acegame 888 Celtics injury report: Kristaps Porzingis listed again for Pacers gameOn Day 4 of budget deliberations, Edmonton city council passed a spending plan that will see property taxes increase by 6.1 per cent in 2025. City councillors began the week by trying to reduce the 8.1 per cent property tax increase for next year that had been proposed to council by city administrators earlier this fall. In a news release issued on Oct. 31, deputy city manager Stacey Padbury noted that administrators have planned for issues that will create challenges in crafting a budget, but noted “they’re much bigger than forecasted when we developed the four-year budget in 2022.” “We are delivering services beyond what the current budget can support and that’s not sustainable. Like many Edmontonians who continue to deal with high costs, we have to make some tough choices about what money we have coming in and what we’re spending it on.” City administrators have noted that Edmonton’s quickly-growing population, coupled with inflation, has made it increasingly expensive to provide the services that the city currently does. More to come...

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The decision by Tesco, Musgrave and the BWG Group came after a woman who said Mr McGregor raped her won a civil claim for damages against him. Nikita Hand, who accused the sportsman of raping her in a Dublin hotel in December 2018, won her claim against him for damages in a case at the High Court in the Irish capital. In a statement, a spokesman for Musgrave said: “Musgrave can confirm these products are no longer available to our store network.” The network includes SuperValu, Centra, Daybreak and Mace. A Tesco spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we are removing Proper No Twelve Whiskey from sale in Tesco stores and online.” A spokesperson for BWG Group said: “The products are no longer listed for distribution across our network of Spar, Eurospar, Mace, Londis and XL stores, including Appleby Westward which operates over 300 Spar stores in the south west of England.” It is understood that other retail outlets including Costcutter and Carry Out will also stop stocking products linked to Mr McGregor. He and some of his business partners sold their majority stake in the Proper Number Twelve Irish whiskey brand. He was reported to have been paid more than £103 million from the sale to Proximo Spirits in 2021. On Monday, a popular video game developer decided to pull content featuring the MMA fighter. The Irish athlete has featured in multiple video games, including voice-acting a character bearing his likeness in additional downloadable content in the Hitman series. Mr McGregor’s character featured as a target for the player-controlled assassin in the game. IO Interactive, the Danish developer and publisher of Hitman, said in a statement: “In light of the recent court ruling regarding Conor McGregor, IO Interactive has made the decision to cease its collaboration with the athlete, effective immediately. “We take this matter very seriously and cannot ignore its implications. “Consequently, we will begin removing all content featuring Mr McGregor from our storefronts starting today.” Last Friday, the High Court jury awarded damages amounting to 248,603.60 euros (around £206,000) to Ms Hand. Mr McGregor made no comment as he left court but later posted on social media that he intended to appeal against the decision.MileOne Autogroup expands car seat program for underserved families

