Stock Market Today: Markets Reflect Global UncertaintyNoneSheila Nix, Vice President Kamala Harris’ chief of staff, said Thursday evening that Harris ran a “pretty flawless campaign” during a summit of campaign managers, reporters and Harvard University staff. “I think the vice president was the best position of all the possible people on our side. She had been sitting vice president for 3 1/2 years and was also part of the campaign and was ready to jump in,” Nix said during a dinner reception for the Campaign Manager Conference at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “We obviously had a lot of things to do right away,” Nix continued. “We had to get the delegates so that she could be the nominee. We had to flip the convention to her instead of President Biden. We had to merge teams and we had a 107-day campaign in front of us and we had to move quickly. “I would posit she ran a pretty flawless campaign, and she did all the steps that [were] required to be successful,” she added. “And I think -- obviously, we did not win, but I do think we hit all the marks.” MORE: Video Harris ran a ‘strong campaign’ but ‘ran out of time’: Gov.-elect Josh Stein Senior staffers from several other campaigns, such as those of Asa Hutchinson, Dean Phillips, Jill Stein, Nikki Haley, Chris Christie and President-elect Donald Trump, also offered brief reflections during the dinner. The collective broadly addressed two main themes: reasoning to jump into the race and what may have been a strategic misstep. Attack or not to attack? Several of the campaigns mused on whether they made the right decision on holding back from going on offense against Trump during the primaries -- leaving Christie's campaign and, to a lesser extent, Hutchinson’s on an island of their own. “Anybody here who ever wants to challenge the race at any level for any office, you don't ever beat an incumbent without attacking the incumbent,” said Mike DuHaime, senior adviser to Christie. “You have to say the incumbent has not been doing a good job or I would be better than the incumbent. You can't say that the incumbent is really, really, really, really, really great, but I'm also really, really, really, really great.” The Christie campaign became frustrated when it realized the other primary candidates weren’t following Christie’s lead, DuHaime added. “It becomes frustrating, obviously. And you start to talk privately about what were, what are other people's actual motivations,” DuHaime said. While Christie took on Trump directly, aggressively and consistently, the same could not be said for Hutchinson. “Unfortunately, it got to the point where in order for him just to continue to fight, to have his voice and his name and his face seen, he had to go on the offensive,” said Rob Burgess, campaign manager for Hutchinson. “Clearly, he didn't do it as aggressively as Gov. Christie, but he did it in his own Arkansas way.” MORE: Why Republicans start out as favorites in the 2026 Senate elections Even though Haley became the last candidate standing against Trump during the primary, the former South Carolina governor did not start going after Trump as aggressively as other competitors until she became the sole alternative. Along with Haley, other candidates such as South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, North Dakota Sen. Doug Burgum and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also avoided heavily attacking Trump out of fear that it would turn off those who still liked the former president and supported his agenda but had doubts he could win. “I think, like a lot of people in here, we determined that 40% of the electorate was always going to be for President Trump, 40% were Trump curious and then 20% of the possibly primary were not going to be for President Trump,” said Mike Zolnierowicz, campaign manager for Burgum. Nix, Harris’ campaign manager, also attributed Trump’s decision not to participate in any debate following the ABC News presidential debate on Sept. 10 as detrimental to the Harris campaign’s strategy of presenting the choice between Trump and Harris clearly to voters several times. “I think that was hard for us to then get the attention that we would have liked to,” Nix said. MORE: Watch the full ABC News presidential debate One-state vs. multiple-state strategy During the dinner, one common theme discussed among several of the campaign managers was the decision to have either a one-state strategy or a multistate strategy. Betsy Ankney, Haley’s campaign manager, stressed that a Republican candidate couldn’t be successful if he or she only zeroed in on one state. “One of the things that we saw earlier was that, you know, Iowa [and] New Hampshire were eight days apart,” Ankney said. “Every other candidate other than Donald Trump and Nikki Haley had a one-state strategy. Chris Christie was playing in New Hampshire. DeSantis, Iowa. There was no way that you could be successful in this campaign without having a strong showing in the world