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These musicians bought a seat for cello worth $4.5M. Air Canada wouldn't let it on boardNEW ORLEANS (AP) — The largest artificial intelligence data center ever built by Facebook’s parent company Meta is coming to northeast Louisiana, the company said Wednesday, bringing hopes that the $10 billion facility will transform an economically neglected corner of the state. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry called it “game-changing” for his state's expanding tech sector, yet some environmental groups have raised concerns over the amount of energy it would use — and whether it could lead to higher energy bills in the future. Meanwhile, Elon Musk's AI startup, xAI, is expanding its existing supercomputer project in Memphis, Tennessee, the city's chamber of commerce said Wednesday. The chamber also said that Nvidia, Dell, and Supermicro Computer will be “establishing operations in Memphis,” without offering further details. Louisiana is among a growing number of states seeking to lure big tech firms in need of energy-intensive data centers with tax credits and other incentives. The U.S. Commerce Department found that there aren’t enough data centers in the U.S. to meet the rising AI-fueled demand, which is projected to grow by 9% each year through 2030, citing industry reports. Meta anticipates its Louisiana data center will create 500 operational jobs and 5,000 temporary construction jobs, said Kevin Janda, director of data center strategy. At 4 million square feet (370,000 square meters), it will be the company's largest AI data center to date, he added. “We want to make sure we are having a positive impact on the local level,” Janda said. Congressional leaders and local representatives from across the political spectrum heralded the Meta facility as a boon for Richland parish, a rural part of Louisiana with a population of 20,000 historically reliant on agriculture. About one in four residents are considered to live in poverty and the parish has an employment rate below 50%, according to the U.S. census data. Meta plans to invest $200 million into road and water infrastructure improvements for the parish to offset its water usage. The facility is expected to be completed in 2030. Entergy, one of the nation's largest utilities providers, is fast-tracking plans to build three natural gas power plants in Louisiana capable of generating 2,262 megawatts for Meta's data center over a 15 year period — nearly one-tenth of Entergy's existing energy capacity across four states. The Louisiana Public Service Commission is weighing Entergy's proposal as some environmental groups have opposed locking the state into more fossil fuel-based energy infrastructure. Meta said it plans to help bring 1,500 megawatts of renewable energy onto the grid in the future. Louisiana residents may ultimately end up with rate increases to pay off the cost of operating these natural gas power plants when Meta's contract with Entergy expires, said Jessica Hendricks, state policy director for the Alliance for Affordable Energy, a Louisiana-based nonprofit advocating for energy consumers. “There’s no reason why residential customers in Louisiana need to pay for a power plant for energy that they’re not going to use," Hendricks said. "And we want to make sure that there’s safeguards in place.” Public service commissioner Foster Campbell, who represents northeast Louisiana, said he does not believe the data center will increase rates for Louisianians and views it as vital for his region. “It’s going in one of the most needed places in Louisiana and maybe one of the most needed places in the United States of America,” Foster said. “I’m for it 100%.” Environmental groups have also warned of the pollution generated from Musk's AI data center in Memphis. The Southern Environmental Law Center, among others, says the supercomputer could strain the power grid, prompting attention from the Environmental Protection Agency. Eighteen gas turbines currently running at xAI’s south Memphis facility are significant sources of ground-level ozone, better known as smog, the group said. Patrick Anderson, an attorney at the law center, said xAI has operated with “a stunning lack of transparency” in developing its South Memphis facility, which is located near predominantly Black neighborhoods that have long dealt with pollution and health risks from factories and other industrial sites. “Memphians deserve to know how xAI will affect them,” he said, “and should have a seat at the table when these decisions are being made.” Sainz reported from Memphis, Tennessee. Associated Press writer Matt O’Brien in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report. Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96

The China Fund, Inc. Announces Date of Annual Meeting of StockholdersFormer UNIZIK VC Odoh sues FUGUS over denial of professorship, employment status

