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LIKE the characters aboard the Bapor Tabo of Jose Rizal’s second novel, El Filibusterismo, Filipinos found themselves in a similar boat that bobbed up and down with the volatile economic developments throughout the year. The pessimist would call the economy’s performance this year as sailing through treacherous waters, while the optimist would often see the economy as resilient—a word some would argue is overused, abused to describe anything Filipino. In an interview, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan admitted there were many challenges in 2024 and the government even fell short of its goals. But the economy managed to post respectable growth compared to its peers. “We certainly have faced, encountered many challenges for this year,” the country’s Chief economist told BusinessMirror. “We fell short of what we expected in the national economy. But again, no other economy in our region has met the expectations of their respective economies. And we still are able to maintain our relative position.” Growth Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data showed the economy started the year by growing only 5.8 percent, mildly higher than the 5.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023 but short of matching the 6.4-percent growth in the first quarter of 2023. The second quarter saw the economy growing 6.4 percent, the highest since the 7.1-percent growth in the fourth quarter of 2022. Data said government consumption increased 11.9 percent and general government construction spending grew 21.7 percent in the second quarter. In the third quarter, the economy’s performance was slower-than-expected at 5.2 percent, blowing the wind out of the economy’s sails. Analysts attributed this to slower private consumption Balisacan said one major challenge this year were the successive typhoons that wreaked havoc on many provinces and caused billions of damage to agriculture and infrastructure. Typhoons Kristine and Leon had a combined damage of P6.75 billion in production losses; 208,458 damaged homes worth P3.38 billion; and P10.57 billion worth of infrastructure damage, per the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council’s (NDRRMC) last report on these typhoons. In June 2024, the NDRRMC reported that the El Niño cost the agricultural sector P9.89 billion, mostly in Livestock, Poultry and Fisheries worth P68.19 million. “The impact of the typhoons and both the El Nino in the first half of the year and the La Nina, has made a dent in the economy, particularly in agriculture and that contributed to the slowdown,” Balisacan told BusinessMirror. “But again,” he added, “the fact that the other sectors of the economy, particularly the consumption and the services sector, while slower than expected, managed to do well” is worth noting. Household consumption grew 5.1 percent in the third quarter, the highest in four quarters, and averaged 4.8 percent in the nine-month period this year. Government consumption slowed to 5 percent in the third quarter and averaged 6.5 percent in the first three quarters of 2024. PSA data showed the services sector grew 6.3 percent in the third quarter and averaged 6.7 percent in the first three quarters of the year. Prices Despite these, former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Dante B. Canlas said inflation was the biggest concern this year—not just for the Philippines but all over the world. “Central banks all over the world made concerted efforts to fight inflation. The risk from disinflation is inducing a recession and high unemployment,” Canlas told BusinessMirror. However, Ateneo de Manila University economist Leonardo Lanzona Jr. told this newspaper the government’s efforts fell short of expectations, particularly in bringing down the cost of food. Lanzona said importation by the national government was ineffective. By November, inflation averaged 2.5 percent, fueled by a 5.9-percent increase in the prices of vegetables, tubers, cooking bananas and pulses. He noted that this could be blamed for the tepid consumption of households this year. Faced with high prices, consumers tend to scrimp on various food and non-food items they purchase daily. “High or unpredictable inflation disrupts the balance between consumption, investment, and trade, reducing the efficiency of the economy and hindering growth,” Lanzona told BusinessMirror. “Ensuring stable and moderate inflation is key to fostering a conducive environment for sustainable economic development. And as the GDP growth decreases, the debt to GDP increases, placing the country on the brink of a financial crisis,” he added. University of the Philippines Professor Emeritus Epictetus Patalinghug also told BusinessMirror the reduction in rice tariffs to 15 percent from 35 percent did not translate to lower retail prices of the country’s food staple. “Big rice importers benefited from lower cost of imported rice. The effect of the anti-agricultural smuggling law passed in 2024 remains to be proven in the future, whether it is effective,” Patalinghug said. Nonetheless, Canlas said, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) efforts to keep monetary policy tight have allowed the economy to dodge a recession and high unemployment. The PSA data showed a 369,000 year–on-year increase in employment to 48.157 million workers in October 2024 from 47.788 million in October 2023. There was also a 5.9-percent contraction in the number of jobless Filipinos: at 1.966 million in October 2024, this was 124,000 less than the 2.089 million in October 2023. However, the data also showed an 8.7-percent increase in the number of underemployed Filipinos. This covered those who were visibly underemployed and invisibly underemployed, which posted a year on year growth of 4.1 percent and 15.2 percent, respectively. “The Philippines dodged those problems as BSP tightened money. The BSP’s stabilization worked and set a good stage for output growth, job creation, and rising real wages,” Canlas, however, said. “As inflation further declines, expect consumption of households and investments of enterprises to resume and grow, with salutary impacts on next year’s growth,” he added. Infrastructure, taxes Apart from high commodity prices, Patalinghug said general government construction suffered because of the delays faced by many projects. PSA data showed general government construction spending slowed to 3.7 percent in the third quarter, the slowest in five quarters. General government construction averaged 14.9 percent in the nine-month period. Patalinghug said Cavite-Laguna Expressway, Central Luzon Link Expressway, MRT 7, North-South Commuter Railway, Metro Manila Subway, and the Grand Central Station in Trinoma were all delayed. He said “the only major economic development” in the Philippines this year was the privatization of NAIA, the completion of Panguil Bay Bridge, and, to a lesser degree, the extension of LRT-1 by five stations from Baclaran to Sucat. “The BBM infrastructure program is simply a continuation of the Duterte infrastructure program. In 2024, it has not addressed the major implementation problem: right-of-way acquisition problem; and during the pre-implementation stage, it does not have the capability to undertake project analysis and the period of implementation from pre-feasibility stage is dragged too long (e.g. the EDSA busway project),” Patalinghug explained. The economist also lamented the passage of the Create-More Law which would reduce the government’s revenues leading to more debt. The new law brought down corporate income tax to 20 percent from the current 25 percent. Patalinghug also