3 sections of roulette wheel

Principles Bill debate is not a binary argument

UNITY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The team looking for a missing Pennsylvania woman believed to have fallen into a sinkhole has determined that an abandoned coal mine is too unstable for people to safely search underground, authorities said Wednesday while still expressing hope Elizabeth Pollard will be found alive. Rescue workers continue to search for Elizabeth Pollard, who is believed to have disappeared in a sinkhole while looking for her cat, Wednesday in Marguerite, Pa. Emergency crews and others have been trying to find Pollard, 64, for two days. Her relatives reported her missing early Tuesday and her vehicle with her unharmed 5-year-old granddaughter inside was found about two hours later, near what is thought to be a freshly opened sinkhole above the long closed, crumbling mine. Authorities said in a noon update that the roof of the mine collapsed in several places and is not stable. The sinkhole is in the village of Marguerite, about 40 miles east of Pittsburgh. “We did get, you know, where we wanted, where we thought that she was at. We’ve been to that spot," said Pleasant Unity Fire Chief John Bacha, the incident's operations officer. “What happened at that point, I don’t know, maybe the slurry of mud pushed her one direction. There were several different seams of that mine, shafts that all came together where this happened at.” Trooper Cliff Greenfield said crews were still actively searching for Pollard. “We are hopeful that she’s found alive,” Greenfield said. Searchers were using electronic devices and cameras as surface digging continued with the use of heavy equipment, Bacha said. Search dogs may also be used. Rescue workers search through the night in a sinkhole for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat, Tuesday in Marguerite, Pa. On Wednesday afternoon, machinery was removing material from the area around the hole while police and other government vehicles blocked a clear view of the scene. Sinkholes occur in the area because of subsidence from coal mining activity. Rescuers had been using water to break down and remove clay and dirt from the mine, which has been closed since the 1950s, but that increased the risk “for potential other mine subsidence to take place," Pennsylvania State Police spokesperson Trooper Steve Limani said. Crews lowered a pole camera with a sensitive listening device into the hole, but it detected nothing. Another camera lowered into the hole showed what could be a shoe about 30 feet below the surface, Limani said. Searchers have also deployed drones and thermal imaging equipment, to no avail. Marguerite Fire Chief Scot Graham, the incident commander, said access to the immediate area surrounding the hole was being tightly controlled and monitored, with rescuers attached by harness. The top of a sinkhole is seen Tuesday in the village of Marguerite, Pa., where rescuers searched for a woman who disappeared. “We cannot judge as to what’s going on underneath us. Again, you had a small hole on top but as soon as you stuck a camera down through to look, you had this big void,” Graham said. “And it was all different depths. The process is long, is tedious. We have to make sure that we are keeping safety in the forefront as well as the rescue effort.” Bacha said they were “hoping that there’s a void that she could still be in.” Pollard's family called police at about 1 a.m. Tuesday to say she had not been seen since going out at about 5 p.m. Monday to search for Pepper, her cat. The temperature dropped well below freezing that night. Her son, Axel Hayes, said Pollard is a happy woman who likes going out to have fun. She and her husband adopted Hayes and his twin brother when they were infants. Hayes called Pollard “a great person overall, a great mother” who “never really did anybody wrong.” He said at one point Pollard had about 10 cats. “Every cat that she’s ever come in contact with, she has a close bond with them,” Hayes said. His mother worked for many years at Walmart but recently was not employed, he said. “I’m just hoping right now that she’s still with us and she’s able to come back to us,” he said. Police said they found Pollard's car parked behind Monday's Union Restaurant in Marguerite, about 20 feet from the sinkhole. Hunters and restaurant workers in the area said they had not noticed the manhole-size opening in the hours before Pollard disappeared, leading rescuers to speculate that the sinkhole was new. “It almost feels like it opened up with her standing on top of it,” Limani said. Searchers accessed the mine late Tuesday afternoon and dug a separate entrance out of concern that the ground around the sinkhole opening was not stable. “Let’s be honest, we need to get a little bit lucky, right?” Limani said Wednesday. “We need a little bit of luck on our side. We need a little bit of God’s good blessing on our side.” Pollard lives in a small neighborhood across the street from where her car and granddaughter were located, Limani said. The young girl “nodded off in the car and woke up. Grandma never came back," Limani said. The child stayed in the car until two troopers rescued her. It's not clear what happened to Pepper. In an era of rapid technological advancement and environmental change, American agriculture is undergoing a revolution that reaches far beyond the farm gate. From the food on consumer plates to the economic health of rural communities, the transformation of U.S. farming practices is reshaping the nation's landscape in ways both visible and hidden. LandTrust explores how these changes impact everyone, whether they live in the heartland or the heart of the city. The image of the small family farm, while still a reality for many, is increasingly giving way to larger, more technologically advanced operations. According to the USDA, the number of farms in the U.S. has fallen from 6.8 million in 1935 to about 2 million today, with the average farm size growing from 155 acres to 444 acres. This shift has profound implications for rural communities and the food system as a whole. Despite these changes, diversity in farming practices is on the rise. A landmark study published in Science , involving data from over 2,000 farms across 11 countries, found that diversifying farmland simultaneously delivers environmental and social benefits. This challenges the longstanding idea that practices boosting biodiversity must come at a cost to yields and food security. The adoption of precision agriculture technologies is transforming how farmers manage their land and resources. GPS-guided tractors, drone surveillance, and AI-powered crop management systems are becoming commonplace on many farms. These technologies allow