Pelican Press

Head of NGO coalition says U.S. foreign aid freeze has been “devastating” Head of NGO coalition says U.S. foreign aid freeze has been “devastating” Head of NGO coalition says U.S. foreign aid freeze has been “devastating” – CBS News Watch CBS News InterAction CEO Tom Hart sits down with Margaret Brennan to discuss the impact of the pause on foreign assistance. InterAction is a coalition of about 170 NGOs. Be the first to know Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Not Now Turn On Source link #NGO #coalition #U.S #foreign #aid #freeze #devastating Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Shark Tank star Barbara Corcoran’s 5 tips for buying a house Shark Tank star Barbara Corcoran’s 5 tips for buying a house The housing market remains challenging for potential buyers, with the 30-year fixed mortgage rate hovering between 6% and 7% for over two years — according to government-sponsored enterprise Freddie Mac. High prices and limited inventory continue to make the search for a home difficult. The Corcoran Group Founder and Shark on ABC’s Shark Tank Barbara Corcoran joins Wealth to share valuable advice for navigating the housing market. “I would say the most important overall tip is always look where somebody else is not looking and that’s always where you find your value,” Corcoran says. Corcoran preaches buyers should consider homes that have been on the market for a while, shop off-season, and look for fixer-uppers. Watch the video above to hear all of Corcoran’s tips on navigating the current housing market. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Wealth here. This post was written by Josh ****** Source link #Shark #Tank #star #Barbara #Corcorans #tips #buying #house Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Japan’s household spending massively beats expectations, boosting case for further BOJ hikes Japan’s household spending massively beats expectations, boosting case for further BOJ hikes A customer picks up a snack at a supermarket store in Tokyo, Japan, on Tuesday, July 27, 2021. Noriko Hayashi | Bloomberg | Getty Images Japan’s household spending in December rose 2.7% year on year in real terms, according to a Friday report from the Statistics Bureau of Japan, massively beating expectations from economists polled by Reuters and marking its first rise since July 2024. The figure sharply beat Reuters expectations of a 0.2% rise, boosting the case for another interest rate hike from the Bank of Japan. The data comes after the BOJ raised its benchmark policy rate to 0.5%, its highest since 2008. The BOJ has long stated that it would raise rates if it sees a “virtuous cycle” of higher prices and growing wages. On Thursday, BOJ board member Naoki Tamura said that it was “necessary” for the BOJ to raise short-term interest rates to “at least around 1%” by the second half of fiscal year 2025. Japan’s 2025 fiscal year ends on March 31, 2026. Japan’s upcoming spring wage discussions, also known as the “shunto” negotiations, will be in focus for investors watching the BOJ’s interest rate moves. The negotiations will start some time in February, and larger companies will respond around mid-March. The head of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, or Rengo, said in January that annual pay increases for Japanese workers in 2025 must be higher than the 5.1% growth last year because real wages continue to fall, Reuters reported. Data from the country’s labor ministry revealed that real wages have fallen for the past three years, with real wages dropping 0.2% year on year in 2024. Rengo President Tomoko Yoshino reportedly said the labor organization is formally seeking wage increases of at least 5% in this year’s “shunto” wage negotiations. To ensure incomes of workers at smaller firms do not fall behind those in ******* ones, Yoshino said there should be a hike of at least 6% for the former. — CNBC’s Lee Ying Shan contributed to this report. This is breaking news, please check back for updates. Source link #Japans #household #spending #massively #beats #expectations #boosting #case #BOJ #hikes Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Trump’s Gaza Takeover Plan May Sound Death Knell for the Two-State Solution – The New York Times Trump’s Gaza Takeover Plan May Sound Death Knell for the Two-State Solution – The New York Times Trump’s Gaza Takeover Plan May Sound Death Knell for the Two-State Solution The New York TimesEx-top Trump employee speaks out on Trump’s plan to take over Gaza CNNThe End of ‘Palestine’ Tablet Magazine Source link #Trumps #Gaza #Takeover #Plan #Sound #Death #Knell #TwoState #Solution #York #Times Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Inside a city ‘built on scams’ Inside a city ‘built on scams’ Jonathan Head South East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head/ BBC The BBC was not allowed inside the office buildings in Shwe Kokko The tall, shiny buildings which rise out of the cornfields on the Myanmar side of the Moei river are a sight so jarring you find yourself blinking to be sure you haven’t imagined it. Eight years ago there was nothing over there in Karen State. Just trees, a few roughly-built cement buildings, and a long-running civil war which has left this area of Myanmar one of the poorest places on earth. But today, on this spot along the border with Thailand, a small city has emerged like a mirage. It is called Shwe Kokko, or Golden Raintree. It is accused of being a city built on scams, home to a lucrative yet deadly nexus of fraud, money-laundering and human trafficking. The man behind it, She Zhijiang, is languishing in a Bangkok jail, awaiting extradition to China. But Yatai, She Zhijiang’s company which built the city, paints a very different vision of Shwe Kokko in its promotional videos – as a resort city, a safe holiday destination for ******** tourists and haven for the super-rich. The story of Shwe Kokko is also one of the unbridled ambition which has rippled out of China in the last two decades. She Zhijiang dreamed of building this glittering city as his ticket out of the shadowy world of scams and gambling which he inhabited. But by aiming so high he has drawn the attention of Beijing, which is now keen to stamp out the fraud operations along the Thai-Myanmar border which are increasingly targeting ******** people. Publicity about the scams is also hurting Thai tourism – Thailand is shutting down power to compounds over the border, toughening its banking rules and promising to block visas for those suspected of using Thailand as a transit route. Shwe Kokko has been left marooned in post-coup, war-wracked Myanmar, unable to bring in the flow of investment and visitors it needs to keep going. Yatai is trying to fix the city’s sinister image by allowing journalists to see it, holding out hope that more favourable reporting might even get She Zhijiang out of jail. So they invited the BBC to Shwe Kokko. Inside Shwe Kokko Getting there is tricky. Ever since construction began in 2017, Shwe Kokko has been a forbidden place, off-limits to casual visitors. As the civil war in Myanmar escalated after the 2021 military coup, access became even more difficult. It takes three days from the country’s commercial hub Yangon – through multiple checkpoints, blocked roads and a real risk of getting caught in armed skirmishes. Crossing from Thailand takes just a few minutes, but requires careful planning to avoid Thai police and army patrols. She Zhijiang’s colleagues took us on a tour, highlighting the newly-paved streets, the luxury villas, the trees – “Mr She believes in making a green city,” they told us. Our guide was Wang Fugui, who said he was a former police officer from Guangxi in southern China. He ended up in prison in Thailand, on what he insists were trumped-up fraud charges. There he got to know She Zhijiang and became one of his most trusted lieutenants. Getty Images The tall buildings on the Myanmar side of the Moei river are less than a decade old… Jonathan Head/BBC …but Shwe Kokko still feels like a provincial city, despite Yatai’s ambitious vision At first glance, Shwe Kokko has the appearance of a provincial ******** city. The signs on the buildings are written in ******** characters, and there is a constant procession of ********-made construction vehicles going to and from building sites. Yatai is vague about the tenants of all its buildings, as it is about many things. “Rich people, from many countries, they rent the villas,” they told us. And what about the businesses? “Many businesses. Hotels, casinos.” However, most of the people we saw were local Karen, one of Myanmar’s ethnic minorities, who come into Shwe Kokko every day to work. We saw very few of the overseas visitors who are supposed to be the customers of the hotels and casinos. Yatai says there are no more scams in Shwe Kokko. It has put up huge billboards all over town proclaiming, in ********, Burmese and English, that forced labour was not allowed, and that “online businesses” should leave. But we were quietly told by local people that the scam business was still running. Starting a decade ago in the unchecked frenzy of ******** investment on the Cambodian coast, then moving to the lawless badlands of Myanmar’s border with China, the scam operators have now settled along the Thai-Myanmar border. Around them, the Myanmar military and a hotch-potch of rebel armies and warlords are fighting for control of Karen State. The scams have grown into a multi-billion dollar business. They involve thousands of workers from China, South East Asia, Africa and the Indian subcontinent kept in walled-off compounds where they defraud people all over the world of their savings. Some work there willingly, but others are abducted and forced to work. Those who have escaped have told harrowing stories of torture and beatings. Some have come from Shwe Kokko. We were able to speak to a young woman who had been working in one of the scam centres a couple of weeks before our visit. She had not enjoyed it and been allowed to leave. Her job, she said, was as part of the modelling team, made up mostly of attractive young women, who contact potential victims and try to build an intimate online relationship with them. “The target is the elderly,” she said. “You start a conversation like ‘oh you look just like one of my friends’. Once you make friends you encourage them by sending pictures of yourself, sometimes wearing your night clothes.” Then, she explains, the conversation moves to get-rich-quick schemes, such as crypto investments, with the women claiming that’s how they made a lot of money. “When they feel close to you, you pass them on to the chatting section,” she