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Pembina Pipeline Corporation Announces Redemption of Series 22 Preferred SharesFrom Aidoghie Paulinus, Kyiv Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned Nigeria and other African countries against partnering with Russia, saying it doesn’t matter when Russian missiles will begin to land in the different countries. Speaking with journalists from African countries on the sidelines of the ‘Summit on Food Security – Grain from Ukraine,’ Zelenskyy said that when the time comes, it will not matter what kind of partnership the affected country has with Russia. He particularly said African countries will have a lot of problems with Wagner and Russia’s influence. “I think that they will have a lot of, to my mind, I am sorry, I don’t wish you, God bless you, it will never be. But I think that you will have a lot of problems with Wagner and with Russian influential politics in your country. It is about security and, as we know very well, it is a pity, but we know it very well. “When you are very dependent on Russia, they will come to you. And when they will come, it doesn’t matter what economic issues you will have, what benefits you have – energy benefits, chemical benefits, grain, etc., from Russia. “It doesn’t matter when missiles come to your houses, when your country begins to be destroyed backwards, when your children just, you know, die. It doesn’t matter what you have, what price you can reach. At this moment, it doesn’t matter what the price of petrol is in your country. Trust us,” Zelenskyy said. The Ukrainian President further said it is so important before the world, and that it is nothing that people are in the world except to protect human life. Earlier, Zelenskyy said the programme, Grain from Ukraine, is working really successfully and will continue to expand. “I want to thank everyone who makes this possible. “Today, important figures, important volumes are being announced here, which represent the most important thing – the real lives of people: children, families in different parts of the world. And it’s not just Europe, of course, which is very important for us. But Africa and Asia – the entire world. These are the countries that we have really helped: Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen. “Now there was a very sensitive video. It was Nigeria and Gaza and so on. Many parts of the world. And I am very pleased, and I want to express my gratitude. And I would like us to applaud the whole team, all the countries that provide all this – such support for people. They bring life to people. Thank you very much!” the Ukrainian President also said. He disclosed that overall, during the operation of the Grain from Ukraine programme, Ukraine managed to save 20 million people from hunger. “And this is solely due to one of our humanitarian programmes. “In total, Ukraine’s food exports feed 400 million people in 100 countries of the world. “Ukraine is one of the world’s largest contributors to food security. And we maintain this status despite everything. Despite this colonial challenge from the Russian Federation. This war is a war against the lives of Ukrainians, against our people, our families,” Zelenskyy further said. He added that the full-scale Russian invasion began, among other things, with the Russian fleet blockading Ukrainian ports. According to Zelenskyy, “This was the starting point. And Russia was well aware of the consequences of this. They wanted those consequences, of course, the terrible outcome for the whole world – not just for Ukraine. “They wanted global food prices to rise. And this was not just a desire for more money, more profits. This certainly is the case, and it was the case in Russia. But then it was primarily about power. If they can create a food catastrophe, it means they can subjugate a nation that is dependent on food imports – any food. This is an extremely sensitive issue for most African nations, for a significant number of people in Asia. And in Europe or in America, the question of prices is always a question of stability in this or that region. And stability is important for people’s lives.” The Ukrainian President also explained why the world needed to come together to defend food security. “That is why it is so important that we continue to stand together in defending food security, the security of food supply routes and other critical export goods. “Solely during the operation of the food export corridor in our Black Sea – from July of last year to this month – 321 infrastructure facilities in our ports have been damaged by Russian missiles and Iranian drone strikes. More than 20 vessels – ordinary civilian vessels – were also damaged in the strikes. And we are talking about other countries’ vessels. It is not about Ukrainian vessels. More than 60 targeted strikes were aimed specifically at food infrastructure. “Through this war against Ukraine, Russia has shown that there are no truly distant countries in the world. Everything in the