BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Mali's ruling junta arrested one of the country's top politicians Wednesday for criticizing the military rulers of neighboring Burkina Faso, according to his son and a judiciary source. Issa Kaou N’Djim, who previously supported Mali's current military leader Col. Assimi Goita before distancing himself, was arrested on charges of insulting a foreign head of state, which is a crime in Mali, an employee of the court system said. The court employee spoke to the The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to reporters. N'Djim had claimed on the Joliba TV News broadcaster on Sunday that the military rulers of Burkina Faso, a close ally of Mali, made up evidence of a foiled coup in November. The politician was placed in custody and taken to the main prison in Mali's capital Bamako on Wednesday, his son, Ousmane N’djim, said. “He knows he is being arrested because of his political struggle." The director of Joliba TV News has also been called for interrogation by the authorities. Mali and Burkina Faso have been ruled by military regimes since , capitalizing on popular discontent with previous democratically elected governments over security issues. Together with Niger, another junta-led country in the region, they form the Alliance of Sahel States, or AES. N’Djim was one of the vice presidents of the National Transitional Council (CNT), Mali’s legislative body under the junta. He later distanced himself from the military regime and said he favored a return to electoral democracy. In 2021, he was handed a six-month prison sentence after he criticized the military regime on social media. The security situation in the three AES countries has analysts say, with a record number of attacks by Islamic extremists. Government forces have been accused of killing civilians they suspect of collaborating with militants while . In June, Malian authorities . Amnesty International called for N'Djim's release in a post on the social media platform X. ___ This story was first published on Nov. 13, 2024. It was updated on Nov. 26, 2024 to correct that the month of an alleged foiled coup attempt in Burkina Faso mentioned by a politician was in November, not September. Baba Ahmed, The Associated Press
The days are getting longer, and movie marathons of A Christmas Story have begun. That can mean only one thing: You have just a few weeks to boost your retirement savings, lower your taxes and get the most out of your health insurance before 2024 becomes a memory. Boost your retirement savings Top off retirement plans. If you claim the standard deduction — and these days, the majority of taxpayers do — you have a limited number of tax breaks available to you, so don’t overlook one of the most effective ways to lower your 2024 tax bill. Contributing to a traditional 401(k) or other employer-provided retirement plan will reduce your taxable income and enhance your retirement security. You have until the end of the year to contribute up to $23,000 to your 401(k) for 2024 if you’re younger than 50. You can put in an extra $7,500 if you’re 50 or older by the end of 2024, for a total of $30,500. You have until the April 2025 deadline to file your tax return to contribute as much as $7,000, or $8,000 if you’re 50 or older, to a traditional IRA or Roth IRA for 2024. Contributions to a traditional IRA are deductible if you’re not covered by an employer-provided plan or your earnings fall below specific thresholds. Contributions to a Roth IRA aren’t deductible, but if you’re 591⁄2 or older and have owned a Roth for at least five years, withdrawals are tax-free. Subscribe to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Be a smarter, better informed investor. Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail. Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail. If you work for yourself and have no employees (other than your spouse), you can save a significant amount of money in a solo 401(k) . These plans allow you to make an employee contribution up to the standard 401(k) maximum as well as an employer contribution of up to 20% of your net self-employment income, for a combined total of no more than $69,000, or $76,500 if you’re 50 or older, for 2024. You must establish the solo 401(k) and indicate that you plan to make an employee deferral by the end of 2024. But if you’re a sole proprietor, you have until the April 2025 tax-filing deadline to make both employee and employer contributions to your account. Another option is a SEP IRA , which is generally less expensive and easier to set up than a solo 401(k). You can contribute as much as 20% of your net self-employment income to a SEP IRA, with a $69,000 limit for 2024. You have until the April 2025 tax-filing deadline to establish and fund your SEP for 2024. A SEP IRA is a good option if you have a side gig because you can contribute to both a SEP and your employer’s 401(k) plan. Take RMDs. If you turned 73 in 2024, the deadline to take the first required minimum distribution from your traditional IRAs is April 1, 2025. Otherwise, you must take this year’s RMD by December 31, 2024. (Note that if you delay your first distribution until 2025, you will end up taking two RMDs in 2025, which could lift you into a higher tax bracket for that year.) The law known as SECURE 2.0 Act , enacted in late 2022, lowered the penalty for missed withdrawals from 50% of the amount you should have withdrawn to 25% (or 10% if you correct the missed withdrawal in a timely manner). Still, that’s a significant chunk of your nest egg, so it’s important to get it right the first time. To calculate your RMD , divide your year-end account balance from the previous year by the IRS life expectancy factor based on your birthday in the current year. Your plan provider (or providers) should calculate RMDs for you, or you can use the IRS worksheets . If you don’t need the money and are charitably inclined, you can reduce taxes on your RMDs by making a qualified charitable distribution before year-end. QCDs allow individuals who are 701⁄2 or older to