Inside the bitter fight to become Donald Trump’s Treasury secretaryUP Shocker: 2 Men Dragged For 300 Metres By Truck In Agra, Here's What Happened NextAP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EST
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Islamabad deserves debt relief from all creditors urgently, says economistMinnesota politicians react to former President Jimmy Carter's death
Jones, Mellott help Montana State run over Montana 34-11NEW YORK (AP) — A gunman killed UnitedHealthcare’s CEO on Wednesday in a “brazen, targeted attack” outside a Manhattan hotel where the health insurer was holding its investor conference, police said, setting off a massive search for the fleeing assailant hours before the annual Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting nearby. Brian Thompson, 50, was shot around 6:45 a.m. as he walked alone to the New York Hilton Midtown from a nearby hotel, police said. The shooter appeared to be “lying in wait for several minutes” before approaching Thompson from behind and opening fire , New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. Police had not yet established a motive. “Many people passed the suspect, but he appeared to wait for his intended target,” Tisch said, adding that the shooting "does not appear to be a random act of violence.” Surveillance video reviewed by investigators shows someone emerging from behind a parked car, pointing a gun at Thompson’s back, then firing multiple times from several feet away. The gunman continues firing, interrupted by a brief gun jam, as Thompson stumbles forward and falls to the sidewalk. He then walks past Thompson and out of the frame. “From watching the video, it does seem that he’s proficient in the use of firearms as he was able to clear the malfunctions pretty quickly,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said. Thompson was shot at least once in the back and once in the calf, Tisch said. The shooter, who wore a jacket, face mask and large backpack, fled through Midtown on foot before pedaling an electric bike into Central Park a few blocks away, police said. The assailant remained at large Wednesday afternoon, sparking a search that included police drones, helicopters and dogs. “Brian was a highly respected colleague and friend to all who worked with him,” the insurer’s Minnetonka, Minnesota-based parent company, UnitedHealth Group Inc., said in a statement. "We are working closely with the New York Police Department and ask for your patience and understanding during this difficult time.” Police issued a poster showing a surveillance image of the man pointing what appeared to be a gun and another image that appeared to show the same person on a bicycle. Minutes before the shooting, he stopped at a nearby Starbucks, according to additional surveillance photos released by police on Wednesday afternoon. They offered a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction. Thompson’s wife, Paulette Thompson, told NBC News that he told her “there were some people that had been threatening him.” She didn’t have details but suggested the threats may have involved issues with insurance coverage. Eric Werner, the police chief in the Minneapolis suburb where Thompson lived, said his department had not received any reports of threats against the executive. The killing shook a part of New York City that's normally quiet at that hour, happening about four blocks from where tens of thousands of people were set to gather for Wednesday night’s tree lighting. Police promised extra security for the event. The hotel is also a short walk from other tourist sites, including the Museum of Modern Art and Radio City Music Hall, and is often dense with office workers and visitors on weekday mornings. Many security cameras are nearby. “We’re encouraging New Yorkers to go about their daily lives and their daily business but to be alert,” NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said. Investigators recovered several 9 mm shell casings from outside the hotel and a cellphone from the alleyway through which the shooter fled. They were also searching Thompson's hotel room, interviewing his UnitedHealthcare colleagues and reviewing his social media, Kenny said. Police initially said the shooter rode into Central Park on a bicycle from the city’s bike-share program, CitiBike. But a spokesperson for the program’s operator, Lyft, said police officials informed the company Wednesday afternoon that the bike was not from the CitiBike fleet. Health care giant UnitedHealth Group was holding its annual meeting with investors to update Wall Street on the company's direction and expectations for the coming year. The company ended the conference early in the wake of Thompson's death. “I’m afraid that we — some of you may know we’re dealing with a very serious medical situation with one of our team members,” a company official told attendees, according to a transcript. “And as a result, I’m afraid we’re going to have to bring to a close the event today. ... I’m sure you’ll understand.” Thompson, a father of two sons, had been with the company since 2004 and served as CEO for more than three years. UnitedHealthcare is the largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans in the U.S. and manages health insurance coverage for employers and state-and federally funded Medicaid programs. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz posted on the social platform X that the state is “sending our prayers to Brian’s family and the UnitedHealthcare team.” “This is horrifying news and a terrible loss for the business and health care community in Minnesota,” the Democrat wrote. Associated Press writers Tom Murphy in Indianapolis, Steve Karnowski in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York, contributed to this story.
When dockworkers walked the picket line in October, the strike lasted for 3 days. And if a new contract between their 45,000 member union and the U.S. Maritime Alliance isn't signed by mid-January — a longer strike could send inflation going in the wrong direction. Just months after a strike at Gulf and East Coast ports ended, operators and union members are now at an impasse — once again — over automation. Port operators say they need more technology to increase port efficiency, improve safety and to control costs. But union members say no, because some workers will lose their jobs. A new strike could come if an agreement isn't reached by January 15. And if that happens inflation could increase, when goods aren't flowing in an out of ports as quickly. Thursday union leaders met with President-elect Donald trump at Mar-a-Lago and walked away with his support. Writing about automation on Truth social, Trump said "the amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American workers," and that foreign countries "...shouldn't be looking for every last penny knowing how many families are hurt." RELATED STORY | Billions of dollars of U.S. economic activity halted as port workers enter day two of their strike Professor Todd Belt of George Washington University called it Trump striking a different path than he did during his first term. "During the first Trump term you had Donald Trump, surrounded by a lot of people who were suggested to him by incumbent Republicans who had really a Republican orthodoxy on free trade. Donald trump now is going to be surrounded by a lot of people who support his ideas of interventionism and tariffs, as well as other trade policies that will protect working people at the expense of, of course, inflation," Belt said. The International Longshoremen's Association has until Jan. 15 to negotiate a new contract with the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shipping companies. At the heart of the dispute is whether ports can install automated gates, cranes and container-moving trucks that could make it faster to unload and load ships. The union argues that automation would lead to fewer jobs, even though higher levels of productivity could do more to boost the salaries of remaining workers. The Maritime Alliance said in a statement that the contract goes beyond ports to "supporting American consumers and giving American businesses access to the global marketplace — from farmers, to manufacturers, to small businesses, and innovative start-ups looking for new markets to sell their products." "To achieve this, we need modern technology that is proven to improve worker safety, boost port efficiency, increase port capacity, and strengthen our supply chains," said the alliance, adding that it looks forward to working with Trump. In October, the union representing 45,000 dockworkers went on strike for three days, raising the risk that a prolonged shutdown could push up inflation