Ottawa police say advances in DNA technology helped them find, arrest and charge a suspect in a 1996 stabbing death on the Portage Bridge. At a news conference Monday, Deputy Chief Trish Ferguson said 73-year-old Lawrence Diehl, who was living in Vancouver, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder last week for the death of Christopher Smith. The victim was crossing the Portage Bridge between Ottawa and Gatineau, Que., early on April 12, 1996, with a cousin when he got into an altercation and was stabbed, police said. Smith was later pronounced dead at a Gatineau hospital. Ferguson said advances in , or building potential family trees using DNA, helped lead investigators to the breakthrough. She declined to share more details. While this is the first time Ottawa police say they have found relatives using the technology, it's also been used to help ." Ottawa police thanked police in Toronto and Vancouver and the RCMP. They're also asking the public for any additional information about what Diehl was doing in Ottawa around that time, saying only that he was there for work. Ottawa police said they're regularly reviewing more than 60 unsolved homicides. , they put up a $50,000 reward for information related to his death. Ottawa police, then known as the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Police Service, investigate a stabbing on the Portage Bridge in 1996. (Ottawa Police Service)The Batman Part II: Is the sequel delayed again? Here’s when fans can expect the premiereHere's what Wall Street analysts say is ahead for Intel after CEO Pat Gelsinger's departure
Every single person in his platoon knew someone who was killed. Yuval Green, 26, knew at least three. He was a reservist, a medic in the paratroops of the Israel Defence Forces, when he heard the first news of the 7 October Hamas attack. “Israel is a small country. Everyone knows each other,” he says. In several days of violence,1,200 people were killed, and 251 more abducted into Gaza. Ninety-seven hostages remain in Gaza, and around half of them are believed to be alive. Yuval immediately answered his country’s call to arms. It was a mission to defend Israelis. He recalls the horror of entering devastated Jewish communities near the Gaza border. “You're seeing... dead bodies on the streets, seeing cars punctured by bullets.” Back then, there was no doubt about reporting for duty. The country was under attack. The hostages had to be brought home. Then came the fighting in Gaza itself. Things seen that could not be unseen. Like the night he saw cats eating human remains in the roadway. “Start to imagine, like an apocalypse. You look to your right, you look to your left, all you see is destroyed buildings, buildings that are damaged by fire, by missiles, everything. That's Gaza right now.” One year on, the young man who reported for duty on 7 October is refusing to fight. Yuval is the co-organiser of a public letter signed by more than 165 - at the latest count - Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) reservists, and a smaller number of permanent soldiers, refusing to serve, or threatening to refuse, unless the hostages are returned - something that would require a ceasefire deal with Hamas. In a country still traumatised by the worst violence in its history, those refusing for reasons of conscience are a minority in a military that includes around 465,000 reservists. There is another factor in play for some other IDF reservists: exhaustion. According to Israeli media reports, a growing number are failing to report for duty. The Times of Israel newspaper and several other outlets quoted military sources as saying that there was a drop of between 15% to 25% of troops showing up, mainly due to burnout with the long periods of service required of them. Even if there is not widespread public support for those refusing to serve because of reasons of conscience, there is evidence that some of the key demands of those who signed the refusal letter are shared by a growing number of Israelis. A recent opinion poll by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) indicated that among Jewish Israelis 45% wanted the war to end - with a ceasefire to bring the hostages home - against 43% who wanted the IDF to fight on to destroy Hamas. Significantly, the IDI poll also suggests that the sense of solidarity which marked the opening days of the war as the country reeled from the trauma of 7 October has been overtaken by the revival of political divisions: only 26% of Israelis believe there is now a sense of togetherness, while 44% say there is not. At least part of this has to do with a feeling often expressed, especially among those on the left of the political divide, that the war is being prolonged at the behest of far-right parties whose support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to remain in power. Even the former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, a member of Netanhayu’s Likud Party, dismissed by the prime minister last month, cited the failure to return the hostages as one of the key disagreements with his boss. “There is and will not be any atonement for abandoning the captives,” he said. “It will be a mark of Cain on the forehead of Israeli