Record number of journalists killed in 2024: report
Record number of journalists killed in 2024: report
A record number of journalists were killed in 2024, according to a report by US non-profit organisation Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
At least 124 journalists and media workers were killed, with nearly two-thirds of them Palestinians killed in Israel’s war in Gaza, the CPJ said.
“The toll of conflict on the press is most glaring in the unprecedented number of journalists and media workers killed in the Israel-Gaza war, 85 in 2024, and 78 in 2023.”
The CPJ said the number of conflicts globally – whether political, criminal or military in nature – had doubled in the past five years.
“All of the 2024 killings point to the increased dangers facing reporters and media workers – and the threat that poses to the flow of information worldwide.”
Outside of the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, CPJ documented the killing of 39 other journalists and media workers in 16 nations, with the deadliest being Sudan, Pakistan, Mexico, Syria, Myanmar, Iraq and Haiti.
It is the highest toll since the CPJ began collecting data more than three decades ago. The previous record was 113 journalists killed in 2007, during the Iraq War.
“Conditions can grow more lethal for the press when those who kill journalists are not held to account. And fewer journalists means less information for citizens seeking the truth,” the CPJ warned.
Forty-three of those killed in 2024 were freelancers, “another grim new record for self-employed members of the press who often face the most danger because they have the fewest resources,” the CPJ said.
Thirty-one of those freelancers were killed in Gaza, more than double the 14 killed in 2023.
Under international humanitarian law, journalists are considered civilians and targeting them in a conflict is a war crime.
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Top U.S. Amazon sellers are furious about the ‘avalanche’ of ******** competitors—and they crave a Trump intervention
Top U.S. Amazon sellers are furious about the ‘avalanche’ of ******** competitors—and they crave a Trump intervention
Shinghi Detlefsen has experienced both sides of Amazon’s warm embrace of China-based sellers.
As an Amazon corporate employee in the 2010s, Detlefsen witnessed the company’s internal drive to offer the largest product selection possible, resulting in what one Amazon executive dubbed an “avalanche” of ******** merchants recruited to stock the Everything Store’s seemingly endless digital shelves.
But after leaving Amazon as an employee and joining his wife to sell their own brand of supplements on Amazon, Detlefsen has also witnessed firsthand what he believes to be the downsides of what some would consider Amazon’s China-first approach.
Detlefsen argues that many China-based Amazon sellers—some hawking private-label products with unpronounceable, vowel-challenged “brand” names—are beating U.S.-based merchants not always because they have lower wholesale costs that result in better prices. Instead, Detlefsen says, many ******** rivals benefit from a ********* of tax and regulatory advantages that stacks competition on Amazon and other shopping websites heavily against U.S. sellers.
That includes ********-based sellers not having to pay U.S. income tax. Additionally, some ******** sellers have been able to take advantage of a trade rule known as “de minimis” that lets them ship sub-$800 orders to U.S. customers without paying tariffs or duties. (President Trump briefly banned this exception in an executive order last week before at least temporarily reversing course and pausing the ban.)
The former Amazon corporate employee turned merchant said it’s also common knowledge in seller circles that many China-based merchants figure out ways to skirt Amazon’s requirement for proper liability insurance, another significant cost for high-volume merchants on the platform.
Some ******** sellers have also developed reputations as ruthless competitors willing to post fake negative reviews on rival products, or carry out other forms of sabotage, to win a *****. (Of course, such behavior is not limited to China-based sellers even if U.S.-based merchants claim it is more prevalent with sellers from the world’s second-most populous country.)
Detlefsen and an ad hoc group of other top longtime Amazon sellers have started making the case for government intervention, in blogs, frequent posts on the social media site X, and behind-the-scenes discussions with think tanks, lobbyists, and Amazon staff up to the level of vice president. Detlefsen’s standing as a former Amazon corporate employee likely doesn’t hurt his cause.
“I’m not advocating for an unfair advantage,” he told Fortune. “I’m just advocating for a level playing field.”
Mira ****, an Amazon spokesperson, said in a statement that U.S. sellers are “incredibly important” to the company and their average sales continue to experience “healthy growth.”
“We appreciate seller feedback as we continually work to make improvements in our store that support the growth and success of U.S. sellers’ businesses,” she said. “Amazon not only complies with all applicable laws and regulations, but we have a number of initiatives to help create a positive experience for our selling partners, including working closely with them on issues of shared interest. We have proactive measures in place to prevent bad actors from listing prohibited products, including counterfeit, and have zero tolerance for customer reviews abuse.”
She added that “bad actors that attempt to abuse our systems make up a tiny fraction of activity in our store.”
Some of Detlefsen’s complaints have received at least indirect support from the billionaire Mark Cuban. The entrepreneur and investor recently tweeted a list of his ideas to help limit the counterfeiting of America-designed products by ******** sellers on Amazon and other shopping sites. One of his suggestions is that China-based merchants should have to “register and display any product they want to sell online, on a .gov website (similar to patents) for 90 days…allowing [intellectual property] holders to review for infringement” before the item can go on *****.
In an email to Fortune, Cuban said the counterfeiting problem has been significant for companies he’s invested in, including through his longtime involvement with the hit business pitch show Shark Tank.
“If they have a popular product it’s inevitable that it will get knocked off,” Cuban told Fortune. “And then the process to verify you own the IP is time-consuming, and by the time it’s resolved, the company may have lost a ton of sales they need.”
He called the state of competition on Amazon and other U.S. online marketplaces “a huge problem for small companies that [shouldn’t] be understated.”
Detlefsen and his group of Amazon sellers are also proposing a similar 90-day presale ******* for IP holders to review new products coming onto the market from ******** and other foreign sellers, though they want the system built into online shopping marketplaces themselves. One could imagine fierce pushback from shopping sites that fear such a plan would make it impossible for merchants to react quickly to new consumer trends or fads.
****, the Amazon spokesperson, did not directly comment on this proposal but said Amazon investigates all counterfeit and IP infringement claims, and that the company has made progress as evidenced by a 30%-plus reduction in credible infringement violation notices submitted by brands since 2020.
Beyond advocating for an end to the de minimis trade loophole for ******** merchants, Detlefsen’s group is pushing for other changes. One would require foreign companies selling through Amazon or any online marketplace in the U.S. to register as a U.S entity, pay some level of U.S. taxes, however unlikely that outcome may seem, and designate a U.S.-based “responsible person,” similar to what is required in the European Union. That individual or entity would be responsible for handling any compliance and safety issues and concerns, and would be required to take out liability bonds of $1 million or more with the appropriate collateral held in a U.S. bank.
****, the Amazon spokesperson, told Fortune that U.S. sellers with more than $10,000 in monthly sales are required to carry general liability insurance of at least $1 million, and that Amazon runs a program that can connect both U.S. and ******** sellers with appropriate insurers and brokers. That said, Amazon’s policies do not require the insurance provider to be based in the U.S.
Another suggestion would require online marketplaces in the U.S., like Amazon.com, to display the national origin of each seller along with detailed tariff information for their products.
The concerns being aired by Detlefsen and his group of fellow Amazon business owners are not new, but have mounted in recent years as the market share of China-based sellers on Amazon’s U.S. shopping site has crossed 50%, according to estimates by the e-commerce data firm Marketplace Pulse. The real market share of China-based Amazon merchants is likely even higher since some use U.S. business addresses that misrepresent their real headquarters, according to Marketplace Pulse founder Juozas Kaziukėnas.
From the time Amazon staff began courting China-based merchants a decade ago, the company has been walking a tightrope between adding more selection and low prices that Amazon customers crave without trumpeting the huge role that ******** merchants are playing behind the scenes, decades after U.S. corporations began offshoring manufacturing to China.
“[T]he risky downside to this is that US and EU based sellers do not find this avalanche of China based sellers very amusing,” former Amazon executive Sebastian Gunningham once told colleagues in a 2015 email as the company was ramping up its recruiting in China, adding, “I have coached the team to be aggressive marketing in China to sell globally,” but to be “low key” about the influx of ******** sellers in Western markets.
The business case for the trade-off seems clear. More selection and lower prices may make Amazon customers happier, and adding millions of new merchants over the years has also helped to line Amazon’s coffers in the form of revenue from seller fees. In fact, if Amazon’s third-party seller business were its own company, it would be a Fortune 25 corporation. In 2024, seller fees filled Amazon’s war chest with more than $150 billion in revenue—and that doesn’t even include the billions more in advertising that independent merchants buy on the world’s largest marketplace.
“You could argue that the benefit to consumers is lower prices and perhaps wider selection,” Marketplace Pulse’s Kaziukėnas told Fortune, “but over the long term, it [could mean] there are no U.S. sellers.”
“That essentially means no local sellers, no local brands, no local jobs,” he added. “I think there is a level of protectionism countries should have and this is one of them. You do want U.S. sellers, manufacturers, retailers to exist because they create jobs and they pay taxes.”
Kaziukėnas also noted that while he believes these are some valid reasons for U.S.-based Amazon sellers to decry the current environment, some clearly possess ulterior motives, including both anti-China sentiments and beliefs, as well as competitive dynamics.
“They themselves are sourcing from China and are sometimes selling the same exact goods,” he said of some U.S.-based sellers. “So ideally, they want to have less competitors.”
Detlefsen, though, insists that’s not his motive, and points to his top supplement’s standing as an Amazon bestseller as some proof.
“All of this is common sense,” he said.
