I’m a Certified Personal Trainer, and These Are My Favorite Black Friday Deals on Fitness EquipmentTORONTO — Canada's main stock index gained more than 150 points Wednesday after the Bank of Canada cut interest rates, while U.S. stock markets were mixed, led by a 1.8 per cent gain on the Nasdaq after the latest inflation report. The Bank of Canada cut its key interest rate by half a percentage point to 3.25 per cent. The outsized interest rate cut didn’t come as a surprise, but was welcomed by markets, said Brian Madden, chief investment officer with First Avenue Investment Counsel. On the TSX, “the leadership seems to be a combination of rate-sensitive areas like real estate and financials, and then pro-growth cyclicals like tech, indicating the strength in the U.S.,” he said. The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 153.37 points at 25,657.70. “With the policy rate now substantially lower, we anticipate a more gradual approach to monetary policy if the economy evolves broadly as expected,” he said. It was noteworthy that the Bank of Canada gave such a strong indication of what’s to come, said Madden. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 99.27 points at 44,148.56. The S&P 500 index was up 49.28 points at 6,084.19, while the Nasdaq composite was up 347.65 points at 20,034.89. Governor Tiff Macklem said the central bank will likely take a more cautious tack after December. In the U.S., the latest report on consumer inflation showed price growth ticked higher in November to 2.7 per cent. The “hotly anticipated” report came in exactly as expected, said Madden, and markets took it largely as good news. The U.S. Federal Reserve is still “all but certain” to cut its own rate by a quarter of a percentage point next week, said Madden. Also helping markets Wednesday were tech stocks, with Google continuing its gains from the day before after announcing its new quantum computing chip. The tech giant’s stock rose 5.5 per cent. Another tech name in the news was Broadcom, which saw its stock rise 6.6 per cent after an announcement that it’s working with Apple to develop an AI chip, noted Madden. Broadly, Wednesday saw a continuation of the momentum markets have enjoyed since the U.S. election, said Madden. The Canadian dollar traded for 70.65 cents US compared with 70.59 cents US on Tuesday. The January crude oil contract was up US$1.70 at US$70.29 per barrel and the January natural gas contract was up 22 cents at US$3.38 per mmBTU. The February gold contract was up US$38.30 at US$2,756.70 an ounce and the March copper contract was down a penny at US$4.26 a pound. — With files from The Associated Press This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2024. Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD) Rosa Saba, The Canadian PressShares of ADC Therapeutics ( NYSE: ADCT ) closed 36% lower Wednesday after the company reported data from a Phase 1b study of its drug Zynlonta in combination with the bispecific antibody drug Columvi, also known as glofitamab. The study, called LOTIS-7, showed the drugp777 。

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SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy will miss Sunday’s game against the Green Bay Packers with a sore throwing shoulder. Purdy injured his right shoulder in last Sunday’s . Purdy underwent an MRI that showed no structural damage but the shoulder didn’t improve during the week and Purdy was ruled out for the game. Coach Kyle Shanahan said star defensive end Nick Bosa also will miss the game with injuries to his left hip and oblique. Left tackle Trent Williams is questionable with an ankle injury and will be a game-time decision. This will be the first time Purdy has missed a start because of an injury since taking over as the 49ers’ quarterback in December 2022. Brandon Allen will start in his place. The Niners (5-5) are currently in a three-way tie for second in the NFC West, a game behind first-place Arizona, and have little margin for error if they want to get back to the playoffs after making it to the Super Bowl last season. Purdy has completed 66% of his passes this season for 2,613 yards, 13 TDs, eight interceptions and a 95.9 passer rating that is down significantly from his league-leading mark of 113 in 2023. Allen has been mostly a backup since being drafted by Jacksonville in 2016. Allen last started a game in Week 18 of the 2021 season for Cincinnati and has thrown just three passes the last three seasons — including none since joining San Francisco in 2023. Joshua Dobbs will be the backup on Sunday. ___ AP NFL:None

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Alberta is home to so many incredible artists, artisans, makers and entrepreneurs doing incredible work, and if you’re still trying to wrap up your Christmas shopping, we have a few suggestions for some fantastic local gift ideas. From Prairie cookbooks to unique bottles by local distilleries, check out some of these made-in-Alberta gift ideas. For the sweet tooth in your life! Made by Marcus is one of Alberta’s favourite made-from-scratch ice creams and is the perfect way to stock your loved one’s freezers this season. Choose from three different options (bestsellers, seasonal, or vegan) and get four pints delivered straight to the homes of your friends and family! A festive handwritten holiday note is also included. Every sip from glassware made by this Alberta-based company captures the incredible beauty of the Rockies, making it the perfect holiday gift for the nature lover in your life. This set brings the magic of Alberta’s iconic peaks, from Mt. Robson to the Three Sisters, right into their home. More into the idea of an experiential gift? Milk Jar also offers candle-making workshops for $125, and guests will take home an eight-ounce candle and a two-ounce reed diffuser. The Indigenous Box connects more than 300 Indigenous businesses directly to consumers, all in one beautifully designed box. Customize your gift box