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The Great Restaurant Development Holdings Limited Files for 2M Share IPO at $4-$6/shJoe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter can be criticized on many levels. The president lied repeatedly to the American people, saying he would never even consider such an action. And he demonstrated that same streak of stubbornness and selfishness that led him to ignore his obvious decline and declare — disastrously for the Democrats — that he would seek a second term. But those mistakes will be debated by historians. The practical and immediate result of Biden’s decision will be to undermine the forces, from both parties, who are now arming to oppose Donald Trump’s coming war against the nation’s system of law and justice. “Mr. Biden’s pardon,” writes Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent of The New York Times, “will make it harder for Democrats to defend the integrity of the Justice Department and stand against Mr. Trump’s unapologetic plans to use it for political purposes even as he seeks to install Kash Patel, an adviser who has vowed to ‘come after’ the president-elect’s enemies, as the next director of the FBI.”The president’s decision, editorialized the Washington Post, “maligned the Justice Department and invited Mr. Trump to draw equivalence between the Hunter Biden pardon and any future moves Mr. Trump might take against the impartial administration of justice.” Discount the Republicans, who are soaked in hypocrisy on this subject. There is real anguish among Biden’s fellow Democrats, such as Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, who headed the party’s Senate campaign effort. “A president’s family and allies shouldn’t get special treatment,” Peters said in a statement. “This was an improper use of power, it erodes trust in our government, and it emboldens others to bend justice to suit their interests.” Rep. Glenn Ivey of Maryland added on CNN: “A pardon at this point will be used against, I think, Democrats who were pushing to defend the Department of Justice against politicizing it, which is certainly what President Trump plans to do.”As Baker noted, one of Trump’s major efforts to bend justice is nominating Patel, a flag-waving, sword-brandishing warrior in his MAGA army, as the next FBI director.Patel has vowed to employ government power to punish Trump’s political enemies and wrote in his recent book: The FBI has “become so thoroughly compromised that it will remain a threat to the people unless drastic measures are taken.” He’s also aiming at journalists who dare to oppose Trump, telling Steve Bannon’s radio show, “We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly. We’ll figure that out.” Tradition dictates that a president gets to pick his own advisers. But tradition, at least in the half-century since Watergate, also mandates that the Justice Department and the FBI are different from other federal agencies and have a second set of loyalties — not just to the president, but to the rule of law and a fair judicial system. That’s precisely why lawmakers from both parties were so appalled at Trump’s first choice for Attorney General — the ethically indigent Matt Gaetz — that he was forced to withdraw within a week. If anything, the Patel nomination is even more indefensible, according to Republicans who served with him during Trump One. When Patel’s name was raised as a possible deputy director of the FBI, Attorney General Bill Barr recalls telling then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows it would only happen “over my dead body.” In his memoir, Barr wrote that Patel “had virtually no experience that would qualify him to serve at the highest level of the world’s preeminent law enforcement agency. The very idea of moving Patel into a role like this showed a shocking detachment from reality.” Trump also floated Patel’s name as a possible deputy director of the CIA, but as Axios reported, spy chief Gina Haspel “said she wouldn’t stand for it, and that she would resign before allowing Patel to assume a position as her deputy.” “No part of the FBI’s mission is safe with Kash Patel in any position of leadership in the FBI,” Andrew McCabe, deputy director of the bureau during Trump’s first term, told CNN. “If you enter into that position with nothing more than a desire to disrupt and destroy the organization, there is a lot of damage someone like Kash Patel could do.” Senators who believe in a system of laws and their impartial and independent enforcement have already defied Trump once by blocking Gaetz. Defeating Patel is just as vital. But Biden’s decision to pardon his son has made their task much more difficult. — Steven Roberts teaches politics and journalism at George Washington University. He can be contacted by email at stevecokie@gmail.com.q253 casino login 。

