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Trump asks Supreme Court to delay TikTok ban so he can weigh in after he takes office
By ERIC TUCKER WASHINGTON (AP) — A ninth U.S. telecoms firm has been confirmed to have been hacked as part of a sprawling Chinese espionage campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans, a top White House official said Friday. Biden administration officials said this month that at least eight telecommunications companies , as well as dozens of nations, had been affected by the Chinese hacking blitz known as Salt Typhoon. But Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technologies, told reporters Friday that a ninth victim had been identified after the administration released guidance to companies about how to hunt for Chinese culprits in their networks. The update from Neuberger is the latest development in a massive hacking operation that has alarmed national security officials, exposed cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the private sector and laid bare China’s hacking sophistication. The hackers compromised the networks of telecommunications companies to obtain customer call records and gain access to the private communications of “a limited number of individuals.” Though the FBI has not publicly identified any of the victims, officials believe senior U.S. government officials and prominent political figures are among those whose whose communications were accessed. Related Articles National News | Court rules Georgia lawmakers can subpoena Fani Willis for information related to her Trump case National News | US homelessness up 18% as affordable housing remains out of reach for many people National News | OpenAI whistleblower death: Parents want to know what happened to Suchir Balaji after apparent suicide National News | Most Americans blame insurance profits and denials alongside the killer in UHC CEO death, poll finds National News | Another jackpot surpasses $1 billion. Is this the new normal? Neuberger said officials did not yet have a precise sense how many Americans overall were affected by Salt Typhoon, in part because the Chinese were careful about their techniques, but a “large number” were in the Washington-Virginia area. Officials believe the goal of the hackers was to identify who owned the phones and, if they were “government targets of interest,” spy on their texts and phone calls, she said. The FBI said most of the people targeted by the hackers are “primarily involved in government or political activity.” Neuberger said the episode highlighted the need for required cybersecurity practices in the telecommunications industry, something the Federal Communications Commission is to take up at a meeting next month. “We know that voluntary cyber security practices are inadequate to protect against China, Russia and Iran hacking of our critical infrastructure,” she said. The Chinese government has denied responsibility for the hacking.
The Trump Trade rally has stocks at record highs. Where do we go from here?
GCC Summit: Strengthening Ties Amid Multiple Regional Challenges(The Center Square) – Billionaire and advisor to President-elect Donald Trump Elon Musk was denied by a judge this week a $56 billion compensation package for his work as CEO of Tesla, the successful electric automaker that pioneered EV technology in the U.S. The package had been approved by more than 70% of Tesla's board of directors. A Tesla shareholder who owned just nine shares of stock in the company sued to block the 2018 compensation agreement. In addition to blocking the package this week, the judge in the case, Delaware Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, awarded the plaintiff's attorneys $345 million, which Reuters reported is “one of the largest fee awards ever in securities litigation.” The Associated Press reported that “the fee award amounts to almost exactly half the current record $688 million in legal fees awarded in 2008 in litigation stemming from the collapse of Enron.” The ruling was widely criticized as government overreach into the private sector. Cathie Wood, founder and CEO of ARKinvest, called the ruling a "mockery." "Adding judicial insult to injury, Delaware Judge McCormick has ordered #Tesla shareholders to pay the plaintiff’s lawyers $345 million! The plaintiff owned 9 shares of $TSLA," Wood wrote on X. "McCormick is making a mockery of the sense of fairness essential to our American judicial system." Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman wrote: "This decision and the payola for lawyers is absurd. We are going to see a migration of Corporate America from Delaware." The unique compensation package was high risk, high reward. If Musk hit all of his target goals to make the company hugely successful, as he did, then he would be awarded the compensation package. If he did not hit those marks, he would receive zero dollars. Musk and Tesla vowed to appeal. McCormick first voided the pay agreement in January, saying it was unfair and that the Tesla board did not negotiate well enough with Musk. In response, a supermajority of more than 70% of Tesla shareholders voted to approve the payment package for Musk earlier this year, but again McCormick sided this week against Musk and Tesla shareholders. Musk called the ruling a form of “lawfare.” “Shareholders should control company votes, not judges,” Musk wrote on X. Many other Tesla shareholders blasted the decision and the attorney fee decision. "The lawyers, judges, and attorneys did not create net-positive shareholder value from this clownery," Alex Guichet, who said he is a Tesla employee, wrote on X. "They do not deserve a single dollar. We employees did. We supported the shareholder vote with our own yes votes too. This is wrong on so many levels." Shareholder Jeremy Goldman wrote: "The majority of the owners of the company have made their desires known and it's just crazy that a single judge can basically say haha, no. I don't really care what you want. Also pay a few hundred million for the privilege of being ignored." The plaintiff's attorneys praised the ruling. “We are pleased with Chancellor McCormick’s ruling, which declined Tesla’s invitation to inject continued uncertainty into Court proceedings and thank the Chancellor and her staff for their extraordinary hard work in overseeing this complex case,” attorneys from Bernstein, Litowitz, Berger & Grossmann, the firm representing Musk’s opponents, said in a statement. A November 2024 study published by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform found tort costs amounted to $529 billion in 2022, or 2.1 percent of U.S. GDP. The study found that excessive tort costs hurt the economy. "In addition to having a substantial aggregate cost on the economy, a large portion of the total tort-related expenditures go toward litigating and defending claims and lawsuits rather than compensating claimants,” authors of the study wrote.
