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online gambling addiction philippines Maura Higgins and Barry McGuigan voted off ‘I’m A Celebrity’ in double eliminationAuto Review: 2025 Mini Countryman is full of fun and functionality that belies its size

Stocks closed higher on Wall Street as the market posted its fifth straight gain and the Dow Jones Industrial Average notched another record high. The S&P 500 rose 0.3%. The benchmark index’s 1.7% gain for the week erased most of its loss from last week. The Dow rose 1% as it nudged past its most recent high set last week, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.2%. Markets have been volatile over the last few weeks, losing ground in the runup to elections in November, then surging following Donald Trump's victory, before falling again. The S&P 500 has been steadily rising throughout this week to within close range of its record. It's now within about 0.5% of its all-time high set last week. “Overall, market behavior has normalized following an intense few weeks,” said Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide, in a statement. Several retailers jumped after giving Wall Street encouraging financial updates. Gap soared 12.8% after handily beating analysts' third-quarter earnings and revenue expectations, while raising its own revenue forecast for the year. Discount retailer Ross Stores rose 2.2% after raising its earnings forecast for the year. EchoStar fell 2.8% after DirecTV called off its purchase of that company's Dish Network unit. Smaller company stocks had some of the biggest gains. The Russell 2000 index rose 1.8%. A majority of stocks in the S&P 500 gained ground, but those gains were kept in check by slumps for several big technology companies. Nvidia fell 3.2%. Its pricey valuation makes it among the heaviest influences on whether the broader market gains or loses ground. The company has grown into a nearly $3.6 trillion behemoth because of demand for its chips used in artificial-intelligence technology. Intuit, which makes TurboTax and other accounting software, fell 5.7%. It gave investors a quarterly earnings forecast that fell short of analysts’ expectations. Facebook owner Meta Platforms fell 0.7% following a decision by the Supreme Court to allow a multibillion-dollar class action investors’ lawsuit to proceed against the company. It stems from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm. All told, the S&P 500 rose 20.63 points to 5,969.34. The Dow climbed 426.16 points to 44,296.51, and the Nasdaq picked up 42.65 points to close at 2,406.67. European markets closed mostly higher and Asian markets ended mixed. Crude oil prices rose. Treasury yields held relatively steady in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.41% from 4.42% late Thursday. In the crypto market, bitcoin hovered around $99,000, according to CoinDesk. It has more than doubled this year and first surpassed the $99,000 level on Thursday. Retailers remained a big focus for investors this week amid close scrutiny on consumer spending habits headed into the holiday shopping season. Walmart, the nation's largest retailer, reported a quarter of strong sales and gave investors an encouraging financial forecast. Target, though, reported weaker earnings than analysts' expected and its forecast disappointed Wall Street. Consumer spending has fueled economic growth, despite a persistent squeeze from inflation and high borrowing costs. Inflation has been easing and the Federal Reserve has started trimming its benchmark interest rates. That is likely to help relieve pressure on consumers, but any major shift in spending could prompt the Fed to reassess its path ahead on interest rates. Also, any big reversals on the rate of inflation could curtail spending. Consumer sentiment remains strong, according to the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index. It revised its latest figure for November to 71.8 from an initial reading of 73 earlier this month, though economists expected a slight increase. It's still up from 70.5 in October. The survey also showed that consumers' inflation expectations for the year ahead fell slightly to 2.6%, which is the lowest reading since December of 2020. Wall Street will get another update on how consumers feel when the business group The Conference Board releases its monthly consumer confidence survey on Tuesday. A key inflation update will come on Wednesday when the U.S. releases its October personal consumption expenditures index. The PCE is the Fed's preferred measure of inflation and this will be the last PCE reading prior to the central bank's meeting in December.Stock yards bancorp president sells $258k in shares

