ace and ernie's wild ventura
ace and ernie's wild ventura
(The Center Square) – The University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents has recommended a number of new and revised policies for its institutions, such as a commitment to institutional neutrality, the prohibiting of DEI tactics, and a mandatory education in America’s founding documents. The University System of Georgia (USG) is made up of Georgia’s 26 public colleges and universities as well as Georgia Archives and the Georgia Public Library Service. “USG institutions shall remain neutral on social and political issues unless such an issue is directly related to the institution’s core mission,” the board’s proposed revisions read . “Ideological tests, affirmations, and oaths, including diversity statements,” will be banned from admissions processes and decisions, employment processes and decisions, and institution orientation and training for both students and employees. “No applicant for admission shall be asked to or required to affirmatively ascribe to or opine about political beliefs, affiliations, ideals, or principles, as a condition for admission,” the new policy states. Additionally, USG will hire based on a person’s qualifications and ability. “The basis and determining factor” for employment will be “that the individual possesses the requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities associated with the role, and is believed to have the ability to successfully perform the essential functions, responsibilities, and duties associated with the position for which the individual is being considered.” Beginning in the 2025-2026 academic year, the school’s civic instruction will require students to study founding American documents among other things. USG students will learn from the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights, the Articles of Confederation, the Federalist Papers, the Gettysburg Address, the Emancipation Proclamation, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, as well as the Georgia Constitution and Bill of Rights. Sign up to get our free daily email of the biggest stories! When reached for comment, the Board of Regents told The Center Square that “these proposed updates strengthen USG’s academic communities.” The recommended policies allow a campus environment “where people have the freedom to share their thoughts and learn from one another through objective scholarship and inquiry,” and “reflect an unyielding obligation to protect freedom, provide quality higher education and promote student success,” the board said. The board told The Center Square that it proposed strengthening “the requirements for civics instruction” with the inclusion of “foundational primary sources” because of higher education’s duty to students. Colleges and universities “must prepare [students] to be contributing members of society and to understand the ideals of freedom and democracy that make America so exceptional,” the board said. As for ditching DEI, the board explained that “equal opportunity and decisions based on merit are fundamental values of USG.” “The proposed revisions among other things would make clear that student admissions and employee hiring should be based on a person’s qualifications, not his or her beliefs,” the board said. The Board of Regents also said it wants to “ensure [its] institutions remain neutral on social and political issues while modeling what it looks like to promote viewpoint diversity, create campus cultures where students and faculty engage in civil discourse, and the open exchange of ideas is the norm.” USG’s Board of Regents recently urged the NCAA to ban transgender-identifying men from participating in women’s sports, in line with the NAIA rules, The Center Square previously reported .At the recent Microsoft Ignite event in Chicago, CEO Satya Nadella and his team told what I thought was a strong, cohesive story to pull together the complex strands of enterprise AI. The company still managed to make many separate announcements during the three-hour keynote — I’ll spare you the rundown of every single detail — but there was a unifying arc to it that I think positions Microsoft well as AI continues its move from hype generator to value generator in the enterprise. Making Clear Strides To Achieve ROI For Enterprise AI Let me reiterate the obvious: enterprise AI is really complex. That holds even more for a company the size of Microsoft, which came out of the gate early in 2023 with AI-driven search , quickly got into copilots (and launched Copilot) and is now helping to fundamentally change personal computing with the Copilot+ PC . That’s before we get to Microsoft Azure’s role as the second-largest cloud service provider in the world. So it only makes sense for the company to commit itself to innovating in AI in myriad ways. As he kicked things off at the event, Nadella emphasized that the company’s AI efforts aren’t pursuing tech for the sake of tech, but to achieve real outcomes for business. In part this is an answer to the recent chorus of criticisms from Wall Street that the tech industry and its enterprise customers are overbuilding AI without having solid ROI to show for it. But from everything I can see, it also reflects Microsoft’s genuine intentions with AI: to empower people and companies to do more with multi-model (and multi-modal) AI, better reasoning and planning capabilities and richer context for greater accuracy and relevance. Nadella did point out some impressive technical achievements: AI performance is doubling every six months, consumption of Azure’s AI models has also more than doubled in the last six months, Copilot is now twice as fast while delivering 3x higher user satisfaction and so on. But there was a louder drumbeat of business results, starting with an example in the opening video that described an AI use case worth $50 million annually to the customer. Later on, Nadella and other presenters went through countless AI use cases, from monitoring legal contracts to shortening customer-service calls to accelerating protein research by 5x. While I absolutely agree with the shareholder perspective that any major area of investment must justify itself with meaningful returns for the business, I’m also seeing more and more real-world examples of quantifiable — and often large — ROI on AI investments reported by disciplined, no-nonsense companies including Microsoft, Lenovo, HPE, Adobe and others. The Copilot Three-Layer Cake During the