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NEW YORK (AP) — Andy Murray’s latest Week 1 exit at a Grand Slam tournament did not discourage him. The three-time major champion still thinks he can go toe-to-toe with the best in men’s tennis — even after two hip operations, even as the years without a trip past the third round at any of the sport’s biggest events stretch on.
After bowing out at that stage of the U.S. Open with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (1), 6-3 loss across more than 3 1/2 hours against 2021 Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini on Friday, Murray chose to look on the bright side.
“I’ve got a metal hip. It’s not easy playing with that. It’s really difficult. I’m surprised I’m still able to compete with guys that are right up at the top of the game,” the 35-year-old Murray said, resting his head on his left hand. “Matches like this, I’m really proud that I have worked myself into a position where I’m able to do that. I’m really disappointed that I didn’t get over the line today. But I get reminded, like, ‘This is the first time you’ve made the third round here since 2016.’ It’s been six years. It’s been a difficult six years for me.”
Berrettini, a big hitter who reached the 2019 semifinals at Flushing Meadows, dominated in just about every statistical way at Arthur Ashe Stadium, hours before 23-time Grand Slam title winner Serena Williams was eliminated by Ajla Tomljanovic with a 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-1 loss in what was expected to be her final match.
Williams, who turns 41 this month, still didn’t definitely say her career was over. But her tearful thanks to her parents, older sister Venus and fans afterward made it sound that way.
“It’s been a fun ride. It’s been the most incredible ride and journey I’ve ever been on in my life,” Williams said.
Coco Gauff, an 18-year-old American who reached the final at the French Open in June, made it to the fourth round at the U.S. Open for the first time with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Madison Keys, the 2017 runner-up in New York and seeded 20th this year.
Gauff’s match ended a little more than an hour before Williams-Tomljanovic was due to begin — and the teen was hoping Williams could keep winning so they could meet in the semifinals. But the six-time champion lost, shortly after 2019 winner Bianca Andreescu was eliminated by No. 17 Caroline Garcia, guaranteeing there would be a first-time U.S. Open women’s champion.
Gauff now meets Zhang Shuai, who eliminated Rebecca Marino 6-2, 6-4.
Defending men’s champion Daniil Medvedev beat Wu Yibing of China 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 in Ashe to close the night and is set to meet Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios, the No. 23 seed who swept past American J.J. Wolf 6-4, 6-2, 6-3.
Medvedev had 12 aces to only one for Wu, who was the first Chinese man to reach the third round of the U.S. Open.
In other action during the day session, Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur came back to defeat No. 31 Shelby Rogers 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 and avoid the sort of early exit by a high-seeded woman that has filled the first week of play at the year’s last major. No. 2 Anett Kontaveit (who lost to Williams), No. 3 Maria Sakkari and No. 4 Paula Badosa are all aready gone, as are 2021 champion Emma Raducanu and 2021 runner-up Leylah Fernandez; No. 1 Iga Swiatek and No. 5 Jabeur have offered a bit of the expected.
Jabeur reached the fourth round in New York for the first time after going 0-3 in the third round since 2019.
“Finally,” Jabeur said. “I know that I don’t play the best on hard courts, but it’s always amazing to see how I’m improving, how I’m pushing my limits.”
She next plays No. 18 Veronika Kudermetova, who needed just 47 minutes to overwhelm Dalma Galfi 6-2, 6-0.
In the men’s bracket, French Open runner-up Casper Ruud edged 29th-seeded Tommy Paul in five sets, while No. 27 Karen Khachanov moved on when his opponent, Jack Draper, stopped playing in the third set because of an injured hamstring.
The 13th-seeded Berrettini advanced to face Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Sunday by hitting more aces than the unseeded Murray, 18-5, delivering far more total winners, 55-24, and accumulating 15 break points, converting five, while facing only four.
Murray’s summation: “I served pretty poorly for a large part of the match.”
He won his first Slam trophy at the U.S. Open in 2012, then added titles at Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016, becoming the first British man to triumph there since the 1930s. Murray made it to No. 1 in the rankings in 2017; that also was the last time he reached the fourth round at any major, doing so at the All England Club.
“Unfortunately, I never played him when he was No. 1, but his level seems very high right now. He’s super intelligent. He reads the game very well. … He made me sweat a lot,” Berrettini said after a match that was interrupted for about five minutes while paramedics attended to a spectator. “He still moves well. He has a lot of strength in his legs. I see him in the gym all the time.”
The first procedure on his hip came early in 2018, and the assumption by most, including Murray, was that he would need to retire. Then a second surgery, to install the metal implant, arrived in January 2019.
“Lots of people told me I wouldn’t be able to play again. And lots of people told me I’d be able to hit tennis balls but not compete professionally again. That was nonsense,” he said Friday, “and I want to see how close I can get back to the top of the game.”
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More AP coverage of U.S. Open tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/us-open-tennis-championships and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T12:23:40Z
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Jeffrey Springs pitched neatly into the sixth inning, Christian Bethancourt hit two-run homer in the seventh, and the Tampa Bay Rays moved within five games of the AL East-leading New York Yankees with a 9-0 victory on Friday night.
It was the first of six games between the teams in a 10-day span as New York saw its once-commanding 15 1/2 game advantage continue to evaporate.
““Just embarrassing when you get beat like that,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We’ve got a much better standard in that room, now we’ve got to start living up to it.”
Yankees star Aaron Judge agreed.
“We’re going to see what this team is made of,” Judge said. “We’ve got to bring it, that’s it. Nobody on the outside is going is help us, nobody is feeling sorry for us.”
Springs (7-4) gave up four hits and three walks, along with seven strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings. JT Chargois, Colin Poche, Jason Adam and Calvin Faucher completed the five-hitter.
“Anytime we can come out like we did tonight and start a series like that, it’s good,” Springs said. “It’s definitely a big momentum rolling into tomorrow.
Tampa Bay has limited the Yankees to 42 runs (32 earned) in 14 games.
When ask why the Rays have been successful, a smiling manager Kevin Cash said “I don’t know, and I wouldn’t tell you if I did.”
“But look, we got good pitching, no doubt,” he added. “Our pitchers do a really good job of executing.”
The Yankees have been shut out six times over their last 25 games.
Bethancourt, on his birthday, made it 3-0 on his homer off Domingo Germán (2-3), who allowed three runs — two earned — and six hits over 6 2/3 innings.
“Not happy, not happy with myself,” Germán said through an interpreter. “I let that one guy beat me. Not to take credit from him but I think he’s the worst hitter in that lineup and I let him beat me tonight.”
Yu Chang had a two-run infield single and Manuel Margot drove in two with a single during a six-run eighth against Greg Weissert and Anthony Banda. Yankees manager Aaron Boone turned to infielder-outfielder Marwin Gonzalez with the bases-loaded and two out in the eighth, and he retired Harold Ramirez on comebacker off a 45-mph pitch.
New York has lost five of six, while the Rays have won four in a row to move a season-high 16 games over .500.
Yankees left fielder Andrew Benintendi left in the third inning after injuring his right wrist on a swing. X-rays were negative but he will have an MRI exam Saturday.
“That’s what he felt, it felt like something popped on his wrist,” Boone said. “Hope for the best for him tomorrow.”
The announced crowd was 17,886. Tampa Bay entered averaging 13,845 at home.
A pair of errors by third baseman Josh Donaldson helped the Rays go up 1-0 in the fourth.
Ramirez reached when Donaldson misplayed his grounder but was thrown out by right fielder Oswaldo Cabrera, who came in for Benintendi, trying to score on Donaldson’s throwing error following Randy Arozarena’s infield hit. Arozarena went to third on the play and scored on David Peralta’s single.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa had a leadoff double in the fifth and one out later the Rays opted to pitch to Aaron Judge, and the slugger walked on a 3-2 pitch. Springs then induced a fly ball from Cabrera and struck out Giancarlo Stanton.
Judge, leading the majors with 51 homers and 113 RBIs, also struck out twice and reached on catcher’s interference. Stanton struck out three times and walked.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Yankees: 1B Anthony Rizzo will miss the series after getting a epidural shot for lingering lower back pain. … RHP Jameson Taillon, hit on the right forearm by a batted ball Tuesday, has a bullpen session Saturday and should make his next scheduled start.
Rays: RHP Tyler Glasnow (Tommy John surgery, Aug. 2021) is expected to start a minor league rehab assignment by throwing one inning with Triple-A Durham next week. … SS Wander Franco (sore right hand) hopes to resume his rehab assignment soon.
UP NEXT
Yankees RHP Clarke Schmidt (5-3) and Tampa Bay RHP Corey Kluber (9-7) are Saturday night’s starters.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T12:23:47Z
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Reaction to Serena Williams’ loss Friday night to Ajla Tomljanovic at the U.S. Open in what was expected to be the final match of her career:
“(at)serenawilliams you’re literally the greatest on and off the court. Thank you for inspiring all of us to pursue our dreams. I love you little sis!!!!!!” — Tiger Woods, via Twitter.
“Congrats on an amazing career, (at)SerenaWilliams. How lucky were we to be able to watch a young girl from Compton grow up to become one of the greatest athletes of all time. I’m proud of you, my friend—and I can’t wait to see the lives you continue to transform with your talents.” — Michelle Obama, via Twitter.
“All heart. So much love.” — Alexis Ohanian, Williams’ husband, via Twitter.
“I think she embodies that no dream is too big and it doesn’t matter where you come from, or the circumstances. You can do anything if you believe in yourself and you love what you do and have an incredible support system and family around you.” — Tomljanovic, in her interview on the court after her victory.
“We just witnessed the last US Open for the greatest of all time, Serena Williams!! Serena has meant so much to sports, the game of tennis, the world, every little girl, and even more to every little Black girl across the globe.” — Basketball Hall of Famer Magic Johnson, via Twitter.
“Serena, THANK YOU. It is because of you I believe in this dream. The impact you’ve had on me goes beyond any words that can be put together and for that I say thank you, thank you, thank you, GOAT!” — Coco Gauff, via Twitter.
“It’s truly been fun to watch Serena not only change the sport of tennis, but more importantly, how she’s helped empower the next generation. Her tennis accomplishments speak for themselves, but one of the things I admire about her is she simply doesn’t quit. On or off the court.” — Olympic swimming gold medalist Michael Phelps, via Twitter.
“I love you (at)serenawilliams. It’s been the pleasure of a lifetime to watch you become what you have. Can’t wait to see what you do next. Thank you my old friend.” — Tennis Hall of Famer Andy Roddick, via Twitter.
“I feel like I really brought something, and bring something, to tennis. The different looks, the fist pumps, the just crazy intensity. I think that obviously the passion I think is a really good word. Yeah, yeah, just continuing through ups and downs. I could go on and on. But I just honestly am so grateful that I had this moment and that I’m Serena.” — Williams, in her press conference.
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More AP coverage of U.S. Open tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/us-open-tennis-championships and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T12:23:54Z
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NEW YORK (AP) — Leave it to Serena Williams to not want to go quietly, to not want this match, this trip to the U.S. Open, this transcendent career of hers, to really, truly end.
Right down to what were, barring a change of heart, the final minutes of her quarter-century of excellence on the tennis court, and an unbending unwillingness to be told what wasn’t possible, Williams tried to mount one last classic comeback, earn one last vintage victory, with fans on their feet in a full Arthur Ashe Stadium, cellphone cameras at the ready.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion staved off five match points to prolong the three-hours-plus proceedings, but could not do more, and was eliminated from the U.S. Open in the third round by Ajla Tomljanovic 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-1 on Friday night in what is expected to be her final contest.
“I’ve been down before. … I don’t really give up,” Williams said. “In my career, I’ve never given up. In matches, I don’t give up. Definitely wasn’t giving up tonight.”
She turns 41 this month and recently told the world that she is ready to start “evolving” away from her playing days — she expressed distaste for the word “retirement” — and while she remained purposely vague about whether this appearance at Flushing Meadows definitely would represent her last hurrah, everyone assumed it will be.
“It’s been the most incredible ride and journey I’ve ever been on in my life,” Williams said, tears streaming down her cheeks shortly after one final shot landed in the net. “I’m so grateful to every single person that’s ever said, ‘Go, Serena!’ in their life.”
Asked during an on-court interview whether she might reconsider walking away, Williams replied: “I don’t think so, but you never know.”
A little later, pressed on the same topic at her post-match news conference, Williams joked, “I always did love Australia,” the country that hosts the next Grand Slam tournament in January.
With two victories in singles this week, including over the No. 2 player in the world, Anett Kontaveit, on Wednesday, Williams took her fans on a thrill-a-minute throwback trip at the hard-court tournament that was the site of a half-dozen of her championships.
The first came in 1999 in New York, when Williams was a teen. Now she’s married and a mother; her daughter, Olympia, turned 5 on Thursday.
“Clearly, I’m still capable. … (But) I’m ready to be a mom, explore a different version of Serena,” she said. “Technically, in the world, I’m still super young, so I want to have a little bit of a life while I’m still walking.”
With 23,859 of her closest friends cheering raucously again Friday, Williams faltered against Tomljanovic, a 29-year-old Australian who is ranked 46th.
Williams gave away leads in each set, including the last, in which she was up 1-0 before dropping the final six games.
Tomljanovic is unabashedly a fan of Williams, having growing up watching her play on TV.
“I’m feeling really sorry, just because I love Serena just as much as you guys do. And what she’s done for me, for the sport of tennis, is incredible,” said Tomljanovic, who has never been past the quarterfinals at any major. “This is a surreal moment for me.”
Then, drawing laughs, Tomljanovic added: “I just thought she would beat me. … She’s Serena. That’s that’s just who she is: She’s the greatest of all time. Period.”
Asked what she planned to do on the first day of the rest of her life Saturday, Williams said she’d rest, spend time with Olympia and then added: “I’m definitely probably going to be karaoke-ing.”
Her performance with her racket Friday showed grit and featured some terrific serving, but it was not perfect.
On one point in the second set, Williams’ feet got tangled and she fell to the court, dropping her racket. She finished with 51 unforced errors, 21 more than Tomljanovic.
Williams let a 5-3 lead vanish in the first set. She did something similar in the second, giving away edges of 4-0 and 5-2, and requiring five set points to finally put that one in her pocket. From 4-all in the tiebreaker, meaning Williams was three points from defeat, she pounded a 117 mph ace, hit a forehand winner to cap a 20-stroke exchange, then watched Tomljanovic push a forehand long.
Momentum appeared to be on Williams’ side. But she could not pull off the sort of never-admit-defeat triumph she did so often over the years.
“Oh, my God, thank you so much. You guys were amazing today. I tried,” Williams told the audience, hands on her hips, before mentioning, among others, her parents and her older sister, Venus, a seven-time major champion who is 42.
“I wouldn’t be Serena if there wasn’t Venus. So thank you, Venus,” Williams said. “She’s the only reason that Serena Williams ever existed.”
They started in tennis as kids in Compton, California, coached by their father, Richard, who taught himself about the sport after watching on television while a player received a winner’s check. He was the central figure in the Oscar-winning film “King Richard,” produced by his daughters.
The siblings lost together in the first round of doubles on Thursday night, drawing another sellout. And on Friday, as during the younger Williams’ other outings this week, there could be no doubt about which player the paying public favored.
When Tomljanovic broke to go up 6-5 as part of a four-game run to take the opening set, one person in her guest box rose to applaud — and he was pretty much on his own.
Otherwise, folks applauded when Tomljanovic double-faulted, generally considered a faux pas for tennis crowds.
They got loud in the middle of lengthy exchanges, also frowned upon.
They offered sympathetic sounds of “Awwwwww” when Williams flubbed a shot, and leapt out of their seats when she did something they found extraordinary. A rather routine service break was cause for a standing ovation.
Tomljanovic draped a blue-and-white U.S. Open towel over her head at changeovers, shielding herself from the noise and distractions.
“Just really blocked it out as much as I could. It did get to me a few times, internally. I mean, I didn’t take it personally because, I mean, I would be cheering for Serena, too, if I wasn’t playing her,” Tomljanovic said. “But it was definitely not easy.”
After Williams struck a swinging backhand volley winner to take a 4-0 lead in the second set, her play improving with every passing moment, the reaction was earsplitting. Billie Jean King, a Hall of Famer with 39 total Grand Slam titles across singles, doubles and mixed doubles, raised her cellphone to capture the scene.
“You’re everywhere!” yelled Williams’ husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, from a courtside guest box that also contained power couple Ciara and Russell Wilson.
When Williams drove two consecutive forehand winners to lead 5-2 in the second set, she screamed and leaned forward after each.
She could not sustain that level.
Williams entered the night having won 19 times in a row in the U.S. Open’s third round of singles competition, including reaching at least the semifinals in her most recent 11 appearances in New York.
Talk about a full-circle moment: The only other third-round loss she’s ever had at Flushing Meadows (she is 42-0 in the first and second rounds) came in 1998, the year Williams made her tournament debut at age 16.
She would win her first major trophy 12 months later at the U.S. Open. And now she said goodbye in that same stadium.
“It’s been a long time. I’ve been playing tennis my whole life,” Williams said Friday night, after performing one last twirl-and-wave move usually reserved for victories. “It is a little soon, but I’m also happy because, I mean, this is what I wanted, what I want.”
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More AP coverage of U.S. Open tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/us-open-tennis-championships and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T12:24:02Z
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NEW YORK (AP) — Ajla Tomljanovic wanted to beat Serena Williams, of course. Wanted to seize the chance for a big victory, wanted to add to her career highlights, wanted to reach the fourth round of the U.S. Open for the first time.
Still, it was not easy for her to watch as tears rolled down Williams’ cheeks after Tomljanovic won 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-1 in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday night.
“Probably the most conflicted I’ve ever felt after a win. During the match I was so eager to win. I mean, I wanted to win as much as the next person, because I didn’t look at her like, ‘Oh, Serena, her last tournament,’” said Tomljanovic, a 29-year-old Australian who is ranked 46th.
“But then, when it ended, it almost didn’t feel right,” Tomljanovic said. “When she started talking about her family and everything, I got emotional, because I can relate to having a strong bond with your family. When she said that she wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for them, I relate to that a lot. Just the whole moment after was just tough to handle a little bit.”
Give credit to Tomljanovic for keeping her composure during the match, never letting the strokes or aura of Williams get too big.
Tomljanovic did her best work at the baseline, hanging with Williams on long exchanges there and coming up with big groundstrokes against as big a hitter as there’s been. And then there was this: Tomljanovic trailed by at least one break in each set, including at 5-3 in the first, 4-0 and 5-2 in the second and 1-0 in the third.
She needed six match points to close it out, but close it out she did.
“I tried,” Williams said, “but Ajla just played a little bit better.”
Williams, as most everyone knows, is the owner of 23 Grand Slam titles — including six at the U.S. Open alone — and that doesn’t even count women’s doubles or mixed doubles.
Tomljanovic?
She began the evening with a losing record in Grand Slam matches, 28-31. She never had won a third-round match at Flushing Meadows until Friday. She has yet to win so much as one quarterfinal match at any major tournament; her big breakthrough to that round came at Wimbledon last year, when she defeated Emma Raducanu to get there (Raducanu would go on to win the U.S. Open two months later).
Tomljanovic returned to the quarterfinals at the All England Club this July, and now has a chance to get that far in New York if she can beat 35th-ranked Liudmila Samsonova on Sunday.
Might be hard to forget about Friday, though, and all that transpired.
Start with the sellout crowd of 23,859, which was pretty much entirely backing Williams, who turns 41 this month and announced last month she was preparing to retire. Tomljanovic tried to block some of the noise out, even covering her head with a towel during changeovers.
Tomljanovic understood the fervor. Indeed, she apologized to the spectators for her victory — not something you hear every day.
But here is why: She considers herself a fan of Williams, too, and has fond memories of watching the American play in Slam finals on TV.
“What she’s achieved is absolutely incredible. I don’t know if it’s ever going to be repeated while I’m still around,” Tomljanovic said. “I still have years left in me. I want to dream bigger than I have so far, because that’s what she embodies.”
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More AP coverage of U.S. Open tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/us-open-tennis-championships and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T12:24:09Z
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STORRS, Conn. (AP) — Paige Bueckers intends to play basketball in the 2023-24 season for Connecticut after recovering from an ACL injury that’s sidelined her this season.
Speaking on campus for the first time since being hurt, Bueckers was adamant in saying she will not enter the 2023 WNBA Draft and will return to play college ball.
“I’m not leaving. That is not in question,” the 21-year-old Bueckers said Thursday during a media availability. “People asked me, ‘What are you thinking about, fifth year, COVID year, redshirt this year?’ I’m not thinking too far ahead about that at all. But I will be playing college basketball again.”
Bueckers had an injury-marred 2021-22 season. She missed most of the season with tibial plateau fracture and lateral meniscus tear in her left knee. The Minnesota native returned for the NCAA tournament last spring and helped UConn to the title game, which it lost to No 1 South Carolina. In 17 games last season, Bueckers averaged 14.6 points.
Bueckers is expected to miss the upcoming season after she injured the same knee in a pickup game in early August. The national player of the year as a freshman had surgery four days later.
“I was going full speed and I sort of tried to come to a stop and there was some contact, not a lot of contact, but it just kind of gave out,” Bueckers said. “I knew it was bad. I felt a pop. And then I went to the training room and I was extremely frustrated. I didn’t know how serious it was, but I knew something was wrong.”
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More AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
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| 2022-09-21T12:24:17Z
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Titans placed Pro Bowl linebacker Harold Landry III on injured reserve Friday.
The Titans did not cite a reason for Landry going on IR. A person with direct knowledge of the injury confirmed reports that Landry tore an ACL in practice Wednesday. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the Titans have not commented on the nature of Landry’s injury.
Tennessee also claimed outside linebacker Derrek Tuszka on Friday. The 6-foot-4, 251-pound Tuska has played in 24 games combined with Denver in 2020 and Pittsburgh in 2021. He had two sacks and a forced fumble with the Steelers last season.
Tennessee also placed wide receiver Racey McMath on injured reserve Thursday. The Titans placed 26 on injured reserve last season and used an NFL-record 91 different players, most in a non-strike season. The NFL changed the rules this offseason to allow only eight players to return from injured reserve to the roster.
Landry was coming off the best year of his career with 12 sacks, earning his first Pro Bowl nod. The 41st overall pick in the 2018 draft out of Boston College was rewarded with a five-year extension worth up to $87.5 million with $52.5 million guaranteed.
The 26-year-old Landry helped the Titans tie for ninth last season with 43 sacks. Tennessee was the only NFL team with at least three different players with at least eight sacks. Landry had started every game for three straight seasons.
Landry ranked 10th in the NFL with his 12 sacks. He has a team-high 31 sacks over the past four seasons. Landry’s total is the second-most for this franchise over his first four seasons since 1982 when individual sacks became an official NFL statistic.
The reigning AFC South champs open the season Sept. 11 against the visiting New York Giants.
The loss of Landry is a big blow, but the Titans have outside linebacker Bud Dupree on the other side. He got his own big deal in March 2021.
Dupree said in June that he spent the 2021 season recovering from the torn ACL he injured in December 2020 and didn’t feel like himself until the Titans’ divisional playoff loss, when they had nine sacks.
Tennessee also has linebacker Rashad Weaver, who broke a leg in the third game last season. He was the Titans’ fourth-round pick in 2021 out of Pittsburgh, where he was a consensus All-American.
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More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
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| 2022-09-21T12:24:40Z
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BOLTON, Mass. (AP) — Matthew Wolff became a footnote in LIV Golf history with the first hole-in-one, an ace that carried him to a 7-under 63 and a one-shot lead over a pair of newcomers Friday in the LIV Golf Invitational-Boston.
One of those newcomers was British Open champion Cameron Smith, among six players who recently joined the Saudi-funded league. Smith broke a wedge with a shot from behind a tree that allowed him to save par, and he finished with a 45-foot eagle putt for a 64.
Joaquin Niemann of Chile, who also signed with Greg Norman’s league after he finished his PGA Tour season at the Tour Championship, and Talor Gooch also were at 64.
“I’m having a blast out there — my first day at the office,” Niemann said.
Smith and Niemann highlighted the batch of newcomers that included Anirban Lahiri (66), Harold Varner III (67), Marc Leishman (70) and Cameron Tringale (71).
“This is a new kind of chapter in my life. I think this is the future of golf,” Smith said earlier in the week. “I love how it is out here. It’s a little bit more laid back on the range, the music playing. I love that stuff.”
He also cited a smaller schedule that will allow him to get home to Australia more often in leaving the PGA Tour after a three-win year that elevated him to No. 2 in the world.
Smith was solid at the start and finish with a few errant drives in the middle. One was on the 16th hole when he pulled his driver into the trees. The ball was next to the trunk, and Smith was allowed relief because his feet from playing it left-handed — his only sensible play — were on the cart path.
After the drop, he tried to hood a gap wedge (right-handed) and the club smacked against the tree near the bottom of the shaft. The ball rolled just through the green and he saved par.
“You know you’re doing to lose a club but it’s probably worth one or two shots,” he said.
The only surprise was his group. Smith started on No. 1 with Dustin Johnson and Shergo Al Kurdi, the English-born Jordanian who earlier this year signed with Golf Saudi.
Al Kurdi was a late replacement for Henrik Stenson, who won in his LIV debut last month in New Jersey but had to withdraw because of vertigo. Al Kurdi opened with a 71.
Wolff made his ace on the 178-yard second hole, his fifth of the round. The ball took one-hop and disappeared into the cup for the first ace in the fourth LIV Golf Invitational series. The former Oklahoma State star had another eagle on the par-5 12th hole to go along with six birdies. Those offset three bogeys and was enough for him to take the lead.
Lahiri and Louis Oosthuizen were in the group at 66, while Dustin Johnson was at 67. Johnson has finished in the top 10 in the previous LIV events, though he has yet to win.
Only 12 players from the 48-man field failed to post par or better at The International, located about 45 minutes west of Boston. That included Phil Mickelson, who had a 74.
Former U.S. Amateur champion James Piot had a 78, but the rough day belonged to Sihwan Kim. Along with four double bogeys, Kim took a 10 on the 16th hole and shot 87.
___
More AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T12:24:48Z
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The chance of rain will continue through the Labor Day weekend but it will gradually decrease. Our next best chance of rain may hold off until the middle of next week. Daytime temperatures will likely stay below normal through all of next week.
Rain chances remain but look lower: Scattered showers and thunderstorms returned to the ArkLaTex Friday and it appears that we will continue to see lots of clouds and some rain through the Labor Day weekend. The latest runs of models including Futurecast show that the scattered showers and thunderstorms that we have seen develop Friday will likely end Friday night. If you are headed to an area high school football game this evening, I would take rain protection just to be on the safe side even though rain chances will decrease during the evening. We will see a mostly cloudy sky Saturday with scattered showers and thunderstorms redeveloping mainly during the afternoon. The rain should be much more scattered than what we have seen over the past few days. Futurecast shows the best chances will be over the southern half of the area. That rain will end Saturday evening with a mostly cloudy sky Saturday night. We will likely stay mostly cloudy on both Sunday and Labor Day with a continued chance for a brief shower or thunderstorm.
How much weekend rain? Futurecast shows that rainfall totals will likely not be as high as they have been recently for most of the area. It is still possible that we could see some scattered pockets of one to two inches. If Futurecast is correct, the chance of seeing that much rain in your rain gauge will be highest over the southern third of the area. Most locations will see totals of ¼” or less.
Temperatures to stay below normal: Despite less coverage in the heavier rains, we will continue to see lots of clouds this weekend and all of next week. Consequently, daytime temperatures will likely stay below normal for this time of year. Expect highs this weekend and all of next week to be in the mid to upper 80s. A few low 90s will be possible during days when rain is more scarce. Overnight lows will likely be in the lower 70s.
Ten-day rain? Models have been trending towards a drier outlook since yesterday. It now appears that average rain totals around the area will be around one inch in the next ten days. Once again it appears that we will see a wide range of rain totals with some areas receiving less than ½” and other receiving two to three inches.
Get daily forecasts and exclusive severe weather details on storms as they approach your area by downloading the Arklatex Weather Authority app now available in the App Store and Google Play
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| 2022-09-21T12:24:55Z
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MIAMI (AP) — Tropical Storm Danielle strengthened into a hurricane Friday morning — the first of an unusually quiet storm season.
The storm is not currently a threat to any land.
The storm’s maximum sustained winds were clocked at 75 mph (120 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
The storm is centered about 885 miles (1,425 kilometers) west of the Azores and is drifting west at about 1 mph (about 2 kph). The hurricane center said the storm is expected to meander in the Atlantic over the next few days.
The tropical storm comes amid what had been a calm hurricane season. It is the first time since 1941 that the Atlantic has gone from July 3 to the end of August with no named storm, Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach had told The Associated Press earlier.
There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect.
In the north Pacific, Tropical Storm Javier formed overnight. Forecasters said that late Thursday it was 210 miles (338 kilometers) southwest of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (72 kph).
Javier is moving northwest at 9 mph (about 14 kph).
There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect.
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| 2022-09-21T12:25:03Z
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The 2023 Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV will start at $105,550, including destination, and will deliver a maximum estimated range of 305 miles when it arrives at U.S. dealerships this fall.
Both figures apply to the base EQS 450+ version, which uses a single motor that sends 355 hp and 419 lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels. Dual-motor all-wheel-drive EQS 450 4Matic and EQS 580 4Matic models will also be available, both with an estimated 285 miles of range.
