Hugh Marks will take the reins of the ABC after the former Nine Entertainment chief executive won a global search for the top media role. Mr Marks, whose six-year stint at Nine included the broadcaster’s merger with the publisher of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, was well-qualified to lead the ABC’s editorial and creative production teams, chair Kim Williams said on Tuesday. “Hugh is a highly successful media executive, with more than 30 years’ experience in Australia and internationally in content production, programming, and distribution, working across all platforms from television, radio, and online publishing and with extensive news experience,” Mr Williams said in a statement. “This breadth of experience is rare and will be critical to the ABC as we look to further strengthen our reach and engagement with the Australian community.” His appointment to managing director will not be without controversy after a recent report exposed a toxic culture within Nine’s television newsrooms. An internal report in October found nearly half of the commercial media giant’s employees had experienced bullying, discrimination or harassment in the past five years, with one quarter experiencing sexual harassment. Mr Marks led Nine from 2015 to 2021, leaving after it was reported he was in a relationship with a senior executive. In the years since, he has been at Dreamchaser, a contemporary Australian film and TV production studio he co-founded and co-led. His five-year term at the ABC begins in March. He replaces David Anderson, who announced his departure in August. “I look forward to working with everyone at the ABC as it continues to host and guide discussion on the issues of importance to Australia and lead in the delivery of quality, truthful and engaging news, and premium content,” Mr Marks said. “The ABC is an iconic and formidable media organisation. “No other institution has the reach and impact of the ABC, and it is a privilege to lead the ABC workforce as we confront the many technology and programming opportunities before us.” The appointment came as the federal government pledged to legislate five-year funding terms for the ABC and SBS to ensure stability at the national broadcasters. That promise coincided with ABC getting another $83.1 million for the 2027 and 2028 financial years and $43 million in the years following. “The national broadcasters are important cultural institutions and pillars of our democracy, providing world-class news and entertainment in accordance with their statutory charters, for the benefit of all Australians,” Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said.
Home | Former US President, Jimmy Carter dies at 100 Jimmy Carter, the earnest Georgia peanut farmer who as US president struggled with a bad economy and the Iran hostage crisis but brokered peace between Israel and Egypt and later received the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work, died at his home in Plains, Georgia, on Sunday, the Carter Center said. He was 100. “My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” said Chip Carter, the former president’s son. “My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.” A Democrat, he served as president from January 1977 to January 1981 after defeating incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 US election. Carter was swept from office four years later in an electoral landslide as voters embraced Republican challenger Ronald Reagan, the former actor and California governor. Carter lived longer after his term in office than any other US president. Along the way, he earned a reputation as a better former president than he was a president – a status he readily acknowledged. His one-term presidency was marked by the highs of the 1978 Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt, bringing some stability to the Middle East. But it was dogged by an economy in recession, persistent unpopularity and the embarrassment of the Iran hostage crisis that consumed his final 444 days in office. In recent years, Carter had experienced several health issues including melanoma that spread to his liver and brain. Carter decided to receive hospice care in February 2023 instead of undergoing additional medical intervention. His wife, Rosalynn Carter died on November 19, 2023, at age 96. He looked frail when he attended her memorial service and funeral in a wheelchair. Carter left office profoundly unpopular but worked energetically for decades on humanitarian causes. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 in recognition of his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” Carter had been a centrist as governor of Georgia with populist tendencies when he moved into the White House as the 39th US president. He was a Washington outsider at a time when America was still reeling from the Watergate scandal that led Republican Richard Nixon to resign as president in 1974 and elevated Ford from vice president. “I’m Jimmy Carter and I’m running for president. I will never lie to you,” Carter promised with an ear-to-ear smile. Asked to assess his presidency, Carter said in a 1991 documentary: “The biggest failure we had was a political failure. I never was able to convince the American people that I was a forceful and strong leader.” Despite his difficulties in office, Carter had few rivals for accomplishments as a former president. He gained global acclaim as a tireless human rights advocate, a voice for the disenfranchised and a leader in the fight against hunger and poverty, winning the respect that eluded him in the White House. Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts to promote human rights and resolve conflicts around the world, from Ethiopia and Eritrea to Bosnia and Haiti. His Carter Center in Atlanta sent international election-monitoring delegations to polls around the world. A Southern Baptist Sunday school teacher since his teens, Carter brought a strong sense of morality to the presidency, speaking openly about his religious faith. He also sought to take some pomp out of an increasingly imperial presidency – walking, rather than riding in a limousine, in his 1977 inauguration parade. The Middle East was the focus of Carter’s foreign policy. The 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, based on the 1978 Camp David accords, ended a state of war between the two neighbors. Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland for talks. Later, as the accords seemed to be unraveling, Carter saved the day by flying to Cairo and Jerusalem for personal shuttle diplomacy. The treaty provided for Israeli withdrawal from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and establishment of diplomatic relations. Begin and Sadat each won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1978. By the 1980 election, the overriding issues were double-digit inflation, interest rates that exceeded 20% and soaring gas prices, as well as the Iran hostage crisis that brought humiliation to America. These issues marred Carter’s presidency and undermined his chances of winning a second term. HOSTAGE CRISIS On November 4, 1979, revolutionaries devoted to Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had stormed the US Embassy in Tehran, seized the Americans present and demanded the return of the ousted shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was backed by the United States and was being treated in a US hospital. The American public initially rallied behind Carter. But his support faded in April 1980 when a commando raid failed to rescue the hostages, with eight US soldiers killed in an aircraft accident in the Iranian desert. Carter’s final ignominy was that Iran held the 52 hostages until minutes after Reagan took his oath of office on January 20, 1981, to replace Carter, then released the planes carrying them to freedom. In another crisis, Carter protested the former Soviet Union’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by boycotting the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. He also asked the US Senate to defer consideration of a major nuclear arms accord with Moscow. Unswayed, the Soviets remained in Afghanistan for a decade. Carter won narrow Senate approval in 1978 of a treaty to transfer the Panama Canal to the control of Panama despite critics who argued the waterway was vital to American security. He also completed negotiations on full US ties with China. Carter created two new US Cabinet departments – education and energy. Amid high gas prices, he said America’s “energy crisis” was “the moral equivalent of war” and urged the country to embrace conservation. “Ours is the most wasteful nation on earth,” he told Americans in 1977. In 1979, Carter delivered what became known as his “malaise” speech to the nation, although he never used that word. “After listening to the American people I have been reminded again that all the legislation in the world can’t fix what’s wrong with America,” he said in his televised address. “The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.” As president, the strait-laced Carter was embarrassed by the behavior of his hard-drinking younger brother, Billy Carter, who had boasted: “I got a red neck, white socks, and Blue Ribbon beer.” ‘THERE YOU GO AGAIN’ Jimmy Carter withstood a challenge from Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination but was politically diminished heading into his general election battle against a vigorous Republican adversary. Reagan, the conservative who projected an image of strength, kept Carter off balance during their debates before the November 1980 election. Reagan dismissively told Carter, “There you go again,” when the Republican challenger felt the president had misrepresented Reagan’s views during one debate. Carter lost the 1980 election to Reagan, who won 44 of the 50 states and amassed an Electoral College landslide. James Earl Carter Jr. was born on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, one of four children of a farmer and shopkeeper. He graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1946, served in the nuclear submarine programme and left to manage the family peanut farming business. He married his wife, Rosalynn, in 1946, a union he called “the most important thing in my life.” They had three sons and a daughter. Carter became a millionaire, a Georgia state legislator and Georgia’s governor from 1971 to 1975. He mounted an underdog bid for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination, and out-hustled his rivals for the right to face Ford in the general election. With Walter Mondale as his vice presidential running mate, Carter was given a boost by a major Ford gaffe during one of their debates. Ford said that “there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration,” despite decades of just such domination. Carter edged Ford in the election, even though Ford actually won more states – 27 to Carter’s 23. Not all of Carter’s post-presidential work was appreciated. Former President George W. Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, both Republicans, were said to have been displeased by Carter’s freelance diplomacy in Iraq and elsewhere. In 2004, Carter called the Iraq war launched in 2003 by the younger Bush one of the most “gross and damaging mistakes our nation ever made.” He called George W. Bush’s administration “the worst in history” and said Vice President Dick Cheney was “a disaster for our country.” In 2019, Carter questioned Republican Donald Trump’s legitimacy as president, saying “he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf.” Trump responded by calling Carter “a terrible president.” Carter also made trips to communist North Korea. A 1994 visit defused a nuclear crisis, as President Kim Il Sung agreed to freeze his nuclear program in exchange for resumed dialogue with the United States. That led to a deal in which North Korea, in return for aid, promised not to restart its nuclear reactor or reprocess the plant’s spent fuel. But Carter irked Democratic President Bill Clinton’s administration by announcing the deal with North Korea’s leader without first checking with Washington. In 2010, Carter won the release of an American sentenced to eight years hard labour for illegally entering North Korea. Carter wrote more than two dozen books, ranging from a presidential memoir to a children’s book and poetry, as well as works about religious faith and diplomacy. His book “Faith: A Journey for All,” was published in 2018. SABC © 2024Bulls On Tap Tasting Flight: Chicago Bulls News for Dec. 2, 2024
Trudeau told Trump Americans would also suffer if tariffs are imposed, a Canadian minister says
AI This is my fourth and last blog on digital storage and memory projections for 2025. The first two articles focused on digital storage and memory devices including magnetic tape, HDDs, SSDs as well as NAND, DRAM and emerging non-volatile memories. The third was an update on optical storage, since several optical storage startups targeting the archiving and digital preservation market came to the forefront in 2024 and appear to be poised to deliver prototype products in 2025 and beyond. This article will focus on developments in storage systems and software and their use in workflows as well as additional insights on the future of storage devices and systems. 2024 saw the recovery of the overall storage and memory markets, although NAND flash and SSD markets have had only a partial recovery this year with most growth in the enterprise and data center markets. In September 2024 IDC released a report stating that the worldwide enterprise external OEM storage systems are expected to grow an average of 4.3% over a 5-year period. IDC attributed the growth to, “Positive developments and drivers for growing demand include increasing demand for flash storage (typically, all-flash arrays) to support projects related to artificial intelligence, both for training and inferencing” and “increasing demand for flash media across both external storage systems and servers.” They also say that IaaS solutions are leading more companies to repatriate or planning to repatriate workloads from shared cloud to dedicated IT environments. On the other hand, IDC, in another September report , forecast that 2024 cloud infrastructure spending (computing and storage) will grow 48.8% over 2023. Much of this spending growth was due to the increasing costs for GPU servers. Actual unit cloud growth in the same period was 17.7%. Shared cloud infrastructure spending is expected to grow 57.9% Y/Y with dedicated cloud infrastructure spending growth projected at 20.4% Y/Y. Non-cloud infrastructure spending is expected to grow 11.7% Y/Y. Long term, IDC predicts spending on cloud infrastructure (compute and storage) to have a compound growth rate 18.1 from 2023-2028 and accounting for 76.4% of total compute and storage infrastructure spending by 2028 with shared cloud infrastructure spending being 78.6% of total cloud spending by 2028. Samsung’s Android 15 Leak—Bad News For Nearly All Galaxy Owners Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Release Date Leaks Samsung Slashes Galaxy Z Fold 6 Price In Early January Sale Developing AI workloads will have an impact on storage and memory demand. Eric Herzog, CMO at Infinidat, said that Enterprise storage infrastructure will take on a new role as the foundation for retrieval-augmented generation, RAG. RAG is a GenAI-centric framework for augmenting, refining and optimizing the output of AI models including large language models, LLMs, and small language models, SLMs). RAG can eliminate the need for continually re-training models, reducing the costs of these models and can reduce the incidence of AI hallucinations. Infinidat announced its RAG workflow deployment architecture in November 2024. Infinidat is also joining efforts to defend data stores from cyberattacks. As part of its data protection capabilities. At the first sign of a cyberattack an immutable snapshot is taken of data to automatically reduce the impact of an attack. Infinidat also projects growth in hybrid multi-cloud storage in 2025. This brings together on-premises/private cloud and public cloud storage resources to enable high levels of flexibility, cost efficiency and use case-specific solutions. AWS and Azure are able to assist with such efforts. Infinidat announced such services with AWS and Microsoft in 2023 using the company’s InfuzeOS software defined storage, SDS, solution. Infinidat also says that non-VM based virtualization and Kubernetes/container deployments will increase in 2025. Steve Leeper, VP of Product Marketing at Datadobi, says that, “The amount of unstructured data stored in both public cloud and private cloud environments will continue to grow. The impact of unstructured data management solutions that give customers the ability to manage data no matter where it is located will increase as the data in multiple environments accumulates. It’s no longer realistic to ignore the fact that, in most organizations, data lives in a hybrid environment and global data management is required.” In addition, he indicated that with the growth of unstructured data there is a greater need for data insights to create GENAI-ready data. Don Boxley, CEO and co-founder of DH2i says that AI can be used to create self-optimized high