An Italian war correspondent was arrested in Iran and has been held at an infamous Tehran prison for more than a week, Italian officials said. Cecilia Sala, 29, was arrested on Dec. 19, according to Italy’s foreign ministry, but her arrest was only made public on Friday. Officials did not provide a reason for her arrest. The prominent Italian journalist works for Il Foglio newspaper and hosts “Stories,” a daily podcast on Chora Media. In a statement, Chora Media said Sala was being held in solitary confinement at the Evin prison in Tehran, infamous for its mistreatment of political prisoners since the 1970s. Sala left Rome for Iran on Dec. 12 with a valid journalist’s visa, according to Chora Media. During her time in Tehran, she produced three episodes of her podcast and published several stories. Her reporting said many women were no longer wearing the hijab to protest the country’s leaders. While in Tehran, she also interviewed an Iranian stand-up comedian who had been jailed in the country. Sala was supposed to board a return flight to Italy on Dec. 20, but never made it to the airport, Italian officials said. She stopped sending messages from her phone on Dec. 19, according to Chora Media. Iranian officials did not immediately confirm the arrest. “Cecilia was in Iran, with a valid visa, to cover a country she knows and loves — a country where information is stifled through repression, threats, intimidation, violence, and detentions, often targeting journalists themselves,” Il Foglio said in a statement . “Journalism is not a crime,” the paper added. Last week, Iran had summoned a senior Italian diplomat over the arrest of an Iranian national, Reuters reported, based on Iranian media. The day before Sala’s arrest, Italian police said they arrested an Iranian man accused of providing drone parts to Iran’s military. The 38-year-old man faces extradition to the US, Italian officials said in a statement.Last week, Parliament passed sweeping reforms to Australia's aged care system. These "once-in-a-generation" changes, set to begin next year on July 1, aim to improve how care is provided to older Australians at home, in their communities and in nursing homes. The new Aged Care Act focuses on improving quality and safety, protecting the rights of older people and ensuring the financial sustainability of aged care providers. A key change is the introduction of a new payment system, requiring wealthier people to contribute more for non-clinical services. If you – or a loved one – are planning for aged care, here's what the changes could mean for you. What to expect from the home care overhaul Over the past decade, there's been a noticeable shift towards "ageing at home". The number of Australians using home care has more than quadrupled, surpassing those in nursing homes. To meet growing demand, the government is adding 107,000 home care places over the next two years, with a goal to reduce wait times to just three months. Starting July 1 2025, Support at Home will replace the Home Care Packages program. The table below shows some of the key differences between these two programs. Department of Health 2024 Home Care Packages are currently delivered under four annual government subsidy levels, covering care and provider management costs. Under Support at Home, the number of home care budget levels will double to eight, with the highest level increasing to A$78,000. This aims to provide more tailored support and accommodate those needing higher levels of care. Under the new system, recipients will receive quarterly budgets aligned to their funding level and work with their chosen provider to allocate funds across three broad service categories: clinical care, such as nursing or physiotherapy independence support, including personal care, transport and social support everyday living assistance, such as cleaning, gardening and meal delivery. Clinical care...

