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US Figure Skating Debuts Heartbreaking Tribute Video to 28 Athletes Lost in DC Plane ****** US Figure Skating Debuts Heartbreaking Tribute Video to 28 Athletes Lost in DC Plane ****** In the wake of Wednesday’s American Airlines ****** in Washington, D.C., U.S. Figure Skating launched a fund on Sunday to support the families of the many community members who died aboard the plane. On Monday, the org debuted a heartbreaking ******-and-white film tributing the 28 athletes lost in the accident. Samuel Auxier, the interim CEO of U.S. Figure Skating, announced the formation of the U.S. Figure Skating Family Support Fund on Sunday, which will support the families directly impacted by the tragedy. He also revealed a planned tribute with the Washington Capitals to raise additional funds. “During the coming days and months, there will be many tributes to honor the victims,” Auxier said. “Our partner skating clubs, many of whom lost athletes who graced their ice, will be holding tributes and moments of silence. Additionally, on March 2, we have partnered with the Washington Capitals to hold a tribute at Capital One Arena, with all proceeds going to the U.S. Figure Skating Family Support Fund.” He continued, “Those whom we lost dedicated their lives to perfecting the sport of figure skating, many with the goal of one day becoming Olympians. We will never forget them. May their passion and excellence inspire us and give us strength in the days ahead. For now, our hearts are heavy with sorrow, and we stand with their families and friends as we grieve this unspeakable loss.” It was confirmed shortly after the ****** that 28 members of the U.S. figure skating community were aboard the flight from Wichita, Kansas, to D.C. that collided with a ****** Hawk helicopter Wednesday. Watch the U.S. Figure Skating touching video tribute below: “Several members of our skating community were sadly aboard American Airlines Flight 5342, which collided with a helicopter yesterday evening in Washington, D.C. These athletes, coaches, and family members were returning home from the National Development Camp held in conjunction with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas,” U.S. Figure Skating shared Thursday. “We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts.” The figure skating members were among the 60 passengers and four crew on the AA flight and three crew on the helicopter involved in the tragedy. There were no reported survivors. The post US Figure Skating Debuts Heartbreaking Tribute Video to 28 Athletes Lost in DC Plane ****** appeared first on TheWrap. Source link #Figure #Skating #Debuts #Heartbreaking #Tribute #Video #Athletes #Lost #Plane #****** Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Asia markets set to climb Asia markets set to climb Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India, South Asia. Shoppers and stalls at Kinari bazaar. The Jama Masjid mosque in the background dates from 1648 Paul Panayiotou | Corbis Documentary | Getty Images Asia-Pacific markets were set to climb Tuesday after Donald Trump paused tariffs on Mexico for a month, while Canada also said the U.S. president had put on hold proposed tariffs on its exports. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 was set to open higher, with the futures contract in Chicago at 39,280 while its counterpart in Osaka last traded at 39,250, against the index’s last close of 38,520.09. Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 20,495 also pointing to a stronger open compared to the HSI’s close of 20,217.26. Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 started the day up 0.72%, after ending lower in the previous session. ******** markets remain closed for the Lunar New Year holiday. Overnight in the U.S., stocks traded down following Trump’s decision to pause on the tariffs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered from steep losses during. The 30-stock index was down 122.75 points, or 0.28%, to close at 44,421.91. At its lows of the day, the Dow was down 665.6 points, or 1.5%. The S&P 500 slid 0.76% to 5,994.57, while the Nasdaq Composite slumped 1.2% to 19,391.96. — CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to this report. Source link #Asia #markets #set #climb Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

US Figure Skating Debuts Heartbreaking Tribute Video to 28 Athletes Lost in DC Plane ****** – Yahoo! Voices US Figure Skating Debuts Heartbreaking Tribute Video to 28 Athletes Lost in DC Plane ****** – Yahoo! Voices US Figure Skating Debuts Heartbreaking Tribute Video to 28 Athletes Lost in DC Plane ****** Yahoo! VoicesPreliminary DC plane ****** flight data shows conflicting altitude readings: investigators Fox News Source link #Figure #Skating #Debuts #Heartbreaking #Tribute #Video #Athletes #Lost #Plane #****** #Yahoo #Voices Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

State Dept. Fires About 60 Contractors Working on Democracy and Human Rights State Dept. Fires About 60 Contractors Working on Democracy and Human Rights The State Department has fired about 60 contractors who work for its democracy, human rights and labor bureau, a division whose programs have often been criticized by authoritarian leaders, according to two U.S. officials and two former officials. The dismissals deal a severe blow to the bureau, because the contractors were mostly technical or area experts whom senior officials relied on to do the day-to-day work of enacting the programs overseas. The bureau has received about $150 million to $200 million of annual budget funding from Congress in recent years. But the bureau also handles and passes on money that Congress appropriates for other groups, including the National Endowment for Democracy. Besides the contractors, the bureau has about 200 full-time staff employees. They mainly work out of Washington, where the programs are run from the State Department’s headquarters. The bureau’s programs have often been focused on building up civil society and democratic practices in countries where the United States does not have missions and formal diplomatic ties, or where relations with an authoritarian government are especially tense. This includes Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba. President Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20 that has suspended any money or programs that can be deemed to be foreign aid or assistance. Some of the bureau’s contractors have specific technical expertise. For example, at least one is an expert on virtual private networks, software that allows users to get around government internet blocks. China has the most effective internet censorship program in the world, called the Great Firewall. The bureau has also worked on enacting policies aimed at pressuring China to relent on its forced labor of Uyghur Muslims, including the imposing of sanctions on U.S. companies that buy products that can be traced back to some form of forced labor. Some Republican politicians have criticized the bureau in recent years, saying its democracy-promotion programs often end up supporting political parties or groups abroad that are opposed to conservative or far-right political figures in those countries. However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has long been a champion of policies that advance human rights and promote democratic practices. In the Senate, where he represented Florida, Mr. Rubio was a lead sponsor of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which had broad support from both parties in Congress. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. signed it into law in December 2021. The State Department had no immediate comment when asked about the firings. Foreign leaders who have criticized the bureau include Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, who has tried to suppress democratic practices in his country over many years. Mr. Orban is a favorite politician of conservative and far-right groups and politicians in the United States. Last December, he met with Mr. Trump and Elon Musk, the billionaire technology businessman who advises the president, at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s home in Florida. The firing of the contractors is similar to the drastic steps taken in recent days by the Trump administration, and by Mr. Musk in particular, to sharply reduce the work force of the United States Agency for International Development. Last week, the administration placed 60 senior officials from the agency on paid leave and issued orders that led to the firing of hundreds of contractors. Since then, administration officials have fired dozens more employees or put them on paid leave. Karoun Demirjian contributed reporting. Source link #State #Dept #Fires #Contractors #Working #Democracy #Human #Rights Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Italian winger stars for Lazio in Cagliari road success Italian winger stars for Lazio in Cagliari road success Lazio have moved into fourth place in Serie A after a 2-1 win over lowly Cagliari. With the aid of a goal and an assist from Mattia Zaccagni on Monday night, Lazio extended their unbeaten league run against Cagliari to 20 games, their longest such run against any Serie A opponent. Lazio’s previous record was a 19-game unbeaten streak against Inter Milan from 1996 to 2005. Zaccagni put the visitors ahead with a clinical finish in the 41st minute after good work from Elseid Hysaj. Cagliari’s on-loan striker Roberto Piccoli levelled the scores with a header 10 minutes into the second half but Argentine striker Taty Castellanos restored Lazio’s lead nine minutes later. Lazio are two points above Juventus on the table while Cagliari remain fourth from bottom, one point above the relegation zone. Source link #Italian #winger #stars #Lazio #Cagliari #road #success Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Mark Cuban Suggests 20-Minute Daily Habit to ‘Destabilize’ Musk, Zuckerberg, and Even President Trump Mark Cuban Suggests 20-Minute Daily Habit to ‘Destabilize’ Musk, Zuckerberg, and Even President Trump Mark Cuban Suggests 20-Minute Daily Habit to ‘Destabilize’ Musk, Zuckerberg, and Even President Trump Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban has put forth an idea that could potentially shake up the dominance of tech giants in the social media space. Cuban shared his strategy on the social news network Bluesky. What Happened: Cuban’s proposition is straightforward: dedicate 20 minutes each day to encourage friends, family, and businesses to join Bluesky. The platform currently has 1.5 million daily users, significantly less than its competitor X, which boasts 18 million. Despite this, Cuban views Bluesky, a decentralized platform, as the “last, best chance” for the majority to reclaim power over social media. Don’t Miss: Since the November election, Cuban has been actively using Bluesky, gathering a following of 