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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Republican senators pushed back on Sunday against criticism from Democrats that Tulsi Gabbard , Donald Trump’s pick to lead U.S. intelligence services , is “compromised” by her comments supportive of Russia and secret meetings , as a congresswoman, with Syria’s president, a close ally of the Kremlin and Iran. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, a veteran of combat missions in Iraq, said she had concerns about Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s choice to be director of national intelligence . “I think she’s compromised,” Duckworth said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” citing Gabbard’s 2017 trip to Syria, where she held talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad. Gabbard was a Democratic House member from Hawaii at the time. “The U.S. intelligence community has identified her as having troubling relationships with America’s foes. And so my worry is that she couldn’t pass a background check,” Duckworth said. Gabbard, who said last month she is joining the Republican party, has served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades. She was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait and, according to the Hawaii National Guard, received a Combat Medical Badge in 2005 for “participation in combat operations under enemy hostile fire in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom III.” Duckworth’s comments drew immediate backlash from Republicans. “For her to say ridiculous and outright dangerous words like that is wrong,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma, said on CNN, challenging Duckworth to retract her words. “That’s the most dangerous thing she could say — is that a United States lieutenant colonel in the United States Army is compromised and is an asset of Russia.” In recent days, other Democrats have accused Gabbard without evidence of being a “Russian asset.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, has claimed, without offering details, that Gabbard is in Russian President Vladimir “Putin’s pocket.” Mullin and others say the criticism from Democrats is rooted in the fact that Gabbard left their party and has become a Trump ally. Democrats say they worry that Gabbard’s selection as national intelligence chief endangers ties with allies and gives Russia a win. Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat just elected to the Senate, said he would not describe Gabbard as a Russian asset, but said she had “very questionable judgment.” “The problem is if our foreign allies don’t trust the head of our intelligence agencies, they’ll stop sharing information with us,” Schiff said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Gabbard in 2022 endorsed one of Russia’s justifications for invading Ukraine : the existence of dozens of U.S.-funded biolabs working on some of the world’s nastiest pathogens. The labs are part of an international effort to control outbreaks and stop bioweapons, but Moscow claimed Ukraine was using them to create deadly bioweapons. Gabbard said she just voiced concerns about protecting the labs. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri, said he thought it was “totally ridiculous” that Gabbard was being cast as a Russian asset for having different political views. “It’s insulting. It’s a slur, quite frankly. There’s no evidence that she’s a asset of another country,” he said on NBC. Sen. James Lankford, another Oklahoma Republican, acknowledged having “lots of questions” for Gabbard as the Senate considers her nomination to lead the intelligence services. Lankford said on NBC that he wants to ask Gabbard about her meeting with Assad and some of her past comments about Russia. “We want to know what the purpose was and what the direction for that was. As a member of Congress, we want to get a chance to talk about past comments that she’s made and get them into full context,” Lankford said.
