Vici Properties ( VICI -0.65% ) , a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns casinos and entertainment properties across the U.S. and Canada, is often considered a reliable stock for income investors. Its stock price stayed nearly flat over the past three years, but it delivered a total return of nearly 20% after including its reinvested dividends. Vici, like many other REITs, struggled to attract new investors as interest rates rose. But will its stagnant stock head higher over the next three years as interest rates finally decline? What happened to Vici over the past few years? As an experiential REIT, Vici buys up properties; leases them to gaming, hospitality, and entertainment companies; and splits its rental income with its investors. Like other REITs , it must pay out at least 90% of its pre-tax income as dividends to maintain a favorable tax rate. Its top tenants include Caesar's Entertainment , MGM Resorts , Penn Entertainment , and Century Casinos . Three of the Las Vegas Strip's biggest casino resorts -- Caesars Palace, MGM Grand, and the Venetian -- are locked into its leases. Vici's heavy exposure to the gaming sector might seem risky, but it locks its tenants into multi-decade leases that are mostly linked to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Vici's tenants can't abruptly break those contracts, since the complex real estate regulations for the gaming industry make it hard to quickly relocate entire casinos, and its CPI-linked leases guarantee that its rental income keeps pace with inflation. Moreover, it's a triple net lease REIT, which means its tenants are responsible for covering all of a property's real estate taxes, insurance, and maintenance fees. That's why Vici has maintained a perfect occupancy rate of 100% ever since its IPO in 2018 -- even as the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, and other macro headwinds rattled the gaming and hospitality industries. It's also consistently grown its adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) per share, even as it acquired more properties. Metric 2021 2022 2023 9M 2024 Total properties 28 49 93 93 Occupancy rate 100% 100% 100% 100% AFFO per share $1.82 $1.93 $2.15 $1.69 Data source: Vici Properties. For the full year, Vici expects its AFFO per share to rise 5% to $2.25-$2.26. At $29 per share, its stock looks like a bargain at 13 times the midpoint of that estimate. Vici currently pays an attractive forward dividend yield of 6% on a quarterly basis. It's raised its dividend ever since its public debut. That high yield and low valuation should limit its downside potential over the next few years. What will happen to Vici over the next three years? However, Vici's upside potential might be limited by elevated interest rates and unpredictable macro headwinds over the next three years. The Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rates three times in 2024, but it expects just two rate cuts in 2025 -- which indicates inflation hasn't been tamed yet. President-elect Donald Trump's plans to implement higher tariffs on products from China, Canada, and Mexico have also stoked fears of fresh inflationary headwinds over the next few years. High interest rates will make it more expensive for Vici to buy new properties, and they'll make safer fixed-income investments like CDs, bonds, and T-bills more appealing than riskier dividend-paying stocks. All of those headwinds weighed down Vici and other REITs over the past year, and they'll likely cap its near-term gains. That said, Vici's business model has been well-insulated from the macro headwinds over the past few years. From 2020 to 2023, its AFFO per share grew at a stable compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.4%. Assuming Vici can grow its AFFO per share at a CAGR of 9% from 2023 to 2027 and that it maintains the same multiple, its stock could rise 34% from its current price to about $39 by the final year. It will also likely maintain its current streak of annual dividend hikes. That stable growth trajectory makes it a solid stock to buy and hold for long-term dividend investors.NBC Sports enters Madden video game universe with alternate broadcast on PeacockNoneGamers, the wait is over and Black Friday is finally here. With it comes one of the few chances to find discounts on Nintendo Switch consoles, the best Nintendo Switch games and other great gaming deals (including PS5 and Xbox ). If you’ve been holding out for a price drop, now’s the time to dive in. One of the best deals on the Nintendo Switch OLED I’ve ever seen comes from Amazon . The Switch OLED deal includes a £20 discount on the console, as well as a free