7xm 49 luego mx8 4 Stock market today: Wall Street drifts to a mixed close in thin trading following a holiday pausePhillies gamble on 1-year contract for 2-time All-Star closer Jordan Romano

Mystery drone sightings continue in New Jersey and across the US. Here's what we know

Whoopi Goldberg claims Elon Musk is ‘the actual vice president’

The amendments, gazetted on Friday as the BroadcastingServices Amendment Bill, will also compel social media broadcasterstransmitting national events to register with the Broadcasting Authority ofZimbabwe (BAZ). In addition, the amendments seek to prohibit insurancecompanies from selling motor vehicle insurance to individuals who do not holdvalid ZBC radio licenses, while subscription broadcasting service providerswill also be obligated to carry up to three channels from public broadcastersas part of the reforms. The proposed legislative changes aim to align theBroadcasting Services Act with the Constitution and the Public EntitiesCorporate Governance Act while supporting media diversity, enhancing localcontent production and fostering sectoral investment. Under the proposed law, foreign ownership in broadcastinglicenses will be capped at 40 percent, ensuring local majority ownership whileattracting foreign investment into the capital-intensive sector. The amendments, which are part of the Second Republic’songoing media reforms, are intended shift the role of BAZ from controlling toregulating and managing broadcasting service bands. The Bill’s memorandum highlights this strategic realignmentstating that: “The objective of the Broadcasting Services Amendment Bill, 2024,is principally to align the Broadcasting Services Act with the Constitution andalso with the Public Entities Corporate Governance Act. “Clause 3 amends section 2A of the principal Act to providethat the role of the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) is to regulateand manage the broadcasting service bands for sustenance rather than controlbroadcasting service bands.” “The intention is to move away from a perception that thelegislation is intended to stifle the freedoms guaranteed by section 61 of theConstitution and instead to focus on necessary regulation of the airwaves.” These changes are designed to dispel perceptions that theAct stifles freedom of expression, as guaranteed by Section 61 of theConstitution and to align with international standards, including the AfricanCharter on Broadcasting and the International Covenant on Civil and PoliticalRights. “Clause 21 amends the Sixth Schedule to the principal Actby deleting paragraph 2(2) and substituting it with a new section 2(2) whichprovide that a licensee with a sports channel shall broadcast 50 percent localcontent in view of the fact that sporting events are universal andinternational sports may bring commercial value to licensees,” reads thememorandum. “Amendments to paragraph 2(2) are to provide that a publicbroadcaster providing multiple channels shall broadcast 75 percent localcontent on all channels to ensure that they reflect the identity of thenation.” Sunday NewsCould comeback spark winning streak for West Virginia or NCCU?Port-au-Prince (Haiti), Dec 27 (AP) Haiti's health minister has been removed from his post following a deadly gang attack on the largest public hospital in the capital, Port-au-Prince, government officials have said. According to two government officials Thursday, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the subject, Health Minister Duckenson Lorthe will be replaced by Justice Minister Patrick Pelissier until a new health minister is found. Two journalists and a police officer were killed Tuesday as gang members burst into the General Hospital and fired indiscriminately at reporters who were there to cover the facility's reopening. It was one of the worst attacks on Haitian media in recent memory. Seven other journalists were wounded. Jean Feguens Regala, a photographer who survived the attack, said journalists had been invited to the hospital by the health ministry but there was little security at the site. “The fact that the minister of health invited us, you feel that preparations have been made already,” Regala told The Associated Press. “When we made contact with a police unit, the police told us they were not aware of the event." The health minister did not show up at the event, for reasons that have not been explained. Shortly after the attack, Johnson “Izo” André — considered Haiti's most powerful gang leader and part of the Viv Ansanm group of gangs that has taken control of much of Port-au-Prince — posted a video on social media claiming responsibility for the attack. The video said the gang coalition had not authorised the hospital's reopening. Gang violence has worsened in Haiti, with coordinated gang attacks on prisons, police stations and the main international airport crippling the country's capital and plunging Haiti into an unprecedented crisis. Gangs are believed to control 85% of Port-au-Prince. The Caribbean country has struggled to organise an election that will restore democratic rule, and is currently governed by a transitional council made up of representatives of political parties, business groups and civil society organisations. (AP) SCY SCY (This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)

