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Busy schedule gives Packers no time to celebrate their lopsided win over 49ers
By Riazat Butt | Associated Press ISLAMABAD — Supporters seeking the release of imprisoned Pakistani former Prime Minister Imran Khan broke through a ring of shipping containers blocking off the capital on Tuesday, and battled security forces despite a government threat to respond with gunfire. Six people have died in the violence. Thousands of security forces have poured into central Islamabad in an attempt to quell protests in support of Khan that have gripped the capital and its surrounding areas since Sunday. The popular politician has been in jail for over a year and faces more than 150 criminal cases that his party says are politically motivated. Authorities say only courts can order the release of Khan, who was ousted in 2022 through a no-confidence vote in Parliament. He has been imprisoned since his first conviction in a graft case in August 2023. On Tuesday, Pakistan’s army took control of D-Chowk, a large square in downtown Islamabad’s Red Zone, which houses key government buildings and where visiting Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is staying . Paramilitary rangers and police were also out in force and some fired warning shots into the air. Still, Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, who is leading the protests, made slow progress toward the square in a heavily guarded convoy, surrounded by well-wishers. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi threatened that security forces would respond with live fire if protesters fired weapons at them. “We have now allowed police to take any decision according to the situation,” Naqvi said later while visiting the square. Protester Shahzor Ali said people were on the streets because Khan had called for them to be there. “We will stay here until Khan is among us. He will decide what to do next,” Ali said.”If they again fire bullets, the bullet will be responded with the bullet,” he said. Protester Fareeda Bibi, who is not related to Khan’s wife, said people have suffered greatly for the last two years. “We have really suffered for the last two years, whether it is economically, politically or socially. We have been ruined. I have not seen such a Pakistan in my life,” she said. Police so far have used tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowds. The dead include four members of the security services and one civilian who were killed when a vehicle rammed them on a street overnight into Tuesday. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced the attack, saying an “anarchist group” was deliberately targeting law enforcement personnel. There was no claim of responsibility for the ramming. A police officer died separately. Scores of people have also been injured, including journalists who were attacked by demonstrators. Dozens of Khan supporters beat a videographer covering the protest for The Associated Press and took his camera. He sustained head injuries and was treated in a hospital. Pakistani media have mostly stopped filming and photographing the rally, instead focusing on the security measures and the city’s deserted streets. By Tuesday afternoon, fresh waves of protesters made their way unopposed to their final destination in the Red Zone. Most demonstrators had the flag of Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, around their shoulders or wore its tricolors on accessories. Naqvi said Khan’s party rejected a government offer to rally on the outskirts of the city. Information Minister Atta Tarar warned there would be a severe government reaction to the violence. He said the government did not want Bushra Bibi to achieve her goal of freeing Khan. “She wants bodies falling to the ground. She wants bloodshed,” he said. In a bid to foil the unrest, police have arrested more than 4,000 Khan supporters since Friday and suspended mobile and internet services in some parts of the country and messaging platforms were also experiencing severe disruption in the capital. Related Articles World News | After Trump’s win, Black women are rethinking their role as America’s reliable political organizers World News | Who’s paying the most to lobby CT legislators? One industry tops them all World News | Trump’s Republican Party is increasingly winning union voters. It’s a shift seen in his labor pick World News | Recount: Democrat unseats Republican in CT’s 8th Senate District World News | Connecticut’s fixed expenses rising faster than its revenues, state report says Khan’s party relies heavily on social media to demand Khan’s release and uses messaging platforms such as WhatsApp to share information, including details of events. The X platform, which is banned in Pakistan, is no longer accessible, even with a VPN. On Thursday, a court prohibited rallies in the capital and Naqvi said anyone violating the ban would be arrested. Travel between Islamabad and other cities has become nearly impossible because of shipping containers blocking the roads. All educational institutions remain closed. Pakistan’s Stock Exchange lost more than $1.7 billion Tuesday due to rising political tensions, according to economist Mohammed Sohail from Topline Securities. Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed contributed to this report.On a rare two-game skid, No. 24 Arizona faces Davidson