world is now strongly interconnected. There is no distance. There is none. “Food prices in Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, and other countries of Africa and the African continent depend directly on the ability of farmers and agribusinesses in Ukraine to function properly. The speed with which we can clear our fields of Russian mines determines how quickly the food market can return to its normal stability. And here, of course, I would like to thank our people, our farmers – we have very little time for this gratitude during the war. First of all, we mention our priority – our army, and this is only fair. But I want to tell you: because of this war, because of the heavy mining of our lands, the large amount of land – we are talking about hundreds of thousands of hectares – a significant number of people were injured, but the farmers continued to work, continued to do all this, despite the technical lack of equipment in Ukraine to demine such volumes. I want to thank all the farmers, all the people in the world who have been fighting against hunger around the world. Thank you very much! “And for Ukraine, it is important to remind everyone of this on these very days, now, when we commemorate all the victims of the large-scale and artificial famine in Ukraine, the Holodomors of different times. Primarily the Holodomor of 1932-1933, which was orchestrated against our people by the then-Moscow authorities. More than 90 years have passed, but the memory of this in Ukrainian families has not and will not fade because millions of people died. We should certainly value every person, tens, thousands, hundreds of thousands. But when it comes to the Holodomor, it is a real genocide because millions of people died. “We have not forgotten that it all happened. And we must do everything to prevent Russia, again because of its colonial ambitions, or anyone else from creating similar catastrophes that happened in Ukraine – similar catastrophes around the world,” Zelenskyy concluded.

Who will win Dancing With the Stars Season 33? Where each celebrity will place in finaleUpdated December 07, 2024 at 16:21 PM ET BEIRUT — Insurgents' stunning march across Syria gained speed on Saturday with news that they had reached the suburbs of the capital and with the government forced to deny rumors that President Bashar Assad had fled the country. The rebels' moves around Damascus, reported by an opposition war monitor and a rebel commander, came after the Syrian army withdrew from much of southern part of the country, leaving more areas, including several provincial capitals, under the control of opposition fighters. The advances in the past week were among the largest in recent years by opposition factions , led by a group that has its origins in al-Qaida and is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the United Nations. In their push to overthrow Assad's government, the insurgents, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, have met little resistance from the Syrian army. For the first time in the country's long-running civil war, the government now has control of only four of 14 provincial capitals: Damascus, Homs, Latakia and Tartus. The U.N.'s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, on Saturday called for urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an "orderly political transition." Speaking to reporters at the annual Doha Forum in Qatar, he said the situation in Syria was changing by the minute. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, whose country is Assad's chief international backer, said he feels "sorry for the Syrian people." In Damascus, people rushed to stock up on supplies. Thousands went to Syria's border with Lebanon, trying to leave the country. Many shops in the capital were shuttered, a resident told The Associated Press, and those still open ran out of staples such as sugar. Some were selling items at three times the normal price. "The situation is very strange. We are not used to that," the resident said, insisting on anonymity, fearing retributions. "People are worried whether there will be a battle (in Damascus) or not." It was the first time that opposition forces reached the outskirts of Damascus since 2018, when Syrian troops recaptured the area following a yearslong siege. The U.N. said it was moving noncritical staff outside the country as a precaution. Assad's status Syria's state media denied social media rumors that Assad left the country, saying he is performing his duties in Damascus. He has had little, if any, help from his allies. Russia is busy with its war in Ukraine. Lebanon's Hezbollah, which at one point sent thousands of fighters to shore up Assad's forces, has been weakened by a yearlong conflict with Israel. Iran has seen its proxies across the region degraded by regular Israeli airstrikes. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday posted on social media that that the United States should avoid engaging militarily in Syria. Pedersen said a date for talks in Geneva on the implementation a U.N. resolution, adopted in 2015, and calling for a Syrian-led political process, would be announced later. The resolution calls for the establishment of a transitional governing body, followed by the drafting of a new constitution and ending with U.N.-supervised elections. Later Saturday, foreign ministers and senior diplomats from eight key countries, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Egypt, Turkey and Iran, along with Pederson, gathered on the sidelines of the Doha Summit to discuss the situation in Syria. No details were immediately available. The insurgents' march Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said insurgents were in the Damascus suburbs of Maadamiyah, Jaramana and Daraya. Opposition fighters were marching toward the Damascus suburb of Harasta, he added. A commander with the insurgents, Hassan Abdul-Ghani, posted on the Telegram messaging app that opposition forces had begun the "final stage" of their offensive by encircling Damascus. HTS controls much of northwest Syria and in 2017 set up a "salvation government" to run day-to-day affairs in the region. In recent years, HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani has sought to remake the group's image, cutting ties with al-Qaida, ditching hard-line officials and vowing to embrace pluralism and religious tolerance. Syria's military, meanwhile, sent large numbers of reinforcements to defend the key central city of Homs, Syria's third largest, as insurgents approached its outskirts. The shock offensive began Nov. 27, during which gunmen captured the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest, and the central city of Hama, the country's fourth largest city. Opposition activists said Saturday that a day earlier, insurgents entered Palmyra, which is home to invaluable archaeological sites had been in government hands since being taken from the Islamic State group in 2017. To the south, Syrian troops left much of the province of Quneitra including the main Baath City, activists said. The Syrian Observatory said government troops have withdrawn from much of the two southern provinces and are sending reinforcements to Homs, where a battle loomed. If the insurgents capture Homs, they would cut the link between Damascus, Assad's seat of power, and the coastal region where the president enjoys wide support. The Syrian army said in a statement that it carried out redeployment and repositioning in Sweida and Daraa after its checkpoints came under attack by "terrorists." The army said it was setting up a "strong and coherent defensive and security belt in the area," apparently to defend Damascus from the south. The Syrian government has referred to opposition gunmen as terrorists since conflict broke out in March 2011. Diplomacy in Doha The foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Turkey, meeting in Qatar, called for an end to the hostilities. Turkey is a main backer of the rebels. Qatar's top diplomat, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, criticized Assad for failing to take advantage of the lull in fighting in recent years to address the country's underlying problems. "Assad didn't seize this opportunity to start engaging and restoring his relationship with his people," he said. Copyright 2024 NPRWe are a few weeks removed from the election, and Democrats do not appear to be any closer to truly understanding why they lost so much ground to Donald Trump with so many demographics. It’s clear to me that comprehending what happened and why will have to come from somewhere other than political operatives within the party, cable news media elites, the dumpster fire that is social media or pollsters. As luck would have it, after the election I found myself giving a lecture to between 40 and 50 students at an American University media and public policy class. For all the discussion about younger voters and trying to understand what motivates them to head to the polls, I wonder how many of the pundits, commentators and experts dissecting the election have actually had a conversation with anyone under age 25 about it. So there I was speaking to a room full of young adults, under 25, some from Alabama or West Virginia, others from Germany or Pakistan, many having voted in the election — most shocked, even shaken from the results. Interestingly, two young women from Pakistan, who had not voted, were least surprised by the outcome. They had a front-row seat to prejudice in America, having lived in New York in the aftermath of 9/11, the victims of threats, hatred and law enforcement targeting. They scoffed at anyone just waking up to the reality that the electorate was not persuaded by warnings of sexism, racism or misogyny. For them and their families, those factors were embedded in their lived experience as Americans. A number of students who attended some of Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign rallies were surprised that the very real, tangible energy they felt