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India continues to perfect hardware and recovery procedures for its Gaganyaan human spaceflight program. Last week, the nation recovered a mock Gaganyaan crew module onto a ship's well deck, which opens to the sea and can be flooded with water so that the module can be hoisted post-splashdown and towed inside. The agency, along with the Indian navy, practiced the recovery procedure in the waters of the Bay of Bengal off the coast of Visakhapatnam, a port city in the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh, the Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO ), India's national space agency, said Monday (Dec. 9) in a news release . ISRO is prepping for a crewed Gaganyaan flight called H1, which plans to carry three astronauts on a three-day mission to low Earth orbit , at roughly 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the planet. When the mission comes to a close, the astronauts "have to be recovered in the minimum possible time and with the least discomfort," the agency said in the recent statement. "This trial validated the overall sequence of operations." Related: ISRO: The Indian Space Research Organisation NASA and the U.S. Navy practiced similar well-deck tests to recover a mock Orion capsule before being certified to recover the real spacecraft from the Pacific Ocean after the Artemis 1 uncrewed mission in late 2022. For the Gaganyaan program, ISRO has been nailing down its homegrown technology and recovery procedures for over a decade. The latest trial builds on last year's tests of recovering a mock crew module from a closed, controlled pool while simulating various sea conditions and crash scenarios. The Gaganyaan program envisions four uncrewed test flights, the first of which, called G1, was recently delayed to 2026 . If any of the test flights or the final crewed mission end up being aborted post-launch, the planned trajectory indicates the spacecraft will likely land in the Southern Ocean in Australian waters. The Australian Space Agency formalized its support last month to assist with recovery of the crew module, search and rescue activity, if needed, and in setting up a ground station on its remote Cocos Islands. Ground station support will also be provided by the European Space Agency , according to local media . Meanwhile, one of four astronauts chosen for the Gaganyaan crewed flight, Indian Air Force test pilot Shubhanshu Shukla, has been training with Houston company Axiom Space for a two-week mission to the International Space Station , where he is expected to assist with spacecraft operations like navigation and docking.

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49ers activate Dre Greenlaw from the PUP listQatar tribune Agencies US austo giant General Motors announced Tuesday it will abandon its robotaxi development efforts after a highly publicized incident last year stymied its progress in the autonomous vehicle field. The Detroit-based manufacturer plans to merge the Cruise robotaxi vehicle unit with GM’s technical teams to concentrate on developing advanced driver assistance systems for personal vehicles, a statement said. The company said it abandoned the Cruise project “given the considerable time and resources that would be needed to scale the business, along with an increasingly competitive robotaxi market.” It marks a major turnaround for GM, which bought the Cruise startup in 2016 and has since spent billions of dollars to make the operation viable. “A robotaxi business is not General Motors’ core business,” said GM CEO Mary Barra in a call with analysts. But Barra said GM’s commitment to autonomous technology “is unwavering.” Honda, an investor in Cruise, had planned to launch a robotaxi service in Japan in 2026, but the Japanese group will now “reassess the project’s future and make necessary adjustments, including potential cancellation, once Cruise finalizes its restructuring,” Honda’s US subsidiary told AFP. The halt of operations comes a year after Cruise was forced to suspend all operations in San Francisco after one of its self-driving cars dragged a woman who had first been hit by a hit-and-run driver in the city. Cruise lost its operating permits from regulators, paused expansions into other states and laid off 900 employees - a quarter of its workforce. Shortly before the incident, California authorities had allowed for expanded driverless taxi services in San Francisco, giving the go-ahead for Alphabet-owned Waymo and Cruise. Copy 13/12/2024 10