Are you a current or former Amazon employee or seller with thoughts on this topic or a tip to share? Contact Jason Del Rey at *****@*****.tld, *****@*****.tld, or through messaging apps Signal and WhatsApp at 917-655-4267. You can also contact him on LinkedIn or at @delrey on X, @jdelrey on Threads, and on Bluesky.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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House Republicans unveil blueprint to extend $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and lift the debt ceiling – The Associated Press
House Republicans unveil blueprint to extend $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and lift the debt ceiling – The Associated Press
House Republicans unveil blueprint to extend $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and lift the debt ceiling The Associated PressGOP hardliners threaten revolt over Johnson plan to implement Trump agenda CNNRepublicans Reveal Trump Tax Plan Will Cost US $4.5 Trillion NewsweekDefying Johnson, Graham and Senate G.O.P. Push Their Own Budget Plan The New York Times
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Moment SUV driver narrowly escapes train collision
Moment SUV driver narrowly escapes train collision
Footage released by Utah Transit Authority captures a driver’s narrow escape from a train collision in Layton, Utah. The vehicle can be seen stuck in front of the train crossing arms, after being rear-ended by a pickup truck on to the tracks. Failing to reverse, the driver exits the car seconds before impact. No injures were reported, according to local media.
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2025 Kia Tasman: Korean pricing points to sharp sticker in Australia
2025 Kia Tasman: Korean pricing points to sharp sticker in Australia
If pricing in South Korea is anything to go by, a loaded Kia Tasman is set to be priced competitively against a mid-spec Ford Ranger in Australia.
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Two killed in multi-vehicle pile up on I-8 in La Mesa: CHP
Two killed in multi-vehicle pile up on I-8 in La Mesa: CHP
LA MESA, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) — Two people were killed in a multi-vehicle collision on Interstate 8 Monday, according to California Highway Patrol. The incident occurred at around 7:18 p.m., just east of 70th Street in La Mesa, when a series of rear-end collisions unfolded in the eastbound lanes.
As explained by CHP, a 79-year-old man from La Mesa was driving a 2004 Toyota with a 77-year-old female passenger, also from La Mesa. For reasons still under investigation, the Toyota was either traveling at a slow speed or had come to a stop in the far left lane of the freeway.
Oceanside Police investigate after body found in dirt lot
Meanwhile, a 34-year-old woman from San Diego, driving a 2016 Dodge, was approaching the Toyota from behind and didn’t see the Toyota in time, authorities said. The Dodge, which also had a 4-year-old male passenger, collided into the rear of the Toyota.
As the ****** unfolded, a 63-year-old woman from El Cajon, driving a 2017 Kia, was unable to avoid the accident and struck the rear of the Dodge, CHP explained further. Then, a 30-year-old man from El Cajon, driving a 2017 Mercedes, was also unable to avoid the wreckage, with debris from the collision damaging his vehicle.
The driver of the Toyota succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene by medical personnel, authorities confirmed. His 77-year-old passenger was transported to Sharp Memorial Hospital but was later pronounced deceased by medical staff.
The driver and 4-year-old passenger of the Dodge were also transported to Sharp Grossmont Hospital for precautionary evaluation but were not reported to have sustained significant injuries. The driver of the Kia suffered only minor injuries, while the Mercedes driver was unharmed.
Authorities are continuing to investigate the cause of the ****** and it remains unclear whether drugs or alcohol were factors in the incident, according to CHP.
Anyone with information regarding the ****** is encouraged to call CHP Officer Jasmine Lopez at 619-219-6900.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
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Two nurses in Australia suspended for reportedly making antisemitic comments – Reuters
Two nurses in Australia suspended for reportedly making antisemitic comments – Reuters
Two nurses in Australia suspended for reportedly making antisemitic comments ReutersAustralian Health Workers Suspended After Threatening Israeli Patients The New York TimesThe hateful comments of the Bankstown nurses shocked me to my core. But they do not represent NSW Health workers The GuardianAustralian hospital examines patient records after nurse claims to have killed Israelis The Associated PressAustralian healthcare workers threaten Israeli man, claim to have killed Jews in their care on camera Fox News
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Department of Education in limbo amid Linda McMahon’s confirmation hearing
Department of Education in limbo amid Linda McMahon’s confirmation hearing
President Trump’s Education Secretary nominee Linda McMahon will appear before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on Thursday as the future of the agency that she could potentially lead hangs in the balance.
Mr. Trump has long teased the possibility of closing the Department of Education, but he could be closer to making good on his pledge. Since taking office, the president has signed several education-related executive orders and multiple sources confirm he is considering executive action that would dismantle the agency. This week, Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, chief Elon Musk also slashed nearly $1 billion in funding from the department and terminated dozens of contracts and grants related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
“Oh, I’d like it to be closed immediately,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. “Look, the Department of Education is a big **** job.”
Ahead of her testimony, McMahon has met with at least 19 Senators, from GOP leadership to members of the HELP committee, including Chair Bill Cassidy, who said the pair had a “productive” discussion.
“She is prepared to return power to parents and reform an Education Department that has lost the plot over the last 4 years of the Biden administration,” Senator Cassidy posted on X.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who serves as ranking member on the panel, joined union members from the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers who rallied against McMahon’s nomination outside of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
“We understand that public education is the backbone of American democracy where all of our people come together to learn and to grow,” Sanders told the crowd. “Our job is not to destroy public education, it is to significantly improve it!”
Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Andy Kim of New Jersey sent a letter to McMahon questioning her experience and policy views.
“You have a minimal track record on education issues and strikingly little experience pertaining to education policy,” the senators wrote. “This lack of a public record means that the American people have not been afforded the opportunity to evaluate your views on topics related to the Education Secretary’s core responsibilities.”
McMahon, the former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO who served as administrator of the Small Business Administration during Mr. Trump’s first term, has said she is “committed” to ensuring students have access to quality education.
“I look forward to working collaboratively with students — educators — parents and communities to strengthen our education system; ensuring every child regardless of their demographics is prepared for a bright future,” McMahon said in a statement after she was nominated by Mr. Trump last November.
Linda McMahon on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025.
Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Congressional Democrats have seized on Mr. Trump’s threats to eliminate the Education Department, as some House members were physically locked out of the agency’s Washington, D.C., headquarters when they attempted to meet with Acting Education Secretary Denise Carter last week.
“It’s important for us to allow the Department of Education to continue to do its work,” House ********* Leader Hakeem Jeffries said during a weekly news conference. “That’s the heart, soul and spirit of America. For the life of me, I can’t understand why Republicans want to abolish the Department of Education. It’s baffling to me. It’s baffling to the American people, and we will continue to defend our public schools.”
Even if Mr. Trump moves forward with an executive order, legal and education experts say congressional action would be needed to fully eliminate the Department of Education.
Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota introduced legislation last year that outlines a road map to abolish the Education Department and return control to the states. It would also redirect other federal agencies to oversee certain functions such as Pell grants and special education.
Shortly after Republicans took control of both chambers in January, Republican Rep. Tom Massie of Kentucky introduced a one-sentence bill to terminate the agency by the end of 2026. Democratic Rep. Jahana Hayes of Connecticut, the 2016 National Teacher of the Year, has introduced a countermeasure to protect the Department of Education.
“We will not take away opportunity for so many children,” Hayes said. “We will not eliminate Pell grants and all the programs that help people from low-income communities to go to college.”
“I think, as the American people begin to understand, ‘Oh, wait a minute, I didn’t realize that’s what this meant,’ and that’s across all the departments, I think that there’s going to be public outcry and pushback,” Hayes added, referencing Mr. Trump’s desired cuts to the federal government.
But House Speaker Mike Johnson has declared “the time has come” to disband the Education Department and said Congress should codify the president’s executive order, if enacted.
“We believe in the core principle that education is best handled by the people closest to the kids,” Johnson explained. “What does that mean? It means local school districts, local school boards. It means at the state level rather than the federal level. We think you empower parents when you do that. We give them more choice when you do that. So that’s why we’re advocates for school choice. That’s why we’re advocates for charter schools and innovative ideas. And I think you can return American education to a place of prominence and success if you allow those things to happen.”
President Jimmy Carter signed legislation in 1979 establishing the Department of Education. Federal funding accounts for less than 10% of the nation’s public school funding, which is mostly financed through state and local taxes. The agency, tasked with fostering student achievement, also administers programs for disadvantaged students and those with special needs, enforces non-discrimination policies in schools and supports federal college loan programs.
Nikole Killion
Nikole Killion is a CBS News congressional correspondent based in Washington D.C. As a correspondent, Killion played a key role in the Network’s 2020 political and election coverage, reporting from around the country during the final stretch of the campaign and throughout the Biden transition.
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Galaxy F06 5G Is Samsung’s First Sub-Rs. 10,000 5G Smartphone and Packs Segment-First Features
Galaxy F06 5G Is Samsung’s First Sub-Rs. 10,000 5G Smartphone and Packs Segment-First Features
Galaxy F06 5G has been announced as Samsung’s most affordable 5G smartphone in India. The introductory price keeps it under Rs. 10,000, a big statement by Samsung. This is one segment that’s considered mass market for OEMs and this should ring cash counters for the company. The good news is Samsung has put in all the bells and whistles one can expect in a modern-day smartphone in this price bracket.
At the launch of Galaxy F06 5G, Gadgets 360 got a chance to talk to Akshay S Rao, General Manager, MX Business, Samsung India. We wanted to understand the feedback Samsung received from the market that led to the launch of the F06 5G smartphone. “Think at the core of it, we’ve always believed that we do not want to put our consumers in a situation where they are compromising on the basics, right? When we looked at what is a consumer requirement when they are looking at a 5G phone, I mean, a full 5g support is the first thing I would expect. We don’t want to isolate any audience who did not force people to change anything, which is their normal course of behaviour. I think that is at the core of it, that the full 5G network support is what we wanted to offer. So that means SA, NSA, all, telecom operator support including carrier aggregation,” he explained.