keynote session, Nadella introduced a three-layered diagram to explain Microsoft’s approach to AI: Copilot is one layer, Copilot-powered devices are another, and Copilot in the AI stack is the third. This organizing rubric is another reminder of Microsoft’s reach among both consumers and businesses, because ongoing improvements to Copilot ripple out across the largest installed base of productivity software in the world (as well as enterprise apps including Power BI and Dynamics ERP), plus Microsoft can introduce whole new classes of computing devices (more on that below) — and then there is all the heavy-duty enterprise IT, especially via Azure. First, Copilot. What started with essentially a chatbot is now far more than that, crucially incorporating AI agents at every step. Nadella emphasized that expanding Copilots with agents is fundamental to Microsoft’s approach; one Copilot can employ thousands of agents for all kinds of tasks — think anything that involves automation, monitoring, scheduling, planning or collaboration. More than that, agents can be allotted specific roles and permissions tied to job duties, for example by restricting access to certain systems or data to IT or HR staff. Tools within the Copilot ecosystem can ingest many different multi-modal inputs: numerical data from spreadsheets or your ERP, text or diagrams in documents, social media feeds, e-mails and on and on. The outputs can likewise be almost anything you want: graphs, draft reports, project reminders, webpages, e-mails etc. One presenter even demoed Copilot creating a customized article to help him plan a camping trip, complete with recommended products to buy — all executed onstage in the moment in response to his verbal commands. The potential productivity gains are pretty compelling. Nadella and other presenters gave examples of synthesizing thousands of reports for risk analysis (saving weeks of laborious reading and collation); helping a salesperson monitor their pipeline and find upsell opportunities; answering questions about a presentation in Teams; extracting information from SharePoint; or, as Nadella himself does, organizing e-mail and prepping for meetings. Copilot Studio can help you make your own agents, and there was a big point made that creating a basic AI agent should be as easy as creating a Word document. For more advanced functions and more technical uses, there are also Copilot dev tools and coding-friendly agent creation services. In a separate meeting for analysts, Nadella pointed out that office work hasn’t meaningfully changed since the widespread adoption of the PC; things have gotten incrementally better, of course, but haven’t changed fundamentally. He sees Copilot upending this. From the Ignite stage, he said, “Every employee will have a Copilot that knows their work, helping them unlock productivity, enhancing creativity and saving time.” Importantly, Copilot now includes analytics that will show you exactly what Copilot is doing for your top and bottom line. In the analyst meeting, Nadella also said that a big first step is agents that can connect organizational silos. During the keynote I was particularly impressed with how Copilot can now connect not only with pre-built or custom agents created using Microsoft, but also with agents from Adobe, SAP, ServiceNow, Workday and even Cohere. This would allow you to keep Copilot as your main AI assistant, but take advantage of all the other agents that may be available through your enterprise systems. Besides connecting silos, this could be a potential solution to the AI agent version of app sprawl that we’re starting to see. This is highly relevant because the enterprises and global systems integrators I have talked with are having a very tough time integrating these silos of data to be able to do all this magic, and Microsoft is offering solutions to help. Spreading AI With Copilot Devices Microsoft is in a position to provide compute everywhere from Azure datacenters to the edge to the device in your hand, and in many cases the company is either making the hardware itself or intimately involved with creating the hardware’s architecture. This of course includes Copilot+ PCs, for which the company has collaborated with all the big PC OEMs, Qualcomm and increasingly AMD and Intel. At Ignite, Microsoft used this opportunity to talk up the benefits of moving your enterprise to Windows 11 — and let me say that if your company is not yet making that move, that’s something you need to fix immediately. From my perspective, Microsoft has removed every single objection to making this transition. At the event, Microsoft also announced a new piece of hardware called Windows 365 Link. It’s essentially a compute puck that delivers a virtual Windows experience from the cloud. Microsoft has already offered Windows 365 for a few years; the kicker here is that there’s absolutely zero maintenance and zero management of this client, which is adminless, passwordless, cannot be turned off, stores no data and uses the cloud for literally everything. Thinking strategically, I believe that Windows 365 and hardware like the Windows 365 Link are the future of Windows over the next decade. I need to get more information about the Link product, and maybe even get hands-on with it to test the experience, because what broke virtual desktop infrastructure from scaling was the user experience. Windows 365 isn’t VDI, as it’s a managed service — but latency cannot be variable. Microsoft’s Version Of The Enterprise AI Stack A lot of the hyperscalers (starting with AWS) and even some of the on-prem vendors (Dell, HPE, Lenovo — each in collaboration with Nvidia) are setting up their own AI factories under one name or another. For Microsoft, it’s the Azure AI Foundry, which I believe makes a big statement about the company’s strategic approach in this area and its dedication to multi-model AI. We’re talking about more than 1,800 models, including all of the latest ones from OpenAI plus open-source models from Meta, Mistral and others. In this context, I was fascinated to hear about the 20-plus specialized vertical models Microsoft has developed with partner companies outside the tech sphere, including heavy hitters like Bayer, Rockwell and Siemens. This is a very cool phenomenon of companies we don’t consider as high-tech getting into an emergent aspect of the high-tech market to create differentiation. Bigger picture, Azure AI Foundry unifies everything enterprises need in one place, complete