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A United Kingdom-based businessman, Mr. Blessing Akinleminu, has raised the alarm over plans by the Ondo State Police Command and Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 17, Akure, to sweep the case of his alleged attack by some political thugs under the carpet. Akinleminu, who said he was attacked a few days before the last governorship election in the state by political hoodlums in Idanre community, in Idanre Local Government Area of the state, on 12 November, alleged that the police had been treating the case with kid gloves. According to him, some hoodlums suspected to be political thugs attacked him and shot him in the stomach. He said that despite reporting the incident to the police, they had failed to conduct an investigation into the matter. He maintained that none of the attackers had been arrested since then, alleging that both the offices of the state Commissioner of Police and the AIG have been treating the case with kid gloves. In a statement made available to our correspondent by Akinleminu’s lawyer, Mr. John Olowookere, it was alleged that the attackers had been identified while a petition had been written to the office of the AIG. However, the petition was allegedly suppressed and left unattended. The statement read: “It is our brief also that on or about the 12th day of November 2024, our client (Blessing) was at a place in Idanre, his hometown, with some of his friends together with the two police officers officially assigned to him for his security protection, when all of a sudden, some armed men (some were masked) invaded the place and attacked our client with gunshots. His friends were badly injured, while the police officers were practically helpless in the circumstances, as the attack was sudden and calculated to eliminate our client. “Upon the gunshot received by our client on the side of his stomach from the assailants, our client was rushed to the University of Medical Sciences Specialist Hospital, Akure, Ondo State, where he received medical treatment. He was admitted at the hospital before being moved by his family to another hospital in Akure for intensive medical attention to save his life. “It is further briefed that the ugly incident of the attack was reported first at Alade Police Station and later at Idanre Divisional Police Station, but both stations treated it with kid gloves, which prompted our client to retain the services of a legal practitioner to submit a formal petition to the AIG for discreet police investigation. “The lawyer submitted the petition dated 14 November 2024, and it was approved for necessary investigation. “However, to the consternation of our client, investigation into the aforementioned petition was deliberately suppressed by the police at the AIG’s office without any valid reason for why the incident was not investigated, even though the petition had been approved for discreet police investigation. “This unhealthy and sad development frustrated our client to return to his base in the United Kingdom, against his initial intention to stay for a while in the country.” The legal practitioner called on the government and other stakeholders to assist his client in getting justice, claiming that the alleged perpetrators were still moving around the town untouched. “Our client is crying to high heaven, calling on the government and well-meaning members of society to rise to the occasion and defend the cause of our client against the suspects, who are now boastfully moving around Idanre town, claiming they are untouchable and that they are the reason why the case was not investigated to date. “It is on this note that we are calling on all relevant stakeholders to come to the aid of our client before it is too late. This is the highest demand for justice that we have ever made.” While reacting, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Funmi Odunlami, denied the allegation, saying the command was properly handling the case when the complainant requested the AIG to handle it. She said: “The investigation was ongoing when he (Blessing) said he wanted his case to be handled by Zone 17 (AIG), not that the case was not handled properly,” the PPRO explained. When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of Zone 17, Mr. Akeem Adeola, said he was not aware of the complainant’s petition but would find out. “It is not possible for the zone to get the petition and not act on it. I will find out when I get to the office tomorrow (Friday),” Adeola said.

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OpenAI has partnered with defense startup Anduril Industries to develop AI for the Pentagon. The companies said on Wednesday that they’ll combine OpenAI’s models, including GPT-4o and OpenAI o1 , with Anduril’s systems and software to improve the US military’s defenses against unpiloted aerial attacks. The deal comes less than a year after OpenAI softened its stance on using its models for military purposes. Although the ChatGPT maker’s policies still prohibit its models from developing or using weapons, it deleted a line in January that explicitly banned integrating its tech into “military and warfare” use. The company said at the time it was already working with DARPA on cybersecurity tools. In October, the company hired a former Palantir security officer and was reportedly pitching its products to the US military and national security establishment. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement An OpenAI spokesperson told The Washington Post that the deal complies with the company’s rules because it focuses on systems that defend against pilotless aerial threats. The company said the partnership doesn’t cover other uses. According to The Washington Post , the OpenAI-Anduril partnership will aim to improve the latter’s tech for detecting and shooting down drones threatening the US military and its allies. The Pentagon already buys Anduril’s Roadrunner drone interceptor (pictured above) to help counter the rise of smaller drones on the world’s battlefields. The startup sells sentry towers, comms jammers, military drones and an autonomous submarine, among other projects. The companies framed the partnership as a way to defend US military personnel and counter China’s advancing AI. “Our partnership with OpenAI will allow us to utilize their world-class expertise in artificial intelligence to address urgent Air Defense capability gaps across the world,” Anduril CEO Brian Schimpf wrote in a statement. “Together, we are committed to developing responsible solutions that enable military and intelligence operators to make faster, more accurate decisions in high-pressure situations.” Anduril was co-founded by Oculus Rift inventor (and Oculus VR co-founder) Palmer Luckey. That headset laid the foundation for the Meta Quest lineup , which today holds the lion’s share of the VR and AR market. Luckey left Meta (then Facebook) in 2017 , months after news broke that he donated $10,000 to a group aiming to post 4chan-style anti-Hillary Clinton memes on roadside billboards. “OpenAI builds AI to benefit as many people as possible, and supports U.S.-led efforts to ensure the technology upholds democratic values,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in a statement. “Our partnership with Anduril will help ensure OpenAI technology protects U.S. military personnel, and will help the national security community understand and responsibly use this technology to keep our citizens safe and free.”