by making it difficult to unload container ships and export American products overseas. The issue pits an incoming president who won November's election on the promise of bringing down prices against commitments to support blue-collar workers along with the kinds of advanced technology that drew him support from Silicon Valley elite such as billionaire Elon Musk. Trump sought to portray the dispute as being between U.S. workers and foreign companies, but advanced ports are also key for staying globally competitive. China is opening a $1.3 billion port in Peru that could accommodate ships too large for the Panama Canal. There is a risk that shippers could move to other ports, which could also lead to job losses. Mexico is constructing a port that is highly automated, while Dubai, Singapore and Rotterdam already have more advanced ports. "For the great privilege of accessing our markets, these foreign companies should hire our incredible American Workers, instead of laying them off, and sending those profits back to foreign countries," Trump posted. "It is time to put AMERICA FIRST!" The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Veralto Co. ( NYSE:VLTO – Get Free Report ) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 19th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of 0.11 per share on Friday, January 31st. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from Veralto’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. Veralto has a dividend payout ratio of 11.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Veralto to earn $3.71 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.44 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 11.9%. Veralto Trading Down 0.7 % Shares of VLTO stock opened at $103.12 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 2.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. Veralto has a fifty-two week low of $73.91 and a fifty-two week high of $115.00. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $105.12 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $105.55. The stock has a market cap of $25.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.30 and a beta of 0.91. Analyst Ratings Changes Several research analysts have recently weighed in on VLTO shares. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Veralto in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $125.00 target price for the company. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Veralto from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Veralto from $119.00 to $117.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Veralto from $117.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Veralto currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $109.50. View Our Latest Stock Report on Veralto Insider Buying and Selling In other Veralto news, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 752 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.91, for a total value of $77,388.32. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 10,413 shares in the company, valued at $1,071,601.83. This represents a 6.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink . Also, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 13,190 shares of Veralto stock in a transaction on Monday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.15, for a total value of $1,452,878.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 138,546 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,260,841.90. This trade represents a 8.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . Insiders sold 14,695 shares of company stock valued at $1,615,017 over the last 90 days. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders. Veralto Company Profile ( Get Free Report ) Veralto Corporation provides water analytics, water treatment, marking and coding, and packaging and color services worldwide. It operates through two segments, Water Quality (WQ) and Product Quality & Innovation (PQI). The WQ segment offers precision instrumentation and water treatment technologies to measure, analyze, and treat water in residential, commercial, municipal, industrial, research, and natural resource applications through the Hach, Trojan Technologies, and ChemTreat brands. Further Reading Receive News & Ratings for Veralto Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Veralto and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .Hola Prime Strengthens Leadership by Appointing Himanshu Chandel as Marketing Director
AP Sports SummaryBrief at 6:58 p.m. ESTPresident-elect Donald Trump joined the chorus of people raising concerns about mysterious drone sightings over New Jersey and other states on the East Coast, calling on government officials to shoot down the aircraft if they are truly unidentifiable. In a Friday post on his social media platform Truth Social , Trump indicated that he believes authorities know more about the drones than they are letting on. “Mystery Drone sightings all over the Country. Can this really be happening without our government’s knowledge. I don [sic] think so! Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shot [sic] them down!!! DJT,” the president-elect wrote. Residents of Morris County, New Jersey, first started reporting nighttime sightings of the drones last month. Since then, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have investigated the objects and are looking into whether people are seeing actual drones, manned aircraft or something else. “We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus,” the FBI and DHS said in a joint statement Thursday. “Upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft, operating lawfully. There are no reported or confirmed drone sightings in any restricted air space.” Nevertheless, reports of drone sightings continued to proliferate on Friday, with even former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan posting video of what he said were “dozens of large drones” flying over his home on Thursday night. Individuals in New York and Connecticut have also reported seeing the aircraft. Trump’s missive came after White House national security spokesperson John Kirby appeared on Fox News ’ “The Story” on Friday afternoon, where host Martha MacCallum pressed him about whether officials really do not have an explanation for the drone sightings. “I’m not going to lie to you or to the American people, and I’m not going to say we know something when we don’t,” Kirby said. “And we would never, ever stoop to think that an American citizen was crazy or nuts because of what they’re seeing and what they’re documenting. We’re taking that imagery seriously and we’re doing the best we can to analyze it, and we encourage people to come forward if they have additional sightings.” “Why not just take one down and figure out what’s going on?” MacCallum asked. “We don’t have enough conclusions to take that kind of a policy action,” Kirby replied. “But let’s just assume for a minute, Martha, that we did. You’re not going to want to shoot something down where it could hit somebody’s house, or hurt somebody.” Don't let this be the end of the free press. The free press is under attack — and America's future hangs in the balance. As other newsrooms bow to political pressure, HuffPost is not backing down. Would you help us keep our news free for all? We can't do it without you. Can't afford to contribute? Support HuffPost by creating a free account and log in while you read. You've supported HuffPost before, and we'll be honest — we could use your help again . We view our mission to provide free, fair news as critically important in this crucial moment, and we can't do it without you. Whether you give once or many more times, we appreciate your contribution to keeping our journalism free for all. You've supported HuffPost before, and we'll be honest — we could use your help again . We view our mission to provide free, fair news as critically important in this crucial moment, and we can't do it without you. Whether you give just one more time or sign up again to contribute regularly, we appreciate you playing a part in keeping our journalism free for all. Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages. She also asked what President Joe Biden has to say on the issue, and whether Elon Musk or other “outside experts” had been called in to give their opinions. Biden “has tasked the team to look into this and to be energetic in doing it, to try to get answers,” Kirby said. Related From Our PartnerNone