with all the apps and tools to put AI to work. Within it, you can evaluate models, customize them, govern them. And of course it’s built to play nicely with Microsoft’s many other services, from GitHub to Copilot Studio. You can also use it to fine-tune your models with RAG or other methods, and fine-tuning is only growing more important for enterprises as they work to get the most out of their AI investments. But the number one impediment to enterprise AI adoption and effectiveness? Data. Data is everything, but it presents a lot of sticky problems for enterprise AI. The reason is very simple. When business AI was dominated by machine learning, the data you needed came from inside the stack. You created new efficiencies in your supply chain, for example, by analyzing the structured data in your ERP and SCM systems. But in this era of generative AI, there’s way more data, it comes from everywhere, and it’s often a mess. Again, every show I attend where I talk to enterprises and integrators, they say they are struggling with integrating their data silos. The need to harness all that data to make it usable is what led Microsoft to launch Fabric, its unified data platform, last year. All of the hyperscalers have something like this, plus many customers achieve parts of this functionality from more specialized vendors such as Cloudera, Snowflake and Databricks. Even though it’s only been in GA since last year’s Ignite conference, Fabric already has 16,000 customers, including 70% of the Fortune 500. Microsoft bills it as an enterprise data platform for all use cases, bringing together operational and analytical workloads in one place. At Ignite 2024, Microsoft announced a significant advance for the platform called Fabric Databases. This brings SQL Server natively into Fabric, which I think will give enterprises an “easy button” to simplify and optimize their databases for AI use. Making Enterprise AI Digestible And Effective If we take a broader view of all the experiments in enterprise AI across the two years since the AI hype cycle began, the painful truth is that many of them yielded no meaningful results — and in lots of cases maybe shouldn’t have been built in the first place. By contrast, Microsoft was very early with its investments in generative AI (especially through its support of OpenAI), and since early 2023 it has taken an aggressive but very steady approach to making AI a genuine source of value, for itself and for its customers. It’s no accident that today big names as diverse as Toyota, Blackrock and NASA are using Microsoft’s AI stack. It’s also no accident that Microsoft has done the hard, unglamorous work of building a data management platform like Fabric, which appeals mainly to IT geeks — but which could be a boon for scaling AI beyond experiments and into pervasive operational deployments. To be sure, the company has to watch out for over-hyping its capabilities, yet still be inspiring enough to motivate enterprises to move more quickly. The biggest thing Microsoft needs to address is something it didn’t at the show related to data. With 70% to 80% of enterprise data on-prem or on the edge, how does Microsoft maximize its play with AI? From my vantage point, the talking point so far is “Move the data to the public cloud.” Yet we’re 17 years into the public cloud, the on-prem stacks from VMware, RedHat and Nutanix are getting better, and I don’t see a mass public-cloud migration anytime soon. Microsoft can more directly address this. On the plus side, Microsoft seems to grasp how quickly AI is evolving, from models to apps to use cases to user experiences. And the company certainly doesn’t lack ambition. At the analyst session during Ignite, the question arose of how ubiquitous Nadella thinks Copilot could be. His answer: “How many Excel spreadsheets are there in your organization?” Based on what we saw at Ignite, I think Microsoft’s odds of achieving that are pretty good.
Austin, Dec. 14, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The SNS Insider report indicates that, “ The Water Treatment Polymers M arket is projected to achieve a valuation of USD 76.09 billion by 2032, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.55% from 2024 to 2032. ” This growth is underpinned by the rising adoption of water treatment polymers across municipal and industrial sectors, aimed at addressing challenges such as water scarcity and stringent environmental regulations. Key Trends Fueling the Water Treatment Polymers Market Escalating Water Scarcity and Recycling Initiatives With global freshwater resources under increasing strain, the demand for water recycling and reuse technologies has surged. Advanced polymer-based solutions, such as flocculants and coagulants, are being widely adopted to treat and recycle wastewater efficiently. These polymers enhance particle aggregation, sedimentation, and filtration processes, facilitating the safe reuse of treated water for industrial and municipal applications. Governments worldwide, including initiatives like the U.S. EPA’s Water Reuse Action Plan, are promoting water recycling, creating substantial demand for high-performance water treatment polymers. Stringent Environmental Regulations on Discharge Limits Environmental agencies such as the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are imposing strict limits on wastewater discharge. These regulations are driving the adoption of eco-friendly and biodegradable water treatment polymers that minimize environmental impact while maintaining treatment efficiency. For instance, wastewater discharge from heavy industries, including textiles, oil and gas, and pharmaceuticals, often contains hazardous pollutants. Polymers are crucial in ensuring compliance with these regulations, reducing penalties, and supporting sustainability goals. Rapid industrial expansion in regions like Asia-Pacific and Latin America has significantly increased the demand for effective water treatment solutions. Water treatment polymers are indispensable in industrial wastewater management, offering cost-effective and efficient treatment processes. Industries such as power generation, food and beverage, and mining are key contributors to market growth, relying heavily on polymer solutions to maintain operational efficiency and adhere to environmental standards. Download PDF Sample of Water Treatment Polymers Market @ https://www.snsinsider.com/sample-request/1924 Key Players: Ashland (Aqualon Water-Soluble Polymers, VersaFlex