noted that lower taxes was not included in the nine disincentives to investment in the Philippines as indicated in the US State Department Investment Climate Report. He said the list of disincentives were poor infrastructure, high power costs, slow broadband connection, regulatory inconsistencies, cumbersome bureaucracy, corruption, complex and slow justice system, traffic in major cities, and congestion in ports. “None of our attractive tax incentives allowed us to attract Apple, Samsung, or Intel to choose the Philippines over Vietnam because we need tax revenues to build infrastructure, to solve road traffic, to reduce port congestion, and so on,” he told BusinessMirror. Surviving The year saw many distractions, including from the political side of the spectrum. This, Patalinghug said, side-tracked the government in terms of addressing the country’s economic development. These included geopolitical developments, particularly in the West Philippine Sea, and domestic issues such as investigations on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations and what he called a “demolition job against the Vice President.” Ultimately, he said, these resulted in wasted government and legislative resources, preventing the economy to be more productive and dynamic. He noted that while the government was distracted by these developments and other challenges, the country remained export- dependent through Overseas Filipino remittances and the earnings of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry. “In fairness to the BBM administration, it has passed a lot of laws in 2024 (e.g. real estate valuation and assessment law; value added tax in digital services, etc.). I hope they have a positive impact on the economy in the future,” Patalinghug said. “The economy in 2024 can best be described as “muddling through.” De La Salle University economist Maria Ella Oplas chooses to be positive, saying the economy was a survivor in 2024. Despite the odds, the country managed to post respectable economic growth, attract foreign direct investment and manage inflation. Oplas said while it was good to use the word “resilient” to describe the economy this year, this is still inaccurate given the need to be sustainable. She said the Philippines was not yet there. Elections as gamechanger Nonetheless, what is good was that the economy managed to weather its development challenges. The upcoming elections could be a gamechanger for next year as elections often lead to faster economic growth. “I would like to use the word, survivor to describe 2024. I would love to use resilient but that will require sustainability and I don’t think we are there yet,” Oplas said. “(We are) survivors because despite the El Nino, the typhoons and scandals we managed to still grow (economically) and even pushed for (the) Build Build More.” For his part, Lanzona said 2024 also showed that despite having good economic managers, they cannot prevent challenges from emerging and reaching Filipinos wherever they may be in the archipelago we call home. Given the political and economic challenges the country faced this year, he said his word was unraveling given how structural issues can have a significant impact not only on the general economic development of the country but also the life of every Filipino. “Even with good economic managers, there is no way of creating a firewall between a weak political structure and the economy. As the political structures continue to place unfit and corrupt individuals into positions of power, the economic activities continue to grow weaker,” Lanzona. Whether the economy muddled through—achieving a certain degree of success without much planning—or was resilient or was a survivor, the year 2024 certainly brought focus to the ebb and flow of life while aboard a boat sailing through a vast sea of change and uncertainty.title game on Nov. 8, the two-time defending national champion North Carolina Tar Heels run onto the field for warmups. In just under an hour they'll take on Boston College on the freshly watered turf field at host Wake Forest. Head coach Erin Matson follows her players with a stick in her hand. After running through some drills, she stands off to the side of the field to start her pregame rituals while her staff runs the remaining exercises. Matson's pregame ritual is the same one she had as a player: 30 pulls, where she quickly drags the ball backward behind her, and a game of "around the world," where she attempts to dribble the ball on every single angle of the head of the stick to see how many times she can consistently maintain contact without dropping the ball. Her record is six times on each side of the stick. "As a player, it grounded me. It put me in my element," Matson says. She was a player just two seasons ago. "And last year, in my first year, I just did it as a way to deal with the nerves and pressure and everything. It was what I knew when I took the field before a game." Minutes before the game whistle blows, Matson retreats back to the blocked-off bench area. She rests her arms on the ledge and bows her head. This will be her seventh ACC championship game; her second as a head coach. The team will vie for its eighth consecutive ACC title. She knows what's on the line. to be head coach after you retire," a 22-year-old Matson said to Karen Shelton during a phone call in the summer of 2022. "I'm still playing this season. And we're going to win. My plans to apply for the head-coaching position won't get in the way of the team. But I want to be head coach." Shelton, who led the Tar Heels field hockey team for more than four decades, smiled. She'd been waiting for this moment. For four years, Matson dominated field hockey. With three national titles and two Honda Sport Awards (the Heisman Trophy of field hockey, according to ACC commentator Matt Krause), her legacy among other North Carolina greats such as Michael Jordan and Mia Hamm was already secured. As her fifth and final season approached, Matson wanted to avenge the first-round NCAA tournament loss last season to Northwestern. She also wanted to win one more national title for Shelton, whose 42-year career was coming to an end, and take that legacy into a new direction. Matson texted North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham, "Can we set up a meeting?" In his office days later, he told her, "Go win a national championship and then we'll talk." Three months later, with 1:19 left in the NCAA championship game, Matson got her stick on Paityn Wirth's pass and tipped it into Northwestern's goal for a 2-1 victory and UNC's 10th national title. Matson finished her playing career as the all-time scoring leader in ACC history, and the only athlete in the conference to win player of the year recognitions five times. Shelton retired a few weeks later. Matson told her teammates she was going to apply for the job. "She's always been a leader on the team and for all of us," says Romea Riccardo, who played with Matson for five years. "When she told us she was applying, I think some of us had a feeling that it would happen." She also had the backing of Shelton, who was not a part of the hiring committee. "All throughout her playing career, I knew she'd make a great coach because even as a freshman, her teammates would ask for her help or input," Shelton says. "She had a depth of knowledge of the game. If a teammate wasn't really understanding something that we would go over in our meetings or in film sessions, they would turn to Erin." With dozens of potential candidates being considered, including highly experienced assistant coaches and top international coaches, Matson leaned on her playing experience