https ssbet77 net Youths, seniors roped in for policingKaylene Smikle scored 16 points and made a couple of key baskets down the stretch to help the No. 10 Maryland women’s basketball team hold off George Mason, 66-56, in a matchup of unbeatens Saturday afternoon at the Navy Classic in Annapolis. Maryland (7-0) led by as many as 15 points in the second quarter, but George Mason (6-1) rallied and took the lead late in the third. The Terrapins led by two with just more than three minutes to play when Smikle stole the ball and made a layup while being fouled. The free throw pushed the lead to 58-53, and a putback by Smikle put Maryland up by seven.

Budget Blinds Announces Strategic Changes to Executive Leadership TeamMike Evans Reveals True Feelings on 1,000-Yard Streak

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Pick your adjective to describe the Kansas City Chiefs this season — charmed, serendipitous, fortunate or just plain lucky — and it probably fits, and not just because they keep winning games that come down to the wire. Every time they need help at a position, they've found someone sitting on the couch, seemingly waiting for their call. First it was wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, who returned to the Chiefs just before the season after Marquise Brown was lost to shoulder surgery. Then it was running back Kareem Hunt, who likewise returned to his former team when Isiah Pacheco broke his fibula. Left tackle D.J. Humphries came next when other options at the position were struggling, and this week it was Steven Nelson, who came out of retirement to help a secondary that has struggled for weeks. "Just got an opportunity, got a call. Was very excited about it," said Nelson, who spent his first four seasons in Kansas City before stints in Pittsburgh and Houston, and ultimately calling it quits in June so he could spend more time with his family. "I've got two daughters and been spending a lot of time with him," Nelson said, "but still trying to work out. It was kind of the perfect scenario, getting the call, especially where this team has been and this point in the season. Great opportunity." It's been a perfect opportunity for all of them. Perfect fits for the Chiefs, too. Each could have signed just about anywhere else and been able to contribute, yet they were still sitting around when Chiefs general manager Brett Veach reached out. In the case of Smith-Schuster, Hunt and Humphries, there were some concerns about injuries that had kept some teams away, but the Chiefs were willing to take a risk on them. Smith-Schuster, who has dealt with knee trouble for years, missed some time with a hamstring injury this season. But he still has 202 yards and a touchdown receiving, and has provided some veteran leadership in the locker room. Hunt was coming off a sports hernia surgery, a big reason why the Browns — whom the Chiefs visit Sunday — declined to bring him back after five years spent in a one-two punch with Nick Chubb. But when Pacheco went down, Hunt stepped in and their offense barely missed a beat; he has run for a team-leading 608 yards and five touchdowns in 10 games. Humphries was still rehabbing a torn ACL at the start of the season, but the former Pro Bowl tackle was cleared just before the Chiefs called him. Kingsley Suamataia and Wanya Morris had struggled to protect Patrick Mahomes' blind side, so they brought in Humphries to help out. And while he hurt his hamstring late in his debut last week against the Chargers, the Chiefs still hope he'll be recovered and fully up to speed in time for the stretch run and the playoffs. "I'm in Kansas City, bro. I'm pretty ecstatic. It don't get much better than this," Humphries said. "Everybody is excited for me to be here and that's a really good feeling. You're getting All-Pro guys' arms outstretched, like, 'We're so glad you're here.'" The providential signings don't stop at those four players, either. When the Chiefs lost kicker Harrison Butker to knee surgery, they signed Spencer Shrader off the Jets practice squad, and he promptly kicked a game-winner against Carolina. But then Shrader hurt his hamstring and landed on injured reserve. The 49ers had just waived Matthew Wright, and the Chiefs signed him up. He's gone 8 for 9 on field-goal tries, has been perfect on PATs, and banged the game-winner off the upright and through last week against Los Angeles. Just like Smith-Schuster, Hunt and Nelson, Wright had been with Kansas City a couple of years ago. "It definitely helps, him knowing how we do things, how we practice and what we expect," Chiefs special teams coach Dave Toub said. "That all helped, for sure. And he's a veteran. He's been a lot of places. It wasn't like he was a rookie off the street." Or off the couch, for that matter. NOTES: Butker planned to kick again Thursday and could come off IR to face the Browns on Sunday. "He looked good," Toub said. "We have to see how he responds." ... Humphries (hamstring) did not practice Thursday. RT Jawaan Taylor (knee) was limited. ... SS Justin Reid will likely handle kickoffs against Cleveland. He has a stronger leg than Wright and also puts another athletic and adept tackler on the field on special teams.

