Kylian Mbappe’s spot-kick woe goes on as Real Madrid lose at Athletic Bilbao(Bloomberg) — The current volatility taking hold of gas prices, especially in Europe, is a “signal that the market is much tighter than many expect,” according to the head of Australia’s biggest natural gas exporter. “If you went back just two months ago, people would say ‘it feels like the market is in really good shape, Europe and Asia have good inventories,’ ” Meg O’Neill, chief executive officer of Woodside Energy Group Ltd., said in an interview on the sidelines at the Energy Intelligence Forum in London Tuesday. “Roll forward not that many weeks and we’ve got signs of pressure.” Intense price swings have dominated Europe’s gas market, with futures contracts rising almost 20% since the start of the heating season in October. Gas futures traded near the year’s highs even after easing on Tuesday. Concerns over the future of Russian flows are also contributing to market anxiety. At the same time, gas stockpiles at the region’s storage facilities, which have provided a lifeline during the coldest periods, dropped rapidly after frosty temperatures increased demand for heating and a slump in wind generation required more supply for power. “Some nations will have stocked up and will have long-term contract positions that will ensure they have the gas they need and there will be others that will be struggling,” O’Neill said. Colder weather and increased heating demand could put more pressure on supplies, both from traditional pipeline providers and the global liquefied natural gas market. But in the long term, a new wave of LNG coming to the market should ease tightness. “The wild card always in the gas world is the weather and if we encounter an unusually cold or an unusually long cold spell, that’s when things can get a little bit trickier,” O’Neill said. “I do expect that things will be tight probably for another year or so and then we’ll get a bit more supply.”

NEW YORK (AP) — A gunman killed UnitedHealthcare’s CEO on Wednesday in a “brazen, targeted attack” outside a Manhattan hotel where the health insurer was holding its investor conference, police said, setting off a massive search for the fleeing assailant hours before the annual Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting nearby. Brian Thompson, 50, was shot around 6:45 a.m. as he walked alone to the New York Hilton Midtown from a nearby hotel, police said. The shooter appeared to be “lying in wait for several minutes” before approaching Thompson from behind and opening fire , New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. Police had not yet established a motive. “Many people passed the suspect, but he appeared to wait for his intended target,” Tisch said, adding that the shooting "does not appear to be a random act of violence.” Surveillance video reviewed by investigators shows someone emerging from behind a parked car, pointing a gun at Thompson’s back, then firing multiple times from several feet away. The gunman continues firing, interrupted by a brief gun jam, as Thompson stumbles forward and falls to the sidewalk. He then walks past Thompson and out of the frame. “From watching the video, it does seem that he’s proficient in the use of firearms as he was able to clear the malfunctions pretty quickly,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said. Thompson was shot at least once in the back and once in the calf, Tisch said. The shooter, who wore a jacket, face mask and large backpack, fled through Midtown on foot before pedaling an electric bike into Central Park a few blocks away, police said. The assailant remained at large Wednesday afternoon, sparking a search that included police drones, helicopters and dogs. “Brian was a highly respected colleague and friend to all who worked with him,” the insurer’s Minnetonka, Minnesota-based parent company, UnitedHealth Group Inc., said in a statement. "We are working closely with the New York Police Department and ask for your patience and understanding during this difficult time.” Police issued a poster showing a surveillance image of the man pointing what appeared to be a gun and another image that appeared to show the same person on a bicycle. Minutes before the shooting, he stopped at a nearby Starbucks, according to additional surveillance photos released by police on Wednesday afternoon. They offered a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction. Thompson’s wife, Paulette Thompson, told NBC News that he told her “there were some people that had been threatening him.” She didn’t have details but suggested the threats may have involved issues with insurance coverage. Eric Werner, the police chief in the Minneapolis suburb where Thompson lived, said his department had not received any reports of threats against the executive. The killing shook a part of New York City that's normally quiet at that hour, happening about four blocks from where tens of thousands of people were set to gather for Wednesday night’s tree lighting. Police promised extra security for the event. The hotel is also a short walk from other tourist sites, including the Museum of Modern Art and Radio City Music Hall, and is often dense with office workers and visitors on weekday mornings. Many security cameras are nearby. “We’re encouraging New Yorkers to go about their daily lives and their daily business but to be alert,” NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said. Investigators recovered several 9 mm shell casings from outside the hotel and a cellphone from the alleyway through which the shooter fled. They were also searching Thompson's hotel room, interviewing his UnitedHealthcare colleagues and reviewing his social media, Kenny said. Police initially said the shooter rode into Central Park on a bicycle from the city’s bike-share program, CitiBike. But a spokesperson for the program’s operator, Lyft, said police officials informed the company Wednesday afternoon that the bike was not from the CitiBike fleet. Health care giant UnitedHealth Group was holding its annual meeting with investors to update Wall Street on the company's direction and expectations for the coming year. The company ended the conference early in the wake of Thompson's death. “I’m afraid that we — some of you may know we’re dealing with a very serious medical situation with one of our team members,” a company official told attendees, according to a transcript. “And as a result, I’m afraid we’re going to have to bring to a close the event today. ... I’m sure you’ll understand.” Thompson, a father of two sons, had been with the company since 2004 and served as CEO for more than three years. UnitedHealthcare is the largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans in the U.S. and manages health insurance coverage for employers and state-and federally funded Medicaid programs. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz posted on the social platform X that the state is “sending our prayers to Brian’s family and the UnitedHealthcare team.” “This is horrifying news and a terrible loss for the business and health care community in Minnesota,” the Democrat wrote. Associated Press writers Tom Murphy in Indianapolis, Steve Karnowski in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York, contributed to this story.