availability, HA, clusters, where, “AI eliminates...inefficiencies by continuously analyzing workloads and resource usage, allowing clusters to self-optimize and maintain peak performance without manual oversight.” He also says that AI-driven HA clustering can help maintain HA across different cloud environments by managing clusters spanning multiple providers. Boxley says that, “AI simplifies cross-cloud HA by dynamically analyzing traffic and distributing workloads intelligently across providers, ensuring seamless performance and responsiveness.” AI data demand will increase the need for archiving data. Gal Naor, CEO of StorONE says that, “The exponential growth of data in 2025 will significantly increase storage costs as organizations face the challenge of retaining cold data for extended periods. Although rarely accessed, this data must remain secure, easily accessible and cost-efficient.” In addition, “Auto Tiering storage solutions will dynamically migrate inactive data to low-cost drives while ensuring rapid access for future analysis, reducing overall costs without compromising efficiency.” Also, “With rising cyber threats, fast and cost-effective recovery will be critical. Intelligent architectures will store snapshots on economical tiers while ensuring immediate availability for recovery, enhancing both preparedness and cost management.” Skip Levens, Product Leader and AI Strategist for Media and Entertainment at Quantum, had some comments on AI growth in 2025 and its impact on digital storage demand. He says that, “In 2025, organizations that take a more pragmatic approach to AI—and its underlying data infrastructure—will be best prepared to fuel new insights and power discovery.” He also talks about who the winners will be, “Those who are leading the data race are the ones who are not only leveraging every scrap of their collected data for differentiated AI outcomes, but those who have an infrastructure and process in place for effectively doing so—managing, organizing, indexing, and cataloging every piece of it. They’ll produce more, faster, and better results than their competitors. In 2025, we’ll start to see who leaps ahead in this new ‘data and algorithm arms race.” Members of the Active Archive Alliance also had comments related to the growth of archive data to support 2025 workflows. Rich Godomski, Head of Tape Evangelism with FujiFilm NA Corp., Data Storage Solutions, say that, “Sustainable active archive solutions with intelligent data management capabilities can leverage ultra energy efficient and extremely cost-effective tiers of storage such as S3 compatible object-based tape libraries. This will be needed to offset the voracious energy consumption of truly cutting-edge and breakthrough AI applications as the AI age evolves in 2025 and beyond.” Paul Luppino, Director of Global Digital Solutions at Iron Mountain, said that, “Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize data storage and active archives by enhancing efficiency and accessibility. As data volumes soar, we can optimize storage management by predicting usage patterns and minimizing costs, potentially making decisions about how and where to store data at the point of creation. In the realm of active archives, AI can analyze and prioritize data, ensuring frequently accessed information is readily available while less critical data is stored cost-effectively. Automated classification, tagging, and indexing could simplify the search process, allowing for intelligent data handling.” Mark Pastor with Platform Product Management at Western Digital said that, “...disaggregated storage...has been proven to deliver the performance and capacity required to meet the requirements of demanding GPU-related workloads which are at the heart of AI and machine learning processes. Disaggregating storage from the server accomplishes two key things: (1) it enables storage to be shared across multiple servers offering greater flexibility and utilization of storage resources, and (2) demonstrations show that disaggregated storage delivers the performance needed to keep GPU processing fully saturated. Over time these external storage architectures will become standard with HDD for active archives and with flash for performance workloads and will ultimately migrate to fabric as opposed to SAS given the convenience and distance benefits of fabrics.” Jason Lohrey, CEO of Arcitecta also emphasized the value of fabric shared storage, saying that, “Businesses can maximize their existing investments and avoid vendor lock-in by leveraging a data fabric—an architecture that unifies cloud, disk, tape, and flash storage into a single, logical namespace. This trend towards virtualization allows for a more flexible approach to data management, enabling businesses to mix and match technologies to meet specific needs.” Ted Oade, Director of Product Marketing at Spectra Logic also talks about how archive storage practices can help create more sustainable AI workloads and create competitive advantages, “Modern tape storage is not only highly durable but also incredibly energy-efficient, particularly when compared to disk storage. By offloading cold data to tape in an active archive, data centers can free up energy for AI workloads, maximizing efficiency. As energy becomes a factor potentially limiting the growth of AI, businesses that embrace sustainable practices will gain a competitive edge in 2025 and beyond” 2025 promises increased demand for storage devices, systems and software to support the growth of AI data processing. AI will increasingly be used to make digital storage more efficient and safer. Digital storage and memory architectures may play an important role in more sustainable AI data centers.