FBI Director Wray says he intends to resign at the end of Biden’s term in JanuarySANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 16, 2024-- GoodRx Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: GDRX), the leading prescription savings platform in the U.S., today announced that Wendy Barnes has been appointed as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective January 1, 2025. Wendy brings more than 30 years of leadership experience across the pharmacy and medical benefit industry to her new role. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241216730604/en/ Wendy Barnes (Photo: Business Wire) Wendy will join GoodRx following her role as CEO of RxBenefits, where she led the company in providing pharmacy benefit support to more than 2,000 self-insured clients comprised of more than three million lives. Under her guidance, RxBenefits became a leading entity providing tailored pharmacy benefit solutions that promote affordability and transparency. Before that, as President of Express Scripts Pharmacy, Wendy oversaw the service, operation, and financial success of the organization’s multiple pharmacies on behalf of 100 million members. Wendy also served as Group Vice President at Rite Aid, where she was responsible for all aspects of managed care, including contracting, enhancing relationships with managed care organizations, overseeing pharmacy benefit managers and third-party payers, and developing strategic partnerships. “Wendy is joining GoodRx at a pivotal moment – both for the healthcare industry and for GoodRx. In a world where conventional insurance coverage is increasingly restrictive, and patients and healthcare professionals are bearing increasing costs and time burdens, GoodRx offers a complement to insurance that fills the gaps that existing systems don’t cover and helps Americans save both time and money,” said Scott Wagner, Interim CEO at GoodRx. “Wendy has the expertise, vision, and leadership to help GoodRx grow in unique and valuable ways, both for our customers and as a business. I’m excited for Wendy and I’m particularly excited for GoodRx.” Wendy's career highlights include her effective leadership roles at RxBenefits, Express Scripts, Rite Aid and Pfizer, leading extensive pharmacy operations and simplifying and improving patient healthcare experiences. Wendy also served for 10 years as a Medical Service Corps Officer in the United States Air Force. "I am thrilled to join GoodRx and contribute to its mission of making healthcare more affordable for millions of Americans," said Wendy Barnes, the newly appointed President and CEO of GoodRx. "With the evolving challenges in healthcare delivery and management, I look forward to working with our talented executive leadership team to foster growth and innovation at GoodRx and within the industry. We have a tremendous opportunity to free Americans from friction in getting medication.” In her role as CEO, Wendy will focus on advancing GoodRx’s strategic initiatives, with particular attention on bringing all brand affordability programs onto the GoodRx platform, expanding GoodRx’s product experience with healthcare professionals, and enriching partnerships with retail pharmacies, insurers, and pharmaceutical manufacturers to help save Americans time and money. Driven by a steadfast commitment to making healthcare more accessible and affordable, Wendy aims to build a better patient experience and help fill gaps within the existing system. “As we embark on this transition, I want to thank Scott for his hard work and huge impact over the last year and a half as our Interim CEO. His leadership and deep business expertise has been felt both inside and outside the walls of GoodRx,” said Trevor Bezdek, Co-founder and Chairman of GoodRx. “As we look ahead to the next phase of growth, I’m confident and enthusiastic that Wendy’s experience and dedication to improving patient lives will drive GoodRx’s mission forward.” About GoodRx GoodRx is the leading prescription savings platform in the U.S. Trusted by more than 25 million consumers and 750,000 healthcare professionals annually, GoodRx provides access to savings and affordability options for generic and brand-name medications at more than 70,000 pharmacies nationwide, as well as comprehensive healthcare research and information. Since 2011, GoodRx has helped consumers save over $75 billion on the cost of their prescriptions. GoodRx periodically posts information that may be important to investors on its investor relations website at https://investors.goodrx.com . We intend to use our website as a means of disclosing material nonpublic information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Accordingly, investors and potential investors are encouraged to consult GoodRx’s website regularly for important information, in addition to following GoodRx’s press releases, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and public conference calls and webcasts. The information contained on, or that may be accessed through, GoodRx’s website is not incorporated by reference into, and is not a part of, this press release. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding anticipated consumer savings, convenience and accessibility; the new CEO appointment and related benefits and values; and our plans, expectations and objectives. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, risks relating to our ability to achieve broad market education and change consumer purchasing habits; changes in medication pricing and pricing structures; our reliance on a limited number of industry participants; and the important factors discussed under the caption “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, and our other filings with the SEC. Any such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, projections and estimates as of the date of this press release. While we may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views to change. View source version on businesswire.com : https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241216730604/en/ press@goodrx.com KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HEALTH TECHNOLOGY TELEMEDICINE/VIRTUAL MEDICINE HEALTH TECHNOLOGY HEALTH INSURANCE PHARMACEUTICAL INTERNET SOURCE: GoodRx Holdings, Inc. Copyright Business Wire 2024. PUB: 12/16/2024 04:05 PM/DISC: 12/16/2024 04:04 PM http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241216730604/en(Excerpted from Rendering Unto Caesar, by Bradman Weerakoon) Most important visitors to the country called over at Temple Trees to pay their respects to the prime minister. One of the most interesting of these occasions was the morning the West Indies cricket team called over on the initiative of Felix Goonewardene, then Editor of the Times of Ceylon. While world class on the field, most of them like Garfield Sobers and the legendary three W’s Walcott, Weekes and Worrell were distinctly uncomfortable in the prime minister’s presence. Exceptional among them were Conrad Hunte, who spoke eloquently of his MRA (Moral Rearmament) connections and the dashing Rohan Kanhai. Conference of Six Afro-Asian Non-aligned Countries December 1962 Towards the end of 1962 the situation on the disputed China-India border in the snow-bound Himalayan and Karakoram ranges had deteriorated and the occasional skirmishing between the border guards had broken out into open war between the two countries. Conflict between the two giants of the non-aligned world who had proclaimed “panchseela” and particularly the peaceful resolution of disputes between nations, was embarrassing to say the least to those who had paraded non-alignment as the best way forward for the developing nations in an increasingly divided Cold-War driven world. It led to the Afro-Asian community taking up the issue and deliberating on what should be done to prevent full-scale war between the two former friends. Sirimavo took the initiative in convening a meeting in- Colombo in early December, which brought together Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia and General Ne Win of Burma, in addition to representatives from the United Arab Republic, Indonesia and Ghana. It was the first international conference I had participated in and what struck me was the extreme formality of the occasion the set speeches made by the participants and the overly effusive compliments each gave the other. I was also surprised at the sight of the delegation leaders changing their suits for each session of the meeting. The Conference lasted only a day and it seemed as if they wanted to make sure they were noticed. It was agreed that the prime minister of Ceylon and three or four of the other leaders should visit China and India before the end of the month; so Felix, Glannie Peiris and I accompanied Sirimavo on the visits to Peking and New Delhi. First to China to meet Chou En-lai and Mao Tse Tung and then to India to speak with Jawaharlal Nehru The Chinese looked upon the visit as both a mission on behalf of the Colombo powers as well as a state visit of a prime minister of Ceylon to their country, and Sirimavo was received in a right royal manner. It was winter and very cold in Hong Kong and we bought as much warm clothing as we could to protect ourselves from the freezing temperatures that we were warned we would face in Peking. From Hong Kong to Canton, our first stop in the People’s Republic was by train, as no air flights existed in view of the hostile nature of the relations between Hong Kong then a British colony, and China. I recorded the entry of a Sri Lankan Prime Minister into China for the first time in a piece I did on our return for Ceylon Today, the monthly journal of the Department of Information in the following terms: “At Samchun, where a little iron bridge marks the frontier between the People’s Republic of China and the new territory leased to Hong Kong on the mainland, the prime minister was received by the vice-governor of Kwangtung Province and Chinese protocol officials. His Excellency Hsieh Ke-Hsi, Chinese Ambassador in Ceylon, also accompanied the party from there on in the special train to Canton. “After a three-hour train journey through a countryside strikingly similar to rural Ceylon, with its paddy fields and irrigation channels, Canton was reached. At the railway station a reception had been organized and the prime minister was formally welcomed to the city by the provincial governor of Kwangtung. Long lines of children carrying the flags of Ceylon and China cheered the prime minister shouting, “Long Live Friendship between China and Ceylon.” “Outside, in the station