BEIRUT — Hezbollah fired about 250 rockets and other projectiles into Israel on Sunday, wounding seven people in one of the militant group's heaviest barrages in months, in response to deadly Israeli strikes in Beirut while negotiators pressed on with cease-fire efforts to halt the all-out war. An Israeli bomb squad policeman carries the remains of a rocket that was fired from Lebanon on Sunday in Kibbutz Kfar Blum, northern Israel. Some of the rockets reached the Tel Aviv area in the heart of Israel. Meanwhile, an Israeli strike on an army center killed a Lebanese soldier and wounded 18 others in the southwest between Tyre and Naqoura, Lebanon's military said. The Israeli military expressed regret, saying that the strike occurred in an area of combat against Hezbollah and that the military's operations are directed solely against the militants. Israeli strikes have killed over 40 Lebanese troops since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah, even as Lebanon's military has largely kept to the sidelines. Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned the latest strike as an assault on U.S.-led cease-fire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war. Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups. The Israeli police bomb squad inspects the site after a missile fired from Lebanon hit the area Sunday in Petah Tikva, outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel. Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes at Hezbollah, and in September the low-level conflict erupted into all-out war as Israel launched airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah's top leader, Hassan Nasrallah. The Israeli military said about 250 projectiles were fired Sunday, with some intercepted. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said it treated seven people, including a 60-year old man in severe condition from rocket fire on northern Israel, a 23-year-old man who was lightly wounded by a blast in the central city of Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, and a 70-year-old woman who suffered smoke inhalation from a car that caught fire there. In Haifa, a rocket hit a residential building that police said was in danger of collapsing. The Palestine Red Crescent reported 13 injuries it said were caused by an interceptor missile that struck several homes in Tulkarem in the West Bank. It was unclear whether injuries and damage were caused by rockets or interceptors. Sirens wailed again in central and northern Israel hours later. Israeli airstrikes without warning on Saturday pounded central Beirut, killing at least 29 people and wounding 67, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. A flock of birds flies above the smoke from Israeli airstrikes Sunday in Dahiyeh, Beirut. Smoke billowed above Beirut again Sunday with new strikes. Israel's military said it targeted command centers for Hezbollah and its intelligence unit in the southern suburbs of Dahiyeh, where the militants have a strong presence. Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,700 people in Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population. On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardment in northern Israel and in battle following Israel's ground invasion in early October. Around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country's north. The European Union’s top diplomat called Sunday for more pressure on Israel and Hezbollah to reach a deal, saying one was "pending with a final agreement from the Israeli government.” U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region last week. Josep Borrell spoke after meeting with Mikati and Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who has been mediating with the group. Borrell said the EU is ready to allocate $208 million to assist the Lebanese military. But Borrell later said that he did not “see the Israeli government interested clearly in reaching an agreement for a cease-fire" and that it seemed Israel was seeking new conditions. He pointed to Israel’s refusal to accept France as a member of the international committee that would oversee the cease-fire's implementation. The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the monthlong 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol with the presence of U.N. peacekeepers. With talks for a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Gaza stalled, freed hostages and families of those held marked a year since the war's only hostage-release deal. “It’s hard to hold on to hope, certainly after so long and as another winter is about to begin," said Yifat Zailer, cousin of Shiri Bibas, who is held along with her husband and two young sons. Around 100 hostages are still in Gaza, at least a third believed to be dead. Most of the rest of the 250 who were abducted in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack were released in last year's cease-fire. Talks for another deal recently had several setbacks, including the firing of Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who pushed for a deal, and Qatar’s decision to suspend its mediation. Hamas wants Israel to end the war and withdraw all troops from Gaza. Israel has offered only to pause its offensive. The Palestinian death toll from the war surpassed 44,000 this week, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. On Sunday, six people were killed in strikes in central Gaza, according to AP journalists at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. How often do you buy something online ? A couple of times a month? A couple of times a week? A couple of times a day? Everybody's answer will be different, but collectively, it's done a lot: Online retail accounted for over $1 trillion of purchases in the