After Trump's Project 2025 denials, he is tapping its authors and influencers for key rolesA social-media tribute to Coptic Christians. A billboard in Amish country. A visit to a revered Jewish gravesite. While Donald Trump had a lock on the white evangelical vote, he and his campaign allies also wooed smaller religious groups, far from the mainstream. His campaign aggressively courted niche communities with the understanding that every vote could be critical, particularly in swing states. Voter surveys such as exit polls, which canvass broad swaths of the electorate, aren’t able to gauge the impact of such microtargeting, but some backers say the effort was worth it. Just one week before the election, Trump directed a post on the social-media platform X to Coptic Christians in the United States —- whose church has ancient roots in Egypt. He saluted their “Steadfast Faith in God, Perseverance through Centuries of Persecution and Love for this Great Country.” “This was the first time seeing a major U.S. presidential candidate address the community in this manner,” said Mariam Wahba, a Coptic Christian and research analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based research institute. “It was really a profound moment.” She said many Copts share the conservative social views of other Christian groups in the Republican constituency, and they may already have been Trump supporters. But the posting reinforced those bonds. Coptic bishops sent the president-elect congratulations after his victory and cited their “shared social and family values.” Some Assyrian Christians — another faith group with Middle Eastern roots — similarly bonded with Trump, whose mispronunciation of “Assyrian” at a rally created a viral video moment and drew attention to their support. Sam Darmo, a Phoenix real estate agent and co-founder of Assyrians for Trump, said many community members cited the economy, illegal immigration and other prominent voter issues. They echoed other conservative Christians’ concerns, he said, on issues such as abortion, gender identity and religious expression in public. But he said Trump supported various Middle Eastern Christians recovering from the Islamic State group’s oppressive rule. Darmo also credited Massad Boulos, father-in-law to Trump’s daughter , Tiffany, for mobilizing various Middle Eastern Christian groups, including Chaldean Catholics, and other voters, particularly in Michigan, such as Muslims. “He brought all these minority groups together,” he said. “We’re hoping to continue that relationship.” But members of Middle Eastern-rooted Christian groups, and their politics, are far from monolithic, said Marcus Zacharia, founder of Progressive Copts, a program of Informed Immigrants, an organization that promotes dialogue on sensitive topics among such groups in the United States and Canada. He said many younger community members question Trump’s stances on issues such as immigration, and sense that conservatives sometimes tokenize them by focusing on the plight of persecuted Christians in the Middle East while neglecting wider issues of repression in countries there that the U.S. supports. He said there needs to be more informed dialogue across the political divide in these communities. “There is no more high time than these next four years to have that way of conducting conversations,” he said. Republicans also made an aggressive push for Amish voters, particularly in the swing state of Pennsylvania, where they are most numerous at about 92,000 — with many below voting age. The GOP has made similar efforts in the past, even though researchers have found that less than 10% of the Amish typically vote, due to their separatism from society. But Republicans used billboards, mailers, ads and door-to-door campaigners to drive turnout in Lancaster County, Pa., home base to the nation’s largest Amish settlement. On election day, Amish voters Samuel Stoltzfus and his wife, Lillian Stoltzfus, said they were supporting Trump, citing their anti-abortion beliefs. “We basically look at it as murder,” Stoltzfus, 31, said outside a polling center in the Lancaster County community of New Holland, where dozens of other members of the local Amish community voted. Trump has wavered on the issue, dismaying some abortion opponents, though many have said Republicans still align more closely to their views. Stoltzfus added: “Make America great again and keep the moral values,” he said. “Let’s go back to the roots.” Steven Nolt, a history professor at Elizabethtown