fortune gems tips and tricks How major US stock indexes fared Wednesday, 12/4/2024FORT WORTH, Texas (RNS) — When Ethan Klos, who was raised Jewish, and his wife, Ricki, a Christian, were ready to start a family, the Texas couple consulted a rabbi and a pastor about which religion to raise their kids in. “Pick one,” the rabbi told the couple. “It doesn’t matter to me which one you pick.” “So naturally,” recalled Ricki Klos, “that’s not what we did.” The couple decided to raise their family in the Christian and Jewish faiths, alternating Sunday schools between temple and church. Ethan and Ricki Klos represent the 17% of Americans whose spouse has a different religious affiliation than themselves, according to a 2024 Public Religion Research Institute study . This year, their commitments may be tested, as the first night of Hanukkah and Christmas Day will converge for the first time since 2005 . The Klos family has found different ways to honor both religious heritages in their Fort Worth home, where a collection of menorahs rests on a table and Star of David ornaments hang on the Christmas tree. “We’ll have Hanukkah decorations up all over the house, just as much as Christmas,” Ricki said. Get essential daily news for the Fort Worth area. Sign up for insightful, in-depth stories — completely free. The family will participate in the lighting of the candles and say prayers for Hanukkah. They will also read the Christmas story from the Bible, Ricki Klos said. Interfaith couple Eric and Lauren Wessinger, who also live in Fort Worth, decided to raise their children, now teenagers, as Jews, celebrating Hanukkah as a religious holiday and Christmas as more of a cultural one, Lauren Wessinger said. It was the best answer for both Eric, who grew up with a Jewish mother and a Christian father, and Lauren, who was raised without a specific faith but said her spirituality has been inspired by her mother, a convert to Tibetan Buddhism. The family will light the menorah and attend Hanukkah holiday parties as well as have a Christmas tree at home. The Wessingers said the holiday season can be a time to clear the air on misconceptions about what it means to observe both Christmas and Hanukkah — the notion, for instance, that their kids get twice the number of gifts for observing both holidays. Being an interfaith family has also given Lauren Wessinger the opportunity to share about her family’s practices to curious friends or congregants, she said. “What I love is when people want to talk about it and ask what our traditions are, and they’re genuinely interested in families who do it differently,” Lauren said. The Wessingers have also adopted mindfulness practices as a way to honor Lauren’s mother’s Buddhist faith and set intentions for the new year, by making vision boards or journaling. “Even though we are doing Judaism more than anything, I still very much share the practice of mindfulness with the kids and the philosophies of Buddhism with them in the way that I lead our family and approach challenges and help them see difficulty through that lens,” Lauren Wessinger said. Though they celebrate each holiday distinctly, the Wessingers cherish the shared days most of all. “It’s about being together in family time and the relationship piece of it,” her husband said. “Everyone’s always off for Christmas, so it’s just a good time to be together as a family, regardless of what your faith is.” And though raising an interfaith family has not always been easy, Ricki Klos said, “I feel good that they’ve been exposed to two faiths, and they know two faiths very, very well. I don’t regret anything.” Christmas and the first night of Hanukkah will realign again in 2035 and then in 2054, according to the Jewish calendar website Hebcal . This article was first published on Religion News Service and produced as part of the RNS/Interfaith America Religion Journalism Fellowship . Related Fort Worth Report is certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative for adhering to standards for ethical journalism . Republish This Story Republishing is free for noncommercial entities. Commercial entities are prohibited without a licensing agreement. Contact us for details. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License . Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS). Do not copy stories straight from the front-end of our web-site. You are required to follow the guidelines and use the republication tool when you share our content. The republication tool generates the appropriate html code. You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. You can’t sell or syndicate our stories. Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization. If you use our stories in any other medium — for example, newsletters or other email campaigns — you must make it clear that the stories are from the Fort Worth Report. In all emails, link directly to the story at fortworthreport.org and not to your website. If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @FortWorthReport on Facebook and @FortWorthReport on Twitter. You have to credit Fort Worth Report. Please use “Author Name, Fort Worth Report” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Fort Worth Report” and include our website, fortworthreport.org . You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories. You can’t sell or syndicate our stories. You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection. Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization. If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @FortWorthReport on Facebook and @FortWorthReport on Twitter. by Marissa Greene, Fort Worth Report December 24, 2024

