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The use of AI tools in healthcare and by insurance providers has raised the question of whether high denial rates are a glitch — or a feature. In the wake of the murder of its CEO this week, UnitedHealthcare has come under greater scrutiny for its use of an allegedly flawed AI algorithm that overrides doctors to deny elderly patients critical heathcare coverage. UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot in a targeted attack outside a New York City hotel on Dec 4. The shooter fled on an e-bike, leaving shell casings with possible motive-related messages, though the actual intent remains unclear. (The words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” were written on the shell casings.) One motive floated by many is that the murder might be connected to high treatment rejection rates or UnitedHealthcare’s (UHC) outright refusal to pay for some care. Healthcare providers and insurers have been automating responses to care requests using generative AI (genAI) tools, which have been accused of producing high denial of care rates, in some cases, 16 times higher than is typical . UHC uses a genAI tool called nH Predict, which has been accused in a lawsuit of prematurely discharging patients from care facilities and forcing them to exhaust their savings for essential treatment. The lawsuit, filed last year in federal court in Minnesota, alleges UHC illegally denied Medicare Advantage care to elderly patients by using an AI model with a 90% error rate, overriding doctors’ judgments on the medical necessity of expenses. Some have argued that the genAI algorithm’s high rejection rate is a feature, not a flaw. An investigation by STAT News cited in the lawsuit, claims UHC pressured employees to use the algorithm to deny Medicare Advantage payments, aiming to keep patient rehab stays within 1% of the length predicted by nH Predict. According to the lawsuit, UnitedHealth started using nH Predict in November 2019. nH Predict, developed by US-based health tech company NaviHealth (now part of UnitedHealth Group), is a proprietary assessment tool that designs personalized treatment plans and recommends care settings, including hospital discharge timing. “Despite the high error rate, defendants continue to systemically deny claims using their flawed AI model because they know that only a tiny minority of policyholders (roughly 0.2%) will appeal denied claims, and the vast majority will either pay out-of pocket costs or forgo the remainder of their prescribed post-acute care,” the lawsuit argued. “Defendants bank on the patients’ impaired conditions, lack of knowledge, and lack of resources to appeal the erroneous AI-powered decisions.” Last year, UnitedHealth Group and its pharmacy services subsidiary Optum rebranded NaviHealth following congressional criticism over the algorithms it used to deny patient care payments. More recently, in an October report , the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations criticized UHC, Humana, and CVS for prioritizing profits over patient care. “The data obtained so far is troubling regardless of whether the decisions reflected in the data were the result of predictive technology or human discretion,” according to the report. “It suggests Medicare Advantage insurers are intentionally targeting a costly but critical area of medicine — substituting judgment about medical necessity with a calculation about financial gain.” Using millions of medical records, nH Predict analyzes patient data such as age, diagnoses, and preexisting conditions to predict the type and duration of care each patient will require. nH Predict has faced criticism for its high error rate, premature termination of patient treatment payments (especially for the elderly and disabled), lack of transparency in decision-making, and potential to worsen health inequalities. UHC declined to comment on its use of genAI tools, opting instead to release a statement on how its dealing with the loss of its CEO . The healthcare industry and insurers have long embraced AI and generative AI, with providers now leveraging it to streamline tasks like note-taking and summarizing patient records . The tech has also been used to assess radiology and electrocardiogram results and predict a patient’s risk of developing and worsening disease. Insurers use AI to automate processes such as prior authorization, where providers or patients must get insurer approval before receiving specific medical services, procedures, or medications. The high denial rates from AI-driven automation have frustrated physicians, leading them to counter by using AI tools themselves to draft appeals against the denials. Asthma drugs, new weight loss drugs and biologics — a class of drugs that can be life-saving for people with autoimmune disease or even cancer — are routinely denied coverage by insurance companies. Data shows that clinicians rarely appeal denials more than once, and a recent American Medical Association survey showed that 93% of physicians report care delays or disruptions associated with prior authorizations. “Usually, any expensive drug requires a prior authorization, but denials tend to be focused on places where the insurance company thinks that a cheaper alternative is available, even if it is not as good,” Dr. Ashish Kumar Jha, dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University, explained in an earlier interview with Computerworld . Jha, who is also a professor of Health Services, Policy and Practices at Brown and served as the White House COVID-19 response coordinator in 2022 and 2023, said that while prior authorization has been a major issue for decades, only recently has AI been used to “turbocharge it” and create batch denials. The denials force physicians to spend hours each week challenging them on behalf of their patients. GenAI technology is based on large language models , which are fed massive amounts of data. People then train the model on how to answer queries, a technique known as prompt engineering . “So, all of the [insurance company] practices over the last 10 to 15 years of denying more and more buckets of services — they’ve now put that into databases, trained up their AI systems and that has made their processes a lot faster and more efficient for insurance companies,” Jha said. “That has gotten a lot of attention over the last couple of years.” The suspect in the Wednesday shooting of Thompson has not yet been captured, nor has there been any claims of motive.Military Armored Vehicles And Counter Ied Vehicle Market Driven by Demand for Immersive Technologies Across IndustriesMIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said he was caught off guard by reports early Tuesday that linebacker Shaq Barrett wants to unretire. The two-time Super Bowl winner signed a one-year deal with the Dolphins in March, then abruptly announced his retirement on social media in July, just days before the start of Miami's training camp. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.