Chandigarh: The Punjab GST department claimed to have unearthed an alleged bogus billing scam in Ludhiana, involving fraudulent transactions worth Rs 163 crore over the last two years. Finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema said the investigation revealed that Monga Brothers (Unit-II), Budhewal Road, Ludhiana, was operating a “complex web of fictitious firms, creating fake input tax credit and defrauding the state exchequer”. He said the firm made purchases from either 60 bogus firms, which were either suspended or cancelled, or made purchases from suspended or cancelled dealers. The minister said the total turnover of these 60 firms was approximately Rs 1,270 crore. The Punjab GST department conducted an inspection and seizure under the Punjab GST Act, 2017 at the business premises of the firm, he said. TNN We also published the following articles recently GST department asks Zomato to pay Rs 800 crore in taxes, fines Zomato faces a hefty 803.4 crore GST demand from Thane authorities for unpaid taxes on delivery charges between October 2019 and March 2022. The demand includes a penalty equal to the tax amount, exceeding four times Zomato's recent quarterly profit. Maniyar: Ramesh & Satheesan stand firm on graft allegations Kerala's Congress leaders, Chennithala and Satheesan, accuse the state government of corruption in extending Carborundum Universal's contract for the Maniyar hydroelectric project by 25 years. They allege this move overrides KSEB's objections and benefits the private firm while incurring losses for KSEB and consumers. Govt firm on protecting heritage but can't stop filing of PILs: Minister Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat affirmed the government's commitment to safeguarding India's heritage. He highlighted concerns about certain forces attempting to obstruct the nation's progress, particularly regarding PILs targeting historical sites. Shekhawat emphasized the need to investigate these motives. He also detailed security measures at ASI-protected monuments, citing deployments of personnel and addressing recent vandalism incidents across various states. Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India . Don't miss daily games like Crossword , Sudoku , and Mini Crossword .In a decisive verdict after the bitter split in the Shiv Sena in June 2022, the Eknath Shinde -led Shiv Sena can finally claim the title of the “real” Sena — the party won 57 of the 81 seats it contested in the Maharashtra assembly elections, battering the Uddhav Thackeray -led Shiv Sena (UBT), which managed just 20 of the 95 it contested. It’s a victory of a magnitude that allows Shinde to convincingly establish his claim to the legacy of the Shiv Sena ideology. It also re-establishes Shinde’s Sena as one of the strongest allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). When Shinde split the undivided Sena in 2022, he took 40 MLAs and some Independents with him, leading to the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led government in the state. Shinde then joined the BJP to form a new government as chief minister. The battle between him and Thackeray has since been a bitter one, with both Uddhav, the son of Sena founder Bal Thackeray, and Shinde, who claims to be Bal Thackeray’s ideological legatee, claiming that their respective factions best represent the party and its values. In the Sena vs Sena fight in these elections, the two factions went head to head in 51 assembly constituencies across the state. The Sena has won a staggering 27 of the 39 seats against the Sena (UBT), which won the rest just 12. One seat, Sangola, was won by Babasaheb Deshmukh (PWP candidate), sitting Shiv Sena MLA Shahaji Patil came second there, and the Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Deepak Salunkhe finished third. In the Lok Sabha elections, in 13 Sena vs Sena contests, the Shinde faction won seven seats and Uddhav faction six. So, what did Shinde do right this time to pull away? After announcing and implementing the Mahayuti’s flagship Ladki Bahin Yojana for women just before the assembly elections — it gives ₹ 1,500 per month to women who belong to economically weaker section with annual income below ₹ 2.5 lakhs — Shinde unveiled a series of welfare schemes aimed at various sections of society, from home guards, kotwals, anganwadi workers, and enabled the setting up of corporations across communities. He also led an extremely aggressive campaign, constantly reminding the people of the financial benefits his government had announced, and how they would have to forfeit all that if they voted the MVA alliance to power. When he split the Sena to join the BJP, Shinde was not seen as a mass leader beyond his own bastion of Thane. In his early political battles, like in his speech at the annual Dussehra rally of the Sena in 2022, he even underlined his limitation as an orator. So he built an image of an “accessible leader” instead, making himself available to his office-bearers, MLAs and common people. Shinde started calling himself “common man”, instead of “chief minister”, scoring big win against Uddhav Thackeray, who was not easy to reach. There was also a regional plan to take control. Soon after he became chief minister, Shinde made sure his faction would face no challenge from the Sena (UBT) in his bastion of Thane and in the Konkan belt by inducting most of the functionaries from the Thackeray faction into his party. Then, to create a base for his leadership in Mumbai, Shinde assigned his son, Lok Sabha MP Shrikant Shinde, the critical task of inducting former corporators and party office-bearers from the Sena (UBT) into the Shiv Sena. Prakash Akolkar, a senior political analyst and author of Jai Maharashtra, a book on the Shiv Sena, said these elections have not only cemented Shinde’s claim to the Shiv Sena’s ideology, they will likely create more trouble for Uddhav Thackeray. “The Election Commission of India has already awarded the party name and symbol to Shinde. With this massive victory, Shinde will claim that he has the people’s mandate and that his is the ‘real’ Shiv Sena. Uddhav Thackeray will have to face new challenges to keep his MLAs with him,” Akolkar said.

