By MICHELLE L. PRICE and ROB GILLIES NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s recent dinner with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his visit to Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral were not just exercises in policy and diplomacy. They were also prime trolling opportunities for Trump. Related Articles National Politics | Trump names Andrew Ferguson as head of Federal Trade Commission to replace Lina Khan National Politics | Biden issues veto threat on bill expanding federal judiciary as partisan split emerges National Politics | Trump lawyers and aide hit with 10 additional felony charges in Wisconsin over 2020 fake electors National Politics | After withdrawing as attorney general nominee, Matt Gaetz lands a talk show on OANN television National Politics | What will happen to Social Security under Trump’s tax plan? Throughout his first term in the White House and during his campaign to return, Trump has spun out countless provocative, antagonizing and mocking statements. There were his belittling nicknames for political opponents, his impressions of other political figures and the plentiful memes he shared on social media. Now that’s he’s preparing to return to the Oval Office, Trump is back at it, and his trolling is attracting more attention — and eyerolls. On Sunday, Trump turned a photo of himself seated near a smiling first lady Jill Biden at the Notre Dame ceremony into a social media promo for his new perfume and cologne line, with the tag line, “A fragrance your enemies can’t resist!” The first lady’s office declined to comment. When Trudeau hastily flew to Florida to meet with Trump last month over the president-elect’s threat to impose a 25% tax on all Canadian products entering the U.S., the Republican tossed out the idea that Canada become the 51st U.S. state. The Canadians passed off the comment as a joke, but Trump has continued to play up the dig, including in a post Tuesday morning on his social media network referring to the prime minister as “Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada.” After decades as an entertainer and tabloid fixture, Trump has a flair for the provocative that is aimed at attracting attention and, in his most recent incarnation as a politician, mobilizing fans. He has long relished poking at his opponents, both to demean and minimize them and to delight supporters who share his irreverent comments and posts widely online and cheer for them in person. Trump, to the joy of his fans, first publicly needled Canada on his social media network a week ago when he posted an AI-generated image that showed him standing on a mountain with a Canadian flag next to him and the caption “Oh Canada!” After his latest post, Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Tuesday: “It sounds like we’re living in a episode of South Park.” Trudeau said earlier this week that when it comes to Trump, “his approach will often be to challenge people, to destabilize a negotiating partner, to offer uncertainty and even sometimes a bit of chaos into the well established hallways of democracies and institutions and one of the most important things for us to do is not to freak out, not to panic.” Even Thanksgiving dinner isn’t a trolling-free zone for Trump’s adversaries. On Thanksgiving Day, Trump posted a movie clip from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” with President Joe Biden and other Democrats’ faces superimposed on the characters in a spoof of the turkey-carving scene. The video shows Trump appearing to explode out of the turkey in a swirl of purple sparks, with the former president stiffly dancing to one of his favorite songs, Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” In his most recent presidential campaign, Trump mocked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, refusing to call his GOP primary opponent by his real name and instead dubbing him “Ron DeSanctimonious.” He added, for good measure, in a post on his Truth Social network: “I will never call Ron DeSanctimonious ‘Meatball’ Ron, as the Fake News is insisting I will.” As he campaigned against Biden, Trump taunted him in online posts and with comments and impressions at his rallies, deriding the president over his intellect, his walk, his golf game and even his beach body. After Vice President Kamala Harris took over Biden’s spot as the Democratic nominee, Trump repeatedly suggested she never worked at McDonalds while in college. Trump, true to form, turned his mocking into a spectacle by appearing at a Pennsylvania McDonalds in October, when he manned the fries station and held an impromptu news conference from the restaurant drive-thru. Trump’s team thinks people should get a sense of humor. “President Trump is a master at messaging and he’s always relatable to the average person, whereas many media members take themselves too seriously and have no concept of anything else other than suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome,” said Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director. “President Trump will Make America Great Again and we are getting back to a sense of optimism after a tumultuous four years.” Though both the Biden and Harris campaigns created and shared memes and launched other stunts to respond to Trump’s taunts, so far America’s neighbors to the north are not taking the bait. “I don’t think we should necessarily look on Truth Social for public policy,” Miller said. Gerald Butts, a former top adviser to Trudeau and a close friend, said Trump brought up the 51st state line to Trudeau repeatedly during Trump’s first term in office. “Oh God,” Butts said Tuesday, “At least a half dozen times.” “This is who he is and what he does. He’s trying to destabilize everybody and make people anxious,” Butts said. “He’s trying to get people on the defensive and anxious and therefore willing to do things they wouldn’t otherwise entertain if they had their wits about them. I don’t know why anybody is surprised by it.” Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.NoneAston Villa 3-2 RB Leipzig (11 Dec, 2024) Game Analysis - ESPNpanaloko legit or not 。

GRP saves womanwho jumped from moving trainSEI Expands Horizons with New Personalized SMA Strategies

The first commercial batch of made-in-Canada low-carbon aviation fuel sourced from non-food grade canola and tallow has been produced and quickly purchased. Fuel retailer Parkland Corp. said Tuesday it has successfully produced about 100,000 litres of the fuel at its refinery in Burnaby, B.C. “using existing infrastructure.” Parkland senior vice-president Ferio Pugliese said it means production can easily be scaled up, but only if Canada provides the necessary conditions to create an ecosystem around the nascent commodity and its adoption across the country. “We need to do more to make low-carbon air travel a reality,” Pugliese said during the announcement in Vancouver on Tuesday. “We need a long-term Canadian solution for low-carbon, sustainable aviation fuel.” While the potential for emission reduction is massive with production in Canada is also significantly more expensive, Pugliese said. He notes that similar low-carbon fuels used in vehicles, buses and ferries have about one-eighth of the carbon content when compared to traditional fuels. Pugliese said other countries such as the United States incentivize production and use of low-carbon jet fuel, creating the necessary ecosystem to support a local industry. “Currently, the Canadian aviation industry purchases low-carbon aviation (fuel) from other countries and imports it from across the globe into Canada. That makes little sense.” Parkland began trying to develop the fuel in 2017, and the entire batch of the first production run has already been bought by Air Canada. Pugliese said the purchase of the fuel by Air Canada completes a value chain within the country that shows local development, production, sale and use of low-carbon jet fuel can be achieved to the benefit of everyone — but only if the support from government is there. “Airlines need very practical solutions, and today, right here in B.C., Parkland has created a made-in-Canada solution to a global challenge,” he said. The comments echoed that of WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech, who in 2023 said the global push for decarbonizing commercial aviation by 2050 will cause spikes in airfares unless governments intervene. Part of the challenge, von Hoensbroech said, is that alternative energy sources such as electric or hydrogen aircraft remains a long way from reality, making the sector difficult to decarbonize. In February, a pair of industry groups, including the National Airlines Council of Canada, said the country needed incentives matching that of the United States to spark production of sustainable aviation fuels. Commercial aviation giant Airbus has said that low-carbon jet fuel can reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by about 80 per cent, and development is ongoing for planes to be able to run completely on it instead of needing to mix it with conventional fuels. But Airbus also said the ecosystem for the fuel is still “in its infancy,” with just 600 million litres produced last year, making up 0.2 per cent of all aviation fuel for 2023. “Appropriate regulatory mechanisms and inventive structures still need to be put in place, and even then, there are challenges associated with the limited availability of land and biowaste,” Airbus said of the technology on its website. Airbus has said it is increasing its own use of low-carbon fuels with a goal of reaching 30 per cent of its total fuel mix by 2030.Delaware judge rejects request to restore Musk's $56 billion Tesla pay

