Israeli airstrikes killed a hospital director at his home in northeastern Lebanon and six others, while at least five paramedics were killed by Israeli strikes in the country's south on Friday, Lebanon's Health Ministry said. The United Nations reported heavy clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon. Four Italian peacekeepers were lightly wounded when a rocket, likely fired by Hezbollah, hit their base, the U.N. said. A full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah erupted in September after nearly a year of lower-intensity conflict. More than 3,640 people have been killed in Lebanon and 15,350 wounded, the majority following Israel’s escalation and ground invasion, the Health Ministry said Friday. In Gaza, Israeli strikes hit Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of the few hospitals still partially operating in the northernmost part of the territory, wounding six medical staff and damaging its generator and oxygen systems, the hospital director said Friday. More than 44,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip, the Health Ministry said. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it has said that more than half of the fatalities are women and children. Israel launched the war in Gaza after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250 . Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Here’s the Latest: BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike killed the director of a university hospital and six others at his home in northeastern Lebanon, state media said. The strike targeted Dr. Ali Allam’s house near Dar Al-Amal Hospital, the largest health center in Baalbek-Hermel province, which has provided vital health services amid Israel's campaign of airstrikes, the Health Ministry said. State-run media reported that the strike came without warning. The ministry described his death as a “great loss,” and provincial governor Bachir Khodr said in a post on X that, “Mr. Allam was one of the best citizens of Baalbek.” In two separate episodes on Friday, Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon killed five paramedics with Hezbollah's medical arm, the Health Ministry said, describing it as “war crime.” The militant group provides extensive social services, including running schools and health clinics. In a report published Friday, the World Health Organization said nearly half of all attacks on health care in Lebanon since Oct. 7, 2023, have resulted in fatalities. “This is a higher percentage than in any active conflict today across the globe,” WHO said. In Lebanon, 226 health workers and patients were killed and 199 were injured between Oct. 7, 2023, and Nov. 18, 2024, the report said. The Health Ministry said Friday that 3,645 people have been killed in nearly 14 months of war between Hezbollah and Israel, while 15,356 were wounded, the majority following Israel’s escalation in late September. The death count includes 692 women and 231 children. DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes hit Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of the few hospitals still partially operating in the northernmost part of Gaza, wounding six medical staff and damaging its generator and oxygen systems, its director said Friday. Hossam Abu Safiya said the strikes before dawn Friday hit the entrance of the emergency unit as well as in the hospital courtyard. He said two members of the nursing staff suffered critical injuries. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Abu Safiya said the strikes caused damage to the functioning of the generator and disrupted oxygen supplies. The hospital is currently treating 85 wounded, 14 children in the pediatric ward and four newborns in the neonatal unit, he said. During the past month, Kamal Adwan Hospital has been hit several times, was put under siege and was raided by Israeli troops, who are waging a heavy offensive in the nearby Jabaliya refugee camp and towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya. The Israeli military says it detained Hamas fighters hiding in the hospital, a claim its staff denies. UNITED NATIONS – Two rockets hit a headquarters of the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, injuring four Italian peacekeepers, the United Nations says. U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the rockets were likely launched by Hezbollah militants or by affiliated groups Friday, impacting a bunker and a logistics area in the southwest headquarters at Chamaa. One of the structures that was hit caught fire, and the blaze was swiftly put out by U.N. staff, he said. According to Italy’s Defense Ministry, some glass shattered due to the explosion, hitting the four soldiers. Dujarric said the four injured peacekeepers were receiving treatment at the medical facility of the mission, known as UNIFIL. “Thankfully, none of the injuries are life-threatening,” he said. Italy’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto called the attack on the UNIFIL base “intolerable.” He reiterated that the Italian contingent remains in southern Lebanon “to offer a window of opportunity for peace, and cannot become hostage to militia attacks.” Dujarric said Friday’s attack was the third on Chamaa in a week and came amid heavy shelling and ground skirmishes in the Chamaa and Naqoura areas in recent days. UNIFIL’s main headquarters is in Naqoura. Friday’s attack follows a rocket attack on a UNIFIL base east of the village of Ramyah on Tuesday that injured four peacekeepers from Ghana. Dujarric said UNIFIL strongly urges Hezbollah and its affiliates and Israel to avoid fighting near its positions, which are supposed to be protected. “We remind all parties that any attack against peacekeepers constitutes a serious violation of international law” and the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, he said. BEIRUT — Israeli airstrikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs and the southern port city of Tyre on Friday, after the Israeli army issued several evacuation warnings saying it is targeting Hezbollah sites. The strikes in Beirut came dangerously close to central Beirut and Christian neighborhoods. One strike hit a building housing a gym and medical and beauty clinics, located just meters (yards) from a Lebanese army base. “What is there in the building to target? This attack they carried out on us in this building is a criminal and vile act,” resident Hassan Najdi told The Associated Press. “Because if their intention is targeting Hezbollah, this building has nothing to do with Hezbollah.” Najdi said he purchased an apartment in the building last year but had not yet moved in. He allowed a displaced family to move in and urgently asked them to evacuate after receiving the Israeli warning. The blasts sent plumes of smoke into the air and shattered glass in the vicinity. No casualties have been reported, but the strikes caused damage to nearby infrastructure and a key road connecting central Beirut to its southern suburbs. “We remain steadfast,” said Ali Daher, an employee at a mall facing the targeted building. “Everything that is lost can be replaced, and whatever is destroyed can be rebuilt in (no time).” In Tyre city, the Israeli military conducted multiple airstrikes after a series of warnings, claiming the targets belonged to Hezbollah’s Aziz unit, accusing it of firing projectiles into Israel. The Israeli military carried out other airstrikes across Lebanon, many without warnings, as heavy fighting between Israeli troops and Hezbollah in villages along the Lebanon-Israel border intensified. ROME — Italy said Friday it plans to discuss the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court over the Israel-Hamas war when it hosts Group of Seven foreign ministers next week. Premier Giorgia Meloni insisted that one point remained clear for Italy: “There can be no equivalence between the responsibilities of the state of Israel and the terrorist organization of Hamas.” Italy is a founding member of the court and hosted the 1998 Rome conference that gave birth to it. But Meloni’s right-wing government has been a strong supporter of Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, while also providing humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza. In a statement Friday, Meloni said Italy would study the reasonings behind the decision to issue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister and Hamas’ military chief. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Italy respects the ICC and supports it. “But at the same time we are also convinced that the court must have a judicial role, and should not take up a political role.” Tajani will host G7 foreign ministers Monday and Tuesday outside Rome for the final meeting of the Italian G7 presidency. “As far as decisions are concerned, we will take them together with our allies,” Tajani said. During the G7 meetings, “we will talk about this with my allies there, and we will see what to do next.” Another member of the governing coalition, the outspoken Transport Minister Matteo Salvini was more defiant in supporting Israel. “If Netanyahu comes to Italy he will be welcomed,” Salvini was quoted by Italian media as saying. This item has been updated to correct that Salvini spoke of a potential Netanyahu visit to Italy, not Israel. ROME — Four Italian soldiers were slightly injured after two exploding rockets hit the United Nations' peacekeeping mission base on Friday in Chamaa in southern Lebanon, Italy's defense ministry said. Initial information suggested that two rockets hit a bunker and a room of the mission base, damaging the surrounding infrastructure, the ministry said. Shattered glass hit the four soldiers. The incident was the latest in which UN peacekeeping posts have been hit since Israel began its ground invasion of Lebanon on Oct. 1, leaving a number of peacekeepers wounded. Defence Minister Guido Crosetto called Friday's attack “intolerable.” He said he will try to speak to the new Israeli Defense Minister to ask him “to avoid using the UNIFIL bases as a shield.” Crosetto said the conditions of the four