haha777 code ST. THOMAS, Virgin Islands (AP) — Javohn Garcia scored 16 points as McNeese beat Illinois State 76-68 on Friday. Garcia also contributed seven rebounds for the Cowboys (3-2). Brandon Murray shot 4 of 10 from the field and 5 for 7 from the line to add 13 points. Sincere Parker shot 4 for 8 (2 for 5 from 3-point range) and 3 of 4 from the free-throw line to finish with 13 points. Ty Pence led the way for the Redbirds (3-2) with 14 points and six rebounds. Malachi Poindexter added 13 points for Illinois State. Logan Wolf had 11 points. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .Community News: Dec. 12

ByteDance, the Chinese conglomerate that owns TikTok, approached an appeals court Monday to temporarily halt a ruling that mandates the company either sell TikTok or face a ban in the United States by Jan. 19. ByteDance sought an injunction from the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., seeking to preserve the app’s operational status while awaiting a potential review from the U.S. Supreme Court, according to CNN. The legal team representing ByteDance said that the chances of the Supreme Court reversing the decision are strong enough to justify a temporary reprieve and this pause would provide time for further legal arguments and considerations. In contrast, the U.S. Justice Department urged the appeals court to quickly reject TikTok’s plea to allow the Supreme Court ample time to review the matter, CNN reported. TikTok requested that the appeals court make a decision by Dec. 16. The appeal follows a federal court decision on Friday mandating that ByteDance either divest its U.S. operations or face a ban. The unanimous decision by the three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dismissed First Amendment concerns and categorized TikTok as a national security threat due to potential manipulation by the Chinese government. . @cathymcmorris : “Your platform [TikTok] should be banned. I expect today, you’ll say anything to avoid this outcome.” pic.twitter.com/uWc7Z1YS4z — Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 23, 2023 TikTok, used by more than 170 million Americans each month, faces imminent disruption of its services both domestically and internationally if the court’s ruling goes into effect, CNN reported. The platform warned that hundreds of American service providers essential for the app’s maintenance and updates would be unable to continue their support from Jan. 19 onwards. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Democrat Senator’s Campaign Manager Touts TikTok Strategy After Her Boss Voted To Ban It) The company, which faces accusations of surveilling Americans’ political preferences and illegally harvesting children’s data , has legally contested the divest-or-ban law, while Chinese embassy officials have actively opposed the legislation in Washington. TikTok has repeatedly refuted allegations of connections with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), though a former senior ByteDance employee claimed CCP members in the company can access American user data through “superuser” capabilities and “backdoor channels.” A study by Network Contagion Research Institute and Rutgers University suggests the app promotes CCP-favorable content. The fate of TikTok hinges on multiple high-level decisions as it initially depended on whether President Joe Biden will extend the Jan. 19 deadline by 90 days, which then passes the matter to President-elect Donald Trump, who resumes office on Jan. 20, CNN said. During his presidential campaign, Trump promised to block the ban, according to The Associated Press. Trump, who previously attempted to prohibit the social media platform during his earlier tenure in the White House, consistently vowed to block any ban on the short-form video app. All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org .

Over 6.7M worshippers prayed at Prophet’s Mosque in one weekReports claiming man travelled 250 km hiding on train's wheel axle 'fake' Railways

Tweet Facebook Mail Detectives are investigating after an 11-year-old boy was approached by an unknown man driving a white van while walking home from school in Melbourne's south-east last week. Police believe the boy was walking along Halley Street in Blackburn when a white van pulled onto the wrong side of the road and rolled down his window about 3.45pm on November 18. The man told the boy his mum had asked him to give him a lift home, according to police. READ MORE: 'Stop violence before it starts': How a simple question can help change men's attitudes towards women Police have released a computer-generated image of a man they believe may assist with their enquiries. (Victoria Police) Police are searching for a van they believe was involved in the incident. (Victoria Police) The boy refused and the van drove away. He was not physically injured and was able to walk home and notify his mum of the incident which was reported to police. Investigators have released a computer-generated image of a man they believe may assist with their enquiries. DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP : Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play .