U.S. in 2022 and a record $277.6 billion in the second quarter of 2023 alone. Retailers ranging from titans like Amazon and Walmart, down to local small-town shops work very hard to land their share of that business. Sadly and inevitably—so do criminals and scammers. At any given moment, they operate millions of bogus sites. So how can you spot those fake online shopping sites? Spokeo provides a guide. In the early days of the internet , it took some genuine skills to set up a website, but those days are gone. A quick search will show that there are lots of apps and services offering websites on a prefabricated "fill in the blanks" basis, and most web hosts provide those tools as part of the service when someone signs up with them. It's even easier on social media . If you were opening a "side hustle" business tomorrow from your home, you could set up your own Facebook page tonight in under an hour, with exactly zero knowledge of websites. Once that page is set up, you just need to throw a few dollars in the direction of Facebook's advertising department, and they'll start advertising your page to users. It's no harder to promote a website, except in that case, you'd give your advertising dollars to Google. This is a simplified overview, but the main point holds: Establishing a presence online has become a very democratized process, open to anyone with minimal skills and even the smallest budget for advertising. That's been a boon for legitimate entrepreneurs, but it also makes life very easy indeed for scammers. There are multiple types of bogus websites . Some are imposters, created to look very much like a legitimate commercial or government site that you're familiar with, such as Amazon or Netflix. Others don't imitate a specific site, but instead attempt to capture the look and feel of those sites in general (whether that be a retail site, a government or bank page, or even something relatively shady like a gambling or porn site). Next, scammers find ways to drive traffic to their site. Often that's through phishing texts or emails, but deceptive ads on social media or search engines like Google and Bing work just as well. Once a browser arrives at the criminals' site (or, in some cases, downloads their app), any number of bad things can happen. One is that they'll download malware onto your devices, which can capture passwords or steal personal information. A more straightforward risk is that the browser will cheerfully enter their personal and banking/credit card information, thinking they're making a legitimate purchase. That's largely why fake online shopping sites are so dangerous, and so useful to scammers and identity thieves. Most bogus sites share some or all of those characteristics, but shopping sites are a very specific type of bogus site with some quirks of their own. One characteristic to count on—whether the website directly impersonates a major retailer like Amazon, a niche retailer like MEC, or just positions itself as an anonymously general retail site—is that it will offer unusually low pricing on high-demand products. That might be a mass-market item like the latest gaming console, a suddenly in-demand item that's unavailable through normal channels (remember trying to get masks and sanitizing wipes during COVID-19?), or something as mundane as disposable diapers or high-capacity computer drives. Whatever the product, the advertised price will be low enough to get attention. The bogus site will have any number of ways to transfer a browser's money to its coffers, depending on the scammers' intentions and skillset. A few of the most common include: These are all aside from the potential to infect devices or steal payment information . Sites focused on identity theft might consider a faux purchase to be just the added gravy. How common is online shopping fraud? Well, the news is pretty bad. The FTC's 2022 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book recorded over 327,000 online shopping complaints, the fourth-highest category for overall complaints and second among fraud categories. You would expect these sites to be more prevalent during the final quarter of the year, corresponding to the holiday gift-giving season—Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas itself—and they are, but that doesn't mean you can relax during the other nine months of the year. The Anti-Phishing Working Group, or APWG, identified nearly a million fake or phishing websites during the first quarter of 2022 alone (not a busy time of year for shopping), for example. To be clear, only 14.6% of those were eCommerce sites, but that still translates to well over 140,000 bogus shopping sites. The true number is almost certainly higher because the APWG only tracks the ones that use a phishing approach. Many opt to simply buy advertising instead (or as well), and those won't be captured in the APWG's statistics. However you slice it, there's a definite risk of encountering these sites when you shop. The good news is that bogus shopping sites aren't hard to spot, once you're aware of the risk. They aren't built for permanence; scammers pull them together quickly and cheaply and then abandon them once they stop producing.That "just good enough" approach leaves plenty of visible signs you can detect. Below, here's what to look for when recognizing fake online shopping sites. Bad images Bogus sites don't have direct access to the real products' manufacturing images, so they resort to copying and pasting from legitimate sites. \That means bogus sites' product images (and often their fake logos, if they impersonate a legitimate site) are fuzzy and low-res. A URL that's slightly "off" Imposter sites obviously can't have the same URL as the legitimate site, so they'll usually have a URL that