eye7 shaheen bagh AP News Summary at 5:39 p.m. ESTJones, Mellott help Montana State run over Montana 34-11

Tayshawn Comer scores 18 to lead Evansville past Campbell 66-53The Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program is underway and on track, and the 10-year initiative is expected to continue as planned when a new presidential administration takes over the White House in January. Designed to invest $42.45 billion in during its existence, the intends to close the digital divide in the U.S., which is “whole-of-nation work,” National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Digital Equity Director Angela Thi Bennett Experts argue the new administration will not impact the program’s continuation, but . According to BEAD Program Director Evan Feinman, the program has seen a lot of progress in 2024. Chiefly, it supported 56 states and territories in their work to design detailed plans unique to their own goals, as well as policies to connect constituents. That milestone was , and by November, . With these steps accomplished, Feinman said, the program will begin to move . Then, because it is a state-led program, the next phases will look different in different states. Some states like Louisiana and Nevada will have shovels in the ground in a matter of months, the director said. “So, what you can expect to see as a citizen or a local government really depends on what path your state chose to take within those [BEAD Program] guardrails, and then the speed that your state is moving through the program,” he said. This program is structured differently from other federal programs that work to close the digital divide — those often are designed to meet unique community needs. BEAD, in contrast, is structured to be a state-led program focused on one primary goal: achieving universal coverage. Although this task requires more intensive planning in its approach, its planning will help ensure the goal is met for all Americans regardless of what state or territory they reside in. “The problem that we’re solving here is not a red state problem or a blue state problem,” said Feinman. “It’s American.” The U.S. Congress wrote the BEAD program’s 10-year timeline into law. Feinman’s job, and that of those executing the BEAD program, is to execute it as written. BEAD was written with specific timelines for its milestones, from the ’s creation to state proposal submissions, and beyond. Being that BEAD was designed to be a 10-year program, from planning and building to monitoring and oversight phases, Feinman said administration changes were always expected. “So, this is a program that was always going to see changes, but the primary thrust of what it is that we’re doing is in statute,” he said. “As civil servants, it’s our job to faithfully execute those laws, and that’s what we anticipate doing.” He did note that, as NTIA officials have been advised by bosses in the current administration, so it will be under the next administration. The BEAD Program was designed to achieve universal connectivity, Feinman said, which in and of itself poses a challenge: While the cost of running a mile of fiber is relatively the same in Omaha, Neb., as it is in rural Alaska, the resulting amount of revenue differs. This is because in rural areas, fewer people are using the service, and this lower density of customers creates a gap. As Niel Ritchie, executive director of the League of Rural Voters, explained, the effort to achieve universal connectivity is about “lifting up the entire economy.” Rural communities and stakeholders need to work with state leaders to ensure communities can . Although rural communities are not monolithic, Ritchie emphasized that collaboration, whether through consortiums or information sharing or otherwise, is key to this process. “It will never make sense for a private-sector company to spend millions of dollars merely to get a few households online, but it is still critical that those households get online,” Feinman explained, arguing that the challenge, then, is to ensure the necessary flexibility exists within the program to “use the right technology to solve the right problem in the right parts of their states.” Feinman explained that the BEAD Program empowers states to deploy different technologies, like fiber, terrestrial wireless, or low Earth orbit satellites, where they will be most effective, both from a perspective of cost and efficiency, as well as policy and preference. Digital equity stakeholders have for buildouts. “Future proofing” is the idea of designing a broadband network that is usable in the future, even as speed standards evolve. Ritchie called the idea “a buzzword,” arguing that while steps can be taken to build systems that will be resilient against natural disasters, security threats, or even economic disasters, the network is only the first piece in ensuring people get and stay connected. Digital literacy training and device access programing, he stressed, should also be considered in a “future-proof” strategy. As Feinman described, all the BEAD-funded technologies are scalable and offer consistent improvements in speed, with fiber being as “ ” where it makes sense. In some contexts, other technologies will make more sense, and Feinman said this will depend on the state, its topography, resources, and rural makeup. NTIA has to support the program and those it impacts. For entities or individuals that are struggling to understand the BEAD Program process, Feinman recommends working with the broadband office for that state; contact information can be found at . Each state also has a NTIA federal program officer supporting program implementation work, to offer help. The nation has historically seen great accomplishments in the way of infrastructure buildouts, the director said: “We did it with rural electrification, we did it with rural telephone, we did it with the interstate highway system, and this is the next chapter in that American infrastructure story,” Feinman said. “It’s one that we should all be very proud of.”