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The Gunners took two points out of Liverpool’s lead at the summit of the Premier League after Jurrien Timber and William Saliba struck in the second half – both from corners – to condemn Amorim to his first defeat as United boss. The hosts’ second-half strikes took their goals-from-corners tally to 22 since the start of last season – a statistic that is unmatched by any other team in the division. Asked if Arsenal are one of the best teams he has come up against on corners, Amorim replied: “If you follow the Premier League for a long time you can see that. “They are also big players and you see every occasion when (Gabriel) Martinelli and (Bukayo) Saka have one-on-ones, a lot of times they go outside and they cross, and they know that if the cross goes well, they can score, and if it is a corner they can score, too, so we have to be better on that. “You have seen in all Arsenal games that every team have had problems with that (corners). And the difference today was the set-pieces. “You see a goal and then the momentum changed, and it is really hard for us to take the full control of the game after that.” Timber leaned into Rasmus Hojlund at the front post before diverting Declan Rice’s set-piece into the back of Andre Onana’s net after 54 minutes to send Arsenal into the lead. Thomas Partey’s header from Saka’s corner then deflected in off Saliba’s shoulder with 17 minutes left. Arteta and the club’s set-piece guru Nicolas Jover embraced on the touchline as Amorim was left with his head in his hands. The Arsenal supporters cheered raucously every time they won a corner – landing 13 in all without reply. However, Arteta moved to play down the significance of Arsenal’s set-piece threat. “We need that, but we want to be very dangerous and very effective from every angle and every phase of play,” said Arteta. “Today we could have scored from open play like we did against West Ham and Sporting. Last year we scored the most goals in the history of this football club. Arsenal have won four consecutive Premier League matches against Man Utd for the first time ever! 💫 pic.twitter.com/biv1kvsJEP — Premier League (@premierleague) December 4, 2024 “Not because of only set-pieces, but because of a lot of things that we have. We want to create individual and magic moments, too.” Arsenal’s win against United – the first time they have recorded four victories in a row against the Red Devils in the league – was their fourth in succession since the international break. They will head to Fulham on Sunday bidding to keep the momentum going. Arteta continued: “The will to win is there. We try our best to do that. We won four in a row, but it doesn’t matter. We have to go to Fulham now, try to be better than them and try win the game. “It’s every three days that we play. It’s a crazy schedule. We’re going to need everybody and to mentally be very strong.”Sebastian Zapeta, 33, who federal immigration officials said is a Guatemalan citizen who entered the US illegally, was arraigned in Brooklyn criminal court. He appeared briefly before a judge and wore a white jumpsuit over a weathered black hooded sweatshirt. He did not speak. He will remain jailed ahead of his next court date on Friday. The apparently random attack occurred on Sunday morning on a stationary F train at the Coney Island station in Brooklyn. Police said on Tuesday that identification of the victim was still “pending at this time”. Authorities say Zapeta approached the woman, who was sitting motionless in the train car and may have been sleeping, and used a lighter to set her clothing on fire. The woman quickly became engulfed in flames, while the suspect then sat at a bench on the subway platform and watched, according to police. Video posted to social media appeared to show the woman standing inside the train ablaze as some people look on from the platform, and at least one officer walks by. NYPD chief of transit Joseph Gulotta said that several officers had responded to the fire and one stayed to keep the crime scene “the way it’s supposed to be” while the others went to get fire extinguishers and transit workers. They were eventually able to douse the fire, but “unfortunately, it was too late”, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said — the woman was pronounced dead at the scene. During Zapeta’s court hearing on Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Ari Rottenberg said Zapeta at one point fanned the flames on the woman using his shirt. He said a 911 call from a subway rider helped identify Zapeta. Mr Rottenberg added that under interrogation Zapeta claimed he did not know what happened, noting that he consumes alcohol. But he alleged that Zapeta identified himself to interrogators in images related to the attack. Zapeta was taken into custody on Sunday afternoon while riding a train on the same subway line after police got a tip from some teenagers who recognised him from images circulated by the police. A Brooklyn address for Zapeta released by police matches a shelter that provides housing and substance abuse support. The shelter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Federal immigration officials said Zapeta had been previously deported in 2018 but at some point reentered the US illegally. The crime — and the graphic video of it that ricocheted across social media — deepened a growing sense of unease among some New Yorkers about the safety of the subway system in a city where many residents take the subway multiple times each day.