Long COVID is snuffing out some patients' dreams of having children, sharpening the pain of loss, grief and medical neglect. When Melanie Broadley and her husband started going out in 2019, like many couples their age they decided to put "starting a family" on the shelf for a few years so they could focus on their careers. A postdoctoral researcher who studies diabetes and psychology, Broadley was 28 and in good health — she had plenty of time, she reasoned. Then, in 2022, she caught SARS-CoV-2 and developed long COVID, blowing up her life as she knew it and, for now at least, her hopes of having a baby. "I became totally disabled by long COVID," says Broadley, 34, who lives at her parents' house in Brisbane. On a good day she struggles with debilitating fatigue that worsens after any kind of physical or mental activity, an autonomic nervous system disorder called postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome ( ), which causes her heart rate to spike when she stands up, cognitive dysfunction that means she can't read or write for more than 10 minutes at a time, and an immune disorder, called , that triggers allergic reactions. Even though she's been doing everything she can to recover, she's still too unwell to cope with a potential pregnancy. And it hurts. "I wasn't ever going to be a young mum but for at least the last three or four years it's definitely been something I've wanted," Broadley says. "When I'm watching a TV show about pregnancy or birth or miscarriage I become emotionally affected — it feels like my drive to have a child is almost biological, it's something I need to do ... So I really worry that if I don't have a kid, it's something I will regret and feel pain about for the rest of my life." For millions of people with long COVID around the world, the pandemic is not just a minor nuisance or a bad memory but a daily waking nightmare. The disabling chronic illness is taking a devastating toll on patients' health, stopping many from working, exercising, socialising and living independently. But long COVID is also snuffing out some patients' dreams of having children, and complicating pregnancy and parenthood for those who choose to conceive despite their symptoms and doubts about when or if they will recover. Partly it's because they are simply too sick to have a baby; some can barely care for themselves, let alone a tiny human. Others worry that pregnancy could worsen their condition and are hoping they'll get better in time to consider conceiving while they still can. But for many, getting good advice about fertility and reproductive health is a stressful, confusing experience that is frequently complicated by a lack of research — and lack of awareness and education among medical practitioners. And it's creating a huge well of uncertainty and sadness, deepening feelings of loss and grief that patients and their families have been nursing privately for years. "So many patients talk about how they've lost the ability to do the things that make them them ... or to contribute to society in ways that feel meaningful, to create," says Beth Pollack, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studies long COVID, myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS) and other infection-associated chronic illnesses. "And for some patients, having a child is another thing that they mourn. But until we sufficiently ... fund comprehensive research that looks at all of the different ways these illnesses impact the body, unfortunately this significant loss will continue." Melanie Broadley recently saw a fertility specialist to talk about her options. Perhaps egg freezing was a possibility — if she could "stop the clock", she thought, she could take some pressure off her long COVID recovery. But her doctor's advice — that she was not well enough to go through several cycles of hormone injections and egg retrieval — took her by surprise. "He said, 'Let's just try to improve your overall health so you can try to fall pregnant naturally'," she says the specialist told her. "I felt slightly annoyed by that. All I've been doing for the last two-and-a-half years is trying to improve my health. The fact is, with long COVID you can be doing everything 'right' and still be completely disabled." She left the appointment feeling numb. "I just felt like I had no good options. I'm aging, and everyone's telling me that's a problem, but I'm sick, and everyone's telling me that's a problem, and I can't control either of those things," Broadley says. "I'm feeling like my only hope to have a child is spontaneous recovery from long COVID but I don't have a lot of faith in that happening." Even though she has seen some improvement in her symptoms lately, she's still stuck in bed for 20 hours a day, still taking 20 pills a day. "So I'm feeling quite deflated, and I'm starting to try to imagine my life without children." Though , some researchers have calculated that are suffering from long COVID, with an Australian study this year finding were still experiencing persistent symptoms like fatigue, cognitive dysfunction and sleep problems three months after testing positive to the virus. As with other infection-associated chronic illnesses, women — especially pre-menopausal women — are to have long COVID than men, suggesting may play a role. Other risk factors include infection severity, pre-existing health problems, genetics, the and . There is no cure and no approved treatments for long COVID, which scientists believe has several : that lingers in certain tissues, inflammation and , autoimmunity, , , organ damage and . Instead, while they wait for the results of clinical trials, patients can only manage their symptoms with medication, supplements, rehabilitation therapies and their activities — often a frustrating, expensive process of trial and error. As for how long COVID affects reproductive health, by Beth Pollack and her colleagues last year found there was a severe lack of research. Emerging evidence suggests long COVID can affect women's