50jili withdrawal
50jili withdrawal
The NFL suspended Tennessee Titans safety Julius Wood six games on Tuesday for violating the policy on performing-enhancing substances. There are five games remaining this season for the Titans (3-9), so Wood's suspension will bleed into Week 1 of 2025. Wood, 23, went undrafted this spring and signed with the Dallas Cowboys as a free agent. They waived him in August, and he caught on with the Titans, who claimed him off waivers. Wood appeared in nine games, almost exclusively on special teams, and has recorded two tackles. --Field Level MediaMy love of movie scoundrels has been sorely tested this year. When I was young, I daydreamed of exotic heists, slick con artists and lovable crooks I’d seen on screen. For most of my moviegoing life, I’ve been a sucker for larceny done well. Most of us are, probably. Related Articles Movies | Review: Angelina Jolie glides through ‘Maria’ like an iceberg, but a chilly Callas isn’t enough Movies | ‘Sweethearts’ review: Breakup-focused romcom is largely engaging Movies | Making ‘Queer’ required openness. Daniel Craig was ready Movies | 18 most anticipated movies in holiday season 2024 Movies | ‘Moana 2’ review: Sequel hits big screen unable to shake its small-screen DNA But now it’s late 2024. Mood is wrong. In the real world, in America, it’s scoundrel time all the time. Maybe Charles Dickens was right. In “American Notes for General Circulation” (1842), the English literary superstar chronicled his travels and detected a widespread, peculiarly American “love of ‘smart’ dealing” across the land. In business and in politics, Dickens observed, slavish admiration of the con men among them “gilds over many a swindle and gross breach of trust.” And here we are. It’ll pass, this scoundrel reprieve of mine. In fact it just did. All it took was thinking about the conspicuous, roguish outlier on my best-of-2024 list: “Challengers.” It’s what this year needed and didn’t know it: a tricky story of lying, duplicitous weasels on and off the court. The best films this year showed me things I hadn’t seen, following familiar character dynamics into fresh territory. Some were more visually distinctive than others; all made eloquent cases for how, and where, their stories unfolded. “All We Imagine as Light,” recently at the Gene Siskel Film Center, works like a poem, or a sustained exhalation of breath, in its simply designed narrative of three Mumbai hospital workers. Fluid, subtly political, filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s achievement is very nearly perfect. So is cowriter-director RaMell Ross’ adaptation of the Colson Whitehead novel “The Nickel Boys,” arriving in Chicago-area theaters on Jan. 3, 2025. “Nickel Boys,” the film, loses the “the” in Whitehead’s title but gains an astonishingly realized visual perspective. If Ross never makes another movie, he’ll have an American masterpiece to his credit. The following top 10 movies of 2024 are in alphabetical order. Both a mosaic of urban ebb and flow, and a delicate revelation of character, director and writer Payal Kapadia’s Mumbai story is hypnotic, patient and in its more traditional story progression, a second feature every bit as good as Kapadia’s first, 2021’s “A Night of Knowing Nothing.” Mikey Madison gives one of the year’s funniest, saddest, truest performances as a Brooklyn exotic dancer who takes a shine to the gangly son of a Russian oligarch, and he to her. Their transactional courtship and dizzying Vegas marriage, followed by violently escalating complications, add up to filmmaker Sean Baker’s triumph, capped by an ending full of exquisite mysteries of the human heart. As played by Adrien Brody, the title character is a visionary architect and Hungarian Jewish emigre arriving in America in 1947 after the Holocaust. (That said, the title refers to more than one character.) His patron, and his nemesis, is the Philadelphia blueblood industrialist played by Guy Pearce. Director/co-writer Brady Corbet’s thrillingly ambitious epic, imperfect but loaded with rewarding risks, was shot mostly in widescreen VistaVision. Worth seeing on the biggest screen you can find. Opens in Chicago-area theaters on Jan. 10, 2025. Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor play games with each other, on the tennis court and in beds, while director Luca Guadagnino builds to a match-point climax that can’t possibly work, and doesn’t quite — but I saw the thing twice anyway. In Bucharest, production assistant Angela zigzags around the city interviewing people for her employer’s workplace safety video. If that sounds less than promising, even for a deadpan Romanian slice-of-life tragicomedy, go ahead and make the mistake of skipping this one. llinca Manolache is terrific as Angela. Like “Do Not Expect Too Much,” director Agnieszka Holland’s harrowing slice of recent history was a 2023 release, making it to Chicago in early 2024. Set along the densely forested Poland/Belarus border, this is a model of well-dramatized fiction honoring what refugees have always known: the fully justified, ever-present fear of the unknown. A quiet marvel of a feature debut from writer-director Annie Baker, this is a mother/daughter tale rich in ambiguities and wry humor, set in a lovely, slightly forlorn corner of rural Massachusetts. Julianne Nicholson, never better; Zoe Ziegler as young, hawk-eyed Lacy, equally memorable. I love this year’s nicest surprise. The premise: A teenager’s future 39-year-old self appears to her, magically, via a strong dose