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Jackson Acquisition Company II Announces Pricing of $200 Million Initial Public OfferingEveryone should have a good blender in their kitchen and right now Amazon’s Cyber Monday sale includes a deal on the Ninja TB201 Detect Power Blender Pro that can save you a decent amount. The Ninja line of kitchen products includes tons of different appliances these days, but it started with blenders. What set them apart was their power and features for such a low price compared to high-end stuff. Normally the Ninja TB201 would cost you $139.99 if you had to pay the full price. However, for the rest of Cyber Monday, it can be yours for only $99.99. That means you end up saving $40. With the Ninja TB201 Dectect Power Blender Pro, you get a lot of functionality that will help transform anything you make. It has 1800 peak watts so it’s very powerful and should have no problem blending just about anything you would normally throw in a blender. You can use it for making smoothies, salsas, soups, and tons more. The pitcher that comes with it is also 72oz. That’s a ton of room for whatever you’re blending. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to make stuff in batches because my Ninja bullet-style blender just didn’t have enough room for all the ingredients. What’s nice about this and other Ninja blenders too is the Blendsense technology. This is a smart setting that adjusts the speed and time so that everything comes out perfectly smooth. It has more than this setting, of course, but I find it always gets the job done. There’s also a little display on the front that tells you the runtime, mode type, and more. If you don’t already have a good blender in the kitchen, don’t hesitate to pick this one up. Buy at AmazonBy TRÂN NGUYỄN SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California, home to some of the largest technology companies in the world, would be the first U.S. state to require mental health warning labels on social media sites if lawmakers pass a bill introduced Monday. The legislation sponsored by state Attorney General Rob Bonta is necessary to bolster safety for children online, supporters say, but industry officials vow to fight the measure and others like it under the First Amendment. Warning labels for social media gained swift bipartisan support from dozens of attorneys general, including Bonta, after U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called on Congress to establish the requirements earlier this year, saying social media is a contributing factor in the mental health crisis among young people. “These companies know the harmful impact their products can have on our children, and they refuse to take meaningful steps to make them safer,” Bonta said at a news conference Monday. “Time is up. It’s time we stepped in and demanded change.” State officials haven’t provided details on the bill, but Bonta said the warning labels could pop up once weekly. Up to 95% of youth ages 13 to 17 say they use a social media platform, and more than a third say that they use social media “almost constantly,” according to 2022 data from the Pew Research Center. Parents’ concerns prompted Australia to pass the world’s first law banning social media for children under 16 in November. “The promise of social media, although real, has turned into a situation where they’re turning our children’s attention into a commodity,” Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, who authored the California bill, said Monday. “The attention economy is using our children and their well-being to make money for these California companies.” Lawmakers instead should focus on online safety education and mental health resources, not warning label bills that are “constitutionally unsound,” said Todd O’Boyle, a vice president of the tech industry policy group Chamber of Progress. “We strongly suspect that the courts will set them aside as compelled speech,” O’Boyle told The Associated Press. Victoria Hinks’ 16-year-old daughter, Alexandra, died by suicide four months ago after being “led down dark rabbit holes” on social media that glamorized eating disorders and self-harm. Hinks said the labels would help protect children from companies that turn a blind eye to the harm caused to children’s mental health when they become addicted to social media platforms. “There’s not a bone in my body that doubts social media played a role in leading her to that final, irreversible decision,” Hinks said. “This could be your story.” Common Sense Media, a sponsor of the bill, said it plans to lobby for similar proposals in other states. California in the past decade has positioned itself as a leader in regulating and fighting the tech industry to bolster online safety for children. The state was the first in 2022 to bar online platforms from using users’ personal information in ways that could harm children. It was one of the states that sued Meta in 2023 and TikTok in October for deliberately designing addictive features that keep kids hooked on their platforms. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, also signed several bills in September to help curb the effects of social media on children, including one to prohibit social media platforms from knowingly providing addictive feeds to children without parental consent and one to limit or ban students from using smartphones on school campus. Federal lawmakers have held hearings on child online safety and legislation is in the works to force companies to take reasonable steps to prevent harm. The legislation has the support of X owner Elon Musk and the President-elect’s son, Donald Trump Jr . Still, the last federal law aimed at protecting children online was enacted in 1998, six years before Facebook’s founding.