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lol646m ph Mark Drakeford is preparing outline the Welsh government's £25bn spending plans that will take Wales into 2026. Wales' finance secretary will publish the budget, which impacts the economy and some taxes paid by people and businesses, on Tuesday afternoon. But with Labour just short of a majority in the Senedd, a deal must be struck with another party in order to get it through. Here's what to look out for. First Minister Eluned Morgan made a big admission recently when she called record-long waiting times for NHS care "a crisis". Reducing the backlog of operations created by Covid was the Welsh government's top priority after the pandemic. Three years later - the majority of which Morgan was health minister - and more people than ever are waiting. Health will swallow half this budget, which covers the period up to the next Senedd election in 2026. But Mark Dayan, a policy expert at the Nuffield Trust, says it takes time to improve things. "What I think we've seen, both when waiting times improved before in the '00s and in some of the cautious improvements we've seen elsewhere in the UK, is even once you start to turn things around it takes a really long period of time before the amount of weeks the average person will be waiting is really significantly changing," he said. In October, Chancellor Rachel Reeves gave the Welsh government an extra £1bn to spend in this budget. It puts them in "a different world" after a long period of spending squeezes and high inflation, says Drakeford. Experts at Cardiff University say it should allow for a boost to NHS spending without having to raid other departments. But the picture is not so rosy after 2026, which could create difficult decisions for public services in the not-too-distant future. Most of those services are run by Wales's 22 local authorities, some of whom have issued dire warnings about their finances . Social care, schools, bin collections, libraries and swimming pools are all provided by councils, which get most of their funding from Drakeford. Yawning gaps have appeared in their budgets and it's not clear how some will balance the books . Their leaders argue the NHS cannot be sorted out unless social care is fixed. But the companies delivering care say there's barely enough funding to pay staff the Real Living Wage that the Welsh government wants. Soon they will also have a bigger National Insurance bill as a result of the UK government's Budget . Drakeford is chuffed Reeves has given him more to spend, but every week in the Senedd opponents attack other big decisions she has taken. They include means-testing pensioners for the winter fuel payment and maintaining the two-child benefits cap. The Scottish government has offered to provide help for people affected. Even though the Welsh government does not have the same powers over the benefits system as Scotland, it will still face calls to help people with the cost of living. It does, however, have some powers over tax, including over a portion of income tax and the land transaction tax you pay when buying a home. They could give ministers some more money to spend. Lots of businesses saw their rates go up after the last budget . But hiking income tax would be a huge decision. The Welsh rates haven't changed since they were devolved in 2019. Because it has fewer than half the seats in the Senedd, Labour can't make this budget a reality unless it can convince at least one member from another party to back it in a crucial vote next year. We can expect a lot of negotiation and bargaining behind the scenes, if it hasn't started already. Morgan has tried to up the ante, with a blood-curdling warning about the money Wales loses if her budget fails to pass . Losing votes could also lop 10p off every £1 of income tax, depriving the Welsh government of crucial funds. That might appeal to some, but it would represent a political and financial crisis for the Senedd – and it's difficult to see a government surviving that. Drakeford says the draft of his budget will offer a "bright future for Wales". The Welsh Conservatives said social care needed more funding, as did the NHS "which is at crisis point". Tory shadow finance minister Peter Fox also called for a "root and branch review so that taxpayers' money is well-spent and efficiently allocated". The support of the Welsh Liberal Democrats' sole MS, Jane Dodds, would be enough to pass the budget. Her spokesperson said she wanted more funding for social care, child poverty and rural investment. The last three budgets passed as part of a co-operation deal with Plaid Cymru, which has now ended. Plaid finance spokesperson Heledd Fychan said the first minister should "fight for a fair deal" from Keir Starmer's UK government. "If she fails, then Labour's budget will mean more cuts and NHS funding that delivers ever-diminishing returns," she said.

