The investigation into He Miao’s conduct revealed serious violations, including abuse of power, corruption, and dereliction of duty. It was found that He Miao had used his position for personal gain, engaged in illicit activities, and failed to fulfill his responsibilities as a party member and public servant.Off the pitch, both sets of fans will be eagerly anticipating this clash of titans, with the atmosphere set to be electric on matchday. The Champions League always brings out the best in both players and supporters, and this encounter is sure to be no different. The passionate displays of support from the stands could provide the extra motivation needed to inspire a moment of brilliance from one of the players on the pitch.Manchester United have been making headlines once again, but this time it's not for their performances on the pitch. The club has reportedly spent a staggering £8 million over the course of five months on the services of renowned sports director, John Murtough. This significant investment has raised eyebrows across the football world and sparked discussions about the direction in which the club is headed.
By ZEKE MILLER, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday reached a required agreement with President Joe Biden’s White House to allow his transition staff to coordinate with the existing federal workforce before taking office on Jan. 20. The congressionally mandated agreement allows transition aides to work with federal agencies and access non-public information and gives a green light to government workers to talk to the transition team. But Trump has declined to sign a separate agreement with the General Services Administration that would have given his team access to secure government offices and email accounts, in part because it would require that the president-elect limit contributions to $5,000 and reveal who is donating to his transition effort. The White House agreement was supposed to have been signed by Oct. 1, according to the Presidential Transition Act, and the Biden White House had issued both public and private appeals for Trump’s team to sign on. The agreement is a critical step in ensuring an orderly transfer of power at noon on Inauguration Day, and lays the groundwork for the White House and government agencies to begin to share details on ongoing programs, operations and threats. It limits the risk that the Trump team could find itself taking control of the massive federal government without briefings and documents from the outgoing administration. As part of the agreement with the White House, Trump’s team will have to publicly disclose its ethics plan for the transition operation and make a commitment to uphold it, the White House said. Transition aides must sign statements that they have no financial positions that could pose a conflict of interest before they receive access to non-public federal information. Biden himself raised the agreement with Trump when they met in the Oval Office on Nov. 13, according to the White House, and Trump indicated that his team was working to get it signed. Trump chief of staff-designate Susie Wiles met with Biden’s chief of staff Jeff Zients at the White House on Nov. 19 and other senior officials in part to discuss remaining holdups, while lawyers for the two sides have spoken more than a half-dozen times in recent days to finalize the agreement. “Like President Biden said to the American people from the Rose Garden and directly to President-elect Trump, he is committed to an orderly transition,” said White House spokesperson Saloni Sharma. “President-elect Trump and his team will be in seat on January 20 at 12 pm – and they will immediately be responsible for a range of domestic and global challenges, foreseen and unforeseen. A smooth transition is critical to the safety and security of the American people who are counting on their leaders to be responsible and prepared.” Without the signed agreement, Biden administration officials were restricted in what they could share with the incoming team. Trump national security adviser-designate Rep. Mike Waltz met recently with Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan, but the outgoing team was limited in what it could discuss. “We are doing everything that we can to effect a professional and an orderly transition,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday. “And we continue to urge the incoming team to take the steps that are necessary to be able to facilitate that on their end as well.” “This engagement allows our intended Cabinet nominees to begin critical preparations, including the deployment of landing teams to every department and agency, and complete the orderly transition of power,” said Wiles in a statement. The Trump transition team says it would disclose its donors to the public and would not take foreign donations. A separate agreement with the Department of Justice to coordinate background checks for vetting and security clearances is still being actively worked on and could be signed quickly now that the White House agreement is signed. The agency has teams of investigators standing by to process clearances for Trump aides and advisers once that document is signed. That would clear the way for transition aides and future administration appointees and nominees to begin accessing classified information before Trump takes office. Some Trump aides may hold active clearances from his first term in office or other government roles, but others will need new clearances to access classified data. Trump’s team on Friday formally told the GSA that they would not utilize the government office space blocks from the White House reserved for their use, or government email accounts, phones and computers during the transition. The White House said it does not agree with Trump’s decision to forgo support from the GSA, but is working on alternate ways to get Trump appointees the information they need without jeopardizing national security. Federal agencies are receiving guidance on Tuesday on how to share sensitive information with the Trump team without jeopardizing national security or non-public information. For instance, agencies may require in-person meetings and document reviews since the Trump team has declined to shift to using secure phones and computers. For unclassified information, agencies may ask Trump transition staff to attest that they are taking basic safeguards, like using two-factor authentication on their accounts.