Italian soldiers “did not cause concern.” He reiterated that the Italian contingent remains in southern Lebanon “to offer a window of opportunity for peace and cannot become hostage to militia attacks.” Italy’s Premier Giorgia Meloni on Friday said she learned about the new attack with “deep indignation and concern.” Meloni reiterated that “such attacks are unacceptable,” renewing her appeal for the parties on the ground “to guarantee, at all times, the safety of UNIFIL soldiers and to collaborate to quickly identify those responsible.” GENEVA — The World Health Organization says nearly half of the attacks on health care in Lebanon have been deadly since the Middle East conflict erupted in October last year, the highest such rate anywhere in the world. The U.N. health agency says 65 out of 137, or 47%, of recorded “attacks on health care” in Lebanon over that time period have proven fatal to at least one person, and often many more. WHO’s running global tally counts attacks, whether deliberate or not, that affect places like hospitals, clinics, medical transport, and warehouses for medical supplies, as well as medics, doctors, nurses and the patients they treat. Nearly half of attacks on health care in Lebanon since last October and the majority of deaths occurred since an intensified Israeli military campaign began against Hezbollah militants in the country two months ago. The health agency said 226 health workers and patients have been killed and 199 injured in Lebanon between Oct. 7, 2023 and this Monday. JERUSALEM — Israel’s new defense minister said Friday that he would stop issuing warrants to arrest West Bank settlers or hold them without charge or trial — a largely symbolic move that rights groups said risks emboldening settler violence in the Israeli-occupied territory. Israel Katz called the arrest warrants “severe” and said issuing them was “inappropriate” as Palestinian militant attacks on settlers in the territory grow more frequent. He said settlers could be “brought to justice” in other ways. The move protects Israeli settlers from being held in “administrative detention,” a shadowy form of incarceration where people are held without charge or trial. Settlers are rarely arrested in the West Bank, where settler violence against Palestinians has spiraled since the outbreak of the war Oct. 7. Katz’s decision was celebrated by far-right coalition allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. National Security Minister and settler firebrand Itamar Ben-Gvir applauded Katz and called the move a “correction of many years of mistreatment” and “justice for those who love the land.” Since Oct. 7, 2023, violence toward Palestinians by Israeli settlers has soared to new heights, displacing at least 19 entire Palestinian communities, according to Israeli rights group Peace Now. In that time, attacks by Palestinian militants on settlers and within Israel have also grown more common. An increasing number of Palestinians have been placed in administrative detention. Israel holds 3,443 administrative detainees in prison, according to data from the Israeli Prison Service, reported by rights group Hamoked. That figure stood around 1,200 just before the start of the war. The vast majority of them are Palestinian, with only a handful at any given time Israeli Jews, said Jessica Montell, the director of Hamoked. “All of these detentions without charge or trial are illegitimate, but to declare that this measure will only be used against Palestinians...is to explicitly entrench another form of ethnic discrimination,” said Montell. BERLIN — A German official has suggested that his country would be reluctant to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court. The ICC’s warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant put Germany, a staunch ally of Israel, in an awkward position. The government said in a statement Friday that it is one of the ICC’s biggest supporters, but “at the same time, it is a consequence of German history that unique relations and a great responsibility connect us with Israel.” The government said it takes note of the arrest warrants and that “we will examine conscientiously the domestic steps.” It said that any further steps would only be an issue if a visit by Netanyahu or Gallant were “foreseeable.” Government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit was pressed repeatedly at a regular news conference on whether it would be conceivable to arrest an Israeli prime minister. He replied: "It’s hard for me to imagine that we would carry out arrests in Germany on this basis.” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Friday refused to comment on the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others, saying that the court's rulings are “insignificant” for Russia, which doesn’t recognizes the court’s jurisdiction. The ICC last year issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and a number of other top Russian officials, accusing them of war crimes in Ukraine. The Kremlin has brushed off the warrants, saying that in Moscow’s eyes they’re “null and void.” Asked if the ICC warrants for Netanyahu and others can help resolve the tensions in the Middle East, Peskov said: “Well, in general, the actions of the ICC are unlikely to help anything. That’s the first thing. And secondly, we don’t see any point in commenting on this in any way, because for us these rulings are insignificant.” DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Large crowds of displaced people crammed themselves in front of a bakery in the Gaza Strip for the second day in a row, desperate to get their share of bread after bakeries closed for five days due to a flour shortage and the lack of aid. “I am a 61-year-old man. This is the third day that I have come to Zadna Bakery and I still cannot get bread ... I have children to feed,” said Majdi Yaghi, a displaced man from Gaza City. The price of a small bag of pita bread increased to $16 by Friday, a stark increase from about 80 cents last month. A bag of pasta now costs $4 and a small bag of sugar costs nearly $14. That has left many Palestinian families surviving on one meal a day and reliant on charitable kitchens to survive. In Khan Younis, women and children lined up at the al-Dalu charitable kitchen for bulgur, the only food available at the makeshift charity. One of the workers there, Anas al-Dalu, told the AP that they cook ten pots every day of either rice, beans, or bulgur. But that hardly fills the need for the thousands of people displaced in the area. “The charity here is in a difficult situation. It is a drop in the ocean, and there is no aid or charities. There is nothing," said Nour Kanani, a displaced man from Khan Younis. “It is a crisis in every sense of the word. There is no flour, no charities, and no food.” BEIRUT — Israeli troops fought fierce battles with Hezbollah fighters on Friday in different areas in south Lebanon, including a coastal town that is home to the headquarters of U.N. peacekeepers. A spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL told The Associated Press that they are monitoring “heavy clashes” in the coastal town of Naqoura and the village of Chamaa to the northeast. UNIFIL’s headquarters are located in Naqoura in Lebanon’s southern edge close to the border with Israel. “We are aware of heavy shelling in the vicinity of our bases,” UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said. Asked if the peacekeepers and staff at the headquarters are safe, Tenenti said: “Yes for the moment.” Several UNIFIL posts have been hit since Israel began its ground invasion of Lebanon on Oct. 1, leaving a number of peacekeepers wounded.
Mysterious drone sightings continue across New Jersey, with videos from local residents posted to social media as state and federal officials investigate their origin. These sightings have been reported near a Hunterdon County reservoir in the northern part of the state , as well as further south in Monmouth and Ocean counties and into Philadelphia-area townships like Cherry Hill and Evesham. Officials have continued to state that the drones do not pose any known threat to public safety. Local, state and federal law enforcement agencies are working in coordination to investigate the sightings. In a video from Bergen County, New Jersey, lights that appear to come from a mysterious drone appear to fly at a low altitude. These have become an issue in the state, so much so that last month the Federal Aviation Administration issued a temporary flight restriction prohibiting drone flights over the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster and the Picatinny Arsenal military research and manufacturing facility in Morris County. The move came "at the request of federal security partners," the FAA said. What to do if you see drones in New Jersey The FBI asks that anyone who sees the drones call 1-800-225-5324 or submit tips and video footage at www.tips.fbi.gov . Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A scruffy little fugitive is on the lam again in New Orleans, gaining fame as he outwits a tenacious band of citizens armed with night-vision binoculars, nets and a tranquilizer rifle. Scrim, a 17-pound mutt that's mostly terrier, has become a folk hero, inspiring tattoos, T-shirts and even a ballad as he eludes capture from the posse of volunteers. And like any antihero, Scrim has a backstory: Rescued from semi-feral life at a trailer park and adopted from a shelter, the dog broke loose in April and scurried around the city until he was cornered in October and brought to a new home. Weeks later, he'd had enough. Scrim leaped out of a second-story window, a desperate act recorded in a now-viral video. Since then, despite a stream of daily sightings, he's roamed free. The dog’s fans include Myra and Steve Foster, who wrote “Ode to Scrim” to the tune of Ricky Nelson’s 1961 hit, “I’m a Travelin’ Man.” Leading the recapture effort is Michelle Cheramie, a 55-year-old former information technology professional. She lost everything — home, car, possessions — in Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and in the aftermath, found her calling rescuing pets. “I was like, ‘This is what I should be doing,’” Cheramie said. “I was born to rescue.” She launched Zeus’ Rescues, a nonprofit shelter that now averages 600 cat and dog adoptions a year and offers free pet food to anyone who needs it. She helped Scrim find the home he first escaped from. It was Cheramie's window Scrim leaped from in November. She's resumed her relentless mission since then, posting flyers on telephone poles and logging social media updates on his reported whereabouts. She's invested thousands of dollars on wildlife cameras, thermal sensors and other gear. She took a course offered by the San Diego Zoo on the finer points of tranquilizing animals. And she's developed a network of volunteers — the kind of neighbors who are willing to grid-search a city at 3 a.m. People like writer David W. Brown, who manages a crowd-sourced Google Map of all known Scrim sightings. He says the search has galvanized residents from all walks of life to come together. As they search for Scrim, they hand out supplies to people in need. “Being a member of the community is seeing problems and doing what you can to make life a little better for the people around here and the animals around you,” Brown said. And neighbors like Tammy Murray, who had to close her furniture store and lost her father to Parkinson's disease. This search, she says, got her mojo back. “Literally, for months, I’ve done nothing but hunt this dog,” said Murray, 53. “I feel like Wile E. Coyote on a daily basis with him.” Murray drives the Zeus' Rescues' van towards reported Scrim sightings. She also handles a tactical net launcher, which looks like an oversized flashlight and once misfired, shattering the van's window as Scrim sped away. After realizing Scrim had come to recognize the sound of the van's diesel engine, Murray switched to a Vespa scooter, for stealth. Near-misses have been tantalizing. The search party spotted Scrim napping beneath an elevated house, and wrapped construction netting around the perimeter, but an over-eager volunteer broke ranks and dashed forward, leaving an opening Scrim slipped through. Scrim's repeated escapades have prompted near-daily local media coverage and a devoted online following. Cheramie can relate. “We’re all running from something or to something. He's doing that too,” she said. Cheramie's team dreams of placing the pooch in a safe and loving environment. But a social media chorus growing under the hashtag #FreeScrim has other ideas — they say the runaway should be allowed a life of self-determination. The animal rescue volunteers consider that misguided. “The streets of New Orleans are not the place for a dog to be free,” Cheramie said. “It’s too dangerous.” Scrim was a mess when Cheramie briefly recaptured him in October, with matted fur, missing teeth and a tattered ear. His trembling body was scraped and bruised, and punctured by multiple projectiles. A vet removed one, but decided against operating to take out a possible bullet. The dog initially appeared content indoors, sitting in Cheramie's lap or napping beside her bed. Then while she was out one day, Scrim chewed through a mesh screen, dropped 13 feet to the ground and squeezed through a gap in the fence, trotting away. Murray said Cheramie's four cats probably spooked him. “I wholeheartedly believe the gangster-ass cats were messing with him,” Murray said. Cheramie thinks they may have gotten territorial. Devastated but undeterred, the pair is reassessing where Scrim might fit best — maybe a secure animal sanctuary with big outdoor spaces where other dogs can keep him company. Somewhere, Murray says, “where he can just breathe and be.” Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96
The Delhi police have booked Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator Dinesh Mohaniya and his two associates for allegedly assaulting a fruits seller in the Sangam Vihar area, an officer said on Saturday. The alleged incident took place on Wednesday, according to the complaint filed by the fruits seller, Narendra Singh. He alleged that the Sangam Vihar MLA , along with his associates Taran Raj and Sanjay Gupta, arrived at his shop and accused him of encroaching upon the road. Then, they beat him up, the complaint said. A case has been registered under BNS Sections 105(2), 126(2) and 3(5) at the Sangam Vihar police station. Published - November 23, 2024 11:53 pm IST Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Delhi / crime / politicsIt wasn't DNA or facial recognition technology that cracked the case. Nor did amateur online investigators hunting for clues break it open. In the end, it was a McDonald's restaurant employee - hours away from the scene of the crime - who spotted a man resembling a "person of interest" photo. The suspect was careful to wear a mask while traveling around New York City, but pulled it down for a second to flirt with a woman behind the desk at a youth hostel, and again to eat at McDonald's. That may have been enough. Police in Altoona, Pennsylvania swooped into the restaurant and arrested Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old from a wealthy Baltimore-area family with an expensive private and Ivy League education. After six dramatic days, the hunt for the man suspected of shooting Unitedhealth CEO Brian Thompson was over. On Monday morning, a regular at the McDonald's in Altoona told the BBC that one of his friends spotted Mr Mangione as he entered the restaurant and commented: "There's that shooter from New York". "I thought he was kidding," the customer said. Police were called and when officers first approached Mr Mangione and asked him if he'd been in New York, he became "visibly nervous, kind of shaking", Altoona's Deputy Chief Derick Swope told reporters. As he was being led into a court hearing Tuesday, Mr Mangione shouted about an "insult to the American people and their lived experience". He now faces charges of second-degree murder along with weapons offenses. New York police say the suspect first arrived in the city on 24 November, in the busy run-up to the Thanksgiving holiday. He visited the Hilton Hotel, where the shooting would later happen, and his encounter with a clerk at the hostel, where he stayed, was captured on camera. Ten days later, on 4 December, Mr Thompson was shot dead on his way to a meeting at about quarter to seven in the morning. The suspect fled by foot, bike and taxi to a bus station near the George Washington Bridge. From there, he exited the city. The killing was identified as a targeted attack early on in the investigation. Video showed the suspect ignored several pedestrians on the busy Manhattan pavement and zeroed in on Mr Thompson. Shell casings at the scene had words written on them, thought to be references to the insurance industry: "delay", "deny", "depose". Mr Mangione comes from a large and wealthy family in Baltimore, Maryland, with business interests in nursing homes, real estate, a country club and a radio station, according to local news outlet the Baltimore Banner . He attended the all-male private Gilman School, where he graduated as valedictorian – at the top of his class. A former classmate, Freddie Leatherbury, told the Associated Press news agency that Mr Mangione came from a wealthy family, even by that private school's standards. "Quite honestly, he had everything going for him," Mr Leatherbury said. Mr Mangione went on to the University of Pennsylvania. There he received bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science, according to the school, and founded a video game development club. A friend who attended the Ivy League school at the same time as Mr Mangione described him as a "super normal" and "smart person". He worked as a data engineer and a video game developer, and most recently was living in Hawaii. Social media posts show that friends and family members had recently been attempting to contact him and asking about his whereabouts. In a post on X from October, someone asked Mr Mangione: "Hey, are you ok? Nobody has heard from you in months, and apparently your family is looking for you." Monday's arrest ended a dramatic six days in which the alleged killer seemed to disappear, leaving few clues behind and eluding police. Not only was he able to leave one of the busiest cities in the world using public transport, before Monday his name was not publicly known. It's also unclear exactly where he was hiding in the days after he left New York. Juliette Kayyem, former assistant secretary for policy at the US Department of Homeland Security, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that his background in technology may have helped him evade capture for nearly a week. "This was someone who was studying how law enforcement and how these cities try to protect themselves, which is essentially they have lots of cameras around," she said. "Now that we know a little bit about him - that he's a smart person, he went to great schools, he had higher degrees, he studied engineering technology, he was into electronic gizmos - some of it is beginning to make sense," Kayyem said. The suspect also wore a face mask almost constantly, and Mr Mangione was found with a fake driving licence and an untraceable "ghost gun" – a firearm assembled by the owner without a serial number, which police said may have been 3D-printed. Authorities said he used cash for purchases in New York City and fled the scene of the crime into Central Park, where there are few surveillance cameras. But he also appeared to make some elementary mistakes – including revealing his face in the hostel, and holding on to the gun and the fake identification card. The Mr Mangione family released a statement Monday night through Mangione's cousin, a Maryland state lawmaker. "Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi's arrest," said Nino Mangione. "We offer prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved." Mr Mangione's online footprint shows few messages about health care or the insurance industry. Instead there are comments about artificial intelligence and technology, science and pop