No. 4 Penn State hosts Maryland in regular-season finale with CFP seeding in mindNone

By MIKE FITZPATRICK AP Sports Writer NEW YORK — Same iconic statue, very different race. With two-way star Travis Hunter of Colorado and Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty leading the field, these certainly aren’t your typical Heisman Trophy contenders. Sure, veteran quarterbacks Dillon Gabriel from top-ranked Oregon and Cam Ward of No. 15 Miami are finalists for college football’s most prestigious award as well, but the 90th annual ceremony coming up Saturday night at Lincoln Center in New York City (5 p.m. PT, ESPN) offers a fresh flavor this year. To start with, none of the four are from the powerhouse Southeastern Conference, which has produced four of the past five Heisman winners – two each from Alabama and LSU. Jeanty, who played his home games for a Group of Five team on that peculiar blue turf in Idaho more than 2,100 miles from Manhattan, is the first running back even invited to the Heisman party since 2017. After leading the country with 2,497 yards rushing and 29 touchdowns, he joined quarterback Kellen Moore (2010) as the only Boise State players to be named a finalist. “The running back position has been overlooked for a while now,” said Jeanty, who plans to enter the 2025 NFL Draft. “There’s been a lot of great running backs before me that should have been here in New York, so to kind of carry on the legacy of the running back position I think is great. ... I feel as if I’m representing the whole position.” With the votes already in, all four finalists spent Friday conducting interviews and sightseeing in the Big Apple. They were given custom, commemorative watches to mark their achievement. “I’m not a watch guy, but I like it,” said Hunter, flashing a smile. The players also took photos beneath the massive billboards in Times Square and later posed with the famous Heisman Trophy, handed out since 1935 to the nation’s most outstanding performer. Hunter, the heavy favorite, made sure not to touch it yet. A dominant player on both offense and defense who rarely comes off the field, the wide receiver/cornerback is a throwback to generations gone by and the first full-time, true two-way star in decades. On offense, he had 92 catches for 1,152 yards and 14 touchdowns this season to help the 20th-ranked Buffaloes (9-3) earn their first bowl bid in four years. On defense, he made four interceptions, broke up 11 passes and forced a critical fumble that secured an overtime victory against Baylor. Hunter played 688 defensive snaps and 672 more on offense – the only Power Four conference player with 30-plus snaps on both sides of the ball, according to Colorado research. Call him college football’s answer to baseball unicorn Shohei Ohtani. “I think I laid the ground for more people to come in and go two ways,” Hunter said. “It starts with your mindset. If you believe you can do it, then you’ll be able to do it. And also, I do a lot of treatment. I keep up with my body. I get a lot of recovery.” Hunter is Colorado’s first Heisman finalist in 30 years. The junior from Suwanee, Georgia, followed Coach Deion Sanders from Jackson State, an HBCU that plays in the lower level FCS, to the Rocky Mountains and has already racked up a staggering combination of accolades this week, including The Associated Press Player of the Year. Hunter also won the Walter Camp Award as national player of the year, along with the Chuck Bednarik Award as the top defensive player and the Biletnikoff Award for best wide receiver. “It just goes to show that I did what I had to do,” Hunter said. Next, he’d like to polish off his impressive hardware collection by becoming the second Heisman Trophy recipient in Buffaloes history, after late running back Rashaan Salaam in 1994. “I worked so hard for this moment, so securing the Heisman definitely would set my legacy in college football,” Hunter said. “Being here now is like a dream come true.” Jeanty carried No. 8 Boise State (12-1) to a Mountain West Conference championship that landed the Broncos the third seed in this year’s College Football Playoff. They have a first-round bye before facing the SMU-Penn State winner in the Fiesta Bowl quarterfinal on New Year’s Eve. The 5-foot-9, 215-pound junior from Jacksonville, Florida, won the Maxwell Award as college football’s top player and the Doak Walker Award for best running back. Jeanty has five touchdown runs of at least 70 yards and has rushed for the fourth-most yards in a season in FBS history – topping the total of 115 teams this year. He needs 132 yards to break the FBS record set by Heisman Trophy winner Barry Sanders at Oklahoma State in 1988. In a pass-happy era, however, Jeanty is trying to become the first running back to win the Heisman Trophy since Derrick Henry for Alabama nine years ago. In fact, quarterbacks have snagged the prize all but four times this century. Gabriel, an Oklahoma transfer, led Oregon (13-0) to a Big Ten title in its first season in the league and the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff. The steady senior from Hawaii passed for 3,558 yards and 28 touchdowns with six interceptions. His 73.2% completion rate ranks second in the nation, and he’s attempting to join quarterback Marcus Mariota (2014) as Ducks players to win the Heisman Trophy. “I think all the memories start to roll back in your mind,” Gabriel said. Ward threw for 4,123 yards and led the nation with a school-record 36 touchdown passes for the high-scoring Hurricanes (10-2) after transferring from Washington State. The senior from West Columbia, Texas, won the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback of the Year award and is looking to join QBs Vinny Testaverde (1986) and Gino Torretta (1992) as Miami players to go home with the Heisman. “I just think there’s a recklessness that you have to play with at the quarterback position,” Ward said. HEISMAN TROPHY CEREMONY Finalists: QB Dillon Gabriel, Oregon; WR/CB Travis Hunter, Colorado; RB Ashton Jeanty, Boise State; QB Cam Ward, Miami When: Saturday, 5 p.m. PT Where: Lincoln Center, New York City TV: ESPN