Standard BioTools (NASDAQ:LAB) Trading Down 6.3% – Should You Sell?Oregon's Dillon Gabriel, Colorado's Travis Hunter, Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty and Miami's Cam Ward were announced as the Heisman Trophy finalists on Monday night. The Heisman has been given to the nation’s most outstanding college football player since 1935. This year’s winner will be announced Saturday in New York. The top four top vote-getters determined by more than 900 voters — the panel includes members of the media and former Heisman winners — are selected as finalists. A look at each of the finalist’s road to Manhattan. Gabriel, who transferred from Oklahoma in the offseason, led unbeaten and top-ranked Oregon to the Big Ten championship in its first year in the league. Gabriel averages 274 yards passing per game and has thrown for 28 touchdowns with six interceptions. His 73.2% completion rate is second in the nation. Hunter, a two-way star, was named All-Big 12 first-team receiver and earned honorable mention for offensive player of the year. He leads the Big 12 with 92 receptions and 14 receiving touchdowns and is second with 1,152 yards. His 21 receiving plays of 20-plus yards lead the nation. He also is Big 12 defensive player of the year and a unanimous first-team defensive back after recording 31 tackles, tying for the Big 12 lead with 11 pass breakups and tying for second with four interceptions. The junior running back has had one of the most productive seasons in college football history. His 2,497 yards rushing are the fourth-highest single-season total in the Football Bowl Subdivision, and his 192.1 yards per game lead the nation and are 58 more than the next highest average. He's the first FBS player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season since 2019. The Miami quarterback was named Associated Press offensive player of the year and newcomer of the year in the Atlantic Coast Conference on Monday after averaging 343.6 yards passing per game. He leads the nation with 36 touchdown passes and has been intercepted just seven times. 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-football

Some tech industry leaders are pushing the incoming Trump administration to increase visas for highly skilled workers from other nations. Related Articles National Politics | Court rules Georgia lawmakers can subpoena Fani Willis for information related to her Trump case National Politics | New 2025 laws hit hot topics from AI in movies to rapid-fire guns National Politics | Donald Trump looms large over Beacon Hill with new legislative session set to start National Politics | Trump has pressed for voting changes. GOP majorities in Congress will try to make that happen National Politics | Exhausted by political news? TV ratings and new poll say you’re not alone The heart of the argument is, for America to remain competitive, the country needs to expand the number of skilled visas it gives out. The previous Trump administration did not increase the skilled visa program, instead clamping down on visas for students and educated workers, increasing denial rates. Not everyone in corporate America thinks the skilled worker program is great. Former workers at IT company Cognizant recently won a federal class-action lawsuit that said the company favored Indian employees over Americans from 2013 to 2022. A Bloomberg investigation found Cognizant, and other similar outsourcing companies, mainly used its skilled work visas for lower-level positions. Workers alleged Cognizant preferred Indian workers because they could be paid less and were more willing to accept inconvenient or less-favorable assignments. Question: Should the U.S. increase immigration levels for highly skilled workers? Caroline Freund, UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy YES: Innovation is our superpower and it relies on people. Sourcing talent from 8 billion people in the world instead of 330 million here makes sense. Nearly half our Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children. Growing them also relies on expanding our skilled workforce. The cap on skilled-worker visas has hardly changed since the computer age started. With AI on the horizon, attracting and building talent is more important than ever. Kelly Cunningham, San Diego Institute for Economic Research YES: After years of openly allowing millions of undocumented entrants into the country, why is there controversy over legally increasing somewhat the number having desirable skills? Undocumented immigration significantly impacts lower skill level jobs and wages competing with domestic workers at every skill level. Why should special cases be made against those having higher skills? Could they just not walk across the border anyway, why make it more inconvenient to those with desirable skills? James Hamilton, UC San Diego YES: Knowledge and technology are key drivers of the U.S. economy. Students come from all over the world to learn at U.S. universities, and their spending contributed $50 billion to U.S. exports last year. Technological advantage is what keeps us ahead of the rest of the world. Highly skilled immigrants contribute much more in taxes than they receive in public benefits. The skills immigrants bring to America can make us all better off. Norm Miller, University of San Diego YES: According to Forbes, the majority of billion-dollar startups were founded by foreigners. I’ve interviewed dozens of data analysts and programmers from Berkeley, UCSD, USD and a few other schools and 75% of them are foreign. There simply are not enough American graduates to fill the AI and data mining related jobs now exploding in the U.S. If we wish to remain a competitive economy, we need highly skilled and bright immigrants to come here and stay. David Ely, San Diego State University YES: Being able to employ highly skilled workers from a larger pool of candidates would strengthen the competitiveness of U.S. companies by increasing their capacity to perform research and innovate. This would boost the country’s economic output. Skilled workers from other nations that cannot remain in the U.S. will find jobs working for foreign rivals. The demand for H-1B visas far exceeds the current cap of 85,000, demonstrating a need to modify this program. Phil Blair, Manpower YES: Every country needs skilled workers, at all levels, to grow its economy. We should take advantage of the opportunity these workers provide our employers who need these skills. It should be blended into our immigration policies allowing for both short and long term visas. Gary London, London Moeder Advisors YES: San Diego is a premiere example of how highly skilled workers from around the globe enrich a community and its regional economy. Of course Visa levels need to be increased. But let’s go further. Tie visas and immigration with a provision that those who are admitted and educated at a U.S. university be incentivized, or even required, to be employed in the U.S. in exchange for their admittance. Bob Rauch, R.A. Rauch & Associates NO: While attracting high-skilled immigrants can fill critical gaps in sectors like technology, health care and advanced manufacturing, increasing high-skilled immigration could displace American workers and drive down wages in certain industries. There are already many qualified American workers available for some of these jobs. We should balance the need for specialized skills with the impact on the domestic workforce. I believe we can begin to increase the number of visas after a careful review of abuse. Austin Neudecker, Weave Growth YES: We should expand skilled visas to drive innovation and economic growth. Individuals who perform high-skilled work in labor-restricted industries or graduate from respected colleges with relevant degrees should be prioritized for naturalization. We depend on immigration for GDP growth, tax revenue, research, and so much more. Despite the abhorrent rhetoric and curtailing of visas in the first term, I hope the incoming administration can be persuaded to enact positive changes to a clearly flawed system. Chris Van Gorder, Scripps Health YES: But it should be based upon need, not politics. There are several industries that have or could have skilled workforce shortages, especially if the next administration tightens immigration as promised and expected. Over the years, there have been nursing shortages that have been met partially by trained and skilled nurses from other countries. The physician shortage is expected to get worse in the years to come. So, this visa program may very well be needed. Jamie Moraga, Franklin Revere NO: While skilled immigration could boost our economy and competitiveness, the U.S. should prioritize developing our domestic workforce. Hiring foreign nationals in sensitive industries or government-related work, especially in advanced technology or defense, raises security concerns. A balanced approach could involve targeted increases in non-sensitive high-demand fields coupled with investment in domestic STEM education and training programs. This could address immediate needs while strengthening the long-term STEM capabilities of the American workforce. Not participating this week: Alan Gin, University of San DiegoHaney Hong, San Diego County Taxpayers AssociationRay Major, economist Have an idea for an Econometer question? Email me at phillip.molnar@sduniontribune.com . Follow me on Threads: @phillip020A case for the non-essential