PM to officially open the Top Executive Conference 2024President-elect Donald Trump’s team submitted an ethics plan guiding the conduct of its members throughout the transition period that does not appear to include provisions for one key member of the team: the president himself. “There does not appear to be a provision addressing the requirement for the president-elect to address his conflicts of interest,” said Valerie Smith Boyd, director of the Center for Presidential Transition at the nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service. CNN has asked the Trump transition for comment on why there is no provision addressing Trump’s potential conflicts of interest. During his first term, Trump was repeatedly criticized by ethics groups for potential conflicts of interest relating to his businesses and brands. Both Trump’s and his family’s foreign business ties have also come under intense scrutiny throughout his time in office and on the campaign trail. Still, after winning in 2016, Trump took some nominal steps toward alleviating ethical concerns before entering the White House by pledging to relinquish control of his companies and put his business holdings in a trust, which was controlled by his two sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. He has made no such assurances this time. Rather, Trump lately has added potential conflicts of interest with some of his latest business dealings. Much of his wealth these days is tied up in stock for Trump Media & Technology Group, a newly publicly traded company that owns his social media website TruthSocial. While campaigning, he hawked several new products capitalizing on his name and fame, including a line of watches, some retailing for $100,000, that he launched through an opaque licensing agreement with a company of undisclosed origins. CNN traced the business to a shopping plaza in Sheridan, Wyoming, that is the registered address for dozens of other companies. Trump and his sons also kickstarted a cryptocurrency venture just weeks before the election, even as he promised to push through an agenda favorable to Bitcoin enthusiasts and investors. Trump has not said how he would guarantee that he won’t pursue these policies – with potentially massive implications for financial markets and the future of the US dollar – in the interest of benefiting his family’s new enterprise. The ethics agreement, posted late Tuesday to the General Services Administration’s website , otherwise “does appear to comply with most of the requirements in the Presidential Transition Act,” a law governing the protocols around transition activities, said Boyd. Updates to that act requiring the ethics pledge were introduced by Trump ally Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, and signed into law by Trump in March 2020. The plan requires transition team members to “avoid both actual and apparent conflicts of interest,” to “safeguard classified information” and “non-public information and other information that is not readily available to the public.” It also prohibits team members who have participated in lobbying activities in the last year or are registered as lobbyists, and forbids team members from serving as registered foreign agents while serving the transition. Each team member is required to sign the code of ethical conduct detailing those provisions. Trump’s team blew past a pair of September and October deadlines to sign agreements with the Biden White House and General Services Administration laying the groundwork for a smooth transition. Democrats and watchdogs sounded the alarms over potential risks to national security and continuity between administrations in the absence of those agreements. Three weeks after the election, the Trump team submitted its ethics plan and signed the White House agreement, but skipped the GSA agreement, saying in a statement that the transition “will operate as a self-sufficient organization” and that its “organizational autonomy means a streamlined process.” Trump’s team also has yet to sign an agreement with the Department of Justice to begin processing the security clearances needed for staffers to access classified information during the transition period, White House officials said, adding that “progress has been made towards an agreement.” The Trump transition did not immediately respond to CNN’s inquiry regarding whether it would enter into the agreement before Inauguration Day. CNN previously reported that Trump’s transition team is bypassing traditional FBI background checks for at least some of his Cabinet picks while using private companies to conduct vetting of potential candidates for administration jobs, people close to the transition planning said. Trump and his allies believe the FBI system is slow and plagued with issues that could stymie the president-elect’s plan to quickly begin the work of implementing his agenda, people briefed on the plans said. Critics say the background checks sometimes turn up embarrassing information used to inflict political damage. When he takes office January 20, Trump will have the authority to make his own changes to the security clearance system, which is largely based on executive orders. For instance, he could charge individuals he trusts to adjudicate the information found during background investigations and make a determination on clearance status, rather than the traditional federal experts who have traditionally managed that