With an important regular-season finale ending a short week, Mississippi has watched its dreams shift from national success to perhaps something it certainly did not want on Thanksgiving weekend: An Egg Bowl that holds only regional significance and statewide bragging rights. After their third and disappointing defeat, the No. 14 Rebels will play Friday afternoon in their annual Egg Bowl matchup against rival Mississippi State in the intrastate series in Oxford, Miss. It will not be easy putting aside the catastrophic 24-17 loss at Florida last Saturday, a soul-crushing setback that all but ended any College Football Playoff aspirations for the most talented Rebels team assembled in a long time. Coach Lane Kiffin's team slid five spots to 14th in the latest CFP rankings. The offseason outlook was rosy when Ole Miss (8-3, 4-3 SEC) shelled out big NIL money and added the top portal class to fill a roster that won 11 games in 2023. But the Rebels repeatedly shot themselves in the foot Saturday against the Gators. Ole Miss' high-powered offense turned the ball over three times, went 3 of 14 on third down, failed on two fourth-down attempts, dropped five passes and missed a field goal. Before the game, ABC's broadcast noted that the Rebels had an 84 percent chance to make the CFP. Following the loss, that number dwindled to four percent. The only way the Oxford school gets in is if there is the repeated chaos of Week 13, one that talk show host Paul Finebaum called "the most SEC carnage" he had ever seen. The Egg Bowl has been played on Thanksgiving Day 23 times, including 2017 to last season, but Kiffin feels the afternoon start on Friday is an advantage. "It helps them to know that playoffs are still alive and they get kind of the first shot to show everybody on a national stage," Kiffin said Monday, "as opposed to a Saturday game where these people that make the decisions don't necessarily see all the games because so many are going on." For the second time this month, Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby will lead his last-place Bulldogs (2-9, 0-7) against a former boss. The 40-year-old head coach faced Tennessee and coach Josh Heupel, who had Lebby on his staff at UCF in 2018 and 2019, in a 33-14 loss on Nov. 9. Now he will face Kiffin, whom he was paired with in 2020 and 2021 in their first two seasons at Ole Miss when the school led the SEC in total offense. A frequent social media user who enjoys trolling others, Kiffin took a jab at Lebby and Mississippi State when the first-year coach was hired. "We've traded texts throughout the season and had communication," Lebby said Monday. "But no, not this week. He'll continue to find ways to have fun on social. That's who he's always been and who he'll always be." Ole Miss owns a 65-46-6 series advantage and has claimed five of the past seven matches, including a 35-3 "Egg Brawl" victory by the Bulldogs in 2018 that was later vacated. Another loss to the Rebels would give MSU its first winless SEC season since 2002. --Field Level MediaWASHINGTON (AP) — As a former and potentially future president, Donald Trump hailed what would become Project 2025 as a road map for “exactly what our movement will do” with another crack at the White House. As the blueprint for a hard-right turn in America became a liability during the 2024 campaign, Trump pulled an about-face . He denied knowing anything about the “ridiculous and abysmal” plans written in part by his first-term aides and allies. Now, after being elected the 47th president on Nov. 5, Trump is stocking his second administration with key players in the detailed effort he temporarily shunned. Most notably, Trump has tapped Russell Vought for an encore as director of the Office of Management and Budget; Tom Homan, his former immigration chief, as “border czar;” and immigration hardliner Stephen Miller as deputy chief of policy . Those moves have accelerated criticisms from Democrats who warn that Trump's election hands government reins to movement conservatives who spent years envisioning how to concentrate power in the West Wing and impose a starkly rightward shift across the U.S. government and society. Trump and his aides maintain that he won a mandate to overhaul Washington. But they maintain the specifics are his alone. “President Trump never had anything to do with Project 2025,” said Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt in a statement. “All of President Trumps' Cabinet nominees and appointments are whole-heartedly committed to President Trump's agenda, not the agenda of outside groups.” Here is a look at what some of Trump's choices portend for his second presidency. The Office of Management and Budget director, a role Vought held under Trump previously and requires Senate confirmation, prepares a president's proposed budget and is generally responsible for implementing the administration's agenda across agencies. The job is influential but Vought made clear as author of a Project 2025 chapter on presidential authority that he wants the post to wield more direct power. “The Director must view his job as the best, most comprehensive approximation of the President’s mind,” Vought wrote. The OMB, he wrote, “is a President’s air-traffic control system” and should be “involved in all aspects of the White House policy process,” becoming “powerful enough to override implementing agencies’ bureaucracies.” Trump did not go into such details when naming Vought but implicitly endorsed aggressive action. Vought, the president-elect said, “knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State” — Trump’s catch-all for federal bureaucracy — and would help “restore fiscal sanity.” In June, speaking on former Trump aide Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, Vought relished the potential tension: “We’re not going to save our country without a little confrontation.” The strategy of further concentrating federal authority in the presidency permeates Project 2025's and Trump's campaign proposals. Vought's vision is especially striking when paired with Trump's proposals to dramatically expand the president's control over federal workers and government purse strings — ideas intertwined with the president-elect tapping mega-billionaire Elon Musk and venture capitalist Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a “Department of Government Efficiency.” Trump in his first term sought to remake the federal civil service by reclassifying tens of thousands of federal civil service workers — who have job protection through changes in administration — as political appointees, making them easier to fire and replace with loyalists. Currently, only about 4,000 of the federal government's roughly 2 million workers are political appointees. President Joe Biden rescinded Trump's changes. Trump can now reinstate them. Meanwhile, Musk's and Ramaswamy's sweeping “efficiency” mandates from Trump could turn on an old, defunct constitutional theory that the president — not Congress — is the real gatekeeper of federal spending. In his “Agenda 47,” Trump endorsed so-called “impoundment,” which holds that when lawmakers pass appropriations bills, they simply set a spending ceiling, but not a floor. The president, the theory holds, can simply decide not to spend money on anything he deems unnecessary. Vought did not venture into impoundment in his Project 2025 chapter. But, he wrote, “The President should use every possible tool to propose and impose fiscal discipline on the federal government. Anything short of that would constitute abject failure.” Trump's choice immediately sparked backlash. “Russ Vought is a far-right ideologue who has tried to break the law to give President Trump unilateral authority he does not possess to override the spending decisions of Congress (and) who has and will again fight to give Trump the ability to summarily fire tens of thousands of civil servants,” said Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, a Democrat and outgoing Senate Appropriations chairwoman. Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, leading Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, said Vought wants to “dismantle the expert federal workforce” to the detriment of Americans who depend on everything from veterans' health care to Social Security benefits. “Pain itself is the agenda,” they said. Trump’s protests about Project 2025 always glossed over overlaps in the two agendas . Both want to reimpose Trump-era immigration limits. Project 2025 includes a litany of detailed proposals for various U.S. immigration statutes, executive branch rules and agreements with other countries — reducing the number of refugees, work visa recipients and asylum seekers, for example. Miller is one of Trump's longest-serving advisers and architect of his immigration ideas, including his promise of the largest deportation force in U.S. history. As deputy policy chief, which is not subject to Senate confirmation, Miller would remain in Trump's West Wing inner circle. “America is for Americans and Americans only,” Miller said at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Oct. 27. “America First Legal,” Miller’s organization founded as an ideological counter to the American Civil Liberties Union, was listed as an advisory group to Project 2025 until Miller asked that the name be removed because of negative attention. Homan, a Project 2025 named contributor, was an acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director during Trump’s first presidency, playing a key role in what became known as Trump's “family separation policy.” Previewing Trump 2.0 earlier this year, Homan said: “No one’s off the table. If you’re here illegally, you better be looking over your shoulder.” John Ratcliffe, Trump's pick to lead the CIA , was previously one of Trump's directors of national intelligence. He is a Project 2025 contributor. The document's chapter on U.S. intelligence was written by Dustin Carmack, Ratcliffe's chief of staff in the first Trump administration. Reflecting Ratcliffe's and Trump's approach, Carmack declared the intelligence establishment too cautious. Ratcliffe, like the chapter attributed to Carmack, is hawkish toward China. Throughout the Project 2025 document, Beijing is framed as a U.S. adversary that cannot be trusted. Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, wrote Project 2025's FCC chapter and is now Trump's pick to chair the panel. Carr wrote that the FCC chairman “is empowered with significant authority that is not shared” with other FCC members. He called for the FCC to address “threats to individual liberty posed by corporations that are abusing dominant positions in the market,” specifically “Big Tech and its attempts to drive diverse political viewpoints from the digital town square.” He called for more stringent transparency rules for social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube and “empower consumers to choose their own content filters and fact checkers, if any.” Carr and Ratcliffe would require Senate confirmation for their posts.