The EQS 450 4Matic starts at $108,550 with destination, but Mercedes hasn’t confirmed output figures for this model, which wasn’t mentioned for the U.S. when the EQS SUV was shown earlier this year. The EQS 580 4Matic has a $127,100 base price and is rated at 536 hp and 633 lb-ft of torque. Acceleration and top speed figures haven’t been released.
As with other recent Mercedes models, the EQS SUV will also be available in multiple trim levels. The base Premium trim includes leather upholstery, heated and cooled front seats, a panoramic roof, 20-inch wheels (21-inch on the EQS 580 4Matic), a Burmester audio system, rear-axle steering, 64-color ambient lighting, and a surround-view camera system, among other features. EQS 580 4Matic models also get the 56-inch MBUX Hyperscreen display as standard equipment.
For $4,250 more, the mid-level Exclusive trim adds features such as a head-up display, massaging front seats, four-zone automatic climate control, Mercedes-Benz logo projectors, and an in-car perfume spritzer.
Commanding an addition $2,000 price premium over the Exclusive, the top Pinnacle trim level adds “executive” second-row seating with an armrest and wireless phone charging between the seats, as well as “comfort” rear headrests and a rear tablet interface.
Customers also get two years of Mercedes Me Charge, which allows for streamlined charging payments through the Mercedes Me app, with unlimited free 30-minute DC fast-charging sessions at Electrify America stations for two years from the activation of a Mercedes Me account.
The EQS SUV will be assembled at Mercedes’ Tuscaloosa, Alabama, factory, with batteries manufactured at a nearby factory in Bibb County, Alabama. The Tuscaloosa factory will also build the EQE SUV, which is scheduled to be unveiled Oct. 16.
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- Audi RS Q E-Tron E2 rally car evolves for Dakar
- BMW XM super SUV likely revealed in patent drawings
- Toyota commits additional $2.5B for new US battery plant
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| 2022-09-21T12:26:49Z
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Why People Are Not Getting Better at Recognizing Masked Faces
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The other day, I felt a small tinge of disappointment when a business owner couldn’t recognize me — a loyal, long-term customer who had been visiting his savory shop since childhood. At one point, he even knew exactly which product I was there to buy, and the special request I’d always make for it. “How could he possibly have forgotten my face?” I asked my partner. He pointed out that I was wearing a mask; a fact I’d totally overlooked now made complete sense.
In 2020, science journalist Elizabeth Preston had written in The New York Times: “In an era of face masks, we’re all a little more face blind.”
One would assume that constantly witnessing covered faces would change our ability to recognize them better — that, arguably, after more than two-and-a-half years of co-existing with the once novel coronavirus, people should have been able to circumvent, or gotten accustomed, to this blindness of sorts.
Yet, it is as hard as ever to recognize people behind masks. Published last week in the journal Psychological Science, a new study explains why.
“Neither time nor experience with masked faces changed or improved the face mask effect. This tells us that the adult brain [does] not seem to have the ability to change how it processes faces, even when presented with masked faces over an extended period of time,” concluded its lead author Erez Freud, an assistant professor in the psychology department at York University’s Faculty of Health. Explaining further, Freud noted, “[F]ace processing in humans, at least in adults, is rigid even after prolonged real-life exposure to partially covered faces.”
Related on The Swaddle:
Why We See ‘Human Faces’ in Objects Sometimes
An earlier study, published in Scientific Reports in December 2020, found that the adult participants’ experienced a 15% reduction in their ability to recognize faces that were partially covered by masks.
To confirm whether the struggle persists, the researchers behind the present study tested the facial recognition abilities of more than 2,000 participants through a series of assessments. Then, they tested the same group of participants twice with a gap of 12 months in between, to see if repeated, long-term exposure to masked faces made a difference. There was no improvement, they noticed.
With masking not entirely being a thing of the past yet, the inability of the human brain to improve its facial recognition skills is concerning. “We use face recognition in every aspect of our social interaction. This is something very fundamental to our perception. And suddenly, faces do not look the same,” Freud had told Preston earlier.
However, not everyone might be equally unskilled at recognizing masked faces. Past research suggests that the culture one grew up in might also impact how one’s ability to recognize faces fares — for instance, compared to participants from the U.K., participants from Egypt were better at recognizing faces covered by headscarves. Called the “headscarf effect,” the disparity in performance between Egyptian and British participants suggests that as a result of being exposed to a large number of women wearing headscarves as part of their culture, the former set of people may have evolved a better skillset to recognize masked faces.
Preston, then, asked Katsumi Watanabe, a cognitive scientist from Tokyo, whether people in Asian countries who were used to seeing their countrypeople wearing protective masks much before Covid19 hit the world, might also be more skilled at recognizing masked faces. Watanabe noted, “It is indeed an interesting point… Western Caucasian people tend to decode facial expressions based on the mouth region, while Eastern Asian tend to use the information from the eye region.”
Related on The Swaddle:
Why Some People Struggle To Recognize Faces
However, neither the research on Egyptians nor Watanabe’s observation about East Asians necessarily suggest that people’s ability to recognize faces hidden behind masks improves with greater exposure over time. What it does suggest is that those who have grown up in cultures where people around them often tend to cover their faces, might have developed patterns to focus on features like the eyes, the nose bridge, or the shape of one’s eyebrows to recognize people.
That could mean there is hope yet for people from other cultures, who are only now getting used to seeing masked faces around them. But is this something an adult human brain can at all develop, or must one have subconsciously devised alternate focal points since childhood? The answer to that continues to remain elusive.
The answer to that continues to remain elusive. “[W]ould children become better at recognizing masked faces as they gained more experience with such faces? This seems likely because previous research found that children’s brains are more adaptable and that experience can shape their visual abilities,” notes a piece on The Conversation co-authored by Freud and Shayna Rosenbaum, a neuropsychologist and cognitive neuroscientist.
“Sensitivity to faces appears early in life… Despite this early sensitivity, face perception develops slowly, and some studies suggest that this ability is not fully matured even in teenagers.”
Perhaps, the reason adults in the present study showed no improvement in their facial recognition abilities was because their brains had matured fully, and weren’t as malleable as that of children. It’s only future research that can shed more light on the subject.
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| 2022-09-21T12:26:54Z
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The 2023 Nissan Kicks small crossover carries over unchanged into the new year except for a $300 price increase, Nissan announced Wednesday.
More mainstream than the Nissan Juke and more practical and better equipped than the Nissan Versa, the Kicks is Nissan’s second most popular crossover SUV. It’s also the second most affordable Nissan behind the Versa, which sells at about one-fifth of the volume of the Kicks.
For 2023, the well-equipped Kicks S costs $21,585, including a $1,295 destination fee. It comes with 16-inch wheels, keyless start, a 7.0-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and three USB ports.
Standard across the Kicks lineup are driver-assist features such as automatic emergency braking, blind-spot monitors, and automatic high beams. In addition to those standard safety features, each Kicks is powered by a 122-hp 1.6-liter inline-4 paired with a CVT and front-wheel drive. It’s meant for efficiency more than power, and earns an EPA-rated 33 mpg combined.
For $23,445, the 2023 Nissan Kicks SV adds 17-inch alloy wheels, an 8.0-inch touchscreen, and adaptive cruise control.
The top SR grade paints the roof rails black and adds other dark trim elements, as well as LED headlights and fog lights, a leather-wrapped steering wheel, and a surround-view camera system. It costs $24,145, which is about half of the record new car prices shoppers are paying today.
A premium package adds Bose sound, heated front seats and steering wheel, synthetic leather upholstery, and a wi-fi hotspot.
Nissan’s smallest crossover SUV launched in 2018 and might see more interest now that the Nissan Rogue Sport has been discontinued.
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- Nissan discontinues Rogue Sport small crossover
- Genesis prices 2023 G80 electric car at $81,000, expands EVs to more states
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| 2022-09-21T12:26:57Z
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The CHF is the strongest and the EUR is the weakest as the NA session begins. The CHF is gettting some kick to the upside from flight to safety flows o n the news of Putin's calling of the reserves (first time since WWII) as his plans for Ukraine remain unchanged. Read Adam's post here for some background on the Russian leader and his thinking. The SNB is also in play this week with a hike of 75 or 100 basis points tomorrow. The US Fed will preempt the SNB (and BOE and BOJ as well who announce their decisions tomorrow) with a likely hike of 75 basis points today at 2 PM with the focus shifting to the terminal expectations, the inflation and growth trajectories from the central tendencies and of course the chairs press conference. Coming off the Jackson Hole speech just a few weeks ago, it is harder to see a major shift away from the "kill at all cost inflation" theme. The US dollar is higher and behind the CHF as the next strongest of the major currencies.
Despite the news past and future, yields are a bit lower today after the 2 year pushed the 4% level yesterday and the 10 year the 3.60% level. The US stocks are also higher after ups and downs in pre-open trading.
A look at the markets shows:
- Spot gold is trading up $10.59 or 0.64% at $1675
- Spot silver is up $0.30 or 1.54% at $19.53
- WTI crude oil (November) is trading at $86 which is up $2.06 or 2.45%
- Bitcoin is trading at $19,162. That is up from a low of $18,800. The high price today has so far reached $19,203
In the premarket for US stocks, the major indices are higher after declines yesterday saw each fall around -1.0%
- Dow industrial average is up 134.77 points after yesterdays -313.45 point decline
- S&P index is up 14 points 4 points after yesterdays -43.94 point decline
- NASDAQ index is up 25 points after yesterdays -109.97 point decline
In the European equity markets,, the major indices have reversed earlier declines in trade marginally higher:
- German DAX, +0.05%
- France's CAC +0.16%
- UK's FTSE 100 +0.7%
- Spain's Ibex unchanged
- Italy's FTSE MIB +0.7%
In the US debt market, yields are lower with the 10 year back down to 3.536% after pushing the 3.6% level yesterday. The 2 year is just off the 4% level 3.950%:
in the European debt market, the yields are also trading to the downside. The German 10 year yield reached a cycle high of 1.954%, which briefly took out the high from June at 1.926%. The current yield is at 1.893%. The German 10 year yield reached the highest level since January 2014.
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| 2022-09-21T12:27:00Z
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Volkswagen on Thursday announced a special edition Golf R commemorating 20 years of the all-wheel-drive hot hatchback. The aptly named 2023 VW Golf R 20th Anniversary Edition goes on sale in the U.S. this fall, with a planned production run of about 1,800 units.
Marking the anniversary of the 2002 European launch of the Golf R’s predecessor, the R32, the 20th Anniversary Edition deletes the sunroof that’s standard on other Golf R models. This removes some weight from the car’s highest point, to lower the center of gravity.
Other exterior changes include a gloss black finish for the 19-inch wheels, which are wrapped in the same 235/35 summer tires as the standard Golf R, “20 R” puddle lights, and a smattering of blue-finished “R” logos.
The 20th Anniversary Edition is available in Lapiz Blue Metallic, Deep Black Pearl, and Pure White. For a bit of contrast, the mirror caps are finished in Lapiz Blue on Deep Black Pearl and Pure White cars, and gloss black on Lapiz Blue cars.
The interior adds carbon-fiber trim pieces for the dashboard and front door panels—the first time this has been done in a production VW. The steering wheel and key fob get “R” logos as well.
The special edition is mechanically unchanged, keeping the EA888 2.0-liter turbo-4 from the standard Mk8 Golf R, with output unchanged at 315 hp and 310 lb-ft of torque. Europe is getting a special Golf R with slightly more power, but only the U.S.-market 20th Anniversary Edition will be available with a 6-speed manual transmission (a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic is also available).
Prices start at $46,035 with the manual gearbox and $46,835 with the dual-clutch transmission (all prices include destination), an increase of $650 over the standard Golf R with either transmission.
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| 2022-09-21T12:27:04Z
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A new evolution of the Audi RS Q E-Tron rally car is heading to the 2023 Dakar Rally.
Now bearing the suffix E2 in reference to Audi’s Group B rally cars of the 1980s, the RS Q E-Tron gets redesigned bodywork, tweaks to optimize energy efficiency, and some ergonomic upgrades, Audi said Thursday in a press release.
“The Audi RS Q E-Tron E2 does not adopt a single body part from its predecessor,” Axel Löffler, the car’s chief designer, said in a statement. The cockpit has been widened, and exterior panels were redesigned to improve aerodynamics. The front fenders now sit up and away from the body instead of blending into the doors, and the body itself has a new shape similar to a boat’s hull. These changes reduce the coefficient of drag by 15%, and should also make tire changes easier, Audi claims.
Revised class rules have raised the minimum weight from 4,409 lb to 4,629 lb, but since the previous RS Q E-Tron was overweight, engineers still aimed for weight reduction. The new front fenders helped with that, as did changes to the rear hood that did away with some air ducting. Changes to the carbon-fiber lay-up of the body panels further reduced weight, according to Audi.
Like the original version, the RS Q E-Tron E2 is powered by one electric motor per axle, with an internal-combustion engine acting as a generator. But, having noted short-term surpluses of energy while racing, Audi changed the energy management software to wring more efficiency out of the powertrain.
The air conditioning system was also tweaked to run more efficiently. Audi found that it was running so often that coolant was actually freezing, so it’s been dialed back to an intermittent mode. The revised system uses less energy while still keeping the cockpit cool.
As before, the cockpit has multiple display screens and a panel with 24 switches. But to lessen confusion, engineers added a rotary knob with four settings—Stage, Road, Error, and Settings—that cover the most important functions.
The Audi RS Q E-Tron E2 will make its competition debut at the 2022 Morocco Rally, scheduled for Oct. 1-6, with three driver pairings: Mattias Ekström/Emil Bergkvist, Stéphane Peterhansel/Edouard Boulanger, and Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz. The Moroccan event will serve as preparation for the 2023 Dakar Rally, scheduled to start on New Year’s Eve in Saudi Arabia.
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- Ariel Hipercar revealed as 1,180-hp EV with gas turbine range extender
- Rivian CEO previews new Camp Mode designed to automatically level vehicle at campsite
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| 2022-09-21T12:27:19Z
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Bosch on Wednesday announced a $200 million investment to build hydrogen fuel-cell stacks for Class 8 semi trucks at its Anderson, South Carolina, facility.
Production is scheduled to start in 2026, and work has already begun on upgrades that include adding an estimated 147,000 square feet of floor space for fuel-cell manufacturing and related operations, Bosch said in a press release.
Bosch is an investor in Nikola, and the once-troubled fuel-cell vehicle company plans to use its fuel-cell tech. The Nikola Tre semi recently completed a testing program with Anheuser-Busch in California, in which prototype trucks logged over 12,000 miles and hauled two million pounds of freight, the release noted, adding that Nikola is continuing pilot testing with Total Transportation Services Inc.
Nikola plans to assemble production versions of the Tre at its own Arizona factory, but it’s also contracting with truck maker IVECO to have vehicles assembled at that firm’s German factory. Nikola had been favoring General Motors as the supplier for hydrogen fuel-cell hardware in North America, with Bosch for Europe. GM had also been slated to build Nikola’s Badger fuel-cell pickup.
That all changed when founder Trevor Milton was charged with securities fraud, and a broad memorandum of understanding between the companies was replaced by a far more limited partnership.
Although fuel cells are shifting to trucks, rather than passenger vehicles, Bosch might provide U.S.-built fuel cells to other truckmakers. It added fuel cells to its portfolio as part of a broad shift in the shadow of the VW diesel scandal that involved the supplier’s complicity in emissions “defeat devices,” and now plans to invest $1 billion in fuel-cell tech by 2024.
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- Report: Hyundai has delayed the next generation of Nexo fuel-cell vehicle
- Volvo fuel-cell semi: 600 miles, 15-minute refueling with green hydrogen still not widely available
- Renault Scénic Vision EV concept: Fuel-cell range extender enables smaller, lighter battery
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| 2022-09-21T12:27:40Z
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Ford is issuing another recall encompassing nearly 200,000 full-size SUVs. A defective motor blower can spark a fire originating from under the glovebox on the passenger side of the cabin, the automaker disclosed to the NHTSA this week.
The recall affects 198,482 Ford Expeditions and Lincoln Navigators from the 2015-2017 model years. The bulk of the recall population pertains to the Expedition, with 35,229 Navigators affected. The recalled vehicles were built between January 2014 and June 2017.
The blower motor, or fan, that sends heated or cooled air through the dash vents may be defective and could cause a fire in the cabin while the SUVs are running. Owners have complained of a malfunctioning blower, melted wiring harnesses, and fires under the dash. Ford acknowledged 25 fire allegations, with about half of the claims localized to the motor and the remaining 12 to more extensive damage inside the cabin, including damage to property and nearby vehicles.
Owners may notice an inoperative fan, a burning smell, or smoke issuing from the vents when the SUV is on. They’re asked to take their vehicles to a Ford or Lincoln dealer to have the blower motor replaced, and it may need to be replaced again later once the remedy part is available. There will be no charge to owners and reimbursement will be provided to owners who have had the work completed already.
This is the second time in as many months the Expedition and Navigator have been recalled for an increased fire risk. In July, Ford expanded the recall of its 2021 full-size SUVs for an electrical short in the cooling fan circuit that could cause an engine fire.
The current recall marks the third one issued this week by Ford. The company leads all automakers with 52 recalls issued so far in 2022, according to Automotive News.
Owners can expect notification by mail of the blower motor recall as early as Sept. 12. For more information, contact Ford customer service at 1-866-436-7332 or visit Ford’s recall page.
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- 2023 Kia Sportage crossover SUV qualifies for Top Safety Pick status
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| 2022-09-21T12:27:47Z
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Germany’s Sono Motors confirmed on Thursday that it has 20,000 direct consumer reservations for its upcoming Sion solar-supplemented EV that, if you don’t drive much, might seldom if ever cost you anything to “fuel.”
Sono says that the Sion, which is due to be produced by Valmet Automotive in Finland starting in the second half of 2023, has the potential to be the world’s first solar electric vehicle “for the masses.”
Its price fits that billing. The Sion costs 29,900 euros ($29,700), and the company notes that after subsidies in its home market its “net sales price point” is just 25,126 euros ($25,000). The company plans to build 257,000 of them over a seven-year period.
In July, Sono revealed the production-ready Sion. Versus previous prototypes, it has revised exterior and interior styling, and the headlights, taillights, door handles, and rear fascia are new, as is the charge port. Inside, the seats and steering wheel were swapped for different designs, and the interior was reconfigured for more space.
In production form, the Sion will be able to add an average of 70 miles of range per week from its 456 solar half-cells, or 152 miles in ideal conditions, charging up its 54-kwh lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery pack to 190 miles of range, potentially. The Sion also has 75-kw DC fast charging and can function as a home power bank with 11-kw AC bidirectional capability.
The Sion isn’t the only car incorporating solar. But the Sion is noteworthy for being the only production model, aiming for mass production, that uses every body panel for solar energy. It will also be one of the first to do it while selling in volume.
By 2025, the Netherlands-based company Lightyear plans to expand beyond its expensive Lightyear 0 niche model, with a Lightyear Two. Aptera is claiming up to 1,000 miles of range in its “never-charge” three-wheeler, which won’t actually be considered a car.
There are also more upcoming affordable models claiming to incorporate a solar roof—the Fisker Pear EV, for instance.
The Sion is of note as it takes on a format that mainstream automakers have balked about producing: an affordable urban EV, with solar supplementation, with a tall body and spacious cabin that might make it perfect for ride-hailing.
In the U.S., affordable EV options are limited, and the lower-priced EVs are hardly technology leaders. Perhaps, with the supply chain changes prompted by the revamped EV tax credit, this may change. If no other company steps up, it’s possible a later version or model from Sono might work Stateside, although Sono told Green Car Reports in 2019 that to save development costs the initial car was designed entirely for Europe.
Sono could expand its reach in the commercial sector more easily, though. In July, Sono announced its Solar Bus Kit, which is “a standardized, scalable retrofit solution for diesel buses.” Then later this month, at the IAA Transportation show in Hanover, Germany, it’s due to detail this tech and show several more solar-integrated prototypes, including refrigerated trailers, e-buses, and e-transporters.
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- 2022 is the year of the 300-mile EV, EPA data highlights
- Rivian electric trucks will automatically level with new Camp Mode feature
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| 2022-09-21T12:27:55Z
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WEST BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD)- Local teens can win big by entering the statewide ‘Thrive to Survive the Drive’ video contest during the month of September.
The purpose of the contest is to encourage young drivers to make better driving decisions and encourage others to do the same.
Contest participants must create and submit a video containing a driving safety message.
Officials say the content must be between 30 seconds and two minutes in length, and it cannot contain any offensive language or dangerous content.
The contest is only open to Louisiana students in sixth through 12th grade, and winners will receive a variety of prizes, which are listed below:
Sixth-Eighth Grade Prizes
- First Place: $750
- Second Place: $500
- Third Place: $250
Ninth Grade-12th Grade Prizes
- First Place: $750
- Second Place: $500
- Third Place: $250
To enter, teens must complete and submit the following items:
- Entry Form
- Contest Release Form
- Photo Release Form
- Video
The aforementioned items can be found HERE.
Officials say the contest closes on Sept. 30.
Click here for additional information.
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| 2022-09-21T12:28:10Z
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actor Anne Heche died without a will, and her 20-year-old son has filed court papers to control her estate.
Homer Laffoon, Heche’s son with ex-husband Coleman Laffoon, filed a petition in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday requesting that he be allowed to administer his mother’s estate.
The petition lists Homer Laffoon and 13-year-old Atlas Tupper, Heche’s son with former partner James Tupper, as her only heirs.
The document says the value of Heche’s estate is unknown. That is often the case on such initial filings, before anyone has the legal authority to assess the dead person’s assets.
Homer Laffoon also filed a petition asking that someone be appointed to represent his brother’s interests in court.
A representative of Heche declined comment on the filing.
On Aug. 5, a car Heche was driving jumped a curb, smashed into a Los Angeles home and burst into flames. She was declared brain dead on Aug. 11, and was kept alive on life support for three more days so her organs could be donated.
Heche, 53, was among the biggest film stars of the late 1990s, starring opposite actors including Johnny Depp and Harrison Ford, and had worked consistently in movies and television for more than three decades.
She was married to Coleman Laffoon, a television camera operator, from 2001 to 2009, and was in a relationship with James Tupper, an actor, from 2007 to 2018. She had a son with each.
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| 2022-09-21T12:28:26Z
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Site sale would see 1960s Edinburgh office block converted into 150-plus flats
Plans to convert an empty 1960s office building in Edinburgh’s west end into more than 150 flats have taken a step forward.
The “prime residential development site” on Orchard Brae has been brought to market by Lismore Real Estate Advisors and Scarlett Land and Development, on behalf of Square and Crescent.
The Finance House development site extends to two acres and is said to benefit from “minded to grant” council planning consent for 151 apartments. It also offers build to rent (BTR) “potential” for 172 apartments, subject to planning consent.
The main building was constructed in 1968 for finance provider Lloyds Bowmaker, spread over eight storeys, with a large five-storey extension added in 1978. It has been lying vacant since late 2018.
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Developers noted that the 1960s building, which is almost entirely of concrete frame construction, would be retained and converted into 86 apartments, while the 1970s building will be demolished and replaced with a new build block, containing 65 residential apartments, ranging in height from three to five storeys.
The proposed development would also feature 3,000 square feet of office/coworking space on the ground floor, and 23,000 sq ft of private and communal external amenity spaces. With vehicle access from Learmonth Gardens, the site would have 32 car parking spaces plus 380 bike spaces.
The development is designed to be “net zero ready”, featuring the likes of air source heat pumps to provide heating and domestic hot water throughout.
Colin Finlayson, director of Lismore Real Estate Advisors, said: “Few UK cities can match the performance of Edinburgh’s private residential market, which has a proven history of growth and resilience, due to a combination of constrained supply and strong demand.
“This development opportunity has so much to offer and is ideally placed in Edinburgh’s highly desirable west end. It will be a real draw and we anticipate strong interest from potential developers, as well as institutional investors seeking exposure to the Edinburgh residential market.”
Will Scarlett, founder and director of Scarlett Land and Development, added: “Large-scale prime residential sites with planning consent rarely come to the market in Edinburgh. Not only does Finance House benefit from minded to grant planning for 151 apartments, it is also net zero ready - all electric (air source heat pumps) and uses no fossil fuels.
“The opportunity also exists at Finance House for a BTR scheme of 172 units within the same massing in a city that boasts some or the strongest fundamentals in the UK, yet lags other regional cities in terms of supply due to multiple constraints.”
Lismore Real Estate Advisors and Scarlett Land and Development are selling agents for Finance House and the architect is Morgan Architects.
Edinburgh-based Scarlett Land and Development offers consultancy advice in relation to the acquisition and sale of residential land and development, build to rent, residential investment and purpose built student accommodation.
Square and Crescent is a developer, with a primary focus on the acquisition, development and refurbishment of residential property. The company was founded in 2013.
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| 2022-09-21T12:28:28Z
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Sports betting firm FanDuel returns to Scots roots with new hi-tech Edinburgh facility that can accommodate 500 people
FanDuel, which says it is the top online gaming company in North America, is getting back to its Edinburgh roots with the launch of its debut UK Collaboration Hub in the city, saying the space can accommodate 550 people, while the firm aims to create hundreds of skilled jobs this year.
The business, known for its offering in sports betting, says the new facility is designed to foster cross-discipline working and drive project innovation, connecting colleagues across the UK as part of its focus on collective working and co-operation.
FanDuel also says the move reinforces its commitment to and investment in its people, and the new site is open to staff across the UK and those visiting from the US. The Hub is intended to bring together skilled project teams across the UK tech, engineering, product and user-experience communities as the sports-tech company seeks to create 250 engineering jobs this year in support of its mobile sportsbook, casino, and racing platforms.
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It added that it is enjoying a period of “extraordinary” growth, and its parent company, the FTSE100 gambling giant Flutter, “recently reported earnings driven by FanDuel’s performance”. This included $750 million (£662m) in revenue in the second quarter, which helped the company become the first online operator to record a profit in the US, according to FanDuel. The latter added that it now enjoys a 51 per cent market share, requiring new investment in talent to support and grow the business in the UK Collaboration Hub.
The space is located on Freer Street in the Scottish capital’s Fountainbridge area, and is billed as including state-of-the-art equipment, multiple break-out areas, and meeting areas titled after some of Scotland’s iconic sports stars. Spanning three floors, the bespoke fit-out is designed to encourage “easy and inclusive” working, and also includes a gaming area, pool table, consoles, rooftop garden, acoustic and well-being pods.
Mathew Taylor, FanDuel vice president of software engineering, said: “We believe a collaborative approach is the best way to drive results and truly innovate when it comes to product delivery.
“The official launch of our new Collaboration Hub today signals an exciting new chapter in the FanDuel story that will proactively bring together the best talent from across the country to innovate and excel in this dedicated creative space.
World-class
“The continued boom of the UK and Scottish tech sector is undisputed, and we wanted to create a new world-class environment to match our world-class engineering teams. Investing in our people is key and the Collaboration Hub helps us continue to recruit, develop and support our colleagues as we further grow our UK employee base.”
FanDuel was founded in Scotland in 2009, and grew to become a “unicorn” – a privately-owned start-up tech company with a valuation in excess of $1 billion. Flutter Entertainment – which claims to be the world's largest sports betting and gaming operator – took a majority share in 2020.
The FanDuel Group says it now has about 17 million customers, and is based in New York with offices in California, New Jersey, Florida, Oregon and Georgia as well as Scotland.
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| 2022-09-21T12:28:33Z
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CHERRY HILL, N.J. (AP) — Authorities in New Jersey released video and documents related to sexual offense charges filed against actor Gary Busey, who is accused of inappropriately touching at least three women at a horror movie convention earlier this month.
The documentation released Wednesday by Cherry Hill police was heavily redacted and revealed no major new details regarding the allegations. Most of the police bodycam videos and witness interview videos are also blurred and contain no audio.
Busey, 78, faces charges of fourth-degree criminal sexual contact, attempted criminal sexual contact and harassment. He maintains his innocence. The charges stem from alleged actions Aug. 12-14 at the Monster Mania Convention at the Doubletree Hotel in the southern Jersey town, which is a suburb of Philadelphia.
Busey, who lives in Malibu, California, was scheduled as a featured guest for the three-day event. However, the company running the convention said he was removed from the event when it received a complaint from attendees.
Busey is widely known as a character actor, largely in supporting roles, though he came to attention and was nominated for an Oscar for best actor for playing the title role in the 1978 film “The Buddy Holly Story.”
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| 2022-09-21T12:28:33Z
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Dogs For Singletons 2022: These are the 10 perfect breeds of adorable dog for owners who live alone - including the loving French Bulldog 🐕
With demand for dogs continuing to soar post-lockdown, here are the pups that make perfect companions for people who live alone.
The last few years have seen many of us welcome a new four-legged friend into our homes, as the Kennel Club saw dog ownership soar – with a record number of new owners in 2021.
But with 221 different breeds of pedigree dog to choose from, there’s plenty of thinking to do before you select your perfect pup – whether you want a large dog, family-friendly dog, or crossbreed.
While every person has different needs, for budding dog owners who live by themselves it can be worth looking for a dog with a particular range of attributes.
Breeds that form a particularly strong and protective bond with one person, that can be left alone for a few hours, and who don’t need constant stimlulation, are perfect companions for solo dwellers.
Here are 10 of the breeds that tick all of these boxes, according to the American Kennel Club.
