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SH6 Punakaiki To Barrytown Re-opening
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) is advising road users that SH6 Punakaiki to Barrytown will re-open at 3pm today (Monday 16 December) following a large debris flow overnight causing the road to close.
Teams working on site have cleared sufficient debris to get the creek flowing back through the culvert that was blocked by the debris flow, meaning the road can safely reopen to road users, NZTA says.
Vehicles will be escorted through the site for the remainder of the day, through to 6pm today, expect delays of up to 30 minutes.
Teams will continue to work on clean up through the rest of the week, with traffic management in place until the road is fully cleared, and people travelling between Westport/Punakaiki and Greymouth should expect on-going delays of up to 15 minutes during working hours.
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https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2412/S00592/sh6-punakaiki-to-barrytown-re-opening.htm
| 2024-12-16T05:51:57Z
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Luka Doncic has triple-double with season-best 45 points in Mavs’ 143-133 win over Warriors
AP Sports Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Luka Doncic had his 80th career triple-double with a season-high 45 points along with 13 assists and 11 rebounds, and the Dallas Mavericks beat Klay Thompson’s former Golden State Warriors 143-133 on Sunday night in a second visit to Chase Center in just more than a month.
Thompson hit two late 3-pointers for seven total and finished with 29 points after the Mavericks lost 120-117 in his emotional return Nov. 12.
His former Splash Brother Stephen Curry had 26 points and 10 assists for Golden State in a game added to the schedule once the teams were eliminated from the NBA Cup. The Warriors lost by a point at Houston on Wednesday.
Dallas opened 14 of 19 to go ahead 39-18 before Draymond Green hit back-to-back 3-pointers. Green had season highs of five 3s and 21 points.
Takeaways
Mavericks: F/C Maxi Kleber sat out his third consecutive game, the first two with an illness and Sunday because of a fractured rib that coach Jason Kidd said may have happened in a game.
Warriors: New acquisition Dennis Schroder is expected to join the team Monday to undergo his physical and then practice ahead of Thursday’s game at Memphis. Coach Steve Kerr considers him a “perfect fit” to start alongside Curry.
Key moment
Lindy Waters III made a steal with eight seconds remaining in the third, Curry found Jonathan Kuminga for a one-handed slam to end the quarter with Golden State trailing 114-107. Andrew Wiggins then hit a 3 to begin the fourth but Golden State couldn’t make enough defensive stops.
Key stat
Doncic shot 16 for 23, making 9 of his first 11 shots with four 3-pointers on the way to 28 points by halftime.
Up next
The Mavericks host the Clippers on Thursday night. while Golden State is at Memphis on Thursday.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA
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https://kesq.com/news/2024/12/15/luka-doncic-has-triple-double-with-season-best-45-points-in-mavs-143-133-win-over-warriors/
| 2024-12-16T05:51:58Z
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As schools cut back on bus service, parents are turning to rideshare apps
Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) — Ismael El-Amin was driving his daughter to school when a chance encounter gave him an idea for a new way to carpool.
On the way across Chicago, El-Amin’s daughter spotted a classmate riding with her own dad as they drove to their selective public school on the city’s North Side. For 40 minutes, they rode along the same congested highway.
“They’re waving to each other in the back. I’m looking at the dad. The dad’s looking at me. And I was like, parents can definitely be a resource to parents,” said El-Amin, who went on to found Piggyback Network, a service parents can use to book rides for their children.
Reliance on school buses has been waning for years as districts struggle to find drivers and more students attend schools far outside their neighborhoods. As responsibility for transportation shifts to families, the question of how to replace the traditional yellow bus has become an urgent problem for some, and a spark for innovation.
State and local governments decide how widely to offer school bus service. Lately, more have been cutting back. Only about 28% of U.S. students take a school bus, according to a Federal Highway Administration survey concluded early last year. That’s down from about 36% in 2017.
Chicago Public Schools, the nation’s fourth-largest district, has significantly curbed bus service in recent years. It still offers rides for disabled and homeless students, in line with a federal mandate, but most families are on their own. Only 17,000 of the district’s 325,000 students are eligible for school bus rides.
Last week, the school system launched a pilot program allowing some students who attend out-of-neighborhood magnet or selective-enrollment schools to catch a bus at a nearby school’s “hub stop.” It aims to start with rides for about 1,000 students by the end of the school year.
It’s not enough to make up for the lost service, said Erin Rose Schubert, a volunteer for the CPS Parents for Buses advocacy group.
“The people who had the money and the privilege were able to figure out other situations like rearranging their work schedules or public transportation,” she said. “People who didn’t, some had to pull their kids out of school.”
On Piggyback Network, parents can book a ride for their student online with another parent traveling the same direction. Rides cost roughly 80 cents per mile and the drivers are compensated with credits to use for their own kids’ rides.
“It’s an opportunity for kids to not be late to school,” 15-year-old Takia Phillips said on a recent PiggyBack ride with El-Amin as the driver.
The company has arranged a few hundred rides in its first year operating in Chicago, and El-Amin has been contacting drivers for possible expansion to Virginia, North Carolina and Texas. It is one of several startups that have been filling the void.
Unlike Piggyback Network, which connects parents, HopSkipDrive contracts directly with school districts to assist students without reliable transportation. The company launched a decade ago in Los Angeles with three mothers trying to coordinate school carpools and now supports some 600 school districts in 13 states.
Regulations keep it from operating in some states, including Kentucky, where a group of Louisville students has been lobbying on its behalf to change that.
After the district halted bus service to most traditional and magnet schools, the student group known as The Real Young Prodigys wrote a hip-hop song titled “Where My Bus At?” The song’s music video went viral on YouTube with lyrics such as, “I’m a good kid. I stay in class, too. Teachers want me to succeed, but I can’t get to school.”
“Those bus driver shortages are not really going away,” HopSkipDrive CEO Joanna McFarland said. “This is a structural change in the industry we need to get serious about addressing.”
HopSkipDrive has been a welcome option for Reinya Gibson’s son, Jerren Samuel, who attends a small high school in Oakland, California. She said the school takes care to accommodate his needs as a student with autism, but the district lined up the transportation because there is no bus from their home in San Leandro.
“Growing up, people used to talk about kids in the short yellow buses. They were associated with a physical disability, and they were teased or made fun of,” Gibson said. “Nobody knows this is support for Jerren because he can’t take public transportation.”
Encouragement from his mother helped Jerren overcame his fear about riding with a stranger to school.
“I felt really independent getting in that car,” he said.
Companies catering to kids claim to screen drivers more extensively, checking their fingerprints and requiring them to have childcare or parenting experience. Drivers and children are often given passwords that must match, and parents can track a child’s whereabouts in real time through the apps.
Kango, a competitor to HopSkipDrive in California and Arizona, started as a free carpooling app similar to the PiggyBack Network and now contracts with school districts. Drivers are paid more than they would typically get for Uber or Lyft, but there are often more requirements such as walking some students with disabilities into school, Kango CEO Sara Schaer said.
“This is not just a curbside-to-curbside, three-minute situation,” Schaer said. “You are responsible for getting that kid to and from school. That’s not the same as transporting an adult or DoorDashing somebody’s lunch or dinner.”
In Chicago, some families that have used Piggyback said they have seen few alternatives.
Concerned about the city’s rising crime rate, retired police officer Sabrina Beck never considered letting her son take the subway to Whitney Young High School. Since she was driving him anyway, she volunteered through PiggyBack also to drive a freshman who had qualified for the selective magnet school but had no way to get there.
“To have the opportunity to go and then to miss it because you don’t have the transportation, that is so detrimental,” Beck said. “Options like this are extremely important.”
After the bus route that took her two kids to elementary school was canceled, Jazmine Dillard and other Chicago parents thought they had convinced the school to move up the opening bell from 8:45 a.m. to 8:15 a.m., a more manageable time for her schedule. After that plan was scrapped because the buses were needed elsewhere at that time, Dillard turned to PiggyBack Network.
“We had to kind of pivot and find a way to make it to work on time as well as get them to school on time,” she said.
___
The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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https://keyt.com/news/2024/12/15/as-schools-cut-back-on-bus-service-parents-are-turning-to-rideshare-apps/
| 2024-12-16T05:51:58Z
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Harare, Zimbabwe — Rights groups are urging Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa to sign into law a bill that would abolish the death penalty, following the bill's landmark passage Thursday by the country's senate, after earlier passage by the lower house of parliament.
In an interview with VOA, Zimbabwe's justice minister, Ziyambi Ziyambi, said passage of the death abolition bill is welcomed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who, since coming to power in 2017, has refused to sign death warrants for those facing capital punishment.
"He is a man who has not been an advocate of death penalty," Ziyambi said. "The passage of the bill by the senate towards Christmas is an early Christmas present to him, as he has been an advocate to say, 'We can't do this.' And that's the reason why I said he is the man who is going to appreciate the work that has been done by both houses."
Human rights groups are now calling for Mnangagwa to sign the bill, among them Lucia Masuka, the head of Amnesty International in Zimbabwe.
"Amnesty International commends the progressive legislative efforts made so far to make the abolition of the death penalty from the country's statutes a reality," Masuka said. "We urge the president to take heed of this historic landmark decision by signing this bill without delay and commuting all death sentences to prison terms. The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and has no place in our world."
In the past Mnangagwa has refused to sign some bills after parliament had passed them. But Ziyambi said that will not happen this time.
"How would I say it's an early Christmas present if he does not want to sign it?" Ziyambi said. "He has lived the trauma of being on death row and was saved by a technicality. He is ready to sign like yesterday."
But not everyone is happy with this latest development. One of them is Zachariah Choga, an attorney in Harare.
"I still believe adequate to search was not properly done on this regard," he said. "If you look at the increase in crime in Zimbabwe at the moment, especially violent crimes, robberies, armed robberies to be specific house-breaking, it's only going to escalate further with the death penalty off the table because it appeared with the death penalty on the table. It could have been the only deterrent that we had at this particular point, but now with the death penalty gone, we're going to see a rise in violent crimes of that nature."
According to Amnesty International, 24 countries across sub-Saharan Africa have abolished the death penalty for all crimes, while two additional countries have abolished it for ordinary crimes only.
Zimbabwe's last known execution was in 2005, though courts continue to impose death sentences - for cases of murder committed under aggravating circumstances.
In April, all those condemned to death had their sentences commuted to life in prison by President Mnangagwa.
|
https://allafrica.com/stories/202412160027.html
| 2024-12-16T05:52:00Z
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Engaging in a human rights campaign can be a meaningful way to advocate for justice, equality, and dignity for all people. Whether you’re passionate about gender equality, racial justice, or freedom of expression, there are numerous ways to contribute to the cause. Here are ways on how to get involved in human rights campaign.
- Educate Yourself
Begin by understanding the specific human rights issues you want to support. Familiarize yourself with international frameworks such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and learn about local and global campaigns addressing these issues. Awareness helps you make informed contributions. - Support Human Rights Organizations
Partnering with established organizations is a great way to amplify your efforts. Look for reputable groups working in areas you are passionate about and volunteer your time, donate funds, or join their campaigns. Organizations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, or local advocacy groups often need assistance. - Raise Awareness
Use your platform to share information about human rights issues. Social media can be a powerful tool for spreading awareness. Share articles, statistics, and stories to educate others and inspire them to take action. Hosting community events, webinars, or discussions can also make a significant impact. - Advocate for Policy Change
Campaigns often focus on influencing policies and laws to promote human rights. You can participate by signing petitions, writing letters to policymakers, or joining protests and rallies. Advocacy can bring attention to issues and push for systemic change. - Engage in Grassroots Activities
Grassroots movements are vital for driving change at the community level. You can join local groups that address specific human rights challenges in your area. Activities such as organizing workshops, mentoring vulnerable groups, or providing legal assistance can be highly impactful. - Use Your Professional Skills
Leverage your unique talents to contribute meaningfully. For example, lawyers can offer pro bono legal services, writers can produce content highlighting human rights issues, and educators can teach about equality and justice. Every skill can support the fight for human rights. - Promote Inclusivity in Everyday Life
Advocacy starts at home. Practice inclusivity and respect in your daily interactions. Stand against discrimination in your workplace, school, or community. These small acts contribute to a larger culture of human rights and equality. - Participate in Fundraising Efforts
Many human rights campaigns rely on financial resources to operate. Organize or participate in fundraising events to support these campaigns. Bake sales, charity runs, or crowdfunding platforms can help raise money for important initiatives. - Engage in Art and Culture
Art, music, and storytelling are powerful mediums for promoting human rights. Participate in or support cultural events that highlight human rights issues. This can include film screenings, exhibitions, or performances that raise awareness and foster dialogue. - Collaborate with Others
Human rights campaigns thrive on collective action. Join forces with other individuals, organizations, and networks to create a stronger impact. Collaborative efforts can include co-hosting events, sharing resources, or coordinating campaigns on a larger scale.
Also Read: How To Wear A Pleated Skirt
Email your news TIPS to Editor@kahawatungu.com or WhatsApp +254707482874
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https://kahawatungu.com/ways-on-how-to-get-involved-in-a-human-rights-campaign/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:00Z
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India Struggles as Australia Dominates on Day Three
On day three of the third Test, Australia's first inning set a formidable target with 445 runs. In response, India's batting faltered with key wickets lost early, including Kohli and Gill. With Australia dominating the innings and India's score at 48/4, pressure mounts on the home team.
- Country:
- Australia
Day three of the third Test between India and Australia saw the visiting team set a hefty score of 445 runs in their first innings, displaying a strong batting performance. The test took place here on Monday with the host team struggling to find their footing.
India faced early challenges in their response, losing key players like Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill for minimal scores, with contributions from Mitchell Starc and Hazlewood proving instrumental. The hosts ended the day with a score of 48/4 in 14.1 overs.
Batting highlights include KL Rahul's efforts standing at 30 runs not out, while team captain Rohit Sharma remains at the crease with zero runs. The early collapse puts significant pressure on the Indian side to mount a comeback in the subsequent sessions.
(With inputs from agencies.)
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Legacy of Legends: KL Rahul Mentors Yashasvi Jaiswal
Shastri Advocates for KL Rahul's Continuation as India's Opener
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https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/sports-games/3195408-india-struggles-as-australia-dominates-on-day-three
| 2024-12-16T05:52:00Z
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Imphal: Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh has strongly condemned the killing of two migrant labourers from Bihar in Kakching district and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh for the next of kin of the two deceased.
He said every possible effort is underway to identify, apprehend, and prosecute those responsible for killing the two migrant labourers.
Singh in a post on X said, "I strongly condemn the brutal killing of young brothers, Sunalal Kumar (18) and Dasharat Kumar (17), from Bihar in Kakching district, Manipur. This act of terrorism is a direct assault on our values, and my deepest condolences go out to their grieving families."
"In this crucial juncture, we cannot ignore the possibility that this horrific crime is part of a larger conspiracy to destabilise our state and push it further towards chaos. We must stand together against these destructive forces and ensure that they do not succeed in creating fear and insecurity," Singh added.
The Manipur CM also announced Rs 10 lakh ex gratia for the bereaved family and said the case would be transferred to NIA, if needed.
"An ex gratia of Rs 10 lakh will be provided to each bereaved family, and every possible effort is underway to identify, apprehend, and prosecute those responsible. If required, the case will be transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to ensure a fair and thorough inquiry," Singh said.
Two migrant workers from Bihar were shot dead from point blank range in Manipur's Kakching district on Saturday evening. The incident happened near the panchayat office in Keirak on Kakching-Wabagai Road around 5.20 pm.
Those behind the incident are yet to be identified, police said. The deceased hailed from Bihar's Gopalganj district and were construction workers who lived in a rented accommodation in Kakching.
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https://www.newsdrum.in/national/manipur-cm-condemns-killing-of-bihar-migrant-labourers-announces-ex-gratia-of-rs-10-lakh-8443082
| 2024-12-16T05:52:01Z
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Navratri Special: Health Benefits Of White Coloured Foods
Shilpa Mittal - Nutritionist Diet Consultant and Founder of Nutrilife Health Management Mumbai shares more about how white coloured food will help provide our body with nutrition. All naturally occurring foods which are white in colour have a wide variety of beneficial nutrients. They include nutrients like anthoxanthins sulfur allicin and quercetin.
The third colour of Navratri is white. This colour denotes peace and purity. So let us explore the health and nutritional benefits of white coloured foods.
Shilpa Mittal - Nutritionist, Diet Consultant and Founder of Nutrilife Health Management, Mumbai, shares more about how white coloured food will help provide our body with nutrition. We are not talking about white foods like bread and pastas, but instead natural white foods like bananas, ginget etc.
What they contain:
Basically, all naturally occurring foods, which are white in colour have a wide variety of beneficial nutrients. They include nutrients like anthoxanthins, sulfur, allicin and quercetin.
Health Benefits:
1. Anthoxanthins
This nutrients, which is found in all white food has immense health benefits. It helps in lowering the bad cholesterol, blood pressure and reduces the risk of various heart ailments.
2. Sulfur
Sulfur is required for proteins to maintain their shape. These bonds help in determining the activity of protein, especially in the skin, hair and nails, in the form of keratin. A sufficient amount of sulphur is needed in the body, or else it will lead to dull and sagging skin, which is full of wrinkles.
3. Allicin
This nutrient has anti-tumour properties and according to various studies, helps in reducing the risk of stomach cancer.
4. Quercetin
This nutrient helps to boost cardiovascular health, respiratory health and overall health.
Best White Foods:
Garlic, onions, cauliflower, mushrooms, bananas, pears and radish.
*Image courtesy: © Thinkstock photos/ Getty Images
Read More: White Food
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https://www.indiatimes.com/health/healthyliving/navratri-special-health-benefits-of-white-coloured-foods-240487.html
| 2024-12-16T05:52:01Z
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Fireworks Banned In Mackenzie Basin And Ashburton Lakes This Summer
Fire and Emergency New Zealand has imposed a temporary ban on all fireworks activity in the Mackenzie Basin and the Ashburton Lakes from Sunday 15 December to the end of March 2025.
The Ashburton Lakes area includes Lake Clearwater, and Lake Camp.
Mid-South Canterbury District Manager Rob Hands says the ban is possible under Section 52 of the Fire and Emergency Act.
"It will prevent people from letting off fireworks in these areas as part of our ongoing efforts to reduce the risk of wildfire over summer," Rob Hands says.
"We know people stockpile fireworks from Guy Fawkes and like to let them off over summer, but right now the weather conditions are just too hot, dry and windy," he says.
"While some people might be tempted to celebrate holiday events with fireworks, the risk of causing a wildfire in the district is too great.
"It only takes one spark to start a wildfire. So please, leave your fireworks at home if you’re visiting Mid-South Canterbury this summer."
Rob Hands says the major wildfire at Pukaki Downs last year is still fresh in people’s minds, as are other significant fires in recent years, such as the one at Lake Ōhau in spring 2020.
"We are taking this step to limit the chances of large fires happening here again."
Last week, all of the Mid-South Canterbury District went into a restricted fire season, which means anyone who wants to light an open-air fire needs a permit authorised by Fire and Emergency, which they can apply for at checkitsalright.nz.
"Wherever you are in the country, if you’re thinking about lighting a fire, go to www.checkitsalright.nz to see whether any restrictions are in place before lighting up.
The temporary fireworks ban will be in place until 31 March 2025.
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https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2412/S00593/fireworks-banned-in-mackenzie-basin-and-ashburton-lakes-this-summer.htm
| 2024-12-16T05:52:03Z
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Popeye and Tintin enter the public domain in 2025 along with novels from Faulkner and Hemingway
AP Entertainment Writer
Popeye can punch without permission and Tintin can roam freely starting in 2025. The two classic comic characters who first appeared in 1929 are among the intellectual properties becoming public domain in the United States on Jan. 1. That means they can be used and repurposed without permission or payment to copyright holders.
This year’s crop of newly public artistic creations lacks the landmark vibes of last year’s entrance of into the public domain of Mickey Mouse. But they include a deep well of canonical works whose 95-year copyright maximums will expire. And the Disney icon’s public domain presence expands.
“It’s a trove! There are a dozen new Mickey cartoons — he speaks for the first time and dons the familiar white gloves,” said Jennifer Jenkins, director of Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain. “There are masterpieces from Faulkner and Hemingway, the first sound films from Alfred Hitchcock, Cecil B. DeMille, and John Ford, and amazing music from Fats Waller, Cole Porter, and George Gershwin. Pretty exciting!”
Here’s a closer look at this year’s crop.
Comics characters loom large
Popeye the Sailor, with his bulging forearms, mealy-mouthed speech, and propensity for fistfights, was created by E.C. Segar and made his first appearance in the newspaper strip “Thimble Theater” in 1929, speaking his first words, “’Ja think I’m a cowboy?” when asked if he was a sailor. What was supposed to be a one-off appearance became permanent, and the strip would be renamed ”Popeye.”
But as with Mickey Mouse last year and Winnie the Pooh in 2022, only the earliest version is free for reuse. The spinach that gave the sailor his super-strength was not there from the start, and is the kind of character element that could spawn legal disputes. And the animated shorts featuring his distinctive mumbly voice didn’t begin until 1933 and remain under copyright. As does director Robert Altman’s 1980 film, starring Robin Williams as Popeye and Shelley Duvall as his oft-fought-over sweetheart Olive Oyl.
That movie was tepidly received initially. So was director Steven Spielberg’s “Adventures of Tintin” in 2011. But the comics about the boy reporter that inspired it, the creation of Belgian artist Hergé, were among the most popular in Europe for much of the 20th century.
The simply drawn teen with dots for eyes and bangs like an ocean wave first appeared in a supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle, and became a weekly feature.
The comic also first appeared in the U.S. in 1929. Its signature bright colors — including Tintin’s red hair — didn’t appear until years later, and could, like Popeye’s spinach, be the subject of legal disputes.
And in much of the world, Tintin won’t become public property until 70 years after the 1983 death of his creator.
Books show American lit at its height
The books becoming public this year read like the syllabus for an American literature seminar.
“The Sound and the Fury,” arguably William Faulkner’s quintessential novel with its modernist stream-of-consciousness style, was a sensation after its publication despite being famously difficult for readers. It uses multiple non-linear narratives to tell the story of a prominent family’s ruin in the author’s native Mississippi, and would help lead to Faulkner’s Nobel Prize.
And Ernest Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms” joins his earlier “The Sun Also Rises” in the public domain. The partly autobiographical story of an ambulance driver in Italy during the First World War cemented Hemingway’s status in the American literary canon. It has been frequently adapted for film, TV and radio, which can now be done without permission.
John Steinbeck’s first novel, “A Cup of Gold,” from 1929, will also enter the public domain.
The British novelist Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own,” an extended essay that would become a landmark in feminism from the modernist literary luminary, is also on the list. Her novel “Mrs. Dalloway” is already in the U.S. public domain.
Movie legends in the making
While a host of truly major movies will become public in the coming decade, for now early works by major figures from the not-always-stellar early sound era will have to suffice.
A decade before he would move to Hollywood and make films like “Psycho,” and “Vertigo,” Alfred Hitchcock made “Blackmail” in Britain. The film was begun as a silent but shifted to sound during production, resulting in two different versions, one of them the UK’s — and Hitchcock’s — first sound film.
John Ford, whose later Westerns would put him among film’s most vaunted directors, also made his first foray into sound with 1929’s “The Black Watch,” an adventure epic that includes Ford’s future chief collaborator John Wayne as a young extra.
Cecil B. DeMille, already a Hollywood bigwig through silents, made his first talkie with the melodrama “Dynamite.”
Groucho, Harpo and the other Marx Brothers had their first starring movie roles in 1929’s “The Cocoanuts,” a forerunner to future classics like “Animal Crackers” and “Duck Soup.”
“The Broadway Melody,” the first sound film and the second film ever to win the Oscar for best picture — known as “outstanding production” at the time — will also become public, though it’s often ranked among the worst of best picture winners.
And after “Steamboat Willie” made the earliest Mickey Mouse public, a dozen more of his animations will get the same status, including “The Karnival Kid,” where he spoke for the first time.
Music rings out the 20s
Songs from the last year of the Roaring Twenties are also about to become public property.
Cole Porter’s compositions “What Is This Thing Called Love?” and “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” are among the highlights, as is the jazz classic “Ain’t Misbehavin’, written by Fats Waller and Harry Brooks.
“Singin’ in the Rain,” which would later forever be associated with the 1952 Gene Kelly film, made its debut in the 1929 movie “The Hollywood Revue” and will now be public domain.
Different laws regulate sound recordings, and those newly in the public domain date to 1924. They include a recording of “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” from future star and civil rights icon Marian Anderson, and “Rhapsody in Blue” performed by its composer George Gershwin.
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https://kesq.com/news/2024/12/15/popeye-and-tintin-enter-the-public-domain-in-2025-along-with-novels-from-faulkner-and-hemingway-2/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:04Z
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As Trump threatens mass deportations, Central America braces for an influx of vulnerable migrants
Associated Press
SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras (AP) — U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office in January with a promise of carrying out mass deportations, leaving Honduras and other Central American countries bracing for a potential influx of vulnerable migrants — a situation they are ill-prepared to handle. Migrants and networks aiding deportees in Central America’s Northern Triangle worry their return could thrust them into even deeper economic and humanitarian crises, fueling migration down the line. “We don’t have the capacity” to take so many people, said Antonio García, Honduras’ deputy foreign minister. “There’s very little here for deportees.” People who return, he said, “are the last to be taken care of.”
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https://keyt.com/news/2024/12/15/as-trump-threatens-mass-deportations-central-america-braces-for-an-influx-of-vulnerable-migrants/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:04Z
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CORRUPTION accused Zanu PF director of health services, Retired Colonel Stanford Chigumira, has been granted bail after appearing in court facing serious fraud charges.
Accused person was granted bail and is set to return to court on January 14, 2025.
Chigumira stands accused of soliciting a US$500 bribe from a desperate woman who wanted to secure her son's admission into the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC), Primary Care Nurse Training Course.
In a statement, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) said the State alleges that Chigumira and his accomplice Evelyn Shoniwa, who is still at large, exploited their Zanu PF medical positions, misleading Miriam Mverechena into believing they had the power to guarantee her son's place in the highly sought-after training programme, which was advertised in June 2024 by the MoHCC.
"It is the State's case that in June 2024 the Ministry of Health and Child Care placed an advertisement for the Primary Care Nurse Training Course for the September 2024 intake and Dr Chigumira connived with Shonhiwa, who is still at large to defraud unsuspecting individuals.
"The two misrepresented to Mverechena that they were responsible for recruiting youths through the Zanu PF Medical Directorate which is headed by Chigumira.
"The accused person purported that they had links with the Minister of Health and Child Care and would use their proximity to secure a place for complainant's son to train as a primary care nurse," said ZACC
Mverechena's complaint led to the arrest of Chigumira.
When Mverechena's son was not admitted, she reported the matter to the Ministry of Health and Child Care and ZACC, leading to Chigumira's arrest.
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https://allafrica.com/stories/202412160041.html
| 2024-12-16T05:52:06Z
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New Delhi, Dec 16 (PTI) The Congress on Monday paid tributes to the armed forces on Vijay Diwas, with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge saying it was a momentous occasion for humanity under the decisive leadership of then prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Vijay Diwas marks the surrender of Pakistani forces to the Indian Army in 1971.
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said, "On the glorious occasion of Vijay Diwas, I salute the valour, dedication and resolve of our armed forces." The nation will always remember the indomitable courage and supreme sacrifice of all the heroes of the 1971 war who liberated Bangladesh from injustice while protecting India's sovereignty, he said.
Kharge said, "On this day in 1971, the geography of the world changed when our valiant Indian military force defeated Pakistan and liberated Bangladesh." "It was a momentous occasion for humanity under the able, farsighted and decisive leadership of Smt. Indira Gandhi," he said in a post in Hindi on X.
"We pay our tributes to the indomitable courage, valour and valour of our armed forces and Mukti Bahini," he said.
The grateful nation will never forget the sacrifice and dedication of the brave sons of Mother India, Kharge said.
The Congress, on its official X handle said, that on the strength of its indomitable courage and valour, the Indian Army defeated Pakistan on December 16, 1971 and played an important role in the creation of Bangladesh, bringing the Pakistani army to its knees.
"Many salutes to the brave sons of Mother India on Vijay Diwas," the party said in its post in Hindi on X. PTI ASK DV DV
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https://www.newsdrum.in/national/momentous-occasion-for-humanity-under-indira-gandhis-decisive-leadership-cong-on-vijay-diwas-8443364
| 2024-12-16T05:52:07Z
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Summer Heat: 20 Best Ways To Beat 'October Heat'
The rains have bid farewell to us, and now we are left with the scorching and sweaty ‘October heat’. This heat is unbearable and leads to extreme exhaustion and dehydration. To beat this heat and stay fresh, we give you 20 tips, which will help your skin, body and health.
The rains have bid farewell to us, and now we are left with the scorching and sweaty ‘October heat’. This heat is unbearable and leads to extreme exhaustion and dehydration. To beat this heat and stay fresh, we give you 20 tips, which will help your skin, body and health.
*Image courtesy: © Thinkstock photos/ Getty Images
Best Way to Beat October Heat # 1: Drink lots of liquids
When the temperatures are soaring, make sure to increase your fluid intake. Never wait to sip water when you are thirsty. Instead keep drinking water at regular intervals, depending on your activity level. The best type of liquid you can choose to keep dehydration at bay is a tall glass of water.
Best Way to Beat October Heat # 2: Wear proper clothing
Choose lightweight, light coloured and loose fitting clothes as much as possible. Loose clothes, will help your skin breathe easily, and thus reduce the chances of skin damage or skin rash.
Best Way to Beat October Heat # 3: Drink some lassi
Lassi possesses great refreshing and hydrating properties. This sweet drink helps cool your body and is the perfect cure for dehydration.
Best Way to Beat October Heat # 4: Sunscreen is necessary
Sunburn is very peculiar during extreme hot temperatures, so, always apply a layer of good SPF 15 sunscreen or higher. Besides, a good sunscreen will also lower your risk of skin cancer.
Best Way to Beat October Heat # 5: Cool down with nimbu paani
Nimbu paani is an excellent remedy to beat the heat. When you feel tired just sip a glass of fresh nimbu paani.
Best Way to Beat October Heat # 6: Wear sunglasses
Protect your eyes with a good pair of sunglasses. Sunglasses with UVA and UVB protection will protect your eyes against sunrays, which can cause dryness and irritation. In addition, it will accentuate your looks as well.
Best Way to Beat October Heat # 7: Protect your hair
Protect your luscious locks with a good hat or scarf, while going outdoors. These accessories will make you look stylish and also protect your hair from the sun's harmful rays, which can result in dry and frizzy hair.
Best Way to Beat October Heat #8: Eat light meals
Eat smaller and light meals, and drink lots of water. Smaller and lighter meals will ease your digestion and help you feel light.
Best Way to Beat October Heat # 9: Wearing breathing footwear’s
Sneakers and closed shoes are fun and look great, but the absence of air can cause problems like infections and blisters. Choose flip-flops, or allow your feet to breathe as much as possible.
Football on ground, good food on the table and dancing indoors; that is what Renita practises to follow an active and healthy life. A fresh-out-of-college writer, Renita is the latest addition to the HealthMeUp family. Renita believes that if you want to stay fit, you need to sweat it out and the best way to do that is to play your favorite sport. Don't have a favourite sport? She thinks it's never too late to find one.
Read More
|
https://www.indiatimes.com/health/healthyliving/summer-heat-20-best-ways-to-beat-october-heat-236663.html
| 2024-12-16T05:52:07Z
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ULA's Vulcan Rocket Upgrade: A Challenge to SpaceX's Starship
United Launch Alliance, a joint venture by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, plans to upgrade its Vulcan rocket to compete with SpaceX's Starship in the low Earth orbit satellite market. This strategic move aims to cater to the growing demand driven by SpaceX's extensive satellite launches for its Starlink Internet service.
United Launch Alliance is set to enhance its Vulcan rocket in a bid to rival SpaceX's Starship, underlining a competitive push in the burgeoning market for low Earth orbit launches. ULA's CEO has confirmed intentions to develop a version of Vulcan specifically aimed at capturing this segment.
The collaboration between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, ULA seeks to capitalize on an environment increasingly dominated by SpaceX's Starlink project, which has rapidly populated LEO with thousands of satellites. This market has proven immensely lucrative and vital for modern satellite internet services.
With technological advancements and strategic positioning, ULA's efforts signify a broader industry trend toward fierce competition over low Earth orbit opportunities, promising potential advances and commercial benefits.
(With inputs from agencies.)
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India's PSLV-C59: Pioneering Global Space Innovation with Successful ESA Satellite Launch
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https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/technology/3195377-ulas-vulcan-rocket-upgrade-a-challenge-to-spacexs-starship
| 2024-12-16T05:52:07Z
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Two Youths In Court Over Dairy Robbery, Stolen Vehicles
Police have taken two youths into custody following an investigation into the aggravated robbery of a Northcote dairy last month.
The alleged offenders, both aged 16, have since been located and arrested separately.
Detective Sergeant Geoffrey Patterson, of Waitematā CIB, says the robbery occurred on Saturday 30 November just before 8.30pm.