869,000. He has lauded the platform as a “less hateful world” compared to X. At the CES event in Las Vegas, Cuban urged the audience to join him on Bluesky, criticizing X for its content and lack of effective features. However, Cuban is not advocating for a complete shift from X, but rather the growth of Bluesky as a platform that can’t be monopolized by a few. He asserts that there’s no downside to creating a profile on Bluesky, particularly as the platform expands and the influence of other social media platforms begins to wane. In a post in the platform, Cuban said, “Is it worth 20 MINS a day to proactively recruit and bring your friends, neighbors, relatives, businesses, anyone who is or could be a user, to @bsky.app? If Bluesky ends up with more users than the others, you destabilize musk, zuck, trump.” Trending: According to Juniper Research, the total value of B2B cross-border payments stored on the blockchain is projected to exceed $4.4 trillion — Join the first company to bring blockchain payments to Salesforce early with just $100. Why It Matters: Cuban’s endorsement of Bluesky comes at a time when the power dynamics of social media are under scrutiny. His strategy could potentially disrupt the status quo, challenging the dominance of tech giants in the social media landscape. By advocating for a decentralized platform, Cuban is promoting a more democratic approach to social media, where power is not concentrated in the hands of a few. This could usher in a new era of social media, where users have more control over their online experiences. Story Continues Source link #Mark #Cuban #Suggests #20Minute #Daily #Habit #Destabilize #Musk #Zuckerberg #President #Trump Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Inside Musk’s Aggressive Incursion Into the Federal Government Inside Musk’s Aggressive Incursion Into the Federal Government In Elon Musk’s first two weeks in government, his lieutenants gained access to closely held financial and data systems, casting aside career officials who warned that they were defying protocols. They moved swiftly to shutter specific programs — and even an entire agency that had come into Mr. Musk’s cross hairs. They bombarded federal employees with messages suggesting they were lazy and encouraging them to leave their jobs. Empowered by President Trump, Mr. Musk is waging a largely unchecked war against the federal bureaucracy — one that has already had far-reaching consequences. Mr. Musk’s aggressive incursions into at least half a dozen government agencies have challenged congressional authority and potentially breached civil service protections. Top officials at the Treasury Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development who objected to the actions of his representatives were swiftly pushed aside. And Mr. Musk’s efforts to shut down U.S.A.I.D., a key source of foreign assistance, have reverberated around the globe. Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man, is sweeping through the federal government as a singular force, creating major upheaval as he looks to put an ideological stamp on the bureaucracy and rid the system of those who he and the president deride as “the deep state.” The rapid moves by Mr. Musk, who has a multitude of financial interests before the government, have represented an extraordinary flexing of power by a private individual. The speed and scale have shocked civil servants, who have been frantically exchanging information on encrypted chats, trying to discern what is unfolding. Senior White House staff members have at times also found themselves in the dark, according to two officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive discussions. One Trump official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said Mr. Musk was widely seen as operating with a level of autonomy that almost no one can control. Mr. Musk, the leader of SpaceX, Tesla and X, is working with a frantic, around-the-clock energy familiar to the employees at his various companies, flanked by a cadre of young engineers, drawn in part from Silicon Valley. He has moved beds into the headquarters of the federal personnel office a few blocks from the White House, according to a person familiar with the situation, so he and his staff, working late into the night, could sleep there, reprising a tactic he has deployed at Twitter and Tesla. This time, however, he carries the authority of the president, who has bristled at some of Mr. Musk’s ready-fire-aim impulses but has praised him publicly. “He’s a big cost-cutter,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Sunday. “Sometimes we won’t agree with it and we’ll not go where he wants to go. But I think he’s doing a great job. He’s a smart guy.” Mr. Musk, who leads a cost-cutting initiative the administration calls the Department of Government Efficiency, boasted on Saturday that his willingness to work weekends was a “superpower” that gave him an advantage over his adversary. The adversary he was referring to was the federal work force. “Very few in the bureaucracy actually work the weekend, so it’s like the opposing team just leaves the field for 2 days!” Mr. Musk posted on X. There is no precedent for a government official to have Mr. Musk’s scale of conflicts of interest, which include domestic holdings and foreign connections such as business relationships in China. And there is no precedent for someone who is not a full-time employee to have such ability to reshape the federal work force. The historian Douglas Brinkley described Mr. Musk as a “lone ranger” with limitless running room. He noted that the billionaire was operating “beyond scrutiny,” saying: “There is not one single entity holding Musk accountable. It’s a harbinger of the destruction of our basic institutions.” Several former and current senior government officials — even those who like what he is doing — expressed a sense of helplessness about how to handle Mr. Musk’s level of unaccountability. At one point after another, Trump officials have generally relented rather than try to slow him down. Some hoped Congress would choose to reassert itself. Mr. Trump himself sounded a notably cautionary note on Monday, telling reporters: “Elon can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval. And we’ll give him the approval where appropriate, where not appropriate, we won’t.” “If there’s a conflict,” he added, “then we won’t let him get near it.” However, the president has given Mr. Musk vast power over the bureaucracy that regulates his companies and awards them contracts. He is shaping not just policy but personnel decisions, including successfully pushing for Mr. Trump to pick Troy Meink as the Air Force secretary, according to three people with direct knowledge of his role. Mr. Meink previously ran the Pentagon’s National Reconnaissance Office, which helped Mr. Musk secure a multibillion-dollar contract for SpaceX to help build and deploy a spy satellite network for the federal government. Mr. Musk has also taken a keen interest in the federal government’s real estate portfolio, managed by the General Services Administration, moving to terminate leases. Internally, G.S.A. leaders have started to discuss eliminating as much as 50 percent of the agency’s budget, according to people familiar with the conversations. Perhaps most significant, Mr. Musk has sought to dismantle U.S.A.I.D., the government’s lead agency for humanitarian aid and development assistance. Mr. Trump has already frozen foreign aid spending, but Mr. Musk has gone further. “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” Mr. Musk gloated on X at 1:54 a.m. Monday. “Could gone to some great parties. Did that instead.” Mr. Musk’s allies now aim to inject artificial intelligence tools into government systems, using them to assess contracts and recommend cuts. On Monday, Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla engineer who has been tapped to lead a technology team at G.S.A., told some staff members that he hoped to put all federal contracts into a centralized system so they could be analyzed by artificial intelligence, three people familiar with the meeting said. Mr. Musk’s actions have astounded and alarmed Democrats and government watchdog groups. They question if Mr. Musk is breaching federal laws that give Congress the final power to create or eliminate federal agencies and set their budgets, require public disclosure of government actions and prohibit individuals from taking actions that might benefit themselves personally. At least four lawsuits have been filed in federal court to challenge his authority and the moves by the new administration, but it remains to be seen if judicial review can keep up with Mr. Musk. The New York Times spoke to more than three dozen current and former administration officials, federal employees and people close to Mr. Musk who described his expanding influence over the federal government. Few were willing to speak on the record, for fear of retribution. “Before Congress and the courts can respond, Elon Musk will have rolled up the whole government,” said one official who works inside an agency where representatives from Mr. Musk’s cost-cutting initiative have asserted control. Mr. Musk says he is making long overdue reforms. So far, his team has claimed to help save the federal government more than $1 billion a day through efforts like the cancellation of federal building leases and contracts related to diversity, equity and inclusion, although they have provided few specifics. Controlling the Pipes Workers in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which housed some operations for the United States Digital Service, arrived the day after Mr. Trump’s inauguration to find a sticky note with “DOGE” on a door to a suite once used as a work space for senior technologists at the agency. It was one of the first signs that Mr. Musk’s team had arrived. Inside, ****** backpacks were strewed about, and unfamiliar young men roamed the halls without the security badges that federal employees typically carried to enter their offices. The quick takeover was similar to the playbook Mr. Musk has used in the private sector, where he has been a ruthless cost cutter, subscribing to the philosophy that it is better to cut too deeply and fix any problems that arise later. He routinely pushes his employees to ignore regulations they consider “dumb.” And he is known for taking extreme risks, pushing both Tesla and SpaceX to the brink of bankruptcy before rescuing them. In his current role, Mr. Musk has a direct line to Mr. Trump and operates with little if any accountability or oversight, according to people familiar with the dynamic. He often enters the White House through a side entrance, and drops into meetings. He has a close working relationship with Mr. Trump’s top policy adviser, Stephen Miller, who shares Mr. Musk’s contempt for much of the federal work force. At one point, Mr. Musk sought to sleep over in the White House