For all the latest dog news, pictures, advice and information, join our Scotsdog Facebook group here
Read more:
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| 2022-09-21T12:28:41Z
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NEW YORK (AP) — It doesn’t take a genius to deduce that anyone who rants in New York’s Madison Square Park about “Ratatouille” not getting enough respect or gets into a shouting match on 42nd Street about Denzel Washington’s stage credits might have a complicated relationship with the entertainment industry.
For five seasons of “Billy on the Street,” Billy Eichner was a hysterical roving commenter on Hollywood, proclaiming his tastes to any passerby he could corral with exaggerated disdain for those who dared to disagree with him and underlining fury with himself for caring so much.
“Show business, I was always so enamored and so infatuated with it. I was really intoxicated by it,” says Eichner, who grew up in Queens with middle-class parents who encouraged his passion. “I love great acting. I love the movies that I love. And, yes, ‘Billy on the Street’ was a way of poking fun at my own obsession with the entertainment industry.”
But as much as “Billy on the Street” seemed like Eichner as himself out in the real world of midtown Manhattan, his new movie , “Bros” (in theaters Sept. 30), is a far clearer picture of who Eichner is as a comedian, actor, screenwriter and gay man. And this fall movie season, it also happens to be a landmark comedy.
Eichner stars in and wrote the Universal Pictures release with director Nicholas Stoller. (Judd Apatow produces.) The initial germ was to go further with a “Billy on the Street” sketch where Eichner acted as a Jets jersey-wearing sports bro with Jason Sudeikis. But as it developed, “Bros” grew in a different direction. In the classic format of an adult, R-rated rom-com, Eichner depicts an uncommonly honest and insightful portrait of life as a single gay man.
Like “Billy on the Street,” it’s frequently laugh-out-loud funny and packed with keen observations about Hollywood — a Hollywood where, until now, a film like “Bros” was essentially an impossibility. “Bros” is the first gay rom-com from a major studio, and the first studio film of any genre both written by and starring an openly gay man. The cast is almost entirely LGBTQ.
“The history of it is thrilling. It really is a monumental moment,” Eichner said in a recent interview. “I’ve been an openly gay actor and comedian my whole career, way before people knew me. I always wanted to be really successful, but I wanted it to be on my own terms, meaning as an openly gay person. That’s not something that’s easy to do. And that’s true of every single cast member of this movie.”
“Bros,” which will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, follows Bobby Lieber (Eichner) through modern issues of Tinder dating and monogamy struggles but also makes room for dialogue about how gay lives are depicted in film, and who gets to tell LGBTQ stories. Eichner plays the director of an LGBTQ museum in the film; history is very much on the movie’s mind. Topics include “Bohemian Rhapsody,” a pseudo “Brokeback Mountain” (“The Treasure Within”), a gay slur remembered from “The Hangover” and whether Lieber’s biopic would star Benedict Cumberbatch.
“It’s always been so funny to me as a gay person in Hollywood because, behind the scenes, it’s really not so liberal,” says Eichner. “It was never as progressive as it claimed to be. Just because you claim to be gay friendly or vote for a Democrat or say you’re for marriage equality, that was never really reflected in the actual work that Hollywood was producing. When it came to what they were accountable and responsible for, they never gave us opportunities.
“And on the rare occasions when you did see LGBTQ characters front and center in a film or TV show, the vast majority of those roles were played by straight actors or actors who were not out of the closet, perhaps,” adds Eichner.
Eichner, who co-stared with Julie Klausner in the series “Difficult People” and voiced Timon in 2019’s “The Lion King,” has mixed feelings about some of these issues. “Brokeback Mountain” he considers “a beautiful film” that moved him deeply when it came out. But 17 years later, if that movie was made again, Eichner thinks it would be a “more affecting and a more ethical production” if those characters were played by openly gay actors.
“That’s not taking away from the fact that Heath Ledger is brilliant in that movie. No one would deny that Sean Penn is magnificent in ‘Milk.’ No one would deny that Tom Hanks is wonderful in ‘Philadelphia,’” Eichner says. “Tom Hanks, though — and I was so impressed and grateful for him saying this publicly — said recently that if ‘Philadelphia’ was made today, he wouldn’t have gotten the role and he said that would have been the right thing to do. In 1992, you needed Tom Hanks to play a gay man dying of AIDS because the movie wouldn’t have gotten the financing it required, it wouldn’t have gotten a wide release and, on some level, straight people wouldn’t have been comfortable with it.”
Eichner, 43, is acutely aware of the not-so-long-ago Hollywood history that leads up to “Bros.” Only a handful of years ago — and today isn’t so hunky-dory, either, Eichner cautions — coming out for gay performers meant sacrificing their career. Eichner, himself, has previously been told by a theater agent to “tone down” his gayness.
“And those were the options up until, I don’t know, a couple of years ago. ‘Bros’ is the antithesis to all of that,” says Eichner. “It’s not just a symbol because it is a living, breathing movie that I think is very successful creatively in its own right having nothing to do with representation or the historical nature of it. But on top of it being a really funny movie, it is a symbol of progress.
“It really is, honestly, just kind of a big f—- you to the history of Hollywood and how it’s treated LGBTQ people behind the scenes.”
The “Billy on the Street” persona of Eichner’s — arch, satirical — isn’t his character in “Bros,” though they share some qualities. It was important to Eichner that his character and the film’s love interest, played by Luke Macfarlane, be complex, three-dimensional characters, not an absurdist version of a gay man — not stereotypical sidekicks.
“Billy on the Street” opened with a mock theme song that introduced him as “making dreams come true.” But with “Bros,” Eichner may have genuinely done so — probably for many others but definitely for himself.
“It’s far and away the best thing I’ve ever done,” Eichner says. “I’m allowed to be a fully, multi-dimensional human being. It’s not identical to me but you can tell when you watch the movie, this really is the most accurate glimpse of everything that I am.”
___
Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
___
Read AP’s Fall Film Preview here: https://apnews.com/hub/fall-films
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| 2022-09-21T12:28:40Z
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NEW YORK (AP) — A California movie producer pleaded guilty in a prostitution case Thursday, admitting that he conspired to run a business that prosecutors say delivered women to clients across the United States and in England.
Dillon Jordan was permitted to enter the plea remotely and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to operate a prostitution business.
U.S. District Judge John P. Cronan scheduled sentencing for Dec. 12.
A plea deal Jordan signed with prosecutors recommends that he serve between 21 months and 27 months in prison, and pay a fine between $10,000 and $95,000. It also calls for him to forfeit $1.4 million.
Jordan, 50, of Arrowhead Lake, California, was arrested last summer on charges that he used a movie production company as a cover for running a prostitution ring.
Jordan is listed among dozens of producers on films including the 2018 film “The Kindergarten Teacher,” which featured Maggie Gyllenhaal, and the 2019 movie “The Kid,” which starred Ethan Hawke.
An indictment said Jordan, from 2010 through May 2017, kept a roster of women who lived across the U.S. and performed sexual acts for his clients in exchange for money.
It also said he coordinated with a United Kingdom-based madam, sharing and referring customers and prostitutes. The madam was not identified by name in court papers.
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| 2022-09-21T12:28:48Z
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CHICAGO (AP) — R. Kelly’s lawyers began mounting a defense Thursday in Chicago against federal charges of child pornography, enticement of minors for sex and fixing his 2008 state trial, with an initial witness contending the singer was himself a victim of blackmail.
The presentation to jurors won’t include Kelly taking the witness stand.
Judge Harry Leinenweber asked Kelly directly on Thursday morning if he would testify, and the Grammy Award winner responded that he would not.
The judge raised the issue minutes before attorneys for Kelly and two co-defendants began calling their first witnesses, endeavoring to counter two weeks of government testimony — including from four women who accused Kelly of sexual abuse.
Co-defendant Derrel McDavid, a longtime Kelly business manager, is accused of helping Kelly rig the 2008 trial, at which Kelly was acquitted. McDavid said he will testify. Co-defendant Milton Brown is charged with receiving child pornography. Like Kelly, he said he wouldn’t testify.
Testifying would have been risky. At times, Kelly has exploded in anger under tough questioning, which could hurt his defense.
He lost his cool in a 2019 interview with Gayle King on “CBS This Morning.” As she pressed him about accusations of sexual abuse, he jumped up, crying and gesticulating. “I didn’t do this stuff!” he shouted. “This is not me! I’m fighting for my … life!”
Lawyers for all three defendants are essentially sharing witnesses. McDavid’s legal team called the first defense witness, McDavid friend and former police officer Christopher G. Wilson. He testified that McDavid told him in 2001 that a merchandizing agent for Kelly, Charles Freeman, was trying to blackmail the R&B star.
Freeman testified earlier for the government that Kelly and his associates agreed to pay him $1 million to hunt down and return a video that featured Kelly, describing how he was handed bags full of cash as payment. He said the money was for services rendered, not an extortion bid. Prosecutors say the payments were part of a conspiracy to obstruct investigators leading up to Kelly’s 2008 trial.
Under cross-examination, Wilson conceded he didn’t directly witness anyone trying to extort Kelly, saying he was relying on what McDavid told him.
A conviction on just one or two of the charges at the Chicago trial could add years to a 30-year sentence Kelly already received from a New York federal judge in June for convictions on racketeering and sex trafficking charges.
Via witnesses Thursday, the defense also sought to raise doubts about the ages of a few accusers, saying at least one may have been 17, the age of consent in Illinois, at the time Kelly pursued her for sex.
There was nothing necessarily sinister about Kelly or his workers dealing in cash, another defense witness, former Kelly studio intern Tom Arnold, told jurors. Kelly rarely used his own credit cards and preferred cash transactions, added Arnold, who said he once carried $125,000 to Kelly in a backpack.
The highlight of prosecutors’ presentation was the testimony two weeks ago of a 37-year-old woman who used the pseudonym “Jane.” She described Kelly sexually abusing her hundreds of times starting in 1998 when she was 14 and Kelly was around 30.
Closing arguments are expected to happen in the middle of next week.
___
Follow Michael Tarm on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mtarm. Find AP’s full coverage of the R. Kelly trial at https://apnews.com/hub/r-kelly.
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| 2022-09-21T12:28:55Z
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(NewsNation) — Twitter announced Thursday that the social media company is testing an edit button.
“It’s true: Edit Tweet is being tested by our team internally,” Twitter wrote in a blog post that announced the news.
The company also tweeted the news: “if you see an edited Tweet it’s because we’re testing the edit button … this is happening and you’ll be okay.”
The company explained that it is only testing a small group of people initially, then it will expand testing to Twitter Blue subscribers within the coming weeks. Stating that it has been the most requested feature, the company decided to test it out and be transparent throughout the experiment.
Even if users do not have the edit button available, Twitter said they will still be able to see if tweets have been edited.
Twitter even provided a full definition of what it means when the company uses the term “Edit Tweet”:
“Edit Tweet is a feature that lets people make changes to their Tweet after it’s been published. Think of it as a short period of time to do things like fix typos, add missed tags, and more.”
Tweets will only have the option to be edited 30 minutes after they have been posted to the website. When tweets have been edited, other users will be able to see that the tweet has been edited and will also be able to see past versions of the tweet by tapping the “Tweet’s Edit History.”
Twitter hopes that by adding the Edit Tweet button, it will make creating and posting a tweet “more approachable and less stressful.”
On April 1 – otherwise known as April Fools’ Day – Twitter mentioned they were working on an edit button. While many thought it was a prank, the company confirmed days later that it was indeed working on the highly requested feature.
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| 2022-09-21T12:29:10Z
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BEIJING (AP) — Chinese authorities have locked down Chengdu, a southwestern city of 21 million people, following a spike in COVID-19 cases.
Residents have been ordered to stay home, and about 70% of the flights have been suspended to and from the city, which is a major transit hub in Sichuan province and a governmental and economic center.
The start of the new school term has been delayed, although public transport continues to operate and citizens are permitted to leave the city if they can show a special need.
Under the rules announced Thursday, just one member of each family who can show a negative virus test within the past 24 hours is allowed out per day to buy necessities.
No word was issued on when the lockdown would be lifted.
Similar measures have seen millions of people confined to their homes in the northeastern city of Dalian, as well as Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province that borders the capital Beijing.
Chengdu has reported around 1,000 cases in the latest outbreak and no deaths from the latest round of domestic transmission, but the extreme measures reflect China’s rigid adherence to its “zero-COVID” policy that has exacted a major toll on the economy, with lockdowns, business closures and mass testing requirements.
China says the measures are necessary to prevent a wider spread of the virus, which was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. The fear of being caught in a lockdown situation or sent to a quarantine facility for even being in proximity with a person who tested positive has severely constrained people’s work, consumption and travel habits.
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| 2022-09-21T12:29:18Z
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LONDON (AP) — The European Medicines Agency has recommended the authorization of two coronavirus vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Inc., tweaked to include protection against an early version of the omicron variant.
In a statement on Thursday, the EU drug regulator said the two messenger RNA boosters offered protection both against the original version of COVID-19 and the omicron subvariant BA.1, which has since been overtaken globally by later omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5. Nearly 80% of coronavirus cases worldwide are now being caused by omicron BA.5, according to the World Health Organization.
The decision comes a day after the U.S. drug regulator cleared updated versions of COVID-19 vaccines incorporating protection against the later subvariants, after telling pharmaceuticals in June that any updated boosters must target the most recent versions of omicron.
The European Medicines Agency said adapted vaccines are expected “to help maintain optimal protection against COVID-19 as the virus evolves.” The regulator is also currently reviewing an updated version of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that aims to protect against the later BA.4 and BA.5 omicron variants.
Scientists hope the new boosters will trigger a strong response from the immune system to prevent not just serious illness but perhaps milder infections also – much like the original vaccines did earlier in the pandemic, before super-contagious mutants emerged.
It’s unclear how well the updated boosters will work since experts are still gathering data. But there’s evidence that they are safe, so waiting for more study on their effectiveness would risk another mutation appearing before people are immunized.
Last month, British authorities cleared an updated version of the Moderna booster that included protection against omicron subvariant BA.1, saying the shots would be offered to people 50 and over beginning in September.
In Germany, health minister Karl Lauterbach said that inoculations with the new vaccines could start next week and that “now is the optimal time to close vaccination gaps for the fall.”
Globally, coronavirus cases and deaths have been dropping for weeks, but scientists expect a surge of hospitalizations and deaths with the coming onset of winter in the northern hemisphere.
___
Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
Follow all AP stories on the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
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| 2022-09-21T12:29:25Z
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Channel 4 Taskmaster: how to watch, line up and trailer
A new series of the BAFTA award winning show, Taskmaster, has been announced, with a full lineup of contestants.
Channel 4 has revealed Taskmaster series 14’s contestants ahead of its release later this month.
Hosted by Greg Davies and Alex Horne, the show welcomes five new stand-up comedians to battle for the Taskmaster trophy.
The synopsis for series 14 says: “Across the series, Greg will be presented with visual evidence of the competence, or otherwise, of this cross-section of comics trying to complete a range of tasks that may or may not be useful in everyday life. Can they find pleasure in construction equipment? Can they play billiards with yoga balls? And, most crucially, can they laminate?
“Following careful reflection, the Taskmaster will generously award points and kind words to the best and less points and less kind words to the less best.”
Most Popular
Taskmaster line up
As ever, Greg Davies will be perched on his regal throne as the Taskmaster while the show’s creator and executive producer, ‘Little’ Alex Horne introduces the challenges.
The five stand-ups to star in series 14 of Taskmaster are:
- Dara O’Brien - Irish comedian who is best known for hosting Mock of the Week on BBC2
- Fern Brady - as seen on Live at the Apollo on BBC1
- John Kearns - Edinburgh Comedy Awards winner
- Munya Chawawa - as seen in the BAFTA Nominated Race Around Britain, YouTube Originals
- Sarah Millican - the South Shields award winning writer and comedian
When will Taskmaster air?
The new series will air on Channel 4 on Thursday 29 September.
Is there a trailer?
Yes - the trailer was revealed on Taskmaster’s official Twitter page:
What happened in Taskmaster series 13?
The 13th series of the comedy game show concluded in June and Sophie Duker was crowned the champion. She competed against Judi Love, Chris Ramsey, Bridget Christie and Ardal O’Hanlon.
A second Champion of Champions special aired later in the month, which brought back the winners from series six to ten to battle it out.
In the special, Richard Herring was declared the winner over Ed Gamble, Liza Tarbuck, Lou Sanders and Kerry Godliman.
In April, Channel 4 also announced Alex Horne will star in a new scripted series, The HOrne Section TV Show, written by the Taskmaster co-creator and his band.
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| 2022-09-21T12:29:28Z
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ROME (AP) — Advocates for abortion rights in San Marino expressed satisfaction Thursday that lawmakers voted to legalize abortion in the tiny republic, one of the last European states to have had the procedure outlawed under all circumstances.
Wednesday’s parliamentary vote was the culmination of a referendum last year in which citizens overwhelmingly voted to overturn a 150-year-old law that criminalized the procedure.
The legislature of the predominantly Catholic nation voted 32 in favor, seven against and 10 abstaining to make abortion legal in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
The September 2021 referendum found that 77% of voters wanted the new law, which would also allow abortion beyond the first trimester of pregnancy if the grave fetal anomalies put a woman’s life or health – both physically or psychologically – at risk.
“We are satisfied,” said Elena D’Amelio, one of the advocates who had collected signatures as part of a petition drive to hold the referendum.
The cost of the procedure will be covered by San Marino’s public health system.
San Marino is surrounded by central Italy, and many women traveled to have an abortion an a hospital in Italy, where the procedure was made legal — over fierce objections from the Vatican — in 1978. Under the old law, women risked criminal prosecution if their abortion abroad became known, although D’Amelio said, no one was actually prosecuted.
“Before the new law legalizing it, women not only had to pay for it, you had to do it in secret,” D’Amelio said.
Passage of the new law gave women “the right that was asked for resoundingly through the referendum,” lawmaker Giacomo Simoncini told San Marino RTV.
Turnout in the referendum was 41% in the republic of 33,300 inhabitants.
In 2018, voters in Ireland overwhelmingly called for abortion’s legalization. Abortion is still illegal in Malta and Andorra. Poland introduced a near-total ban on the procedure in 2021.
One of the provisions of San Marino’s law provides for sex education in the republic’s schools, a measure aimed at preventing unwanted pregnancies, D’Amelio said.
It is too soon to know what percentage of health care workers in San Marino’s only public hospital might declare themselves conscientious objectors, meaning they could opt out of providing an abortion. But the law calls for San Marino’s citizens to be reimbursed by the government for any abortion they might have in Italy as a result of a lack of health care workers refusing to perform one in their own country.
Women in San Marino must have a consultation with medical personnel before having an abortion, but that can be done online. No one can be denied the procedure in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
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| 2022-09-21T12:29:33Z
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CLEVELAND (WJW) — A married same-sex couple from Akron are suing their insurers, claiming they were denied coverage for the in vitro fertilization they need to conceive a child, though that procedure would be covered for heterosexual couples.
Natalie Altizer and her spouse “just want to start a family,” reads a news release from their attorney Mark Herron of Lyndhurst.
But IVF and related services could cost them more than $100,000 out of pocket, according to the couple’s federal discrimination suit filed earlier this month against Atizer’s employer, the Summit County Board of Developmental Disabilities, and others. They claim they’re being denied insurance coverage on the basis of sex, which is a violation the Affordable Care Act.
That health care law was enacted in 2010 under President Barack Obama’s administration. But legal analysts told FOX 8 its definition of sex discrimination changed after President Donald Trump took office. It could change again amid new federal rulemaking proposed by President Joe Biden’s administration that’s now underway.
Self-donor vs. ‘other’ donor
Altizer and her spouse are insured through the Stark County Schools Council of Governments, a large consortium of governmental agencies like the Summit County board and other public entities like schools and libraries. The council contracts with Medical Mutual of Ohio and AultCare Insurance Company to manage the workers’ self-funded plan.
That plan covers infertility services like hormone shots and surgery, but only covers in vitro fertilization if the donated sperm is from the insured person’s spouse — called a “self-donor” — rather than by an outside or “other” donor, according to a copy of the council’s benefits plan included with the couple’s complaint.
Since Altizer’s spouse is a woman, she needs sperm from someone other than her spouse to conceive, and that isn’t covered under her plan, Herron said.
“If Natalie was married to a man, we wouldn’t be having this issue,” he told FOX 8. “The policy language is intended to discriminate against LGBTQ same-sex couples.”
At the heart of the lawsuit is the question: Does the council’s policy unfairly exclude a same-sex couple in a way that a heterosexual couple wouldn’t be?
“If it excludes coverage any time the donor is not a spouse, that’s not necessarily discriminatory,” said Sharona Hoffman, a professor of law and bioethics at Case Western Reserve, who reviewed the case at FOX 8’s request. “There are a lot of cases where, in a heterosexual couple, the husband does not have sperm.”
Hoffman said she thinks many insurance policies don’t cover IVF, largely because it’s expensive and has a low success rate — and those that do “try to restrict it.”
“Insurers are not eager to pay for it,” she said.
In such discrimination suits, a plaintiff may need to prove why IVF is necessary in their case, and explain why they didn’t opt for a cheaper procedure, like artificial insemination using sperm donated to a sperm bank, Hoffman said.
There’s also the potential impact on the other beneficiaries in the insurance group to consider, she said.
“When an insurer pays for very expensive treatment, that affects everyone in that group because they’re probably going to raise rates,” she said. “There are all sorts of hidden consequences for other people as well.”
A spokesperson for the Summit County Board of Developmental Disabilities sent the following statement to FOX 8:
“Summit DD is one of more than 150 government entities that are members of the Stark County Council of Governments. The Agency joined the consortium to provide comprehensive, affordable health care benefits to all employees, while remaining fiscally responsible to the taxpayers of Summit County. This lawsuit is in the early stages, where Summit DD is one of several named defendants, and we will not comment further except to reiterate our commitment to provide affordable healthcare to all employees, their spouses, and dependents. Summit DD’s mission is to break down barriers of discrimination for individuals with disabilities who represent the diversity of the greater community. We do no less for our employees.”
Summit County Board of Developmental Disabilities
A spokesperson for Medical Mutual of Ohio declined to comment on the suit to FOX 8, since it is in active litigation. FOX 8 also reached out to the Canton-based AultCare for a response.
Creating a family ‘is a fundamental right’
What’s unclear in the Summit County case is whether state law comes into play, since the ACA’s anti-discrimination rule only applies to programs getting federal assistance, said Hoffman. Ohio law also doesn’t specifically protect against this kind of discrimination.
Herron’s suit argues Altizer’s employer, insurance group and insurers all receive federal assistance — so they would fall under ACA rules.
The suit also alleges Altizer’s policy violates the 14th Amendment, which protects citizens’ rights, and that “the right to bear children and create a family is a fundamental right,” Herron’s suit reads.
For insurance purposes, infertility is defined at the federal level as the inability to conceive after at least one year of unprotected sex — but since cisgender, same-sex couples can’t conceive naturally, that definition doesn’t directly apply.
Ohio law doesn’t specifically define infertility in a way that could impact Altizer’s claim. But it is one of more than a dozen states that require insurers to cover “basic health services,” including infertility treatments, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Back in Ohio’s Northern District Court, records show Medical Mutual and the Stark County consortium have been served with Altizer’s complaint. No court dates have been set, and none of the defendant agencies have filed a response.
“Natalie and her spouse just want to start a family,” Herron wrote. “Her governmental employer and the insurance companies that they contract with to administer her health insurance policy should not be standing in the way.”
Insurance rules have changed
Altizer’s claim points to Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which “prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability” in federally funded health programs. That includes sexual orientation. But the legal interpretation of sex discrimination has changed over the past two presidential administrations, Hoffman said.
In 2020, the Trump administration changed the regulations to remove an Obama-era rule keeping insurers from varying benefits in a way that discriminates against certain groups, like LGBTQ folks, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
A new federal rule change proposed by the Biden administration would revise the ACA’s nondiscrimination regulations to include sexual orientation, aligning it with a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on employer discrimination against homosexual or transgender workers.
The proposed rulemaking is currently up for public comment until Oct. 3.
The Summit County suit is now among a growing number of legal contests surrounding the coverage discrimination issue since the Trump-era rule change. Herron said he modeled his suit after a recent case in New York City.
In April, attorneys for Corey Briskin and Nicholas Maggipinto, a same-sex married couple receiving employee benefits from the city, filed a class-action complaint against the city to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The couple was looking forward to starting a family, but they allege the city categorically denies insurance coverage for IVF to gay male couples, though it grants that coverage to straight and gay cisgender women.
New York City’s benefits policy is different from the Summit County case in that its IVF coverage is only granted for women deemed to be infertile, and “infertility” is defined in such a way that precludes men who are homosexual, according to a news release from the couples’ attorneys.
Briskin, a former prosecutor in Manhattan, said the city’s policy “is based on an archaic idea of what kinds of people should be biological parents — one that’s inconsistent with modern values and how our society understands equality in 2022.”
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| 2022-09-21T12:29:40Z
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TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – A 13-year-old Florida boy who has been fighting a brain-eating amoeba for more than two months was flown to Chicago for continued treatment.
Caleb Ziegelbauer and his family left Tampa International Airport on for Chicago on Wednesday afternoon. His mom, Jesse Ziegelbauer, is hopeful that her son will pull through.
“Caleb is brave. Caleb is strong. Caleb is a fighter. Caleb is young. Caleb is healthy. Caleb has a brain capable of healing,” Jesse Ziegelbauer said. “He is made of pure grit and determination and it is exactly that which we are banking on to wake him up.”
Caleb got sick after his family took a trip to Port Charlotte Beach on July 1, NBC affiliate WBBH reported at the end of July. It took a week before the boy started showing symptoms, including headaches and hallucinations. He later ended up in the emergency room.
Doctors told Caleb’s parents they believed an amoeba, known as Naegleria fowleri, had entered the 13-year-old’s body through his nose and reached his brain.
Naegleria fowleri is typically found in warm freshwater, as well as soil, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts said the amoeba enters through a person’s nose when tainted water enters the nasal cavities. It typically happens while a person is swimming.
Brain-eating amoeba are not spread through person-to-person contact, but can be highly fatal to those who contract it. Victims develop a condition called “primary amebic meningoencephalitis.” The CDC said the fatality rate is over 97%, and only four people with confirmed cases are known to have survived.
“We won’t dwell on the last two months. We move forward, we continue to heal,” Jesse Ziegelbauer said. “And we couldn’t do without the help of our community, our family — all of you.”
Jet ICU, the air ambulance service that transported Caleb from Tampa to Chicago, flies seven aircraft, operating the largest long-range air ambulance fleet in North America. The accredited Tampa-based company also flies globally.
“He’s already fought one of the hardest, rarest diseases there are,” Jared Wayt of Jet ICU said of Caleb. “Jet ICU’s not gonna let a couple-hour flight up to Chicago stop his recovery.”
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| 2022-09-21T12:29:46Z
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SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Officials with the City of Shreveport released a statement late Thursday night that some areas of Shreveport may no longer be under a boil notice as soon as Friday.
They say crews made significant progress Thursday in repairing three damaged towers. Repairs were completed Thursday evening on the St. Vincent water tower on the corner of Oakdale St. and St. Vincent Ave. The Department of Health cleared the Department of Water and Sewerage to begin water sampling.
Officials say the lab collection staff will work through the night until all the required samples are collected.
Crews completed repairs on the Linwood water tank and elevated ground storage site at 70th and Pines Rd. earlier Thursday.
The West Shreveport elevated tank repairs are scheduled to begin Friday at 7:00 a.m.
According to the city, portions of Shreveport could be lifted from the boil advisory late Friday afternoon.
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| 2022-09-21T12:29:55Z
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TALLAHASSEE, FL. — During the month of September there’s a statewide effort across Florida to get more dads and father figures to be involved with a child’s education. Research shows that having an absent father hinders development from early infancy throughout childhood and into adulthood.
Dr. Christopher Small works in educational leadership and administration at Florida State University. He grew up in Houston, Texas as the oldest of five kids to a single mom. That experience is one of the things that led him to working in education and with at-risk youth.
Small is also a father and wanted to be a positive influence for not just his son, but other boys and girls as well. He says kids just need somebody to show up for them.
“Some conversations I’ve had with other dads, they say well I don’t know this new math or reading strategy that they’re using in school,” said Dr. Small. “It’s not always about being an expert in the content, but just being present.”
Dr. Small is one of six panelist that will discuss how to get more men involved in kids’ education. Wednesday’s panel discussion at Fairview Middle School (3415 Zillah St. in Tallahassee) starts at 6PM. That discussion will be moderated by ABC 27’s Brian Jackson.
A study by the fatherhood project breaks down the impact having a father or positive male role model has on a child’s life.
That kid is 2x as likely to enter college and 43% more likely to earn A's in school.
They're also 80% less likely to go to jail and 75% less likely to have a teen birth.
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| 2022-09-21T12:30:00Z
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President Biden on Thursday warned that former President Trump and Republicans aligned with him pose “a threat to this country,” in a political primetime speech that frequently referred to his predecessor and some of his GOP supporters as a danger to democracy.
Biden, speaking from Independence Hall in Philadelphia, tied Trump and other so-called “MAGA Republicans” to corrosive ideas like casting doubt on election results, spreading conspiracy theories and attacking law enforcement.
“Not every Republican, not even a majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology,” he said. “But there’s no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans. And that is a threat to this country.”
The president portrayed Republicans aligned with Trump as a threat to the right to have an abortion, contraception and privacy, and accused the GOP of seeking to take the country “backward.”