Sir Keir Starmer was speaking at the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) conference in Estonia where he met leaders of other Baltic states. After signing an energy partnership with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store in Bergen, Sir Keir flew to Estonia where he spoke alongside Mr Store and their Estonian counterpart Kristen Michal. Asked what else could be done to support Ukraine, Sir Keir said: “There is an ever-increasing demand for more capability. That is understandable, and Ukraine needs all the capability that it can get, so I think all of us have put in more capability into Ukraine by way of equipment.” He added: “A lot of money has been raised, funding has been raised, but more is going to be needed.” The Prime Minister’s also discussed making the economic case at home for continued support for Ukraine. Sir Keir said: “Making the case on the significance of Ukraine, making the case, to double down, linking it back to each of our countries – what does it mean for us if Russia succeeds, is a really important question that we have to answer with our people to make it clear why it is that we are so supportive of Ukraine, why it is that we must stand with our allies on this, why it is we must make sure that Nato is put in the strongest position as well. “Now, this is a different world to the world of 10, 20 years ago, to recognise the world that we are living in, there’s a positive case as well to be made. “Defence spending doesn’t sort of sit in a silo over here with no effect on the rest of the economy, no effect on technology. “It has a huge effect on technologies, the cutting edge of technology and change which can then be used in other areas. “It binds countries together. I think all of us have got joint projects on in terms of defence capabilities that bind us together. There’s a huge number of well-paid jobs that are very important to our economy in defence spending as well. “But we have to make that positive case. I don’t personally feel that we can sort of sit back and assume that all of those in our respective countries necessarily accept all of our arguments unless we make them in that positive way, which I do think the argument can and should and must be made. “But the challenge that you put to us is the right challenge, which is it’s very difficult when finances are tight, as they are in all of our countries.” On Tuesday morning the Prime Minister will meet Taavi Madiberk, the founder of Estonian tech start-up manufacturing low-cost air defence missiles, Frankenburg Technologies, which is planning to open a new office in London Specialising in the manufacture of the missiles, the rapidly growing company already collaborates closely with the UK defence industry, sourcing a significant portion of its subsystems locally, including from propulsion specialists Roxel in Worcestershire. The Prime Minister will again attend the JEF summit, joining leaders from the Nordics and Baltics to discuss support for Ukraine, the sustained threat posed by Russia and wider European security. He will then visit British forces serving in the region to deter malign Russian threats.Activating Your Credit Card? Don’t Skip the Mobile Wallet Step
Google has named Debbie Weinstein, a senior executive for the tech giant in the UK, as its president in Europe , the Middle East and Africa . Until now, Ms Weinstein has been the US firm’s vice president and managing director in the UK and Ireland , having previously worked at Unilever. She said her focus will be on “unlocking AI-powered growth for everyone”, calling the current AI boom a “pivotal” time for the tech giant. Google has joined many of its rivals in launching a string of high-profile generative AI products in recent times, led by the firm’s generative AI-powered assistant, Gemini. “Europe, the Middle East and Africa is an amazingly diverse and varied region, but the enormous growth opportunity that AI can create is universal,” she said. “My focus will be on unlocking that AI-powered growth for everyone – users, businesses, partners and governments across every part of the region. “I’m excited to be stepping into this role at a pivotal time, in a company where I’ve spent the last ten years and leading a region where I’ve spent much of my life.” Google employs more than 29,000 people across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with 56 offices across 35 countries in those regions working on many of the firm’s largest products, including its search engine, the Android mobile operating system and its Chrome web browser. Its AI research arm, at Google DeepMind, is also led from London. Philipp Schindler, Google senior vice president and chief business officer, said: “This is the AI era and we are only just beginning to see its transformative impact on business and society. “In such a pivotal moment for technology, I’m thrilled we’ve appointed a visionary leader to be our President of Google EMEA. “Debbie brings a track record of unlocking growth that benefits everyone, alongside the passion and focus needed to help our customers succeed, as we bring the best of Google’s Gemini-era to everyone across EMEA.”WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump's pick for intelligence chief, Tulsi Gabbard, faced fresh scrutiny Monday on Capitol Hill about her proximity to Russian-ally Syria amid the sudden collapse of that country's hardline Assad rule. Gabbard ignored shouted questions about her 2017 visit to war-torn Syria as she ducked into one of several private meetings with senators who are being asked to confirm Trump's unusual nominees . But the Democrat-turned-Republican Army National Reserve lieutenant colonel delivered a statement in which she reiterated her support for Trump's America First approach to national security and a more limited U.S. military footprint