Researchers have used everyday Fitbit data to train a machine learning algorithm to accurately predict mood episodes associated with bipolar disorder. It opens the door to using a personalized algorithm to drive treatment of the life-impacting condition. ’s (BD) characteristic mood episodes – the extreme swings between depression and mania, followed by a period of remission – can have a huge impact on a person’s work, relationships, and health. Treatment of BD is focused on limiting that impact, which requires the prompt identification and treatment of mood episodes. Leading a new study aimed at finding an accurate way of detecting mood episodes in people with BD, researchers from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) in Boston turned to a now-ubiquitous health-monitoring device, the Fitbit. “Most people are walking around with personal digital devices like smartphones and smartwatches that capture day-to-day data that could inform psychiatric treatment,” said Jessica Lipschitz, PhD, from BWH’s Department of Psychiatry and the study’s lead author. “Our goal was to use that data to identify when study participants diagnosed with bipolar disorder were experiencing mood episodes.” Studies have shown that most people with BD, which used to be called manic depressive disorder or manic depression, experience a change in symptom severity and mood ‘polarity’ at least three times a year. This includes going from feeling very happy, irritable, with a marked increase in activity level (mania), to feeling sad, indifferent, or hopeless with very low activity levels (depression). Hypomania is like mania but less severe; it doesn’t cause the impairment in social or work functioning that manic episodes do. There are two types of BD: bipolar I disorder and bipolar II disorder. BP-I is defined by manic episodes that last at least seven days (most of the day, almost every day) or mania so severe that hospitalization is required. Separate depressive episodes usually occur as well and typically last at least two weeks. Some people with BP-I experience what’s referred to as ‘rapid cycling,’ where they have more than four episodes of mania or depression in one year. BP-II is characterized by a pattern of depression and hypomania. For the present study, the researchers recruited 54 adults diagnosed with BP-I or BP-II and asked them to wear a Fitbit continuously for nine months. The Fitbit Inspire was chosen for its ability to collect data on activity, heart rate, and sleep. The participants were also asked to self-report depression and mania symptoms every two weeks over the same nine-month period. The data, which included 17 variables such as step count, very active minutes, sedentary minutes, heart rate and resting heart rate, total sleep time, sleep efficiency score, deep sleep duration, REM sleep duration, and bedtime, was used to train a predictive machine learning algorithm. The algorithm was able to figure out the importance of each variable in predicting clinically significant symptoms of depression and mania. The algorithm accurately predicted 89.1% of clinically significant hypomanic or manic symptoms (with a sensitivity of 80.0% and a specificity of 90.1%) and 80.1% of clinically significant depressive symptoms (sensitivity of 71.2%, specificity of 85.6%). Sensitivity refers to a test’s ability to correctly identify patients with a condition; specificity is its ability to correctly identify people without that condition. The five variables that contributed most to predictions of depression were duration of awakenings, total sleep time, median bedtime, resting heart rate, and percentage of sleep spent in deep sleep. For predictions of mania or hypomania, the top five variables were heart rate, sleep efficiency, percentage of sleep spent in REM sleep, number of very active minutes, and median bedtime. “Our findings are particularly noteworthy because all input was passively collected, none of the metrics utilized were invasive in terms of privacy, we used mainstream consumer devices, and our methods did not demand high levels of Fitbit compliance,” the researchers said. “Other researchers have achieved more accurate mood predictions with more invasive data collection protocols that use data like geolocation and , which may raise privacy concerns, and textile wearables, which may feel restrictive to patients.” The findings have the potential to transform models of care in BD and improve treatment precision. “In the future, our hope is that machine learning algorithms like ours could help patients’ treatment teams respond fast to new or unremitting episodes in order to limit negative impact,” said Lipschitz. The study was published in the journal , and is available as an . Source: viaWA news LIVE: A WA woman has been accused of burning down her own business. Here’s why; Warning as whooping cough cases surge into the hundreds among WA school kids
US homelessness up 18% as affordable housing remains out of reach for many people