says. “The chatting people will continue messaging with the client, persuading them to buy shares in the crypto company.” During our brief time in Shwe Kokko we were only allowed to see what Yatai wanted us to see. Even so, it was evident that the scams have not stopped, and are probably still the main business in the city. Our request to see inside any of the newly-built office buildings were turned down. Those are private, they kept telling us. We were escorted at all times by security guards seconded from the militia group which controls this part of the border. We were allowed to film the construction work, and the outsides of the buildings, but not to enter them. Many of the windows had bars on the insides. Jonathan Head/ BBC Armed guards from the militia that controlled this part of the border were a common sight “Everybody in Shwe Kokko knows what goes on there,” said the young woman who used to work in a scam centre. She dismissed Yatai’s claim that it no longer permitted scam centres in Shwe Kokko. “That is a lie. There is no way they don’t know about this. The whole city is doing it in those high-rise buildings. No-one goes there for fun. There is no way Yatai doesn’t know.” Who is She Zhijiang? “I can promise that Yatai would never accept telecom fraud and scams,” said She Zhijiang on a call from Bangkok’s Klong Prem Prison, where he is being held. Yatai wanted us to hear from the man himself, and hooked up a ropey video link. Only Mr Wang could be seen talking to him; we had to stay out of view of the prison guards, and had to rely on Mr Wang to put our questions to him. Not much is known about She Zhijiang, a small-town ******** entrepreneur who Beijing alleges is a criminal mastermind. Born in a poor village in Hunan province in China in 1982, he left school at 14 and learned computer coding. He appears to have moved to the Philippines in his early 20s and into online gambling, which is ******** in China. This is where he started to make his money. In 2014 he was convicted by a ******** court of running an ******** lottery, but he stayed overseas. He invested in gambling businesses in Cambodia, and managed to get Cambodian citizenship. He has used at least four different names. In 2016, he struck a deal with a Karen warlord Saw Chit Thu, who controls territory in Myanmar along the Moei River, to build a new city together. She Zhijiang would provide the funds, the ******** construction machinery and materials, while Saw Chit Thu and his 8,000 armed fighters would keep it safe. Glitzy videos by Yatai promised a $15bn (£12.1bn) investment and depicted a high-rise wonderland of hotels, casinos and cyberparks. Shwe Kokko was described as part of Xi Jinping’s Belt-and-Road Initiative or BRI, bringing ******** funds and infrastructure to the world. China publicly dissociated itself from She Zhijiang in 2020, and the Myanmar government launched an investigation into Yatai, which was building far beyond the 59 villas authorised by its investment permit and was operating casinos before these had been legalised in Myanmar. Courtesy Yatai She Zhijiang at Tiananmen Square in Beijing In August 2022, acting on a ******** request to Interpol, She Zhijiang was arrested and imprisoned in Bangkok. He and his business partner Saw Chit Thu have also been sanctioned by the British government for their links to human trafficking. She Zhijiang claims to be a victim of double dealing by the ******** state. He says he founded his company Yatai on the instruction of the ******** Ministry of State Security, and insists that Shwe Kokko was then a part of the BRI. He accuses China’s ********** leadership of turning on him because he refused to give them control of his project. They wanted a colony on the Thai-Myanmar border, he says. China has denied any business relationship with She Zhijiang. While he denied any wrongdoing on Yatai’s part, She Zhijiang, however, admitted to “a high probability” that scammers were coming to Shwe Kokko to spend their money. “Because our Yatai City is completely open to anyone who can go in and out freely. Refusing customers, for a businessman like me, is really difficult. This is my weakness.” It is, however, stretching credulity to believe that Yatai, which runs everything in Shwe Kokko, was unable to stop scammers coming in and out of the city. It is also hard to think of any business other than scams which would choose to operate here. With Thailand cutting off power and telecommunications, electricity comes from diesel generators, which are expensive to run. And communications go through Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system, which is also very costly. Yatai’s strategy is “to whitewash the project to create a narrative that Shwe Kokko is a safe city”, says Jason Tower, from the United States Institute for Peace, which has spent years researching the scam operation in Shwe Kokko. He says they may even “begin moving some of the more notorious components of the scam industry, like torture, into other zones”. But he doesn’t think the plan will work: “What kinds of legitimate businesses will go into Shwe Kokko? It’s simply not attractive. The economy will continue to be a scam economy.” A business in a war zone When we were eventually allowed to see inside one casino in Shwe Kokko, run by a genial ***********, he told us they were going to close it down. Inside the only customers were local Karen, gambling on a popular arcade-like game where they had to shoot digital fish. We were forbidden from doing any interviews. The back rooms, with the card and roulette tables, were empty. The *********** manager said the casino – built six years ago – had been popular and profitable when there were just one or two of them, before the civil war. But these days, with at least nine in operation, there were not enough customers to go around. The real money was in online gambling, which he said was the main business in Shwe Kokko. Jonathan Head/BBC Yatai has put up several billborads decrying scam operations It is impossible to know how much money is made through online gambling, and how much through outright criminal activities like money laundering and scams. They are usually run from the same compounds and by the same teams. When we asked Yatai how much money they made they would not tell us – not even a ballpark figure. That is private, they said. The company is registered in Hong Kong, Myanmar and Thailand, but these are little more than shell companies, with very little income or revenue passing through them. We turned down Yatai’s offer to see the go-kart track, water park and model farm that they have built. We did glimpse one other casino, while being taken to eat breakfast in Yatai’s own luxury hotel, though we could not go inside it. It seemed empty. The only other facility we were allowed to see was a karaoke club, with spectacular private rooms, cavernous domes entirely covered in digital screens on which huge tropical fish and sharks swam. They also ran video loops extolling the vision and virtues of She Zhijiang. This club too seemed deserted, except for some young ******** women who worked there. They wore opera masks to avoid being identified, and danced unenthusiastically to music for a few minutes before giving up and sitting down. Interviews were not permitted. We were allowed to talk to a local Karen member of staff, but she was so intimidated by this we got little more than her name. Jonathan Head/BBC Even in the mostly empty karaoke bar, videos on Yatai and She Zhijiang played in the background In his absence, She Zhijiang has left the running of Shwe Kokko to a young protégé, 31-year-old He Yingxiong. He lives with Wang Fugui in a sprawling villa they have built on the banks of the Moei River, overlooking Thailand, and guarded by massive ******** bodyguards. There they play mahjong, eat the finest food and drink, and keep an eye on business. Mr He has a slightly different explanation from his boss for the scams still operating under their noses. “We are just property developers,” he said. “I can guarantee that this kind of thing does not happen here. But even if it does, the local people have their own legal system, so it is their job to deal with it. Our job is just to provide good infrastructure, good buildings and supporting industries.” But there is no legal system in this part of Myanmar, nor any government. It is ruled by the various armed groups which control different bits of territory along the Thai border. Their commanders decide who can build or run a business, taking their cut to help fund their wars against the Myanmar military, or against each other. Many of them are known to be hosting scam compounds. Jonathan Head/BBC He Yingxiong is runnning Shwe Kokko in She Zhijiang’s absence… Jonathan Head/BBC … Living in this villa with Wang Fugui Mr He admitted that it was the war which had allowed Yatai to obtain the land so cheaply. Karen human rights groups have accused Saw Chit Thu of driving the original inhabitants off their land, with minimal compensation, though it is clear Yatai is also providing badly needed jobs for the locals. It is the lawlessness of Karen State which makes it so appealing to ******** businesses – and that doesn’t help the image of Shwe Kokko. Neither do recent headlines. Last month a 22-year-old ******** actor, Wang Xing, was rescued from a scam centre on the border after being lured to Thailand with an offer of work on a movie shoot. His disappearance spurred a barrage of questions on ******** social media, forcing the Thai and ******** authorities to mount a joint operation to free him. ******** tourists have been cancelling their holidays in Thailand, fearing for their safety. Other rescues have followed. The BBC has been sent emails by some scam victims pleading for help; rescue organisations believe there are still thousands trapped. Nearly all are in smaller compounds along the border south of Shwe Kokko. Yatai stressed to us that they are not the same as these rougher operations, some little more than a collection of sheds built in forest clearings. That is where all the bad things happen now, they said. They talked about KK Park, a notorious compound south of the border town of Myawaddy, and Dongmei, a cluster of low-rise buildings run by a prominent ******** crime lord called Wan Kuok Koi, better known as Broken Tooth. That distinction hasn’t helped She Zhijiang, who once had the ear of politicians, police bosses and even minor royalty in Thailand. Today he appears to have lost even the influence he once had in prison, to buy himself special privileges. He has complained of being roughed up by the guards. His lawyers are appealing against the Interpol red notice used to justify his arrest, but China’s voice will probably be loudest in determining his fate. From our interview with him, Shi Zhijiang seemed genuinely outraged over his sudden reversal of fortune. “Before, I had no understanding of human rights, but now I really understand how horrible it is to have human rights infringed upon,” he said. “It is hard to imagine how the human rights of ordinary people in China are trampled upon when a respected businessman like me, who used to be able to go to the same state banquets as Xi Jinping, does not have his human rights and dignity protected in any way.” It seems he really did believe he could build something which would one day transcend Shwe Kokko’s sordid origins as a scam city. What happens to it now is hard to guess, but if the Thai and ******** governments keep acting to shut down the scams, the money will start to dry up. Source link #city #built #scams Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

