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Awarded industry-first design win from a top-four hyperscaler SANTA CLARA, Calif. , Dec. 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Pure Storage (NYSE: PSTG), the IT pioneer that delivers the world's most advanced data storage technologies and services, announced financial results for its third quarter fiscal year 2025 ended November 3, 2024. "Pure Storage has achieved another industry first in our journey of data storage innovation with a transformational design win for our DirectFlash technology in a top-four hyperscaler," said Pure Storage Chairman and CEO Charles Giancarlo . "This win is the vanguard for Pure Flash technology to become the standard for all hyperscaler online storage, providing unparalleled performance and scalability while also reducing operating costs and power consumption." Third Quarter Financial Highlights "Our third quarter results exceeded our expectations on revenue and operating income, demonstrating the sustaining strength of our business models," said Kevan Krysler , Pure Storage CFO. "We remain focused on driving both near-term results and long-term value creation through disciplined investments and innovation that position Pure as the leader in transforming the data storage landscape." Third Quarter Company Highlights Industry Recognition and Accolades Fourth Quarter and FY25 Guidance Q4FY25 Revenue $867M Revenue YoY Growth Rate 9.7 % Non-GAAP Operating Income $135M Non-GAAP Operating Margin 15.6 % FY25 Revenue $3.15B Revenue YoY Growth Rate 11.5 % Non-GAAP Operating Income $540M Non-GAAP Operating Margin 17 % These statements are forward-looking and actual results may differ materially. Refer to the Forward Looking Statements section below for information on the factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from these statements. Pure has not reconciled its guidance for non-GAAP operating income and non-GAAP operating margin to their most directly comparable GAAP measures because certain items that impact these measures are not within Pure's control and/or cannot be reasonably predicted. Accordingly, reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures guidance to the corresponding GAAP measures are not available without unreasonable effort. Conference Call Information Pure will host a teleconference to discuss the third quarter fiscal 2025 results at 2:00 pm PT today, December 3, 2024. A live audio broadcast of the conference call will be available on the Pure Storage Investor Relations website . Pure will also post its earnings presentation and prepared remarks to this website concurrent with this release. A replay will be available following the call on the Pure Storage Investor Relations website or for two weeks at 1-800-770-2030 (or 1-647-362-9199 for international callers) with passcode 5667482. Additionally, Pure is scheduled to participate at the following investor conferences: Wells Fargo 8th Annual TMT Summit Date: Wednesday, December 4, 2024 Time: 1:30 p.m. PT / 4:30 p.m. ET Chief Technology Officer Rob Lee 27th Annual Needham Growth Conference Date: Thursday, January 16, 2025 Time: 9:45 a.m. PT / 12:45 p.m. ET Founder & Chief Visionary Officer John "Co z" Colgrove Chief Financial Officer Kevan Krysler The presentations will be webcast live and archived on Pure's Investor Relations website at investor.purestorage.com . ---- About Pure Storage Pure Storage (NYSE: PSTG) delivers the industry's most advanced data storage platform to store, manage, and protect the world's data at any scale. With Pure Storage, organizations have ultimate simplicity and flexibility, saving time, money, and energy. From AI to archive, Pure Storage delivers a cloud experience with one unified Storage as-a-Service platform across on premises, cloud, and hosted environments. Our platform is built on our Evergreen architecture that evolves with your business – always getting newer and better with zero planned downtime, guaranteed. Our customers are actively increasing their capacity and processing power while significantly reducing their carbon and energy footprint. It's easy to fall in love with Pure Storage, as evidenced by the highest Net Promoter Score in the industry. For more information, visit www.purestorage.com . Connect with Pure Blog LinkedIn Twitter Facebook Pure Storage, the Pure P Logo, Portworx, and the marks on the Pure Storage Trademark List are trademarks or registered trademarks of Pure Storage Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. The Trademark List can be found at purestorage.com/trademarks . Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Forward Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding our products, business and operations, including but not limited to our views relating to our opportunity with hyperscale and AI environments, our ability to meet hyperscalers' performance and price requirements, our ability to meet the needs of hyperscalers for the entire spectrum of their online storage use cases, the timing and magnitude of large orders, including sales to hyperscalers, the timing and amount of revenue from hyperscaler licensing and support services, future period financial and business results, demand for our products and subscription services, including Evergreen//One, the relative sales mix between our subscription and consumption offerings and traditional capital expenditure sales, our technology and product strategy, specifically customer priorities around sustainability, the environmental and energy saving benefits to our customers of using our products, our ability to perform during current macro conditions and expand market share, our sustainability goals and benefits, the impact of inflation, economic or supply chain disruptions, our expectations regarding our product and technology differentiation, new customer acquisition, and other statements regarding our products, business, operations and results. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on potentially inaccurate assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected or implied by the forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. The potential risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from the results predicted include, among others, those risks and uncertainties included under the caption "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in our filings and reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available on our Investor Relations website at investor.purestorage.com and on the SEC website at www.sec.gov . Additional information is also set forth in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended February 4, 2024. All information provided in this release and in the attachments is as of December 3, 2024, and Pure undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law. Key Performance Metric Subscription ARR is a key business metric that refers to total annualized contract value of all active subscription agreements on the last day of the quarter, plus on-demand revenue for the quarter multiplied by four. Non-GAAP Financial Measures To supplement our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements, which are prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP, Pure uses the following non-GAAP financial measures: non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating income (loss), non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP net income (loss), non-GAAP net income (loss) per share, and free cash flow. We use these non-GAAP financial measures for financial and operational decision-making and as a means to evaluate period-to-period comparisons. Our management believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide meaningful supplemental information regarding our performance and liquidity by excluding certain expenses such as stock-based compensation expense, payments to former shareholders of acquired companies, payroll tax expense related to stock-based activities, amortization of debt issuance costs related to debt, and amortization of intangible assets acquired from acquisitions that may not be indicative of our ongoing core business operating results. Pure believes that both management and investors benefit from referring to these non-GAAP financial measures in assessing our performance and when analyzing historical performance and liquidity and planning, forecasting, and analyzing future periods. The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for our financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP, and our non-GAAP measures may be different from non-GAAP measures used by other companies. For a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP measures, please see the tables captioned "Reconciliations of non-GAAP results of operations to the nearest comparable GAAP measures" and "Reconciliation from net cash provided by operating activities to free cash flow," included at the end of this release. PURE STORAGE, INC. Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (in thousands, unaudited) At the End of Third Quarter of Fiscal 2025 Fiscal 2024 Assets Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 894,569 $ 702,536 Marketable securities 753,960 828,557 Accounts receivable, net of allowance of $956 and $1,060 578,224 662,179 Inventory 41,571 42,663 Deferred commissions, current 86,839 88,712 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 204,485 173,407 Total current assets 2,559,648 2,498,054 Property and equipment, net 431,353 352,604 Operating lease right-of-use-assets 157,574 129,942 Deferred commissions, non-current 210,671 215,620 Intangible assets, net 23,039 33,012 Goodwill 361,427 361,427 Restricted cash 11,249 9,595 Other assets, non-current 99,504 55,506 Total assets $ 3,854,465 $ 3,655,760 Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity Current liabilities: Accounts payable $ 102,021 $ 82,757 Accrued compensation and benefits 155,652 250,257 Accrued expenses and other liabilities 141,846 135,755 Operating lease liabilities, current 47,941 44,668 Deferred revenue, current 897,174 852,247 Debt, current 100,000 — Total current liabilities 1,444,634 1,365,684 Long-term debt — 100,000 Operating lease liabilities, non-current 146,390 123,201 Deferred revenue, non-current 784,282 742,275 Other liabilities, non-current 68,573 54,506 Total liabilities 2,443,879 2,385,666 Stockholders' equity: Common stock and additional paid-in capital 2,821,010 2,749,627 Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) 1,023 (3,782) Accumulated deficit (1,411,447) (1,475,751) Total stockholders' equity 1,410,586 1,270,094 Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 3,854,465 $ 3,655,760 PURE STORAGE, INC. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (in thousands, except per share data, unaudited) Third Quarter of Fiscal First Three Quarters of Fiscal 2025 2024 2025 2024 Revenue: Product $ 454,735 $ 453,277 $ 1,204,714 $ 1,161,978 Subscription services 376,337 309,561 1,083,608 878,838 Total revenue 831,072 762,838 2,288,322 2,040,816 Cost of revenue: Product (1) 154,970 126,770 385,446 343,588 Subscription services (1) 93,180 83,321 284,168 244,541 Total cost of revenue 248,150 210,091 669,614 588,129 Gross profit 582,922 552,747 1,618,708 1,452,687 Operating expenses: Research and development (1) 200,086 182,100 589,396 549,923 Sales and marketing (1) 255,830 231,707 757,069 696,885 General and administrative (1) 67,319 64,729 213,551 192,944 Restructuring and impairment (2) — — 15,901 16,766 Total operating expenses 523,235 478,536 1,575,917 1,456,518 Income (loss) from operations 59,687 74,211 42,791 (3,831) Other income (expense), net 17,156 5,184 50,684 23,619 Income before provision for income taxes 76,843 79,395 93,475 19,788 Income tax provision 13,204 9,006 29,171 23,915 Net income (loss) $ 63,639 $ 70,389 $ 64,304 $ (4,127)A real estate company is offering prospective homeowners a feature that, for many, matters more than advice on local schools, access to healthcare or shopping: a breakdown of how their future neighbours voted. Oyssey, designed by a Boston-based entrepreneur and former real estate broker, allows potential buyers to see the political affiliations of their neighbours before sealing the deal. Scraping open-source data on campaign contributions and party registrations, Oyssey’s app reveals the political inclinations of a neighbourhood as well levels of pet ownership, education and household wealth. It even displays TikTok videos made in neighbouring homes. Huw Nierenberg, who co-founded the company with friends he met while working on political campaigns, said the tool would help home buyers “to find their people”. With America more

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey interim Sen. George Helmy, a Democrat appointed when Bob Menendez resigned after a federal corruption conviction , is stepping down this weekend so Sen.-elect Andy Kim can be sworn in early. The move was expected and confirmed what Helmy and Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy announced during his appointment this summer — that Helmy would resign early so the winner of November's election could get into office before the start of the new session of Congress next month. Murphy explained the arrangement, saying he wanted the “democratically chosen winner” of this year's election to have a smooth transition into office. Kim defeated Republican businessman Curtis Bashaw on Election Day. He'll become the first Korean-American in the Senate when he is sworn in on Monday. Helmy is a former chief of staff to Murphy and has said he wasn't interested in pursuing elected office. He counted voting to confirm 20 judicial nominations and resolving more than 100 constituent cases as some of his accomplishments in little more than two months in office. Helmy said he's been working closely with Kim since his election in November to “ensure a seamless transition.” Menendez, 70, used his influence to meddle in three different state and federal criminal investigations to protect the businessmen, prosecutors said. They said he helped one bribe-paying friend get a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund and another keep a contract to provide religious certification for meat bound for Egypt. Menendez has vowed to fight the conviction and recently filed for a new trial , citing improper evidence that was put on a computer used by jurors. The Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — A judge is weighing whether a Georgia state Senate committee has the right to subpoena testimony and documents from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis as it looks into whether she has engaged in misconduct during her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump. The Republican-led committee sent subpoenas to Willis in August seeking to compel her to testify at its September meeting and to produce scores of documents. The committee was formed earlier this year to examine allegations of “various forms of misconduct” by Willis, an elected Democrat, during her prosecution of Trump and others over their efforts to overturn the former president’s 2020 election loss in Georgia. Willis’ attorney, former Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes, told Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shukura Ingram during a hearing Tuesday that although the Georgia General Assembly has subpoena power, that power is not automatically conferred on a single legislative chamber or its committees. Even if the committee did have such power, he argued, the subpoenas in question are overly broad and not related to a legitimate legislative need. Barnes said the focus on Willis and her investigation into Trump shows that the committee was politically motivated and not a legitimate inquiry into the practices of district attorneys’ offices: “What they were trying to do is chill the prosecution of Donald Trump and find out what they had.” More election coverage Trump’s FBI pick has plans to reshape the bureau. This is what Kash Patel has said he wants to do Biden has pardoned his son Hunter. What does that mean? First transgender attorney to argue before the Supreme Court, challenging health care ban for minors Josh Belinfante, a lawyer representing the lawmakers, said there is nothing in the Georgia Constitution that prohibits the Senate from issuing a subpoena. The duly formed interim committee is looking into whether new legislation is needed to regulate the practices of district attorneys’ offices in the state, he argued. “They are investigating and making an inquiry into these allegations that may show that existing state laws, including those establishing the processes for selecting, hiring and compensating special assistant district attorneys, are inadequate,” Belinfante said. The resolution creating the committee focused in particular on Willis’ hiring of special prosecutor Nathan Wade , with whom she had a romantic relationship , to lead the prosecution against Trump and others. It says the relationship amounted to a “clear conflict of interest and a fraud upon the taxpayers” of the county and state. One of the committee’s subpoenas orders Wills to produce documents related to Wade, including documents related to his hiring and payment, documents related to money or items of value that Wade and Willis may have exchanged, text messages and emails between the two, and their phone records. The committee also requested any documents her office sent in response to requests from the U.S. House, as well as communications Willis and her office had with the White House, the U.S. Justice Department and the House relating to the 2020 presidential election. And they asked for documents related to federal grant money Willis’ office has received. Before the deadlines in the subpoenas, Willis challenged them in court. Willis’ challenge was pending in mid-September when she skipped a hearing during which the committee members had hoped to question her. In October, the committee asked Ingram to require Willis to comply with the subpoenas. The committee’s lawyers wrote in a court filing