overseas. “I want to address the issue that’s in the headlines right now: I stand in full support and wholeheartedly agree with the statements that President Trump has made over these last few days with regards to the developments in Syria,” Gabbard said exiting a Senate meeting. The incoming president’s Cabinet and top administrative choices are dividing his Republican allies and drawing concern , if not full opposition, from Democrats and others. Not just Gabbard, but other Trump nominees including Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth, were back at the Capitol ahead of what is expected to be volatile confirmation hearings next year. The incoming president is working to put his team in place for an ambitious agenda of mass immigrant deportations, firing federal workers and rollbacks of U.S. support for Ukraine and NATO allies. “We’re going to sit down and visit, that’s what this is all about,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., as he welcomed Gabbard into his office. The president-elect announced other appointments Monday, including his lawyer Harmeet Dhillon for assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Justice Department and Mark Paoletta as the returning general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary pick Hegseth appeared to be picking up support from once-skeptical senators, the former Army National Guard major denying sexual misconduct allegations and pledging not to drink alcohol if he is confirmed. The president-elect's choice to lead the FBI, Kash Patel , who has written extensively about locking up Trump's foes and proposed dismantling the Federal Bureau of Investigation, launched his first visits with senators Monday. “I expect our Republican Senate is going to confirm all of President Trump’s nominees,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., on social media. Despite widespread concern about the nominees' qualifications and demeanors for the jobs that are among the highest positions in the U.S. government, Trump's team is portraying the criticism against them as nothing more than political smears and innuendo. Showing that concern, nearly 100 former senior U.S. diplomats and intelligence and national security officials have urged Senate leaders to schedule closed-door hearings to allow for a full review of the government’s files on Gabbard. Trump's allies have described the criticisms of Hegseth in particular as similar to those lodged against Brett Kavanaugh, the former president's Supreme Court nominee who denied a sexual assault allegation and went on to be confirmed during Trump's first term in office. Said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., about Hegseth: “Anonymous accusations are trying to destroy reputations again. We saw this with Kavanaugh. I won’t stand for it.” One widely watched Republican, Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, herself a former Army National Guard lieutenant colonel and sexual assault survivor who had been criticized by Trump allies for her cool reception to Hegseth, appeared more open to him after their follow-up meeting Monday. “I appreciate Pete Hegseth’s responsiveness and respect for the process,” Ernst said in a statement. Ernst said that following “encouraging conversations,” he had committed to selecting a senior official who will "prioritize and strengthen my work to prevent sexual assault within the ranks. As I support Pete through this process, I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources.” Ernst also had praise for Patel — “He shares my passion for shaking up federal agencies" — and for Gabbard. Once a rising Democratic star, Gabbard, who represented Hawaii in Congress, arrived a decade ago in Washington, her surfboard in tow, a new generation of potential leaders. She ran unsuccessfully for president in 2020. But Gabbard abruptly left the party and briefly became an independent before joining with Trump's 2024 campaign as one of his enthusiasts, in large part over his disdain for U.S. involvement overseas and opposition to helping Ukraine battle Russia. Her visit to Syria to meet with then-President Bashar Assad around the time of Trump's first inauguration during the country's bloody civil war stunned her former colleagues and the Washington national security establishment. The U.S. had severed diplomatic relations with Syria. Her visit was seen by some as legitimizing a brutal leader who was accused of war crimes. Gabbard has defended the trip, saying it's important to open dialogue, but critics hear in her commentary echoes of Russia-fueled talking points. Assad fled to Moscow over the weekend after Islamist rebels overtook Syria in a surprise attack, ending his family's five decades of rule. She said her own views have been shaped by “my multiple deployments and seeing firsthand the cost of war and the threat of Islamist terrorism.” Gabbard said, “It's one of the many reasons why I appreciate President Trump’s leadership and his election, where he is fully committed, as he has said over and over, to bring about an end to wars.” Last week, the nearly 100 former officials, who served in both Democratic and Republican administrations, said in the letter to Senate leaders they were “alarmed” by the choice of Gabbard to oversee all 18 U.S. intelligence agencies. They said her past actions “call into question her ability to deliver unbiased intelligence briefings to the President, Congress, and to the entire national security apparatus.” The Office of the Director of National Intelligence was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to coordinate the nation’s intelligence agencies and act as the president’s main intelligence adviser. ___ Associated Press writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — John Elway says