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CONWAY, Ark., Dec. 10, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Home BancShares, Inc. HOMB ("Home" or "the Company"), and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Centennial Bank ("Centennial"), announced it has established additional reserves for loan losses as a result of Hurricane Milton. On October 11, 2024, HOMB announced a $16.7 million reserve as a result of Hurricane Helene, which made landfall September 26, 2024. Upon announcement HOMB indicated the more recent and powerful Hurricane Milton, which made landfall on October 9, 2024, and caused the spin-off of more than two dozen tornados, would likely lead to an increase in this reserve amount. "Out of an abundance of caution, HOMB has decided to make an additional $16.7 million reserve following the second Florida hurricane, bringing our total hurricane reserve to $33.4 million for the year," said John Allison, Chairman of HOMB. "The two hurricanes spanned across the third and fourth quarter and the amount of time it takes for customers to settle with insurance will no doubt increase, with two back-to-back events," continued Allison. "We have approximately $110 million currently on deferral as a result of the two hurricanes and in keeping with our conservative nature, we feel as though this proactive move is a prudent and predictable course of action," added Allison. Branches The Company currently has 76 branches in Arkansas, 78 branches in Florida, 58 branches in Texas, 5 branches in Alabama and one branch in New York City. About Home BancShares Home BancShares, Inc. is a bank holding company, headquartered in Conway, Arkansas. Its wholly-owned subsidiary, Centennial Bank, provides a broad range of commercial and retail banking plus related financial services to businesses, real estate developers, investors, individuals and municipalities. Centennial Bank has branch locations in Arkansas, Florida, Texas, South Alabama and New York City. The Company's common stock is traded through the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "HOMB." The Company was founded in 1998. Visit www.homebancshares.com or www.my100bank.com for more information. General This release contains forward-looking statements regarding the Company's plans, expectations, goals and outlook for the future, including future financial results. Statements in this press release that are not historical facts should be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future events, performance or results. When we use words or phrases like "may," "plan," "propose," "contemplate," "anticipate," "believe," "intend," "continue," "expect," "project," "predict," "estimate," "could," "should," "would," "on track" and similar expressions, you should consider them as identifying forward-looking statements, although we may use other phrasing. Forward-looking statements of this type speak only as of the date of this news release. By nature, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Various factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, the following: economic conditions, credit quality, interest rates, loan demand, real estate values and unemployment, including the ongoing impacts of inflation; the ability to identify, complete and successfully integrate new acquisitions; the risk that expected cost savings and other benefits from acquisitions may not be fully realized or may take longer to realize than expected; diversion of management time on acquisition-related issues; the availability of and access to capital and liquidity on terms acceptable to us; legislative and regulatory changes and risks and expenses associated with current and future legislation and regulations; technological changes and cybersecurity risks and incidents; the effects of changes in accounting policies and practices; changes in governmental monetary and fiscal policies; political instability, military conflicts and other major domestic or international events; the impact of recent or future adverse weather events, including hurricanes, and other natural disasters; disruptions, uncertainties and related effects on credit quality, liquidity and other aspects of our business and operations that may result from any future public health crises; competition from other financial institutions; potential claims, expenses and other adverse effects related to current or future litigation, regulatory examinations or other government actions; potential increases in deposit insurance assessments, increased regulatory scrutiny or market disruptions resulting from financial challenges in the banking industry; changes in the assumptions used in making the forward-looking statements; and other factors described in reports we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), including those factors set forth in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, filed with the SEC on February 26, 2024. FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Donna Townsell Director of Investor Relations Home BancShares, Inc. (501) 328-4625 © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Inter Milan & Netherlands Defender Optimistic Despite Painful Bayer Leverkusen Defeat: “We Played As A Team”
A fugitive gains fame in New Orleans eluding dart guns and nets NEW ORLEANS (AP) — For months, a fugitive dog known as Scrim has transfixed the city of New Orleans. The 17-pound mutt has gained fame eluding a tenacious band of citizens wielding a tranquilizer dart gun and night vision binoculars. He's already escaped two homes. Now his sightings are plotted on a crowd-sourced Google map. Animal rescuers hope to capture the renegade pooch and put him in a place that's safe and secure. But there's a backlash, fueled by the now-viral video of Scrim leaping out a two-story window, under the hashtag #FreeScrim, as some think the dog should be able to roam free. McConnell falls and sprains wrist after GOP luncheon, colleague says he is 'fine' WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell fell and sprained his wrist while walking out of a GOP luncheon on Tuesday, the latest in a series of medical incidents for him in recent years. That's according to a senator who was with him when it happened. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 3 Senate Republican and a doctor, said McConnell walked back to his office after the fall with no assistance and had “a small scratch.” Medical staff were seen taking a wheelchair into McConnell’s office just before a scheduled weekly news conference. McConnell, who is stepping down from his leadership post at the end of the year, did not attend the news conference. Who is Tony Buzbee, the lawyer suing Jay-Z as part of civil cases against Sean 'Diddy' Combs? HOUSTON (AP) — High-profile legal battles are nothing new for Texas attorney Tony Buzbee. His latest is a lawsuit he’s filed against rapper Jay-Z. Buzbee is accusing the iconic rapper as well as Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexually assaulting a minor at an awards show after-party in 2000. The lawsuit against Jay-Z is part of multiple civil cases Buzbee has filed on behalf of more than 150 people who allege sexual abuse and exploitation at the hands of Combs, who denies the claims. In his legal career, Buzbee has represented a variety of clients, including victims of sexual assault and well-known politicians. His critics say he’s full of bluster and bombast. Buzbee's firm says he's worked to “pursue justice against powerful figures.” OpenAI releases AI video generator Sora but limits how it depicts people SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — OpenAI has publicly released its new artificial intelligence video generator Sora but won’t let most users depict people as it monitors for patterns of misuse. Users of a premium version of OpenAI’s flagship product ChatGPT can now use Sora to instantly create AI-generated videos based on written commands. Among the highlighted examples are high-quality video clips of sumo-wrestling bears and a cat sipping coffee. But only a small set of invited testers can use Sora to make videos of humans as OpenAI works to “address concerns around misappropriation of likeness and deepfakes,” the company said in a blog post. Soto's record $765 million, 15-year contract with Mets reverberates through Major League Baseball DALLAS (AP) — Juan Soto’s record $765 million, 15-year contract with the New York Mets, the largest and longest deal in baseball history, has reverberated across the winter meetings. It stung the Yankees, who offered $760 million over 16 years to the All-Star outfielder. Soto’s deal sparked even greater expectations in a free agent market that includes pitchers Corbin Burnes and Max Fried, first basemen Pete Alonso and Christian Walker, third baseman Alex Bregman and outfielder Anthony Santander. Many small-market teams have long sought a salary cap but the consensus since the 1994-95 strike has been not to propose a hard limit. Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to change his family’s trust over Fox News media empire control rejected RENO, Nev. (AP) — A sealed document obtained by The New York Times says a Nevada commissioner has ruled against Rupert Murdoch’s effort to change his family’s trust to give his son Lachlan Murdoch control of his media empire and ensure Fox News maintains its conservative editorial slant. The commissioner concluded in a decision filed on Saturday that the two men had acted in “bad faith” in their bid to amend the irrevocable trust. Lachlan Murdoch is the head of Fox News and News Corp. The trust divides control of the company equally among Murdoch’s four oldest children after his death. A lawyer for Rupert Murdoch says he and his son intend to appeal the ruling. Greyhound racing is increasingly rare worldwide. New Zealand now plans to outlaw the practice WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand's racing minister says the country will outlaw greyhound racing, citing the injury rates for racing dogs. He says it will be shut down over the next 20 months, allowing time for those it employs to find other work and homes to be found for the 2,900 racing dogs. New Zealand is one of only a handful of countries where commercial greyhound racing is held. The industry body says the government has not recognized the progress it has made in animal welfare. The government passed an urgent law Tuesday barring greyhound owners from killing dogs as the industry winds down. Trustee over Infowars auction asks court to approve The Onion's winning bid A trustee who oversaw the bankruptcy auction of Alex Jones’ Infowars is asking a judge to approve The Onion’s winning bid for the conspiracy-filled platform. Trustee Christopher Murray took the stand Tuesday in the second day of testimony at a hearing where a judge is scrutinizing the satirical news outlet’s winning offer. He told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston that he was there asking a court to approve the sale of Infowars’ parent company to The Onion’s parent company. It is not clear how quickly Lopez will rule. The Onion wants to turn Infowars’ website and social media accounts into parodies. Still rockin': As a singer turns 80, the Christmas song she sang as a teen is a holiday staple NEW YORK (AP) — Brenda Lee's memories of recording “Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree” are a little hazy now. But that's to be expected, since she was 13-years-old when it was made in 1958 and this month is celebrating her 80th birthday. The song has lived a remarkable life, and even unseated Mariah Carey's “All I Want for Christmas is You” at the top of the Billboard charts last year. Experts say the way it evokes a simpler time at the “Christmas party hop” is a key to its success. The song achieves the neat trick of sounding retro without being dated. Mass evacuation of Philippine villages underway after a brief but major volcanic eruption MANILA, Philippines (AP) — About 87,000 people are being evacuated in a central Philippine region after a volcano erupted with a huge plume of ash and superhot streams of gas and debris hurtling down its slopes. The eruption Monday of Mount Kanlaon on central Negros island did not cause any immediate casualties, but the alert level was raised one level, indicating further and more explosive eruptions may occur. Volcanic ash fell over a wide area, nine flights were canceled or diverted, schools were closed and a nighttime curfew was imposed in the most vulnerable areas. Mass evacuations were being carried out urgently in towns and villages nearest the volcano's western and southern slopes.( MENAFN - IANS) Manchester, Dec 1 (IANS) Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola revealed he has asked the club's hierarchy for a chance to turn its form around as his motivation to get the Blues back to our usual high standards has never declined, otherwise he would not have agreed to stay. Guardiola, who signed a contract extension woth City for two years last week, currently experiencing the toughest run of form in his managerial tenure with City losing five successive matches in all competitions ahead of table-topping clash with Premier League leaders Liverpool. "I extend because I feel it, I'm not sitting here just for what I've done, it's because still I'm happy and I want to try. But the moment it's going to happen, I don't want to stay in a place where I feel I'm a problem. "I don't stay just because a contract is there. My Chairman knows it, I said to him give me the chance to try and come back and especially when everyone comes back let's see what happens. "After if it's not good we have to change. I never ask my hierarchy to stay, but more than ever I ask them to give me the chance.I have the feeling that I still have a job to do, and I want to do it," Guardiola wa quoted by Manchester City website. The City boss has won 18 trophies since moving to Etihad Stadium in 2016, including six Premier League titles in seven years and the Champions League. Defending Champions City are fourth in the table and face leaders Liverpool on Sunday. The Blues' last win at Anfield came in February 2021, with the previous victory before that triumph coming in 2003. Guardiola admits that Liverpool will go into the tie full of confidence but, when it comes to the big games, being seen as the favourite has never played into his thinking or given his team an edge. Well, we have only won there once in the COVID time when there were no people there,” he added. “Nothing changed my job, of course we are not (favourites), now we don't improve in the recent games, especially for the other one but that is not the point. “When I played in Barcelona with these extraordinary players and we were favourites, I never thought about it giving an extra boost or 'I'm going to start the game from 1-0' or we play bad. We have to perform, read what you have to do and we will see what will happen," he said. MENAFN30112024000231011071ID1108942382 Legal Disclaimer: MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.