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MIAMI — For the first time in nearly 20 years, the first night of Hanukkah fell on Christmas Day, marking a rare confluence of Jewish and Christian holidays, which occur on separate calendars. Many regions of the country are home to a variety of faith groups, with rich traditions and cultures. In South Florida, for instance, though there are significantly more Christians, including Catholics, the area hosts the third largest Jewish population in the country. And this year’s convergence of Christmas and Hanukkah, faith leaders say, is an opportunity to foster interfaith relationships through the holidays’ shared themes of hope and light. The Rev. Priscilla Felisky Whitehead said holiday gatherings are a perfect setting for people to learn about each other’s traditions. “It’s an opportunity to really hear people’s stories and to take the time ... to listen to people’s backgrounds and how important their faith communities, their families have been, and how they look at the world,” said Whitehead, who was a pastor at The Church by the Sea in Bal Harbour for 22 years. The holidays, Whitehead said, allow people to set aside their politics and “engage other human beings, at the place where their lives are touched the most by friends, family, tradition and faith.” For many faith leaders in South Florida, building relationships with people of other religious backgrounds is an important factor to building a stronger community. Interfaith work, which has roots to the 1930s in Miami, is often touted as a way to build bridges and find common ground in the face of prejudice and fear of “the other.” But, as prominent North Miami Rabbi Ralph Kingsley points out, interfaith dialogue is also about recognizing people’s differences. “The thing that makes us most alike as human beings is the fact that we are different and have a right to our own differences, at the same time being respectful of the other to have a right to his or her own way of life,” Kingsley said. “And I think both of our traditions try to project that message at this particular season.” Kingsley, 91, who served as the rabbi of Temple Sinai of North Dade for more than 30 years, remembers the ongoing battles of separation of church and state in his youth. He admits that he was adamant about not celebrating religious events in public spaces. But, today, he feels differently. “I kind of have come to appreciate the fact that today, when there was a Christmas tree on display or a creche, there’s also a menorah, and Americans have been sort of taught over the years that they’ve got to live with both side by side and appreciate the fact that there is the other.” Whitehead and Kingsley are long-time friends, partly because of their work in South Florida interfaith circles. They were reunited, unexpectedly, when they both became residents at the senior living community Vi at Aventura. Different holidays, same roots Jews and Christians already have a lot in common, as both come from Abrahamic religions, meaning they (along with Muslims) share the belief that Abraham was the initial prophet with whom God made a covenant. “Both traditions were birthed together in these ancient stories, and they kind of take a turn from each other, but ... our roots really are very much the same,” said Hafner of the Coral Gables Congregational United Church of Christ. “We understand Jesus as being Jewish, and the early Christians came out of that Jewish tradition, so they would have understood Passover, they would have understood Hanukkah and a lot of the other traditions.” Christmas and Hanukkah, though originating from very different stories, have some shared themes: they’re both, in a way, celebrations of light and hope during the darkest time of the year. “It’s a time for both of our faith traditions to emphasize the importance of light and hope, which the winter months increasingly, not so much in Florida, but up North, certainly, become a time of darkness,” Rabbi Kingsley said. Both holidays, Rabbi Kingsley noted, are not really based on the Bible itself, but are holidays occurring in post-biblical times. Though the Bible refers — in many places — to the birth of Jesus Christ to the Virgin Mary, the exact date of Jesus’ birth is not recorded in the Bible, nor is the celebration of Christmas. And Jews learn about Hanukkah from the Apocrypha, Jewish writings that are not included in the Hebrew Bible. Similarly, the origin of Hanukkah is based on a real historical event that took place during a tumultuous time for Jewish people. Hanukkah commemorates the victory of the Jewish people over the Syrian army in a fight to gain religious freedom. When the Syrians were trying to impose their religion and culture on the Jewish people, the non-conformist army, the Maccabees, were able to fight and win the rededication of their temple in Jerusalem. “When they went to rekindle the eternal light in the ancient temple in Jerusalem, they only had enough oil to last for one night, and it lasted for eight — hence the miracle of that season,” said Kingsley. “But the great miracle is the fact that this small group of Maccabees could defeat this large Syrian empire.” The way Kingsley sees it, that victory by the Maccabees ultimately led to the origin of Christmas. “Were it not for that victory, there would have been no Christmas, because there would have been no Judaism, out of which Christianity ultimately was born, so it’s an interesting twist of history.” Interfaith family celebrations For some families, the merging of two religions is an everyday occurrence. Miami native Sarah Robleto is Jewish while her husband, Frank Robleto, who was born in Nicaragua, grew up Catholic. When they were married, they had two weddings. And now, every year the family of four celebrates both Christmas and Hanukkah, integrating family traditions from both religions. “We definitely do both. And this year, it’s kind of even more special because the first night [of Hanukkah] is on Christmas night,” Sarah said. She added an important caveat: the children do not get “double the gifts.” The