He continued, “Samsung possesses the strength in its R&D and all of that has gone into giving this product a full 5G experience, plus we looked into the design. This was one of the feedback that consumers did, and especially the young consumers, who are like a prime audience for this price point. I mean, there are a lot of aspirations that Indian consumers have. It might be in mass 5G phone, but people want a device that looks premium because it’s a perfect accessory to their lifestyle. And that’s where, if you see the ripple, low design, the shimmer, the colour choices, all of that has just somewhere come from those consumer interactions, that feedback, and that’s at the core of it.”
Next up, Rao talked about getting the price right. “I think a 4GB + 128GB smartphone at Rs. 9,499 makes for a full package without compromises. We are very confident with the prices as it comes from a lot of consumer feedback. I think we want to listen and want to launch products when we are ready to launch it at the right time with the full package,” he added.
The Galaxy F06 5G is the only phone in its price segment that offers four years of software support. On being asked how Samsung came up with this idea when no other competition is offering this in an even higher price bracket. Rao said, “As you’re aware of the R&D strength Samsung has in India. We have multiple centres sitting here that are working on optimising devices, making them for India, localising and customising. So that’s obviously, the entire ecosystem helps us bring products like this. If you see, we’ve been trying to push the boundary at each price point when no one was offering any commitment to OS upgrades. But I think this one is again a testament to the R&D strength and the kind of ecosystem we enjoy that we do not want to cut corners and we understand consumers hold on to their devices for a fair bit of time, and or maybe they hand it down right within the family, someone else gets in. So we don’t want consumers to be stuck with a phone which, in a year, is not keeping up with the changing times, with four OS upgrades and four years of security updates is basic. That’s our commitment and assurance to consumers that you need not worry about it. If you want to use it for that long, the device is going to back you up.”
It is available in Bahama Blue and Lit Violet colours
Samsung’s Galaxy F-series has been pushing some interesting devices for some time. Starting with the Galaxy F62 which offered a massive 7000mAh battery, the Galaxy F23 5G offered a voice focus feature, the Galaxy F15 offered an sAMOLED display and the Galaxy F55 offered a vegan leather design.
Samsung Galaxy F06 5G: First Impressions
The Galaxy F06 5G supports 12 5G bands across all telecom operators. This will mean whether you are on Jio or Airtel networks, you can enjoy 5G network support.
It features a 6.7-inch HD+ display with 800nits peak brightness. The display is bright and crisp enough for the price segment. There’s a dual camera setup at the back featuring a 50-megapixel primary sensor and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. At the front, there’s an 8-megapixel selfie camera. In the limited time, we couldn’t test the cameras so maybe stay tuned for our full review whenever that comes out.
Under the hood, there’s a MediaTek D6300 processor and comes with 4GB + 128GB and 6GB + 128GB options. Samsung claims that the phone can score 416K in the AnTuTu benchmark which is impressive. But, we will wait until we get our hands on the device to run our set of synthetic benchmarks. Backing the device is a 5000mAh battery with 25W fast-charging support, again something that’s not seen in other phones in this category. But, the biggest highlight here is Samsung’s reaffirmation by providing 4 years of OS upgrades and four years of security updates. All of this makes the Galaxy F06 5G a great package at this price point. Another highlight is it will launch with Android 15-based One UI 7.0 out-of-the-box.
All of this makes the Galaxy F06 5G a capable smartphone in its price bracket and on that note, stay tuned for our full review.
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Accused baby ********* asked ‘unusual’ question: doctor
Accused baby ********* asked ‘unusual’ question: doctor
An accused baby ********* asked if the boy’s bones were OK as emergency department staff tried to revive him, a doctor has told a court.
Benjamin Joseph Swann, 30, is accused of ******* and child ********* but denies killing his ex-partner’s baby, who was found unresponsive at a Werribee home on January 19, 2024.
The boy was struggling to breathe and cold to the touch when he was brought into Werribee Mercy Hospital, pediatric registrar Anna Cartwright told Melbourne Magistrates Court.
The infant had small bleeds in the whites of his eyes and bruising around his neck region, the doctor said on Thursday.
Staff worked to stabilise his condition and the boy underwent a chest X-ray to see if there were issues with his lungs given his breathing issues and premature birth.
Dr Cartwright told the court she gave Swann and the boy’s mother an update after the X-ray and Swann asked if the boy’s bones were OK.
The doctor told the court the question seemed strange.
“I found it unusual with the absence of any known trauma,” Dr Cartwright said.
It prompted her to ask the pair if the child had been accidentally dropped or if he had fallen, which they denied.
Dr Cartwright confirmed hospital staff did not put the child through another X-ray to check the rest of his body given he was extremely unwell.
Staff organised for the child to be transferred to the Royal Children’s Hospital and Dr Cartwright invited Swann and the mother to say goodbye to the boy.
She said the mother was crying as she kissed and hugged her baby, while Swann stayed further back with almost a smile on his face.
He approached the boy when the nurse encouraged him to and kissed the child’s forehead, the doctor said.
Dr Cartwright said people coped with grief differently so it was hard to comment on their varied reactions.
The court was told the baby was checked by a maternal health nurse days before his death and he appeared healthy.
Police had also attended the mother’s home earlier in January over allegations of family violence, the court was told.
She claimed Swann had choked her until she lost consciousness, which he denies.
Swann is facing a committal hearing on the charges of *******, child ********* and various assault offences against the boy’s mother.
The hearing is expected to last five days, with Magistrate Abigail Burchill to determine whether there is sufficient evidence for the case to go to trial.
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Department of Education in limbo amid Linda McMahon’s confirmation hearing
Department of Education in limbo amid Linda McMahon’s confirmation hearing
President Trump’s Education Secretary nominee Linda McMahon will appear before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on Thursday as the future of the agency that she could potentially lead hangs in the balance.
Mr. Trump has long teased the possibility of closing the Department of Education, but he could be closer to making good on his pledge. Since taking office, the president has signed several education-related executive orders and multiple sources confirm he is considering executive action that would dismantle the agency. This week, Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, chief Elon Musk also slashed nearly $1 billion in funding from the department and terminated dozens of contracts and grants related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
“Oh, I’d like it to be closed immediately,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. “Look, the Department of Education is a big **** job.”
Ahead of her testimony, McMahon has met with at least 19 Senators, from GOP leadership to members of the HELP committee, including Chair Bill Cassidy, who said the pair had a “productive” discussion.
“She is prepared to return power to parents and reform an Education Department that has lost the plot over the last 4 years of the Biden administration,” Senator Cassidy posted on X.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who serves as ranking member on the panel, joined union members from the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers who rallied against McMahon’s nomination outside of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
“We understand that public education is the backbone of American democracy where all of our people come together to learn and to grow,” Sanders told the crowd. “Our job is not to destroy public education, it is to significantly improve it!”
Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Andy Kim of New Jersey sent a letter to McMahon questioning her experience and policy views.
“You have a minimal track record on education issues and strikingly little experience pertaining to education policy,” the senators wrote. “This lack of a public record means that the American people have not been afforded the opportunity to evaluate your views on topics related to the Education Secretary’s core responsibilities.”
McMahon, the former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO who served as administrator of the Small Business Administration during Mr. Trump’s first term, has said she is “committed” to ensuring students have access to quality education.
“I look forward to working collaboratively with students — educators — parents and communities to strengthen our education system; ensuring every child regardless of their demographics is prepared for a bright future,” McMahon said in a statement after she was nominated by Mr. Trump last November.
Linda McMahon on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025.
Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Congressional Democrats have seized on Mr. Trump’s threats to eliminate the Education Department, as some House members were physically locked out of the agency’s Washington, D.C., headquarters when they attempted to meet with Acting Education Secretary Denise Carter last week.
“It’s important for us to allow the Department of Education to continue to do its work,” House ********* Leader Hakeem Jeffries said during a weekly news conference. “That’s the heart, soul and spirit of America. For the life of me, I can’t understand why Republicans want to abolish the Department of Education. It’s baffling to me. It’s baffling to the American people, and we will continue to defend our public schools.”
Even if Mr. Trump moves forward with an executive order, legal and education experts say congressional action would be needed to fully eliminate the Department of Education.
Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota introduced legislation last year that outlines a road map to abolish the Education Department and return control to the states. It would also redirect other federal agencies to oversee certain functions such as Pell grants and special education.
Shortly after Republicans took control of both chambers in January, Republican Rep. Tom Massie of Kentucky introduced a one-sentence bill to terminate the agency by the end of 2026. Democratic Rep. Jahana Hayes of Connecticut, the 2016 National Teacher of the Year, has introduced a countermeasure to protect the Department of Education.
“We will not take away opportunity for so many children,” Hayes said. “We will not eliminate Pell grants and all the programs that help people from low-income communities to go to college.”
“I think, as the American people begin to understand, ‘Oh, wait a minute, I didn’t realize that’s what this meant,’ and that’s across all the departments, I think that there’s going to be public outcry and pushback,” Hayes added, referencing Mr. Trump’s desired cuts to the federal government.
But House Speaker Mike Johnson has declared “the time has come” to disband the Education Department and said Congress should codify the president’s executive order, if enacted.
“We believe in the core principle that education is best handled by the people closest to the kids,” Johnson explained. “What does that mean? It means local school districts, local school boards. It means at the state level rather than the federal level. We think you empower parents when you do that. We give them more choice when you do that. So that’s why we’re advocates for school choice. That’s why we’re advocates for charter schools and innovative ideas. And I think you can return American education to a place of prominence and success if you allow those things to happen.”
President Jimmy Carter signed legislation in 1979 establishing the Department of Education. Federal funding accounts for less than 10% of the nation’s public school funding, which is mostly financed through state and local taxes. The agency, tasked with fostering student achievement, also administers programs for disadvantaged students and those with special needs, enforces non-discrimination policies in schools and supports federal college loan programs.
Nikole Killion
Nikole Killion is a CBS News congressional correspondent based in Washington D.C. As a correspondent, Killion played a key role in the Network’s 2020 political and election coverage, reporting from around the country during the final stretch of the campaign and throughout the Biden transition.