College in Lancaster College who studies the Amish and their voting patterns, said that while it’s too early to say definitively without further research, he doesn’t see evidence of a larger turnout this year. Lancaster County as a whole — most of which is not Amish — is a GOP stronghold that Trump won handily, though both parties’ votes edged up from 2020, according to unofficial results posted by the Pennsylvania Department of State. Trump’s biggest increases were in urban or suburban areas with few Amish, while some areas with larger Amish populations generally saw a modest increase in the Trump vote, said Nolt, director of the college’s Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies. “Bottom line, percentage-wise, not much change in the parts of Lancaster County where the Amish live,” he said. Trump directly reached out to members of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, a prominent and highly observant branch of Orthodox Judaism. On Oct. 7, the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war , Trump made a symbolically resonant visit to the “Ohel,” the burial site of the movement’s revered late leader, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson. Wearing a yarmulke, the traditional Jewish skullcap, Trump, who has Jewish family members, brought a written prayer to the Ohel and laid a small stone at the grave in keeping with tradition. The site in New York City, while particularly central to Chabad adherents, draws an array of Jewish and other visitors, including politicians. About two-thirds of Jewish voters overall supported Trump’s opponent, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters. But the Trump campaign has made a particular outreach to Orthodox Jews, citing issues including his policies toward Israel in his first administration. Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowitz of Chabad Lubavitch of Southwest Florida said it was moving for him to see images of Trump’s visit. “The mere fact that he made a huge effort, obviously it was important to him,” he said. Smith writes for the Associated Press. AP journalist Luis Henao contributed to this report.

Could comeback spark winning streak for West Virginia or NCCU?WASHINGTON – As a former and potentially future president, Donald Trump hailed what would become Project 2025 as a road map for “exactly what our movement will do” with another crack at the White House. As the blueprint for a hard-right turn in America became a liability during the 2024 campaign, Trump pulled an about-face . He denied knowing anything about the “ridiculous and abysmal” plans written in part by his first-term aides and allies. Recommended Videos Now, after being elected the 47th president on Nov. 5, Trump is stocking his second administration with key players in the detailed effort he temporarily shunned. Most notably, Trump has tapped Russell Vought for an encore as director of the Office of Management and Budget; Tom Homan, his former immigration chief, as “border czar;” and immigration hardliner Stephen Miller as deputy chief of policy . Those moves have accelerated criticisms from Democrats who warn that Trump's election hands government reins to movement conservatives who spent years envisioning how to concentrate power in the West Wing and impose a starkly rightward shift across the U.S. government and society. Trump and his aides maintain that he won a mandate to overhaul Washington. But they maintain the specifics are his alone. “President Trump never had anything to do with Project 2025,” said Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt in a statement. “All of President Trumps' Cabinet nominees and appointments are whole-heartedly committed to President Trump's agenda, not the agenda of outside groups.” Here is a look at what some of Trump's choices portend for his second presidency. As budget chief, Vought envisions a sweeping, powerful perch The Office of Management and Budget director, a role Vought held under Trump previously and requires Senate confirmation, prepares a president's proposed budget and is generally responsible for implementing the administration's agenda across agencies. The job is influential but Vought made clear as author of a Project 2025 chapter on presidential authority that he wants the post to wield more direct power. “The Director must view his job as the best, most comprehensive approximation of the President’s mind,” Vought wrote. The OMB, he wrote, “is a President’s air-traffic control system” and should be “involved in all aspects of the White House policy process,” becoming “powerful enough to override implementing agencies’ bureaucracies.” Trump did not go into such details when naming Vought but implicitly endorsed aggressive action. Vought, the president-elect said, “knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State” — Trump’s catch-all for federal bureaucracy — and would help “restore fiscal sanity.” In June, speaking on former Trump aide Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, Vought relished the potential tension: “We’re not going to save our country without a little confrontation.” Vought could help Musk and Trump remake government's role and scope The strategy of further concentrating federal authority in the presidency permeates Project 2025's and Trump's campaign proposals. Vought's vision is especially striking when paired with Trump's proposals to dramatically expand the president's control over federal workers and government purse strings — ideas intertwined with the president-elect tapping mega-billionaire Elon Musk and venture capitalist Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a “Department of Government Efficiency.” Trump in his first term sought to remake the federal civil service by reclassifying tens of thousands of federal civil service workers — who have job protection through changes in administration — as political appointees, making them easier to fire and replace with loyalists. Currently, only about 4,000 of the federal government's roughly 2 million workers are political appointees. President Joe Biden rescinded Trump's changes. Trump can now reinstate them. Meanwhile, Musk's and Ramaswamy's sweeping “efficiency” mandates from Trump could turn on an old, defunct constitutional theory that the president — not Congress — is the real gatekeeper of federal spending. In his “Agenda 47,” Trump endorsed so-called “impoundment,” which holds that when lawmakers pass appropriations bills, they simply set a spending ceiling, but not a floor. The president, the theory holds, can simply decide not to spend money on anything he deems unnecessary. Vought did not venture into impoundment in his Project 2025 chapter. But, he wrote, “The President should use every possible tool to propose and impose fiscal discipline on the federal government. Anything short of that would constitute abject failure.” Trump's choice immediately sparked backlash. “Russ Vought is a far-right ideologue who has tried to break the law to give President Trump unilateral authority he does not possess to override the spending decisions of Congress (and) who has and will again fight to give Trump the ability to summarily fire tens of thousands of civil servants,” said Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, a Democrat and outgoing Senate Appropriations chairwoman. Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, leading Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, said Vought wants to “dismantle the expert federal workforce” to the detriment of Americans who depend on everything from veterans' health care to Social Security benefits. “Pain itself is the agenda,” they said. Homan and Miller reflect Trump's and Project 2025's immigration overl ap Trump’s protests about Project 2025 always glossed over overlaps in the two agendas . Both want to reimpose Trump-era immigration limits. Project 2025 includes a litany of detailed proposals for various U.S. immigration statutes, executive branch rules and agreements with other countries — reducing the number of refugees, work visa recipients and asylum seekers, for example. Miller is one of Trump's longest-serving advisers and architect of his immigration ideas, including his promise of the largest deportation force in U.S. history. As deputy policy chief, which is not subject to Senate confirmation, Miller would remain in Trump's West Wing inner circle. “America is for Americans and Americans only,” Miller said at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Oct. 27. “America First Legal,” Miller’s organization founded as an ideological counter to the American Civil Liberties Union, was listed as an advisory group to Project 2025 until Miller asked that the name be removed because of negative attention. Homan, a Project 2025 named contributor, was an acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director during Trump’s first presidency, playing a key role in what became known as Trump's “family separation policy.” Previewing Trump 2.0 earlier this year, Homan said: “No one’s off the table. If you’re here illegally, you better be looking over your shoulder.” Project 2025 contributors slated for CIA and Federal Communications chiefs John Ratcliffe, Trump's pick to lead the CIA , was previously one of Trump's directors of national intelligence. He is a Project 2025 contributor. The document's chapter on U.S. intelligence was written by Dustin Carmack, Ratcliffe's chief of staff in the first Trump administration. Reflecting Ratcliffe's and Trump's approach, Carmack declared the intelligence establishment too cautious. Ratcliffe, like the chapter attributed to Carmack, is hawkish toward China. Throughout the Project 2025 document, Beijing is framed as a U.S. adversary that cannot be trusted. Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, wrote Project 2025's FCC chapter and is now Trump's pick to chair the panel. Carr wrote that the FCC chairman “is empowered with significant authority that is not shared” with other FCC members. He called for the FCC to address “threats to individual liberty posed by corporations that are abusing dominant positions in the market,” specifically “Big Tech and its attempts to drive diverse political viewpoints from the digital town square.” He called for more stringent transparency rules for social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube and “empower consumers to choose their own content filters and fact checkers, if any.” Carr and Ratcliffe would require Senate confirmation for their posts. ___

