ATLANTA (AP) — A judge is weighing whether a Georgia state Senate committee has the right to subpoena testimony and documents from Fulton County District Attorney as it looks into whether she has engaged in misconduct during her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump. The Republican-led committee sent subpoenas to Willis in August seeking to compel her to testify at its September meeting and to produce scores of documents. The committee was formed earlier this year to examine allegations of “various forms of misconduct” by Willis, an elected Democrat, during her prosecution of over their efforts to overturn the former president’s 2020 election loss in Georgia. Willis’ attorney, former Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes, told Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shukura Ingram during a hearing Tuesday that although the Georgia General Assembly has subpoena power, that power is not automatically conferred on a single legislative chamber or its committees. Even if the committee did have such power, he argued, the subpoenas in question are overly broad and not related to a legitimate legislative need. Barnes said the focus on Willis and her investigation into Trump shows that the committee was politically motivated and not a legitimate inquiry into the practices of district attorneys’ offices: “What they were trying to do is chill the prosecution of Donald Trump and find out what they had.” Josh Belinfante, a lawyer representing the lawmakers, said there is nothing in the Georgia Constitution that prohibits the Senate from issuing a subpoena. The duly formed interim committee is looking into whether new legislation is needed to regulate the practices of district attorneys’ offices in the state, he argued. “They are investigating and making an inquiry into these allegations that may show that existing state laws, including those establishing the processes for selecting, hiring and compensating special assistant district attorneys, are inadequate,” Belinfante said. The resolution creating the committee focused in particular on Willis’ hiring of , with whom she had a , to lead the prosecution against Trump and others. It says the relationship amounted to a “clear conflict of interest and a fraud upon the taxpayers” of the county and state. One of the committee’s subpoenas orders Wills to produce documents related to Wade, including documents related to his hiring and payment, documents related to money or items of value that Wade and Willis may have exchanged, text messages and emails between the two, and their phone records. The committee also requested any documents her office sent in response to requests from the U.S. House, as well as communications Willis and her office had with the White House, the U.S. Justice Department and the House relating to the 2020 presidential election. And they asked for documents related to federal grant money Willis’ office has received. Before the deadlines in the subpoenas, Willis challenged them in court. Willis’ challenge was pending in mid-September when she during which the committee members had hoped to question her. In October, the committee asked Ingram to require Willis to comply with the subpoenas. The committee’s lawyers wrote in a court filing that Willis’ failure to do so had delayed its ability to finish its inquiry and to provide recommendations for any legislation or changes in appropriations that might result. Barnes also argued that once the regular legislative session has adjourned, which happened in March this year, legislative committees can meet to study issues and come up with recommendations but do not have the power to compel someone to appear or produce documents. Belinfante rejected that, saying the state Constitution expressly permits the creation of interim committees and allows them to make their rules. Even if these subpoenas were validly issued, Barnes argued, they ask for too much, including private and personal information that is not a legitimate target of a legislative subpoena. Belinfante said the lawmakers are simply trying to do their jobs. He asked that Willis be ordered to appear before the committee in early January. He also asked that she be ordered to provide the requested documents and explain what privilege justifies any that are excluded. With a glaring lack of state case law on the issue of the General Assembly’s subpoena power, that’s one issue Ingram will have to address. She said she will consider the arguments and release her order as soon as she can. Willis and Wade have but have said it began after he was hired and ended before the indictment against Trump was filed. Trump and other defendants argued that the that should disqualify Willis and her office from continuing with her prosecution of the case. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee that Willis’ actions showed a “tremendous lapse in judgment,” but he did not find a conflict of interest that would disqualify Willis. He said she could continue her prosecution as long as Wade stepped aside, which he did. Trump and others to the Georgia Court of Appeals, and that appeal remains pending. Kate Brumback, The Associated Pressspin ph slot casino 。

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) — Brandon Nunez threw just two passes, each for a score, and New Mexico State beat Middle Tennessee 36-21 on Saturday to end a three-game losing streak. Nunez tossed a 12-yard touchdown pass to Seth McGowan to give the Aggies a 20-7 lead midway through the third quarter. After Middle Tennessee pulled to 26-21 early in the fourth, Nunez tossed a 4-yard TD pass to Cooper Sheehan that made it 33-21 with 7:43 left. Parker Awad completed 12 of 16 passes for 221 yards for New Mexico State (3-8, 2-5 Conference USA). McGowan finished with 83 yards rushing. Mike Washington also had a touchdown run and Dylan Early a 30-yard pick-6 for the Aggies. Nicholas Vattiato was 30-of-45 passing for 277 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions for Middle Tennessee (3-8, 2-5), which has lost three of its last four. __ Get alerts on the latest AP Top 25 poll throughout the season. Sign up here ___ AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

California residents on edge as high surf and flooding threats persist on Christmas Eve

