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Trump defends foreign worker visas, siding with Musk amid MAGA backlash | CNN PoliticsMisrepresenting how it collects, maintains, uses, deletes or discloses consumers’ personal information, and the extent to which consumers’ location data is deidentified. Using, transferring, selling and disclosing sensitive location data from health clinics, religious organizations, correctional facilities, labor union offices, LGBTQ+-related locations, political gatherings and military installations. Misrepresenting how it collects, maintains, uses, deletes or discloses consumers’ personal information, and the extent to which consumers’ location data is deidentified. Using, transferring, selling and disclosing sensitive location data from health clinics, religious organizations, correctional facilities, labor union offices, LGBTQ+-related locations, political gatherings and military installations.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump appears to be siding with Elon Musk and his other backers in the tech industry as a dispute over immigration visas has divided his supporters. Trump, in an interview with the New York Post on Saturday, praised the use of visas to bring skilled foreign workers to the U.S. The topic has become a flashpoint within his conservative base. “I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them," Trump said. In fact, Trump has in the past criticized the H-1B visas, calling them “very bad” and “unfair” for U.S. workers. During his first term as president, he unveiled a “Hire American” policy that directed changes to the program to try to ensure the visas were awarded to the highest-paid or most-skilled applicants. Despite his criticism of them and attempts to curb their use, he has also used the visas at his businesses in the past, something he acknowledged in his interview Saturday. “I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program," Trump told the newspaper. He did not appear to address questions about whether he would pursue any changes to the number or use of the visas once he takes office Jan. 20. Trump's hardline immigration policies, focused mostly on immigrants who are in the country illegally, were a cornerstone of his presidential campaign and a priority issue for his supporters. But in recent days, his coalition has split in a public debate largely taking place online about the tech industry's hiring of foreign workers. Hard-right members of Trump's movement have accused Musk and others in Trump's new flank of tech-world supporters of pushing policies at odds with Trump's “America First" vision. Software engineers and others in the tech industry have used H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers and say they are a critical tool for hard-to-fill positions. But critics have said they undercut U.S. citizens who could take those jobs. Some on the right have called for the program to be eliminated. Michelle L. Price, The Associated PressAs It Happens 6:15 Why Switzerland is busy fixing up its vast network of nuclear bunkers There's no point in having a nuclear bunker beneath your home if boxes of old Christmas ornaments are blocking the door. That's not an uncommon scenario in Switzerland, a country with a vast network of Cold War-era nuclear shelters, both public and private, many of which double as storage units and have fallen into disrepair. But a rise in global conflict, paired with an increased reliance on nuclear energy, has the country once again preparing for a worst-case scenario. Switzerland is spending 220 million Swiss franc ($354 million Cdn) to make sure its shelters are in tip-top shape and ready to accommodate all nine million Swiss residents, should the need arise. "Pretty much all Swiss people have a bomb shelter, which has been used for a long time as their storage unit," nuclear expert Stephen Herzog told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. "Now there are reasons to rethink this." Nuclear resilience 'built into the Swiss psyche' Herzog is a professor at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, Calif., who previously worked for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Nuclear bunkers, he says, are "built into the Swiss psyche." According to 1963 Swiss law, all of the country's residents, including refugees and foreign workers, are guaranteed a spot in a bunker to protect them from bombs and nuclear radiation. "Generally, if you live in Switzerland, you know where your shelter is, you know where your neighbour's shelter is, you have your assigned place," Herzog said. A view through an opened metal door shows the entrance into a 57-year-old disused military bunker near the central Swiss town of Alpnach. (Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters) Some of those bunkers belong to public networks, but many are private and built underneath people's homes. "Over the decades since the '60s, when it was mandated to have these shelter spots that are built into every home in these private shelters, they've taken on new meanings," Herzog said. "People use them as wine cellars. People use them as woodworking workshops. People use them as storage for Christmas decorations." Asked if he's been in a Swiss bunker himself, Herzog replied: "Of course." "If you're at a party and someone says, 'Will you go to my wine cellar and grab the next bottle of wine?' you're going to the shelter," he said. Prepared, not paranoid But in recent years, global conflicts and changes to the country's energy policies have changed people's priorities. Nearly a third of Swiss electricity production comes from nuclear power. And this summer, the country's Federal Council reversed a 2017 decision to exit nuclear power. Russia's war on Ukraine — and subsequent takeover of that country's Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station — have also fuelled nuclear anxieties in the country. Bunk beds are seen in the atomic shelter in Gollion. (Cecile Mantovani/Reuters) Louis-Henri Delarageaz, civil