looks right, but isn't quite. They might have a typo in the name, or incorporate the real company's name into their URL in a non-standard way ("myfakesite.amazon.com.123xyz.com"), or—sneakiest of all—use a letter from a different language's character set , which looks the same to the eye, but not to the computer. Broken links The scammers may have simply copied and pasted user interface elements from a legitimate site, in which case many links on the site may be broken (or simply not clickable). Lots of missing elements A legitimate retail website will have several pages of legalese, often starting with a pop-up about its cookie policy or privacy policy. You should certainly expect to see a detailed document spelling out shipping policies, return and refund policies, and similar details. If those are missing or brief and vapid, it's probably a fake site. Limited options for payment Sites that plan to take your money and run will often show oddly specific payment options, from wire transfers to gift cards to cryptocurrency. The thing those payment methods have in common is that it's very difficult to get money back once it's spent. Sites geared around capturing your personal or payment information, on the other hand, may insist on getting your credit card. Typos, grammar, and linguistic errors Simple, silly language errors are often a red flag. Scammers may not be native English speakers, and it shows up in awkward or sometimes inappropriate phrasing. Errors in actual product listings aren't necessarily a smoking gun—you'll see them frequently on real Amazon pages—because they come from the manufacturers, who are often not English speakers. Language errors on the rest of the site are more of a concern. HTTP vs. HTTPS In the address bar of your browser, a legitimate retail site's URL will start with HTTPS, rather than HTTP, and will show a closed lock symbol. The majority of fake sites now also have an HTTPS URL and will show the lock (so this isn't as helpful as it used to be), but less-sophisticated scammers may miss that detail. You can automatically rule those ones out. And, of course, the biggest red flag of all is an unrealistically low price on the product you're looking for. We all want to get a really good deal, but that impulse will often lead you astray. If a shopping site fails those basic "eyeball" tests, the smart thing to do is just close that browser tab and walk away. If you want to dig deeper, or if you aren't sure, there are a few quick and easy ways to verify a site's legitimacy. Use a URL/website checker Remember those really sneaky fake URLs that use a letter from another alphabet? The best way to check those (and other problematic elements in a URL) is through a URL verifier/website reputation service, like the ones from URLVoid and Google . Just copy (don't click!) the link, and paste it into the checker. If the site is sketchy, they'll tell you. Look up the site on a registry Domain names all need to be registered and there are several lookup tools to check this, like ICANN's registration lookup (think of it as Spokeo for websites). If a site claims to be Amazon but was registered just a few weeks ago, that's a really big red flag. Similarly, if the site isn't located where it should be, or if the ownership data is obscured, that's grounds for concern. Turn to Google If you have a bad feeling about a particular site, do a quick Google or Bing (or whatever) search that pairs the site's name with keywords like "scam," "fraud," "bogus" or "ripoff" and see what comes up. If you get a lot of hits, that's definitely grounds for concern. Go Forth and Shop (Safely) If a given site fails any or all of those tests, then keeping your wallet in your pocket is definitely the smart choice. Instead of making the purchase, report the site instead to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center and the FTC's Report Fraud website. That will get the investigative wheels turning and may help protect someone less wary from falling victim to the scammers. As always, wariness and skepticism are your friends when it comes to avoiding scams. Don't click on links in emails, texts , or social media messages; instead, go to the company's site by typing the URL directly. If you search a company's page on Google, scroll down through the actual search results until you find it instead of clicking on the sponsored results or advertisements at the top. Most of all, remember the golden rule of scam avoidance: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Keeping those principles in mind, and using the tips given here to screen out dubious sites means you'll be able to shop 'til you drop (safely), despite the vast number of scammers out there. And that—as the credit card ads like to say—is priceless. This story was produced by Spokeo and reviewed and distributed by Stacker. Be the first to know“ Yellowstone ” Season 5 Part 2 continues today, Sunday, Nov. 24. Episode 11 airs at 8 p.m. Eastern on Paramount Network. Titled “Three Fifty-Three,” watch as Beth discusses the fate of the ranch with an unlikely ally, Kayce takes the investigation into his own hands and Jamie looks to advance his political agenda. You can watch the new “Yellowstone” episode for free on Philo , FuboTV or DirecTV Stream which each offer free trials to new subscribers. In last week’s episode, Kayce reached out to an old friend for information, Beth came to a realization and Jamie met with Market Equities. What streaming services carry Paramount Network? Philo offers over 70 channels for $28/month after the free trial ends. You’ll gain access to more than 70 channels of live and on-demand content. In addition to Paramount Network, you’ll also have access to popular networks like AMC, BET, Discovery, Hallmark and The History