“I believe America is at an inflection point, one of those moments that determine the shape of everything that’s to come after,” Biden said, urging Americans to fight for democracy “in 2022 and beyond.”
While White House officials insisted Thursday night’s speech would not be political in nature, Biden levied multiple criticisms of Trump and Republicans while rounding out the address by touting his policy wins on issues like police funding and the pandemic, and contrasted his vision for the nation with the GOP. He also called on Americans to “vote, vote, vote.”
Thursday’s speech served as an encapsulation of Biden’s midterm message as he increasingly frames November’s elections as ones that will determine whether the country slips toward authoritarianism.
Trump-backed candidates, many of whom have openly claimed without evidence that the 2020 election was fraudulent or that Biden is an illegitimate president, will be on the ballot at the state and federal level in November. And Trump himself is weighing another presidential bid in 2024 even amid a federal investigation involving the mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House.
Biden has in recent weeks become more assertive in calling out “MAGA Republicans.” At a political rally last week in Maryland, Biden described the movement as akin to “semi-fascism.”
On Tuesday in Pennsylvania, Biden referenced “MAGA Republicans” multiple times as he invoked the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, condemning attacks from some Republicans on law enforcement.
He has also portrayed Republicans as anti-law enforcement by accusing them of excusing violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and fueling attacks on the FBI following the bureau’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Some Republicans have criticized Biden for his comments, arguing he campaigned on a pledge to unite the country and lower the temperature of the nation but is using inflammatory rhetoric by comparing conservatives to fascists.
“Joe Biden is the divider-in-chief and epitomizes the current state of the Democrat Party: one of divisiveness, disgust, and hostility towards half the country,” Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement in advance of Thursday’s speech.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in a prebuttal to Biden’s speech from Scranton demanded the president apologize for his remark last week about “MAGA” Republicans espousing a philosophy akin to “semi-fascism.”
“President Biden has chosen to divide, demean and disparage his fellow Americans. Why? Simply because they disagree with his policies. That is not leadership,” McCarthy said.
Biden’s speech was a return of sorts to an overarching theme of his 2020 campaign, and could preview his rhetoric should he follow through with his intention to run for reelection in 2024 in a possible rematch with Trump.
A Wall Street Journal poll released Thursday found Biden leading Trump by 6 percentage points in a hypothetical rematch of the 2020 election.
“I think the message that he’s sending is extremely effective,” said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, noting the revelations of the Jan. 6 congressional hearings and the Mar-a-Lago search that showcased Trump’s “disregard for the rule of law.”
“I think this is the perfect moment because it’s kind of a culmination,” Lake said.
Updated 9:10 p.m.
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| 2022-09-21T12:30:02Z
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The nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report on Thursday shifted its forecasts for five competitive House races in favor of Democrats.
The changes follow a spike in Democratic voter enthusiasm following the Supreme Court’s decision in June that overturned the landmark federal abortion rights protections in Roe v. Wade, Cook Report senior editor Dave Wasserman wrote. Democrats have outperformed expectations in every special election since the ruling.
They also also come as Republicans, some of whom predicted a potentially record “red wave” election year, have tempered expectations about the midterm elections this year.
Last week, a separate Cook Political Report analysis said Republicans still look like the favorites to win control of the House in the midterm elections. But the publication revised its forecast down from Republicans winning 15 to 30 seats to winning 10 to 20 seats.
The five House districts Cook shifted on Thursday are:
Alaska’s at-large district, from Likely R to Toss Up
The change comes after former Alaska Republican Gov. Sarah Palin lost a special election to Democrat Mary Peltola in the state’s first election using a new ranked choice voting system.
It was the first time a Democrat had been elected to the seat since 1971.
The two of them, as well as Republican Nick Begich and Libertarian Chris Bye, will be on the general election ranked-choice ballot in November for a full term in the same seat.
Arizona’s 4th District, from lean Democratic to likely Democratic.
Democratic Rep. Greg Stanton will face Republican Kelly Cooper, a Marine veteran who was endorsed by Arizona GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake.
Wasserman writes that, “Cooper, a Marine veteran who owns BKD’s Backyard sports bar and has questioned the integrity of the 2020 election, might be too far right for this left-trending, Biden +10 Tempe seat.”
Maryland’s 6th District, from lean Democratic to likely Democratic.
Democratic Rep. David Trone, founder of Total Wine & More, has pumped his campaign with $10 million after his panhandle district became less Democratic due to redistricting. He faces Republican state Del. Neil Parrott.
“Any Republican scenario for ousting Trone likely involved a Larry Hogan-esque performance in the governor’s race at the top of the ticket. But that went out the window when state Del. Dan Cox, whom Hogan has called ‘not, in my opinion, mentally stable,’ won the GOP primary,” Wasserman said.
New York’s 3rd District, from toss-up to lean Democratic.
In the open Long Island seat being vacated by Rep. Tom Suozzi (D), who unsuccessfully ran for governor, Democratic National Committee member Rob Zimmerman will face Republican George Santos.
Virginia’s 7th District, from toss-up to lean Democratic.
Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D) will face Republican former police officer Yesli Vega for the suburban Northern Virginia seat.
Spanberger has long been considered one of the more vulnerable Democrats in the House, and this year’s redistricting process shifted her seat away from the areas where she had the strongest support.
But an audio recording reported by Axios in which Vega expresses openness to the idea that it might be harder for women to get pregnant after rape, remarks that came just as the abortion issue was heating up, were thought to be a major help to Spanberger, who also holds a financial edge.
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| 2022-09-21T12:30:10Z
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(The Hill) – Former President Trump said he would be looking “very seriously” into full pardons for those charged in connection with storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, if he decides to run for a second term and wins the 2024 presidential election.
In an interview with conservative radio host Wendy Bell on Thursday, Trump further stated that he would consider it “very strongly and very favorably.”
The 45th president also shared that he was “financially supporting” some of the defendants who were in his office just days ago.
“I am financially supporting people that are incredible and they were in my office actually two days ago, so they’re very much in my mind,” Trump added.
“It’s a disgrace what they’ve done to them. What they’ve done to these people is disgraceful,” he said.
While Trump teased a potential 2024 run for the presidency, he stopped short of announcing it during the interview.
When asked by Bell if he would announce his run on the show, the former president shared, “Well the time is coming closer and I think you’re gonna be really happy. You have campaign finance laws that [don’t] allow you to … it’s crazy. It’s not smart. If you say it, everything changes and you have reporting and you have all things. But I will be doing something and I think you’re going to be happy.”
A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment on how exactly he is supporting the Jan. 6, 2021, riot defendants.
Trump’s comments come on the same day that President Biden is set to deliver a prime-time speech from Philadelphia about protecting democracy, in which he will warn that Americans’ rights and freedoms are “under attack,” according to a White House official.
It’s unclear whether Biden will explicitly mention Trump during his Thursday address, but plans for the speech suggest he’ll at least allude to the former president and his false claims about the 2020 election.
The former president reiterated recent comments he made at a Faith and Freedom event in Nashville, Tenn., last month where he said the defendants charged in the Capitol riot had their “lives destroyed,” claiming that most had been “charged with parading through the Capitol.”
Trump’s comments calling for pardons have also been criticized by his close allies, most prominently by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who shared that he thought the idea of offering pardons to Capitol riot defendants was “inappropriate.” The former president responded, calling the South Carolina Republican a “RINO,” or “Republican in name only.”
To date, more than 860 people across the country have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 riot. More than 350 have pleaded guilty to a variety of crimes. More than 115 have been incarcerated for their role in the riot.
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| 2022-09-21T12:30:18Z
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SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Morning anchor Jezzamine Wolk and the Cares Krewe Driven by Chevyland have been hitting local spots to surprise members of the community by taking care of some necessities for them.
On a recent stop, they headed to Piggly Wiggly in Shreveport. There, they met a local couple with a big family and were able to cover their groceries.
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(Loving Living Local)- Benchmark American Brasserie shows off new menu items and specials at Texarkana restaurant.
Owner Jason Williams dazzles Loving Living Local host Susan Kirton with a tasting menu of new items and specials that will be featured for the next few weeks. Executive Chef Rebecca Williams, Jason’s wife, runs the Benchmark kitchen, plans and designs the menu, and finalizes all menu items. Her culinary training consists of studies at Culinary Institute LeNotre in Houston, Texas and an externship with a master French chef in Houston.
Williams walks through descriptions of each dish including scallops with crab, asparagus, and roasted red bell pepper; blackened redfish over grits; roasted duck; flatbread pizza; and a strawberry pastry dessert.
Benchmark American Brasserie has been open for four years as of July 3, 2022. The restaurant offers a full bar, a comfortable atmosphere, and incredibly prepared dishes. Williams describes the menu as French-American with a local twist.
On their website, Williams shares how he and his wife came up with the name ‘Benchmark’ by scrolling through synonyms for the “bar” or the “standard”…
“It’s about being the best with food, atmosphere and service, to be what others aspire to be. And with ‘American Brasserie’ you know it’s American food with a French influance. That’s Benchmark American Brasserie. We want to be that standard.”
Jason Williams, benchmarktxk.com
Benchmark American Brasserie is located at 4115 North Kings Highway, Suite 111, Texarkana, Texas and can be reached at (903) 949-6720. They are open for dinner service only, Tuesday through Saturday, and brunch service on Sunday. Willams says that reservations aren’t required, but sometimes highly recommended. The full menu can be found on their website.
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| 2022-09-21T12:30:33Z
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TEXARKANA, Ark. (KTAL/KSHV) – Following President Biden’s student loan forgiveness announcement, Arkansans could be taxed by the state on the amount forgiven.
According to Scott Hardin with the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, Arkansas is one of 13 states that could potentially charge income tax to those who benefit from loan forgiveness.
Hardin says most states are non-conformity states, meaning they automatically adapt when the government changes the tax code at the federal level. Arkansas is not one of those states.
“What we’re doing now is looking at this and saying, ‘Ok, based on the existing tax law, is this taxable income, and will this ultimately be taxed,'” said Hardin. “We want to be sure that Arkansans understand that it’s not a matter of whether or not the state wants the money or thinks that it’s appropriate to tax them. It’s just a matter of looking at existing law and making that decision.”
Hardin says he expects an answer to come within the next few days.
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| 2022-09-21T12:30:56Z
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Each ton of carbon dioxide that exits a smokestack or tailpipe is doing far more damage than what governments take into account, researchers conclude in a scientific paper published Thursday.
Major hurricanes pack more rain, while extremes of wildfire, drought and downpours are all happening more often and with more intensity due to climate change, causing loss of communities, homes and lives all over the world. But what is the actual cost in dollar terms of the carbon emissions driving climactic change?
That’s what researchers from a variety of fields — science, economics, medicine — are trying to figure out through a metric called the social cost of carbon, a price that represents the total climate damage caused to society through carbon emissions. It’s been used in the past to justify tougher limits on carbon emissions and more spending on climate solutions, like transitioning to renewable energy and natural flood protection.
Currently, the United States government uses a price of $51 per ton of carbon dioxide emitted, but the researchers wrote in the journal Nature that the price should be $185 per ton — 3.6 times higher than the current U.S. standard.
“Our results suggest that we are vastly underestimating the harm from each additional ton of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” said Kevin Rennert, a study author and director of the federal climate policy initiative at Resources for the Future, an environmental nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. “And the implication is that the benefits of government policies and other actions that reduce global warming pollution are greater than has been estimated.”
Rennert and colleagues created an updated model to measure the societal cost of emitting carbon that includes several measures excluded in previous research. They say key additions include a better accounting of the uncertainty of future climate policy, economic growth and environmental phenomena like sea level rise. They also include damages to ecosystems, biodiversity and human health, which previously weren’t accounted for.
The changes come in response to a 2017 report from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine that said current carbon pricing calculations were inadequate and gave several recommendations for bringing the outdated models up to speed.
Researchers began calculating damages from carbon emissions in the 1980s and before 2017, the last updates to the modelling were in the early to mid 1990s, “when the Counting Crows were still at the top of the charts,” said Max Auffhammer, an author of the 2017 report and professor of international sustainable development at the University of California, Berkeley. Auffhammer, who was not involved in the Nature study, praised the updated model.
“A lot of science has happened,” he said. “A lot of amazing datasets have come online for us to study how environmental change translates into outcomes we care about. So, that’s in there now.”
But not all of the authors of the 2017 report think the updated model presented in Nature is ready for use on the federal level.
“I found it to be …. an interesting academic piece. It offers a lot of food for thought,” said Steven Rose, another author of the 2017 report and a senior research economist at the Electric Power Research Institute. “However, I also thought it’s a long way from what the current administration needs,” he said, noting the new research relied on limited prior damage studies.
In the U.S. federal officials began applying the cost estimate to new regulations more than a decade ago after environmentalists successfully sued the government for not taking greenhouse gas emissions into account when setting vehicle mileage standards.
The $51 per ton estimate under Biden restored a figure used during the Obama administration. The Trump administration had reduced the figure to about $7 or less per ton. The lowered estimate counted only damages felt in the U.S.
Republicans have fought against using estimated future climate damages to steer policy, and officials in 23 states last year joined together on a pair of lawsuits claiming the Biden administration’s use of the social cost of carbon was illegal. Led by the attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri, the states allege the Biden administration wants to use the future costs to justify stringent curbs on energy companies and other polluting industries.
The GOP states won a temporary victory in February when a judge in Louisiana blocked the administration’s use of the $51-per-ton value. That was reversed in March by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which said the states had not shown any specific harm caused by the administration’s consideration of climate damages.
The states are still pressing the lawsuits and in June argued before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals seeking to again block the administration.
At the core of the legal dispute is how much effect the social cost of carbon will have on industry. That’s likely to be much greater at a higher value of $185 per ton, because as potential future damages become more costly, the benefits from avoiding those damages through more stringent rules grow accordingly.
“It suggests there are many more actions we can take to curb carbon emissions that are going to be on the table that were not on the table before,” said Stanford University economist Marshall Burke.
While the social cost of carbon has been considered in more than a dozen actions under Biden – including tougher fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks and new oil and gas lease sales on public lands – federal officials have said in court briefings that so far it has not been a deciding factor.
The Biden administration was due to release an updated estimate in January, but that was delayed in part by the litigation from states.
The White House said it is still reviewing the best way to price climate damages when making policy decisions. But officials already have determined that the interim price of $51 per ton is too low. In an analysis of the new climate law published last week by the White House Office of Management and Budget, officials wrote that “the interim social cost of carbon estimates are currently significantly underestimated because they do not account for many important climate damage categories, such as ocean acidification.”
An agency spokesperson declined to give a timeline for a new cost estimate.
“This Administration remains committed to accounting for the costs of greenhouse gas emissions as accurately as possible, and we continue to assess how best to account for these costs in regulatory and budgetary contexts in the future,” the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement to The Associated Press.
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Drew Costley reported from Washington, D.C. and Matthew Brown reported from Billings, Montana.
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Follow Drew Costley and Matthew Brown on Twitter: @drewcostley and @matthewbrown.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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| 2022-09-21T12:31:04Z
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MANAUS, Brazil (AP) — More fires burned in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest this August than in any month in nearly five years, thanks to a surge in illegal deforestation.
Satellite sensors detected 33,116 fires according to Brazil’s national space institute. The dry season months of August and September are usually worst for both deforestation and fire.
It was also the worst August for fire in 12 years. That includes August of 2019, when images of the burning rainforest shocked the world and drew criticism from European leaders. Bolsonaro had recently taken office and was turning environmental enforcement on its head, saying criminals should not be fined and promising development of the Amazon.
The far-right president downplayed the raging fires then and continues to do so today. He told media network Globo on Aug. 22 — the worst single day for outbreaks of fire in 15 years — that the criticism is part of an effort to undermine the nation’s agribusiness sector.
“Brazil does not deserve to be attacked in this way,” said Bolsonaro, who is campaigning for reelection.
The fires are evident even several hundred miles away in the Amazon’s largest city, Manaus, where smoke has hung in the sky for weeks.
Fire in the Amazon is almost always deliberately set, primarily to improve cattle pasture or burn recently-felled trees once they are dry. Often the fires burn out of control and spread into pristine areas of the forest.
After a calm period with unusually high rainfall in early August, blazes began spreading rapidly, said Ane Alencar, coordinator of the Mapbiomas Fire project, run by a network of nonprofits, universities and tech startups.
“The deforestation rate is very high. That means there are many fallen trees ready to burn,” Alencar told The Associated Press in a Zoom interview. The fire season will be even more intense in September.”
About 20% of the area burned in the Amazon this year was deforested recently. Some is within protected areas that are targeted by land-grabbers, according to an analysis by the Center of Life Institute, a Brazilian non-profit, based on NASA’s Global Fire Emissions Database.
One example is Cristalino II State Park in Mato Grosso, a protected area recently declared illegal by a state court. The state prosecutors office appealed that decision, but the legal dissolution seemed to give license to deforesters, unleashing a wave of destruction. In just the past few weeks, fire has destroyed nearly 40 square kilometers (15 square miles) in the park, despite the presence of firefighters, according to the Center of Life Institute.
Widespread fire means Brazil is failing to curb greenhouse gas emissions, as almost half the country’s carbon pollution comes from land conversion. The Amazon rainforest is an important carbon absorber for the planet, but burning timber releases that carbon into the atmosphere.
During the COP26 climate summit earlier this year, the Bolsonaro government promised to stop all illegal deforestation by 2028. So far during his tenure, forest loss has surged to a 15-year high.
“If Brazil wants to reduce its carbon emissions, the number one thing to do is reduce deforestation. And the second is to reduce the use of fire,” Alencar said.
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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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| 2022-09-21T12:31:11Z
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TITUSVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A decade ago, Florida’s Space Coast was in the doldrums.
The space shuttle program had ended, and with it the steady stream of space enthusiasts who filled the area’s restaurants and hotel and motel rooms during regular astronaut launches.
The Kennedy Space Center’s 7,400 laid-off shuttle workers struggled to find jobs in their fields, and many left for other states. The county’s unemployment rate skyrocketed to almost 12%, and foreclosures were rampant in the aftermath of a housing crisis that struck Florida harder than most states. The Miracle City Mall, a once-thriving shopping destination that had been around since the Apollo moon shots in the 1960s, was abandoned in the mid-2010s, and other stores and restaurants were shuttered.
“It was devastating. Along with the fact that our nation was going into a recession, we had lost our bread and butter. We had lost our economy,” said Daniel Diesel, the mayor of Titusville, which sits across the Indian River from the Kennedy Space Center.
Nowadays, the county’s unemployment rate is under 3%, and the Space Coast is humming with jobs and space launches. NASA’s first launch of its new moon rocket set for Saturday was expecting to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors like Ed Mayall. He traveled more than 4,300 miles (about 6,920 kilometers) from London to witness the first, scrubbed launch attempt on Monday.
“It’s just so exciting, the thought of being able to go to space, myself, potentially with all the commercial programs going on, it just makes you want to live it,” Mayall said. “Like it’s just exciting to be around.”
While most of the past six decades of space business in Florida was orchestrated by NASA and the Air Force, this recent rejuvenation on the Space Coast has been powered in the past decade by private, commercial companies like Space X and Blue Origin, founded by two of the planet’s richest men, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Several launches a month are now taking place along the Space Coast, with Space X launching its Starlink internet satellites every few weeks.
Perhaps nothing best captured the Space Coast’s comeback than Space X’s first astronaut lift-off in spring 2020, which put Florida’s central coast back in the business of catapulting humans into space and marked the first time a private company had launched people into orbit. The efforts drew hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world and ended a nine-year launch drought for NASA.
As of last year, the Kennedy Space Center had more than 12,300 civil servants, private contractors and other employees working at the spaceport, just a few thousand employees short of the 15,000 workers during the heydays of the shuttle program.
Along the Space Coast, new subdivisions have been permitted, new hotels have been built, small manufacturing plants supporting the space industry are under construction in industrial parks and a gleaming outdoor shopping area recently opened in the footprint of the Miracle City Mall. Last year, the Milken Institute ranked the Space Coast metro area as having the second strongest economy in the U.S. using an index based on jobs, wages and high tech growth. The ranking for the metro was up 47 spots from three years prior.
Besides the growth of the commercial space companies, the Space Coast’s economy has diversified in the past decade beyond its traditional reliance on space, and includes defense contractors, cruise ships, automobile parts manufacturing and nature tourism.
“We are growing from so many angles,” the mayor said. “Our economy thrives when the space program thrives. There’s just no question about that, but we also like to be able to say we are more diverse than we used to be.”
He said he was a “space brat” growing up and was familiar with the boom and bust nature of the space business ever since his family moved to the Space Coast in 1965 so his father could take a job with the Apollo program. NASA budgets from the White House and Congress greatly impacted life on the Space Coast, he said.
Jessica Costa, owner of C’s Waffles restaurant in Titusville, remembers how quiet the Space Coast became following the end of the space shuttle program. Now that there are rocket launches all the time, she’s not taking them for granted.
“I’m just happy it’s booming the way it is,” Costa said. “I’m happy they got the program back up now. I’m happy people can come out and enjoy it with us.”
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Follow Cody Jackson on Twitter at https://twitter.com/thecjacksap
Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP
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| 2022-09-21T12:31:19Z
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BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets were mixed Friday ahead of U.S. jobs data that might influence Federal Reserve plans for more interest rate hikes to cool surging inflation.
Shanghai and Seoul advanced while Tokyo and Hong Kong retreated. Oil prices rose more than $1.50 per barrel.
Investors looked ahead to U.S. data on August hiring to see how the economy is responding to four earlier hikes to cool inflation that is at a four-decade high. A strong reading would give ammunition to Fed officials who say higher interest rates are needed to slow economic activity and reduce upward pressure on consumer prices.
If the figures show more than 300,000 jobs were added in August, it “could likely reinforce further lean towards” a rate hike as big as 0.75 percentage points at this month’s Fed meeting, said Yeap Jun Rong of IG in a report.
The Shanghai Composite Index added 0.1% to 3,189.09 while the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo lost 0.2% to 27,604.37. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong sank 0.8% to 19,443.49.
The Chinese government on Thursday ordered most residents of Chengdu, a city of 21 million people, to stay home following new virus outbreaks. That added to disruption as the area recovers from power rationing after a drought depleted reservoirs for hydroelectric dams, but economists say the nationwide economic impact should be limited.
The Kospi in Seoul advanced less than 0.1% to 2,417.25 while Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 declined less than 0.1% to 6,844.80. New Zealand and Jakarta gained while Singapore declined.
On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.3% 3,966.85, rebounding from a four-day string of declines.
It ended August with a 4.2% loss after surging the previous month on expectations the Fed might ease off rate hikes due to signs U.S. economic activity was cooling and inflation might be leveling off.
Those hopes were dashed last week when chair Jerome Powell said the Fed needs to keep rates elevated enough “for some time” to slow the economy. The only question for many investors is how much and when the next hike will be.
The Labor Department reported Tuesday there were two jobs for every unemployed person in July, giving ammunition to Fed officials who argue for rate hikes. On Thursday, it reported unemployment claims fell last week in another sign of a strong job market.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.5% at 31,656.42. The Nasdaq slid 0.3% to 11,785.13 for its fifth daily drop.
Health care stocks, companies that rely on direct consumer spending and communications services providers gained. Johnson & Johnson rose 2.5%. Target gained 2.8% and Netflix added 2.9%.
Technology stocks declined.
Nvidia dropped 7.7% after the chip designer said the U.S. government imposed licensing requirements that might disrupt sales to China.
In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude rose $1.65 to $88.26 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract tumbled $2.94 to $86.61 on Thursday. Brent crude, the price basis for international oil trading, gained $1.64 to $94 per barrel in London. It plunged $3.28 the previous session to $92.36 a barrel.
The dollar rose to 140.32 yen from Thursday’s 140.23 yen. The euro gained to 99.60 cents from 99.45 cents.
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| 2022-09-21T12:31:27Z
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CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Australian government announced on Friday it will increase its permanent immigration intake by 35,000 to 195,000 in the current fiscal year as the nation grapples with skills and labor shortages.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil announced the increase for the year ending June 30, 2023, during a two-day summit of 140 representatives of governments, trade unions, businesses and industry to address skills shortages exacerbated by the pandemic.
O’Neill said Australian nurses have been working double and triple shifts for the past two years, flights were being canceled because of a lack of ground staff and fruit was being left to rot on trees because there was no one to pick it.
“Our focus is always Australian jobs first, and that’s why so much of the summit has focused on training and on the participation of women and other marginalized groups,” O’Neil said.
“But the impact of COVID has been so severe that even if we exhaust every other possibility, we will still be many thousands of workers short, at least in the short term,” she added.
O’Neil said many of the “best and brightest minds” were choosing to migrate to Canada, Germany and Britain instead of Australia.
She described Australia’s immigration program as “fiendishly complex” with more than 70 unique visa programs.
Australia would establish a panel to rebuild its immigration program in the national interest, she said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Thursday, the first day of the Jobs and Skills Summit, that 180,000 free places would be offed in vocational education schools next year at a cost of 1.1 billion Australian dollars ($748,000) to reduce the nation’s skills shortage.
Australia imposed some of the strictest international travel restrictions of an democratic country for 20 months early in the pandemic and gradually reopened to skilled workers from December last year.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday endorsed updated COIVD-19 boosters, opening the way for a fall vaccination campaign that could blunt a winter surge if enough Americans roll up their sleeves.
The new boosters targeting today’s most common omicron strains should begin arriving in pharmacies and clinics within days.
The decision by CDC Director Rochelle Walensky came shortly after the agency’s advisers voted in favor of the recommendation.
The shots “can help restore protection that has waned since previous vaccination and were designed to provide broader protection,” she said in a statement.
The tweaked shots made by Pfizer and rival Moderna offer Americans a chance to get the most up-to-date protection at yet another critical period in the pandemic. They’re combination or “bivalent” shots — half the original vaccine and half protection against the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron versions now causing nearly all COVID-19 infections.
The CDC’s advisers struggled with who should get the new boosters and when because only a similarly tweaked vaccine, not the exact recipe, has been studied in people so far.
But ultimately the panel deemed the updated injections the best option considering the U.S. still is experiencing tens of thousands of COVID-19 cases and about 500 deaths every day — even before an expected new winter wave.
“I think they’re going to be an effective tool for disease prevention this fall and into the winter,” said CDC adviser Dr. Matthew Daley of Kaiser Permanente Colorado.
Comparing the tweak that has been studied in people and the one the U.S. actually will use, “it is the same scaffolding, part of the same roof, we’re just putting in some dormers and windows,” said Dr. Sarah Long of Drexel University.
The CDC recommendation was the last step before shots can begin. Pfizer said it expected to deliver 3 million doses to vaccination sites around the country by Tuesday.
The original COVID-19 vaccines still offer strong protection against severe illness and death, especially among younger and healthier people who’ve gotten at least one booster.
But those vaccines were designed to target the virus strain that circulated in early 2020. Effectiveness drops as new mutants emerge and more time passes since someone’s last shot. Since April, hospitalization rates in people over age 65 have jumped, the CDC said.
The updated shots are only for use as a booster, not for someone’s first-ever vaccinations. The Food and Drug Administration cleared Pfizer’s bivalent option for people 12 and older while Moderna’s is for adults only.
A big unknown: exactly how much benefit people will get from one of those extra shots.
The CDC said more than 1,400 people have been included in several studies of a prior tweak to the vaccine recipe targeting an earlier omicron strain named BA.1. That omicron-targeting combo shot proved safe and able to rev up virus-fighting antibodies, and European regulators on Thursday recommended using that type of booster.
In the U.S., the FDA wanted fall boosters to target the currently circulating omicron strains. Rather than waiting until possibly November for more human studies to be finished, the agency accepted mouse testing that showed the newer tweak sparked a similarly good immune response.
That’s how flu vaccines are updated every year, the CDC noted.
Dr. Pablo Sanchez of the Ohio State University was the only CDC adviser to vote against recommending the shots. He said he believes the bivalent vaccine is safe and that he likely will get it.
But “I just feel that this was a bit premature” given the absence of human data on how well it works, he said.
Several CDC advisers said that to get the maximum benefit, people will need to wait longer between their last vaccination and the new booster than the two-month minimum set by the FDA. Waiting at least three months would be better, they said.
One more change: The FDA no longer authorizes use of the original-recipe boosters for anyone 12 or older, considering them outdated. It’s a source of potential confusion for people who had planned on getting a regular booster this week and now may have to wait for the new kind to arrive.
It’s not clear how many people will want an updated shot. Just half of vaccinated Americans got the first recommended booster dose, and only a third of those 50 and older who were urged to get a second booster did so.
The U.S. government has purchased 170 million doses from both companies — shots that will be free — and the CDC said 200 million people could be eligible.
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Associated Press Medical Writer Mike Stobbe contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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| 2022-09-21T12:31:42Z
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BEIJING (AP) — The Chinese government on Thursday called on Washington to repeal its technology export curbs after California-based chip designer Nvidia said a new product might be delayed and some work might be moved out of China.
The latest controls add to mounting U.S.-Chinese tension over technology and security. American officials say they need to limit the spread of technology that can be used to make weapons.
Nvidia said it was told last week it needs a U.S. government license to export any product with performance equal to its A100 graphics processing chips or better to China, Hong Kong or Russia. It said buyers of the A100, and development of the newer H100, might be affected.
But in an amended disclosure Thursday to U.S. securities regulators, the company said the U.S. government was offering some reprieve by authorizing certain chip exports that will enable Nvidia to keep supplying them to American customers through March.