protection commander for the Vaud canton, says his office received a surge in calls from worried residents about shelters after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. (A canton in Switzerland is the equivalent of a province in Canada.) "All of a sudden... we were indeed extremely sought-after with people wanting to know: where the shelters were, where is my place, is my shelter ready?" he said. In that spirit, the government launched consultations in October to ensure Swiss "resilience in the event of armed conflict" and plan its nationwide shelter upgrade. "In the coming years, the [Swiss] Confederation wants to remove some of the exceptions to the current rules and update some of the older shelters," Delarageaz said. Visitors look at an air supply tunnel in a nuclear fallout shelter in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 2006. (Sebastian Derungs /Reuters) That means making repairs to public bunkers and ensuring there's adequate space for everyone who needs it. It also means going door-to-door and inspecting private shelters. Last week in the village of Bercher, Reuters followed civil protection officers in orange overalls inspecting a bunker beneath an apartment block. One tried to shove the bunker's door to seal it shut but it would not budge. An air vent wedged between plant pots and a stone ornament was deemed fit, but an escape tunnel full of cobwebs led to a deep manhole with no ladder. "This shelter is not usable in the current state," concluded team head Gregory Fuhrer. The owner will be given a year to fix the faults or else must pay 800 francs ($1,287 Cdn) for each resident's spot in a public shelter, he added. Greenpeace opposes nuclear energy. Young climate activists say that's 'old-fashioned' Analysis Why nuclear power is so hot right now Herzog says this work is the result of "increasing consciousness and awareness" around nuclear risks in Switzerland, but shouldn't be mistaken for paranoia. "No one is panicking that they're going to need the shelters tomorrow or anything like that," he said. Delarageaz echoed that sentiment. "It doesn't mean we're preparing for a conflict. That's not the message. But we have a network of shelters and we need to maintain them and make sure they're functional," he said. "In Switzerland we have foresight.... There's a Latin adage that says: 'If you want peace, prepare for war.'"
CHICAGO (AP) — In the days after the presidential election, Sadie Perez began carrying pepper spray with her around campus. Her mom also ordered her and her sister a self-defense kit that included keychain spikes, a hidden knife key and a personal alarm. It’s a response to an emboldened fringe of right-wing “manosphere” influencers who have seized on Republican Donald Trump ’s presidential win to justify and amplify misogynistic derision and threats online. Many have appropriated a 1960s abortion rights rallying cry, declaring “Your body, my choice” at women online and on college campuses. For many women, the words represent a worrying harbinger of what might lie ahead as some men perceive the election results as a rebuke of reproductive rights and women’s rights. “The fact that I feel like I have to carry around pepper spray like this is sad,” said Perez, a 19-year-old political science student in Wisconsin. “Women want and deserve to feel safe.” Isabelle Frances-Wright, director of technology and society at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank focusing on polarization and extremism, said she had seen a “very large uptick in a number of types of misogynistic rhetoric immediately after the election,” including some “extremely violent misogyny.” “I think many progressive women have been shocked by how quickly and aggressively this rhetoric has gained traction,” she said. The phrase “Your body, my choice” has been largely attributed to a post on the social platform X from Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust-denying white nationalist and far-right internet personality who dined at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida two years ago. In statements responding to criticism of that event, Trump said he had “never met and knew nothing about” Fuentes before he arrived. Mary Ruth Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law, said the phrase transforms the iconic abortion rights slogan into an attack on women’s right to autonomy and a personal threat. “The implication is that men should have control over or access to sex with women,” said Ziegler, a reproductive rights expert. Fuentes' post had 35 million views on X within 24 hours, according to a report by Frances-Wright's think tank, and the phrase spread rapidly to other social media platforms. Women on TikTok have reported seeing it inundate their comment sections. The slogan also has made its way offline with boys chanting it in middle schools or men directing it at women on college campuses, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue report and social media reports. One mother said her daughter heard the phrase on her college campus three times, the report said . School districts in Wisconsin and Minnesota have sent notices about the language to parents. T-shirts emblazoned with the phrase were pulled off Amazon. Perez said she has seen men respond to shared Snapchat stories for their college class with “Your body, my choice.” “It makes me feel disgusted and infringed upon,” she said. “... It feels like going backwards.” Misogynistic attacks have been part of the social media landscape for years. But Frances-Wright and others who track online extremism and disinformation said language glorifying violence against women or celebrating the possibility of their rights being stripped away has spiked since the election. Online declarations for women to “Get back in the kitchen” or to “Repeal the 19th,” a reference to the constitutional amendment that gave women the right to vote, have spread rapidly. In the days surrounding the election, the extremism think tank found that the top 10 posts on X