De’Vondre Campbell Won’t Be With 49ers After Refusing to Play: ShanahanNEW YORK (AP) — The man accused of fatally shooting the CEO of UnitedHealthcare pleaded not guilty on Monday to state murder and terror charges while his attorney complained that comments coming from New York’s mayor would make it tough to receive a fair trial. Luigi Mangione, 26, was shackled and seated in a Manhattan court when he leaned over to a microphone to enter his plea. The Manhattan district attorney charged him last week with multiple counts of murder, including murder as an act of terrorism . Mangione's initial appearance in New York’s state trial court was preempted by federal prosecutors bringing their own charges over the shooting. The federal charges could carry the possibility of the death penalty, while the maximum sentence for the state charges is life in prison without parole. Prosecutors have said the two cases will proceed on parallel tracks , with the state charges expected to go to trial first. One of Mangione’s attorneys told a judge that government officials, including New York Mayor Eric Adams, have turned Mangione into a political pawn, robbing him of his rights as a defendant and tainting the jury pool. “I am very concerned about my client’s right to a fair trial,” said Karen Friedman Agnifilo. Adams and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch stood among a throng of heavily armed officers last Thursday when Mangione was flown to a Manhattan heliport and escorted up a pier after being extradited from Pennsylvania. Friedman Agnifilo said police turned Mangione’s return to New York into a choreographed spectacle. “He was on display for everyone to see in the biggest stage perp walk I’ve ever seen in my career. It was absolutely unnecessary,” she said. In a statement, Adams spokesperson Kayla Mamelak Altus said: “Critics can say all they want, but showing up to support our law enforcement and sending the message to New Yorkers that violence and vitriol have no place in our city is who Mayor Eric Adams is to his core.” “The cold-blooded assassination of Brian Thompson — a father of two — and the terror it infused on the streets of New York City for days has since been sickeningly glorified, shining a spotlight on the darkest corners of the internet,” Mamelak Altus said. Friedman Agnifilo also accused federal and state prosecutors of advancing conflicting legal theories, calling their approach confusing and highly unusual. “He is being treated like a human pingpong ball between warring jurisdictions here,” she said Monday. State trial court Judge Gregory Carro said he has little control over what happens outside the courtroom, but can guarantee Mangione will receive a fair trial. Authorities say Mangione gunned down Thompson as he was walking to an investor conference in midtown Manhattan on the morning of Dec 4. Mangione was arrested in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s after a five-day search, carrying a gun that matched the one used in the shooting and a fake ID, police said. He also was carrying a notebook expressing hostility toward the health insurance industry and especially wealthy executives, according to federal prosecutors. At a news conference last week, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the application of the terrorism law reflected the severity of a “frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock and attention and intimidation.” “In its most basic terms, this was a killing that was intended to evoke terror,” he added. Mangione is being held in a Brooklyn federal jail alongside several other high-profile defendants, including Sean “Diddy” Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried. During his court appearance Monday, he smiled at times when talking with his attorneys and stretched his right hand after an officer removed his cuffs. Outside the courthouse, a few dozen supporters chanted, “Free Luigi,” over the blare of a trumpet. Natalie Monarrez, a 55-year-old Staten Island resident, said she joined the demonstration because she lost both her mother and her life savings as a result of denied insurance claims. “As extreme as it was, it jolted the conversation that we need to deal with this issue,” she said of the shooting. “Enough is enough, people are fed up.” An Ivy-league graduate from a prominent Maryland family, Mangione appeared to have cut himself off from family and friends in recent months. He posted frequently in online forums about his struggles with back pain. He was never a UnitedHealthcare client , according to the insurer. Thompson, a married father of two high-schoolers, had worked at the giant UnitedHealth Group for 20 years and became CEO of its insurance arm in 2021. The killing has prompted some to voice their resentment at U.S. health insurers, with Mangione serving as a stand-in for frustrations over coverage denials and hefty medical bills. It also has sent shockwaves through the corporate world , rattling executives who say they have received a spike in threats.
Fury grows as US politicians demand answers behind mysterious drones
Joe Burrow Reacts as Bengals Fans Liken His Latest Pregame Appearance to EminemThe concept behind tokenization is straightforward. Sensitive data (often personal information) is replaced with a non-sensitive, digital representation (token). The simple concept is helping secure consumers’ identities, crafting a digital representation of the user that travels with them throughout their online and in-store journeys and serving as a passport, of sorts, for streamlined and secure commerce, especially when housed in digital wallets. In terms of the actual technology itself, the tokens (as stored identity credentials) are programmable and thus can contain a range of points of information about a user. They can also be confined to certain use cases or even merchants, as permissioned by networks or users. For merchants, the token itself allows for real-time verification of identities, which in turn leads to higher authorization rates for transactions, as users don’t have to keep re-entering information with each party on the other side of an interaction. Tokenization of payment credentials has found widespread success. PYMNTS Intelligence’s “ Tokenization Innovation Report ” found that 78% of merchants enable network or payment tokens. Among merchants that use network tokens, 87% use them to enable card payments within digital wallets. Card-on-file payments, which can use stored customer payment information in a way that does not expose the underlying credentials when tokenized, are next most popular, at 63%. About 97% of payment service providers use network tokens to provide digital wallet payments. Embracing Digital Wallets The PYMNTS Intelligence report “ Digital Wallets Beyond Financial Transactions: A Global Perspective ” found that 74% of all consumers are satisfied with using digital wallets, in general, for non-financial activities. About 9% of all countries said they value the wallets as a convenient place to store ID documents. In the United States, 48% of consumers use their digital wallets for online shopping, while 39% use them in-store. The U.S. edition of the report found that consumers are increasingly comfortable with using their digital wallets as a payment vehicle. The potential also exists for consumers to use digital wallets for verification. Innovations Open Unified Commerce The use of digital IDs and tokenized data to promote seamless commerce comes as merchants recognize legitimate customers and optimize the checkout process while blunting the impact of fraud. “ Identity is becoming smarter,” Mary Ann Miller , vice president of client experience at Prove Identity , told PYMNTS in October. “It’s using more than just data to include different signals and different attributes to form and authenticate identity.” Embedded identity refers to integrating identity verification within platforms so seamlessly that the process becomes invisible to users. Earlier this year, in an example of the digital-wallet-as-passport concept, Visa introduced Visa Payment Passkey , which confirms a consumer’s identity and authorizes online payments with a facial or fingerprint scan. Passkeys replace the need for passwords or one-time codes when shopping online, enabling more streamlined, secure transactions. Mark Nelsen , senior vice president and global head of consumer payments at Visa, told PYMNTS in May that consumers can create a passkey for easier online payments. A private key is generated and stored on the consumer’s device upon consent. The key then creates a digital signature for transactions, ensuring the bank can verify the user’s identity.Steelers WR George Pickens returns to practice, hopeful to play against Chiefs