square, several thousands of people, dancers in traditional lion costumes, and bands playing Chinese music greeted the delegation. After inspecting an impressive army Guard-of-Honour and reviewing the march-past, the prime minister, was formally welcomed to the People’s Republic of China by the governor of Kwantung, who referred to the friendly relations that bound the people of the two countries together and to the common desire of the people of China and Ceylon for peace. “The train ride into Canton and the People’s Republic was interesting for its first impressions of the contrast between the bustling, over-crowded, capital-driven city of Hong Kong and the rather bleak and forlorn appearance of the mainland. But as we entered the territory of China marked by the small iron bridge and many sign boards, the hospitality of the Chinese customs and railway staff who took over was evident. “The friendliness of the waitresses with their trays of steaming mugs of green tea, from then on to Canton was infectious. The first sights of the Chinese countryside in deep winter, however, were not very encouraging. Groups of solemn-faced men and women dressed in identical blue tunic suits, waved little paper `lion’ flags as the train passed on. Canton itself was a large and active city. Much of the population seemed to be on the move on bicycles. Their noses and mouths were masked in gauze, as we learned, to prevent the spread of infection and to protect them from the bitterly cold wind.” In recent Chinese history Canton had been the centre of revolutionary ferment. It is here that the Opium War had its beginnings and the revolution which ushered in Dr Sun Yat Sen’s proclamation of a Chinese revolutionary movement gained ground. That afternoon, the prime minister visited the site of the Peasant Movement Institute. After a day or two of being feted in Canton, where we were equipped with heavy fur overcoats and headgear, so that we all looked, as Felix remarked ‘like cuddlesome teddy bears’, we left for Peking where the temperature was 10 degrees below zero. Sirimavo was to make a little ‘thank you’ speech as she came down the gangway and set foot on Chinese soil for the first time, but she wasn’t able to do so. The cold was so intense that although she tried to move her lips no sound came forth. The speech was finally made in the warm reception area well inside the airport building. The meetings with the Chinese side, with Chou En-lai sitting opposite Sirimavo at the table, went into the evening hours when we would adjourn for some Chinese ballet and dinner which was always a feast. The story-line of the ballet or opera was invariably about the incursions of invaders of the past into Chinese territory. The interpretation which came over our headphones was by Chou En-lai’s personal translator, a young man with a strong American accent since he had had his early education in the United States. Hearing snatches of the interpreted dialogue like the heroine asking: “Where is the pass?” and the peasant’s reply: “There ain’t no pass” in a broad American drawl, as we watched Chinese opera in the heart of Peking, was uncanny. Felix was a great source of strength throughout. Sirimavo passed the baton over to him and he responded magnificently. He intervened, even cross-examined, of course, with great respect and courtesy, at every opportunity. The Chinese were determined to show us that their move over the Himalayas, both on the eastern and western fronts, was right and just and that all they were doing was to correct an anomaly and go up to their historic boundary. The conference table was littered with maps of the Himalayan heights and we heard mention of the MacMahon Line and the Ladakh Plateau and the passes so often during those days that they almost became part of our dreams. A ceasefire was in place before we arrived and the Colombo powers delegation’s plan was to consolidate this and prevent a recurrence of conflict. After four days of discussions we agreed on a communique which we were then to put to the Chinese side. It was difficult coming to a final agreement. The Chinese strategy in negotiation at the time, seemed to be to agree fairly easily to the principle when the leaders met, but to fight it out to the bitter end when the officials worked on the draft. I recall one occasion in the middle of the night – we were leaving early the next morning – when Sirimavo had to be put up to speak on the telephone to Chou En-lai, who was at the same Guest House, to object to a particular phraseology that the Chinese officials wanted us to adopt. It did not take long for Chou to agree to our formulation. I felt that this was a useful negotiating ploy, to go for the maximum but to be prepared to back-down, if the opposition was too great. A minor disaster that we had to face after the China visit was a reported reference in the speech – one of many that Sirimavo made – replying to the toast proposed at the dinner accorded by Chou En-lai. I was responsible for the general speeches like those at dinner and