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A historic shift in Parliament but challenges remain

Mid-American Conference football goes all in on November weeknights for the TV viewers

How to Watch Top 25 Women’s College Basketball Games – Sunday, December 1My love of movie scoundrels has been sorely tested this year. When I was young, I daydreamed of exotic heists, slick con artists and lovable crooks I’d seen on screen. For most of my moviegoing life, I’ve been a sucker for larceny done well. Most of us are, probably. But now it’s late 2024. Mood is wrong. In the real world, in America, it’s scoundrel time all the time. Maybe Charles Dickens was right. In “American Notes for General Circulation” (1842), the English literary superstar chronicled his travels and detected a widespread, peculiarly American “love of ‘smart’ dealing” across the land. In business and in politics, Dickens observed, slavish admiration of the con men among them “gilds over many a swindle and gross breach of trust.” And here we are. It’ll pass, this scoundrel reprieve of mine. In fact it just did. All it took was thinking about the conspicuous, roguish outlier on my best-of-2024 list: “Challengers.” It’s what this year needed and didn’t know it: a tricky story of lying, duplicitous weasels on and off the court. The best films this year showed me things I hadn’t seen, following familiar character dynamics into fresh territory. Some were more visually distinctive than others; all made eloquent cases for how, and where, their stories unfolded. “All We Imagine as Light,” recently at the Gene Siskel Film Center, works like a poem, or a sustained exhalation of breath, in its simply designed narrative of three Mumbai hospital workers. Fluid, subtly political, filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s achievement is very nearly perfect. So is cowriter-director RaMell Ross’ adaptation of the Colson Whitehead novel “The Nickel Boys,” arriving in Chicago-area theaters on Jan. 3, 2025. “Nickel Boys,” the film, loses the “the” in Whitehead’s title but gains an astonishingly realized visual perspective. If Ross never makes another movie, he’ll have an American masterpiece to his credit. The following top 10 movies of 2024 are in alphabetical order. Both a mosaic of urban ebb and flow, and a delicate revelation of character, director and writer Payal Kapadia’s Mumbai story is hypnotic, patient and in its more traditional story progression, a second feature every bit as good as Kapadia’s first, 2021’s “A Night of Knowing Nothing.” Mikey Madison gives one of the year’s funniest, saddest, truest performances as a Brooklyn exotic dancer who takes a shine to the gangly son of a Russian oligarch, and he to her. Their transactional courtship and dizzying Vegas marriage, followed by violently escalating complications, add up to filmmaker Sean Baker’s triumph, capped by an ending full of exquisite mysteries of the human heart. As played by Adrien Brody, the title character is a visionary architect and Hungarian Jewish emigre arriving in America in 1947 after the Holocaust. (That said, the title refers to more than one character.) His patron, and his nemesis, is the Philadelphia blueblood industrialist played by Guy Pearce. Director/co-writer Brady Corbet’s thrillingly ambitious epic, imperfect but loaded with rewarding risks, was shot mostly in widescreen VistaVision. Worth seeing on the biggest screen you can find. Opens in Chicago-area theaters on Jan. 10, 2025. Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor play games with each other, on the tennis court and in beds, while director Luca Guadagnino builds to a match-point climax that can’t possibly work, and doesn’t quite — but I saw the thing twice anyway. In Bucharest, production assistant Angela zigzags around the city interviewing people for her employer’s workplace safety video. If that sounds less than promising, even for a deadpan Romanian slice-of-life tragicomedy, go ahead and make the mistake of skipping this one. llinca Manolache is terrific as Angela. Like “Do Not Expect Too Much,” director Agnieszka Holland’s harrowing slice of recent history was a 2023 release, making it to Chicago in early 2024. Set along the densely forested Poland/Belarus border, this is a model of well-dramatized fiction honoring what refugees have always known: the fully justified, ever-present fear of the unknown. A quiet marvel of a feature debut from writer-director Annie Baker, this is a mother/daughter tale rich in ambiguities and wry humor, set in a lovely, slightly forlorn corner of rural Massachusetts. Julianne Nicholson, never better; Zoe Ziegler as young, hawk-eyed Lacy, equally memorable. I love this year’s nicest surprise. The premise: A teenager’s future 39-year-old self appears to her, magically, via a strong dose of mushrooms. The surprise: Writer-director Megan Park gradually deepens