menstrual cycles, ovarian health and fertility, while studies of related and overlapping conditions like ME/CFS, POTS and connective tissue disorders show female patients experience higher rates of menstrual cycle changes, ovarian dysfunction, uterine fibroids and other issues. SARS-CoV-2 may also affect male fertility, with finding men who were infected with the virus had temporarily lower sperm numbers and concentration and the of erectile dysfunction. There's also scant research on pregnancy and long COVID, ME/CFS and POTS, which can make family planning even harder for patients — or at least those who are in a position to consider having a baby. What if pregnancy reduces your already low baseline — not an unreasonable question given up to 10 per cent of patients report that . Could your illness affect your child's health? Will you fully recover from the stress and strain of labour? What about caring for a newborn, breastfeeding, sleep deprivation? In roughly equal numbers of ME/CFS patients reported that their symptoms improved, stayed the same or got worse during pregnancy, with no clear reasons as to why. But the means there are , leaving patients, their partners and healthcare providers unable to make informed decisions. "Reproductive health issues are a common and very impactful part of these illnesses," Pollack says. For instance, many women report a of their long COVID symptoms in the days before their period, and one small study found more than a third of female ME/CFS patients , which can affect fertility. "It is imperative that we study reproductive health, sex hormone fluctuations, menstrual cycles, reproductive phases and pregnancy within infection-associated chronic illnesses," Pollack says. "There are researchers in the field who very much want to study this and have submitted grant applications ... but it often comes down to who gets funding, what research is funded." In the interim, patients and their doctors are muddling through as best they can. "The question of 'what does long COVID mean for family planning?' has started coming through, especially from women in their 20s, 30s and 40s," says Naomi Whyler, a general medicine and infectious diseases physician at Clinic Nineteen, a long COVID clinic in Australia. She generally talks to patients who are considering having a baby about managing POTS, which can worsen during pregnancy, and sleep hygiene, and coming off contraindicated medications well in advance of conceiving. "It can be really hard, especially for first-timers who haven't been through a pregnancy before, to understand what they should expect from pregnancy and then relate that to long COVID," Whyler says. But people with long COVID aren't just stumbling around in the dark with pregnancy. Some patients are running into trouble with common fertility procedures — and the medical practitioners who provide them. For as long as she can remember, Amanda, a white-collar professional who lives in Sydney, has wanted to be a mother. "Every big decision I've made has been about what's going to be best for having kids in the future," she says — which neighbourhoods she moved to, the jobs she applied for, how she'd use her annual leave allowance. "It's always been in the back of my mind that if I don't have a partner by age 34, then I'm just going to go ahead and have a child on my own." Amanda was diagnosed with long COVID, POTS, mast cell activation syndrome and — a connective tissue disorder — after she caught the virus in 2022, when she was 32. By the end of the year she'd deteriorated so much that she made an appointment with a fertility specialist, hoping to start the process of conceiving with donor sperm before she got any worse. "I was quite concerned about how pregnancy might affect my health and whether I'd be well enough to look after a baby, especially as a single mother," says Amanda, a pseudonym to protect her privacy. "Ultimately I decided it wouldn't be feasible — by that stage I was housebound so things weren't looking promising, at least for the foreseeable future." Instead, Amanda decided to freeze her eggs — maybe she'd recover enough to use them down the line. She fully expected that the hormone injections would have side effects but they flipped her long COVID symptoms into "a different stratosphere", she says. The retrieval procedure was another challenge. Her medical team weren't familiar with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which makes her joints prone to dislocation, nor were they aware that in people with POTS. She put her requests for extra care in writing and went into surgery feeling optimistic. But she woke up in a chair, her head lolled to one side and her shoulder and several ribs partially dislocated, feeling cold, weak and dizzy. "I'm still in a neck brace, 24/7, all these months later." At least the surgery was a success; 16 eggs were collected, which was a huge relief. "But my health definitely took a big knock during that procedure and I've deteriorated quite a lot since then — I've been bed bound since May," Amanda says. Now 35, she's in a kind of limbo, wedged between the uncertainty of whether she'll recover from long COVID and the "ticking clock" of her fertility. "Hopefully there will be more research and eventually better treatments for long COVID and I just hope it will be at a time when it's still viable for me to have a child," she says. "But now I'm just hoping to recover enough that I can meet someone who maybe already has children. That feels like a more realistic goal." Laura Allen is familiar with stories like these — of people with long COVID struggling to find medical practitioners who are educated about their illness and willing to help. Patients in their 30s sometimes reach out for advice on conception and pregnancy and ask "questions we can't answer", says Allen, telehealth manager at Emerge Australia, a support and advocacy organisation for people with ME/CFS and long COVID. But there are few places to refer them to; she isn't aware of any "well