fortune rabbit como ganhar The son of music legend Isaac Hayes claimed he was harassed by a “Karen in the wild” who told him he should be “white.” Isaac Hayes III, a tech entrepreneur and manager of his father’s estate, posted a video of him being approached by a woman as he was driving to his home in an upmarket suburb of , Georgia. “You trying to get in? Who are you? I’m on the board,” says the woman, who is wearing a leopard-print outfit. “You driving here like a bat out of hell, you drive in and drive out... “F--- you, it’s all ridiculous, we have dogs, we have people and you don’t even care,” she adds. Hayes answers politely, saying he lives in the community and the woman appears to say, “Why don’t you be white?” “Christmas Eve Karen: I’ve never seen a in the wild. Well tonight I had my first up close encounter with one,” Hayes wrote on Instagram, adding: “I stayed calm, I made no sudden movements and got away as quickly as I could. “Outside of preventing me from entering my community, cursing at me and telling me I should be “White.” It’s pretty surreal. White Supremacy is crashin' out all 2025. Be safe.” The incident at the Cobblestone gated community in Brookhaven, Atlanta. Isaac Hayes died in 2008 at the age of 65. He co-wrote Sam & Dave’s classic hits and , and won an Academy Award in 1972 for Best Original Song for the . He also voiced the character of Chef in the long-running Comedy Central show . However Hayes Snr., a Scientologist, parted ways with the show amid its unsparing depictions of the religion and its most famous members. Hayes III said in an interview with that his father didn’t quit over a show skewering the religion but that “someone quit for him.”In a surprising turn of events, China appears to have taken a significant step in military aviation with the potential unveiling of a new sixth-generation crewed combat aircraft. Images surfaced recently showing this previously unseen aircraft conducting daytime flight tests, accompanied by a two-seat Chengdu J-20S fighter. This likely indicates testing occurred at the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) factory airfield. However, details regarding the exact identity and specifications of the aircraft remain unclear, as the Chinese Ministry of Defense has yet to provide any official acknowledgment or comment. China’s heavy stealth jet The most striking feature of this new aircraft is its unique tailless design and modified delta wing. The aircraft displays prominent chine lines extending to the nose, resembling aspects of the J-20 fighter jet’s central fuselage. Although it is difficult to ascertain the configuration of the cockpit from available images, the broad nose raises the possibility of accommodating one or two crew members side by side. The emergence of a tailless configuration aligns with earlier indicators suggesting that China’s next-generation fighter would adopt this design trait. In October 2021, satellite images revealed a similar tailless aircraft shape at the CAC factory, hinting at a larger, diamond-like delta platform. Although that shape does not precisely match the current aircraft, it emphasizes a trend toward modernizing China’s airpower capabilities. The move towards tailless designs is not unique to China; the U.S. military is also exploring this approach because it reduces radar signatures and improves aerodynamic efficiency. These designs enhance performance during long-range missions by minimizing drag, supporting higher speeds, and improving fuel efficiency. However, utilizing a tailless design can present challenges in terms of maneuverability. There are no signs of thrust-vectoring engines—an advancement that typically enhances agility and stability—in this new aircraft, though its exhaust placement may help minimize infrared detection. Tactical shift While the size and design of the aircraft suggest a strong focus on stealth, it remains unclear how its low-observable technologies compare to those utilized in the existing J-20. Even without advanced features, the removal of traditional tail surfaces along with improved aerodynamic design would still represent a substantial leap forward. This aircraft is expected to incorporate new stealth technologies surpassing the J-20. Another noteworthy aspect is the aircraft’s complex array of control surfaces, with five trailing-edge control surfaces per wing, including split flaps near the wingtips. These features provide differential yaw control without traditional tail surfaces and can function as air brakes when needed. Regarding size, comparisons to the J-20 reveal that this new aircraft is likely at least as long as its predecessor, which measures nearly 70 feet. Its twin-wheel main landing gear hints at its substantial weight, indicating a focus on long endurance capabilities with significant internal space designed for fuel, weapons, and advanced sensors. The most unconventional element of this new aircraft is its air intake arrangement. It features an upper fuselage intake alongside two lower fuselage intakes. This design has spurred speculation about an unusual three-engine setup, potentially utilizing three domestically produced WS-10C turbofans similar to those found in the J-20. Given the anticipated weight of this new aircraft, such an engine configuration may be essential to achieving ambitious performance metrics, particularly during sustained high-speed flight. As these developments unfold, the implications for global military aviation dynamics grow increasingly complex, showcasing China’s ongoing advancements in aerospace technology and its commitment to leading modern warfare capabilities.OGDCL enhances oil production from Pasakhi-5 WellIsraeli air strikes on Yemen airport ‘were metres from WHO chief’

Renuka Rayasam | (TNS) KFF Health News In April, just 12 weeks into her pregnancy, Kathleen Clark was standing at the receptionist window of her OB-GYN’s office when she was asked to pay $960, the total the office estimated she would owe after she delivered. Clark, 39, was shocked that she was asked to pay that amount during this second prenatal visit. Normally, patients receive the bill after insurance has paid its part, and for pregnant women that’s usually only when the pregnancy ends. It would be months before the office filed the claim with her health insurer. Clark said she felt stuck. The Cleveland, Tennessee, obstetrics practice was affiliated with a birthing center where she wanted to deliver. Plus, she and her husband had been wanting to have a baby for a long time. And Clark was emotional, because just weeks earlier her mother had died. “You’re standing there at the window, and there’s people all around, and you’re trying to be really nice,” recalled Clark, through tears. “So, I paid it.” On online baby message boards and other social media forums , pregnant women say they are being asked by their providers to pay out-of-pocket fees earlier than expected. The practice is legal, but patient advocacy groups call it unethical. Medical providers argue that asking for payment up front ensures they get compensated for their services. How frequently this happens is hard to track because it is considered a private transaction between the provider and the patient. Therefore, the payments are not recorded in insurance claims data and are not studied by researchers. Patients, medical billing experts, and patient advocates say the billing practice causes unexpected anxiety at a time of already heightened stress and financial pressure. Estimates can sometimes be higher than what a patient might ultimately owe and force people to fight for refunds if they miscarry or the amount paid was higher than the final bill. Up-front payments also create hurdles for women who may want to switch providers if they are unhappy with their care. In some cases, they may cause women to forgo prenatal care altogether, especially in places where few other maternity care options exist. It’s “holding their treatment hostage,” said Caitlin Donovan, a senior director at the Patient Advocate Foundation . Medical billing and women’s health experts believe OB-GYN offices adopted the practice to manage the high cost of maternity care and the way it is billed for in the U.S. When a pregnancy ends, OB-GYNs typically file a single insurance claim for routine prenatal care, labor, delivery, and, often, postpartum care. That practice of bundling all maternity care into one billing code began three decades ago, said Lisa Satterfield, senior director of health and payment policy at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists . But such bundled billing has become outdated, she said. Previously, pregnant patients had been subject to copayments for each prenatal visit, which might lead them to skip crucial appointments to save money. But the Affordable Care Act now requires all commercial insurers to fully cover certain prenatal services. Plus, it’s become more common for pregnant women to switch providers, or have different providers handle prenatal care, labor, and delivery — especially in rural areas where patient transfers are common. Some providers say prepayments allow them to spread out one-time payments over the course of the pregnancy to ensure that they are compensated for the care they do provide, even if they don’t ultimately deliver the baby. “You have people who, unfortunately, are not getting paid for the work that they do,” said Pamela Boatner, who works as a midwife in a Georgia hospital. While she believes women should receive pregnancy care regardless of their ability to pay, she also understands that some providers want to make sure their bill isn’t ignored after the baby is delivered. New parents might be overloaded with hospital bills and the costs of caring for a new child, and they may lack income if a parent isn’t working, Boatner said. In the U.S., having a baby can be expensive. People who obtain health insurance through large employers pay an average of nearly $3,000 out-of-pocket for pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum care, according to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker . In addition, many people are opting for high-deductible health insurance plans, leaving them to shoulder a larger share of the costs. Of the 100 million U.S. people with health care debt, 12% attribute at least some of it to maternity care, according to a 2022 KFF poll . Families need time to save money for the high costs of pregnancy, childbirth, and child care, especially if they lack paid maternity leave, said Joy Burkhard , CEO of the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health, a Los Angeles-based policy think tank. Asking them to prepay “is another gut punch,” she said. “What if you don’t have the money? Do you put it on credit cards and hope your credit card goes through?” Calculating the final costs of childbirth depends on multiple factors, such as the timing of the pregnancy , plan benefits, and health complications, said Erin Duffy , a health policy researcher at the University of Southern California’s Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics. The final bill for the patient is unclear until a health plan decides how much of the claim it will cover, she said. But sometimes the option to wait for the insurer is taken away. During Jamie Daw’s first pregnancy in 2020, her OB-GYN accepted her refusal to pay in advance because Daw wanted to see the final bill. But in 2023, during her second pregnancy, a private midwifery practice in New York told her that since she had a high-deductible plan, it was mandatory to pay $2,000 spread out with monthly payments. Daw, a health policy researcher at Columbia University, delivered in September 2023 and got a refund check that November for $640 to cover the difference between the estimate and the final bill. “I study health insurance,” she said. “But, as most of us know, it’s so complicated when you’re really living it.” While the Affordable Care Act requires insurers to cover some prenatal services, it doesn’t prohibit providers from sending their final bill to patients early. It would be a challenge politically and practically for state and federal governments to attempt to regulate the timing of the payment request, said Sabrina Corlette , a co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University. Medical lobbying groups are powerful and contracts between insurers and medical providers are proprietary. Because of the legal gray area, Lacy Marshall , an insurance broker at Rapha Health and Life in Texas, advises clients to ask their insurer if they can refuse to prepay their deductible. Some insurance plans prohibit providers in their network from requiring payment up front. If the insurer says they can refuse to pay up front, Marshall said, she tells clients to get established with a practice before declining to pay, so that the provider can’t refuse treatment. Related Articles Health | Which health insurance plan may be right for you? Health | 23andMe, tech companies disclose hundreds of Bay Area job cuts Health | Bay FC’s Beattie wins NWSL honor for breast cancer awareness advocacy Health | Your cool black kitchenware could be slowly poisoning you, study says. Here’s what to do Health | Does fluoride cause cancer, IQ loss, and more? Fact-checking Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s claims Clark said she met her insurance deductible after paying for genetic testing, extra ultrasounds, and other services out of her health care flexible spending account. Then she called her OB-GYN’s office and asked for a refund. “I got my spine back,” said Clark, who had previously worked at a health insurer and a medical office. She got an initial check for about half the $960 she originally paid. In August, Clark was sent to the hospital after her blood pressure spiked. A high-risk pregnancy specialist — not her original OB-GYN practice — delivered her son, Peter, prematurely via emergency cesarean section at 30 weeks. It was only after she resolved most of the bills from the delivery that she received the rest of her refund from the other OB-GYN practice. This final check came in October, just days after Clark brought Peter home from the hospital, and after multiple calls to the office. She said it all added stress to an already stressful period. “Why am I having to pay the price as a patient?” she said. “I’m just trying to have a baby.” ©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Video: Doctor refuses to treat elderly man in Madhya PradeshN.S. election: Gender-based violence solutions absent in campaign talk, advocates sayOppenheimer & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in The J. M. Smucker Company ( NYSE:SJM – Free Report ) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 1,712 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $207,000. Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in J. M. Smucker by 281.1% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 152,112 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,421,000 after buying an additional 112,195 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in J. M. Smucker by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 313,042 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,909,000 after buying an additional 3,934 shares in the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. grew its holdings in J. M. Smucker by 175.5% during the 3rd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 8,883 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,076,000 after buying an additional 5,659 shares in the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new position in J. M. Smucker during the 3rd quarter valued at about $796,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in J. M. Smucker by 1,329.4% during the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 243 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.66% of the company’s stock. Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. StockNews.com raised J. M. Smucker from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Bank of America reduced their target price on J. M. Smucker from $130.00 to $122.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen reduced their target price on J. M. Smucker from $135.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. BNP Paribas upgraded J. M. Smucker to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on J. M. Smucker from $138.00 to $136.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $127.09. J. M. Smucker Stock Performance Shares of SJM opened at $113.30 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $116.57 and a 200-day moving average price of $115.53. The company has a market cap of $12.06 billion, a PE ratio of 16.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.25. The J. M. Smucker Company has a 12-month low of $105.69 and a 12-month high of $134.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. J. M. Smucker ( NYSE:SJM – Get Free Report ) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The company reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.17 by $0.27. The company had revenue of $2.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.13 billion. J. M. Smucker had a return on equity of 14.22% and a net margin of 8.77%. J. M. Smucker’s quarterly revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.21 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The J. M. Smucker Company will post 9.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. J. M. Smucker Dividend Announcement The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be given a $1.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $4.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.81%. J. M. Smucker’s payout ratio is 61.10%. J. M. Smucker Company Profile ( Free Report ) The J. M. Smucker Company manufactures and markets branded food and beverage products worldwide. It operates in three segments: U.S. Retail Pet Foods, U.S. Retail Coffee, and U.S. Retail Consumer Foods. The company offers mainstream roast, ground, single serve, and premium coffee; peanut butter and specialty spreads; fruit spreads, toppings, and syrups; jelly products; nut mix products; shortening and oils; frozen sandwiches and snacks; pet food and pet snacks; and foodservice hot beverage, foodservice portion control, and flour products, as well as dog and cat food, frozen handheld products, juices and beverages, and baking mixes and ingredients. Further Reading Want to see what other hedge funds are holding SJM? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for The J. M. Smucker Company ( NYSE:SJM – Free Report ). Receive News & Ratings for J. M. Smucker Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for J. M. Smucker and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .

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The sound Thomas Kulig heard when he was barbecuing one afternoon in July 2022 wasn’t grease spattering. It was the town of Russell’s biggest fear coming true: One of the long-vacant Strathmore Mills next to Kulig’s home was burning. The three former paper mills in Russell are among dozens of vacant industrial buildings that dot the landscape of small towns and large cities across the state. They are eyesores and hazards as well as potential opportunities all wrapped up in a giant package of concrete, steel and wood. “It was astonishing,” Kulig, a Russell selectman, said about the 2022 fire . “I had Easthampton or Westhampton fire trucks sitting in my driveway ready to spray down my trees and my house. It was all afternoon through the next day.” Two weeks ago, Kulig watched the collapse of the part of the nearby Mill Number One that had been largely unscathed by the fire two years ago but had deteriorated after being vacant for decades. Three workers who had been removing beams from the building were injured. That’s not all. In 2020, Mill Number Two was destroyed as well in a massive fire that burned for days. Firefighters inspect debris left from an overnight fire that destroyed the former Strathmore Mill Number Two on June 20, 2020. (Dave Canton / The Republican) The 130-year-old mills have been empty since International Paper shut down in 1999. They have changed hands multiple times, with owners proposing veterans’ housing, a cannabis grow facility and most recently a $35-$45 million condominium complex with basketball courts and a boat ramp, Kulig said. “It was going to be nirvana,” Kulig said. “If it is in good shape you can redevelop it. If it is in rough shape like ours, it is bad, and you hope someone comes in who can do something with it.” In some ways, Russell is lucky since the mills are privately owned. Many are abandoned and end up in the hands of cities and towns, which struggle to keep them safe while they search for permanent reuse options. A portion of the old Strathmore Mill No. 1 collapsed in Russell Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (Don Treeger / The Republican) Don Treeger “It is a huge financial undertaking, and small towns do not have the resources to fix them. It takes a lot of money and time and effort,” said Janko Tomasic, town planner for Dalton who wrote a paper on mill redevelopment while earning his master’s degree at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Tomasic said he is the only person in his department and has little time to handle long-term projects on top of day-to-day responsibilities. Small towns are also at a disadvantage when trying to compete for a relatively small pool of brownfield improvement funds because they rarely have dedicated grant writers. Redevelopment is difficult, and there are no real magic bullets, said Tomasic who added he learned this while working with the owner of a small Main Street garage to redevelop the property, a project that eventually fizzled. It is also difficult to attract investors, especially in rural communities, because most cannot see how to make a profit from a huge building located a distance from a population center, Tomasic said. “It is a two-fold problem. They cause general blight, and it sends a message that jobs have left the community,” he said. “They were economic drivers of the community in the past. Why can’t they be an economic driver now?” Fire Russell isn’t the only community that has seen a mill burn, threatening nearby neighborhoods. In Holyoke, the about 300,000-square-foot Parsons Paper Mill burned down in a fire in 2008, and Mt. Tom Paper Mill was destroyed in 2012. A 2022 fire in Orange spread to a total of five vacant properties. Two of the three fires were set by youths and one was accidental. The longer they are vacant, the more dangerous they become, said Laurence Brandoli, a retired Springfield firefighter who is now a professor of fire science technology at Springfield Technical Community College. “They put firefighters at a tremendous risk and the whole community is at risk,” Brandoli said. The buildings typically have no electrical service. But even if the building is well secured, trespassers still sneak in and can start fires to keep warm or cook. Others set them on fire on purpose, he said. Because there are rarely any working sprinklers in an abandoned building, once a fire starts, it can burn for some time without being detected, and once firefighters are alerted, it is out of control, Brandoli said. “A fire doubles in size every minute and it can burn some before it is noticed,” he said. It is dangerous for firefighters to enter a building, Brandoli said. People steal copper and metal pipes, which can cause gas leaks. Floors and walls could be deteriorated and unstable. There could be holes in the floor that are difficult to see in smokey conditions, and unknown chemicals can be anywhere in the building. Some even deliberately sabotage the building and set traps to purposely injure firefighters, he said. The buildings are huge and can be a labyrinth, making it easy for firefighters to get lost in the dark and smoke, which happened in the 1999 Worcester Cold Storage fire that killed six firefighters, he said. This is a Dec. 4, 1999 photo showing firefighters spraying water onto the general-alarm fire scene at the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. in Worcester, Mass., where six Worcester firefighters lost their lives. Massachusetts lawmakers filed a bill Tuesday, Dec. 21, 1999, to require owners of vacant buildings to provide detailed floor plans to police and fire departments. (AP Photo/Paul Connors) ASSOCIATED PRESS On Monday, a blaze in a Chelsea mill that had been abandoned since 2009 took firefighters from 20 different communities eight hours to bring under control. Four nearby schools were forced to close for the day and MBTA service that ran nearby had to be suspended for hours. As was the case in many mills that have absent landlords often located in other states, the city had been pushing them to secure it for years, news reports said. Owning the project In Springfield, officials went to court twice in four months to force Vibra Healthcare to better secure the hospital they closed on State Street a year ago. Owners argued they have repeatedly boarded lower windows and doors but people continually rip them off to gain access. Four days after a judge ordered the company to pay for a 24-hour security guard to conduct a fire watch, a group of youths broke into the building and set at least 10 small fires on multiple floors. The October fires were extinguished quickly and caused little damage. Vibra is a good example of a burden the city hopes to turn into an opportunity. The company has agreed to turn the building and the 17.5 acres of prime land that it sits on over to Springfield to be redeveloped , but talks have stalled, said Timothy Sheehan, economic development director for Springfield. “The bottom line is so many of these old buildings are really beautiful and you don’t want to get to the point where you get to demolition,” Sheehan said. “The other issue is, if you have real development, it takes time. They don’t take 18 months, it takes years and years.” There are old industrial buildings in various states of disrepair throughout Springfield and examples of successful redevelopment projects such as the new affordable housing complex for first-time homebuyers built off Morris Street at the sight of the Gemini Corp. textile mill , which was abandoned in 1989 and destroyed by fire in 2003. One of the difficulties of dealing with vacant industrial buildings is getting owners to take responsibility for the vacant buildings. Some have declared bankruptcy and some simply can’t be found, leaving cities with a legal quagmire they have to sort through in order to take control of a property they don’t even want, Sheehan said. One of Springfield’s most complicated was the former Massachusetts Career Development Institution on Wilbraham Road. The 2.5-acre property housed a nonprofit job-training center that closed in 2013 after being the subject of a federal corruption investigation. One arson fire destroyed a section of the complex in 2016, and several others five years later turned the building into what Mayor Domenic J. Sarno called a “death trap.” “Getting control of MCDI was extremely difficult. The entity was no longer in existence and there were charges on the title,” Sheehan said. The city finally was able to tear it down in 2021 after more than five years of legal wrangling, he said. Redevelopments are possible even with the most troubled properties if a developer with the patience and financing expertise is interested, he said. First Resource Development Co. hosted a ribbon cutting Sept. 9, 2024, celebrating the completion of the nearly 300-unit Mason Square Apartments complex in the former Knox Automobile Co. and Indian Motorcycle plants. (Jim Kinney / The Republican) The Republican Sheehan pointed to the once-derelict Knox Automobile building on Wilbraham Road that had been vacant for decades and the city took for tax title in 2009. Developer Gordon Pulsifer, owner of First Resource Development Corp., had just finished converting the vacant Indian Motorcycle building into a 199-apartment complex when he told city officials it was time to do something with the Knox building. The city had tried multiple times to find a developer interested in doing something with the building to no avail so it welcomed Pulsifer’s interest. “The building was so badly deteriorated the building inspector would let us in at first,” he said. Eventually, the inspector allowed Pulsifer to enter part of it and they surveyed the rest with a drone. It took years and a tremendous amount of money to get to the 2024 ribbon cutting for the 96-unit affordable housing apartment building. “The other issue is the cost. The Knox building cost half a million dollars per unit,” Sheehan said. “He bundled (state affordable housing) tax credits with historic tax credits and drove a redevelopment budget into the black as opposed to being in the red.” Those two projects with their nearly 300 apartments are rebuilding a neighborhood. The city invested in some infrastructure improvements to make the streets more walkable, and now it is seeing small businesses filling in vacant storefronts to serve residents, he said. Properties in waiting Holyoke has one of the largest numbers of vacant mills across the small city. Aaron Vega, director of planning and community development for Holyoke, estimates there is between 700,000 and 1 million square feet of available industrial space with a lot of it divided between a half-dozen buildings. “It is really choose your own adventure. Every one of these mills has a backstory and might be empty but not completely empty and some may have been vacant for 10, 20 years,” Vega said. Mills in Gateway Cities like Lawrence and Lowell have seen a rebirth, but they are fueled by the Boston economic engine and rents can be double those in Western Massachusetts, Vega said. About two years ago, brothers Denis and Marco Luzuriaga renovated what is now called the Cubit Coworks building on Race Street. They now help others interested in doing the same. Vega said their project, which has businesses and apartments on the second floor, has been moderately successful, but they are local residents who are motivated to improve the community. “It is not for the faint of heart. They are massive projects, there are environmental issues and they need tax credits and other funding,” Vega said. “They can’t be just handled by a house flipper. You need a big firm with a lot of experience.” He used the example of Winn Development’s project to turn the long-closed Farr-Alpaca Mills at 216 Appleton St. into an age 55 and over apartment building. “It has taken eight years and they have 11 different funding mechanisms,” Vega said. At one point, it looked like Holyoke’s solution to redeveloping some of its vacant mills was in the legalization of marijuana, or what Vega calls “the green bubble.” “In the ‘70s and ‘80s, big outside investors came in and overpaid for properties and they didn’t do anything with them. We are in the same place with cannabis,” he said. Truelieve , for example, purchased a 126,000-square-foot, 155-year-old mill on Canal Street, which it operated for a few years before closing in 2023. It invested $40 million into the decaying structure that is vacant again. Vega said he has asked owners to donate the building to the city with the idea of putting it on the market to build a new local economy in indoor farming. “Right now, we have a dozen properties bought by cannabis companies and the price declined so they aren’t using them,” he said. “I’m guessing they use them as a tax write-off.” Now Vega worries owners don’t want to improve the buildings because their taxes will increase, so they will erode further and need even more work. Vega said he is putting some of his hope into the $5 billion housing bond bill passed this summer, saying if some of that money comes to Western Massachusetts, it could save some of the vacant mills. The clock tower building at Ludlow Mills, 50 State St. in Ludlow on Aug. 17, 2023. (Don Treeger / The Republican) Making it work Westmass Development Corp., which was known for building and managing industrial parks, expanded into the mill development business in 2011 when it bought the 170-acre Ludlow Mills Complex with its 1.4 million square feet of space. The mill had one tenant — a landscaping company. Now it is a growing mixed-use development that just witnessed the completion of the $43 million reconstruction of historic Mill 8 into 95 mixed-income apartments for those age 55 and older. “This is one of the things I’m most proud of doing,” said Jeffrey Daley, Westmass’ CEO and president. “I always say it was a landscaping storage building and we turned the corner in five short years and we restored it into a community setting.” While Westmass continues its work to continue the Ludlow Mills development, the company has used its expertise and is helping communities such as Monson and Warren find solutions for their vacant mills. “It is challenging. A lot of larger mill buildings are so large in size they don’t pencil out (to make a profit),” Daley said. “Bringing a building back up to building and safety codes alone is a significant investment, and there are not a lot of public or private investors who want to do that.” Jeff Daley, president and chief executive officer of Westmass Development Corp., listens to speakers during a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Mill 8 portion of the Ludlow Mills Project in Ludlow. (Don Treeger / The Republican) 11/18/2024 The Republican Before even getting started, a developer must decide if there is a viable market for the project. For Ludlow Mills, that answer was to combine housing, retail and commercial uses to create its own community, said Sean O’Donnell, Westmass community development and planning coordinator. It takes a unique developer with deep pockets, since it may take years to make a profit — even with grants and tax credits, he said. One way Westmass is making the Ludlow Mills project a success is to do the work in phases so the campus generates money as soon as possible. That means evaluating which buildings are redeveloped and which ones are razed and replaced, O’Donnell said. It is vital to get a vacant building occupied as soon as possible. Many of these buildings have leaking roofs and multiple broken windows, and some have sat like that for 40-50 years. A lot of the mills were built in the 1880s and are taking beatings from the weather, O’Donnell said. “You have to have people in these buildings. You need the air conditioning on, you need the windows opening and closing,” O’Donnell said. “Every day that goes by, every storm that happens the building deteriorates.” But Ludlow Mills is an example that the mills can be reclaimed and no longer be a safety concern. As there is less and less available open space for development, O’Donnell said he believes more people are turning to mill redevelopment as the solution to finding space for businesses and housing. “Western Mass. has so much to offer based on the inventory if people look at them differently,” Daley said. Plus, a lot of communities do not want to see the buildings lost. “Speaking from a historical perspective a lot of people want them to be redeveloped and rebirthed, and the other half does not want to see them decay and become a liability,” O’Donnell said. The restored clock tower at Ludlow Mills shines in the sunlight as a ribbon cutting ceremony was being held for the Mill 8 portion of the project on Nov. 18, 2024. (Don Treeger / The Republican) The Republican more news from Western Massachusetts

Presidential nominees who will require Senate confirmation for diplomatic positions that have historically flown under the radar may soon find themselves thrust into the spotlight. With President-elect Donald Trump floating aggressive desires to acquire foreign territories like the Panama Canal, Greenland, and Canada, ambassador confirmations could emerge as unexpected points of tension with senators. HIGH INTEREST RATES COULD BEDEVIL TRUMP AS DEBT RISES The new Congress convenes Jan. 3, and with it the new 53-47 Republican Senate majority. Committees in the upper chamber could begin holding confirmation hearings for the dozens of Cabinet and lower-level nominees that senators are tasked with considering as soon as the following week. In Truth Social posts on Christmas Day , Trump again spoke of his territorial wish list that included purchasing Greenland from Denmark, annexing Canada as the 51st state, and retaking control of the Panama Canal. Trump will need a simple majority to confirm the loyalists he's tapped for ambassadorships that would play a crucial role in carrying out his foreign policy agenda. While it's not entirely clear the level of sincerity in Trump's push to expand America's territorial control, the incoming president is seeking to flex U.S. dominance in the weeks before retaking office. He extended a lengthy Merry Christmas to “the wonderful soldiers of China, who are lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal,” to “Governor Justin Trudeau of Canada,” and to “the people of Greenland, which is needed by the United States for National Security purposes.” TRUMP CABINET PICKS: WHO'S BEEN TAPPED TO SERVE IN THE PRESIDENT-ELECT'S ADMINISTRATION U.S. ambassador to Panama Trump named Miami-Dade County Commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera on Christmas Day to be his ambassador to Panama. Cabrera was the Trump 2020 campaign’s state director for Florida , a member of the Miami-Dade International Trade Consortium, and helped lead the effort to rename a South Florida street “President Donald J. Trump Avenue.” Trump said Cabrera would “do a FANTASTIC job representing our Nation’s interests in Panama!” “I am pleased to announce that Kevin Marino Cabrera will serve as the United States Ambassador to the Republic of Panama, a Country that is ripping us off on the Panama Canal, far beyond their wildest dreams,” Trump posted. “Few understand Latin American politics as well as Kevin.” Trump has accused China and the Panama Canal of price-gouging U.S. vessels that use the 50-mile-long manmade waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through Central America. China, Trump said, is “always making certain that the United States puts in Billions of Dollars in ‘repair’ money, but will have absolutely nothing to say about ‘anything.’” At a political event over the weekend, Trump foreshadowed he might “demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America.” ANTI-VAX PHILANTHROPY AND LEGAL FEES: HOW RFK JR. MAKES HIS MILLIONS But the canal is controlled by Panama — not China. It was under full American control from the early 1900s after the U.S. helped build the global trade route until partial control in 1977. Now, Trump is threatening to upend a Jimmy Carter-era agreement that handed remaining U.S. control to Panama in 1999 unless U.S. ships see reduced fees. While China does not control the canal — a point made by Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino — the Asian adversary has expanded its footprint in the region with nearby ports. Still, more than half of the 13,000 to 14,000 ships that traverse the canal annually are coming from or going to U.S. ports. In an ensuing tit-for-tat, Mulino said the canal wasn’t for sale . He stated, in part, that “every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent area belong to PANAMA, and will continue to be. The sovereignty and independence of our country are not negotiable.” Trump shot back in another post: “We’ll see about that!” U.S. ambassador to Canada Trump has tapped Michigan Republican Party Chair Pete Hoekstra to serve as the ambassador to Canada. Hoekstra is a former congressman, a Netherlands native, and was ambassador to the Netherlands under Trump’s first term. WHICH JAN. 6 DEFENDERS COULD SEE PARDONS Trump credited Hoekstra as a “great help to our Campaign” for winning battleground Michigan . Trump had a rocky relationship his first go-around with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and strained U.S.-Canada relations when he scrapped the North American Free Trade Agreement and imposed tariffs. Trump has countered his “America First” decisions were better for U.S. taxpayers and the economy. As he prepares to retake the White House, Trump has increasingly mocked Trudeau as “Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada.” The incoming president posted Christmas Day that if “Canada was to become our 51st State, their Taxes would be cut by more than 60%, their businesses would immediately double in size, and they would be militarily protected like no other Country anywhere in the World.” While his annexation suggestions appear to be an extension of his love for trolling the embattled Canadian leader , Trump has vowed to slap America’s neighbor to the north with 25% tariffs on imported Canadian goods upon taking office unless border security and illegal drugs are better addressed at the U.S.-Canada border. U.S. ambassador to Denmark Trump has nominated Ken Howery, a co-founder of PayPal and San Francisco -based venture capital firm Founders Fund, to be ambassador to Denmark. Howery was ambassador to Sweden during Trump’s first term. As a self-ruling territory of Denmark, Greenland has found itself back in the crosshairs of Trump’s desire to purchase the Arctic island home to little more than 50,000 residents. Commercial and national security interests have fueled Trump’s endeavor as another way for the U.S. to counter Russian and Chinese influence in the Arctic. PETE HEGSETH PENTAGON PICK IS CONTROVERSIAL, BUT HIS RESUME IS MORE THAN JUST FOX NEWS HOST “For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” Trump said in Howery’s nomination announcement. Trump’s longtime — but perhaps half-hearted — bid to purchase Greenland was rebuffed in his first term. Greenland reiterated this week that the island nation was not on the market. “Greenland is ours,” Greenland Prime Minister Múte Egede said. “We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom.” The office of Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen echoed Greenland’s sentiment but with softened rhetoric. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER Denmark is "looking forward to welcoming the new American Ambassador [and] looking forward to working with the new administration,” Frederiksen said , adding that Greenland is "not for sale" but that they are "open for cooperation” in the region. "In a complex security political situation as the one we currently experience, transatlantic cooperation is crucial," Frederiksen said.Chicago's top 10 news stories of 2024

“The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few metres from where we were — and the runway were damaged,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on the social media platform X. He added that he and UN colleagues were safe. “We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave,” he said. UN spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay later said the injured person was with the UN Humanitarian Air Service. Our mission to negotiate the release of @UN staff detainees and to assess the health and humanitarian situation in #Yemen concluded today. We continue to call for the detainees' immediate release. As we were about to board our flight from Sana’a, about two hours ago, the airport... pic.twitter.com/riZayWHkvf — Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) December 26, 2024 Israel’s army later told The Associated Press it was not aware that the WHO chief was at the location in Yemen. The Israeli strikes followed several days of Houthi launches setting off sirens in Israel. The Israeli military in a statement said it attacked infrastructure used by the Iran-backed Houthis at the international airport in Sanaa and ports in Hodeida, Al-Salif and Ras Qantib, along with power stations, asserting they were used to smuggle in Iranian weapons and for the entry of senior Iranian officials. Israel’s military added it had “capabilities to strike very far from Israel’s territory — precisely, powerfully, and repetitively”. The strikes, carried out over 1,000 miles from Jerusalem, came a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “the Houthis, too, will learn what Hamas and Hezbollah and Assad’s regime and others learned” as his military has battled those more powerful proxies of Iran. The Houthi-controlled satellite channel al-Masirah reported multiple deaths and showed broken windows, collapsed ceilings and a bloodstained floor and vehicle. Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the strikes. The US military has also targeted the Houthis in recent days. The UN has said the targeted ports are important entry points for humanitarian aid for Yemen, the poorest Arab nation that plunged into a civil war in 2014. Over the weekend, 16 people were wounded when a Houthi missile hit a playground in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, while other missiles and drones have been shot down. Last week, Israeli jets struck Sanaa and Hodeida, killing nine people, calling it a response to previous Houthi attacks. The Houthis also have been targeting shipping on the Red Sea corridor in what it says is an act of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. The UN Security Council has an emergency meeting on Monday in response to an Israeli request that it condemn the Houthi attacks and Iran for supplying them with weapons.Tech investors are facing a new form of disruption. This investment cohort has historically paid little attention to macroeconomics, as ever-improving product features and innovative growth strategies have driven investment returns in high tech far more than things like aggregate growth and inflation. But artificial intelligence -- and its enormous capital requirements -- are ripping up this script. The proposed spending on AI infrastructure by established tech companies in the coming years is eye-watering. In 2025 alone, big tech firms including Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta and Apple are projected to spend over US$200 billion on capex -- almost double what they shelled out in 2021, the year before the generative AI chatbot ChatGPT debuted. The increase in capex is almost entirely due to efforts to build out generative AI capabilities. This highlights the key difference between the AI investment surge and the high-tech boom of the prior two decades: investment today is focused more on hardware than software -- and hardware is obviously more capital-intensive. If the economy slows and business prospects for these tech companies deteriorate, their executives will likely think twice about these ambitious -- and entirely discretionary -- spending plans. This complicates investors' calculations of the likely returns that can be expected from this nascent technology. In the first two decades of this century, software engineers disrupted one industry after another with business models that were nimble, scalable, and had low fixed costs. A small group of whip-smart entrepreneurs bootstrapped their start-ups, found quick success with early prototypes, and then made a series of strategic pivots. Think Amazon, Netflix, and many social media companies. Fast forward to the age of generative AI, and the storyline has changed dramatically. The new business model typically revolves around very smart, complex and expensive machines that require a tremendous amount of energy to run and often take a long time to build. For example, the Taiwanese semiconductor giant TSMC's Arizona foundry cost US$40 billion, and commercial production won't commence until 2025, four years after construction began. Importantly, investment in AI is typically expected to take years to pay back. In the meantime, many factors could negatively impact the value of AI infrastructure, including concerns related to business confidence and cost inflation, as well as regulatory hurdles and geopolitical tensions that influence where companies can do business. This means tech investors can no longer easily ignore top-down concerns. AI start-ups, unlike their counterparts in software, are also often very capital intensive, making them highly sensitive to market conditions and access to funding. Most of these young companies rely on private capital, which many venture capitalists have been eager to supply in recent years. Investments in AI and machine learning, a related field, accounted for nearly half of all VC funding in the United States in the first half of 2024. And these investments have often been enormous. In October, OpenAI raised $6.6 billion in equity capital from eight investors and another $4 billion in debt financing from nine lenders. The average size of these checks is over half a billion dollars. Checks of this size can be written at a time when the S&P 500 is hitting new record highs, the US economy is growing above trend, and inflation is heading downward. But what happens when the economy inevitably softens and public stock prices dip? Or what if the cost of capital in the US remains elevated? AI start-ups may then find it more challenging to fund their ambitious visions, which could, in turn, stall the pace of growth and innovation in the broad AI ecosystem. This, of course, could reduce demand for the AI infrastructure that big tech companies have invested hundreds of billions of dollars in. Hardware businesses also exhibit more cyclical characteristics than software. That's because they can't rely on continuous adjustments to meet shifts in customer demand, given the substantial inputs and manpower needed to create new products. Consider that $3.5 trillion-plus chipmaker Nvidia has now adopted a "one-year rhythm" for new products, doubling the speed from its previous product release cadence. This means these companies are subject to traditional inventory cycles: when demand exceeds current supply, inventory is drawn down, and prices rise, and vice versa. Hardware businesses, unlike nimble software companies, will thus struggle to scale their capacity up or down at short notice. So both the volumes and prices of hardware will typically fluctuate, subject to economic conditions. It's notable that semiconductor sales have been positively correlated with manufacturing PMIs for decades. This relationship started breaking down in 2022 as AI euphoria really took off. If historical patterns hold, this could mean the boom in global semiconductor sales is overdue for a correction. That's just one example of why tech investors may need to become as macro-aware as the rest of the investment community. Reuters Taosha Wang is a portfolio manager at Fidelity International.

Top war-crimes court issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu and others in Israel-Hamas fighting

Several individuals on late Friday night allegedly barged into the detention room of Vice President Sara Duterte’s chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez, at the House of Representatives. Lopez broke into tears when she held an unexpected midnight press conference, saying several men went into her room in the middle of the night and planned to confiscate her phone. Lopez was also asked to read something—which was an order of her immediate transfer to Mandaluyong City from Quezon City—but she refused to do so. She said it was members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) who barged into her facility. "What happened was nakapajama na kami because we're going to sleep, and they [banged at my door] and they just entered, because in this facility the lock is outside," Lopez said. "It's not just the one person, which is the usual. So we were surprised kasi what's that about. And then suddenly they came, PNP and some other persons parang in uniform," she added. Lopez said she was read with a transfer order, but she refused to oblige and insisted on staying in her room. "And then I told them to go out... I pushed them back, and I said get out, get out. And then I called the Vice President because she was here," she added. Lopez said her life is now "being threatened." She also complained about the “lack of justice” in the country. "I have my rights. I am not moving. I am not leaving this room," she said. On Friday, Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua, chairman of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, ordered the immediate transfer of Lopez to the Women's Correctional Facility in Mandaluyong from House detention in Quezon City. This came after Duterte insisted on staying within the House compound until after the new year to be able to join Lopez in detention. Meanwhile, Duterte also appeared at the same press conference and hit the Marcos administration for the political persecution that the OVP staff is currently experiencing. "Lagi nilang sinasabi disrespectful kami. Eh sila yung disrespectful sa opisina ng Vice President. Kung ano yung ginagawa nila samin, yun lang din yung ginagawa namin sa kanila (They always say that we're disrespectful. But they're the ones disrespecting the OVP. What they're doing to our office, that's what we also do to them)," she said. "Bastos sila? Bastos din kami (They're rude? Then we're also rude)," she added.MANCHESTER UNITED'S flops were booed off following the 2-0 defeat at Wolves. And the result leaves the Red Devils just eight points above the relegation zone. Advertisement 4 Manchester United slumped to a third defeat in a week Credit: Alamy 4 Red Devils supporters booed their team at full-time Credit: PA After a drab goalless first half at Molineux, Bruno Fernandes' moment of madness when already on a yellow card changed the game. His careless lunge on Nelson Semedo 90 seconds into the second period, Tony Harrington sent him for a third early bath of the season . And that gave Wolves the boost they needed to go on and snatch all three points. Matheus Cunha scored directly from a corner before Hwang Hee-chan grabbed a second in the 99th minute . Advertisement READ MORE ON MAN UTD BRU-GO Fernandes SENT OFF just 90 secs after half-time vs Wolves in third red of season There was only just time for the restart as Harrington blew the full-time whistle as Ruben Amorim's men fell to a third defeat in a week - following the Carabao Cup exit at Spurs then the 3-0 humiliation at home to Bournemouth. And the end of the latest result saw patience run out for plenty of the travelling supporters who made the Boxing Day trip to the West Midlands. A chorus of jeers, whistles and boos sounded from the away end as United slumped to 14th in the Premier League table. They tally of 22 points from 18 games features six wins, four draws and eight defeats with a goal difference of -3. Advertisement Most read in Football ST MIRREN 2 RANGERS 1 Boyd-Munce stuns Gers with winner deep into added time in Paisley XMAS TRAGEDY Real Madrid star's 'brother-in-law' is shot dead in Christmas Day horror REFFIN' HELL Motherwell boss Kettlewell fumes at referee's DEMEANOUR in Celtic defeat STAR SWEAT Rodgers delivers major injury update on Johnston ahead of Rangers clash FOOTBALL FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS That leaves them 17 points off leaders Liverpool but more worryingly just eight ahead of 18th-placed Leicester before kick-off between the two teams at Anfield in the late game on Boxing Day. And the complaints were not limited to inside the stadium. Former Man Utd star slams Rashford and says he should move to MLS On social media, fans were quick to voice their growing concerns about the state of their team yet again. Advertisement One said: "Another disappointing and frustrating game to watch. Team is clearly a bang average one and bereft of any ideas and creativity. Amorim has a huge job on his hands." Another wrote: "You owe Erik ten Hag an apology. This is genuinely embarrassing." A third added: "Woeful performance." A fourth replied: "Worst I’ve seen my club in 30 years." Advertisement And a final user asked: "How long before Amorim is booted?" Things don't get much easier for the Red Devils with Newcastle, Liverpool and Arsenal in their next three fixtures. Man Utd ratings vs Wolves By Ken Lawrence WOLVES landed a shock Boxing Day knockout as Manchester United's struggles continued. The 2-0 defeat means Ruben Amorim has won just two of the seven Premier League games he has taken charge of. United find themselves 14th in the table and today were not helped by Bruno Fernandes' red card and Andre Onana letting one in direct from a corner. Here is how SunSport rated the performances... ANDRE ONANA: 4 He needed to make an agile save from Jorgen Strand Larsen in the first half, but badly misjudged the flight of Cunha’s corner for the opening goal - his claim that he was obstructed by Matt Doherty was rejected. LENY YORO: 5 Recalled but booked after only four minutes for a foul on Cunha, so he was walking on eggshells and was tested by Wolves throughout. Subbed just after the hour mark. HARRY MAGUIRE: 6 The England defender did his best to keep United in the game when they were under pressure for long periods - at least he helped to stem the tide until the dying seconds and had a header on target in stoppage time. LISANDRO MARTINEZ: 6 Teamed up well with Maguire to stop Wolves from winning this more easily, he stood his ground and produced some important challenges in the latter stages before Wolves caught him on the break with the last action of the game. NOUSSAIR MAZRAOUI: 5 Tenacious and determined, but was one of several players given a torrid time by the best player on the pitch - Cunha. MANUEL UGARTE: 5 Dispossesed too easily at times, struggled against a lively Wolves attack and was eventually taken off as one of Amorim’s subs following Fernandes’ red card. KOBBIE MAINOO: 5 Looked a threat early on, created some good openings, but he was booked after the break as United looked short on ideas. Faded and was subbed. DIOGO DALOT: 6 Brought a tremendous save from Jose Sa in the first half in what was a rare bright spot for United - but he had no major influence on a poor team display. AMAD DIALLO: 5 Lacked awareness of his team-mates sometimes and looked a shadow of the player who turned the Manchester derby around less than two weeks ago. BRUNO FERNANDES: 3 Sent off early in the second half for a second yellow after a challenge on Nelson Semedo, but the captain had cut a frustrated figure before that. RASMUS HOJLUND: 5 Became visibly annoyed at times at a lack of service from his team-mates, he had no joy up front and was subbed with 10 minutes left. SUBS Casemiro (for Mainoo, 63 mins): 6 Christian Eriksen (for Ugate, 63 mins): 6 Antony (for Yoro, 63 mins): 6 Alejandro Garnacho (for Amad, 79 mins): 5 Joshua Zirkzee (for Hojlund, 79 mins): 5 Amorim, though, was desperate to try and keep spirits up despite the nightmare triple header off the back of three painful defeats. He said: "Of course, when you lose, when we don't win, it's a step back. It was really hard with the sending off. Advertisement "The goal was similar against Tottenham. Then, we tried. Read more on the Scottish Sun CHRISTMAS MIRACLES Christmas baby joy for Scots parents as little ones begin arriving EDGE OF THE WORLD Inside the remote Scots golf club dubbed 'the world's loneliest course' "Even with one less guy we tried to and I think we were near something but then Wolves scored the second one. "Then, in the end, we tried everything and the transition was 2-0. For us, let's continue." 4 Bruno Fernandes did not help his team by getting sent off at 0-0 Credit: Reuters Advertisement 4

Special counsel Jack Smith has announced that he will be dropping both his 2020 election interference case and classified documents case against Donald Trump , following the president -elect’s victory. The sudden and somewhat surprising decisions were announced in two separate motions, filed on Monday. In his motion to dismiss the federal election interference case , Smith wrote that there was precedent to not bring an indictment or proceedings against a sitting president. However, he stressed that the decision had been made due to the recommendations of the Justice Department rather than the strength of the case. “The (Justice) Department’s position is that the Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated,” Smith wrote to Judge Tanya Chutkan in a six-page filing. “This outcome is not based on the merits or strength of the case against the defendant.” “That prohibition is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Government stands fully behind.” The original indictment accused Trump of pushing false claims of voter fraud after the 2020 presidential election in an attempt to overturn results and return to power. Prosecutors claimed Trump engaged in a so-called fake electors scheme to do so. Ultimately, his actions, according to Smith, inspired a mob of supporters to storm the Capitol on January 6. Shortly after the first motion was filed on Monday, the Department announced it would also be abandoning the classified documents case appeal in Florida. That case, also brought by Smith, emerged after an FBI raid on Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago allegedly uncovered improperly stored boxes of classified documents , some containing matters related to national security. Photos in the indictment showed stacks of boxes stored in a bathroom that was publicly accessible. Smith accused Trump, his personal aide Walt Nauta and property manager Carlos de Oliveira, of knowingly withholding the documents from the National Archives and failing to cooperate with authorities when they tried to obtain them. All three pleaded not guilty and Trump remained adamant that he had the authority to keep the documents because he “de-classified” them before leaving office. Prosecutors disputed that, claiming Trump did not go through the formal process of doing so. District Judge Aileen Cannon , a Trump appointee tasked with overseeing the case, dismissed the case earlier this year , arguing that Smith was improperly appointed. Prosecutors were in the midst of appealing that ruling, when Monday’s motion was filed. Smith’s criminal pursuit of Trump over the last two years, with both the case over the attempt to subvert the 2020 presidential election and his mishandling of classified documents, marked the first time in American history that a former occupant of the White House faced federal criminal charges. The saga also culminated in a landmark ruling from the Supreme Court earlier this summer , which stated that the president qualifies for some presidential immunity from criminal prosecution. The motions to dismiss has come earlier than expected, as Smith had been set to reveal how he planned to “wind down” the cases against Trump on December 2. The President-elect has previously said that he would fire Smith from his position on his first day back in the Oval Office. “The American People re-elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate to Make America Great Again. Today’s decision by the DOJ ends the unconstitutional federal cases against President Trump, and is a major victory for the rule of law,” said Steven Cheung, Trump Communications Director. “The American People and President Trump want an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and we look forward to uniting our country.”Paxton investigates ad network Musk sued over X boycottOverreaction Monday: Buccaneers will catch the Falcons and win the NFC South

Wayne Gretzky's Wife Shares Trump Post Suggesting Hockey Legend Run for Canadian Prime Minister

Salesforce ( NYSE:CRM – Free Report ) had its target price lifted by TD Cowen from $290.00 to $340.00 in a research report report published on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a hold rating on the CRM provider’s stock. A number of other research firms have also weighed in on CRM. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Salesforce from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. BNP Paribas upgraded Salesforce to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on Salesforce from $234.00 to $236.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Salesforce from $305.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $336.37. Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on Salesforce Salesforce Stock Up 1.9 % Salesforce ( NYSE:CRM – Get Free Report ) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The CRM provider reported $2.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $9.33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.22 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 12.01% and a net margin of 15.44%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.63 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Salesforce will post 7.55 EPS for the current fiscal year. Salesforce Dividend Announcement The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 18th were issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 18th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 27.83%. Insider Transactions at Salesforce In other news, CFO Amy E. Weaver sold 897 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.29, for a total transaction of $255,905.13. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 52,930 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,100,399.70. The trade was a 1.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website . Also, COO Brian Millham sold 60,522 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total value of $18,156,600.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 147,991 shares of company stock worth $43,333,238. Insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock. Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $874,748,000. Veritas Asset Management LLP acquired a new position in Salesforce during the third quarter valued at $733,805,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in Salesforce by 48.3% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,906,877 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,518,658,000 after purchasing an additional 1,922,674 shares during the period. AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 376.1% in the second quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 1,442,453 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $370,873,000 after purchasing an additional 1,139,472 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV grew its position in Salesforce by 171.2% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,634,834 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $447,470,000 after purchasing an additional 1,032,068 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock. About Salesforce ( Get Free Report ) Salesforce, Inc provides Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology that brings companies and customers together worldwide. The company's service includes sales to store data, monitor leads and progress, forecast opportunities, gain insights through analytics and artificial intelligence, and deliver quotes, contracts, and invoices; and service that enables companies to deliver trusted and highly personalized customer support at scale. Further Reading Receive News & Ratings for Salesforce Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Salesforce and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .

Canadian Counselor advises Ghanaians to embrace inclusive political processes"We must get our inspiration directly from the Qur'an and draw out this century's understanding of Islam" Mehmet Akif Ersoy / Writer of Turkish National Anthem *** Mehmet Akif Ersoy's poetry not limited to national borders, appeals to entire Muslim world, says expert Mehmet Akif Ersoy, the revered Turkish poet and the author of the Turkish national anthem, still shines a light for the entire Muslim world 83 years after his demise. Ersoy became one of the most well-known figures in Turkish literature worldwide in early 1900s, Necmettin Turinay, teaching at TOBB University of Economics and Technology in the capital Ankara, told Anadolu Agency. Turinay, an expert on Ersoy's literary works and currently working on the latest edition of Ersoy's 1911 work entitled "Safahat", spoke to Anadolu Agency in an exclusive interview at the Museum House of Mehmet Akif Ersoy in Turkey's capital Ankara. His famous work Safahat is a collection of 44 poems in various lengths, including Phases (1911), Lecturing at Suleymaniye (1912), Voices of God (1913), Lecturing at Fatih (1914), Memoirs (1917), Asim (1924), and Shadows (1933). His poems were themed with social problems, philosophical, religious, political and ethical issues. Ersoy's house, in one of Ankara’s older districts Altindag, was once used as a dervish convent. The "Selamlik" -- a part of a house only men can enter -- was assigned to Ersoy during the Turkish War of Independence. Moving from Istanbul to Ankara to live in the dervish convent in 1920s, now converted into a museum, Ersoy arrived there during the most painful and troubled years of foreign occupation in the country, Turinay said. Spiritual leader of Turkish national struggle When Ersoy came to Ankara, the Turkish people had to achieve mainly two things to win the War of Independence, Turinay stressed. The first was to form a new army as the Turkish armies were dissolved with the agreements of World War I, and the second was to encourage the people to join the national struggle with a hope for independence, he stressed. During his speeches at various mosques of Central Anatolian cities, Ersoy gave voice to the faith and spirit necessary for the national struggle, Turinay added. In 1920, Ersoy was also elected the deputy of the northwestern Burdur province and entered the parliament. ‘Free since beginning, to be so forever’ The dervish convent was also the place where Ersoy wrote the lyrics of Turkish National Anthem -- the March of Independence -- Turinay said. On March 12, 1921, the Turkish Grand National Assembly officially declared Ersoy's poem as the national anthem. In the march, Ersoy immortalized his nation's battle for survival, in the wake of World War I, crowning its national liberation in 1921 during the Turkish War of Independence against foreign occupation. After World War I, the Ottoman Empire, one of the greatest empires in history, was destroyed. The British, French and allied forces had shattered the Ottoman Empire, and every part of the country was in captivity. Under those conditions, the national anthem's first words were “Fear not!”. Ersoy began his poem with such a call to give hope to the Turkish and Muslim people against foreign occupation that they can regain their independence, he said. “The Turkish nation has been free since the beginning of history,” said Turinay referring to the two verses of the anthem. “I have been free since the beginning and forever will be so.” What madman shall put me in chains! I defy the very idea!” The phrase of “since the beginning” had special significance expressing that the Turkish people have always lived in independence, founding great empires, Turinay said. Through these verses, Ersoy warned Turkish people that the negative conditions were temporary and urged to struggle together to overcome the captivity, Turinay added. Universal character, historical depth of national anthem Turinay stressed that the national anthem soon began to evoke significant repercussions in the Muslim and Turkic worlds in the wake of official recognition by the Turkish Parliament. “The national anthem, 'the symbol of the Turkish nation', has a universal character appealing to both the Turkish and Islamic worlds,” he highlighted. It was translated into the local languages of various countries, including Pakistan, Syria and Iraq, although the people of these countries were living under captivity of the French and British at that time. “Ersoy, who depicted the most painful years of Turkey during World War I and Balkan Wars in his works, gained a high reputation within and outside of the Ottoman Empire," Turinay underlined. He was a well known poet and author in a wide range of countries extending from Azerbaijan, Pakistan, India, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, North Africa, Crimea to Balkans, he added. “Mehmet Akif’s understanding of poetry was not limited to our national borders, rather he addressed the whole Turkish and Muslim world,” Turinay stressed. History through art, literature Turinay described Ersoy as “one of the geniuses of Turkish poetry, and said: “If there is an awareness today in Turkey about World War I and the Battle of Canakkale [Gallipoli], thanks to Ersoy's poem To the Gallipoli Martyrs". “Turkish people remember the pain, grief and destruction of these years through this poem,” he added. Ersoy not only tells the pain and memory of the martyrs of Gallipoli with this poem, but he also describes the withdrawal of an empire from the stage of history and the closing of an era, Turinay stressed. The Battle of Canakkale, which took place in the northwestern Turkish province of Canakkale's Gelibolu (Gallipoli) district in 1915, marked a turnaround in favor of the Turks against the Allied forces during World War I. Tens of thousands of Turkish nationals and soldiers died, along with tens of thousands of Europeans, as well as around 7,000-8,000 Australians and nearly 3,000 New Zealanders, referred together as Anzac troops. AA