Unmasking Salt Typhoon: China's Espionage Campaign Against US Telecom FirmsOn Monday, Netflix Inc. NFLX prosecuted Broadcom Inc. ‘s AVGO cloud computing subsidiary VMware in a California court for allegedly infringing its patent rights. Netflix accused VMware of violating five patent rights in “virtual machines” that run another computer’s operating software on a host computer, according to the Reuters report. Broadcom’s U.S. lawsuit against Netflix will likely go to trial in June 2025. Netflix sought monetary damages. Broadcom held $9.35 billion in cash and equivalents as of November 3, 2024 . Also Read: Elon Musk’s xAI To Expand With New Chatbot App This is not the first case between the two companies – Broadcom filed a patent dispute case against Netflix in 2018 for alleged infringement of Broadcom patents related to video streaming technology. In 2023, Broadcom snapped VMware for $69 billion. Analyst opinions on Broadcom and Netflix: In September 2024, JPMorgan analyst Harlan Sur lauded the VMware acquisition for impressive synergies , with a 25%+ sequential growth expectation in the fourth quarter. VMware helped infrastructure software revenue grow 41% in the third quarter, helping Broadcom’s revenue climb to $13.07 billion, topping consensus estimates. Sur flagged VMware’s strong software renewal rates and upsell opportunities, with revenue potentially reaching $4.5-$5 billion per quarter by 2025. Rosenblatt , B of A Securities , and JP Morgan raised their price targets on Broadcom after its fourth-quarter report, citing its custom-chip (ASIC) AI and ability to maintain a relationship with Apple Inc AAPL . Oppenheimer analyst Jason Helfstein hailed Netflix as the sole investable mainstream media stock , citing its streaming moat and potential for live event upside. Price Actions: NFLX stock closed up 2.27% at $932.12 on Tuesday. AVGO up by 3.15%. Also Read: Biden Administration Targets Chinese Firm Over Taiwan Semiconductor Chip Found in Huawei Tech Image via Shutterstock © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Norfolk residents against low-income housing project say Park Place community is overburdenedBy LOLITA C. BALDOR and MATTHEW LEE WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is expected to announce that it will send $1.25 billion in military assistance to Ukraine, U.S. officials said Friday, as the Biden administration pushes to get as much aid to Kyiv as possible before leaving office on Jan. 20. The large package of aid includes a significant amount of munitions, including for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems and the HAWK air defense system. It also will provide Stinger missiles and 155 mm- and 105 mm artillery rounds, officials said. The officials, who said they expect the announcement to be made on Monday, spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public. The new aid comes as Russia has launched a barrage of attacks against Ukraine’s power facilities in recent days, although Ukraine has said it intercepted a significant number of the missiles and drones. Russian and Ukrainian forces are also still in a bitter battle around the Russian border region of Kursk, where Moscow has sent thousands of North Korean troops to help reclaim territory taken by Ukraine. Earlier this month, senior defense officials acknowledged that that the Defense Department may not be able to send all of the remaining $5.6 billion in Pentagon weapons and equipment stocks passed by Congress for Ukraine before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in. Related Articles National News | Bird flu virus likely mutated within a Louisiana patient, CDC says National News | A 9th telecoms firm has been hit by a massive Chinese espionage campaign, the White House says National News | Court rules Georgia lawmakers can subpoena Fani Willis for information related to her Trump case National News | US homelessness up 18% as affordable housing remains out of reach for many people National News | OpenAI whistleblower death: Parents want to know what happened to Suchir Balaji after apparent suicide Trump has talked about getting some type of negotiated settlement between Ukraine and Russia, and spoken about his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin . Many U.S. and European leaders are concerned that it might result in a poor deal for Ukraine and they worry that he won’t provide Ukraine with all the weapons funding approved by Congress. The aid in the new package is in presidential drawdown authority, which allows the Pentagon to take weapons off the shelves and send them quickly to Ukraine. This latest assistance would reduce the remaining amount to about $4.35 billion. Officials have said they hope that an influx of aid will help strengthen Ukraine’s hand, should Zelenskyy decide it’s time to negotiate. One senior defense official said that while the U.S. will continue to provide weapons to Ukraine until Jan. 20, there may well be funds remaining that will be available for the incoming Trump administration to spend. According to the Pentagon, there is also about $1.2 billion remaining in longer-term funding through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which is used to pay for weapons contracts that would not be delivered for a year or more. Officials have said the administration anticipates releasing all of that money before the end of the calendar year. If the new package is included, the U.S. has provided more than $64 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022.Families flock to Lake Eppalock to make most of 2024 summer holidaysEvery day at dawn, tens of thousands of people begin lining up at Acadia Healthcare's addiction clinics to get a cup of methadone. The daily dose staves off opioid withdrawal and keeps many from turning to dangerous street drugs such as fentanyl. The for-profit chain of 165 methadone clinics -- the country's largest -- has generated more than $1.3 billion in revenue since 2022. It is "a business that we continue to feel great about," Acadia's CEO told investors this year. That business has been built in part on deception, a New York Times investigation found. Methadone is a