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The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — What a wonderful year 2024 has been for investors. U.S. stocks ripped higher and carried the S&P 500 to records as the economy kept growing and the Federal Reserve began cutting interest rates. The year featured many familiar winners, such as Big Tech, which got even bigger as their stock prices kept growing . But it wasn’t just Apple, Nvidia and the like. Bitcoin , gold and other investments also drove higher. Here’s a look at some of the numbers that defined the year. All are as of Dec. 20. Remember when President Bill Clinton got impeached or when baseball’s Mark McGwire hit his 70th home run against the Montreal Expos? That was the last time the U.S. stock market closed out a second straight year with a leap of at least 20%, something the S&P 500 is on track to do again this year. The index has climbed 24.3% so far this year, not including dividends, following last year’s spurt of 24.2%. The number of all-time highs the S&P 500 has set so far this year. The first came early, on Jan. 19, when the index capped a two-year comeback from the swoon caused by high inflation and worries that high interest rates instituted by the Federal Reserve to combat it would create a recession. But the index was methodical through the rest of the year, setting a record in every month outside of April and August, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. The latest came on Dec. 6. The number of times the Federal Reserve has cut its main interest rate this year from a two-decade high, offering some relief to the economy. Expectations for those cuts, along with hopes for more in 2025, were a big reason the U.S. stock market has been so successful this year. The 1 percentage point of cuts, though, is still short of the 1.5 percentage points that many traders were forecasting for 2024 at the start of the year. The Fed disappointed investors in December when it said it may cut rates just two more times in 2025, fewer than it had earlier expected. That’s how many points the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by the day after Election Day, as investors made bets on what Donald Trump’s return to the White House will mean for the economy and the world . The more widely followed S&P 500 soared 2.5% for its best day in nearly two years. Aside from bitcoin, stocks of banks and smaller winners were also perceived to be big winners. The bump has since diminished amid worries that Trump’s policies could also send inflation higher. Related Articles Holiday shoppers increased spending by 3.8% despite higher prices Debut Rockin’ Around The Block holiday party offers family-friendly festivities Heavy travel day starts with brief grounding of all American Airlines flights Are religious people more generous than non-religious people? What new study finds Amazon and Starbucks workers are on strike. Trump might have something to do with it The level that bitcoin topped to set a record above $108,000 this past month. It’s been climbing as interest rates come down, and it got a particularly big boost following Trump’s election. He’s turned around and become a fan of crypto, and he’s named a former regulator who’s seen as friendly to digital currencies as the next chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, replacing someone who critics said was overly aggressive in his oversight. Bitcoin was below $17,000 just two years ago following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. Gold’s rise for the year, as it also hit records and had as strong a run as U.S. stocks. Wars around the world have helped drive demand for investments seen as safe, such as gold. It’s also benefited from the Fed’s cut to interest rates. When bonds are paying less in interest, they pull away fewer potential buyers from gold, which pays investors nothing. It’s a favorite number of Elon Musk, and it’s also a threshold that Tesla’s stock price passed in December as it set a record. The number has a long history among marijuana devotees, and Musk famously said in 2018 that he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share . Tesla soared this year, up from less than $250 at the start, in part because of expectations that Musk’s close relationship with Trump could benefit the company. That’s how much revenue Nvidia made in the nine months through Oct. 27, showing how the artificial-intelligence frenzy is creating mountains of cash. Nvidia’s chips are driving much of the move into AI, and its revenue through the last nine months catapulted from less than $39 billion the year before. Such growth has boosted Nvidia’s worth to more than $3 trillion in total. GameStop’s gain on May 13 after Keith Gill, better known as “Roaring Kitty,” appeared online for the first time in three years to support the video game retailer’s stock, which he helped rocket to unimaginable heights during the “ meme stock craze ” in 2021. Several other meme stocks also jumped following his post in May on the social platform X, including AMC Entertainment. Gill later disclosed a sizeable stake in the online pet products retailer Chewy, but he sold all of his holdings by late October . That’s how much the U.S. economy grew, at annualized seasonally adjusted rates, in each of the three first quarters of this year. Such growth blew past what many pessimists were expecting when inflation was topping 9% in the summer of 2022. The fear was that the medicine prescribed by the Fed to beat high inflation — high interest rates — would create a recession. Households at the lower