sm mega tower Kaizer Chiefs ended 2024 on a winning note after they secured a narrow 1-0 win over Chippa United in a Betway Premiership match at Moses Mabhida Stadium on Sunday. Amakhosi claimed the victory through a first half goal by Mduduzi Shabalala to end the year in the top eight. The Soweto giants are in seventh place with 15 points from 10 outings. They are 15 points behind log leaders Mamelodi Sundowns, who have played 11 games. Before the game, the Nasreddine Nabi-coached outfit had gone for three matches without a win in the league. Chiefs were the dominant side in the first half of the match in Durban and created more chances. They had a difficult time getting the ball past Chippa’s goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali as players such as Wandile Duba forced great saves from the Nigerian international. The individual brilliance from Shabalala 🤩🤌 📺 Stream #BetwayPrem on DStv: https://t.co/B0jLrQW5cc @Betway_za pic.twitter.com/zyb9B8SoqM Amakhosi needed a moment of brilliance from Shabalala, who dribbled past a few defenders before beating Nwabali on the near post at the stroke of halftime. Shabalala scored four goals in the league before his excellent strike against the Chilli Boys. The young attacker is now on four goals and two behind the league’s leading goal scorer Iqraam Rayners of Mamelodi Sundowns. Chiefs continued to dominate in the second half but were not really threatening when they got in front of goals. Chippa also had their opportunities but all their attempts were saved by goalkeeper Bruce Bvuma. Would you like to comment on this article? Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now. Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.

Australia’s economic future will be at risk if we stop the wind and solar construction to build nuclear. Big energy-intensive manufacturing industries such as aluminium smelters would likely be forced to close, and the risk of blackouts from forcing coal generators to stay on line would be huge. Wind, solar and firming can clearly do the job. Every hurdle from reliability to inertia has been overcome. There is no need and no reason to change course. Certainly economics is not a reason. To summaries, building a nuclear industry in Australia: • Makes blackouts more likely by forcing coal stations, already expensive to maintain, that require government support and are increasingly unreliable to go for much longer. The idea of replacing the coal plants with gas while we wait is likely not very realistic, largely because gas plants themselves are expensive and hard to permit and because if asked to run in shoulder mode they are not very efficient and require lots of gas. And right now we are already looking at importing LNG. If the nuclear plants are 5, 10 or 15 years late, as is entirely possible, it would require heroic assumptions to see the coal fleet managing the gap. More to the point it’s a completely avoidable and unnecessary risk. Australia is well set on its transition path. There are some inevitable cost up and downs but no show stoppers have been identified. Every hurdle from reliability to inertia has been overcome. There is no need and no reason to change course. Certainly economics is not a reason. • Increases emission costs by between even in the very unlikely event the plants are built on time as compared to the present ISP. • The nuclear plants stand a good chance of being well over budget and late. That’s because: ° Globally that is often but not always the case. By and large the nuclear industry is one of the most likely global industries to be late and over budget. There is no real nuclear expertise in Australia; ° It will have to be more or less forced on an industry set on a different course; ° It will likely be government owned and developed and the record on that in Australia is poor; ° In general for most capital intensive industries there is an Australia cost premium relative to global averages. This in the end will disadvantage us compared to other countries in terms of the cost of energy. • Likely will destroy the value of CER (consumer energy resources – rooftop solar, home batteries and EVs) in Australia. • Will result in the temporary halt in the transition to a firmed VRE system which is already 20 years down the track with a penetration rate of say 50% within 18 months. • Equally the LNP and by comparison Frontier don’t appear to have done the work or to understand the demand forecasts. The LNP bleat on about EVs, but the real differences are hydrogen, large industrial loads and business demand. One suspects that the aluminium industry in Australia will die if it has to wait for nuclear. • Finally the old concept of baseload is changing, but in my opinion firming costs are cheaper the bigger the portfolio. This implies firming should sit at least with a large gentailer or possibly with a State or even Federal Govt. The biggest, by far, reason for the electricity industry to push back against the ideological LNP Nuclear plan is its far, far too risky. Australia has a plan to decarbonise. It’s not a perfect plan, no plan survives first contact, but it’s capable of and is in fact being achieved. We are roughly already at 40% VRE. We have at least 20 years experience at developing and integrating wind, solar, behind the meter assets and batteries. We know the issues around transmission and social license and cost and reliability. There are well developed plans for each issue and a wealth of industry finance and expertise. The assets to take us from 40% VRE to 50% are already under construction, some are just starting to enter service. The insurance finance to add another 12 GW of VRE and 4 GW of firming assets (essentially batteries) is already either awarded or in tender through the CIS. The LNP wants to bring this to a crashing halt, keep our few, increasingly ageing and unreliable coal stations going for another 20 years while it starts up an industry in which Australia has zero comparative advantage and zero experience. Only in politics could conmen say things with such a straight face. The risk of the coal stations failing is very high. Other stations like Eraring have full ash dams. Yallourn is already on Government support, Vales Point and particularly Mt Piper have coal supply issues. Gladstone Power Station in Queensland is ready to close. And so on. It simply isn’t prudent for Australia to depend on