The attainment of 1.8 million barrels of crude per day is something to crow about, reckons ADE OLUSOKAN · It is a major milestone in the history of crude oil exploration in Nigeria. The nation is gradually hitting the mark for the crude oil quota from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), thereby revving up the nation’s earnings and setting the country on the path of sustainable growth. Under the visionary leadership of Mallam Mele Kyari, the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd), the company has achieved remarkable milestones, transforming Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. Among these achievements is the recent attainment of 1.8 million barrels per day (mbpd) in crude oil production and 7.4 billion standard cubic feet (bscf) per day in gas production. · Unperturbed by the well-oiled campaign of critics, Kyari remained committed to best global practices, innovation, collaboration, and resilience in steering the company and the nation’s energy sector toward sustainability and growth. · Since assuming leadership, Mele Kyari has demonstrated a clear understanding of the challenges and opportunities within Nigeria’s energy sector. His tenure has been marked by bold initiatives and strategic decisions, aimed at ensuring that NNPC Ltd remains competitive and profitable in a rapidly evolving global energy landscape. · Kyari’s leadership style emphasizes collaboration, innovation, and transparency. By fostering partnerships with key stakeholders and deploying cutting-edge technologies, the NNPCL, under his watch, has created a culture of accountability and efficiency within the company. This has not only led to increased production levels but has also restored confidence in the Nigerian oil and gas industry. · One of the most notable achievements under Kyari’s leadership is the recent increase in crude oil production to 1.8mbpd and gas output to 7.4bscf per day. This milestone is a significant improvement from the 1.43mbpd recorded in June 2024 when the Production War Room Team was inaugurated. · The Production War Room, a strategic initiative envisioned and established by Kyari, played a pivotal role in this success. The strategic team comprises experts and key stakeholders, and implemented a series of interventions across the production chain to address inefficiencies and security challenges. Through collaboration with government and private security agencies, as well as Joint Venture and Production Sharing Contract partners, the team restored production levels and set the stage for sustained growth. · The success of the Production War Room and the subsequent production milestone would not have been possible without the collective efforts of various stakeholders. Speaking on the achievement, Kyari praised the team for their dedication and highlighted the importance of collaboration in driving progress. “The team has done a great job in driving this project of not just production recovery but also escalating production to expected levels that are in the short and long terms acceptable to our shareholders,” Kyari remarked. · Other stakeholders, including Chief Pius Akinyelure, Chairman of the NNPC Ltd Board of Directors, and Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), also commended the team’s efforts and pledged continued support. · In addition to an increase in crude oil production, the rise in gas production to 7.4bscf per day is also a testament to NNPCL’s focus on diversifying Nigeria’s energy portfolio. As the world transitions to cleaner energy sources, natural gas is emerging as a critical bridge fuel. Nigeria’s abundant gas reserves position it as a potential leader in the global energy market. · Under Kyari’s leadership, NNPC Ltd has prioritized gas development, aligning with the Federal Government’s Decade of Gas initiative. The company’s efforts in this area include expanding domestic gas infrastructure, promoting gas-to-power projects, and exploring opportunities for liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. · The NNPCL also played a key role in deepening the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration. These efforts include partnering with NIPCO Gas Limited to build 35 CNG stations across Nigeria. NNPC Retail has also trained over 1,000 auto mechanics on how to convert vehicles to CNG, aided with toolboxes,coveralls and generators, among others. The PCNGi supports the deployment of CNG vehicles and helps individuals and businesses convert their vehicles into CNG. The initiative aims to: reduce dependence on fossil fuels; enhance energy independence; lower energy costs for citizens; provide economic relief; reduce transportation cost and contribute to Nigeria’s national goals of reducing emissions and combating climate change. · The increase in crude oil and gas production has significant implications for Nigeria’s economy. As the country’s primary source of revenue, the oil and gas sector plays a crucial role in funding government initiatives and driving economic development. The recent milestone positions Nigeria to better meet its OPEC obligations while boosting foreign exchange earnings. · Additionally, increased production capacity enhances Nigeria’s ability to attract foreign investments. With a stable and secure production environment, international investors are more likely to view Nigeria as a viable destination for energy projects. · These remarkable feats didn’t happen in isolation. There were a number of factors that made the achievements possible. Under Kyari’s guidance, NNPC Ltd prioritized the security of oil and gas infrastructure. Pipeline vandalism and theft had long plagued the sector, leading to significant revenue losses and production disruptions. To tackle this, the company worked closely with the Office of