Talented Nigerian singer Timaya, whose real name is Inetimi Timaya Odon, was spotted with US star Brooke Bailey The duo were seen boarding a Private Jet in what looked like Nigerian and many fans caught glimpses of them The video has now circulated on social media, sparking comparisons between Nigerian and American girls CHECK OUT: Don't let unemployment hold you back. Start your digital marketing journey today. A recent video on the internet featuring Nigerian singer Inetimi Timaya Odon and popular US reality TV star Brooke Bailey has drawn attention. The video spotted on an Instagram blog, saw the Nigerian music starboard a private jet with Bailey. This comes after US singers Saweetie, Chloe Bailey, Gunna and other esteemed foreigners stormed Nigeria for the holidays. This also follows Timaya's interview, in which he stated that he does not think marriage is for him. The trending clip has sparked several comments online, with Nigerian ladies wondering if artists no longer want to date ladies in the country. Read also Mr Eazi's London Town featured in the movie Sonic 3, impresses many: "E just dey pack am lowkey" PAY ATTENTION: Follow us on Instagram - get the most important news directly in your favourite app! Others also wondered what Timaya was doing with another lady after having three baby mamas and four kids. However, it has not yet been confirmed whether a romantic situation is ongoing between the two personalities. Watch the video here: How Nigerians reacted to clip of Timata Read some reactions below: @baronessebiere: "Lagos BBL girls don cast." @aarti_szn: "Nigerian girls don dey expire for naija men eyes?😂😂." @dbrown231: "Na Foreign OS dey reign? 😂." @perrydtailor: "This one everybody dey step out this December, make nobody sha step on me😢." @peace.edward_: "The real foreign exchange de happen this December." @odoz_hodl: "It’s Bailey’s Season! Expect all Naija babes to change their names to Bailey very soon 😂😂😂." @echay.0: "E be like say 9ja celebs don Dey tire for Nigerian women o. Na away them wan Dey play now." @mercy__grey: "Ahh Brooke is in Nigeria too?" @sweetylyx_official: "This December celebrities no Dey chill with Nigerian babes😩." Read also Portable's baby mama Honey Berry and new man dance romantically to singer's song, tag him to post @yankeesimports: "Naija girls needs to do better." @yvettemsfree: "Not the tasteless left over from Thanksgiving🤦🏽♀." Timaya Intensifies show carries lady In a previous report by Legit.ng, dancehall superstar Timaya got the internet buzzing after a video showed him dancing with a heavily endowed woman. The musician thrilled his fans and audience during the second anniversary of a Lagos nightclub. A trending video showed the Plantain Boy break-out star in vigorous dance steps with a curvy lady who made her way to the stage. PAY ATTENTION: Сheck out news that is picked exactly for YOU ➡️ find the “Recommended for you” block on the home page and enjoy! Source: Legit.ngBEREA, Ohio (AP) — The Cleveland Browns have again restructured quarterback Deshaun Watson's massive contract to create salary-cap space and give them future flexibility, a person familiar with the move told The Associated Press on Friday. Watson has been limited to just 19 games in three seasons because of an NFL suspension and injuries with the Browns, who signed him to a five-year, $230 million fully guaranteed contract in 2022. The restructuring allows the team to spread out the salary-cap hit after the 2026 season, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the team does not disclose contract specifics. The 29-year-old Watson has two years remaining on his contract with an average of $46 million a year. The move to restructure his deal will not preclude the Browns from adding talent at the quarterback position in 2025, the person said. Watson played in only seven games this season before suffering a ruptured Achilles tendon. He's 9-10 as a starter with Cleveland. The Browns (3-12) have been a major disappointment this season after making it to the playoffs a year ago behind Joe Flacco, who was signed as a free agent after Watson suffered a season-ending shoulder injury. Watson had surgery in October and is expected to make a full recovery. While the team hasn't disclosed its plans at quarterback, it's assumed Watson will be in the mix to be the starter next season. It's also possible the Browns will draft a quarterback in the first round. The team hasn't had a first-round pick the past three years after trading three to the Houston Texans to acquire Watson, who was once considered one of the league's elite QBs. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL Copyright 2024 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
NoneFederal prosecutors seek records from company that deployed AI weapons scanner on NYC subway
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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that he wants real estate developer Charles Kushner , father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, to serve as ambassador to France. Trump made the announcement in a Truth Social post, calling Charles Kushner “a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker." Kushner is the founder of Kushner Companies, a real estate firm. Jared Kushner is a former White House senior adviser to Trump who is married to Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka. The elder Kushner was pardoned by Trump in December 2020 after pleading guilty years earlier to tax evasion and making illegal campaign donations. Charles Kushner arrives July 20, 2022, for the funeral of Ivana Trump in New York. Prosecutors alleged that after Charles Kushner discovered his brother-in-law was cooperating with federal authorities in an investigation, he hatched a scheme for revenge and intimidation. Kushner hired a prostitute to lure his brother-in-law, then arranged to have the encounter in a New Jersey motel room recorded with a hidden camera and the recording sent to Kushner's own sister, the man’s wife, prosecutors said. Kushner eventually pleaded guilty to 18 counts including tax evasion and witness tampering. He was sentenced in 2005 to two years in prison — the most he could receive under a plea deal, but less than what Chris Christie, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey at the time and later governor and Republican presidential candidate, sought. Christie blamed Jared Kushner for his firing from Trump’s transition team in 2016, and called Charles Kushner’s offenses “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted when I was U.S. attorney.” Trump and the elder Kushner knew each other from real estate circles and their children were married in 2009. Among President-elect Donald Trump's picks are Susie Wiles for chief of staff, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state, former Democratic House member Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general. Susie Wiles, 67, was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and its de facto manager. Trump named Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of state, making a former sharp critic his choice to be the new administration's top diplomat. Rubio, 53, is a noted hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, and was a finalist to be Trump's running mate on the Republican ticket last summer. Rubio is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries,” Trump said of Rubio in a statement. The announcement punctuates the hard pivot Rubio has made with Trump, whom the senator called a “con man" during his unsuccessful campaign for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. Their relationship improved dramatically while Trump was in the White House. And as Trump campaigned for the presidency a third time, Rubio cheered his proposals. For instance, Rubio, who more than a decade ago helped craft immigration legislation that included a path to citizenship for people in the U.S. illegally, now supports Trump's plan to use the U.S. military for mass deportations. Pete Hegseth, 44, is a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” and has been a contributor with the network since 2014, where he developed a friendship with Trump, who made regular appearances on the show. Hegseth lacks senior military or national security experience. If confirmed by the Senate, he would inherit the top job during a series of global crises — ranging from Russia’s war in Ukraine and the ongoing attacks in the Middle East by Iranian proxies to the push for a cease-fire between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah and escalating worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea. Hegseth is also the author of “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” published earlier this year. Trump tapped Pam Bondi, 59, to be attorney general after U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration. She was Florida's first female attorney general, serving between 2011 and 2019. She also was on Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment trial in 2020. Considered a loyalist, she served as part of a Trump-allied outside group that helped lay the groundwork for his future administration called the America First Policy Institute. Bondi was among a group of Republicans who showed up to support Trump at his hush money criminal trial in New York that ended in May with a conviction on 34 felony counts. A fierce defender of Trump, she also frequently appears on Fox News and has been a critic of the criminal cases against him. Trump picked South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a well-known conservative who faced sharp criticism for telling a story in her memoir about shooting a rambunctious dog, to lead an agency crucial to the president-elect’s hardline immigration agenda. Noem used her two terms leading a tiny state to vault to a prominent position in Republican politics. South Dakota is usually a political afterthought. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, Noem did not order restrictions that other states had issued and instead declared her state “open for business.” Trump held a fireworks rally at Mount Rushmore in July 2020 in one of the first large gatherings of the pandemic. She takes over a department with a sprawling mission. In addition to key immigration agencies, the Department of Homeland Security oversees natural disaster response, the U.S. Secret Service, and Transportation Security Administration agents who work at airports. The governor of North Dakota, who was once little-known outside his state, Burgum is a former Republican presidential primary contender who endorsed Trump, and spent months traveling to drum up support for him, after dropping out of the race. Burgum was a serious contender to be Trump’s vice presidential choice this summer. The two-term governor was seen as a possible pick because of his executive experience and business savvy. Burgum also has close ties to deep-pocketed energy industry CEOs. Trump made the announcement about Burgum joining his incoming administration while addressing a gala at his Mar-a-Lago club, and said a formal statement would be coming the following day. In comments to reporters before Trump took the stage, Burgum said that, in recent years, the power grid is deteriorating in many parts of the country, which he said could raise national security concerns but also drive up prices enough to increase inflation. “There's just a sense of urgency, and a sense of understanding in the Trump administration,” Burgum said. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran for president as a Democrat, than as an independent, and then endorsed Trump . He's the son of Democratic icon Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated during his own presidential campaign. The nomination of Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services alarmed people who are concerned about his record of spreading unfounded fears about vaccines . For example, he has long advanced the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism. Scott Bessent, 62, is a former George Soros money manager and an advocate for deficit reduction. He's the founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management, after having worked on-and-off for Soros Fund Management since 1991. If confirmed by the Senate, he would be the nation’s first openly gay treasury secretary. He told Bloomberg in August that he decided to join Trump’s campaign in part to attack the mounting U.S. national debt. That would include slashing government programs and other spending. “This election cycle is the last chance for the U.S. to grow our way out of this mountain of debt without becoming a sort of European-style socialist democracy,” he said then. Oregon Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer narrowly lost her reelection bid this month, but received strong backing from union members in her district. As a potential labor secretary, she would oversee the Labor Department’s workforce, its budget and put forth priorities that impact workers’ wages, health and safety, ability to unionize, and employer’s rights to fire employers, among other responsibilities. Chavez-DeRemer is one of few House Republicans to endorse the “Protecting the Right to Organize” or PRO Act would allow more workers to conduct organizing campaigns and would add penalties for companies that violate workers’ rights. The act would also weaken “right-to-work” laws that allow employees in more than half the states to avoid participating in or paying dues to unions that represent workers at their places of employment. Scott Turner is a former NFL player and White House aide. He ran the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term in office. Trump, in a statement, credited Turner, the highest-ranking Black person he’s yet selected for his administration, with “helping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities.” Sean Duffy is a former House member from Wisconsin who was one of Trump's most visible defenders on cable news. Duffy served in the House for nearly nine years, sitting on the Financial Services Committee and chairing the subcommittee on insurance and housing. He left Congress in 2019 for a TV career and has been the host of “The Bottom Line” on Fox Business. Before entering politics, Duffy was a reality TV star on MTV, where he met his wife, “Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy. They have nine children. A campaign donor and CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Write is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking — a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. Wright also has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change. He said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight.” The Energy Department is responsible for advancing energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States. Wright also won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm. Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term. President-elect Donald Trump tapped billionaire professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon to be secretary of the Education Department, tasked with overseeing an agency Trump promised to dismantle. McMahon led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s initial term from 2017 to 2019 and twice ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut. She’s seen as a relative unknown in education circles, though she expressed support for charter schools and school choice. She served on the Connecticut Board of Education for a year starting in 2009 and has spent years on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. Brooke Rollins, who graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in agricultural development, is a longtime Trump associate who served as White House domestic policy chief during his first presidency. The 52-year-old is president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a group helping to lay the groundwork for a second Trump administration. She previously served as an aide to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and ran a think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Trump chose Howard Lutnick, head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and a cryptocurrency enthusiast, as his nominee for commerce secretary, a position in which he'd have a key role in carrying out Trump's plans to raise and enforce tariffs. Trump made the announcement Tuesday on his social media platform, Truth Social. Lutnick is a co-chair of Trump’s transition team, along with Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who previously led Trump’s Small Business Administration. Both are tasked with putting forward candidates for key roles in the next administration. The nomination would put Lutnick in charge of a sprawling Cabinet agency that is involved in funding new computer chip factories, imposing trade restrictions, releasing economic data and monitoring the weather. It is also a position in which connections to CEOs and the wider business community are crucial. Doug Collins is a former Republican congressman from Georgia who gained recognition for defending Trump during his first impeachment trial, which centered on U.S. assistance for Ukraine. Trump was impeached for urging Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden in 2019 during the Democratic presidential nomination, but he was acquitted by the Senate. Collins has also served in the armed forces himself and is currently a chaplain in the United States Air Force Reserve Command. "We must take care of our brave men and women in uniform, and Doug will be a great advocate for our Active Duty Servicemembers, Veterans, and Military Families to ensure they have the support they need," Trump said in a statement about nominating Collins to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. Karoline Leavitt, 27, was Trump's campaign press secretary and currently a spokesperson for his transition. She would be the youngest White House press secretary in history. The White House press secretary typically serves as the public face of the administration and historically has held daily briefings for the press corps. Leavitt, a New Hampshire native, was a spokesperson for MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump, before joining his 2024 campaign. In 2022, she ran for Congress in New Hampshire, winning a 10-way Republican primary before losing to Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas. Leavitt worked in the White House press office during Trump's first term before she became communications director for New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump's choice for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been tapped by Trump to be director of national intelligence, keeping with the trend to stock his Cabinet with loyal personalities rather than veteran professionals in their requisite fields. Gabbard, 43, was a Democratic House member who unsuccessfully sought the party's 2020 presidential nomination before leaving the party in 2022. She endorsed Trump in August and campaigned often with him this fall. “I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community,” Trump said in a statement. Gabbard, who has served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades, deploying to Iraq and Kuwait, would come to the role as somewhat of an outsider compared to her predecessor. The current director, Avril Haines, was confirmed by the Senate in 2021 following several years in a number of top national security and intelligence positions. Trump has picked John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman who served as director of national intelligence during his first administration, to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency in his next. Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence during the final year and a half of Trump's first term, leading the U.S. government's spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic. “I look forward to John being the first person ever to serve in both of our Nation's highest Intelligence positions,” Trump said in a statement, calling him a “fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans” who would ensure “the Highest Levels of National Security, and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.” Trump has chosen former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to serve as his pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency . Zeldin does not appear to have any experience in environmental issues, but is a longtime supporter of the former president. The 44-year-old former U.S. House member from New York wrote on X , “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI.” “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water,” he added. During his campaign, Trump often attacked the Biden administration's promotion of electric vehicles, and incorrectly referring to a tax credit for EV purchases as a government mandate. Trump also often told his audiences during the campaign his administration would “Drill, baby, drill,” referring to his support for expanded petroleum exploration. In a statement, Trump said Zeldin “will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.” Trump has named Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as the new chairman of the agency tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband. Carr is a longtime member of the commission and served previously as the FCC’s general counsel. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and President Joe Biden to the commission. Carr made past appearances on “Fox News Channel," including when he decried Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' pre-Election Day appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” He wrote an op-ed last month defending a satellite company owned by Trump supporter Elon Musk. Rep. Elise Stefanik is a representative from New York and one of Trump's staunchest defenders going back to his first impeachment. Elected to the House in 2014, Stefanik was selected by her GOP House colleagues as House Republican Conference chair in 2021, when former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was removed from the post after publicly criticizing Trump for falsely claiming he won the 2020 election. Stefanik, 40, has served in that role ever since as the third-ranking member of House leadership. Stefanik’s questioning of university presidents over antisemitism on their campuses helped lead to two of those presidents resigning, further raising her national profile. If confirmed, she would represent American interests at the U.N. as Trump vows to end the war waged by Russia against Ukraine begun in 2022. He has also called for peace as Israel continues its offensive against Hamas in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon to target Hezbollah. President-elect Donald Trump says he's chosen former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker to serve as U.S. ambassador to NATO. Trump has expressed skepticism about the Western military alliance for years. Trump said in a statement Wednesday that Whitaker is “a strong warrior and loyal Patriot” who “will ensure the United States’ interests are advanced and defended” and “strengthen relationships with our NATO Allies, and stand firm in the face of threats to Peace and Stability.” The choice of Whitaker as the nation’s representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an unusual one, given his background is as a lawyer and not in foreign policy. Trump will nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel. Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel's interests as it wages wars against the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah. “He loves Israel, and likewise the people of Israel love him,” Trump said in a statement. “Mike will work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East.” Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2016, has been a popular figure among evangelical Christian conservatives, many of whom support Israel due to Old Testament writings that Jews are God’s chosen people and that Israel is their rightful homeland. Trump has been praised by some in this important Republican voting bloc for moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump on Tuesday named real estate investor Steven Witkoff to be special envoy to the Middle East. The 67-year-old Witkoff is the president-elect's golf partner and was golfing with him at Trump's club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15, when the former president was the target of a second attempted assassination. Witkoff “is a Highly Respected Leader in Business and Philanthropy,” Trump said of Witkoff in a statement. “Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud." Trump also named Witkoff co-chair, with former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, of his inaugural committee. Trump said Wednesday that he will nominate Gen. Keith Kellogg to serve as assistant to the president and special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. Kellogg, a retired Army lieutenant general who has long been Trump’s top adviser on defense issues, served as National Security Advisor to Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence. For the America First Policy Institute, one of several groups formed after Trump left office to help lay the groundwork for the next Republican administration, Kellogg in April wrote that “bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties.” (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib) Trump asked Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, Trump announced in a statement Tuesday. The move puts Waltz in the middle of national security crises, ranging from efforts to provide weapons to Ukraine and worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea to the persistent attacks in the Middle East by Iran proxies and the push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah. “Mike has been a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy agenda,” Trump's statement said, "and will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of Peace through Strength!” Waltz is a three-term GOP congressman from east-central Florida. He served multiple tours in Afghanistan and also worked in the Pentagon as a policy adviser when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates were defense chiefs. He is considered hawkish on China, and called for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its involvement in the origin of COVID-19 and its mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uighur population. Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner , was a vocal spokesperson during the presidential campaign for Trump's priority of mass deportations. The 39-year-old was a senior adviser during Trump's first administration. Miller has been a central figure in some of Trump's policy decisions, notably his move to separate thousands of immigrant families. Trump argued throughout the campaign that the nation's economic, national security and social priorities could be met by deporting people who are in the United States illegally. Since Trump left office in 2021, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organization made up of former Trump advisers aimed at challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others over issues such as free speech and national security. Thomas Homan, 62, has been tasked with Trump’s top priority of carrying out the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history. Homan, who served under Trump in his first administration leading U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was widely expected to be offered a position related to the border, an issue Trump made central to his campaign. Though Homan has insisted such a massive undertaking would be humane, he has long been a loyal supporter of Trump's policy proposals, suggesting at a July conference in Washington that he would be willing to "run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.” Democrats have criticized Homan for his defending Trump's “zero tolerance” policy on border crossings during his first administration, which led to the separation of thousands of parents and children seeking asylum at the border. Dr. Mehmet Oz, 64, is a former heart surgeon who hosted “The Dr. Oz Show,” a long-running daytime television talk show. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate as the Republican nominee in 2022 and is an outspoken supporter of Trump, who endorsed Oz's bid for elected office. Elon Musk, left, and Vivek Ramaswamy speak before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at an Oct. 27 campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York. Trump on Tuesday said Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Ramaswamy will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency" — which is not, despite the name, a government agency. The acronym “DOGE” is a nod to Musk's favorite cryptocurrency, dogecoin. Trump said Musk and Ramaswamy will work from outside the government to offer the White House “advice and guidance” and will partner with the Office of Management and Budget to “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.” He added the move would shock government systems. It's not clear how the organization will operate. Musk, owner of X and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has been a constant presence at Mar-a-Lago since Trump won the presidential election. Ramaswamy suspended his campaign in January and threw his support behind Trump. Trump said the two will “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” Russell Vought held the position during Trump’s first presidency. After Trump’s initial term ended, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, a think tank that describes its mission as “renew a consensus of America as a nation under God.” Vought was closely involved with Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term