philosophy, and reviews of a range of books, including 1984 and the Harry Potter series. But a number of social media accounts matching his name and picture offer some potential clues about his motivation. RJ Martin, a former roommate of Mr Mangione's at a co-living and co-working community in Hawaii, told CNN that the suspect had a back injury. "He sent me the X-rays," Martin said. "It looked heinous, with just giant screws going into his spine." The banner image on his X account shows an X-ray of a spine with hardware in it. And his account on Goodreads, a user-generated book review website, indicated that he had read several books about managing back pain, one of them called Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry. Also on the Goodreads site, Mr Mangione gave four stars to a text called Industrial Society and Its Future by Theodore Kaczynski – better known as the Unabomber manifesto. Starting in 1978, Kaczynski carried out a bombing campaign that killed three people and injured dozens of others. In his review, Mr Mangione acknowledged Kaczynski was a violent individual who killed innocent people. However, he also argued that the essay should not be dismissed as the manifesto of a lunatic but rather the work of an "extreme political revolutionary." He quoted another online commentator who said: "When all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive". Mr Mangione wrote that he found the take "interesting". Police said a three-page, handwritten document Mr Mangione had when he was arrested further suggests a motive. The pages expressed "ill will" towards corporate America. A senior law enforcement official told the New York Times that the document said: "These parasites had it coming" and "I do apologise for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done". Meanwhile mixed reactions to the shooting and Mr Mangione's arrest continue – sympathy for Mr Thompson and his family versus anger at the state of America's expensive, vastly complicated health care system . In some online spaces, the shooting prompted criticism of the health insurance industry, and Mr Mangione was even hailed as a hero. Police in Altoona said the department received hundreds of emails and calls, including death threats. Some members of the public called police in support of Mr Mangione, claiming they were actually the killer and that police "have the wrong guy". And police are advising McDonald's employees not to give interviews or statements out of concern for their safety. The restaurant received hundreds of negative reviews online, calling employees "rats" and criticising them for calling the police. Similar sentiments have been expressed online, often in posts by anonymous accounts. But others have condemned such sentiments. "In America, we do not kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences or express a viewpoint," Pennsylvania's governor Josh Shapiro told reporters. "I understand people have real frustration with our healthcare system... But I have no tolerance, nor should anyone, for one man using an illegal ghost gun to murder someone because he thinks his opinion matters most. "In some dark corners, this killer is being hailed as a hero. Hear me on this: He is no hero," Shapiro said. With reporting by Cai Pigliucci, Jessica Parker and Madeline Halpert
Grades are in: Pat Bryant sparks another Illinois win
Injuries and bye weeks are starting to take their toll on on fantasy rosters. Managers are being forced to hit the waiver wire and explore the depths of their bench in order to put together a lineup this week. Even if your team is missing some starters, a strong set of rankings will set you up for success on the fantasy gridiron. As you prepare for the 14th full Sunday of NFL football, we've got you covered with everything you need to set your fantasy football lineups. We have everything from positional rankings to sleepers and busts. Be sure to check back in often as our rankings will be updated regularly until kickoff on Sunday. WEEK 14 FANTASY FOOTBALL ROSTER MANAGEMENT Lessons Learned | Stock Watch | Sleepers | Busts | Start 'Em, Sit 'Em | Usage Report | Weather Click section headers for additional positional analysis Week 14 Fantasy QB Rankings These rankings are for four-point passing TD leagues, and players who have already played are in italics. RANK PLAYER NAME TEAM OPPONENT CHANGE 1 Jalen Hurts PHI vs CAR 2 Joe Burrow CIN at DAL 3 Josh Allen BUF at LAR 4 Baker Mayfield TB vs LV 5 Justin Herbert LAC at KC 6 Kyler Murray ARI vs SEA Up 1 7 Jordan Love GB at DET Up 1 8 Sam Darnold MIN vs ATL Up 4 9 Jared Goff DET vs GB Down 3 10 Patrick Mahomes II KC vs LAC Down 1 11 Tua Tagovailoa MIA vs NYJ Down 1 12 Russell Wilson PIT vs CLE Up 3 13 Matthew Stafford LAR vs BUF Down 2 14 Derek Carr NO at NYG Down 1 15 Caleb Williams CHI at SF Down 1 16 Aidan O'Connell LV at TB Up 1 17 Brock Purdy SF vs CHI Down 1 18 Will Levis TEN vs JAC Up 5 19 Geno Smith SEA at ARI 20 Kirk Cousins ATL at MIN Down 2 21 Cooper Rush DAL vs CIN Down 1 22 Jameis Winston CLE at PIT Down 1 23 Aaron Rodgers NYJ at MIA Down 1 24 Drew Lock NYG vs NO 25 Bryce Young CAR at PHI 26 Mac Jones JAC at TEN Week 14 Fantasy RB Rankings (PPR) Italicized players have already played this week. RANK PLAYER NAME TEAM OPPONENT CHANGE 1 Saquon Barkley PHI vs CAR 2 Josh Jacobs GB at DET 3 De'Von Achane MIA vs NYJ 4 Alvin Kamara NO at NYG 5 Chase Brown CIN at DAL 6 James Cook BUF at LAR 7 Kyren Williams LAR vs BUF 8 Jahmyr Gibbs DET vs GB 9 Bijan Robinson ATL at MIN 10 Bucky Irving TB vs LV 11 David Montgomery DET vs GB 12 Kenneth Walker Jr. SEA at ARI 13 Aaron Jones MIN vs ATL 14 Tony Pollard TEN vs JAC 15 Tyrone Tracy Jr. NYG vs NO 16 Rico Dowdle DAL vs CIN Up 1 17 James Conner ARI vs SEA Up 1 18 D'Andre Swift CHI at SF Up 1 19 Rachaad White TB vs LV Up 1 20 Isaac Guerendo SF vs CHI Up 1 21 Braelon Allen NYJ at MIA Up 8 22 Najee Harris PIT vs CLE Up 2 23 Nick Chubb CLE at PIT Down 1 24 Isiah Pacheco KC vs LAC Down 1 25 Chuba Hubbard CAR at PHI 26 Travis Etienne Jr. JAC at TEN 27 Jaylen Warren PIT vs CLE 28 Tank Bigsby JAC at TEN 29 Devin Singletary NYG vs NO Up 1 30 Tyler Allgeier ATL at MIN Up 1 31 Sincere McCormick LV at TB Up 1 32 Gus Edwards LAC at KC Up 2 33 Jerome Ford CLE at PIT Up 2 34 Tyjae Spears TEN vs JAC Down 2 35 Ameer Abdullah LV at TB Up 1 36 Travis Homer CHI at SF N/R 37 Cam Akers MIN vs ATL 38 Kareem Hunt KC vs LAC 39 Kimani Vidal LAC at KC 40 Ray Davis BUF at LAR 41 Trey Benson ARI vs SEA 42 Emanuel Wilson GB at DET 43 Zach Charbonnet SEA at ARI 44 Jonathon Brooks CAR at PHI 45 Kendre Miller NO at NYG Down 3 46 Kenneth Gainwell PHI vs CAR Down 1 47 Blake Corum LAR vs BUF Down 1 48 Emari Demercado ARI vs SEA Down 1 49 Sean Tucker TB vs LV Down 1 50 Raheem Mostert MIA vs NYJ Down 1 51 Ty Johnson BUF at LAR Down 1 52 Kyle Juszczyk SF vs CHI Down 1 53 Ezekiel Elliott DAL vs CIN Down 1 54 Khalil Herbert CIN at DAL Down 1 55 Samaje Perine KC vs LAC Down 1 56 D'Ernest Johnson JAC at TEN Down 1 57 Jaylen Wright MIA vs NYJ Down 1 58 Dylan Laube LV at TB Down 1 59 Cordarrelle Patterson PIT vs CLE Down 1 60 Isaiah Davis NYJ at MIA Down 1 61 Hassan Haskins LAC at KC Down 1 62 Trayveon Williams CIN at DAL Down 1 63 Ty Chandler MIN vs ATL Down 1 Week 14 Fantasy WR Rankings (PPR) Italicized players have already played this week. RANK PLAYER NAME TEAM OPPONENT CHANGE 1 Ja'Marr Chase CIN at DAL 2 Justin Jefferson MIN vs ATL 3 A.J. Brown PHI vs CAR 4 Mike Evans TB vs LV 5 CeeDee Lamb DAL vs CIN 6 Calvin Ridley TEN vs JAC 7 Amon-Ra St. Brown DET vs GB 8 George Pickens PIT vs CLE 9 Puka Nacua LAR vs BUF 10 Ladd McConkey LAC at KC 11 Brian Thomas Jr. JAC at TEN 12 Tyreek Hill MIA vs NYJ 13 Jaxon Smith-Njigba SEA at ARI 14 Drake London ATL at MIN 15 Cooper Kupp LAR vs BUF 16 Jayden Reed GB at DET 17 Tee Higgins CIN at DAL 18 DJ Moore CHI at SF 19 Marvin Harrison Jr. ARI vs SEA 20 Jordan Addison MIN vs ATL 21 Jerry Jeudy CLE at PIT 22 Malik Nabers NYG vs NO 23 DeVonta Smith PHI vs CAR Down 1 24 Khalil Shakir BUF at LAR Down 1 25 DK Metcalf SEA at ARI Down 1 26 Davante Adams NYJ at MIA Down 1 27 DeAndre Hopkins KC vs LAC Down 1 28 Jameson Williams DET vs GB Down 1 29 Jakobi Meyers LV at TB Down 1 30 Garrett Wilson NYJ at MIA Down 1 31 Jaylen Waddle MIA vs NYJ Down 1 32 Keenan Allen CHI at SF Down 1 33 Christian Watson GB at DET Down 1 34 Jauan Jennings SF vs CHI Down 1 35 Marquez Valdes-Scantling NO at NYG Down 1 36 Amari Cooper BUF at LAR Down 1 37 Deebo Samuel Sr. SF vs CHI Down 1 38 Nick Westbrook-Ikhine TEN vs JAC Down 1 39 Dontayvion Wicks GB at DET Down 1 40 Adam Thielen CAR at PHI Down 1 41 Quentin Johnston LAC at KC Down 1 42 Brandin Cooks DAL vs CIN Down 1 43 Wan'Dale Robinson NYG vs NO Down 1 44 Xavier Worthy KC vs LAC Down 1 45 Xavier Legette CAR at PHI Down 1 46 Rome Odunze CHI at SF Down 1 47 Darnell Mooney ATL at MIN Down 1 48 Elijah Moore CLE at PIT Down 1 49 Parker Washington JAC at TEN Down 1 50 Michael Wilson ARI vs SEA Down 1 51 Jalen Tolbert DAL vs CIN Down 1 52 Calvin Austin PIT vs CLE Down 1 53 Sterling Shepard TB vs LV Down 1 54 Ray-Ray McCloud ATL at MIN Down 1 55 KaVonte Turpin DAL vs CIN Down 1 56 Demarcus Robinson LAR vs BUF Down 1 57 Darius Slayton NYG vs NO Down 1 58 Joshua Palmer LAC at KC Down 1 59 Curtis Samuel BUF at LAR Down 1 60 Jalen McMillan TB vs LV Down 1 61 Tre Tucker LV at TB Down 1 62 Jalen Nailor MIN vs ATL Down 1 63 Tyler Lockett SEA at ARI Down 1 64 Allan Lazard NYJ at MIA N/R 65 Mike Williams PIT vs CLE Down 1 66 Andrei Iosivas CIN at DAL Down 1 67 Mack Hollins BUF at LAR Down 1 68 Tim Patrick DET vs GB Down 1 69 Tyler Boyd TEN vs JAC Down 1 70 Ricky Pearsall SF vs CHI Down 1 71 Justin Watson KC vs LAC Down 1 72 DJ Turner LV at TB Down 1 73 Juju Smith-Schuster KC vs LAC Down 1 74 Jahan Dotson PHI vs CAR Down 1 75 Devin Duvernay JAC at TEN Down 1 76 Tutu Atwell LAR vs BUF Down 1 77 Zay Jones ARI vs SEA Down 1 78 Jermaine Burton CIN at DAL Down 1 79 Mason Tipton NO at NYG Down 1 80 Malik Washington MIA vs NYJ Down 1 81 Malachi Corley NYJ at MIA Down 1 82 David Moore CAR at PHI Down 1 Week 14 Fantasy Rankings TE (PPR) Italicized players have already played this week. RANK PLAYER NAME TEAM