The high-end chips are designed to help power data centers and run artificial intelligence applications. The restrictions don’t affect Nvidia’s better-known products used in video games and automotive technology.
Another U.S. chipmaker, Advanced Micro Devices, said Friday it had also received new licensing requirements from the U.S. Department of Commerce blocking the shipment of some of its high-end graphics processors to China and Russia. But AMD said it was unlikely to cause product-development delays or have a material impact on its business.
China’s Commerce Ministry accused Washington of abusing export controls to limit semiconductor sales to China. It said trade curbs would disrupt supply chains and global economic recovery.
“China firmly opposes this,” said a ministry spokesperson, Shu Jueting. “The U.S. side should immediately stop its erroneous practices, treat companies from all countries equally, including from China, and do more to contribute to world economic stability.”
U.S. officials increasingly worry about Chinese technology development as both a strategic threat and a potential challenge to American industrial leadership.
Washington has tightened controls and lobbied allies to limit Chinese access to the most advanced chips and tools to develop its own. China is spending heavily to develop its fledgling producers but cannot make high-end chips used in the most advanced smartphones and other devices.
In a earlier disclosure Wednesday, Nvidia said it may be required to “transition certain operations out of China.” The company said it was asking the U.S. government for exemptions for its development and support activities.
It said it would try to meet Chinese customer needs with products that aren’t subject to license requirements. It said the company may seek a license for customers that need them but “has no assurance” the U.S. government will agree.
Shares in Nvidia Corp., which is based in Santa Clara, California, lost $11.57, or almost 8%, to close Thursday at $139.37.
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| 2022-09-21T12:31:49Z
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A former owner and CEO of a South Florida drug manufacturing company has been sentenced to three years and one month in federal prison for lying to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and allowing contaminated medicine to go to pediatric hospitals.
Raidel Figueroa was sentenced Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale federal court, records show. He pleaded guilty in June to conspiring to defraud the FDA, falsifying records in an FDA investigation, obstructing proceedings before the FDA and distributing adulterated drugs.
Figueroa had previously been a co-owner of PharmaTech LLC, which manufactured and distributed the laxative Diocto Liquid from 2016 to 2017, according to court records.
The FDA inspected the company’s operations in July 2016 as part of a larger investigation into an outbreak of infections linked to bacteria known as Burkholderia cepacia. The bacteria is typically found in water and soil and can lead to respiratory and other infections for people with weak immune systems, chronic lung disease and other conditions.
The FDA notified Figueroa in August 2016 that a sample taken from Pharmatech’s water system had tested positive for the bacteria. Investigators said Figueroa assured the FDA that Pharmatech would re-engineer its purified water system to prevent future contaminations.
During a March 2017 inspection, Figueroa lied to FDA investigators by knowingly excluding Diocto Liquid from its products distribution list, despite shipping over 7,000 units of the drug earlier that month, and by telling the FDA that Pharmatech’s new water system had met “acceptance criteria,” which was not true, prosecutors said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified the FDA in July 2017 of bacterial infections in pediatric patients at Stanford Children’s Health Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, California, and Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Bottles of Diocto Liquid collected from the hospitals contained unacceptable amounts of bacteria, yeast and mold, officials said. Some bottles tested positive for Burkholderia cepacia. FDA investigators determined the bottles had come from Pharmatech in March 2017, which Figueroa knowingly failed to disclose.
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| 2022-09-21T12:31:57Z
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BRUSSELS (AP) — A new U.S. tax credit aimed at encouraging Americans to buy electric vehicles may backfire and limit choices for consumers because of concerns it’s weighed against European Union manufacturers, the EU trade chief said Thursday.
Valdis Dombrovskis held a virtual meeting with his American counterpart Katherine Tai to address a wide range of trade issues, including the tax credit provision.
Democrats included the credit in the climate and health care policy law passed last month as a way to incentivize domestic battery and electric vehicle production. But manufacturers in Europe and South Korea, which sell millions of vehicles in the U.S., have threatened to lodge legal complaints with the World Trade Organization.
The law includes a tax credit of up to $7,500 that could be used to defray the cost of purchasing an electric vehicle. But to qualify for the full credit, the electric vehicle must contain a battery built in North America with 40% of the metals mined or recycled on the continent.
The European Commission said parts of the law can help fight climate change by accelerating the transition away from fossil fuels but the EU’s executive branch said it is concerned by the “potential discriminatory nature of electric vehicle tax credit provision.”
“While the EU aims to cooperate closely with the US in climate action, green measures should not be designed in a discriminatory, WTO-incompatible way,” it said.
Dombrovskis recalled during the call that “that discriminating against EU manufacturers makes it much more difficult for them to contribute to the electrification of vehicles in the US, reduces the choice of US consumers when they wish to buy electric vehicles.”
The EU Commission said both sides agreed to continue discussions on the topic.
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Follow all AP stories on climate change at: https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
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| 2022-09-21T12:32:04Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Raging inflation has so scrambled the economy that it’s come to this: If Friday’s jobs report for August were to show a significant hiring slowdown, the Federal Reserve — and even the White House — would likely welcome it.
The government is expected to report that employers added 300,000 jobs last month, according to a survey of economists by the data provider FactSet. That would be down from a blockbuster gain of 528,000 in July and an average of about 440,000 over the past three months. The unemployment rate is expected to remain at 3.5%, FactSet says, matching a half-century low.
A weaker pace of hiring should help moderate wage increases and lift hopes that inflation pressures are starting to ease. That, in turn, would help the Fed make progress toward its goal of conquering high inflation, which is near a four-decade high.
Many companies pass along their higher labor costs to customers through price increases. Conversely, when wages rise more slowly, businesses have less need to raise prices.
Chair Jerome Powell and other Fed officials have increasingly stressed their determination to tame inflation even at the cost of damaging the economy. In a major speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming last week, Powell underscored the Fed’s tight focus on curbing inflation and said he was prepared to continue raising short-term interest rates and keep them elevated to achieve that goal. He warned that the Fed’s inflation fight would likely cause pain for Americans in the form of a weaker economy and job losses.
The stock market has fallen every day since that speech as fears that the Fed may cause a recession have escalated.
Powell also said the job market is “clearly out of balance,” with demand for workers “substantially exceeding” the available supply. Indeed, the government reported this week that the number of available jobs rose in July to a near-record high, after three months of declines. There are roughly two open jobs for every unemployed worker, a sign that many companies are still desperate to hire and may keep raising wages to do so.
“I don’t think the Fed is rooting for a poor jobs report, but they are certainly not rooting for a repeat of July,” when hiring accelerated and wage increases were strong, said Gregory Daco, chief economist at Parthenon-EY. “They are going to want to see some moderation.”
The central bank has raised its short-term rate to a range of 2.25% to 2.5% this year, after the fastest series of increases since it began using its short-term rate to influence the economy in the early 1990s. It has projected that its key rate will reach a range of 3.25% to 3.5% by year’s end. Those rate hikes have made borrowing and spending steadily more expensive for individuals and businesses. The housing market, in particular, has been weakened by higher loan rates.
If Friday’s jobs report is another strong one, with substantial hiring and rapid wage growth, the Fed could opt to announce another sizable three-quarter-point hike when it meets later this month, after similar rate increases in June and July.
The jobs figures will also help fill out the economic backdrop as this fall’s congressional elections intensify. Republicans have pointed to high inflation to try to pummel Democrats in midterm campaigns. The Biden administration has pushed back and claimed credit for a robust pace of job growth.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, told reporters this week that “we’re expecting job numbers to cool off a bit.” The administration has been saying for months that it expects the economy to move to slower but still-steady growth after a swift economic rebound from the pandemic that came with a burst of inflation.
Wages are rising at the fastest pace in decades as employers scramble to fill jobs at a time when fewer Americans are working or seeking work in the aftermath of the pandemic. Average hourly pay jumped 5.2% in July from a year earlier. Still, that was less than the 5.6% year-over-year in March, which was the largest annual increase in 15 years of records outside of the spring of 2020, when the pandemic struck.
Higher wages aren’t necessarily inflationary if they are accompanied by greater efficiencies — if, for example, workers use machines or technology to produce more output. But worker efficiency, or productivity, has tumbled in the past year.
Loretta Mester, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, said Wednesday that “current wage increases are not consistent with inflation returning to our 2% goal” and that she thought with worker productivity so low, wage growth would have to slow to 3.5% or so to reduce inflation.
Yet some skeptics warn that the Fed may be focusing excessively on the strength of the job market when other indicators indicate that the economy is noticeably weakening. Consumer spending, for example, and manufacturing have slowed. The central bank might raise rates too far as a result, to the point where it causes a deeper recession than might be needed to conquer inflation.
“They run a risk of not realizing how much those rate hikes are restraining economic growth, if they’re just looking at the really strong employment gains,” said Jonathan Pingle, chief U.S. economist at Swiss bank UBS. “You could end up risking over tightening or moving too fast, too soon.”
The economic picture is highly uncertain, with the healthy pace of hiring and low unemployment at odds with the government’s estimate that the economy shrank in the first six months of this year, which is one informal definition of a recession.
Yet a related measure of the economy’s growth, which focuses on incomes, shows that it is still expanding, if at a weak pace.
So far, the Fed’s rate hikes have severely dented the housing market. With the average rate on a thirty-year mortgage reaching 5.66% last week — double the level of a year ago — sales of existing homes have fallen for six straight months.
Consumers have moderated their spending in the face of much higher prices, though they spent more in July even after adjusting for inflation. But companies’ investment in new equipment has slowed, indicating they have an increasingly cautious outlook on the economy.
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AP Writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.
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| 2022-09-21T12:32:11Z
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First-year head coach Steve Casner expected an adjustment period.
Not only was Quantico High School fielding its first football team since 2019. But the Warriors were doing so playing an eight-man version of the sport with mostly inexperienced underclassmen.
So Saturday’s 52-50 come-from-behind victory over visiting Richmond Christian was a welcome sight. After starting the season 0-3, including being outscored 105-16 in its past two games against more physically imposing teams, the Warriors remained resilient.
With under two minutes left Sept. 17, Quantico tied the game at 50 on Camden Roberts’ 5-yard touchdown run. Roberts set up the score with a 50-yard run. He also recorded the game-winning two-point conversion.
The Warriors (1-3) then held on for the win and celebrated en masse afterward.
“There were a lot of those ‘I love you, man’ type of moments like from the old [Bud Light] commercials,” Casner said. “We had a fairly good number of fans and they made a tunnel for the players after the game. It was a love fest.”
Casner also got a chuckle hearing comments from Quantico-based students who are able to attend nearby Potomac, the base’s zoned public high school.
“They told me they were coming back,” Casner said.
Casner credited Richmond Christian for never giving up. Richmond Christian had only 12 players due to injuries.
“They played their hearts out,” Casner said. “Some of these teams we’ve played have been pretty huge.”
Quantico has about 24 players, including six eighth-graders and only three seniors. The Warriors’ leading tackler is freshman Brock Knapp. He tallied 10 tackles, a sack and a pass deflection against Richmond Christian.
THURSDAY, SEPT. 22
For safety reasons, Casner said he rarely uses the eighth-graders in games unless it's for spot duty. Those players are more in training preparing for future seasons.
Roberts’ arrival over the summer boosted Quantico’s offense and experience level in a format where higher scores are expected with fewer players on the field. He’s among a handful of players on the roster with any previous varsity experience. The junior played at White Oak High School in Jacksonville (N.C.) before his father was assigned to Marine Corps Base Quantico.
Roberts made an immediate impression, rushing for 108 yards on 18 carries in the Warriors’ 24-14 season-opening loss to Southampton.
Against Richmond Christian, he totaled 366 rushing yards on 29 carries and accounted for six of Quantico’s eight touchdowns (five rushing and one on a kickoff return).
“Having him there gives us confidence,” Casner said.
Casner said the biggest challenge remains with how the players respond to hits.
“The hardest part is getting comfortable with contact and their feet stop,” Casner said. “This is all new.”
Another challenge is dealing with injuries with limited numbers. Quantico has yet to start the same players more than once.
Due to the pandemic and low numbers caused by small enrollment, Quantico did not have football teams for the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
There was interest in fielding a team this fall. But with turnout still small and so many kids new to varsity play, the school believed it was best to compete in eight-man football.
Quantico always deals with constant turnover because of families being transferred in and out of the base.
“We’re just happy to have a program,” Casner said. “It’s always going to be different here.”
As he does every weekend after a game, Casner compiles the stats and posts them online so the players can see them. It’s a time-consuming endeavor, but Saturday’s victory sped things along.
“It makes it easier after a win,” Casner said.
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| 2022-09-21T12:32:16Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) —
Fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week as the labor market continues to shine despite weakening elements of the U.S. economy.
Applications for jobless aid for the week ending Aug. 27 fell by 5,000 to 232,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
The four-week average for claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, decreased by 4,000 to 241,500.
The number of Americans collecting traditional unemployment benefits rose by 26,000 the week that ended Aug. 20, to 1.44 million.
First-time applications generally reflect layoffs and are often seen as an early indicator of where the job market is headed.
Hiring in the U.S. in 2022 has been remarkably strong even as the country faces rising interest rates and weak economic growth.
On Tuesday, the government reported that the number of open jobs in the United States rose in July after three months of declines. There were 11.2 million open jobs available on the last day of July — nearly two jobs, on average, for every unemployed person — a sign that employers are still urgently seeking workers despite a weakening economy and high inflation.
The Labor Department issues its August jobs report on Friday, and analysts surveyed by the data provider FactSet expect the U.S. economy added a robust 300,000 jobs.
U.S. employers added 528,000 jobs in July, according to the Labor Department, more than double what forecasters had expected. The unemployment rate dipped to 3.5%, tying a 50-year low reached just before coronavirus pandemic slammed the U.S. economy in early 2020.
Inflation continues to be the biggest threat to both the global and U.S. economies. The rise in consumer prices slowed modestly from June to July, bur remains historically high enough that the Federal Reserve has indicated it will keep raising interest rates until prices retreat.
The Fed has raised its benchmark short-term interest rate four times this year and Chairman Jerome Powell said last week that the central bank will likely need to keep interest rates high enough to slow the economy “for some time” in order to tame the worst inflation in 40 years. Powell has acknowledged the increases will hurt U.S. households and businesses, but also said the pain would be worse if inflation were allowed to fester.
Even though the labor market remains historically strong, some of that pain has already begun, particularly in the housing and technology sectors. Online real estate companies RedFin and Compass have recently announced job cuts as rising interest rates have cooled red-hot a housing market.
There has also been pullback in the tech sector after a nearly two-year pandemic boom. Snap, owner of the social media platform Snapchat, said Wednesday that it was cutting 20% of its global workforce due to declining revenue.
PVH, the owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, also announced Wednesday a 10% cut to “people costs” by the end of 2023.
Netflix, Carvana and Tesla have also announced layoffs in recent months.
Higher borrowing costs have taken a toll on the U.S. economy, which contracted in the first half of the year. But the strength of the job market has been inconsistent with an economic downturn.
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| 2022-09-21T12:32:19Z
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The overall team and individual scores weren’t as good as in recent seasons, but the closeness of the competition and resulting excitement that generated might have been all-time highs at the six-team Concorde District golf tournament.
Four high-school teams finished within five strokes of the lead for the team championship. Adding to the tension and anticipation, a playoff was necessary between the Westfield Bulldogs and Chantilly Chargers, after the teams tied for first with 644 totals after 36 holes of regulation on the Lakes Course at Twin Lakes Golf Course in Clifton. Westfield won after one playoff hole.
The South Lakes Seahawks finished third with a 319-328–647 total, with the Oakton Cougars fourth at 316-333–649. The four-time defending champion Madison Warhawks were sixth at 349-345–694.
Five teams were within 11 shots of the lead after the first round, but none took charge in the second round as each had higher scores than the day before.
In the playoff for first place, Westfield won after the first playoff hole when its four golfers had a total score of 21 on the hole, winning by three strokes.
The district-tourney title was Westfield’s first since 2009, the season Westfield went on to also win region and state championships.
Westfield, Chantilly and South Lakes qualified for this season’s 6D North Region tournament. Madison and Oakton missed out after both qualifying last year.
Two individual golfers each from Madison and Oakton did qualify to play in the region tourney. From Madison, Robby Nielsen shot 82-83–165 and Colin Park 84-81–165 to advance. From Oakton, Maaz Nadeem had a 75-78–153 and Michael Zhou 75-87–162 to move on.
Nadeem tied for second place individually behind winner Rylan Shim of Westfield. The senior, who will play in college at the University of Florida, shot 74-75–149 to lead Westfield.
Also for Oakton, Jeffrey Young shot 84-83–167, Ben Shield 83-85–168, Isaac Hegg 86-87–173 and Niels Van Hout 83-88–171.
For Madison, Quinn Agniel shot 87-95–182 and Danika Pfeghardt 96-87-183.
Also for champion Westfield, Dyan Chinboot shot 77-82–159 and Evan Sacbibit 77-86–163.
South Lakes was led by Alexander McClain at 79-77–156, Nathan Spurrier at 76-80-156 and Felicity Chen at 74-87–161.
Chantilly’s Connor McCarthy tied for second at 78-75–153. His teammate Patrick O’Rourke shot 79-80–159.
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| 2022-09-21T12:32:22Z
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BERLIN (AP) — German carrier Lufthansa says it is canceling almost all passenger and cargo flights Friday from its two biggest hubs, Frankfurt and Munich, due to planned strike action by pilots.
A union representing Lufthansa pilots said early Thursday that they will stage a walk-out after demands for a pay increase were rejected by management.
Lufthansa said some 800 flights would be canceled, affecting many travelers returning at the end of the summer vacation. The airline’s budget carrier Eurowings would not be affected, it said.
The union Vereinigung Cockpit accused Lufthansa on Thursday of failing to improve on their previous offer, leaving pilots no choice but to go on strike to press their demands.
According to Lufthansa, the company had offered a one-off increase of 900 euros ($900), amounting to a 5% increase for senior pilots and an 18% increase for those starting the profession.
The union had called for a 5.5% raise this year and an automatic above-inflation increase in 2023. In addition, pilots are seeking a new pay and holiday structure that the airline said would increase its staffing costs by about 40%, or some 900 million euros over two years.
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| 2022-09-21T12:32:27Z
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The International Monetary Fund announced Thursday it has reached a preliminary agreement to provide Sri Lanka with $2.9 billion over four years to help it recover from its worst economic crisis.
The arrangement will help restore financial and macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability as well as enable the country’s growth potential, an IMF team visiting Sri Lanka said in a statement.
The package is contingent on approval from the IMF management and executive board, as well as on receiving assurances from Sri Lanka’s creditors, which include China, India and Japan, that debt sustainability will be restored.
Speaking to reporters in Colombo, the IMF’s Peter Breuer said that since Sri Lanka’s debt is currently unsustainable, the lender will need to see an engagement between the country and its creditors before it can commit resources. “If creditors are not willing to provide these assurances, that will deepen the crisis in Sri Lanka and would undermine its repayment capacity,” he said.
He said a collaboration between the creditors and Sri Lanka will help the nation emerge from the crisis faster, and suggested holding a forum between the two sides on restructuring its debts.
Sri Lanka is in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis with acute monthslong shortages of essentials such as fuel, medicine and cooking gas due to a severe shortage of foreign currency. Though cooking gas supplies were restored through World Bank support, shortages of fuel, critical medicines and some food items continue.
The island nation has suspended repayment of nearly $7 billion in foreign debt due this year. The country’s total foreign debt amounts to more than $51 billion, of which $28 billion has to be repaid by 2028.
Sri Lanka’s economy is expected to shrink by 8.7% in 2022 with inflation rising above 60%, the IMF said, adding that the impact is greatest on the poor and vulnerable.
The lender said its package will focus on stabilizing the economy, protecting the livelihoods of citizens and helping spur growth. Key elements include major tax and energy pricing reforms, raising social spending, replenishing foreign exchange reserves and introducing a stronger anti-corruption legal framework.
On Tuesday, Sri Lanka’s president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, said talks with the IMF had successfully reached final stages as he presented an interim budget aimed at obtaining a rescue package. Measures outlined included raising some taxes, slashing capital expenditures, taming inflation and bolstering relief programs.
Wickremesinghe delivered his first budget proposal after being elected by Parliament in July to fill the rest of the five-year term of ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled the country in July and resigned after protesters who blame him and his family for the crisis stormed his official residence.
Wickremesinghe said the United Nations and other international organizations have launched a program to ensure food security. Schools have reopened and universities have resumed classes after long closures, he said. However, long fuel lines have reappeared after a quota system seemed to have brought them under control over the past weeks.
In his budget speech, Wickremesinghe said his administration’s fiscal program will strive to increase government revenue to around 15% of GDP by 2025, cut public sector debt, control inflation and increase the value added tax to 15% from the current 12%.
The new budget came amid a relative calm following months of public protests that ousted the once-powerful Rajapaksa political dynasty. Sri Lanka’s crisis was made worse by global factors such as the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but many have accused the Rajapaksas of severe economic mismanagement and corruption that pushed the country into bankruptcy.
Rajapaksa is now in Thailand. Leaders of his political party say he is expected to return from exile early in September and have asked Wickremesinghe to provide him with security and facilities to which a former president is legally entitled.
Since becoming president, Wickremesinghe has cracked down on protesters and dismantled their main camp outside the president’s office. The use of a harsh anti-terror law to detain a protest leader led to the United States and European Union raising human rights concerns.
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AP journalists Krishan Francis in Colombo and Krutika Pathi in New Delhi contributed to this report.
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| 2022-09-21T12:32:34Z
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Two biopharmaceutical companies will give $5 million and $500,000, respectively, to nonprofit organizations in the United States and abroad that are responding to the growing monkeypox outbreak. The pledges come as the early philanthropic response to the disease, which disproportionately affects LGBTQ people, has been fairly muted compared with the early days of COVID-19.
Gilead Sciences, which produces HIV medicines, is providing up to $5 million to nonprofits in the United States and abroad that are working to prevent and treat monkeypox. It will give $350,000 each to GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign, the National Black Justice Coalition, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. Those nonprofits will collaborate on a public education campaign and create materials about vaccination, treatment, and prevention that can be shared with organizations across the country.
Gilead will also give another $500,000 to NMAC, a nonprofit working to end the HIV epidemic, which will use the money to lead an advocacy campaign focused on ensuring monkeypox vaccines are distributed equitably and to fight vaccine hesitancy. The remaining $3 million will be distributed in grants of up to $50,000 to Gilead’s grantees outside the U.S. that are also seeing a rise in monkeypox cases.
ViiV Healthcare, another pharmaceutical company focused on HIV treatments, will make $500,000 in grants to nonprofits in the United States helping with outreach, education, and testing related to monkeypox.
Both companies have a history of helping LGBTQ people deal with health issues and supporting people who have HIV/AIDS or are at risk of getting it.
Tanya Gulliver-Garcia, director of learning and partnerships at the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, said she is not aware of any other major grants for the disease.
“It’s possible, and this has been my prediction from the beginning, that a lot of the funding for monkeypox is going to be very local,” she said. “It will be community foundations and small corporations giving to organizations in their own city or town.”
That smaller scale of giving is in stark contrast to the billions of dollars in funding that foundations and corporations gave in the early days of COVID-19. By May 2020, U.S. grantmakers had given $6 billion in response to the coronavirus spread, according to Candid.
The differences in giving for COVID-19 compared with monkeypox in part stems from differences between the diseases. COVID-19 was a new, not fully understood virus that spread aggressively and could be fatal. Monkeypox is a disease that has been around for decades, spreads through close physical contact, and is very rarely fatal, according to the CDC. Gulliver-Garcia said that the difference also can be attributed to the fact that the current monkeypox outbreak so far has largely affected men who have sex with men.
“This, for me, is very reminiscent of the late ’80s, early ’90s, when HIV and AIDS were considered to be a queer disease,” she said. “Mainstream media didn’t pay a lot of attention.”
Government and mainstream philanthropy only began to take more action, she said, after HIV and AIDS began to spread more broadly.
Because the philanthropic response has been limited, LGBTQ nonprofits and health centers on the front lines responding to monkeypox have struggled to finance their work. Leaders said they had to find money in their budgets to pay for the monkeypox response since few grants are available. Their efforts also have been hampered by a limited supply of vaccines and the spread of misinformation, several nonprofits told the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Gilead’s decision to donate to nonprofits was prompted by concerns its officials were hearing from grantees starting in May, said Jane Stafford, executive director of corporate giving at Gilead.
Stafford said grantees told her and colleagues, “We need dedicated funding that we can use to put out education, to have vaccine clinics, to make sure that we have enough (personal protective equipment) for staff that are currently working, and then, in some cases, to provide funding for temporary staff to come in and help these organizations.”
With more than 14,000 cases of monkeypox reported across the country, California, Illinois, and New York have joined the federal government in declaring states of emergency.
The outbreak has largely affected gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men, although the virus can be spread to anyone through close, skin-to-skin contact. About 94% of people who have tested positive had sexual or intimate contact with men within the three weeks before their symptoms began, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As a result, LGBTQ organizations with experience serving gay and bisexual men and health providers that treat patients with HIV/AIDS are helping. According to federal government estimates, 41% of people who have gotten monkeypox so far have also been HIV positive.
One of the biggest obstacles health providers have faced is the sparse supply of vaccines. The United States had only 2,400 doses of the vaccine on hand when the outbreak began, which would have been enough to vaccinate just 1,200 people. The Biden administration ramped up supply, recently announcing an additional 1.8 million doses will be available. The demand still has outmatched the number of available vaccines, according to federal health officials.
As of August 16, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation had distributed about 1,300 vaccines. And about 11,780 people are on the nonprofit’s waitlist of eligible recipients. TPAN, a health provider in Chicago that serves people with HIV and those at risk of getting it, has distributed 400 doses. But the demand has been triple that amount, according to Kara Eastman, the organization’s CEO.
Racial disparities in the vaccine rollout also remain a persistent challenge. In New York City, where monkeypox cases have been particularly high, Black people received just 12% of the doses despite making up 31% of those at risk of contracting the disease, the city’s Health Department reported.
Daniel Driffin, a consultant with NMAC working on an equitable monkeypox response, said he worries that people will get frustrated and stop seeking chances to get vaccinated.
Nonprofits and health providers responding to monkeypox have also seen a strain on their resources after dealing with COVID-19.
“It has been both a time-intensive and a resource-heavy response that has not seen a financial support behind it in the same ways that we saw happening early on (with COVID-19),” said Tyler TerMeer, CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. The organization has tapped into its budget to create a hotline to field questions about monkeypox and pay more staff to host vaccine clinics during the evenings and weekends.
TPAN in Chicago held an online appeal to raise funds that attracted $3,000 in donations to deal with monkeypox.
“This is a time for philanthropy to step up and identify groups that they are already supporting and offer up resources to help us,” Eastman of TPAN said. “Because while this is being inaccurately categorized as something that’s impacting only one group in the country right now, it’s a public-health issue.”
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This article was provided to The Associated Press by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Kay Dervishi is a staff writer at the Chronicle. Email: kay.dervishi@philanthropy.com The AP and the Chronicle receive support from the Lilly Endowment Inc. for coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits. The AP and the Chronicle are solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
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| 2022-09-21T12:32:42Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates rose to their highest level in two months this week, providing no relief for a slumping housing market.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the 30-year rate rose to 5.66% from 5.55% last week. One year ago, the rate stood at 2.87%.
The average rate on 15-year, fixed-rate mortgages, popular among those looking to refinance their homes, jumped to 4.98% from 4.85% last week. Last year at this time the rate was 2.18%.
A once red-hot housing sector has cooled considerably, with many potential home buyers getting pushed out of the market as higher interest rates have added hundreds of dollars to monthly mortgage payments. As a result, sales of existing homes in the U.S. have fallen for six straight months, according to the National Association of Realtors.
“The increase in mortgage rates is coming at a particularly vulnerable time for the housing market as sellers are recalibrating their pricing due to lower purchase demand, likely resulting in continued price growth deceleration,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.
Mortgage rates don’t necessarily mirror the Fed’s rate increases, but tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. That’s influenced by a variety of factors, including investors’ expectations for future inflation and global demand for U.S. Treasurys.
Recently, faster inflation and strong U.S. economic growth have sent the 10-year Treasury rate up sharply, to 3.24%.
The Fed has raised its benchmark short-term interest rate four times this year, and Chairman Jerome Powell said last week that the central bank will likely need to keep interest rates high enough to slow the economy “for some time” in order to tame the worst inflation in 40 years.
The government reported that U.S. economy shrank at a 0.6% annual rate from April through June, a second straight quarter of economic contraction, which meets one informal sign of a recession. Most economists, though, have said they doubt that the economy is in or on the verge of a recession, given that the U.S. job market remains robust.
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| 2022-09-21T12:32:49Z
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TOKYO (AP) — Nissan will more aggressively push electric vehicles to take advantage of a new U.S. law that gives up to $7,500 in tax credits, the Japanese automaker said Friday.
President Joe Biden signed the landmark climate change and health care bill into law last month. The tax credit can be used to defray the cost of purchasing an electric vehicle that’s made in the U.S.
The Nissan Leaf electric car is among the models that qualifies, but, under the law, the vehicles must contain a battery built in North America with minerals mined or recycled on the continent to be eligible.
Chief Sustainability Officer Joji Tagawa acknowledged the qualification process was complex, while stressing Nissan was eager to take advantage of the law to alleviate costs to the customer.