that he tried to distance himself from during the campaign. Vought has also previously worked as the executive and budget director for the Republican Study Committee, a caucus for conservative House Republicans. He also worked at Heritage Action, the political group tied to The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Dan Scavino, deputy chief of staff Scavino, whom Trump's transition referred to in a statement as one of “Trump's longest serving and most trusted aides,” was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 campaign, as well as his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. He will be deputy chief of staff and assistant to the president. Scavino had run Trump's social media profile in the White House during his first administration. He was also held in contempt of Congress in 2022 after a month-long refusal to comply with a subpoena from the House committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. James Blair, deputy chief of staff Blair was political director for Trump's 2024 campaign and for the Republican National Committee. He will be deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs and assistant to the president. Blair was key to Trump's economic messaging during his winning White House comeback campaign this year, a driving force behind the candidate's “Trump can fix it” slogan and his query to audiences this fall if they were better off than four years ago. Taylor Budowich, deputy chief of staff Budowich is a veteran Trump campaign aide who launched and directed Make America Great Again, Inc., a super PAC that supported Trump's 2024 campaign. He will be deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel and assistant to the president. Budowich also had served as a spokesman for Trump after his presidency. William McGinley, White House counsel McGinley was White House Cabinet secretary during Trump's first administration, and was outside legal counsel for the Republican National Committee's election integrity effort during the 2024 campaign. In a statement, Trump called McGinley “a smart and tenacious lawyer who will help me advance our America First agenda, while fighting for election integrity and against the weaponization of law enforcement.” Jay Bhattacharya, National Institutes of Health Trump has chosen Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health. Bhattacharya is a physician and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, and is a critic of pandemic lockdowns and vaccine mandates. He promoted the idea of herd immunity during the pandemic, arguing that people at low risk should live normally while building up immunity to COVID-19 through infection. The National Institutes of Health funds medical research through competitive grants to researchers at institutions throughout the nation. NIH also conducts its own research with thousands of scientists working at its labs in Bethesda, Maryland. Jamieson Greer, U.S. trade representative Kevin Hassett, Director of the White House National Economic Council Trump is turning to two officials with experience navigating not only Washington but the key issues of income taxes and tariffs as he fills out his economic team. He announced he has chosen international trade attorney Jamieson Greer to be his U.S. trade representative and Kevin Hassett as director of the White House National Economic Council. While Trump has in several cases nominated outsiders to key posts, these picks reflect a recognition that his reputation will likely hinge on restoring the public’s confidence in the economy. Trump said in a statement that Greer was instrumental in his first term in imposing tariffs on China and others and replacing the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, “therefore making it much better for American Workers.” Hassett, 62, served in the first Trump term as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He has a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and worked at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute before joining the Trump White House in 2017. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The Charlotte Hornets will be without point guard LaMelo Ball for at least two weeks because of a strained left calf. Ball felt discomfort in his calf after Wednesday night’s loss to the Miami Heat and did not play against the New York Knicks on Friday. The team said he will be reevaluated on Dec. 11, which is two weeks from the date of the original injury. Ball has been hot for the Hornets, averaging 40.3 points in his last four games. He is averaging a career-best 31.1 points and 4.7 3-pointers per game for the season, which ranks second in the NBA. He also is averaging 5.4 rebounds, 6.9 assists and 1.1 steals in 18 starts. Ball has had a history of injury problems, mostly to his ankles, since coming to the league as the No. 3 overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft. The only Hornets player to ever receive a max contract extension, Ball has played in just 202 games with 182 starts in five seasons. The team also said guard Tre Mann’s lower back soreness has been diagnosed as a disk irritation. His absence from the lineup began on Nov. 23 against Milwaukee. He will continue his rehabilitation and be reevaluated in two weeks. “They are competitors and they want to be out there on the court to compete and hoop, but they also want to be out there for their teammates,” Hornets coach Charles Lee said prior to Saturday night's game against the Atlanta Hawks. "I just walked past ’Melo as I was coming in here to do media, and he’s like, ‘I’m going to take care of everything I need to do on this return to play program and I’m going to attack it with the right mindset.’ I have all the confidence in the world in our performance staff and in those guys.” AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
Step aside, Moo Deng: Watch this baby pygmy hippo born in Virginia just before ChristmasDon Tacos Partners with Kuusoft to Launch Digital Menu Boards at its First Location 12-27-2024 11:20 PM CET | Business, Economy, Finances, Banking & Insurance Press release from: ABNewswire The new brand of Don Tacos leverages Kuusoft's NexSigns to create an interactive and efficient customer experience at its location. Kuusoft Corporation [ https://www.kuusoft.com/?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=blog&utm_term=Kuusoft+Corporation&utm_content=Don+Tacos+PR ], a leading provider of digital signage solutions, is pleased to announce its collaboration with Don Tacos, an emerging brand. As part of this partnership, Kuusoft's advanced NexSigns digital signage solutions [ https://www.kuusoft.com/nexsigns/?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=blog&utm_term=NexSigns+digital+signage+solutions&utm_content=Don+Tacos+PR ] will be deployed at Don Tacos' location, enhancing the dining experience for its customers. Through its intuitive, cloud-based platform, Kuusoft will enable Don Tacos to deliver dynamic and visually engaging content that drives customer engagement and sales. Digital displays are being used to enhance customer engagement, improve menu management, and streamline operations. However, many traditional signage solutions, such as printed menu boards, struggle to meet the evolving needs of modern establishments, especially in areas with limited or unstable internet connectivity. Kuusoft is addressing these challenges with NexSigns, a cloud-based platform designed to deliver dynamic content reliably, even in environments with unreliable internet connectivity. Omar Ani, the owner of Don Tacos, was impressed by the success of NexSigns at his Basha restaurant [ https://basharestaurants.com/ ] locations and chose to implement the solution at this new venture. With its powerful remote management and scheduling capabilities, NexSigns allows Don Tacos to effortlessly upload and update content all online. Additionally, by using Kuusoft's digital signage solutions, Ani can display not only static content but also animated visuals [ https://www.kuusoft.com/nexsigns/features-editable-animation-system/?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=blog&utm_term=animated+visuals&utm_content=Don+Tacos+PR ] that attract customers' attention. Known for its easy installation and user-friendly interface, NexSigns is an ideal solution for the new Don Tacos location as it provides reliability and seamless content management, allowing real-time content updates that are crucial to driving sales. NexSigns' versatility and offline fault tolerance ensure that the content on the digital menu boards [ https://www.kuusoft.com/nexsigns/digital-menu-boards/?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=blog&utm_term=digital+menu+boards&utm_content=Don+Tacos+PR ] above the counter is always displayed, even without a constant internet connection. This partnership shows Kuusoft's commitment to delivering customized digital signage solutions that empower businesses to enhance operational efficiency and elevate the customer experience. Through innovative technology, Kuusoft enables new brands like Don Tacos to stay ahead of the curve, offering dynamic, engaging content that drives both customer satisfaction and business performance. About Kuusoft Kuusoft is a business solutions provider that focuses on software development, visual designs, and creating smarter, easier software for increased efficiency. Founded in 2002, the Burnaby-based company has grown to become a household name with its solutions used by businesses across industries in different parts of the world. For more information on Kuusoft, visit their website or call 604-639-7055. Media Contact Company Name: Kuusoft Corp. Contact Person: Kuusoft Marketing Email:Send Email [ https://www.abnewswire.com/email_contact_us.php?pr=don-tacos-partners-with-kuusoft-to-launch-digital-menu-boards-at-its-first-location ] Phone: 1-866-546-8838 Address:235-5589 Byrne Rd. City: Burnaby State: British Columbia Country: Canada Website: https://www.kuusoft.com/ This release was published on openPR.
