Woolworths shows the mounting cost of industrial action
Woolworths shows the mounting cost of industrial action
Woolworths has been counting the cost of industrial action, which took a dent out of the supermarket behemoth’s bottom line.
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White House will choose journalists who have access to Trump in press pool
White House will choose journalists who have access to Trump in press pool
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Tuesday that the White House press office will choose which outlets get to cover the president in close quarters, replacing the decision-making authority that has long rested with the 100-year-old White House Correspondents Association.
This development followed the White House announcement last week that it was removing the Associated Press wire service from pool coverage and close access to the president. Soon after, the AP sued Leavitt and two other top White House officials in response.
Leavitt said the five networks that make up the current daily television rotation — ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News — would continue to be a part of the pool, but yet-to-be-announced “streaming” services would be added to the rotation, which requires one network to provide video of an event for all the participants in the pool. Leavitt also said other new outlets would also be added to the print pool rotation.
“We want more outlets and new outlets to have a chance to take part in the press pool to cover this administration’s unprecedented achievements up close, front and center,” Leavitt said during Tuesday’s White House press briefing. “As you all know, for decades, a group of D.C.-based journalists, the White House Correspondents Association, has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the president of the United States in these most intimate spaces. Not anymore.”
“I am proud to announce that we are going to give the power back to the people who read your papers, who watch your television shows and who listen to your radio stations. Moving forward, the White House press pool will be determined by the White House press team,” Leavitt said.
Leavitt did not disclose which new outlets the White House would add to the daily press pool rotation. The daily press pool, which is a rotation, covers the president’s movements in the Oval Office and elsewhere on the grounds. It travels with him whenever he leaves the White House, whether that’s across town to a federal agency or across the globe, at the expense of the news outlets. News organizations pay for seats aboard Air Force One and for other coverage-related costs. It’s unclear when the new rotation will be implemented.
Eugene Daniels, president of the White House Correspondents Association, said in a statement that the White House’s decision “tears at the independence of a free press in the United States.”
“It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president,” Daniels said. “In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps.”
Daniels said the White House didn’t give the WHCA board advance notice of its decision.
“For generations, the working journalists elected to lead the White House Correspondents’ Association board have consistently expanded the WHCA’s membership and its pool rotations to facilitate the inclusion of new and emerging outlets,” Daniels added.
The announcement comes four days after the AP sued Leavitt, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich over the White House’s decision to restrict its access to the president. The White House restricted the AP’s access after the news outlet’s stylebook declined to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as “The Gulf of America,” a new name announced by President Trump by executive order. The WHCA filed an amicus brief in support of the AP.
On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden, who was appointed by President Trump, said the AP’s circumstances were “not the type of dire situation” that requires emergency intervention, but he did order an expedited hearing to consider an injunction against the Trump administration. The case is still being litigated.
“Asking the president of the United States questions in limited spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force One is a privilege that unfortunately has only been granted to a few,” Leavitt said Tuesday. “It is not a legal right for all.”
The WHCA, a nonprofit organization that represents more than 400 journalists covering the White House, has long decided which outlets are a part of the pool rotation covering presidents, and who sits in which chairs in the White House briefing room.
Kathryn Watson
Kathryn Watson is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital, based in Washington, D.C.
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Social Security says higher payments are on the way for millions of former public workers
Social Security says higher payments are on the way for millions of former public workers
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 3.2 million Social Security recipients who received pensions from their time as teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public service jobs will soon see a boost in their benefits. Most people will receive their one-time retroactive payment by the end of March, and new monthly payments will begin in April, the agency says.
The Social Security Administration announced it would immediately begin processing retroactive payments and will send increased monthly payments to people affected by the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset, which were rescinded in the bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act that former President Joe Biden signed into law last year.
The Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset limited Social Security benefits for recipients if they got retirement payments from other sources, including public retirement programs from a state or local government.
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Advocates say the Social Security Fairness Act rights a decades-old disparity, though it also puts a strain on Social Security Trust Funds, which face a looming insolvency crisis.
The annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report released last May said the program’s trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2035. The new law will hasten the program’s insolvency date by about half a year.
“Social Security’s aggressive schedule to start issuing retroactive payments in February and increase monthly benefit payments beginning in April supports President Trump’s priority to implement the Social Security Fairness Act as quickly as possible,” said Lee Dudek, acting commissioner of Social Security in a statement. “The American people deserve to get their due benefits as quickly as possible.”
Beneficiaries from the new law include teachers, firefighters, and police officers across the country and people whose work had been covered by a foreign social security system.
Most people will receive their one-time retroactive payment by the end of March, and new monthly payments will begin in April, which will be deposited into their bank account on record with Social Security, according to a statement from the Social Security Administration.
The Congressional Research Service estimated that in December 2023, there were 745,679 people, about 1% of all Social Security beneficiaries, who had their benefits reduced by the Government Pension Offset. About 2.1 million people, or about 3% of all beneficiaries, were affected by the Windfall Elimination Provision.
SSA asks beneficiaries to wait until April to inquire about the status of their retroactive payment, since some payments will process incrementally into March.
The future of Social Security has become a top political issue and was a major point of contention in the 2024 election. About 72.5 million people, including retirees, disabled people and children, receive Social Security benefits.
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iPhones are briefly changing ‘racist’ to ‘Trump’ due to an iOS dictation issue
iPhones are briefly changing ‘racist’ to ‘Trump’ due to an iOS dictation issue
A bizarre bug is causing iPhones to automatically change the word “racist” to “Trump” when using the built-in dictation feature in iOS. The issue, which seems to have been by TikTok users, crops up when using the voice-to-text feature in Apple apps like Messages.
When speaking the word “racist,” iOS briefly transcribes the text as “Trump” before changing it back to the intended word. It’s not clear what could cause this behavior. Engadget was able to replicate the issue, as you can see in the GIF below.
Apple told it was due to “phonetic overlap between the two words,” despite the fact that the two words do not sound similar. That also doesn’t explain why “racist,” with a lowercase “r” would transcribe as “Trump” — seemingly a reference to our current president — and not “trump,” the noun. An AI expert who once worked on Siri told the paper it could be a “serious prank” on the part of an Apple employee.
Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Whether it’s a bug or prank, it surfaced at a particularly embarrassing time for the iPhone maker, which announced on Monday that it planned to invest in manufacturing facilities for AI servers. The investment, most of which was already planned, came after Apple CEO Tim Cook met with President Donald Trump at the White House last week.