residence. He sought and was granted an office in the West Wing but told people that it was too small. Since then, he has told friends he is reveling in the trappings of the opulent Secretary of War Suite in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where he has worked some days. His team is staffed heavily by engineers — at least one as young as 19 — who have worked at his companies like X or SpaceX, but have little if any experience in government policy and are seeking security clearances. Officially, Mr. Musk is serving as a special government employee, according to the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. This is a status typically given to part-time, outside advisers to the federal government who offer advice based on private sector expertise. The White House declined to say if Mr. Musk had been granted a waiver that allowed him to get involved in agencies whose actions could affect his own personal interests. And even if he had been given such a waiver, four former White House ethics lawyers said they could not envision how it could be structured to appropriately cover the range of the work Mr. Musk is overseeing. In a statement, Ms. Leavitt said that “Elon Musk is selflessly serving President Trump’s administration as a special government employee, and he has abided by all applicable federal laws.” Mr. Musk has told Trump administration officials that to fulfill their mission of radically reducing the size of the federal government, they need to gain access to the computers — the systems that house the data and the details of government personnel, and the pipes that distribute money on behalf of the federal government. Mr. Musk has been thinking radically about ways to sharply reduce federal spending for the entire presidential transition. After canvassing budget experts, he eventually became fixated on a critical part of the country’s infrastructure: the Treasury Department payment system that disburses trillions of dollars a year on behalf of the federal government. Mr. Musk has told administration officials that he thinks they could balance the budget if they eliminate the fraudulent payments leaving the system, according to an official who discussed the matter with him. It is unclear what he is basing that statement on. The federal deficit for 2024 was $1.8 trillion. The Government Accountability Office estimated in a report that the government made $236 billion in improper payments — three-quarters of which were overpayments — across 71 federal programs during the 2023 fiscal year. The push by Mr. Musk into the Treasury Department led to a months-in-the-making standoff last week when a top career official, David Lebryk, resisted giving representatives from the cost-cutting effort access to the federal payment system. Mr. Lebryk was threatened with administrative leave and then retired. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent subsequently approved access for the Musk team, as The Times previously reported. The Treasury Department’s proprietary system for paying the nation’s financial obligations is an operation traditionally run by a small group of career civil servants with deep technical expertise. The prospect of an intrusion into that system by outsiders such as Mr. Musk and his team has raised alarm among current and former Treasury officials that a mishap could lead to critical government obligations going unpaid, with consequences ranging from missed benefits payments to a federal default. Ms. Leavitt said the access they were granted so far was “read only,” meaning the staff members could not alter payments. Democrats on Monday said they would introduce legislation to try to bar Mr. Musk’s deputies from entering the Treasury system. “The Treasury secretary must revoke DOGE’s access to the Treasury payment system at once,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the ********* leader. “If he does not, Congress must act immediately.” Another key pipeline is the government’s personnel database, run out of the Office of Personnel Management, where Mr. Musk has quickly asserted his influence. At least five people who have worked for Mr. Musk in some capacity now have key roles in the office, according to people familiar with their roles. Last week, the personnel agency sent an email to roughly two million federal workers offering them the option to resign but be paid through the end of September. The email’s subject line, “Fork in the Road,” was the same one that Mr. Musk used in an email he sent to Twitter employees offering them severance packages in late 2022. Since then, Mr. Musk has promoted the offer on social media and called it “very generous.” Mr. Musk is also studying the workings of the G.S.A., which manages federal properties. During a visit to the agency last week, accompanied by his young son, whom Mr. Musk named “X Æ A-12,” and a nanny, he spoke with the agency’s new acting administrator, Stephen Ehikian. After the meeting, officials discussed a plan to eliminate 50 percent of expenditures, according to people familiar with the discussions. And Mr. Ehikian told staff members in a separate meeting that he wanted them to apply a technique called “zero based budgeting,” an approach that Mr. Musk deployed during his Twitter takeover and at his other companies. The idea is to reduce spending of a program or contract to zero, and then argue to restore any necessary dollars. Inflicting Trauma Russell T. Vought, who served in Mr. Trump’s first administration and is his choice again to lead the Office of Management and Budget, has spoken openly about the Trump team’s plans for dismantling civil service. “We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” Mr. Vought said in a 2023 speech. “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains.” Mr. Musk, who pushed Mr. Vought for the budget office role, for which he is awaiting Senate confirmation, has echoed that rhetoric, portraying career civil servants and the agencies they work for as enemies. U.S.A.I.D., which oversees civilian foreign aid, is “evil,” Mr. Musk wrote in numerous posts on Sunday, while “career Treasury officials are breaking the law every hour of every day,” he said in another post. Mr. Musk used the same tactic during his 2022 takeover of Twitter, in which he depicted the company’s previous management as malicious and many of its workers as inept and oppositional to his goals. In firing Twitter executives “for cause” and withholding their exit packages, Mr. Musk accused some of them of corruption and attacked them personally in public posts. The tactics by Mr. Musk and his team have kept civil servants unbalanced, fearful of speaking out and uncertain of their futures and their livelihoods. On Jan. 27, members of the team entered the headquarters and nearby annex of the aid agency in the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown Washington, U.S. officials said. The team demanded and was granted access to the agency’s financial and personnel systems, according to two U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the activity and the agency’s inner workings. During this *******, an acting administrator at the agency put about 60 senior officials on paid leave and issued stop-work orders that led to the firing of hundreds of contractors with full-time employment and health benefits. By Saturday, the agency’s website vanished. And when the two top security directors tried to stop members of the team from entering a secure area that day to get classified files, they were placed on administrative leave. Katie Miller, a member of the Musk initiative, said on X that “no classified material was accessed without proper security clearances.” By Monday, U.S.A.I.D. was effectively paralyzed. In a live broadcast on his social media platform early Monday, Mr. Musk said the president agreed “that we should shut it down.” A Culture of Secrecy Mr. Musk’s team has prioritized secrecy, sharing little outside the roughly 40 people who, as of Inauguration Day, had been working for as part of the effort. The billionaire has reposted messages accusing people of trying to “dox,” or publish private information about, his aides when their names have been made public, claiming it is a “crime” to do so. The opacity has added to the anxiety within the civil service. A number of the employees across the government said they had been interviewed by representatives of Mr. Musk who had declined to share their surnames. Mr. Musk’s aides have declined to answer questions themselves, consistently describing the sessions as “one-way interviews.” Some workers who sat for interviews were asked what projects they were working on and who should be fired from the agency, people familiar with the conversations said. “My impression was not one of support or genuine understanding but of suspicion, and questioning,” one General Services Administration employee wrote in an internal Slack message to colleagues, describing the interview process. Some of the young workers on Mr. Musk’s team share a similar uniform: blazers worn over T-shirts. At the G.S.A., some staff members began calling the team “the Bobs,” a reference to management consultant characters from the dark comedy movie “Office Space” who are responsible for layoffs. Many of Mr. Musk’s lieutenants are working on multiple projects at different agencies simultaneously, using different email addresses and showing up at different offices. One example is Luke Farritor, a 23-year-old former SpaceX intern, who was among the workers given access to U.S.A.I.D. systems, according to people familiar with his role. He is also listed as an “executive engineer” in the office of the secretary of health and human services, and had an email account at the G.S.A., records show. Mr. Farritor did not respond to requests for comment. Mr. Musk’s aides, including Mr. Farritor, have requested access to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services systems that control contracts and the more than $1 trillion in payments that go out annually, according to a document seen by The Times. The team reports to a longtime Musk adviser, Steve Davis, who helped lead cost-cutting efforts at X and SpaceX, and has himself amassed extraordinary power across federal agencies. In private conversations, Mr. Musk has told friends that he considers the ultimate metric for his success to be the number of dollars saved per day, and he is sorting ideas based on that ranking. “The more I have gotten to know President Trump, the more I like him. Frankly, I love the guy,” Mr. Musk said in a live audio conversation on X early Monday morning. “This is our shot. This is the best hand of cards we’re ever going to have.” Reporting was contributed by Erica L. Green, Alan Rappeport, Andrew Duehren, Eric Lipton, Charlie Savage, Edward Wong, Sarah Kliff and Karoun Demirjian. Source link #Musks #Aggressive #Incursion #Federal #Government Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