Top war-crimes court issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu and others in Israel-Hamas fightingWith bowl drought quenched, Matt Rhule eager to see Nebraska football set new 'standard'DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — David Early scored 10 points as Radford beat Chicago State 63-48 on Monday. Early shot 3 of 6 from the field and 4 of 4 from the free-throw line for the Highlanders (5-2). Isaiah Gaines, Truth Harris and Jarvin Moss all added nine points. Jalen Forrest finished with 12 points and six rebounds for the Cougars (0-7). Story continues below video The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House shut down Democrats' efforts Thursday to release the long-awaited ethics report into former Rep. Matt Gaetz , pushing the fate of any resolution to the yearslong investigation of sexual misconduct allegations into further uncertainty. The nearly party-line votes came after Democrats had been pressing for the findings to be published even though the Florida Republican left Congress and withdrew as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., was the sole Republican to support the effort. Most Republicans have argued that any congressional probe into Gaetz ended when he resigned from the House. Speaker Mike Johnson also requested that the committee not publish its report, saying it would be a terrible precedent to set. While ethics reports have previously been released after a member’s resignation, it is extremely rare. Shortly before the votes took place, Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., who introduced one of the bills to force the release, said that if Republicans reject the release, they will have “succeeded in sweeping credible allegations of sexual misconduct under the rug.” Gaetz has repeatedly denied the claims. Earlier Thursday, the Ethics panel met to discuss the Gaetz report but made no decision, saying in a short statement that the matter is still being discussed. It's unclear now whether the document will ever see the light of day as lawmakers only have a few weeks left before a new session of Congress begins. It's the culmination of weeks of pressure on the Ethics committee's five Republicans and five Democrats who mostly work in secret as they investigate allegations of misconduct against lawmakers. The status of the Gaetz investigation became an open question last month when he abruptly resigned from Congress after Trump's announcement that he wanted his ally in the Cabinet. It is standard practice for the committee to end investigations when members of Congress depart, but the circumstances surrounding Gaetz were unusual, given his potential role in the new administration. Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., the committee chairman, said Wednesday that there is no longer the same urgency to release the report given that Gaetz has left Congress and stepped aside as Trump's choice to head the Justice Department. “I’ve been steadfast about that. He’s no longer a member. He is no longer going to be confirmed by the Senate because he withdrew his nomination to be the attorney general,” Guest said. The Gaetz report has also caused tensions between lawmakers on the bipartisan committee. Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the panel, publicly admonished Guest last month for mischaracterizing a previous meeting to the press. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing and said last year that the Justice Department’s separate investigation against him into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls ended without federal charges. His onetime political ally Joel Greenberg , a fellow Republican who served as the tax collector in Florida’s Seminole County, admitted as part of a plea deal with prosecutors in 2021 that he paid women and an underage girl to have sex with him and other men. The men were not identified in court documents when he pleaded guilty. Greenberg was sentenced in late 2022 to 11 years in prison.

Darius Tahir | (TNS) KFF Health News President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to run the sprawling government agency that administers Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act marketplace — celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz — recently held broad investments in health care, tech, and food companies that would pose significant conflicts of interest. Oz’s holdings, some shared with family, included a stake in UnitedHealth Group worth as much as $600,000, as well as shares of pharmaceutical firms and tech companies with business in the health care sector, such as Amazon. Collectively, Oz’s investments total tens of millions of dollars, according to financial disclosures he filed during his failed 2022 run for a Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat. Trump said Tuesday he would nominate Oz as administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The agency’s scope is huge: CMS oversees coverage for more than 160 million Americans, nearly half the population. Medicare alone accounts for approximately $1 trillion in annual spending, with over 67 million enrollees. UnitedHealth Group is one of the largest health care companies in the nation and arguably the most important business partner of CMS, through which it is the leading provider of commercial health plans available to Medicare beneficiaries. UnitedHealth also offers managed-care plans under Medicaid, the joint state-federal program for low-income people, and sells plans on government-run marketplaces set up via the Affordable Care Act. Oz also had smaller stakes in CVS Health, which now includes the insurer Aetna, and in the insurer Cigna. It’s not clear if Oz, a heart surgeon by training, still holds investments in health care companies, or if he would divest his shares or otherwise seek to mitigate conflicts of interest should he be confirmed by the Senate. Reached by phone on Wednesday, he said he was in a Zoom meeting and declined to comment. An assistant did not reply to an email message with detailed questions. “It’s obvious that over the years he’s cultivated an interest in the pharmaceutical industry and the insurance industry,” said Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a watchdog group. “That raises a question of whether he can be trusted to act on behalf of the American people.” (The publisher of KFF Health News, David Rousseau, is on the CSPI board .) Oz used his TikTok page on multiple occasions in November to praise Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including their efforts to take on the “illness-industrial complex,” and he slammed “so-called experts like the big medical societies” for dishing out what he called bad nutritional advice. Oz’s positions on health policy have been chameleonic; in 2010, he cut an ad urging Californians to sign up for insurance under President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, telling viewers they had a “historic opportunity.” Oz’s 2022 financial disclosures show that the television star invested a substantial part of his wealth in health care and food firms. Were he confirmed to run CMS, his job would involve interacting with giants of the industry that have contributed to his wealth. Given the breadth of his investments, it would be difficult for Oz to recuse himself from matters affecting his assets, if he still holds them. “He could spend his time in a rocking chair” if that happened, Lurie said. In the past, nominees for government positions with similar potential conflicts of interest have chosen to sell the assets or otherwise divest themselves. For instance, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Attorney General Merrick Garland agreed to divest their holdings in relevant, publicly traded companies when they joined the Biden administration. Trump, however, declined in his first term to relinquish