these stations as a group to do another 20 years. It’s a completely unacceptable risk that politicians want to expose Australians to, purely for the sake of politics. I could, but won’t. go into the politics. It is quite sufficient to point out the risk, and really I could close this note at this point completely confident that the argument is made. The LNP might argue that they would build more gas stations. To start with they take time and planning and secondly: Where is the gas? Wherever it comes from it will be expensive. By all means build a peaker or two but it’s a sideshow to the main game, which is bulk energy and shifting it through time and space. For what it’s worth. the following figure shows the closing of the Crocodile jaws. The top jaw is coal and gas generation and the bottom jaw is wind, solar and hydro. The jaws didn’t close much this year, due to wind drought and some utility solar price constrained off but they surely will next year as about 2.5 GW of wind currently in commissioning gets to full production and some more solar farms as well. In addition there is 6 GW, count them, 6 GW of batteries under construction. Using a 180 day moving average allows the informed view to see the Winter v Spring Summer impact. Like many another analyst I’m prepared to look at any technology on its merits. If Frontier Economics had any interest at all in bringing the industry to their point of view then the report is an abysmal failure. Its failings are so obvious that it hardly needs me to do a me to, but I have. As I’ve stated before, a presumption of bias can be attached to the report for three reasons. There are lots of estimates of the cost of carbon. These range from the Gillard Government’s cost which the LNP revoked adjusted to $ of today which Frontier states would be about $40/t, through to the European price presently around Euro 68 = $A113/t, through to a major, multi author estimate published in Nature with a mean of $US185/t = $A 296/t (but the range is US$ 44 to $US 413/t) to the USA official estimate of $US 51 =81.54 AUD $A 81/t through to the AER estimate of $A 75/t in 2025 rising to $221 by 2040. And finally there is the set of numbers adopted by the AER which rise strongly over time and which I have used Frontier could have used any of these numbers, but they don’t. The extra carbon emissions are not regarded as a cost worth considering in Frontier’s numbers! On my numbers the NPV of the increased emissions is between $57 bn and $72bn. The method for calculating this was: I might add that the social cost of carbon is normally calculated with discount rates of 2%-4% given that the damage is long lasting but I haven’t considered the methodological issues around that here. The overall point remains that there can be no excuse whatsoever for Frontier ignoring the cost difference. Frontier could have used some other carbon price estimate, but there is no doubt that carbon emissions have a cost, that is why we decarbonising and not considering that cost renders the Frontier exercise fairly useless. In an AFR article, Frontier’s Danny Price states that the AER carbon cost does not represent the “economic cost”, and produces not a shred of evidence to support this view. The comment seems to me to be revealing of the underlying philosophy of Frontier that global warming is overstated as an issue. Some of the justified criticism of Frontier is in the way it adds up “real costs”. For instance: However, since the use of “real costs” for investment analysis is in any event fatally flawed from the outset and contrary to the laws of Finance, and because I think Price knows that perfectly well, I tend not to worry about methodological flaws of “real costs”. Equally, Steve Hamilton in his excellent noted that AEMO incurs its capital costs from today onwards but the the nuclear costs are only start to be incurred from 2035. In NPV terms costs that are incurred later have a lower NPV than costs that incurred earlier, and Steve noted that if we just compared costs in 2050 there is only a 12% difference between the nuclear and AEMO difference. However, in NPV terms, if we allow for the difference in carbon costs, these differences matter less. In effect Frontier defers capital spending improving NPV but incurs carbon costs which reduce NPV. It’s just that Frontier doesn’t count the carbon cost. Also, once the capital spending on VRE has been made the annual operating costs fall sharply compared to existing coal. Wind opex, for instance, is around A$10/MWh compared to say A$50/MWh for existing black coal, maybe less for brown coal. However, in my opinion it’s unlikely that AEMO captures all the maintenance capital expenditure required on end of life coal assets that are not just end of life but also have to be ever more flexible, ever more capable of ramping. I won’t take the time to illustrate this issue, but just look at the costs being incurred by AGL, and the Government support offered to Yallourn and Eraring. Frontier estimates a nuclear cost today in Australia of A$10,000/Kw, which then falls by 1% per year from today. So the A$10,000 is effectively a misleading number. In that Frontier’s estimate of cost is actually in real terms as Hamilton calculates about A$8,500/KW in 2040 and continues to fall. I don’t have any problem with learning rates in an industry: Solar, wind, batteries and many, many other technologies have a learning rate, representing the reduction in unit costs for a doubling of installed capacity. But I think any reasonable person would question whether it’s appropriate to apply a learning rate to an industry that hasn’t even started in Australia and where the year 0 number is still very much in question. And, to the best of my knowledge, there hasn’t been much of a global learning rate in nuclear, although there may be one in China. In fact academic articles suggest that the experience curve for nuclear depends on the time and country. One oft cited reference is “How Big Things Get Done” by Betty Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner, 2023. A key figure from that book is: The horizontal axis represents on time, expectations, further to the right is more on time, the vertical axis shows on budget. industries in the bottom left quadrant tend to have “fat tails” which means that the outcomes vary. Perhaps in China nuclear goes well, but in the UK or the USA it goes badly. On average it