receptions, and had been very careful in drafting about any references to Taiwan, the United Sates and the West. However, although we had not realized it at the time the prime minister was making her speech, the words ‘rapacious West’ appeared in the text, as reported. We actually became aware of it only when we returned to Ceylon as all of us in the delegation were so caught up in the euphoria, which the very act of being in China creates, that nobody realized that we had unwittingly made a slip. When we checked on our notes, Felix, Glannie and I could not imagine how these words had crept in. Finally we came to the conclusion that it must have been inserted in the final draft by someone who had an axe to grind in the embassy. The finger pointed to the embassy, although there was no proof of it. It taught me a very good lesson as to how careful one had to be with the final copy. We took quite some time to shrug off the ‘rapacious West’ comment which the press kept reminding Sirimavo about for several months. The visit to New Delhi was noteworthy in that it marked the visible nearing of the end of an era in which the great Nehru had dominated the politics, not only in India but the entire region. I will never forget one late afternoon’s image of a very tired, ageing and bald Nehru having removed his Nehru cap without which I had never seen a photograph of him, walking slowly down the corridor of the South Bloc where his offices were, after a long and not successful round of discussions with our side. The Himalayas which had been the ‘Great Wall’ of India from time immemorial had been breached and in his historian’s vision of India’s oneness, her purity violated. His policy of friendship with neighbouring countries, especially China had not yielded the expected response. Life, it appeared, would never be the same for him. We were put up at the Rashtrapati Bhavan itself as the president of India’s guests. It was my first visit there and I was immensely impressed at the sense of power, the architecture, the layout of the gardens and the dress of the uniformed guards. Everything about it exuded majesty, enormous size and strength. The British architect had indeed succeeded in memorializing the immense potency of the Raj’s imperial presence. Even the old habits and behaviour seemed to yet live, as I was reminded by the “Any one for tennis this afternoon?” query, aired by the young adjutant doing protocol duty for our team, in a very Oxonian accent at his colleagues passing by, as he walked us down the stately corridors to our suites. State Visits to the Socialist Countries Our relations with the socialist-bloc countries were so good that we made state visits to several countries which had been earlier `out of bounds’. In addition to Poland, Czechoslovakia and the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany and the eastern side of Berlin separated by the famous Berlin Wall) we were welcome guests in the Soviet Union in the summer of 1962. After three days of talks and the signing of agreements in Moscow we toured, sometimes by Aeroflot and at other times by train to Leningrad (St Petersburg). The Hermitage museum was a special treat, especially to art lover Lakshmi Bandaranaike, and Volvograd, earlier Stalingrad, where during the great `patriotic war’ almost a million Soviet troops had died during a six-month siege was impressive. I was able to capture the moment in Sirimavo’s speech that morning when she was presented, by the Mayor of Volvograd, with a small silver box containing the soil of the city ‘made sacred by the blood of heroic men’. T B Subasinghe, who with his beautiful wife Lalitha made a very effective contribution as our ambassador, was very complimentary about the prime minister’s speech. Sirimavo was a very special guest of Khrushchev, the general secretary of the Communist Party, and prime minister of the Soviet Union. He was a bluff and earthy man with a homely wife, who called a spade a spade and the two leaders got on very well together. Sirimavo who was very particular about observing the regulations, asked me whether she could keep the gift that Khrushchev presented her with. I observed that since it was a personal gift, albeit of considerable value, she would be well entitled to keep it on refunding to the state its nominal value. The question of state gifts continued to be one which always was a concern with the leaders I worked with. When could they be retained by the recipient and in what circumstances should they in terms of the Establishment Code, be returned to the State to be kept in the Colombo museum? The logic behind the rules was that since the taxpayer paid for the gift that was given outwards usually in those days the familiar ebony elephant, caparisoned in silver Kandyan filigree work and encrusted with semi-precious stones, the inward gift also should go to the taxpayer via the Colombo museum. As a postscript I would add that state gifts today are of much lesser intrinsic value though highly imaginative. The recent state gifts to President George