society and those leading this mistaken path.” Netanyahu, who along with Gallant is facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, has repeatedly denied this and stressed his commitment to freeing the hostages. The seeds of Yuval’s refusal lie back in the days soon after the war began. Then the deputy speaker of the Knesset (Israel’s parliament), Nissim Vaturi, called for the Gaza Strip to be “erased from the face of the Earth”. Prominent rabbi Eliyahu Mali, referring generally to Palestinians in Gaza, said: “If you don’t kill them, they’ll kill you.” The rabbi stressed soldiers should only do what the army orders, and that the state law did not allow for the killing of the civilian population. But the language - by no means restricted to the two examples above - worried Yuval. “People were speaking about killing the entire population of Gaza, as if it was some type of an academic idea that makes sense... And with this atmosphere, soldiers are entering Gaza just a month after their friends were butchered, hearing about soldiers dying every day. And soldiers do a lot of things.” There have been social media posts from soldiers in Gaza abusing prisoners, destroying property, and mocking Palestinians, including numerous examples of soldiers posing with people’s possessions - including womens’ dresses and underwear. “I was trying to fight that at the time as much as I could,” says Yuval. “There was a lot of dehumanising, a vengeful atmosphere.” His personal turning point came with an order he could not obey. “They told us to burn down a house, and I went to my commander and asked him: ‘Why are we doing that?’ And the answers he gave me were just not good enough. I wasn't willing to burn down a house without reasons that make sense, without knowing that this serves a certain military purpose, or any type of purpose. So I said no and left.” That was his last day in Gaza. In response, the IDF told me that its actions were “based on military necessity, and with accordance to international law” and said Hamas “unlawfully embed their military assets in civilian areas”. Three of the refusers have spoken to the BBC. Two agreed to give their names, while a third requested anonymity because he feared repercussions. All stress that they love their country, but the experience of the war, the failure to reach a hostage deal led to a defining moral choice. One soldier, who asked to remain anonymous, was at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport when news started coming in about the Hamas attacks. He recalls feeling shock at first. Then a ringing sensation in his ears. “I remember the drive home... The radio’s on and people [are] calling in, saying: ‘My dad was just kidnapped, help me. No-one's helping me.’ It was truly a living nightmare.” This was the moment the IDF was made for, he felt. It wasn’t like making house raids in the occupied West Bank or chasing stone-throwing youths. “Probably for the first time I felt like I enlisted in true self-defence.” But his view transformed as the war progressed. “I guess I no longer felt I could honestly say that this campaign was centered around securing the lives of Israelis.” He says this was based on what he saw and heard among comrades. “I try to have empathy and say, ‘This is what happens to people who are torn apart by war...’ but it was hard to overlook how wide this discourse was.” He recalls comrades boasting, even to their commanders, about beating “helpless Palestinians”. And he heard more chilling conversations. “People would pretty calmly talk about cases of abuse or even murder, as if it was a technicality, or with real serenity. That obviously shocked me.” The soldier also says he witnessed prisoners being blindfolded and not allowed to move “for basically their entire stay... and given amounts of food that were shocking”. When his first tour of duty ended he vowed not to return. The IDF referred me to a statement from last May which said any abuse of detainees was strictly prohibited. It also said three meals a day were provided, “of quantity and variety approved by a qualified nutritionist”. It said handcuffing of detainees was only carried out “where the security risk requires it” and “every day an examination is carried out... to make sure that the handcuffs are not too tight”. The UN has said reports of alleged torture and sexual violence by Israeli guards were “grossly illegal and revolting” and enabled by “absolute impunity”. Michael Ofer-Ziv, 29, knew two people from his village who were killed on 7 October, among them Shani Louk whose body was paraded through Gaza on the back of a pickup truck in what became one of the most widely shared images of the war. “That was hell,” he says. Michael was already a committed left-winger who advocated political not military solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But, like his comrades, he felt reporting for reserve duty was correct. “I knew that the military action was inevitable... and was justified in a way, but I was very worried about the shape it might take.” His job was to work as an operations officer in a brigade war room, watching and directing action relayed back from drone cameras in Gaza. At times the physical reality of the war hit