Polymeric Coatings) Arkema (Rilsan PA11, Pebax Polymers) BASF SE (Polymers for Water Treatment, Sokalan Polymers) CP Kelco US Inc. (Kelzan XCD, Keltrol XR) DuPont (Corian Water Treatment Solutions, Hytrel Thermoplastic Elastomers) Gantrade Corporation (Galoryl Polymers, Luvitec) SNF Group (Superfloc Polymers, Zetag) Kemira (Kemira Water Treatment Polymers, Kemira Flocculants) Kuraray Co. Ltd (Kuraray Polymers, Clearol Polyacrylamide) Merck KGaA (Millipore Water Purification, Millipore Filters) Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (Mitsubishi Polymer Flocculants, Sumikagel) Nouryon (Dissolvine Chelating Agents, Peridur Flocculants) Polysciences Inc. (Polyacrylamide-based Polymers, Flocculant and Coagulant Polymers) Sumitomo Seika Chemicals Company (Seprod Series, Seakem Flocculants) Suez Water Technologies (Polymers for Water Treatment, Thermax Ion Exchange Resins) Solvay (Aflammit Polymers, Aquafloc Water Treatment Products) Lanxess (Baypure Polymers, Lewatit Ion Exchange Resins) Solenis (Baker Hughes Polymers, Trident Flocculants) Clariant (Hostafloc Polymers, Flocculants for Water Treatment) Dow Chemical Company (Nalco Water Solutions, Acumer Specialty Polymers) Water Treatment Polymers Market Report Scope: If You Need Any Customization on Water Treatment Polymers Market Report, I nquire Now @ https://www.snsinsider.com/enquiry/1924 Which Product Type Segment Led the Market in 2023? In 2023, the polyacrylamides segment held the largest market share, accounting for approximately 38.14%. These polymers are extensively utilized as flocculants and coagulants in water treatment processes, owing to their exceptional efficiency in particle aggregation and sludge dewatering. The growing adoption of polyacrylamides in industries such as oil and gas, chemical processing, and municipal water treatment has been pivotal. Additionally, advancements in eco-friendly polyacrylamide formulations have further boosted their demand, aligning with the global focus on sustainable water treatment solutions. Which Application Segment Held the Highest Market Share in 2023? In 2023, sludge treatment held the largest market share around 38% of the water treatment polymer market. This is specifically aimed at byproducts of the wastewater treatment process namely the solids that get separated from the water. As urbanization and industrialization have increased, the volume and type of wastewater, which consequently produces a huge quantity of sludge, has increased dramatically and thus the world needs efficient and cost-effective sludge treatment technologies. These are namely thickener, dewatered, stabilizer, slurry, and sludge disposal respectively for sustainable waste management to meet required environmental standards to minimize waste degradation of environmental safety. Regional Insights In 2023, the North America region held the largest market share, accounting for approximately 48% of the global water treatment polymers market. This is due to comparatively longer operational decades of the industrial and municipal water treatment infrastructure in the region coupled with increasingly stringent environmental regulations. Government authorities such as the U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and Environment Canada impose stringent standards regarding wastewater discharge and pollutants control, forcing industries and municipalities to implement advanced water treatment technologies. The substantial emphasis on sustainability and water reuse in the region has also propelled the need for high-performance, as well as sustainable polymers. Moreover, North America has a strong industrial base, including oil and gas, power generation, manufacturing, etc., which creates significant amounts of wastewater that must be treated. The market growth has also been positively influenced by research and development investments, along with innovations in polymer technologies by essential companies. The growing adoption of tertiary treatment processes and zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) systems across the region is expected to amplify the importance of water treatment polymers in combating water scarcity and environmental issues. Speak with O ur E xpert A nalyst T oday to G ain D eeper I nsights @ https://www.snsinsider.com/request-analyst/1924 Recent Developments in the Market In 2023 , Kemira Oyj introduced a new line of sustainable water treatment polymers designed for industrial and municipal applications. These polymers boast improved biodegradability and reduced sludge production, addressing critical sustainability challenges. In 2023 , SNF Group, a leading manufacturer of polyacrylamides, announced the establishment of a new production facility in Brazil. This expansion aims to cater to the growing demand for water treatment polymers across South America. In 2023 , Solvay SA partnered with a municipal water authority in Europe to pilot-test innovative polymer solutions that enhance phosphate removal in wastewater treatment processes. Conclusion The Water Treatment Polymers Market is poised for significant growth, fueled by advancements in polymer technology and the increasing focus on water conservation and sustainability. Polyacrylamides and other high-performance polymers are playing a pivotal role in transforming wastewater management, ensuring compliance with stringent regulations and supporting global sustainability goals. As industries and municipalities strive to address water scarcity and pollution, the demand for efficient, cost-effective, and eco-friendly water treatment polymers will continue to rise. This market’s alignment with pressing environmental concerns and its role in enabling sustainable water management position it as a critical enabler of global water security. Table of Contents – Major Key Points 1. Introduction 1.1 Market Definition 1.2 Scope (Inclusion and Exclusions) 1.3 Research Assumptions 2. Executive Summary 2.1 Market Overview 2.2 Regional Synopsis 2.3 Competitive Summary 3. Research Methodology 4. Market Dynamics Impact Analysis 5. Statistical Insights and Trends Reporting 5.1 Production Capacity and Utilization, by Country, by Type, 2023 5.2 Feedstock Prices, by Country, by Type, 2023 5.3 Regulatory Impact, by Country, by Type, 2023. 