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taya 777 online casino real money Church & Dwight Co. stock underperforms Tuesday when compared to competitorsTOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republicans made claims about illegal voting by noncitizens a centerpiece of their 2024 campaign messaging and plan to push legislation in the new Congress requiring voters to provide proof of U.S. citizenship. Yet there's one place with a GOP supermajority where linking voting to citizenship appears to be a nonstarter: Kansas. That's because the state has been there, done that, and all but a few Republicans would prefer not to go there again. Kansas imposed a proof-of-citizenship requirement over a decade ago that grew into one of the biggest political fiascos in the state in recent memory. The law, passed by the state Legislature in 2011 and implemented two years later, ended up blocking the voter registrations of more than 31,000 U.S. citizens who were otherwise eligible to vote. That was 12% of everyone seeking to register in Kansas for the first time. Federal courts ultimately declared the law an unconstitutional burden on voting rights, and it hasn't been enforced since 2018. Kansas provides a cautionary tale about how pursuing an election concern that in fact is extremely rare risks disenfranchising a far greater number of people who are legally entitled to vote. The state’s top elections official, Secretary of State Scott Schwab, championed the idea as a legislator and now says states and the federal government shouldn't touch it. “Kansas did that 10 years ago,” said Schwab, a Republican. “It didn’t work out so well.” Steven Fish, a 45-year-old warehouse worker in eastern Kansas, said he understands the motivation behind the law. In his thinking, the state was like a store owner who fears getting robbed and installs locks. But in 2014, after the birth of his now 11-year-old son inspired him to be “a little more responsible” and follow politics, he didn’t have an acceptable copy of his birth certificate to get registered to vote in Kansas. “The locks didn’t work,” said Fish, one of nine Kansas residents who sued the state over the law. “You caught a bunch of people who didn’t do anything wrong.” Kansas' experience appeared to receive little if any attention outside the state as Republicans elsewhere pursued proof-of-citizenship requirements this year. Arizona enacted a requirement this year, applying it to voting for state and local elections but not for Congress or president. The Republican-led U.S. House passed a proof-of-citizenship requirement in the summer and plans to bring back similar legislation after the GOP won control of the Senate in November. In Ohio, the Republican secretary of state revised the form that poll workers use for voter eligibility challenges to require those not born in the U.S. to show naturalization papers to cast a regular ballot. A federal judge declined to block the practice days before the election. Also, sizable majorities of voters in Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina and the presidential swing states of North Carolina and Wisconsin were inspired to amend their state constitutions' provisions on voting even though the changes were only symbolic. Provisions that previously declared that all U.S. citizens could vote now say that only U.S. citizens can vote — a meaningless distinction with no practical effect on who is eligible. To be clear, voters already must attest to being U.S. citizens when they register to vote and noncitizens can face fines, prison and deportation if they lie and are caught. “There is nothing unconstitutional about ensuring that only American citizens can vote in American elections,” U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, of Texas, the leading sponsor of the congressional proposal, said in an email statement to The Associated Press. After Kansas residents challenged their state's law, both a federal judge and federal appeals court concluded that it violated a law limiting states to collecting only the minimum information needed to determine whether someone is eligible to vote. That's an issue Congress could resolve. The courts ruled that with “scant” evidence of an actual problem, Kansas couldn't justify a law that kept hundreds of eligible citizens from registering for every noncitizen who was improperly registered. A federal judge concluded that the state’s evidence showed that only 39 noncitizens had registered to vote from 1999 through 2012 — an average of just three a year. In 2013, then-Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican who had built a national reputation advocating tough immigration laws, described the possibility of voting by immigrants living in the U.S. illegally as a serious threat. He was elected attorney general in 2022 and still strongly backs the idea, arguing that federal court rulings in the Kansas case “almost certainly got it wrong.” Kobach also said a key issue in the legal challenge — people being unable to fix problems with their registrations within a 90-day window — has probably been solved. “The technological challenge of how quickly can you verify someone’s citizenship is getting easier,” Kobach said. “As time goes on, it will get even easier.” The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the Kansas case in 2020. But in August, it split 5-4 in allowing Arizona to continue enforcing its law for voting in state and local elections while a legal challenge goes forward. Seeing the possibility of a different Supreme Court decision in the future, U.S. Rep.-elect Derek Schmidt says states and Congress should pursue proof-of-citizenship requirements. Schmidt was the Kansas attorney general when his state's law was challenged. "If the same matter arose now and was litigated, the facts would be different," he said in an interview. But voting rights advocates dismiss the idea that a legal challenge would turn out differently. Mark Johnson, one of the attorneys who fought the Kansas law, said opponents now have a template for a successful court fight. “We know the people we can call," Johnson said. “We know that we’ve got the expert witnesses. We know how to try things like this.” He predicted "a flurry — a landslide — of litigation against this.” Initially, the Kansas requirement's impacts seemed to fall most heavily on politically unaffiliated and young voters. As of fall 2013, 57% of the voters blocked from registering were unaffiliated and 40% were under 30. But Fish was in his mid-30s, and six of the nine residents who sued over the Kansas law were 35 or older. Three even produced citizenship documents and still didn’t get registered, according to court documents. “There wasn’t a single one of us that was actually an illegal or had misinterpreted or misrepresented any information or had done anything wrong,” Fish said. He was supposed to produce his birth certificate when he sought to register in 2014 while renewing his Kansas driver's license at an office in a strip mall in Lawrence. A clerk wouldn't accept the copy Fish had of his birth certificate. He still doesn't know where to find the original, having been born on an Air Force base in Illinois that closed in the 1990s. Several of the people joining Fish in the lawsuit were veterans, all born in the U.S., and Fish said he was stunned that they could be prevented from registering. Liz Azore, a senior adviser to the nonpartisan Voting Rights Lab, said millions of Americans haven't traveled outside the U.S. and don't have passports that might act as proof of citizenship, or don't have ready access to their birth certificates. She and other voting rights advocates are skeptical that there are administrative fixes that will make a proof-of-citizenship law run more smoothly today than it did in Kansas a decade ago. “It’s going to cover a lot of people from all walks of life,” Avore said. “It’s going to be disenfranchising large swaths of the country.” Associated Press writer Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.