calling for repeal of the 19th Amendment received more than 4 million views collectively. A man holding a sign with the words “Women Are Property” sparked an outcry at Texas State University . The man was not a student, faculty or staff, and was escorted off campus, according to the university’s president . The university is “exploring potential legal responses,” he said. Anonymous rape threats have been left on the TikTok videos of women denouncing the election results. And on the far-flung reaches of the web, 4chan forums have called for “rape squads” and the adoption of policies in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a dystopian book and TV series depicting the dehumanization and brutalization of women. “What was scary here was how quickly this also manifested in offline threats,” Frances-Wright said, emphasizing that online discourse can have real-world impacts. Previous violent rhetoric on 4chan has been connected to racially motivated and antisemitic attacks, including a 2022 shooting by a white supremacist in Buffalo that killed 10 people . Anti-Asian hate incidents also rose as politicians, including Trump , used words such as “Chinese virus” to describe the COVID-19 pandemic. And Trump’s language targeting Muslims and immigrants in his first campaign correlated with spikes in hate speech and attacks on these groups, Frances-Wright said. The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism reported similar rhetoric, with “numerous violent misogynistic trends” gaining traction on right-wing platforms such 4chan and spreading to more mainstream ones such as X since the election. Throughout the presidential race, Trump’s campaign leaned on conservative podcasts and tailored messaging toward disaffected young men . As Trump took the stage at the Republican National Convention over the summer, the song “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World” by James Brown blared from the speakers. One of several factors to his success this election was modestly boosting his support among men , a shift concentrated among younger voters, according to AP VoteCast, survey of more than 120,000 voters nationwide. But Trump also won support from 44% of women age 18 to 44, according to AP VoteCast. To some men, Trump's return to the White House is seen as a vindication, gender and politics experts said. For many young women, the election felt like a referendum on women’s rights and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris ’ loss felt like a rejection of their own rights and autonomy. “For some of these men, Trump’s victory represents a chance to reclaim a place in society that they think they are losing around these traditional gender roles,” Frances-Wright said. None of the current online rhetoric is being amplified by Trump or anyone in his immediate orbit. But Trump has a long history of insulting women , and the spike in such language comes after he ran a campaign that was centered on masculinity and repeatedly attacked Harris over her race and gender . His allies and surrogates also used misogynistic language about Harris throughout the campaign. “With Trump’s victory, many of these men felt like they were heard, they were victorious. They feel that they have potentially a supporter in the White House,” said Dana Brown, executive director of the Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics. Brown said some young men feel they’re victims of discrimination and have expressed mounting resentment for successes of the women’s rights movement, including #MeToo . The tension also has been influenced by socioeconomic struggles. As women become the majority on college campuses and many professional industries see increasing gender diversity, it has “led to young men scapegoating women and girls, falsely claiming it’s their fault they’re not getting into college anymore as opposed to looking inward,” Brown said. Perez, the political science student, said she and her sister have been leaning on each other, their mother and other women in their lives to feel safer amid the online vitriol. They text each other to make sure they got home safely. They have girls' nights to celebrate wins, including a female majority in student government at their campus in the University of Wisconsin system. “I want to encourage my friends and the women in my life to use their voices to call out this rhetoric and to not let fear take over,” she said. The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here . The AP is solely responsible for all content.Bill Maher Suggests Ending His HBO Show over Return of Trump: 'I'm Sh**ting My Pants'
Arkansas DE Landon Jackson carted off field and taken to hospital with neck injury
Pam Bondi, Donald Trump's pick to be attorney general, is a staunch ally of the former president, defending him against impeachment during his first term and pushing his false claims of election fraud as he sought to cling on to the White House. The 59-year-old former Florida attorney general, if confirmed by the Senate, will now serve as the top law enforcement official in a second Trump administration. "For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans -- Not anymore," Trump wrote on his Truth Social network. "Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again." Bondi's nomination means the top ranks of the Justice Department will be filled by Trump loyalists, as the president-elect has named three of the lawyers who defended him in his multiple criminal cases to its other high-ranking roles. Trump tapped Bondi to be attorney general on Thursday after his first pick, firebrand ex-Florida lawmaker Matt Gaetz, dropped out amid sexual misconduct allegations and doubts that he could obtain Senate confirmation. A graduate of the University of Florida with a law degree from Stetson University, Bondi served as a prosecutor for 18 years before being elected attorney general of the "Sunshine State" in 2010, the first woman to hold the post. Bondi, a native of Trump's adopted home state of Florida, was reelected