PHOTO GALLERY | South boys and girls sweep Santa Fund Soccer ClassicMary Catherine Murphy, 85, of Hermantown, long-time legislator, died Wednesday, Dec. 25th at Essentia St. Mary’s Hospital in Duluth after a short illness. Mary was born Oct. 25, 1939 in Duluth to James and Gertrude Murphy. She graduated from Hermantown High School and The College of St. Scholastica. She then went on to teach American History and Social Studies at Clover Valley High School and Duluth Central High School. In addition to her teaching career, she served the people of Minnesota as a Minnesota State Legislator for 46 years. She was a parishioner at St. Raphael’s Church. She enjoyed tending to her Jackson Project home and 5-acre yard/garden, followed by a refreshing root beer on her porch with her favorite nephew Gregg. She loved talking about politics and was forever inspired by the young people she encountered in her career and in her family. She was also an avid reader of mysteries and biographies who appreciated anything by or about Minnesotans. She was preceded in death by her parents, James and Gertrude; siblings, Leo, Patrick, Eileen, Paul, and James; and niece, Kathleen. Mary is survived by sisters-in-law, Marianne Murphy, and Eva Murphy, 12 nieces and nephews, many great nieces and nephews, and many friends. Visitation will be Thursday, January 2nd from 5-7pm, with Wake Prayers at 6:30pm at the Dougherty Funeral Home. Visitation will continue Friday, January 3rd at 10am, followed by an 11am Mass of Christian Burial at St. Raphael’s Church, 5779 Seville Rd, Duluth, 55811. Burial will be at Calvary Cemetery at a later date. Memorials are preferred and may be directed to The College of Saint Scholastica, Room 1410 Tower Hall, 1200 Kenwood Ave, Duluth MN 55811, css.edu/give/ or REA3D-The Proctor Area Educational Foundation, 131 9th Ave, Proctor, MN 55810, rea3d.org/donate/. You may sign the online register book at, www.dfhduluth.com. Arrangements by Dougherty Funeral Home, 600 E. 2nd St. Duluth, 55805, (218) 727-3555.
Lewis County, West Virginia, Senior Center to host second annual Chili Cook-off on Jan. 22MADRID – The Iranian Parliament has definitively passed the legislation known as the "Support for Families through the Promotion of the Culture of Chastity and Hijab," more commonly referred to as the Hijab Law. According to official sources, the new regulation explicitly prohibits "nudity, the removal of the hijab, and inappropriate attire in public spaces, both physical and virtual." In Western discourse, the hijab has been frequently employed as a cultural or religious symbol to justify questionable and inhumane policies towards Eastern nations. No care is taken in understating the philosophy of hijab, or how Muslim women say they feel more protected, valued, and independent wearing it. For the West, which is often tied to secularism, an exclusionary approach that validates certain sensibilities while marginalizing others, the hijab is presented as a symbol of lack or absence of agency, a marker used to define and position women who wear it as subjects devoid of autonomy or decision-making power. However, this perception does not necessarily reflect the experience of those who choose to wear it, but instead responds to a discursive logic that prioritizes values such as visibility and individual freedom, understood within a Western framework. Moreover, as political scientist Wendy Brown points out, if the West places freedom at the core of its ideals, it must also, inevitably, define its opposite: the lack of freedom. Brown emphasizes that “the earliest conceptions of freedom are always limited and, potentially, require the structure of oppression that freedom combats.” The interaction between the veiled and the unveiled creates a visual psychic economy in which the issue of freedom is imagined as resolved. In this context, the veiled is associated with oppression, absence of agency, and lack of freedom, with the solution to these absences seen, from this perspective, in Westernization, specifically understood as unveiling. In this sense, it can be argued that, from the Western discourse, the veiled woman forms part of what Anne McClintock calls a "panoptic time," which represents modernity and contrasts with the "anachronistic time" of the veil. In most analyses of the veil from a Western perspective, the presence of the veiled woman is constructed as a constant reminder of the existence of an "Other" that obstructs the desire for assimilation into modernity and, by extension, into whiteness. On one hand, the body that is, or can be, exposed is presented as a modern, free, secure, conscious, and human body, visible in its presence. This body is contrasted with the invisible body, veiled by insecurities, vulnerability, and, most notably, subhuman in its absence. In the Western imaginary, freedom, understood as the practice of the body, is identified with the performativity of unveiling: the body always unveiled, reflecting the accumulation of the desire for transparency characteristic of modernism. In this context, the veil evokes the notion of a suffering and wounded body, as Wendy Brown describes, where women who wear it are seen as victims of oppression. In the fantasy of liberation through unveiling, it is assumed that the veil symbolizes suffering and submission, and that, therefore, the women who wear it embody a wounded identity that needs to be liberated. This liberation is projected as an action that must be facilitated by liberal states, which present themselves as protectors of these women. However, in practice, the act of stripping them of the veil can become a way of imposing a homogeneous vision of freedom and autonomy, without considering the realities of the affected women. Thus, the veil is not only perceived by the West as a symbol of oppression, but also becomes a