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Apple AirPods Max are the over-ear AirPods. First released in late 2020, a new version was revealed in September this year. But the only updates to the new headphones were a (welcome) update from Lightning to USB-C connectivity and updated colors. So, when’s the sequel coming? Put it this way, don’t hold your breath, as a new report claims there are “no concrete plans” to update the headphones again soon, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in his latest Power On newsletter . The new comments from Gurman suggest that the current model will be around for a while. This will disappoint many who hoped that the new colors were a stopgap before a completely different pair of over-ear headphoens were released. After all, the processor that powers the AirPods Max is the H1 first seen in 2019, meaning that the latest and most affordable AirPods 4 have some features the AirPods Max don’t. That said, the switch to USB-C was a great update and the new colors are fierce, with a feisty orange and lip-smacking purple alongside the eye-catching starlight and more demure blue and midnight options. And the nature of the over-ear headphones is that the noise isolation they offer is exceptional, so maybe the need for improvements to the current excellent noise cancellation isn’t as urgent as it might have been for in-ears. Even so, the lack of adaptive audio has been noted by some critics. "I expect the company to keep the Max headphones around for the foreseeable future in their current form," Gurman said, which sounds to me like a year or two at the least before there’s an update “in a meaningful way,” as he puts it. It’s thought that the sales of AirPods Max, though decent, are not enough to justify R&D spending enough to bring an update soon. And, to be fair, if you’d just bought the new AirPods Max and a second-gen version appeared soon, you might be a bit put out. Take heart: assuming Gurman is right, you can splash out on Apple’s priciest headphones safe in the knowledge that they’re not going to be updated soon. And that little thing called Black Friday is already showing discounts on the new models.
Alabama and Mississippi tumbled out of the top 10 of The Associated Press Top 25 poll Sunday and Miami and SMU moved in following a chaotic weekend in the SEC and across college football in general. Oregon is No. 1 for the sixth straight week and Ohio State, Texas and Penn State held their places behind the Ducks, who are the last unbeaten team. The shuffling begins at No. 5, where Notre Dame returned for the first time since Week 2 after beating Army for its ninth straight win. No. 6 Georgia moved up two spots, No. 7 Tennessee and No. 8 Miami each got a three-rung promotion and No. 9 SMU jumped four places for its first top-10 ranking since 1985. SMU has clinched a spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game and would play Miami, if the Hurricanes win at Syracuse this week, or No. 12 Clemson . Indiana dropped from No. 5 to No. 10 following its first loss, a 38-15 defeat at Ohio State. The Buckeyes would play Oregon in the Big Ten championship game if they beat Michigan this Saturday for the first time in four years. The Southeastern Conference’s hopes for landing four spots in the College Football Playoff took a hit with two of their teams losing as double-digit favorites. Texas, Georgia and Tennessee are the only SEC teams with fewer than three losses after Alabama lost 24-3 at Oklahoma and Mississippi lost 24-17 at Florida. Alabama and Mississippi each dropped six spots in the AP poll, the Crimson Tide to No. 13 and the Rebels to No. 15. Texas A&M was the third SEC team to lose, 43-41 at Auburn in four overtimes. The Aggies tumbled five places to No. 20 but would play Georgia in the SEC championship game if they knock off Texas this week. Losses by BYU and Colorado created a four-way tie for first in the Big 12. No. 14 Arizona State, picked to finish last in the conference, handed BYU its second straight loss and is the highest-ranked Big 12 team. No. 17 Iowa State earned a five-rung promotion with its win at Utah. BYU is No. 19 and Colorado, which lost to Kansas , is No. 23. If the four teams each finish 7-2 in conference play, it’s Iowa State vs. Arizona State in the Big 12 championship game. No. 11 Boise State is first among the four ranked Group of Five teams. The Broncos got a one-spot bump despite struggling to beat a two-win Wyoming team. Tulane is No. 18, UNLV is No. 21 and Army is No. 25. Poll points Oregon, which was idle, was the consensus No. 1 team for the fourth straight week. The Ducks will be unbeaten in the regular season for the first time since 2010 if they beat Washington at home Saturday. Boise State’s ranking is its highest since it was No. 8 in the final poll of the 2011 season. Arizona State’s ranking is its highest since it was No. 12 in the final poll of the 2014 season. Indiana-Ohio State was the final top-five matchup of the regular season. The five were the most in a regular season since 1996. There also were five in 1936 and 1943. No. 24 Missouri, a 39-20 winner at Mississippi State , returned to the Top 25 after a one-week absence. Washington State’s four-week run in the rankings ended with its second straight loss, 41-38 loss at Oregon State. SEC — 8 (Nos. 3, 6, 7, 13, 15, 16, 20, 24). Big Ten — 5 (Nos. 1, 2, 4, 10, 22). Big 12 — 4 (Nos. 14, 17, 19, 23). ACC — 3 (Nos. 8, 9, 12). AAC — 2 (Nos. 18, 25). Mountain West — 2 (Nos. 11, 21). Independent — 1 (No. 5). —No. 16 South Carolina at No. 12 Clemson: It’s a Top 25 matchup for the first time since 2013. Clemson’s 16-7 victory in Columbia last year was the fourth of five straight wins to end the Tigers’ season. —No. 3 Texas at No. 20 Texas A&M: Stakes are high for the first meeting of longtime rivals since both were in the Big 12 in 2011. Winner goes to the SEC title game. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballBEAVER CREEK, Colo. -- As the situation stands, snowboarder/ski racer Ester Ledecka has two Olympic races on the same day in 2026, at nearly the same time and in Italian mountain towns hours apart. The Czech Republic standout simply can’t make both starting gates. So she may have a big decision to make on Feb. 8, 2026 — race in the women's downhill at the Milan-Cortina Games or go for a three-peat in snowboarding’s parallel giant slalom. Unless, of course, her lobbying efforts pay off. Ledecka said she's going through her country's Olympic committee to reach out and see if one of the events can be switched. The Winter Games schedule was just recently released. “It’s like someone has broken your dream,” the 29-year-old Ledecka said after a training run in Beaver Creek as she prepares for a World Cup downhill and super-G this weekend. “So please change it. Please, please, please. It’s my biggest dream to do both. I can create a great show for people.” Ledecka is the rare athlete to do both winter sports at such a gold medal-winning level. Nearly seven years ago, Ledecka was a surprise winner in the super-G at the Pyeongchang Games — from bib No. 26, no less. A week later, she captured gold in the parallel GS (PGS). At the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, she defended her PGS crown along with finishing fifth in the super-G, 27th in the downhill and fourth in the Alpine combined. To amend an Olympic schedule would not be unprecedented. Before the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, the International Olympic Committee and the governing body for track and field accommodated a request from Allyson Felix to go for a 200-400 double. She earned a silver in the 400. In 1996, the schedule was shifted so American sprinter Michael Johnson could run in the 200 and 400 at the Atlanta Games. He won gold in both. “I would appreciate it,” said Ledecka, who started skiing at 2 years old and snowboarding three years later. “They’re fighting (for it) right now.” The current schedule has snowboarding parallel giant slalom holding a qualifying round from 9 a.m. to 11 on Feb. 8 in Livigno, Italy. The final is set for 1 p.m. Meanwhile, the women's downhill is set to take place in Cortina at 11:30 a.m. It's about a 4-hour drive between the two events. For now, she's leaning toward snowboarding. Only because a few days later she could ski race in a super-G. “I was quite sad about that fact,” Ledecka said of the conflict between events. "We'll see. It’s still quite far away.” Ledecka has 88 World Cup starts in skiing, with 10 podium finishes and four wins. She has 63 World Cup starts in snowboarding, featuring 39 podium finishes and 25 wins. “I don’t know how she does it,” said American ski racer Jacqueline Wiles, who dabbled in snowboarding as a kid. “It’s absolutely insane.” Ledecka enjoys both sports for different reasons. In skiing, it's for the speed. For snowboarding, it's the execution of a turn. It's not always easy splitting her time between the two sports, fitting in training around events. She won a PGS race on Nov. 30 in China before arriving in Beaver Creek. After this, it's off to St. Moritz, Switzerland, for more ski racing. She's currently traveling with eight snowboards and 20 pairs of skis. “You cannot believe how stacked the ski room is right now,” Ledecka cracked. “I really admire my tech guy and how he's handling it all. I’m very happy to have my team help me do this, my dream, of going from the snowboard World Cup to the ski World Cup. I'm having a lot of fun.” Notes: Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland had the fastest time in the second training run Thursday. Italians racers Sofia Goggia and Federica Brignone were both within a second. ... Lindsey Vonn is not expected to forerun before the third and final training session Friday. The 40-year-old Vonn still plans on testing out the course before this weekend's races on the Birds of Prey course. ___ AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing
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Bad Blood in COP29 Fiji Camp2024 was a major year for new vehicle launches, with new generations of key models like the Toyota LandCruiser Prado, plus the first of a new wave of Chinese auto brands entering the market. But many models also departed the Australian market, headlined by the departure of what had been the longest-running auto brand in Australia: Citroen. In fact, there were so many discontinuations that we split all the SUVs axed in Australia into a separate article . Scroll below for all the passenger cars axed this year, or click on one of the links below to take you directly to a vehicle. If you love the look of the BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe , rest assured you’ll still be able to buy a car that looks like this – it’ll just have electric power. BMW revealed updated versions of the 4 Series Gran Coupe and its electric i4 sibling back in April, but never confirmed timing for the combustion-powered model. Somewhat unusually, the electric version sold in considerably greater numbers than the petrol model. To the end of November, BMW sold 1866 i4s in Australia this year, against just 243 examples of the 4 Series Gran Coupe. That led to BMW pulling the plug on the petrol-powered range. “The high volume of new BMW models introduced to the local market prompts us to constantly assess our product portfolio in line with customer demand and our commitment to offering products that suit individual needs,” a BMW Australia spokesperson told CarExpert in a statement. “This has led us to restructure the BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe lineup.” The 4 Series Gran Coupe was the second BMW to bear the Gran Coupe nameplate, which has been applied to a five-door liftback (the 4 Series Gran Coupe), a four-door sedan (the 2 Series ), and what you could arguably call four-door coupes (the 6 Series and 8 Series ). This nomenclature was born in a period where BMW was busily chasing niches, including coupe SUVs like the X4 and X6 and the unusual Gran Turismo models which were more upright five-door hatchbacks. The second-generation 4 Series Gran Coupe was revealed in June 2021 and arrived here later that year, sharing the same plunging double-kidney grille as coupe and convertible 4 Series models. While it later gained an electric version, the i4, it never received a full-fat M version like the other 4 Series body styles. There was no M4 version of the first-generation 4 Series Gran Coupe, either. With the axing of the base 420i in 2023, just two variants remained: the turbocharged four-cylinder, rear-wheel drive 430i and the turbocharged six-cylinder, all-wheel drive M440i xDrive. Though the Gran Coupe brought superior practicality over the 3 Series Sedan , if not the Touring wagon, it cost up to $14,100 more than its booted counterpart. 4 Series Gran Coupe sales had peaked in 2015 and 2022 with 858 sales in both years – incidentally, both of which were the first full years of their respective generations. MORE: BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe axed in Australia, i4 EV to live on MORE: Everything BMW 4 Series Citroen had been hanging on like grim death in Australia, even as its sales winnowed away each year. From a height of 3803 sales in 2007, Citroen fell below 1000 annual units in 2016 and continued sliding. Its retail network continued to shrink, and Peugeot Citroen Australia’s decision to make Peugeot its exclusive commercial vehicle brand here killed one of its higher-volume models, the Berlingo. Most embarrassingly for the brand, it was outsold by Ferrari in 2020 and 2021. But there were signs Peugeot Citroen Australia was taking the brand seriously here, introducing the C4 in 2021 and C5 X in 2022. These replaced the old C4 and C5 that hadn’t been on sale here for several years, and came after several years of Citroen focusing on more traditionally SUV-shaped models. Not that the C4 and C5 X were conventional passenger cars themselves, with their higher-riding stances blurring the lines between cars and SUVs. Though it was the C5 X that wore the ‘X’ suffix commonly used for SUVs, it was the C4 that was classified as an SUV in VFACTS industry sales reports. There was a C4 X, mind you, but this was a sedan version of the C4 that we never received. Confused? We were too. Disinterested? Well, it seems Australians were. C4 sales peaked at 94 units in its first full year on sale, before falling; the same happened with the C5 X, with 68 sold in its first full year on sale. From launch to the end of November 2024, Citroen sold just 200 C4s and 168 C5 Xs. The rarest of them all is the C5 X Plug-in Hybrid, for which orders opened in May... just three months before Citroen announced it was pulling up stumps here. Being an order-only vehicle and priced just over $16,000 higher than the regular C5 X, itself not the most affordable vehicle of its size, it may be one of the rarest Citroens ever sold here. The C4 and C5 X may have lacked the clever hydropneumatic suspension of older Citroens, but with their quirky styling and focus on comfort – in suspension tuning and even in the construction of their seats – these cars were distinctively Citroen. Alas, it seems buyers just didn’t care. MORE: Citroen leaving Australia after more than 100 years, importer focusing on Peugeot MORE: Everything Citroen C4 MORE: Everything Citroen C5 X While we received new generations of Citroen’s small and medium/large cars, the latest C3 – revealed in electric guise in October 2023, and with petrol power in April this year – was kept from us. That was perhaps an early warning that the brand wasn’t going to stick around here for long, and in August this year distributor Inchcape Australia announced it would close orders for all Citroen vehicles. The third-generation C3 arrived here in 2017, with an extremely mild facelift coming in 2021. That means the C3 is much the same as when it arrived here around seven years ago, and sales figures have reflected that. From a height of 122 sales in 2018, sales fell to double digits in 2019 and have subsequently remained relatively steady, if very, very low. The price has climbed since launch and this year sat at $32,267 before on-road costs for the single Shine variant, putting it up against vehicles the segment above. But even comparing it with similarly sized vehicles with similarly premium pricing, the C3 comes up short. From its 2017 launch to the end of November this year, Citroen has sold 544 C3s. In contrast, Audi sold 462 A1s and Skoda sold 433 Fabias in 2023 alone. Showing just how far Citroen sales have dropped off over the years, as well as the decline in light car sales, the brand sold upwards of 908 examples of the first-generation C3 in 2003. MORE: Everything Citroen C3 The Fiat 500 is cute as a bug, but its ability to survive year after year well after rivals were replaced made it seem like more of a cockroach. It’s still being manufactured, but Fiat announced it was axing the petrol-powered 500 in Australia in August. As of December, however, it still has stock at its dealers. The 500 and its hotter Abarth 595 sibling are sold alongside the new-generation Fiat 500e and Abarth 500e, electric-only micro cars with similar styling but much more modern underpinnings and technology. With the Fiat 500e set to be joined by a mild-hybrid petrol-powered variant in 2026, this should