ATLANTA (AP) — Deliberations are underway in Atlanta after a year of testimony in the gang and racketeering trial that originally included the rapper Young Thug. Jurors are considering whether to convict Shannon Stillwell and Deamonte Kendrick, who raps as Yak Gotti, on gang, murder, drug and gun charges. The original indictment charged 28 people with conspiring to violate Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Opening statements in the trial for six of those defendants happened a year ago . Four of them, including Young Thug, pleaded guilty last month. The rapper was freed on probation. Stillwell and Kendrick rejected plea deals after more than a week of negotiations, and their lawyers chose not to present evidence or witnesses. Both seemed to be in good spirits Tuesday morning after closings wrapped the previous night. Kendrick was chatting and laughing with Stillwell and his lawyers before the jury arrived for instructions. Kendrick and Stillwell were charged in the 2015 killing of Donovan Thomas Jr., also known as “Big Nut,” in an Atlanta barbershop. Prosecutors painted Stillwell and Kendrick as members of a violent street gang called Young Slime Life, or YSL, co-founded in 2012 by Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams. During closings on Monday, they pointed to tattoos, song lyrics and social media posts they said proved members, including Stillwell, admitted to killing people in rival gangs. Prosecutors say Thomas was in a rival gang. Stillwell was also charged in the 2022 killing of Shymel Drinks, which prosecutors said was in retaliation for the killing of two YSL associates days earlier. Defense attorneys Doug Weinstein and Max Schardt said the state presented unreliable witnesses, weak evidence and cherry-picked lyrics and social media posts to push a false narrative about Stillwell, Kendrick and the members of YSL. Schardt, Stillwell's attorney, reminded the jury that alleged YSL affiliates said during the trial that they had lied to police. Law enforcement played a “sick game” by promising they would escape long prison sentences if they said what police wanted them to say, Schardt said. He theorized that one of those witnesses could have killed Thomas. The truth is that their clients were just trying to escape poverty through music, Schardt said. “As a whole, we know the struggles that these communities have had,” Schardt said. “A sad, tacit acceptance that it’s either rap, prison or death.” Young Thug’s record label is also known as YSL, an acronym of Young Stoner Life. Kendrick was featured on two popular songs from the label’s compilation album Slime Language 2, “Take It to Trial" and “Slatty," which prosecutors presented as evidence in the trial. Weinstein, Kendrick’s defense attorney, said during closings it was wrong for prosecutors to target the defendants for their music and lyrics. Prosecutor Simone Hylton disagreed, and said surveillance footage and phone evidence supported her case. “They have the audacity to think they can just brag about killing somebody and nobody’s gonna hold them accountable,” Hylton said. The trial had more than its fair share of delays. Jury selection took nearly 10 months , and Stillwell was stabbed last year at the Fulton County jail, which paused trial proceedings. Judge Paige Reese Whitaker took over after Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville was removed from the case in July because he had a meeting with prosecutors and a state witness without defense attorneys present. Whitaker often lost patience with prosecutors over moves such as not sharing evidence with defense attorneys, once accusing them of “poor lawyering.” But the trial sped up under her watch. In October, four defendants, including Young Thug , pleaded guilty, with the rapper entering a non-negotiated or “blind” plea, meaning he didn't have a deal worked out with prosecutors. Nine people charged in the indictment, including rapper Gunna , accepted plea deals before the trial began. Charges against 12 others are pending. Prosecutors dropped charges against one defendant after he was convicted of murder in an unrelated case. Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Kramon on X: @charlottekramon

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands (AP) — Kimani Hamilton led High Point with 18 points and made a contested shot in the lane with 10.9 seconds remaining as the Panthers knocked off Hampton 76-73 on Tuesday. Hamilton also added eight rebounds for the Panthers (7-1). Trae Benham scored 17 points while shooting 4 for 5 (4 for 4 from 3-point range) and 5 of 5 from the free-throw line. Kezza Giffa shot 4 of 10 from the field and 2 of 3 from the free-throw line to finish with 11 points. George Beale led the way for the Pirates (3-5) with 17 points. Noah Farrakhan added 16 points for Hampton. High Point went into halftime ahead of Hampton 38-33. Giffa scored 11 points in the half. Hamilton scored a team-high 13 points in the second half. ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by and data from . The Associated Press