Government Implements Policies That Advance Mental Wellness and Address Root Cause of Violence
How major US stock indexes fared Monday, 11/25/2024
16 Best Makeup Brush Sets, According to a Celebrity Makeup Artist and Vogue EditorsThe Cleveland Browns have elevated tight end Blake Whiteheart from the practice squad for the team’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. That move comes after the team ruled out tight end Geoff Swaim , who is dealing with a concussion. Whiteheart has played in four games for the Browns this season. He has three receptions for 13 yards and a touchdown this year. The Wake Forest product has played in six games over the first two years of his career. The Browns will now have David Njoku, Jordan Akins, and Whiteheart as their three tight ends against the Steelers. The team still runs a good deal of 12 personnel, so having at least three tight ends to pull off those sets seemed essential to the offense. Without Swaim, it simply would not have been possible. With projections for wind and snow in the forecast as well for the game, it could be a run-heavy gamescript this week, which would lend itself to heavier personnel for the Browns at times. BETTING: Check out our guide to the best PA sportsbooks , where our team of sports betting experts has reviewed the experience, payout speed, parlay options and quality of odds for multiple sportsbooks. More Pittsburgh Steelers News Live Updates: Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Browns, Thursday Night Football Bill Belichick reveals how Steelers’ Cam Heyward nearly joined Patriots Cleveland Browns lose hard-nosed blocking tight end for Steelers game Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Browns predictions: Who will win AFC North battle? Son of ex-Pittsburgh Steelers player arrestedBy ALI SWENSON and BARARA ORTUTAY Bluesky has seen its user base soar since the U.S. presidential election, boosted by people seeking refuge from Elon Musk’s X, which they view as increasingly leaning too far to the right given its owner’s support of President-elect Donald Trump, or wanting an alternative to Meta’s Threads and its algorithms. Related Articles National News | Bill Clinton is hospitalized with a fever but in good spirits, spokesperson says National News | Why Finland is vaccinating farmers against bird flu — but California isn't National News | The internet is rife with fake reviews. Will AI make it worse? National News | Mega Millions jackpot nears $1 billion ahead of Christmas Eve drawing National News | 2 US Navy pilots shot down over Red Sea in apparent ‘friendly fire’ incident, US military says The platform grew out of the company then known as Twitter, championed by its former CEO Jack Dorsey. Its decentralized approach to social networking was eventually intended to replace Twitter’s core mechanic . That’s unlikely now that the two companies have parted ways. But Bluesky’s growth trajectory — with a user base that has more than doubled since October — could make it a serious competitor to other social platforms. But with growth comes growing pains. It’s not just human users who’ve been flocking to Bluesky but also bots, including those designed to create partisan division or direct users to junk websites. The skyrocketing user base — now surpassing 25 million — is the biggest test yet for a relatively young platform that has branded itself as a social media alternative free of the problems plaguing its competitors. According to research firm Similarweb, Bluesky added 7.6 million monthly active app users on iOS and Android in November, an increase of 295.4% since October. It also saw 56.2 million desktop and mobile web visits, in the same period, up 189% from October. Besides the U.S. elections, Bluesky also got a boost when X was briefly banned in Brazil . “They got this spike in attention, they’ve crossed the threshold where it is now worth it for people to flood the platform with spam,” said Laura Edelson, an assistant professor of computer science at Northeastern University and a member of Issue One’s Council for Responsible Social Media. “But they don’t have the cash flow, they don’t have the established team that a larger platform would, so they have to do it all very, very quickly.” To manage growth for its tiny staff, Bluesky started as an invitation-only space until it opened to the public in February. That period gave the site time to build out moderation tools and other distinctive features to attract new users , such as “starter packs” that provide lists of topically curated feeds. Meta recently announced that it is testing a similar feature. Compared to the bigger players like Meta’s platforms or X, Bluesky has a “quite different” value system, said Claire Wardle, a professor at Cornell University and an expert in misinformation. This includes giving users more control over their experience. “The first generation of social media platforms connected the world, but ended up consolidating power in the hands of a few corporations and their leaders,” Bluesky said on its blog in March. “Our online experience doesn’t have to depend on billionaires unilaterally making decisions over what we see. On an open social network like Bluesky, you can shape your experience for yourself.” Because of this mindset, Bluesky has achieved a scrappy underdog status that has attracted users who’ve grown tired of the big players. “People had this idea that it was going to be a different type of social network,” Wardle said. “But the truth is, when you get lots of people in a place and there are eyeballs, it means that it’s in other people’s interests to use bots to create, you know, information that aligns with their perspective.” Little data has emerged to help quantify the rise in impersonator accounts, artificial intelligence-fueled networks and other potentially harmful content on Bluesky. But in recent weeks, users have begun reporting large numbers of apparent AI bots following them, posting plagiarized articles or making seemingly automated divisive comments in replies. Lion Cassens, a Bluesky user and doctoral candidate in the Netherlands, found one such network by accident — a group of German-language accounts with similar bios and AI-generated profile pictures posting in replies to three German newspapers. “I noticed some weird replies under a news post by the German newspaper ‘Die Ziet,’” he said in an email to The Associated Press. “I have a lot of trust in the moderation mechanism on Bluesky, especially compared to Twitter since the layoffs and due to Musk’s more radical stance on freedom of speech. But AI bots are a big challenge, as they will only improve. I hope social media can keep up with that.” Cassens said the bots’ messages have been relatively innocuous so far, but he was concerned about how they could be repurposed in the future to mislead. There are also signs that foreign disinformation narratives have made their way to Bluesky. The disinformation research group Alethea pointed to one low-traction post sharing a false claim about ABC News that had circulated on Russian Telegram channels. Copycat accounts are another challenge. In late November, Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the Security, Trust and Safety Initiative at Cornell Tech, found that of the top 100 most followed named individuals on Bluesky, 44% had at least one duplicate account posing as them. Two weeks later, Mantzarlis said Bluesky had removed around two-thirds of the duplicate accounts he’d initially detected — a sign the site was