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world cup fifa philippines Trump vows to pursue executions after Biden commutes most of federal death rowSANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — Persistent high surf and flooding threats along California’s coast had residents on high alert a day after a major storm was blamed for one man’s death and the partial collapse of a pier , which propelled three people into the Pacific Ocean. The National Weather Service on Christmas Eve warned of dangerous, large-breaking waves of up to 35 feet (10.7 meters). Its latest high surf warning will be in effect until 6 p.m. Tuesday. “Large waves can sweep across the beach without warning, pulling people into the sea from rocks, jetties and beaches,” the weather service said in a Christmas Eve bulletin. In Santa Cruz, where a municipal wharf under construction partially collapsed on Monday, most beaches were cordoned off as they were inundated with high surf and debris. Residents received an alert on their phones Tuesday morning notifying them to “avoid all beaches including coastal overlook areas such as rocks, jetties or cliffs.” It warned powerful waves could sweep entire beaches unexpectedly. Local officials said there could be further damage to the wharf, but no more pieces broke off overnight. The wharf collapsed and fell into the ocean midday Monday, taking three people with it. Two people were rescued by lifeguards and a third swam to safety. No one was seriously injured. Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley said in the weeks and months ahead officials will have to assess long-term solutions for protecting the coastal city from the impacts of climate change . “Hallelujah that no one was hurt in this, which could have been orders of magnitude worse in terms of any injuries to human beings and damage to property onshore and offshore,” he said at a media briefing Tuesday. “But I think we have somewhat of a question mark as we move through time,” he added. “And I don't think we're by ourselves. I think this is what coastal communities around the world are probably dealing with.” The structure was in the middle of a $4 million renovation following destructive storms last winter about 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of San Francisco. “It’s a catastrophe for those down at the end of the wharf,” said David Johnston, who was allowed onto the pier on Monday to check on his business, Venture Quest Kayaking. Tony Elliot, the head of the Santa Cruz Parks & Recreation Department, estimated that about 150 feet (45 meters) of the end of the wharf fell into the water. It was immediately evacuated and will remain closed indefinitely. Some of the wharf’s pilings are still in the ocean and remain “serious, serious hazards” to boats, the mayor said. Each piling weighs hundreds of pounds and is being pushed by powerful waves. “You are risking your life, and those of the people that would need to try and save you by getting in or too close to the water,” the National Weather Service’s Bay Area office said on the social platform X. Building inspectors were looking at the rest of the pier’s structural integrity. Some California cities ordered beachfront homes and hotels to evacuate early Monday afternoon as forecasters warned that storm swells would continue to increase throughout the day. In Watsonville along the Monterey Bay, first responders were called to Sunset State Beach, a state park, around 11:30 a.m. Monday for a report of a man trapped under debris. The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office believes a large wave pinned him there. The man was pronounced dead at a hospital. The storm’s high surf also likely pulled another man into the Pacific Ocean around noon Monday at Marina State Beach, nearly 13 miles (21 kilometers) south of Watsonville, authorities said. Strong currents and high waves forced searchers to abandon their efforts roughly two hours later as conditions worsened. The man remained missing Monday evening. In a post on X, the National Weather Service office in Portland, Oregon, said, “It will likely go down as some of the highest surf this winter.” Dazio reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writer Sophie Austin in Sacramento contributed.The Vanderbilt Commodores , led by quarterback Diego Pavia , face the LSU Tigers , led by quarterback Garrett Nussmeier on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024 (11/23/24) at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La. How to watch: Fans can watch the game for free via a trial of DirecTV Stream or fuboTV . You can also watch via a subscription to Sling TV , which is offering half off your first month. Here’s what you need to know: What: NCAA Football, Week 13 Who: Vanderbilt vs. LSU When: Saturday, Nov. 23 (11/23/24) Where: Tiger Stadium Time: 7:45 p.m. ET TV: SEC Network Live stream: fuboTV (free trial) , DirecTV Stream (free trial) *** Here are the best streaming options for college football this season: Fubo TV (free trial): fuboTV carries ESPN, FOX, ABC, NBC and CBS. DirecTV Stream (free trial) : DirecTV Stream carries ESPN, FOX, NBC and CBS. Sling TV ( $25 off the first month) - Sling TV carries ESPN, FOX, ABC and NBC. ESPN+ ($9.99 a month): ESPN+ carries college football games each weekend for only $9.99 a month. These games are exclusive to the platform. Peacock TV ($5.99 a month): Peacock will simulstream all of NBC Sports’ college football games airing on the NBC broadcast network this season, including Big Ten Saturday Night. Peacock will also stream Notre Dame home games. Certain games will be streamed exclusively on Peacock this year as well. Paramount+ (free trial): Paramount Plus will live stream college football games airing on CBS this year. *** Here’s a preview capsule via the Associated Press: Vanderbilt (6-4, 3-3 SEC) at LSU (6-4, 3-3), Saturday, 7:45 p.m. EST (SECN) BetMGM College Football Odds: LSU by 7 1/2. Series History: LSU leads 24-7-1 Both teams are bowl eligible and now are seeking the most attractive bids they can get. The winner will have an opportunity to get to eight regular-season victories. LSU is also trying to snap a three-game losing streak that knocked the Tigers out of the AP Top 25 , while Vanderbilt aims to avoid losing for the third time in four games. Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia, who is a threat to run, or throw on the run, against an LSU defense that has been shaky against mobile QBs this season such as Alabama’s Jalen Milroe and Texas A&M’s Marcel Reed. Vanderbilt: Pavia has figured in 124 points scored this season, the sixth-most in the SEC. He ranks eighth in the SEC with 628 yards rushing and has been named one of 16 semifinalists for the Maxwell and Davey O’Brien awards. LSU: RB Caden Durham leads all freshman running backs in the SEC with 551 yards rushing. He’s scored six TDs and rushed for 91 yards at Florida last week. RECOMMENDED • nj .com What channel is Vanderbilt vs. LSU game tonight (11/23/24)? FREE LIVE STREAM, Time, TV, Channel for college f Nov. 23, 2024, 1:45 p.m. What channel is Texas A&M vs. Auburn game tonight (11/23/24)? FREE LIVE STREAM, Time, TV, Channel for college Nov. 23, 2024, 1:30 p.m. Vanderbilt last played in Tiger Stadium in 2009 and has not won in Baton Rouge since 1951. ... The Commodores last defeated LSU in 1990 in Nashville. ... Vandy’s visit to LSU comes during what is also the first season since 1955 in which the Commodores have defeated both Alabama and Auburn . ... Vanderbilt is bowl eligible for the first time since 2018. ... Commodores WR Junior Sherrill has caught a pass in 21 straight games. ... Brock Taylor has made five field goals from 50 or more yards this season, making him the first Vanderbilt kicker to do so. ... Defensive back and returner Martel Hight is the first Vanderbilt player with 100-plus return yards since 2019 and his punt return average of 17.3 yards leads the SEC. ... LSU has won nine straight meetings with Vanderbilt and 13 of the past 14. ... After its loss last week at Florida , LSU is unable to reach 10 victories for the first time since coach Brian Kelly’s hiring before the 2022 season. ... Kelly is 15-7 in SEC regular-season games at LSU, including 8-2 in Tiger Stadium. ... LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier’s 22 TDs passing is tied for the SEC lead. He’s second in total offense (309.4 yards per game), passing yards per game (312.6) and TDs accounted for (25). ... Four LSU player have 35 or more receptions. (The Associated Press contributed to this report) Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting us with a subscription.