State Farm Seeks Emergency California Rate Hike After LA Fires – Bloomberg State Farm Seeks Emergency California Rate Hike After LA Fires – Bloomberg State Farm Seeks Emergency California Rate Hike After LA Fires BloombergState Farm Seeks an Urgent Increase in California Rates After Fires The New York TimesState Farm asks for emergency 22% increase for California premiums, but critics cry foul USA TODAY Source link #State #Farm #Seeks #Emergency #California #Rate #Hike #Fires #Bloomberg Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

*********** share market rebound on trade war pause between US, Canada and Mexico *********** share market rebound on trade war pause between US, Canada and Mexico Massive losses on the *********** stock market on Monday have started to unwind after trade tensions between the US and its neighbours eased overnight. President Donald Trump has agreed to hold off the start of punishing 25 per cent tariffs on all imports from Canada and Mexico after striking deals with the leaders of both countries to shore up security along the US borders. A 10 per cent tariff on good from China remains in place. Wall Street trimmed an early 2 per cent loss as news of the deal with ********* Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and ******** President Claudia Sheinbaum broke. The claw-back buoyed Aussie investors, who ran the ASX200 up 0.7 per cent after the first 30 minutes of trade in Tuesday after a 1.8 per cent rout in the previous session. All sectors were back in the green, led by utilities, miners, real estate, financial and health care stocks. More to come Source link #*********** #share #market #rebound #trade #war #pause #Canada #Mexico Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Joe Biden Signs With CAA Joe Biden Signs With CAA Former President Joe Biden has signed with Creative Artists Agency (CAA), the agency announced on Monday. President Biden was previously represented by CAA from 2017 to 2020 following his eight-year term as the 47th Vice President of the United States. While a CAA client from 2017 to 2020, President Biden published his #1 New York Times bestselling memoir, “Promise Me, Dad,” launched the 42-date “American Promise” tour, which sold more than 85,000 tickets nationwide, and headlined numerous speaking engagements. “President Biden is one of America’s most respected and influential voices in national and global affairs,” said Richard Lovett, Co-Chairman of CAA. “His lifelong commitment to public service is one of unity, optimism, dignity, and possibility. We are profoundly honored to partner with him again.” In his final hours as president, Joe Biden issued preemptive pardons for Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the capitol, and his own family in a sweeping move meant to guard against revenge from incoming president Donald Trump. As Biden entered Trump’s inauguration, news broke that he had pardoned his brothers, sister and their spouses — James B. Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owen, John T. Owens and Francis W. Biden. “My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me—the worst kind of partisan politics. Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end,” Biden said of the surprising move, which runs counter to Biden’s stance on preemptive pardons when he first took office. The post Joe Biden Signs With CAA appeared first on TheWrap. Source link #Joe #Biden #Signs #CAA Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

How DeepSeek’s new AI models are impacting the profits of global companies How DeepSeek’s new AI models are impacting the profits of global companies China’s DeepSeek shook global stock markets after revealing that it had built a powerful artificial intelligence model for a mere $6 million. While some have disputed the shockingly low cost of developing the AI models, most agree that DeepSeek has sharply cut the on-going cost of running powerful AI models and that the firm’s decision to release its technology for free has altered the course of the industry. CNBC Pro spoke to companies around the world on how DeepSeek’s new AI models are set to impact their operations and financials. Roadzen , a Nasdaq-listed company, is attempting to disrupt the auto insurance sector with artificial intelligence. The company’s AI service helps its insurance underwriting clients to cut the time taken to resolve 80% of minor accident claims from six weeks to two minutes, according to its chief executive Rohan Malhotra. The sensitive nature of processing insurance claims, alongside the potential for incorrectly predicting large costs for insurance clients, means the company has previously limited itself to a handful of sophisticated AI models that produce accurate results — such as those produced by OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta . That was until DeepSeek released its R1 model. “Our clients cannot afford a model which has 60%-70% accuracy, that’s like a major economic issue,” said Malhotra. “We need to deploy models that have 95%-99% accuracy.” DeepSeek’s discount Malhotra, who graduated with a master’s degree in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, said DeepSeek-R1 output quality is on par with OpenAI’s o1 — its best large language model — while also offering other benefits that are significant to his company, including costs. For instance, Roadzen processed 607,577 insurance claims for the three months ending September 2024. Each claim consumes roughly 4,000 tokens, according to the company. A token is the smallest unit of data fed to an AI model. About 750 words converts to 1,000 tokens. The AI firm would have incurred a cost of $36,455 over the quarter using OpenAI’s latest large language model o1, according to CNBC calculations using publicly available pricing. That means on average, the company spent 6 cents per claim on AI costs. However, using DeepSeek-R1, the quarterly cost of $17,012, calculated using prices from AI model hosting firm Together.ai, would amount to 3 cents per claim, or 50% lower than costs incurred with OpenAI’s models. Roadzen revealed that the firm incurs additional costs when fine-tuning or training an AI model on a per-policy basis, which would have amounted to $21,185 using the OpenAI o1 model, or $10,593 on DeepSeek’s R1. In addition, it also faces additional costs to run its proprietary AI models that are used to estimate the cost of claims, detect vehicle damage over video and for fraud prevention among other uses that are not covered by commercially available models. “What we really care about is the cost of inference. We care about the accuracy of the outputs. And we care about whether this model is performing to the certain benchmarks that we’ve set, in a good way,” Malhotra added. The open-source innovation Others have told CNBC that alongside the lower costs, DeepSeek’s landmark decision to open source its reasoning model makes it more attractive compared to existing open-source models like Meta Platforms’ Llama. Arli Charles Mujkic, CEO and founder of Swedish AI platform Ooda AI, told CNBC his company integrated DeepSeek’s technology into its AI offering “the same day it was out.” The company runs a digital store that offers customers a choice of AI models, allowing them to choose the best app for a specific job. Ooda AI has various revenue sources within the business: it sells pay-per-month subscriptions to AI apps on its store, allows customers to pay a base fee for AI programs and usage tokens, and also offers fixed-term contracts to its enterprise clients. Mujkic said his opinion of DeepSeek’s v3 large language model — the technology that underpins its products — is that it’s up to 20% “better” than Meta’s Llama 3.3, which he labeled “the best open source model we’d been running up until this point.” Ooda AI, which boasts one of Germany’s largest health insurance firms as a clients, said it costs roughly 1.875 U.S. cents per customer support issue, or $18,750 per million, to be resolved using open-source AI models. However, the same tasks are likely to be 32% cheaper when executed on DeepSeek’s AI models, according to the company. The company, whose Stockholm-listed shares have gained more than 1,400% over the past year, is expecting DeepSeek’s AI models to lower its costs — and ultimately boost its revenues. G7H0-FF 1Y line “It’s 35% cheaper [than models like Llama], which means ultimately, for us — without changing any pricing, say on the enterprise side — we start making 35% more money,” he told CNBC. “But also for our customers, who are paying for AI compute, for example, it becomes 35% cheaper as well, because that goes in parallel with the pricing for token users.” DeepSeek’s R1 reasoning model is also “on par” with OpenAI’s o1, Mujkic argued, while running as much as 80% cheaper. “This is the kind of paradigm shift that’s happening now,” he said. Neal K. Shah, CEO of North Carolina-based eldercare platform CareYaya, also told CNBC his company — which has started using AI to help customers fight health insurance claims denials — was excited about DeepSeek. “DeepSeek just lowered our costs by 90% so we can help more people,” he said in a message. “The average cost to appeal a U.S. health insurance claims denial is $43.84. We had used OpenAI and Anthropic to get the cost down to 12 cents — now we’re doing it with DeepSeek on the back end, the cost per appeal is 2 cents.” Asked if DeepSeek would boost CareYaya’s bottom line, Shah’s immediate response was “yes.” “It’s a ridiculous step function in lowering costs,” he explained. “We’ll pass along a lot of the savings to the consumer, so it’ll let us serve more people.” AI’s negligible costs Despite the cost of AI falling substantially over the past two years, companies do not expect the cost of rendering AI services to end users to fall at the same rate. Roadzen’s Malhotra suggested that AI costs are a tiny fraction of the roughly $150 per claim it charges its insurance clients in Western markets. The bulk of its costs are spent on research and development and connecting legacy systems at large enterprises with its AI systems. However, he expects lower AI costs in the future could enable automation in emerging markets, where labor costs are still competitive with AI systems today. “As a global company, the $150 may be a price for a highly developed market. When we lower the inferencing cost enough, we can now deploy it globally,” Malhotra added. Source link #DeepSeeks #models #impacting #profits #global #companies Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