goes badly. Solar and wind go well. The figure is based, I believe on data summarised in the following table. The fact that olympics and nuclear have cost over runs most of the time surely cannot be a surprise to anyone. To me this is so intuitively obvious as to not need stating. Wind and solar projects take a couple of years to build, the technologies are modular, capable of being repeated and relatively small scale. Even a 1 GW wind farm represents 150 concrete pouring, each more or less the same, 150 turbines erected each the same way and so on. And Australia has done 1000s of turbines already. By contrast, Lucas Heights notwithstanding, Australia has absolutely zero nuclear experience or expertise, nuclear plants require much more planning, contracts that inevitably will need to be renegotiated and so on. The mind truly boggles. And in the end we would have zero comparative advantage. Whatever Australia’s nuclear cost it wont be lower than anyone else’s. How could it be? Modern nuclear plants with higher levels of automation might employ 500-800 people. According to a rough industry source about 50% -70% of those jobs will be in operations, maintenance and technical support. Roughly 25%-50% of the people will be engineers of one kind of another. Uranium mining and processing is not going to be taking place where nuclear plants are located. The idea that coal miners will down tools and suddenly start working in a nuclear plant is something only an LNP ideologue could truly believe. Of course, like any business, there will be second order GDP multiplier effects. However, I think it’s reasonable to assume that both the primary and secondary GDP impacts of building out regional REZs will be higher per $ of capital expenditure because by and large they come off a lower base. Building out the Central West Orana renewable energy zone in NSW will have major impacts, not all good, and not all sustainable on the regional economy. But for ever after the regional economy will have a more diversified industry base that, in my opinion, will enable it to better withstand the vicissitudes of the Australian climate and its ever more extreme drought and flood cycles. As far as I know the electricity industry in Australia has expressed zero interest in nuclear and obviously some parts of the industry that are busy building wind and solar will be actively opposed. Clearly this in itself is likely to raise costs. That is, the nuclear plants will have to be forced on the industry to a greater or lesser extent. Again although the plans are very vague the understanding is that they will Goverment funded and owned. Leaving aside all questions of ideology, in my opinion having the Goverment manage the program rather than industry means that there will be less expertise at almost every stage. I could rant on about this, the mind truly does boggle a bit at the possible negative outcomes, but perhaps it is sufficient to say that having the Goverment step into this area where it has no expertise raises the odds of cost and delay outcome substantially. Frontier provided no shapes to their demand or supply forecasts, just the annual totals. This has led to questions on how 13 GW of flat supply will impact the output of other fuels. Price stated that once the 13 GW was forced in the system, it was “re optimised” and the capacity factors, 90% in the case of nuclear, are a model output. And to be fair there is presently must run coal generation in the system which effectively provides a level of flat supply. That level continues to decline, and at least in Spring, the must run nature of coal already forces prices below zero and results in utility solar spillage. As to what fuel gets spilled that is a matter so far of policy and economics. Utility solar, and wind contracts can be written so that negative prices are not covered, the CIS has such a contract. Each contract for differences may have its own wording and since I don’t see any of them I’m cautious about generalising. AEMO provides via the ISP, as Frontier does not, half hourly demand traces by region and POE (10% and 50%). ITK has spent more time than I care to admit looking at these demand traces over the past four years and puzzling over what and what not is included in say “OPSO modelling”. A good starting document is: and for the half hourly data we want Section 6 starting at p57. AEMO is thorough with its demand forecasting, but that does not make the outcomes reliable, that’s the point really, some things are just hard to forecast no matter how thorough. Still, I find its well worth reading that Section 6 several times, because as Dylan sang way back in the early 1960s “dont criticise what you cant understand”. And this stuff ain’t that easy to understand. The following figure shows the shape of average daily demand in 2050 for both the Progressive and Stepchange scenarios with the horizontal red line showing average nuclear output at 90% capacity factor. It’s fair to say that rooftop supply is always a bit out of place on a demand figure but that is the way its done. Operational demand is gross demand less rooftop supply. Time of day averages are just averages. Particularly in the step change case in the ISP view of the world much of the lunch time surplus goes to charging storage to meet some elements of demand in non solar hours. The way I’ve constructed this figure in the Progressive case nuclear replaces virtually all the exiting rooftop and a significant portion of utility supply. In the Step Change scenario it’s still cutting out quite a bit. And that’s out in 2050 when in either Progressive or Step demand is a lot higher than in 2025. It seems intuitive that if nuclear is supplying say 50% of operational demand (more in the Progressive case) that some other sources of supply are going to be running at fairly low capacity factors. However, Frontier’s modelling apparently doesn’t show that.. This remains an unresolved issue. The numbers appear to show that with nuclear meeting 50% of Progressive Scenario demand in 2050 that capacity factors of other fuels will be impacted even with storage demand included. Frontier says this is not really the case and they have the gold standard PLEXOS modelling to prove it. One potential path to reconciliation would be for Frontier to show more results including those with behind the meter PV and storage and some average daily shapes, but I’m not