copy of Super Mario Bros. Wonder and a 12-month subscription to Nintendo Switch Online. It’s not one I’d recommend you miss. With rumours swirling about a mid-2025 release for the Nintendo Switch 2 , it’s no surprise that there are so many great Black Friday savings around. Keep reading for my handpicked guide to the best Nintendo Switch Black Friday deals to shop now. Follow live: Black Friday deals and expert shopping tips I’ve been writing about all things tech for more than seven years. I’ve also been reviewing the latest games consoles and games for The Independent since joining it in 2021. This experience, and the know-how that comes with it, means I know how to seek out the best products at the best prices, finding you the Black Friday deals that are genuinely good value for money. Nintendo has just released a Nintendo Switch OLED bundle deal, which includes a free copy of Super Mario Bros. Wonder and a 12-month Nintendo Switch Online membership. If you buy the bundle from Amazon, you’ll get an additional £20 sliced off the console’s asking price, plus the game and membership thrown in for free. Bargain. This really is the best deal I’ve ever seen on the Nintendo Switch OLED. If you don’t need the larger or more vibrant OLED display, then this bundle deal on the OG Nintendo Switch will serve you well. It comes with Nintendo Switch Sports , a leg-strap accessory and a 12-month Switch Online membership thrown in for free. If you buy the bundle from Amazon, the retailer knocks off a further £10 off the console, saving you a total of £76. The Turtle Beach Recon 50 is the entry-level option from this renowned gaming brand, which also happens to be behind the best gaming headset we’ve tested, the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro (was £279.99, now £249.69, Amazon.co.uk ). “If you don’t want to spend too much on a gaming headset but don’t want any old cheap tat, pick up the Turtle Beach Recon 50,” I said in my review. The headset is great quality for the price, has a boom mic for multiplayer chat, and matches the Switch in its red and blue colourway. If the Nintendo Switch bundle above has caught your eye, Very is making the deal even better. Not only do you get the console, a copy of Nintendo Switch Sports, leg strap accessory and a 12-month Nintendo Switch Online subscription, but the retailer is also throwing in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – one of the console’s best games – for just £20 more. Altogether, that’s more than £100 of savings, compared with buying the products separately. The Switch Lite is the spiritual successor to the Nintendo DS. With a smaller screen, the Switch Lite can only be played in handheld mode. This bundle gets you a copy of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and a 12-month Switch Online membership thrown in for free, saving you a huge £85 on the game and the membership. It’s still available right now in its turquoise iteration, with a cutesy Animal Crossing theme. This Nintendo Switch bundle at Very gets you the console with a copy of Mario Party Jamboree , the latest entry in the friendship-ruining Mario Party series. Perfect for a bit of Christmas morning fun, the game features more than 100 competitive minigames. Two players can play with the included controllers, but you’ll need another pair for four (£54.99, Amazon.co.uk ). Featuring a smaller 5.5in display and up to seven hours of battery life, this is the console you should be eyeing up if you just want a gaming device that doubles up as a travel companion. You can’t dock this device or play it on the TV, but it is cheaper than the original Nintendo Switch and the OLED model. Something to note about this discount is that, technically, Amazon isn’t logging it as a deal – but it should be. Seriously, it’s RRP across the web is £200 on average, and I haven’t seen the lite this cheap since July 2023. Consider me swayed. Looking for a new title to add to your Switch collection? Bayonetta 3 is one of the best Nintendo Switch games and is currently on sale at Argos. “ Bayonetta fans will find plenty to adore and, while its absurdity may take newcomers some getting used to, it’s high-octane action at its near best,” our writer said in their review . Minecraft is a tried and true classic of the gaming world, and deservedly so. Now, you can enjoy the geometric world-building game on your Nintendo Switch, plus get 20 per cent off thanks to Very’s Black Friday sale. Let your creativity run wild, from building your own castle to battling mobs of zombies with your friends, the possibilities are endless. One of my favourite Nintendo Switch games is currently more than 20 per cent