home. “We went to get some paper from somewhere in the main command of the Gaza area,” he remembers. “And at some point we opened the window... and the stench was like a butchery... Like in the market, where it's not very clean.” Again it was a remark heard during a discussion among comrades that helped push him towards action. “I think the most horrible sentence that I heard was someone who said to me that the kids that we spared in the last war in Gaza [2014] became the terrorists of October 7, which I bet is true for some cases... but definitely not all of them.” Such extreme views existed among a minority of soldiers, he says, but the majority were “just indifferent towards the price... what's called ‘collateral damage’, or Palestinian lives”. He’s also dismayed by statements that Jewish settlements should be built in Gaza after the war - a stated aim of far-right government ministers, and even some members of Netanyahu’s Likud party. Figures suggest there is a growing body of officers and troops within the IDF who come from what is called a ‘National Religious’ background: these are supporters of far-right Jewish nationalist parties who advocate settlement and annexation of Palestinian lands, and are firmly opposed to Palestinian statehood. According to research from the Israeli Centre for Public Affairs, a non-governmental think tank, the number of such officers graduating from the military academy rose from 2.5% in 1990 to 40% in 2014. Ten years ago, one of Israel’s leading authorities on the issue, Professor Mordechai Kremnitzer, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, warned about what he called the ‘religification’ of the army. “Within this context, messages about Jewish superiority and demonisation of the enemy are fertile ground for fostering brutality and releasing soldiers from moral constraints.” The decisive moment for Michael Ofer-Ziv came when the IDF shot three Israeli hostages in Gaza in December 2023. The three men approached the army stripped to the waist, and one held a stick with a white cloth. The IDF said a soldier had felt threatened and opened fire, killing two hostages. A third was wounded but then shot again and killed, when a soldier ignored his commander’s ceasefire order. “I remember thinking to what level of moral corruption have we got... that this can happen. And I also remember thinking, there is just no way this is the first time [innocent people were shot]... It's just the first time that we are hearing about it, because they are hostages. If the victims were Palestinians, we just would never hear about it.” The IDF has said that refusal to serve by reservists is dealt with on a case-by-case basis, and Prime Minister Netanyahu insists it is “the most moral army in the world”. For most Israelis, the IDF is the guarantor of their security; it helped found Israel in 1948 and is an expression of the nation - every Israeli citizen over 18 who is Jewish (and also Druze and Circassian minorities) must serve. The refusers have attracted some hostility. Some prominent politicians, like Miri Regev, a cabinet member and former IDF spokeswoman, have called for action. “Refusers should be arrested and prosecuted," she has said. But the government has so far avoided tough action because, according to Yuval Green, “the military realised that it only draws attention to our actions, so they try to let us go quietly.” For those starting their national service and who refuse, sanctions are tougher. Eight conscientious objectors - not part of the reservists group - due to begin their military service at 18 years old have served time in military prison. The soldiers I spoke with described a mix of anger, disappointment, pain or ‘radio silence’ from their former comrades. “I strongly oppose them [the refusers],” says Major Sam Lipsky, 31, a reservist who fought in Gaza during the current war but is now based outside the Strip. He accuses the refusers group of being “highly political” and focused on opposing the current government. “I don't have to be a Netanyahu fan in order to not appreciate people using the military, an institution we're all meant to rally behind, as political leverage.” Maj Lipsky is a supporter of what he views as Israel’s mainstream right - not the far right represented by government figures like Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister who has been convicted of inciting racism and supporting terrorism, and finance minister, Belazel Smotrich, who recently called for the population of Gaza to be halved by encouraging “voluntary migration”. Maj Lipsky acknowledges the civilian suffering in Gaza and does not deny the imagery of dead and maimed women and children. As we speak at his home in southern Israel, his two young children are sleeping in the next room. “There's no way to fight the war and to prosecute a military campaign without these images happening,” he says. He then uses an expression heard in the past from Israeli leaders: “You can't mow the lawn without grass flying up. It is not possible.” He says the blame belongs to Hamas who went to “randomly slaughter as many Jews as possible, women, children, soldiers”. The imperative of fighting the war has postponed a deepening struggle over the future