informed" obstetric and gynaecology care in Australia. "It's usually the person who lives with the illness who's educating the doctors," she says. It doesn't have to be this way. For decades before long COVID became a serious global health issue people with ME/CFS suffered from a lack of research into their illness and a lack of awareness and education among clinicians — Emerge Australia has described it as " ", a disability access issue. Governments need to take the problem more seriously, Allen says: they need to allocate more funding for clinical guidelines and, crucially, research into effective treatments so that patients can claw back some quality of life, enough energy and support to study or work or raise a family. "I think everyone has the right to have a child," she says. "This is impacting people at age 35 but we've got children coming through who are really sick too. We're looking at a generation who are going to grow up disabled who will eventually hit that age where, potentially, they've lost the right to have kids because ... they've never been given the right research, the right treatments, the right management." There's lots of research starting to happen overseas, Allen adds: "Why isn't that happening in Australia? We aren't a third-world country. We have money. We have capacity. It should be put into health." For Beth Pollack, the long COVID "knowledge gap" is reflective of the research gap — it always takes a while for research to filter through to medical front lines. "But I think it's very important to do [medical education] while we wait for more answers, because there's a lot we do know," she says. For instance, clinicians need to know how to diagnose long COVID and ME/CFS in the first place, she says, how to help patients manage their symptoms and, crucially, to screen for other conditions that commonly co-occur — especially reproductive health conditions. "It's important to screen so we can try to reduce diagnostic delays," Pollack says. "For decades patients have seen specialist after specialist and collected new diagnoses one by one — almost like Pokemon — as they continue to get sicker and sicker." What to do with all this suffering, this grief? Because the mental health consequences of chronic illness — of prolonged sickness, medical neglect, — are serious. Australia's heard from dozens of patients, many of them parents, who were deeply frustrated that they were unable to live the life they wanted. "I am 36 and have two small children who I am barely able to parent any longer," said Angela O'Connor, a neuroscientist who couldn't work because of long COVID. "I feel like a crushed shell of a human being who will only become more of a burden to her family and the health system as I age." Father of two Daniel Moore's grief strikes in profound and quiet ways. "My biggest grief from ME is not being able to be the dad I want to be," Moore, 43, wrote on Twitter in 2022. A former social worker who lives in north-east England, Moore has struggled with unrelenting exhaustion, and cognitive dysfunction since he developed ME/CFS in 2018, two decades after he recovered from a seven-year bout of the illness as a teenager. His symptoms mean he must "micromanage" his energy and limit his activities; he misses going for walks and playing video games with his children and is constantly trying to find ways to relate to them that won't make him worse. "To lose that ability to go on adventures with them, that was the biggest thing," he says. "All of a sudden my world got smaller, but their world got smaller as well." Sometimes Facebook surfaces old photos of him and his family out and about in the world, before he got sick, catching him off guard. "It's quite painful, because I've had seven years out of my kids' life where I've not been able to do those things, and that also impacts my wife, because we've not been able to do things as a family together," says Moore, who co-hosts . But this grief, he adds — and the myriad ways long COVID and ME/CFS are splintering patients' lives — too often goes unacknowledged in the broader community. "There's so much focus on the medical side of things, the lack of treatment ... but I don't think there's a lot of conversation about the social side, the relational side — how we live our lives, basically, and people seeing the impact of that." Or the strategies patients are using to get by. Hayley Grant only realised that she might want children after she developed long COVID in 2022. A former primary school teacher who lives in Canberra, Grant, 33, knows she's not well enough right now — managing her heart issues and other symptoms is her priority. It's a major reason she isn't allowing her desire to grow. "I would love a family of my own one day but I don't want to hold onto that idea too tightly as there are a lot of 'ifs' and 'buts' in regards to my health and recovery," she says. "I don't want to have to grieve another thing that long COVID has taken." But this is not just a story of loss and despair. For all the lives up-ended by long COVID and ME/CFS, there are also glimmers of hope — of patients who have the means deciding that they're more comfortable taking a risk than giving up on their dreams. Some have been able to have children only because they have good support from friends, family and doctors who go the extra mile for them. That's not to say it's an easy ride. In the first few months after she developed long COVID in March 2020, Ashleigh Batchelor had serious doubts she was going to survive, let alone that she'd be able to conceive and give birth to a second child. Then 33, Batchelor, who lives in Scotland, struggled with crushing fatigue, POTS, nerve pain that felt like electricity running through her body, breathlessness, muscle tremors and eyesight changes. Unable to work, she lost her job training healthcare workers how to use surgical devices, her car, her health insurance, her fitness, her social life and her sense of self. But she was determined to have another baby, to give her young daughter