Injuries pile up, 49ers uncertain QB Brock Purdy can return SundayA Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted from Dec. 12 to 18 found that 65 percent of Filipinos expect a “happy” Christmas this year, a decline from 73 percent over the past two years. The survey results, released on Tuesday, Dec. 24, also revealed that 10 percent of Filipinos expect a “sad” Christmas, an increase from 6 percent in 2023. Meanwhile, 26 percent anticipate a holiday that is neither happy nor sad. SWS said the expectation of a happy Christmas was highest in Mindanao at 73 percent, followed by the Visayas at 71 percent, Balance Luzon at 59 percent, and Metro Manila at 58 percent. Compared to 2023, expectations dropped by 14 points in Metro Manila (from 72 percent), 11 points in Balance Luzon (from 70 percent), and seven points in the Visayas (from 78 percent). In Mindanao, however, the figure remained unchanged at 74 percent. Filipinos grateful for health, family, life In response to the open-ended question, “As Christmas and the end of the year approaches, may I know what one or two things are you most thankful for in your life right now?” SWS said the December 2024 survey found that 47 percent of Filipinos are most thankful for good health, 25 percent for family, and 24 percent for being alive. Other common responses included job/career/income (7 percent), God (7 percent), food to eat (6 percent), coping with daily hardships (5 percent), all the blessings (4 percent), peace and safety (3 percent), happy life (3 percent), and prosperity (3 percent). Smaller percentages mentioned surviving an illness or surgery, having no worries or problems, education, financial support, and love life/spouse (1 percent each). Less than 1 percent cited house, friendship/good relationships, material things, and motorcycle/vehicle, while 2 percent did not provide an answer. SWS said good health, family, and being alive were also the most common answers in December 2023. The Fourth Quarter 2024 Social Weather Survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews with 2,160 adults aged 18 years and above nationwide: 1,080 in Balance Luzon (Luzon outside Metro Manila), and 360 each in Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao. The sampling error margins are ±2 percent for national percentages, ±3 percent in Balance Luzon, and ±5 percent for Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao.
Spain's monarch pays tribute to the victims of Valencia floods in his Christmas Eve speech
Treasury Yields Edge Higher With Long-Term Debt Out of FavorKHLOE Kardashian has been slammed by fans for sharing a cardboard cut-out of her cheating ex Tristan Thompson. The reality star, who shares children True, six, and Tatum, three, with the NBA player, confused her followers with a festive Snapchat post about the sportsman. In a bizarre twist to her family 's Elf on the Shelf game, Khloe's elves were seen inside glass jars placed in front of Tristan's grinning face. Beside them was a note that read: "Help us! We're hiding in here because your daddy farted!!" Baffled followers discussed the post on Reddit , with one asking: "Will she ever quit orbiting around Tristan??" Taking a swipe at the wider Kardashian family, another said: "These women act like there's a shortage of men." READ MORE ON KHLOE A third said: "She'd have to die before letting that man go." It's unknown what Boston Celtics player Tristan - who also has Prince, eight, with ex Jordan Craig and Theo, three, with model Maralee Nichols - thinks of the prank. The father-of-four, who split with Khloe for a second time in the summer of 2021 amid cheating allegations, came under fire last week after he didn't include Theo in a family picture. True, Tatum and Prince could be seen smiling together in one picture while another saw them all playing together. Most read in Entertainment A third snap saw Tristan smiling with eldest son Prince on his lap. The pictures drew criticism from some who accused him of leaving Theo out of important bonding time with his siblings, while others defended Tristan and suggested Theo might not be allowed to be shown on social media . However, court documents from a legal battle between Tristan with Theo's mom alleged that he told her he had no interest in spending time with their son. Theo was born after Tristan had an affair with Maralee while the athlete was supposedly in an exclusive relationship with Khloe . According to legal documents from August 2022, the NBA star offered to pay Maralee $75,000 in hush money instead of paying monthly child support. The Los Angeles Lakers player allegedly told Theo's mother that she would be "better off" with the $75,000 because she wouldn't get much in child support. When the exes eventually settled their paternity case, Tristan was ordered to pay about $9.5K a month in child support. Tristan