Robleto’s two children — Jacob, 19, and Madelyne, 13, were both raised Jewish — a decision their parents made early on in their discussion on how to merge their two faith backgrounds. “My biggest concern is that our kids were raised in a religion,” said Frank. “Whether it was Judaism or Catholicism, I didn’t mind either way. I was happy to have them being raised Jewish.” The Robletos, who live in Cutler Bay, currently attend Temple Judea, a Reform synagogue in Coral Gables and on some Catholic holidays, Saint Louis Catholic Church in Pinecrest. Frank, who is still a practicing Catholic, said attending service that’s different from what he’s used to has been made easier by the rabbis and welcoming atmosphere at the synagogues his family has been a part of. “It’s all about how open the temple or the church is on inviting mixed faith marriages. Luckily for us, because we’ve been, or Sarah’s mostly been at Reform temples, they’ve had that openness to invite me as well.” This year, the Robletos will be in Georgia visiting extended family for Christmas. But, Sarah plans to host a Hanukkah night to give her nieces and nephews a true Hanukkah experience. Rev. Laurinda Hafner, who is known in the community for her ability to use her faith to fight social justice causes, said interfaith work is also about working together towards a common goal. Her congregation has hosted events against the issue of book banning in schools and panels to discuss Christian Nationalism, a topic she calls a “common concern” among many faith leaders. She also says, interfaith work is most effective when people can sit down, share a meal and talk. “I am convinced that when you sit down with other people around the table and you enjoy a meal together, break bread, or have a glass of wine, that’s where the real interfaith dialogue and the real interfaith work begins,” Hafner said.

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Houston Texans can clinch the AFC South with some help in Week 15 | Sporting NewsDarragh Farrell When the lions, tigers and orangutans of Dublin Zoo wake and stretch themselves this coming Christmas morning, it will feel like any other day. They will need to be fed and watered and their enclosures will need to be cleaned. While the rest of us are either ripping through the proceeds of Santa’s nocturnal labours or, with any luck, getting a bit of a lie on, zookeeper, Darragh Farrell, will be lobbing great chunks of meat to hungry cats. “This will be my tenth Christmas working in the Zoo,” says the 31-year-old. “We have a roster system. We have one set day off during the week and every second weekend. So if Christmas falls on your day, you’re working it. "In reality, what we do as a team is sit down about a month before Christmas and work out who can do what shift between the morning and afternoon shifts. Myself and my partner Jenny have no children yet so I’m quite happy to do the morning shift so that people with children can get up and spend time seeing what Santa Claus left their kids and enjoy Christmas morning. We have a great team so it’s usually a rapid process.” Darragh started working at Dublin Zoo when he was just 19 years old. Having turned down the chance to study Forensic Science, the Dubliner went on to do a PLC in Animal Care. “During college I needed money so I got work experience working at the front gate of the zoo selling tickets and I gradually worked my way into different roles,” he explains. “I went on to do an Advanced Diploma in the UK in Zoo and Aquarium Management and it’s all developed from there.” Darragh is now one of the dozens of keepers at Dublin Zoo that keep the show on the road. His specific role is to look after what he calls “the far side” of the complex where the primates and carnivores live. "It’s a fair few animals to look after so it keeps us busy,” he says. And when you’re working with animals like these, there is no room for error These are what we call category ones; animals that would pose a risk to human life. Your lions and your tigers, although they are big cats, you wouldn’t last very long in there with those guys if you’re not careful.” With that in mind, Darragh will not be going for those festive scoops in the local on Christmas Eve. Not that he’s too bothered. “Everyone is in high spirits here on Christmas Day,” he says. “We’re all in the job we love so we know what we have signed up for. Besides, it’s not a long day. We have to wait until it’s bright because if it’s still dark it’s dangerous and you don’t want to upset the animals' sleep patterns. We head out to the grounds before 7.45 am and we get stuck in. "We’re usually out for about 10.30, latest 11 am.” “It’s Christmas for us but it’s just a normal day for the animals and they still need to be fed, get fresh water, fresh bedding and have their faeces picked up,” he says. “I enjoy getting in early. It means I can go back and enjoy the rest of the day with my family and my partner's family. "We have our dinner quite early on Christmas Day. So when I’m finished I’ll go home to Jenny, we’ll exchange presents and then we will go visiting before we sit down to dinner. It’s lovely.” Derek Davis Dealing with gaseous exchange of another sort is Bord Gáis engineer, Derek Davis. Derek has worked with the energy provider for over ten years. In that time he has had various roles and is now Head of Field Development. “I work with the wider team overseeing the service engineers out on the field and their day-to-day operations,” he