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VVS among winners at Downtown Classic in UticaTORONTO, Dec. 27, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Abaxx Technologies Inc., (CBOE: ABXX) (OTCQX: ABXXF) (“ ” or the “ ”), a financial software and market infrastructure company, indirect majority shareholder of Abaxx Singapore Pte Ltd. (“ ”), the owner of Abaxx Commodity Exchange and Clearinghouse (individually, “ ” and “ ”), and producer of the SmarterMarketsTM Podcast, today announces that it has filed an early warning report in respect of MineHub Technologies Inc. (“ ”). On December 27, 2024, pursuant to a share purchase agreement between Abaxx and MineHub dated December 3, 2024 (the “ ”), Abaxx acquired 8,810,000 common shares of MineHub (“ ”). Prior to the closing of the SPA (the “ ”), Abaxx held 8,333,333 MineHub Shares representing 10.83% of the issued and outstanding MineHub Shares on an undiluted and a partially diluted basis. Immediately after Closing, Abaxx held 17,143,333 MineHub Shares, representing 19.87% of the issued and outstanding MineHub Shares on an undiluted and a partially diluted basis. As a result of the MineHub Shares issued in connection with the SPA, Abaxx’s holdings have changed by more than 2% on a partially diluted basis since the filing of its previous early warning report. The MineHub Shares held by Abaxx are for investment purposes. In accordance with applicable securities laws, Abaxx may, from time to time and at any time, acquire additional shares and/or other equity, debt or other securities or instruments of MineHub in the open market or otherwise, and reserves the right to dispose of any or all of such securities in the open market or otherwise at any time and from time to time, and to engage in similar transactions with respect to such securities, the whole depending on market conditions, the business and prospects of MineHub and other relevant factors. This disclosure is issued pursuant to National Instrument 62-103 – , which also requires an early warning report to be filed with the applicable securities regulators containing additional information with respect to the foregoing matters. A copy of the early warning report will be filed by Abaxx under MineHub’s profile on SEDAR+ at or may be obtained at Abaxx’s head office address at 110 Young St., Suite 1601, Toronto, Ontario M5C 1T4. The MineHub Shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol “MHUB”. MineHub is a corporation existing under the laws of British Columbia with its head office at Suite 918 – 1030 West Georgia St., Vancouver, British Columbia, V6E 2Y3, Canada. Abaxx is building Smarter Markets — markets empowered by better financial technology and market infrastructure to address our biggest challenges, including the energy transition. In addition to developing and deploying financial technologies that make communication, trade, and transactions easier and more secure, Abaxx is an indirect majority-owner of subsidiaries Abaxx Exchange and Abaxx Clearing, recognized by MAS as a “recognised market operator” (RMO) and “approved clearing house” (ACH), respectively. Abaxx Exchange and Abaxx Clearing are a Singapore-based commodity futures exchange and clearinghouse, introducing centrally cleared, physically deliverable commodities futures and derivatives to provide better price discovery and risk management tools for the commodities critical to our transition to a lower-carbon economy. For more information please visit , and . Abaxx Technologies Inc. Investor Relations Team Tel: +1 246 271 0082 E-mail:UTICA — The Verona-Verona-Sherrill boys basketball team gradually pulled away in the second half Friday. The Red Devils outscored Carthage 26-10 in the second half to earn a 51-32 victory in the third of eight varsity games as part of the Downtown Classic at the Nexus Center. Degaragen Paradis led VVS with 12 points and added seven rebounds to earn Player of the Game honors. Dylan Donegan had 11 points and four rebounds. Cormac Sherwood (team-best 10 rebounds) and Ryan Drummond each added eight points. The Downtown Classic, in its second year being staged a the multi-million dollar sports venue in Utica, runs through Monday and includes multiple Section III teams. There are also games scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at Mohawk Valley Community College. For more information, visit downtownclassicutica.com . VVS led 25-22 at the half Friday. In the third quarter, the Red Devils pushed the lead to seven with about four minutes remaining on an inside basketball by Drummond following an in-bounds play. The Red Devils led by eight after three quarters following a three by Danny Knapp. The lead went over double-digits early in the fourth quarter when Knapp completed a three-point play after being fouled. The team outscored the Comets 14-3 in the quarter. Carthage was led by Michael Ventiquattro, who had 12 points. VVS (2-5) is scheduled to play Oneida at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 5, at Hamilton College in Clinton. Holland Patent falls Skaneateles had three players score 20 or more points Friday to earn a 76-61 win over Holland Patent in another Downtown Classic game at Nexus Center. HP cut the deficit down to seven points with about 2:30 to play on a floater by Caleb Savery (team-best 20 points). However, the Lakers responded with a 3-pointer to hold off the Golden Knights (2-4), who have lost three consecutive games. Joe Delmonico led all scorers with 22 points (including three 3-pointers) and Jack Peenstra and Reid Danforth each added 20 points for Skaneateles (6-2). The Golden Knights are scheduled to meet Clinton at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Nexus Center as part of the Downtown Classic. Third quarter helps Hamilton The Hamilton boys basketball team outscored Sackets Harbor 23-9 in the third quarter to pull away for an eventual 62-42 victory as part of the Downtown Classic at Nexus. Hamilton led 22-19 at halftime and 45-28 after three quarters to hand the Patriots their first loss of the season. The team was ranked No. 3 in Class D in the most recent state poll. Jake Peters had 17 points for Sackets Harbor. Marcus Castine added 14 points and 15 rebounds. No stats were immediately available for Hamilton, which is 6-0 under longtime coach Tom Blackford. The Emerald Knights are No. 3 in Class C in the state poll. Hamilton is set to play at Sauquoit Valley at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 7. Frankfort-Schuyler wins The Frankfort-Schuyler