to a second term in 2014. As attorney general, Bondi notably fought opioid addiction and human trafficking while taking a tough stance on crime and supporting the death penalty. She sued BP for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and obtained more than $2 billion in economic relief for Florida, according to her biography page at Ballard Partners, a powerful lobbying firm where she has worked after leaving office. While serving as attorney general, Bondi was drawn into a controversy involving Trump when she declined in 2013 to join a multi-state prosecution accusing Trump University of fraud. It emerged later that Bondi's reelection committee had received a $25,000 donation from the charitable Trump Foundation. Both Trump and Bondi denied any wrongdoing. Bondi joined Trump's legal team during his first impeachment trial, in which he was alleged to have pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to find political dirt on his 2020 election opponent, Democrat Joe Biden. Trump was impeached by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives but acquitted by the Republican-majority Senate. After the 2020 election, Bondi made television appearances on behalf of Trump and pushed to de-legitimize vote counting in battleground states as part of the push by the former president to overturn the results of the vote. Bondi has also criticized the criminal cases brought against Trump, appearing in solidarity at his New York trial, where he was convicted of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to a porn star. At Ballard Partners, Bondi has done work for Amazon, General Motors and Uber and as a registered lobbyist for the oil-rich Gulf nation of Qatar, according to press reports. She is also a member of the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-aligned right-wing think tank. cl/dw
President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday appeared to step into a raging debate among his supporters over visas for skilled workers on the side of Elon Musk, telling the New York Post he has "always liked the visas." The comments came as Trump loyalists have been fulminating against each other online for days over the H-1B visas. Immigration hard-liners, including Trump backers like Laura Loomer and Steve Bannon, subscribe to an "America First" agenda focused on creating more jobs for American citizens. But Musk, who is the world's richest man, and other tech titans have long supported the H-1B visa program, which allows businesses to hire skilled workers from foreign countries. They have argued, as Musk posted earlier this week, that "there is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America." In another post late Saturday night, Musk added : "The reason I'm in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B." He added: "Take a big step back and F*** YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend." In response, Bannon, who served as Trump's chief strategist, called Musk "a toddler " on the social media platform Gettr, posting: "Someone please notify Child Protective Services–need to do a 'wellness check; on this toddler" and linking to Musk's tweet. It was shortly after this point that Trump got on the phone with Jon Levine of the New York Post and told him: "I've always been in favor of the visas. That's why we have them." Trump added that he has "many H-1B visas on my properties. I've been a believer in H1-B. I have used it many times. It's a great program." It wasn't immediately clear what properties Trump was referring to that rely on the H-1B program. His golf courses and clubs, including Mar-a-Lago, have long relied on foreign workers coming to the United States under the H-2B program to work as housekeepers and cooks. The H-2B visa program allows employers to import unskilled workers from abroad for temporary jobs if no qualified U.S. workers want the jobs. ©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Fox News Colleagues Go Public With Concerns About Pete Hegseth’s Drinking
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized to his Azerbaijani counterpart for what he called a "tragic incident" following the crash of an Azerbaijani airliner in Kazakhstan that killed 38 people, but stopped short of acknowledging that Moscow was responsible. Putin's apology came as allegations mounted that Russian air defenses shot down the plane while attempting to deflect a Ukrainian drone strike near Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya. Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting via videoconference Saturday at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. An official Kremlin statement issued Saturday said that air defense systems were firing near Grozny airport as the airliner "repeatedly" attempted to land there on Wednesday. It did not explicitly say one of these hit the plane. The statement said Putin apologized to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev "for the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace." The readout said Russia has launched a criminal probe into the incident, and Azerbaijani state prosecutors have arrived in Grozny to participate. The Kremlin also said that "relevant services" from Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are jointly investigating the crash site near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. The plane was flying from Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, to Grozny when it turned toward Kazakhstan, hundreds of miles across the Caspian Sea from its intended destination, and crashed while attempting to land. There were 29 survivors. According to a readout of the call provided by Aliyev's press office, the Azerbaijani president told Putin that the plane was subject to "external physical and technical interference," though he also stopped short of blaming Russian air defenses. Part of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane lies on the ground Thursday near the airport of Aktau, Kazakhstan. Aliyev noted the plane had holes in