Proposed merger of Kroger and Albertsons is halted by federal, state judges The proposed $24.6 billion merger between supermarket giants Kroger and Albertsons floundered on Tuesday after judges overseeing two separate cases both halted the merger. A federal judge in Oregon temporarily blocked the proposed merger until an in-house administrative judge at the Federal Trade Commission considers it. Shortly afterward, a judge in Washington state issued a permanent injunction barring the merger in that state, saying it lessens competition. Kroger and Albertsons in 2022 proposed what would be the largest grocery store merger in U.S. history. But the Federal Trade Commission and the state of Washington sued earlier this year. Biden says he was 'stupid' not to put his name on pandemic relief checks like Trump did WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden says he was “stupid” not to put his own name on pandemic relief checks in 2021, like Donald Trump had done in 2020. He noted Tuesday in a speech at the Brookings Institution that Trump likely got credit for helping people out through this simple, effective act of branding. Biden did the second-guessing as he defended his economic record and challenged Trump to preserve Democratic policy ideas when he returns to the White House next month. Trump’s decision to add his name to the checks sent by the U.S. Treasury to millions of Americans struggling during the coronavirus marked the first time a president’s name appeared on any IRS payments. Former chairman of state-owned bank China Everbright Group jailed for 12 years for corruption BEIJING (AP) — Chinese official broadcaster CCTV says a former chairman of the state-owned bank China Everbright Group has been jailed 12 years for embezzlement and bribery. Tang Shuangning, who had also held senior posts at the People’s Bank of China and the China Banking Regulatory Commission, was arrested in January, part of a wider wave of prosecutions of senior officials accused of financial crimes. A court in the city of Tangshan, about 100 miles east of Beijing, found him guilty of taking advantage of his position at the state-owned bank in “seeking convenience for others” in jobs and loans, in exchange for illegal payments. The court said he had accepted illegal property with a total value of more than $1.5 million. GM to retreat from robotaxis and stop funding its Cruise autonomous vehicle unit DETROIT (AP) — General Motors says it will retreat from the robotaxi business and stop funding its money-losing Cruise autonomous vehicle unit. Instead the Detroit automaker will focus on development of partially automated driver-assist systems like its Super Cruise, which allows drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel. In a statement Tuesday, GM said it would get out of robotaxis due to what it described as the considerable time and resources that would be needed to scale the business, along with an increasingly competitive robotaxi market. What did you Google in 2024? From the elections to Copa América, here's what search trends show NEW YORK (AP) — Remember what you searched for in 2024? Google does. Google has released its annual “Year in Search," rounding up 2024's top trending searches. It shows terms that saw the highest spike in traffic compared to last year. Sports — particularly soccer and cricket — dominated overall search trends, led by queries for Copa América, the UEFA European Championship and ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. Meanwhile, the U.S. election led news-specific searches worldwide. Queries about excessive heat and this year’s Olympic Games followed. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump topped searches in Google’s people category this year — followed by Catherine, Princess of Wales, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Algerian boxer Imane Khelif. US defense secretary in Japan to support alliance as Osprey aircraft safety causes concern TOKYO (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has met with officials in Japan to reaffirm the importance of their alliance and Washington's commitment to regional security as threats rise from China and North Korea. Austin’s visit on Tuesday also came amid growing concerns over the safety of Ospreys. The military aircraft have been grounded in the United States following a near crash at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico last month. The incident was caused by weakened metal components. It was similar to a fatal crash off southwestern Japan last year. The U.S. measure prompted the suspension of Ospreys operated by Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force. Trustee over Infowars auction asks court to approve The Onion's winning bid A trustee who oversaw the bankruptcy auction of Alex Jones’ Infowars is asking a judge to approve The Onion’s winning bid for the conspiracy-filled platform. Trustee Christopher Murray took the stand Tuesday in the second day of testimony at a hearing where a judge is scrutinizing the satirical news outlet’s winning offer. He told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston that he was there asking a court to approve the sale of Infowars’ parent company to The Onion’s parent company. It is not clear how quickly Lopez will rule. The Onion wants to turn Infowars’ website and social media accounts into parodies. Small businesses plan events, start marketing earlier to deal with shorter holiday shopping season The holiday shopping season is underway, and this year small businesses have less time to capitalize on the busy shopping period. Only 27 days separate Thanksgiving and Christmas — five fewer than last year. But there are still ways to make the most of a shorter season. One key strategy is for owners to promote deals to customers wherever they can, from social media to physical ads. The National Retail Federation predicts that retail sales will rise between 2.5% and 3.5% compared with same period a year ago. Online shopping is expected to grow too. Adobe Digital Insights predicts an 8.4% increase online for the full season. 10 notable books of 2024, from Sarah J. Maas to Melania Trump NEW YORK (AP) — Even through a year of nonstop news about elections, climate change, protests and the price of eggs, Americans still found time to read. Sales held steady according to Circana, which tracks around 85% of the print market. Many chose the release of romance, fantasy and romantasy. Some picked up the tie-in book to Taylor Swift’s blockbuster tour, which had the best opening week of 2024. Others sought out literary fiction, celebrity memoirs, political exposes and a close and painful look at a generation hooked on smartphones. Boeing is building new 737 Max planes for the first time since workers went on strike Boeing is resuming production of its bestselling plane, the 737 Max. It's the first time that Max jets have moved down the assembly line since September, when about 33,000 workers went on strike for higher pay. Boeing said Tuesday that work on the Max has resumed at its factory in Renton, Washington, near Seattle. Both the Max and another Boeing plane, the 787 Dreamliner, have been plagued by manufacturing problems in recent years. The Federal Aviation Administration is limiting Boeing’s production of Max jets until the agency is convinced that Boeing has corrected quality and safety issues during manufacturing.
