STILLWATER — Louisiana State fired Les Miles back in September 2016. Miles still was winning at LSU, but not like he had been when the Tigers were riding high in the Bayou. A day later, Mike Gundy was asked about the firing of his 2001-04 OSU boss. “The best response to that would be what Mike Leach told me a long time ago,” Gundy said back in 2016. “I was talking to him before a game, and I think it was maybe his 10th year or something out at Texas Tech. He said. 'You know, if you stay at one place long enough, you're eventually going to get fired in coaching ... You just hang around a place long enough as a coach, they're eventually going to get tired of you and fire you.' I think that's probably the best example of what happened yesterday.” Applicable in September 2016. Applicable in December 2024. OSU didn’t fire Gundy. But university leadership walked to the edge of cutting ties with one of its all-time heroes and a state icon. As a close-knit school and fan base set all eyes on the OSU Student Union this weekend, waiting for Gundy news to vape out like smoke from the Vatican, here’s the gist of this sordid tale. OSU has grown tired of Mike Gundy. Not everyone, of course. But enough fans and donors and school personnel and, most importantly, regents, who instigated the latest conclave. And most of this is on Gundy. State’s second-highest paid employee or working man, doesn’t matter. You’ve got to get along with your bosses. Doesn’t matter if you’re working for Dabney Coleman or Donald Trump. War with your superiors at your own risk. Gundy long has sparred with administrators and big-time boosters. And he’s not just been on the wrong side of Boone Pickens and Burns Hargis and Mike Holder, but other influential money people who long ago wiped their hands of OSU football, over Gundy exasperation. But Gundy is resilient. Midwest City resilient. Two generations ago resilient. Four-year pocket passers in Big Eight football are by definition tough, from the days when the rules and the refs didn’t conspire to keep quarterbacks safe. Gundy has stayed popular with enough of the masses — he’s both one of them and one of their all-time heroes — and decision-makers to stay ahead of the posse. But remember what Casey Stengel said about leading a baseball clubhouse: “The secret of successful managing is to keep the five guys who hate you away from the four guys who haven't made up their minds.” It appears that after four decades in the Cowboy spotlight, from throwing Hart Lee Dykes touchdown catches to coaching OSU past Texas(!) in Big 12 success, enough minds were made up. It was time to teach Gundy another lesson. Gundy’s comments from a month ago stung deep. He called critics “weak” and “failures” and said they “can’t pay their own bills.” Gundy later issued a quarter-hearted apology, saying he wasn’t speaking about OSU fans, but that struck most as dubious. Who was he talking about? Members of the Harper Valley PTA? Much of the Cowboy fan base was incensed and remains so. With Cowboy football in disarray after a 0-9 Big 12 season but Gundy armed with a ridiculous rollover contract and a buyout of $25.3 million, OSU leaders found a trapdoor. Gundy was issued an ultimatum. Restructure the contract or get fired for cause. In other words, reduce the buyout, scrap the rollover and make less money, or hand over your keys and we’ll see you in court. Sources say Gundy will take a $1 million paycut, to $6.75 million a year, and the rollover is gone. So he’ll have four years left, with a buyout next off-season of about $15 million. The only unknown from the negotiations is what kind of concessions Gundy makes on administrative oversight. He did much better after almost losing his job four years ago over the Chuba Hubbard-led player revolt, which resulted in another reduced contract. But sources say that Gundy’s contrition didn’t last, that Gundy has reverted back to being a lone soldier. OSU administrators long have questioned Gundy’s dedication. Holder called out Gundy to work harder on recruiting. Gundy, like a lot of coaches, eschews the off-season fan events that can drum up support. Not that the Cowboys’ marketing was struggling; coming off a Big 12 Championship Game appearance last December, OSU sold every available ticket for the 2024 season and was ranked 17th in the preseason Associated Press poll. Then the season went splat, and OSU finished 3-9. Truth is, Gundy’s got more political lives than Henry Bellmon. It should surprise nobody that Gundy appears to have scrambled out of this blitz. Should surprise nobody if he again produces a top-flight winning team. You can take the feisty Bomber out of Midwest City, but you can’t take the Midwest City out of the feisty Bomber. The whole ordeal is a shame, really. A landmark quarterback turned landmark coach, bookending the best eras of OSU football other than World War II. And Gundy has a reservoir of charm, when he wants to use it. But over the years, we’ve learned from Gundy himself that he’s somewhat a recluse, not the social lightning rod his personality sometimes presents. As his feuds with Boone and Burns and Holder simmered over the years, Gundy closed ranks. He became insulated in the athletic department, holed up in the west end zone among football operations. Gundy’s friends on campus became fewer and fewer. All at a place that would send legions to follow him. Now Gundy’s friends are fewer, and his success is tarnished, and his status is diminished, as he relearns the lesson that you’ve got to get along with your bosses.