boys basketball jumped out to a 15-2 first-quarter lead and led 33-12 at the half en route to a 72-40 win over Dolgeville in the first varsity game Friday at the Downtown Classic. Five players scored in double figures for Frankfort (3-1) with Jerome Bowen leading the way with 17 points. Philip Tangorra had a double-double with 10 points and 15 rebounds. Marquis Brown finished with 12 points, Reece Bowen had 11 and Lionell Coulthurst had 10. Kaden Murphy had a double-double for Dolgeville (3-3), totaling 16 points and 12 rebounds. Theo Williams had 12 points. Frankfort-Schuyler is set to play Duanesburg at 11:15 a.m. Sunday as part of the Downtown Classic. Dolgeville’s next game is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 3, at Westmoreland. Oneida suffers setback Austin DeGroat scored 32 points for Oneida, however, visiting Indian River had five players score in double figures to secure a 66-58 victory on Friday. It is at least third game of 30 or more points for DeGroat with the Express (1-4). Justis Brown added 20 points for the team. Mason Rowley led with 19 points for Indian River, which led 37-32 at the half. Reagan Ross added 14. Oneida is set to play visiting Holland Patent in a non-league game at 11 a.m. Tuesday. Oriskany tops Stockbridge The Oriskany boys basketball outscored Stockbridge Valley 39-23 in the second half to earn a 60-50 victory on Friday in the Madison Tournament. No stats were provided for Oriskany (4-1), which is scheduled to play again Saturday in the tournament. Blake Knights edged In girls basketball, Jamesville-DeWitt limited Rome Free Academy to five points in the first quarter and led 23-17 at the half to earn a 46-41 win on Friday at Bishop Grimes in Syracuse. No stats were available for RFA (3-3), which is set to play Henninger in a non-league game at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 3.

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The gunman who stalked and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fled New York City by bus, police officials told CNN on Friday. Video of the suspected shooter leaving the scene of the shooting Wednesday showed him riding a bicycle to Central Park and later taking a taxi cab to a bus depot, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told CNN. Here's the latest: The gunman who killed the CEO of the largest U.S. health insurer may have fled the city on a bus, New York City police officials told CNN on Friday. Video of the suspected shooter leaving the scene of the shooting Wednesday showed him riding a bicycle to Central Park and later taking a taxi cab to a bus depot, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told CNN. “We have reason to believe that the person in question has left New York City,” Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. The gunman who killed the CEO of the largest U.S. health insurer made sure to wear a mask during the shooting yet left a trail of evidence in view of the nation’s biggest city and its network of security cameras that have aided authorities piecing together his movements and his identity. A law enforcement official said Friday that new surveillance footage shows the suspect riding the subway and visiting establishments in Manhattan and provided more clues about his actions in the days before he ambushed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson . The gunman’s whereabouts and identity remain unknown Friday, as did the reason for Wednesday’s killing. New York City police say evidence firmly points to it being a targeted attack . ▶ Read more about the search for the gunman In many companies, investor meetings like the one UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was walking to when he was fatally shot are viewed as very risky because details on the location and who will be speaking are highly publicized. “It gives people an opportunity to arrive well in advance and take a look at the room, take a look at how people would probably come and go out of a location,” said Dave Komendat, president of DSKomendat Risk Management Services, which is based in the greater Seattle area. Some firms respond by beefing up security. For example, tech companies routinely require everyone attending a major event, such as Apple’s annual unveiling of the next iPhone or a shareholder meeting, to go through airport-style security checkpoints before entering. Others forgo in-person meetings with shareholders. ▶ Read more about how companies protect their leaders Those images include New York’s subway system, a law enforcement official said. In establishments where the person was captured on camera, he always appeared to pay with cash, the official said. The official wasn’t authorized to discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. — Mike Balsamo Medica, a Minnesota-based nonprofit health care firm that serves 1.5 million customers in 12 states, said it’s temporarily closing all six locations. The firm has offices in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska and North Dakota, and employs about 3,000 people. Employees will work from home, Medica spokesman Greg Bury said in an email Friday. “The safety of Medica employees is our top priority and we have increased security both for all of our employees,” a statement from Medica said. “Although we have received no specific threats related to our campuses, our office buildings will be temporarily closed out of an abundance of caution.” Bury also said biographical information on the company’s executives was taken down from its website as a precaution. The insurer cited the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in its announcement about the Dec. 12 event. “All of us at Centene are deeply saddened by Brian Thompson’s death and want to express our support for all of those affected. Health insurance is a big industry and a small community; many members of the CenTeam crossed paths with Brian during their careers,” Centene CEO Sarah M. London said in a news release. “He was a person with a deep sense of empathy and clear passion for improving access to care. Our hearts are with his family and his colleagues during this difficult time.” Centene Corp. has grown in recent years to become the largest insurer in Medicaid, the state- and federally funded program that covers care for people with low incomes. Insurers manage Medicaid coverage for states, and Centene has more than 13 million people enrolled in that coverage. The insurance company also said it’s focused on ensuring the safety