The Federal government has already been handing out holiday treats this season. Most recently, that included a GST/HST “vacation.” The GST vacation is a holiday season delight for Canadians, offering a brief reprieve from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as well as the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) on select purchases. Introduced to stimulate spending during the festive period, this initiative gives consumers more bang for their buck. Imagine snagging that perfect holiday gift or indulging in a family outing while keeping a little more cash in your pocket. It’s not just a treat for shoppers. It’s a nudge for local businesses, giving them a festive season boost. The vacation The temporary GST/HST suspension, set to run from December 14, 2024, to February 15, 2025, will apply to a selection of goods and services commonly purchased during the holidays. Items like children’s clothing, shoes, toys, diapers, restaurant meals, beer, wine, Christmas trees, video game consoles, and snack foods will qualify for the tax relief. This initiative is expected to save Canadian consumers approximately $1.6 billion during the two-month period, making seasonal essentials and celebratory purchases more affordable. However, this proposal still requires parliamentary approval to take effect. The second measure is a one-time $250 payment, which will be distributed to Canadians earning up to $150,000 annually in 2023. With an estimated 18.7 million people eligible, the initiative is projected to cost $4.7 billion. The payment is slated for early 2025 and aims to assist individuals and families in coping with increased living expenses. Start saving Now, what to do with those savings? Instead of splurging on the latest gadget, why not consider investing in a solid growth stock? In that case, ( ) is a strong option. Known for its robust performance and generous , GSY could be the gift that keeps on giving. With record-breaking third-quarter (Q3) 2024 results, including a revenue jump of 19% year over year and net income surging by 28%, this consumer finance company shows no signs of slowing down. GSY has mastered the art of providing financial services to Canadians with non-prime credit. This isn’t just a niche but a necessity. In Q3, it achieved a staggering $839 million in loan originations, up 16% from last year. The loan portfolio also expanded to $4.39 billion, a 28% increase, demonstrating strong demand for their services. Its efficient operations and an impressive 41.7% operating margin are the hallmarks of a well-oiled machine. For investors, GSY’s share price currently hovers around $171, and with a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 8.43, it appears undervalued. This presents a golden opportunity to buy into a company poised for sustained growth. Analysts project a 25% annual revenue growth over the next three years — significantly outpacing the industry average of 12%. That’s a lot of potential packed into a single stock. Even more reasons The dividend is another reason to love GSY. With a forward annual dividend rate of $4.68 and a yield of 2.74%, it’s a solid choice for income investors. But what sets GSY apart is its low payout ratio of 27.26%, leaving plenty of room for dividend growth. Think of this as reinvesting your GST savings into a future stream of income, compounding over time. GSY’s focus on secured lending has been a game-changer. With 45% of their portfolio now secured loans, it’s enhanced stability and credit performance. While some may balk at the company’s debt-to-equity ratio of 292.63%, it’s important to note that this is typical for financial services companies leveraging loans to drive growth. Bottom line As a Canadian, reinvesting GST savings into a company like GSY doesn’t just benefit your wallet. It’s a nod to the strength and resilience of homegrown businesses. You’re not just shopping smart. You’re investing in a piece of Canada’s economic fabric. So, this GST vacation, treat yourself to more than holiday cheer. By choosing to invest in GSY, you’re setting the stage for financial growth that lasts well beyond the season. While you’re enjoying the break, consider giving yourself the gift of compounding returns. A smart investment is truly priceless.Mets’ Juan Soto-Francisco Lindor combo will mash with the best of themWeb3 Game Studio Qooverse Secures Investment in Round Led by Paper VenturesDETROIT — Another home of a University of Michigan leader was vandalized, including the spray-painting of a vehicle with a pro-Palestinian slogan, a regent said Monday. UM Regent Jordan Acker said his Huntington Woods home and vehicle were both vandalized early Monday. Someone threw a mason jar through one of his home's windows and spray-painted the words "Divest and Free Palestine" on an SUV, said Acker, who is Jewish. "My first thought when I heard the glass breaking is that one of my daughters had gone downstairs to get something to drink and dropped it," he said. "It was very loud and it sounded like dishes breaking. "It was only about 30 seconds later when the police arrived that I came down and realized what had happened." Acker said he later found out a neighbor called the police after seeing a couple of people running away from the house. Authorities found fragments of a glass jar inside the house along with a foul-smelling liquid as well as a second jar outside of the home, he said. Acker called the upside-down red triangle the vandals also painted on the vehicle along with the graffiti particularly disturbing and upsetting. He considers the incident a threat against his family. "That symbol has been used by Hamas to mean something is a legitimate military target," the regent said. "This is a threat. This was not a protest. This is terrorism." The incident comes about six months after vandals targeted Acker's Southfield law office. They