holding my breath. Frontier did such a poor job the first time round the wise course for them would be to retire from the field and not give their many critics more oxygen. I spent time this year working with AEMO’s demand forecasts. In my view not enough attention is paid to demand as virtually all the mainstream focus is on supply and or price. But price represents the intersection between supply and demand, and the primary way to decarbonise an economy is to decarbonise electricity and then electrify other energy sources. AEMO makes the job hard because their demand portal would, I suspect, confuse even Edward Teller. At the risk of a minor digression, the Progressive demand case assumes that most large industrial loads (LIL) close around 2030. That would be the Tomago and Boyne Island and Portland aluminium smelters. Is that really what the LNP wants to happen? Here are the LIL forecasts for the two scenarios and then the state by state forecast for the Progressive scenario. Assuming, rarely a good decision, that I’ve successfully navigated AEMO’s demand portal and the recut and supposedly easier to follow analysis I show at then I get the following main item comparison between he various demand scenarios in 2050. Note that sum EV load is cotained in the res_sum row below. Nevertheless the point remains that talking about EVs maybe good politics for the LNP, even in Ted O’Brien’s Sunshine coast electorate where there are many EVs but it doest go to the major differences in the scenarios. Ignoring Green Energy Exports (everyone does) you can see that in fact the main differences between Progressive Change and Central are: Traditionally energy intensive businesses in Australia, primarily aluminium smelters, negotiate heavily discounted electricity prices with State Govt’s in return for investment in smelters. Traditionally, there has been a role for base load in the large industrial loads sector. However, in my opinion, the way to provide the firmed power has changed and the same result can be achieved, arguably at a lower cost, especially when carbon emissions are accounted for. As of today the State Govt contracts have often been transferred to private entities eg to AGL and other generators in Victoria in respect of the Portland smelter. However, there is no way the private sector is going to incur losses to support an aluminium smelter. The smelters remain a big industry collectively consuming around 9%-10% of electricity (the share relative to operational supply is higher). The relevance of the term “baseload” is best understood in the context of say an aluminium smelter which in Australia typically wants a flat supply, that is a supply every half hour of about 0.9 GW. Traditionally in Australia a coal generator backed up by contracts in the market and a retailers general supply portfolio was the the way it was done. For instance in QLD the Gladstone Power Station is 42% owned by Rio, in Victoria Portland smelter traditionally contracted with Loy Yang A, although that has now changed. In Tasmania the Bell Bay smelter, surely one of the older smelters in the world, contracted with Hydropower of Tasmania. In each case though there is a State Government providing a subsidy one way or another in the background. As the coal stations go away, several questions arise, but the one of relevance here is how to provide the smelter with its flat load without a coal station. So far the emerging answer seems to be that the smelter will provide the VRE itself, but will depend on the State Govt to provide the firming. For instance in February 2024 Rio announced a deal to buy 80% of the 1.4 GW Bungaban wind project and 100% of the 1.1 GW Calliope solar farm, but so far Rio has not announced any firming of this energy. The output of the two projects should be around 6 TWh per year – enough to power most of the smelter when generating. Clearly there will be too much generation at some points and too little at others, and the missing link is the management of the difference. What it shows to my way of thinking is a requirement for all the parties to think beyond a simple contract for difference whereby Rio buys power from the market and the QLD Govt subsidies the purchases. Now there is a more complex situation seemingly requiring the State and Rio to work more closely together. Ultimately, in a renewables based system, the rule is that the bigger the portfolio the lower the firming cost. That is the cost of firming total QLD supply is lower than the cost of firming just the smelter. According to the oldest rule of finance that risk should go to the party best placed to manage it, it’s therefore entirely reasonable for QLD to carry the firming cost. My point here is that Rio and the State Govt don’t need to think about “Baseload coal” or “Baseload nuclear” – the need is to understand the best way to firm QLD’s excellent solar and wind resource and to allow Rio to access that firmed cost.

Professor John Kwaku Mensah Mawutor inducted UPSA Vice ChancellorThe Miami Dolphins 2024 campaign has not gone as expected, as they have a 5-7 record through their first 12 games. They have endured quite a few speed bumps along the way, but even with star quarterback Tua Tagovailoa back in the fold after he suffered yet another scary concussion, the team has not been firing on all cylinders. Things began to go off the rails for Miami when they lost Tagovailoa late in their Week 2 loss to the Buffalo Bills, and he proceeded to miss the next four games while on injured reserve. Even then, since his return to action, the Dolphins have gone just 3-3 with Tagovailoa back on the field. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Thanks for the feedback.

Report: President Biden Considering Pardoning Adam Schiff, Liz Cheney, and Anthony FauciReturning to Portugal? Guga: I am Very Happy in Beijing, Found What I Have Been Searching For

Mutual Savings and Loan Association Announces Commencment of Stock OfferingAs for the beverage itself, Pepsi-Cola's reputation for quality and taste precedes it. The crisp and refreshing flavor profile of Pepsi-Cola complements the intensity and excitement of gaming, making it the perfect companion for extended gameplay sessions or casual enjoyment. The synergy between the iconic drink and the immersive world of "Black Myth: Wukong" creates a harmonious partnership that enhances the overall sensory experience for consumers.