finally spell the end of the old 500, which has been in production since 2007 and which launched here in 2008. In that time, Fiats from the little Panda to the Dodge Journey-based Freemont have come and gone from the Australian market, but the little 500 has kept on ticking with the occasional minor refresh. Though it no longer sells in quite the same volumes as it did in the early/mid 2010s – where it sold between 2000 and 3000 units annually – it still sells in consistent volumes in a segment that consists solely of it and the Kia Picanto . Last year, Fiat sold 581 examples of the 500 and its Abarth sibling in Australia, an increase on the year before despite the axing of their cabriolet models. MORE: Fiat culls petrol 500 in favour of $50k EV hatch in Australia MORE: Everything Fiat 500 When the E-Type ended production in 1974, it left a hole in Jaguar’s lineup. The XJ-S that succeeded it was more of a grand tourer, a tradition which its XK replacement followed in. It wasn’t until the F-Type , which entered production in 2013, that Jaguar had a genuine spiritual successor to the E-Type. An E-Type successor had existed in development hell during the 1980s and 1990s, before Jaguar revealed the F-Type concept in 2000... only for a planned production version to be scrapped before it could see the light of day. Fast-forward to the 2011 Frankfurt motor show and the F-Type as we came to know it was previewed in concept form, albeit featuring a supercharged V6 hybrid powertrain that never reached production. Instead, the production coupe – which looked essentially identical to the concept – was launched with a choice of supercharged V6 or V8 powertrains. Like the E-Type, there was also a convertible; unlike the iconic Jag, there was an all-wheel drive option. Also in a departure from past Jaguar two-doors, a turbocharged four-cylinder engine joined the range. Designed under Ian Callum, the F-Type was widely regarded as gorgeous. Somehow a facelift, revealed in 2019, arguably improved the styling with a more aggressive look up front. The F-Type featured all-aluminium construction, and Jaguar touted the coupe as the most torsionally rigid production car it had ever built. While the four- and six-cylinder powertrains weren’t shrinking violets, the supercharged V8 was the star. For 2022, Jaguar Australia dropped the four- and six-cylinder engines entirely, leaving the blown 5.0-litre in 331kW/580Nm P450 and 423kW/700Nm R tunes. In June 2024, Jaguar revealed the final F-Type and what it says will be its final combustion-powered sports car: a supercharged 5.0-litre V8-powered convertible in classic green-over-tan. A total of 87,731 F-Types were produced between 2013 and 2024. MORE: Jaguar reveals its last-ever petrol-powered sports car, bound for a museum MORE: Jaguar’s last ever petrol-powered sports car is coming to Australia MORE: Everything Jaguar F-Type When Jaguar used the Ford Mondeo platform to create its first BMW 3 Series rival, many scoffed. To Jaguar’s credit, it went back to the drawing board and developed a rear/all-wheel drive sports sedan with tasteful, modern styling and poised dynamics. Look out, BMW! Except the XE is now being axed almost a decade after it entered production in 2015, as part of Jaguar’s pivot to being a more exclusive, electric-only brand. Jaguar is done trying to take on BMW and is aiming higher, with JLR design boss Gerry McGovern saying in 2023: “What we won’t worry about is being loved by everybody, because that’s the kiss of death.” “That’s what’s put Jaguar where it is today, which is with no equity whatsoever,” he said. The XE never could match its German rivals in the sales race, and JLR confirmed the sedan wasn’t profitable – something likely not helped by its use of aluminium suspension componentry and a bonded and riveted aluminium unitary structure, unusual for this segment. The 3 Series rival was offered with a range of powertrains, including turbo-petrol and turbo-diesel four-cylinder engines plus a supercharged V6. Jaguar even developed the limited-run SV Project 8, which featured a supercharged V8 engine. Sadly, the SV Project 8 never came here, nor did it presage a more widely available BMW M3 rival. The six-cylinder and diesel engines were also eventually phased out in Australia. Disappointing sales and the resultant lack of profitability doomed the XE, which was axed in the US in 2020 but grimly held on for a few more years in markets such as ours. Unusually, Jaguar Australia switched the XE from rear-wheel drive to all-wheel drive for 2021 for reasons unclear. For 2023, the XE range was whittled down to a single model and, though it still appears on Jaguar’s local website, production ended this year. In its best year, 2016, global sales for the XE reached 44,095 units. The same year, BMW produced over 400,000 3 Series models globally. In Australia, the XE’s best year was also 2016 with 1524 sold, beating the Infiniti Q50 and Volvo S60 and falling just short of the Lexus IS . But sales fell each year, plunging to double-digits in 2022. Last year, the XE was outsold by every single one of its rivals, with its 58 sales bested by the Genesis G70 (81 sales) and Volvo S60 (152). From launch to the end of November 2024, Jaguar sold 4332 XEs in Australia. While rivals received significant facelifts or new generations, the XE was left to soldier on as its lineup shrunk. It’s a sad end for what was an extremely promising BMW 3 Series rival. MORE: Everything Jaguar XE If any car could make Jaguar’s XE look like a sales success, it’s the second generation of the brand’s BMW 5 Series rival. The first-generation XF was a breath of fresh air when it was revealed in 2007, with the Ian Callum-penned sedan casting aside the shackles of Jaguar’s retro design language in favour of a more modern yet still elegant look inside and out. The second generation wasn’t as impactful. Also attributed to Mr. Callum, the design was conservative, looking more like a stretched version of the XE with which it shared its new platform. Unlike the XE, however, there was a wagon version; this made the trip to Australia, even though the first-generation model was offered here only in sedan guise. Globally, the XF was offered with a choice of turbo-petrol and turbo-diesel four-cylinder engines, plus a turbo-diesel V6 and a supercharged petrol V6. Sadly, there was no supercharged V8 XFR as there had been with the first generation. To Jaguar Australia’s credit, it offered almost every available powertrain, and even brought the niche wagon here. But the British 5 Series rival was met with buyer apathy: sales shrunk compared to the outgoing model, with just 433 sold in 2016. That was down from the over 800 units Jaguar shifted in 2013 and 2014. Sales fell below three digits in 2019 with 50 units, and below two digits in 2023 with just 6 sold. By this point the XF range had been shrunk to a single variant, as for model year 2021 Jaguar axed all rear-wheel drive, diesel, six-cylinder and wagon variants in favour of a lone all-wheel drive turbo-petrol four-cylinder. MORE: Everything Jaguar XF Technically, Maserati didn’t sell any Quattroportes in Australia in 2024, with global production wrapping late last year. No further examples were delivered this year but as it appeared on Maserati’s local website during 2024, we’ve included it in this article. The Quattroporte nameplate is taking a leave of absence, with a replacement – featuring electric power – delayed until 2028. It’s not the first time the Quattroporte nameplate has taken a lengthy leave of absence, with gaps of several years between the first and second and the third and fourth generations. The Quattroporte competed in an extremely low-volume segment in Australia, battling the likes of the BMW 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class . Maserati executives would therefore clearly bristle at the mention of the Quattroporte sharing a platform with Chrysler and Dodge. “From the Chrysler 300 we carried over the electrical system, a portion on the platform where seats are hinged and some elements of the air conditioning, that is all,” then-Maserati global CEO Harald Wester told Automotive News Europe back in 2013. The current, sixth-generation Quattroporte entered production that year, underpinned by what Maserati called its M156 platform which was also used by the Ghibli and Levante . The gorgeous, lithe Pininfarina styling of its predecessor made way for an in-house design that was more fuller-figured and conservative, with a clear kinship with the cheaper Ghibli. If it looked bigger than the previous Quattroporte, that’s because it was – in length alone, the Quattroporte VI grew by over 200mm. A