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Private credit rush to property expected to boost bank returns
Private credit rush to property expected to boost bank returns
A relatively new and growing form of lending in Europe is enabling banks to reduce costs, get around provisioning requirements and potentially boost returns by classifying certain debts as lower risk than they otherwise would. The new financing structure, known as “back leverage,” involves borrowers securing a loan from a private credit fund, which in turn borrows from a bank. The loan amount issued by the bank to the credit fund is rated as less risky than an equivalent loan issued directly to the borrower, according to nearly a dozen sources CNBC interviewed for this story. The lower-risk rated debt means banks are required to set aside a smaller amount of regulatory capital, relative to debt that is classified at a higher risk. “Back leverage generally benefits from a more favorable capital treatment than direct lending, meaning it costs banks less to provide back leverage facilities in comparison to direct lending,” said Jessica Qureshi, an associate at Knight Frank’s capital advisory division. “As a result, banking lenders are able to offer more competitive pricing for back leverage transactions in comparison to direct lending.” Back leverage deals are more commonly structured as “loan on loans” in Europe. CNBC understands that Wall Street giants Citi , Bank of America and JPMorgan, as well as Germany’s Deutsche Bank , the U.K.’s Standard Chartered , NatWest , Shawbrook, and OakNorth, are among the banks providing these loans in the London market. What are ‘loan on loans’? Lending deals that involve borrowers taking out a loan from a private credit fund, which has partly funded the transaction by borrowing from a bank, are called “loan on loans.” These back leverage structures often use special-purpose vehicles to advance the loan as well as hold the underlying assets. For a credit fund, the deals are advantageous since they can use their investors’ capital to advance more loans and boost their returns. Why the loan-on-loan market is growing Lending in the form of loan on loans began appearing in the United States soon after the global financial crisis of 2008. As regulators around the world began implementing the Basel III framework , banks shied away from lending to sectors that were perceived to be at greater risk under the new regime. In the U.K., for instance, commercial real estate has been one sector where banks have had to lower their exposure as a result of the regulations, and where private credit funds have been used to help fill the gap. The debt funds, initially using their investors’ capital, began lending to borrowers who could no longer access credit from banks at attractive rates since they were deemed to be risky, industry experts told CNBC. “Private credit/debt funds have steadily increased market share in the CRE [commercial real estate] lending market,” said Philip Abbott, partner at law firm Fieldfisher, which has acted for banks and credit funds on deals. “As a general rule, these lenders are more expensive to borrow from than a bank, but can move higher up the risk curve and will often commit to fast deal execution.” Credit funds initially competed with banks to attract borrowers, but they are now developing a symbiotic relationship through their use of leverage, the industry specialists said. Borrowers also value the relationship-driven approach of most credit funds, and their specialist expertise particularly in alternative real estate sectors. at finance partner at Macfarlanes Laura Bretherton The availability of loans through debt funds is also advantageous to borrowers as companies would otherwise not have access to credit, or would likely be paying punitive interest rates to banks. Without loan on loans, borrowers would also have to approach multiple lenders if loans have high loan-to-value ratios and negotiate bespoke deals commonly known as a “mezzanine” structure. “Borrowers are attracted to whole loan solutions offered by credit funds, under which they may be able to achieve a similar LTV level to a … mezzanine structure, but with increased certainty of execution with a single finance provider,” said Laura Bretherton, a finance partner at law firm Macfarlanes which predominantly works with credit funds. “Borrowers also value the relationship-driven approach of most credit funds, and their specialist expertise particularly in alternative real estate sectors.” Could it boost bank returns? Banks are likely to need significantly less capital to make loans to debt funds, relative to other borrowers. One pillar of the Basel III reforms changed the way banks calculated risk to commercial real estate. For instance, in the U.K., banks tend to mark about 70% to 115% of the loan as a risk-weighted asset, depending on the loan duration, probability of default and other credit risk factors . In theory, for a 10-year loan of $100 million to purchase commercial real estate, the bank would assume about 100% of the loan amount as a risk weighted asset. It would then need to set aside a minimum of 8% of the RWA — or $8 million in our example — as regulatory capital. Regulatory capital has been created to act as a loss-absorbing mechanism to prevent bank failures. However, if the bank were to make the loan to a credit fund instead, the risk weighted asset assessment could fall to as low as 20%. That means the regulatory capital that needs to be set aside could be as little as $1.6 million, using the above (simplified) example. If a default were to occur, banks would also be the first to be paid which lowers their risk. “Simply, it usually means [banks] can deploy capital in a deal they would not be part of at a lower risk attachment point which improves their risk adjusted return on equity,” said Mohith Sondhi, senior director of debt finance at U.K.-based bank OakNorth , which provides financing to debt funds. Banks also benefit from diversification of exposure through loan on loans with relatively little effort. Loans to credit funds are often collateralized across multiple underlying assets in the credit fund, with the credit fund’s, as well as the borrower’s track record, also assessed. The loans could also be securitized, which further lowers the perceived risk for banks. “By lending to private credit funds, the bank reduces its risk via the diversification achieved by investing in a portfolio (rather than a single borrower), which then reduces the capital requirement and at the same time helps the bank to gain exposure to a high-yielding portfolio,” said Alvin Abraham, CEO of Katalysys, a prudential risk management and regulatory reporting advisory firm. Equity analysts at Barclays suggest banks are also at risk of losing market share to private credit funds in markets where they are currently dominant, such as corporate loans to small and medium enterprises. Partnering up private credit funds with back leverage to facilitate these loans could be one way to mitigate the risk. “The conclusion of our analysis is that EU banks would be entering into lower-RoE business by an average of 5% (from 21% on average to 16%) if this happened, with an above-average impact on SEB, SWED, ING , ABN and NWG ,” said Namita Samtani, equity analyst at Barclays, referring to Sweden’s SEB Group and Sweden Bank, Dutch banks ING and ABN Amro and the U.K.’s NatWest Group. If banks do end up getting “out competed,” then “the alternative would be not to lend at all,” Samtani added. How big is the market? Data on private market debt is hard to come by. Academics, analysts as well as the industry itself, are piecing together a picture of the sector through surveys. Equity analysts at Barclays estimated in 2024 that bank lending to private credit funds in Europe stood at about 100 billion euros ($105 billion), which would be less than 2% of traditional bank lending. The Bayes Business School Commercial Real Estate Lending Report, which surveyed about 80 lenders, showed that debt funds now account for more than a fifth of the money lent to the U.K. commercial real estate sector. Nicole Lux, the report’s director and senior research fellow at the City University of London, speculated that when debt funds use loan-on-loan structures, it could represent “up to 50-60% of their total capital.” Another recent survey of 100 lenders by Knight Frank , the global real estate consultancy, suggested that more than £100 billion ($126.4 billion) was raised by debt funds capable of using £200 billion in back leverage from banks. The report also said 90% of those surveyed said back leverage is set to become “the market standard” of commercial real estate lending if it hasn’t already. “It is our firm belief that the back leverage market will continue to amplify, fast becoming a core component dictating liquidity within the CRE debt market,” the Knight Frank Capital Advisory report said. Barclays analysts say that globally, private credit funds have gone from managing $138 billion in 2006 to $1.7 trillion in 2023. Private market data broker Preqin has forecast that the sector will grow to $2.8 trillion by 2028. However, an executive at Apollo Global Management, one of the world’s largest private asset managers, has reportedly said that the true size of the market was closer to $40 trillion in 2023 .