Channel. FuboTV offers access to over 100 entertainment, news and sports channels for $79.99/month, including many local channels. They currently are running a special through the end of the year where you can also get $30 off your first month of service, bringing the cost down to $49.99. It also offers DVR services DirecTV Stream offers packages starting with 75+ channels for $101.98 per month. You can currently get a discount on your first two months of service that brings the cost down to $86.98. The service also offers live and on-demand service as well as multiple options to add-on additional channels. It also includes local channels and unlimited DVR. Why is “Yellowstone” not on Paramount+? The short answer to this question is that a deal had already been inked for seasons to air exclusively on Peacock before Paramount+ existed. Read on to learn more about why you can’t watch “Yellowstone” on Paramount Plus . The good news, the upcoming sequel “The Madison” will be available on Paramount+. Why did Kevin Costner decide not to return to “Yellowstone”? Costner announced in a June 20 post on Instagram that he would not be returning to “Yellowstone” after previously saying that he would have liked to return for later seasons before Sheridan decided to pivot to a new upcoming sequel. The primary reason was Costner’s desire to get his longstanding project, “Horizon: An American Saga,” off the ground. Part one premiered at Cannes earlier this year. However, it garnered less-than-stellar reviews and earned only $11 million in its opening weekend. Check out more Fun Facts about Kevin Costner as well as interesting trivia about the “Yellowstone” TV show . Who else is in “Yellowstone”? Many of the original members of the “Yellowstone” cast, minus Costner, are still in the show during Season 5. Wes Bentley’s character Jamie has learned he is a father and as AG for the state of Montana, has teamed with Market Equities against his adopted family. Youngest son Kayce Dutton and his wife Monica, played by Luke Grimes and Kelsey Asbille respectively, had agreed to move back to the family ranch where they fixing up an old home. John’s daughter Beth, played by Kelly Reilly, has married longtime love Rip, played by Cole Hauser, and the pair look to take a lead role in avenging John’s death this season. Where can I watch old episodes of “Yellowstone”? Peacock is the exclusive streaming service for all prior seasons of “Yellowstone” online, although some select episodes may be available on other streaming services. Seasons 1 through Part 1 of Season 5 are available on Peacock, but those episodes that are part of Season 5 Part 2 won’t be available there until after the season is over. Learn more about the hit series with our Yellowstone Streaming Guide . Cable Guide: What channel is Paramount Network on? You can find which channel it is by using the channel finders here: Verizon Fios , AT&T U-verse , Comcast Xfinity , Spectrum/Charter , Optimum/Altice , DIRECTV and Dish .

Molly-Mae Hague has shared the bombshell news that she might not have any more children. The 25-year-old reality star is the proud mum of one-year-old daughter Bambi - who she shares with her Love Island ex-fiancé Tommy Fury. But while Molly-Mae once claimed she wanted to have one million children with Tommy, she's now suggesting she won't have any more kids. Taking to social media on Sunday evening, the reality star fielded a number of questions from fans - when one asked: "How many more kids would you like?" Responding with surprising honesty, Molly-Mae said: “I honestly think a lot these days that Bambi could be it for me. I’m not sure.” Her reaction was a stark difference to a comment she made only in January this year. Preparing to celebrate Bambi's first birthday, she wrote online at the time: “I know you might judge me for saying this but if I could have a baby and it come out how Bambi is now, like this stage and age, I would have a million babies. I am so obsessed with this stage. The pros are so much more than the cons at this stage. This is my motherhood era, this is what I dreamt motherhood would be like. I am enjoying being a mum so much at the minute.” But seven months later, Molly-Mae and Tommy stunned their fans when they announced their engagement was off and they were breaking up for good. Meanwhile, during her Sunday night Q&A, Molly-Mae also revealed that Bambi has started hitting her since her engagement to Tommy collapsed. A fan asked: "You said Bambi had started hitting. Has this got any better since she started nursery?" The mum-of-one wrote in reply: “No it hasn’t gotten any better yet. It’s so strange as she only does it with me, my mum and my sister... no one else!? She’s never done it to anyone at nursery or anyone else that’s around her. It’s like she knows who it’ll upset the most. “I know it’s just a phase but it’s obviously really sad and confusing for us and her! My mum visited last week and I would say that’s where I’ve seen it peak, it wasn’t just hitting it was scratching and pinching for three days whenever my mum got close to her! It’s quite embarrassing to admit really. I just don’t know where she’s picked it up from and I’m doing a lot of research on the best way to approach it/handle it because I really want to tackle it correctly.” Elsewhere in the Q&A, she updated fans on the progress of her recently announced Amazon Prime reality show. She wrote: “I’m not 100% sure what I’m allowed to say... however I will say that I have really enjoyed filming so far! Taking on this project was a HUGE decision to make as I knew this would be a whole new territory. So far I’ve actually not minded having the cameras around! My VLOGS give the BTS of my life... but this documentary is a whole other level. I’m extremely nervous but exited!” Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads.Israel sanctions Haaretz due to articles that ‘hurt’ Israeli state