Bush, for example, included in addition to a beautiful coffee-table book, Geoffrey Bawa’s Lunuganga, a substantial block of recycled writing paper. The recycling was of elephant dung, and on hearing this, a recent British visitor remarked that this was indeed an appropriate gift considering the present times. In Moscow in view of the special relationship that we enjoyed with the Soviet Union, we were not put up at one of the many state guest houses or the state-owned hotels, but were given luxurious suites in the Kremlin Palace itself The Kremlin, contrary to the forbidding and gloomy picture that years of negative media publicity had evoked, was a highly decorative, heavily ornamented, museum-like place. The onion-shaped spires of the familiar exterior seemed to flow into the elaborate interior decor. Everywhere there was gold ornamentation not only in the large armchairs of the suites and on the solid headrest of the enormous bed, but even in the bathrooms where the knobs of the water taps appeared to have received a heavy coating of gold. We got a good sense of the basic richness of the Soviet Union, and its heritage from Tsarist times, which was being carefully and proudly, preserved by its present rulers most of the time. The Ceylon touch after the dinner given at the Kremlin by Khrushchev was the welcome appearance of Chitrasena and Vajira doing excerpts of their ballet ‘Karadiya’. The evening before we had been mesmerized by the grace and sylph-like dancing of the Russian ballerinas in ‘Swan Lake’ at the Bolshoi Theatre. Vajira, then in her prime, did us all proud with the fluid agility and statuesque beauty of her dancing and came a very close second to the star performers of the Bolshoi, the home of classical ballet. Harvard in the Summer of 1963 In August, Henry Kissinger, then Professor of International Relations at Harvard, invited me to the International Seminar he annually convened, during the three-month summer vacation. This was a good opportunity to go back to ‘school’ after my 1952-53 year at Michigan where I first did my post-graduate work in Sociology. Kissinger even then was quite a character with strong opinions. When we asked him how he would like to be addressed – Dr or Professor – he rather grandly replied, “Just call me Kissinger.” The link with Kissinger was to prove very useful when he moved to Washington later on as the National Security Advisor in the Kennedy administration. The stay at Harvard was significant for a particular incident which indicated the way in which the United States administration went about its business. One day I had a call from Washington asking whether someone from the state department could call on me at Harvard. It was to ‘tap’ me on what was going on back home. I never found out whether he was from the CIA, but he certainly asked me a whole lot of probing questions that day.

AP Business SummaryBrief at 3:14 p.m. ESTWASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin bucked his party in 2021 when he refused to support a $1.8 trillion bill on taxes, social programs and clean energy, thus dooming President Joe Biden's "Build Back Better" initiative. Then this month, in one of his final actions as a member of Congress, he also bucked his party and voted against a nominee that would have continued the Democratic majority on the National Labor Relations Board once both he and Biden leave office. In between, Manchin played outsized roles in Biden's economic stimulus program and his infrastructure bill, as well as the smaller climate change and health care law that came out of the wreckage of Build Back Better. In exit interviews, Manchin, I-W.Va., said his former party had gone too far to the left and left him in a position he did not want — the one individual who could make or break legislation. "I did not run for that position," Manchin told the Washington Post. "I did not try to wedge myself in that and be the deciding vote." He said he made it clear once the Democrats won the trifecta of the White House, Senate and House in 2021 that he was not going to be a guaranteed "yes" vote. "I don't work for you," he said he told his colleagues, according to the Post interview. "You didn't hire me and you can't fire me. I work for the people of West Virginia on behalf of the United States government. That's who I have to answer to, and if this stuff doesn't make sense no matter how bad you want it, I can't vote for it." None of Biden's major accomplishments — the economic stimulus package, the infrastructure law, the climate change and health care measure, and the funding to bring manufacturing, including those of computer chips, back to the U.S. — would have passed without Manchin's vote. "Each of these victories required senators to come together from both sides of the aisle to find solutions for Americans," he said on the Senate floor earlier this month in his farewell speech. "These were bills that just made common sense. And when each side could take just a little step to find common ground, powerful things have happened." In his closing