space for political intervention, where the state, through the imposition of liberal norms, seeks to "save" women. This approach overlooks their experiences, choices, or particular contexts. In this way, there is a risk of stripping women of their agency, turning their attire into a problem that must be resolved from an external and normative perspective. The veil, by erecting a barrier between the body of the Eastern woman and the Western gaze, seems to place her body beyond the reach of Western desire and observation. This opaque and enveloping veil creates a mysterious and elusive figure, frustrating the Western desire by making it invisible and inaccessible. The veiled figure's refusal to be observed generates disillusionment in the Western gaze, which, frustrated, subjects this enigmatic figure to constant scrutiny. The representation of the East and its women, "as the unveiling of an enigma, making visible what is hidden," becomes a process in which the veil plays a crucial role. The veil is one of those tropes through which Western fantasies of penetrating the mysteries of the East and accessing the interiority of the other are materialized. This fantasy of unveiling not only seeks to dissolve the mystery surrounding the Eastern woman but also to establish a power dynamic, in which the Western subject, by removing the veil, gains access to knowledge that was previously inaccessible to them. Through this process, a narrative of domination is constructed, where the other— in this case, the veiled Muslim woman— becomes an object to be unveiled, understood, and controlled by the West. Without delving into the specifics of the recently passed hijab law by the Iranian Parliament, the key point is that when discussing the veil, one must avoid the trap of an Orientalist discourse that reduces female agency to a single narrative.Social media users are misrepresenting a Vermont Supreme Court ruling , claiming that it gives schools permission to vaccinate children even if their parents do not consent. The ruling addressed a lawsuit filed by Dario and Shujen Politella against Windham Southeast School District and state officials over the mistaken vaccination of their child against COVID-19 in 2021, when he was 6 years old. A lower court had dismissed the original complaint, as well as an amended version. An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was filed on Nov. 19. But the ruling by Vermont's high court is not as far-reaching as some online have claimed. In reality, it concluded that anyone protected under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, or PREP, Act is immune to state lawsuits. Here's a closer look at the facts. CLAIM: The Vermont Supreme Court ruled that schools can vaccinate children against their parents' wishes. THE FACTS: The claim stems from a July 26 ruling by the Vermont Supreme Court, which found that anyone protected by the PREP Act is immune to state lawsuits, including the officials named in the Politella's suit. The ruling does not authorize schools to vaccinate children at their discretion. According to the lawsuit, the Politella's son — referred to as L.P. — was given one dose of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination clinic held at Academy School in Brattleboro even though his father, Dario, told the school's assistant principal a few days before that his son was not to receive a vaccination. In what officials described as a mistake, L.P. was removed from class and had a “handwritten label” put on his shirt with the name and date of birth of another student, L.K., who had already been vaccinated that day. L.P. was then vaccinated. Ultimately, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that officials involved in the case could not be sued. “We conclude that the PREP Act immunizes every defendant in this case and this fact alone is enough to dismiss the case,” the Vermont Supreme Court's ruling reads. “We conclude that when the federal PREP Act immunizes a defendant, the PREP Act bars all state-law claims against that defendant as a matter of law.” The PREP Act , enacted by Congress in 2005, authorizes the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to issue a declaration in the event of a public health emergency providing immunity from liability for activities related to medical countermeasures, such as the administration of a vaccine, except in cases of “willful misconduct" that result in “death or serious physical injury.” A declaration against COVID-19 was issued on March 17, 2020. It is set to expire on Dec. 31. Federals suits claiming willful misconduct are filed in Washington. Social media users described the Vermont Supreme Court's ruling as having consequences beyond what it actually says. “The Vermont Supreme Court has ruled that schools can force-vaccinate children for Covid against the wishes of their parents,” reads one X post that had been liked and shared approximately 16,600 times as of Tuesday. “The high court ruled on a case involving a 6-year-old boy who was forced to take a Covid mRNA injection by his school. However, his family had explicitly stated that they didn't want their child to receive the ‘vaccines.’” Other users alleged that the ruling gives schools permission to give students any vaccine without parental consent, not just ones for COVID-19. Rod Smolla, president of the Vermont Law and Graduate School and an expert on constitutional