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Nvidia’s RTX 5070 graphics card rumoured to be delayed from February until March but that could actually be good news
Nvidia’s RTX 5070 graphics card rumoured to be delayed from February until March but that could actually be good news
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Credit: Nvidia
Back in early January when Nvidia announced the RTX 5070, the mid-range member of the new RTX 50 family was given a February launch date. Now rumours indicate the GPU has been pushed back to March.
Long time GPU-rumour leaker on X, MEGAsizeGPU, says, “the RTX 5070 will be delayed. Instead of February, it will be on the shelf in early March.” How much of a delay that would constitute, if true, isn’t clear.
That’s because Nvidia never said anything more specific than “availability in February” for the RTX 5070. As for what’s going on exactly, one obvious reason for the delay could be to increase stock level before launch.
The RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 sold out almost instantly on launch day on January 30 and have been very scarce since. So, a delay for the RTX 5070 would allow time to build up a ******* buffer of cards.
On a related note, Nvidia may have originally been expecting arch rival AMD to roll out its RX 9070 and 9070 XT GPUs a little earlier than March. But AMD has since inked in “early March” as the launch window for those new GPUs, which are expected to go up against the RTX 5070 and perhaps the even the RTX 5070 Ti.
We don’t know exactly when AMD was first intending to release the RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT. But the company has revealed that the GPUs have been delayed in order to improve performance and add support for AMD’s new FSR 4 upscaling technology to be added to more games.
“We are taking a little extra time to optimize the software stack for maximum performance and enable more FSR 4 titles,” AMD’s Ryzen CPU and Radeon graphics rep David McAfee said on January 22. AMD may also be using the time to build up stock levels.
Anyway, the point regarding those AMD GPUs is that their delayed launch has given Nvidia a little time to tweak its own plans with the RTX 5070. Apart from allowing more time to improve stock levels, a delay until March will mean that AMD’s GPUs will have to share the limelight and news cycle with the RTX 5070.
That said, what Nvidia won’t be able to do very easily, at least without losing face, is change the 5070’s pricing to respond to AMD. Nvidia has already announced a $549 MSRP for the RTX 5070 and it would be a distinctly uncharacteristic climbdown for Nvidia to lower its price, even if a change to an announced but unreleased GPU wouldn’t be totally unprecedented for the company.
Nvidia infamously cancelled the RTX 4080 12GB before it was released and rebadged it as the RTX 4070 Ti but with a $100 price cut from $899 to $799. We very much doubt Nvidia will give the RTX 5070 a similar haircut before launch. But it’s not absolutely impossible.
Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and AMD.Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game first.
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Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 Chipset With Enhancements for Gaming, Generative AI Unveiled
Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 Chipset With Enhancements for Gaming, Generative AI Unveiled
Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chipset was unveiled by Qualcomm on Wednesday, with significant upgrades compared to the previous generation. The company’s newest mobile processor is aimed at offering enhanced capabilities and optimised performance for affordable smartphones. The mobile platform also becomes the first in the series to get support for generative artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and Snapdragon Game Super Resolution’s gaming scene upscaling. The chip maker has also added enhancements to improve low-light photography, better wireless audio sharing via Bluetooth, and faster 5G connectivity across more networks.
Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 Chipset Unveiled
In a press release, the chip maker unveiled the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 mobile platform. The chipset is the first in the series to be fabricated on the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s (TSMC) 4nm process technology. In the past, Qualcomm has used a 4nm node from Samsung.
The processor also becomes the first in the series to get ARMv9-based CPU cores and features the Cortex-A720 as the prime core clocked at 2.3GHz. Additionally, there are three A720 performance cores with a clock speed of 2.2GHz, and four Cortex-A520 efficiency cores clocked at 2.3GHz. Notably, the mobile platform gets a Kyro series CPU, Adreno GPU, and the Qualcomm Hexagon neural processing unit (NPU) for AI inference.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 SoC is claimed to offer 11 percent higher CPU performance, 29 percent faster graphics rendering, and 12 percent improved power optimisation. Notably, the company did not share any details about the Adreno GPU.
Coming to features, the new chipset comes with the Qualcomm AI Engine which brings INT4 support for the first time in the series. It will allow faster AI processing for devices while optimising the models to fit the limited amount of RAM.
For cameras, the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 processor sports triple 12-bit ISPs that will support sensors up to 200-megapixel. It will also support 4K HDR video recording at 30fps. Other supported formats include HDR10, HLG, and 10-bit HEIF.
Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 can support up to full-HD+ (1080+) resolution with up to 144Hz refresh rate. Qualcomm highlighted that the new chipset supports up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM with a speed of 3,200Mhz. It also offers UFS 3.1 support for storage. The 5G modem supports sub-6GHz and mmWave with downlink speeds of up to 2.9Gbps. The mobile platform also supports Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.4 with aptX Adaptive, triple frequency positioning for GPS receivers, and USB Type-C 3.1 connectivity.
Realme, Oppo, and Honor are expected to announce smartphones with the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 SoC in the coming months.
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Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 Said to Arrive on PS5 Soon, Could Be Announced at State of Play
Galaxy F06 5G Is Samsung’s First Sub-Rs. 10,000 5G Smartphone and Packs Segment-First Features
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Alex Bregman agrees to $120 million Red Sox contract in free agency bombshell – New York Post
Alex Bregman agrees to $120 million Red Sox contract in free agency bombshell – New York Post
Alex Bregman agrees to $120 million Red Sox contract in free agency bombshell New York Post Sources: Bregman to Red Sox for 3 years, $120M ESPNBregman agrees to 3-year, $120 million deal with Red Sox (source) MLB.comDetroit Tigers strike out as Alex Bregman signs with Boston Red Sox Detroit Free PressRed Sox Reportedly Win Sweepstakes For Star Infielder NESN
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Five Nights at Freddy's: Secret of the Mimic – First Gameplay and Date Reveal
Five Nights at Freddy's: Secret of the Mimic – First Gameplay and Date Reveal
Gameplay and release date announcement for Five Nights at Freddys: Secret of the Mimic.
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Ex-bikie boss’s ‘speedball’ overdose not *******
Ex-bikie boss’s ‘speedball’ overdose not *******
Prosecutors have been unable to prove the death of a former bikie gang boss due to a lethal injection of ******** and heroin was *******.
A close friend of Ricky Ciano and fellow ex-Rebels bikie, Jamie Tozer, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Wednesday after a court accepted there was not enough evidence to prove the drugs were administered without consent.
Tozer had been due to face a ******* trial in the NSW Supreme Court.
Ciano joined the Rebels in 2001 when he was 20 years old and went on to become president of the Liverpool chapter, in southwest Sydney.
He left the group in 2015 and several close supporters, including Tozer, went with him.
The men, along with Tozer’s half-brother Daniel Bushell, travelled to a property in Oberon, in the NSW Central Tablelands, in February 2017 with a plan to manufacture drugs.
At some point while they were at the property, Ciano was injected with a ********* of drugs that included ******** and heroin – a mix known as a “speedball” – and died soon after, according to an agreed statement.
His body was found three days later in his BMW, which was parked on a nearby road.
Bushell administered Ciano the fatal shot after being supplied the drugs by Tozer, the documents said.
Bushell was initially charged with ******* but was found not guilty by a jury in 2023 and convicted on the lesser charge of manslaughter, receiving a nine-year jail sentence.
Prosecutors put forward evidence suggesting Ciano would not have consented to taking the drugs, including calling heroin “disgusting” and “junkie s***”, according to his wife and sister.
Ciano happened to be stopped by police while on his way to the Oberon property, during which he returned a negative breath test and did not appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
It was also put forward that during a course of intravenous therapy in 2010 Ciano, who was heavily tattooed, appeared to be afraid of needles.
But the court also was told Ciano had become a regular user of the opioid oxycodone before his death and previously injected growth hormones and steroids.
In the weeks leading up to his death, the ex-bikie increased his use of oxycodone tablets, which he had also taken on the day of his death prior to the injection.
Ciano was also known to drink and use ******** recreationally, and used the prescription drugs diazepam and the opioid tramadol.
“(Ciano’s) family were unaware of the extent to which the deceased was using opioid medication,” the documents said.
“The Crown cannot establish beyond reasonable doubt, and therefore do not contend, that the deceased did not consent to the injection.”
Tozer is due to return to court for a sentence hearing on April 4.
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Women Are Sharing The Times Strangers Protected Them, And I’m Low-Key Starting To Believe The Strangers Were Time Travelers Sent Back To Save Them
Women Are Sharing The Times Strangers Protected Them, And I’m Low-Key Starting To Believe The Strangers Were Time Travelers Sent Back To Save Them
Note: This post mentions domestic violence.
Recently, I asked the BuzzFeed Community to share times when a stranger stepped in to save them, and the responses overwhelmingly came from women. Here’s what they said:
TLC
1.”When I was 16, I was walking to work at the golf course where I worked as a waitress. It was on the main highway in a small rural town. A beat-up old car stopped, and the man inside rolled down the passenger window and started asking me for directions. I couldn’t hear him because of the traffic going by, so I walked closer to his car and put my hand on the car door. He grabbed my arm and tried pulling me in.”
“This happened in front of my neighbor’s house three doors down from mine. My neighbor came out swinging her broom and started screaming at the man, but he let go of me and drove off. Pretty sure she saved my life that day.”
—Anonymous
2.”When my husband and I started dating, a friend and I went to the bar and a music show right next door. My husband (boyfriend at the time) worked at the bar, and I knew all the employees, so I felt extremely safe. My friend and I had one drink at the bar…and we head down to the dance floor. This is where we turn to idiots. We put our drinks down on the sidebar by the dance floor. We started dancing and having a great time. My future sister and brother-in-law show up, I give them hugs, and then the next thing I remember is waking up vomiting next to my boyfriend.”