About $73 million of Bay Area bridge toll money that voters approved in 2018 for public transit and freeway improvement projects has instead been diverted to pay for maintaining the bridges. That’s just one small example of how officials of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission have for years been comingling different portions of the tolls for the region’s seven state-owned bridges. The troubling financial practices came to light as the agency sought our editorial page support for its plan to once again raise Bay Area bridge tolls. The automobile toll is slated to increase from $7 to $8 at the start of 2025. A commission committee overseeing bridge tolls is scheduled to vote this coming week and the full commission board the following week on a proposal to add another $2.50. Right now, because of the comingling, the commission lacks the data to intelligently evaluate the toll hike. The plan should be shelved until the agency’s finances are transparently accounted for. The proposal calls for 50-cent annual increases starting in 2026 that would boost the cost of an automobile trip to $10.50 by 2030. To understand whether the increase is needed, I asked to see the financial tracking of the different portions of the toll the agency now collects. District officials responded that they pool the money rather than budget it separately. That’s stunning and problematic because the different toll components are designated for very different purposes. The first dollar, approved by voters in 1988, was designated for operating, maintaining and replacing the bridges, as well as improvements to BART, Caltrain and San Francisco Muni. Another $3 — approved in $1 increments by the Legislature, in 1997 and 2007, and MTC, in 2010 — was supposed to help cover the cost of seismic retrofitting, including the replacement of the Bay Bridge’s eastern span. And voters in 2004 and 2018 approved toll increases totaling $4 to help fund transit service operations and freeway, transit, bicycle and pedestrian projects, including BART’s seismic retrofit, new rail cars, and extension to Warm Springs Station and San Jose; the Caldecott Tunnel fourth bore; and the eBART rail extension in eastern Contra Costa County. The voter material for the 2018 ballot proposal, Regional Measure 3, listed the projects but didn’t mention that the money would go toward maintaining or rehabilitating the bridges. Indeed, backers emphasized at the time that the measure would fund projects off the bridge to reduce congestion on it. But apparently voters should have read the fine print in state law. Rebecca Long, the agency’s director of legislation and public affairs, and Derek Hansel, the chief financial officer, insist the law allows them to use any of the toll money for any bridge maintenance, construction and improvement projects. Worse, none of the components of the tolls have expiration dates, but the list of projects they are supposed to fund is finite. So Long and Hansel argue that there will eventually be more money than projects, leaving them free to use excess for any bridge purpose. Indeed, they say, they are free to use money from the individual programs even before the promised projects are completed. The commission’s only obligation, they say, is to provide the funding for the projects at some point. They also argue that the toll revenues must be pooled because they are used as security for selling bonds. That’s a bogus rationale for the lack of transparency. Aggregating the numbers for the bond market is understandable. And it’s no different from what most government agencies do. But that’s not an excuse for failing to track how the borrowed money is spent for the separate programs. The commission has nearly $10 billion of bond debt. Not only does the agency fail to track the use of the money by program, but it also fails to apportion the liability. The result is that there’s no way to know what part of the financial obligations for each of the programs has been fulfilled, nor when it will be. As the commission considers hiking tolls further — again permanently — for bridge operations, maintenance and rehabilitation, it should be asking itself how much of the current toll money could now or in the future be used to offset the need for such a large increase. But, to determine that, commissioners would need an accounting and projections that separate the funding and spending by each of the components of the bridge tolls. To his credit, Hansel, who took over as CFO in 2022, says it would be “good practice” to track the revenues and expenditures by each program. He says he has the information to do that for Regional Measure 3. And he has told others he will need a couple of months to figure it out for the other programs, which began long before he arrived. Commissioners should insist that he finish that as quickly as possible to provide transparency to the public and ensure commissioners make a well-informed decision about further increasing tolls. The proposed hike is not slated to begin until 2026, so there’s no need to rush the plan through. Until the tracking data is available, the bridge toll hike should be tabled.N.B. doctor who touched woman without her consent gets 1 year of probation