President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday nominated Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, as the US ambassador to France, in the latest of several controversial picks. Kushner "is a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker, who will be a strong advocate representing our Country & its interests," Trump said on his Truth Social website, adding that Jared "worked closely with me in the White House." The choice is in keeping with Trump's pattern, so far, of selecting people, often wealthy, who are close to his family or of proven loyalty. Kushner is a multimillionaire real estate executive and former attorney; his son was a senior adviser during Trump's first term. Trump did not mention, however, that the elder Kushner once served jail time -- a two-year sentence, most of it served in a federal prison. Kushner, who is now 70, pleaded guilty in 2004 to 18 counts of tax evasion, witness tampering and making illegal campaign contributions. The case, which was prosecuted by then US attorney Chris Christie, included sordid details, to which Kushner admitted: that he had hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, a man cooperating in a campaign finance inquiry, and then videotaped the encounter and sent it to the man's wife, Kushner's sister, to dissuade her from testifying against him. Sign up to get our free daily email of the biggest stories! Christie, who worked on Trump's first presidential transition team and then opposed him in this year's Republican primary contests, later said Kushner had committed a "loathsome" and "disgusting crime." In 2020, Trump issued a pardon to Kushner, whose conviction had resulted in him being disbarred in three states. Nominees for key ambassadorships are often business associates of a president-elect, or major political donors. But it is rare, if not unprecedented, to name a convicted felon. The first two men to fill the prestigious Paris post were famed inventor and statesman Benjamin Franklin and a future president, Thomas Jefferson. If confirmed, Kushner would succeed Denise Bauer, a former ambassador to Belgium who was a major Democratic fundraiser and donor. md/bbk/mdSri Lanka Tourism should carry out promotions in untapped markets- Tourism MinisterGame Primer and LIVE Blog: Kansas Jayhawks vs Furman Paladins
On December 27, 1983, Pope John Paul II visited a man in an Italian prison to offer him forgiveness. More than two years earlier, that man had done his very best to kill the pontiff. Mehmet Ali Agca was a Turkish ultranationalist who had escaped from prison in his home country after murdering a newspaper editor. Two years later, on May 13, 1981, Agca and an accomplice entered St Peter's Square in Rome, where the Pope was greeting supporters. Agca opened fire with a handgun, hitting the Pope four times and striking two others non-fatally. He was immediately grabbed by spectators, a nun, and the Vatican security chief. After the Pope's visit and granting of forgiveness, he and Acga would correspond for years. Acga was eventually pardoned in Italy in 2000 at the Pope's request and deported to Turkey, where he was jailed for another decade and converted to Roman Catholicism. Scientist Charles Darwin embarked on his landmark voyage on the HMS Beagle on December 27, 1831. It was from this voyage that Darwin, then aged 22, first formulated his theory of evolution. But that wasn't his original goal. (The HMS Beagle at Tierra Del Fuego, as painted by on-board draughtsman Conrad Martens.) Darwin joined the expedition, which ventured down past South America, then to Tahiti and Australia in its circumnavigation of the globe, as a geologist. But his discovery of fossilised bones of extinct animals, and his observations of plants and animals, made him question the then-prevalent belief that species were fixed. The result was Darwin's theory of evolution, and his landmark book On the Origin of Species, first published years later in 1859. Former prime minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto was assassinated at a public rally in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007. Bhutto, who served as prime minister from 1988 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1996, had returned from eight years of self-imposed exile overseas to lead the opposition Pakistan People's Party to the January 2008 elections. At her final rally (pictured), she was shot at by an assassin before a suicide bomb was detonated. Twenty-three others were killed in the bombing. Bhutto had already survived one assassination attempt since her return. Bhutto, pictured in 1988, was the first woman elected to lead a Muslim-majority country. Despite coming from a wealthy and aristocratic family, her own political leanings were liberal and secularist. Bhutto's body was entombed in her family mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Baksh, Pakistan. Her death spurred the Pakistan Peoples' Party to electoral wins the next year. While the government initially blamed al-Quaeda as a chief suspect in the attack, two senior police officers were later jailed, one for mishandling security and the other for damaging evidence. Pervez Musharraf, who was president of Pakistan when Bhutto was killed, was later charged with high treason and sentenced to death in absentia, due to what a court said was his failure to provide Bhutto with sufficient security despite her requests.