AP News Summary at 4:45 p.m. EST

Marshall’s 17 lead Albany over Puerto Rico-Mayaguez 93-50LA Galaxy strike early, hold off New York Red Bulls 2-1 to win their record 6th MLS Cup championshipNew Zealand grants visa to controversial US pundit Candace Owens

LOS ANGELES — Until he sustained a season-ending knee injury last week in the Western Conference final, Galaxy playmaker Riqui Puig was having a tremendous season. So I heard. I watched Puig play only twice this year, once in the Galaxy's season-opening 1-1 draw with Inter Miami and a second time in his team's Fourth of July defeat to LAFC at the Rose Bowl. Outside of short highlight clips on social media, I never saw the former Barcelona prospect, not even when he assisted on the goal that sent the Galaxy to the MLS Cup final. That wasn't a reflection of my interest. Some of my friends will make fun of me for publicly admitting this, but I like Major League Soccer. I covered the league in my first job out of college and have casually kept up with it since. I take my children to a couple of games a year. My 11-year-old son owns Galaxy and LAFC hats but no Dodgers or Lakers merchandise. When flipping through channels in the past, if presented with the choice of, say, college football or MLS, I usually watched MLS. But not this year. While the MLS Cup final between the Galaxy and New York Red Bulls will be shown on Fox and Fox Deportes, the majority of games are now exclusively behind a paywall, courtesy of the league's broadcasting deal with Apple. MLS Season Pass subscriptions were reasonably priced — $79 for the entire season for Apple TV+ subscribers, $99 for non-subscribers — but I was already paying for DirecTV Stream, Netflix, Amazon Prime, PlayStation Plus and who knows what else. MLS became a casualty in my household, as well as in many others, and the possibility of being out of sight and out of mind should be a concern for a league that is looking to expand its audience. Which isn't to say the league made a mistake. This was a gamble MLS had to take. Now in the second year of a 10-year, $2.5 billion deal with Apple, MLS did what Major League Baseball is talking about doing, which is to centralize its broadcasting rights and sell them to a digital platform. Regional sports networks have been decimated by cord cutting, making traditional economic models unsustainable. The move to Apple not only increased the league's broadcast revenues — previous deals with ESPN, Fox and Univision were worth a combined $90 million annually, according to multiple reports — but also introduced a measure of uniformity in the league. The quality of the broadcasts are better than they were under regional sports networks. Viewers know where to watch games and when, as every one of them is on Season Pass and most of them are scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. local time either on Wednesday or Saturday. "That's been fueling our growth and driving our fan engagement," MLS Commissioner Don Garber said Friday at his annual state of the league address. Apple and MLS declined to reveal the number of League Pass subscribers, but the league provided polling figures that indicated 94% of viewers offered positive or neutral reviews of League Pass. The average viewing time for a game is about 65 minutes for a 90-minute game, according to Garber. In other words, the League Pass is well-liked — by the people who have it. The challenge now is to increase that audience. The launch of League Pass last year coincided with the arrival of Lionel Messi, which presumably resulted in a wave of subscriptions. But the league can't count on the appearance of the next Messi; there is only one of him. MLS pointed to how its fans watch sports on streaming devices or recorded television than any other U.S. sports league, as well as how 71% of its fans are under the age of 45. The league also pointed to how it effectively drew more viewers to the Apple broadcast of Inter Miami's postseason opener with a livestream of a "Messi Cam' on TikTok, indicating further collaborations with wide-reaching entities could be in its future. Garber mentioned how Season Pass is available in other countries. The commissioner also made note of how Apple places games every week in front of its paywall. "What we have, really, is a communication problem," Garber said. "This is new, and we've got to work with Apple, we've got to work with our clubs and we've got to work with our partners to get more exposure to what we think is a great product." The greatest benefit to the league could be Apple's vested interest in improving the on-field product. MLS insiders said Apple has not only encouraged teams to sign more high-profile players but also pushed the league to switch to a fall-to-spring calendar more commonplace in other parts of the world, reasoning that doing so would simplify the process of buying and selling players. The on-field product is what matters. The on-field product is why MLS continues to face competition for viewers from overseas leagues. The on-field product is why the league hasn't succeeded in converting every soccer fan into a MLS fan. And ultimately, if casual viewers such as myself are to pay to watch the Galaxy or LAFC on a screen of some kind, the on-field product will be why. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!ZEEKR Intelligent Technology (NYSE:ZK) Reaches New 52-Week High – Here’s WhyIt’s a big and bitter surprise to discover that Marielle Heller’s new film, “Nightbitch,” is, for the most part, excruciating to watch. Heller made two of the best movies of recent years, “ Can You Ever Forgive Me? ” and “ A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood ,” yet this new one has few of their virtues. Those films are energized by a sense of sincere and fervent curiosity. Heller seemingly can’t get enough of her main characters; she observes and listens to them with the tenacity of an investigative journalist, and creates a visual style to match their wide-ranging discourse. In “Nightbitch,” Heller gives the impression of knowing exactly what she wants to say, with the result that she turns her characters into mouthpieces and films them with little sense of discovery. Coming from such a probing director, the new work is a disappointment, and yet there’s something diagnostically very interesting about the movie’s failings. “Nightbitch,” based on a novel by Rachel Yoder , centers on a family of three in a comfortable suburb. The family members are unnamed; Amy Adams stars as an artist and former gallery employee who now stays home with her toddler son, whom she calls Baby. Her husband (Scoot McNairy) has a job that requires long hours and frequent travel; he mentions writing reports in a hotel room late at night, but that’s as much as is divulged. (In the novel, he’s an engineer, they live in a “small Midwestern town,” and she used to run a community-based gallery, but the characters are likewise unnamed.) Baby is a poor sleeper, so the mother has to tend to him day and night while also running the household. She seems to have no friends; she grudgingly brings Baby to the local library for a “Book Babies” parent-and-child reading and sing-along session, but she has only contempt for the other suburban mommies, whom she considers unintellectual, unstylish, uninspired, unamusing. Isolated and exhausted, the mother is frustrated, and miserable. In social situations, she feels pressure to wax lyrical about the joys of motherhood, even as she fantasizes about speaking her mind or lashing out physically. But the mother doesn’t snap; instead, at night, she turns into a dog. She finds herself growing sharp incisors, unexpected fur, a tail, and six extra nipples, and developing a heightened sense of smell, cravings for meat, an urge to hunt small animals, and an irresistible attractiveness to the neighborhood’s stray dogs. (She also refers to herself as Nightbitch, as in the novel.) At first, Nightbitch assumes she’s dreaming, but then she awakens to discover that she has killed a rabbit—and then the family’s cat. The first hint of an aesthetic problem with “Nightbitch” is when Adams’s character calls her toddler “Baby.” Soon it became obvious that the main characters’ namelessness is not just a question of omission—plenty of secondary and incidental characters are named—but a part of a deliberate choice to de-characterize. For instance, there’s no indication of the couple’s interests. They don’t talk except about basic practicalities; he plays a video game (which one?); the couple sit and watch something on TV (what?); when she’s home with Baby, there’s no radio on, no podcast, no music playing, nothing that suggests any trace of identity. She is reduced to her function as a mother and, occasionally, as a wife. That’s the point, of course: stripped by her unending domestic duties of everything that makes her who she is, Nightbitch undergoes a feral transformation as her suppressed rage erupts. But that’s an elevator pitch, not an experience. The film’s premise is rendered abstract, mapped out with a quasi-mathematical rigor that merely elides the specifics on which the drama depends. It’s as if the story were