‘New era of stagflation’ and ‘putrid’ figures for Reeves ‘New era of stagflation’ and ‘putrid’ figures for Reeves 6 minutes ago A gloomy warning for the British economy leads many of the papers. The Financial Times says the Bank of England has halved its growth forecast, with a cut to rates powering the FTSE 100. The bank is expecting the economy to grow by just 0.75% this year in what the paper describes as a blow to Chancellor Rachel Reeves. The Daily Express says the chancellor’s job is on the line. The paper says there is speculation she could be replaced by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. The Times also says the Bank’s alert is a setback for Reeves as it says there was a warning of a new squeeze on living standards. The Bank cut interest rates to 4.5% as it attempts to stimulate the and has warned growth is weak and productivity “tepid”, the paper says. The Daily Mail puts the blame directly at Reeves’s door as it says “New era of stagflation thanks to Reeves’s ruinous Budget”. Stagflation is when there is flat growth and rising inflation. The Guardian also mentions stagflation fears as it says the chancellor’s growth plan has suffered a double blow. The paper quotes Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer saying the government was never going to be able to turn the economy round in six or seven months so the growth outlook “just spurs us on”. The i says the growth and inflation warning “piles pressure” on Reeves to boost the “flagging economy”. It says Andrew Bailey has backed the chancellor’s growth plans but she may have to raise taxes of cut spending to meet her own fiscal rules. The Daily Telegraph blames the “bloated state” for harming the economy. Mr Bailey said an increase of half a million public sector workers since lockdown had not been matched by a rise in productivity. The Daily Mirror leads on allegations that TV chef Gino D’Acampo made “******* and aggressive comments” to a “string of women at work”. In a statement to ITV News, which first reported the story, D’Acampo firmly denied the allegations. “Bedlocked” is the Metro’s headline as it says a winter vomiting bug has left hospitals in crisis, with thousands of beds taken up by patients suffering from norovirus. Last week 96% of beds were full, the paper says. The Sun has a story from its exclusive interview with the girlfriend of the late singer Liam Payne. Kate Cassidy tells the paper the star was “secretly considering” a reunion with his One Direction bandmates before his death last year. And the Daily Star has some good news for those of us who like to lounge around as it says “boffins” have found that “lazy gits live longer”. Relaxing on the sofa, having good sleep and not overdoing it at work can help you live an extra 10 years, the paper says. Sign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox. Related Internet Links Daily Express Daily Mail Daily Mirror Daily Star Daily Telegraph Financial Times Guardian Independent Metro Sun The i Times Source link #era #stagflation #putrid #figures #Reeves Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Terrorist listing for drug cartels would help fentanyl fight: RCMP chief – National Terrorist listing for drug cartels would help fentanyl fight: RCMP chief – National RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme says a federal move to list organized crime cartels as terrorist entities to fight fentanyl trafficking would give the Mounties more tools to pursue charges and enforce the law. In an interview Thursday, Duheme also said he sees value in the government’s plan to appoint a national fentanyl czar, as it would allow a single point person to see an overall picture of the dangerous drug’s manufacture and distribution. U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to impose stiff tariffs against Canada, citing the southbound flow of migrants and drugs, including fentanyl. U.S. border patrol statistics show that less than one per cent of fentanyl seized is found at the northern border. Trump has agreed to a month-long pause on the tariffs while the U.S. assesses whether Canada’s recent actions satisfy his demands. Story continues below advertisement The federal government unveiled a $1.3-billion plan in December to bolster security and surveillance on the Canada-U.S. border. It announced additional plans this week for a fentanyl czar, new capacity to gather intelligence on transnational organized crime and a move to list drug cartels as terrorist organizations. 0:58 Canada to designate ******** drug cartels as terrorist organizations The listing process begins with intelligence reports that indicate whether an organization has knowingly carried out, attempted to carry out, participated in or facilitated a terrorist activity. If the public safety minister believes that threshold has been met, the minister may recommend to the federal cabinet that the organization be added to the list. The listing is then published if the cabinet agrees with the recommendation. A listed group is not banned and being listed is not a crime — but the designation does effectively freeze a listed group’s assets and property, which are also subject to seizure or forfeiture. Story continues below advertisement “It’s an additional tool for law enforcement when we’re looking at laying charges,” Duheme said. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. The term “cartel” might conjure notions of drug lords conspiring in Latin American countries. Duheme noted a cartel can be defined as a group of independent market participants who collude and agree not to compete with each other. “You could use the term cartel for any organized crime group,” he said. “Because they divvy up the territory, they want to make sure that the market price is the same.” Turf wars happen only when “people are getting too hungry” and want to expand their territory, he said. “I think there’s a lot of outlaw motorcycle gangs that can be qualified as cartels as well,” he added. A recent Criminal Intelligence Service Canada report said organized crime groups involved in manufacturing fentanyl operate mostly in British Columbia and Ontario. Beyond those provinces, crime groups engage in distribution and trafficking, and increasingly rely on street gangs and outlaw motorcycle gangs, the report said. 6:05 RCMP on ******** cartel operations in B.C. Public Safety Minister David McGuinty was asked Thursday whether the planned terrorist listings could include outlaw motorcycle gangs. Story continues below advertisement “We’ll have more to say about that listing process and who’s on that list in due course,” he said. Duheme also indicated the Privy Council Office was still working to define the fentanyl czar’s role. But he suggested the czar would gather information from the RCMP and other agencies to provide the prime minister and cabinet with an overall sense of “everything that’s going on in Canada when it comes to fentanyl.” McGuinty said Thursday the terms of reference for the new position would be finalized soon. “The fentanyl czar’s role will be to help us integrate what is a whole-of-society challenge,” he said. “Fentanyl is a foreign affairs issue. It’s a law enforcement issue. It’s an intelligence issue. It’s a public health issue. It’s a tracing issue in terms of the ingredients that end up being used in the production of fentanyl, the precursors.” The federal border security plan announced in December included an aerial intelligence task force for round-the-clock surveillance of Canada’s border, using helicopters, drones and surveillance towers. 3:01 ‘All hands on deck’ to beef up Canada’s border security after Trump’s tariff break Canada also proposed to the United States the creation of a North American “joint strike force” to target organized crime groups that work across borders. Story continues below advertisement Duheme said the RCMP plans to lease two ****** Hawk helicopters next year to complement the pair that began patrolling the border last month. He said the ********* component of the joint strike force would entail five teams of RCMP officers and others across the country to focus solely on fentanyl, “from the dealers to the labs to the flow of precursors.” The strike force will also involve teams in the U.S. that collaborate with their ********* counterparts, Duheme said. Although the amount of fentanyl coming from Canada is relatively small, and the number of southbound migrants apprehended by the U.S. border patrol has declined significantly, McGuinty said the United States’ concerns must be taken seriously. “I think we should listen carefully to everything coming from the White House and act accordingly,” he said. “But what we’re really focused on right now is public safety.” McGuinty said he has reminded American officials that illicit drugs are also travelling north. “This is a two-way street,” he said. “The fentanyl crisis is particularly egregious because fentanyl is so lethal — it’s lethal in Canada and it’s lethal in the United States.” —With a file from Nick Murray More on Canada More videos &copy 2025 The ********* Press Source link #Terrorist #listing #drug #cartels #fentanyl #fight #RCMP #chief #National Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Trump imposes sanctions on International Criminal Court Trump imposes sanctions on International Criminal Court Donald Trump has signed an executive order sanctioning the ICC, accusing it of “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel”. Source link #Trump #imposes #sanctions #International #Criminal #Court Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