ATLANTA (AP) — the peanut farmer who tried to restore virtue to the White House after the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, then rebounded from a landslide defeat to become a global advocate of human rights and democracy, has died. . The Carter Center said the 39th president died Sunday afternoon, , at his home in Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, who died in November 2023, lived most of their lives. The center said he died peacefully, surrounded by his family. As reaction poured in from around the world, President Joe Biden mourned Carter’s death, saying the world lost an “extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian” and he lost a dear friend. Biden cited Carter’s compassion and moral clarity, his work to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless and advocacy for the disadvantaged as an example for others. “To all of the young people in this nation and for anyone in search of what it means to live a life of purpose and meaning – the good life – study Jimmy Carter, a man of principle, faith, and humility,” Biden said in a statement. “He showed that we are a great nation because we are a good people – decent and honorable, courageous and compassionate, humble and strong.” Biden said he is ordering a state funeral for Carter in Washington. A moderate Democrat, as a little-known Georgia governor with a broad grin, effusive Baptist faith and technocratic plans for efficient government. His promise to never deceive the American people resonated after Richard Nixon’s disgrace and U.S. defeat in southeast Asia. “If I ever lie to you, if I ever make a misleading statement, don’t vote for me. I would not deserve to be your president,” Carter said. Carter’s victory over Republican Gerald Ford, whose fortunes fell after pardoning Nixon, came amid Cold War pressures, turbulent oil markets and social upheaval over race, women’s rights and America’s role in the world. His achievements included brokering Mideast peace by keeping Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at Camp David for 13 days in 1978. But his coalition splintered under double-digit inflation and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran. His negotiations ultimately brought all the hostages home alive, but in a final insult, Iran didn’t release them until the inauguration of Ronald Reagan, who had trounced him in the 1980 election. Humbled and back home in Georgia, Carter said his faith demanded that he keep doing whatever he could, for as long as he could, to try to make a difference. He and Rosalynn co-founded in 1982 and spent the next 40 years traveling the world as peacemakers, human rights advocates and champions of democracy and public health. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, Carter helped ease nuclear tensions in North and South Korea, avert a U.S. invasion of Haiti and and Sudan. By 2022, the center had monitored at least 113 elections around the world. Carter was determined to as one of many health initiatives. the Carters built homes with Habitat for Humanity. The common observation that he was better as an ex-president rankled Carter. His allies were pleased that he lived long enough to see biographers and historians and declare it more impactful than many understood at the time. Propelled in 1976 by voters in Iowa and then across the South, Carter ran a no-frills campaign. Americans were captivated by the earnest engineer, and while an election-year Playboy interview drew snickers when he said he “had looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times,” voters tired of political cynicism found it endearing. The first family set an informal tone in the White House, carrying their own luggage, trying to silence the Marine Band’s traditional “Hail to the Chief" and enrolling daughter, Amy, in public schools. Carter was lampooned for wearing a cardigan and urging Americans to turn down their thermostats. But Carter set the stage for an economic revival and sharply reduced America's dependence on foreign oil by deregulating the energy industry along with airlines, trains and trucking. He established the departments of Energy and Education, appointed record numbers of women and nonwhites to federal posts, preserved millions of acres of Alaskan wilderness and pardoned most Vietnam draft evaders. , he ended most support for military dictators and took on bribery by multinational corporations by signing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He persuaded the Senate to ratify the Panama Canal treaties and normalized relations with China, an outgrowth of Nixon’s outreach to Beijing. But crippling turns in foreign affairs took their toll. When OPEC hiked crude prices, making drivers line up for gasoline as inflation spiked to 11%, Carter tried to encourage Americans to overcome “a crisis of confidence.” Many voters lost confidence in Carter instead after the infamous address that media dubbed his “malaise" speech, even though he never used that word. After Carter reluctantly agreed to admit the exiled Shah of Iran to the U.S. for medical treatment, the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun in 1979. Negotiations to quickly free the hostages broke down, and then eight Americans died when a top-secret military rescue attempt failed. Carter also had to reverse course on the SALT II nuclear arms treaty after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Though historians would later credit Carter's diplomatic efforts for hastening the end of the Cold war, Republicans labeled his soft power weak. Reagan’s “make America great again” appeals resonated, and he beat Carter in all but six states. Born Oct. 1, 1924, James Earl Carter Jr. in 1946, the year he graduated from the Naval Academy. He brought his young family back to Plains after his father died, abandoning his Navy career, and . Carter reached the state Senate in 1962. After rural white and Black voters elected him governor in 1970, he drew national attention by declaring that “the time for racial discrimination is over.” Carter published more than 30 books and remained influential as his center turned its democracy advocacy onto U.S. politics, monitoring an audit of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results. After Carter said he felt “perfectly at ease with whatever comes.” “I’ve had a wonderful life,” “I’ve had thousands of friends, I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence.” Sanz is a former Associated Press reporter.Daily Post Nigeria Mourinho to undergo surgery Home News Politics Metro Entertainment Sport Sport Mourinho to undergo surgery Published on December 23, 2024 By Ifreke Inyang Fenerbahce manager, Jose Mourinho, is set to undergo surgery in Portugal due to a health issue. The 61-year-old will have his gallbladder removed during the Christmas holidays. This was confirmed by the former Chelsea and Manchester United boss. Mourinho, who was in the dugout for Friday’s 1-1 draw at Eyupspor, insisted it was “minor.” He wrote on Instagram: “For those of you that have shown concern, I can confirm reports of my surgery have been greatly exaggerated, it’s just a quick and minor procedure. “I will resume training on the first day back from the holidays, as always. “I’ve never missed a session in 25 years, and I don’t intend to start now.” Related Topics: mourinho Don't Miss Sporting to sack Ruben Amorim’s replacement You may like LaLiga: Mourinho names 3 coaches Real Madrid could replace Ancelotti with Mourinho picks Nico Williams over Yamal EPL: All I want is justice – Mourinho replies Guardiola Transfer: Why I don’t want Cristiano Ronaldo in my team – Mourinho opens up EPL: Mourinho wants Man City relegated – Guardiola EPL: I’m so sorry if I offended you – Guardiola apologizes to Mourinho Advertise About Us Contact Us Privacy-Policy Terms Copyright © Daily Post Media Ltd