that Willis’ failure to do so had delayed its ability to finish its inquiry and to provide recommendations for any legislation or changes in appropriations that might result. Barnes also argued that once the regular legislative session has adjourned, which happened in March this year, legislative committees can meet to study issues and come up with recommendations but do not have the power to compel someone to appear or produce documents. Belinfante rejected that, saying the state Constitution expressly permits the creation of interim committees and allows them to make their rules. Even if these subpoenas were validly issued, Barnes argued, they ask for too much, including private and personal information that is not a legitimate target of a legislative subpoena. Belinfante said the lawmakers are simply trying to do their jobs. He asked that Willis be ordered to appear before the committee in early January. He also asked that she be ordered to provide the requested documents and explain what privilege justifies any that are excluded. With a glaring lack of state case law on the issue of the General Assembly’s subpoena power, that’s one issue Ingram will have to address. She said she will consider the arguments and release her order as soon as she can. Willis and Wade have acknowledged that they had a relationship but have said it began after he was hired and ended before the indictment against Trump was filed. Trump and other defendants argued that the relationship created a conflict of interest that should disqualify Willis and her office from continuing with her prosecution of the case. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled in March that Willis’ actions showed a “tremendous lapse in judgment,” but he did not find a conflict of interest that would disqualify Willis. He said she could continue her prosecution as long as Wade stepped aside, which he did. Trump and others have appealed that ruling to the Georgia Court of Appeals, and that appeal remains pending.Sources: Pacers land C Bryant in trade with Heat

Between both upcoming Marvel movies and upcoming Marvel TV shows , there is no shortage of Marvel Cinematic Universe projects on the way in the coming years... but there are announced titles that remain a bit more mysterious than others. One of the standouts within that group is Armor Wars , which was first announced all the way back in late 2020 and has undergone some major behind-the-scenes changes as it has made its way through development. So what is going on with Armor Wars and where do things presently stand? What we do know about the project is admittedly limited, but between that information and machinations unfolding in the near future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are reasons to be a touch concerned that it will be a production that never starts rolling cameras. What We Know About Armor Wars Right off the bat, it should be noted that Armor Wars has never had a release date (it’s not a case of Marvel Studios regularly postponing a project a la what has been going on with the Blade movie ). That being said, it has had a complicated development history. When the title was first announced as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s upcoming slate, the plan was to make it as a Disney+ original series. But while other titles announced at the same time as Armor Wars have either been completed ( Secret Invasion , I Am Groot ) or are on the way soon ( Ironheart ), the journey for the Iron Man spinoff has been much more complicated. I point out that the original plan for Armor Wars was to make it as a series because that’s no longer the direction that has been set. At D23 Expo in 2022, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige announced that the idea for the project was pivoting and that instead of being a show, it would instead become a movie . It was said at the time that medium would be a better fit for the story... but that was pretty much it, as it wasn’t given a release window or specifically integrated into plans for Phase 5 and Phase 6. As for what we’ve heard about Armor Wars in the time since then, there are reasons to wonder if the movie is ever actually going to get to the production stage. Yassir Lester Remains Attached As A Writer, But The Project Still Doesn’t Have A Director Don Cheadle Is Set To Star... But What About The Events Of Secret Invasion? The Iron Man-Shaped Hole In The Marvel Cinematic Universe May Be Getting Otherwise Filled Who Is Making Armor Wars? When a project at a major studio undergoes a change as big as changing mediums, it often coincides with shakeups on the creative side – but to the credit of Marvel Studios, Armor Wars is a project that has kept the same vision in play from pretty much the start. Y assir Lester was hired to be the head writer for the series in August 2021, and it was confirmed by Kevin Feige at D23 Expo 2022 that he would be staying onboard to write the screenplay. Lester has remained attached, having commented on the blockbuster’s development as recently as October 2024 . What Armor Wars doesn’t have presently, however, is a director attached who will bring the script to life, and you don’t have to be an obsessive cinephile to know that the hiring of a director is a pretty damn integral part of a movie’s development. The fact that there isn’t one on board suggests that there isn’t a firm story that is ready to have a particular vision applied, and that’s a troubling look from an outside perspective. CINEMABLEND NEWSLETTER Your Daily Blend of Entertainment News How Will Armor Wars Be Impacted By The Fallout From Secret Invasion? If you’re a Marvel Cinematic Universe fan who watches everything within the canon, you know that the status of Don Cheadle ’s James “Rhodey” Rhodes is very complicated presently. When Armor Wars was first announced as a TV series, the last time we had seen the character was in the final scenes of Avengers: Endgame ; he hadn’t even yet made his cameo in the first episode of The Falcon And The Winter Soldier . Since then, however, Cheadle played a key role in 2023’s Secret Invasion – which includes the revelation that the real James Rhodes was kidnapped by Skrulls at one point and replaced by a shapeshifting alien doppelgänger. It should go without saying that this development has to have a huge impact on Armor Wars , and it very much feels like a wrench in the gears. Based on the Marvel Comics story of the same name, the story is meant to concern the effort by Rhodey a.k.a. War Machine to stop the proliferation of Tony Stark’s incredible Iron Man technology – but that gets a bit muddled when you have to shoehorn in information about the protagonist’s alien abduction and absence from the world for an unclear number of years. I can easily imagine this being a creative roadblock around which the movie can’t navigate. Could The Mix Of Ironheart And Robert Downey Jr.’s Return To The MCU Render Armor Wars Unnecessary? Let’s now address the elephant in the room. When Armor Wars was first announced as a new Marvel Cinematic Universe project, there existed an Iron Man-shaped hole to fill. Robert Downey Jr .’s Tony Stark died in Avengers: Endgame , and the franchise understandably didn’t want to squander all of the love that exists for the character and his spectacular technology. A new series with War Machine at the center made for a logical project to develop... but with everything that has happened in the last few years, the time for it may be gone. In this conversation, the first project to keep in mind is Ironheart starring Dominique Thorne as the titular hero a.k.a. Riri Williams. Announced at the same as Armor Wars , the Disney+ original series has had some delays of its own (it was shot all the way back in mid-2022, prior to the character’s big debut in Black Panther : Wakanda Forever ), but the six episode series is finally set to arrive in June 2025 . And the character using Iron Man-esque equipment arguably makes Rhodey’s story somewhat redundant. The other part of this element of the discussion is the return of Robert Downey Jr. to the MCU. He won’t be back as Tony Stark, as it was announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2024 that he will be playing Victor Von Doom a.k.a. Doctor Doom , but I still contemplate it having a big picture impact on Armor Wars . Between Ironheart and Downey Jr.’s return, one could argue that the aforementioned Iron Man-shaped hole has been filled in the aggregate... and Armor Wars is still stuck in development hell. At present, the project’s future is hazy. Comments made by those involved in recent months have suggested that the film remains in active development, but one doesn’t get the sense that a great amount of resources are being put toward it, and it’s certainly not being emphasized as one of the MCU’s big upcoming titles on the road to Avengers: Doomsday (coming in May 2026) and Avengers: Secret Wars (coming in May 2027). Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for all of the latest updates about the project in the coming months/years.