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A growing number of US colleges and universities are advising international students to return to campus before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated, over concerns that he might impose travel bans like he did during his first administration. More than a dozen schools have issued advisories, even though Trump's plans remain uncertain. At some schools, the spring semester begins before Trump will take office, so students may have to be back in class anyway. But for anyone whose ability to stay in the United States depends on an academic visa, they say it's best to reduce their risks and get back to campus before January 20. Here's a look at what Trump has said and done and how schools and students are preparing for his second term: What did Trump do in the past? Trump issued an executive order in January 2017 banning travel to the U.S. by citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. Travellers from those nations were either barred from getting on their flights or detained at U.S. airports after they landed. They included students and faculty as well as business people, tourists and visitors to friends and family. Trump later removed some countries and added others to the list — 15 nations were affected at some point during his presidency. More than 40,000 people were ultimately refused visas because of the ban, according to the US State Department. President Joe Biden rescinded the orders when he took office in 2021. How are students being affected? More than 1.1 million international students were enrolled in US colleges and universities during the 2023-24 school year, according to Open Doors, a data project partially funded by the US State Department. Students from India and China have accounted for more than half of all international students in the US, and about 43,800 come from the 15 countries affected by Trump's travel restrictions. Jacky Li, a third-year environmental studies major at University of California, Berkeley, will be travelling home to China Dec. 21 and returning Jan. 16. Though he made his plans months before Berkeley officials sent the advisory, he said worry is growing among international students. “There's a fear that this kind of restriction will enlarge into a wider community, considering the geopolitical tensions nowadays around the world, so the fear is definitely there,” said Li, who urged Trump to support, rather than thwart, important academic research. “If the US is really a champion of academic freedom, what you should do is not restrict this kind of communications between different countries of the world,” he said. What might Trump do now? Trump's transition team did not respond to questions on the topic this week, but in the past he has said he'll revive the travel ban and expand it, pledging new “ideological screening” for non-US citizens to bar “dangerous lunatics, haters, bigots and maniacs.” “We aren't bringing in anyone from Gaza, Syria, Somalia, Yemen or Libya or anywhere else that threatens our security,” Trump said at an October 2023 campaign event in Iowa. Trump also vowed to “revoke the student visas of radical anti-American and anti-Semitic foreigners at our colleges and universities” in response to campus protests. What are schools telling students? School officials have advised international students heading home for winter break to return before Inauguration Day and to prepare for possible delays at immigration control. The list includes Ivy League universities such as Harvard and Brown, Boston schools such as Northeastern University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and other schools around the country, from Johns Hopkins University to the University of Southern California. Some offer classes that begin the day after Inauguration Day. Cornell University told its students that a travel ban involving the 13 nations Trump previously targeted “is likely to go into effect soon after inauguration,” and that new countries could be added to the list, particularly China and India. It advised students, faculty and staff from those countries to return to campus before the semester starts January 21. Other schools didn't go so far as to say a ban is likely but instead advised students to plan ahead and prepare for delays. Follow The Gleaner on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com .Tunnel & Bridge Market to Scale New Heights as Market Players Focus on Innovations 2024-2030New Travel Alert as Pennsylvania, Southeastern Wisconsin, Great Lakes, Milwaukee, Chicago Experiencing Chilling Effect

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By LISA MASCARO and FARNOUSH AMIRI WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard faced fresh scrutiny Monday on Capitol Hill about her proximity to Russian-ally Syria amid the sudden collapse of that country’s hardline Assad rule. Gabbard ignored shouted questions about her 2017 visit to war-torn Syria as she ducked into one of several private meetings with senators who are being asked to confirm Trump’s unusual nominees . Related Articles National Politics | Trump promises to end birthright citizenship: What is it and could he do it? National Politics | Trump has flip-flopped on abortion policy. His appointees may offer clues to what happens next National Politics | In promising to shake up Washington, Trump is in a class of his own National Politics | Election Day has long passed. In some states, legislatures are working to undermine the results National Politics | Trump taps his attorney Alina Habba to serve as counselor to the president But the