4-star quarterback Jake Merklinger commits to Tennessee football in 2024 class

Reuters
Exclusive-Chinese giant CATL pushes beyond batteries into power grids, EV platforms
Robin Zeng, the billionaire founder of CATL, aims to reinvent the world’s largest battery maker as a green-energy provider and to slash the cost of developing electric vehicles, upending the economics of the industry that has powered its growth. Zeng told Reuters in an interview that he expects the business of developing and managing "zero carbon" electric grids could be "ten times" larger than supplying electric-vehicle batteries, a market CATL now leads with a 37% global share. CATL, he said, aims to build independent energy systems big enough to power a massive data center or even a city.
Associated Press
A look at the candidates vying to be the next Senate majority leader
In the first seriously contested Senate Republican leadership election in decades, three senators are vying to replace longtime GOP leader Mitch McConnell when he steps down from the post at the beginning of next year and Republicans take back the Senate majority.
USA TODAY
Demonstrators waved Nazi flags outside 'The Diary of Anne Frank' production in Michigan
A small group of demonstrators holding Nazi flags and American flags with white supremacist symbols gathered outside of a theater in Howell, Michigan.
Associated Press
Senate Republicans are gathering behind closed doors to pick a new majority leader
Republican senators will gather behind closed doors Wednesday to decide who will replace longtime Senate leader Mitch McConnell and lead their new majority next year — a decision that could shape the future of the Senate, and the party, as Donald Trump reclaims the presidency.
AFP
Toxic smog smothering India's capital smashes WHO limit
Residents of India's capital New Delhi choked in a blanketing toxic smog Wednesday as worsening air pollution surged past 50 times the World Health Organization's recommended daily maximum.That is more than 53 times the World Health Organization recommended daily maximum of fine particulate matter -- dangerous cancer-causing microparticles known as PM2.5 pollutants that enter the bloodstream through the lungs.
Associated Press
In Africa, meager expectations and some hopes for a second Trump presidency
African leaders may have been quick to congratulate Donald Trump on his election, professing a desire for mutually beneficial partnerships, but there are meager expectations that his presidency will change things for this continent of over 1.4 billion people. In the wake of Trump's win, Kenya's William Ruto said his country “stands ready” to deepen its ties with Washington. Nigeria's Bola Tinubu spoke of a second Trump administration ushering in an era of “earnest, beneficial, and reciprocal” cooperation.
Associated Press
Children brought from Gaza to heal from war wounds become caught in another war, in Lebanon
When Zarifa Nawfal’s family arrived in Beirut for her wounded daughter’s surgery, one of the first things she wanted to do was go to the sea. The Mediterranean had been a constant companion at their home in Gaza before the war. “The moment I smelled the sea, I felt at peace inside — as if I were in Gaza,” she said.
Associated Press
Trump makes a victor's return to Washington to meet with Biden and GOP lawmakers
President-elect Donald Trump is making a victor's return to Washington. President Joe Biden will welcome him to the White House on Wednesday for an Oval Office visit that is a traditional part of the peaceful handoff of power — a ritual that Trump himself declined to participate in four years ago. Trump also planned to meet with Republicans from Congress as they focus on his Day 1 priorities and prepare for a potentially unified government with a GOP sweep of power in the nation's capital.
Associated Press
At UN climate talks, nations big and small get chance to bear witness to climate change
When more than two dozen world leaders deliver remarks at the United Nations' annual climate conference on Wednesday, many are likely to detail their nations' firsthand experience with the catastrophic weather that has come with climate change. Pakistan has also suffered from dangerous heat, with thousands of people hospitalized with heatstroke this spring as temperatures soared to 47 degrees Celsius (117 Fahrenheit).
NBC News
Chiefs stars Patrick Mahomes' and Travis Kelce's homes reportedly burglarized last month
Kansas City-area homes belonging to Chiefs stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce were broken into hours apart and burglarized last month, according to authorities and media reports.