WHILE the impact of the ban on Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) in Metro Manila remains limited, the northernmost town of Santa Ana, Cagayan, is reeling from the aftermath of the government's decision to shut down these gaming entities. Santa Ana, where POGO operations began two decades ago before expanding nationwide, is perhaps the hardest hit by the exodus of these foreign companies. Register to read this story and more for free . Signing up for an account helps us improve your browsing experience. OR See our subscription options.

President Joe Biden 's decision to grant his son Hunter Biden a sweeping pardon —despite having said previously that he would not do so—reignited the debate about a constitutional power that is vulnerable to abuse. Biden is not the first president to grant a controversial pardon and he will probably not be the last. It is a constitutional power woven in to the presidency by the Framers and would be hard—very hard—to change. But has the time finally come to strip the presidency of the power to pardon? Or could it be retained and reformed? Newsweek put the questions to a range of experts. This is what they said. Alberto Gonzales, Former U.S. Attorney General and White House Counsel The pardon power should remain with the president. A pardon is an act of clemency, an act of grace by the sovereign to be exercised in the good judgment of the sovereign for worthy cases. There is serious debate about the ability of a president to issue a self pardon. Clarification of this issue may require a constitutional amendment. But legislation passed by the Congress could inform a court examining this issue. The problem I have with the Biden pardon of his son is that he told the American people he would not pardon his son. This pardon makes that statement sound like a pure political statement. Second, his statement implies the prosecution was politically motivated. That hurts the DOJ and gives credence to Trump assertions that prosecutions of the January 6 rioters were political. Biden should have just said I am pardoning my son because it is the right thing to do. No more need to be said. George C. Edwards III, Distinguished Fellow, University of Oxford; University Distinguished Professor and Jordan Chair Emeritus, Texas A&M University Changing the pardon power requires a constitutional amendment. Amendments are difficult to pass and ratify. Moreover, every country needs a process to correct errors in the justice system. Of course, providing for the pardon power allows abuse. Donald Trump is especially notable for granting clemency to corrupt officials, friends and acquaintances, and others who were undeserving. The pardon power would be less likely to be abused if presidents pledged to vet all their pardons through the well-established Department of Justice and White House evaluation process and grant clemency only to those who received a positive recommendation. (There is no way to force presidents to do so.) Allan Lichtman, Distinguished Professor of History, American University The pardon power is enshrined in the Constitution as one of the enumerated presidential powers. However, before Biden, it was abused by many presidents. President Andrew Johnson pardoned former Confederate leaders and restored to political power many of the old Confederate elites who proceeded to keep their former slaves poor, controlled, and powerless. Richard Nixon pardoned the corrupt teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa and gained the teamster endorsement for his reelection. Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon, who had sought to subvert American democracy. Bill Clinton Pardoned the notorious fugitive Marc Rich. Donald Trump pardoned many of his convicted cronies and four employees of the private Blackwater security firm, convicted of murder for the killing of fourteen unarmed innocent men, women, and children in Iraq. I will limit my further comments to the topic where I can be most helpful: The pardon power itself. It could be repealed only through a Constitutional amendment, which is not feasible. However, given the rampant abuse of the pardon power, there are remedies short of an amendment. Congress could set clear guidelines for pardons and require presidents to document any pardons linked to themselves or their family members. It should also criminalize the granting of a pardon in exchange for anything of value. That remedy would not apply to a president immunized by the recent Supreme Court decision, but it would apply to anyone else involved. Peter J. Wallison, Senior Fellow Emeritus, American Enterprise Institute Every discretionary power the Constitution or the law bestows on the president is subject to abuse, and in the Biden case it was. But when a president, at the end of his term in office, in the interest of fairness, corrects mistakes made by the penal system during his or a previous president's term, that is often a grace note of his time in office. It should be kept as the Framers intended. Brandon Rottinghaus, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Houston Reforming rather than removing the pardon power preserves the president's ability to grant mercy for overly punitive or harsh outcomes of the criminal justice system. We should not discount the role of pardons in providing for some systemic healing of our nation's most troublesome political moments. Andrew Johnson pardoned the doctor who treated John Wilkes Booth's broken leg after he assassinated Abraham Lincoln. Gerald Ford pardon Richard Nixon to heal the nation after Watergate. Jimmy Carter issued a blanket amnesty to Vietnam war draft evaders, following the end of the combative international struggle. Because of the heightened politics around the pardon power in the last decade, altering the Constitution to disallow pardoning of family members or the president pardoning him or herself might be publicly institutionally acceptable. The executive could reform the pardon power by making the recommendations from the Office of the Pardon Attorney more central to the president's decision instead of only a non-binding advisory opinion. This would ensure that a president puts facts over politics. The Department of Justice could establish additional rules about petitioning for a pardon, such as a conviction or time served before a pardon was granted. The justice department could also limit open pardons, like Ford's pardon of Nixon, or the Supreme Court could restrain the pardon power in the same way. Richard Epstein, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law, NYU School of Law It is a disgrace. Biden did not go through the pardon board designed to limit his discretion, especially in cases of blatant conflicts of interest. I never have seen a breach of promise case. Could that be a waiver of his preclusive and exclusive right? Would it were so! Michael C. Dorf, Robert S. Stevens Professor of Law, Cornell Law School To strip presidents of the power to issue pardons would require a Constitutional amendment, which is extremely difficult to enact, so the question is almost entirely hypothetical. If it were possible to amend the Constitution on this