at those events did not translate to the end result. They felt that they had immersed themselves in a bubble of lefty jubilance and were blindsided when they realized that bubble wasn’t as large as they thought. As the conversation unfolded, I was surprised that the topic of the Middle East never came up as a reason to support or oppose Harris. For all the talk leading up to the election about the effect the Israel-Hamas conflict would have on younger, more progressive college voters, it didn’t come up at all in this sample. What did come up was the feeling that Harris’ pivot to the middle wasn’t authentic. Her talking about her own gun ownership, for example, felt like a blatant effort to appeal to the center-right, and they just didn’t buy it. Harris’ loss hit the young women the most. So many of them didn’t understand how so many in this country could knowingly vote for a man and a political party that want to take away their rights and control their bodies. I challenged them to raise their hands if they, with any regularity, talk with the men in their lives about their bodies, about their menstrual cycles, about what it is to experience life as a woman. I asked them how many times the men in their lives — their fathers or partners — proactively broach those topics with them. Not one hand was raised. Given that, I asked, why would you think that any of them would vote one way or the other based on what’s going on with your body? Another recurring criticism of Harris was the inability or refusal to meaningfully distinguish what she would have done differently from President Biden. I’ll admit, I was surprised to hear this specific point mentioned numerous times. They felt that the whole premise of the Harris campaign was a fresh start, a new generation of leadership, a turning of the page from old to new and yet, by not contrasting at all from Biden, she was sending the signal to these kids that it would be business as usual. They found that incredibly uninspiring. As I spent these few hours with them, it was clear that these students feel unseen by the political system. It was an overwhelmingly pro-Harris class, but the disdain they felt for the Democratic Party was palpable. This generation doesn’t want to be told what to do or what to think. They don’t want to be told what could happen if the other side wins. They don’t want to be lectured to or preached at. What they do want is to be inspired. They want something different from what they’ve seen from Washington over the past eight years. They want to be engaged regularly and authentically, not just when the political calendar dictates, as some targeted demographic determined by a political consultant. Every election cycle, everyone asks how to get young Americans to turn out more robustly, to engage and activate. After talking with these students, I think the answer is simple: Engage them like adults. Talk to them, not at them. Be real. Make it relatable and personal. Meet them where they are, not where you want them to be.

Synchrony Financial stock underperforms Monday when compared to competitors despite daily gainsXavier aims to rebound from a tough week and get one more critical tune-up for a rivalry matchup when it hosts Morgan State on Tuesday night in Cincinnati. The Musketeers (7-2) were ranked No. 22 in the AP poll two weeks ago but fell out after a 25-point loss to Michigan in the Fort Myers Tip-Off tournament final on Nov. 27. Xavier then barely escaped with a 71-68 home win over South Carolina State on Dec. 1 before losing 76-72 at TCU on Thursday. Dante Maddox Jr. came off the bench to score nine points in 20 minutes on three 3-pointers against the Horned Frogs. He also grabbed six rebounds before fouling out. The Musketeers have been waiting for the Toledo transfer to add a punch to an underwhelming bench cast that many thought would be a strength for Xavier coming into the season. "I really feel like you can almost be baited into a false sense of how deep your team is because you're around guys every day and have a good, older group, which we do," Musketeers coach Sean Miller said. "You see the good in a lot of different guys. It's not until you get 8 to 10, 10 to 15 games in when you truly understand how deep your team is." Maddox hit a 3-pointer and started a fastbreak with a steal that gave Xavier a 60-54 lead with 7:28 remaining, but the Musketeers faded down the stretch and lost for the second time in three games. Maddox is averaging 4.7 points per game, while Ryan Conwell leads the team with 16.6. Tuesday's game will be the last chance for Xavier to straighten up before visiting No. 22 Cincinnati on Saturday for the teams' annual intense crosstown showdown. Morgan State (5-7) is coming off a 102-81 road loss at Bowling Green on Saturday. Preseason All-MEAC First Team selection Will Thomas led the Bears with 19 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field, while Kameron Hobbs scored 12 points off the bench. Amahrie Simpkins made all five of his field-goal attempts