Democrat-turned-Republican Army National Reserve lieutenant colonel delivered a statement in which she reiterated her support for Trump’s America First approach to national security and a more limited U.S. military footprint overseas. “I want to address the issue that’s in the headlines right now: I stand in full support and wholeheartedly agree with the statements that President Trump has made over these last few days with regards to the developments in Syria,” Gabbard said exiting a Senate meeting. The incoming president’s Cabinet and top administrative choices are dividing his Republican allies and drawing concern , if not full opposition, from Democrats and others. Not just Gabbard, but other Trump nominees including Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth, were back at the Capitol ahead of what is expected to be volatile confirmation hearings next year. The incoming president is working to put his team in place for an ambitious agenda of mass immigrant deportations, firing federal workers and rollbacks of U.S. support for Ukraine and NATO allies. “We’re going to sit down and visit, that’s what this is all about,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., as he welcomed Gabbard into his office. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary pick Hegseth appeared to be picking up support from once-skeptical senators, the former Army National Guard major denying sexual misconduct allegations and pledging not to drink alcohol if he is confirmed. The president-elect’s choice to lead the FBI, Kash Patel , who has written extensively about locking up Trump’s foes and proposed dismantling the Federal Bureau of Investigation, launched his first visits with senators Monday. “I expect our Republican Senate is going to confirm all of President Trump’s nominees,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., on social media. Despite widespread concern about the nominees’ qualifications and demeanors for the jobs that are among the highest positions in the U.S. government, Trump’s team is portraying the criticism against them as nothing more than political smears and innuendo. Showing that concern, nearly 100 former senior U.S. diplomats and intelligence and national security officials have urged Senate leaders to schedule closed-door hearings to allow for a full review of the government’s files on Gabbard. Trump’s allies have described the criticisms of Hegseth in particular as similar to those lodged against Brett Kavanaugh, the former president’s Supreme Court nominee who denied a sexual assault allegation and went on to be confirmed during Trump’s first term in office. Said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., about Hegseth: “Anonymous accusations are trying to destroy reputations again. We saw this with Kavanaugh. I won’t stand for it.” One widely watched Republican, Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, herself a former Army National Guard lieutenant colonel and sexual assault survivor who had been criticized by Trump allies for her cool reception to Hegseth, appeared more open to him after their follow-up meeting Monday. “I appreciate Pete Hegseth’s responsiveness and respect for the process,” Ernst said in a statement. Ernst said that following “encouraging conversations,” he had committed to selecting a senior official who will “prioritize and strengthen my work to prevent sexual assault within the ranks. As I support Pete through this process, I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources.” Ernst also had praise for Patel — “He shares my passion for shaking up federal agencies” — and for Gabbard. Once a rising Democratic star, Gabbard, who represented Hawaii in Congress, arrived a decade ago in Washington, her surfboard in tow, a new generation of potential leaders. She ran unsuccessfully for president in 2020. But Gabbard abruptly left the party and briefly became an independent before joining with Trump’s 2024 campaign as one of his enthusiasts, in large part over his disdain for U.S. involvement overseas and opposition to helping Ukraine battle Russia. Her visit to Syria to meet with then-President Bashar Assad around the time of Trump’s first inauguration during the country’s bloody civil war stunned her former colleagues and the Washington national security establishment. The U.S. had severed diplomatic relations with Syria. Her visit was seen by some as legitimizing a brutal leader who was accused of war crimes. Gabbard has defended the trip, saying it’s important to open dialogue, but critics hear in her commentary echoes of Russia-fueled talking points. Assad fled to Moscow over the weekend after Islamist rebels overtook Syria in a surprise attack, ending his family’s five decades of rule. She said her own views have been shaped by “my multiple deployments and seeing firsthand the cost of war and the threat of Islamist terrorism.” Gabbard said, “It’s one of the many reasons why I appreciate President Trump’s leadership and his election, where he is fully committed, as he has said over and over, to bring about an end to wars.” Last week, the nearly 100 former officials, who served in both Democratic and Republican administrations, said in the letter to Senate leaders they were “alarmed” by the choice of Gabbard to oversee all 18 U.S. intelligence agencies. They said her past actions “call into question her ability to deliver unbiased intelligence briefings to the President, Congress, and to the entire national security apparatus.” The Office of the Director of National Intelligence was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to coordinate the nation’s intelligence agencies and act as the president’s main intelligence adviser. Associated Press writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.