One of Elon’s DOGE Boys Just Resigned After His Incredibly Racist Tweets Were Discovered One of Elon’s DOGE Boys Just Resigned After His Incredibly Racist Tweets Were Discovered A 25-year-old staffer for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has resigned after the Wall Street Journal reached out to the White House over incredibly racist social media posts linked to him. Musk’s astonishingly unqualified group of 20-somethings have been plundering a growing list of government agencies, gaining control over highly sensitive information without the required security clearance and raising major alarm bells across Washington, DC. Now one of the young men, named, Marko Elez has officially resigned from his position. Elez was behind a deleted profile that backed a “eugenic immigration policy” and argued that “you could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity.” In a separate post, a different account closely linked to Elez’s online presence argued that “99 percent of Indian H1B [visas] will be replaced by slightly smarter [large language models], they’re going back don’t worry guys.” “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool,” the account wrote in a July post, reviewed by the WSJ. It’s unclear if the racist posts and Elez’s resignation are directly linked, but White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt informed the newspaper about the news after the WSJ inquired about the posts. Elez’s resignation is surprising, not to mention the first sign that Musk and his operatives may still be beholden to certain social norms. Before the news emerged, DOGE had established itself as an extremely chaotic force blowing through government agencies like a hurricane. The sudden departure raises questions. Is authoring flagrantly racist posts on social media where Musk draws the line? It would certainly be a double standard, considering Musk has made plenty of outright racist utterances himself. All we can do at this point is speculate, but it’s certainly a noteworthy departure. Elez had obtained direct access to the entire government’s payment system. As Wired reported earlier this week, Elez also gave himself both read and write privileges, allowing him to push untested changes to the payment system. It’s an incredibly reckless approach that could open the United States to foreign hacking, as Democratic lawmakers have warned. The 25-year-old had previously worked at Musk’s SpaceX, and X, where he focused on AI, as the WSJ reports. DOGE’s other staffers also include interns at his companies and a young man who goes by “Big ******” online — so who knows what other juicy details will soon come to light about Musk’s other bratty minions. More on DOGE: One of Elon Musk’s DOGE Kids Just Had an Explosive Screaming Tantrum Source link #Elons #DOGE #Boys #Resigned #Incredibly #Racist #Tweets #Discovered Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Stock market today: Live updates Stock market today: Live updates Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Feb. 6, 2025. NYSE Stock futures were slightly lower Thursday evening as investors braced for January’s big jobs report. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 22 points, or 0.05%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures slipped about 0.1% each. In extended trading, Amazon tumbled 4%. Guidance from the e-commerce giant disappointed investors, as Amazon called for revenue growth of 5% to 9% in the first quarter — its weakest growth on record. The outlook overshadowed top- and bottom-line beats in the fourth quarter. During Thursday’s main trading session, the S&P 500 rose nearly 0.4%, and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.5%. The Dow dipped roughly 0.3%. All three major averages are on track to finish the week with modest gains. The S&P 500 is on pace for a 0.7% advance, while the Nasdaq is tracking for a 0.8% gain during the *******. The Dow is lagging, with a week-to-date increase of about 0.5%. Stocks have managed to rebound from the sell-off on Monday after President Donald Trump over the weekend announced 10% tariffs on China. He agreed to pause 25% levies on Canada and Mexico. The Trump administration will pose a “wild card” for the market, BD8 Capital Partners CEO Barbara Doran said Thursday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime.” “There’s going to be add[ed] volatility in the market, particularly with valuations where they are in general for the market,” she said. Traders’ focus now moves toward January’s jobs report, which is slated for release on Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones are expecting nonfarm payrolls growth of 169,000 for the month, which is lower than the 256,000 jobs added in December. The unemployment rate is also expected to hold steady at 4.1%. Source link #Stock #market #today #Live #updates Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

USAID Controversy Live Updates: Nearly All Of USAID’s Employees Being Laid Off – Forbes USAID Controversy Live Updates: Nearly All Of USAID’s Employees Being Laid Off – Forbes USAID Controversy Live Updates: Nearly All Of USAID’s Employees Being Laid Off ForbesTrump Administration to Lay Off Nearly All of U.S. Aid Agency’s Staff The New York TimesWhat is USAID, the government agency targeted by Trump and Elon Musk? The Washington PostFirst on CNN: Republican and Democratic former USAID leaders speak out against Trump’s attempts to dismantle agency CNN Source link #USAID #Controversy #Live #Updates #USAIDs #Employees #Laid #Forbes Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Top scientists warn of out-of-control AI Top scientists warn of out-of-control AI Yoshua Bengio (L) and Max Tegmark (R) discuss the development of artificial general intelligence during a live podcast recording of CNBC’s “Beyond The Valley” in Davos, Switzerland in January 2025. CNBC Artificial general intelligence built like “agents” could prove dangerous as its creators might lose control of the system, two of of the world’s most prominent AI scientists told CNBC. In the latest episode of CNBC’s “Beyond The Valley” podcast released on Tuesday, Max Tegmark, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the President of the Future of Life Institute, and Yoshua Bengio, dubbed one of the “godfathers of AI” and a professor at the Université de Montréal, spoke about their concerns about artificial general intelligence, or AGI. The term broadly refers to AI systems that are smarter than humans. Their fears stem from the world’s biggest firms now talking about “AI agents” or “agentic AI” — which companies claim will allow AI chatbots to act like assistants or agents and assist in work and everyday life. Industry estimates vary on when AGI will come into existence. With that concept comes the idea that AI systems could have some “agency” and thoughts of their own, according to Bengio. “Researchers in AI have been inspired by human intelligence to build machine intelligence, and, in humans, there’s a mix of both the ability to understand the world like pure intelligence and the agentic behavior, meaning … to use your knowledge to achieve goals,” Bengio told CNBC’s “Beyond The Valley.” “Right now, this is how we’re building AGI: we are trying to make them agents that understand a lot about the world, and then can act accordingly. But this is actually a very dangerous proposition.” Bengio added that pursuing this approach would be like “creating a new species or a new intelligent entity on this planet” and “not knowing if they’re going to behave in ways that agree with our needs.” “So instead, we can consider, what are the scenarios in which things go badly and they all rely on agency? In other words, it is because the AI has its own goals that we could be in trouble.” The idea of self-preservation could also kick in, as AI gets even smarter, Bengio said. “Do we want to be in competition with entities that are smarter than us? It’s not a very reassuring gamble, right? So we have to understand how self-preservation can emerge as a goal in AI.” AI tools the key For MIT’s Tegmark, the key lies in so-called “tool AI” — systems that are created for a specific, narrowly-defined purpose, but that don’t have to be agents. Tegmark said a tool AI could be a system that tells you how to cure *******, or something that possesses “some agency” like a self-driving car “where you can prove or get some really high, really reliable guarantees that you’re still going to be able to control it.” “I think, on an optimistic note here, we can have almost everything that we’re excited about with AI … if we simply insist on having some basic safety standards before people can sell powerful AI systems,” Tegmark said. “They have to demonstrate that we can keep them under control. Then the industry will innovate rapidly to figure out how to do that better.” Tegmark’s Future of Life Institute in 2023 called for a pause to the development of AI systems that can compete with human-level intelligence. While that has not happened, Tegmark said people are talking about the topic, and now it is time to take action to figure out how to put guardrails in place to control AGI. “So at least now a lot of people are talking the talk. We have to see if we can get them to walk the walk,” Tegmark told CNBC’s “Beyond The Valley.” “It’s clearly insane for us humans to build something way smarter than us before we figured out how to control it.” There are several views on when AGI will arrive, partly driven by varying definitions. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said his company knows how to build AGI and said it will arrive sooner than people think, though he downplayed the impact of the technology. “My guess is we will hit AGI sooner than most people in the world think and it will matter much less,” Altman said in December. Source link #Top #scientists #warn #outofcontrol Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Keir Starmer goes nuclear in the hunt for long-term growth Keir Starmer goes nuclear in the hunt for long-term growth PA There is a constant beeping sound as we are led through the building. A sign on the wall marks the “Toxic Release Assembly Point,” another sign with arrows is marked the “Criticality Run.” I am at the *** National Nuclear Laboratory in Preston in Lancashire, so you would expect the security and safety protocols to be rigorous. The prime minister and the Energy Secretary Ed Miliband are here too. The nuclear scientists I talk to are full of enthusiasm and passion; a sense they are researching a future of carbon-free energy with a transformational capacity. They are doing exciting work on potential ******* treatments too. But critics fret about safety, cost and nuclear waste – it is a sector with sceptics to convince after the disasters at Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986 and Fukushima in Japan in 2011. And we have been here before – promises made about a nuclear future that fail to materialise: The timeframes of nuclear projects are much longer than parliamentary cycles and governments with small majorities can be put off by controversy. Will it really be any different this time around – and should it be? Sir Keir Starmer expresses his irritation that the ***’s nuclear capacity has shrivelled, despite its world-beating start. Calder Hall in Cumbria was the first nuclear power station in the world to produce electricity for domestic use when it opened in 1956. Twenty-one reactors were built in the *** in the ten years after that. But the last nuclear plant to open was 30 years ago: Sizewell B in Suffolk. And when it did, protesters locked themselves to its gates. And already, three decades on, the opponents are sharpening their arguments. “It doesn’t have a 100% record of safety in the ***. The nuclear industry is working amongst the most deadly materials known to mankind,” Richard Outram from Nuclear Free Local Authorities told us. Central to the prime minister’s diagnosis of the country’s wider economic malaise is an argument grounded in our collective failure to get stuff built. He argues that the checks and balances of our democracy, such as impact assessments and judicial reviews, have taken on so many layers that they end up gumming up the likelihood of getting anything signed off. In other words, so the argument goes, there is a collective in-built bias towards doing nothing. Liberalising the rules around nuclear power stations in England and Wales is the latest case study in trying to turn that around. The idea is these so-called small modular reactors could be sited in a far wider range of places than current or past nuclear power stations. For instance, they have all been located on the coast, because of the volume of water required nearby for cooling. The new generation of power stations would still need water but much less of it: A nearby river or lake would suffice. Ministers are also going to make it easier for them to get planning consent too. That means it is less likely those arguing against such a plant being built down the road from them would be able to stop it. The government, as one senior figure put it to me, is trying to “squeeze what we can out of our majority.” Contentious, even unpopular stuff will likely clear the Commons, even with a cohort of Labour grumblers. Incidentally, while the Liberal Democrats argue the focus right now should be on renewable energy, both Reform *** and the Conservatives back the government’s approach. There is an otherworldly element to nuclear power. Many of us can relate to oil and gas: Filling up the car, putting a pan on the hob. But being handed a drinks can with the label “if nuclear energy powered your entire life – the fuel would fit inside this” is mind bending. PA Media And then there is the safety stuff again. It is telling that when the government tries to go out of its way to address these concerns, in so doing it tacitly acknowledges how deep the concerns of some go. The notes they sent us before the prime minister’s visit set out that “nuclear plants are designed with multiple layers of safety measures including making them robust enough to withstand a direct aircraft impact.” Ministers hope the first of these new nuclear power stations could be keeping your lights on by 2032. So they are far from an instant panacea for our economic woes. But the government appears determined to have long-term horizons while simultaneously attempting to project a spirit of economic dynamism, when the economy itself is anything but. The question now is if this time new nuclear power plants do actually get built. Source link #Keir #Starmer #nuclear #hunt #longterm #growth Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Violent road rage incident with motorcyclists leaves man in hospital Violent road rage incident with motorcyclists leaves man in hospital A violent road rage incident involving a group of motorcyclists has left a man in hospital and his car a mess. Source link #Violent #road #rage #incident #motorcyclists #leaves #man #hospital Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Judge temporarily bars Justice Department from disclosing information about FBI agents tied to Jan. 6 probes Judge temporarily bars Justice Department from disclosing information about FBI agents tied to Jan. 6 probes Washington — A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Thursday temporarily prevented the Justice Department from disclosing information about FBI agents who fear they will be targeted because of their work on cases involving President Trump and the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb ordered that the Justice Department may not disclose the list of FBI agents who worked on the investigations to anyone outside the department — which would include any other federal entity or outside group, as well as public disclosure — until she hears arguments Friday as to whether to issue a temporary restraining order sought by unnamed FBI agents and the FBI Agents Association in a pair of cases brought earlier this week. Cobb’s decision comes after an hourslong hearing, during which the Justice Department and lawyers for the agents discussed an order governing the potential disclosure of names of FBI personnel who were involved in the Jan. 6 cases, which was compiled by the bureau and turned over to the Justice Department this week. She said in her order, “The government has represented that the information at issue in this case has not been shared outside of the DOJ.” The brief hold will remain in place until the two sides reconvene for the continuation of the hearing or reach an agreement on the terms of the order. Cobb, who sits on the federal district court in Washington and was nominated for her seat by former President Biden in 2021, said during the hearing that if the list of names was to be released overnight, FBI agents could face “significant and immediate danger.” The challenge stemmed from a memorandum issued by Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove last week that directed the FBI to provide lists of current and former personnel assigned at any time to investigations and prosecutions related to the attack on the U.S. Capitol. The department required the FBI to turn over the information by Tuesday, and the bureau complied with the deadline, the Justice Department said. FBI Acting Director Brian Driscoll said in a message to the bureau that the data it provided identified employees by their Unique Employee Identifier, current title, title at the time of the Jan. 6 investigation, the office where they are currently assigned, role in the investigation of prosecution and date of last activity related to the probes. Mr. Trump has nominated Kash Patel, a close ally of the president’s, to lead the FBI, but the Senate has not yet voted on his confirmation. A lawyer representing the unnamed FBI agents and employees said that were it not for Driscoll turning over identification numbers, the government would have a list of the names of agents who worked on Jan. 6 cases. The Justice Department also has information compiled through surveys sent to certain FBI employees about their activities related to the Jan. 6 investigations, including the extent of their roles, she warned. “We are one step away from those names getting released,” the lawyer said, adding that it will be “irreparable” if they are disclosed. The lawyer said a chief concern is the names of the FBI personnel could be leaked to a third party or published by the Trump administration. “Our argument is that the threat to national security is so extreme that we cannot risk letting it happen first and then trying to put it back together,” she said. The lawyer noted that since Mr. Trump returned to the White House, billionaire Elon Musk, through the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has made public the names of other government employees. She also said that some Jan. 6 defendants who were granted clemency by Mr. Trump have also suggested on social media that they would target FBI agents. Mark Zaid, who is representing some of the unnamed FBI employees, estimated there are between 5,000 and 6,000 whose information was turned over to the Justice Department. A Justice Department lawyer, Jeremy Simon, went back and forth with Cobb about the language of a potential court order that would temporarily bar the Justice Department from disclosing without notice the list of FBI agents tied to Jan. 6 cases to entities and people outside of the department. Asked whether any other government agency intends to release that information while the court considers a motion for a preliminary injunction, Simon said he was not in a position to make representations about agencies outside of the Justice Department. Simon also declined to definitively confirm the names hadn’t been shared outside of the Justice Department, telling the judge that there has not been an “official disclosure.” The Justice Department has argued in a court filing that it was seeking information about FBI employees who worked on Jan. 6 cases to start a review process in conjunction with Mr. Trump’s executive order aimed at ending what he calls the weaponization of the federal government. Government lawyers argued in a court filing Thursday morning that they believed there should not be a temporary restraining order implemented because of “speculation involving future predictions of potential harm” — not actual harm in the eyes of the government — and the FBI agents’ “speculative” belief that the list of agents may be leaked outside of the department. Bove, meanwhile, sought to assuage concerns that agents could be retaliated against in an email disseminated to the FBI on Wednesday, writing that “no FBI employee who simply followed orders and carried out their duties in an ethical manner with respect to the January 6 investigations is at risk of termination or other penalties.” The deputy attorney general, who served as a defense lawyer to Mr. Trump, wrote that “the only individuals who should be concerned about the process initiated by my January 31, 2025, memo are those who acted with corrupt or partisan intent, who blatantly defied orders from Department leadership, or who exercised discretion in weaponizing the FBI.” In their request for a temporary restraining order, the FBI agents argued the Justice Department is planning to take “adverse employment actions” and make public the names and identities of those targeted. One group of seven FBI agents and