“The youths allegedly arrived in a stolen vehicle and entered the dairy brandishing weapons.
“They are alleged to have threatened several store workers before taking a number of tobacco products and a cash register.
“Officers located one of the alleged offenders in the early hours of Friday 13 December in a stolen vehicle in Papakura and arrested them.
"The other was taken into custody this morning, in a separate stolen vehicle on the Southern Motorway, near Ramarama. Both stolen vehicles have been recovered for their owners.”
One of the youths will reappear in the Manukau Youth Court on 6 January 2025, charged with aggravated robbery, unlawfully taking a motor vehicle, and unlawfully getting into a motor vehicle.
The other is scheduled to appear in the Waitākere Youth Court today, facing similar charges.
“We won’t tolerate this type of brazen, anti-social behaviour in our communities,” Detective Sergeant Patterson says.
“And we continue to use all the resources at our disposal to identify, locate and arrest those who do.”
As the matter is before the Court, Police are limited in making further comment.
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https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2412/S00594/two-youths-in-court-over-dairy-robbery-stolen-vehicles.htm
| 2024-12-16T05:52:09Z
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Survivors seek a reckoning as FBI investigates child sex abuse in little-known Christian sect
Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Nearly every detail about the religious group Lisa Webb’s family belonged to was hidden from the outside world. Its followers met in homes rather than churches. Its leadership structure was hard to discern, its finances opaque. It didn’t even have an official name.
But for decades, no secret was as closely guarded as the identities of the sexual predators inside the group known as the “Two by Twos.”
Now a growing number of public allegations from around the world have prompted a broad investigation by the FBI and placed an uncomfortable spotlight on the long-quiet Christian sect. Survivors say the group’s leaders protected child-abusing ministers by pressuring victims to forgive, ignoring legal reporting requirements and by transferring abusers to new locations to live with unsuspecting families.
Ministry leaders have publicly condemned the abuse but several declined to answer questions from The Associated Press.
For Webb, who was sexually abused by one of the group’s ministers as a child, the attention has brought an unexpected sense of “strength in numbers.”
“There are so many who are frustrated and disheartened,” said Webb. “But there’s also camaraderie in that, and support.”
A website, a hotline and social media pages established by victims have documented allegations against more than 900 abusers, with survivors in more than 30 countries and cases continuing to emerge. In the past year, news stories and a Hulu documentary have focused on the sect’s predator preachers and the leaders who enabled them.
While perpetrators have been sentenced to prison in isolated cases, the sect has largely avoided legal repercussions, protected by its decentralized structure, hidden finances and state laws that limit the timeline for criminal charges.
The secret sect’s origin story
The sect, also known to its members as “The Way” or “The Truth,” was founded in Ireland in 1897 by William Irvine, who railed against the existence of churches. The only way to spread Christianity, he argued, was to do as Jesus instructed in the Book of Matthew: to send apostles out to live among those they sought to convert.
The sect grew as volunteer preachers — known as workers — went “two by two” to live in the family homes of followers for days or weeks at a time. Sect historians say there were up to a few million members just a few decades ago, but current estimates put the figure at 75,000 to 85,000 worldwide.
Unlike the Boy Scouts or the Catholic Church, which have paid out billions to sex abuse victims, the sect’s aversion to property leaves it without apparent assets that might be used to pay settlements, legal experts say.
Workers are supposed to shun worldly possessions, relying on followers for food, shelter and transportation. But that also ensures abusive workers have access to potential victims.
Webb was abused by a preacher who stayed with her family in Michigan when she was 11. The man, Peter Mousseau, was convicted much later — after he expressed an interest in visiting her in 2008 and she decided to pursue charges. A regional overseer to whom she previously reported the abuse was later convicted for failing to report abuse allegations against another local worker.
“You have this mindset that they are angels in your home. They can do no wrong, so you don’t have any kind of wall up,” she said. “It was just the perfect storm created, the perfect recipe for this kind of behavior.”
Abusers live among their victims
Sheri Autrey had just turned 14 when a 28-year-old worker moved into her family’s home in Visalia, California, for two months.
He began abusing her immediately, sneaking to her room at night and taking her for daytime drives. He turned up the radio whenever the Hall & Oates song “Maneater” came on, singing: “Watch out boy, she’ll chew you up.”
When Autrey revealed the abuse to her mother a few years later, her mom reported it to the sect’s regional overseer, who was in charge of all the workers in the area.
The overseer refused to warn other families. Instead, he sent the worker back to Autrey’s home to apologize.
Autrey, raised to be meek, erupted. Her family took her to the district attorney’s office but declined to put her through a prosecution.
“I would have to explain, explicitly, what happened,” Autrey said. “And I was in no way prepared for that.”
Decades later, Autrey was at a baseball game when “Maneater” came on. She had to walk around the stadium to calm herself down, and she resolved to send a letter about the abuse to hundreds of sect members.
“I wanted anyone else who was a victim to know she is not the only one,” Autrey said. “She needs to know there is help.”
Many more cases of abuse
One worker from Peru, Americo Quispe, was sent to Garland, Texas, in the early 2000s after facing allegations of inappropriate behavior in his home country. He soon found new victims, some of whose families went to police. He returned to Peru before he could be arrested.
Quispe was later convicted of molestation in Peru and sentenced to 30 years. He has never faced the charges in Texas.
Another worker, Ruben Mata, abused dozens of boys, among them 10-year-old Douglas Patterson, who was lured away from his family during a sect convention in the early 1990s. Patterson said he kept quiet about it because he feared his family would leave the sect — and thus be barred from eternal salvation — if he told.
Mata was eventually convicted in 2006 in a separate sex abuse case. He died in a California prison.
Members told to keep abuse reports quiet
A few months before Mata’s trial, the Saskatchewan, Canada, overseer, Dale Shultz, sent two letters to colleagues.
One was to be shown to any concerned members. It acknowledged Mata was a pedophile and that workers had been alerted to his abuse at least three times. The sect only notified authorities after Mata resigned, according to the letter.
The second was for staff. It said no copies should be made of the first letter.
“The purpose of the letter is to help those who have concerns, not to advertise a kingdom problem to those who either do not know about it or are not having a problem with it,” Shultz wrote.
In another case, a regional overseer for Arizona, Ed Alexander, wrote a letter to a child-molesting elder in 2005 observing that “we love our people very much and don’t want to report their misdeeds.”
The letter suggested the sect could fulfill its mandatory abuse-reporting obligations by recommending offenders get professional counseling, because then the counselors — rather than sect leaders — would be obligated to make the reports to police.
“They believe that child sexual assault is just a sin. Like, you’re a sinner, they are a sinner, it’s all just sin,” said Eileen Dickey, one of the man’s victims. She reported the abuse to sect leaders because she was worried other children would be targeted.
“I was told never to talk about it,” she said.
Alexander would not speak with The Associated Press: “Unfortunately, the media coverage has been so negative and one-sided that I am going to have to decline an interview,” he texted.
Former minister recounts culture of downplaying misdeeds
Jared Snyder spent more than two decades as an itinerant minister before becoming disillusioned and quitting. No one told him directly about abuse, Snyder said, but he occasionally heard rumors.
The sect’s culture — which makes gossip taboo and places tremendous pressure on members to be merciful — meant that misdeeds big or small were downplayed, he said.
“One overseer just explicitly told me, ‘The less you know, the better off you are,’” he said.
As a worker, Snyder received no paychecks, retirement benefits or health insurance benefits, and he was discouraged from using banks. But he was never without spending money: Followers regularly offer cash to the workers, and Snyder said he frequently had thousands of dollars in his pockets.
Most of that money would get spent on building materials, food or other supplies at regional conventions, Snyder said.
The case that exposed the sect to more scrutiny
In June 2022, a regional overseer named Dean Bruer died in an Oregon motel room. Bruer, 67, had served in at least 22 states and territories and seven countries since 1976, according to a timeline compiled by Pam Walton, a former member who has used historical records and photographs to track the movements of predatory preachers.
Nine months after Bruer died, Doyle Smith, the overseer for Idaho and Oregon, wrote a letter to members. Evidence left on Bruer’s phone and laptop showed he had raped and abused multiple underage victims, Smith wrote.
“Dean was a sexual predator,” Smith wrote. “We never respect or defend such totally inappropriate behavior among us. There is a very united consensus among us that the only thing to do is to be transparent with all of you for obvious reasons, though this is very difficult.”
That transparency did not extend to dealings with local police. It was only after Autrey, another abuse survivor, and private investigator Cynthia Liles — all former sect members — pressured Smith that he turned Bruer’s laptop over to detectives, Autrey told the AP.
By then, the computer had been tampered with, according to records from the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon. The web browser search history was cleared. Bruer’s Apple ID had been changed and files transferred out of his DropBox account. Bruer’s phone was never provided to police, and the “Find My iPhone” feature had been disabled.
“What web browsing history was present on the laptop that someone didn’t want anyone else knowing about?” Detective Jeffrey Burlew wrote in a police report. Unable to find any evidence of a crime within its jurisdiction, the office closed the investigation.
Smith did not respond to phone messages from the AP.
Survivors and law enforcement dig deeper
Though Autrey and others had long sought reforms in the sect, Bruer’s death proved to be a catalyst. Autrey, Liles and another survivor launched a hotline, website and Facebook pages for survivors.
In February, the FBI’s field office in Omaha, Nebraska, announced an investigation.
The outcry prompted some sect leaders to condemn the abuse and to ask consultants for advice on how to better protect members. But at least some regional overseers have ultimately declined to adopt recommended child abuse prevention policies — saying the only true code of conduct is the New Testament.
And some leaders still warn members against criticizing the sect.
At an August convention in Duncan, British Columbia, a worker helping to lead the event did not mention the abuse scandal directly but told members to lay aside “evil speakings.”
“It’s more easy to be critical than to be correct,” preached Robert Doecke, a worker from Australia. “If you feed on problems, it will only make more problems. But if you focus on the Lord, it will lead to solutions.”
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https://kesq.com/news/2024/12/15/survivors-seek-a-reckoning-as-fbi-investigates-child-sex-abuse-in-little-known-christian-sect-2/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:10Z
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Canada Post says operations to resume after nearly a monthlong strike
TORONTO (AP) — Canada Post said operations will resume at the national postal service on Tuesday after the nearly monthlong work stoppage. Workers went on strike after failing to reach a negotiated agreement over key issues, including wages and job security. The labor minister announced Friday referring the dispute to an independent administrative tribunal that focuses on resolving workplace disputes. However, the tribunal determined late Sunday that negotiations are at an impasse after two days of hearings and ordered the nearly 55,000 workers back to work. Canada Post said it has agreed to implement a 5% wage increase retroactive to the day after the collective agreements expired.
|
https://keyt.com/news/2024/12/15/canada-post-says-operations-to-resume-after-nearly-a-monthlong-strike/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:11Z
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CITIZENS Coalition for Change (CCC) councillors allegedly rejected a transparency and accountability blueprint that would have tamed corruption in local authorities, former leader Nelson Chamisa has said.
The opposition politician said this when he appeared before the Commission of Inquiry, which is investigating governance issues at the City of Harare (CoH).
Chamisa poked holes into the Urban Councils Act, which he says impedes holding elected councillors accountable for their gross misgivings.
The former opposition leader said the councillors hide behind the legislation shielding shortcomings and preventing transparency in local authorities.
"In terms of the Urban Councils Act, there is nowhere individual citizens can actually have authority over the processes of council because council is a creature of statutes and council is a product of law.
"Anything that happens within the council is governed by statutes, laws and procedures within that council so any processes would be discharged by the council and not by political parties.
"Parties are not contemplated in the statutes in terms of the running of local authorities," said Chamisa.
Chamisa said the councillors resisted the integrity mechanism under the guise of the Urban Councils Act.
"We attempted to actually institute what we called integrity and accountability panel from the political party side to try and rein in on councillors, who we felt were behaving in a untoward manner.
"Unfortunately as we did that they said look in terms of the law there is no way the party can take us to account on anything because we are not governed by party, we are governed by the electorate, we are governed by the statutes, we are governed by the Urban Councils Act, and on that scope it becomes very difficult to bring to account especially our councillors," he said.
Opposition councillors particularly in Harare have been accused of corruption by engaging in underhanded activities involving land allocations.
Town House has come under scrutiny over massive graft prompting President Emmerson Mnangagwa to establish a probe team led by retired Justice Maphios Cheda.
Chamisa said that once elected to office, councillors go rogue neglecting their primary mandate.
"In fact, what bleeds my heart is the fact that each time councillors are elected on a party ticket, the moment they go into council, they go bonkers, run amok, throw away all dictates of reason, throw away all dictates of allegiance and loyalty to the party, which I can't understand," he said.
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https://allafrica.com/stories/202412160042.html
| 2024-12-16T05:52:12Z
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Mumbai: Shiv Sena MLA Narendra Bhondekar has resigned from all party posts while expressing disappointment at not being included in the Maharashtra cabinet.
Speaking to reporters in Bhandara on Sunday, Bhondekar, who was the Shiv Sena's deputy leader and co-ordinator for eastern Vidarbha districts, claimed his party head and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had promised him a cabinet berth.
Bhondekar said he aspired to secure a cabinet berth to become the guardian minister of Bhandara district and work for its development.
He won from the Bhandara constituency by defeating his Congress rival by more than 38,000 votes in the November 20 state polls.
A total of 39 legislators from Mahayuti allies were sworn in on Sunday in the first cabinet expansion of the Devendra Fadnavis-led ministry including 16 new faces, while 10 former ministers were excluded.
While the BJP secured 19 ministerial berths by virtue of being the largest party among allies, Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) were allotted 11 and 9 berths, respectively.
Bhondekar said, "I joined the Shiv Sena on the condition that I would be given a cabinet berth. Shinde had even promised me the same. When Shinde became chief minister in the previous government, I was an independent MLA and extended support to him."
The Sena leader claimed his name was also considered for a ministerial position during the last cabinet expansion (of the previous Mahayuti government).
"When I reviewed the cabinet list and realised I was omitted, I decided to step down from all positions in the party," he said.
Bhondekar said he intended to secure a cabinet post to become the guardian minister of Bhandara district, but he will now serve as an ordinary party worker.
Bhandara district consistently had an outsider as the guardian minister for several years. Such a practice has hindered the resolution of issues affecting the district, he claimed.
"I no longer have the mindset to hold any official position. I have submitted my resignation to my party leaders and await their response," Bhondekar said.
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https://www.newsdrum.in/national/overlooked-for-cabinet-berth-shiv-sena-mla-quits-party-posts-8443089
| 2024-12-16T05:52:13Z
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Ten Commandments For Healthy Skin
Having healthy and glowing skin, without any flaws is everyone’s dream. However, due to our hectic schedules, pollution and stress, it can be very difficult to get a flawless complexion. So, if you want to get model-like gorgeous skin, follow our Ten Commandments, for beautiful and healthy looking skin.
Having healthy and glowing skin, without any flaws is everyone’s dream. However, due to our hectic schedules, pollution and stress, it can be very difficult to get a flawless complexion. So, if you want to get model-like gorgeous skin, follow our Ten Commandments, for beautiful and healthy looking skin.
*Image courtesy: © Thinkstock photos/ Getty Images
Also See: 20 Best Ways to Treat Pimples
Ten Commandments for Healthy Skin
Always wear sunscreen, before stepping outdoors
Make sure you always put on a good quality sunscreen, before stepping out into the sun. A good sunscreen will not only slow down the ageing process, but will also protect you against skin cancer.
Ten Commandments for Healthy Skin
Eat healthy food
You are what you eat; so, keep a check on what you eat. Avoid junk and oily foods, as they can cause acne and other skin problems. Instead, choose, healthy and nutritious foods like carrots and beetroots, as they will help add a glow to your face.
Ten Commandments for Healthy Skin
Remove your make-up
If you like using make-up then make sure you take it off before you go to bed. Sleeping with make-up on, can block your pores and cause skin problems.
Ten Commandments for Healthy Skin
Take care of your scalp
If you are prone to hair problems like dandruff, then keep your hair clean by washing it regularly. Dandruff can lead to acne and pimples. So keep your hair and scalp clean if you want flawless skin.
Ten Commandments for Healthy Skin
Sleep well
Sleep is a time, wherein your body goes into a repair and care mechanism. So, make sure that you are enough of sleep.
Ten Commandments for Healthy Skin
Quit smoking
Excessive smoking or smoking even a single cigarette a day can cause wrinkles and accelerate the ageing process.
Ten Commandments for Healthy Skin
Keep your face clean
The real reason for skin problems are dirt and pollution. So, keep your face clean, by washing it with a good face wash. Also, follow the three basic rules of skincare: cleaning, exfoliating and moisturising. Besides, avoid touching your face regularly.
Ten Commandments for Healthy Skin
Keep yourself hydrated
Sipping water at regular intervals, will not only keep you hydrated but will also add a glow to your face, as water helps to flush out the toxins from your body.
Ten Commandments for Healthy Skin
Apply a food face mask
Pamper your skin with a good natural face mask. A good mask will remove dirt from your skin and help your skin to breathe better.
Football on ground, good food on the table and dancing indoors; that is what Renita practises to follow an active and healthy life. A fresh-out-of-college writer, Renita is the latest addition to the HealthMeUp family. Renita believes that if you want to stay fit, you need to sweat it out and the best way to do that is to play your favorite sport. Don't have a favourite sport? She thinks it's never too late to find one.
Read More
|
https://www.indiatimes.com/health/healthyliving/ten-commandments-for-healthy-skin-236664.html
| 2024-12-16T05:52:14Z
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Update On Inquiry Into Protection Of Personal Information
The Public Service Commission has received the final report on the inquiry into the protection of personal information.
Michael Heron KC and Pania Gray led the inquiry into allegations that personal information provided to government agencies as part of Census 2023, or for Covid-19 vaccination purposes, had been misused.
Deputy Public Service Commissioner Heather Baggott said the Commission now needs to give careful consideration to the findings, which will take time to work through.
The inquiry took six months and was complex, involving six agencies, third-party service providers and findings that will impact all of the public service. Some matters will also require referral to other authorities for further consideration.
“The inquiry’s findings will require a thorough response,” says Ms Baggott.
“The protection of personal information is paramount and it’s important we get the response right.”
The commission intends to release the findings and its response at the end of January.
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https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2412/S00595/update-on-inquiry-into-protection-of-personal-information.htm
| 2024-12-16T05:52:15Z
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Takeaways from AP’s reporting on a child sex abuse crisis inside a secretive Christian sect
Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — For decades, a little-known Christian sect has dealt with its abusive ministers and spiritual elders mostly in secret, shunning legal action in favor of urging victims to forgive the predators in their midst.
Forgiveness, however, was far from a cure: The abusers were often sent to live with other unsuspecting families, where they had easy access to new victims.
Now a grassroots effort by survivors has exposed the depth of the scandal — documenting allegations against more than 900 abusers in 30 countries, with cases continuing to emerge — and thrust the nameless sect into the public eye. The FBI has also launched an investigation into the group, sometimes called the “Two by Twos.”
The Associated Press interviewed more than a dozen current and former members, workers and experts, and reviewed letters, court documents and other records supporting the allegations. Several sect leaders and ministers either declined interview requests or did not respond to messages.
Here are some takeaways from the AP’s reporting.
The core doctrine of the sect put kids at high risk
Child sex abuse is a significant problem within many religious institutions: Insurance data company Advisen lists child sexual abuse as the second most frequent insurance loss for religious organizations, after wage-related claims. But survivors say the tenets of the Two by Twos place kids at particularly high risk.
The sect believes its volunteer ministers, called “workers,” should live among followers and rely on them for food, housing and other needs.
Many survivors told the AP they were abused by preachers staying in their homes. In some cases, the abuse was revealed and the offending worker was asked to leave the ministry. Frequently, however, regional leaders called “overseers” simply transferred the worker to a new region without warning other members.
Former sect member Pam Walton uses photos from annual sect conventions, reports from members and other records to track the movements of workers and overseers with abuse allegations.
“I don’t think people were understanding the magnitude that these men and women traveled,” Walton said.
One abusive overseer, Dean Bruer, served in at least 22 states and territories and seven countries from the time he joined the ministry in 1976 until his death in 2022.
A culture of ‘mercy’ enabled abusers
Former worker Jared Snyder says bringing up someone’s past sins is considered taboo because that person “has already been forgiven by God.” As a result, members and workers alike often would only talk euphemistically about problems, Snyder said, and even major misdeeds were frequently downplayed.
“There is an underlying fear of being judged as a person who has a ‘bad spirit’ if you are not merciful enough,” Snyder says.
Some sect leaders cautioned against digging into allegations. One overseer told Snyder, “The less you know, the better off you are,” he said.
Sect leaders sometimes ignored legal reporting requirements
Some U.S. states have laws that require spiritual leaders, teachers and others in positions of authority to report child abuse allegations to authorities. Letters and other documents show some overseers tried to skirt those laws.
Ed Alexander, a regional overseer for Arizona, wrote a letter to a child-molesting elder urging him to seek professional counseling. That way, Alexander claimed, the sect would not have to report the man’s crime and instead the counselor could take on reporting responsibility.
Alexander declined to comment.
Survivors often faced dead ends in their search for justice
As a teen, Sheri Autrey felt unprepared to describe the intimate details of her abuse to a jury, so her parents declined to put her through the criminal prosecution process. When Autrey tried to press charges as an adult, it was too late — under California state law, too many years had passed since the crime.
Autrey tried to find an attorney to sue the sect, but no one would take the case. Legal experts say the sect’s aversion to property leaves it without any apparent assets that could be used to pay a legal settlement.
Left without legal options, many survivors joined grassroots efforts to support each other. One organization, Advocates for the Truth, created a 24-hour confidential hotline for survivors, investigated and tracked allegations, and connected victims with therapeutic resources and funding.
Facebook pages and online chat rooms have also given survivors a place to compare stories, discuss faith and share suggestions for reform.
A grand jury began looking into the sect last year, and in February the FBI asked people with information to come forward. Agents have interviewed multiple survivors and sect leaders over the last several months.
Change within the sect is slow — and limited
Some sect leaders have condemned the abuse and asked consultants for advice on how to better protect members. Others have rejected recommended child abuse prevention policies outright, or implemented scaled-down versions with fewer safeguards.
Still, the pressure doesn’t seem likely to let up anytime soon. Former sect member and survivor Lisa Webb says advocating for other survivors has been her therapy.
“I’m not trying to take away your salvation or attack your faith, but how can we keep our kids safe? You can respect the faith, respect the religion, but still not be naive,” Webb said. “Just the fact that the conversation is out there now means we’ve already improved the safety. … There’s a rallying behind survivors.”
|
https://kesq.com/news/2024/12/15/takeaways-from-aps-reporting-on-a-child-sex-abuse-crisis-inside-a-secretive-christian-sect-2/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:16Z
|
China’s economy logs a lackluster performance in November as retail sales slow
AP Business Writer
BANGKOK (AP) — China has reported its economy logged a mixed performance in November, with retail sales slowing as consumers refrained from spending on non-essentials like cosmetics, alcohol and jewelry. The government reported Monday that retail sales rose 3% year-on-year, down from 4.8% in October. Factory output rose 5.4%, nearly flat compared with the previous month, while investment in fixed assets like factories slowed. Officials said the economy was stable but domestic demand was weak and the “external environment” was more complicated, highlighting risks ahead as Beijing braces for potential tariff hikes once U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office. The report came days after top leaders ended an annual planning meeting that produced no major new policy initiatives.
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https://keyt.com/news/2024/12/15/chinas-economy-logs-a-lackluster-performance-in-november-as-retail-sales-slow/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:17Z
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The late former Vice President, Phelekezela Report Mphoko, who died in India where he was receiving treatment, will be buried in Bulawayo today in accordance with his wish and that of his family.
The national hero (84) would be buried this Sunday at his Douglasdale farm, Bulawayo.
His remains arrived in Zimbabwe from India Thursday, accompanied by his wife Laurinda and immediate family members.
The ex-VP was declared a national hero in recognition of his contributions to the nation during the liberation struggle and after independence.
Acting President Constantino Chiwenga described Mphoko as an illustrious national hero who contributed immensely to the nation during the liberation struggle and after independence.
"We have lost one of the few surviving renowned commanders from the former Zimbabwe People's Liberation Army (ZIPRA), a giant of the liberation struggle whose immense contribution to our independence is a legacy too bold, never to be forgotten or erased.
"To the bereaved Mphoko family, his spouse, the children, and the nation at large, may we all derive solace in the knowledge that his selfless contribution to his country and people will continue to inspire us and future generations," he said while addressing a funeral parade at Charles Gumbo Barracks in Harare.
Chiwenga said former VP Mphoko became actively involved in the country's liberation movement as a youth in the 1960s and his contributions shall forever be cherished.
Mphoko, he said, was among the first youths to be dispatched for military training in the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, with the likes of Comrades Akim Ndlovu, Ambrose Mutinhiri, and Charles Chikerema in 1964.
He was appointed Chief of Logistics in the 1st Military Command of the struggle in 1965, and was instrumental in the planning and execution of the Wankie and Sipolilo battles in 1967 and 1968 military operations.
In 1971, he became a member of the Joint Military Command, which was a joint ZIPRA-ZANLA High Command formed in Mbeya, Tanganyika, now the mainland part of Tanzania.
In 1975, he was appointed Chief of Logistics of the Zimbabwe People's Army (ZIPA), a joint ZIPRA and ZANLA force.
In 1976, he became Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) representative in Maputo, Mozambique, a post he held until Zimbabwe's independence in 1980.
Chiwenga said Mphoko was part of the delegation that played a pivotal role in securing Zimbabwe's independence during the 1979 Lancaster House Conference.
At independence, he was appointed to the demobilisation board of ex-combatants, and later several Government positions, including ambassadorial roles.
In his diplomatic career since 1987, he served with diligence as Zimbabwe's Ambassador to Mozambique, Austria, Botswana, Russia, and South Africa.
Due to his diligence and acumen, he was appointed Vice President of the Republic of Zimbabwe in 2014, a position he held until 2017.
He was also in charge of the National Healing, Peace and Reconciliation portfolio where he worked relentlessly to promote national peace, reconciliation, and equitable development in the country.
Mphoko was also a successful businessman and a farmer, majoring in cattle ranching.
The late former VP's young brother, Ndabezinhle Mphoko, set the record straight regards the decision to bury his late brother at his farm.
"The recognition will last for ever and ever. Our family is not in conflict in any way with the government. We are taking his body to Bulawayo in accordance with my brother's request," State media quoted Ndabezinhle.
Mphoko was born on June 11, 1940 in Gwizane, Bubi district, Matabeleland North province. He attended David Livingstone Memorial School and Mzilikazi High School before studying at the Tsholotsho Agricultural Breeding and Experimental School.
Mphoko's political activism began early, and he was arrested in 1963 for political violence. He later received military training in the Soviet Union and played a crucial role in the liberation struggle.
He served in several capacities in government after independence, including as Zimbabwe's Ambassador to several countries and as Vice President from December 2014 until November 2017.
He is survived by his wife Laurinda, three children, as well as three grandchildren.
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https://allafrica.com/stories/202412160043.html
| 2024-12-16T05:52:18Z
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Malappuram (Kerala), Dec 16 (PTI) A 36-year-old policeman allegedly took his own life by shooting himself dead in Kerala's Malappuram district, police said on Monday.
Vineeth, who had been serving as a Thunderbolt commando in the district and is now a part of the Special Operation Group (SOG), was found dead in the bathroom of the quarters on Sunday.
Thunderbolt force is engaged in anti-Maoist combing operations.
A native of Wayanad district, he was reportedly upset about not getting leave despite repeated requests, but police are yet to confirm this.
"He was found dead, shooting at himself. The reason for the extreme step is yet to be ascertained," a police officer said.
Police also said that the body was shifted to the nearby government hospital for post-mortem, and inquest procedures were completed. PTI LGK KH
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https://www.newsdrum.in/national/policeman-shoots-himself-dead-with-service-gun-in-kerala-8443213
| 2024-12-16T05:52:19Z
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Women's Health: What Are Uterine Fibroids?
One out of five women are affected with uterine fibroids. Treatment of this gynaecological problem involves hysterectomy &ndash removal of the uterus. Magnetic Resonance -guided focused Ultrasound Surgery MRgFUS.
Today, an alarming number of women (one out of five women) are affected with uterine fibroids. It is a cause for concern among young women, as treatment of this gynaecological problem involves hysterectomy – removal of the uterus, not to mention excruciating pain and hospitalisation. The treatment of fibroids brings with it, its own set of problems, stress and depression and other psychological issues.
The cause for this menacing disease is unknown but the growth is linked to estrogen– a hormone commonly found in women. As long as the menstruation cycle continues the fibroid will grow. These growths can be miniscule or huge – some even growing over the entire uterus over time, and can be one or many.
If you notice bleeding in-between your menstrual cycle, heavy bleeding during menstruation, sometimes with blood clots, or periods that last longer, feel the urge to urinate more often, experience pelvic cramps or severe pain with periods, or get a sensation of fullness or pressure in your lower abdomen or pain during intercourse, check with your doctor about uterine fibroids.
Uterine fibroids are tricky to detect in some people and some gynaecologists only detect it during a physical exam. Sometimes, the fibroids shrink, and in some menopausal women, the symptoms don't occur at all. In case of overweight women, it is much more difficult to detect fibroids. In such cases, a pelvic exam or ultrasound is performed to confirm the diagnosis. In some cases, an endometrial biopsy or laparoscopy is also required to rule out cancer.
Treatment varies from person to person, based on which, the symptoms are determined, for example: size and location of the fibroids, age of the patient, whether she wants to conceive in the future, and general health. Until now, hysterectomy [the surgical removal of the uterus] and myomectomy [the surgical removal of fibroids from the uterus] were two of the most common methods of treatment.
Hysterectomy may also involve the removal of the ovaries, although it is not a necessity for fibroid treatment. This may be a permanent solution, and may work if other treatments have failed or are inappropriate. However, a woman does not have any chances of becoming pregnant after a hysterectomy. Furthermore, if the ovaries are removed along with the uterus, it results in immediate menopause.
In Myomectomy, the uterus is allowed to be left in place. In fact, for some women, it makes pregnancy more probable than before. That could make them prefer Myomectomy. However, after this treatment, the chances of pregnancy might be improved but not necessarily guaranteed.
Now, you also have a non-surgical option called Magnetic Resonance-guided focused Ultrasound Surgery (MRgFUS). The side-effects to this method are minimal and recovery time is prompt– patients can return to normal routine from the next day itself. And it doesn’t cost the earth either, especially when you compare it to the older surgical procedures. Other pros of this technique include elimination of fibroid without affecting neighbouring tissues and unaffected fertility.
During the procedure, the patient lies inside the MRI scanner with a three dimensional image of the fibroid and surrounding tissues, enabling precise guidance of the ultra sound waves. High intensity focused ultrasound waves are then directed into the body at the fibroid and at the focal point increasing the temperature of the targeted tissue and destroying it. The entire procedure takes about two hours and there are no cuts and no scars.
*Data Courtesy: Dr. Shrinivas B. Desai, Director – Department of Imaging and Interventional Radiology, Jaslok Hospital & Research Centre.
*Image courtesy: © Thinkstock photos/ Getty Images
READ MORE: Women's Health
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https://www.indiatimes.com/health/healthyliving/womens-health-what-are-uterine-fibroids-240485.html
| 2024-12-16T05:52:20Z
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Presbyterian Church Publishes Response To The Commission’s Recommendations
The Presbyterian Church has today published its response to the Commission’s recommendations. It has accepted the recommendations, and where the Commission has not directed specific recommendations to the Church, the Church acknowledges these and will support their accomplishment.
The Presbyterian Church response is in English, Te Reo Māori, NZ Sign language, and it has also released a separate discussion document by Professor Taiarahia Black on, The Value of Translating the Royal Commission Recommendations and PCANZ Responses into Te Reo Māori.
The Presbyterian Church has committed to participating in Puretumu Torowhānui and cooperating with the government over the adoption and implementation of a nationwide safeguarding regulatory framework, which the Church welcomes.
The Church’s acceptance of the recommendations follows on from its October acceptance of the Commission’s findings.
In considering the Commission’s implementation timetable, the Church has found it requires more time to take the planning of its responses as seriously as the work deserves, therefore its response plan is not yet complete. The Church will establish a Survivor Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) to inform its responses and ensure survivors’ voices are at the very core.
The Church’s Moderator will also make a public acknowledgement and apology to survivors, their whanau and support networks for historic abuse. While the Church has previously made sincere apologies at a Commission hearing and in its response to the Commission findings, the Church’s Moderator Right Rev Rose Luxford, as well as the Moderator of Te Aka Puahou (Māori Synod of the Presbyterian Church) and Moderator of the Presbyterian Church’s Pacific Presbytery, are working on an apology which requires input from the Church’s survivors. Initially it was thought consultation would be completed by mid to late November, however feedback from survivors is that this sensitive process cannot be rushed; therefore, survivors will have all the space and time they need, working to a timeframe that meets their needs.
Convenor of the Presbyterian Church’s Council of Assembly, Mrs Katerina Solomona says, “We respect and appreciate the important and necessary work of the Commission. In this instance, our survivors require the space and time to be able to give their input. We are grateful to them as it is a priority for us to make a meaningful apology for abuse, harm, and trauma that occurred in the Church’s care.”
