Miss Nigeria’s pride at coming second in Miss Universe
Miss Nigeria’s pride at coming second in Miss Universe
Getty Images
Chidimma Adetshina is the highest placed ****** ******** woman in Miss Universe since South *******’s Zozibini Tunzi won in 2019
Miss Nigeria, Chidimma Adetshina, has spoken of her pride at coming second in the Miss Universe competition, as well as being named Miss ******* and Oceania.
“I’m so proud of myself and I just made history,” she said, shortly after losing out to Miss Denmark, Victoria Kjær Theilvig.
Adetshina originally competed in the Miss South ******* contest, as she was born and grew up in the country, however she was subjected to trolling and xenophobic ****** because her father is *********.
Last month, the South ******** authorities said they would strip her of her identity papers, following allegations that her mother, who has Mozambican roots, had committed identity ****** to gain South ******** nationality.
Neither Adetshina nor her mother have commented on the allegations. South ******** authorities pointed out that Adetshina could not have participated in any alleged ****** as she was an infant at the time.
After the furore in South *******, and the doubts about her nationality, she competed in the Miss Nigeria competition, which she won to qualify for the Miss Universe contest held in Mexico City.
The eventual winner of Miss South *******, Mia le Roux, pulled out of Miss Universe last week citing an undisclosed medical condition. She was the first deaf woman to become Miss South *******.
In September, Adetshina, a law student, told the BBC that she still saw herself as “proudly South ********” and “proudly *********”.
But after Miss Universe South ******* tweeted to congratulate her on her second place, along with both South ******** and ********* flags, some South Africans responded by saying she did not represent them.
In her BBC interview, Adetshina said she would be seeking therapy to help her deal with the trauma following the ****** she was subjected to.
She is the highest placed ****** ******** woman in Miss Universe since South *******’s Zozibini Tunzi won the competition in 2019.
You may also be interested in:Getty Images/BBC
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#Nigerias #pride #coming #Universe
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The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer drops to a record-low price for ****** Friday
The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer drops to a record-low price for ****** Friday
One of our favorite air fryer toaster ovens is on ***** for a record low. The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer, which has 11 cooking functions and takes up less counter space than the pricier “Pro” model, is available for $80 off. The appliance will usually set you back $350, but this ****** Friday deal brings the brushed stainless steel mode down to $270. Most other colorways are down to $280.
Breville’s Smart Oven Air Fryer has a long list of cooking functions: toast, bagel, broil, bake, roast, warm, pizza, air fry, reheat, cookies and slow cook. The oven uses five quartz heating elements known for quick and consistent heating. It uses algorithms to direct heat to where it’s needed most for each mode.
Breville
Save $80 for ****** Friday on the brushed stainless steel model.
$270 at Amazon
The oven uses “super convection” tech to reduce cooking time by up to 30 percent. It speeds up cooking by raising hotter air and sinking the cooler, less dense air. It supports a wide temperature range of 120 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
The appliance requires a decent amount of counter space: 18.9-inch wide x 15.9-inch deep x 10.9-inch high. But in return, you can squeeze in six slices of pizza or toast, a whole chicken or nine muffins. Breville’s oven has a smooth-looking brushed stainless steel texture, including snazzy-looking knobs and buttons and an interior light that automatically turns on at the cooking cycle’s end. (You can also flip it on manually.)
Check out all of the latest ****** Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.
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Acer Predator X34 OLED Curved gaming monitor review: Extreme curve and performance
Acer Predator X34 OLED Curved gaming monitor review: Extreme curve and performance
When I was preparing for this review of the Acer Predator X34 OLED, I thought that I had already reviewed an Acer monitor called X34 in the past. A quick search of my archives revealed another Predator X34 from 2016 and an X34P from 2018. OK, so this is the X34 OLED. But wait a minute. Acer’s catalog currently includes four X34s, two of which have OLED panels. How to choose?
My subject here is the X34 OLED with the 800R curvature. It’s the most extremely curved monitor in Acer’s lineup and in anyone else’s for that matter. An 800mm radius means the edges of the screen practically wrap around your head. You can actually hear your voice reflected into your ears when you sit close.
But that’s not all. The X34 OLED features a 34-inch 21:9 screen with WQHD 3440×1440 resolution, a 240 Hz refresh rate, Adaptive-Sync, HDR400, wide gamut ******, KVM switching and the latest connectivity. And it sells for around $900 at this writing, which puts it in the sweet spot among the best gaming monitors.
Acer Predator X34 OLED Specs
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Panel Type / Backlight
Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED)
Screen Size / Aspect Ratio
34 inches / 21:9
Row 2 – Cell 0
Curve radius: 800mm
Max Resolution and Refresh Rate
3440×1440 @ 240 Hz
Row 4 – Cell 0
FreeSync and G-Sync Compatible
Native ****** Depth and Gamut
10-bit / DCI-P3
Row 6 – Cell 0
HDR10, DisplayHDR 400
Response Time (GTG)
0.01ms
Brightness (mfr)
275 nits SDR
Row 9 – Cell 0
1,300 nits HDR
Contrast
Unmeasurable
Speakers
2x 5w
Video Inputs
2x DisplayPort 1.4
Row 13 – Cell 0
2x HDMI 2.1
Row 14 – Cell 0
1x USB-C
Audio
3.5mm headphone output
USB 3.2
2x up, 4x down
Power Consumption
48.5w, brightness @ 200 nits
Panel Dimensions WxHxD w/base
30.9 x 17-21.8 x 12 inches (785 x 432-554 x 305mm)
Panel Thickness
6.5 inches (165mm)
Bezel Width
Top: 0.28 inch (7mm)
Row 21 – Cell 0
Sides: 0.3 inch (8mm)
Row 22 – Cell 0
Bottom: 0.5 inch (13mm)
Weight
18.7 pounds (8.5kg)
Warranty
3 years
While $900 isn’t trivial, the X34 OLED is less expensive than other 34-inch 21:9 OLED gaming monitors. Concerning the naming, the X34 OLED is not to be confused with the X34 QD-OLED. That more expensive display has, you guessed it, Quantum Dot technology for a larger ****** gamut. It also has a 175 Hz refresh rate and a gentler curve radius. The X34 OLED, on the other hand, is built for high-performance gaming and leaves nothing under the table regarding speed and response.
The refresh rate is 240 Hz, which is achieved without overclocking, and both flavors of Adaptive-Sync are supported. Two DisplayPort 1.4 inputs and a USB-C port accept 3440×1440 signals with 10-bit ****** processing. Two HDMI 2.1 ports are there for consoles and other video source components. The X34 OLED has a KVM switch with four USB downstream ports (version 3.2), including two right up front with a headphone jack for easy access.
As a non-QD panel, the X34 OLED doesn’t quite have the ****** saturation of the latest QD-OLEDs, but that is not to say it isn’t colorful. It has more gamut volume than almost any Mini LED monitor with a measured 98.78% coverage of DCI-P3. Due to its infinite OLED contrast, it delivers a stunning image and ******* HDR with peak highlights over 1,000 nits. I measured a 25% window pattern at over 660 nits, which makes it brighter than nearly all of its direct competitors.
The gaming feature list is long enough to provide essential items like aiming points, a very flexible ******* mode, refresh rate counter and timers. There is no LED lighting, but that is the only thing missing. There are plenty of picture modes, calibration options and a constant brightness option. OLED panel care comes in the form of a pixel shift and a refresh program. And a pair of internal speakers deliver decent audio.
The Predator X34 OLED doesn’t quite set a new bar for value, but at around $100-200 less than other 34-inch gaming OLEDs, it delivers a lot for the money. Let’s take a look.
Assembly and Accessories
The X34 OLED comes packed in crumbly foam in three parts for a toolless assembly. The screen is well protected by a thick peel-off plastic sheet. The base is super solid and once put together, you would have to try very hard to knock it over. The cable bundle includes IEC for the internal power supply plus HDMI and two USBs. There is no DisplayPort. You also get four hefty adaptor lugs for the 200x100mm VESA mount if you’d rather use an arm.
Product 360
Image 1 of 4
(Image credit: Acer)
(Image credit: Acer)
(Image credit: Acer)
(Image credit: Acer)
The X34 OLED’s front bezel is very thin and almost invisible when the power is on. It’s even flush at the bottom so there’s no logo there to take your eyes out of that gorgeous picture. Only a tiny Predator logo appears at the bottom of the stand. The base is a full 12 inches deep and almost two feet wide, but its slender legs leave plenty of room for peripherals or random desk clutter.
The upright is also slender but rock solid with full ergonomics. You get 5/15 degrees tilt, 15 degrees swivel and 4.8 inches of height. Adjustments have the premium feel I’ve expected from all Predator displays. At the top of the upright is a quarter-inch threaded mount for webcams or other peripherals. And did I mention it’s completely made from metal, not plastic around a metal core. I’ve called other monitors monolithic, but the X34 OLED earns that adjective more than most.
An 800R curvature is currently the tightest radius available. You can see in the top-down view that the sides of the screen come quite far into the user’s peripheral vision. Though image distortion is minimal, this shape imparts something of a fishbowl effect. It’s magnified by the reflection of sound back into the user’s ears. If you like to talk out loud while gaming (I do), you’ll hear your own voice very clearly. It’s a great format for first-person games and simulators. And the thin bezel means you can line up two or three monitors for a hyperrealistic driving or flying rig.
The input panel is up and under and includes two HDMI 2.0, two DisplayPort 1.4, and three USB 3.2, one upstream and two down. Under the front edge of the screen are two more USBs, a type and a type C, along with a 3.5mm headphone jack. An LED bar glows orange in standby and blue when the power is on. A tiny joystick is the only physical control. Two internal speakers play with five watts of power and deliver clean loud sound with reasonable bass and no audible distortion.
OSD Features
Pressing the X34 OLED’s joystick summons a quick menu that lets you change inputs, adjust brightness and switch picture modes. Another press opens the full OSD, which is divided into seven sections and includes three settings memories.
Image 1 of 9
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Game Assistant menu seems simple, with only three options, but the aim points and ******* mode include a lot of useful functionality. The reticle comes in three shapes and can be red, white or green. Or, you can have it change ****** automatically with the background to maintain its visibility. You can also move it around the screen. The ******* mode has three magnifications, multiple sizes and a night vision option. And you get four countdown timers.
The next menu, Gaming, has a FreeSync/Adaptive-Sync toggle and a frame counter. Ultra-Low Latency is available when you turn FreeSync off and reduces input lag by 1ms according to my tests. If you can run consistently faster than 200fps, it’s a viable option, but with FreeSync on, input lag is still very low.
Happily, Acer doesn’t hide the X34 OLED’s constant brightness option in the OLED care menu. It’s in the Picture menu where it’s easier to find. If you want the monitor’s full brightness capability, it should be left off. When it’s turned on, the peak white level is around 260 nits. This menu also has ****** Boost for enhanced shadow detail, an HDR toggle, Super Sharpness (edge enhancement, leave off) and a Low Blue Light option.
The ****** menu has eight picture modes, three of which can function as settings memories. If you make any change at all, the X34 OLED reverts to the User mode. Calibration options include gamma presets and ****** temps plus two-point RGB sliders with gain and bias control, very nice. A selection of ****** spaces is also offered but I found during testing that they all measured the same. There is no usable sRGB mode, more on that later.
Hot Key Assignment lets the user pick a function for the first two slots of the quick menu. You can also specify normal or low HDMI ****** levels. Leave this one on normal for best results. Low clips some shadow detail and does not improve picture quality. The second screen of System options has a pixel shifter and a refresh routine for OLED panel care. Finally, you can save your settings to one of three memories that are part of the picture mode selection, very cool.
Acer Predator X34 OLED Calibration Settings
I found the X34 OLED a little green in tone out of the box, so some adjustment is required for best results. In the user ****** temp option, you get a two-point control with gain and bias sliders. I also measured a dark gamma close to 2.4. Changing the preset to 2.0 and tweaking the RGB gains made a significant improvement in all aspects of the image. I’ve listed my settings below. For the brightness values, I’m showing what it takes to hit the nit values with Constant Brightness off and on. The higher number is required when it’s on. The X34 OLED responds to HDR signals with an auto-switch and grays out all picture controls.