Ferrari-developed twin-turbo V8 remained available, along with a twin-turbo V6 developed with the Prancing Horse brand. This was also the first Quattroporte to offer a diesel engine, a turbocharged V6 mill sold here from 2014 to 2019. While the Quattroporte had a decade-long production run, there were updates made during this time. In 2016, the Quattroporte received a new infotainment system and more standard equipment including a suite of active safety features. This suite was expanded in a subsequent update in 2018. In 2020, Maserati revealed a hot Trofeo version of its luxury limo, featuring a 433kW/730Nm tune of the twin-turbo 3.8-litre V8 – up 43kW and 80Nm on the GTS. This coincided with another minor facelift for the Quattroporte line that saw the old Chrysler-derived infotainment system swapped for one running on Android Automotive. The Quattroporte consistently sold in the double digits each year in Australia, before slumping to just three units in 2023. Even in a low-volume segment, that was very low. MORE: Everything Maserati Quattroporte The Ghibli was first a stunning coupe and convertible in the 1960s, then a rather brutalist two-door in the 1990s, before being revived as a BMW 5 Series sedan rival that was revealed at the 2013 Shanghai motor show. It represented a return to a segment which Maserati last occupied in 1995 with the 430, a descendant of the Biturbo. With the introduction of the Ghibli and Levante, which entered production in 2013 and 2016 respectively, Maserati was chasing broader market appeal and therefore greater sales volumes. By the 2000s, after the end of the Biturbo era, its lineup had receded to a small, more exclusive one. In 2013, it announced plans to sell 50,000 vehicles each year around the world in 2015, more than eight times as many as it sold in 2011. The Ghibli used the M158 platform of the new sixth-generation Quattroporte, and shared its twin-turbocharged V6 petrol and turbocharged V6 diesel engines. There was a choice of rear- or all-wheel drive, while an eight-speed automatic transmission was standard across the range. The Quattroporte’s twin-turbo V8 wasn’t added until 2020, while at the other end of the spectrum the Ghibli gained a turbocharged four-cylinder mild-hybrid powertrain. Other changes to the Ghibli during its lengthy run mirrored those of the Quattroporte: new infotainment and a suite of active safety tech for 2017, and an expanded suite in 2018 enabled by the switch to an electric-assisted power steering setup. The Ghibli helped Maserati reach its 50,000-unit target, albeit a couple of years late. Alas, the brand’s sales dropped from then. In 2022, Maserati announced its plans to transition to an EV-only lineup by 2028, but conspicuous by its absence from these plans was the Ghibli nameplate. Instead, both it and the Quattroporte are set to be replaced by a single sedan model bearing the latter’s nameplate, though this has subsequently been delayed to 2028. In Australia, from a height of 345 sales in 2015, the Ghibli gradually declined before an uptick in 2021 to 152 sales. They then slumped to double digits, and just 17 Ghiblis found homes in Australia this year to the end of November. From its debut year, the Levante took over as Maserati’s best-selling vehicle locally, a title it maintained until the launch of the smaller Grecale SUV in 2023. The Ghibli remains on Maserati’s local website, but with production having ended it’s only a matter of time before the nameplate is retired for a third time. MORE: Everything Maserati Ghibli Even as it rolls out new electric vehicles (EVs) like the Aceman , Mini has updated its long-running three- and five-door hatchbacks and convertible and given them a slightly fresher look. The same treatment hasn’t been extended to the long-running Clubman , which Mini ended production of in February after two generations. It’s probably best to blame the Countryman as, in many markets including ours, given the choice of a wagon or an SUV most buyers will opt for the latter. BMW launched Mini as a standalone brand in 2000, and for the first several years of its life it only sold a hatchback. A convertible followed, before the Clubman was launched as Mini’s third body style. It came during a period where Mini was rapidly and creatively expanding its lineup or, to put it less charitably, throwing things at a wall and seeing what stuck. If debuted in 2007, and was followed in 2010 by the Countryman SUV (which did stick) and the Roadster, Coupe and Paceman (which didn’t). Mini wisely added a pair of conventional rear passenger doors with the second-generation Clubman, which launched in Australia in 2015, replacing the suicide door setup of its predecessor. A more practical alternative to the hatchback it was based on, the second-generation Clubman stuck with the rear barn doors of its predecessor – highly unusual for a wagon in 2024. The second-generation Clubman moved to the UKL2 platform underpinning vehicles like the BMW 1 Series . While this platform was used for a raft of vehicles including BMW and Mini-branded hatchbacks, sedans and even a people mover, the quirky Clubman was the only wagon. While it offered a choice of petrol powertrains (though as with its predecessor, no diesel in Australia), including a hot John Cooper Works model with a turbocharged four-cylinder engine and all-wheel drive. Between the launch of the second-gen model and the end of November 2024, Mini Australia sold 3143 Clubmans. It was a steady if unexceptional seller, but over the same period Mini sold around twice as many Countryman SUVs. MORE: Everything Mini Clubman The 508 may have been the prettiest mid-sized Peugeot since the 406 Coupe of the 1990s, but that wasn’t enough to save it. While it lives on in Europe, in September Peugeot Australia pulled the plug on the liftback and wagon “in response to changing consumer preferences in the segment”. It arguably wasn’t a surprise, given Ford, Kia and Volkswagen, among other brands, had already exited the mid-sized segment. Peugeot sales have also been broadly on a downward trajectory over the past decade. Peugeot Australia added a plug-in hybrid version of the 508 Fastback in 2022, with a Sportwagon PHEV following in 2023. But with one hand Peugeot Australia giveth, and with one another it taketh away. Later in 2023, Peugeot axed the petrol-powered 508s, leaving only the pricier PHEVs. Unusually, the Sportwagon PHEV was introduced after Peugeot revealed a facelifted version of the 508 in Europe, for which it conspicuously didn’t announce specific local launch timing. The facelifted model never came, and when Peugeot UK announced earlier this year it was axing the 508, its local demise appeared inevitable. The second-generation 508’s best year in Australia was 2021, with 240 sold. That was a far cry from the first-generation model which in 2012, its first full year on the market, recorded 1085 sales. In fairness to the 508, mid-sized passenger car sales have fallen over the past decade or so. But in 2023, the 508’s 156 sales saw it outsold by the Volkswagen Passat and Arteon , and even more niche models like the Volvo V60 Cross Country. MORE: Another mid-sized car gets the axe in Australia MORE: Everything Peugeot 508 You can still buy a Renault Megane in Australia, but it’s quite a different creature. The last examples of the RS Trophy hot hatch, the sole remaining member of the combustion-powered Megane range, were sold earlier this year as the new electric Megane E-Tech joined the local lineup. The RS-badged Megane hatch, sent off with a special-edition RS Ultime, was the last member of a once significantly wider lineup of small Renaults. The current, fourth-generation Megane was revealed in 2015 and went on sale locally late in 2016. Wagon and sedan models, introduced in 2017, were dropped in 2019 along with the entry-level Zen hatch, while the RS Sport and RS Cup hatchbacks were axed in 2021. That left just the RS Trophy. Not only was the Australian Megane lineup winnowed down locally, the car was discontinued in almost every market. Turkish production continues, however, of the sedan. This mirrors what happened with the Ford Focus , with a once-wide lineup continually chipped away at in Australia until a single hot hatch was left, before the nameplate was axed entirely. The Focus is also being discontinued globally. Renault only sold 69 Meganes in Australia in 2023. That was well down on the 1259 units it shifted in 2017, its first full year on sale. The Megane RS Trophy (and RS Ultime) used a turbocharged 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine, mated with either a six-speed manual or six-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, producing 221kW of power and 420Nm of torque (400Nm in the manual) Those outputs remained competitive even among a growing contingent of hot hatches on the local market. While Renault is moving away from hot petrol-powered models, it’s entering the hot electric hatch fray with both its namesake brand and its Alpine spinoff. It remains to be seen whether these hot EVs will come here, however. MORE: Everything Renault Megane MORE: Every SUV discontinued in Australia in 2024 MORE: Every car and SUV discontinued in Australia in 2023 MORE: Every car discontinued in 2022 MORE: Every car discontinued in 2021 MORE: The cars we lost in 2020