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Bronchos open new season with win over SnyderJoe Biden begins final White House holiday season with turkey pardons for 'Peach' and 'Blossom' WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has kicked off his final holiday season at the White House, issuing the traditional reprieve to two turkeys who will bypass the Thanksgiving table to live out their days in Minnesota. The president welcomed 2,500 guests under sunny skies as he cracked jokes about the fates of “Peach” and “Blossom.” He also sounded wistful tones about the last weeks of his presidency. Later Monday, first lady Jill Biden will receive delivery of the official White House Christmas tree. And the Bidens will travel to New York to help serve a holiday meal at a Coast Guard station. Warren Buffett gives away another $1.1B and plans for distributing his $147B fortune after his death OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Investor Warren Buffett renewed his Thanksgiving tradition of giving by announcing plans Monday to hand more than $1.1 billion of Berkshire Hathaway stock to four of his family's foundations, and he offered new details about who will be handing out the rest of his fortune after his death. Buffett has said previously that his three kids will distribute his remaining $147.4 billion fortune in the 10 years after his death, but now he has also designated successors for them because it’s possible that Buffett’s children could die before giving it all away. Buffett said he has no regrets about his decision to start giving away his fortune in 2006. Bah, humbug! Vandal smashes Ebenezer Scrooge's tombstone used in 'A Christmas Carol' movie LONDON (AP) — If life imitates art, a vandal in the English countryside may be haunted by The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Police in the town of Shrewsbury are investigating how a tombstone at the fictional grave of Ebenezer Scrooge was destroyed. The movie prop used in the 1984 adaption of Charles Dickens' “A Christmas Carol” had become a tourist attraction. The film starred George C. Scott as the cold-hearted curmudgeon who is visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve who show him what will become of his life if he doesn’t become a better person. West Mercia Police say the stone was vandalized in the past week. At the crossroads of news and opinion, 'Morning Joe' hosts grapple with aftermath of Trump meeting The reaction of those who defended “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski for meeting with President-elect Trump sounds almost quaint in the days of opinionated journalism. Doesn't it makes sense, they said, for hosts of a political news show to meet with such an important figure? But given how “Morning Joe” has attacked Trump, its viewers felt insulted. Many reacted quickly by staying away. It all reflects the broader trend of opinion crowding out traditional journalist in today's marketplace, and the expectations that creates among consumers. By mid-week, the show's audience was less than two-thirds what it has typically been this year. Pop star Ed Sheeran apologizes to Man United boss Ruben Amorim for crashing interview MANCHESTER, England (AP) — British pop star Ed Sheeran has apologized to Ruben Amorim after inadvertently interrupting the new Manchester United head coach during a live television interview. Amorim was talking on Sky Sports after United’s 1-1 draw with Ipswich on Sunday when Sheeran walked up to embrace analyst Jamie Redknapp. The interview was paused before Redknapp told the pop star to “come and say hello in a minute.” Sheeran is a lifelong Ipswich fan and holds a minority stake in the club. He was pictured celebrating after Omari Hutchinson’s equalizing goal in the game at Portman Road. A desert oasis outside of Dubai draws a new caravan: A family of rodents from Argentina AL QUDRA LAKES, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A desert oasis hidden away in the dunes in the far reaches of skyscraper-studded Dubai has drawn a surprising new set of weary world travelers: a pack of Argentinian rodents. A number of Patagonian mara, a rabbit-like mammal with long legs, big ears and a body like a hoofed animal, now roam the grounds of Al Qudra Lakes, typically home to gazelle and other desert creatures of the United Arab Emirates. How they got there remains a mystery in the UAE, a country where exotic animals have ended up in the private homes and farms of the wealthy. But the pack appears to be thriving there and likely have survived several years already in a network of warrens among the dunes. New Zealanders save more than 30 stranded whales by lifting them on sheets WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — More than 30 pilot whales that stranded themselves on a beach in New Zealand have been safely returned to the ocean after conservation workers and residents helped to refloat them by lifting them on sheets. New Zealand’s conservation agency said four whales died. New Zealand is a whale stranding hotspot and pilot whales are especially prolific stranders. The agency praised as “incredible” the efforts made by hundreds of people to help save the foundering pod. A Māori cultural ceremony for the three adult whales and one calf that died in the stranding took place Monday. Rainbow-clad revelers hit Copacabana beach for Rio de Janeiro’s pride parade RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Thousands of revelers have gathered alongside Copacabana beach for Rio de Janeiro’s annual gay pride parade, many scantily dressed and covered in glitter. Rainbow-colored flags, towels and fans abounded among the crowd mostly made up of young revelers, who danced and sang along to music blaring from speakers. While the atmosphere was festive, some spoke of the threat of violence LGBTQ+ people face in Brazil. At least 230 LGBTQ+ Brazilians were victims of violent deaths in 2023, according to the umbrella watchdog group Observatory of LGBTQ+ deaths and violence in Brazil. Stolen shoe mystery solved at Japanese kindergarten when security camera catches weasel in the act TOKYO (AP) — Police thought a shoe thief was on the loose at a kindergarten in southwestern Japan, until a security camera caught the furry culprit in action. A weasel with a tiny shoe in its mouth was spotted on the video footage after police installed three cameras in the school in the prefecture of Fukuoka. “It’s great it turned out not to be a human being,” said Deputy Police Chief Hiroaki Inada. Teachers and parents had feared it could be a disturbed person with a shoe fetish. Japanese customarily take their shoes off before entering homes. The vanished shoes were all slip-ons the children wore indoors, stored in cubbyholes near the door. Social media sites call for Australia to delay its ban on children younger than 16 MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An advocate for major social media platforms has told Australia's Parliament that a plan to ban children younger than 16 from the sites should be delayed rather than being rushed to approval this week. Sunita Bose is managing director of Digital Industry Group Inc. which is an advocate for the digital industry in Australia including X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. She was answering questions on Monday at a single-day Senate committee hearing into world-first legislation that was introduced into the Parliament last week. Bose said the Parliament should wait until the government-commissioned evaluation of age assurance technologies is completed next year.
Ruben Amorim delivers stark warning to fans as he claims it will take time to make Man United great again Ruben Amorim will take charge of his first Manchester United game on Sunday United have not won a league title since 2013 and finished eighth last season Will Ruben Amorim be Man United's saviour? LISTEN NOW: It's All Kicking Off! Available wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes every Monday and Thursday By CHRIS WHEELER Published: 17:30 EST, 23 November 2024 | Updated: 17:30 EST, 23 November 2024 e-mail View comments Ruben Amorin was a toddler two months short of his second birthday when Sir Alex Ferguson took charge of his first game as Manchester United manager at Oxford United 38 years ago this month. Like Amorim, Ferguson had been parachuted into Old Trafford in November and handed the task of reviving the fallen giants of English football — something he succeeded in doing quite spectacularly after surviving those difficult early years. Ipswich Town aren't Oxford United and Portman Road isn't the Manor Ground, where 13,545 fans saw Ferguson suffer an opening 2-0 defeat in 1986, but there are at least some comparisons to be drawn between the two scenarios as Amorim prepares for his first game as United's head coach in Suffolk on Sunday afternoon. The 39-year-old is a smart guy and a student of the game; that much was clear from his unveiling at Carrington on Friday. He has watched a succession of managers fail to emerge from Ferguson's shadow over the last 11 years. So having wisely deflected comparisons with his Portuguese compatriot Jose Mourinho , he was equally reluctant to draw any parallels with Ferguson either. 'It's hard to copy someone so I have to be me,' said Amorim, confirming he has yet to meet the Scot. 'It's a different time and I have to have a different approach. I cannot be the same guy that Sir Alex Ferguson was. I can also be demanding with a different approach. That is my focus. Ruben Amorim spoke to the media ahead of his first game as Manchester United manager Amorim moved to Old Trafford earlier this month after a successful spell with Sporting Lisbon 'You have to be very demanding. This is a club that needs to win, has to win, so we have to show that to our players.' The former Sporting Lisbon boss believes he can be just as ruthless when it comes to shaking things up at United. For Ferguson, it was eradicating the booze culture that he inherited. In Amorim's case, it will be squeezing the extra effort out of an under-achieving squad to play the way he wants in a 3-4-3 formation, starting on Sunday at Ipswich who will be buoyed by their first Premier League win at Tottenham last time out. 