One night last month, near the end of the Chicago International Film Festival, a particularly long line of moviegoers snaked down Southport Avenue by the Music Box Theatre. The hot ticket? This fall’s hottest ticket, in fact, all over the international festival circuit? Well, it’s a 215-minute drama about a fictional Hungarian Jewish architect who emigrates to America in 1947 after surviving the Holocaust. The film’s title, “The Brutalist,” references several things, firstly a post-World War II design imperative made of stern concrete, steel, and a collision of poetry and functionality. Director and co-writer Brady Corbet, who wrote “The Brutalist” with his filmmaker wife, Mona Fastvold, explores brutalism in other forms as well, including love, envy, capitalist economics and how the promise of America eludes someone like the visionary architect László Tóth, played by Adrien Brody. Corbet, now 36 and a good bet for Oscar nominations this coming January, says his unfashionable sprawl of a picture, being distributed by A24, is also about the “strange relationship between artist and patron, and art and commerce.” It co-stars Felicity Jones as the visionary architect’s wife, Erzsébet, trapped in Eastern Europe after the war with their niece for an agonizingly long time. Guy Pearce portrays the imperious Philadelphia blueblood who hires Tóth, a near-invisible figure in his adopted country, to design a monumental public building known as the Institute in rural Pennsylvania. The project becomes an obsession, then a breaking point and then something else. Corbet’s project, which took the better part of a decade to come together after falling apart more than once, felt like that, too. Spanning five decades and filmed in Hungary and Italy, “The Brutalist” looks like a well-spent $50 million project. In actuality, it was made for a mere $10 million, with Corbet and cinematographer Lol Crawley shooting on film, largely in the VistaVision process. The filmmaker said at the Chicago festival screening: “Who woulda thunk that for screening after screening over the last couple of months, people stood in line around the block to get into a three-and-a-half-hour movie about a mid-century designer?” He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with Fastvold and their daughter. Our conversation has been edited for clarity and length. Q: Putting together an independent movie, keeping it on track, getting it made: not easy, as you told the Music Box audience last night. Money is inevitably going to be part of the story of “The Brutalist,” since you had only so much to make a far-flung historical epic. A: Yeah, that’s right. In relation to my earlier features, “The Childhood of a Leader” had a $3 million budget. The budget for “Vox Lux” was right around $10 million, same as “The Brutalist,” although the actual production budget for “Vox Lux” was about $4.5 million. Which is to say: All the money on top of that was going to all the wrong places. For a lot of reasons, when my wife and I finished the screenplay for “The Brutalist,” we ruled out scouting locations in Philadelphia or anywhere in the northeastern United States. We needed to (film) somewhere with a lot less red tape. My wife’s previous film, “The World to Come,” she made in Romania; we shot “Childhood of a Leader” in Hungary. For “The Brutalist” we initially landed on Poland, but this was early on in COVID and Poland shut its borders the week our crew was arriving for pre-production. When we finally got things up and running again with a different iteration of the cast (the original ensemble was to star Joel Edgerton, Marion Cotillard and Mark Rylance), after nine months, the movie fell apart again because Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We couldn’t get any of the banks to cash-flow the tax credit (for location shooting in Poland). It’s completely stable now, but at that time the banks were nervous about whether the war would be contained to Ukraine or not. And then we finally got it up and running in Budapest, Hungary. Q: That’s a long time. A: Every filmmaker I know suffers from some form of post-traumatic stress (laughs). It sounds funny but it’s true. At every level. On the level of independent cinema, you’re just so damn poor. You’re not making any money, and yet from nose to tail, at minimum, a movie always takes a couple of years. With bigger projects, you might have a little more personal security but a lot less creative security with so many more cooks in the kitchen. Either route you choose, it can be an arduous and painful one. Whether you’re making a movie for a million dollars, or $10 million, or $100 million, it’s still “millions of dollars.” And if you’re concerned about the lives and livelihoods of the people working with you, it’s especially stressful. People are constantly calling you: “Is it happening? Are we starting? Should I take this other job or not?” And you have 250 people who need that answer from you. Every iteration of the project, I always thought we were really about to start in a week, two weeks. It’s just very challenging interpersonally. It’s an imposition for everyone in your life. And then there’s the imposition of screening a