BRUSSELS, Belgium: NATO chief Mark Rutte held talks with US President-elect Donald Trump in Florida on the “global security issues facing the alliance”, a spokeswoman said Saturday. The meeting took place on Friday in Palm Beach, NATO’s Farah Dakhlallah said in a statement. In his first term Trump aggressively pushed Europe to step up defence spending and questioned the fairness of the NATO transatlantic alliance. The former Dutch prime minister had said he wanted to meet Trump two days after Trump was elected on November 5 and discuss the threat of increasingly warming ties between North Korea and Russia. Trump’s thumping victory to return to the US presidency has set nerves jangling in Europe that he could pull the plug on vital Washington military aid for Ukraine. NATO allies say keeping Kyiv in the fight against Moscow is key to both European and American security. “What we see more and more is that North Korea, Iran, China and of course Russia are working together, working together against Ukraine,” Rutte said recently at a European leaders’ meeting in Budapest. “At the same time, Russia has to pay for this, and one of the things they are doing is delivering technology to North Korea”, which he warned was threatening to the “mainland of the US (and) continental Europe”. “I look forward to sitting down with Donald Trump to discuss how we can face these threats collectively,” Rutte said.Ahmedabad: The world has become a touchscreen phenomenon and youngsters these days are fuelled by instant fame and money, but such a desire is not sustainable, philanthropist and author Sudha Murty said on Saturday. Addressing an event at a private university here, Murty urged the graduates not to chase instant fame but instead develop a mind of curiosity and learn from mistakes while trying new things ethically and legally. “The whole world, for that matter, has become a touch screen phenomenon or syndrome. You touch the screen, you get something, you play or you read... touch the screen, you get the reply. All of you think life is a touch screen. “No, it is not true. Youngsters like you are always fuelled by instant fame and instant money. That is not sustainable. Instant fame, nobody gets,” the Rajya Sabha MP said. She advised the student to remember that life does not run on Facebook likes and dislikes, or followers or influencers. “You have to make your mind healthy along with your body,” she added. Murty said that successful people have worked for several years without fame, and with a lot of difficulties to achieve what they did. The philanthropist said she failed miserably many times but learned a lesson from every failure. “As long as it is right legally and ethically, try new things, and from failure learn new things,” she said. Murty recalled that she learnt the greatest philosophies in life from the poorest people who did not know English. She also observed that children today are not connected to the people, especially the poor. “India does not mean software, it does not mean Bollywood, it is not only money. India means those people who will perish without your help. And you are the catalyst in this improvement of our country,” she said. “Your life after here should be guided by your own conscience. But life is not that difficult. It will not be that easy either. It will somewhere be in the middle,” Murty told the graduating students at the 6th convocation ceremony of Anant National University. Murty, who is married to the co-founder of tech giant Infosys N R Narayana Murthy, observed that creativity is a basic sign of progress and helps cut the boredom of the mundane world. “For creativity, you require great imagination... Imagination should be built up with children, and you can imagine as much as possible depending on your strength. And that you should do at home as parents,” she said. She said there was no shortcut to success other than hard work. Disappointments are also needed in life as one becomes a “soft” person without resistance, she added. Murty urged the graduates to help others saying it gives tremendous happiness. She also said that one should know technology, otherwise one will perish.

However, Trump's emphasis on fair payment within NATO has sparked debate both within the alliance and among US policymakers. Critics argue that focusing solely on defense spending overshadows the broader strategic and geopolitical importance of NATO. They point out that NATO provides a crucial framework for transatlantic security cooperation and serves as a deterrent to potential adversaries. By framing the issue primarily in terms of financial contributions, Trump risks undermining the political and military cohesion that has been the foundation of NATO for decades.

As investors flock to capitalize on the promising prospects offered by the big consumption sector, the A-share market is witnessing a new wave of excitement. The confluence of factors such as favorable government policies, strong consumer sentiment, and evolving market dynamics has laid the foundation for the sector's rapid growth. Companies that are able to innovate, adapt, and meet the changing consumer demands are likely to emerge as winners in this burgeoning landscape.

But the Knicks, buoyed by the strong play of rookie sensation RJ Barrett and veteran forward Julius Randle, fought back and managed to keep the game close. As the fourth quarter began, the score was tied at 98-98, setting the stage for a thrilling finish.