The Vikings have had starting inside linebackers Ivan Pace Jr. and Blake Cashman together for just six of 11 games this season, and now they’ll be without Pace for at least another four games. Pace was placed on injured reserve Tuesday because of the hamstring strain he suffered in the first quarter of Sunday’s win in Chicago. He left after five plays. He’ll now miss at least games against the Cardinals, Falcons, Bears and Seahawks. The earliest he can return is Dec. 29 vs. Green Bay. The Vikings signed fourth-year linebacker Jamin Davis off the Packers practice squad and to the active roster, joining Cashman, Kamu Grugier-Hill and Brian Asamoah on the depth chart. “We really feel for him,” Cashman said after Sunday’s win . “Hate to see one of your guys get injured. We gotta lean on him, be there for him, and we’re going to need him to get right because we have playoff football ahead.” Pace, the second-year undrafted linebacker, ranks third on the team with 59 combined tackles despite also missing two games earlier this season because of a knee injury. He also has three sacks and a fumble returned for a touchdown during the Oct. 20 loss to the Lions. The Vikings added Davis, a 25-year-old former first-round pick by the Washington Commanders. He spent the past month on Green Bay’s practice squad, where the Vikings acquired him from, after he had been released by Washington in October. Davis, drafted 19th overall out of Kentucky in 2021, was mostly an off-the-ball linebacker for the Commanders over three seasons, when he had seven sacks, six pass deflections and an interception in 36 starts. Washington used Davis sparingly on the defensive line this season before he was cut. Defensive coordinator Brian Flores has previously used a committee approach to fill linebacker absences. Cashman missed three games due to turf toe as well. The Vikings leaned on 30-year-old veteran Grugier-Hill, who has played 138 defensive snaps, and safety Josh Metellus, among others, to fill the void.Accenture Plc’s renewed hiring—it added 49,000 people globally in the last six months—suggests technology services companies expect a much better growth in the coming months, according to analysts. The Dublin-headquartered company’s hiring spree paints a sanguine outlook for homegrown IT services companies that are expected to record better growth in the coming quarters, the analysts said. Accenture, which ended November 2024 with 799,000 employees, added 24,000 employees in the June-August 2024 period and 25,000 employees in the three months through November 2024. Its new recruits in the last six months alone make up about 6% of its overall workforce. Accenture follows a September-August accounting year. India’s $254-billion software services industry, with big names like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Ltd, Infosys Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd, Wipro Ltd, and Tech Mahindra Ltd, reported their slowest revenue growth of 3.3% last year due to macroeconomic uncertainties. TCS, Infosys, and HCLTech grew 4.1%, 1.9%, and 5.4% on a yearly basis to respectively report $29.1 billion, $18.6 billion, and $13.3 billion in revenue for the year ended March 2024. Wipro and Tech Mahindra reported a yearly decline in revenue of 3.8% and 5% to $10.8 billion and $6.3 billion respectively. Also Read: Some analysts said a recovery is on the cards. “While a strong recovery of discretionary demand may take a few quarters, it is unlikely to worsen further, in our view," said Nomura analysts Abhishek Bhandari and Krish Beriwal in a note dated 19 September. “Onset of the interest rate cut cycle from September 2024 and a potential thaw in decision-making by US corporates post-US elections in November 2024 could provide a fillip to demand, in our view." Renewed hiring, which is an indicator of growth, suggests that homegrown IT services companies could also record better growth in the coming fiscal. “With the full employment situation in the US and expected economic stimulation from tax cuts in 2025, I anticipate a good year ahead for Indian IT with US corporate customers," said Phil Fersht, CEO and chief analyst, HFS Research. As the IT industry rebounds, headcount increase across software companies will be needed to meet the growing demand. “Growth has bottomed out and recovery is on the cards. While increasing headcount will be required to meet the additional demand for tech services now, the only uncertainty is the pace of recovery," said Pramod Gubbi, founder of Marcellus Investment Managers. “Strong headcount addition by Accenture does indicate improved demand. But demand may still not be as broad-based, as Accenture’s hiring could be aligned with strong order bookings in recent past, where it might have won against Indian peers. That said, headcount addition should continue for India IT services players as well, as they rebuild bench and correct pyramid," said Abhishek Kumar, equity research analyst with JM Financial Ltd. Indian IT services companies have already started adding headcount in anticipation of rising demand for their services. Four of the country’s top five IT services companies, including TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra, have added people since this fiscal year began in April. TCS added 11,178 employees in the first two quarters of FY25, compared to a fall in headcount of 5,900 in the same period last year. In total, TCS ended the September quarter with 612,724 employees. The company had outlined its plans to onboard 40,000 employees in the current fiscal ending March 2025. Also Read: Bengaluru-based Infosys added 598 net new jobs in the first half of the fiscal, compared to a fall in headcount by 14,470 in the first half of last fiscal. It ended the September quarter with 317,788 employees. The company is looking to hire 15,000 - 20,000 freshers for the year ended March 2025. Wipro