a sibling. "I think I just got really stubborn," Batchelor, now 37, says. "I was like, long COVID has taken too much, you're not taking this — I do this." She knew she was rolling the dice, in a way; she was aware her symptoms might improve or get worse with pregnancy. But her GP was supportive of her plans and her family promised to rally for her if she and her husband couldn't cope. "Also, being a mum has always been written into my identity," she says. "I always just knew I wanted a family." Things did get rough. Her pregnancy followed a similar trajectory to her first but all her symptoms were "amplified" and at times her pain and fatigue were overwhelming. And although she received excellent care from some healthcare workers, there were also stressful interactions with others: the obstetrician who tried to derail her plan to have an elective c-section, the midwife who made "dismissive" and "belittling" remarks about long COVID and Batchelor's concerns for her unborn baby's health. But finally, in August 2022, her son arrived — a little miracle. On Instagram she posted a photo of him on her chest, moments after he was delivered, with a triumphant caption: "UP YOURS LONG COVID." Along the way Batchelor to help other women with long COVID navigate pregnancy and ask questions that often get lost in mainstream patient communities. "Because there are no textbook answers, and doctors don't always have the answers, the only option we have at the moment is to hear from people with lived experience who are happy to share," she says. It would make a big difference, she adds, if long COVID advocacy organisations included basic information about pregnancy in their educational resources: "Even if it's just case studies, ultimately with the line, 'It's a gamble — you just have to weigh up whether that gamble is right for you'." Still today Batchelor struggles with her long COVID symptoms — a weight she says she's better able to carry because she has the "patience and support" of her husband, Graham, who reassures her constantly that they're a team. She can do more than she could when she first got sick but her life is much smaller, much less active. Long COVID also affects her parenting. She can't just walk her kids to the park, for instance, because it drains her energy. "I'm actually even reluctant to take them to the park, or to soft plays, because there's lots of running around and they might fall off this or that," she says. "Even just the sensory overload of soft plays with kids screaming... it's a lot." But she has no regrets. "If anything, my kids have been my purpose, they've been the reason I keep going," she says. "Not to get too deep, but there have been points during long COVID where I've felt suicidal and ... you absolutely do not give that even a moment's thought because you have these two amazing children." Those nine months carrying her son, she adds, are her proudest achievement. "Screw sporting accomplishments, degrees, education, jobs, money earned, climbs to the top of Kilimanjaro — none of that. It's getting through pregnancy with long COVID. It was the most difficult and most rewarding thing I've ever done." Credits Related topics Babies COVID-19 Epidemics and Pandemics Family and Relationships Fertility and Infertility Parenting Pregnancy and Childbirth Reproduction and Contraception Women's Health

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DETROIT (AP) — If Donald Trump makes good on his threat to slap 25% tariffs on everything imported from Mexico and Canada, the price increases that could follow will collide with his campaign promise to give American families a break from inflation. Economists say companies would have little choice but to pass along the added costs, dramatically raising prices for food, clothing, automobiles, booze and other goods. The president-elect floated the tariff idea, including additional 10% taxes on goods from China, as a way to force the countries to halt the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs into the U.S. But his posts Monday on Truth Social threatening the tariffs on his first day in office could just be a negotiating ploy to get the countries to change behavior. High food prices were a major issue in voters picking Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris, but tariffs almost certainly would push those costs up even further. For instance, the Produce Distributors Association, a Washington trade group, said Tuesday that tariffs will raise prices for fresh fruit and vegetables and hurt U.S. farmers when other countries retaliate. “Tariffs distort the marketplace and will raise prices along the supply chain, resulting in the consumer paying more at the checkout line,” said Alan Siger, association president. Mexico and Canada are two of the biggest exporters of fresh fruit and vegetables to the U.S. In 2022, Mexico supplied 51% of fresh fruit and 69% of fresh vegetables imported by value into the U.S., while Canada supplied 2% of fresh fruit and 20% of fresh vegetables. Before the election, about 7 in 10 voters said they were very concerned about the cost of food, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters. “We’ll get them down,” Trump told shoppers during a September visit to a Pennsylvania grocery store. The U.S. is the largest importer of goods in the world, with Mexico, China and Canada its top three suppliers, according to the most recent U.S. Census data. People looking to buy a new vehicle likely would see big price increases as well, at a time when costs have gone up so much they are out of reach for many. The average price of a new vehicle now runs around $48,000. About 15% of the 15.6 million new vehicles sold in the U.S. last year came from Mexico, while 8% crossed the border from Canada, according to Global Data. Much of the tariffs would get passed along to consumers, unless automakers can somehow quickly find productivity improvements to offset them, said C.J. Finn, U.S. automotive sector leader for PwC, a consulting firm. That means