Emmanuel Macron has rejected calls to stand down and says he will name a new prime minister – the fourth of his seven years as president – in the coming days. If France was in his biggest political crisis in a generation, Macron wasn’t feeling it. In the wake of his government’s collapse, he says it’s still in the national interest that he sees out his five-year presidential mandate, which ends in 2027. A bar shows the telecast of French President Emmanuel Macron’s address to the nation. Credit: AP The collapse of France’s centre-right coalition government has thrust Macron back into the spotlight and a growing chorus is questioning whether the divisive and at times impetuous leader is suited to resolve the country’s political crisis. The turmoil comes amid a rough patch in the French economy , as various factors take a toll on growth, including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, high interest rates and economic slowdowns in Germany and China, two of France’s trading partners. In a televised address, Macron said France could not constitutionally have new parliamentary elections for 10 months, following his decision to call a snap poll back in July. The result, he promised at the time, would offer the country some “clarification”. It led to the current chaos. But for the first time, he conceded he was partly to blame for the situation the nation now faced. “Many have blamed me for it and I know, many continue to blame me. It’s a fact and it’s my responsibility,” he said. “The dissolution was not understood, that’s my responsibility, [but] I will never accept the irresponsibility of others.” He then went on to attack his political opponents on the “extreme right” and “extreme left”, accusing them of collaborating in an “anti-republican front”. “Some political groups have chosen chaos,” he said, referring to the no-confidence vote which led to Michel Barnier standing down just three months after he was appointed by Macron. “They don’t want to build, they want to dismantle.” Barnier’s government the shortest-tenured in modern French history, following the first successful no-confidence vote in France in more than 60 years. Sparking his downfall was his proposed financing bill, which included €60 billion ($98.4 billion) worth of tax hikes and spending cuts aimed at bringing the country’s budget deficit down to 5 per cent next year. Michel Barnier has resigned as France’s prime minister following a no-confidence vote. Credit: Bloomberg Macron must now appoint a new prime minister and task them with either passing a law that extends this year’s budget into the early months of 2025 or pushing a complete budget through parliament by the end of the year to avoid a government shutdown. Macron said the next prime minister would be charged with forming a “government of general interest” with a priority of passing a budget. Addressing voters directly, he said some of his political opponents were not thinking “about you, the voters”, suggesting that their interest was in the next presidential election. “My responsibility requires me to ensure the continuity of the state, the proper functioning of our institutions, the independence of our country, and the protection of all of you.” “Let’s be honest, they think about one thing: the presidential election,” Macron said of the party of his long-term, hard-right National Rally rival Marine Le Pen. He said the rival party’s “cynical” approach had brought “a sense of chaos” to the country. After Macron’s address, Le Pen wrote a “Gentle reminder to President Macron” in a post on X that no-confidence votes are “not anti-Republican, but provided for in our constitution”. National Rally leader Marine Le Pen says Macron will continue to feel the pressure. Credit: AP Le Pen, whose party holds the most seats in the French parliament, stopped short of calling for Macron’s resignation but warned that “the pressure on the president of the republic will get stronger and stronger”. The one thing to never forget is that Macron is hated in France with a vicious passion . The people of France see him as arrogant, elitist and unrelatable. Alain Minc, a political essayist and long-term informal adviser to French presidents, said on Thursday: “Macron is a victim of his own narcissism ... He was in denial of reality.” Barnier will stay on in a caretaker role for now, but Macron is under pressure to quickly name a new prime minister who might offer the country some stability. Candidates include Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau and centrist former presidential candidate François Bayrou. Whoever is chosen, few believe a new government will manage to navigate the minefield of a bitterly divided parliament. France could be back in this position again soon enough. Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here .NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry celebrated a political win Thursday as he signed into law sweeping tax measures passed by lawmakers that include reducing the individual income tax to 3%, cutting corporate taxes and raising the state sales tax. He also approved an array of proposed constitutional changes to go before voters in March. “Y’all have instituted generational change,” Landry said of a bipartisan group of lawmakers standing beside him at the Capitol in Baton Rouge. “They opened the door for a new era here in Louisiana, an era where every working citizen in this state gets to keep more of their hard-earned money.” Landry, a Republican, said the measures will provide $1.3 billion in income tax cuts for Louisiana residents as well as nearly triple the standard individual deduction and double deductions for seniors. The income tax rate was 4.25% for people earning $50,000 or more. Republicans said the measures will help stanch outward migration from the state. To pay for the bulk of the tax cuts, Landry approved increasing the state sales tax to 5% for the next five years, after which it will drop to 4.75%. It previously stood at 4% with a temporary 0.45% increase set to expire next year. Landry also agreed to redirect $280 million in vehicle sales tax funds earmarked for several major infrastructure projects to help pay for the tax cuts over the next two years. Landry said other changes would make the state more competitive for businesses. Large corporations will have their income tax rate reduced from 7.5% to 5.5%. Louisiana also eliminated the 0.275% corporate franchise tax. Republicans had long decried the levy on businesses operating in the state worth more than $500 million in annual revenue as hindering economic growth. “Our complicated business tax policy has been finally moved more towards fairness and put us in a place to be more competitive with our surrounding states,” said Republican Rep. Julie Emerson, who sponsored several major bills signed by Landry. Economic Development Secretary Susan Bourgeois said the corporate tax cuts sends business a message: “We are here to compete, we do compete, and we want you." Landry and his allies in the GOP-controlled legislature had championed the tax reform package in an intense three-week special session in November, the third such session since he took office in January. While Democratic lawmakers overwhelmingly passed the tax package in the Senate, some Democrats in the House of Representatives warned the tax cuts would mostly benefit the wealthiest residents and corporate shareholders. Critics pointed out that increasing the state sales tax disproportionately affects lower-income households. Louisiana has the highest combined state and average local sales tax in the country, according to the Tax Policy Foundation. The tax measures included an array of proposed constitutional changes intended to streamline a complicated section of the state's constitution. The changes include liquidating several education trust funds to pay off approximately $2 billion in school district debt and using the savings to make permanent a $2,000 pay raise for teachers. Another constitutional change would include a growth cap designed to limit the amount of additional funding the state could earmark for recurring expenses each year. Landry also signed other proposed constitutional amendments unrelated to taxes. One would make it easier for lawmakers to expand the number of crimes for which minors can be tried and sentenced in adult courts by removing constitutional restrictions. Republican lawmakers and prosecutors say the change will increase public safety by paving the way for longer prison sentences for teenagers who commit violent crimes. Democrats and criminal justice reform advocacy groups have warned it would undermine rehabilitative efforts and fails to address the root causes of juvenile crime. "If you care about kids, you want to vote yes” on the amendment, Landry said. Another proposed amendment would allow the legislature to create specialty courts. Republican lawmakers said the bill would give more flexibility to the justice system, such as by enabling the creation of regional drug courts to serve rural parishes that could not afford their own. Some Democratic lawmakers have expressed concern that the broad language of the amendment could allow for Republicans to exercise more control over the criminal justice system in Democrat-dominated jurisdictions such as New Orleans. The constitutional amendments are scheduled to go before voters on March 29. Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96