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Two Planes, in Washington and Chicago, Abort Landings to Avoid Collisions
Two Planes, in Washington and Chicago, Abort Landings to Avoid Collisions
Within the span of 90 minutes on Tuesday morning, two airplanes, at Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport and at Chicago’s Midway International Airport, were forced to abort landings to avoid collisions, federal aviation officials said.
American Airlines Flight 2246, arriving at National Airport from Boston, Mass., was making its final descent at about 8:20 a.m. when it suddenly canceled its landing, climbed toward the skies and accelerated away from the airport. The last-minute move allowed it to avoid colliding with another plane that was ready to take off from the same runway, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The airplane’s pilots were told to scrap the landing by an air traffic controller to “ensure separation was maintained between this aircraft and a preceding departure from the same runway,” the F.A.A. said in a statement.
At about 8:50 a.m. Central time, the pilots of Southwest Airlines Flight 2504, traveling from Omaha, canceled the plane’s landing at Chicago Midway after “a business jet entered the runway without authorization,” the F.A.A. said in a statement.
Tuesday morning’s near misses continue to put a spotlight on recent concerns raised about the safety of the nation’s airspace following last month’s deadly midair ****** outside National Airport. On Jan. 29, American Airlines Flight 5342 and an Army ****** Hawk helicopter collided above the Potomac River, killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft.
Investigators have yet to determine the cause of the Jan. 29 ******.
On Tuesday, Itai Vardi, who said he was a passenger on American Airlines 2246, was nervous about his flight into National Airport for work meetings because of the recent ******.
Mr. Vardi, who lives in Boston, said he felt relief when his flight appeared to be less than a minute from landing, as he watched the airplane descend closer and closer to the runway from his window seat.
Then, without warning, the airplane took a sharp and rapid ascent from the ground leaving him overwhelmed with fear wondering what was happening and how it would end, he said.
“Obviously, because of the ******, I was wondering if I should look out for helicopters, then all of sudden this happened,” Mr. Vardi said in an interview. “There was nothing gradual about it. It felt like the pilot had to make an emergency maneuver.”
The airplane eventually safely landed at National Airport. No one was hurt.
American Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the incident.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the Chicago Midway incident.
Southwest Airlines, in a statement confirming the incident had occurred, said that “the crew followed safety procedures and the flight landed without incident.”
Near misses and deadly plane crashes have beset the F.A.A. this year as it tries to navigate through an upheaval at the agency. About 400 employees were recently laid off as part of a restructuring of the federal government under President Trump, though air traffic controllers were exempt from the layoffs.
The collision last month at National Airport was the deadliest ****** in the United States since a Colgan Air flight went down near Buffalo in 2009. Further adding to the F.A.A.’s recent struggles were two other deadly crashes — one in Philadelphia, the other in Alaska — that happened within 10 days of the ****** in Washington.
The recent string of aviation woes has caught the attention of the Trump administration which has vowed to overhaul the F.A.A.’s air traffic control systems. Mr. Trump has previously said that he would talk to Congress about a bill to revamp the country’s aviation safety infrastructure.
The transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, recruited Elon Musk’s aerospace company, SpaceX, and Mr. Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency to help with the effort. SpaceX employees have already visited the F.A.A.’s air-traffic command center in Virginia.
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Delta Offers $30,000 to Passengers on Plane That Crashed in Toronto
Delta Offers $30,000 to Passengers on Plane That Crashed in Toronto
Delta Air Lines said on Wednesday that it was offering $30,000 to each passenger who was aboard the flight from Minneapolis that crashed and flipped upside down this week while trying to land in Toronto.
All 80 people — 76 passengers and four crew members — who were on Delta Flight 4819 survived after the jet made a rough landing and rolled over, ending belly-up with its right wing sheared off at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday.
Of the 21 passengers who were taken to hospitals, all but one had been released by Wednesday morning, Delta said. None of the passengers had life-threatening injuries.
Delta confirmed on Wednesday that it had made the $30,000 offer to passengers. Its representatives were telling the passengers that the offer came with “no strings attached and does not affect rights,” a company spokesman said via email.
Three days after the ******, officials have released few details about the investigation. On Wednesday, Ed Bastian, Delta’s chief executive, said in an interview on CBS that the flight had been staffed by an “experienced crew” but provided little further information.
But it appears that passengers are already considering how to seek compensation from Delta. Rochon Genova, a ********* law firm, said it had been retained by some of the passengers.
According to international treaties, when an international aviation accident causes injury or death, airlines in the United States are required to make advance payments to passengers if the airline determines that the money is necessary to cover their immediate economic needs.
If a passenger dies, the initial payment must be more than about $20,000, according to the Delta Air Lines website, which cites the Warsaw and Montreal Conventions which govern airplane liability. If the passenger is injured, the amount of the payment is determined by the airline.
Making such a payment does not mean the airline admits liability. If passengers later win compensation in a lawsuit, the initial payment will be deducted from the sum of the compensation.
In 2013, Asiana Airlines made a similar payment offer to survivors of a ****** landing in San Francisco which killed three people. The Korean airline offered $10,000 to each of the 288 surviving passengers, and said that the payment did not preclude them from filing lawsuits.
Dozens of lawsuits were filed against the airline and the plane’s manufacturer in the United States, and some later reached settlements for undisclosed amounts.
And last year, after a panel blew off an Alaska Airlines plane mid-flight, the airline offered a $1,500 payment to all passengers, as well as a full refund, to cover “incidental expenses to ensure their immediate needs were taken care of.”
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Trudeau Uses Canada’s Hockey Win Over U.S. to Send a Message to Trump
Trudeau Uses Canada’s Hockey Win Over U.S. to Send a Message to Trump
It took Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada just minutes to tap out his reaction to his nation’s victory over the United States in an international hockey championship final on Thursday in Boston.
“You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game,” Mr. Trudeau wrote on X, a pointed response to weeks of threats from President Trump to devastate the ********* economy with tariffs and take it over as the United States’ 51st state.
Mr. Trudeau’s swift riposte after the game tapped into an anger that has simmered across Canada since Mr. Trump took office on Jan. 20. His message was echoed from across the political aisle. “The true North, strong, free and golden,” Pierre Poilievre, Canada’s opposition leader, wrote on X.
The political tensions had been spilling over into sports arenas for weeks; the U.S. national anthem was loudly booed at N.B.A. and N.H.L. games in Canada.
That did not deter Mr. Trump from repeating his taunt before the championship game.
“I think they have to become the 51st state,” he said during a speech on Thursday in Washington. “And you heard the people booing the national anthem, but I think ultimately they’ll be praising the national anthem.”
Mr. Trump went on to refer to Mr. Trudeau as “governor,” which he has done often in recent weeks.