contribute directly from their IRA to a qualified charity, potentially satisfying all or part of their RMDs. In 2024, you can transfer up to $105,000 with a QCD. The contribution isn’t deductible, but the distribution will count toward your RMD and will be excluded from your taxable income. For the donation to count as a QCD, the money must be transferred directly from your IRA to charity. Most IRA custodians will require you to fill out a form requesting the charitable payout. The custodian will then either send a check directly to the charity or make a check out to the charity and send it to you to mail to the organization. In either circumstance, get a receipt from the charity to substantiate the donation. Don’t wait until the last minute to do a QCD, because it can take time for the money to go from the IRA to the charity, and the charity must receive the money by December 31 for your contribution to count for 2024. Lower your taxes Round up deductible expenses. In 2024, the standard deduction is $14,600 for singles or $29,200 for married couples who file jointly. That means the majority of taxpayers will claim the standard deduction on their 2024 tax return. But if you’re within shouting range of itemizing, you can lower your tax bill by bunching deductible expenses before year-end. A common way to increase deductions is donating to charity, so if you contribute the same amount every year, consider doubling your donations this year and skipping next year. If your municipality allows you to pay your tax bill early and you haven’t already paid $10,000 in state and local taxes — the maximum you can deduct in 2024 — pay your tax bill due in January in December so you can deduct it from your 2024 taxes. Finally, if you had major surgery or a chronic medical condition in 2024, you may be eligible to deduct a portion of your out-of-pocket expenses. This deduction is limited to unreimbursed medical expenses that exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income, so it’s critical to keep track of all eligible expenses that insurance didn’t cover. Consider scheduling discretionary medical or dental procedures and appointments before year-end to increase your deductible expenses. Take advantage of tax breaks for non-itemizers. Some money-saving tax breaks are available even if you don’t itemize, but you may need to act before year-end to take advantage of them: If you’re an educator who has subsidized the cost of art supplies, whiteboards or other qualifying items for your classroom, you can deduct up to $300 of your out-of-pocket costs. You may also be eligible to claim the deduction for professional development courses if the cost wasn’t covered by your school or another source. If you’re married and your spouse is also an educator, you can deduct up to $600 of eligible classroom expenses as long as you file a joint return. The American Opportunity tax credit is worth up to $2,500 in 2024 to offset the cost of tuition and other eligible expenses incurred by students who are in their first four years of undergraduate study. If you haven’t already maxed out on eligible expenses, prepaying tuition due in January will lower your tax bill. A credit is more valuable than a deduction because it represents a dollar-for-dollar reduction in your tax bill. Joint filers qualify for the full credit if their modified adjusted gross income is $160,000 or less. Single filers get the full amount with modified AGI of $80,000 or less. The credit is gradually reduced to zero for married couples with modified AGI between $160,000 and $180,000 and for single taxpayers with modified AGI between $80,000 and $90,000. If you or someone in your household is in graduate school, you may be eligible for the Lifetime Learning tax credit . With this credit, you can claim 20% of the first $10,000 of out-of-pocket costs for college tuition, fees and books, for a total maximum credit of $2,000. Unlike the American Opportunity credit, the Lifetime Learning credit is not limited to undergraduate educational expenses. Make gifts to reduce the size of your estate. In 2024, you can give away up to $18,000 (or $36,000 as a married couple) to as many people as you’d like without filing a gift tax return. This is a smart strategy for a couple of reasons. Although the current federal estate tax exclusion is $13.61 million ($27.22 million for married couples), it will drop to about $7.5 million ($15 million for married couples) after 2025 unless Congress extends provisions from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act . In addition, 12 states and Washington, D.C., have lower estate tax exemptions than the federal government. Oregon, for example, taxes estates valued at more than $1 million. For the gift to count toward the 2024 exemption, you must give the money away by December 31. You can give away even more money, tax-free, by making direct payments to cover a beneficiary’s medical bills or college tuition costs . There are no limits on the amount you can give as long as the payments are made directly to a medical or educational institution. Check your withholding. There’s still time to take steps to avoid a big tax bill — and possibly an underpayment penalty — when you file your 2024 tax return. Use the IRS’s Tax Withholding Estimator to determine whether you should file a new Form W-4 with your employer and increase the amount of taxes withheld from your paycheck before the end of the year. You’ll need your most recent pay stub and a copy of your 2023 tax return to help estimate your 2024 income. If it looks as though you’re going to owe money when you file your next tax return, the IRS tool will tell you how much extra withholding you should put down on line 4(c) of Form W-4 to catch you up on withholding for the year. Early next year, complete another W-4 for withholding in 2025. In general, you don’t have to worry about an underpayment penalty if you owe less than $1,000 after subtracting withholdings and credits, or if you paid at least 90% of the amount of taxes due for the current year or 100% of taxes due the previous year (whichever is smaller). Don’t buy a tax liability. Thanks to the stock market’s strong performance, you may be tempted to buy additional mutual fund shares. But before you do, make sure you don’t accidentally increase your 2024 tax bill. In December, many mutual funds pay out dividends and capital gains that have built up during the year. If you own shares on what’s known as the ex-dividend date in a taxable account, you’ll have to pay taxes on the payouts, even if you reinvest the money. If you’re planning to invest in a mutual fund, call the fund company or check its website to get the date and estimated amount of year-end distributions so you can time your purchase accordingly. The estimates are often reported as a percentage of a fund’s current share price. Harvest your losses. Because it has been a good year for the stock market, you could be sitting on a lot of winners in your taxable accounts. If you have some losers in your portfolio, consider selling them so you can use the losses to offset some of your gains. These losses can also be used to lower taxes on mutual fund capital gains distributions. You can implement this strategy at any time, but many investors harvest losses near year-end because they can more accurately estimate their capital gains for the year. Unused losses can be carried forward to future years. Get the most out of your health care Use up funds in your flexible spending account. A flexible spending account ( FSA ) allows you to use tax-free money to cover health insurance deductibles, co-payments and other out-of-pocket costs. But you generally have to use the money by December 31 — or March 15 of the following year, if your employer provides a grace period — to avoid forfeiting the unused balance. Among the items you can pay for with money in a health care FSA are medical devices such as hearing aids, blood pressure monitors and canes; over-the-counter drugs, including pain relievers, cough suppressants and allergy medicine; and prescription eyeglasses and contact lenses. See a list of eligible items at the FSA Store . Note: This item first appeared in Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine, a monthly, trustworthy source of advice and guidance. Subscribe to help you make more money and keep more of the money you make here . Related Content Check Out This Savings Calculator 401(k) Plans: What You Need To Know Now Ten Common Estate Planning MistakesAs Americans are beyond burned out, Tricia Hersey’s Nap Ministry preaches the right to rest
Seb Hines had the skill and vision to flip chaos into cohesion and just two years later lead Orlando to Saturday's NWSL title game vs. Washington.
Swiss Re AG ( OTCMKTS:SSREY – Get Free Report ) saw a large decrease in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 24,200 shares, a decrease of 56.9% from the November 30th total of 56,200 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 54,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.4 days. Wall Street Analyst Weigh In A number of analysts have commented on SSREY shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Swiss Re from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Berenberg Bank upgraded Swiss Re to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Citigroup upgraded Swiss Re to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Swiss Re from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Swiss Re from a “strong sell” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy”. Get Our Latest Report on Swiss Re Swiss Re Trading Down 0.5 % About Swiss Re ( Get Free Report ) Swiss Re AG, together with its subsidiaries, provides wholesale reinsurance, insurance, other insurance-based forms of risk transfer, and other insurance-related services worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Property & Casualty Reinsurance, Life & Health Reinsurance, and Corporate Solutions. Featured Articles Receive News & Ratings for Swiss Re Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Swiss Re and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .US to Work With Partners in Syria to Manage Risk After Assad Toppled, Biden Says
Lisa Simpson once said during an episode of “The Simpsons:” What could be more exciting than the savage ballet that is pro football? On Monday night, the entire Simpsons universe gets to experience it in a way not many could have imagined. The prime-time matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys will also take place at Springfield’s Atoms Stadium as part of “The Simpsons Funday Football” alternate broadcast. The altcast will be streamed on ESPN+, Disney+, and NFL+ (on mobile devices). ESPN and ABC have the main broadcast, while ESPN2 will carry the final “ManningCast” of the regular season. The replay will be available on Disney+ for 30 days. Globally, more than 145 countries will have access to either live or on replay. “We’re such huge football fans, and the Simpsons audience and the football audience, I feel, are like the same audience of just American families and football. And the Simpsons are so much a part of the DNA of the American family and culture that for us to, like, mush them together in this crazy video game, it’s so fun,” said Matt Selman, executive producer of “The Simpsons.” While the game is the focal point, the alternate broadcast, in some ways, will resemble a three-hour episode of “The Simpsons.” It starts with Homer eating too many hot dogs and having a dream while watching football. Homer joins the Cowboys in the dream while Bart teams up with the Bengals. Lisa and Marge will be sideline reporters. “That’s the beginning of the story, and the story continues through the entire game until Homer wakes up from his dream at the end of the game. It is like a complete story, and the NFL game will happen in between. It’s just going to be an amazing presentation with tons of surprises,” said Michael “Spike” Szykowny, ESPN’s VP of edit and animation. This is the second year ESPN has done an alternate broadcast for an NFL game. It used the characters from “Toy Story” for last year’s Sunday