DHS Terminates the 2023 Designation of Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status – USCIS DHS Terminates the 2023 Designation of Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status – USCIS DHS Terminates the 2023 Designation of Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status USCISTrump Administration Moves to End Protections for Venezuelans in the U.S. The New York TimesVenezuelans fight back against TPS termination, battling for right to stay in the U.S. Miami HeraldTrump administration ends temporary deportation protection for 350,000 Venezuelans The Associated PressDHS to end temporary protection for approximately 350,000 Venezuelans The Washington Post Source link #DHS #Terminates #Designation #Venezuela #Temporary #Protected #Status #USCIS Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Four rescued from Dungannon house fire Four rescued from Dungannon house fire Four people have been rescued form a house fire in Dungannon, in County Tyrone, by police officers. Several PSNI officers have also been treated for smoke inhalation. The Northern Ireland Fire Service (NIFRS) were called to the incident in Cunninghams Lane on Monday night. As fire crews arrived the people had been led to safety from the property by police. Crews wearing breathing apparatus and using firefighting jets, extinguished a fire at the property and rendered first aid. The people were left in the care of Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS). Crews wearing breathing apparatus and using firefighting jets, extinguished a fire at the property and rendered first aid. The four people were left in the care of NIAS. Cunninghams Lane had been closed by has now reopened Source link #rescued #Dungannon #house #fire Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Trump makes Musk a 'special government employee' Trump makes Musk a 'special government employee' US President Donald Trump says there are limits to what Elon Musk can do as a “special government employee”. Source link #Trump #Musk #039special #government #employee039 Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

How DeepSeek’s new AI models are impacting the profits of global companies How DeepSeek’s new AI models are impacting the profits of global companies China’s DeepSeek shook global stock markets after revealing that it had built a powerful artificial intelligence model for a mere $6 million. While some have disputed the shockingly low cost of developing the AI models, most agree that DeepSeek has sharply cut the on-going cost of running powerful AI models and that the firm’s decision to release its technology for free has altered the course of the industry. CNBC Pro spoke to companies around the world on how DeepSeek’s new AI models are set to impact their operations and financials. Roadzen , a Nasdaq-listed company, is attempting to disrupt the auto insurance sector with artificial intelligence. The company’s AI service helps its insurance underwriting clients to cut the time taken to resolve 80% of minor accident claims from six weeks to two minutes, according to its chief executive Rohan Malhotra. The sensitive nature of processing insurance claims, alongside the potential for incorrectly predicting large costs for insurance clients, means the company has previously limited itself to a handful of sophisticated AI models that produce accurate results — such as those produced by OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta . That was until DeepSeek released its R1 model. “Our clients cannot afford a model which has 60%-70% accuracy, that’s like a major economic issue,” said Malhotra. “We need to deploy models that have 95%-99% accuracy.” DeepSeek’s discount Malhotra, who graduated with a master’s degree in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, said DeepSeek-R1 output quality is on par with OpenAI’s o1 — its best large language model — while also offering other benefits that are significant to his company, including costs. For instance, Roadzen processed 607,577 insurance claims for the three months ending September 2024. Each claim consumes roughly 4,000 tokens, according to the company. A token is the smallest unit of data fed to an AI model. About 750 words converts to 1,000 tokens. The AI firm would have incurred a cost of $36,455 over the quarter using OpenAI’s latest large language model o1, according to CNBC calculations using publicly available pricing. That means on average, the company spent 6 cents per claim on AI costs. However, using DeepSeek-R1, the quarterly cost of $17,012, calculated using prices from AI model hosting firm Together.ai, would amount to 3 cents per claim, or 50% lower than costs incurred with OpenAI’s models. Roadzen revealed that the firm incurs additional costs when fine-tuning or training an AI model on a per-policy basis, which would have amounted to $21,185 using the OpenAI o1 model, or $10,593 on DeepSeek’s R1. In addition, it also faces additional costs to run its proprietary AI models that are used to estimate the cost of claims, detect vehicle damage over video and for fraud prevention among other uses that are not covered by commercially available models. “What we really care about is the cost of inference. We care about the accuracy of the outputs. And we care about whether this model is performing to the certain benchmarks that we’ve set, in a good way,” Malhotra added. The open-source innovation Others have told CNBC that alongside the lower costs, DeepSeek’s landmark decision to open source its reasoning model makes it more attractive compared to existing open-source models like Meta Platforms’ Llama. Arli Charles Mujkic, CEO and founder of Swedish AI platform Ooda AI, told CNBC his company integrated DeepSeek’s technology into its AI offering “the same day it was out.” The company runs a digital store that offers customers a choice of AI models, allowing them to choose the best app for a specific job. Ooda AI has various revenue sources within the business: it sells pay-per-month subscriptions to AI apps on its store, allows customers to pay a base fee for AI programs and usage tokens, and also offers fixed-term contracts to its enterprise clients. Mujkic said his opinion of DeepSeek’s v3 large language model — the technology that underpins its products — is that it’s up to 20% “better” than Meta’s Llama 3.3, which he labeled “the best open source model we’d been running up until this point.” Ooda AI, which boasts one of Germany’s largest health insurance firms as a clients, said it costs roughly 1.875 U.S. cents per customer support issue, or $18,750 per million, to be resolved using open-source AI models. However, the same tasks are likely to be 32% cheaper when executed on DeepSeek’s AI models, according to the company. The company, whose Stockholm-listed shares have gained more than 1,400% over the past year, is expecting DeepSeek’s AI models to lower its costs — and ultimately boost its revenues. G7H0-FF 1Y line “It’s 35% cheaper [than models like Llama], which means ultimately, for us — without changing any pricing, say on the enterprise side — we start making 35% more money,” he told CNBC. “But also for our customers, who are paying for AI compute, for example, it becomes 35% cheaper as well, because that goes in parallel with the pricing for token users.” DeepSeek’s R1 reasoning model is also “on par” with OpenAI’s o1, Mujkic argued, while running as much as 80% cheaper. “This is the kind of paradigm shift that’s happening now,” he said. Neal K. Shah, CEO of North Carolina-based eldercare platform CareYaya, also told CNBC his company — which has started using AI to help customers fight health insurance claims denials — was excited about DeepSeek. “DeepSeek just lowered our costs by 90% so we can help more people,” he said in a message. “The average cost to appeal a U.S. health insurance claims denial is $43.84. We had used OpenAI and Anthropic to get the cost down to 12 cents — now we’re doing it with DeepSeek on the back end, the cost per appeal is 2 cents.” Asked if DeepSeek would boost CareYaya’s bottom line, Shah’s immediate response was “yes.” “It’s a ridiculous step function in lowering costs,” he explained. “We’ll pass along a lot of the savings to the consumer, so it’ll let us serve more people.” AI’s negligible costs Despite the cost of AI falling substantially over the past two years, companies do not expect the cost of rendering AI services to end users to fall at the same rate. Roadzen’s Malhotra suggested that AI costs are a tiny fraction of the roughly $150 per claim it charges its insurance clients in Western markets. The bulk of its costs are spent on research and development and connecting legacy systems at large enterprises with its AI systems. However, he expects lower AI costs in the future could enable automation in emerging markets, where labor costs are still competitive with AI systems today. “As a global company, the $150 may be a price for a highly developed market. When we lower the inferencing cost enough, we can now deploy it globally,” Malhotra added. Source link #DeepSeeks #models #impacting #profits #global #companies Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Target is sued for defrauding shareholders about DEI Target is sued for defrauding shareholders about DEI By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) – Target has been sued for allegedly concealing the risks of its diversity and social initiatives, leading to a backlash that caused customers to flee and the stock price of the Minneapolis-based retailer to plummet. In a proposed class action on Friday, shareholders led by the City of Riviera Beach Police Pension Fund in Florida said Target defrauded them into paying inflated prices for its stock and unknowingly supporting management’s “misuse of investor funds to serve political and social goals.” The lawsuit said the retailer, CEO Brian Cornell and other officials failed to disclose the risk of consumer boycotts stemming from Target’s Environmental, Social and Governance and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives. It also said Target concealed backlash from its May 2023 Pride Month campaign, which led the retailer to remove some LGBTQ-themed merchandise after in-store confrontations led some employees to fear for their safety. Target’s share price fell 22% on Nov. 20, 2024, wiping out about $15.7 billion of market value, after it forecast disappointing profit and holiday sales. Shareholders said Target’s underperformance stood “in stark contrast” to results at rival Walmart, and reflected “continued backlash from its campaigns.” Target did not immediately respond on Monday to requests for comment. The lawsuit in the Fort Myers, Florida federal court seeks damages for Target shareholders from Aug. 26, 2022 to Nov. 19, 2024. It was filed after Target said on Jan. 24 it would end DEI initiatives this year, including a program to support ******-owned businesses that it adopted following the 2020 ******* of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Target joined Walmart, Amazon.com and some other prominent companies to scale back such initiatives, which have been attacked by many conservatives including U.S. President Donald Trump. The case is City of Riviera Beach Police Pension Fund v Target Corp et al, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida, No. 25-00085. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Marguerita Choy) Source link #Target #sued #defrauding #shareholders #DEI Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Trump sows uncertainty – and Xi Jinping sees an opportunity Trump sows uncertainty – and Xi Jinping sees an opportunity Laura Bicker China correspondent Reuters Donald Trump and Xi Jinping met in 2019 If China is angry at the United States for imposing an extra 10% tariff on all ******** goods, it is doing a good job of hiding it. Both Canada and Mexico have vowed to retaliate and already ********* Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said his country “will not back down” as he announced a 25% levy on more than $100bn (£81bn) of American goods. US President Donald Trump has agreed to temporarily pause tarrifs of 25% on goods imported from both countries after reaching separate agreements with each of their leaders. Beijing, however, has held its fire – for now. In 2018, when Trump launched the first of many rounds of tariffs targeting ******** imports, Beijing declared that it was “not afraid of a trade war”. This time, it urged the US to talk and “meet China halfway”. This isn’t to say that the announcement will not sting. It will, especially because the 10% levy adds to a slew of tariffs he imposed in his first term on tens of billions of dollars of goods. And the ******** government’s muted response is partly because it doesn’t want to worry its population, when many are already concerned about the sluggish economy. But that economy is not as reliant on the US as it was back then. Beijing has strengthened its trade agreements across Africa, South America and South East Asia. It is now the largest trading partner of more than 120 countries. The additional 10% may not offer the leverage that Trump wants, says Chong Ja Ian from Carnegie China. “China will think that it can probably endure 10% – hence, I think Beijing is playing it cool. Because if it’s not that big a deal, there’s no reason to pick a fight with the Trump administration unless there’s a real benefit to Beijing.” Xi’s ‘win-win’ as America retreats President Xi Jinping may also have another reason: he may see an opportunity here. Trump is sowing division in his own backyard, threatening to hit even the European Union (EU) with tariffs – all in his first week. His actions may have other US allies wondering what is in store for them. In contrast, China will want to appear a calm, stable and perhaps more attractive global trade partner. “Trump’s America-first policy will bring challenges and threats to almost all countries in the world,” says Yun Sun, director of the China programme at the Stimson Centre. “From the perspective of US-China strategic competition, a deterioration of US leadership and credibility will benefit China. it is unlikely to turn well for China on the bilateral level, but Beijing surely will try to make lemonade…” Xiqing Wang/ BBC Cambodia has become a major importer of ******** raw materials – and a destination for ******** businesses seeking to skirt US tariffs As a leader of the world’s second-largest economy, Xi has made no secret of his ambition for China to lead an alternative world order. Since the end of the Covid pandemic, he has travelled extensively, and he has supported major international institutions such as the World Bank and agreements such as the Paris climate accords. ******** state media has portrayed this as embracing countries across the world and deepening diplomatic ties. Before that, when Trump halted US funding to the WHO in 2020, China pledged additional funds. Expectations are high that Beijing may step in to fill America’s shoes again, following Washington’s exit from the WHO. The same applies for the aid freeze that is causing such chaos in countries and organisations that have long depended on US funding – China may wish to fill the gap, despite an economic downturn. On his first day back in office, Trump froze all foreign assistance provided by the US, which is by far the world’s biggest aid donor. Hundreds of foreign aid programmes delivered by USAID ground to a halt. Some have since restarted, but aid contractors describe ongoing chaos as the future of the agency hangs in the balance. John Delury, a historian of modern China and Professor at Yonsei University in Seoul, says Trump’s ‘America First’ doctrine could further weaken Washington’s position as a global leader. “The combination of tariffs on major trade partners and freezing of foreign assistance sends a message to the Global South and OECD alike that the US is not interested in international partnership, collaboration,” he tells the BBC. “President Xi’s consistent message of ‘win-win’ globalisation takes on a whole new meaning as America retreats from the world.” In its bid for global governance, Beijing has been looking for a chance to upend the the American-led world order of the last 50 years – and the uncertainty of Trump 2.0 may well be it. New alliances “Whether it really confers Beijing a key advantage – of that I’m a little less sure,” Mr Chong says. “Many US allies and partners, especially in the Pacific, have a reason to work with Beijing, but they also have reasons to be wary. That’s why we’ve seen Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Australia move closer together, in part because of the apprehensions they harbour towards China.” There is “gathering momentum” for a possible trilateral relationship among Australia, Japan and South Korea, motivated by “the impact of a second Trump administration”, according to The *********** Institute of International Affairs. National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea Tensions in the South China Sea mean some of China’s neighbours are already wary All three are concerned about China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea, along with the Philippines. They are also worried about a possible war over the self-governed island of Taiwan – Beijing sees it as a breakaway province that will, eventually, be part of the country, and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve this. Taiwan has long been one of the most contentious issues in US-China relations, with Beijing condemning any perceived support from Washington for Taipei. But it may be difficult for Washington to hit back at signs of ******** aggression when Trump repeatedly threatens to annex Canada or buy Greenland. Most countries in the region have used a military alliance with Washington to balance their economic relationship with China. But now, wary of Beijing and usure of the US, they could create new Asian alliances, with neither of the world’s biggest powers. Calm before the storm Trump announced the tariffs on the weekend, as ******** families were celebrating the New Year and inviting the God of Fortune into their homes. Bright red lanterns currently swing over empty Beijing streets as most workers have left for their hometowns during the biggest holiday of the year. China’s response has been far more muted than Canada or Mexico’s. The commerce ministry announced plans to take legal action and use the World Trade Organisation to air its grievances. But this poses little threat to Washington. The WTO’s dispute settlement system has been effectively shut down since 2019 when Donald Trump – in his first term then – blocked the appointment of judges to handle appeals. As the holiday draws to a close and party officials return to Beijing and to work – they have decisions to make. Officials have been encouraged in recent weeks by signs that the Trump administration may want to keep the relationship stable especially after the two leaders had what Mr Trump called “a great phone call” last month. For now, China is remaining calm perhaps in the hope of a doing a deal with Washington to avoid further tariffs and to keep the relationship between the world’s two largest economies from spiralling out of control. But some believe this cannot last as both Republicans and Democrats have come to view China as the country’s biggest foreign policy and economic threat. “Mr Trump’s unpredictability, his impulsiveness and recklessness will inevitably lead to significant shocks in the bilateral relationship,” says Wu Xinbo, professor and director at the Centre for American Studies at Fudan University. “Additionally, his team contains quite a few hawks, even extreme hawks on China. It is unavoidable that the bilateral relationship will face serious disruption over the next four years.” China is certainly concerned about its relationship with the US and the harm a trade war could do to its slowing economy. But it will also be looking for ways to use the current political pendulum to swing the international community its way and within its sphere of influence. Source link #Trump #sows #uncertainty #Jinping #sees #opportunity Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

One-third of Aussies expected to take part in largest Oz Lotto jackpot One-third of Aussies expected to take part in largest Oz Lotto jackpot Thousands of Australians are expected to take part in Oz Lotto’s largest jackpot after the winning prize ballooned to $100m, the largest in the game’s history. Source link #Onethird #Aussies #expected #part #largest #Lotto #jackpot Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

State Farm seeks emergency rate increase averaging 22% after L.A. fires State Farm seeks emergency rate increase averaging 22% after L.A. fires Wind whipped embers fly over a home on Vinedo Avenue during the Eaton fire on January 7 in Altadena. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times) State Farm General, California’s largest home insurer, asked state officials for an emergency rate hike averaging 22% Monday, saying the Los Angeles County fires have put the company in dire financial straits. The insurer, a subsidiary of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. of Bloomington, Ill., said the company has already received at least 8,700 claims and paid more than $1 billion to customers. It expects to pay out “significantly more,” with the fires being the costliest natural disasters in its history. “As the insurance commissioner, you can have a very significant impact on [State Farm General’s] ability to continue operating in California by immediately approving the requested interim rate changes,” the company said in a letter to state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara. The company is also asking for rate hikes of 38% for rental dwellings and 15% for tenants, with the rates taking effect May 1. State Farm said the latest request is necessary to rebuild the company’s capital base so it will not have to “further constrain” the company’s ability to provide home insurance in the state. Insurance industry ratings agencies have said they expected premium increases due to the fires. Read more: First, they lost their home insurance. Then, L.A. fires consumed their homes The California insurer said it has lost $2.8 billion over the nine-year ******* ending last year, including gains from investment income. It also noted State Farm General’s financial rating was downgraded last year by AM Best. The company said it will access reinsurance it acquired from its parent to pay claims from the Los Angeles-area fires. State Farm General, which had about a 20% share of the homeowners insurance market in 2023, insures about 1 million homeowners in the state and has 1.8 million other policies in force. The proposed rate hike is likely to be controversial. In June, the company filed for a 30% rate increase for its homeowners polices, a 36% increase for condo owners and a 52% increase for renters. That request took state officials by surprise, with Lara saying it raised “serious questions about its financial condition.” That rate hike request is still pending. State Farm said it is prepared to issue refunds for customers who pay the interim emergency rates if the department approves lower increases for the rate hikes it sought last year. The company previously received a 6.9% bump of its homeowner rates in January 2023 and a 20% hike that went into effect in March of last year. Story Continues “To protect millions of California consumers and the integrity of our residential property insurance market, the department will respond with urgency and transparency to recommend a course of action for Commissioner Lara,” the Department of Insurance said Monday in response to the request. The department added that any rate hike would be approved only if it is justified under Proposition 103, the 1988 ballot measure that gave the commissioner the authority to review, adjust and reject proposed rate hikes. Los Angeles advocacy group Consumer Watchdog disputed that State Farm General was in financial trouble, saying that the company made underwriting profits of $1.4 billion from 2020 to 2023 and thta parent State Farm Mutual had “$134 billion in the bank.” “Filling State Farm’s bank accounts shouldn’t fall on the backs of California homeowners recovering from disaster,” it said. Read more: State Farm accused of funneling excess profits to parent as it seeks rate hike State Farm Group, led by State Farm General’s parent company, was given a superior financial rating in December by AM Best. In March, State Farm General announced it would not be renewing 72,000 home, apartment and other property policies in California, citing soaring reconstruction costs, increasing wildfire risks and outdated state regulations. That followed its decision in May 2023 to stop writing new business, homeowners, and other personal property and casualty insurance in the state, with the exception of personal auto insurance. Last month, after the scale of the L.A. County fires became apparent, State Farm modified its decision and said it would offer renewals to any policyholder affected by the Palisades, Eaton and other county fires whose policies had not lapsed before the fires’ start on Jan. 7. The insurer estimated that it would apply to roughly 70%, or 1,100, of the 1,626 residential policies it had in Pacific Palisades’ primary ZIP Code when it announced the nonrenewals last year. It later expanded the renewal offer to any Los Angeles County policyholder on those same terms. The company said it had about 250,000 residential policyholders in the county. Sign up for our Wide Shot newsletter to get the latest entertainment business news, analysis and insights. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Source link #State #Farm #seeks #emergency #rate #increase #averaging #L.A #fires Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

The 2025 Armada PRO-4X Is A Bold Nissan Patrol Revamp The 2025 Armada PRO-4X Is A Bold Nissan Patrol Revamp Images courtesy of Nissan [Hidden Content] From JustLuxe Content Partner MensGear In true holiday fashion, Nissan surprised its followers in North America with the arrival of the 2025 Armada PRO-4X. A full-size SUV may not sound extraordinary, but this vehicle is reportedly special. Reports reveal that it is the flagship trim package of the Patrol, a badge that is available exclusively outside the United States. This also marks its return stateside in decades, which means no need to import anymore. Nissan’s machine is lauded for its exceptional off-road performance, luxurious creature comforts, and bold looks. In short, the model appeals to folks who love overlanding, camping, or outdoor adventures in general. Nissan has equipped the 2025 Armada PRO-4X with a potent engine to ensure it can tow or haul cargo without issues. Under the hood, the VR35 twin-turbo V6 is mated to a 9-speed automatic gearbox. The powertrain produces 425 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque. This bad boy can handle payloads up to 1,775 lbs.m, while its towing capacity is approximately 8,500 lbs. The SUV touts a powerful stance courtesy of its chunky geometric body kit. Up front, a massive grille frames C-shaped daytime running lights and the Nissan emblem in red. The entire fleet features eight exterior colors, including two-tone options. As for the interior, buyers can pick from seven chromatic combinations. Press materials indicate that only the 2025 Armada PRO-4X comes with Charcoal upholstery and Lava Orange detailing. “Equipped with Intelligent 4WD7 as standard, mechanical enhancements to Armada PRO-4X include an electronic locking rear differential, Adaptive Electronic Air Suspension, 20-inch wheels with 275/60R20 all-terrain tires, a metal underbody skid plate and a unique front fascia reshaped for an improved approach angle,” writes Nissan. Learn More More From MensGear: Source link #Armada #PRO4X #Bold #Nissan #Patrol #Revamp 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 during morning trading on February 03, 2025 in New York City. Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images Stock futures rose Monday night after U.S. President Donald Trump paused planned tariffs on goods from Canada, just hours after a reprieve was also announced on planned tariffs against Mexico. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 180 points, or 0.4%, higher. S&P 500 futures added 0.6%, while Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.8%. ********* Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in a post on social media site X shortly after 4:30 p.m. ET on Monday that Trump agreed to halt the implementation of tariffs against Canada for at least 30 days, bringing bullish sentiment back into the market. A flurry of recent announcements around Trump’s long-awaited tariff plans have put investors on edge. Stocks are coming off of a volatile trading session, in which the major averages made a striking turnaround after an initial global sell-off. At its session low on Monday, the 30-stock Dow fell more than 600 points, or nearly 1.5%, after Trump signed an order over the weekend to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, plus a 10% levy on China. Investor sentiment turned around on Monday afternoon, however, after Trump said his duty on ******** goods would be would be paused for one month. Ultimately, the major averages ended Monday well off their lows of the day, but they still booked losses. The Dow slipped 0.28%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.76%. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.2%. “We are in a bull market fueled by a strong U.S. consumer and rising corporate profitability. Until something cracks with this narrative, I believe dips are buyable,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird. “Investors should prepare for more market volatility related to trade uncertainty, but we think the overall backdrop for investors remains quite solid.” Mayfield said he thinks that China tariffs will likely remain in place as they did during the first Trump administration, but this time around, the White House views “trade as a means to exert non-trade concessions.” Elsewhere, a huge earnings week awaits investors. Alphabet, Merck and PepsiCo are on the docket for Tuesday. Amazon and Eli Lilly are among the names that will report later this week. On the economic front, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for December is due on Tuesday, as well as durable orders. The main event this week will be Friday’s January nonfarm payrolls report, which will add further clarity to the employment picture. Source link #Stock #market #today #Live #updates Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

INEOS Unleashes One-Off Grenadier Kaiju Quartermaster INEOS Unleashes One-Off Grenadier Kaiju Quartermaster Images courtesy of INEOS Automotive [Hidden Content] From JustLuxe Content Partner MensGear Supercars, or hypercars, for that matter, are incredibly exclusive machines. Most marques limit the number of examples produced, encouraging buyers to be the first in line. However, clients can always turn to first-party specialty coachbuilders for a genuinely bespoke build. Meanwhile, INEOS Automotive caters to Overlanding buffs with Grenadier Kaiju Quartermaster. Only a few aftermarket customization establishments service SUVs, pickup trucks, or off-roaders. Nevertheless, we have a couple in mind. These shops are a bit picky about what make and model they work with. As such, INEOS Automotive saves you the trouble, as they handle everything in-house. Apart from the exquisite blackout paint job, this tonal bad boy has plenty more to offer. The project involves world-class third-party accessory suppliers like REDARC, Norweld, Rhino-Rack, MAXTRAX, JMACX, Brown Davis, STEDI, GME, and BFGoodrich. So far, the only downside to the Grenadier Kaiju Quartermaster is that it is a one-off. As deal-breaking as this sounds, interested clients can constantly fully personalize future units. As the name suggests, it is inspired by Japanese giant monsters and based on the Quartermaster Cab Chassis. The official press release describes it as “demonstrating the infinite customization possibilities available with the INEOS Grenadier and Quartermaster.” Our friends from Down Under are in for a treat: The Kaiju Quartermaster will be on tour to promote all types of rugged shenanigans, which recreation outdoor enthusiasts will likely enjoy. Discover More More From MensGear: Source link #INEOS #Unleashes #OneOff #Grenadier #Kaiju #Quartermaster Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Trump's spending freeze order paused again by federal judge – Axios Trump's spending freeze order paused again by federal judge – Axios Trump’s spending freeze order paused again by federal judge AxiosJudge says Trump administration appears to be blocking funding despite court orders USA TODAYSupreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has very bad news for Donald Trump Vox.com Source link #Trump039s #spending #freeze #order #paused #federal #judge #Axios Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Sunderland win five-goal Championship thriller at Boro Sunderland win five-goal Championship thriller