movie that’s three-and-a-half-hours long for film festivals, where it’s difficult to find that kind of real estate on the schedule. So essentially, making a movie means constantly apologizing. Q: At what point in your acting career did you take a strong interest in what was going on behind the camera? A: I was making short films when I was 11, 12 years old. The first thing I ever made more properly, I guess, was a short film I made when I was 18, “Protect You + Me,” shot by (cinematographer) Darius Khondji. It was supposed to be part of a triptych of films, and I went to Paris for the two films that followed it. And then all the financing fell through. But that first one screened at the London film festival, and won a prize at Sundance, and I was making music videos and other stuff by then. Q: You’ve written a lot of screenplays with your wife. How many? A: Probably 25. We work a lot for other people, too. I think we’ve done six together for our own projects. Sometimes I’ll start something at night and my wife will finish in the morning. Sometimes we work very closely together, talking and typing together. It’s always different. Right now I’m writing a lot on the road, and my wife is editing her film, which is a musical we wrote, “Ann Lee,” about the founder of the Shakers. I’m working on my next movie now, which spans a lot of time, like “The Brutalist,” with a lot of locations. And I need to make sure we can do it for not a lot of money, because it’s just not possible to have a lot of money and total autonomy. For me making a movie is like cooking. If everyone starts coming in and throwing a dash of this or that in the pot, it won’t work out. A continuity of vision is what I look for when I read a novel. Same with watching a film. A lot of stuff out there today, appropriately referred to as “content,” has more in common with a pair of Nikes than it does with narrative cinema. Q: Yeah, I can’t imagine a lot of Hollywood executives who’d sign off on “The Brutalist.” A: Well, even with our terrific producing team, I mean, everyone was up for a three-hour movie but we were sort of pushing it with three-and-a-half (laughs). I figured, worst-case scenario, it opens on a streamer. Not what I had in mind, but people watch stuff that’s eight, 12 hours long all the time. They get a cold, they watch four seasons of “Succession.” (A24 is releasing the film in theaters, gradually.) It was important for all of us to try to capture an entire century’s worth of thinking about design with “The Brutalist.” For me, making something means expressing a feeling I have about our history. I’ve described my films as poetic films about politics, that go to places politics alone cannot reach. It’s one thing to say something like “history repeats itself.” It’s another thing to make people see that, and feel it. I really want viewers to engage with the past, and the trauma of that history can be uncomfortable, or dusty, or dry. But if you can make it something vital, and tangible, the way great professors can do for their students, that’s my definition of success. “The Brutalist” opens in New York and Los Angeles on Dec. 20. The Chicago release is Jan. 10, 2025. Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

The gunman who stalked and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fled New York City by bus, police officials told CNN on Friday. Video of the suspected shooter leaving the scene of the shooting Wednesday showed him riding a bicycle to Central Park and later taking a taxi cab to a bus depot, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told CNN. Here's the latest: Police believe gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare CEO has left New York City The gunman who killed the CEO of the largest U.S. health insurer may have fled the city on a bus, New York City police officials told CNN on Friday. Video of the suspected shooter leaving the scene of the shooting Wednesday showed him riding a bicycle to Central Park and later taking a taxi cab to a bus depot, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told CNN. “We have reason to believe that the person in question has left New York City,” Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. Gunman’s steps after killing UnitedHealthcare’s CEO give police new clues The gunman who killed the CEO of the largest U.S. health insurer made sure to wear a mask during the shooting yet left a trail of evidence in view of the nation’s biggest city and its network of security cameras that have aided authorities piecing together his movements and his identity. A law enforcement official said Friday that new surveillance footage shows the suspect riding the subway and visiting establishments in Manhattan and provided more clues about his actions in the days before he ambushed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson . The gunman’s whereabouts and identity remain unknown Friday, as did the reason for Wednesday’s killing. New York City police say evidence firmly points to it being a targeted attack . ▶ Read more about the search for the gunman For many companies, investor meetings are seen as a risk In many companies, investor meetings like the one UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was