5.4 Environmental Metrics: Emissions Data, Waste Management Practices, and Sustainability Initiatives, by Region 5.5 Innovation and R&D, by Type, 2023 6. Competitive Landscape 6.1 List of Major Companies, By Region 6.2 Market Share Analysis, By Region 6.3 Product Benchmarking 6.3.1 Product specifications and features 6.3.2 Pricing 6.4 Strategic Initiatives 6.4.1 Marketing and promotional activities 6.4.2 Distribution and supply chain strategies 6.4.3 Expansion plans and new product launches 6.4.4 Strategic partnerships and collaborations 6.5 Technological Advancements 6.6 Market Positioning and Branding 7. Water Treatment Polymers Market Segmentation, by Product Type 7.1 Chapter Overview 7.2 Polyacrylates 7.3 Quaternary Ammonium Polymers 7.4 Polyacrylamides 7.4 Polyamines 8. Water Treatment Polymers Market Segmentation, by Application 8.1 Chapter Overview 8.2 Water Treatment 8.3 Preliminary Treatment 8.4 Sludge Treatment 9. Water Treatment Polymers Market Segmentation, by End-User 9.1 Chapter Overview 9.2 Industrial 9.3 Commercial Buildings 9.4 Residential Buildings 9.5 Municipality 10. Regional Analysis 11. Company Profiles 12. Use Cases and Best Practices 13. Conclusion Buy Full Research Report on Water Treatment Polymers Market 2024-2032 @ https://www.snsinsider.com/checkout/1924 Buying Options 5 Reports Pack (USD 7500) 10 Report Pack (USD 12000) Vertical Subscription (150 Reports Pack Valid for 1 Year) Use this link to Purchase above packs @ https://www.snsinsider.com/subscription [For more information or need any customization research mail us at info@snsinsider.com ] About Us: SNS Insider is one of the leading market research and consulting agencies that dominates the market research industry globally. Our company's aim is to give clients the knowledge they require in order to function in changing circumstances. In order to give you current, accurate market data, consumer insights, and opinions so that you can make decisions with confidence, we employ a variety of techniques, including surveys, video talks, and focus groups around the world.Nvidia under fire, solar eclipses on demand, and Elon Musk vs. the SEC: Tech news roundupTEXAS: Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakistani neuroscientist, who studied at institutions including Brandeis University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is serving an 86-year sentence at the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, has filed a federal lawsuit accusing US prison officials of severe human rights abuses. The 61-page complaint, lodged in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, claims Siddiqui has faced ongoing sexual assault, physical abuse, denial of medical care, and religious discrimination during her imprisonment since 2010. The lawsuit names the US government, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), and several prison officials, detailing numerous incidents of mistreatment. Siddiqui alleges that prison guards, including male officers, subjected her to repeated sexual assault under the guise of routine searches. She further accuses prison staff of retaliating against her for reporting the abuse, including an incident in which she was allegedly doused with a burning acidic substance. A significant portion of the lawsuit highlights violations of Siddiqui’s religious rights. Despite being a devout Muslim, Siddiqui has been denied access to an Imam for spiritual guidance, and her requests for religious items and participation in Friday prayers have been repeatedly blocked. The lawsuit details how male officers have observed her during private moments, including when she was forced to strip, further infringing upon her religious freedoms. Additionally, the complaint addresses the lack of adequate medical care, noting that Siddiqui has suffered from physical ailments, including hearing loss and dental issues, as a result of prior alleged torture in US custody. Her attorneys argue that the failure to provide proper care for Siddiqui’s documented PTSD and physical injuries violates her constitutional rights under the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. The case is framed within a broader context of systemic issues at FMC Carswell, where previous reports and lawsuits have pointed to widespread abuse of female inmates. A 2022 investigation by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram revealed numerous cases of sexual misconduct by prison staff, many of which were either covered up or inadequately addressed. Dr. Siddiqui’s legal team, which includes attorneys Naim Haroon Sakhia, Maria Kari, and Clive Stafford Smith, is seeking a jury trial and demanding an independent investigation into the allegations. Earlier in 2022, in a lawsuit against the federal Bureau of Prisons, Siddiqui’s lawyers had said that another inmate had “smashed a coffee mug filled with scaling hot liquid” into her face. When Siddiqui curled herself into a fetal position, the other woman began to punch and kick her, leaving her with injuries so severe that she needed to be taken by wheelchair to the prison’s medical unit.. Siddiqui was left with burns around her eyes and a three-inch scar near her left eye, the lawsuit says. She also suffered bruises on her arms and legs and an injury to her cheek. They have been calling for immediate action to protect Siddiqui from further harm, improve her access to religious counsel, and ensure she receives adequate medical care. The case has drawn significant international attention, with human rights activists and supporters calling for justice for Siddiqui and other female inmates subjected to similar abuse. The Pakistani government has also repeatedly called for her release and repatriation, highlighting concerns about the treatment she has received in US custody. Attorney Naim Haroon Sakhia commented on the lawsuit, stating, “Dr. Siddiqui has endured unimaginable suffering, and this case is a glaring example of the severe issues plaguing the US prison system.” Maria Kari emphasised that the lawsuit seeks justice not just for Siddiqui, but for other women who have suffered in silence. The US Bureau of Prisons has yet to respond to the lawsuit, but the case is likely to have far-reaching implications for prison reform and the treatment of detainees, particularly women, in US facilities. This legal action underscores ongoing concerns over the treatment of foreign nationals in US prisons and has the potential to spark further scrutiny of the country’s human rights practices. Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s arrest is one of the most controversial and mysterious cases, that began in March 2003, following the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), Al Qaeda’s third-in-command and the alleged mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, in Karachi. Mohammed was transferred to US custody and sent to Guantanamo Bay, where he was tortured by being subjected to waterboarding and “rectal rehydration” as part of CIA interrogation tactics, according to a Senate report. At the time, Siddiqui, who was reportedly married to a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, disappeared along with her three minor children in Karachi. US media described her as the first woman suspected of links to Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network, earning her the notorious moniker “Lady Al Qaeda.” In 2008, Siddiqui ‘resurfaced’ in Afghanistan, where she was arrested in Ghazni province during a time of intense conflict in Afghanistan. At that point, the Taliban, a resistance militant group, were engaged in fierce battles with Afghan national forces, which were supported by the US-led international coalition. The internal troops in Ghazni included US 1,200 troops, 1600 from Poland and 700 from France. US court documents allege that Siddiqui was found carrying two kilograms of sodium cyanide hidden in bottles of moisturiser, along with plans for attacks on high-profile US targets, including the Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building. Handed over to US forces, Siddiqui reportedly grabbed a rifle during her interrogation and opened fire on American agents, shouting “Death to America” and “I want to kill Americans.” While the agents were unharmed, Siddiqui was shot and wounded in the process. Medical tests conducted in 2008 revealed that Siddiqui had suffered a partial loss of her intestine, raising concerns about her treatment during her years of detention. In 2008, one of her sons was freed in Afghanstan and later shifted to Islamabad. There is no information on how he ended up in Afghanistan. Details about the other two children are not known. In 2010, she was convicted in the Manhattan, US and sentenced to 86 years in prison for attempted murder. However, she was never charged with any direct links to Al Qaeda or terrorism-related activities. Recently during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing in 2023, US Congressman Brad Sherman had proposed a potential exchange betweeb Dr. Aafia Siddiqui and Dr. Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani doctor who assisted the CIA in conducting a fake vaccination campaign to locate Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. In 2012, Afridi was sentenced to 33 years in prison in Pakistan, not for his work with the CIA, but over ties to a banned militant group. His jail time was was later reduced to 10 years. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. 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ATLANTA — A month after the November election, a series of major developments has shaken up Georgia’s political landscape as Donald Trump prepares his return to the White House. The president-elect’s announcement Wednesday that he will nominate former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler to his Cabinet was his second appointment that will have broad implications for Georgia’s 2026 races. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.Trace3 enters federal market via acquisition
HubSync Revolutionizes Tax and Accounting with 2025 Product Enhancements & New FeaturesIn a Thursday interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer , FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam said his company can do well even if there is a supply chain shakeup. > Philadelphia news 24/7: Watch NBC10 free wherever you are "As the supply chain patterns change, we are here, there and everywhere," he said. "That's the advantage people sometimes miss, the fact that we have a scaled network in place, provides us an advantage in these dynamic times ." President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to drastically hike import tariffs for several countries, especially China, and these moves would likely disrupt global supply chains. While Subramaniam conceded that China currently represents roughly 28% to 30% of global manufacturing, he said the good news for FedEx is that its network is global, claiming the company serves 99% of global commerce. This dynamic makes it easier for FedEx to "adapt and move our capacity around" and connect any point in the network to the rest of the world, he continued. Subramaniam also said the company is seeing better-than-expected demand this month. He said he thinks consumers are feeling more bullish and suggested December could be a record month for the Los Angeles port. FedEx reported a mixed quarter Thursday after close and announced it plans to spin off its freight business into another publicly traded company, FedEx Freight. Shares climbed more than 8% in extended trading. Subramaniam said the split could help create long-term value for shareholders of both companies. "We are sitting on global supply chain insights," he said. "So not only do we want to be a leading transportation network provider, but also a global supply chain technology provider." Click here to download Jim Cramer's Guide to Investing at no cost to help you build long-term wealth and invest smarter. Sign up now for the CNBC Investing Club to follow Jim Cramer's every move in the market. Disclaimer Questions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC Want to take a deep dive into Cramer's world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter - Jim Cramer Twitter - Facebook - Instagram Questions, comments, suggestions for the "Mad Money" website? madcap@cnbc.com
Global Blood Bank Information Systems Market To Reach $1.08 Billion By 2028 With A Growth Rate Of 8.5%
Nargess Memarsadeghi, Computer Engineer for the Cosmos