Social media firms raise 'serious concerns' over Australian U-16 banThe federal agency in charge of Green Peter Reservoir and Dam has agreed to halt the drawdown intended to give salmon species safe passage after three local cities complained that the murky water it creates is putting a strain on their drinking water filtration systems. In a letter sent to the city managers of Sweet Home, Lebanon and Albany just before 11 p.m. Friday, Nov. 20, Col. L. Dale Caswell Jr. of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers acknowledged that the cities have been in contact with Oregon health officials. The Army Corps also has been in touch with the Oregon Health Authority to assess the cities' complaints, and in response, Caswell wrote, has decided to halt the drawdown. "This means (the Army Corps) will begin refill operations, effective immediately. A formal letter, dictating our decision, will be sent out next week," Caswell told the city managers. No other details about reversing the drawdown were shared. In Lebanon's recent entreaty to OHA to intervene in the drawdown, Lebanon City Manager Ron Whitlatch wrote that the operation "risks Lebanon's ability to provide safe drinking water and continues to damage our water treatment plant." Earlier Friday, Albany City Manager Peter Troedsson also sought help from the Oregon Health Authority, which ensures the quality and safety of the state's drinking water. "The city of Albany joins the cities of Lebanon and Sweet Home in requesting an immediate halt to the United States Army Corps of Engineers drawdown operations at Green Peter Reservoir. Our communities' drinking water treatment facilities are being impacted by continuous high turbidity (another word for murkiness) in the South Santiam River," Troedsson wrote. The South Santiam is typically a source of very clean water, he said. "These clean conditions mean that none of our water treatment plants were built to handle such turbid water conditions, especially for an extended period of time. The turbidity resulting from the Green Peter Reservoir drawdown puts considerable strain on our treatment plant capacity to meet demand, is causing additional operational costs, and has resulted in the loss of warranty on equipment due to exceeding design turbidity limits," Troedsson wrote. A federal judge ordered the agency to drawdown reservoirs in the Willamette Valley in response to a lawsuit filed by environmentalists who successfully argued the Army Corps had not done enough to ensure the habitat of the endangered chinook salmon and related species. Last year's drawdown at Green Peter was the first, bringing the reservoir to historically low levels, and resulted in green-tinged water that drew many resident complaints — and frustrated the operators at local municipal water treatment plants. In turn, local electeds put pressure on the state and federal government to reimburse them their costs of having to adjust to the suddenly murky water, created when dirt and bits of animal and plant matter become concentrated by the drawdown. This story is developing. Check back for updates. More Albany news More Lebanon news More Sweet Home news Penny Rosenberg is regional editor of three Lee Enterprises news publications in the Pacific Northwest. She earned a Master of Legal Studies from UCLA School of Law. She can be reached at Penny.Rosenberg@lee.net and 541-812-6111. Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Editor {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.Robbins LLP Reminds Investors with Large Losses to Seek Counsel to Move For Lead Plaintiff in the Mynaric AG Class Action

xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence ( ) company, has raised USD 6 billion in new capital, according to a regulatory filing. The equity financing came from 97 investors and includes stakes as small as USD 77,593, as stated in the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. The filing did not disclose the identities of the investors. Furthermore, the company has not provided specific information regarding its valuation or revenue figures. xAI’s Latest Funding The funding comes as xAI seeks to bolster its presence in the AI industry by expanding its Memphis, Tennessee, supercomputer to accommodate at least one million graphics processing units (GPUs). Earlier reports indicate that existing investors, including Valor Equity Partners, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and the Qatar Investment Authority, participated in the funding round. Since its inception last year, xAI has launched its generative AI model, Grok, which powers features on X. The company reportedly plans to use funds from this round to purchase 100,000 chips from Nvidia. Series B Funding This new funding brings xAI’s total capital raised to USD 12 billion, adding to the USD 6 billion tranche secured earlier in May. The company stated that the Series B funding will be used to bring its first products to market, build advanced infrastructure, and accelerate research and development of future technologies. “Our Series B funding round of USD 6 billion with participation from key investors including Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management and Research Company, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and Kingdom Holding, amongst others,” the company announced in May. “xAI is primarily focused on the development of advanced AI systems that are truthful, competent, and maximally beneficial for all of humanity. The company’s mission is to understand the true nature of the universe,” the company said in a blog post. The Grok AI Model xAI’s flagship product, a chatbot called Grok, is available to paying users of X, the social network formerly known as Twitter. In August, the company released Grok-2, a frontier language model with state-of-the-art reasoning capabilities. This release introduced two models: Grok-2 and Grok-2 Mini. In November, xAI launched the API Public Beta, offering programmatic access for developers to build applications using Grok foundation models via the newly released API. Grok AI Chatbot Now Accessible to All X Users xAI has rolled out its AI chatbot, Grok, to all users on the social platform X (formerly Twitter), previously available only to Premium subscribers of X’s