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Picture Mode
User
Brightness 200 nits
47 / 81
Brightness 120 nits
26 / 53
Brightness 100 nits
20 / 43
Brightness 80 nits
15 / 34
Brightness 50 nits
7 / 19 (min. 7 or 19 nits)
Contrast
50
Gamma
2.0
****** Temp User
Gain – Red 48, Green 49, Blue 50
Row 9 – Cell 0
Bias – Red 50, Green 50, Blue 50
Gaming and Hands-on
Gaming on the X34 OLED is a superlative experience. I’ve become spoiled by 240 Hz OLEDs for sure, but this is one of the faster ones. I could sense its lower input lag even though it’s only a couple of milliseconds quicker in my tests. Run and **** maneuvers were super easy because I could quickly reverse my viewpoint or direction of travel. I can only imagine this monitor in more skilled hands. It is truly competition-worthy.
WQHD resolution meant I had no trouble maintaining 240fps in ***** Eternal. This is where an OLED is in its element. There is no hint of motion blur at any time. I could not make a mouse movement fast enough to cause even the slightest smear.
The image is stunning with its deep contrast and bright highlights. I could tell the X34 OLED was brighter than other 34-inch screens I’ve reviewed. Only the Asus PG34WCDM hits higher HDR peaks. Asus is over 660 nits while Asus cracks 700.
However, I did note some shadow detail issues in HDR mode. My tests showed dark EOTF tracking, which manifested in the game. ***** Eternal has an excellent tweaker for this issue that allows the user to adjust multiple parameters to make every part of the image clear. Once I did this, the image rose to another level. I would have liked the X34 OLED to track luminance correctly and out of the box, but at least the fix isn’t difficult.
I also enjoyed the tight curvature. 800R is as tight as it gets for any curved monitor and the wraparound effect is excellent. I was pulled into the game, and I enjoyed better situational awareness since everything was within my field of vision. I didn’t have to turn my head at all. I can see the potential for a ******* racing sim with two or three X34 OLEDs.
In productivity apps, I enjoyed the razor-sharp picture and deep contrast. There are no shadow detail issues that need to be corrected in SDR mode. With a change to the gamma 2.0 preset, everything is clearly visible down to the tiniest font or photo element. The picture is very colorful, and I didn’t miss the Quantum Dot tech. Its omission here is not a negative.
Regarding the 800R curvature, I always noticed it but if I kept my focus at the center of the screen, it wasn’t a problem. Web browsing and document editing are a common activity that is best performed in the middle two-thirds of the X34 OLED. Spreadsheets are a bit more unusual if you view them full screen. It just requires a little getting used to. The only thing I wished for when working in Photoshop was an accurate sRGB mode. I could only ****** grade in the DCI-P3 gamut.
Takeaway: Aside from its missing sRGB mode, there is nothing not to like about the X34 OLED. It’s a terrific gaming monitor with super quick response and blur-free motion processing. The ****** and contrast are everything I’ve come to expect and enjoy from OLED displays. And it produces decent sound from its internal speakers. The extreme curve is different, but once acclimated, it’s not a problem in productivity, and it’s a definite asset for first-person gaming.
MORE: Best Gaming Monitors
MORE: How We Test PC Monitors
MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor
MORE: How to Choose the Best HDR Monitor
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#Acer #Predator #X34 #OLED #Curved #gaming #monitor #review #Extreme #curve #performance
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Aussies at risk of homelessness explodes to 3.2m in six years, services buckling under pressure
Aussies at risk of homelessness explodes to 3.2m in six years, services buckling under pressure
In just six years, the number of Australians who are just “one negative shock” away from homelessness has drastically increased, a new landmark report has found.
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Roborock Qrevo Curv review: the crème de la crème of ****** vacuums
Roborock Qrevo Curv review: the crème de la crème of ****** vacuums
Roborock Qrevo Curv: two-minute review
I’ve tested and reviewed numerous ****** vacuum cleaners over the years and Roborock is unquestionably my go-to brand for reliable, fuss-free vacuuming with smarts galore. The Beijing-based company’s portfolio is chock full of sterling models that push the boundaries of design and function to the max. Where Roborock goes, others tend to follow.
Take the Roborock Qrevo Curv I’m reviewing here. With its immensely powerful suction of 18,500Pa, twin circular mops and ability to ride over thresholds up to around 4cm in height, it’s one of the very best ****** vacuums I’ve ever tested. I’d argue it’s actually a better option than even the S8 MaxV Ultra, which many consider to be Roborock’s flagship model.
In the pantheon of ****** vac cleaning stations, the Qrevo Curv’s dock is a refreshing change from the ugly norm. With its white, dome-shaped casing and not overly large footprint, this is one model you might not feel the need to hide out of sight. It’s a clever bit of kit, too, given that it not only charges the ****** and empties its small onboard bin but also washes the ******’s mops with hot water and then dries them using hot air.
If you’re willing to splash the cash on a brand that’s renowned for innovation, reliability, high performance and convenience, the Roborock Qrevo Curv ****** vacuum is a ***** good place to start.
(Image credit: Future)
Roborock Qrevo Curv review: price & availability
List price: $1,599.99
Launch date: October 2024
Availability: US now, *** to follow
The Qrevo Curv was announced in September 2024, and went on ***** in the US in October. Originally it could be purchased direct from Roborock for a $1,399.99, but by November it had gone up to $1,599.99. It’s also available on Amazon US for the same price.
That’s very much in the premium price bracket, and one of the most expensive ****** vacuums on the market right now. While for many people, there will be a more basic model that will do a perfectly good job for a much lower price, I’d argue the Qrevo Curv actually isn’t bad value for money considering the build quality and smarts included. I have my fingers crossed for a discount in the ****** Friday ****** vacuum sales.
The Roborock Qrevo Curv is yet to be officially launched in the *** but you can express your interest by visiting the global Roborock website. Expect to pay in the region of £1,400 for the privilege of having one of the most accomplished autonomous cleaning devices in ****-land.
Value for money score: 4 out of 5
Roborock Qrevo Curv specs
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Max suction:
18,500Pa
****** size:
13.9 x 13.7 / 35.2 x 34.7cm
****** height:
4″ / 10.3cm
Dock dimensions (W x D x H):
17.7 x 17.7 x 17.7″ / 45 x 45 x 45cm
Dust bin volume (******):
Not stated
Dust bin volume (dock):
2.7L
Water tank volume (dock):
2.4L (clean), 2.4L (******)
Dock type:
Self empty, refill water, clean and dry mop pads
Wi-Fi control:
Yes
Max noise level:
60dB
Roborock Qrevo Curv review: design
Innovative vacuuming and mopping features
Curvy dock self-empties and cleans/dries mop pads
‘AdaptiLift’ technology to bump it over high thresholds
In the past, Roborock has adopted a less-is-more attitude, with just a handful of sterling models in its roster. However, in around the space of a year, the company’s portfolio has increased tenfold to now include a swathe of new models under the Qrevo sub-brand (nine models and counting) of which the Curv is arguably the most stylish and innovative.
Let’s start with the **** itself. At a smidge under 13.9 inches in diameter and around 4 inches in height if you count the LiDAR navigation turret, the Qrevo Curv will scurry under most furnishings with ease. However, because it uses laser-based LiDAR to navigate, it will likely treat any valances around sofas and armchairs as solid barriers.
It is therefore advisable to lift any valances when performing the ******’s initial mapping run so it can venture beneath. Thereafter, the **** should – but not always – punch through the valence and sweep up all the fluff and dust that inevitably gathers under sofas, arm chairs and beds. (Here’s more on how to prepare your home for a ****** vacuum.)
(Image credit: Future)
LiDAR is far and away the fastest and most efficient form of navigation since it occurs in real time while you watch its progress on the accompanying Roborock app. For added navigational accuracy and obstacle avoidance, the Qrevo Curv is also equipped with an LED headlight and a front-mounted RGB camera that can detect and recognize around 60 objects (though not, I should warn, the majority of dog mess).
On the plus side, a LiDAR-based model like the Qrevo Curv moves around the home using a logical up-and-down pattern rather than cleaning the room in confusing zig-zag fashion like most camera-based navigation systems.
Incidentally, this ****’s camera can also be used to make two-way voice calls so you can interact with your ****. I would recommend experimenting with this feature while at home, in case your **** freaks out when it hears your voice coming out of the ******’s speaker. The camera will also take snaps of your **** while on its travels, though this is a bit gimmicky since the ****’s camera doesn’t have an especially high resolution.
One of the standout aspects of the Qrevo Curv is its excellent cleaning efficiency. With a whopping suction power of 18,500Pa (way above the norm of between 5,000 and 10,000Pa), it picks up everything from fine dust to larger debris with ease, making it suitable for carpets of any depth and all types of hard floors. It also features automatic suction control depending on whether it’s on carpet or hard flooring.
(Image credit: Future)
Heading to the business end, the Qrevo Curv is fitted with a unique tangle-free brush system comprising two short spiral-shaped rubber paddles positioned side-by-side, with a small gap between them so loose **** hair can be forced in the direction of the main suction area. All ****** vacs are fitted with a spinning side brush that flicks detritus along skirting boards and in corners into the path of the suction area.
However, the Qrevo Curv goes even further by having an arc-shaped FlexiArm side brush that pops out of the side by an inch or two whenever it detects the corner of a room. It works remarkably well, too.
(Image credit: Future)
By nature of their designs, many ****** vacs struggle to climb over high thresholds between rooms, but Roborock has nailed this conundrum by dint of an AdaptiLift chassis that raises the entire **** by 10mm whenever it encounters a high threshold or similar barrier.
This means the Qrevo Curv can traverse even the tallest of room dividers with ease, and ride over other fixed obstacles up to around 4cm in height. You can see it in action above, filmed by TechRadar’s Homes Editor when it was unveiled at IFA, but I also tested it out myself with books at home.
(Image credit: Future)
It truly is an off-piste machine that covers all bases when it comes to navigating an entire home. The raisable chassis also allows the Qrevo Curv to work effortlessly on the deepest pile since it doesn’t get easily bogged down.
Like so many robots vacs these days, the Qrevo Curv can also mop floors. Normally I’m not a fan of mopping bots, mostly because they’re not as thorough as an upright hard floor cleaner, let alone a mop and bucket. However, I will make an exception for this model, since its twin spinning toweling mops do a great job of giving any hard floor a very decent clean. Like the extendable spinning side brush, the Qrevo Curv’s right-hand mop also extends outward to clean along skirting boards and around chair legs. Rather cleverly, the mops lift when vacuuming carpet, the brush lifts when mopping and both lift when heading back to base.
(Image credit: Future)
Let’s take a close look at the Qrevo Curv’s elegant cleaning station/charging bay. It’s true to say that the majority of ****** vacs’ docks are not only pug-ugly to look at but they’re pretty enormous in stature, too. While the Qrevo Curv’s shiny domed cleaning station is indeed on the portly side (45 x 45 x 45cm), I consider it to be one of the better looking docks on the market. Mind, there’s a very good reason this ****** vac has such a large dock, since it needs quite a bit of internal space to accommodate its two substantial 2.4-litre water containers – one for clean water, the other for the ****** stuff removed during its mop cleaning regime.
The Curv’s deep clean function uses 7C water to clean the mops for maximum grime removal, supposedly removing 99.9% of bacteria in the process. It will even rewash the mops if the base’s cleaning sensor still detects some dirt. It then dries the mops using wafts of hot air at 45C. Incidentally, the base of the dock can be easily removed for periodical cleaning of fluff and any large detritus that’s attached to the cleaning mechanism.
(Image credit: Future)
****** vacs are divided into two main categories: those that come with a self-emptying dock – like the Qrevo Curv I’m reviewing here – and those that don’t. If you have a lot of hairy pets in the home, I would avoid any ****** vac that doesn’t have a dust-emptying feature or you will have to empty the ******’s tiny bin yourself and this will just make you ******.