Mr. Trump also called the U.S. team to express his support. At the White House, his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said he was looking forward to watching the game. “And we look forward to the United States beating our soon-to-be 51st state, Canada,” she said.
Later, there were some boos at the Boston arena as Chantal Kreviazuk, a ********* musician, sang “O Canada.”
There was a twist in her rendition too. She changed the words “in all of us command” to “that only us command.” Ms. Kreviazuk said on Instagram that the change was in response to the talk of annexation.
Mr. Trump’s repeated digs have had a unifying effect in Canada, forging a rare consensus among the public and the political class despite the country going through one of its most divided political periods in recent history.
A survey published last month by the Angus Reid Institute, a research center, found that 90 percent of ********* respondents were opposed to being a part of the United States.
The political significance of a win was not lost on the team, Jon Cooper, the Team Canada coach, said after the game on Thursday.
“Not only, like, our team, but Canada needed a win,” Mr. Cooper said. “This one was different. This wasn’t a win for themselves. This was a win for 40-plus million people.”
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Sean Curran, “the unknown” leading the Secret Service
Sean Curran, “the unknown” leading the Secret Service
The photo was instantly legendary: former President Trump with his fist in the air, blood seeping from his right ear and an American flag flying overhead.
Sean Curran was a mostly anonymous U.S. Secret Service agent that July day in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a bullet clipped Mr. Trump’s ear, coming within inches of his skull. In the photo, Curran is the agent on the right, sunglassed and unsmiling, after he and his team sprang to the former president’s side to protect him.
“Part of me probably still hasn’t processed it. I haven’t — from that day to now — I haven’t stopped,” Curran told CBS News in his first news interview. “I felt like I couldn’t let him out of my sight. Not to the point where I’d be overworked, but to a point where I felt like I needed to be with him to ensure that things were done the way I needed them to be done. I didn’t want to leave his side. I think he probably didn’t want me to leave his side, either.”
FILE – Republican presidential candidate former President Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents after an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., July 13, 2024.
Evan Vucci / AP
His relationship with the president was forged over seven years of near daily contact, including two assassination attempts and court hearings that numbered “too many to count.” “I mean we — it’s life-changing,” Curran said. Just after his second inauguration, Mr. Trump named him director of the Secret Service.
Curran declined to reveal what Mr. Trump said on the way to and from the courthouse or during his arraignments — or on any occasion — other than to say Trump remained calm “every single day, and that’s on and off camera.”
The Secret Service made some preliminary plans for how to accommodate Mr. Trump if he were convicted in his four criminal trials and ultimately sentenced to prison time.
“We had serious conversations about it, and I at one point told him, he and I might be — getting a lot closer,” Curran said, which drew a chuckle from a couple staffers in his office with him on the 8th floor of Secret Service headquarters.
But Curran was serious. “Look, if it came to it, I’d be sitting right next to him,” he said. “That’s how much I care for him. That’s how much I felt that he deserved the level of protection that any of our protectees should get. There’s nothing I would have not done for him.”
Two federal cases against Trump were dropped during the post-election transition. A conviction in New York resulted in no jail time. Decisions about Mr. Trump’s security would have been made by then-Acting Secret Service Director Ron Rowe.
“I think we would have treated [prison] probably like a site, and we would have had to probably own a certain portion of that facility,” Curran said. “It’s still a law, you know, whether someone is in prison or not. The law still dictates that we have to protect them.”
Curran, who grew up in New Jersey, joined the Secret Service in 2001. He was assigned to then-Sen. Barack Obama as part of the Secret Service’s dignitary protection division, then to Obama’s presidential protection detail. Curran was recognized as special agent of the year in 2007. After a stint working for the assistant director of investigations, he was promoted to run the Secret Service coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign, and later, the protective intelligence squad. During Mr. Trump’s first term, Curran became deputy supervisor on Trump’s detail, then, in 2021, one of the youngest special agents ever to be named agent in charge.
When his first term ended, Trump was persona non grata politically, and the Secret Service senior leadership team was focused on protecting then-President Biden. According to other agents familiar with the situation, headquarters essentially told Curran to build a post-presidential protective detail on his own.
As the controversial former president geared up for his third White House campaign, Curran and his deputy, Matt Piant, tried to warn headquarters that they couldn’t treat Mr. Trump like a regular former president. They believed a typical protective footprint, like the bands of security provided to former presidents Obama or Clinton, wouldn’t be enough to accommodate Mr. Trump’s schedule as he dashed between campaign rallies and court hearings.
Curran wouldn’t talk about the failures at Butler, or what happened in the minutes after the shooting. But he suggested that too many leaders have lost touch with officers and agents out in the field.
“Good ideas, big ideas, have been hampered by people with probably less experience,” Curran said, adding hat leaders in a higher position don’t always understand the reality of teams in the field. “I understand what people on the ground need.”
One recent change within the agency’s ranks has been to embed a team of six lawyers within Secret Service field operations — not for oversight of the officers, but for support in dealing with protesters or other circumstances.
At a time when DOGE is cutting agencies it considers bloated, Curran is seeking a larger congressional appropriation. He said it is unclear whether Elon Musk will try to cut staff from the Secret Service. So far, there’s no indication of that.
Curran disagrees with a goal set by former director Kimberly Cheatle to make the Secret Service a 30% female workforce by 2030 – part of a nationwide campaign to diversify the ranks of law enforcement. “When you highlight a specific group or person, you are not going to get the best qualified candidates,” he said, echoing Trump’s move away from diversity, equity and inclusion or “DEI” initiatives. “My only goal is to put the right people on the field and get the best qualified applicants for this job, no matter what the position is and no matter what they look like.”
Richard Giuditta, a New Jersey lawyer brought in by Curran as a legal adviser, said one of Curran’s first actions, within hours of being appointed director, was to go to the uniformed division’s midnight-shift roll call at the White House. “Quietly, by himself,” Giuditta said.
In a break with agency precedent, Giuditta is the first political appointee to serve as senior adviser to the Secret Service.
Not everyone inside the agency is certain Curran is the right guy for the job — field agents aren’t typically chosen to lead the Secret Service and its more than 8,000-member workforce.
“I think overall, people see who I am,” Curran said. “They see that I’m out there. They see that I just had a vest on a month ago, and I’m now up here. If you look around historically, that is not what you’ve seen up here. I’ve taken a different path. People know that. People are probably scared of that, because I’m the unknown.”
Curran, who has been at Mr. Trump’s side on the golf course, on and off planes, in and out of meetings, recognizes that his relationship with Trump may be fodder for critics.
“He has always shown respect to not only me, but the division that protected him,” Curran said. “We have a bond, probably for life.”
Any president chafes at restrictions on their freedom of movement, although Curran declined to name any specific incidents. “If I could broadly speak on this, he and I have had a lot of those tough conversations,” he said. “He was always very respectful of my opinion and what we needed to do, and he never once pushed back.”