NEW YORK , Dec. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Report with market evolution powered by AI - The global telecom cloud market size is estimated to grow by USD 63.68 billion from 2024-2028, according to Technavio. The market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 29.7% during the forecast period. Rising enterprise mobility and need to improve efficiency is driving market growth, with a trend towards rising telecom dependence after covid-19. However, stringent regulatory compliance poses a challenge. Key market players include Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc., AT and T Inc., BT Group Plc, Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., Deutsche Telekom AG, Etisalat, Fortinet Inc., Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., International Business Machines Corp., Juniper Networks Inc., Mavenir Systems Inc., Microsoft Corp., Nokia Corp., Oracle Corp., Orange SA, Telstra Corp. Ltd., Verizon, and VMware Inc.. AI-Powered Market Evolution Insights. Our comprehensive market report ready with the latest trends, growth opportunities, and strategic analysis- View Free Sample Report PDF Key Market Trends Fueling Growth Telecom cloud market is witnessing significant trends with the adoption of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) for 5G rollout. SDN and NFV enable telecom operators to offer cloud-native, open-source solutions with independent lifecycles and system immutability. SMEs and public enterprises are increasingly demanding private cloud services for industrial operations and organizational work. TM Forum, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Tech Mahindra, and other service providers are offering communications cloud services to meet this demand. 5G technology brings lower latency and higher speed capabilities, driving the need for cloud services for mobile users. Cyber threats and data security are major concerns, with service providers focusing on data security and cybersecurity. Multi-cloud computing and cloud-based technologies are also gaining popularity, with Amazon Web Services (AWS) for Telecom and offerings from Cisco Telco Cloud, Microsoft Cloud, Open Telekom Cloud, and others. The trend towards automation, orchestration, and virtualized network infrastructure continues, with the adoption of artificial intelligence and cloud business strategies driving digital transformation. Digital media behemoths like Netflix and YouTube are driving network congestion, highlighting the importance of service automation and scalability. CapEx and OpEx considerations, B2B solutions, and 5G network installations are also key factors influencing the telecom cloud market. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a significant increase in the use of telecommunications for work and education from home. This demand put pressure on telecommunications infrastructure and services. Consequently, the need for telco cloud applications grew as telcos and communication providers sought to manage network traffic and maintain quality of service during peak usage. With the continuing trend of remote work post-pandemic, the importance of cloud-based telco solutions is expected to remain high. Insights on how AI is driving innovation, efficiency, and market growth- Request Sample! • Telecom Cloud Market: Overcoming Challenges with SDN, NFV, 5G, IoT, and More The Telecom Cloud Market faces several challenges as businesses and mobile users demand more cloud services, especially with the rollout of 5G technology. Service providers must address the adoption of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) to build virtualized network infrastructure and enable automation and orchestration. SMEs and public enterprises require cloud services to support industrial operations and organizational work, leading in demand for private cloud solutions. Telecom operators face cyber threats, including inside threats and network congestion, necessitating data security and cybersecurity measures. 5G technology offers low latency and higher speed capabilities, making it crucial for cloud communication. Cloud-native technologies, open-source software, and system immutability are essential for independent lifecycles and scalability. Cloud business strategies, digital transformation, and multi-cloud computing are key trends, with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Tech Mahindra, and other service providers offering solutions. Service providers must ensure data consumption, CapEx and OpEx management, B2B solutions, and 5G network installations while addressing cybersecurity concerns. Digital media behemoths like Netflix and YouTube add to network traffic, necessitating service automation and the ability to handle over-the-top cloud services. Telecom operators must navigate these challenges to meet the evolving needs of their customers. • Telecom cloud services must adhere to multiple regulations and standards, ensuring compliance with data privacy, security, and consumer protection. Regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) necessitate obtaining user consent before collecting and utilizing data, as well as implementing security measures. Telecom cloud providers must secure their networks against cyber threats, including hacking and malware. Compliance with industry standards, like the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), is also mandatory. Insights into how AI is reshaping industries and driving growth- Download a Sample Report This telecom cloud market report extensively covers market segmentation by 1.1 Public 1.2 Private 1.3 Hybrid 2.1 Large enterprises 2.2 Small and medium enterprises 3.1 North America 3.2 Europe 3.3 APAC 3.4 South America 3.5 Middle East and Africa 1.1 Public- The public segment dominates the global telecom cloud market, accounting for the largest market share in 2023. This growth can be attributed to the cost-effectiveness and scalability of public cloud services. Telecom companies can align their operating expenses with actual usage through pay-as-you-go pricing models, eliminating the need for substantial upfront investments in hardware and software. Public cloud platforms are vital for telecom firms undergoing digital transformation. They offer the infrastructure and tools for adopting cloud-native applications, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and IoT. Modernizing legacy systems and enhancing agility enable telecom companies to improve customer experiences. Security concerns are being addressed with advancements in cloud security, including encryption, access controls, and compliance certifications. These factors will drive the growth of the public segment of the global telecom cloud market during the forecast period. Download complimentary Sample Report to gain insights into AI's impact on market dynamics, emerging trends, and future opportunities- including forecast (2024-2028) and historic data (2018 - 2022) The Telecom Cloud Market is experiencing rapid growth as Communications Service Providers (CSPs) embrace 5G technology and digital transformation. Cloud services, including Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Cloud, are becoming essential for telecoms to offer scalability and flexibility to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are key drivers, enabling network function virtualization and software-defined networking. Data security and cybersecurity are top priorities, with cloud-native technologies providing solutions. The Internet of Things (IoT) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) are also transforming the industry, allowing for multi-cloud computing and cloud-based technologies to address network congestion and deliver digital media content from digital entertainment giants. Virtualized network infrastructure and programmable network infrastructure are crucial components of this evolution, ensuring network performance and agility. The Telecom Cloud Market is experiencing significant growth as businesses and telecommunication operators embrace SDN and NFV technologies to build communications clouds for 5G and IoT applications. SMEs and public enterprises are adopting cloud services, including over-the-top cloud offerings, for their industrial operations and organizational work. TM Forum, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and other service providers are leading the charge with their innovative offerings, such as Azure Operator Nexus, Open Telekom Cloud, Cisco Telco Cloud, and AWS for Telecom. 5G technology's low latency and higher speed capabilities are driving demand for cloud communication solutions, while cyber threats and data security concerns persist. Cloud-native technologies, such as open-source software, offer system immutability and independent lifecycles. The 5G rollout and the need for scalability and flexibility are key adoption drivers. Service providers must address inside threats and ensure data security and cybersecurity to meet businesses' needs. Desktop virtualization, automation, orchestration, virtualized network infrastructure, and programmable network infrastructure are essential components of cloud business strategies. Digital transformation, data consumption, and multi-cloud computing are shaping the future of telecom cloud demand. CapEx and OpEx considerations, B2B solutions, and 5G network installations are also critical factors. Digital media behemoths, such as Netflix and YouTube, are contributing to network congestion, further emphasizing the importance of cloud-based technologies. 1 Executive Summary 2 Market Landscape 3 Market Sizing 4 Historic Market Size 5 Five Forces Analysis 6 Market Segmentation Deployment Public Private Hybrid End-user Large Enterprises Small And Medium Enterprises Geography North America Europe APAC South America Middle East And Africa 7 Customer Landscape 8 Geographic Landscape 9 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends 10 Company Landscape 11 Company Analysis 12 Appendix Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media & Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: [email protected] Website: www.technavio.com/ SOURCE TechnavioThe facts at hand suggest that the intersection is much more complicated, and Europe is on a slip road towards a spaghetti junction. At a moment of intense geopolitical upheaval and economic stagnation, the bloc is being squeezed from all sides, and from within. “The crisis theatres in Europe and Indo-Pacific are linked as we can witness from North Korea’s involvement in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” the EU’s outgoing top diplomat Josep Borrell said last month. 01:09 North Korea may send 100,000 troops to Russia, as Kim tells military to ‘go all out’ On the face of it, the EU could hardly be less ready for these external shocks: politically and economically, it is perpetually on the cusp of turmoil.