end of the income spectrum in particular are feeling pain now, as they contend with still-high prices. But the overall economy has remained remarkably resilient. This is the vacancy rate for U.S. office buildings — an all-time high — through the first three quarters of 2024, according to data from Moody’s. The fact the rate held steady for most of the year was something of a win for office building owners, given that it had marched up steadily from 16.8% in the fourth quarter of 2019. Demand for office space weakened as the pandemic led to the popularization of remote work. That’s the total number of previously occupied homes sold nationally through the first 11 months of 2024. Sales would have to surge 20% year-over-year in December for 2024’s home sales to match the 4.09 million existing homes sold in 2023, a nearly 30-year low. The U.S. housing market has been in a sales slump dating back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. A shortage of homes for sale and elevated mortgage rates have discouraged many would-be homebuyers.Haiti’s health minister loses his job after a deadly gang attack on a hospital in the capital
Chris Hemsworth ‘s wife Elsa Pataky shared a rare family photo from the holidays! The 48-year-old model took to social media on Thursday (December 26) to offer a glimpse at her family’s Christmas celebration. The new photo featured all three of her and Chris ‘ kids – 12-year-old daughter India and 10-year-old twin sons Sasha and Tristan . Keep reading to find out more... Elsa shared the new picture on Instagram. In it, the entire family is wearing matching hooded pajamas that feature the Grinch. India , Sasha and Tristan are standing right behind her as she snaps the selfie, and Chris is in the background closer to their Christmas tree. “Hope you all had a great Christmas,” she wrote in the caption. This is the first time that Elsa has shared a pics of the family since September, when she uploaded adorable photos to celebrate Father’s Day in Australia . Sasha and Tristan have joined their parents at red carpet events, including the premiere of Transformers One and their dad’s Walk of Fame Star Ceremony . India attended the latter but opted out of taking photos. A post shared by Elsa Pataky (@elsapataky)
TORONTO — When Geoffrey Hinton strode across the Stockholm Concert Hall stage Tuesday to receive his Nobel Prize for physics from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, he was beaming. It has taken decades for many beyond the science community to realize the British Canadian computer scientist's life's work was so significant it eventually formed the foundation of artificial intelligence. But on Tuesday, as he accepted the Nobel diploma and its accompanying gold medal with co-laureate John Hopfield, there was no question about the importance of Hinton's discoveries nor how he has shaped history. Instead, there was only pride for the affable 77-year-old, often called the godfather of AI — and that pride stretched from Stockholm to Toronto. A crowd of about 100 students and colleagues at the University of Toronto, where Hinton is a professor emeritus, gathered at the school's downtown campus to watch the Nobel ceremony. Two other watch parties took over the school's Mississauga and Scarborough campuses. Any mention of physics or a sighting of Hinton, clad in a dark suit and white bow tie, generated rousing applause at the Toronto gathering. When the man of the hour headed to retrieve his accolade from the King, a few former students and colleagues wiped tears from their eyes. "There is, at least for me, this sense that Prof. Hinton created the whole ecosystem here, where there are thousands of people who are working on his ideas," Michael Guerzhoy, one of Hinton's former students who went on to teach a course Hinton had once led at the university, said before the ceremony began. The idea that earned Hinton the Nobel dates back to the 1980s, when he was working at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and AI was far from the buzzy technology it is today. It was then that Hinton developed the Boltzmann machine, which learns from examples, rather than instructions, and when trained, can recognize familiar characteristics in information, even if it has not seen that data before. "It was a lot of fun doing the research but it was slightly annoying that many people — in fact, most people in the field of AI — said that neural networks would never work," Hinton recalled during a press conference on the October day he was named as a Nobel laureate. "They were very confident that these things were just a waste of time and we would never be able to learn complicated things like, for example, understanding natural language using neural networks — and they were wrong." Neural networks are computational models that resemble the human brain's structure and functions. When Nobel physics committee chair Ellen Moons presented Hinton to receive his award, she said these networks are good at sorting and interpreting large amounts of data and self-improve based on the accuracy of the results they generate. "Today, artificial neural networks are powerful tools in research fields spanning physics, chemistry and medicine, as well as in daily life," she said. John DiMarco wasn't surprised that Hinton's work paved the way for such possibilities, but the IT director for U of T's computer science department was taken aback that Hinton's Nobel came in the unlikely physics category. DiMarco met Hinton roughly 35 years ago in a job interview and quickly took note of his proclivity for humour and the quirks in