. For 15 years the system has been used to measure copper content in electrolyte in a de-copperisation tank house, allowing the client to control the de-copperisation process with a high level of precision. If you have a need for accurate online analysis but cannot find a suitable analyser, the company can tailor one for you. Elemental analysis for concentrator plant slurry The Boxray XRF analysers provide online elemental analysis on slurry in concentrator plants. With 16 or 24 samples you can monitor everything from primary mill to waste and concentrate with short measurement cycle time. Monitoring copper content in electrolyte Using the Boxray Compact to monitor copper content in electrolyte is an economic way of achieving full control over a de-copperisation tank house. The data from the analyser can be displayed in the control room or retrieved automatically to your plant control system to create a fully automated de-copperisation process. While primarily monitoring copper content, the user will at the same time be able to monitor content of precious metals or contaminants from the ore, or recycled electronics. Water treatment for mining operations The Boxray Compact system can be utilised to monitor contents of used process water. Using the same principle as for electrolyte, process water is pumped to the analyser and its metal content is monitored on-line. The results can either be displayed in your control room or used for a fully automated water treatment process. The optimised measurement geometry of the Boxray analysers gives very low detection limits and thus allowing these very sensitive applications. By making sure that cleaning reagents are not overdosed the water treatment plant can save money while still being sure that the cleaning process is working properly. A well-functioning water treatment process is good for the environment, but as process water often is recycled to boost productivity there can be plenty of savings to be made from an optimised water treatment process. Elemental analysis of metal in leaching solutions The Boxray analysers can also be used for online elemental analysis of metal content in leaching solutions, such as gold in cyanide leach at high-temperatures and high-pH. The design and materials of the analysers allow them to be used on aggressive solutions where online measurements would otherwise be difficult to implement.Israel cracks down on Palestinian citizens who speak out against the war in Gaza UMM AL-FAHM, Israel (AP) — In the year since the war in Gaza broke out, Israel's government has been cracking down on dissent among its Palestinian citizens. Authorities have charged Palestinians with “supporting terrorism” because of posts online or for demonstrating against the war. Activists and rights watchdogs say Palestinians have also lost jobs, been suspended from schools and faced police interrogations. Palestinians make up about 20% of Israel's population. Many feel forced to self-censor out of fear of being jailed and further marginalized in society. Others still find ways to dissent, but carefully. Israel's National Security Ministry counters that, “Freedom of speech is not the freedom to incite.” Israel says rabbi who went missing in the UAE was killed TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel says the body of of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi who went missing in the United Arab Emirates has been found, citing Emirati authorities. The statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Sunday said Zvi Kogan was murdered, calling it a “heinous antisemitic terror incident.” It said: “The state of Israel will act with all means to seek justice with the criminals responsible for his death." Kogan went missing on Thursday, and there were suspicions he had been kidnapped. His disappearance comes as Iran has been threatening to retaliate against Israel after the two countries traded fire in October. Israeli strike on Lebanese army center kills soldier, wounds 18 others BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli strike on a Lebanese army center has killed one soldier and wounded 18 others, the Lebanese military said. Sunday's was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes that have killed over 40 Lebanese troops, even as the military has largely kept to the sidelines in the war between Israel and Hezbollah militants. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has acknowledged mistakenly hitting Lebanese troops while saying they are not a target of its campaign against the militants. After Trump's Project 2025 denials, he is tapping its authors and influencers for key roles WASHINGTON (AP) — During the campaign, President-elect Donald Trump had hailed what would become Project 2025 as a conservative roadmap for “exactly what our movement will do." Trump pulled an about-face when Project 2025 became a political liability. He denied knowing anything about the “ridiculous and abysmal” plans, even though some were written by his former aides and many allies. Now, after winning the 2024 election, Trump is stocking his second administration with key players in the effort he temporarily shunned. Trump has tapped Russell Vought for an encore as director of the Office of Management and Budget; Tom Homan, his former immigration chief, as “border czar;” and immigration hardliner Stephen Miller as deputy chief of policy. Trump's Republican Party is increasingly winning union voters. It's a shift seen in his labor pick WASHINGTON (AP) — Working-class voters helped Republicans make steady election gains this year and expanded a coalition that increasingly includes rank-and-file union members. It's a political shift spotlighting one of President-elect Donald Trump’s latest Cabinet picks: a GOP congresswoman, who has drawn labor support, to be his labor secretary. Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer narrowly lost her bid for a second term this month, despite strong backing from union members. They're a key part of the Democratic base but are gravitating in the Trump era toward a Republican Party traditionally allied with business interests. Forecasts warn of possible winter storms across US during Thanksgiving week WINDSOR, Calif. (AP) — Forecasters in the U.S. have warned of another round of winter weather that could complicate travel leading up to Thanksgiving. California is bracing for more snow and rain this weekend while still grappling with some flooding and small landslides from a previous storm. The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for California's Sierra Nevada through Tuesday, with heavy snow expected at high elevations. Thousands remained without power in the Seattle area on Saturday after a “bomb cyclone” storm system hit the West Coast earlier in the week, killing two people. Parts of the Northeast and Appalachia also began the weekend with heavy precipitation. Pakistan partially stops mobile and internet services ahead of pro-Imran Khan protest ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan has suspended mobile and internet services “in areas with security concerns” as supporters of imprisoned former premier Imran Khan gear up for a protest in the capital. The government and Interior Ministry made the announcement on X, which is banned in Pakistan. Sunday's protest is to demand Khan's release. He has been in prison for more than a year but remains popular. His supporters rely heavily on social media and messaging apps to coordinate with each other. Pakistan has already sealed off Islamabad and shut down major roads and highways connecting the city with Khan's power bases. Here's what to know about the new funding deal that countries agreed to at UN climate talks BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — In the wee hours Sunday at the United Nations climate talks, countries from around the world reached an agreement on how rich countries can cough up the funds to support poor countries in the face of climate change. But it’s a far-from-perfect arrangement, with many parties still unsatisfied but hopeful that the deal will be a step in the right direction. Japan holds Sado mines memorial despite South Korean boycott amid lingering historical tensions SADO, Japan (AP) — Japan has held a memorial ceremony near the Sado Island Gold Mines despite a last-minute boycott of the event by South Korea that highlighted tensions between the neighbors over the issue of Korean forced laborers at the site before and during World War II. South Korea’s absence at Sunday’s memorial, to which Seoul government officials and Korean victims’ families were invited, is a major setback in the rapidly improving ties between the two countries, which since last year have set aside their historical disputes to prioritize U.S.-led security cooperation. Chuck Woolery, smooth-talking game show host of 'Love Connection' and 'Scrabble,' dies at 83 NEW YORK (AP) — Chuck Woolery, the affable, smooth-talking game show host of “Wheel of Fortune,” “Love Connection” and “Scrabble” who later became a right-wing podcaster, skewering liberals and accusing the government of lying about COVID-19, has died. He was 83. Mark Young, Woolery’s podcast co-host and friend, said in an email early Sunday that Woolery died at his home in Texas with his wife, Kristen, present. Woolery, with his matinee idol looks, coiffed hair and ease with witty banter, was inducted into the American TV Game Show Hall of Fame in 2007 and earned a daytime Emmy nomination in 1978. He teamed up with Young for the podcast “Blunt Force Truth” and became a full supporter Donald Trump.Chelsea’s surprise defeat at home to Fulham earlier in the day had been an unexpected gift for Arne Slot’s side and they drove home their advantage by outclassing the struggling Foxes. Having overcome the early setback of conceding to Jordan Ayew, with even the travelling fans expressing their surprise they were winning away after taking just five points on the road this season, the home team had too much quality. That was personified by the excellent Cody Gakpo, whose eighth goal in his last 14 appearances produced the equaliser