No. 1 South Carolina experiences rare sting of loss
The confidential briefing note is part of the tranche of documents made public in the annual release of State papers from the Irish National Archives. An Irish Department of Foreign Affairs official focusing on justice and security created the list in October 2002. The document starts by referencing a 1999 interview given by George Mitchell, the chairman of the Good Friday Agreement negotiations, in which he claimed the British and Irish governments, as well as Northern Ireland’s political parties, had leaked information to manipulate public opinion. However, he further accused the NIO of attempting to sabotage the process by leaking information on British Government policy to the media. Mr Mitchell, a former US senator, is said to have expressed alarm and anger over the frequency of leaks from the NIO – saying they were uniquely “designed to undermine the policy of the British Government of which they were a part”. The Irish civil servant notes Mr Mitchell himself was subjected to an attempted “smear” when he first arrived in Northern Ireland, as newspaper articles falsely claimed his chief of staff Martha Pope had had a liaison with Sinn Fein representative Gerry Kelly with ulterior motives. The Irish civil servant goes on to list several “leaks”, starting with the publication of a proposed deal in a newspaper while “intense negotiations” for the Downing Street Declaration were under way. Next, the Department lists two “high-profile and damaging leaks issued from the NIO”. A so-called “gameplan” document was leaked in February 1998, showing papers had been prepared weeks before the Drumcree march on July 6, 1997. In the preceding years, there had been standoffs and clashes as nationalists opposed the procession of an Orange parade down Garvaghy Road in Portadown. The gameplan document showed then secretary of state for Northern Ireland Mo Mowlam, who was publicly expressing a desire for a negotiated solution to the 1997 parade, advocated “finding the lowest common denominator for getting some Orange feet on the Garvaghy Road”. In 1997, a large number of security forces were deployed to the area to allow the march to proceed. The incident sparked heightened tension and a wave of rioting. The document further describes the release of a document submitted by the NIO’s director of communications to the secretary of state as a “second major leak”. It claims a publicity strategy was released to the DUP in the aftermath of the Good Friday Agreement and showed how the UK Government would support a yes vote in a referendum following any talks agreement. In addition, it is claimed unionists used leaked sections of the Patten report on policing to invalidate its findings ahead of its publication in 1999. The report recommended the replacement of the Royal Ulster Constabulary with the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the changing of symbols, and a 50-50 recruitment policy for Catholics and Protestants. At the time, UUP leader David Trimble said the recommendations would lead to a corruption of policing in Northern Ireland. Chris Patten, chairman of the independent commission on policing, said some of the assertions were a “total fabrication” and designed to “muddy the waters” to create a difficult political atmosphere. Elsewhere, the author notes it was leaked to the media there was serious disagreement between the governments of the UK and Ireland on the composition of that commission – with not a single name submitted by the Irish side being accepted by the other. The author notes this incident, still under the heading “NIO leaks”, was believed by British officials to have emanated from the Irish side. The report turns to leaks of other origin, claiming “disgruntled Special Branch officers in Northern Ireland” were blamed by the British Government for a series of releases about the IRA which were designed to damage Sinn Fein in the 2001 general election in Northern Ireland. One senior Whitehall source was quoted in the Guardian as complaining that Special Branch was “leaking like a sieve” after details of an IRA intelligence database containing the names of leading Tories – described at the time as a “hit list” – was passed to the BBC in April 2002. The briefing note adds: “This was followed days later by a leak to The Sunday Telegraph which alleged that senior IRA commanders bought Russian special forces rifles in Moscow last year. “The newspaper said it was passed details by military intelligence in London.” The briefing note adds that other Special Branch leaks were associated with the Castlereagh break-in. The final incident in the document notes the Police Ombudsman’s Report on the Omagh bombing was also leaked to the press in December 2001. Then Northern Ireland secretary John Reid said at the time: “Leaks are never helpful and usually malicious – I will not be commenting on this report until I have seen the final version.” The reason for creating the list of leaks, which the Irish National Archives holds in a folder alongside briefing notes for ministers ahead of meetings with officials from the UK Government and NIO, is not outlined in the document itself. – This document is based on material in 2024/130/6.Minutes of an Executive meeting from June of that year state further action would be considered “as appropriate” if the DUP went ahead with a threat to rotate its ministers. The minutes are within files which have been declassified at the Public Record Office in Belfast. Devolved powersharing had been restored to Northern Ireland in May 2000 when Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble had received the backing of his party to go back into the Assembly, despite there having been no decommissioning of IRA arms at that point. Then DUP deputy leader Mr Robinson and Mr Dodds took up the offices as ministers for regional development and social development, but refused to attend Executive meetings due to the presence of Sinn Fein ministers. The party also said it would rotate its ministerial posts to prevent other parties from taking them. A minute of an Executive meeting on June 8 said Mr Robinson and Mr Dodds had refused a request from First Minister Mr Trimble and deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon to meet with them “to discuss recent public comments by the DUP concerning their positions as ministers”. The minute records that the Executive endorsed a proposal from the First and deputy First Ministers to write again to the two DUP ministers setting out sanctions against them. It says: “The First Minister and and Deputy First Minister would assume responsibility for representing the Executive Committee on transport matters at the British-Irish Council in place of the Minister for Regional Development. “The Minister for Social Development and the Minister for Regional Development would not be nominated to attend meetings of the Joint Ministerial Committee. “Pending the receipt of satisfactory assurances from DUP Ministers regarding the confidentiality and integrity of Executive Committee business, the Minister for Social Development and Minister for Regional Development would not receive Executive Committee papers as of right. “The First Minister and Deputy First Minister would seek briefing, as appropriate, from officials in the Department for Regional Development and Department for Social Development.” The minute continues: “If the DUP carried out their threat to change the holders of the two Ministerial offices on a frequent basis, the Executive Committee would consider other action as appropriate.” Mr Robinson and Mr Dodds resigned as ministers on June 27 and were replaced by party colleagues Gregory Campbell and Maurice Morrow. A minute from an Executive meeting that day says: “The Executive Committee noted that the Minister for Social Development and Minister for Regional Development would be resigning their posts that afternoon, and expressed concern at the proposed rotation of the ministries held by their Party Members.”
AP Top 25: Alabama, Mississippi out of top 10 and Miami, SMU are in; Oregon remains unanimous No. 1 Alabama and Mississippi tumbled out of the top 10 of The Associated Press college football poll and Miami and SMU moved in following a chaotic weekend in the SEC. Oregon is No. 1 for the sixth straight week and Ohio State, Texas and Penn State held their places behind the Ducks. The shuffling begins at No. 5, where Notre Dame returned for the first time since Week 2 after beating Army for its ninth straight win. No. 6 Georgia and No. 7 Tennessee each moved up two spots. Miami, SMU and Indiana round out the top 10. Jannik Sinner leads Italy past the Netherlands for its second consecutive Davis Cup title MALAGA, Spain (AP) — Jannik Sinner clinched Italy's second consecutive Davis Cup title and capped his breakthrough season at the top of tennis by beating Tallon Griekspoor 7-6 (2), 6-2 for a 2-0 win over the Netherlands in the final of the team competition in Malaga, Spain. Matteo Berrettini won Sunday's opening singles match 6-4, 6-2 against Botic van de Zandschulp. The Italians are the first country to win the Davis Cup twice in a row since the Czech Republic in 2012 and 2013. The No. 1-ranked Sinner stretched his unbeaten streak in singles to 14 matches and 26 sets. Netherlands reached the Davis Cup final for the first time. Chuck Woolery, smooth-talking game show host of 'Love Connection' and 'Scrabble,' dies at 83 NEW YORK (AP) — Chuck Woolery, the affable, smooth-talking game show host of “Wheel of Fortune,” “Love Connection” and “Scrabble” who later became a right-wing podcaster, skewering liberals and accusing the government of lying about COVID-19, has died. He was 83. Mark Young, Woolery’s podcast co-host and friend, said in an email early Sunday that Woolery died at his home in Texas with his wife, Kristen, present. Woolery, with his matinee idol looks, coiffed hair and ease with witty banter, was inducted into the American TV Game Show Hall of Fame in 2007 and earned a daytime Emmy nomination in 1978. He teamed up with Young for the podcast “Blunt Force Truth” and became a full supporter Donald Trump. St. Louis Blues fire Drew Bannister and hire Jim Montgomery as coach The St. Louis Blues have fired coach Drew Bannister and hired Jim Montgomery as his replacement. The 2022 Jack Adams Award winner, Montgomery joins the Blues five days after he was fired by the Boston Bruins. Bannister had been on the job in St. Louis for less than a year since succeeding Stanley Cup-winning coach Craig Berube and getting the interim tag removed after last season. The Blues have lost 13 of their first 22 games. Montgomery spent two seasons as an assistant on Berube's staff in St. Louis between coaching Dallas and Boston. The team signed Montgomery to a five-year contract. Rico Carty, who won the 1970 NL batting title with the Atlanta Braves, dies at 85 Rico Carty, who won the 1970 NL batting title when he hit a major league-best .366 for the Atlanta Braves, has died. He was 85. Major League Baseball, the players’ association and the Braves have paid tribute to Carty on social media. A family friend told Listín Diario — a newspaper in Carty’s native Dominican Republic — that he died Saturday night in an Atlanta hospital. Carty made his big league debut with the Braves in September 1963. He batted .330 with 22 homers and 88 RBIs in his first full season in 1964, finishing second to Dick Allen in voting for NL Rookie of the Year. The Braves moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta after the 1965 season, and Carty got the franchise’s first hit in its new home on April 12, 1966, against Pittsburgh. Dartmouth sorority, two members of fraternity face charges after student who attended party drowned HANOVER, N.H. (AP) — A sorority at Dartmouth College and two members of a fraternity faces charges related to the death of a student who drowned after attending an off-campus party. The Hanover, New Hampshire police department, where Dartmouth is located, said Friday that Alpha Phi was charged with one count of facilitating an underage alcohol house. Two members of the Beta Alpha Omega face a charge of providing alcohol to a person under 21. Won Jang, 20, of Middletown, Delaware, had attended an off-campus party in July hosted by Alpha Phi sorority. Police said the alcohol was provided by Beta Alpha Omega. Tens of thousands of Spaniards protest housing crunch and high rents in Barcelona BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Tens of thousands of Spaniards are marching in downtown Barcelona to protest the skyrocketing cost of renting an apartment in the popular tourist destination. Protesters cut off traffic on main avenues in the city center, holding up homemade signs in Spanish reading “Fewer apartments for investing and more homes for living." The lack of affordable housing has become one of the leading concerns for the southern European Union country, mirroring the housing crunch across many parts of the world, including the United States. The average rent for Spain has doubled in the last decade. In cities like Barcelona, rental prices have also been driven up by short-term renters including tourists. Verstappen captures 4th F1 championship after Mercedes sweep of Las Vegas Grand Prix LAS VEGAS (AP) — Max Verstappen cruised to a fourth consecutive Formula 1 championship Saturday night by finishing fifth in the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Verstappen needed only to finish ahead of Lando Norris of McLaren to give Red Bull a fourth straight driver championship. The Dutchman started fifth but was already up to second by the 10th lap around the street circuit that includes the famed Las Vegas Strip. Norris, who had to score at least three points more than Verstappen to extend the championship fight, finished sixth. The race was won by George Russell who was followed by Lewis Hamilton in the first 1-2 sweep for the Mercedes drivers since 2022. 'Wicked' and 'Gladiator' make gravity-defying theater debuts NEW YORK (AP) — “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” have debuted in theaters with a combined $270 million in ticket sales. Their worldwide performance breathed fresh life into global box office results that have struggled lately. Together the films turned the moviegoing weekend into one of the busiest of the year. Jon M. Chu’s lavish big-budget musical “Wicked,” starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, debuted with $114 million domestically and $164.2 million globally. Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II” is a sequel to his 2000 best picture-winning original and launched with $55.5 million in ticket sales. “Moana 2” is being released Wednesday, so it looks like Hollywood might be looking at historic sales over the Thanksgiving holiday. Jason Kelce's wife announces she is pregnant with the couple's fourth child Former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce's wife is announcing she's pregnant with the couple's fourth child. Kylie Kelce posted a photo on Instagram on Friday of the couple's three young daughters reacting to the news. The oldest daughter, Wyatt, appears to be cupping her head in shock. The middle daughter, Ellioette, is smiling. The youngest, Bennett, is in tears. A caption attached to the photo reads: “I feel like we captured a very accurate representation of how each of the girls feel about getting another sister. At least Ellie, mom and dad are on the same page!”