spray-painted the words "Free Palestine" and "Divest Now" on the building. The law firm said the attack was being investigated as a hate crime. Acker said the incident at his office remains under investigation and no arrests have been made. Officials for the University of Michigan issued a statement Monday on X calling the vandalism of Acker's house "a clear act of anti-Semitic intimidation." "The University of Michigan condemns these criminal acts in the strongest possible terms," the school said. "They are abhorrent, and unfortunately, just the latest in a number of incidents where individuals have been harassed because of their work on behalf of the university. This is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. We call on our community to come together in solidarity and to firmly reject all forms of bigotry and violence." The university has been embroiled in debate and protests about Hamas' attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 and Israel's counterattack, prompting a war that continues to this day. University events have been disrupted by demonstrators, an encampment was built on campus for a month before being dismantled by police, and regents and other university leaders have been targeted with protests and vandalism. The incident comes about two months after graffiti was spray-painted on the homes of UM President Santa Ono and Erik Lundberg, UM's chief investment officer. The vandalism was done on the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas, which runs Gaza. It also followed months of demonstrations and disruptions by UM students and their supporters, who demand the university divest from its portfolio any holdings linked to Israel since the country's counter-attack on Hamas in Gaza — which has killed more than 44,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry. The messages at Ono's home were spray-painted in red on his house and sidewalk. They included "Coward," "Divest now," along with upside-down triangles and "intifada," an Arabic word meaning uprising or resistance. Similar words were spray painted at Lundberg's home, including "complicit" and "intifada." Officials decry vandalism Mark Bernstein, vice chair of the university's Board of Regents, decried the vandalism in a statement to The Detroit News. Bernstein, who is president and managing partner of the Sam Bernstein Law Firm PLLC, was first elected to the Board of Regents in 2012 and re-elected in 2020. “The repeated targeting of my colleague, a Jewish elected official, and his family, is conduct that demands condemnation and aggressive criminal prosecution," he said. "This act reveals the dangerous antisemitism at the core of this radical movement that has adopted terrorist symbols in their repugnant rhetoric." Others also condemned the attack on Monday. U.S. Rep. and U.S. Senator-elect Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, categorized the act as criminal. "This makes three attacks on University of Michigan Regent Jordan Acker’s home and office in just over six months," she said in a statement. "This is targeted hate meant to intimidate and threaten him and his family, and law enforcement has a responsibility to move quickly to connect the dots and do something about it. This is not activism or free speech on behalf of a cause — indeed this criminal activity undercuts the very cause they purport to care about." U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Birmingham, called the incident sickening. "Jordan Acker is a dedicated public servant and he and his family should be safe in their own home," she said in a post on X. "I am sickened by the anti-Semitic attack on his home last night. Vandalism, violence, and bigotry have no place in America. Enough. Our Jewish brothers and sisters deserve to live in security and peace." Also on X, former U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Grand Rapids Township, decried what he called "another disgusting antisemitic attack" on Acker. "Political leaders in Michigan must take this vile behavior seriously — vandalism and harassment is reprehensible enough, but left unchecked threatens to escalate into physical violence," he wrote. Acker details what happened Acker, an attorney who has been on the board since 2019, also posted about the incident on his Instagram page on Monday. "In the very early hours of this morning, while my wife, my three young daughters and I were asleep in our beds, we were awakened by the sound of two heavy thrown through the front window of our house," he said in his post. "While my eldest daughter ran into our room, frightened by the sound of breaking glass, I ran downstairs, saw the broken window, and then ran outside to find my wife’s car had been graffitied by anti-Semitic vandals." He added in the post: "This is the third time that I — and now my family — have been the target of these Klan-like tactics. We all need to call out this cowardly act attacking my family and my home for what it truly is — terrorism. And like we always do in this great nation when we’re confronted with terrorism — I will not let fear win. All this does is harden my resolve to continue to do the right thing for the University and the Michigan voters who elected me." He concluded the post with: "I call upon members of the Michigan community to publicly repudiate this vile anti-Semitic intimidation and to offer full support to law enforcement to root out these bigots so they see the consequences for their actions." Acker said he won't disclose what safety measures he will take to protect his family and himself following Monday's incident. "These messages, whether they're left at my office or my home, are intended to intimidate a Jewish elected official," he said. "But I am not going to be intimidated by them." Acker said he calls on every elected official in Michigan, whether they're on the political right or