higher-tier plans, X Premium and X Premium+. Free users can send up to 10 messages every two hours, after which they will be prompted to upgrade to a paid subscription. They can also analyse three images per day. As of this writing, is providing access only to the assistant Grok-2, and the image generator Grok 2+ Aurora. There is also a fun mode which users can enable. xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence ( ) company, has raised USD 6 billion in new capital, according to a regulatory filing. The equity financing came from 97 investors and includes stakes as small as USD 77,593, as stated in the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. The filing did not disclose the identities of the investors. Furthermore, the company has not provided specific information regarding its valuation or revenue figures. xAI’s Latest Funding The funding comes as xAI seeks to bolster its presence in the AI industry by expanding its Memphis, Tennessee, supercomputer to accommodate at least one million graphics processing units (GPUs). Earlier reports indicate that existing investors, including Valor Equity Partners, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and the Qatar Investment Authority, participated in the funding round. Since its inception last year, xAI has launched its generative AI model, Grok, which powers features on X. The company reportedly plans to use funds from this round to purchase 100,000 chips from Nvidia. Series B Funding This new funding brings xAI’s total capital raised to USD 12 billion, adding to the USD 6 billion tranche secured earlier in May. The company stated that the Series B funding will be used to bring its first products to market, build advanced infrastructure, and accelerate research and development of future technologies. “Our Series B funding round of USD 6 billion with participation from key investors including Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management and Research Company, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and Kingdom Holding, amongst others,” the company announced in May. “xAI is primarily focused on the development of advanced AI systems that are truthful, competent, and maximally beneficial for all of humanity. The company’s mission is to understand the true nature of the universe,” the company said in a blog post. The Grok AI Model xAI’s flagship product, a chatbot called Grok, is available to paying users of X, the social network formerly known as Twitter. In August, the company released Grok-2, a frontier language model with state-of-the-art reasoning capabilities. This release introduced two models: Grok-2 and Grok-2 Mini. In November, xAI launched the API Public Beta, offering programmatic access for developers to build applications using Grok foundation models via the newly released API. Grok AI Chatbot Now Accessible to All X Users xAI has rolled out its AI chatbot, Grok, to all users on the social platform X (formerly Twitter), previously available only to Premium subscribers of X’s higher-tier plans, X Premium and X Premium+. Free users can send up to 10 messages every two hours, after which they will be prompted to upgrade to a paid subscription. They can also analyse three images per day. As of this writing, is providing access only to the assistant Grok-2, and the image generator Grok 2+ Aurora. There is also a fun mode which users can enable.TEHRAN – In a comprehensive interview with Al Mayadeen that aired on Monday, Kamal Kharrazi, head of Iran's Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, delineated Iran's strategic responses to the incoming Trump administration, revealing Tehran's diplomatic approach across various fronts. Kharrazi, who is also a senior advisor to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, signaled Iran's readiness for any U.S. policy direction under Trump. “We are prepared to respond depending on the policies they pursue. They previously tried Maximum Pressure, which ended in failure,” he said. The senior diplomat emphasized the importance of patience, stating that while Iran is ready for any situation, Trump's “unpredictable character” makes it difficult to anticipate his decisions. On Iran's nuclear stance, Kharrazi asserted, “If they take steps against us, it's natural for us to respond with proportional measures at the appropriate time.” In 2015, Iran signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with the P5+1 and the EU to limit its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed Iran’s compliance with the agreement. However, President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the JCPOA during his first term and launched a 'Maximum Pressure' campaign, reimposing strict sanctions against Iran. In response to the U.S. withdrawal and lack of European support, Iran began gradually reducing its compliance with the JCPOA, reflecting a strategic adjustment rather than an abandonment of the deal. Kharrazi painted a complex picture of the Syrian conflict, highlighting the roles of various international actors. He underscored the U.S. and the Israeli regime's role in orchestrating Assad's downfall, stating that the “immediate” trip of Western officials to Damascus after the recent political upheaval indicates “what transpired was part of an American plan.” He reaffirmed the resilience of the Axis of Resistance, particularly in Palestine, with the assertion, “The roots of resistance are strong and solid.” The senior diplomat emphasized the enduring nature of Resistance movements, despite changes in regional political landscapes. Additionally, Kharrazi expressed optimism about improving relations with neighbors, notably Saudi Arabia, aiming for both Iran and Saudi Arabia to “play a pivotal role in ensuring security, stability, and peace in the region.” In reference to relations with China amid Trump's policies, Kharrazi stated, “We commend China's efforts to diminish the dollar's dominance.” He elaborated that he views this as part of a broader strategy for a multipolar world order, enabling Iran to assert its influence through organizations such as BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). He also touched on the deepening ties with Russia, noting, “A strategic cooperation agreement has been prepared and will soon be signed.”