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — American Airlines briefly grounded flights nationwide Tuesday because of a technical problem just as the Christmas travel season kicked into overdrive and winter weather threatened more potential problems for those planning to fly or drive. Government regulators cleared American flights to get airborne about an hour after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a national ground stop for the airline. The order, which prevented planes from taking off, was issued at the airline's request. The airline said in an email that the problem was caused by trouble with vendor technology that maintains its flight operating system. Dennis Tajer, a spokesperson for the Allied Pilots Association, a union representing American Airlines pilots, said the airline told pilots at 7 a.m. Eastern that there was an outage affecting the system known as FOS. It handles different types of airline operations, including dispatch, flight planning, passenger boarding, as well as an airplane's weight and balance data, he said. Some components of FOS have gone down in the past, but a systemwide outage is rare, Tajer said. Hours after the ground stop was lifted, Tajer said the union had not heard about any “chaos out there beyond just the normal heavy travel day.” He said officials were watching for any cascading effects, such as staffing problems. Flights were delayed across American's major hubs, with only 37% leaving on time, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics company. Out of the 3,901 domestic and international American Airlines flights scheduled for Tuesday, 19 were canceled. Cirium noted that the vast majority of flights were departing within two hours of their scheduled departure time. A similar percentage — 36% — were arriving at their destinations as scheduled. Meanwhile, the flight-tracking site FlightAware reported that 3,712 flights entering or leaving the U.S., or serving domestic destinations, were delayed Tuesday, with 55 flights canceled. It did not show any flights from American Airlines. Cirium said Dallas-Fort Worth, New York’s Kennedy Airport and Charlotte, North Carolina, saw the greatest number of delays. Washington, Chicago and Miami experienced considerably fewer delays. Amid the travel problems, significant rain and snow were expected in the Pacific Northwest at least into Christmas Day. Showers and thunderstorms were developing in the South. Freezing rain was reported in the Mid-Atlantic region near Baltimore and Washington, and snow fell in New York. Because the holiday travel period lasts weeks, airports and airlines typically have smaller peak days than they do during the rush around Thanksgiving, but the grind of one hectic day followed by another takes a toll on flight crews. And any hiccups — a winter storm or a computer outage — can snowball into massive disruptions. That is how Southwest Airlines stranded 2 million travelers in December 2022, and Delta Air Lines suffered a smaller but significant meltdown after a worldwide technology outage in July caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. Many flights during the holidays are sold out, which makes cancellations even more disruptive than during slower periods. That is especially true for smaller budget airlines that have fewer flights and fewer options for rebooking passengers. Only the largest airlines, including American, Delta and United, have “interline agreements” that let them put stranded customers on another carrier’s flights. This will be the first holiday season since a Transportation Department rule took effect that requires airlines to give customers an automatic cash refund for a canceled or significantly delayed flight. Most air travelers were already eligible for refunds, but they often had to request them. Passengers still can ask to get rebooked, which is often a better option than a refund during peak travel periods. That’s because finding a last-minute flight on another airline tends to be expensive. An American spokesperson said Tuesday was not a peak travel day for the airline — with about 2,000 fewer flights than the busiest days — so the airline had somewhat of a buffer to manage the delays. The groundings happened as millions of travelers were expected to fly over the next 10 days. The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen 40 million passengers through Jan. 2. Airlines expect to have their busiest days on Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Many flights during the holidays are sold out, which makes cancellations more disruptive than during slower periods. Even with just a brief outage, the cancellations have a cascading effect that can take days to clear up. About 90% of Americans traveling far from home over the holidays will be in cars, according to AAA. “Airline travel is just really high right now, but most people do drive to their destinations, and that is true for every holiday,” AAA spokesperson Aixa Diaz said. Gasoline prices are similar to last year. The nationwide average Thursday was $3.04 a gallon, down from $3.13 a year ago, according to AAA. Charging an electric vehicle averages just under 35 cents per per kilowatt hour, but varies by state. Transportation-data firm INRIX says travel times on the nation’s highways could be up to 30% longer than normal over the holidays, with Sunday expected to see the heaviest traffic. Boston, New York City, Seattle and Washington are the metropolitan areas primed for the greatest delays, according to the company. —— Associated Press writers David Koenig, Mae Anderson and Mike Pesoli contributed to this report.