walking to when he was fatally shot are viewed as very risky because details on the location and who will be speaking are highly publicized. “It gives people an opportunity to arrive well in advance and take a look at the room, take a look at how people would probably come and go out of a location,” said Dave Komendat, president of DSKomendat Risk Management Services, which is based in the greater Seattle area. Some firms respond by beefing up security. For example, tech companies routinely require everyone attending a major event, such as Apple’s annual unveiling of the next iPhone or a shareholder meeting, to go through airport-style security checkpoints before entering. Others forgo in-person meetings with shareholders. ▶ Read more about how companies protect their leaders Police have obtained other surveillance images of the person wanted for questioning Those images include New York’s subway system, a law enforcement official said. In establishments where the person was captured on camera, he always appeared to pay with cash, the official said. The official wasn’t authorized to discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. — Mike Balsamo Another health insurer taking precautions after the shooting Medica, a Minnesota-based nonprofit health care firm that serves 1.5 million customers in 12 states, said it’s temporarily closing all six locations. The firm has offices in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska and North Dakota, and employs about 3,000 people. Employees will work from home, Medica spokesman Greg Bury said in an email Friday. “The safety of Medica employees is our top priority and we have increased security both for all of our employees,” a statement from Medica said. “Although we have received no specific threats related to our campuses, our office buildings will be temporarily closed out of an abundance of caution.” Bury also said biographical information on the company’s executives was taken down from its website as a precaution. Government health insurance provider Centene Corp. says its Investor Day will now be virtual The insurer cited the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in its announcement about the Dec. 12 event. “All of us at Centene are deeply saddened by Brian Thompson’s death and want to express our support for all of those affected. Health insurance is a big industry and a small community; many members of the CenTeam crossed paths with Brian during their careers,” Centene CEO Sarah M. London said in a news release. “He was a person with a deep sense of empathy and clear passion for improving access to care. Our hearts are with his family and his colleagues during this difficult time.” Centene Corp. has grown in recent years to become the largest insurer in Medicaid, the state- and federally funded program that covers care for people with low incomes. Insurers manage Medicaid coverage for states, and Centene has more than 13 million people enrolled in that coverage. UnitedHealth Group says it’s focused on supporting Brian Thompson’s family The insurance company also said it’s focused on ensuring the safety of employees and assisting investigators. “While our hearts are broken, we have been touched by the huge outpouring of kindness and support in the hours since this horrific crime took place,” the company said. NY Mayor Eric Adams provided no new information on investigation’s progress during interviews But he said Friday that he’s confident police will arrest the shooter. “We are on the right road to apprehend him and bring him to justice,” Adams said on TV station WPIX. Hours after the shooting, UnitedHealthcare removed photographs of its executives from its website Later, it removed their names and biographies entirely. Investigators believe the suspect may have traveled to NY last month on a bus that originated in Atlanta Police and federal agents have been collecting information from Greyhound in an attempt to identify the suspect and are working to determine whether he purchased the ticket to New York in late November, a law enforcement official said. Investigators were also trying to obtain additional information from a cellphone recovered from a pedestrian plaza through which the shooter fled. Killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO spotlights complex challenge companies face in protecting top brass The fatal shooting of Brian Thompson while walking alone on a New York City sidewalk has put a spotlight on the widely varied approaches companies take to protect their leaders against threats. Experts say today’s political, economic and technological climate is only going to make the job of evaluating threats against executives and taking action to protect them even more difficult, experts say. Some organizations have a protective intelligence group that uses digital tools such as machine learning or artificial intelligence to comb through online comments to detect threats not only on social media platforms such as X but also on the dark web, says Komendat. They look for what’s being said about the company, its employees and its leadership to uncover risks. ▶ Read more about the steps companies take to protect their leadership Police test DNA and fingerprints on discarded bottle as they hunt for UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killer Police said Thursday they found a water bottle and protein bar wrapper from a trash can near the scene of the ambush and think the suspect bought them from a Starbucks minutes before the shooting. The items were being tested by the city’s medical examiner. The Associated Press