In the Shadow of Fists and the Gleam of Swords: Wang Xijing's New Series of Chinese Martial Arts Paintings

The AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll is back every week throughout the season! Get the poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here . TEANECK, N.J. (AP) — Dylan Jones had 22 points in Fairleigh Dickinson’s 98-54 victory over Lehman on Saturday. Jones shot 6 for 10 (6 for 9 from 3-point range) and 4 of 4 from the free-throw line for the Knights (4-7). Terrence Brown added 19 points while shooting 7 for 12 (2 for 5 from 3-point range) and 3 of 4 from the free-throw line and also had six rebounds, five assists, and six steals. Cameron Tweedy had 11 points and shot 4 of 5 from the field and 3 for 5 from the line. The Lightning were led in scoring by Kai Parris, who finished with 12 points. ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .The city’s disgraced ex-buildings commissioner is striking out again. Months after admitting he couldn’t afford a lawyer in his political bribery case, Eric Ulrich desperately auctioned off his beloved 1958 Mickey Mantle baseball card. But all he collected was $55 — minus a 10% donation to St. Jude’s Research Hospital and $14 in fees — leaving him with about enough cash to buy a hot dog and beer at Yankee Stadium. He put his beaten-up, 66-year-old Topps All-Star Card #487 on eBay two months after he asked a Manhattan Supreme Court judge to appoint him a taxpayer-funded attorney. “This is a rare 1958 Topps trading card featuring baseball legend Mickey Mantle in his All Star uniform,” Ulrich trumpeted on the auction page. “The card is well-preserved and is a great addition to any collection. It is ungraded, but its value is undeniable.” Mint condition versions of the card, which features the Mick on a red background with white stars, have gone for as much as $9,900 at auction, but experts said Ulrich’s collectible was not ready for the majors. “It has ... two print roller lines, one right across the face, which is a major detriment to the eye appeal, and a more faint one across its knees,” Jacob Salter, a buyer at Bleecker Trading in Manhattan, told The Post after reviewing the auction images. “We’d expect that card to go between $50 and $70, based on historical sales.” Critics relished the news that the Queens pol is now auctioning off mementos amid mounting legal fees, having previously turned to hawking insurance policies to pay his bills. “Eric Ulrich is just striking out like his entire political career,” said Gavin Mario Wax, president of the New York Young Republicans Club. “Being forced to sell baseball cards is a fitting end to [his] corrupt, contemptible blight on the Republican Party.” One Queens political insider suggested Ulrich likely earned more from the auction than sales of a children’s book he self-published in September 2023, which imagined dogs serving as judges and jurors and a chameleon as a city council member. “It’s still $55 more than he made from his book sales,” the person quipped. Later that month, the Manhattan DA’s office indicted Ulrich on 16 felony corruption charges, alleging he traded political favors as far back as his City Council days for $150,000 in cash and gifts, including a bespoke suit and Mets season tickets. The former Buildings honcho was subsequently slapped with a $150 million civil suit in September by Runway Towing, which alleged Ulrich took bribes from a rival company’s owner, who was also indicted last year. Runway claims that in exchange for the gifts, Ulrich pressured the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection to axe its lucrative city contracts and operating license. Ulrich, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, insisted the auction had “nothing” to do with his financial straits and motivated solely by a desire to support St. Jude’s. “During the holiday season, we can all find ways to give to charities that help those in need,” he said. “I have other collectible items that I may auction off in the future and absolutely will be donating some of the funds received to a worthy cause.”