her scenario and sticks a powerfully emotional landing. Wonderful work from Aubrey Plaza, Maisy Stella, Maria Dizzia and everybody, really. From the horrific true story of a Florida reform school and its decades of abuse, neglect and enraging injustice toward its Black residents, novelist Colson Whitehead’s fictionalized novel makes a remarkable jump to the screen thanks to co-writer/director RaMell Ross’s feature debut. Cousins, not as close as they once were, reunite for a Holocaust heritage tour in Poland and their own search for their late grandmother’s childhood home. They’re the rootless Benji (Kieran Culkin) and tightly sprung David (Jesse Eisenberg, who wrote and directed). Small but very sure, this movie’s themes of genocidal trauma and Jewish legacy support the narrative every step of the way. Culkin is marvelous; so is the perpetually undervalued Eisenberg. To the above, I’ll add 10 more runners-up, again in alphabetical order: “Blink Twice,” directed by Zoe Kravitz. “Conclave,” directed by Edward Berger. “Dune: Part Two ,” directed by Denis Villeneuve. “Good One ,” directed by India Donaldson. “Hit Man,” directed by Richard Linklater. “Joker: Folie a Deux,” directed by Todd Phillips. “Nosferatu,” directed by Robert Eggers, opens in Chicago-area theaters on Dec. 25. “The Outrun,” directed by Nora Fingscheidt. “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” directed by Johan Grimonprez. “Tuesday,” directed by Daina O. Pusić. Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — First it was Canada, then the Panama Canal. Now, Donald Trump again wants Greenland. The president-elect is renewing unsuccessful calls he made during his first term for the U.S. to buy Greenland from Denmark, adding to the list of allied countries with which he’s picking fights even before taking office on Jan. 20. In a Sunday announcement naming his ambassador to Denmark, Trump wrote that, “For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.” Trump again having designs on Greenland comes after the president-elect suggested over the weekend that the U.S. could retake control of the Panama Canal if something isn’t done to ease rising shipping costs required for using the waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He’s also been suggesting that Canada become the 51st U.S. state and referred to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “governor” of the “Great State of Canada.” Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, said Trump tweaking friendly countries harkens back to an aggressive style he used during his days in business. “You ask something unreasonable and it’s more likely you can get something less unreasonable,” said Farnsworth, who is also author of the book “Presidential Communication and Character.” Greenland, the world’s largest island, sits between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. It is 80% covered by an ice sheet and is home to a large U.S. military base. It gained home rule from Denmark in 1979 and its head of government, Múte Bourup Egede, suggested that Trump’s latest calls for U.S. control would be as meaningless as those made in his first term. “Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale,” he said in a statement. “We must not lose our years-long fight for freedom.” Trump canceled a 2019 visit to Denmark after his offer to buy Greenland was rejected by Copenhagen, and ultimately came to nothing. He also suggested Sunday that the U.S. is getting “ripped off” at the Panama Canal. “If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America, in full, quickly and without question,” he said. Panama President José Raúl Mulino responded in a video that “every square meter of the canal belongs to Panama and will continue to,” but Trump fired back on his social media site, “We’ll see about that!” The president-elect also posted a picture of a U.S. flag planted in the canal zone under the phrase, “Welcome to the United States Canal!” The United States built the canal in the early 1900s but relinquished control to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999, under a treaty signed in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter. The canal depends on reservoirs that were hit by 2023 droughts that forced it to substantially reduce the number of daily slots for crossing ships. With fewer ships, administrators also increased the fees that shippers are charged to reserve slots to use the canal. The Greenland and Panama flareups followed Trump recently posting that “Canadians want Canada to become the 51st State” and offering an image of himself superimposed on a mountaintop surveying surrounding territory next to a Canadian flag. Trudeau suggested that Trump was joking about annexing his country, but the pair met recently at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida to discuss Trump’s threats to impose