'In the dressing room there is some places to have fun, (there are) some places to work hard,' he warned. 'I can be ruthless when I have to be. If you think I will be the nicest guy you have seen, if there is someone just thinking about himself I will be a different person. 'I am not that kind of guy that wants to show he's the boss. They will feel it in the small details that I can be the smiling one, but when I have a job to do I will be a different person. They understand that.' Much of the focus in the short time Amorim has had to work with his players for a week during the international break after securing a visa has been on keeping hold of the ball and working like dogs to retrieve it when they lose possession. It is central to his philosophy. 'It's so much harder to come into a team in the middle of the season,' added Amorim. 'You have to (get to) know the players during the games. The first game of his Premier League career will be against Ipswich at Portman Road on Sunday Thirty-nine-year-old Amorim is expected to line up his United players in a 3-4-3 formation 'If you are winning, it's a lot of fun having a lot of games and trying to make some practical changes. But if you are losing, you don't have the time in training to work out everything you want to. 'Where you can improve a team is in training, this is the most important aspect. You can ask the players to recover (the ball) and react really fast, but if you don't make any exercises with that it's really hard to do it on video. We will find ways to cope with that. 'We're taking things game by game and the current objective is a win against Ipswich.' It took Ferguson three-and-a-half years to win his first trophy at United after that opening game at the Manor Ground and Amorim knows he is unlikely to be afforded the same breathing space. 'The only way I have to try and survive this will be to focus intensely on my work, and there's a lot to do here at our club,' he concluded. 'I know the expectations. High expectations can be a problem because we need to know how to manage these expectations. 'We know it will take time and it won't be easy.' RUBEN'S THE SMILING ONE HAPPY HOUR: Amorim appeared to enjoy his first United media conference. Ruben Amorim Premier League Manchester United Share or comment on this article: Ruben Amorim delivers stark warning to fans as he claims it will take time to make Man United great again e-mail Add comment
Dejounte Murray is rejoining the Pelicans against Raptors and drawing inspiration from his motherBy MIKE CATALINI CHATHAM, N.J. (AP) — That buzzing coming out of New Jersey? It’s unclear if it’s drones or something else, but for sure the nighttime sightings are producing tons of talk, a raft of conspiracy theories and craned necks looking skyward. Related Articles National News | FACT FOCUS: Inspector general’s Jan. 6 report misrepresented as proof of FBI setup National News | OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment National News | Judge rejects an attempt by Trump campaign lawyer to invalidate guilty plea in Georgia election case National News | Texas’ abortion pill lawsuit against New York doctor marks new challenge to interstate telemedicine National News | US military flies American released from Syrian prison to Jordan, officials say Cropping up on local news and social media sites around Thanksgiving, the saga of the drones reported over New Jersey has reached incredible heights. This week seems to have begun a new, higher-profile chapter: Lawmakers are demanding (but so far not getting) explanations from federal and state authorities about what’s behind them. Gov. Phil Murphy wrote to President Joe Biden asking for answers. New Jersey’s new senator, Andy Kim, spent Thursday night on a drone hunt in rural northern New Jersey, and posted about it on X. But perhaps the most fantastic development is the dizzying proliferation of conspiracies — none of which has been confirmed or suggested by federal and state officials who say they’re looking into what’s happening. It has become shorthand to refer to the flying machines as drones, but there are questions about whether what people are seeing are unmanned aircraft or something else. Some theorize the drones came from an Iranian mothership. Others think they are the Secret Service making sure President-elect Donald Trump’s Bedminster property is secure. Others worry about China. The deep state. And on. In the face of uncertainty, people have done what they do in 2024: Create a social media group. The Facebook page, New Jersey Mystery Drones — let’s solve it , has nearly 44,000 members, up from 39,000 late