By contrast, a model like the Qrevo Curv is fitted with a disposable dust bag that collects all rubbish and hair in the ******’s bin after every cleaning session. The Qrevo Curv is fitted with a 2.7-litre dust bag which Roborock says should last for up to seven weeks of cleaning before it needs replacing. However, since I have five very hairy pets in the home, I’ve found myself changing the bag every three weeks or so.
Battery running time is rarely an issue with ****** vacs since they will all head back to base for a topup, even mid-clean if necessary. The Qrevo Curv is equipped with a 5200mAh battery, providing up to 180 minutes of cleaning on a single charge, depending on the mode used. This long battery life makes it suitable for larger homes where it will automatically return to the dock to recharge if needed before resuming cleaning where it left off. At around 60dB in standard mode, the Qrevo Curv operates fairly quietly, especially when compared to other high-suction ****** vacuums I’ve tested.
Finally, for those who fancy a fully-integrated floor cleaning system in their home, the Curv is also available with a plumbed-in ‘refill and drainage’ feature that automatically fills it with clean water while emptying the ****** water tank.
Roborock Qrevo Curv review: performance
Exceptional vacuum performance on all floor types
Traverses rugs with ease
Very decent mopping function
Let’s start with the setup, which is a veritable breeze since there are just two parts – the ****** and the dock. Although Roborock suggests placing the dock in a position with several inches of space either side, I just plonked it between a box and my Gtech AirRAM 3 upright vac and it’s had no trouble at all when docking. Syncing to the Roborock app was also extremely simple and involved nothing more than scanning a QR code under the ******’s top lid.
Roborock’s Reactive AI navigation system is generally very impressive and in my numerous tests over the past 10 days it has effortlessly avoided most obstacles above two inches in height, while automatically optimizing its cleaning route when anything was in its way. Like so many ****** vacs, there’s only so much a camera and sensors can see and once a small item is beneath the camera or close to the front when the ****** turns, it will very likely fail to spot it.
The Qrevo Curv is also not very good when it comes to spotting phone cables and will happily ride over them. However, at no point has any cable become snagged under any ****** I’ve tested to date – invariably the cable is spat out the other side. And that’s the case with the Qrevo Curv.
(Image credit: Future)
Would I trust this ****** to avoid a dog mess? Not on your Nelly. In this regard Roborock has some catching up to do to compete with iRobot, whose **** detection is usually very good but still not wholly reliable. The moral with any ****** vac is to make sure there isn’t any clutter on the floors – as they all advise in their manuals. After all, you wouldn’t start manually vacuuming the floor with socks, cables and loose Lego bricks all over the shop.
Crucially – for me at least – the Qrevo Curv has behaved remarkably well on my loose rugs without too much ruffling of the edges. I put much of this down to the excellent and very innovative chassis-lifting system and the decent gap between the front of the unit and the floor. To date this **** has negotiated all my rugs with consummate ease, even the really thin, loose ones. And that hasn’t been the case with so many other models I’ve tested.
When it comes to vacuuming, I have no compunction in awarding this model a full five stars. It sucks like a limpet and I really do rate the excellence of the pop-out side brush, which captures stray matter much more easily than models with a fixed side brush. It passed the raw oats test with flying colors, collecting every solitary oat flake without flinging them all over the place. Really impressive.
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
I’ve always been gobsmacked by the way all the Roborocks I’ve tested over the years have handled **** hair – tons of the stuff. And though some models’ cleaning stations have very occasionally had a spot of bother sucking the most tangled clumps of hair out of the ****’s bin, I think Roborock has improved this area because I haven’t any issues to report with the base’s suction power.
In fact, you can set this model to two levels of emptying frequency: ‘Balanced’, which is suitable for a cleaner environment; and ‘High’, which empties the bin during a cleaning session – perfect for **** owners. Basically, after 10 minutes or so into a long task, it will trundle back to the station to have its bin emptied and then carry on where it left off.
(Image credit: Future)
If there’s one area I would say could be improved, it’s the smaller-than-average size of the cleaning station’s 2.7-litre dust bag and the weird way it sits in the dustbin chamber. This smaller size means more regular disposal of the bag for **** owners than the usual stated month. It’s still a very strong contender if you’re on the hunt for the best ****** vacuum for **** hair, though.
(Image credit: Future)
Its mopping, too, is surprisingly good and much of this is to do with the unit being fitted with spinning mops instead of a rear-mounted pad like the Roborock S7 and S8 models. In my mop test the Qrevo Curv made a very decent fist of removing some dried soy sauce off the kitchen floor after a couple of passes. No, I don’t think it’s as thorough at mopping as an upright hard floor cleaner or bucket and mop, but for day-to-day use the mops have definitely made a difference to the kitchen floor’s appearance, and that’s good enough for me.
My final test involved me taking the Qrevo Curv upstairs for use on a very deep pile carpet I inherited from the previous owner and, most surprisingly, it sailed through the trial without ever bogging down. Must be that AdaptiLift feature again. Mind, it did leave a few wheel tracks in its wake but nothing too untoward.
Performance score: 4.5 out of 5
Roborock Qrevo Curv review: app
Extremely comprehensive
Easy to use once mastered
Acres of customization
The Roborock app is extremely comprehensive and takes a good deal of time to navigate through its myriad of settings and preferences. Integration with the app is seamless, allowing users to set no-go zones, virtual walls, schedule cleaning times for both rooms and specific zones, monitor the unit’s performance in real time and even add furniture icons to spice up the map. Alternatively, you can leave all the programming to Roborock’s SmartPlan feature, which generates suggested cleaning modes while adjusting settings and preferences to suit your floor plan.
(Image credit: Future)
The app and **** are also compatible with voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant, adding an extra layer of convenience. Oh, and you get a wide choice of languages and accents, too, so if you live in the *** you can select an English sounding voice which sounds a little like the voice of Alexa.
Should you buy the Roborock Qrevo Curv?
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Attribute
Notes
Rating
Price
Very much premium, but justified by the build quality and extensive featureset.
4/5
Design
Row 1 – Cell 1
5/5
Performance
Exceptional vacuuming and very good mopping, on various different floor types.
4.5/5
App
Exceedingly comprehensive with loads of on-board customization possibilities.
5/5
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
How I tested the Roborock Qrevo Curv
My home is open plan with mostly wooden hard floor so it’s a relatively easy household for any ****** to navigate. Nevertheless, I’ve tested some models that have had a lot of trouble traversing the numerous rugs I have scattered around without ruffling them up into a bundle or becoming trapped. I have had no such issues with the Qrevo Curv. In fact, on a reliability scale of 1 to 10 this one gets a 10 for trustworthiness. It means I can be away from home and when I arrive back I don’t have to spend half an hour looking for a stranded **** while readjusting all the rugs. The fact it sailed through all my vacuum and mopping tests without a hitch speaks volumes for the quality of the Qrevo Curv’s design and the software that runs it.
Read more about how we test ****** vacuum cleaners
First reviewed November 2024
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Scientists Built a ‘Tractor Beam’ That Could Expand Frontiers in Physics
Scientists Built a ‘Tractor Beam’ That Could Expand Frontiers in Physics
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Microscope “tractor beams,” known to scientists as optical tweezers, come in either bulky, expensive setups or smaller, chip-sized devices.
However, this second type of devices has one major downside—they typically can’t manipulate cells far away from the surfaces of their chips, which can damage the samples being studied.
MIT researchers believed they’ve solved this problem by creating a new phase pattern for the microscale antennae on the chip, making it possible to “tractor beam” particles more than a millimeter from the chip’s surface (roughly 100 times further than what was previously possible).
“Engage the tractor beam” is a well-known sci-fi turn of phrase, but the idea of this kind of energy manipulation is more real than you might think. In recent years, scientists have developed tractor beam-like tech with the hopes of cleaning up some space junk or moving other kinds of macro-sized objects around.
And while images of the U.S.S. Enterprise or the ****** Star bringing some rogue spaceship to heel come to mind, tractor beams in the here and now are most applicable in the microscopic world, where they’re more commonly known as optical tweezers. At its most basic, this technique uses light to manipulate incredibly small objects—down to the size of a single atom. Despite this extremely small use case, most of these devices are bulky, specialized setups. But now, scientists at MIT have successfully created a tractor beam device that fits in the palm of your hand and can manipulate objects much further than previous chip-based forebears. The researchers detailed their work last month in the journal Nature Communications.
Unlike their bulky counterparts, chip-based tweezers are compact, mass manufacturable, and more broadly accessible. But they come with a pretty big downside—the distance of their “tractor beams” don’t extend very far beyond the surfaces of the chips themselves. This can sometimes damage the chips, as well as the cells that are being studied. However, the MIT team thinks they’ve overcome this limitation by using an integrated optical phase array that can manipulate cells over more than 100 times more distance than was previously possible.
“This work opens up new possibilities for chip-based optical tweezers by enabling trapping and tweezing of cells at much larger distances than previously demonstrated,” MIT’s Jelena Notaros, senior author of the study, said in a press statement. She also called the breakthrough “an improvement of several orders of magnitude” compared to previous attempts. “It’s exciting to think about the different applications that could be enabled by this technology.”
Optical traps and tweezers work by capturing and manipulating tiny particles in focused beams of light. Then, researchers can steer the beams any which way they choose. However, biological specimens are typically sterile (via a glass coverslip that’s some 150 microns thick), so increasing the control distance beyond a millimeter is really valuable. And because of the system’s cheap cost (compared to expensive microscope set-ups), it could also give more labs access to this useful research tool.
“With silicon photonics, we can take this large, typically lab-scale system and integrate it onto a chip.” Notaros said in a press statement. “This presents a great solution for biologists, since it provides them with optical trapping and tweezing functionality without the overhead of a complicated bulk-optical setup.”
To create the chip, researchers used an integrated optical phase array, which contains microscale antennae that are individually capable of steering the beam of light emitted by the chip. MIT’s breakthrough developed a novel phase pattern for each antenna so that it could perform optical trapping and tweezing far from the chip’s surface.
So, while these microscope tractor beams may not be thwarting the evil plans of some galactic ne’er-do-well any time soon, they’re exploring an exciting frontier of discovery all their own.
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UFC 309 Jones vs Miocic: How enigmatic Jon Jones channelled Bruce Lee to retain title
UFC 309 Jones vs Miocic: How enigmatic Jon Jones channelled Bruce Lee to retain title
Even before Jones landed the finishing *****, fellow ********* Miocic had little answer to the diversity of the attacks which were aimed his way.
Some of it was likely to do with age. At 42 and after being away from the octagon for nearly four years, Miocic was nowhere near his prime.
But a lot of it was to do with Jones’ deep arsenal, as jabs, high-kicks, elbows, knees from the clinch and takedowns were all used to break Miocic down.
And it’s not just when he fights – Jones has been as unpredictable outside the octagon this week as he was in it.
Earlier in the week he used an expletive to describe Britain’s interim champion Tom Aspinall, who Jones has largely dismissed as a prospect to ****** next.
The same day he walked out of an interview with sports broadcaster **** Sports, citing he was expecting an “Aspinall fest”.
Then he turned on Miocic, refusing to shake his hand at a news conference before changing his mind and accepting a handshake the following day at the weigh-ins.
Jones is polarising and has been so throughout his UFC career, which has been punctuated by doping bans and problems in his personal life.
UFC president Dana White knows this better than anyone.
“Me and Jon Jones never got on out of the cage. We had a horrendous relationship for 10 years,” said Dana White.
“We don’t have that kind of relationship anymore, but I didn’t have to like him to realise who he is and what he’s capable of and seeing the brilliance. He is the best to ever ******, *******.
“It’s unbelievable what he did tonight. As long as he’s active he’s the pound for pound best in the world.”
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Here’s the Maximum Possible 2025 Social Security Benefit at 62, 67, and 70
Here’s the Maximum Possible 2025 Social Security Benefit at 62, 67, and 70
If you want a big Social Security check, a long and highly compensated career is a major pre-requisite. But even if you earn enough to put yourself in a position to receive the maximum possible benefit, the age at which you decide to apply for retirement benefits can have a huge impact on the ultimate size of your monthly check.