FORT MYERS, FL. — The Siena College men’s basketball team is set for its third straight Thanksgiving Week Tournament in the Sunshine State. The Saints continue play in the Fort Myers Tip-Off with a pair of Palms Division matinees Monday and Tuesday at Suncoast Credit Union Arena on the campus of Florida SouthWestern State College. [...]has said its name can be pronounced with either an “aitch” or a “haitch” because it respects “diversity” and different accents. The UK’s tax, payments and customs authority declared itself agnostic over the pronunciation of the letter H, in a move that will fuel a long-standing linguistic debate. Recent HMRC adverts have featured actors deploying both pronunciations of the letter while referring to the tax body. HMRC told The Telegraph this was because it respects different speech habits, adding that the government department has no official policy on how to pronounce its name. A spokesman said: “At HMRC we respect diversity, and this extends to idiolect, accent and pronunciation.” It puts the tax body at odds with the Cambridge Dictionary, whose online pronunciation guide advises that the word HMRC should be said with an “aitch”. Both the Cambridge Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary’s websites also feature audio clips ruling that the letter H is pronounced the same way. Discussion over how to pronounce the letter H in the English language has long rendered it the most contentious letter in the alphabet. “Aitch” is the standard British English pronunciation, and traditionalists insist it remains the correct one despite signs that have broadened variation. Earlier this year, Amol Rajan, host of University Challenge, relented in line with convention after a lifetime of saying “haitch” following complaints from viewers. The TV presenter found himself at the centre of a linguistic storm, later writing in an article for the BBC that he was incorrect to have been adding emphasis on the letter. “All my life I’ve pronounced it ‘haitch’, dimly aware that I was getting it ‘wrong’. Everyone I grew up with says ‘haitch’. My mates say ‘haitch’. But, dear reader, I’m here to tell you: it’s ‘aitch’,” wrote Mr Rajan. The linguistic history of the letter H is disputed, but the Oxford English Dictionary says it can be traced through the . It adds that in more modern times, the treatment of the letter has come to be regarded as a “kind of shibboleth of social position” or background. In Northern Ireland, for example, Catholics typically pronounce it with an aspirated H while Protestants usually say “aitch”. A British Library project in 2010 that asked volunteers to record a chapter from the Mr Men book Mr Tickle also suggested that young people in Britain are now increasingly likely to say “haitch”. Experts have claimed this may be a form of “hypercorrection” in accents that often drop the letter H when used at the beginning of words. Ironically, while referring to the letter itself as “aitch” has typically been associated with the middle- and upper-classes, H-dropping at the start of words is considered one of the standard markers of a cockney accent. The “distinctly aspirated” H at the start of words fell out of favour for a while following the Middle English period, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, explaining why Americans still drop it for some words such as “herb”. Recent defendants of pronouncing the letter H as “haitch” claim it may be useful for children. Kate Burridge, a professor of linguistics at Monash University, and Catherine McBride, a University of Freiburg fellow, said in a 2018 article for The Conversation that referring to the letter as “haitch” means children have an “easier time learning its correspondence as they learn to read”. Others have suggested it makes it simpler to spell out things like car registrations over the phone, with “haitch” less easily confused with the number eight. There is no reliable data about how widespread the “haitch” pronunciation is across Britain, but linguists have claimed it appears to be growing – especially among young people. HMRC videos that used social media influencers to raise awareness about filing tax claims were more likely to say “haitch” rather than “aitch”. But some young people appear to be bucking the trend towards “haitch”, including 25-year-old , who goes by the stage name Aitch. He said in a recent interview that it was “just American people” that mispronounce his name, but that “some people write Haitch sometimes”. Aitch added: “My aunty Gina, she gave me that nickname and she’s the one that spelt it like that for me”.
WASHINGTON -- A tax break for millionaires, and almost everyone else. An end to the COVID-19-era government subsidies that some Americans have used to purchase health insurance. Limits to food stamps, including for women and children, and other safety net programs. Rollbacks to Biden-era green energy programs. Mass deportations. Government job cuts to "drain the swamp." Having won the election and sweeping to power, Republicans are planning an ambitious 100-day agenda with President-elect Donald Trump in the White House and GOP lawmakers in a congressional majority to accomplish their policy goals. Atop the list is the plan to renew some $4 trillion in expiring GOP tax cuts, a signature domestic achievement of Trump's first term and an issue that may define his return to the White House. "What we're focused on right now is being ready, Day 1," said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., after