New Delhi: President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday greeted fellow citizens on the eve of Christmas, saying that the festival inspires to foster “unity and peace”. In her message, the President said: “On the joyous occasion of Christmas, I extend my heartiest greetings and best wishes to all Indians, especially Christian brothers and sisters.” Calling upon the citizens to imbibe Jesus Christ’s message of love and harmony, she said that the festival of Christmas inspires us to foster unity and peace. “As we celebrate this sacred day, let us imbibe Jesus Christ’s message of love and harmony in our lives. His teachings of brotherhood and the welfare of all continue to light the path to a better world. This festival inspires us to foster unity and peace,” the President said, as per a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique. “In this season of peace, I hope the forces of trust and forgiveness will be strengthened around the world, bringing people closer to each other,” President Murmu added. On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in the Christmas celebrations organised by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) at its headquarters in the national capital, marking the first occasion when a Prime Minister attended the event at the Catholic Church. Many religious leaders from the Christian community welcomed Prime Minister Modi’s participation and said that it was a “moment of great honour” for them. PM Modi also interacted with key leaders from the Christian community, including Cardinals, Bishops and prominent Church leaders. The Prime Minister reiterated the values of compassion and selfless service taught by Jesus Christ, stressing the role of institutions in serving society. Last week, PM Modi attended a Christmas celebration at Union Minister George Kurian’s residence in Delhi, where he interacted with the members of the minority community.NoneThe world you will enter is a different one from the one I walked into when I graduated. There was one aspect of the world of my youth that I treasure, an aspect I would greatly like to see restored: that somehow the society in which I lived and worked was more united, more naturally, unselfconsciously Indian than the one that is emerging today. That all-permeating Indianness is still strong. My principal civil servants, for instance, come from four corners of India. One comes from Tamil Nadu, another from Kerala, one from Punjab and another from Gujarat; and they have all served India in their own ways. The India in which I grew up, earned my livelihood, brought up my children -- this India has meant much to me. I have regarded all of it as my home, and I could not have been at home anywhere else. But in some important respects, that India is being questioned, challenged. My own home state is rent by strife over its Indianness, a strife that fills me with great sadness. Competitive politics has raised caste and communal tensions to a dangerous level in several parts of our country. There is more parochiality in the governments. Politics is ceasing to be a vehicle of purposeful social change. Even industry finds its cosmopolitan character under threat of erosion. This is what I find most disturbing, even more for you than for myself. You have the future of this country in your hands; I would urge you to work to restore its Indianness, its instinctive unity. There is another important respect which requires urgent national attention. I refer to the visible signs of erosion of national self-confidence and to the need for strong corrective action. The sense of confident nationhood was the most palpable characteristic of the era of my youth. Our leaders Gandhi ji, Nehru, Patel had this confidence in great abundance; they had no doubts about the potential of this nation, or about its ability to look after itself. They were, in fact, allergic to dependence and its consequences to sycophancy on the one hand and truculence on the other. The one thing they tried to impart to the country was self- confidence and self-respect. Their influence is still strong, and their example would continue to inspire us to look the world in the face. But it must be admitted that of late there has been a weakening of this feeling of self-confidence. A feeling has grown that somehow, we Indians are inferior to other nations, that we cannot compete against other countries in the global markets, that therefore we must build strong protective walls to insulate our economy from outside competition. I regard this feeling of lack of self-confidence a major barrier to the realisation of India’s immense development potential. The leaders of our national struggle had faith in our nation, and the greatest homage we can pay them would be if we could restore the nation’s belief in itself not simply restore it, but revivify, rediscover, and redesign it. Let me illustrate what I mean by taking examples from the fields with which I know well. Trade and industry Take, for instance, the area of trade. Industrialists in this country are blessed with many advantages that other countries do not enjoy. Our wage costs are very low. Our food prices are generally lower than elsewhere. We grow some of the world’s best cotton at extremely competitive costs. Our raw materials, where it is iron ore or coal or bauxite or bamboo, are available at throwaway prices. But even with these advantages, the idea of our industry competing with industry abroad encounters resistance. Our import duties are amongst the highest in the world. We are trying to reduce them. We have reduced the peak duties to 110% in the last budget. With this, the duties on some products have fallen to the same level as the duties on their inputs. This appears to some of our industrialists as unreasonable. They argue that their products must bear a duty that is at least 20% higher than the duty on their components and raw materials. But if they made full use of the cheap labour and raw materials available in this country, it is not they but their competitors abroad that should need protection. Excessive protection of industry and import substitution regardless of cost have created a pattern of industrialisation which generates few additional jobs. It has sheltered monopolies and accentuated disparities in income and wealth. Protection entails a subsidy given to the producer at the cost of the consumer. Heavy protection granted to industry has constituted massive discrimination against agriculture; no wonder that the disparities in living standards between rural and urban India have increased over time. Industries and firms may be protected to correct inequalities in competition. If firms are new or small, they may deserve protection until they can compete on equal terms. But they should not become permanent infants. It is important not to equate protection with patriotism and trade with sin. Glorification of autarky can do our country enormous harm. India has a fairly diversified natural resource endowment but it has to be recognised that on a per capita basis we are not well endowed with natural resources. Thus, India has to become a major international trading nation if its development potential is to be realised in full measure. With our manpower, with our natural resources, we can capture considerable share of markets in the world. We can be the world’s leading exporters of tropical goods, textile, steel and engineering goods. With larger exports, we can import materials from elsewhere and become competitive manufacturers of goods for which we do not have cheap inputs electronic goods, chemicals, wooden and metal handicrafts. Export activity would generate production and employment in our own country. We would not need to send our workers abroad to work under arduous conditions: they could make a gainful living in India itself. With a more dynamic economy, the graduates of our institutes of science and technology will not need to migrate to foreign lands in such large numbers. Trade also has political implications. Japan and Germany are major world powers today, not because of powerful armies or lethal weapons, but because of their trade with the world. As the world prospers, they will inevitably prosper; on the other hand, they are so important to the world that the world cannot let them go down. The world has a stake in a country in proportion to its international trade. Our share in world trade has declined from 3% in 1950 to half a per cent today. The result is that the world’s stake in our welfare and prosperity is minimal today. Our country has been in serious economic trouble in the last two years. We have looked for help from outside. Irrespective of their political colour, irrespective of their nationalist postures at home, finance ministers have