a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods. “Canada is not going to become part of the United States, but Trump’s comments are more about leveraging what he says to get concessions from Canada by putting Canada off balance, particularly given the precarious current political environment in Canada,” Farnsworth said. “Maybe claim a win on trade concessions, a tighter border or other things.” He said the situation is similar with Greenland. “What Trump wants is a win,” Farnsworth said. “And even if the American flag doesn’t raise over Greenland, Europeans may be more willing to say yes to something else because of the pressure.”HIAWATHA, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 22, 2024-- Crystal Group, Inc., a trusted designer and manufacturer of rugged high-performance edge compute solutions in Eastern Iowa, announced today that Cale Stephens has been selected as its next VP, Advanced Technology. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241122015505/en/ Cale Stephens has been appointed Crystal Group's VP, Advanced Technology. (Photo: Business Wire) Throughout Stephens’ 23-year tenure at Collins Aerospace, he held many engineering leadership roles, most recently as Senior Director, Collins Digital Technologies Engineering Enablement Solutions. "We’re thrilled to welcome Cale as our new VP, Advanced Technology. His extensive experience and proven track record in innovative technology management aligns perfectly with the demands of this role,” said Aaron Maue, President at Crystal Group. “Beyond his technical expertise, Cale embodies our core values—he’s committed to excellence, innovation, and collaboration, and he’s dedicated to helping others succeed. I’m confident that his leadership will play a key role in advancing Crystal Group’s mission to deliver unparalleled rugged tech solutions to our customers." In Stephens’ previous roles, he seamlessly led large international teams tasked with product lifecycle management, advanced product design, development, and support in the commercial and defense industries, providing resources for multiple simultaneous programs. His skill in integrating teams with a wide range of capabilities and responsibilities will be invaluable to Crystal Group’s employee-owners. "I’m excited to join Crystal Group at a time when technology innovation, program performance, and product quality, are driving the future of our industry,” said Stephens. “I’m committed to advancing our cutting-edge solutions and collaborating with our partners and customers to push the boundaries of what is possible. Together, we’ll build on Crystal Group’s legacy of delivering exceptional products for our customers’ demanding needs and requirements.” About Crystal Group, Inc. Crystal Group, Inc. is a leading provider of high-performance, rugged compute solutions for defense, government, commercial and industrial markets. Founded in 1987, this fast-growing, employee-owned business specializes in the design, customization, build and testing of rugged servers, embedded computers, networking devices, displays, and data storage for high reliability in harsh environments. Their integrated solutions meet or exceed IEEE, IEC, and military standards, including MIL-STD-810, 167-1, 461, and MIL-S-901, to bring seamless, real-time artificial intelligence, autonomy and cybersecurity to demanding edge applications. All products are manufactured in the company’s U.S. facility, certified to ISO 9001:2015/AS9100D standards and are backed by a five-plus-year warranty. ©2024 Crystal Group, Inc. All rights reserved. All marks are property of their respective owners. Design and specifications are subject to change. View source version on businesswire.com : https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241122015505/en/ CONTACT: Ellie Gretter Phone: 319.294.3453 Email:ellie.gretter@crystalrugged.com KEYWORD: IOWA UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: TECHNOLOGY MANUFACTURING MILITARY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE DEFENSE TELECOMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE NETWORKS HARDWARE OTHER MANUFACTURING DATA MANAGEMENT SECURITY GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SOURCE: Crystal Group, Inc. Copyright Business Wire 2024. PUB: 11/22/2024 01:00 PM/DISC: 11/22/2024 01:00 PM http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241122015505/en

President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday nominated Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, as the US ambassador to France, in the latest of several controversial picks. Kushner "is a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker, who will be a strong advocate representing our Country & its interests," Trump said on his Truth Social website, adding that Jared "worked closely with me in the White House." Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.