NEW YORK (WABC) -- When a film wins five Oscars, including Best Picture, any talk of a sequel is terrifying. But Ridley Scott has done what seemed impossible. Nearly 25 years after "Gladiator" became an instant classic, Ridley Scott returns to an empire built on blood and glory. But in this Rome, the stakes are higher and the battles are bigger. This sequel stars Paul Mescal as Lucius Verus, a character who appeared as a young boy in the 2000 movie starring Russell Crowe. Mescal reflected on seeing the sequel for the first time. "I was so relieved, excited, proud," Mescal says. "Just like a massive exhale, because this is the movie we set out to make, and I think it's a film that people who love the first film will really, really enjoy." He describes the world of Gladiator as, "360, it's further than your eye can see, and it's all around you all the time, it's bigger than I can describe to anyone. I think people just kind of nod and go, 'OK, so it was big.' I was like, 'No, it's huge.'" The film picks up fifteen years after the death of Maximus Meridius. His legacy lives on in Lucius, now a man and a warrior forced to fight in the arena for an empire he despises. As Lucius, Paul Mescal steps into the biggest role of his career. "This wasn't even in my wildest dreams," Mescal said, whose father loves the original movie. "It was a big moment for not just my dad, my family in general. I think they were just kind of in disbelief, and there was kind of cursing and shouting and roaring." Connie Nielsen returns as Lucilla, the heart of both films. "We were all really concerned with the responsibility that we felt to really make sure that our game was there maximum," Nielsen said. "When I walked up the hill to the old fort that I had been shooting in 25 years ago, when, at the time, I had a little young son, and now I have five children, and you kind of just see this return to this thing that is so big and so outsized in every way. And then at the end of the shoot, my heart was breaking. I just didn't want to let it go." This time, mad twin emperors reign in terror and excess, while in the shadows, a more dangerous game unfolds. That game comes from Denzel Washington's Macrinus, a new character lurking in the shadows as a political puppeteer. "I always choose roles," Washington said about his career. "I mean, they choose me. You know, Ridley Scott called me, I said, yes, Spike Lee called me for Malcolm X, I said, yes." Fred Hechinger, who appears in the movie as Emperor Caracalla, reflected on working with the legendary actor. "It's a blessing. I mean, truly, one of my favorite actors of all time," he said. "You just feel he is so in the moment of the moment of the moment." Hechinger portrays one of the twin emperors, with the other played by Joseph Quinn. "There were a lot of different inspirations, but one of them, and I swear to this, is Mike Judge's Beavis and Butt-Head, which Sir Ridley Scott is a fan of," says Hechinger. "So, you know, sometimes we would do a scene and I would look over at Ridley, and we do the little laugh together." Washington says this is the first time he's been in a film this big, "I mean, Ridley built Rome," he said. "Gladiator II" arrives in theaters this week.Tom Brady Sends 3-Word Message Before Cowboys-Giants Thanksgiving GameWALPOLE — In a rematch of last season’s Div. 4 Final Four, the results remained the same as Scituate beat Grafton 14-3 victory at Walpole High School. Scituate led the entire game but only held a 7-3 advantage late into the fourth quarter. Grayson Foley, on only his third carry of the game, put the contest to bed with 3:02 left to play in regulation on a fourth-and-goal plunge from the one-yard line. The victory sends the Sailors back to the Super Bowl for the fourth time in the past six years with their last victory coming in 2021 in a 14-13 win over Duxbury. Both teams were 10-0 coming into the game and each team recorded shutouts over their quarterfinal opponents, so Scituate head coach Herb Devine knew his squad was in for a long day. “Give credit to Grafton as their defense was the real deal. They were physical, they did a great job up front on us all day, and our kids just had to make plays, and