process. Still, Boyd said it was “promising” that progress has been made in the transition process. “We all continue to hope that agreement will be signed because it will reduce confusion if the Trump team has people with federally-vetted background investigations ready to go on day one,” she said. Trump’s team declined to sign an agreement with the GSA unlocking access to federal resources like office space and secure communications equipment, which has also raised concerns. In the absence of that agreement, Boyd said, Trump’s team “may not be operating on a federally-approved secure network,” requiring federal agencies to find ways to protect the sensitive information they share with incoming officials. The White House on Tuesday night provided guidance to various agencies relating to “best practices to facilitate secure information sharing” with the Trump transition team if needed, a White House official said. White House deputy chief of staff Natalie Quillian met with the Agency Transition Directors Council, which is comprised of senior career leaders at agencies across the federal government, and the deputy chiefs of staff for each department on Wednesday morning to discuss next steps for working with Trump’s agency landing teams, the official said. The Trump transition team signing the White House agreement, Boyd said, is a “really important step.” “Both parties should be commended on reaching an agreement to share information. The most concerning scenario would be if the incoming president’s team was not communicating with federal agencies. Now that the communication is open, we’re in a better position for sharing information about national security risks,” Boyd said.As countless Australians and overseas travellers prepare for their road trips ahead of the Christmas break, authorities are cautioning drivers on the in the bush. The message comes as shocking footage was shared this week of a along a barren outback highway, showing a badly smashed-up Toyota 4WD flipped on its side with belongings strewn across the side of the road. In the , travel blogger Grant Barnes said the scene served as a timely reminder of how quickly "the tiredness can get you". "This is exactly what you have to watch out for," Barnes said online. "You can see how much money they put into this build," noting the ill-fated driver had the same energy convertor for camping trips. "Sad," he added. "Someone's life here just strewn across the road." The footage was uploaded to social media on Tuesday and appears to be a remote road in Western Australia. Barnes said the spot was some five hours from the nearest town or petrol station, with the terrain all extremely similar in appearance — adding to the likelihood of experiencing fatigue or so-called highway hypnosis. Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, Dr Ingrid Johnston, the CEO of the Australasian College of Road Safety (ACRS) said holiday travel often means longer journeys, unfamiliar roads, and busier traffic conditions, "which can increase the risk of crashes". "Tragically, the holiday season is associated with a spike in road fatalities and serious injuries. Evidence shows that key factors such as speed, fatigue, alcohol and drug use, distraction, and failure to wear seatbelts remain leading contributors to road trauma in Australia," Johnston told Yahoo. She said distracted driving was a growing problem that compounds the danger of fatigue on our roads. "Evidence suggests that driver distraction has increased in recent years on Australian roads. Distraction is a growing road safety concern, with significant evidence indicating it contributes to a substantial proportion of road crashes." Johnston said research highlights the fact that increased use of mobile phones and in-vehicle technologies is a "major factor driving the rise in driver distraction." According to the , distraction is a contributing factor in approximately 15 per cent of all serious crashes in Australia. "Mobile phone use alone has been shown to increase the likelihood of a crash by up to four times," she said. In addition to mobile devices, advancements in vehicle infotainment systems, navigation tools, and other in-car technologies can also divide attention. "While these features are designed to improve convenience, they often result in increased cognitive load, visual inattention, and manual distractions, particularly when poorly integrated or used improperly," she said. 🚗 💥 🛣️ Associate Professor Paul Roberts, deputy director at the Western Australian Centre for Road Safety Research echoed much of Johnston's sentiment. He in particular warned over monotonous regional roads and said sometimes it helps to engage in safe "cognitive tasks" to help in remaining alert. "Such roads can precipitate passive fatigue and lead to crashes," he told Yahoo. "I always advise [long-distance driving] should include engagement in a cognitive task that is not too demanding to promote optimal alertness. Trivia games are perfect and I pioneered an on-road version that is used in Queensland." Schedule breaks at least every two hours to rest, stretch, and refresh. Be mindful of times when the body is naturally more tired, such as late at night or early in the morning, aligning travel plans with natural sleep cycles. Ensure at least 7-8 hours of quality sleep before a trip to avoid starting the journey fatigued. If possible, share the driving with others to maintain alertness and reduce the strain on one person. These include yawning, difficulty concentrating, wandering thoughts, and drifting in the lane. Drivers should pull over immediately to rest if they notice these signs. Avoid relying on caffeine, music, or air-conditioning as substitutes for proper rest. These may temporarily delay fatigue but will not prevent it.Police say FBI agent sexually assaulted 2 women after promise of free tattoos, modeling