Good news, everyone: My bar mitzvah videos from the mid-1990s are now digitized for the ages. While I have no intention of actually watching them — — I recently received the original tapes from my parents and felt like they were worth preserving in a more enduring form than VHS. I was able to do it for cheap thanks to my USB capture card, which I originally bought to take screenshots of streaming devices for my but which continues to have all kinds of other neat uses. Below, I’ll walk through how to digitize your own VHS tapes or camcorder footage using the same methods, plus a few extra tricks that might make a USB capture card worth considering. The hardware The USB capture card is a thumb-sized device with an HDMI input on one side and a USB plug on the other. Connect the capture card to your computer’s USB port, then hook up any device with HDMI output, and you can record that device’s video using a free program called (more on that shortly). Jared Newman / Foundry Amazon is filled with capture cards from no-name brands for under $20. While the particular one I purchased is no longer available, looks pretty similar, able to capture video at 1080p up to 30 frames per second, or 720p at 60 frames per second. It uses a USB-C connector, but also has a USB-A adapter. (Alternatively, works the other way around.) You’ll also need a VHS player, otherwise known as a VCR. If you don’t have one collecting dust in a closet — or don’t know anyone else who does — consider looking for one at a thrift store such as Goodwill, searching on Facebook Marketplace, or . Of course, most VHS players don’t have HDMI output — including the one I pilfered from my father-in-law’s house for this project — so you also need a composite-to-HDMI adapter. I . The setup, in the end, looks like this: I’m using a Windows desktop, but this setup should work just as well with a Mac or Linux machine, or a . Jared Newman / Foundry The other half of the equation is a free program called , or OBS. It’s often used to stream video game console footage on sites like Twitch and YouTube, but you can also use it to record from pretty much any HDMI video source. Once you’ve installed OBS and hooked up the USB capture card, you can record video with a handful of steps: Jared Newman / Foundry At this point, OBS should display your video when you hit play on the VCR, but only in a small corner of the preview window. To fix this, drag the corner of the video so it fills the screen, then move the video into the center of the preview window. Jared Newman / Foundry Now, you can hit play on your VHS player, and hit “Start Recording” in OBS. Wait until the video has finished and hit “Stop Recording,” and OBS will produce a video file in the MKV format, appearing in your computer’s video folder by default. You can then trim it down with any video editing software (I used the free for Windows) or use a program like to burn the video to DVD. A capture card and OBS aren’t the only ways to digitize a VHS tape. You can also purchase products like or for this specific purpose, or to convert tapes in bulk. But if you already have a VCR, buying the necessary adapters will only cost you about $30, roughly half the price of those other solutions. And in the long-run, the cobbled-together solution is a worthier investment. Once you get the hang of OBS, it becomes a way to record pretty much anything. Some examples: Note that you can use OBS’s “Scenes” menu to toggle between different setups, each with its own layout and capture device. That way, you can have a scene for digitizing VHS tapes, another for recording from streaming players, and another that overlays your webcam, all without having to set up everything from scratch each time. OBS can take some time to learn — I’m still discovering many of its intricacies myself — but : With a little practice, the potential use cases are practically endless. Jared has been a freelance technology journalist for more than 15 years and is a regular contributor to PCWorld, Fast Company, and TechHive, where he's written a weekly cord-cutting column since 2014. His Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter has more than 30,000 subscribers, and his Advisorator tech advice newsletter is read by nearly 10,000 people each week. Jared has a master's degree in journalism from NYU and specializes in making complex tech topics easy to understand, from streaming and cord-cutting to neat apps and useful tech tricks. He is based in Cincinnati, OH.

European Firm Permira Enters US CLO Market as Issuance Booms

Furthermore, the global demand for semiconductor chips has been steadily increasing across various industries, including smartphones, automotive, and data centers. As a result, TSMC has experienced a surge in orders from both existing and new customers, further boosting its sales revenue.Equasens: strategic acquisition of Calimed, a SaaS software expert for private practitioners and surgeonsThe case has gained widespread attention due to the serious nature of the crime and the significant penalties imposed on those involved. "Ba Bao Dan" is a popular Chinese medicine that is believed to have various health benefits, but in this case, it was being produced and sold illegally, posing a risk to public health.

Google announces quantum computing chip breakthrough