farmers to apply water, fertilizers, and pesticides with pinpoint accuracy, reducing waste and environmental impact while improving yields. However, the digital divide remains a challenge. More than 22% of rural communities lack reliable broadband internet access, hindering the widespread implementation of AI and other advanced technologies in agriculture. While technology offers new opportunities, farmers are also facing significant economic challenges. The USDA's 2024 farm income forecast projects a 4.4% decline in net farm income from 2023, following a sharp 19.5% drop from 2022 to 2023. This financial pressure is compounded by rising production costs and market volatility. Climate variability adds another layer of complexity. Extreme weather events, changing precipitation patterns, and shifting growing seasons are forcing farmers to adapt quickly. These factors could reduce agricultural productivity by up to 25% over the coming decades without significant adaptation measures. But adapting requires additional financial resources, further straining farm profitability. In the face of these challenges, many farmers are turning to diversification as a strategy for resilience and profitability. The Science study mentioned earlier found that farms integrating several diversification methods supported more biodiversity while seeing simultaneous increases in human well-being and food security. Agritourism is one popular diversification strategy. In 2022, 28,600 U.S. farms reported agritourism income, averaging gross revenue of $44,000 from these activities. Activities like farm tours, pick-your-own operations, and seasonal festivals not only provide additional income but also foster a deeper connection between consumers and agriculture. The changing face of agriculture is directly impacting consumers. The rise of farm-to-table and local food movements reflects a growing interest in where our food comes from and how it's produced. If every U.S. household spent just $10 per week on locally grown food, it would generate billions of dollars for local economies. However, the larger challenges in agriculture can also lead to price fluctuations at the grocery store. The USDA's Economic Research Service projects that food-at-home prices will increase between 1.2% and 2.2% in 2024. Looking ahead, several innovations are poised to reshape agriculture: The transformation of American agriculture affects everyone, from the food we eat to the health of our environment and rural communities. Consumers have the power to support sustainable and diverse farming practices through our purchasing decisions. As citizens, they can advocate for policies that support farmers in adopting innovative and sustainable practices. The challenges facing agriculture are complex, but they also present opportunities for innovation and positive change. By understanding and engaging with these issues, everyone can play a part in shaping a more resilient, sustainable, and equitable food system for the future. This story was produced by LandTrust and reviewed and distributed by Stacker. Get local news delivered to your inbox!None

Incessant killings, abductions, Kaduna community appeals to FG for military formationNo mother should give her own life to give life to another. Unfortunately, preventing maternal mortality remains a persistent global challenge. The third UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) commits countries to reduce their maternal mortality rate to less than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030. At the current pace, the world is projected to fall far short of this target, resulting in more than 1mn additional, overwhelmingly preventable deaths. Ending preventable maternal deaths is surprisingly difficult. For starters, many different causes can occur at all stages of pregnancy, making it difficult to determine a policy intervention’s success and its ability to effect lasting change. Second, annual maternal deaths number in the hundreds of thousands – not the millions. Given these circumstances, donors and policymakers prefer to invest in other public-health imperatives, where they can have a larger impact and receive more accurate and timely information about outcomes. But that should not diminish the significance of maternal mortality. The loss of a mother can devastate her family, starting with the other children she may already have. She also likely cared for relatives or elders in her community, or played an important economic role as a farmer or trader. Her death could directly and negatively affect 10-20 people, or more, spanning multiple generations. Research suggests that children with surviving mothers are more likely to live past the age of ten and to stay in school longer. Activists, practitioners, and policymakers have made remarkable progress combating maternal mortality in countries like Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania. To help other countries replicate this performance, we recently co-chaired “Room 17”– a working group linked to the SDG 17 for revitalising partnerships – as part of the 17 Rooms Initiative. We convened leading maternal-health practitioners and experts at the forefront of redesigning global institutions to discuss an “impact hub” approach to the problem. An impact hub is an organisation that connects governmental and non-governmental actors to pursue a singular, measurable mission, with a focus on scaling up effective solutions, rather than starting from scratch. In the case of maternal health, several regional and global organisations, including the Global Financing Facility, the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, and AlignMNH, already perform some of these functions. To complement existing efforts, the working group proposes a global impact hub focused on the goal of zero maternal deaths by 2030. To measure progress toward this goal, the hub would convene maternal-health practitioners to develop a reliable clinic-level metric such as “death-free days.” Instead of focusing on the number of deaths, this approach – which has been trialled in Ethiopia and Sierra Leone – emphasises life, with clinicians and families celebrating a healthy birth for baby and mom. Using a pay-for-performance scheme tied to this common metric would enable the impact hub to co-ordinate efforts across multiple partners and donors. It could also provide capacity-building programmes and training on tools and interventions that can holistically support maternal health. For example, policymakers could provide targeted digital cash transfers to overcome the financial barriers to delivery care, while implementing strategies to improve prenatal and postnatal care and investing in a comprehensive maternal healthcare workforce. Of course, such efforts