stage and being able to go to distance.” Ankeny added that campaigns mismanaging their influxes of cash -- their “embarrassment of riches” -- was another major misstep of the election. “I think that a potential theme of this entire election cycle is an embarrassment of riches,” she said. “You saw that with the DeSantis campaign in the primary. You saw that with the Harris campaign in general. A lot of times, when candidates have more money than they know what to do with, they make bad decisions, and we were mean and lean and scrappy.” MORE: Many Haley voters won't back Trump. They weren't going to anyway. Campaign managers for Scott, Christie and Hutchinson discussed focusing and investing in one of the early primary states rather than all of them due to limited resources, lack of money and what many saw campaigns as their best chance to be successful. Although the campaign manager for DeSantis was not in attendance, his presidential campaign also focused heavily on one state: Iowa. Hutchinson’s campaign manager, Burgess, was blunt during Thursday night’s conversation that he and the former Arkansas governor disagreed on whether to focus on one state or multiple states, leading Burgess to leave the campaign. “He wanted to run a five-state campaign, and I didn't know how I was going to pay for it,” Burgess said. “I wasn't comfortable with him taking a mortgage out of his house, and I didn't want to be responsible for the campaign having debt.”How Luke Littler mania turned darts into UK’s hottest ticket... where huge stars queue up to cheer on a car salesman

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Watch Merab Dvalishvili and Umar Nurmagomedov get into heated backstage altercation before UFC 311 press conferenceCAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Donald Trump had a very clear message for his team: don’t spike the football after Joe Biden had a disastrous debate showing in June. Things were going well for Trump’s attempted return to political office, Biden was and as off his game, and the electorate was just starting to tune in. “Don’t go too hard on him. We want him around,” Trump told his staff, who shelved an ad for fear it would force Biden off the ballot, according to Trump’s co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita. Meanwhile, once Biden bowed to the pressure from fellow Democrats to step aside and clear the way for Kamala Harris to take the nomination in August, he had a blunt conversation with his Vice President. The chair of both Biden’s and Harris’ campaigns, Jen O’Malley Dillon, said Biden gave Harris permission to do what she needed to do to build distance with the White House. The risk of Trump’s return to power was greater than Biden’s badly bruised ego. Those were just two of the many behind-the-scenes stories shared Friday at a conference at Harvard’s Institute of Politics featuring the top hands of the major 2024 presidential campaigns. Typically, the two-day conference is coda to the election cycle. But this was a precedent-breaking campaign for a ton of reasons: two failed assassination , a nominee , China and Iran campaign emails, and a type of political last seen in 1885. The day was the first pass at a comprehensive oral history of the campaign. The election’s architects are still struggling to understand the outcome and extraordinary circumstances. And the Harvard conversation revealed just how personally many of these top minds in politics made the contest. “We run shit like we ought to run it,” O’Malley Dillon said under persistent second-guessing of how Biden’s and then Harris’ campaigns were led. Here are 11 revelations that help tell the real story of the 2024 campaign. Over and over again, Trump’s aides and adversaries alike kept returning to the fact that a huge chunk of the GOP universe started with an immovable and immutable affinity for Trump. Efforts to tear him down never really found footing, and it was nearly impossible for other candidates to gain traction during the primaries. Those who tried, like former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, ended up failing. Christie’s argument was pretty straightforward: Trump was a criminal unworthy of returning to power. Haley’s message was more nuanced, arguing Trump logged a net positive record but it was time to move past his era. Neither really prevailed. LaCivita further discounted any importance of Christie in the mix. “Chris Christie didn’t even enter into the discussion,” LaCivita said. “Chris Christie was never anything. Spare me the bullsh-t. ... He took up space, which he is very good at doing.” At another point, Trump political director James Blair said the efforts to take down Trump in the primary failed because they were not listening to real voters. “I’m sorry. No offense to Mike. But understand where the Republican electorate is,” Blair told Christie’s longtime strategist Mike DuHaime. For his part, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott thought his strict