aware of the issue and attempting to address it. Bluesky posted earlier this month that it had quadrupled its moderation team to keep up with its growing user base. The company also announced it had introduced a new system to detect impersonation and was working to improve its Community Guidelines to provide more detail on what’s allowed. Because of the way the site is built, users also have the option to subscribe to third-party “Labelers” that outsource content moderation by tagging accounts with warnings and context. The company didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. Even as its challenges aren’t yet at the scale other platforms face, Bluesky is at a “crossroads,” said Edward Perez, a board member at the nonpartisan nonprofit OSET Institute, who previously led Twitter’s civic integrity team. “Whether BlueSky likes it or not, it is being pulled into the real world,” Perez said, noting that it needs to quickly prioritize threats and work to mitigate them if it hopes to continue to grow. That said, disinformation and bots won’t be Bluesky’s only challenges in the months and years to come. As a text-based social network, its entire premise is falling out of favor with younger generations. A recent Pew Research Center poll found that only 17% of American teenagers used X, for instance, down from 23% in 2022. For teens and young adults, TikTok, Instagram and other visual-focused platforms are the places to be. Political polarization is also going against Bluesky ever reaching the size of TikTok, Instagram or even X. “Bluesky is not trying to be all things to all people,” Wardle said, adding that, likely, the days of a Facebook or Instagram emerging where they’re “trying to keep everybody happy” are over. Social platforms are increasingly splintered along political lines and when they aren’t — see Meta’s platforms — the companies behind them are actively working to de-emphasize political content and news. The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here . The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Alvopetro Energy Ltd. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.09 (OTCMKTS:ALVOF)
Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, has commended Remoland for the progress it has made in agriculture and industrialization. Speaking at the maiden edition of the Remo Day celebration held at the Gateway International Stadium, Sagamu, Governor Abiodun said Remoland has achieved many breakthroughs in the areas of agriculture, education, science, and technology through a united front. “Over the past years, Remoland has made significant progress, from advancements in agriculture and industrialisation to breakthroughs in education and technology. These achievements highlight what a united and visionary community can accomplish. “Remoland is home to Ogun State Gateway International Airport and is also a reference to the Gateway Agro-Cargo Special Processing Zone,” he said. Abiodun said the Remo Day celebration would continue to be a shining example of how culture could help bring people together and foster a sense of pride and identity, observing that it would grow to become a major tourism activity that would attract people from around the world. The celebration, the governor added, is a testimony to the unity, resilience, and progressive spirit of Remoland, adding that it holds a central place in the government agenda for tourism potential and the socio-economic development of the state. The governor also promised that Community Development Associations whose projects engender growth and enhance development would receive funding from the state government. He noted that his administration was committed to ensuring that the grassroots experience accelerated development. He said: “I want to assure all the citizens of Ogun State that our administration will continue to support meaningful community development projects proposed by our Community Development Associations. “As a government, we are committed to ensuring that all our citizens, especially those at the grassroots, are actively involved in the development process. We will continue to provide the enabling environment for community initiatives and self-help projects.” Abiodun said his administration has worked diligently to enhance public service, improve infrastructure, and promote sustainable development, noting that the promotion and sustenance of cultural and tourism potential in Remoland for future generations would be intensified. While noting that the government alone could not shoulder the responsibility of development, Prince Abiodun called on individuals, corporate organizations, and the private sector to partner with the state government in its Building Our Future Together Agenda. The Chairman of this year’s Remo Day Celebration and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbass, noted that the House of Representatives is committed to advancing the cultural aspirations of all Nigerians. He said as the representatives of the people and the custodians of democratic ideals, it is their duty to ensure that every voice and community is heard, adding, “Our work in the House is driven by the understanding that the strength of a nation lies in the well-being of its people and the preservation of its heritage.” The Speaker reminded the people of the need to uphold their shared identity and communal spirit, as well as the foundation on which they must build a stronger nation, emphasizing that the values of unity, collaboration, and respect for diversity that define Remoland should prepare them to work towards a nation that is united, prosperous, and forward-looking. The Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, in his contribution, said with more than 250 ethnic groups, each with its unique tradition, Nigeria remains a beacon of rich culture, celebrated through festivals like Arugungu, Osun-Osogbo, and the new Remo Day celebration. He said the establishment of the Ministry of Culture and Creative Economy and the efforts of the National Council for Arts and Culture underscore the importance of culture as a driver for growth and national cohesion, as it provides platforms for local artisans, encourages cultural exchange, and ensures that Nigeria’s rich heritage is celebrated globally. He urged the people to take cognizance of the importance of preserving their culture while embracing innovations that the globalized world offers, calling for the empowerment of the youth to explore creativity through workshops, mentorship, and artistic platforms. In his remarks, the Akarigbo of Remoland, Oba Babatunde Ajayi, stated the desire of the Remo and Ijebu people to have a state out of the old Ijebu Province, but emphasized, however, that the structure and shape of the new state must be deliberated to ensure transparency, equity, and equality. He said the Remo Day celebration, which would be held every 27th of December, offers an opportunity to celebrate the spirit, culture, unity, and rich heritage of Remoland, noting that it is not only a festival but a call to celebrate the achievements of the sons and daughters of the land. While commending Abiodun for being a true representative of Remoland, the monarch lauded him for bringing development to the area and the state in general, urging the people to rededicate themselves to the preservation of their culture and ensure that the zone continues to be the investors’ destination of choice. The event was attended by prominent personalities, including members of the national and state legislatures, past governors and deputy governors, traditional rulers, and captains of industry, among others, and featured displays by cultural and age groups.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks slipped in afternoon trading Friday as Wall Street closes out a rare bumpy week. The S&P 500 fell 0.2%, and is on track for a loss for the week after three straight weekly gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 81 points, or 0.2% to 43,833 as of 12:56 p.