the National Security Adviser and other security agencies to monitor pipelines and protect assets. These measures have not only reduced theft but also ensured uninterrupted production. · Besides, the company adopted innovative approaches to maximize output from existing fields while exploring new opportunities. By leveraging advanced technologies and streamlining operations, NNPC Ltd has been able to optimize production processes and achieve higher efficiency. · Kyari’s emphasis on collaboration has been a key driver of success. The coordinated efforts of Joint Venture and Production Sharing Contract partners ensured that resources and expertise were pooled to address production challenges. This partnership model has proven to be effective in driving sustainable growth. The establishment of the Production War Room demonstrated Kyari’s proactive leadership. By closely monitoring production activities and implementing targeted interventions, the team was able to swiftly address bottlenecks and sustain momentum. · Buoyed by the current momentum, NNPCL is confident in its ability to reach 2mbpd by the end of 2024. This ambitious target, declared NNPCL boss, has outlined a road map for achieving the goal, which includes further investments in infrastructure, exploration of new oil fields, and strengthening partnerships with stakeholders. The company is also exploring opportunities to leverage renewable energy sources, ensuring a balanced and sustainable energy mix. · Olusokan writes from Lagos

Donald Trump has described the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as a “green scam” and vowed to repeal it after he returns to the White House in January. This is bad news for sectors such as electric vehicles (EV) and wind power, which have been major recipients of the Biden administration’s signature $369 billion energy transition legislation. But some of the “new green deal” money has also been channeled to the US industrial base, such as the $75 million allocated for an upgrade of Constellium’s aluminum rolling mill in West Virginia. Will this too be clawed back? It seems unlikely because when it comes to rebuilding US industrial capacity and cutting the country’s critical minerals dependency on China, there is remarkable cross-party consensus. Indeed, it was then-President Trump who in 2020 declared the country’s “undue reliance” on “foreign adversaries” for critical minerals a national emergency. Trump in his second presidency is unlikely to reverse the drive to metallic self-sufficiency. He may even prove to be an accelerator. Investing in America Both the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Defense (DOD) have pumped billions of dollars into rebuilding US metals capacity. The DOE has largely channeled funds to EV battery inputs such as lithium, manganese and graphite. The DOD has sprinkled the cash far more widely, targeting a spectrum of esoteric elements ranging from antimony to zirconium, including an unidentified “critical material” incongruously described as essential both for “the protection of human lives” and ammunition packaging. The Biden administration boasts that thanks to government largesse companies have announced $120 billion in investment in domestic battery and critical minerals capacity. Yet most of that investment has been concentrated on the downstream part of the supply chain. Seventeen new US battery plants have been announced since the IRA came into effect in July 2022, boosting pipeline capacity by 68% through 2030, according to research house Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. When it comes to investing in the metals needed to supply those gigafactories, most of the projects receiving federal funds are those looking to enhance existing recycling capacity. New primary smelting projects remain conspicuous by their absence. Century Aluminum has been awarded a potential $500 million to build a new aluminum smelter but there has been no update since the original announcement in March. Even the DOD’s high-priority rare earths processing venture with Australia’s Lynas Rare Earths has run into trouble. Earthworks at the Seadrift site in Texas have been put on hold due to problems getting a wastewater permit, Lynas said in its latest quarterly report. Stuck in the ground New smelting capacity needs new mines to supply it and that’s where the US minerals investment boom is still struggling to build momentum. Most of the funds committed to the mining sector have been directed at lithium, both for new mines such as Lithium Americas’ Thacker Pass and multiple projects experimenting with direct extraction technology. South32’s Hermosa zinc-manganese project in Arizona is a non-lithium stand-out, qualifying for both DOD and DOE funds and the first mine to qualify for the Fast-41 accelerated permitting process. Many others, however, remain mired in the country’s tortuous permitting process. The Biden administration has struggled to reconcile its desire to produce the metals needed for the green energy transition with its environmental credentials. Big copper projects such as the Pebble mine in Alaska and the Twin Metals project in Minnesota have been killed off. Trump has already promised to reverse Biden’s 20-year ban on mining in the Superior National Forest in Minnesota in “about 10 to 15 minutes” of taking office. That in itself won’t be a green light for the Twin Metals project, which would still have to get state permitting sign-off, but it’s a sign that the Trump administration won’t be hobbled by the green-on-green cabinet conflict that characterized the last four years. Focus on China A new Trump administration is also likely to take a much tougher line on critical metal imports from entities linked to China. Talon Metals has been allocated funds by both the DOD and