plotted on a graph, with one axis labelled “money” and another one labelled “communication.” Early on, Nightbitch tries to tell her husband about her frustrations and her desire to change things around by getting a part-time job. He shuts her down with the declaration that “you know, the math doesn’t totally add up”—that she’d earn less than child care would cost. But what are those numbers? And what are the other relevant numbers? How much does he make? How expensive is their comfortably big house? How much do they owe, and what are their savings? Presumably, if he were earning enough to pay for day care or a babysitter, “Nightbitch” would be a very short movie. Lack of money is an underlying stress that the film leaves unexpressed and unexplored. It’s telling, therefore, that there isn’t any other purchase or payment in the movie that appears to cause a shadow of a doubt or a second thought. Even when—spoiler alert—a change in the couple’s circumstances entails a sharp increase in expenses, it’s neither discussed nor sweated over. It’s no problem at all. The movie’s silences about money are matched by wider-ranging silences, which concern the other axis—communication—on which the story is graphed. Nightbitch repeatedly makes clear that the decision to leave her gallery job and her artistic calling and to stay home with Baby was her own—that she was eager to do it. What’s unclear is the couple’s decision to leave the city and move to the suburbs, what they anticipated the financial consequences to be, what their other options were, what experiences and desires prompted Nightbitch to make this choice. She also accuses her husband of having accepted her choice too rapidly, when pushing back would have affirmed the importance of her career and her art. What are their politics? What made them think that they’d find happiness in the suburbs? Nightbitch, it’s understood, grew up outside the city, and her mother—an accomplished singer who gave up her own career to raise children— also underwent something like the nocturnal transformations that Nightbitch now experiences. Has she ever discussed this with her husband? Why does she have no friends to talk with, no one to take into her confidence? She does have her grad-school art-world friends, whom she sees again after a long absence and who, she discovers, are assholes in whom she couldn’t confide at all. Not only do Nightbitch and her husband not talk much now; they seemingly didn’t talk much before Baby came along. They give the impression of having met for the first time on the set when Heller first called “Action.” There’s no loam of shared experience, no sense of a shared life, nothing between them but the silences on which the story depends, and without which, again, the drama would quickly be resolved. There isn’t even much in the way of canine experience—a director who imagined these characters in subjective detail would also have made much more of Nightbitch’s feral adventures. In this regard, as in many others, Heller’s adaptation has bowdlerized Yoder’s novel. (For example, if the movie had dramatized the book’s dénouement, it would likely have rivalled “The Substance” for gonzo spectacle.) The silences of “Nightbitch” regarding money and the blanks regarding inner lives and shared lives make the movie an empty and contrived experience. This a surprise, not only because Heller’s two previous works were so alert and engaged but because the topic of the new one turns out to be one in which she feels a personal stake. I learned about this only by reading my colleague Emily Nussbaum’s recent Profile of Heller , in which Heller speaks about her experience staying home with her young children, while her partner, the filmmaker Jorma Taccone, went on working. At the core of the film’s artistic failings is a paradox—of a deep personal investment and a frozen artistic involvement. The inherent conflict of Nightbitch’s misery and her husband’s practical-minded indifference is a poignant and fruitful subject for a movie, a classic premise for a melancholy melodrama. But the sweetening of the story and the effacing of its details suggest unease and ambivalence about its personal aspects. Directors of great marital melodramas either haven’t had such worries or else have been more at ease with the autobiographical aspects of their art. Nothing suggests that Douglas Sirk was reporting on his home life in “ There’s Always Tomorrow ”; everyone understood that Ingmar Bergman, directing his partner Liv Ullmann, was doing something of the sort in “Scenes from a Marriage.” As for Ida Lupino, she directed an extraordinary marital melodramas, “ The Bigamist ,” from 1953, in which she and Joan Fontaine co-starred as a man’s two wives—soon after, Lupino had divorced Collier Young, the movie’s screenwriter and co-producer, and Fontaine had married him. The marital melodrama, it seems, can flourish with philosophical distance or, conversely, with uninhibited openness or sheer chutzpah—in any case, not with the hedging defensiveness on display in “Nightbitch.” ♦ New Yorker Favorites A man was murdered in cold blood and you’re laughing ? The best albums of 2024. Little treats galore: a holiday gift guide . How Maria Callas lost her voice . An objectively objectionable grammatical pet peeve . What happened when the Hallmark Channel “ leaned into Christmas .” Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from The New Yorker .Allar puts critics on mute, keeps winning for Penn State

ORLANDO, Fla. — It was a season of Iowa State comebacks. And fittingly, that’s how it ended for the Cyclones. Game MVP Rocco Becht scored from a yard out on fourth-and-goal with 56 seconds remaining and No. 18 Iowa State capped the best season in school history by rallying past No. 15 Miami 42-41 in the Pop-Tarts Bowl on Saturday. Becht finished with 270 passing yards and three touchdowns for Iowa State (11-2), a program that entered this season — the 133rd year of Cyclone football — never having won more than nine games in a year. “If you look at this team, it’s really who they’ve been all year,” coach Matt Campbell said. The win marked the fourth time in 2024 that Iowa State got a winning score with less than two minutes remaining. For this one, the Cyclones rallied from a 10-point deficit in the second half — with Miami quarterback Cam Ward watching after a record-setting first half — to get win No. 11. Carson Hansen rushed for a pair of touchdowns for Iowa State. Ward passed for three touchdowns in his final college game, while Damien Martinez rushed for a career-high 179 yards for Miami (10-3), which dropped its sixth straight bowl game and lost three of four games to end the season — those three losses by a combined 10 points. BYU 36, COLORADO 14: L.J. Martin rushed for 88 yards and two touchdowns, Jake Retzlaff passed for 151 yards, and the No. 17 Cougars (11-2) routed the No. 20 Buffaloes (9-4) in San Antonio. Colorado was held to 210 total yards with only two net yards rushing. The Buffaloes had 90 yards in the fourth quarter with the Cougars leading by 29 points. Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders was sacked three times and threw two interceptions. Sanders passed for 208 yards and two touchdowns while completing 16 of 23 passes. Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter had four receptions for 106 yards and a touchdown. NEBRASKA 20, BOSTON COLLEGE 15: Dylan Raiola passed for 228 yards and a touchdown as Nebraska built an 18-point lead through three quarters and hung on for its first bowl victory since 2015. Raiola hit Emmett Johnson with a 13-yard TD pass on fourth down with 3:02 remaining in the third quarter for a 20-2 edge and the Cornhuskers (7-6) held on for the win at Yankee Stadium. Raiola completed 23 of 31 passes in front of a sizable Nebraska crowd. Grayson James finished 25 of 40 for 296 yards as Boston College (7-6). EAST CAROLINA 26, NC STATE 21: Rahjai Harris broke free for an 86-yard touchdown run with 1:33 remaining, giving East Carolina a pulsating victory over NC State in the Military Bowl in a game that descended into a wild brawl in the final minute in Annapolis, Md. Harris had 220 of ECU’s 326 yards rushing, and his sensational sprint near the end of the game gave the Pirates (8-5) the lead back after they’d blown a 13-point advantage in the fourth. But after an interception by Dontavius Nash ended NC State’s final drive, East Carolina’s attempt to run out the clock was interrupted by large-scale fight between the two in-state rivals — who play each other again to start next season. Three players for ECU and five for NC State (6-7) were ejected. MIAMI (OHIO) 43, COLORADO STATE 17: Kevin Davis had a career-high 148 yards rushing and two touchdowns on just nine carries, and Jordan Brunson also ran for two TDs to help Miami (Ohio) wrapped the season at 9-5 by beating Colorado State (8-5) in Tucson, Ariz. Davis scored on a 4-yard run with 12:35 left in the third quarter, Matt Salopek forced a fumble that was recovered by Silas Walters and quarterback Brett Gabbert’s first rushing touchdown of the season — a 10-yard scramble that capped a 47-yard drive — made it 22-3 about 2 minutes later. UCONN 27, NORTH CAROLINA 14: Joe Fagnano threw for 151 yards and two touchdowns to help the Huskies (9-4) beat the Tar Heels (6-7) at Fenway Park, embarrassing incoming coach Bill Belichick’s new team in his old backyard. Mel Brown rushed for 96 yards for UConn and Skyler Bell caught three passes for 77 yards, including a 38-yard touchdown that gave the Huskies a 10-0 first-quarter lead. TCU 34, LOUISIANA 3: Josh Hoover passed for four touchdowns as the Horned Frogs (9-4) routed the Ragin’ Cajuns (10-4) in Albuquerque. Hoover was 20 for 32 for 252 yards with an interception. Eric McAlister had eight catches for 87 yards and a TD for the Horned Frogs. Respond: Write a letter to the editor | Write a guest opinion Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!NoneBruins recall forward Fabian Lysell from Providence