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Phillips-based school district agrees on how to spend remaining nutrition funds

Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen returns to a tournament after a dispute over jeans is resolvedNEW DELHI: Venture capital (VC) activity in India has witnessed significant growth from January to November 2024, with investments reaching $16.77 billion across 888 deals, according to the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF). Venture capital activity in India from January to November 2024 has surged to US$ 16.77 billion across 888 deals, reflecting a robust 14.1 per cent increase in value and a 21.8 per cent rise in deal count compared to the same period in 2023, according to figures gathered by the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF). The technology sector emerged as the frontrunner, attracting $6.50 billion, a remarkable 52.5 per cent increase year-over-year. Consumer discretionary investments followed with $2.30 billion, up 32.2 per cent, while the financial sector saw a slight decline to $2.20 billion, the IBEF report said. Noteworthy deals included KiranaKart Technologies (Zepto) at $1.3 billion and Poolside AI SAS at $500 million. Industry leaders express optimism about continued momentum into 2025, with expectations for more initial public offerings (IPOs) and increased activity in later-stage funding rounds as funds that have been cautious begin to deploy capital. Experts like Bhaskar Majumdar and Sajith Pai foresee a positive shift in the Indian startup ecosystem, anticipating "great easing" in 2025. Despite concerns about the economy's reliance on the India1 engine, which comprises around 30 million households contributing significantly to GDP, optimism remains high due to ongoing capital flows supported by savings. The energy transition presents new opportunities in electric mobility and green hydrogen sectors. At the same time, traditional areas like fintech and e-commerce continue to attract investment. Additionally, there is a growing focus on intellectual property (IP) -led businesses, particularly deep tech, with significant investments in robotics, drones, and semiconductor technologies. As the landscape evolves, the influence of the US market under the new administration could shape global capital flows, presenting both challenges and opportunities for Indian startups, the IBEF report added.