of mushrooms. The surprise: Writer-director Megan Park gradually deepens her scenario and sticks a powerfully emotional landing. Wonderful work from Aubrey Plaza, Maisy Stella, Maria Dizzia and everybody, really. From the horrific true story of a Florida reform school and its decades of abuse, neglect and enraging injustice toward its Black residents, novelist Colson Whitehead’s fictionalized novel makes a remarkable jump to the screen thanks to co-writer/director RaMell Ross’s feature debut. Cousins, not as close as they once were, reunite for a Holocaust heritage tour in Poland and their own search for their late grandmother’s childhood home. They’re the rootless Benji (Kieran Culkin) and tightly sprung David (Jesse Eisenberg, who wrote and directed). Small but very sure, this movie’s themes of genocidal trauma and Jewish legacy support the narrative every step of the way. Culkin is marvelous; so is the perpetually undervalued Eisenberg. To the above, I’ll add 10 more runners-up, again in alphabetical order: “Blink Twice,” directed by Zoe Kravitz. “Conclave,” directed by Edward Berger. “Dune: Part Two ,” directed by Denis Villeneuve. “Good One ,” directed by India Donaldson. “Hit Man,” directed by Richard Linklater. “Joker: Folie a Deux,” directed by Todd Phillips. “Nosferatu,” directed by Robert Eggers, opens in Chicago-area theaters on Dec. 25. “The Outrun,” directed by Nora Fingscheidt. “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” directed by Johan Grimonprez. “Tuesday,” directed by Daina O. Pusić. Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.
Top 10 movies of 2024: In a time of scoundrels, ‘Brutalist,’ ‘Challengers’ and the movie about the exotic dancerStock up on these popular board games for your next get-together
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BEIJING , Dec. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- At the end of 2024, we take a look back at the Chinese economy's performance this year. China's domestic GDP grew by 5.3 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, 4.7 percent in the second quarter and 4.6 percent in the third quarter this year, with an average growth rate of 4.8 percent in the first three quarters. Since September, as a package of incremental policies continues to yield its effects, China's economy maintains an upward trend. Overall, we are fully confident in achieving our economic growth goal this year. The country's economic performance has been hard-won. Externally, transformations around the world unseen in a century are unfolding at a greater pace, with global economic growth remaining sluggish, and the complexity, severity and uncertainty of the external environment on the rise. At home, domestic demand is insufficient, social expectations remain weak and there are difficulties associated with structural adjustments. The situation is severe and complex, and the task is difficult and weighty. However, under the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, Chinese localities and government agencies are more confident and are taking solid steps to deliver outcomes. The results underscore that "fundamentals of the Chinese economy, and favorable conditions such as a vast market, strong economic resilience and great potential remain unchanged." Huge market, vast space Markets are the scarcest resource. The modernization achieved by 1.4 billion Chinese people has resulted in the addition of a new super-large market larger than those of all developed countries combined. The new development paradigm will enable China to fully unlock its market potential and create greater demand for other countries. With a new car rolling off production line on November 14 , China's annual production of new energy vehicles (NEVs) surpassed the 10 million milestone, becoming the first country in the world to do so. Behind the number is China's robust supply and demand. In the first 10 months, China's production and sales of NEVs grew by 33 percent and 33.9 percent year-on-year, respectively. China continues to take the lead in the electrification and intelligence transformation of the automotive industry, which is attributed to the supply, policy support and demand advantage in the ultra-large market. Markets bring valuable business opportunities. Take cars for example. By the end of June, China had 345 million cars, but the country's car ownership level per 1,000 residents is less than half of that in developed countries. Additionally, China's NEV ownership is only 24.72 million, which means continuous demand in the future. Markets breed competition advantages. China's vast market contributes to the formation of "economy of scale" and "economy of scope," which generates greater profits for enterprises and reduces innovations costs, and also helps provide a large number of application scenarios and boost the large-scale application of innovations. China leads the world in batteries, motors and electronic control technologies, while its intelligent cockpits and intelligent driving are internationally advanced. Thanks to the benign interactions between supply and demand, the industrialization of new technologies and new products is speeding up. Strong resilience, solid basis Resilience strengthens self-belief. China has come to where it is today after overcoming all kinds of difficulties and challenges. Foreign trade is an important barometer in this regard. In the first 10 months of the year, China's foreign goods trade rose by 5.2 percent year-on-year to reach a new high compared with