RALEIGH — Newland student Laken Crowe was named among 210 students to the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program Class of 2025. The Teaching Fellows program is a competitive, merit-based forgivable loan program providing tuition assistance of up to $10,000 a year for qualified students committed to teaching elementary education, special education, science, technology, engineering, or math in a North Carolina public school. The purpose of the program is to recruit, prepare and support future teachers who attend institutions of higher education in North Carolina. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content.There is now the so-called "new age of warfare" especially with the use of advanced technologies from each side's top developments, with turning their case into advancements for their AI training. The valuable data Ukraine has collected with its ongoing war with Russia is now being utilized for more than military advancements, but also for its artificial intelligence developments. Many AI-powered technologies have been deployed by both sides in this transcontinental war between Ukraine and Russia, and this includes the likes of target identification software, image scanners, and more. According to the latest report from , Ukraine is now moving towards using the data they gathered from their war against Russia as a valuable source of information for their AI training feats. Ukraine is on the verge of training its AI models with millions of hours of footage from drones, for a better performance on the battlefield, set to soon bolster its defenses and capabilities against Russia. The non-profit Ukrainian organization called OCHI has worked on centralizing and analyzing video feeds from as many as 15,000 drone crews on Ukraine's frontlines, with Oleksandr Dmitriev revealing that they have over 2 million hours of footage since 2022. According to Dmitriev, this valuable trove of drone footage is "food for AI," and they believe that feeding these data to the artificial intelligence could help it improve significantly and more than enemy detection and other usual feats. Apart from giving drones the capabilities to target enemies and detect humans when flying around, artificial intelligence may power them to bring new combat tactics, better detection capabilities, and improvements to their weapon systems. Both Russia and Ukraine have been known for deploying AI-powered drones on the battlefield since their conflict started, and while Moscow first dominated the scene, Kyiv was able to catch up and effectively rival their enemies in space. Advanced technology has shined throughout the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia as both sides are known for deploying their tech to fight against the other, and it features a massive step above what was previously observed. Russia is best known for its massive advancements on artificial intelligence which was apparent from its previous attacks, including the against their adversaries. That being said, Ukraine had received massive help from various companies hailing from different corners of the globe, offering advanced technologies to bolster the company's defenses and power against the invaders. One of the top companies to offer their tech for Ukraine was the controversial ClearView AI which used its facial recognition tech to help the country during the early moments of their conflict. Russia has been crafty with its massive advancements in its war against Ukraine, but with the help of many allies worldwide, Kyiv was able to retaliate using technology to give Moscow a run for its money. Now, Ukraine is taking advantage of the massive data it collected from the war, and these are dedicated to expanding more of their artificial intelligence, with the valuable data helping improve their models significantly.