to add 11 points and Wynston Tabbs had 10 points, six rebounds and six assists. Tabbs leads Morgan State in scoring this season at 16.8 points per game, while Simpkins (12.8) and Thomas (12.2) round out the Bears' double-digit scorers. The Bears have struggled away from home, losing all five road contests this season. --Field Level MediaThe suspect in the high-profile killing of a health insurance CEO that has gripped the United States graduated from an Ivy League university, reportedly hails from a wealthy family, and wrote social media posts brimming with cerebral musings. Luigi Mangione, 26, was thrust into the spotlight Monday after police revealed he is their person of interest in the brutal murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a father of two, last week in broad daylight in Manhattan in a case that laid bare deep frustration and anger with America's privatized medical system. News of his capture in Pennsylvania -- following a tip from a McDonald's worker --triggered an explosion of online activity, with Mangione quickly amassing new followers on social media as citizen sleuths and US media tried to understand who he is. While some lauded him as a hero and lamented his arrest, others analyzed his intellectual takes in search of ideological clues. A photo on one of his social media accounts includes an X-ray of an apparently injured spine. No explicit political affiliation has emerged. Meanwhile, memes and jokes proliferated, many riffing on his first name and comparing him to the "Mario Bros." character Luigi, sometimes depicted in AI-altered images wielding a gun or holding a Big Mac. "Godspeed. Please know that we all hear you," wrote one user on Facebook. "I want to donate to your defense fund," added another. According to Mangione's LinkedIn profile, he is employed as a data engineer at TrueCar, a California-based online auto marketplace. A company spokesperson told AFP Mangione "has not been an employee of our company since 2023." Although he had been living in Hawaii ahead of the killing, he originally hails from Towson, Maryland, near Baltimore. He comes from a prominent and wealthy Italian-American family, according to the Baltimore Banner. The family owns local businesses, including the Hayfields Country Club, its website says. A standout student, Mangione graduated at the top of his high school class in 2016. In an interview with his local paper at the time, he praised his teachers for fostering a passion for learning beyond grades and encouraging intellectual curiosity. A former student who knew Mangione at the Gilman School told AFP the suspect struck him as "a normal guy, nice kid." "There was nothing about him that was off, at least from my perception," this person said, asking that their name not be used. "Seemed to just be smiling, and kind of seemed like he was a smart kid. Ended up being valedictorian, which confirmed that," the former student said. Mangione went on to attend the prestigious University of Pennsylvania, where he completed both a bachelor's and master's degree in computer science by 2020, according to a university spokesperson. While at Penn, Mangione co-led a group of 60 undergraduates who collaborated on video game projects, as noted in a now-deleted university webpage, archived on the Wayback Machine. On Instagram, where his following has skyrocketed from hundreds to tens of thousands, Mangione shared snapshots of his travels in Mexico, Puerto Rico and Hawaii. He also posted shirtless photos flaunting a six-pack and appeared in celebratory posts with fellow members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. However, it is on X (formerly Twitter) that users have scoured Mangione's posts for potential motives. His header photo -- an X-ray of a spine with bolts -- remains cryptic, with no public explanation. Finding a coherent political ideology has also proved elusive, though he had written a review of Ted Kaczynski's manifesto on the online site goodreads, calling it "prescient." Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, carried out a string of bombings in the United States from 1978 to 1995, a campaign he said was aimed at halting the advance of modern society and technology. Mangione called Kaczynski "rightfully imprisoned," while also saying "'violence never solved anything' is a statement uttered by cowards and predators." According to CNN, handwritten documents recovered when Mangione was arrested included the phrase "these parasites had it coming." Mangione has also linked approvingly to posts criticizing secularism as a harmful consequence of Christianity's decline. In April, he wrote, "Horror vacui (nature abhors a vacuum)." The following month, he posted an essay he wrote in high school titled "How Christianity Prospered by Appealing to the Lower Classes of Ancient Rome." In another post from April, he speculated that Japan's low birthrate stems from societal disconnection, adding that "fleshlights" and other vaginal-replica sex toys should be banned. ia/nro/dw