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PayRetailers , a payments processor serving Latin America and Africa, acquired business payments FinTech Transfeera . The deal was approved by the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) and the central bank in Transfeera’s home country of Brazil (BCB), the companies announced in a Thursday (Dec. 19) news release provided to PYMNTS. “The transaction is part of PayRetailers’ strategy to expand its presence in Brazil, following the acquisition of a payment institution license from the BCB in April,” the release said. “The acquisition will enable PayRetailers to gain direct access to Pix, a popular payment system in Brazil which lets users instantly transfer money in Brazilian real, strengthening its regulatory and risk management structure in Brazil and expanding its opportunities in open banking.” Transfeera, founded in 2017, offers platform and technology solutions for payment processing and bank data validation, and brings with it more than 500 new clients, helping PayRetailers with its goal of increasing its services to Brazilian companies next year, per the release. “This acquisition provides us with access to a wide range of payment methods across Latin America and Africa through a single API in over 20 countries and 250 payment methods,” Transfeera co-founder and CEO Fernando Nunes said in the release. “This positions us even more strongly to enhance our competitive advantages in the market. Together, we aim to accelerate our journey of technological innovation, offering innovative, secure and efficient solutions to meet market demands.” PYMNTS examined Brazil’s digital payments scene this week through the lens of its Pix instant payment system, used by 77% of the country’s residents. The use of Pix is expanding. For example, cross-border payment platform dLocal became a certified payment service provider in Brazil last month and can now facilitate Pix payments directly within the open finance ecosystem, without redirecting users to bank apps. The certification allows dLocal to deliver streamlined checkout by doing away with unnecessary steps when Pix payments are used, which can improve merchant conversion rates. Also last month, Peru’s B89 joined forces with PagBrasil , which develops cross-border solutions for the Pix payment system.The Buffalo Bills offense has been humming like a finely tuned machine over the last five weeks, scoring at least 30 points in each game during that stretch. With offensive coordinator Joe Brady's "everybody eats" mentality powering the Bills to having the third-highest scoring unit in football (29.1 p/g), there are weapons everywhere you look. One weapon that has been getting more work of late thanks to the injury to Dalton Kincaid is fellow tight end Dawson Knox. The Pro Bowler has put together a good fortnight of production in Kincaid's absence, and Brady knows how big it is to have Knox step up in the way he has. “It's huge, Dawson Knox is a Pro Bowl player, and unfortunately, we got a lot of people, it's hard to get the ball spread around to everybody,” Brady said . “He's the most unselfish player on our football team, and when his opportunities comes, he's making the most of it. He's doing an incredible job in the run game, he brings so much value to us and obviously, what happened with Dalton [Kincaid], but just seeing him go in there and not blink, it's always good to see Dawson rolling.” Denny Medley-Imagn Images Prior to Kincaid's injury, Knox had just one game of over 23 yards, and that was against the Seattle Seahawks (50 receiving yards). Related: Bills Captain Earns AFC Honor After Dominating Chiefs But stepping in for Kincaid over the last two games, Knox has posted back-to-back games of 40 receiving yards, with the Pro Bowler picking up the slack for the offense. The team's mentality of not fussing about who gets the targets and how many means they only care about wins. This has pushed the Bills to a 9-2 record and put them in a good position to strike as the AFC's No. 1 seed. And Knox is doing his part for the cause. Related: Bills Player's Wife Takes 3-Word Shot at Taylor Swift

Threat to artificially propped up economy will persist: Imran PTI founder says, “2025 is year of real freedom, God willing, 2024 was difficult year for Pakistan" Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan. — Facebook@Imrankhanofficial/File ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder chairman Imran Khan Thursday said though the government stabilised the economy, threat to artificially stabilised economy would persist. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1700472799616-0'); }); In a conversation with reporters at Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi, when asked if he admits that the government has stabilised the economy, the former prime minister replied that the economy stabilised and avoided bankruptcy, but there was no development. He said the threat of default would stay there if the economy is stabilised through artificial means. Imran posted a message on the social networking website ‘X’ and said: “2025 is the year of real freedom, God willing, 2024 was a difficult year for Pakistan, obviously freedom is difficult to achieve!” He claimed that has received a message of deal with him and the message was that “we will give your party political space but you will be placed under house arrest and shifted to Bani Gala”. The PTI founder chairman said that he had replied to the offer that first release all the remaining political prisoners. “I will remain in jail but will not accept any deal, I will not go to house arrest or any jail in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” he said. Imran said that he had asked his nation that they did not have to panic, as “your captain is steadfast, I will tell my overseas Pakistanis to join the campaign to boycott remittances”. He contended that right now, only ‘committee, committee’ is being played regarding PTI demands; however, if the negotiations yield positive results, the campaign to boycott remittances would be stopped, adding that it was a protest for the restoration of ‘true’ freedom and democracy. He emphasised that if there was rule of law, investment would come to the country and the economy would recover, but