Mrs Solomona says the Church, “Feels the disappointment of not being able to meet the Commission’s implementation timetable as we know survivors have waited too long for justice and to see constructive change. We have found we cannot rush this mahi to have a real survivor centric approach. We are committed to do better for all those in our care past and present, and for all those we have failed.”
The Church will prioritise its response to the recommendations by focusing first on those that will ensure children and vulnerable adults are safe, protected, and their wellbeing supported; and on those that provide survivors with redress and healing, working in partnership with survivors of abuse.
The Church agrees that it is difficult for survivors of historic abuse to distinguish between the Presbyterian Church and the seven regions of Presbyterian Support - which are separate legal entities. Mrs Solomona says this is a challenge for both organisations. “We listen to survivors bravely share their experiences and hear their very real frustrations. We separate entities must find a way to work together to make the process to be heard and seek justice easier. Our Church is committed to this, ready and willing to work with our affiliated social service agencies and schools, and we will initiate this. It is a challenge for us, but it is a much bigger challenge for survivors and that’s why we are committed to finding a way forward.”
Anyone who has experienced abuse involving the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand is encouraged to contact the Police, and to contact the Church - see the Presbyterian Church’s Historic Abuse website page and its Complaints website page for contact details.
- Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand Council of Assembly Convenor, Mrs Katerina Solomona
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https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2412/S00596/presbyterian-church-publishes-response-to-the-commissions-recommendations.htm
| 2024-12-16T05:52:21Z
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Takeaways from AP’s reporting on a child sex abuse crisis inside a secretive Christian sect
Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — For decades, a little-known Christian sect has dealt with its abusive ministers and spiritual elders mostly in secret, shunning legal action in favor of urging victims to forgive the predators in their midst.
Forgiveness, however, was far from a cure: The abusers were often sent to live with other unsuspecting families, where they had easy access to new victims.
Now a grassroots effort by survivors has exposed the depth of the scandal — documenting allegations against more than 900 abusers in 30 countries, with cases continuing to emerge — and thrust the nameless sect into the public eye. The FBI has also launched an investigation into the group, sometimes called the “Two by Twos.”
The Associated Press interviewed more than a dozen current and former members, workers and experts, and reviewed letters, court documents and other records supporting the allegations. Several sect leaders and ministers either declined interview requests or did not respond to messages.
Here are some takeaways from the AP’s reporting.
The core doctrine of the sect put kids at high risk
Child sex abuse is a significant problem within many religious institutions: Insurance data company Advisen lists child sexual abuse as the second most frequent insurance loss for religious organizations, after wage-related claims. But survivors say the tenets of the Two by Twos place kids at particularly high risk.
The sect believes its volunteer ministers, called “workers,” should live among followers and rely on them for food, housing and other needs.
Many survivors told the AP they were abused by preachers staying in their homes. In some cases, the abuse was revealed and the offending worker was asked to leave the ministry. Frequently, however, regional leaders called “overseers” simply transferred the worker to a new region without warning other members.
Former sect member Pam Walton uses photos from annual sect conventions, reports from members and other records to track the movements of workers and overseers with abuse allegations.
“I don’t think people were understanding the magnitude that these men and women traveled,” Walton said.
One abusive overseer, Dean Bruer, served in at least 22 states and territories and seven countries from the time he joined the ministry in 1976 until his death in 2022.
A culture of ‘mercy’ enabled abusers
Former worker Jared Snyder says bringing up someone’s past sins is considered taboo because that person “has already been forgiven by God.” As a result, members and workers alike often would only talk euphemistically about problems, Snyder said, and even major misdeeds were frequently downplayed.
“There is an underlying fear of being judged as a person who has a ‘bad spirit’ if you are not merciful enough,” Snyder says.
Some sect leaders cautioned against digging into allegations. One overseer told Snyder, “The less you know, the better off you are,” he said.
Sect leaders sometimes ignored legal reporting requirements
Some U.S. states have laws that require spiritual leaders, teachers and others in positions of authority to report child abuse allegations to authorities. Letters and other documents show some overseers tried to skirt those laws.
Ed Alexander, a regional overseer for Arizona, wrote a letter to a child-molesting elder urging him to seek professional counseling. That way, Alexander claimed, the sect would not have to report the man’s crime and instead the counselor could take on reporting responsibility.
Alexander declined to comment.
Survivors often faced dead ends in their search for justice
As a teen, Sheri Autrey felt unprepared to describe the intimate details of her abuse to a jury, so her parents declined to put her through the criminal prosecution process. When Autrey tried to press charges as an adult, it was too late — under California state law, too many years had passed since the crime.
Autrey tried to find an attorney to sue the sect, but no one would take the case. Legal experts say the sect’s aversion to property leaves it without any apparent assets that could be used to pay a legal settlement.
Left without legal options, many survivors joined grassroots efforts to support each other. One organization, Advocates for the Truth, created a 24-hour confidential hotline for survivors, investigated and tracked allegations, and connected victims with therapeutic resources and funding.
Facebook pages and online chat rooms have also given survivors a place to compare stories, discuss faith and share suggestions for reform.
A grand jury began looking into the sect last year, and in February the FBI asked people with information to come forward. Agents have interviewed multiple survivors and sect leaders over the last several months.
Change within the sect is slow — and limited
Some sect leaders have condemned the abuse and asked consultants for advice on how to better protect members. Others have rejected recommended child abuse prevention policies outright, or implemented scaled-down versions with fewer safeguards.
Still, the pressure doesn’t seem likely to let up anytime soon. Former sect member and survivor Lisa Webb says advocating for other survivors has been her therapy.
“I’m not trying to take away your salvation or attack your faith, but how can we keep our kids safe? You can respect the faith, respect the religion, but still not be naive,” Webb said. “Just the fact that the conversation is out there now means we’ve already improved the safety. … There’s a rallying behind survivors.”
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https://kesq.com/news/2024/12/15/takeaways-from-aps-reporting-on-a-child-sex-abuse-crisis-inside-a-secretive-christian-sect/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:22Z
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Luka Doncic has triple-double with season-best 45 points in Mavs’ 143-133 win over Warriors
AP Sports Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Luka Doncic had his 80th career triple-double with a season-high 45 points along with 13 assists and 11 rebounds, and the Dallas Mavericks beat Klay Thompson’s former Golden State Warriors 143-133 on Sunday night in a second visit to Chase Center in just more than a month.
Thompson hit two late 3-pointers for seven total and finished with 29 points after the Mavericks lost 120-117 in his emotional return Nov. 12.
His former Splash Brother Stephen Curry had 26 points and 10 assists for Golden State in a game added to the schedule once the teams were eliminated from the NBA Cup. The Warriors lost by a point at Houston on Wednesday.
Dallas opened 14 of 19 to go ahead 39-18 before Draymond Green hit back-to-back 3-pointers. Green had season highs of five 3s and 21 points.
Takeaways
Mavericks: F/C Maxi Kleber sat out his third consecutive game, the first two with an illness and Sunday because of a fractured rib that coach Jason Kidd said may have happened in a game.
Warriors: New acquisition Dennis Schroder is expected to join the team Monday to undergo his physical and then practice ahead of Thursday’s game at Memphis. Coach Steve Kerr considers him a “perfect fit” to start alongside Curry.
Key moment
Lindy Waters III made a steal with eight seconds remaining in the third, Curry found Jonathan Kuminga for a one-handed slam to end the quarter with Golden State trailing 114-107. Andrew Wiggins then hit a 3 to begin the fourth but Golden State couldn’t make enough defensive stops.
Key stat
Doncic shot 16 for 23, making 9 of his first 11 shots with four 3-pointers on the way to 28 points by halftime.
Up next
The Mavericks host the Clippers on Thursday night. while Golden State is at Memphis on Thursday.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA
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https://keyt.com/news/2024/12/15/luka-doncic-has-triple-double-with-season-best-45-points-in-mavs-143-133-win-over-warriors/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:23Z
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“Sanity Prevails” – Major Shakeup To Local Government, Major Win For Ratepayers
Minister for Local Government Simeon Brown has today announced in the final post-Cabinet Press conference for 2024 a raft of changes designed to refocus local government and keep rates down.
“At long last sanity will be returned to councils” said Sam Warren, Local Government Campaigns Manager for the Taxpayers’ Union.
“Local rates have increased an average of 14 percent this year alone, the highest increase seen in 20 years. Returning councils’ focus is long overdue.”
“For years now the Taxpayers’ Union has been lobbying for the changes announced today – it’s certainly a massive win for us, and a massive win for all ratepayers”, Warren continues.
“Removing the four well-beings that have dragged council’s attention away from core services is a huge step in the right direction. The message is clear; stop blowing money on nice-to-haves and focus on the basics like roads and pipes.”
“The Minister has also announced a yearly benchmarking tool to improve transparency on council performance. Suspiciously similar to the Taxpayers’ Union’s own benchmarking tool - Ratepayersreport.nz - we’ll forgive the Minister for what I’m sure is very sincere form of flattery.”
“Ratepayers will have greater ability to compare council performance on issues such as council debt, unit ratings and forecasts, and a number of other important KPIs that put pressure on councils to remain accountable.”
“Perhaps most importantly, Minister Brown has expressed interest in exploring rates pegging similar to those used overseas to stop the endless bloat at councils. If the Minister plays his cards right, the days of councils ramming through double-digit rates hikes year after year could be coming to an end.”
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https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2412/S00597/sanity-prevails-major-shakeup-to-local-government-major-win-for-ratepayers.htm
| 2024-12-16T05:52:23Z
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SLK Software Expands Nearshore Capabilities with Strategic Investment in Mexico
SLK Software has strategically invested in Grey Matter Innovationz, Mexico to form GMI-SLK MEXICO, enhancing their nearshore delivery capabilities and strengthening their presence in Latin America. This move aims to provide cost-effective, rapid scaling solutions and improve service delivery to US-based clients, leveraging Latin America's geographic advantages.
- Country:
- United States
SLK Software, a global technology services leader, has made a strategic investment in Grey Matter Innovationz, Mexico, to form GMI-SLK MEXICO. This collaboration aims to strengthen SLK's presence in Latin America and enhance service delivery across the US market.
The newly formed entity will provide localized support, ensuring continuous customer service, and offer CAPEX-friendly options for scaling up operations. This strategic move is crafted to boost SLK's competitiveness and align with the growing demand for nearshore delivery capabilities, which offer geographic proximity and cultural alignment with US clients.
Executives from both companies highlighted the importance of this partnership in accessing Latin America's skilled workforce, aiming for operational excellence and cost-efficiency. The investment positions SLK and GMI to offer innovative solutions tailored for the dynamic business landscape and cater to industries, including healthcare and financial services, through advanced digitalization and nearshoring strategies.
(With inputs from agencies.)
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https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/technology/3195385-slk-software-expands-nearshore-capabilities-with-strategic-investment-in-mexico
| 2024-12-16T05:52:15Z
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New Delhi, Dec 16 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Monday sought response from the Uttar Pradesh government on a plea filed by former Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan and his son Abdullah Azam Khan challenging an order of the Allahabad High Court denying them bail in a machine theft case.
A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and Aravind Kumar issued notice to the state government and sought its reply.
Khan and his son have moved the top court against the September 21 order of the high court.
The criminal case was registered in 2022 against Khan, his son and five others alleging that they had stolen the road-cleaning machine, which was purchased by the Nagar Palika Parishad, Rampur district.
It was further alleged that this machine was later recovered from Khan's Jauhar University of Rampur.
After the change of government in the state, a person named Wakar Ali Khan lodged an FIR in 2022 at Kotwali, Rampur against the seven persons.
It was alleged in the FIR that they had in 2014 stolen the government's road cleaning machine. PTI PKS DV DV
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https://www.newsdrum.in/national/sc-notice-to-up-govt-on-bail-plea-by-azam-khan-son-in-machine-theft-case-8443344
| 2024-12-16T05:52:24Z
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This career site has been disabled. Contact the Sales Representative in charge of this account to find out how to enable this career site.
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https://baywoodhomecare.isolvedhire.com/notset.php?baywoodhomecare&root=32&disabled=1
| 2024-12-16T05:52:24Z
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You Ask, We Answer: Why Is Grilling A Healthy Cooking Method?
Executive Chef Sahil Arora from Jaipur Marriott explains why grilling is a healthy cooking method. Grilling food is a healthier option compared to our regular cooking methods. Since the cooking time is reduced the nutrients and flavours stay intact.
Your cooking method can make a difference to your waistline and cholesterol level. Executive Chef Sahil Arora from Jaipur Marriott explains why grilling is a healthy cooking method.
Executive Chef Sahil Arora prefers grilling for healthy living, “Grilled food once only considered a summer - time favourite in western countries, is now turning into a favourite cooking option for more and more people in India. Grilling food is a healthier option compared to our regular cooking methods.”
He also mentions the different health benefits of grilling foods:
- “Vegetables retain more vitamins and minerals.
- High heat from the grill seals in the moisture and keeps food tender so there’s no need to add oil or butter.”
But there are two options of grilling food – electric/gas indoor grill or on charcoal. Grilling food over charcoal can result in you inhaling smoke. Executive Chef Sahil Arora shares his opinion, “A charcoal grill provide a more distinctive flavour and backyard aroma, and it's easy to combine woodchips or other natural ingredients with the coal for additional flavour. However, charcoal is messy and sometimes difficult to ignite, and once lit it takes a little while to reach the desired temperature, si it is not favourable for daily cooking.”
As for the electric grill, Executive Chef Sahil says, “Gas grills ignite easily and maintain an even temperature from start to finish, but they are more expensive than charcoal grills, and do not provide a smoky flavour.”
Grilling foods also uses less oil and melts the fat from meat. This healthy cooking method helps prevent cardiovascular diseases and other heart diseases. Since the cooking time is reduced, the nutrients and flavours stay intact. But remember to prevent burning the food, to prevent cancer.
*Images courtesy: © Thinkstock photos/ Getty Images
For More: Healthy Eating
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https://www.indiatimes.com/health/healthyliving/you-ask-we-answer-why-is-grilling-a-healthy-cooking-method-240489.html
| 2024-12-16T05:52:27Z
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Luka Doncic’s Honest Statement After Warriors-Mavericks
If you go back ten years ago to the 2014-15 season, NBA teams on average were attempting 22.4 threes per game, with only four players attempting seven or more per game. Today in the 2024-25 season, teams are attempting 37.5 threes per game, while 34 players are attempting seven or more threes per game.
In Sunday's contest between the Dallas Mavericks and Golden State Warriors, the two teams combined for 48 made threes while the Mavericks got the best of the Warriors 143-133. In an offensive showing that saw seven players score 20 or more points and Luka Doncic finish with a 45-point triple-double, it shows just how much the NBA has changed over the years.
Doncic shared his thoughts about the combined historic performance postgame.
"No team could miss," Doncic said in regard to the 276 combined point total. Not only did the two sides combine for 48 made threes, but both teams shot at least 50% from three (50.0% for GSW and 51.2% for DAL).
The 133 team points mark is the second-highest total for the Warriors all season, with their highest coming in their season debut when they scored 140 points in a win against the Portland Trailblazers. It's also a 43-point difference from their last matchup, where they only managed 90 points in their loss to the Houston Rockets.
While scoring surely wasn't the problem tonight, Golden State will be adding more offensive production to their lineup as early as Thursday when newly-acquired guard Dennis Schroder joins the team with his 18.4 points per game average for their contest against the Memphis Grizzlies.
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https://www.si.com/nba/warriors/news/luka-doncic-s-honest-statement-after-warriors-mavericks-01jf6x14afm0
| 2024-12-16T05:52:27Z
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2024 was big for bitcoin. States could see a crypto policy blitz in 2025 in spite of the risks
Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The new year will usher in the bitcoin-friendly administration of President-elect Donald Trump and an expanding lobbying effort in statehouses that, together, could push states to become more open to crypto and for public pension funds and treasuries to buy into it.
Proponents of the uniquely volatile commodity argue it is a valuable hedge against inflation, similar to gold.
Many bitcoin enthusiasts and investors are quick to criticize government-backed currencies as prone to devaluation and say increased government buy-in will stabilize bitcoin’s future price swings, give it more legitimacy and further boost an already rising price.
But the risks are significant. Critics say a crypto investment is highly speculative, with so much unknown about projecting its future returns, and warn that investors should be prepared to lose money.
Only a couple public pension funds have invested in cryptocurrency and a new U.S. Government Accountability Office study on 401(k) plan investments in crypto, issued in recent days, warned it has “uniquely high volatility” and that it found no standard approach for projecting the future returns of crypto.
It has already been a landmark year for crypto, with bitcoin hitting $100,000, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approving the first exchange-traded funds that hold bitcoin and crypto enthusiasts being cheered by Trump’s promise to make the United States the “bitcoin superpower” of the world.
More legislation on crypto could be coming
Lawmakers in more states can expect to see bills in 2025 to make them crypto-friendly as analysts say crypto is becoming a powerful lobby, bitcoin miners build new installations and venture capitalists underwrite a growing tech sector that caters to cryptocurrencies.
Meanwhile, a new crypto-friendly federal government under Trump and Congress could consider legislation from Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, to create a federal bitcoin reserve on which states can piggyback.
A bill introduced last month in Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives sought to authorize the state’s treasurer and public pension funds to invest in bitcoin. It went nowhere before the legislative session ended, but it caused a stir.
“I had a friend who is a rep down the road text me, ‘Oh my god, I’m getting so many emails and phone calls to my office,’ more than he ever did about any other bill,” said the measure’s sponsor, Republican Mike Cabell.
Cabell — a bitcoin enthusiast who lost his reelection bid — expects his bill to be reintroduced by a colleague. And leaders of bitcoin advocacy group Satoshi Action say they expect bills based on their model bill to be introduced in at least 10 other states next year.
But what about public pension funds?
Keith Brainard, research director for the National Association of State Retirement Administrators, said he doesn’t expect many public pension fund investment professionals, who oversee nearly $6 trillion in assets, to invest in crypto.
Pension fund professionals take risks they deem to be appropriate, but bitcoin investing has a short track record, might only fit into a niche asset class and may not fit the risk-to-reward profile they seek.
“There might be a bit of dabbling in bitcoin,” Brainard said. “But it’s difficult to envision a scenario in which pension funds right now are willing to make a commitment.”
In Louisiana, Treasurer John Fleming helped make the state the first to introduce a system by which people can pay a government agency in cryptocurrencies.
Fleming said he’s not trying to promote cryptocurrency, but rather sees the step as a recognition that government must innovate and be flexible in helping people make financial transactions with the state. He said he would never invest his money, or the state’s, in crypto.
Fleming recalled meeting with a bitcoin lobbyist recently and came away unconvinced that bitcoin makes for a good investment.
“My concern is that at some point it’ll stop growing and then people will want to cash in,” Fleming said. “And when they do, it could tank the value of a bitcoin.”
In Pennsylvania, Treasury Department officials said they have the authority to decide for themselves if cryptocurrencies meet the agency’s investment standards under state law and don’t need new legislation.
Still, a highly volatile asset is ill-suited to the agency’s need for predictability, considering it writes millions of checks a year. The overwhelming majority of the roughly $60 billion it invests at any given time is in short-term, conservative investments designed for an investment period of months, officials there said.
Pension boards, which invest on a 30-year time horizon, may already hold small investments in companies involved in mining, trading and storing cryptocurrencies. But they have been slow to embrace bitcoin.
That could change, said Mark Palmer, managing director and a senior research analyst at The Benchmark Company in New York.
Pension boards got investment tools they like this year when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved the first exchange-traded funds that hold bitcoin and, in October, approved listings of options on those funds, Palmer said.
Many “are likely in the process of getting up to speed on what it means to invest in bitcoin and kicking the tires, so to speak, and that’s a process that typically takes a while at the institutional level,” Palmer said.
Several major asset managers like BlackRock, Invesco and Fidelity have bitcoin ETFs.
Some states already are investing in crypto
In May, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board became the first state to invest when it bought $160 million worth of shares in two ETFs, or about 0.1% of its assets. It later scaled back that investment to $104 million in one ETF, as of Sept. 30. A spokesperson declined to discuss it.
Michigan’s state investment board later reported about $18 million in bitcoin ETF purchases while a candidate for New Jersey governor, Steven Fulop, said that if elected he would push the state’s pension fund to invest in crypto.
Fulop, the Democratic mayor of Jersey City, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, has been preparing for months to buy bitcoin ETF shares for up to 2% of the city’s $250 million employee pension fund.
“We were ahead of the curve,” Fulop said. “And I think that’s what you’re eventually going to see is this is widely accepted, with regard to exposure in all pension funds, some sort of exposure.”
___
Follow Marc Levy on X at: https://x.com/timelywriter.
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https://kesq.com/news/ap-national-news/2024/12/15/2024-was-big-for-bitcoin-states-could-see-a-crypto-policy-blitz-in-2025-in-spite-of-the-risks/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:28Z
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As schools cut back on bus service, parents are turning to rideshare apps
Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) — Ismael El-Amin was driving his daughter to school when a chance encounter gave him an idea for a new way to carpool.
On the way across Chicago, El-Amin’s daughter spotted a classmate riding with her own dad as they drove to their selective public school on the city’s North Side. For 40 minutes, they rode along the same congested highway.
“They’re waving to each other in the back. I’m looking at the dad. The dad’s looking at me. And I was like, parents can definitely be a resource to parents,” said El-Amin, who went on to found Piggyback Network, a service parents can use to book rides for their children.
Reliance on school buses has been waning for years as districts struggle to find drivers and more students attend schools far outside their neighborhoods. As responsibility for transportation shifts to families, the question of how to replace the traditional yellow bus has become an urgent problem for some, and a spark for innovation.
State and local governments decide how widely to offer school bus service. Lately, more have been cutting back. Only about 28% of U.S. students take a school bus, according to a Federal Highway Administration survey concluded early last year. That’s down from about 36% in 2017.
Chicago Public Schools, the nation’s fourth-largest district, has significantly curbed bus service in recent years. It still offers rides for disabled and homeless students, in line with a federal mandate, but most families are on their own. Only 17,000 of the district’s 325,000 students are eligible for school bus rides.
Last week, the school system launched a pilot program allowing some students who attend out-of-neighborhood magnet or selective-enrollment schools to catch a bus at a nearby school’s “hub stop.” It aims to start with rides for about 1,000 students by the end of the school year.
It’s not enough to make up for the lost service, said Erin Rose Schubert, a volunteer for the CPS Parents for Buses advocacy group.
“The people who had the money and the privilege were able to figure out other situations like rearranging their work schedules or public transportation,” she said. “People who didn’t, some had to pull their kids out of school.”
On Piggyback Network, parents can book a ride for their student online with another parent traveling the same direction. Rides cost roughly 80 cents per mile and the drivers are compensated with credits to use for their own kids’ rides.
“It’s an opportunity for kids to not be late to school,” 15-year-old Takia Phillips said on a recent PiggyBack ride with El-Amin as the driver.
The company has arranged a few hundred rides in its first year operating in Chicago, and El-Amin has been contacting drivers for possible expansion to Virginia, North Carolina and Texas. It is one of several startups that have been filling the void.
Unlike Piggyback Network, which connects parents, HopSkipDrive contracts directly with school districts to assist students without reliable transportation. The company launched a decade ago in Los Angeles with three mothers trying to coordinate school carpools and now supports some 600 school districts in 13 states.
Regulations keep it from operating in some states, including Kentucky, where a group of Louisville students has been lobbying on its behalf to change that.
After the district halted bus service to most traditional and magnet schools, the student group known as The Real Young Prodigys wrote a hip-hop song titled “Where My Bus At?” The song’s music video went viral on YouTube with lyrics such as, “I’m a good kid. I stay in class, too. Teachers want me to succeed, but I can’t get to school.”
“Those bus driver shortages are not really going away,” HopSkipDrive CEO Joanna McFarland said. “This is a structural change in the industry we need to get serious about addressing.”
HopSkipDrive has been a welcome option for Reinya Gibson’s son, Jerren Samuel, who attends a small high school in Oakland, California. She said the school takes care to accommodate his needs as a student with autism, but the district lined up the transportation because there is no bus from their home in San Leandro.
“Growing up, people used to talk about kids in the short yellow buses. They were associated with a physical disability, and they were teased or made fun of,” Gibson said. “Nobody knows this is support for Jerren because he can’t take public transportation.”
Encouragement from his mother helped Jerren overcame his fear about riding with a stranger to school.
“I felt really independent getting in that car,” he said.
Companies catering to kids claim to screen drivers more extensively, checking their fingerprints and requiring them to have childcare or parenting experience. Drivers and children are often given passwords that must match, and parents can track a child’s whereabouts in real time through the apps.
Kango, a competitor to HopSkipDrive in California and Arizona, started as a free carpooling app similar to the PiggyBack Network and now contracts with school districts. Drivers are paid more than they would typically get for Uber or Lyft, but there are often more requirements such as walking some students with disabilities into school, Kango CEO Sara Schaer said.
“This is not just a curbside-to-curbside, three-minute situation,” Schaer said. “You are responsible for getting that kid to and from school. That’s not the same as transporting an adult or DoorDashing somebody’s lunch or dinner.”
In Chicago, some families that have used Piggyback said they have seen few alternatives.
Concerned about the city’s rising crime rate, retired police officer Sabrina Beck never considered letting her son take the subway to Whitney Young High School. Since she was driving him anyway, she volunteered through PiggyBack also to drive a freshman who had qualified for the selective magnet school but had no way to get there.
“To have the opportunity to go and then to miss it because you don’t have the transportation, that is so detrimental,” Beck said. “Options like this are extremely important.”
After the bus route that took her two kids to elementary school was canceled, Jazmine Dillard and other Chicago parents thought they had convinced the school to move up the opening bell from 8:45 a.m. to 8:15 a.m., a more manageable time for her schedule. After that plan was scrapped because the buses were needed elsewhere at that time, Dillard turned to PiggyBack Network.
“We had to kind of pivot and find a way to make it to work on time as well as get them to school on time,” she said.
___
The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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https://kesq.com/news/ap-national-news/2024/12/15/as-schools-cut-back-on-bus-service-parents-are-turning-to-rideshare-apps/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:28Z
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Milan’s Via MonteNapoleone usurps New York’s Fifth Avenue as world’s most upscale shopping street
Associated Press
MILAN (AP) — Shoppers laden with bags from Fendi, Loewe, Prada and other designer labels clog the narrow sidewalks of Milan’s swankiest shopping street, bringing joy to the purveyors of high-end luxury goods this, and every, holiday season.
There’s even more to celebrate this year: a commercial real estate company has crowned Via MonteNapoleone as the world’s most expensive retail destination, displacing New York’s Fifth Avenue.
The latest version of American firm Cushman & Wakefield’s annual global index, which ranks shopping areas based on the rent prices they command, is a sign of Via MonteNapoleone’s desirability as an address for luxury ready-to-wear, jewelry and even pastry brands.
The average rent on the Milan street has surged to 20,000 euros per square meter ($2,047 per square foot), compared with 19,537 euros per square meter ($2,000 per square foot) on an 11-block stretch of upper Fifth Avenue.
Via MonteNapoleone’s small size — just 350 meters (less than one-quarter mile) long — and walking distance to services and top cultural sites are among the street’s key advantages, according to Guglielmo Miani, president of the MonteNapoleone District association.
“Not everything can fit, which is a benefit’’ since the limited space makes the street even more exclusive and dynamic, said Miani, whose group also represents businesses on the intersecting side streets that together with Via MonteNapoleone form an area known as Milan’s Fashion Quadrilateral.
The biggest brands on the street make 50 million euros to 100 million euros in annual sales, Miani said, which goes a long way to paying the rent. Tiffany & Co. is preparing to take up residence on Via Montenapoleone, and long-time tenant Fendi is expanding.
The MonteNapoleone District says 11 million people visited the area this year through November, but there’s no way to say how many were big spenders vs. window shoppers. The average shopper on Via MonteNapoleone spent 2,500 euros per purchase between August and November — the highest average receipt in the world, according to the tax-free shopping firm Global Blue.
The street is a magnet for holiday shoppers who arrive in Maseratis, Porsches and even Ferraris, the sports car’s limited trunk space notwithstanding. Lights twinkle overhead, boutique windows feature mannequins engaged in warm scenes of holiday fun, and passersby snap photos of expertly decorated cakes in pastry shop displays.
A visitor from China, Chen Xinghan, waited for a taxi with a half-dozen shopping bags lined up next to him on the sidewalk. He said he paid half the price for a luxury Fendi coat that he purchased in Milan than he would have at home.
“I got a lot,’’ Chen acknowledged. “It’s a fantastic place, a good place for shopping.”
A few store windows down, Franca Da Rold, who was visiting Milan from Belluno, an Italian city in the Dolomites mountain range, marveled at a chunky, meters-long knit scarf priced at 980 euros.
“I could knit that in one hour, using 12-gauge knitting needles as thick as my fingers, and thick wool. Maximum two hours,’’ Da Rold said, but acknowledged the brand appeal.
Despite upper Fifth Avenue getting bumped to the No. 2 spot on the Cushman & Wakefield list, the organization that serves as the Manhattan street’s guardian and chief promoter had praise for MonteNapoleone’s achievement.
“Milan’s investment in its public realm is paying off, which is a win for their shoppers, businesses and city as a whole,’’ Madelyn Wils, interim president of the Fifth Avenue Association, said.
But she also expressed confidence that with new investments and a record year for sales on Fifth Avenue, “we’ll be back on top in no time.”
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https://keyt.com/news/2024/12/15/milans-via-montenapoleone-usurps-new-yorks-fifth-avenue-as-worlds-most-upscale-shopping-street/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:29Z
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Fisheries NZ: Get the free rules app to keep your fishing legal
If you’re fishing or planning to drop a line in the ocean during the festive season, the best gift you can give yourself is the free NZ Fishing Rules mobile app.
Many New Zealanders live near the coast, the marine environment is part of our national identity, and a huge number of Kiwis go fishing every year – for sport, enjoyment, and to get food for their whānau and families.
“The app has everything you need to know – daily bag limits, minimum legal sizes, any closures or restrictions and even biotoxin alerts,” says Fisheries New Zealand Director of Fisheries Compliance, Steve Ham.
The NZ Fishing Rules app can be downloaded from wherever you get your apps.
“Fishery Officers and Honorary Fishery Officers will be patrolling the coasts, boat ramps and at sea throughout the summer period to protect our shared fisheries and ensure they’re sustainable into the future.
“As well as catch and size limits, the app displays rules for the kind of gear you're allowed to use. These rules vary by species and area and do change from time to time, so it's important to stay up to date.
“Having the app on your phone gives you the peace of mind of having the right information at your fingertips. Once downloaded, the fishing app will also work in areas where you don't have cell phone coverage. Fishers can also text free to 9889 with the name of the fish species and receive a text back with size limits and daily catch limits,” Mr Ham says.
Along with the fishing rules app, recreational fishers are encouraged to ask their local fishery officer or pop into their local office.
“They're there to help you. We want your fishing experience to be something to remember for all the right reasons, not because you hooked a fine. By following the rules you'll also be doing your part in keeping our shared fisheries sustainable so that future generations can also enjoy catching a feed of kaimoana.”
Fisheries New Zealand also reminds everyone that it is illegal to sell, barter, swap and buy recreationally caught fish and shellfish.
MPI encourages people to report suspected illegal activity through the ministry's 0800 4 POACHER number (0800 47 62 24).
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https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2412/S00598/fisheries-nz-get-the-free-rules-app-to-keep-your-fishing-legal.htm
| 2024-12-16T05:52:29Z
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Thane, Dec 16 (PTI) The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) personnel have seized spurious drugs valued at Rs 1.85 crore following raids at two locations in Maharashtra's Thane district, officials said on Monday.
The raids were carried out at a godown in Bhiwandi and another establishment in Mira Road area over the last few months, they said.
A case has been registered against two persons in this connection, a police official said.
The investigation suggested the accused were manufacturing and selling counterfeit medicines while falsely claiming them to be from the original manufacturers, an FDA official said in the complaint.
The drugs were distributed across multiple states, thereby deceiving patients and compromising public health, as per the complaint.
The police on Saturday registered a case against the accused under various Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections, including 318(4), (cheating), 276 (adulteration of drugs), 277(sale of adulterated drugs), 278 (sale of drug as a different drug or preparation) and 3(5) (criminal act done by several persons in furtherance of common intention of all), as well as provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.
The police and FDA were conducting a probe to identify the manufacturing locations of these spurious drugs, source of the packaging materials and distribution channels, officials said. PTI COR GK
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https://www.newsdrum.in/national/spurious-drugs-of-rs-185-cr-seized-in-thane-2-booked-8443269
| 2024-12-16T05:52:30Z
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Synergy Quantum Boosts India’s Cryptographic Resilience with Advanced QRNG
Synergy Quantum has deployed its cutting-edge Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG) at C-DAC in India, marking a strategic move in enhancing cryptographic resilience. The QRNG utilizes the DISC™ protocol to ensure secure random number generation, crucial for post-quantum encryption and protecting against quantum computing vulnerabilities.