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq fell 0.3% and is hovering around its record. Broadcom surged 20.2% after the semiconductor company beat Wall Street’s profit targets and gave a glowing forecast, highlighting its artificial intelligence products. The company also raised its dividend. The company's big gain helped cushion the market's broader fall. Pricey stock values for technology companies like Broadcom give the sector more weight in pushing the market higher or lower. Artificial intelligence technology has been a focal point for the technology sector and the overall stock market over the last year. Tech companies, and Wall Street, expect demand for AI to continue driving growth for semiconductor and other technology companies. Furniture and housewares company RH, formerly known as Restoration Hardware, surged 14.3% after raising its forecast for revenue growth for the year. Wall Street's rally stalled this week amid mixed economic reports and ahead of the Federal Reserve's last meeting of the year. The central bank will meet next week and is widely expected to cut interest rates for a third time since September. Expectations of a series of rate cuts has driven the S&P 500 to 57 all-time highs so far this year . The Fed has been lowering its benchmark interest rate following an aggressive rate hiking policy that was meant to tame inflation. It raised rates from near-zero in early 2022 to a two-decade high by the middle of 2023. Inflation eased under pressure from higher interest rates, nearly to the central bank's 2% target. The economy, including consumer spending and employment, held strong despite the squeeze from inflation and high borrowing costs. A slowing job market, though, has helped push a long-awaited reversal of the Fed's policy. Inflation rates have been warming up slightly over the last few months. A report on consumer prices this week showed an increase to 2.7% in November from 2.6% in October. The Fed's preferred measure of inflation, the personal consumption expenditures index, will be released next week. Wall Street expects it to show a 2.5% rise in November, up from 2.3% in October. The economy, though, remains solid heading into 2025 as consumers continue spending and employment remains healthy, said Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY. “Still, the outlook is clouded by unusually high uncertainty surrounding regulatory, immigration, trade and tax policy,” he said. Treasury yields edged higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.39% from 4.34% late Thursday. European markets slipped. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.1%. Britain’s economy unexpectedly shrank by 0.1% month-on-month in October, following a 0.1% decline in September, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. Asian markets closed mostly lower.
Public access television stations across New Hampshire face growing uncertainty as their funding declines, forcing stations to seek new sources of revenue to support community television. Funding for the television stations derives from franchise fees, a charge that appears on a customer’s cable bill. They are an annual payment by a cable company to a municipality in exchange for the use of public property to operate its cable lines. But the ongoing preference by viewers to “cut the cord” and instead opt for streaming services, as well as a growing customer preference for more customized and cost-effective television options, have led to a dramatic decrease in cable subscriptions nationwide, including in the Granite State. Nashua Community Television, a city-owned station with four public-access channels, is currently working with the city's Board of Aldermen to cover “a sizable deficit” this fiscal year, said Pete Johnson, NCTV’s education channel access director. The station, which has a $600,000 operating budget, received $383,000 in franchise fee revenues this year — down nearly 7% from last fiscal year. “We took a pretty substantial hit this year,” Johnson said. “We knew this downturn was coming (but now) we’ve blown through our reserves.” For several years, the station supplemented its revenue with money from a surplus reserve, Johnson said. But that reserve is now depleted. Since 2017, cable subscriptions in the U.S. have declined annually by nearly 5% — from 96 million subscriptions to 68 million in 2024, according to IBISWorld, a global research firm. Comcast, the largest cable TV provider in New Hampshire and second-largest in the U.S., reported a nationwide loss of over 1.8 million cable subscribers between March 2023 and August 2024. In Nashua, the revenues from franchise fees have declined 21% since 2017, when the station received $483,000. The problem, said community television advocates, lies in the federal government’s funding rules for public access stations, which are 40 years old and outdated. “Consumers are switching to other services (through broadband) that are not regulated the same way as cable,” said Mike Wassenaar, president of the Alliance for Community Media, a national trade organization. “The irony is that there is more and more video being watched today but less and less money going toward the public stations that produce local content.” The funding conundrum Franchise fees are governed under the Cable Communications Act of 1984, which sets a national policy for the regulation of cable television communications. Under federal law, municipalities are entitled to a maximum of 5% of a cable operator’s gross revenues derived from cable subscriptions and related services, such as pay-per-view orders. In New Hampshire, the local government and cable provider negotiate the percentage of this fee when initiating or renewing a franchise agreement. Municipalities may use these revenues for a variety of local purposes, including to fund public, education and government access, or PEG, channels. “There should be a related public benefit in exchange for allowing private companies to make money off of public property,” said Owen Provencher, director of Derry Community Access Media and president of the N.H. Coalition of Community Media, a group of nearly 40 public access outlets in the state. But the federal rule allows a fee charged only to cable services, not to broadband providers. “The law hasn’t caught up to the industry,” Nick Lavallee, executive director of Merrimack TV, told the Town Council at a meeting Sept. 26. “One can purchase broadband and run streaming apps to access the same video content as cable television (without paying a franchise fee),” Wassenaar said. “It’s a problem across the country, and unless there’s a change in the federal law, this problem will still exist.” Community television advocates believe that federal law should expand the application of franchise fees to all companies that use public right-of-ways to deliver video content, including internet providers and streaming services. “The broadband and fiber optics lines are going over the same public right-of-ways as the cable one,” Provencher said in an interview. Meanwhile, community television stations are already serving a large and growing viewership on internet-based platforms, particularly due to the ability to stream recorded programs, several station managers said. Jason Cote, executive director of Manchester Public Television, said a live government meeting might draw between 75 and 100 viewers, whereas the video recording of that meeting online will receive “hundreds of views.” “I brought up 10 years ago that (internet providers) should be involved in funding public access stations,” Cote said. “The federal government should be saying that this service is essential for communities.” The COVID pandemic, in addition to accelerating the market shift toward video streaming, opened new opportunities for public access television to engage audiences. For example, Nashua Community TV began covering live school sporting events because the games were closed to the public, Johnson said. The station still provides live game coverage due to its popularity. “So we find ourselves busier than ever, because people have come to expect that kind of coverage,” Johnson said. “And those are things that we want to continue for the community.” ‘Not sustainable in the long term’ As revenues