The moment in Butler, Pennsylvania — and the photos — made Curran a public figure overnight. His face is now plastered on book covers, billboards, t-shirts, tattoos.
Curran would prefer to not be recognized. “I’m a private guy,” he said. “This position by nature — our role is to kind of be in the shadows. We are not to be part of the picture. Pun intended, I guess.”
Last week, Curran got a phone call from a former Secret Service agent who, perhaps more than anyone, understood that unwanted spotlight. Clint Hill, 93, was best known for leaping onto the back of President John F. Kennedy’s limousine after the president was shot. Hill died on Friday, just one day after reaching out to Curran.
“I guess he feels like we had a connection,” Curran said. “So he wanted to talk to me. That was that.”
Jennifer Jacobs
Jennifer Jacobs is a senior White House reporter at CBS News.
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Gold Mine Collapse in Mali Kills at Least 43
Gold Mine Collapse in Mali Kills at Least 43
BAMAKO, Mali — At least 43 people, mostly women, were killed after an informal gold mine collapsed in western Mali on Saturday, the head of an industry union said.
The accident took place near the town of Kéniéba in Mali’s gold-rich Kayes region, Taoule Camara, the secretary general of the national union of gold counters and refineries, told Reuters. The women had climbed down into open-pit areas left by industrial miners to look for scraps of gold when the earth collapsed around them, he said.
A mines ministry representative confirmed the accident had taken place between the towns of Kenieba and Dabia but declined to give further details, as ministry teams at the scene had not yet shared their report.
Informal mining, also known as artisanal mining, is a common activity across much of West Africa and has become more lucrative in recent years because of a growing demand for metals and rising prices. Deadly accidents are frequent, as such miners often use unregulated methods and work in unsafe conditions.
Thirteen artisanal miners, including women and three children, died in southwest Mali in late January, after a tunnel in which they were digging for gold flooded.
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I’m writing about this cute cat plush so you play one of 2025’s best games
I’m writing about this cute cat plush so you play one of 2025’s best games
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is one of my favorite games of the year, so you’ll forgive me if I spend the next 300 words or so writing about a limited-edition plush the game’s creator, Gareth Damian Martin, is producing with the help of crowdfunding platform Makeship. Starting today, you can pledge $30 to support Martin’s campaign, and if enough other people do as well, everyone will get a cute cat plush sometime later this year. The toy was designed by French illustrator Guillaume Singelin, who also did the character designs for the game. Right now, the campaign is sitting at 45 percent funded with 90 toys sold, and the better part of 22 days to go.
And I mean look at the plush, isn’t it one of the cutest things you’ve seen? For the uninitiated, the Stray, not to be confused with another cyberpunk cat, is one of the characters Citizen Sleeper 2’s protagonist can encounter during their journey. As far as I’m aware, they only appear in one scene throughout the entire runtime of the game (how very cat-like of them, I know), but it’s a moment that’s emblematic of so many of Citizen Sleeper 2’s strengths.
“This cat, the one on your ship, was born here. That much is obvious,” writes Martin in the scene. “It is a creature of zero-gravity, a being that orbits and glides, not one that leaps and stalks.” Without spoiling anything, what follows is a touching and thoughtful meditation on memory, and how we can choose whether our memories define us.
If you haven’t played Citizen Sleeper 2 yet, consider this a recommendation. It is easily worth your time and more. You can play the game on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. As for the Stray, they’re expected to start shipping on June 12, 2025.
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Taurasi, champ at all levels, retires from WNBA – ESPN
Taurasi, champ at all levels, retires from WNBA – ESPN
Taurasi, champ at all levels, retires from WNBA ESPNExclusive: After an Unparalleled Career, WNBA Star Diana Taurasi Announces Her Retirement TIMEMercury star Diana Taurasi set to retire from WNBA as league’s all-time leading scorer after 20 seasons Yahoo SportsWNBA icon Diana Taurasi retires after 20 seasons New York Post Phoenix Mercury Legend Diana Taurasi Announces Retirement Sports Illustrated
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The key Maguire mission that will make or break Broncos
The key Maguire mission that will make or break Broncos
Michael Maguire’s main task to turn around Brisbane’s fortunes was summed up by a key message the new head coach had about who will wear the famous logo in 2025 – and who won’t.
“Fifty per cent of our game is defending and that’s where I have challenged every player,” Maguire said.
An analysis of the Broncos’ performances in the past five seasons shows clearly that defensive frailties have been a major issue.
Three of those years – 2020, 2021 and 2024 – include the worst points conceded record in the club’s history with 624, 695 and 607 points given up respectively.
Even in the 2023 grand final against Penrith, after a wonderful year, they were unable to make a 24-8 lead count and failed to aim up defensively when the blowtorch was applied.
Maguire has spoken about his keen interest in Broncos history and one prescient fact that stands out to him is how defensively strong the side was in winning six titles.
Just one example is the so-called “razzle dazzle” 1992 Broncos. For all their flair, they conceded just 311 points in 22 games at 14 points per match. Compare that to the 25 points per game the Broncos leaked last year in a dismal 12th placed finish and the lesson is stark.
It is a reason why Maguire picked the unheralded Gehamat Shibasaki (centre) and Jack Gosiewski (second-row) to start in the trials. Time will tell if they remain as starters, but both are defensively solid and have that workman-like mindset that Maguire admires.
Two-time Broncos premiership winner Peter Ryan was the defensive coach who helped mastermind the 2006 title win, the club’s most recent premiership triumph, alongside former coach Wayne Bennett.
Ryan, one of the greatest defenders to lace a boot, recently attended a Broncos training session and liked what he saw from Maguire and new defensive coach Ben Te’o.
Maguire has a suite of attacking stars like Reece Walsh, Selwyn Cobbo, new arrival Ben Hunt and currently injured Kotoni Staggs at his disposal in 2025 but getting everyone working together when they don’t have the ball, like Penrith have done in four consecutive title wins, is the crux of premiership success.
The early signs, including conceding just 26 points in two matches while winning the NRL Pre-Season Challenge, have been promising.
“It’s hard to get people who have predominantly been attacking weapons to do extras on their defence for the benefit of the team,” Ryan told AAP.
“The biggest component for successful defence is attitude. From the outside looking in, this is what Madge (Maguire) has up his sleeve.
“He has the ability to coach a team to make them disciplined to the point where every day at training they are committed to making the effort in defence, with the right attitude.
“The attitude to defence of the players I saw the other day at training was excellent … but they haven’t really been tested yet.”
The Broncos have trained at high intensity and with accountability.
Mistakes are punished with all team members doing push-ups when an error is made. It’s hardly revolutionary but it is a change to what had been the norm previously.
All the players interviewed this season have spoken of Maguire as a tough taskmaster they want to impress.
The coach has not been afraid to make positional changes. Pat Carrigan has moved to prop to allow “cattle dog” Kobe Hetherington a shot at No.13.
Cory Paix, a noted outstanding trainer, has been given a crack at starting hooker after playing no NRL in 2024.