at Carolina and laid out an elaborate road map for how she'd tackle the job. She had a first two weeks plan, a first 100 days plan, she also prepared potential questions and had her parents and friends run mock interviews. According to a person familiar with the hiring process, it was this preparation that most impressed the committee. Matson was named head coach on January 31, 2023. At 22, she was the youngest head coach in NCAA D-I history. "There's a maturity level to her personality that gives you a sense of confidence," Cunningham said then. "She has a sense of purpose. ... She just is a very thoughtful and very deliberate person that is always prepared." That fall, with Matson at the helm, the Tar Heels won their 11th NCAA title, a victory that brought widespread media attention -- features on "SportsCenter," NBC News, "The Today Show." She walked the red carpet at the ESPYS and has gained upward of 40,000 new social media followers. "Everywhere I looked there was a headline that read, 'Youngest head coach makes history' and 'Youngest head coach wins title,'" Matson says now. "I know my age...When I was hired, someone posted on Twitter saying I wasn't even old enough to rent a car. Like, if that's your biggest worry, I think we're going to be just fine." Matson, now 24 with her team heading into an NCAA semifinal matchup with Saint Joseph's, has a high bar to maintain, especially from the sidelines. "All I can do now is instill confidence in [the players] that what we've been working on and practicing will pay off on the field," she says. "You come here to play because you want to rise to these moments." Matson knows her teams may not always be competing for a national title. Northwestern defeated the Tar Heels 2-0 in the first round of the 2021 NCAA tournament. "We weren't quick enough," Matson says. "We might've been a winning team, but that day we didn't win. And I don't like to lose." She also knows there are more eyes on women's field hockey because of her, and the only way to keep growing this niche sport is to win. preparing for her interview with Cunningham, she cracked open a new Moleskine notebook and wrote down the four points she wanted him to know: 1) I love and understand Carolina. 2) I know my X's and O's better than anyone. 3) I will coach to win. 4) I will recruit the s--- out of this country and have connections overseas. Matson added a line that she might be young, but she had a maturity in this game and strong connections when it came to recruiting, relating to the players and connecting to the student body. She quickly started to fill the rest of the pages. Matson has been scripting the dream for most of her life. "We have her 10-year plan that she wrote in middle school," her mother, Jill, says. "And honestly, most of it came true. It was UNC all over it. She said 'This is where I'm going.' And 'This is where I'm playing.' ... She was very intentional with what she wanted and how she was going to get there." Matson's parents -- Brian, who played baseball in college, and Jill, who played softball and field hockey -- realized their daughter's talent for the game when she first picked up a stick at the age of 6 in Chadd Fords, located in the field hockey hotbed of Pennsylvania. At 10, Matson joined the state's elite WC Eagles, where she caught Shelton's attention during a game with the coach's niece. "She showed a high level of IQ for the game even at that time," Shelton says. "She was faster than everybody. She could score in close and outside as well. No one was like her." Matson started receiving interest from colleges at 13, including some of the top programs such as North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Boston College, Princeton. She also started garnering a following of younger players who heard about her through the field hockey club community and social media, many of whom waited after her games for her to sign autographs, and some who would go on to play for her when she became a coach. Ryleigh Heck, a junior forward for the Tar Heels, grew up watching Matson play as a member of the Eagles club team. "I would always stay and watch her even in practices," Heck says. "She probably had no idea who I was because I was just a little girl hanging around watching her. But I loved watching her play." The Matsons encouraged their daughter to think about what it means to be in the field hockey spotlight. "We wanted her to know that when you take on a role like this as an ambassador for a niche sport," Jill says, "that she's got to not only use it and help do her part, but that she was going to be looked at in a different way." They knew Erin's heart was set on North Carolina, but Brian and Jill encouraged her to go through with the full recruitment process, visit schools and take advantage of the opportunities as the top prospect in the nation. In the fall of her sophomore year of high school, Duke, UVA and Maryland had joined Matson's list of top schools. But her only unofficial visits were to Duke and North Carolina. On the first morning of her visit to Chapel Hill, Matson went for a run around campus. When she returned, she told Brian, "Dad, it just feels like home." Matson made her verbal commitment the next day. She became a member of the U.S. national team at 17, and her fledging fame grew in international circles as she traveled for tournaments, including in the Netherlands, where field hockey's popularity ranks just below soccer. She was the top scorer at the 2022 Pan American Cup in Chile and became a star of the sport on a global stage. Matson knew the recognition would be important in her first year as head coach. "Recruiting started right away," Matson says. "I was hired in January, and I had recruiting events start in February. The four commits for [the incoming class in] 2024 were from Coach Shelton. So I had to assure them that they were in good hands, but I also had to start mapping out who I wanted for the next set of classes." After winning the 2023 title, Matson focused on filling out her roster and replacing top players such as Katie Dixon, who will graduate after this season. So far, she has signed four of the top 10 U.S. players and a highly regarded player from the Netherlands to next year's class. and a Carolina bomber jacket, walks onto the field at Karen Shelton Stadium in Chapel Hill. The UNC fight song blasts throughout the stadium speakers, and a unified roar erupts. More than 200 fans start chanting "ERIN MATSON!" It is October 18, the Tar Heels' field hockey alumni weekend. Nearly 30 former field hockey players line up at the front of the stands to cheer on the head coach ahead of the matchup with Wake Forest. It's UNC's first home game in nearly a month. In the first minute of the game, Heck spins toward the net and launches the ball behind the Wake Forest keeper to score the game's opening goal. Heck, who as a freshman played alongside Matson, says her on-field persona is something she learned from her now-coach. "I loved her as a player" says Heck, who leads the ACC in assists. "She has the mind of a champion. And even when we played together at Carolina, she would be coaching and leading the team. What I'm doing out here is because of Erin." Three minutes later, sophomore forward Charly Bruder converts on a corner penalty opportunity and secures a 2-0 lead for the Tar Heels. Bruder finds the net again soon after. In the first half, Heck and Bruder further cement themselves atop the ACC and D-I rankings. In the ACC, Bruder and Heck hold the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in shots on goal. Bruder, with an average of 1.30 goals per game, sits at No. 1 in the D-I rankings. The crowd and