added 1,315 employees since April this year. It had reduced its workforce by 13,863 employees in the first half of the last fiscal. It ended September 2024 with 233,889 employees. The Bengaluru-based IT services company aims to add up to 12,000 freshers by the end of this fiscal. Pune-headquartered Tech Mahindra Ltd increased its workforce by 8,818 since the start of the fiscal. This is against a net headcount reduction of 1,796 in the first half of the previous fiscal. Tech Mahindra ended the three months through September 2024 with 154,273 employees. By contrast, Noida-based HCLTech, the country's third-largest IT company, reduced headcount in the first half of this fiscal as well as the previous one. This fiscal, it cut 8,860 jobs after it got out of a joint venture with State Street, a Boston-based financial services provider. It had slashed 4,805 jobs in H1FY24. It ended the September quarter with 218,621 employees. Despite the reduced headcount, the company aims to add 10,000 freshers by the end of the current financial year. Accenture taps India's skilled talent pool For now, Accenture’s management attributed the hiring, now for the third consecutive quarter, to its business picking up. “So we did add about 24,000 people in the first quarter, which is really reflective of the momentum that we see in our business," said Angie Park, chief financial officer of Accenture, in the company’s post-earnings conference call with analysts on 19 December. Accenture reported $17.7 billion in revenue for the three months ended November 2024, up 7.8% sequentially. The NYSE-listed company got much of this new talent from India, where most of its employees are based, but did not mention what percentage of the new talent came from acquiring new companies. “Looking ahead, we'll continue to hire for the demand that we see and the skills that we need. And I'll give you a little bit more context that the hiring that we saw this quarter, similar to last, was that it was concentrated in India," said Park. The company attributed the hiring from India to the availability of skilled talent. Also Read: “And so they really are looking for optimization of the right skills because a big piece of why people, for example, use India, is about skills, right? 10 years ago, it was about labor arbitrage, right? Today, it is about the ability to get these skills at scale," said Julie Sweet, chief executive of Accenture, at the company’s post-earnings press conference, while answering a question on clients wanting employees working from their own locations. While Sweet considers India’s talent pool as skilled, placement officers at the country’s engineering colleges that supply workforce to these companies are highlighting a growing demand for this skilled talent. “Companies today prefer to hire students skilled in AI, machine learning, and data analytics to name a few because these technologies are used across domains in different fields," said Sridhar K.S., dean of placement and training at PES University in Bengaluru. A second placement officer said the demand for skilled graduates has risen. “The companies have been asking us for skilled talent more now than they had in the past, as there are plenty of new technologies now," said Ranganath D, dean of placements at R.V. College of Engineering in Bengaluru. “Today, companies want students who have been skilled in AI, data analytics and machine learning and we encourage our students to take up such courses."

2 rescued after California wharf partially collapses due to heavy surf from major Pacific stormLONGBOAT KEY, Fla., Nov. 27, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rumble ( NASDAQ:RUM ), the video-sharing platform and cloud services provider, today sued the California Attorney General and Secretary of State over a recently passed law that unconstitutionally punishes certain political speech. Rumble is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a non-profit law firm that defends the right to speak freely and which also represents the satirical website “The Babylon Bee” in a related lawsuit. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, Sacramento Division. The law at issue, AB 2655, requires online platforms to receive reports about posts related to elections, public officials, and candidates for office that are deemed “materially deceptive” and then remove or label the content. The law was fast-tracked in July when California Gov. Gavin Newsom complained that an online video satirizing the Democratic candidate for president, Kamala Harris, ought to be “illegal.” The state legislature responded by passing a package of bills, which Newsom signed. He subsequently celebrated that he had successfully banned the video that had offended him in the first place. “The very thought of the government judging the content of political speech, and then deciding whether it should be permitted, censored, or eliminated altogether is about the most chilling thing you could imagine,” said Chris Pavlovski, Chairman and CEO of Rumble. “Rumble will always celebrate freedom and support creative independence, so we’re delighted to work with ADF to help protect lawful online expression.” ABOUT RUMBLE Rumble is a high-growth video platform and cloud services provider that is creating an independent infrastructure. Rumble’s mission is to restore the internet to its roots by making it free and open once again. For more information, visit: corp.rumble.com . Contact: press@rumble.com