must be adapted to local contexts. Communities vary greatly in terms of political and economic fragility, health-system resilience, cultural needs, and maternal-care priorities. Digital cash transfers may have a greater impact in economically fragile contexts, whereas training programmes that improve early detection of high-risk pregnancies are most effective in regions with resilient health systems. By linking funding to outcomes rather than prescribed approaches, the impact hub would be able to support a range of solutions. Moreover, this global organisation would not only pool funding and other resources. It could also spawn a network of national and local impact hubs unified by their commitment to achieving zero maternal deaths by 2030 (and by their willingness to use the same measurement criteria). This would make it easier for development practitioners and funders to navigate the tension between giving communities the autonomy to develop strategies calibrated to local conditions and maintaining the global connectivity required for sharing knowledge, resources, and goals. In addition to scaling up proven solutions, these hubs will also incentivise bottom-up innovation and investment in new approaches. But the global alliance must consider potential problems, such as a healthcare “brain drain”, whereby wealthier or more innovative communities attract midwives and other maternal-care professionals from poorer ones, as well as the challenges of integrating digital cash transfers into existing health-system infrastructure. The proposed impact hub could foster a genuine global partnership, stretching from local providers to national health systems to international organisations, all committed to ending the scourge of maternal mortality. By connecting the community-oriented work that extraordinary people are doing on the ground to an overarching mission with targeted support and measurable milestones, we may finally be able to embrace the joy of new life without the shadow of death. – Project Syndicate Anne-Marie Slaughter, a former director of policy planning in the US State Department, is CEO of the think tank New America, Professor Emerita of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University, and the author of Renewal: From Crisis to Transformation in Our Lives, Work, and Politics (Princeton University Press, 2021). Mary-Ann Etiebet is President and CEO of Vital Strategies. Related Story Qatar establishes WEF's Centre for Fourth Industrial Revolution 61 countries to compete in 8th Katara Award for Reciting Holy Qur’anRosen Law Firm Encourages Light & Wonder, Inc. Investors to Inquire About Securities Class Action Investigation - LNW

XRX Stockholders with Large Losses Should Contact Shareholder Rights Law Firm Robbins LLP for Information About the Xerox Holdings Corporation Class Action

A teen cross-country runner at a California high school is ripping school officials for forcing the girls to accept a transgender teammate and says that trans athletes are neither fair nor safe. Kylie Morrow, a 16-year-old athlete from Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California, spoke out after school officials censored two of her teammates for wearing t-shirts reading “Save Girls Sports.” The administrators outrageously said that the girls’ shirts were no different than wearing a “swastika.” The two girls were singled out by the school and then sued their school over the incident. The girls allege that the school forced a boy who identifies as a girl onto the varsity team, even though the boy never attended practices nor met other academic requirements, and then removed one of the girls from the team to make room for the trans student. For her part, student Kylie Morrow spoke out during a November 21 Riverside Unified School District board meeting in support of the girls who are being censored and insisted that girls should be allowed to support the cause of saving women’s sports from incursions by trans athletes, Fox News reported. “I’m constantly affected by the actions taken place this season, and I have been around the females, and just my team in general, who have felt almost silenced to speak out about i, because the whole LGBTQ is shoved down our throats!” Morrow said during her time at the mic. “We live in a society where it’s almost impossible to speak out on it without facing repercussions,” she said. “It feels as though that my school and the school district is choosing to support one person instead of the whole team,” Morrow added. “To see the athletic director turn around and tell my teammates that their shirts that say, ‘Save girl’s sports’ be compared to a swastika, that is not okay. These girls feel silenced, they felt silenced, and when they finally did something to speak out against it . . . they were completely stabbed in the back.” The teen also said that allowing boys to play on girls’ teams creates an “unsafe” environment for biological girls. “It is not okay that I have to be in position, and I have to see a male in booty shorts, and having to see that around me, as a 16-year-old girl, I don’t see that as a safe environment,” Morrow insisted. “Going into a locker room and seeing males in there, I don’t find that safe. I don’t find going to the bathroom safe when there’s guys in there. It’s not okay. I’m a 16-year-old girl!” One of the girls who filed a lawsuit against the school was heartbroken after being tossed off the school track team so officials could make room for the boy who identifies as a girl. “My initial reaction was like, I was really surprised, because it was like, why is this happening to me?” student litigant Taylor said. “There’s a transgender student on the team. Why am I getting displaced when I’ve worked so hard and gone to all of the practices, and this student has only attended a few of the practices.” The girls were also upset to be told that their “Save Girls Sports” shirts were equivalent to wearing a swastika. The two girls’ attorney, Julianne Fleischer, alleges that the school violated her clients’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights and Title IX protections. “We’re seeing more and more women and young girls speak up and challenge these policies that are allowing biological boys to join and participate in these sports,” Fleischer insisted. “And so there’s lawsuits that are popping up all around the country. We’re hopeful that even with the incoming administration and Congress that, we’re going to see real positive change to Title IX that actually upholds and safeguards the rights of women to participate in their sports and to be safe and to be able to compete amongst one another.” Indeed, more and more women and girls are finally starting to fight back against transgenderism in sports. For instance, a girl’s high school volleyball team at a Christian school in Merced, California, recently forfeited a game because they did not wish to compete against a trans player. The Christian high school is only one of a growing list of school teams that are refusing to play against opponents with transgender players. A lawsuit was filed this year against San Jose State University (SJSU) and the Mountain West Conference for allowing a male to play on the SJSU women’s volleyball team. To date, five colleges have refused to play against SJSU over the school’s inclusion of transgender player Blair Fleming. The NCAA is also being sued by several groups over its policy of allowing transgender players to play as women. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston , or Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston

An internet relic’s red-hot IPO Reddit is a weird one — at once an ancient relic and a cultural hotbed. Founded in 2005 by a pair of UVA grads, the platform hosts message boards dedicated to every possible topic, from dating (r/dating) to conversations with famous, powerful people (r/IAMA). If you’re looking for honest takes, you’ll find them here. These “subreddits” make for some of the internet’s most interesting, active, and frank communities, not least because Reddit’s old-school anonymity allows for unfiltered honesty. No wonder almost 100 million people visit the site every day. Reddit even manages to move the market, as the infamous GameStop short squeeze demonstrated back in 2021. But the real action arguably got going this past March, when Reddit finally went public and ordinary investors got their first shot at owning shares, which debuted at around $47 each. Since then, the stock has soared about 180%, vastly outperforming the S&P 500. For more on the once and future message-board system — and why it refuses to fade into the background — see below. By the digits 9: Reddit’s position on the top-10 list of the internet’s most-visited sites, as of September 2024. 717,000: Members of the Nope subreddit, which is “dedicated to things that make you say nope” and will give you a good sense of the eclectic nature of many Reddit communities. 97.2 million: Daily active uniques (as in unique visitors), an almost 50% increase over this time last year Over 16 billion: Total number of posts and comments on Reddit right now. $1.4 trillion: The number of ad dollars Reddit’s top brass claims to see in its future, per the company’s IPO filings. How Reddit shapes the internet as we know it If you’re not a regular Reddit reader, you may not realize how much it’s shaped both the internet and broader pop culture. The platform introduced many acronyms and terms now in common use online and in in-person conversation, such as “TLDR” (too long, didn’t read), “TIL” (today I learned), and “redpilled” — plus many more words and phrases too off-color to be included here. Its r/IAmA forum has hosted Q&As with figures as varied as Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Keanu Reeves, and NASA’s Curiosity Rover team. These AMAs provide a rare, direct line of questioning between the public and notable personalities, often producing newsworthy revelations and viral moments. Politically, Reddit communities like r/politics and r/news have shaped discussions on major issues and elections, influencing public opinion through both grassroots activism and organized information-sharing. The platform has occasionally hosted harmful content, too, such as r/The_Donald, which was banned in 2020 after violating policies on hate speech. The community was linked to planning aspects of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. Despite newer platforms, Reddit remains a vastly influential yet old-school hub. Its affinity- and fandom-driven subreddits offer a modern antidote to “Bowling Alone”-type arguments, turning virtual spaces into engaged tribes — for better and for worse. Just remember you read it here, not on Reddit. Quotable “Facebook makes me hate the people I know, and Reddit makes me love the people I don’t.” — Alexis Ohanian, Reddit co-founder Pop quiz Which Reddit community is dedicated to sharing intimate confessions, sometimes with shocking honesty? A. r/trueconfessions B. r/relationships C. r/heart2heart D: r/personaladvice Check out the answer at the bottom of this email. Brief history 2005: UVA grads Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian found Reddit, offering a simple, user-driven platform that would become a pioneer in social news aggregation. 2006: Condé Nast acquires Reddit for a reported $10-$20 million, giving it stability and resources that helped it grow from a niche community into a mainstream internet staple. 2008: Reddit launches subreddits, allowing users to create and join topic-specific communities, transforming Reddit into a vast network of niche interest groups. 2012: Reddit helps spearhead internet-wide protests against the SOPA and PIPA internet bills, marking its emergence as a platform for digital activism. 2019: Reddit hits 400 million monthly active users, solidifying its status as one of the largest and most influential platforms globally. 2024: Reddit IPOs, making its own Wall Street bet. Fun fact! Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian is married to tennis champion Serena Williams, and their attendance at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle in 2017 was, naturally, posted to Reddit . Watch this The Reddit cofounders describe starting the site in this YouTube video . Take me down this 🐰 hole! If you’ve got 15 minutes to waste, r/mildlyinteresting offers “mildly interesting stuff. Stuff that interests you. Mildly.” Poll What is the most popular AMA of all time on Reddit? 💬 Let’s talk 🐤 X this! 🤔 What did you think of today’s email? 💡 What should we obsess over next? Today’s email was put together by Catherine Baab-Muguira, whose 2021 AMA drew one million people — so she knows the power of Reddit firsthand. The correct answer to the pop quiz is B. r/relationships is a subreddit where users openly share their personal relationship struggles, from awkward dating dilemmas to complex family issues. Known for its blunt, often brutally honest advice, it’s a space where Reddit users don’t shy away from the difficult and sometimes uncomfortable aspects of relationships, offering support or tough love in equal measure. 📬 Sign up for Quartz Weekly Obsession Want to escape the news cycle? Try our Weekly Obsession.OpenAI fires back against Musk, claims he wanted an OpenAI for-profitMPs from the ruling parties in Andhra Pradesh would raise the issues of unfulfilled provisions in AP Split Act, the delay in execution of the Polavaram project, the Kadapa Steel Plant issue etc in the Winter Session of Parliament.