goalkeeper is "alert" and conscious after being taken off the field on a stretcher during the team's at on Thursday, manager Julen Lopetegui said. The game was delayed for around eight minutes as Fabianski received treatment on the field at St Mary's Stadium. The 39-year-old Polish goalkeeper was hurt in a collision from a corner and was replaced by in the 36th minute. Southampton 'keeper had run the length of the field to check on Fabianski amid worrying scenes. Fabianski was then greeted by applause as he was taken off with an oxygen mask on, but did not need to go to the hospital. "He had one big knock around the head, around the neck and he was not very sure about his actions. Fortunately the news is he is talking, he is alert, he is conscious," Lopetegui said. "I talk with him. The doctors say that he feels better and well. I am positive with him. He showed he more or less recovered his sense. I am not afraid. We feared but now he is better and it is a positive feeling because we were very worried." West Ham, which also saw defender go off in the first half, scored through in the 59th.KABUL, Dec 11 — For Saja, studying nursing at a healthcare institute in Kabul was her last lifeline to make something of herself after women were banned from universities in Afghanistan two years ago. But the Taliban government has crushed this ambition by ordering, according to multiple sources, the exclusion of Afghan women from medical training, sparking panic across institutions. When she heard the news, Saja, who had been at university before women were barred, said it felt like “reliving the same nightmare”. “This was my last hope to do something, to become something,” said Saja, not her real name. “Everything has been taken away from us for the crime of being a girl.” The authorities have made no official comment or confirmation, nor have they responded to the numerous condemnations and calls to reverse a decision that further blocks women’s access to education. Since their 2021 return to power, the Taliban government has imposed reams of restrictions on women, making Afghanistan the only country to ban girls from education after primary school. Directors and employees of health training centres have told AFP they were informed in recent days of the order, issued by the Taliban supreme leader and passed down verbally by the health ministry, to expel women students until further notice. Institutes across the country — which many women had turned to after the university ban — were given a few days to organise final exams. But without an explicit announcement or document clarifying the rules, confusion reigns. Some institutions told AFP they would operate as normal until they received written orders, while others closed immediately or scrambled to hold exams before shuttering. “Everyone is confused, and no one is sharing what is really happening,” said Saja, who was in her first year at a private institute. “We have been given two or three exams each day... even though we already finished our exams a few months back,” said the 22-year-old, adding they had to pay fees to sit the exams. 35,000 women students “We received a lot of concerned messages from students and teachers wanting to know what is going on and asking ‘is there any hope?’” said the director of a Kabul private institute with 1,100 students, of which 700 were women. “No one is happy,” he told AFP from his office steps away from women’s classrooms, where the last lesson on the board advised how to manage stress and depression in patients. According to a source within the health ministry, 35,000 women are currently students in some 10 public and more than 150 private institutes offering two-year diplomas in subjects including nursing, midwifery, dentistry and laboratory work. The Norwegian Afghanistan Committee (NAC) non-governmental organisation, which trains 588 women in institutes managed in collaboration with the health ministry, was verbally informed classes were “temporarily suspended”. This has to be taken “equally seriously as a written document”, said NAC country director Terje Magnusson Watterdal, adding that “there are a lot of people high up within the current government that are quite opposed to this decision”. He hopes, at the minimum, public institutes will reopen to women. International organisations like the United Nations, which has said Afghan women are victims of a “gender apartheid”, have already warned of devastating consequences of the plan, in a country where maternal and infant mortality are among the world’s highest. If implemented, the reported new ban “will undoubtedly lead to unnecessary suffering, illness, and possibly deaths of Afghan women and children, now and in future generations, which could amount to femicide”, UN experts warned Monday. ‘Taken everything from us’ Midwifery students are especially passionate about their studies, according to Magnusson Watterdal. “So many of these young women have been motivated to become a midwife because they have lost a mother or an aunt or a sister in childbirth,” he said. “It’s not just a profession that you choose, it’s a vocation. So, of course, there’s great desperation” among students and staff. Small protests have been held in parts of Afghanistan, according to sources and images circulated on social media. Assal, another student using a pseudonym, received an expedited diploma last week, but has little hope of finding a job in a country where unemployment is widespread and opportunities for women are increasingly limited. “I wanted to practise medicine and study further,” the 20-year-old told AFP. “They had already taken everything from us. Next thing we won’t even be allowed to breathe.” — AFP
As a Communist Party member in Calgary in the early 1940s, Frank Hadesbeck performed clerical work at the party office, printed leaflets and sold books. But he also had tasks his party comrades could know nothing about: snooping on mail, copying phone numbers from scratch pads and rummaging through waste baskets. Hadesbeck, known to his RCMP handlers as agent 810, would pass along any information he could glean to the national police force. His lengthy tenure as a paid informant for the Mounties’ security branch is chronicled in “A Communist for the RCMP” by Dennis Gruending, a former New Democrat MP who has worked as a journalist and authored several books. Before the First World War, Hadesbeck’s family left what was then southern Hungary for Canada, settling in Saskatchewan. Frank had a difficult childhood. He was orphaned at age 11, worked on farms, spent time in the United States, and did a number of jobs in the Regina area in the 1930s. He was among the Canadians who volunteered to fight on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War against Gen. Francisco Franco. Hadesbeck was alone, broke and looking for work in Alberta when the RCMP recruited him as an informant, on condition he join the Communist Party to establish a cover. Several days later, he was fingerprinted, weighed and photographed at an RCMP office. “My contact said I was not an informer or a stool pigeon or a snitch as other informers were classified,” Hadesbeck recorded in his notes. “I was part of a team on a monthly salary, plus expenses and was given a number.” The RCMP has always jealously guarded information about its sources, even decades after events, Gruending writes. He formally requested Hadesbeck’s file through the Access to Information Act, but an official would neither confirm nor deny such records exist. However, Hadesbeck thoroughly documented his efforts for the RCMP over the decades. Gruending acquired a box of his papers through an acquaintance, and managed to corroborate and flesh out many of Hadesbeck’s claims. The files contain the names of hundreds of people on so-called Watch Out lists — individuals of interest to RCMP security officials who grew increasingly concerned about the perceived menace of Communism during the Cold War. The records also describe in detail how Hadesbeck operated as an agent, his dealings with handlers, and his thoughts about the ethics and wisdom of his double life, Gruending notes. RCMP security officials wanted information on people they considered subversive, but were not interested in understanding why those individuals were critical of the existing economic and political system, the book says. Hadesbeck appeared to have a clear sense of his mission. “I soon realized that I was being paid to collect information only, not to think about why they wanted all this information about people who I thought were honest Canadian citizens.” Hadesbeck would meet a handler every couple of weeks, often in a hotel room. The officer typically provided names and photos of people of interest, and told him to make discreet inquiries. The RCMP’s cash payments supplemented the salary from his steady job, from the early 1950s on, at a Regina company that salvaged old tractors. Hadesbeck’s notes and Watch Out lists from the 1950s point to RCMP suspicions about Communist control of the peace movement. Socialist trailblazer Tommy Douglas, who attended numerous peace-related events, turned up alongside dozens of others on Watch Out lists. A handwritten list labelled the Canadian Peace Conference and Voice of Women as Communist Party fronts. Douglas was premier of Saskatchewan and went on to lead the federal New Democratic Party, but Gruending contends the RCMP did not bother much with distinctions between Communists and social democrats. “The force continued to believe that Douglas was secretly a Communist, or at least was unduly influenced by them.” Indeed, a multi-volume RCMP file on Douglas of more than 1,100 pages came to light through Access to Information in 2006. Hadesbeck scribbled half a dozen notes about writer Farley Mowat, another subject of curiosity for the security service. Many prominent Canadians appeared on his Watch Out lists, including author Pierre Berton, journalist June Callwood, musician Stompin’ Tom Connors, Liberal cabinet ministers Walter Gordon and Herb Gray, and broadcaster Adrienne Clarkson — who would later be governor general. Gruending says Hadesbeck not only routinely betrayed Communist Party members, but was reckless in passing along information about many other people. “Often, he implied that they might be party members when they were not,” he writes. Sometimes such scrutiny could have serious consequences. People deemed suspect by the RCMP were harassed, denied employment and promotions, or even fired from government, unions, the media and academia, Gruending notes. Gay and lesbian members of the Canadian Armed Forces, the RCMP and the public service were among those targeted. “Careers were ruined and lives shattered.” At a November gathering in Ottawa to promote the book, Gruending said he was left with mixed feelings about Hadesbeck, “and I think he was somewhat conflicted in the way he felt about the people that he was surveilling.” “I have a good deal of sympathy towards him, but ultimately, he betrayed a lot of people.” In September 1976, Hadesbeck was invited to a meeting at a Regina Holiday Inn with several RCMP officers. He was told his career as an informant was over. “I had to sign a paper, but got no copy for myself, that I would keep my connections with the security force secret and not contact them again in any way,” Hadesbeck’s notes say. He was handed 15 $100 bills as a parting bonus. Even so, Hadesbeck supplied information to the RCMP until 1977, and occasionally for a few more years. “Hadesbeck’s behaviour is difficult to understand because he found his abrupt dismissal to be traumatic,” the book says. “He believed that he deserved, and had been promised, a pension when he retired.” Hadesbeck seemed eager to tell his story in the 1980s, but plans for a book fell through. He died in 2006, shortly after turning 100. In his later jottings, Hadesbeck tried to portray himself as a patriot and anti-Communist, but the pronouncements seem half-hearted, Gruending writes. “It is easy to see Hadesbeck as deceitful, cynical and self-serving. He did not become an informant for ideological reasons or as an act of patriotism. He did it for the money and perhaps a sense of power and excitement.”
By PETER SMITH A social-media tribute to Coptic Christians. A billboard in Amish country. A visit to a revered Jewish gravesite. While Donald Trump’s lock on the white evangelical vote is legendary, he and his campaign allies also wooed smaller religious groups, far from the mainstream. As it turned out, Trump won by decisive margins, but his campaign aggressively courted niche communities with the understanding that every vote could be critical, particularly in swing states. Voter surveys such as exit polls, which canvass broad swaths of the electorate, aren’t able to gauge the impact of such microtargeting, but some backers say the effort was worth it. Just one week before the election, Trump directed a post on the social-media platform X to Coptic Christians in the United States —- whose church has ancient roots in Egypt. He saluted their “Steadfast Faith in God, Perseverance through Centuries of Persecution and Love for this Great Country.” “This was the first time seeing a major U.S. presidential candidate address the community in this manner,” said Mariam Wahba, a Coptic Christian and research analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based research institute. “It was really a profound moment.” She said many Copts share the conservative social views of other Christian groups in the Republican constituency, and they may already have been Trump supporters. But the posting reinforced those bonds. Coptic bishops sent the president-elect congratulations after his victory and cited their “shared social and family values.” Some Assyrian Christians — another faith group with Middle Eastern roots — similarly bonded with Trump, whose mispronunciation of “Assyrian” at a rally created a viral video moment and drew attention to their support. Sam Darmo, a Phoenix real estate agent and co-founder of Assyrians for Trump, said many community members cited the economy, illegal immigration and other prominent voter issues. They echoed other conservative Christians’ concerns, he said, on issues such as abortion, gender identity and religious expression in public. But he said Trump supported various Middle Eastern Christians recovering from the Islamic State group’s oppressive rule. Darmo also credited Massad Boulos, father-in-law to Trump’s daughter Tiffany, for mobilizing various Middle Eastern Christian groups, including Chaldean Catholics, and other voters, particularly in Michigan, such as Muslims. “He brought all these minority groups together,” he said. “We’re hoping to continue that relationship.” But members of Middle Eastern-rooted Christian groups, and their politics, are far from monolithic, said Marcus Zacharia, founder of Progressive Copts, a program of Informed Immigrants, an organization that promotes dialogue on sensitive topics among such groups in the United States and Canada. He said many younger community members question Trump’s stances on issues such as immigration, and sense that conservatives sometimes tokenize them by focusing on the plight of persecuted Christians in the Middle East while neglecting wider issues of repression in countries there that the U.S. supports. He said there needs to be more informed dialogue across the political divide in these communities. “There is no more high time than these next four years to have that way of conducting conversations,” he said. Republicans also made an aggressive push for Amish voters , particularly in the swing state of Pennsylvania, where they are most numerous at about 92,000 (many below voting age). The GOP has made similar efforts in the past, even though researchers have found that less than 10% of them typically vote, due to their separatism from society. But Republicans used billboards, mailers, ads and door-to-door campaigner to drive turnout in Lancaster County, home base to the nation’s largest Amish settlement. On Election Day, Amish voters Samuel Stoltzfus and his wife Lillian Stoltzfus said they were supporting Trump, citing their anti-abortion beliefs. “We basically look at it as murder,” Stoltzfus, 31, said outside a polling center in the Lancaster County community of New Holland, where dozens of other members of the local Amish community voted. Trump has wavered on the issue, dismaying some abortion opponents, though many have said Republicans still align more closely to their views. Stolzfus added: “Make America great again and keep the moral values,” he said. “Let’s go back to the roots.” Steven Nolt, a history professor at Elizabethtown College in Lancaster College who studies the Amish and their voting patterns, said that while it’s too early to say definitively without further research, he doesn’t see evidence of a larger turnout this year. Lancaster County as a whole — most of which is not Amish — is a GOP stronghold that Trump won handily, though both parties’ votes edged up from 2020, according to unofficial results posted by the Pennsylvania Department of State. Trump’s biggest increases were in urban or suburban areas with few Amish, while some areas with larger Amish populations generally saw a modest increase in the Trump vote, said Nolt, director of the college’s Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies. “Bottom line, percentage-wise, not much change in the parts of Lancaster County where the Amish live,” he said. Trump directly reached out to members of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, a prominent and highly observant branch of Orthodox Judaism. Related Articles National Politics | Attorneys want the US Supreme Court to say Mississippi’s felony voting ban is cruel and unusual National Politics | Trump convinced Republicans to overlook his misconduct. But can he do the same for his nominees? National Politics | Trump gave Interior nominee one directive for a half-billion acres of US land: ‘Drill.’ National Politics | Trump’s team is delaying transition agreements. What does it mean for security checks and governing? National Politics | Judge delays Trump hush money sentencing in order to decide where case should go now On Oct. 7, the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, Trump made a symbolically resonant visit to the “Ohel,” the burial site of the movement’s revered late leader, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson. Wearing a yarmulke, the traditional Jewish skullcap, Trump, who has Jewish family members, brought a written prayer to the Ohel and laid a small stone at the grave in keeping with tradition. The site in New York City, while particularly central to Chabad adherents, draws an array of Jewish and other visitors, including politicians. About two-thirds of Jewish voters overall supported Trump’s opponent, Democrat Kamala Harris, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters. But the Trump campaign has made a particular outreach to Orthodox Jews, citing issues including his policies toward Israel in his first administration. Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowitz of Chabad Lubavitch of Southwest Florida said it was moving for him to see images of Trump’s visit. “The mere fact that he made a huge effort, obviously it was important to him,” he said. Associated Press journalist Luis Henao contributed.By PETER SMITH A social-media tribute to Coptic Christians. A billboard in Amish country. A visit to a revered Jewish gravesite. While Donald Trump’s lock on the white evangelical vote is legendary, he and his campaign allies also wooed smaller religious groups, far from the mainstream. As it turned out, Trump won by decisive margins, but his campaign aggressively courted niche communities with the understanding that every vote could be critical, particularly in swing states. Voter surveys such as exit polls, which canvass broad swaths of the electorate, aren’t able to gauge the impact of such microtargeting, but some backers say the effort was worth it. Just one week before the election, Trump directed a post on the social-media platform X to Coptic Christians in the United States —- whose church has ancient roots in Egypt. He saluted their “Steadfast Faith in God, Perseverance through Centuries of Persecution and Love for this Great Country.” “This was the first time seeing a major U.S. presidential candidate address the community in this manner,” said Mariam Wahba, a Coptic Christian and research analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based research institute. “It was really a profound moment.” She said many Copts share the conservative social views of other Christian groups in the Republican constituency, and they may already have been Trump supporters. But the posting reinforced those bonds. Coptic bishops sent the president-elect congratulations after his victory and cited their “shared social and family values.” Some Assyrian Christians — another faith group with Middle Eastern roots — similarly bonded with Trump, whose mispronunciation of “Assyrian” at a rally created a viral video moment and drew attention to their support. Sam Darmo, a Phoenix real estate agent and co-founder of Assyrians for Trump, said many community members cited the economy, illegal immigration and other prominent voter issues. They echoed other conservative Christians’ concerns, he said, on issues such as abortion, gender identity and religious expression in public. But he said Trump supported various Middle Eastern Christians recovering from the Islamic State group’s oppressive rule. Darmo also credited Massad Boulos, father-in-law to Trump’s daughter Tiffany, for mobilizing various Middle Eastern Christian groups, including Chaldean Catholics, and other voters, particularly in Michigan, such as Muslims. “He brought all these minority groups together,” he said. “We’re hoping to continue that relationship.” But members of Middle Eastern-rooted Christian groups, and their politics, are far from monolithic, said Marcus Zacharia, founder of Progressive Copts, a program of Informed Immigrants, an organization that promotes dialogue on sensitive topics among such groups in the United States and Canada. He said many younger community members question Trump’s stances on issues such as immigration, and sense that conservatives sometimes tokenize them by focusing on the plight of persecuted Christians in the Middle East while neglecting wider issues of repression in countries there that the U.S. supports. He said there needs to be more informed dialogue across the political divide in these communities. “There is no more high time than these next four years to have that way of conducting conversations,” he said. Republicans also made an aggressive push for Amish voters , particularly in the swing state of Pennsylvania, where they are most numerous at about 92,000 (many below voting age). The GOP has made similar efforts in the past, even though researchers have found that less than 10% of them typically vote, due to their separatism from society. But Republicans used billboards, mailers, ads and door-to-door campaigner to drive turnout in Lancaster County, home base to the nation’s largest Amish settlement. On Election Day, Amish voters Samuel Stoltzfus and his wife Lillian Stoltzfus said they were supporting Trump, citing their anti-abortion beliefs. “We basically look at it as murder,” Stoltzfus, 31, said outside a polling center in the Lancaster County community of New Holland, where dozens of other members of the local Amish community voted. Trump has wavered on the issue, dismaying some abortion opponents, though many have said Republicans still align more closely to their views. Stolzfus added: “Make America great again and keep the moral values,” he said. “Let’s go back to the roots.” Steven Nolt, a history professor at Elizabethtown College in Lancaster College who studies the Amish and their voting patterns, said that while it’s too early to say definitively without further research, he doesn’t see evidence of a larger turnout this year. Lancaster County as a whole — most of which is not Amish — is a GOP stronghold that Trump won handily, though both parties’ votes edged up from 2020, according to unofficial results posted by the Pennsylvania Department of State. Trump’s biggest increases were in urban or suburban areas with few Amish, while some areas with larger Amish populations generally saw a modest increase in the Trump vote, said Nolt, director of the college’s Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies. “Bottom line, percentage-wise, not much change in the parts of Lancaster County where the Amish live,” he said. Trump directly reached out to members of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, a prominent and highly observant branch of Orthodox Judaism. Related Articles National Politics | Attorneys want the US Supreme Court to say Mississippi’s felony voting ban is cruel and unusual National Politics | Trump convinced Republicans to overlook his misconduct. But can he do the same for his nominees? National Politics | Trump gave Interior nominee one directive for a half-billion acres of US land: ‘Drill.’ National Politics | Trump’s team is delaying transition agreements. What does it mean for security checks and governing? National Politics | Judge delays Trump hush money sentencing in order to decide where case should go now On Oct. 7, the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, Trump made a symbolically resonant visit to the “Ohel,” the burial site of the movement’s revered late leader, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson. Wearing a yarmulke, the traditional Jewish skullcap, Trump, who has Jewish family members, brought a written prayer to the Ohel and laid a small stone at the grave in keeping with tradition. The site in New York City, while particularly central to Chabad adherents, draws an array of Jewish and other visitors, including politicians. About two-thirds of Jewish voters overall supported Trump’s opponent, Democrat Kamala Harris, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters. But the Trump campaign has made a particular outreach to Orthodox Jews, citing issues including his policies toward Israel in his first administration. Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowitz of Chabad Lubavitch of Southwest Florida said it was moving for him to see images of Trump’s visit. “The mere fact that he made a huge effort, obviously it was important to him,” he said. Associated Press journalist Luis Henao contributed.
Nick Saban was in the stands at Coleman Coliseum taking in Nate Oats’ Crimson Tide basketball team’s final game of the year against South Dakota State. As The Tuscaloosa News’ Emilee Smarr pointed out, that meant Saban wasn’t with Alabama head football coach Kalen DeBoer and his staff preparing for the ReliaQuest Bowl. “Crimson Tide legends were among the stands to support Alabama basketball on Sunday,” Smarr wrote. “Retired Alabama football coach Nick Saban was seen all smiles alongside wife, Miss Terry, as the No. 6 Crimson Tide wrapped up its non-conference schedule against South Dakota State with a 105-82 win. “One might figure Saban would be on the sidelines with Kalen DeBoer and company as UA football prepares to face Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl. After all, Tampa is a bit closer to Saban's Jupiter residence than Tuscaloosa.” Saban has a well-documented friendship with Oats, explaining his presence in Tuscaloosa Sunday. Two days out from a ReliaQuest Bowl rematch with Michigan , the Crimson Tide faithful want to know that Saban still has a hand in the football program. A 9-3 season with losses to six-win teams like Vanderbilt and Oklahoma has just about all of them missing Saban. But Saban has made it clear he wants to let DeBoer run his program how he sees fit and not get too involved . “I do think this is a tough transition for Kalen,” Saban said on The Pat McAfee Show in October . “Any time you take over a successful program -- I don't want to be judgmental about what they do, because I feel like he has to do what he does his way. He can't be me. He can't try to be somebody that he isn't. I think there's more than one way to skin a cat, and I actually the guy has been successful and I think his way will work. “I think it's an adjustment for a lot of fans and the people. But I think he'll win them over because he's a good guy and he's a good coach. He's got a good system, a good organization. I'm just trying to be supportive and helpful any way that I can so he can make a smooth transition.” DeBoer could build a lot of goodwill if his Alabama team can get sweet revenge on a Michigan team that looks much different than the one that beat them in last year’s Rose Bowl .
World is about to see off the biggest election year in history. Almost half of humanity was involved in election exercises across continents, ranging from large democracies like India , USA and Indonesia to island nations like Tuvalu with 11,000 population. Citizen voters, in over 70 countries, millions of them first timers, attempted to address their own situations at the voting booths. ET Year-end Special Reads What kept India's stock market investors on toes in 2024? India's car race: How far EVs went in 2024 Investing in 2025: Six wealth management trends to watch out for The last of the national elections came this Sunday in Chad in central Africa amidst an opposition boycott.Universal suffrage remains the spine that holds a dithering democratic fabric whose other ingredients are in constant debate. BR Ambedkar linked elections to political democracy, ushering conditions for equality and justice. But if elections are undermined by impurities, process glitches, fake narratives, boycotts, competing claims, street protests, violence or even abandoned midway, that could be the proverbial last nail. The Stockholm-based International IDEA (Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance), in its report 'Global State of Democracy 2024', points to a certain erosion of credibility of elections compared to five years back, owing to declining turnout and other pathological conditions. The experience in India's neighborhood as elsewhere has been mixed at best. Declining interest Elections continue to be democracy's beautiful action play, especially the view of ordinary folks queuing up to vote. The average turnout of voters in elections this year is estimated to be at 61%. During the 15 years from 2008 to 2023, there has been a disconcerting decline of about 10% in voting across the world. India, with its electoral list inching towards a billion, has successfully reversed the trend by hitting the 65%-mark third time in a row, starting from 2014. Women turned out at a higher rate again in 2024 like in 2019. The best part of this year's last two assembly elections in Jharkhand and Maharashtra is the record turnout. Not a family show Campaigns have made elections a spectacle, an ugly one off late. Electioneering is developing as a democracy malfunction with misinformation, racist references, outright abuse and misogyny becoming its part. Poll time divisive narratives from top leaders could leave unremedied scars and dent unity. Champions of unbridled freedom do not find a problem with campaign rhetoric even of the most repelling imagery; that's what democracy and rights are about, they would say. But hate speech amplified by social media and made potent by artificial intelligence, is becoming a bigger concern because it is seen yielding electoral victories. Reasonable restrictions, enforced by India's model code, have been of partial help. Top-notch campaigners and party bosses must take the responsibility, a point hammered by Election Commission of India in recent polls.It is surprising that elections of the 21st century still veer around identity: in US elections, the segments read as: coloured women, white workers, Hispanic, Asian, college goers or dropouts and in Indian context it is: OBC, SC, ST, minority and majority religion. Each one is a vote bank, the contesting candidate reduced to a mascot. For the USA that swears by individual worth, one commentary after November polls was that it is not ready for a woman president yet and a coloured one at that. 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One in five elections between 2020-2024, was challenged by the defeated candidates. Even as votes were getting counted to decide the 47th Presidency in the United States, the world was worriedly recalling the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Donald Trump notched an emphatic victory, but a moot question is what if it was otherwise. Joe Biden exuded the ultimate grace of democracy when he asked supporters to "bring down the temperature". On the electoral system, Biden further said, "It is honest, it is fair, and it is transparent, and it can be trusted, win or lose."Disappointment over electoral outcomes can be provoking. But polity and politicians in India and everywhere have an urgent obligation not to fall into a trap that could erode public trust. It will be myopic to shift blame to voting equipment or a standard procedure after an electoral loss. Well Commissioned India The Constitution of India has imaginatively raised certain institutions to serve as guarantors for the country's democratic arrangement. The ECI is the critical one which gathers the franchise, counts and delivers the result that is convertible to legislative and executive leadership. Its conduct of 18 Lok Sabha and over 400 assembly elections has been rated highly by all stakeholders and by the wider world, irrespective of seasonal grievances. One sufficient pointer to performance is the negligible re-polling in only 40 out of 10.5 lakh polling stations in the last Lok Sabha polls. Smooth conduct of both parliamentary and assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, with high people's participation is another impressive statement.Election management bodies (EMBs) across countries are reforming and acquiring tech-backed efficiencies but voting and counting remain points of vulnerability. Safeguarding voters against lies, fakes and inducements is another ever expanding task. Unlike ECI, which has a staggering capacity for execution, others may require collaboration for ensuring electoral integrity. India clearly has a role to play. Last Defence The 2024 Economics Nobel recognises the role of democracy and its institutions like free and fair elections in upholding prosperity. Voting rights and correctness of representation have witnessed sizeable compromise in parts of the globe, but there have been elections this year, which immaculately embodied expression of people's will. The International IDEA underlines that India, and some other countries have "allowed the voters to have an effective voice". Good elections look like the last sure wall to not only prevent any democracy downslide, but also to enhance its promise. (The writer is former Director General, Election Commission of India) (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel )
FILE PHOTO: Former President Jair Bolsonaro addresses supporters during a rally in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Feb. 25, 2024. (Associated Photo/Andre Penner, File) SAO PAULO — Brazil’s federal police on Thursday formally accused former President Jair Bolsonaro and 36 other people of attempting a coup to keep him in office after his defeat in the 2022 elections. Police said their sealed findings were being delivered Thursday to Brazil’s Supreme Court, which will refer them to Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet, who decides either to formally charge Bolsonaro and put him on trial, or toss the investigation. Bolsonaro told the website Metropoles that he was waiting for his lawyer to review the accusation, reportedly about 700 pages long. But he said he would fight the case and dismissed the investigation as being the result of “creativity.” The former right-wing president has denied all claims he tried to stay in office after his narrow electoral defeat in 2022 to his rival, leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro has faced a series of legal threats since then. Police said in a brief statement that the Supreme Court had agreed to reveal the names of all 37 people who were accused “to avoid the dissemination of incorrect news.” Dozens of former and current Bolsonaro aides also were accused, including Gen. Walter Braga Netto, who was his running mate in the 2022 campaign; former Army commander Gen. Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira; Valdemar Costa Neto, the chairman of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party; and his veteran former adviser, Gen. Augusto Heleno. READ: Bolsonaro challenges Brazil election he lost to Lula Other investigations produced formal accusations of Bolsonaro’s roles in smuggling diamond jewelry into Brazil without properly declaring them and in directing a subordinate to falsify his and others’ COVID-19 vaccination statuses. Bolsonaro has denied any involvement in either. Another probe found that he had abused his authority to cast doubt on the country’s voting system, and judges barred him from running again until 2030. Still, he has insisted that he will run in 2026, and many in his orbit were heartened by the recent US election win of Donald Trump, despite his own swirling legal threats. But the far-reaching investigations already have weakened Bolsonaro’s status as a leader of Brazil’s right wing, said Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper University in Sao Paulo. “Bolsonaro is already barred from running in the 2026 elections,” Melo told the The Associated Press. “And if he is convicted he could also be jailed by then. To avoid being behind bars, he will have to convince Supreme Court justices that he has nothing to do with a plot that involves dozens of his aides. That’s a very tall order,” Melo said. READ: Brazil’s Bolsonaro indicted for alleged money laundering A formal accusation of an attempted coup means the investigation has gathered indications of “a crime and its author,” said Eloísa Machado de Almeida, a law professor at Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university in Sao Paulo. She said she believed there was enough legal grounds for the prosecutor-general to file charges. Bolsonaro’s allies in Congress have been negotiating a bill to pardon individuals who stormed the Brazilian capital and rioted on Jan. 8, 2023 in a failed attempt to keep the former president in power. Analysts have speculated that lawmakers want to extend the legislation to cover the former president himself. However, efforts to push a broad amnesty bill may be “politically challenging” given recent attacks on the judiciary and details emerging in investigations, Machado said. On Tuesday, Federal Police arrested four military and a Federal Police officer, accused of plotting to assassinate Lula and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes as a means to overthrow the government following the 2022 elections. Subscribe to our daily newsletter By providing an email address. I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . And last week, a man carried out a bomb attack in the capital Brasilia. He attempted to enter the Supreme Court and threw explosives outside, killing himself.SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Dan Campbell stood at the podium after Detroit blew a 17-point lead to San Francisco in last season's NFC title game and talked about how that might have been the Lions' only shot at reaching the Super Bowl. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Dan Campbell stood at the podium after Detroit blew a 17-point lead to San Francisco in last season's NFC title game and talked about how that might have been the Lions' only shot at reaching the Super Bowl. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Dan Campbell stood at the podium after Detroit blew a 17-point lead to San Francisco in last season’s NFC title game and talked about how that might have been the Lions’ only shot at reaching the Super Bowl. The coach knew how difficult it would be to maintain that high level of play through injuries, attrition and with a target on their back as a top contender in the NFC. Eleven months later as Campbell and the Lions prepare to return to Levi’s Stadium for the first time since that loss, that has proved to be prophetic — for San Francisco instead of Detroit. The Lions (13-2) head into the rematch Monday night with the inside track at the top seed in the NFC playoffs, while the 49ers (6-9) have already been eliminated from postseason contention. The element of revenge for last season’s 34-31 loss is secondary for Detroit, considering what’s on the line the last two weeks of the season. The Lions can clinch the top seed in the NFC by winning their final two games or with a win against the Niners if Minnesota loses to Green Bay on Sunday. “Anytime we lose, the thought of losing is going to motivate you to not want to lose again, particularly with where you were at,” Campbell said. “So, that’s always going to bring its own level of motivation to it. But this is where we’re at in the season, we know that we need another win, we understand where we’re at in the division and the NFC, so I think it’s all encompassing.” While the Lions have no need to search for motivation, that’s not the case for the 49ers, who are playing out the string of a lost season after making losing back-to-back NFC title games in 2021-22 and the Super Bowl last season. A run of injuries to key players like Christian McCaffrey, Trent Williams, Nick Bosa and Brandon Aiyuk, combined with inconsistent play all season have led to the 49ers having nothing to play for in the final two games. “It’s obviously not where you want to be this time of year,” Bosa said. “It’s different, especially watching where we’re at last year against this team. Just that feeling of December, January football is a feeling that I’ve gotten used to being really competitive and being in the mix. I think we’re doing a good job of staying engaged and obviously this is our job, so we’re going to finish it strong. Go ing deep Detroit’s faith in Jameson Williams is paying off, taking advantage of his game-breaking abilities with big plays. Jared Goff heaved an 82-yard touchdown pass over Williams’ shoulders and into his hands in last week’s win at Chicago. Earlier this season, Goff threw 70-, 64- and 52-yard passes for scores to the third-year receiver. “We work on it a ton, him and I do, and it’s a testament to him,” Goff said. “He’s asking for it. He wants that work, and I’m more than happy to give it to him during the week. It’s good. Our connection continues to grow. He’s obviously one of the best deep threats in our league, even when it’s not perfect.” Makeshift line The 49ers head into the game scrambling to put together an offensive line. Williams has been out for more than a month with an ankle injury and his backup at left tackle, Jaylon Moore, is now sidelined by a quadriceps injury. Left guard Aaron Banks injured his knee last week, while his backup Ben Bartch is already out with an ankle injury. That will leave the Niners with two third-stringers protecting Brock Purdy. But Shanahan said he isn’t thinking of sitting Purdy to protect him. “People deal with that throughout the year on other weeks, too,” he said. “I mean, we’ve got a football team. We’ve got to go out and we’ve got two games here and we’ve got to see what guys we can put out there and whatever we do we’re going to put a game plan together to, as best as we can to give us a chance to win.” Bag of tricks Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, who may have a chance for the second straight offseason to be an NFL head coach, routinely pulls off trick plays and his latest was a doozy. Goff intentionally stumbled after taking a snap and Jahmyr Gibbs went to the ground as their teammates yelled, “fumble,” to fool the Bears on a 21-yard touchdown pass to Sam LaPorta. “Those make you feel good because everybody is invested in it,” Campbell said. “It’s fun. It’s different. It’s sound. “I know it sounds crazy, but it’s sound.” Just for kicks San Francisco kicker Jake Moody is having a rough second season after being drafted in the third round a year ago. Moody has missed seven field goals this season, including a 41-yarder last week at Miami. Moody is just 10 for 16 since coming back from a high ankle sprain in his kicking foot, but Shanahan said he still has confidence in him. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. “I still feel the same about him, that I believe he’ll be our guy,” Shanahan said. “I mean everyone’s got to perform and do things like that. I think he has had a tough year. Before his high ankle sprain, he missed one. ... I think he was 12 of 13 before that, so I thought he was doing really well.” ___ AP Sports Writer Larry Lage contributed to this report. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl Advertisement Advertisement
Andrew Luck returns to Stanford as the GM of the football programNEW YORK — Eager to preserve President-elect Donald Trump's hush money conviction even as he returns to office, prosecutors suggested various ways forward — including one based on how some courts handle criminal cases when defendants die. In court papers made public Tuesday, the Manhattan district attorney's office proposed an array of options for keeping the historic conviction on the books. The proposals include freezing the case until Trump is out of office, or agreeing that any future sentence wouldn't include jail time. Another idea: closing the case with a notation that acknowledges his conviction but says that he was never sentenced and his appeal wasn't resolved because of presidential immunity. The last is adopted from what some states do when a criminal defendant dies after being convicted but before appeals are exhausted. It is unclear whether that option is viable under New York law, but prosecutors suggested that Judge Juan M. Merchan could innovate in what's already a unique case. "This remedy would prevent defendant from being burdened during his presidency by an ongoing criminal proceeding," prosecutors wrote. But at the same time, it wouldn't "precipitously discard" the "meaningful fact that defendant was indicted and found guilty by a jury of his peers." Expanding on a position they laid out last month, prosecutors acknowledged that "presidential immunity requires accommodation during a president's time in office," but they were adamant that the conviction should stand. They argued that Trump's impending return to the White House should not upend a jury's finding. Trump wants the case to be thrown out in light of his election. His communications director, Steven Cheung, called prosecutors' filing "a pathetic attempt to salvage the remains of an unconstitutional and politically motivated hoax." Trump has fought for months to reverse his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors said he fudged the documents to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels to suppress her claim that they had sex a decade earlier. He claims they didn’t and denies wrongdoing. Trump portrays the case as a political attack ginned up by District Attorney Alvin Bragg and other Democrats. Trump's legal team argues that letting the case continue would present unconstitutional "disruptions" to his upcoming presidential term. Trump's attorneys also cited President Joe Biden's recent pardon of his son Hunter Biden, who was convicted of tax and gun charges. Biden complained that his son was unfairly prosecuted for political reasons — and Trump's lawyers say he was, too. Trump's lawyers argued that the possibility of a jail sentence — even if it's after he leaves office — would affect his presidency. Prosecutors suggested Merchan could address that concern by agreeing not to put him behind bars. It's unclear how soon Merchan could decide what to do next with the case. He could grant Trump's request for dismissal, go with one of the suggestions from prosecutors, wait until a federal appeals court rules on Trump's parallel effort to get the case moved out of state court, or choose some other option. Trump, a Republican, takes office Jan. 20. He was scheduled for sentencing late last month. After Trump's Nov. 5 election win, Merchan halted proceedings and indefinitely postponed the former and future president's sentencing so the defense and prosecution could weigh in on the future of the case. Merchan also delayed a decision on Trump's prior bid to dismiss the case on immunity grounds. A dismissal would erase Trump's conviction, sparing him the cloud of a criminal record and possible prison sentence. Trump is the first former president to be convicted of a crime and the first convicted criminal to be elected to the office. The hush money case was the only one of Trump's four criminal indictments to go to trial. Since the election, special counsel Jack Smith ended his two federal cases, which pertained to Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and allegations that he hoarded classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. A separate state election interference case in Fulton County, Georgia, is largely on hold. Trump denies wrongdoing in each case.
Ancelotti hopes Mbappe injury not serious after Champions League win at AtalantaSTANFORD, Calif. — Andrew Luck is returning to Stanford in hopes of turning around a struggling football program that he once helped become a national power. Athletic director Bernard Muir announced Saturday that Luck has been hired as the general manager of the Stanford football team, tasked with overseeing all aspects of the program that just finished a 3-9 season under coach Troy Taylor. “I am a product of this university, of Nerd Nation; I love this place,” Luck said. “I believe deeply in Stanford’s unique approach to athletics and academics and the opportunity to help drive our program back to the top. Coach Taylor has the team pointed in the right direction, and I cannot wait to work with him, the staff, and the best, brightest, and toughest football players in the world.” Luck has kept a low profile since his surprise retirement from the NFL at age 29 when he announced in August 2019 that he was leaving the Indianapolis Colts and pro football. In his new role, Luck will work with Taylor on recruiting and roster management, and with athletic department and university leadership on fundraising, alumni relations, sponsorships, student-athlete support and stadium experience. “Andrew’s credentials as a student-athlete speak for themselves, and in addition to his legacy of excellence, he also brings a deep understanding of the college football landscape and community, and an unparalleled passion for Stanford football,” Muir said. “I could not think of a person better qualified to guide our football program through a continuously evolving landscape, and I am thrilled that Andrew has agreed to join our team. This change represents a very different way of operating our program and competing in an evolving college football landscape.” Luck was one of the players who helped elevate Stanford into a West Coast powerhouse for several years. He helped end a seven-year bowl drought in his first season as starting quarterback in 2009 under coach Jim Harbaugh and led the Cardinal to back-to-back BCS bowl berths his final two seasons, when he was the Heisman Trophy runner-up both seasons. That was part of a seven-year stretch in which Stanford posted the fourth-best record in the nation at 76-18 and qualified for five BCS bowl berths under Harbaugh and David Shaw. But the Cardinal have struggled for success in recent years and haven't won more than four games in a season since 2018. Stanford just finished its fourth straight 3-9 campaign in Taylor's second season since replacing Shaw. The Cardinal are the only power conference team to lose at least nine games in each of the past four seasons. Luck graduated from Stanford with a bachelor’s degree in architectural design and returned after retiring from the NFL to get his master’s degree in education in 2023. He was picked No. 1 overall by Indianapolis in the 2012 draft and made four Pro Bowls and was AP Comeback Player of the Year in 2018 in his brief but successful NFL career.Stock market today: Wall Street edges back from its records as bitcoin briefly pops above $100,000Israel launched waves of heavy airstrikes across Syria on Tuesday, hitting what it said were military targets to prevent abandoned weapons from falling into the hands of rebel fighters. The intensified aerial campaign, carried out in parallel with Israel’s first ground operation in Syrian territory since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, drew international condemnation and added another dangerous variable to the fast-moving situation in Syria, where armed groups are trying to create a new political order after the overthrow of dictator Bashar al-Assad. The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement Tuesday that warplanes had launched 350 strikes on Syrian territory since Sunday, destroying dozens of missiles, an airfield, weapons production sites across five cities, and 15 naval vessels — effectively eliminating the Syrian navy. Images of the aftermath on Syrian television showed sunken boats and smoldering wreckage in the western city of Latakia, the country’s main port and a former stronghold of Assad and his minority Alawite base. Other videos showed scorched buildings, a destroyed aircraft hangar and loud explosions from the heavy bombardment. Israeli officials have characterized the extensive strikes as preemptive in nature, protecting the country from future attack rather than responding to a current threat. They invoked a similar rationale Monday in defending the movement of troops beyond a U.N.-monitored buffer zone in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. “I approved the air force bombing of strategic military capabilities left by the Syrian military so that they will not fall into the hands of the jihadists,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video address Tuesday. Netanyahu said Israel wants relations with the new government in Syria, but he warned the rebels against attacking Israel or allowing Iran or its proxies to regain a foothold in the country. “We will respond with force and exact a heavy price,” he said. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the rebel group that led the lightning offensive — sweeping south from its home base in northern Idlib to the presidential palace in Damascus in under two weeks — has yet to comment on the Israeli strikes. Its members remain largely preoccupied with navigating the transition from a military to a political force, and they are scrambling to address cash and food shortages in the capital and beyond. Elsewhere in the country, other armed groups are still vying for influence, seeking to fill the sudden power vacuum after more than half a century of Assad family rule. “We are continuing to see Israeli movements and bombardments into Syrian territory,” Geir Pedersen, the U.N. special envoy to Syria, said Tuesday. “This needs to stop.” Similar urgings have come from governments across the Middle East, from Baghdad to Riyadh. The Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry accused Israel on Monday of violating international law and “sabotag[ing] Syria’s chances of restoring its security, stability and territorial integrity.” The United States, Israel’s main military and diplomatic backer, described its ally’s military activities as “non-permanent” in nature and taking place under “exigent circumstances.” “We don’t want to see any actor ... move themselves in such a way that makes it harder for the Syrian people to get at legitimate governance,” John Kirby, the U.S. National Security Council spokesman, told reporters Tuesday. Israel has simultaneously taken credit for the fall of Assad — with Netanyahu boasting Monday that he had “reshaped the Middle East” by weakening Iran and its proxies Hamas and Hezbollah — while expressing fears over the shape of the new Syrian state. HTS was formed as an offshoot of al-Qaeda during the country’s civil war but has sought to rebrand as a moderate Islamist organization, vowing to protect religious minorities and restore the country’s standing in the region. Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said the military was aiming to establish a “sterile defense zone” in southern Syria and “prevent the entrenchment and organization of terror.” As Syria’s military largely melted away in the face of the rebel advances, it vacated military bases believed to store significant munitions and gear, including the remnants of Assad’s chemical weapons stockpile. A nerve-gas attack by the Syrian government on a Damascus suburb in 2013 killed nearly 1,500 civilians, including at least 426 children, according to U.S. intelligence. The attack was described by American officials at the time as an “indiscriminate, inconceivable horror.” Under a deal brokered between then-President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin, hundreds of tons of chemical weapons were removed from Syria and destroyed — depleting but not eliminating Assad’s arsenal. By striking the sites now, Israel is acting within a “window of opportunity,” said Yossi Kuperwasser, a former Israeli military official now with the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. He said the attacks on chemical and other munitions were necessary “to make sure whoever is going to be the next ruler [of Syria] is not going to have state-of-the-art weaponry.” And Israel couldn’t have launched the strikes while Assad was in power, he added: “It would have been considered belligerent activity. Now I think everyone understands.” That understanding does not extend to ordinary Syrians, whose euphoria over Assad’s ouster is now tempered by renewed anxiety over insecurity as explosions rock the capital. “The feeling of fear has now started to go,” Hani Qusebatuy, 27, said Monday as he joined hundreds of people celebrating in Damascus. “Now the only feeling of fear is the Israeli attacks.” The United States has also launched strikes on Syria this week, with the Pentagon saying it hit 75 Islamic State targets Sunday in the central desert. About 900 American troops remain in Syria, a vestige of the forces deployed a decade ago to fight the Islamic State, which sought to establish a “caliphate” spanning parts of Syria and Iraq. Ryan C. Crocker, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Syria, warned during an event at the Middle East Institute on Tuesday that Israel’s military operations in Syria risk “repercussions beyond which the Israelis intend.” Addressing their moves in the Golan, he said any long-term occupation of the area “could add fuel already to a fire.” “So the Israelis, in presumably taking preemptively defensive moves, need to be very careful that they don’t spark a new militancy directed at them,” he said
Lennox International Inc. ( NYSE:LII – Get Free Report ) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, December 6th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of 1.15 per share by the construction company on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. Lennox International has increased its dividend payment by an average of 12.3% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 15 years. Lennox International has a payout ratio of 19.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Lennox International to earn $23.35 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $4.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 19.7%. Lennox International Price Performance Shares of NYSE:LII opened at $620.03 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $633.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $592.75. Lennox International has a 52 week low of $412.09 and a 52 week high of $682.50. The company has a market cap of $22.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10. Insider Transactions at Lennox International In related news, Director Shane D. Wall sold 325 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $612.97, for a total transaction of $199,215.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 2,035 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,247,393.95. This represents a 13.77 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink . Also, EVP John D. Torres sold 581 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $620.98, for a total transaction of $360,789.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 4,668 shares in the company, valued at $2,898,734.64. This represents a 11.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . In the last quarter, insiders sold 2,106 shares of company stock worth $1,353,233. 10.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders. Wall Street Analyst Weigh In A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Lennox International from $604.00 to $619.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Lennox International from $570.00 to $615.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. KeyCorp cut shares of Lennox International from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Lennox International from $648.00 to $656.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Lennox International from $624.00 to $674.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Lennox International presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $579.38. Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on LII Lennox International Company Profile ( Get Free Report ) Lennox International Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and markets a range of products for the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration markets in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The Home Comfort Solutions segment provides furnaces, air conditioners, heat pumps, packaged heating and cooling systems, indoor air quality equipment, comfort control products, and replacement parts and supplies; residential heating, ventilation, cooling equipment, and air conditioning; and evaporator coils and unit heaters under Lennox, Dave Lennox Signature Collection, Armstrong Air, Ducane, AirEase, Concord, MagicPak, Advanced Distributor Products, Allied, Elite Series, Merit Series, Comfort Sync, Healthy Climate, iComfort, ComfortSense, and Lennox Stores name. Read More Receive News & Ratings for Lennox International Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Lennox International and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .
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