Australia’s economic future will be at risk if we stop the wind and solar construction to build nuclear. Big energy-intensive manufacturing industries such as aluminium smelters would likely be forced to close, and the risk of blackouts from forcing coal generators to stay on line would be huge. Wind, solar and firming can clearly do the job. Every hurdle from reliability to inertia has been overcome. There is no need and no reason to change course. Certainly economics is not a reason. To summaries, building a nuclear industry in Australia: • Makes blackouts more likely by forcing coal stations, already expensive to maintain, that require government support and are increasingly unreliable to go for much longer. The idea of replacing the coal plants with gas while we wait is likely not very realistic, largely because gas plants themselves are expensive and hard to permit and because if asked to run in shoulder mode they are not very efficient and require lots of gas. And right now we are already looking at importing LNG. If the nuclear plants are 5, 10 or 15 years late, as is entirely possible, it would require heroic assumptions to see the coal fleet managing the gap. More to the point it’s a completely avoidable and unnecessary risk. Australia is well set on its transition path. There are some inevitable cost up and downs but no show stoppers have been identified. Every hurdle from reliability to inertia has been overcome. There is no need and no reason to change course. Certainly economics is not a reason. • Increases emission costs by between even in the very unlikely event the plants are built on time as compared to the present ISP. • The nuclear plants stand a good chance of being well over budget and late. That’s because: ° Globally that is often but not always the case. By and large the nuclear industry is one of the most likely global industries to be late and over budget. There is no real nuclear expertise in Australia; ° It will have to be more or less forced on an industry set on a different course; ° It will likely be government owned and developed and the record on that in Australia is poor; ° In general for most capital intensive industries there is an Australia cost premium relative to global averages. This in the end will disadvantage us compared to other countries in terms of the cost of energy. • Likely will destroy the value of CER (consumer energy resources – rooftop solar, home batteries and EVs) in Australia. • Will result in the temporary halt in the transition to a firmed VRE system which is already 20 years down the track with a penetration rate of say 50% within 18 months. • Equally the LNP and by comparison Frontier don’t appear to have done the work or to understand the demand forecasts. The LNP bleat on about EVs, but the real differences are hydrogen, large industrial loads and business demand. One suspects that the aluminium industry in Australia will die if it has to wait for nuclear. • Finally the old concept of baseload is changing, but in my opinion firming costs are cheaper the bigger the portfolio. This implies firming should sit at least with a large gentailer or possibly with a State or even Federal Govt. The biggest, by far, reason for the electricity industry to push back against the ideological LNP Nuclear plan is its far, far too risky. Australia has a plan to decarbonise. It’s not a perfect plan, no plan survives first contact, but it’s capable of and is in fact being achieved. We are roughly already at 40% VRE. We have at least 20 years experience at developing and integrating wind, solar, behind the meter assets and batteries. We know the issues around transmission and social license and cost and reliability. There are well developed plans for each issue and a wealth of industry finance and expertise. The assets to take us from 40% VRE to 50% are already under construction, some are just starting to enter service. The insurance finance to add another 12 GW of VRE and 4 GW of firming assets (essentially batteries) is already either awarded or in tender through the CIS. The LNP wants to bring this to a crashing halt, keep our few, increasingly ageing and unreliable coal stations going for another 20 years while it starts up an industry in which Australia has zero comparative advantage and zero experience. Only in politics could conmen say things with such a straight face. The risk of the coal stations failing is very high. Other stations like Eraring have full ash dams. Yallourn is already on Government support, Vales Point and particularly Mt Piper have coal supply issues. Gladstone Power Station in Queensland is ready to close. And so on. It simply isn’t prudent for Australia to depend on these stations as a group to do another 20 years. It’s a completely unacceptable risk that politicians want to expose Australians to, purely for the sake of politics. I could, but won’t. go into the politics. It is quite sufficient to point out the risk, and really I could close this note at this point completely confident that the argument is made. The LNP might argue that they would build more gas stations. To start with they take time and planning and secondly: Where is the gas? Wherever it comes from it will be expensive. By all means build a peaker or two but it’s a sideshow to the main game, which is bulk energy and shifting it through time and space. For what it’s worth. the following figure shows the closing of the Crocodile jaws. The top jaw is coal and gas generation and the bottom jaw is wind, solar and hydro. The jaws didn’t close much this year, due to wind drought and some utility solar price constrained off but they surely will next year as about 2.5 GW of wind currently in commissioning gets to full production and some more solar farms as well. In addition there is 6 GW, count them, 6 GW of batteries under construction. Using a 180 day moving average allows the informed view to see the Winter v Spring Summer impact. Like many another analyst I’m prepared to look at any technology on its merits. If Frontier Economics had any interest at all in bringing the industry to their point of view then the report is an abysmal failure. Its failings are so obvious that it hardly needs me to do a me to, but I have. As I’ve stated before, a presumption of bias can be attached to the report for three reasons. There are lots of estimates of the cost of carbon. These range from the Gillard Government’s cost which the LNP revoked adjusted to $ of today which Frontier states would be about $40/t, through to the European price presently around Euro 68 = $A113/t, through to a major, multi author estimate published in Nature with a mean of $US185/t = $A 296/t (but the range is US$ 44 to $US 413/t) to the USA official estimate of $US 51 =81.54 AUD $A 81/t through to the AER estimate of $A 75/t in 2025 rising to $221 by 2040. And finally there is the set of numbers adopted by the AER which rise strongly over time and which I have used Frontier could have used any of these numbers, but they don’t. The extra carbon emissions are not regarded as a cost worth considering in Frontier’s numbers! On my numbers the NPV of the increased emissions is between $57 bn and $72bn. The method for calculating this was: I might add that the social cost of carbon is normally calculated with discount rates of 2%-4% given that the damage is long lasting but I haven’t considered the methodological issues around that here. The overall point remains that there can be no excuse whatsoever for Frontier ignoring the cost difference. Frontier could have used some other carbon price estimate, but there is no doubt that carbon emissions have a cost, that is why we decarbonising and not considering that cost renders the Frontier exercise fairly useless. In an AFR article, Frontier’s Danny Price states that the AER carbon cost does not represent the “economic cost”, and produces not a shred of evidence to support this view. The comment seems to me to be revealing of the underlying philosophy of Frontier that global warming is overstated as an issue. Some of the justified criticism of Frontier is in the way it adds up “real costs”. For instance: However, since the use of “real costs” for investment analysis is in any event fatally flawed from the outset and contrary to the laws of Finance, and because I think Price knows that perfectly well, I tend not to worry about methodological flaws of “real costs”. Equally, Steve Hamilton in his excellent noted that AEMO incurs its capital costs from today onwards but the the nuclear costs are only start to be incurred from 2035. In NPV terms costs that are incurred later have a lower NPV than costs that incurred earlier, and Steve noted that if we just compared costs in 2050 there is only a 12% difference between the nuclear and AEMO difference. However, in NPV terms, if we allow for the difference in carbon costs, these differences matter less. In effect Frontier defers capital spending improving NPV but incurs carbon costs which reduce NPV. It’s just that Frontier doesn’t count the carbon cost. Also, once the capital spending on VRE has been made the annual operating costs fall sharply compared to existing coal. Wind opex, for instance, is around A$10/MWh compared to say A$50/MWh for existing black coal, maybe less for brown coal. However, in my opinion it’s unlikely that AEMO captures all the maintenance capital expenditure required on end of life coal assets that are not just end of life but also have to be ever more flexible, ever more capable of ramping. I won’t take the time to illustrate this issue, but just look at the costs being incurred by AGL, and the Government support offered to Yallourn and Eraring. Frontier estimates a nuclear cost today in Australia of A$10,000/Kw, which then falls by 1% per year from today. So the A$10,000 is effectively a misleading number. In that Frontier’s