The South Carolina women's basketball team has been defeated for the first time since March 31, 2023. The No. 1 Gamecocks fell Sunday in Los Angeles as Lauren Betts posted a double-double effort to lead No. 5 UCLA to a 77-62 triumph. The Gamecocks (5-1) suffered their first defeat after 43 consecutive victories, dating back to the loss to Iowa 77-73 in the NCAA Tournament semifinals. South Carolina defeated Iowa last season for the national championship. Betts finished with 11 points, a game-high 14 rebounds, four assists and four blocks to power the Bruins (5-0) to a historic victory. UCLA also got 15 points from Londynn Jones on 5-of-5 shooting from 3-point range, 13 points from Elina Aarnisalo and 11 each from Kiki Rice and Gabriela Jacquez. It's the first time UCLA has beaten South Carolina since 1981. The Bruins lost twice to the Gamecocks in the 2022-23 season, including in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Te-Hina Paopao had 18 points for South Carolina on 4-of-4 3-point shooting, while Tessa Johnson had 14 points. UCLA won the rebounding battle 41-34, marking the second time this season the Gamecocks have been outrebounded. South Carolina also got outscored in the paint 26-18. It's rare that a Dawn Staley-coached team -- units that typically revolve around dominant centers from A'ja Wilson to Aaliyah Boston to Kamilla Cardoso -- gets beat in the paint and on the glass, but with 6-foot-7 Betts, UCLA had the recipe to outmuscle the Gamecocks in those areas of the game. South Carolina never led after UCLA began the game with an 18-5 run, capped off by back-to-back 3-pointers from Jones. The Gamecocks cut the deficit to nine points in the second quarter, but the Bruins responded with a 17-5 run and entered halftime ahead by 21 points. Aarnisalo scored seven points during that run. From there, the Gamecocks never got within single digits of the lead in the second half. It's the first time in 21 tries that UCLA has beaten an AP-ranked No. 1 team. And it's the first time South Carolina lost a true road game since 2021, a streak of 33 games. The schedule doesn't get any easier for South Carolina. While UCLA faces UT Martin next on Friday, the Gamecocks play No. 8 Iowa State on Thursday. --Field Level MediaAmerican rugby sevens star Ilona Maher will join 15-a-side club Bristol in January in a bid to play in next year's women's Rugby World Cup, the English club announced on Monday. Maher, 28, helped the USA to a bronze medal at this summer's Olympic Games in Paris and is the sport's most popular player on social media. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.Republicans lash out at Democrats' claims that Trump intelligence pick Gabbard is 'compromised'

Article content Two Second Cup café locations at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital have been shut down after the franchise owner was filmed making Nazi references at a pro-Palestinian protest on Thursday. The CEO of Foodtastic, which owns the Second Cup coffee chain, confirmed the news in an interview with The Gazette on Sunday. The franchisee was recorded outside Concordia University giving the Nazi salute and appearing to tell pro-Israel counter-protesters: “The final solution is coming your way, the final solution. You know what the final solution is?” The phrase, infamous for its association with Nazi Germany’s plan to exterminate Jews, sparked immediate outrage on social media. Foodtastic CEO Peter Mammas said Sunday morning that the company acted swiftly to address the incident. “We found out at around two o’clock on Saturday afternoon,” Mammas said, adding that he was watching Gladiator II in the theatre with his kids at the time. Given the magnitude of the incident, he said, the company moved quickly to then review video evidence and speak to employees and people on the ground to verify the allegations. “The final solution is coming your way.” Today in Montreal, a masked extremist, supposedly on strike, violently threatens a Jewish bystander, using Nazi terminology, demonstrating their intent to import the intifada here and kill Jews. This public hate speech, inciting... pic.twitter.com/XyB1hT601Z “We actually talked to her as well. We basically said, ‘Listen, we cannot allow this to happen.’ We spoke to our lawyers, and we prepared a press release. We could not send out the press release for a few hours, until the lawyers actually sent her a termination letter,” Mammas explained. He said the franchisee did not explicitly confirm the allegations during their discussions but “didn’t deny it either.” The franchisee is now seeking legal counsel, Mammas added. The franchisee and her family members are listed as business owners in Quebec’s registry, with the business’s primary sector of activity listed as takeaway services and coffee counters. One of her family members was featured in Second Cup’s 2015 annual report. Attempts to reach the franchisee for comment were unsuccessful by the time of publication. Second Cup first announced the termination of the franchisee via a social media statement on Saturday, emphasizing its “zero tolerance for hate speech” and its commitment to inclusion and community values. Official