OPPONENT CHANGE 1 Brock Bowers LV at TB 2 Trey McBride ARI vs SEA 3 George Kittle SF vs CHI 4 Travis Kelce KC vs LAC 5 T.J. Hockenson MIN vs ATL 6 Jonnu Smith MIA vs NYJ 7 Evan Engram JAC at TEN 8 Pat Freiermuth PIT vs CLE 9 David Njoku CLE at PIT 10 Cade Otton TB vs LV 11 Will Dissly LAC at KC 12 Grant Calcaterra PHI vs CAR 13 Sam LaPorta DET vs GB 12 Jake Ferguson DAL vs CIN N/R 14 Tucker Kraft GB at DET 15 Dawson Knox BUF at LAR 16 Kyle Pitts ATL at MIN 18 Cole Kmet CHI at SF 19 Chigoziem Okonkwo TEN vs JAC 20 Noah Gray KC vs LAC 21 Juwan Johnson NO at NYG 22 Tyler Conklin NYJ at MIA 23 Mike Gesicki CIN at DAL 24 Ja'Tavion Sanders CAR at PHI 25 Noah Fant SEA at ARI 26 Daniel Bellinger NYG vs NO 27 Colby Parkinson LAR vs BUF 17 Luke Schoonmaker DAL vs CIN 28 Darnell Washington PIT vs CLE 29 Foster Moreau NO at NYG 30 Michael Mayer LV at TB 31 Davis Allen LAR vs BUF 32 Tanner Hudson CIN at DAL 33 Brenton Strange JAC at TEN 34 Josh Oliver MIN vs ATL 35 Elijah Higgins ARI vs SEA 36 Gerald Everett CHI at SF Week 14 Fantasy Defense Rankings Italicized teams have already played this week. RANK TEAM OPPONENT CHANGE 1 Philadelphia Eagles vs CAR 2 Pittsburgh Steelers vs CLE 3 Kansas City Chiefs vs LAC 4 Buffalo Bills at LAR 5 Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs LV 6 Tennessee Titans vs JAC 7 Los Angeles Chargers at KC 8 Seattle Seahawks at ARI 9 Cleveland Browns at PIT 10 Chicago Bears at SF 11 Arizona Cardinals vs SEA 12 San Francisco 49ers vs CHI 13 Minnesota Vikings vs ATL 14 Miami Dolphins vs NYJ 15 Los Angeles Rams vs BUF 16 New York Jets at MIA 17 New Orleans Saints at NYG 18 Atlanta Falcons at MIN 19 Detroit Lions vs GB 20 Cincinnati Bengals at DAL 21 Green Bay Packers at DET 22 Dallas Cowboys vs CIN 23 New York Giants vs NO 24 Las Vegas Raiders at TB 25 Jacksonville Jaguars at TEN 26 Carolina Panthers at PHI Week 14 Fantasy Kicker Rankings Italicized teams have already played this week. RANK PLAYER TEAM OPPONENT CHANGE 1 Brandon Aubrey DAL vs CIN 2 Jake Bates DET vs GB 3 Chris Boswell PIT vs CLE 4 Cameron Dicker LAC at KC 5 Chase McLaughlin TB vs LV 6 Brandon McManus GB at DET 7 Jason Myers SEA at ARI 8 Jake Elliott PHI vs CAR 9 Tyler Bass BUF at LAR 10 Chad Ryland ARI vs SEA 11 Evan McPherson CIN at DAL 12 Younghoe Koo ATL at MIN 13 Jake Moody SF vs CHI 14 Jason Sanders MIA vs NYJ 15 Dustin Hopkins CLE at PIT 16 Cairo Santos CHI at SF 17 Blake Grupe NO at NYG 18 Nick Folk TEN vs JAC 19 Spencer Shrader KC vs LAC 20 Daniel Carlson LV at TB 21 Graham Gano NYG vs NO 22 John Parker Romo MIN vs ATL 23 Joshua Karty LAR vs BUF 24 Anders Carlson NYJ at MIA 25 Cam Little JAC at TEN 26 Eddy Pineiro CAR at PHI
How the Rainbow Bistro survived the pandemic and made it to its 40th anniversaryNone
In this podcast, Motley Fool analyst Nick Sciple and host Ricky Mulvey discuss: Highlights from Walmart 's quarter. What shoppers want from mac and cheese. Why nicotine pouches may be "the biggest consumer product story this decade." Then, Motley Fool personal finance expert Robert Brokamp kicks off a two-part series with Christine Benz, Morningstar 's director of personal finance and the author of How to Retire: 20 Lessons for a Happy, Successful, and Wealthy Retirement . Go to breakfast.fool.com to sign up to wake up daily to the latest market news, company insights, and a bit of Foolish fun -- all wrapped up in one quick, easy-to-read email called Breakfast News. To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center . To get started investing, check out our beginner's guide to investing in stocks . A full transcript follows the video. This video was recorded on Nov. 19, 2024. Ricky Mulvey: Shoppers are trading up and down. It's the middle that gets stuck. You're listening to Motley Fool Money. I'm Ricky Mulvey. Joined today by our returning champion, Nick Sciple. Nick, it's good to have you back. How have you been? Nick Sciple: Been great, Ricky. I've been out on parental leave the past few months trying to wrangle two under two. It's been fun, but it's great to be back in the adult world here with you. Lots to talk about maybe talking about one of the places I pick up diapers. More often than not. Ricky Mulvey: What a different conversation to come into versus two under two. Stocks are down today as tensions between Russia and Ukraine increase. I think it's worth mentioning at the top, Nick, but we don't have anything smart to say here, other than, we hope this isn't. I don't want to look at gold and be like, traders are going to gold. But I got nothing smart to say other than we hope this isn't really bad. Nick Sciple: Certainly scary headlines, nuclear saber rattling by Russia is going to continue more of these same growing tensions, I would say, between Russia and the West, just like this is one of those risks Warren Buffett has talked about in the past. You can't control, you have to live with as an investor. The world is always uncertain. This is the cost of doing business. If these threats end up to anything in the real world, no advice we can give you will protect you from this sort of thing. But unlikely that these words will lead to actions, but certainly something to pay attention to. Ricky Mulvey: Let's go from the bottom up with Walmart earnings, focusing on the business. They reported this morning, Nick, I think the biggest highlight to me is that comp sales number for Walmart, more people are going to their stores, including Sam's Club. Walmart proper, more than 5%. Same-store sales increase. Sam's Club 7% from the year prior. This tells me that the inflation story is not over as shoppers continue to look for value, but what stood out to you from the quarter? Nick Sciple: For me, really across the board, strong numbers for Walmart, you mentioned those comp store numbers, that's with inventory declining 1% during the quarter. So just classic what you look for out of a high-quality retailer, you look below the top line, 42% marketplace growth, 28% advertising growth, 22% membership income growth, really working across the board. If you think about what's driving all those sorts of things, marketplace growth, really leveraging Walmart's infrastructure to be attractive to sellers and really getting the right assortment to be attractive to buyers, companies cited over 20% growth in beauty, toys, hardlines, and home. My wife has called out the Walmart's apparel has made a big comeback. The more the folks you bring to that marketplace, that gives you opportunities to sell ads and direct purchase behavior. Also, the more folks that are buying on that marketplace, you can sell them membership opportunities. All that drives the flywheel, folks back to Walmart, and all those revenue streams that I mentioned are high margins. This is really a company that's firing on all cylinders. All the flywheels are spinning, and it's really a beautiful thing. Ricky Mulvey: The e-commerce growth impressive, especially internationally for Walmart. There's also a consumer trend going on. It's the trade-down. Doug McMillon highlighting that "Households earning more than $100,000 a year made up for 75% of our share gains." You have folks going from the higher-priced grocery stores, going back to Walmart. If you're a long-term holder of Walmart shares, you have to believe that those shoppers are going to be sticking around for years and years to come. What needs to happen for Walmart to hold onto these customers for the next 3-5-10 years? Nick Sciple: I think the real key is convenience, and the company understands that as well. You got the words convenience or convenient mentioned 16 times on the call. Walmart's really always going to win on price, where it hasn't traditionally been able to have advantages is just the convenience. It's something that Doug McMillon also called out on the call is if you have higher discretionary income, these are folks that are more likely to pay up to save time, pay for those memberships, participate in pickup and delivery. If Walmart can continue to provide the value that it's always been able to deliver as a business and at a convenience level that other companies can't match, I think it can hold on to those high-income customers, and it looks like they're doing the things necessary to do that so far. Ricky Mulvey: What do you think about Walmart's valuation, the price tag on this stock? We talked about price to earnings, the price tag for Walmart on this previous weekend's show. Walmart's at 45 times earnings, 45. That's a lot for a grocery store that in a lot of ways, yes, it's getting more efficient, yes, it's getting more sales. Functions like a utility for a lot of people, that's putting it in the same weight class as Costco now. Do these multiples deserve to be in the same weight class? Yes, Costco is a little bit high. Nick Sciple: I think both those multiples, when you list them out to me, sound pretty high. But I do think Costco and Walmart are in a category of these dominant retailers from the 20th century that can really survive the competitive threats that we're seeing in today's 21st-century retail landscape, arguably, both expensive here, but both are growing their moot. Where I'm really worried about, if I look at retail today is what are the companies that are getting left behind. You look at the dollar stores this year, Dollar General and Dollar Tree , both down over 50%. Compare that to Walmart, almost two-thirds this year, 66%. Some of these companies might be getting left behind as Walmart becomes more convenient and can capture some of those areas of the market. I'd be more inclined to be worried about some of these other segments of retail that Walmart is capturing than I am concerned about Walmart itself. Although, is it going to be trading at 45 times earnings five years from now? Probably not, but I think there's a decent chance the stock is higher. Ricky Mulvey: There's also something happening at Walmart that doesn't really impact it as much, but a phenomenon happening at the grocery stores. There was an article in Bloomberg about it today, and that's that these brands that are in the center are getting cut out by shoppers. Basically, the example