Hidalgo leads No. 6 Notre Dame over JuJu Watkins and third-ranked USC 74-61 in big matchup out West

Electric vehicles are growing in popularity but still make up a small percentage of total car sales. More than two decades of vehicle and infrastructure development have yielded only a 6.8% market share for EVs in the United States. Part of the problem is range anxiety — owners’ fear that they won’t be able to get where they need to go on a full charge. But as charging stations proliferate and EV range increases, that fear should fade. To help, Edmunds’ experts have compiled a list of five of the highest-range electric vehicles available for less than $50,000. The vehicles on this list are specific trims and configurations that offer the most range for the least money. The range ratings listed below are a combination of EPA and manufacturer estimates. Edmunds does its own independent EV range testing, which can be found on its website. Prices listed here include destination charges. With an ultra-low starting price, the Equinox EV is both affordable and practical. Chevy estimates its range at 319 miles. That, of course, is not a formal EPA estimate, but it’s identical to what the EPA estimated for the Equinox with this powertrain for 2024. The big difference for 2025 is a significantly lower starting price for a car with fewer features and slightly more power. Still, the Equinox includes several meaningful driver assist features, such as automated emergency braking and rear parking sensors, as standard. Equinox LT FWD price: $34,995 A max 320-mile EPA range rating helps make Ford’s iconically named EV reasonably practical. The Mach-E charges slower than other EVs in this price range, but it’s more engaging to drive than many competitors. Its hatchback body and low ride height represent a practical middle ground between a sedan and an SUV. There are also multiple powertrains available, including a more powerful GT version and a shorter-range variant that costs less. Overall, the Mach-E represents an attractive, fun and utilitarian EV for the money. Mach-E Premium Extended Range RWD price: $48,990 With up to 342 miles of EPA-estimated range and a sub-$44,000 starting price, the Ioniq 6 is a masterfully utilitarian electric sedan. Part of its appeal is compatibility with the latest quick-charging technology, which Hyundai says allows it to charge from 10% to 80% in less than 18 minutes. It can also fully replenish its battery on a home charger in less than seven hours. Edmunds verified Hyundai’s charging claims, but as always, they are condition-dependent. Though the Ioniq’s styling may not be for everyone, there’s no denying the appeal of Hyundai’s 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty. Ioniq 6 SE RWD price: $43,850 Tesla’s Model Y was among the first all-electric SUVs and it remains the standard bearer for small electric SUVs. It offers an EPA-estimated range of up to 320 miles. We also like the Y’s utility. There’s decent storage behind the second-row seats, a handy rear underfloor storage area and even a front trunk. You can also make the most of the Model Y’s range on road trips thanks to Tesla’s nationwide network of easy-to-use Supercharger fast charging stations. 2025 Model Y Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive price: $44,990 Tesla made big updates to its Model 3 for the 2024 model year. Tesla estimates that the Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive version can go 363 miles on a full charge. That’s an ample surplus of miles for most people’s needs. And the Model 3 has shown itself to be one of the most efficient EVs available, using less electrical power per mile driven than many competitors. What’s more, range is but one of the 3’s many merits. It accelerates quickly, handles well, and brings together luxury and affordability in a thoroughly modern design. 2024 Model 3 Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive price: $42,490 Every EV on this list offers more than 300 miles of range, which is as much as most people need. But it’s important to also keep in mind that maximum range can be reduced by cold weather, hilly terrain and aggressive driving styles. This story was provided to The Associated Press by the automotive website Edmunds. Josh Jacquot is a contributor at Edmunds.

Donald Trump Jr. has publicly confirmed neither a breakup from longtime fiancée Kimberly Guilfoyle nor a new relationship with Palm Beach socialite Bettina Anderson. But sources close to Trump Jr., 46, and the family of President-elect Donald Trump are opening up t o People magazine about the reasons that Trump Jr. became tired of his six-year relationship to Guilfoyle, 55, and began dating the younger Anderson about six months ago, “right under Guilfoyle’s nose,” as the Daily Beast added . It turns out that Trump Jr. didn’t like Guilfoyle’s “style,” including the “tight dresses,” a political source told People in another report . He felt that the 39-year-old Anderson, with her honey-blonde hair and “Waspy” model looks, would “impress” his father and perhaps make her a more ideal romantic partner. “Don Jr. has always wanted to look good in his father’s eyes,” the political source told People. Meanwhile, Trump family members got tired of Guilfoyle’s attention-seeking ways and are happy that the former Fox News host will be leaving their “immediate sphere” to take a job as Trump’s new ambassador to Greece, People reported. “Kim is not a nice person and always wants the limelight,” a source told People in another report . The former first lady of San Francisco-turned Trump loyalist couldn’t help but become aware that her fiancée had begun seeing Anderson, 39, after he took the socialite on a trip to Alaska and started to introduce her to family and friends as his new girlfriend, even “when he was still very much with Kim,” People reported. “For the most part Kim has looked the other way because she loves the power and lifestyle,” the source told People. When Guilfoyle became Trump Jr.’s girlfriend in 2018, she also became a top campaigner and fundraiser for Trump and one-half of a MAGA power couple. And, as Trump himself said on Truth Social Tuesday, he named her to be U.S. ambassador to Greece in part because he wanted to reward her for being “a close friend and ally.” But, as many suspected, sending Guilfoyle off to Europe was part of a Trump family plan to “remove her from the picture,” so that Anderson could take her place as Trump Jr.’s new significant other, People reported. “They are trying to send Kim abroad,” a political insider told People, who added that Anderson also wanted Guilfoyle “out of the area.” The plan also was for Trump Jr. to wait for the election to pass before letting the public know that he no longer saw a future with Guilfoyle and had a new woman in his life — who also happens to be “a big Republican,” People reported. “They didn’t want the split to get in the way of anything to hurt Donald in the election,” the political insider told People. The U.K. tabloid the Daily Mail on Tuesday confirmed months of speculation that Trump Jr. and Anderson were an item by publishing photos of the two leaving a dinner date in Palm Beach Monday night. Later Tuesday, Trump announced he was nominating Guilfoyle to be the U.S. ambassador to Greece. For public purposes, Guilfoyle said on social media that she was “honored” to accept the nomination, while Trump Jr. gallantly said on X, “I am so proud of Kimberly. She loves America and she always has wanted to serve the country as an ambassador.” Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle, the ex-wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, began dating in 2018, shortly after Trump Jr.’s first wife, Vanessa, filed for divorce to end their 12-year marriage. Trump Jr. and Vanessa share five children. Guilfoyle also left her lucrative job at Fox News after she began dating Trump Jr. The New Yorker reported in 2020 that Guilfoyle was effectively forced out of her Fox News job, following a human resources into allegations that she engaged in sexually inappropriate behavior in the workplace. As a couple, Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle, a former San Francisco prosecutor, became known as “the prom king and queen of MAGA” politics as they campaigned together around the country on his father’s behalf. At donor events, they also were known for alluding to their playful sex life, while Guilfoyle often liked to introduce herself to the crowd — or appear at Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021 rally preceding the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol — doing a sexy dance. At such events, Trump Jr. appeared to take delight in Guilfoyle’s sexy dances and flamboyant style. But at some point he began to get weary of it, according to the political insider who said that he had started to complain about her “style,” People reported. Others in their “orbit” shared his complaints, according to People. “Don Jr. has been telling people for months that Kim is so uptight and always dresses so professionally in these kinds of dresses and high heels, and never looks relaxed or casual,” the political source said, while commenting to People on “the optics” of the relationship. “The tight dresses need to go and she has been told that.” Apparently, Anderson’s more natural, fun-loving style is more to Trump Jr.’s taste these days, especially as he sees that she could become his “own Melania Trump equivalent,” a source told People. “She is a party girl, and outgoing, and Don is smitten with her,” a Palm Beach source told People. “Bettina is smart, sexy and savvy and knows it. She likes to have fun,” another source added. “Who knows what, if anything, will come from this.”Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Boosts Holdings in CSW Industrials, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSWI)AP Trending SummaryBrief at 5:02 p.m. ESTJoin our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More The UAE government-backed Technology Innovation Institute (TII) has announced the launch of Falcon 3, a family of open-source small language models (SLMs) designed to run efficiently on lightweight, single GPU-based infrastructures. Falcon 3 features four model sizes — 1B, 3B, 7B, and 10B — with base and instruct variants, promising to democratize access to advanced AI capabilities for developers, researchers, and businesses. According to the Hugging Face leaderboard, the models are already outperforming or closely matching popular open-source counterparts in their size class, including Meta’s Llama and category leader Qwen-2.5. The development comes at a time when the demand for SLMs , with fewer parameters and simpler designs than LLMs, is rapidly growing due to their efficiency, affordability, and ability to be deployed on devices with limited resources. They are suitable for a range of applications across industries, like customer service, healthcare, mobile apps and IoT, where typical LLMs might be too computationally expensive to run effectively. According to Valuates Reports , the market for these models is expected to grow, with a CAGR of nearly 18% over the next five years. What does Falcon 3 bring to the table? Trained on 14 trillion tokens — more than double its predecessor Falcon 2 — the Falcon 3 family employs a decoder-only architecture with grouped query attention to share parameters and minimize memory usage for key-value (KV) cache during inference. This enables faster and more efficient operations when handling diverse text-based tasks. At the core, the models support four primary languages — English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese—and come equipped with a 32K context window, allowing them to process long inputs, such as heavily worded documents. “Falcon 3 is versatile, designed for both general-purpose and specialized tasks, providing immense flexibility to users. Its base model is perfect for generative applications, while the instruct variant excels in conversational tasks like customer service or virtual assistants,” TII notes on its website . According to the leaderboard on Hugging Face, while all four Falcon 3 models perform fairly well, the 10B and 7B versions are the stars of the show, achieving state-of-the-art results on reasoning, language understanding, instruction following, code and mathematics tasks. Among models under the 13B-parameter size class, Falcon 3’s 10B and 7B versions outperform competitors, including Google’s Gemma 2-9B , Meta’s Llama 3.1-8B, Mistral-7B , and Yi 1.5-9B. They even surpass Alibaba’s category leader Qwen 2.5-7B in most benchmarks — such as MUSR, MATH, GPQA, and IFEval — except for MMLU, which is the test for evaluating how well language models understand and process human language. Deployment across industries With the Falcon 3 models now available on Hugging Face , TII aims to serve a broad range of users, enabling cost-effective AI deployments without computational bottlenecks. With their ability to handle specific, domain-focused tasks with fast processing times, the models can power various applications at the edge and in privacy-sensitive environments, including customer service chatbots, personalized recommender systems, data analysis, fraud detection, healthcare diagnostics, supply chain optimization and education. The institute also plans to expand the Falcon family further by introducing models with multimodal capabilities. These models are expected to launch sometime in January 2025. Notably, all models have been released under the TII Falcon License 2.0, a permissive Apache 2.0-based license with an acceptable use policy that encourages responsible AI development and deployment. To help users get started, TII has also launched a Falcon Playground, a testing environment where researchers and developers can try out Falcon 3 models before integrating them into their applications. If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI. Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here . An error occured.

OTTAWA - Incoming U.S. president Donald Trump is brushing off Ontario’s threat to restrict electricity exports in retaliation for sweeping tariffs on Canadian goods, as the province floats the idea of effectively barring sales of American alcohol. On Wednesday, Premier Doug Ford said Ontario is contemplating restricting electricity exports to Michigan, New York state and Minnesota if Trump follows through on a threat to impose a 25 per cent tariff on imports from Canada. “That’s okay if he that does that. That’s fine,” Trump told American network CNBC when asked Thursday about Ford’s remarks on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. “The United States is subsidizing Canada and we shouldn’t have to do that,” Trump added. “And we have a great relationship. I have so many friends in Canada, but we shouldn’t have to subsidize a country,” he said, claiming this amounts to more than US$100 annually in unspecified subsidies. Meanwhile, an official in the Ford government says it’s considering restricting the Liquor Control Board of Ontario from buying American-made alcohol. The province says the Crown agency is the largest purchaser of alcohol in the world. The province also says it could restrict exports of Canadian critical minerals required for electric-vehicle batteries, and bar American companies from provincial procurement. Ford doubled down Thursday on the idea of cutting off energy exports. The province says that in 2023, Ontario exported enough energy to power 1.5 million homes in those three states. “It’s a last resort,” Ford said. “We’re sending a message to the U.S. (that if) you come and attack Ontario, you attack livelihoods of people in Ontario and Canadians, we are going to use every tool in our tool box to defend Ontarians and Canadians. Let’s hope it never comes to that.” Ontario Energy Minister Stephen Lecce said the province would rather have co-operation with the U.S., but has mechanisms to “end power sale into the U.S. market” the day Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith ruled out following suit. “Under no circumstances will Alberta agree to cut off oil and gas exports,” she said. “Our approach is one of diplomacy, not threats.” Michael Sabia, president and CEO of Hydro-Québec, said “it’s not our current intention” to cut off Quebec’s exports to Massachusetts or New York state, but he conceded it might be possible. “Our intention is to respect those contracts, both because they’re legally binding, but also because it’s part of, in our view, a sound relationship with the United States,” he said. “It’s a questionable instrument to use in a trade conflict.” Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew would not directly say whether Manitoba would threaten to withhold hydroelectric exports. “We are preparing our list and starting to think through what those options should look like,” he said. “I’m not going to make specific news today about items that we’re looking at.” Kinew added that some premiers felt retaliatory measures wouldn’t work in a call Trudeau held Wednesday. Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey said “we have no interest in stopping” the export of energy to the U.S., adding that a trade war would hurt both countries. “We hope it is just bluster; we’re preparing as if it is not,” he said. Canada supplies more oil to the U.S. than any other country. About 60 per cent of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85 per cent of U.S. electricity imports as well. Canada sold $170 billion worth of energy products last year to the U.S. It also has 34 critical minerals and metals the Pentagon is eager for. Trump has threatened to impose a 25 per cent tax on all products entering the United States from Canada and Mexico unless they stem the flow of migrants and drugs. Canadian officials have said it is unfair to lump Canada in with Mexico. U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border. Canada since has promised more border security spending to address Trump’s border concerns. Ford said that will include more border and police officers, as well as drones and sniffer dogs. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2024. — With files from The Associated Press, Liam Casey in Toronto, Lisa Johnson in Edmonton and Steve Lambert in Winnipeg. Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version stated that Ontario exported enough energy to power 1.5 million homes in three states in 2013.Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday signed a law that allows those who sign up to fight in Ukraine to write off unpaid debts worth almost $100,000, the government announced. The new legislation will be a strong motivation for some to join up, experts said, as Russia seeks new ways to recruit fighters for the nearly three-year conflict grinding through troops. The new legislation will allow those who sign a one-year contract to fight in Ukraine after December 1 to free themselves of existing bad debts. It also covers their spouses. The law concerns debts where a court order for collection was issued and enforcement proceedings began before December 1, 2024. The total amount of unpaid debt that can be covered is 10 million rubles, around $96,000 at current rates. Parliament approved the bill earlier this month. The legislation will largely concern younger Russians of fighting age, since those in their 30s and younger are most likely to have loans. Russia has extremely high interest rates for loans and many Russians have almost no cash savings, although the proportion of home owners is relatively high. “Previously (for those fighting) there was only provision for taking repayment holidays on loans,” Sergei Krivenko of advocacy group Citizen Army Law told Vazhniye Istorii Telegram channel. The new legislation applies to those who are conscripted for national service and those mobilised for the so-called “special military operation”, Krivenko said. Conscripts cannot be sent to the front line but can choose to sign a contract to join the professional army and be sent to fight in Ukraine. Russian authorities “are strengthening the motivation to sign a contract,” political analyst Georgy Bovt wrote on Telegram. The legislation provides “another way to get rid of an unbearable burden of credit, at least for several hundred thousand people,” Bovt wrote. Over 13 million Russians have three or more loans, according to a central bank report released last month covering the first two quarters. This was up 20 percent on the same period last year. The average amount owed by those with three or more loans is 1.4 million rubles ($13,400 at current rates). Many start with a bank loan and then apply for further loans from microfinance organisations. Russians serving on the front line are already paid far more than the national average. Ukraine also has legislation allowing those fighting to get preferential terms for loans and in some cases to write off debts. With 2,400 staff representing 100 different nationalities, AFP covers the world as a leading global news agency. AFP provides fast, comprehensive and verified coverage of the issues affecting our daily lives.

Bike found near M48 Severn Bridge in search for missing teenager

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In Unexpected Move, Trump Taps Pro-Union Republican to Lead Labor Department

Alarms OnMr World 2024 Winner Is Danny Mejia From Puerto Rico; India’s Gokul Ganesan Leaves His Mark by Securing Spot in Top 10 (Watch Video)

Numerous East Coast states are counting on offshore wind projects to power tens of millions of homes and to help them transition to cleaner energy. But putting wind turbines at sea requires the cooperation of a powerful landlord: the federal government. Soon, that government will be led by President-elect Donald Trump, who has frequently disparaged offshore wind and said he will “make sure that ends on Day 1.” In the eight states that have passed legal mandates to reach certain amounts of offshore wind power, Trump’s second term threatens those timelines. “This is absolutely going to create problems for how we’re going to meet our emissions goals and the energy needs for the state,” said Massachusetts state Sen. Jamie Eldridge, a Democrat who serves as vice chair on the legislative Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. For many East Coast states that lack a large land base for extensive onshore development, offshore wind in federal ocean waters is central to their plans for a power supply that doesn’t use fossil fuels. Lawmakers in Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Virginia have established mandates requiring their states to produce certain amounts of offshore wind power in the coming years. Other states have passed laws to allow for offshore wind to be added to their grids or set nonbinding planning targets to prepare for the industry’s development. State leaders say they will continue to pursue offshore wind but realize there may be delays during the next four years. In the meantime, some say they will continue to build out the needed electrical grid and ports to get ready for turbines, in hopes of speeding up offshore wind once Trump’s term ends. Others say they may need to consider building more onshore energy projects, including wind and solar, in the next few years to meet near-term climate goals. “That’s something states will have to take into account,” said Dylan McDowell, executive director with the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators, a collaborative nonpartisan forum for state lawmakers. “Is [offshore wind] still feasible, or do there need to be conversations about solar, [onshore] wind, geothermal, other energy sources that could be put into the mix to help meet those goals? There’s more questions than there are answers right now.” While a handful of offshore wind projects have already started construction or been completed, many more are in various stages of permitting or awaiting lease auctions held by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Industry experts say the Trump administration could deny permits, cancel pending leases and halt further auctions. It could also threaten the industry’s financing by denying clean energy tax credits. In an extreme scenario, the bureau could even side with opponents who have brought legal challenges against projects that already have been approved and retract permits issued under the Biden administration. Trump’s ability to unwind the moves made under President Joe Biden is “underappreciated,” said Timothy Fox, a vice president at ClearView Energy Partners LLC, an independent research firm. Trump has repeated claims that offshore wind turbines are a major cause of whale mortality — an assertion that scientists say is false. Many of the groups raising concerns about whales to oppose offshore wind are funded by oil and gas donors. Trump’s transition team did not respond to an interview request before publication. Offshore wind also has drawn local opposition from coastal residents who fear it will worsen their views and from fishermen who worry projects could block access to key fishing areas. Meanwhile, some Republicans have pointed to the wind industry’s recent financial struggles to argue that it will increase ratepayers’ bills. “[T]he business model for these projects has fallen well short of projections to the degree that those wind energy developers are either halting construction or asking the government for additional subsidies to make up for projected cost increases,” four Maryland Republican senators wrote to Democratic Gov. Wes Moore in April, unsuccessfully urging him to veto a financing package to boost offshore wind in that state. Counting on offshore wind States’ offshore wind goals were already facing difficulties. Numerous projects were canceled or delayed last year as inflation and supply chain issues raised costs dramatically. Now, political headwinds could cause greater delays. “Offshore wind might not be a viable option over the next four years,” said Fox, the energy analyst. “Unlike a lot of other resources, offshore wind is reliant on a federal review process because these projects are being deployed in federal waters.” Offshore wind turbines currently provide only a negligible amount of power to the United States. But a handful of projects currently under construction will soon raise that number to 4 gigawatts (1 gigawatt can power