Hong Kong should focus on finding compelling uses for generative AIAnother aspect that needs to be taken into account is the player's mentality and attitude. As a veteran player, will he be able to adapt to Barcelona's competitive environment, handle the pressure of playing for a prestigious club, and accept a potentially reduced role in the team? It is essential for Barcelona to assess the player's commitment, work ethic, and willingness to contribute positively to the team dynamic.Supermodel Heidi Klum has blocked comments on a post revealing her latest lingerie ad with her daughter Leni after fans began calling it "inappropriate" and "weird." This isn't the first time the America's Got Talent judge has been slammed for flaunting her barely covered figure and neither is it for Leni, who has shared pictures on social media . Over the past couple of years the 51-year-old German-American icon has repeatedly come under fire online for starring in Intimissimi promotions with Leni, 20. Heidi Klum flaunts figure as she goes topless on luxury vacation with husband Heidi Klum and Tom Kaulitz show off out of this world E.T. Halloween costumes In November 2022, the pair were blasted for a "weird" and "disturbing" campaign for the brand, which many fans regarded as inappropriate. Their latest ad sees them in bright red silk lingerie as they pose and pout for a camera. In one shot, Leni models a black mesh and visbly see-through bra. At the end, they touch cheeks and smile. Meanwhile, Heidi, who starts off wearing long red silk pjs, strips down to a red mesh bra and flaunts her figure. The video was slammed, as one fan asked: "Which normal mom would pose together with her daughter in lingerie?" Heidi eventually turned off comments on the post. She also received backlash after appearing in a lingerie ad for Intimissimi with Leni and 80-year-old mom Erna. “Quite strange to do this with your mom,” one person commented on Leni’s post of the shoot. “This is really weird tbh,” someone else added. DON'T MISS... Heidi Klum risks wardrobe malfunction as she flashes boobs in plunging lingerie [PICTURES] The Simpsons' star fears voice actors will be replaced by AI in future [COMMENT] Kelly Osbourne looks incredible as she shows off 85lb weight loss in tiny corset [NEWS] View this post on Instagram A post shared by Heidi Klum (@heidiklum) In October 2023 fans were vocal about how disturbing they found the photos of both Heidi and Leni showing off their bodies in lingerie. Commenters on Initimissi's Instagram post were largely positive, but several followers were concerned by the mother–daughter display. "Dude that's your mom," one person bluntly said as another person added: "Family business it must be continued!" "What normal mom would pose together with her daughter in lingerie?" one concerned fan questioned. In early November, the supermodel clapped back at critics who've slammed her fashion choices in a interview. She said she isn't shy about her "femininity." “I’m not shy about my femininity,” she told The Times . “I love dressing up where I have my cleavage showing, wearing miniskirts, high heels, gorgeous stockings — but that doesn’t mean I want to go home with you.” She added: “That’s just my personality. Why not? I want to have fun and show my body, but I have boundaries, as do all women.” The mother of four touched on her daughter’s new modeling career in the interview. “My daughter is so nonchalant. For me the cameras had to become my friends. I had to learn that it’s just a person clicking away, capturing what you give: you play with the lens, not the person. She’s more of a tomboy — she won’t wear my clothes.”

Hegseth nomination sinking fast in the SenatePolice hunt for UnitedHealthcare CEO's masked killer after 'brazen, targeted' attack on NYC street NEW YORK (AP) — UnitedHealthcare’s CEO has been shot and killed in what police say is a “brazen, targeted attack” outside a Manhattan hotel where the health insurer was holding its investor conference. The shooting rattled the city and set off a massive dragnet hours before the annual Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting. Police say 50-year-old Brian Thompson was shot around 6:45 a.m. Wednesday as he walked alone to the New York Hilton Midtown from a nearby hotel. New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch says the shooter appeared to be “lying in wait for several minutes” before approaching Thompson from behind and opening fire. Police have not yet established a motive. UnitedHealthcare CEO kept a low public profile. Then he was shot to death in New York NEW YORK (AP) — Brian Thompson led one of the biggest health insurers in the US but was unknown to millions of people his decisions affected. The fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare's chief executive on a midtown Manhattan sidewalk Wednesday became a mystery that riveted the nation. Police say it was a targeted killing. Thompson was 50. He had worked at the company for 20 years and had run health care giant UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s insurance business since 2021. It provides health coverage for more than 49 million Americans and brought in $281 billion in revenue last year. Thompson's $10.2 million annual compensation made him one of the company’s highest-paid executives. Supreme Court seems likely to uphold Tennessee's ban on medical treatments for transgender minors WASHINGTON (AP) — Hearing a high-profile culture-war clash, the Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed likely to uphold Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors. The justices’ decision, not expected for several months, could affect similar laws enacted by another 25 states and a range of other efforts to regulate the lives of transgender people, including which sports competitions they can join and which bathrooms they can use. The case is being weighed by a conservative-dominated court after a presidential election in which Donald Trump and his allies promised to roll back protections for transgender people. The Biden administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer warned a decision favorable to Tennessee also could be used to justify nationwide restrictions on transgender healthcare for minors. Hegseth fights to save Pentagon nomination as sources say Trump considers DeSantis WASHINGTON (AP) — Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s Pentagon pick, is fighting to hold on to his Cabinet nomination amid growing questions about his personal conduct as the president-elect’s team considers alternatives, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. But Hegseth says, “We’re not backing down one bit." The Trump transition team is concerned about Hegseth’s path to Senate confirmation and is actively looking at potential replacements, according to a person familiar with the matter. Hegseth is under pressure as senators weigh a series of allegations that have surfaced against him. Beyond DeSantis, there have been discussions about shifting Michael Waltz, who was named by Trump as his national security adviser, to the Defense Department Israeli strikes on a Gaza tent camp kill at least 21 people, hospital says KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — A Palestinian health official said Wednesday that at least 21 people were killed in Israeli strikes on a camp housing displaced people in Gaza. The Israeli military said it struck senior Hamas militants. The strikes hit in the Muwasi area, a sprawling coastal camp housing hundreds of thousands of displaced people. It came after Israeli forces struck targets in other areas of Gaza. According to Palestinian medics, strikes in central Gaza killed