Former Proud Boys Leader Testifies in Defense of Officer Accused of Aiding Him

Shearer and Sutton. Rooney and Ronaldo. Vardy and Mahrez. Drogba and Lampard. Silva and Aguero. Many Premier League champions feature double acts - essential attacking supply lines which feed the title charge. If Arsenal are to challenge for the title this season, it will be down to their own deadly duo - Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard. Saturday's 5-2 win at West Ham , during which Arsenal were irresistible for a 25-minute spell in a manic first half, showed what they are capable of when both men are on song. Most telling was when Saka and Odegaard combined to set up the killer second goal, shortly after West Ham thought they had equalised only for Crysencio Summerville's chipped finish to be chalked off for offside. Odegaard's chipped through ball for Saka was delightful, as was the Englishman's square pass to Leandro Trossard who tapped home. Their on-pitch relationship is so good they can even share penalty duties. With both Saka and Odegaard netting from the spot, Arsenal scored two first-half penalties for the first time in a Premier League match. "He asked me for the ball - he wanted to score," Saka told BBC Match of the Day about Odegaard taking the first penalty. "He gives me a lot of balls so it is nice to return that to him." Saka and Odegaard are the key for Arsenal - if both are fit they have a chance of hunting Liverpool down. The awful showing at Bournemouth , when both were absent with injury, illustrated how Arsenal struggle without them. That game was the nadir of a seven Premier League match spell where Odegaard was absent with an ankle sprain. In the three league games since his return, Arsenal's captain has contributed a goal or assist in every single one. "I just wonder, has Martin Odegaard been as big a miss to Arsenal as Rodri to Manchester City?" asked Chris Sutton on BBC Radio 5 Live. "Arsenal are growing on me. With Martin Odegaard back, they are a different team." Arsenal have not lost a Premier League game Odegaard has played in since April - but it is notable from some key stats that while Saka has played double the minutes of Odegaard, he has much more than double the Norwegian's number in several key metrics. Odegaard, in 499 Premier League minutes this season, has scored one goal, provided two assists, had three shots and created a further four chances. Saka, in 981 league minutes, has scored five goals, provided 10 assists, taken 40 shots and created another 36 chances for team-mates. Based on these stats one might claim Saka, somehow, remains underrated. But the stats reflect the Arsenal pipeline. Odegaard feeds Saka, Saka feeds the team - and Saka gets the glamourous stats. That was encapsulated at London Stadium. Saka created four chances to Odegaard's one, and had nine touches in the West Ham box. Odegaard's only touch in the home area was the penalty he scored. "Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard linked up beautifully at times and they looked like the side we've seen over the last couple of years," Jamie Redknapp told Sky Sports. "It just shows everybody what Odegaard does for this team - he knits it together. He is the glue in the team. He is an absolute joy to watch and you see how much better they are with him. "He frees Saka up and gives him that time in one-on-one situations that you can't really have unless Odegaard is playing." That is not to say Saka is reliant on Odegaard in order to create. The winger, far from looking exhausted after a punishing 2024 which included his crucial role in England's European Championship campaign, is in the form of his life. Saka, whose penalty to make it 5-2 was his first away league goal of the season, has now been directly involved in 15 Premier League goals in 2024-25 - second only to the 16 by Mohamed Salah. You could even claim Saka has 16 goal involvements if you include him being fouled for the first Arsenal penalty against West Ham. It counts as an assist on Fantasy Football, after all. "Incredible," Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta told his post-match media conference of Saka's attacking numbers. "This is the hardest thing to do in football - to impact the scoreline in that way." Of those 15 official involvements, 10 have been Saka assists. Only Harry Kane, Cesc Fabregas and Mesut Ozil have reached double figures for assists in fewer games into a team's Premier League campaign. Saka has added a tough edge to his game, too. He was booked in the first half after a clash with West Ham left-back Emerson, and later squared up to centre-back Jean-Clair Todibo, who is significantly taller. Ultimately, Saka and Odegaard's symbiosis on Saturday extended to the very end of their time on the pitch. They were subbed together in the 74th minute, job done. "Today was a top performance from us and we scored a lot of goals," Saka told BBC Match of the Day. "We are playing good football right now and we want to continue like this. "We are back to our best form - we look fluid and dynamic. We are all enjoying football right now." Liverpool have been near perfect so far in the Premier League, so Arsenal have to wait and hope for a dip - then strike if it comes. As Sutton said on BBC Radio 5 Live: "With Arsenal now it looks like they're hitting form. Good for them - title race on." If that is to manifest, it will be the dynamic duo of Saka and Odegaard who make it happen.