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‘Yellowstone’ Season 5, episode 11: How to watch online today for freeNEW YORK — U.S. stocks climbed Nov. 20 after market superstar Nvidia and another round of companies said they're making even fatter profits than expected. The S&P 500 pulled 0.53% higher Thursday, after flipping between modest gains and losses several times in the morning. Banks, smaller companies and other areas of the stock market that tend do best when the economy is strong helped lead the way, while bitcoin briefly broke above $99,000. Crude oil, meanwhile, continued to rise. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.06 percent, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.03 percent. Nvidia's rise of 0.5 percent was the strongest force pushing the S&P 500 upward after yet again beating estimates for profit and revenue late Wednesday. It also gave a forecast for revenue in the current quarter that topped most expectations thanks to voracious demand for its chips used in artificial-intelligence technology. Its stock initially sank in afterhours trading Wednesday following the release of the results. Some investors said the market might have been looking for Nvidia's revenue forecast to surpass expectations by even more. But its stock recovered in premarket trading Thursday, and Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said it was another "flawless" profit report provided by Nvidia and CEO Jensen Huang, whom Ives calls "the Godfather of AI." LOS ANGELES — Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes rose in October, the first annual gain in more than three years, with home shoppers encouraged by easing rates and a pickup in properties on the market. Existing home sales rose 3.4 percent last month, from September, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.96 million, the National Association of Realtors said Nov. 21. That matches the annual pace set in July. Sales rose 2.9 percent compared with October last year, representing the first year-over-year gain since July 2021. The latest home sales topped the 3.93 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet. Home prices increased on an annual basis for the 16th consecutive month. The national median sales price rose 4 percent from a year earlier, to $407,200. "The worst of the downturn in home sales could be over, with increasing inventory leading to more transactions," said Lawrence Yun, the NAR's chief economist. NEW YORK — Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler, who was aggressive in his oversight of cryptocurrencies, will step down from his post on Jan. 20. Gensler pushed for changes that he said protected for investors, but the industry and many Republicans bristled at what they saw as overreach. President-elect Donald Trump had promised he would remove Gensler, who announced Nov. 21 that he would be stepping down from his post on inauguration day. Perhaps most famously, Gensler gave a speech during the first year of his chairmanship in 2021 where he described the world of crypto as "the Wild West." "This asset class is rife with fraud, scams, and abuse in certain applications," he said. "There's a great deal of hype and spin about how crypto assets work. In many cases, investors aren't able to get rigorous, balanced, and complete information." The SEC under Gensler also helped to make bitcoin accessible to more investors. LOS ANGELES — Oil company Phillips 66 has been federally indicted in connection with alleged violations of the Clean Water Act in California, authorities said Nov. 21. The Texas-based company is accused of discharging hundreds of thousands of gallons of industrial wastewater containing excessive amounts of oil and grease, the U.S. Department of Justice said. The company allegedly dumped the wastewater from its Carson oil refinery into the Los Angeles County sewer system in 2020 and 2021 and did not report the violations, prosecutors said. Phillips is charged with two counts of negligently violating the Clean Water Act and four counts of knowingly violating the law. The company faces up to five years of probation on each count and a maximum of $2.4 million in fines. An arraignment date has not been set. The company did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.. CHARLOTTE — Truist Financial Corp. has announced that it is making loans available to North Carolina residents, businesses and local governments affected by Hurricane Helene. The Charlotte-based bank, formed by the merger of BB&T and SunTrust, said this week that it will lend more than $650 million and offer more in grants and investments over three years. The initiative includes $340 million in lending for small businesses, home mortgages and commercial real estate and $310 million in low-cost, tax-exempt loans to municipalities for infrastructure. Another $50 million in loans or investments will come from a subsidiary, and $25 million in charitable grants will come from the bank's foundation. The funding will be available starting in December. Helene brought widespread devastation to western North Carolina. NEW YORK — An Indian businessman who is one of the world's richest people has been indicted in the U.S. on charges he duped investors by concealing that his company's huge solar energy project on the subcontinent was being facilitated by an alleged bribery scheme. Gautam Adani was charged in a federal indictment unsealed Nov. 20 with securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud. The case involves a lucrative arrangement for Adani Green Energy and another firm to sell solar power to the Indian government. The indictment paints Adani and his co-defendants as playing two sides of the deal. It accuses them of portraying it as rosy and above-board to Wall Street investors who poured several billion dollars into the project over the last five years while, in India, they were allegedly paying or planning to pay about $265 million in bribes to officials to help secure billions of dollars in contracts and financing. U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said the defendants "orchestrated an elaborate scheme" and sought to "enrich themselves at the expense of the integrity of our financial markets." Adani's company in India had no immediate comment, as meanwhile shares in the Adani corporate empire plunged Thursday in India. WASHINGTON — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell again last week, remaining near seven-month lows. The Labor Department reported Nov. 21 that jobless claim applications fell by 6,000 to 213,000 for the week of Nov. 16. That's fewer than the 220,000 analysts forecast. Continuing claims, representing the total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits, rose by 36,000 to 1.91 million for the week of Nov. 9. That was higher than expected and the most in three years. While the number of new applicants remains at historically healthy levels, some who are receiving benefits are finding it harder to land new jobs. That suggests that demand for workers is waning, even as the economy remains strong. The four-week average of weekly claims, which quiets some of the weekly volatility, fell by 3,750 to 217,750.Winnipeg 4, Chicago 2

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