Thursday. People are posting their photo and video sightings, and the online commenters take it from there. One video shows a whitish light flying in a darkened sky, and one commenter concludes it’s otherworldly. “Straight up orbs,” the person says. Others weigh in to say it’s a plane or maybe a satellite. Another group called for hunting the drones literally, shooting them down like turkeys. (Do not shoot at anything in the sky, experts warn.) Trisha Bushey, 48, of Lebanon Township, New Jersey, lives near Round Valley Reservoir where there have been numerous sightings. She said she first posted photos online last month wondering what the objects were and became convinced they were drones when she saw how they moved and when her son showed her on a flight tracking site that no planes were around. Now she’s glued to the Mystery Drones page, she said. “I find myself — instead of Christmas shopping or cleaning my house — checking it,” she said. She doesn’t buy what the governor said, that the drones aren’t a risk to public safety. Murphy told Biden on Friday that residents need answers. The federal Homeland Security Department and FBI also said in a joint statement they have no evidence that the sightings pose “a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus.” “How can you say it’s not posing a threat if you don’t know what it is?” she said. “I think that’s why so many people are uneasy.” Then there’s the notion that people could misunderstand what they’re seeing. William Austin is the president of Warren County Community College, which has a drone technology degree program, and is coincidentally located in one of the sighting hotspots. Austin says he has looked at videos of purported drones and that airplanes are being misidentified as drones. He cited an optical effect called parallax, which is the apparent shift of an object when viewed from different perspectives. Austin encouraged people to download flight and drone tracker apps so they can better understand what they’re looking at. Nonetheless, people continue to come up with their own theories. “It represents the United States of America in 2024,” Austin said. “We’ve lost trust in our institutions, and we need it.” Federal officials echo Austin’s view that many of the sightings are piloted aircraft such as planes and helicopters being mistaken for drones, according to lawmakers and Murphy. That’s not really convincing for many, though, who are homing in on the sightings beyond just New Jersey and the East Coast, where others have reported seeing the objects. For Seph Divine, 34, another member of the drone hunting group who lives in Eugene, Oregon, it feels as if it’s up to citizen sleuths to solve the mystery. He said he tries to be a voice of reason, encouraging people to fact check their information, while also asking probing questions. “My main goal is I don’t want people to be caught up in the hysteria and I also want people to not just ignore it at the same time,” he said. “Whether or not it’s foreign military or some secret access program or something otherworldly, whatever it is, all I’m saying is it’s alarming that this is happening so suddenly and so consistently for hours at a time,” he added. Associated Press reporter Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report. 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This month, Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain turns 100. One of the 20th century’s towering literary achievements, it is a sweeping critique of the dangerous totalitarian political forces that shaped – and very nearly destroyed – Europe in Mann’s lifetime. The novel also reflects Mann’s own dramatic public and political evolution. Initially politically reserved, he became an ardent patriot at the outbreak of World War I, only to become disillusioned by the rise of political extremism in postwar Germany. This shift set Mann on a collision course with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis – and ultimately led to him fleeing Germany in 1933. This intellectual novel is interested in the weightiest of topics – time, love, mortality, culture – and the fragility of civilisation. There are worrying parallels between 1924, when Mann’s magnum opus was published, and 2024, when we’re seeing a worldwide resurgence of these same impulses. There is the rise of the far-right in France , Austria and Germany . And then, American president-elect Donald Trump’s apparent admiration for dictatorial and authoritarian modes of governance. These forces loom ominously over our own era, threatening the democratic ideals Mann ultimately embraced. Things you’ve never dreamed of This encyclopedia of a novel (nearly 800 pages) opens in transit: An unassuming young man was travelling, in midsummer, from his native city of Hamburg to Davos-Platz in the Canton of the Grisons, on a three weeks’ visit. It is August 1907. Hans Castorp, a “perfectly ordinary” 23-year-old from an upwardly mobile merchant family is journeying to meet his cousin, Joachim Ziemssen – a patient at a tuberculosis sanitarium, located (Mann’s