KABUL (TOLONews): Deputy Prime Minister for Political Affairs Mawlawi Abdul Kabir said the caretaker government is working within the framework of Islamic principles to expand relations with the world. Speaking at a graduation ceremony in Paktia province, Mawlawi Abdul Kabir stressed that the Islamic Emirate brings a message of peace and unity, but warned that if any party resorts to violence, they will face a serious response. He stressed that with the establishment of the Islamic system, there is no justification for war in Afghanistan, and Afghans will always defend their religious and national values without hesitation. He clarified that the Doha Agreement was not about the United States dictating governance to the Islamic Emirate but was solely about the timeline for the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan. Mawlawi Abdul Kabir said: “Do not be deceived about the Doha Agreement. In Doha, Qatar, the Islamic Emirate made commitments with the Americans, but these commitments were not about them dictating how our system should operate. It was merely about scheduling the withdrawal of US forces.” The Islamic Emirate official praised the activities of schools and madrasas in remote areas and stated that the Islamic Emirate is fully committed to developing all educational centers without any discrimination. He also emphasized that all citizens who worked under the previous regime have been pardoned by the Islamic Emirate. Mawlawi Abdul Kabir said: “Over the past 20 years, anyone who worked with the Americans or NATO was pardoned after the Islamic Emirate came to power. Whether they were soldiers or members of parliament, no Mujahid has troubled them because our conflict was with foreign forces.” Some political experts believe that to strengthen the Islamic Emirate’s relations with the world and maintain stability in the country, interactions with regional and global countries must be enhanced. “If any country lacks relations with its neighbors or the international community, it is like a paralyzed person. Therefore, we must strengthen our relations with all nations as much as international relations demand,” said Moeen Gul Samkanai, a political analyst. Earlier, the deputy prime minister for political affairs announced that the Islamic Emirate has established direct relations with countries worldwide.Lucy Lippard’s Life on the Frontlines of Art

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NEW DELHI: In the news for being the location of former prime minister Manmohan Singh's State funeral, Nigambodh Ghat on the banks of the Yamuna is not only Delhi's oldest, largest and busiest crematorium but also a haven for bird watchers and photographers. Believed to have been established by Yudhishthira, the king of Indraprastha, the crematorium has witnessed the last rites of several political heavyweights -- from former Union minister Arun Jaitley to Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Sunder Singh Bhandari. On Saturday, the mortal remains of Singh -- who led India on the path of economic liberalisation in the 1990s -- were consigned to flames at the ghat. The Congress had demanded the funeral take place at a location where a memorial to Singh could be built but the government said he would be accorded a State funeral at Nigambodh Ghat. The Congress called the decision a "deliberate insult to India's first Sikh prime minister". Among the top political heavyweights to be cremated at Nigambodh Ghat are Bharatiya Jana Sangh leader Deendayal Upadhyaya, former vice-president Krishan Kant and Delhi ex-chief minister Sheila Dikshit, whose official residence was converted to Singh's post-retirement home. Singh was accorded a State funeral at the ghat, whose last rites were performed with military honours. The ghat consists of a series of bathing and ceremonial-stepped piers leading to the river. The electric crematorium was built in the 1950s. A CNG-powered crematorium was added in the early 2000s. According to legends, the ghat was blessed by the presence of Hindu gods. One such legend mentioned in a scripture says that more than 5,500 years ago, in the times of Mahabharata, when gods walked on Earth, Brahma bathed at the ghat and regained his divine memory -- leading to the ghat acquiring its "Nigambodh" name, which means regaining knowledge. Another legend mentions that Yudhishthira, the eldest of the Pandava brothers of the Bharat dynasty and the king of Indraprastha, constructed the ghat. These days, the ghat serves two purposes -- being the largest and busiest cremation ground, and as a haven of sorts for bird watchers and photographers. Author Swapna Liddle, in her book "Chandni Chowk: The Mughal City of Old Delhi", says ancient tradition associated Delhi with Indra-prastha -- the holy place where Indra, the king of the gods, performed sacrifices and worshipped Vishnu. "This spot on the bank of the Yamuna was then blessed by Vishnu, who called it 'Nigambodhak' where knowledge of the Vedas could be gained simply by taking a dip in the waters. The name Nigambodhak literally meant 'that which makes known the knowledge of the Vedas'," she says in the book. The ghat was officially established by the Bari Panchayat Vaish Bisa Aggarwal, which was instituted in 1898 when Delhi was known as Shahjanabad. The crematorium is currently operated by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). "At that time, major business and trade activities were conducted by Vaish Agarwals. The entire society was scattered and used to perform birth and death ceremonies as per their wish and status which affected the lower strata of people," according to the description on Nigambodh Ghat's website. "The Vaish Bisa society then took a pledge to stop the over expenditure made on marriages, son's birth and death rituals and standardise the rituals so that even the poor could perform them with much less expense. Since then, Vaish Beese Agarwal Badi Panchayat has been diligently managing these important phases of life," it added.

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