they use is mac and cheese. More people are buying store-brand cheap mac and cheese. Then you have your healthy-ish, allegedly healthy options that are the higher end that more people are gravitating to. In the middle, you have your Kraft Mac & Cheese, which is seeing sales declines. But you as a shopper you're going around the Tennessee grocery stores. Have you noticed this yourself or you gravitating up or down the value chain as a shopper? Nick Sciple: For me, I've always been the store brand guy. I think it's a trend along, millennials as a whole, but I was just raised that way to always get the store brand milk and the store brand cream cheese and that thing. For me, it's a habit I've always grown into. I have noticed more in my household, the willing to pay up for more of "The healthier versions of snacks," so you don't get the goldfish. You get the organic version of goldfish, that sort of thing. With the protein added products, I think those have had some success in capturing segments of the market. I think if you look at some of these big consumer package good companies, your Krafts, your Procter & Gamble s, they were really super efficient, built for the traditional retail model where you had the eye level shelf space, and that's how you attracted consumers. They're having to transition just like everybody else to this new purchasing model. I think those companies are still going to have to adapt. I do think long term, though, these businesses have such scale and are so sophisticated, even if they're getting attacked by some of these new emergent, healthy or other brands. Long term, these are acquisition targets for the big CPG companies. These aren't companies that I think are going to take down the big mammoth. Ricky Mulvey: Yeah, and in some cases, the store brand is the brand now. Kirkland is beloved. I love me some Kirkland coffee. I've got my Kirkland laundry pods. I'm happy with it. You mentioned it as an acquisition target. I'm going to dig into the numbers a little bit more. So Craft, year over year 6% decline in mac and cheese. Their stock has been basically flat over the past five years, as well. The store box mac and cheese, Bloomberg reporting, that's a 6% bump. The trade is pretty direct there. There's also this higher end option called Goodles, which is the protein added one that you were talking about. You also mentioned Procter & Gamble, Kraft Heinz , these consumer packaged goods companies, when we talk about this trend where the middle is getting cut out, is this a temporary thing? Is this an investing we like to say? It's a dark cloud that can be seen through or is this a long-term problem for these companies? Nick Sciple: It's not a dark cloud that I would say that I can see through today. It's not the area of the market that I would be aggressively looking for opportunities. I think these are sophisticated businesses with talented management that can adapt over time, but I don't think the vision of the future for these companies is ultra clear that Kraft Mac & Cheese is going to be as relevant five or 10 years from now as it is today. For me, I would be more comfortable looking at segments of the market that customers are moving toward that are growing segments, we might talk about one here in a second. Those are the areas I'd be looking for in consumer goods as opposed to trying to catch the falling knife. Ricky Mulvey: Let's get there because there is a surprising consumer product that has had a heck of a year, and that's nicotine. Altria and Philip Morris are both up almost 40%. These are mature companies that pay very healthy dividends. Altria, I think, pays over a 7% dividend right now. This is for outside observers, may be surprising. It's at a time where fewer people are smoking cigarettes. You shared an article with me that even Sweden is going smoke free. There is a move to pouches, but man, this move must be big. What's happening with the nicotine industry in 2024? Nick Sciple: You mentioned the nicotine pouches really has been the big story this year, and I think it's going to be the biggest consumer product story this decade. Smoking has been declining for quite a while. I think pouches are what's going to really drive growth in nicotine consumption. The global market for nicotine pouches is expected to grow from $7.4 billion in 2023 to $25.2 billion in 2028. That's according to EuroMotor and that's on top of really triple digit growth [inaudible] we've seen over the past several years. This is a segment of the market just doesn't get talked about that much because of the nicotine tobacco stigma. I think it's probably the first time this year. It's getting talked about on Motley Fool Money. I understand why the smoking causes cancer. It kills people. Certainly it's been a big public health consciousness drive over the past 50 plus years to spread that. Smoking is predominantly how people have consumed nicotine throughout history. Back from the 1500s, people smoked pipes, then cigars became popular in the late 19th century, cigarettes became popular, still become popular. Today, along the way, governments have taxed, punish, tried to ban nicotine use, but it's still persisted today, I think, likely to continue in the form of these nicotine pouches, other reduced risk products that have opportunity to deliver nicotine with fewer harmful chemicals. You mentioned Sweden as a market where you're really seeing smoking decline, and part of that is because Sweden is the market where nicotine pouches really first gained prominence. Launched there in 2008, descended from traditional Swedish noose tobacco it's been used hundreds of years. Last week, Sweden announced it became the first country in the world to reach smoke free status. That's with less than 5% of your adult consumers. Smoking at 16 years ahead of EU targets and really has been driven by policy that's made these products more attractive than cigarettes and education that's focused around tobacco harm reduction as opposed to just totally eliminating nicotine use. You see it in, health statistics for the country. Sweden has the lowest percentage of tobacco related diseases in Europe and 41% lower incidence of cancer than other countries. It's the second biggest market for nicotine pouches, the US is number 1, and there's been rapid growth. We can talk about some of the brands. Ricky, let's do it. Ricky Mulvey: I'm going to go back on something you said. We haven't talked about it and why we haven't talked about it? I programmed some of the show. Maybe we should have. Especially if you think it's the biggest consumer product story of the next decade. Ultimately, I think, our job on the show is not to tell you what to invest in what not to invest in based on our moral inclinations. I think the farthest I will go on that is you get started investing we encourage you at the Motley Fool to find maybe one company or one industry that you will never invest in, no matter how well it does, because it goes against what you believe in morally, it doesn't agree with your beliefs. We talk about alcohol. We'll also talk about cigarettes sometimes, and it's up to you what you want to do with that information. Let's talk. Now, about the nicotine pouches, Philip Morris, which owns ZYN that is the most popular nicotine pouch. There's a story about it in the New York Times a few weeks ago, giving it what I will generously describe as mixed coverage. But what it talks about is they don't really market this product. Philip Morris has not really been marketing ZYN but it has this online legion of fans, and it's become the number 1 brand in the US. How has ZYN specifically gotten so popular? Nick Sciple: So a few things. I think nicotine pouches in general are a good product relative to traditional nicotine delivery systems. It's discrete. You don't smell bad like you do smoking tobacco. Unlike traditional smokeless tobacco, dip and the like, you don't have to spit. It's a better product for those reasons. But ZYN was the first of the market in the US. In 2014, Swedish match was just the owner of ZYN until Swedish Match was acquired by Philip Morris. 2022 was really the first on the market. Also, if you look at the quality of the product relative to some others on the market, just higher quality product. Altria sells the on nicotine pouch product. British American Tobacco sells Velo, both of those products similar to ZYN, but end up having a lot more quality control issues than ZYN has, just a better product. Also, just for whatever reason, historically, nicotine products have always had a super high brand affinity and a concentrated market leader. You'd see it with Marlboro and cigarettes. You'd see it traditionally in the type of pipes and things like that that people smoke. For several reasons, the quality of the product, being the first to market. The virality that you get as more and more people use the product. Just the natural way nicotine products end up being concentrated ZYN has become the market leader. Today, over 73% share in the category by retail value in the most recent quarter, 149 million cans shipped last quarter alone, that's up 40% year over year, triple what it had shipped in the first quarter of 2022. That's in an environment where, sales were restricted because the product was stocking out in retail stores across the country. This is an environment where they're raising price as well. ZYN isn't the only product that's seeing growth. I mentioned, the on product from Altria. That had 46% growth in the most recent quarter, British American tobaccos product, growing 48% in the first half of 2024. Really across the board massive growth. You're seeing similar patterns to what you've seen in traditional nicotine products, and again, growth not likely to slow down anytime soon. Ricky Mulvey: You've also got a celebrity endorsement recently with Josh Brolin admitting on the WTF podcast with Mark Marron that he has a ZYN in a pouch in his lip 24 hours a day, emphasizing that he's not lying about that. As we wrap up here, anything else on tobacco is comeback that you want to hit? Nick Sciple: Well, you talked about