“My sister-in-law filled in the blanks. After I gave them a hug, I went and drank some of my drink, then went back to the dance floor. When I came over next, I was super disoriented, but they just assumed I was drunk. I told her I needed air, so I walked outside. The next part is still fuzzy since she was inside, but she said a few minutes later, she heard yelling. She and my brother-in-law ran outside. Some concertgoers saw two guys trying to lead me away, and I kept saying, ‘No, no, I need my boyfriend.’ They kept saying it was OK and that we would bring you to him.
Well, a patron who had seen me around and knew who my boyfriend was knew something wasn’t right. He started yelling at them, and they finally left after some tense words. My sister-in-law called my husband. He took me home while I threw up all night. I went to the ER at about 6 the next morning, and they did a blood draw. I had indeed been roofied. Had that gentleman not stepped in, I’m afraid I know what would have happened. I always pay attention to my surroundings, but this was a major lapse. Never again. So thankful.”
—Mama_Bear
3.”I was about 16. I was one of only two employees working at a giant book warehouse *****. I was up in the front by the register, and the other employee was in the back of the warehouse (far enough away that he wouldn’t hear me even if I yelled back). A man came in to buy a few books from our outside racks and gave me a $20 bill, to which I gave him $17 back in change. He walked out but quickly came back inside, claiming he couldn’t find his change. I suggested that maybe it was in his pocket, in the books, or that he had dropped it outside.”
“He agreed, seemed to be normal and not upset, and said, ‘You’re probably right, thanks, and have a good day.’ But as he walked outside, he began screaming out into the world stuff like, ‘What the hell! Where the f is my money, that b*tch!’ and I suddenly realized that he was not in his right mind.
He came back in a few times after that and essentially accused me of not giving him his money. I tried to stay calm, but I was alone, and he was getting clearly agitated and more aggressive. Another customer (let’s call him Tom) had just left when this happened and gotten in his car and turned it on, but when the man came in the second time, Tom turned his car off, came inside, and stood by me and the front desk. He didn’t say anything to the man who was yelling, but he just stood there with me until the man was intimidated enough to leave. When the scary guy left, I broke down crying and thanked Tom profusely for coming back inside. I will forever be grateful to him, as who knows what might have happened if he had just left and I was alone.”
—Anonymous
4.”When I was 18, I accidentally took a Greyhound bus to the wrong town. A creepy cab driver heard me on the phone telling my then-boyfriend I had to figure out how to get to where I was supposed to be this late at night with no money and no buses going that way until morning.”
“When the cab driver offered to take me for free, the older gentleman who was the bus driver had overheard him and said that was the end of his route and he would take me, knowing a cab driver isn’t going to lose money on a ‘free’ ride 45 minutes away. I think of how he could have saved my life that night.”
—Anonymous
5.”I had to stay overnight at an airport while traveling because the flight was late and the connecting flight was first thing in the morning. While navigating the airport, I noticed an older-looking man following me. At first, I thought he was another late-night arrival because all the passengers were funneled to a sectioned-off communal waiting area. I got up to use the restroom, and when I came back out, I saw that same old man standing across the corridor. We locked eyes from across the way, and he did those weird actions people do when you tell someone to look natural or act natural. I got a very bad feeling.”
“I’m sure I looked distraught and uncomfortable because as I was walking back to the waiting area, these two huge young-looking dudes came over to greet me like we were long-time friends. I’m short at 5’2″, and these guys were easily 6’5” or taller. One guy quietly told me about how they also noticed that old man watching and then following me.
When that old man saw me with these young dudes, that old man left the waiting area in a huff. I’m thankful and grateful for those two strangers.”
—Anonymous
6.”I was on a solo training run for an upcoming half marathon and was running in the downtown area of town. I was about a mile away from my car, and after finishing my run, I tripped over a pothole in the road and landed face-first on the pavement. I scratched and bruised both of my knees, my palms, my chin, and my nose, and broke my arm from the impact of my fall. I was in shock and crawled to the sidewalk, crying from pain.”
“A kind stranger saw my fall as he was driving by, and pulled over. He ran to me with a bottle of water and napkins to wash out my scratches. He asked me how far I was from home and kindly offered to drive me where I needed to go.
I accepted his offer to take me to my car, one mile away, and while he was driving, I called my fiancé to come pick me up. Once we got to my car, the kind stranger waited the 10 minutes it took for my fiancé to arrive to make sure I was all right. I’ll never forget this man’s kindness, and plan to pay it forward someday when the moment presents itself.”
—Anonymous
7.”A year or two ago I went to a formal dance my boyfriend’s medical school had put on for their class. There was an open bar, and my boyfriend got way too drunk. Due to his drunken state he accidentally knocked me over on the dance floor. Trying not to make a huge scene, I got up and laughed it off, but I was very hurt and felt tears coming, so I quickly headed to the bathroom for privacy. My hip and thigh were purple, and glass from the beads on my dress were stuck in it. When I come out of the bathroom, my boyfriend is nowhere to be found.”
“Eventually, I discovered he had gone home without me by accident. I get into what I thought was my Uber, annoyed and hurt but just relieved to be going home. My destination was a few miles south, my Uber heads north.
I try to point this out, he doesn’t listen. We’re 40-ish miles north now, and I’m very alarmed. The driver is not responding at all anymore, even when I ask him to just let me out of there. To make matters worse, my phone is dead. I mentally come to terms with the fact that I am in danger and I must escape this car. When he pulled off the highway and stopped at a light I jumped out of the car and ran. I had no idea where I was.
I see a 7-Eleven and go inside. The sweetest woman ever was working there and immediately recognized my distress. She charged my phone, gave me a chair, listened to me, and calmed me down until my phone came back alive and someone could come get me. I wish I knew her name; I think about her and her kindness a lot. I reported the Uber incident to the local authorities, but I’m not sure anything ever came of it.”
—Anonymous
8.”I was leaving my husband. We were on our way to divorcing. He asked me to dinner to talk. I said I would meet him there. I did not want to be a prisoner in his car. He was very controlling. The dinner started out civil but ended with us fighting, me walking out and to my car. He followed me, trying to stop me from getting into my car. He grabbed my keys and threw them across the crowded parking lot.”
“He then left me there. I started to cry. It was so overwhelming. Until a car pulled up with an older couple that saw the whole thing. They had my keys!!! I cried harder but for joy. Angels. ”
—heidiheller315
9.”When I was young, broke, and going to school, I worked two jobs and often got home from my bartending job late at night. My neighbor Erik was a mechanic and worked the late shift. Our apartment complex was rough and not the safest, and the parking was really far from the apartments.”
“Erik knew what time I got off work, so he used to text me when he was leaving his job, and if he got home before me, he waited by the parking spots until I got there, and we’d walk inside together. I’m sure he was tired after work, just like I was, but he waited for me since I mentioned once that it made me nervous to walk from my car to my front door at night in that dark apartment complex.
He was a terrible cook and lived mostly on microwave meals, so whenever I cooked dinner, I’d try to make an extra plate and take it over to him as a thank you. I graduated, got into law school, and moved out of that apartment complex, but I still remember and appreciate him for looking out for me.”
—awyerlady
10.”A few years ago, two girls in a bathroom at a bar saved another girl’s life. I was at an extremely busy pub when I needed to use the bathroom. I was in a stall when I overheard two girls talking and one said, ‘I think that girl in there might be dead.’ I came out of the stall to wash my hands and asked them what was going on. They said a girl in one of the stalls had been there for close to an hour (you could see through the cracks of the door). One of the girls knocked and yelled loudly to ask if the girl in the stall was OK. No answer. So, she then crawled under the door and unlocked/opened it. The girl in the stall was sitting, fully clothed on the toilet with her head and neck leaning against the wall in a very awkward position and was totally out of it.”
“I’m not a medical professional but a certified first responder, so I told the girls to go call 911 while I tried my best to help the girl in the stall. It felt like a century before the paramedics finally got there and took her to the hospital.
The supervisor had come to ask me and the other two girls some questions and told us that the girl we’d helped had a diabetic seizure and was very close to slipping into a diabetic coma. If those two girls hadn’t been paying attention and been smart enough to say/do something, the girl in the stall could have easily died.”
—secretlydevito
11.”I was 16 and at a Snoop Dogg concert when I got separated from my boyfriend, so I ended up standing on my own, very scared, in a crowd of people who were extremely drunk.”
“A big security guy touched my elbow and asked if I was OK and to go with him. I thought he was leading me to the exit when he brought me to the cornered-off, practically empty VIP area right in front of the stage. Snoop waved down and gave me a thumbs up.”
—Anonymous
12.”Once, I was putting my groceries in my trunk in a supermarket parking lot. A man approached and started a conversation after I said I didn’t have spare change. Unfortunately, he was in front of me, toward the driver’s side of the car.”
“Just as I was trying to figure out how to exit the conversation and get away from him without walking between cars (making me harder to see), a woman was strolling by with her cart and said, ‘Are you ready to go, sis? We don’t want to be late!’ With that, I said ‘yeah,’ and ‘excuse me’ to the man…and he quickly stepped aside. I don’t think he meant any harm, but she sensed my discomfort and the fact that he was blocking me, so her observation skills and quick thinking helped me exit the situation.”
—Anonymous
13.”I went to a banquet for my husband’s work when I was heavily pregnant. I was a little disappointed to find that most of the hors d’oeuvres were either rare beef, raw seafood, or too spicy for my terrible pregnancy heartburn.”
“A waitress noticed that I was having trouble finding anything to eat, so she went back to the kitchen and made up a little plate of pregnancy-friendly appetizers for me. It was such a pleasant surprise for a stranger to have my back for such a small thing.”