its fuselage and the occupants sustained injuries "due to foreign particles penetrating the cabin mid-flight." He said that a team of international experts began a probe of the incident at Azerbaijan's initiative, but provided no details. Earlier this week, the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General's office confirmed that investigators from Azerbaijan are working in Grozny. On Friday, a U.S. official and an Azerbaijani minister made separate statements blaming the crash on an external weapon, echoing those made by aviation experts who blamed the crash on Russian air defense systems responding to a Ukrainian attack. U.S. President Joe Biden, responding Saturday to a reporter asking whether he thought Putin should take responsibility for the crash, said: "Apparently he did but I haven't spoken to him." Biden made the comment after leaving church in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Passengers and crew members who survived the crash told Azerbaijani media they heard loud noises on the aircraft as it circled over Grozny. Dmitry Yadrov, head of Russia's civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia, said Friday that as the plane was preparing to land in Grozny in deep fog, Ukrainian drones were targeting the city, prompting authorities to close the area to air traffic. Yadrov said after the captain made two unsuccessful attempts to land, he was offered other airports but decided to fly to Aktau. People attend a funeral Saturday for Mahammadali Eganov, who died in the Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 crash near the Kazakhstan's airport of Aktau at the age of 13, in Baku, Azerbaijan. Earlier this past week, Rosaviatsia cited unspecified early evidence as showing that a bird strike led to an emergency on board. In the days following the crash, Azerbaijan Airlines blamed "physical and technical interference" and announced the suspension of flights to several Russian airports. It didn't say where the interference came from or provide any further details. If proven that the plane crashed after being hit by Russian fire, it would be the second deadly civil aviation accident linked to fighting in Ukraine. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was downed with a Russian surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 people aboard, as it flew over the area in eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed separatists in 2014. Russia denied responsibility but a Dutch court in 2022 convicted two Russians and a pro-Russia Ukrainian man for their role in downing the plane with an air defense system brought into Ukraine from a Russian military base. The grave of Mahammadali Eganov, 13, who died in the Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 crash near the Kazakhstan's Aktau airport, is seen Saturday in Baku, Azerbaijan. Following Wednesday's suspension of flights from Baku to Grozny and nearby Makhachkala, Azerbaijan Airlines announced Friday that it would also halt service to eight more Russian cities. Several other airlines made similar announcements since the crash. Kazakhstan's Qazaq Air on Friday said it would stop flying from Astana to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains for a month. Turkmenistan Airlines, the Central Asian country's flagship carrier, on Saturday halted flights to Moscow for at least a month, citing safety concerns. Earlier this past week, Israel's El Al carrier suspended service from Tel Aviv to the Russian capital, citing "developments in Russia's airspace." Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.US to send $1.25 billion in weapons to Ukraine, pushing to get aid out before Biden leaves office WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials say the United States is expected to announce it will send another $1.25 billion in military assistance to Ukraine. It's part of a push by the Biden administration to get as much aid to Kyiv as possible before leaving office on Jan. 20. Officials say the large package of aid includes a significant amount of munitions, including for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems and the HAWK air defense system. It also will provide Stinger missiles and 155 mm- and 105 mm artillery rounds. The officials say they expect the announcement will be made on Monday. They spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public. An online debate over foreign workers in tech shows tensions in Trump's political coalition WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — An online spat between factions of Donald Trump’s supporters over immigration and the tech industry has thrown internal divisions in the president-elect’s political movement into public display. The argument previews fissures and contradictory views his coalition could bring to the White House. The rift laid bare tensions between the newest flank of Trump’s movement — that is, wealthy members of the tech world who want more highly skilled workers in their industry — and people in Trump’s Make America Great Again base who championed his hardline immigration policies. A 9th telecoms firm has been hit by a massive Chinese espionage campaign, the White House says WASHINGTON (AP) — A top White House official says a ninth U.S. telecoms firm has been confirmed to have been hacked as part of a sprawling Chinese espionage campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans. Administration officials said this month that at least eight telecommunications companies, as well as dozens of nations, had been affected by the Chinese hacking blitz known as Salt Typhoon. But Anne Neuberger, a deputy national security adviser, said Friday that a ninth victim had been identified after the administration released guidance to companies about how to hunt for Chinese culprits in their networks. Warren Upton, the oldest living survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor, dies at 105 HONOLULU (AP) — The oldest living survivor of the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the last remaining survivor of the USS Utah has died. He was 105. Warren Upton died Wednesday at a hospital in Los Gatos, California. Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, says he suffered a bout of pneumonia. The Utah was moored at Pearl Harbor when Japanese planes began bombing the Hawaii naval base in the early hours of Dec. 7, 1941. The attack propelled the U.S. into World War II. Israeli troops forcibly remove staff and patients from northern Gaza hospital, officials say DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Gaza's Health Ministry says Israeli troops have stormed one of the last hospitals operating in the territory's north and forced many of the staff and patients outside. Then they had to remove their clothes in winter weather. Friday's incident was the latest assault on Kamal Adwan Hospital. Staff say it has been hit multiple times in the past three months by Israeli troops waging an offensive against Hamas fighters in the surrounding neighborhoods. Israel's military says Hamas uses the hospital as a base. It did not provide evidence, and hospital officials have denied it. Azerbaijani and U.S. officials suggest plane that crashed may have been hit by weapons fire U.S. and Azerbaijani officials have said weapons fire may have brought down an Azerbaijani airliner that crashed on Wednesday, killing 38 people. The statements from Rashad Nabiyev and White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Friday raised pressure on Russia. Officials in Moscow have said a drone attack was underway in the region that the Azerbaijan Airlines flight was destined for but have not addressed statements from aviation experts who blamed the crash on Russian air defenses responding to a Ukrainian attack. The plane was flying from Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku to Chechnya on Wednesday when it crashed, killing 38 people and leaving all 29 survivors injured. Court rules Georgia lawmakers can subpoena Fani Willis for information related to her Trump case ATLANTA (AP) — A judge has ruled that the Georgia state Senate can subpoena Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. It's part of a inquiry into whether Willis has engaged in misconduct during her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump. But Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shukura Ingram is giving Willis the chance to contest whether lawmakers’ demands are overly broad before Willis responds. A Republican-led committee was formed earlier this year and sent subpoenas to Willis in August seeking to compel her to testify during its September meeting and to produce scores of documents. Willis argued that the committee didn’t have the power to subpoena her. US homelessness up 18% as affordable housing remains out of reach for many people Federal officials say the United States saw an 18.1% increase in homelessness, a dramatic rise driven mostly by a lack of affordable housing as well as devastating natural disasters and a surge of migrants in several parts of the country. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said that federally required tallies taken across the country in January found that more than 770,000 people were counted as homeless. That increase comes on top of a 12% increase in 2023, which HUD blamed on soaring rents and the end of pandemic assistance. Among the most concerning trends was a nearly 40% rise in family homelessness. What Snoop wants: Arizona Bowl gives NIL opportunities to players for Colorado State, Miami (Ohio) TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — When Snoop Dogg agreed to become the sponsor of the Arizona Bowl, he had a demand: It must have a NIL component. Other bowls have provided NIL chances for single players the past few years, but the Arizona Bowl is believed to be the first to offer NIL compensation to every player on both Colorado State and Miami (Ohio). The players participated in youth clinics before Saturday's game and will be compensated for their time. Alex Ovechkin is on track to break Wayne Gretzky's NHL career goals record Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals is chasing the NHL career goals record of 894 held by Wayne Gretzky. Ovechkin entered the season 42 goals short of breaking a record that long seemed unapproachable. He is set to play again Saturday at the Toronto Maple Leafs after missing more than a month with a broken left fibula. Ovechkin was on pace to get to 895 sometime in February before getting injured. At 868, he his 27 goals away from passing Gretzky.
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While SkyTrain line extension projects often take the spotlight, the essential infrastructure that keeps Metro Vancouver’s growing rail rapid transit network running tends to go unnoticed in the public eye. Currently, the operational needs of SkyTrain’s Expo Line and Millennium Line are primarily served by the OMC1 operations and maintenance facility in the Edmonds area of Burnaby. Built as a part of the original Expo Line in the 1980s, OMC1 provides the vast majority of the operations, maintenance, and train storage capacity for the Expo and Millennium lines. In 2021, TransLink began site preparation early works on a . The size of this facility and its importance is comparable to OMC1 in Edmonds. Construction is now well underway on OMC4 at the 27-acre industrial property at 225 North Road, which is situated immediately adjacent to the Expo Line and just northwest of Braid Station. When complete in 2027, OMC4 will be ready just in time for the mass arrival of the majority of the — serving as the replacement of the aging Mark I car fleet, general increased capacity for the Expo and Millennium lines, and the additional fleet required for both the Millennium Line’s Broadway extension and Expo Line’s Surrey-Langley extension, opening in 2027 and 2029, respectively. OMC 4 will have an initial storage and maintenance capacity of 145 cars, which can be expanded to an ultimate capacity of 170 cars. Some upgrades are also being