law, told The Associated Press that the ruling “merely holds that the federal statute at issue, the PREP Act, preempts state lawsuits in cases in which officials mistakenly administer a vaccination without consent.” “Nothing in the Vermont Supreme Court opinion states that school officials can vaccinate a child against the instructions of the parent,” he wrote in an email. Asked whether the claims spreading online have any merit, Ronald Ferrara, an attorney representing the Politellas, told the AP that although the ruling doesn't say schools can vaccinate students regardless of parental consent, officials could interpret it to mean that they could get away with doing so under the PREP Act, at least when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines. He explained that the U.S. Supreme Court appeal seeks to clarify whether the Vermont Supreme Court interpreted the PREP Act beyond what Congress intended. “The Politella’s fundamental liberty interest to decide whether their son should receive elective medical treatment was denied by agents of the State and School,” he wrote in an email to the AP. “The Vermont Court misconstrues the scope of PREP Act immunity (which is conditioned upon informed consent for medical treatments unapproved by FDA), to cover this denial of rights and its underlying battery.” Ferrara added that he was not aware of the claims spreading online, but that he “can understand how lay people may conflate the court's mistaken grant of immunity for misconduct as tantamount to blessing such misconduct.” John Klar, who also represents the Politellas, went a step further, telling the AP that the Vermont Supreme Court ruling means that “as a matter of law” schools can get away with vaccinating students without parental consent and that parents can only sue on the federal level if death or serious bodily injury results. — Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck .
KUWAIT: The work of the Supreme Organizing Committee of the “Khaleeji Zain 26” continues quietly and calmly through its various committees, in order to reach the best possible readiness well before the start of the tournament on December 21 in the land of friendship and peace. Dr Tariq Al-Kandari, assistant tournament director for logistical support and member of the Gulf Football Federation’s inspection engineering committee, confirmed the readiness of the 9 training fields for the tournament, after the completion of their maintenance work. Al-Kandari added: “As for the official match venues, they will be Jaber International Stadium and Jaber Al Mubarak Stadium, which have completed all maintenance work and are ready to host the Gulf Championship matches, with Ali Sabah Al Salem Stadium as a backup.” Al-Kandari explained: “The lighting in the stadiums has been replaced, in addition to the stadium floor, gates, and renovation of facilities with parking lots for more than 12,000 spectators.” He pointed out that Jaber Al Mubarak Stadium is considered one of the most modern stadiums that were designed according to the European system and is currently fully ready for the tournament. Al-Kandari continued: “The security plan, emergency and evacuation plan, and transportation plan have been adopted during the period of the tournament, with alternative plans in case of any emergency.” For its part, the Information Systems Committee, one of the committees of the Supreme Organizing Committee of the tournament, raised its technical readiness after it went a long way in its technical preparations to strengthen the infrastructure of the stadiums on which the competitions will be held in order to provide the best technical service to the guests of the tournament and its Gulf fans. A member of the Information Technology Committee in “Khaleeji Zain 26” Alaa Akbar confirmed that the committee’s work is proceeding very smoothly and according to the timetable previously approved by the Supreme Organizing Committee, and said: “We are close to completing the ‘Hayakum’ application, which will be officially launched and announced today, Sunday, which is a comprehensive and integrated application that provides most of the services needed by the fans of the tournament.” The application will provide many important services, notably the online booking of match tickets, airline tickets, and hotels, in addition to the ability to watch the matches live through Platform 51. Hayakum also provides up-to-date information on all participating teams, player lists, stadiums, match results, and all news related to the tournament.” Akbar stated that coordination has been made with the Ministry of Interior regarding the role of the “Hayakum” application regarding the issuance of entry visas for fans wishing to attend the tournament competitions, pointing out that the application includes the presentation of many diverse activities and events that simulate the interest of the guests during their stay in their second country Kuwait, and the application includes special offers and discounts for sports fans by private sector companies and institutions, and the application also provides a smart technical support service using artificial intelligence techniques to answer the questions of the fans. Akbar emphasized that technical support will be available to GCC fans throughout the tournament, stressing: “We will be in constant communication with everyone to reach the best possible technical service.”