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ISLAMABAD: Amidst widespread concerns among masses regarding soaring inflation in the country, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday congratulated the nation, saying “the weekly inflation rate decreased to 3.57 percent, representing the lowest figure recorded in the last six years.” The people have not yet experienced any relief concerning inflation; however, the prime minister, in a statement said the current inflation rate is the lowest it has been since October 4, 2018, attributing this achievement to the efforts made by of his economic team led by Muhammad Aurangzeb. Sharif reiterated his commitment to address the nation’s challenges and assured the masses that he would continue to work tirelessly for their welfare. Weekly SPI inflation down 0.34pc He maintained that measures are being implemented to create jobs, foster industrial development, and attract foreign investment, adding Pakistan is making significant progress toward development, driven by economic stability. He lighted the rise in remittances, investments from friendly countries and stable diplomatic relations as indicators of the country’s development trajectory. Sharif expressed the political sacrifices made for Pakistan’s growth and prosperity did not go in vain, and he acknowledged that all stakeholders are playing a vital role in the nation’s development journey. Copyright Business Recorder, 2024Democrats say they'll avoid election challenges on Jan. 6North Macedonian political party demands ban on TikTok after at least 17 students injured
STATE COLLEGE — Penn State is going to the Big Ten championship game. The Nittany Lions secured their spot in the conference title game after beating Maryland, 44-7, and getting some help with Michigan upsetting Ohio State on a wild Saturday. Penn State, currently No. 4 in the College Football Playoff rankings, will play No. 1 Oregon next Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for the Big Ten championship. The game will kick off at 8 p.m. and air nationally on CBS. With a win, either Penn State or Oregon will secure a first-round bye into the CFP quarterfinals in the new 12-team bracket and, possibly, the No. 1 overall seed. With a loss, Penn State would still be expected to make the CFP. And unless the Nittany Lions get blown out by the Ducks, they would still likely host a first-round game at Beaver Stadium . Penn State entered Saturday with a slim chance of getting into the Big Ten championship. Ohio State just needed to beat Michigan as a three-touchdown favorite to secure a spot in Indy. But in embarrassing fashion, the Buckeyes lost, 13-10, at home to the Wolverines. Ohio State quarterback Will Howard threw two interceptions, kicker Jayden Fielding missed two field goals, and Michigan’s Dominic Zvada converted a go-ahead field goal with 45 seconds left. The Buckeyes failed to tie it up, and Ryan Day lost his fourth straight game to Michigan. That result gave Penn State clarity going into its 3:30 p.m. kick against Maryland. A win would put the Nittany Lions into Ohio State’s vacated slot thanks to the Big Ten’s tiebreakers. Even if Indiana, the other one-loss team in the Big Ten, beats Purdue on Saturday night, the Nittany Lions advance to the Big Ten title game on the conference’s fourth head-to-head tiebreaker: cumulative opponent conference record. Oregon will be the toughest test of the season so far for the Nittany Lions. The Ducks are the last undefeated team in college football with wins over Ohio State and Boise State. It will be a massive opportunity for James Franklin , Drew Allar and the Nittany Lions to prove themselves against the nation’s No. 1 team. We’ll see how they fare next Saturday. BETTING: Check out our guide to the best PA sportsbooks , where our team of sports betting experts has reviewed the experience, payout speed, parlay options and quality of odds for multiple sportsbooks. Sign up for the PennLive’s Penn State newsletters, the daily Penn State Today and the subscriber-exclusive Penn State Insider ©2024 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit pennlive.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Earth just experienced its second-warmest November on record — second only to 2023 — making it all but certain that 2024 will end as the hottest year ever measured, according to a report Monday by European climate service Copernicus. Last year was the hottest on record due to human-caused climate change coupled with the effects of an El Nino. But after this summer registered as the hottest on record — Phoenix sweltered through 113 consecutive days with a high temperature of at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit — scientists anticipated 2024 would set a new annual record as well. In November, global temperatures averaged 14.10C (57.38F). Last year's global average temperature was 14.98C (59F). FILE - People are silhouetted against the sky at sunset Nov. 12 as they run in a park in Shawnee, Kan. Charlie Riedel, Associated Press Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Cape Cod, who wasn't involved in the report, said the big story about November is that "like 2023, it beat out previous Novembers by a large margin." This also likely will be the first calendar year in which the average temperature was more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, the report said. The 2015 Paris Agreement said human-caused warming should be limited to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and ideally below 1.5. In the following years, the world's top scientist said limiting to 1.5 was crucial to stave off the worst impacts of climate change, such as increasing destructive and frequent extreme weather events. Scientists say the main cause of climate change is the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. That "does not mean that the Paris Agreement has been breached, but it does mean ambitious climate action is more urgent than ever," said Copernicus Deputy Director Samantha Burgess. Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts Francis said the new records are "terrible news for people and ecosystems." "The pace of warming is so fast that plants and animals cannot adapt as they always have during previous changes in the Earth's climate. More species will go extinct, which disrupts natural food webs they're a part of. Agriculture will suffer as pollinators decline and pests flourish," she said, also warning that coastal communities will be vulnerable to sea-level rise. Heat waves over the oceans and a loss of reflective sea ice and snow cover probably contributed to the temperature increase this year, experts said. Copernicus said the extent of Antarctic sea ice in November was 10% below average, a record. Oceans absorb about 90% of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases, later releasing heat and water vapor back into the atmosphere. Last year's record heat was caused partly by an El Nino — a temporary natural warming of parts of the central Pacific that alters weather worldwide. People walk Nov. 27 on an autumn-colored ginkgo tree-lined avenue in Tokyo. Shuji Kajiyama, Associated Press But that ended this year and a cooling effect that often follows, called La Nina, failed to materialize, leaving the scientific community "a little perplexed by what's going on here ... why temperatures are staying high," said Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist at the University of Michigan. One explanation is that an El Nino releases more heat to the atmosphere because of warmer ocean waters, then "we're not getting the cooling effect that often in decades gone by helps bring the temperature back down," Overpeck said. "So it does look like this could be contributing to the acceleration of global warming. But this year, he said, "is such a big jump following yet another jump, and that's a scary thing." It's no secret that a warming world will drive food prices higher, a phenomenon increasingly known as " heatflation ." What's less known, but a growing area of interest among economists and scientists alike, is the role individual extreme weather events — blistering temperatures in Texas , a destructive tornado in Iowa — may have on what U.S. consumers pay at the supermarket. At first glance, the answer might seem logical: A drought or flood that impacts agricultural production will, eventually, drive up prices. But it's not that simple, because what consumers pay for groceries isn't only reflective of crop yields or herd sizes, but the whole supply chain. As Grist reports, that's where it gets interesting: Economists are beginning to see a growing trend that suggests weather forecasts play a part in sticker shock. Sometimes the mere prediction of an extreme event — like the record-breaking temperatures, hurricanes, and wildfires forecasters are bracing for this summer — can prompt a spike in prices. It isn't the forecast itself to blame, but concerns about what the weather to come might mean for the entire supply chain, as food manufacturers manage their risks and the expected future value of their goods, said Seungki Lee, an agricultural economist at Ohio State University. "When it comes to the climate risk on food prices, people typically look at the production side. But over the last two years, we learned that extreme weather can raise food prices, [cause] transportation disruptions, as well as production disruptions," said Lee. How much we pay for the food we buy is determined by retailers, who consider the producer's price, labor costs, and other factors. Any increases in what producers charge is typically passed on to consumers because grocery stores operate on thin profit margins. And if manufacturers expect to pay more for commodities like beef or specialty crops like avocados in the future, they may boost prices now to cover those anticipated increases. "The whole discussion about the climate risks on the food supply chain is based on probabilities," Lee said. "It is possible that we do not see extreme temperatures this summer, or even later this year. We may realize there was no significant weather shock hitting the supply chain, but unfortunately that will not be the end of the story." Supply chain disruptions and labor shortages are among the reasons food prices have climbed 25 percent since 2020 . Climate change may be contributing as well. A study published earlier this year found " heatflation " could push them up by as much as 3 percentage points per year worldwide in just over a decade and by about 2 percentage points in North America. Simultaneous disasters in major crop and cattle producing regions around the world — known as multi-breadbasket failure — are among the primary forces driving these costs. Crop shortages in these regions may also squeeze prices, which can create volatility in the global market and bump up consumer costs. Historically, a single, localized heat wave or storm typically wouldn't disrupt the supply chain enough to prompt price hikes. But a warming world might be changing that dynamic as extreme weather events intensify and simultaneous occurrences of them become the norm. How much this adds to consumers' grocery bills will vary, and depends upon whether these climate-fueled disasters hit what Lee calls "supply chain chokepoints" like vital shipping channels during harvest seasons. "As the weather is getting more and more volatile because of climate change, we are seeing this issue more frequently," he said. "So what that means is the supply chain is getting more likely to be jeopardized by these types of risks that we have never