estimate of cost is actually in real terms as Hamilton calculates about A$8,500/KW in 2040 and continues to fall. I don’t have any problem with learning rates in an industry: Solar, wind, batteries and many, many other technologies have a learning rate, representing the reduction in unit costs for a doubling of installed capacity. But I think any reasonable person would question whether it’s appropriate to apply a learning rate to an industry that hasn’t even started in Australia and where the year 0 number is still very much in question. And, to the best of my knowledge, there hasn’t been much of a global learning rate in nuclear, although there may be one in China. In fact academic articles suggest that the experience curve for nuclear depends on the time and country. One oft cited reference is “How Big Things Get Done” by Betty Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner, 2023. A key figure from that book is: The horizontal axis represents on time, expectations, further to the right is more on time, the vertical axis shows on budget. industries in the bottom left quadrant tend to have “fat tails” which means that the outcomes vary. Perhaps in China nuclear goes well, but in the UK or the USA it goes badly. On average it goes badly. Solar and wind go well. The figure is based, I believe on data summarised in the following table. The fact that olympics and nuclear have cost over runs most of the time surely cannot be a surprise to anyone. To me this is so intuitively obvious as to not need stating. Wind and solar projects take a couple of years to build, the technologies are modular, capable of being repeated and relatively small scale. Even a 1 GW wind farm represents 150 concrete pouring, each more or less the same, 150 turbines erected each the same way and so on. And Australia has done 1000s of turbines already. By contrast, Lucas Heights notwithstanding, Australia has absolutely zero nuclear experience or expertise, nuclear plants require much more planning, contracts that inevitably will need to be renegotiated and so on. The mind truly boggles. And in the end we would have zero comparative advantage. Whatever Australia’s nuclear cost it wont be lower than anyone else’s. How could it be? Modern nuclear plants with higher levels of automation might employ 500-800 people. According to a rough industry source about 50% -70% of those jobs will be in operations, maintenance and technical support. Roughly 25%-50% of the people will be engineers of one kind of another. Uranium mining and processing is not going to be taking place where nuclear plants are located. The idea that coal miners will down tools and suddenly start working in a nuclear plant is something only an LNP ideologue could truly believe. Of course, like any business, there will be second order GDP multiplier effects. However, I think it’s reasonable to assume that both the primary and secondary GDP impacts of building out regional REZs will be higher per $ of capital expenditure because by and large they come off a lower base. Building out the Central West Orana renewable energy zone in NSW will have major impacts, not all good, and not all sustainable on the regional economy. But for ever after the regional economy will have a more diversified industry base that, in my opinion, will enable it to better withstand the vicissitudes of the Australian climate and its ever more extreme drought and flood cycles. As far as I know the electricity industry in Australia has expressed zero interest in nuclear and obviously some parts of the industry that are busy building wind and solar will be actively opposed. Clearly this in itself is likely to raise costs. That is, the nuclear plants will have to be forced on the industry to a greater or lesser extent. Again although the plans are very vague the understanding is that they will Goverment funded and owned. Leaving aside all questions of ideology, in my opinion having the Goverment manage the program rather than industry means that there will be less expertise at almost every stage. I could rant on about this, the mind truly does boggle a bit at the possible negative outcomes, but perhaps it is sufficient to say that having the Goverment step into this area where it has no expertise raises the odds of cost and delay outcome substantially. Frontier provided no shapes to their demand or supply forecasts, just the annual totals. This has led to questions on how 13 GW of flat supply will impact the output of other fuels. Price stated that once the 13 GW was forced in the system, it was “re optimised” and the capacity factors, 90% in the case of nuclear, are a model output. And to be fair there is presently must run coal generation in the system which effectively provides a level of flat supply. That level continues to decline, and at least in Spring, the must run nature of coal already forces prices below zero and results in utility solar spillage. As to what fuel gets spilled that is a matter so far of policy and economics. Utility solar, and wind contracts can be written so that negative prices are not covered, the CIS has such a contract. Each contract for differences may have its own wording and since I don’t see any of them I’m cautious about generalising. AEMO provides via the ISP, as Frontier does not, half hourly demand traces by region and POE (10% and 50%). ITK has spent more time than I care to admit looking at these demand traces over the past four years and puzzling over what and what not is included in say “OPSO modelling”. A good starting document is: and for the half hourly data we want Section 6 starting at p57. AEMO is thorough with its demand forecasting, but that does not make the outcomes reliable, that’s the point really, some things are just hard to forecast no matter how thorough. Still, I find its well worth reading that Section 6 several times, because as Dylan sang way back in the early 1960s “dont criticise what you cant understand”. And this stuff ain’t that easy to understand. The following figure shows the shape of average daily demand in 2050 for both the Progressive and Stepchange scenarios with the horizontal red line showing average nuclear output at 90% capacity factor. It’s fair to say that rooftop supply is always a bit out of place on a demand figure but that is the way its done. Operational demand is gross demand less rooftop supply. Time of day averages are just averages. Particularly in the step change case in the ISP view of the world much of the lunch time surplus goes to charging storage to meet some elements of demand in non solar hours. The way I’ve constructed this figure in the Progressive case nuclear replaces virtually all the exiting rooftop and a significant portion of utility supply. In the Step Change scenario it’s still cutting out quite a bit. And that’s out in 2050 when in either Progressive or Step demand is a lot higher than in 2025. It seems intuitive that if nuclear is supplying say 50% of operational demand (more in the Progressive case) that some other sources of supply are going to be running at fairly low capacity factors. However, Frontier’s modelling apparently doesn’t show that.. This remains an unresolved issue. The numbers appear to show that with nuclear meeting 50% of Progressive Scenario demand in 2050 that capacity factors of other fuels will be impacted even with storage demand included. Frontier says this is not really the case and they have the gold standard PLEXOS modelling to prove it. One potential path to reconciliation would be for Frontier to show more results including those with behind the meter PV and storage and some average daily shapes, but I’m not holding my breath. Frontier did such a poor job the first time round the wise course for them would be to retire from the field and not give their many critics more oxygen. I spent time this year working with AEMO’s demand forecasts. In my view not enough attention is paid to demand as virtually all the mainstream focus is on supply and or price. But price represents the intersection between supply and demand, and the primary way to decarbonise an economy is to decarbonise electricity and then electrify other energy sources. AEMO makes the job hard because their demand portal would, I suspect, confuse even Edward Teller. At the risk of a minor digression, the Progressive demand case assumes that most large industrial loads (LIL) close around 2030. That would be the Tomago and Boyne Island and Portland aluminium smelters. Is that really what the LNP wants to happen? Here are the LIL forecasts for the two scenarios and then the state by state forecast for the Progressive scenario. Assuming, rarely a good decision, that I’ve successfully navigated AEMO’s demand portal and the recut and supposedly