in first-half added time with the Netherlands international unlucky to have a second ruled out for offside by VAR. Further goals from Curtis Jones and Mohamed Salah, with his 19th of the season, stretched Liverpool’s unbeaten run to 22 matches. For Leicester, who had slipped into the bottom three after Wolves’ win over Manchester United, it is now one win from the last 10 in the league and Ruud van Nistelrooy has plenty of work to do, although he was not helped here by the absence of leading scorer Jamie Vardy through injury. It looked liked Liverpool meant business from the off with Salah’s volley from Gakpo’s far-post cross just being kept out by Jakub Stolarczyk, making his league debut after former Liverpool goalkeeper Danny Ward was omitted from the squad having struggled in the defeat to Wolves. But if the hosts thought that had set the tone they were badly mistaken after being opened up with such simplicity in only the sixth minute. Stephy Mavididi broke down the left and his low cross picked out Ayew, who turned Andy Robertson far too easily, with his shot deflecting off Virgil van Dijk to take it just out of Alisson Becker’s reach. With a surprise lead to cling to Leicester knew they had to quell the storm heading their way and they began by trying to take as much time out of the game as they could, much to Anfield’s frustration. It took a further 18 minutes for Liverpool to threaten with Gakpo cutting in from the left to fire over, a precursor for what was to follow just before half-time. That was the prompt for the attacks to rain down on the Foxes goal, with Salah’s shot looping up off Victor Kristiansen and landing on the roof of the net and Robertson heading against a post. Gakpo’s inclination to come in off the left was proving a problem for the visitors, doing their utmost to resist the pressure, but when Salah curled a shot onto the crossbar on the stroke of half-time it appeared they had survived. However, Gakpo once again drifted in off the flank to collect an Alexis Mac Allister pass before curling what is fast becoming his trademark effort over Stolarczyk and inside the far post. Early the second half Darwin Nunez fired over Ryan Gravenberch’s cross before Jones side-footed home Mac Allister’s cross after an intricate passing move inside the penalty area involving Nunez, Salah and the Argentina international. Leicester’s ambition remained limited but Patson Daka should have done better from a two-on-one counter attack with Mavididi but completely missed his kick with the goal looming. Nunez forced a save out of the goalkeeper before Gakpo blasted home what he thought was his second only for VAR to rule Nunez was offside in the build-up. But Liverpool’s third was eventually delivered by the left foot of Salah, who curled the ball outside Kristiansen, inside Jannick Vestergaard and past Stolarczyk inside the far post.Teen actor Hudson Meek, who appeared in ‘Baby Driver,’ dies after falling from moving vehicle
For Makenzie Gilkison, spelling is such a struggle that a word like rhinoceros might come out as “rineanswsaurs” or sarcastic as “srkastik.” The 14-year-old from suburban Indianapolis can sound out words, but her dyslexia makes the process so draining that she often struggles with comprehension. “I just assumed I was stupid,” she recalled of her early grade school years. But assistive technology powered by artificial intelligence has helped her keep up with classmates. Last year, Makenzie was named to the National Junior Honor Society. She credits a customized AI-powered chatbot, a word prediction program and other tools that can read for her. “I would have just probably given up if I didn’t have them,” she said. Artificial intelligence holds the promise of helping countless other students with a range of visual, speech, language and hearing impairments to execute tasks that come easily to others. Schools everywhere have been wrestling with how and where to incorporate AI , but many are fast-tracking applications for students with disabilities. Getting the latest technology into the hands of students with disabilities is a priority for the U.S. Education Department, which has told schools they must consider whether students need tools like text-to-speech and alternative communication devices. New rules from the Department of Justice also will require schools and other government entities to make apps and online content accessible to those with disabilities. There is concern about how to ensure students using it — including those with disabilities — are still learning. Students can use artificial intelligence to summarize jumbled thoughts into an outline, summarize complicated passages, or even translate Shakespeare into common English. And computer-generated voices that can read passages for visually impaired and dyslexic students are becoming less robotic and more natural. “I’m seeing that a lot of students are kind of exploring on their own, almost feeling like they’ve found a cheat code in a video game,” said Alexis Reid, an educational therapist in the Boston area who works