eight people, including four children. The war in Gaza is nearly 14 months old and showing no end in sight, despite international efforts to revive negotiations toward a ceasefire. South Korean President Yoon's martial law declaration raises questions over his political future SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — President Yoon Suk Yeol’s stunning martial law declaration lasted just hours, but experts say it raised serious questions about his ability to govern for the remaining 2 1/2 years of his term. The opposition-controlled parliament overturned the edict, and his rivals on Wednesday took steps to impeach him. Yoon's move baffled many experts. One analyst called his action “political suicide.” Yoon’s political fate may depend on whether a large number of people in coming days take to the streets to push for his ouster. Yoon hasn't commented on the impeachment bid. But the political instability he unleashed could make it more difficult for his government to nurse a decaying economy. Police say searchers don’t expect to find woman in Pennsylvania sinkhole alive UNITY TOWNSHIP, Pa. (AP) — The search for a woman who is believed to have fallen into a sinkhole in western Pennsylvania has become a recovery effort after two treacherous days of digging through mud and rock produced no signs of life. Pennsylvania State Police spokesperson Trooper Steve Limani said during a news conference Wednesday that authorities no longer believe they will find 64-year-old Elizabeth Pollard alive, but that the search for her remains continues. Limani says crews have seen "no signs of any form of life or anything.” Pollard was last seen alive Monday evening when she went out looking for her cat in the village of Marguerite, about 40 miles east of Pittsburgh. Two children wounded and gunman dead after shooting at Northern California school PALERMO, Calif. (AP) — Sheriff’s officials say two children have been wounded in a shooting at a small religious school in Northern California and the gunman is dead. A Butte County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson says Wednesday the wounded students were taken to hospitals in unknown condition after the shooting at Feather River School of Seventh-Day Adventists in Palermo, north of Sacramento. The spokesperson says the suspect died after apparently shooting himself. A motive is unknown. French lawmakers vote to oust prime minister in the first successful no-confidence vote since 1962 PARIS (AP) — France’s far-right and left-wing lawmakers have joined together to vote on a no-confidence motion prompted by budget disputes that forces Prime Minister Michel Barnier and his Cabinet to resign. The National Assembly approved the motion by 331 votes. A minimum of 288 were needed. President Emmanuel Macron insisted he will serve the rest of his term until 2027. However, he will need to appoint a new prime minister for the second time after July’s legislative elections led to a deeply divided parliament. Macron will address the French on Thursday evening, his office said, without providing details. Barnier is expected to formally resign by then. White House says at least 8 US telecom firms, dozens of nations impacted by China hacking campaign WASHINGTON (AP) — A top White House official says at least eight U.S. telecom firms and dozens of nations have been impacted by a Chinese hacking campaign. Deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger offered the new details Wednesday about the breadth of the sprawling Chinese hacking campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans. Neuberger divulged the scope of the hack a day after the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued guidance intended to help root out the hackers and prevent similar cyberespionage in the future. White House officials cautioned that a number of telecommunication firms and countries impacted could still grow.

NEW YORK (AP) — More shoppers than ever are on track to use ‘buy now, pay later’ plans this holiday season, as the ability to spread out payments looks attractive at a time when Americans still feel the lingering effect of inflation and already have record-high credit card debt. The data firm Adobe Analytics predicts shoppers will spend 11.4% more this holiday season using buy now, pay later than they did a year ago. The company forecasts shoppers will purchase $18.5 billion worth of goods using the third-party services for the period Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, with $993 million worth of purchases on Cyber Monday alone. Buy now, pay later can be particularly appealing to consumers who have low credit scores or no credit history, such as younger shoppers, because most of the companies providing the service run only soft credit checks and don’t report the loans and payment histories to the credit bureaus, unlike credit card companies. This holiday season, buy now, pay later users can also feel more confident if a transaction goes awry. In May, the CFPB said buy now, pay later company must adhere to other regulations that govern traditional credit, such as providing ways to demand refunds and dispute transactions. To use a buy now, pay later plan, consumers typically sign up with bank account information or a debit or credit card, and agree to pay for purchases in monthly installments, typically over eight weeks or more. The loans are marketed as requiring no or low interest, or only conditional fees, such as for late payment. Klarna, Afterpay and Affirm are three of the biggest buy now, pay later companies. But consumer advocates warn that shoppers who sign up for the payment plans using a credit card can be hit with more interest and fees. That's because individuals open themselves up to interest on the credit card payment, if it's carried month to month, on top of any late fees, interest, or penalties from the buy now, pay later loan itself. Experts advise against using a credit card to pay for these plans for this reason. Consumer watchdogs also say the plans lead consumers to overextend themselves because, for example, not paying full price up front leaves, in the shopper’s mind at least, more money for smaller purchases . They also caution consumers to keep careful track of using multiple buy now, pay later services, as the automatic payments can add up, and there is no central reporting, such as with a credit card statement. “Buy now, pay later can be an innovative tool for purchases you’re going to make anyway,” said Mark Elliott, chief customer officer at financial services company LendingClub. “The challenge is that it does fuel overspending.” For merchants, that’s part of the appeal. Retailers have found that customers are more likely to have bigger cart sizes or to convert from browsing to checking out when buy now, pay later is offered. One report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York cited research that found customers spend 20% more when buy now, pay later is available. “The reality is that the increased cost-of-living and inflation have put more people in a situation where they’re already relying on revolving credit,” Elliott said. “The psychographics of ‘buy now, pay later’ may be different — people don’t think of it as debt — but it is.” If a consumer misses a payment, they can face fees, interest, or the possibility of being locked out of using the services in the future. Emily Childers, consumer financial expert for personal-finance technology company Credit Karma, said that internal data shows member credit card balances are up more than 50% for Gen Z and millennial members since March 2022, when the Fed started raising interest rates. “Young people are entering this holiday season already in the red,” she said. “And, based on what we’re seeing in the data, they’re continuing to bury their heads in the sand and spend.” The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