The people that president-elect Donald Trump has selected to lead federal health agencies in his second administration include a retired congressman, a surgeon and a former talk-show host. All of them could play pivotal roles in fulfilling a new political agenda that could change how the government goes about safeguarding Americans' health — from health care and medicines to food safety and science research. And if Congress approves, at the helm of the team as Department of Health and Human Services secretary will be prominent environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine organizer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. By and large, the nominees don't have experience running large bureaucratic agencies, but they know how to talk about health on TV . Centers for Medicare and Medicaid pick Dr. Mehmet Oz hosted a talk show for 13 years and is a well-known wellness and lifestyle influencer. The pick for the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Marty Makary, and for surgeon general, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, are frequent Fox News contributors. Many on the list were critical of COVID-19 measures like masking and booster vaccinations for young people. Some of them have ties to Florida like many of Trump's other Cabinet nominees: CDC pick Dr. Dave Weldon represented the state in Congress for 14 years and is affiliated with a medical group on the state's Atlantic coast. Nesheiwat's brother-in-law is Rep. Mike Waltz , R-Fla., tapped by Trump as national security adviser. Here's a look at the nominees' potential role in carrying out what Kennedy says is the task to “reorganize” agencies, which have an overall $1.7 billion budget; employ 80,000 scientists, researchers, doctors and other officials; and affect the lives of all Americans. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Atlanta-based CDC, with a $9.2 billion core budget, is charged with protecting Americans from disease outbreaks and other public health threats. Kennedy has long attacked vaccines and criticized the CDC, repeatedly alleging corruption at the agency. He said on a 2023 podcast that there is "no vaccine that is safe and effective,” and urged people to resist the CDC's guidelines on if and when kids should get vaccinated . Decades ago, Kennedy found common ground with Weldon , the 71-year-old nominee to run the CDC who served in the Army and worked as an internal medicine doctor before he represented a central Florida congressional district from 1995 to 2009. Starting in the early 2000s, Weldon had a prominent part in a debate about whether there was a relationship between a vaccine preservative called thimerosal and autism. He was a founding member of the Congressional Autism Caucus and tried to ban thimerosal from all vaccines. Kennedy, then a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, believed there was a tie between thimerosal and autism and also charged that the government hid documents showing the danger. Since 2001, all vaccines manufactured for the U.S. market and routinely recommended for children 6 years or younger have contained no thimerosal or only trace amounts, with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine. Meanwhile, study after study after study found no evidence that thimerosal caused autism. Weldon's congressional voting record suggests he may go along with Republican efforts to downsize the CDC, including to eliminate the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, which works on topics like drownings, drug overdoses and shooting deaths. Weldon also voted to ban federal funding for needle-exchange programs as an approach to reduce overdoses, and the National Rifle Association gave him an “A” rating for his pro-gun rights voting record. Food and Drug Administration Kennedy is extremely critical of the FDA, which has 18,000 employees and is responsible for the safety and effectiveness of prescription drugs, vaccines and other medical products — as well as overseeing cosmetics, electronic cigarettes and most foods. Makary, Trump’s pick to run the FDA, is closely aligned with Kennedy on several topics . The professor at Johns Hopkins University who is a trained surgeon and cancer specialist has decried the overprescribing of drugs, the use of pesticides on foods and the undue influence of pharmaceutical and insurance companies over doctors and government regulators. Kennedy has suggested he'll clear our “entire” FDA departments and also recently threatened to fire FDA employees for “aggressive suppression” of a host of unsubstantiated products and therapies, including stem cells, raw milk , psychedelics and discredited COVID-era treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. Makary's contrarian views during the COVID-19 pandemic including the need for masking and giving young kids COVID vaccine boosters. But anything Makary and Kennedy might want to do when it comes to unwinding FDA regulations or revoking long-standing vaccine and drug approvals would be challenging. The agency has lengthy requirements for removing medicines from the market, which are based on federal laws passed by Congress. Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services The agency provides health care coverage for more than 160 million people through Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act, and also sets Medicare payment rates for hospitals, doctors and other providers. With a $1.1 trillion budget and more than 6,000 employees, Oz has a massive agency to run if confirmed — and an agency that Kennedy hasn't talked about much when it comes to his plans. While Trump tried to scrap the Affordable Care Act in his first term, Kennedy has not taken aim at it yet. But he has been critical of Medicaid and Medicare for covering expensive weight-loss drugs — though they're not widely covered by either . Trump said during his campaign that he would protect Medicare, which provides insurance for older Americans. Oz has endorsed expanding Medicare Advantage — a privately run version of Medicare that is popular but also a source of widespread fraud — in an AARP questionnaire during his failed 2022 bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania and in a 2020 Forbes op-ed with a former Kaiser Permanente CEO. Oz also said in a Washington Examiner op-ed with three co-writers that aging healthier and living longer could help fix the U.S. budget deficit because people would work longer and add more to the gross domestic product. Neither Trump nor Kennedy have said much about Medicaid, the insurance program for low-income Americans. Trump's first administration reshaped the program by allowing states to introduce work requirements for recipients. Surgeon general Kennedy doesn't appear to have said much publicly about what he'd like to see from surgeon general position, which is the nation's top doctor and oversees 6,000 U.S. Public Health Service Corps members. The surgeon general has little administrative power, but can be an influential government spokesperson on what counts as a public health danger and what to do about it — suggesting things like warning labels for products