no attention was paid to it, capitalists were withdrawing their capital and factories were closing down. Reacting to the sentences handed down by military courts, he said that arbitrary trials were conducted in the military court regarding May 9, saying if trials were conducted in an open court, the video footage of May 9 would have had to be produced. He said that the video record of the attack on him in the Judicial Complex, Islamabad on March 18, 2023, was deliberately hidden. He insisted that a transparent trial was a fundamental constitutional right of citizens. The PTI supremo believed that conducting cases in military courts had deprived citizens of their fundamental rights and Pakistan had been severely reprimanded internationally. He suggested a review of policies, adding that Afghanistan was bombed twice. Earlier, it was claimed that forcibly sending back refugees would reduce terrorism, but that method increased hatred, which was not good for regional peace and order. Imran claimed that when Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari became the foreign minister, he did not visit Afghanistan even once, while it should have been a priority. The former prime minister said that he had also told former army chief General Bajwa that after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the situation was not such that the then ISI chief General (retd) Faiz should be replaced immediately, but he was making all the decisions for his own expansion plan instead of Pakistan, which harmed Pakistan and increased terrorism. Meanwhile, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and the PTI negotiation committee met separately with Imran in the jail. Opposition Leader Omar Ayub, NA former Speaker Asad Qaiser, Salman Akram Raja, Senator Allama Raja Nasir Abbas and Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza, who were part of the PTI negotiation committee, met the PTI founder. After the meeting, talking to the media, Hamid Raza said that they want to bring the talks to a logical conclusion by January 31. He said that there was a clear position on November 26 that “shots were fired and that 13 of our workers were martyred on that day; the workers were tortured; and those who ordered the shooting are responsible for the May 9 incident”. He revealed that the party founder said that for the survival of Pakistan, he was ready to forgive all the ill-treatment done to him and that he was ready to forgive everyone for the sake of Pakistan. Hamid Raza said that they have only two demands, as, while the other side is accusing us of the May 9 issue, a judicial commission consisting of the three most senior judges of the Supreme Court should be formed, an investigation be conducted to find out who were the people who were inciting the people on May 9. “Our demand is that the PTI founder should be released, we do not want the founder’s release as a result of any deal, as he wants the courts to decide all the cases against him,” he maintained. He said that the party founder had a special conversation with Gandapur on the issue of Kurram. Hamid Raza emphasised PTI founder Imran’s unwavering stance on resolving key issues through dialogue rather than conflict. He reiterated Imran’s condemnation of external aggression, particularly regarding Afghanistan, and stressed the importance of negotiations to address disputes. “Imran Khan believes Afghanistan-related matters must be resolved through dialogue, not violence. He remains firmly against engaging in external wars,” said Hamid Raza. Meanwhile, PTI spokesperson Shaikh Waqas Akram denied the party founder Imran Khan’s statement about economy and said in fact he had termed the related government steps as cosmetic ones and an artificial bubble. In a video message, shared with the media, he claimed that the party leader had been misquoted, who said that the government had ‘shut down’ the entire economy in order to bring down inflation and interest rate. He said the party founder believed the economy was on the verge of collapse and could fall any time, as economic stability could come by job creation and investment, whereas the rule of law and political stability were its pre-requisites, which were not there to be seen. Waqas emphasised that his party leader had fixed January 31 for the things to reach to their logical conclusion this way or that way. “To show seriousness towards talks, the government should have put on hold its ministers’ statements and news conferences and military trials,” the party information secretary contended. Regarding latest sentences given by the military courts to the persons, related to May 9, he said that their party position was the same, which was expressed when such reports surfaced a few days back. “Imran Khan had rejected civilians’ trials in military courts, as this is not a proper thing,” he pointed out. About the civil disobedience campaign, he said that no one had neither withdrawn the call, nor anyone could do so, as the call was given by the party founder and only he could withdraw it. The PTI spokesperson said that the call given to the overseas Pakistanis to halt remittances to the country could be withdrawn by Imran, if he sees positive progress in talks between the opposition and the government allies committees’ meetings.

Skyhawks Sports Announces 2024 Coach of the Year Winner and FinalistsAthletics at Northern Arizona University experienced many successes and broken records throughout the year. For the first time since 2017, the football team had a winning record at home and even played in the first round of the FCS playoffs. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. The Northern Arizona women's cross country team huddles around coach Mike Smith during the Big Sky Conference championship meet on Oct. 27, 2023, in Missoula, Montana. Northern Arizona distance runner Nico Young stands on the podium after his second-place finish in the 5,000-meter event at the NCAA championship meet at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. Young competed in the 2024 Paris Games. Northern Arizona women's basketball coach Loree Payne talks to players, from left, Saniyah Neverson (33), Olivia Moran (22) and Taylor Feldman (5) before they sub into a game against Weber State on March 2, 2024, at the Walkup Skydome.