The news sent shockwaves through the staff and patrons of The Midnight Owl. How could such a critical oversight have happened? Questions were raised about the quality of care that Marcus had received in those crucial moments following the attack. The bar was suddenly under scrutiny, with authorities launching an investigation into the incident and the handling of the emergency situation.The right of transgender minors to access gender-affirming care has sparked debate in many parts of the United States, and it’s now heading to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court heard oral arguments Wednesday on a challenge, brought by young people who identify as transgender and their families, to a law in Tennessee that bans gender-affirming medical care for minors. It’s one of 26 states that have passed bans on gender-affirming health care for transgender children and teenagers, according to a CNN analysis of data from the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit think tank that advocates for LGBTQ rights. Gender-affirming care is a multidisciplinary approach that includes medically necessary and scientific evidence-based practices to help a person safely transition from their assigned gender – the one a clinician assigned them at birth, based mostly on anatomic characteristics – to their affirmed gender – the gender by which the person wants to be known. Although the term gender-affirming care came into the public’s lexicon fairly recently, Dr. Madeline Deutsch, director of the UCSF Gender Affirming Health Program in San Francisco, said the practice has been around for some time and is based on decades of scientific research. Major mainstream medical associations – including the American Medical Association , the American Psychiatric Association , the Endocrine Society , the American Psychological Association , the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry – have affirmed the practice of gender-affirming care and agree that it’s the gold standard of clinically appropriate care that can provide lifesaving treatment for children and adults. “While we are always assessing the strength of the evidence for this kind of care, every major US medical association has found that the medical evidence is strong and in support of centers that provides this kind of care and have been doing so for decades,” said Dr. Kellan Baker, executive director of the Whitman-Walker Institute, a health care organization that works on LGBTQ+ issues. This year, an extensive but controversial research review in the UK called the use of puberty-delaying medications into question, saying that the rationale for early puberty suppression was “unclear” and that any benefit for mental health was supported by “weak evidence.” The review — known as the Cass Review for Dr. Hilary Cass, the pediatrician who conducted it — has prompted providers in the UK to scale back their use of the treatment. However, its methodology have come under sharp criticism from some scholars and practitioners. The process typically starts with a conversation between a clinician and the individual. If the patient is a child, the conversation will also include the family when possible. “It’s to really get a better sense of what’s bringing them into the clinic,” said licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Melina Wald, co-founder and former clinical director of the Columbia Gender Identity Program at Columbia University Medical Center. “We are also looking to understand the child’s understanding of their own gender, gender expression and a history related to that.” After experts determine what the person needs, a multidisciplinary group of clinicians will design a plan for them. Depending on the person’s age, care can include mental health and support groups, legal help and sometimes medical help like hormones or surgery when a person is past puberty. “This is individualized care, not some one-size-fits-all-plan,” Baker said. A transition plan can be as simple as offering support to someone when they start using different pronouns, change their hairstyle or clothing, or use a different name. “When we support and allow people to do these things, their lives get better,” Deutsch said. Mental health care: Often, gender-affirming care will include counseling. A 2018 study found that the prevalence of mental health problems among transgender youth was seven times higher than among their cisgender peers. Mental health problems don’t necessarily stem from a person’s identity; a growing number of studies show that they often occur because of social discrimination and what’s known as minority stress. Stigma, marginalization , discrimination, bullying, harassment and violence can lead to feelings of isolation and rejection. People who identify as transgender may also need mental health help just to determine what their identity is, to come to terms with it and to find self-acceptance. Mental health care can also help people come out to their family and friends and develop coping mechanisms so they can be who they are in a world that isn’t always friendly or accepting. Gender-affirming care, studies show, lowers a person’s odds of depression and suicidality and is associated with improved well-being. Medication and surgery: Some people may also receive age-appropriate medical care like hormone treatments, puberty blockers, voice and communication therapy, gynecologic and urologic care and reproductive treatments. Typically, surgeries are offered only to adults. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s guidelines , which are considered the gold standard for gender-affirming care around the world, say this kind of care should provide a person “safe and effective pathways to achieving lasting personal comfort with their gendered selves with the aim of optimizing their overall physical health, psychological well-being, and self-fulfillment.” When children get to a certain stage of puberty – diagnosed by a medical provider – and still have a persistent, well-documented sense that their gender does not align with the sex assigned at birth, doctors and family may decide to move forward with reversible pubertal suppression , commonly called puberty blockers . Although not all patients choose this treatment, some research shows that gender-incongruent youth may feel increased distress when they start to develop secondary sex characteristics. These gonadotrophin-releasing hormone drugs were first used to delay puberty for people with what’s known as precocious puberty , when a child’s body changes into that of an adult too soon. Puberty blockers can keep secondary sex traits from developing for a few years, to give the child time to access support, explore their gender identity and develop coping skills, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. If a patient decides to stop treatment, puberty resumes. “That just basically puts everything on pause, and children can be on that for a couple of years without any ill effects, and it’s totally reversible,” Deutsch said. “If it’s stopped, then everything just continues where you left off.” Studies show that puberty blockers can reduce the distress that may happen when a child develops secondary sex characteristics such as breasts, an Adam’s apple or voice changes. Studies show that transgender adolescents who used puberty blockers were less likely to have suicidal thoughts than those who wanted the treatment but did not get it. Puberty blockers can also make a transition later in life