SATURDAY'S BOWL GAMES

The “dark side of K-Pop” has made headlines for everything from sexual exploitation to corrupt business practices. Unfortunately, that “dark side” still exists in Korea, but also in other countries with flourishing entertainment industries. Osaka Prefectural Police confirmed that Fuchigami Takashi , a man from Osaka, allegedly posed as a talent scout to solicit sex from a minor. At the time, Fuchigami was 46 years old and the minor in question, a high school student who dreams of debuting as an idol, was 17. “I had sexual intercourse, but I thought she was 18, and I didn’t provide any money,” Fuchigami stated after his arrest. He reportedly contacted the teen via social media. There he convinced the girl that he was a talent scout who had played an integral role in launching the successful careers of several high-school-girls-turned-entertainers. Using this rouse, Fuchigami reportedly convinced the 17-year-old to have sex with him at his home on January 17, 2021. According to news reports, he allegedly paid her 10,000 yen (approximately $65 USD) for sleeping with him. Although the teen’s mother reported the suspect to the police in March, Fuchigami wasn’t arrested on suspicion of violating Japan’s anti-child prostitution law until June 29, 2021. 5 Disturbing Stories From K-Pop’s “Dark Side”

Controversial American firebrand Candace Owens has scored a big win in her ambition to promote a hard right political vision to crowds across Australia and New Zealand, with New Zealand authorities reversing an earlier decision to block her from entering their country. New Zealand’s immigration department had originally declined to grant Ms Owens a visa after Australian Immigration Minister Tony Burke blocked her from entering Australia on character grounds. But this week, New Zealand Associate Minister for Immigration Chris Penk overturned that decision following a request from Ms Owens. “The Minister has granted Ms Owens a visa following a request for Ministerial Intervention,” a spokesman for Mr Penk told NewsWire. “Immigration New Zealand originally declined her visa application on the basis of section 15(1)(f) of the Immigration Act following Ms Owens being denied entry to Australia. “Subsequently, Ms Owens requested intervention from the Associate Minister of Immigration to exercise his discretion and grant her a visa.” Ms Owens said she was “thrilled” about the opportunity to travel to the South Pacific nation “to speak with the people, share ideas and engage in meaningful conversations”. “I applaud the minister for standing up for the rights of individuals to engage in political discourse without fear of being silenced,” she said. Ms Owens was initially scheduled to tour both countries across November but following Mr Burke’s intervention, the shows were rescheduled for early 2025. The first date on the Candace Owens Live tour is listed for Auckland on February 28 and then Brisbane on March 4, Sydney on March 6, Perth on March 8, Adelaide on March 9 and then Melbourne on March 10. Ms Owens remains blocked from entering Australia. “From downplaying the impact of the Holocaust with comments about Mengele through to claims that Muslims started slavery, Candace Owens has the capacity to incite discord in almost every direction,” Mr Burke said in October on announcing his decision to block her visa. “Australia’s national interest is best served when Candace Owens is somewhere else.” Ms Owens blasted Mr Burke’s decision as a “petty act of vandalism” and launched an appeal. She has suggested her application was blocked due to her coverage of attacks on Palestinians in Gaza. “I just wanted to make sure that every person knows that despite me being fired, demonised, spoken ill about, I haven’t changed my position,” she said. “That’s what this really is, a petty act of vandalism. No one’s worried about me coming to Australia because they’re angry that they’ve put this narrative out about me and my listeners haven’t accepted it.” NewsWire understands the appeal process is ongoing. Ms Owens’ Ticketek page has stated ticket holders will be refunded if the Australian shows don’t go ahead. The influencer, who split from mainstream US conservative commentator Ben Shapiro and his news outlet The Daily Wire in March this year, counts 5.8 million followers on Twitter and some five million on Instagram. Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim called on Mr Burke to cancel Ms Owens’ visa, arguing she failed the character test under the Migration Act. “At a time of unprecedented strains on the cohesiveness of Australian society, which is very largely the outcome of ignorant and malicious comment on social media, the last thing we need to be importing into our country is yet another so-called celebrity who has made racist and bigoted comments about Jews and other vulnerable groups,” he said. Free speech advocates have applauded New Zealand’s reversal. “We applaud Chris Penk for doing the right thing and defending the speech rights for Candace Owens and all Kiwis,” Free Speech Union chief executive Jonathan Ayling said. “It was appalling to see Immigration New Zealand follow in the footsteps of Australia and deny Owens’ entry on spurious grounds. It’s a dangerous situation to be in when the State begins to cherrypick which voices we hear from.”Mikel Arteta hails "landmark" Champions League win but Arsenal dealt injury concern

ORLANDO, Fla. — It was a season of Iowa State comebacks. And fittingly, that's how it ended for the Cyclones. Game MVP Rocco Becht scored from a yard out on fourth-and-goal with 56 seconds remaining and No. 18 Iowa State capped the best season in school history by rallying past No. 15 Miami 42-41 in the Pop-Tarts Bowl on Saturday. Becht finished with 270 passing yards and three touchdowns for Iowa State (11-2), a program that entered this season — the 133rd year of Cyclone football — never having won more than nine games in a year. “If you look at this team, it’s really who they’ve been all year,” coach Matt Campbell said. The win marked the fourth time in 2024 that Iowa State got a winning score with less than two minutes remaining. For this one, the Cyclones rallied from a 10-point deficit in the second half — with Miami quarterback Cam Ward watching after a record-setting first half — to get win No. 11. Carson Hansen rushed for a pair of touchdowns for Iowa State. And as the MVP, Becht got the honor of choosing which flavor Pop-Tart was to be sacrificed in a giant toaster. “There's only one,” Becht said. “Cinnamon roll.” Ward passed for three touchdowns in his final college game, while Damien Martinez rushed for a career-high 179 yards for Miami (10-3), which dropped its sixth straight bowl game and lost three of four games to end the season — those three losses by a combined 10 points. "Disappointed that we couldn't pull out a victory," Miami coach Mario Cristobal said. “These guys have always fought and always competed and this was no exception. ... It's painful. It's as painful as it gets when you don't win. But there's a lot to build on.” NEBRASKA 20, BOSTON COLLEGE 15: Dylan Raiola passed for 228 yards and a touchdown as Nebraska built an 18-point lead through three quarters and hung on for its first bowl victory since 2015. Raiola hit Emmett Johnson with a 13-yard TD pass on fourth down with 3:02 remaining in the third quarter for a 20-2 edge and the Cornhuskers (7-6) held on for the win at Yankee Stadium. Raiola completed 23 of 31 passes in front of a sizable Nebraska crowd that celebrated the team's first bowl win since topping UCLA in the 2015 Foster Farms Bowl and first winning season since 2016. Raiola completed passes to 10 receivers, including Jahmal Banks, who finished with four receptions for 79 yards. Grayson James finished 25 of 40 for 296 yards as Boston College (7-6). ARIZONA BOWL MIAMI (OHIO) 43, COLORADO STATE 17: Kevin Davis had a career-high 148 yards rushing and two touchdowns on just nine carries, and Jordan Brunson also ran for two TDs to help Miami (Ohio) wrapped the season at 9-5 by beating Colorado State (8-5) in Tucson, Ariz. Davis scored on a 4-yard run with 12:35 left in the third quarter, Matt Salopek forced a fumble that was recovered by Silas Walters and quarterback Brett Gabbert's first rushing touchdown of the season — a 10-yard scramble that capped a 47-yard drive — made it 22-3 about 2 minutes later. UCONN 27, NORTH CAROLINA 14: Joe Fagnano threw for 151 yards and two touchdowns to help the Huskies (9-4) beat the Tar Heels (6-7) at Fenway Park, embarrassing incoming coach Bill Belichick's new team in his old backyard. Mel Brown rushed for 96 yards for UConn and Skyler Bell caught three passes for 77 yards, including a 38-yard touchdown that gave the Huskies a 10-0 first-quarter lead. Chris Culliver returned the ensuing kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown, but that would be Carolina's only production in the first half. TCU 34, LOUISIANA 3: Josh Hoover passed for four touchdowns as the Horned Frogs (9-4) routed the Ragin' Cajuns (10-4) in Albuquerque. Hoover was 20 for 32 for 252 yards with an interception. Eric McAlister had eight catches for 87 yards and a TD for the Horned Frogs. TCU's defense also had a solid day, holding Louisiana-Lafayette to 209 yards, including 61 on the game's final possession. LATE FRIDAY LAS VEGAS BOWL USC 35, TEXAS A&M 31: Jayden Maiava threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to tight end Kyle Ford with eight seconds left to give Southern California the victory over Texas A&M (8-5) in the Las Vegas Bowl. A graduate of Liberty High School in nearby Henderson and a transfer from UNLV, Maiava helped the Trojans (7-6) overcome a 17-point deficit. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!Israel has agreed to a ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon that will take effect at 4 a.m. Wednesday. Moments after U.S. President Joe Biden announced the ceasefire deal , which Israel's Cabinet approved late Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike slammed into the Lebanese capital. Residents of Beirut and its southern suburbs have endured the most intense day of Israeli strikes since the war began nearly 14 months ago, as Israel signaled it aims to keep pummeling Hezbollah before the ceasefire is set to take hold. At least 24 people have killed by Israeli strikes across Lebanon on Tuesday, according to local authorities. Hezbollah also fired rockets into Israel on Tuesday, triggering air raid sirens across the country’s north. An Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire would mark the first major step toward ending the regionwide unrest triggered by Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. But it does not address the devastating war in Gaza. Hezbollah began attacking Israel a day after Hamas’ attack. The fighting in Lebanon escalated into all-out war in September with massive Israeli airstrikes across the country and an Israeli ground invasion of the south. In Gaza, more than 44,000 people have been killed and more than 104,000 wounded in the nearly 14-month war between Israel and Hamas, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Here's the Latest: BEIRUT -- Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati welcomed the U.S.-brokered ceasefire proposal between Israel and Hezbollah, describing it as a crucial step toward stability, the return of displaced people to their homes and regional calm. Mikati made these comments in a statement issued just after U.S. President Joe announced the truce deal. Mikati said he discussed the ceasefire agreement with Biden by phone earlier Tuesday. The prime minister reaffirmed Lebanon’s commitment to implementing U.N. resolution 1701, strengthening the Lebanese army’s presence in the south, and cooperating with the U.N. peacekeeping force. He also called on Israel to fully comply with the ceasefire and withdraw from southern Lebanon in accordance the U.N. resolution. JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security Cabinet has approved a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah, clearing the way for the truce to take effect. Netanyahu’s office said the plan was approved by a 10-1 margin. The late-night vote came shortly before President Joe Biden was expected to announced details of the deal in Washington. Earlier, Netanyahu defended the ceasefire, saying Israel has inflicted heavy damage on Hezbollah and could now focus its efforts on Hamas militants in Gaza and his top security concern, Iran. Netanyahu vowed to strike Hezbollah hard if it violates the expected deal. WASHINGTON — Rep. Mike Waltz, President-elect Donald Trump’s designate to be national security adviser, credited Trump’s victory with helping bring the parties together toward a ceasefire in Lebanon. “Everyone is coming to the table because of President Trump,” he said in a post on X on Tuesday. “His resounding victory sent a clear message to the rest of the world that chaos won’t be tolerated. I’m glad to see concrete steps towards deescalation in the Middle East.” He added: “But let’s be clear: The Iran Regime is the root cause of the chaos & terror that has been unleashed across the region. We will not tolerate the status quo of their support for terrorism.” BEIRUT — Israeli jets targeted a building in a bustling commercial area of Beirut for the first time since the start of the 13-month war between Hezbollah and Israel. The strike on Hamra is around 400 meters (yards) from the country’s central bank. A separate strike hit the Mar Elias neighborhood in the country’s capital Tuesday. There was no immediate word on casualties from either strike, part of the biggest wave of attacks on the capital since the war started. Residents in central Beirut were seen fleeing after the Israeli army issued evacuation warnings for four targets in the city. Meanwhile, the Israeli army carried out airstrikes on at least 30 targets in Beirut’s southern suburbs Tuesday, including two strikes in the Jnah neighborhood near the Kuwaiti Embassy. Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported that 13 people were injured in the strikes on the southern suburbs. BEIRUT — Hezbollah has said it accepts the ceasefire proposal with Israel, but a senior official with the group said Tuesday that it had not seen the agreement in its final form. “After reviewing the agreement signed by the enemy government, we will see if there is a match between what we stated and what was agreed upon by the Lebanese officials,” Mahmoud Qamati, deputy chair of Hezbollah’s political council, told the Al Jazeera news network. “We want an end to the aggression, of course, but not at the expense of the sovereignty of the state.” of Lebanon, he said. “Any violation of sovereignty is refused.” Among the issues that may remain is an Israeli demand to reserve the right to act should Hezbollah violate its obligations under the emerging deal. The deal seeks to push Hezbollah and Israeli troops out of southern Lebanon. JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that he would recommend his Cabinet adopt a United States-brokered ceasefire agreement with Lebanon’s Hezbollah, as Israeli warplanes struck across Lebanon, killing at least 23 people. The Israeli military also issued a flurry of evacuation warnings — a sign it was aiming to inflict punishment on Hezbollah down to the final moments before any ceasefire takes hold. For the first time in the conflict, Israeli ground troops reached parts of Lebanon’s Litani River, a focal point of the emerging deal. In a televised statement, Netanyahu said he would present the ceasefire to Cabinet ministers later on Tuesday, setting the stage for an end to nearly 14 months of fighting. Netanyahu said the vote was expected later Tuesday. It was not immediately clear when the ceasefire would go into effect, and the exact terms of the deal were not released. The deal does not affect Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, which shows no signs of ending. BEIRUT — Lebanon’s state media said Israeli strikes on Tuesday killed at least 10 people in Baalbek province the country’s east. At least three people were killed in the southern city of Tyre when Israel bombed a Palestinian refugee camp, said Mohammed Bikai, a representative of the Fatah group in the area. He said several more people were missing and at least three children were among the wounded. He said the sites struck inside the camp were “completely civilian places” and included a kitchen that was being used to cook food for displaced people. JERUSALEM — Dozens of Israeli protesters took to a major highway in Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening to call for the return of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, as the country awaited news of a potential ceasefire in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah. Protesters chanted “We are all hostages,” and “Deal now!” waving signs with faces of some of the roughly 100 hostages believed to be still held in Gaza, at least a third of whom are thought to be dead. Most of the other hostages Hamas captured in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack were released during a ceasefire last year. The prospect of a ceasefire deal in Lebanon has raised desperation among the relatives of captives still held in Gaza, who once hoped that the release of hostages from Gaza would be included. Instead of a comprehensive deal, the ceasefire on the table is instead narrowly confined to Lebanon. Dozens