with a wide range of items to select through, or set up a subscription for your recipient. Whatever you choose, it’ll be a fantastic gift this holiday season! Seasonal subscriptions cost $98 quarterly, and build-a-box options are available at varying prices. You’re sure to find something for everyone at Jolene’s Tea House, which offers more than 60 hand-blended flavourful organic teas. The locally owned and operated shop has been blending teas in Banff National Park since 2005 and is home to everything from classic favourites to health-inspired herbal blends. In addition to loose-leaf tea and tins, Jolene’s also stocks adorable, tea house-shaped boxes of tea ($14.95 for 15 tea bags) with flavours including Creamy Earl Grey, Alpine Peppermint, and Banff Breakfast. You can shop loose-leaf tea, tea house-shaped boxes, tea accessories, and other gifts this season , or at the tea house-inspired log cabin on Bear Street in Banff. The wannabe chef in your life will appreciate this one! by Dan Clapson and Twyla Campbell is a bestselling cookbook with over 100 recipes. The dishes included in showcase the flavours, produce, seasons, and traditions of our region and are sure to be crowd-pleasers over the holiday season and beyond. Out of the items we rounded up for the Calgary gift guide this season, this has got to be the tastiest! Purchase through all major Canadian booksellers, including and . Is there someone on your list who’s a fan of craft beverages? Pick them up a bottle — or all three — of Burwood Distillery’s Winter Festival gins. Mandarin Cranberry Gin, Spiced Apple Colour Changing Gin, and Winter Berry Gin are sure to impress this season! These festive flavours are only available for a limited time, so be sure to get your hands on them before they’re gone. The seasonal gins are available for $52.50 per 750-millilitre bottle or pick up the trio for $142.50 or from Burwood’s distillery and lounge at . Aside from Rocky Mountain Soap Co.’s year-round, all-natural skincare line, the company has launched a collection of holiday gift sets and goodies. Among the festive offerings is the Raise the Bar: Holiday Bar Soap Set. The $33 set comes with an exclusive combination of four of Rocky Mountain’s limited edition seasonal soaps (some of which are only available with this set!) Pick up Rocky Mountain Soap Co.’s products at its across Alberta, and online . There’s nothing better than a warm cup of chai on a cold winter night, and an Edmonton company has taken things a delicious step further with a chai liqueur. This aromatic spirit, crafted from a secret family recipe, will make for a delicious last-minute gift or stocking stuffer. Chai liqueurs are rare in the Canadian market, and Jaya Chai Liqueur uses distilled Canadian oats, filtered water, Assam tea, Alberta beet sugar, and a blend of spices like cardamom and clove. For the culinary enthusiast in your life, the Italian Centre Shop offers a selection of gift baskets perfect for any taste. Whether it’s cooking essentials, charcuterie, or something sweet, these baskets are a fantastic gift for friends, family, colleagues, or even just as a thank-you! Place an order for a specialty basket or pick one up in-store for a last-minute surprise.Warning: This post contains spoilers for “Gladiator II.” The image of a gladiator standing tall on top of a charging rhino flying through the Roman Colosseum became one of the shining moments of the “Gladiator II” trailer — but the idea actually took more than two decades to complete . Director Ridley Scott first came up with the idea to stage a man-versus-rhino fight for the original “Gladiator” film in 2000, but it was too dangerous to film with a real rhinoceros and too expensive to do with CGI, according to the “Gladiator II” press notes. It was when the film’s special effects supervisor Neil Corbould found old storyboards of the rhino fight that he and Scott decided to make the scene a reality for the sequel, which premiered in theaters on Nov. 22. “When I sat down with Ridley to talk about this film I said, ‘I’ve got something to show you,’ and pulled them out. And he said, ‘Let’s do it this time,’” Corbould recalled in the press notes. “Gladiator II” producer Douglas Wick said the team learned “a lot from the showmen of the ancient arena” when they researched the first film. “As we contemplated a sequel, we reached back 2,000 years for guidance on how to top ourselves,” Wick said, according to the press notes. “They had great answers. Enter the rhino.” But is a gladiator facing a charging rhino something that could have actually happened in the Roman Colosseum? What about fending off a pack of ferocious, starved baboons, like Lucius, played by Paul Mescal, does while he's handcuffed? Lauren D. Ginsberg, associate professor of classical studies and theater studies at Duke University, gives TODAY.com an inside look into the historical accuracy of the three gladiator battles in the film featuring some seemingly absurd animals. “The goal, of course, was to have the strangest animals you’ve ever seen,” Ginsberg says of the spectacles inside of the Colosseum. “And that can mean animals no one has ever seen.” “The idea was, especially for the Colosseum, the emperor can bring the whole Roman world to you,” Ginsberg, who was not involved in the film, continues. “And also every emperor has to do something flashier and more exciting and more innovative than the previous person.” So, enter the rhino. And baboons. But sharks? Surprisingly, only one of these animals was completely out of the question in the Roman Empire, Ginsberg says. Could gladiators fight rhinos? While rhinos could appear in Roman arenas, gladiators weren't actually fighting them, Ginsberg says. Other animals could be brought in to fight each other, or professionally trained athletes could hunt the animals, she explains. But rhinos were a fan favorite among the Romans long before the Colosseum was even built. “I think Julius Caesar was the first person that ever