travelled abroad in search of support. Yet they got very little. The reason is not that the world is unduly hardhearted towards us, but that our importance to the world has diminished. Our place in the world is not measured by the size of our population or our arsenal, but by the goods and services we export and import. India sits astride the busiest trade lanes of the world. All the sea and air traffic between the east and the west passes along its seaways and airways. But little of it originates or ends in India. It is my hope that this trade will not simply pass us by, and that we shall take our rightful share of it. But the world outside cannot be forced to take our goods and services; it must be coaxed to do so. We have to produce the goods the world wants, up to the quality standards that it demands, with the techniques it finds acceptable. This is where we need not only to have knowledge of the world, but to use it in ways it recognises. Our country has imported technologies on a considerable scale. We have sent thousands abroad to be trained. But if we want to learn at home how people work and produce abroad, it is also possible to do so by letting people from abroad come and show us; and one way to get a live demonstration is to invite them to set up enterprises in India. The idea of foreign direct investment generates considerable heat in our country. It is evident that there are large corporations in the world, and that they can play a role in the foreign policies of their home countries. One should not be unmindful of the possibility that their interests may conflict with our national interests. But their power should not be exaggerated; nor should our ability to protect our interests be belittled. Building self-reliance The East India Company had acquired control of a large part of east-west trade by means of a control of trade routes, ports, centres of production and markets. No multinational corporation of today comes close to acquiring that kind of control. Further, the government today has more means and more knowledge to regulate the activities of foreign enterprises in the national interest. This is what independence means; this is what independence should be used for not for cutting ourselves off from the global production system, but to interact with it for our own benefit. And worldwide, direct investment is not a monopoly of large transnational corporations; more often, it is small knowledge-intensive firms that make the most difference. For instance, small Japanese firms driven out of production by rising wages have gone to Malaysia and made it the world’s biggest exporter of rubber gloves. Italian shoemakers looking for new opportunities have provided the backbone of the highly successful Brazilian shoe exports. Mysore and its surroundings today produce some of the finest silks. The most expensive garment in the world is the Japanese silk kimono. Why should not Japanese pattern makers come and make kimonos out of Mysore silk? For trade, technology and investment are not the only things the world can give us; there is a world full of knowledge outside. There are books, journals that inform and educate and with the ad vent of electronic communications, new means of knowledge are arising. The creation of knowledge is a global process involving universities, research institutes, industries and inventors. We too can participate in this Process with enormous benefit. or much of this knowledge is available at costs far lower than we would incur to produce it, and the value that can be produced by using that knowledge is a vast multiple of the cost of the knowledge It is short-sighted to try import substitution in knowledge at whatever cost. It can do considerable harm to our technological dynamism. It can cut India off from the community of nations where know ledge grows in an ordered framework. The successful absorption, assimilation and adaptation of available knowledge is a critical aspect of development It is a necessary precursor to the stage where we can ourselves generate new knowledge. India needs a strong research and development base to emerge as a front-ranking nation in the world We must spend more on research and development. Our scientists and technologists ought to be provided with facilities comparable to those available abroad. But R&D must have a proper focus. We ought to pay particular attention to areas which have hitherto been neglected, where we cannot depend on foreigners to generate new knowledge and where new knowledge can make a major contribution to the enhancement of India’s developmental potential and the improvement of living conditions of our masses. So how are we to regain our self- confidence, to restore our self-reliance? Self-reliance should not mean self-defeating withdrawal and futile confrontation; it should mean thinking for oneself. An essential element in restoring the spirit of self-reliance must be to change the policy environment which gave sanctified withdrawal and glorified confrontation, and to open our country again to the winds of change. Self-confidence comes from practice, from successful adaptation to change; for adaptation, change has to be invited into our country. This is what we have been engaged in doing in our recent policy initiatives. The intention behind the initiatives is not to betray our nation, nor to weaken its resolve for creative self-reliance. It is to broaden the arena for our productive forces, to bring the best out of them by raising the level of challenge, to make our resources more productive and to distribute the fruits of that productivity more equitably. But practice is helped by example, and action by resolve. For this leadership our nation will look to you, to young men and women whom it has educated at much cost. I would invite you I would challenge you to look at the world with frank and confident eyes, and to translate the lessons it holds into a better life for our people.
Best Buy ( BBY ) is preparing for President-elect Donald Trump's plans to implement new tariffs. On Monday, Trump posted on Truth Social that his administration plans to impose an additional 10% tariff on imports from China and a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada on Jan. 20, his first day in office. But American shoppers are likely to suffer higher prices as a result. "I absolutely can see a world where there's more consumer impact because the cost of those tariffs ends up flowing through to the consumer," Best Buy CEO Corie Barry told reporters on a media call. She noted that vendors have "very, very small margins in this industry, which means the vast majority of that tariff will probably be passed on to the consumer as a price increase." Roughly 60% of Best Buy's products come from China, and Mexico is its second-largest supplier, as many companies have moved production of larger items to the country in the last five years. Items produced there include appliances, desktop computers, and large TVs. The business doesn't import anything from Canada. Read more: How do tariffs work, and who really pays them? Other electronics that could be affected include tablets, phones, and some TVs. The news comes as Best Buy is struggling to woo shoppers. On Tuesday, the retailer posted negative same-store sales growth for the 12th consecutive quarter. Best Buy did not specify what sort of price increase would go into effect. Potential mitigation tactics the company and its vendors are looking into include importing products ahead of tariffs going into effect, making decisions around which products it offers, changing supply sources, and seeking to diversify to other countries that might offer viable alternatives. SharkNinja ( SN ), which sells its products at Best Buy, said the company has been diversifying its supply chain for the last five years. "The majority of that product is able to be made today outside of China," SharkNinja CEO Mark Barrocas told Yahoo Finance at Goldman Sachs' Global Retailing conference in September. "We intend to have all of our US production made outside of China by the end of 2025." Best Buy stock is under pressure, falling more than 7% on Tuesday. Year to date, shares are up nearly 17%, compared to a 27% gain for the S&P 500 ( ^GSPC ). Tariffs are a headwind for all general merchandise retailers that sell categories like apparel, furnishings, and electronics . During Trump's first term, companies dealt with Chinese tariffs by eating the costs or passing them on, Scott Lincicome of Stiefel Trade Policy Center told Yahoo Finance. Goldman Sachs managing director Kate McShane told Yahoo Finance that if Trump's tariffs from 2018 to 2019 were an indication, companies are likely to raise prices if more tariffs are added. "If there were to be tariffs, I think it would be inflationary