the left, to publicly condemn this sort of behavior. "It's not enough to condemn privately," he said. "We have to say publicly this is not acceptable no matter where you stand on the issue of Israel and Palestine. He said he would like to see the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit and the FBI become involved in the investigation into the attack. "It's pretty obvious this is a civil rights violation and I wish the U.S. Attorney's Office would take it seriously," Acker said. The regent also urges people on UM's campus who know who the vandals are and where they are to come forward to stop incidents like this from happening again. In mid-May, pro-Palestinian protesters delivered a list of demands to the homes of the eight regents. They also "decorated" the front lawn of then UM Board of Regents Chair Sarah Hubbard's home with "scenes of genocide in Palestine" along with a taped list of demands for divestment from Israel on the door of her home. At the time, Acker wrote on X that "around 4:40 a.m., a masked intruder came to the door of my family's home with a list of demands, including defunding the police." "My three daughters were asleep in their beds, and thankfully unaware of what transpired," Acker wrote. "This form of protest is not peaceful. Public officials should not be subject to this sort of intimidating conduct, and this behavior is unacceptable from any Michigan community member, especially one led by someone who called for the death of people they disagree with." -------- ©2024 www.detroitnews.com . Visit at detroitnews.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.telegram jilibay 。

Israeli airstrikes target 20 Syrian air intelligence sites

Cambridge backs victim of sexist trolling after PhD about smellFamily of Lyle and Erik Menendez told a judge Monday they want the men freed from the life sentences they are serving for the shotgun murders of their parents, as their court case suffered a delay. The pair have been in prison since a blockbuster trial in the 1990s that became almost compulsory viewing for millions of Americans. Television audiences were riveted by the gruesome details of the slayings of Jose and Kitty Menendez at the family's luxury Beverly Hills mansion. The two men, who have spent more than three decades behind bars, had been due to appear by videolink at a hearing in Los Angeles, their first court appearance in 28 years as a campaign to set them free gathers pace. But technical difficulties scuppered the appearance and the hearing was pushed back to the end of January. Nevertheless, Judge Michael Jesic called the two men's elderly aunts to the stand to hear them plead for the brothers to be freed. "I would like to be able to hug them and see them," Jose Menendez's older sister Terry Baralt, 85, said. "I would like them to come home." Kitty's sister, Joan Vander Molen, echoed that. "No child should go through what Erik and Lyle went through," she said. "They never knew if tonight will be the night when they would be raped." Prosecutors painted the crime as a cold-hearted bid by the then-young men -- Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18 -- to get their hands on their parents' $14 million fortune. But their attorneys described the 1989 killings as an act of desperate self-defense by young men subjected to years of sexual abuse and psychological violence at the hands of an abusive father and a complicit mother. The case saw a huge surge of renewed interest this year with the release of the Netflix hit "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story." The hearing comes after a campaign to secure their release, supported by Kim Kardashian and other celebrities. "Set them free before the Holidays!" wrote Tammi Menendez, Erik's wife, on social media last week. Public interest was such that the court held a lottery for the 16 seats in the public gallery. Nick Bonanno, a former high school classmate of Erik's, was the first to arrive at the court, taking his place at the head of the line at 4:30 am (1230 GMT). "I wanted to show support to... Eric and Lyle," he told AFP ahead of the hearing. "It's all about supporting and healing, not just for the families, but for us as a culture." Elena Gordon, 43, said she wanted "to witness a part of our local history." The hearing was intended as a starting point for lawyers working on three routes to free Erik Menendez, 53, and Lyle Menendez, 56. Attorney Mark Geragos has filed a writ of habeas corpus, an attempt to effectively vacate the brothers' first-degree murder conviction, which could free the brothers immediately. Another route is an effort to get the men re-sentenced on the same conviction, which would open the way for them to request parole. Finally, Geragos has submitted a clemency request to California Governor Gavin Newsom. Journalist Robert Rand, who wrote a book about the case, and who is in regular touch with the brothers, said the family was optimistic. But, he said, no one was expecting any quick fixes. "They're hopeful," he said. "They don't know what's going to happen. "I believe this could take much longer than was originally anticipated. It could be six months, could be eight months, could be a year, but eventually they will get out." With excitement over the case near fever pitch, tourists are regularly making pilgrimages to the Beverly Hills home where the killings took place. Australian Christian Hannah, who was born almost two decades after the double murders, made sure the home was a stop on his tour of celebrity hotspots, because of his fascination with the Netflix show. "It's really awesome seeing it in person," he told AFP last week. "It's just because you see it on TV and you see it in person, just feels really cool." pr-hg/amz/jgc Get any of our free email newsletters — news headlines, sports, arts & entertainment, state legislature, CFD news, and more.