performed to OMC1 to accommodate this new fleet. However, OMC4’s latest projected costs have escalated significantly, making it TransLink’s most expensive maintenance facility project by a wide margin. As of December 2024, OMC4’s total construction cost is now pegged at $1.299 billion. In contrast, the entire 2016-built Evergreen extension of the Millennium Line — which included the small satellite OMC3 facility for mainly overnight train storage needs — cost $1.4 billion ($1.75 billion when adjusted to 2024 dollars). OMC4’s costs have fluctuated and escalated drastically from its previous preliminary estimates of $658 million in 2021, $816 million in 2022, and $764 million in 2023, before seeing a 70% year-over-year jump for 2024. TransLink told Daily Hive Urbanized that the latest cost estimate for OMC4 is primarily due to the market inflation of materials, labour, and equipment prices, and the changing scope of the facility’s design during the planning process. The public transit authority notes that steel material prices alone have gone up by 65% over the last 18 months, and there is now additional uncertainty due to potential steel tariffs. One example of a scope change is the complete redesign of the train maintenance bays, which are now sunken into the floor to enable more effective maintenance of the new Mark V trains. Other reasons TransLink cited for the cost escalation include delays in getting third-party permits approved, and higher-than-anticipated construction bids for the facility’s buildings and track works. There are also future plans to build the new additional OMC5 — another significant operations and maintenance facility on a scale similar to OMC1 and OMC4. As previously reported by Daily Hive Urbanized, previously designated for agricultural uses, situated at the southeast corner of the intersection of Fraser Highway and 176 Street (Pacific Highway) — just east of the Serpentine River in North Cloverdale. It will be attached to the Expo Line’s Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension, but built as a separate project closely timed with the extension. Recent procurement guides estimate the , and the latest updated cost for OMC4 suggests this likelihood. Combined, OMC4 and OMC5 will likely have a combined cost well north of $2 billion. Not only will both OMC4 and OMC5 facilities significantly increase capacity, but they are also expected to elevate the operational and maintenance performance standards of the SkyTrain network. “This points to the evolution of BCRTC from being a single node company — the node is here at OMC1 in Edmonds — to being a multi-node company. This is one of our big transformations with the future OMC4 in Coquitlam and OMC5 in the South of the Fraser. We’ll begin to have different centres of operations where we can be much more nimble in our response to any issues that show up on the line,” said Sany Zein, the president and general manager of TransLink’s BC Rapid Transit Company, during an . “We extended the Expo Line to Surrey in the late 1980s and early 1990s, we built the Millennium Line, and we built the Evergreen Extension, but we never thought anything more about maintenance facilities, except for OMC3 as a small facility near Inlet Centre Station in Coquitlam. OMC2 in Edmonds was built to assemble trains.” Zein deemed the future OMC4 to be their “catch-up depot” that should have been built when the Expo Line was expanded in the 1990s, especially after the opening of the Millennium Line in 2002 and its Evergreen Extension in 2016. Another notable SkyTrain operations project that has seen a major cost escalation is , which is now in an advanced stage of construction for a 2026 completion. This new control centre facility is being built at OMC2, which is adjacent to OMC1 in Edmonds. When operational, the new control centre will replace the 1980s-built control centre at OMC1, which is under-sized for the ever-expanding network of the Expo and Millennium lines and lacks the latest modern technology for such a critical facility. The new control centre building will now cost $327 million — up from the based on an early design concept. It then escalated to $300 million in 2022 and $327 million in 2023, with no further cost escalation as of December 2024. Explaining the unique circumstances for the new control centre building’s cost growth, in addition to the market escalation in construction materials, labour, and equipment prices, TransLink states there have also been big increases for the facility’s high-tech equipment, machinery, and software, which supports the major data centre. Since 2021, market prices in Canada have risen by 16% for computers and peripherals, 62% for power distribution and equipment, and 36% for thermal regulation equipment. Furthermore, the average cost escalation for data centre construction increased by 42% globally since 2021, with 9% from 2024 alone. The public transit authority also told Daily Hive Urbanized the tripling of the new control centre building’s cost is also due in part to the project absorbing the costs of other SkyTrain infrastructure improvement projects, including an automatic train control signals project, fibre optic upgrades, security perimeter and guardhouse project, and a parking lot reconfiguration for the OMC2 site. Separately, costs have also escalated for the Expo Line’s Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension. In , the provincial government announced the project’s total cost had risen by 50% from $4 billion to $6 billion, following the finalization of the project’s three major contract awards. Construction is also expected to begin this winter for completion and opening by late 2029, which is a year later than originally anticipated. Costs have also escalated for the project of building the , which will be TransLink’s first new facility to handle a mass fleet of battery-electric buses. Four years earlier, during the early design stage, the project’s cost was pegged at $308 million. As of December 2024, with construction now well