narcotic, and the clinics are heavily regulated by federal and state governments. In addition to handing out methadone, the clinics are required to provide counseling and other services, such as drug testing. But Acadia often fails to provide that counseling, according to five dozen current and former employees in 22 of the 33 states where the company has clinics. Instead, employees at times falsify the medical records that Acadia uses to bill insurers, according to the employees and internal emails. Sometimes a counseling session recorded in a patient's medical chart is simply a chance encounter. For example, medical records for a patient in Iowa show she had a 40-minute counseling session in December 2023, but the patient said in an interview that it was actually a hallway chat that lasted less than five minutes. Acadia's business is built on volume. Its counselors carry caseloads that are sometimes more than double the limit set by state regulators, according to employees and inspection records. With so many patients, the clinics can become assembly lines, offering little more than a cup of methadone. Clinic directors can get bonuses when their patient enrollment goes up, an incentive that has led Acadia to treat people who do not have opioid addictions but are dependent on other drugs, according to current and former executives and employees. People who are not addicted to opioids can get high from methadone. "I'm not proud of it, but our clinic has admitted patients who shouldn't have qualified for treatment because we were under pressure," said Jeannie Taylor, who was a counselor at an Acadia clinic in Oregon until she retired last year. Employees at clinics in at least 13 states warned their supervisors about Acadia's practices, according to the employees and complaints reviewed by the Times. Tim Blair, a spokesperson for Acadia, said the company did not falsify medical records, overbill insurers or pressure employees to treat patients who weren't addicted to opioids. He said that Acadia had rigorous internal controls and trained its employees on proper billing practices, and that regulators and auditors regularly reviewed its records. "We take our responsibility to our patients and the communities we serve extremely seriously and patently reject claims that Acadia places profits over patients," he said. Acadia's methadone clinics have come under investigation for other issues. In 2019, federal prosecutors in West Virginia accused Acadia of overbilling Medicaid for blood and urine tests. The company paid $17 million to resolve the allegations. Three years later, Acadia reached another settlement with federal prosecutors who accused the company of hiring counselors without proper credentials at a clinic in Virginia. The company did not admit wrongdoing in either settlement. In addition to methadone clinics, the company runs psychiatric hospitals around the country. In September, a Times investigation found that those hospitals, which account for more than half the company's revenue, often held patients against their will to maximize payments from insurers. The Times article prompted several federal agencies, including the Justice Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs, to investigate the company's practices. News of those investigations, coupled with lower than expected patient volumes, has caused Acadia's stock price to fall by 50%, knocking nearly $4 billion off its market value. Amid that gloom, its fast-growing network of methadone clinics remains a bright spot for investors. But the Times found that business is dogged by its own problems. Doctors began treating opioid addiction with methadone in the 1960s, and its use accelerated as veterans returned from the Vietnam War dependent on heroin. Research since then has found that methadone, itself an opioid, eases cravings for more dangerous opioids and lowers the risk of overdoses. Acadia got into the methadone business a decade ago when it bought a large chain of clinics from Bain Capital, a private equity firm. Acadia's investment was prescient. In 2020, the federal government started requiring that Medicaid and Medicare cover treatment at the country's roughly 2,100 methadone clinics, most of which are run by for-profit companies. Over the next couple of years, revenue from Acadia's clinics increased 30%, according to financial filings. Clinics bring in an average of roughly $3 million each in annual revenue. Those figures could soon rise. States and counties nationwide have started to get money from settlements with companies accused of fueling the opioid crisis. Acadia is angling for a slice of the settlements, which are worth at least $50 billion. This year, for example, the company successfully lobbied the Kansas Legislature to allow for-profit companies to receive grants from the settlement. Christopher Hunter, Acadia's CEO, has told investors that the settlement funds will be "a really nice tail wind" for the company. At the same time, Acadia has been trying to fend off a serious threat to its business. A bipartisan bill in Congress would allow patients to avoid clinics such as Acadia's and pick up methadone at pharmacies instead. Proponents say that although counseling may help methadone users, widening access to the drug is more important. Acadia and other companies have sought to derail the legislation by arguing that providing methadone without counseling could lead to more overdose deaths. In a letter this year to the bill's sponsors, Acadia wrote its suite of services was the "gold standard" and provided "individualized care." Yet, Acadia's counseling services are sometimes a pretense, the Times found. Brian Pagano, a counselor at an Acadia clinic in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, said he quit in August after his supervisors chided him for spending too much time with patients, including one who was hallucinating. "I was told this is not a mental health clinic, this is a methadone clinic," he said. Dozens of counselors told the Times they were overwhelmed by caseloads that were far higher than what their states allowed, with some responsible for as many as 120 patients. In September, Acadia