how his mind works. "He is quite insightful and he goes straight to the core of things," DiMarco said. "He would sometimes come out of his office and share some new idea. We didn't always understand what he was sharing, but he was very excited about it." Many of those ideas required lots of computing power the school's systems didn't have, so DiMarco's team patched together a solution with graphics processing units from video game consoles. DiMarco brought one of Hinton's GPUs to the watch party, which was also attended by Joseph Jay Williams, the director of U of T's Intelligent Adaptive Interventions Lab. Williams took one of Hinton's classes and said the Nobel winner "changed the course of my life" by encouraging him to go to grad school, which then led him to win the XPRIZE Digital Learning Challenge, a global competition aimed at rewarding people who modernize learning tools and processes. Other notable mentees and alumni of Hinton's classes include OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever and Cohere co-founders Nick Frosst and Aidan Gomez. With his Nobel win and so many esteemed protege, Williams said Hinton has become a "reluctant celebrity" who is hounded for photos every time he's on campus. Hinton, however, has taken a much more humble approach to his recent win, which he learned of on a trip to California. He initially thought the call from the academy that gives out the Nobel was "a spoof," but later realized it had to be real because it was placed from Sweden and the speaker had a "strong Swedish accent." The award the academy gave him comes with 11 million Swedish kronor (about $1.4 million) from a bequest arranged by Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. Hinton and Hopfield will split the money, with some of Hinton's share going to Water First, an Ontario organization working to boost Indigenous access to water, and another unnamed charity supporting neurodiverse young adults. Hinton has said he doesn't plan to do much more "frontier research." "I believe I'm going to spend my time advocating for people to work on safety," he said in October. Last year, Hinton left a role he held at Google to more freely speak about the dangers of AI, which he has said include bias and discrimination, fake news, joblessness, lethal autonomous weapons and even the end of humanity. At a Stockholm press conference over the weekend, he said he doesn’t regret the work he did to lay the foundations of artificial intelligence, but wishes he thought of safety sooner. “In the same circumstances, I would do the same again,” he said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 10, 2024. Tara Deschamps, The Canadian PressTRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Libyan military officials said Monday they apprehended hundreds of migrants traversing the country's vast desert hoping to ultimately cross the Mediterranean Sea in pursuit of a better life in Europe. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Libyan military officials said Monday they apprehended hundreds of migrants traversing the country's vast desert hoping to ultimately cross the Mediterranean Sea in pursuit of a better life in Europe. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Libyan military officials said Monday they apprehended hundreds of migrants traversing the country’s vast desert hoping to ultimately cross the Mediterranean Sea in pursuit of a better life in Europe. The 444 Brigade, a powerful militia group that operates under the auspices of the Libyan army, said in a statement that its patrolling commanders detained more than 300 migrants and referred them to authorities. The group in a post on Facebook condemned smuggling and human trafficking and said its patrols would continue efforts to block smuggling routes. It posted satellite images of the desert and pictures of what appeared to be migrants sitting in rows in front of armed and masked militants. The apprehensions come as Libya remains a primary point of departure for men, women and children from the Middle East and Africa aiming to reach Europe. Many are escaping war or poverty and many employ smugglers to help them negotiate treacherous deserts and sea routes. Roughly 38,000 people have arrived in Italy and Malta from Libya this year, according to UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency. The overcrowded boats used by migrants and smugglers are known to routinely capsize and a key priority for European leaders has been to encourage North African countries to prevent migrants from reaching the sea. But unlike in Morocco and Tunisia — where tens of thousands of migrants also attempt to pass through en route to the southern shores of Europe — fighting between rival governments in Libya has added additional challenges to migration management partnerships. Migrant apprehensions are rarely reported in Libya, though the country’s state news service LANA reported more than 2,000 arrests in July. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. The oil-rich country plunged into turmoil after a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Since then, the country has been divided between dueling governments in the east and west, each backed by militias and foreign powers. Human traffickers have for years benefited from the political chaos. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk in July said migrants in the country had been subjected to torture, forced labor and starvation while being detained. Advertisement Advertisement
Which streaming services do fans now need? What to know, as NFL gives Christmas to Netflix.