control of his own companies and other assets while in office, and he isn’t expected to do so in his second term. He has not publicly indicated concern about his subordinates’ financial holdings. CMS’ main job is to administer Medicare. About half of new enrollees now choose Medicare Advantage, in which commercial insurers provide their health coverage, instead of the traditional, government-run program, according to an analysis from KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News. Proponents of Medicare Advantage say the private plans offer more compelling services than the government and better manage the costs of care. Critics note that Medicare Advantage plans have a long history of costing taxpayers more than the traditional program. UnitedHealth, CVS, and Cigna are all substantial players in the Medicare Advantage market. It’s not always a good relationship with the government. The Department of Justice filed a 2017 complaint against UnitedHealth alleging the company used false information to inflate charges to the government. The case is ongoing. Oz is an enthusiastic proponent of Medicare Advantage. In 2020, he proposed offering Medicare Advantage to all; during his Senate run, he offered a more general pledge to expand those plans. After Trump announced Oz’s nomination for CMS, Jeffrey Singer, a senior fellow at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute, said he was “uncertain about Dr. Oz’s familiarity with health care financing and economics.” Singer said Oz’s Medicare Advantage proposal could require large new taxes — perhaps a 20% payroll tax — to implement. Oz has gotten a mixed reception from elsewhere in Washington. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, the Democrat who defeated Oz in 2022, signaled he’d potentially support his appointment to CMS. “If Dr. Oz is about protecting and preserving Medicare and Medicaid, I’m voting for the dude,” he said on the social platform X. Oz’s investments in companies doing business with the federal government don’t end with big insurers. He and his family also hold hospital stocks, according to his 2022 disclosure, as well as a stake in Amazon worth as much as nearly $2.4 million. (Candidates for federal office are required to disclose a broad range of values for their holdings, not a specific figure.) Amazon operates an internet pharmacy, and the company announced in June that its subscription service is available to Medicare enrollees. It also owns a primary care service , One Medical, that accepts Medicare and “select” Medicare Advantage plans. Oz was also directly invested in several large pharmaceutical companies and, through investments in venture capital funds, indirectly invested in other biotech and vaccine firms. Big Pharma has been a frequent target of criticism and sometimes conspiracy theories from Trump and his allies. Kennedy, whom Trump has said he’ll nominate to be Health and Human Services secretary, is a longtime anti-vaccine activist. During the Biden administration, Congress gave Medicare authority to negotiate with drug companies over their prices. CMS initially selected 10 drugs. Those drugs collectively accounted for $50.5 billion in spending between June 1, 2022, and May 31, 2023, under Medicare’s Part D prescription drug benefit. At least four of those 10 medications are manufactured by companies in which Oz held stock, worth as much as about $50,000. Related Articles National Politics | After Trump’s Project 2025 denials, he is tapping its authors and influencers for key roles National Politics | Republicans push back against Democrats’ claims that Trump intelligence pick Gabbard is compromised National Politics | Trump 2.0 has a Cabinet and executive branch of different ideas and eclectic personalities National Politics | Senators took down one Trump Cabinet pick. But the fight over their authority is just beginning National Politics | Trump chooses Bessent to be treasury secretary, Vought as budget chief, Chavez-DeRemer for Labor Oz may gain or lose financially from other Trump administration proposals. For example, as of 2022, Oz held investments worth as much as $6 million in fertility treatment providers. To counter fears that politicians who oppose abortion would ban in vitro fertilization, Trump floated during his campaign making in vitro fertilization treatment free. It’s unclear whether the government would pay for the services. In his TikTok videos from earlier in November, Oz echoed attacks on the food industry by Kennedy and other figures in his “Make America Healthy Again” movement. They blame processed foods and underregulation of the industry for the poor health of many Americans, concerns shared by many Democrats and more mainstream experts. But in 2022, Oz owned stakes worth as much as $80,000 in Domino’s Pizza, Pepsi, and US Foods, as well as more substantial investments in other parts of the food chain, including cattle; Oz reported investments worth as much as $5.5 million in a farm and livestock, as well as a stake in a dairy-free milk startup. He was also indirectly invested in the restaurant chain Epic Burger. One of his largest investments was in the Pennsylvania-based convenience store chain Wawa, which sells fast food and all manner of ultra-processed snacks. Oz and his wife reported a stake in the company, beloved by many Pennsylvanians, worth as much as $30 million. ©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Australia passed one of the strictest internet crackdowns in the world last month, banning children under 16 from being on social media or opening new accounts. The law, which takes effect a year from now, holds social media companies responsible for verifying kids' ages. Not complying could trigger fines up to nearly $50 million. The law came over the objections of social media companies, which have criticized it as a form of free speech suppression. Tech companies have also argued that blocking kids from being on social media will drive them to darker, less regulated corners of the internet. The law's passage comes as scrutiny intensifies in Washington over legislating online safety protections for children, with proposals under debate that would hold platforms responsible for exposing young users to dangerous, hateful or toxic content online. From Silicon Valley to state capitals, all eyes are on how Australia's law will be implemented, and the person tasked with enforcing the law is Julie Inman Grant, Australia's eSafety Commissioner, the country's top internet regulator. NPR spoke with Grant about what led to the social media ban, what enforcement looks like and how her agency plans to address the unintended consequences of criminalizing the use of social media for kids under 16. The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity. For our American audience, can you just explain what the eSafety Commission does? Grant: The eSafety Commission was set up nine years ago, in 2015, and has been the first online safety regulator in the world. Part of our function is to provide research, prevention, education — and then we've got complaint schemes for kids who are being cyberbullied. For all Australians who've experienced image-based abuse with the non-consensual sharing of deepfakes and intimate images, for instance. And then we do a lot of work around assessing tech trends, becoming an anticipatory regulator so that as new technology paradigms shift and move our way, we're prepared to address them The new law draws a line at 16 years old, that anyone under that age should not be able to access social media. Why 16? Grant: We've set out arbitrary numbers for the age of a child for a long time. Many social media apps require users to be 13. But it really depends on the actual circumstances of the child. Do they have parental supervision? Do they have underlying mental health issues? What kind of content are they looking at, and