has also settled debts with his baby mama Jordan before taking out a $1 million loan on his Los Angeles home. He reportedly owed $224,000 in back child support payments in 2023 for his son, Prince . But it now appears he has made things right with his former partner for the sake of their child. A filing obtained by The U.S. Sun from the Los Angeles Recorder's Office lists Tristan as a judgment debtor and Jordan as a judgment creditor. The 'release' document states that "all matured installments" on the judgment have been satisfied as of August 1, 20124. It states the judgment was initially ordered in 2019 and lists Thompson's address as his new mansion in Hidden Hills . Read More on The US Sun Court documents for the former couple's child support battle appear to have been sealed. The pair shared a tumultuous relationship before officially calling it quits in 2021. (Getty) Khloe and Tristan were first linked in 2016 after attending a party in Miami together. In 2018, they welcomed their first child, True. Tristan was then caught cheating on Khloe multiple times during her pregnancy. They split after it was revealed that he kissed Kylie Jenner's best friend Jordyn Woods at a party. The pair reconciled in 2020 and ended things in 2021. Six months after they ended, it came to light that Tristan fathered a child with Maralee Nichols while he and Khloe were together. Just months later in July 2022, Khloe revealed that the pair were expecting their second child, son Tatum, via surrogate. The pair are currently co-parenting and claim there is no romantic connection between them. 7 Tristan shared a snap with his son Prince Credit: Instagram/realtristan13Trump’s ‘made in USA bitcoin’ vow not based ‘in reality’
Look away, Rob Manfred. Former NFL quarterback-turned-media personality Cam Newton has read the room and forecasts that, two decades from now, the WNBA will be more popular than Major League Baseball. “Who’s really paying attention to baseball — especially paying attention to baseball in the regular season?” Newton asked during a recent episode of his “4th&1 podcast.” “Baseball is like a — I hate to say it — a dying sport. I think baseball will be surpassed by the WNBA in 20 years.” The three-time Pro Bowler throws around a lot of claims about sports he never played in the episode, released Dec. 19, and some are more substantiated than others. Whether MLB’s season is too long is a fair question — albeit one that’s probably fair to ask of any of the major North American sports. But the question of whether the sport of baseball is dying — most often harped on by those who claim Manfred and league officials are wholly unable to capture the interest and attention of the younger generation — is an entirely different one. The narrative has garnered no shortage of headlines in recent years, but the numbers indicate it’s not entirely true. According to MLB.com , ticket buyers aged 18-35 increased 9.8% between 2014-19. And in a separate report , the league announced that television partners registered double-digit growth in the ‘Adult 18-34’ category during 2024. A year prior, after the culmination of the 2023 season — the first in which new rules were implemented to shorten games and remove dead time — data collected by a marketing and technology company independent from the league concluded that 70% of MLB fans began following their favorite team at or before age 17. That was the highest mark among the four major North American leagues, with the NFL coming in at 66%, the NBA at 60% and the NHL at 48%. Comparable figures for the WNBA were not provided in the study. Even still, the baseball-is-dying narrative is sure to have its advocates. The ascension of the WNBA, on the other hand, is unarguable. Just two months ago, the league concluded its best season ever . Records were set both on the court and off — including in television ratings, at the box office, and in sponsorship and merchandising revenue. Led by rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, expectations for the 2025 season are, justifiably, through the roof. The same should be said for 2026. And 2027. On and on. As for 2045 — the year Newton’s circled in his oversized calendar — if these legends-in-the-making are still running by then, sharing the court with their own children, LeBron-style, well, the former NFLer just might be right: more people could be watching the WNBA than MLB.Manmohan Singh: technocrat who became India’s accidental PM Former Indian PM Manmohan Singh speaks during an interview in this undated image. — Reuters/File NEW DELHI: Manmohan Singh ́s father may have believed his bookworm son would one day lead India, but the understated technocrat with the trademark blue turban, who died on Thursday at the age of 92, never dreamed it would actually happen. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1700472799616-0'); }); Singh was pitchforked into leading the world ́s largest democracy in 2004 by the shock decision of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi to turn down the role after leading the party to an upset win over the ruling Hindu nationalists. He oversaw an economic boom in Asia ́s fourth-largest economy in his first term, although slowing growth in later years marred his second stint. Known as “Mr Clean”, Singh nonetheless saw his image tarnished during his decade-long tenure when a series of corruption cases became public. As finance minister in the early 1990s, he was hailed at home and abroad for initiating big-bang reforms that opened India ́s inward-looking economy to the world. Known as a loyalist to the Gandhi political dynasty, Singh studied economics to find a way to eradicate poverty in the vast nation and never held elected office before becoming PM. But he deftly managed the rough and tumble of Indian politics -- even though many said Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of the assassinated Rajiv Gandhi, was the power behind the throne. Born in 1932 in the mud-house village of Gah in what is now Pakistan, Singh moved to the holy Sikh city of Amritsar as a teenager around the time the subcontinent was split at the end of British rule.His father was a dry-fruit seller in Amritsar, and he had nine brothers and sisters. He was so determined to get an education he would study at night under streetlights because it was too noisy at home, his brother Surjit Singh told AFP in 2004.
New York state government to monitor its use of AI under a new law
NEW YORK (AP) — Angelina Jolie never expected to hit all the notes. But finding the breath of Maria Callas was enough to bring things out of Jolie that she didn’t even know were in her. “All of us, we really don’t realize where things land in our body over a lifetime of different experiences and where we hold it to protect ourselves,” Jolie said in a recent interview. “We hold it in our stomachs. We hold it in our chest. We breathe from a different place when we’re nervous or we’re sad. “The first few weeks were the hardest because my body had to open and I had to breathe again,” she adds. “And that was a discovery of how much I wasn’t.” In Pablo Larraín’s “Maria,” which Netflix released in theaters Wednesday before it begins streaming on Dec. 11, Jolie gives, if not the performance of her career, then certainly of her last decade. Beginning with 2010’s “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” Jolie has spent recent years directing films while prioritizing raising her six children. “So my choices for quite a few years were whatever was smart financially and short. I worked very little the last eight years,” says Jolie. “And I was kind of drained. I couldn’t for a while.” But her youngest kids are now 16. And for the first time in years, Jolie is back in the spotlight, in full movie-star mode. Her commanding performance in “Maria” seems assured of bringing Jolie her third Oscar nomination. (She won supporting actress in 2000 for “Girl, Interrupted.”) For an actress whose filmography might lack a signature movie, “Maria” may be Jolie's defining role. Jolie's oldest children, Maddox and Pax, worked on the set of the film. There, they saw a version of their mother they hadn't seen before. “They had certainly seen me sad in my life. But I don’t cry in front of my children like that,” Jolie says of the emotion Callas dredged up in her. “That was a moment in realizing they were going to be with me, side by side, in this process of really understanding the depth of some of the pain I carry.” Jolie, who met a reporter earlier this fall at the Carlyle Hotel, didn't speak in any detail of that pain. But it was hard not to sense some it had to do with her lengthy and ongoing divorce from Brad Pitt, with whom she had six children. Just prior to meeting, a judge allowed Pitt’s remaining claim against Jolie, over the French winery Château Miraval, to proceed. On Monday, a judge ruled that Pitt must disclose documents Jolie’s legal team have sought that they allege include “communications concerning abuse.” Pitt has denied ever being abusive. The result of the U.S. presidential election was also just days old, though Jolie — special envoy for the United Nations Refugee Agency from 2012 to 2022 – wasn’t inclined to talk politics. Asked about Donald Trump’s win , she responded, “Global storytelling is essential,” before adding: “That’s what I’m focusing on. Listening. Listening to the voices of people in my country and around the world.” Balancing such things — reports concerning her private life, questions that accompany someone of her fame — is a big reason why Jolie is so suited to the part of Callas. The film takes place during the American-born soprano’s final days. (She died of a heart attack