—katieeighty
14.”I had an experience where I felt angels were looking out for me! I was driving home (a four-hour mountain trip) from seeing my brother who was dying of *******. I was distracted with worry. I stopped at a rest stop for a break.”
“A woman was finishing washing her hands in the bathroom. She told me, ‘Honey, my husband and I noticed you were alone, and we wanted to watch over you ’til you got safely into your car. There is a strange man here with a camper in the parking lot…we were concerned for your safety.’ Now, I am watchful for myself and others. I will always think of the kindness of this couple. I say a special prayer of gratitude for them every time I pass a rest stop.”
—carolynchristenson
15.”I’ll never forget being 13 in a mosh pit in the late ’90s and someone crowd surfing landed on top of me, knocking me to the ground. I remember seeing nothing but feet and trying to get up but feeling resistance.”
“Suddenly, someone grabbed my arm and pulled me up. It was some college-age guy. He got in my face and asked if I was OK. I said I was, and he got back to enjoying the concert. It wasn’t life-threatening, but other people have died under similar circumstances. I’m grateful for that guy.”
—hennypennystegosaurus
16.”My husband and I were waiting for a train when we were in Paris and noticed a man hovering near a young woman sitting on a bench alone. The platform was otherwise empty. The man followed the young woman onto the train and began to approach her.”
“I told my husband that I felt uncomfortable, so we followed them and sat near her. My husband gave the man a look, and he turned and walked to the other end of the train. I hate to think about what might have happened.”
—Anonymous
17.”When I was in my early 20s, I went downtown for a fun night (drinking) with friends, but ended up getting separated from them and left alone in a downtown parking lot. I was completely and utterly incoherent — unable to find my phone or any of my belongings and had no idea where I was. Completely vulnerable.”
“A gentleman approached me asking if I was OK. I was scared to answer him because I thought the absolute worst. He said, ‘Ma’am where are your friends, why are you alone, do you need help?’ I finally replied and told him that my friends had left me and I needed to get home.
He insisted that he give me a ride home and that he’d keep me safe. I was so, so scared to accept, but at the time, I thought it was my only option. On our way to my house, I remember begging him, ‘Please, please don’t hurt me’ and ‘I just want to go home’ over and over again. He replied, ‘I’m not going to hurt you, I just want to take you home, OK.’
This was the 25 most scariest minutes of my life. Yet, he plugged my address into his GPS, and soon enough, I was outside my house. Before I got out of the car, he told me, ‘This world is an ugly place for a woman. I understand why you are scared. I hope that you find better friends.’
I’ve never told anyone this story because I’m ashamed of how irresponsible I was, but I think of it often because I’m convinced that I met an angel that night.”
—Anonymous
18.”I ran out of gas on the way home from work as it was just getting dark and cellphones were still rare. I was figuring out what to do when a van pulled up. The driver came over to my driver’s side and asked if I needed help. Cracked the window and said, ‘My husband’s on his way’ as the guy gave off major creep vibes. He walked away but reappeared at my passenger door, pulling on the door handle.”
“Thankfully, my door was locked. At that moment, another car saw him, realized something wasn’t right, and pulled over. He got back in his van and left. The two strangers let me use their phone and stayed until my husband arrived. I never got to thank them, but I am forever grateful that they cared enough to stop.”
—Anonymous
19.”As a survivor of domestic abuse, I know how important it is to step in when such a situation occurs. One time I was in the living room of my apartment, and I heard a loud noise and screaming outside my window. I thought it may have been a kid who fell and hurt themselves, so I went outside to check. I saw my male neighbor forcefully pulling his girlfriend in their home and she was trying to run and get away.”
“Out of instinct, I yelled, ‘Stop! You’re going to go to jail!’ Immediately, he looked at me and let her go for a second but then pulled her back into their home. I immediately called the police and told them what happened and that they needed to get here quickly. They arrived, and he was arrested. She was able to leave that night, but I never saw her again. Later on, I found out she had moved out of state, and they had broken up. I thank God she was able to get away from her abuser, and I pray that she is doing OK.”
—Anonymous
20.”I was in my early 20s and on my way home after a night out. I was tipsy but aware of my surroundings, so when a group of drunk men started yelling at me from their seats, I was instantly on high alert. I thought ignoring it would be best, and hey, this was a public place surrounded by people, so they wouldn’t do anything, right? They did.”
“It started with ruffling my hair and then screaming in my face when I started to move away. Not one person in that crowded area helped me, even when they started to follow me. I made the mistake of moving to an empty train, and they blocked the door, so I couldn’t get away. Then one of them flashed his knife at me. I thought this was how it was going to end. Then I heard, ‘You lads better LEAVE HER ALONE.’ It was a homeless guy. He got in between us and just screamed at them until they slunk off. I was on the verge of a panic attack, and he sat with me the whole way home. Thanks Dorrace, I hope you’re well and happy, wherever you are. I will never forget you.”
—Anonymous
21.And finally, “Myself and another woman were the strangers. I’m a commuter on Amtrak, and I noticed a guy paying a lot of attention to a college-age girl; the man was probably in his 30s. They didn’t appear to know each other. I lowered the volume of my podcast and listened to their conversation (unbeknownst to me, this other woman had done the same thing). We both heard two important things 1) she said she was traveling alone to see a friend and 2) he wasn’t going there but decided he would change his ticket.”
“She was young and friendly but looked uncomfortable with this. He got up to change his ticket, and this other woman and I immediately got up and took seats on either side of her. Turns out we were actually all going to the same place on the same train. We asked her if she knew the man, if she wanted him to travel with her, etc. She indeed did not. So when he came back and saw us, I think he got the idea and left her alone.”
—Anonymous
If you’re a woman who found yourself in a difficult situation when kind strangers stepped in to help, we want to hear about it. Share your story in the comments below, or if you’d like to remain anonymous, use this Google form.
If you or someone you know is in immediate danger as a result of domestic violence, call 911. For anonymous, confidential help, you can call the 24/7 National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) or chat with an advocate via the website.
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Directive 8020 – Story Reveal Trailer
Directive 8020 – Story Reveal Trailer
Will Doyle, Creative Director, writes: ” The team at Supermassive Games has worked tirelessly to craft a narrative experience that melds sci-fi exploration with spine-chilling horror, where every choice could lead to a disastrous death. Today we’re unveiling some new layers to our story, exploring fragile alliances, unseen threats, and the limits of human resilience when faced with our deepest fears. We’re venturing into uncharted territory: the unsettling abyss of space. ”
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#Directive #Story #Reveal #Trailer
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Shonda Rhimes Resigns from Kennedy Center Board After Donald Trump Is Elected Chair – PEOPLE
Shonda Rhimes Resigns from Kennedy Center Board After Donald Trump Is Elected Chair – PEOPLE
Shonda Rhimes Resigns from Kennedy Center Board After Donald Trump Is Elected Chair PEOPLEColumn | Trump’s attack on the Kennedy Center is petty but powerful The Washington PostTrump elected chairman of Kennedy Center; former leaders ousted or resigning WUSA9.comStars flee Kennedy Center groups after Trump seizes chair The Hill
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‘On a power trip’ or ‘obviously brilliant’? Voters weigh Musk’s influence
‘On a power trip’ or ‘obviously brilliant’? Voters weigh Musk’s influence
Alex Lederman and Nomia Iqbal
BBC News, in Erie, Pennsylvania
Watch: How Americans feel about Elon Musk’s government role
Seated around a breakfast table in Erie, Pennsylvania, four veterans in their mid-80s – John, Jack, Bob and Don – gather to reminisce about their decades of friendship.
But it is another Don, this one in his late 70s, who keeps creeping into their conversation: President Donald Trump.
Of the four, only Bob voted for Trump. But after seeing Elon Musk standing next to the Republican president in the Oval Office this week, defending his efforts to slash the size and spending of the federal government, he is already doubting his decision.
“I’m afraid of him,” Bob says of Musk. “I think he’s trying to be president.”
Erie County was one of the key battlegrounds that helped swing the 2024 presidential election in Trump’s favour. The Republican won 50.1% of the vote here just four years after his Democratic rival Joe Biden narrowly took the county.
And part of Trump’s winning platform was a clear promise to overhaul and upend the federal government, pledging on the campaign trail to deliver “trillions” in cuts if elected. Polls indicated that was popular with Republican voters, and that remains the case now.
What was less clear to voters before the election was just how much of a frontline role Musk would play in this administration. The 53-year-old owner of Tesla, SpaceX and X now leads the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) which is dedicated to shrinking government and is routinely pictured alongside the president.
Members of his team have entered various departments to monitor spending and offered millions of workers an exit route. They have moved to freeze federal funding as well as the work of agencies such as the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in a blizzard of activity in recent weeks.
But given the scale of Musk’s influence in the nascent Trump administration, Democrats are concerned about conflicts of interest as well as Musk, whose companies have billions in federal government contracts, potentially taking actions to benefit himself.
“This is dangerous. This is against America’s interests,” Senior Democrat Chuck Schumer said. “And President Trump needs to show some leadership and reign in Doge before it inflicts more harm.”
Watch: Musk defends government cuts in surprise White House appearance
That concern was shared by John Pelinsky, a lifelong Democrat who in November’s election cast his ballot for Donald Trump. He said Democrats had swung too far to the left and he wanted four years of Trump to help “centre the country”.
While he does not regret his vote, he says Musk makes him feel uneasy.
“He had his little kid there with him in the Oval Office,” he said. “I’m not quite comfortable with that.”
“I think Musk’s influence might be a little too much on the president,” he added. “I’m seeing too much of him. He should just stick with his SpaceX and his electric cars.”
Musk, meanwhile, has been clear that he believes he is working to enact the wishes of Trump’s voters.
