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Syria’s Christian community has never received political support from the West, particularly Europe, according to Agnes Mariam de la Croix, the mother superior at the Monastery of Saint James the Mutilated in Syria. The abbess made the remarks while talking to RT on Tuesday in light of the recent incident involving the burning of a Christmas tree in the Syrian Orthodox city of Hama by a group of Islamist fighters. The incident has stirred anger among local residents, with hundreds of demonstrators having taken to the streets in the Christian neighborhoods of Damascus on Monday amid fears of further crackdowns on Syria’s religious minorities. Videos circulating online showed hooded figures setting fire to the tree at a traffic circle in the Christian-majority town of Al-Suqalabiyah near the city of Hama in central Syria. Reacting to the events, de la Croix pointed out that after seizing power the jihadist groups, particularly the Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS), have promised to take care of minorities and even paid unexpected visits to spiritual leaders in Aleppo, Hama, and Damascus. Nevertheless, the community has been “targeted by different ways of discrimination and misunderstanding of our Christian symbols, especially in this holy realm on Christmas Eve,” she said. Asked about reports of European assistance to Syria’s Christian community, de la Croix replied, “we don’t rely on protection from the West, I regret to say it.” She noted that Europe has never genuinely assisted Christians in Syria. On the contrary, she said, there was always a feeling it was “even forbidden for us to talk about the prosecution of Christians.” She said European politicians “were not very happy” when she talked about the issue. HTS jihadists launched a surprise offensive in the northern Syrian provinces of Idlib and Aleppo late last month. After the city of Aleppo fell within days, the group advanced south on Damascus, capturing the towns of Suqaylabiyah, Hama, and Homs along the way before they were joined by US-armed Free Syrian Army (FSA) militants for a final push on the capital. Former Syrian President Bashar Assad left for Russia, where he has been granted asylum. Under Assad, Christians and other religious minorities were allowed to openly practice their faith. HTS leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa has vowed to lead Syria into an era of change, promising an inclusive vision where all religious and ethnic groups are represented. However, with HTS in charge, many now reportedly fear persecutions. “We feel insecure, at least,” de la Croix said, noting it is not only about Christians, but there had been aggression against other minorities too. Burning a Christmas tree means “burning our principles, faith, joy, and fist of Christmas,” according to de la Croix, who described it as “an insult” against the community. The abbess raised hope for improvement of the “terrible uncertainty” situation for the Syrian ethnic and religious minorities in the future.A pedestrian was seriously injured in a crash in Cambridge on Wednesday. Waterloo Regional Police posted on social media at about 6:15 p.m. and said emergency crews were in the area of Franklin Boulevard and Dundas Street South. Police said a pedestrian received severe injuries and was being taken to an out-of-region hospital. A portion of Franklin Boulevard was closed in the area as police investigated. Drivers are asked to avoid the area and find alternate routes.
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LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Isaac Brown and Duke Watson rushed for two touchdowns each, Ramon Puryear returned one of Louisville's five takeaways for a score and the Cardinals blew out rival Kentucky 41-14 on Saturday to win the Governor's Cup for the first time since 2017. Brown's 1-yard TD run started the Cardinals (8-4) toward a 20-0 halftime lead before busting a 67-yard, exclamation-point score midway through the fourth as they halted a five-game losing streak against the Wildcats (4-8). He finished with a career-high 178 yards on 26 carries to surpass quarterback Lamar Jackson and become Louisville's first freshman to rush for 1,000 yards. Jackson ran for 960 yards in 2015, a year before winning the Heisman Trophy. Watson rushed six times for 104 yards, exploding down the left sideline for a 58-yard TD in the second quarter before breaking a 24-yard scoring run late in the third to make it 34-7. Puryear preceded that score with a 20-yard fumble return for a TD to blunt Kentucky's momentum after Ja'Mori Maclin caught a 4-yard TD pass from Gavin Wimsatt for its first score. Wimsatt, who started the second half in relief of Wildcats freshman Cutter Boley, also connected with Maclin for an 83-yard score in the fourth and was 4 of 9 for 125 yards. Defensive back Tamarion McDonald recovered a fumble and intercepted a pass for Louisville, which outgained Kentucky 486-328. Louisville: The Cardinals could have put it out of reach in the first half if they hadn't settled for field goals near the goal line. No big deal, as Brown and Watson broke it open in the second with Puryear highlighting their huge defensive performance. Kentucky: Boley was supposed to offer a peek into the Wildcats' future in his first collegiate start but tossed two interceptions and completing just 6 of 15 passes for 48 yards. Jamarion Wilcox's two fumbles also hurt and Wimsatt was picked off, but his relief effort sparks offseason questions about a QB battle next spring. Louisville awaits its bowl assignment on Dec. 8. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballRaiders confirm QB Gardner Minshew out for season, look to Aidan O'ConnellThe Pentagon wants to break China’s near-monopoly on rare-earth minerals that are a key element in many of its weapons systems, and it’s betting on a small Nebraska company to help it do that. In September, the Defense Department awarded a $4.22 million contract to Rare Earth Salts , a Beatrice chemical company with about a dozen employees, to develop and expand its production of terbium, one of the rarest of the rare-earth elements. The Rare Earth Salts manufacturing plant in Beatrice. BEATRICE SUN It’s the first Defense Department contract for the company, which opened its 25,000-square-foot plant in 2017. Terbium boosts the resiliency in extreme temperatures of certain types of magnets used in military aircraft, submarines and missiles, according to a Pentagon statement that accompanied the contract award. "This award adds a domestic source for one of the most difficult-to-obtain rare-earth elements," said Laura Taylor-Kale, assistant secretary of defense for industrial base policy, in the statement. "Rare Earth Salts' capability will help the United States establish a mine-to-magnet supply chain without reliance on foreign sources of material." The company extracts terbium (along with other rare-earth elements) from the powdered residue of recycled fluorescent light bulbs. It uses an extraction method invented and patented by the company’s founder, Joseph Brewer, a scientist and entrepreneur who earned graduate degrees in chemistry at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Cost overruns, delays threaten US plan for new StratCom missiles based in Nebraska “This company has done a lot of research and development to get us where we are today,” said Aaron Dowd, the company’s chief executive officer. Rare earths consist of 17 elements that most non-scientists probably haven’t encountered since a high school chemistry class. On the periodic table, most are in the row called "lanthanides," which run from atomic numbers 57 (lanthanum) through 71 (lutetium). In the civilian world, rare-earth elements are a component of magnets used in cellphones, wind turbines and electric-vehicle motors. They’re also found in fiber optics and computer monitors. An F-35 fighter like this one — photographed in August during an airshow at Offutt Air Force Base — contain more than 900 pounds of rare-earth minerals, which are mined mostly in China. The Pentagon is working to develop a domestic rare-earths industry. CHRIS MACHIAN, THE WORLD-HERALD For the military, rare earths are used in the guidance systems for smart bombs; electric-drive motors that power fighter jets and Navy ships; and for radar, sonar and lasers. An F-35 fighter requires more than 900 pounds of rare-earth elements, according to the Defense Department. An Arleigh Burke-class DDG-51 destroyer requires 5,200 pounds, and a Virginia-class submarine needs 9,200 pounds. From the 1960s through the mid-1980s, the United States led the world in the production of rare-earth minerals, according to a 2020 report by the Congressional Research Service. All U.S. material came from a single mine in Mountain Pass, California. But about 40 years ago, China made a strategic effort to mine and process rare-earth elements, which its leaders correctly identified as a critical natural resource for emerging technologies. Rare-earth concentrate is bagged at the Mountain Pass mine, operated by MP Materials, in Mountain Pass, California. Rare earths are 17 chemically related elements that have magnetic and fluorescent properties. BLOOMBERG “They have placed an emphasis on it in a very significant way, in order to control the market,” said Dowd, who served as chief of staff to former Nebraska Sen. and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. They succeeded. U.S. companies outsourced mining and processing to China, where costs were lower. The Mountain Pass mine shut down in 2002. That arrangement worked fine until the early 2010s, when China’s government began to place restrictions on exports. At the time, the country controlled 85% of the world’s rare earths mining and 95% of the production, according to the CRS report. Their limits drove up prices, and pushed the United States and other nations to begin developing their own rare-earth sources. The Mountain Pass mine was reopened in 2018. Air Force awards $13 billion contract to replace Offutt 'Doomsday' E-4Bs At least four other rare-earth deposits have been identified, in Alaska, Wyoming, Texas — and in Elk Creek, Nebraska, about 20 miles from Beatrice. But NioCorp , the Colorado company that owns the mining rights at Elk Creek, so far has failed to secure funding to mine the site. Since 2020, the Defense Department has awarded more than $439 million in grants to establish domestic rare-earth supply chains. Still, China produced nearly six times as many rare-earth minerals as the United States in 2023, according to a September report by the Government Accountability Office. Between 2019 and 2022, the U.S. imported more than 95% of its rare earths. About 75% of that total came from China. A 2023 RAND Corp. study found that China could effectively cut off up to half of the global supply of rare-earth oxides, more than the U.S. defense industry could make up from other sources. Rare Earth Salts trucks in pulverized light bulbs by the ton and uses Brewer’s proprietary electrochemical process to pull out the rare earths. Dowd said the process is faster, cheaper and greener than older methods that use large amounts of water and chemical solvents. Rare Earth Salts extracts terbium and other rare earth minerals from the powdered residue of used fluorescent light buls in tanks like this one at its plant in Beatrice. RARE EARTH SALTS “We are the only company in the world using our own patented process that’s not solvent extraction,” Dowd said. He said the company already has gone through the laboratory and pilot stages of rare-earths production. The Defense Department contract will allow it to ramp up to an industrial scale, and perhaps add 20 to 25 employees. Dowd said there are plenty of ground-up light bulbs out there, and plenty of demand for rare earths like terbium. But it takes time and money to revive an industry that was outsourced decades ago. “You can’t bring the full supply chain back overnight,” he said. Construction continues on the area devastated by a flood five years ago at Offutt Air Force Base on Wednesday, March 13, 2024 CHRIS MACHIAN, THE WORLD-HERALD Construction continues on the area devastated by a flood five years ago at Offutt Air Force Base on Wednesday, March 13, 2024 CHRIS MACHIAN, THE WORLD-HERALD Construction continues on the area devastated by a flood five years ago at Offutt Air Force Base on Wednesday, March 13, 2024 The buildings were built on pads of dirt that were much higher than before. CHRIS MACHIAN, THE WORLD-HERALD
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You knew it was coming, didn’t you? Baseball’s reigning Evil Empire took the initiative this week, signing another high-profile starting pitcher and giving its fans something additional to be grateful for during Thanksgiving week (besides, of course, those shots of the Commissioner’s Trophy being shown off here, there and everywhere throughout Southern California). And after the bombshell announcement Tuesday night, that the Dodgers had signed Blake Snell , the howls could be heard throughout the land. The Dodgers are making a mockery of the sport. The rest of baseball can’t compete. They’re signing everybody! And how are the Cincinnatis and Pittsburghs and Colorados of the sport able to compete with an organization that not only brings in boatloads of money – and has created a second source of runaway revenue through its ties to Japan – but isn’t interested in hoarding it? Shouldn’t the next step be a salary cap to restrain this franchise’s runaway spending? Oh, stop it. Competitive balance is not an issue in baseball, period. Four different teams have won the last four World Series, and nine different fan bases have celebrated championships in the last 12 years. There hasn’t been a repeat champion in ... checks notes ... a quarter of a century. (That would be the New York Yankees, the first Evil Empire, in 1999-2000.) Meanwhile, Kansas City, Detroit and Baltimore have all risen from rebuilding to contention in the last