of employees and assisting investigators. “While our hearts are broken, we have been touched by the huge outpouring of kindness and support in the hours since this horrific crime took place,” the company said. But he said Friday that he’s confident police will arrest the shooter. “We are on the right road to apprehend him and bring him to justice,” Adams said on TV station WPIX. Later, it removed their names and biographies entirely. Police and federal agents have been collecting information from Greyhound in an attempt to identify the suspect and are working to determine whether he purchased the ticket to New York in late November, a law enforcement official said. Investigators were also trying to obtain additional information from a cellphone recovered from a pedestrian plaza through which the shooter fled. The fatal shooting of Brian Thompson while walking alone on a New York City sidewalk has put a spotlight on the widely varied approaches companies take to protect their leaders against threats. Experts say today’s political, economic and technological climate is only going to make the job of evaluating threats against executives and taking action to protect them even more difficult, experts say. Some organizations have a protective intelligence group that uses digital tools such as machine learning or artificial intelligence to comb through online comments to detect threats not only on social media platforms such as X but also on the dark web, says Komendat. They look for what’s being said about the company, its employees and its leadership to uncover risks. ▶ Read more about the steps companies take to protect their leadership Police said Thursday they found a water bottle and protein bar wrapper from a trash can near the scene of the ambush and think the suspect bought them from a Starbucks minutes before the shooting. The items were being tested by the city’s medical examiner.

A recent study that recommended toxic chemicals in black plastic products be immediately thrown away included a math error that significantly overstated the risks of contamination, but its authors are standing by their conclusions and warn against using such products. Published in the peer-reviewed journal , experts from the nonprofit Toxic-Free Future said they detected flame retardants and other toxic chemicals in 85% of 203 items made of , take-out containers, children’s toys and hair accessories. The study initially said the potential exposure to chemicals found in one of the kitchen utensils approached the minimum levels the Environmental Protection Agency deemed a health risk. But in an update to the study, the authors say they made an error in their calculations and the real levels were “an order of magnitude lower” than the EPA’s thresholds. The error was discovered by Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society in Canada. Related Articles In a blog post, Schwarcz explained that the Toxin-Free Future scientists miscalculated the lower end of what the EPA considered a health risk through a multiplication error. Instead of humans being potentially exposed to a dose of toxic chemicals in black plastic utensils near the minimum level that the EPA deems a health risk, it’s actually about one-tenth of that. Though Schwarcz said the risks outlined in the study aren’t enough for him to discard his black plastic kitchen items if he had them, he agreed with the authors that flame retardants shouldn’t be in these products in the first place. “The math error does not impact the study’s findings, conclusions or recommendations,” said Megan Liu, a co-author of the study who is the science and policy manager for . She added that any traces of flame retardants or toxic chemicals in cooking utensils should be concerning for the public. Flame retardants are getting into commonly used items because black-colored products are being made from recycled electronic waste, such as discarded television sets and computers, that frequently contain the additives. When they’re heated, the flame retardants and other toxic chemicals can migrate out. If you’re wondering whether your old black plastic spoon or other utensils are a part of this group, Liu shared some more guidance. It’s nearly impossible to know whether a black plastic product is contaminated. That’s because these products that include recycled e-waste don’t disclose a detailed list of all ingredients and contaminants in the product. Liu said it’s also unclear how many types of flame retardants are in these black plastic products. Some of the products that researchers tested in this recent study “had up to nine different harmful chemicals and harmful flame retardants in them,” she said. Anytime you’re looking for the type of recycled plastic a product is made of you’re going to look for a number within the chasing arrows (that form a triangle) logo. Recycling symbols are numbered 1 to 7 and we commonly associate the numbers with what we can toss in our blue recycling bins. The polyethylene terephthalate, high-density polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), low-density polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene or Styrofoam, and miscellaneous plastics (including polycarbonate, polylactide, acrylic, acrylonitrile butadiene, styrene, fiberglass and nylon). The study found higher levels of toxic flame retardants in polystyrene plastic, which is labeled with the number 6, said Liu. There isn’t a definitively timeline of when recycled electronic-waste started to be incorporated into black plastic products specifically, but e-waste started to get recycled in the early 2000s, Liu said. The way computers, cellphones, stereos, printers and copiers were being disposed of previously was to simply add them to a landfill without reusing salvageable parts. But as the National Conference of State Legislatures notes, electronics production required a significant amount of resources that could be recovered through recycling. Recovering resources such as metals, plastics and glass through recycling used a fraction of the energy needed to mine new materials. However, the study pointed out that flame retardants and other chemical contaminates have been detected in and near e-waste recycling facilities, in indoor air and dust at formal e-waste recycling facilities in Canada, China, Spain and the U.S. It also noted contamination in soil samples surrounding e-waste recycling sites in China and Vietnam. The safest nontoxic material options for kitchen utensil are wood and stainless steel.

