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Report: Hornets F Grant Williams (knee) out for seasonWashington : The US House Ethics Committee has accused Matt Gaetz of “regularly” paying for sex, including with a 17-year-old girl, and purchasing and using illicit drugs as a member of Congress, as lawmakers released the conclusions of a nearly four-year investigation that helped sink his nomination for attorney general. The 37-page report by the bipartisan panel released on Monday includes explicit details of sex-filled parties and vacations that Gaetz, now 42, took part in from 2017 to 2020 while representing Florida’s western panhandle. Matt Gaetz was “un-cooperative” throughout the probe, the Ethics Committee panel said. Credit: AP Congressional investigators concluded that Gaetz violated multiple state laws related to sexual misconduct while in office, though not federal sex trafficking laws. They also found that Gaetz “knowingly and willfully sought to impede and obstruct” the committee’s work. “The Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favours or privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” the report states. Ahead of the report’s release Gaetz denied any wrongdoing and criticised the committee’s process. “Giving funds to someone you are dating — that they didn’t ask for — and that isn’t ‘charged’ for sex is now prostitution?!?” he posted on X, the website formerly known as Twitter. “There is a reason they did this to me in a Christmas Eve-Eve report and not in a courtroom of any kind where I could present evidence and challenge witnesses.” Gaetz, a Republican first elected in 2017, spent the majority of his time in Washington enmeshed in scandals that ultimately derailed his nomination by President-elect Donald Trump as attorney general. His political future is uncertain, although Gaetz has indicated he would be interested in running for the open Senate seat in Florida. Gaetz was President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general. Credit: AP Lawmakers paint a damning portrait of Gaetz’s conduct, using dozens of pages of exhibits, including text messages and financial records, travel receipts, cheques and online payments, to document a party- and drug-fuelled lifestyle. The committee said it compiled the evidence after issuing 29 subpoenas for documents and testimony and contacting more than two dozen witnesses. In addition to soliciting prostitution, the Ethics Committee report states that Gaetz “accepted gifts, including transportation and lodging in connection with a 2018 trip to the Bahamas, in excess of permissible amounts”. That same year, investigators say Gaetz arranged for his chief of staff to obtain a passport for a woman he was sexually involved with, falsely telling the US State Department that she was his constituent. In some of the text exchanges, Gaetz appears to be inviting various women to events, getaways or parties, and arranging airplane travel and lodging. At one point he asks one woman if she has a “cute black dress” to wear. There are also discussions of shipping goods. One of the exhibits is a text exchange that appears to be between two of the women concerned about their cash flow and payments. In another, a person asks Gaetz for help to pay an educational expense. Regarding the 17-year-old girl, the report states there’s no evidence that Gaetz knew she was a minor when he had sex with her, the committee said. The woman told the committee she didn’t tell Gaetz she was under 18 at the time and that he didn’t know how old she was. Rather, the committee said Gaetz learned she was a minor more than a month after the party. But he stayed in touch with her after that and met up with her for “commercial sex” again less than six months after she turned 18, according to the committee. But Florida law, which states it is a felony for a person 24 or older to have sex with a minor, does not allow a claim of ignorance or misrepresentation of a minor’s age as a defence. Joel Leppard, who represents two women who told the committee that Gaetz paid them for sex, said the findings “vindicate” the accounts of his clients and “demonstrate their credibility”. “We appreciate the Committee’s commitment to transparency in releasing this comprehensive report so the truth can be known,” Leppard said in a statement. At least one Republican joined all five Democrats on the Ethics Committee earlier this month in voting to release the report about their former colleague despite initial opposition from GOP lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, to publishing findings about a former member of Congress. While ethics reports have previously been released after a member’s resignation, it is extremely rare. On behalf of the Republicans who voted against releasing the report, Representative Michael Guest of Mississippi, Ethics chairman, wrote that while the members do not challenge the report’s findings, “we take great exception that the majority deviated from the Committee’s well-established standards” to drop any investigation when a