says. “We look after the allocation of work, quality assurance, health and safety and the apprenticeships programmes. We have a good team here of about seventy to eighty who work on the day-to-day operations.” On a regular day, Derek’s team can receive anywhere between one hundred and fifty to three hundred calls. On December 25th, those numbers drop off a cliff. “Last year, we got maybe half a dozen calls,” recalls Derek. “I was in for about 8.30 am and gone by lunchtime. So it’s a short shift and most people leave us alone. It’s funny, over the Christmas period I’d say the 27th is always the busiest. "People seem to be able to handle the problem until then. Of course, if there is a problem the service is available and we’re here to help. Normally you’re just screening the calls. If you can help a customer over the phone instead of someone having to go out, that’s great. But there are occasions when somebody is required to go out to a customer. On Christmas Day four years ago that customer was an elderly lady in distress. “She had an issue with her heating and when we went through it with her over the phone, it turned out she had a water leak that was causing the problem,” recalls Derek. “Thankfully, it was something that I was able to deal with. She wasn’t far away from me, so I called out to her. She was quite anxious and wasn’t sure she’d get someone on Christmas Day. But we identified the problem very quickly and within half an hour we had it fixed and the heat was back up and running. So it was a simple fix. "For me, it was an hour out of my day but it made somebody else’s. The relief from her point of view was huge so she could go ahead and enjoy Christmas. "And you come away feeling great.” Of course, Christmas can be a lonely and painful time of the year for many. Thoughts of loved ones no longer here, loneliness and mental health issues can all be compounded by the seemingly boundless joy around us. Matthew Oakes Pieta, the suicide and self-harm prevention charity, operates its crisis helpline 24/7 and stresses that their qualified therapists and councillors are available for people who need to talk, even on Christmas Day. “I’ll be working Christmas Day as cover for our social channel comments,” says Pieta’s Matthew Oakes. “We have to be prepared to direct people to the crisis support line and respond to queries for help. I’m lucky in that I’ll be over at my parents’ in England for Christmas. "So I will be opening presents with my kids and we’ll have breakfast but I then need to find a quiet space, just to review comments and respond to anyone who needs to be directed to our qualified therapists on the helplines.” Matthew will then carry on with his day but the phone and laptop are never too far away. And he fully expects those helplines to be busy. Pieta’s Christmas Day plan is set up to receive an anticipated two hundred calls or more. “It’s Christmas so people might have travelled somewhere away from family and friends or are just away from their normal surroundings. It could be someone who is thinking about suicide. It could be someone who lost someone to suicide and is reminded of them on the day. "We deal with about fifteen hundred people in December across all the services and we just need to make sure there is always someone there.” If you're struggling this Christmas, it’s okay to ask for help. Pieta’s Crisis Helpline is available 24/7, even on Christmas day, with our team of qualified therapists and councillors offering round-the-clock support if you are thinking of self-harming, suicide, or have lost someone to suicide. Call 1800 247 247, or text ‘HELP’ to 51444.

Mass rallies held in Syria to celebrate end of Assad regimeHeat's Pat Riley speaks on Jimmy Butler trade rumors in surprising announcement | Sporting NewsSir Cliff Richard’s recipe for Christmas gravy has been branded “absolutely vile” after he shared it on morning television. The legendary singer, 84, has claimed that his bizarre recipe is probably the “greatest in the world”, but then again should we really trust the man that unleashed Mistletoe and Wine onto the world ... His recipe, which features all four kinds of stock cubes; beef, chicken, lamb and vegetable, as well as teriyaki and soy sauce, has gone viral after being featured on British TV show This Morning. Chopped and fried onions are added while a splash of Worcestershire sauce is then thrown in to add extra flavor, because clearly it would be bland otherwise and not at all an assault on the senses. “I don’t know it’s the best gravy, but it could be the best gravy in the world,” he said on the show. “I’m thinking of trying to get in contact with a company. You know how Paul Newman has his own thing in America? I thought we could have a Cliff Richard gravy and underneath it should say: ‘Probably the greatest gravy in the world.’” British TV chef Tom Brown was left flummoxed by the bizarre recipe, telling The Telegraph: “I am not really sure what the correlation is between teriyaki sauce and gravy. I am not taking any cooking tips off Cliff Richard anytime soon. It sounds absolutely vile. “I think pop stars should stick to singing songs and chefs should stick to cooking and not try and be rock stars.” Viewers on social media were just as baffled, with one tweeting: “This is the worst thing I have ever heard.” While another remarked: “I will most certainly not be attending his Christmas dinner.” Meanwhile, last year on the same show, Sir Cliff Richard sparked fury among viewers after his “fat shaming” remarks. ITV anchor Alison Hammond, 48, called out the Summer Holiday singer, 83, for his blunt comments made about the late king of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. Sir Cliff was discussing his “one chance” to meet The Wonder Of You hitmaker with Alison and co-host Dermot O’Leary, along with special guest presenter Sarah Ferguson. Sarah asked if Cliff had ever met Elvis, to which he replied: “No I did not. “I had one chance through a journalist when I was promoting Devil Woman in the States,” the singer continued. “He said ‘Oh I know Elvis’ because he knew I was influenced. He said ‘would you want to meet him?’ and I said: ‘Yeah.’ At the end of the interview though I said, ‘Can we put it off?’ because he had put on a load of weight. And I thought if I am going to have a photo with him and it’s going to be hanging on my refrigerator he’s got to look good. So I put it off – and then of course he died.” Alison let out a small giggle and sniped: “You should never have put it off, just because they are a little bit heavier.” Cliff tried to show his regret as he added: “If you’re a fan of anyone’s and you get the chance to meet them, meet them – even if they have put on weight.”Wild-Stars game preview: TV-radio information, injury report, team updates

The opening season of the San Pedro Volleyball Indoor Tournament will conclude this Sunday, December 8th, at the Angel Nuñez Auditorium. The final rounds of matches will feature teams competing in the Junior category, followed by COED, and finishing with the Senior divisions. The games will start promptly at 4PM. In the second round of the semi-final matches held on December 1st, the Jr. Female division featured a matchup between Isla Bonita Girls and Island Academy Girls. In the Male division of the same category, the Island Boyz faced off against ACES Boys. In the COED division, the Warriors competed against SPHS, followed by a match between Barbos and SPHS Sharks in the Seniors category. The results of the final games will feature ten teams competing for the championship in their respective categories. In the Jr. Female division, the Island Academy Girls will face the SPHS Jr. Sharks. In the Male category, Rompe Pechitos will take on the Island Boyz. In the COED division, the championship will be contested between the WD 20s and the Warriors. In the Seniors category, SPHS will compete against Wildsets in the female group, while in the male division, the Barbos will aim to win the championship by defeating the Vikings. Erick Santizo, the organizer, President of the San Pedro Volleyball Association , and Sports Coordinator at San Pedro High School (SPHS), is excited about the upcoming volleyball final. This marks the eighth year of organizing the tournament, and he extends his gratitude to all the teams and supporters for their participation in another year of competitions. Santizo invites islanders and volleyball fans to the auditorium at San Pedro High School to cheer on their favorite teams. After the event, the San Pedro Town Council will provide the winners with their medals and trophies. Looking ahead, Santizo is eager to host another tournament in 2025.

Cruise into this holiday season with a non-traditional vacationHumans aren’t the only ones getting in on the virtual reality craze. Scientists have just debuted a new technology that allows mice to more realistically—and adorably—experience VR in the lab. Researchers at Cornell University developed the tech, which they’ve aptly named MouseGoggles. In experiments with mice, the rodents appeared to vividly respond to simulated stimuli while wearing the goggles. The innovation should make it easier for scientists to run animal studies involving VR. As funny as the idea of rodent VR sounds, there are actual applications for it. Ideally, VR can allow scientists to simulate naturalistic environments for mice under more controlled conditions. Right now, though, the most commonly used set-ups are pretty clunky, with mice often being placed onto a treadmill while they’re surrounded by computer or projection screens. These screens can’t cover a mouse’s entire field of view, however, and it can take a long time for the animals to react to the VR environment, if they ever do at all. The Cornell researchers think that their MouseGoggles are a substantial step up from standard mice VR. Rather than trying to create a mini-Oculus Rift from scratch, they built their system using tiny, low-cost parts borrowed from smartwatches and other existing devices. Like other VR systems, the mice are placed onto a treadmill to use the MouseGoggles. Their heads are kept fixed to the goggles while they’re fed visual stimuli. “It definitely benefited from the hacker ethos of taking parts that are built for something else and then applying it to some new context,” lead scientist Matthew Isaacson, a postdoctoral researcher at Cornell, told the Cornell Chronicle, an university news outlet. “The perfect size display, as it turns out, for a mouse VR headset is pretty much already made for smart watches. We were lucky that we didn’t need to build or design anything from scratch, we could easily source all the inexpensive parts we needed.” To confirm the viability of their system, the researchers exposed the mice to various stimuli, all the while measuring their brain activity and observing their behavior. Across a series of tests, the researchers found that the mice truly did seem to