Jack Fitzpatrick knew something was up when he got a call from his 75-year-old mother asking him if he was in jail. His mother, who had recently purchased a flip phone after years of aversion to technology, told him that she’d received a call from someone claiming to be him; they sounded just like him and even referred to her using the nickname that Fitzpatrick has been calling her since he was a kid. She was told by the caller that she needed to send him $6,000 via FedEx immediately to pay for a lawyer to bail him out. She needed to send the money to Quebec, which was especially curious seeing as she lives in a small town in northern New Brunswick and her son lives just outside Halifax. Fitzpatrick knew right away that it was a scam, but the detail with which it was executed took him aback. “I’d like to think I’m pretty security-aware, but again, they had my voice and they had my mom’s name,” Fitzpatrick, 39, says, now a few months removed from the experience. Though he was able to stop her from sending anything to anyone, the fact that she could be targeted so specifically and convincingly was alarming. Falling for scams has never been easier. In 2022, Canadians lost more than $58 million to spear phishing scams, which are a form of scam that target individuals with specific names, events or pieces of information, according to — in other words, highly personalized cyberattacks that can come via text message, email or by phone. In 2023 alone, Canadians lost a staggering $567 million to fraud — an increase of $37 million from 2022 and $187 million since 2021. Ali Dehghantanha, a professor of cybersecurity and threat intelligence at the University of Guelph and the founding director of the Cyber Science Lab, says even seasoned tech professionals fall for generative AI-driven email scams and fake links. With AI-assisted scams increasingly prevalent online, the days of being able to easily recognize scam emails by finding obvious typos and poor formatting are all but over. Still, there are ways to keep things locked down as the busy holiday shopping season ramps up. Experts say that using two-factor authentication, taking a moment to verify the legitimacy of transactions, and using “safe” words to distinguish between family members and fraudsters can keep your data safe from malicious online actors this holiday season. Ivo Wiens, field chief technology officer of cybersecurity at CDW Canada, advises using two-factor authentication whenever possible as an extra layer of security when banking and shopping online. Two-factor authentication — sometimes stylized as “2FA” — can be set up within banking and finance apps or through external apps like Google Authenticator or Duo; it prompts you for a one-time verification code to make sure it’s really you trying to log in to your account. “It’s like having a lock and an alarm system on your house,” Wiens says. “Think of that (as) the equivalent for your digital accounts.” It may be annoying — and slow down the snappy pace you’re used to when shopping — but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, especially when it comes to making financial transactions online. If you can’t get two-factor authentication enabled on banks and other accounts, Dehghantanha recommends any form of SMS or text message alerts to make sure that you catch any fraudulent charges or entries the moment they come across your account’s dashboard. At the very least, it’ll help develop a habit of checking (and rechecking) all transactions. “If your bank is not offering that, at least enable notifications — whether it’s SMS or app notifications — from your bank for every single purchase,” Dehghantanha adds, which can be done through the notifications settings in various banking and finance apps. Perhaps less obviously, Wiens recommends having a “safe” word to use with family to quickly determine whether you’re actually speaking with a member of your family. AI-driven impostor scams like the one that targeted Fitzpatrick’s mother are becoming increasingly common, he says, and having quick and clear checks that can help identify fake voices, doctored video and look-alike profiles can be a game-changer. “This helps spot the scammers pretending to be family members,” Wiens says. “Having that word that you share as a family, the family secret word that you can call out for when this is happening.” Making sure you’re speaking to a real family member is even more important amid a rise in identity theft. As a result, it may be worth it to invest in identity monitoring — services that scan the web to check if your personal information appears in a data breach — or fraud insurance, Equifax Canada chief information security officer Octavia Howell says, just in case. “Fraud and identity insurance is out there to help people get back on their feet,” Howell advises. “Because we know that when your identify is stolen or when you’re defrauded for anything, it’s very difficult for you to do it on your own.” Experts say some digital scams can be avoided simply by recognizing them. Though there may be a temptation to blaze through online transactions, shipping confirmations and coupon codes, taking even a few seconds to double-check transactions, verify the legitimacy of offers and closely examine URLs for things like typos in names can save you a headache down the line. Professionally made, convincing-looking, fake online stores are more common (and effective) than you might think; blocked 9.9 million attempts by users to access fake shops in September and 13.4 million such attempts in October, with more fake pop-ups expected ahead of Black Friday and Christmas. So if a deal in an email or pop-up ad looks too good to be true, it usually is, says Wiens. “It’s like getting a counterfeit bill nowadays, that even bank tellers have trouble spotting,” Wiens says. “That’s why it’s crucial to slow down and verify.” Back in Nova Scotia, Fitzpatrick advises getting a second opinion to give yourself time to critically examine the situation, in line with the “slow down and verify” approach. “If you have something like that — that doesn’t make much sense — and you can’t get a hold of the person, tell the story to somebody else,” Fitzpatrick says. “Someone who’s emotionally removed.”FBI investigating a rise in cryptocurrency scams as popularity risesCEO of Tesla and owner of the microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk , has once again claimed the title of the world’s richest person. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk’s net worth soared to an unprecedented $447 billion, making him the first individual in history to surpass the $400 billion mark. The South African-born US-based entrepreneur overtook Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, whose net worth now trails Musk’s by over $190 billion. Bezos had previously held the top spot for much of the year. On December 11, Tesla shares reached a record high, closing at $424.77, significantly boosting Musk’s fortune. As Tesla’s largest individual shareholder, the electric vehicle company’s success remains a cornerstone of his wealth. Adding to this, Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, has experienced rapid growth. The startup more than doubled its valuation to $50 billion in November after a successful funding round, according to ‘The Wall Street Journal’. Musk’s influence is not limited to the tech and business worlds. An avid supporter of Donald Trump during the recent U.S. presidential election, Musk has been appointed by the president-elect to lead a new government body, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Trump, who defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 election, secured more than the required 270 electoral college votes to win. On November 13, he named Musk to oversee the newly established department, signaling Musk’s growing role in shaping U.S. policy under the incoming administration. Musk’s return to the top spot underscored his dominance across industries, from electric vehicles and artificial intelligence to social media. His ability to drive growth and innovation continued to reshape industries, and his record-breaking net worth highlighted his unparalleled success. With his wealth and influence at an all-time high, Musk remained a figurehead of technological advancement and economic power, solidifying his position as one of the most impactful leaders of this generation.

FBI investigating a rise in cryptocurrency scams as popularity risesWhy Bowen Yang was ‘terrified’ to watch ‘Wicked’ with his ‘Saturday Night Live’ co-starsCanada PM Justin Trudeau faces immense criticism after a video of him dancing at a Taylor Swift concert in Toronto went viral amid protests in Montreal, which he represents in Parliament. Montreal : Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced immense criticism after a video of him dancing at a Taylor Swift concert in Toronto went online amid protests in Montreal, which he represents in the country’s Parliament. In the video that has gone viral, Trudeau can be seen singing along to “You Don’t Own Me” in the event on on Friday. This was at a time when anti-NATO protesters were wreaking havoc in Mostreal, close to 300 km from where the event took place. The protesters not only set cars on fire but also clashed with police. Protesters burnt Palestinian flags and effigy of Israeli PM As per the report published in Montreal Gazette, the protesters burnt Palestinian flags and an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They also used small explosive devices and smoke bombs against police. Metal objects were also reportedly hurled at officers during the unrest. Criticising the Canadian PM, Don Stewart, a Member of Parliament from Toronto constituency, took to X and wrote, “Lawless protesters run roughshod over Montreal in violent protest. The Prime Minister dances. This is the Canada built by the Liberal government. Bring back law and order, safe streets and communities in the Canada we once knew and loved. What Trudeau said on Saturday on protests Meanwhile, while talking about the unrest on Saturday, Trudeau had observed that what was witnessed on the streets of Montreal was appalling. He had also called the incidents as acts of antisemitism and intimidation and observed that violence must be condemned everywhere. Click for more latest World news . Also get top headlines and latest news from India and around the world at News9. Subhajit Sankar Dasgupta has nearly 18 years of experience. Currently, he is serving as Associate Editor with news9live.com, a part of Associated Broadcasting Company Pvt Ltd. He started his career with The Pioneer and went on to work in a number of media organisations, including IANS, Financial Express Online, The Political and Business Daily, among others. Apart from online media, he has also worked in print media. Among the beats he covers include politics, sports and infrastructure. He has a Master’s degree in Mass Communication from Guru Jambeshwar University. During his free time, he likes to read books and play table tennis. Latest News