narrator estimates) 1,600 metres above sea level in the Swiss Alps. Mann’s amenable, omniscient narrator outlines the effect on the novel’s youthful protagonist: This being carried upward into regions where he had never before drawn breath, and where he knew that unusual living conditions prevailed, such as could only be described as sparse or scanty – it began to work upon him, to fill him with a certain concern. Home and regular living lay not only far behind, they lay fathoms deep beneath him, and he continued to mount above them. Poised between them and the unknown, he asked himself how he was going to fare. This is a sign of things to come. Joachim, who has already been at the Berghof Sanatorium for five months, implores Castorp to get properly “acclimatized” when he meets him at the train station. He continues: it isn’t so easy, you’ll see. And the climate isn’t the only queer thing about us. You’re going to see some things you’ve never dreamed of – just wait. Joachim advises his cousin to disabuse himself of the “class of ideas” typical of those who dwell at sea level “down below” – especially assumptions about time. He openly scoffs at Castorp’s woefully naïve assertion that he’ll be “going home in three weeks”. Soon after his arrival, Castorp catches a cold. Berghof’s medical director spies a suspicious dark spot on his lung and recommends he extend his stay indefinitely. Castorp spends the next seven years living at altitude. Time warps and wends in increasingly strange ways, and the pace of daily life gradually grinds to a near total halt. Seasons change. Visitors come and go. Some of the patients die. Castorp falls in love with a Russian temptress resident. When he isn’t pining for her, he spends his time in conversation, gorging on elaborate and seemingly endless meals, listening to records, and occasionally attempting to commune with the spirits. In one memorable and symbolically charged moment, he gets hopelessly lost in a life-threatening blizzard. It takes the outbreak of World War I to finally shatter the spell the mountain has cast over him. The reader parts company with Castorp on a Flanders battlefield in 1914. The odds of survival don’t seem to be stacked in his favour. Of course, potted plot summaries of this sort cannot hope to do justice to the sheer ambition, thematic richness and formal rigour of The Magic Mountain. Origins: world war and political awakenings The novel’s origins can be traced to May 1912, when Thomas Mann embarked on a three-week trip to Davos, Switzerland. His wife, Katia, had been falsely diagnosed with tuberculosis and was staying at the recently opened Wald Sanatorium . Mann’s stay served as the catalyst for a new literary venture. Initially conceived as a satire, The Enchanted Mountain was meant to be a comedic counterweight to his just-published Death in Venice , which traces the tragic obsession of Gustav von Aschenbach, an ageing author, with a beautiful young boy during a vacation in cholera-racked Venice. Mann started in on what should have been a fairly straightforward, small-scale undertaking. But world history had other ideas. On August 4 1914, German troops flooded into neutral Belgium, bringing the British Empire into the week-old World War I – and shattering the cultural ideals and intellectual suppositions of pre-war Europe. Mann was 39 when the fighting broke out. A prominent figure in the German cultural establishment, Mann, who lived in Munich at the time, was in many senses a model bourgeois citizen. As intellectual historian Mark Lilla observes, Mann attended concerts, he befriended composers, he read Goethe, he sent his children to the Volksschule , and he never expressed any views about politics. That is, until 1914. “From one month to the next Mann became an intransigent and inflammatory defender of the German cause internationally,” Lilla adds, “writing articles and giving speeches that made him a favorite on the volkish nationalist right”. Rabid patriot to fleeing Nazi Germany The conflict seems to have absorbed all of Mann’s energy and focus. In 1915, he abandoned work on his novella, which had by then expanded significantly in both scope and size. Instead, he turned his attention to Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man . Published in October 1918, this 600-page tirade is a reactionary, rabid screed in which Mann lashes out at the progressive political forces and institutions he believed were intent on nothing less than the destruction of the German nation. Indeed, he goes as far as to admit that from the very start of the war, he had been consumed by a patriotic feeling so profound, he would not want to live anymore if Germany were beaten by the West, humbled, her belief in herself broken so that she would have to “conform” and accept the rationale of her enemies. Mann’s jingoistic fervour persisted even after Germany’s defeat, carrying over into the spring of 1919, when he finally returned to The Magic Mountain. However, everything had changed for Mann by 1922. Appalled by the waves of extremist political violence