In a surprising turn of events, embattled former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been granted asylum in Russia, sparking debates and speculations about the fate that lies ahead for the once authoritarian leader. Assad, whose regime faced international condemnation for its brutal crackdown on dissent during the Syrian civil war, found refuge in Russia after years of bloody conflict that left the country in ruins.Germany's Alternative for Germany (AfD) will nominate on Saturday its first chancellor candidate in its 11-year history ahead of a snap election set for February as the far-right party increasingly sets its sights on power. The party, which ranks second in opinion polls behind the main opposition conservatives but well ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats, is expected to nominate co-leader Alice Weidel as chancellor candidate. The AFD, which authorities suspect of pursuing anti-democratic goals, is not likely to form part of a governing coalition any time soon given other parties have ruled out working with it. But the AfD's electoral successes are increasing pressure on the conservatives in particular to drop their firewall with the party and consider a right-wing coalition, especially given the weakness of their erstwhile traditional partner, the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP). Far-right parties have gained traction across Europe in recent years, also coming to power in Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands and Finland. "There is a claim to power to assert and the best way to do that is to nominate a chancellor candidate," said Hans Vorlaender, political scientist at Dresden's Technical University. "It also gives you the opportunity to be present in the media because there are always debates held between the so-called chancellor candidates." Long dismissed as a protest party, the AfD is also seeking to establish itself more as a "normal party", said Stefan Marschall, political scientist at the University of Duesseldorf. UNLIKELY CANDIDATE Weidel, 45, who has co-led the party since 2022, is an unlikely public face for a male-dominated, anti-immigration party that depicts itself as a defender of traditional family values and ordinary German working people. She is raising two sons with a Sri Lankan-born woman, a filmmaker, and speaks fluent Mandarin, having done her PhD in economics in China. She worked for Goldman Sachs and Allianz Global Investors and as a freelance business consultant before entering politics. Weidel's unusual profile, however, is precisely what makes her an asset to the AfD, according to political analysts who say she is more likely to appeal to more moderate Germans who would normally shun a far-right party. In recent years the AfD has tapped into voter worries about high levels of immigration, a possible escalation of the Ukraine war and the crisis of Germany's economic model as well as frustration with infighting within the ruling coalition, which fell apart last month. The party wants to sharply curb immigration, particularly from Muslim countries, end arms deliveries to Ukraine, rebuild relations with Russia, turn the nuclear power plants back on and exit the European Union unless it carries out major reforms. It has earned credibility with some voters for openly addressing hot-button topics before mainstream parties did. The party came first in two state elections in September, despite mass anti-AfD protests and a string of scandals which included a senior figure declaring that the SS, the Nazis' main paramilitary force, were "not all criminals". A survey by pollster Wahlen published on Friday put the AfD on 17%, behind the conservatives on 33%, but ahead of the SPD on 15% and the Greens on 14%. The conservatives, the SPD and Greens all have chancellor candidates. Membership of the AfD has swelled by 50% to around 50,600 over the past year, the party's spokesman said, though it is a fraction (some 14%) of the membership of Germany's big tent parties, the CDU/CSU conservative bloc and the SPD. (This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Grandmother shut out of Christmas celebrations
In the aftermath of its explosive debut, OpenAI Sora stands as a testament to the limitless possibilities of human ingenuity and innovation. With its groundbreaking technologies and visionary approach, Sora has set a new standard for AI excellence and paved the way for a future filled with infinite possibilities.