character of the Jewish state. It is, in large part, a conflict between the secularist ideals held by people like Michael Ofer-Zif and Yuval Green, and the increasingly powerful religious right represented by the settlements movement, and their champions in Netanyahu’s cabinet, including figures like Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. Add to that the lingering, widespread anger over the government’s attempts to dilute the power of the country’s judiciary in 2023 - it led to mass demonstrations in the months before October 7 - and the stage is set for a turbulent politics long after the war ends. On both sides it is not unusual to hear people talk of a struggle for the soul of Israel. Maj Lipsky was packing to return to military duty on the evening I met him, sure of his duty and responsibility. No peace until Hamas was defeated. Among the refusers I spoke with, there was a determination to stand by their principles. Michael Ofer-Ziv may leave Israel, unsure whether he can be happy in the country. “It just looks less and less likely that I will be able to hold the values that I hold, wanting the future that I want for my kids to live here, and that is very scary,” he says. Yuval Green is training to become a doctor, and hopes that a settlement can be reached between peacemakers among the Israeli and Palestinian people. “I think in this conflict, there are only two sides, not the Israeli side and the Palestinian side. There is the side that supports violence and the side that supports, you know, finding better solutions.” There are many Israelis who would disagree with that analysis, but it won’t stop his mission. Top image credit: Getty BBC InDepth is the new home on the website and app for the best analysis and expertise from our top journalists. Under a distinctive new brand, we’ll bring you fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions, and deep reporting on the biggest issues to help you make sense of a complex world. And we’ll be showcasing thought-provoking content from across BBC Sounds and iPlayer too. We’re starting small but thinking big, and we want to know what you think - you can send us your feedback by clicking on the button below.
Ministry of Agriculture technical, cooperative officers undergo drone trainingThis Black Friday OLED monitor deal is the cheapest we’ve ever seen
CITY HALL — Following more than six weeks of bitter debate, delays and an about-face by Mayor Brandon Johnson on a controversial property tax hike, the City Council on Monday narrowly passed a $17.1 billion budget for 2025. Alderpeople voted 27-23 on the main budget ordinance around 5 p.m. Monday, ensuring its passage. In the end, the city’s property tax levy was not raised at all — a dramatic change from Johnson’s original proposal to increase it by $300 million, which was unanimously rejected by alderpeople in mid-November. Johnson then floated a potential $150 million property tax hike before reducing it further to $68.5 million. The Mayor’s Office repeatedly argued the increase was necessary to avoid mass layoffs at the police and fire departments as well as cuts to other vital city services. While the $68.5 million proposal and a slew of other fees and taxes did make it through the necessary City Council committees last week, a potential final vote on Friday was called off when it became clear the budget did not have the support to pass. The vote was then pushed to Monday afternoon, while over the weekend Johnson’s budget team briefed alderpeople on a new plan that scrapped a property tax hike entirely. Instead, the budget will fill that hole by delaying payments on $40 million in debt tied to the Michael Reese hospital site in Bronzeville and saving $2.8 million by cutting middle management jobs across city departments, according to materials distributed to alderpeople on Sunday. Other revenue will come from cutting 10 positions in the Mayor’s Office to save $1 million as well as hopefully bringing in $10 million by forcing organizers of large events to help reimburse the cost of police overtime, according to WTTW . Despite the last-minute changes and elimination of the property tax hike, the budget proposal still features numerous fee and tax increases that will impact the daily lives of Chicagoans. That includes a three-cent increase in the checkout bag tax from 7 cents to 10 cents, as well as a $5 price hike for residential parking permits for neighbors under 65 and the expansion of congestion fees for rideshare trips Downtown. A tax on streaming services will also go up 1.25 percent. The city’s personal property lease tax , which impacts car and equipment rentals as well as cloud computing services, will increase from 9 to 11 percent. That hike would yield $128 million, according to the Tribune . The budget also relies on a 3.25 percent increase on taxes paid by valet parking and parking garage businesses as well as the doubling of a license fee from $660 to $1,320 to establish a “wholesale food establishment,” among other increases. Just over $11 million in additional revenue is projected from adding more speed cameras, according to the Sun-Times. The mayor’s spending plan taps into a “record” $570 million surplus of tax increment financing