AP Sports SummaryBrief at 6:25 p.m. ESTRussian President Vladimir Putin approved the federal budget for 2025 and the planned period of 2026-2027, according to a document released on the legal-acts portal on Sunday. Russia's revenues in 2025 are projected to reach about 40.3 trillion rubles ($378.5 billion), while expenditures are expected to amount to over 41 trillion rubles ($390 billion), resulting in a deficit of 0.5 percent of GDP, according to the budget. Russia's GDP is projected to reach 214.5 trillion rubles ($2.02 trillion) in 2025, rising to 230.5 trillion rubles ($2.17 trillion) in 2026 and 248.3 trillion rubles ($2.33 trillion) in 2027. Inflation is forecasted to remain below 4.5 percent in 2025 and 4 percent in the following years. Key priorities outlined in the budget include fulfilling social obligations, ensuring national security and defense, advancing technological sovereignty, and developing infrastructure, with a total of 21 trillion rubles ($197.3 billion) allocated for social policies, 14 trillion rubles ($131.5 billion) for defense and law enforcement, and 14 trillion rubles ($131.5 billion) for national economic development over the next three years.

Markets continue to hit new highs. As a result, dividend stocks are becoming increasingly attractive. When markets are at risk, there is no better way to reduce volatility and risk than to invest heavily in dividend stocks. This is because dividend payments regularly put money back in investors’ pockets, effectively recouping the investment little by little. So, if you want to lock in a solid dividend, here are three stocks to buy now. Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Corp : A 9.5% dividend yield The income of ( ) is entirely dependent on the Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) – Canada’s largest iron ore producer. IOC owns mining leases and licenses covering 18,200 hectares of land near Labrador City, from which Labrador Iron Ore Royalty collects a 7% royalty. Today, the stock is yielding a very generous 9.5%. After years of strong iron ore prices and premiums, we are now seeing the opposite dynamic. In fact, the price of iron ore is significantly lower than in 2021, having fallen by approximately 50% since then. The fall has been driven by weakening steel demand in China as well as strong growth in iron ore supply. As a result of this, Labrador Iron Ore’s dividend was reduced. We are clearly of the iron ore market. Economic weakness and concerns for the future will continue to negatively affect the market in the short term. So now the question is whether Labrador Iron Ore’s dividend is safe. In the last 10 years, the company has easily paid its regular dividend plus special dividends when the business was doing well. In the first nine months of 2024, net income increased 6.1% to $143.1 million and adjusted cash flow increased 11% to $145.8 million. IOC has a strong position in its industry, with a strong quality product that commands a premium. Also, iron ore is used primarily in the production of steel, which is essential to industrial economies. It is for these reasons that we can view Labrador’s dividend as reliable. Freehold Royalties: Yielding 7.7% As another royalty company, ( ) also has a favourable position in that it’s also sheltered from rising costs. Freehold is currently yielding a very generous 7.7%. In the last three years, Freehold’s annual dividend has increased 500% to $0.36 per share. The dividend is paid monthly, and in fact, Freehold has been paying a dividend for two decades. The price of oil remains high, at approximately $70, and this bodes well for Freehold’s financial position. In fact, while revenue is being hit as oil prices are creeping lower, $70 is still a very profitable oil price. The company is easily covering its dividend payments, with a payout ratio of 73% in its latest quarter (Q3/2024). Telus stock: 7.4% Canada’s unique telecommunications giant, . ( ), is currently yielding 7.4%. It’s a dividend that’s been growing rapidly and that is easily covered by cash flows. Although the payout ratio is 150%, Telus stock’s dividend represents only 40% of cash flow. Since 2019, Telus has grown its annual revenue by 37% to more than $20 billion in 2023. This growth has also been accompanied by a healthy 38% dividend growth rate since 2019. In its latest quarter (Q3/24), Telus posted a 9.6% increase in its operating cash flow and a 12% increase in its adjusted earnings per share (EPS). This strong result was driven by the company’s drive to lower costs as well as a steady rise in revenue, reflecting strong demand. As a result of the strong quarter, Telus stock’s dividend increased by another 7%. It’s 38% higher than five years ago and 29% higher than three years ago. The dividend is backed by a and steady growth.