AFP
Australian airlines cancel Bali flights after volcano erupts
Several Australian airlines on Wednesday cancelled their flights to and from the Indonesian resort island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower miles into the sky.Australian tourists make up one of the biggest groups of tourists that visit the resort island every year.
Reuters
Ex-Philippine President Duterte says ICC should 'hurry up' on drug war investigation
MANILA (Reuters) -Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said the International Criminal Court (ICC) should 'hurry up' with its probe of his war on drugs, remaining firm in his defence of the brutal campaign as he said the investigation should start immediately."I'm asking the ICC to hurry up, and if possible, they can come here and start the investigation tomorrow," Duterte said in a congressional inquiry on his war on drugs. According to police data, more than 6,200 people died in anti-drug operations under Duterte's presidency, during which police typically said they had killed suspects in self-defence.
NBC News
Two Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after Jan. 6 return to the House
The next Congress will include two House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump after the Jan.
Associated Press
Sri Lankan president seeks party win in parliamentary election to help him push his economic reforms
Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is looking to consolidate his party's power in Thursday's parliamentary election to help him implement his election pledges to solve the country's economic woes and foster good governance. The Marxist-leaning Dissanayake won the presidential election on Sept. 21 in a victory that marked a rejection of the traditional political parties that have governed the island nation since its independence from British rule in 1948.
Associated Press
Public mourns 35 killed in attack at sports complex in southern Chinese city
Members of the public paid their respects Wednesday to people killed by a driver who rammed into people exercising a sports complex in southern China, as the country mourned, but little information was available about the suspect or the victims in the attack. Authorities said the 62-year-old man with the surname Fan was upset over his divorce settlement. There was a light police presence in the morning at the Zhuhai sports complex, which was closed until further notice, but the number of officers increased as the morning passed.
Associated Press
Allies providing Sudan's warring parties with weapons are 'enabling the slaughter,' UN official says
The U.N. political chief accused allies of Sudan’s warring military and paramilitary forces on Tuesday of “enabling the slaughter” that has killed more than 24,000 people and created the world’s worst displacement crisis. “This is unconscionable,” Rosemary DiCarlo told the U.N. Security Council. Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions, including western Darfur, which was wracked by bloodshed and atrocities in 2003.
Associated Press
Guns smuggled from the US are blamed for a surge in killings on more Caribbean islands
Dozens of soldiers and police fanned out across a neighborhood on a recent night in the Turks & Caicos Islands just days after the archipelago reported a record 40 killings this year. “Rest assured, we remain committed to disrupting the flow of illicit guns,” Police Superintendent Jason James said hours later.
AFP
Taliban score successes with embassy closures, COP attendance
Afghanistan embassies in Britain and Norway loyal to the pro-Western authorities ousted by the Taliban in 2021 discreetly shut down this autumn, as the West seeks a more pragmatic approach to the country's Islamic rulers.Both were run by staff loyal to the former authorities of the country, who were ejected from Kabul in the Taliban's lightning offensive in August 2021, a defeat seen as one of the biggest military debacles for the West.
AFP
Evacuations, call for aid as Typhoon Usagi approaches Philippines
The Philippines ordered evacuations ahead of Typhoon Usagi on Wednesday, as the UN disaster office sought $32.9 million in aid for the country after storms that killed more than 150 people. About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the archipelago nation or its surrounding waters each year, killing scores of people and keeping millions in enduring poverty.
Associated Press
A diminished Biden heads to APEC summit in Peru, overshadowed by China's Xi
If things had gone differently last week, U.S. President Joe Biden could have arrived at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru on Thursday projecting confidence and pledging his successor’s cooperation with eager Latin American partners. Just as in 2016, the last time that Peru’s capital Lima hosted APEC, Donald Trump’s election victory has pulled the rug out from under a lame-duck Democrat at the high-profile summit attended by over a dozen world leaders. The renewed prospect of Trump’s “America First” doctrine hampers Biden’s ability to reinforce the United States’ profile on his first presidential trip to South America, experts say, leaving China and its leader, Xi Jinping, to grab the limelight in America’s proverbial backyard.

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