Epilepsy patients and advocates are calling on the Saskatchewan government to provide public coverage for a new anti-seizure drug. Xcopri, the brand name for cenobamate tablets, is a medication heralded by The Canadian Epilepsy Alliance and the Canadian League Against Epilepsy as a promising treatment for partial onset seizures in adults. Dr. Alexandra Carter, who directs the Saskatchewan Epilepsy Program, a multi-disciplinary team of clinical epilepsy professionals, was joined at the provincial legislature on Wednesday by a Saskatchewan family living with epilepsy. "Cenobamate offers up to 30 per cent chance of seizure freedom on patients who are on it," Carter said. "When we look at the studies, this response we see for over four years. That people maintain a seizure reduction of over 90 per cent, or even 100 per cent." The drug was approved by Health Canada in June 2023. The Canadian Drug Agency, which provides provinces and health authorities with advice on new treatments, also recommended the drug be reimbursed by public drug plans in August 2023. According to the Canadian Drug Agency, the drug is expected to cost $3,214 per patient per year without coverage. Saskatchewan doesn't cover Xcopri under its provincial drug plan. Along with several other provincial governments, it ended negotiations with the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance in October 2024 without securing a deal. Dr. Alexandra Carter from the Saskatchewan Epilepsy Program spoke at the provincial legislature on Wednesday, calling for epilepsy drug Xcopri to be covered by the province. (Chris Edwards/CBC) NDP health critic Vicki Mowat also spoke at the news conference, calling for the Sask. Party government to resume negotiations for public coverage of Xcopri. "The Sask. Party needs to stop ignoring our health-care workers, ignoring our families, ignoring our friends, and get back to the bargaining table," Mowat said. During question period on Wednesday, Saskatchewan Minister of Health Jeremy Cockrill clarified the government's position. "I've directed the Ministry of Health to work directly with other provinces to try and re-open those negotiations," he said. "If those don't open, we'll try and work directly with the drug provider." The province said in a statement that other therapies, including brivaracetam, eslicarbazepine and perampanel, continue to be available for Saskatchewan patients. Over 300,000 Canadians live with epilepsy and approximately one-third of them experience uncontrolled seizures. "This is a medication that actually shows real promise in offering control," said Lori Newman, executive director of Epilepsy Saskatoon, which provides support and programming for people with epilepsy. Her son was diagnosed with epilepsy when he was 19 years old. "It's offering control to people who have basically been told that there's no pharmaceutical option for them." Due to the debilitating effects of uncontrolled seizures, many people living with epilepsy have difficulty maintaining a job or holding a driver's licence. Kim Ebert was at the news conference with her son Cody Holgate, who suffers from epilepsy. Holgate uses Xcopri and said it has helped stabilize his seizures. Holgate said that before Xcopri, he would frequently experience drop-fall seizures — a sudden loss of muscle strength. They could happen at any time, creating a sense of uncertainty. "For us as a family, Xcopri took away that uncertainty," Ebert said. "The walking on eggshells, and most of all for me as Cody's mom, waking up and wondering every morning and wondering, 'will Cody have a drop seizure today, or multiple? Or will today be the day he doesn't recover from his fall?'" "This drug gives us hope. Hope for our future, hope to plan our future, and hope for our families," Holgate said. "I truly believe that this is a game-changer."

Throughout his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump promised national prosperity and global peace, saying he would quickly drive down the cost of groceries in local supermarkets and bring deadly overseas wars to an abrupt end. He echoed that rosy message during a wide-ranging news conference Monday, saying his second term "will be the most exciting and successful period of reform and renewal in all of American history, maybe of global history." "The Golden Age of America, I call it," he said. "It's begun." Then again, maybe not. Trump also offered a caveat — a warning that things could go badly wrong, such as when the COVID-19 pandemic erupted "out of nowhere" during his first term in office. "We hope we don't have any intervening problems," he said, "because things happen." The remarks were the latest example of Trump's idea of himself as the strongman fixer of all the world's problems running headlong into his penchant for pessimism — for casting the world as a dangerous place, the nation as a crumbling wreck and himself as the undeserving victim of political ill will and plain bad luck. Since his victory last month, those dueling worldviews have collided repeatedly, as he has softened the assured rhetoric of his stump speeches, walked back some of his more grandiose campaign promises and doubled down on some of his more dire warnings about a future filled with chaos. In his victory speech, Trump said he would "govern by a simple motto: Promises made, promises kept. We're going to keep our promises. Nothing will stop me from keeping my word to you, the people." During a more recent interview with Time magazine, Trump cast fresh doubt on his ability to bring down grocery prices — a key campaign promise — by saying, "It's hard to bring things down once they're up." After a campaign that spent millions on ads about the alleged threat posed by the nation's