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Biden calls for Assad to be 'held accountable'Livvy Dunne takes polar plunge in red bikini on Christmas EveChrystia Freeland says Ottawa is on track to hit one of its fiscal targets — but she won't talk about the other two
New rules stipulating minimum spaces for running laboratories could affect hundreds of laboratories in rural and urban Tamil Nadu, according to the Paramedical Laboratory Educational and Welfare Association. Referring to a Government Order (G.O.) issued by the Health Department recently, P. Kalidasan, national president of the association, said rules mandated a minimum space of 300 sq.ft in rural areas and 500 sq.ft to 700 sq.ft in urban areas to run a clinical laboratory. As per the order, this included clinical, pathological, and genetic laboratories. There are about 15,000 diagnostic centres in the private sector in the State. If this norm is implemented, at least 50% of small laboratories in rural and urban parts will be affected. Many of these centres function in 100 to 200 sq.ft spaces, he said. “These rules seem to favour corporate diagnostic centres. About 100 of our laboratories have obtained certification under the NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration) Medical Entry Level Testing Labs Programme. This is proof of the quality of services offered. The State government should also look at the quality of the services. We are demanding that the stipulated minimum spaces should be reduced to 100 sq.ft to 150 sq.ft,” he said. G.R. Ravindranath, general secretary, Doctors Association for Social Equality, in a statement, said this move could affect the livelihood of laboratory technicians who had set up small centres. The Health Department should fix 150 sq.ft area for laboratories doing blood investigations in urban areas and 100 sq.ft for centres in rural areas. A demonstration will be held in Chennai on January 19, 2025 to put forward their demands. Published - December 27, 2024 12:32 am IST Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp RedditAdam Pemble, an Associated Press video journalist who covered some of the biggest global news of the past two decades, from earthquakes and conflicts to political summits and elections, has died. He was 52. Pemble died Thursday in Minneapolis surrounded by friends and family, according to his friend Mike Moe, who helped care for him in the final weeks of his fight against cancer. Known for bringing stories alive with his camera, Pemble epitomized the best of television news traditions, casting a curious and compassionate lens onto the lives of the people and communities whose stories he told. He joined the AP in 2007 in New York before moving to Prague in 2011 to help launch AP’s first cross-format operation combining photography, text stories and video. He enhanced Eastern European news coverage, creating distinctive stories highlighting the region’s culture and society. “Adam was an incredibly talented and passionate journalist and an empathetic storyteller. He had this amazing ability to get anyone to talk to him on camera, which I attribute to the Midwestern charm he embodied throughout his life.” said Sara Gillesby, AP’s Director of Global Video and Pemble’s former manager in New York when he joined the AP. “He was the best of us.” Pemble was born in Saint Louis Park, Minnesota, in 1972 and grew up in Minneapolis. After graduating with a degree in mass communications from Minnesota State University Moorhead, he started his journalism career in 1997 at KVLY, a television station in Fargo, North Dakota, and later worked at WCCO in Minneapolis. “He had the skills of the old-school camera people to meet a deadline and turn a beautiful story,” said Arthur Phillips, a cameraman who worked with Pemble at WCCO. “But he had a calling for greater things.” Moving to New York, Pemble covered some of the biggest stories in the city, including the trial of Bernie Madoff, interviews with former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and with then-real estate developer, now U.S. president-elect, Donald Trump. He went to Haiti to cover the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, where he captured shocking images of devastation. A few weeks later he was in Vancouver, covering the Winter Olympics. With his transfer to Prague, Pemble quickly became the go-to video journalist deployed to the biggest news events in Europe, interviewing government leaders, covering violent protests, the aftermath of terror attacks and numerous national elections across the continent. “An inquiring mind, a keen eye and a healthy skepticism for those in power who tried to spin away from the truth all combined to make Adam’s stories