cut the schedules of its full-time counselors and other clinic workers nationwide by up to four hours a week, further taxing their capacity, employees said. Blair, the company spokesperson, said, "Your characterization that counselors often have patient caseloads exceeding regulatory limits is false." Under pressure to meet the company's productivity goals, employees have falsified records so that it appears patients received counseling when they did not, according to employees, internal emails and complaints to regulators. Those records serve multiple purposes. They are used to bill insurers and to show regulators and outside credentialing groups that Acadia is complying with state rules dictating how much therapy clinics must provide. California, for example, generally requires that patients receive at least 50 minutes of counseling each month. Regulators check patients' files to ensure clinics are following the rules. Blair said Acadia provided tens of thousands of patients with high-quality treatment, including counseling. "We prioritize our counselors' and clinicians' spending meaningful time with patients," he said. But at many clinics, Acadia chastised or congratulated counselors depending on whether they saw enough patients, employees said. Some counselors said they were dinged in performance reviews for not hitting their productivity goals. The result was a saleslike culture that rewarded those who took shortcuts. At a clinic in Indiana, managers handed out a stuffed goat -- a play on the acronym for "greatest of all time" -- to counselors who hit their weekly targets. Two employees said a counselor who had won the prize bragged about how she simply said hello to patients who were waiting in line and then recorded a therapy session in their charts. Blair said Acadia's counselors were not compensated based on the number of patients they see. Employees in 17 states said supervisors and peers had taught them to cut corners by recycling old language from therapy notes or treatment plans without meeting with patients. In Asheville, N.C., notes from two therapy sessions in 2021 were identical, even though they happened three months apart, according to screenshots included in a court filing. Both notes said a patient "states he goes for walks and leaves his phone at home just 'to get away from the noise.'" Blair said that "Acadia's policies strictly prohibit falsifying records." He said the company carried out regular reviews of medical charts and billing records to ferret out inaccuracies. Megan Rife, who has been in treatment at Acadia's clinic in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for nine years, wanted counseling as she struggled to overcome an addiction to painkillers. But, she said, her meetings with counselors were infrequent and often lasted less than 10 minutes. One session noted in her medical records, which the Times reviewed, supposedly took place at 1:15 p.m., when the clinic was closed. (Methadone clinics often close around noon.) Iowa's Medicaid program paid Acadia $199 a week for her care, according to billing records that Rife shared with the Times . During a recent session, she said, her counselor spent the time answering emails. "Her computer is just dinging right and left," Rife said. "I don't think she heard a single thing I said to her." Acadia's practices sometimes jeopardized patients' safety. Clinic employees were discouraged from turning anyone away, even if the person did not meet the criteria for methadone treatment, according to current and former employees, including doctors, in 12 states. To be eligible for treatment at a methadone clinic, people need to meet medical criteria for being addicted to opioids. Acadia sometimes accepted patients who did not meet that standard. A former clinic director in Indiana said her manager had pressured her to boost the clinic's patient count by enrolling people who were addicted to cocaine and methamphetamine but not opioids. And a former clinic director in Georgia said she, too, had been pressured to add patients who were not addicted to opioids. Methadone cannot treat addictions to cocaine or methamphetamine. But it can produce a high -- and possibly a dependence -- for someone who is not already using opioids. Some clinic directors said they received bonuses based on the number of patients enrolled. Others said the bonuses were tied to their clinics' financial performance, which improved when their patient volumes increased. Blair said Acadia's compensation practices were consistent with those of other companies. He said medical staff, not clinic directors or counselors, decided which patients to treat, after a thorough screening process. Acadia was also trying to keep a tight lid on staffing costs -- sometimes with negative consequences. Reports filed by health inspectors in at least six states have criticized Acadia's methadone clinics for inadequate staffing. Part of the problem is that clinic employees rarely last long because they don't make much money and deal with stressful work environments. Blair denied that clinics were understaffed. He said turnover among clinic employees had declined in recent years. In the spring of 2021, inspectors who visited Acadia's clinic in Cedar Rapids learned that none of the nurses had shown up that week, leaving unlicensed workers to hand out methadone, according to an inspection report. States require methadone to be dispensed by trained medical staff. A state-appointed monitor later identified other problems. A worker's young child had briefly grabbed a cup of methadone inside a room that was supposed to be locked. Two patients were given double doses of buprenorphine, a different opioid addiction treatment, and no one checked on them to make sure they were all right. In 2020, a clinic director in Goldsboro, N.C., complained to an Acadia executive that the company refused to stop accepting new patients even though there were not enough workers, according to an email reviewed by the Times. "I have continued to request admission holds as the staff here are overly stressed," the director wrote. "Those emails are simply ignored because they would decrease revenue."