celebrity endorsements. Tucker Carlson also getting into the Nicotine pouch game, which I think is interesting. ZYN, obviously, the leader in the market, don't have to be the market leader to be successful with a market category. It's as big and fast growing as we're seeing in nicotine pouches. It really doesn't take that much to be successful. Nick Sciple: In the market. You mentioned earlier comparisons with alcohol and things like that. I think about celebrities getting involved in nicotine pouches in the same way that George Clooney getting involved, selling Tequila or Ryan Reynolds getting involved, selling Aviation, Jane, you don't have to take down Jack Daniels or Jose Cuervo to be really significant in the market. The reason I mentioned the Tucker product, his part publicly traded company that we've recommended in Canada in the past, Turning Point Brands , is a billion dollar company. It takes lots and lots of sales for these products to be impactful for a company like Philip Morris or Altria, not the same for a company like Turning Point Brands has really built a business around being a small going after small, profitable segments of the tobacco industry, whether that's chewing tobacco or others in nicotine pouches, they're already showing success with their free brand. They've tripled sales year over year. That stocks over 130% this year. Whether you're looking for these big established companies with reliable dividends that have been around for a long time. Or looking for small cap businesses that there's lots of ways to get involved in this trend. If you can open your mind to the idea that nicotine can persist as a product while health outcomes for use and continue to improve, I think this is a category that you should consider investing in. Ricky Mulvey: Sometimes, products that hit that steamy button for the user, these can turn out to be good long term investments. We'll see. I'm going to keep an eye on it. Appreciate you bringing it to my attention, Nick Sciple. Thank you for your time and your insight. Thanks for being here. Nick Sciple: Thanks, Ricky. Anytime. Ricky Mulvey: Today's show is brought to you by public.com. Heads up, folks, interest rates are falling, but you can still lock in a 6% or higher yield with a bond account at public.com. That's a pretty big deal because when rates drop, so can the interest you earn on your investment. A bond account allows you to lock in a 6% or higher yield with a diversified portfolio of high yield and investment grade corporate bonds. While other people are watching their returns shrink, you can sit back with regular interest payments, but you might want to act fast because your yield is not locked in until you invest. The good news, it only takes a couple of minutes to sign up at public.com. Lock in a 6% or higher yield with a bond account. Only at public.com/motlefoolpublic.com/motleyfool. Brought to you by public Investing member FINRA and SIPC, as of 92624, the average annualized yield to worst across the bond account is greater than 6%. Yield to worst is not guaranteed, not an investment recommendation. All investing involves risk, visit public.com/disclosures/bond-account for more info. As we wrap up that segment, just a quick note, Turning Point brands and Turning Point USA are completely separate entities. Up next, Robert Brokamp kicks off a two part interview series with Christine Benz, Morningstar's director of Personal Finance and the author of How to Retire 20 Lessons for a happy, successful, and wealthy retirement. In today's conversation, they talk about distributions and why retirees may need less in stocks than they think. Robert Brokamp: Let's start with research on withdrawal rates in retirement, because it attempts to answer a key question. How much can I spend and be reasonably sure my money is going to last as long as I do? Plus, you could then use that to back into how much you have to have saved before you retire. Christine Benz: Right. Robert Brokamp: This year marks the 30th anniversary of the research report that established 4% as the safe withdrawal rate, written by a financial planner named Bill Bengen. Since 1994, all studies have come out, many saying that 4% is too low, some saying it's too high. Morningstar jumped into the game a few years ago. The most recent publicly available report was published toward the end of last year, and it brought us back full circle to 4%. What's your take on how someone should choose the right withdrawal rate for them when they retire? Christine Benz: Yeah, this whole thing about safe withdrawal rates, in a way, Robert, when I think about it rests on what I think of as a straw man. The formula that we use to even do our research, our base case, safe spending research at Morningstar, is that we assume someone's looking for Social Security equivalent or paycheck equivalent in retirement. They're going to take the same amount out every year, inflation adjusts that dollar amount, so they'll take a little bit more if inflation's up, maybe take a lower inflation adjustment if it's not up so much. But that's how we assume that someone marches along for however long their retirement is. The baseline assumption that we use for our research is 30 years. When we look at the research on this, it's not really how people spend that people do tend to spend less throughout their retirement life cycle. Sometimes for reasons of uninsured long term care costs, mainly, we see healthcare spending flare up later in life. Then that inflates the averages for everyone, even though it's a fairly small segment of our population that has that catastrophic term care spending need. Anyway, it doesn't really factor in real world spending. Another thing that we know when we look at this problem is that ideally you would pay a little bit of attention to what's going on in your portfolio. In a good year, you can take more. In a good year like 2024, in a bad year like 2022, you'd probably want to take a little bit less. The basic intuition there is that you're preserving funds in a downturn, you're preserving funds that will be available to recover when the market eventually does. I definitely prefer that people think about flexibility if they possibly can and one thing I liked in the book is that Jon Guyton, who's a financial planner and has also done some work in this realm of retirement withdrawal rights. He notes that it's like a rare thing where our behavioral instincts, which is to spend less when our portfolios are down, actually align with what's good for our portfolios. In many cases, that's not the case. We feel like selling oftentimes out of our portfolios when the market's up, spending more feels better than spending less. This is a time where actually those two things are in alignment. Robert Brokamp: One of the points made by Jonathan Guyton and at least one other person that you interviewed in the book is that 4% is a worst case scenario. It's survived the worst conditions we've seen since the 1920s. In most situations, someone who fled the 4% rule would actually die with more money than they started with at retirement. Some of the suggestions from the experts, as well as the research from Morningstars, like you could, for example, instead of assuming that you just take an inflation adjustment every year, whenever your portfolio is down, you just don't take an inflation adjustment, and that adds 0.4-0.5% to the SAFE withdrawal rate. Or if you use the actual spending of retirees, which tends to go down over time, the actual beginning SAFE withdrawal rate could be 5%, especially if you are willing to cut back during times when your portfolio is down. Christine Benz: No, it's absolutely right that this is particularly important for people with tight financial plans, where there are real quality of life issues in underspending that if they wed themselves to this 4% guideline in many market environments that would prevail over the subsequent 25 or 30 year period or shorter period, perhaps, that would be too low. Ideally you would revisit this. You'd think about how your portfolio has performed. You'd be willing to be a little bit flexible. I think another factor that has gotten underrated that we're addressing in the 2024 retirement income research that we're working on is that most people have other sources of cash flow in addition to their portfolios, so most of us will come into retirement with the stabilizer of Social Security. That's going to make me more comfortable making those adjustments. My portfolio isn't my sole source of spending. If I'm able to look at Social Security as providing my baseline living expenses, I probably am willing to tolerate a bit of volatility in my portfolio cash flows, or at least that's how I think about it. Robert Brokamp: We'll get to Social Security a little bit later. But one of the other benefits of the research on safe withdrawal rates is that it gives an indication of what asset allocation seems to best enhance portfolio longevity, it depends on your assumptions and, frankly, which withdrawal rate strategy you're going to follow. But the research seems to indicate that there's like this Goldilocks amount of stock you should aim for, not too much, not too little. What's your general idea in terms of a range of a reasonable asset allocation based on the research you've done on safe withdrawal rates? Christine Benz: Yeah, it's more balanced, I think, than many people might think. I frequently run into retirees who say, you know what? I just own dividend paying stocks, forget your bonds, I own maybe a little bit of cash, and I call it a day. When we look at the research with our base case, where again, we're assuming someone wants that fixed real withdrawal throughout their retirement years, it very much points to the value of balance. In fact, when we did the 2023 research, in light of the fact that yields had gone up pretty decently on cash and on bonds, our model, because we're asking it to provide this fairly stable stream of cash flows, our model was basically saying back to us, I see that here today, and it's mainly in fixed income securities. The recommendation, like