for how long? So a whole range of things are important. The prime minister decided to go with 16, but there were other proposals for 14, or 15. There are a lot of questions about how age verification will work. A proposal to require government-issued IDs was nixed over privacy concerns. Using facial recognition technology, or biometric scanning, has been discussed. How will these kinds of systems work? Grant: There are really only three ways you can verify someone's age online, and that's through ID, through behavioral signals or through biometrics. And all have privacy implications. There was big concern with providing government ID. But there are digital identity providers, like one called Yoti, that can estimate someone's age using facial recognition technology. But we do want to make sure there is not discrimination, or bias, and some of these technologies are less accurate depending on the kind of face being scanned. I met with an age assurance provider last week in Washington, D.C., who is using an AI-based system that looks at hand movements and has a 99% success rate. Wait, what? Using hand movements to confirm someone's age? Grant: Yes. Say you do a peace sign then a fist to the camera. It follows your hand movements. And medical research has shown based on your hand movement, it can identify your age. So there are some innovative solutions out there. But whatever social media companies end up using, it's going to be balanced against privacy, and it must ensure it does not undermine a user's security. Research that's examined the link between social media use and teens' emotional states has come back mixed. There really is not a super clear causal link between greater use of social media and upticks in anxiety and depression among teens. So knowing this, isn't this law based on a false premise? Grant: For teens in marginalized communities, like the LGBTQA+ community, or teens with disabilities, or those who are neurodivergent, our own research has shown that online communities can provide a space for them to feel more at home — almost provide a lifeline — but also be places of hate. So both of these issues have been raised. I think the genesis of this movement has been Jonathan Haidt, author of the book The Anxious Generation , and he even admits some of the research is mixed. And it's true that it is not necessarily causal. But in many circumstances, it's certainly correlational. And this law is focused on the addictive design and features, and dark patterns that emerge on social media platforms. Now, messaging services and gaming apps will be exempt. The Minister of Communication will ultimately decide which platforms are in and which are out. And I will do my own separate analysis and make recommendations. Companies, like TikTok, have said pushing under-16 teens away from established social media apps could make young people drift toward darker corners of the internet where there are no rules or safety measures in place. What's your response to that? Grant: I believe we should approach online safety the same way we have water safety. And what I mean by that is: Decades ago, there were tragic backyard drownings in swimming pools. So Australia made a decisive decision that all pools would be fenced, and that would be backed by enforcement. But we don't try and fence the ocean because that's futile. What we do is we teach our children to swim at the youngest age, just like we need to teach them digital literacy. We teach them to swim between the flags. We have lifeguards. We have shark nets where we know there are predators and we teach them about rip [tides]. And you could use the analogy of the algorithmic rip. We want to keep them swimming between the flags where there is supervision, so they aren't going to the darker, murkier waters where there is no supervision. So I think that is a reasonable concern. And the reason I refer to this as a social media restriction rather than a total ban is that messaging and gaming sites and anything that delivers education or health care information, like community forums, will be exempted. I talked to a 15-year-old in Australia who can't imagine living, or being social, without social media. What do you say to other teens who feel that way? Grant: I've been having high-level discussions with social media companies. And there's the possibility that some of the social media functionality could be removed, rather than an entire app being blocked off, to ensure those dark patterns and addictive design features are addressed. And maybe when they turn 16, the full functionality of the social media app can be enabled — whether that's the Snap Map, or being able to post Reels on Instagram. When this law takes effect, on Dec. 10, 2025, there's not going to be some switch that's flipped off. Every user under 16 will not automatically have their apps disappear. The first thing we've tasked social media companies with doing is identifying who all the under 16-year-old users are on their platforms. We did research in September of this year finding that 84% of 8- to 12-year-olds are already on social media. And interestingly, we asked, "Were your parents or any adults aware that you were setting up these social media accounts early?" And 80% of them said yes. And in 90% of cases, it was parents that helped them set up their accounts. So I wouldn't say it's necessarily willful blindness, but, to date, social media companies may not even exactly know how many under-16-year-old users are on their platforms. The onus to date has been falling on the parents and the children themselves, and this law is the government making a very definitive statement and saying: We need to put the burden back on you, companies, just like we did with car manufacturers 60 years ago with seatbelts. And now, there's so much lifesaving technology in our cars, like anti-lock brakes and airbags, that we take for granted. Back then, the car manufacturers pushed back, but now they compete on safety. This law is really aimed at making normative change, that the onus should fall on platforms.Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said it has donated $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration fund. The donation comes just weeks after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with Trump privately at Mar-a-Lago. A Meta spokesperson confirmed the offering Thursday. The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Stephen Miller, who has been appointed deputy chief of staff for Trump's second term, has said that Zuckerberg, like other business leaders, wants to support Trump's economic plans. The tech CEO has been seeking to change his company's perception on the right following a rocky relationship with Trump. Trump was kicked off Facebook following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The company restored his account in early 2023. RELATED STORY | Meta's Mark Zuckerberg is the second richest person in the world. Here's who he just outranked During the 2024 campaign, Zuckerberg did not endorse a candidate for president but has voiced a more positive stance toward Trump. Earlier this year, he praised Trump's response to his first assassination attempt. Still, Trump had continued to attack Zuckerberg publicly during the campaign. In July, he posted a message on his own social network Truth Social threatening to send election fraudsters to prison in part by citing a nickname he used for the Meta CEO. "ZUCKERBUCKS, be careful!" Trump wrote. Corporations have traditionally made up a large share of donors to presidential inaugurals, with an exception in 2009, when then-President-elect Barack Obama refused to accept corporate donations. He reversed course for his second inaugural in 2013. Facebook did not donate to either Biden's 2021 inaugural or Trump's 2017 inaugural. Google donated $285,000 each to Trump first inaugural and Biden's