anti-abortion position could help him differentiate himself from Trump, especially with Evangelicals in Iowa. “He speaks their language. He’s one of them,” adviser Matt Gorman said. The campaign leadership all knew that Scott’s positions were pretty far afield from where most Americans were thinking about abortion rights, but they set their sights on performing well in Iowa first. “If we get to the general, we’ll figure it out then,” Gorman said. It was similarly ill-fated for former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s bid. “We had a candidate who was very much in the mold of 2012, 2008, 2004,” Hutchinson campaign manager Rob Burgess said. In other words, someone who was totally mismatched to the moment. And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ efforts to run as “Trump Lite” or a more-electable version of Trumpism never seemed to find a glidepath. His efforts to reposition were even less credible. “Running to the right of Trump is not possible,” Blair said. An initial begrudging respect for DeSantis quickly faded once the campaign got underway. “We never saw anyone else as a serious threat,” Blair said. “We didn’t want a one-on-one with DeSantis.” Chief Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio echoed that in his own summary of the race: “DeSantis was a real threat. No offense to anybody else, but DeSantis was a real threat.” To fix that, the Trump team worked to “delegitimize” DeSantis, as Fabrizio described it, as a weirdo “who ate with his fingers.” “The attacks that we levied against Ron worked because they were believable,” deputy campaign manager Taylor Budowich said. LaCivita even laughed at how his team trolled DeSantis, including handing out chocolates shaped like boots to suggest their rival was lifts in his shoes. By the time they were toward Iowa, it was clear that DeSantis was playing way too hard for an impossible victory there. “He was never going to win Iowa. He raised expectations for him and lowered them for Trump,” Haley campaign manager Betsy Ankney said. “DeSantis ran a terrible campaign. He started with every advantage and he sort of imploded.” Others, too, initially saw DeSantis as the one to knock down a peg. “We viewed those two as the monsters in the race. They were inevitably going to clash,” said Mike Zolnierowicz, an adviser to North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, said of DeSantis and Trump. Budowich, who earlier in his career worked to help DeSantis’ policy team come together, was unapologetic in his pluck against his former boss. “A lot of us woke up every morning thinking about how we would destroy Ron DeSantis. They were thinking about where they were going to happy hour in Tallahassee," Budowich said. The pile-on met little pushback. DeSantis’ campaign did not send a representative to the Harvard event. “It’s too bad we don’t have our other Florida friends here,” Budowich said dryly. It’s almost gospel at this point, but it remains a sacred reality that Trump doesn’t listen to anyone but himself. LaCivita said there were about 10 days when it was possible that Trump would have joined the primary debates. Network execs and star anchors were burning up Trump’s cell phone, making a self-interested play to get him onstage to boost their ratings. “Everyone in the world is calling him,” LaCivita said. But refusing to participate became a way for Trump to pick a fight with the Republican National Committee. “There was no way he was going to do it.” That was generally how most things in that campaign worked. “We didn’t over-analyze anything. In politics, people tend to over-analyze, over-think everything. Sometimes you have to accept the situation you’re in and you have to find the easiest, or most painless, way out of a problem,” LaCivita said. “You’re looking at Donald Trump. He’s Teflon.” While the quants had plenty of data about what was working and what wasn’t, there really was no meaningful substitute for the boss’ judgments. “You don’t sit down and say, ‘We have to do things this way.’ That’s a non-starter,” LaCivita said. But what they did in a very nimble way was to turn weekly jam sessions on policy—sometimes six hours at a time on camera for direct-to-viewer messages about a second-term agenda—into workshops on the hows and whys of governing and campaigning. At other junctures, they sent Trump into press conferences and interviews to get the juices flowing and get him practicing for the debates, even if they didn’t tell him what the goals were. “Donald Trump doesn’t prepare for debates like the way I’ve done it for 35 years... It’s an entirely different process. He doesn’t really do prep,” LaCivita said. The Trump campaign understood they could win if the race was based on policy and performance, but could not prevail if voters were deciding on personalities, Fabrizio said. But “you cannot control it,” Fabrizio said of Trump. LaCivita was equally resigned: “Worry about what you can control. On the campaign, I worried about what