The following takes place between March 1980 and June 1981. Part One: a seventh-floor hotel room in Knightsbridge. Tom Petty is sitting at a table drinking Coke and wishing it was Jack Daniel’s. He’s wearing an American Confederate jacket with one white star on the epaulette. He’s got a bone structure, straw-blond hair and a smile like a Gainesville gator. He looks androgynous and he can be ruthless. Like he was on March 7 and 8 at the Hammersmith Odeon when he berated the audience after an hour of polite British reserve with the taunt: “Are you all on fucking Mandrax?” And then slays them with . It’s a riot now. His most recent album, is at No.2 in the US chart but he can’t shift Pink Floyd off that pesky Wall. He also has two singles in the Top 30: , written for J Geils Band – producer Jimmy Iovine would nix that – and , possibly his greatest song to that date. A third, , is in waiting, buoyed by the line So, damn the torpedoes and full steam ahead, as Rear Admiral David Glasgow Farragut ordered at the battle of Mobile Bay before scuppering the CSS Tennessee. In showbiz parlance, Tom Petty has arrived, with all that entails: the cover of , features in and what is euphemistically termed ‘heavy’ management. It wasn’t always like this. Petty and his boys languished at Shelter Records from 1974 to 1977 when they were critical darlings, especially in the UK. The label, co-owned by Leon Russell and Denny Cordell, incorrigible rogues both, had a funky backwoods image, a small roster of idiosyncratic artists and homely promotional values that suited but sank Dwight Twilley without trace. Petty liked the ambience but not the lack of ambition. He didn’t want shelter. He wanted the great wide open. The Heartbreakers tour their debut album in Britain during the height of the new wave and find themselves labelled in a similar category, with Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe singing their praises. It’s a backhanded compliment that recognises Petty’s talents for offering something new by bracketing him with the punks like he’s spent his formative years in a mythical American garage, when his tastes are for classic LA rock, , Neil Young, Atlantic soul and Stax R&B. But hey, anything that’s rock’n’roll’s fine. The second album, , isn’t understood by the critics. More of the same, they moan. Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox! Throughout 1979, Petty is involved in a career-threatening lawsuit when Shelter sell their distribution to ABC, who promptly leap into MCA’s bed. Petty goes on strike. “I wasn’t consulted: no one asked me.” There are no tours and – an album recorded at a cost of $500,000 with Jimmy Iovine, ’s favourite engineer – is put on ice by the American High Courts when the singer declares himself bankrupt. Prior to its release, Petty’s artistic life was shrouded in compromise. “Our first album didn’t break for a year. We’d renegotiated a contract that said if Shelter was sold, we’d the right to leave. That happened. ABC sold Shelter to MCA in one of those huge mergers that happen every day. We assumed we were free. MCA said, ‘You ain’t.’ [This overlooks the fact that MCA already owned Shelter; they were simply in re-acquisition.] “Well, being kinda stubborn, I agreed to deliver an album but wouldn’t take any money from them. I spent my own money making it and it was a very expensive record to make. Partly because of the lawsuits, it took ten months. Then in the middle of recording, MCA sued me, Shelter sued me, my publishing company sued me and so did a few other smaller people. MCA’s a big dog for an individual to fight. I had nine lawyers contesting each case. While that’s happening, I’ve got constant offers from other record companies that would make me blush to tell you here. [Columbia apparently offered to shred his MCA contract and give him a multimillion-dollar sweetener.] “It reached the stage where it was almost funny. If I sing a song, do I own it? Me, the band and Jimmy Iovine were midway through and US Marshals were coming to the studio to steal the tapes, confiscate everything. We had to hide all the boxes, smuggle things in and out. I had to go on the stand and evade issues like, ‘What songs have you written? Recite the lyrics. Where are the tapes?’ [Petty’s guitar tech Bugs took them home every night, allowing Tom to plead ignorance in court as to their whereabouts without perjury.] All they could do was beat me up mentally until I did it their way. “Eventually I convinced the judge to let me go on a Californian tour so I could make some money. MCA’s lawyers were telling him I couldn’t do it as I’d incur debts and I couldn’t show any security. So I said to the judge, ‘But judge, there is no security in rock’n’roll,’ and he laughed and let me do it.” The resulting dates – the ‘Lawsuit Tour’ (also known to posterity as the ‘Why MCA? Tour’) – culminated in two sold-out shows in the Universal Amphitheatre, a large hall owned by, whom else, MCA. The executive director was one Danny Bramson, who intervened between artist and company and persuaded them to create the offshoot Backstreet Records (named after Bruce Springsteen’s song ) for Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers. “They didn’t realise how serious I was. I sold everything I had to get what was rightfully ours. It saved the group morale-wise because I never believed that record would make it.” But hits the target and goes double platinum. And after all, Tom is under the wing of the canniest Svengalis on the West Coast. He’s managed by Elliot Roberts (Joni Mitchell and Neil Young’s mentor since 1969) and his English partner, Tony Dimitriades, a former business manager/lawyer of The Kinks with ties to Claire Hamill. Such