Statement pic.twitter.com/7gSUjcjAJZ Reflecting on the situation, Mammas said the company stands completely against this type of “violent and hateful” remarks. “Political views are up to individuals, but things like this? We can’t tolerate that.” The two affected Second Cup locations have since been closed, with Foodtastic planning to bring them under temporary corporate ownership. “We’re going to figure out a way to reopen the stores quickly,” Mammas said, adding that the roughly 12 employees at the locations will continue to be paid during the transition. Mammas said that the response to the company’s decision has been “overwhelmingly positive,” including support from franchisees of diverse backgrounds. However he added he had seen some negative responses online, including “silly” threats like breaking Second Cup windows. Carl Thériault, a spokesperson for the Jewish General Hospital, said in a statement Sunday that the hospital was made aware of the videos relating to one of its franchisee and “fully supports” Second Cup’s decision. “This video is related to a franchisee of Second Cup, one of the private tenants operating within the Jewish General Hospital. We fully support Second Cup’s decision to take swift and decisive action in this matter by shutting down the franchisee’s cafes and terminating their lease agreement,” Thériault said. He added: “Our CIUSSS is deeply committed to fostering a culture of inclusion and stands firmly against antisemitism and any other form of discrimination or hate speech.” The incident comes amid heightened tensions in Montreal following a series of protests. Thursday’s pro-Palestinian demonstration saw students march through downtown Montreal in protest of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, which they say their universities are complicit in. On Friday, a pro-Palestinian, anti-Nato protest escalated into violent clashes , with two vehicles set ablaze, windows smashed, and three arrests made. Montreal police said Sunday that further arrests may follow concerning Friday’s protest. In regards to the Nazi reference, police said no hate crime investigation is underway as “ we have not received any complaints yet.”Romanian politicians have voted in favour of a new pro-European coalition government led by incumbent Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu. The move could usher in an end to a protracted political crisis in the European Union country following the annulment of a presidential election by a top court. Parliament approved the new administration in a 240-143 vote in Romania’s 466-seat legislature. The new coalition is made up of the leftist Social Democratic Party (PSD) the centre-right National Liberal Party (PNL), the small ethnic Hungarian UDMR party and national minorities. It caps a month-long period of turmoil in which far-right nationalists made significant gains in a parliamentary election on December 1 a week after a first-round presidential race saw the far-right outsider Calin Georgescu emerge as the front-runner. “It will not be an easy mandate for the future government,” Mr Ciolacu, whose PSD party topped the polls in the parliamentary election, said in a statement. “We are aware that we are in the midst of a deep political crisis,” he said. “It is also a crisis of trust, and this coalition aims to regain the trust of citizens, the trust of the people.” Romania’s 16 ministerial positions will be shared among the parties, which will hold a slim majority in the legislature. It is widely seen as a tactical partnership to shut out far-right nationalists whose voices found fertile ground amid high living costs and a sluggish economy. Mr Ciolacu, who came third in the first-round presidential ballot despite polls indicating he would win the most votes, has served as prime minister since June 2023. After parliament’s approval, President Klaus Iohannis swore in the new government and warned the new Cabinet that it is entering a “difficult new period” in which “for many Romanians, there are major concerns”. Romania was plunged into turmoil after Mr Georgescu’s surprise success in the presidential race, after allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference emerged. Days before the December 8 run-off, the Constitutional Court made the unprecedented move to annul the presidential race. “We go through complicated times, but I think we all learned from mistakes of the past,” Mr Ciolacu said. “I hope that together with my colleagues in the coalition, we’ll find the best solutions to get past the challenges we have in front of us.” Mr Ciolacu said that the new government would aim to quickly organise the rerun of the presidential election in which the new coalition has agreed to put forward an agreed common pro-European candidate. Cristian Andrei, a political consultant based in Bucharest, said that the new government made up of the same political parties will likely embrace “soft populist” rhetoric such as economic