weeks as a senator, he touted funding in those bills for clean energy manufacturing in West Virginia coal communities, for a new hanger at a small West Virginia airport and for a carbon storage hub in the state. He singled out the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (Arch2), which will receive up to $925 million in federal funding for projects in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky. "You can't eliminate your way to a cleaner environment, you can innovate it," Manchin said in his floor speech. "That's why we funded the development of regional hydrogen hubs and made sure one of them would be in the Appalachia region." His closing words on the Senate floor also talked about the need for lawmakers to work together, and his support for the filibuster that requires 60 votes — support from both parties — to pass legislation. But it didn't always work, he said. Popular legislation such as overhauling immigration laws and expanding background checks for guns failed, he said. "These opportunities were missed because we've let politics get in the way of doing our job," he said in his floor speech. "I am not saying that dealing with politics is easy. It's not. It's messy. I've had my share of tough votes. At times, I have felt like the whole Senate was united — in being upset with me. So sometimes I guess we did come together." Harsh words for Democrats Manchin officially left the Democratic Party in May and registered as an independent. He continued to caucus with his fellow Democrats until the end. But he's leaving office with some harsh words for the party he left behind. After all, he said, he wasn't the only person who left the Democratic Party. "The brand got so bad. The 'D' brand has been so maligned from the standpoint of — it's just — it's toxic," he said in the CNN interview. He said Democrats have been telling people what they have to believe in and what they have to do, no matter how outrageous. "The Democrat I grew up being, they wanted to make sure that people had an opportunity for a good job, a good pay," he told CNN. "I will protect you. Just don't try to mainstream it. And the Democratic Party, the Washington Democrats, have tried to mainstream the extreme. ...They have — they have basically, expanded upon thinking, well, we want to protect you there, but we're going to tell you how you should live your life." He never endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president in 2024, and said the election results showed that Americans didn't want someone on the left. He said it was "nuts" and "completely insane" to say Harris lost because she wasn't progressive enough. The problem was that her liberal voting record made it hard for her to pivot to the center in the fall campaign, he said, "They're saying if Kamala would have been who she always has been, pretty far to the left, it would have been better for her. That's crazy," Manchin told CNN. "Basically, she was having a hard time trying to come back to the middle and then speak about it with any conviction. If you try to be somebody you're not, it's hard." Manchin resisted entreaties that he run for president as an independent in 2024, lest he be a spoiler. But he said there was room for a real third party. "The centrist part of both parties," he said on CNN. "So the centrist moderate vote decides who's going to be the president of the United States. And when they get here, they don't govern that way. Neither side does. They go to their respective corners. So if a centrist had a voice and had a party that could make both of these, the Democrat and Republican Party come back, OK, that would be something." Manchin told CNN that the new organization would be called the American Party, and while he wouldn't lead it, "I'll be the best cheerleader they've ever had." (c)2024 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Visit the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at www.post-gazette.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Dejan Kulusevski rescues draw for Tottenham to deny Rangers

Ryan Outerbridge is set to compete in the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships in Sacramento, California, tomorrow [November 23]. For the 21-year-old, it marks a remarkable journey of resilience and recovery. In 2021, Outerbridge suffered a heart attack while competing for Franklin Pierce University at the Lewis Crossover meet in Chicago. “When it first happened, I didn’t even know what had happened,” Outerbridge recalled in an . “I remember waking up on the ground, not much else. The whole ride to the hospital was blurry, in and out of consciousness. “It’s a pretty traumatising period of my life. I make jokes about it now and then, but it’s a cover-up of how big of a deal it really was.” Outerbridge spent two weeks wearing a heart monitor, his season abruptly cut short. Uncertainty loomed over his future in athletics, and the question of whether he would ever compete again weighed heavily on him. However, by January 2022, Outerbridge made a comeback, reclaiming