easier to follow analysis I show at then I get the following main item comparison between he various demand scenarios in 2050. Note that sum EV load is cotained in the res_sum row below. Nevertheless the point remains that talking about EVs maybe good politics for the LNP, even in Ted O’Brien’s Sunshine coast electorate where there are many EVs but it doest go to the major differences in the scenarios. Ignoring Green Energy Exports (everyone does) you can see that in fact the main differences between Progressive Change and Central are: Traditionally energy intensive businesses in Australia, primarily aluminium smelters, negotiate heavily discounted electricity prices with State Govt’s in return for investment in smelters. Traditionally, there has been a role for base load in the large industrial loads sector. However, in my opinion, the way to provide the firmed power has changed and the same result can be achieved, arguably at a lower cost, especially when carbon emissions are accounted for. As of today the State Govt contracts have often been transferred to private entities eg to AGL and other generators in Victoria in respect of the Portland smelter. However, there is no way the private sector is going to incur losses to support an aluminium smelter. The smelters remain a big industry collectively consuming around 9%-10% of electricity (the share relative to operational supply is higher). The relevance of the term “baseload” is best understood in the context of say an aluminium smelter which in Australia typically wants a flat supply, that is a supply every half hour of about 0.9 GW. Traditionally in Australia a coal generator backed up by contracts in the market and a retailers general supply portfolio was the the way it was done. For instance in QLD the Gladstone Power Station is 42% owned by Rio, in Victoria Portland smelter traditionally contracted with Loy Yang A, although that has now changed. In Tasmania the Bell Bay smelter, surely one of the older smelters in the world, contracted with Hydropower of Tasmania. In each case though there is a State Government providing a subsidy one way or another in the background. As the coal stations go away, several questions arise, but the one of relevance here is how to provide the smelter with its flat load without a coal station. So far the emerging answer seems to be that the smelter will provide the VRE itself, but will depend on the State Govt to provide the firming. For instance in February 2024 Rio announced a deal to buy 80% of the 1.4 GW Bungaban wind project and 100% of the 1.1 GW Calliope solar farm, but so far Rio has not announced any firming of this energy. The output of the two projects should be around 6 TWh per year – enough to power most of the smelter when generating. Clearly there will be too much generation at some points and too little at others, and the missing link is the management of the difference. What it shows to my way of thinking is a requirement for all the parties to think beyond a simple contract for difference whereby Rio buys power from the market and the QLD Govt subsidies the purchases. Now there is a more complex situation seemingly requiring the State and Rio to work more closely together. Ultimately, in a renewables based system, the rule is that the bigger the portfolio the lower the firming cost. That is the cost of firming total QLD supply is lower than the cost of firming just the smelter. According to the oldest rule of finance that risk should go to the party best placed to manage it, it’s therefore entirely reasonable for QLD to carry the firming cost. My point here is that Rio and the State Govt don’t need to think about “Baseload coal” or “Baseload nuclear” – the need is to understand the best way to firm QLD’s excellent solar and wind resource and to allow Rio to access that firmed cost.Penn State head coach James Franklin spoke to the media Monday afternoon just over a week before his team will take on Boise State in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff. Here’s what Franklin said about the Broncos, and more ahead of the Fiesta Bowl matchup. On Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty and QB Maddux Madsen “It all starts and revolves around Jeanty. In any other year, I think the guy wins the Heisman, and you can make the argument that he should have won it this year. He is hard to tackle. He is compact, 5-10, has the ability to run away from you, has the ability to make you miss. They get him involved in the pass game. They get him involved in the run game. And then the quarterback is athletic as well. He reminds me a little bit of the quarterback that we faced from West Virginia (Garrett Greene). We had a ton of respect for on tape when we played them, but they’re a problem. But I think it starts and ends with the running back, and I think they do a really good job of not only getting him the ball in the run game, but also in the pass game, but then also using him in play action pass to create some opportunities to get some explosive plays down the field in the passing game. It’ll be a definite challenge for us, but they’re kind of a two headed monster, both athletic guys. Both of them aren’t the biggest guys in the world, but are really good, productive football players that have done it week in and week out against everybody.” On how DE Abdul Carter played against SMU “Very disruptive, like he’s been all year long. I also think if you went back and did a study, the amount of holding calls that have been called against him, I think, is probably up there as high as anywhere in the country. But also holding calls that could have been called. He is just a problem, and he’s an issue in the run game as well as the pass game, with tackles for loss, sacks, just like we’re spending time talking about their running back, they’re spending time talking about our defensive end and play maker, Abdul Carter. That’ll be an interesting matchup, and that’ll be an interesting chess game with both coaching staffs and how we use those guys so that they both can be as effective as possible in this game.” On how Jeanty compares to other running backs “Yeah, I’m not sure. When you look at his stature, you start thinking about certain backs, but I don’t know if I have somebody that jumps out in my mind that he reminds me of when I’m watching him on tape. Because really he does a lot of things really well. He can run away from you and score from a distance, breaks a ton of tackle. His yards after contact, I think I saw or read it somewhere, like 1300 yards of his rushing yards are after contact, which is like a ridiculous stat. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that before, but his ability to make people miss, break tackles, finish runs, is really impressive. But I don’t know if I got somebody that jumps out in my mind in terms of he reminds me of this guy. But the thing that jumps out the most to me is 1300 yards, or whatever that statistic is, after contact is a crazy stat in college football.” On what this week looks like “We practiced yesterday, kind of our normal Sunday practice, and then tried to help everybody get out of town. So we went early. I say normal, not normal because we went early in the morning so guys could get out of here. Coaches worked a full day, but tried to get the guys out of here so they could fly, drive wherever they were going, then they’ll have off until Christmas Day evening. I want to make sure I term that the right way. We’ll have a team meeting and practice that evening. So it’s a little bit of time off for everybody, the coaches we worked early this morning until this afternoon. Everybody’s heading out of the office now, get a couple hours of Christmas shopping, then be able to spend time with their family. And then after that, after Christmas Day around five o’clock, we’re getting in our normal game week. So for us, we always take whenever the game is, and count back seven days, and that’s our normal game week. And we try to stick to that routine as much as we possibly can. It’s been good to us, and our players and coaches believe in it. So after that, we’re kind of back to things as normal, except obviously we don’t have school and those things.” On RBs Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen “They’re really good, complementary pieces. I know the expression is probably overused, but thunder and lightning, I think, is a good expression or a good description for those guys. Nick has the ability to go the distance with his speed and explosive ability. Kaytron, we call him Fatman, he is a violent, physical runner. I think they both have aspects of that as well, but Kaytron is extremely physical. They’re both smart, high football IQ guys. I think Nick is trying to kind of get