patriotism, anti-austerity, and a peace solution in neighbouring Ukraine to counter the rise of far-right populism. “This will be a way to answer the concerns of many Romanians who voted for populists... but will not solve the fundamental problem of trust,” he said. “The only decisive factor now will be who and how convincing the pro-European candidates will be against this popular revolt.” George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, which came second in the parliamentary election, said that all politicians from his party on Monday would vote against the Ciolacu government. In 2021, the PSD and the PNL also formed an unlikely but increasingly strained coalition together with UDMR, which exited the Cabinet last year after a power-sharing dispute.Iran said on Sunday that it would hold nuclear talks in the coming days with the three European countries that initiated a censure resolution against it adopted by the UN's atomic watchdog. Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the meeting of the deputy foreign ministers of Iran, France, Germany and the United Kingdom would take place on Friday, without specifying a venue. "A range of regional and international issues and topics, including the issues of Palestine and Lebanon, as well as the nuclear issue, will be discussed," the spokesman said in a foreign ministry statement. Baghaei described the upcoming meeting as a continuation of talks held with the countries in September on the sidelines of the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. On Thursday, the 35-nation board of governors of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) adopted a resolution denouncing Iran for what it called a lack of cooperation. The move came as tensions ran high over Iran's atomic programme, which critics fear is aimed at developing a nuclear weapon -- something Tehran has repeatedly denied. In response to the resolution, Iran announced it was launching a "series of new and advanced centrifuges". Centrifuges enrich uranium transformed into gas by rotating it at very high speed, increasing the proportion of fissile isotope material (U-235). "We will substantially increase the enrichment capacity with the utilisation of different types of advanced machines," Behrouz Kamalvandi, Iran's atomic energy organisation spokesman, told state TV. The country, however, also said it planned to continue its "technical and safeguards cooperation with the IAEA". During a recent visit to Tehran by IAEA head Rafael Grossi, Iran agreed to the agency's demand to cap its sensitive stock of near weapons-grade uranium enriched up to 60 percent purity. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in power since July and a supporter of dialogue with Western countries, has said he wants to remove "doubts and ambiguities" about his country's nuclear programme. In 2015, Iran and world powers reached an agreement that saw the easing of international sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme. But the United States unilaterally withdrew from the accord in 2018 under then-president Donald Trump and reimposed biting economic sanctions, which prompted Iran to begin rolling back on its own commitments. On Sunday afternoon, the United Kingdom confirmed the upcoming meeting between Iran and the three European countries. "We remain committed to taking every diplomatic step to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, including through snapback if necessary," London's Foreign Office said. The 2015 deal contains a "snapback" mechanism that can be triggered in case of "significant non-performance" of commitments by Iran, allowing many sanctions to be reimposed. Ali Vaez, an Iran expert with the International Crisis Group think tank, told AFP that Friday's meeting was set to happen earlier, but "those plans were derailed as a result of Iran-Israel tensions" over the Gaza war. Though the parties will be meeting "without knowing what the incoming Trump administration wants to do", Vaez said that "after a lose-lose cycle of mutual escalation, now both sides are back to realising that engagement might be the least costly option." Tehran has since 2021 decreased its cooperation with the IAEA by deactivating surveillance devices monitoring the nuclear programme and barring UN inspectors. At the same time, it has increased its stockpiles of enriched uranium and the level of enrichment to 60 percent. That level is close, according to the IAEA, to the 90 percent-plus threshold required for a nuclear warhead, and substantially higher than the 3.67 percent limit it agreed to in 2015. pdm/smw/amionce wanted a “popular uprising” against fossil fuels, but as he has aligned himself with the political right, Musk’s plan for to fight the climate crisis by “accelerat[ing] the world’s transition to sustainable energy.” But as Tesla executives gathered in Palo Alto, California, earlier this year to pitch Musk, the billionaire rejected the idea, to buy computer chips to improve Tesla’s luxury vehicles. The discussions over what was known as the Tesla Model 2 reveal the change in Musk’s approach to the climate crisis as he becomes more and more embedded in President-elect ’s transition team. His change could help boost measures in the nation’s capital against clean energy and possibly even against electric cars. Musk called for a “popular uprising” against the fossil fuel industry in a film released in 2016, the year Trump was first elected to the White House. The world is “unavoidably headed toward some level of harm and the sooner we can take action, the less harm will result,” he told actor Leonardo DiCaprio at the time. “Tesla is working hard to help stop global warming,” he tweeted in 2019, also telling followers that the world was heading toward a “climate change meltdown.” All PowerPoint presentations at Tesla had to include data from former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary pointing to rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to remind employees of Tesla’s goals, according to But the information from the film is no longer required in the presentations. The climate crisis also appears to have dropped significantly as a priority for Musk. In August, he took part in a live stream on X with Trump, in which he said, “We don’t need to rush” to solve the climate issue. He also said that efforts to address climate change should take place without “demonizing people” and that “It’s not like the house is on fire immediately.” While those close to Musk told that he still thinks the climate crisis is a problem, he now believes that the risks of climate disasters have been overblown. “Global warming risk is overblown in the short term, but significant in the long term,” he wrote on X in May last year. Five people told the paper that his views have been affected by a right-wing media universe online and from his time in Texas. More recently, he’s grown fond of technological solutions to the climate crisis, including nuclear power and carbon capture. He’s now rarely seen talking about the climate crisis as a looming problem. Now, he is more focused on seeing robotics, AI, addressing population decline and getting to Mars as more important to human survival. Some executives at Tesla have left the business amid Musk’s change of heart, and Trump has campaigned on ending the electric vehicle tax credit which has been a boost for the company’s business. Musk has also noted that the tax credit will have to be removed. But he’s set to argue to Trump that he should help all his business ventures, such as and Starlink, not simply focus on Tesla, one person told The change in Musk’s views has been taking place over the course of years, five people told the paper, adding it comes after fights with environmentalists, a strained relationship with the Biden administration and a shift to the right in his views tied to the Covid-19 pandemic. “He used to be a Democrat who believed everything he was told was true about this,” one person told the paper. “And now he thinks for himself and realizes, yes, climate change is real, but it’s not nearly among the top problems right now.” In 2020, the pandemic began to change Musk’s views as lockdowns forced the closure of Tesla’s main plant. Musk began tearing down mask mandate posters, noted. Musk revealed in May 2020 that Tesla headquarters was leaving California. Musk’s transgender daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson received gender-affirming care around that same time, with those close to Musk saying that he was distraught at her transition. The pandemic and his daughter’s gender transition both pushed him to turn against Democrats and everything they stand for, including their views on climate change. “Anything the left saying [was] conspiratorial and bulls***,” one person told The following year, Musk grew irate after Tesla wasn’t invited to an EV summit at the White House. Musk began discussing climate issues with others who held skeptical views of climate predictions, such as Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Musk associate Robert Zubrin told the paper: “He decided he would join this camp, and this was more important than the whole climate cause. He decided to go all in,” Zubrin said. “And I guess in one sense, that is characteristic Musk – When he decides to do something, he goes all in.” Last year, Musk met entrepreneur and 2024 primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. The duo is now in charge of the outside commission the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, . In a taste of what’s to come, last month Musk reposted the names and titles of four people with low-profile climate-related jobs in the government, prompting negative attention with at least one of the four women removing her social media accounts.

Chubb Ltd. stock rises Monday, outperforms market

Late kickoff return TDs by Turpin and Thomas spark the Cowboys as they end their 5-game skid