The murder of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare , America’s largest health insurer, has generated a lot of discourse over the past week and renewed conversation about the state of the U.S. health care system — something that was almost entirely missing from the 2024 campaign. Social media users have actively celebrated the shooting and thirsted over the suspect . In the other direction, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens argued the insurance exec was a “working-class hero,” while blogger Noah Smith asserted that health insurers are simply “middlemen” and not “the main villain of the U.S. health system.” The CEO of UnitedHealth Group (UHC’s parent company) wrote in the Times that the health conglomerate’s purpose is “to build a health care system that works better for everyone.” Sure , man . Yet, CNN offered perhaps the strangest take in one segment this week: Americans are responsible for our health care system staying the way it’s designed today — i.e. based around private health insurance — because they like their insurance plans. On Wednesday, CNN anchor John Berman and Harry Enten, a senior political data reporter, reviewed poll results from Gallup which showed that Americans broadly have negative views about health care coverage in the U.S., believe health care costs are too high, and say the health care system has major problems. Americans, for the most part, have more favorable views of their own health care coverage — which Berman and Enten repeatedly emphasized — though those numbers were not resounding. “We can’t just say Americans hate health care. No, they like their health care,” said Berman. “They just have this notion they don’t like the health care system. I suppose you can hold those two views at once, but it is complicated.” The argument that Americans like their own health insurance plans is a favorite industry talking point. Indeed, as the internet was heralding the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s murder, the health care industry’s primary anti-reform front group was posting on X: “A majority of voters nationwide are satisfied with their current health plans.” (The corollary to this industry talking point is: And that’s why nothing should ever change .) The thing is, people are typically OK with their health insurance plans until they really need to use it — and see their claims denied, get told they can’t receive a necessary treatment, or find themselves paying major out-of-pocket costs. Considering the rest of Berman’s comment, the idea that Americans could like their health care and hate the system is still not necessarily a complicated view, because the U.S. health care system is uniquely expensive and wasteful. America spends far more on health care than other wealthy countries — for exceedingly poor outcomes. Being dissatisfied with the total cost of the health care system — as 79 percent of Americans are, per the Gallup poll — is simply correct. Enten took things a step further: “You wonder why the health care system in this country stays the same,” he said. “It’s because people don’t like health care, in sort of the abstract — but when it comes to their own health care, a lot of Americans actually are pretty gosh darn satisfied with it.” The idea that Americans are responsible for the health care system remaining the way it’s designed is ludicrous. The two have nothing to do with each other. The public doesn’t set policy — and even when Americans believe they are voting for change or for a specific policy platform they were promised, they rarely get it, thanks to entrenched corporate power and rampant corruption. Donald Trump won in 2016 railing against health insurers that “are making a fortune because they have control of the politicians.” His first administration did nothing to address this in office, and instead encouraged more seniors to sign up for privatized Medicare Advantage plans. Joe Biden , meanwhile, campaigned in 2020 on a promise to enact a public health insurance option — and has not even once mentioned that policy idea as president. Instead, Democrats gave more subsidies , i.e. extra money, to health insurers to help more Americans sign up for individual health insurance plans. Related Content Luigi Mangione Wrote Online About a Spine Disorder. Other Patients Say It's Hell Meet the New FBI Boss. He Sued the Old Boss. And Got Laughed Out of Court Kimmel Calls Out Trump's Bumpy Past With 'Time' Magazine's 'Person of the Year' ‘It’ll Be Brutal’: Inside Trump’s Planned War on Leakers and the Press Blaming Americans for the current system remaining in place obscures those who are actually responsible: a collection of massively lucrative businesses that profit from the current arrangement and the many politicians on both sides of the aisle who either dutifully represent their interests or are afraid to take on an industry with deep pockets — or both. Our health care system works phenomenally well for health insurance companies, of course, and for other powerful industries: for instance, pharmaceutical companies that want to be able to keep drug prices far higher in the U.S. than in the rest of the world, or hospital chains that charge private plans much higher prices than Medicare would pay. That’s why lobbies for health insurers, drug companies, and chain hospitals created a front group to oppose reform ideas like Medicare for All , the public option, and efforts to lower the Medicare eligibility age. (That front group is the one trying to tell people on X that Americans actually really like their health coverage and don’t want any meaningful changes.) These lobbying groups each collect tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue each year, from industries that collectively generate tens or hundreds of billions in annual revenue. (To be clear, there are many other lines of business that profit off our health care system’s bloat and administrative waste.) All of the money sloshing around the health care system makes it incredibly difficult to change much, if anything, about it — because it limits any political incentive to try. Powerful health care interests shower politicians with donations, fund front groups that support them , and can spend these politicians into the ground any time, at will, if it becomes necessary. As Democrats negotiated the Affordable Care Act between 2009 and 2010, health insurance lobbyists quietly funneled more than $100 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to run a sprawling campaign slamming the legislation and its supporters. The ACA became law, but Democrats ultimately nixed the public option — before promising that idea again in 2020 and immediately dropping it