with students with learning disabilities. But in her view, it is far from cheating : “We’re meeting students where they are.” Ben Snyder, a 14-year-old freshman from Larchmont, New York, who was recently diagnosed with a learning disability, has been increasingly using AI to help with homework. “Sometimes in math, my teachers will explain a problem to me, but it just makes absolutely no sense,” he said. “So if I plug that problem into AI, it’ll give me multiple different ways of explaining how to do that.” He likes a program called Question AI. Earlier in the day, he asked the program to help him write an outline for a book report — a task he completed in 15 minutes that otherwise would have taken him an hour and a half because of his struggles with writing and organization. But he does think using AI to write the whole report crosses a line. “That’s just cheating,” Ben said. Schools have been trying to balance the technology’s benefits against the risk that it will do too much. If a special education plan sets reading growth as a goal, the student needs to improve that skill. AI can’t do it for them, said Mary Lawson, general counsel at the Council of the Great City Schools. But the technology can help level the playing field for students with disabilities, said Paul Sanft, director of a Minnesota-based center where families can try out different assistive technology tools and borrow devices. “There are definitely going to be people who use some of these tools in nefarious ways. That’s always going to happen,” Sanft said. “But I don’t think that’s the biggest concern with people with disabilities, who are just trying to do something that they couldn’t do before.” Another risk is that AI will track students into less rigorous courses of study. And, because it is so good at identifying patterns , AI might be able to figure out a student has a disability. Having that disclosed by AI and not the student or their family could create ethical dilemmas, said Luis Pérez, the disability and digital inclusion lead at CAST, formerly the Center for Applied Specialized Technology. Schools are using the technology to help students who struggle academically, even if they do not qualify for special education services. In Iowa, a new law requires students deemed not proficient — about a quarter of them — to get an individualized reading plan. As part of that effort, the state’s education department spent $3 million on an AI-driven personalized tutoring program. When students struggle, a digital avatar intervenes. More AI tools are coming soon. The U.S. National Science Foundation is funding AI research and development. One firm is developing tools to help children with speech and language difficulties. Called the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education, it is headquartered at the University of Buffalo, which did pioneering work on handwriting recognition that helped the U.S. Postal Service save hundreds of millions of dollars by automating processing. “We are able to solve the postal application with very high accuracy. When it comes to children’s handwriting, we fail very badly,” said Venu Govindaraju, the director of the institute. He sees it as an area that needs more work, along with speech-to-text technology, which isn’t as good at understanding children’s voices, particularly if there is a speech impediment. Sorting through the sheer number of programs developed by education technology companies can be a time-consuming challenge for schools. Richard Culatta, CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education, said the nonprofit launched an effort this fall to make it easier for districts to vet what they are buying and ensure it is accessible. Makenzie wishes some of the tools were easier to use. Sometimes a feature will inexplicably be turned off, and she will be without it for a week while the tech team investigates. The challenges can be so cumbersome that some students resist the technology entirely. But Makenzie’s mother, Nadine Gilkison, who works as a technology integration supervisor at Franklin Township Community School Corporation in Indiana, said she sees more promise than downside. In September, her district rolled out chatbots to help special education students in high school. She said teachers, who sometimes struggled to provide students the help they needed, became emotional when they heard about the program. Until now, students were reliant on someone to help them, unable to move ahead on their own. “Now we don’t need to wait anymore,” she said. This story corrects that Pérez works for CAST, formerly the Center for Applied Specialized Technology, not the Center for Accessible Technology. The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org .US markets drift to lacklustre close after Fed comment