the Carolina bench scream the loudest in the second half, when senior forward Kennedy Cliggett rushes the ball down the field, outrunning everyone in her path and breaking away to score her first goal of the season. With her team up 4-0, Matson tells her players to keep fighting and "be bold." With seconds remaining in the third quarter, Lisa Slinkert, a senior forward from the Netherlands, receives a pass with her back to the net. In one swift motion, she turns and fires the ball in for a goal. The game ends with a 7-0 victory for the Tar Heels, their fifth shutout of the year. Six players scored, and UNC outshot its opponents 19-7. From the stands, Shelton recalls a matchup with Wake Forest in the ACC tournament when Matson was an 18-year-old freshman. She rushed to meet a pass from her teammate on a broken corner play. Matson improvised, taking the pass behind her back. Without looking, Matson launched the ball into the back of the net for the first goal of the game. "It was such an instinctual, world-class goal nobody had seen before," Shelton says. "It was incredible as a freshman. And it was the first of many moments where she truly showed that she was a threat when it came to big goals at big times." The 2024 Carolina players rush to the stands to meet their family and friends. Matson waits behind, talking to her coaching staff -- which includes two assistants who worked under Shelton and one new hire, her former teammate Riccardo. Shelton's history still resonates deeply here, but Matson's team is starting to look more like Matson's team. "Nothing was just handed to Erin," says Dixon, who played with Matson for three years. "She gets a lot of criticism because she's young. And people believe that she was just handed a roster with good players. But if you don't have a good system in place, a good team culture around those good players, then that means nothing. "She's built on Coach Shelton's foundation, but she's creating new and improved twists on everything. Like, the amount of coaching she does that goes unnoticed. Like, the different corners that we've created. The different things we do during practice, the drills we do to help us prepare for games. That's all Erin. She was just in these high-pressure games. She knows what works and what doesn't." Minutes later, Matson is near the stands, greeting alumni and taking photos and signing autographs for fans. Young girls waiting with their parents wave for her attention. "Hi guys! How are you? Want a pic?" Matson asks. As soon as she walks away, the girls turned to each other. "I can't believe we met her," one says. Matson spends the next half hour with the crowd. She has been at the stadium for more than 12 hours. "This is what it's all about. I've given so much to the sport. But this sport has given so much to me. And same with Carolina," Matson says. "Now, it's my chance to not only bring awareness to this program, but to bring awareness to our sport. I understand my role in all of this." While her players mingle at the postgame tailgate with the alumni, parents and friends, Matson sneaks away to her office with her coaching staff to rehash the game. At the tailgates, Coach Shelton made a point to stand up and make a brief speech about the game. Matson continues that tradition. But instead of improvising like Shelton did for most of the postgame speeches, Matson writes down her thoughts. "Coach laughs at me because she's like, 'Erin, why do you like making a list and notes?' She would just stand up there and kill it," Matson says. "But I do better when I have a plan. And I don't want to forget to mention something or someone. I feel the pressure of those little things. I want it to be perfect for everyone." Holding a piece of paper, Matson calls the attention of the crowd. "You know we don't get wrapped up in the record and this and that. Coach Shelton always reminded us, 'The next game is always the most important.' And that's how these Heels roll. But tonight, these guys deserve to feel really good," Matson says. Cheering erupts again as Matson finishes each sentence. She starts to roll through the highs of the night, starting with her defense and working her way to her offense. Glancing down at her piece of paper, she rattles off names and stats of her players. "Woohoo!" is heard after each name. As the cheering and clapping grows, Matson deepens her voice and gets a little louder before she wraps up her speech. "You guys celebrate for each other. You want it for each other...it is so unselfish and it's absolutely beautiful, Heels," Matson says, before giving shout-outs to special guests and the alumni at the tailgate. The next day, just hours after a 3-1 win against Old Dominion, a TV graphic with Matson's photo was shown across millions of screens during the second game of the World Series. Her boyfriend at the time, Dodgers' rookie reliever Ben Casparius, had entered the game, and Fox Sports commentator Joe Davis shared on the broadcast that Casparius said Matson was the "best athlete he's ever seen." (A week before, during the National League Championship Series, Ken Rosenthal told the audience that Matson was the "Michael Jordan of field hockey.") Matson's cell phone lit up as text messages flooded her inbox. The team's social media staff asked her if she was OK with them sharing the post on the Tar Heels' account. "I've always had to think about the repercussions of my actions because I was being looked at by so many people because of field hockey," Matson says. "But at the same time, I know I've built a loyal following and brought exposure to this sport by just being myself. Social media is a part of that, right?" But Matson knows her moves are scruitnized. It's the price of her success at such a young age. "I'm always constantly thinking about, how is this taken by my players? My staff? My recruits? My players' parents? Everyone?" She tells her staff to hold off on posting the shout-out. to start the ACC title game. Matson crouches low to the ground on the edge of the field, her eyes shielded behind her sunglasses. Riccardo stands just a few feet away. Exchanging words every few plays, the two are in sync, just like when they played together. Riccardo and Matson started at Carolina the same year; Riccardo red-shirted, so Matson coached her in her final season. This summer, when an assistant position became available, Riccardo followed the Matson playbook and applied for the position. "It just made sense," Riccardo says. "Erin was always coaching on the field, even in our first season together. She was the leader, and Shelton looked towards her for so many things. And I wanted to be a part of what she was building." Less than two minutes into the second quarter, Bruder finds the goal after being set up by fifth-year Ciana Riccardo (Romea's sister) and Dixon. Matson nods her head in approval; her players shout their teammate's name. "TAR ... HEELS ... TAR ... HEELS ..." echoes throughout the stands. Ten minutes later, Carolina scores again. This time, Matson throws her hands up and cheers along. Ciana Riccardo passes to senior back Kelly Smith. Smith passes left to Bruder, who passes behind her to junior Sietske Brüning. The midfielder sends it back to Riccardo, standing just a couple feet from the goal. Riccardo sends the ball straight into the back of the net. The speed and accuracy are too much for the Eagles. "It's my final ACC championship game, and I hadn't scored all season. And she just looked at me and told me I could do it," Riccardo says about the pep talk Matson gave her before the game. "That's the thing about Erin, she's a person who everyone looks up to. She understands us. She's been in our