inaugural, according to Federal Election Commission records. Inaugural committees are required to disclose the source of their fundraising, but not how they spend the money. Microsoft gave $1 million to Obama's second inaugural, but only $500,000 to Trump in 2017 and Biden in 2021. RELATED STORY | Celebrity private jet-tracking accounts suspended by Meta without reason, college student claimsCaves of Qud isn’t a new game by any means. Over 15 years of development, Freehold Games has built a community of passionate players over a long period of early access. But on Wednesday, Caves of Qud finally enjoyed a 1.0 launch, and is available for sale on Steam , Itch.io , and GOG . It’s not easy to categorize Caves of Qud , because it covers so much ground — quite literally, since it’s generating an entire world full of ancient ruins, toxic jungles, scattered settlements, mutants, beasts, clones, sentient bears, and mysterious robots. It’s advertised as a “science fantasy roguelike epic” and a “deep simulation” that allows the players to do basically anything. Thanks to all the technology and magic of the setting, that can be anything from arguing with a sentient plant to becoming a spider and trapping your enemies in webs. The 1.0 update adds a tutorial to teach the basics of the game, which was sorely needed, and adds a final quest to the main questline that initiates the end of the game. There are several new music tracks, as well as sound effects. Players can also earn 40 new achievements, find new items, and enjoy lots of minor bug fixes and quality of life changes. The obvious comparison to draw here is to Dwarf Fortress , another visually simple but stunningly complex game that simulates every aspect of the environment. Much like Dwarf Fortress , a run-through of Caves of Qud is similarly spicy and unique. The game originally only had permadeath, but the Roleplay and Wander modes are much more casual and allow for exploration of this strange new world. Gaming PC

TEHRAN – Alireza Bigdeli, Iran's newly appointed head of mission in Kabul, has commenced his duties in Afghanistan. Bigdeli arrived in Kabul on Saturday and was greeted by senior Afghan officials. This appointment follows Bigdeli's extensive diplomatic career, including service as Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Consular Affairs and ambassadorial postings to Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Cyprus. His selection as head of mission was announced by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on November 24th. Upon his arrival, Bigdeli received an official welcome from the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He succeeds Hassan Kazemi Qomi, who also served as the Iranian president’s special representative in Afghanistan. In his inaugural address after arriving in Afghanistan, Bigdeli expressed, “It is a privilege to represent the Islamic Republic of Iran in Afghanistan in this new capacity.” He emphasized that a key priority for the Iranian embassy's mission in Afghanistan is to foster friendly relations, drawing on the numerous shared interests between the two nations.Jets' Ulbrich says Rodgers 'absolutely' remains the team's starting quarterbackSelf-regulation is the only way to avoid government interference in regulating news media, two industry bodies representing news channels, magazines and newspapers told the parliamentary standing committee on communication and information technology on Thursday. The Editors Guild of India (EGI) and the News Broadcasters & Digital Association (NBDA), along with senior officials from the ministry of information and broadcasting, deposed before the committee led by BJP Lok Sabha MP Nishikant Dubey. The discussion centered on weaponisation of laws to curb press freedom, functioning of the government’s fact-check unit, and issues with communal and fake news on news channels. EGI, NBDA and the ministry have been given 10 days to submit written responses to the Lok Sabha secretariat addressing questions raised by committee members. EGI said various laws, including the Information Technology Act, were being weaponised to curb press freedom. The guild highlighted section 353 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita that carries up to three years in jail and/or a fine for publishing false information with intent to create enmity. The EGI said the definitions under the law are vague and prone to abuse. The guild also noted that in September 2024, the Bombay high court had struck down the central government’s attempt to establish a state-run fact-check unit through a 2023 amendment to the IT Rules as unconstitutional. Ministry officials, including joint secretary C Senthil Rajan, said since the amendment was struck down, the Press Information Bureau’s fact-check unit could only label misleading content related to the central government but couldn’t issue takedown notices. To be sure, the amendment did not clarify whether the government’s FCU would have had takedown powers, a point of confusion that was argued at length during the court proceedings in Bombay HC. In the meeting, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale cited two instances where false information was spread by government officials themselves but was not fact checked by the PIB FCU. First, when Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson for the ministry of external affairs, in a public statement said that the blocking of the social media handles of Australia Today in Canada after it carried an interview with foreign minister S Jaishankar “highlights the hypocrisy of Canada towards freedom of speech” even though the handles had been blocked by Meta because of the platform’s May 2023 decision to end the availability of news content on its platforms in Canada. Second, when Jaishankar and defence minister Rajnath Singh claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had got the Ukraine-Russia war paused. Gokhale asked whether the government of India and its ministers and officials were exempted from being fact checked by the PIB FCU even as the unit fact checks individuals on social media and news organisations. He also asked for details about the FCU’s methodology and for information about how many misleading or false claims by the central government itself had been fact checked by the PIB FCU. MIB officials said that the PIB FCU did not take suo motu cognisance of content to fact check through its social media handles; it relied on complaints being made to it and no complaints had been made about false claims by government officials. The parliamentarians asked for a written submission to that effect. Dubey, in the meeting, said that PIB was set up to spread information about the central government and was responsible for and answerable to the government, not to the people. Gokhale asked MIB officials about the watermarked version of the Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill that was circulated among select stakeholders in July which was ultimately withdrawn. Regulating news channels NBDA chairperson Rajat Sharma told the committee that the news broadcasters who are members of the NBDA do not interfere with the functioning of its adjudicatory arm, the News Broadcasting & Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA), which is chaired by retired Supreme Court judge Justice AK Sikri. Sharma told the committee that a number of media houses become members of the NBDA but when the NBDSA issues orders against them, they leave the self-regulatory body so that they do not have to comply. He said that the NBDA cannot force people to join as it is a voluntary exercise. Anuradha Prasad, honorary treasurer of the NBDA (chairperson and MD of News24), suggested to the committee that the government should make registering with a self-regulatory body an obligatory licence condition for news channels, a suggestion that Dubey echoed to MIB officials. Gokhale said that penalty amounts imposed by NBDSA are restricted to a maximum of ₹ 5 lacs, a paltry amount for shows such as Sharma’s whose advertising revenue for an hour-long show runs in high double digit lacs. The TMC MP asked how such small amounts could act as effective deterrent. Sharma informed the committee that the NBDA was considering revising the penalty to ₹ 25 lacs. Gokhale also said that there was no separate mechanism for channels that repeatedly flouted standards and instead, each offence was treated as the first offence. Sharma said that that would be placed before the board. Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi also alleged that NBDA/NBDSA was not acting against repeat offenders such as News18 that routinely broadcast “communally-charged, misleading and false news”. She cited independent fact checker AltNews’s data as per which despite there being more than 300 instances of News18 broadcasting communal programming, NBDA/NBDSA took action in only five instances. Lok Sabha MPs Devesh Shakya (Samajwadi Party, Uttar Pradesh) and Rajesh Verma (Lok Jan Shakti Party (Ram Vilas), Bihar) raised the issue of local cable news channel operators and YouTubers who ran “extortion rackets” where they blackmail politicians into paying them money for not running false and damaging stories about them. MIB officials said local cable operators were regulated by the district collector or magistrate. Dubey said that it was unfair of the MIB to hold the district collector or the magistrate responsible for this when they were already burdened by other duties. He told the MIB that the ministry couldn’t absolve itself of responsibility. Gokhale also raised the question of how social media posts from personal accounts and public appearances from channel editors and owners were regulated by the NBDA. AI generated false news Sharma said that he himself had been a target of deepfakes where deepfakes of him selling some medicines for diabetes were being shared on social media. Chaturvedi raised the issue of news channels broadcasting the AI generated voice notes posted by the BJP on the eve of the Maharashtra assembly elections on Tuesday. She said that all channels continued to run the synthetic voice notes as fact without comparing them to their existing archives with the voices of the public personalities. It is only on Wednesday, after independent fact checker Boom said that three of the four voice notes were definitely fake, that some news channels started fact checking the BJP’s tweets, she said in the meeting. She asked the NBDA if it circulated any advisories to its members, telling them to fact check if one of the members had done so, and how the agenda for prime time debate shows was set. In response, Prasad, in the meeting, said that political parties also had to take responsibility for the amount of fake news being put out as they had entire ecosystems (referring to ‘troll armies’ and ‘IT cells’) spreading misinformation. Issues with the Press Council of India The EGI also raised concerns about the Press Council of India, especially about the selection of its chairperson. The EGI said that the PCI had become partisan and instead of being accountable to the Parliament, as required under the Press Council of Act, 1978, it had been cornered by the executive. Dubey said that the rules around the selection of the PCI chairperson had remained unchanged since 1978 to which EGI said that it was not just the current government but each successive government that had made the PCI toothless. The guild offered to submit a written submission about the problems with the selection of the PCI chair, an offer that was accepted by Dubey. Under the PCI Act, the PCI chair is nominated by a committee made up of the Rajya Sabha chairperson, the Lok Sabha Speaker and a person elected by a Council that is nominated by the central government.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday threatened 100% tariffs against a bloc of nine nations if they act to undermine the U.S. dollar. His threat was directed at countries in the so-called BRIC alliance, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have applied to become members and several other countries have expressed interest in joining. While the U.S. dollar is by far the most-used currency in global business and has survived past challenges to its preeminence, members of the alliance and other developing nations say they are fed up with America’s dominance of the global financial system . The dollar represents roughly 58% of the world’s foreign exchange reserves, according to the IMF and major commodities like oil are still primarily bought and sold using dollars. The dollar's dominance is threatened, however, with BRICS' growing share of GDP and the alliance's intent to trade in non-dollar currencies — a process known as de-dollarization. Trump, in a Truth Social post, said: “We require a commitment from these Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency, nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty U.S. Dollar or, they will face 100% Tariffs, and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy." At a summit of BRIC nations in October, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the U.S. of “weaponizing” the dollar and described it as a “big mistake.” “It’s not us who refuse to use the dollar,” Putin said at the time. “But if they don’t let us work, what can we do? We are forced to search for alternatives.” Russia has specifically pushed for the creation of a new payment system that would offer an alternative to the global bank messaging network, SWIFT, and allow Moscow to dodge Western sanctions and trade with partners. Trump said there is "no chance" BRIC will replace the U.S. dollar in global trade and any country that tries to make that happen "should wave goodbye to America.” Research shows that the U.S. dollar's role as the primary global reserve currency is not threatened in the near future. An Atlantic Council model that assesses the dollar’s place as the primary global reserve currency states the dollar is “secure in the near and medium term” and continues to dominate other currencies. Trump's latest tariff threat comes after he threatened to slap 25% tariffs on everything imported from Mexico and Canada, and an additional 10% tax on goods from China, as a way to force the countries to do more to halt the flow of illegal immigration and drugs into the U.S. He has since held a call with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who said Thursday she is confident that a tariff war with the United States can be averted. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau returned home Saturday after meeting Trump, without assurances the president-elect will back away from threatened tariffs on Canada.US News Today Live Updates on December 1, 2024 : Jamie Dimon engages in policy talks with Donald Trump via secret back channels: Report