New 2025 laws hit hot topics from AI in movies to rapid-fire guns

What is the best internet provider in New Braunfels? CNET recommends AT&T Fiber as the top internet provider in New Braunfels, Texas. Offering a variety of plans, high speeds and straightforward pricing, AT&T Fiber delivers excellent value for home internet—especially with symmetrical download and upload speeds. If it's not available in your area, Spectrum and T-Mobile Home Internet are solid alternatives that might better fit your needs. For budget-conscious users, Spectrum's Internet 100 plan provides 100Mbps for $30 per month. Verizon 5G Home Internet is another cost-effective option, with eligible mobile customers paying just $35 per month instead of the usual $50. For those seeking ultra-fast speeds, AT&T's multigigabit plans go up to 5,000Mbps, with prices starting at $55 per month. Best internet in New Braunfels, Texas, in 2024 New Braunfels internet providers compared Provider Internet technology Monthly price range Speed range Monthly equipment costs Data cap Contract CNET review score AT&T Home Internet Read full review DSL hybrid $60 10-100Mbps None 1.5TB None 7.4 AT&T Fiber Read full review Fiber $55-$245 300-5,000Mbps None None None 7.4 Spectrum Read full review Cable $30-$70 300-1,000Mbps Free modem; $10 router (optional) None None 7.2 T-Mobile Home Internet Read full review Fixed wireless $50-$70 ($35 for eligible Go5G Plus and Magenta Max mobile customers) 87-415Mbps None None None 7.4 Valley Communications Association Fixed wireless/fiber $55-$100 100-2,000Mbps (varies by location) $9 router and modem None None N/A Verizon 5G Home Internet Read full review Fixed wireless $60-$80 ($35-$45 with qualifying Verizon 5G mobile plans) 50-1,000Mbps None None None 7.2 Show more (1 item) Shop providers at my address Source: CNET analysis of provider data. What's the cheapest internet plan in New Braunfels? Provider Starting monthly price Max download speed Monthly equipment fee Spectrum Internet Read full review $30 100Mbps $10 (optional)... Hallie Seltzer

Lara Adejoro The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Pate, has announced that no fewer than 70 new healthcare manufacturing companies with robust projects are set to execute 22 large-scale initiatives in Nigeria. Pate disclosed this in a message posted on his X handle on Friday. He also revealed that more than 10 value chain verticals have been established within the country, highlighting that these milestones align with President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to transforming the health sector from a consumption-driven model to one that creates jobs and enhances economic value. In October 2023, President Tinubu launched the Presidential Initiative to Unlock the Healthcare Value Chain and appointed Dr Abdu Mukhtar as the National Coordinator. The initiative aims to increase the local manufacturing of pharmaceutical products to at least 70 per cent of national consumption by 2030 and expand the workforce in the life sciences manufacturing sub-sector to at least 50,000 full-time employees from the current estimated 20,000, among other objectives. Since the initiative’s establishment, Pate noted that the President has signed an executive order to stimulate domestic production of pharmaceuticals, test kits, medical textiles, and consumables. “While it is important to acknowledge that some initial implementation challenges occurred, these have now been collaboratively resolved with all key stakeholders. I am pleased to report that this policy is now positioned to achieve its intended objectives,” Pate stated. He highlighted substantial progress, including securing investment commitments. “To date, we have a line of sight to significant investments, including financing from the European Investment Bank and a $1 billion Memorandum of Understanding with Afreximbank to support both incoming and domestic manufacturers in the health and life sciences sectors.” Pate added that the Presidential Initiative has inspired five development finance institutions to collaborate on dedicated financing platforms to unlock Nigeria’s healthcare value chain. He also noted that over 70 healthcare manufacturing companies with solid business cases are in active discussions to execute 22 large-scale projects. “More than 10 value chain verticals have been established in-country, including the manufacturing of rapid diagnostic test kits. This effort is exemplified by our MoU with South Africa-based Abbott Diagnostics, which is already producing in Lagos,” he said. Pate confirmed that Abbott has agreed to establish a plant in Nigeria to manufacture rapid test kits for malaria and other diseases. Additionally, he highlighted investments in medical oxygen through a partnership with the Global Gases Group, which is establishing a cryogenic air separation plant in Nigeria. He also referenced a recent agreement with Siemens Healthineers to establish an ultrasound assembly plant in the country. Copyright PUNCH All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH. Contact: health_wise@punchng. com Tags Health Minister Healthcare firms Professor Muhammad Ali PateMueller water products VP Smith sells $653,306 in stock

Black Irish by Mariah Carey: The Ultimate Holiday Gift for Every CelebrationGang members found guilty of first-degree murder in Kern CountyMueller water products VP Smith sells $653,306 in stock