coursing through Germany, Mann was forced to take stock and reappraise his beliefs. That year, in an unprecedented move that shocked his supporters and critics, he wrote and delivered his speech, On the German Republic . In it, he publicly embraced the postwar Weimar Republic and the principles of its democracy, distancing himself from the types of authoritarian nationalism he had so passionately defended just a few years earlier. This remarkable development, which led to him fleeing Nazi Germany, left an indelible mark on the development of The Magic Mountain. Europe teetering on the abyss By the time he finished writing, the work had been transformed from a satirical novella into a sweeping Bildungsroman , focused on moral education and psychological development. It was now also an allegory of European civilisation teetering on the abyss – a “world festival of death”, as Mann puts it in the novel’s final sentence. Specifically, the phrase is a reference to World War I. More broadly – and just as powerfully – it reflects the sense of postwar disillusionment and social malaise that shaped the novel. The intense intellectual debates that unfold in The Magic Mountain, particularly between charismatic humanist Lodovico Settembrini and nihilistic, “terroristic” Jesuit communist Leo Naphta, offer Mann the means to reflect and comment on the totalitarian forces that were threatening to tear the world asunder. A century after the novel first appeared, its nuanced discussions of ideological conflict, the dangers of extremism and the fragility of civilisation remain, depressingly, as pertinent as ever. In 2024, the far-right has taken a firm foothold across Europe and the rest of the world, challenging the very democratic principles Mann came – albeit reluctantly – to value to champion. One can’t help but wonder what Mann, who wrote while the skies were slowly closing in over Europe, might have made of this situation. Read more: Germany's post-Holocaust moral remaking is being challenged by wars in Gaza and Ukraine – and the rise of the far-right History repeating? Would he, for instance, discern echoes of the same forces he grappled with in his modernist masterpiece, now manifesting in new, yet strangely familiar ways? And would he recognise the dangers of cultural and political polarisation and the allure of authoritarian forms of thought and activity that are currently casting increasingly long shadows over our own precarious moment? I suspect he might. In any case, these are just some of the questions worth asking as we mark the anniversary of a novel that, much like its creator, challenges us to confront the currents of history and their unsettling tendency to repeat. Near the end of the book, Mann writes: “These were such singular times.” Viewed from the perspective of 2024, I’m not so sure.Is Outlook down? Thousands of Microsoft 365 users report outage issues
Get ready for yet another GPU shortage, as Nvidia has warned about potential shortages in the current quarter. Although the company’s third-quarter revenue saw a healthy growth, in its recent earnings call , company Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said that the fourth-quarter revenue is expected to decline sequentially due to supply constraints. The anticipated GPU shortage could potentially stem from a strategic shift in production to prepare for the next-generation RTX 50-series “Blackwell” GPUs, slated for release in 2025. This supply transition, coupled with surging gaming and professional use-case demand, seems to have left the company in a tight spot. Nvidia acknowledged its struggle to maintain stock for both gamers and enterprise customers, emphasizing its ongoing efforts to expand manufacturing capacity. For gamers, this warning means longer wait times and potential price surges for Nvidia’s GPUs during the holiday season. Retailers may face limited inventory of RTX 40-series models, especially premium cards like the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 . This challenge arrives as gamers increasingly seek powerful hardware for 4K gaming and emerging AI-enhanced features, making GPU availability crucial. Nvidia remains optimistic about a recovery though, projecting improved supply by early 2025 as production ramps up. Analysts note that the company’s dual strategy — balancing gaming and enterprise segments — has proven profitable but may exacerbate short-term shortages. Additionally, the ramp-up to the RTX 50-series could generate renewed interest among gamers, potentially easing pressure on older product lines. Despite these challenges, Nvidia continues to solidify its leadership in both gaming and AI markets. The company’s GPUs remain a cornerstone of the gaming ecosystem and the driving force behind advancements in generative AI technologies. However, gamers should brace for a challenging quarter in obtaining sought-after GPUs until supply levels stabilize. On the positive side, Nvidia’s third-quarter revenue surged 94% year-over-year to $35 billion, with net income rising 109% to $19.3 billion. The data center segment drove this growth, contributing $30.7 billion (87.7% of total revenue), fueled by strong demand for H100/H200 and upcoming Blackwell GPUs.