Asked about one aspect of change that had impressed him under Maguire, the 25-year-old No.9’s answer was telling.
“Everyone has a clean slate,” he said.
That slate will be wiped even cleaner if players don”t have the want and desire in defence that the coach demands.
Ryan left the NRL as a player at the end of 1999 to pursue a rugby union career and won the Super 12s title with ACT Brumbies in 2001, the first player ever to win premierships at the elite level in both codes.
The Broncos life member came back to the club in a coaching capacity to help plot the stunning 15-8 grand final win in 2006 over Melbourne. He insists what worked then, still applies today.
“I was looking for jobs after COVID in league or union and some people said to me that I had been out of the game too long, but I was out of rugby league for six years when I came back to the Broncos in 2006 and we won a comp,” he said.
“All I taught that year was that it didn’t matter what the session was – tough or technical – but we are going to work hard.
“With working hard comes the right attitude. Fortunately for us we had guys like Shane Webcke, Petero Civoniceva, Brad Thorn, Darren Lockyer and Tonie Carroll in one of the best Broncos teams ever put on the field.
“This is an amazing roster as well that Madge has today. The biggest question is: Have they all bought in?
“Madge has to get everyone on the same page and, from what I have seen so far, I think he has done that.”
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Phasmophobia update adds voice recognition to consoles
Phasmophobia update adds voice recognition to consoles
Voice recognition in Phasmophobia is now available on consoles.
Announced recently on the Kinetic Games Twitter and released in an update on February 20, consoles now have access to voice recognition in Phasmophobia. This includes Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PSVR 2.
Previously only a feature on PC, voice recognition in Phasmophobia allowed for another layer of immersion into the ghost hunting game. It allowed you to speak directly as a player into the game to utilize and interact with certain tools. Features of the voice recognition are further detailed in patch notes released the same day on the Kinetic Games website and are as follows.
Utilize the Spirit Box by speaking phrases such as ‘‘Are you friendly?’’ and “Give us a sign” to communicate with the ghost.
Use Curse Possessions such as the Ouija Board to interact with the ghost and the Monkey Paw.
Say the ghost’s name or other recognisable phrases near the ghost to be provided with a chance to increase the ghost’s activity for a short time.
The patch notes continue to state that the below languages are supported at launch, with more coming in a future update.
English
French
Italian
*******
Spanish
Brazilian Portuguese
Japanese
We hope console players take advantage of this new and immersive addition to Phasmophobia!
Julian Barber Contributor
Julian enjoys all types of video games and consoles, although he mainly plays on PC. He usually plays first person shooters and fighting games, but also enjoys the occasional RPG or horror game. He also very much enjoys the story and lore of games.
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Super Micro files financials ahead of Nasdaq deadline, stock pops
Super Micro files financials ahead of Nasdaq deadline, stock pops
Charles Liang, CEO of Super Micro Computer Inc., during the Computex conference in Taipei, Taiwan, on June 5, 2024.
Annabelle Chih | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Super Micro Computer reported its delayed financial results on Tuesday just in time to meet the Nasdaq’s listing deadline. Shares of the server maker popped 15% in extended trading after the filing.
“In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company at June 30, 2024,” BDO, the company’s auditor, wrote in the filing, adding that the results are “in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted” in the U.S.
Super Micro filed updated and audited financials with the Securities and Exchange Commission for its fiscal 2024, ending in June, and the first two quarters of the company’s fiscal 2025.
The Tuesday filing eliminates an possibility that the server maker could be delisted from the Nasdaq exchange, an overhang to Super Micro’s outlook which had scared some investors away.
Last fall, Super Micro delayed releasing its annual report for the year ending in June, and its auditor, Ernst & Young, quit citing governance issues.
Super Micro said that it had identified material weaknesses in the company’s internal control over financial reporting, including IT issues, a lack of documentation over manual journal entries, and insufficient controls to address segregation of staff duties.
On Tuesday, Super Micro said in its filings that it is hiring additional accounting and audit employees and upgrading its IT systems to improve its internal financial controls going forward.
But while Super Micro has grappled with internal controls and accounting questions, the business has been growing strongly because it builds systems based around Nvidia’s graphics processing units, or GPUs, which are used to develop artificial intelligence. Elon Musk’s xAI, for example, buys Super Micro systems.
According to the company’s updated financials, Super Micro sales more than doubled in its fiscal 2024 to $14.99 billion.
Super Micro said it still faced risks related to its late financial reports, including litigation, repetitional harm, and potentially lower credit ratings. It said its failure to timely file its SEC reports could hurt its stock price and could hurt employee retention and hiring.
The stock has been rising this year after falling in the second half of last year on delisting concerns. Before Tuesday’s after-hours surge, it was up 52% so far in 2025.
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IBM to buy open source data platform and AI vendor DataStax
IBM to buy open source data platform and AI vendor DataStax
IBM plans to acquire DataStax, a longtime open source database and real-time event streaming vendor that recently rebranded as an AI company.
The terms of the deal, expected to close in the second quarter, were not disclosed. DataStax has raised more than $343 million since its founding in 2010.
IBM said DataStax’s technology will support the tech giant’s family of Watsonx generative AI models, which aim to help enterprises derive value from unstructured data.
Open source strategy
While the Watsonx line is not fully open source, it provides users with access to open source models. Some of IBM’s Granite large language models (LLMs) are open source.
For its part, DataStax has long played an active role in the open source database community, with its Astra DB and DataStax Enterprise databases and NoSQL and vector database capabilities based on Apache Cassandra and Langflow, the open source tool and community for low-code AI application development.
Among DataStax’s key capabilities are built-in and easy-to-use retrieval augmented generation (RAG) features for retrieving and generating data for LLMs.
While this solidifies IBM’s position in the open source AI space, it will be interesting to see how they will license DataStax going forward to fit with their open source model.
Andy ThuraiAnalyst, Constellation Research
“IBM has supported the open source Langflow tool for a while. But with the combination of the DataStax hybrid vector database and … RAG capabilities, IBM is hoping to gear enterprise RAG adoption more easily,” said Andy Thurai, an analyst at Constellation Research. “While this solidifies IBM’s position in the open source AI space, it will be interesting to see how they will license DataStax going forward to fit with their open source model.”
The acquisition will strengthen IBM’s efforts to scale generative AI applications for enterprise data, according to the vendor. DataStax’s vector database excels at harnessing unstructured enterprise data. And Langflow supplies a graphical, low-code design environment and component orchestration for generative AI applications, IBM said.
IBM said it will continue to support the Apache Cassandra, Langflow, Apache Pulsar and OpenSearch communities, in which DataStax is involved.
Data-driven
Doug Henschen, another Constellation Research analyst, noted that DataStax provides the data underpinning for online giants such as Netflix, Overstock, Priceline and Intuit, among others.