about 750,000 homes). And much more is on the way. Developers of other projects are working to finalize financing or permits, and wind companies are awaiting federal lease auctions that will open up new areas for development. In total, the project pipeline for offshore wind exceeds 80 gigawatts, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory— enough to consistently power more than 60 million homes. The incoming administration could thwart most of that production by denying development permits or leases in federal waters. East Coast states don’t have a viable way to meet their clean energy goals without that offshore production, said Maryland state Del. Lorig Charkoudian, a Democrat who authored a law last year that increased the state’s offshore wind targets. “We’ll continue to support the ongoing development of offshore wind until we have to make other adjustments,” she said. The Maryland law mandates that the state produce 8.5 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2031. Developers of a trio of projects off the state’s coast, totaling 1.7 gigawatts, are working to secure permits and financing, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. And the state is counting on future lease auctions by federal regulators to prompt more development. Charkoudian acknowledged that Trump could threaten those efforts, but she said the state remains committed to its offshore wind plans. She noted that Maryland is working to improve its electrical grid so that offshore wind projects can “land” their power, an effort that will continue. “Even if other things do get slowed down, this will make things move faster whenever it can get moving again,” she said. Nick Guariglia, outreach manager with the New York Offshore Wind Alliance, a network of industry and environmental groups, said that projects take many years to develop, a timeframe exceeding one presidential administration. He also noted that the maturing industry aligns with Trump’s goals of restoring manufacturing jobs and American energy independence. Members of Congress in both parties are seeing economic growth in their districts because of offshore wind, he said. “This industry has a lot of things to prove about why it’s here to stay,” he said. “Actions are much more important than rhetoric.” Regardless of what happens at the federal level, offshore wind backers will urge New York lawmakers to continue investing in infrastructure and workforce development to support the buildout of more turbines, he said Onshore work Like Maryland and New York, some states may need to focus their efforts for the next few years on developing transmission infrastructure and turbine-ready ports so that projects can hit the ground running once Trump’s term is over, experts say. “Opportunities exist to prioritize the onshore work necessary to prepare for future leases,” said Alissa Weinman, ocean program manager with the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators, citing the extensive infrastructure needed to support offshore projects. And for now, states may need to look to other energy sources. In Massachusetts that could, for example, include expanding the installation of solar panels on industrial properties, said Eldridge, the state senator. Massachusetts law requires the state to produce 5.6 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035. State Sen. Julian Cyr, a Democrat who has promoted offshore wind in his district in the Cape Cod region, said it remains hard to predict what actions Trump would take. “But I do expect projects that are still in the permitting process to have at best a slower process, and they may not move forward in this administration,” Cyr said. In New Jersey, state leaders are working to construct 11 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2040. “[Trump] is a serious threat to New Jersey’s goals,” said state Sen. Bob Smith, a Democrat who chairs his chamber’s Environment and Energy Committee. Still, he noted that the country’s rapidly expanding energy needs, driven by data centers and artificial intelligence, could make it difficult for Trump to shut down any new sources of electricity. “Our economy will not function without that additional generation capacity,” Smith said. “Capitalism always finds a way.” Like Smith, many state leaders say they’re still in wait-and-see mode. “If [Trump’s administration] wants to keep us out of the ocean they’ve probably got the tools to do it,” said Virginia state Sen. Creigh Deeds, a Democrat who chairs the Commerce and Labor Committee there. “We’ll just have to cross that bridge when we get to it.” Virginia’s law calls for 5.2 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2034.Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More The UAE government-backed Technology Innovation Institute (TII) has announced the launch of Falcon 3, a family of open-source small language models (SLMs) designed to run efficiently on lightweight, single GPU-based infrastructures. Falcon 3 features four model sizes — 1B, 3B, 7B, and 10B — with base and instruct variants, promising to democratize access to advanced AI capabilities for developers, researchers, and businesses. According to the Hugging Face leaderboard, the models are already outperforming or closely matching popular open-source counterparts in their size class, including Meta’s Llama and category leader Qwen-2.5. The development comes at a time when the demand for SLMs , with fewer parameters and simpler designs than LLMs, is rapidly growing due to their efficiency, affordability, and ability to be deployed on devices with limited resources. They are suitable for a range of applications across industries, like customer service, healthcare, mobile apps and IoT, where typical LLMs might be too computationally expensive to run effectively. According to Valuates Reports , the market for these models is expected to grow, with a CAGR of nearly 18% over the next five years. What does Falcon 3 bring to the table? Trained on 14 trillion tokens — more than double its predecessor Falcon 2 — the Falcon 3 family employs a decoder-only architecture with grouped query attention to share parameters and minimize memory usage for key-value (KV) cache during inference. This enables faster and more efficient operations when handling diverse text-based tasks. At the core, the models support four primary languages — English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese—and come equipped with a 32K context window, allowing them to process long inputs, such as heavily worded documents. “Falcon 3 is versatile, designed for both general-purpose and specialized tasks, providing immense flexibility to users. Its base model is perfect for generative applications, while the instruct variant excels in conversational tasks like customer service or virtual assistants,” TII notes on its website . According to the leaderboard on Hugging Face, while all four Falcon 3 models perform fairly well, the 10B and 7B versions are the stars of the show, achieving state-of-the-art results on reasoning, language understanding, instruction following, code and mathematics tasks. Among models under the 13B-parameter size class, Falcon 3’s 10B and 7B versions outperform competitors, including Google’s Gemma 2-9B , Meta’s Llama 3.1-8B, Mistral-7B , and Yi 1.5-9B. They even surpass Alibaba’s category leader Qwen 2.5-7B in most benchmarks — such as MUSR, MATH, GPQA, and IFEval — except for MMLU, which is the test for evaluating how well language models understand and process human language. Deployment across industries With the Falcon 3 models now available on Hugging Face , TII aims to serve a broad range of users, enabling cost-effective AI deployments without computational bottlenecks. With their ability to handle specific, domain-focused tasks with fast processing times, the models can power various applications at the edge and in privacy-sensitive environments, including customer service chatbots, personalized recommender systems, data analysis, fraud detection, healthcare diagnostics, supply chain optimization and education. The institute also plans to expand the Falcon family further by introducing models with multimodal capabilities. These models are expected to launch sometime in January 2025. Notably, all models have been released under the TII Falcon License 2.0, a permissive Apache 2.0-based license with an acceptable use policy that encourages responsible AI development and deployment. To help users get started, TII has also launched a Falcon Playground, a testing environment where researchers and developers can try out Falcon 3 models before integrating them into their applications. If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI. Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here . An error occured.