position. She knows what it feels like to deal with high-pressure situations, what it takes to win. She knew exactly what I needed headed into this game." After defeating the Eagles 4-1, the Tar Heels secured their eighth straight ACC championship title. "It never gets old, watching them celebrate," Matson says. "They know that this is only one step in the whole path, but it's a big step. And they should feel good about it and celebrate. But this isn't necessarily the trophy they want to be hoisting." A few hours later Matson will return to Chapel Hill. She'll go back to her office at Carmichael Hall. The same office she entered when she was 15 years old and said she wanted to play for the Tar Heels. Now, it's her office. Remnants of Coach Shelton remain, like her Carolina desk chair. But Matson has added a huge picture of Michael Jordan in a Bulls jersey with the words, "Pressure is a privilege" plastered across the middle. It hangs above her white couch with Carolina pillows placed at each end. In one week, Matson and her top-seeded team will begin NCAA tournament play. Matson opens up her black Moleskine notebook and starts preparing for the week ahead. There are fewer than five pages left. She'll have to order a new notebook soon.ice breaker online games 。

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RALEIGH, N.C. — Bill Belichick, cutting the sleeves off an Alexander Julian plaid blazer. Bill Belichick, responding to boosters’ grinning back-slaps with a scowl and, “We’re on to Georgia Tech.” Bill Belichick, trying on Mack Brown’s old sideline puffy coat for size. Bill Belichick, being asked to shake the hand of a human dressed as a toaster pastry. Bill Belichick, adding the entire lacrosse team to the football roster to play special teams. Can you imagine? JONES ANGELL: “Welcome back everyone to Bill Belichick Live. Say, Bill, what’s your favorite appetizer here at Top of the Hill?” BELICHICK: “Yeah, I’m not going to discuss that.” North Carolina will miss out on all of that wonderful stuff if it doesn’t lock down a deal with Belichick to replace Brown as football coach, something that seemed imminent over the weekend but continues to dangle in the breeze. North Carolina should be so lucky as to have it fall apart. This already has disaster written all over it, from the too-many-cooks hiring process to the transparent competing leaks from each camp: Belichick to NFL insiders, the trustees and boosters to political reporters. This circus has a lot of clowns and no tent. Just when you think things couldn’t possibly get any more absurd at North Carolina than Brown burning a career’s worth of bridges in Chapel Hill by insisting he would be back next season only to be informed the next day he would not, here comes an NFL legend who couldn’t land an NFL job last cycle, with absolutely no NCAA experience in that lengthy career, as the top candidate to replace him. Imagine the kind of privileged bubble you’d have to live in to be able to convince yourself that, after firing a genial 73-year-old coach who seemed to be losing his grasp on the rapidly changing world of college football, a surly 72-year-old with little or no grasp on college football is the right guy to replace him. Why not dig up Knute Rockne’s corpse and drag it around, like Weekend at Bernie’s? This is such a bad idea that even if it were to happen and somehow work out, it would still be an objectively bad idea even with 20-20 hindsight. Even if no one else wants the job, whether for football reasons or having to submit TPS reports to eight different bosses, this is an absurd place to land. North Carolina is willing to settle for someone who counts as family because his dad was a Tar Heels assistant coach for three years some 70 years ago, who has spent one fall observing his son as an assistant coach at Washington and is therefore an expert on the college game despite actually never coaching in it, whose NFL dynasty fizzled as soon as Tom Brady tapped out, whose coaching tree has had little success. (Two branches of it actually sprouted in the ACC: Al Groh and Bill O’Brien). And forget about UNC for a second: With all the nonsense that comes along with being a college head coach, it’s fair to wonder whether Belichick has fully thought this through, either. Two words: Mayo bath. What’s in this for him? If he wants to prove his late decline in New England wasn’t a fluke, the NFL is the place to do that. Beating Charlotte doesn’t count toward breaking Don Shula’s record. Beating the Panthers does. Brown may have been out of coaching for a little while when he returned to North Carolina, but he at least had won something at the NCAA level, knew the school inside and out and was (and remains) as avuncular as Belichick is gruff. Once again, the folks in power at North Carolina fell in love with a big-name trophy coach, but Belichick’s name only means anything to people like them. The oldest recruits in this cycle were 12 years old when Belichick last won anything. These kids don’t even know who he is, other than maybe the guy whose dog was apparently drafting for him during COVID. In Belichick’s defense, he does know the game of football as well as anyone on the planet and wouldn’t take the job without the financial backing to buy a decent team — no doubt at the continued expense of funds for basketball, which just lost out on the nation’s top recruit to BYU of all places — and if he’s got any tricks left up his absent sleeves, he might be able to find inefficiencies in recruiting, the transfer portal and on the field that college coaches have heretofore missed. It’s not like there are any NCAA rules left to break. But that’s a lot of maybes, and there are fundamental aspects of the college game — like sucking up to high-school coaches, making nice with the faculty and getting players out of the film room to go to class — that would be entirely foreign to Belichick. Whereas an up-and-coming college coach might have been able to build on the foundation Brown left behind — Jeff Monken is still out there, and wouldn’t it be something if UNC eventually blundered into what might be the best possible hire — this feels like it would be a ground-up rebuild of the entire operation. If Belichick really did submit a 400-page blueprint, and nothing’s ever gone wrong with a lengthy manifesto from a guy known for wearing a hoodie, it certainly suggests so. There are only two reasons someone like Belichick wants a job like this: He’s running away from something, or he’s got no place else to go. Unlike Norman Dale at Hickory High, there’s no Jimmy Chitwood waiting in the wings to save him. If this falls through, both sides should be relieved, not aggrieved. ©2024 The News & Observer. Visit at newsobserver.com . Distributed at Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Ghana counted ballots on Saturday after a tight election with the ruling party's Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia trying to shake off anger over economic woes and rebuff a challenge by opposition party candidate ex-president John Mahama. Ghana's struggling economy dominated the election, after the west Africa gold and cacao producer went through a debt default, high inflation and negotiations for a $3 billion IMF bailout. Voters were choosing a successor to Bawumia's boss, President Nana Akufo-Addo, who steps down after serving the maximum of two four-year terms. They will also elect the country's new parliament. Voting was mostly calm, but one person was shot dead and four people arrested at a polling station in Nyankpala in the country's northern region, police and local media said. After polls closed at 1700 GMT, election teams immediately