“We are in the process of making a thorough analysis at the moment,” he told reporters in an online briefing, noting details of what Nissan might do were still undecided.
Tesla models, as well as the Ford F Series electric pickup, BMW X5 and the Jeep Wrangler plug-in hybrid are among the models that will be able to qualify for the tax credits.
Nissan Motor Co., allied with French automaker Renault, was among the first to bank on zero-emission all-electric vehicles with the Leaf, which went on sale in 2010. More than 600,000 Leaf electric cars have been sold worldwide so far.
Major automakers around the world have recently announced investments to speed up the move toward electric vehicles, as worries grow about climate change and gas prices.
Nissan said it’s trying to make its operations and products cleaner, safer and more inclusive, examining sourcing, production and sales, as well as its lineup. The company, based in Yokohama, Japan, will work with alliance partners and governments to achieve those goals, Tagawa said.
Nissan’s brand image was tarnished when Carlos Ghosn, a star executive for two decades at Nissan, was arrested in Japan 2018 on charges of underreporting his compensation and misusing company money. Ghosn jumped bail in December 2019, and now lives in Lebanon. He says he is innocent and was unfairly targeted by some at Nissan worried about Renault gaining greater influence.
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Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
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| 2022-09-21T12:32:57Z
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MOSCOW (AP) — The chairman of the board of Russia’s largest private oil company, which criticized Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, fell out of a hospital window and died, Russian news reports said Thursday.
The circumstances of Lukoil chairman Ravil Maganov’s death were unclear.
The state news agency Tass cited an unnamed law enforcement source as saying Maganov committed suicide while being treated at Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow. The report said he had been admitted there for a heart attack and was taking antidepressants.
A Lukoil statement Thursday said Maganov “passed away after a severe illness” but did not give details.
Lukoil was one of the few Russian companies to publicly censure Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, calling in March for the “immediate cessation of the armed conflict.”
Maganov is the latest in a series of Russian businessmen, particularly in the energy industry, who have died suddenly in unclear circumstances this year.
His body was found on the grounds of the hospital, where Russia’s political and business elite are often treated, the reports said.
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| 2022-09-21T12:33:04Z
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Starbucks has named a longtime PepsiCo executive as its new CEO.
The coffee giant said Thursday that Laxman Narasimhan will join Starbucks on Oct. 1 after relocating from London to Seattle, where Starbucks is based.
He will work closely with Starbucks’ interim CEO Howard Schultz through April 1, when he will assume the CEO role and join the company’s board.
Schultz said Narasimhan is “uniquely positioned” to lead the company, with a demonstrated track record of growth in both mature and emerging markets.
“As I have had the opportunity to get to know him, it has become clear that he shares our passion of investing in humanity and in our commitment to our partners, customers, and communities,” Schultz said in a statement.
Narasimhan, 55, was most recently CEO of Reckitt, a U.K.-based consumer health, hygiene and nutrition company that makes Lysol cleaner and Enfamil formula, among other products. Reckitt had announced Narasimhan’s surprise departure earlier Thursday. Reckitt’s shares dropped 5% following the announcement.
Prior to that, Narasimhan held various leadership roles at PepsiCo, including as global chief commercial officer. He also served as CEO of the company’s Latin America, Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa operations.
Narasimhan has also served as a senior partner at the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., where he focused on its consumer, retail and technology practices in the U.S., Asia and India.
Schultz, a longtime CEO who helped shape Starbucks after buying it in 1987, came out of retirement and assumed the interim CEO job in March after the company’s former CEO, Kevin Johnson, announced his retirement. Schultz also returned to the company’s board, and will remain there even after Narasimhan takes over.
Schultz said he had not planned to return, but wanted to help reshape the company after the pandemic, which upended Starbucks’ coffee shops and sped changes including a heavier mix of drive-thru orders.
Narasimhan takes over a company with significant strengths. Starbucks reported record demand in the April-June period as strong U.S. sales made up for continuing closures in China, the company’s second-largest market.
But Starbucks also has challenges. Schultz has been working on a plan to remake store layouts, upgrade equipment and bolster employees, who came out of the pandemic feeling harassed and underappreciated. Starbucks announced a $1 billion investment in employee wages and benefits last fall and added $200 million more for pay, worker training and other benefits in May.
Still, the company faces an unprecedented unionization effort, which it opposes. At least 233 U.S. Starbucks stores have voted to unionize since late last year.
Narasimhan worked with unions at Reckitt, where 23% of employees were unionized at the end of last year.
He holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Pune in India and a master’s degree in German and international studies from The Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. He also has a master’s in business administration from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
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| 2022-09-21T12:33:11Z
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NEW YORK (AP) — Welcome to the worst month of the year for Wall Street.
Since 1950, September has brought an average loss of 0.5% for the S&P 500. That’s 10 times worse than the next-worst month, February.
September is also the only month of the year over that span to turn in a loss more often than a gain. Other months see the S&P 500 rise more than three times out of five.
Stretch the horizon even further, back to 1928 to include a world war, the Great Depression and completely different types of economies, and September is still the most frequent stinker for Wall Street.
No clear reason explains September’s struggle, though many hypotheses try. One suggests the return of many professional investors from summer vacations may add to the selling pressure, for example.
Last year, the S&P 500 fell 4.8% in September for its first loss in eight months. At the time, worries were brewing about when the Federal Reserve would take its foot off the economic stimulus accelerator.
It’s not always so. Two years earlier, a solid September gain helped to virtually reverse an August swoon. And in 2010, when the economy was climbing back from the Great Recession, September was the best month of the year for stocks.
This year’s September has plenty of big events circled on the calendar that could yield more big swings for a market that’s already been beset by them. Chief among them is the Federal Reserve’s meeting on interest-rate policy Sept. 20-21. It’s almost certain to raise its benchmark short-term rate for the fifth time this year. The only question is by how much.
Several reports on the economy before that crucial meeting could alter the Fed’s thinking ahead of that meeting, including August hiring data due Friday and a report on inflation due Sept. 13.
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| 2022-09-21T12:33:19Z
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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A University of Arkansas professor recently completed a study showing the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic on black-owned businesses more than other businesses.
The study, by associate professor Xiao Huang, used something called “geospatial big data” to draw its conclusion. Data came from things like tweets, or Yelp reviews, across 20 major cities in the United States. The multi-city model was to determine national as opposed to regional trends.
One advantage was the use of the “black owned business” label by search engines such as Google and rating sites such as Yelp in 2020.
From the analysis, Huang was able to show black businesses had a greater loss in business visits than other businesses during the pandemic. Some metro areas were better, some worse. New York had less disparity, while New Orleans and Detroit showed the most.
No Arkansas cities were included in the survey.
Still, opportunities exist, as do reasons to take advantage of opportunities.
“If you have a dream. Go for it. Ask for help and pursue it with everything you got,” Harvey Williams, co-founder of Helena’s Delta Dirt Distillery, said in a June interview. The distillery is the first black-owned farm vodka distillery in America, with a 350 case per-month capacity.
Area reports show the importance of the term “Ask for help.” Arlo Washington, entrepreneur and proprietor of Washington Barber College in Little Rock, said in a February interview that he teaches students there about finance based on his own experience. This led to his founding PEOPLE Trust Loan Fund, a not-for-profit that helps small businesses in low-income communities.
Retailer Target has announced it will spend more than $2 billion on black-owned businesses by 2025 in order to advance racial equity.
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| 2022-09-21T12:33:26Z
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DETROIT (AP) — Ford is recalling nearly 200,000 large SUVs in the U.S. because the heating and cooling fan motors can fail and catch fire.
The recall covers Ford Expeditions and Lincoln Navigators from the 2015 through 2017 model years.
The Dearborn, Michigan, company says in government documents that it has reports of 25 fires caused by the motors, which are behind the glove box. Thirteen fires were limited to the blower motor area, while 12 involved extensive damage to the SUVs. Three fires damaged structures and one damaged another vehicle.
One person reported injuries to their hand and fingers, and all fire reports indicated that the vehicles were running at the time of the incident, Ford said in documents posted Thursday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The company says it’s not telling people to park the SUVs outdoors. It says some customers have reported inoperative fans, burning smells or smoke coming from the vents while the vehicle is on.
Dealers will replace the front blower motor assembly at no cost to owners, who will be notified starting Sept. 12.
It’s the second recent recall for the Expedition and Navigator due to problems that can cause fires.
In July, Ford expanded a May recall to 66,000 of the SUVs from the 2021 model year. The company told owners to park them outdoors due to a series of engine fires that could happen while the ignitions are off. Ford traced the cause to printed circuit boards that are susceptible to an electrical short.
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| 2022-09-21T12:33:33Z
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SHREVEPORT La. (KTAL/KMSS) — A Bossier City man has been sentenced to 188 months in prison for possessing and trafficking meth.
Michael C. Francis has been sentenced to 15 years and 8 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, on drug trafficking charges. The 37-year-old and eight other defendants were involved in a drug trafficking conspiracy and pled guilty to possessing and distributing methamphetamine in Caddo and Bossier Parish.
The United States Attorney’s office says police began their investigation in 2019 into Francis and one of his codefendants, Demetrius Deangelo Hall. Police obtained a court-ordered wiretap on Hall’s cellphone. Police found that Hall was in contact with Francis and numerous others. Hall and Francis discussed providing each other with methamphetamine on several occasions.
During the investigation, on October 21, 2019, law enforcement intercepted phone calls and text messages between Hall and his co-conspirators indicating that Hall was traveling to Texas to obtain more methamphetamine from his co-defendant Steve Mireles. During the calls, Francis discussed the price of the drugs and that he would pay for the courier fee.
On February 22, 2021, Francis pled guilty to possessing with intent to distribute at least 50 grams or more of methamphetamine.
This case was investigated by the DEA, ATF, Shreveport police, Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office, Greenwood police, and the Louisiana State Police. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tennille Gilreath and Allison Duncan.
This is part of an ongoing Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force operation to identify and dismantle the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States.
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| 2022-09-21T12:33:48Z
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SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – A federal magistrate pulled no punches Thursday in denying the release of a Bossier City police sergeant and his co-defendant, both of whom are accused of fraudulently obtaining prescription pain pills in an investigation prompted by a tip alleging the pair was also skimming money from police union fundraisers.
BCPD Sgt. Harold “BJ” Sanford, who is the head of the local police union and has occasionally served as a spokesman for the police department, was taken into federal custody Sunday along with his co-defendant Mitchell Morehead.
Sanford has remained on administrative leave from the police department since his arrest.
Both men are accused of fraudulently obtaining controlled substances (CDS). Federal prosecutors asked during their first court appearance on Monday that they be held over for Thursday’s hearing to determine whether there was probable cause to move forward with the case.
For almost an hour-and-a-half during Thursday’s hearing, FBI Special Agent Raquel Mobley testified about her investigation into reports of suspected embezzlement from the Bossier Police Union’s fundraising arm, actual audio tapes of Sanford and Morehead discussing the exchange of the illicit drugs obtained by Morehead, as well as the intimidation of a manager of a Bossier City apartment complex where Sanford worked security.
Defense attorney Sarah Giglio argued that Sanford would not be a flight risk and brought in several character witnesses. Among those testifying to Sanford’s standing in the community was Bossier NAACP President Lee Jeter, who said Sanford worked with him to bring the community together.
Sanford’s brother-in-law, Bill Bell, testified that Sanford was good to his wheelchair-bound mother, while Sanford’s sister testified she was close to her brother. Kay Bell said they watched LSU games together and cared for their mom together. She said she would be the custodian for Sanford if he was released until trial.
The judge, however, had a different opinion. In denying Sanford’s release, Hornsby acknowledged testimony regarding Sanford’s involvement in the community and good deeds, but said there was “no question” that there is convincing evidence that if Sanford was released on bond, he would pose a danger to the community and continue with his illegal behavior, which he called “flagrant abuses of power.”
“The Court can, and often does, take into account uncharged conduct,” Hornsby said, referencing earlier testimony from Agent Mobley, which included an audio tape of Sanford trying to get Morehead to erase his phone after Morehead called him early Sunday afternoon to tell him FBI agents were at the motel where he lived. Hornsby called that obstruction of justice. Those recordings also captured Sanford strongly admonishing Morehead not to talk to the police and promising to get him an attorney.
The judge also noted that there was a “significant amount of money” missing from the Bossier City police union, Sanford used a Bossier City police car to pick up illegally obtained prescription drugs and distributed those drugs to his wife.
Hornsby also denied Morehead’s release after testimony that Morehead mostly lived in motels and had moved around the country.
According to the affidavit for Sanford’s arrest, the Shreveport FBI office began investigating Sanford and Morehead in January after receiving several tips that they were running both real and fake fundraisers and taking money for personal use and that Sanford was illegally purchasing prescription pain pills from Morehead to feed his and his wife’s opioid addictions.
In court Thursday, Agent Mobley testified that she learned through her investigation that Morehead would call on local businesses to raise money for the police union as part of the embezzlement scheme, but as the investigation continued and wiretaps were authorized, it became obvious that Morehead also was obtaining prescription drugs for Sanford.
Investigators decided to move quickly in filing a criminal complaint to get the pair into custody and executed a search warrant for police union records at the police department on the day of the arrests in order to ensure they could get the records before Sanford had a chance to remove or destroy them.
Both Sanford and Morehead are scheduled to appear in federal court at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 14. Hornsby said they will be arraigned at that time if a federal grand jury has handed down an indictment by then.
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| 2022-09-21T12:33:55Z
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WOOD COUNTY, Texas (KETK) — A man was arrested on Thursday on a capital murder charge in connection to the 2007 murder of Brittany McGlone, according to the Wood County Sheriff’s Office.
On Wednesday, a warrant for the arrest of Chad Earl Carr was obtained by the sheriff’s office. On Thursday, Captain Mike Chilson and Ranger John Vance traveled to the DFW area and located Carr at 2525 Stemmons Freeway in Dallas, WCSO said in a Facebook post.
In 2007, 19-year-old Brittany McGlone was tragically beaten, sexually assaulted, and murdered in the light of day. Her case remained without a suspect being publicly named for more than a decade.
Carr was taken to the Wood County Jail and booked on a capital murder charge. Carr is being held on a $1 million bond.
“Sheriff Cole and the Wood County Sheriff’s Office have worked diligently over the last year and a half to help bring closure to the family of Brittany McGlone.”
Wood County Sheriff’s Office
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| 2022-09-21T12:34:02Z
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WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – Students are getting worse at reading and math, according to a national study. The new numbers show a dramatic drop in student performance in the United States – and education leaders are looking at ways to fix it.
Each year, the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests 9-year-old students. This year, for the first time, kids scored worse in math and reading scores fell more than they have in 30 years.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona says the numbers are upsetting.
“As a father and an educator, it’s disturbing,” Cardona said.
He blames both the pandemic and the Trump administration for the scores.
“The efforts were not there to safely reopen schools. It was a lot of rhetoric but no action,” Cardona said.
Now that kids are back in the classroom, education leaders have work to do to make up for the lost learning. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten is optimistic kids can make a comeback.
“We are pedal to the medal to help kids achieve, recover and thrive,” Weingarten said.
Secretary Cardona says states should be using money from the American Rescue Plan to improve schools.
“Providing the resources needed so that we’re not talking about teacher shortages. We should be talking about smaller class sizes, about ongoing tutoring,” Cardona said.
Weingarten suggests that federal leaders can also help educators connect to share best practices.
“What are the strategies that are really working to actually help accelerate instruction?” Weingarten said.
She also says political division over curriculum debates and book bans are distracting from learning.
“We need to create a can-do, problem solving, unifying, back to basics environment in schools,” Weingarten said.
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| 2022-09-21T12:34:16Z
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TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A Pasco County sheriff’s deputy was arrested for animal abuse Wednesday after authorities said he stomped on his girlfriend’s cat while she was away. The cat later died.
According to the Tampa Police Department, deputy Eric Harris got into an argument with his then-girlfriend on Aug. 21 after her two cats defecated on the floor outside their litter box and jumped onto the counters and furniture around the apartment.
A day later, when Harris’ girlfriend returned home, she found both of her cats hiding in their crate. When she pulled her 3-year-old cat, named Axel, from the crate, she noticed the cat’s toenails on its rear paws were broken and bloody.
The cat was also acting in a bizarre manner and was unable to stand using its rear legs. She took the cat to a veterinarian in Sarasota, Florida, who then referred her to an animal hospital for more serious treatment.
The cat died from its injuries the same day.
Due to the severity of the cat’s injuries, the doctor contacted local authorities.
Officers said Harris denied any wrongdoing and claimed the cat was fine while he was alone with it in the apartment.
Several days after the initial incident, a necropsy found the cat suffered severe hemorrhaging and bruising to internal organs and had facial injuries, including a missing tooth.
Markings were also found on the cat’s body indicating that someone had stomped on it. The cat’s cause of death was ruled as blunt force trauma.
On Wednesday, Harris was arrested by the Tampa Police Department at his home. He faced one charge of felony animal cruelty.
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| 2022-09-21T12:34:28Z
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DE SOTO PARISH, La. (KTAL/KMSS) — There is a little bit of TikTok fame in De Soto Parish.
To pass the time, 25-year-old Brittany Khamille created a TikTok account in late 2020, never thinking she would go viral for her southern comfort food. Known as BrittKham online, Khamille is originally from Kinder, La., but moved to NWLA in 2018, where she lives with her husband and eight-month-old son.
In early 2021, Khamille went viral on TikTok for the first time.
“I made boiled cookies, and it only blew up because my hair was down.” After that, she decided to start posting recipe videos that were not hers, just as a way to have fun on the social media app.
Khamille discovered Whole Foods for the first time and said she started buying expensive ingredients and making everything under the moon until her husband asked for some everyday food. “I was bored, like everybody. I was experimenting in my kitchen when covid was rampant,” she said.
Even though she has over 1.6 million followers, Khamille still has a 9 to 5 as a minute clerk in the district court system. She has worked as a minute clerk for four years and intends on keeping that day job, even as she keeps growing on TikTok.
In addition to her life as a wife, mother, minute clerk, and content creator, Khamille recently published a cookbook, Just a Little Bitta, in April.
“Making a cookbook was never in my plans; I’ve said that a hundred times. I was like nah, I am not gonna do that. There is no need for a cookbook,” Khamille said. But her followers, who she calls her “pals” online kept asking for a cookbook, so she created one. Even though she was unsure, Khamille says it is one of the best things she has ever done and even displays the book in her house.
Her parents played a huge role in her cooking and recipe sizes. She grew up in a big family with three little brothers and numerous foster siblings. “My mama made seven meals, and nothing is better than those seven,” Khamille said. “My dad makes the traditional cajun meals, and he does them damn good.” Some of those recipes even made it into the cookbook.
Many recipes in Just a Little Bitta hold sentimental value, like the Mr. Wiggins Biscuits recipe.
“We have gone to the same Baptist church my whole life, and growing up, Mr. Wiggins would make these biscuits every single Sunday without fail, and he passed away, and somebody started bringing canned biscuits,” she said. “I was like, I gotta figure out what kind of biscuits he was making.” Khamille worked through trial and error until she figured out the recipe for the buttery biscuits.
Every recipe in her new book has a story behind it, and Khamille can even remember the first time she made all of the recipes.
“Food is 100% the glue that holds people together,” she added. Khamille considers food her love language and cooks for the people she loves to show them her appreciation.
Khamille has other hobbies and goals outside of the kitchen and creating content on social media. She hopes in the future to find opportunities to foster or adopt children in the system as her parents did in her childhood.
Her recipes live on TikTok, her website, and the Pepper app, a place for friends to share their recipes – on which she finally got the blue checkmark of verification Tuesday.
Khamille says she is adjusting to life as a new mom and isn’t sure if she will publish a second cookbook. She said it all depends on what her “pals” online want.
You can keep up with Brittany Khamille on Instagram and, of course, TikTok.
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| 2022-09-21T12:34:36Z
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SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) — Holes in the tops of four of Shreveport‘s water towers discovered Wednesday, prompting a city-wide boil advisory, were discovered with the help of the Louisiana Department of Health and drone technology.
Shreveport Superintendent of Water Purification Qiana Maple-Lars says crews are still assessing the damage identified by the drones during a routine annual inspection, which found the holes in the tops of tanks on Linwood, St. Vincent, in West Shreveport on Rice Road and on West 70th at Pines Road.
“There are some plates covering openings into the tanks, and some of those plates have been blown off,” Maple-Lars said during a briefing early Thursday afternoon. “There are only small holes, and there aren’t very many.”
The holes create the potential for potential contamination to reach the water supply, which is why the city issued the boil advisory for all water customers as a precaution.
Maple-Lars said the system is inspected annually, but this is the first year the LDH has used drone technology to assist in the inspection of Shreveport’s water system.
“The roof, especially, is inspected annually because of the equipment that’s up there. And so last year’s inspection was in September, and there was no damage identified, so sometime between September 2021, and now, there’s this damage.”
In an update released late Thursday afternoon, the city said repairs have now been completed at two of the sites with damaged structures. The city says pictures of the repairs on the Linwood water tank at the corner of Flournoy Lucas Road and Stevens Road have been sent to the LDH, along with a water sampling plan, and that plan has been approved. Once the results from the water testing have been analyzed and cleared, the boil advisory for that area can be lifted.
The elevated ground storage site at 70th and Pines Road has also been repaired, and the Department of Water and Sewerage is in the process of sending pictures of the repairs and water sampling plan to LDH for approval.
The boil advisory also affected public schools in Caddo Parish, prompting the district to cancel classes for all campuses operating on Shreveport’s water system are closed Thursday. Friday was already scheduled to be a Virtual Day, and there is no school on Monday due to the Labor Day holiday.
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| 2022-09-21T12:34:44Z
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(AP) — A lawyer for the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group has been charged with conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol, authorities said Thursday.
Kellye SoRelle — general counsel for the antigovernment group — was arrested in Texas on charges including conspiracy to obstruct the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral college victory, the Justice Department said.
SoRelle, 43, is a close associate of Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers’ leader who is heading to trial later this month alongside other extremists on seditious conspiracy charges.
After Rhodes’ arrest in January, SoRelle told media outlets she was acting as the president of the Oath Keepers while he’s behind bars.
Prosecutors have accused Rhodes and his militia group of plotting for weeks to stop the transfer of power and keep former President Donald Trump in office, purchasing weapons, organizing military-style trainings and setting up battle plans.
SoRelle told The Associated Press last year — when FBI agents seized her phone as part of the Jan 6. investigation — that she had no knowledge of or involvement in the Capitol breach. She called the seizure of her phone “unethical” and the investigation “a witch hunt.”
She is expected to make an initial appearance in federal court in Austin, Texas, later Thursday and it wasn’t immediately clear if she has an attorney to speak on her behalf.
SoRelle was photographed with Rhodes outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 and was present at an underground garage meeting the night before the riot that’s been a focus for investigators.
The meeting included Rhodes and and Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of the Proud Boys, who is charged separately with seditious conspiracy alongside other members of the extremist group that describes themselves as a politically incorrect men’s club for “Western chauvinists.”
Publicly released video of the meeting doesn’t reveal much about their discussion and prosecutors have said only that one of the meeting’s participants “referenced the Capitol.”
SoRelle was also on a call with Rhodes and other Oath Keepers days after the 2020 election during which Rhodes rallied his followers to prepare for violence, according to a transcript made public in court.
SoRelle is also charged with obstruction of an official proceeding, obstruction of justice for tampering with documents and a misdemeanor charge for entering Capitol grounds. The indictment says she persuaded others to destroy and conceal records sought by investigators.
SoRelle told the AP last September that agents seized her phone and provided her a search warrant that said it was related to an investigation into seditious conspiracy, among other crimes. The indictment against SoRelle made public Thursday does not include a charge of seditious conspiracy.
Rhodes and four co-defendants scheduled to go on trial starting Sept. 26 have said there was no plot to attack the Capitol and that their communications in the run up to Jan. 6 were about providing security for right-wing figures such as Roger Stone or preparing for attacks from left-wing antifa activists.
Rhodes, a former U.S. Army paratrooper, founded the Oath Keepers in 2009. The group recruits current and former military, police and first responders and pledges to “fulfill the oath all military and police take to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
A slew of its members have been charged in connection with Jan. 6. Three Oath Keepers have already pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy, a rare Civil War-era charge that’s historically been hard to prove. They are also cooperating with the Justice Department.
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| 2022-09-21T12:34:52Z
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas drivers received good news about fuel prices Thursday as the state heads into the Labor Day weekend.
AAA announced that gas prices in Arkansas are the lowest in the nation at a $3.33 average as the last long weekend of the summer driving season looms. This is 7 cents down from last week’s average, and 48 cents above the average price a year ago.
Drivers in Pine Bluff are paying the highest in the state, at $3.38, and Jonesboro drivers the least, at $3.24 per gallon.
Hot Springs is running $3.28 per gallon average.
Little Rock – North Little Rock metro is below the average at $3.27 for a gallon of regular, well below the $4.48 record mid-June price.
Some caution is advised in expectations as market dictates could move prices up or down.
“The cost for fuel is at its lowest point in six months as millions of drivers prepare to hit the road for the last weekend of summer driving season,” AAA spokesperson Nick Chabarria said. “However, crude oil prices remain sensitive to any supply or demand news with the ongoing war in Ukraine. Crude makes up approximately 60% of the cost of a gallon of retail gasoline.”
The highest gas price in the nation is Hawaii, at $5.30 a gallon, followed closely by California at $5.25 per gallon.
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| 2022-09-21T12:34:59Z
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ST. GABRIEL, La. (AP) — Work has begun in Louisiana on a $146 million women’s prison to replace a prison that flooded six years ago, and a ceremonial groundbreaking was held Thursday for the new Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women.
“I know that this new and improved facility is going to enhance access to education and vocational training programs such as cosmetology, horticulture, welding and computer programing – just to name a few,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said. “This new facility will provide more space for these reentry and vocational programs than we had at LCIW before it flooded. That’s great news, and is going to help us rehabilitate a lot more women.”
The 938-bed prison in St. Gabriel will be the first state prison to be built since 1989, when the Raymond Laborde Correctional Center opened, the state Department of Corrections said in a news release. It’s expected to be finished at the end of 2024.
“For six years, the state has worked with FEMA to agree on whether to renovate or rebuild,” the news release said.
The price has gone up $32 million just since August 2021, when a plan to borrow up to $46 million toward its cost was approved.
The new prison is going up on the west side of Elayn Hunt Correctional Center, the opposite side from the original Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women.
Some women have been housed at Hunt since the prison flooded on Aug. 31, 2016. Others have been held at a closed juvenile prison in Baker, the Louisiana State Penitentiary and local facilities, the department said.
“Today’s groundbreaking marks the end of a very trying season for both the staff and the females housed at LCIW, and a new opportunity for our state in how we facilitate corrections and reentry preparation,” said Department of Public Safety and Corrections Secretary Jimmy Le Blanc. “The LCIW flood brought many challenges, but it also created an opportunity for us to design and build a new space that will help us better carry out our reform mission and transform the individuals we incarcerate.”
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| 2022-09-21T12:35:07Z
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HARLINGEN, Texas (Nexstar) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and challenger Beto O’Rourke will meet for a televised debate hosted by Nexstar Media Group at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on Sept. 30.
O’Rourke announced Thursday he accepted an invitation, nearly a month after Abbott accepted an invitation to the debate. This will be their only scheduled face-to-face debate during the campaign ahead of Election Day, Nov. 8.
The debate is scheduled for 7 p.m. at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Nexstar will host and televise the debate on KTAL and 13 other markets throughout the state, joined by KSAT-TV in San Antonio.
Additional details regarding the debate and press availability will be announced later this month.
In addition to the Nexstar-hosted debate, O’Rourke accepted invitations to four town-hall style debates in different areas of Texas. Abbott has not agreed to any debates beyond this one.
Nexstar Media adopted a set of criteria to determine which candidates are eligible to participate in a debate, which includes a requirement that a candidate must receive at least 10% support in an established, professionally-conducted, non-partisan poll leading up to the election.
A candidate also must have raised at least $50,000 in campaign contributions to be eligible.
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| 2022-09-21T12:35:13Z
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AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Texas has spent over $12 million to bus migrants from its southern border to sanctuary cities to date, according to the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM).
The latest city to receive buses unannounced is Chicago.
“We just left Venezuela, went to Colombia, going through the jungle in Panama,” William Mijares, a migrant who arrived on the buses in Chicago, said. “We were not treated like human beings. We were treated like the worst in the world.”
Many migrants share similar stories of their difficult journeys. That’s why Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said they are welcoming them.
“A very important moment for our city to stand up and unite and help these individuals start the next chapter of their lives,” Lightfoot said.
TDEM said the money is specifically coming from the border security budget approved by the Texas Legislature.
Abbott’s office created a portal to accept donations from the public to help fund busing efforts. The donation site lists the fund has raised $167,828 as of Aug. 17.
Gov. Greg Abbott began directing migrants elsewhere through the bus program in early April. It’s a political move to send a message to the Biden administration, which Abbott said isn’t doing enough to help with the surge of migrants at the southern border.
The first group was sent to Washington, D.C., then New York and now Chicago. According to Abbott, buses are being sent to places that are considered “sanctuary cities.”