While IBM’s announcement of the planned purchase of DataStax mostly emphasized generative AI opportunities because of DataStax’s introduction last year of vector storage and embedding capabilities, DataStax’s “underlying platform is solid and geared to massive, global-scale deployments,” Henschen said.
However, Henschen noted that DataStax has faced increasing competition in recent years, mostly from the big cloud providers, particularly AWS, with its DynamoDB scalable NoSQL database and Amazon Keyspaces for Apache Cassandra.
“It will be interesting to see whether big, cloud-native companies with skilled engineering teams turn to self-managing Cassandra in the wake of this acquisition,” Henschen said.
DataStax started calling itself a “real-time AI company” in 2023, after it acquired machine learning vendor Kaskada.
Building enterprise AI applications requires a faster and more intelligent way for enterprises to train LLMs with RAG, Thurai said.
DataStax’s technology “will help IBM solve vectorizing and retrieving data as RAG to feed LLMs with large-scale unstructured data,” he said.
Meanwhile, Subbu Iyer, CEO of longtime DataStax competitor Aerospike, said IBM’s planned acquisition highlights the critical importance of data in the age of generative AI. Aerospike, a vendor of a NoSQL database, raised $100 million in a funding round last year.
“It’s clear that data drives the AI revolution. For AI to realize its potential, organizations need massive amounts of real-time data to provide timely, accurate and meaningful results,” Iyer said.
Shaun Sutner is senior news director for Informa TechTarget’s information management team, driving coverage of artificial intelligence, unified communications, analytics and data management technologies. He is a veteran journalist with more than 30 years of news experience.
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Amid a Musk-led overhaul, the FAA starts doing business with SpaceX
Amid a Musk-led overhaul, the FAA starts doing business with SpaceX
The Federal Aviation Agency has started testing Starlink terminals for upgrades to the networks that manage airspace, creating the latest conflict of interest between the US government and Elon Musk. The FAA (fittingly on the social network Musk also owns) that it is testing a Starlink terminal in Atlantic City, NJ, and two terminals in Alaska. The post claims that the department had been considering using the SpaceX tech since the prior presidential administration.
The agency, which oversees all areas of civil aviation, has levied and required over the years related to various SpaceX operations. Most recently, the agency SpaceX to investigate what caused a mid-flight explosion with its Starship rocket last month.
A source told that Musk had approved a shipment of 4,000 Starlink terminals to the FAA last week. The agency has an existing contract with Verizon Communications, worth $2 billion, for supporting and maintaining its infrastructure. Bloomberg‘s sources were unsure how the Starlink tests would impact the Verizon deal.
This isn’t the first time a Musk-owned business has benefited since the South African billionaire inserted himself into the US political landscape. He and his so-called DOGE group has been leading cuts within the federal ranks, including at the FAA and at other departments that oversee his companies. For instance, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration saw about a reduction to its staff this month, including cuts to the small division overseeing autonomous vehicles such as those from Tesla.
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Canada’s Hockey Victory Sends a Message to Trump: Hands Off
Canada’s Hockey Victory Sends a Message to Trump: Hands Off
Some sports rivalries are generational. Others are about an underdog fight or national pride.
Canada’s hockey victory over the United States on Thursday was a bit of both. Against a backdrop of taunts by President Trump about annexing Canada and the looming economic threat of 25 percent tariffs on ********* goods, a lot was symbolically riding on the game.
[Read: Trump Says Auto Tariffs Coming Apr. 2]
“Canada needed a win, and the players beared that on their shoulders,” Jon Cooper, Canada’s coach, said after the game. “This one was different. This wasn’t a win for themselves. This was a win for 40-plus million people. The guys knew it and they delivered.”
The game capped off a round-robin tournament called the 4 Nations Face-Off between Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States. It was the first international tournament since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey to feature some of the National Hockey League’s best players representing their countries.
The championship on Thursday took on geopolitical consequences unfamiliar to ********* sports fans. After Canada lost the first-round match, there was a sense of urgency weighed by heavy stakes and a responsibility to prove something very important to the world.
Instead of the usual electric anticipation before sports matchups between Canada and the United States, this championship’s buildup held a bitterness. Social media was abuzz with insults in both directions. My group chat plotted how many ********* flags would sufficiently offend at a sports bar. Bygone were the playful pregame bets between world leaders.
Despite being an infrequent sports watcher, the tone felt unusually familiar. The intensity reminded me of the hostile soccer rivalry between Albania, my family’s home country, and Serbia. The two nations have a fraught political relationship and have been involved in wars against each other.
On the flip side, Canada and the United States, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has remarked in recent weeks, fought alongside each other as close allies that share a friendship unparalleled on the global stage. That was, of course, before Mr. Trump’s threats of annexation.
“You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game,” Mr. Trudeau wrote in a post on X after the nail-biting victory.
Thursday began with more needling from Mr. Trump that Canada should “someday, maybe soon, become our cherished, and very important, Fifty First State” led by “Governor Trudeau.”
[Read: Canada as the 51st State? In Electoral Terms, Trump’s Idea Favors Democrats.]
Typically, Canada’s matches against the United States are about sport supremacy and pride, equally so in the women’s hockey league and in soccer and basketball, said Dave Bidini, a ********* musician and author of 13 books about hockey. That’s changing.
“This geopolitical climate adds an entirely new depth, I think, to these kinds of games and probably will for the next four years,” Mr. Bidini told me. The last time he recalled feeling heightened political tension during an international hockey event was during a match in 1972 between Canada and the Soviet Union. Canada scored the winning goal with 34 seconds to spare. As a child, Mr. Bidini feared the Soviet Union would consume his country if the team lost.
“Looking back, I think how utterly absurd that was,” Mr. Bidini told me before the game on Thursday. “But that was the climate of the times, and tonight is the closest it has come to mirroring that.”
“I hope Canada wins because I think it’ll quiet the noise a little bit,” he added, referring to Mr. Trump’s threats.
As for other noise, sports-watching venues across Canada were raucous. At a packed sports bar in Toronto’s east end, fans around me booed the United States. They erupted in jubilation after Canada’s first two goals by Nathan MacKinnon and Sam Bennett, and into enthusiastic cheers after three impressive saves by the goaltender Jordan Binnington. The viewers more than once broke into the melody of “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes. Pizza Pizza, a ********* fast-food franchise, put out ads during the game for a 25 percent “reverse tariff” discount on pizza.
Connor McDavid, who played alongside the fellow national treasure Sidney Crosby, scored the winning goal in overtime.
Then came the finale: the national anthem.
Matthew Roberts, a spectator who was sitting not far from me, belted out the first words of “O Canada.” Others quickly joined.
“I sang ‘O Canada’ as loud as I could to get the crowd going,” Mr. Roberts said.
As exhilarated fans filed out of the bar, Mr. Roberts told me he normally isn’t the most patriotic or invested sports fan, but the atmosphere that night called for it.
Trans Canada
Pierre Poilievre, the front-runner to become Canada’s next leader, has become a darling of the American right, writes Nori Onishi, The Times’s correspondent in Montreal.