the FBI Agents Association said the disclosure would harm them, their colleagues and families, “all but guaranteeing they will face threats of physical harm and emotional harassment in violation of their First Amendment and Due Process rights.” Lawyers for the FBI agents wrote in their request that the Justice Department is seeking to retaliate against them by making public their identities “simply because those individuals honorably performed their duties in connection with sensitive law enforcement investigations.” “Such acts are unconscionable, dangerous to the American public and ******** under the U.S. Constitution and numerous federal laws,” they wrote. But Justice Department lawyers said the agents’ request is based on a “speculation involving future predictions of potential harm related to the information provided.” “Plaintiffs can point to nothing that suggests the government intends to make public the list in this case,” they wrote in a filing. “To the contrary, the department and FBI management have repeatedly stressed the purpose of the list is to conduct an internal review, not expose dedicated special agents to public insult or ridicule.” Assault On The U.S. Capitol More More Melissa Quinn Melissa Quinn is a politics reporter for CBSNews.com. She has written for outlets including the Washington Examiner, Daily Signal and Alexandria Times. Melissa covers U.S. politics, with a focus on the Supreme Court and federal courts. Source link #Judge #temporarily #bars #Justice #Department #disclosing #information #FBI #agents #tied #Jan #probes Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Honeywell split, jobs report preview: Market Domination Honeywell split, jobs report preview: Market Domination Julie Hyman and Josh Lipton take a look at the top stories on Wall Street just ahead of the closing bell. Honeywell International (HON) will split into three companies: Honeywell Automation, Honeywell Aerospace, and Advanced Materials. RBC Capital Markets managing director Deane Dray examines how the breakup is part of a larger trend of de-merging. Ahead of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s release of the January jobs report, the Market Domination team explains why this report will be different from the last. The labor market data will provide a fresh look at the labor market, which could impact the Federal Reserve’s next move, Yahoo Finance Senior Reporter Alexandra Canal outlines. Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) and Ralph Lauren (RL) are among the trending tickers on Yahoo Finance’s platform. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination here. This post was written by Naomi Buchanan. Source link #Honeywell #split #jobs #report #preview #Market #Domination Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Ninja Gaiden 2 ****** Review | TheSixthAxis Ninja Gaiden 2 ****** Review | TheSixthAxis TSA writes: Ninja Gaiden 2 ****** is a luscious visual remake of the hack ‘n’ slash classic, but is it like the original or more like Sigma? Source link #Ninja #Gaiden #****** #Review #TheSixthAxis Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Top scientists warn of out-of-control AI Top scientists warn of out-of-control AI Yoshua Bengio (L) and Max Tegmark (R) discuss the development of artificial general intelligence during a live podcast recording of CNBC’s “Beyond The Valley” in Davos, Switzerland in January 2025. CNBC Artificial general intelligence built like “agents” could prove dangerous as its creators might lose control of the system, two of of the world’s most prominent AI scientists told CNBC. In the latest episode of CNBC’s “Beyond The Valley” podcast released on Tuesday, Max Tegmark, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the President of the Future of Life Institute, and Yoshua Bengio, dubbed one of the “godfathers of AI” and a professor at the Université de Montréal, spoke about their concerns about artificial general intelligence, or AGI. The term broadly refers to AI systems that are smarter than humans. Their fears stem from the world’s biggest firms now talking about “AI agents” or “agentic AI” — which companies claim will allow AI chatbots to act like assistants or agents and assist in work and everyday life. Industry estimates vary on when AGI will come into existence. With that concept comes the idea that AI systems could have some “agency” and thoughts of their own, according to Bengio. “Researchers in AI have been inspired by human intelligence to build machine intelligence, and, in humans, there’s a mix of both the ability to understand the world like pure intelligence and the agentic behavior, meaning … to use your knowledge to achieve goals,” Bengio told CNBC’s “Beyond The Valley.” “Right now, this is how we’re building AGI: we are trying to make them agents that understand a lot about the world, and then can act accordingly. But this is actually a very dangerous proposition.” Bengio added that pursuing this approach would be like “creating a new species or a new intelligent entity on this planet” and “not knowing if they’re going to behave in ways that agree with our needs.” “So instead, we can consider, what are the scenarios in which things go badly and they all rely on agency? In other words, it is because the AI has its own goals that we could be in trouble.” The idea of self-preservation could also kick in, as AI gets even smarter, Bengio said. “Do we want to be in competition with entities that are smarter than us? It’s not a very reassuring gamble, right? So we have to understand how self-preservation can emerge as a goal in AI.” AI tools the key For MIT’s Tegmark, the key lies in so-called “tool AI” — systems that are created for a specific, narrowly-defined purpose, but that don’t have to be agents. Tegmark said a tool AI could be a system that tells you how to cure *******, or something that possesses “some agency” like a self-driving car “where you can prove or get some really high, really reliable guarantees that you’re still going to be able to control it.” “I think, on an optimistic note here, we can have almost everything that we’re excited about with AI … if we simply insist on having some basic safety standards before people can sell powerful AI systems,” Tegmark said. “They have to demonstrate that we can keep them under control. Then the industry will innovate rapidly to figure out how to do that better.” Tegmark’s Future of Life Institute in 2023 called for a pause to the development of AI systems that can compete with human-level intelligence. While that has not happened, Tegmark said people are talking about the topic, and now it is time to take action to figure out how to put guardrails in place to control AGI. “So at least now a lot of people are talking the talk. We have to see if we can get them to walk the walk,” Tegmark told CNBC’s “Beyond The Valley.” “It’s clearly insane for us humans to build something way smarter than us before we figured out how to control it.” There are several views on when AGI will arrive, partly driven by varying definitions. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said his company knows how to build AGI and said it will arrive sooner than people think, though he downplayed the impact of the technology. “My guess is we will hit AGI sooner than most people in the world think and it will matter much less,” Altman said in December. Source link #Top #scientists #warn #outofcontrol Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Government Agencies Cancel Politico Pro Subscriptions – The New York Times Government Agencies Cancel Politico Pro Subscriptions – The New York Times Government Agencies Cancel Politico Pro Subscriptions The New York TimesRepublican ire at USAID finds an unusual target: Politico The Washington PostTrump and Musk Are Pushing an Absurd Lie About Government and the Media Rolling Stone Source link #Government #Agencies #Cancel #Politico #Pro #Subscriptions #York #Times Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Premier League Darts results: Luke Humphries beats Chris Dobey for Belfast win, Luke Littler loses Premier League Darts results: Luke Humphries beats Chris Dobey for Belfast win, Luke Littler loses Van Gerwen reached the semi-finals in a rematch of last month’s final at Alexandra Palace where Littler became darts’ youngest world champion, aged 17. There was a little bit of added spice to the build-up when Van Gerwen criticised the teenager’s timekeeping at a media day on Wednesday. Littler kept his fellow players waiting for 45 minutes and said he had overslept after taking a morning nap. “They need to stop treating him like a baby. He’s not a baby any more, he’s 18 years old now,” Van Gerwen said. Littler said before the match: “He’s not wrong, I was late. I’m 18 now, responsible for my actions and did get a little telling off.” There was no hanging about when the pair reached the oche as they traded 11-dart legs before Littler’s 161 checkout made it 2-2. Van Gerwen hit a 114 finish to go 4-3 ahead but went on to miss four match darts and Littler nailed bullseye to force a decider, before the Dutchman finally prevailed on double eight. Humphries saw off Nathan Aspinall 6-2, while Stephen Bunting’s return to the Premier League after a decade away ended with a 6-4 loss to Cross. Dobey edged the finishing as he beat Wales’ 2021 world champion Gerwyn Price 6-4 in the opening match. Source link #Premier #League #Darts #results #Luke #Humphries #beats #Chris #Dobey #Belfast #win #Luke #Littler #loses Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Trump’s transgender view puts pressure on LA Olympics Trump’s transgender view puts pressure on LA Olympics Olympic leaders are now under immense pressure with US President Donald Trump signing an executive order to ban his country’s transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles games. In a speech before signing the document on Wednesday, Trump said he wants the International Olympic Committee to change everything “having to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject.” Outgoing IOC President Thomas Bach, who had a tense meeting with Trump during his first term in the White House, has avoided taking a strong stance on the subject, but many of the seven candidates running to replace him this year have. Sebastian Coe, who heads World Athletics, the global body governing track and field, appeared to support Trump’s position on his X account. “Preserving the integrity of competition in the female category is a fundamental principle of the sport of athletics and as we know everything starts in schools,” said Coe, a two-time 1,500-metre Olympic champion from Britain. “Establishing clear, unambiguous