at 53 in 1977.) Spending much of her time in her grand Paris apartment, Callas hasn’t sung publicly in years; she’s lost her voice. Imprisoned by the myth she’s created, Callas is redefining herself and her voice. An instructor tells her he wants to hear “Callas, not Maria." The movie, of course, is more concerned with Maria. It’s Larrain’s third portrait of 20th century female icon, following “Jackie” (with Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy) and “Spencer” (with Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana). As Callas, Jolie is wonderfully regal — a self-possessed diva who deliciously, in lines penned by screenwriter Steven Knight, spouts lines like: “I took liberties all my life and the world took liberties with me.” Asked if she identified with that line, Jolie answered, “Yeah, yeah.” Then she took a long pause. “I’m sure people will read a lot into this and there’s probably a lot I could say but don’t want to feed into,” Jolie eventually continues. “I know she was a public person because she loved her work. And I’m a public person because I love my work, not because I like being public. I think some people are more comfortable with a public life, and I’ve never been fully comfortable with it.” When Larraín first approached Jolie about the role, he screened “Spencer” for her. That film, like “Jackie” and “Maria,” eschews a biopic approach to instead intimately focus on a specific moment of crisis. Larraín was convinced Jolie was meant for the role. “I felt she could have that magnetism,” Larraín says. “The enigmatic diva that’s come to a point in her life where she has to take control of her life again. But the weight of her experience, of her music, of her singing, everything, is on her back. And she carries that. It’s someone who’s already loaded with a life that’s been intense.” “There’s a loneliness that we both share,” Jolie says. “That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I think people can be alone and lonely sometimes, and that can be part of who they are.” Larraín, the Chilean filmmaker, grew up in Santiago going to the opera, and he has long yearned to bring its full power and majesty to a movie. In Callas, he heard something that transfixed him. “I hear something near perfection, but at the same time, it’s something that’s about to be destroyed,” Larraín says. “So it’s as fragile and as strong as possible. It lives in both extremes. That’s why it’s so moving. I hear a voice that’s about to be broken, but it doesn’t.” In Callas’ less perfect moments singing in the film, Larraín fuses archival recordings of Callas with Jolie’s own voice. Some mix of the two runs throughout “Maria.” “Early in the process,” Jolie says, “I discovered that you can’t fake-sing opera.” Jolie has said she never sang before, not even karaoke. But the experience has left her with a newfound appreciation of opera and its healing properties. “I wonder if it’s something you lean into as you get older,” Jolie says. “Maybe your depth of pain is bigger, your depth of loss is bigger, and that sound in opera meets that, the enormity of it.” If Larraín’s approach to “Maria” is predicated on an unknowingness, he's inclined to say something similar about his star. “Because of media and social media, some people might think that they know a lot about Angelina,” he says. “Maria, I read nine biographies of her. I saw everything. I read every interview. I made this movie. But I don’t think I would be capable of telling you who she was us. So if there’s an element in common, it’s that. They carry an enormous amount of mystery. Even if you think that you know them, you don’t.” Whether “Maria” means more acting in the future for Jolie, she's not sure. “There's not a clear map,” she says. Besides, Jolie isn't quite ready to shake Callas. “When you play a real person, you feel at some point that they become your friend,” says Jolie. “Right now, it’s still a little personal. It’s funny, I’ll be at a premiere or I’ll walk into a room and someone will start blaring her music for fun, but I have this crazy internal sense memory of dropping to my knees and crying.”Super Micro Stock Bucks Broader Tech Weakness Wednesday, Thanks to 2 Catalysts: Retail Positions For Short-Squeeze