any remorse over bypassing Josh Allen in the 2018 NFL draft is quickly dissipating with rookie Bo Nix's rapid rise, suggesting the Denver Broncos have finally found their next franchise quarterback. Elway said Nix, the sixth passer selected in April's draft, is an ideal fit in Denver with coach Sean Payton navigating his transition to the pros and Vance Joseph's defense serving as a pressure release valve for the former Oregon QB. "We've seen the progression of Bo in continuing to get better and better each week and Sean giving him more each week and trusting him more and more to where last week we saw his best game of the year," Elway said in a nod to Nix's first game with 300 yards and four touchdown throws in a rout of Atlanta. For that performance, Nix earned his second straight NFL Rookie of the Week honor along with the AFC Offensive Player of the Week award. "I think the sky's the limit," Elway said, "and that's just going to continue to get better and better." In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, Elway also touted former coach Mike Shanahan's Hall of Fame credentials, spoke about the future of University of Colorado star and Heisman favorite Travis Hunter and discussed his ongoing bout with a chronic hand condition. Elway spent the last half of his decade as the Broncos' GM in a futile search for a worthy successor to Peyton Manning, a pursuit that continued as he transitioned into a two-year consultant role that ended after the 2022 season. "You have all these young quarterbacks and you look at the ones that make it and the ones that don't and it's so important to have the right system and a coach that really knows how to tutelage quarterbacks, and Sean's really good at that," Elway said. "I think the combination of Bo's maturity, having started 61 games in college, his athletic ability and his knowledge of the game has been such a tremendous help for him,'" Elway added. "But also Vance Joseph's done a heck of a job on the defensive side to where all that pressure's not being put on Bo and the offense to score all the time." Payton and his staff have methodically expanded Nix's repertoire and incorporated his speed into their blueprints. Elway lauded them for "what they're doing offensively and how they're breaking Bo into the NFL because it's a huge jump and I think patience is something that goes a long way in the NFL when it comes down to quarterbacks." Elway said he hopes to sit down with Nix at some point when things slow down for the rookie. Nix, whose six wins are one more than Elway had as a rookie, said he looks forward to meeting the man who won two Super Bowls during his Hall of Fame playing career and another from the front office. "He's a legend not only here for this organization, but for the entire NFL," Nix said, adding, "most guys, they would love to have a chat with John Elway, just pick his brain. It's just awesome that I'm even in that situation." Orange Crush linebacker Randy Gradishar joined Elway in the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year, something Elway called "way, way overdue." Elway suggested it's also long past time for the Hall to honor Shanahan, who won back-to-back Super Bowls in Denver with Elway at QB and whose footprint you see every weekend in the NFL because of his expansive coaching tree. Elway called University of Colorado stars Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders "both great athletes." He said he really hopes Sanders gets drafted by a team that will bring him along like the Broncos have done with Nix, and he sees Hunter being able to play both ways in the pros — but not full time. Elway said he thinks Hunter will be primarily a corner in the NFL but with significant contributions on offense: "He's great at both. He's got great instincts, and that's what you need at corner." It's been five years since Elway announced he was dealing with Dupuytren's contracture, a chronic condition that typically appears after age 40 and causes one or more fingers to permanently bend toward the palm. Elway's ring fingers on both hands were originally affected and he said now the middle finger on his right hand is starting to pull forward. So, he'll get another injection of a drug called Xiaflex, which is the only FDA-approved non-surgical treatment, one that he's endorsing in an awareness campaign for the chronic condition that affects 17 million Americans. The condition can make it difficult to do everyday tasks such as shaking hands or picking up a coffee mug. Elway said what bothered him most was "I couldn't pick up a football and I could not imagine not being able to put my hand around a football." Get local news delivered to your inbox!
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LOS ANGELES — As the Dodgers officially welcomed their latest gazillionaire pitcher to a remodeling Dodger Stadium last week, the churning of the bulldozers in the infield was momentarily drowned out by the whining around the baseball world. Boo-hoo! The Dodgers are buying another championship! For shame! The Dodgers have an unfair advantage! It’s not right! The Dodgers are ruining baseball! On and on the tears flowed, from Pittsburgh to Minnesota, from Northern California to South Florida, with many blubbering that signing two-time Cy Young Award-winning Blake Snell to a $182-million contract officially makes the defending World Series champions bad for the game. Stop it. Just stop it. Far from being a blight on the major-league landscape, right now the Dodgers’ front office is everything that is good about the game. They are smart, savvy and fearless. They base decisions not only on analytics but also attitude. They spend a lot of money, but only because they make a lot of money, and since when is reinvesting revenue into your fans a