Here’s a breakdown of how many migrants have gone to each city to date:
- D.C. – over 7,500
- New York City – over 1,900
- Chicago – over 95
Abbott’s press secretary, Renae Eze, in a statement said:
“President Biden has turned a blind eye to the suffering of Texans, as his dangerous open border policies overrun border communities with a record-breaking level of migrants from over 155 countries flooding into our state. Texas legislative leadership agreed with Governor Abbott that additional funds were needed for Texas to respond to the humanitarian crisis created by the Biden Administration, allocating additional Texas taxpayer money for Operation Lone Star and to help bus migrants to our nation’s capital, including providing security for the buses. And after Governor Abbott announced his plan to bus migrants to President Biden’s backyard in Washington, D.C., we received an outpouring of support from across our state and the entire country of people wanting to help and donate to the operation, raising over $167,000 so far. Texas continues stepping up to help our local partners and protect Texans—it’s time for President Biden and Congress to step up and do their job to secure our border.”
The bus program is voluntary for migrants, though, it’s not clear if migrants are made fully aware of details surrounding their transportation.
Lightfoot did condemn Abbott for not giving her city or others any warning or even to help coordinate the process.
“There’s a right or wrong way to do everything, and what Gov. Abbott is doing is precisely the wrong way,” Lightfoot said. “…[he] chose instead to…drop them off without any regard for what the next steps are.”
All cities where migrants have been sent are led by Democratic mayors.
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| 2022-09-21T12:35:21Z
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NEW YORK (AP) — A hearing officer for a federal labor board has rebuffed Amazon’s attempt to scrap a historic union win at a warehouse on Staten Island, New York, handing victory to organizers in what could be a very long battle for recognition.
Thursday’s win is a relief for the Amazon Labor Union, the grassroots group of former and current workers whose unexpected victory in April followed weeks of aggressive campaigning from both sides.
“Today is a great day for Labor,” Chris Smalls, a fired Amazon worker who now heads the union, wrote in Tweet celebrating the decision.
Shortly after the spring vote, Amazon filed more than two dozen objections with the National Labor Relations Board, claiming it was tainted by organizers and Region 29, the agency’s regional office in Brooklyn that oversaw the election. The case was then transferred to another regional office, based in Phoenix, Arizona, at Amazon’s request.
The 24-day long hearing, which Amazon had unsuccessfully sought to close to the public, was marked by tense exchanges between attorneys for both sides on what documents could be submitted for evidence and which witnesses could testify.
On Thursday, Lisa Dunn, the agency officer who handled the company’s case, concluded Amazon’s objections should be entirely overruled and the union be certified as a bargaining representative for the warehouse, a spokesperson for the NLRB wrote in an email.
“Employer has not met its burden of establishing that Region 29, the Petitioner, or any third parties have engaged in objectionable conduct affecting the results of the election,” the spokesperson said, offering a summary of Dunn’s recommendation.
Amazon Spokesperson Kelly Nantel said the company plans to appeal.
“While we’re still reviewing the decision, we strongly disagree with the conclusion and intend to appeal,” Nantel said in a statement. “As we showed throughout the hearing with dozens of witnesses and hundreds of pages of documents, both the NLRB and the ALU improperly influenced the outcome of the election and we don’t believe it represents what the majority of our team wants.”
Amazon, the union and the agency’s office in Brooklyn have until September 16 to file any exceptions to the report, which would send the case to the regional director, who will issue an order to certify the election results or order a rerun vote. The company could still appeal that order to the five-person labor board, whose Democratic majority is expected to be sympathetic to the union.
Even when the agency upholds a union victory, experts say companies who don’t want a unionized workforce often refuse to negotiate. That move can trigger protracted legal battles in federal court, which some companies could use as a backdoor attempt to thwart labor victories.
In May, the nascent union lost a separate election at a neighboring warehouse, which dampened enthusiasm elsewhere. At the same time, it was devoting more time and resources to defend its initial win from the e-commerce giant.
Other campaigns have kicked off at Amazon warehouses in North Carolina, Kentucky and elsewhere, as workers attempt to gather enough signatures to qualify for a union election. Amazon workers at a warehouse near Albany, New York are slated to vote in their own election in the coming months.
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| 2022-09-21T12:35:29Z
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SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday tentatively declined to overturn the jury conviction of disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes on four felony counts of fraud and conspiracy. That leaves the former Silicon Valley star a step closer to serving prison time.
U.S. District Judge Edward Davila won’t make that decision final until Oct. 17, when he is scheduled to sentence Holmes in the same San Jose, California, courtroom where a jury found her guilty of duping investors in her much-hyped blood-testing startup.
Holmes, 38, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, plus restitution, for lying to investors about a Theranos technology she hailed as a revolution in healthcare but which in practice produced dangerously inaccurate results.
Amy Saharia, one of Holmes’ lawyers, tried to persuade Davila that the jury of eight men and four women had acted irrationally during their seven days of deliberations. The judge concluded that the jurors drew reasonable inferences from evidence presented at the trial, although he said he would still review some cases Saharia presented before making a final decision.
Thursday’s 90-minute hearing marked the first time Holmes has returned to the court since her Jan. 3 conviction. The verdict ended a nearly four-month trial that recounted Holmes’ remarkable rise from a Stanford University dropout in 2003 to a lionized entrepreneur once worth $4.5 billion before it all unraveled in 2015.
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| 2022-09-21T12:35:36Z
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Micron will invest $15 billion though the end of the decade on a new semiconductor plant in its hometown that the chipmaker said will create 17,000 American jobs.
Sanjay Mehrotra, president and CEO of Boise, Idaho-based Micron, said his company’s investment was made possible by last month’s passage of the CHIPS and Science ACT of 2022, a $280 billion bill aimed at bolstering U.S. competitiveness against China and avoiding another chip shortage like the one that derailed the auto and tech industries during the pandemic.
The CHIPS law sets aside $52 billion to bolster the semiconductor industry, which due to COVID-related supply chain constraints beginning in 2020, has struggled to manufacture the diminutive chips that power everything from smartphones to computers to automobiles.
“Our new leading-edge memory manufacturing fab will fuel U.S. technology leadership, ensuring a reliable domestic supply of semiconductors that is critical to economic and national security,” Mehrotra said.
Micron said locating the manufacturing plant at the company’s operational headquarter will improve efficiency and help get products to market faster.
Boise Mayor Lauren McLean said the partnership will help the city’s economy grow and attract and diverse workforce.
“This is a once in a generation investment in Boise from a home-grown company that is critical to the economic vitality of our community, our state and our nation,” McLean wrote on Twitter.
McLean and Mehrotra last month attended President Biden’s bill signing ceremony for the CHIPS and Science Act. Idaho’s entire congressional delegation, all Republicans, voted against it.
Biden called the Micron announcement “another big win for America.”
Micron is one of Idaho’s largest employers. The company has several chip manufacturing plants around the world, including in Singapore and Taiwan.
Last week, the chipmaker Intel Corp. announced that it would break ground Sept. 9 on its planned $20 billion Ohio semiconductor facilities. The factories, known as fabs, are expected to open in 2025. President Biden is scheduled to attend the groundbreaking.
——
Rebecca Boone contributed from Boise, Idaho.
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Colorado's new homelessness czar's approach
Cole Chandler — the force behind tiny home villages and safe outdoor camping sites for unhoused people in Denver — now oversees the state's efforts to prevent homelessness.
Why it matters: Chandler's newly carved out position as director of homeless initiatives for Colorado Department of Human Services illustrates how homelessness has escalated from a Denver problem to a statewide one.
Details: Chandler told Axios Denver that one of his first goals is ensuring 75% of the roughly 6,000-8,000 people experiencing homelessness each year who are on state cash-assistance programs get connected to housing assistance.
- Right now, Chandler says the state doesn't have a baseline for what percentage of people end up connected with housing assistance because the numbers go untracked.
- He also will coordinate between state and local agencies, like those providing county-wide services, to identify gaps.
- He said he can be a "translator" between people who are homeless and government officials — a relationship traditionally marked by tension.
What they're saying: "I feel like I'm coming in with a charge … to really take action steps and try to advance change, and that's something I'm really excited about," Chandler told Axios Denver.
Yes, but: The tiny home villages and sanctioned campsites that Chandler is known for have faced some controversy.
- Globeville residents rallied against relocating a tiny home village in 2019, with some saying they felt pressured to host the site. The village was moved there the same year.
- Five Park Hill residents sued a pastor in 2021 to prevent a church parking lot from hosting such a site. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed.
- Mayor Michael Hancock was initially skeptical about the campsites, but the pandemic helped to change his mind.
Of note: Chandler isn't working to bring sanctioned camping locations to a statewide program. Instead, the governor's strategy is to create more affordable housing and access to health services.
- Conor Cahill, a spokesperson for Gov. Jared Polis, said the governor also believes in "working with local communities on the enforcement of their laws."
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| 2022-09-21T12:35:56Z
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Microsoft’s plan to buy video game giant Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion could have major effects on the gaming industry, transforming the Xbox maker into something like a Netflix for video games by giving it control of many more popular titles.
But to get to the next level, Microsoft must first survive a barrage of government inquiries from New Zealand to Brazil, and from U.S. regulators emboldened by President Joe Biden to strengthen their enforcement of antitrust laws.
In the United Kingdom, regulators on Thursday threatened to escalate their investigation unless both companies come up with proposals within five days to ease competition concerns. More than seven months after Microsoft announced the deal, only Saudi Arabia has approved it.
“A growing number of countries are subjecting major global transactions to deeper scrutiny,” said William Kovacic, a former chairman of the five-member U.S. Federal Trade Commission. “Many of the jurisdictions that are exercising that scrutiny are significant economies and can’t be brushed off.”
Microsoft has faced antitrust scrutiny before, mostly notably more than two decades ago when a federal judge ordered its breakup following the company’s anticompetitive actions related to its dominant Windows software. That verdict was overturned on appeal, although the court imposed other, less drastic, penalties on the company.
In recent years, however, Microsoft has largely escaped the more intense regulatory backlash its Big Tech rivals such as Amazon, Google and Facebook’s parent company Meta have endured. But the sheer size of the Activision Blizzard merger has drawn global attention.
The all-cash deal is set to be the largest in the history of the tech industry. It would give Microsoft, maker of the Xbox console and gaming system, control of popular game franchises such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush. There’s also a growing sense that past review of Big Tech mergers was too lax — such as when Facebook bought Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014.
“Collectively, that means that the kinds of concessions you’re going to have to make become more difficult,” Kovacic said.
The possibility of Microsoft gaining control of Call of Duty has been particularly worrisome to Sony, maker of the PlayStation console that competes with Microsoft’s Xbox. In a letter to Brazilian regulators, Sony emphasized Call of Duty as an “essential” game — a blockbuster so popular and ingrained that it would be impossible for a competitor to develop a rival product even if they had the budget to do so.
The U.K. watchdog’s preliminary inquiry raised similar worries. It said Microsoft’s control of popular Activision Blizzard games raised concerns that the deal would hurt rivals in multi-game subscription services and the cloud gaming market.
One solution could be a settlement in which Microsoft agrees to ensure that console-making rivals such as Sony or Nintendo won’t be cut off from popular Activision Blizzard games. Microsoft has already publicly signaled its openness to that concept.
Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, has said the company committed to Sony to make Activision games like Call of Duty “available on PlayStation beyond the existing agreement and into the future” — although many are skeptical about how long those promises would last if not set into regulatory consent decrees.
On the other hand, Microsoft also has a much better reputation in Washington than it did in 2000. It is “seen as more reasonable and sensible” on issues such as data privacy, Kovacic said.
Microsoft has also been working to win over skeptics in the U.S., starting with a labor union that’s been trying to organize Activision Blizzard employees. Democratic lawmakers have also expressed concern about allegations of Activision’s toxic workplace culture for women, which led to employee walkouts last year as well as discrimination lawsuits brought by California and federal civil rights enforcers.
In March, the Communications Workers of America had issued a call seeking tougher oversight of the deal from the U.S. Department of Justice, the FTC and state attorneys general. But a June 30 letter from the union to the FTC said it had switched to supporting the deal after Microsoft agreed “to ensure the workers of Activision Blizzard have a clear path to collective bargaining.”
Gaming represents a growing portion of Microsoft’s business, despite the company’s efforts to portray itself and Activision Blizzard as “small players in a highly fragmented publishing space,” per a document filed with New Zealand’s Commerce Commission.
In 2021, Microsoft spent $7.5 billion to acquire ZeniMax Media, the parent company of video game publisher Bethesda Softworks, which is behind popular video games The Elder Scrolls, Doom and Fallout. Microsoft’s properties also include the hit game Minecraft after it bought Swedish game studio Mojang for $2.5 billion in 2014.
The Redmond, Washington, tech giant has said the gaming acquisitions will help beef up its Xbox Game Pass game subscription service and its mobile offerings, particularly from Activision Blizzard’s King division, which makes Candy Crush.
Dutch game developer Rami Ismail said Microsoft’s subscription-based service has thus far been a positive for smaller game studios trying to get their content to users. But he’s unsure about the long-term impact of the merger.
“Xbox Game Pass as a product has been really good in getting interesting, creative games funded that might not have the normal market reach to be successful,” Ismail said. “On the flip side, as power consolidates, there is less of an incentive to do anything like that.”
Microsoft rivals are also consolidating. Sony in July closed on a $3.6 billion deal to buy Bungie Inc., maker of the popular game franchise Destiny and the original developer of Xbox-owned Halo. Take-Two Interactive, maker of Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, in May completed a $12.7 billion deal to acquire mobile gaming company Zynga, maker of FarmVille and Words With Friends.
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Permanently misspelled tweets might soon be a thing of the past.
Twitter said Thursday it will roll out an editing feature to subscribers of its premium Twitter Blue service later this month.
In an update on its plans to introduce an edit button, the social media company said it has been testing the feature internally, which it said is one of the most requested features to date.
The edit function will give users 30 minutes to make changes to their 280-character messages such as fixing typos or adding hashtags after first publishing a tweet.
To make it clear that a tweet has been modified, they’ll be labeled and appear with an icon and timestamp. Users can look up past versions of the tweet by tapping the label.
Twitter said it’s testing the edit feature with a small group of users so it can identify and resolve potential issues.
“This includes how people might misuse the feature,” the company said in a blog post. “You can never be too careful.”
The time limit and version history play an important role, Twitter said. “They help protect the integrity of the conversation and create a publicly accessible record of what was said.”
Twitter hinted that the edit feature would eventually be rolled out to all users. Testing helps the company understand how it impacts the way people use Twitter “as well as plan for and anticipate what might happen if we bring it to everyone,” spokeswoman Stephanie Cortez said.
Many Twitter users — among them, Kim Kardashian, Ice T, Katy Perry and McDonald’s corporate account — have long pleaded for an edit button.
The company said in April that it has been working on the feature since last year, a day after Tesla CEO Elon Musk polled his followers on whether they wanted an edit button. About three-quarters of the 4.4 million respondents said yes.
Later that month, Musk offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion with the promise that his ownership would bring big changes to the service. He has since attempted to back out of the deal citing concerns about fake accounts and whistleblower allegations of poor cybersecurity, setting the stage for a bruising legal battle over whether he has to go through with the purchase.
The premium service costs $4.99 per month.
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JERUSALEM (AP) — Two Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, the official Palestinian news agency said, blaming both deaths on Israeli troops conducting arrest raids. However, witnesses said one of the men was apparently killed by Palestinian gunmen in a drive-by shooting.
One of them was killed in the Balata refugee camp, the other in the town of el-Bireh.
In Balata, troops arrested a wanted Palestinian during one of several early morning raids in the West Bank, the Israeli military said. The army said troops came under fire and shot back.
The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that Samer Khaled, a 25-year-old Palestinian man, died of a bullet wound in Balata. The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, said he was killed by Israeli troops.
However, Palestinian witnesses said Khaled was shot by one or more Palestinian gunmen after the Israeli military had left the area. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. Khaled’s body was taken by his family for burial before health officials could perform an autopsy.
The Israeli military said it was aware of a death in Balata, but did not provide further information.
In the el-Bireh raid, the military said troops came under fire and fired back. Wafa said a 26-year-old man, identified as Yazan Afaneh, was killed by Israeli fire.
Israel has been conducting near-daily raids in the occupied West Bank since March, driving up tensions. Israel began the raids after a series of deadly attacks earlier this year by Palestinians against Israelis that killed 19 people.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed since the start of the year, many of them militants or Palestinians involved in clashes with Israeli forces, the military says. But the rising figure includes several civilians, including a veteran journalist and a lawyer who apparently drove unwittingly into a battle zone.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek the territories for a future independent state.
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| 2022-09-21T12:36:14Z
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HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Coast Guard Academy officials and a lawyer for several cadets are disputing each other’s accounts of what happened to seven students before and after they were forced to leave the Connecticut campus last month after refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The New London academy said in a statement Thursday that school officials helped the seven cadets make travel arrangements and “funded travel to the location of their choice.” Officials also said all seven cadets are living in safe locations, either having returned to their families or staying with families of other cadets.
The statement contradicted comments made earlier this week by Michael Rose, a lawyer for several of the cadets. Rose told The Day newspaper that school officials did not help the students with travel arrangements, did not give them any money for travel and that one of the cadets was forced to live in his truck because he is estranged from his family.
The academy disenrolled the seven cadets last month for failing to comply with the military’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate, after their requests for religious exemptions were denied earlier this year. The cadets, whose names have not been released, were required to leave the campus by Aug. 19.
Cmdr. Krystyn Pecora, an academy spokesperson, acknowledged later Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press that the academy did not give the cadets travel funds before they left campus, but rather will reimburse them later when the cadets file their expenses, per the school’s general travel expense policy.
Pecora also said officials were surprised to learn about the cadet who Rose said was forced to live in his truck, saying the student told officials he would be living with a fellow cadet’s family.
Rose said the student lived in his truck for four days while he figured out where he was going to live, because he could not stay with his family due to an ongoing dispute. Rose further said the student had informed academy officials that he had nowhere to go before leaving campus. The cadet is now staying with a high school friend in another state.
The academy also said in its statement Thursday that all seven cadets left the school “at their own convenience” throughout the day on Aug. 19, based on their individual travel arrangements. Rose had said the cadets “were escorted to the gate like they were criminals or something.”
Rose, who is based in Summerville, South Carolina, acknowledged Thursday that he was wrong about officials escorting cadets off campus. But he said officials had threatened to have armed guards take one of the cadets off campus if he didn’t leave by Aug. 19.
The academy noted that though the students are disenrolled, they have not yet been formally separated from the Coast Guard and are continuing to receive benefits and pay — about $1,600 a month, minus certain expenses including uniforms and books. It was not clear how long the separations will take.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last year made the COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for service members, including those at the military academies, saying the vaccine is critical to maintaining military readiness and the health of the force. Several lawsuits are challenging that mandate, including two in South Carolina and Texas involving some of the Coast Guard Academy cadets that Rose represents, as well as cadets from other academies.
The seven Coast Guard academy cadets filed for religious exemptions to the vaccination mandate in September 2021. They were told in March that their applications were rejected. They appealed that decision, but were denied in May and ordered to report to the academy clinic for vaccination, the academy said.
The seven cadets ultimately refused to follow that order and were told in June that they would be disenrolled for failing to follow the mandate and vaccination orders. They appealed their disenrollments, but were notified on Aug. 15 that their appeals were denied. The students were then told to leave campus by Aug. 19, the academy said.
Rose said the students were told on Aug. 18 that they had to leave campus the next day, and many scrambled to make arrangements.
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BREST, France (AP) — Australia and France are strengthening their defense cooperation and deepening their diplomatic ties, officials said Thursday, as the two countries seek to heal wounds from a controversy over a secret submarine contract that infuriated France a year ago.
During his last stop on a European tour, Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles assured France that his country is trying to “turn the page” and “move on” from the breakdown in relations.
The controversy erupted after Australia canceled a military contract with France that was worth billions of euros (dollars) and took its business instead to the United States and Britain.
“It’s critically important that our relationship moves forward with frankness, with respect and with honesty,” Marles said in a joint statement with his French counterpart, Sébastien Lecornu, in the western French port city of Brest.
The two ministers said they were committed to projects that will strengthen their joint defense capabilities and protect their “shared interests in a prosperous, resilient and secure” Indo-Pacific region.
They agreed to “enhance military cooperation,” including more robust joint military exercises, joint regional deployments, training activities and improved sharing of intelligence.
“Like all friendships, it has experienced ups and downs,” Lecornu, the French defense minister, said of their bilateral relations.
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| 2022-09-21T12:36:37Z
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Tougher clean energy goals, a ban on new oil and gas wells near homes and schools, and establishing guidelines for capturing carbon and storing it underground are among the climate proposals California Democrats advanced in the final days of the legislative session.
Taken together, along with tens of billions in budget money for climate proposals, the policies marked one of the state’s most groundbreaking years for climate action, some advocates said.
“This was a watershed year on climate action,” said Mary Creasman, chief executive officer for California Environmental Voters.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in August delivered to lawmakers a slate of climate proposals, some of which lawmakers had been pushing unsuccessfully for years. All but one, a proposal that would have required deeper greenhouse gas emissions cuts by 2030, will now head to his desk.
Broadly, legislative Republicans argued the bills would destroy in-state jobs and require the state to turn to foreign countries to import oil to maintain an economy that still relies heavily on fossil fuels. Democrats, meanwhile, said the urgency of climate change requires swifter, more aggressive action.
Here’s a look and some of the key measures:
NEIGHBORHOOD OIL DRILLING
Oil and gas companies would no longer be able to drill wells within 3,200 feet (975 meters) of homes, schools and other community sites.
About 2.7 million Californians live within that distance of a well already, according to state Sen. Lena Gonzalez, one of the bill’s authors. Studies show living near a drilling site can elevate the risk of birth defects, respiratory issues and health problems. Neighborhood oil wells are common across parts of Los Angeles County and Kern County.
The legislation wouldn’t shut down the more than 28,000 existing wells in that zone, but would require them to meet strict pollution controls. Those wells would also be barred from most permits to deepen or rework the wells.
State oil regulators announced a similar policy in 2021, though it has not yet been finalized. Supporters of the policy believed passing the law was the quickest path forward.
“This is a victory for every single family and every single frontline community in California that has been fighting Big Oil’s drilling in our backyards for decades and pushing for setbacks for years,” Kobi Naseck, coalition coordinator, for Voices in Solidarity Against Oil in Neighborhoods said in a statement.
California is the seventh largest oil-producing state and ranks fourteenth for natural gas production. Republican state Sen. Shannon Grove of Bakersfield, one of the state’s oil hubs, said the proposal would affect thousands of wells in her district and do nothing to reduce a need for oil.
“It doesn’t change the fact that Californians are still using oil every single day to make their lives more convenient and better,” she said.
RENEWABLE ENERGY
California has already mandated that 100% of retail electricity sales will come from non-carbon energy sources like solar and wind power by 2045. Current law sets an interim goal of 60% by 2030.
Lawmakers have now boosted that to 90% by 2035 and 95% by 2040.
The action comes as California is struggling to keep its power grid stable as the state transitions away from fossil fuels and record temperatures blanket the state.
The more aggressive targets will put even more pressure on the state to build more solar panels, wind turbines and batteries that can store that power for use at night. At the same time, electricity demand is expected to sore as California tries to get more people to swap out gas-powered cars and home appliances for electric ones.
Lawmakers also agreed to a policy aimed at extending the life of Diablo Canyon, the state’s last nuclear power plant, to help stabilize the energy grid. Supporters of nuclear power say it is an environmentally friendly carbon-free energy source, but critics worry about its safety. The bill says any power from the plant generated after August 2025 couldn’t count toward California’s 2045 clean energy targets.
Newsom, speaking Wednesday, acknowledged the challenges of having enough energy to meet demand during heat waves made worse by climate change. But he said that will only accelerate California’s push to build a cleaner energy grid.
“Don’t think for a second … that we’re going to de-escalate our commitment to that transition,” he said.
CARBON NEUTRALITY
Former California Gov. Jerry Brown signed an executive order in 2018 calling for the state to be carbon neutral by 2045, meaning any carbon that it emits is offset by removing a similar amount from the atmosphere.
Legislators on Wednesday voted to turn that goal into a law and require an 85% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions along with it. The second part is designed to ensure that the carbon neutrality is mostly achieved by lowering emissions, not taking carbon out of the air.
Some environmental groups are skeptical that carbon capture is a reliable and safe technology and worry it will be used to let oil companies keep emitting fossil fuels.
Another bill passed by the Legislature requires the state air board to create a permitting process for for such projects. It bans the technology from being used to extract more oil.
ODDS AND ENDS
Low-income Californians who don’t own a car would get a $1,000 tax credit under another proposal headed to Newsom’s desk. It would only be eligible for single people making less than $40,000 or couples making less than $60,000. Transportation is the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions in California, and the state is broadly trying to get people out of gas-powered cars over the next dozen years.
Meanwhile, a proposal that would have required corporations with revenues of more than $1 billion to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions failed to pass the Assembly.
Another bill that would have set the state’s 2030 greenhouse gas emission goals at 55% below 1990 levels also failed. The current requirement is a 40% reduction, which some observers say the state is not on path to achieve.
___
This story has been corrected to say that new clean energy legislation would require the state to get 90% of its electricity from renewable or non-carbon sources by 2035 and 95% by 2040, not by 2030 and 2035. The story also clarifies that any power generated at Diablo Canyon after 2025 would not count toward California’s clean energy targets.
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Saucy questions with Des Moines' Chuck Offenburger and Mary Riche
Today's "Saucy Questions" go to two 70-something widowers who got hitched this month after a nearly 50-year friendship: Chuck Offenburger and Mary Riche.
State of play: Offenburger is the Des Moines Register's former "Iowa Boy" columnist. Riche is a retired psychotherapist.
- They have homes in DSM and Jefferson and publish news or opinion on their website.
🥵 Q: Mary, you didn't know until a few months ago that your "personal Plan B" as a septuagenarian would include love and marriage. How are you sure this thing between you two ain't just hormones?
A: "It is about hormones. No further comment."
☝️ Q: Chuck, decades ago Mary's mom would send you story ideas. Do you think she was trying to set you up?
A: "In retrospect, I hope so and I should have paid attention."
🎤 Q: You sing together and have cute pet names for each other. Can we anticipate an upcoming album from "Darlin' & Puddin'"?
A: "The requests are pouring in after our memorable debut at the Offenburger family reunion.
- We're planning to add another song to our current playlist of two songs with rehearsals to start soon."
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CASTAIC, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters battling a Southern California wildfire were pulled back at times to find rest and shade on Thursday, a day after seven were sent to the hospital in the midst of a grueling heat wave.
Progress on the Route Fire in northwestern Los Angeles County gave strike team leaders the luxury of splitting and rotating their crews for breaks fire Capt. Sheila Kelliher-Berkoh said.
“There’s no standown work order but they’re really pacing the work,” with some firefighters able to take 20-minute breaks and find shade back of the fire line before returning to the the job of stamping out hot spots, Kelliher-Berkoh said.
Firefighters are “industrial athletes” who might be hauling up to 50 pounds of gear in addition to their boots, clothing and helmets, and keeping them safe is a priority, especially as they work in steep terrain in extreme heat, Kelliher-Berkoh said.
No one suffered heat exhaustion on Friday so “the strategy seems to be working,” she said.
The blaze in Castaic was 27% contained Thursday night.
Progress also was made on a fire in eastern San Diego County near the U.S.-Mexico border that left two people hospitalized with critical second- and third-degree burns, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.
The victims were burned after apparently crossing the border, and five other people had to be rescued, Tony Mecham, Cal Fire unit chief in San Diego County, said at a news conference.
“Those people ran for their lives,” he said. “”They had a very close call.”
The blaze also destroyed three homes and seven other buildings.
“It wiped everything out, the only thing I have left is the clothes on my back, so far I saved one of my dogs and two of the cats,” Ronnie Fukuda, who lost his home in the community of Potrero, told KSWB-TV.
The Border 32 Fire in the Dulzura area grew to nearly 7 square miles (18 square kilometers) on Wednesday and prompting evacuation orders for about 1,500 people in hundreds of residences. However, the fire had stalled on Thursday. It was 14% contained and some people were allowed to return home, fire officials said.
The fires erupted as California broiled under a heat wave that was expected to last through Labor Day, sparking concerns about the threat of new blazes in tinder-dry brush. Triple-digit forecasts also prompted worries about straining the state’s electrical grid as people turned to their air conditioners. The California Independent System Operator, which oversees the grid, issued a “Flex Alert” call for voluntary conservation between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. Friday — the third alert in a row.
At the Route Fire in Castaic, seven firefighters were sent to the hospital on Wednesday with heat-related problems before being released. Temperatures remained torrid on Friday, topping out at 112 degrees in Castaic.
However, about 400 firefighters aided by aircraft managed to quell the explosive growth of the blaze, which had scorched more than 8 square miles (21 square kilometers) and destroyed a house. No homes remained threatened and evacuations were lifted, fire officials said.
The fire closed Interstate 5, a major north-south route but some lanes had reopened, although the highway remained jammed, especially by big-rigs.
Wildfires have sprung up this summer throughout the Western states. The largest and deadliest blaze in California so far this year erupted in July in Siskyou County. It killed four people and destroyed much of the small community of Klamath River.
Scientists say climate change has made the West warmer and drier over the last three decades and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.
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BEIJING (AP) — The U.N. accused China of serious human rights violations that may amount to “crimes against humanity” in a long-delayed report examining a crackdown on Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups. Beijing on Thursday denounced the assessment as a fabrication cooked up by Western nations.