exhibited one, so even way before the Colosseum, because the Colosseum was built by the Flavian dynasty in the first century,” Ginsberg says. “Rhinoceroses had been staples, but they weren’t so common as to become boring. People were always still really excited when there was a rhinoceros.” Ginsberg thinks rhinos were so popular for two main reasons. “They look interesting, but also because they’re really angry creatures, or at least the way they were treated made them very angry in the arena, so they were often unpredictable, which was exciting,” she says. While rhinos were a big hit at the Colosseum and other Roman arenas, Ginsberg does say there is no evidence to support a gladiator would have ever ridden one, like in “Gladiator II.” “No one was riding these wild animals. And part of that is that these were highly trained, very valuable athletes, so you don’t actually want to put them in harm’s way,” she explains. What about baboons? In Lucius’ first encounter with animals in the Colosseum, he’s handcuffed along with several other prisoners and tasked with fighting off a slew of ravenous baboons. Wick, the film’s producer, explained that many of the scenes in the movie came directly from Scott’s mind. “We’d be in a meeting discussing some story problem when Ridley would divine a solution. He thinks visually. We were pondering how to dramatize Lucius’ anger as his superpower in the arena,” Wick said, according to the press notes. “Ridley started to sketch Lucius in mortal battle with a ferocious baboon.” In fact, Scott said he came up with the idea for the scene based on a real-life video of a baboon attack on a group of tourists in a parking lot in South Africa, according to the film's press notes. In the film, Lucius is not only able to fend off the baboons, but he eventually sinks his own teeth into one of the animals’ arms and spits out the furry flesh. Due to his victory against the primates, he transforms from a prisoner to a gladiator. “Suddenly there’s a new alpha in the fight,” Wick said of the scene. Ginsberg says monkeys were a possibility for gladiators to fight, but they were a relatively late development. “The one reference that I found was Antoninus Pius was, at that time, credited with giving, like, the biggest possible Roman games of all time, which every emperor got, so every time it had to be more,” she explains. “He brought monkeys from Africa, but they don’t seem to have been the highlight of that show,” she continues. “They were there, but they weren’t the most famous animals. He also had rhinoceroses. And people were more into them.” Other land animals Ginsberg found took part in gladiator battles include elephants, ostriches, bears, bulls, lions, leopards, tigers, panthers and more. Ginsberg spoke of a large industry throughout the Roman Empire dedicated to locating exotic animals and transporting them back to the emperor, as well as teams of trainers and caretakers who kept the animals alive — and ready to fight. “There was a whole industry of people from, like, the moment you decided, ‘I want an elephant from Africa,’ that would be in charge of getting it, storing it, transporting it on a boat, getting it to where it needs to be, under the Colosseum, making sure it doesn’t die, and then making sure it’s ready to go out and give people the show that you want,” she says. The baboon scene is also a great example of how differently gladiators were treated from prisoners, according to Ginsberg. “Gladiators would never be handcuffed because they’re prized athletes. You came to watch them fight, and so handcuffing them would just not be interesting,” she explains. “But prisoners, you absolutely wanted them to have no escape, and you also wanted them to die in the most dehumanizing way possible.” “As I tell my students, the Romans are jerks. Very interesting, but they’re jerks,” she adds. Sharks? In one of Lucius' clashes, the Colosseum is filled with water — and man-eating tiger sharks — as dozens of gladiators fight for their lives on ships in a staged naval battle. Ginsberg says that sharks would have never been in the Colosseum, or any ancient Roman amphitheater. “I’m willing to stake my reputation on this,” she says through laughter. “I actually have no proof that the Romans even knew what sharks were,” she adds. “There aren’t a lot of sharks in the Mediterranean — it’s not a very common creature ... but I racked my brain trying to think of anyone in the classical world that actually talks about sharks.” Ginsberg did say that if the Romans knew that something like a great white or a hammerhead shark existed, and could find a way to transport it (Ginsberg notes there was unlikely to be any technology at the time to support such a journey), they would have “been all about it.” “They would have thought that was fantastic, and absolutely would have used them all the time, because they especially like sea creatures,” she says. “But for sure, no.” Ginsberg says there is evidence to support that some semiaquatic animals, like crocodiles and seals, were used in battles, as it was possible for the Colosseum to be filled with water. She cites works from Martial, a Roman poet who described watching reenactments of Roman naval engagements, as well as evidence of pipes and drains in the Colosseum itself that seems to suggest water could have been both brought in and removed. “I think the estimates are, like, five hours to fill it and four hours to drain it,” she says. Ginsberg adds that prisoners were the most likely to be used in these staged historical mock battles, which mainly showed Rome being triumphant against an easily stereotyped culture, often with exotic costumes. “Those would not be professional gladiators. Those would often be condemned prisoners, because the idea would be that most of those people would drown and die, right? So you didn’t want your top sports athletes doing that,” she says. “But I don’t there would be, like, extra danger in the water, like sharks or other creatures.”