as rich in colour as he was in character,” said Sandy MacIntyre, former AP head of global video. “Time and again he was asked to do the impossible and without fail he delivered the exceptional.” ”But more than all of that, he was the colleague and friend you wanted by your side because if Adam was there we knew we were going to be the winning team.” As civil unrest rocked Ukraine in 2014, Pemble reported from Kyiv and later Donetsk, where he covered the first Russian-backed demonstrations before spending weeks in Crimea during Russia’s annexation of the strategic peninsula. His video reports included the last remaining Ukrainian sailors loyal to Kyiv, who had finally abandoned their ship and came ashore. With the Russian national anthem playing from a car in the background, his final shot showed two distraught sailors heckled as they walked away. Pemble returned to Ukraine following Russia’s invasion of the country in 2022. Among his many assignments was March 2023 AP interview by Executive Editor Julie Pace with across Ukraine to cities near some of the fiercest fighting. “Adam showed up to every assignment with enthusiasm, creativity and commitment to his work and his colleagues. He loved what he did, and so many of us at AP are better for having worked alongside him,” Pace said. When not deployed overseas, set his camera’s gaze on his new home in the Czech Republic, offering insight into the traditions and unique stories of Eastern Europe. From Christmas carp fishing at sunrise to graffiti artists in Prague to the intimate story of a Slovak priest challenging the celibacy rules of the Catholic Church, he brought his unmistakable style. He worked with a traditional large broadcast camera in an era where many video shooters shifted to smaller, lighter cameras. He always put himself in the right place to let reality unfold like “an old school analog painter in an often fast and furious digital age,” former AP cameraman Ben Jary recalled. Pemble’s interest in visual storytelling led to experimenting with new technologies, including aerial videography. In 2015, he was the first major news agency camera operator to film live drone footage when reporting on the migration crisis in the Balkans. An avid gardener who planted trees and chilis on his rooftop in Prague, he was adventurous in the kitchen and especially proud of his vegan “meatloaf,” friends said. He loved a seedy dive bar as much as a Michelin restaurant and foods as varied as charcoal choux pastry with truffle creme and his favourite road trip junk food, Slim Jim’s jerky and Salted Nut Rolls. Pemble’s wit, wisdom, energy and positivity enriched the lives and experiences of those around him, friends and colleagues recalled. “If someone asked me to see a picture of quiet strength and courage, dignity and grace, and most of all kindness, I would show them a picture of a man for all seasons,” said Dan Huff, a Washington-based AP video journalist, “I would show them a picture of Adam Pemble.”
If Dune: Prophecy hasn’t quite entered the cultural zeitgeist the way the Dune movies have—or the that other HBO show it resembles in some ways, Game of Thrones —it might be because it’s filled almost completely with characters that can be very hard to root for . It’s a quality that’s necessary to propel the story . Though we know where things are headed 10,000 years down the line—the Bene Gesserit’s ingrained importance; House Harkonnen’s pale, creepy power ; the downfall of Emperor Shaddam of House Corrino; the rise of Paul “ Lisan al Gaib” Atreides— Prophecy drops us into tumultuous, uncertain times. Most crucially, we know Prophecy ’s Sisterhood will one day become the Bene Gesserit. But we don’t know how or when that will happen, or who will be the leader that takes them there. We also don’t know how they’ll overcome the greatest threat to their existence thus far, currently manifesting in a slippery man who seems to be fulfilling a doom-filled deathbed prophecy left behind 30 years earlier by Raquella, the Sisterhood’s founder. This is a show that wants you to ride along even if you haven’t read any Dune books or watched Denis Villeneuve’s movies. So it makes the story a reasonably simple power struggle while giving us characters carefully painted in shades of grey, some skewing darker than others. Preexisting Dune fans will obviously pick up on more of the mythology, but signature elements are explained for newcomers. There’s a lot of sandworm talk, for instance, and Prophecy figures out ways to give us visuals to go with that despite not taking place on Arrakis. As for those characters we’re starting to really love to hate: Valya Harkonnen, reigning Mother Superior of the Sisterhood, is Prophecy ‘s ostensible protagonist—but