- Country:
- India
In a significant advancement for quantum security, Synergy Quantum, an industry leader in quantum secure communication technology, has successfully deployed a state-of-the-art Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG) at India's Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). This pivotal collaboration aims to bolster India's national cryptographic resilience.
The breakthrough, centered around Synergy Quantum's innovative Source-Device Independent Self-Certification (DISC™) protocol, revolutionizes the way randomness is created and validated. By leveraging quantum photonics, this technology promises unmatched security by eliminating vulnerabilities typically seen in other QRNG systems.
This deployment is set to propel India forward in the global quantum research arena, highlighting an era of secure communications and cryptographic safeguarding. Emphasizing the necessity of robust randomness in Post-Quantum Encryption, this move supports India's strategic pursuit to become self-reliant in future quantum technologies.
(With inputs from agencies.)
- READ MORE ON:
- quantum
- random
- cryptographic
- security
- synergy
- C-DAC
- India
- DISC
- pqe
- encryption
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https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/technology/3195389-synergy-quantum-boosts-indias-cryptographic-resilience-with-advanced-qrng
| 2024-12-16T05:52:30Z
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Heart Healthy Recipe: Berry Parfait
Indulge in this berry parfait which is full of antioxidants fibre and hypocholestrolemic agents. Ingredients: &bull 1 bowl full of mixed berries and flavoured yoghurt. 1/4 tsp vanilla essence and 1 tbsp low fat cream.
Desserts are not off limits if you are aiming to be heart healthy. You just need to choose wisely and carefully. Indulge in this berry parfait, which is full of antioxidants, fibre and hypocholestrolemic agents.
Ingredients:
• 1 bowl full of mixed berries
• 1 medium pack of flavoured yoghurt
• 1/4 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tbsp low fat cream
Method:
1. In a bowl, add the flavoured yoghurt, vanilla essence and cream and stir it well.
2. In a tall glass or a dessert bowl, place alternate layers of berries and the yoghurt mixture.
3. Refrigerate for an hour and serve.
*Image courtesy: © Thinkstock photos/ Getty Images
For More: Recipes
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https://www.indiatimes.com/health/recipes/heart-healthy-recipe-berry-parfait-240488.html
| 2024-12-16T05:52:33Z
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The next edition of the Notre Dame vs USC rivalry will be upon us this weekend, and with it, we have to ask a very burning question. That question being- what bowl game are these two teams playing in the classic Christmas film ” Die Hard ?”
Genuinely desirable bowl games, you know, the REAL bowl games, take place in or around New Year’s. Thus, one truly wonders how the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and USC Trojans, two of the bluest blue bloods in college football, ended up clashing on Christmas Eve in this 1988 action film.
Remember, Die Hard took place in an era where you had less than 20 bowl games, not 40+ like you have today. It was a time when teams that went 7-4 or even 8-3 sometimes, still missed out on the postseason.
Of course, Notre Dame and USC would not both be relegated to a Christmas Eve bowl game, in any era…unless they both went 6-5 that season…again kind of far-fetched.
The Die Hard bowl game question is of course one of utmost seriousness and extreme concern.
There is just oh-so-much at stake here, as we deeply analyze a fictional exhibition game that is briefly mentioned in passing during a shoot ’em up movie that came out over three decades ago.
It’s trivial and silly yes, but still a very welcome guilty pleasure debate.
The Die Hard bowl game piece is one that I had found had already been done, at least twice, already. Well, history and anthropology are disciplines built upon standing on the shoulders of the giants that came before you, so let’s dissect this extremely important historical event.
Sean Keeley, of SB Nation’s Syracuse site, asked this question in 2011.
Keeley writes that the LAPD character, played by the dad from Family Matters:
“heads inside and kibbitzes with Buffed Up Huey Lewis, who is pretending to be a security guard. Huey sits back down at the desk and starts watching the football game again. The play-by-play guy tells us that it’s the end of the first quarter and Notre Dame leads USC 7-0.
Which game is this exactly?
Keeley continues:
In 1987, there were 18 bowl games. The early-season bowls were the California (12/12), Independence (12/19), All-American (12/22), Aloha (12/25) and Sun (12/25). Everything else was played post-Christmas.
In 1988, there were 17 bowl games. This time the California, Independence, Sun and Aloha were the only ones pre-Christmas or on Christmas.
So that means Notre Dame and USC would have had to be playing one another in one of those games.
In 1987, Notre Dame went 8-4 and played in the Cotton Bowl. In 1988, they went 12-0 and won the Fiesta Bowl and National Title.
In 1987, USC went 8-4, won a share of the Pac-10 and went to the Rose Bowl. In 1988, they went 10-2 and went back to the Rose Bowl.
In other words, the bowls that would be played around that time and the reality of Notre Dame & USC football do not jive.
The SB Nation piece espouses the famous Die Hard Thanksgiving Theorem, as does The Comebacks edition in 2015, which we find it written by….the same guy!
Now about that Thanksgiving theorem:
A personal theory (that remains 100 percent unproven) is that somewhere along the way, one of the early drafts of Die Hard had it take place during Thanksgiving. If that’s the case, then having the guard watch a Notre Dame vs. USC game makes perfect sense. In fact, the Irish and the Trojans actually played one another on Nov. 26, 1988. You could easily just make a mental note that the game was scheduled for the night before Thanksgiving (or the day-of) and everything fits perfectly.
The Jeweled Shillelegh rivalry is customarily played on the Saturday following Thanksgiving Day when the game is played in Los Angeles. It’s on the third Saturday of October when the game is played in South Bend. ND and USC did actually clash in 1988 on November 26, so this does make a lot of sense.
Also, Nakotomi Plaza is in Los Angeles, so a faux security guard would probably be interested in a local team, especially a team that’s playing one of their main rivalry games.
By the way, Nakotomi Tower is played in the film by Fox Plaza, a 35 story skyscraper in Century City, Los Angeles, California.
Former US President Ronald Reagan had his offices on the 34th floor of the building for several years after leaving public office.
The 34th floor is now occupied by Goldman Sachs.
Keeley does though eventually crack the code, explaining how it must be the Aloha Bowl in Hawaii that landed ND and USC in Die Hard.
It’s the only thing that could possibly make sense…and after all, everything in Die Hard makes perfectly sense, as there are absolutely no plot holes and every single aspect of the film is 100% realistic to everyday life. Nothing in the movie is far-fetched at all.
Period. No sir.
There is also a competing theory, albeit a much more boring one, which says the filmmakers just pulled audio from the 1987 meeting.
In that game, USC went up 7-0 early on Notre Dame before eventually getting totally blown out.
This would make perfect sense given the Die Hard production timeline.
Also, given the locale, setting and the fact that USC has a very prestigious film school, you likely had a Southern Cal alum with some level of input on the script, and they just decided to include the Trojans.
Given the storied rivalry, Notre Dame was the perfect choice as an opponent. So now we can move on to the Die Hard debate that has inspired dozens of articles, and will inspire a dozen more- is it a Christmas movie? Go here for that.
This whole endeavor of analyzing this was absolutely silly and probably pointless…and it was exactly what we need in our lives right now.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now. Follow the website on Twitter and Instagram.
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https://www.thesportsbank.net/college-fball/notre-dame/die-hard-xmas-eve-bowl-game/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:34Z
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As Trump threatens mass deportations, Central America braces for an influx of vulnerable migrants
Associated Press
SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras (AP) — U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office in January with a promise of carrying out mass deportations, leaving Honduras and other Central American countries bracing for a potential influx of vulnerable migrants — a situation they are ill-prepared to handle. Migrants and networks aiding deportees in Central America’s Northern Triangle worry their return could thrust them into even deeper economic and humanitarian crises, fueling migration down the line. “We don’t have the capacity” to take so many people, said Antonio García, Honduras’ deputy foreign minister. “There’s very little here for deportees.” People who return, he said, “are the last to be taken care of.”
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https://kesq.com/news/ap-national-news/2024/12/15/as-trump-threatens-mass-deportations-central-america-braces-for-an-influx-of-vulnerable-migrants/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:34Z
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Popeye and Tintin enter the public domain in 2025 along with novels from Faulkner and Hemingway
AP Entertainment Writer
Popeye can punch without permission and Tintin can roam freely starting in 2025. The two classic comic characters who first appeared in 1929 are among the intellectual properties becoming public domain in the United States on Jan. 1. That means they can be used and repurposed without permission or payment to copyright holders.
This year’s crop of newly public artistic creations lacks the landmark vibes of last year’s entrance of into the public domain of Mickey Mouse. But they include a deep well of canonical works whose 95-year copyright maximums will expire. And the Disney icon’s public domain presence expands.
“It’s a trove! There are a dozen new Mickey cartoons — he speaks for the first time and dons the familiar white gloves,” said Jennifer Jenkins, director of Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain. “There are masterpieces from Faulkner and Hemingway, the first sound films from Alfred Hitchcock, Cecil B. DeMille, and John Ford, and amazing music from Fats Waller, Cole Porter, and George Gershwin. Pretty exciting!”
Here’s a closer look at this year’s crop.
Comics characters loom large
Popeye the Sailor, with his bulging forearms, mealy-mouthed speech, and propensity for fistfights, was created by E.C. Segar and made his first appearance in the newspaper strip “Thimble Theater” in 1929, speaking his first words, “’Ja think I’m a cowboy?” when asked if he was a sailor. What was supposed to be a one-off appearance became permanent, and the strip would be renamed ”Popeye.”
But as with Mickey Mouse last year and Winnie the Pooh in 2022, only the earliest version is free for reuse. The spinach that gave the sailor his super-strength was not there from the start, and is the kind of character element that could spawn legal disputes. And the animated shorts featuring his distinctive mumbly voice didn’t begin until 1933 and remain under copyright. As does director Robert Altman’s 1980 film, starring Robin Williams as Popeye and Shelley Duvall as his oft-fought-over sweetheart Olive Oyl.
That movie was tepidly received initially. So was director Steven Spielberg’s “Adventures of Tintin” in 2011. But the comics about the boy reporter that inspired it, the creation of Belgian artist Hergé, were among the most popular in Europe for much of the 20th century.
The simply drawn teen with dots for eyes and bangs like an ocean wave first appeared in a supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle, and became a weekly feature.
The comic also first appeared in the U.S. in 1929. Its signature bright colors — including Tintin’s red hair — didn’t appear until years later, and could, like Popeye’s spinach, be the subject of legal disputes.
And in much of the world, Tintin won’t become public property until 70 years after the 1983 death of his creator.
Books show American lit at its height
The books becoming public this year read like the syllabus for an American literature seminar.
“The Sound and the Fury,” arguably William Faulkner’s quintessential novel with its modernist stream-of-consciousness style, was a sensation after its publication despite being famously difficult for readers. It uses multiple non-linear narratives to tell the story of a prominent family’s ruin in the author’s native Mississippi, and would help lead to Faulkner’s Nobel Prize.
And Ernest Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms” joins his earlier “The Sun Also Rises” in the public domain. The partly autobiographical story of an ambulance driver in Italy during the First World War cemented Hemingway’s status in the American literary canon. It has been frequently adapted for film, TV and radio, which can now be done without permission.
John Steinbeck’s first novel, “A Cup of Gold,” from 1929, will also enter the public domain.
The British novelist Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own,” an extended essay that would become a landmark in feminism from the modernist literary luminary, is also on the list. Her novel “Mrs. Dalloway” is already in the U.S. public domain.
Movie legends in the making
While a host of truly major movies will become public in the coming decade, for now early works by major figures from the not-always-stellar early sound era will have to suffice.
A decade before he would move to Hollywood and make films like “Psycho,” and “Vertigo,” Alfred Hitchcock made “Blackmail” in Britain. The film was begun as a silent but shifted to sound during production, resulting in two different versions, one of them the UK’s — and Hitchcock’s — first sound film.
John Ford, whose later Westerns would put him among film’s most vaunted directors, also made his first foray into sound with 1929’s “The Black Watch,” an adventure epic that includes Ford’s future chief collaborator John Wayne as a young extra.
Cecil B. DeMille, already a Hollywood bigwig through silents, made his first talkie with the melodrama “Dynamite.”
Groucho, Harpo and the other Marx Brothers had their first starring movie roles in 1929’s “The Cocoanuts,” a forerunner to future classics like “Animal Crackers” and “Duck Soup.”
“The Broadway Melody,” the first sound film and the second film ever to win the Oscar for best picture — known as “outstanding production” at the time — will also become public, though it’s often ranked among the worst of best picture winners.
And after “Steamboat Willie” made the earliest Mickey Mouse public, a dozen more of his animations will get the same status, including “The Karnival Kid,” where he spoke for the first time.
Music rings out the 20s
Songs from the last year of the Roaring Twenties are also about to become public property.
Cole Porter’s compositions “What Is This Thing Called Love?” and “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” are among the highlights, as is the jazz classic “Ain’t Misbehavin’, written by Fats Waller and Harry Brooks.
“Singin’ in the Rain,” which would later forever be associated with the 1952 Gene Kelly film, made its debut in the 1929 movie “The Hollywood Revue” and will now be public domain.
Different laws regulate sound recordings, and those newly in the public domain date to 1924. They include a recording of “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” from future star and civil rights icon Marian Anderson, and “Rhapsody in Blue” performed by its composer George Gershwin.
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https://keyt.com/news/2024/12/15/popeye-and-tintin-enter-the-public-domain-in-2025-along-with-novels-from-faulkner-and-hemingway-2/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:35Z
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Rfynd: Transforming Lives Through Science-Based Holistic Weight Care Services
rfynd is leading the way in evidenced-based, personalised weight care across New Zealand, empowering individuals to achieve lasting health and well-being. In response to the increasing need for comprehensive solutions, rfynd takes a client-focused approach that meets individuals where they are and addresses their physical and mental health. By offering a variety of treatments, their focus is on tailoring care to suit the unique needs of each individual.
What Makes rfynd Unique?
Unlike other services that focus on a single solution, rfynd offers a variety of treatments designed to suit the individual. Whether it's their lifestyle program (‘Wellness Essentials’) supported by expert health coaching, weight loss medications prescribed by experienced endocrinologists, or surgical options such as weight loss surgery for those who need it, rfynd prioritises personalisation and effectiveness. A multidisciplinary team collaborates to determine the most appropriate pathway for each client, ensuring their goals are met with compassion and expertise.
Core Services and Offerings:
- Weight loss medications
- Bariatric surgery
- Lifestyle programs
- A team of highly qualified professionals, including surgeons, endocrinologists, dietitians, health coaches, and exercise physiologists, work together to deliver holistic care.
- Access to Centr, Chris Hemsworth’s fitness app, offers a wealth of recipes, workouts, and meditations to help clients achieve their goals.
- Advanced tracking tools through the rfynd app to monitor progress and outcomes in real-time.
By integrating these diverse services, rfynd ensures clients have all the tools and support they need for successful weight care.
Impact of rfynd’s Approach:
rfynd’s personalised approach aims to ensure sustainable weight loss and improved mental health while addressing the societal stigma around weight care. Their focus on holistic, science-based solutions allows clients to feel empowered and supported every step of the way. At rfynd, it’s not just about achieving results but also about creating a positive and uplifting experience for everyone.
Why Choose rfynd?
With a commitment to tailoring treatments to each individual’s needs, rfynd combines evidence-based practices with a compassionate, non-judgemental environment. Their collaborative approach ensures sustainable, life-long health improvements, empowering clients to embrace lasting change.
Take the first step towards achieving your weight care goals with rfynd. Visit their website today to schedule a consultation and learn more about their transformative programs. You can also follow rfynd on Instagram at @joinrfynd and on Facebook at Join rfynd for updates on weight care insights, success stories, and expert tips tailored to your health journey.
rfynd is reshaping the weight care conversation in New Zealand, offering innovative, science-based solutions designed with compassion and care. Discover how rfynd can support you in achieving a healthier, happier future, tailored to your unique needs.
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https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2412/S00296/rfynd-transforming-lives-through-science-based-holistic-weight-care-services.htm
| 2024-12-16T05:52:35Z
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Thane, Dec 16 (PTI) Police have registered a case against a man for allegedly raping his six-year-old daughter in Maharashtra's Thane district, an official said on Monday.
The 42-year-old accused, resident of Dombivli area, committed the offence on multiple occasions since June this year whenever the child was alone at home, the official from Vishnu Nagar police station said without giving more details.
Based on a complaint by the man's wife, a case was registered against him on Saturday under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, he said. PTI COR GK
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https://www.newsdrum.in/national/thane-man-booked-for-raping-6-yr-old-daughter-8443296
| 2024-12-16T05:52:36Z
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Ex-Rainbow member Kim Jae Kyung belatedly reveals marriage to non-celeb boyfriend in heartfelt letter to fans
Kim Jae Kyung, a former Rainbow member and currently an actress, has belatedly shared the news of her marriage to her non-celeb boyfriend. Read on to know more.
Kim Jae Kyung, a former member of the girl group Rainbow, has revealed that she married her non-celeb boyfriend earlier this year. Initially, her agency confirmed the news to a media outlet. Later, the actress herself shared the belated news through a heartfelt letter.
On December 16, Kim Jae Kyung took to her Instagram to share the exciting news with her fans. She also unveiled a photo from the marriage ceremony, looking radiant in traditional wedding attire. In her story, she also penned, "I’m writing this as a new chapter of my life has begun. I hope you will support my desire to write this new chapter with the same vigor, fun, and straightforwardness as always. I will do my best to bring you good news with a new project as soon as possible. The weather has gotten much colder, so please take care and avoid catching a cold. Thank you always, everyone!"
See her Instagram story here:
Earlier today, a Korean media outlet reported that she had tied the knot with her non-celeb fiancé this year. Her agency, Namoo Actors, confirmed that they got married last summer in a close-knit ceremony attended by family members. The agency added that after meeting her precious partner, she gradually formed a great connection based on deep trust and affection. However, since her husband is a non-celebrity, the private wedding decision was taken to respect his privacy.
Kim Jae Kyung is a popular Korean celebrity who kickstarted her entertainment career as a K-pop idol. In 2009, she debuted as a member and leader of the girl group Rainbow formed by DSP Media. In her early acting career, she starred in many guest roles in dramas like Family, Reply 1994, Big Thing, My Lovely Girl, and more.
With her leading role in the 2015 drama Noble, My Love, Kim Jae Kyung earned much popularity. Taking her acting career to the next level, she continued to show her talents in works like Bad Papa, The Secret Life of My Secretary, The Devil Judge, Again My Life, and more.
In 2016, she parted ways with Rainbow after the group was disbanded.
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https://www.pinkvilla.com/entertainment/ex-rainbow-member-kim-jae-kyung-belatedly-reveals-marriage-to-non-celeb-boyfriend-in-heartfelt-letter-to-fans-1362894
| 2024-12-16T05:52:39Z
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Pull-Up Tips: Dos And Don'ts For Perfect Pull-Ups
pull-up is the most common exercise for strength training for the arms abs and does not require weights. Two fitness experts &ndash Arnav Sarkar our Strength and Conditioning coach and Rajesh Sharma fitness instructor from Navi Mumbai tell us the dos and don&rsquots for this exercise.
Pull-up is the most common exercise for strength training, for the arms, abs and does not require weights. This exercise assures you get sexy arms and increases upper body strength. Two fitness experts – Arnav Sarkar, our Strength and Conditioning coach and Rajesh Sharma, fitness instructor from Navi Mumbai tells us the dos and don’ts for this exercise and share tips.
Arnav Sarkar reinforces the importance of the pull-up. He says, “Do it! No, seriously, it’s one of the best back builders ever.”
To improve the effectiveness of the pull-up he says, “Use some added resistance like weighted vest, or a dumbbell, if you can do more than 15 reps easily.” He adds, “Use full range of motion.”
As for the don’ts for the perfect pull-up, Strength and Conditioning coach, Arnav Sarkar chides in, “Don’t let your shrug your shoulders or let your shoulders touch your ears in the hang position. Avoid using too much momentum on the way up if you want to build some strength and muscle.” This is a great tip for bodybuilders.
Rajesh Sharma, fitness instructor from Navi Mumbai lays down the dos and don’ts of pull-up, here is a list of pull-up tips:
Dos for perfect pull-up:
- Pull-up bar should be within reach or slightly higher
- Keep shoulders down and back while doing pull-ups
- Squeeze your back while doing pull-up
- Keep chest up
- Touching chest to pull-up bar should be the goal instead of taking the chin above the pull-up bar.
- The width of your hands on the bar should be more than your shoulder width.
- Pull-up with lats.
- Lower down with control.
Don’ts for perfect pull-up:
- The width of your hand should not be less than your shoulder width.
- Don’t touch the back of your head to the bar.
- Don’t swing while pulling up.
- Do not jump when pulling up.
- Don’t do this exercise if you have an injured shoulder, injured scapula or any other issue related to shoulder, elbow, wrist or neck.
For More: Arm Workouts
*Images courtesy: © Thinkstock photos/ Getty Images
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https://www.indiatimes.com/health/tips-tricks/pullup-tips-dos-and-donts-for-perfect-pullups-240484.html
| 2024-12-16T05:52:39Z
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Former FBI informant will plead guilty to lying about phony bribery scheme involving the Bidens
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI informant is set to plead guilty on Monday to lying about a phony bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden and his son Hunter that became central to the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress.
Alexander Smirnov is expected to make the plea in Los Angeles to a felony charge in connection with the bogus story, along with a tax evasion charge stemming from a separate indictment accusing him of concealing millions of dollars of income, according to court papers.
Smirnov has been behind bars since his arrest in February on charges that he told his FBI handler that executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid President Biden and Hunter Biden $5 million each around 2015.
Prosecutors and the defense have agreed to recommend a sentence of between four and six years in prison, according to the plea agreement.
Smirnov had been an informant for more than a decade when he made the explosive allegations about the Bidens in June 2020, after “expressing bias” about Joe Biden as a presidential candidate, prosecutors said.
But Smirnov had only routine business dealings with Burisma starting in 2017, according to court documents. An FBI field office investigated the allegations and recommended the case be closed in August 2020, according to charging documents.
No evidence has emerged that Joe Biden acted corruptly or accepted bribes in his current role or previous office as vice president.
While his identity wasn’t publicly known before the indictment, Smirnov’s claims played a major part in the Republican effort in Congress to investigate the president and his family, and helped spark a House impeachment inquiry into Biden. Before Smirnov’s arrest, Republicans had demanded the FBI release the unredacted form documenting the unverified allegations, though they acknowledged they couldn’t confirm if they were true.
During a September 2023 conversation with investigators, Smirnov also claimed the Russians likely had recordings of Hunter Biden because a hotel in Ukraine’s capital where he had stayed was “wired” and under their control — information he said was passed along to him by four high-level Russian officials.
But Hunter Biden had never traveled to Ukraine, according to Smirnov’s indictment.
Smirnov claimed to have contacts with Russian intelligence-affiliated officials, and told authorities after his arrest earlier this year that “officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story” about Hunter Biden.
The case against Smirnov was brought by special counsel David Weiss, who also prosecuted Hunter Biden on gun and tax charges. Hunter Biden was supposed to be sentenced this month after being convicted at trial in the gun case and pleading guilty to federal charges in the tax case. But he was pardoned earlier this month by his father, who said he believed “raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.”
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https://kesq.com/news/ap-national-news/2024/12/15/former-fbi-informant-will-plead-guilty-to-lying-about-phony-bribery-scheme-involving-the-bidens/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:40Z
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Survivors seek a reckoning as FBI investigates child sex abuse in little-known Christian sect
Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Nearly every detail about the religious group Lisa Webb’s family belonged to was hidden from the outside world. Its followers met in homes rather than churches. Its leadership structure was hard to discern, its finances opaque. It didn’t even have an official name.
But for decades, no secret was as closely guarded as the identities of the sexual predators inside the group known as the “Two by Twos.”
Now a growing number of public allegations from around the world have prompted a broad investigation by the FBI and placed an uncomfortable spotlight on the long-quiet Christian sect. Survivors say the group’s leaders protected child-abusing ministers by pressuring victims to forgive, ignoring legal reporting requirements and by transferring abusers to new locations to live with unsuspecting families.
Ministry leaders have publicly condemned the abuse but several declined to answer questions from The Associated Press.
For Webb, who was sexually abused by one of the group’s ministers as a child, the attention has brought an unexpected sense of “strength in numbers.”
“There are so many who are frustrated and disheartened,” said Webb. “But there’s also camaraderie in that, and support.”
A website, a hotline and social media pages established by victims have documented allegations against more than 900 abusers, with survivors in more than 30 countries and cases continuing to emerge. In the past year, news stories and a Hulu documentary have focused on the sect’s predator preachers and the leaders who enabled them.
While perpetrators have been sentenced to prison in isolated cases, the sect has largely avoided legal repercussions, protected by its decentralized structure, hidden finances and state laws that limit the timeline for criminal charges.
The secret sect’s origin story
The sect, also known to its members as “The Way” or “The Truth,” was founded in Ireland in 1897 by William Irvine, who railed against the existence of churches. The only way to spread Christianity, he argued, was to do as Jesus instructed in the Book of Matthew: to send apostles out to live among those they sought to convert.
The sect grew as volunteer preachers — known as workers — went “two by two” to live in the family homes of followers for days or weeks at a time. Sect historians say there were up to a few million members just a few decades ago, but current estimates put the figure at 75,000 to 85,000 worldwide.
Unlike the Boy Scouts or the Catholic Church, which have paid out billions to sex abuse victims, the sect’s aversion to property leaves it without apparent assets that might be used to pay settlements, legal experts say.
Workers are supposed to shun worldly possessions, relying on followers for food, shelter and transportation. But that also ensures abusive workers have access to potential victims.
Webb was abused by a preacher who stayed with her family in Michigan when she was 11. The man, Peter Mousseau, was convicted much later — after he expressed an interest in visiting her in 2008 and she decided to pursue charges. A regional overseer to whom she previously reported the abuse was later convicted for failing to report abuse allegations against another local worker.
“You have this mindset that they are angels in your home. They can do no wrong, so you don’t have any kind of wall up,” she said. “It was just the perfect storm created, the perfect recipe for this kind of behavior.”
Abusers live among their victims
Sheri Autrey had just turned 14 when a 28-year-old worker moved into her family’s home in Visalia, California, for two months.
He began abusing her immediately, sneaking to her room at night and taking her for daytime drives. He turned up the radio whenever the Hall & Oates song “Maneater” came on, singing: “Watch out boy, she’ll chew you up.”
When Autrey revealed the abuse to her mother a few years later, her mom reported it to the sect’s regional overseer, who was in charge of all the workers in the area.
The overseer refused to warn other families. Instead, he sent the worker back to Autrey’s home to apologize.
Autrey, raised to be meek, erupted. Her family took her to the district attorney’s office but declined to put her through a prosecution.
“I would have to explain, explicitly, what happened,” Autrey said. “And I was in no way prepared for that.”
Decades later, Autrey was at a baseball game when “Maneater” came on. She had to walk around the stadium to calm herself down, and she resolved to send a letter about the abuse to hundreds of sect members.
“I wanted anyone else who was a victim to know she is not the only one,” Autrey said. “She needs to know there is help.”
Many more cases of abuse
One worker from Peru, Americo Quispe, was sent to Garland, Texas, in the early 2000s after facing allegations of inappropriate behavior in his home country. He soon found new victims, some of whose families went to police. He returned to Peru before he could be arrested.
Quispe was later convicted of molestation in Peru and sentenced to 30 years. He has never faced the charges in Texas.
Another worker, Ruben Mata, abused dozens of boys, among them 10-year-old Douglas Patterson, who was lured away from his family during a sect convention in the early 1990s. Patterson said he kept quiet about it because he feared his family would leave the sect — and thus be barred from eternal salvation — if he told.
Mata was eventually convicted in 2006 in a separate sex abuse case. He died in a California prison.
Members told to keep abuse reports quiet
A few months before Mata’s trial, the Saskatchewan, Canada, overseer, Dale Shultz, sent two letters to colleagues.
One was to be shown to any concerned members. It acknowledged Mata was a pedophile and that workers had been alerted to his abuse at least three times. The sect only notified authorities after Mata resigned, according to the letter.
The second was for staff. It said no copies should be made of the first letter.
“The purpose of the letter is to help those who have concerns, not to advertise a kingdom problem to those who either do not know about it or are not having a problem with it,” Shultz wrote.
In another case, a regional overseer for Arizona, Ed Alexander, wrote a letter to a child-molesting elder in 2005 observing that “we love our people very much and don’t want to report their misdeeds.”
The letter suggested the sect could fulfill its mandatory abuse-reporting obligations by recommending offenders get professional counseling, because then the counselors — rather than sect leaders — would be obligated to make the reports to police.
“They believe that child sexual assault is just a sin. Like, you’re a sinner, they are a sinner, it’s all just sin,” said Eileen Dickey, one of the man’s victims. She reported the abuse to sect leaders because she was worried other children would be targeted.
“I was told never to talk about it,” she said.
Alexander would not speak with The Associated Press: “Unfortunately, the media coverage has been so negative and one-sided that I am going to have to decline an interview,” he texted.
Former minister recounts culture of downplaying misdeeds
Jared Snyder spent more than two decades as an itinerant minister before becoming disillusioned and quitting. No one told him directly about abuse, Snyder said, but he occasionally heard rumors.
The sect’s culture — which makes gossip taboo and places tremendous pressure on members to be merciful — meant that misdeeds big or small were downplayed, he said.
“One overseer just explicitly told me, ‘The less you know, the better off you are,’” he said.
As a worker, Snyder received no paychecks, retirement benefits or health insurance benefits, and he was discouraged from using banks. But he was never without spending money: Followers regularly offer cash to the workers, and Snyder said he frequently had thousands of dollars in his pockets.
Most of that money would get spent on building materials, food or other supplies at regional conventions, Snyder said.
The case that exposed the sect to more scrutiny
In June 2022, a regional overseer named Dean Bruer died in an Oregon motel room. Bruer, 67, had served in at least 22 states and territories and seven countries since 1976, according to a timeline compiled by Pam Walton, a former member who has used historical records and photographs to track the movements of predatory preachers.
Nine months after Bruer died, Doyle Smith, the overseer for Idaho and Oregon, wrote a letter to members. Evidence left on Bruer’s phone and laptop showed he had raped and abused multiple underage victims, Smith wrote.
“Dean was a sexual predator,” Smith wrote. “We never respect or defend such totally inappropriate behavior among us. There is a very united consensus among us that the only thing to do is to be transparent with all of you for obvious reasons, though this is very difficult.”
That transparency did not extend to dealings with local police. It was only after Autrey, another abuse survivor, and private investigator Cynthia Liles — all former sect members — pressured Smith that he turned Bruer’s laptop over to detectives, Autrey told the AP.
By then, the computer had been tampered with, according to records from the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon. The web browser search history was cleared. Bruer’s Apple ID had been changed and files transferred out of his DropBox account. Bruer’s phone was never provided to police, and the “Find My iPhone” feature had been disabled.
“What web browsing history was present on the laptop that someone didn’t want anyone else knowing about?” Detective Jeffrey Burlew wrote in a police report. Unable to find any evidence of a crime within its jurisdiction, the office closed the investigation.
Smith did not respond to phone messages from the AP.
Survivors and law enforcement dig deeper
Though Autrey and others had long sought reforms in the sect, Bruer’s death proved to be a catalyst. Autrey, Liles and another survivor launched a hotline, website and Facebook pages for survivors.
In February, the FBI’s field office in Omaha, Nebraska, announced an investigation.
The outcry prompted some sect leaders to condemn the abuse and to ask consultants for advice on how to better protect members. But at least some regional overseers have ultimately declined to adopt recommended child abuse prevention policies — saying the only true code of conduct is the New Testament.
And some leaders still warn members against criticizing the sect.
At an August convention in Duncan, British Columbia, a worker helping to lead the event did not mention the abuse scandal directly but told members to lay aside “evil speakings.”
“It’s more easy to be critical than to be correct,” preached Robert Doecke, a worker from Australia. “If you feed on problems, it will only make more problems. But if you focus on the Lord, it will lead to solutions.”
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https://keyt.com/news/2024/12/15/survivors-seek-a-reckoning-as-fbi-investigates-child-sex-abuse-in-little-known-christian-sect-2/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:41Z
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Jingle Bells Can Wait As Consumers Hold Out For Next Mortgage Cut
Kiwi mortgage holders are counting on a belated Christmas gift – eight weeks after December 25 - from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ), when the central bank’s board next meets, according to the Finance and Mortgage Advisers Association of New Zealand (FAMNZ).
FAMNZ country manager Leigh Hodgetts said that while Christmas is a time when consumers often spend too much, this year many will be cutting back due to the pressures from high interest rates.
“We know that New Zealanders are still doing it tough and are sacrificing, but if economists are correct and there is another 50 basis point cut on February 19, this will be the Christmas present they want, and they won’t mind waiting.”
“This will be the fourth cut in recent times and we will see mortgage repayments become more manageable for most borrowers,” she said.
Ms Hodgetts pointed out that RBNZ has signalled the likelihood of further rate cuts in early 2025, with a long-term goal of achieving a neutral OCR (around 3 per cent) by mid-2026.
“If this happens, the reduction is expected to influence shorter-term mortgage rates, which are already trending down.
However she fears banks may decide to be the late-Christmas grinch and not pass on the full cuts, if and when they occur.
“Banks have a habit of passing on rate increases immediately and in full, but they don’t always act this way when rates fall.
“If this happens, there will be some consumers seeking a better deal elsewhere.”
She said lower rates in 2025 will benefit mortgage holders who have opted for floating rates and provide opportunities for fixed-rate borrowers to secure lower rates as they renew.
“Lower rates could also help property prices stabilise further and this will encourage activity from first-home buyers and investors.
“It will certainly be positive for consumers and the overall economy, so let’s hope Santa comes late and we can extend the festive season to February.”
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https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2412/S00297/jingle-bells-can-wait-as-consumers-hold-out-for-next-mortgage-cut.htm
| 2024-12-16T05:52:41Z
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Rajouri/Jammu, Dec 16 (PTI) Two suspected narcotics smugglers were arrested and 5.50 kilogrammes of heroin seized from them near the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, officials said on Monday.
The seizure of the huge quantity of heroin, worth crores of rupees in the international market, from the Nowshera sector thwarted an attempt by the drug peddlers to smuggle the contraband from across the border, they said.
The accused -- Sajan Kumar (25) and Subash Chander (36) -- were arrested during a joint operation conducted by the Army and the police in the forward villages of Sher and Kaneti late on Sunday.
The Border Security Force (BSF) had recovered a Pakistani drone and nearly half-a-kilogramme of high-grade narcotics along the international border in the Arnia sector of Jammu on Saturday. PTI TAS TAS SZM SZM
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https://www.newsdrum.in/national/two-held-with-55-kg-heroin-near-loc-in-j-ks-rajouri-8443084
| 2024-12-16T05:52:42Z
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XCMG Unveils Future of Construction at bauma CHINA 2024
XCMG showcased over 100 flagship products at bauma CHINA 2024, highlighting its digital and sustainable innovations. The company unveiled new energy products and made significant international deals, emphasizing its leadership in green technology and global market presence.
At bauma CHINA 2024, the global construction machinery industry witnessed a grand exhibition from November 26 to 29. The event drew over 3,500 exhibitors from 32 countries, with XCMG making a significant impact through an impressive showcase of more than 100 flagship products and cutting-edge construction solutions.
The spotlight was on XCMG's 'Digital Intelligence Space Station,' which illustrated the company's comprehensive digital transformation, spanning research, production, and services. Visitors experienced firsthand XCMG's strides in innovation, particularly in smart construction solutions.
XCMG also emphasized its commitment to sustainable development in the green technology zone, unveiling 48 new energy products. During the event, XCMG secured over 6,000 orders totaling nearly 10 billion RMB, including a groundbreaking 3-billion RMB deal with Fortescue for electric mining machinery.
(With inputs from agencies.)
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https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/technology/3195391-xcmg-unveils-future-of-construction-at-bauma-china-2024
| 2024-12-16T05:52:37Z
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Unlocking More Bookings: Creative Voucher Strategies For Boosting Guest Loyalty & Revenue
Hotel gift vouchers are a formidable strategy to amplify revenue streams and grow guest loyalty.
Gift vouchers are versatile. Unlike any other monetary gift card, they can be tied into particular hotel services, enhancing revenue streams. When guests enjoy staying at your hotel, they want to come back and enjoy something they didn’t experience in the previous stay or invite their friends and family to enjoy your property. Gift vouchers fill this need perfectly, creating a sense of anticipation and excitement.
Hotel gift vouchers have numerous benefits:
- Vouchers enhance guest satisfaction, leading to brand advocacy and repeat visits, ultimately increasing hotel revenue and fostering long-term customer loyalty.
- Attracting new guests and boosting brand awareness. Typically, these are guests who have been gifted a voucher for your property by a friend or family member who enjoyed staying with you.
- Additional revenue stream, with the money clipped in even before the service is rendered. This is just what a business cash flow needs!
- Seasonal promotions – by aligning voucher promotions with seasonal events and celebrations, hotels can increase bookings, expand reach, enhance guest experiences, and drive substantial revenue growth.
Crafting effective voucher campaigns is essential for maximising their impact and driving both short-term revenue and long-term loyalty. Here are some creative ideas and tips to set you on the path to success:
10 Game-Changing Hotels Voucher Strategies to Increase Hotel Bookings
1) Your audience in any marketing activity is half the job done. Always target your voucher campaigns to specific audience categories. For instance, a mother’s day promotion could be targeted at tweens or young adults who are looking for easy gifting options to pamper their mothers. Understanding the preferences and behaviours of your target audience will help create a voucher that is aligned to these attributes.
2) Make the offer appealing. Perceived value should exceed the cost, encouraging guests to make a purchase. For instance you can offer exclusive experiences unavailable through standard bookings, such as private dining or VIP amenities. Limited time offers create a sense of urgency, prompting immediate purchases.
3) Content quality. It matters on your OTA listing and it definitely matters on your vouchers and linked promotion materials. Make your messages crisp, highlight your services and ensure images are high quality.
4) Ensure seamless mechanics of purchase and redemption. Nothing annoys guests more than a patchy experience. STAAH’s Gift voucher Engine removes the stress of purchase and redemption by seamlessly integrating with your website and booking systems. It also includes the ability to scan QR codes to redeem the voucher to make it hassle-free.
5) Build revenue smarts into how you sell vouchers such as setting up limits to avoid overselling. This ability along with dynamic pricing are built-in capabilities of the STAAH Gift Voucher Engine.
6) Build partnerships with other local businesses to broaden the appeal of your gift vouchers. It is appealing to partners who will also see a lift in their revenue.
7) Encourage early bookings by offering vouchers with special discounts for those who book their stay well in advance. This can help in managing occupancy rates more effectively.
8) Last-minute deals. For rooms that are not booked, last-minute vouchers can attract spontaneous travellers or those looking for a quick getaway, helping to fill up rooms that would otherwise stay empty.
9) Promote, promote, promote! Once you’ve created the vouchers, ensure you engage all channels effectively to push up their sales. Aligning your target audience to channel strategy is integral to success.
10) Offer vouchers as referral benefits or as an incentive for returning guests to build loyalty.
Must Read: 5 Proven Tactics To Promote Hotel Gift Vouchers Year-Round
To conclude
There are no doubts about the benefits gift vouchers bring to hotels. However, its success lies in the tools you engage to provide this service so it does not hinder hotel operations and take your staff away from focusing on delivering an exceptional guest experience.
Talk to a STAAH expert to understand how the Gift Voucher Engine can unlock the revenue and loyalty potential you seek.
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https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2412/S00298/unlocking-more-bookings-creative-voucher-strategies-for-boosting-guest-loyalty-revenue.htm
| 2024-12-16T05:52:43Z
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EXCLUSIVE: Sajid Nadiadwala’s special gift for Salman Khan fans; Sikandar Teaser on SK’s birthday
Salman Khan’s 59th Birthday would mark the launch of Sikandar Teaser along with the first look of SK from the AR Murugadoss directorial. Detailed report
Over the last 6 months, Salman Khan has been continuously shooting for the Sajid Nadiadwala-produced Sikandar, directed by AR Murugadoss. The film is presently in the final legs of production, as the makers are aiming to call it a wrap by January 2025. Over the last few weeks, there has been a constant buzz around the film, as Salman Khan fans have been waiting to hear more on this action-packed thriller, also starring Rashmika Mandanna in a key role. And now, we hear that producer Sajid Nadiadwala is all set to surprise all fans with a special teaser on Salman Khan’s 59th Birthday.
According to sources close to the development, Sajid Nadiadwala and AR Murugadoss are all set to officially launch Sikandar on December 27, 2024. “A special teaser has been cut and is presently being edited for a launch on Salman Khan’s birthday. The audience can expect scale, and action, along with the promise of entertainment with this specially curated Sikandar teaser for SK’s birthday,” revealed a source close to the development.
The source further added that the editing work is going on in full swing for the Sikandar teaser cut, and the background for the film as also the asset is done by Santosh Narayanan, who is best known for his work in Kalki 2898 AD, Jigarthanda Double XL, and Vada Chennai among others. “Sikandar is among the most awaited film of 2025, and the makers are setting the tone right to welcome the new year with a teaser of Sikandar. This would officially kick-start the marketing campaign of the film, leading to an Eid 2025 release in the month of March. Sajid Nadiadwala has devised big plans to present Sikandar to the cinema-going audience, and the flow of assets in 2025 will include songs, and a theatrical trailer,” the source added.
Sikandar marks the reunion of Salman Khan and Sajid Nadiadwala after their 2014 blockbuster, Kick, which also marked the directorial debut for the latter. The source concluded, “The first look poster of Salman Khan too will be launched amidst fan-fare on the superstar’s 59th birthday. It’s all work in progress at the moment, as the idea is to treat Sikandar as an event cinematic presentation of 2025.”
After calling it a wrap on Sikandar, Salman Khan moves on to commence shooting for Atlee’s next directorial – A6 – which is scheduled to go on floors from Summer 2025. Sajid Nadiadwala on the other hand has 3 other releases next year – Housefull 5 with Akshay Kumar, Baaghi 4 with Tiger Shroff and Arjun Ustara with Shahid Kapoor. Stay tuned to Pinkvilla for more updates.
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https://www.pinkvilla.com/entertainment/exclusives/exclusive-sajid-nadiadwalas-special-gift-for-salman-khan-fans-sikandar-teaser-on-sks-birthday-1362896
| 2024-12-16T05:52:46Z
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PICS: World Animal Day
Activists from the animal rights group AnimaNaturalis hold a protest against bullfighting, outside La Macarena bullring within commemorations for the World Animal Day, in Medellin , Antioquia department, Colombia on October 6, 2013.
Activists from the animal rights group AnimaNaturalis hold a protest against bullfighting, outside La Macarena bullring within commemorations for the World Animal Day, in Medellin , Antioquia department, Colombia on October 6, 2013.
Activists from the animal rights group AnimaNaturalis hold a protest against bullfighting, outside La Macarena bullring within commemorations for the World Animal Day, in Medellin , Antioquia department, Colombia on October 6, 2013. AFP PHOTO/Raul ARBOLEDA
A Roman Catholic priest blesses animals with holy water on the first Sunday of October after a mass for World Animal Day in Manila on October 6, 2013. People around the globe celebrated World Animal Day, which began as a holiday in Florence, Italy, in 1931 at a convention of ecologists, to highlight the plight of endangered species.
An activist from the animal rights group AnimaNaturalis takes part in a protest against bullfighting, outside La Macarena bullring within commemorations for the World Animal Day, in Medellin , Antioquia department, Colombia on October 6, 2013.
An activist from the animal rights group AnimaNaturalis takes part in a protest against bullfighting, outside La Macarena bullring within commemorations for the World Animal Day, in Medellin , Antioquia department, Colombia on October 6, 2013.
An activist from the animal rights group AnimaNaturalis takes part in a protest against bullfighting, outside La Macarena bullring within commemorations for the World Animal Day, in Medellin , Antioquia department, Colombia on October 6, 2013.
Activists from the animal rights group AnimaNaturalis hold hands to protest against bullfighting, outside La Macarena bullring within commemorations for the World Animal Day, in Medellin , Antioquia department, Colombia on October 6, 2013.
A child holds her pet dog after a Roman Catholic priest blessed animals with holy water on the first Sunday of October after a mass for World Animal Day in Manila on October 6, 2013. People around the globe celebrated World Animal Day, which began as a holiday in Florence, Italy, in 1931 at a convention of ecologists, to highlight the plight of endangered species. AFP PHOTO / Jay Directo
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https://www.indiatimes.com/lifestyle/art-and-culture/pics-world-animal-day-105867.html
| 2024-12-16T05:52:46Z
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Germany’s Scholz faces a confidence vote. It’s expected to lead to an election in February
Associated Press
BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Olaf Scholz faces a confidence vote in the German parliament on Monday that he’s expected to lose, paving the way for the European Union’s most populous member and biggest economy to hold an early election in February.
Scholz’s notoriously rancorous three-party government collapsed on Nov. 6 when the chancellor fired his finance minister in a long-running dispute over how to revitalize Germany’s stagnant economy, and the minister’s pro-business party quit the coalition. That left the remaining two center-left partners without a majority in parliament.
Leaders of several major parties then agreed that a parliamentary election should be held on Feb. 23, seven months earlier than originally planned. Post-World War II Germany’s constitution doesn’t allow parliament’s lower house, or Bundestag, to dissolve itself — so a confidence vote is needed to set in motion the early election.
What is likely to happen?
Scholz’s Social Democrats hold 207 seats in the Bundestag and are expected to vote for the chancellor. Their remaining coalition partners, the environmentalist Greens, have 117 and plan to abstain. That should mean Scholz gets nowhere near the majority of 367 in the 733-seat chamber needed to win the confidence vote.
If Scholz loses, it will up to up to President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to decide whether to dissolve the Bundestag. Steinmeier, who said last month that “this country needs stable majorities and a government that is capable of acting,” has 21 days to make that decision. Once parliament is dissolved, the election must be held within 60 days.
In practice, the campaign is already well underway.
Who is in the race?
As he formally requested the confidence vote on Wednesday, Scholz said that voters will “decide in the election how we answer the big questions that we face.”
Those, he said, include whether Germany decides to “invest strongly in our future,” secure jobs and modernize its industry, keep pension levels stable and “come closer to a just peace in Ukraine without Germany being drawn into the war.” Germany has become Ukraine’s biggest military supplier in Europe, but Scholz also has refused to supply long-range Taurus cruise missiles over concerns of escalating the war with Russia.
Center-right challenger Friedrich Merz on Saturday predicted “one of the hardest election campaigns” in modern German history, as Scholz’s Social Democrats “have their backs to the wall.” He said that it’s crucial to make the economy more competitive, because “the competitiveness of our economy is the precondition for everything else.”
Polls show Scholz’s party trailing behind Merz’s main opposition Union bloc. Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, whose Greens are further back, is also bidding for the top job.
The far-right Alternative for Germany, which is polling strongly, has nominated Alice Weidel as its candidate for chancellor but has no chance of taking the job because other parties refuse to work with it.
Confidence votes are rare in Germany, a country of 83 million people that prizes stability. This is only the sixth time in its postwar history that a chancellor has called one.
The last was in 2005, when then-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder engineered an early election that was narrowly won by center-right challenger Angela Merkel.
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https://kesq.com/news/ap-national-news/2024/12/15/germanys-scholz-faces-a-confidence-vote-its-expected-to-lead-to-an-election-in-february/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:46Z
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Survivors seek a reckoning as FBI investigates child sex abuse in little-known Christian sect
Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Nearly every detail about the religious group Lisa Webb’s family belonged to was hidden from the outside world. Its followers met in homes rather than churches. Its leadership structure was hard to discern, its finances opaque. It didn’t even have an official name.
But for decades, no secret was as closely guarded as the identities of the sexual predators inside the group known as the “Two by Twos.”
Now a growing number of public allegations from around the world have prompted a broad investigation by the FBI and placed an uncomfortable spotlight on the long-quiet Christian sect. Survivors say the group’s leaders protected child-abusing ministers by pressuring victims to forgive, ignoring legal reporting requirements and by transferring abusers to new locations to live with unsuspecting families.
Ministry leaders have publicly condemned the abuse but several declined to answer questions from The Associated Press.
For Webb, who was sexually abused by one of the group’s ministers as a child, the attention has brought an unexpected sense of “strength in numbers.”
“There are so many who are frustrated and disheartened,” said Webb. “But there’s also camaraderie in that, and support.”
A website, a hotline and social media pages established by victims have documented allegations against more than 900 abusers, with survivors in more than 30 countries and cases continuing to emerge. In the past year, news stories and a Hulu documentary have focused on the sect’s predator preachers and the leaders who enabled them.
While perpetrators have been sentenced to prison in isolated cases, the sect has largely avoided legal repercussions, protected by its decentralized structure, hidden finances and state laws that limit the timeline for criminal charges.
The secret sect’s origin story
The sect, also known to its members as “The Way” or “The Truth,” was founded in Ireland in 1897 by William Irvine, who railed against the existence of churches. The only way to spread Christianity, he argued, was to do as Jesus instructed in the Book of Matthew: to send apostles out to live among those they sought to convert.
The sect grew as volunteer preachers — known as workers — went “two by two” to live in the family homes of followers for days or weeks at a time. Sect historians say there were up to a few million members just a few decades ago, but current estimates put the figure at 75,000 to 85,000 worldwide.
Unlike the Boy Scouts or the Catholic Church, which have paid out billions to sex abuse victims, the sect’s aversion to property leaves it without apparent assets that might be used to pay settlements, legal experts say.
Workers are supposed to shun worldly possessions, relying on followers for food, shelter and transportation. But that also ensures abusive workers have access to potential victims.
Webb was abused by a preacher who stayed with her family in Michigan when she was 11. The man, Peter Mousseau, was convicted much later — after he expressed an interest in visiting her in 2008 and she decided to pursue charges. A regional overseer to whom she previously reported the abuse was later convicted for failing to report abuse allegations against another local worker.
“You have this mindset that they are angels in your home. They can do no wrong, so you don’t have any kind of wall up,” she said. “It was just the perfect storm created, the perfect recipe for this kind of behavior.”
Abusers live among their victims
Sheri Autrey had just turned 14 when a 28-year-old worker moved into her family’s home in Visalia, California, for two months.
He began abusing her immediately, sneaking to her room at night and taking her for daytime drives. He turned up the radio whenever the Hall & Oates song “Maneater” came on, singing: “Watch out boy, she’ll chew you up.”
When Autrey revealed the abuse to her mother a few years later, her mom reported it to the sect’s regional overseer, who was in charge of all the workers in the area.
The overseer refused to warn other families. Instead, he sent the worker back to Autrey’s home to apologize.
Autrey, raised to be meek, erupted. Her family took her to the district attorney’s office but declined to put her through a prosecution.
“I would have to explain, explicitly, what happened,” Autrey said. “And I was in no way prepared for that.”
Decades later, Autrey was at a baseball game when “Maneater” came on. She had to walk around the stadium to calm herself down, and she resolved to send a letter about the abuse to hundreds of sect members.
“I wanted anyone else who was a victim to know she is not the only one,” Autrey said. “She needs to know there is help.”
Many more cases of abuse
One worker from Peru, Americo Quispe, was sent to Garland, Texas, in the early 2000s after facing allegations of inappropriate behavior in his home country. He soon found new victims, some of whose families went to police. He returned to Peru before he could be arrested.
Quispe was later convicted of molestation in Peru and sentenced to 30 years. He has never faced the charges in Texas.
Another worker, Ruben Mata, abused dozens of boys, among them 10-year-old Douglas Patterson, who was lured away from his family during a sect convention in the early 1990s. Patterson said he kept quiet about it because he feared his family would leave the sect — and thus be barred from eternal salvation — if he told.
Mata was eventually convicted in 2006 in a separate sex abuse case. He died in a California prison.
Members told to keep abuse reports quiet
A few months before Mata’s trial, the Saskatchewan, Canada, overseer, Dale Shultz, sent two letters to colleagues.
One was to be shown to any concerned members. It acknowledged Mata was a pedophile and that workers had been alerted to his abuse at least three times. The sect only notified authorities after Mata resigned, according to the letter.
The second was for staff. It said no copies should be made of the first letter.
“The purpose of the letter is to help those who have concerns, not to advertise a kingdom problem to those who either do not know about it or are not having a problem with it,” Shultz wrote.
In another case, a regional overseer for Arizona, Ed Alexander, wrote a letter to a child-molesting elder in 2005 observing that “we love our people very much and don’t want to report their misdeeds.”
The letter suggested the sect could fulfill its mandatory abuse-reporting obligations by recommending offenders get professional counseling, because then the counselors — rather than sect leaders — would be obligated to make the reports to police.
“They believe that child sexual assault is just a sin. Like, you’re a sinner, they are a sinner, it’s all just sin,” said Eileen Dickey, one of the man’s victims. She reported the abuse to sect leaders because she was worried other children would be targeted.
“I was told never to talk about it,” she said.
Alexander would not speak with The Associated Press: “Unfortunately, the media coverage has been so negative and one-sided that I am going to have to decline an interview,” he texted.
Former minister recounts culture of downplaying misdeeds
Jared Snyder spent more than two decades as an itinerant minister before becoming disillusioned and quitting. No one told him directly about abuse, Snyder said, but he occasionally heard rumors.
The sect’s culture — which makes gossip taboo and places tremendous pressure on members to be merciful — meant that misdeeds big or small were downplayed, he said.
“One overseer just explicitly told me, ‘The less you know, the better off you are,’” he said.
As a worker, Snyder received no paychecks, retirement benefits or health insurance benefits, and he was discouraged from using banks. But he was never without spending money: Followers regularly offer cash to the workers, and Snyder said he frequently had thousands of dollars in his pockets.
Most of that money would get spent on building materials, food or other supplies at regional conventions, Snyder said.
The case that exposed the sect to more scrutiny
In June 2022, a regional overseer named Dean Bruer died in an Oregon motel room. Bruer, 67, had served in at least 22 states and territories and seven countries since 1976, according to a timeline compiled by Pam Walton, a former member who has used historical records and photographs to track the movements of predatory preachers.
Nine months after Bruer died, Doyle Smith, the overseer for Idaho and Oregon, wrote a letter to members. Evidence left on Bruer’s phone and laptop showed he had raped and abused multiple underage victims, Smith wrote.
“Dean was a sexual predator,” Smith wrote. “We never respect or defend such totally inappropriate behavior among us. There is a very united consensus among us that the only thing to do is to be transparent with all of you for obvious reasons, though this is very difficult.”
That transparency did not extend to dealings with local police. It was only after Autrey, another abuse survivor, and private investigator Cynthia Liles — all former sect members — pressured Smith that he turned Bruer’s laptop over to detectives, Autrey told the AP.
By then, the computer had been tampered with, according to records from the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon. The web browser search history was cleared. Bruer’s Apple ID had been changed and files transferred out of his DropBox account. Bruer’s phone was never provided to police, and the “Find My iPhone” feature had been disabled.
“What web browsing history was present on the laptop that someone didn’t want anyone else knowing about?” Detective Jeffrey Burlew wrote in a police report. Unable to find any evidence of a crime within its jurisdiction, the office closed the investigation.
Smith did not respond to phone messages from the AP.
Survivors and law enforcement dig deeper
Though Autrey and others had long sought reforms in the sect, Bruer’s death proved to be a catalyst. Autrey, Liles and another survivor launched a hotline, website and Facebook pages for survivors.
In February, the FBI’s field office in Omaha, Nebraska, announced an investigation.
The outcry prompted some sect leaders to condemn the abuse and to ask consultants for advice on how to better protect members. But at least some regional overseers have ultimately declined to adopt recommended child abuse prevention policies — saying the only true code of conduct is the New Testament.
And some leaders still warn members against criticizing the sect.
At an August convention in Duncan, British Columbia, a worker helping to lead the event did not mention the abuse scandal directly but told members to lay aside “evil speakings.”
“It’s more easy to be critical than to be correct,” preached Robert Doecke, a worker from Australia. “If you feed on problems, it will only make more problems. But if you focus on the Lord, it will lead to solutions.”
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https://keyt.com/news/2024/12/15/survivors-seek-a-reckoning-as-fbi-investigates-child-sex-abuse-in-little-known-christian-sect/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:47Z
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Brisbane, Dec 16 (PTI) India continued to lose wickets as they reached 48/4 in a rain-interrupted second session on day three of the third Test against Australia here on Monday.
After the fall of three wickets in the morning session, the tourists lost Rishabh Pant (9) before tea, which was taken following another weather interruption.
India need to reach 246 to avoid follow-on after Australia posted a mammoth 445 all out. The visitors trail by 397 runs right now.
Pant fell to Pat Cummins for the third time this series as the Australian skipper had the wicketkeeper-batter caught behind.
Brief Scores: Australia 1st Innings: 445 all out in 117.1 overs (Travis Head 152, Steve Smith 101; Jasprit Bumrah 6/76) India 1st innings: 48 for 4 in 14.1 overs (KL Rahul 30 batting; Mitchell Starc 2/24). PTI APA PM APA PM PM
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https://www.newsdrum.in/sports/india-484-at-tea-need-246-to-avoid-follow-on-8443295
| 2024-12-16T05:52:48Z
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Milan’s Via MonteNapoleone usurps New York’s Fifth Avenue as world’s most upscale shopping street
Associated Press
MILAN (AP) — Shoppers laden with bags from Fendi, Loewe, Prada and other designer labels clog the narrow sidewalks of Milan’s swankiest shopping street, bringing joy to the purveyors of high-end luxury goods this, and every, holiday season.
There’s even more to celebrate this year: a commercial real estate company has crowned Via MonteNapoleone as the world’s most expensive retail destination, displacing New York’s Fifth Avenue.
The latest version of American firm Cushman & Wakefield’s annual global index, which ranks shopping areas based on the rent prices they command, is a sign of Via MonteNapoleone’s desirability as an address for luxury ready-to-wear, jewelry and even pastry brands.
The average rent on the Milan street has surged to 20,000 euros per square meter ($2,047 per square foot), compared with 19,537 euros per square meter ($2,000 per square foot) on an 11-block stretch of upper Fifth Avenue.
Via MonteNapoleone’s small size — just 350 meters (less than one-quarter mile) long — and walking distance to services and top cultural sites are among the street’s key advantages, according to Guglielmo Miani, president of the MonteNapoleone District association.
“Not everything can fit, which is a benefit’’ since the limited space makes the street even more exclusive and dynamic, said Miani, whose group also represents businesses on the intersecting side streets that together with Via MonteNapoleone form an area known as Milan’s Fashion Quadrilateral.
The biggest brands on the street make 50 million euros to 100 million euros in annual sales, Miani said, which goes a long way to paying the rent. Tiffany & Co. is preparing to take up residence on Via Montenapoleone, and long-time tenant Fendi is expanding.
The MonteNapoleone District says 11 million people visited the area this year through November, but there’s no way to say how many were big spenders vs. window shoppers. The average shopper on Via MonteNapoleone spent 2,500 euros per purchase between August and November — the highest average receipt in the world, according to the tax-free shopping firm Global Blue.
The street is a magnet for holiday shoppers who arrive in Maseratis, Porsches and even Ferraris, the sports car’s limited trunk space notwithstanding. Lights twinkle overhead, boutique windows feature mannequins engaged in warm scenes of holiday fun, and passersby snap photos of expertly decorated cakes in pastry shop displays.
A visitor from China, Chen Xinghan, waited for a taxi with a half-dozen shopping bags lined up next to him on the sidewalk. He said he paid half the price for a luxury Fendi coat that he purchased in Milan than he would have at home.
“I got a lot,’’ Chen acknowledged. “It’s a fantastic place, a good place for shopping.”
A few store windows down, Franca Da Rold, who was visiting Milan from Belluno, an Italian city in the Dolomites mountain range, marveled at a chunky, meters-long knit scarf priced at 980 euros.
“I could knit that in one hour, using 12-gauge knitting needles as thick as my fingers, and thick wool. Maximum two hours,’’ Da Rold said, but acknowledged the brand appeal.
Despite upper Fifth Avenue getting bumped to the No. 2 spot on the Cushman & Wakefield list, the organization that serves as the Manhattan street’s guardian and chief promoter had praise for MonteNapoleone’s achievement.
“Milan’s investment in its public realm is paying off, which is a win for their shoppers, businesses and city as a whole,’’ Madelyn Wils, interim president of the Fifth Avenue Association, said.
But she also expressed confidence that with new investments and a record year for sales on Fifth Avenue, “we’ll be back on top in no time.”
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https://kesq.com/news/ap-national-news/2024/12/15/milans-via-montenapoleone-usurps-new-yorks-fifth-avenue-as-worlds-most-upscale-shopping-street/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:49Z
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Waikato/Waitemata/Taranaki/Northland NZNO Members To Strike Tomorrow
Waikato/Waitemata/Taranaki and Northland NZNO members employed by Te Whatu Ora will tomorrow (Tuesday 17 December) strike for four hours over patient safety concerns following recent collective bargaining with Health NZ.
New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) members fear Te Whatu Ora’s plans to pause a key component of its safe staffing programme put patient and whānau safety and wellbeing at risk.
NZNO Waikato delegate and spokesperson Tracy Chisholm is striking because she feels as an integral part of the health system nurses do not receive the level of respect they deserve, and she wants this mindset changed.
"There’s also the lack of respect for the health of New Zealanders by this government and they need to be called out on this.
"For me it’s about safety - the safety of our patients. How do we provide culturally safe care without the nurses to do it; how do we educate, prevent deterioration and further harm without the nurses to provide; how do we meet the governments health kaupapa without the nurses?" Tracy Chisholm says.
Waitemata delegate Troy Stewart says he is striking because as he is fed up with the constant undervaluing of the complex and comprehensive work nurses do, and the disrespect towards them.
"We feel that Te Whatu Ora's suggestion that we are only worth a net pay cut and that we don't know how to represent how understaffed we are is insulting, reprehensible, and irresponsible.
"Why would anyone be willing to roll over and accept a precedent that would undermine the wellbeing of our health system founded on telling the workers that hold the system up that they are worth less than nothing?" Troy Stewart says.
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https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE2412/S00071/waikatowaitematataranakinorthland-nzno-members-to-strike-tomorrow.htm
| 2024-12-16T05:52:49Z
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Scott Disick Gifts His and Kourtney Kardashian's Son Mason a Mini Mercedes G-Class Wagon for His 15th Birthday; PICS
Scott Disick celebrated his son Mason’s 15th birthday with a luxurious gift, sharing pictures of the special present on social media with heartfelt messages of love and pride.
Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick’s eldest son, Mason, received a luxurious gift from his dad on his 15th birthday on Saturday, December 14—a mini version of the Mercedes-Benz G-Class Wagon.
“Happy birthday big boy!” Disick wrote on his Instagram Stories, alongside a picture of the compact vehicle parked next to other luxury cars in his driveway. “Felt like it was only fair 4 you 2 get your first g wagon even if it’s a mini g wagon it’s still a wagon! Love u son!!!!!! Let the good times roll.”
Posting another snap of his gift to his son, the 41-year-old added, “Gotta be the coolest little wagon I have ever seen! You deserve every inch of it! Love you more than anything in life.”
Mason, for those who may not know, will be legally eligible to obtain his California provisional instruction permit at 15 and a half.
Mason shares his birthday with little brother Reign Disick, Scott and Kourtney’s youngest child, who turned 10 on Saturday.
To celebrate Reign, Scott took him to a Los Angeles Rams game last week.
“Had 2 much fun with you at your first game you asked me to take you to and I don’t even like sports.” the Talentless founder wrote for Reign on his Instagram Story. “That’s when you know you realy [sic] love your kid! Just kidding love u more then [sic] life young blood. Happy bday son.”
Kourtney, who also shares daughter Penelope Disick, 12, with Scott and son Rocky Thirteen Barker, 13 months, with husband Travis Barker, posted a sweet tribute to her sons on her own social media.
“My birthday boys,” she wrote on Instagram alongside a throwback picture of the brothers. “So special to me it hurts my heart.”
Their aunt Kim Kardashian commented, “I still can’t believe they are born on the same day. Happy Birthday, Mason and Reign. I love youuuuuu.”
The birthday boys also got a shout-out from grandmother Kris Jenner on their special day, who wrote via Instagram that she still cannot believe her two grandsons share the exact same birthday. Continuing, the famous momager described her eldest grandchild as “kind, creative, smart, talented, and the best brother, grandson, cousin, and friend.”
For Reign, Kris wrote, “You bring so much energy, laughter, and joy wherever you go. Your inquisitive mind and vibrant personality light up every room. You’re smart, funny, and full of so much love, and I feel blessed to witness the amazing little person you’re becoming.”
“I’m so proud of the incredible boys you are and excited for the amazing futures you both have ahead of you,” Kris concluded.
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https://www.pinkvilla.com/entertainment/hollywood/scott-disick-gifts-his-and-kourtney-kardashians-son-mason-a-mini-mercedes-g-class-wagon-for-his-15th-birthday-pics-1362889
| 2024-12-16T05:52:52Z
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Sonia to Retire in 2016, Claims Book
In an updated version of his book "24 Akbar Road" (Hachette India), journalist-writer Rasheed Kidwai says the Congress has been rattled by the senior Gandhi's decision.
New Delhi, Oct 8 (IANS) Congress president Sonia Gandhi wants to retire when she turns 70 in 2016 and this is what has prompted the party to give a 'bigger role' to her son Rahul Gandhi, says a book.
In an updated version of his book "24 Akbar Road" (Hachette India), journalist-writer Rasheed Kidwai says the Congress has been rattled by the senior Gandhi's decision.
According to Kidwai, the Congress president shared her mind with senior party colleagues Dec 9, 2012 -- her last birthday. "Stunned by the announcement -- after all, hardly any Indian politician ever retires -- nervous party leaders requested her to let Rahul 'take charge'," the book says.
"Efforts to persuade the 42-year-old Rahul began but the (the) then (Congress) general secretary dithered. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh once again pointed at his repeated offers to Rahul to join the cabinet."
Manmohan Singh insisted that Rahul Gandhi should choose between a cabinet berth and the formal number two position in the Congress.
"The prime minister conveyed to Rahul that his reluctance to be an effective power centre was hurting both the party and government. Rahul then agreed to opt for organizational work." It was then that Rahul Gandhi was made the Congress vice president at the Jaipur 'Chintan Shivir' Jan 19 this year.
Kidwai says that despite Rahul Gandhi's elevation to the post of vice president, Sonia Gandhi's retirement deadline continues to rattle Congress leaders.
"Amid the jubilation at Rahul's anointment as the vice president at the Jaipur session, many in the Congress are still nervous. The anxiety stems from their experience of major changes each time a transition in the leadership takes place."
Unamed senior Congress leaders are quoted as saying that the real impact of Rahul Gandhi's elevation would be felt through his policies, planning and style of functioning.
"Sonia Gandhi is seen as too tolerant a person who avoids enforcing discipline but has a knack for winning over adversaries and reaching out to alliance leaders," the book says.
"She also leans left-of-centre on most policy matters. In contrast, Rahul is seen among the ranks as a leader in the Rajiv-Sanjay mould - frank and decisive. His thrust on reforms, urban voters, technology,the youth and gender sensitivity may force many party leaders and regional satraps to shape up or ship out."
__PAGEBREAK__
Rahul Gandhi's style of functioning as party general secretary between 2007 and 2013 and now as the vice president "showed he did not seem in a great hurry or having a fixed plan.
"There were some who thought his way to political power in Delhi was via Lucknow but the assembly polls of 2012 (in Uttar Pradesh) proved disastrous for both Rahul and Congress," which won just 28 seats and came a distant fourth in India's most populous state.
According to the book, Rahul Gandhi -- the Amethi MP -- had "seriously considered becoming the candidate for chief minister but the AICC (All India Congress Committee) shot down the idea".
Kidwai writes: "The question currently being asked in party circles is that how something as important as this was not discussed at the Congress Working Committee. Apparently, Rahul's aides cited two reasons why he should not take up any position in Uttar Pradesh.
One, it is not an easy state to govern. Two, Rahul cannot restrict himself to a particular state or region. The argument was that if Rahul identified himself with Uttar Pradesh and if for some reason the voters rejected him, it would affect the party's goal of establishing a government under his leadership in Delhi."
According to Kidwai, political exigencies and equations within the Congress are such that Rahul Gandhi cannot be seen as abdicating the prime ministerial post.
Sonia Gandhi's long-term strategy for the 2014 general election and her possible retirement in 2016 hinges upon Manmohan Singh's clean image and good governance plank, the book says.
"By 2014, the Congress, effectively under Rahul, would need to display Manmohan's tenure as exemplary.
On the other hand, a tainted UPA-II may force the party to sit out as during 1996-2003 when P.V. Narasimha Rao's numerous acts of omissions and commissions had a telling affect on the Congress' fortunes."
IANS
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https://www.indiatimes.com/lifestyle/art-and-culture/sonia-gandhi-to-retire-in-2016-claims-book-105845.html
| 2024-12-16T05:52:52Z
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Takeaways from AP’s reporting on a child sex abuse crisis inside a secretive Christian sect
Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — For decades, a little-known Christian sect has dealt with its abusive ministers and spiritual elders mostly in secret, shunning legal action in favor of urging victims to forgive the predators in their midst.
Forgiveness, however, was far from a cure: The abusers were often sent to live with other unsuspecting families, where they had easy access to new victims.
Now a grassroots effort by survivors has exposed the depth of the scandal — documenting allegations against more than 900 abusers in 30 countries, with cases continuing to emerge — and thrust the nameless sect into the public eye. The FBI has also launched an investigation into the group, sometimes called the “Two by Twos.”
The Associated Press interviewed more than a dozen current and former members, workers and experts, and reviewed letters, court documents and other records supporting the allegations. Several sect leaders and ministers either declined interview requests or did not respond to messages.
Here are some takeaways from the AP’s reporting.
The core doctrine of the sect put kids at high risk
Child sex abuse is a significant problem within many religious institutions: Insurance data company Advisen lists child sexual abuse as the second most frequent insurance loss for religious organizations, after wage-related claims. But survivors say the tenets of the Two by Twos place kids at particularly high risk.
The sect believes its volunteer ministers, called “workers,” should live among followers and rely on them for food, housing and other needs.
Many survivors told the AP they were abused by preachers staying in their homes. In some cases, the abuse was revealed and the offending worker was asked to leave the ministry. Frequently, however, regional leaders called “overseers” simply transferred the worker to a new region without warning other members.
Former sect member Pam Walton uses photos from annual sect conventions, reports from members and other records to track the movements of workers and overseers with abuse allegations.
“I don’t think people were understanding the magnitude that these men and women traveled,” Walton said.
One abusive overseer, Dean Bruer, served in at least 22 states and territories and seven countries from the time he joined the ministry in 1976 until his death in 2022.
A culture of ‘mercy’ enabled abusers
Former worker Jared Snyder says bringing up someone’s past sins is considered taboo because that person “has already been forgiven by God.” As a result, members and workers alike often would only talk euphemistically about problems, Snyder said, and even major misdeeds were frequently downplayed.
“There is an underlying fear of being judged as a person who has a ‘bad spirit’ if you are not merciful enough,” Snyder says.
Some sect leaders cautioned against digging into allegations. One overseer told Snyder, “The less you know, the better off you are,” he said.
Sect leaders sometimes ignored legal reporting requirements
Some U.S. states have laws that require spiritual leaders, teachers and others in positions of authority to report child abuse allegations to authorities. Letters and other documents show some overseers tried to skirt those laws.
Ed Alexander, a regional overseer for Arizona, wrote a letter to a child-molesting elder urging him to seek professional counseling. That way, Alexander claimed, the sect would not have to report the man’s crime and instead the counselor could take on reporting responsibility.
Alexander declined to comment.
Survivors often faced dead ends in their search for justice
As a teen, Sheri Autrey felt unprepared to describe the intimate details of her abuse to a jury, so her parents declined to put her through the criminal prosecution process. When Autrey tried to press charges as an adult, it was too late — under California state law, too many years had passed since the crime.
Autrey tried to find an attorney to sue the sect, but no one would take the case. Legal experts say the sect’s aversion to property leaves it without any apparent assets that could be used to pay a legal settlement.
Left without legal options, many survivors joined grassroots efforts to support each other. One organization, Advocates for the Truth, created a 24-hour confidential hotline for survivors, investigated and tracked allegations, and connected victims with therapeutic resources and funding.
Facebook pages and online chat rooms have also given survivors a place to compare stories, discuss faith and share suggestions for reform.
A grand jury began looking into the sect last year, and in February the FBI asked people with information to come forward. Agents have interviewed multiple survivors and sect leaders over the last several months.
Change within the sect is slow — and limited
Some sect leaders have condemned the abuse and asked consultants for advice on how to better protect members. Others have rejected recommended child abuse prevention policies outright, or implemented scaled-down versions with fewer safeguards.
Still, the pressure doesn’t seem likely to let up anytime soon. Former sect member and survivor Lisa Webb says advocating for other survivors has been her therapy.
“I’m not trying to take away your salvation or attack your faith, but how can we keep our kids safe? You can respect the faith, respect the religion, but still not be naive,” Webb said. “Just the fact that the conversation is out there now means we’ve already improved the safety. … There’s a rallying behind survivors.”
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https://keyt.com/news/2024/12/15/takeaways-from-aps-reporting-on-a-child-sex-abuse-crisis-inside-a-secretive-christian-sect-2/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:53Z
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Brisbane: Atrocious shot selection by the top-order batters, including Virat Kohli, left India reeling at 48 for four at tea on a rain-marred day three of the third Test against Australia here on Monday.
Left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc struck twice and Josh Hazlewood once as India took lunch at 22 for three after Australia racked up 445 in their first innings.
Pat Cummins got the big wicket of Rishabh Pant in the second session to make things worse for the Indians.
Rahul was batting on 30 at tea break, while skipper Rohit Sharma was yet to open his account.
Returning to the middle after the lunch break, Rahul and Pant negotiated a hostile spell of fast bowling from the duo of Starc and Hazlewood before heavy showers once again interrupted the proceedings.
Cummins kept three slips and a gully for Pant, as opposed to the four men in the slip cordon and a gully for Rahul, when Hazlewood was operating.
Starc had three slips, and two gullies when he the red cherry in his hand.
The only fielder in front of the wicket during that phase of play in the second session was the man stationed at mid-off, reflecting the Australian bowlers' dominance.
Starc removed Yashasvi Jaiswal in the second ball of the India innings and then dismissed Shubman Gill before Hazlewood accounted for the wicket of Kohli as the visitors stared down the barrel of another poor outing with the bat after their failures in Adelaide.
Jaiswal was out caught by Mitchell Marsh at short midwicket while he tried to clip a Starc half-volley off his pads.
Gill was sent back when Marsh pulled off a brilliant catch in the slip cordon off the bowling of Starc after the India number three played away from the body.
Kohli was dismissed in what has now become a familiar scene as he once again chased a length delivery outside off before nicking it to Alex Carey.
Starc too had a hand in the wicket of Kohli. After KL Rahul pulled a short ball from Hazlewood to long leg, Starc dived to save what seemed like a certain boundary, bringing the former Indian captain back on strike. Kohli was dismissed off the very next delivery The Australians were aware of Starc's contribution and some of them were seen running up to the left-arm pacer to celebrate the big wicket with him.
This was after Hazlewood delivered a full-length ball outside off-stump to Kohli, who, instead of leaving the ball, attempted a drive and resulting in an outside edge.
This is the fourth time Kohli has been dismissed in such a fashion.
Earlier, Jasprit Bumrah (6/76) continued to do the heavy lifting as Australia added 40 runs to their overnight score of 405 for seven.
Carey played a fine innings of 70 before becoming the last man to get out.
With two slips and a gully, Bumrah started the proceedings with a 21-over old ball and began with a maiden.
Batting on 45 overnight, Carey swept a Ravindra Jadeja delivery for a boundary towards fine-leg to reach his half-century off just 53 balls.
Bumrah came back to bowl another maiden over before Mitchell Starc decided to get down on one knee to slog sweep Jadeja for a six over square leg.
For someone who is known for keeping one end tight with his accurate bowling, Jadeja was going at five runs an over, and the seasoned left-arm spinner's profligacy put additional burden on a strained pace attack.
The surface at Gabba offered a bit of turn and bounce but Jadeja was guilty of bowling too straight to the left-handers.
Showing intent to score his runs quickly, Starc hit Bumrah over mid-wicket for a boundary, but four balls later, the Indian pace spearhead induced a faint edge from the blade of the pacer and it went through to Pant.
It was Bumrah's sixth wicket of the innings, 18th of the series and 50th on Australian shores.
Mohammed Siraj bowled Nathan Lyon after he played down the wrong line.
Akash Deep, who failed to enter his name in the wicket's column despite troubling the likes of centurions Travis Head and Steve Smith on the second day, was finally rewarded for his toil as he had Carey caught in the deep to signal the end of Australian first innings.
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https://www.newsdrum.in/sports/india-in-dire-straits-at-484-after-top-order-batters-flop-show-8443341
| 2024-12-16T05:52:54Z
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Popeye and Tintin enter the public domain in 2025 along with novels from Faulkner and Hemingway
AP Entertainment Writer
Popeye can punch without permission and Tintin can roam freely starting in 2025. The two classic comic characters who first appeared in 1929 are among the intellectual properties becoming public domain in the United States on Jan. 1. That means they can be used and repurposed without permission or payment to copyright holders.
This year’s crop of newly public artistic creations lacks the landmark vibes of last year’s entrance of into the public domain of Mickey Mouse. But they include a deep well of canonical works whose 95-year copyright maximums will expire. And the Disney icon’s public domain presence expands.
“It’s a trove! There are a dozen new Mickey cartoons — he speaks for the first time and dons the familiar white gloves,” said Jennifer Jenkins, director of Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain. “There are masterpieces from Faulkner and Hemingway, the first sound films from Alfred Hitchcock, Cecil B. DeMille, and John Ford, and amazing music from Fats Waller, Cole Porter, and George Gershwin. Pretty exciting!”
Here’s a closer look at this year’s crop.
Comics characters loom large
Popeye the Sailor, with his bulging forearms, mealy-mouthed speech, and propensity for fistfights, was created by E.C. Segar and made his first appearance in the newspaper strip “Thimble Theater” in 1929, speaking his first words, “’Ja think I’m a cowboy?” when asked if he was a sailor. What was supposed to be a one-off appearance became permanent, and the strip would be renamed ”Popeye.”
But as with Mickey Mouse last year and Winnie the Pooh in 2022, only the earliest version is free for reuse. The spinach that gave the sailor his super-strength was not there from the start, and is the kind of character element that could spawn legal disputes. And the animated shorts featuring his distinctive mumbly voice didn’t begin until 1933 and remain under copyright. As does director Robert Altman’s 1980 film, starring Robin Williams as Popeye and Shelley Duvall as his oft-fought-over sweetheart Olive Oyl.
That movie was tepidly received initially. So was director Steven Spielberg’s “Adventures of Tintin” in 2011. But the comics about the boy reporter that inspired it, the creation of Belgian artist Hergé, were among the most popular in Europe for much of the 20th century.
The simply drawn teen with dots for eyes and bangs like an ocean wave first appeared in a supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle, and became a weekly feature.
The comic also first appeared in the U.S. in 1929. Its signature bright colors — including Tintin’s red hair — didn’t appear until years later, and could, like Popeye’s spinach, be the subject of legal disputes.
And in much of the world, Tintin won’t become public property until 70 years after the 1983 death of his creator.
Books show American lit at its height
The books becoming public this year read like the syllabus for an American literature seminar.
“The Sound and the Fury,” arguably William Faulkner’s quintessential novel with its modernist stream-of-consciousness style, was a sensation after its publication despite being famously difficult for readers. It uses multiple non-linear narratives to tell the story of a prominent family’s ruin in the author’s native Mississippi, and would help lead to Faulkner’s Nobel Prize.
And Ernest Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms” joins his earlier “The Sun Also Rises” in the public domain. The partly autobiographical story of an ambulance driver in Italy during the First World War cemented Hemingway’s status in the American literary canon. It has been frequently adapted for film, TV and radio, which can now be done without permission.
John Steinbeck’s first novel, “A Cup of Gold,” from 1929, will also enter the public domain.
The British novelist Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own,” an extended essay that would become a landmark in feminism from the modernist literary luminary, is also on the list. Her novel “Mrs. Dalloway” is already in the U.S. public domain.
Movie legends in the making
While a host of truly major movies will become public in the coming decade, for now early works by major figures from the not-always-stellar early sound era will have to suffice.
A decade before he would move to Hollywood and make films like “Psycho,” and “Vertigo,” Alfred Hitchcock made “Blackmail” in Britain. The film was begun as a silent but shifted to sound during production, resulting in two different versions, one of them the UK’s — and Hitchcock’s — first sound film.
John Ford, whose later Westerns would put him among film’s most vaunted directors, also made his first foray into sound with 1929’s “The Black Watch,” an adventure epic that includes Ford’s future chief collaborator John Wayne as a young extra.
Cecil B. DeMille, already a Hollywood bigwig through silents, made his first talkie with the melodrama “Dynamite.”
Groucho, Harpo and the other Marx Brothers had their first starring movie roles in 1929’s “The Cocoanuts,” a forerunner to future classics like “Animal Crackers” and “Duck Soup.”
“The Broadway Melody,” the first sound film and the second film ever to win the Oscar for best picture — known as “outstanding production” at the time — will also become public, though it’s often ranked among the worst of best picture winners.
And after “Steamboat Willie” made the earliest Mickey Mouse public, a dozen more of his animations will get the same status, including “The Karnival Kid,” where he spoke for the first time.
Music rings out the 20s
Songs from the last year of the Roaring Twenties are also about to become public property.
Cole Porter’s compositions “What Is This Thing Called Love?” and “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” are among the highlights, as is the jazz classic “Ain’t Misbehavin’, written by Fats Waller and Harry Brooks.
“Singin’ in the Rain,” which would later forever be associated with the 1952 Gene Kelly film, made its debut in the 1929 movie “The Hollywood Revue” and will now be public domain.
Different laws regulate sound recordings, and those newly in the public domain date to 1924. They include a recording of “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” from future star and civil rights icon Marian Anderson, and “Rhapsody in Blue” performed by its composer George Gershwin.
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https://kesq.com/news/ap-national-news/2024/12/15/popeye-and-tintin-enter-the-public-domain-in-2025-along-with-novels-from-faulkner-and-hemingway/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:55Z
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Government Getting Local Government Back To Basics
Hon Simeon
Brown
Minister of Local Government
The Government has agreed to reforms that refocus local councils on delivering essential services and core infrastructure, spending responsibly, and operating under greater scrutiny, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown says.
“Homeowners face the fastest rates rise in more than twenty years. Rates are out of control and the Government is taking action for councils do the basics brilliantly, rather than pursuing expensive extras that burden ratepayers,” Mr Brown says.
“Earlier this year, the Prime Minister and I set clear expectations: focus on what must be done, not on nice-to-haves. Today’s announcement delivers on that plan.”
The local government reform programme will:
- Remove references to the ‘four well-beings’ from the Local Government Act 2002, restoring a purpose focused on fixing pipes, filling potholes, and delivering core local services.
- Refocus local government on basics, guiding council decision-making and avoiding duplication of roles with central Government.
- Benchmark council performance. The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) will publish a yearly report on key financial and delivery outcomes, helping ratepayers hold councils accountable.
- Modernise outdated rules, including removing requirements for newspaper notices, to drive efficiency and cost savings.
“The first benchmarking report on local councils will be released in the middle of 2025 and is expected to include a number of key council performance metrics:
- Rates – so that ratepayers know the amount of rates levied per unit, the change in rates since the previous year, and the forecast change in rates over the next 10 years.
- Council debt – including debt per rating unit, percentage change in council debt since the previous year, and forecast change over the next 10 years.
- Capital expenditure – including a breakdown by activity class such as roading and water services.
- Balanced budget – to show whether a council is balancing its budget or borrowing to support expenditure
- Road condition – so that ratepayers can compare the state of their local roads with councils across the country.
“This report will be released ahead of the next local council election to give ratepayers and residents clear information about their council’s performance prior to going to the polls in October 2025. Legislation will be amended to allow future benchmarking reports to include comparison of contractors and consultant expenditure alongside other key metrics.
“Evidence shows that including the four well-beings in the Act led to about two per cent higher rates growth each year. Removing them sends a clear message that councils must focus on roads, rubbish, and reliable infrastructure.
“There is no room for wasteful spending. Communities deserve value for money, not grand projects that fail to meet expectations.
“Local Water Done Well already provides a foundation for councils to invest affordably in water services. By encouraging greater investment and efficiency, communities can enjoy reliable water services without unsustainable rate hikes.”
Cabinet will consider additional measures next year, which will be included in legislation introduced mid-2025 and passed by the end of 2025. These will consider investigating rates pegging similar to NSW, reform of codes of, reviewing audit requirements, and the establishment of a written question system to give councillors more access to information.
“Putting local government on a more efficient, affordable path is a priority. Councils must also scrutinise every dollar they spend as they prepare their next annual plan.
“These decisions give councils a clear signal of Government’s direction. I look forward to introducing these reforms to Parliament next year.”
Note:
The Government will amend section 10(b) of the Local Government Act 2002 so that the new purpose of local government is: “to meet the current and future needs of communities for good-quality local infrastructure, public services, and performance of regulatory functions in a way that is most cost-effective for households and businesses, therefore supporting local economic growth and development.”
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https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2412/S00168/government-getting-local-government-back-to-basics.htm
| 2024-12-16T05:52:55Z
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Sky Force: Sara Ali Khan and Veer’s BTS video dancing to Garhwali song from Akshay Kumar led film goes viral; WATCH
A video featuring Sara Ali Khan and Veer Pahariya dancing to a Garhwali song is going viral on social media. Check it out here!
Akshay Kumar and the team behind Sky Force have officially set January 24, 2025, as the release date for the patriotic drama. Before directors Sandeep Kewlani and Abhishek Anil Kapur present their debut directorial project on the big screen, reports suggested that the team was preparing to shoot an extravagant promotional song. Now, a viral video featuring Sara Ali Khan and Veer Pahariya dancing to a Garhwali song from the sets is making waves online.
In the viral video, Sara Ali Khan and Veer Pahariya can be seen grooving and dancing to a Garhwali song. The duo is seen dancing in coordination with background dancers in front of a Buddhist temple. Sara looks stunning in a white saree with floral work, while Veer looks dapper in a suit.
See the video here:
Earlier, according to a report by Mid Day, the production team of Dinesh Vijan has included a special song in Sky Force, featuring Akshay Kumar, Nimrat Kaur, and Veer Pahariya, as part of its promotional strategy. This addition aims to create a visually and musically captivating experience that will engage audiences.
The song will be shot in some of Mussoorie's most picturesque locations. There are also rumors of a potential cameo by a major celebrity, adding to the excitement.
Earlier, Pinkvilla reported that Dinesh Vijan, Amar Kaushik, and the team believe Sky Force is perfectly suited for release during the Republic Day period, as it combines action, drama, emotion, thrills, and patriotism. Set against the backdrop of India's first-ever airstrike on Pakistan, the film has shaped up exceptionally well.
With stunning aerial visuals, the film captures the powerful emotions surrounding India's first surgical strike. The on-screen chemistry between Akshay and Veer is also expected to be a key highlight, offering audiences a memorable viewing experience.
Pinkvilla earlier reported that the theatrical trailer is set to launch during the Christmas holiday period of 2024. A source revealed that the promotional campaign will span a month, with the trailer aiming to create excitement and set the tone for the film's highly anticipated arrival, showcasing its full force and power.
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https://www.pinkvilla.com/entertainment/news/sky-force-sara-ali-khan-and-veers-bts-video-dancing-to-garhwali-song-from-akshay-kumar-led-film-goes-viral-watch-1362895
| 2024-12-16T05:52:58Z
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Takeaways from AP’s reporting on a child sex abuse crisis inside a secretive Christian sect
Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — For decades, a little-known Christian sect has dealt with its abusive ministers and spiritual elders mostly in secret, shunning legal action in favor of urging victims to forgive the predators in their midst.
Forgiveness, however, was far from a cure: The abusers were often sent to live with other unsuspecting families, where they had easy access to new victims.
Now a grassroots effort by survivors has exposed the depth of the scandal — documenting allegations against more than 900 abusers in 30 countries, with cases continuing to emerge — and thrust the nameless sect into the public eye. The FBI has also launched an investigation into the group, sometimes called the “Two by Twos.”
The Associated Press interviewed more than a dozen current and former members, workers and experts, and reviewed letters, court documents and other records supporting the allegations. Several sect leaders and ministers either declined interview requests or did not respond to messages.
Here are some takeaways from the AP’s reporting.
The core doctrine of the sect put kids at high risk
Child sex abuse is a significant problem within many religious institutions: Insurance data company Advisen lists child sexual abuse as the second most frequent insurance loss for religious organizations, after wage-related claims. But survivors say the tenets of the Two by Twos place kids at particularly high risk.
The sect believes its volunteer ministers, called “workers,” should live among followers and rely on them for food, housing and other needs.
Many survivors told the AP they were abused by preachers staying in their homes. In some cases, the abuse was revealed and the offending worker was asked to leave the ministry. Frequently, however, regional leaders called “overseers” simply transferred the worker to a new region without warning other members.
Former sect member Pam Walton uses photos from annual sect conventions, reports from members and other records to track the movements of workers and overseers with abuse allegations.
“I don’t think people were understanding the magnitude that these men and women traveled,” Walton said.
One abusive overseer, Dean Bruer, served in at least 22 states and territories and seven countries from the time he joined the ministry in 1976 until his death in 2022.
A culture of ‘mercy’ enabled abusers
Former worker Jared Snyder says bringing up someone’s past sins is considered taboo because that person “has already been forgiven by God.” As a result, members and workers alike often would only talk euphemistically about problems, Snyder said, and even major misdeeds were frequently downplayed.
“There is an underlying fear of being judged as a person who has a ‘bad spirit’ if you are not merciful enough,” Snyder says.
Some sect leaders cautioned against digging into allegations. One overseer told Snyder, “The less you know, the better off you are,” he said.
Sect leaders sometimes ignored legal reporting requirements
Some U.S. states have laws that require spiritual leaders, teachers and others in positions of authority to report child abuse allegations to authorities. Letters and other documents show some overseers tried to skirt those laws.
Ed Alexander, a regional overseer for Arizona, wrote a letter to a child-molesting elder urging him to seek professional counseling. That way, Alexander claimed, the sect would not have to report the man’s crime and instead the counselor could take on reporting responsibility.
Alexander declined to comment.
Survivors often faced dead ends in their search for justice
As a teen, Sheri Autrey felt unprepared to describe the intimate details of her abuse to a jury, so her parents declined to put her through the criminal prosecution process. When Autrey tried to press charges as an adult, it was too late — under California state law, too many years had passed since the crime.
Autrey tried to find an attorney to sue the sect, but no one would take the case. Legal experts say the sect’s aversion to property leaves it without any apparent assets that could be used to pay a legal settlement.
Left without legal options, many survivors joined grassroots efforts to support each other. One organization, Advocates for the Truth, created a 24-hour confidential hotline for survivors, investigated and tracked allegations, and connected victims with therapeutic resources and funding.
Facebook pages and online chat rooms have also given survivors a place to compare stories, discuss faith and share suggestions for reform.
A grand jury began looking into the sect last year, and in February the FBI asked people with information to come forward. Agents have interviewed multiple survivors and sect leaders over the last several months.
Change within the sect is slow — and limited
Some sect leaders have condemned the abuse and asked consultants for advice on how to better protect members. Others have rejected recommended child abuse prevention policies outright, or implemented scaled-down versions with fewer safeguards.
Still, the pressure doesn’t seem likely to let up anytime soon. Former sect member and survivor Lisa Webb says advocating for other survivors has been her therapy.
“I’m not trying to take away your salvation or attack your faith, but how can we keep our kids safe? You can respect the faith, respect the religion, but still not be naive,” Webb said. “Just the fact that the conversation is out there now means we’ve already improved the safety. … There’s a rallying behind survivors.”
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https://keyt.com/news/2024/12/15/takeaways-from-aps-reporting-on-a-child-sex-abuse-crisis-inside-a-secretive-christian-sect/
| 2024-12-16T05:52:59Z
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Navratri Special: 9 Beauties in Blue
Take a look at nine beautiful ladies who are sporting the colour blue, which is the colour of the day.
Take a look at nine beautiful ladies who are sporting the colour blue, which is the colour of the day.
Take a look at nine beautiful ladies who are sporting the colour blue, which is the colour of the day.
Ameesha Patel chose this sky blue sari for an event.
Anushka Sharma wore this leg-baring thigh slit dress at a brand promotion.
South siren Charmme sizzled in a blue gown at the recent SIIMA awards.
Katrina Kaif stunned in blue during a cellphone launch event.
Parineeti Chopra looked cutesy when she wore a blue dress at Toronto Film Festival.
Madhuri Dixit chose this blue sari to attend a party.
Neha Dhupia turned heads in this dress at the recent GQ awards.
Actress Shamita Shetty made a sober appearance in this heavily embellished blue sari.
Sridevi was spotted in a blue outfit at a recent art gallery launch.
Neha is a keen observer of human behaviour and a devout Tina Fey worshipper. She is a good listener and will gladly listen to all your rants and raves. This job has made her shift base from the far-flung suburbs to town, and she is therefore now adapting to a new lifestyle (which is a sweet coincidence as she manages the lifestyle section at indiatimes) She is a TV fanatic and has watched most of your TV shows well in advance. Neha’s favourite shows include ‘Mad Men’, ‘Dexter’, ‘Game of Thrones’ and everything between. Her newfound passion is running and thinks that a good 30-minute-run is the ultimate key to happiness. Also, loves the sound ‘hmm’ a lot..
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https://www.indiatimes.com/lifestyle/fashion-and-beauty/navratri-special-9-beauties-in-blue-105659.html
| 2024-12-16T05:52:59Z
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Brisbane: India lost Rishabh Pant as rain interrupted the proceedings once again on day three of the third Test against Australia here on Monday.
India were precariously placed at 48 for four when the covers came on as the players reluctantly headed back to the dressing room.
Skipper Pat Cummins claimed the prized wicket of Pant shortly after the lunch break.
Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood shared three wickets between them in the morning session.
Earlier, India had bowled out Australia for 445 in their first innings.
The start of play on day three and India's innings were also slightly delayed due to rain.
Rain had marred the opening day as well with less than 15 overs of play possible.
The five-match series is locked at 1-1.
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https://www.newsdrum.in/sports/india-lose-pant-as-rain-stops-play-again-8443245
| 2024-12-16T05:53:00Z
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Survivors seek a reckoning as FBI investigates child sex abuse in little-known Christian sect
Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Nearly every detail about the religious group Lisa Webb’s family belonged to was hidden from the outside world. Its followers met in homes rather than churches. Its leadership structure was hard to discern, its finances opaque. It didn’t even have an official name.
But for decades, no secret was as closely guarded as the identities of the sexual predators inside the group known as the “Two by Twos.”
Now a growing number of public allegations from around the world have prompted a broad investigation by the FBI and placed an uncomfortable spotlight on the long-quiet Christian sect. Survivors say the group’s leaders protected child-abusing ministers by pressuring victims to forgive, ignoring legal reporting requirements and by transferring abusers to new locations to live with unsuspecting families.
Ministry leaders have publicly condemned the abuse but several declined to answer questions from The Associated Press.
For Webb, who was sexually abused by one of the group’s ministers as a child, the attention has brought an unexpected sense of “strength in numbers.”
“There are so many who are frustrated and disheartened,” said Webb. “But there’s also camaraderie in that, and support.”
A website, a hotline and social media pages established by victims have documented allegations against more than 900 abusers, with survivors in more than 30 countries and cases continuing to emerge. In the past year, news stories and a Hulu documentary have focused on the sect’s predator preachers and the leaders who enabled them.
While perpetrators have been sentenced to prison in isolated cases, the sect has largely avoided legal repercussions, protected by its decentralized structure, hidden finances and state laws that limit the timeline for criminal charges.
The secret sect’s origin story
The sect, also known to its members as “The Way” or “The Truth,” was founded in Ireland in 1897 by William Irvine, who railed against the existence of churches. The only way to spread Christianity, he argued, was to do as Jesus instructed in the Book of Matthew: to send apostles out to live among those they sought to convert.
The sect grew as volunteer preachers — known as workers — went “two by two” to live in the family homes of followers for days or weeks at a time. Sect historians say there were up to a few million members just a few decades ago, but current estimates put the figure at 75,000 to 85,000 worldwide.
Unlike the Boy Scouts or the Catholic Church, which have paid out billions to sex abuse victims, the sect’s aversion to property leaves it without apparent assets that might be used to pay settlements, legal experts say.
Workers are supposed to shun worldly possessions, relying on followers for food, shelter and transportation. But that also ensures abusive workers have access to potential victims.
Webb was abused by a preacher who stayed with her family in Michigan when she was 11. The man, Peter Mousseau, was convicted much later — after he expressed an interest in visiting her in 2008 and she decided to pursue charges. A regional overseer to whom she previously reported the abuse was later convicted for failing to report abuse allegations against another local worker.
“You have this mindset that they are angels in your home. They can do no wrong, so you don’t have any kind of wall up,” she said. “It was just the perfect storm created, the perfect recipe for this kind of behavior.”
Abusers live among their victims
Sheri Autrey had just turned 14 when a 28-year-old worker moved into her family’s home in Visalia, California, for two months.
He began abusing her immediately, sneaking to her room at night and taking her for daytime drives. He turned up the radio whenever the Hall & Oates song “Maneater” came on, singing: “Watch out boy, she’ll chew you up.”
When Autrey revealed the abuse to her mother a few years later, her mom reported it to the sect’s regional overseer, who was in charge of all the workers in the area.
The overseer refused to warn other families. Instead, he sent the worker back to Autrey’s home to apologize.
Autrey, raised to be meek, erupted. Her family took her to the district attorney’s office but declined to put her through a prosecution.
“I would have to explain, explicitly, what happened,” Autrey said. “And I was in no way prepared for that.”
Decades later, Autrey was at a baseball game when “Maneater” came on. She had to walk around the stadium to calm herself down, and she resolved to send a letter about the abuse to hundreds of sect members.
“I wanted anyone else who was a victim to know she is not the only one,” Autrey said. “She needs to know there is help.”
Many more cases of abuse
One worker from Peru, Americo Quispe, was sent to Garland, Texas, in the early 2000s after facing allegations of inappropriate behavior in his home country. He soon found new victims, some of whose families went to police. He returned to Peru before he could be arrested.
Quispe was later convicted of molestation in Peru and sentenced to 30 years. He has never faced the charges in Texas.
Another worker, Ruben Mata, abused dozens of boys, among them 10-year-old Douglas Patterson, who was lured away from his family during a sect convention in the early 1990s. Patterson said he kept quiet about it because he feared his family would leave the sect — and thus be barred from eternal salvation — if he told.
Mata was eventually convicted in 2006 in a separate sex abuse case. He died in a California prison.
Members told to keep abuse reports quiet
A few months before Mata’s trial, the Saskatchewan, Canada, overseer, Dale Shultz, sent two letters to colleagues.
One was to be shown to any concerned members. It acknowledged Mata was a pedophile and that workers had been alerted to his abuse at least three times. The sect only notified authorities after Mata resigned, according to the letter.
The second was for staff. It said no copies should be made of the first letter.
“The purpose of the letter is to help those who have concerns, not to advertise a kingdom problem to those who either do not know about it or are not having a problem with it,” Shultz wrote.
In another case, a regional overseer for Arizona, Ed Alexander, wrote a letter to a child-molesting elder in 2005 observing that “we love our people very much and don’t want to report their misdeeds.”
The letter suggested the sect could fulfill its mandatory abuse-reporting obligations by recommending offenders get professional counseling, because then the counselors — rather than sect leaders — would be obligated to make the reports to police.
“They believe that child sexual assault is just a sin. Like, you’re a sinner, they are a sinner, it’s all just sin,” said Eileen Dickey, one of the man’s victims. She reported the abuse to sect leaders because she was worried other children would be targeted.
“I was told never to talk about it,” she said.
Alexander would not speak with The Associated Press: “Unfortunately, the media coverage has been so negative and one-sided that I am going to have to decline an interview,” he texted.
Former minister recounts culture of downplaying misdeeds
Jared Snyder spent more than two decades as an itinerant minister before becoming disillusioned and quitting. No one told him directly about abuse, Snyder said, but he occasionally heard rumors.
The sect’s culture — which makes gossip taboo and places tremendous pressure on members to be merciful — meant that misdeeds big or small were downplayed, he said.
“One overseer just explicitly told me, ‘The less you know, the better off you are,’” he said.
As a worker, Snyder received no paychecks, retirement benefits or health insurance benefits, and he was discouraged from using banks. But he was never without spending money: Followers regularly offer cash to the workers, and Snyder said he frequently had thousands of dollars in his pockets.
Most of that money would get spent on building materials, food or other supplies at regional conventions, Snyder said.
The case that exposed the sect to more scrutiny
In June 2022, a regional overseer named Dean Bruer died in an Oregon motel room. Bruer, 67, had served in at least 22 states and territories and seven countries since 1976, according to a timeline compiled by Pam Walton, a former member who has used historical records and photographs to track the movements of predatory preachers.
Nine months after Bruer died, Doyle Smith, the overseer for Idaho and Oregon, wrote a letter to members. Evidence left on Bruer’s phone and laptop showed he had raped and abused multiple underage victims, Smith wrote.
“Dean was a sexual predator,” Smith wrote. “We never respect or defend such totally inappropriate behavior among us. There is a very united consensus among us that the only thing to do is to be transparent with all of you for obvious reasons, though this is very difficult.”
That transparency did not extend to dealings with local police. It was only after Autrey, another abuse survivor, and private investigator Cynthia Liles — all former sect members — pressured Smith that he turned Bruer’s laptop over to detectives, Autrey told the AP.
By then, the computer had been tampered with, according to records from the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon. The web browser search history was cleared. Bruer’s Apple ID had been changed and files transferred out of his DropBox account. Bruer’s phone was never provided to police, and the “Find My iPhone” feature had been disabled.
“What web browsing history was present on the laptop that someone didn’t want anyone else knowing about?” Detective Jeffrey Burlew wrote in a police report. Unable to find any evidence of a crime within its jurisdiction, the office closed the investigation.
Smith did not respond to phone messages from the AP.
Survivors and law enforcement dig deeper
Though Autrey and others had long sought reforms in the sect, Bruer’s death proved to be a catalyst. Autrey, Liles and another survivor launched a hotline, website and Facebook pages for survivors.
In February, the FBI’s field office in Omaha, Nebraska, announced an investigation.
The outcry prompted some sect leaders to condemn the abuse and to ask consultants for advice on how to better protect members. But at least some regional overseers have ultimately declined to adopt recommended child abuse prevention policies — saying the only true code of conduct is the New Testament.
And some leaders still warn members against criticizing the sect.
At an August convention in Duncan, British Columbia, a worker helping to lead the event did not mention the abuse scandal directly but told members to lay aside “evil speakings.”
“It’s more easy to be critical than to be correct,” preached Robert Doecke, a worker from Australia. “If you feed on problems, it will only make more problems. But if you focus on the Lord, it will lead to solutions.”
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https://kesq.com/news/ap-national-news/2024/12/15/survivors-seek-a-reckoning-as-fbi-investigates-child-sex-abuse-in-little-known-christian-sect/
| 2024-12-16T05:53:01Z
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Q4 Plan Sets NZ Up For Growth And Infrastructure
Rt Hon Christopher
Luxon
Prime Minister
It will soon be easier to get things built in New Zealand due to the actions delivered by the Government as part of our Quarter Four (Q4) Action Plan, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says.
“The modern and reliable infrastructure New Zealand desperately needs is a lot closer thanks to the actions we’ve taken in the final quarter of 2024.
“As promised, we are stripping away the barriers and red tape that have hamstrung the ability to deliver projects that will make the lives of Kiwis better.
“This Government has an aggressive economic growth agenda, and delivering better infrastructure is part of how we get there.
“We are continuing to lay the foundations so that we can hit the economic accelerator pedal and create more jobs, higher incomes and afford the public services that Kiwis expect and deserve.”
Some of the actions completed in Q4 included:
- Passing the Fast Track Approvals Bill to speed up delivery of regional and national projects of significance, which is expected this week.
- Passing the first Resource Management Amendment Bill to reduce the regulatory burden on farmers and the primary sector.
- Introducing the second amendment bill for the Resource Management Act to cut through red and green tape holding back growth in the infrastructure, energy, housing and farming sectors.
- Taking Cabinet decisions on funding and financing tools to get more housing built.
- Introducing legislation to make it easier to build offshore wind farms.
“The Q4 plan also included numerous actions that further set out the Government’s agenda of restoring law and order, and delivering better public services,” Mr Luxon says.
“Overall, we achieved 42 of 43 actions listed in the plan, with just the passing of the Crown Minerals Amendment Bill outstanding.
“Due to the complexity of the changes needed, this has been delayed until the new year, because we want to make sure we get it right.
“New Zealanders voted for a Government of action and our ruthless pursuit to deliver on our quarterly plans has shown us to be exactly that. Focused, effective and committed to the promises that Kiwis elected us on.”
See Q4 Action Plan here.
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https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2412/S00169/q4-plan-sets-nz-up-for-growth-and-infrastructure.htm
| 2024-12-16T05:53:01Z
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WWE Star Kevin Owens Names Legendary Wrestlers He Would've Liked To Face
Even before he joined WWE in 2014, Kevin Owens got the chance to share the ring with many legends of the past. However, in the past 10 years, he has wrestled several big-name stars in WWE, including being the man tasked to be Stone Cold Steve Austin's first opponent in 19 years at WrestleMania 38, a match that he holds near and dear to his heart.
There are, though, several wrestling legends that Owens would have loved to have shared a ring with, and during a recent interview with "Collider," he revealed the names of those legends.
"Ricky Steamboat would have been pretty great," Owens said. "I think me, or anybody from this era, would have a fantastic match with him. Rowdy Roddy Piper would've been incredible too. I wasn't in a match with him, but he was the referee for one of my matches about 15 years ago, and just being around him for that little bit was pretty great."
Owens also mentioned the likes of The British Bulldogs, and both Bret Hart and Owen Hart as wrestlers who he wouldn't have just loved to get in the ring with, but that any wrestler today would get to call themselves lucky that they got the chance to share a ring with them.
A legend that Owens managed to share the ring was WWE Hall of Famer Jerry "The King" Lawler, with the two men wrestling in a Piledriver Match in August 2014 with Lawler picking up the victory. This match holds some significance to Owens as it was his final match on the independent scene before signing with WWE.
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https://www.wrestlinginc.com/1736126/wwe-star-kevin-owens-names-legendary-wrestlers-wouldve-liked-face/
| 2024-12-16T05:53:01Z
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Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland is back in the Top 100 after extending her winning streak to 12 straight victories and capturing the title at the last WTA 125 event of 2024.
Golubic hoisted the singles trophy at the Open BLS de Limoges in Limoges, France on Sunday. The 32-year-old finished the week with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over her 19-year-old compatriot Celine Naef in the final.
Golubic needed 1 hour and 46 minutes to overcome her fellow Swiss in the indoor hard-court final and claim her fourth career WTA 125 singles title. Golubic saved eight of nine break points in the clash between countrywomen.
The week caps off a stunning finish to the year for Golubic, a former World No.35 who made the 2021 Wimbledon quarterfinals. Golubic has won her last 12 matches, which includes her second career WTA 250 title in Jiujiang and two singles wins in Billie Jean King Cup Playoffs.
Golubic, who fell as low as No.168 in October, is the key mover in the updated PIF Singles Rankings for Monday, December 16th. With her latest title, Golubic rises 19 spots from No.109 to No.90.
Here are more of Monday's rankings movers following the week in Limoges:
- Nuria Parrizas Diaz, No.100 to No.91 (+9): The 33-year-old from Spain made it to the Limoges semifinals, but she had to retire in that match against Golubic due to gastrointestinal illness. Parrizas Diaz holds a career-high ranking of No.45.
- Celine Naef, No.181 to No.153 (+28): The Swiss teen defeated seeded players Oceane Dodin and Erika Andreeva en route to her first WTA 125 singles final. Naef's career-high ranking of No.121 came late last year.
- Manon Leonard, No.228 to No.208 (+20): The 23-year-old Leonard lost in qualifying to Patricia Maria Tig, but she entered the Limoges main draw as a lucky loser and beat Selena Janicijevic and Tamara Korpatsch to make the quarterfinals on home soil.
- Carole Monnet, No.236 to No.218 (+18): Another 23-year-old from France, Monnet moved into the Limoges quarterfinals as a wild card. Monnet earned the first Top 50 win of her career by beating Dayana Yastremska 6-4, 6-4 in the second round.
The Limoges doubles final also took place on Sunday, and the title went to home players Elsa Jacquemot and Margaux Rouvroy. In the final, the all-French duo defeated Erika Andreeva and another Frenchwoman, Selena Janicijevic, 6-4, 6-3 in 77 minutes.
It is the first career WTA 125 doubles title for both Jacquemot and Rouvroy. Jacquemot has also posted strong Limoges results in singles, finishing as singles runner-up last year (to Cristina Bucsa) and also making this year's singles semifinals.
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https://www.wtatennis.com/news/4186406/rankings-watch-surging-golubic-wins-wta-125-limoges-returns-to-top-100
| 2024-12-16T05:53:01Z
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Another $200 million for Ukraine but just $12.3 million for disasters in the U.S. Biden has it wrong again. Come on, man. How much of a kickback is the Biden family getting from Ukraine? The poor souls in Hawaii are probably wondering where there governments priorities lie. It certainly is not with our own citizens.
I'd like to offer some friendly advice to the Jackson school system about why we, the residents, won't pass any more tax increases. At the most recent school board meeting, we listened to the superintendent, two associate superintendents and two assistant superintendents. Five superintendents is ridiculous, especially considering their salaries and narrow areas of focus. I have little interest in giving up more tax money until the district stops paying administrators $105,000 to $128,000.
Connect with the Southeast Missourian Newsroom:
For corrections to this story or other insights for the editor, click here. To submit a letter to the editor, click here. To learn about the Southeast Missourian’s AI Policy, click here.
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https://www.semissourian.com/opinion/speak-out-8-20-23-3006636/
| 2024-12-16T05:53:01Z
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ACT Welcomes Moves To Make Councils Respect Ratepayers
ACT is welcoming moves to refocus local councils on core services and to improve accountability to ratepayers.
“ACT has long campaigned on getting local councils back to basics, with a value-for-money focus. The Government’s moves today are an important step in this direction,” says ACT Local Government spokesperson Cameron Luxton.
“Labour’s introduction of ‘four well-beings’ to the Local Government Act invited councils to get involved in practically anything. We’ve seen councils spending precious ratepayer money in areas that are either of low benefit or are the responsibility of central government, from climate change to public health and tourism campaigns.
“ACT is also pleased to see real accountability to ratepayers with the first benchmarking report, so Kiwis can see how their council stacks up against others in terms of rates, debt, and spending. Some healthy competition between councils is long overdue.
“ACT would also like to see stronger emphasis on democracy in the Local Government Act. The moves by some councils to give unelected appointees voting rights on committees, or to create Māori wards with disproportionate voting power, are unacceptable.
“Today’s moves reflect the message ACT is receiving every day from ratepayers up and down the country: Kiwis struggling to pay their own bills are sick of seeing councils waste their hard-earned money. Come next year, New Zealanders deserve council candidates focused on respecting ratepayers and getting the basics right.”
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https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2412/S00170/act-welcomes-moves-to-make-councils-respect-ratepayers.htm
| 2024-12-16T05:53:03Z
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Did Kichcha Sudeep hint at ‘inside agendas’ behind quitting as the host of Bigg Boss Kannada? Find out
Kichcha Sudeep makes a rare remark about his decision to quit as the host of the reality show Bigg Boss Kannada, suggesting discord between him and the makers. Read on.
Kichcha Sudeep grabbed headlines after he announced his decision to step down as the host of the popular reality show Bigg Boss Kannada. The actor had been a part of this show for almost 11 seasons now, and the current season would be the last one where he would be a part of. And recently, the Max actor spilled beans on his shocking statement and spilled beans on what exactly happened behind the matter.
Speaking in an interview with The Hindu, Kichcha Sudeep mentioned that on the day when he decided to tweet about his decision to step down, he felt rather tired and reflected his exhaustion honestly in a way he thought it correctly.
He said, “The day I tweeted, I was very tired and I thought that was an honest exhaustion and that I was right in thinking that way. If I hadn’t tweeted then and there, by the next day, the thought process would have, perhaps, been different. Since the thought came up, I thought it was best to tweet it, so that it becomes a commitment from my end to myself.”
Moving on, he also highlighted the existence of some ‘inside agendas’ that fuelled his decision. He remarked realising how not all people around him deserved the efforts that he put in the work.
The actor also expressed how the show itself deserves better approach and respect, like the other language shows of the same format. Kichcha mentioned how fans have compared the lack of spotlight BB Kannada has received unlike other Bigg Boss shows.
Kichcha Sudeep said, “Not everyone around deserved my effort. “When I don’t see that happening, I’d rather put that same effort into my films. “Bigg Boss Kannada deserves better approach and respect, like how the show is treated in other languages. I don’t see that happening here. It’s not about me. Compare Bigg Boss Kannada and all the other versions and then check the visuals, the approach. Our audiences deserve more respect.”
On the work front, Kichcha Sudeep is gearing up for the release of his next film Max, slated for a release on December 25.
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https://www.pinkvilla.com/entertainment/south/did-kichcha-sudeep-hint-at-inside-agendas-behind-quitting-as-the-host-of-bigg-boss-kannada-find-out-1362903
| 2024-12-16T05:53:04Z
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Zakir Hussain, one of India’s most accomplished classical musicians, dies at 73
Associated Press
NEW DELHI (AP) — Zakir Hussain, one of India’s most accomplished classical musicians who defied genres and introduced tabla to global audiences, died on Sunday. He was 73.
The Indian classical music icon died from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic lung disease, at a hospital in San Francisco, his family said in a statement.
“His prolific work as a teacher, mentor and educator has left an indelible mark on countless musicians. He hoped to inspire the next generation to go further. He leaves behind an unparalleled legacy as a cultural ambassador and one of the greatest musicians of all time,” the statement read.
Hussain was the most recognizable exponent of tabla, a pair of hand drums that is the main percussion instrument in Indian classical music.
Considered the greatest tabla player of his generation, Hussain had a career that spanned six decades in which he collaborated with the likes of singer-songwriter George Harrison, jazz saxophonist Charles Lloyd, drummer Mickey Hart and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
The son of legendary tabla artist Alla Rakha, Hussain was born in 1951 in Mumbai and was taught how to play the instrument by his father at the age of 7. A child prodigy, he was touring by age 12 and performing alongside India’s classical music legends during his teens.
In an interview that was shared widely on social media in India, Hussain says his father welcomed him into the world after he was born by speaking tabla rhythms into his ears.
“I was brought home, handed over to my dad in his arms. The tradition was that the father is supposed to recite a prayer in the baby’s ear … So he takes me in his arms, puts his lips to my ear and recites the tabla rhythms into my ears,” Hussain says in the interview, verbalizing the rhythmic pattern of the instrument.
Both Alla Rakha and Hussain were given the honorific “Ustad,” an Urdu word that means master.
In 1973, Hussain formed the Indian jazz fusion band “Shakti” with jazz guitarist John McLaughlin. The band played acoustic fusion music that combined Indian music with elements of jazz, introducing a new sound to Western audiences.
In 2024, Hussain became the first musician from India to win three Grammy awards in the same year.
Hussain’s “Shakti” won Best Global Music Album, and his collaboration with Edgar Meyer, Béla Fleck and flutist Rakesh Chaurasia won Best Global Music Performance and Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. He had earlier won a Grammy in 2009.
In 2023, Hussain received the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian award.
Hussain is survived by his wife and two daughters.
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https://keyt.com/news/2024/12/15/zakir-hussain-one-of-indias-most-accomplished-classical-musicians-dies-at-73/
| 2024-12-16T05:53:05Z
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Navratri Special: 9 Beauties in Yellow
On the sixth day of Navratri, we wear the colour yellow. Take a cue on how to wear this cheery colour from these nine beauties.
On the sixth day of Navratri, we wear the colour yellow. Take a cue on how to wear this cheery colour from these nine beauties.
On the sixth day of Navratri, we wear the colour yellow. Take a cue on how to wear this cheery colour from these nine beauties.
Anushka Sharma wore this beautiful yellow gown at Filmfare awards.
Chitrangada looked stunning in a yellow sari at Filmfare awards.
Kajal Agarwal was at her traditional best during a film promotion event.
Katrina Kaif chose a yellow dress for a cellphone launch event.
Nandita Das looked elegant in a yellow salwar suit, which she wore during Cannes Film Festival.
Madhuri Dixit wore a yellow sari with a tinge of orange for a reality show appearance.
Tanisha Mukherjee wore a yellow gown for Filmfare Awards.
Shilpa Shetty chose a yellow sari during a dance reality show shoot.
Sameera Reddy flaunted her curves in a yellow sari, which had tinge of pink in it.
Neha is a keen observer of human behaviour and a devout Tina Fey worshipper. She is a good listener and will gladly listen to all your rants and raves. This job has made her shift base from the far-flung suburbs to town, and she is therefore now adapting to a new lifestyle (which is a sweet coincidence as she manages the lifestyle section at indiatimes) She is a TV fanatic and has watched most of your TV shows well in advance. Neha’s favourite shows include ‘Mad Men’, ‘Dexter’, ‘Game of Thrones’ and everything between. Her newfound passion is running and thinks that a good 30-minute-run is the ultimate key to happiness. Also, loves the sound ‘hmm’ a lot..
Read More
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https://www.indiatimes.com/lifestyle/fashion-and-beauty/navratri-special-9-beauties-in-yellow-105863.html
| 2024-12-16T05:53:05Z
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Brisbane, Dec 16 (PTI) Scoreboard at tea on day three of the third Test between India and Australia here on Monday.
Australia 1st Innings: 445 India 1st innings: Yashasvi Jaiswal c Mitchell Marsh b Mitchell Starc 4 KL Rahul batting 30 Shubman Gill c Mitchell Marsh b Mitchell Starc 1 Virat Kohli c Alex Carey b Hazlewood 3 Rishabh Pant c Alex Carey b Cummins 9 Rohit Sharma batting 0 Extras (NB-1) 1 Total (For 4 wickets in 14.1 Overs) 48 Fall of Wickets 1-4, 2-6, 3-22, 4-44 Bowling: Mitchell Starc 7.1-1-24-2, Josh Hazlewood 5-2-17-1, Pat Cummins 2-0-7-1. PTI APA APA
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https://www.newsdrum.in/sports/india-vs-australia-3rd-test-day-3-tea-scoreboard-8443345
| 2024-12-16T05:53:06Z
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What to stream: MrBeast jumps to TV, Little Big Town’s holiday special and Squid Game: Unleashed
The griping Vatican-based movie thriller “Conclave” about picking a new pope and Stephanie Hsu starring in the dark comedy series “Laid” as a woman whose former lovers keep unexpectedly dying are some of this week’s new streaming entertainment releases. There’s a Little Big Town Christmas special on NBC, the video game Squid Game: Unleashed offers an online battle royale for up to 32 players and Dwayne Johnson stars as Santa’s bodyguard in the movie “Red One.” And internet star MrBeast becomes the host of his own reality competition show on Prime Video called “Beast Games.”
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https://kesq.com/news/ap-national-news/2024/12/15/what-to-stream-mrbeast-jumps-to-tv-little-big-towns-holiday-special-and-squid-game-unleashed/
| 2024-12-16T05:53:07Z
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Cape Girardeau's largest surgical group, Cape Girardeau Surgical Clinic Inc., has notified Blue Cross Blue Shield that it will leave the HealthNet Blue provider network Oct. 1; surgeons in the group are Drs. Robert S. Hunt, Franklin H. McGinty, L. McClune, Jonathon K. Foley, Ronald M. Richmond, Daniel G. Hafenrichter and John G. Adams.
BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- A state veterans cemetery will be established in Bloomfield adjacent to a new Stars and Stripes Museum and Library that is under construction in this Stoddard County community; the cemetery is one of two veterans cemeteries being developed in Eastern Missouri by the Missouri Veterans' Commission; the other will be in Randolph County.
Sports fans are recovering after a day filled with athletic events in Cape Girardeau; the Cape Girardeau American Legion baseball team won two games of a best-of-three series to claimed the state Legion championship, something that has eluded coach John Yallaly for the past 18 years; Mel Purcell, a 14-year-old youngster from Murray, Kentucky, battled tennis players two or three times his age in emerging as the open division net champion in The Southeast Missourian tennis tournament.
Preschool orientation and workshop for teachers in the Cape Girardeau public schools will get underway as scheduled tomorrow regardless of the strike by Carpenters Local 1770, which has halted renovation work at three elementary schools -- Washington, Franklin and Lorimier; a union spokesman says the Board of Education is planning to go into Circuit Court in Jackson this afternoon in an effort to prevent pickets from stopping work at those buildings.
A new health and physical education building for State College will rise out of the ashes of Houck Field House, the community landmark destroyed by fire in February; decision on the oft-discussed site of the new half-million-dollar athletic plant was made yesterday by the Board of Regents; two other sites had been considered: the old peach orchard on the college farm, which the Bartholomew planning firm favored, and an area between Cheney Hall on Henderson Avenue and the residence of Vernon A. Chapman, superintendent of grounds and buildings.
The initial step toward the calling of Cape Girardeau County men ages 19 through 25 to military service is taken with the announcement from the state Selective Service headquarters in Jefferson City of the composition of local draft boards; appointed to the Cape County board are George T. Alt and Sherman T. "Mike" Daley, with Robert J. Altenthal serving as clerk; it is expected that L.A. Barney will be the third member of the board.
T.M. Kayser of Nevada, Missouri, was elected by the executive committee of the Farm Bureau Saturday to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of C.D. Hearne as farm agent for Cape Girardeau County; Kayser came highly recommended and had the endorsement of the extension service of the State Agricultural Bureau.
A rebuilt, horse-drawn street sweeper, in use in Cape Girardeau several years ago, is put to work on the streets here on orders of Street Commissioner Louis Wittmor; a large, 100-gallon water tank has been placed on the truck and will sprinkle water in front of the broom to keep down the dust; the sweeping problem has been ongoing for many years and only grows as more streets are paved.
-- Sharon K. Sanders
Connect with the Southeast Missourian Newsroom:
For corrections to this story or other insights for the editor, click here. To submit a letter to the editor, click here. To learn about the Southeast Missourian’s AI Policy, click here.
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https://www.semissourian.com/records/out-of-the-past-aug-20-3006637/
| 2024-12-16T05:53:08Z
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What’s next for the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO
By Ashley R. Williams, Gloria Pazmino, Kaitlan Collins, Rebekah Riess, Chris Boyette, Dalia Faheid and Kara Scannell, CNN
(CNN) — The man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare’s CEO in Manhattan remains in a Pennsylvania state prison, while a possible indictment looms in New York as a grand jury considers evidence on charges he faces there, including one count of murder.
Luigi Mangione, who faces a possible sentence of 15 years to life in prison if convicted on the charge of second-degree murder, is set to appear in a Pennsylvania court for a preliminary hearing next week on state charges following his December 9 arrest at a McDonald’s in Altoona.
Mangione, 26, has been fighting extradition to New York after being accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on December 4, but Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Friday it is possible the suspect could soon waive his right to fight being handed over to New York authorities.
“Indications are that the defendant may waive, but that waiver is not complete until a court proceeding, which my understanding from court officials in Pennsylvania cannot happen until Tuesday,” Bragg said. “So until that time, we’re going to continue to press forward on parallel paths and we’ll be ready whether he is going to waive extradition or whether he’s going to contest extradition.”
Here are the latest developments in the case:
- After a San Francisco Police Department officer recognized Mangione from a surveillance photo as the possible suspect on December 5, the day after the shooting, they shared the tip with the FBI.
- Mangione has retained attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a former Manhattan prosecutor, to represent him in New York.
- A Center for Internet Security report released Saturday found “widespread support” of Thompson’s killing could lead to potential copycats of the shooting likely to feel “emboldened and encouraged.”
- A defense fund set up on Mangione’s behalf raised more than $115,000 by Sunday, according to a campaign page on GiveSendGo. It is unclear whether his defense team will accept the funds.
Authorities tracked down Mangione in Altoona last week after being alerted he looked similar to the person who gunned down Thompson in front of a Midtown Manhattan hotel as the health care executive prepared to attend his company’s investors’ conference.
Mangione faces charges in both Pennsylvania and New York. He remains in custody in Pennsylvania Monday on charges related to a gun and fake ID police say they found at the time of his arrest.
In New York, prosecutors have charged him with one count of second-degree murder, two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, one count of second-degree possession of a forged document and one count of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, according to online court documents.
Investigators in New York believe Mangione, a former high school valedictorian and Ivy League graduate born into a well-to-do family, appeared to be driven by anger against the health insurance industry and “corporate greed,” according to an NYPD intelligence report obtained by CNN.
Mangione is scheduled to appear at a hearing in Pennsylvania on December 30 in response to his petitions for writ of habeas corpus and imposition of bail, court documents from Thursday show. The habeas corpus petition is a key factor in whether Mangione can be extradited to New York.
Thomas Dickey, Mangione’s attorney in Pennsylvania, denied his client’s involvement in Thompson’s killing and said he anticipates a not guilty plea from Mangione to the charges he faces in New York.
Dickey also said Mangione, who was denied bail last Tuesday at an extradition hearing, plans to plead not guilty to the charges in Pennsylvania.
Following Bragg’s comments on Mangione possibly backing down from the extradition fight, CNN has sought comment from Dickey regarding whether he and his client have changed their position on extradition.
Mounting evidence against suspect, authorities say
New York authorities have executed as many as three search warrants as part of their investigation, including at least two warrants for a backpack found in Central Park and a burner phone discovered along Mangione’s believed getaway route away from the crime scene, sources told CNN.
The mounting evidence against the suspect accused of killing Thompson, authorities say, includes a 3D-printed gun they allege Mangione had when he was arrested, which matches three shell casings found at the crime scene.
Mangione’s fingerprints match those found on items near the scene, New York City’s police commissioner has said, and investigators discovered a three-page handwritten “claim of responsibility” and writings in a spiral notebook pointing to the suspect’s involvement, a law enforcement source briefed on the matter told CNN.
Three 9 mm shell casings from the crime scene had the words “delay,” “deny” and “depose” written on them, according to NYPD’s Chief Detective Joseph Kenny. The words are similar to a title of a 2010 book critiquing the insurance industry.
Dickey has said he wants to see the ballistics and fingerprint evidence for himself.
“Those two sciences, in and of themselves, have come under some criticism in the past, relative to their credibility, their truthfulness, their accuracy, however you want to do it,” Dickey said on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” on Wednesday.
Business leaders to discuss safety in wake of Thompson killing
The office of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is convening business leaders and law enforcement to discuss safety this week.
Kathryn Garcia, Hochul’s director of operations and infrastructure, will hold a call with several business leaders and law enforcement on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the governor’s office told CNN.
Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, a nonprofit organization which represents New York City’s global business leaders and major employers, told CNN the call will include top State Police officials and counterterrorism law enforcement.
A source familiar with the planning told CNN the state is also considering setting up a hotline for CEOs so they can call to report security concerns or threats.
The hope is the call will “provide a forum for questions and sharing of best practices regarding threats to business leaders around the city,” Wylde said.
Approximately 200 people, mostly security people as well as some CEOs are expected to join, according to Wylde.
The call comes as C-suite leaders across the country are left shaken in the wake of Thompson’s killing and reassessing preparedness for potential threats.
The NYPD, in an intelligence report obtained by CNN last week, said it believed Thompson’s killing was a “symbolic takedown” and could inspire others to act violently toward business leaders.
CNN’s Jason Hanna, Karina Tsui, Steve Almasy, Andy Rose, Brynn Gingras, Michelle Watson, Bonney Kapp, Dakin Andone, Emma Tucker, Meg Tirrell and Jason Carroll contributed to this report.
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™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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https://kesq.com/news/national-world/cnn-national/2024/12/15/whats-next-for-the-suspect-in-the-killing-of-unitedhealthcares-ceo/
| 2024-12-16T05:53:09Z
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SS Rajamouli and singer Kaala Bhairava take over Sri Simha's pre-wedding bash with their energetic dance moves; WATCH
A video of SS Rajamouli grooving with Kaala Bhairava at Sri Simha’s wedding bash is going viral on social media. Check it out.
SS Rajamouli has once again proven that he is a dancer at heart. During the pre-wedding festivities of his nephew and MM Keeravani's son Sri Simha, the ace filmmaker put on his dancing shoes and grooved with Naatu Naatu singer Kaala Bhairava with utmost zeal. The video of his candid performance from the wedding bash has also gone viral across social media platforms.
In the viral video, SS Rajamouli and Kaala Bhairava can be seen matching steps to the peppy beats of the song. The duo looks extremely happy during the joyous occasion and leaves no stone unturned in entertaining the guests at the wedding.
Soon after the video surfaced, netizens took to the comment section to post their reactions. A social media user wrote, "Best Director+Best dancer," while another jokingly commented, "Director sir, please behave like a director. Don't dominate actors."
Take a look at the video below:
Another video of SS Rajamouli's performance at his nephew Sri Simha's pre-wedding celebration has taken social media by storm. In the clip, the filmmaker is seen giving it his all on stage while dancing alongside his wife Rama Rajamouli.
The couple showcased their dance moves to the popular track Lunchkostava from the film Amma Nanna O Tamila Ammai, starring Ravi Teja and Asin. As they danced together, SS Rajamouli lit up the stage while everyone cheered them on throughout their performance.
Take a look at the video below:
Meanwhile, MM Keeravani's son Sri Simha got married to the granddaughter of veteran actor Murali Mohan, Raaga Maganti. The couple's private wedding was organized in Dubai with several A-listers in attendance including SS Rajamouli.
On the work front, SS Rajamouli is currently busy with his upcoming project featuring Mahesh Babu. The movie is tentatively titled SSMB29 and filming is set to begin in January 2025.
Recently, speculation surrounding the film’s cast has been gaining attention. According to Filmfare, the makers are reportedly in talks with Priyanka Chopra Jonas for an important role.
Meanwhile, SSMB29 is being called one of India’s most ambitious projects with a budget estimated over Rs 1000 crore. The movie is expected to be a grand adventure across multiple locations.
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https://www.pinkvilla.com/entertainment/south/ss-rajamouli-and-singer-kaala-bhairava-take-over-sri-simhas-pre-wedding-bash-with-their-energetic-dance-moves-watch-1362901
| 2024-12-16T05:53:10Z
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Former FBI informant will plead guilty to lying about phony bribery scheme involving the Bidens
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI informant is set to plead guilty on Monday to lying about a phony bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden and his son Hunter that became central to the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress.
Alexander Smirnov is expected to make the plea in Los Angeles to a felony charge in connection with the bogus story, along with a tax evasion charge stemming from a separate indictment accusing him of concealing millions of dollars of income, according to court papers.
Smirnov has been behind bars since his arrest in February on charges that he told his FBI handler that executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid President Biden and Hunter Biden $5 million each around 2015.
Prosecutors and the defense have agreed to recommend a sentence of between four and six years in prison, according to the plea agreement.
Smirnov had been an informant for more than a decade when he made the explosive allegations about the Bidens in June 2020, after “expressing bias” about Joe Biden as a presidential candidate, prosecutors said.
But Smirnov had only routine business dealings with Burisma starting in 2017, according to court documents. An FBI field office investigated the allegations and recommended the case be closed in August 2020, according to charging documents.
No evidence has emerged that Joe Biden acted corruptly or accepted bribes in his current role or previous office as vice president.
While his identity wasn’t publicly known before the indictment, Smirnov’s claims played a major part in the Republican effort in Congress to investigate the president and his family, and helped spark a House impeachment inquiry into Biden. Before Smirnov’s arrest, Republicans had demanded the FBI release the unredacted form documenting the unverified allegations, though they acknowledged they couldn’t confirm if they were true.
During a September 2023 conversation with investigators, Smirnov also claimed the Russians likely had recordings of Hunter Biden because a hotel in Ukraine’s capital where he had stayed was “wired” and under their control — information he said was passed along to him by four high-level Russian officials.
But Hunter Biden had never traveled to Ukraine, according to Smirnov’s indictment.
Smirnov claimed to have contacts with Russian intelligence-affiliated officials, and told authorities after his arrest earlier this year that “officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story” about Hunter Biden.
The case against Smirnov was brought by special counsel David Weiss, who also prosecuted Hunter Biden on gun and tax charges. Hunter Biden was supposed to be sentenced this month after being convicted at trial in the gun case and pleading guilty to federal charges in the tax case. But he was pardoned earlier this month by his father, who said he believed “raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.”
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https://keyt.com/news/california/ap-california-news/2024/12/15/former-fbi-informant-will-plead-guilty-to-lying-about-phony-bribery-scheme-involving-the-bidens-2/
| 2024-12-16T05:53:11Z
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© Brighteon.com All Rights Reserved. All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Brighteon is not responsible for comments and content uploaded by our users.
© Brighteon.com All Rights Reserved. All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Brighteon is not responsible for comments and content uploaded by our users.
© Brighteon.com All Rights Reserved. All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Brighteon is not responsible for comments and content uploaded by our users.
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https://www.brighteon.com/channels/inzarmr67/home
| 2024-12-16T05:53:11Z
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Celebs At Bombay Bullion Fashion Show
A bevy of stars walked the ramp at the 1st India Bullion Jewellery Awards. Take a look at the event...
A bevy of stars walked the ramp at the 1st India Bullion Jewellery Awards. Take a look at the event...
A bevy of stars walked the ramp at the 1st India Bullion Jewellery Awards. Take a look at the event...
Sonakshi Sinha shimmered in a silver suit and the 1st India Bullion Jewellery Awards.
Mallika Sherawat sported an interesting hairdo at the 1st India Bullion Jewellery Awards 2013.
Sushmita Sen donned a bridal look for the ramp.
Dia Mirza wore a stunning white dress at the 1st India Bullion Jewellery Awards.
Zarine Khan was also spotted at the 1st India Bullion Jewellery Awards.
Huma Qureshi stunned in black at the 1st India Bullion Jewellery Awards.
Jacky Bhagnani also walked the ramp at the 1st India Bullion Jewellery Awards.
Uddhav, Aaditya Thackeray, Mohit Khamboj (President-The Bullion Association Limited) at the 1st India Bullion Jewellery Awards.
Manish Paul and Karishma Kotak hosted the Bombay Bullion Fashion Show.
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https://www.indiatimes.com/lifestyle/fashion-and-beauty/sonakshi-mallika-shilpa-walk-the-ramp-at-bombay-bullion-fashion-show-105829.html
| 2024-12-16T05:53:11Z
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Navi Mumbai, Dec 16 (PTI) India Women's Titas Sadhu says being accustomed to conditions and bowling in right areas helped her grab three wickets to set up their 49-run win against the West Indies in the first T20I here.
India outgunned the West Indies to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series after fifties from Jemimah Rodrigues (73) and Smriti Mandhana took them to 195/4, their highest total against the Windies and third best overall.
Having traversed nearly 7,300 kilometres from Perth to Mumbai, India Women's side had very little time to rest and prepare but they showed no sluggishness in the first game.
"The fact that we landed here quite at the night time of India and we slept through the whole night properly, and so that kind of helped with the jet lag," Sadhu told media here on Sunday after taking 3/37 in the opening T20I.
"I think DY Patil (Stadium's) is a very true wicket and whoever is able to bowl in the right areas, there is always something in the wicket that helps. The dew was there and it was a little difficult for us, but we managed quite well." "One of the best things was that we have had played in this ground before, and we are actually on the same time of the year, so we are a little bit more accustomed," she said.
Titas continued, "We have knowledge about it, and that being the key, and so we knew there will still be some help from the wicket if we can actually bowl at the right areas and fortunately we did that." While India got back into the saddle quickly to record their ninth consecutive win, their skipper Harmanpreet Kaur did not take much part in their fielding innings after she had come out to bat for a while.
When asked about Kaur's absence, Titas did not specify the issue, saying, "The medical team is looking after that, so probably she will be fine in some time." West Indies head coach Shane Deitz said there cannot be an excuse for this loss.
"I don't know why we weren't ready from ball one. It’s very disappointing. We have to debrief that quickly, train well tomorrow and come out and put a lot better performance in the next game," he said.
"In India, we've been here about nine days to try to acclimatise, which we did. We had some great facilities. We had really good training sessions, that's why tonight's performance was a bit of a shock, a bit disappointing, because we actually put the work in to be ready for tonight," he added.
The former South Australia first-class player said his coaching philosophy has been to bring back the Caribbean flair and Calypso style of play into this side.
"We want to have a style of play which we've been trying to develop, that was (also) for the T20 World Cup. Obviously that was the focus over the last year, to get to that World Cup and play well. We did that and we worked on a style of play, how we want to attack cricket," he said.
"A little Caribbean flair and Calypso style of play... we are trying to bring that back into the team, because that probably wasn't there previously. The data says that (and) that's what we're trying to do," Deitz added. PTI DDV DDV AH AH
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https://www.newsdrum.in/sports/titas-sadhu-says-being-accustomed-to-conditions-helped-her-excel-in-opening-t20i-against-west-indies-8443236
| 2024-12-16T05:53:12Z
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CAPE GIRARDEAU
Cape Girardeau Fire Department responded to the following calls.
Aug, 16
Aug. 17
Connect with the Southeast Missourian Newsroom:
For corrections to this story or other insights for the editor, click here. To submit a letter to the editor, click here. To learn about the Southeast Missourian’s AI Policy, click here.
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https://www.semissourian.com/blotter/fire-report-8-20-23-3006638/
| 2024-12-16T05:53:14Z
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It started as a novel concept, about a decade ago. Is Die Hard, a movie released in the summer of 1988, often designated as an action film first, also a Christmas movie at the same time?
With way more violence and cursing than a typical Christmas movie, can we call this film an example of yuletide cinema? “Scholars” and “historians” have “debated” this for years. You didn’t know about this? Well, “welcome to the party pal.” But now the debate has been settled.
According to a new poll, conducted by internet service provider BrightSpeed, 52% of Americans believe Die Hard is a Christmas film. The survey tracked films that are designated as “unconventional Christmas movies,” with Mean Girls (more on that here), Ghostbusters 2, Batman Returns, Step Brothers and Gremlins in this same niche as Die Hard.
Their poll results show that Die Hard is the most searched unconventional Christmas movie of all, with 27 out of 50 states googling more than any movie.
(By the way, in case you want to know what bowl game Notre Dame and USC are playing each other in, during Die Hard, go here)
Of course Die Hard is a Christmas movie, the entire film takes place on Christmas Eve, as its plot centers around the worst office Christmas party imaginable.
(Family Guy covered this and came to the same conclusion as us, a few years ago)
Not to mention a Christmas carol (Vaughn Monroe’s edition of “Let it Snow”) plays over the closing credits (it does again for Die Hard 2, which also takes place on Christmas and is also, a Christmas movie).
Die Hard themed Christmas merchandise: ornaments, ugly Christmas sweaters, toys, cookies, children’s books etc. have been available for several years already. In fact, if you go to your smart TV, and search through the on demand app,…go…do it….go do it right now…..you’ll find Die Hard in the Christmas movies category.
Enough said, debate over. In fact, it has been long over for some time already, so Yippe Ki Yay. So “come out to the coast, have a couple laughs!”
Also, we demand that “the following people are to be released from their captors: In Northern Ireland, the seven members of the New Provo Front. In Canada, the five imprisoned leaders of Liberte de Quebec. In Sri Lanka, the nine members of the Asian Dawn movement.”
Merry Christmas to all.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now, while writing for the International Baseball Writers Association of America. You can follow the website on Twitter.
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https://www.thesportsbank.net/entertainment/christmas-movie-die-hard/
| 2024-12-16T05:53:14Z
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For the families of Syria’s disappeared, hope fades but the demand for justice grows
By Raja Razek and Tim Lister, CNN
(CNN) — More than a week after Bashar al-Assad fled Syria and his regime collapsed, hundreds of thousands of Syrians still have no answer to two questions that have haunted them for years, even decades.
What happened to family members and friends after they vanished or were detained by Assad’s secret police? And how do we bring their torturers and killers to justice?
Some 150,000 people in Syria are unaccounted for, most of whom were kidnapped or detained by the Assad regime or its affiliates, according to the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP). CNN cannot independently verify this number.
With every passing day, Syrians’ slim hopes finding a loved one still alive are fading. But they want some form of closure; they scour prison and hospital walls where lists of names and images of bodies are posted. They cling to a sliver of hope, yearn for a miracle.
But they also want retribution.
One of those waiting for news was Hazem Dakel from Idlib, who is now in Sweden. His uncle Najeeb was arrested in 2012 and was later confirmed by the family as having been killed. His brother Amer was detained the following year. Former detainees at the horrific Saydnaya prison near Damascus said Amer had disappeared in mid-April 2015 after being tortured there. But the regime never acknowledged his death.
“Now that people are able to talk, they are naming people, and I got details of exactly what happened in prison, and the torture, who tortured him, who interrogated him,” Dakel told CNN of his brother,
“I want this (new Syrian) country to stand on its feet so we can hold them accountable through the law and courts.”
Amid the celebrations in Idlib after the fall of Assad, he said, there was also mourning. “They are mourning their children. Yes, the regime fell after resistance and struggle, but there was sorrow—like, where are our children?”
“Justice is coming, and our right will not be erased no matter how long it takes,” Dakel posted on Facebook. The family is now “certain” Amer died under torture in Saydnaya, he said.
Human rights groups have begun visiting the many prisons and detention centers across Syria where those perceived as regime critics were confined. An Amnesty International team scoured security branches of the former regime around Damascus this week.
Mazjoub also posted photographs on X of instruments of torture left behind.
“Nothing could have prepared us for what we saw,” said one of the team, Aya Mazjoub. In a series of posts on X she described “underground labyrinths (that) are literally hell on earth. They were overcrowded, crawling with cockroaches and other insects, lacked ventilation. They still smell of blood and death.”
“This is ‘bisat ar-reeh’, a notorious torture device where detainees would be strapped to a wooden slab that would be folded until their back cracked,” she wrote.
“This is the ‘doulab’. Detainees would be stuffed into the tyre and beaten, usually on the soles of their feet.”
Identifying the bodies that are found will require a legion of forensic pathologists. “Many are beyond recognition, mutilated by years of torture and starvation,” said Mazjoub.
Desperate relatives have taken to social media with details of sons, brothers, fathers and sisters who disappeared.
In a video posted on X, Lama Saud said her brother Abdullah was detained in 2012. Regime records had registered his death in 2014, but she said she still had hope he might be alive. “There are many detainees whose families were told they were dead but were later found to be alive,” she said.
Mahmoud Al Shahabi, a Syrian living in exile, told CNN he had been waiting for news of his brothers Hikmat and Amir for 12 years.
“We hope to find them, my situation is like hundreds of thousands of Syrian families who are waiting for news about their loved ones, and we will not give up hope until now.”
So far, he has found no trace.
Al Shahabi also asked on Facebook where the recordings of surveillance cameras at regime security branches had gone, why some documents had been destroyed and why human rights groups had not done more to protect records.
Preserving whatever evidence is left in prisons and around possible burial sites is critical to documenting what happened and tracking down the perpetrators.
But following that trail of evidence is also a race against time. Several human rights groups issued a joint appeal last week, saying: “The real toll will only be known after mass graves and documents from the detention centers are examined and authenticated by trained experts. This documentation must be preserved from destruction.”
Based on the accounts of former prisoners, doctors and regime personnel, it said that an “olive-green Honda with a closed shed that could accommodate around 50 bodies” was used to take the bodies to a site in Najha near Damascus – “which has been called cemetery no.1 (the term used by regime forces is ‘cemetery of the bastards’).”
Bodies at the military hospital stayed for two or three days until there were “enough to transport to Najha graveyard, and sometimes to Al Qutayfah graveyard,” and other sites, according to the report.
The Association of Detainees and the Missing at Saydnaya prison, which describes itself as a coalition of prison survivors, victims, and their families, has meticulously documented what has happened there in recent years, based on witness accounts and other evidence, such as satellite imagery. It reported last year how bodies were taken from the prison and a military hospital to a mass burial site.
In 2020, a man known as “the Gravedigger” told a German court he was recruited by the Assad regime to bury hundreds of bodies in mass graves, including Najha, according to the International Commission on Missing Persons.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said burial sites or mass graves “must be protected and preserved to allow organized exhumation” as soon as possible. “This is also crucial to identify and ascertain the fate of those missing and provide the much-awaited answers to their families.”
After its investigators found documents strewn all over Saydnaya prison, the ICRC appealed for all records to be safeguarded at hospitals and in security centers run by the ousted regime.
The ICRC has also asked relatives of the missing – abroad and in Syria – to register with it, as the mammoth task of identifying the dead begins.
The conflict had killed more than 350,000 since 2011 – an “under-count of the actual number of killings,” a United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said in 2021 – and sent nearly six million refugees out of the country. Other groups put the estimated number of dead higher. An Amnesty International investigation published in 2017 said that as many as 13,000 people, most of them civilians believed to be opposed to the government, were hanged in secret at Saydnaya between 2011 and 2015 alone. With reports of civilians killed under torture in the detention centers and prisons for decades, the numbers of those who have lost their lives are still being counted.
In all likelihood, the vast majority of the missing are indeed dead.
In a tearful statement on Syrian television last week, the head of The Syrian Network for Human Rights, Fadel Abulghany, said: “I apologize for the tenth and thousandth time, before this announcement…Most of the forcibly disappeared in Syria are dead – and I am sorry.”
Now the almost overwhelming mission is to find those who died, and to identify them and their killers.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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https://kesq.com/news/national-world/cnn-world/2024/12/15/for-the-families-of-syrias-disappeared-hope-fades-but-the-demand-for-justice-grows/
| 2024-12-16T05:53:15Z
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Zakir Hussain passes away: Kamal Haasan drops vintage picture, AR Rahman, Mohanlal and others mourn the loss of tabla maestro
Renowned tabla maestro, Zakir Hussain passed away at the age of 73 recently. His demise is mourned by several South celebrities, who have penned eulogies.
Trigger: This article contains mention of the death.
Zakir Hussain had been one of the greatest living legends, celebrated across the country. His demise at the age of 73 left an impenetrable void in the hearts of many, including his colleagues, fans, and well-wishers all around the world. And now, several South actors have poured in heartfelt eulogies on social media, remembering fond moments with him.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Kamal Haasan dropped a rare and unseen picture with the late percussionist. It featured the actor trying his hands on the table, while the legendary artist helped him with the beats.
Along with it, Kamal Haasan penned an emotional note that read as follows: “Zakir Bhai! He left too soon. Yet we are grateful for the times he gave us and what he left behind in the form of his art. Goodbye and Thank you.#ZakirHussain.”
Take a look at the post here:
Renowned singer and composer AR Rahman also mourned the loss of the great music artist Zakir Hussain. He penned an emotional note on X, as he grieved the immeasurable loss of someone whom he hailed as an inspiration. He also regretted not having collaborated with the late artist as much as often lately.
AR Rahman wrote, “Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un. Zakir Bhai was an inspiration, a towering personality who elevated the tabla to global acclaim. His loss is immeasurable for all of us. I regret not being able to collaborate with him as much as we did decades ago, though we had planned an album together. You shall be truly missed. May his family and his countless students worldwide find the strength to bear this immense loss #ZakirHussain.”
Check out the post here:
Superstar Mohanlal also extended heartfelt condolences as he mourned the loss of Zakir Hussain as one of the living legends of the country. The actor resonated with the universal appeal of the late artist’s beats.
He wrote, “Ustad Zakir Hussain’s passing leaves an irreplaceable void in the world of music. His rhythms united hearts across borders. My deepest condolences to his family and admirers.”
Have a look at Mohanlal’s post here:
Prithviraj Sukumaran also mourned the loss of the legend. Sharing a photograph of Zakir Hussain on his IG stories, the actor wrote, “Rest in peace Legend!”
Check out his post here:
For the unversed, Zakir Hussain had reportedly been facing blood pressure issues for a long time now. He breathed his last at a hospital in San Francisco, succumbing to complications arising out of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
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https://www.pinkvilla.com/entertainment/south/zakir-hussain-passes-away-kamal-haasan-drops-vintage-picture-ar-rahman-mohanlal-and-others-mourn-the-loss-of-tabla-maestro-1362893
| 2024-12-16T05:53:16Z
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Popeye and Tintin enter the public domain in 2025 along with novels from Faulkner and Hemingway
AP Entertainment Writer
Popeye can punch without permission and Tintin can roam freely starting in 2025. The two classic comic characters who first appeared in 1929 are among the intellectual properties becoming public domain in the United States on Jan. 1. That means they can be used and repurposed without permission or payment to copyright holders.
This year’s crop of newly public artistic creations lacks the landmark vibes of last year’s entrance of into the public domain of Mickey Mouse. But they include a deep well of canonical works whose 95-year copyright maximums will expire. And the Disney icon’s public domain presence expands.
“It’s a trove! There are a dozen new Mickey cartoons — he speaks for the first time and dons the familiar white gloves,” said Jennifer Jenkins, director of Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain. “There are masterpieces from Faulkner and Hemingway, the first sound films from Alfred Hitchcock, Cecil B. DeMille, and John Ford, and amazing music from Fats Waller, Cole Porter, and George Gershwin. Pretty exciting!”
Here’s a closer look at this year’s crop.
Comics characters loom large
Popeye the Sailor, with his bulging forearms, mealy-mouthed speech, and propensity for fistfights, was created by E.C. Segar and made his first appearance in the newspaper strip “Thimble Theater” in 1929, speaking his first words, “’Ja think I’m a cowboy?” when asked if he was a sailor. What was supposed to be a one-off appearance became permanent, and the strip would be renamed ”Popeye.”
But as with Mickey Mouse last year and Winnie the Pooh in 2022, only the earliest version is free for reuse. The spinach that gave the sailor his super-strength was not there from the start, and is the kind of character element that could spawn legal disputes. And the animated shorts featuring his distinctive mumbly voice didn’t begin until 1933 and remain under copyright. As does director Robert Altman’s 1980 film, starring Robin Williams as Popeye and Shelley Duvall as his oft-fought-over sweetheart Olive Oyl.
That movie was tepidly received initially. So was director Steven Spielberg’s “Adventures of Tintin” in 2011. But the comics about the boy reporter that inspired it, the creation of Belgian artist Hergé, were among the most popular in Europe for much of the 20th century.
The simply drawn teen with dots for eyes and bangs like an ocean wave first appeared in a supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle, and became a weekly feature.
The comic also first appeared in the U.S. in 1929. Its signature bright colors — including Tintin’s red hair — didn’t appear until years later, and could, like Popeye’s spinach, be the subject of legal disputes.
And in much of the world, Tintin won’t become public property until 70 years after the 1983 death of his creator.
Books show American lit at its height
The books becoming public this year read like the syllabus for an American literature seminar.
“The Sound and the Fury,” arguably William Faulkner’s quintessential novel with its modernist stream-of-consciousness style, was a sensation after its publication despite being famously difficult for readers. It uses multiple non-linear narratives to tell the story of a prominent family’s ruin in the author’s native Mississippi, and would help lead to Faulkner’s Nobel Prize.
And Ernest Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms” joins his earlier “The Sun Also Rises” in the public domain. The partly autobiographical story of an ambulance driver in Italy during the First World War cemented Hemingway’s status in the American literary canon. It has been frequently adapted for film, TV and radio, which can now be done without permission.
John Steinbeck’s first novel, “A Cup of Gold,” from 1929, will also enter the public domain.
The British novelist Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own,” an extended essay that would become a landmark in feminism from the modernist literary luminary, is also on the list. Her novel “Mrs. Dalloway” is already in the U.S. public domain.
Movie legends in the making
While a host of truly major movies will become public in the coming decade, for now early works by major figures from the not-always-stellar early sound era will have to suffice.
A decade before he would move to Hollywood and make films like “Psycho,” and “Vertigo,” Alfred Hitchcock made “Blackmail” in Britain. The film was begun as a silent but shifted to sound during production, resulting in two different versions, one of them the UK’s — and Hitchcock’s — first sound film.
John Ford, whose later Westerns would put him among film’s most vaunted directors, also made his first foray into sound with 1929’s “The Black Watch,” an adventure epic that includes Ford’s future chief collaborator John Wayne as a young extra.
Cecil B. DeMille, already a Hollywood bigwig through silents, made his first talkie with the melodrama “Dynamite.”
Groucho, Harpo and the other Marx Brothers had their first starring movie roles in 1929’s “The Cocoanuts,” a forerunner to future classics like “Animal Crackers” and “Duck Soup.”
“The Broadway Melody,” the first sound film and the second film ever to win the Oscar for best picture — known as “outstanding production” at the time — will also become public, though it’s often ranked among the worst of best picture winners.
And after “Steamboat Willie” made the earliest Mickey Mouse public, a dozen more of his animations will get the same status, including “The Karnival Kid,” where he spoke for the first time.
Music rings out the 20s
Songs from the last year of the Roaring Twenties are also about to become public property.
Cole Porter’s compositions “What Is This Thing Called Love?” and “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” are among the highlights, as is the jazz classic “Ain’t Misbehavin’, written by Fats Waller and Harry Brooks.
“Singin’ in the Rain,” which would later forever be associated with the 1952 Gene Kelly film, made its debut in the 1929 movie “The Hollywood Revue” and will now be public domain.
Different laws regulate sound recordings, and those newly in the public domain date to 1924. They include a recording of “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” from future star and civil rights icon Marian Anderson, and “Rhapsody in Blue” performed by its composer George Gershwin.
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https://keyt.com/news/california/ap-california-news/2024/12/15/popeye-and-tintin-enter-the-public-domain-in-2025-along-with-novels-from-faulkner-and-hemingway/
| 2024-12-16T05:53:17Z
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https://www.indiatimes.com/lifestyle/fashion-and-beauty/sonam-kapoors-bold-avatar-for-gq-105754.html
| 2024-12-16T05:53:18Z
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CAPE GIRARDEAU
Cape Girardeau Police Department responded to the following calls.
Arrests
- A warrant arrest was reported on Rand Street.
- A warrant arrest was reported.
- A warrant arrest and driving while revoked/suspended were reported on William Street.
- A warrant arrest was reported on South Ranney Avenue.
Assaults
- Third-degree domestic assault was reported on South Hanover Street.
- Third-degree domestic assault was reported on West Cape Rock Drive.
- Assault was reported.
- Third-degree domestic assault was reported on Independence Street.
- Third-degree domestic assault was reported on William Street.
- Fourth-degree assault and second-degree property damage was reported.
Thefts
- Theft was reported on South Ranney Avenue.
- Theft of a motor vehicle/aircraft/watercraft was reported.
- Theft was reported on North Kingshighway.
- Second-degree burglary and second-degree property damage was reported on South Spring Avenue.
- Theft from a vehicle was reported on William Street.
Miscellaneous
- Leaving the scene of an accident was reported on South Henderson Avenue.
- Leaving the scene of an accident was reported on William Street.
- Fraud was reported.
- Unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a controlled substance were reported on South Sprigg Street.
- Failure to possess or display rabies tag and leash requirement violation were reported on West Drive.
- Leaving the scene of an accident was reported on Broadway.
- Fraud was reported on Bloomfield Road.
- Forgery was reported on South Kingshighway.
- Leash requirement violation and animal bite were reported on Saint Francis Drive.
CAPE GIRARDEAU COUNTY
Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Office responded to the following calls. Arrests do not imply guilt.
Arrests
- Guy E. Winn, 63, of Cape Girardeau was arrested on Missouri Department of Parole warrants for parole violation, probation violation for tampering with a motor vehicle, probation violation for family offense and probation violation for larceny.
- Austen R. Gambill, 21, of Jackson was arrested on a Perry County, Missouri, warrant for failure to appear for traffic violation of speeding, driving while suspended and no financial responsibility.
- Christian R. Deschanes, 44, of Cape Girardeau was arrested on a Cape Girardeau County warrant for fourth-degree domestic assault and abuse of a child.
- Courtney D. Gentry, 32, of Cape Girardeau was arrested on a Carter County, Missouri, warrant for probation violation for endangering the welfare of a child.
- Beth M. Hunciker, 45, of Cape Girardeau was arrested on a Perry County, Missouri, warrant for failure to appear for speeding.
- De'Mairon L Williams, 18, of Hampton, Georgia, was arrested on suspicion of receiving stolen property, unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of a controlled substance and resisting/interfering with arrest.
- Desiree K. Christie, 66, of Cape Girardeau was arrested on a Cape Girardeau County warrant for shoplifting.
- Vernon K. Cullum, 51, of Cape Girardeau was arrested on a Missouri Board of Parole warrant for absconding.
- Roger L. Fadler, 61, of Friedheim was arrested on suspicion of third-degree domestic assault.
- Brooke L. Noland, 44, of Cape Girardeau was arrested on a Cape Girardeau County warrant for failure to appear for exceeded the posted speed limit.
- Dustin T. Seabaugh, 37, of Jackson was arrested on suspicion of three counts of unlawful use of a weapon.
- Clayton G. Winn, 33, of Cape Girardeau was arrested on a Probation and Parole District 33, Dunklin County, Missouri, warrant for parole violation for third-degree robbery.
- John R. Wigley, 41, of Cape Girardeau was arrested on a Perry County warrant for larceny.
- Kent L. Volkerding, 52, of Jackson was arrested on suspicion of second-degree burglary/stealing.
- Roger L. Fadler, 61, of Friedheim was arrested on a Cape Girardeau County warrant for failure to obey judge's orders for third-degree domestic assault.
- Anna J. (Dobyna) Pickert, 39, of Fredericktown, Missouri, was arrested on a Madison County warrant for possession of a controlled substance.
- Malik L. Woods, 24, of Cape Girardeau was arrested on a Cape Girardeau County warrant for second-degree domestic assault.
- Michael P. Vincent Sr., 45, of Cape Girardeau was arrested on suspicion of violation order of protection.
- Hector Feliciano, 36, of Cape Girardeau was arrested on suspicion of unlawful possession of a firearm.
- Robert T. Wille, 58, of Jackson was arrested on a Cape Girardeau County warrant for second-degree assault and third-degree assault.
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https://www.semissourian.com/blotter/police-report-8-20-23-3006639/
| 2024-12-16T05:53:20Z
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‘It’s as if an atomic bomb fell on Mayotte:’ Widespread destruction after 100-year cyclone pummels French territory
By Lex Harvey, CNN
(CNN) — Reports of widespread damage are emerging from Mayotte after a 100-year cyclone ripped across the French archipelago Saturday, inflicting devastation that one resident likened to an atomic bomb, with hundreds and possibly even thousands of feared victims.
“The situation is catastrophic, apocalyptic,” Bruno Garcia, owner of Hotel Caribou in Mamoudzou, Mayotte’s capital, told CNN-affiliate BFMTV.
“We lost everything. The entire hotel is completely destroyed,” Garcia said. “There is nothing left. It’s as if an atomic bomb fell on Mayotte.”
Mayotte lies in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa, just west of Madagascar. Made up of two main islands, its land area is about twice the size of Washington DC.
Cyclone Chido, a category 4 storm, tore through the southwestern Indian Ocean over the weekend, impacting northern Madagascar before rapidly intensifying and slamming Mayotte with winds above 220 kilometers per hour (136 miles per hour), according to France’s weather service. It was the strongest storm to hit the islands in more than 90 years, Meteo-France said.
Chido then continued into northern Mozambique where it continued to cause damage, though the storm has now weakened.
The cyclone – the worst to hit the territory of just over 300,000 in at least 90 years – flattened neighborhoods, knocked out electrical grids, crushed hospitals and schools and damaged the airport’s control tower.
“Honestly, what we are experiencing is a tragedy, you feel like you are in the aftermath of a nuclear war… I saw an entire neighborhood disappear,” Mohamed Ishmael, a Mamoudzou resident, told Reuters.
At least 11 people have been confirmed dead by the French Interior Ministry, but the true death toll is expected to be much higher, with local officials predicting the number of victims could be in the hundreds or even thousands, the Associated Press reported.
“I think there are some several hundred dead, maybe we’ll get close to a thousand. Even thousands … given the violence of this event,″ Mayotte Prefect François-Xavier Bieuville told TV station Mayotte la 1ère.
The worst damage was to neighborhoods composed of metal shacks and informal structures that are found across Mayotte, Bieuville said.
Of the official death toll, Bieuville said “this figure is not plausible when you see the images of the slums.”
“Everything has been razed”
Debris from the storm has blocked access to roads across the archipelago, making aid delivery challenging and hindering the search for survivors, BMFTV reported.
About two thirds of the island is currently unreachable, Estelle Youssouffa, member of parliament for the first constituency of Mayotte told BMFTV.
“We must not confuse the villages that are cut off from communication (…) and the shanty towns, where there is very little chance of there being survivors. Everything has been razed,” Yousouffa said.
Desperate family members took to social media to search for news of their loved ones after the storm disrupted telecommunications networks.
As of Monday morning, Mayotte had been almost entirely offline for over 36 hours, according to the website NetBlocks.
Located about 5,000 miles from Paris, Mayotte is the poorest place in the European Union and has long struggled with poverty, unemployment, social unrest and water shortages.
Over 100,000 undocumented migrants live in Mayotte, according to France’s Interior Ministry.
Hundreds of rescuers, firefighters and police have been sent to the territory from France and the nearby French territory of Reunion, though damage to the airport’s control tower means only military planes can land there, the Associated Press reported.
Cyclones, also known as typhoons and called hurricanes in North America, are enormous heat engines of wind and rain that feed on warm ocean water and moist air. Cyclone season in the southwest Indian Ocean typically runs from mid-November to the end of April, according to France’s weather agency.
Scientists say climate change is making tropical cyclones more destructive, in part due to rising sea levels caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2019, two powerful cyclones, Idai and Kenneth, pummeled Mozambique over a period of two months, killing hundreds and leaving millions in need of humanitarian assistance.
Chad Youyou, a resident in Hamjago in the north of Mayotte, posted videos to Facebook showing flattened trees and extensive damage to his village, the Associated Press reported.
“Mayotte is destroyed … we are destroyed,” he said.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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https://kesq.com/news/national-world/cnn-world/2024/12/15/its-as-if-an-atomic-bomb-fell-on-mayotte-widespread-destruction-after-100-year-cyclone-pummels-french-territory/
| 2024-12-16T05:53:21Z
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Zakir Hussain death: TV celebs Shweta Tiwari, Aly Goni and others mourn death of Tabla maestro; ‘RIP Legend'
TV actors Aly Goni, Shweta Tiwari, and Devoleena Bhattacharjee, among others expressed condolences to Zakir Hussain's family as the Tabla maestro passed away.
The music world lost a legend as Ustad Zakir Hussain, the iconic tabla maestro, passed away at the age of 73. Renowned for his extraordinary talent and contribution to Indian classical and world music, Hussain’s death has left fans and celebrities deeply saddened. Many actors, including Shweta Tiwari, Aly Goni, and Kashmera Shah, among others took to social media to pay their respects, remembering his unparalleled legacy.
Actress Kashmera Shah posted a picture of Ustad Zakir Hussain and wrote, “RIP.” Actor Aly Goni shared a verse from the Quran that Muslims often recite in terms of loss, “Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un. RIP Legend.” Television star Shweta Tiwari shared a picture of the Tabla maestro and wrote, "We lost our legend today. Very sad news." Devoleena Bhattacharjee also expressed her condolences by sharing a video of the legend and added, "Om Shanti."
Check out the posts below:
Ustad Zakir Hussain was a celebrated musician with a career spanning over six decades. He collaborated with renowned artists from India and around the world, pushing the boundaries of music. His groundbreaking 1973 fusion project with English guitarist John McLaughlin, violinist L. Shankar, and percussionist T.H. Vinayakram blended Indian classical music with jazz, setting a new standard in world music.
Earlier this year, Hussain added three more Grammy Awards to his name at the 66th Grammy Awards, bringing his total to four. He continued to inspire generations with his creativity, dedication, and ability to connect cultures through music.
The maestro passed away on Monday, December 16, 2024, in a hospital in San Francisco due to complications arising from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a rare lung disease. According to his family, Hussain had been hospitalized for the last two weeks and was moved to the ICU when his condition worsened.
Hussain’s passing is a significant loss to the music fraternity. Pinkvilla prays the Tabla maestro rests in peace!
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https://www.pinkvilla.com/tv/news/zakir-hussain-death-tv-celebs-shweta-tiwari-aly-goni-and-others-mourn-death-of-tabla-maestro-rip-legend-1362898
| 2024-12-16T05:53:22Z
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