Netflix will have one of its biggest days Wednesday since the site launched in 1998 when it airs two NFL games for the first time. “NFL Christmas Gameday on Netflix” begins with a two-hour pregame show at 11 a.m., before Pittsburgh hosts Kansas City. Baltimore faces Houston in the second game. The streaming giant agreed to a three-year contract in May to carry Christmas Day games. Where will the games be available? Netflix’s 282.3 million subscribers in over 190 countries will be able to stream the games, marking the first time one outlet has distributed an NFL game globally. Netflix will have the games available in five languages — English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German. The games will also air on CBS affiliates in Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Houston. NFL policy dictates that games on cable or being exclusively streamed must also be on an over-the-air station in the competing teams’ markets. It will also be available on mobile devices in the U.S. for those who have NFL+. Why is the NFL putting Christmas Day games on a streaming platform? The biggest reason is money. The league is getting $150 million from Netflix for the two games this season. It also continues the NFL’s moves into streaming — Thursday night games are in their third season on Amazon Prime Video and the “Sunday Ticket” package moved to YouTube TV last year. But Christmas is on a Wednesday when games usually aren’t played. That’s true, but the league wasn’t about to give up Christmas after seeing the ratings. Last year’s three games averaged 28.68 million viewers. The early afternoon contest between the Las Vegas Raiders and Chiefs led the way, averaging 29.48 million. The Chiefs, Steelers, Ravens and Texans played on Saturday, giving them the same turnaround they would have if they played on Sunday and then Thursday. What is at stake for the teams playing? All four have clinched playoff spots in the AFC, but seeding remains up for grabs. Kansas City (14-1) can clinch the top seed — which would mean a first-round bye and home field throughout the playoffs — with a win over the Steelers. Pittsburgh and Baltimore are tied atop the AFC North at 10-5, with the Steelers holding the tiebreaker due to a better conference record. Houston (9-6) has wrapped up the AFC South and holds the fourth seed. Has Netflix fixed its streaming problems from the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight? Netflix hopes so. Brandon Riegg, Netflix’s vice president of nonfiction series and sports, said the system was stress tested, and then some, during the Nov. 14 bout, along with internet service providers reporting they were also overwhelmed by the surge that occurred before and during the fight. The bout peaked at 65 million concurrent streams, including 38 million concurrent streams in the United States. According to the website Down Detector, nearly 85,000 viewers logged problems with outages or streaming leading up to and during the fight. Could there be the same number streaming the games that there were during the fight? Possible? Yes. Likely? No. The largest audience for a streamed-exclusive NFL game was 23 million on Peacock for last season’s AFC wild-card game between the Miami Dolphins and Chiefs. Nielsen will measure the ratings for the Christmas Day games, with early numbers expected late afternoon on Thursday. When could there be surge in demand on Wednesday? It will probably beat kickoff for both games, but especially around 5:45 p.m. EST. That would be near halftime of the Ravens-Texans game, and when Beyoncé will be performing. What other celebrities will appear? Mariah Carey will kick off the day with a taped performance of “All I Want for Christmas is You.” There is no word if Taylor Swift will make the trip to Pittsburgh to watch her boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Swift has been spending time in Kansas City since she wrapped up her Eras Tour two weeks ago. How many Christmas games will Netflix carry in the next two seasons? The NFL will have at least two games on Dec. 25 in 2025 and ’26, with Netflix slated to have at least one each year. Amazon Prime Video will have a night game with Christmas on a Thursday next year. Does Netflix have an interest in other sports? Netflix’s worldwide partnership with World Wrestling Entertainment will begin on Jan. 6 when “Monday Night Raw” moves to the streaming service. On Friday, Netflix secured the U.S. rights for the 2027 and 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

AP News Summary at 5:15 p.m. EST

MACON, Ga. (AP) — Myles Redding returned an interception 25 yards for a first-quarter touchdown and Whitt Newbauer threw a four-yard touchdown pass to start the fourth quarter as No. 7-seeded Mercer beat No. 10 Rhode Island 17—10 on Saturday. Mercer advances to the FCS semifinals for the first time and will face No. 2 North Dakota State, which beat No. 15 Abilene Christian 51-31. Redding swooped in front of Hunter Helms' intended receiver for his seventh interception of the season with 3:33 left in the first quarter, tying him with teammate TJ Moore for the most in the nation. Rhode Island got a 17-yard field goal from Ty Groff as time expired in the first half and took the lead late in the third quarter when Helms connected with Marquis Buchanan on a 56-yard touchdown for a 10-7 lead. Senior Dwayne McGee set up two fourth-quarter scores for the Bears, slashing through the right side for a 33-yard gain to give Mercer a first-and-goal at the Rhode Island 10. On third-and-goal from the 4, Newbauer found Adjatay Dabbs for the go-ahead touchdown. After the Bears twice forced the Rams to punt in their own half of the field, McGee ran 40 yards on first down to give Mercer a first down at the Rhode Island 25, setting up a 24-yard Reice Griffith field goal for the game's final score. McGee finished with 114 yards on 21 carries and CJ Miller added 81 yards on 10 carries for Mercer (11-2), which remained unbeaten in seven home games. Helms finished 22 of 33 passing for 266 yards and Buchanan caught 11 passes for 119 yards to lead Rhode Island (11-3), but the Rams managed just 46 yards on 26 carries on the ground. — Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballGuest Opinion: Who deserves the blame for the decline in young people’s reading habits?