the same period historically. The improvement in the quality and efficiency of the country's foreign trade against the backdrop of shrinking external demand reflects China's economic resilience. This resilience originates from China's solid manufacturing basis and industrial chain advantages. "We could not do what we do without them," Apple CEO Tim Cook said of Chinese suppliers during his third visit to the Chinese mainland this year, as over 80 percent of Apple's 200 major suppliers have set up factories in China . China has the world's most comprehensive industrial categories and a well-rounded industrial system, with the scale of manufacturing industry ranking top for 14 consecutive years. The high-end, intelligent and green development of the manufacturing sector continues to strengthen the stability of the country's industrial and supply chain. In the first three quarters, the manufacturing industry contributed 32.2 percent to the country's economic growth, up 11.2 percentage points. China moved up to 11th place in the ranking of the world's most innovative economies. The basis is solid, and risks and challenges are not to be feared. Resilience also comes from excellent policy adjustments. The nation has been strengthening counter-cyclical adjustments, accelerating the implementation of major national strategies and the development of securities capabilities in key areas while supporting large-scale equipment upgrades and trade-in policies for consumer goods with robust measures, boosting the stabilization of the property market and galvanizing the capital market. The government has also put forward a package of measures to dissolve local government debt risks. This year, a series of existing policies continue to produce effects and incremental policies are being effectively implemented, jointly helping the economy stabilize. Vast potential, strong momentum China's economy has vast potential and many advantages and favorable conditions for sustaining long-term development momentum. China has been the world's second-largest economy for many years, but still has vast development potential in terms of per capita and structure. China's per capita GDP remains relatively low, and the country's amount of infrastructure per capita is only 20-30 percent of that of developed countries. In 2023, China's urbanization rate, which measures the ratio of permanent urban residents relative to the total population, reached 66.2 percent by the end of 2023. Estimates show that each percentage point increase in the urbanization rate could drive 1 trillion yuan ( $137.55 billion ) in investment. Currently, both China's fiscal deficit ratio and government debt ratio are low, and the country's policy toolbox remains well-stocked. The potential also lies in elementary resources. China's human resources in science and technology ranked first in the country and the average length of education received by new entrants into the workforce has increased to 14 years, turning the demographic dividend into a talent dividend. In addition, overall sufficient social capitals, vast room for the highly efficient use of land and the vast unleashing of the potential of digital elements provide solid foundational support. This potential also comes from the huge market. The country's population of over 1.4 billion and middle-income population of over 400 million support a large-scale, diverse and huge domestic market. Accelerating the building of a unified national market will improve overall economic operation efficiency and continuously unleash the potential of domestic demand. Overall, China is a country with vast territory, a large population and unbalanced and uncoordinated development. This is a shortcoming, but also represents potential and a driving force for future development. Sparking vitality and building synergy through reform is essential to continuously unleashing development potential. From implementing regulations for fair competition reviews, accelerating the legislative process of the law on the promotion of the private economy and formulating normal communication mechanisms between governments and enterprises, to releasing a new national negative list for foreign investment and removing all market access restrictions for foreign investors in the manufacturing sector, China's reforms in key fields continue to deepen this year and high-level opening-up advances in an in-depth way. The third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China adopted the Resolution of the CPC Central Committee on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization. Driven by reform of the economic system, China is correspondingly boosting reform in other fields, and the internal development momentum and vitality will continue to strengthen. Reviewing allows a clear understanding of the situation and better moving forward. While some major economies experience low growth rates and high inflation this year, China is expected to achieve its economic growth target of around 5 percent, and continue to contribute around 30 percent to world economic growth. This stable performance underlines the fact that China's economy will continue to remain on a positive trajectory over the long run. The story was originally published on the front page of the People's Daily on December 8, 2024 View original content: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-times-peoples-daily-article-says-favorable-conditions-for-chinas-economic-development-remain-unchanged-302325568.html SOURCE Global Times