easier, since the person did not develop these secondary sex characteristics. At this stage in the gender-affirming care process, after a thorough evaluation by a medical professional, a patient may also receive hormone therapy that can lead to gender-affirming physical change. Puberty blockers can carry some risks, and more long-term studies are needed, according to the Pediatric Endocrine Society . Long-term studies on fertility and bone health are limited and provide “varied results,” according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health guidelines say that before giving puberty blockers, the provider must make sure the person has demonstrated a sustained and persistent pattern of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence; they must have the emotional and cognitive maturity to provide informed consent; any coexisting mental health problems that could interfere with treatment or consent need to be addressed; the person needs to be told that there could be reproductive effects, and fertility preservation options should be discussed; and the child must have reached Tanner Stage 2 of puberty, which is when a girl starts to develop breast buds and a boy’s scrotum and testicles begin to increase in size. A pediatric endocrinologist must agree with this decision. Professional medical guidelines, with some rare exceptions, do not recommend puberty blockers, hormone therapies or surgery for children who have not gone through puberty. If such treatment is indicated, the clinician would first do a thorough evaluation in collaboration with the patient and their caregiver to understand the child’s unique needs. “I think one of the big myths out there is that there’s a sense that kids are rushed into decisions related to medical care, like hormone therapy or surgery. That’s just not the case,” Wald said. Deutsch agreed: “Kids don’t make stuff up about this, wanting to become trans because it’s trendy or something,” she said. “Trans youth and trans people in general do not have access to a hormone vending machine.” Some critics point out that youth who take puberty blockers may change their minds about their gender identity later in life. Several studies have shown that most people who opt for gender-affirming care don’t later regret their choices — including an October 2022 study in the Netherlands that found 98% of transgender youth who had started gender-affirming medical treatment in adolescence continued to use those hormones around five or six years later in adulthood. Among 3,306 UK Gender Identity Development Service patients included the Cass Review analysis, fewer than 10 patients detransitioned to their birth-registered gender. Questions about the benefits of puberty-blocking medications gained fresh attention in October when the author of a federally funded study was quoted as saying she had delayed publication of some of her results because of fears that they would be “weaponized” in a heated political climate. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, medical director at the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, said that in the study , which she helped lead, puberty blockers did not appear to improve the mental health of 95 children ages 8 to 16 who were followed for two years to understand their mental and physical functioning as doctors used the medications to delay the physical changes associated with puberty. Some advocates for gender-affirming care for youth said this is a typical level of caution taken by researchers to carefully present and interpret scientific data. However, researchers said it remains critical to publish data; puberty blockers may have prevented a decline in mental health, even if they didn’t lead to improvement in mental functioning, but it’s impossible to know if the data isn’t released. If a child identifies as transgender or gender-diverse, research suggests that they know their gender as clearly and consistently as their peers who identify as cisgender or the gender they were assigned at birth, even if it conflicts with other people’s expectations about what a typical “boy” or “girl” is. Some critics of the process suggest that children should wait until adulthood to transition, but the American Academy of Pediatrics says in its guidelines that this approach is “outdated,” in part because it assumes that gender identity becomes fixed at a certain age, and the approach is based on “binary notions of gender in which gender diversity and fluidity is pathologized.” The group also argues that the approach was based on early studies with methodological flaws, limited follow-up and validity concerns. More recent research shows that “rather than focusing on who a child will become, valuing them for who they are, even at a young age, fosters secure attachment and resilience, not only for the child but also for the whole family.” Wald says that waiting to transition can create additional psychological distress for a child and can raise their risk of depression, suicidality, self-harm or substance misuse. “Withholding intervention means that the child is going to go through a puberty that is discordant with their gender identity and would ultimately mean that later, at the age of 18, there would be changes to their body that they would make it even more difficult,” she said. “These children and teens can be incredibly resilient,” Wald added. “With support and access to care, they will thrive and can be just as successful as any kid.” A 2022 analysis of data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and its Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that a tiny fraction of people in the United States – about 0.6% of those 13 and older, or about 1.6 million people – identify as transgender, according to the Williams Institute , a think tank at UCLA Law that provides scientific research on gender identity and sexual orientation. While the percentage of adults who identify as transgender in the US has remained basically the same, the number of young people who identify as such doubled – to 300,000 – from the last time the Williams Institute did the research in 2016 and 2017. It may not be a direct comparison, however, as the Williams Institute’s previous survey did not have survey data for younger teens and had to use statistical modeling to extrapolate based on adult data. The report cannot explain why more young people may be identifying as transgender, but it notes that more data has become available about this population. CNN’s Brenda Goodman, Meg Tirrell and Kristen Rogers contributed to this report.BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) — Adam Jones ran for 197 yards and two touchdowns and Montana State ran over Montana 34-11 on Saturday to reclaim the Brawl of the Wild trophy. The Bobcats (12-0, 8-0 Big Sky Conference) wrapped up the 123rd meeting in this rivalry with 420 yards, 326 on the ground. 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As Xiang Zuo settled into the chair, the room fell into a hushed silence, the only sound the soft hum of the clippers as the barber went to work. Fans held their breath, their eyes fixed on the mirror as Xiang Zuo's signature hairstyle took shape before their eyes. The transformation was nothing short of magical, a testament to the skill and artistry of the barber who knew just how to enhance the actor's handsome features.

In addition to its gaming prowess, the Honor GT is also expected to impress with its sleek design, premium build quality, and a range of cutting-edge features. From high-refresh-rate displays to advanced cooling systems, the Honor GT is designed to offer a seamless and immersive gaming experience for gamers of all levels.