The difference between someone who claims Social Security as soon as possible at age 62 and someone who waits until their benefits max out at age 70 is amplified when you look at the maximum possible benefit. Many retirees opt to claim at their full retirement age, around 67, to strike a balance between the two extremes.
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But the differences between the maximum possible 2025 Social Security benefit at 62, 67, and 70 show the value of delaying benefits as long as possible.
Image source: Getty Images.
Regardless of the age at which you claim, you’ll need to meet a minimum salary threshold across 35 years of your career to qualify for the maximum possible benefit for your age. That’s because your Social Security benefit is based on how much you earned throughout your career.
When you apply for Social Security, the government looks at your entire earnings history, adjusting each year’s wages for inflation. It selects the 35 highest-earning years, adjusted for inflation, and calculates your average monthly income over those years. It then plugs that number into the Social Security benefits formula.
The result is your primary insurance amount (PIA), which is the amount you’ll receive if you start benefits the month you reach your full retirement age. Anyone born between 1943 and 1954 has a full retirement age of 66. The age increases by two months for each year you were born after 1954 until maxing out at age 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later. If you claim benefits before your full retirement age, you’ll receive less than your PIA. If you delay beyond your full retirement age, you’ll receive more.
High earners need to know that not all of their income will count toward their PIA calculation. That’s because the Social Security Administration (SSA) puts a cap on the amount of earnings it taxes. Earnings that it doesn’t tax don’t count toward the calculation. The SSA adjusts the maximum taxable earnings each year for inflation.
If you can earn above the maximum taxable earnings for at least 35 years, you’ll put yourself in line for one of the highest possible Social Security benefits checks. Here are the most recent 50 years of the maximum taxable earnings.
Story Continues
Year
Earnings
Year
Earnings
1976
$15,300
2001
$80,400
1977
$16,500
2002
$84,900
1978
$17,700
2003
$87,000
1979
$22,900
2004
$87,900
1980
$25,900
2005
$90,000
1981
$29,700
2006
$94,200
1982
$32,400
2007
$97,500
1983
$35,700
2008
$102,000
1984
$37,800
2009
$106,800
1985
$39,600
2010
$106,800
1986
$42,000
2011
$106,800
1987
$43,800
2012
$110,100
1988
$45,000
2013
$113,700
1989
$48,000
2014
$117,000
1990
$51,300
2015
$118,500
1991
$53,400
2016
$118,500
1992
$55,500
2017
$127,200
1993
$57,600
2018
$128,400
1994
$60,600
2019
$132,900
1995
$61,200
2020
$137,700
1996
$62,700
2021
$142,800
1997
$65,400
2022
$147,000
1998
$68,400
2023
$160,200
1999
$72,600
2024
$168,600
2000
$76,200
2025
$176,100
Data source: Social Security Administration. Chart by author.
Earning a high salary throughout your career is just one factor that goes into determining the size of your monthly benefit. Your claiming age can have just as big an impact on your monthly benefit as your average earnings.
If you claim as soon as possible at age 62, the Social Security Administration is going to severely reduce your benefit, relative to your PIA. Someone with a full retirement age of 67 will only receive 70% of their PIA if they claim as soon as they’re eligible. On the other hand, if you wait until age 70, the SSA will boost your benefits. Those with a full retirement age of 67 will receive 24% more than their PIA by waiting until their benefits max out at age 70.
In 2025, someone turning 70 will have been born in 1955. That makes their full retirement age 66 and 2 months. As a result, they’ll get an even ******* boost to their PIA by delaying benefits.
Here’s how the maximum monthly benefit looks at 62, 67, and 70 in 2025.
Retirement Age
62
67
70
Maximum Monthly Benefit
$2,831
$4,043
$5,108
Data source: Social Security Administration. Chart by author.
Despite earning comparable salaries throughout their careers, the 70-year-old person can receive a monthly benefit 80% higher than their 62-year-old counterpart by virtue of waiting. The total annualized difference between the two benefits is $27,324. That could go a long way in retirement.
Note, the differences in the maximum possible benefit for someone turning 70 and someone turning 62 this year are impacted by changes in the full retirement age. However, that’s partially offset by changes in the Social Security benefits formula, based on the year in which you turned 60. All things being equal, someone who turned 62 this year could increase their monthly benefit 77% by waiting until age 70.
If you earned a high-enough salary throughout your career to put yourself in line for the maximum possible benefit (or close to it), you may want to delay claiming your Social Security. Even if you only saved a modest percentage of your income during your career, you likely reached your 60s with a sizable retirement account balance. You may have a high withdrawal rate for a few years in early retirement, but that will come down once you claim Social Security.
Ultimately, it’s a safer bet to delay Social Security and temporarily withdraw more from your investment accounts. That’s because Social Security provides a guaranteed inflation-adjusted return for delaying benefits. You can’t get that from many other investments, and not at the rate Social Security provides.
It’s also worth considering survivor benefits. If you pass away before your spouse, your spouse’s survivor benefits will be based in part on the amount you were receiving from Social Security. While it’s already likely the average person will live long enough to receive more from Social Security by delaying until age 70, the ****** life expectancy of you and your spouse tilts the odds further in favor of delaying.
There are also potential tax benefits by delaying for someone with a lot of retirement assets. The early years of retirement are a prime opportunity to make Roth conversions, which can reduce your required minimum distributions later. You may also be able to realize long-term capital gains at a lower effective tax rate than you could once you start collecting Social Security.
Even if you don’t expect to receive the maximum possible Social Security benefit for your age in 2025, you might want to consider waiting until age 70 if you can. Based on life expectancy data, the average person will receive more from Social Security by waiting until age 70, versus claiming at just about any other age. If you reasonably expect to live to an average age (or longer) it pays to delay.
If you’re like most Americans, you’re a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known “Social Security secrets” could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example: one easy trick could pay you as much as $22,924 more… each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we’re all after. Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies.
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Pence calls on Senate to ******* RFK Jr. nomination over ********* views
Pence calls on Senate to ******* RFK Jr. nomination over ********* views
Former Vice President Mike Pence is urging GOP senators to ******* President-elect Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) because of his views on *********.
In a statement from his ************* nonprofit Advancing ********* Freedom on Friday, Pence said Kennedy’s nomination “is an abrupt departure from the pro-life record of our administration and should be deeply concerning to millions of Pro-Life Americans who have supported the *********** Party and our nominees for decades.”
Kennedy has been inconsistent on his ********* position. When he launched his presidential campaign as a Democrat, Kennedy endorsed a ban on ********* after the first trimester but then quickly backtracked. He also suggested he opposed banning ********* before fetal viability, generally around 24 weeks into a pregnancy.
On his campaign website, Kennedy says he is “a firm supporter of the principles ***** out 50 years ago in Roe v. Wade” and that “if the courts do not overturn Dobbs v. Jackson and restore ********* rights, he will support legislation to accomplish the same.”
Trump himself said he does not support a federal ********* ban and ran his campaign distancing himself from the anti-********* wing of the *********** party.
Pence, a staunch religious *************, has become an occasional critic of his former boss on policy positions, especially Trump’s view that ********* should be left to states. Pence previously said Trump’s stance was a “slap in the face” to ********* opponents.
According to Project 2025, the ************* Heritage Foundation’s plan for Trump’s second term, Republicans want to restore to “the department of life,” using a **********-centric basis for governing.
“The Trump-Pence administration was unapologetically pro-life for our four years in office. There are hundreds of decisions made at HHS every day that either lead our nation toward a respect for life or away from it, and HHS under our administration always stood for life,” Pence said.
“On behalf of tens of millions of pro-life Americans, I respectfully urge Senate Republicans to ******* this nomination and give the ********* people a leader who will respect the sanctity of life as secretary of Health and Human Services.”
Leading anti-********* groups are reacting more tepidly, not outright calling for Kennedy’s rejection but not yet openly endorsing him, either.
“There’s no question that we need a pro-life HHS secretary, and of course, we have concerns about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. I believe that no matter who is HHS secretary, baseline policies set by President Trump during his first term will be re-established,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a statement to The Hill.
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, said in a statement that she was looking forward to speaking with Kennedy about refocusing HHS so it isn’t “prejudiced against pro-life Americans, including pro-life hospitals.”
“RFK Jr. has a proven track record of holding healthcare bureaucrats accountable for putting public health first, over political interests. There is no more weaponized agency than HHS, where whatever is good for the Democrats big donor — Planned Parenthood — gets fast tracked,” Hawkins said.
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Wall Street gears up for M&A *****. These names could be attractive targets
Wall Street gears up for M&A *****. These names could be attractive targets
Wall Street is cheering a potential revival of mergers and acquisitions when the new Trump administration takes office, and bankers and investors alike are already trying to find out what deals could be coming first. The combination of rate hikes from the Federal Reserve and an aggressive antitrust approach, embodied by Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, has made the past few years pretty slow for deal-making. Now that the election is over, and a change at the FTC seems highly likely, Wall Street is getting ready for a new era. “Being past the election has removed market uncertainty, first and foremost. Markets like certainty and you’re seeing that broadly across capital markets. … Over the medium to long term, there should be a further catalyst for IPOs, M & A and key sectors we invest in,” said Carlyle CEO Harvey Schwartz on a Nov. 7 earnings call . In the pipeline Trump’s win comes as the mergers business was already showing some signs of waking up. Deal announcements are up 25% year over year in 2024, according to Morgan Stanley, after a historically quiet 2023. The recent rate cuts by the Federal Reserve may be helping grease the wheels of the deal market, especially for transactions that involve debt. “As the interest rates decrease, we obviously see more of an alignment and less of a valuation gap between the sellers and the buyers, and the cost of capital is coming down as leverage continues to increase,” Stephanie McCann, a partner at law firm McDermott Will & Emery who works on private equity and smaller public deals, told CNBC. With the Fed having cut rates again in November and an expected switch to a more business-friendly regulatory environment in January, the size and scope of deals could start to expand in the coming months. Potential candidates One common motivation for a company to buy another is growth. A larger, more established company wants to show its investors that it is not out of ideas, and it may look to absorb a smaller, fast-growing company to do so. In that vein, Wolfe Research identified small and midcap companies with high projected growth rates. One of these, e.l.f. Beauty , recently made a big purchase of its own with a $355 million deal to acquire Naturium last year. Another name on the list might be more likely to seek a ***** after some news this week. Hims & Hers fell more than 24% on Thursday after Amazon announced it would start offering similar health products to Prime members. A Goldman list of companies that were seen as strong candidates to have some M & A activity over the next 12 months included some ******* names, such as Electronic Arts and Zoom Video Communications . EA has been a commonly speculated acquisition target by a major tech or media company since Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard , which closed in 2023. Bank consolidation could be another area to watch. Ed Mills, Washington policy analyst at Raymond James, said bank deals have been slower over the past few years than during the 2008 financial crisis, making the group ripe for a rebound. “In my opinion, bank M & A has reopened for every bank absent the globally systemically important banks,” Mills told CNBC. Related to the financial sector, shares of Capital One and Discover Financial Services both soared in the immediate aftermath of the election. The proposed merger of those two companies looked to potentially be on shaky ground if Democrats remained in power. DFS 1M mountain Shares of Discover Financial rallied sharply after the election of Donald Trump. Other candidates to keep an eye on are deals that fell apart due to regulatory pressure in recent years, such as Tapestry and Capri . The merger between those two companies was blocked by a judge and then dropped this past week , but both companies could be players moving forward. Spirit Airlines could also be on the table again after ******* deals with Frontier and JetBlue. The struggling airline said last week that it was having ” constructive talks ” with creditors. Potential issues While Trump’s second term is expected to be more business friendly than President Joe Biden’s, the new administration’s approach to antitrust issues ******** to be seen. Regulators did open investigations into major tech companies during the first Trump administration, and Matt Gaetz — Trump’s nominee for attorney general — appears to be headed for a contentious confirmation process. “I think there can be a degree of wishful thinking that it’s going to be some laissez-faire approach to antitrust regulation, and I think that is misguided. There’s still a populist tone in the Trump campaign … and enforcement, in my opinion, is not going to go away. I think it will just be a more measured, less aggressive enforcement span,” said Kyle Healy, a partner focused on M & A at law firm Alston & Bird. Another issue could be cost. The S & P 500 was already trading near record highs before the election, and the small-cap benchmark Russell 2000 is up 4.9% in November. That may make finding the right price for acquisition targets a bit tricky. “Prices are pretty high. At some point, that will be a major consideration,” Michael Lynton, chairman of Warner Music and Snap , said on CNBC’s ” Squawk on the Street ” on Nov. 6 when the postelection rally was just beginning.