One of the country’s largest health insurers reversed a change in policy Thursday after widespread outcry, saying it would not tie payments in some states to the length of time a patient went under anesthesia. Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield said in a statement that its decision to backpedal resulted from “significant widespread misinformation” about the policy. “To be clear, it never was and never will be the policy of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield to not pay for medically necessary anesthesia services,” the statement said. “The proposed update to the policy was only designed to clarify the appropriateness of anesthesia consistent with well-established clinical guidelines.” Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield would have used “physician work time values,” which is published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as the metric for anesthesia limits; maternity patients and patients under the age of 22 were exempt. But Dr. Jonathan Gal, economics committee chair of the American Society for Anesthesiologists, said it’s unclear how CMS derives those values. In mid-November, the American Society for Anesthesiologists called on Anthem to “reverse the proposal immediately,” saying in a news release that the policy would have taken effect in February in New York, Connecticut and Missouri. It’s not clear how many states in total would have been affected, as notices also were posted in Virginia and Colorado . People across the country registered their concerns and complaints on social media, and encouraged people in affected states to call their legislators. Some people noted that the policy could prevent patients from getting overcharged. Gal said the policy change would have been unprecedented, ignored the “nuanced, unpredictable human element” of surgery and was a clear “money grab.” “It’s incomprehensible how a health insurance company could so blatantly continue to prioritize their profits over safe patient care,” he said. “If Anthem is, in fact, rescinding the policy, we’re delighted that they came to their senses.” Prior to Anthem’s announcement Thursday, Connecticut comptroller Sean Scanlon said the “concerning” policy wouldn’t affect the state after conversations with the insurance company. And New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in an emailed statement Thursday that her office had also successfully intervened. The insurance giant’s policy change came one day after the CEO of UnitedHealthcare , another major insurance company, was shot and killed in New York City. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Click to share on X (Opens in new window) Most Popular A shooter kills UnitedHealthcare’s CEO in an ambush in New York, police say A shooter kills UnitedHealthcare’s CEO in an ambush in New York, police say Amazon same-day delivery center opens in Hampton — the 1st of its kind in Hampton Roads Amazon same-day delivery center opens in Hampton — the 1st of its kind in Hampton Roads Amber Alert: 3 children in extreme danger last seen at Augusta County bus stop, police say Amber Alert: 3 children in extreme danger last seen at Augusta County bus stop, police say Here are the top 50 high school football recruits in Hampton Roads’ Class of 2025 Here are the top 50 high school football recruits in Hampton Roads’ Class of 2025 ‘Deny,’ ‘defend’ and ‘depose’: Ammunition used in CEO’s killing had writing on it, AP source says ‘Deny,’ ‘defend’ and ‘depose’: Ammunition used in CEO’s killing had writing on it, AP source says John Hinckley Jr., who tried to kill Ronald Reagan, announces plans to open music store in Williamsburg John Hinckley Jr., who tried to kill Ronald Reagan, announces plans to open music store in Williamsburg Newport News retiree warns of losing access to doctors under city’s insurance provider Newport News retiree warns of losing access to doctors under city’s insurance provider German restaurant Deutsche Ecke opens in Newport News German restaurant Deutsche Ecke opens in Newport News Attend the German Christmas Market this weekend in Newport News Attend the German Christmas Market this weekend in Newport News The latest business openings and closings in Hampton Roads The latest business openings and closings in Hampton Roads Trending Nationally UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson killed by masked gunman outside NYC hotel Pennsylvania-based Yuengling, the oldest brewery in America, is bringing its beer to Chicago Maverick operator of California raw milk dairy that sickened children could have role in Trump’s FDA DeSantis interested in Defense secretary job, replacing Hegseth: insider Hugh Jackman’s ex-wife not ready for ‘blended’ family with Sutton Foster

Taliban hint at shielding anti-Pakistan militants in Afghanistan as 'guests'S&P 500 closes at record high after strong US jobs reportIndexes dip with UnitedHealth, tech, ahead of jobs report - ReutersAnthem Blue Cross Blue Shield reverses decision to put a time limit on anesthesia

Wall Street stocks stumbled on Friday as major companies saw their shares fall towards the end of a holiday week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.8 percent to 42,992, while the broad-based S&P 500 slid 1.1 percent to 5,970. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index plunged 1.5 percent to 19,722. Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers said the sell-off caught many people by surprise. "I think a lot of people got very complacent about the idea that we would have a Santa Claus rally," he added. He was referring to a tendency for markets to fare well in the last five trading days of the year, and the first two in the new year. "The selling is very much across-the-board. There's not an obvious catalyst for it today," said Sosnick, noting that the trend was more ferocious as volumes were light. Major companies in particular saw their shares fall, with Microsoft slipping 1.7 percent. Amazon lost 1.4 percent, while Nvidia dropped 2.0 percent. Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital said the slump was both a "year-end adjustment" and due to a rise in US Treasury bond yields. "That's putting the brakes on, applying the brakes to the market," he said. (AFP)Ship strikes kill thousands of whales. A study of hot spots could map out solutions