“The people voted for major government reform and that’s what the people are going to get,” he told reporters during a surprise White House appearance this week. “That’s what democracy is all about.”
A recent poll by the BBC’s US partner CBS News suggested a majority of Americans were in favour of Musk’s work but disagreed over how much influence he should have.
In Erie, plenty of supporters were thrilled to see not one billionaire businessman, but two, running the show in Washington.
Christine Barber shrugged off concerns and said the American people had elected Trump to run the country and he had appointed Musk to help him do that.
“Personally, I love him,” she said of Musk.
“Financially, and from a business perspective, we need somebody who knows what the heck they’re doing. And if anybody does, it’s Donald Trump and Elon Musk.”
Patrick Laughlan had a similar view. He said he trusted Trump and Musk “to the extent you can trust anybody you don’t know”.
“The guy’s obviously brilliant,” Laughlan said of Musk. “He’s doing a good job trying to get rid of waste. Both of those gentlemen are trying to get money back to Americans.”
Christine Barber
Evan Lagace, a restaurant manager here, embraces Musk’s cuts to a system he views as bloated and inefficient. He said he appreciated that the tech billionaire was “donating his time to the country to help fix a major problem”.
“Like he did in a micro aspect with Twitter, he could hopefully do the same thing with our country,” Lagace said, referring to the mass layoffs and spending cuts Musk implemented after buying the social media company.
As for the accusations that Musk had grown too powerful in this White House, Lagace said it did not bother him.
“He’s already extremely powerful,” he said. “It makes no difference.”
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New Trump Executive Order Calls for ‘Reform’ to the U.S. Diplomatic Corps
New Trump Executive Order Calls for ‘Reform’ to the U.S. Diplomatic Corps
President Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday calling for “reform” to the Foreign Service, America’s corps of professional diplomats, “to ensure faithful and effective implementation” of his foreign policy agenda.
It was the latest of several recent moves by Mr. Trump to assert greater control over the federal work force, which the president largely views with a blend of suspicion and hostility. Mr. Trump and his allies believe that left-leaning bureaucrats will work to thwart his agenda and that he should have far more power than past presidents to install proven loyalists throughout the government.
To that end, Mr. Trump’s order, titled “One Voice for America’s Foreign Relations,” directs the secretary of state to “implement reforms in recruiting, performance, evaluation and retention standards.” It also directs officials to “revise or replace the Foreign Affairs Manual,” along with “any handbooks, procedures or guidance” governing diplomacy.
The executive order also makes explicit the price of defying Mr. Trump’s orders. “Failure to faithfully implement the president’s policy is grounds for professional discipline, including separation,” it says.
All foreign policy arms of the government, it adds, must devise “an effective and efficient means” of ensuring that the president’s orders are followed.
The executive order would appear to challenge basic and longstanding principles of the Foreign Service: that career diplomats should be hired based on their qualifications and expertise, not their political views, and that dissent should be welcomed and not punished.
As part of the federal civil service, professional diplomats enjoy special job protections against partisanship and political retribution. Mr. Trump seems intent on weakening those protections.
In an initial statement, the American Foreign Service Association, which represents professional diplomats, said it was still assessing the impact of the order. But the group noted that its members posted around the world “carry out the foreign policy initiatives of the president, regardless of party.”
“We hope that any administration would value the expertise and knowledge of the Foreign Service, including its ability to provide advice on foreign policy matters,” the statement said, adding that the group would “always defend the integrity and nonpolitical nature of the Foreign Service so that our members can continue to serve the American people.”
Separately, State Department officials are grappling with more proposed cuts to personnel. Some ambassadors have been told this week to present lists of cuts of 10 to 20 percent of employees who are local citizens, said a person briefed on the demands, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid retribution.
Edward Wong contributed reporting.
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Icy roads lead to crashes, school closings in Texas Panhandle Wednesday
Icy roads lead to crashes, school closings in Texas Panhandle Wednesday
This story has been updated with additional information.
Several school districts in the Texas Panhandle were closed Wednesday due to icy road conditions, and authorities were warning people to stay off the roads after responding to numerous accidents due to hazardous travel.
So far, several school districts, including Boys Ranch, Groom, Panhandle, Vega, White Deer, have announced delayed starts of 10 a.m. for Thursday. Grandview-Hopkins has cancelled classes for Thursday.
The National Weather Service (NWS) Amarillo office said in a 4:30 p.m. update that “Bitterly cold temperatures will begin this evening and drop down into the single digits and negative temperatures for tonight’s lows. The wind chill values tomorrow morning will plummet to the negatives; 0 to -5 in the south and -6 to -15 in the north. Ice may still be present on roads that have not thawed out today.”
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Amarillo office said in a 2:30 p.m. update that their crews continued to patrol and clear roadways to make them as safe as possible for the traveling public. “We’re still strongly advising drivers to stay off the roadways unless it’s an absolute emergency.” Among other safety tips, TxDOT urged motorists to atay a safe distance — at least 200 feet — away from snowplows and other TxDOT vehicles as they treat roadways.
Amarillo College (AC) said in a weather alert all of its campuses are closed as of noon Wednesday due to the weather, including in Hereford and Amarillo: “Please use caution walking and driving.”
In addition, West Texas A&M University (WT) in Canyon and the Harrington Academic Hall in Amarillo will be closing at 2 p.m. Wednesday, and students should check with faculty regarding course alternatives. WT said campus status for Thursday, Feb. 13 will be communicated by 6 a.m.; further updates will be shared via email, the WT home page, WT social media and the Safe Zone app and texts.
Vehicles make their way through the intersection at Farmers Avenue and Georgia Street in Amarillo during wintry conditions Wednesday. The region was under a Winter Weather Advisory, with roads impacted by patches of snow and ice.
“Due to the icy road conditions, DPS is responding to multiple vehicle crashes across the district, most of which have occurred on I-40 in every county,” Sgt. Cindy Barkley with the Texas Department of Public Safety said in a 9:30 a.m. update, advising people to stay home if possible.
Those who must travel are urged to take it slow and allow plenty of room between them and the vehicle in front of theirs. “Don’t use your cruise control or brake suddenly. Be patient and give yourself ample time to get where you are going. Drive safely. Drive smart.”
Earlier in the day in Hartley County, both directions of US 54, just west of FM 767 to the New Mexico state line, were closed around 10 a.m. due to multiple semi-truck crashes, TxDOT said. Travelers were asked to avoid the area while crews worked to clear the scene.
Parts of the northern region of the Texas Panhandle will be under a Cold Weather Advisory from 8 p.m. Wednesday until 10 a.m. Thursday. The rest of the region was under a Hazardous Weather Outlook.
A Winter Weather Advisory was in effect until noon Wednesday, with mixed precipitation including ice and snow accumulations possible for parts of the Texas Panhandle and the entire Oklahoma Panhandle.
The National Weather Service in Amarillo noted that along with icy road conditions, cold temperatures and wind chills were a concern Wednesday, with highs expected in the 20s to low 30s in the region.
NWS Amarillo said in an earlier update on social media that “Freezing drizzle continues this morning across the combined Panhandles, and temperatures continue to drop. This will make ice build up even easier on untreated roads, especially on bridges!” In addition to the slick roads Wednesday morning, NWS Amarillo noted that cold temperatures and wind chills were a concern, with highs expected in the 20s to low 30s.
The drivetexas.org map showed multiple roadways in the region impacted by patches of ice and snow.
School districts were either closed or in the process of cancelling classes Wednesday due to the deteroriating weather conditions.
Those who were closed include:
Amarillo College campus in Dumas
Fort Elliott CISD – “Students picked up on buses will be delivered home.”
Plemons-Stinnett-Phillips ISD
Other schools were running on two-hour delays.
The Student Council Conference in Amarillo at the Civic Center was cancelled due to icy travel conditions.
This is a developing story; more information will be added as it becomes available.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Schools close due to hazardous icy conditions in Texas Panhandle
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USAID Lifesaving Aid Remains Halted Despite Rubio’s Promise
USAID Lifesaving Aid Remains Halted Despite Rubio’s Promise
When Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced last month that lifesaving humanitarian work would be exempt from a freeze on foreign aid, global health workers breathed a collective sigh of relief.
But a new directive has put such exemptions on hold.
Several senior employees at the U.S.A.I.D. Bureau of Global Health received an email Tuesday telling them to “please hold off on any more approvals” pending further directions from the acting chief of staff, according to a copy reviewed by The New York Times.
Senior officials at the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance received similar instructions during a meeting this week, according to a person familiar with what transpired.
For weeks, U.S.A.I.D. officials and the organizations, contractors and consultants who partner with them have struggled to continue the kind of work that Mr. Rubio promised to preserve — “core lifesaving medicine, medical services, food, shelter and substance assistance.”
Some waivers have been issued to programs that fall under Mr. Rubio’s definition of “lifesaving” aid, but the payments system called Phoenix that U.S.A.I.D. relies on to disburse financial assistance has been inaccessible for weeks. That means even programs that received waivers have struggled to continue, according to multiple employees of U.S.A.I.D. and the partner organizations that rely on the funding they distributed.
The State Department did not reply to a request for comment for this article.
On Tuesday, Elon Musk, the billionaire tech entrepreneur empowered by President Trump to combat the agency, told reporters in the Oval Office that the administration had “turned on funding for Ebola prevention and for H.I.V. prevention.” But in reality, the Ebola funding and virtually all of the H.I.V. prevention funding remains frozen, according to two U.S.A.I.D. employees and several aid groups.
Young engineers working for Mr. Musk seized control of the agency’s payments system as they took over in recent weeks. And as part of the dismantling overseen by Mr. Musk, the State Department also recently circulated plans to reduce U.S.A.I.D. staff from about 10,000 workers to 611 who had been deemed essential personnel.
Without access to funding, organizations that partner with U.S.A.I.D. have been unable to pay their workers and suppliers for projects that were dependent on U.S. government funding.