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Substitute teacher faces statutory ***** charges, accused of giving students money, drugs for ****
Substitute teacher faces statutory ***** charges, accused of giving students money, drugs for ****
A Missouri substitute teacher is facing 19 charges including statutory ***** after authorities say she offered minors money for **** and bought them ********** and alcohol.
Prosecutors in Pulaski County have charged Carissa Jenna Smith, 30, with ******* trafficking, statutory *******, statutory ***** and patronizing prostitution, according to court documents reviewed by USA TODAY.
According to a probable cause statement submitted by the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office, the woman, who is married and has children, paid money to a child for **** and also bought them ********** and alcohol.
Smith was a substitute teacher in the Dixon R-I School District in Dixon, Missouri from Aug. 26, 2022 to Aug. 26 this year, the district confirmed to USA TODAY Friday afternoon.
On Wednesday, Dixon R-I School District Superintendent Travis Bohrer sent out a notice to community members letting them know about Smith’s charges. Calling the situation “very disturbing and distressing,” he said the district is working with the Missouri Children’s Division and authorities.
It was not immediately clear Friday afternoon who was representing Smith in court.
Substitute teacher allegedly offered child money, ********** for ****
A detective from the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office interviewed one of the minors involved on Sept. 13, and the student said the incidents happened while they were in middle school.
Smith was substituting for another teacher and gave the student her Snapchat username. From there, they added each other and began to talk via the app. Eventually, she began sending explicit photos to the student.
A year prior to the interview, a friend asked the child if they’d like to “do some work and make some money for the work,” they told the detective. When the child said yes, the friend took them to Smith’s home, the probable cause statement showed.
Once inside Smith’s home, Smith then allegedly told the child if they had **** with her, she’d pay them, the statement showed. She performed ******* acts with the child, including ************, the detective from the sheriff’s office wrote in the statement.
The child told the detective Smith paid them $130.
According to the child, Smith told them not to talk about what happened or else she’d get into trouble.
Suspect accused of propositioning child for **** multiple times
During the Sept. 13 interview, the first child told the detectives this wasn’t the only time Smith initiated ******* contact with them. The victim said they’d spent time together at least six or seven times and Smith paid them in cash or via Cash App.
According to the student, Smith previously took the child to a field where Smith offered them $110 and ********** before performing **** acts, the statement read.
According to the child, Smith told them ‘You know you can’t talk about this with anybody?” and the child agreed not to talk.
The child also alleged Smith, at one point while they were having ************, forced the child to ********** inside of her.
The victim told the investigator that Smith gave them alcohol to drink with friends, including vodka and ********.
Substitute teacher and husband smashed child’s phone once she found out about videos, victim alleges
The victim told investigators they had a video of Smith performing ***** **** on them. When Smith found out about the video of her performing ***** ****, she “smashed” it, the victim said.
A friend also took photos of himself, the victim and Smith in a car, the statement read.
Another minor mentioned in the probable cause statement said Smith told her husband the victim was trying to blackmail her with a video of her smoking ********** with the minors. Smith’s husband then threatened the minors with a bat.
In his statement, Dixon R-I School District Superintendent Bohrer encouraged community members to speak up if they suspect misconduct by school employees.
Those with concerns can call the Missouri Children’s Division at 1-800-392-3738, he said.
Tipsters can also call Detective Chance Shoecraft with the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department at (573) 774-6196 ext. 4808.
If you or someone you know could be affected by ******* ****** or *********, services provided by RAINN are available via chat or phone call at 1-800-656-4673.
Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY’s NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Follow her on Twitter at @SaleenMartin or email her at *****@*****.tld.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Missouri substitute teacher allegedly gave kids money and weed for ****
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Wall Street gears up for M&A *****. These names could be attractive targets
Wall Street gears up for M&A *****. These names could be attractive targets
Wall Street is cheering a potential revival of mergers and acquisitions when the new Trump administration takes office, and bankers and investors alike are already trying to find out what deals could be coming first. The combination of rate hikes from the Federal Reserve and an aggressive antitrust approach, embodied by Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, has made the past few years pretty slow for deal-making. Now that the election is over, and a change at the FTC seems highly likely, Wall Street is getting ready for a new era. “Being past the election has removed market uncertainty, first and foremost. Markets like certainty and you’re seeing that broadly across capital markets. … Over the medium to long term, there should be a further catalyst for IPOs, M & A and key sectors we invest in,” said Carlyle CEO Harvey Schwartz on a Nov. 7 earnings call . In the pipeline Trump’s win comes as the mergers business was already showing some signs of waking up. Deal announcements are up 25% year over year in 2024, according to Morgan Stanley, after a historically quiet 2023. The recent rate cuts by the Federal Reserve may be helping grease the wheels of the deal market, especially for transactions that involve debt. “As the interest rates decrease, we obviously see more of an alignment and less of a valuation gap between the sellers and the buyers, and the cost of capital is coming down as leverage continues to increase,” Stephanie McCann, a partner at law firm McDermott Will & Emery who works on private equity and smaller public deals, told CNBC. With the Fed having cut rates again in November and an expected switch to a more business-friendly regulatory environment in January, the size and scope of deals could start to expand in the coming months. Potential candidates One common motivation for a company to buy another is growth. A larger, more established company wants to show its investors that it is not out of ideas, and it may look to absorb a smaller, fast-growing company to do so. In that vein, Wolfe Research identified small and midcap companies with high projected growth rates. One of these, e.l.f. Beauty , recently made a big purchase of its own with a $355 million deal to acquire Naturium last year. Another name on the list might be more likely to seek a ***** after some news this week. Hims & Hers fell more than 24% on Thursday after Amazon announced it would start offering similar health products to Prime members. A Goldman list of companies that were seen as strong candidates to have some M & A activity over the next 12 months included some ******* names, such as Electronic Arts and Zoom Video Communications . EA has been a commonly speculated acquisition target by a major tech or media company since Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard , which closed in 2023. Bank consolidation could be another area to watch. Ed Mills, Washington policy analyst at Raymond James, said bank deals have been slower over the past few years than during the 2008 financial crisis, making the group ripe for a rebound. “In my opinion, bank M & A has reopened for every bank absent the globally systemically important banks,” Mills told CNBC. Related to the financial sector, shares of Capital One and Discover Financial Services both soared in the immediate aftermath of the election. The proposed merger of those two companies looked to potentially be on shaky ground if Democrats remained in power. DFS 1M mountain Shares of Discover Financial rallied sharply after the election of Donald Trump. Other candidates to keep an eye on are deals that fell apart due to regulatory pressure in recent years, such as Tapestry and Capri . The merger between those two companies was blocked by a judge and then dropped this past week , but both companies could be players moving forward. Spirit Airlines could also be on the table again after ******* deals with Frontier and JetBlue. The struggling airline said last week that it was having ” constructive talks ” with creditors. Potential issues While Trump’s second term is expected to be more business friendly than President Joe Biden’s, the new administration’s approach to antitrust issues ******** to be seen. Regulators did open investigations into major tech companies during the first Trump administration, and Matt Gaetz — Trump’s nominee for attorney general — appears to be headed for a contentious confirmation process. “I think there can be a degree of wishful thinking that it’s going to be some laissez-faire approach to antitrust regulation, and I think that is misguided. There’s still a populist tone in the Trump campaign … and enforcement, in my opinion, is not going to go away. I think it will just be a more measured, less aggressive enforcement span,” said Kyle Healy, a partner focused on M & A at law firm Alston & Bird. Another issue could be cost. The S & P 500 was already trading near record highs before the election, and the small-cap benchmark Russell 2000 is up 4.9% in November. That may make finding the right price for acquisition targets a bit tricky. “Prices are pretty high. At some point, that will be a major consideration,” Michael Lynton, chairman of Warner Music and Snap , said on CNBC’s ” Squawk on the Street ” on Nov. 6 when the postelection rally was just beginning.
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Top Wall Street analysts are upbeat on these stocks for the long haul
Top Wall Street analysts are upbeat on these stocks for the long haul
The postelection rally has hit some turbulence in recent days, giving investors a bumpy ride in the near term. However, these choppy markets can harbor plenty of opportunities — for those who know where to look.
Investors shouldn’t focus too much on short-term volatility as they position their portfolios. Recommendations from Wall Street can help them make informed decisions on stocks and seek solid long-term returns.
Top-rated analysts pay attention to multiple aspects when selecting stocks of companies with solid fundamentals and strong **********.
Bearing that in mind, here are three stocks favored by the Street’s top *****, according to TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance.
Amazon
We start this week with e-commerce and cloud computing giant Amazon (AMZN). The company impressed investors with third-quarter beats on the top and bottom lines, fueled by strength in its cloud and advertising businesses.
In reaction to the solid Q3 print, Monness analyst Brian White reaffirmed a buy rating on Amazon stock and boosted the price target to $245 from $225. While the analyst acknowledged regulatory pressures, he ******** bullish on AMZN as he thinks it will continue to “capitalize on the cloud, expand its digital ad business, innovate with AI, realize efficiencies from a regional fulfillment network, and leverage a leaner cost structure.”
White highlighted that Amazon’s revenue growth accelerated to 17%, with significant profit upside. Notably, Q3 operating profit exceeded his estimates, driving record operating margin at 11%. He also noted the sharp sequential rise in operating margins at Amazon Web Services, or AWS, and International business. Based on the solid results, the analyst raised his revenue and earnings per share estimates for 2024 and 2025.
White also pointed out Amazon’s focus on reducing costs via improved efficiencies and new initiatives such as regionalizing its U.S. fulfillment network. The company now aims to regionalize its U.S. inbound network and leverage advanced robotic innovations across its fulfillment network.
Overall, White sees lucrative growth potential for Amazon across e-commerce, AWS, digital media, advertising, Alexa, robotics, artificial intelligence and other avenues.
White ranks No. 38 among more than 9,100 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 69% of the time, delivering an average return of 20.4%. See Amazon Stock Charts on TipRanks.
Uber Technologies
We now move to this week’s second pick, ride-sharing platform Uber Technologies (UBER). The company recently delivered better-than-expected third-quarter revenue and earnings. However, it missed Wall Street’s expectations for Q3 ****** bookings.
Nonetheless, Evercore analyst Mark Mahaney ******** bullish on UBER stock. He reiterated a buy rating with a price target of $120, following a series of investor meetings with management.
Mahaney thinks UBER will gain from autonomous vehicle rollouts, given its position as the largest ride-sharing demand aggregator. He added that better availability of robotaxis on the Uber platform will drive improved customer service through shorter wait times, broader ride selection and possibly lower prices.
“UBER believes that the economics it can offer AV owners can be compelling, allowing them to generate very high margins and better fleet utilization than they can develop on their own,” said Mahaney.
Based on his discussions with management, Mahaney explained that the deceleration reflecting in Uber’s Mobility bookings growth in Q3 and the estimate for Q4 is due to the negative demand elasticity caused by the surge in insurance costs and a slowdown in “party hour” bookings, or those that take place during evenings and weekends. He thinks this deceleration will moderate, given the slowdown in the rate of insurance cost increases, growth prospects of new products such as Uber for Teens and Uber for Business as well as potential improvement in consumer discretionary demand.
Finally, Mahaney ******** confident about Uber’s ability to consistently boost its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and free cash flow margins over the next three to five years, supported by multiple measures to drive cost efficiencies.
Mahaney ranks No. 34 among more than 9,100 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 64% of the time, delivering an average return of 28.9%. See Uber Technologies Stock Options on TipRanks.
Block
Finally, let’s look at fintech giant Block (SQ). The company, formerly known as Square, narrowly beat analysts’ earnings expectations but missed revenue estimates for the third quarter.
Following the results, BTIG analyst Andrew Harte discussed the positives and negatives of Block’s Q3 performance. He noted that the company’s initial FY25 ****** profit growth guidance of at least 15% almost met the consensus estimate at 14.9%. However, Q4 ****** profit outlook of 14% fell short of expectations due to the shift in the timing of certain expected benefits from Q4 to next year.
The analyst thinks CEO Jack Dorsey did a good job in highlighting the company’s lending products and explaining how they are fueling the growth of Block’s ecosystem. Despite the soft Q4 guidance and management’s commentary indicating that investors will have to wait until the second half of 2025 for growth acceleration, SQ stock continues to be a top pick for BTIG.
Harte cited several reasons for his bullish stance, including Block’s track record of surpassing guidance and the stock’s attractive valuation at 12-times FY25 EV (enterprise value)/EBITDA. He added that the company is in the early days of fueling increased product adoption in both its Cash and Square ecosystems, indicating continued growth potential ahead.
“Block is just beginning to integrate its Cash App and Square ecosystems, which could create meaningful flywheel effects over time,” said Harte while reiterating a buy rating on the stock with a price target of $90.
Harte ranks No. 152 among more than 9,100 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 75% of the time, delivering an average return of 63.8%. See Block Hedge Funds Activity on TipRanks.
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Morgan Stanley picks China stocks to ride out a worst-case scenario in U.S. tensions
Morgan Stanley picks China stocks to ride out a worst-case scenario in U.S. tensions
After last month’s excitement over stimulus plans, ******** stocks now face mounting challenges as earnings have yet to pick up and heightened U.S. trade tensions loom. “Stock picking ******** important with [the] headwind of tariffs, a weaker currency and persistent deflation,” Morgan Stanley chief China equity strategist Laura Wang and a team said in a report Thursday. For investment options, she referred to the firm’s survey of China stocks the investment bank’s analysts already cover. The firm screened for stocks that could outperform depending on which of three scenarios unfolded. Only the bear case accounted for significant U.S. tariffs and restrictions. The base and bull cases assumed the status quo in U.S.-China relations. The bear case also expects 1 trillion yuan, or $140 billion, in fiscal stimulus a year and MSCI China earnings per share growth of 3% this year and 5% next year. Morgan Stanley’s basket of bear case stocks only includes overweight-rated names with a dividend yield above 4% this year. They also have free cash flow yield above 4% from 2023 to 2025 and market capitalization above $2 billion, among other factors. The companies must not be on Morgan Stanley’s lists of stocks at a disadvantage from *********** policy and supply chain diversification. The only consumer name that made the list was Tingyi , a Hong Kong-listed company that owns instant noodles brand Master Kong. The company is also PepsiCo ‘s exclusive manufacturer and seller in China. Tingyi’s net profit in beverages rose nearly 26% in the first half of 2024 compared to a year ago, while that of instant noodles rose 5.4%. Morgan Stanley expects Tingyi’s earnings per share to grow 12% this year and 11% in 2025. Other ******** companies that made Morgan Stanley’s bear case basket included two state-owned energy stocks: drilling company China Oilfield Services and Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation , which specializes in shipping oil and natural gas. Both stocks are listed in Hong Kong, as is the only industrials name on the bear case list, Sinotruk . The truck manufacturer is also state owned. Morgan Stanley expects China Oilfield Services can grow earnings per share by 41% this year and 33% next year, while Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation can see its earnings rise 33% this year, before slowing to 16% growth next year. Sinotruk earnings can grow 18% this year and 17% next year, according to Morgan Stanley estimates. MSCI China constituents are on track for their 13th straight quarter of earnings misses, despite recent improvements in economic data, Morgan Stanley’s Wang said. “We expect further earnings downward revisions amid lingering deflationary pressure and geopolitical uncertainties until more policy clarity emerges.” Asia equity fund managers have modestly increased their exposure to China since September’s stimulus announcements, Morningstar strategist Claire Liang said in a phone interview Friday. “But many managers have said whether this rally can continue will depend on whether the policies can see real results,” Liang said in Mandarin, which was translated by CNBC. Beyond stabilizing the economy, she said the managers are looking for whether corporate earnings can recover. China’s October data release on Friday underscored a slow economic recovery despite the latest barrage of stimulus announcements. Industrial production missed forecasts. Fixed asset investment grew more slowly than forecast as the drop in real estate investment steepened, albeit with new home sales narrowing their decline. Only retail sales beat expectations with 4.8% growth . For China’s export-heavy economy, the risk of U.S. tariffs has only risen over the past two weeks as the *********** Party has taken control of the U.S. Congress and President-elect Donald Trump has filled his cabinet with China hawks. Morgan Stanley’s U.S. policy team expects Trump to impose tariffs soon after he takes office, and potentially hit Europe and Mexico along with China imports. While China is better positioned than six years ago to stave off the effects of targeted tariffs, the analysts said global duties on U.S. imports would hit China as much as targeted tariffs did in 2018.
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Masked group marches through Ohio neighborhood with ********* flags
Masked group marches through Ohio neighborhood with ********* flags
The governor of Ohio and city officials in Columbus are speaking out after a group of masked individuals marched through the streets of the Ohio capital city Saturday dressed in ****** and holding flags with swastikas on them.
The unidentified people were spotted around 1 p.m. walking through the Short North neighborhood, according to Columbus ABC affiliate WSYX. Images and videos of the marchers went viral on social media sites.
The Columbus Police were dispatched, and the investigation is ongoing.
PHOTO: Men carrying carrying flags with swastikas walk down a street in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in this screengrab from a video supplied to ABC News. (Handout)
“We will not tolerate hate in Ohio,” Ohio *********** Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement on the social media platform X on Saturday evening. “Neo-Nazis — their faces hidden behind red masks — roamed streets in Columbus today, carrying ***** flags and spewing vile and ******* speech against people of ****** and Jews. There were reports that they were also espousing white power sentiments.”
He added, “There is no place in this State for hate, bigotry, antisemitism, or *********, and we must denounce it wherever we see it.”
“The Columbus community stands squarely against hatred and bigotry. We will not allow any of our neighbors to be intimidated, threatened or harmed because of who they are, how they worship or whom they love,” the City of Columbus said in a statement Saturday evening. “We embrace tolerance and acceptance, and derive great strength from our diversity. It is who we are as a people, and it is precisely what has enabled us to grow and thrive and reach new heights of excellence. Together, we ******* the cowardly display reported in the Short North earlier today, and we will continue to monitor the situation in partnership with the Columbus Division of Police to ensure the safety and security of our city.”
MORE: ***** demonstrators gather outside ‘Diary of Anne Frank’ play in Michigan
Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein echoed those sentiments in a statement posted on X.
“To those involved in the neo-***** march in the Short North today, take your flags and the masks you hide behind and go home and never come back,” he said. “Your hate isn’t welcome in our city.”
PHOTO: Scioto river with waterfall and Columbus Ohio skyline, USA (Ian Spanier/Getty Images/Image Source)
Last week, a group of masked demonstrators were seen waving ***** flags outside a production of “The Diary of Anne Frank” in Howell, Michigan.
The protesters were asked to move and there were no arrests.
Masked group marches through Ohio neighborhood with ********* flags originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
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Top Wall Street analysts are upbeat on these stocks for the long haul
Top Wall Street analysts are upbeat on these stocks for the long haul
The postelection rally has hit some turbulence in recent days, giving investors a bumpy ride in the near term. However, these choppy markets can harbor plenty of opportunities — for those who know where to look.
Investors shouldn’t focus too much on short-term volatility as they position their portfolios. Recommendations from Wall Street can help them make informed decisions on stocks and seek solid long-term returns.
Top-rated analysts pay attention to multiple aspects when selecting stocks of companies with solid fundamentals and strong **********.
Bearing that in mind, here are three stocks favored by the Street’s top *****, according to TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance.
Amazon
We start this week with e-commerce and cloud computing giant Amazon (AMZN). The company impressed investors with third-quarter beats on the top and bottom lines, fueled by strength in its cloud and advertising businesses.
In reaction to the solid Q3 print, Monness analyst Brian White reaffirmed a buy rating on Amazon stock and boosted the price target to $245 from $225. While the analyst acknowledged regulatory pressures, he ******** bullish on AMZN as he thinks it will continue to “capitalize on the cloud, expand its digital ad business, innovate with AI, realize efficiencies from a regional fulfillment network, and leverage a leaner cost structure.”
White highlighted that Amazon’s revenue growth accelerated to 17%, with significant profit upside. Notably, Q3 operating profit exceeded his estimates, driving record operating margin at 11%. He also noted the sharp sequential rise in operating margins at Amazon Web Services, or AWS, and International business. Based on the solid results, the analyst raised his revenue and earnings per share estimates for 2024 and 2025.
White also pointed out Amazon’s focus on reducing costs via improved efficiencies and new initiatives such as regionalizing its U.S. fulfillment network. The company now aims to regionalize its U.S. inbound network and leverage advanced robotic innovations across its fulfillment network.
Overall, White sees lucrative growth potential for Amazon across e-commerce, AWS, digital media, advertising, Alexa, robotics, artificial intelligence and other avenues.
White ranks No. 38 among more than 9,100 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 69% of the time, delivering an average return of 20.4%. See Amazon Stock Charts on TipRanks.
Uber Technologies
We now move to this week’s second pick, ride-sharing platform Uber Technologies (UBER). The company recently delivered better-than-expected third-quarter revenue and earnings. However, it missed Wall Street’s expectations for Q3 ****** bookings.
Nonetheless, Evercore analyst Mark Mahaney ******** bullish on UBER stock. He reiterated a buy rating with a price target of $120, following a series of investor meetings with management.
Mahaney thinks UBER will gain from autonomous vehicle rollouts, given its position as the largest ride-sharing demand aggregator. He added that better availability of robotaxis on the Uber platform will drive improved customer service through shorter wait times, broader ride selection and possibly lower prices.
“UBER believes that the economics it can offer AV owners can be compelling, allowing them to generate very high margins and better fleet utilization than they can develop on their own,” said Mahaney.
Based on his discussions with management, Mahaney explained that the deceleration reflecting in Uber’s Mobility bookings growth in Q3 and the estimate for Q4 is due to the negative demand elasticity caused by the surge in insurance costs and a slowdown in “party hour” bookings, or those that take place during evenings and weekends. He thinks this deceleration will moderate, given the slowdown in the rate of insurance cost increases, growth prospects of new products such as Uber for Teens and Uber for Business as well as potential improvement in consumer discretionary demand.
Finally, Mahaney ******** confident about Uber’s ability to consistently boost its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and free cash flow margins over the next three to five years, supported by multiple measures to drive cost efficiencies.
Mahaney ranks No. 34 among more than 9,100 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 64% of the time, delivering an average return of 28.9%. See Uber Technologies Stock Options on TipRanks.
Block
Finally, let’s look at fintech giant Block (SQ). The company, formerly known as Square, narrowly beat analysts’ earnings expectations but missed revenue estimates for the third quarter.
Following the results, BTIG analyst Andrew Harte discussed the positives and negatives of Block’s Q3 performance. He noted that the company’s initial FY25 ****** profit growth guidance of at least 15% almost met the consensus estimate at 14.9%. However, Q4 ****** profit outlook of 14% fell short of expectations due to the shift in the timing of certain expected benefits from Q4 to next year.
The analyst thinks CEO Jack Dorsey did a good job in highlighting the company’s lending products and explaining how they are fueling the growth of Block’s ecosystem. Despite the soft Q4 guidance and management’s commentary indicating that investors will have to wait until the second half of 2025 for growth acceleration, SQ stock continues to be a top pick for BTIG.
Harte cited several reasons for his bullish stance, including Block’s track record of surpassing guidance and the stock’s attractive valuation at 12-times FY25 EV (enterprise value)/EBITDA. He added that the company is in the early days of fueling increased product adoption in both its Cash and Square ecosystems, indicating continued growth potential ahead.