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NoneWhy Buying a New Car Can Be a Smart Investment for the Long-TermNEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes drifted amid mixed trading Monday, ahead of this week’s upcoming meeting by the Federal Reserve that could set Wall Street’s direction into next year. The S&P 500 rose 0.4%, coming off its first losing week in the last four . The Nasdaq composite climbed 1.2% to a record, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was a laggard and fell 110 points, or 0.3%. Broadcom leaped 11.2% to help lead the S&P 500 for a second straight day after delivering a profit report last week that beat analysts’ expectations. The technology company is riding a wave of enthusiasm about its artificial-intelligence offerings in particular. The market’s main event, though, will arrive on Wednesday when the Federal Reserve will announce its last move on interest rates for the year. The widespread expectation is that it will cut its main rate for a third straight time, as it tries to boost the slowing job market after getting inflation nearly all the way down to its target of 2%. The question is how much more it will cut rates next year, and Fed officials will release projections for where they see the federal funds rate ending 2025, along with other economic indicators, once their meeting concludes. Fed Chair Jerome Powell will also answer questions in a press conference following the meeting. For now, the general expectation among traders is that the Fed may cut a couple more times in 2025, according to data from CME Group. But such expectations have been shrinking following reports suggesting inflation may be tougher to get all the way down to 2% from here. Besides last month’s slight acceleration in inflation, another worry is that President-elect Donald Trump’s preferences for tariffs and other policies could lead to higher inflation down the line. Goldman Sachs economist David Mericle has dropped his earlier forecast of a cut by the Fed in January, for example. Beyond the possibility of tariffs, he said Fed officials may also want to slow their cuts because of uncertainty about exactly how low rates need to go so that they no longer press the brakes on the economy. Expectations for a series of cuts to rates by the Fed have been one of the main reasons the S&P 500 has set an all-time high 57 times so far this year and is heading for one of its best years of the millennium . The economy has held up better than many feared, continuing to grow even after the Fed hiked the federal funds rate to a two-decade high in hopes of grinding down on inflation, which topped 9% two summers ago. On Wall Street, MicroStrategy jumped as much as 7% during the day as it continues to benefit from the surging price for bitcoin , which set another all-time high. But its stock ended the day down by les than 0.1% after bitcoin’s price pulled back below $106,000 after setting a record above $107,700, according to CoinDesk. The software company has been building its hoard of the cryptocurrency, and its stock price has more than sextupled this year. It will also soon join the Nasdaq 100 index. Bitcoin’s price has catapulted from roughly $44,000 at the start of the year, riding a recent wave of enthusiasm that Trump will create a system that’s more favorable to digital currencies . Honeywell rose 3.7% after saying it’s still considering a spin-off or sale of its aerospace business, as part of a review of its overall business. It said it plans to give an update with the release of its fourth-quarter results. They helped offset a drop for Nvidia, whose chips are powering much of the world’s move into AI. Its stock fell 1.7%. Because it’s grown so massive, with a total value topping $3 trillion, it was the single heaviest weight on the S&P 500. All told, the S&P 500 rose 22.99 points to 6,074.08. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 110.58 to 43,717.48, and the Nasdaq composite rose 247.17 to 20,173.89. In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.39% from 4.40% late Friday. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, eased to 4.24% from 4.25%. In stock markets abroad, indexes fell modestly across much of Europe and Asia. They sank 0.9% in Hong Kong and 0.2% in Shanghai after China reported lackluster economic indicators for November despite attempts to strengthen the world’s second-largest economy. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.2% as law enforcement authorities pushed to summon impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol for questioning over his short-lived martial law decree, and the Constitutional Court met to discuss whether to remove him from office or reinstate him. AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