for most retailers. In the past, what we've seen from tariffs is that prices go up," she said earlier this year. Walmart ( WMT ) CFO John David Rainey told Yahoo Finance's Morning Brief earlier this month that the company is "very accustomed" to "living in a tariff environment" over the past seven years. He added, "We're always going to look to work with our suppliers or use our own private brand assortment to try to bring down prices for customers ... we'll have to navigate that environment. Tariffs are inflationary for customers, but we want to work to bring down prices." Nearly two-thirds of Walmart's annual product spend is on items that are made, grown, or assembled in the US. "It's pretty drastic how it will impact earnings," TD Cowen analyst Oliver Chen told Yahoo Finance. "But I think this is all a starting point for negotiation. ... Overall earnings per share hits could be mid-single to high-single [digits], if not more, and the pass-through of the pricing" is what matters. He said retailers such as Walmart, Target ( TGT ), and Costco ( COST ) "have a lot of experience with supply chain," but "customers are probably not willing to accept price increases" after years of high inflation. “Effective trade policies will increase America’s competitive advantages in research, development, and innovation and will protect strategically critical infrastructure," National Retail Federation CEO Matthew Shay told Yahoo Finance. "However, the adoption of across-the-board tariffs on consumer goods and other non-strategic imports amounts to a tax on American families," Shay added. "It will drive inflation and price increases and will result in job losses." Barry said that won't be the case. "I do not see a world right now where we're laying off employees or closing stores as a result of tariffs," she said. — Brooke DiPalma is a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X at @ BrookeDiPalma or email her at bdipalma@yahoofinance.com. Click here for all of the latest retail stock news and events to better inform your investing strategy‘Remains to be seen if I’ll be Taoiseach’, Martin says after election
Browns restructure QB Deshaun Watson's contract to create cap space, flexibility, AP source says
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rose to records Tuesday after Donald Trump’s latest talk about tariffs created only some ripples on Wall Street, even if they could roil the global economy were they to take effect. The S&P 500 climbed 0.6% to top the all-time high it set a couple weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 123 points, or 0.3%, to its own record set the day before, while the Nasdaq composite gained 0.6% as Microsoft and Big Tech led the way. Stock markets abroad mostly fell after President-elect Trump said he plans to impose sweeping new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China once he takes office. But the movements were mostly modest. Stock indexes were down 0.1% in Shanghai and nearly flat in Hong Kong, while Canada’s main index edged down by less than 0.1%. Trump has often praised the use of tariffs , but investors are weighing whether his latest threat will actually become policy or is just an opening point for negotiations. For now, the market seems to be taking it more as the latter. The consequences otherwise for markets and the global economy could be painful. Unless the United States can prepare alternatives for the autos, energy products and other goods that come from Mexico, Canada and China, such tariffs would raise the price of imported items all at once and make households poorer, according to Carl Weinberg and Rubeela Farooqi, economists at High Frequency Economics. They would also hurt profit margins for U.S. companies, while raising the threat of retaliatory tariffs by other countries. And unlike tariffs in Trump’s first term, his latest proposal would affect products across the board. General Motors sank 9%, and Ford Motor fell 2.6% because both import automobiles from Mexico. Constellation Brands, which sells Modelo and other Mexican beer brands in the United States, dropped 3.3%. The value of the Mexican peso fell 1.8% against the U.S. dollar. Beyond the pain such tariffs would cause U.S. households and businesses, they could also push the Federal Reserve to slow or even halt its cuts to interest rates. The Fed had just begun easing its main interest rate from a two-decade high a couple months ago to offer support for the job market . While lower interest rates can boost the economy, they can also offer more fuel for inflation. “Many” officials at the Fed’s last meeting earlier this month said they should lower rates gradually, according to minutes of the meeting released Tuesday afternoon. The talk about tariffs overshadowed another mixed set of profit reports from U.S. retailers that answered few questions about how much more shoppers can keep spending. They’ll need to stay resilient after helping the economy avoid a recession, despite the high interest rates imposed by the Fed to get inflation under control. A report on Tuesday from the Conference Board said confidence among U.S. consumers improved in November, but not by as much as economists expected. Kohl’s tumbled 17% after its results for the latest quarter fell short of analysts’ expectations. CEO Tom Kingsbury said sales remain soft for apparel and footwear. A day earlier, Kingsbury said he plans to step down as CEO in January. Ashley Buchanan, CEO of Michaels and a retail veteran, will replace him. Best Buy fell 4.9% after likewise falling short of analysts’ expectations. Dick’s Sporting Goods topped forecasts for the latest quarter thanks to a strong back-to-school season, but its stock lost an early gain to fall 1.4%. Still, more stocks rose in the S&P 500 than fell. J.M. Smucker had one of the biggest gains and climbed 5.7% after topping analysts’ expectations for the latest quarter. CEO Mark Smucker credited strength for its Uncrustables, Meow Mix, Café Bustelo and Jif brands. Big Tech stocks also helped prop up U.S. indexes. Gains of 3.2% for Amazon and 2.2% for Microsoft were the two strongest forces lifting the S&P 500. All told, the S&P 500 rose 34.26 points to 6,021.63. The Dow gained 123.74 to 44,860.31, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 119.46 to 19,174.30. In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady following their big drop from a day before driven by relief following Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary. The yield on the 10-year Treasury inched up to 4.29% from 4.28% late Monday, but it’s still well below the 4.41% level where it ended last week. In the crypto market, bitcoin continued to pull back after topping $99,000 for the first time late last week. It’s since dipped back toward $91,000, according to CoinDesk. It’s a sharp turnaround from the bonanza that initially took over the crypto market following Trump’s election. That boom had also appeared to have spilled into some corners of the stock market. Strategists at Barclays Capital pointed to stocks of unprofitable companies, along with other areas that can be caught up in bursts of optimism by smaller-pocketed “retail” investors. AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.Amanda Hernández | (TNS) Stateline.org CHICAGO — Shoplifting rates in the three largest U.S. cities — New York, Los Angeles and Chicago — remain higher than they were before the pandemic, according to a report last month from the nonpartisan research group Council on Criminal Justice. The sharp rise in retail theft in recent years has made shoplifting a hot-button issue, especially for politicians looking to address public safety concerns in their communities. Since 2020, when viral videos of smash-and-grab robberies flooded social media during the COVID-19 pandemic, many Americans have expressed fears that crime is out of control. Polls show that perceptions have improved recently, but a majority of Americans still say crime is worse than in previous years. “There is this sense of brazenness that people have — they can just walk in and steal stuff. ... That hurts the consumer, and it hurts the company,” said Alex Piquero, a criminology professor at the University of Miami and former director of the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, in an interview. “That’s just the world we live in,” he said. “We need to get people to realize that you have to obey the law.” At least eight states — Arizona, California, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, New York and Vermont — passed a total of 14 bills in 2024 aimed at tackling retail theft, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The measures range from redefining retail crimes and adjusting penalties to allowing cross-county aggregation of theft charges and