By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump promised on Tuesday to “vigorously pursue” capital punishment after President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of most people on federal death row partly to stop Trump from pushing forward their executions. Related Articles National Politics | Elon Musk’s preschool is the next step in his anti-woke education dreams National Politics | Trump’s picks for top health jobs not just team of rivals but ‘team of opponents’ National Politics | Biden will decide on US Steel acquisition after influential panel fails to reach consensus National Politics | Biden vetoes once-bipartisan effort to add 66 federal judgeships, citing ‘hurried’ House action National Politics | A history of the Panama Canal — and why Trump can’t take it back on his own Trump criticized Biden’s decision on Monday to change the sentences of 37 of the 40 condemned people to life in prison without parole, arguing that it was senseless and insulted the families of their victims. Biden said converting their punishments to life imprisonment was consistent with the moratorium imposed on federal executions in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder. “Joe Biden just commuted the Death Sentence on 37 of the worst killers in our Country,” he wrote on his social media site. “When you hear the acts of each, you won’t believe that he did this. Makes no sense. Relatives and friends are further devastated. They can’t believe this is happening!” Presidents historically have no involvement in dictating or recommending the punishments that federal prosecutors seek for defendants in criminal cases, though Trump has long sought more direct control over the Justice Department’s operations. The president-elect wrote that he would direct the department to pursue the death penalty “as soon as I am inaugurated,” but was vague on what specific actions he may take and said they would be in cases of “violent rapists, murderers, and monsters.” He highlighted the cases of two men who were on federal death row for slaying a woman and a girl, had admitted to killing more and had their sentences commuted by Biden. On the campaign trail, Trump often called for expanding the federal death penalty — including for those who kill police officers, those convicted of drug and human trafficking, and migrants who kill U.S. citizens. “Trump has been fairly consistent in wanting to sort of say that he thinks the death penalty is an important tool and he wants to use it,” said Douglas Berman, an expert on sentencing at Ohio State University’s law school. “But whether practically any of that can happen, either under existing law or other laws, is a heavy lift.” Berman said Trump’s statement at this point seems to be just a response to Biden’s commutation. “I’m inclined to think it’s still in sort of more the rhetoric phase. Just, ‘don’t worry. The new sheriff is coming. I like the death penalty,’” he said. Most Americans have historically supported the death penalty for people convicted of murder, according to decades of annual polling by Gallup, but support has declined over the past few decades. About half of Americans were in favor in an October poll, while roughly 7 in 10 Americans backed capital punishment for murderers in 2007. Before Biden’s commutation, there were 40 federal death row inmates compared with more than 2,000 who have been sentenced to death by states. “The reality is all of these crimes are typically handled by the states,” Berman said. A question is whether the Trump administration would try to take over some state murder cases, such as those related to drug trafficking or smuggling. He could also attempt to take cases from states that have abolished the death penalty. Berman said Trump’s statement, along with some recent actions by states, may present an effort to get the Supreme Court to reconsider a precedent that considers the death penalty disproportionate punishment for rape. “That would literally take decades to unfold. It’s not something that is going to happen overnight,” Berman said. Before one of Trump’s rallies on Aug. 20, his prepared remarks released to the media said he would announce he would ask for the death penalty for child rapists and child traffickers. But Trump never delivered the line. One of the men Trump highlighted on Tuesday was ex-Marine Jorge Avila Torrez, who was sentenced to death for killing a sailor in Virginia and later pleaded guilty to the fatal stabbing of an 8-year-old and a 9-year-old girl in a suburban Chicago park several years before. The other man, Thomas Steven Sanders, was sentenced to death for the kidnapping and slaying of a 12-year-old girl in Louisiana, days after shooting the girl’s mother in a wildlife park in Arizona. Court records show he admitted to both killings. Some families of victims expressed anger with Biden’s decision, but the president had faced pressure from advocacy groups urging him to make it more difficult for Trump to increase the use of capital punishment for federal inmates. The ACLU and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops were some of the groups that applauded the decision. Biden left three federal inmates to face execution. They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev ; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018 , the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Michelle L. Price and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.