her thirst for power has made her unlikable from the start. Her sister and fellow Sisterhood member Tula is far gentler on the surface, but she’s capable of being manipulated into committing horrific acts, as well as acting on her own worst impulses. Meanwhile, Emperor Corrino—another familiar name—is so unsteady a leader that he’s allowed Desmond Hart, a soldier with violent, mystical gifts, to weaponize his grasp on the throne. The Emperor is a reasonable man, or he was once, but he’s starting to see the value in using terror as an enforcement tactic. Hart, meanwhile, has yet to have a scene that doesn’t make the audience gasp, whether he’s going toe-to-toe in mind games with Valya or using his strange abilities to cause enemies to burn up from the inside. These are the opposing sides in Dune: Prophecy ’s game of thrones—and the main players, who can’t trust most of the other people around them, are drawn together by their shared goals. This results in relationships that are as unhealthy as the means they use to achieve those goals. And there’s no bond more toxic than the one between Valya and Tula. Thanks to a flashback episode (the perfectly titled “Sisterhood Above All,” the creed of the Sisterhood but also a theme for the actual siblings in the mix), we know that the Harkonnen sisters grew up on an icy wasteland distinguished by its whale-fur trade. The Harkonnens were dislodged from their Great House status thanks to a rumor—started by House Atreides, Valya says—of battlefield cowardice during the robot wars, which happened over 100 years before Prophecy ’s main storyline. This injustice, or perceived injustice, becomes young Valya’s obsession, and her fervor convinces Tula and Valya’s beloved brother, Griffin, to try and settle the score with the Atreides. He’s murdered for his efforts, and it changes the entire dynamic of the Harkonnen family. An even more rage-filled Valya, who has already begun to develop “the Voice,” is sent to study with the Sisterhood, so it’s up to Tula to avenge Griffin’s death. And while Tula loved her brother deeply, it’s understood that her decision to get engaged to an Atreides—then massacre dozens of his family members—was made thanks to Valya’s influence. The trauma bonding continued when Tula followed Valya into the Sisterhood, and Valya used “the Voice” to murder her rival, Dorotea—a crime Tula subsequently helped conceal—en route to becoming the Sisterhood’s second Mother Superior. Most recently on the show, Valya pressured Tula into convincing her favorite young acolyte, Lila, to undergo a dangerous ritual—basically, visiting the land of the dead to connect with her ancestor, Raquella—to learn more about that increasingly dire prophecy. Connect she does, but she also dies for her efforts... sort of, since Tula was able to bring her back to life using spice and forbidden technology, another secret that binds the Harkonnen sisters together. The “you and me against the world” mentality that helped convince Tula to join Valya in the Sisterhood has now expanded to be more of “the Sisterhood against the world,” though it’s Valya out doing the political maneuvering while Tula stays behind at the Sisterhood’s training grounds. While Valya does her best to manipulate the Emperor and figure out Desmond’s weaknesses, Tula has her hands full with the Lila situation and an increasingly active rebellion among the acolytes. It’s telling that Tula, the seemingly more gentle of the Harkonnen sisters, is also the more murder-y one. Yes, Valya coerced Dorotea into slashing her own throat, but Tula deliberately poisoned dozens of Atreides—and, just this week, had a vision of herself murdering an acolyte who’s come uncomfortably close to uncovering lies that the Harkonnens have been hiding amid an entire organization dedicated to telling the truth. With Valya and Tula on different planets for most of Dune: Prophecy , there hasn’t been much time for tender moments, not that they would share any. About the closest the adult versions of the characters have come occurred in this week’s “Twice Born,” when Valya—running out of options in her battle with Desmond—started to send a message to Tula asking her for some sisterly back-up, then thought better of it. But was that just another manipulation—more ammo as Valya plows toward her goal of reclaiming power for the Sisterhood in the Imperium—rather than a genuine need for familial affection? With just two episodes left to go, there’s no telling which Harkonnen sister will live, die, or betray... or worse, maybe even be the figurehead that elevates the Sisterhood into the Bene Gesserit. We’ll be eagerly watching to see how it plays out. New episodes of Dune: Prophecy arrive Sundays on HBO and Max.