shrink, some stations are seeking support from their local governments. This includes requests for additional funding or proposals to raise the franchise fee rate. The Merrimack Town Council, at a meeting Sept. 26, discussed whether to include Merrimack TV in the town budget and fund it from local property taxes instead of franchise fees. The station’s franchise fee revenue this year — $368,000 — is 7% lower than in 2021, Town Manager Paul Micali told the council. A recent study projected that the station may be operating at a deficit in three years, based on the rate of declining funds and estimated cost increases. At the meeting, Micali proposed that the council increase the franchise fee rate, from the current 3.75% of cable revenues to 5%, when the agreement is up for renewal in 2029. This increase would not resolve the problem, though it would provide a few additional years of sustainability, Micali said. Several councilors expressed concern about increasing the burden on cable subscribers for a station accessed by the broader community. Among them was Thomas Koenig, who said, “I think that’s wrong. If we need to fund it, I think we (all) need to fund it.” The council has not yet made a decision on the station’s funding. More from this section On the Seacoast, Portsmouth Public Media TV which operates PPMtv, announced in July that its channel may shut down operations after 14 years unless the city council renegotiates a 2009 agreement with the station to increase its funding. Under that agreement, the city retains $360,000 of the annual franchise fee it receives from Comcast — 5% of the company’s cable revenues — and PPMtv receives the remainder of the revenue. In prior years, the station’s share has averaged roughly between $120,000 and $130,000, said Executive Director Chad Cordner. But in May, PPMtv learned that its funding share this year would be $86,000 — a 27% drop from 2023 — and that next year’s funding is projected to be a similar amount, Cordner said. The allotted funding is barely enough to pay Cordner’s full-time salary, $46,000, and the station’s two part-time employees, at $20,000 apiece, he said. “PPMtv is tremendously underfunded as compared to other stations,” Studio Operations Manager Jake Webb wrote in an online petition seeking community support. “A more equal split of this fee would allow PPMtv to continue to operate and even grow.” The station’s Youtube channel has 14,000 subscribers, and its video library has received 4 million total views, Cordner said. The station is seeking between $50,000 and $100,000 in additional franchise fee revenues to cover equipment and programming costs, including media education workshops and internships, Cordner said. Several city councilors, at a meeting Sept. 3, expressed reservations about increasing the station’s funding from a shrinking revenue source. “Even if we gave PPMtv 100% of the franchise fee, that is not sustainable in the long term because that (revenue) will go down significantly, " Councilor Kate Cook said at the meeting. The city’s franchise fees also fund a government channel that streams municipal meetings, which has a budget of over $200,000 a year, Cook said. The council directed city staff on Sept. 3 to present recommendations at a future council meeting for ways to sustainably fund PPMtv. State solutions Despite a strong consensus in support of changing the federal law, several industry members said that is unlikely to happen. Congress would need to approve any amendments to the Cable Communications Act. The political divide in Washington already makes bipartisanship difficult, Wassenaar noted. And many lawmakers would be reluctant to support a fee on Internet services, said Lauren-Glenn Davitian, public policy director at Center for Media & Democracy, a public media advocacy group based in Burlington, Vt. The Internet Tax Freedom Act, a federal law passed in 1998, prohibits state and local governments from imposing taxes directly on the internet or online activity, including taxes on email accounts or internet access. The law’s stated intent was to support the internet’s use as a commercial, educational and informational tool. Some states, including Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts, are taking steps to aid their public access stations through legislation or direct funding. Provencher said there is currently no legislation in New Hampshire pertaining to community television funding. In February, the Maine Legislature passed LD 1967, a law that allows municipalities to charge a franchise fee to any video service provider that uses a public right-of-way, regardless of the technology employed. The law requires any provider of video, audio or digital entertainment that owns or operates facilities in the public right-of-way to have an agreement with the municipality, said Tony Vigue, a public media advocate in Maine. The bill’s stated intent is to ensure that all providers of video services, regardless of the platform, receive equal treatment in respect to franchising and regulating. “Just because the technology has changed, the town still owns a public right-of-way,” Vigue said. The law, which was not signed by the governor, went into effect in August. The Maine Municipal Association and Maine Connectivity Authority are still drafting a standard agreement form for towns and cities to use, Vigue said. Massachusetts lawmakers are considering legislation that would levy fees on streaming companies like Netflix and Roku to help fund community media. Senate Bill 2771 proposes a 5% fee on digital streaming providers, based on a company’s gross annual revenue in the state. A portion of the fee would be distributed to municipalities to support their public access television programs. The bill, introduced last year, is still under review in the Massachusetts Senate. Vermont is considering a similar bill, S.181, which is currently under committee review in the House. That bill would also charge a 5% tax on a company’s statewide revenue. Though she would like to see a legislative plan, Davitian said she does not support a streaming tax, which would result in many consumers being charged more than once for the same use of a right-of-way, such as cable customers with add-on streaming channels. “There needs to be a tax on the infrastructure, not streaming (services),” Davitian said. A separate bill, proposing a $15-per-pole attachment tax for each fiber or copper line attached to a utility pole, was abandoned by the House Ways and Means Committee in February. The bill received heavy opposition from various stakeholders, including local telephone companies, which said they wouldn’t be able to afford the cost, Davitian said. In June, the Vermont Legislature approved a one-time appropriation of $1 million in this year’s budget to help Vermont’s community television stations absorb the impact of declining franchise fees. That money is intended to be a stopgap as legislators continue to seek a funding solution, Davitian said. “It was an interesting victory,” Davitian said. “We are happy to get the money, but we didn’t get to make a public policy.” The money will be distributed through the Vermont Access Network, an organization representing the state’s 24 public access media centers, which operate more than 80 local cable channels in the state. ••• These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org .WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced on Monday that he is commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row — including two Florida men convicted of killing a family in 2006 — converting their punishments to life imprisonment just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump , an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes office. The move spares the lives of people convicted in killings , including the slayings of police and military officers, people on federal land and those involved in deadly bank robberies or drug deals, as well as the killings of guards or prisoners in federal facilities. It means just three federal inmates are still facing execution. They are: Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev ; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of life Synagogue in 2018 , the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history. “I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” Biden said in a statement . “Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.” Two of the 37 people whose sentences were commuted were from Florida: Richard Sanchez Jr. and Daniel Troya, sentenced to death three years after the execution-style killings of Luis Escobedo, 28; his wife, Yessica Guerrero Escobedo, 25; and their children Luis Julian, 4, and Luis Damian, 3. The killings, prosecutors said, stemmed from a drug debt Escobedo accumulated from a cocaine trafficking operation. At the time, the Sun-Sentinel reported , U.S. District Judge Daniel Hurley characterized the pair as “living in a Scarface fantasy” and committing “some of the most violent, anti-social conduct one could contemplate.” Sanchez and Troya’s federal death sentences marked the first being given in a Florida court since its reinstatement more than two decades prior. The decision to commute their sentences drew the ire of Sheriff Keith Pearson of St. Lucie County, where the murders took place along the Florida Turnpike. In a statement issued following the White House’s announcement, he called the decision to commute Sanchez and Troya’s sentences “an example of the woke ideology this current administration exhibits,” adding, “Where is the justice for the Escobedo family that was murdered in cold blood?” “These two earned their right to die for the heinous crimes they committed,” Pearson said. The Biden administration in 2021 announced a moratorium on federal capital punishment to study the protocols used, which suspended executions during Biden’s term. But Biden actually had promised to go further on the issue in the past, pledging to end federal executions without the caveats for terrorism and hate-motivated, mass killings. While running for president in 2020, Biden’s campaign website said he would “work to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level , and incentivize states to follow the federal government’s example.” Similar language didn’t appear on Biden’s reelection website before he left the presidential race in July. “Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden’s statement said. “But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, vice president, and now president, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.” He took a political jab at Trump, saying, “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.” Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has spoken frequently of expanding executions. In a speech announcing his 2024 campaign , Trump called for those “caught selling drugs to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts.” He later promised to execute drug and human smugglers and even praised China’s harsher treatment of drug peddlers. During his first term as president, Trump also advocated for the death penalty for drug dealers . There were 13 federal executions during Trump’s first term, more than under any president in modern history, and some may have happened fast enough to have contributed to the spread of the coronavirus at the federal death row facility in Indiana. Those were the first federal executions since 2003. The final three occurred after Election Day in November 2020 but before Trump left office the following January, the first time federal prisoners were put to death by a lame-duck president since Grover Cleveland in 1889. Biden faced recent pressure from advocacy groups urging him to act to make it more difficult for Trump to increase the use of capital punishment for federal inmates. The president’s announcement also comes less than two weeks after he commuted the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic, and of 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes, the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history. The announcement also followed the post-election pardon that Biden granted his son Hunter on federal gun and tax charges after long saying he would not issue one, sparking an uproar in Washington. The pardon also raised questions about whether he would issue sweeping preemptive pardons for administration officials and other allies who the White House worries could be unjustly targeted by Trump’s second administration. Speculation that Biden could commute federal death sentences intensified last week after the White House announced he plans to visit Italy on the final foreign trip of his presidency next month. Biden, a practicing Catholic, will meet with Pope Francis, who recently called for prayers for U.S. death row inmates in hopes their sentences will be commuted. Martin Luther King III, who publicly urged Biden to change the death sentences, said in a statement issued by the White House that the president “has done what no president before him was willing to do: take meaningful and lasting action not just to acknowledge the death penalty’s racist roots but also to remedy its persistent unfairness.” Donnie Oliverio, a retired Ohio police officer whose partner was killed by one of the men whose death sentence was converted, said the execution of “the person who killed my police partner and best friend would have brought me no peace.” “The president has done what is right here,” Oliverio said in a statement also issued by the White House, “and what is consistent with the faith he and I share.” Cristobal Reyes of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Weissert reported from West Palm Beach, Florida.
Steelers WR George Pickens returns to practice, hopeful to play against Chiefs
A 7-year-old rivalry between tech leaders Elon Musk and Sam Altman over who should run OpenAI and prevent an artificial intelligence "dictatorship" is now heading to a federal judge as Musk seeks to halt the ChatGPT maker's ongoing shift into a for-profit company. Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company earlier this year alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits. Musk has since escalated the dispute, adding new claims and asking for a court order that would stop OpenAI’s plans to convert itself into a for-profit business more fully. The world's richest man, whose companies include Tesla, SpaceX and social media platform X, last year started his own rival AI company, xAI. Musk says it faces unfair competition from OpenAI and its close business partner Microsoft, which has supplied the huge computing resources needed to build AI systems such as ChatGPT. “OpenAI and Microsoft together exploiting Musk’s donations so they can build a for-profit monopoly, one now specifically targeting xAI, is just too much,” says Musk's filing that alleges the companies are violating the terms of Musk’s foundational contributions to the charity. OpenAI is filing a response Friday opposing Musk’s requested order, saying it would cripple OpenAI’s business and mission to the advantage of Musk and his own AI company. A hearing is set for January before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland. At the heart of the dispute is a 2017 internal power struggle at the fledgling startup that led to Altman becoming OpenAI's CEO. Musk also wanted the job, according to emails revealed as part of the court case, but grew frustrated after two other OpenAI co-founders said he would hold too much power as a major shareholder and chief executive if the startup succeeded in its goal to achieve better-than-human AI known as artificial general intelligence , or AGI. Musk has long voiced concerns about how advanced forms of AI could threaten humanity. “The current structure provides you with a path where you end up with unilateral absolute control over the AGI," said a 2017 email to Musk from co-founders Ilya Sutskever and Greg Brockman. “You stated that you don't want to control the final AGI, but during this negotiation, you've shown to us that absolute control is extremely important to you.” In the same email, titled “Honest Thoughts,” Sutskever and Brockman also voiced concerns about Altman's desire to be CEO