Capitals' Ovechkin expected to miss 4 to 6 weeks with broken left legCotabato City–On Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, Sen. Robinhood Padilla filed Senate Bill No. 2879, which aimed to establish another autonomous region to be composed of three island provinces–Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi or the BaSulTa region. Upon hearing this news, top leaders of the current Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) expressed their dismay that one of their ”idols” and perceived champion in the Senate has dropped another bombshell to an already beleaguered region. Many of them consider this move as “ill-advised” and insensitive to the current problems the region is facing due to the Supreme Court decision last Sept. 9 removing Sulu as a component province of the region. To recall, the Supreme Court announced its final and executory ruling that the province of Sulu is no longer part of the fledgling BARMM, to be implemented after it was announced. This news spread like wildfire, making all functionaries and leaders in the region, and several civil society organizations confused and bewildered at this sudden turn of events in the already checkered brief history of the transitional BARMM government. Padilla’s new bill is a complicated proposal to address the already complex problems faced by the region as well as its constituencies. This proposed legislation is another political “mistake” on top of another one–the exit of Sulu from the BARMM. SB 2879 is not only “ill-advised,” it is fueling another firestorm already generating powerful flames of division in the region. Such divisive national-based policies and decisions hark back to the reign of our two main colonizers–Spain and the United States of America–and these are all referred to as “divide and rule” policy. The two colonizers easily instigated divisions among clan-based communities in Mindanao and its islands many of which have been Islamized starting in 1380 AD, long before the Spaniards came here in the early 16th century. By filing this bill, Padilla is manifesting his cluelessness of the entire range of dynamics–political, social, and cultural–that gave rise to what the BARMM is now. He may be a Muslim by conversion, but he has not embedded himself in the communities of the Bangsamoro, especially those who are leading the region now as the government of the day–the leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. He has not seen the suffering of the communities left behind by their heads who had to answer the call for the struggle for self-determination. He has not known how it is to be fighting a war of attrition for more than four decades without being assured of victory at the end. He has not known war on a personal level, since he has not been a part of the Bangsamoro history of struggle. He has only known war as part of his make-believe world as an actor on the big screen. He may be an effective and charismatic actor. Unfortunately, these are not the main traits required of a legislator, and a national one at that. He may be effective in playing his roles on the reel, make-believe world on the silver screen, but he has not gone through the needed training and experience of how to craft legislation, even at the barangay level. I would like to believe that as a Muslim convert, he is concerned with the dismal quality of life of many Bangsamoro Muslims in the region. He claimed this during his campaign sorties that convinced Bangsamoro voters to give their vote of confidence to him. Many of these voters have become part of the BARMM bureaucracy and consider him their champion in promoting more favorable legal instruments to benefit them in the region. The proposed BaSulTa region is not new; it is an arbitrary creation among nongovernment and religious-based organizations to come up with a way to delineate their respective initiatives by location, to distinguish the unique contexts of island communities vis-à-vis the “mainland” provinces of Lanao del Sur and now, the two Maguindanao provinces. But making it another autonomous region will raise a host of various problems, making it another set of kindling wood to an already existing conflagration that started with the exit of Sulu from the BARMM. First, the proposal will run counter to the 1987 Constitution that allows for only two autonomous regions–the ARMM, now BARMM, and the Cordillera Autonomous Region. While several sectors have advocated for reconsideration to reinstate Sulu as part of the BARMM, here is a proposal to divide the region once again. This has also raised questions on Padilla’s motives and his avowed concern and empathy for the Bangsamoro. This bill proves otherwise. Most of all, it is a proposal that spells another figurative firestorm in the region. Subscribe to our daily newsletter By providing an email address. I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . [email protected]