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President-elect Donald Trump was upbeat at his first post-election press conference Monday, saying there was a big difference between now and when he took office in 2016: Some of his former adversaries are now being nice to him. “Everybody wants to be my friend,” he said about how he’s being treated by CEOs of major technology companies, whom he has portrayed as adversaries in the past. “I don’t know, my personality changed or something.” During the wide-ranging press conference at his Mar-a-Lago property, Trump said that one of the biggest differences over the last four years is that "everybody was fighting me." "The biggest difference is that people want to get along with me this time," he added. The remarks were Trump's first news conference since he won the election and the first event he has hosted himself since November. Trump referenced recent meetings with Apple CEO Tim Cook, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai and former Alphabet President Sergey Brin. He also said he plans to meet with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos later this week. "Tim Cook was here. I think he’s done an incredible job at Apple. He talked about the future of Apple. It’s going to be a bright future. But we have many others also, and not in that business," he said. "We have a lot of great executives coming in, the top executives, the top bankers, they were calling." Several major tech companies, including Amazon, Meta and OpenAI have already donated $1 million each to Trump’s inaugural fund. Trump has had a complicated history with many of Big Tech's CEOs as a number of them criticized policies enacted when he was last president — and banned him from social media platforms following the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. In 2020, for example, executives lambasted Trump over his executive order to freeze new visas for foreign workers , arguing that immigrants have helped strengthen the U.S. economy, and specifically technology companies. In the wake of Jan. 6, Trump was barred from using his Twitter and Facebook accounts. He later sued Facebook, Twitter and Google over some of the bans. Trump had also feuded with Bezos over his ownership of The Washington Post, Amazon's decision not to do business with the far-right social media app Parler in 2021 and a bid Amazon made on a $10 billion Pentagon contract. The thawing of relations is emblematic of a broader right-ward turn in the tech sphere, with some of its other leading figures now taking official and unofficial roles in Trump's second administration. Most prominent is Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest person, whom Trump has tapped to lead a Department of Government Efficiency alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, a former biotech executive. Trump has also named venture capitalist David Sacks and technologist Jacob Helberg to business advisory roles. During the press conference Monday, Trump also signaled that he would be willing to pardon New York City Mayor Eric Adams who was charged in September with bribery and wire fraud as part of a scheme that spanned nearly 10 years. "Yeah, I would, I think that he was treated pretty unfairly," Trump said, adding that he doesn't know the "gravity" of the case but said the allegations against the mayor don't seem fair. "I mean, I'd have to see it, because I don't know the facts." On the reported sightings of drones over New Jersey and New York , Trump said, "The government knows what is happening." He declined to say whether he had received an intelligence briefing about it. "For some reason, they don't want to comment, and I think they'd be better off saying what it is our military knows and our president knows. And for some reason, they want to keep people in suspense." Trump commented on the suspected shooter in the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Luigi Mangione, and the people who have praised him for committing the crime. "It's really terrible that some people seem to admire him, like him," Trump said. "It was cold-blooded, just a cold-blooded, horrible killing." Asked if plans to stop a ban on TikTok next month, Trump said, "We'll take a look at Tiktok." "You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok," he said, adding that he thought his electoral performance with young voters was in part due to his use of TikTok. "I won youth by 34 points. And there are those that say that Tiktok has something to do with that.” Trump lost the majority of voters under 44, according to national exit polls . Trump also said he plans to sue The Des Moines Register over the newspaper's final poll of the election cycle showed that Vice President Kamala Harris led by 3 percentage points. Trump wound up winning the traditionally red state by more than 13 percentage points. Trump's press conference was his first one since winning the 2024 election, though he has attended other organizations’ events, attended a SpaceX test launch, and gone to numerous sporting events. In 2016 during the same period, Trump had already held eight “victory rallies” around the country and gaggled with press in the lobby of Trump Tower numerous times. And Biden in 2020 had held 15 events organized by his incoming administration.Pat King, one of the most prominent figures of the 2022 “Freedom Convoy” in Ottawa, has been found guilty on five counts including mischief and disobeying a court order. A judge in an Ottawa courtroom Friday said the Crown proved beyond a reasonable doubt that King was guilty on one count each of mischief, counselling others to commit mischief and counselling others to obstruct police. He was also found guilty of two counts of disobeying a court order. The Alberta resident was found not guilty on three counts of intimidation and one count of obstructing police himself. King could be facing up to 10 years in prison. The sentencing hearing is scheduled to begin on Jan. 16. The Crown is seeking “significant” incarceration time in a penitentiary while the defence wants King to be sentenced to time served and a period of probation. King’s attorney Natasha Calvinho said right now she is focused on the sentencing hearing and will determine if any other action, such as an appeal, will be pursued at a later date. Calvinho said she and her client are disappointed with the ruling, but she said it was well reasoned. “I think what the more important takeaway here, and what we’ve been saying from the very beginning, Mr. King was acquitted of all charges related to inciting any form of violence, specifically intimidation of Ottawa residents,” Calvinho said outside the courthouse. “So yes, he was convicted, a couple counts of mischief for his social media posts, as the judge found, and will continue to fight another day.” The maximum sentence for mischief in this instance is 10 years. In January 2022 the convoy attracted thousands of demonstrators to Parliament Hill in protest against public-health restrictions, COVID-19 vaccine mandates and the federal government. The event gridlocked downtown streets around Parliament Hill, with area residents complaining about the fumes from diesel engines running non-stop, and unrelenting noise from constant honking of horns and music parties. The federal Liberal government ultimately invoked the Emergencies Act to try and bring an end to the protests, which had expanded to also block several border crossings into the United States. Ottawa Police brought in hundreds of officers from police forces across Canada to force the protest to an end. King’s defence argued that King was peacefully protesting during the three-week demonstration and was not a leader of it. But the Crown alleged he was a protest leader who was instrumental to the disruption the protest caused the city and people who lived and worked nearby. The Crown alleged King co-ordinated the honking, ordering protesters to lay on the horn every 30 minutes for 10 minutes at a time and told people to “hold the line” when he was aware police and the city had asked the protesters to leave. The Crown’s case relied mainly on King’s own videos, which he posted to social media throughout the protest to document the demonstration and communicate with protesters. The court proceedings paused for about 10 minutes when King requested a short “health break” after the first verdicts on the mischief charges were read. Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland described the honking as “malicious conduct” intended to disrupt residents, workers, businesses and others from lawfully enjoying downtown Ottawa. Hackland also said that the videos show King was seen as and accepted the leadership role. He pointed to a quote from King, finding it “hilarious” that residents could not sleep for 10 days as “gleefully” aiding and abetting mischief. This evidence also played a role in determining King’s guilt in disobeying a court order and counselling others to do the same. These charges relate to the original Feb. 7, 2022 injunction against using air and train horns in downtown Ottawa which was launched by residents. The city successfully filed a similar injunction days later. As for counselling others to obstruct police, Hackland found King’s call to “hold the line” was telling people not to move from the protest site despite police orders. The judge said that phrase can be seen as a greeting between supporters of the convoy protest, but said there was no other logical interpretation in the context of King’s videos. In the days before a multi-day police removal operation began, King called on people to link arms and sit down with their backs to police if officers tried to move them. On the intimidation charges, Hackland said that a consistent theme of King’s videos were calls to remain peaceful and non-violent. He said that the target was always the federal government and COVID-19 policies, and specific individuals were not targeted by or through King’s actions. As for an intimidation charge related to blocking highways, Hackland said that finding guilt in this instance would be an “overly broad” interpretation of the Criminal Code as the blockade was done as part of a political protest, which is protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. His trial was heard over several weeks between May and July. King still has charges of perjury and obstruction of justice that need to be dealt with which is a separate matter stemming from an April 2022 bail review hearing. Details of the testimony that led to the charges are protected under a publication ban, which exists for all information that arises during a bail hearing.

In The Mind Of Sriram Krishnan, Donald Trumps New AI AdvisorWriter-director Marielle Heller has a gift for making familiar emotions, characters, and situations feel fresh. Whether she’s dealing with a type as well known as the embittered failed writer (Melissa McCarthy in Can You Ever Forgive Me? ) or an icon as universal as Mr. Rogers (Tom Hanks in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood ), her movies lend them additional dimension and nuance. That’s true of her new dark-comedy sort-of-a-werewolf-film Nightbitch as well. Here, the lead character is so subsumed into her new-parent identity that she’s never even named: Mother (Amy Adams) is a former artist now working as a stay-at-home mom in the suburbs because Husband (Scoot McNairy) has the more consistent, higher-paying job. For a while, it seems like Heller will bring her attentive eye to detail to this well-worn setup, even when Nightbitch appears to be leaning toward obvious tropes. Early on, the film establishes a running motif based around a fairly hoary comic concept: that editing trick where it appears a character has said or done something genuinely provocative, upending social order in response to another person’s dumb question or galling action... until a cut back in time reveals that she was only imagining that cathartic action, and she actually responds meekly or politely, keeping her true feelings bottled inside. In theory, that’s hacky stuff. But Heller holds the camera on Adams in these moments — in her imagined honesty and her deflated real-world lack of it. And what lingers afterward isn’t necessarily frustration that Mother hasn’t told anyone off. Instead, it’s a pervasive feeling of loneliness. A sitcom-level gag becomes, on Adams’ face, an ineffable feeling of loss. That articulation of disappointment is exactly what many full-time parents feel they must lose in order to get through the day. Nightbitch gets plenty of other things right about the messiness of motherhood and the sometimes-conflicting primal instincts that accompany it. For example, Mother’s toddler actually behaves like a real 2-year-old. This may sound like a minor concern, but most movies throw up their hands at the prospect of distinguishing between kids between the ages of 0 and 6. Heller, by contrast, takes care to capture the beautiful, maddening strangeness of a toddler. There’s a small moment when Mother carries her child into a library for storytime, and the kid semi-nonsensically murmurs “They can’t stop us” about the woman at the desk. If this isn’t a real toddler’s ad-lib, it sure sounds like one, and Heller smartly leaves it in the movie. The film, based on Rachel Yoder’s 2021 novel of the same name, isn’t purely observational, however. When Mother is left even more on her own by Husband’s business trips (and his general fecklessness), she starts feeling a transformation into a more instinctive, animalistic version of herself. Eating in public, she wolfs down her food with utensils-free abandon, and encourages her young son to do the same, regardless of the gawking they receive. She notices hairs growing in odd places, initially assuming it’s just one more post-pregnancy indignity. At the park, she discovers a newfound kinship with roving, seemingly ownerless dogs. Eventually, she’s running with them at night. Yes, Nightbitch is a werewolf story — sort of. Whether trying to keep the story grounded or Mother’s transformation ambiguous (does she literally shape-shift, or just tap into primal urges?), Heller treats the story’s body-horror elements gingerly, cautiously. She also has the misfortune to do so just months after moviegoers fell in love with the unapologetic wildness of The Substance . That movie similarly illustrates something many people already understood about the female experience: Women are valued and commodified for their bodies, then heartlessly discarded when they show normal human signs of aging. The thrills in The Substance come from the zeal writer-director Coralie Fargeat poured into her ideas, physicalizing them into memorable grotesquerie. For all Heller’s scrupulous dedication to the realities of parenthood — Mother’s worn body, the inevitable imbalances, the absolute rage with no easy target — she doesn’t seem interested in going for broke in the same way, particularly around her central conceit. Obviously, Heller’s movie has no formal connection to The Substance , was completed before The Substance was released, and aims for a completely different tone. It’s not that Nightbitch cries out to be remodeled as an arch, gory, knowingly broad satire crammed with body horror. But the movie tantalizingly promises weirdness growing from within, then wilts into domestic melodrama. The female dog, with its name claimed as a common slur and its combination of wildness and domestication, has a lot of metaphorical potential. So why does Heller insist on shoving all that to one side to focus on marital problems and possible reconciliations that both emerge too easily? Nightbitch ’s final half hour or so is especially baffling. After concluding that there are no easy solutions to the push-pull between a mother’s parenting instincts and her autonomy, the movie proceeds to make up a bunch of them anyway, with a decisiveness that I fear is supposed to read as empowering. That’s especially disappointing given Amy Adams’ fiercely committed, vanity-free performance as Mother. Alternately playing with and against her image as an essentially sunny, optimistic throwback star, she’s the perfect performer to embody the contradictions of motherhood: utterly warm and dedicated to her son, yet pointedly and productively lacking the righteousness of a true believer. She’s too hyper-aware of what she’s lost by focusing on parenthood. Unfortunately, the movie seems to think that stranding Adams in the movie will cleverly evoke Mother’s loneliness, meaning that McNairy and the rest of the supporting cast (Zoë Chao, Mary Holland, and Ella Thomas as younger fellow moms; the original 1977 Suspiria ’s Jessica Harper as a librarian) are given nothing roles. Nightbitch has an ample supply of sharp observations, but it retracts its claws too soon and too easily. It becomes a text on self-help — something The Substance clearly, and thrillingly, portrays as out of reach. Nightbitch debuts in theaters on Dec. 6. Entertainment Horror Movies ReviewsNEW YORK, Dec. 03, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of common stock of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG) between February 8, 2024 and October 29, 2024, both dates inclusive (the “Class Period”) and those who purchased Chipotle call options or sold put options during the Class Period, of the important January 10, 2025 lead plaintiff deadline in the securities class action first filed by the Firm. SO WHAT: If you purchased Chipotle securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement. WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Chipotle class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=30587 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email case@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than January 10, 2025. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company at the time. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs’ Bar. Many of the firm’s attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers. DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Chipotle’s portion sizes were inconsistent and left many customers dissatisfied with the Company’s offerings; (2) in order to address the issue and retain customer loyalty, Chipotle would have to ensure more generous portion sizes, which would increase cost of sales; and (3) as a result, defendants’ statements about its business, operations, and prospects were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages. To join the Chipotle class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=30587 call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email case@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action. No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor’s ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm or on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm . Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Contact Information: Laurence Rosen, Esq. Phillip Kim, Esq. The Rosen Law Firm, P.A. 275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor New York, NY 10016 Tel: (212) 686-1060 Toll Free: (866) 767-3653 Fax: (212) 202-3827 case@rosenlegal.com www.rosenlegal.com

Bitcoin races past $100,000, fueled by post-election rallyDwarfed by China in Shipbuilding, US Looks to Build Its Defense Base to Fend off WarSimulations Plus director Lisa LaVange sells $20,722 in stock

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Michigan gave athletic director Warde Manuel a five-year contract extension Thursday on the heels of the Wolverines' upset over rival Ohio State and a strong start to the basketball season. Manuel, who has held the position since 2016, signed through June 30, 2030, the school announced. Manuel is also chairman of the College Football Playoff selection committee. “During Warde’s tenure as director, Athletics has put a structure in place where our student-athletes compete for Big Ten and national championships, excel in the classroom, and proudly graduate with their University of Michigan degrees,” university President Santa J. Ono said in the announcement. Michigan had a disappointing football season, finishing 7-5 (5-4 Big Ten), but a 13-10 win over then-No. 2 Ohio State took some pressure off of the program. The Buckeyes were favored by 21 points, the widest point spread for the rivalry since 1978, according to ESPN Stats and Info. The Wolverines won the national championship last year in their final season led by coach Jim Harbaugh, whose tenure at the school involved multiple NCAA investigations for recruiting and sign-stealing allegations. Manuel supported Harbaugh through those processes. In basketball, the women's team made its season debut (No. 23) in the AP Top 25 this week. The men are 7-1 a season after firing coach Juwan Howard, who lost a school-record 24 games in 2023-24 as Michigan plummeted to a last-place finish in the Big Ten for the first time since 1967. Michigan has won 52 Big Ten championships since 2020. “Every day, I am thankful to work at this great institution and to represent Michigan Athletics," Manuel said in a statement. "I especially want to thank the student-athletes, coaches and staff who compete for each of our teams and who have helped us achieve unparalleled success athletically and academically. I am excited to continue giving back to a university that has provided me with so much over my career.” Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballCALGARY, Alberta, Dec. 05, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Athabasca Oil Corporation (TSX: ATH) ("Athabasca” or the "Company”) is pleased to announce its 2025 budget with capital projects that will balance cash flow growth while continuing to deliver a durable return of capital framework that will direct 100% of Free Cash Flow to share buybacks in 2025. Corporate Consolidated Strategy and Outlook About Athabasca Oil Corporation Athabasca Oil Corporation is a Canadian energy company with a focused strategy on the development of thermal and light oil assets. Situated in Alberta's Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, the Company has amassed a significant land base of extensive, high quality resources. Athabasca's light oil assets are held in a private subsidiary (Duvernay Energy Corporation) in which Athabasca owns a 70% equity interest. Athabasca's common shares trade on the TSX under the symbol "ATH”. For more information, visit www.atha.com . Reader Advisory: This News Release contains forward-looking information that involves various risks, uncertainties and other factors. All information other than statements of historical fact is forward-looking information. The use of any of the words "anticipate”, "plan”, "project”, "continue”, "maintain”, "may”, "estimate”, "expect”, "will”, "target”, "forecast”, "could”, "intend”, "potential”, "guidance”, "outlook” and similar expressions suggesting future outcome are intended to identify forward-looking information. The forward-looking information is not historical fact, but rather is based on the Company's current plans, objectives, goals, strategies, estimates, assumptions and projections about the Company's industry, business and future operating and financial results. This information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. No assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking information included in this News Release should not be unduly relied upon. This information speaks only as of the date of this News Release. In particular, this News Release contains forward-looking information pertaining to, but not limited to, the following: our strategic plans; the allocation of future capital; timing and quantum for shareholder returns including share buybacks; the terms of our NCIB program; our drilling plans and capital efficiencies; production growth to expected production rates and estimated sustaining capital amounts; timing of Leismer's and Hangingstone's pre-payout royalty status; applicability of tax pools and the timing of tax payments; Adjusted Funds Flow and Free Cash Flow over various periods; type well economic metrics; number of drilling locations; forecasted daily production and the composition of production; our outlook in respect of the Company's business environment, including in respect of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and heavy oil pricing; and other matters. In addition, information and statements in this News Release relating to "Reserves" and "Resources” are deemed to be forward-looking information, as they involve the implied assessment, based on certain estimates and assumptions, that the reserves and resources described exist in the quantities predicted or estimated, and that the reserves and resources described can be profitably produced in the future. With respect to forward-looking information contained in this News Release, assumptions have been made regarding, among other things: commodity prices; the regulatory framework governing royalties, taxes and environmental matters in the jurisdictions in which the Company conducts and will conduct business and the effects that such regulatory framework will have on the Company, including on the Company's financial condition and results of operations; the Company's financial and operational flexibility; the Company's financial sustainability; Athabasca's cash flow break-even commodity price; the Company's ability to obtain qualified staff and equipment in a timely and cost-efficient manner; the applicability of technologies for the recovery and production of the Company's reserves and resources; future capital expenditures to be made by the Company; future sources of funding for the Company's capital programs; the Company's future debt levels; future production levels; the Company's ability to obtain financing and/or enter into joint venture arrangements, on acceptable terms; operating costs; compliance of counterparties with the terms of contractual arrangements; impact of increasing competition globally; collection risk of outstanding accounts receivable from third parties; geological and engineering estimates in respect of the Company's reserves and resources; recoverability of reserves and resources; the geography of the areas in which the Company is conducting exploration and development activities and the quality of its assets. Certain other assumptions related to the Company's Reserves and Resources are contained in the report of McDaniel & Associates Consultants Ltd. ("McDaniel”) evaluating Athabasca's Proved Reserves, Probable Reserves and Contingent Resources as at December 31, 2023 (which is respectively referred to herein as the "McDaniel Report”). Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in this forward-looking information as a result of the risk factors set forth in the Company's Annual Information Form ("AIF”) dated February 29, 2024 available on SEDAR at www.sedarplus.ca, including, but not limited to: weakness in the oil and gas industry; exploration, development and production risks; prices, markets and marketing; market conditions; climate change and carbon pricing risk; statutes and regulations regarding the environment including deceptive marketing provisions; regulatory environment and changes in applicable law; gathering and processing facilities, pipeline systems and rail; reputation and public perception of the oil and gas sector; environment, social and governance goals; political uncertainty; state of capital markets; ability to finance capital requirements; access to capital and insurance; abandonment and reclamation costs; changing demand for oil and natural gas products; anticipated benefits of acquisitions and dispositions; royalty regimes; foreign exchange rates and interest rates; reserves; hedging; operational dependence; operating costs; project risks; supply chain disruption; financial assurances; diluent supply; third party credit risk; indigenous claims; reliance on key personnel and operators; income tax; cybersecurity; advanced technologies; hydraulic fracturing; liability management; seasonality and weather conditions; unexpected events; internal controls; limitations and insurance; litigation; natural gas overlying bitumen resources; competition; chain of title and expiration of licenses and leases; breaches of confidentiality; new industry related activities or new geographical areas; water use restrictions and/or limited access to water; relationship with Duvernay Energy Corporation; management estimates and assumptions; third-party claims; conflicts of interest; inflation and cost management; credit ratings; growth management; impact of pandemics; ability of investors resident in the United States to enforce civil remedies in Canada; and risks related to our debt and securities. All subsequent forward-looking information, whether written or oral, attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. Also included in this News Release are estimates of Athabasca's 2024 outlook which are based on the various assumptions as to production levels, commodity prices, currency exchange rates and other assumptions disclosed in this News Release. To the extent any such estimate constitutes a financial outlook, it was approved by management and the Board of Directors of Athabasca and is included to provide readers with an understanding of the Company's outlook. Management does not have firm commitments for all of the costs, expenditures, prices or other financial assumptions used to prepare the financial outlook or assurance that such operating results will be achieved and, accordingly, the complete financial effects of all of those costs, expenditures, prices and operating results are not objectively determinable. The actual results of operations of the Company and the resulting financial results may vary from the amounts set forth herein, and such variations may be material. The outlook and forward-looking information contained in this New Release was made as of the date of this News release and the Company disclaims any intention or obligations to update or revise such outlook and/or forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required pursuant to applicable law. Oil and Gas Information "BOEs" may be misleading, particularly if used in isolation. A BOE conversion ratio of six thousand cubic feet of natural gas to one barrel of oil equivalent (6 Mcf: 1 bbl) is based on an energy equivalency conversion method primarily applicable at the burner tip and does not represent a value equivalency at the wellhead. As the value ratio between natural gas and crude oil based on the current prices of natural gas and crude oil is significantly different from the energy equivalency of 6:1, utilizing a conversion on a 6:1 basis may be misleading as an indication of value. Initial Production Rates Test Results and Initial Production Rates: The well test results and initial production rates provided herein should be considered to be preliminary, except as otherwise indicated. Test results and initial production rates disclosed herein may not necessarily be indicative of long-term performance or of ultimate recovery. Reserves Information The McDaniel Report was prepared using the assumptions and methodology guidelines outlined in the COGE Handbook and in accordance with National Instrument 51-101 Standards of Disclosure for Oil and Gas Activities, effective December 31, 2023. There are numerous uncertainties inherent in estimating quantities of bitumen, light crude oil and medium crude oil, tight oil, conventional natural gas, shale gas and natural gas liquids reserves and the future cash flows attributed to such reserves. The reserve and associated cash flow information set forth above are estimates only. In general, estimates of economically recoverable reserves and the future net cash flows therefrom are based upon a number of variable factors and assumptions, such as historical production from the properties, production rates, ultimate reserve recovery, timing and amount of capital expenditures, marketability of oil and natural gas, royalty rates, the assumed effects of regulation by governmental agencies and future operating costs, all of which may vary materially. For those reasons, estimates of the economically recoverable reserves attributable to any particular group of properties, classification of such reserves based on risk of recovery and estimates of future net revenues associated with reserves prepared by different engineers, or by the same engineers at different times, may vary. The Company's actual production, revenues, taxes and development and operating expenditures with respect to its reserves will vary from estimates thereof and such variations could be material. Reserves figures described herein have been rounded to the nearest MMbbl or MMboe. For additional information regarding the consolidated reserves and information concerning the resources of the Company as evaluated by McDaniel in the McDaniel Report, please refer to the Company's AIF. Reserve Values (i.e. Net Asset Value) is calculated using the estimated net present value of all future net revenue from our reserves, before income taxes discounted at 10%, as estimated by McDaniel effective December 31, 2023 and based on average pricing of McDaniel, Sproule and GLJ as of January 1, 2024. The 500 gross Duvernay drilling locations referenced include: 37 proved undeveloped locations and 76 probable undeveloped locations for a total of 113 booked locations with the balance being unbooked locations. Proved undeveloped locations and probable undeveloped locations are booked and derived from the Company's most recent independent reserves evaluation as prepared by McDaniel as of December 31, 2023 and account for drilling locations that have associated proved and/or probable reserves, as applicable. Unbooked locations are internal management estimates. Unbooked locations do not have attributed reserves or resources (including contingent or prospective). Unbooked locations have been identified by management as an estimation of Athabasca's multi-year drilling activities expected to occur over the next two decades based on evaluation of applicable geologic, seismic, engineering, production and reserves information. There is no certainty that the Company will drill all unbooked drilling locations and if drilled there is no certainty that such locations will result in additional oil and gas reserves, resources or production. The drilling locations on which the Company will actually drill wells, including the number and timing thereof is ultimately dependent upon the availability of funding, commodity prices, provincial fiscal and royalty policies, costs, actual drilling results, additional reservoir information that is obtained and other factors. Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures, and Production Disclosure The "Corporate Consolidated Adjusted Funds Flow", "Athabasca (Thermal Oil) Adjusted Funds Flow", "Duvernay Energy Adjusted Funds Flow", "Corporate Consolidated Free Cash Flow”, "Athabasca (Thermal Oil) Free Cash Flow" and "Duvernay Energy Free Cash Flow" financial measures contained in this News Release do not have standardized meanings which are prescribed by IFRS and they are considered to be non-GAAP financial measures or ratios. These measures may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers and should not be considered in isolation with measures that are prepared in accordance with IFRS. Sustaining Capital and Net Cash are supplementary financial measures. The Leismer and Hangingstone operating results are supplementary financial measures that when aggregated, combine to the Athabasca (Thermal Oil) segment results. Adjusted Funds Flow and Free Cash Flow Adjusted Funds Flow and Free Cash Flow are non-GAAP financial measures and are not intended to represent cash flow from operating activities, net earnings or other measures of financial performance calculated in accordance with IFRS. The Adjusted Funds Flow and Free Cash Flow measures allow management and others to evaluate the Company's ability to fund its capital programs and meet its ongoing financial obligations using cash flow internally generated from ongoing operating related activities. Sustaining Capital Sustaining Capital is managements' assumption of the required capital to maintain the Company's production base. Net Cash Net Cash is defined as the face value of term debt, plus accounts payable and accrued liabilities, plus current portion of provisions and other liabilities plus income tax payable less current assets, excluding risk management contracts. Production volumes details This News Release also makes reference to Athabasca's forecasted average daily Thermal Oil production of 33,500 ‐ 35,500 bbl/d for 2025. Athabasca expects that 100% of that production will be comprised of bitumen. Duvernay Energy's forecasted total average daily production of ~4,000 boe/d for 2025 is expected to be comprised of approximately 68% tight oil, 23% shale gas and 9% NGLs. Liquids is defined as bitumen, tight oil, light crude oil, medium crude oil and natural gas liquids. Break Even is an operating metric that calculates the US$WTI oil price required to fund operating costs (Operating Break-even), sustaining capital (Sustaining Break-even), or growth capital (Total Capital) within Adjusted Funds Flow. Enterprise Value to Debt Adjusted Cash Flow is a valuation metric calculated by dividing Enterprise Value (Market Capitalization plus Net Debt) divided by Cash Flow before interest costs.State investigation agency (SIA) produced a chargesheet against key operatives behind the “Kashmir Fight”, a social media handle that was used to target migrant pandits. Police said in the fight against cyber-terrorism, the SIA, Jammu, has filed a chargesheet against key operatives behind the notorious “Kashmir Fight”, a social media handle. “The platform, operated by The Resistance Front (TRF)—a proscribed terrorist organisation—was used to issue chilling online threats to migrant Kashmiri Pandit employees, aiming to spread fear and unrest,” the spokesman said adding that in February 2024, a series of threatening posts were published on social media by the terror outfits’s social media handle, following which an investigation was initiated by SIA Jammu. “During the investigation, SIA apprehended Farhaan Muzaffar Mattoo, a resident of Srinagar, for his alleged role in gathering and sharing sensitive information about targeted employees. The probe revealed that Mattoo acted as a conduit, using encrypted communication platforms to pass critical data about migrant employees to handlers based in Pakistan, who then issued threats through the “Kashmir Fight” platform.” The spokesman said that the chargesheet also named Sheikh Sajjad Ahmad, alias Sajjad Gul, a Srinagar resident now operating from Pakistan, as the mastermind of this plot. “Sajad is accused of coordinating the campaign to intimidate migrant employees and disrupt communal harmony in the UT. The exposing of terror plans to disrupt peace underscores the determination of Jammu and Kashmir Police to protect its citizenry and provide a peaceful environment to them.” The spokesman said the chargesheet was filed before the third additional sessions judge, Jammu, on Monday.

Meta to build $10 billion AI data center in Louisiana as Elon Musk expands his Tennessee AI facility49ers' visit gives Packers a chance to damage the playoff hopes of their postseason nemesisPrime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton have delivered their annual Christmas messages to Australians, wishing voters a happy holiday. Both leaders used the occasion to express gratitude to emergency workers who will be sacrificing time with their families to serve their communities. Mr Albanese thanked “everyone who has given up their Christmas to help others” while Mr Dutton expressed gratitude to those who “put duty first”. Both political figures also reflected on the meaning of Christmas, highlighting the religious significance for Christians and the broader theme of kindness and generosity. "For Christians, of course, this is a holy celebration. For all of us, it is a season of generosity and kindness " Mr Albanese said. The cost of living crisis, which has weighed heavily on Australian families this year, was a prominent feature of both messages. Mr Albanese acknowledged the festive season “isn't easy for everyone,” while Mr Dutton spoke directly to the financial strain on families. “Many of us will know individuals and families who really are struggling... We should reach out to those who might not be experiencing the spirit of Christmas,” he said. “Even with hardships at home, we should reflect, this Christmas, on how lucky we are to live in the best country in the world.” The Prime Minister has planned to spend Christmas Day in Darwin, where he will commemorate the 50-year anniversary of Cyclone Tracy. Despite the challenges, both leaders closed their messages with well wishes to Australians for Christmas. “I do want to wish everyone the very best and a peaceful and joyful Christmas,” Mr Albanese said. “From my family to yours, I wish all Australians a very happy, relaxing, and safe Christmas,” said Mr Dutton.

It looked like a recipe for disaster. So, when his country's swimmers were being accused of doping earlier this year, one Chinese official cooked up something fast. He blamed it on contaminated noodles. In fact, he argued, it could have been a culinary conspiracy concocted by criminals, whose actions led to the cooking wine used to prepare the noodles being laced with a banned heart drug that found its way into an athlete's system. This theory was spelled out to international anti-doping officials during a meeting and, after weeks of wrangling, finally made it into the thousands of pages of data handed over to the lawyer who investigated the case involving 23 Chinese swimmers who had tested positive for that same drug. The attorney, appointed by the World Anti-Doping Agency, refused to consider that scenario as he sifted through the evidence. In spelling out his reasoning, lawyer Eric Cottier paid heed to the half-baked nature of the theory. “The Investigator considers this scenario, which he has described in the conditional tense, to be possible, no less, no more,” Cottier wrote. Even without the contaminated-noodles theory, Cottier found problems with the way WADA and the Chinese handled the case but ultimately determined WADA had acted reasonably in not appealing China's conclusion that its athletes had been inadvertently contaminated. Critics of the way the China case was handled can't help but wonder if a wider exploration of the noodle theory, details of which were discovered by The Associated Press via notes and emails from after the meeting where it was delivered, might have lent a different flavor to Cottier's conclusions. “There are more story twists to the ways the Chinese explain the TMZ case than a James Bond movie,” said Rob Koehler, the director general of the advocacy group Global Athlete. "And all of it is complete fiction.” Something in the kitchen was contaminated In April, reporting from the New York Times and the German broadcaster ARD revealed that the 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine, also known as TMZ. China's anti-doping agency determined the athletes had been contaminated, and so, did not sanction them. WADA accepted that explanation , did not press the case further, and China was never made to deliver a public notice about the “no-fault findings,” as is often seen in similar cases. The stock explanation for the contamination was that traces of TMZ were found in the kitchen of a hotel where the swimmers were staying. In his 58-page report , Cottier relayed some suspicions about the feasibility of that chain of events — noting that WADA's chief scientist “saw no other solution than to accept it, even if he continued to have doubts about the reality of contamination as described by the Chinese authorities.” But without evidence to support pursuing the case, and with the chance of winning an appeal at almost nil, Cottier determined WADA's “decision not to appeal appears indisputably reasonable.” But how did the drugs get into the kitchen? A mystery remained: How did those traces of TMZ get into the kitchen? Shortly after the doping positives were revealed, the Institute of National Anti-Doping Organizations held a meeting on April 30 where it heard from the leader of China's agency, Li Zhiquan. Li's presentation was mostly filled with the same talking points that have been delivered throughout the saga — that the positive tests resulted from contamination from the kitchen. But he expanded on one way the kitchen might have become contaminated, harkening to another case in China involving a low-level TMZ positive. A pharmaceutical factory, he explained, had used industrial alcohol in the distillation process for producing TMZ. The industrial alcohol laced with the drug “then entered the market through illegal channels,” he said. The alcohol "was re-used by the perpetrators to process and produce cooking wine, which is an important seasoning used locally to make beef noodles,” Li said. “The contaminated beef noodles were consumed by that athlete, resulting in an extremely low concentration of TMZ in the positive sample. "The wrongdoers involved have been brought to justice.” New information sent to WADA ... eventually This new information raised eyebrows among the anti-doping leaders listening to Li's report. So much so that over the next month, several emails ensued to make sure the details about the noodles and wine made their way to WADA lawyers, who could then pass it onto Cottier. Eventually, Li did pass on the information to WADA general counsel Ross Wenzel and, just to be sure, one of the anti-doping leaders forwarded it, as well, according to the emails seen by the AP. All this came with Li's request that the noodles story be kept confidential. Turns out, it made it into Cottier's report, though he took the information with a grain of salt. “Indeed, giving it more attention would have required it to be documented, then scientifically verified and validated,” he wrote. Neither Wenzel nor officials at the Chinese anti-doping agency returned messages from AP asking about the noodles conspiracy and the other athlete who Li suggested had been contaminated by them. Meanwhile, 11 of the swimmers who originally tested positive competed at the Paris Games earlier this year in a meet held under the cloud of the Chinese doping case. Though WADA considers the case closed, Koehler and others point to situations like this as one of many reasons that an investigation by someone other than Cottier, who was hired by WADA, is still needed. “It gives the appearance that people are just making things up as they go along on this, and hoping the story just goes away," Koehler said. “Which clearly it has not.” AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

​Chinese state hackers, known as Salt Typhoon, have breached telecommunications companies in dozens of countries, President Biden's deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger said today. During a Wednesday press briefing, the White House official told reporters that these breaches include a total of eight telecom firms in the United States, with only four previously known. While these attacks have been underway for "likely one to two years, "at this time, we don't believe any classified communications have been compromised," Neuberger added , as the Journal first reported . "The Chinese compromised private companies exploiting vulnerabilities in their systems as part of a global Chinese campaign that's affected dozens of countries around the world." "We cannot say with certainty that the adversary has been evicted, because we still don't know the scope of what they're doing. We're still trying to understand that, along with those partners," a senior CISA official said in a Tuesday press call . On Tuesday, CISA and FBI officials advised Americans to switch to encrypted messaging apps to minimize Chinese hackers' chances of intercepting their communications. "Our suggestion, what we have told folks internally, is not new here: Encryption is your friend, whether it’s on text messaging or if you have the capacity to use encrypted voice communication," they said . "Even if the adversary is able to intercept the data, if it is encrypted, it will make it impossible." However, T-Mobile's Chief Security Officer, who said last week that the company's systems were breached from a connected wireline provider's network, claims T-Mobile no longer sees any attacker activity within its network. Also tracked as FamousSparrow, Earth Estries, Ghost Emperor, and UNC2286, this state-backed hacking group has been breaching government entities and telecom companies across Southeast Asia since at least 2019. The Salt Typhoon telecom hacks CISA and the FBI confirmed the hacks in late October, following reports that Salt Typhoon had breached the networks of multiple telcos, including T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen Technologies. The federal agencies later revealed the threat actors compromised the "private communications" of a "limited number" of U.S. government officials, accessed the U.S. government's wiretapping platform , and stole law enforcement request data and customer call records. While the timing of the telecom network breaches is unclear, a Wall Street Journal report says that Chinese hackers had access for "months or longer." This reportedly allowed them to steal substantial internet traffic from internet service providers serving American businesses and millions of customers. On Tuesday, ​CISA released guidance to help system administrators and engineers managing communications infrastructure to harden their systems against Salt Typhoon attacks. Released with the FBI, the NSA, and international partners, this joint advisory includes tips on hardening network security to shrink the attack surface targeted by the Chinese state hackers, including unpatched devices, vulnerable services exposed to online access, and generally less-secured environments.The number one thing adults dread most at Christmas - as more than half say it is 'most stressful time of year'

Chris Clarke appointed practice leader of Homeland Security & Law Enforcement; Bryan Miller to lead newly combined Defense, Diplomacy, & Intel (DDI) practice MCLEAN, Va. , Dec. 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Guidehouse, a global consultancy providing advisory, digital, and managed services to the commercial and public sectors, has named Shannon White the new leader of its Defense & Security segment effective Jan. 1, 2025 . White succeeds John Saad , who has been named President of Guidehouse. Additionally, Chris Clarke will take on White's former role as Guidehouse's Defense & Security's Homeland Security & Law Enforcement practice leader. White brings a wealth of expertise in the national security sectors, along with a proven ability to deliver complex, high-impact solutions. With a track record of driving innovation and meaningful results, she has been instrumental in shaping Guidehouse's growth and impact across its diverse portfolio. Under her leadership, the Defense & Security segment will continue to focus on delivering mission-critical solutions to address the nation's most pressing defense and security challenges. "Shannon is a passionate leader whose experience will be invaluable as we continue to support purpose-driven initiatives to preserve security across the U.S.," said John Saad , President of Guidehouse. "Her strategic vision and expertise will accelerate Guidehouse's growth through transformative engagements with our clients in the defense, national security, and public sectors." Chris Clarke , Homeland Security & Law Enforcement practice leader Clarke, a partner at the firm, brings over 20 years of experience engaging with clients on complex challenges, with a focus on risk management and financial transformation. He has worked extensively across the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Justice, and the Intelligence Community leading hundreds of consultants to deliver a range of services in support of solving strategic challenges for Guidehouse clients. Bryan Miller , Defense, Diplomacy, & Intel (DDI) practice leader To position the firm for additional growth and to align with the evolving needs of its clients, Guidehouse has combined Defense & Security's Defense & Intelligence and Diplomacy & Development practices into a newly combined Defense, Diplomacy, & Intel (DDI) practice under the leadership of Bryan Miller . Miller, a partner at the firm, has over 20 years of industry experience focused on delivering strategy, supply chain and transformation programs to the U.S. Government. "This new structure strengthens our capabilities and provides a more cohesive approach to serving these interconnected client missions," added Saad. "Chris and Bryan are remarkable leaders with unmatched expertise in navigating the complexities of public safety and national security. We congratulate them on these new roles and are confident they will drive tremendous value for our clients and teams." Named a Military Friendly® Employer for six consecutive years, Guidehouse's Defense & Security segment serves U.S. diplomatic, intelligence, law enforcement, and defense agencies. Backed by proven success in helping clients compete, deter, and win, the firm delivers mission-critical optimization, technology modernization, and financial management solutions. About Guidehouse Guidehouse is a global consultancy providing advisory, digital, and managed services to the commercial and public sectors. Guidehouse is purpose-built to serve the national security, financial services, healthcare, energy, and infrastructure industries. Disrupting legacy consulting delivery models with its agility, capabilities, and scale, the firm delivers technology-enabled and focused solutions that position clients for innovation, resilience, and growth. With high-quality standards and a relentless pursuit of client success, Guidehouse's more than 18,000 employees collaborate with leaders to outwit complexity and achieve transformational changes that meaningfully shape the future. guidehouse.com Media Contact: Cecile Fradkin, cfradkin@scprgroup.com , Guidehouse View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/guidehouse-names-shannon-white-leader-of-defense--security-segment-302332867.html SOURCE GuidehousePerma-Pipe International Holdings, Inc. Announces Third Quarter Financial Results

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Michigan gave athletic director Warde Manuel a five-year contract extension Thursday on the heels of the Wolverines' upset over rival Ohio State and a strong start to the basketball season. Manuel, who has held the position since 2016, signed through June 30, 2030, the school announced. Manuel is also chairman of the College Football Playoff selection committee. “During Warde’s tenure as director, Athletics has put a structure in place where our student-athletes compete for Big Ten and national championships, excel in the classroom, and proudly graduate with their University of Michigan degrees,” university President Santa J. Ono said in the announcement. Michigan had a disappointing football season, finishing 7-5 (5-4 Big Ten), but a 13-10 win over then-No. 2 Ohio State took some pressure off of the program. The Buckeyes were favored by 21 points, the widest point spread for the rivalry since 1978, according to ESPN Stats and Info. The Wolverines won the national championship last year in their final season led by coach Jim Harbaugh, whose tenure at the school involved multiple NCAA investigations for recruiting and sign-stealing allegations. Manuel supported Harbaugh through those processes. In basketball, the women's team made its season debut (No. 23) in the AP Top 25 this week. The men are 7-1 a season after firing coach Juwan Howard, who lost a school-record 24 games in 2023-24 as Michigan plummeted to a last-place finish in the Big Ten for the first time since 1967. Michigan has won 52 Big Ten championships since 2020. “Every day, I am thankful to work at this great institution and to represent Michigan Athletics," Manuel said in a statement. "I especially want to thank the student-athletes, coaches and staff who compete for each of our teams and who have helped us achieve unparalleled success athletically and academically. I am excited to continue giving back to a university that has provided me with so much over my career.” Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballOur solar system could be subject to a violent “superflare” explosion from our sun sooner rather than later, researchers warn, based on a new analysis of behavior from similar stars. Stars, including our sun, regularly emit solar flares, or strong bursts of electromagnetic radiation. Superflares, however, are much more powerful than typical solar flares, emitting up to 10,000 times more radiation . And across the cosmos, these events might occur much more frequently than astronomers previously thought, according to a paper published in Science last week. The new results indicate that stars resembling our sun experience superflares approximately once every century—and if that’s true, it seems our sun may be overdue for such an explosion. As solar activity is already known to cause damage to Earth’s satellite and telecommunication systems, the discovery came as a shock to the team. “This is 40 to 50 times more frequent than previously thought,” Valeriy Vasilyev , a scientist at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) and a co-author of the paper, tells Space.com ’s Robert Lea. “Everything about this discovery was surprising.” What a blast! #Sun -like stars produce a #superflare on average about once every century per star, a research team led by #MPSGoettingen shows in today’s issue of @sciencemagazine . More here: https://t.co/GsigkmZWnA @UniGraz @UniOulu @prcnaoj_en @CUBoulder @unipariscite pic.twitter.com/31n8y6aczT Because superflares are relatively rare, Vasilyev and his team pulled data from 56,450 stars that share many characteristics with our sun. The data, previously collected by NASA’s Kepler space telescope between 2009 and 2013, gave them access to “evidence of 220,000 years of stellar activity,” explains study co-author Alexander Shapiro , an astrophysicist at Austria’s University of Graz, in a statement . From the data, they identified 2,889 occurrences of superflares on 2,527 stars, which led them to conclude that one sun-like star produces about one superflare every 100 years or so. Generally, stars of the same size and temperature share the same evolutionary life cycles, writes Korey Haynes for Astronomy magazine . As such, the aggregate behavior of these stars might serve as a predictor for how our sun will act. This is why astronomers are paying close attention to this new discovery. In particular, they hope that by better understanding when such events may occur, we can better prepare for the damage that could follow. For instance, the Carrington Event of 1859 , the strongest solar storm on record, ravaged telegraph networks across the globe. But the energy released during that flare is only one-hundredth of the enery thought to be associated with a superflare, the researchers say. Still, scientists point to a few reasons why superflares might not be a huge cause for alarm. On other stars, these powerful blasts tend to happen near the poles , Space.com reports, so such flares from our sun might miss the Earth entirely. In addition, the examined stars might not be perfect analogs for our sun, some scientists say —and 30 percent of the stars seen emitting superflares in the new study are found in pairs known as binary systems, notes Live Science ’s Ben Turner. Perhaps the tidal interactions between those stars, which would not apply to our sun, are triggering some of their flares. Ultimately, we don’t know for certain that our sun is capable of expelling a superflare, Vasilyev tells the New York Times ’ Katrina Miller. But “it’s nice to be prepared,” he adds. Solar flares are also associated with coronal mass ejections, or clouds of plasma and magnetic fields launched from the sun that rile up geomagnetic storms on Earth. “A geomagnetic storm takes place when Earth’s protective magnetic shield is pushed back or eroded by the solar wind,” Martin Connors , an astronomer at Athabasca University in Canada who was not involved with the study, tells Newsweek ’s Jess Thomson. Such storms would supercharge the northern and southern lights and potentially damage power grids and satellites, he says. Coronal mass ejections leave a geological record on Earth—an elevated level of a radioactive carbon isotope that appears in tree rings and ice cores. By looking for these signatures, scientists have identified five extreme solar storms from our sun, with the most damaging dating to 775 C.E., per the statement. But it remains unclear whether such events came from several flares rather than a single powerful one—and Earth’s records don’t reveal whther the sun has launched superflares that didn’t collide with our planet. Regardless, scientists involved in the study highlight the need for caution. Natalie Krivova , an astronomer at MPS, says in the statement that the “new data are a stark reminder that even the most extreme solar events are part of the sun’s natural repertoire.” Keeping this in mind, the team’s next step is to redirect their research to confirm how superflares could potentially affect Earth. “There are several directions we are pursuing,” Vasilyev says to Space.com . “For instance, we are investigating the impact of such events on the Earth’s atmosphere and technological systems, understanding the connection between superflares and extreme solar particle events and determining the conditions necessary to produce such superflares.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday. Gayoung Lee | | READ MORE Gayoung Lee is a science journalist from South Korea, now based in New York. Her main interest lies in exploring the unlikely connections between science and everyday life.WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. severely lags behind China in shipbuilding capacity, lawmakers and experts have warned, as the Biden administration tries to build up the country’s and other defense supplies to fend off war. Speaking at a congressional hearing Thursday, Rep. John Moolenaar, the Republican chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, said the country lacks the capacity to “deter and win a fight” with China and called for action. “Bold policy changes and significant resources are now needed to restore deterrence and prevent a fight” with China, Moolenaar said. China’s navy is already the world’s largest, and its shipbuilding capacity, estimated to be 230 times larger, dwarfs that of the U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the ranking Democratic member of the committee, told Fox News last week that “for every one oceangoing vessel that we can produce, China can produce 359 in one single year.” The U.S. government has come to see China as its “pacing challenge,” and officials have warned that Beijing is pursuing the largest peacetime military buildup in history, raising concerns about how the U.S. would respond and ensure victory in case of a conflict in the Indo-Pacific, where tensions are high in and . Krishnamoorthi on Thursday warned that a weak military industrial base could invite aggression and argued that strengthening it is necessary to avoid war with China. “History tells us we need a healthy defense industrial base now to deter aggression and make sure the world’s dictators think again before dragging the U.S. and the world into yet another disastrous conflict,” Krishnamoorthi said. National security adviser Jake Sullivan called it a “generational project” to fix the problem after the American shipbuilding industry had its “bottom fell out” in the early 1980s. “Part of it is we don’t have the backbone of a healthy commercial shipbuilding base to rest our naval shipbuilding on top of,” Sullivan said Wednesday at the Aspen Security Forum in Washington. “And that’s part of the fragility of what we’re contending with and why this is going to be such a generational project to fix.” The challenge in shipbuilding has been “especially immense,” stemming from the hollowing-out of the U.S. manufacturing base where its workforce shrank and suppliers left, Sullivan said. And it is part of the broader problem of a weakened U.S. military industrial base, as manifested in the weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, Sullivan said, when Kyiv in eight weeks “burned through a year’s worth of U.S. 155-millimeter artillery production.” “Decades of underinvestments and consolidation had seriously eroded our defense industrial base, and there was no way around it,” Sullivan said. The head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Adm. Samuel Paparo, warned last month that the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East were eating away at critical U.S. weapons stockpiles and could to China should a conflict arise. He said providing or selling billions of dollars worth of and Israel were hampering U.S. ability to respond to threats in the Indo-Pacific. “It’s now eating into stocks, and to say otherwise would be dishonest,” he told an audience at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Nov . 19. Several researchers at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said China’s rapid military buildup could allow the country to prevail over the U.S., especially in case of a prolonged conflict. “China’s massive shipbuilding industry would provide a strategic advantage in a war that stretches beyond a few weeks, allowing it to repair damaged vessels or construct replacements much faster than the United States,” the researchers wrote in June. On Thursday, the congressional panel heard suggestions from experts who said it would take time to rebuild the defense industrial base, but for quicker fixes, the U.S. could innovate to make low-cost and autonomous systems and tap resources of its allies. “We need to look at co-production of whether it’s munitions in Australia or shipbuilding in Korea,” said William Greenwalt, a non-resident senior fellow at the Washington-based think tank American Enterprise Institute. “We need to get numbers as fast as we can,” he said. Didi Tang, The Associated Press

What's Going On With New Horizon Stock Monday?Venus Williams continues to be one of the most profitable women's athletes, even besting some of her younger contemporaries like Simone Biles . On Dec. 18, Forbes released their list of the highest-paid female athletes of 2024, and six of the 10 highest earners of the year played tennis. Leading the way was American star Coco Gauff , reportedly earning more than $34 million, with over half of that coming from her off-court ventures, as the highest-paid female athlete of the year. Gauff 's earnings eclipse the No. 2 earner, fellow tennis star Iga Swiatek. On the court, Swiatek was reported to have earned $8.8 million while off it, she earned $15 million, bringing her total to almost $24 million ($23.8m). Venus Williams wants tennis star to 'win every match' - even if she beats Serena record Venus Williams appears to snub Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at ESPY Awards Just a handful of spots below the two was the elder Williams sister, who was the ninth highest-earning female athlete of the year. The 44-year-old is reported to have earned $12.1 million in 2024, with most of her earnings coming from her off-the-court ventures, earning just $0.1 million from her time on the court. Williams played in only two tournaments this year, at Indian Wells and Miami, losing in the first round of both tournaments. Still, her presence was enough to make her the ninth most-paid female athlete, showing how her name still carries weight in the sports world, despite her lack of success. And while her career begins to wind down, especially with her sitting at No. 977 in the world tennis rankings, Williams' off-the-court endeavors are plentiful. When not defeating her foes, she often partakes in speaking engagements, reportedly earning more than six figures per appearance. She also is a main figure in Palazzo, an AI-powered interior design platform and was the model of a one-of-a-kind Barbie doll for its 65th anniversary celebration. With that in mind, it makes sense why Williams continues to be one of the most profitable athletes, just ahead of Biles. At 27 years old, Biles cemented herself as one of the best gymnasts of all time, winning four medals - three gold and one silver - during the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The most decorated gymnast in history, Biles has 11 Olympic medals and 30 World Championship medals, showing just how dominant she is. Don't Miss Simone Biles set to miss family Christmas over husband Jonathan Owens commitments Coco Gauff and Serena Williams on same page over Simone Biles stance Pickleball star, 17, to earn more than Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese with staggering contract Despite her Olympic performances, only a fraction of her earnings come from her performances. Reported to have made $11.2 million this year, over 90 percent of her earnings were amassed off the mat, with only $0.2 million coming directly from her Olympic dominance. Still, Biles has many notable endorsement deals with giants in various industries including Athleta, Nike, GK Elite, Uber Eats, Hershey's, and Beats by Dre, among many others. Of note, Biles is the only gymnast on the list, most of the list being comprised of tennis players. For Biles to be on the list in the first place makes sense, considering how many of her fellow athletes believe the star is the greatest of all time (G.O.A.T.). Williams' younger sister, Serena, called Biles the GOAT after the tennis legend spent time with her at an event in early December. "Yesterday, I sat with the GOAT Simone Biles at an evening of impactful conversation with Audemars Piguet, Vanity Fair and The Female Quotient," Serena said in an Instagram post. "A house full of women. I love to see it."

Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel gets 5-year contract extension

Pat King found guilty of mischief for role in ‘Freedom Convoy’It looked like a recipe for disaster. So, when his country's swimmers were being accused of doping earlier this year, one Chinese official cooked up something fast. He blamed it on contaminated noodles. In fact, he argued, it could have been a culinary conspiracy concocted by criminals, whose actions led to the cooking wine used to prepare the noodles being laced with a banned heart drug that found its way into an athlete's system. This theory was spelled out to international anti-doping officials during a meeting and, after weeks of wrangling, finally made it into the thousands of pages of data handed over to the lawyer who investigated the case involving 23 Chinese swimmers who had tested positive for that same drug. The attorney, appointed by the World Anti-Doping Agency, refused to consider that scenario as he sifted through the evidence. In spelling out his reasoning, lawyer Eric Cottier paid heed to the half-baked nature of the theory. “The Investigator considers this scenario, which he has described in the conditional tense, to be possible, no less, no more,” Cottier wrote. Even without the contaminated-noodles theory, Cottier found problems with the way WADA and the Chinese handled the case but ultimately determined WADA had acted reasonably in not appealing China's conclusion that its athletes had been inadvertently contaminated. Critics of the way the China case was handled can't help but wonder if a wider exploration of the noodle theory, details of which were discovered by The Associated Press via notes and emails from after the meeting where it was delivered, might have lent a different flavor to Cottier's conclusions. “There are more story twists to the ways the Chinese explain the TMZ case than a James Bond movie,” said Rob Koehler, the director general of the advocacy group Global Athlete. "And all of it is complete fiction.” In April, reporting from the New York Times and the German broadcaster ARD revealed that the 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine, also known as TMZ. China's anti-doping agency determined the athletes had been contaminated, and so, did not sanction them. WADA accepted that explanation , did not press the case further, and China was never made to deliver a public notice about the “no-fault findings,” as is often seen in similar cases. The stock explanation for the contamination was that traces of TMZ were found in the kitchen of a hotel where the swimmers were staying. In his 58-page report , Cottier relayed some suspicions about the feasibility of that chain of events — noting that WADA's chief scientist “saw no other solution than to accept it, even if he continued to have doubts about the reality of contamination as described by the Chinese authorities.” But without evidence to support pursuing the case, and with the chance of winning an appeal at almost nil, Cottier determined WADA's “decision not to appeal appears indisputably reasonable.” A mystery remained: How did those traces of TMZ get into the kitchen? Shortly after the doping positives were revealed, the Institute of National Anti-Doping Organizations held a meeting on April 30 where it heard from the leader of China's agency, Li Zhiquan. Li's presentation was mostly filled with the same talking points that have been delivered throughout the saga — that the positive tests resulted from contamination from the kitchen. But he expanded on one way the kitchen might have become contaminated, harkening to another case in China involving a low-level TMZ positive. A pharmaceutical factory, he explained, had used industrial alcohol in the distillation process for producing TMZ. The industrial alcohol laced with the drug “then entered the market through illegal channels,” he said. The alcohol "was re-used by the perpetrators to process and produce cooking wine, which is an important seasoning used locally to make beef noodles,” Li said. “The contaminated beef noodles were consumed by that athlete, resulting in an extremely low concentration of TMZ in the positive sample. "The wrongdoers involved have been brought to justice.” This new information raised eyebrows among the anti-doping leaders listening to Li's report. So much so that over the next month, several emails ensued to make sure the details about the noodles and wine made their way to WADA lawyers, who could then pass it onto Cottier. Eventually, Li did pass on the information to WADA general counsel Ross Wenzel and, just to be sure, one of the anti-doping leaders forwarded it, as well, according to the emails seen by the AP. All this came with Li's request that the noodles story be kept confidential. Turns out, it made it into Cottier's report, though he took the information with a grain of salt. “Indeed, giving it more attention would have required it to be documented, then scientifically verified and validated,” he wrote. Neither Wenzel nor officials at the Chinese anti-doping agency returned messages from AP asking about the noodles conspiracy and the other athlete who Li suggested had been contaminated by them. Meanwhile, 11 of the swimmers who originally tested positive competed at the Paris Games earlier this year in a meet held under the cloud of the Chinese doping case. Though WADA considers the case closed, Koehler and others point to situations like this as one of many reasons that an investigation by someone other than Cottier, who was hired by WADA, is still needed. “It gives the appearance that people are just making things up as they go along on this, and hoping the story just goes away," Koehler said. “Which clearly it has not.” AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

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