win a little unconventionally,” said Devine after he caught his breath from the post-game celebration. “We got a couple of turnovers, and it definitely helped us out, kind of flipped the field position, and we were able to score. That fourth-and-one was huge, game comes down to t-formation and we get to punch one in and it was pretty incredible.” Scituate won the turnover battle, 3-0, but the big turning point was Lawson Foley’s interception with 7:07 left in the second quarter with the game scoreless. Foley picked off a pass at midfield and returned it up the right sideline down to the Gators 15-yard line. Four plays later, Will Robinson scored from two yards out to give the Sailors the 7-0 lead after Griffin McGirr hit the extra point. Grafton marched back down on the next series, but Gators head coach Chris McMahon elected to go with a 26-yard field goal from Ryan Davis on a fourth-and-four from the nine-yard line to end the first half. “It’s not what we wanted, it’s not how we wanted our seniors to go out, but it’s a tough one,” said McMahon. “We’ve played them three times over the last four years – they are really good. In games like this when you have two good teams, a couple of plays here or there – a turnover, not converting on a third down – that’s the difference in a game like this.” The Gators were inside the 20-yard line of the Sailors on three different occasions and also had a 22-yard touchdown run from Zeeland Youngblood erased on a holding penalty. Finn Gilmore was the offensive star for Grafton with 27 carries for a game-high 127 yards, but it wasn’t enough against the Scituate defense which came up big when the Sailors needed the stops. So, while the Gators had their chances – it was Foley and the Sailors who took advantage of the few opportunities. On the final series with 5:19 left to play, Foley took his second carry of the game 66 yards down to the three-yard line to set up the fourth-quarter theatrics. After three failed attempts against the tough defensive front of the Gators, Coach Devine put his faith back in his sophomore running back for the final nail in the win. “We knew it was going to be a game with playing for field position, maybe our special teams would get a score,” said Devine. “But someone helped break Grayson’s (first) run all the way down, and it’s just a team win. To win a defensive battle like that and not be able to put points on the board like we are used to is a little different, but we will take it.”

Byfield scores in 200th career game as Kings hold off Kraken for 2-1 winJAY-Z is the latest rapper to be hit with harrowing allegations. The Brooklyn hitmaker was was accused of sexually assaulting a minor alongside Diddy in 2000. The minor in question was alleged to be 13 years old, and the assault was alleged to have taken place at a VMAs after party. JAY-Z's lawyer, Tony Buzbee, has already issued a statement denying these claims. Of course, the story has spread like wildfire online, with many debating the legitimacy of the suit. It was the Instagram activity of JAY-Z's mother in law, Tina Knowles, however, that had fans stumped. Tina Knowles liked a post detailing the allegations against JAY-Z on the social media platform. Fans were shocked to see a member of the rapper's own family seemingly condoning the lawsuit. This led many to question whether Knowles has any knowledge of her son-in-law's past. It did not take long, however, for Tina Knowles to make a statement. Beyonce 's mother took to Instagram to explain that her account had been hacked. She insisted that she did not condone or like the post about JAY-Z legal troubles, and said she would never do anything of the sort against her own family. Read More: Jay-Z Files Motion To Have Rape Accuser Reveal Her Identity "I was Hacked," Tina Knowles asserted. "As you all know I do not play about my family. So if you see something uncharacteristic of me. Just know that it is not me!" The celebrity mother added some more thoughts in the caption of her explanatory post. She urged fans to "stop playing with me!!!!" and quoted the Bible, to emphasize the severity of her words. "No weapon formed against my family shall prosper," she concluded. Tina Knowles has gone out of her way to avoid discussing the personal lives of both her daughter and JAY-Z. She has, however, been supportive of Hov whenever she does speak on him. She assured TMZ that the relationship between the rapper and her daughter was nearly "perfect" in 2023. During a 2022 chat with Gayle King, Tina Knowles recalled feeling protective of the Brooklyn icon. She claimed a white women referred to Hov as a "gangster rapper" instead of a CEO. "She didn't think of him as a CEO, or even a talented celebrity that was a great businessman," Knowles noted. Based on her recent comments, she still feels protective. Read More: DJ Akademiks Implores That Drake Needs To Remain Quiet Amid Jay-Z's Rape Allegation