of Israelis were also demonstrating against the expected cease-fire, gathering outside Israel’s military headquarters in central Tel Aviv. One of the protesters, Yair Ansbacher, says the deal is merely a return to the failed 2006 U.N. resolution that was meant to uproot Hezbollah from the area. “Of course that didn’t happen,” he says. “This agreement is not worth the paper it is written on.” FIUGGI, Italy — Foreign ministers from the world’s industrialized countries said Tuesday they strongly supported an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah and insisted that Israel comply with international law in its ongoing military operations in the region. At the end of their two-day summit, the ministers didn’t refer directly to the International Criminal Court and its recent arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister over crimes against humanity . Italy had put the ICC warrants on the official meeting agenda, even though the G7 was split on the issue. The U.S., Israel’s closest ally, isn’t a signatory to the court and has called the warrants “outrageous.” However, the EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell said all the other G7 countries were signatories and therefore obliged to respect the warrants. In the end, the final statement adopted by the ministers said Israel, in exercising its right to defend itself, “must fully comply with its obligations under international law in all circumstances, including international humanitarian law.” And it said all G7 members — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States – “reiterate our commitment to international humanitarian law and will comply with our respective obligations.” It stressed that “there can be no equivalence between the terrorist group Hamas and the State of Israel.” The ICC warrants say there's reason to believe Netanyahu used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid and intentionally targeted civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza — charges Israeli officials deny. BEIRUT — An Israeli strike on Tuesday levelled a residential building in the central Beirut district of Basta — the second time in recent days warplanes have hit the crowded area near the city’s downtown. At least seven people were killed and 37 wounded in Beirut, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. It was not immediately clear if anyone in particular was targeted, though Israel says its airstrikes target Hezbollah officials and assets. The Israeli military spokesman issued a flurry of evacuation warnings for many areas, including areas in Beirut that have not been targeted throughout the war, like the capital’s commercial Hamra district, where many people displaced by the war have been staying. The warnings, coupled with fear that Israel was ratcheting up attacks in Lebanon during the final hours before a ceasefire is reached, sparked panic and sent residents fleeing in their cars to safer areas. In areas close to Hamra, families including women and children were seen running away toward the Mediterranean Sea’s beaches carrying their belongings. Traffic was completely gridlocked as people tried to get away, honking their car horns as Israeli drones buzzed loudly overhead. The Israeli military also issued warnings for 20 more buildings in Beirut’s suburbs to evacuate before they too were struck — a sign it was aiming to inflict punishment on Hezbollah in the final moments before any ceasefire takes hold. TEL AVIV, Israel — The independent civilian commission of inquiry into the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel has found Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly responsible for the failures leading up to the attack, alongside former defense ministers, the army chief and the heads of the security services. The civil commission presented its findings today after a four-month probe in which it heard some 120 witnesses. It was set up by relatives of victims of the Hamas attack, in response to the absence of any state probe. The commission determined that the Israeli government, its army and security services “failed in their primary mission of protecting the citizens of Israel.” It said Netanyahu was responsible for ignoring “repeated warnings” ahead of Oct. 7, 2023 for what it described as his appeasing approach over the years toward Hamas, and for “undermining all decision-making centers, including the cabinet and the National Security Council, in a way that prevented any serious discussion” on security issues. The commission further determined that the military and defense leaders bear blame for ignoring warnings from within the army, and for reducing the army’s presence along the Gaza border while relying excessively on technological means. On the day of the Hamas attack, the report says, the army’s response was both slow and lacking. The civil commission called for the immediate establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the Oct. 7 attack. Netanyahu has opposed launching a state commission of inquiry, arguing that such an investigation should begin only once the war is over. JERUSALEM -- The Israeli military says its ground troops have reached parts of Lebanon’s Litani River — a focal point of the emerging ceasefire. In a statement Tuesday, the army said it had reached the Wadi Slouqi area in southern Lebanon and clashed with Hezbollah forces. Under a proposed ceasefire, Hezbollah would be required to move its forces north of the Litani, which in some places is some 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the Israeli border. The military says the clashes with Hezbollah took place on the eastern end of the Litani, just a few kilometers (miles) from the border. It is one of the deepest places Israeli forces have reached in a nearly two-month ground operation. The military says soldiers destroyed rocket launchers and missiles and engaged in “close-quarters combat” with Hezbollah forces. The announcement came hours before Israel’s security Cabinet is expected to approve a ceasefire that would end nearly 14 months of fighting. BEIRUT — Israeli jets Tuesday struck at least six buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs Tuesday, including one that slammed near the country’s only airport. Large plumes of smoke could be seen around the airport near the Mediterranean coast, which has continued to function despite its location beside the densely populated suburbs where many of Hezbollah’s operations are based. The strikes come hours before Israel’s cabinet was scheduled to meet to discuss a proposal to end the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. The proposal calls for an initial two-month ceasefire during which Israeli forces would withdraw from Lebanon and Hezbollah would end its armed presence along the southern border south of the Litani River. There were no immediate reports of casualties from Tuesday’s airstrikes. FIUGGI, Italy — EU top diplomat Josep Borrell, whose term ends Dec. 1, said he proposed to the G7 and Arab ministers who joined in talks on Monday that the U.N. Security Council take up a resolution specifically demanding humanitarian assistance reach Palestinians in Gaza, saying deliveries have been completely impeded. “The two-state solution will come later. Everything will come later. But we are talking about weeks or days,” for desperate Palestinians, he said. “Hunger has been used as an arm against people who are completely abandoned.” It was a reference to the main accusation levelled by the International Criminal Court in its arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister. Borrell said the signatories to the court, including six of the seven G7 members, are obliged under international law to respect and implement the court’s decisions. Host Italy put the ICC warrants on the G7 agenda at the last minute, but there was no consensus on the wording of how the G7 would respond given the U.S., Israel’s closest ally, has called the warrants “outrageous.” Italy, too, has said it respects the court but expressed concern that the warrants were politically motivated and ill-advised given Netanyahu is necessary for any deal to end the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon. “Like it or not, the International Criminal Court is a court as powerful as any national court,” Borrell said. “And if the Europeans don’t support International Criminal Court then there would not be any hope for justice,” he said. Borrell, whose term ends Dec. 1, said he proposed to the G7 and Arab ministers who joined in talks on Monday that the U.N. Security Council take up a resolution specifically demanding humanitarian assistance reach Palestinians in Gaza, saying deliveries have been completely impeded. “The two-state solution will come later. Everything will come later. But we are talking about weeks or days,” for desperate Palestinians, he said. “Hunger has been used as an arm against people who are completely abandoned.” It was a reference to the main accusation levelled by the International Criminal Court in its arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister. Borrell said the signatories to the court, including six of the seven G7 members, are obliged under international law to respect and implement the court’s decisions. Host Italy put the ICC warrants on the G7 agenda at the last minute, but there was no consensus on the wording of how the G7 would respond given the U.S., Israel’s closest ally, has called the warrants “outrageous.” Italy, too, has said it respects the court but expressed concern that the warrants were politically motivated and ill-advised given Netanyahu is necessary for any deal to end the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon. “Like it or not, the International Criminal Court is a court as powerful as any national court,” Borrell said. “And if the Europeans don’t support International Criminal Court then there would not be any hope for justice,” he said. (edited)