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Barry Odom begins Purdue career with larger NIL budget and questions about payment dispute at UNLVHow the stock market defied expectations again this year, by the numbers...Set To Celebrate Badagry Heritage Festival Dec 27
After recount, Newark council candidate ahead by just 4 votesWith Matthew Liberatore ‘s success in the bullpen, the St. Louis Cardinals now have expanded options as they re-tool their team. Acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays in the Randy Arozarena trade, he immediately became the number three prospect in the organization upon his arrival. At the time, the Cardinals saw him as a pitcher with a high floor and major league-caliber breaking action. Matthew Liberatore, Soul Stealing Curveball. pic.twitter.com/oO5PfbaBWn — Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) February 24, 2020 However, he struggled in his minimal appearances as a starter in 2022 and 2023 and many within the organization had dismissed him as another failed pitching prospect. His reinvention of himself in 2024 as a legitimate bullpen arm came as a revelation, and the former top prospect’s versatility provides options to an already flexible Cardinals pitching staff. Cardinals Have Options with Former Top Prospect Matthew Liberatore Struggles on the Mound Liberatore, now 25, has not put up flashy numbers as a starter since his promotion to Triple-A in 2021. In 2022 and 2023 combined, he started 40 games at the major-league level, posting an ERA over 5.00 and producing -0.9 WAR in that span. His curveball, thought to be his best pitch, did not play against big-league hitters, and his tendency to walk batters hurt his chances at clean innings. At the same time, the Cardinals were witnessing the twilight of one-time ace Adam Wainwright ‘s career and were struggling to successfully promote young prospects into their major-league system. Underwhelming performances from Steven Matz and Miles Mikolas on large contracts only served to compound the frustration. As Arozarena barreled through the 2020 postseason and went on to win AL Rookie of the Year in 2021, pressure shifted toward Liberatore, in some ways unfairly. However, with the signings of Sonny Gray , Lance Lynn , and Kyle Gibson for the 2024 season, Liberatore became a more permanent fixture in the Cardinals bullpen. Success Out of the Bullpen Through 60 total pitching appearances in 2024, he posted a 4.40 ERA over 86 innings with 76 strikeouts and only 28 walks. Not only are these the best numbers of his career, they don’t necessarily tell the whole story. While Liberatore was primarily used as a middle-reliever, he was required to make multiple spot starts due to doubleheaders or injury. However, when he came in as a reliever in the 7th-9th innings he earned a shocking 1.35 ERA. Over 40 innings in the latter third of games, Liberatore finally looked like what the team expected of him as a top prospect. In part, this was due to a shift in approach. In 2024, his slider saw a 15% increase in usage while his use of the curveball dropped considerably. The slider played well, producing a +4 run value, and the curveball became a seldom-used strikeout pitch. Additionally, his four-seam fastball velocity rose slightly. While it still sits in the mid-90s, it seems as though a move to the bullpen has given Liberatore the edge he needed to produce at the major-league level. Options for the Future Despite his success in the bullpen, Liberatore still has eyes on a starting spot in a young Cardinals rotation. After a scoreless six-inning start against the Atlanta Braves in June, Liberatore told John Denton of MLB.com: “I’ve been a starter for 15 years and I’ve been a bullpen guy four months total between last season and this season, and I’ve tried to embrace that [reliever] role and I’ve gotten comfortable out there [in the bullpen],” he said. “But, at heart, I’m a starter and I really enjoy trying to go through a lineup multiple times and try to outthink guys and outcompete guys.” good morning to everyone but ESPECIALLY Matthew Liberatore ?? pic.twitter.com/TCcnCBzbou — Cardinals Talk (@theredbird_way) June 27, 2024 The bullpen was an undeniable strength for the Cardinals in 2025, and Liberatore’s contributions to an already crowded field of improving pitchers cannot be understated. However, as the team looks to develop internally, it might be worth taking another look at their present options for the rotation. This includes players with big-league experience, including 2024 standout Andre Pallante , as well as prospects, such as Tink Hence and Tekoah Roby . Both prospects just joined the 40-man roster. However, Liberatore’s role on the pitching staff will be something to keep an eye on in 2025, especially in the case of injury to the team’s established starters. This article first appeared on Last Word On Sports and was syndicated with permission.DALLAS — The Dallas Cowboys won’t play in the playoffs for the first time in four seasons. Sitting at 7-8 and out of the race in the NFC, the Cowboys have unequivocally been a disappointment, especially after team owner Jerry Jones called the 2024 campaign an “all-in” season earlier in the year as he made it clear that the goal was Super Bowl or bust. Now, however, despite being a bust, Jones was quick to dole out stocking stuffers of praise to his coaching staff after Dallas rattled off four wins in five games that culminated in a 26-24 win over the NFC South-leading Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 16. Full of holiday cheer following the victory, Cowboys owner, president, and general manager Jones made his