big hitters; MCA couldn’t be happier. Petty is their boy now (even if he is signed to a subsidiary label). He’s a 27-year-old whose first album has sold over one-and-a-half-million copies, and which will leave The Cars and The Knack in its wake. Any advance warnings regarding Petty’s tempestuous personality seem far-fetched now, alone together in a room. He’s on the wagon for the duration, having had his tonsils removed three weeks earlier, a nasty goodbye to useless nodules when you’re 28. In the US he’d thrown an almighty strop when shown his media schedule. “I fucked up a gig because I was out doing interviews,” he’d said. “All that talking cost me my fucking voice. That’s never going to happen again,” he told Dimitriades. “I should be all right for singing as long as I don’t have to do any fucking interviews in the next few days.” In London, he feels more secure. “I came here a bit before doc’s orders,” Petty drawls pleasantly. “Hospitals are dreadful places. I had three months of a really painful throat. I couldn’t smoke cigarettes, have a joint, nothing. I haven’t been that clear-headed for years. Some of my closest friends say it improved my character a great deal.” He chuckles and reaches for a Benson. “I can’t live like a boy scout. As Mark Twain said when they told him to give up cigarettes or die, ‘Life ain’t worth living without ’em.’” Close, but no cigar. I ask Petty if he has taken stock from the aftermath of the new bands. He professes a liking for Devo “in doses” and The Clash’s in its entirety. His tastes are orthodox but his reasoning is honest. “I’m out of touch, really. One of the bad things about this so-called success is if you go to see somebody, you can get bothered to the point where you don’t enjoy it... it’s an ordeal. I didn’t expect it to be quite as manic; people running after your car and crawling through your windows. It isn’t so bad; it’s what I always wanted, I guess. They don’t want to hurt you. “But if I go to a club, there’s so many music company types, so many LA scene makers, they can spoil your private life. If I see a new band, I find it hard to be objectively involved: it’s impossible to go somewhere and make up your own mind.” Generally he admits there is something in the air. “America’s come a long way. I’m proud. If I’m gonna wave the ole US banner, I admire Cheap Trick and for being loonier than anyone else. The main thing is you can go to towns which were dead three years ago, places like St Louis, and there’re hundreds of new bands all writing their own songs and all finding some kind of audience.” Petty shares Bruce Springsteen’s love for the romantic image and working-class sass. He’s smart enough to stay close to the street but not dumb enough to get stuck on it. “Well, we were the first American band who weren’t punk who were doing that stuff, three-minute songs that weren’t mush. Now the first album doesn’t sound weird at all. I said a lot of things then that I regret – I was always shooting my mouth off. I was a big fan of a lot of that though, I’ve always supported the lunatic fringe because that’s where it’s all gonna come from. When we were here, people always approached us as punk and we’d say, ‘No, we’re a rock’n’roll band’. We didn’t fit that category. Then all we heard was punk this, punk that and we said, ‘Fuck punk!’ “We decided to let our hair grow till it’s down to here and they’re starting to call us punks in America. It was absurd, these stupid labels. That’s the time when they don’t even know what a punk is in America, and one day I just said to a guy, as a joke, ‘If you call me a punk again, I’m gonna cut ya.’ So now I get kids comin’ up and asking me why I’m so down on new wave and I have to tell ’em: ‘Fuck, I invented that new wave here for all you know.’ I’ve always wanted that cleared up ’cos of the animosity it caused. The truth is that I’m glad we were here in ’77. I used to laugh myself sick at the Sex Pistols’ antics. Every day you could buy a paper and there was something outrageous going on.” Watching the gig in Hammersmith, it’s clear this is Petty’s show. “The others all have cliques of fans who come but I’d stand out if I was the bassist, being blond and all. I think they’re happy just to get the money. Benmont [Tench, keyboards] gets a much better shot on this album. “We’ve always been cast in the twelve-string sound; those comparisons. I know we sound like them at times, and God knows I’ve tried not to, but I get a bit tired of hearing them now. I don’t think Roger McGuinn can do all the things people say he can. We’re entirely different musicians really. Of course, I’d be interested to see how he did But he phoned me last year to ask if I had any songs for him and I couldn’t come up with one that was suitable.” One of the smartest things Petty ever did was to appear on the ‘No Nukes’ benefit on the same night as Springsteen. It was good for his credibility and it increased his drawing power on the East Coast. “While we were in limbo with the lawsuits, I’d read in the s about radiation creeping in. I’m not a very political guy but I’m getting worried. At least let the Russians bomb us – it would be so embarrassing to blow ourselves up. “Mike [Campbell, guitarist] and I discussed playing one of those benefits because we thought we’d draw a completely different crowd to the people Jackson Browne and Graham Nash get, the Woodstock types. When Bruce phoned me to play with him – and he doesn’t usually have other groups on his bill – we decided to do it. We don’t preach or send out leaflets. I haven’t heard the album anyway – it doesn’t look very interesting. I saw the show and that was enough. “I’ve changed my mind about a lot of things. I used to say, ‘Fuck the whales,’ but now I think we ought to save them too. Why not?” It’s possible to view this softening process with some cynicism, as part of the homogenised image that tends to accompany stardom, but Petty had no guarantee that would catch fire. “If those people had kept on suing me, I was going to be on a soup line. I’ve never got onto that channel about ‘what is life?’