meeting recently with GOP colleagues to map out the road ahead. SEE ALSO | Trump, Trudeau meet at Mar-a-Lago amid tariff threats The policies emerging will revive long-running debates about America's priorities, its gaping income inequities and the proper size and scope of its government, especially in the face of mounting federal deficits now approaching $2 trillion a year. The discussions will test whether Trump and his Republican allies can achieve the kinds of real-world outcomes wanted, needed or supported when voters gave the party control of Congress and the White House. "The past is really prologue here," said Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, recalling the 2017 tax debate. Trump's first term became defined by those tax cuts, which were approved by Republicans in Congress and signed into law only after their initial campaign promise to "repeal and replace" Democratic President Barack Obama's health care law sputtered, failing with the famous thumbs-down vote by then-Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. The GOP majority in Congress quickly pivoted to tax cuts, assembling and approving the multitrillion-dollar package by year's end. In the time since Trump signed those cuts into law, the big benefits have accrued to higher-income households. The top 1 percent - those making nearly $1 million and above - received about a $60,000 income tax cut, while those with lower incomes got as little as a few hundred dollars, according to the Tax Policy Center and other groups. Some people ended up paying about the same. "The big economic story in the U.S. is soaring income inequality," said Owens. "And that is actually, interestingly, a tax story." In preparation for Trump's return, Republicans in Congress have been meeting privately for months and with the president-elect to go over proposals to extend and enhance those tax breaks, some of which would otherwise expire in 2025. That means keeping in place various tax brackets and a standardized deduction for individual earners, along with the existing rates for so-called pass-through entities such as law firms, doctors' offices or businesses that take their earnings as individual income. Typically, the price tag for the tax cuts would be prohibitive. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that keeping the expiring provisions in place would add some $4 trillion to deficits over a decade. Adding to that, Trump wants to include his own priorities in the tax package, including lowering the corporate rate, now at 21% from the 2017 law, to 15%, and doing away with individual taxes on tips and overtime pay. But Avik Roy, president of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, said blaming the tax cuts for the nation's income inequality is "just nonsense" because tax filers up and down the income ladder benefited. He instead points to other factors, including the Federal Reserve's historically low interest rates that enable borrowing, including for the wealthy, on the cheap. "Americans don't care if Elon Musk is rich," Roy said. "What they care about is, what are you doing to make their lives better?" Typically, lawmakers want the cost of a policy change to be offset by budget revenue or reductions elsewhere. But in this case, there's almost no agreed-upon revenue raisers or spending cuts in the annual $6 trillion budget that could cover such a whopping price tag. Instead, some Republicans have argued that the tax breaks will pay for themselves, with the trickle-down revenue from potential economic growth. Trump's tariffs floated this past week could provide another source of offsetting revenue. Some Republicans argue there's precedent for simply extending the tax cuts without offsetting the costs because they are not new changes but existing federal policy. "If you're just extending current law, we're not raising taxes or lowering taxes," said Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, the incoming chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, on Fox News. He said the criticism that tax cuts would add to the deficit is "ridiculous." There is a difference between taxes and spending, he said, "and we just have to get that message out to America." At the same time, the new Congress will also be considering spending reductions, particularly to food stamps and health care programs, goals long sought by conservatives as part of the annual appropriations process. One cut is almost certain to fall on the COVID-19-era subsidy that helps defray the cost of health insurance for people who buy their own policies via the Affordable Care Act exchange. The extra health care subsidies were extended through 2025 in Democratic President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, which also includes various green energy tax breaks that Republicans want to roll back. The House Democratic leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, scoffed at the Republican claim that they've won "some big, massive mandate" - when in fact, the House Democrats and Republicans essentially fought to a draw in the November election, with the GOP eking out a narrow majority. "This notion about some mandate to make massive, far-right extreme policy changes, it doesn't exist - it doesn't exist," Jeffries said. Republicans are planning to use a budgetary process, called reconciliation, that allows majority passage in Congress, essentially along party lines, without the threat of a filibuster in the Senate that can stall out a bill's advance unless 60 of the 