and whether he was motivated by “political goals.” Altman eventually succeeded in becoming CEO, and has remained so except for a period last year when he was fired and then reinstated days later after the board that ousted him was replaced. OpenAI published the messages Friday in a blog post meant to show its side of the story, particularly Musk's early support for the idea of making OpenAI a for-profit business so it could raise money for the hardware and computer power that AI needs. It was Musk, through his wealth manager Jared Birchall, who first registered “Open Artificial Technologies Technologies, Inc.”, a public benefit corporation, in September 2017. Then came the “Honest Thoughts” email that Musk described as the “final straw.” “Either go do something on your own or continue with OpenAI as a nonprofit,” Musk wrote back. OpenAI said Musk later proposed merging the startup into Tesla before resigning as the co-chair of OpenAI's board in early 2018. Musk didn't immediately respond to emailed requests for comment sent to his companies Friday. Asked about his frayed relationship with Musk at a New York Times conference last week, Altman said he felt “tremendously sad” but also characterized Musk’s legal fight as one about business competition. “He’s a competitor and we’re doing well,” Altman said. He also said at the conference that he is “not that worried” about the Tesla CEO’s influence with President-elect Donald Trump. OpenAI said Friday that Altman plans to make a $1 million personal donation to Trump’s inauguration fund, joining a number of tech companies and executives who are working to improve their relationships with the incoming administration. —————————— The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement allowing OpenAI access to part of the AP’s text archives.In reply to ECI, it is BJP's 'quota bias' vs Congress' 'malicious' complaints
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THE script for the much-awaited ZIFA elections took an unexpected twist yesterday with revelations that the decision by the Electoral Committee to bar four candidates from contesting the upcoming association presidential elections could be challenged in court. This comes as some of the candidates touted among the favourites fell at the first hurdle after failing to meet the stringent edibility criteria as set by the new ZIFA statutes. The quartet of outspoken former legislator Themba Mliswa, Farai Jere, Walter Magaya, and ex-national team captain Benjani Mwaruwari will not play any further part, according to a statement released by the ZIFA Normalisation Committee yesterday. This leaves six candidates in contention for the association’s hot seat, and these are veteran football administrator Martin Kweza, former footballer Makwinji Soma-Phiri, ex-ZIFA board member Philemon Machana, former Premier Soccer League chairman Twine Phiri, UK-based football administrator Marshall Gore, and business executive Nqobile Magwizi. The announcement was made by the FIFA-appointed Normalisation Committee led by Lincoln Mutasa, which is also acting as the Electoral Committee for the purpose of these elections meant to restore order in the association. ZIFA also announced 10 successful candidates to stand for the association’s vice-presidency and 37 for ordinary board members. The positions to be contested for on January 25 include the president, two vice presidents, of which one must be a woman, and six ordinary board members. However, some of the candidates barred from running for the ZIFA presidency have indicated they could exercise their right to appeal. According to the football statutes, aggrieved individuals could still approach the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland for redress. Former Norton Member of Parliament Mliswa said he was contemplating challenging the decision to exclude him from the successful candidates. The vetting process, through which all the aspiring candidates for the January 25 ballot were subjected to an eligibility test, has been taking place in the last two weeks with the assistance of the ZIFA Ethics Committee led by renowned legal practitioner Muchadeyi Masunda. “I would like to, first of all, congratulate those who made it in the various positions that they are seeking to stand in the ZIFA, the new ZIFA Executive Committee. “Unfortunately, I didn’t make it, but fortunately I can appeal. I will appeal,” said Mliswa. He said he will seek to challenge the loopholes in the new ZIFA constitution that was recently adopted by the association’s congress and registered with the Sports Commission. “The process of appeal is critical, not because I’m bitter, but it’s one’s right to also test the constitution. I always say that this constitution is flawed in many ways. Being flawed in many ways, it has to be tested,” said Mliswa. “The interpretation of a constitution can only be known to be what it is through the processes and the courts. I intend to start the process as soon as possible, but like any other method of appeal, you need to be given the reasons why you did not make it. And then from there, it becomes the basis for you to appeal. “The process to appeal must not be seen as a bitter way of responding, but it is a right, and it’s good for the people of Zimbabwe. We need the best leaders. “And even in a political election, you know that the appeal process is there, the constitutional court is there . . . The process starts now. The game is not over. The game has just started.” Mliswa and some of the barred candidates that spoke to Zimpapers Sports Hub were unhappy there was no explanation from the ZIFA Normalisation Committee why they failed to make the cut. Veteran football administrator Jere, who had announced he was leaving the Premier Soccer League chairmanship to focus on the ZIFA job. “I have nothing to react to at the moment; I cannot even say what the next step would be because I have not received any communication from ZIFA to say I have failed to meet the eligibility criteria because of ABC. “That way I can be able to make a decision, whether to appeal or not. If you also look at it from another angle, maybe their decision is correct, but we can only know if they say something. “As people versed with tenets of good corporate governance, I thought they were going to communicate before hand and explain why my candidature was not successful. Probably the letters are on the way. We wait,” said Jere. There has been an overwhelming interest in the upcoming elections, with a record number of nominations for the various posts in the ZIFA board. In announcing the successful candidates, a statement from the association yesterday said, “The ZIFA Normalisation Committee, acting as the ZIFA Electoral Committee in accordance with Article 85(9), is pleased to announce the names of all the candidates who have met the eligibility criteria stipulated in the ZIFA Statutes, 2024. The list of successful candidates is as follows: Marshall Gore Philemon Machana Nqobile Magwizi Martin Kweza Twine Phiri Makwinji Soma-Phiri Mavis Gumbo Patience Mutumwa Winnet Murota Joyce R. Kapota Loveness Mukura Kennedy Ndebele Omega Sibanda Peter Dube Francis Nyamutsamba Simbarashe J Takavada Gilbert Saika Sharif Mussa Umerjee Thomas Marambanyika Nicholas Munyonga Tavengwa Hara Xolisani Gwesela Bhekhimpilo Nyoni Vincent Chawonza Sweeny Mushonga Lewis Muzhara Modern Ngwenya Jerrymike Gumbo Alice Zeure Alois Bunjira Morgen Dube Sabelo Maposa Edward Mutukwa Tizirayi Luphahla Sibekikwe Ndlovu Tafadzwa Benza Cecilia Gambe Kudzai Kadzombe Sunday Chidzambwa Walter Musanhu Desmond Ali Simbarashe Ndoro Francis Nyamutsamba Davison Muchena Brighton Ushendibaba Edmore Chivero Terence T Malunga Harlington Shereni Cuthbert C. Chitima Norman Matemera Beaullar Msarah Gilbert Chiminya Zimbabwe is moving ahead into the next stage of prison reform with the establishment of a parole system overseen by a State Parole Board, but needing the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service to be able to accurately measure just which individual prisoners have met the set parole criteria and to what extent. The legal framework [...] Freedom