even more consumers “would potentially get priced out,” Finn said. Hardest hit would be Volkswagen, Stellantis, General Motors and Ford, Bernstein analyst Daniel Roeska wrote Tuesday in a note to investors. “A 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada would severely cripple the U.S. auto industry,” he said. The tariffs would hurt U.S. industrial production so much that “we expect this is unlikely to happen in practice,” Roeska said. The tariff threat hit auto stocks on Tuesday, particularly shares of GM, which imports about 30% of the vehicles it sells in the U.S. from Canada and Mexico, and Stellantis, which imports about 40% from the two countries. For both companies, about 55% of their lucrative pickup trucks come from Mexico and Canada. GM shares were down more than 8% and Stellantis was off over 5%. It's not clear how long the tariffs would last if implemented, but they could force auto executives to move production to the U.S., which could create more jobs in the long run. But Morningstar analyst David Whiston said in the short term automakers probably won't make any moves because they can't quickly change where they build vehicles. Millions of dollars worth of auto parts flow across the borders with Mexico and Canada, and that could raise prices for already costly automobile repairs, Finn said. The Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. said tariffs on tequila or Canadian whisky won’t boost American jobs because they are distinctive products that can only be made in their country of origin. In 2023, the U.S. imported $4.6 billion worth of tequila and $108 million worth of mezcal from Mexico and $537 million worth of spirits from Canada, the council said. “At the end of the day, tariffs on spirits products from our neighbors to the north and south are going to hurt U.S. consumers and lead to job losses across the U.S. hospitality industry,” the council said. Electronics retailer Best Buy said on its third-quarter earnings conference call that it runs on thin profit margins, so while vendors and the company will shoulder some increases, Best Buy will have to pass tariffs to customers. “These are goods that people need, and higher prices are not helpful,” CEO Corie Barry said. Walmart also warned this week that tariffs could force it to raise prices, as did Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who talked with Trump after his call for tariffs, said they had a good conversation about how the countries can work together. "This is something that we can do, laying out the facts and moving forward in constructive ways. This is a relationship that we know takes a certain amount of working on and that’s what we’ll do,” Trudeau said. Trump's threats come as arrests for illegally crossing the border from Mexico have been falling . The most recent U.S. numbers for October show arrests remain near four-year lows. But arrests for illegally crossing the border from Canada have been rising over the past two years. Much of America’s fentanyl is smuggled from Mexico, and seizures have increased. Trump has sound legal justification to impose the tariffs, even though they conflict with a 2020 trade deal brokered in large part by Trump with Canada and Mexico, said William Reinsch, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former trade official in the Clinton administration. The treaty, known as the USMCA, is up for review in 2026. In China’s case, he could simply declare Beijing hasn't met its obligations under an agreement he negotiated in his first term. For Canada and Mexico, he could say the influx of migrants and drugs represent a national security threat, and turn to a section of trade law he used in his first term to slap tariffs on steel and aluminum. The law he would most likely use for Canada and Mexico sets out a legal process that often takes as long as nine months, during which time Trump would likely seek a deal. If talks failed and the duties were imposed, all three countries would likely retaliate by putting tariffs on U.S. exports, said Reinsch, who believes Trump's tariffs threat is a negotiating ploy. U.S. companies would lobby the Trump administration intensively against tariffs, and would seek to have products exempted. Some of the biggest exporters from Mexico are U.S. firms that make parts there. “Our economies really are integrated,” Reinsch said. Longer term, Mary Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said the threat of tariffs could make the U.S. an “unstable partner” in international trade. “It is an incentive to move activity outside the United States to avoid all this uncertainty,” she said. Trump transition team officials did not immediately respond to questions about what he would need to see to prevent the tariffs from being implemented and how they would impact prices in the U.S. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum suggested Tuesday that Mexico could retaliate with tariffs of its own. Sheinbaum said she was willing to talk about the issues, but said drugs were a U.S. problem. ___ Rugaber reported from Washington. AP reporters Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit, Stan Choe and Anne D'Innocenzio in New York, and Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.Mavs star Luka Doncic will be out about a month before check on calf injury, AP source says