Why it matters: Ayar Labs, a pioneer in optical interconnect technology that leverages light to transfer data between chips, has secured $155 million in Series D funding. The round was backed by semiconductor heavyweights Nvidia, AMD, and Intel, pushing the startup's valuation beyond $1 billion as it prepares for large-scale production. Ayar Labs is making waves by shrinking fiber optic data transmission technology to the chip scale. Its flagship product, the TeraPHY optical I/O chiplet, delivers a staggering four terabits per second of bi-directional bandwidth with ultra-low latency. Even more impressive, it achieves this while consuming just 10 watts or five picojoules per byte – a breakthrough in energy efficiency at such speeds. The chiplet integrates directly into advanced chip packages, replacing traditional electrical interconnects with cutting-edge optical solutions. This innovation could be a game-changer for modern AI workloads, which demand enormous data throughput. Power-hungry GPUs driving these workloads require advanced interconnects to eliminate system bottlenecks and reduce energy consumption, making Ayar Labs' technology critical for the next generation of computing. Ayar Labs' other key innovation is the SuperNova Light Source, which supplies 16 wavelengths of light to power 16 ports and 256 data channels – delivering a total 16 terabits per second of bi-directional throughput. Designed to complement the TeraPHY chiplets in server systems, this solution offers 5 – 10x higher bandwidth, 10x lower latency, and up to 8x greater power efficiency compared to traditional electrical interconnects. "The AI workload is really breaking the back of the existing hardware, especially for interconnects," said Ayar Labs CEO Mark Wade. "We've come up with a way to replace those electrical interconnects." "The leading GPU providers – AMD and NVIDIA – and semiconductor foundries – GlobalFoundries, Intel Foundry, and TSMC – combined with the backing of Advent, Light Street, and our other investors underscores the potential of our optical I/O technology to redefine the future of AI infrastructure," he added . While fiber optics have long been used for long-distance data transmission, miniaturizing the technology to the chip scale is a major technical feat. Ayar Labs has collaborated with manufacturers like GlobalFoundries and Intel to integrate its technology into high-volume chip production, with discussions reportedly underway with TSMC, according to Bloomberg. Wade revealed that customers are already sampling the TeraPHY chiplets, with high-volume qualification anticipated by mid-2026. The company plans to use the fresh $155 million in Series D funding to scale up manufacturing and meet the skyrocketing demand for AI interconnect bandwidth. The funding round was led by Advent Global Opportunities and Light Street Capital, with significant contributions from Nvidia, AMD Ventures, and Intel Capital – marking a collective endorsement from the "big three" chipmakers. Existing backers, including Lockheed Martin Ventures, GlobalFoundries, Applied Ventures LLC, and VentureTech Alliance, also participated in the round.

Francis' 23 lead NJIT over Navy 69-64

TOPEKA, Kan. – Republicans made claims about illegal voting by noncitizens a centerpiece of their 2024 campaign messaging and plan to push legislation in the new Congress requiring voters to provide proof of U.S. citizenship. Yet there's one place with a GOP supermajority where linking voting to citizenship appears to be a nonstarter: Kansas. That's because the state has been there, done that, and all but a few Republicans would prefer not to go there again. Kansas imposed a proof-of-citizenship requirement over a decade ago that grew into one of the biggest political fiascos in the state in recent memory. Recommended Videos The law, passed by the state Legislature in 2011 and implemented two years later, ended up blocking the voter registrations of more than 31,000 U.S. citizens who were otherwise eligible to vote. That was 12% of everyone seeking to register in Kansas for the first time. Federal courts ultimately declared the law an unconstitutional burden on voting rights, and it hasn't been enforced since 2018. Kansas provides a cautionary tale about how pursuing an election concern that in fact is extremely rare risks disenfranchising a far greater number of people who are legally entitled to vote. The state’s top elections official, Secretary of State Scott Schwab, championed the idea as a legislator and now says states and the federal government shouldn't touch it. “Kansas did that 10 years ago,” said Schwab, a Republican. “It didn’t work out so well.” Steven Fish, a 45-year-old warehouse worker in eastern Kansas, said he understands the motivation behind the law. In his thinking, the state was like a store owner who fears getting robbed and installs locks. But in 2014, after the birth of his now 11-year-old son inspired him to be “a little more responsible” and follow politics, he didn’t have an acceptable copy of his birth certificate to get registered to vote in Kansas. “The locks didn’t work,” said Fish, one of nine Kansas residents who sued the state over the law. “You caught a bunch of people who didn’t do anything wrong.” A small problem, but wide support for a fix Kansas' experience appeared to receive little if any attention outside the state as Republicans elsewhere pursued proof-of-citizenship requirements this year. Arizona enacted a requirement this year, applying it to voting for state and local elections but not for Congress or president. The Republican-led U.S. House passed a proof-of-citizenship requirement in the summer and plans to bring back similar legislation after the GOP won control of the Senate in November. In Ohio, the Republican secretary of state revised the form that poll workers use for voter eligibility challenges to require those not born in the U.S. to show naturalization papers to cast a regular ballot. A federal judge declined to block the practice days before the election. Also, sizable majorities of voters in Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina and the presidential swing states of North Carolina and Wisconsin were inspired to amend their state constitutions' provisions on voting even though the changes were only symbolic. Provisions that previously declared that all U.S. citizens could vote now say that only U.S. citizens can vote — a meaningless distinction with no practical effect on who is eligible. To be clear, voters already must attest to being U.S. citizens when they register to vote and noncitizens can face fines, prison and deportation if they lie and are caught. “There is nothing unconstitutional about ensuring that only American citizens can vote in American elections,” U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, of Texas, the leading sponsor of the congressional proposal, said in an email statement to The Associated Press. Why the courts rejected the Kansas citizenship rule After Kansas residents challenged their state's law, both a federal judge and federal appeals court concluded that it violated a law limiting states to collecting only the minimum information needed to determine whether someone is eligible to vote. That's an issue Congress could resolve. The courts ruled that with “scant” evidence of an actual problem, Kansas couldn't justify a law that kept hundreds of eligible citizens from registering for every noncitizen who was improperly registered. A federal judge concluded that the state’s evidence showed that only 39 noncitizens had registered to vote from 1999 through 2012 — an average of just three a year. In 2013, then-Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican who had built a national reputation advocating tough immigration laws, described the possibility of voting by immigrants living in the U.S. illegally as a serious threat. He was elected attorney general in 2022 and still strongly backs the idea, arguing that federal court rulings in the Kansas case “almost certainly got it wrong.” Kobach also said a key issue in the legal challenge — people being unable to fix problems with their registrations within a 90-day window — has probably been solved. “The technological challenge of how quickly can you verify someone’s citizenship is getting easier,” Kobach said. “As time goes on, it will get even easier.” Would the Kansas law stand today? The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the Kansas case in 2020. But in August, it split 5-4 in allowing Arizona to continue enforcing its law for voting in state and local elections while a legal challenge goes forward. Seeing the possibility of a different Supreme Court decision in the future, U.S. Rep.