. This time I had a few sleepless nights. I wanted to write anthems for underdogs, songs like and . The theme of the album wasn’t self-conscious but when I put it together afterwards I could see it was about standing up for your rights, the ones that everyone has which can’t be fucked with or taken away. Rather than get really graphic – ‘They took me down to the court today and grilled me for eight hours’ – I wanted to keep the common denominator of them as love songs with other connotations. “They aren’t necessarily boy-girl songs, but I don’t think the kids want to hear a record about the evils of the music business. That’d be boring as hell. Meanwhile, he’s adept at accepting the plaudits while keeping one step ahead of the pundits. He takes his job seriously. He calls his songs ‘disposable’ yet he risked bankruptcy for them. He says of songwriting: “I refuse to think of it as work” – but his game plan looks like very hard work indeed. As for his philosophy, his attitude to the demands of the current lifestyle springs from an expression of naivety based on solid self-assurance. “I’ve proved everything to myself. One of my favourite Dylan lines is, and that’s what I feel. I don’t have to prove it to anyone else.” Part Two. July 1981. Los Angeles. Tom Petty is back in his adopted home and trying to adjust to two weeks off the treadmill. His new album is No.1 on the newly minted airwave-driven Rock Tracks chart but won’t eclipse . Yet again, he’s fallen out with MCA who want to charge record buyers $9.98 rather than the usual $8.98. Steely Dan don’t mind the extra dollar but Petty thinks they’re ripping the fans off and airs his disgust publicly. MCA back down after Petty threatens to call the album – although the working title of is , a reference to keyboard player Benmont Tench’s mild accusation that he wasn’t given enough to do. These are strange times for Petty. Success and fame are uneasy bedfellows and the Heartbreakers have fallen into the usual drugs and booze mess that goes with living in too many hotel rooms with too much money and nothing to spend it on. Bassist Ron Blair hated touring and was replaced on certain sessions by the veteran Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn (Blair would leave thereafter), while Petty had personal and professional problems. His mother Kitty had passed away the day after his 30th birthday the previous October. Devastated as he was, Petty chose not to attend her funeral in his home town of Gainesville, Florida because he reasoned his presence would turn a sombre affair into a three-ring media circus. But he also had issues with his father Earl, who he would later admit had physically and mentally abused him as a child. When I spoke to him the day after the band had played three SRO concerts at th e 18,000-seater LA Forum, he mentioned this distressing episode but glossed over it. “Mum and dad had a car wreck [after which Kitty became epileptic]. She was dying of cancer anyway. My dad’s disabled so he does nothing except play High Life all day. That’s a gambling game, big in Florida. “I’d like my dad to see us play. He never has and we’ve never been back to Gainesville. But he has the fans come round and he chats to ’em and feeds ’em and stuff. He loves that.” And the Heartbreakers will return to their Gatorland stomping ground that October, at the O’Connell Centre with Stevie Nicks as special guest. The arrival of Nicks in Tom’s life proved fortunate. “She started hanging out at the sessions and asked me to write her a song. Me and Mike [Campbell] wrote for her but I decided to keep that so we gave her instead and she sang on my album and I’m producing her.” In fact, Nicks’s disc will outstrip , largely thanks to the heavy rotation of on the then brand new MTV playlist. Petty didn’t know that then. “I’m glad because finally the girl appears on the album and she’s happy because it’s a snaky thing and it ain’t a ballad. She told me, ‘Don’t give me another ballad. I write those all the time!’ So we’re doin’ a kind of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris thing. is in my all-time top five albums. Always wanted to meet Gram, but when I got to LA he’d been dead for four months. People always say, ‘Oh ,you’re like Roger McGuinn,’ but I prefer the Parsons’ Byrds. It’s hard to introduce country rock into what we do. People think it’s corny parents’ music but we’re southern country like Gram [who was from Georgia] and I still feel dislocated in LA.” In San Francisco a week earlier, Petty, Nicks and her choir of girlfriends, including new bosom buddy Sharon Celani, Tench and Campbell persuaded the hotel piano bar to let them play a few songs. They knocked out , , and the old Penguins doo-wop number . One of the businessmen at the bar gives them 10 bucks, which Petty pockets until Stevie grabs it off him after one of the businessman in the joint says, ‘That’s for the lady’. “I said, ‘Hey, where’s my share?’ So Stevie rips the bill in half, sticks her half down her cleavage and gives me mine.” Nicks will soon become a regular on Petty tours and is often heard admitting that she’d rather join the Heartbreakers than carry on with Fleetwood Mac. A glimpse into her superstar life proves salutary. There’s the feeling that Tom Petty is one step away from that rarefied world. His rival Bruce Springsteen is just of reach and Tom is forever playing catch-up. Springsteen is a year older and seemingly always one album ahead. goes platinum in 1981 but goes five times platinum. As I’d somewhat tactlessly pointed out in London, Springsteen can do no wrong with British critics. The sun shines from his fundament. Maybe there was an element of a fit of pique when Petty pulled the band’s live performance off the movie, and it must have galled him to support The Boss and Peter Tosh at Madison Square Garden. Six years later he’d sit down and write a song lampooning Springsteen called with fellow Traveling Wilbury Bob Dylan, who was equally irked at hearing Springsteen referred to as his replacement: ‘The new Bob Dylan.’ They’d laughed as they wrote: while George Harrison and Jeff Lynne looked on. Back in real time, Petty had enough on his plate. The stream of fans camped outside his house forced him to hire security and he wrote about his gate man. “Mike thinks it’s funny that I have a security guard ’cos we’re just as scummy as ever. Now I’ve got this guy directing traffic: ‘Just move on please.’ He [the nightwatchman] came to see us play last night and says, ‘Oh, so that’s what you do. Now I get why I have this job.’ But don’t make out I’m complaining. There aren’t so many kids any more. Maybe they got the message. Or maybe I’m fading out,” he laughs. Petty admits, “I was in a strange state of mind when I wrote this album. It’s been like an exorcism. Why ? Well, anything that’s worth working for is a hard promise to me. I put a lyric sheet in for the first time because it’s the first time the words were good enough to be printed. Funny thing is no one ever mentioned the lyrics until I did that, probably couldn’t understand a word I sang. Personally, I don’t have much time for lyric sheets. I don’t want to be reading when I’m listening.” The night before, there’d been a riot and a stage invasion at the Forum that infuriated Petty. He stomped off afterwards and refused to attend the obligatory après-gig party. “I was in a bad mood anyway ’cos I know how much the people at the front paid the scalpers and I wouldn’t want to be pushed out my seat. We played in New York recently and a lot of kids got seriously mashed and taken to hospital, but that was at a festival.” His biggest problem, he says, is, “I can’t unwind. I haven’t been to bed for three days. I don’t take sleeping pills any more – they put me in such a lousy mood – and other drugs don’t work. I’m so charged up by playing a big room, by the energy – sorry to be Californian – but it’s like you get zapped. I’m on an insane schedule.” On the plus side, his six-year-old daughter Adria gets to see him perform for the first time at the Forum, holding Stevie Nicks’s hand tight in the wings. “On the way home she says to me, ‘Why didn’t you call me out?’ I’m like, ‘To do what exactly?’ She wasn’t fazed one bit,” Petty sighs. “I haven’t spent enough time with her.” Nor will he, as the Heartbreakers gang rolls across America. “Thing is, if we ain’t playing, we all get bored so easy. I can’t switch off. I’m getting a little tired of recording in Los Angeles, tell you the truth. I want to record the next album in Memphis.” A solo album? “Nah, why the hell would I do that? I’d end up using the Heartbreakers anyway. It’s just time for us to go back to our roots. We’ve exhausted this place.” Tape recorder turned off, Petty pours a cup of tea and gets up to go. “Me and Mike have a song we’re working out called . It’s a B-side but I want to play it live when we hit the road.” You can take the man out of the south, but you can’t take the south out of the man. “The world had gone mad. The PMRC were trying to use all these great songs for their own agenda, which in the long run counted for nothing”: The story of Judas Priest’s Defenders Of The Faith, the album that Tipper Gore couldn’t silence “As a term, ‘prog’ only evolved in the 1990s. And I loathe it. As soon as someone sticks a label on to you, they stop listening”: How Robert Fripp brought King Crimson back for their final resurrection “Within my lifetime there could be some natural disaster or a third World War that could destroy everything. I sincerely believe that we live in the beginning of the end”: How Satyricon faced the darkness with The Age Of Nero Max Bell worked for the during the golden 70s era before running up and down London’s Fleet Street for and all the other hot-metal dailies. A long stint at the and mags like and kept him honest. Later, and called.Former Maharashtra Minister Madhukar Pichad Passes Away In Nashik

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1 2 3 Jaipur: BJP's spectacular victory in the Jat-dominated constituencies of Jhunjhunu and Khinvsar after 21 and 11 years respectively has drawn attention to, and sparked a debate over, the party's revamped electoral strategies. These victories, coming just six months after BJP suffered losses in the Jat-majority Lok Sabha seats of Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Churu, and Nagaur to candidates of the Congress-led INDIA bloc, mark a significant political shift in Rajasthan. Despite BJP's landslide in the 2013 Assembly elections, where it captured 163 of the total 200 seats, and its strong showing in 2023, Jhunjhunu and Khinvsar remained elusive for the party. The latest bypolls, however, saw BJP securing these constituencies that the party's internal surveys had identified as challenging. Fear of a voting pattern similar to that in past elections jeopardising the party's prospects had loomed large. A glimmer of hope for BJP's Rajasthan unit came with the results of Haryana assembly elections defying the exit-poll predictions, prompting the party to lean on its former