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Kaylene Smikle scored 16 points and made a couple key baskets down the stretch to help No. 10 Maryland hold off George Mason 66-56 in a matchup of unbeatens Saturday at the Navy Classic. The Terrapins (7-0) led by just two when Smikle stole the ball and made a layup while being fouled. The free throw pushed the lead to 58-53. Then a putback by Smikle put Maryland up by seven. The Terps won despite shooting 13 of 26 on free throws. George Mason (6-1) trailed by 10 at halftime before outscoring Maryland 18-7 in the third quarter. The Patriots' final lead was 49-48 in the fourth after a jumper by Kennedy Harris. Harris led George Mason with 26 points. Maryland is off to its best start since winning its first 12 games in 2018-19. George Mason: The Patriots have lost all nine meetings with Maryland, but it's been more competitive of late. The Terps won 86-77 last year, and this game was more competitive than the final score suggested. Maryland: After a down season by their standards, the Terps are off to a nice start, but the free-throw problems in this game nearly cost them. With the score 55-53, George Mason had a chance to tie, but the Patriots never really recovered after Smikle swiped the ball from Harris and went the other way for a three-point play with 3:08 remaining. Although Maryland was awful at the line, at least the Terps got there. George Mason was only 3 of 8 from the stripe, and the Terps held the Patriots to 32% shooting from the field. George Mason faces Navy in this event Sunday. Maryland takes on Toledo. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketballOne of the most important tactics not only in the world of NASCAR and oval racing but the broader motorsports umbrella as a whole is a phenomenon called drafting. Often referred to as slipstreaming by the Europeans, the science behind the effect a car experiences when directly behind another one remains the same. As a car drives down the track, one of the many forces it has to overcome to gain as well as maintain speed is moving the actual air out of its way. This force increases as speeds increase, with the car having to work much harder as it nears its top speed. Back when NASCAR was still in its adolescent days, Junior Johnson became the first driver to manipulate this effect and take advantage. Realizing how a car closely following another one in front usually meant the both of them could go that slight bit faster, Johnson became one of the first drivers to understand how to use the air to his advantage. Amplified by the fact that NASCAR still used relatively close to ‘stock’ cars during the 60s, the machines’ boxy designs further amplified the drafting effect. One of the many wins of his career, the victory during the 1960 Daytona 500 came courtesy of Johnson’s ability to understand this effect better than others. “I’m sure that a lot of drivers had felt things with the air not knowing exactly what to do or how to use it, and then Junior taught them exactly what this was about. He didn’t talk a lot about it because this was an advantage he had at the time,” elaborated former driver Dale Jarrett looking back at the 1960 Daytona 500. The subtle art of drafting, which was discovered by racers in the sixties, has evolved into what NASCAR is in current times. The sport has seen a build-up of the same effect and how to use it ever since, with plate racing becoming a byproduct of drafting in the sport, with amplified emphasis on how a car pierces its way through the air. This, in turn, gave birth to pack racing, which sees almost the entirety of the field bunched together, following each other closely to gain an advantage by catching, you guessed it, the draft of the car in front. The Next Gen era is also affected by this complex phenomenon, however, in a completely different way. In the modern day and age, the seventh-generation racecar is often criticized for its lack of drafting abilities, in turn making overtaking difficult for the following cars. Drivers are often seen using this effect to defend as well, with the term aero-blocking cropping up now and then. This falls on the complete opposite spectrum of what Junior Johnson took advantage of back in the day. Confusing, isn’t it? Guess now we know why the industry requires engineers and aerodynamicists to get the best out of each car and driver today, something the racers from the sixties could hardly imagine at the time.

WASHINGTON – The United States should proceed cautiously as officials consider new natural gas export terminals, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Tuesday, warning that “unfettered exports" of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, could raise wholesale domestic prices by more than 30% and increase planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. Granholm's statement came as the Energy Department released a long-awaited study on the environmental and economic impacts of natural gas exports , which have grown exponentially in the past decade. The analysis found that U.S. LNG shipments drive up domestic prices and frequently displace renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. Recommended Videos Increased LNG exports also would lead to higher global greenhouse gas emissions, even with use of technology such as equipment to capture and store carbon emissions, the report said. “Today’s publication reinforces that a business-as-usual approach (to LNG exports) is neither sustainable nor advisable,'' Granholm said. The Energy Department report comes after the Biden administration paused approvals of new LNG projects in January to study the effects LNG exports have on the planet. Natural gas emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas, when burned, leaked or released. LNG is especially energy intensive, since the gas must be retrieved through underground drilling, then piped to export terminals along the East and Gulf coasts. The gas is then “superchilled” into a liquid that is taken by tanker ships to import terminals in Europe and Asia, where it is then reheated into gas and distributed for business and family use. The oil and gas industry, along with Republican allies in Congress, have decried the LNG pause as unnecessary and counter-productive, and President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to end the pause on his first day in office . The pause is on hold under a federal court order , but few new terminals have been approved in the past year. The Energy Department said last week it will not decide on two major LNG export projects in Louisiana until the independent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission completes environmental reviews of each project. The American Gas Association called the Biden administration's pause a mistake that has resulted in uncertainty for the global market, investors and America’s allies around the world. “This report is a clear and inexplicable attempt to justify their grave policy error," said AGA president and CEO Karen Harbert. “America’s allies are suffering from the weaponization of natural gas and energy deprivation, and any limitations on supplying life essential energy is absolutely wrong-headed." Harbert said the industry group looks forward to working with the Trump administration “to rectify the glaring issues with this study during the public comment period,” which lasts until mid-February. Charlie Riedl, executive director of the Center for LNG, a pro-industry group, said Republican and Democratic administrations, as well as independent researchers, “have continually found that U.S. LNG exports provide economic, national security and climate benefits and serve the public interest." U.S. LNG “remains a vital tool for countries looking to displace dirtier fuels" such as coal and reduce their emissions, Riedl said, adding that U.S. LNG exports play a key role in meeting growing global demand for natural gas. U.S. gas shipments to Europe and Asia have soared since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The LNG pause, announced by President Joe Biden as the 2024 election year began, aligned the Democratic administration with environmentalists who fear the huge increase in LNG exports in recent years is locking in potentially catastrophic planet-warming emissions at a time when Biden has pledged to cut U.S. climate pollution in half by 2030 . “While MAGA Republicans willfully deny the urgency of the climate crisis, condemning the American people to a dangerous future, my administration will not be complacent,′′ Biden said in announcing the pause. His actions “heed the calls of young people and frontline communities who are using their voices to demand" climate action, Biden added. The White House declined to comment on the Energy Department study, referring questions to the agency.