I could control. He was not one of them.” Trump’s team intentionally kept second-tier rivals in the mix as long as possible because, to their mind, a jumbled and crowded field split Trump skeptics and denied a serious one-on-one race. An errant social media post from Trump was sufficient to move the conversation of the entire primary field, and most of the Trump-free debates still started with questions about his campaign. “Every time you did something like that, it gave us another four days,” Hutchinson campaign manager Burgess said of Trump’s team mentioning the Governor in a social media post or statement. “Every time you put us in a press release, it was good.” That kept the GOP field unsettled until it was almost too late for anyone to rise. “The game was always going to be who was going to be the alternative... You have to get to the one-on-one spot,” Ankney of Haley’s team said. But with Trump’s onslaught of headline-grabbing antics, there never were real ways for that to winnow. “It blocked out everything else,” Ankney said. In hindsight, the campaigns all divided the vote in ways that only benefited Trump. “While running against Trump, they were helping Trump,” DuHaime said. Fabrizio and his allies were openly contemptuous of efforts—in the primary and then the general—to reach more voters. Instead of chasing 10 people and hoping to win one new person, they opted to go narrow and hard at their base, hoping to get two out of three contacts. By the end, they stopped looking at the broad universe of voters and instead went hard for low-propensity voters. “It was hyper-targeted on people who are not reachable by any other way,” Blair said. By contrast, Fabrizio said, the rivals adopted what amounted to a “spray and pray” approach. The Democrats, meanwhile, described a contest that consistently had their nominees trailing but within the margin of error—giving them flashes of hope until the end. “A floor and a ceiling can be the same thing,” Harris principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks said. No one disputes thatBiden had an unmitigated of a debate on June 27. He stammered through a sloppy night facing off in what would be this cycle’s lone debate against Trump. Calls for his exit came quickly and loudly. It was an evening that reinforced the quiet rumblings whether octogenarian Biden was up for another four-year term. “The President prepped. I was at debate prep. He was strong. He was ready,” O’Malley Dillon said. But, she added, “We all saw what happened at the debate. He also is old and he knew that and we knew that. He’s also Joe Biden. ... We were not Pollyannish about any of that.” Fulks was equally as blunt: “We’re not blind, of course.” Another Biden deputy campaign manager, Rob Flaherty, did nothing to hide the disappointment: “Obviously, it was not a good night.” At Trump headquarters, the strategists went to work right away to build out research packets on potential replacements for Biden. They had one on Harris, but they wanted to look more widely, including what a potential campaign against someone like former First Lady Michelle Obama or former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would look like. But they pushed pause on an ad hitting Biden for a poor showing, worried that it would have hastened Biden’s exit. They tweaked the programming for the debate in July to make sure the scripts were about the Biden-Harris administration, not just Biden. “We included her, but we didn’t lead with her,” Fabrizio said. At Biden HQ, the campaign thought they could weather the bad headlines. “In order to get out of the hole, we had to fight through it,” O’Malley Dillon said. At least until they couldn’t. Biden let his top hands know on July 21 that he’d be dropping out of the race. O’Malley Dillon said she and campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez both cried that day, and insisted there had been zero planning for that moment. “Not one ounce,” O’Malley Dillon said. She called Flaherty, who oversaw the digital aspects of the campaign including its email and social media platforms, at 1:06 p.m and told him he needed to ready the news to go live at 1:45 p.m. They then realized they had to plug Harris’ nomination into a long-standing convention plan. “We had a convention that was built for Joe Biden,” said O’Malley Dillon. (By the way, those persistent of a celebrity appearance at the convention? “F-king bullsh-t,” she said.) The shuffle was a shock to Trump’s team. “July 21st comes and it’s— —you hit a brick wall,” Fabrizio said. Trump and his allies sped up the advertising spending plan to start to define Harris before she and her allies had a chance to do it for her. “It was like immediately going into overdrive,” Fabrizio said. Because it was a Sunday, some had to postpone personal plans, like going to the beach. O’Malley Dillon had little sympathy for her rivals: “A lot of things got f–ked.” Then there were the attempts on Trump’s life, including a July 13 shooting at a