his form and confidence, earning medals in relays at the NE10 Conference Indoor Championships later that same season. His went on to set personal records in the 5K and 8K races. Outerbridge also earned All-Conference First Team honours and achieved a top-ten finish at regionals, playing a crucial role in helping his team qualify for nationals—a feat accomplished only twice in Franklin Pierce University’s history. “It was like night and day, what can change in a year,” he said, reflecting on his recovery and resurgence in competitive running. Since his comeback, he has amassed an impressive collection of accolades, including three conference gold medals in the 1,500 metres, 4×800 relay, and steeplechase. This year, he also finished second behind Lamont Marshall in the Bermuda Half-Marathon Derby. “Running has been my passion since I was seven or eight years old,” he said. “It’s hard to speak up about what happened, but running on this stage—it’s what I always wanted.” “Looking back, words can’t even explain how I feel. To see where I’ve come in my collegiate career—it’s something I carry with me every time I step on the course.” : ,NFL will consider replay assist for facemask penalties and other plays

Archaeologists have found 28 graves of people who were enslaved by Andrew Jackson at his Hermitage plantation in Tennessee. At the time of his presidency, from 1829 to 1837, Jackson enslaved 95 people, and for nearly a century, more than 300 people were enslaved by the Jackson family. "It is historically significant, after decades of searching, that we are highly confident we have found the cemetery for people who were enslaved at The Hermitage," Jason Zajac, president and CEO of the Andrew Jackson Foundation, said in a statement . During the late 18th and early 19th century, Jackson trafficked people between his home in Nashville and other parts of the U.S. South, and slavery was a primary source of his wealth . When he became the seventh president of the U.S., he brought people he enslaved to the White House . In 1804, Jackson purchased 425 acres (172 hectares) of land in Nashville and named the property The Hermitage. By the time of Jackson's death in 1845, the plantation had grown to encompass more than 1,000 acres (405 hectares). Although the land has changed hands over the years, "nothing has ever been built on the [cemetery] site and crops have never been grown there," Tony Guzzi, chief of preservation and site operations at The Hermitage, said in the statement, "keeping it as undisturbed as possible over the last 180 years." Related: Coins worth over $1 million recovered from 1715 Spanish treasure shipwrecks in Florida While previous attempts to locate the long-lost graves of the people enslaved by Jackson were unsuccessful, technological advances and new funding led to the cemetery's discovery earlier this year. Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox. Archaeologists discovered the cemetery in January about 1,000 feet (305 meters) from the main plantation house, on a slight hill at the edge of a creek, after experts used maps, surveys and aerial images to identify graves that were referenced in a 1935 report. The team cleared invasive plants from a 5-acre (2 hectares) search area, which allowed them to see rows of depressions that strongly suggested the presence of a cemetery. To avoid disturbing the graves, the archaeologists used ground-penetrating radar, which "is a crucial first step for characterizing unmarked burial sites such as this one," Steven Wernke , an archaeologist at the Vanderbilt Institute for Spatial Research, said in the statement, "as it identifies probable locations of the final resting places of the individuals buried at the Hermitage." — Long-lost homestead of King Pompey, enslaved African who gained freedom, found in colonial New England — Plantation slavery was invented on this tiny African island, according to archaeologists — Enslaved people were kidnapped from all across Africa, rare look at DNA from colonial cemetery reveals "Locating the physical remains of these individuals is a strong reminder of what this landscape was and what it represented — historically, an elite white space, a plantation and a place of enslavement sustained by arduous labor and sacrifice of Black bodies," Carlina de la Cova , a bioarchaeologist at the University of South Carolina who was not involved in the project, told Live Science in an email. Although the radar study identified 28 possible graves, "not all of them may turn out to actually be graves," according to Zajac, and additional graves may be found in the future. "Our work here is just beginning," he said. Pam Koban, the board chair at the Andrew Jackson Foundation, said in the statement that the cemetery "will become an educational staple that is central to the story of The Hermitage." The Foundation is working to assemble an advisory committee of historians and descendants of people who were enslaved on the property to help make decisions about how to preserve and present the site, Koban said.