As the stakes are high in this crucial derby clash, both Manchester City and Manchester United will be looking to secure a vital victory to boost their respective title aspirations. With the Premier League title race heating up, every point counts, and the outcome of the Manchester Derby could have a significant impact on the final standings at the end of the season.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising toward records Tuesday after Donald Trump’s latest talk about tariffs created only some ripples on Wall Street, even if they could roil the global economy were they to take effect. The S&P 500 climbed 0.5% and was on track to top its all-time high set a couple weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 81 points, or 0.2%, to its own record set the day before, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% higher, with less than an hour remaining in trading. Stock markets abroad were down, but mostly only modestly, after President-elect Trump said he plans to impose sweeping new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China as soon as he takes office. Stock indexes were down 0.1% in Shanghai and nearly flat in Hong Kong, while Canada's main index edged down by just 0.1%. Trump has often praised the use of tariffs , but investors are weighing whether his latest threat will actually become policy or is just an opening point for negotiations. For now, the market seems to be taking it more as the latter. Unless the United States can prepare alternatives for the autos, energy products and other goods that come from Mexico, Canada and China, such tariffs would raise the price of imported items all at once and make households poorer, according to Carl Weinberg and Rubeela Farooqi, economists at High Frequency Economics. They would also hurt profit margins for U.S. companies, while raising the threat of retaliatory tariffs by other countries. General Motors sank 8.2%, and Ford Motor fell 2.6% because both import automobiles from Mexico. Constellation Brands, which sells Modelo and other Mexican beer brands in the United States, dropped 3.9%. Beyond the pain such tariffs would cause U.S. households and businesses, they could also push the Federal Reserve to slow or even halt its cuts to interest rates. The Fed had just begun easing its main interest rate from a two-decade high a couple months ago to offer support to the job market . While lower interest rates can boost the overall economy and prices for investments, they can also offer more fuel for inflation. “Many” officials at the Fed's last meeting earlier this month said they should lower rates gradually, according to minutes of the meeting released Tuesday afternoon. Unlike tariffs in Trump's first term, his proposal from Monday night would affect products across the board. Trump’s tariff talk came almost immediately after U.S. stocks rose Monday amid excitement about his pick for Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent. The hope was the hedge-fund manager could steer Trump away from policies that balloon the U.S. government deficit, which is how much more it spends than it takes in through taxes and other revenue. The talk about tariffs overshadowed another set of mixed profit reports from U.S. retailers that answered few questions about how much more shoppers can keep spending. They’ll need to stay resilient after helping the economy avoid a recession, despite the high interest rates instituted by the Fed to get inflation under control. Kohl’s tumbled 17.6% after its results for the latest quarter fell short of analysts’ expectations. CEO Tom Kingsbury said sales remain soft for apparel and footwear. A day earlier, Kingsbury said he plans to step down as CEO in January. Ashley Buchanan, CEO of Michaels and a retail veteran, will replace him. Best Buy fell 4.7% after likewise falling short of analysts’ expectations. Dick’s Sporting Goods topped forecasts for the latest quarter thanks to a strong back-to-school season, but its stock lost an early gain to fall 1.4%. A report on Tuesday from the Conference Board said confidence among U.S. consumers improved in November, but not by as much as economists expected. J.M. Smucker jumped 5.4% for one of the biggest gains in the S&P 500 after topping analysts' expectations for the latest quarter. CEO Mark Smucker credited strength for its Uncrustables, Meow Mix, Café Bustelo and Jif brands. Big Tech stocks also helped prop up U.S. indexes. Gains of 2.8% for Amazon and 2% for Microsoft were the two strongest forces lifting the S&P 500. In the bond market, Treasury yields rose following their big drop from a day before driven by relief following Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.30% from 4.28% late Monday, but it’s still well below the 4.41% level where it ended last week. In the crypto market, bitcoin continued to pull back after topping $99,000 for the first time late last week. It's since dipped back toward $91,600, according to CoinDesk. It’s a sharp turnaround from the bonanza that initially took over the crypto market following Trump’s election. That boom had also appeared to have spilled into some corners of the stock market. Strategists at Barclays Capital pointed to stocks of unprofitable companies, along with other areas that can be caught up in bursts of optimism by smaller-pocketed “retail” investors. AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.Colorado adds record insurance coverage for Sanders and Hunter before Alamo Bowl