underway, the costs have nearly tripled to $848 million. All of this reflects a consistent pattern of public sector projects planned before the sharp inflationary trend beginning in 2022, experiencing significant cost escalations — whether it be for new transportation infrastructure, sewage treatment plants, hospitals, community and recreational centres, schools, and public housing, Following the to design and build the project, the provincial government has yet to release an updated cost figure to build the new replacement immersed tunnel for the George Massey Tunnel. The project’s current early design budget of $4.15 billion, created in 2020/2021, is not expected to hold. Construction is currently underway on the new Cloverdale Hospital in Surrey. In , the provincial government announced the hospital project’s cost had ballooned by nearly 75%, with the project now carrying a price tag of $2.88 billion — up from the early design estimated figure of $1.66 billion in 2021. As an example of cost overruns on the municipal level, in , the City of Burnaby cancelled the original design concept for the new Burnaby Lake Recreation Complex, which featured a destination-sized aquatic centre and ice rink. However, due to the project’s cost escalation to $340 million — nearly twice the budget of $187 million — the City downsized the scope and calibre of the architecture, bringing down the cost to $253 million.IT entrepreneur David Steward is the wealthiest African American man in the nation. According to Forbes , his net worth is at a record $11.4 billion dollars, making him part of the only one percent of Black entrepreneurs or executives on the impressive list. The multi-billionaire has a true “rags to riches” story, but his fight and dedication to technology, family, and all people sets him apart from others in the business. This is the evolution of David L. Steward. A version of this article originally appeared on The Root. 2 / 19 Born Born Steward was born in Chicago, but his family moved to Missouri when he was a child, according to NMSDC . He was raised in the segregated South with his seven siblings. His father worked as a mechanic, janitor, and trash collector to support his family. 3 / 19 College College The Central Missouri University alumnus graduated in 1973 with a Bachelors of Science in business. 4 / 19 Pursuing Sales Pursuing Sales Soon after graduating, the Missouri native pursued a career in sales with Missouri Pacific Railroad, Union Pacific, and FedEx. He was even named salesman of the year at FedEx. 5 / 19 Marriage Marriage Steward and his wife, Thelma, married in 1977. The couple has been married for almost 50 years. 6 / 19 Stepping Into Business Stepping Into Business In 1983, the businessman bought his first business, an auditing company named Transportation Business Specialists, with several loans from local banks across Missouri. 7 / 19 Hard Times Hard Times Steward co-founded World Wide Technology (WWT) in 1990. During the early years of the company, he faced financial hardships, at times forgoing a paycheck and witnessing his car being repossessed from the office parking lot. 8 / 19 Living in the Land of the Free Living in the Land of the Free Despite the setbacks, the 73-year-old billionaire businessman said “The breadth and depth of opportunities we have here [in the U.S.], coupled with a culture that allows you to be all you can be, makes it possible for anyone to be successful,” according to the Horatio Alger Association. 9 / 19 Expansion Expansion WWT soon expanded to offer full-scale technology solutions— “ranging from cloud computing and data analytics to cybersecurity and digital transformation services,” according to Black Engineer. 10 / 19 Big Break Big Break When the company secured contracts with government agencies and Fortune 500 companies, it positioned itself as a trusted technology leader. 11 / 19 Growing to Billions Growing to Billions Now, the company employs over 10,000 people and rakes in over $20 billion in annual revenues and over $6 million in international income. 12 / 19 Steward as an Author Steward as an Author In 2004, Steward penned his first book with the help of author Robert L. Shook. Their book, “Doing Business by the Good Book,” is described as “an indispensable volume that shows how to succeed in business by using the Bible and its lessons as a source of inspiration and guidance,” according to Amazon . 13 / 19 Supporting Sen. Tim Scott Supporting Sen. Tim Scott The billionaire is no stranger to supporting political campaigns. In 2023, Sen. Tim Scott tapped Steward to be the finance chair of Scott’s 2024 presidential campaign, according to CNBC . 14 / 19 Joining Other Organizations Joining Other Organizations He serves on the Executive Committee of Greater St. Louis, Inc. and the boards of National Academy Foundation (NAF), United Way of Greater St. Louis, Concordance Academy, Washington University, Variety the Children’s Charity of St. Louis, Boy Scouts of America and many other organizations. 15 / 19 Honorary Degrees Honorary Degrees Steward holds an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Washington University. He also has an Honorary Doctorates in Humane Letters from several colleges and universities. 16 / 19 Family Family The businessman has two children, Kimberly and David II. Kimberly is an Oscar-nominated film producer, and David II leads Lion Forge Animation, a media company dedicated to diverse storytelling. 17 / 19 Philanthropy Philanthropy The David and Thelma Steward Family Foundation— named after the billionaire and his wife— provides millions in donations to causes related to education, youth development, military families, and underserved communities, according to Black Engineer. 18 / 19 Now Surpassing Robert Smith Now Surpassing Robert Smith This year, Steward beat out Vista Equity Partners founder Robert Smith for the no. 1 spot on Forbes’ Richest Black People list. Smith, who’s net worth comes in at $10.8 billion, ranks no. 88 on Forbes 400 list. Steward comes in at no. 84 19 / 19