Disney Confirms That ‘Toxic Dudebros’ Didn’t Kill ‘The Acolyte’ After AllWASHINGTON — American Airlines briefly grounded flights nationwide Tuesday because of a technical problem just as the Christmas travel season kicked into overdrive and winter weather threatened more potential problems for those planning to fly or drive. Government regulators cleared American flights to get airborne about an hour after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a national ground stop for the airline. The order, which prevented planes from taking off, was issued at the airline's request. The airline said in an email that the problem was caused by trouble with vendor technology that maintains its flight operating system. An American Airlines employee wearing looks toward quiet check-in counters Tuesday in the American terminal at Miami International Airport in Miami. Dennis Tajer, a spokesperson for the Allied Pilots Association, a union representing American Airlines pilots, said the airline told pilots at 7 a.m. Eastern that there was an outage affecting the system known as FOS. It handles different types of airline operations, including dispatch, flight planning, passenger boarding, as well as an airplane's weight and balance data, he said. Some components of FOS have gone down in the past, but a systemwide outage is rare, Tajer said. Flights were delayed across American's major hubs, with only 37% leaving on time, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics company. Out of the 3,901 domestic and international American Airlines flights scheduled for Tuesday, 19 were canceled. Cirium noted that the vast majority of flights departed within two hours of their scheduled departure time. A similar percentage — 36% — arrived at their destinations as scheduled. Meanwhile, the flight-tracking site FlightAware reported that 3,712 flights entering or leaving the U.S., or serving domestic destinations, were delayed Tuesday, with 55 flights canceled. It did not show any flights from American Airlines. Cirium said Dallas-Fort Worth, New York's Kennedy Airport and Charlotte, North Carolina, saw the greatest number of delays. Washington, Chicago and Miami experienced considerably fewer delays. Travelers wait in line for security checks Tuesday at the Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles. Amid the travel problems, significant rain and snow were expected in the Pacific Northwest at least into Christmas Day. Showers and thunderstorms developed in the South. Freezing rain was reported in the Mid-Atlantic region near Baltimore and Washington, and snow fell in New York. Because the holiday travel period lasts weeks, airports and airlines typically have smaller peak days than they do during the rush around Thanksgiving, but the grind of one hectic day followed by another takes a toll on flight crews. Any hiccups — a winter storm or a computer outage — can snowball into massive disruptions. That is how Southwest Airlines stranded 2 million travelers in December 2022, and Delta Air Lines suffered a smaller but significant meltdown after a worldwide technology outage in July caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. Many flights during the holidays are sold out, which makes cancellations even more disruptive than during slower periods. That is especially true for smaller budget airlines that have fewer flights and fewer options for rebooking passengers. Only the largest airlines, including American, Delta and United, have "interline agreements" that let them put stranded customers on another carrier's flights. An American Airlines employee wearing a Santa Claus hat walks through the American terminal Tuesday at Miami International Airport in Miami. This will be the first holiday season since a Transportation Department rule took effect that requires airlines to give customers an automatic cash refund for a canceled or significantly delayed flight. Most air travelers were already eligible for refunds, but they often had to request them. Passengers still can ask to get rebooked, which is often a better option than a refund during peak travel periods. Finding a last-minute flight on another airline tends to be expensive. An American spokesperson said Tuesday was not a peak travel day for the airline — with about 2,000 fewer flights than the busiest days — so the airline had somewhat of a buffer to manage the delays. The groundings happened as millions of travelers were expected to fly over the next 10 days. The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen 40 million passengers through Jan. 2. Airlines expect to have their busiest days on Thursday, Friday and Sunday. American Airlines employees check in travelers Tuesday in the American terminal at Miami International Airport in Miami. Many flights during the holidays are sold out, which makes cancellations more disruptive than during slower periods. Even with just a brief outage, the cancellations have a cascading effect that can take days to clear up. About 90% of Americans traveling far from home over the holidays will be in cars, according to AAA. "Airline travel is just really high right now, but most people do drive to their destinations, and that is true for every holiday," AAA spokesperson Aixa Diaz said. Gasoline prices are similar to last year. The nationwide average Thursday was $3.04 a gallon, down from $3.13 a year ago, according to AAA. Charging an electric vehicle averages just under 35 cents per per kilowatt hour, but varies by state. Transportation-data firm INRIX says travel times on the nation's highways could be up to 30% longer than normal over the holidays, with Sunday expected to see the heaviest traffic. "It's not the destination, it's the journey," said American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ralph clearly was not among the travellers on one of more than 350 cancelled or 1,400 delayed flights after a worldwide tech outage caused by an update to Crowdstrike's "Falcon Sensor" software in July of 2023. U.S. airlines carried nearly 863 million travellers in 2023, with Canadian carriers accounting for another 150 million, many of whom experienced lost luggage, flight delays, cancellations, or were bumped off their flights. It's unclear how many of them were compensated for these inconveniences. Suffice it to say, posting a crabby rant on social media might temporarily soothe anger, but it won't put wasted money back in pockets. Money.ca shares what to know in order to be compensated for the three most common air travel headaches. Bags elected to go on a vacay without you? Check off the following: If you expect a large payout, think again. Tariffs (air carrier contracts) limit the compensation amounts for "loss of, damage to, or the delay in delivery of baggage or other personal property." In the case of Air Canada, the maximum payout is $1,500 per passenger in the currency of the country where the baggage was processed. To raise that limit, purchase a Declaration of Higher Value for each leg of the trip. The charge is $0.50 for each $100, in which case the payout limit is $2,500. For Delta Air Lines, passengers are entitled to up to $3,800 in baggage compensation, though how much you'll receive depends on your flight. Delta will pay up to $2,080 for delayed, lost, and damaged baggage for international travellers, almost half of what U.S. domestic passengers can claim. If your flight is marked delayed for more than 30 minutes, approach the gate agent and politely request food and hotel vouchers to be used within the airport or nearby. Different air carriers and jurisdictions have their own compensation policies when flights are delayed or cancelled. For example, under European Union rules, passengers may receive up to 600 Euros, even when travelling on a non-EU carrier. Similarly, the DOT states that travellers are entitled to a refund "if the airline cancelled a flight, regardless of the reason, and the consumer chooses not to travel." However, US rules regarding delays are complicated. Some air carriers, such as Air Canada, do not guarantee their flight schedules. They're also not liable for cancellations or changes due to "force majeure" such as weather conditions or labour disruptions. If the delay is overnight, only out-of-town passengers will be offered hotel accommodation. Nevertheless, many airlines do offer some compensation for the inconvenience. If your flight is marked delayed for more than 30 minutes, approach the gate agent and politely request food and hotel vouchers to be used within the airport or nearby. In terms of cash compensation, what you'll get can differ significantly based on things like departure location, time, carrier, and ticket class. The DOT offers a helpful delay and cancellations dashboard designed to keep travellers informed about their compensation rights. The dashboard is particularly helpful because, as the DOT states on its website, "whether you are entitled to a refund depends on a lot of factors—such as the length of the delay, the length of the flight, and your particular circumstances." The Canadian Transportation Agency is proposing air passenger protection regulations that guarantee financial compensation to travellers experiencing flight delays and cancellations, with the level of compensation varying depending on the situation and how much control the air carrier had. The proposed regulations include the following: The airline is obligated to complete the passenger's itinerary. If the new ticket is for a lower class of service, the air carrier would have to refund the cost difference; if the booking is in a higher class of service, passengers cannot be charged extra. If the passenger declines the ticket, the airline must give a full refund, in addition to the prescribed compensation. For overnight delays, the air carrier needs to provide hotel accommodation and transportation free-of-charge. Again, if you are unsatisfied, the Canadian Transportation Agency or Department of Transportation may advocate on your behalf. Passengers get bumped because airlines overbook. When this happens, the air carrier must compensate you. For international flights in the US, the rate is 200% of your one-way fare to your final destination, with a $675 maximum. If the airline does not make travel arrangements for you, the payout is 400% of your one-way fare to a maximum of $1,350. To qualify, you must check-in by the stated deadline, which on international flights can be up to 3 hours ahead. Keep in mind that if you accept the cash, you are no longer entitled to any further compensation, nor are you guaranteed to be rebooked on a direct flight or similar type of seat. Don't be too quick to give up your boarding pass. Negotiate for the best compensation deal that would include cash, food and hotel vouchers, flight upgrade, lounge passes, as well as mileage points. But avoid being too greedy—if the gate attendant is requesting volunteers and you wait too long, you'll miss the offer. According to Air Canada's tariff, if a passenger is involuntarily bumped, they'll receive $200, in cash or bank draft, for up to a two-hour delay; $400 for a 2-6 hours delay; and $800 if the delay is over six hours. (Air Canada was forced to raise its payouts in 2013 due to passenger complaints.) The new rules would raise the payout significantly: $900 for up to six hours; $1,800 for 6-9; and $2,400 for more than nine hours, all to be paid within 48 hours. Statistically speaking, Delta Airlines is the carrier most likely to bump. A few years ago, Delta raised its payout maximum to $9,950, while United Airlines tops out at $10,000. This story was produced by Money.ca and reviewed and distributed by Stacker. Get local news delivered to your inbox!