Nebraska DB Dwight Bootle II announces intention to enter transfer portal'Bashar al-Assad, family in Moscow' after ouster from power Russian news agencies say ousted Syrian president and his family granted asylum on humanitarian grounds MOSCOW: Syria's Bashar al-Assad and his family have arrived in Russia and have been granted asylum by the Russian authorities, Russian news agencies reported on Sunday, citing a Kremlin source. The Interfax news agency quoted the unnamed source as saying: "President Assad of Syria has arrived in Moscow. Russia has granted them (him and his family) asylum on humanitarian grounds." Earlier, two Syrian sources said the disappearance of the Assad’s plane from tracking could indicate it had been shot down, or that it had switched off its transponder. Syria rebel fighters raced into Damascus unopposed on Sunday, overthrowing President Bashar al-Assad and ending nearly six decades of his family's iron-fisted rule after a lightning advance that reversed the course of a 13-year civil war. In one of the most consequential turning points in the Middle East for generations, the fall of Assad's government wiped out a bastion from which Iran and Russia exercised influence across the Arab world. Moscow gave him and his family asylum. His sudden overthrow, at the hands of a Turkish-backed revolt, limits Iran's ability to spread weapons to its allies and could cost Russia its Mediterranean naval base. It also may pave the way for millions of refugees scattered for more than a decade in camps across Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan to finally return home. For Syrians, it brought a sudden unexpected end to a war that had been in deep freeze for years, with hundreds of thousands dead, cities pounded to dust, an economy hollowed out by global sanctions and seemingly no resolution in sight. "How many people were displaced across the world? How many people lived in tents? How many drowned in the seas?" the top rebel commander Abu Mohammed al-Golani told a huge crowd at the medieval Umayyad Mosque in central Damascus, referring to refugees who drowned trying to reach Europe. "A new history, my brothers, is being written in the entire region after this great victory," he said. It would take hard work to build a new Syria which he said would be "a beacon for the Islamic nation". The Assad police state — known since his father seized power in the 1960s as one of the harshest in the Middle East with hundreds of thousands of political prisoners in its gulag — melted away overnight. Bewildered and elated inmates poured out of jails after rebels blasted away the locks on their cells. Reunited families wept and wailed in joy. Newly freed prisoners were filmed at dawn running through the Damascus streets holding up the fingers of both hands to show how many years they had been in prison. "We toppled the regime!" a voice shouted and a prisoner yelled and skipped with delight. As the sun set in Damascus without Assad for the first time, the roads leading into the city were mostly empty, apart from motorcycles carrying armed men and rebel vehicles caked with brownish mud as camouflage. Some men could be seen looting a shopping centre on the road between the capital and the Lebanese border, stuffing goods into plastic bags or into pick-up trucks. The myriad checkpoints lining the road to Damascus were empty. Posters of Assad had been torn at his eyes. A burning Syrian military truck was parked diagonally on the road out of the city. A thick column of black smoke billowed out from the Mazzeh neighbourhood, where Israeli strikes earlier had targeted Syrian state security branches, according to two security sources. Throughout the evening, intermittent gunfire rang out throughout the city in apparent celebration. Shops and restaurants closed early in line with a curfew imposed by the rebels. Just before it came into effect, people could be seen briskly walking home with stacks of bread. Earlier, the rebels said they had entered the capital with no sign of army deployments. Thousands of people in cars and on foot congregated at a main square in Damascus waving and chanting "Freedom". People were seen walking inside the Al-Rawda Presidential Palace, with some leaving carrying furniture from inside. A motorcycle was parked on the intricately-laid parquet floor of a gilded hall. Golani, whose group was once Syria's branch of al Qaeda but has since softened its image to reassure members of minority sects and foreign countries, said there was no room for turning back. "The future is ours," he said in a statement read on state TV. The Syrian rebel coalition said it was working to complete the transfer of power to a transitional governing body with executive powers. "The great Syrian revolution has moved from the stage of struggle to overthrow the Assad regime to the struggle to build a Syria together that befits the sacrifices of its people," it added in a statement. Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali, prime minister under Assad, called for free elections and said he had been in contact with Golani to discuss the transitional period. Jubilant supporters of the revolt stormed Syrian embassies in a number of cities around the world, lowering red, white and black Assad-era flags and replacing them with the green, white and black flag flown throughout the war by his opponents. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Assad's fall was a direct result of blows Israel had dealt to Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, once the lynchpin of Assad's security forces but pounded by Israel over the last two months. French President Emmanuel Macron said "the barbaric state has fallen" and paid tribute to the Syrian people. When the celebrations fade, Syria's new leaders will face the daunting task of trying to deliver stability to a diverse country that will need billions of dollars in aid to rebuild. During the civil war, which erupted in 2011 as an uprising against Assad, his forces and their Russian allies bombed cities to rubble. The refugee crisis across the Middle East was one of the biggest of modern times and caused a political reckoning in Europe when a million people arrived in 2015. President Joe Biden's administration was monitoring developments but has not adjusted the positioning of the US troops, officials told Reuters. The biggest strategic losers were Russia and Iran, which had intervened in the war's early years to rescue Assad, helping him recapture most territory and all major cities. The front lines were frozen four years ago under a deal Russia and Iran reached with Turkey. Even after Assad had fled, Israel continued to strike targets associated with his government and its Iranian-backed allies, including one in Damascus where Israel had previously accused Iran of developing missiles. Netanyahu said the toppling of Assad could make it easier for Israel to reach a ceasefire deal to free hostages in Gaza. On Sunday rebels stormed Iran's embassy, Iran's English-language Press TV reported. Iran's foreign ministry said Syria's fate was the sole responsibility of the Syrian people. Hezbollah had pulled all its remaining forces from Syria on Saturday, two Lebanese security sources said. Syria's insurgency led by former al Qaeda chief Abu Mohammed al-Golani topples Assad’s regime Russia says Assad has left Syria as curfew announced in rebels-taken Damascus World reacts as Assad's 24-year rule ends in Syria Rebels declare end of Assad rule in Syria; prime minister seeks free elections

NoneThe presenter revealed in 2021 that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and later underwent a mastectomy. Julia Bradbury said she has become more focused on her health than she has ever been after “death looked her in the eyes”. The 54-year-old TV presenter revealed in 2021 that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and later underwent a mastectomy during which her breast plus two lymph glands were removed before reconstruction took place. Bradbury has since stopped drinking alcohol and has changed the priorities in her life, but revealed she has received some pushback on social media from sharing her approach. She told The Times Weekend magazine: “I wasn’t close to death, but death looked me in the eyes. So I am more focused on my health than I ever have been. “I don’t drink, I eat a healthy diet and exercise every day. “When I came home from my mastectomy, I promised I would spend time outside every day, and that is my mantra, however poor it might be in this shitty winter.” Bradbury, who has since been given the all-clear, said a doctor recently helped her reframe how she utilises her energy. She recalled: “He said, ‘This drive that you have – you’re running on a credit card. You can push through all sorts of things. But is that the best thing for you?’. “I realised you don’t have to win every race. You don’t have to overcome everything. I don’t want to max out the credit card.” The presenter previously discussed her experience in an ITV documentary, Julia Bradbury: Breast Cancer And Me, which followed her as she came to terms with her diagnosis and prepared to undergo her single mastectomy. She also regularly shares her wellness and fitness tips with her more than 270,000 Instagram followers. However, she revealed she has had pushback from people saying, “I was healthy, I go to the gym, I got cancer, and now its metastasised and I’ve got secondary cancer. So are you blaming me for my illness?”. Responding to the accusations, she added: “No. All I’m saying is, this is what I went through. It was a wake-up call, and it made me look at life differently. “It made me prioritise my sleep, emotional health, and give more time to my loved ones. “If I drink more than four units of alcohol a week, my risk of reoccurrence goes up by 28%. But people find me giving up drinking infuriating.” Bradbury, who has a 13-year-old son Zephyr, and nine-year-old twins Xanthe and Zena, said having children later in life has caused her to not be as “patient” as she feels she should be at times after becoming more set in her own ways. “People think that after you’ve got a cancer diagnosis, you become this beautiful angel with a halo, and a super mum and do everything right”, she added. “But no, you make the same mistakes. I lose my temper, and I can hear myself saying things that I can’t believe I’m saying. “None of us know what we’re doing, really. We’re just doing our best. I know they do have lots of love. They are told that they’re loved every day.”

Pep Guardiola admits Man City looking to ‘survive the season’TV presenters Emma and Matt Willis have expressed their concerns for their children, admitting they are "worried and scared" about the need for increased safeguards for children using smartphones. This comes after their involvement in a groundbreaking social experiment featured in their new Channel 4 documentary 'Swiped', which delves into the effects of smartphone usage on young people's behaviour. The couple teamed up with The Stanway School in Colchester, challenging a group of Year 8 students—and themselves—to go without their smartphones for three weeks. The kids, some of whom used their phones for up to five hours daily, initially found it tough to cope without the gadgets they're hooked on. However, as the experiment progressed, improvements were noted; the youngsters slept better, appeared more attentive in class, and some experienced reduced anxiety. The documentary also explores the disturbing content that young children can access on their phones, including violent footage and explicit adult material, leaving Emma and Matt shocked. Read more Rebekah Vardy branded 'jealous' and 'desperate' by ex-husband in savage rant Emma and Matt, posing as 13 year olds on TikTok with new phones, were shocked to receive content related to suicide and violence against women within just four hours of scrolling on a fresh account, reports the Mirror . Emma expressed her shock, saying: "It's just not what I thought it would was. I know you hear stories about what can be found on there but finding and searching for something is very different from it being served to you the first time you go on there as a 13 year old." Matt later described the content accessible to children on their phones as "terrifying". Prior to the experiment, Matt voiced his concerns: "It's how much time our kids spend on their smart phones that got us worried. I think we've signed up to this experiment because we're living it. We're going through it with our kids and we have no idea how to navigate this. We're worried, we're scared, everything we're seeing is negative, but we don't know how to stop it." He also shared his personal experience: "Our daughter was 11 when she got a smart phone, it's been the biggest disruptor between us and her, I feel like I lose her to it quite a bit. I miss her. I remember sitting on the couch once, the TV was playing and we were all on our phone. I was like, 'This is not good'." The couple, parents to Isabelle, 15, Ace, 13, and Trixie, 8, have now implemented changes in their own home following the experiment. Emma, the presenter of The Voice, aged 48, has shared details about her family's tech habits, revealing that mobile phones are now charged downstairs and not in bedrooms. The children also hand over their devices to ensure some quality time together after 8pm. Interestingly, Emma has removed Instagram from her phone, only accessing it via an iPad. While their youngest child has steered clear of owning a smartphone for now, this looks unlikely to change for several years. Emma expressed her mixed feelings on the matter: "Our kids first had a phone when they were at secondary school, it feels like everyone has one and they want one. There are times when I definitely feel like I've lost them. Personally for me, I wished I'd never given them a smart phone. Our eldest, even now, and we're a bit scared of her on this subject, which is terrible really because she's a lovely kid. We never allow them to have social media. Then when she was 14 she had been begging for a long time and we were like, you can have Snapchat. And she's literally on it all the time." She continues with hopes for the future: "The one thing that we really want to get out of this experiment is that we really hope that it will get the ball rolling and change will begin. Because I think what we all want is that for our kids to be able to be in the tech world from the right age, but be absolutely safe within it. If we can all kind of put that pressure on, hopefully we can make positive change." Musician Matt, 41, who is a recovering drug addict and no stranger to battling addiction, shared his personal struggle with technology dependency. He confessed: "I used to belittle it in my head. But when I think about it, I am addicted to my phone. When I'm without it I crave it. I act the same way about this device as I have about substances in the past." He also expressed strong support for age restrictions on smartphone use, saying: "When I think about the idea of a smartphone ban to the age of 14, I think that's a very wise decision. We are exposing them to so much stuff that they can't process or they shouldn't be seeing, and we are allowing that to happen. The Government can't turn a blind eye to this anymore. You've got to look at this and go, this is a massive problem." They discuss potential reforms with Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, considering measures such as a ban on smartphones for under-14s on the documentary.WOODBRIDGE, N.J., Dec. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Northfield Bank, wholly-owned subsidiary of Northfield Bancorp, Inc. NFBK , announced today that Steven M. Klein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York (the "FHLBNY") for a four-year term. Mr. Klein's term will commence on January 1, 2025 and end on December 31, 2028. Mr. Klein stated, "I am humbled and honored for the support and confidence the New York members of the FHLBNY have placed in me to continue to serve and advocate for the critical mission of the FHLBNY to provide reliable liquidity to its members in support of housing and local community development." Mr. Klein serves as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Northfield Bank. Mr. Klein is responsible for leading strategic planning and execution related to lending, deposit gathering, technology deployment, risk management, customer and employee experience, and branding. He is a member of the New York Bankers Association, a member of the ABA Government Relations Council, and previous committee member of the ABA Community Bankers Council. Mr. Klein also is a board member of the New Jersey Bankers Association and past immediate Chair. He is a Trustee of the Northfield Bank Foundation, whose mission is to promote charitable purposes within the communities Northfield operates, focusing its efforts on projects to support education, health and human services, youth programs, and affordable housing. Mr. Klein also serves as a Director and Executive Committee member of the Staten Island Economic Development Corporation, a Director of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, and a Trustee, Executive Committee Member and Finance Chair of the Richmond University Medical Center. He is a Certified Public Accountant, and a member of the AICPA. Mr. Klein earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Montclair State University. About Northfield Bank Northfield Bank, founded in 1887, operates 38 full-service banking offices in Staten Island and Brooklyn, New York, and Hunterdon, Middlesex, Mercer, and Union Counties, New Jersey. For more information about Northfield Bank, please visit www.eNorthfield.com. About the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York The Federal Home Loan Bank of New York is a Congressionally chartered, wholesale Bank. It is part of the Federal Home Loan Bank System, a national wholesale banking network of 11 regional, stockholder-owned banks. As of September 30, 2024, the FHLBNY serves 338 financial institutions and housing associates in New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The mission of the FHLBNY is to provide members with reliable liquidity in support of housing and local community development. Media Contact: Damien Kane 732-499-7200 x2503 SVP, Director of Marketing dkane@eNorthfield.com © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.