morning game from London between the Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars. “The Simpsons” has featured many sports-themed episodes during its 35 seasons. Even though “Homer at the Bat” remains the consensus favorite sports episode for many Simpsons fans, there have been football ones such as “Bart Star” and “Lisa The Greek.” There also was a Super Bowl-themed one after Fox’s broadcast of Super Bowl 33 between Denver and Atlanta in 1999. Even though “The Simpsons” remains a staple on Fox’s prime-time schedule, it is part of the Disney family after their acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019. All 35 seasons are on Disney+. The show’s creators have worked with ESPN and the NFL to make sure the look and sound is definitely Simpsonsesque. The theme song is a mash-up of “The Simpsons” opening and “Monday Night Football’s” iconic “Heavy Action.” There have also been pre-recorded skits and bits to use during the broadcast featuring Simpson’s legendary voices Hank Azaria, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, and Yeardley Smith. The telecast will be entirely animated, with the players’ movements in sync with what is happening in real-time on the field. That is done through player-tracking data enabled by the NFL’s Next Gen Stats system and Sony’s Beyond Sports Technology. While Next Gen Stats tracks where players are on the field with a tracking chip in the shoulder pads, there is skeletal data tracking and limb tracking data — which uses 29 points per player — to get closer to the player’s movements. The other data tracking will allow Beyond Sports and Disney to add special characters to the game. For example, there might be a play where Lisa catches the ball and goes 30 yards instead of Cincinnati’s Tee Higgins. “Lisa is much smaller than the rest of the players. So, in real life, the ball would go over her head, but now, with data processing, we can take the ball and make it go exactly into her hands. So for the viewer, it still looks believable, and it all makes sense,” said Beyond Sports co-founder Nicolaas Westerhof. The other major challenge is making “The Simpsons” two-dimensional cartoon characters into 3-D simulations. Szykowny and his team worked to make that a reality over the past couple of months. “That’s a big leap of faith for them to say, hey, we trust you to make our characters 3-D and work with it. Our ESPN creative studio team has done a wonderful job,” Szykowny said. Lisa, Krusty, Nelson, Milhouse and Ralph will be with Bart and the Bengals; while Carl, Barney, Lenny and Moe join up with with Homer and the Cowboys. The broadcast will also feature ESPN personalities Stephen A. Smith, Peyton Manning and Eli Manning. ESPN’s Drew Carter, Mina Kimes and Dan Orlovsky will call the game from Bristol, Connecticut, and also be animated. They will wear Meta Quest Pro headsets to experience the game from Springfield using VR technology. For Kimes, being part of the broadcast and being an animated Simpsons character is a dream come true. She is a massive fan of the show and has a framed photo of Lisa Simpson — who she said is a personal hero and icon — as part of her backdrop when she makes appearances on ESPN NFL shows from her home in Los Angeles. “I didn’t have any input, and I didn’t see anything beforehand, so I wasn’t sure if it would look like me, but it kind of does, which is very funny,” said Kimes, who drew Simpsons characters when she was a kid. “To see the actual staff turn me into one was a dream.” Even though the Bengals (4-8) and Cowboys (5-7) have struggled this season, Selman thinks both teams have personalities that appeal to “The Simpsons” universe. “We were just so lucky also that the Cowboys are sort of like a Homer Simpson-type team, American team, and Mike McCarthy might be a Homer-type guy, one might imagine,” he said. ”And then you have Joe Burrow on the other side who is a cool young, spiky-haired, blonde bad boy -- he’s like Bart. And that fits our character archetypes so perfectly. “If Homer is mad at Bart and has a hot dog dream while watching ’Monday Night Football’, and then it’s basically McCarthy versus Burrow, Homer versus Bart, and that’s the simple father versus son strangling — Homer strangling Bart dynamic that has been part of the show for 35 years. I don’t know if that would have worked as well if it was like Titans versus Jacksonville. We would have found something. We would have made it work.”Syrians rejoice as Assad flees, ending brutal reign
South Korea's democracy held after a 6-hour power play. What does it say for democracies elsewhere? SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A short-lived martial law decree by South Korea's leader last week raised worries about budding authoritarianism around the world. In the end, though, democracy prevailed. President Yoon Suk Yeol announced that he was declaring martial law and giving his government sweeping powers to crack down on protesters, ban political parties and control the media. Members of the military blocked lawmakers from using the legislature's constitutional power to cancel the power grab. But the National Assembly within hours unanimously voted to do so. Ousted Syrian leader Assad flees to Moscow after fall of Damascus, Russian state media say DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Russia media say ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad has fled to Moscow and received asylum from his longtime ally. The reports came hours after a stunning rebel advance swept into Damascus to cheers and ended the Assad family’s 50 years of iron rule. Thousands of Syrians poured into streets echoing with celebratory gunfire, joyful after a stifling, nearly 14-year civil war. But the swiftly moving events raised questions about the future of the country and the wider region. The rebels face the daunting task of healing bitter divisions in a country still split among armed factions. One rebel commander said “we will not deal with people the way the Assad family did." The fall of Bashar Assad after 13 years of war in Syria brings to