couple of seasons. Milwaukee and Cleveland, both smaller markets, were legitimate threats as this past postseason began. And the Padres, long squeezed between Mexico to their south, the Imperial Valley to their east, the Pacific to their west and L.A. to their north, just might have been the second-best team in baseball in 2024 and, may we remind you, had the Dodgers by the neck going into Game 4 of their National League Division Series . Nor are they going away, even with some payroll retrenching in the wake of controlling owner Peter Seidler’s death. (But, nope, still no parade.) Most of the caterwauling, of course, comes from those whose favorite teams were either outbid or declined to spend. Trust me, no ownership in Major League Baseball can claim poverty, even with the cable TV issues that have scrambled some teams’ finances. Yes, big-market teams start with a financial advantage. Yes, Diamond Sports’ bankruptcy and the cord-cutting revolution have factored in. And yes, the Dodgers and Yankees have insulated themselves to a degree by owning their own cable networks. So, maybe, give them some credit for intelligence and foresight? Front Office Sports reported that deferrals on Snell’s reported five-year, $182 million deal, said to be $60 million, would push the Dodgers closer to the $1 billion mark in deferred money owed to five players. Shohei Ohtani’s whopping $680 million deferred on a $700 million contract signed last winter enabled the Dodgers to add additional pieces. Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts also have chunks of deferred money in their contracts – as does, interestingly, Teoscar Hernández on his one-year 2024 deal with the Dodgers. That would make that contract even more of a bargain than we thought. And this is an undisputable fact: Salary caps and other payroll-limiting mechanisms put no limits on front office creativity and ingenuity. It’s been pretty well established that in Guggenheim Baseball’s 13-year ownership of the Dodgers, especially after Mark Walter’s organization corrected the problems of the Frank McCourt era and particularly after Friedman arrived from Tampa Bay in 2015, the Dodgers have a smart, savvy organization whose advantages go way beyond their cash on hand. (And yes, as I noted on social media Tuesday night, we do tease them about sometimes trying too hard to be the smartest guys in the room. But most of the time they are, anyway.) Assuming everyone stays healthy – and as we saw throughout baseball in 2024, that’s a tall ask – what will the Dodgers’ rotation look like in 2025? They’ll have left-hander Snell, a two-time Cy Young Award winner who was one of the victims of a soft free agent market last spring and didn’t sign with the San Francisco Giants until March 19. He got off to a dreadful start as a result but was lights out from the start of July. In 14 starts he was 5-0 (and his team 12-2 in those starts), with a 1.23 ERA, an opponents’ batting average of .123, an 0.78 WHIP, five double-digit strikeout games and a 3.8-1 strikeout to walk ratio, and a complete-game no-hitter, an achievement for someone denigrated as a five-and-dive pitcher. Maybe those final three months spurred him to sign early this time. It’s almost certain the Dodgers will use a six-man rotation from the start of the season, and right now they have seven possibilities and who knows what they do from here. They’ll have Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Shohei Ohtani as a pitcher. Tyler Glasnow, Snell’s former teammate in Tampa Bay, will be back, as will Tony Gonsolin in his return from Tommy John surgery. Dustin May, essentially inactive since May of 2023, will return, and Clayton Kershaw is expected to re-sign and has indicated he plans to retire a Dodger. Is there room for free agent Jack Flaherty, last season’s major trade deadline acquisition? Or fellow free agent Walker Buehler, who closed out Game 5 of the World Series against the Yankees, following a sometimes spotty comeback from injury? And the wild card might be Roki Sasaki, who will be posted by his Japanese team this winter. The Dodgers had long been considered the favorites to land him, and even Snell’s signing might not change that. Then again, the way the 2024 Dodgers went through pitchers because of injuries – 40 for the season, including 12 starting pitchers – shouldn’t they be tempted to grab every reasonably healthy arm they can and sort it out as they go along? But this is, and should be, the bottom line: Every fan in every sport wants the people running their favorite team to care as much about winning as they do. In a lot of cities, with a lot of teams, that’s really hard to envision. In Dodger Stadium, it’s not hard at all. And if they’re going to be the new Evil Empire, why not just lean into it and have Dieter Ruehle play “The Imperial March” (i.e., Darth Vader’s Theme) before every game? jalexander@scng.comRaiders confirm QB Gardner Minshew out for season, look to Aidan O'ConnellLas Vegas quarterback Gardner Minshew is out for the season due to a broken collarbone, head coach Antonio Pierce confirmed on Monday, leaving the Raiders with a short week to determine their starter. Minshew suffered the injury when he was sacked and landed on his left shoulder late in the fourth quarter of Las Vegas' 29-19 home loss to the Denver Broncos. Former starter Aidan O'Connell, who was sidelined by a thumb injury in Week 7, could return off injured reserve in time for the Raiders (2-9) to face the two-time reigning Super Bowl champion Chiefs (10-1) on Friday in Kansas City. "We'll see if Aidan is good to go," Pierce said. "He's been ramping up." O'Connell entered the 21-day practice window on Monday as the Raiders determine when to activate him. "Seeing him able to grip the ball comfortable, hopefully, no pain there, and just being able to be efficient," Pierce said. "To put a player out there that's hurting or injured still, that's not to the benefit of the player or our team." O'Connell, 26, has played in four games this season, starting two (both losses). He is 52 of 82 (63.4 percent) for 455 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. As a rookie last season, O'Connell started 10 of 11 games, going 5-5, and completed 213 of 343 passes (62.1 percent) for 2,218 yards, 12 TDs and seven interceptions. The Raiders selected O'Connell in the fourth round of the 2023 NFL Draft. "Obviously at the quarterback position, you've got to be smart," Pierce said. "I think with Aidan, his future's much brighter looking ahead. ... I'll have to really rely on our doctors and medical staff." Desmond Ridder replaced Minshew and went 5 of 10 for 64 yards. Ridder, 25, has appeared in three games this season for Las Vegas and is 16 of 26 (61.5 percent) for 138 yards and one TD. Ridder played the previous two seasons for the Atlanta Falcons, who selected him in the third round of the 2022 draft. For his career, he is 338 of 529 (63.9 percent) for 3,682 yards, 15 TDs and 12 interceptions in 22 games (17 starts, 8-9 record). Minshew, 28, completed 25 of 42 passes for 230 yards with one touchdown and one interception against the Broncos. He finished his first season with the Raiders with 2,013 yards, nine TDs and 10 picks on 66.3 percent passing. He joined the Raiders in free agency after stints in Jacksonville (2019-20), Philadelphia (2021-22) and Indianapolis (2023) and won the starting job in camp. But he was benched multiple times for O'Connell as the Raiders struggled as a team. --Field Level Media
Most Americans, from both parties, say the government needs to increase the supply of affordable housing. For President-elect Donald Trump, that should offer a good opportunity to summon his instincts for development — and self-promotion — to get America building again. Call it the “Trump building boom.” The problem is clear: For more than a decade, housing construction has failed to keep up with U.S. population growth and household formation. This has helped drive a nearly 50% increase in the median sales price of houses and a similar jump in rents, outstripping an 18% gain in real median household income. The income required to afford a new single-family home is now almost twice what it was five years ago, and nearly half of renting households spend more than 30% of their income on rent. By some measures, homelessness is at a record level. Normally, rising prices should spur construction, and that is starting to happen. But why not faster? For one thing, in many of the cities with the most severe housing shortages, local zoning restrictions, land-use regulations, rent controls, affordable-housing mandates and permitting requirements — among other burdens — limit development. Sustained attention to complex problems does not come naturally to Trump. But as a second-generation real estate developer, he has had plenty of personal experience with the bureaucratic obstacles and political opposition that housing plans often encounter. This might offer him an advantage in helping the U.S. build the estimated 2.5 million homes the country needs. Success would depend on three things. First, the administration should encourage a wave of rezoning and deregulation at state and local levels, which is the source of most of the friction. In his first term, Trump established a council to study the problem. This time around, he should act on its recommendations, including by helping local governments dial back costly requirements such as parking minimums and minimum lot sizes and speed up permitting. Perhaps the “freedom cities” Trump says he wants to build on federal land (details TBD) might be exemplars in this regard. More prosaically, the administration should change federal policies that needlessly raise the cost of construction. This could include reducing certain tariffs — such as those on Canadian lumber, which were sharply increased during the Biden administration — as well as expediting environmental reviews and reducing red tape. To help address the 288,000 job openings in construction, up from an average of 190,000 since 2000, Trump could create incentives for community colleges and vocational schools to provide relevant training and offer more visas for qualified immigrants. Finally, Trump has promised to reduce interest rates , which would certainly help make housing more affordable . A commitment to respect the Federal Reserve’s independence would cost him little but help a lot. So might a pledge to cut spending and to moderate the many tax cuts he has talked about. Trump’s record suggests that any such compromise is a long shot. Then again, if there’s one consistency in Trump’s career, it’s that he defies expectations. Providing an ample supply of housing — and making life more affordable — should be a goal of every policymaker. Trump will arrive in office with an opportunity to achieve that goal. “Build, baby, build,” you might say. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico has yet to produce a certified vote tally for a single district almost a month after . Then on Wednesday, a judge issued a ruling that sparked an outcry and threatened to further delay the certification process as the Jan. 2 swearing in looms. The judge, in response to a lawsuit, ordered Puerto Rico’s State Elections Commission to count early votes following ID verification even if the postal address used to request those votes is different from the one in the general voter registration. “Contrary to what some actors in our society may have encouraged in public opinion, our legal framework in electoral matters is covered with guarantees of reliability, which leave no room for speculation or doubts about the validity of early votes,” Judge Raúl A. Candelario López wrote. The Nov. 21 lawsuit was filed by a dozen voters affiliated with the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, which won the gubernatorial race, according to preliminary results. The ruling noted that those voters alleged “their rights are being violated since they requested early voting, complied with all the requirements for it, and their votes are being subject to additional requirements without any legal basis.” The judge’s decision angered many including Karla Angleró, electoral commissioner for the opposing Popular Democratic Party, one of Puerto Rico’s two main parties, She said the party would appeal Wednesday’s ruling. In September, Angleró and electoral commissioners from other parties agreed that if they uncovered addresses that didn’t match, officials would call people to confirm that they indeed requested an early vote to prevent any fraud. Angleró and other commissioners had recently requested that the elections commission investigate how more than 40 ballots with different residential addresses were requested from the same P.O. box in the southern coastal town of Santa Isabel. “We’ve been waiting for weeks,” she told reporters on Wednesday of the investigation. Judicial officials already are investigating allegations made before Nov. 2 about electoral crimes including people who said they received confirmations for early voting when they had made no such request. As those investigations continue, workers are certifying ballots with the aim to finish by Dec. 20 or 22, according to Jessika Padilla, alternate president for the elections commission. The aim was to finalize the district of the capital of San Juan on Wednesday, but that was pushed back to Sunday, she told reporters. Numerous obstacles have delayed the certification process, including an increase in write-in votes and a flurry of errors detected in bedside ballots, prompting all electoral commissioners to agree to start counting more than 60,000 such votes from scratch. The delay prompted electoral commissioners last week to temporarily halt the counting of ballots cast in a nonbinding referendum also held Nov. 2 on Puerto Rico’s political status so they could focus on election ballots. Local law dictates that the certification process must be completed by Dec. 31. Dánica Coto, The Associated Press
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