-elect Derek Schmidt says states and Congress should pursue proof-of-citizenship requirements. Schmidt was the Kansas attorney general when his state's law was challenged. "If the same matter arose now and was litigated, the facts would be different," he said in an interview. But voting rights advocates dismiss the idea that a legal challenge would turn out differently. Mark Johnson, one of the attorneys who fought the Kansas law, said opponents now have a template for a successful court fight. “We know the people we can call," Johnson said. “We know that we’ve got the expert witnesses. We know how to try things like this.” He predicted "a flurry — a landslide — of litigation against this.” Born in Illinois but unable to register in Kansas Initially, the Kansas requirement's impacts seemed to fall most heavily on politically unaffiliated and young voters. As of fall 2013, 57% of the voters blocked from registering were unaffiliated and 40% were under 30. But Fish was in his mid-30s, and six of the nine residents who sued over the Kansas law were 35 or older. Three even produced citizenship documents and still didn’t get registered, according to court documents. “There wasn’t a single one of us that was actually an illegal or had misinterpreted or misrepresented any information or had done anything wrong,” Fish said. He was supposed to produce his birth certificate when he sought to register in 2014 while renewing his Kansas driver's license at an office in a strip mall in Lawrence. A clerk wouldn't accept the copy Fish had of his birth certificate. He still doesn't know where to find the original, having been born on an Air Force base in Illinois that closed in the 1990s. Several of the people joining Fish in the lawsuit were veterans, all born in the U.S., and Fish said he was stunned that they could be prevented from registering. Liz Azore, a senior adviser to the nonpartisan Voting Rights Lab, said millions of Americans haven't traveled outside the U.S. and don't have passports that might act as proof of citizenship, or don't have ready access to their birth certificates. She and other voting rights advocates are skeptical that there are administrative fixes that will make a proof-of-citizenship law run more smoothly today than it did in Kansas a decade ago. “It’s going to cover a lot of people from all walks of life,” Avore said. “It’s going to be disenfranchising large swaths of the country.” ___ Associated Press writer Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.

President issues pardon for son Hunter WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden pardoned his son, Hunter, sparing the younger Biden a possible prison sentence for federal felony gun and tax convictions and reversing his past promises not to use the powers of the presidency for the benefit of his family. The Democratic president previously said he would not pardon his son or commute his sentence after convictions in the two cases in Delaware and California. The move last Sunday night comes weeks before Hunter Biden was to be sentenced. In a statement released Sunday evening, Biden said, “I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.” LEADERSHIP VOTE: Senate Democrats reelected Chuck Schumer as party leader on Tuesday. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin was also reelected to the No. 2 spot and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar became the new No. 3. People are also reading... Paige Hubl, former Nebraska volleyball player and Lincoln Southeast coach, dies at age 34 Man found dead in north Lincoln, police say Lincoln Southwest vs. East boys basketball game briefly suspended due to 'unsafe environment' 'It could be very special': Why signs point to strong match between Nebraska, Pinstripe Bowl Andi's Ascent: She didn't want to play volleyball. Now Andi Jackson is the sport's next best thing Wisconsin officer grabbing Donovan Raiola's arm a 'misunderstanding,' UW police say 'Straight up theft': Lincoln craft fair organizer under fire after canceling event Nebraska defensive lineman announces he’ll return for 2025 season Tony White leaves Nebraska for Florida State defensive coordinator job 140 layoffs hit Lincoln immigration services center; more likely Taco restaurant started by brothers in Grand Island expands to Lincoln Lincoln Public Schools chief Gausman announces plans to retire Matt Rhule, Luke Fickell both downplay postgame encounter between Fickell, Donovan Raiola 'Not what we want to do': Nebraska's Matt Rhule talks pregame handshake snub with Iowa Nebraska volleyball aces first test, sweeps Florida A&M in first round of NCAA Tournament MEMPHIS PD: The Memphis Police Department uses excessive force and discriminates against Black people, according to a U.S. Department of Justice investigation report released Wednesday. The inquiry was launched after the police beating death of Tyre Nichols in 2023. CEO KILLED: A gunman killed UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, 50-year-old Brian Thompson, on Wednesday morning in a “brazen, targeted attack” outside a Manhattan hotel where the health insurer was holding its investor conference, police said, setting off a massive search for the assailant. Trump’s lawyers: Toss hush money conviction NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump’s lawyers formally asked a judge Monday to throw out his hush money criminal conviction, arguing that continuing the case would present unconstitutional “disruptions to the institution of the Presidency.” In a filing made public Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers told Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan that anything short of immediate dismissal would undermine the transition of power, as well as the “overwhelming national mandate” granted to Trump by voters last month. BOEING RULING: U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor rejected a deal Thursday that would have allowed Boeing to plead guilty to a felony conspiracy charge and pay a fine for misleading U.S. regulators about the 737 Max jetliner before two of the planes crashed, killing 346 people. TRANSGENDER HEALTH: The Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared likely to uphold Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors. The justices’ decision, not expected for several months, could affect similar laws enacted by another 25 states and a range of other efforts to regulate the lives of transgender people. EMPLOYMENT: The Labor Department reported Tuesday that the number of job postings in the United States for October rose 5% to 7.7 million from 7.4 million in September. The increase suggests that job gains could pick up in the coming months. Still, the latest figure is down significantly from 8.7 million job postings a year ago. — Associated Press 3.09M Travelers screened by the Transportation Security Administration last Sunday, breaking the previous record by about 74,000 as the holiday weekend drew to a close. Here in California, we’re not going to spend our time, our money or our resources going backward. Immigrants are the backbone of our nation. Immigrants make America great.” — Rob Bonta, California attorney general, who said Wednesday he was preparing to protect immigrants from President-elect Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans. TAYLOR SWIFT: After more than 150 shows across five continents over nearly two years, the global phenomenon that is Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour will come to an end Sunday in Vancouver, Canada. The 31⁄2-hour concert, showcasing 44 songs representing 10 “eras” of her career, kicked off in March 2023 in Glendale, Arizona. By the end of 2023, it became the first concert tour to gross over $1 billion and saw hundreds of millions of dollars spent on merchandise. EMINEM: Debbie Nelson, the single mother of Detroit rapper Eminem whose rocky relationship with her son was known widely through his hit song lyrics, died Monday. She was 69. No cause of death was given, although Nelson had battled lung cancer. BRAIN ROT: Many of us have felt it, and now it’s official: “Brain rot” is the Oxford dictionaries’ word of the year. Oxford University Press said Monday that the phrase “gained new prominence in 2024,” with its frequency of use increasing 230% from the year before. ELTON JOHN: Elton John says he struggled to watch his new musical because he has lost his eyesight after contracting an infection. The 77-year-old singer-songwriter attended the opening night of “The Devil Wears Prada” in London last Sunday and told the audience about the condition. John wrote the score for the stage musical based on the 2006 movie about a young journalist navigating the glamour and egos of a glossy fashion magazine. MAJOR WINTER STORM POUNDS GREAT LAKES REGION