dollars. That will send $131 million to the city, around $300 million to Chicago Public Schools and the rest split between taxing bodies like the Chicago Park District, City Colleges and others. The City Council had until Dec. 31 to pass a balanced budget or face a potential government shutdown, something that looked increasingly likely as a final budget vote was repeatedly pushed back. But while the budget did finally pass on Monday, many alderpeople — even those who voted in favor — remained critical of both the final spending plan as well as the extended and often contentious negotiations overseen by the Mayor’s Office this fall. Ald. Maria Hadden (49th), who was a “yes” vote, nevertheless had harsh words for Johnson over how he approached negotiating his spending plan — which was passed a month later than last year’s with last-minute add-ons to win support. “How we do things is just as important as what we do, and the way you’ve led this process has left the City Council fractured ... As we enter the next year with the promise of attacks from a new presidential administration, we are not prepared, and the fault lies squarely with you and your administration,” she said. “This budget may have some progressive outcomes, but the process to get here was anything but progressive,” Hadden said. Several alderpeople, including Alds. Byron Sigcho Lopez (25th), Jessie Fuentes (26th) and Daniel La Spata (1st), did offer praise for the budget, especially the compromises made to eliminate the property tax hike and cut vacant positions. Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) pointed to a $272 million advanced pension payment and a 3 percent cut of vacant positions across city departments as proof that the final budget was “fiscally responsible.” “This budget ... will deliver zero [increases to] property taxes, will deliver the things that our residents need,” he said. “[It] will help make sure that you have summer opportunities, will make sure that people have affordable and accessible mental health care.” Numerous alderpeople who voted against the budget plan warned that next year’s process would likely be just as difficult at this year’s — if not worse. “I wanted to see more structural stuff. And I’m very concerned that we don’t have a stronger structural fix in this budget,” Ald. Nicole Lee (11th) told reporters before Monday’s meeting. “I worry about what the ratings agencies are going to say about us not having this.” The Chinatown and Bridgeport alderperson, who voted “no” on the budget, urged Johnson to start next year’s budget process earlier than October, while describing this year’s process as “disorganized.” “It’s been rough. I think it’s been rough on everybody, I think no one, from any perspective, will tell you otherwise, that this has somehow been an easy process,” Lee said. Ald. Bill Conway (34th) also voted “no” and said he was not won over by the minimal amounts of cuts added over the weekend to the final budget plan — or the decision to delay payments on the $40 million in debt for the Walter Reese site. “In five years, the city budget has gone from about $11 billion to $17 billion, and that is not sustainable, and that’s something we need to be looking at,” he said. “Most of this budget is really being balanced with extra fees and taxes, and being balanced on the back of working families. And I don’t think that’s right. I think we can do much more in terms of finding efficiencies in this government.” Conway and Lee were joined in their “no” votes by a coalition of 15 alderpeople who released a letter on Sunday calling for an additional $823 million in spending reductions in 2025. The group is also advocating for additional funding to resume the use of gunshot detection technology ShotSpotter and fund a new Southwest Side police station, among other priorities. Ald. Marty Quinn (13th), who signed the letter, called out Johnson for not supporting the new police station, which could be located at a vacant National Guard armory near Midway Airport in his ward that the state of Illinois has agreed to sell to the city for $1 . The Johnson administration has so far refused to consider using the building as a police station. “I cannot support this budget because the residents of the 13th Ward feel we are working against them,” Quinn said during formal comments before the budget vote. “Mr. Mayor: Southwest Side residents cannot keep waiting for an answer as to why this critical project is not included in this budget.” One sticking point that emerged late in this year’s budget negotiations was over a pilot program known as Plow the Sidewalks that aims to use city dollars to shovel sidewalks in select areas across the city. La Spata vowed earlier this month that he would not vote for any spending plan that did not include $1 million to launch the program in 2025. Transportation and disability rights groups have pushed for the pilot for years, and a working group released a report in May recommending four pilot zones for the sidewalk-clearing operation. But the program has drawn the ire of Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38th), who refused to vote for any budget that funded it. Until Monday, it wasn’t clear if the final budget would pay for