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BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — An Argentine military officer who was arrested in Venezuela earlier this month has been charged with terrorism, Venezuela’s attorney general said Friday. In a statement published on Instagram, Attorney General Tarek William Saab accused the officer, Nahuel Gallo, of “being part of a group of people who tried to commit destabilizing and terrorist acts (in Venezuela) with the support of international far-right groups.” In a press conference on Friday, Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich described the charges as “another lie” by Venezuela’s government, and said that Gallo should be returned to Argentina “immediately.” The case has ramped up tensions between Venezuela’s socialist government and the right-wing administration of Argentine President Javier Milei, whose embassy in Caracas is currently sheltering five high-profile opposition activists and is surrounded by Venezuelan security forces. Gallo, a corporal in Argentina’s Gendarmería security force, was detained by Venezuelan officials on Dec. 8 after he showed up at an immigration office along Venezuela’s border with Colombia and sought permission to enter the country. Gallo’s relatives said that he had traveled to Venezuela to visit his wife, who is Venezuelan and was in the country to spend some time with her mother. They have published an invitation letter that was sent to Gallo, and said he was on vacation at the time of his arrest. Venezuela broke diplomatic relations with Argentina in August after Milei and several other Latin American leaders refused to recognize the reelection in July of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Argentina’s diplomats were expelled, but the five opposition activists, who had sought refuge at the ambassador’s residence to avoid arrest, remained in the building after they were denied safe passage out of Venezuela. The activists, who have been holed up in the embassy since March, recently said that Venezuelan security forces have cut off electricity and water to the residence in a bid to pressure them to leave the building. Venezuela officials have denied those accusations, and said that the activists used the Argentine embassy to plan terrorist acts. The Venezuelan human rights group Foro Penal said earlier this week that 19 foreigners are currently being held in Venezuela as political prisoners. In September, two Spanish citizens who were on vacation in the south of Venezuela were arrested and accused of being part of a plot to overthrow President Maduro. They were arrested just days after Spain’s parliament recognized opposition candidate Edmundo González as the winner of the election.Google: 2024 capital investment in NE is $930M, for a five-year tally of $4.4B

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Ingo Rademacher wants to head back to court against ABC for his firing from General Hospital following Steve Burton ’s recent return to the soap opera. According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly , Rademacher, 53, filed a motion on Thursday, December 26, requesting a new trial against the network citing there was new evidence. In the filing, Rademacher alleged that Burton’s recent return to General Hospital “undermines” ABC’s argument that Rademacher’s “political beliefs did not play any role in its decision to fire him” back in 2021. In Touch was first to break the news. Us has reached out to ABC for comment. In November 2021, both Rademacher and Burton were fired from General Hospital due to their refusal to comply with the show’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate . Rademacher, who played Jax on the ABC soap for 25 years, was vocal about his beliefs on vaccination requirements. Before his firing, he advocated for “medical freedom” via his Instagram page. One month after his exit from General Hospital , Rademacher announced he was taking legal action against ABC for their policy. Rademacher followed through and engaged in a legal battle with the network where he accused ABC of religious discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination and violation of his right to privacy. ABC denied Rademacher’s allegations. The network claimed their decision to let Rademacher go was based on health reasons, not due to his religious beliefs. In June 2023, a judge sided with ABC. Burton, for his part, did not seek legal action against the network. Instead, he joined the cast of Days of Our Lives in April 2022, reprising his role of Harris Michaels whom he played in 1988. Earlier this year, Burton announced he was leaving Days of Our Lives . You have successfully subscribed. By signing up, I agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive emails from Us Weekly Check our latest news in Google News Check our latest news in Apple News “I just shot my final scenes here on Days of Our Lives and I just want to say, thank you so much to the cast [and] to the crew. It’s been amazing,” Burton said in a January video uploaded to the Daily Drama’s YouTube page. “I can’t believe it’s been a year already! So, thank you so much to the fans. It’s just ... I’m always so full of gratitude. So thank you. Stay tuned.” Two months later, it was announced that Burton was set to return to General Hospital to reprise his role of Jason Morgan, three years after his firing. He made his first reappearance on the soap opera in March. “Look who’s back in the ring! 🥊,” the show’s official Instagram teased in March. “@1SteveBurton has officially returned to Port Charles ... and that’s all we can tell you (for now). 🤐 #GH #GeneralHospital.”