person is not longer a member of the chamber. “We believe that operating outside the jurisdictional bounds set forth by House Rules and Committee standards, especially when making public disclosures, is a dangerous departure with potentially catastrophic consequences,” Guest wrote. Mounting a last-ditch effort to halt the publication of the report, Gaetz filed a lawsuit on Monday asking a court to intervene, citing what he called “untruthful and defamatory information” that would “significantly damage” his “standing and reputation in the community”. Gaetz’s complaint argues he’s no longer under the committee’s jurisdiction since he resigned from Congress. “The Committee’s position that it may nonetheless publish potentially defamatory findings about a private citizen over whom it claims no jurisdiction represents an unprecedented expansion of Congressional power that threatens fundamental constitutional rights and established procedural protections,” Gaetz’s lawyers wrote in their request for a temporary restraining order. The often secretive, bipartisan panel has investigated claims against Gaetz since 2021. But its work became more urgent last month when Trump picked him shortly after election day as his first choice to be the nation’s top law enforcement officer. Gaetz resigned from Congress that same day, putting him outside the purview of the Ethics Committee’s jurisdiction. But Democrats had pressed to make the report public even after Gaetz was no longer a member and had withdrawn as Trump’s pick to lead the US Justice Department. A vote on the House floor this month to force the report’s release failed; all but one Republican voted against it. The committee detailed its start-and-stop investigation over the past several years, which was halted for a time as the Justice Department conducted its own probe of Gaetz. Federal prosecutors never brought a case against him. Lawmakers said they asked the Justice Department for information about its probe, but the agency refused to hand over information, saying it doesn’t disclose information about investigations that don’t result in charges. The Committee then subpoenaed the Justice Department for records, but after a back-and-forth between Justice Department officials and the Committee, the department only handed over “publicly reported information about the testimony of a deceased individual”, according to the report. “To date, DOJ has provided no meaningful evidence or information to the Committee or cited any lawful basis for its responses,” the committee said. In releasing the report, the panel added that Gaetz was also “un-cooperative” throughout the probe. He provided “minimal documentation” in response to the committee’s requests, it said. “He also did not agree to a voluntary interview.” AP Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter .NBA fines Minnesota guard Edwards $75,000 for outburst
New coach Chris Holtmann has been tasked with rebuilding DePaul to the point where it can return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2004. Northern Illinois coach Rashon Burno knows what it takes to steer DePaul to the NCAAs because he was the starting point guard on the 2000 team that made the tournament -- the Blue Demons' only other NCAA appearance since 1992. Perhaps they can compare notes Saturday afternoon when Burno leads the Huskies (2-3) back to his alma mater as DePaul (5-0) hosts its sixth straight home game in Chicago. Last season, Burno's NIU squad helped accelerate DePaul's need for a new coach -- as the Huskies waltzed into Wintrust Arena and owned Tony Stubblefield's Blue Demons by an 89-79 score on Nov. 25. The Huskies built a 24-point second-half lead before coasting to the finish line. Can history repeat for NIU? There's just one problem with using last year's game as a potential barometer for Saturday's rematch: Almost no players on this year's teams were part of last year's squads. At DePaul, only assistant coach Paris Parham remains as Holtmann had the green light to bring in an all-new roster. UIC graduate transfer Isaiah Rivera (16.0 ppg, .485 3-point rate) and Coastal Carolina transfer Jacob Meyer (15.4 ppg, .406 on 3s) lead a balanced attack that focuses on getting half its shots from beyond the arc. At NIU, Burno retained only two players who competed against DePaul last year -- Ethan Butler and Oluwasegun Durosinmi -- and they combined for three points in 26 minutes in that game. The Huskies' main players used the transfer portal to join such programs as Kansas, Wisconsin, Penn State, Colorado State, James Madison, Georgia State and Niagara. With every starting job open, Butler has jumped into the lineup and produced 11.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.8 blocks and 1.4 steals per game. Transfers Quentin Jones (Cal Poly) and James Dent (Western Illinois) pace the Huskies with 14.4 and 14.0 points per game. NIU is on a two-game losing streak, most recently a 75-48 home defeat at the hands of Elon on Wednesday. Holtmann hopes to have Arkansas transfer Layden Blocker for Saturday's game. Blocker missed Tuesday's 78-69 win over Eastern Illinois with a quad injury. With the combo guard unavailable, point guard Conor Enright handed out a career-high 11 assists in a season-high 38 minutes. "We need (Blocker)," Holtmann said. "I don't want to play Conor 38 minutes." --Field Level MediaThe US State and Treasury departments said they hit Georgian Dream party founder and honorary chairman Bidzina Ivanishvili with penalties “for undermining the democratic and Euro-Atlantic future of Georgia for the benefit of the Russian Federation”, according to a statement. The designation of Mr Ivanishvili is the latest in a series of sanctions the US has placed on Georgian politicians and others this year. Those sanctions include freezes on assets and properties those targeted may have in US jurisdictions or that might enter US jurisdictions as well as travel bans on the targets and members of their families. “We strongly condemn Georgian Dream’s actions under Ivanishvili’s leadership, including its ongoing and violent repression of Georgian citizens, protesters, members of the media, human rights activists, and opposition figures,” the State Department said in a statement. “The United States is committed to promoting accountability for those undermining democracy and human rights in Georgia.” Mr Ivanishvili is a billionaire who made his fortune in Russia and served briefly as Georgia’s prime minister. In 2012, he founded Georgian Dream, Georgia’s longtime ruling party. Critics have accused Georgian Dream of becoming increasingly authoritarian and tilted towards Moscow. The party recently pushed through laws similar to those used by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech and LGBT+ rights, prompting the European Union to suspend Georgia’s membership application process indefinitely. In October, Georgian Dream won another term in a divisive parliamentary election that has led to more mass protests. Last month, the country’s prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, announced a four-year suspension of talks on Georgia’s bid to join the European Union, fuelling further public outrage.The holidays loom large. Parties, gift-shopping, school programs, recitals, family gatherings — there’s really no time to cook.
A 9th telecoms firm has been hit by a massive Chinese espionage campaign, the White House says
LONDON (AP) — Arsenal moved up to second place in the Premier League with a 1-0 home win against Ipswich on Friday. Mikel Arteta’s side is six points behind leader Liverpool, which has a game in hand. Second-bottom Ipswich had won two of its last three away games but was up against it from the start at the Emirates. The visitors did not have one touch in the Gunners’ box during the first 45 minutes and, although Ipswich showed signs of life after the break, it was Arsenal which continued to dominate the game, marshaled by Declan Rice in midfield. Kai Havertz got the only goal midway through the first half when he knocked in a cross from Leandro Trossard. Havertz, Rice, Mikel Merino, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Jesus all had chances but none of them could add to Arsenal’s tally. “It’s so tough, every team is tough to break down," Havertz said. "They fight for each other and at the end we’re very proud for the win.” Arsenal is a point above third-place Chelsea and two points clear of season surprise team Nottingham Forest in fourth. Brighton had most of the chances but could not find the net in a 0-0 draw with Brentford that extended the south coast club’s winless run to six league games. It was a frustrating night for the home side and especially Julio Enciso. The Paraguay striker had a host of opportunities to score but couldn’t make them count. Along with Southampton, Brentford has the worst away record in the league with seven losses and two draws and it was easy to see why in this toothless performance. Brentford had an early goal from Yoane Wissa ruled out for offside and, although it came a bit more into the game in the second half, it failed to pressure Icelandic goalkeeper Hakon Valdimarsson, who made his Premier League debut eight minutes before halftime when Mark Flekken went off with a thigh injury. One bright spot for the home side was the return of winger Solly March. He came on as a late substitute to make his first appearance for Brighton since injuring a knee against Manchester City 14 months ago. The result leaves Brighton in 10th place with 26 points, one spot and two points ahead of the Bees. AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccerThe International Monetary Fund has told the federal government and Coalition that Australia needs a major policy package to deal with the nation’s unaffordable housing, saying everything from tax to the supply of new land should be on the table. Just days after Reserve Bank research showed lower interest rates had contributed to the collapse in homeownership among young Australians, the fund used its annual review of the economy to argue a string of politically contentious policy changes were needed to ensure housing remained within the financial reach of ordinary people. The International Monetary Fund says a major package of changes, from tax to land supply, are needed to make Australian housing more affordable. Credit: Louie Douvis Across all international metrics, Australian housing is among the most expensive in the world despite a recent slowdown in prices. Sydney, says US-based analytics organisation Demographia, is the world’s second most expensive city – after Hong Kong – with 13.8 times the median household income needed to buy a median-priced house. Melbourne and Adelaide are in the top 10 most expensive, while Brisbane and Perth are in the top 20. The federal government has set a target of 1.2 million new homes by 2029, putting together a series of policies worth more than $30 billion to lift housing construction. The Coalition has promised $5 billion towards local government infrastructure to unlock housing projects. But the IMF says all levels of government must go further, arguing that eradication of state stamp duties and a shift to land taxes, lifting the number of workers in the sector and easing zoning rules had to be on the agenda. “A comprehensive policy package is essential to tackle Australia’s housing affordability crisis, focusing on increasing the construction workforce, relaxing zoning regulations, advancing initiatives to boost new housing supply, and re-evaluating property taxes and stamp duty,” it said. Last week, research by Reserve Bank economists estimated a quarter of the sharp drop in homeownership among Australians under the age of 40 since the mid-1990s was due to low interest rates. But it also found state government stamp duties had contributed to the problem, along with other policies involving such tax arrangements as capital gains. Coalition MPs are pressing to relax the interest rate buffer imposed by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority on bank loans to first time buyers, arguing it has contributed to the cost pressure on young people. But the IMF rejected any change to the 3 percentage point buffer. “Macroprudential policies should remain stringent to protect household balance sheets, especially in the context of rising housing prices,” it said. “Additionally, the authorities are encouraged to proactively adapt their macroprudential tools to pre-empt excessive buildup in household indebtedness, including when the time is appropriate for monetary policy easing.” Last week, Treasurer Jim Chalmers revealed a $22 billion deterioration in the budget bottom line over the next four years. Next financial year’s forecast deficit is $46.9 billion, with Chalmers arguing much of the government’s extra spending was unavoidable. The IMF says if the rate of inflation does not continue to ease, all governments would have to look at “expenditure rationalisation” to reduce aggregate demand across the economy. This could include axing infrastructure projects or targeting welfare payments more carefully. In what would be a challenge for either side of politics, the fund says tax reform has to be on the agenda to help improve the economy’s performance and reduce structural pressures on the budget. Jim Chalmers, in his mid-year budget update, revealed a $22 billion deterioration in the nation’s bottom line over the next four years. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen “Tax reforms should focus on efficiency and fairness, reducing dependence on direct taxes and high capital costs, and phasing out tax breaks like capital gains tax discounts,” it said. Chalmers said the IMF fund validated his budget settings. “We’ve overseen a record-breaking fiscal turnaround – the budget is $200 billion better than what we inherited, and our back-to-back surpluses have helped in the fight against inflation, a point the RBA governor [Michele Bullock] has made,” he said. “The IMF has endorsed our efforts to make our economy more competitive, dynamic and productive, like our historic shakeup to Australia’s merger settings.” The fund believes Australia is still on track for an economic soft landing over the next 12 months, with growth lifting from 1.2 per cent this year to 2.1 per cent in 2025. It forecast underlying inflation to ease to 3 per cent and unemployment to lift to about 4.5 per cent. But it said the risks to the economy were tilted to the downside, with soft consumer spending and a deterioration in the global outlook the largest threats to its forecasts. Much hinges on the Reserve Bank’s expected cuts to interest rates next year. A stronger jobs market or extra government spending could force the bank to leave rates higher for longer. “Conversely, weaker-than-expected growth or a faster-than-projected increase in unemployment may prompt the Reserve Bank to lower interest rates sooner,” it said. Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter .It's high time we put to bed Micah Parsons narrative after it was proven wrong in front of the entire NFL world
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Who are they and why now?
Best China Stocks 2025: Tesla Rivals, Travel Plays Near Buy Points Amid Trump Tariff FearsDefense fund established by supporters of suspected CEO killer Luigi Mangione nears $200KAAP FACTCHECK – A former NSW upper house candidate has promoted a longstanding urban myth that microwave ovens are banned in Russia for safety reasons. This is false. The claim can be traced back to at least the 1990s but has no basis in fact. Microwave ovens are freely available to buy from Russian electronics retailers and Russian consumers bought more than two million of the devices in 2023. Russia’s microwave oven market is expected to reach almost three million units by 2029. The claim was made in a Facebook video by David Graham, an activist and social media content creator who goes by the nickname “Guru”. Mr Graham stood as an ungrouped candidate in NSW’s 2023 state election, picking up 31 first preference votes . AAP FactCheck has previously debunked other false claims made by Mr Graham, including baseless theories that Australia stopped printing bank notes in 2018 and that skin cancer didn’t exist before sunscreen. “Guys... you know it’s illegal to have microwaves in your house in Russia,” Mr Graham says in the video (11 minutes, 47 seconds). “Seriously, Putin’s a big nasty guy but ... you’re not allowed to have microwaves. They don’t care about microwaves over here, do they?” It is unclear from the video why Mr Graham believes microwaves are banned in Russia or what he meant by his comment that “they don’t care about microwaves over here”. However, previous discredited theories about Russia banning microwaves have cited health concerns linked to electromagnetic radiation. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency , the non-ionizing radiation used by a microwave does not make food radioactive. Mr Graham did not respond to an AAP FactCheck message asking for the basis of his claim. Similar claims about microwave ovens being banned in Russia date back at least 25 years. In 2017 Snopes traced the origins of the myth back to a 1998 article in the Journal Natural Science, which claimed “the use of any such microwave apparatus was forbidden in 1976 by Soviet state law” (page 43). The journal article does not provide any sources or references for the statement. The author of the article is William P. Kopp from Portland, Oregon, USA. An author biography at the end of the article says Mr Kopp worked at the “Atlantis Rising Educational Center in Portland, Oregon” from 1977 to 1979, where he “gathered all documents known so far concerning the scientific proofs about microwaves’ harmful effects on humans”. “By doing this he got in the way of a powerful lobby and was forced later on to even change his name and to disappear,” the biography says. Mr Kopp’s claim has since been repeated in other publications, including a May 2010 article by US osteopath Dr Joseph Mercola and a 2016 article on a website called Natural News – though both of those articles also claim the microwave ban was later lifted by Russian authorities. A 2023 TechInsider article by Russian-Belorussian journalist Tim Skorenko described the claimed Soviet-era microwave ban as a “legend”. Mr Skorenko wrote that the devices began production in the USSR in the late 1970s, albeit “in very small batches” and “for a lot of money.” The notion that microwave ovens are currently banned in Russia is easily disproved by looking at the websites of electronics retailers in the country. M.Video, a major electronics retailer with stores across Russia, lists hundreds of different types of microwaves for sale online. Rival Russian retailers Wildberries and DNS similarly list numerous microwave ovens for sale. According to a September 6 article in the Russian daily business newspaper Vedemosti, Russians bought more than two million microwaves in the first half of 2024. Russian consumers spent some $US315.4 million ($A504.5 million) on the devices in 2024, according to the German data-gathering platform Statista. It is also clear that many Russians have microwaves in their homes. A YouTube search for the Russian-language phrase which translates as “microwave at home” returns hundreds of videos of Russians reviewing domestic microwave ovens or cooking food in the devices. One of the videos shows food blogger Masha Fom – who has more than one million YouTube subscribers and list her l ocation as “Russia”- attempting to make pizza in a cup using a microwave oven. All information, text and images included on the AAP Websites is for personal use only and may not be re-written, copied, re-sold or re-distributed, framed, linked, shared onto social media or otherwise used whether for compensation of any kind or not, unless you have the prior written permission of AAP. For more information, please refer to our standard terms and conditions .
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