It’s unlikely Donald Trump will be able to realize his campaign promise that all remaining Bitcoin will be made in the U.S., according to observers who know the industry. “It is a Trump-like comment but it is definitely not in reality,” Ethan Vera, chief operating officer at Seattle-based Luxor Technology, which provides software and service to cryptocurrency miners, told Bloomberg News. Bitcoin is made through a process known as mining , in which operations use high-powered, fuel hungry computers to solve complicated math problems used to validate transactions in the network and post them to a public ledger, known as the blockchain. Crypto mining companies who solve these problems first are rewarded with payment, including in Bitcoin itself, a currency whose overall supply is currently capped at 21 million coins , not all of which have been issued. Considerable roadblocks stand in Trump’s way to make good on his vow. Bitcoin mining is distributed across the world, particularly in places with cheap access to abundant energy needed to fuel the data centers needed to mine crypto. The U.S. is currently home to less than half of all crypto mining, according to the government Energy Information Administration . There’s not much Trump could do to change the distribution aside from encouraging favorable regulation and energy prices to get operators within the decentralized currency to come to the U.S. But it’s not clear how successful that would be, or how long it might take. Moreover, a trade war with China like Trump is proposing, would further hike costs in the U.S., since most miners use Chinese-made computers. Nonetheless, the Trump campaign courted the crypto industry throughout his 2024 campaign, promising to make the U.S. a “Bitcoin superpower,” with the government buying a strategic reserve of cryptocurrency, even though Trump once dismissed crypto as “based on thin air.” Trump also promised to remove Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, who is viewed as an opponent within the industry. Trump even unveiled a crypto venture of his own in September. The industry, in turn, has handsomely rewarded the Trump campaign. It contributed over $200 million to Trump and his allies, with donations from firms involved in crypto including Ripple, Coinbase, and venture capital powerhouse Andreessen Horowiz. In December, Bitcoin hit a record high price, in part because of optimism over the incoming administration. Crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken have also donated $1 million to the Trump inaugural committee. They join inauguration donors, including Amazon and Meta , as the tech industry seeks to build close relationships with the new White House. As The Independent has reported , the 2024 marked a sea change in tech politics, in which many top figures in the industry, including Elon Musk, left behind their traditional Democratic allies and supported Republicans.
Government refuses to rule out more tax increases next year after figures show the economy was flatliningNoneTrump’s tariffs in his first term did little to alter the economy, but this time could be different
Injuries pile up, 49ers uncertain QB Brock Purdy can return SundayCARBONDALE, Ill. (AP) — Southern Illinois quarterback Michael Lindauer's coming-out party also was a dazzling farewell. The senior graduate assistant, pressed into duty as a player again when injuries left the Salukis in need of a quarterback, made his first career start — on Senior Day, no less — and threw for a school-record seven touchdowns in a 62-0 victory over Murray State on Saturday. “This was incredible,” Lindauer said. “The guys around me — thank the guys. The receivers were making plays, the O-line's blocking. When you get on a roll like that, stuff just starts happening.” The fifth-year senior, a transfer from Cincinnati, completed 20 of 33 passes for 283 yards. Keontez Lewis caught scoring passes of 4 and 64 yards. Bradley Clark had TDs of 35 and 23 yards. Nah’shawn Hezekiah had touchdowns of 19 and 35 yards on his two catches. And Jay Jones caught one pass for 1 yard — also a touchdown. Before the game, Lindauer had attempted 27 career passes. “Now, he's in the record book,” Salukis coach Nick Hill said. “It will be a hard record to beat, seven TDs in one game. ... What he's done ... just being so selfless and coming back and being a player. The team needed it. ... It’s a testament that if you stay committed, do the right things, have a great attitude, you’re going to get rewarded at some point, and he was rewarded in a big way today.” Southern Illinois finished the season 4-8 overall and 2-5 in the Missouri Valley Conference, but “to go out like that, that's a good way to go out,” Hill said. Lindauer was named the MVC offensive player of the week for his performance in his first and last career start. He plans to return in the spring, again as a graduate assistant coach, but this time with a resume to lean on. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
Trump vows to pursue executions after Biden commutes most of federal death rowMickey, Minnie, Goffy and Wemby