point, I would favor a system like that used in many states, in which a multi-member board makes eligibility determinations for clemency or pardons. The difficulty, given political polarization, would be in keeping politics out of the appointment of members of the board. Terry M. Moe, William Bennett Munro Professor of Political Science, Stanford University; Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution The presidential pardon power should be eliminated. There is no good reason for it. We have a judicial system and the rule of law for determining the guilt or innocence of defendants and meting out justice. Presidents have no special expertise for intervening, nor do they have the proper incentives to restrict themselves to doing good for society and righting wrongs. Allowing them to intervene opens the door to favoritism and corruption, and the nation has seen plenty of both, as presidents have acted to pardon their relatives, cronies, donors, and political allies for self-interested reasons that have nothing to do with justice, and indeed make a mockery of it. In granting presidents this power, the Framers of the Constitution made a huge mistake. As I said, it should be completely eliminated. The only way this can be done is through a constitutional amendment, however, and in practice that would be virtually impossible, as it requires two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate and approval by three-fourths of the states. Efforts could be made instead to trim the pardon power through congressional legislation, but in my view these would be overturned as unconstitutional by the courts, particularly given the pro-president tilt of the current Supreme Court. And it's unlikely such legislation could be adopted anyway, as the president could simply veto it, and Congress would need two-thirds majorities in both chambers just to assure adoption. But that would just trigger court challenges, which I doubt the reforms could survive. Andrew Rudalevige, Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of Government, Bowdoin College No, I don't think the pardon power should be stripped from presidents. It is meant as part of the system of checks and balances, to serve as an emergency backstop against unjust court proceedings. As Alexander Hamilton put it, without it, "justice would wear a countenance too sanguinary and cruel." It can also serve a useful purpose in public policy, as when Thomas Jefferson pardoned all those convicted under the Alien and Sedition Acts—Biden's pardon of low-level marijuana crimes might be an example. But as that immediately suggests, what is 'good' public policy can be in the eye of the beholder. People have argued both ways, vehemently, over Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon! A Constitutional amendment restricting the pardon power does make sense to me. Presidential power should not be used for private purposes—for instance, granting clemency to family members whose rationale for such treatment is that they happen to be related by blood or marriage to the president. My amendment would also overturn the Supreme Court's overbroad 2024 decision making it impossible to hold a president criminally liable for any 'official' act, which certainly includes pardons and commutations. Sanford Levinson, University of Texas Law School; Professor of Government, University of Texas at Austin; Author (with Cynthia Levinson) of Fault Lines in the Constitution Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 74 set out two arguments in behalf of the presidential pardoning power. The first focuses on inevitable imperfections in the criminal justice system, so that the pardon is a display of mercy alleviating injustice, whether in the initial conviction or, at least as likely, in the severity of the sentence. For a variety of reasons one might wonder whether it would be better in fact to have some kind of pardoning board instead of relying on a quasi-monarchical president to dispense such mercy. This is the general practice in the American states. That may not be the case, however, with the second rationale for pardons, which focuses far more on what might be called "reasons of state." Thus Hamilton notes that it might be highly desirable to pardon those accused of treason—or, perhaps, "insurrection"—as a method of trying to reintegrate the into the polity and to avoid making them martyrs. Thus the first notable pardons were of the participants in the Whiskey Rebellion, issued by George Washington himself. Similarly, his successor, John Adams, pardoned participants in the far less-well-known Fries' Rebellion. I should also mention my own personal favorite, which is Warrant G. Harding's commutation of the jail sentence imposed on Eugene V. Debs for his support of draft resistance against American entry into World War I. A vindictive Woodrow Wilson refused to alleviate Debs' ten-year sentence. Harding not only commuted the sentence, but also invited Debs to visit him at the White House! Less happy was Andrew Johnson's use of his pardoning powers after the Civil War to invite basically unrepentant former Confederates back into full membership in the American polity. And, of course, there is also Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon as a means of moving the country foreword after the ravages of Watergate. To put it mildly, there is far more controversy about Johnson's or Ford's pardons than of Washington's or Adams's (or Harding's)! But the point is that on must inevitably rely on the judgment of presidents, in these latter instances, to know when the iron fist of governmental power should be tempered by presidential pardons based on beliefs as to what best serves the deepest interests of the United States. Any president will confer with aides and associates, but, ultimately, I think the decision must remain the presidents' alone; in turn, they can be held accountable, either in elections or by historians, for the decisions they ultimately make. As it happens, the Biden pardon cannot possibly be defended in terms of serving the interests of the country as a whole. At best, it is the display of highly individualized mercy; at worst, it is the almost petulant use of personal power to serve exclusively the needs of the Biden family, understandable psychologically, but little better than embezzlement to pay for a Christmas gift save that the pardon is undoubtedly legal. The "how" is through a constitutional amendment, since the Constitution itself is quite clear about placing basically absolute power in the hands of presidents. The reality is that, perhaps for very good reasons, we are no longer willing to place the kind of blind trust in presidents that the Framers were willing to do when they contemplated George Washington filling the office. My own, distinctly minority, view is that we actually very much need a new constitutional convention where representatives of "we the people" could debate all sorts of issues related to the political structures, of which the presidential pardoning power is only a relatively minor example, that might have made good sense in 1787 but appear to be dysfunctional or even dangerous today.