and issuing advisories. The current surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, declared gun violence as a public health crisis in June. Trump's pick, Nesheiwat, is employed as a New York City medical director with CityMD, a group of urgent care facilities in the New York and New Jersey area, and has been at City MD for 12 years. She also has appeared on Fox News and other TV shows, authored a book on the “transformative power of prayer” in her medical career and endorses a brand of vitamin supplements. She encouraged COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic, calling them “a gift from God” in a February 2021 Fox News op-ed, as well as anti-viral pills like Paxlovid. In a 2019 Q&A with the Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation , Nesheiwat said she is a “firm believer in preventive medicine” and “can give a dissertation on hand-washing alone.” National Institutes of Health As of Saturday, Trump had not yet named his choice to lead the National Institutes of Health, which funds medical research through grants to researchers across the nation and conducts its own research. It has a $48 billion budget. Kennedy has said he'd pause drug development and infectious disease research to shift the focus to chronic diseases. He'd like to keep NIH funding from researchers with conflicts of interest, and criticized the agency in 2017 for what he said was not doing enough research into the role of vaccines in autism — an idea that has long been debunked . ___ Associated Press writers Amanda Seitz and Matt Perrone and AP editor Erica Hunzinger contributed to this report. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press
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Key Tronic Corporation Announces New Credit FacilitiesThe Australian share market is expected to edge lower on opening after US stocks stabilised following one of their worst days of the year. Futures markets are pointing to a soft start for trading on the ASX after it plunged to a two-year low on Thursday. The local bourse had followed the trajectory of rattled global markets, which fell sharply after the US Federal Reserve predicted it would deliver fewer rate cuts in 2025 than expected. However, a day after tumbling 2.9 per cent following the Federal Reserve’s prediction, the S&P 500 rose 0.2 per cent in afternoon trading (US time). The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 96 points, or 0.2 per cent, as of 1:03 p.m. Eastern time in the US, following Wednesday’s drop of more than 1100 points. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.2 per cent. Wall Street loves lower interest rates because they give the economy a boost and goose prices for investments, but they can also provide fuel for inflation. Credit: Bloomberg Indexes are still near their records, and the S&P 500 is still on track for one of its best years of the millennium. Wednesday’s drop just took some of the enthusiasm out of the market, which critics had already been warning was overly buoyant and would need everything to go correctly for it to justify its high prices. Traders are now expecting the Federal Reserve to deliver just one or maybe two cuts to interest rates next year, according to data from CME Group. Some are even betting on none. A month ago, the majority saw at least two cuts in 2025 as a safe bet. Wall Street loves lower interest rates because they give the economy a boost and goose prices for investments, but they can also provide fuel for inflation. Darden Restaurants, the company behind Olive Garden and other chains, helped lift the market after leaping 14.9 per cent. It delivered profit for the latest quarter that edged past analysts’ expectations. The operator of LongHorn Steakhouses also gave a forecast for revenue for this fiscal year that topped analysts’. Accenture rose 6.4 per cent after the professional services company topped expectations for profit in the latest quarter. CEO Julie Sweet said it saw growth around the world, and the company raised its forecast for revenue this fiscal year. Amazon shares added 1.6 per cent, even as workers at seven of its facilities went on strike Thursday in the middle of the online retail giant’s busiest time of the year. Amazon says it doesn’t expect an impact on its operations during what the workers’ union calls the largest strike against the company in US history. They helped offset a tumble for Micron Technology, which fell 16.8 per cent despite reporting stronger profit than expected. The computer memory company’s revenue fell short of Wall Street’s forecasts, and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said it expects demand from consumers to remain weaker in the near term. It gave a forecast for revenue in the current quarter that was well short of what analysts were thinking. In the bond market, yields were mixed a day after shooting higher on expectations that the Fed would deliver fewer cuts to rates in 2025. Reports on the US economy came in mixed. One showed the overall economy grew at a 3.1 per cent annualised rate during the summer, faster than earlier thought. The economy has remained remarkably resilient even though the Fed held its main interest rate at a two-decade high for a while before beginning to cut them in September. A separate report showed fewer US workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, an indication that the job market also remains solid. But a third report said manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region is unexpectedly contracting again despite economists’ expectations for growth. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.59 per cent from 4.52 per cent late Wednesday and from less than 4.20 per cent earlier this month. But the two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for action by the Fed in the near term, eased back to 4.32 per cent from 4.35 per cent. The rise in longer-term yields has put pressure on the housing market by keeping mortgage rates higher. A report on Thursday may have offered some encouragement for the housing industry. It showed a pickup in sales of previously occupied homes. In stock markets abroad, London’s FTSE 100 fell 1.1 per cent and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.7 per cent. Indexes likewise sank across much of the rest of Asia and Europe. The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon .
A look at how some of Trump's picks to lead health agencies could help carry out Kennedy's overhaul