Funny moneyA 7-year-old rivalry between tech leaders Elon Musk and Sam Altman over who should run OpenAI and prevent an artificial intelligence "dictatorship" is now heading to a federal judge as Musk seeks to halt the ChatGPT maker's ongoing shift into a for-profit company. Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company earlier this year alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits. Musk has since escalated the dispute, adding new claims and asking for a court order that would stop OpenAI’s plans to convert itself into a for-profit business more fully. The world's richest man, whose companies include Tesla, SpaceX and social media platform X, last year started his own rival AI company, xAI. Musk says it faces unfair competition from OpenAI and its close business partner Microsoft, which has supplied the huge computing resources needed to build AI systems such as ChatGPT. “OpenAI and Microsoft together exploiting Musk’s donations so they can build a for-profit monopoly, one now specifically targeting xAI, is just too much,” says Musk's filing that alleges the companies are violating the terms of Musk’s foundational contributions to the charity. OpenAI is filing a response Friday opposing Musk’s requested order, saying it would cripple OpenAI’s business and mission to the advantage of Musk and his own AI company. A hearing is set for January before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland. At the heart of the dispute is a 2017 internal power struggle at the fledgling startup that led to Altman becoming OpenAI's CEO. Musk also wanted the job, according to emails revealed as part of the court case, but grew frustrated after two other OpenAI co-founders said he would hold too much power as a major shareholder and chief executive if the startup succeeded in its goal to achieve better-than-human AI known as artificial general intelligence , or AGI. Musk has long voiced concerns about how advanced forms of AI could threaten humanity. “The current structure provides you with a path where you end up with unilateral absolute control over the AGI," said a 2017 email to Musk from co-founders Ilya Sutskever and Greg Brockman. “You stated that you don't want to control the final AGI, but during this negotiation, you've shown to us that absolute control is extremely important to you.” In the same email, titled “Honest Thoughts,” Sutskever and Brockman also voiced concerns about Altman's desire to be CEO and whether he was motivated by “political goals.” Altman eventually succeeded in becoming CEO, and has remained so except for a period last year when he was fired and then reinstated days later after the board that ousted him was replaced. OpenAI published the messages Friday in a blog post meant to show its side of the story, particularly Musk's early support for the idea of making OpenAI a for-profit business so it could raise money for the hardware and computer power that AI needs. It was Musk, through his wealth manager Jared Birchall, who first registered “Open Artificial Technologies Technologies, Inc.”, a public benefit corporation, in September 2017. Then came the “Honest Thoughts” email that Musk described as the “final straw.” “Either go do something on your own or continue with OpenAI as a nonprofit,” Musk wrote back. OpenAI said Musk later proposed merging the startup into Tesla before resigning as the co-chair of OpenAI's board in early 2018. Musk didn't immediately respond to emailed requests for comment sent to his companies Friday. Asked about his frayed relationship with Musk at a New York Times conference last week, Altman said he felt “tremendously sad” but also characterized Musk’s legal fight as one about business competition. “He’s a competitor and we’re doing well,” Altman said. He also said at the conference that he is “not that worried” about the Tesla CEO’s influence with President-elect Donald Trump. OpenAI said Friday that Altman plans to make a $1 million personal donation to Trump’s inauguration fund, joining a number of tech companies and executives who are working to improve their relationships with the incoming administration. —————————— The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement allowing OpenAI access to part of the AP’s text archives.
In a bold move, Australia announced a world-leading ban on under-16s accessing social media platforms, intending to set a new standard for digital age verification. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese outlined plans for platforms like Instagram and TikTok to implement stringent age-check procedures, possibly using biometrics or government IDs. The proposed legislation, presented in parliament, mandates the destruction of personal data used for age verification, securing citizens' privacy. Critics, including Elon Musk, argue this could serve as a governmental control mechanism over internet access. Despite this, Albanese assured that privacy requirements will be robust. Australia aims to enforce this law by the end of the year, with severe penalties for non-compliance. The measures, which include no parental consent or pre-existing account exemptions, mark one of the toughest stances on social media age restrictions globally, setting potential fines of up to $32 million. (With inputs from agencies.)
Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations , Topline: Under President Joe Biden, the Department of Health and Human Services has created a “diversity, equity and inclusion” infrastructure of dizzying complexity. The agency’s 2025 budget request contains the word “equity” 829 times , adding onto a dollar total that is already impossible to fully tabulate. Key facts: HHS employed at least 294 DEI staffers at a cost of $38.7 million last year, according to a new report from OpenTheBooks.com . There were 247 with salaries above $100,000. It can be difficult to grasp just how bureaucratic HHS’ DEI system truly is. The agency-wide “Office of EEO, Diversity & Inclusion” has 92 employees. Within that are seven more DEI offices for specific health agencies like the Food and Drug Administration. Some of the smaller offices have several more divisions. The National Institutes of Health’s “Office of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion” has yet another “Diversity & Inclusion Division,” a marketing team, a customer outreach team and more. The DEI expenses do not stop there. The agency has $5 million budgeted for its “Office of Climate Change and Health Equity” and the “Office of Environmental Justice.” Another $5 million will go toward “diversifying the doula workforce.” The Health Resources and Services Administration received $102 million this year for “training for diversity.” A third of it is to help universities “enhance the academic performance of minorities.” The NIH plans to spend $241 million over nine years on its FIRST program, which pays universities to weigh a candidate’s “commitment to diversity” as equal to their academic ability when hiring scientists. Even the NIH’s $1.2 billion “Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies” program now has an “emphasis on diversity and inclusion in the research community,” according to its budget request. Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com . Background: DEI has also transformed HHS’ seven Offices of Minority Health, which have 207 employees earning $29.4 million in total. Add that to the $38.7 million from the general DEI staff at HHS, and pay is $68 million. The Offices of Minority Health have existed since 1985, but once Biden took office, he directed them to focus on “addressing historical and contemporary injustices.” Quickly, the Center for Disease Control’s Office of Minority Health renamed itself to the Office of Health Equity and “declared racism a serious public health threat.” Critical quote: “In medical research, lives depend on putting excellence first. The NIH distorts that value, subordinating it to political ideology and endangering those it’s supposed to serve,” National Association of Scholars fellow John Sailer wrote in the Wall Street Journal . Summary: Political agendas from the left or the right have no place in science and medicine. The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.comVALPARAISO, Ind. (AP) — Tyler Schmidt came off the bench to score 19 points to lead Valparaiso to an 81-53 victory over Eastern Illinois on Sunday. Schmidt added three steals for the Beacons (3-2). Justus McNair scored 16 points while going 5 of 8 (4 for 6 from 3-point range). Darius DeAveiro had nine points and shot 3 for 11, including 3 for 9 from beyond the arc. Nakyel Shelton led the Panthers (1-5) in scoring, finishing with 20 points. Kooper Jacobi added 13 points and nine rebounds for Eastern Illinois. Zion Fruster had six points. Valparaiso took the lead with 5:07 remaining in the first half and did not relinquish it. The score was 35-29 at halftime, with Schmidt racking up 14 points. Valparaiso extended its lead to 66-38 during the second half, fueled by an 18-2 scoring run. McNair scored a team-high 11 points in the second half as their team closed out the win. NEXT UP Both teams play Northern Illinois next, Valparaiso at home on Wednesday and Eastern Illinois at home on Friday. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .
After Trump's Project 2025 denials, he is tapping its authors and influencers for key roles
How do you solve a problem like eighth grade algebra ? Not the actual problems covered by the syllabus — the graphing of compound inequalities, say, or the untangling of scatter plots — but the question that’s at the heart of a fraught national debate: Who should get to take a high school level math class in their final year of middle school ? Portland Public Schools is the latest urban school district to take a swing at answering that question, after previous high-profile attempts in New York City and San Francisco yielded no measurable improvement in two different but equally important objectives: Diversifying middle school algebra classes and making sure that advanced math students leave eighth grade with a solid grasp on foundational algebraic concepts. The district’s experiment unfolds daily in Ernest Yago’s cheerfully cluttered math classroom at Faubion PK-8 School in Northeast Portland. Yago, a veteran math teacher, is piloting a new math and science-focused, hands-on elective that some seventh graders at his school take alongside their regular math class. So far, Portland’s new approach has narrowed the pool of students allowed to start high school math in eighth grade, though it is only in its first few months. And it is not yet clear whether the district has managed to boost the racial and ethnic diversity of those taking part. The hope is that the course Yago is debuting will broaden the spectrum of scholars in eighth grade algebra. By double-dosing students with math concepts in seventh grade — couched in an approach that stresses projects with real-world applications over worksheets — the thinking is they will be better prepared for the rigors of eighth grade algebra. In addition to Faubion, three K-8 schools on the city’s east side — Bridger-Creative Science, Astor and Cesar Chavez — plus Robert Gray Middle School on the west side are offering the elective. “I think that for some kids, algebra in eighth is pushing too fast, but there are a select few kids that are motivated and ready to do a high school class in eighth grade,” Yago said. “I want to honor that and make sure we offer it.” Kids who aren’t instinctively gifted mathematicians need to have the right background before jumping into algebra in eighth grade, Yago said. And he knows firsthand that that hasn’t always been the case, particularly in the post-pandemic years, when students returned to school still glued to their screens. Some kids come into eighth grade algebra in “la-la land,” with big holes in the background they need to succeed in the class, Yago said. That means taking time out of a packed curriculum to revisit the content they’ve missed, he added, like how to make a box plot and calculate a five number summary . “I try my best to cover what they need [in eighth grade algebra],’ but sometimes you have to fill in holes to make that progress, and then you are behind in curricular content,” he said. He’s got some hope “a good chunk” of the seventh graders in his math-and-science elective will be better prepared to tackle algebra next year, after getting more exposure to the material. After their current unit on graphing wraps up, he said, they’ll move on to a geometry unit, using proportional reasoning, expressions and equations to create blueprints for a scale model of a home they’ll design and build. Yago and his fellow teachers at the pilot schools are developing the curriculum for the course over the course of the school year, with help from two high school math teachers with experience teaching hands-on math. Yago’s students said they had varying reasons for taking his math elective. Some said they’d been put there or recommended for entry by teachers. Others said they want careers in the sciences. Aspiring engineers, doctors and computer programmers said they know taking algebra in eighth grade would help launch them on that path. “I want to be a pilot, and you need math for that,” said Liam Kaczenski, 12. He said he is determined to earn good enough grades in Yago’s class to qualify for algebra next year. For his graphing project, he charted how many siblings each of his classmates had and compared that against their stress level, hypothesizing that the more brothers and sisters, the higher the angst would be. It was true for him, he said, pointing at his twin sister Ana, who is also in Yago’s class. “I struggle with math sometimes,” Ana said. “But I want to be ahead in high school. This class helps me understand more topics.” Taking algebra in eighth grade sets students like the Kaczenski twins up for geometry in ninth grade, advanced algebra by 10th grade, pre-calculus in 11th grade and calculus by their senior year. Calculus is viewed both as a calling card for elite colleges and a prerequisite for eventual employment in the lucrative and growing engineering and technology industries. Waiting until ninth grade to start algebra means that, to get to calculus by senior year, students either have to double up on math or seek summer credits. Nationally and in Portland, white and Asian students have historically been overrepresented in advanced math classes and have outperformed their Black, Latino and Indigenous peers. In a bid to change that dynamic, San Francisco tried banning eighth grade algebra completely, a path Portland seriously considered emulating, to the chagrin of some parents . They argued that without an in-school option available, well-off families would hire private tutors for their children, exacerbating inequity instead of alleviating it. Then San Francisco Unified School District officials reversed course, after a decade’s worth of no algebra in middle school led to little improvement in equity, and Portland, too, pivoted. New York City, meanwhile, took the opposite tack, making algebra available to all eighth graders. But there too, Black and Latino students still scored way below their white and Asian counterparts. The district, the nation’s largest, has now shifted its focus to improving ninth grade algebra instruction. Portland is seeking to thread the needle, said Joanna Tobin, the district’s senior director for middle grade core academics. “We were just really frustrated with the research and the nationwide dilemma,” Tobin said. “We want to hold onto an advanced pathway and support our students getting there, if that’s their desire, and we also really do value grade level work.” In addition to piloting the seventh grade math and science elective, Portland raised the bar for which seventh graders get to take “compacted math,” a fast-track class that is the historical precursor to eighth grade algebra. It compresses the seventh and eighth grade math curriculums mostly into a single year. With the bar set higher this year, only about one-third of the district’s 2,870 seventh graders performed well enough on standardized tests to gain automatic entry into compacted math, compared to about half of last year’s seventh grade class, Tobin said. Under the district’s new system, entry doesn’t hinge solely on a high-stakes test, which sets Portland apart from the bulk of middle schools in the United States that offer algebra in eighth grade. A second pathway into compacted math — a teacher recommendation or parent request that a student be allowed to demonstrate that they are ready for the material even though their test scores are below the cutoff — appears to be far more lightly used thus far. Some parents have complained that the district was slow to get the word out about that option. Just 140 students completed a “performance task” to try to place into compacted math after missing the quiz and test cutoffs. Only 20 of that group ultimately joined the advanced class. (A sample question from the performance task: Imagine that your family ate one third of a pan of brownies and that you then gave six friends equal portions of the leftovers. How much of the total pan did each friend get. Please show your work!). “When you put up these roadblocks to getting into more advanced classes, you know who will make it in,” said David Stein, whose sixth grade daughter was able to test into seventh grade compacted math after a last minute scramble. “It will be the parents who get the emails, are able to process them and go through the effort to make sure their kid is eligible and enrolled in the program.” Portland doesn’t yet have good data on the demographics of who made it into compacted math this year, as compared with years past because of technical glitches, Tobin said. But she acknowledged that for now, “when it comes to the demographics, [compacted math] is not yet reflective of the diversity of our communities. Some of this will be a journey, and we’ll be seeing the growth at high school.” Every Portland middle school is offering at least one way into eighth grade algebra — either the seventh grade compacted math class or the career-related math elective — but it’s not clear yet that budgets or student interest will support every school eventually being able to offer both options, Tobin said. Yago, for his part, said he’d like to see the math and science elective expanded to eighth graders not taking algebra, on the theory that it will make them better prepared for ninth grade. “It’s made me rethink how to go about teaching math, with more inquiry and projects,” said Yago, who began teaching in Portland as a substitute nearly 30 years ago. “But it all does depend on the kids you have and the experience they have coming to you.” — Julia Silverman covers K-12 education for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach her via email at jsilverman@oregonian.com . Follow her on x.com at @jrlsilverman.NEEDHAM, Mass. , Nov. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRIP) announced today that Mike Noonan , CFO, will host investor meetings at the UBS Global Technology Conference on Tuesday, December 3, 2024 , in Scottsdale, Arizona. About Tripadvisor, Inc. The Tripadvisor Group operates as a family of brands that connects people to experiences worth sharing, and aims to be the world's most trusted source for travel and experiences. We leverage our brands, technology, and capabilities to connect our global audience with partners through rich content, travel guidance, and two-sided marketplaces for experiences, accommodations, restaurants, and other travel categories. The subsidiaries of Tripadvisor, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRIP), own and operate a portfolio of travel media brands and businesses, including Tripadvisor, Viator, and TheFork. 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