an end a decades-long dynasty BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad has fled the country. Assad’s departure on Sunday brings to a dramatic close his nearly 14-year struggle to hold onto power in a brutal civil war that became a proxy battlefield for regional and international powers. Assad’s exit stood in stark contrast to his first months as Syria’s unlikely president in 2000, when many hoped he would be a young reformer after three decades of his father’s iron grip. But faced with protests of his rule that erupted in March 2011, Assad turned to his father's brutal tactics to crush dissent. A long stalemate was quickly broken when opposition groups in northwest Syria launched a surprise offensive late last month. Who is Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the leader of the insurgency that toppled Syria's Assad? BEIRUT (AP) — Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the militant leader who led the stunning insurgency that toppled Syria’s President Bashar Assad, has spent years working to remake his public image and that of his fighters. He renounced longtime ties to al-Qaida and depicts himself as a champion of pluralism and tolerance. The extent of that transformation from jihadi extremist to would-be state builder is now put to the test. The 42-year-old al-Golani is labeled a terrorist by the United States. He has not appeared publicly since Damascus fell early Sunday. But he and his insurgent force, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, stand to be a major player in whatever comes next. Trump says he can't guarantee tariffs won't raise US prices and won't rule out revenge prosecutions WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump says he can’t guarantee his promised tariffs on key U.S. foreign trade partners won’t raise prices for American consumers. And he's suggesting once more that some political rivals and federal officials who pursued legal cases against him should be imprisoned. The president-elect made the comments in a wide-ranging interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday. He also touched on monetary policy, immigration, abortion and health care, and U.S. involvement in Ukraine, Israel and elsewhere. Trump often mixed declarative statements with caveats, at one point cautioning “things do change.” The hunt for UnitedHealthcare CEO's elusive killer yields new evidence, but few answers NEW YORK (AP) — Police don’t know who he is, where he is, or why he did it. As the frustrating search for UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killer got underway for a fifth day Sunday, investigators reckoned with a tantalizing contradiction: They have troves of evidence, but the shooter remains an enigma. One conclusion they are confident of, however: It was a targeted attack, not a random one. On Sunday morning, police declined to comment on the contents of a backpack found in Central Park that they believe was carried by the killer. Thompson was shot and killed Wednesday outside of a hotel in Manhattan. Trump calls for immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and says a US withdrawal from NATO is possible WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump is pushing Russian leader Vladimir Putin to act to reach an immediate ceasefire with Ukraine. Trump describes it as part of his active efforts as president-elect to end the war despite being weeks from taking office. Trump also said he would be open to reducing military aid to Ukraine and pulling the United States out of NATO. Those are two threats that have alarmed Ukraine, NATO allies and many in the U.S. national security community. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says any deal would have to pave the way to a lasting peace. The Kremlin's spokesman says Moscow is open to talks with Ukraine. South Korean prosecutors detain ex-defense chief over martial law imposition SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean prosecutors have detained a former defense minister who allegedly recommended last week’s brief but stunning martial law imposition to President Yoon Suk Yeol. Local media say that ex-Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun voluntarily appeared on Sunday at a Seoul prosecutors’ office, where he had his mobile phone confiscated and was detained. A law enforcement official says Kim was later sent to a Seoul detention facility. Kim's detention came a day after Yoon avoided an opposition-led bid to impeach him, with most ruling party lawmakers boycotting a floor vote to prevent a two-thirds majority needed to suspend his presidential powers. Gaza health officials say latest Israeli airstrikes kill at least 14 including children DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinian health officials say Israeli airstrikes in central Gaza have killed at least 14 people including children, while the bombing of a hospital in northern Gaza has wounded a half-dozen patients. Israel’s military continues its latest offensive against Hamas militants in northern Gaza, whose remaining Palestinians have been almost completely cut off from the rest of the territory amid a growing humanitarian crisis. One airstrike flattened a residential building in the urban Bureij refugee camp Sunday afternoon. That's according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah, where the casualties were taken. Trump's return may be a boon for Netanyahu, but challenges abound in a changed Middle East TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is jubilant about President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House. Trump's first term policies skewed heavily in favor of Israel, and he has picked stalwart Israel supporters for key positions in his administration. But much has transpired since Trump left office in early 2021. The turmoil in the Middle East, the lofty ambitions of Netanyahu’s far-right governing coalition and Netanyahu’s own personal relationship with the president-elect could dampen that enthusiasm and complicate what on the surface looks like a seamless alliance.