began tallying ballots under the watch of agents from political parties before sending them to collation centres. Preliminary results are expected early Sunday, with full presidential results scheduled by Tuesday. "Everyone is complaining prices are high. So I want a change, I want a good president who will bring in changes," Abdullah Mohammed, a student said after voting in Accra's Nima district. With a history of political stability, Ghana's two main parties, the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC), have alternated in power equally since the return to multi-party democracy in 1992. Touting the slogan "Break the 8" -- a reference to going past the usual two terms in power -- the NPP hopes Bawumia can lead them to an unprecedented third term. But he struggled to break away from criticism of Akufo-Addo's economic record. "I think we have done a lot of work with our message to the people and the message has been well received," Bawumia said after voting in his northern home Walewale. A UK-educated economist and former central banker, he points to an economy turning a corner and the government's continued plans for digitalisation to ease business, as well as free education and health programmes. But though inflation slowed from more than 50 percent to around 23 percent, and other macro-economic indicators are stabilising, the economic pain was still a clear election issue. Many Ghanaians still say they struggle with the cost of living, scarce jobs and a depreciated cedi currency. Frustration over the economy has opened the way for a comeback challenge from Mahama, who was president from 2012 to 2017 but has since failed twice in presidential bids. The NDC flag-bearer says he will "reset" Ghana and introduce a "24-hour economy", extending industrial hours to create jobs, and also renegotiate parts of the IMF deal. "Other elections have not been as obvious," Mahama said voting in his northern hometown. "With this one, everybody can tell the direction because of the abysmal performance of the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government." Some analysts gave him an edge because of voter dismay with NPP, but the former president faced criticism from those who remember financial woes and massive power cuts during his time in office. Shoe saleswoman Esther Adobea said the economic situation hurt, but she was willing to give Bawumia a chance to make things better. "I can see he can handle the country for us. Our economy is not good, but he can do better," she said. Both major candidates are from the north of the country -- traditionally an NDC stronghold, but now more fragmented -- making the region a key battleground. While the economy was key, Ghana also faces an increasing risk of spillover in its northern regions from jihadist conflicts in Niger and Burkina Faso, where military juntas rule. The spread of illegal gold mining also became an election issue. Akufo-Addo promised to stop illegal mining, but it has expanded, poisoning riverways and impacting cacao farmlands -- a major source of export income. bur-pma/jm

NoneNFL will consider replay assist for facemask penalties and other plays

[Interview] Kang Seong-nam, Damyang Cultural Center “Reinventing Damyang's Culture by Blending Tradition with Modern Sensibility”NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting around their records Thursday in the runup to a big jobs report due on Friday. The crypto market had much more action, and bitcoin briefly burst to a record above $103,000 before pulling back. The S&P 500 was edging down by 0.1% after setting an all-time high for the 56th time this year the day before to improve one of its best years of the millennium . The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 183 points, or 0.4%, with roughly an hour remaining in trading, while the Nasdaq composite was nearly unchanged from its own record set the day before. Bitcoin powered above $100,000 the night before, after President-elect Donald Trump chose a crypto advocate, Paul Atkins, as his nominee to head the Securities and Exchange Commission. The cryptocurrency has climbed dramatically from less than $70,000 on Election Day, but it quickly fell back as Thursday progressed toward $99,000, according to CoinDesk. Sharps swings for bitcoin are nothing new, and they took stocks of companies enmeshed in the crypto world on a similar ride. After rising as much as 9% in early trading, MicroStrategy, a company that’s been raising cash just to buy bitcoin, swung to a loss of 5.9%. Crypto exchange Coinbase Global fell 3.2% after likewise erasing a big early gain. Elsewhere on Wall Street, stocks of airlines helped lead the way following the latest bumps up to financial forecasts from carriers. American Airlines Group soared 18.6% after saying it’s making more in revenue during the last three months of 2024 than it expected, and it will likely make a bigger profit than it had earlier forecast. The airline also chose Citi to be its exclusive partner for credit cards that give miles in its loyalty program. That should help its cash coming in from co-branded credit card and other partners grow by about 10% annually. Southwest Airlines climbed 3.4% after saying it’s seeing stronger demand from leisure travelers than it expected. It also raised its forecast for revenue for the holiday traveling season. On the losing end of Wall Street was Synposys, which tumbled 12.1%. The supplier for the semiconductor industry reported better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, but it also warned of “continued macro uncertainties” and gave a forecast for revenue in the current quarter that fell short of some analysts’ estimates. American Eagle Outfitters fell even more, 15.3%, after the retailer said it’s preparing for “potential choppiness” outside of peak selling periods. It was reminiscent of a warning from Foot Locker earlier in the week and raised more concerns about how resilient U.S. shoppers can remain. Solid spending by U.S. consumers has been one of the main reasons the U.S. economy has avoided a recession that earlier seemed inevitable after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates to crush inflation. But shoppers are now contending with still-high prices and a slowing job market . This week’s highlight for Wall Street will be Friday’s jobs report from the U.S. government, which will show how many people employers hired and fired last month. A report on Thursday said the number of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits rose last week but remains at historically healthy levels. Expectations are high that the Fed will cut its main interest rate again when it meets in two weeks. The Fed began easing its main interest rate from a two-decade high in September, hoping to offer more support for the job market. In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury held steady at 4.18%, where it was late Wednesday. In stock markets abroad, indexes were mostly calm in Europe after far-right and left-wing lawmakers in France joined together to vote on a no-confidence motion prompted by budget disputes that will force Prime Minister Michel Barnier and his Cabinet to resign. The CAC 40 index in Paris added 0.4%. In South Korea, the Kospi fell 0.9% to compound its 1.4% decline from the day before. President Yoon Suk Yeol was facing possible impeachment after he suddenly declared martial law on Tuesday night. He revoked the martial law declaration six hours later. Crude oil prices slipped after eight members of the OPEC+ alliance of oil exporting countries decided to put off increasing oil production. AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contrributed.