One of this year’s acclaimed Oscar-contending documentaries goes below the waves with a remarkable community of women free divers off the coast of South Korea. They’re formally known as “haenyeo,” but sometimes referred to as “Korea’s mermaids.” Filmmaker Sue Kim ’s term for them: “A bad-ass girl gang.” The director of the Apple Original Film The Last of the Sea Women first observed the haenyeo as a child. “The very first time I ever saw them in person, it was on my first trip ever to Korea with my family when I was 8 years old,” Kim recalled at a recent Q&A. “My parents took me and my brother down to Jeju Island — Jeju’s like the Hawaii of Korea... We were walking along the coast and just very spontaneously and organically saw this large group of women who were all dressed in their wetsuits... I just was so struck by them by that first appearance, and they caused such a commotion, and then they just went into the water and disappeared. And as an 8-year-old, that made such an impression.” Kim said it was her mother who initially explained more about the haenyeo. “She told me, ‘They’re considered Korea’s mermaids, and they harvest marine life and they’ve been doing this for centuries, and they basically are the breadwinners of Jeju Island.’ ...It sort of imprinted on me permanently.” The haenyo take masks and flippers into the water, but not oxygen tanks: every conch, sea urchin or sea stone pineapple they harvest is collected while the divers hold their breath. It’s dangerous work – fierce currents and exhaustion have cost haenyo their lives. The work requires extreme athleticism. “It’s incredibly difficult labor, and I think that is part of the reason why they’ve had not great luck in recruiting the younger generation to take it on,” Kim observed. “These are 70- and 80-year-old women, so you see them above sea level walking, and they’re hunched over and they’re pushing their carts, but the minute they get in the water, they really do transform into these very strong, graceful weightless beings.” At one time there were tens of thousands of haenyo, but their number has dwindled to a few thousand now. It isn’t only the difficulty of the work that has reduced numbers; as Kim puts it, “It’s not the same ocean anymore.” The director expanded, “What I found when I started filming and started talking to them — all of them uniformly agree that the greatest threat to their culture and tradition surviving is... climate change and global warming; the very delicate ecosystem of the ocean is destroying the marine life. So, the marine life isn’t there anymore for the haenyo to be able to catch and subsist. They can’t actually support their families with their bounty anymore in the way that they used to.” Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai produced the film, the first documentary under her Extracurricular production banner. She told us at the Toronto International Film Festival, where The Last of the Sea Women premiered, “I hope that through this documentary, people will be able to understand what we mean when we talk about risks to climate because this is an issue that we see in the papers. We hear about it, we hear about it on television, but it’s really hard to connect to it and realize how it’s impacting the everyday lives of people. And this is one story through which we understand how the climate change is impacting the lives of these incredible women.” The film explores another threat not only to the haenyo but to marine life in general in the area: the Japanese government’s plan to release into the ocean treated radioactive wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant. Currents spread the treated water to Jeju Island and elsewhere. The International Atomic Energy Association endorsed the release of the radioactive material, but the haenyo banded together to try to block it. Having first seen the haenyo as a child and recently spending a great deal of time with the women as an adult, Kim remains in awe of them. “I found out that they were the matriarchs — they literally converted Jeju Island into a semi-matriarchal social structure, which was unheard of back then,” she said. “This is back in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Korea, like many countries, has a historically deeply patriarchal political structure and social structure. So, when I found out that these women were not only bad-asses, but they were also literally the leaders of this island, and they changed this island into a matriarchal structure, I just thought that was the most empowering, kind of inspiring female community I’d ever heard of.” Kim added, “I just wanted to kind of get closer to them and, basically, understand their ways.”SINGER Tulisa made a surprise re-appearance on the I'm A Celebrity Coming Out show despite fleeing Australia just a day after her jungle exit. Mystery surrounded the former The X Factor judge after she wiped all trace of her time in the jungle from her social media accounts and opted not to stick around to attend the show's final. The star has since said she opted to return back to the UK after being left overwhelmed following the experience and that it had been agreed between her and ITV that it would be best to fly home. Despite this, Tulisa still managed to make an appearance during the annual Coming Out show. As all of her fellow campmates reunited for one final night out at the luxury hotel following the end of the series, Tulisa made a surprise cameo via video message. GK Barry told her co-stars she had a pre-recorded message from Tulisa who was sending her well wishes to them all. Read More on Tulisa A fresh-faced Tulisa said in the clip: "Hello everybody, I am so proud of you all, you all absolutely smashed it. "Go and eat into oblivion! "I am sorry I can't be there, I love you lots and see you soon!" The campmates cooed over the star's words as it cut back to Tulisa speaking to the camera from her hotel room before flying back to the UK. Most read in I’m A Celebrity 2024 She said to the camera: "The best thing about camp was the people and having a giggle got me through the hard moments." It is only the second time she has addressed her jungle stint since departing with the first being when she uploaded a post to Instagram to look back at her time in camp on the day of the final. In the post: "Looking back at some of my favourite moments from the @Imacelebrity jungle. "It’s been a whirlwind. Thank you to @itv for the experience and sending so much love to my Jungle Fam before the final tonight. Sorry I can’t be there to celebrate with you all." Tulisa accompanied the post with a collection of pictures from her jungle stint, marking the first time she’d publicly acknowledged her experience since deleting all traces of the show from her social media following her eviction.

Michigan defensive tackle Kenneth Grant declared for the 2025 NFL Draft on Thursday after three seasons with the Wolverines. The 6-foot-3, 339-pound junior was a third-team All-American and a second-team All-Big Ten selection this season. He had three sacks among his 32 total tackles over 12 games in 2024. As a sophomore, Grant helped the Wolverines claim the national championship with 29 tackles and 3 1/2 sacks in 15 games. "I am very appreciative to Coach (Jim) Harbaugh and coach (Sherrone) Moore and the rest of the University of Michigan staff that I have crossed paths with," Grant posted on social media. "It has been an honor to be developed into a Michigan Man." Other Michigan players who intend to leave the program for the draft include defensive lineman Mason Graham, cornerback Will Johnson and tight end Colston Loveland. --Field Level MediaOffering prize money at the Olympic Games was unfair and was shown at the Paris Games to favour a small number of elite athletes to the detriment of others, the International Olympic Committee said today. In a taboo-busting move that sparked hugely mixed reactions, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe announced prize money of US$50,000 ($85,000) for every track and field winner at the Paris Olympics. Kiwi Hamish Kerr was among the athletes to earn the prize money with his gold medal effort in the men’s high jump . No other sports federation pays prize money at the Olympics. IOC spokesman Mark Adams said that the IOC’s executive board had discussed the topic of