“Block is just beginning to integrate its Cash App and Square ecosystems, which could create meaningful flywheel effects over time,” said Harte while reiterating a buy rating on the stock with a price target of $90.
Harte ranks No. 152 among more than 9,100 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 75% of the time, delivering an average return of 63.8%. See Block Hedge Funds Activity on TipRanks.
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Evercore ISI gives its top five tech picks for 2025
Evercore ISI gives its top five tech picks for 2025
Evercore ISI already named its favorite technology stocks to own heading into 2025. As a group, information technology is up nearly 32% year to date, one of the top-performing sectors in the S & P 500. Large cap tech stocks in particular have been at the forefront of the equity rally since late 2022, when the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT debuted. More recently, however, the IT sector has come under pressure amid questions as to whether tech companies will continue to see the growth needed to justify their lofty valuations. Against that background, Evercore ISI analysts recently picked five tech stocks they’re most sure of entering next year. Here are the investment bank’s stock picks, and where the recommendations are forecast to head next. Arista Networks The cloud network equipment company’s ************* revenue guidance for 2025 leaves room for upside potential, according to Evercore ISI. “We think ANET is uniquely positioned to deliver revenue acceleration in CY25 and beyond driven by multiple levers,” a group of analysts wrote in a Wednesday note. According to their forecasts, Arista Networks’ revenue will grow by more than 20% in 2025 and 2026. They cited tailwinds such as customer expansion, growth across its front-end network and Cognitive campus workspaces service . The company’s back-end AI offerings are another potential driver of revenue growth, according to the analysts. “We continue to see Arista as the leader in AI ethernet switching and customer adoption should accelerate in CY25,” the note continued. Evercore ISI raised its 12-month price target on Arista to $450 from $425, indicating more than 20% upside from Friday’s close. The stock has surged 59% year to date. Apple Artificial intelligence will power Apple ‘s long-term growth story, according to Evercore ISI. Although sales for its new iPhone released in September haven’t sparked an upgrade supercycle, the investment bank believes iPhone growth will eventually improve as more AI features are added. “While this may be disappointing for those hoping for a very strong iPhone 16 cycle, we think it is important to note that Apple’s AI strategy goes beyond simply selling more iPhones,” the analysts said. “Apple will continue to function as a gatekeeper to it’s 1.5B+ [user] install base and has the optionality to monetize 3rd party AI efforts. This will enable them to reap the AI rewards without the massive uptick in capex we are seeing at their mega cap peers.” In addition to benefits from more AI features, Apple’s services and wearables segments are also expected to grow next year. Evercore ISI has an unchanged $250 price target, which implies shares gaining 11.1% from where the stock closed Friday. Apple shares are up 17% in 2024, lagging the 23% gain in the S & P 500. Amphenol The fiber optic connector manufacturer offers both double-digit revenue growth and low volatility, according to Evercore ISI’s analysts. Amphenol also produces electronic connectors and cables which it sells across a diverse range of markets, including to defense, tech and broadband companies. Amphenol is also expected to benefit as some of its customers, such as industrial and mobile networks groups, recover. The Wallingford, Connecticut-based company also has a strong track record in acquisitions and a solid balance sheet ensuring it can continue deal-making — which Evercore ISI estimates could add from 15 cents to 20 cents to its earnings per share on an annual basis. The stock closed at $70.52 on Friday. “We think APH is well-positioned to benefit from AI ramps by providing highly complex/efficient connectors for AI servers and networking,” the Evercore analysts wrote. “Additionally, APH’s deep exposure over a range of technology and strong partnerships allow them to be flexible in reacting and capturing short and long-term AI opportunities,” the note said. Evercore ISI increased its price target on the $90-billion stock by $5 to $80 per share, or more than 13% above Friday’s close. International Business Machines IBM is likely to top revenue estimates in 2025, Evercore ISI said. Growth in IBM’s software segment, which reached double digits in the third quarter, will likely continue thanks to high demand for AI and data solutions. IBM currently has $3 billion worth of AI business booked, which could also boost demand for its software offerings, Evercore ISI said. IBM may also gain from President-elect Donald Trump’s second term push to lift regulations. “A more favorable regulatory backdrop for M & A could accelerate deal activity,” Evercore ISI wrote. “IBM notably could be positioned for larger transactions given their balance sheet” and free cash flow generation. Vertiv Holdings Vertiv Holdings is a long-term beneficiary of the AI *****, Evercore ISI said. The Waterville, Ohio company’s 27,000 employees provide digital infrastructure technologies to data centers. Shares have more than doubled in 2024, soaring 152% in 2024 amid the ***** in data centers that’s driven demand for Vertiv’s liquid cooling technologies. “We think the company is well-positioned to not just capture secular tailwind AI infrastructure tailwinds, but also gain share in an expanding market, and more importantly, do so in an increasingly more profitable manner,” the Evercore note said. The analysts believe Vertiv’s profit margins before interest and taxes could reach the mid 20% level as it optimizes scale and business processes. The bank lifted its price target to $150 from $135, implying Vertiv shares might rally 24% over the next year compared to where they closed on Friday. —CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
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Evercore ISI gives its top five tech picks for 2025
Evercore ISI gives its top five tech picks for 2025
Evercore ISI already named its favorite technology stocks to own heading into 2025. As a group, information technology is up nearly 32% year to date, one of the top-performing sectors in the S & P 500. Large cap tech stocks in particular have been at the forefront of the equity rally since late 2022, when the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT debuted. More recently, however, the IT sector has come under pressure amid questions as to whether tech companies will continue to see the growth needed to justify their lofty valuations. Against that background, Evercore ISI analysts recently picked five tech stocks they’re most sure of entering next year. Here are the investment bank’s stock picks, and where the recommendations are forecast to head next. Arista Networks The cloud network equipment company’s ************* revenue guidance for 2025 leaves room for upside potential, according to Evercore ISI. “We think ANET is uniquely positioned to deliver revenue acceleration in CY25 and beyond driven by multiple levers,” a group of analysts wrote in a Wednesday note. According to their forecasts, Arista Networks’ revenue will grow by more than 20% in 2025 and 2026. They cited tailwinds such as customer expansion, growth across its front-end network and Cognitive campus workspaces service . The company’s back-end AI offerings are another potential driver of revenue growth, according to the analysts. “We continue to see Arista as the leader in AI ethernet switching and customer adoption should accelerate in CY25,” the note continued. Evercore ISI raised its 12-month price target on Arista to $450 from $425, indicating more than 20% upside from Friday’s close. The stock has surged 59% year to date. Apple Artificial intelligence will power Apple ‘s long-term growth story, according to Evercore ISI. Although sales for its new iPhone released in September haven’t sparked an upgrade supercycle, the investment bank believes iPhone growth will eventually improve as more AI features are added. “While this may be disappointing for those hoping for a very strong iPhone 16 cycle, we think it is important to note that Apple’s AI strategy goes beyond simply selling more iPhones,” the analysts said. “Apple will continue to function as a gatekeeper to it’s 1.5B+ [user] install base and has the optionality to monetize 3rd party AI efforts. This will enable them to reap the AI rewards without the massive uptick in capex we are seeing at their mega cap peers.” In addition to benefits from more AI features, Apple’s services and wearables segments are also expected to grow next year. Evercore ISI has an unchanged $250 price target, which implies shares gaining 11.1% from where the stock closed Friday. Apple shares are up 17% in 2024, lagging the 23% gain in the S & P 500. Amphenol The fiber optic connector manufacturer offers both double-digit revenue growth and low volatility, according to Evercore ISI’s analysts. Amphenol also produces electronic connectors and cables which it sells across a diverse range of markets, including to defense, tech and broadband companies. Amphenol is also expected to benefit as some of its customers, such as industrial and mobile networks groups, recover. The Wallingford, Connecticut-based company also has a strong track record in acquisitions and a solid balance sheet ensuring it can continue deal-making — which Evercore ISI estimates could add from 15 cents to 20 cents to its earnings per share on an annual basis. The stock closed at $70.52 on Friday. “We think APH is well-positioned to benefit from AI ramps by providing highly complex/efficient connectors for AI servers and networking,” the Evercore analysts wrote. “Additionally, APH’s deep exposure over a range of technology and strong partnerships allow them to be flexible in reacting and capturing short and long-term AI opportunities,” the note said. Evercore ISI increased its price target on the $90-billion stock by $5 to $80 per share, or more than 13% above Friday’s close. International Business Machines IBM is likely to top revenue estimates in 2025, Evercore ISI said. Growth in IBM’s software segment, which reached double digits in the third quarter, will likely continue thanks to high demand for AI and data solutions. IBM currently has $3 billion worth of AI business booked, which could also boost demand for its software offerings, Evercore ISI said. IBM may also gain from President-elect Donald Trump’s second term push to lift regulations. “A more favorable regulatory backdrop for M & A could accelerate deal activity,” Evercore ISI wrote. “IBM notably could be positioned for larger transactions given their balance sheet” and free cash flow generation. Vertiv Holdings Vertiv Holdings is a long-term beneficiary of the AI *****, Evercore ISI said. The Waterville, Ohio company’s 27,000 employees provide digital infrastructure technologies to data centers. Shares have more than doubled in 2024, soaring 152% in 2024 amid the ***** in data centers that’s driven demand for Vertiv’s liquid cooling technologies. “We think the company is well-positioned to not just capture secular tailwind AI infrastructure tailwinds, but also gain share in an expanding market, and more importantly, do so in an increasingly more profitable manner,” the Evercore note said. The analysts believe Vertiv’s profit margins before interest and taxes could reach the mid 20% level as it optimizes scale and business processes. The bank lifted its price target to $150 from $135, implying Vertiv shares might rally 24% over the next year compared to where they closed on Friday. —CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
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Rory McIlroy wins DP World Tour Championship final & Race to Dubai
Rory McIlroy wins DP World Tour Championship final & Race to Dubai
Rory McIlroy held off Denmark’s Rasmus Hojgaard to win the season-ending DP World Tour Championship and clinch his sixth Race to Dubai title.
The Northern Irishman finished two strokes ahead of Hojgaard on 15 under at Jumeirah Golf Estates after a three-under-par 69 in his final round.
Victory ensured McIlroy, 35, finishes top of the tour’s season rankings and is its champion golfer for a sixth time.
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Anduril, defense sector will ‘do well’ in new Trump admin.: CEO
Anduril, defense sector will ‘do well’ in new Trump admin.: CEO
Anduril Industries Co-Founder and CEO Brian Schimpf has a conversation with Yahoo Finance’s Josh Lipton about the relationship between escalating geopolitical conflicts around the world and the innovations in US defense technology.
“Anduril has done well in [the] prior Trump administration. It’s done very well in a Biden administration and I think we’ll continue to do well in any future administration,” Schimpf explains at the annual Yahoo Finance Invest conference.
To see every interview from Yahoo Finance Invest, click here. For the full interview with Brian Schimpf, click here.
This post was written by Daniel A. Nelson
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Minister says fixing social care urgent after reports of impasse
Minister says fixing social care urgent after reports of impasse
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Reforming the social care system in England is “urgent”, cabinet minister Louise Haigh has said, after sources told the BBC there was a “genuine impasse” at the top of government over the issue.
The transport secretary said the government had already taken steps to improve pay and tackle vacancies in the sector, as well as giving councils an extra £600m in funding for ****** and children’s social care.
In its election manifesto, Labour promised to create a National Care Service to deliver consistent care across the country – but so far the party has given little detail on what this would look like.
******** Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey called for cross-party talks on how to reform the system in the long-term, but said there also needed to be “immediate measures”.
The prime minister, health secretary and chancellor are due to meet in the next 10 days to discuss the issue.
Multiple sources have told the BBC the Department of Health is keen to proceed with an overhaul of the social care system but that the Treasury is reluctant to commit to significant costs without clear political backing from Number 10.
“It’s really urgent that we fix this issue,” Haigh said.
“For too long we’ve let this problem fester.”
Pressed over whether the government was taking the problem seriously, she told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that the health secretary had already set out a 10-year plan for the NHS which included focusing on prevention and community care, which she said would “ease pressures on social care”.