Wyoming Game and Fish Department names new chief of wildlife

Underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim Celebrates 69th Birthday In Karachi, Hosts Pakistani Elite And Indian Businessmen At Lavish PartyNEW YORK (AP) — The huge rally for U.S. stocks lost momentum on Thursday as Wall Street counted down to a big jobs report that’s coming on Friday. The crypto market had more action, and bitcoin briefly burst to a record above $103,000 before pulling back. The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% from the all-time high it had set the day before, its 56th of the year so far, to shave a bit off what’s set to be one of its best years of the millennium . The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 248 points, or 0.6%, while the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.2% from its own record set the day before. Bitcoin powered above $100,000 for the first time the night before, after President-elect Donald Trump chose Paul Atkins, who's seen as a crypto advocate, as his nominee to head the Securities and Exchange Commission. The cryptocurrency has climbed dramatically from less than $70,000 on Election Day, but it fell back as Thursday progressed toward $99,000, according to CoinDesk. Sharp swings for bitcoin are nothing new, and they took stocks of companies enmeshed in the crypto world on a similar ride. After rising as much as 9% in early trading, MicroStrategy, a company that’s been raising cash just to buy bitcoin, swung to a loss of 4.8%. Crypto exchange Coinbase Global fell 3.1% after likewise erasing a big early gain. Elsewhere on Wall Street, stocks of airlines helped lead the way following the latest bumps up to financial forecasts from carriers. American Airlines Group soared 16.8% after saying it’s making more in revenue during the last three months of 2024 than it expected, and it will likely make a bigger profit than it had earlier forecast. The airline also chose Citi to be its exclusive partner for credit cards that give miles in its loyalty program. That should help its cash coming in from co-branded credit card and other partners grow by about 10% annually. Southwest Airlines climbed 2% after saying it’s seeing stronger demand from leisure travelers than it expected. It also raised its forecast for revenue for the holiday traveling season. On the losing end of Wall Street was Synposys, which tumbled 12.4%. The supplier for the semiconductor industry reported better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, but it also warned of “continued macro uncertainties” and gave a forecast for revenue in the current quarter that fell short of some analysts’ estimates. American Eagle Outfitters fell even more, 14.3%, after the retailer said it’s preparing for “potential choppiness” outside of peak selling periods. It was reminiscent of a warning from Foot Locker earlier in the week and raised more concerns about how resilient U.S. shoppers can remain. Solid spending by U.S. consumers has been one of the main reasons the U.S. economy has avoided a recession that earlier seemed inevitable after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates to crush inflation. But shoppers are now contending with still-high prices and a slowing job market . This week’s highlight for Wall Street will be Friday’s jobs report from the U.S. government, which will show how many people employers hired and fired last month. A report on Thursday said the number of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits rose last week but remains at historically healthy levels. Expectations are high that the Fed will cut its main interest rate again when it meets in two weeks. The Fed began easing its main interest rate from a two-decade high in September, hoping to offer more support for the job market. In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.17% from 4.18% late Wednesday. The S&P 500 fell 11.38 points to 6,075.11. The Dow sank 248.33 to 44,765.71, and the Nasdaq composite lost 34.86 to 19,700.26. In stock markets abroad, indexes were mostly calm in Europe after far-right and left-wing lawmakers in France joined together to vote on a no-confidence motion that will force Prime Minister Michel Barnier and his Cabinet to resign. The CAC 40 index in Paris added 0.4%. In South Korea, the Kospi fell 0.9% to compound its 1.4% decline from the day before. President Yoon Suk Yeol was facing possible impeachment after he suddenly declared martial law on Tuesday night. He revoked the martial law declaration six hours later. Crude oil prices slipped after eight members of the OPEC+ alliance of oil exporting countries decided to put off increasing oil production. AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.

Brokers say these ASX growth stocks are top buysNEW YORK , Dec. 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Grid Dynamics Holdings Inc. (NASD: GDYN) will replace Revelyst Inc. (NYSE: GEAR) in the S&P SmallCap 600 effective prior to the opening of trading on Thursday, January 2 . Strategic Value Partners is acquiring Revelyst in a deal expected to close soon pending final conditions. Following is a summary of the change that will take place prior to the open of trading on the effective date: Effective Date Index Name Action Company Name Ticker GICS Sector Jan 2, 2025 S&P SmallCap 600 Addition Grid Dynamics Holdings GDYN Information Technology Jan 2, 2025 S&P SmallCap 600 Deletion Revelyst GEAR Consumer Discretionary For more information about S&P Dow Jones Indices, please visit www.spdji.com ABOUT S&P DOW JONES INDICES S&P Dow Jones Indices is the largest global resource for essential index-based concepts, data and research, and home to iconic financial market indicators, such as the S&P 500® and the Dow Jones Industrial Average®. More assets are invested in products based on our indices than products based on indices from any other provider in the world. Since Charles Dow invented the first index in 1884, S&P DJI has been innovating and developing indices across the spectrum of asset classes helping to define the way investors measure and trade the markets. S&P Dow Jones Indices is a division of S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI), which provides essential intelligence for individuals, companies, and governments to make decisions with confidence. For more information, visit www.spdji.com . FOR MORE INFORMATION: S&P Dow Jones Indices index_services@spglobal.com Media Inquiries spdji.comms@spglobal.com View original content: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/grid-dynamics-holdings-set-to-join-sp-smallcap-600-302339444.html SOURCE S&P Dow Jones Indices

BARKHAMSTED – Perhaps no other hamlet in Connecticut can better recapture the aura of a Dickensian Christmas than Riverton, nestled in the northwestern corner of town. Established at the turn of the 19th century, the buildings in the quaint village date to the very period when Charles Dickens was writing his signature story, “A Christmas Carol.” Indeed, every year during the annual Christmas in Riverton celebration – slated for today, Saturday and Sunday – the town re-enacts the classic story of redemption with performances by Riverton Theatre in the Congregational Church, a venerable edifice built in the same year Dickens penned the play. The festival will follow a tried-and-true pattern again this year, starting with a candlelit walk through town tonight from 6 to 8, followed by coffee in the Grange hall. A portion of the proceeds will be gifted to the Tiny Tim Fund. Advance tickets are on sale at Riverton theatre2024.square.site. Businesses will be open to welcome guests, offering holiday shopping from 5 to 9 p.m. Several businesses, including Orchard Hill Baking, the Old Riverton Inn and Riverton General Store, will serve food during the evening. Carolers will rove the streets, setting the mood. The Grange will open its Festival of Trees from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Visitors are invited to bring nonperishable food items or cash donations to support the Community Food Bank, and view trees decorated by community members and organizations. There will be a first performance of “A Christmas Carol,” followed by subsequent presentations Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are available at Rivertontheatre2024.square.site. Saturday brings more shopping opportunities at local businesses. Clifford, the Big Red Dog, will roam the village (off-leash, of course), and face painting will be offered at the fire department. Children can decorate ornaments or stockings at the firehouse, where firefighters will be selling fried dough. There will be a gingerbread man, children’s craft workshop, baby goats to pet and a magic show, as well as wagon rides to Santa’s Village. Sunday features a final performance of “A Christmas Carol,” another appearance by the gingerbread man, more chances to stroke baby goats and wagon rides. Holiday shopping continues until 6 p.m. For details and times, visit rivertonct.com. Colebrook children can meet Santa COLEBROOK – The town’s annual Children’s Christmas Party with Santa, sponsored by the Colebrook Center Ladies Auxiliary, is slated for Saturday from 1-3 p.m. at the Colebrook