prize money distribution, raised by International Federations and athletes' representatives, on the first day of a meeting in Lausanne.MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 03, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SPS Commerce, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPSC), a leader in retail supply chain cloud services, today announced that management will present at the Nasdaq 51st Investor Conference on Tuesday, December 10, 2024, at 3:00 PM GMT. A webcast of the presentation will be available on the company’s investor relations website at http://investors.spscommerce.com/events.cfm . About SPS Commerce SPS Commerce is the world’s leading retail network, connecting trading partners around the globe to optimize supply chain operations for all retail partners. We support data-driven partnerships with innovative cloud technology, customer-obsessed service and accessible experts so our customers can focus on what they do best. To date, more than 120,000 companies in retail, grocery, distribution, supply, and logistics have chosen SPS as their retail network. SPS has achieved 95 consecutive quarters of revenue growth and is headquartered in Minneapolis. For additional information, contact SPS at 866-245-8100 or visit www.spscommerce.com . SPS COMMERCE, SPS, SPS logo and INFINITE RETAIL POWER are marks of SPS Commerce, Inc. and registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, along with other SPS marks. Such marks may also be registered or otherwise protected in other countries. Contact: Investor Relations The Blueshirt Group Irmina Blaszczyk Lisa Laukkanen SPSC@blueshirtgroup.com 415-217-4962 SPS-F

In Class 6 Region A, Oscar Smith is at home against Manchester.Canada kicks off its quest for a 21st title when it takes on Finland tonight to headline the opening day of the 2025 world junior hockey championship. Canada will field a team of top young prospects at the Ottawa-based tournament, including 17-year-old Gavin McKenna of the Western Hockey League’s Medicine Hat Tigers. Winnipeg Jets prospect Brayden Yager is Canada’s captain at this edition of the world juniors. He was part of the Canadian team that finished a disappointing fifth at the 2024 tournament in Sweden after back-to-back titles and will be looking to help Canada get back to the top of the podium. Finland is looking for its sixth title and first since 2019. The United States won the title in 2024 and will face Germany in the afternoon. Sweden will face Slovakia and Switzerland will take on Czechia in the other opening-day games. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 26, 2024. The puck drops against Canada and Finland at 7:30 p.m. ET / 4:30 p.m. PT on Dec. 26. For more information, visit Hockey Canada .DrBalcony App Redefines Balcony Inspections with Unparalleled Efficiency

Pak Shek Kok development plan shifts focus to private housingOMA-S The OMA-S is Optoma's most portable, power saving and eco-friendly projectors to date. Weighing just 1kg, its sleek and compact form factor delivers sharp colour, incredible brightness and flexible set-up features for use at home, various immersive installations and on-the-go professional environments. Built with premium RGB triple laser light source technology and Full HD 1080p resolution, the OMA-S features 1,500 HK lumens of brightness and produces accurate, cinema-grade colours for an unrivalled image performance compared with similarly sized projectors. An impressive short throw lens delivers an up to 100-inch image from just over 1.73 meters away from display surfaces, perfect for small spaces and entertainment set ups. The cost of an Optoma OMA-S projector is Rs. 1,75,000 WAVE 120SK The Wave 120SK is one of Optoma's most compact and hassle-free 4K UHD DuraCore laser projectors to date. Designed for maintenance-free continuous operation, this 3500-lumen projector delivers powerful image performance with flexible installation features and extensive connectivity options in a sleek, compact form factor, up to 34% smaller than previous Optoma models. The Wave 120SK offers superior contrast, accurate true-to-life colour reproduction for movie lovers and delivers bright 3500 lumens so sports fans can enjoy live action with the lights on. It also reduces input lag down to as little as 4.2ms (1080p 240Hz) – perfect for a competitive gaming advantage. The cost of an Optoma WAVE 120SK projector is Rs. 3,90,000 Optoma ZK810T The ZK810TST 4K UHD laser projector is perfect for high end cinema connoisseurs. These are one of the first ProAV projectors to be part of Optoma's Eco Promise. The eco-friendly chassis design is made with up to 50% PCR (Post-Consumer Recycled) plastics and the packaging contains up to 97% recyclable materials. With high brightness, colour precision and quiet operation making this projector the ideal solution for a variety of home/ProAV cinemas. The cost of an Optoma ZK810T projector is Rs.17,99,000/- TAGS: Optoma

MEXICO CITY — A California couple with Mexican roots went south for the holidays to visit relatives, an annual tradition among many U.S. residents of Mexican ancestry. But tragedy struck: Both were shot dead in Mexico's violence-plagued Michoacán state, Mexican authorities said Friday. The couple fell victim to the violence that has been pummeling Mexico. Police were investigating but had no immediate word on a motive or possible suspects, said Magdalena Guzmán, a spokeswoman for the state prosecutor's office. The two were shot just before midnight Thursday while inside a pickup truck on a road in rural Angamacutiro, a municipality of about 15,000 in northern Michoacán. In the last few months, Angamacutiro has seen its chief of security murdered and an ex-mayor disappeared — crimes indicative of the violence that has convulsed the western state of Michoacán. The victims of Thursday's double homicide were identified as Rafael Cardona Aguilera, 53, and his wife, Gloria Ambriz de Cardona, 50, according to authorities and a mourning notice posted on social media. Cardona was the brother-in-law of the town mayor and the couple were staying at the mayor's residence, the prosecutor's spokeswoman said. Cardona was born in the United States and his wife was a naturalized U.S. citizen, Guzmán said. The couple resided in the Sacramento area and arrived in Mexico at the end of November to spend the holidays with relatives, Guzmán said. The wife died at the scene and her spouse succumbed shortly afterward at a hospital, the prosecutor's office said. For decades, Michoacán, a sprawling region to the west of Mexico City, has been a major source of immigrants settling in California and elsewhere in the United States. Many immigrants traditionally return for the end-of-year holidays to visit loved ones and hometowns throughout Mexico. In recent years, Michoacán has seen a wave of violence linked to gangs competing for various lucrative rackets, including drug-smuggling, extortion and illegal timber-harvesting. The state, authorities say, is also a key transit route for precursor chemicals used in the production of U.S.-bound fentanyl, the synthetic opioid, and shipped from China to the Pacific port of Lázaro Cárdenas, on the Michoacán coast. Angamacutiro has seen several recent high-profile crimes. In October, Lizbeth Estela Romero, the head of security in Angamacutiro, was shot dead outside her home. The town's ex-mayor, Maribel Juárez Blanquet, disappeared in August and was presumably kidnapped, authorities say. She remains missing. The ex-mayor's brother, Erik Juárez Blanquet, a state lawmaker and also a former mayor of Angamacutiro, was shot dead in 2020 when a pair of assassins on a motorcycle opened fire on his vehicle in the state capital of Morelia. In a statement, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City said it was "aware" of the shooting of the U.S. couple and was "closely" tracking developments. "The safety of U.S. citizens abroad is our first priority and we stand ready to assist in any way possible," the embassy said, declining to provide further details. (Los Angeles Times special correspondent Cecilia Sanchez Vidal contributed to this report.) ©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A lead organization monitoring for food crises around the world withdrew a new report this week warning of imminent famine in north Gaza under what it called Israel 's “near-total blockade,” after the U.S. asked for its retraction, U.S. officials told the Associated Press. The move follows public criticism of the report from the U.S. ambassador to Israel. The rare public dispute drew accusations from prominent aid and human-rights figures that the work of the U.S.