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Bryan's second half defense falters in loss to FulshearOTTAWA — The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says it's sent another round of counter-proposals to the federal mediator appointed to help it reach a deal with Canada Post as a countrywide strike nears the three-week mark. The union says it's ready to get back to federal mediation, which was put on pause last week as the two sides appeared too far apart to reach an agreement. As the strike by more than 55,000 workers drags on, the business community has been ramping up pressure on the federal government to intervene. The federal government has so far resisted calls to step in, even though it intervened in other labour disputes earlier this year. Canada Post said it presented a new framework for reaching agreements over the weekend to the union, which said it needs to see key issues like wages and the expansion of postal services addressed before it can make a deal. One of the key issues in bargaining has been the push to expand Canada Post delivery to the weekend, as the two sides disagree over how best to make it happen. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 4, 2024. The Canadian PressGAITHERSBURG, Md. (AP) — An FBI agent charged in Maryland with sexually assaulting two women contacted his alleged victims through social media with a promise to give them free tattoos and modeling work, police said Tuesday as they encouraged other potential victims to come forward. Neither woman knew that their alleged assailant, Eduardo Valdivia , was an FBI agent, Montgomery County Assistant Police Chief Nicholas Augustine said during a news conference. Valdivia used aliases, including Lalo Brown and “El Boogie,” as he contacted the women through an Instagram account for a tattoo parlor in Gaithersburg, Maryland, according to police. Valdivia sexually assaulted the women — both of whom are in their 20s — during photo shoots at a tattoo studio and at a hotel, police said. Both women told police that they feared Valdivia would have caused them more harm if they tried to resist or leave, according to a police affidavit. Valdivia presented the women with modeling contracts and threatened to take legal action if they didn’t return to model for him, Augustine said. Police detectives suspect that Valdivia may have sexually assaulted other women under similar circumstances, according to the assistant chief. “I would like to thank the victims that did come forward. They have now stopped this contact going on in our community and being brave to come forward to notify the police about what was going on, which most likely saved other people from being victimized,” Augustine said. Defense attorney Robert Bonsib said Valdivia’s interactions with the women were consensual. “This conduct is not going to get you the first pew in the church,” Bonsib told reporters outside the courthouse. “You’ve got to be realistic about the nature of what was going on. This was not criminal conduct.” A state district court judge on Tuesday ordered Valdivia jailed without bond, deciding he poses a danger to the community and a flight risk. A prosecutor, Rachel Morris, said during the hearing that a third potential victim had come forward and was being interviewed by police “as we speak.” Valdivia has been suspended by the FBI pending the conclusion of the police investigation. “The FBI takes allegations of criminal violations and misconduct very seriously,” an FBI spokesperson said in a statement Monday. “Because this is an ongoing investigation, the FBI cannot comment further.” Valdivia, 40, of Gaithersburg, previously was charged and acquitted in 2022 of attempted second-degree murder and other charges stemming from an off-duty shooting aboard a moving Metro train near Washington, D.C. Online court records show Valdivia now faces felony and misdemeanor charges, including two counts of second-degree rape. The alleged offenses date to May 2024 and September 2024. Police began investigating in October. The women were initially reluctant to come forward because they felt “held back” by language in contracts they signed to do modeling work, Augustine said. “We don’t know how long the business had been open, but he has been doing tattoos at least since February,” Augustine said. During the bond hearing, Bonsib read aloud emails that he said the women sent to Valdivia. He pointed to the emails as evidence that the encounters were consensual. Bonsib acknowledged that Valdivia posed as a modeling agency operator named Dr. Tiffany Kim in sending emails to the women about modeling contracts. One of the women told police that she found a photo taken of her by Valdivia posted on an Instagram page. A mutual friend recognized a photo of the other alleged victim on the same page and arranged for the women to contact each other, the police affidavit says. Bonsib has said Valdivia joined the FBI in 2011 and was promoted to supervisory special agent at the FBI headquarters in 2019. On Dec. 15, 2020, a confrontation between Valdivia and an unarmed passenger swiftly escalated from a testy exchange of words to a shooting on a train approaching the Medical Center station in Bethesda, Maryland. Valdivia shot and wounded the man from a distance of roughly 2 to 3 feet (0.6 to 0.9 meters) after repeatedly telling the man to back up, county prosecutor Robert Hill said in court. The wounded man had part or all of his spleen, colon and pancreas removed during surgery after the shooting, Hill said. Bonsib has said Valdivia acted in self-defense as the man approached him at the rear of a train car.

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