Socceroos striker Kusini Yengi is awaiting scan results after missing Portsmouth’s 2-2 draw with Swansea in the Championship with a knee injury. Get all the latest football news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now!!! Portsmouth claim Yengi suffered the injury while on international duty with Australia over the last fortnight. “He picked up an injury during the game when Australia played Bahrain,” Portsmouth manager John Mousinho said prior to his sides latest outing. It’s unclear at this stage how bad the injury is or how long Yengi will be sidelined for. The revelation comes as a slight shock given the 25-year-old played the entirety of the contest in Riffa and scored both goals, as it finished 2-2. Mousinho said Yengi picked up the injury “just before half-time.” “His knee was slightly swollen,” Mousinho added. “He was scanned on Friday afternoon. So, we’re just awaiting the final scan results and for him to see a specialist. “With knees, ankles and hips we’re always really wary.” It has been a stop-start season for the forward. He missed Pompey’s first two matches of the Championship campaign with a groin injury before being sidelined just two games into his comeback for a further five fixtures with the same complaint. Yengi had just come off a run of six games in four weeks prior to linking up with the Socceroos in Melbourne. He came on as a late substitute in a scoreless draw with Saudi Arabia in the Victorian capital before the side flew out to Bahrain. “Any injury is frustrating for us,” Mousinho said. “People do pick up injuries on international breaks. It’s probably one of the reasons why certain players don’t necessarily want to go on international duty. “We’re not one of those clubs. I want players to go away and play and represent their countries and I think it’s a really proud moment for anybody connected with Portsmouth when they do that. “It does come with a slight risk and unfortunately (Kusini) has ended up picking up an injury.” Any absence isn’t of immediate concern for the Socceroos. Tony Popovic’s side isn’t back in action until they face Indonesia and China in two must-win World Cup qualifiers in March. While Yengi has made a bright start to life for the national team, scoring six goals in 11 games, the interrupted nature of his season has impacted his output for Portsmouth. He’s yet to find the back of the net in the Championship after scoring 13-goals in 31 appearances in all competitions last season, while they were in League One, following a move from the Western Sydney Wanderers in the A-League.None

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Formula 1 on Monday at last said it will expand its grid in 2026 to make room for an American team that is partnered with General Motors. “As the pinnacle of motorsports, F1 demands boundary-pushing innovation and excellence. It’s an honor for General Motors and Cadillac to join the world’s premier racing series, and we’re committed to competing with passion and integrity to elevate the sport for race fans around the world," GM President Mark Reuss said. "This is a global stage for us to demonstrate GM’s engineering expertise and technology leadership at an entirely new level.” The approval ends years of wrangling that launched a U.S. Justice Department investigation into why Colorado-based Liberty Media, the commercial rights holder of F1, would not approve the team initially started by Michael Andretti. Andretti in September stepped aside from leading his namesake organization, so the 11th team will be called Cadillac F1 and be run by new Andretti Global majority owners Dan Towriss and Mark Walter. The team will use Ferrari engines its first two years until GM has a Cadillac engine built for competition in time for the 2028 season. Towriss is the the CEO and president of Group 1001 and entered motorsports via Andretti's IndyCar team when he signed on financial savings platform Gainbridge as a sponsor. Towriss is now a major part of the motorsports scene with ownership stakes in both Spire Motorsports' NASCAR team and Wayne Taylor Racing's sports car team. Walter is the chief executive of financial services firm Guggenheim Partners and the controlling owner of both the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and Premier League club Chelsea. “We’re excited to partner with General Motors in bringing a dynamic presence to Formula 1," Towriss said. “Together, we’re assembling a world-class team that will embody American innovation and deliver unforgettable moments to race fans around the world.” Mario Andretti, the 1978 F1 world champion, will have an ambassador role with Cadillac F1. But his son, Michael, will have no official position with the organization now that he has scaled back his involvement with Andretti Global. “The Cadillac F1 Team is made up of a strong group of people that have worked tirelessly to build an American works team,” Michael Andretti posted on social media. “I’m very proud of the hard work they have put in and congratulate all involved on this momentous next step. I will be cheering for you!” The approval has been in works for weeks but was held until after last weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix to not overshadow the showcase event of the Liberty Media portfolio. Max Verstappen won his fourth consecutive championship in Saturday night's race, the third and final stop in the United States for the top motorsports series in the world. Grid expansion in F1 is both infrequent and often unsuccessful. Four teams were granted entries in 2010 that should have pushed the grid to 13 teams and 26 cars for the first time since 1995. One team never made it to the grid and the other three had vanished by 2017. There is only one American team on the current F1 grid — owned by California businessman Gene Haas — but it is not particularly competitive and does not field American drivers. Andretti’s dream was to field a truly American team with American drivers. The fight to add this team has been going on for three-plus years and F1 initially denied the application despite approval from F1 sanctioning body FIA . The existing 10 teams, who have no voice in the matter, also largely opposed expansion because of the dilution in prize money and the billions of dollars they’ve already invested in the series. Andretti in 2020 tried and failed to buy the existing Sauber team. From there, he applied for grid expansion and partnered with GM, the top-selling manufacturer in the United States. The inclusion of GM was championed by the FIA and president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who said Michael Andretti’s application was the only one of seven applicants to meet all required criteria to expand F1’s current grid. “General Motors is a huge global brand and powerhouse in the OEM world and is working with impressive partners," Ben Sulayem said Monday. "I am fully supportive of the efforts made by the FIA, Formula 1, GM and the team to maintain dialogue and work towards this outcome of an agreement in principle to progress this application." Despite the FIA's acceptance of Andretti and General Motors from the start, F1 wasn't interested in Andretti — but did want GM. At one point, F1 asked GM to find another team to partner with besides Andretti. GM refused and F1 said it would revisit the Andretti application if and when Cadillac had an engine ready to compete. “Formula 1 has maintained a dialogue with General Motors, and its partners at TWG Global, regarding the viability of an entry following the commercial assessment and decision made by Formula 1 in January 2024,” F1 said in a statement. “Over the course of this year, they have achieved operational milestones and made clear their commitment to brand the 11th team GM/Cadillac, and that GM will enter as an engine supplier at a later time. Formula 1 is therefore pleased to move forward with this application process." Yet another major shift in the debate over grid expansion occurred earlier this month with the announced resignation of Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei, who was largely believed to be one of the biggest opponents of the Andretti entry. “With Formula 1’s continued growth plans in the US, we have always believed that welcoming an impressive US brand like GM/Cadillac to the grid and GM as a future power unit supplier could bring additional value and interest to the sport," Maffei said. "We credit the leadership of General Motors and their partners with significant progress in their readiness to enter Formula 1." AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racingNone

Formula 1 expands grid to add General Motors' Cadillac brand and new American team for 2026 season

CANCUN, Mexico (AP) — Brayon Freeman had 26 points in Bethune-Cookman's 79-67 victory over North Dakota on Tuesday night. Freeman added three steals for the Wildcats (2-4). Tre Thomas added 17 points while shooting 4 for 12 (4 for 5 from 3-point range) and 5 of 6 from the free-throw line while he also had six rebounds. Daniel Rouzan went 5 of 10 from the field to finish with 10 points. The Fightin' Hawks (3-3) were led in scoring by Treysen Eaglestaff, who finished with 20 points. Mier Panoam added 19 points for North Dakota. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by and data from .

South Florida defeats Portland 74-68NoneFORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Corey Stephenson had 21 points in CSU Bakersfield's 68-60 victory over Northeastern at the Homewood Suites Classic tournament in Fort Myers, Florida on Sunday. Stephenson shot 8 of 16 from the field and 5 for 6 from the line for the Roadrunners (4-3). Marvin McGhee shot 4 for 10 (1 for 5 from 3-point range) and 3 of 3 from the free-throw line to add 12 points. McGhee went 3 of 7 from the field (3 for 5 from 3-point range) to finish with 10 points. LA Pratt led the way for the Huskies (5-2) with 15 points and six rebounds. Masai Troutman added 15 points for Northeastern. Harold Woods also had eight points. CSU Bakersfield led Northeastern at the half, 34-29, with McGhee (six points) its high scorer before the break. Stephenson's layup with 4:08 left in the second half gave CSU Bakersfield the lead for good at 56-54. NEXT UP These two teams both play Saturday. CSU Bakersfield visits Southern Utah and Northeastern visits Vermont. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .