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It’s often claimed, I’m not sure on what authority, that the Beatles’ arrival in America, three months after the assassination of President Kennedy, in some unquantifiable way lifted the spirits of a depressed nation, allowing it to move forward into the light. Perhaps reliving it in 2024 will bring similar relief, though of course, some will just long for the past. It’s a thought repeated by Paul McCartney himself in a delightful new-old documentary “Beatles ’64,” premiering Friday on Disney+, in what, after “The Beatles Anthology” in 1995 and “Get Back” in 2019, might be seen as an infrequent Thanksgiving tradition. The film, produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by David Tedeschi, is the latest repurposing of footage shot by Albert and David Maysles , when the band crossed the pond to appear on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in February 1964. The Maysles’ footage was originally used for the BBC documentary “What’s Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A.,” and formed the substance of the 1991 “The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit.” (Bits and pieces have appeared in various Beatles docs over the years; it is foundational stuff.) But there is more of it here, interspersed with new interviews with McCartney, Ringo Starr and fans and friends who participated in the moment, along with archival interviews with George Harrison and John Lennon and some needless social context from Marshall McLuhan and Betty Friedan. Happily absent are later-generation pop stars testifying to the band’s genius, or worse, singing their own versions of Beatles songs. Not even the Beatles testify to their own genius. “You must be kidding with that question,” says McCartney, when a reporter asks about their place in “Western culture.” “It’s not culture, it’s a good laugh.” The action unrolls mostly in and around New York’s Plaza Hotel; in Washington, D.C., where they performed their first American concert; and on trains traveling back and forth. Other stops and dates on the trip — a second Sullivan broadcast from Miami Beach, a concert at Carnegie Hall — are filled in with photos and interviews. The Maysles, who five years later would direct what is largely considered the greatest of all rock ’n’ roll documentaries, “Gimme Shelter,” were founding members of the fly-on-the-wall “direct cinema” movement, the domestic cousin of ciinéma vérité. Shot in 16mm black and white, the footage has a paradoxical immediacy lost to a world in which, by one count, 14 billion color images are posted to social media every day. Coincidentally or not, the style and even scenes in the Maysles film are echoed in “A Hard Day’s Night,” which began filming a month later. (“This is what our movie will be like,” says John, looking out at the passing scenery. “The train days.”) Nowadays rock groups are the producers of their own massaged, glossy documentaries — Bruce Springsteen has a “written by” credit on this year’s “ Road Diary” — where even the revelations are carefully chosen and measured out. Yet once it was the custom to let cameras in to catch what they might. Out at the Peppermint Lounge, presaging a similar scene in “A Hard Day’s Night,” McCartney and Lennon and a dancing Starr are clearly, happily inebriated; they don’t have their guard up yet, or handlers to get between them and the camera. (The Beatles organization was surprisingly small; you could fit the whole operation in a van.) In their Plaza suite, they smoke cigarettes, read newspapers, watch themselves on TV and mess with the film crew, forcing them through the fourth wall: “There’s a woman there, you see,” says McCartney, “with a little microphone, see, and she daren’t talk.” They listen to Pepsi-branded transistor radios, fence with disc jockey Murray the K , who insinuates himself into their inner sanctum. (“I’ve never quite understood how he did that,” says George, looking back.) In a train car packed with press, they clown — Harrison in a porter’s uniform, carrying a tray of cans of 7-Up (“It’s me!” he tells the camera, coming in close and doffing his cap), Starr with a dozen cameras and camera bags slung around his neck, Harrison lying in an overhead luggage rack, slating the film. (McCartney sits it out: “I’m not in a laughing mood, even.”) Meanwhile, fans, mostly teenage girls (some carrying their schoolbooks), crowd the barriers at the Plaza Hotel, penetrate its halls, press their faces to the windows of the limousine carrying the band to the Sullivan show, and chase it down the street. In their strong New Yawk accents, of a kind that may have vanished from the Earth, they attempt to explain their love for the Beatles, and particular Beatles. They were exotic — not merely English, but thanks to the influence of their arty German friends Astrid Kirchherr and Klaus Voormann, they were continental. With their combed down “long” hair and Cuban heels, they look like the future. (And had more than a little to do with what the future would look like.) At the same time, they were working-class kids from a city still recovering from World War II, with a deep love for Black American pop music, which they reintroduced to white America. (They were curators as well as creators.) Smokey Robinson, who had met them in England and whose “You’ve Really Got a Hold On Me” they covered, calls them the “first white group that I had ever heard in my life ... say, ‘Yeah, we grew up listening to Black music.’” The late Ronnie Spector, another friend, recalls taking the band for barbecue in Harlem, where they basked in the luxury of being ignored. That would only become harder. I daresay we know more about the Beatles than any other pop band in history — their music, their less than private private lives, their fab gear, where they were and what they were doing nearly every day of their eventful career. (Mark Lewisohn‘s excellent, engaging “Tune In,” the first of a projected three-volume group biography, which doesn’t even get to 1963, runs nearly a thousand pages; it’s also available as a 1,728-page extended version.) Imagine if we had that much on, say, William Shakespeare, not just a couple of probable, probably posthumous portraits, but photos, video, interviews and documents numbering in the hundreds of thousands — not to mention books by everyone who knew him even slightly. It would kill the Who Really Wrote Shakespeare business, but there’d be so much more to parse. (Incidentally, the Beatles played Shakespeare, the “Pyramus and Thisbe” section of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” in their 1964 TV special “Around the Beatles.”) They spring eternal: “Now and Then,” the “last” Beatles song, which digitally combines all four members, is currently nominated for two Grammys, 54 years after the band disbanded and 44 after Lennon, who wrote and sings it, was shot. They will be listened to and discussed and studied for years to come, long after I’m around to know whether my prediction is right. Beatlemania may be done, but somewhere a child is singing the chorus to “Yellow Submarine.”Arguments about past presidents shape the nation’s understanding of itself and hence its unfolding future. In recent years, biographies by nonacademics have rescued some presidents from progressive academia’s indifference or condescension: John Adams (rescued by David McCullough), Ulysses S. Grant (by Ron Chernow), Calvin Coolidge (by Amity Shlaes). The rehabilitation of those presidents’ reputations have been acts of justice, as is Christopher Cox’s destruction of Woodrow Wilson’s place in progressivism’s pantheon. In “Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn,” Cox, former congressman and former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, demonstrates that the 28th president was the nation’s nastiest. Without belaboring the point, Cox presents an Everest of evidence that Wilson’s progressivism smoothly melded with his authoritarianism and oceanic capacity for contempt. His books featured ostentatious initials: “Woodrow Wilson Ph.D., LL.D.” But he wrote no doctoral dissertation for his 18-month Ph.D. He dropped out of law school. His doctorate of law was honorary. But because of those initials, and because he vaulted in three years from Princeton University’s presidency to New Jersey’s governorship to the U.S. presidency, and because he authored books, he is remembered as a scholar in politics. Actually, he was an intellectual manque using academia as a springboard into politics. His books were thin gruel, often laced with scabrous racism. His first, “Congressional Government,” contained only 52 citations, but he got it counted as a doctoral dissertation. He wrote it while a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University, yet he only once visited the U.S. Capitol 37 miles away. “I have no patience for the tedious toil of ‘research,’” he said. “I hate the place,” he said of Bryn Mawr, a women’s college that provided his first faculty job. He thought teaching women was pointless. Cox ignores the well-plowed ground of Wilson’s domestic achievements — the progressive income tax, the Federal Reserve. Instead, Cox braids Wilson’s aggressive white-male supremacy and hostility toward women’s suffrage. His was a life defined by disdaining. For postgraduate education, Johns Hopkins recruited German-trained faculty steeped in that nation’s statism and belief in the racial superiority of Teutonic people. Wilson’s Johns Hopkins classmate and lifelong friend Thomas Dixon wrote the novel that became the silent movie “The Birth of a Nation.” Wilson made this celebration of the Ku Klux Klan the first movie shown in the White House. During the movie, the screen showed quotes from Wilson’s “History of the American People,” such as: “In the villages the negroes were the office holders, men who knew none of the uses of authority, except its insolences.” And: “At last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan ... to protect the Southern country” and Southerners’ “Aryan birthright.” Wilson’s White House gala — guests in evening dress — gave “The Birth of a Nation” a presidential imprimatur. The movie, which became a national sensation, normalized the Klan and helped to revive lynching. Though the term “fascism” is more frequently bandied than defined, it fits Wilson’s amalgam of racism (he meticulously resegregated the federal workforce), statism, and wartime censorship and prosecutions. Dissent was “disloyalty” deserving “a firm hand of stern repression.” Benito Mussolini: “All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.” Wilson: “I am perfectly sure that the state has got to control everything that everybody needs and uses.” Wilson created the Committee on Public Information to “mobilize the mind of America.” The committee soon had more than 150,000 employees disseminating propaganda, monitoring publications and providing them with government-written content. The committee was echoed in the Biden administration’s pressuring of social media to suppress what it considered dis- or misinformation. Cox provides a stunning chronicle of Wilson’s complacent, even gleeful, acceptance of police and mob brutality, often in front of the White House, against suffragists. And of the torture — no milder word will suffice — of the women incarcerated in stomach-turning squalor, at the mercy of sadists. “Appropriate,” Wilson said. An appropriate judgment from the man who dismissed as empty verbiage the first two paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence. Historian C. Vann Woodward, author of “The Strange Career of Jim Crow,” said white-male supremacy was the crux of Southern progressivism. Wilson’s political career demonstrated that it was not discordant with national progressivism’s belief that a superior few should control the benighted many. John Greenleaf Whittier, disillusioned by Daniel Webster’s support of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, wrote of Webster: “So fallen! so lost! the light withdrawn / Which once he wore!” True, too, of Wilson. Will writes for The Washington Post. Get local news delivered to your inbox!card game joker 。

CLEVELAND (AP) — Alyssa Nakken, the first woman to coach in a Major League Baseball game, is leaving the San Francisco Giants to join the Cleveland Guardians. Nakken made history in 2022 when she took over as first-base coach following an ejection. A former college softball star at Sacramento State, Nakken joined the Giants in 2014 and was promoted to a spot on manager Gabe Kapler's staff in 2020, becoming the majors' first full-time female coach. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. Get the latest need-to-know information delivered to your inbox as it happens. Our flagship newsletter. Get our front page stories each morning as well as the latest updates each afternoon during the week + more in-depth weekend editions on Saturdays & Sundays.Person accused of accosting Rep. Nancy Mace at Capitol pleads not guilty to assault chargeHome | Trump transition recommends scrapping car-crash reporting The Trump transition team wants the incoming administration to drop a car-crash reporting requirement opposed by Elon Musk’s Tesla, according to a document seen by Reuters, a move that could cripple the government’s ability to investigate and regulate the safety of vehicles with automated-driving systems. Musk, the world’s richest person, spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars helping Trump get elected president in November. Removing the crash-disclosure provision would particularly benefit Tesla, which has reported most of the crashes – more than 1 500 – to federal safety regulators under the program. Tesla has been targeted in National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigations, including three stemming from the data. The recommendation to kill the crash-reporting rule came from a transition team tasked with producing a 100-day strategy for automotive policy. The group called the measure a mandate for “excessive” data collection, the document seen by Reuters shows. The Trump transition team, Musk and Tesla did not respond to requests for comment. Reuters could not determine what role, if any, Musk may have played in crafting the transition-team recommendations or the likelihood that the administration would enact them. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing most major automakers except Tesla, has also criticised the requirement as burdensome. A Reuters analysis of the NHTSA crash data shows Tesla accounted for 40 out of 45 fatal crashes reported to NHTSA through October 15. Among the Tesla crashes NHTSA investigated under the provision were a 2023 fatal accident in Virginia where a driver using the car’s “Autopilot” feature slammed into a tractor-trailer and a California wreck the same year where an Autopiloted Tesla hit a firetruck, killing the driver and injuring four firefighters. NHTSA said in a statement that such data is crucial to evaluating the safety of emerging automated-driving technologies. Two former NHTSA employees said the crash-reporting requirements were pivotal to agency investigations into Tesla’s driver-assistance features that led to 2023 recalls. Without the data, they said, NHTSA cannot easily detect crash patterns that highlight safety problems. NHTSA said it has received and analysed data on more than 2 700 crashes since the agency established the rule in 2021. The data has influenced 10 investigations into six companies, NHTSA said, as well as nine safety recalls involving four different companies. In one example, NHTSA fined Cruise, the self-driving startup owned by General Motors (GM.N), $1.5 million in September for failing to report a 2023 incident in which a vehicle hit and dragged a pedestrian who had been struck by another car. GM this week said Cruise will stop development of self-driving technology. CRASH REPORTING NHTSA’s so-called standing general order requires automakers to report crashes if advanced driver-assistance or autonomous-driving technologies were engaged within 30 seconds of impact, among other factors. In addition to ditching the reporting rule, the recommendations call for the administration to “liberalise” autonomous-vehicle regulation and to enact “basic regulations to enable development” of the industry. In an October Tesla earnings call, Musk called for “a federal approval process for autonomous vehicles,” rather than a patchwork of state laws he called “incredibly painful” to navigate. He said he would use his position as a government-efficiency czar, a post Trump had promised him, to push for such regulatory changes. After the election, Trump named Musk to co-lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency to advise from “outside government” on slashing federal staff, spending and regulations. MORE DATA, MORE CRASHES Tesla is among the most prominent automakers developing advanced driver-assistance features, which can assist with lane changes, driving speed and steering. Tesla’s Autopilot and “Full Self-Driving” systems, which are not fully autonomous, have come under intense scrutiny in lawsuits and a DOJ criminal probe examining whether Tesla exaggerated its vehicles’ self-driving capabilities, misleading investors and harming consumers. Tesla despises the crash-notification requirement, believing that NHTSA presents the data in ways that mislead consumers about the automaker’s safety, two sources familiar with Tesla executives’ thinking told Reuters. In recent years, Tesla executives discussed with Musk the need to push for scrapping the crash-reporting requirement, according to one of the sources. But because Biden officials expressed enthusiasm for the program, Tesla executives ultimately concluded that they would need a change in administration to get rid of the requirements, according to the source. Tesla finds the rules unfair because it believes it reports better data than other automakers, which makes it look like Tesla is responsible for an outsized number of crashes involving advanced driver-assistance systems, one of the sources said. SABC © 2024

Middle East latest: WHO chief says he was at Yemen airport as Israeli bombs fell nearby(This Dec. 13 story has been corrected to say that Tice was taken captive in Daraya, not Aleppo, in paragraph 17) By Erin Banco and Jonathan Landay WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In the early days of 2013, an American man, dressed in ragged clothing, dodged between houses in the streets of Damascus’ upscale Mazzeh neighborhood looking for a civilian to take him to safety after more than five months of captivity in the concrete cells of a local prison. The man, journalist Austin Tice, was taken captive during a reporting trip to Syria in August 2012. A former Marine, he had managed to slip out of his cell, one current and three former U.S. officials and a person with knowledge of the event told Reuters. All were granted anonymity to speak freely about sensitive U.S. intelligence. Tice’s 2013 escape, reported here for the first time, was the first public sighting of the American after he disappeared, the officials said. Tice is now the focus of a massive manhunt following the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad this week after 13 years of civil war. Rebels, led by the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, have since released thousands of people from prisons in Damascus where Assad held political opponents, ordinary civilians and foreigners. The American has not yet been found. There are no credible hints of his whereabouts but also no clear evidence that he is dead, a U.S. official said. U.S. officials say that Tice's 2013 escape from prison, where he was believed to have been held by a pro-government militia, is the strongest evidence the U.S. government has to suggest that forces loyal to Assad held Tice. This has over the years allowed American officials to pressure the Assad government directly about the matter. The White House declined to comment for this story. The CIA, Office of the Director for National Intelligence and the FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment. When Tice escaped, he was spotted by people living in the Mazzeh neighborhood, wandering the street. He entered the house of a well-known Syrian family, the name of which is being withheld for security reasons, a person familiar with the escape said. Tice was recaptured soon after his escape, one current and one former U.S. official said. U.S. officials believe it is likely that Tice was taken after his escape by forces who answered directly to Assad. One person with knowledge of the escape said Tice was potentially passed back and forth between several different government intelligence agencies in the following years. The administration of former President Barack Obama received another tip in 2016 that Tice had been taken to a hospital in Damascus to receive care for an unknown illness, in what would be his second known sighting, a U.S. official and a person familiar with the tip said. But current U.S. officials are not as confident in that report as they are in his 2013 escape. Over the years, Tice's family - which has led the charge in trying to find him - has spoken publicly of their frustration with the U.S. government, saying it has not prioritized Tice's release. They are now gathered in Washington in the hope they can soon celebrate his freedom. The family declined a request for comment. “We believe he’s alive. We think we can get him back, but we have no direct evidence of that yet,” U.S. president Joe Biden said last Sunday, fueling optimism about Tice’s fate. Over the last 12 years, U.S. agencies, including the FBI, the State Department and the CIA, have gathered thousands of tips about Tice. Most are nearly impossible to verify. HARROWING VIDEO Tice, who worked as a freelance reporter for the Washington Post and McClatchy, was one of the first U.S. journalists to make it into Syria after the outbreak of the civil war. In August 2012, while traveling through the Damascus suburb of Daraya, he was taken captive. Weeks later, a YouTube video was published showing Tice blindfolded, hands tied behind his back. He was led up a hill by armed men in what appeared to be Afghan garb and shouting "God is great" in an apparent bid to blame Islamist rebels for his capture although the video only gained attention when it was posted on a Facebook page associated with Assad supporters. Tice can be heard reciting a prayer, in Arabic, before saying in English: "Oh Jesus, oh Jesus." There are varying accounts of what happened to Tice in 2012, including who initially took him and where he was moved. Other journalists were taken captive around the same time. But as time passed and other reporters were freed, details about Tice remained scarce. The Obama administration had obtained intelligence that he was either in the hands of an extremist rebel faction or the Syrian government, two of the former officials said. But it had no way of verifying the information. Over the past decade, some U.S. officials and press advocates have lost faith in the assessment that Tice is alive in part because there has been no new, credible evidence to confirm his status. Others have maintained a sense of optimism, including some in the incoming Trump administration. In 2019, Trump administration officials, including Kash Patel, then a U.S. presidential aide and counterterrorism adviser, and Roger Carstens, special envoy for hostage affairs, traveled to Damascus to meet with Syrian officials about Tice. Current and former U.S. officials said the Syrian government refused to offer proof of life and demanded the U.S. reverse its Syria policy and withdraw U.S. troops from the country in return for opening negotiations about Tice. The Biden administration has maintained contact with the Syrian government since then, but Assad's officials were unwilling to negotiate until the U.S. agreed to their demands. On Dec. 6, Austin Tice's mother Deborah and her family told a press conference that a U.S. government-vetted source had recently confirmed that Tice was alive and was being treated well. "He is being cared for, and he is well," Deborah Tice said. But in the hours after the conference, U.S. officials working on Tice's case said they did not have any new information and that they were caught off guard by his mother's statements. This week, Carstens traveled to Beirut to coordinate the search for Tice. Other officials are also in the region, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Barbara Leaf, the head of the State Department’s Near East bureau. “We’re determined to find him and bring him home to his family and loved ones,” Blinken told reporters Thursday. Almost a week after Assad’s ouster, some U.S. officials fear that Tice could have been killed during a recent round of Israeli airstrikes. Officials are also concerned that if Tice was being held underground in a cell, he may have run out of breathable air as Assad's forces shut off the electricity in many of the prisons in Damascus before the president fled. This week, reports emerged that an American man had been seen in Damascus, raising hopes that Tice had been freed. But it wasn’t Tice. On Thursday, news broke that Missouri resident Travis Timmerman had been found after having been freed from prison by the rebels. Timmerman said he had traveled into Syria for a spiritual mission earlier this year and was arrested for entering the country illegally. (Reporting by Erin Banco in New York and Jonathan Landay in Washington; Editing by Don Durfee Heather Timmons and Alistair Bell)VB to probe bribery in panchayat polls

Boys Town Nebraska, Nov. 25, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Boys Town today announced the filing of patents for two groundbreaking AI-integrated innovations in virtual training & mixed reality technology. Boys Town is a leader in changing the lives of children and families across the country. Boys Town's success comes with teaching caregivers researched-based strategies to effectively change the behaviors of at-risk children. Boys Town is also a leader in helping children with hearing loss and communication disorders. This new AI model will help to effectively teach more caregivers across the country and aid those using American Sign Language (ASL). "Boys Town is known for its groundbreaking research informed care that serves children and families nationwide," said Rod Kempkes, CEO. "This new technology will help us share the Boys Town mission with even wider audiences across the world and sets Boys Town apart as a thought leader in the nonprofit sector." The first system is an AI-driven training application designed to instruct individuals on effectively implementing the Boys Town Model for teaching social skills to children. This new technology can help train caregivers how to respond when working with children. The system features AI-powered characters designed to simulate children's behavior, enabling realistic and dynamic interactions. Users can engage with these AI characters through natural language while the system leverages computer vision to interpret and respond to user cues. These teachings can then be used when dealing with real world scenarios and provide AI-driven feedback on how the interactions were handled. The second technology facilitates seamless communication between individuals using American Sign Language (ASL) and those communicating verbally. It translates ASL into speech and converts spoken language into text, which is displayed as captions on smart eyewear, allowing both parties to communicate effortlessly. Boys Town is a leader in communication disorders research along with treating those with hearing loss. This technology will be an asset to helping children and families navigate communication barriers. About Boys Town: ​​​​​For over a century, Boys Town has been a beacon of hope, transforming the lives of America's children and families through innovative youth, research, and healthcare programs. Boys Town provides compassionate, research-proven education, prevention, training, and treatment for behavioral and physical problems in multiple locations throughout the United States, with a comprehensive array of services. In 2023, more than 715,000 children and families across the United States were impacted by Boys Town programs. You can find more information about Boys Town online at www.boystown.org . Attachments Artificial Intelligence in Training Boys Town Reality Coach © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.The Masked Singer fans don't have to wait for the new year to tune into the popular singing competition. On Boxing Day, the family can gather together to unwind and watch the Christmas special on the ITV programme. Of course, there will be festive-themed costumes as viewers try to guess the celebrity behind the masks. Although Love Island star Maya Jama has been announced as a new judge on the main show, she won't be present for the special. The special will see judges Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Jonathan Ross and Mo Gilligan come together to solve the mystery behind the costumes. Like every series, the judges will have to guess who is singing by following clues, listening to the songs and watching the mystery celebrities dance. This year, fans will be treated with performances from Christmas Cracker, Star, Turkey Crown and a Nutcracker. Here's everything we know about the Christmas special, including all the costumes... The celebrity behind the Christmas Cracker could be seen rocking an elaborate costume that resembled a Christmas Cracker. It looked like the cracker was already half pulled open as gadgets were spilling out of the cracker to resemble all the fun gifts we get in a cracker every Christmas. Meanwhile, Star is a much simpler costume featuring lots of different patterns and colours. To make it even more adorable, two giant eyes are emblazoned on the top. Meanwhile, one celebrity is rocking a full-roasted Turkey costume, complete with a giant crown where the turkey's head would have been. You can't have a Christmas event without turkey! We also have Nutcracker ready to perform, but it's not ordinary Nutcracker. Instead of a normal human, the star is dressed as what looks like a Fox in a Nutcracker costume. ITV teased the show on their Instagram Stories with a short clip they captioned: "id you REALLY think we'd make you wait for series 6!? As if!" Meanwhile, Maya Jama has replaced Rita Ora as a judge on the main competition. Speaking about joining the programme, Maya said in September: "I'm such a Masked Singer fan, so joining the panel alongside Davina, Jonathan, and Mo — and of course working with Joel— is going to be so much fun! "I can't wait to figure out who's underneath all those incredible costumes, vibe to their performances, and get front-row seats to the unmaskings. I've watched the show for a long time, so I'm definitely bringing my A-game to the panel!" Maya responded to The Masked Singer's social media announcement adding: "So excited." The Masked Singer: Christmas Special will air on ITV1 at 7.30pm on Boxing Day Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .

AP News Summary at 1:00 p.m. ESTNone

Shortly after completing a 31-year tenure as the coach of the Towson men’s lacrosse program, Carl Anthony Runk was celebrated widely for his accomplishments. He was inducted into the Towson Hall of Fame in 2007, the Intercollegiate Men’s Lacrosse Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2018, the University of Arizona Men’s Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2019 and received the John F. Steadman Lifetime Achievement Award from the Maryland State Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022. But according to his son, Keith Runk, Mr. Runk downplayed the accolades. “He would say, ‘I haven’t cracked an egg in my life, and they’re recognizing me with this,’” his son said. “He never did anything for the recognition. He did it for the love of it.” Mr. Runk, who shepherded the Tigers from NCAA Division II to Division I status and the 1974 Division II national championship, died Sunday of pancreatic cancer at his home in Baltimore. He was 88. From 1968 to 1998, Mr. Runk compiled a 262-161 record that included that national title against Hobart, seven consecutive College Division Tournament berths from 1973 to 1979, an appearance in the 1991 Division I Tournament final against North Carolina, five East Coast Conference championships and 24 seasons with winning records. Tony Seaman, who succeeded Mr. Runk at Towson and met him as rivals when the former coached at Penn and Johns Hopkins, described his predecessor’s legacy as “long-lasting.” “I’ll always remember how well his teams were coached and how well his players played for him,” Seaman said. “They loved him, and they’d give everything in the world. You knew that you would get a game from beginning to end anytime you played against a Carl Runk team.” One of 13 children raised by George and Anna Runk and Josephine McGill in Highlandtown, Mr. Runk grew up working on tugboats and picking beans on farms on the Eastern Shore, according to his son. “They kicked and scratched for everything they got,” Keith Runk said. “Just making ends meet to get through and help the family out.” After graduating from Patterson Park High, Mr. Runk attended the University of Maryland on a football scholarship for a year-and-a-half, but then transferred to the University of Arizona, where he was an offensive tackle. Already married to the former Joan Johns who also graduated from Patterson Park, Mr. Runk squeezed in earning a master’s degree and teaching at an area high school between two stints coaching men’s lacrosse for the Wildcats. After the births of sons Carl, Keith and Curt, Mr. and Mrs. Runk decided to return to Maryland after Curt contracted spinal meningitis and lost his hearing. Upon his return, Mr. Runk joined what was formerly known as Towson State College to coach lacrosse. Mr. Runk added football to his coaching responsibilities when the coach quit before the program’s debut in 1969. In three seasons, the Tigers went 11-14-1 under Mr. Runk, who handed the reins to one of his assistant coaches, Phil Albert. Lacrosse is where Mr. Runk made his greatest impact. From 1968 to 1979, Mr. Runk amassed a 115-63 at the NCAA Division II level with only one losing season. His crowning achievement was shaping the 1974 squad into a group that outlasted Hobart, 18-17, in overtime for the NCAA Division II championship. Tom Moore, a midfielder and co-captain of that 1974 team, said Mr. Runk insisted on a culture absent of favoritism. “The ones that didn’t buy into the culture, they had to work harder to get into the starting lineup,” he said. “Some of them did, and some of them decided to quit. The bottom line was we expected everybody to work really hard and we expected everybody to be a team player.” Keith Runk, who played goalkeeper for the Tigers from 1979 to 1982, said his father extended that expectation to his son. “There was no special treatment,” he said. “When I was on the field, I was a player. I wasn’t his son. I was no better or no worse. But on the way home, it was different. He was Dad.” Members of Towson and Hobart and their parents dined together on the eve of the 1974 title game. While the Hobart coach praised his players’ efforts and dedication, Mr. Runk took a different approach. “Coach Runk got up there in front of our parents, and he started making fun of all of us. He was saying, ‘I don’t know how these kids got into school because their SAT scores weren’t really that good,’” Moore said with a laugh. “This was one of the most intense moments we all had because we were looking at the guys we had to fight against the next day, and he’s got everybody in tears and laughing by making fun of us. And we didn’t mind it because we knew he was doing it to just have a good time.” Mr. Runk had a certain command of his teams. Tensions always ran high between Towson and Maryland. So when a skirmish broke out during a scrimmage between the area rivals in 1980, the Tigers players were more than willing to jump into the fray. “Our entire bench started to run out on the field, and Coach Runk turned around and put up his hand, and you never saw 40 guys stop on a dime like that in your life,” said former Baltimore Sun sports editor Gerry Jackson, who was a defenseman for Mr. Runk from 1978 to 1981. “The kind of respect he had from the team was amazing.” After back-to-back 5-7 records in 1997 and 1998, Mr. Runk was not retained by Towson, which hired Seaman after he had been let go by Johns Hopkins. While Seaman quipped that Mr. Runk was too upset with the administration to take out his anger on Seaman, the latter said Mr. Runk was always supportive. “We were such good friends that it never came up,” said Seaman, who had known Mr. Runk since Seaman was a coach at a high school on Long Island where Mr. Runk often visited to recruit players. “He never felt bitter toward me. He knew that I needed the job.” Mr. Runk enjoyed playing musical instruments such as the guitar, banjo and harmonica and was a member of a barbershop quartet while he was a student at Arizona. But next to lacrosse, he prioritized his family. In 1978, Mr. Runk took a partial sabbatical to enroll at Gallaudet University and sign up for classes in sign language, audiology and the sociology of deafness. The following year, he taught basic sign language at Towson at least once per semester for 20 years. “It was important for him to teach people how to communicate with those who were hard of hearing,” his son said. “It was a tribute to the care that he had for the family and for people in similar positions. It wasn’t just about us or him.” Mr. Runk is survived by three sons (Carl of Burke, Virginia, Keith of Bel Air, and Curt of Jacksonville, South Carolina), one daughter (Brenda Parker of Ocean City), three brothers (Alfred of Forest Hill, David of Tampa, Florida, and Ted of San Francisco, California), two sisters (Joan of Daytona, Florida, and Donna of Port Richey, Florida), 11 grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. The family will hold a private service. A celebration of Mr. Runk’s life is planned for a later date. Have a news tip? Contact Edward Lee at eklee@baltsun.com , 410-332-6200 and x.com/EdwardLeeSun .

The UN General Assembly on Wednesday overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza, a symbolic gesture rejected by the United States and Israel. The resolution -- adopted by a vote of 158-9, with 13 abstentions -- urges "an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire," and "the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages" -- wording similar to a text vetoed by Washington in the Security Council last month. At that time, Washington used its veto power on the Council -- as it has before -- to protect its ally Israel, which has been at war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip since the Palestinian militant group's October 7, 2023 attack. It has insisted on the idea of making a ceasefire conditional on the release of all hostages in Gaza, saying otherwise that Hamas has no incentive to free those in captivity. Deputy US Ambassador Robert Wood repeated that position Wednesday, saying it would be "shameful and wrong" to adopt the text. Ahead of the vote, Israel's UN envoy Danny Danon said: "The resolutions before the assembly today are beyond logic. (...) The vote today is not a vote for compassion. It is a vote for complicity." The General Assembly often finds itself taking up measures that cannot get through the Security Council, which has been largely paralyzed on hot-button issues such as Gaza and Ukraine due to internal politics, and this time is no different. The resolution, which is non-binding, demands "immediate access" to widespread humanitarian aid for the citizens of Gaza, especially in the besieged north of the territory. Dozens of representatives of UN member states addressed the Assembly before the vote to offer their support to the Palestinians. "Gaza doesn't exist anymore. It is destroyed," said Slovenia's UN envoy Samuel Zbogar. "History is the harshest critic of inaction." That criticism was echoed by Algeria's deputy UN ambassador Nacim Gaouaoui, who said: "The price of silence and failure in the face of the Palestinian tragedy is a very heavy price, and it will be heavier tomorrow." Hamas's October 2023 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. That count includes hostages who died or were killed while being held in Gaza. Militants abducted 251 hostages, 96 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead. Israel's retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 44,805 people, a majority of them civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run health ministry that is considered reliable by the United Nations. "Gaza today is the bleeding heart of Palestine," Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour said last week during the first day of debate in the Assembly's special session on the issue. "The images of our children burning in tents, with no food in their bellies and no hopes and no horizon for the future, and after having endured pain and loss for more than a year, should haunt the conscience of the world and prompt action to end this nightmare," he said, calling for an end to the "impunity." After Wednesday's vote, he said "we will keep knocking on the doors of the Security Council and the General Assembly until we see an immediate and unconditional ceasefire put in place." The Gaza resolution calls on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to present "proposals on how the United Nations could help to advance accountability" by using existing mechanisms or creating new ones based on past experience. The Assembly, for example, created an international mechanism to gather evidence of crimes committed in Syria starting from the outbreak of civil war in 2011. A second resolution calling on Israel to respect the mandate of the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and allow it to continue its operations was passed Wednesday by a vote of 159-9 with 11 abstentions. Israel has voted to ban the organization starting January 28, after accusing some UNRWA employees of taking part in Hamas's devastating attack. abd/sst/jgc/nro/desBilawal vows to defeat foreign plots against missile programme

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WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court will decide whether the work of the charitable arm of a Catholic diocese is sufficiently religious to be exempt from unemployment taxes, a case being closely watched by religious groups around the country. The case the court agreed to hear involves Catholic Charities Bureau and four independently incorporated organizations controlled by the diocese in Wisconsin that serve people with developmental and mental health disabilities. Similar to other states, Wisconsin exempts from its unemployment tax system organizations “operated primarily for religious purposes and operated, supervised, controlled, or principally supported by a church or convention or association of churches.” The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the organizations at issue should have to pay into the state’s unemployment system because they are not operated primarily for religious purposes, even if the services are religiously motivated. People who get the agency's social services don’t receive religious instruction and employees don’t have to be Catholic. The subsidiary organizations receive no funding from the diocese. Their services – including job training, placement and coaching – can be provided by groups with either religious or secular motivations, the state Supreme Court said, “and the services provided would not differ in any sense.” “If we looked to the church's purpose in operating the organization only, then any religiously affiliated organization would always be exempt,” Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley wrote for the majority. A 263-day wait for jobless benefits Alabama shrimp farmer takes case to Supreme Court But lawyers for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, who are representing the diocese, said that what Walsh was essentially – and incorrectly – saying is, “it doesn’t matter if Catholic Charities gives a cup of water in Jesus’ name, because non-religious charities offer cups of water too.” “It shouldn’t take a theologian to understand that serving the poor is a religious duty for Catholics,” Eric Rassbach, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, said when the group filed its appeal. “But the Wisconsin Supreme Court embraced the absurd conclusion that Catholic Charities has no religious purpose. We’re asking the Supreme Court to step in and fix that mistake.” Wisconsin Attorney General Joshua Kaul said there was no mistake. The Wisconsin Supreme Court, Kaul said in a filing, correctly applied a neutral state law that “imposes no constitutionally significant burden on their religious exercise.” “Courts routinely deny religious tax exemptions to entities that assert religious motivations without overly entangling themselves in religious matters,” he told the high court. The case, Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission, is expected to be decided by summer.

President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Friday to pause the potential TikTok ban from going into effect until his administration can pursue a “political resolution” to the issue. The request came as TikTok and the Biden administration filed opposing briefs to the court, in which the company argued the court should strike down a law that could ban the platform by Jan. 19 while the government emphasized its position that the statute is needed to eliminate a national security risk. Recommended Videos “President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute. Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider staying the Act’s deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, while it considers the merits of this case,” said Trump’s amicus brief, which supported neither party in the case and was written by D. John Sauer, Trump’s choice for solicitor general. The argument submitted to the court is the latest example of Trump inserting himself in national issues before he takes office. The Republican president-elect has already begun negotiating with other countries over his plans to impose tariffs, and he intervened earlier this month in a plan to fund the federal government, calling for a bipartisan plan to be rejected and sending Republicans back to the negotiating table. Trump has also reversed his position on the popular app, having tried to ban it during his first term in office over national security concerns. He joined the app during his 2024 presidential campaign and his team used it to connect with younger voters, especially male voters, by pushing content that was often macho and aimed at going viral. He said earlier this year that he still believed there were national security risks with TikTok, but that he opposed banning it. This month, Trump also met with TikTok CEO Shou Chew at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. The filings Friday come ahead of oral arguments scheduled for Jan. 10 on whether the law, which requires TikTok to divest from its China-based parent company or face a ban, unlawfully restricts speech in violation of the First Amendment. The law was was signed by President Joe Biden in April after it passed Congress with broad bipartisan support. TikTok and ByteDance filed a legal challenge afterwards. Earlier this month, a panel of three federal judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously upheld the statute , leading TikTok to appeal the case to the Supreme Court. The brief from Trump said he opposes banning TikTok at this junction and “seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office.” In their brief to the Supreme Court on Friday, attorneys for TikTok and its parent company ByteDance argued the federal appeals court erred in its ruling and based its decision on “alleged ‘risks’ that China could exercise control” over TikTok’s U.S. platform by pressuring its foreign affiliates. The Biden administration has argued in court that TikTok poses a national security risk due to its connections to China. Officials say Chinese authorities can compel ByteDance to hand over information on TikTok’s U.S. patrons or use the platform to spread or suppress information. But the government “concedes that it has no evidence China has ever attempted to do so,” TikTok’s legal filing said, adding that the U.S. fears are predicated on future risks. In its filing Friday, the Biden administration said because TikTok “is integrated with ByteDance and relies on its propriety engine developed and maintained in China,” its corporate structure carries with it risk.Daily Post Nigeria Transfer: Mourinho begs Cristiano Ronaldo to join Fenerbahce Home News Politics Metro Entertainment Sport Sport Transfer: Mourinho begs Cristiano Ronaldo to join Fenerbahce Published on November 22, 2024 By John Owen Nwachukwu Former Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho has reportedly asked Portuguese legend Cristiano Ronaldo if he would like to move to Fenerbahce. Mourinho is the current boss at the Turkish top club, which he joined this season. The Portuguese tactician is keen on bolstering his squad and wants players who played under him. Both men worked together during their stint at Real Madrid between 2010 and 2013. The first ever 100-point season in LaLiga history was won by both men and a Copa del Rey thanks to Ronaldo’s 168 goals and 49 assists in 164 games under his tutelage. Reports in Turkiye, backed by SPORTbible via Sportskeeda, allege that the Portuguese tactician called the five-time Ballon d’Or winner and asked: “Are you happy there? There is talk that you want to leave. If you leave, would you like to come to Fenerbahce?” Ronaldo is in the final year of his contract with Al-Nassr. The legendary striker has already netted 10 goals and set up three from 15 appearances this season. Related Topics: Fenerbahce mourinho ronaldo Don't Miss EPL: Harry Kane names 4 best players, snubs Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi You may like EPL: Amorim reveals Mourinho’s message to him after taking Man Utd role I’m not surprised about my large social media following’ – Ronaldo AFCON 2025: Why Mourinho cannot save Super Eagles – Iloenyosi Best player ever – Ballon d’Or winner, Rodri picks between Messi, Ronaldo ‘He was better than Messi, Ronaldo’ – Oliver Kahn names greatest player of all time UNL: You must stop Ronaldo – Shaka Hislop tells Roberto Martinez Advertise About Us Contact Us Privacy-Policy Terms Copyright © Daily Post Media LtdNone

French President Macron names centrist ally François Bayrou as next prime minister

Two senior members of the federal cabinet were in Florida Friday pushing Canada’s new border plan with Donald Trump’s transition team, a day after Trudeau himself appeared to finally push back at the president-elect over his social media posts about turning Canada into the 51st state. Both Trudeau and former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney, who Trudeau has been courting to become Canada’s next finance minister, shared posts on X Thursday, a day after Trump’s latest jab at Canada in his Christmas Day message. It isn’t clear if Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who has repeatedly insisted Trump’s 51st state references are a joke, will raise the issue with Trump’s team when he and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly meet with them in Palm Beach. The two are there to discuss Canada’s new $1.3 billion border plan with just under four weeks left before Trump is sworn in again as president. He has threatened to impose a new 25 per cent import tariff on Canada and Mexico the same day over concerns about a trade imbalance, as well as illegal drugs and migration issues at the borders. The broad strokes of Canada’s plan were made public Dec. 17, including a new aerial intelligence task force to provide round-the-clock surveillance of the border, and improved efforts using technology and canine teams to seek out drugs in shipments leaving Canada LeBlanc’s spokesman, Jean-Sébastien Comeau, said the ministers will also emphasize the negative impacts of Trump’s threatened tariffs on both Canada and the U.S. Comeau said the ministers will build on the discussions that took place last month when Trudeau and LeBlanc met Trump at Mar-a-Lago just days after Trump first made his tariff threat. It was at that dinner on Nov. 29 when Trump first raised the notion of Canada becoming the 51st state, a comment LeBlanc has repeatedly since insisted was just a joke. But Trump has continued the quip repeatedly in various social media posts, including in his Christmas Day message when he said Canadians would pay lower taxes and have better military protection if they became Americans. He has taken to calling Trudeau “governor” instead of prime minister. Trudeau had not directly responded to any of the jabs, but on Thursday posted a link to a six-minute long video on YouTube from 2010 in which American journalist Tom Brokaw “explains Canada to Americans.” The video, which originally aired during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, explains similarities between the two countries, including their founding based on immigration, their trading relationship and the actions of the Canadian Army in World War 2 and other modern conflicts. “In the long history of sovereign neighbours there has never been a relationship as close, productive and peaceful as the U.S. and Canada,” Brokaw says in the video. Trudeau did not expand about why he posted a link to the video, posting it only with the words “some information about Canada for Americans.” Carney, who is at the centre of some of Trudeau’s recent domestic political troubles, also called out Trump’s antics on X Thursday, calling it “casual disrespect” and “carrying the ‘joke’ too far.” “Time to call it out, stand up for Canada, and build a true North American partnership,” said Carney, who Trudeau was courting to join his cabinet before Chrystia Freeland resigned as finance minister last week. Freeland’s sudden departure, three days after Trudeau informed her he would be firing her as finance minister in favour of Carney, left Trudeau’s leadership even more bruised than it already was. Despite the expectation Carney would assume the role, he did not and has not made any statements about it. LeBlanc was sworn in as finance minister instead the same day Freeland quit. More than two dozen Liberal MPs have publicly called on Trudeau to resign as leader, and Trudeau is said to be taking the holidays to think about his next steps. He is currently vacationing in British Columbia. Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press

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