WASHINGTON (AP) — House passes $895 billion defense policy bill with pay raise for troops, sending measure to Senate.AI companies that develop software capable of creating child abuse images will soon face criminal charges under new laws designed to close a critical loophole. At present, a gap in the law means that people who possess and distribute abuse images generated by artificial intelligence can be prosecuted, but the software developers cannot. Baroness Jones of Whitchurch, the online safety minister, told peers on Thursday that the government would “bring forward legislative measures to address the issue in this session” and that the Home Office would “make an announcement on this early in the new year”. AI-created child abuse images have become a growing problem as software has advanced. Peers have been told that the images are being created on an “industrial scale”. The InternetAlyssa Nakken, the first woman to coach in a Major League Baseball game, is leaving the San Francisco Giants to join the Cleveland Guardians. Nakken made history in 2022 when she took over as first-base coach following an ejection. A former college softball star at Sacramento State, Nakken joined the Giants in 2014 and was promoted to a spot on manager Gabe Kapler's staff in 2020, becoming the majors' first full-time female coach. Nakken has been hired as an assistant director within player development for the Guardians, who won the AL Central last season under first-year manager Stephen Vogt — the AL Manager of the Year. With Cleveland, the 34-year-old Nakken will work with former Giants coaches Craig Albernaz and Kai Correa. Her exact duties are still being determined. "We thank Alyssa Nakken for her incredible contributions to the San Francisco Giants and for trailblazing a path for women in sports,” the Giants said in a statement on Friday. "Her leadership, dedication, and passion for the game have inspired countless individuals, and her impact has been truly transformative for the Giants organization and the baseball community. “As she embarks on this exciting new chapter in her career, we have no doubt that she’ll continue to inspire and achieve great things. We wish her and her family nothing but the best.” Nakken is the second on-field female coach hired by the Guardians. In 2023, the club brought in Amanda Kamekona as their hitting development coach for their year-round training academy in Goodyear, Arizona . Last season, she was an assistant hitting coach at Double-A Akron . Kamekona was twice a third-team All-American at UCLA after transferring from Cal State Fullerton. ___ AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Daily Horoscope, December 30, 2024: Check Today's Astrological Prediction For Your Zodiac SignIs this hollow hub motor the key to epic, genre-warping EVs?Manmohan Singh will be remembered as the statesman who saved the Indian economy from going over the edge. When he took over as finance minister in the minority government of Narasimha Rao in 1991, the Indian economy was very close to sovereign default. Foreign exchange reserves were barely enough to cover a month of imports and the country had to suffer the ignominy of having to ship its gold reserves to England. The looming economic disaster was a result of fiscal and trade profligacy in the 1980s when the Indian economy, both public and private arms of it, had been spending beyond their means. The crisis was a result of a deeper economic malaise in the economy where the post-Independence State-led planning model had failed to deliver and private enterprise had become shackled in what was infamously referred to as the Licence-Quota Raj. All of that would change with the famous 1991 Budget which Manmohan Singh presented, and the industrial deregulation which accompanied the Budget. More than three decades later, there is as big a consensus for reforms in India just as there was an opposition to it when the process started. Having said all this, what have the economic reforms done for India? Here are five charts which try to answer this question as briefly as possible. India is on its way to becoming the third largest economy in the world in a couple of years, and the seeds of India’s growth story were sowed during the economic reforms. World Bank data on India’s share in global GDP (in current dollars) shows this clearly. India’s weight in the global economy declined steadily from the 1960s (earliest period for which this data is available) and reached a trough in 1991. Since then, this number has been on an upward trajectory even though the pace of this has varied in the last three decades. (chart 1) That the reforms delivered growth in India is pretty much an undisputed fact now. The more controversial question is whether this growth has reached the proverbial last person in the line or been hogged by a smaller clique. On this count, one can say that the glass is half full. World Bank data on various measures of poverty shows that India has had significant success in eradicating extreme poverty – as captured by its $2.15 poverty line – even as poverty rates are significantly higher for poverty lines with higher income levels. Here, there is still a lot to be done. To be sure, it is unlikely even extreme poverty eradication would have happened had post-reform growth not generated the revenue to launch welfare programs. (chart 5) Concerns on poverty and inequality aside, the reforms unleashed an unprecedented virtuous cycle of wealth creation in the Indian economy as deregulation allowed private enterprise to exploit the new opportunities in both domestic and external markets. This is best seen in a rise and rise of the Indian stock market almost a decade after the reforms were launched. (chart 2). For instance, replacing the Controller of Capital Markets with the more contemporary SEBI, and relaxing IPO norms, allowed Infosys to list in the early 1990s, sparking India’s equity culture. The strengthening of sentiment vis-à-vis the Indian economy also attracted a lot of foreign capital into India which along with a stock market boom has also provided a much-needed stability on the external account despite Indian imports being significantly larger than they were in the pre-reform period. (chart 3) Does all this mean economic reforms have succeeded in everything they wanted to achieve in the Indian economy? There are important areas where things have not moved, the biggest being India’s failure to give a big boost to its manufacturing sector. The share of manufacturing in India’s GDP has largely been stagnant in the post-reform period even as countries such as China have benefited from export tailwinds via the manufacturing route. (chart 4) With the US and the developed world becoming more protectionist, there is some merit in the skepticism that India might have missed the best period to exploit this opportunity. As irony will have it, the blame for lack of India’s manufacturing progress is often attributed to less reforms rather than reforms per se. But the fact also remains that some states have managed to do much better than others on this front in a similar national policy environment. Even as some economists who have praised reforms argue that India should focus more on services than manufacturing, it is difficult to imagine a bigger source of remunerative non-farm mass employment generation than a robust manufacturing sector. This is one area where the next generation and political and economic policy leaders will have to carry forward the work which started in 1991.AI companies that develop software capable of creating child abuse images will soon face criminal charges under new laws designed to close a critical loophole. At present, a gap in the law means that people who possess and distribute abuse images generated by artificial intelligence can be prosecuted, but the software developers cannot. Baroness Jones of Whitchurch, the online safety minister, told peers on Thursday that the government would “bring forward legislative measures to address the issue in this session” and that the Home Office would “make an announcement on this early in the new year”. AI-created child abuse images have become a growing problem as software has advanced. Peers have been told that the images are being created on an “industrial scale”. The Internet
For decades, power protected Alan Jones. Now he’s facing his own reckoning
Russian President Vladimir Putin taunted the US Thursday by challenging America’s military to a “duel” to see if its defense systems could stop the Kremlin’s new hypersonic ballistic missile . During his end-of-the-year conference, Putin mocked the West’s claims that the new Oreshnik missile , capable of carrying a nuclear payload, was not as deadly as Moscow claims following its limited use against Ukraine. The Russian leader then suggested the US pick a target to protect and see if its defense systems would be up to the task of stopping the Oreshnik. “We’re ready for such an experiment,” Putin said, adding that Western technology “stands no chance.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was shocked by the challenge Putin put forth, telling reporters that it would be crazy for two superpowers to directly test their weapons against each other in such a way. “Do you think he is a sane person?” Zelensky asked reporters at a news conference hours later. The Oreshnik, Russian for hazel tree, was reportedly based on Moscow’s RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile and is capable of carrying either conventional or nuclear warheads . The rocket hit speeds of nearly 8,500 miles per hour after it was launched from the 4th Missile Test Range in Russia’s Astrakhan region last month, decimating a military site in Dnipro. The missile can fly between 310 to 3,400 miles, officials have said, putting all of Europe at risk. Along with the challenge to the US, Putin reiterated threats against Kyiv, suggesting Ukraine’s “decision-making centers” were viable targets in the war. The threat was made after Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s nuclear weapons department, was killed in a scooter explosion in Moscow earlier this week. Kirillov was the highest-ranking Russian official to be killed since the war began in February 2022. Despite claiming to be confident in Russia’s invasion progress, Putin said he would be willing to agree to a cease-fire agreement on the condition that the US do the bulk of the work getting Kyiv to agree. He said he was ready for such conversations to take place under the incoming Trump administration, warning the US that Russia is not in a weaker position to bargain with. “If I ever meet with the newly elected president, Mr. Trump, I am sure we’ll have something to talk about,” Putin said. With Post wiresJennings 2-3 5-6 11, Ousmane 3-8 5-8 11, Brantley 2-5 5-6 9, Davis 0-0 0-0 0, Thompson 1-9 5-7 7, Avery 5-11 3-4 15, Dean 5-8 2-2 13, Newman 1-3 2-2 4, Keller 1-2 2-4 5, Suemnick 1-1 1-2 3. Totals 21-50 30-41 78. T.Coleman 2-9 2-2 6, Davidson 9-16 4-7 23, Love 5-5 1-2 11, DuSell 3-5 0-0 8, Sanders 7-10 10-13 27, Rolison 1-3 0-0 3, Hymes 2-3 0-0 4, McBride 2-3 0-1 4, Bailey 2-2 0-0 4. Totals 33-56 17-25 90. Halftime_Nevada 40-33. 3-Point Goals_Oklahoma St. 6-21 (Jennings 2-3, Avery 2-8, Dean 1-2, Keller 1-2, Newman 0-2, Thompson 0-4), Nevada 7-18 (Sanders 3-5, DuSell 2-4, Rolison 1-2, Davidson 1-4, T.Coleman 0-3). Fouled Out_Davis, Rolison. Rebounds_Oklahoma St. 27 (Ousmane 6), Nevada 31 (T.Coleman, McBride 6). Assists_Oklahoma St. 8 (Brantley 3), Nevada 14 (T.Coleman 8). Total Fouls_Oklahoma St. 23, Nevada 26. A_2,063 (5,100).Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Has Lowered Expectations for Oaktree Specialty Lending (NASDAQ:OCSL) Stock Price
NEW YORK (AP) — What a wonderful year 2024 has been for investors. U.S. stocks ripped higher and carried the S&P 500 to records as the economy kept growing and the Federal Reserve began cutting interest rates. The year featured many familiar winners, such as Big Tech, which got even bigger as their stock prices kept growing . But it wasn't just Apple, Nvidia and the like. Bitcoin , gold and other investments also drove higher. Here's a look at some of the numbers that defined the year. All are as of Dec. 20. Remember when President Bill Clinton got impeached or when baseball's Mark McGwire hit his 70th home run against the Montreal Expos? That was the last time the U.S. stock market closed out a second straight year with a leap of at least 20%, something the S&P 500 is on track to do again this year. The index has climbed 24.3% so far this year, not including dividends, following last year's spurt of 24.2%. The number of all-time highs the S&P 500 has set so far this year. The first came early, on Jan. 19, when the index capped a two-year comeback from the swoon caused by high inflation and worries that high interest rates instituted by the Federal Reserve to combat it would create a recession. But the index was methodical through the rest of the year, setting a record in every month outside of April and August, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. The latest came on Dec. 6. The number of times the Federal Reserve has cut its main interest rate this year from a two-decade high, offering some relief to the economy. Expectations for those cuts, along with hopes for more in 2025, were a big reason the U.S. stock market has been so successful this year. The 1 percentage point of cuts, though, is still short of the 1.5 percentage points that many traders were forecasting for 2024 at the start of the year. The Fed disappointed investors in December when it said it may cut rates just two more times in 2025, fewer than it had earlier expected. That’s how many points the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by the day after Election Day, as investors made bets on what Donald Trump’s return to the White House will mean for the economy and the world . The more widely followed S&P 500 soared 2.5% for its best day in nearly two years. Aside from bitcoin, stocks of banks and smaller winners were also perceived to be big winners. The bump has since diminished amid worries that Trump’s policies could also send inflation higher. The level that bitcoin topped to set a record above $108,000 this past month. It's been climbing as interest rates come down, and it got a particularly big boost following Trump's election. He's turned around and become a fan of crypto, and he's named a former regulator who’s seen as friendly to digital currencies as the next chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, replacing someone who critics said was overly aggressive in his oversight. Bitcoin was below $17,000 just two years ago following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. Gold's rise for the year, as it also hit records and had as strong a run as U.S. stocks. Wars around the world have helped drive demand for investments seen as safe, such as gold. It's also benefited from the Fed's cut to interest rates. When bonds are paying less in interest, they pull away fewer potential buyers from gold, which pays investors nothing. It's a favorite number of Elon Musk, and it's also a threshold that Tesla's stock price passed in December as it set a record. The number has a long history among marijuana devotees, and Musk famously said in 2018 that he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share . Tesla soared this year, up from less than $250 at the start, in part because of expectations that Musk's close relationship with Trump could benefit the company. That's how much revenue Nvidia made in the nine months through Oct. 27, showing how the artificial-intelligence frenzy is creating mountains of cash. Nvidia's chips are driving much of the move into AI, and its revenue through the last nine months catapulted from less than $39 billion the year before. Such growth has boosted Nvidia's worth to more than $3 trillion in total. GameStop’s gain on May 13 after Keith Gill, better known as “Roaring Kitty,” appeared online for the first time in three years to support the video game retailer’s stock, which he helped rocket to unimaginable heights during the “ meme stock craze ” in 2021. Several other meme stocks also jumped following his post in May on the social platform X, including AMC Entertainment. Gill later disclosed a sizeable stake in the online pet products retailer Chewy, but he sold all of his holdings by late October . That's how much the U.S. economy grew, at annualized seasonally adjusted rates, in each of the three first quarters of this year. Such growth blew past what many pessimists were expecting when inflation was topping 9% in the summer of 2022. The fear was that the medicine prescribed by the Fed to beat high inflation — high interest rates — would create a recession. Households at the lower end of the income spectrum in particular are feeling pain now, as they contend with still-high prices. But the overall economy has remained remarkably resilient. This is the vacancy rate for U.S. office buildings — an all-time high — through the first three quarters of 2024, according to data from Moody's. The fact the rate held steady for most of the year was something of a win for office building owners, given that it had marched up steadily from 16.8% in the fourth quarter of 2019. Demand for office space weakened as the pandemic led to the popularization of remote work. That's the total number of previously occupied homes sold nationally through the first 11 months of 2024. Sales would have to surge 20% year-over-year in December for 2024's home sales to match the 4.09 million existing homes sold in 2023, a nearly 30-year low. The U.S. housing market has been in a sales slump dating back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. A shortage of homes for sale and elevated mortgage rates have discouraged many would-be homebuyers.( MENAFN - Jordan Times) LONDON - British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will visit Norway on Monday where he is expected to tout a "green industrial partnership" on renewable energy and carbon capture to tackle climate change. It comes as Starmer's new Labour government seeks ways to meet its commitments to completely decarbonise the UK's electricity production by 2030, reduce emissions by at least 81 per cent compared to 1990 levels by 2034 and become carbon-neutral by 2050. To be formally signed in the spring, the agreement with Oslo would help Britain "seize the opportunities from a new era of clean energy, driving investment into the UK and boosting jobs both now and in the future", Starmer was cited as saying in a statement from his office. Precise details of the partnership's contents were not made available ahead of Starmer's meeting with his Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr Store. At the beginning of October, the Labour government announced 22 billion pounds ($28 billion) in investment over 25 years to develop carbon capture and storage on two former industrial estates in the north of England. Carbon capture, utilisation and storage is a technology that seeks to eliminate emissions created by burning fuels for energy and from industrial processes. The carbon is captured and then stored permanently in various underground environments. "Our partnership with Norway will make the UK more energy secure, ensuring we are never again exposed to international energy price spikes ...," said Starmer. Quoted in the Downing Street release, Norway's Prime Minister Store hailed the agreement as "important to facilitate more green jobs both in Norway and the UK, and for advancing the green transition". The two North Sea countries already have extensive energy ties, with Norway being one of the UK's main suppliers of gas. Several Norwegian companies already have a strong presence in the British market. Norwegian energy giant Equinor has partnered with BP in a number of carbon capture and storage projects in the UK, while Vagronn is also involved in a floating wind farm project in Scotland. The UK's ambition to become "a world-leader in carbon capture" comes despite doubts over the technology's effectiveness at tackling global warming given the costs and complexity involved. It has however been advocated by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA), especially for reducing the CO2 footprint of difficult to decarbonise industries like cement and steel. MENAFN19122024000028011005ID1109014840 Legal Disclaimer: MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.