rally in Butler, Pa., and a thwarted sequel near a Florida golf course on Sept. 15. They brought a huge shift in how the campaign was able to move. “From that point on, two-thirds of the time was spent on things that had nothing to do with a campaign,” LaCivita said. They had to deploy decoy motorcades for fear of more assassination attempts. The same was true for decoy airplanes. Events couldn’t be outside without more precautions, the thick bullet-proof glass framing for Trump’s podiums didn’t move easily. “It severely limited us where we could campaign,” Fabrizio said. LaCivita spoke sharply about the Secret Service’s leadership for hampering their nimbleness: top officials “dragged ass” in keeping Trump under glass, he said. With limited time, Harris wanted to bait Trump into more debates after their first and only match-up on Sept. 10. Trump’s team told him not to fall for it, despite a push from Fox News and party insiders. O’Malley Dillon said they wanted to debate so badly they’d have allowed one hosted by a Fox News anchor. Meanwhile, Trump’s team was nervous about a second debate against Harris given she landed plenty of blows in the first one. But O’Malley Dillon said she does not list a lack of a second debate as a deciding factor in the election. It could have even hurt Harris: pollster Molly Murphy said Harris could have lost ground if she had a bad night. “We were up against a caricature of being dangerously liberal,” O’Malley Dillon said. A devastating anti-transgender ad from the Trump campaign feed that image, coupled with Harris’ ties to the unpopular Biden record. Efforts to draft Republican former Rep. Liz Cheney made some difference in suburban areas in Blue Wall states. But Harris’ flub on was seen as a problem that was not going to be a one-day story. Given a softball to explain what she might have done differently than Biden, she said “not a thing that comes to mind.” “It was a big looming negative hanging over us the whole time,” Fulks said. “We didn’t lose this f—king race because of ,” O’Malley Dillon said. Trump’s camp had its own flubs in the final stretch. But his team didn’t think a racially insensitive comedian at a Madison Square Garden rally would in the end. “We knew it would blow over,” Fabrizio said. By the time Election Day arrived, O’Malley Dillon felt the Harris campaign was facing a different standard than the one enjoyed by Trump. O’Malley Dillon also said that Harris’ race and gender did not decide the race on their own, but cannot be ignored. “There is no way to look at this race without factoring that in,” she said. That doesn’t mean the Harris defeat is any less painful for her advisers. “We lost,” O’Malley Dillon said. “So everything requires us to relook at everything.” But asked directly if Biden would have won if he stayed in the race, O’Malley Dillon was summarily dismissive: “We don’t engage in hypotheticals.”

Alberta cancels foreign worker recruitment trip to United Arab Emirates EDMONTON — The Alberta government says it has pulled the plug on a foreign worker recruitment mission in the United Arab Emirates scheduled for early next year. Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press Dec 9, 2024 1:11 PM Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Minister of Immigration and Multiculturalism Muhammad Yaseen is sworn into cabinet, in Edmonton, Friday, June 9, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson EDMONTON — The Alberta government says it has pulled the plug on a foreign worker recruitment mission in the United Arab Emirates scheduled for early next year. Documents show the mission was part of the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program, which works to fast-track the permanent residency process for workers in sought after sectors like health care, technology and law enforcement. The program, which is jointly run by both the provincial and federal government, is how Alberta works to manage its federally allocated economic immigrant targets each year. In 2024, it was 9,750. Provincial Immigration Minister Muhammad Yaseen says he decided to cancel the trip after reviewing its purpose. "We became aware that a potential recruitment mission to the UAE was being considered and that planning was underway by officials within the department of Immigration and Multiculturalism," Yaseen said in a statement Sunday. "I have reviewed the mission purpose and at this time have decided not to pursue it further." An itinerary for the three-day trip says government resources were to be used to facilitate interviews with workers and Alberta-based employers who signed up. Employers were to pay their travel costs. Alberta isn't unique in organizing such recruiting trips. It's a practice employed by provinces including New Brunswick, Manitoba and Quebec to try and address labour shortages in key sectors. Quebec announced last month that it was temporarily halting all international recruitment trips until at least next summer, as the government works to re-evaluate its immigration strategy and clear out the backlog of applicants to its economic migrant program. United Arab Emirates was also the destination for a 2022 recruitment trip for Prince Edward Island government staff and trucking and health care industry representatives. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said increased immigration and population growth is partly responsible for issues plaguing the province, such as housing shortages and health-care capacity strains. Yaseen said Alberta has experienced "unsustainable levels of immigration" as a result of federal policy but didn't say whether the United Arab Emirates trip was cancelled over those concerns. Between July 2023 and July of this year, Alberta's population grew by 4.4 per cent, or about 204,000 people. A government population report from September says about 60,000 of those new Albertans were immigrants, while 91,000 were temporary foreign workers, international students, refugees and asylum seekers. "It is our belief that Ottawa’s priority should be on reducing the number of temporary foreign workers, international students and asylum seekers — not on reducing provincially selected economic migrants," Yaseen said. In October, the federal government reduced immigration targets for the next three years by about 20 per cent, with much of the reduction to future permanent resident admissions. Much of the decrease is to provincial nominee programs like the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program. The provincial program limit was set at 120,000 per year for all provinces combined in 2025 and 2026 prior to the target reduction, which dropped the total to 55,000 in each of the next three years. Yaseen's press secretary Neil Singh did not respond to multiple inquiries over the past week about the Alberta program and how many international recruiting trips the government has organized over the last few years. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 9, 2024. Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press See a typo/mistake? Have a story/tip? This has been shared 0 times 0 Shares Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Get your daily Victoria news briefing Email Sign Up More Alberta News Métis National Council elects new president after months of internal turmoil Dec 9, 2024 1:56 PM QB Tre Ford approaches upcoming CFL season armed with Elks' vote of confidence Dec 9, 2024 1:28 PM Canadian Western Bank says legal claim is the reason it delayed earnings release Dec 9, 2024 8:31 AM

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ears of closely working with President have meant that Maj. Teddy Indra Wijaya has been entrusted with a crucial role in the President’s Red and White Cabinet, that of disciplining cabinet members embroiled in controversies. Born into a military family, the mid-ranking officer came to public attention when serving as Prabowo’s aide-de-camp in 2019, closely following the then-defense minister’s every step. He remained within Prabowo’s inner circle after the former Army general took office as president in October, appointed as cabinet secretary; a position usually responsible for supporting the sitting president in managing the cabinet. Since then, Prabowo has appeared to rely on his cabinet secretary to instill discipline among more than 100 cabinet members, as witnessed in how the President’s administration responded to a series of controversial remarks and misconduct by several officials. Among the recent instances that have occurred is Religious Development Envoy Miftah Maulana Habiburrahman getting himself embroiled in an online brouhaha. In a video that went viral on social media, Miftah, who is also a popular preacher, made inappropriate remarks toward a beverage seller by calling him “stupid” and mocking him for selling iced tea on a rainy day to attendees at a religious gathering. The video was reportedly made during an event in Magelang, Central Java, on Nov. 20. Delivered straight to your inbox three times weekly, this curated briefing provides a concise overview of the day's most important issues, covering a wide range of topics from politics to culture and society. By registering, you agree with 's Please check your email for your newsletter subscription. The video quickly sparked protests and condemnation by the public who slammed Miftah for demeaning the dignity of the seller who was simply trying to make a living. Netizens then urged the President to dismiss him.