NEW YORK (AP) — An early rebound for U.S. stocks on Thursday petered out by the end of the day, leaving indexes close to flat. The S&P 500 edged down by 0.1% following Wednesday’s tumble of 2.9% when the Federal Reserve said it may deliver fewer cuts to interest rates next year than earlier thought. The index had been up as much as 1.1% in the morning. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 15 points, or less than 0.1%, following Wednesday’s drop of 1,123 points, while the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.1%. This week’s struggles have taken some of the enthusiasm out of the market, which critics had been warning was overly buoyant and would need everything to go correctly for it to justify its high prices. But indexes remain near their records , and the S&P 500 is still on track for one of its best years of the millennium with a gain of 23%. Traders are now expecting the Federal Reserve to deliver just one or maybe two cuts to interest rates next year, according to data from CME Group. Some are even betting on none. A month ago, the majority saw at least two cuts in 2025 as a safe bet. Wall Street loves lower interest rates because they give the economy a boost and goose prices for investments, but they can also provide fuel for inflation. Micron Technology was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500 Thursday. It fell 16.2% despite reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than expected. The computer memory company’s revenue fell short of Wall Street’s forecasts, and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said it expects demand from consumers to remain weaker in the near term. It gave a forecast for revenue in the current quarter that fell well short of what analysts were thinking. Lamb Weston, which makes French fries and other potato products, dropped 20.1% after falling short of analysts’ expectations for profit and revenue in the latest quarter. It also cut its financial targets for the fiscal year, saying demand for frozen potatoes is continuing to soften, particularly outside North America. The company replaced its chief executive. Such losses helped overshadow a 14.7% jump for Darden Restaurants, the company behind Olive Garden and other chains. It delivered profit for the latest quarter that edged past analysts’ expectations. The operator of LongHorn Steakhouses also gave a forecast for revenue for this fiscal year that topped analysts’. Accenture rose 7.1% after the professional services company likewise topped expectations for profit in the latest quarter. CEO Julie Sweet said it saw growth around the world, and the company raised its forecast for revenue this fiscal year. Amazon shares added 1.3%, even as workers at seven of its facilities went on strike Thursday in the middle of the online retail giant’s busiest time of the year. Amazon says it doesn’t expect an impact on its operations during what the workers’ union calls the largest strike against the company in U.S. history. In the bond market, yields were mixed a day after shooting higher on expectations that the Fed would deliver fewer cuts to rates in 2025. Reports on the U.S. economy came in mixed. One showed the overall economy grew at a 3.1% annualized rate during the summer, faster than earlier thought. The economy has remained remarkably resilient even though the Fed held its main interest rate at a two-decade high for a while before beginning to cut them in September. A separate report showed fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, an indication that the job market also remains solid. But a third report said manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region is unexpectedly contracting again despite economists’ expectations for growth. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.57% from 4.52% late Wednesday and from less than 4.20% earlier this month. But the two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for action by the Fed in the near term, eased back to 4.31% from 4.35%. The rise in longer-term yields has put pressure on the housing market by keeping mortgage rates higher. Homebuilder Lennar fell 5.2% after reporting weaker profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Stuart Miller said that “the housing market that appeared to be improving as the Fed cut short-term interest rates, proved to be far more challenging as mortgage rates rose” through the quarter. “Even while demand remained strong, and the chronic supply shortage continued to drive the market, our results were driven by affordability limitations from higher interest rates,” he said. A report on Thursday may have offered some encouragement for the housing industry. It showed a pickup in sales of previously occupied homes. All told, the S&P 500 slipped 5.08 points to 5,867.08. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 15.37 to 42,342.24, and the Nasdaq composite lost 19.92 to 19,372.77. In stock markets abroad, London’s FTSE 100 fell 1.1% after the Bank of England paused its cuts to rates and kept its main interest rate unchanged on Thursday. The move comes as inflation there moved further above the central bank’s 2% target rate, while the British economy is flatlining at best. The Bank of Japan also kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged, and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.7%. Indexes likewise sank across much of the rest of Asia and Europe. AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

Carbon Capture And Storage’s Deal Killer‘Saturday Night Live” alum Kyle Mooney’s directorial debut “Y2K” makes for a fascinating test case for Gen Z’s appetite for all things 2000s. His comedic sensibility, honed through throwback TV parodies on “SNL,” is at once broad and hyper-specific. In the nostalgia piece “Y2K,” he hits the big signposts that will delight the younger generation craving the simpler times of a pre-9/11 world, but he also gets granular with late-’90s music, fashion and culture in a way that one could only understand if they actually lived through it. Zoomers just won’t pick up everything he’s putting down, and that may work against this otherwise exuberant and somewhat messy teen horror-comedy. Mooney and co-writer Evan Winter fuse the “big party” teen-comedy formula to “The Terminator” for their “Y2K” script, but it also feels like they just wrote down everything they could remember from the late-’90s era and threw it at the wall: Enron, the Macarena, PalmPilots, Limp Bizkit, the swing revival. Some are quite obvious and on the nose, others more arcane. Add in some teen-movie tropes, a list of outrageous horror-movie kills and a “TRL”-friendly soundtrack, and that’s essentially the movie. Jaedan Martell, one of the preeminent horror-movie sad boys (see: “It,” “The Lodge,” etc.), plays Eli, a dorky kid who loves his ebullient best friend Danny (Julian Dennison) and has a crush on Laura (Rachel Zegler), whom he hopes to kiss at the big 1999-2000 New Year’s Eve party after he finds out she’s broken up with her college boyfriend (Mason Gooding). But in a bit of revisionist history, the Y2K bug is real — so real, in fact, that all electronic devices and appliances band together into freakish robotic monsters in order to kill the teens, enslave the parents and achieve “the singularity.” Despite the deep wealth of millennium culture on display, “Y2K” doesn’t necessarily feel lived-in — it’s a bit too wink-wink, nudge-nudge with it, and it feels forced, especially with the wall-to-wall needle drops. There are fun nods to era-specific tribes and trends with quick nods to the swing kids, ravers and rap-rock skater types, but where Mooney and Winter’s approach excels is in the deep cuts for the real ’90s-heads out there, like Daniel Zolghadri’s character as CJ, a conscious hip-hop kid, wearing baggy khakis and a bucket hat, scolding his peers for their “corporate” music taste. Mooney is also a standout as Garrett, a burnout video-store clerk with white-guy dreads, who represents jam-band stinky-hippie culture. But references like this will likely sail right over the heads of a Zoomer audience — you simply had to be there in order to get it. Still, there’s something kind of profound in contemplating the year 2000, even if it is refracted through this silly lens. In the 24 years since, it’s been decades of terrorism, war, political instability, a widening wealth gap and rapid technological advancements that have rewired our culture, our brains and how we relate to one another. Perhaps 2000 was indeed a fundamental switch, which Mooney has zeroed in on through the imperfect but amusing “Y2K.” Ultimately, his project is a success, because he made this millennial — who was age 16 in 1999 — profoundly nostalgic for what seems a more innocent time. Get local news delivered to your inbox!

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THE HAGUE (AP) — The world’s top war-crimes court issued arrest warrants Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister and Hamas’ military chief, accusing them of crimes against humanity in connection with the 13-month war in Gaza. The warrants said there was reason to believe Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid and have intentionally targeted civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza — charges Israeli officials deny. The action by the International Criminal Court came as the death toll from Israel’s campaign in Gaza passed 44,000 people, according to local health authorities, who say more than half of those killed were women and children. Their count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. Experts say hunger has become widespread across Gaza and may have reached famine levels in the north of the territory, which is under siege by Israeli troops. Israel says it has been working hard to improve entry of aid, though the trickle of supplies into Gaza remains near the lowest levels of the war. Netanyahu condemned the warrant against him, saying Israel “rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions” by the court. In a statement released by his office, he said: “There is nothing more just than the war that Israel has been waging in Gaza.” Gallant, in a statement, said the decision "sets a dangerous precedent against the right to self-defense and moral warfare and encourages murderous terrorism.” The warrant marked the first time that a sitting leader of a major Western ally has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by a global court of justice. The decision turns Netanyahu and the others into internationally wanted suspects, putting them at risk of arrest when they travel abroad and potentially further isolating them . Israel and its top ally, the United States, are not members of the court. But others of Israel's allies, including some of its close European friends, are put in an awkward position. Several, including France, welcomed the court's decision and signaled they might arrest Netanyahu if he visited. The move “represents the most dramatic step yet in the court’s involvement in the conflict between Israel and Hamas," said Anthony Dworkin, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Israeli leaders, politicians and officials across the spectrum denounced the warrants and the ICC. The new defense minister, Israel Katz, who replaced Gallant earlier this month, said Thursday’s decision is “a moral disgrace, entirely tainted by antisemitism, and drags the international judicial system to an unprecedented low.” Human rights groups applauded the move. The warrants against both sides “break through the perception that certain individuals are beyond the reach of the law,” the associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch, Balkees Jarrah, said in a statement. The decision came six months after ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan requested the warrants. The court issued a warrant for Mohammed Deif, head of Hamas’ armed wing, over the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that triggered Israel’s offensive in Gaza. It said it found reasonable grounds to believe Deif was involved in murder, rape, torture and the taking of hostages amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity. In the Hamas-led attack, militants stormed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and taking some 250 others hostage. Around 100 Israelis remain captive in Gaza, around a third of them believed to be dead. Khan withdrew requests for warrants for two other senior Hamas figures, Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh , who have both since been killed. Israel says it also killed Deif in an airstrike, but Hamas has never confirmed his death. The warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant were issued by a three-judge panel in a unanimous decision. The panel said there were reasonable grounds to believe that both men bear responsibility for the war crime of starvation and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts. The judges said the lack of food, water, electricity, fuel and specific medical supplies created conditions “calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the civilian population in Gaza,” including the deaths of children due to malnutrition and dehydration. They also found that by preventing hospital supplies and medicine from getting into Gaza, doctors were forced to operate, including performing amputations, without anesthesia or with unsafe means of sedation that led to “great suffering.” Israeli diplomatic officials said the government is lobbying the international community to speak out against the warrants and is considering an appeal to the court. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity pending a formal decision on how the government will proceed. Despite the warrants, none of the suspects is likely to face judges in The Hague anytime soon. Member countries are required to detain suspects facing a warrant if they set foot on their soil, but the court has no way to enforce that. For example, Russian President Vladimir Putin, wanted on an ICC warrant for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, recently visited Mongolia, a member state in the court but also a Russian ally. He was not arrested. Still, the threat of arrest now complicates any travel abroad by Netanyahu and Gallant. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the warrants are binding on all 27 members countries of the European Union. France signaled it could arrest Netanyahu if he came to its territory. Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine called it a “complex legal issue” but said France supports the court’s actions. “Combating impunity is our priority,” he said. “Our response will align with these principles.” Hamas in a statement welcomed the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant but made no mention of the one against Deif. Israel’s opposition leaders fiercely criticized the ICC’s move. Benny Gantz, a retired general and political rival to Netanyahu, said it showed “moral blindness” and was a “shameful stain of historic proportion that will never be forgotten.” Israel’s campaign has caused heavy destruction across Gaza and driven almost the entire population of 2.3 million people from their homes, leaving most dependent on aid to survive. Two days after Hamas’ attack on southern Israel, Gallant announced a total seal on Gaza, vowing not to let in food, fuel or other supplies. Under U.S. pressure, Israel began allowing a trickle of humanitarian aid to enter a few weeks later. Israel now says it puts no limit on the supplies permitted into Gaza, and it blames the U.N. distribution system. But Israel's official figures show the amount of aid it has let in has plunged since the beginning of October. The U.N has blamed Israeli military restrictions, along with widespread lawlessness that has led to theft of aid shipments. The case at the ICC is separate from another legal battle Israel is waging at the top U.N. court, the International Court of Justice, in which South Africa accuses Israel of genocide , an allegation Israeli leaders staunchly deny. Lawyers for Israel argued in court that the war in Gaza was a legitimate defense of its people and that it was Hamas militants who were guilty of genocide. Associated Press journalists Raf Casert in Brussels, Mike Corder in The Hague and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.