Whether you’ve just got a new or for Christmas, or already own a Quest headset and are looking to take advantage of the various VR software sales that take place over the winter period, this guide is for you. I’ve picked out my absolute favorite VR titles that everyone with a Meta Quest 3 should pick up – mostly consisting of 2024 releases, but a few older options have elbowed their way on here too. Though there’s honestly a lot of great stuff on the Quest Store – way too much to recommend in this short guide – so if you see a different title you like the look of and it has strong reviews then it will almost certainly be worth picking up. But for now, let’s dive into the games and apps I think you should be playing on your VR headset this Christmas. Walkabout Mini Golf I feel like a broken record here, but has been one of my favorite VR games for years and continues to sit at the top of my list of recommendations for everyone with a headset. Its courses are a delight to explore, it’s an accessible VR title that newcomers and veterans alike will adore, and while the premise is super simple it delivers a superbly polished mini golf sim that’s perfect for solo players, in-person multiplayer, or virtual online gatherings. Imagine a themed mini golf course on steroids; you aren’t just staring at basic pirate theming with the odd flag and ship model dotted about, you’re instead immersed in a pirate cove that has had a mini golf course carved into it – with similarly high levels of detail exhibited throughout the game’s courses, both included and DLC add-on. Speaking of the latter, these DLC add-ons are well worth getting. I personally adore the Upside Town and Meow Wolf courses – I’m very excited to see Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart exhibit when I visit Las Vegas for – but if you want to get into the Christmas spirit you could nab the Holiday Hideaway DLC (which made me audibly gasp “wow” when I first loaded it up), or celebrate the Christmas Day release of and pick up the themed level, which is brimming with chaotic gadgets and gizmos set to put your golfing skills to the test. Just like the main game’s courses, every DLC pack comes with 18 holes that have a normal and hard mode setting, plus 18 hidden golf balls to find (which you can use in any course) and a foxhunt puzzle that rewards you with a custom club – which is more than enough content to label them as superb value for money. So what are you waiting for? Download this game right away. Batman: Arkham Shadow Another must-play game for everyone with a Meta Quest 3 or Quest 3S – not least of which because it’s free with new headset purchases – is easily one of the best VR games of 2024, maybe even . Set in the iconic Arkhamverse – between and – sees Batman on a mission to save Gotham from the mysterious Rat King. Armed with his trusty toolbelt of gadgets, plus his combat and stealth prowess, the Dark Knight is on a race against time to unmask the Rat King before they can accomplish their goal and bring about the Day of Wrath. Ahead of its launch, Camoflaj studio head Ryan Payton set expectations high for this title by promising a VR experience on par with , and boy did the team deliver. Every minute of this game was a delight, making it as much a must-play for Batman fans as every other Arkham title. While it did have a few frustrating bugs at launch, post release updates have greatly improved the title’s overall stability, and regardless the gameplay and exploration in this Batman adventure is superb – with its compelling mystery serving as an excellent driving force throughout. Just take note that the smooth movement controls will mean complete newbies may want to get used to VR first (and ensure comfort settings are switched on). That caveat aside, it is nevertheless a must-play game. Vendetta Forever Another contender in the race for the best VR game of 2024, is a superb arcade shooter which expertly blends gameplay elements of and into a decidedly unique package that I can’t get enough of. The core gameplay loop is supremely simple – you eliminate enemies (typically with a firearm, but also occasionally throwable hatchets or something stranger), then reach out and grab their weapon to not only catch it but also teleport to their position. Using this mechanic you must make your way through various distinct maps – more than 60 in total – while completing an objective such as saving a hostage, taking out all of your foes, or rushing to the level’s exit. Using these basic elements, concocts an incredible experience, bursting with replayability to keep you engaged for hours. Each level grades you on how well you completed it (based on your time, how many enemies you defeated, and how many times you took damage) and also contains a hidden video tape you need to find; these factors give you plenty of reason to play each level over and over as you search for the collectible, and attempt to maximize your score, or hone your speedrunning skills. If not for then would easily have been my favorite new VR game release in 2024, and I wholeheartedly recommend you pick it up as one of your first Meta Quest 3 titles. Netflix / Xbox Cloud Gaming / YouTube This three-in-one combo entry represents some of my favorite ‘big screen’ apps. You load them up and your Meta Quest 3 displays the video or game you’re streaming on a giant virtual display like you have your own private projector screening. Xbox Cloud Gaming and are free apps you can download (though you’ll need a Game Pass subscription and Xbox controller to use the Xbox one), while Netflix is accessed via its website in the Meta Quest browser (and again, you’ll need a relevant subscription). I’ve found these apps are ideal when you and your partner can’t decide who gets the TV, as one of you can simply game or watch a show using the headset. If you want a more custom experience you can use the HDMI Link app and a capture card with your Quest 3 headset to watch any HDMI-compatible device in VR. and the experience was superb, so it’s definitely worth considering as an upgrade to your headset. Maestro If you aren't keen on the lightsaber slashing of – though that is an excellent game too – is a different kind of VR rhythm game, and one which has you conducting an orchestra. Just like a real conductor you must wave your hands with the music to keep tempo – this game uses hand tracking for some added immersion – bring sections in at the correct time, and summon rousing crescendos when appropriate. At easier difficulties this isn’t too much of a challenge, but on Hard some parts are devilishly tricky to conduct perfectly, offering a good range of challenge and room to progress as you improve your skills. As much as makes you feel like Batman, does a fantastic job of making you feel like a bonafide conductor, right down to the warmth that rushes through you as you get a virtual standing ovation – or the dread of hearing the crowd boo you off stage after a job not well done. With its fantastic range of orchestral music you’ll surely find tracks you love, and thanks to the recently added Secret Sorcery music pack the tracklist was just extended with a few magical-themed tracks including the excellent , , and the iconic from , among others. Taskmaster VR One of the best things you can do in VR is share your headset with friends and family and watch together as they make a fool of themselves – or wow you with their VR gaming prowess – and that spirit is no better captured than in . The whole game feels as if it has been ripped from an episode of the hit TV show starring Taskmaster Greg Davies and his assistant Little Alex Horne. You play a contestant hoping to earn as many points as possible by completing various wacky tasks to Davies’ exacting standards. If you aren’t familiar with the show I feel this title’s idiosyncrasies might not be for you, but for fans of there are few better VR experiences out there, as this game will seriously make you feel like you’re taking part in the show. And as I said it's the perfect game for in-person multiplayer as you each attempt a task and try to score your best. You could either cast your Quest to a phone to watch everyone as they play, or you could cut together your own episode by having everyone record their footage without anyone seeing it at first, then play each attempt back to back to see how well people did. Plus, you can construct custom tasks when you’ve exhausted the game’s original collection. Starship Home Many of the year’s mixed reality experiences were relegated to optional add-on modes this year, but was a wonderful example of a full-on MR experience which transforms a room in your home into a starship – complete with viewing ports to see the stars, garden pods to grow otherworldly plants, and various other sci-fi gizmos that you use to construct your own starship. It’s admittedly a little simplistic – being a roughly three-hour well-guided experience with not a massive amount of space to venture beyond the track it lays out for you – but that is perhaps a blessing if you view it as one of the best ways to introduce a player to the Meta Quest 3. Mixed reality – being that it’s set in a version of your own home – is super accessible, as it’s a familiar space you’re exploring with only a few virtual elements to interact with. Couple that with ’s more guided adventure and you have a game that's perfect for younger players or those who are new to VR (and perhaps gaming as a whole) to digest. This accessibility is true of other mixed reality experiences, so I’d definitely consider them – with some of my other favorites being , , and .Year-End Stock Surge? Economic Uncertainty Looms.

SEN. Mark Villar has introduced Senate Resolution (SR) 1265, directing the appropriate Senate committee to conduct an inquiry in aid of legislation regarding the illegal trade and smuggling of depleted uranium and other radioactive materials in the Philippines. In filing his resolution, Villar said the Constitution establishes the Philippines' nuclear-free policy and the country has signed and ratified several treaties reflecting its commitment to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, while advocating for the peaceful use of nuclear technology. Register to read this story and more for free . Signing up for an account helps us improve your browsing experience. OR See our subscription options.( MENAFN - GlobeNewsWire - Nasdaq) NEW YORK, Dec. 26, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of common stock of Celsius Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: CELH) between February 29, 2024 and September 4, 2024, both dates inclusive (the“Class Period”), of the important January 21, 2025 lead plaintiff deadline . SO WHAT: If you purchased Celsius common stock during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement. WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Celsius class action, go to or call Phillip Kim, Esq. at 866-767-3653 or email ... for more information. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than January 21, 2025 . A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company at the time. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers. DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, during the Class Period, defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Celsius materially oversold inventory to PepsiCo, Inc. (“Pepsi”) far in excess of demand, and faced a looming sales cliff during which Pepsi would significantly reduce its purchases of Celsius products; (2) as Pepsi drew down significant amounts of inventory overstock, Celsius' sales would materially decline in future periods, hurting Celsius' financial performance and outlook; (3) Celsius' sales rate to Pepsi was unsustainable and created a misleading impression of Celsius' financial performance and outlook; (4) as a result, Celsius' business metrics and financial prospects were not as strong as indicated in defendants' Class Period statements; and (5) consequently, defendants' statements regarding Celsius' outlook and expected financial performance were false and misleading at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages. To join the Celsius class action, go to or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email ... for information on the class action. No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: , on Twitter: or on Facebook: . Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Contact Information: Laurence Rosen, Esq. Phillip Kim, Esq. The Rosen Law Firm, P.A. 275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor New York, NY 10016 Tel: (212) 686-1060 Toll Free: (866) 767-3653 Fax: (212) 202-3827 ... 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