the plan. At the last minute, $500,000 was allocated for the program, although a City Council vote will still be required to determine the parameters of the pilot’s future, which was part of the original ordinance, La Spata said. That apparently was enough to convince Sposato, who voted in favor of the overall budget. La Spata said the Plow the Sidewalks program will begin in December 2025, and that the city will seek grants and philanthropic funding to supplement the $500,000. In remarks after the vote, Johnson thanked the alderpeople who helped get the budget “over the finish line” and touted its funding of mental health resources, summer jobs for kids and other programs. “While this budget process may have been different than the past, it has truly been a collaborative process that included unprecedented levels of input not just from City Council members but from the people of this city,” Johnson said. Get a free print! Help us reach our goal of 900 subscribers by Dec. 31 to sustain and expand our coverage and you’ll get a free neighborhood print. There are three ways to qualify: Purchase a new subscription , upgrade your current subscription or gift a subscription . Don’t wait — support Block Club and we’ll send you a print of your choice! Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast: RelatedGoogle names UK executive as president for Europe, Middle East and AfricaIn his first post-election news conference, Trump boasts of his popularity
A&M Consolidated graduate Carlos Eduardo Espina has earned the title “A One Man Telemundo on TikTok” for his work on social media, receiving national attention and ending up on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list. The 26-year-old Espina has millions of followers across his social media accounts where he educates and informs others on immigration and more. Previously, Espina spoke at the 2024 Democratic National Conventional alongside other content creators on his own personal experiences immigrating to Texas when he was 5. Espina went on to graduate from Vassar College with a degree in political science and graduated from the Boyd School of Law. In the Forbes article, Espina is credited with founding Migrantes Unidos, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting immigrants by providing free citizenship classes, English courses, workshops and more. Espina founded his first nonprofit, Football for the Future, in 2017 where he hoped to provide free soccer and educational camps for low-income children in Central Texas. To be nominated for Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list, all candidates had to be 29 or younger as of Dec. 31, 2024, and could not have been on a previous Forbes 30 Under 30 list. The list for 2024 was judged by Vivian Tu, former Wall Street trader; Renee DiResta, head of policy at Data for Democracy; Ali Berman, partner and head of digital talent at United Talent Agency; and Adam Warheed, comedian and YouTube creator.None
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks tiptoed to more records amid a mixed Tuesday of trading, tacking a touch more onto what’s already been a stellar year so far. The S&P 500 edged up by 2 points, or less than 0.1%, to set an all-time high for the 55th time this year. It’s climbed in 10 of the last 11 days and is on track for one of its best years since the turn of the millennium. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 76 points, or 0.2%, while the Nasdaq composite added 0.4% to its own record set a day earlier. AT&T rose 4.6% after it boosted its profit forecast for the year. It also announced a $10 billion plan to send cash to its investors by buying back its own stock, while saying it expects to authorize another $10 billion of repurchases in 2027. On the losing end of Wall Street was U.S. Steel, which fell 8%. President-elect Donald Trump reiterated on social media that he would not let Japan’s Nippon Steel take over the iconic Pennsylvania steelmaker. Nippon Steel announced plans last December to buy the Pittsburgh-based steel producer for $14.1 billion in cash, raising concerns about what the transaction could mean for unionized workers, supply chains and U.S. national security. Earlier this year, President Joe Biden also came out against the acquisition. Tesla sank 1.6% after a judge in Delaware reaffirmed a previous ruling that the electric car maker must revoke Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar pay package. The judge denied a request by attorneys for Musk and Tesla’s corporate directors to vacate her ruling earlier this year requiring the company to rescind the unprecedented pay package. All told, the S&P 500 rose 2.73 points to 6,049.88. The Dow fell 76.47 to 44,705.53, and the Nasdaq composite gained 76.96 to 19,480.91. In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady after a report showed U.S. employers were advertising slightly more job openings at the end of October than a month earlier. Continued strength there would raise optimism that the economy could remain out of a recession that many investors had earlier worried was inevitable. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.23% from 4.20% from late Monday. Yields have seesawed since Election Day amid worries that Trump’s preferences for lower tax rates and bigger tariffs could spur higher inflation along with economic growth. But traders are still confident the Federal Reserve will cut its main interest rate again at its next meeting in two weeks. They’re betting on a nearly three-in-four chance of that, according to data from CME Group. Lower rates can give the economy more juice, but they can also give inflation more fuel. The key report this week that could guide the Fed’s next move will arrive on Friday. It’s the monthly jobs report , which will show how many workers U.S. employers hired and fired during November. It could be difficult to parse given how much storms and strikes distorted figures in October. Based on trading in the options market, Friday’s jobs report appears to be the biggest potential market mover until the Fed announces its next decision on interest rates Dec. 18, according to strategists at Barclays Capital. In financial markets abroad, the value of South Korea’s currency fell 1.1% against the U.S. dollar following a frenetic night where President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law and then later said he’d lift it after lawmakers voted to reject military rule. Stocks of Korean companies that trade in the United States also fell, including a 1.6% drop for SK Telecom. Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.9% to help lead global markets. Some analysts think Japanese stocks could end up benefiting from Trump’s threats to raise tariffs , including for goods coming from China . Trade relations between the U.S. and China took another step backward after China said it is banning exports to the U.S. of gallium, germanium, antimony and other key high-tech materials with potential military applications. The counterpunch came swiftly after the U.S. Commerce Department expanded the list of Chinese technology companies subject to export controls to include many that make equipment used to make computer chips, chipmaking tools and software. The 140 companies newly included in the so-called “entity list” are nearly all based in China. In China, stock indexes rose 1% in Hong Kong and 0.4% in Shanghai amid unconfirmed reports that Chinese leaders would meet next week to discuss planning for the coming year. Investors are hoping it may bring fresh stimulus to help spur growth in the world’s second-largest economy. In France, the CAC 40 rose 0.3% amid continued worries about politics in Paris , where the government is battling over the budget. AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.Lisa Kudrow blasts Tom Hanks’ de-aging movie ‘Here’ as ‘endorsement for AI’: ‘What work will there be for human beings?’Georgia's rights ombudsman on Tuesday accused police of torturing pro-European Union protesters rallying for six consecutive days against the government's decision to shelve EU accession talks amid a post-election crisis. The country of some 3.7 million has been rocked by demonstrations since the ruling Georgian Dream party announced last week it would halt EU accession talks. Police on Tuesday evening used water cannon and tear gas on the sixth night of pro-EU protests in Tbilisi after the prime minister threatened demonstrators with reprisals amid a deepening crisis in the Black Sea nation. Georgia's Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has refused to back down and threatened Tuesday to punish political opponents, accusing them of being behind violence at mass protests. Protesters gathered outside parliament for a sixth straight night but the crowd appeared slightly smaller than on recent nights, an AFP journalist saw. Draped in EU and Georgian flags, protesters booed riot police officers and threw fireworks. Police responded by directing hoses at the protesters, with some dancing in the jets and others sheltering under umbrellas. The police ordered demonstrators to leave through loud hailers and used water cannon to push the crowd away from the parliament. Then they deployed tear gas against the crowd in a nearby street, causing protesters to cough, with some using saline solution to wash out their eyes. Police roughly detained some demonstrators, Georgian independent television showed. Ombudsman Levan Ioseliani said in a statement that most injuries sustained by detained protesters "are concentrated on the face, eyes, and head", adding that "the location, nature, and severity of these injuries strongly suggest that police are using violence against citizens as a punitive measure", which "constitutes an act of torture." Tensions were already high after October parliamentary elections that saw Georgian Dream return to power amid accusations that it rigged the vote. But Kobakhidze's decision that Georgia would not hold EU membership talks until 2028 triggered uproar, although he insisted the country is still heading towards membership. The mostly young protesters accuse Georgian Dream of acting on Russian orders and fear the ex-Soviet country will end up back under Russian influence. Demonstrators projected a message Tuesday that read "thank you for not being tired" onto the parliament building, an AFP reporter saw. During the latest wave of protests, 293 people have been detained, the interior ministry said Tuesday evening, while 143 police have been injured. The health ministry said that on Monday evening 23 protesters were injured. "We want freedom and we do not want to find ourselves in Russia," 21-year-old protester Nika Maghradze told AFP. Demonstrators accuse the government of betraying Georgia's bid for EU membership, which is enshrined in its constitution and supported by around 80 percent of the population. Nugo Chigvinadze, 41, who works in logistics, told AFP at Tuesday's protest that he did not believe the prime minister's claim that the country is still aiming for EU membership. "Whatever our government is saying is a lie. No one believed it. No one," he said. "They are not intending to enter the European Union." Pro-EU President Salome Zurabishvili -- at loggerheads with the government -- has backed the protest and demanded a re-run of the disputed parliamentary vote. But Tbilisi's top court on Tuesday rejected a lawsuit filed by Zurabishvili and opposition parties to overturn the election result. That announcement came shortly after Kobakhidze -- who has ruled out talks with the opposition -- vowed to punish his opponents. "Opposition politicians who have orchestrated the violence in recent days while hiding in their offices will not escape responsibility," he told a press conference. International criticism of Georgia's handling of the protests has grown, with several Western countries saying Tbilisi had used excessive force. Kobakhidze threatened to punish civil servants who join the protests, after several ambassadors and a deputy foreign minister resigned. "We are closely monitoring everyone's actions, and they will not go without a response," he said. Using Kremlin-style language, Kobakhidze alleged the protest movement was "funded from abroad". He also accused non-government groups -- attacked in a repressive pre-election campaign by authorities -- of being behind the protests. At Tuesday's demonstration, Tsotne, 28, who works in IT, defied the threats of reprisals, saying: "It's a peaceful protest, of course but I guess as an individual, I'm ready to defend my country here." Georgia this year adopted Russian-style legislation designed to restrict the activity of NGOs as well measures that the EU says curb LGBTQ rights. The laws prompted the United States to slap sanctions on Georgian officials. But Kobakhidze said his government hoped that the "US attitudes towards us will change after January 20" -- when Donald Trump takes office. Meanwhile, NATO chief Mark Rutte on Tuesday slammed the situation as "deeply concerning", condemning "unequivocally" the reports of violence. led-jc-am-im/giv
Rumble ( RUM 30.28% ) stock is seeing explosive gains in Wednesday's trading. The streaming-video company's share price was up 34.6% as of 11:45 a.m. ET. Rumble stock is continuing to rocket higher on the news that the company is set to receive $775 million in an investment from Tether -- the company behind the Tether stable-coin cryptocurrency. The news has turned Rumble into a hot meme stock , and its share price is surging in conjunction with investors piling in and hoping to score speculative gains. Rumble stock is now up 133% over the last week of trading. Rumble has achieved meme stock status Last Friday, Rumble announced that it will be selling $775 million worth of new stock to Tether at a price of $7.50 per share as part of an investment deal between the two companies. Rumble will use $250 million of the proceeds from the stock sale to fund its business operations and growth initiatives. The streaming specialist intends to use the other $525 million from the stock sale to buy back shares from other large shareholders at a price of $7.50 per share. While the deal is poised to give Rumble a needed cash injection, meme stock momentum appears to be playing a bigger role than fundamentals when it comes to the company's recent valuation gains. The deal has effectively turned Rumble into a speculative, cryptocurrency-adjacent play -- and some investors are betting that this new dynamic can pave the way for more explosive gains. What comes next for Rumble? With the Tether deal, trading for Rumble stock has become completely divorced from the company's fundamentals. Investors are getting excited about a variety of potential scenarios that could see Tether provide continued financial support for the business, or guide Rumble into being a more crypto-focused platform. The rising connection to the cryptocurrency space has some investors feeling very bullish, and it's possible that this sentiment could power more big gains for the stock in the near term. Prior to the Tether announcement, Rumble announced that it was looking to make Bitcoin investments a substantial part of its balance sheet. The news corresponded with big gains for the stock and helped establish the foundations for its stock being considered a play in the crypto market. On the other hand, the recent gains for the stock appear to be largely hype driven -- and shares have high downside risk at current prices. Rumble's streaming video platform has been putting up relatively week engagement and monetization metrics, and the stock could crash if it begins trading more in line with the company's fundamentals.