TORONTO - Broad-based gains led Canada’s main stock index to close higher in the shortened Christmas Eve trading session, while U.S. stock markets also rose. The S&P/TSX composite index ended up 97.84 points at 24,846.82, as most sectors rose other than telecoms and health care. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 390.08 points at 43,297.03. The S&P 500 index was up 65.97 points at 6,040.04, while the Nasdaq composite was up 266.24 points at 20,031.13. The gains added to increases in recent days to help offset the drop in markets last week after the U.S. Federal Reserve released its latest outlook. The climb however was more likely related to year-end balancing than any change in sentiment, said Dustin Reid, chief fixed income strategist at Mackenzie Investments. “I think it’s mostly just year-end flows that are driving it. I don’t think there’s anything that’s particularly reversed in terms of sentiments since the Fed meeting,” said Reid. There’s reallocation by geography, moving asset classes and other adjustments to align portfolios that is likely affecting markets, he said. “I find that price action around month end, quarter end, and year-end, you shouldn’t try and ascribe a ton of fundamental cause as to why things are moving, because there’s a lot of flows happening below the surface that are probably driving the price action that are not necessarily fundamentally based.” The U.S. Fed guided for only two rate cuts in 2025 at its Dec. 18 meeting, which pushed down markets for the day. But Reid said the guidance was largely in line with expectations, and the strong U.S. economy has likely since helped boost markets. The Canadian market, meanwhile, might be benefiting a little from the expectations of even more rate cuts needed here than expected as the economy is showing softness. On Monday, Statistics Canada said its early estimate for November suggests real GDP for the month edged 0.1 per cent lower for the first drop this year. “The negative flash print for November really suggests that the bank is going to have a fair bit more work to do,” said Reid. “I think that the market is not pricing in enough easing for calendar ‘25 for the Bank of Canada.” There was no economic data releases Tuesday to sway markets, he said. The Canadian dollar traded for 69.51 cents US compared with 69.47 cents US on Monday. The February crude oil contract was up 86 cents at US$70.10 per barrel and the February natural gas contract was up 16 cents at US$3.50 per mmBTU. The February gold contract ended up US$7.30 at US$2,635.50 an ounce and the March copper contract was up two cents at US$4.11 a pound. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 24, 2024. Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)Morgan Rogers’ fourth goal of the season, an Ollie Watkins penalty and Matty Cash’s finish put Villa 3-0 up after 34 minutes. Mikkel Damsgaard pulled one back for Brentford in the second half but the damage had been done as Villa ended their eight-match winless run in all competitions. Emery was relieved to end the unwanted streak but quickly turned his attention to the next fixture against Southampton on Saturday. “We broke a spell of bad results we were having,” the Villa boss said. “We started the first five or 10 minutes not in control of the game but then progressively we controlled. “Today we achieved those three points and it has given us confidence again but even like that it’s not enough. We have to keep going and think about the next match against Southampton on Saturday. “The message was try to focus on each match, try to forget the table. How we can recover confidence and feel comfortable at home. Today was a fantastic match.” Tyrone Mings returned to the starting line-up in the Premier League for the first time since August 2023. Emery admitted it has been a long road back for the 31-year-old and is pleased to have him back. He added: “Mings played in the Champions league but it’s the first time in the league for a year and three months. “I think he played fantastic – he might be tired tomorrow but will be ready for Saturday again. “It was very, very long, the injury he had. His comeback is fantastic for him and everybody, for the doctor and physio and now he’s training everyday.” Brentford fell to a sixth away defeat from seven games and have picked up only a solitary point on the road this season. They have the best home record in the league, with 19 points from seven matches, but they have the joint worst away record. Bees boss Thomas Frank is confident form will improve on the road. He said: “On numbers we can’t argue we are better at home than away, but on numbers it’s a coincidence. I think two of the seven away games have been bad. “The other games we performed well in big spells. I’m confident at the end of the season we will have some wins away from home.” Frank felt Villa should not have been given a penalty when Ethan Pinnock brought Watkins down. He added: “I want to argue the penalty. I don’t think it is (one). I think Ollie kicked back and hit Ethan, yes there is an arm on the shoulder but threshold and all that – but that’s not the reason we lost.”