100 senators agree. It's the same process Democrats have used when they had the power in Washington to approve the Inflation Reduction Act and Obama's health care law over GOP objections. Republicans have been here before with Trump and control of Congress, which is no guarantee they will be able to accomplish their goals, particularly in the face of resistance from Democrats. Still, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who has been working closely with Trump on the agenda, has promised a "breakneck" pace in the first 100 days "because we have a lot to fix." ___ The story has been corrected to reflect that Lindsay Owens of the Groundwork Collaborative spoke of 'income inequality,' not 'income equality.' The video in the player above is from a previous report.FTV Capital Acquires Israeli Maritime AI Leader Windward for $270 Million in Cross-Border DealDow Janes Launches New Website to Empower Women+ on Their Financial Journeys
Eagles seek 7th straight win while Rams try to keep pace in crowded NFC West raceCerity Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Ford Motor ( NYSE:F – Free Report ) by 10.8% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 324,052 shares of the auto manufacturer’s stock after purchasing an additional 31,707 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Ford Motor were worth $3,422,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Olistico Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ford Motor during the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new position in Ford Motor during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Ford Motor during the second quarter worth approximately $27,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ford Motor in the second quarter worth $28,000. Finally, Kimelman & Baird LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ford Motor in the 2nd quarter valued at $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.74% of the company’s stock. Analysts Set New Price Targets A number of brokerages recently weighed in on F. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Ford Motor from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $16.00 to $12.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. StockNews.com upgraded Ford Motor from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Barclays reduced their price target on Ford Motor from $14.00 to $13.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $10.00 price objective on shares of Ford Motor in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Ford Motor in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $12.02. Ford Motor Stock Performance Ford Motor stock opened at $11.14 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.34, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 0.98. Ford Motor has a 12 month low of $9.49 and a 12 month high of $14.85. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $10.86 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $11.43. The company has a market cap of $44.25 billion, a PE ratio of 12.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.62. Ford Motor ( NYSE:F – Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The auto manufacturer reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.02. Ford Motor had a net margin of 1.93% and a return on equity of 16.16%. The business had revenue of $46.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $45.13 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.39 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Ford Motor will post 1.81 earnings per share for the current year. Ford Motor Announces Dividend The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, November 7th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.39%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 7th. Ford Motor’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.18%. Ford Motor Profile ( Free Report ) Ford Motor Company develops, delivers, and services a range of Ford trucks, commercial cars and vans, sport utility vehicles, and Lincoln luxury vehicles worldwide. It operates through Ford Blue, Ford Model e, and Ford Pro; Ford Next; and Ford Credit segments. The company sells Ford and Lincoln vehicles, service parts, and accessories through distributors and dealers, as well as through dealerships to commercial fleet customers, daily rental car companies, and governments. Recommended Stories Want to see what other hedge funds are holding F? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Ford Motor ( NYSE:F – Free Report ). Receive News & Ratings for Ford Motor Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Ford Motor and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .
A contractor has been released from the hospital after sustaining serious injuries in at a Canton asphalt processing facility, according to a company spokesperson. The fire occurred shortly before 4:30 p.m. in the 1500 block of Ponca Street. Baltimore Police and firefighters arrived to find visible fire and heavy smoke coming from a GAF asphalt processing plant. One person sustained serious injuries in the fire while all other employees were reported safe, according to the statement from a GAF spokesperson Sunday. GAF’s statement explained that the victim was a contracted worker at the facility who has since been treated and released from the hospital. The cause of the fire is under investigation, but officials believe the fire started after asphalt leaked onto pipes.Some tech industry leaders are pushing the incoming Trump administration to increase visas for highly skilled workers from other nations. Related Articles National Politics | Trump threat to immigrant health care tempered by economic hopes National Politics | In states that ban abortion, social safety net programs often fail families National Politics | Court rules Georgia lawmakers can subpoena Fani Willis for information related to her Trump case National Politics | New 2025 laws hit hot topics from AI in movies to rapid-fire guns National Politics | Trump has pressed for voting changes. GOP majorities in Congress will try to make that happen The heart of the argument is, for America to remain competitive, the country needs to expand the number of skilled visas it gives out. The previous Trump administration did not increase the skilled visa program, instead clamping down on visas for students and educated workers, increasing denial rates. Not everyone in corporate America thinks the skilled worker program is great. Former workers at IT company Cognizant recently won a federal class-action lawsuit that said the company favored Indian employees over Americans from 2013 to 2022. A Bloomberg investigation found Cognizant, and other similar outsourcing companies, mainly used its skilled work visas for lower-level positions. Workers alleged Cognizant preferred Indian workers because they could be paid less and were more willing to accept inconvenient or less-favorable assignments. Question: Should the U.S. increase immigration levels for highly skilled workers? Caroline Freund, UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy YES: Innovation is our superpower and it relies on people. Sourcing talent from 8 billion people in the world instead of 330 million here makes sense. Nearly half our Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children. Growing them also relies on expanding our skilled workforce. The cap on skilled-worker visas has hardly changed since the computer age started. With AI on the horizon, attracting and building talent is more important than ever. Kelly Cunningham, San Diego Institute for Economic Research YES: After years of openly allowing millions of undocumented entrants into the country, why is there controversy over legally increasing somewhat the number having desirable skills? Undocumented immigration significantly impacts lower skill level jobs and wages competing with domestic workers at every skill level. Why should special cases be made against those having higher skills? Could they just not walk across the border anyway, why make it more inconvenient to those with desirable skills? James Hamilton, UC San Diego YES: Knowledge and technology are key drivers of the U.S. economy. Students come from all over the world to learn at U.S. universities, and their spending contributed $50 billion to U.S. exports last year. Technological advantage is what keeps us ahead of the rest of the world. Highly skilled immigrants contribute much more in taxes than they receive in public benefits. The skills immigrants bring to America can make us all better off. Norm Miller, University of San Diego YES: According to Forbes, the majority of billion-dollar startups were founded by foreigners. I’ve interviewed dozens of data analysts and programmers from Berkeley, UCSD, USD and a few other schools and 75% of them are foreign. There simply are not enough American graduates to fill the AI and data mining related jobs now exploding in the U.S. If we wish to remain a competitive economy, we need highly skilled and bright immigrants to come here and stay. David Ely, San Diego State University YES: Being able to employ highly skilled workers from a larger pool of candidates would strengthen the competitiveness of U.S. companies by increasing their capacity to perform research and innovate. This would boost the country’s economic output. Skilled workers from other nations that cannot remain in the U.S. will find jobs working for foreign rivals. The demand for H-1B visas far exceeds the current cap of 85,000, demonstrating a need to modify this program. Phil Blair, Manpower YES: Every country needs skilled workers, at all levels, to grow its economy. We should take advantage of the opportunity these workers provide our employers who need these skills. It should be blended into our immigration policies allowing for both short and long term visas. Gary London, London Moeder Advisors YES: San Diego is a premiere example of how highly skilled workers from around the globe enrich a community and its regional economy. Of course Visa levels need to be increased. But let’s go further. Tie visas and immigration with a provision that those who are admitted and educated at a U.S. university be incentivized, or even required, to be employed in the U.S. in exchange for their admittance. Bob Rauch, R.A. Rauch & Associates NO: While attracting high-skilled immigrants can fill critical gaps in sectors like technology, health care and advanced manufacturing, increasing high-skilled immigration could displace American workers and drive down wages in certain industries. There are already many qualified American workers available for some of these jobs. We should balance the need for specialized skills with the impact on the domestic workforce. I believe we can begin to increase the number of visas after a careful review of abuse. Austin Neudecker, Weave Growth YES: We should expand skilled visas to drive innovation and economic growth. Individuals who perform high-skilled