‘World at dawn of third nuclear age’, armed forces chief warns

But alongside his stark warning of the threats facing Britain and its allies, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said there would be only a “remote chance” Russia would directly attack or invade the UK if the two countries were at war. The Chief of the Defence Staff laid out the landscape of British defence in a wide-ranging speech, after a minister warned the Army would be wiped out in as little as six months if forced to fight a war on the scale of the Ukraine conflict. The admiral cast doubt on the possibility as he gave a speech at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) defence think tank in London. He told the audience Britain needed to be “clear-eyed in our assessment” of the threats it faces, adding: “That includes recognising that there is only a remote chance of a significant direct attack or invasion by Russia on the United Kingdom, and that’s the same for the whole of Nato.” Moscow “knows the response will be overwhelming”, he added, but warned the nuclear deterrent needed to be “kept strong and strengthened”. Sir Tony added: “We are at the dawn of a third nuclear age, which is altogether more complex. It is defined by multiple and concurrent dilemmas, proliferating nuclear and disruptive technologies and the almost total absence of the security architectures that went before.” The first nuclear age was the Cold War, while the second was “governed by disarmament efforts and counter proliferation”, the armed forces chief said. He listed the “wild threats of tactical nuclear use” by Russia, China building up its weapon stocks, Iran’s failure to co-operate with a nuclear deal, and North Korea’s “erratic behaviour” among the threats faced by the West. But Sir Tony said the UK’s nuclear arsenal is “the one part of our inventory of which Russia is most aware and has more impact on (President Vladimir) Putin than anything else”. Successive British governments had invested “substantial sums of money” in renewing nuclear submarines and warheads because of this, he added. The admiral described the deployment of thousands of North Korean soldiers on Ukraine’s border alongside Russian forces as the year’s “most extraordinary development”. He also signalled further deployments were possible, speaking of “tens of thousands more to follow as part of a new security pact with Russia”. Defence minister Alistair Carns earlier said a rate of casualties similar to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would lead to the army being “expended” within six to 12 months. He said it illustrated the need to “generate depth and mass rapidly in the event of a crisis”. In comments reported by Sky News, Mr Carns, a former Royal Marines colonel, said Russia was suffering losses of around 1,500 soldiers killed or injured a day. “In a war of scale – not a limited intervention, but one similar to Ukraine – our Army for example, on the current casualty rates, would be expended – as part of a broader multinational coalition – in six months to a year,” Mr Carns said in a speech at Rusi. He added: “That doesn’t mean we need a bigger Army, but it does mean you need to generate depth and mass rapidly in the event of a crisis.” Official figures show the Army had 109,245 personnel on October 1, including 25,814 volunteer reservists. Mr Carns, the minister for veterans and people, said the UK needed to “catch up with Nato allies” to place greater emphasis on the reserves. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Defence Secretary John Healey had previously spoken about “the state of the armed forces that were inherited from the previous government”. The spokesman said: “It’s why the Budget invested billions of pounds into defence, it’s why we’re undertaking a strategic defence review to ensure that we have the capabilities and the investment needed to defend this country.”-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Legal advocacy groups on Friday accused Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., of preemptively surrendering to Republicans with the deal he cut late Thursday night, which would forfeit four Democratic circuit court nominees in order to prioritize 13 district court nominees, further ceding appellate court appointments to Republicans. According to the Associated Press , the deal outlines a plan for the Senate to vote to confirm 13 more district court judges before the upper chamber adjourns in December. If the Senate votes to confirm all of these nominees, President Joe Biden will have successfully appointed 234 judges to federal courts — the same number of judges that President-elect Donald Trump appointed in his first term. As part of the deal, Republicans have agreed to the schedule. Previously, they were forcing procedural votes in order to slow down the confirmation process. Related Amid Sotomayor fears, Senate Dems face “road blocks” to approve