off at Very thanks to the retailer’s Black Friday sale. In my review of the best Nintendo Switch games , I named Super Mario Odyssey one of the best to sink your teeth into due to its stunning visuals and unique twists. “It just narrowly misses out on the top spot for best Nintendo Switch game but only marginally. This really is one of the best Mario games out there,” I said. Save 45 per cent on FC 25 for the Switch at Amazon, a game that boasts the biggest shake-up to the Fifa franchise in years. This isn’t just the same game with players donning new kits. There’s a new game mode, a new FC IQ system, new player roles, better tactical options and new game mechanics. If you haven’t yet laced up your virtual boots, now’s the perfect time. My favourite Nintendo Switch game has just received a price cut for the first time ever. “Familiar but new, Tears of the Kingdom is breathtaking in its scope, engaging in its narrative, and the limitless freedom to explore meant we never wanted to put down the controller,” I wrote in my review . “You can craft weapons out of anything, splice objects together to build planes, sear fruits to your shield to dazzle enemies and explore for hours and hours on end.” Independent games retailer The Game Collection has just discounted Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope by £7. “There’s enough meaningful changes to entice Super Mario fans that fall outside the tactical genre, while also staying true to its core appeal,” our writer said in their review of the game. It’s the game you know and love and, ahead of the New Year, it’s had a pop and rock upgrade. That’s right, the game’s 2025 edition will include recent hits like Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso and Jack Harlow’s Lovin’ on me and, thanks to Argos’ Black Friday sale, it’s currently reduced by 45 per cent just one month after its release. Though I haven’t managed to get my hands on the game’s latest edition just yet, gaming expert Jack did take a whack at its 2015 iteration, noting how everything it entails ensures that “it really is quite hard to not have a good time.” This licensed memory card is specially designed for the Nintendo console system and instantly adds up to an extra 128GB of additional space, while also boosting transfer rates up to 100MB, to help load games faster. It also has a neat little mushroom design, just so you know it’s a Nintendo SD card. Black Friday falls the day after Thanksgiving in the US, meaning this year the mammoth sale kicked off on Friday 29 November. Lasting a full four days, the deals will end on Cyber Monday (2 December 2024). Cyber Monday falls on Monday 2 December this year. The main difference between the two sales is that Cyber Monday – as the name suggests – historically only takes place online, while Black Friday sees deals both online and in-store. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, however, with plenty of brands continuing their in-store sales into the following week. Discounts don’t stay static during the sale weekend and it’s hard to predict if prices might change or deals will vanish. So, if you’re looking to get a deal on something you really want or that might sell out, it’s wise to snatch the offer up as soon as you can. Looking for more recommendations? Read our comprehensive guide to Black Friday 2024

DUP minister rejected suggestion licensing laws could be relaxed for jubilee

The North Carolina Teaching Fellows Commission has selected 210 individuals, including several from local Point area, to receive North Carolina Teaching Fellows awards for the Class of 2025 during its early-decision window. The following are among the early-decision recipients: The Teaching Fellows program is a competitive, merit-based forgivable loan program providing tuition assistance of up to $10,000 a year for qualified students committed to teaching elementary education, special education, science, technology, engineering, or math in a North Carolina public school. The purpose of the program is to recruit, prepare and support future teachers who attend institutions of higher education in North Carolina. The award winners may attend any of the program’s 10 partner institutions pending admission: Appalachian State University; East Carolina University; Elon University; Fayetteville State University; North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University; NC State University; Meredith College; University of North Carolina at Charlotte; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and University of North Carolina at Pembroke. The comprehensive list of the Class of 2025 Teaching Fellows awardees will be finalized in March.

Team Canada disappoints again, Czechia emerges as a contender on Day 4 at World JuniorsNvidia stock is set up well for 2025 as chip demand to remain red hot: Jefferies

Empowering Older Adults With Home-Care Robots Robotics & Automation NewsKaduna health college to sponsor 1,000 free circumcisionUnlocking the Next Big Opportunity in Tech: Why You Should Pay Attention

Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, once called a 'pretty good Canadian,' dies at 100

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 . DALLAS (AP) — Kevin Miller had 24 points in SMU’s 98-82 victory over Longwood on Sunday. Miller also added five rebounds and seven assists for the Mustangs (11-2). Yohan Traore added 20 points while going 7 of 10 from the floor, including 2 for 4 from 3-point range, and 4 for 4 from the free-throw line while and grabbed 11 rebounds. Matt Cross shot 6 for 10 (2 for 5 from 3-point range) and 5 of 6 from the free-throw line to finish with 19 points. The Mustangs prolonged their winning streak to seven games. The Lancers (11-4) were led in scoring by Elijah Tucker, who finished with 20 points and six rebounds. Longwood also got 19 points and 11 assists from Colby Garland. Emanuel Richards had 12 points. SMU took the lead as time expired in the first half on a jumper by Chuck Harris and did not give it up. Traore led their team in scoring with 15 points in the first half to help put them up 45-43 at the break. SMU pulled away with an 18-2 run in the second half to extend a nine-point lead to 25 points. They outscored Longwood by 14 points in the final half, as Miller led the way with a team-high 13 second-half points. ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .SOME SCINTILLATING MEMENTS OF J&K SPORTS IN 2024

Texans who worked with Jimmy Carter remembered him as a principled and compassionate leader — the last Democrat to win the state in a presidential election. Carter died Sunday afternoon at his Georgia home at age 100. The peanut farmer turned politician was praised for philanthropic efforts that continued well into his ninth decade after a single-term presidency that began with his 1976 defeat of Republican President Gerald Ford. “He’s exactly the kind of human being that needs to be president,” John Pouland, Carter’s state coordinator for the 1976 Democratic primary, said soon after learning that Carter would receive hospice care. “He lived the life that he felt was the right way to live as a Christian.” Born and raised in Plains, Georgia, Carter actively served in the Navy for eight years before returning to his home state to take over the family’s peanut-growing business after his father’s death in 1953. Carter went on to serve in the Georgia Senate and as governor before winning the 1976 presidential election. Texas’ 26 electoral votes helped put Carter over the top, a victory he couldn’t repeat in his landslide loss to Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980. Carter became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Brownsville during a campaign stop in the closing days of the 1980 election season. He praised the area’s farmland, viewed during a low-altitude plane trip from Houston; extolled his record on education; and boasted about appointing more than 200 Hispanic Americans to senior positions, “more than any other previous administration in history.” With the polls pointing toward defeat, his speech in Brownsville also veered into the philosophical, with Carter speaking about the burden of making “the final judgment in the loneliness of the Oval Office.” “Sometimes it has been a lonely job, but with the involvement of the American people, it’s also a gratifying job,” he said in the Nov. 1, 1980, speech. He ended up losing Texas by nearly 14 percentage points, starting a losing streak for Democratic nominees that has lasted through the next 10 presidential elections. A pair of Texans may have played a part in that defeat. In 1980, former Texas Gov. John B. Connally Jr., ran for the Republican nomination to challenge Carter. When Connally lost, he threw his support behind GOP nominee Ronald Reagan. That summer, Connally and former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes took a trip to the Middle East, meeting with heads of state in various capitals. In the midst of the campaign, the Carter administration was embroiled in the Iranian Hostage Crisis, in which 52 Americans were held captive in Iran. Nightly news of the crisis strained Carter's support and left him vulnerable to charges of ineptitude. During the trip, according to Barnes, Connally told the Middle Eastern leaders to deliver a message to Iran that Reagan would give them a better deal if they waited to release the hostages until after the election. Barnes kept silent about the trip for decades, only revealing it to the New York Times in March after it was announced that Carter had entered hospice care. Connally died in 1993. Connally told an Arab leader in their first meeting, “‘Look, Ronald Reagan’s going to be elected president and you need to get the word to Iran that they’re going to make a better deal with Reagan than they are Carter,’” Barnes told the Times. “He said, ‘It would be very smart for you to pass the word to the Iranians to wait until after this general election is over.’ And boy, I tell you, I’m sitting there and I heard it and so now it dawns on me, I realize why we’re there.” Former Carter aides have speculated that they might have won if they had returned the hostages before the election. The 52 Americans were released on the day Reagan took office. Texans were introduced to Carter in the 1976 Democratic primary, when he faced U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, a politically established Texan. “The ‘Jimmy who?’ line was not made up,” Pouland said. “We probably heard that refrain more than anything.” Carter defeated Bentsen — the Georgian was established as the party’s standard bearer by the time Texas held its primary — and Pouland attributed Carter’s success to his Navy service and Christian values, characteristics that appealed to Texas voters. freestar At the time, Texas was at the tail end of a century-long, post-Civil War era of domination by Democrats in state politics. There were 133 Democrats in the 150-member state House, and 28 in the 31-member state Senate. The most significant political divides were among liberal and conservative Democrats, not Democrats and Republicans. But in presidential politics, Republicans had made inroads. Richard Nixon had won the state by 33 percentage points four years earlier, breaking a streak for three straight Democratic victories. Carter won the state with 51% of the vote. But the state was changing fast as conservatives flocked to the GOP. The state elected its first Republican governor since Reconstruction, Bill Clements, two years after Carter was elected. Pouland said Carter served as a model for attracting moderate Southern Democrats, something former President Bill Clinton tried but failed to replicate. Garry Mauro, a former Texas land commissioner who worked for Carter’s 1976 presidential bid, remembered the candidate as genuine and earnest. Mauro said it never occurred to Carter to filter people out, and he didn’t restrict access to himself even as his campaign built momentum. Mauro recalled numerous occasions when he dialed a campaign number, only to have the candidate’s wife, Rosalynn Carter, answer the phone. “He really was the people’s president,” Mauro said. Carter’s influence on Texas Democrats was immense, reshaping the state party’s power base to accommodate new faces on his team, Mauro said. “Jimmy Carter empowered a whole new generation of leadership in Texas,” Mauro said. His many years in politics did not change Carter’s altruistic outlook, Pouland added, and Carter took an active role in advancing human rights through his nonprofit organization, the Carter Center, after leaving office. Carter, Pouland said, “went to his same church, worked on his same farm, kept his same friends and continued to live his life as an example for the very thing that he was an advocate of, and that was compassion.” Though Carter was the last Democrat presidential candidate to win Texas, his legacy is still evident in the party, said state Rep. John Bryant, D-Dallas. “He was committed to human rights and gave Democrats the confidence to be for human rights and for peace and for honesty in government,” said Bryant, who served as Carter’s campaign manager in Dallas County during Carter’s first presidential campaign. Bryant points to Carter’s post-presidential years as some of his most impactful. “Instead of serving on corporate boards, or making big speaking fees, or playing golf, he was going to Habitat for Humanity. He was at the [Carter Center]. And he wrote 30 books, the proceeds of which went to nonprofits,” Bryant said, adding that Carter was “just a great example for how to live a life devoted to the public interest. “He lived his faith. He practiced what he preached,” Bryant said. “That’s very important for the country to see that.” In August 2007, Carter joined South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu in calling Texas to stop the execution of Kenneth Foster, an inmate who was on death row for acting as the getaway driver during a killing. Then-Gov. Rick Perry commuted Foster’s sentence to life in prison hours before the execution was scheduled. After the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, Carter joined four other former presidents — Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Clinton and George H.W. Bush — in appealing for donations to help in the recovery. The effort raised more than $41 million in response to the costliest natural disaster of 2017, when extreme flooding in Houston and the surrounding area caused more than $125 billion in damage. Carter maintained his commitment to service through his life, helping to build and repair Dallas homes for Habitat for Humanity as a 90-year-old in 2014. “No matter what your faith may be, we are taught to share what we have with poor people,” he told The Dallas Morning News at the time. “It’s very difficult to cross that divide between people that have everything and people that have never had a decent house. Habitat makes it easy to cross that line.”