weekly visit on the Shan & RJ show on Audacy's 105.3 The Fan Tuesday to discuss Dallas’ win over a probable playoff-bound opponent and just the second win of the year at AT&T Stadium. The main key in Jones’ eye for improved play despite the team’s playoff chances crumbling has been the coaching staff and their ability to coax improvements out of young players who have taken over for an injury-depleted squad. “Really proud of these young players,” said Jones. “They just are growing mentally and physically by leaps and bounds, makes me think we’ve got an outstanding future ahead of us.” Despite the losses of franchise quarterback Dak Prescott, Pro Bowl defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, All-Pro cornerback Trevon Diggs, several starters on the offensive line, and many others to injury, the Cowboys showed fight, especially in the Week 16 win where they were playing for nothing but pride while their opponent was trying to maintain their playoff destiny. After starting the season 3-7, including a five-game losing streak, the Cowboys have won four of their last five games to draw near to the .500 mark at 7-8. With the potential to completely collapse, Dallas has rallied and that appears to be something Jones attributes to McCarthy and his coaching staff. “I can’t tell you how proud I am of the way the coaching staff, led by Mike McCarthy, and the leadership on this team,” Jones said, after McCarthy went from lame duck status in the last year of his contract to on the hot seat all season. Now Jones is potentially laying the foundation for a potential extension for the former Super Bowl-winning coach. Another part of the recent success has been the steady play of backup-turned-starter Rush, who threw for 292 yards and a touchdown against Tampa Bay and now has nine passing scores to just one interception over his last five games after he took over for the injured Prescott mid-season. To that end, Jones was asked if he has had any second thoughts about the protracted contract talks that ended with a record-breaking extension for Prescott now that Rush is producing results at the helm. "No. No. Not at all," Jones assured, as Prescott will almost certainly be back under center for the Cowboys next season. More curious, perhaps, is the fact that third-stringer Trey Lance hasn’t gotten more of a look, especially with Dallas out of contention. “The very best chance that we have on the next play or series, that’s what I want every play to be,” Jones responded when asked specifically about giving Lance an opportunity in the final two weeks. “So the people who go out there are the ones that I want who give us the best chance.” With Christmas upon us, Jones was also asked about the league’s unusual schedule this season which will see four AFC squads play three games in eleven days as part of the league’s mandate to have games on Christmas Day, which falls on an unwieldy Wednesday this year. “Christmas Day is Christmas Day and it doesn’t wait around for what day it’s on,” Jones, ever a major influence on NFL broadcasting decisions chimed in. “We want to be there on Christmas Day. I would think the future is whatever day it’s on, we’re going to be there on Christmas.” The Cowboys won’t be among the teams playing on Christmas Day, as they next suit up against the archrival Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday at noon from Lincoln Financial Field where they will once again try to play the role of spoiler against a playoff-bound team in Week 17. Do you think the Cowboys should bring back their coaching staff for 2025? Share your thoughts with us on X (formerly Twitter) @WFAASports .
NoneHaiti’s health minister has been removed from his post, government officials told The Associated Press on Thursday, following a deadly gang attack on the largest public hospital in the capital, Port-au-Prince . The two government officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the issue, said Health Minister Duckenson Lorthe will be replaced by Justice Minister Patrick Pelissier until a new health minister is found. Two journalists and a police officer were killed Tuesday as gang members burst into the General Hospital and fired indiscriminately at reporters who were there to cover the facility's reopening. It was one of the worst attacks on Haitian media in recent memory. Seven other journalists were injured. Jean Frans Regala, a photographer who survived, said journalists had been invited to the hospital by the health ministry but there was little security at the site. “The fact that the minister of health invited us, you feel that preparations have been made already,” Regala told the AP . “When we made contact with a police unit, the police told us they were not aware of the event." The health minister did not show up at the event, for reasons that have not been explained. On Tuesday, Johnson “Izo” André, considered Haiti’s most powerful gang leader and part of the Viv Ansanm group of gangs that has taken control of much of Port-au-Prince, posted a video on social media claiming responsibility for the attack. The video said the gang coalition had not authorized the hospital’s reopening. Gang violence has worsened in Haiti since the nation’s president was killed in a 2021 coup attempt. Gangs are believed to control 85% of the capital and earlier this year staged attacks on the main airport and the country's two largest prisons. The Caribbean country has struggled to organize an election that will restore democratic rule, and is currently governed by a transitional council made up of representatives of political parties, business groups and civil society organizations.