judges before Trump takes office The issue with the deal, however, is that all of the judges will be district court judges rather than circuit court judges, meaning that Republicans will likely get to appoint the replacements for the four pending vacancies on the circuit court level, potentially giving Republicans even more control over the federal judiciary on the appellate level. News of the deal was met with immediate criticism from groups like the American Constitution Society and its president, former Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who told Salon that “it is extremely frustrating to hear the reported deal on circuit court nominees.” “The White House has nominated extremely qualified individuals for these seats and the Senate needs to do its job and hold votes on all of these nominees,” Feingold said. “All public officials need to be prepared to fight against the extremism that will come when Trump returns to office and retreating in advance is a dangerous precedent to set.” There are currently four circuit court nominees awaiting a floor vote in the Senate: Adeel Abdullah Mangi, who was nominated for the Third Circuit; Karla M. Campbell, who was nominated for the Sixth Circuit; Julia M. Lipez, who was nominated for the First Circuit; and Ryan Young Park, who was nominated for the Fourth Circuit. According to Feingold, the deal “paves the way for the incoming administration to install more conservative extremist judges on powerful courts of appeal, which in the past eight years have ruled again and again against the rights of Americans on issues ranging from reproductive freedom to voting rights. All of these lifetime appointments will affect our rights for generations to come.” We need your help to stay independent Subscribe today to support Salon's progressive journalism Maggie Jo Buchanan, the managing director of the liberal advocacy group Demand Justice, called the deal “categorically unacceptable.” “These are critical seats that have real impacts on everyday Americans–we cannot allow Trump to fill them with radical extremists,” Buchanan said. “If Democratic Senators are already rolling over this easily while they still have power, we are in for trouble when Trump actually assumes office. We need leadership that’s up for a fight–and that starts now.” Russell Wheeler, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, however, pointed out that two of the circuit court nominees, Campbell and Park, are for future vacancies , meaning the outgoing justices could decide to stay on the court through the next presidential election. “There is precedent for them simply withdrawing their intention to leave senior status,” Wheeler said. “If this deal will get possibly 13 more district judges through I think it's all in all a good thing for the Democrats.” Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter , Crash Course. Wheeler also noted that there has been opposition within the Democratic caucus to Mangi’s nomination by both Democratic senators from Nevada, Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto. Wheeler noted that, without inside information on how senators planned to vote on these circuit court nominees, it’s hard to know whether they might have been able to get them through or not. Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, told Salon that it’s not clear whether Rosen and Cortez Masto, who are up for re-election in six and four years respectively, would have maintained their opposition of Mangi. The doubts about Mangi’s ability to get confirmed, combined with the two future vacancies “makes it look like a less bad deal.” “What’s not clear to me is that none of those four nominees were going to be confirmed,” Tobias said. “The other Democrats who lost have all been there to vote, Tester, Brown, and Casey, and Manchin have been voting for some of the nominees as has Sinema.” Tobias said that Mangi’s confirmation, in particular, could have been important in tipping the balance on the third circuit from Republican appointees to Democratic appointees. “The only one who I think may not have gotten an affirmative vote is Mangi,” Tobias said. “But there's a big caveat to that. I wasn’t in the room when the deal was cut. I don't know what Democrats know and I don't know what Republicans know and a lot of that is not public information.” Read more about federal courts "No excuse": Trump fumes on Truth Social after Senate confirms Biden judges — thanks to GOP absences White supremacy with a law degree: How do we escape "The Originalism Trap"? Judge Cannon's secret right-wing getaway: Why didn't we know about this? By Russell Payne Russell Payne is a staff reporter for Salon. His reporting has previously appeared in The New York Sun and the Finger Lakes Times. MORE FROM Russell Payne Related Topics ------------------------------------------ Chuck Schumer Donald Trump Joe Biden Judges Related Articles Advertisement:

InvestiQuant Makes Donation to iCCARE for Children with CancerFinancial Focus: Inflation-fighting strategies for retireesNebraska defensive lineman Kai Wallin enters the transfer portal

Insurance agents don Santa suits for holiday fundraiser

For decades, famed value investor Warren Buffett has insisted that he does not try to “time the market.” But, his recent sales could serve as a warning sign for investors amid a period of protracted valuations. What Happened: Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc BRK BRK has gradually wound down its largest positions over the last year. Berkshire slashed its largest position in Apple Inc AAPL by over two-thirds since 2023. Buffett also sold much of his position in Bank of America Corp BAC since the summer. He also trimmed back nearly all of his position in Ulta Beauty Inc ULTA , an atypically short holding period for the investor who preaches investing for the long term. The Omaha, Nebraska-based company’s cash horde now stands at an astounding $325 billion. See Also: As MSTR’s Michael Saylor Says Warren Buffett Is ‘Destroying’ Berkshire Capital, Analyst Suggests ‘Overpriced...Hot Stock Market’ Could Be The Reason Oracle Of Omaha Is Sitting On $325B Cash Why it Matters: Several market experts have struggled to comprehend Buffett’s thought process — is he bearish on the market at large? Reallocating his portfolio away from Apple and Bank of America to diversify? Or, as Buffett hinted at in May, anticipating a future change to U.S. tax laws? An article from Bloomberg columnist Nir Kaissar could fuel the first theory. A post on X relayed a graph from the article showing Buffett’s cash pile conspicuously rising ahead of financial crises. Interesting piece here from @markets and how Buffett's cash hoard often spikes before equity market slowdowns. 🤔🤔🤔 pic.twitter.com/9aFmsMpP2N As companies in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY sustain a period of high valuations, Buffett could simply be heeding his advice, “to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful,” allocating his portfolio away from what he deems riskier investments Also Read: S&P 500 Faces Volatile 2025 As ‘Inflation Boom’ Could Return: Bank Of America Strategist Photo: Shutterstock © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

(Note to subs: amends byline error) The world stands at the dawn of a “third nuclear age” in which Britain is threatened by multiple dilemmas, the head of the armed forces has warned. But alongside his stark warning of the threats facing Britain and its allies, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said there would be only a “remote chance” Russia would directly attack or invade the UK if the two countries were at war. The Chief of the Defence Staff laid out the landscape of British defence in a wide-ranging speech, after a minister warned the Army would be wiped out in as little as six months if forced to fight a war on the scale of the Ukraine conflict. The admiral cast doubt on the possibility as he gave a speech at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) defence think tank in London. He told the audience Britain needed to be “clear-eyed in our assessment” of the threats it faces, adding: “That includes recognising that there is only a remote chance of a significant direct attack or invasion by Russia on the United Kingdom, and that’s the same for the whole of Nato.” Moscow “knows the response will be overwhelming”, he added, but warned the nuclear deterrent needed to be “kept strong and strengthened”. Sir Tony added: “We are at the dawn of a third nuclear age, which is altogether more complex. It is defined by multiple and concurrent dilemmas, proliferating nuclear and disruptive technologies and the almost total absence of the security architectures that went before.” The first nuclear age was the Cold War, while the second was “governed by disarmament efforts and counter proliferation”, the armed forces chief said. He listed the “wild threats of tactical nuclear use” by Russia, China building up its weapon stocks, Iran’s failure to co-operate with a nuclear deal, and North Korea’s “erratic behaviour” among the threats faced by the West. But Sir Tony said the UK’s nuclear arsenal is “the one part of our inventory of which Russia is most aware and has more impact on (President Vladimir) Putin than anything else”. Successive British governments had invested “substantial sums of money” in renewing nuclear submarines and warheads because of this, he added. The admiral described the deployment of thousands of North Korean soldiers on Ukraine’s border alongside Russian forces as the year’s “most extraordinary development”. He also signalled further deployments were possible, speaking of “tens of thousands more to follow as part of a new security pact with Russia”. Defence minister Alistair Carns earlier said a rate of casualties similar to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would lead to the army being “expended” within six to 12 months. He said it illustrated the need to “generate depth and mass rapidly in the event of a crisis”. In comments reported by Sky News, Mr Carns, a former Royal Marines colonel, said Russia was suffering losses of around 1,500 soldiers killed or injured a day. “In a war of scale – not a limited intervention, but one similar to Ukraine – our Army for example, on the current casualty rates, would be expended – as part of a broader multinational coalition – in six months to a year,” Mr Carns said in a speech at Rusi. He added: “That doesn’t mean we need a bigger Army, but it does mean you need to generate depth and mass rapidly in the event of a crisis.” Official figures show the Army had 109,245 personnel on October 1, including 25,814 volunteer reservists. Mr Carns, the minister for veterans and people, said the UK needed to “catch up with Nato allies” to place greater emphasis on the reserves. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Defence Secretary John Healey had previously spoken about “the state of the armed forces that were inherited from the previous government”. The spokesman said: “It’s why the Budget invested billions of pounds into defence, it’s why we’re undertaking a strategic defence review to ensure that we have the capabilities and the investment needed to defend this country.”