She also pointed to the government’s plans to improve pay and conditions in the sector through a Fair Pay Agreement, allowing negotiations between workers, unions and employers.
“We need to make sure we are tackling those long-term issues in the workforce, with progression opportunities, properly paid and properly negotiated on a collective basis,” she added.
Ministers are considering whether to create a Royal Commission, with cross-party involvement, to consider how to reform the social care system, or a shorter government-backed independent review.
Sir Ed said although the Lib Dems would back a Royal Commission there needed to be “immediate measures first” and it “must not be an excuse for long-grassing this”.
He said there were things the government could do “straight away”, for example on tackling vacancies in the sector.
The Lib Dem leader called on the government to be “more ambitious”, pointing to his party’s own proposals for a higher minimum wage for care workers.
“Politicians have been failing on this for far too long,” he told the BBC.
“There are millions of people suffering, families being hit financially, people in misery and pain, and we have got to tackle this.”
He added that the Lib Dems were “willing and ready” to take part in negotiations over the issue but he had not yet had a call from Health Secretary Wes Streeting to do so.
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Lost your sense of direction? Turn off your phone and you’ll soon reconnect | Life and style
Lost your sense of direction? Turn off your phone and you’ll soon reconnect | Life and style
We’ve lost direction and our brains are shrinking – at least, our hippocampi are. These seahorse-shaped parts of the brain measure about 5cm, sit just above both ears and drive our spatial awareness and orientation. London taxi drivers, famed for taking the Knowledge, a test that involves memorising the central streets of the capital, have full-sized hippocampi. But in 2011, neuroscientists at University College London discovered that the cabbies’ hippocampi shrunk significantly after retirement.
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The development of the hippocampus can also be stunted in childhood. Children living in urban environments rarely see the sun rise or set and cannot tell the difference between east and west. When I volunteered to go into my local school to teach kids about direction, I found they struggled to distinguish north from south and east from west – though they could do so if allowed to use their phones.
Since 2005, when Google Maps was launched claiming it would help users get from A to B and then, three years later, when the iPhone 3G was released featuring “live” location, the online tech giants stated that today’s digital native kids would be the first generation who would not know what it meant to get lost. But is that a good thing? Their horizons and orientation, like their hippocampi, are shrinking with the collusion of online providers. In four generations children have gone from roaming up to six miles from home to an average of just 300 yards. Even before Covid, surveys found that three-quarters of children spent less time outdoors than prison inmates. Many parents know the subsequent 50% rise in agoraphobia has profoundly affected children’s mental and physical health. But it also drives biophobia, an avoidance, even ***** of the natural world. If we come to dread nature, the result is an indifference, even hostility, towards environmental conservation.
Wherever kids do travel they are probably following the blue dot on their phone screen, showing them the way without reference to the world around them. Maps have never been more accessible in the palm of our hands on our phones, but they are as much a tyranny as a liberation. Our phones now map us, harvesting our online likes and dislikes.
The famous ‘blue marble’ Apollo 17 photograph of the Earth is upside down
Current studies suggest a link between this so-called developmental topographical disorientation and mental health, as online experiences lead to a digitally poisoned awareness of space and place. We are becoming, quite literally, disoriented in a digital world where we have given up on tools that enhance our cognitive abilities, like paper maps and magnetic compasses that enabled us to navigate and orient ourselves in tandem with the physical world. We have retreated from using the spatial skills that sustained us for millennia. No wonder our sense of being lost is existential as much as directional.
To be disoriented means to be “lost to the east”: the word comes from ****** for the sun rising in the east. In ancient history, most societies were oriented with east as their prime direction, the source of light, heat and life-giving sun. West, where the sun sets, came next. North and south then followed, as people located them by the position of the sun at midday, and visual astronomical observation of Polaris, the North Star. Early polytheistic societies worshipped the sun rising in the east, a tradition inherited by monotheistic Judeo-********** belief that put east at the top of their maps, as the location of the beginning of Creation and the place of Resurrection. In the Old Testament, Creation starts in the Garden of Eden in the east. The medieval Mappa Mundi in Hereford Cathedral has east at the top, showing Adam and Eve in Eden, and west at the bottom. This was an orientation that defined ********* Christianity for more than 1,000 years.
By contrast, early Islamic maps placed south at the top, because the people that first converted to the ****** lived directly north of Mecca. The easiest way to understand their holy direction was to orient their maps so that Mecca was “up”. We still talk about going up north and down south in the ***, an old hangover from understanding the four points of the compass according to our bodies: up and down, front and back, or left and right. South does just as well as the cardinal direction, as it was for classical ******** science, which had its magnetic compasses pointing south, not north. They are called luojing, “the thing that points south”. Australians know this: in 1979, Stuart McArthur published his Universal Corrective Map of the World, oriented southwards with Australia at the top.
The compass appeared in the 13th century on ********* maritime maps that allowed navigators to orientate themselves on a north-south axis. But it took another 400 years for these maps to agree on putting north at the top, which had always been an inauspicious direction in most societies as a place of cold and darkness. It was crowned cardinal direction by the Flemish mapmaker Gerardus Mercator. But Mercator was more interested in enabling pilots to sail accurately east to west. On his world map (1569), distortion was minimised either side of the equator, which was ideal for ********* maritime empires sailing east to west via Cape ***** and the Cape of Good Hope. The north and south poles were projected to infinity, as everyone presumed they were ice-bound and travelling there seemed pointless.
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Rather than looking up, we spend our time looking down, glued to the blue dot on our phones
So north triumphed accidentally, because nobody wanted to go there. As Europe’s imperial mapmakers cemented north as the cardinal direction, other traditions prioritising different directions were dismissed and erased. The west succeeded in putting north on top at the expense of places it denigrated and labelled “southern” (America and *******), or as part of the “Middle East”. When Nasa first saw the image of the Earth photographed by the Apollo 17 astronauts on 7 December 1972, they rotated the original photo 180 degrees to show north at the top rather than south. The famous “blue marble” photograph, one of the most reproduced images in human history, is actually upside down.
Historically no societies have put west at the top of world maps because of its associations with sunset and ******. But as a political idea, the west has situated north on top after centuries of imperial domination. But will it stay there as India and China reorientate our global economy, and potentially turn it 180 degrees? Might the use of compasses disappear altogether – and with them the cardinal directions?
In my lifetime we have gone from looking up, aspiring to a shared global village inspired by Nasa’s blue marble photograph, to looking down, glued to the blue dot on our phones as our hippocampi shrink and many of us withdraw from nature. It probably isn’t the end of civilisation. After all, maps and compasses are cognitive artefacts, like the internet, and we’ve been using them for millennia. But for our sense of wellbeing, and that of the world that sustains us, we can take steps not just to appreciate nature, but understand how we are part of it, acknowledging that it will always be ******* than us, in a positive, not phobic way. Many share basic principles of psychotherapy: grounding, breathing, being “in the moment”, imagining ourselves from outside or “above” our bodies. It seems that, more than ever, we need to explain who we are by understanding where we are. Here are a few tips on how to do so.
Take your bearings. Use a compass (even on your phone!) to work out the four cardinal directions. Time and space are interrelated, so rethink your attitude to clock time by noticing the movement of the sun east to west from sunrise to sunset. As the sun sets, identify north by finding Polaris. We’re just a dot in the universe: accept it.
Use a paper map. It is a declining art, but using paper maps will make you more aware of your surroundings. An archaic English term for map is a plot, just like a story: turn your route into an adventure.
Feel the wind. Thousands of years before the invention of the compass, we understood and identified the four cardinal directions according to winds. Identify the wind’s direction according to your body: is it behind or in front of you? Look up, turn around. Acknowledge its force. This is a simple grounding exercise that reorients us according to the elements.
Get lost. Take a trip, turn off your phone and deliberately get lost. It’s a little scary, but it will heighten your senses and sharpen your appreciation of the world around you. If that is too daunting, read Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost, because as Solnit suggests, who knows what you might find when you deliberately get lost?
Four Points of the Compass: The Unexpected History of Direction by Jerry Brotton is published by Penguin at £20, or buy a copy for £17 at guardianbookshop.com. Jerry is also the presenter of the podcast What’s Your Map?
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******* economy rebounds with 3.8% growth in Q3 amid wars with ******, Hezbollah
******* economy rebounds with 3.8% growth in Q3 amid wars with ******, Hezbollah
A general view shows the ******** city of Tel Aviv, on August 12, 2024, amid regional tensions during the ongoing war between ******* and the ************ ****** movement in the Gaza Strip.
Gil Cohen-magen | Afp | Getty Images
*******’s economy grew more than expected in the third quarter of 2024, bouncing back somewhat from a weak spell since the start of war in Gaza with ************ Islamist group ****** last October.
The Central Bureau of Statistics said in an initial estimate on Sunday that ****** domestic product grew by an annualised 3.8% in the July to September *******, above a 2.9% consensus in a Reuters poll. On a per capita basis, GDP gained 2.6% in the quarter.
Overall growth was led by gains in consumer spending, which rose 8.6%, a 21.8% jump in investment in fixed assets and a 1.7% rise in exports, offsetting a 10.8% drop in government spending.
Second-quarter GDP growth was confirmed at 0.3% annualised.
The war has raged in Gaza since ******’ Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border ******* on southern *******. The war has since expanded to battling Hezbollah in Lebanon.
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‘My parents drove me to raves aged 15’
‘My parents drove me to raves aged 15’
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Pop star Charli XCX has revealed how her parents drove her to raves where she was performing, at the age of just 15.
She added that she managed to persuade them to do that by telling them she had “swim practice… At 2:00 A.M.”
The singer’s album Brat inspired a cultural phenomenon in the summer, with many people adopting the “brat” way of life.
It has built momentum since its release in June this year, through not only its original tracks, but remixes too.
The British singer, who is now 32, delivered an opening monologue while hosting Saturday Night Live (SNL) on NBC in the US.
In it, Charli, whose real name is Charlotte Aitchison, told viewers how she got to where she is now.
“I actually started performing when I was really young, and I played at my first rave when I was 15 years old,” she said.
“My parents actually drove me there. And, if you’re wondering how did I get my parents to drive me to a rave? Well, I just told them, ‘guys, I’ve got swim practice. At 2:00 A.M.'”
She went on to joke that she has come “a long way” and now considers herself “a triple threat, which in England means I sing, I drink, and I smoke”.
Charli’s sixth studio album inspired millions of posts on social media, plenty of dance moves and even reached the heights of ********* politics, with US presidential candidate Kamala Harris giving her social media a brat rebrand in an attempt to attract younger voters.
During her appearance on SNL, the British pop star defined exactly what brat means to her.
“So many people have asked me, what is brat, and honestly, it’s just like an attitude, it’s a vibe,” she said.
“I have to say brat summer has been a crazy experience,” she added.
Getty Images
A Brat hat that was knitted in support of Kamala Harris
In attempting to define the word on SNL, she cited an incident where US businesswoman Martha Stewart had mistakenly claimed a journalist who covered her legal proceedings was *****.
“Martha gets **** about an old magazine article and she says that she’s glad the journalist who wrote it is ***** – that is brat,” she said.
“And then last Friday, when that exact journalist responded and said, ‘Hey, ‘I’m alive…’ – that is extremely brat.”
Charli, who was also a musical guest on the show, went on to say: “Honestly though, anyone can be brat.”
“Keeping it real is very brat, it is all about being vulnerable, so truly, this is a dream come true,” she said.
“I am so excited to be here, and I’m not used to being out this early on a Saturday night but for you guys, it’s worth it.”
Charli has previously defined brat as a girl who “has a breakdown, but kind of like parties through it”, who is honest, blunt, “a little bit volatile”.
She told the BBC’s Sidetracked podcast that someone brat might have “a pack of *****, a Bic lighter and a strappy white top with no ****”.
Creating an aesthetic has been something popularised on TikTok, with Charli’s brat girl summer seen as a rejection of other trends such as the “clean girl” who looks feminine and well kept.
Brat was crowned Collins Dictionary word of the year earlier this month, with lexicographers defining it as someone with a “confident, independent and hedonistic attitude”.
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