seen before." Spencer Platt // Getty Images An ongoing drought that plagued the Mississippi River system from the fall of 2022 until February provides an excellent example of this. The Mississippi River basin, which covers 31 states, is a linchpin of America's agricultural supply chain. It produces 92 percent of the nation's agricultural exports, 78 percent of the world's feed grains and soybeans , and most of the country's livestock. Vessels navigating its roughly 2,350 miles of channels carry 589 million tons of cargo annually . Transportation barriers created by low water, seen above, hampered the ability of crop-producing states in the Corn Belt to send commodities like corn and soybeans, primarily used for cattle feed, to livestock producers in the South. Thus emerged a high demand, low supply situation as shipping and commodity prices shot up , with economists expecting consumers to absorb those costs . Past research showing that retail prices increase alongside commodity prices suggests that the drought probably contributed to higher overall food costs last year — and because droughts have a lingering impact on production even after they end, it may be fueling stubbornly high grocery prices today. But although it seems clear that the drought contributed to higher prices, particularly for meat and dairy products, just how much remains to be gauged. One reason for that is a lack of research analyzing the relationship between this particular weather event and the consumer market. Another is it's often difficult to tease out which of several possible factors, including global trade, war, and export bans , influence specific examples of sticker shock. While droughts definitely prompt decreases in agricultural production, Metin Çakır, an economist at the University of Minnesota, says whether that is felt by consumers depends on myriad factors. "This would mean higher raw ingredient costs for foods sold in groceries, and part of those higher costs will be passed onto consumers via higher prices. However, will consumer prices actually increase? The answer depends on many other supply and demand factors that might be happening at the same time as the impact of the drought," said Çakır. In a forthcoming analysis previewed by Grist, Çakır examined the relationship between an enduring drought in California, which produces a third of the nation's vegetables and nearly two-thirds of its fruits and nuts , and costs of produce purchased at large grocery retailers nationwide. While the event raised consumer vegetable prices to a statistically significant degree, they didn't increase as much as Çakır expected. This capricious consumer cost effect is due largely to the resiliency of America's food system . Public safety nets like crop insurance and other federal programs have played a large part in mitigating the impacts of adverse weather and bolstering the food supply chain against climate change and other shocks. By ensuring farmers and producers don't bear the brunt of those losses, these programs reduce the costs passed on to consumers. Advanced agricultural technology, modern infrastructure, substantial storage, and efficient transport links also help ensure retail price stability. A 2024 study of the role climate change played on the U.S. wheat market from 1950 to 2018 found that although the impact of weather shocks on price variability has increased with the frequency of extreme weather, adaptive mechanisms, like a well-developed production and distribution infrastructure with sufficient storage capacity, have minimized the impact on consumers. Still, the paper warns that such systems may collapse when faced with "unprecedented levels of weather variability." Last year was the world's warmest on record , creating an onslaught of challenges for crop and livestock producers nationwide. And this year is primed to be even more brutal , with the transition from El Niño — an atmospheric phenomenon that warms ocean temperatures — to La Niña , its counterpart that cools them. This cyclical change in global weather patterns is another potential threat for crop yields and source of supply chain pressures that economists and scientists are keeping an eye on. They will be particularly focused on the Midwest and stretches of the Corn Belt, two regions prone to drought as an El Niño cycle gives way to a La Niña, according to Weston Anderson, an assistant research scientist at the University of Maryland and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Those growing regions for corn and soybeans are what he'll be watching closely as La Niña develops. It's something Jennifer Ifft, an agricultural economist at Kansas State University, is also thinking about. "If you have a very severe drought in the Corn Belt ... that's going to be the biggest deal, because that's gonna raise the cost of production for cattle, hogs, poultry," said Ifft. "So that would probably have the largest inflationary impacts." As of January , U.S. beef herd inventory was at its lowest in 73 years, which multiple reports noted is due to the persisting drought that began in 2020 . Americans, the majority of whom are already spending more on groceries than last year, are poised to soon see "record" beef prices at the supermarket. Food prices are also expected to rise another 2.2 percent in 2024 , according to the USDA's Economic Research Service. In a world enmeshed in extremes, our already-fragile food supply chain could be the next system teetering on the edge of collapse because of human-caused climate change. And costlier groceries linked to impending risk is the first of many warning signs that it is already splintering. This story was produced by Grist and reviewed and distributed by Stacker Media. Scott Olson // Getty Images
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