work in labor-restricted industries or graduate from respected colleges with relevant degrees should be prioritized for naturalization. We depend on immigration for GDP growth, tax revenue, research, and so much more. Despite the abhorrent rhetoric and curtailing of visas in the first term, I hope the incoming administration can be persuaded to enact positive changes to a clearly flawed system. Chris Van Gorder, Scripps Health YES: But it should be based upon need, not politics. There are several industries that have or could have skilled workforce shortages, especially if the next administration tightens immigration as promised and expected. Over the years, there have been nursing shortages that have been met partially by trained and skilled nurses from other countries. The physician shortage is expected to get worse in the years to come. So, this visa program may very well be needed. Jamie Moraga, Franklin Revere NO: While skilled immigration could boost our economy and competitiveness, the U.S. should prioritize developing our domestic workforce. Hiring foreign nationals in sensitive industries or government-related work, especially in advanced technology or defense, raises security concerns. A balanced approach could involve targeted increases in non-sensitive high-demand fields coupled with investment in domestic STEM education and training programs. This could address immediate needs while strengthening the long-term STEM capabilities of the American workforce. Not participating this week: Alan Gin, University of San DiegoHaney Hong, San Diego County Taxpayers AssociationRay Major, economist Have an idea for an Econometer question? Email me at phillip.molnar@sduniontribune.com . Follow me on Threads: @phillip020
Yahoo Sports fantasy analyst Tera Roberts offers up a trio of players for fantasy managers to consider adding for Week 13.PARIS – French President Emmanuel Macron’s office announced a new government on Monday, after the previous Cabinet collapsed in a historic vote prompted by fighting over the country’s budget. The government, put together by newly named Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, includes members of the outgoing conservative-dominated team and new figures from centrist or left-leaning backgrounds. Coming up with a 2025 budget will be the most urgent order of business. The new government enters office after months of political deadlock and crisis and pressure from financial markets to reduce France’s colossal debt. Macron has vowed to remain in office until his term ends in 2027, but has struggled to govern since snap elections in the summer left no single party with a majority in the National Assembly. Since his appointment 10 days ago, Bayrou has held talks with political leaders from various parties in search of the right balance for the new government. Some critics on Monday were angry at Bayrou for consulting with Marine Le Pen’s far-right party, and some argue the government looks too much like the old one to win lawmakers’ trust. Former Prime Minister Michel Barnier resigned this month following a no-confidence vote prompted by budget disputes in the National Assembly, leaving France without a functioning government. Le Pen played a key role in Barnier’s downfall by joining her National Rally party’s forces with the left to pass the no-confidence motion. Bayrou will need support from moderate legislators on the right and left to keep his government alive. Banker Eric Lombard will be finance minister, a crucial post when France is working to fulfill its promises to European Union partners to reduce its deficit, estimated to reach 6% of its gross domestic product this year. Lombard briefly worked as an adviser to a Socialist finance minister in the 1990s. Bayrou has said he supports tax hikes championed by his predecessor, but it’s not clear how the new government can find the right calculation for a budget that satisfies a majority of lawmakers angry over spending cuts. Hard-right Bruno Retailleau stays on as interior minister, with responsibility for France’s security and migration policy. Sebastien Lecornu, who has been at the forefront of France’s military support for Ukraine, remains defence minister, while Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, who has travelled extensively in the Mideast in recent weeks, also retains his post. Among new faces are two former prime ministers. Manuel Valls will be minister for overseas affairs, and Elisabeth Borne takes the education ministry.Hyundai IONIQ 5 Sets New World RecordSocietal inequality may reduce brain health: Study
Tokyo: Japan's Nikkei index fell at the end of trading today, amid weak trading activity during the holiday season, and after the release of the minutes of the central bank's October meeting, which showed that policymakers preferred to continue raising interest rates. The Tokyo Stock Exchange reported that the 225-issue Nikkei index ended today's session down 0.32 percent, or 124.49 points, to reach the index 39,036.85 points, while the broader Topix index closed marginally higher by 0.02 percent, or 0.52 points, to close at 2,727.26 points. Honda stock was the best performer within the Nikkei, rising 12.22 percent, or 156 points, to 1,432.5 yen after the automaker yesterday revealed a plan to buy back shares worth 1.1 trillion yen (USD 7 billion), in addition to officially starting merger talks with Nissan. In terms of exchange rate, the US currency stabilized against its Japanese counterpart at 157.10 yen in morning trading.