Center Firehouse, 31 Bunnell St. Children through grade 5 are welcome to visit and receive a gift from Santa. Refreshments and light snacks will be provided. Holiday open house Sunday COLEBROOK – Colebrook Historical Society will hold its Holiday Open House and Silent Auction on Sunday from 3-5 p.m. at the Seymour Tavern in the center of town. Music and refreshments will be provided. The event will conclude with the lighting of the trees on the Green. This year’s theme is “Deck the Halls,” and there will be an opportunity to get something special to do just that at the silent auction. Miniature trees, wreaths, ornaments and other holiday treasures will be on display and preliminary bids can be made. Final bidding will take place Dec. 14,, the date of the Colebrook Holiday Fair. Hollywood’s fabulous faces in Norfolk NORFOLK – Robert Dance, author of “Fabulous Faces of Classic Hollywood,” will introduce “All About Eve” (1950), a classic Bette Davis film, tonight at 7 at Norfolk Library, 9 Greenwoods Road East. The screening is the conclusion of a three-film series. Visit norfolklibrary.org or call 860-542-5075, ext. 2, to register. Farmers holiday market NORFOLK – The Farmers and Artisans Holiday Market will take place Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Battell Chapel. The market will have 32 vendors offering intriguing gifts for the holiday season. Santa Claus is coming to town BARKHAMSTED – Santa and his little elves will come to town Saturday from 8 to 10:30 a.m. at Barkhamsted Elementary School to have breakfast with local families. Santa will be happy to pose with youngsters for photographs. Ticket prices are $8 for adults, $4 for children ages 3 to 12, and free for tots 2 and under.US budget airlines are struggling. Will pursuing premium passengers solve their problems? DALLAS (AP) — Delta and United Airlines have become the most profitable U.S. airlines by targeting premium customers while also winning a significant share of budget travelers. That is squeezing smaller low-fare carriers like Spirit Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday. Some travel industry experts think Spirit’s troubles indicate less-wealthy passengers will have fewer choices and higher prices. Other discount airlines are on better financial footing but also are lagging far behind the full-service airlines when it comes to recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. Most industry experts think Frontier and other so-called ultra-low-cost carriers will fill the vacuum if Spirit shrinks, and that there's still plenty of competition to prevent prices from spiking. Bitcoin ticks closer to $100,000 in extended surge following US elections NEW YORK (AP) — Bitcoin is jumping again, setting another new high above $99,000. The cryptocurrency has been shattering records almost daily since the U.S. presidential election, and has rocketed more than 40% higher in just two weeks. It's now at the doorstep of $100,000. Cryptocurrencies and related investments like crypto exchange-traded funds have rallied because the incoming Trump administration is expected to be more “crypto-friendly.” Still, as with everything in the volatile cryptoverse, the future is hard to predict. And while some are bullish, other experts continue to warn of investment risks. Supreme Court steps into fight over FCC's $8 billion subsidies for internet and phone services WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has stepped into a major legal fight over the $8 billion a year the federal government spends to subsidize phone and internet services in schools, libraries and rural areas, in a new test of federal regulatory power. The justices on Friday agreed to review an appellate ruling that struck down as unconstitutional the Universal Service Fund. The Federal Communications Commission collects money from telecommunications providers, who then pass the cost on to their customers. The Biden administration appealed the lower court ruling, but the case probably won’t be argued until late March. At that point, the Trump administration will be in place and it is not clear whether it will take a different view of the issue. Stock market today: Wall Street gains ground as it heads for a winning week Stocks gained ground on Wall Street, keeping the market on track for its fifth gain in a row. The S&P 500 was up 0.2% in afternoon trading Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 333 points and the Nasdaq composite was essentially flat. Retailers had some of the biggest gains. Gap soared after reporting quarterly results that easily beat analysts' estimates. EchoStar fell after DirecTV called of its purchase of that company's Dish Network unit. European markets closed mostly higher and Asian markets ended mixed. Treasury yields held relatively steady in the bond market. Crude oil prices gained ground. Australia rejects Elon Musk's claim that it plans to control access to the internet MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An Australian Cabinet minister has rejected X Corp. owner Elon Musk’s allegation that the government intends to control all Australians' access to the internet through legislation that would ban young children from social media. Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on Friday that Musk’s criticism was “unsurprising” after the government introduced legislation to Parliament that would fine platforms including X up to $133 million for allowing children under 16 to hold social media accounts. The spat continues months of open hostility between the Australian government and the tech billionaire over regulators’ efforts to reduce public harm from social media. Parliament could pass the legislation as soon as next week. Oil company Phillips 66 faces federal charges related to alleged Clean Water Act violations LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oil company Phillips 66 has been federally indicted in connection with alleged violations of the Clean Water Act in California. The Texas-based company is accused of discharging hundreds of thousands of gallons of industrial wastewater containing excessive amounts of oil and grease. The U.S. Department of Justice announced the indictment on Thursday. Phillips is charged with two counts of negligently violating the Clean Water Act and four counts of knowingly violating the Clean Water Act. An arraignment date has not been set. A spokesperson for the company said it was cooperating with prosecutors. US regulators seek to break up Google, forcing Chrome sale as part of monopoly punishment U.S. regulators want a federal judge to break up Google to prevent the company from continuing to squash competition through its dominant search engine after a court found it had maintained an abusive monopoly over the past decade. The proposed breakup floated in a 23-page document filed late Wednesday by the U.S. Justice Department calls for Google to sell its industry-leading Chrome web browser and impose restrictions designed to prevent Android from favoring its search engine. Regulators also want to ban Google from forging multibillion-dollar deals to lock in its dominant search engine as the default option on Apple’s iPhone and other devices. New York judge rejects state efforts to shutter bitcoin mine over climate concerns NEW YORK (AP) — A New York judge has rejected an effort by state regulators to shutter a bitcoin mine over concerns about its greenhouse gas emissions. The decision will allow the Greenidge power plant to continue operating in the Finger Lakes region of the state. The state had previously found the gas-powered crypto mine ran afoul of a climate law intended to limit greenhouse gas emissions. But on Thursday, a state Supreme Court judge found Greenidge was entitled to a process to defend its continued operation. Environmental groups have protested the facility, which they allege is pumping emissions into the air while contaminating the nearby Seneca Lake. What you need to know about the proposed measures designed to curb Google's search monopoly U.S. regulators are proposing aggressive measures to restore competition to the online search market after a federal judge ruled that Google maintained an illegal monopoly. The sweeping set of recommendations filed late Wednesday could radically alter Google’s business. Regulators want Google to sell off its industry-leading Chrome web browser. They outlined a range of behavioral measures such as prohibiting Google from using search results to favor its own services such as YouTube, and forcing it to license search index data to its rivals. They're not going as far as to demand Google spin off Android, but are leaving that door open if the remedies don't work. Apple and Google face UK investigation into mobile browser dominance LONDON (AP) — A British watchdog says Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers. The watchdog's report Friday recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year. The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker’s tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. The CMA’s report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers “the clearest or easiest option.” Apple said it disagreed with the findings.