-funded Famine Early Warning System Network, meant to reflect the opinion of unbiased international experts, has been tainted by politics. A declaration of famine would be a great embarrassment for Israel, which has insisted that its 15-month war in Gaza is aimed against the Hamas militant group and not against its civilian population. U.S. ambassador to Israel Jacob Lew earlier this week called the warning by the internationally recognized group inaccurate and “irresponsible." Lew and the U.S. Agency for International Development, which funds the monitoring group, both said the findings failed to properly account for rapidly changing circumstances in north Gaza. Humanitarian and human rights officials expressed fear of U.S. political interference in the world's monitoring system for famines. The U.S. Embassy in Israel and the State Department declined comment. FEWS officials did not respond to questions. “We work day and night with the U.N. and our Israeli partners to meet humanitarian needs — which are great — and relying on inaccurate data is irresponsible,” Lew said Tuesday. USAID confirmed to the AP that it had asked the famine-monitoring organization to withdraw its stepped-up warning issued in a report dated Monday. The report did not appear among the top updates on the group's website Thursday, but the link to it remained active. The dispute points in part to the difficulty of assessing the extent of starvation in largely isolated northern Gaza. Thousands in recent weeks have fled an intensified Israeli military crackdown that aid groups say has allowed delivery of only a dozen trucks of food and water since roughly October. FEWS Net said in its withdrawn report that unless Israel changes its policy, it expects the number of people dying of starvation and related ailments in north Gaza to reach between two and 15 per day sometime between January and March. The internationally recognized mortality threshold for famine is two or more deaths a day per 10,000 people. FEWS was created by the U.S. development agency in the 1980s and is still funded by it. But it is intended to provide independent, neutral and data-driven assessments of hunger crises, including in war zones. Its findings help guide decisions on aid by the U.S. and other governments and agencies around the world. A spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry, Oren Marmorstein, welcomed the U.S. ambassador's public challenge of the famine warning. “FEWS NET - Stop spreading these lies!” Marmorstein said on X. In challenging the findings publicly, the U.S. ambassador "leveraged his political power to undermine the work of this expert agency,” said Scott Paul, a senior manager at the Oxfam America humanitarian nonprofit. Paul stressed that he was not weighing in on the accuracy of the data or methodology of the report. “The whole point of creating FEWS is to have a group of experts make assessments about imminent famine that are untainted by political considerations,” said Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch and now a visiting professor in international affairs at Princeton University. “It sure looks like USAID is allowing political considerations -- the Biden administration’s worry about funding Israel’s starvation strategy -- to interfere." Israel says it has been operating in recent months against Hamas militants still active in northern Gaza. It says the vast majority of the area’s residents have fled and relocated to Gaza City , where most aid destined for the north is delivered. But some critics, including a former defense minister, have accused Israel of carrying out ethnic cleansing in Gaza’s far north, near the Israeli border. North Gaza has been one of the areas hardest-hit by fighting and Israel’s restrictions on aid throughout its war with Hamas militants. Global famine monitors and U.N. and U.S. officials have warned repeatedly of the imminent risk of malnutrition and deaths from starvation hitting famine levels. International officials say Israel last summer increased the amount of aid it was admitting there, under U.S. pressure. The U.S. and U.N. have said Gaza’s people as a whole need between 350 and 500 trucks a day of food and other vital needs. But the U.N. and aid groups say Israel recently has again blocked almost all aid to that part of Gaza. Cindy McCain, the American head of the U.N. World Food Program, previously called for political pressure to get food flowing to Palestinians there. Israel says it places no restrictions on aid entering Gaza and that hundreds of truckloads of goods are piled up at Gaza’s crossings and accused international aid agencies of failing to deliver the supplies. The U.N. and other aid groups say ongoing combat, looting and insufficient security by Israeli troops make it impossible to deliver aid effectively. Lew, the U.S. ambassador, said the famine warning was based on “outdated and inaccurate” data. He pointed to uncertainty over how many of the 65,000-75,000 people remaining in northern Gaza had fled in recent weeks, saying that skewed the findings. FEWS said in its report that its famine assessment holds even if as few as 10,000 people remain. USAID in its statement to AP said it had reviewed the report before it became public, and noted “discrepancies” in population estimates and some other data. The U.S. agency had asked the famine warning group to address those uncertainties and be clear in its final report to reflect how those uncertainties affected its predictions of famine, it said. “This was relayed before Ambassador Lew’s statement,” USAID said in a statement. “FEWS NET did not resolve any of these concerns and published in spite of these technical comments and a request for substantive engagement before publication. As such, USAID asked to retract the report.” Roth criticized the U.S. challenge of the report in light of the gravity of the crisis there. “This quibbling over the number of people desperate for food seems a politicized diversion from the fact that the Israeli government is blocking virtually all food from getting in,” he said, adding that “the Biden administration seems to be closing its eyes to that reality, but putting its head in the sand won’t feed anyone.” The U.S., Israel’s main backer, provided a record amount of military support in the first year of the war. At the same time, the Biden administration repeatedly urged Israel to allow more access to aid deliveries in Gaza overall, and warned that failing to do so could trigger U.S. restrictions on military support. The administration recently said Israel was making improvements and declined to carry out its threat of restrictions. Military support for Israel’s war in Gaza is politically charged in the U.S., with Republicans and some Democrats staunchly opposed any effort to limit U.S. support over the suffering of Palestinian civilians trapped in the conflict. The Biden administration’s reluctance to do more to press Israel for improved treatment of civilians undercut support for Democrats in last month’s elections. ___ Sam Mednick and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

This trading week concluded with a low-key session for U.S. stocks, where major changes were scarce. Despite the quiet end, the Nasdaq posted its fourth consecutive week of gains driven by interest in technology and AI stocks. Meanwhile, indices like the S&P 500 and Dow experienced weekly downturns. Broadcom's optimism about its custom AI chips influenced its shares to an unprecedented high, marking a 24% rise that lifted its market cap above $1 trillion. This fervor in tech was mirrored by other players like Marvell Technology, which gained 10.8%, though Nvidia saw a modest drop. Investor confidence took cues from economic indicators and the forthcoming Federal Reserve decision on a potential quarter-point interest rate cut. Despite ongoing economic dynamics, it's clear that the growing anticipation around AI technology is currently steering market enthusiasm. (With inputs from agencies.)