protecting retail workers. Major retailers have responded to rising theft since 2020 by locking up merchandise, upgrading security cameras, hiring private security firms and even closing stores. Still, the report indicates that shoplifting remains a stubborn problem. In Chicago, the rate of reported shoplifting incidents remained below pre-pandemic levels throughout 2023 — but surged by 46% from January to October 2024 compared with the same period a year ago. Shoplifting in Los Angeles was 87% higher in 2023 than in 2019. Police reports of shoplifting from January to October 2024 were lower than in 2023. Los Angeles adopted a new crime reporting system in March 2024, which has likely led to an undercount, according to the report. In New York, shoplifting rose 48% from 2021 to 2022, then dipped slightly last year. Still, the shoplifting rate was 55% higher in 2023 than in 2019. This year, the shoplifting rate increased by 3% from January to September compared with the same period last year. While shoplifting rates tend to rise in November and December, which coincides with in-person holiday shopping, data from the Council on Criminal Justice’s sample of 23 U.S. cities shows higher rates in the first half of 2024 compared with 2023. Researchers found it surprising that rates went up despite retailers doing more to fight shoplifting. Experts say the spike might reflect improved reporting efforts rather than a spike in theft. “As retailers have been paying more attention to shoplifting, we would not expect the numbers to increase,” said Ernesto Lopez, the report’s author and a senior research specialist with the council. “It makes it a challenge to understand the trends of shoplifting.” In downtown Chicago on a recent early afternoon, potential shoppers shuffled through the streets and nearby malls, browsing for gifts ahead of the holidays. Edward Johnson, a guard at The Shops at North Bridge, said that malls have become quieter in the dozen or so years he has worked in mall security, with the rise of online retailers. As for shoplifters, Johnson said there isn’t a single type of person to look out for — they can come from any background. “I think good-hearted people see something they can’t afford and figure nothing is lost if they take something from the store,” Johnson said as he patrolled the mall, keeping an eye out for lost or suspicious items. Between 2018 and 2023, most shoplifting in Chicago was reported in the downtown area, as well as in the Old Town, River North and Lincoln Park neighborhoods, according to a separate analysis by the Council on Criminal Justice. Newly sworn-in Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke this month lowered the threshold for charging retail theft as a felony in the county, which includes Chicago, from $1,000 to $300, aligning it with state law. “It sends a signal that she’s taking it seriously,” Rob Karr, the president and CEO of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, told Stateline. Nationally, retailers are worried about organized theft. The National Retail Federation’s latest report attributed 36% of the $112.1 billion in lost merchandise in 2022 to “external theft,” which includes organized retail crime. Organized retail crime typically involves coordinated efforts by groups to steal items with the intent to resell them for a profit. Commonly targeted goods include high-demand items such as baby formula, laundry detergent and electronics. The same report found that retailers’ fear of violence associated with theft also is on the rise, with more retailers taking a “hands-off approach.” More than 41% of respondents to the organization’s 2023 survey, up from 38% in 2022, reported that no employee is authorized to try and stop a shoplifter. (The federation’s reporting has come under criticism. It retracted a claim last year that attributed nearly half of lost merchandise in 2021 to organized retail crime; such theft accounted for only about 5%. The group announced this fall it will no longer publish its reports on lost merchandise.) Policy experts say shoplifting and organized retail theft can significantly harm critical industries, drive up costs for consumers and reduce sales tax revenue for states. Those worries have driven recent state-level action to boost penalties for shoplifting. California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a package of 10 bills into law in August aimed at addressing retail theft. These measures make repeated theft convictions a felony, allow aggregation of crimes across multiple counties to be charged as a single felony, and permit police to arrest suspects for retail theft even if the crime wasn’t witnessed directly by an officer. In September, Newsom signed an additional bill that imposes steeper felony penalties for large-scale theft offenses. California voters also overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure in November that increases penalties for specific drug-related and theft crimes. Under the new law, people who are convicted of theft at least twice may face felony charges on their third offense, regardless of the stolen item’s value. “With these changes in the law, really it comes down to making sure that law enforcement is showing up to our stores in a timely manner, and that the prosecutors and the [district attorneys] are prosecuting,” Rachel Michelin, the president and CEO of the California Retailers Association, told Stateline. “That’s the only way we’re going to deter retail theft in our communities.” In New Jersey, a bipartisan bill making its way through the legislature would increase penalties for leading a shoplifting ring and allow extended sentences for repeat offenders. “This bill is going after a formally organized band of criminals that deliver such destruction to a critical business in our community. We have to act. We have to create a deterrence,” Democratic Assemblymember Joseph Danielsen, one of the bill’s prime sponsors, said in an interview with Stateline. The legislation would allow extended sentences for people convicted of shoplifting three times within 10 years or within 10 years of their release from prison, and would increase penalties to 10 to 20 years in prison for leading a retail crime ring. The bill also would allow law enforcement to aggregate the value of stolen goods over the course of a year to charge serial shoplifters with more serious offenses. Additionally, the bill would increase penalties for assaults committed against retail workers, and would require retailers to train employees on detecting gift card scams. Maryland legislators considered a similar bill during this year’s legislative session that would have defined organized retail theft and made it a felony. The bill didn’t make it out of committee, but Cailey Locklair, president of the Maryland Retailers Alliance, said the group plans to propose a bill during next year’s legislative session that would target gift card fraud. Better, more thorough reporting from retailers is essential to truly understanding shoplifting trends and its full impact, in part because some retail-related crimes, such as gift card fraud, are frequently underreported, according to Lopez, of the Council on Criminal Justice. Measuring crime across jurisdictions is notoriously difficult , and the council does not track organized retail theft specifically because law enforcement typically doesn’t identify it as such at the time of arrest — if an arrest even occurs — requiring further investigation, Lopez said. The council’s latest report found conflicting trends in the FBI’s national crime reporting systems. The FBI’s older system, the Summary Reporting System, known as SRS, suggests that reported shoplifting hadn’t gone up through 2023, remaining on par with 2019 levels. In contrast, the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System, or NIBRS, shows a 93% increase in shoplifting over the same period. The discrepancy may stem from the type of law enforcement agencies that have adopted the latter system, Lopez said. Some of those communities may have higher levels of shoplifting or other types of property crime, which could be what is driving the spike, Lopez said. Despite the discrepancies and varying levels of shoplifting across the country, Lopez said, it’s important for retailers to report these incidents, as doing so could help allocate law enforcement resources more effectively. “All law enforcement agencies have limited resources, and having the most accurate information allows for not just better policy, but also better implementation — better use of strategic resources,” Lopez said. Stateline staff writer Robbie Sequeira contributed to this report. ©2024 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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