( ) shares are ending the week on a high. In morning trade, the infant formula company's shares are up 18% to $5.70. Why are A2 Milk shares ending the week with a bang? Investors have been scrambling to buy the company's shares this morning after it released a trading update ahead of its annual general meeting. According to the release, business has been stronger than expected during the first half, which has led to a revenue guidance upgrade. But the bigger news is that A2 Milk is finally going to start sharing its profits with its shareholders. After sitting on a mountain of cash for some time, the company has decided that now is the time to pay . Revenue guidance Let's start with its revenue guidance upgrade. Management advised that year to date trading is ahead of plan and the guidance it provided in August. This is primarily due to a significant increase in MVM external ingredient sales compared to plan. This is being driven by higher global dairy Ttade prices, currency impacts, and changes in product mix. However, this is expected to have an immaterial impact on EBITDA and a slightly dilutive impact on gross margin and its EBITDA margin. Outside this, management notes that English Label infant milk formula (IMF) sales and Liquid Milk sales are slightly ahead of plan year to date. In light of the above, the company is now forecasting mid to high single-digit revenue growth in FY 2025 versus FY 2024. This compares favourably to its previous guidance of mid single-digit growth. A2 Milk's EBITDA margin as a percentage of revenue in FY 2025 is still expected to be broadly in line with FY 2024. This includes its first half margin being down and its second half margin being up compared with the prior year. Dividend policy While the above is positive, the main thing driving A2 Milk shares higher today is likely to be the establishment of a dividend policy. The company notes that its dividend policy targets a payout ratio range of between 60% and 80% of net profit after tax excluding non-recurring and other items (normalised NPAT). This dividend policy commences immediately and the first interim dividend is expected to be declared in February 2025 with a payout ratio of 60% of normalised NPAT. The company also advised that it would consider special dividends in time, once it has executed its strategy and risk mitigation. If A2 Milk had paid out 60% of its earnings per share in FY 2024, it would have meant a dividend of 12.6 cents per share. This equates to a 2.6% based on yesterday's close price. The company's chair, Pip Greenwood, said: The a2 Milk Company has made considerable progress in developing its operating model and creating a more resilient business. Given this progress and our strong balance sheet position, the Board believes the time is right to introduce a dividend policy that delivers sustainable cash returns to shareholders over time. Commenting on the dividend policy, A2 Milk's CEO, David Bortolussi, said: I am pleased to introduce The a2 Milk Company's first dividend policy to reward our shareholders for their support over many years and to reflect the significant progress made since we announced our refreshed growth strategy in 2021.

BJP dreaming to win polls with money power: Bengal party MLA after bypoll lossSnow Lovers Flock to New York and Michigan as Lake-Effect Storm Transforms Scenic DestinationsFeatured Stories Headlines Israel Local Andrew Guckes | Staff Writer The Jewish Federations of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey expressed commitment to maintaining aid for Israel as cease-fire talks press on while also expressing concern with the state of the Hamas hostages and general well-being of Israelis amid the 14th month of war since the terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023. Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia CEO Michael Balaban said things are moving in the right direction, but that doesn’t mean the ground-level impacts are lessened. “Though the cease-fire with Hezbollah seems to be holding, and there is hope for the ongoing negotiations with Hamas, Israelis still face severe hardships and anxiety from the war. More than one hundred hostages are still being held captive, over a third of Israelis in the north and south are unable to return to their homes, and just this week, an elementary school in Tel Aviv was destroyed by the debris from a ballistic missile from Yemen,” he said. In November, a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah brokered by the United States ended more than a year of war that began prior to last October’s terrorist attacks but was heightened following them. The deal reinstated the cease-fire that ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. This deal required the terrorist group based in Lebanon to retreat nearly 20 miles north of the Israel and Lebanon border. Hezbollah did not follow the rules set forth by this agreement, which eventually led to small clashes that grew into a full-scale Israeli invasion of their neighbors to the north in September 2024. Balaban said that the everyday reality for Israelis is still as terrifying as ever. “The security situation on the ground has remained volatile. Recent escalations in Gaza and the northern border have required increased aid and emergency response,” he said. “Reports of targeted attacks in key areas have only highlighted the urgent need for support. Our thoughts remain with those affected by these events, and we reaffirm our commitment to their safety and security.” For the Federation of Southern New Jersey, the name of the game has been fundraising. The organization said it will continue to do so for as long as it can. The South Jersey community has raised over $2.4 million thus far for the Jewish Federation of North America’s Israel Emergency Campaign, over $80,000 of which went directly to the families of Kibbutz Be’eri, a community attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7. Also, to this point, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia has raised $16 million in pledges for its various outlets for aid in Israel. “We [also] partnered with Cooper University Health Care to send trauma surgeons to Israel, providing the Advanced Surgical Skills for Exposure in Trauma course to Israel’s surgeons and emergency responders in need of trauma training,” Federation of Southern New Jersey CEO Jennifer Dubrow Weiss said. “We teamed up with the Israel grassroots organization P24 to bring displaced families from Israel to South Jersey so ten children could experience the magic of JCC Camps at Medford for two weeks.” Balaban said the organization’s approach since last October has been tailored to the needs of the moment. Immediately following the attacks, the Philadelphia Federation focused on rapid response measures like emergency fundraising, coordinating with workers on the ground for community mobilization and supporting events like rallies and marches. Now, the group is working to provide support to members of evacuated communities in Northern Israel, as well as long-term assistance measures, like physical and mental health care and community rebuilding. Eric Fingerhut, the president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, is choosing to maintain a positive outlook while acknowledging the realities of the situation. “I am encouraged that the positive military developments could create a condition for a more lasting stable period for Israel and in the region. I also know that the end of the war will bring to light all of the trauma and damage that has been suffered the last 14 months in Israel, and that we as a community will have a huge responsibility to support our brothers and sisters in Israel for a long time after the fighting stops,” Fingerhut said. Balaban said that any further cease-fire would shift the organization’s focus from emergency relief to recovery and rebuilding work. The Federation has begun to work with people in Israel to prepare for these efforts when they do come, whenever that is. When the dust settles, it will be clear just how much destruction has occurred. “Even after the war ends it will take decades for Israel to recover and rebuild its sense of security,” he said. Dubrow Weiss said that the Federation of Southern New Jersey organized many events in 2024, and will do the same in 2025. “We are continuing to fundraise to support victims of terrorism in Israel and also to combat antisemitism locally as well as invest in security needs,” Dubrow Weiss said. “Our Jewish Community Relations Council of Southern New Jersey is especially focused on providing programs and resources to students and school administrators to equip them with how to handle antisemitism.” The Philadelphia Federation is taking similar measures to combat antisemitism at home. Officials from the organization meet with school board members from across the region to discuss antisemitism, as well as work with the administration at Swarthmore College, Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania. Balaban said that the important thing is to remain hopeful. “Despite the hardships, hope remains,” he said. “As we have done for generations, we will stand together in our commitment to creating a safer, more vibrant future for all.” [email protected] TAGS Jewish Federations of Greater Philadelphia Jewish Federations of North America Jewish Federations of South New Jersey