bad thing? Many think the Dodgers should be grateful to win the World Series this year and humbly behave like other recent defending champions by cutting corners and reducing costs and receding back into the pack. Forget that. These Dodgers are intent on running it back, going even harder for an encore, sparing no expense in an attempt to become baseball’s first back-to-back champions in a quarter-century. Deal with it. Endure it. Maybe even learn from it? The Dodgers need not apologize to anyone for doubling down on a Commissioner’s Trophy, because they have created a championship the right away. They’ve built it, not bought it. Andrew Friedman spent nearly a decade creating the sort of smart culture that strengthened the clubhouse and stocked the farm system. Stan Kasten spent that same time running a Guggenheim business model that restored the fan experience at baseball’s largest stadium, selling record numbers of tickets while enduring much justified criticism to score big TV money. Finally, with the infrastructure in place and the new money flowing, the Dodgers then opened their fatted wallet for the players that created the championship. Players didn’t want to come here only for the big money, they wanted to come for the winning baseball, which is something that could have happened with any team that was lucky enough and brainy enough and focused enough. “Winning is hard. There are teams that have a lot of resources that have trouble winning,” Friedman said. “Winning is hard. It goes way beyond money. It gets to culture, the type of people you have around.” Everyone talks about the nearly $2 billion in committed money, the more than $1 billion owed in deferred payments from 2028 to 2046, and a current annual payroll that will exceed $350 million, more than triple some of baseball’s cheaper operations. But did you know that for the first five years of his reign, Friedman did not sign a player for more than $100 million? He used that time to build an atmosphere where players wanted to be and, soon enough, the superstars essentially began signing themselves. Listen to Snell, who signed so early in the offseason that the stove was not yet even hot. “It was really easy,” he said of his choice. “... You look at the team, you look at what they’ve built, what they’re doing, it’s just something you want to be a part of.” Over the last couple of years, one has heard the same thing over and over. Mookie Betts was traded here, liked what he saw and signed his giant contract four months later. Freddie Freeman wanted to stay in Atlanta, didn’t feel the love and quickly moved into the Dodgers’ embrace. Shohei Ohtani moved up the road from pleasant Anaheim because he desperately coveted a championship. Money was a major factor in all three signings, for sure, but the offers were maximized by the atmosphere. Players saw how other players got better here. They saw the Dodgers rescue the careers of Max Muncy and Chris Taylor. They saw how young Walker Buehler grew into a lights-out pressure pitcher here. They saw Will Smith go from ordinary catcher to a $140-million man. The final piece to the complicated economic puzzle occurred last winter with a simple handshake. Ohtani agreed to defer all but $2 million annually of his $700-million contract if it would help the Dodgers pursue championship players. The Dodgers agreed, living up to their promise by signing the likes of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Teoscar Hernández. It is no coincidence that Snell agreed to defer $66 million of his contract. The Ohtani agreement grows stronger and deeper. “The pledge that we made when we met with him about how aggressive we were going to be to try to win, we feel some responsibility and obligation to fulfill that,” Friedman said of Ohtani. “I think no matter what, our mindset was, ‘Let’s be aggressive to add to the core that we had.’” So they recently added Snell, and tacked on a $74-million extension for National League Championship Series most valuable player Tommy Edman, and here’s guessing they’re not done yet. “What’s really difficult is to win; what’s even harder to do is repeat,” Friedman said. “And to a man, all the guys that we talked to, our players, coaching staff, everyone was of the mind, ‘Let’s run it back. Let’s do everything we can to be in a position to win.’ We feel like we’ve got a really talented team in place. So everything for us was centered around, ‘What can we do? What can we add to put ourselves in the best position to do that?’” And to all of you who are complaining about the Dodgers’ passion, does your team have the same basic commitment? A chart called “The Scrooge Index” compiled by Travis Sawchik of the Score would indicate it does not. According to the index, the Dodgers ranked second in baseball last season by investing 67% of their total revenue into payroll. The Tampa Bay Rays were last at 32%. The Dodgers spend more than half of their big money on talent as part of an unspoken pact with fans that Kasten, the Dodgers’ chief executive who arrived with Guggenheim in 2012, refers to as their virtuous cycle. “This is our investment in our fans, and our fans keep investing in us,” Kasten said. “The first day I got here, we said we think this market would support us if we do the right things, and our fans have supported us, and this is us supporting them, so they can support us, and on and on.” Come spring training, there actually may appear a Dodgers story in this newspaper that doesn’t contain a dollar sign. But for now, sit back and enjoy the spending while understanding that the nurturing of this dynasty is about something much richer. Get local news delivered to your inbox!Guilford Technical Community College to Open Skilled Trades CenterEasey Street murder suspect extradited to Australia