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — LeBron James says he’s taking a break from social media. The NBA’s all-time leading scorer and Los Angeles Lakers star posted on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, and Instagram on Wednesday to announce that he’s stepping away from his pages. James has 159 million followers on Instagram, 52.9 million on X. James started the farewell by reposting something that Rich Kleiman, Kevin Durant’s longtime manager, posted to X on Oct. 24. “We can all acknowledge that sports is the last part of society that universally brings people together. So why can’t the coverage do the same?” Kleiman wrote that day. “It’s only click bait when you say it. When the platform is so big, you can make the change and allow us all an escape from real life negativity. I for one find it all a waste of breath.” James, on Instagram, posted a screengrab of Kleiman’s post and added the caption, “Damn shame what it’s come to.” On X, his repost of Kleiman simply said, “AMEN!!” Kleiman has posted only a handful of times since his Oct. 24 post, and evidently, James isn’t planning to post much — or anything — until further notice. Related Articles Entertainment | Pamela Hayden, longtime ‘Simpsons’ voice actor, including Bart’s friend Milhouse, hangs up her mic Entertainment | Simone Biles to join Snoop Dogg as a guest mentor for an episode on NBC’s ‘The Voice’ Entertainment | Alec Baldwin wasn’t invited to ‘Rust’ premiere, incites anger of slain cinematographer’s family Entertainment | 'Euphoria' star Storm Reid not returning for season 3 Entertainment | Denzel Washington’s two-bottle-a-day wine habit did ‘lots of damage’ to his body His announcement came one day after he said “everybody on the Internet called me a liar all the time” when he said he was watching Dalton Knecht’s college games last year at Tennessee — long before the Lakers drafted the sharpshooting guard. “And with that said I’ll holla at y’all! Getting off social media for the time being. Y’all take care,” James posted, followed by emojis of a hand holding up two fingers — often symbolizing someone leaving a place — and a crown, a nod to his “King James” moniker. James, the NBA’s oldest active player — he turns 40 next month — is a four-time NBA champion and a three-time Olympic gold medalist, the most recent of those coming earlier this year at the Paris Games. The Lakers are 10-4, winners of six straight and next play Thursday at home against Orlando.Pro-Russian Presidential Candidate Denies He Wants Romania Out Of NATO

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Berlin confirmed plans to reform its legal framework make it a clear criminal offence to “facilitate the smuggling of migrants to the UK” as part of the agreement, the Home Office said. The Home Office said the move would give German prosecutors more tools to tackle the supply and storage of dangerous small boats. Both countries will also commit to exchange information that may help to remove migrant-smuggling content from social media platforms and tackle end-to-end routes of criminal smuggling networks as part of the deal. It comes ahead of the UK and Germany hosting the so-called Calais Group in London, which sees ministers and police from the two countries, alongside France, Belgium and the Netherlands, gather to discuss migration in Europe. Delegates are expected to agree a detailed plan to tackle people-smuggling gangs in 2025 at the meeting on Tuesday. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “For too long organised criminal gangs have been exploiting vulnerable people, undermining border security in the UK and across Europe while putting thousands of lives at risk. “We are clear that this cannot go on. “Germany is already a key partner in our efforts to crack down on migrant smuggling, but there is always more we can do together. “Our new joint action plan with deliver a strengthened partnership with Germany, boosting our respective border security as we work to fix the foundations, and ultimately saving lives.” Nancy Faeser, German federal minister of the interior said: “We are now stepping up our joint action to fight the brutal activities of international smugglers. “This is at the core of our joint action plan that we have agreed in London. “It will help us end the inhumane activities of criminal migrant smuggling organisations. “By cramming people into inflatable boats under threats of violence and sending them across the Channel, these organisations put human lives at risk.” She said that “many of these crimes are planned in Germany” and the deal would help to counter “this unscrupulous business with even more resolve.” “This includes maintaining a high investigative pressure, exchanging information between our security authorities as best as possible, and persistently investigating financial flows to identify the criminals operating behind the scenes,” Ms Faeser said. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the announcement “doesn’t go far enough”. “The British public deserves a serious plan to control our borders and stop criminal gangs,” he said. “The National Crime Agency has said a deterrent is necessary to reduce the number of crossings, yet Labour scrapped the only deterrent before it even got started. “Meanwhile the numbers of illegal immigrants coming here continue to climb, with an 18% increase compared to the same period last year, with more than 20,000 people having made the crossing since the election.”