CHICAGO — With a wave of her bangled brown fingertips to the melody of flutes and chimes, artist, theologian and academic Tricia Hersey enchanted a crowd into a dreamlike state of rest at Semicolon Books on North Michigan Avenue. “The systems can’t have you,” Hersey said into the microphone, reading mantras while leading the crowd in a group daydreaming exercise on a recent Tuesday night. The South Side native tackles many of society’s ills — racism, patriarchy, aggressive capitalism and ableism — through an undervalued yet impactful action: rest. Hersey, the founder of a movement called the Nap Ministry, dubs herself the Nap Bishop and spreads her message to over half a million followers on her Instagram account, @thenapministry . Her first book, “Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto,” became a New York Times bestseller in 2022, but Hersey has been talking about rest online and through her art for nearly a decade. Hersey, who has degrees in public health and divinity, originated the “rest as resistance” and “rest as reparations” frameworks after experimenting with rest as an exhausted graduate student in seminary. Once she started napping, she felt happier and her grades improved. But she also felt more connected to her ancestors; her work was informed by the cultural trauma of slavery that she was studying as an archivist. Hersey described the transformation as “life-changing.” The Nap Ministry began as performance art in 2017, with a small installation where 40 people joined Hersey in a collective nap. Since then, her message has morphed into multiple mediums and forms. Hersey, who now lives in Atlanta, has hosted over 100 collective naps, given lectures and facilitated meditations across the country. She’s even led a rest ritual in the bedroom of Jane Addams , and encourages her followers to dial in at her “Rest Hotline.” At Semicolon, some of those followers and newcomers came out to see Hersey in discussion with journalist Natalie Moore on Hersey’s latest book, “We Will Rest! The Art of Escape,” released this month, and to learn what it means to take a moment to rest in community. Moore recalled a time when she was trying to get ahead of chores on a weeknight. “I was like, ‘If I do this, then I’ll have less to do tomorrow.’ But then I was really tired,” Moore said. “I thought, ‘What would my Nap Bishop say? She would say go lay down.’ Tricia is in my head a lot.” At the event, Al Kelly, 33, of Rogers Park, said some of those seated in the crowd of mostly Black women woke up in tears — possibly because, for the first time, someone permitted them to rest. “It was so emotional and allowed me to think creatively about things that I want to work on and achieve,” Kelly said. Shortly after the program, Juliette Viassy, 33, a program manager who lives in the South Loop and is new to Hersey’s work, said this was her first time meditating after never being able to do it on her own. Therapist Lyndsei Howze, 33, of Printers Row, who was also seated at the book talk, said she recommends Hersey’s work “to everybody who will listen” — from her clients to her own friends. “A lot of mental health conditions come from lack of rest,” she said. “They come from exhaustion.” Before discovering Hersey’s work this spring, Howze said she and her friends sporadically napped together in one friend’s apartment after an exhausting workweek. “It felt so good just to rest in community,” she said. On Hersey’s book tour, she is leading exercises like this across the country. “I think we need to collectively do this,” Hersey explained. “We need to learn again how to daydream because we’ve been told not to do it. I don’t think most people even have a daydreaming practice.” Daydreaming, Hersey said, allows people to imagine a new world. Hersey tells her followers that yes, you can rest, even when your agenda is packed, even between caregiving, commuting, jobs, bills, emails and other daily demands. And you don’t have to do it alone. There is a community of escape artists, she said of the people who opt out of grind and hustle culture, waiting to embrace you. The book is part pocket prayer book, part instruction manual, with art and handmade typography by San Francisco-based artist George McCalman inspired by 19th-century abolitionist pamphlets, urging readers to reclaim their divine right to rest. Hersey directs her readers like an operative with instructions for a classified mission. “Let grind culture know you are not playing around,” she wrote in her book. “This is not a game or time to shrink. Your thriving depends on the art of escape.” The reluctance to rest can be rooted in capitalist culture presenting rest as a reward for productivity instead of a physical and mental necessity. Hersey deconstructs this idea of grind culture, which she says is rooted in the combined effects of white supremacy, patriarchy and capitalism that “look at the body as not human.” American culture encourages grind culture, Hersey said, but slowing down and building a ritual of rest can offset its toxicity. The author eschews the ballooning billion-dollar self-care industry that encourages people to “save enough money and time off from work to fly away to an expensive retreat,” she wrote. Instead, she says rest can happen anywhere you have a place to be comfortable: in nature, on a yoga mat, in the car between shifts, on a cozy couch after work. Resting isn’t just napping either. She praises long showers, sipping warm tea, playing music, praying or numerous other relaxing activities that slow down the body. “We’re in a crisis mode of deep sleep deprivation, deep lack of self-worth, (and) mental health,” said Hersey. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from 2022 , in Illinois about 37% of adults aren’t getting the rest they need at night. If ignored, the effects of sleep deprivation can have bigger implications later, Hersey said. In October, she lectured at a sleep conference at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, where her humanities work was featured alongside research from the world’s top neuroscientists. Jennifer Mundt, a Northwestern clinician and professor of sleep medicine, psychiatry and behavioral sciences, praises Hersey for bringing the issue of sleep and rest to the public. In a Tribune op-ed last year, Mundt argued that our culture focuses too heavily on sleep as something that must be earned rather than a vital aspect of health and that linking sleep to productivity is harmful and stigmatizing. “Linking sleep and productivity is harmful because it overshadows the bevy of other reasons to prioritize sleep as an essential component of health,” Mundt wrote. “It also stigmatizes groups that are affected by sleep disparities and certain chronic sleep disorders.” In a 30-year longitudinal study released in the spring by the New York University School of Social Work, people who worked long hours and late shifts reported the lowest sleep quality and lowest physical and mental functions, and the highest