BEIJING , Dec. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Baijiayun Group Ltd ("Baijiayun" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: RTC), a one-stop AI video solution provider, today announced it was honored with the title of "Exclusive Member Unit". In recent days, the First Council of the Artificial Intelligence Education Professional Committee of the Beijing Educational Informationization Industry Alliance and the 2024 Symposium on Artificial Intelligence Empowering the Innovative Development of Primary and Secondary Schools were successfully held at the Affiliated Experimental School of Beijing Institute of Technology. Nearly 200 renowned experts, leaders of education bureaus, principals of primary and secondary schools, front-line educators, and representatives of artificial intelligence technical support units from Beijing , Tianjin , Hebei , Liaoning and other places attended the conference. This conference was hosted by the Beijing Educational Informationization Industry Alliance, Baijiayun was also invited to participate in the conference and , together with many well-known enterprises in the industry, and won the honor of "Exclusive Member Unit" of the Beijing Educational Informationization Industry Alliance. In the future, Baijiayun will work with the Beijing Educational Informationization Industry Alliance to continue to carry out research and promotion on educational informationization industry technologies across China , promote in-depth cooperation across disciplines, departments, and industries, jointly build an educational informationization development platform, create an industrial resource integration platform, an application service platform, and a technology transformation platform, share the fruits of development, give play to the supporting and leading role of educational informationization in educational modernization, and further promote the innovative development of the national education cause. About Baijiayun Group Ltd Baijiayun is a one-stop AI video solution provider with core expertise in SaaS/PaaS solutions. Baijiayun is committed to delivering reliable, high-quality video experiences across devices and localities and has grown rapidly since its inception in 2017. Premised on its industry-leading video-centric technologies, Baijiayun offers a wealth of video-centric technology solutions, including Video SaaS/PaaS, Video Cloud and Software, and Video AI and System Solutions. Baijiayun caters to the evolving communications and collaboration needs of enterprises of all sizes and industries. For more information, please visit ir.baijiayun.com . Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements." These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the parties' perspectives and expectations, are forward-looking statements. The words "will," "expect," "believe," "estimate," "intend," and "plan" and similar expressions indicate forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, and shareholders and other potential investors must recognize that actual results may differ materially from the expectations as a result of a variety of factors. Such forward-looking statements are based upon management's current expectations and include known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are hard to predict or control, that may cause the actual results, performance, or plans to differ materially from any future results, performance or plans expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking information provided herein represents the Company's estimates as of the date of this press release, and subsequent events and developments may cause the Company's estimates to change. The Company specifically disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking information in the future. Therefore, this forward-looking information should not be relied upon as representing the Company's estimates of its future financial performance as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. A further list and description of risks and uncertainties can be found in the documents the Company has filed or furnished or may file or furnish with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which you are encouraged to read. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those indicated or anticipated by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements relate only to the date they were made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made except as required by law or applicable regulation. For investor and media enquiries, please contact: Company Contact: Ms. Fangfei Liu Chief Financial Officer, Baijiayun Group Ltd Phone: +86 25 8222 1596 Email: ir@baijiayun.com View original content: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/baijiayun-was-honored-with-the-title-of-exclusive-member-unit-by-the-beijing-educational-informationization-industry-alliance-302331799.html SOURCE Baijiayun Group LtdTo ensure delivery by Christmas, mail letters and packages by Dec. 18: Chicago postmaster

The Tampa Bay Rays have had six of their 2025 regular-season games shifted to the early season due to weather issues from playing outside, Major League Baseball announced Monday. The Rays' usual home, domed Tropicana Field, was damaged by Hurricane Milton last month with almost all of its roof shredded and no possibility of playing there next year. As a result, the Rays moved their 2025 home games from St. Petersburg to the New York Yankees training complex at nearby Tampa, which has an 11,000-seat outdoor stadium. An April series scheduled against the Los Angeles Angels that had been set for California will instead be played April 8-10 in Florida. A series between the two which had been set for August in Florida will now be hosted by the Angels on August 4-6. A Rays series against the Minnesota Twins planned in Minneapolis from May 26-28 will instead be played on the same dates in Tampa while a series that had been set for Tampa on July 4-6 will now be played in Minnesota. Florida summers can bring extreme heat and rain. js/bspBy LISA MASCARO and FARNOUSH AMIRI 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 . Related Articles National Politics | Trump promises to end birthright citizenship: What is it and could he do it? National Politics | Trump has flip-flopped on abortion policy. His appointees may offer clues to what happens next National Politics | In promising to shake up Washington, Trump is in a class of his own National Politics | Election Day has long passed. In some states, legislatures are working to undermine the results National Politics | Trump taps his attorney Alina Habba to serve as counselor to the president 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. 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.