at Boro A late Ryan Giles own goal has seen Sunderland snatch a 3-2 victory in an entertaining Tees-Wear derby at the Riverside. An energetic start on Monday night saw the hosts rewarded when Delano Burgzorg slotted home from Hayden Hackney’s defence-splitting pass, but despite Middlesbrough’s dominance, the ****** Cats equalised after Dan Neil’s shot took a deflection off George Edmundson and into the net. Sunderland took the lead early in the second half through Wilson Isidor’s cool finish before Hackney pulled Boro back level minutes later. However, a late twist saw Giles’ 87th-minute own goal prove to be the decisive moment as the ****** Cats move level on points with third-placed Burnley in the Championship table, while Boro remain stuck outside the play-off positions in seventh. Middlesbrough’s bright start was rewarded 11 minutes in when Hackney threaded a brilliant pass into Burgzorg, who burst through the centre of the Sunderland defence to tuck the ball into the bottom corner. Boro remained in control, exposing the ****** Cats’ defence again as Hackney sprinted into plenty of space in the middle of the pitch before flicking a pass to an unmarked Marcus Forss on the left, but his shot flew over the crossbar. Sunderland levelled in the 33rd minute when Chris Rigg had a shot blocked and the ball was cleared to the edge of the box where captain Neil was lurking and hit a strong effort, which deflected in off Edmundson. The visitors began to look more confident after the goal and took the lead six minutes into the second half after a brilliant through ball from Enzo Le Fee found Isidor and in a one-on-one situation, the striker calmly took the ball around Bournemouth loanee Mark Travers before rolling into an empty net. However, Boro were soon back on level terms when Aidan Morris picked up possession just outside the area and tapped the ball to Hackney who fired a venomous shot past Anthony Patterson in the 59th minute. Forss had a shot blocked before Travers pushed a low Isidor effort wide as both sides looked to edge ahead, but a pulsating game saw Sunderland claim three points at the death when Le Fee’s cross from the left bounced off the unfortunate Giles and into the bottom corner. Source link #Sunderland #win #fivegoal #Championship #thriller #Boro Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Belfast Hotel Enhances A Visit To This Historic City Belfast Hotel Enhances A Visit To This Historic City Columbia Hillen Upon entering the bright, attractive lobby of room2 hotel in downtown Belfast after a day’s drive around Northern Ireland’s scenic coastline, melodic mood-uplifting music swept through my senses. On a small stage was Mark Graham, a local guitarist-singer-songwriter, performing some old classics, as well as – in fact, the highlight of his two-hour show – some of his own fine compositions. Mark was just one of several performers entertaining guests every evening during my short stay at this attractive 175-room hotel. Columbia Hillen I couldn’t have asked for a warmer welcome on a damp, chilly winter evening, an all-embracing hug for me after returning to the city of my birth. Centrally located on Queen Street, a two-minute walk from City Hall and other historic highlights, room2 is one of the newest modern additions to a city rapidly becoming ‘the hospitality success story of Ireland’ with the number of visitors travelling to Belfast and excellent hotels to welcome them rising fast, all spurred by the down-to-earth friendliness of local people and the diverse arts, culture and cuisine scene. Columbia Hillen The lobby of room2 is colorful and decorative, with a simple yet inviting reception-****-welcome desk, beside which is a generous complimentary display of fruits including apples, plums and oranges for guests, with water flavored with orange and cucumber slices as refreshing drinks. Behind the reception desk are shelves of snacks from potato crisps to salted caramel popcorn and peanuts, as well as drinks of all kinds, for purchase. One the other side is an open bar with comfy, cushioned barstools and beyond that Winnie’s, a two-sided cafe filled with chairs and tables where live music was being performed and where breakfast is served buffet-style, though guests can also order specific dishes. Columbia Hillen Each morning I enjoyed a traditional Irish feast of sausages, bacon, ****** pudding and grilled tomatoes, mushrooms and onions. I also ordered poached eggs separately. For a healthier breakfast version, there’s also yoghurts and a range of fruits, from strawberries to pineapples, as well as cereals, breads, croissants and roasted vegetables at the hot counter. Columbia Hillen Staff are extremely friendly and enthusiastic at room2, a tribute to the leadership of general manager, Aine Finnegan, who by sheer coincidence is from the same part of the world as myself, meaning Andersonstown, a working-class neighborhood of west Belfast. Columbia Hillen Kudos to the hotel chain founders, Robert and Stuart Godwin, who support the burgeoning hospitality industry by giving important work experience opportunities to many students at the city’s hospitality schools. Staff wear stylish ****** T-shirts with the symbol of a tortoise in its shell, indicating both eco-friendliness and the concept of the hotel as a home-away-from-home. Columbia Hillen room2, like many of the other hotels in the fast-growing group which already stretches from the heart of west London to the harbour side of Southampton, is an eco and ****-friendly hotel. My medical herbalist companion was delighted to see a vast array of plants in pots as natural decoration. In addition, in a cosy room on the other side of the lobby featuring soft sofas and shelves of books on subjects ranging from travel and art to food and photography, is what’s termed a ‘plant cutting propagation station,’ as many as a hundred plants in transparent vials with a temperature monitoring device beneath. Here an explanatory sign states the hotel’s support for a healthy sustainable environment and this dedicated space as its way to help nurture new plants from cuttings thus contributing to ‘a continual cycle of growth.’ Reflecting its environmental policy further, this Belfast hometel runs on 100% electric and low carbon renewable energy. Columbia Hillen Aside from the many plants, other furnishings included lanterns that look like mini-ghosts hanging from the ceiling of Winnie’s and colorful wall tiles separating the breakfast room from the lobby. The bar is well stocked with local liquors including a myriad of local gins such as Jawbox and Gunpowder and the international classics, Hendrick’s and Tanqueray, as well as various draft micro beers and ales. Cocktails by creative mixologists while I was there included the intriguing ‘elf’s delight,’ comprising peppermint schnapps, Baileys Irish Cream and a splash of milk. There’s also a range of Irish whiskeys, from Bushmills to Redbreast. Columbia Hillen Room2 also has it very own art gallery. Located in a compact room at the side of the lobby, it features the works of local artists. During my stay, the exhibition featured floral designs as well as colorful sketches of Belfast’s Botanical Gardens and the city’s former Harland and Wolff shipyard where the doomed Titanic cruise ship was built. The hotel also caters for events, both personal and professional, offering a collection of versatile rooms suitable for small to medium-sized meetings and events for up to 120 people, from brainstorming and creative sessions to workshops, yoga classes and supper clubs. Columbia Hillen One of the many advantages of staying at room2 is its convenient location within an easy five-minute walk to the city’s main shopping street Royal Avenue and the CastleCourt and Victoria Square shopping centers. It’s also only a mere 10-minute walk to what is termed ‘the Cathedral Quarter’ featuring a plethora of cafés, restaurants and pubs, many with live music. Transport options to and from the hotel are also convenient, with buses and taxi stations a minute’s walk away. Ulster Museum. Photo by Columbia Hillen For international travellers, an airport express bus leaves literally from the hotel’s doorstep. In terms of art and culture, the nearby Opera House, an ornate century-old building, hosts a range of events from music concerts and theatrical productions to pantomimes and dance performances. Buses for Queen’s University, the Botanical Gardens and the Ulster Museum, Northern Ireland’s leading museum, leave from City Hall, just around the corner from the hotel, as is the nation’s oldest library, The Linen Hall, featuring a cozy cafe where you can enjoy tea and freshly-made scones. Two of the city’s best chocolate places are also (delightfully) temptingly close. Columbia Hillen As for our room, 60, it was surprisingly quiet, with no sound of traffic, a welcome realization considering the hotel lies in the very heart of the city. Two windows permitted an abundance of natural light to flow in and also clear views on to Queen Street and an old disused stonewall police station what is over a century old. There was also a panoramic view across to the ****** Mountains and a geological feature known locally as ‘Napoleon‘s Nose.’ Immediately below was a pedestrian shopping street leading on to Royal Avenue. Columbia Hillen All rooms are designed to be self-catering and mine featured all the facilities necessary, including a small cooker, microwave oven, toaster, kettle to make hot water for tea and coffee, and all the utilities such as knives, forks, spoons and cups. Furnishings included a big wall-screen TV, a small wooden table, an armchair and two comfy sofas for lounging on. Interestingly, intricately designed wallpaper illustrated the stories of legendary figures from Celtic mythology. A framed wall painting, Impressionist in nature, depicted a coastal area reflecting Belfast’s rich maritime history while two items of cloth encased in frames highlighted the history of the textile industry in Belfast. Columbia Hillen My bathroom featured a tiled floor, rustic in style, with glazed tile walls and what is termed a ‘jawbox,’ a traditional square-shaped enamel sink (thus the name of the **** mentioned earlier). Echoing the eco-friendly philosophy of the hotel owners, a large box helped maintain a ‘zero waste’ policy with separate food and general waste containers inside. A little round box sitting on the table in the room with the title ‘Bits and Bobs’ inscribed on top contained a pencil, a deck of cards, a three-minute egg timer and two sets of a game called XO or tic-tac-toe. Granting an industrial style demeanour to the room, part of one wall was of bare concrete with enclosed electricity conduits. For friendly, enthusiastic service, colorful and uplifting decor and utter convenience in terms of central location, room2 is certainly a choice for Belfast hotel. Source link #Belfast #Hotel #Enhances #Visit #HistoricCity Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]