DOE to progress its Tamarack nickel project in Minnesota and explore for more resource in the state. It’s a tough time to be in the nickel business, though, as a mining boom in Indonesia has crushed prices and forced many existing operators out of business. Most of Indonesia’s nickel capacity is controlled either directly or indirectly by Chinese entities, which has not stopped US carmakers such as Ford from joining the Indonesian nickel rush. Price has trumped politics when it comes to securing a key metal for EV batteries. Depending on the structure of the joint venture between Ford, Vale and China’s Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, the nickel from the new plant in Indonesia could even count as IRA-compliant and qualify for federal EV subsidies. Such sourcing ambiguity seems unlikely to survive the Make America Great Again focus of a new Republican administration. Indeed, every sign so far is that Trump 2.0 will double down on the US minerals self-sufficiency drive, even if it means accepting that not all of the IRA funds are a “green scam”. (The opinions expressed here are those of the author, Andy Home, a columnist for Reuters.) (Editing by Mark Potter)(The Center Square) – The taxpayer cost of enhancing Tier II pensions in Illinois isn’t known as legislators hear of a proposed change they could take on in the new year. For months, members of the General Assembly have been holding hearings about what some say is the need to enhance benefits for some public employees hired after 2011, because their benefits may not be in line with standards set by Social Security. There were also arguments that the benefits are not enough to attract and retain talent for the public sector. Groups of labor unions took part in Friday’s Illinois House Personnel and Pensions Committee, pitching a measure to increase the wage cap, change the cost of living adjustments, and restore the Tier I retirement age for Tier II public employees hired after 2011. Pat Devaney with the We Are One coalition said the taxpayer cost isn’t known. “We stand ready to work with the leaders in the General Assembly and the governor’s office to identify revenue to pay for our proposals when the costs are known,” Devaney told the committee. It’s also unclear what it could cost to comply with Social Security standards if nothing is done. During an Illinois House committee Friday, Pat Devaney with the We Are One Coalition and state Rep. Steven Reick, R-Woodstock, discuss the unknown taxpayer cost of pension enhancements. Separately, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski discuss pensions. “I’ve seen several estimates, let’s just call it three to $6 billion total over a 20-plus year period,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Thursday at an unrelated event. “So that is something that has to be done.” State Rep. Steven Reick, R-Woodstock, said without knowing the costs, they need to focus on the debt that is known. “And I think it gives the taxpayers, people who are actually paying the bill, an understanding of what we are doing about this debt because this debt is hanging over us like the Sword of Damocles and it's never going to go away,” Reick said during the committee hearing Friday. The Illinois Commission on Government and Accountability reports the state’s unfunded liability grew $1.5 million last year to $143.7 billion, the second highest since it was $144.2 billion in 2020. Separately, Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski said the conversation should be about cutting the costs, not increasing benefits. “Some of these Tier II plans increase costs for taxpayers by billions, some as much as $80 billion, and so we’re not going to fix Illinois until we fire a bunch of those politicians that refuse to talk about pension reform,” Dabrowski told The Center Square. Dabrowski advocates for a constitutional amendment to allow for pension benefits to be reduced.

NoneFirst 12-team CFP set: Oregon seeded No. 1, SMU edges Alabama for final spot

BOSTON , Dec. 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The China Fund, Inc. (NYSE: CHN) (the "Fund") announced today that the Fund's annual stockholder meeting (the "Meeting") will be scheduled for Thursday, March 13, 2025 , via a virtual forum at 11:00 a.m. ET . Stockholders of record as of January 15, 2025 will be entitled to notice of, and to attend and vote at, the Meeting. The notice for the Meeting will be mailed to shareholders on or about February 10, 2025 . The Fund is a closed-end management investment company with the objective of seeking long-term capital appreciation by investing primarily in equity securities (i) of companies for which the principal securities trading market is in the People's Republic of China (" China "), or (ii) of companies for which the principal securities trading market is outside of China , or constituting direct equity investments in companies organized outside of China , that in both cases derive at least 50% of their revenues from goods and services sold or produced, or have at least 50% of their assets, in China . While the Fund is permitted to invest in direct equity investments of companies organized in China , it presently holds no such investments. Shares of the Fund are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CHN". The Fund's investment manager is Matthews International Capital Management, LLC. For further information regarding the Fund and the Fund's holdings, please call (888)-CHN-CALL (246-2255) or visit the Fund's website at www.chinafundinc.com . View original content: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-china-fund-inc-announces-date-of-annual-meeting-of-stockholders-302331705.html SOURCE The China Fund, Inc.No. 14 Ole Miss seeks consolation win over Miss. State in Egg Bowl