Mupanedemo, Midlands Bureau To many cross-border truckers, the Boterekwa Pass, a 6km winding mountain stretch into Shurugwi town, is notorious for treacherous bends that lead to accidents and vehicle failures. Whether ascending or descending, drivers must exercise extreme caution, ensuring their engines are in good condition. Day in and day out, heavy trucks struggle [...] Yeukai Karengezeka, Court Correspondent Andrew Tinokunda Munemo, a suspected robber from Harare, has appeared in court facing charges of robbery and rape. He allegedly hired a sex worker, only to rob and assault her on their way to his residence. During a session before Harare regional magistrate Mr Taurai Manuwere, Munemo was advised to seek [...]HarborOne Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HONE) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.08A young Edmonton woman is accomplishing dreams that are out of this world. At 21 years old, she has already worked for NASA for half a decade — and that’s just scratching the surface. For Madison Feehan the sky isn’t the limit — it’s the destination. Her passion for things beyond Earth’s orbit sparked when she was a kid. “Going into space exploration and space science was not something I would have predicted for my career,” she said. “Ever since about the 9th grade, I’ve shown a very strong interest in it and have been trying to commercialize ideas with NASA ever since.” Since then, she has gone nowhere but up. For the past five years Feehan has worked for NASA, most recently as part of the NSPIRES, NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System. She is an executive panellist and peer reviewer. “It was a bit of a culture shock for sure,” Feehan said. “Not something that I was trained for or something that I expected. “When one of these technology ideas comes in, it is my job to review the technology, see if it has the merit to go to space and the relevance to any upcoming NASA missions.” But something Feehan might be even more passionate about is her company Space Copy , of which she is the CEO and founder. The company builds 3D printers that can create scalable infrastructure in extreme environments, like on Earth and in space. Feehan said the transportation and creation of resources needed for astronauts in space puts a massive strain on the budgets of companies like NASA. 3D printing locally, using on-site materials, could reduce up to 70 per cent of those costs. “We’ve come up with a formula for converting lunar soil into usable infrastructure,” Feehan said. “That ranges from anything to bricks for habitats, to launch pads and roadways to precision tools and repair parts to make living in space much easier.” Feehan showed Global News a little brick (above) as an example of the work the company is doing. It was created from a lunar soil stimulant sourced just outside the Kennedy Space Center. “It is 99.7 per cent accurate to what was recovered during the Apollo 16 mission,” Feehan said. In the past two years alone, Feehan has attended more than 60 conferences around the world showcasing the company. Earlier this year, Space Copy was selected as the winner of the (Buzz) Aldrin Family Foundation Global Innovation Award. By 2031, the company plans to send a 3D printer to the surface of the moon coinciding with the upcoming Artemis mission. For all these accomplishments at just 21 years of age, the Edmontonian sometimes has to remind herself to stay down to Earth. “Sometimes we just cannot believe — my team and I — that we’ve gone this far, this fast,” she said. “It’s an absolute privilege to be able to work in an ecosystem that many say is extremely challenging, or nearly impossible, especially for young women.”
A Dutch court on Friday rejected a bid from human rights groups to block weapons exports to Israel and trading with the occupied territories, after finding there were sufficient checks already in place to comply with international law. The ten organizations told The Hague District Court last month that they thought the Netherlands was in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention, drawn up following World War II, by continuing to sell weapons to Israel more than a year into the conflict. “The government uses my own tax money, that I pay, to kill my own family. I’ve lost 18 members of my own family,” Ahmed Abofoul, a legal adviser for the pro-Palestinian organization Al-Haq, one of the groups involved in the lawsuit, told the court during a hearing in November. An Israeli airstrike on Thursday killed at least 25 Palestinians and wounded dozens more, Palestinian medics said. The strike on a multistory residential building in the Nuseirat refugee camp was just the latest in a series of Israeli attacks throughout Gaza. The court ruling said that “it is not up to the interim relief judge to order the state to reconsider government policy. That is primarily a political responsibility.” Lawyers for the government argued it wasn’t up to a judge to decide foreign policy for the Netherlands. The activist groups pointed to several emergency orders from another court, the International Court of Justice, as confirming the obligation to stop weapons sales. In January, the top UN court said it was plausible Palestinians were being deprived of some rights protected under the Genocide Convention. The coalition said it will review the court’s ruling and is considering an appeal. In November, the International Criminal Court, issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his former defence minister and Hamas’ military chief, accusing them of crimes against humanity in connection with the 13-month war in Gaza. The warrants said there was a reason to believe that Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid and had intentionally targeted civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza — charges Israeli officials deny. Earlier this week, the United Nations said humanitarian aid to north Gaza has largely been blocked for the past 66 days, leaving between 65,000 and 75,000 Palestinians without access to food, water, electricity or health care, according to the world body.Duke's Diaz: QB Murphy faces internal discipline for raising middle fingers in Virginia Tech winPackers CB Jaire Alexander has been playing with a torn PCLPITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens was a full participant in practice on Monday, opening the door for him to return from a three-game absence on Wednesday when Pittsburgh hosts the Kansas City Chiefs. Pickens hasn't played since tweaking his hamstring earlier this month. The Steelers (10-5) have struggled to generate much in their passing game with their leading receiver watching from the sideline in sweatpants. Though Monday's practice was a walkthrough, Pickens said he felt good and hopes he'll be able to face the two-time defending Super Bowl champions. The 23-year-old was going through post-practice drills on Dec. 6 when he felt his hamstring tighten up, forcing him to miss the first games of his three-year career. Pittsburgh has gone 1-2 in his absence, including back-to-back losses to Philadelphia and Baltimore in which Russell Wilson passed for just 345 yards while missing one of the NFL's top downfield threats. Wilson is encouraged by the way the sometimes mercurial Pickens — who has been flagged and fined multiple times this season for infractions ranging from facemasks to unsportsmanlike conduct — has remained engaged. “He’s been great in the midst of his little trial here over the past few weeks,” Wilson said. “And so we’re excited to have him back if that’s the case fully and let him do his thing.” Safety DeShon Elliott (hamstring) and defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi (groin) were also listed as full participants on Tuesday. Neither veteran has played since getting hurt against Cleveland on Dec. 8. While Pickens, Elliott and Ogunjobi could be available as Pittsburgh tries to hold off Baltimore for the AFC North lead, cornerback Joey Porter (knee) and WR Ben Skowronek (hip) are likely out after missing practice for a second straight day. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl