A few questions about veggiesENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Losses to the Chargers and Bengals with a playoff berth on the line show Sean Payton made a miscalculation when he agreed to flex the Denver Broncos' Week 16 game to a Thursday night. The NFL needed the Broncos' approval to replace the Cincinnati-Cleveland game with the Broncos-Chargers game because Denver had already played on a Thursday night on the road. He eagerly agreed to the switch, figuring the team's fanbase always travels well to SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and the Broncos would be the more rested team at Cincinnati. But after an emotional comeback win over the Colts, the Broncos (9-7) lost to the Chargers in part because Payton got away from the run even though it helped them score touchdowns on their first three drives — and he had written “Run It!!” in marker on top of his play sheet. And they lost to the Bengals 30-24 in overtime on Saturday after Payton decided against going for 2 and the win when Marvin Mims Jr. hauled in a highlight-reel touchdown grab between two defenders with 8 seconds left in regulation. “We knew a tie for us was just as beneficial as a win,” Payton explained. “We felt like we had the momentum at that point.” Holding up two fingers, rookie QB Bo Nix lobbied for the 2-point try to no avail. “We discussed it all. We had plenty of time, plenty of time, plenty of time,” Payton said. "And the decision we made was the right one.” Well ... An extra point assured Joe Burrow would get the ball back, and the Broncos hadn't forced a single punt all game, something Payton acknowledged afterward that he wasn't aware of, and they hadn't stopped the Bengals since twice holding them on fourth down in the first half. They finally forced a punt in overtime, but the Broncos went three-and-out, something they did again after Bengals kicker Cade York doinked a 33-yard field-goal attempt off the left upright on Cincinnati's second possession. With the Bengals out of timeouts, all the Broncos needed was a first down and they'd be playoff-bound for the first time since 2015, but Bo Nix misfired to tight end Adam Trautman on third-and-long, so the Broncos punted and Burrow led the Bengals (8-8) on their game-winning touchdown drive. “I thought we could move the ball in overtime,” Nix said, “but we didn't.” The Broncos could render all of it moot with a win in Week 18 against Kansas City with the Chiefs (15-1) expected to rely heavily on backups as they rest up for the playoffs as the AFC's top seed. But Denver's defense has been dismal since November, giving up the most yards in the league, and another letdown against the Chiefs would give the Broncos their biggest collapse in two decades. “This is what we do it for — meaningful games here,” Payton said. "I think it’s important that you embrace it, and it is exciting. There’s nothing worse than playing games in the last part of the season where there’s nothing at stake. So I think it’s something we’ll all be excited about.” What’s working Denver's pass rush. The Broncos sacked Burrow seven times, giving them a league-high 58 for the season. Zach Allen had a career-best 3 1/2 of them and Dondrea Tillman's sack gives the Broncos six players without at least five sacks this season. What needs help Riley Moss led the Broncos with 14 tackles but he had a tough return to action after missing a month with a sprained MCL. Burrow targeted him over and over, including on the game-winning touchdown throw to Tee Higgins, who caught three TD passes. “Riley could have been healthy for the last eight weeks. Whoever’s opposite Pat, they’re going to go that direction, right?" Payton said. (Higgins) is a good player. A real good player. It wasn’t anything that we didn’t expect. In other words, that happens when you’re teammates with Pat.” Stock up WR Marvin Mims Jr. had a breakout performance with eight catches for 103 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdowns, a 51-yarder and the 25-yard catch on fourth down in the closing seconds while sandwiched between two veteran defenders. Stock down Denver's defense. Even with Moss back, which allowed DC Vance Joseph to go back to relying more on man coverage, the Broncos defense continued to struggle since the calendar turned to December. Injuries The Broncos came out healthy although superstar CB Patrick Surtain II was limping on the game's final snaps. Key number 5 — Number of NFL rookie QBs to throw for at least 3,000 yards and 25 touchdowns with Nix joining Justin Herbert, Baker Mayfield, Russell Wilson and Peyton Manning. What’s next It's all or nothing next week when a win over the Chiefs would send Denver to the playoffs. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL Arnie Stapleton, The Associated Presshow to recharge in phlboss using gcash 。

The path to the College Football Playoff got a lot clearer for Tennessee last Saturday. Not only did the Vols take care of business against UTEP in Neyland Stadium, they also saw teams ranked ahead of them from the SEC lose. Ole Miss fell on the road to Florida while Alabama got blown out at Oklahoma. That doesn’t even take into account Texas A&M suffering its third loss of the season after getting beaten in quadruple overtime by Auburn. Just another weekend across the Southeastern Conference. The chaos moved the Vols from the first team out of the 12-team field to solidly in the bracket. Where they are exactly will be announced on Tuesday night. It is expected, though, that Tennessee will be near the cutline for hosting a CFP game, a privilege earned by being seeded No. 5 through No. 8. While their placement ahead of rivalry week is important, Vols head coach Josh Heupel knows it can only mean so much before the end of the year. “There’s a lot of football to be played,” Heupel said. “That’s for everybody across the country. It’s for us. And focus on the task at hand. We have to be our best on Saturday.” Although the Vols could end up hosting a first round game in the postseason, they are not locked into the field. A loss to Vanderbilt would send them out of national championship contention and into a bowl game. To make matters even more precarious, this year’s Commodore team is a far cry from their bottom-dwelling past. Head coach Clark Lea and quarterback Diego Pavia have led Vandy to bowl eligibility with wins over Alabama and Virginia Tech highlighting the season. On Monday, UT running back Dylan Sampson reiterated the in-state battle’s postseason implications. “Yeah, everybody in the building knows the reality of the game, and you know, how much it means,” Sampson said. “It basically is a playoff game. Take care of business and handle what it is, but we got to go and attack every detail this week.” The Tennessee-Vanderbilt series is one that has been dominated by the Vols, as the East Tennesseans own an 80-32-5 record all-time against the mid-staters. Secondary’s Growth One of the biggest question marks surrounding Tennessee heading into the season was the secondary, due to the roster churn from the end of 2023. However, the group has answered the bell week-after-week. The Vols have the fourth-best defense in the SEC in terms of passing yards allowed (185.5) and are ranked second in the league in points allowed per game (13.1). The team’s two outside corners made their mark again against UTEP, as Rickey Gibson III forced a fumble and Jermod McCoy hauled in another interception. Will Brooks and Boo Carter also have made significant contributions throughout the year. On the whole, the Vols have forced 10 interceptions through 11 games. McCoy and Brooks are tied with the team lead with three. While picks aren’t the definitive stat for secondary success, the group has grown into quite the opportunistic one.

US prosecutors seek to drop federal criminal cases against TrumpBroncos can wipe away back-to-back heartbreakers and make playoffs by beating Kansas City ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Losses to the Chargers and Bengals with a playoff berth on the line show Sean Payton made a miscalculation when he agreed to flex the Denver Broncos' Week 16 game to a Thursday night. Arnie Stapleton, The Associated Press Dec 29, 2024 11:08 AM Dec 29, 2024 11:35 AM Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton walks off the field following an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals in Cincinnati, Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Losses to the Chargers and Bengals with a playoff berth on the line show Sean Payton made a miscalculation when he agreed to flex the Denver Broncos' Week 16 game to a Thursday night. The NFL needed the Broncos' approval to replace the Cincinnati-Cleveland game with the Broncos-Chargers game because Denver had already played on a Thursday night on the road. He eagerly agreed to the switch, figuring the team's fanbase always travels well to SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and the Broncos would be the more rested team at Cincinnati. But after an emotional comeback win over the Colts, the Broncos (9-7) lost to the Chargers in part because Payton got away from the run even though it helped them score touchdowns on their first three drives — and he had written “Run It!!” in marker on top of his play sheet. And they lost to the Bengals 30-24 in overtime on Saturday after Payton decided against going for 2 and the win when Marvin Mims Jr. hauled in a highlight-reel touchdown grab between two defenders with 8 seconds left in regulation. “We knew a tie for us was just as beneficial as a win,” Payton explained. “We felt like we had the momentum at that point.” Holding up two fingers, rookie QB Bo Nix lobbied for the 2-point try to no avail. “We discussed it all. We had plenty of time, plenty of time, plenty of time,” Payton said. "And the decision we made was the right one.” Well ... An extra point assured Joe Burrow would get the ball back, and the Broncos hadn't forced a single punt all game, something Payton acknowledged afterward that he wasn't aware of, and they hadn't stopped the Bengals since twice holding them on fourth down in the first half. They finally forced a punt in overtime, but the Broncos went three-and-out, something they did again after Bengals kicker Cade York doinked a 33-yard field-goal attempt off the left upright on Cincinnati's second possession. With the Bengals out of timeouts, all the Broncos needed was a first down and they'd be playoff-bound for the first time since 2015, but Bo Nix misfired to tight end Adam Trautman on third-and-long, so the Broncos punted and Burrow led the Bengals (8-8) on their game-winning touchdown drive. “I thought we could move the ball in overtime,” Nix said, “but we didn't.” The Broncos could render all of it moot with a win in Week 18 against Kansas City with the Chiefs (15-1) expected to rely heavily on backups as they rest up for the playoffs as the AFC's top seed. But Denver's defense has been dismal since November, giving up the most yards in the league, and another letdown against the Chiefs would give the Broncos their biggest collapse in two decades. “This is what we do it for — meaningful games here,” Payton said. "I think it’s important that you embrace it, and it is exciting. There’s nothing worse than playing games in the last part of the season where there’s nothing at stake. So I think it’s something we’ll all be excited about.” What’s working Denver's pass rush. The Broncos sacked Burrow seven times, giving them a league-high 58 for the season. Zach Allen had a career-best 3 1/2 of them and Dondrea Tillman's sack gives the Broncos six players without at least five sacks this season. What needs help Riley Moss led the Broncos with 14 tackles but he had a tough return to action after missing a month with a sprained MCL. Burrow targeted him over and over, including on the game-winning touchdown throw to Tee Higgins, who caught three TD passes. “Riley could have been healthy for the last eight weeks. Whoever’s opposite Pat, they’re going to go that direction, right?" Payton said. (Higgins) is a good player. A real good player. It wasn’t anything that we didn’t expect. In other words, that happens when you’re teammates with Pat.” Stock up WR Marvin Mims Jr. had a breakout performance with eight catches for 103 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdowns, a 51-yarder and the 25-yard catch on fourth down in the closing seconds while sandwiched between two veteran defenders. Stock down Denver's defense. Even with Moss back, which allowed DC Vance Joseph to go back to relying more on man coverage, the Broncos defense continued to struggle since the calendar turned to December. Injuries The Broncos came out healthy although superstar CB Patrick Surtain II was limping on the game's final snaps. Key number 5 — Number of NFL rookie QBs to throw for at least 3,000 yards and 25 touchdowns with Nix joining Justin Herbert, Baker Mayfield, Russell Wilson and Peyton Manning. What’s next It's all or nothing next week when a win over the Chiefs would send Denver to the playoffs. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL Arnie Stapleton, The Associated Press See a typo/mistake? Have a story/tip? This has been shared 0 times 0 Shares Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Get your daily Victoria news briefing Email Sign Up More Football (NFL) Brock Purdy's production takes a big drop for the 49ers in a trying season Dec 29, 2024 9:59 AM NFL Inactive Report Dec 29, 2024 8:45 AM Cardinals' Trey McBride reaches milestones, but deflection off helmet leads to loss Dec 28, 2024 10:23 PMNATIONAL security adviser Jonathan Powell has flown out for talks with the new Mauritius PM to complete the deal for the Chagos Islands — despite US opposition. The UK agreed to pay Mauritius to run the tiny Indian Ocean but their government was booted out of office days later . The incoming Trump administration has slammed the deal that puts a 99 year lease on a vital US/UK naval base on the island of Diago Garcia amid fears of Chinese influence. However Jonathan Powell, who negotiated the original terms, flew out yesterday to try keep it alive despite deep American opposition. Last night Reform boss Nigel Farage blasted: “They want to surrender the Chagos Islands before Trump’s inauguration. "If we treat the USA like this, can they still regard us as an ally?” READ MORE ON CHAGOS ISLANDS Pressure has been mounting on PM Sir Keir Starmer to tear up his plan to hand over the British Overseas Territory to Mauritius. Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Centre for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation, urged US President-elect Donald Trump to intervene. He told The Sun on Sunday: “The Chagos islands deal is a complete surrender to China by the Starmer Government. “It is my firm hope that the new US administration will strongly oppose this deal. Most read in The Sun "Many US conservatives have been horrified by what Britain has done. “And I do think that this issue will be an important foreign policy priority for the new regime in the US. “My strong recommendation to the US President and his advisers is to sink this deal in the same way my former boss Margaret Thatcher sank the Belgrano.” The Argentine ship, the General Belgrano, was sunk by the Royal Navy in the Falklands War .

How Jason Kelce De-Escalated Angry Fan Incident Weeks After Phone-Smashing Altercation

SAN DIEGO — The deployment of military troops to the southwestern border is nothing new. Presidents both Republican and Democrat have called on military support in San Diego and elsewhere many times over the years to assist with border security tasks, from surveillance to reinforcing barriers. But President-elect Donald Trump’s hint this past week that he may use armed forces to carry out mass deportations could veer into new territory. Trump signaled his plans in response to a social media post by the president of the conservative Judicial Watch group, who stated that the incoming Trump administration is prepared to “declare a national emergency and will use military assets” to address illegal immigration “through a mass deportation program.” Further details of how the Trump administration will do so remain unclear. The troops who have previously worked along the border have performed support background roles — often discreetly — and not in an enforcement capacity that has them interacting with migrants. The same goes for the California National Guard members who are currently deployed in San Diego. The question becomes whether Trump’s plan goes beyond that. In San Ysidro, just across the border from Tijuana, some residents still remember during the first Trump administration the spectacle that U.S. Army and Marine troops, including some from Camp Pendleton, brought to the area — even for a community used to the heavy presence of border agents. That’s when hundreds of active-duty troops were sent in 2018 to support operations along the California-Mexico border in response to the arrival of migrant caravans from Central America. “We do have a very strong Border Patrol presence,” said Mónica Delgadillo, a San Ysidro resident for over 40 years. “But the military or the National Guard was something very different.” Army personnel spent days installing concertina wire at the U.S.-Mexico fence to make it more difficult to scale and fortifying areas around the ports of entry to prevent large crowds from rushing into the U.S. They joined previously deployed National Guard members who had been maintaining Border Patrol vehicles, working in dispatch stations and manning remote video surveillance systems. The following year, amid a national emergency declaration to replace the border wall, more troops were sent to the southern border to help install wire barriers and monitor crossings. Trump also used the declaration to divert Pentagon funds to help finance the wall project. Troops were also called upon during the Biden administration to support the Department of Homeland Security as the agency dealt with the lifting in 2023 of a COVID-era policy that mostly closed the border to asylum seekers. The troops assisted with administrative and support tasks, not law enforcement activities. The Posse Comitatus Act restricts the federal military from performing civilian law enforcement duties, except where authorized by Congress. One of the statutory exceptions to the law is the Insurrection Act. Gov. Gavin Newsom has continued to deploy the California National Guard to assist with drug interdiction — primarily targeting fentanyl trafficking — at ports of entry. Recently, state officials said the agency’s counter-narcotics task force helped law enforcement partners seize more than 1.7 million pills of fentanyl in October. “This program continues to be extremely successful — providing critical support to law enforcement agencies in combating illicit drug trafficking and transnational criminal activity,” the agency said in a statement. But while the National Guard operates under the control of the governor, in certain circumstances the president has the authority to federalize the National Guard. Cal Guard officials said that deployment of National Guard forces is governed by distinct criteria for state and federal missions, and that they will “not speculate on potential changes or future missions.” Trump and his advisers have offered a few hints. Last year, Trump’s proposed deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, told The New York Times that military funds would be used to build “vast holding facilities that would function as staging centers” for immigrants as their cases progressed and they waited to be flown to other countries. He went further in a radio interview , proposing calling on “red state governors” and asking for their National Guards: “We will deputize them as immigration enforcement officers. They know their states, they know their communities, they know their cities.” Trump has also vowed to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to “target and dismantle every migrant criminal network operating on American soil.” Lee Gelernt, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who spearheaded the legal challenge in San Diego to Trump’s policy of separating migrant families at the border, said that use of the military to carry out deportation under such law “is flatly illegal.” “The law requires an invasion by a foreign government, which is why it’s only been used previously during declared wars with foreign enemies,” he said in a statement. Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran and co-founder of the San Diego chapter of the Truman National Security Project, called the plan to use the military to address civilians “outrageous.” “We are not a country that has the military running through the streets interacting with our civilians,” he said. “That’s just not a thing. In San Diego, we have a lot of military here, but they are our neighbors. And our neighbors here know that, like they can use their own eyes and see, that we don’t have this massive crisis that’s been fabricated in people’s eyes.” Migrant encounters between ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border have dropped by more than 55% since President Joe Biden issued an executive order restricting asylum in June, according to Customs and Border Protection data. As of 2022, the most recent year for which federal and Pew Research Center estimates are available, there were about 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. About 1.8 million of them were living in California. During a recent visit to San Diego, retired Mexican ambassador Martha Bárcena, who served as Mexico’s ambassador to the United States during the Trump administration, said it would be “irresponsible” to think that proposals like mass deportations were merely campaign promises. But she said she expects many of Trump’s policies to be challenged in court. ©2024 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Visit sandiegouniontribune.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Last week, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot to death on a New York City sidewalk in what was clearly a thoroughly planned-out attack. Over the next few days, as authorities hunted for the killer, online progressives did not try hard to hide their delight that a millionaire health insurance executive like Thompson was killed. Social media was flooded with posts and videos—with different ranges of subtlety—suggesting that Thompson, at the very least, did not deserve to be mourned because of all the health care his company has denied to poor and working people. Progressives framed the shooting as an act of self-defense on behalf of the working class. Before the alleged killer was caught Monday, they promised not to snitch if they saw the shooter themselves and fantasized about a working-class jury nullifying all charges, leading to other CEOs getting gunned down with impunity if they oversaw price increases. The narrative that these online progressives clearly subscribe to and perpetuate is one where, in the United States, healthcare is a totally unfettered, unregulated industry; where—because of a total lack of government involvement—wealthy CEOs charge whatever prices they want and then refuse to provide customers what they already paid for without facing any bad consequences. The characterization of healthcare and health insurance companies charging absurdly high prices while treating their customers terribly without the risk of losing them is spot on. But the idea that what caused this was a lack of government involvement in the healthcare system is completely delusional. And this delusion conveniently removes all the responsibility progressives bear for the nightmare that is the US healthcare system. Today, healthcare is one of the most heavily government-regulated industries in the economy—right up there with the finance and energy sectors. Government agencies are involved in all parts of the process, from the research and production of drugs, the training and licensing of medical professionals, and the building of hospitals to the availability of health insurance, the makeup of insurance plans, and the complicated payment processes. And that is nothing new. The US government has been intervening heavily in the healthcare industry for over a century. And no group has done more to bring this about than the progressives. It really began, after all, during the Progressive Era, when the American Medical Association maneuvered its way into setting the official accreditation standards for the nation’s “unregulated” medical schools. The AMA wrote standards that excluded the medical approaches of their competitors, which forced half of the nation’s medical schools to close. The new shortage of trained doctors drove up the price of medical services—to the delight of the AMA and other government-recognized doctor’s groups—setting the familiar healthcare affordability crisis in motion. Around the same time, progressives successfully pushed for strict restrictions on the production of drugs and, shortly afterward, to grant drug producers monopoly privileges. After WWII, as healthcare grew more expensive, the government used the tax code to warp how Americans paid for healthcare. Under President Truman, the IRS made employer-provided health insurance tax deductible while continuing to tax other means of payment. It didn’t take long for employer plans to become the dominant arrangement and for health insurance to morph away from actual insurance into a general third-party payment system. These government interventions restricting the supply of medical care and privileging insurance over other payment methods created a real affordability problem for many Americans. But the crisis didn’t really start until the 1960s when Congress passed two of the progressive’s favorite government programs—Medicare and Medicaid. Initially, industry groups like the AMA opposed Medicare and Medicaid because they believed the government subsidies would deteriorate the quality of care. They were right about that, but what they clearly didn’t anticipate was how rich the programs would make them. Anyone who’s taken even a single introductory economics class could tell you that prices will rise if supply decreases or demand increases. The government was already keeping the supply of medical services artificially low—leading to artificially high prices. Medicare and Medicaid left those shortages in place and poured a ton of tax dollars into the healthcare sector—significantly increasing demand. The result was an easily predictable explosion in the cost of healthcare. Fewer and fewer people could afford healthcare at these rising prices, meaning more people required government assistance, which meant more demand, causing prices to grow faster and faster. Meanwhile, private health “insurance” providers were also benefiting from the mounting crisis. In a free market, insurance serves as a means to trade risk. Insurance works well for accidents and calamities that are hard to predict individually but relatively easy to predict in bulk, like car accidents, house fires, and unexpected family deaths. Health insurance providers were already being subsidized by all the taxes on competing means of payment, which allowed their plans to grow beyond the typical bounds of insurance and begin to cover easily-predictable occurrences like annual physicals. And, as the price of all of these services continued to shoot up, the costs of these routine procedures were becoming high enough to resemble the costs of emergencies—making consumers even more reliant on insurance. With progressives cheering on, the political class used government intervention to create a healthcare system that behaves as if its sole purpose is to move as much money as possible into the pockets of healthcare providers, drug companies, hospitals, health-related federal agencies, and insurance providers. But the party could not last forever. As the price of healthcare rose, the price of health insurance rose, too. Eventually, when insurance premiums grew too high, fewer employers or individual buyers were willing to buy insurance, and the flow of money into the healthcare system started to falter. The data suggests that that tipping point was reached in the early 2000s. For the first time since the cycle began back in the 1960s, the number of people with health insurance began to fall each year. Healthcare providers—who had seemingly assumed that the flow of money would never stop increasing—began to panic. Then came Barack Obama. Obama’s seminal legislative accomplishment—the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare—can best be understood as a ploy by healthcare providers and the government to keep the party going. Obamacare required all fifty million uninsured Americans to obtain insurance, and it greatly expanded what these “insurance” companies covered. Demand for healthcare shot back up, and the vicious cycle started back up again—which is why the bill enjoyed so much support from big corporations all across the healthcare industry. Before it was passed, economists were practically screaming that the Affordable Care Act would make care less affordable by raising premiums and healthcare prices while making shortages worse. Progressives dismissed such concerns as Reagan-era “free market fundamentalist” propaganda. But that is exactly what happened . Now, the affordability crisis is worse than ever as prices reach historic levels. And, because Obamacare brought American healthcare much closer to a single-payer system, the demand for healthcare far exceeds the supply of healthcare—leading to deadly shortages. There are literally not enough resources or available medical professionals to treat everyone who can pay for care. Also, the tax code and warped “insurance” market protect these providers from competition—making it almost impossible for people to switch to a different provider after their claims are unfairly denied. If it were simply greed, denying customers who already paid would be a feature in all industries. But it’s not. It requires the kind of policy protections progressives helped implement. And on top of all that, despite paying all this money, Americans are quickly becoming one of the sickest populations on Earth. This is one of the most pressing problems facing the country. A problem that requires immediate, radical change to solve. But it also requires an accurate and precise diagnosis—something that, this week, progressives demonstrated they are incapable of making. Related Articles Commentary | John Stossel: Your tax dollars not at work Commentary | After so many years of failure, time’s up for California Democrats Commentary | Vince Fong: We don’t need Newsom to lecture us. We need him to listen to us. Commentary | Deregulation rather than fossil fuel controls needed to fix California insurance market Commentary | The FBI has been political from the start The American progressive movement is responsible for providing the political class the intellectual cover they needed to break the healthcare market and transform the entire system into a means to transfer wealth to people like Brian Thompson. Now, they want to sit back, pretend like they’ve never gotten their way, that the government has never done anything with the healthcare market, and that these healthcare executives just popped up and started doing this all on their own—all so they can celebrate him being gunned down in the street. It’s disgusting. Brian Thompson acted exactly like every economically literate person over the last fifty years has said health insurance CEOs would act if progressives got their way. If we’re ever going to see the end of this century-long nightmare, we need to start listening to the people who have gotten it right, not those who pretend they are blameless as they fantasize online about others starting a violent revolution. Connor O’Keeffe ( @ConnorMOKeeffe ) produces media and content at the Mises Institute. This commentary is republished with permission from the Mises Institute.

Social media users are misrepresenting a Vermont Supreme Court ruling , claiming that it gives schools permission to vaccinate children even if their parents do not consent. The ruling addressed a lawsuit filed by Dario and Shujen Politella against Windham Southeast School District and state officials over the mistaken vaccination of their child against COVID-19 in 2021, when he was 6 years old. A lower court had dismissed the original complaint, as well as an amended version. An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was filed on Nov. 19. But the ruling by Vermont's high court is not as far-reaching as some online have claimed. In reality, it concluded that anyone protected under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, or PREP, Act is immune to state lawsuits. Here's a closer look at the facts. CLAIM: The Vermont Supreme Court ruled that schools can vaccinate children against their parents' wishes. THE FACTS: The claim stems from a July 26 ruling by the Vermont Supreme Court, which found that anyone protected by the PREP Act is immune to state lawsuits, including the officials named in the Politella's suit. The ruling does not authorize schools to vaccinate children at their discretion. According to the lawsuit, the Politella's son — referred to as L.P. — was given one dose of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination clinic held at Academy School in Brattleboro even though his father, Dario, told the school's assistant principal a few days before that his son was not to receive a vaccination. In what officials described as a mistake, L.P. was removed from class and had a “handwritten label” put on his shirt with the name and date of birth of another student, L.K., who had already been vaccinated that day. L.P. was then vaccinated. Ultimately, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that officials involved in the case could not be sued. “We conclude that the PREP Act immunizes every defendant in this case and this fact alone is enough to dismiss the case,” the Vermont Supreme Court's ruling reads. “We conclude that when the federal PREP Act immunizes a defendant, the PREP Act bars all state-law claims against that defendant as a matter of law.” The PREP Act , enacted by Congress in 2005, authorizes the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to issue a declaration in the event of a public health emergency providing immunity from liability for activities related to medical countermeasures, such as the administration of a vaccine, except in cases of “willful misconduct" that result in “death or serious physical injury.” A declaration against COVID-19 was issued on March 17, 2020. It is set to expire on Dec. 31. Federals suits claiming willful misconduct are filed in Washington. Social media users described the Vermont Supreme Court's ruling as having consequences beyond what it actually says. “The Vermont Supreme Court has ruled that schools can force-vaccinate children for Covid against the wishes of their parents,” reads one X post that had been liked and shared approximately 16,600 times as of Tuesday. “The high court ruled on a case involving a 6-year-old boy who was forced to take a Covid mRNA injection by his school. However, his family had explicitly stated that they didn't want their child to receive the ‘vaccines.’” Other users alleged that the ruling gives schools permission to give students any vaccine without parental consent, not just ones for COVID-19. Rod Smolla, president of the Vermont Law and Graduate School and an expert on constitutional law, told The Associated Press that the ruling “merely holds that the federal statute at issue, the PREP Act, preempts state lawsuits in cases in which officials mistakenly administer a vaccination without consent.” “Nothing in the Vermont Supreme Court opinion states that school officials can vaccinate a child against the instructions of the parent,” he wrote in an email. Asked whether the claims spreading online have any merit, Ronald Ferrara, an attorney representing the Politellas, told the AP that although the ruling doesn't say schools can vaccinate students regardless of parental consent, officials could interpret it to mean that they could get away with doing so under the PREP Act, at least when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines. He explained that the U.S. Supreme Court appeal seeks to clarify whether the Vermont Supreme Court interpreted the PREP Act beyond what Congress intended. “The Politella’s fundamental liberty interest to decide whether their son should receive elective medical treatment was denied by agents of the State and School,” he wrote in an email to the AP. “The Vermont Court misconstrues the scope of PREP Act immunity (which is conditioned upon informed consent for medical treatments unapproved by FDA), to cover this denial of rights and its underlying battery.” Ferrara added that he was not aware of the claims spreading online, but that he “can understand how lay people may conflate the court's mistaken grant of immunity for misconduct as tantamount to blessing such misconduct.” John Klar, who also represents the Politellas, went a step further, telling the AP that the Vermont Supreme Court ruling means that “as a matter of law” schools can get away with vaccinating students without parental consent and that parents can only sue on the federal level if death or serious bodily injury results. — Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck .Louisiana judge halts state police plans to clear New Orleans homeless camps before Thanksgiving

Fleet Space Closes A$150M Series D with A$800M+ ValuationA few days ago, Scott Cooney , the paterfamilias of CleanTechnica , sent me a note via interoffice mail asking me if I had considered writing a story about Elon Musk and how his financial support of Donald Trump in the last election had boosted his own fortunes. At that moment, I didn’t have any active plans to do so, but in the past few days, a number of pertinent items have found their way into my inbox. They say there are three types of people in the world — those who make things happen, those who know what’s happening, and those who wonder what happened. Our goal is to keep our readers out of that third group. The spur that convinced me to delve into this topic was a recent article in Bloomberg that dealt with this very issue. It cited a report by CNBC that Musk’s net worth increased by $70 billion within five days of the most recent election. He reportedly spent $250 million of his own money to get Trump elected. That’s a huge profit. The question becomes, did Musk spend that money to help Trump or to help himself? The correct answer may be “both.” As Bloomberg points out, Musk is the owner of several large companies that have major contracts with the US government. Several of those companies also have regulatory issues with various government agencies — issues that could get swept under the rug by the next administration. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota warned recently that it is important for the public to know the motivations of wealthy people who work in any administration. “You have a number of very wealthy people going into the Trump administration,” she said on Bloomberg Television . “We need conflict rules enforced. We need to know the decisions they’re making are not for their own interests but for the interest of the American people.” As an unelected advisor to the next administration, Musk isn’t covered by the ethics rules that apply to federal employees. The Trump transition team has released an ethics plan prohibiting its members from working on “particular matters involving specific parties” that affect their financial interests. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is skeptical. She fired off a letter to Trump that specified her concerns recently. She alluded to the numerous contracts the US government has with SpaceX and Tesla, and said his companies have been subject to “at least 20 recent investigations or reviews” by federal regulatory agencies. She cited reports just in the last week of developments in investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into Neuralink and Musk’s purchase of Twitter. In her letter, Senator Warren made reference to several connections between Musk-owned companies and the federal government. “In addition to their substantial dependence on government contracts and other forms of direct and indirect government support, SpaceX, Tesla, and Mr. Musk’s other companies have an ongoing interest in how the government does or does not enforce labor laws, workplace safety rules, environmental regulations, and other federal laws. Others explain that Mr. Musk’ “entanglements with federal regulators are ... numerous and adversarial.” His companies have been the subject of at least “20 recent investigations or reviews,” including those carried out by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) , which has opened five investigations into Tesla; the Justice Department, which has sued SpaceX over its hiring practices; the Transportation Department, which has fined Neuralink, Mr. Musk’s brain implant company, for violating rules regarding the movement of hazardous materials; and the National Labor Relations Board, which SpaceX is attempting to “defang” through a series of lawsuits. Here are relevant parts or that letter. Her footnotes have been deleted here but can be found in the original text at the link above. “Mr. Musk’s substantial private interests present a massive conflict of interest with the role he has taken on as your ‘unofficial co-president.’ Currently, the American public has no way of knowing whether the advice that he is whispering to you in secret is good for the country — or merely good for his own bottom line. The evidence shows the benefits that have already accrued for Mr. Musk: in the five days after the election, Tesla’s stock surge alone increased Mr. Musk’s fortune by $70 billion as he ‘cashe[d] in on his investments’ he made in your campaign. “Two reports from this past week indicate the extent to which Mr. Musk may have clear conflicts of interest related to the advice he is giving as part of the transition team and as co-chair of DOGE. First, Mr. Musk, on December 13, released a Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) ‘settlement demand’ related to his purchase of Twitter, indicating that he was facing imminent charges related to potential securities fraud. Information released by Mr. Musk’s attorney also indicated that the SEC had reopened an investigation into another one of his companies, Neuralink. And that same day, press reports indicated that the Trump Transition team had recommended repealing a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reporting requirement that companies report crash data from automated vehicles – a change that ‘would particularly benefit Tesla.’ “As a key adviser to you and a high profile policymaker in his role as co-chair of the DOGE Committee, Mr. Musk appears to be playing an extraordinarily influential role in the transition, and it appears that he is poised to continue doing so after you assume office on January 20, 2025. He should be held to the ethics standards that you have established for your transition team and should provide clarity about his role and his activities in order to reassure the American public that he is working solely on their behalf and not using his role in the transition as an opportunity to fatten his own wallet.” Warren asked for a response to her letter by December 23. What she got was a statement from Trump transition team spokesperson Karoline Leavitt who dismissed the letter and mocked Warren as “Pocahontas,” a racist reference to Warren’s previous assertion of distant Native American heritage, Bloomberg reports. “Pocahontas can play political games and send toothless letters, but the Trump-Vance transition will continue to be held to the highest ethical and legal standards possible,” Leavitt said. The emphasis should be on the word “possible.” Every organization reflects the ethics of its leaders, so in this case that means old “Grab ’em by the pussy” Trump is setting the bar as low as possible. E. Jean Carroll could offer some insight into the man’s ethical standards or lack thereof. So, is Musk pushing his views because he thinks they are good for the country or because he thinks they are good for himself? In 1958, Sherman Adams, chief of staff to President Eisenhower, was dismissed from his position when it was learned he had accepted an expensive vicuna coat from a South American diplomat. That is what setting a high ethical bar looks like, not the transactional standards of Donald Trump who shamelessly seeks disparaging information from a foreign government to smear a political opponent. The man has no ethics and never has. We have this advice for Elon : “When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.” Musk may think he has this whole thing wired, but pride rides before a fall, my old Irish grandmother liked to say. He should be aware that there is only one sun in Donald Trump’s universe — himself — and anyone who attempts to compete with him is likely to suffer greatly. The same person who could help Musk substantially could just as easily decide to make life miserable for him. Be careful what you wish for, Elon. You just might get it. Featured image: Mashup by Carolyn Fortuna/CleanTechnica from “ Donald Trump Signs The Pledge ” by Michael Vadon, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 . + “ Elon Musk ” by Daniel Oberhaus (2018) , licensed under CC BY 2.0 . CleanTechnica's Comment Policy LinkedIn WhatsApp Facebook Bluesky Email Reddit

First dog-friendly cruise scheduled for 2025. Organizers hope it turns into a recurring event.

Funding from Teachers’ Venture Growth and Other Investors to Scale Exploration Solutions Powered by Space & AI for Faster Energy Transition Mineral Discovery ADELAIDE, Australia , Dec. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Fleet Space Technologies (Fleet Space), Australia’s leading space exploration company, today announced the closing of a A$150M Series D funding round, led by Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG), the late-stage venture and growth investment arm of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, and joined by existing investors Blackbird Ventures, Hostplus, Horizons Ventures, Artesian Venture Partners, and Alumni Ventures. The new investment will be used to expand the capabilities of Fleet Space’s global end-to-end exploration platform, ExoSphere, to accelerate the discovery of critical minerals needed for Earth’s clean energy future. “The ability to meet the rapidly increasing demand for critical minerals presents a significant challenge to achieving global net-zero targets,” said Rick Prostko , Senior Managing Director, Teachers’ Venture Growth. “Current mineral exploration methods are inadequate for efficient discovery and production. Fleet Space addresses this with advanced 3D subsurface imaging and AI analysis tools, which have the potential to sustainably transform the industry. We are proud to support the multidisciplinary team at Fleet Space in their efforts to accelerate the global energy transition.” “We’re proud to continue our investment in Fleet Space, building on many years of history,” added Niki Scevak, Partner at Blackbird. “Quite simply, the discovery of critical minerals must exponentially increase if we are to electrify our society by 2050 and breakthroughs, like ExoSphere, are needed to make it happen.” Real-Time Exploration Powered by Space & AI Founded by former propulsion engineer at the European Space Agency, Flavia Tata Nardini , and aerospace entrepreneur, Matt Pearson , Fleet Space was created to harness the capabilities of space exploration technologies for a new wave of solutions that can accelerate decarbonisation and the global energy transition. By integrating Fleet Space’s satellites in LEO, smart seismic sensors, and AI into an end-to-end solution, Fleet Space’s ExoSphere technology streamlines the acquisition, processing, and integration of exploration datasets, providing the global mining industry with high-quality targeting insights faster than ever before while minimising environmental impact. “There are two versions of the future. One where we bend the latest advances in space, AI, and big data towards building a clean energy future and another where we risk net-zero targets falling out of reach as the rate of new discoveries of energy transition minerals continues to decline,” added Flavia Tata Nardini , CEO & Co-Founder of Fleet Space. “With ExoSphere, we have combined these technologies into an end-to-end platform that seamlessly integrates with and compliments modern mining operations – making the frontier of exploration technology accessible to the global mining industry within a single workflow. This is a fundamental step to unlock humanity’s potential for making extraordinary discoveries with less environmental impact.” Exponential Growth Today’s announcement caps a period of exponential growth for Fleet Space. In the past year, Fleet Space has: “This funding is not just a testament to Fleet Space’s growth, strong investor confidence, and sustained innovation in core technologies needed to address dual challenges of climate change and mineral exploration. It’s a signal that in a period of turbulent macroeconomic conditions, the shared commitment to build technologies needed for Earth’s clean energy future combined with solid business execution can attract the right partners,” said Federico Tata Nardini , Chief Financial Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Fleet Space. “We are proud to be among the few companies globally to close a Series D round in the context of reduced activity in the venture ecosystem and look forward to furthering our vision, strategic initiatives, and roadmap to scale the business to the next level.” Technology Roadmap for Explorers of New Worlds While advancing the capabilities of data-driven exploration on Earth with ExoSphere, Fleet Space has also laid the technology foundation to rapidly accelerate the exploration of new worlds. The smart seismic sensors used as part of Fleet Space’s terrestrial ExoSphere system represent the technological precursor for its lunar variant – SPIDER – which will be deployed on the Moon in 2026 to enhance humanity’s understanding of the lunar subsurface. Collaborating with MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative , Fleet Space is also helping to advance off-world research needed for the planning of future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Additionally, Fleet Space unveiled a cost-effective, resilient full duplex SATCOM system using microsatellites and reprogrammed Centauri-4 to become the world’s smallest voice-enabled satellite . “The convergence of innovation in space, AI, and 3D subsurface imaging represents a foundational pillar of the core technology set that will enable humanity to build permanent research stations on the Moon, Mars, and beyond,” said Matt Pearson , Chief Exploration Officer at Fleet Space. “The flywheel we’ve created by continuously enhancing the subsurface understanding of Earth through the global deployment of ExoSphere simultaneously drives advances in the technology needed to build highly scalable, data-driven exploration systems for new worlds. A bold new chapter in the history of space exploration is about to begin and we are positioned to play a significant role as humanity boldly ventures deeper into our solar system.” About Fleet Space Technologies Fleet Space Technologies , Australia’s leading space exploration company, is revolutionizing critical mineral discovery with its end-to-end mineral exploration solution, ExoSphere, which combines satellite connectivity, 3D multiphysics, and AI to image mineral systems in real-time. Over 40 leading exploration companies like Rio Tinto, Barrick Gold , and Core Lithium have used ExoSphere’s real-time 3D subsurface imaging on projects across five continents. Due to global demand for ExoSphere, Fleet Space’s international footprint has expanded to the US, Canada , Chile , and Luxembourg with over 130+ employees, representing 37 nationalities, worldwide. In 2024, Fleet Space was recognised as the winner of the Innovation category at the Mining Technology Excellence Awards and received the Climate Impact Technology Award by the Banksia Foundation. To learn more about ExoSphere, please reach out to the Fleet Space team here . About Teachers’ Venture Growth Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG) focuses on late-stage venture and growth equity investments in cutting-edge technology companies worldwide. We partner with founders with bold missions, looking to expand their product offering, scale geographically, and become the leaders in their markets. We bring long-term thinking and active investing to help build better businesses and a better world. We think globally and act locally through our direct presence across Asia , North America and Europe . TVG is part of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers’), a global investor with net assets of CAD 255.8 billion as at June 30, 2024 . We invest in more than 50 countries in a broad array of assets including public and private equities, fixed income, credit, commodities, natural resources, infrastructure, real estate and venture growth to deliver retirement income for 340,000 working members and pensioners. Our more than 450 investment professionals operate in key financial centres around the world and bring deep expertise in a broad range of sectors and industries. We are a fully funded defined benefit pension plan and have earned an annual total-fund net return of 9.3% since the plan’s founding in 1990. At Ontario Teachers’, we don’t just invest to make a return, we invest to shape a better future for the teachers we serve, the businesses we back, and the world we live in. For more information, visit otpp.com/teachersventuregrowth and follow us on LinkedIn . Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2578404/Fleet_Space_logo.jpg Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2578405/Fleet_Space_Series_D_Funding.jpg Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2578406/Fleet_Space_Co_Founders.jpg View original content: https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/fleet-space-closes-a150m-series-d-with-a800m-valuation-302328977.html SOURCE Fleet SpaceEminem’s mother Debbie Nelson, whose rocky relationship fueled the rapper’s lyrics, dies at age 69Signing with Dodgers was really easy decision for 2-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell says it was a really easy decision to sign with the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the presence of three-time MVP Shohei Ohtani played a part, too. Beth Harris, The Associated Press Dec 3, 2024 3:40 PM Dec 3, 2024 3:50 PM Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell, center, poses for photos with president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, right, and general manager Brandon Gomes during a news conference Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell says it was a really easy decision to sign with the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the presence of three-time MVP Shohei Ohtani played a part, too. Snell was introduced Tuesday at Dodger Stadium accompanied by his agent Scott Boras. The left-hander finalized a $182 million, five-year contract last Saturday. “It was really easy just cause me and Haeley wanted to live here, it’s something we’ve been talking about for a while,” Snell said, referring to his girlfriend. “Then you look at the team. You look at what they’ve built, what they’re doing. It’s just something you want to be a part of.” Last month, Snell opted out of his deal with San Francisco to become a free agent for the second consecutive offseason after he was slowed by injuries during his lone year with the San Francisco Giants. Snell gets a $52 million signing bonus, payable on Jan. 25, and annual salaries of $26 million, of which $13.2 million each year will be deferred . Because Snell is a Washington state resident, the signing bonus will not be subject to California income tax. “It just played out the way that people around me felt comfortable with, I felt comfortable with, they felt comfortable with,” Snell said. “We talked and found something that could work for both of us. You want your worth, you want your respect, and you want enough time to where you can really make a name for yourself. I've made a name for myself outside of LA, but I'm going to be invested.” Two-way star Ohtani, who signed a record $700 million, 10-year deal a year ago, had a historic first season with the Dodgers. He helped them win the franchise's eighth World Series while playing only as designated hitter and became MVP in the National League for the first time after twice winning the award while in the American League. “It helps with him in the lineup for sure. That’s big motivation,” Snell said. “You want to be around players like that when you’re trying to be one of the best in the game. Yeah, it played a big part.” Snell joins Ohtani and fellow Japanese right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto atop Los Angeles’ rotation. All-Star Tyler Glasnow will be back after having his first season in LA derailed by a sprained elbow. Ohtani didn’t pitch this year while recovering from right elbow surgery but is expected back on the mound in 2025. The rest of the rotation includes Tony Gonsolin, Landon Knack, Dustin May, Bobby Miller and Emmet Sheehan. “I pitched on six-man, five-man, four-man rotations,” Snell said. “I'm good with it all as long as we have a plan, we'll execute it.” Snell, who turns 32 on Wednesday, went 5-3 with a 3.12 ERA in 20 starts this year, throwing a no-hitter at Cincinnati on Aug. 2 for one of only 16 individual shutouts in the major leagues this season. He struck out 145 and walked 44 in 104 innings. He was sidelined between April 19 and May 22 by a strained left adductor and between June 2 and July 9 by a strained left groin. Snell won Cy Young Awards in 2018 with Tampa Bay and 2023 with San Diego. He is 76-58 with a 3.19 ERA in nine seasons with the Rays (2016-20), Padres (2021-23) and Giants. He has known Andrew Friedman, Dodgers president of baseball operations, since he was 18. In the aftermath of winning the World Series and discussing how the Dodgers could repeat next year, Friedman said, “All conversations kept coming back to Blake.” “Usually in major league free agency, you're buying the backside of a guy's career, the accomplishments that they have had,” he said. “With Blake, one thing that's really exciting for us is, as much success as he's had, we feel like there's more in there." Snell was 2-2 against the Dodgers in his career. “We couldn’t beat him, so we’re going to have him join us,” Friedman said. .___ AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB Beth Harris, The Associated Press See a typo/mistake? Have a story/tip? This has been shared 0 times 0 Shares Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Get your daily Victoria news briefing Email Sign Up More Baseball Dodgers' deferred payment obligations top $1 billion to 7 players with Snell and Edman contracts Dec 3, 2024 2:37 PM Blue Jays GM Atkins says there is a great deal of opportunity for the club Dec 3, 2024 2:34 PM IBL's Maple Leafs sign Ayami Sato, widely considered baseball's top female pitcher Dec 3, 2024 1:54 PM

FACT FOCUS: Vermont ruling does not say schools can vaccinate children without parental consentBerlin: Tech billionaire Elon Musk caused uproar after backing Germany’s far-right party in a major newspaper ahead of key parliamentary elections in the Western European country, leading to the resignation of Welt am Sonntag’ s opinion editor in protest. Germany is to vote in an early election on February 23 after Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party governing coalition collapsed last month in a dispute over how to revitalise the country’s stagnant economy. Elon Musk has involved himself deeply in US politics - now he’s turned his attention to Germany. Credit: AP Musk’s guest opinion piece for Welt am Sonntag — a sister publication of POLITICO owned by the Axel Springer Group — published in German over the weekend, was the second time this month he supported the Alternative for Germany, or AfD . “The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the last spark of hope for this country,” Musk wrote in his translated commentary. He went on to say the far-right party “can lead the country into a future where economic prosperity, cultural integrity and technological innovation are not just wishes, but reality”. Loading The Tesla Motors chief executive also wrote that his investment in Germany gave him the right to comment on the country’s condition. The AfD is polling strongly, but its candidate for the top job, Alice Weidel, has no realistic chance of becoming chancellor because other parties refuse to work with the far-right party. An ally of US President-elect Donald Trump, the technology billionaire challenged in his opinion piece the party’s public image. “The portrayal of the AfD as right-wing extremist is clearly false, considering that Alice Weidel, the party’s leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Please!” Musk’s commentary has led to a debate in German media over the boundaries of free speech, with the paper’s own opinion editor announcing her resignation, pointedly on Musk’s social media platform, X. “I always enjoyed leading the opinion section of WELT and WAMS. Today an article by Elon Musk appeared in Welt am Sonntag . I handed in my resignation yesterday after it went to print,” Eva Marie Kogel wrote. Eva Marie Kogel, the editor who quit in protest after her paper ran an Elon Musk opinion piece. Credit: Martin U. K. Lengemann The newspaper was also attacked by politicians and other media for offering Musk, an outsider, a platform to express his views, in favour of the AfD. Candidate for chancellor, Friedrich Merz, of the Christian Democratic Union, said on Sunday that Musk’s comments were “intrusive and presumptuous”. He was speaking to the newspapers of the German Funke Media Group. Supporters of the far-right Alternative for Germany political party hold a placard that reads: “Germany First!” at an AfD campaign rally in Thuringia. Credit: Getty Images Co-leader of the Social Democratic Party, Saskia Esken said that “Anyone who tries to influence our election from outside, who supports an anti-democratic, misanthropic party like the AfD, whether the influence is organised by the state from Russia or by the concentrated financial and media power of Elon Musk and his billionaire friends on the Springer board, must expect our tough resistance,” according to the ARD national public TV network. “In Elon Musk’s world, democracy and workers’ rights are obstacles to more profit,” Esken told Reuters. “We say quite clearly: Our democracy is defensible and it cannot be bought.” Musk’s opinion piece in the Welt am Sonntag was accompanied by a critical article by the future editor-in-chief of the Welt group, Jan Philipp Burgard. “Musk’s diagnosis is correct, but his therapeutic approach, that only the AfD can save Germany, is fatally wrong,” Burgard wrote. A general view of The Reichstag, which houses the German lower House of Parliament or Bundestag. Snap elections are scheduled for February 23. Credit: Getty Images Responding to a request for comment from the German Press Agency, dpa, the current editor-in-chief of the Welt group, Ulf Poschardt, and Burgard — who is due to take over on January 1 — said in a joint statement that the discussion over Musk’s piece was “very insightful. Democracy and journalism thrive on freedom of expression.” “This will continue to determine the compass of the “world” in the future. We will develop “ Die Welt ” even more decisively as a forum for such debates,” they wrote to dpa. AP, Reuters Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here . Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. EU Germany Elon Musk Most Viewed in World LoadingVizio Just Released a Karaoke Soundbar Right on Time for the Holiday Season: Here’s Where You Can Buy the Device

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The path to the College Football Playoff got a lot clearer for Tennessee last Saturday. Not only did the Vols take care of business against UTEP in Neyland Stadium, they also saw teams ranked ahead of them from the SEC lose. Ole Miss fell on the road to Florida while Alabama got blown out at Oklahoma. That doesn’t even take into account Texas A&M suffering its third loss of the season after getting beaten in quadruple overtime by Auburn. Just another weekend across the Southeastern Conference. The chaos moved the Vols from the first team out of the 12-team field to solidly in the bracket. Where they are exactly will be announced on Tuesday night. It is expected, though, that Tennessee will be near the cutline for hosting a CFP game, a privilege earned by being seeded No. 5 through No. 8. While their placement ahead of rivalry week is important, Vols head coach Josh Heupel knows it can only mean so much before the end of the year. “There’s a lot of football to be played,” Heupel said. “That’s for everybody across the country. It’s for us. And focus on the task at hand. We have to be our best on Saturday.” Although the Vols could end up hosting a first round game in the postseason, they are not locked into the field. A loss to Vanderbilt would send them out of national championship contention and into a bowl game. To make matters even more precarious, this year’s Commodore team is a far cry from their bottom-dwelling past. Head coach Clark Lea and quarterback Diego Pavia have led Vandy to bowl eligibility with wins over Alabama and Virginia Tech highlighting the season. On Monday, UT running back Dylan Sampson reiterated the in-state battle’s postseason implications. “Yeah, everybody in the building knows the reality of the game, and you know, how much it means,” Sampson said. “It basically is a playoff game. Take care of business and handle what it is, but we got to go and attack every detail this week.” The Tennessee-Vanderbilt series is one that has been dominated by the Vols, as the East Tennesseans own an 80-32-5 record all-time against the mid-staters. Secondary’s Growth One of the biggest question marks surrounding Tennessee heading into the season was the secondary, due to the roster churn from the end of 2023. However, the group has answered the bell week-after-week. The Vols have the fourth-best defense in the SEC in terms of passing yards allowed (185.5) and are ranked second in the league in points allowed per game (13.1). The team’s two outside corners made their mark again against UTEP, as Rickey Gibson III forced a fumble and Jermod McCoy hauled in another interception. Will Brooks and Boo Carter also have made significant contributions throughout the year. On the whole, the Vols have forced 10 interceptions through 11 games. McCoy and Brooks are tied with the team lead with three. While picks aren’t the definitive stat for secondary success, the group has grown into quite the opportunistic one.LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell says it was a really easy decision to sign with the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the presence of three-time MVP Shohei Ohtani played a part, too. Snell was introduced Tuesday at Dodger Stadium accompanied by his agent Scott Boras. The left-hander finalized a $182 million, five-year contract last Saturday. “It was really easy just cause me and Haeley wanted to live here, it’s something we’ve been talking about for a while,” Snell said, referring to his girlfriend. “Then you look at the team. You look at what they’ve built, what they’re doing. It’s just something you want to be a part of.” Last month, Snell opted out of his deal with San Francisco to become a free agent for the second consecutive offseason after he was slowed by injuries during his lone year with the San Francisco Giants. Snell gets a $52 million signing bonus, payable on Jan. 25, and annual salaries of $26 million, of which $13.2 million each year will be deferred . Because Snell is a Washington state resident, the signing bonus will not be subject to California income tax. “It just played out the way that people around me felt comfortable with, I felt comfortable with, they felt comfortable with,” Snell said. “We talked and found something that could work for both of us. You want your worth, you want your respect, and you want enough time to where you can really make a name for yourself. I've made a name for myself outside of LA, but I'm going to be invested.” Two-way star Ohtani, who signed a record $700 million, 10-year deal a year ago, had a historic first season with the Dodgers. He helped them win the franchise's eighth World Series while playing only as designated hitter and became MVP in the National League for the first time after twice winning the award while in the American League. “It helps with him in the lineup for sure. That’s big motivation,” Snell said. “You want to be around players like that when you’re trying to be one of the best in the game. Yeah, it played a big part.” Snell joins Ohtani and fellow Japanese right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto atop Los Angeles’ rotation. All-Star Tyler Glasnow will be back after having his first season in LA derailed by a sprained elbow. Ohtani didn’t pitch this year while recovering from right elbow surgery but is expected back on the mound in 2025. The rest of the rotation includes Tony Gonsolin, Landon Knack, Dustin May, Bobby Miller and Emmet Sheehan. “I pitched on six-man, five-man, four-man rotations,” Snell said. “I'm good with it all as long as we have a plan, we'll execute it.” Snell, who turns 32 on Wednesday, went 5-3 with a 3.12 ERA in 20 starts this year, throwing a no-hitter at Cincinnati on Aug. 2 for one of only 16 individual shutouts in the major leagues this season. He struck out 145 and walked 44 in 104 innings. He was sidelined between April 19 and May 22 by a strained left adductor and between June 2 and July 9 by a strained left groin. Snell won Cy Young Awards in 2018 with Tampa Bay and 2023 with San Diego. He is 76-58 with a 3.19 ERA in nine seasons with the Rays (2016-20), Padres (2021-23) and Giants. He has known Andrew Friedman, Dodgers president of baseball operations, since he was 18. In the aftermath of winning the World Series and discussing how the Dodgers could repeat next year, Friedman said, “All conversations kept coming back to Blake.” “Usually in major league free agency, you're buying the backside of a guy's career, the accomplishments that they have had,” he said. “With Blake, one thing that's really exciting for us is, as much success as he's had, we feel like there's more in there." Snell was 2-2 against the Dodgers in his career. “We couldn’t beat him, so we’re going to have him join us,” Friedman said. .___ AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

Online predators are becoming increasingly resourceful in trolling media platforms where children gravitate, prompting an explosion in police case loads, said an officer who works for the RCMP Integrated Child Exploitation Unit in British Columbia. Data show the problem spiked during COVID-19 when children began spending more time online — but rates did not wane as police anticipated after lockdowns ended. In B.C., they soared, almost quadrupling from 2021 to 2023. Const. Solana Pare is now warning exploitation of children is likely here to stay, as a technological race between police and predators gains momentum. "Technology is becoming more and more available, and online platforms and social media sites are being used by children younger and younger, which provides an opportunity for predators to connect with them," Pare said in an interview. Police say child exploitation cases in B.C. went from about 4,600 in 2021 to 9,600 in 2022 to 15,920 reports last year. The upwards trend is seen nationally, too. Statistics Canada says the rate of online child sexual exploitation reported to police rose by 58 per cent from 2019 to 2022, and police data show cases have continued to rise. The RCMP's National Child Exploitation Crime Centre reported that from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024, it received 118,162 reports of suspected online child sexual exploitation offences — a 15 per cent increase compared with the previous year. Online child sexual exploitation, Pare explained, includes offences such as sextortion, child luring and the creation or distribution of sexually explicit images of a minor. "We don't see these types of reports going away," Pare said. "We only see them increasing because the use of electronic devices and social media, and kids being online earlier and earlier is becoming more common. There's going to be more opportunity for predators to target children online." Monique St. Germain, general counsel for the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, said the most common type of child luring is communicating with a youth online in order get them to produce sexual abuse material. She said "the pandemic accelerated those types of cases, and it hasn't slowed down." "The tools (Canadian authorities) have to deal with this type of behaviour are inadequate for the scope and the scale of what's going on," she said. Online exploitation gained international attention in 2015 in the case of Port Coquitlam, B.C., teenager, Amanda Todd, who died by suicide after being blackmailed and harassed online by a man for years, starting when she was 12. The month before the 15-year-old died, she uploaded a nine-minute video using a series of flash cards detailing the abuse she experienced by the stranger and how it had affected her life. It's been viewed millions of times. Dutch national Aydin Coban was extradited to Canada for trial and, in October 2022, he was convicted of charges including the extortion and harassment of Todd. Since then, the term "sextortion" has made its way into the vernacular as more cases come to light. Among them was Carson Cleland, a 12-year-old Prince George, B.C., boy who died by suicide in October 2023 after falling victim to the crime. In New Brunswick that same month, 16-year-old William Doiron took his own life after falling victim to a global sextortion scheme. Mounties across Canada have issued news releases warning of increased cases in their communities, noting that the consequences for the victims can include self-harm and suicide. St. Germain said technology, such as artificial intelligence, is also becoming more user-friendly. "The existence of that technology and its ease of use and ready accessibility is a problem, and it is going to be an increasingly large problem as we move forward," she said. Pare said police are also adapting to technological advancements in order to keep up with the ever-changing online landscape. "Police are constantly obtaining training on digital technologies to increase our knowledge and understanding of all the intricacies involving their use and how to capture any digital evidence," she said. Pare said the true rates of the crime are impossible to determine, but pointed to increased social awareness and legislation across North America around mandatory reporting of child abuse material from social media companies as a potential reason for the increase. It's not going undetected any longer, she said. "Additionally, there's been a lot of use in artificial intelligence to detect child exploitation materials within those platforms." Pare said "it's up to each individual platform" to ensure there is no child sexual abuse material on their sites or apps. "With mandatory reporting, it's putting the onus back on the electronic service providers to ensure they have measures in place to prevent this from happening, and if it is happening that it is being reported," she said. "That being said, there are times when things don't get located." That is why the Canadian Centre for Child Protection has been advocating for the adoption of the Online Harms Bill that the federal government introduced in February, St. Germain said. "It's shocking that up until now, we've relied on companies to self regulate, meaning we've just relied on them to do the right thing," she said. "What we are seeing in terms of the number of offences and in terms of all the harm that is happening in society as a result of online platforms is completely tied to the decision not to regulate. We need to have rules in any sector, and this sector is no different." The Online Harms Bill covers seven types of harms, from non-consensual sharing of intimate images to content that can be used to bully a child. Earlier this month, Justice Minister Arif Virani announced the Liberal government will split the bill into two parts: dealing with keeping children safe online, and combating predators and issues related to revenge pornography. “We are putting our emphasis and prioritization and our time and efforts on the first portion of the bill,” Virani told reporters on Dec. 5. Such measures would include a new Digital Safety Commission of Canada, which would compel social media companies to outline how they plan to reduce the risks their platforms pose to users, particularly minors. It would have the power to levy fines and evaluate companies’ digital safety plans. St. Germain said such a split "makes sense," noting that most objections to the bill are related to changes to the Criminal Code and not measures around curbing harms to children. "There obviously are differences of opinion in terms of what is the best way forward, and what kind of regulatory approach makes sense, and who should the regulator be, but there does seem to be consensus on the idea that we need to do more in terms of protecting children online," she said, adding that the organization is still in support of the second half of the bill. She said the United Kingdom previously passed its own Online Safety Act that will come into effect in 2025, which includes requiring social media firms to protect children from content such as self-harm material, pornography and violent content. Failure to do so will result in fines. "Canada is really behind," she said. "The amount of information that has come out of the U.K., the amount of time and care and attention that their legislatures have paid to this issue is really quite remarkable, and we really hope that Canada steps up and does something for Canadian children soon." In the absence of national legislation, province's have filled the void. In January, B.C. enacted the Intimate Images Protection Act, providing a path for victims to have online photos, videos or deep fakes expeditiously removed. Individuals are fined up to $500 per day and websites up to $5,000 a day if they don't comply with orders to stop distributing images that are posted without consent. B.C.'s Ministry of the Attorney General said that as of Dec. 11, the Civil Resolution Tribunal had received a total of 199 disputes under the Intimate Images Protection Act. It said the Intimate Images Protection Service had served more than 240 clients impacted by the non-consensual distribution of intimate images, adding that four awards of $5,000 each and one for $3,000 had been supplied as of mid-December. Nova Scotia, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Alberta and Saskatchewan have also enacted legislation targeting unauthorized distribution of intimate images. St. Germain said the use of provincial powers is also necessary, but it's not enough. "A piece of provincial legislation is going to be very difficult to be effective against multiple actors in multiple countries," she said, noting that the online crime is borderless. "We need something bigger — more comprehensive. We need to use all tools in the tool box."Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to be defense secretary, is joined by his wife Jennifer Rauchet as he speaks with reporters after meeting with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, speaks with reporters after meeting with Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to be defense secretary, on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to be defense secretary, arrives for a meeting with Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to be defense secretary, is joined by his wife Jennifer Rauchet as he speaks with reporters after meeting with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) WASHINGTON (AP) — Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Defense Department, said he had a “wonderful conversation” with Maine Sen. Susan Collins on Wednesday as he pushed to win enough votes for confirmation. He said he will not back down after allegations of excessive drinking and sexual misconduct. Collins said after the hourlong meeting that she questioned Hegseth about the allegations amid reports of drinking and the revelation that he made a settlement payment after being that he denies. She said she had a “good, substantive” discussion with Hegseth and “covered a wide range of topics,” including sexual assault in the military, Ukraine and NATO. But she said she would wait until a hearing, and notably a background check, to make a decision. “I asked virtually every question under the sun,” Collins told reporters as she left her office after the meeting. “I pressed him both on his position on military issues as well as the allegations against him, so I don’t think there was anything that we did not cover.” The meeting with Collins was closely watched as she is seen as more likely than most of her Republican Senate colleagues to vote against some of Trump’s Cabinet picks. She and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a fellow moderate Republican, did not shy from opposing Trump in his first term when they wanted to do so and sometimes supported President Joe Biden’s nominees for the judicial and executive branches. And Hegseth, an infantry combat veteran and former “Fox & Friends” weekend host, is working to gain as many votes as he can as some senators have expressed concerns about his personal history and lack of management experience. “I’m certainly not going to assume anything about where the senator stands,” Hegseth said as he left Collins’ office. “This is a process that we respect and appreciate. And we hope, in time, overall, when we get through that committee and to the floor that we can earn her support.” Hegseth met with Murkowski on Tuesday. He has also been meeting repeatedly with Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, a military veteran who has said she is a survivor of sexual assault and has spent time in the Senate working on improving how attacks are reported and prosecuted within the ranks. On Monday, Ernst said after a meeting with him that he had committed to selecting a senior official to prioritize those goals. Republicans will have a 53-49 majority next year, meaning Trump cannot lose more than three votes on any of his nominees. It is so far unclear whether Hegseth will have enough support, but Trump has stepped up his pressure on senators in the last week. “Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!” Trump posted on his social media platform last week.