on an edge and beat you with speed. Fatman, will try to run you over more times than not. But they’ve both been productive. We’ve been able to rotate both of them. There was some times during the season where both of them were banged up at certain points, but these last couple of weeks they’ve been as healthy as they’ve been all year long. And I think it’s showed up that way on on film and statistically the last two weeks. Both been great teammates and great students, and are thriving here.” On OC Andy Kotelnicki saying the team plays to win and not to not lose “We’ve talked about that a lot with the players. We’ve talked about that a lot with the staff, in terms of how we call the game, how we prepare for the game, how we game plan, players being aggressive, playing on their toes, not on their heels, making aggressive calls. Instead of going for the PBU, go for the interception. I think some of the calls that we have made going for it on fourth down, those types of things, we want to be as aggressive as we possibly can. That’s if we got a play action pass or a shot play or a trick play on offense, we want to use those. Whether it’s defensively, you saw us a bunch in Cover 0 and going after the offense. We want to be very aggressive. We don’t want to have any regrets. And playing to win, I think, is a mentality that everybody has to embrace and be on the same page with because there’s going to be times where the defense is going to have to have the offense’s back after making one of those decisions. There’s going to be times where the offense is going to have to have the defense’s back after making one of those decisions. And the same thing with special teams, and everybody’s got to buy into that philosophy and embrace that philosophy. So that’s kind of where we’re at. And I think the biggest thing is just no regrets.” This story was originally published December 23, 2024, 2:52 PM.Initiating dialogue with Opposition to strengthen democratic system: Coordinator to Prime Minister Rana Ihsan Afzal
Published 5:50 pm Friday, December 13, 2024 By Eric Johnson A Mower County woman is hoping her experience with fending off a potential scammer can help others avoid falling for a scam. The 87-year-old woman, who didn’t wish to be identified, said Friday morning that the her experience started in October when somebody claiming to be the CEO of Publishers Clearing House, Andrew Goldberg, called to tell her she had won a Dodge Ram truck and $5.9 million dollars in its sweepstakes, however, to claim the prize, the woman would have had to get gift cards at Walgreens for $1,000 and $200 with instructions to read off the numbers on the back of the card when the scammer called back. “It was to pay for the documentation of the $5.9 million,” the woman said she was told. “There’s a lot of people that would have fallen for this.” The woman contacted the Mower County Sheriff’s Office and reported the scam and has not lost any money in the attempted scam. “The best thing people can do is hang up immediately,” said Mower County Sheriff Steve Sandvik. “Don’t use any media they give.” On the Publishers Clearing house website, its information page states as its first warning of possible fraud that people should not send money in order to claim a prize, as well as another tip urging people to be suspicious of people calling to say they’ve won, but asking money to be sent. “At Publishers Clearing House we do not notify our contest winners by phone,” the page reads. The Mower County woman said she had an idea that something was wrong almost from the start, but that each time the man called back, he sounded authentic. When calling her initially, the scammer had special codes she was to use to further add to the authentic-sounding nature of the call. “A lot of people would have fallen for this smooth talker,” she said. Sandvik said that scams like this one are nothing new and is part of an ever-evolving group of scams that includes coming across several different modes of communication. He also reiterated that organizations, like Publishers Clearing House, law enforcement, etc. will not contact people asking for money to get money. “Probably the newest thing is the amount of texts, Facebook and social media addresses with links,” Sandvik said. “Any time something requires immediate reaction, that should raise alarms.” He also urged people to look at when messages come in from businesses, understanding that most will not send messages at random points outside of business hours. Check emails and never give personal information over the phone or by clicking on provided links. “Don’t use any media they give,” he said. The Mower County woman also urged people to be careful with these types of calls. “Everybody be aware,” she said, adding that if she can help somebody avoid losing money through her own efforts then the work is worth it.
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Mark Scheifele had three goals and an assist as the visiting Winnipeg Jets defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2 on Monday afternoon. Kyle Connor added two goals and two assists, Gabriel Vilardi piled up three assists and Josh Morrissey had two assists for the Jets, who have won two in a row. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 23 shots. Toronto had won the previous six games between the teams. John Tavares scored twice for the Maple Leafs, who have lost two in a row. William Nylander had two assists and Joseph Woll made 22 saves. Toronto's Connor Dewar was stopped on a partial breakaway at 11:05 of the first period with Hellebuyck making a blocker stop and adding the save on the rebound. Winnipeg took the lead at 16:04 of the first during a power play. Morrissey took a point shot that Vilardi tipped, and Connor put home the rebound. Mitchell Marner was off for hooking. Connor scored again at 1:16 of the second period on a pass from Scheifele. Tavares scored during a power play at 5:25 of the second, steering in a pass from Marner. Mason Appleton was serving a double minor for high-sticking. It was the 200th goal for Tavares as a Maple Leaf. Including his time with the New York Islanders, he has 473 career goals and is the fifth player in NHL history with 200 or more goals for two franchises. Winnipeg's Haydn Fleury left the game with a leg injury in the final minute of the second period after being tangled with a Toronto player in the corner. He did not return. Vilardi's backhand pass set up Scheifele, who knocked in the puck from the edge of the crease at 3:27 of the third period. Scheifele jammed home the puck from a scramble at 11:57 of the third to make it 4-1 Winnipeg. Tavares answered with a goal from the high slot at 13:42. Scheifele scored into an empty net at 19:39. Toronto's Auston Matthews (upper-body injury) and Chris Tanev (lower body) did not play. This article first appeared on Field Level Media and was syndicated with permission.The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced that it has reached a significant milestone in the Gaganyaan Programme, with the first solid motor segment moved from the production plant to the launch complex. The space agency said, "India's human spaceflight dreams are taking shape!" In a post on the social media platform X, ISRO stated, "A significant milestone for the Gaganyaan Programme! The first solid motor segment has been moved from the production plant to the launch complex, marking a key step towards the HLVM3 G1 flight." In September, ISRO Chairman S Somanath said that efforts were underway to launch India's first human spaceflight programme, Gaganyaan, by the end of this year. "Gaganyaan is ready for launch; we are trying to launch it by the end of this year," Somanath had said. The Gaganyaan Programme, approved in December 2018, envisages human spaceflight to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and the establishment of technologies required for a long-term Indian human space exploration endeavour. On 18 September, the Cabinet approved the Chandrayaan-4 mission to the Moon. This mission aims to develop and demonstrate technologies to return to Earth after a successful lunar landing, as well as collect and analyse Moon samples on Earth. The Chandrayaan-4 mission will achieve foundational technologies and capabilities needed for an eventual Indian landing on the Moon (planned by 2040) and a safe return to Earth. Key technologies for docking, undocking, landing, safe return, and lunar sample collection and analysis will be demonstrated. The central government's expanded vision for the Indian space programme during the Amrit Kaal includes an Indian Space Station (Bharatiya Antariksh Station) by 2035 and an Indian landing on the Moon by 2040. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Watsco WSO has outperformed the market over the past 5 years by 9.49% on an annualized basis producing an average annual return of 23.07%. Currently, Watsco has a market capitalization of $20.54 billion. Buying $1000 In WSO: If an investor had bought $1000 of WSO stock 5 years ago, it would be worth $2,843.78 today based on a price of $509.72 for WSO at the time of writing. Watsco's Performance Over Last 5 Years Finally -- what's the point of all this? The key insight to take from this article is to note how much of a difference compounded returns can make in your cash growth over a period of time. This article was generated by Benzinga's automated content engine and reviewed by an editor. © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani is keeping elite company. The Japanese superstar caps 2024 by winning The Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for the third time, tying him with basketball great Michael Jordan. He trails only four-time winners Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods and LeBron James. "I'm very honored," Ohtani said through translator Matt Hidaka in an exclusive interview with the AP. "Obviously all the hard work has paid off. Maybe next year, I'll get the award again." In balloting by 74 sports journalists from the AP and its members, Ohtani received 48 votes. He previously won the award in 2023 and 2021, when he was with the Angels. "Growing up in Japan, I did follow Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods," he said. "I would see their accolades and how they were successful in the United States." The AP honor has been given out since 1931. Golfer Babe Didrikson won six times, the most by a man or woman. Swimmer Léon Marchand of France, who won four gold medals at the Paris Olympics, was second with 10 votes in balloting announced Monday. Golfer Scottie Scheffler, whose victories this year included the Masters and an Olympic gold medal, was third with nine. The AP Female Athlete of the Year will be announced Tuesday. Moving from the beleaguered Los Angeles Angels to the powerhouse Los Angeles Dodgers, Ohtani won his third Most Valuable Player award and first in the National League, led his new team to its eighth World Series championship and created Major League Baseball's 50/50 club by hitting 54 home runs and stealing 59 bases. Ohtani signed a then-record $700 million, 10-year contract with the Dodgers in December 2023. Already a two-way superstar, he embellished his reputation even further despite not pitching all season while he rehabilitated from a second major right elbow surgery he had in September 2023. Ohtani went wild on offense, making every at-bat a must-see moment. The 6-foot-4 designated hitter batted a career-high .310 while easily surpassing his previous career highs in home runs and stolen bases. In September, he reached the previously unheard of 50/50 mark in a performance for the ages. Against the Miami Marlins in Florida, Ohtani went 6 for 6 with three homers, 10 RBIs, two stolen bases and 17 total bases. "It wouldn't shock me if he went 60/60 and 20 wins a year from now," Brad Ausmus, who managed the Angels in 2019 during Ohtani's second season in Anaheim, said recently. "This guy is the greatest athlete to ever play the sport of baseball and there's not a close second." Ohtani said he knew the Dodgers' franchise record for most homers in a season was 49. His previous best was 46, set in 2021. "I kind of wanted to get over that bar," he said. "I was pleasantly surprised I was able to pass that record." Ohtani carried the Dodgers offensively during the regular season, and he stayed healthy until Game 2 of the World Series. He injured his left shoulder trying to steal second base against the New York Yankees and finished the Series playing hurt. He underwent surgery a few days after the Dodgers celebrated their championship in early November. "I don't have full range of motion yet, but it feels a lot better," he told the AP. "There's no pain. There's obviously still a little bit of tightness, but slowly but surely it's getting better." Ohtani recently received an updated rehab schedule, and he's focused on the near-term. "It's the small steps that I think are very important to get me to the ultimate goal, which is to just get back healthy," he said. Ohtani is also throwing in the 70 mph range, which is typical for pitchers early in the offseason. "I'm going to continue to ramp up slowly," he said. The Dodgers' rotation for next season is in flux, and Ohtani is waiting to see how it shakes out. "We may go with a five-man rotation with a bullpen (game), which is what we did a lot during this season or we may have a six-man rotation," he said. "But it's all about balancing out when we can get rest and recuperate. We'll see where that takes us along the playoff chase. I've got to obviously pace myself, but again that situation will guide us to how we get there." The Dodgers open the 2025 season in Japan, where Ohtani is even more closely watched. "My personal goal is to be fully healthy by the time the opening games do start," he said. "To be able to pitch and hit would be great, but the situation will kind of guide itself." Each time Ohtani comes to the plate or steps on the mound, there's great pressure and expectation for him to perform spectacular feats. "I just go out there and try to stay within myself," he said. "I can only control what I can control and that's where you trust your teammates. The guys behind me, you trust they're going to make the plays for you. I don't really try to overthink it." Ohtani generated big bucks for the Dodgers off the field, too. Fans traveled from Japan in droves to see him play around the U.S. At Dodger Stadium, they paid extra for tours of baseball's third-oldest venue narrated by Japanese-speaking guides and to be on the field during pre-game batting practice. A majority of the fans bought Ohtani-branded merchandise, especially his No. 17 jersey. Ohtani's presence also helped the Dodgers land a bevy of new Japanese sponsors. Because Ohtani prefers to speak Japanese and use an interpreter with the media, he is shrouded in a bit of mystique. Asked before his first postgame series if he was nervous, he dropped a one-word answer in English: "Nope," which drew laughter. Japanese-born Dodgers manager Dave Roberts observed Ohtani's behind-the-scenes interactions with his teammates, coaches and staff, and came away impressed. "I really do believe that as good of a ballplayer as he is, he's a much better person. He's very kind, considerate, he cares," Roberts told the AP. "I'm just proud of any fame or glory or award that he receives because he just does it in such a respectful and humble way." Ohtani relishes his privacy and rarely shares details about himself off the field. That's why his February announcement via Instagram that he had wed Mamiko Tanaka, a former basketball player, stunned his new teammates and the rest of the world. The following month, after the Dodgers arrived in South Korea to open the season, he was enveloped in scandal when his longtime interpreter and friend, Ippei Mizuhara, was fired by the Dodgers after being accused of using millions of dollars of Ohtani's money to place bets with an illegal bookmaker. His new teammates rallied around Ohtani, who was found to have no part in the wrongdoing, and publicly it didn't seem to affect him even if he was privately distressed by it. By June, the uproar had subsided. Mizuhara pleaded guilty to federal bank and tax fraud charges and admitted to stealing nearly $17 million from Ohtani. The public got a glimpse of Ohtani's softer side in August, when his dog Decoy delivered a first pitch to his owner on their shared bobblehead night. The Nederlandse Kooikerhondje exchanged an endearing high-five with Ohtani at the plate. As a result, Decoy became a celebrity in his own right, with his breed (pronounced COY-ker-HUND-che) making the list of the most mispronounced words of 2024. He and Ohtani were mentioned during the telecast of last month's National Dog Show, where the small Spaniel-type breed was among the competitors. "The number of the breed has kind of dwindled, so by him gaining a little bit of popularity hopefully that brings up the number of his breed," Ohtani said. "I do feel like we were able to, in a small way, contribute to the popularity of the dog and I'm sure Decoy himself would be happy about that." Ohtani will be looking to top himself next year while eyeing a repeat World Series title. "It's almost like right now you can lock in the Most Valuable Player in the National League award because no one has that ability or talent," Roberts said. "I'm just excited to see what '25 has for Shohei Ohtani." Get local news delivered to your inbox!