the highest safe withdrawal rate, somewhat counter-intuitively to all of us until we took a step back and thought about it, pointed to a 20-40% equity allocation, which is pretty light for most retirees. I think many especially investor type retirees have more ample equity ratings. I think the reason our model gravitated to that is because we are basically saying we want to lock down our cash flows, and we don't want a lot of volatility in those cash flows from year to year in light of higher yields, the money Carlo simulations that we run gravitated to that more conservative asset mix. If you're looking at a more flexible strategy where you are going to make changes to your spending on an ongoing basis and you're up for that. Then if you look at something like the guardrails strategy, which is Jonathan Guyton's strategy for dynamic withdrawals, it points to a higher equity mix, but still on the realm of balance, not 90, 10 equity versus fixed income. It's more sort of 60, 40 that delivers the highest spending rate with a guardrail strategy. Robert Brokamp: That's generally consistent with many of the other studies that have looked at historical returns as opposed to your study, which is more prospective, and that you don't want to go too much over 60 or 70% when it comes to stocks. Christine Benz: The reason is pretty intuitive, you don't have to be a market guru to understand the importance of if you're going to be spending from this portfolio, you basically want to and this gets to the bucket thing that I often talk about. But you want to lock down a stream of cash flows that you could pull from without disturbing equities. If you happen to be super unlucky, retire headlong into a market environment that you know where stocks immediately drop, you would want to be able to withdraw from safer assets and leave those equity assets to recover. Robert Brokamp: With your bucket strategy, you've often talked about three buckets. That's one super safe bucket, about two years of retirement income in cash, maybe years 2-8, corporate bonds, maybe some safer stocks, and then years 10 and beyond our stocks. When you're working, you're probably going to be mostly in stocks but at some point, you have to de risk. At what point do you think people really have to start taking that seriously? Is it 10 years from retirement, five years from retirement? Do you have any particular suggestions for how they should do that? Christine Benz: For sure, within a five year window, I would be thinking seriously about de risk. I think sometimes people hear de risk and think that we're saying, you're going to flee equities entirely. No, it's just that you probably have been neglecting safer assets in your portfolio. You might have that emergency fund, and if you're using some sort of all in one fund like a target date fund, it's tipping you into more bonds. But if you haven't been paying close attention, well, we've had a great equity market. Your equities are probably hogging a bigger share of your portfolio. I think the best way to address that is to perhaps turn your new contributions onto fixed income, that's probably the simplest, most painless way to approach it, where new contributions into your company retirement plan or maybe into your IRA, if you're building an IRA would go into fixed income assets, and then within I would say, probably a couple of years of retirement, then you would want to start building out that cash position. But there's definitely an opportunity cost to having too much in cash too early, even though inflation has moderated a little bit. I think you want to be careful about the peace of mind that you get with cash because there really is a significant opportunity cost over time with inflation, just taking a bite out of that purchasing power. Robert Brokamp: Yeah, one of the points one of your experts made, Fritz Gilbert, that we talk about series of withdrawal risk often in retirement and that's often conceived of the series of returns you get in retirement, but that sequence of returns risk actually starts before retirement because you don't want to get three years from retirement, and then the market drops 50% and then your plans have changed. Christine Benz: Yeah, I love that point that sequence risk, I think, is, something that we understand to be like this some big market drop right after you retire. But Fritz is absolutely right that it's important if you encounter that just before retirement, you want to build a bulwark against having to come in. You want to let your portfolio fully recover. I also think that inflation risk is maybe an under discussed aspect of sequence risk. It comes up in the book a little bit, but I think Wade Pfau talks about it where if inflation's really high in your early years of retirement, that's meaningful too. Because I don't imagine that we'll be going back to 2021, prices on cereal and hotels and all that stuff. We're probably here to stay, even though we will see the inflation rate moderate a little bit. You need to be thinking about sequence of inflation risk too. Robert Brokamp: Yeah, because it raises basically the floor of your spending for the rest of your retirement. Christine Benz: Right, exactly. Ricky Mulvey: As always, people on the program may have interests in the stocks they talk about, and the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don't buy or sell anything based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows Motley Fool editorial standards and are not approved by advertisers, The Motley Fool only picks products that it would personally recommend to friends like you. I'm Ricky Mulvey. Thanks for listening. We'll be back tomorrow.Tech and growth stocks have dragged Wall Street's main indexes lower at the end of an upbeat holiday-shortened week that was driven by expectations around a traditionally strong period for markets. Yields on some US Treasury notes were higher on the day, with the ones on the benchmark 10-year note hovering near an over seven-month high they hit on Thursday. The yields on the benchmark 10-year note were last at 4.587 per cent. Rate-sensitive growth stocks dropped with Nvidia down three per cent and Tesla off by 3.8 per cent, while Microsoft shed two per cent. Ten of the 11 major S&P sectors, including information technology and consumer discretionary fell the most, down about two per cent and 1.9 per cent, after powering most of the broader market's gains in 2024. "Tech, which has had a tremendous run, is starting to pull back. It is the beginning of a healthy correction that will get focused in on over the next four to eight weeks as we switch administrations," said Jay Woods, Chief Global Strategist at Freedom Capital Markets. In early trading on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 329.50 points, or 0.76 per cent, to 42,996.30, the S&P 500 lost 70.22 points, or 1.16 per cent, to 5,967.60 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 356.63 points, or 1.77 per cent, to 19,665.01. As of Thursday's close, the S&P 500 had recovered most of last week's losses that stemmed from the US Federal Reserve projecting fewer interest rate cuts in 2025 and hurting risk appetite. All three indexes are still set for weekly gains, with the benchmark index now about 2.3 per cent below its all-time high of 6,099.97 points clinched on December 6. With three sessions left to close out the year, markets are in the stock-buying season called the "Santa Claus rally" - the last five sessions of December and the first two of January. Since 1969, the S&P 500 has climbed 1.3 per cent on average in the seven-day trading period, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac. US equities have broadly extended their gains from a stellar November, when Donald Trump won the US presidential election, as hopes of pro-business policies under the incoming administration stoked optimism. Trading volumes in this holiday-shortened week have been below the average of the last six months and are likely to remain subdued until Jan. 6. The next major focus for markets will be the December employments report due on Jan. 10. Among individual movers, Amedisys gained four per cent after the home health service provider and insurer UnitedHealth extended the deadline to close their $US3.3 billion ($A5.3 billion) merger. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 3.01-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 3-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P 500 posted two new 52-week highs and two new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 44 new highs and 35 new lows.Mom suing after AI companion suggested teen with autism kill his parents
The Prime Minister used an op-ed in the Mail on Sunday to vow to “get to grips” with the cost of welfare after figures suggested more than four million people will be claiming long-term sickness support by the end of the decade. Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall will announce a package of legislation next week designed to “get Britain working” amid Government concerns about the projected rise. Official forecasts published by her department this week show that the number of people claiming incapacity benefits is expected to climb from a pre-pandemic figure of around 2.5 million in 2019 to around 4.2 million in 2029. Last year there were just over three million claimants. The Prime Minister wrote: “In the coming months, Mail on Sunday readers will see even more sweeping changes. Because make no mistake, we will get to grips with the bulging benefits bill blighting our society. “Don’t get me wrong, we will crack down hard on anyone who tries to game the system, to tackle fraud so we can take cash straight from the banks of fraudsters. “There will be a zero-tolerance approach to these criminals. My pledge to Mail on Sunday readers is this: I will grip this problem once and for all.” Ms Kendall’s white paper is expected to include the placement of work coaches in mental health clinics and a “youth guarantee” aimed at ensuring those aged 18-21 are working or studying.
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