Human rights groups have accused China of sweeping a million or more people from the minority groups into detention camps where many have said they were tortured, sexually assaulted, and forced to abandon their language and religion. The camps were just one part of what the rights organizations have called a ruthless campaign against extremism in the far western province of Xinjiang that also included draconian birth control policies and all-encompassing restrictions on people’s movement.
The assessment from the Geneva-based U.N. human rights office was released in the final minutes of High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet’s four-year term. It largely corroborated earlier reporting by researchers, advocacy groups and the news media, and it added the weight of the world body to the conclusions. But it was not clear what impact it would have.
Still, among Uyghurs who have fled overseas, there was a palpable sense of relief that the report had finally seen the light of day since many worried that it would never be published. Several saw it as a vindication of their cause and of years of advocacy work.
“The report is pretty damning, and a strong indictment on China’s crimes against humanity,” said Rayhan Asat, a Uyghur lawyer whose brother is imprisoned in Xinjiang. “It’s a really long-awaited recognition of the Uyghurs and their unimaginable suffering, coming from the world’s most authoritative voice on human rights.”
Human rights groups, the U.S., Japan and European governments also welcomed the report. It had become caught up in a tug-of-war between China and major Western nations as well as human rights groups that have criticized the repeated delays in releasing the document. Many Geneva diplomats believe it was nearly complete a year ago.
The assessment released late Wednesday concluded that China has committed serious human rights violations under its anti-terrorism and anti-extremism policies and calls for “urgent attention” from the U.N., the world community and China itself to address them.
Human rights groups renewed calls for the U.N. Human Rights Council, which meets next month, to set up an independent international body to investigate the allegations. But China showed no sign of backing off its blanket denials or portraying the criticism as a politicized smear campaign.
“The assessment is a patchwork of false information that serves as political tools for the U.S. and other Western countries to strategically use Xinjiang to contain China,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said. “It again shows that the U.N. Human Rights Office has been reduced to an enforcer and accomplice of the U.S. and other Western countries.”
In a sign of China’s fury, it issued a 122-page rebuttal, entitled “Fight against Terrorism and Extremism in Xinjiang: Truth and Facts,” that was posted by the U.N. along with the report.
The U.N. findings were drawn in part from interviews with more than two dozen former detainees and others familiar with conditions at eight detention centers. They described being beaten with batons, interrogated while water was poured on their faces and forced to sit motionless on smalls stools for long periods.
Some said they were prevented from praying — and were made to take shifts through the night to ensure their fellow detainees were not praying or breaking other rules. Women told of being forced to perform oral sex on guards or undergo gynecological exams in front of large groups of people.
The report said that descriptions of the detentions were marked by patterns of torture and other cruel and inhumane treatment and that allegations of rape and other sexual violence appeared “credible.”
“The extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups … in (the) context of restrictions and deprivation more generally of fundamental rights … may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity,” the report said.
It made no mention of genocide, which some countries, including the United States, have accused China of committing in Xinjiang.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the report, saying in a statement that it “deepens and reaffirms our grave concern.” He added: “We will continue to work closely with our partners, civil society, and the international community to seek justice and accountability for the many victims.”
The rights office said it could not confirm estimates that a million or more people were detained in the internment camps in Xinjiang, but added it was “reasonable to conclude that a pattern of large-scale arbitrary detention occurred” at least between 2017 and 2019.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres believes the assessment “clearly identifies serious human rights violations in the Xinjiang region,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Thursday. He said the U.N. chief “very much hopes” China will follow recommendations in the assessment.
Beijing has closed many of the camps, which it called vocational training and education centers, but hundreds of thousands of people continue to languish in prison, many on vague, secret charges.
The report called on China to release all individuals arbitrarily detained and to clarify the whereabouts of those who have disappeared and whose families are seeking information about them.
“Japan is highly concerned about human rights conditions in Xinjiang, and we believe that it is important that universal values such as freedom, basic human rights and rule of law are also guaranteed in China,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said.
Germany and Britain also welcomed its publication.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who is also the frontrunner in the contest to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister, noted that the report “includes harrowing evidence, including first-hand accounts from victims, that shames China in the eyes of the international community.”
Human Rights Watch said the report laid a solid foundation for further U.N. action to establish accountability for the abuses.
“Never has it been so important for the U.N. system to stand up to Beijing, and to stand with victims,” said John Fisher, the deputy director of global advocacy for the group.
Rahima Mahmut, U.K. director of the World Uyghur Congress, said she was relieved the report is finally out — but had no hope it would change the Chinese government’s behavior and called on the international community to send a signal to Beijing that “business cannot be as usual.”
That the report was released was in some ways as important as its contents.
Outgoing rights chief Bachelet said she had to resist pressure both to publish and not publish. She had announced in June that the report would be released by end of her four-year term on Aug. 31, triggering a swell in back-channel campaigns — including letters from civil society, civilians and governments on both sides of the issue.
Why she waited until the last minute to release the report remains unclear.
Critics had said a failure to publish the report would have been a glaring black mark on her tenure.
“The inexcusable delay in releasing this report casts a stain” on the record of the U.N. human rights office, said Agnès Callamard, the secretary-general of Amnesty International, “but this should not deflect from its significance.”
___
Keaten reported from Geneva. Associated Press journalists Dake Kang in Beijing, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, and Sylvia Hui in London contributed to this report.
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| 2022-09-21T12:37:07Z
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PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech Republic’s coalition government on Thursday faced a parliamentary no-confidence vote over its handling of the energy crisis and a scandal involving the head of one of the country’s spy agencies.
The opposition accused the coalition of not doing enough to help people and businesses cope with the high prices for electricity and natural gas.
The government argues it has introduced a plan to support the households by some 15,000 Czech crowns ($611) on average in the coming winter and was working on further steps to ease the financial pressure.
The government was also planning to call an emergency meeting of other European Union countries next week to seek a united approach to the issue. The Czech Republic currently holds the bloc’s rotating presidency.
In a separate issue, the opposition has demanded the resignation of Petr Mlejnek, the head of the Office for Foreign Relations and Information, due to his contacts with a businessman who has been facing corruption charges.
Mlejnek has denied wrongdoing but resigned from his post on Wednesday. Opposition lawmakers are demanding the replacement of Interior Minister Vit Rakusan, who appointed Mlejnek and has backed him.
The opposition parties, including the centrist ANO movement led by former populist Prime Minister Andrej Babis and the anti-migrant Freedom and Direct Democracy party, are unlikely to oust the five-party coalition government which has a comfortable majority in the lower house of Parliament.
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| 2022-09-21T12:37:15Z
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BEIJING (AP) — China has responded furiously to a United Nations report on alleged human rights abuses in its northwestern Xinjiang region targeting Uyghurs and other mainly Muslim ethnic minorities.
The report has been in the works for years and was released despite Chinese efforts to delay or block it, aware of how it could validate claims that more than 1 million ethnic minority members were forcibly sent to centers it says were for vocational training.
Those who were held, their relatives and monitoring groups describe them as prison-like reeducation centers where inmates were forced to denounce Islam and their traditional culture, while swearing fidelity to the ruling Communist Party.
The camps have been part of a widespread campaign of repression in Xinjiang, allegedly including involuntary sterilizations of women, forced labor, the demolition of mosques and other religious sites, the separation of Muslim children from their families and the harassment of minority members living abroad.
WHERE IS XINJIANG AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO CHINA?
Xinjiang is a vast but sparsely populated region of mountains, forests and deserts in far northwestern China that borders Russia, Pakistan and several Central Asian nations. The ancient Silk Road ran through parts of it and various nationalities and Chinese empires controlled its cities and oases over the centuries, with the Communist Party taking complete control following its 1949 victory in the Chinese civil war.
The region contains a wealth of natural resources, including oil, gas and rare earth minerals, but perhaps its most important value is as a strategic buffer that extends China’s influence westward. While China and Russia have largely aligned their foreign policies in recent years, Xinjiang was on the front line of their Cold War rivalry and remains important as an assertion of Chinese influence in Moscow’s back yard.
WHAT PROMPTED CHINA’S CRACKDOWN ON MINORITIES?
Xinjiang’s Uyghurs, along with the closely related Kazakh and Kyrgyz, are predominantly Turkic Muslims who are culturally, religiously and linguistically distinct from China’s dominant Han ethnic group. Repression under Communist rule, particularly during the violent and xenophobic 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, stirred deep animosity in Xinjiang toward the government, aggravated further by the migration of Han to the region and their domination of political and economic life.
Uyghurs established two short-lived independent governments in Xinjiang prior to the Communist Party’s seizure of power, and the desire for self-rule endured and was nurtured by resentment against heavy-handed Chinese rule. A protest movement began in the 1990s and remained at a relatively low level until simmering anger exploded in a 2009 riot in the regional capital of Urumqi that left an estimated 200 people dead. More violence followed within Xinjiang and as far away as Beijing, prompting Chinese leader Xi Jinping to order a massive crackdown starting in 2014.
WHAT IS THE BASIS FOR THE UN ACCUSATIONS?
With Xi’s blessing, Xinjiang’s hard-line leader, Chen Quanguo, who took office in 2016, began sending Uyghurs and others into a vast network of fortified camps without legal due process. It remains unclear what criteria were used to determine if a person needed to be sent for what the authorities called retraining or de-radicalization, but those who showed religious tendencies, the well-educated and anyone with foreign connections were especially susceptible.
Conditions in the camps have been described as overcrowded and unhygienic, with those inside forced to renounce their religion and culture and praise Xi and the Communist Party. Harsh punishments were meted out for those who refused to comply and the length of sentences were indeterminate. While China says it has closed the camps, many of those held have since received lengthy prison terms within a system that remains overwhelmingly opaque. The U.S. and others have labeled China’s policies against Xinjiang minorities as “genocide.”
WHAT HAS BEEN CHINA’S RESPONSE?
China has always denied targeting Uyghurs and others for their religion and culture, denouncing the accusations as a confection of lies by the West and saying its crackdown was aimed at quashing separatism, terrorism and religious extremism. It has said camp attendance was voluntary and no human rights were abused, although internal Chinese documents have frequently contradicted such claims.
Beijing has also cited carefully choreographed visits by journalists, diplomats and, most recently, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, as validating its claims. Some observers say the tide of criticism may have prompted Beijing to wind down the detentions earlier than planned to salvage its reputation among Muslim nations and in the developing world.
In a note accompanying the U.N. report, China’s diplomatic mission in Geneva registered its strong opposition to the findings, which it said ignore human rights achievements in Xinjiang and the damage caused by terrorism and extremism to the population.
“Based on the disinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces and out of presumption of guilt, the so-called ‘assessment’ distorts China’s laws, wantonly smears and slanders China, and interferes in China’s internal affairs,” the note said in part.
WHAT WILL BE THE OUTCOME FOR CHINA?
China’s authoritarian leaders have outwardly defied criticism of their policies in Xinjiang, but have been unsuccessful in thwarting international sanctions on officials who were involved and bans on cotton and other commodities from the region. The report’s release comes despite China’s growing influence within the U.N. and its pressure campaign against critics in the human rights community.
China has maintained its defiance and appears to believe its policies have been effective and should continue, despite any costs to its international reputation. On Thursday, its Foreign Ministry scoffed at the U.N. report, saying it was “orchestrated and produced by the U.S. and some Western forces and is completely illegal and void.”
“It is a patchwork of false information that serves as political tool for the U.S. and other Western countries to strategically use Xinjiang to contain China,” ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.
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| 2022-09-21T12:37:30Z
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BEIJING (AP) — When Zumret Dawut heard that the United Nations had declared that China’s crackdown in its far-western Xinjiang region may constitute crimes against humanity, she burst into tears.
Her mind flashed back to her cellmates in the camp she was detained in, to her father who died while in Xinjiang police custody. She felt vindicated.
“I felt there was justice, that there are people who care in this world,” she said. “I felt like our testimonies, our efforts to raise awareness have finally paid off.”
For Dawut and other camp survivors now outside China, the U.N.’s report on mass detentions and other rights abuses against Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang was the culmination of years of advocacy, a welcome acknowledgement of abuses they say they faced at the hands of the Chinese state.
The long-delayed assessment released late Wednesday by the U.N. human rights office in Geneva concluded that China has committed serious human rights violations under its anti-terrorism and anti-extremism policies and called for “urgent attention” from the U.N., the world community and China itself to address them.
The report was at the center of a tug-of-war between rights groups and the Chinese government, which had repeatedly sought to stymie its publication. It largely corroborates earlier reporting by researchers, activist groups and the news media, while steering away from estimates and other findings that cannot be definitively proven.
The significance of the assessment, survivors say, is the weight and authority of the United Nations. Though individual governments, including the United States and the parliaments of France and the U.K., have criticized the crackdown before, such declarations were brushed aside by Beijing as political attacks by Western countries.
“This time, China can’t avoid this accusation,” said Tahir Imin, a Uyghur publisher in exile with dozens of relatives in prison. “The United Nations is a neutral organization, the highest organization. … It’s a stain on the Communist Party.”
The Chinese government swiftly denounced the report, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin calling it “a patchwork of false information that serves as a political tool for the U.S. and other Western countries” to contain China.
Beijing has spent years trying to control the narrative, vilifying people who have spoken against the crackdown while organizing tours and news conferences promoting its position. State media have interviewed Xinjiang residents who denounced accusations against the Chinese government as lies, though evidence shows that such statements are often scripted and coerced.
Many camp survivors faced years of threats by Chinese police in attempts to silence them, leaving them with a stark choice: speak out and face the consequences, or stay quiet to protect their loved ones.
Dawut made her choice on a fateful Friday in New York three years ago. That day, she was on her way to the United Nations to share her story for the first time when she got a call.
It was her brother, telling her that the police had come for their father and urging her not to speak. She froze with fear.
“But I thought of so many fathers and mothers in the camp, how I needed to speak up for them,” she said. “I thought, I will not change my mind. I will go.”
The consequences were immediate. Relatives in Xinjiang blocked her calls and texts. Two weeks later, an ex-neighbor called, saying her father had died while in police custody. The exact circumstances are unclear.
Now, Dawut said, it was all worth it.
“I felt like I did the right thing,” she said. “I am walking the path of truth.”
The U.N. report corroborated different aspects of the crackdown reported over the years, including forced labor, pervasivesurveillance, family separations and coercive birth control measures.
But the focus of the report was squarely on the mass detentions. The rights office said it could not confirm estimates that a million or more people were detained in the internment camps in Xinjiang, but that it was “reasonable to conclude that a pattern of large-scale arbitrary detention occurred” at least between 2017 and 2019.
Interviews and AP visits to the region show that China appears to have closed many of the camps, which it called vocational training and education centers. But hundreds of thousands of people continue to languish in prison on vague, secret charges, with leaked data showing one county in Xinjiang has the highest known imprisonment rate in the world.
Among those who fled Xinjiang, there was a palpable sense of relief, as they had worried that the U.N. report would be suppressed or watered down. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet had said little after visiting Xinjiang on a government-organized tour in May, prompting criticism and concern from Uyghur groups.
Dina Nurdybay, an ethnic Kazakh who spent almost a year in detention, said she was worried when she heard Bachelet had visited Xinjiang at Beijing’s invitation. Nurdybay said she had been forced in the camps to sing and dance for journalists and officials, parrot propaganda and pretend life was great there. She worried that outside investigators would be tricked.
“It’s all lies,” she said. “You think it’s voluntary?”
Now, she said, she hopes the U.N. will help people like her escape harassment and live in peace. Every time she speaks to journalists, she said, Chinese police haul away her uncle and interrogate him for days at a time, telling him he should make her “shut up.”
Mihrigul Tursun, who testified about the camps before the U.S. Congress in November 2018, said the price she paid for speaking out was constant threats to her safety and a state-sponsored smear campaign. She’s been called a liar, followed by cars, photographed at restaurants by strangers. She is now under FBI watch, she said, after men dressed in hoodies broke her window and slipped a threatening letter under her door, forcing her to move seven times.
Before she went public, she spent sleepless nights sobbing, pondering whether to speak out. If she did, she knew she could never go back home, that she might never see her parents again.
But she remembered the women held in the cell with her. They had sworn an oath together: Whoever made it out would speak out about what they had witnessed inside, no matter the consequences.
“I feel like a dead person. They killed my dreams, they killed my hopes. I lost everything when I was in the camps,” Tursun said. “But today I feel a little better, because all that hard work has born some fruit.”
But, she added, the report is just the beginning. She won’t be satisfied, she said, until all the detention facilities are closed.
“We need results, we need action,” she said. “I need to know after the U.N. report, what can we do after that?”
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| 2022-09-21T12:37:37Z
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ISLAMABAD (AP) — A Pakistani court on Thursday extended former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s protection from arrest until September 12, his lawyer said, more than a week after police filed terrorism charges against the country’s popular opposition leader.
The latest development is another reprieve for Khan. The court order effectively shields him from arrest over accusations that he threatened police and a female judge during his speech at a rally last month.
In Pakistan, terrorism charges can be levied against anyone accused of threatening a government official or Pakistan’s military and security institutions.
According to a police report, Khan in his speech had criticized the inspector-general of Islamabad police and another judge, saying “You also get ready for it, we will also take action against you.”
The government responded by filing terrorism charges against Khan, who was ousted through a no-confidence vote in the parliament. Khan was replaced by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who wants Khan to be tried under the 1997 anti-terrorism law, which granted police wider powers.
Khan faces two other cases against him and has been granted bail in both.
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| 2022-09-21T12:37:45Z
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BAGHDAD (AP) — Four militants were killed in reprisal attacks between rival Shiite militia groups in southern Iraq, two security officials said Thursday, after violent clashes in Baghdad brought the country to the precipice of street warfare.
Iraqi security forces were swiftly deployed in the southern oil-rich city of Basra to contain the violence that erupted overnight between an armed faction of powerful cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the Asaib Ahl al-Haq paramilitary group, led by a key, Iran-backed rival.
Two militiamen from al-Sadr’s group Saraya Salam and two from AAH were killed in the attacks, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. The details of the attacks were not immediately clear and there were conflicting reports.
The attacks come after clashes in Baghdad’s government zone between al-Sadr’s loyalists and Iraqi security forces left at least 30 people dead and over 400 wounded. The armed hostilities ended on Tuesday when al-Sadr called on his followers to withdraw.
The threat of more clashes looms as the political rivalry between al-Sadr and his Iran-backed rivals in the Coordination Framework bloc, which includes the leader of AAH, Qais al-Khazali, have not been settled.
Both camps disagree over the appropriate mechanism to dissolve parliament and hold early elections, key demands of al-Sadr. His party won the 2021 general election but was not able to reach the legislative quorum to vote in a government that excluded his Iran-friendly rivals.
The U.N. Security Council condemned the recent violence, appealed for “calm and restraint,” and urged all parties to peacefully resolve their difference and respect the rule of law and the right to peaceful assembly..
A Supreme Court session to decide on whether the judiciary can dissolve parliament, a demand of al-Sadr, has been postponed to next Wednesday. A negative ruling is expected to elicit a reaction from the cleric.
For now, the tensions appear to have migrated from Baghdad to the southern majority Shiite provinces where the state’s authority is frayed. Saraya Salam and AAH have been engaged in revenge attacks for years. The clashes in Baghdad led to the recent flare-up when al-Sadr’s militiamen attacked AAH’s offices.
In retaliation, AAH attacked al-Sadr’s militiamen and a battle ensued for several hours throughout the night. By Thursday morning, Basra’s governor, Asad al-Eidani, said calm had been restored.
Al-Sadr’s representative who goes by the Twitter moniker Salah Mohammed al-Iraqi hurled a personal attack against Khazali following the altercations, calling his militias “mad dogs.”
Khazali later instructed his followers not to be provoked by the comments and for AAH to close their offices until further notice.
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| 2022-09-21T12:37:52Z
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Exclusive: Nodal debuts as "Bumble for surrogacy"
You could say fertility specialist Brian Levine is walking the walk with his latest endeavor—a surrogacy-matching startup called Nodal that Levine is launching without getting paid for it.
Why it matters: Surrogacy is a particularly expensive and antiquated piece of the fertility landscape that can cost up to $125,000 or more per child. Since Nodal aims to make surrogacy more accessible, Levine says it makes sense to steer the company in a compensation-free role.
- The surrogacy process is "cost-prohibitive, time-prohibitive and emotionally exhausting," Levine tells Axios. "I can either be complicit and part of it or use the same energy and say, 'let’s fix this system.'"
Deal details: Nodal is launching with $4.7 million in funding led by Amplo, Levine tells Axios exclusively.
- Also joining the round are Scott Belsky of Behance, Chelsea Hirschhorn of Frida, Kate Ryder of Maven Clinic, Great Oaks Venture Capital and Interplay Venture Capital. Nodal’s advisory board includes Anu Duggal of Female Founders Fund and Robin Berzin of Parsley Health.
How it works: Nodal encourages surrogates to connect with intended parents over its tech platform — similar to dating app Bumble — and offers educational and support tools to both parties.
- Nodal aims to replace archaic tools that currently characterize the system, like faxes, mailed photocopies and manual reviews of records.
- Users pay $500 per month to create a profile on the company’s platform, which surrogates then browse. A match is $6,000.
- All users are screened in a process that includes background checks and live interviews.
- The company works with surrogates, intended parents, surrogacy agencies and and assisted reproductive technology (ART) attorneys. "I think we're collaborative with the current system," says Levine.
Context: Nodal is unique in applying tech to the surrogacy market, but a growing cadre of tech-forward startups is emerging to shake up most parts of the fertility care landscape, from diagnostic testing to IVF financing, such as:
- Reproductive support startup Noula Health in March raised $1.4 million in pre-seed funding to offer potential parents nutritional guidance and testing.
- Future Family, a startup combining fertility financing and care support, in April collected $25 million in Series B funding at an $80 million valuation.
- Gaia on Valentine's Day fetched $20 million in Series A funding for its personalized IVF insurance product.
Be smart: Trends driving investor interest in the reproductive health sector include:
- People choosing to have children later in life, which can make the process biologically harder and increase the appeal of supportive tech.
- Discussions around reproductive health and infertility being increasingly less stigmatized.
- Employers starting to see reproductive health tools as key workplace benefits.
One fun thing: The name Nodal comes from the company's aim to connect different nodes of the surrogacy system.
What they're saying: Maven founder and CEO Kate Ryder tells Axios more than half of users sign up for Maven looking for surrogacy support, so it made sense to invest in a company specializing in improving the process with a focus on accessibility and affordability.
- People "come to us because they don’t understand the agency landscape and they’re stressed," Ryder says.
- Since much of what surrogacy agencies do is conduct health screenings and provide support, "there's a great opportunity for a tech platform and surrogacy coaches to help with that."
The take-home: "In medical school I took an oath to do no harm," Levine says. "I think if we allow the price [of surrogacy] to go unchecked, we are doing harm."
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| 2022-09-21T12:37:59Z
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BERLIN (AP) — Prices for gasoline and public transport in Germany surged Thursday as government subsidies expired, hurting commuters already struggling with high energy costs.
Germany’s biggest auto club, ADAC, said initial estimates indicated that the average price of one liter of E10 super was about 0.25 euros ($0.25) higher in the morning than the previous day. Diesel fuel was about 0.10 euros ($0.10) more expensive, it said.
Thursday marked the end of a temporary cut in gasoline taxes and a special 9-euro ($9) monthly public transport ticket unveiled by the government in May to ease the pain of inflation.
The discount public transport ticket, usable on all local and regional buses and trains, was hailed as a particular success for allowing millions of people to travel the country cheaply, while saving an estimated 1.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
Environmental campaigners have called for the tickets to be extended in some form. Germany’s transport minister says he is looking into the idea.
The government is trying to encourage consumers and businesses to save energy whichever way they can to prevent a shortage during the winter months, after Russia sharply reduced flows of natural gas to Germany. It recently announced that temperatures will be lowered in public offices this winter and the lighting on street advertising must be switched off at night.
Germany has pledged to wean itself off Russian gas within the next two years in response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine. On Thursday, the government announced that it is leasing a fifth floating terminal for importing liquefied natural gas.
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BERLIN (AP) — A man has been charged in Germany with attempted incitement to murder after allegedly paying thousands of dollars in a series of attempts to engage a contract killer to slay the partner of a man he desired, only to discover he had been defrauded by a darknet website.
Berlin prosecutors said Thursday they had indicted the 28-year-old, who was arrested in April.
They said the suspect first tried winning over the object of his desire — who didn’t return his affections and already had a partner — using “witches’ curses” booked online.
The suspect allegedly decided in February to kill the man’s partner, prosecutors said in a statement. They said he registered with a site on the darknet — a part of the internet accessible only through specialized anonymity-providing tools — that appeared to arrange contract killings.
He allegedly provided the details, address and photos of the intended victim, stipulating that the killing should look like an accident or a robbery, and set a reward of $9,000 in bitcoin. He increased the sum on offer a few days later.
Two weeks after his first payment, according to prosecutors, the suspect was told online that the intended killer had been arrested but a replacement would jump in if he paid more. He agreed, bringing his payments to a total of $24,000 in bitcoin. He then complained when nothing happened.
In early April, the suspect demanded that a third contract killer be put on the case, according to prosecutors.
The following day, the website’s administrator told him that he had been dealing with a fraudulent site and that he couldn’t get his money back. However, the suspect was told that, if he wanted, he could offer his own services as a contract killer and defraud prospective customers, according to prosecutors.
He allegedly took up the suggestion, while still looking for other ways to hire a killer.
The suspect was identified and arrested thanks to a journalist’s research, prosecutors said.
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| 2022-09-21T12:38:07Z
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BERLIN (AP) — Mikhail Gorbachev was enduringly popular in Germany for enabling the country’s reunification after four decades of post-World War II division — and setting the scene for the peaceful collapse of communism that made it possible.
Even 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Gorbachev was hailed with chants of “Gorby! Gorby!” as he attended a ceremony in 2014 marking the anniversary in the reunited capital.
The Cold War border that split Germany into capitalist West and communist East after World War II looked set in stone when Gorbachev came to power in the mid-1980s. But little more than five years later, the country was reunited as a member of NATO and with a pledge for the withdrawal of Soviet troops.
Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday at 91, was remembered with fondness and gratitude in Berlin, and also with a hint of wistfulness at a time when the invasion of Ukraine has driven Russia and Germany apart.
“I don’t think we were able to imagine reunification at all during the Cold War,” veteran lawmaker Wolfgang Schaeuble, the West German interior minister at the time and one of the main negotiators of the country’s unity, told ARD television. “And that it then happened — in peace and freedom, without a drop of blood, couldn’t have been imagined without Gorbachev.”
Former Chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up in East Germany and worked as a scientist there, said that “Mikhail Gorbachev radically changed my life as well — I will never forget that.”
Soon after taking power in Moscow, Gorbachev had started the process of reform and increasing openness. Without that, Merkel said, “the peaceful revolution in East Germany would not have been possible.”
In 1989, pressure for change mounted in the communist countries of eastern Europe — including East Germany, whose long-serving hardline leadership had little appetite for reform.
Visiting East Berlin for the country’s 40th anniversary celebrations in October 1989, amid protests by demonstrators chanting “Gorby, help us,” Gorbachev is said to have warned its leaders that “life punishes those who come too late.” Whether he actually said those words is a matter of contention, but they did sum up his message.
Merkel said she could still recall the fear that she and others felt at the time of a military crackdown.
“But this time … no tanks rolled, there were no shots,” she said. “Instead, Mikhail Gorbachev reproached the aging East German leadership with the sentence: ‘Life punishes those who come too late.’”
Just over a month later, under pressure from ever-larger demonstrations, the East German government opened the highly fortified border that had stopped most of the country’s population from traveling to the West.
In an interview with Germany’s Stern magazine in 2013, Gorbachev said he wasn’t woken up with news of the fall of the Wall — a pivotal moment in the collapse of communism in the Soviet-dominated eastern bloc — “and it wasn’t necessary.”
“Our position was clear from the beginning,” he said. “We knew that Europe can’t live with a divided Germany, with a time bomb. I understood that Russians and Germans have to reconcile.”
“We were convinced that the reunification of the Germans was in everyone’s interest — even if Britain and France initially stood against it,” he added.
Gorbachev, who recalled growing up amid the horrors of Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, said that he had forgiven the Germans.
The road from the fall of the Berlin Wall to German reunification just under 11 months later was stunningly swift. Gorbachev and his rapport with then-West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl were given much of the credit.
In February 1990, Kohl said during a visit to Moscow that Gorbachev had “pledged unambiguously that the Soviet Union will respect the Germans’ decision to live in one state, and that it is a matter for the Germans to determine the timing of and path to unification.”
In July, Kohl visited Gorbachev’s home region in southern Russia, returning with an agreement from Gorbachev to allow a united Germany to remain in the NATO military alliance and for a full withdrawal of Soviet troops from the east by 1994.
The two leaders’ informal “cardigan diplomacy” contrasts sharply with the current state of German-Russian relations, which are in deep freeze after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz lamented that Gorbachev set the path toward democracy in Russia but died at a time when “democracy in Russia has failed.”
Gorbachev, Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said, “also stands for how relations between Russia and Europe could have developed.”
The German parliament said it will honor Gorbachev next Wednesday, holding a minute of silence and lowering the flags at the Reichstag building in Berlin to half-staff.
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More AP stories on Mikhail Gorbachev here: https://apnews.com/hub/mikhail-gorbachev
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https://www.ktalnews.com/news/u-s-world/ap-gorbachev-remembered-fondly-in-germany-for-enabling-unity/
| 2022-09-21T12:38:14Z
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