see and respond to the VR as hoped. In one condition, for instance, they tracked how the mice reacted to a gradually approaching dark blotch that could have represented a potential predator. “When we tried this kind of a test in the typical VR setup with big screens, the mice did not react at all,” Isaacson said. “But almost every single mouse, the first time they see it with the goggles, they jump. They have a huge startle reaction. They really did seem to think they were getting attacked by a looming predator.” The team’s findings were published earlier this month in the journal Nature Methods. The development of more realistic VR for mice could have all sorts of benefits down the road, the researchers say. Accurate VR experiments might allow scientists to better map and understand the brain activity of mice modeled to have Alzheimer’s, for instance, particularly the regions tied to spatial navigation and memory; it might also improve basic research studies testing out potential treatments for brain disorders. Issacson and his colleagues aren’t the only researchers who have recently created VR systems for mice. But they say theirs is the first to incorporate tracking of the eyes and pupils. And they’re already developing a lightweight, mobile VR set-up that could be used with larger rodents like rats or tree shrews. They’re also hoping to include more upgrades in a future iteration, such as finding a way to simulate taste and smell.When I was sworn in as the 110 th mayor of New York City, I promised to “Get Stuff Done.” That has been our focus ever since coming into office, and this past year was no different. Get the Full Story But, in 2024, we did more than just get stuff done — we delivered for you, every day and everywhere. We drove down crime, put billions of dollars back into working-class New Yorkers’ pockets, and shattered records for the most jobs, small businesses, and affordable housing construction in our city’s history. Thanks to our tireless police officers, New York remains the safest big city in America. Overall crime is down, with shootings, homicides, and transit crime all down by more than 6 percent this year. We put more police officers on our streets and took thousands of illegal guns, mopeds, and ATVs off of them. We seized more than 6,000 illegal guns in 2024, bringing the total number of guns removed from the streets to 19,600 since January 2022. We also cracked down on car theft and had 12 straight months in reductions. Safer streets and subways are just the start. Our “Charge Safe, Ride Safe” plan has helped cut lithium-ion battery fire deaths by 72 percent since we introduced it in 2023, while our “Operation Padlock to Protect” initiative has shut down more than 1,300 illegal cannabis and smoke shops. To keep our young people safe and healthy, we delivered free, virtual therapy to 16,000 teenagers — largely in underserved neighborhoods — through our “Teenspace” initiative and sued the companies that own major social media platforms to hold them accountable for fueling the youth mental health crisis. This year, we also focused on not only creating a safer city, but a more affordable one, too. Affordability means having the resources and benefits to take care of expenses. We launched our “Money in Your Pocket” initiative to connect New Yorkers to dozens of federal, state, and local programs to save them money. And to build off of our reductions in child care costs, for the first time in city history, we extended 3K offers to every family who applied on time and enrolled 150,000 children in our early childhood education system. Additionally, we expanded the New York City Earned Income Tax Credit and gave $345 million back to New Yorkers. And — to deliver even more tax relief — we announced our plan to “Axe the Tax for the Working Class” by eliminating and cutting city income taxes for working-class families and giving $63 million back to nearly 600,000 New Yorkers. We look forward to working with our partners in Albany to get it done. We shattered affordable housing records for the second fiscal year in a row, unlocked billions of dollars for public housing, and moved a record 18,500 households from shelter into stable homes. After decades of inaction, we passed the most pro-housing zoning change in city history. Our historic “City of Yes” housing plan will build up to 80,000 new homes for New Yorkers and invest $5 billion in housing and infrastructure. We broke the jobs record, again and again, and oversaw the creation of 183,000 small businesses across the five boroughs — the most in city history. In 2024, New York City welcomed 65 million visitors to our city — the second highest number of tourists in our city’s history — and won the 2026 FIFA World Cup finals that will bring $2 billion in economic impact and create over 14,000 jobs for the New York-New Jersey region. We invested in public safety, public health, and public spaces. We issued rules to move 70 percent of all New York City trash off the streets and into container bins, took down hundreds of long-standing scaffolding sheds since launching our “Get Sheds Down” initiative, and created thousands of acres of new public space to make our city more welcoming to everyone — for New Yorkers and visitors alike. Above all, we are just getting started. Next year, we will unveil bold new initiatives to create an even safer, more affordable city for all. Until then, I wish you a happy holiday season in the greatest city in the world.