The Norwegian Refugee Council, which does U.S.-backed humanitarian work in about 20 countries, said it has been unable to take advantage of the waivers because the agency’s payments had stopped.
“We currently have millions of dollars in outstanding payment requests to the U.S. government,” the group said in a statement, noting that civilians in conflict zones like Ukraine, Afghanistan and Sudan would suffer if its work stopped. “Without an immediate solution we may, at the end of February, be forced to halt U.S.-funded lifesaving humanitarian programs.”
New political appointees at the State Department and U.S.A.I.D. have put other hurdles in place.
At one mission in Asia, officials received waivers for three programs, including one for malaria eradication, but then were told they needed waivers for individual projects under those programs, a person with knowledge of the impasse said.
Beleaguered U.S.A.I.D. staff members said this week that the waiver pause was a sign that the end of their lifesaving work and other projects may be near.
Agency officials were notified this week that some 350 awards would be canceled. It was not immediately clear how many of those contracts were on a list that circulated last week identifying about 800 potential award cancellations.
Unlike previous notifications, emails sent to staff on Wednesday alerting them to some of the most recent cancellations did not encourage them to check for potential exemptions.
People deputized by Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk have accused U.S.A.I.D. officials of delaying and trying to undermine efforts to terminate programs by conducting their own reviews of contracts to ensure lifesaving work is not canceled. However, those reviews would be needed to grant the waivers promised by Mr. Rubio.
As the reductions get underway, unions representing U.S.A.I.D. staff as well as companies and organizations that work with the aid agency have been scrambling to push back against the cuts through a series of lawsuits. Some have succeeded in obtaining temporary restraining orders against the president’s efforts to dismantle the agency.
The plaintiffs have argued that the downsizing measures are unconstitutional and ********, as Congress appropriated the funds for the agency and, by law, has to approve their withdrawal.
In one lawsuit, filed by companies that have had U.S.A.I.D. contracts for global programs, a development firm reported that $250 million worth of health supplies were stuck in transit or “stranded in warehouses around the world” because of the stop-work orders that accompanied the freeze. The firm, Chemonics, had to furlough about two-thirds of its U.S.-based staff in recent weeks.
Lawyers for the Trump administration argued in a response to one of the lawsuits that “the president has broad discretion to set the terms and conditions” on the provision of aid.
As the legal battles wear on, the drastic changes to the U.S. government’s premier foreign aid agency continue.
On Tuesday, the Trump administration fired the inspector general for U.S.A.I.D., Paul K. Martin, just one day after he released a report warning that staff reductions and spending freezes risked the misuse and waste of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, according to three people familiar with the dismissal.
The report documented confusion around the waivers. It warned that nearly half a billion dollars of food aid was at risk of spoiling, and that a reduced ability to vet partner organizations had made it more difficult to ensure no U.S. money would go toward terrorism.
Also on Tuesday, the agency made another round of cuts to contractors, the latest at U.S.A.I.D. to be forced to leave.
And the General Services Administration, a federal agency that oversees building leases and other contracts, in recent days terminated the U.S.A.I.D.’s lease for headquarters space in the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown Washington. The General Services Administration said in a statement on Tuesday that it took down the aid agency’s signs and that the 570,000-square-foot space would be “repurposed for other government needs.”
U.S.A.I.D. employees in the building lobby on Monday reported seeing officials from other agencies, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection, surveying the office space. Employees learned on Tuesday that they had lost parking privileges because the agency’s leases had been canceled, according to a copy of an internal email obtained by The New York Times.
Almost all of the agency’s employees have been barred from entering its headquarters for more than a week, though some of them were given access to their work email accounts this week in order to prepare for their departures.
Foreign Service officers working for the agency overseas have been ordered to leave their posts and return to the United States this month, as part of a move putting the vast majority of direct hires on administrative leave. The order has been temporarily delayed by a federal judge, who will next hear arguments in the case on Thursday.
Employees say they expect most of U.S.A.I.D.’s work force to be fired or pushed out, and the few remaining to be absorbed into the State Department. Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk, who has posted dark conspiracy theories about the aid agency on his social media platform, X, have called for its demise.
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******** businesses rush to try DeepSeek AI at ‘unprecedented’ scale
******** businesses rush to try DeepSeek AI at ‘unprecedented’ scale
BEIJING — ******** businesses are tapping DeepSeek’s newest artificial intelligence model to see how it can improve productivity.
The ******** AI model took the world by storm in recent weeks after showcasing its reasoning process and claims to undercut rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT on cost — despite U.S. restrictions on ******** access to the advanced semiconductors needed to develop the tech.
Eight automakers including BYD, at least nine financial securities companies, three state-owned telecommunications operators and smartphone brand Honor are among the many that have rushed in the last week to integrate with DeepSeek. Cloud computing operators Alibaba, Huawei, Tencent and Baidu have all offered ways for clients to access DeepSeek’s latest model.
“This is quite unprecedented,” Wei Sun, principal analyst of artificial intelligence at Counterpoint Research, said in an email Monday. She pointed to the rate of adoption, scale of business integration and breadth of specific industries covered.
“When we have all of these, we know it’s making a big social and economic impact,” she said.
Optimism over artificial intelligence has spread to ******** stocks. UBS said Wednesday that AI-related ******** stocks are up by 15% since the start of the year, outperforming the broader MSCI China Index by 9%.
A big factor in the widespread interest is timing. DeepSeek released its latest R1 model on Jan. 20, and news of its low-cost reasoning capabilities prompted a global tech stock sell-off on Jan. 27 — just as millions of urban workers in China were returning to their hometowns to celebrate the eight-day Lunar New Year holiday.
As a result, less developed parts of China gained greater understanding of AI and its impact, a topic previously limited to conversations in China’s largest cities, said Wenhao Zhang, CEO of the Beijing-based consumer marketing consultancy Doodod.
“It’s a major education of the market. This will push the entire ecosystem’s development,” he said Tuesday in Mandarin, translated by CNBC.
Zhang, who studied AI at Tsinghua University, founded Doodod in 2012 to build customer engagement through social media analysis. He said the company — which counts China Merchant’s Bank and Toyota as clients — started looking at DeepSeek’s offerings late last year, and began using it more after the R1 release in late January.
DeepSeek, founded in 2023 out of a quantitative hedge fund, had released a basic version of R1 in November, and a V3 model in December. It launched a smartphone chatbot app in January.
Open-source local deployment
Another attractive factor for businesses is that DeepSeek’s models are open-source, allowing individuals and companies to download and customize it.
DeepSeek also advertised drastically lower prices for applications to use its tech versus that of OpenAI. ChatGPT is not officially available in mainland China and requires users to provide an overseas phone number and payment method from a supported country such as the U.S.
DeepSeek changed the perception that AI models only belong to big companies and have high implementation costs, said James Tong, CEO of Movitech, an enterprise software company which says its clients include Danone and China’s State Grid.
He said Movitech started integrating an earlier version of DeepSeek in the fourth quarter of last year, helping boost sales by about 25% from the same ******* in 2023. The company plans to launch a new DeepSeek-integrated application by the end of March to improve clients’ ability to make decisions, he said.
Many recent videos on ******** social media have showed off how to run a local version of DeepSeek on Apple’s Mac mini.
Apple Mac mini online sales in China climbed significantly from November to January, versus the same ******* the year prior, according to data from consultancy WPIC. The electronics-focused JD.com site recorded unit sales of around 20,200 in January, up from nearly 19,400 in December and around 12,250 in November, the data showed.
DeepSeek’s affordability is pressuring more expensive AI models to cut prices, enabling more businesses to adopt the tech, said Chim Lee, senior Asia analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit. He added that open-source models allow finance, banking and healthcare businesses — which are subject to stringent data protection rules in China — to develop AI applications locally.
“It is still very early to point to concrete business applications, but a key takeaway is that DeepSeek will accelerate the commoditization of AI,” Lee said.
Beijing is also increasing support. China’s national supercomputing network announced Tuesday that eligible companies and individuals can obtain three free months of DeepSeek access, along with subsidized computing power.
The network is similar to OpenAI’s Trump-backed Stargate project in the U.S. for building AI infrastructure — with the potential for “even faster scaling,” Winston Ma, adjunct professor at NYU School of Law said Wednesday. He is also the author of “The Digital War: How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace.”
Not centered on DeepSeek
The rush to try out DeepSeek doesn’t mean it will be the only AI provider for ******** companies. Developers in the U.S. and China are regularly releasing new models.
Movitech also uses Alibaba’s Qwen AI model, Tong said, noting that the market wants the tech that can lower costs and produce results the most, whether it’s OpenAI or DeepSeek.
HangHang AI, which has invested several hundred million yuan to develop AI solutions for companies across 20 industries, uses a range of models, said partner and COO Shu Weibing.
Many people first used “Baidu, then realized it wasn’t as good as Kimi, then it wasn’t as good as [ByteDance’s] Doubao, which also cut prices,” Shu said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC. “Now it’s DeepSeek.”
It remains to be seen how much generative AI can boost productivity and profits.
Shu predicts that small businesses and companies that integrate AI with hardware will benefit more than large, consumer-facing internet platforms, whose AI work so far, he said, has focused more on boosting efficiency rather than creating new consumer services.
Despite AI models’ falling prices, “small and medium-sized businesses may still be in a ******* of wait-and-see” for adopting the tech due to the relatively high cost for a full deployment, including computing power and customization, Mike Fang, senior director analyst at Gartner, said Wednesday in Mandarin translated by CNBC.
But the consulting firm predicts that by 2027, the average price to access a generative AI model will be less than 1% of what it costs now — and that by 2029, 60% of ******** businesses will have incorporated AI into their primary products and services, forming the top drivers of revenue growth.
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