A Delta flight from Minneapolis crashed at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday, with the plane going belly-up on the tarmac. All 76 passengers and four crew members survived. The airline offered passengers $30,000 each. And amid the recent string of crashes, here’s what passengers should know about airline safety.
Banff is featured in the latest edition of 36 Hours, a series by the Travel section that offers a weekend itinerary complete with dining recommendations, hotels and activities. (In case you missed it, I recently visited Quebec City for the series.)
The ********* model Winnie Harlow announced her engagement.
John Giorgi, a software engineer and research scientist based in Toronto, believes artificial intelligence tools are helping coders, not leading to their extinction.
Vjosa Isai is a reporter and researcher for The New York Times in Toronto.
How are we doing?We’re eager to have your thoughts about this newsletter and events in Canada in general. Please send them to *****@*****.tld.
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Halo: Flashpoint Board Game Gets 25% Discount At Amazon
Halo: Flashpoint Board Game Gets 25% Discount At Amazon
The Halo: Flashpoint tabletop miniatures game debuted last fall, but unless you preordered months in advance, the officially licensed wargame was difficult to find in stock. British board game publisher Mantic unlocked preorders for a second wave of units when Halo: Flashpoint launched, but stock still appears to be quite limited. As of February 25, Halo fans in the US can still preorder Halo: Flashpoint’s Spartan Edition from Amazon for $118 (was $125). Amazon lists February 28 as the release date for the second wave, though dates and prices will vary by retailer and location since Flashpoint is technically an import.
Alternatively, you can pick up the Recon Edition for $57 at Amazon. Halo: Flashpoint’s Recon Edition carries an MSRP of roughly $75, so this is a pretty nice discount. It’s important to note that stock is limited, and while Flashpoint ships directly from Amazon, it’s only sold by third-parties in the US at this time. Recon is a more streamlined version of the game with fewer miniatures, cards, and terrain pieces.
Flashpoint is a skirmish game that sees players assemble teams of Halo Spartans or Banished Elites and send them into tactical turn-based battles. Those who have played similar wargames like Warhammer 40,000–especially the smaller-scale Killteam format–will find Halo: Flashpoint’s premise and gameplay familiar, but the game’s creator, Mantic Entertainment, designed it to be approachable to newcomers.
$118 (was $125) | Wave 2 Releases February 28
Here’s what you’ll find inside the box of the Spartan Edition. The Spartan minis are red or blue–you get eight of each color–but you can paint more detailed designs over these base foundations. Out of the box, the four Banished Elites are gray.
Halo: Flashpoint Rulebook
16 Spartan Models
4 Banished Elite Models
20 Weapon Cards
20 Player Cards
3 Reference Cards
12 D8 Dice
8 Command Dice
Deluxe 2-sided playboard and standard playmat
Pre-colored cardboard terrain and tokens
Plastic 3D arena accessories
$56..84 (was $75)
The Recon Edition comes with everything you need to start playing a faster-paced, less dynamic version of Flashpoint. The Recon Edition doesn’t feature the Banished Elites, so you’re limited to Red vs. Blue, with each player getting four Spartan miniatures each. The Recon Edition includes roughly half the number of Weapon, Player, and Reference cards.
Like the Spartan Edition, the Recon Edition includes a double-sided playmat, but you will have fewer terrain pieces to rearrange and are limited to ground skirmishes. The Spartan Edition has several multi-story terrain pieces.
Here’s what you get with Halo: Flashpoint’s Recon Edition:
Halo: Flashpoint Rulebook
8 Spartan Models
Playmat
Pre-colored double-sided cardboard terrain and tokens
10 Weapon Cards
8 Player Cards
2 Reference Cards
12 D8 Dice
6 Command Dice
For more board and card games based on popular video games, check out this hub we created to showcase dozens of fantasy, sci-fi, and strategy tabletop experiences. Some of the games are on ***** for nice discounts, too.
An example of how you can paint your Spartan minis in Halo: Flashpoint.
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South African Imam and Gay Rights Advocate is Shot Dead
South African Imam and Gay Rights Advocate is Shot Dead
A South African imam who devoted his life to promoting gay rights and tolerance for L.G.B.T.Q. Muslims was shot and killed in the coastal city of Gqeberha on Saturday, the police said.
Muhsin Hendricks was credited by some as being the world’s first openly gay imam. In 2018, he founded the Al-Ghurbaah Foundation, a nonprofit that provided support services for Muslims discriminated against for their ******* orientation.
The organization worked to help Muslims around the world reconcile their faith with their ******* orientation and gender identity.
A statement from the South Africa Human Rights Commission condemned the killing. It cited footage circulated on social media in which a hooded man emerged from a pickup truck and fired shots through the windows of a car in a residential area before speeding away. The video has not been verified by The New York Times.
South Africa’s deputy justice minister, Andries Nel, said it was too early to say whether the shooting was a hate crime, but he said that the police were “hot on the heels of the suspects.”
Mr. Hendricks faced fierce criticism in the country, not least on social media.
In an interview on Monday with Newzroom Afrika, a South African digital channel, Mr. Nel said that though there are debates among Muslims in South Africa about gay rights, those debates acknowledge the primacy of the country’s constitutional protections.
“They have been unambiguous in reaffirming the values of our Constitution, the values of tolerance of plurality and of human respect,” he said.
Mr. Hendricks was a prominent supporter of gay people in South Africa, which in 1998 became the first country in Africa to decriminalize homosexuality, when the Johannesburg High Court ruled that existing ******* laws violated the post-apartheid Constitution.
A survey in 2021 by the research network Afrobarometer rated South Africa as the second-most tolerant country on the continent when it came to same-sex relationships, after the island nation of ***** Verde.
The International Lesbian, Gay, *********, Trans and Intersex Association said that it was “deeply shocked” by the killing. Mr. Hendricks had mentored people in South Africa and around the world as they attempted to reconcile their faith and lives and was a “testament to the healing that solidarity across communities can bring,” Julia Ehrt, the group’s executive director, said in a statement.
South Africa is seen as an outlier on the continent for its approach to gay rights. More than 30 of Africa’s 54 countries criminalize same-sex couples, and in recent years at least six countries, including Ghana and Uganda, have taken steps toward harsher anti-gay laws.
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Lucid CEO steps down; EV maker plans to more than double production in 2025 – CNBC
Lucid CEO steps down; EV maker plans to more than double production in 2025 – CNBC
Lucid CEO steps down; EV maker plans to more than double production in 2025 CNBCLucid’s stock rallies as luxury EV maker narrows its loss MarketWatchLucid says CEO to step down, vehicle production to more than double this year Yahoo FinanceLucid CEO Peter Rawlinson steps down as EV maker reports $397 million Q4 net loss Automotive NewsFormer Tesla engineer out as CEO of EV startup Lucid Axios
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Pelican News
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