small population of transgender people, he also suggested the issue has been overblown, saying "it gets massive coverage, and it's not a lot of people." During his Monday news conference, Trump said he'd recently had a "very good conversation" with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is leading a brutal campaign against Hamas in Gaza and beyond, and that he believes "the Middle East will be in a good place" soon. However, he also said that if hostages taken from Israel during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack that precipitated the war aren't returned by his inauguration on Jan. 20, "all hell's going to break out." Asked to clarify, he simply said: "It won't be pleasant." Trump also said that Russia's war on Ukraine — which he promised to end in a day during the campaign, saying "I'll have that done in 24 hours" — will be "actually more difficult" than addressing the Middle East tensions. He said the fighting was producing the "worst carnage this world has seen" since World War II, and that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy must be "prepared to make a deal" with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end it. Asked directly if he thinks Ukraine should "cede territory" to Russia in that deal, he said he would let people know once he takes office and begins having meetings as president. Then he suggested the territory isn't worth fighting over. "There are cities that there's not a building standing. It's a demolition site. There is not a building standing," he said. "So people can't go back to those cities. There's nothing there. It's just rubble." According to historians and experts in political speech, Trump's wildly vacillating rhetoric is unique among presidents — many of whom have overpromised or shifted positions, but few so wildly. "The president-elect has spoken on both sides of so many issues that it's impossible to know what he will do after being inaugurated. It's a brilliant strategy, leaving him free to move in any direction," said H.W. Brands, a prominent historian, author and history professor at University of Texas at Austin. "His predecessors, wherever they are, must be watching in envy." Brands noted that Trump has less of a mandate than he claims, having won but not by much and failing to secure a popular majority. His "margin of error is slim," Brands said. But as long as his "appeal to his base remains firm," Brands said, "he will continue to be largely immune from ordinary expectations of political leaders." One limit, Brands said, is that "the longer he is in government himself, the less persuasive his efforts to blame government for what his base doesn't like." Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and co-author of "Presidents Creating the Presidency: Deeds Done in Words," which considers how presidents have defined the office through their speech, said Trump "lives in an all-or-nothing world," and it is reflected in his stark pronouncements about the direction of the country and the world. "Trump on average is far more hyperbolic than candidates have traditionally been," she said. Presidents and presidential candidates of all stripes "routinely claim that they will do something that they actually can't do alone, that requires Congress," Jamieson said — such as Vice President Kamala Harris promising to sign a bill that would restore the protections of Roe vs. Wade. "That's a routine part of presidential discourse, that's not unusual," Jamieson said. But Trump does something different, she said, in that he promises to accomplish things that are "completely unrealistic," then works to "reframe" the promise in the eyes of his followers once he fails to fulfill it. His first-term promise that Mexico would pay for a border wall, for example, morphed into a promise Mexico would pay for a piece of the wall, then transformed into an argument that Mexico had in fact paid for the wall by agreeing separately to deploy troops to the border. Trump is able to get away with such shifts for a few reasons, Jamieson said. One is that he has made good on other big promises, like overturning Roe vs. Wade. Another is that his followers understand and accept his speech as bluster — "not as literal statements" but as "statements that he is going to do something that is bigger and more impactful than what other people are going to do," Jamieson said. That Trump has already started walking back promises about the economy is new, she said, adding that she will be interested to see how he handles the other economic promises he has made about decreasing or eliminating taxes — including the federal income tax, tax on tips and tax on Social Security benefits — and increasing tariffs without costs being passed on to consumers. "Unless mainstream economists are wrong," Jamieson said, "that's impossible." One of the first major opportunities for Trump to describe his view of the world heading into his second term will be his inauguration. Presidents have traditionally offered a hopeful view of the country at inaugurations, but not Trump. He shocked many political observers during his first inaugural speech in 2017, when he spoke of "American carnage" and a suffering nation. During a recent interview with NBC, he said "carnage" would not be his message this time around, but "unity." Some experts, including Jamieson, were doubtful, as unity messages have not come easily to Trump before. "It's as if he only has one mode, it's campaign mode, and he only has one focus, it's himself," Jamieson said. Unity speeches are generally "centered on something other than yourself," she said, "and he seems to have trouble with it."'Something Previously Impossible': New AI Makes 3D Worlds Out of a Single Image