once they won. This year’s election featured little conversation about potential health care reforms. When Trump was asked during a debate to describe his plans for health care, the president-elect only said he had “concepts of a plan” to improve the ACA. It was an embarrassing moment — yet, a Fox News Voter Analysis found the majority of respondents who said they were very concerned about their health care costs were supporting Trump. Now, Team Trump is considering making it even harder for low-income households to access Medicaid coverage — and using the savings to help pay for more tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. Republicans may also allow the expanded subsidies to expire , which would make it more expensive for many Americans to buy individual coverage. Americans didn’t make our health care system the way it is today — and they certainly didn’t vote for Republicans to make it even worse, if that’s what they end up doing. An immensely powerful health care industry and corrupt political class give Americans no choices in these matters at all.Cyprus Lawmakers Agree to Raise the Sports Betting Levy

NoneManchester City snapped a seven-game winless streak as Kevin De Bruyne played a starring role in a 3-0 Premier League win over Nottingham Forest on Wednesday. The Belgian created Bernardo Silva’s opening goal and then scored the second before Jeremy Doku rounded off a much-needed victory for the English champions. City’s barren run included six defeats to leave them 11 points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool before kick-off. However, De Bruyne’s return to the starting line-up for the first time in nearly three months helped resume normal service at the Etihad Stadium. City move back into the top four and within nine points of Liverpool after their 3-3 draw at Newcastle. Pep Guardiola had to shoot down suggestions of a rift with De Bruyne on the eve of the game after bedding him back into action slowly with a series of substitute appearances. The 33-year-old showed what City have been missing as he rolled back the years and could well have had more than just one goal. Guardiola reacted to Sunday’s 2-0 defeat at Liverpool by making four changes as Josko Gvardiol, Doku and Jack Grealish also came into the team. It took just eight minutes for City to make the breakthrough. Ilkay Gundogan’s cross was headed back towards goal by De Bruyne and Silva was in the right place to tap home from centimetres out. Guardiola claimed pre-match that Ederson remains his number one goalkeeper but the Brazilian was again benched in favour of Stefan Ortega. Related News Guardiola promises to rebuild as Man City endure worst run since 2008 UEFA Pro license programme thrills Nosayaba Showmax to thrill fans with EPL actions The German made a big save to deny Morgan Gibbs-White before Forest missed a glorious chance to put the Etihad crowd back on edge. Chris Wood’s fine goalscoring form has been the catalyst to a fabulous season so far for Nuno Espirito Santo’s men. But the New Zealander was wayward as he fired wide with just Ortega to beat. De Bruyne settled City nerves on 31 minutes when he collected Doku’s pass inside the area and coolly slotted into the top corner. Erling Haaland has now failed to find the net in his last three Premier League games. But the Norwegian did play a part in the third goal with the assist for Doku, who cut inside and fired into the far corner. De Bruyne saw a free-kick curl just wide and was then denied a second by his international team-mate Matz Sels. He was given a standing ovation when he departed 15 minutes from time. City spectacularly collapsed from 3-0 up to draw 3-3 against Feyenoord in the Champions League eight days ago. However, there was never any sense of a repeat as they controlled the closing stages to add a clean sheet to an all-round restorative night for Guardiola’s men. Defeat leaves Forest still in sixth but now four points off the top four.

By AAMER MADHANI, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A top White House official on Wednesday said at least eight U.S. telecom firms and dozens of nations have been impacted by a Chinese hacking campaign. Deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger offered new details about the breadth of the sprawling Chinese hacking campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans. Neuberger divulged the scope of the hack a day after the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued guidance intended to help root out the hackers and prevent similar cyberespionage in the future. White House officials cautioned that a number of telecommunication firms and countries impacted could still grow. The U.S. believes that the hackers were able to gain access to communications of senior U.S. government officials and prominent political figures through the hack, Neuberger said. “We don’t believe any classified communications has been compromised,” Neuberger added during a call with reporters. She added that Biden has been briefed on the findings and that the White House “has made it a priority for the federal government to do everything it can to get to the bottom this.” The Chinese embassy in Washington on Tuesday rejected the accusations that it was responsible for the hack after the U.S. federal authorities issued new guidance. “The U.S. needs to stop its own cyberattacks against other countries and refrain from using cyber security to smear and slander China,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said. The embassy did not immediately respond to messages on Wednesday. Associated Press writer David Klepper contributed reporting.None

PREP FOOTBALL= IAHSAA State Playoffs= Class A= Championship= Tri-Center, Neola 14, West Hancock, Britt 10 Class 8-Player= Championship= St. Mary's High School, Remsen 51, Gladbrook-Reinbeck 12 Some high school football scores provided by Scorestream.com , https://scorestream.com/