policies is a critical first step.” Currently, the IOC just advises sports governing bodies that make the final decisions on eligibility. The IOC has allowed transgender athletes to participate at the Olympics since 2004, but it wasn’t until 2021 that the first openly transgender athletes competed. Three top Olympic sports – track and field, swimming and cycling – now bar athletes who went through male puberty from competing in women’s international events. The IOC election to replace Bach, whose 12-year limit is reached and leaves in June, is on March 20 at a meeting in Greece. Some of the candidates have made it clear where they stand on transgender participation. “At World Athletics we have developed clear, consulted policies on female eligibility,” Coe wrote in his manifesto aimed at IOC voters. “I will advocate for clear, science-based policies that safeguard the female category.” Another leading contender to replace Bach, Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., has also urged the IOC to set clear guidelines on the issue. “The IOC has a fundamental duty to safeguard women’s sport by adopting a policy to maintain unambiguous distinctions between men’s and women’s categories,” Samaranch wrote in December. In his election manifesto, the head of the ski federation, Johan Eliasch, said he wants the IOC to set the rules “guided by biological fact, not cultural trends.” “Regardless of current testosterone levels, exposure to puberty creates sex differences in height, weight and so on which can provide a sporting advantage,” said Eliasch, urging “science-informed frameworks” over ideology. The International Cycling Union followed the transgender policy of aquatics and athletics in July 2023, though its president David Lappartient was more cautious in his Olympic manifesto. He suggested the IOC should guide Olympic sports bodies with common principles while “we need to accept that the response may vary from one sport to the next.” The only woman among the seven IOC candidates, two-time swimming Olympic gold medalist Kirsty Coventry, did not directly address the gender issue in her manifesto, writing instead of “strengthening women’s sports by protecting female athletes.” But in an interview with the BBC two weeks ago, she said it’s the IOC’s duty to ensure equal opportunity and fairness. “I don’t believe we can do that based off of the medical and science research that I’ve seen if we add or allow for transgender women to compete in the female category right now,” she said. “It is very clear that transgender women are more able in the female category, and can take away opportunities that should be equal for women.” The two other candidates – Prince Feisal al Hussein of Jordan and gymnastics federation president Morinari Watanabe – didn’t address transgender athletes in their documents, though Prince Feisal stressed gender equality and equality of opportunity. The next IOC leader will need a functioning working relationship with the Trump administration ahead of the Los Angeles Olympics. Trump said he had directed Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem “to deny any and all visa applications made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying themselves as women athletes.” On the campaign trail, Trump frequently misgendered two Olympic female boxers as men and said their ability to participate in the Paris Games was “demeaning to women” even though both Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan were assigned female at birth and identify as women. Bach, the outgoing IOC president, on Thursday said he wasn’t familiar with Trump’s comments the night before. “I’m not aware of these comments. Let’s see,” Bach said in Milan at an event to mark one year until the 2026 Winter Olympics open. Later Thursday, the IOC responded to a request for comment on the issue, saying: “Working with the respective international sports federations, the IOC will continue to explain and discuss the various topics with the relevant authorities.” Source link #Trumps #transgender #view #puts #pressure #Olympics Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Mizuhara Sentenced to 57 Months in Prison for Defrauding Ohtani Mizuhara Sentenced to 57 Months in Prison for Defrauding Ohtani U.S. District Judge John W. Holcomb sentenced former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, who stole nearly $17 million from Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani to pay for gambling debts, to 57 months in prison on Thursday, according to reports from multiple news outlets. Mizuhara faced a maximum sentence of 33 years in prison for bank fraud and filing a false tax return. The 40-year-old wasn’t at risk of facing the maximum sentence given that he pleaded guilty and lacks a criminal record. Those are two mitigating factors that often lead to the imposition of a sentence much lower than the maximum. More from Sportico.com But Mizuhara was all but certain to receive some time behind bars. Holcomb, who presides at the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif., was recently presented with three recommendations for Mizuhara’s sentence. Holcomb’s sentence matches the U.S. Justice Department’s request of 57 months (4.75 years) in prison. Mizuhara will also have three years of supervised release and be require to pay nearly $17 in restitution to Ohtani, according to The Athletic. Federal prosecutors maintained that Mizuhara repeatedly stole from Ohtani over a multiyear *******, and thus his misconduct was not a one-time offense or a momentary lapse in judgment. Prosecutors also portrayed Mizuhara as acting with bad intentions, arguing he intentionally manipulated Ohtani’s bank and other records to further his fraud, which led the public and baseball fans to wrongly suspect Ohtani of involvement in his scheme—a scheme that in baseball can lead to a lifetime ban. Mindful that Mizuhara has attempted to mitigate his actions by claiming a gambling addiction, prosecutors also pointed out that Mizuhara illegally used Ohtani’s credit card to pay for numerous items that had nothing to do with gambling, and that even when Mizuhara won a bet, he didn’t repay Ohtani. The middle sentencing recommendation was offered by the U.S. Probation Office, which conducts pre-sentencing investigations of a person charged with a crime. The agency urged that Mizuhara be sentenced to four years in prison. It stressed that although Mizuhara accepted responsibility and had no criminal record, the amount of money he stole was high and stealing from a bank warrants a higher penalty. Mizuhara’s attorney, Michael G. Freedman, offered a very different take. He urged Holcomb to impose an 18-month sentence. Freedman described Mizuhara as something of a tragic figure, noting that he suffered from depression that may have begun when he lost his first-love relationship in high school and that his gambling addiction is so severe he has a dependence on betting. Freedman also underscored how Mizuhara tried to limit the public relations fallout for Ohtani by declining to comment on the matter until after the government filed its complaint. In addition, Freedman stressed that Mizuhara, who was born in Japan but raised in Los Angeles and is a permanent U.S. resident, faces likely deportation to Japan after he leaves a U.S. prison due to his criminal record. Freedman warned Mizuhara will face greater shame in Japan and be unemployable. Best of Sportico.com Sign up for Sportico’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Source link #Mizuhara #Sentenced #Months #Prison #Defrauding #Ohtani Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Johnson urges Senate to wait for House to “do its work” on Trump agenda Johnson urges Senate to wait for House to “do its work” on Trump agenda Washington — Speaker Mike Johnson urged his Senate GOP colleagues to wait for the House to “do its work” to advance President Trump’s agenda. He and House Republicans met with Mr. Trump for several hours Thursday to discuss the budget reconciliation process central to approving key components of the measure, which is expected, among other things, to extend and expand the 2017 tax cuts enacted in his first term. The speaker said after the White House meeting that Republicans would meet again Thursday night to “finish up some final details” and said their intention is to produce a resolution for the House Budget Committee to mark up potentially as early as next week. “So our message to our friends and colleagues in the Senate is, ‘Allow the House to do its work,'” Johnson told reporters at the Capitol. The White House meeting came after Senate Republicans announced Wednesday that they intended to move forward with their own plan next week, since the House efforts to start the budget reconciliation process have stalled. Senate Republicans are expected to meet with Mr. Trump Friday night at Mar-a-Lago. Johnson sounded upbeat and described the meeting with Trump as “very good” and “very productive” and included a large cross-section of Republicans from the committees that will have jurisdiction on the legislation. Though he declined to offer details of the plan, he said there may be some announcements Friday. He praised the president for “leaning in and doing what he does best, and that is put a steady hand at the wheel and get everybody working.” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise added that Republicans “are narrowing down the areas of differences” after a lot of “give and take” among the members who attended the White House meeting Thursday. He, too, praised the president’s involvement. “We obviously have to go talk to other groups within our conference now, but, but we made serious progress, and have narrowed the gap to where we’re very close to getting ready to bring this to Budget Committee,” Scalise told reporters. He confirmed that the group discussed some of the most polarizing items being considered for inclusion in the legislation: state and local tax cap reform, known as the SALT tax, and the debt ceiling. Scalise said members made progress but didn’t arrive at a resolution on either front. The White House and Republican leaders in Congress are pursuing a number of legislative priorities through the budget reconciliation process, including approving resources to bolster border security, extending 2017 tax cuts, incentivizing domestic manufacturing and investing in American energy, while working to pare government programs and address the debt limit. Though Republican leaders are generally united on the priorities, disagreement on the process has bogged down progress. Until Wednesday, Senate Republicans had deferred to the House to kick off the process, though they generally advocated for separating the priorities into two bills — one focused on border security while stressing that the tax legislation would take time to write and should come later. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters during the meeting that the president emphasized to lawmakers that his priorities included his no tax on tips or overtime pay proposals, no taxes on seniors’ Social Security benefits, renewing the 2017 tax cuts and adjusting the state and local tax deduction cap, known as the SALT cap, among other items. “This will be the largest tax cut in history for middle class working Americans,” Leavitt said. “The president is committed to working with Congress to get this done.” Under the budget reconciliation process, Congress can avoid the 60-vote threshold typically required in the Senate. But the complicated maneuver requires that lawmakers first approve a budget resolution, and the House has faced a backlash from conservatives in recent days over the budget measure. Kaia Hubbard Kaia Hubbard is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital, based in Washington, D.C. Source link #Johnson #urges #Senate #wait #House #work #Trump #agenda Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Here’s a list of the top 10 active ETFs by assets under management Here’s a list of the top 10 active ETFs by assets under management Investors have piled into actively managed funds at a much faster pace relative to their passive peers, with their assets under management surpassing $1 trillion for the first time in 2024, data from Morningstar showed. Here are the top 10 ETFs by AUM as of early February: Actively managed ETFs attempt to generate higher returns with the fund manager selecting and churning assets in the portfolio to beat the market, while passive ETFs track a particular index. Active funds charge a higher management fees from investors. The U.S. houses the lion’s share of the active ETFs globally, with the bulk of the top 10 focused on large-cap U.S. equities, while a few track small-cap and fixed income assets. Active ETFs are a “very nascent” category across the globe since ETFs are best known as passive investment vehicles, said Roxanna Islam, head of sector and industry research at TMX VettaFi. “They did not fully take off in the U.S. until the SEC passed ETF rule changes in 2019 that were more supportive of active ETFs,” she told CNBC. The growth rate of active ETFs globally was five times compared with their passive counterparts last year, Morningstar’s annual report showed. Active ETFs’ share of all ETFs rose to 7.8% in 2024 from 6.2% in the previous year. Morningstar also attributed the surge in the popularity of active ETFs to the change in rules by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The change enabled ETFs to go onto the market without an exemptive order . Previously, funds were mandated to file an application before their ETFs could launch, with their approval often taking months. The list of the top 10 active ETFs by AUM could see changes over the next few years with a greater diversity of asset classes, said Amrita Nandakumar, president at Vident Asset Management. “Given the uncertainty of the current interest rate environment, we could see active fixed income strategies that provide exposure to a specific bond duration or quality gain popularity,” she told CNBC. TMX VettaFi’s Islam said that while the share of fixed income funds will grow over time, equity ETFs will continue to be the largest slice of active ETFs by AUM. “Fixed income markets tend to be less efficient than equity markets, and many investors value the flexibility and rigorous research behind active management especially in an uncertain economic environment,” she said. Limited appeal outside of U.S. The majority of the world’s active ETF assets — 81.27% — are domiciled in the U.S, according to Morningstar. The main issue is cost, said Marc Jocum, product and investment strategist at Global X ETFs. “Just because an active strategy is wrapped in an ETF doesn’t make it any cheaper.” Index ETFs have an average annual management fee of 0.44%, while for active ETFs its is 0.63%, data provided by Morningstar showed. Additionally, the regulatory environment of the countries plays a key role. “The Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) space in other countries isn’t nearly as developed as it is in the United States,” said Don Calcagni, chief investment advisor at Mercer Advisors, who highlighted that investors have been embracing working with the RIAs at the expense of large banks and broker-dealers. Registered Investment Advisors have been at the forefront of utilizing active ETFs, accounting for about 41% of all active ETF assets in the U.S., up from 31% in 2019, a 2024 research by BlackRock showed . Source link #Heres #list #top #active #ETFs #assets #management Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

USAID shutdown ripples through grassroots groups worldwide: “A huge impact on actual human lives” USAID shutdown ripples through grassroots groups worldwide: “A huge impact on actual human lives” Abdul Fatorma, chief executive of the Campaign for Human Rights and Development International, had been working on expanding democracy in Sierra Leone for seven years. Civil war had plagued the West African coastal nation for decades, ending in 2002 — and slowly, peace had returned, helping to reduce migration and violence. Essential to that progress, Sierra Leone’s civil service advocates believe, is nurturing democracy and human rights. Fatorma’s grassroots campaign was granted $1 million in U.S. funding in 2023 to continue work on those goals. Around two years later the project — which promoted meaningful participation of all citizens in their political systems, expanded the reach of civic education and encouraged female aspirants to run for office — ended last week when Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered a pause on all new U.S. foreign assistance programs funded by the State Department and USAID. Almost all of the agency’s workers are being put on leave. “It came as a shock, and devastating,” said Fatorma from his office in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital. He added the loss created “a gap” in funding and a “vacuum in governance” that he said Russia or China could rush to fill. USAID managed more than $40 billion in appropriations in 2023, according to the Congressional Research Service, a figure that is less than 1% of the federal budget. A large portion of the funding is awarded to U.S. organizations that grant monies to local partners or grassroots groups, which implement the projects in their respective countries. Grassroots groups are involved in carrying out a range of humanitarian projects and activities, including working in hospitals or health clinics, fighting human trafficking, and running programs that advance democracy, entrepreneurship or conservation. The complex funding structure has routinely been criticized as not reaching grassroots groups quickly or directly enough, but regardless, thousands of advocates and workers around the world depended on USAID to carry out an enormous spectrum of civil society work. Visitors arrive for the opening of a restoration project at Bimaristan Al-Muayyad Sheikh hospital following extensive renovations carried out in partnership between Egypt and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in Old Cairo, Egypt, Aug. 18, 2024. Amr Abdallah Dalsh / REUTERS Freedom Collaborative, a global network of about 3,000 advocates against trafficking, had 80% of its budget cut after receiving a stop-work order last week, said CEO Julia Macher, who is based in Berlin. The organization said it is funded by a USAID subgrant through Winrock International, an international development organization that manages 100 projects in 40 countries mostly for the U.S. government. Macher said since the freeze on federal funding, her group had been contacted by at least 50 partners. In a Freedom Collaborative newsletter, Macher cited organizations in the Balkans that provide direct services to survivors and in Thailand where workers in shelters don’t have funds to pay for essentials like food, medical care and transportation. The work of Cambodia’s Chab Dai, a USAID-funded survivor support program, has been put on hold, affecting nine staff members and dozens of survivors, Freedom Collaborative said. The situation is especially dire for groups in Latin America, the newsletter said, including an organization in Ecuador that had to let go of 11 staff members working with migrants and trafficked individuals, and groups in Colombia that had to halt all their operations. Funding for this type of complex work — often done at great personal risk to local staff and victims — is already very difficult to secure. Often, the U.S. government would be the only donor willing to provide funds, Macher said. She stressed that the benefits of these programs reach far beyond the individuals receiving assistance. “It helps with global stability, and that is the larger argument,” she said. “The work helps reduce organized crime. And if there is no response or watching these crime groups, they can start expanding, and that is very scary because then it’s a ripple effect. It’s not just about the humanitarian aspect.” Stopping the work so suddenly has “a huge impact on actual human lives,” Macher said. Rubio told U.S. diplomats Wednesday that the United States does not plan to stop distributing foreign aid entirely, saying the agency needs to do a better job of explaining and defending where the money goes. “We’re going to continue to provide foreign aid and to be involved in programs, but it has to be programs that we can defend. It has to be programs that we can explain. It has to be programs that we can justify,” Rubio said to about 200 staffers at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City, according to a partial transcript of his remarks obtained Wednesday by CBS News. Rubio also noted that while foreign aid spending is not popular with the public, “for those of us in charge of doing the work of foreign policy, we understand it is essential.” Ed O’Keefe contributed to this report. Cara Tabachnick Cara Tabachnick is a news editor at CBSNews.com. Cara began her career on the crime beat at Newsday. She has written for Marie Claire, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. She reports on justice and human rights issues. Contact her at *****@*****.tld Source link #USAID #shutdown #ripples #grassroots #groups #worldwide #huge #impact #actual #human #lives Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]