likelihood of reporting poor health and depression at age 50. The study also showed that Black men and women with limited education “were more likely than others to shoulder the harmful links between nonstandard work schedules and sleep and health, worsening their probability of maintaining and nurturing their health as they approach middle adulthood.” The CDC links sleeping fewer than seven hours a day to an increased risk of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and more. Although the Nap Ministry movement is new for her followers, Hersey’s written about her family’s practice of prioritizing rest, which informs her work. Her dad was a community organizer, a yardmaster for the Union Pacific Railroad Co. and an assistant pastor. Before long hours of work, he would dedicate hours each day to self-care. Hersey also grew up observing her grandma meditate for 30 minutes daily. Through rest, Hersey said she honors her ancestors who were enslaved and confronts generational trauma. When “Rest Is Resistance” was released in 2022, Americans were navigating a pandemic and conversations on glaring racial disparities. “We Will Rest!” comes on the heels of a historic presidential election where Black women fundraised for Vice President Kamala Harris and registered voters in a dizzying three-month campaign. Following Harris’ defeat, many of those women are finding self-care and preservation even more important. “There are a lot of Black women announcing how exhausted they are,” Moore said. “This could be their entry point to get to know (Hersey’s) work, which is bigger than whatever political wind is blowing right now.” Hersey said Chicagoans can meet kindred spirits in her environment of rest. Haji Healing Salon, a wellness center, and the social justice-focused Free Street Theater are sites where Hersey honed her craft and found community. In the fall, the theater put on “Rest/Reposo,” a performance featuring a community naptime outdoors in McKinley Park and in its Back of the Yards space. Haji is also an apothecary and hosts community healing activities, sound meditations and yoga classes. “It is in Bronzeville; it’s a beautiful space owned by my friend Aya,” Hersey said, explaining how her community has helped her build the Nap Ministry. “When I first started the Nap Ministry, before I was even understanding what it was, she was like, come do your work here.” “We Will Rest!” is a collection of poems, drawings and short passages. In contrast to her first book, Hersey said she leaned more into her artistic background; the art process alone took 18 months to complete. After a tough year for many, she considers it medicine for a “sick and exhausted” world. “It’s its own sacred document,” Hersey said. “It’s something that, if you have it in your library and you have it with you, you may feel more human.” lazu@chicagotribune.comWashington: Jimmy Carter, the earnest Georgia peanut farmer who as US president struggled with a bad economy and the Iran hostage crisis but brokered peace between Israel and Egypt and later received the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work, died at his home in Plains, Georgia, on Sunday, the Carter Centre said. He was 100. Former US President Jimmy Carter in 1993. “My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” said Chip Carter, the former president’s son. “My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honouring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.” A Democrat, he served as president from January 1977 to January 1981 after defeating incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 US election. Carter was swept from office four years later in an electoral landslide as voters embraced Republican challenger Ronald Reagan, the former actor and California governor. Carter lived longer after his term in office than any other US president. Along the way, he earned a reputation as a better former president than he was a president - a status he readily acknowledged. His one-term presidency was marked by the highs of the 1978 Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt, bringing some stability to the Middle East. But it was dogged by an economy in recession, persistent unpopularity and the embarrassment of the Iran hostage crisis that consumed his final 444 days in office. Former president Jimmy Carter celebrating his 85th birthday at the reopening of the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in 2009. Credit: David Whitley/The Carter Centre In recent years, Carter had experienced several health issues including melanoma that spread to his liver and brain. Carter decided to receive hospice care in February 2023 instead of undergoing additional medical intervention. His wife, Rosalynn Carter, died on November 19, 2023, at age 96. He looked frail when he attended her memorial service and funeral in a wheelchair. Carter left office profoundly unpopular but worked energetically for decades on humanitarian causes. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 in recognition of his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” Carter had been a centrist as governor of Georgia with populist tendencies when he moved into the White House as the 39th US president. He was a Washington outsider at a time when America was still reeling from the Watergate scandal that led Republican Richard Nixon to resign as president in 1974 and elevated Ford from vice president. “I’m Jimmy Carter and I’m running for president. I will never lie to you,” Carter promised with an ear-to-ear smile. Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter pictured at an NFL football game in 2018. Credit: AP Asked to assess his presidency, Carter said in a 1991 documentary: “The biggest failure we had was a political failure. I never was able to convince the American people that I was a forceful and strong leader.” Despite his difficulties in office, Carter had few rivals for accomplishments as a former president. He gained global acclaim as a tireless human rights advocate, a voice for the disenfranchised and a leader in the fight against hunger and poverty, winning the respect that eluded him in the White House. Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts to promote human rights and resolve conflicts around the world, from Ethiopia and Eritrea to Bosnia and Haiti. His Carter Centre in Atlanta sent international election-monitoring delegations to polls around the world. A Southern Baptist Sunday school teacher since his teens, Carter brought a strong sense of morality to the presidency, speaking openly about his religious faith. He also sought to take some pomp out of an increasingly imperial presidency - walking, rather than riding in a limousine, in his 1977 inauguration parade. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, left, President Jimmy Carter, center, and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat begin their second day of peace talks at Camp David, Maryland. Credit: AP The Middle East was the focus of Carter’s foreign policy. The 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, based on the 1978 Camp David accords, ended a state of war between the two neighbours. Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland for talks. Later, as the accords seemed to be unravelling, Carter saved the day by flying to Cairo and Jerusalem for personal shuttle diplomacy. The treaty provided for Israeli withdrawal from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and establishment of diplomatic relations. Begin and Sadat each won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1978. By the 1980 election, the overriding issues were double-digit inflation, interest rates that exceeded 20 per cent and soaring petrol prices, as well as the Iran hostage crisis that brought humiliation to America. These issues marred Carter’s presidency and undermined his chances of winning a second term. Hostage crisis On November 4, 1979, revolutionaries devoted to Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had stormed the US Embassy in Tehran, seized the Americans present and demanded the return of the ousted shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was backed by the United States and was being treated in a US hospital. The first day of occupation of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979 shows US hostages being paraded by their militant Iranian captors. Credit: Getty Images The American public initially rallied behind Carter. But his support faded in April 1980 when a commando raid failed to rescue the hostages, with eight US soldiers killed in an aircraft accident in the Iranian desert. Carter’s final ignominy was that Iran held the 52 hostages until minutes after Reagan took his oath of office on January 20, 1981, to replace Carter, then released the planes carrying them to freedom. In another crisis, Carter protested the former Soviet Union’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by boycotting the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. He also asked the US Senate to defer consideration of a major nuclear arms accord with Moscow. Unswayed, the Soviets remained in Afghanistan for a decade. Carter won narrow Senate approval in 1978 of a treaty to transfer the Panama Canal to the control of Panama despite critics who argued the waterway was vital to American security. He also completed negotiations on full US ties with China. Carter created two new US Cabinet departments - education and energy. Amid high petrol prices, he said America’s “energy crisis” was “the moral equivalent of war” and urged the country to embrace conservation. “Ours is the most wasteful nation on earth,” he told Americans in 1977. In 1979, Carter delivered what became known as his “malaise” speech to the nation, although he never used that word. “After listening to the American people I have been reminded again that all the legislation in the world can’t fix what’s wrong with America,” he said in his televised address. “The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. “The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.” As president, the strait-laced Carter was embarrassed by the behaviour of his hard-drinking younger brother, Billy Carter, who had boasted: “I got a red neck, white socks, and Blue Ribbon beer.” Ronald Reagan Jimmy Carter withstood a challenge from Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination but was politically diminished heading into his general election battle against a vigorous Republican adversary. Reagan, the conservative who projected an image of strength, kept Carter off balance during their debates before the November 1980 election. Jimmy Carter, left, and Ronald Reagan shake hands before their presidential debate in 1980. Credit: AP Reagan dismissively told Carter, “There you go again,” when the Republican challenger felt the president had misrepresented Reagan’s views during one debate. Carter lost the 1980 election to Reagan, who won 44 of the 50 states and amassed an Electoral College landslide. From Georgia James Earl Carter Jr. was born on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, one of four children of a farmer and shopkeeper. He graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1946, served in the nuclear submarine program and left to manage the family peanut farming business. He married his wife, Rosalynn, in 1946, a union he called “the most important thing in my life.” They had three sons and a daughter. Carter became a millionaire, a Georgia state legislator and Georgia’s governor from 1971 to 1975. He mounted an underdog bid for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination, and out-hustled his rivals for the right to face Ford in the general election. With Walter Mondale as his vice presidential running mate, Carter was given a boost by a major Ford gaffe during one of their debates. Ford said that “there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration,” despite decades of just such domination. Carter edged Ford in the election, even though Ford actually won more states - 27 to Carter’s 23. Not all of Carter’s post-presidential work was appreciated. Former president George W. Bush and his father, former president George H.W. Bush, both Republicans, were said to have been displeased by Carter’s freelance diplomacy in Iraq and elsewhere. Reuters Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Vale Jimmy Carter US politics Most Viewed in World Loading
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AJ Brown has priceless reaction after mistakenly throwing Eagles touchdown catch into the standsFORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Hailey Van Lith scored 17 points and Madison Connor made four 3-pointers and added 14 points on Sunday to help No. 11 TCU beat Brown 79-47. Van Lith added five assists, five rebounds and three steals and Taylor Bigby scored 11 points for the Horned Frogs. TCU (13-1) has won four games in a row since an 82-54 loss to No. 3 South Carolina on Dec. 8 at the Coast to Coast Challenge. Grace Arnolie hit three 3-pointers in the first five minutes and Olivia Young added another with 4:34 left in the first quarter to give Brown a 12-8 lead. The Horned Frogs responded with a 9-2 run to close the period, scored 12 of the first 14 second-quarter points to extend their lead to 13 points and took a 34-25 lead into the intermission. Bigby hit a 3 to open the scoring in the third quarter and TCU led by double figures the rest of the way. The Horned Frogs outrebounded Brown 54-28, including 20-6 on the offensive glass which led to TCU outscoring the Bears 27-5 in second-chance points. Isabell Mauricio led Brown with 17 points on 7-of-16 shooting Brown (6-7). The rest of the Bears players combined to made 10 of 41 (24.4%) from the field. Arnolie added 13 points. TCU made 11 3-pointers on 27 attempts (41%) and the Horned Frogs' 148 this season are the most in Division I. ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball