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Croatia's President Zoran Milanovic will face conservative rival Dragan Primorac in an election run-off in two weeks' time after the incumbent narrowly missed out an outright victory on Sunday, official results showed. The results came after an exit poll, released immediately after the polling stations closed, showed that Milanovic, backed by the opposition left-wing Social Democrats, had scooped more than 50 percent of the first round vote and would thus avoid the January 12 run-off. Milanovic won 49.11 percent of the first round vote and Primorac, backed by the ruling conservative HDZ party, took 19.37 percent, according to results released by the state electoral commission from nearly all of the polling stations. Such a strong lead for Milanovic, whom surveys labelled a favourite ahead of the vote, raises serious concerns for Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic's HDZ. The election comes as the European Union and NATO member country of 3.8 million people struggles with biting inflation, widespread corruption and a labour shortage. Among the eight contenders, centre-right MP Marija Selak Raspudic and green-left MP Ivana Kekin followed the two main rivals, the exit poll showed. They each won around nine percent of the vote. Croatia's president commands the country's armed forces and has a say in foreign policy. But despite limited powers, many believe the office is key for the political balance of power in a country mainly governed by the HDZ since independence in 1991. "All the eggs should not be in one basket," Nenad Horvat, a salesman in his 40s, told AFP. He sees Milanovic, a former leftist prime minister, as the "last barrier to all levers of power falling into the hands of HDZ", echoing the view of many that was reflected in Sunday's vote results. The 58-year-old Milanovic has been one of Croatia's leading and most colourful political figures for nearly two decades. Sharp and eloquent, he won the presidency for the Social Democrats (SDP) in 2020 with pledges to advocate tolerance and liberalism. But he used the office to attack political opponents and EU officials, often with offensive and populist rhetoric. Milanovic, who condemned Russia's aggression against Ukraine, has nonetheless criticised the West's military aid to Kyiv. That prompted the prime minister to label him a pro-Russian who is "destroying Croatia's credibility in NATO and the EU". Milanovic countered that he wanted to protect Croatia from being "dragged into war". "As long as I'm president no Croatian soldier will wage somebody else's wars," he said this month. Milanovic regularly pans Plenkovic and his HDZ party over systemic corruption, calling the premier a "serious threat to Croatia's democracy". "I'm a guarantee of the control of the octopus of corruption... headed by Andrej Plenkovic," he said during the campaign. For many, the election is a continuation of the longstanding feud between two powerful politicians. "This is still about the conflict between the prime minister and president," political analyst Zarko Puhovski told AFP. "All the rest are just incidental topics." Primorac, a 59-year-old physician and scientist returning to politics after 15 years, campaigned as a "unifier" promoting family values and patriotism. "Croatia needs unity, global positioning and a peaceful life," he told reporters after casting his ballot in Zagreb, adding that he would later attend a mass. Primorac repeatedly accused Milanovic of "disgracing Croatia", a claim that resonated with his supporters. ljv/bcAs Ghana approaches its crucial December 7, 2024, general elections, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the presidential candidate for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), has called on voters to reflect on who is best suited to lead the country into the future. Addressing a large crowd at the NPP’s final campaign rally, Bawumia posed a series of questions aimed at distinguishing himself from his rival, former President John Mahama. He asked, “Who can better unite this country? Who can bring innovative ideas to propel Ghana into the Fourth Industrial Revolution? Who has the integrity to fight corruption? Who can continue the Free Senior High School initiative?” Bawumia, who has positioned himself as the candidate of progress, emphasized his vision of a united Ghana driven by innovation and compassion for the vulnerable. He portrayed Mahama as a figure of the past, urging voters to look to the future. With nearly 18.8 million registered voters, Ghana’s election is seen as a pivotal moment for the nation, known for its stable democratic transitions. President Akufo-Addo, who has reached his constitutional term limits, is ineligible for re-election, marking the first presidential election in two decades without his candidacy. As the country heads to the polls, both local and international observers will be watching closely for a peaceful and transparent election.An official from the cautioned small businesses against pitching artificial intelligence-powered tools for programs that are not specifically asking for AI. , director of the agency’s Office of Small Business Programs, recently that could help firms enter the government contracting market. Table of Contents Focus on Emerging Technologies While more and more organizations across industries are adopting AI, it might not always be the technology that a particular agency or project requires. Capenos told small businesses not to pitch trendy technology, whether AI or quantum computing, unless a customer asks for it. She instead directed aspiring government contractors to focus efforts on the agency’s watch list for emerging technologies, which identifies specific capabilities DISA plans to invest in. Its , for instance, includes 6G, quantum-resistant cryptography, and AI for cybersecurity and big data analytics. Start With Subcontracting Capenos also touched on the requirement for companies to obtain a security clearance to do business with DISA. She acknowledged that it is a common obstacle for small businesses that want to enter the GovCon market. The defense official urged small businesses to become subcontractors to prime contractors that can sponsor their clearance. She said the prime contractor does not have to be a large company, either; many small businesses have found themselves working with other small businesses on a project. , who currently serves as chief technology officer at DISA, provided during the AFCEA Small Business Workshop held in August. According to Wallace, the agency previously selected GovCon newcomers based on their prior experience with prime contractors. Learn From Loss Finally, Capenos told small businesses to learn from best value tradeoff contracts instead of just offering the lowest price acceptable. “You might win, hopefully, you do,” she commented. “But if you don’t win, you’re going to find out what the winning price was. You’re going to find out what your ratings were, what your strengths and weaknesses were, and you’re also going to find out what the ratings were of the vendor who won.”
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes drifted amid mixed trading Monday, ahead of this week’s upcoming meeting by the Federal Reserve that could set Wall Street’s direction into next year. The S&P 500 rose 0.4%, coming off its first losing week in the last four . The Nasdaq composite climbed 1.2% to a record, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was a laggard and fell 110 points, or 0.3%. Broadcom leaped 11.2% to help lead the S&P 500 for a second straight day after delivering a profit report last week that beat analysts’ expectations. The technology company is riding a wave of enthusiasm about its artificial-intelligence offerings in particular. The market’s main event, though, will arrive on Wednesday when the Federal Reserve will announce its last move on interest rates for the year. The widespread expectation is that it will cut its main rate for a third straight time, as it tries to boost the slowing job market after getting inflation nearly all the way down to its target of 2%. The question is how much more it will cut rates next year, and Fed officials will release projections for where they see the federal funds rate ending 2025, along with other economic indicators, once their meeting concludes. Fed Chair Jerome Powell will also answer questions in a press conference following the meeting. For now, the general expectation among traders is that the Fed may cut a couple more times in 2025, according to data from CME Group. But such expectations have been shrinking following reports suggesting inflation may be tougher to get all the way down to 2% from here. Besides last month’s slight acceleration in inflation, another worry is that President-elect Donald Trump’s preferences for tariffs and other policies could lead to higher inflation down the line. Goldman Sachs economist David Mericle has dropped his earlier forecast of a cut by the Fed in January, for example. Beyond the possibility of tariffs, he said Fed officials may also want to slow their cuts because of uncertainty about exactly how low rates need to go so that they no longer press the brakes on the economy. Expectations for a series of cuts to rates by the Fed have been one of the main reasons the S&P 500 has set an all-time high 57 times so far this year and is heading for one of its best years of the millennium . The economy has held up better than many feared, continuing to grow even after the Fed hiked the federal funds rate to a two-decade high in hopes of grinding down on inflation, which topped 9% two summers ago. On Wall Street, MicroStrategy jumped as much as 7% during the day as it continues to benefit from the surging price for bitcoin , which set another all-time high. But its stock ended the day down by les than 0.1% after bitcoin’s price pulled back below $106,000 after setting a record above $107,700, according to CoinDesk. The software company has been building its hoard of the cryptocurrency, and its stock price has more than sextupled this year. It will also soon join the Nasdaq 100 index. Bitcoin’s price has catapulted from roughly $44,000 at the start of the year, riding a recent wave of enthusiasm that Trump will create a system that’s more favorable to digital currencies . Honeywell rose 3.7% after saying it’s still considering a spin-off or sale of its aerospace business, as part of a review of its overall business. It said it plans to give an update with the release of its fourth-quarter results. They helped offset a drop for Nvidia, whose chips are powering much of the world’s move into AI. Its stock fell 1.7%. Because it’s grown so massive, with a total value topping $3 trillion, it was the single heaviest weight on the S&P 500. All told, the S&P 500 rose 22.99 points to 6,074.08. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 110.58 to 43,717.48, and the Nasdaq composite rose 247.17 to 20,173.89. In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.39% from 4.40% late Friday. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, eased to 4.24% from 4.25%. In stock markets abroad, indexes fell modestly across much of Europe and Asia. They sank 0.9% in Hong Kong and 0.2% in Shanghai after China reported lackluster economic indicators for November despite attempts to strengthen the world’s second-largest economy. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.2% as law enforcement authorities pushed to summon impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol for questioning over his short-lived martial law decree, and the Constitutional Court met to discuss whether to remove him from office or reinstate him. AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.New York TImes crossword puzzleSOUTH KOREA, — A jetliner skidded off a runway, slammed into a concrete fence and burst into flames Sunday in South Korea after its landing gear apparently failed to deploy. All but two of the 181 people aboard were killed in one of the country’s worst aviation disasters, officials said. The 737-800 operated by Jeju Air plane arrived from Bangkok and crashed while attempting to land in the town of Muan, about 290 kilometers (180 miles) south of Seoul. Footage of the crash aired by South Korean television channels showed the plane skidding across the airstrip at high speed, evidently with its landing gear still closed, and slamming into the wall, triggering an explosion and generating plumes of thick, black smoke. The crash killed 179 people, the South Korean fire agency said. Emergency workers pulled two crew members, to safety. They were conscious and did not appear to have any life-threatening injuries, health officials said. Lee Jeong-hyeon, chief of the Muan fire station, told a televised briefing that the plane was completely destroyed, with only the tail assembly still recognizable in the wreckage. Officials were investigating the cause of the crash, including whether the aircraft was struck by birds, Lee said. The control tower issued a warning about birds to the plane shortly before it intended to land and gave the crew permission to land in a different area, ministry officials said. The crew sent out a distress signal shortly before the crash, officials said. Senior Transport Ministry official Joo Jong-wan said workers retrieved the jet's flight data and cockpit voice recorders. He said it may take months for investigators to complete their probe. The runway at the Muan airport will be closed until Jan. 1, the ministry said. Video of the crash indicated that the pilots did not deploy flaps or slats to slow the aircraft, suggesting a possible hydraulic failure, and they did not manually lower the landing gear, suggesting they did not have time, said John Cox, a retired airline pilot and CEO of Safety Operating Systems in St. Petersburg, Florida. Despite that, the jetliner was under control and traveling in a straight line, and damage and injuries likely would have been minimized if not for a barrier being placed so close to the runway, Cox said. Another aviation expert said videos showed the aircraft had used up much of the runway before touching down. With little braking ability, the aircraft skidded atop its engine cowlings, said Ross “Rusty” Aimer, CEO of Aero Consulting Experts. “It's basically like skidding on ice,” he said. The Boeing 737-800 is a "proven airplane" that belongs to a different class of aircraft than the Boeing 737 Max jetliner that was linked to fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019, added Alan Price, a former chief pilot at Delta Air Lines and now a consultant. More than 4,500 of the planes are in service around the world, according to the aviation analytics company Cirium. One of the survivors was being treated for fractures to his ribs, shoulder blade and upper spine, said Ju Woong, director of the Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital. Ju said the man, whose name was not released, told doctors he “woke up to find (himself) rescued.” Details on the other survivor were not immediately available. The passengers were predominantly South Korean and included two people from Thailand. Officials identified 88 of them in the hours after the crash, the fire agency said. Thailand’s prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, expressed condolences to the families of those aboard the plane in a post on X. Paetongtarn said she ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide assistance. Boonchuay Duangmanee, the father of a Thai passenger, told The Associated Press that his daughter, Jongluk, had been working in a factory in South Korea for several years and returned to Thailand to visit her family. "I never thought that this would be the last time we would see each other forever,” he said. Kerati Kijmanawat, the director of Thailand's airports, confirmed in a statement that Jeju Air flight 7C 2216 departed from Suvarnabhumi Airport with no reports of anything abnormal aboard the aircraft or on the runway. Jeju Air in a statement expressed its “deep apology” over the crash and said it will do its “utmost to manage the aftermath of the accident.” In a televised news conference, the company's president, Kim E-bae, bowed deeply with other senior company officials as he apologized to bereaved families and said he feels “full responsibility” for the crash. He said the company had not identified any mechanical problems with the aircraft following regular checkups and that he would wait for the results of government investigations. Family members wailed as officials announced the names of some victims at a lounge in the Muan airport. Boeing said in a statement on X that it was in contact with Jeju Air and was ready to support the company in dealing with the crash. The crash happened as South Korea is embroiled in a political crisis triggered by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s stunning imposition of martial law and ensuing impeachment . South Korean lawmakers on Friday impeached acting President Han Duck-soo and suspended his duties, leading Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok to take over. Choi, who traveled to the site in Muan, called for officials to use all available resources to identify the dead as soon as possible. The government declared Muan a special disaster zone and designated a weeklong national mourning period. Yoon’s office said his chief secretary, Chung Jin-suk, presided over an emergency meeting between senior presidential staff to discuss the crash and reported the details to Choi. Yoon expressed condolences to the victims in a Facebook post. In Rome’s St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis said he joined in “prayer for the survivors and the dead.” The Muan crash is one of the deadliest disasters in South Korea’s aviation history. The last time South Korea suffered a large-scale air disaster was in 1997, when a Korean Airline plane crashed in Guam, killing 228 people on board. In 2013, an Asiana Airlines plane crash-landed in San Francisco, killing three and injuring about 200. Sunday’s accident was also one of the worst landing disasters since a July 2007 crash that killed all 187 people on board and 12 others on the ground when an Airbus A320 slid off a slick airstrip in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and hit a nearby building, according to data compiled by the Flight Safety Foundation, a nonprofit group aimed at improving air safety. In 2010, 158 people died when an Air India Express aircraft overshot a runway in Mangalore, India, and plummeted into a gorge before erupting into flames, according to the safety foundation. ___ Associated Press journalists David Sharp in Portland, Maine; Paul Wiseman in Washington; Bobby Caina Calvan in New York; Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul and Jintamas Saksornchai in Bangkok; Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo; and Giada Zampano in Rome contributed to this report.
TikTok Asks US Supreme Court to Block Government Ban
Some of LA’s most successful food businesses — including Mini Kabob and the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills — are joining forces in a kind of culinary Avengers with the opening of Neighborly , which looks to reimagine the food hall with multiple menus from different restaurants offered on the same premises. However, unlike a food hall, all of Neighborly’s dishes are prepared within one multi-faceted kitchen and overseen by a single team of chefs. Neighborly promises to offer more consistent preparations that reflect the original restaurants instead of the often diminished quality that appears when beloved concepts venture far from their homes. While this resembles the fast-growing Wonder in New York , which employs celebrity chefs and restaurants to serve reheated meals , Neighborly will prepare food on site from scratch like a more traditional restaurant. Neighborly will open on December 19 at Rick Caruso’s the Promenade at Westlake Village development inside the former Social Monk space, bringing Mini Kabob , Gaby’s by prominent cookbook author and food recipe blogger Gaby Dalkin , the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills , Joan’s on Third marketplace, and Flour Shop by Amirah Kassem . In addition, Social Monk will retain a menu here with a refined menu that should appeal to its longtime regulars. Recall that Social Monk was the casual Panda Express-type pan-Asian restaurant by the Cheesecake Factory that never bloomed as prominently as the big Chinese food chain. The food hall is backed by DFG Ventures , also known as Dom Food Group, which partnered with Gwyneth Paltrow to expand a successful string of Goop Kitchen restaurants serving gluten-free pizzas, salads, and sandwiches via delivery and takeout spaces. DFG Ventures is part of Dom Capital Group , a large investment firm based out of Chicago founded in the early 1900s as an Italian deli and food store, expanding to Dominick’s Finer Foods in the 20th century before selling the business in the late 1980s. Beginning in 2007, the company relaunched with investments in food technology, services, and branded goods, and their concepts include Suckerpunch pickles, Rick Bayless’s Tortazo restaurant, and The Kitchen . Mendocino Farms co-founder Mario Del Pero, also a partner at DFG Ventures, is leading the charge at Neighborly to bring acclaimed places like the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills and Mini Kabob to well-heeled suburbs like Westlake Village. Neighborly’s innovation isn’t as much about creating something new but refining what diners are already familiar with. “It’s not that new of an idea, but the amount of technology and branding we’re putting around everything is pretty modern,” Del Pero told Eater over the phone. What that means exactly isn’t clear, but expect a user-friendly takeaway, dine-in, and delivery system that brings well-regarded restaurants to more LA neighborhoods. “We got a lot of inspiration in this kind of category from everything that Eataly has done on a super grand scale,” he continued. Neighborly chose brands that Del Pero says offers an “authentic point of view that we knew delivered the best and are the most demanded.” Partners offer recipes, support, and branding while receiving licensing fees and potentially a share of the revenues in return. Mini Kabob, which still operates a tiny take-out Armenian kebab shop in Glendale, expanded to a stall at Westfield Topanga’s Topanga Social food hall in 2023 . A partnership with Neighborly promises to help the celebrated kebab restaurant reach even more Southern California locations. The same goes for the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills, which was acquired by Dominick DiBartolomeo of Dominico’s Fine Foods (no relation to Dominick’s Finer Foods) in 2022. Here at Neighborly, DiBartolomeo serves artisan pizza and pastas that one would find at a place like Eataly. Joan’s On Third, a longtime favorite of Del Pero, will sell premade foods as one would find at its Studio City or West Third marketplaces. The Explosion Cake baker Amirah Kassem will sell cookies at Flour Shop. Author Gaby Dalkin will unleash a line of salads, bowls, and sandwiches that will likely model the fresh, California-inflected fare at Paltrow’s Goop Kitchen. It’s the kind of healthy-ish everyday fare that suburbanites adore. As for future partners, Del Pero hinted that some big names could be on the horizon to sell popular American food items like burgers. Del Pero says the Westlake Village space can accommodate one or two more partners. Asked why certain partners and brands were chosen over others, Del Pero responded: “I think we’re very conscientious of it, and it sits pretty forward in how we address things,” as he mentioned the three female partners in Gaby Dalkin, Joan McNamara, and Amirah Kassem. At the moment, DFG Ventures is looking at Manhattan Beach and Pacific Palisades for the next expansion, essentially affluent suburban or urban areas where diners don’t get to see as many “bespoke concepts” as the ones at Neighborly. Neighborly will open on December 19 at 4000 E. Thousand Oaks Boulevard, Space C1, Westlake Village, CA, 91362 and will operate daily. Sign up for our newsletter. Check your inbox for a welcome email. Oops. Something went wrong. Please enter a valid email and try again.Middle East latest: Lebanon closes all its land border crossings with Syria except one
After Trump's Project 2025 denials, he is tapping its authors and influencers for key rolesAustralia news LIVE: Social media ban for under 16s set to pass parliament; Trump cabinet picks targeted by bomb threatsHe finished it by producing an astonishing save that vindicated those awards. The Argentina international illuminated a 0-0 draw between his Aston Villa team and Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday by plucking the ball from behind him and scooping it off the goal line to deny Francisco Conceição what could have been the winner. Replays showed the ball was almost entirely over the line before Martinez hooked it clear, and the goalkeeper was quickly congratulated by his teammates. No save by Martinez will ever beat the one he pulled off for Argentina in the last seconds of extra time in the 2022 World Cup final , denying France striker Randal Kolo Muani and keeping teammate Lionel Messi’s dream alive of finally winning soccer’s biggest prize. He might just have run it close. It was fitting he produced his wonder save against Juve on the night he showed off the two Yashin Trophies he claimed at the Ballon d’Or awards ceremony in each of the past two years. The most recent one came last month. As for Juventus goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio, he finished the game relieved that what appeared to be a mistake in the final seconds of stoppage time didn't cost his team. Di Gregorio spilled a cross under pressure from Villa defender Diego Carlos and Morgan Rogers was there to poke the ball into the net. A goal was awarded by the on-field referee but after a two-minute check, it was ruled out for a foul on Di Gregorio by Carlos. AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccerWalmart’s Bold Move into Gaming! Can Retail Thrive in the Virtual World?
US to require passenger vehicles to sound alarms if rear passengers don’t fasten their seat belts