state president and Haryana poll in-charge, Satish Poonia, to script a turnaround in Jat dominated seats. Maharashtra Jharkhand Maharashtra Alliance View i Party View Seats: 288 Results Majority: 145 BJP+ 229 MVA 47 OTH 12 Results : 288 / 288 BJP+ WON Jharkhand Alliance View i Party View Seats: 81 Results Majority: 41 INDIA 56 NDA 24 OTH 1 Results : 81 / 81 INDIA WON Source: PValue "On Oct 7, two days after the unexpected Haryana results, BJP state president Madan Rathore congratulated Poonia and urged him to lead the efforts for bypolls in Rajasthan," said a senior BJP leader. Poonia's success in Haryana, where his "OBC-Farmer-Jat (OFJ) formula' proved highly effective, became the blueprint for Rajasthan's campaign. "Poonia's social engineering to unite OBC farmers and Jats was widely recognised by then. The state unit relied on his expertise to craft a strategy to win these difficult seats," noted a BJP insider. Before arriving in Jhunjhunu and Khinvsar, Poonia held consultations with booth-level workers from Jaipur to evaluate the party's standing. In a meeting with CM Bhajan Lal Sharma, he outlined an extensive outreach campaign aimed at OBCs, Jats, and farmers. "Leveraging his 3.5-year tenure as state president, Poonia engaged panchayat leaders and community influencers to highlight BJP's governance achievements, mirroring the promises made in Haryana," added the party insider. In the final stretch, key BJP leaders, including former Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore and cabinet minister Gajendra Singh Khimsar, played crucial roles in consolidating votes in favour of the party. Meanwhile, CM Bhajan Lal Sharma's rallies and public addresses in the campaign's closing days solidified the party's position, leading to a decisive victory, said BJP functionaries.

After closing the books on a banner year for U.S. stocks, investors expect to ride seasonal momentum into mid-January when a slew of economic data and a transition of power in Washington could send markets moving. The S&P 500 SPX rose almost 27% in 2024 through Dec. 26, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite index , which surpassed 20,000 for the first time in December, is up 33.4%. November through January is traditionally a strong period in the market, said Michael Rosen, chief investment officer at Angeles Investments. Additionally, stocks tend to do well in the last five trading days of December and into the first two days of January, a phenomenon dubbed the Santa Claus rally, which has driven S&P gains of an average of 1.3% since 1969, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac. For the last four trading sessions, the S&P rose 2.91%, while the Nasdaq is up 3.3%, lifting hopes for a repeat. “The underlying data suggests that that’s likely to continue,” Rosen said. Just how long that momentum lasts will depend on several forces that could help drive markets in 2025. Monthly U.S. employment data on Jan. 10 should give investors a fresh view into the health and strength of the U.S. economy. Job growth rebounded in November following hurricane- and strike-related setbacks earlier in the year. The market’s strength will be tested again shortly after, when U.S. companies start reporting fourth-quarter earnings. Investors anticipate a 10.6% earnings per share growth in 2025, versus a 12.16% expected rise in 2024, according to LSEG data, although excitement over President-elect Donald Trump’s policies is expected to boost the outlook for some sectors, like banks, energy and crypto. “There’s the hope that taxes and regulations will be lowered or reduced next year, that will help support corporate profits, which are what drive the market in the first place,” said Rosen. Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20 could also throw the markets some curve balls. He is expected to release at least 25 executive orders in his first day on a range of issues from immigration to energy and crypto policy. Trump has also threatened tariffs on goods from China and levies on products from both Mexico and Canada, as well as to crack down on immigration, creating costs that companies could ultimately pass on to consumers. Helen Given, associate director of trading at Monex USA, said a new administration always brings with it a large degree of uncertainty. There is also a good chance the impact of the Trump administration’s expected trade policies is far from fully priced into global currency markets, she added. “We’re looking ahead to see which of those proposed policies actually are enacted, which might be further down the pipeline,” Given said, adding she expected a big impact on the euro, Mexican peso, the Canadian dollar, and the Chinese yuan. The conclusion of the Federal Reserve’s first monetary policy meeting of the year in late January could also present a challenge to the U.S. stocks rally. Stocks tumbled on Dec. 18 when the Fed implemented its third interest-rate cut for the year and signaled fewer cuts in 2025 because of an uncertain inflation outlook, disappointing investors who had expected lower rates to boost corporate profits and valuations. Still, that could be good for alternative assets like cryptocurrencies. The incoming crypto-friendly Trump administration is adding to a number of catalysts that are boosting crypto investors’ confidence, said Damon Polistina, head of research at investment platform Eaglebrook Advisors. Bitcoin surged above $107,000 this month on hopes of friendlier Trump policies. “Crypto is viewed broadly as a kind of risk on assets. So, any Fed cutting rates is a positive... Any positive economic data in early January will help maintain the momentum that we’re seeing,” Polistina added. Source: Reuters