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https://www.cbs42.com/washington/washington-dc/bill-seeks-to-put-cap-on-overdraft-fees/
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WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – For some people, overdraft fees are a frustrating inconvenience. For others, they pose crippling costs. Some lawmakers now want to change how they’re charged altogether.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney introduced legislation called the “Overdraft Protection Act.” The bill includes provisions to cap the amount and number of fees a bank can charge.
“My bill tries to cut down on these unfair and deceptive practices,” the New York Democrat said.
Advocates like Elyse Crawford-Hicks with Americans for Financial Reform say overdraft fees hit low-income families and people of color the hardest.
“Overdraft fees are paid the most by people who can least afford them,” Crawford-Hicks said.
Others say over-drafting is a useful service because it can function like a short-term loan. Paul Kundert is the CEO of UW Credit Union, which recently reduced their overdraft fees and put more limits on how they charge them.
“When prices are fair, we believe consumers do benefit from access to the credit provided by overdraft fees,” Kundert said.
Recently, major banks like Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Bank of America have made changes themselves, by reducing their overdraft fees or eliminating them altogether.
Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, says that demonstrates the legislation is unnecessary.
“The market is naturally, naturally taking care of the issue without government intervention. And we do not need more rules from Washington,” Williams said.
Because banks make billions of dollars in revenue from overdraft fees, George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law Todd Zywicki argues the proposed changes would cost consumers.
“We’ll see higher bank fees, we’ll see higher minimum monthly deposits as basically insurance against over-drafting and we will see a loss of access to free checking,” Zywicki said.
Lawmakers like Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., are promising to continue pushing for the reforms.
“How can we perform such an abusive and predatory practice that punishes people simply for being poor?” Pressley said.
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https://www.cbs42.com/local/actor-ezra-miller-ordered-to-stay-away-from-hawaii-couple/
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HONOLULU (AP) — A Hawaii judge has granted a couple’s request for a temporary restraining order against Ezra Miller, an actor known for playing “The Flash” in “Justice League” films.
The couple filed a petition for a temporary restraining order Tuesday, alleging that Miller burst into their bedroom and threatened them in Hilo, a small town on the Big Island. The petition also accused Miller of stealing some of their belongings, including a passport and wallet.
The judge’s order, filed in court Wednesday, said it was necessary to grant the couple’s petition to prevent harassment.
Days earlier, Miller allegedly harassed patrons at a karaoke bar. Late Sunday, police were called to Margarita Village in Hilo, where they said Miller yelled obscenities, grabbed a mic from a singing woman and lunged at a man playing darts.
“The bar owner asked Miller to calm down several times to no avail,” police said in a news release.
Miller was arrested at the bar shortly after midnight Monday and charged with disorderly conduct and harassment. Miller was released on $500 bail.
Neither Miller nor the actor’s representatives could immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
Miller is ordered to appear at a court hearing for the temporary restraining order against harassment in Hilo on April 13.
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https://www.cbs42.com/local/comedian-bobby-moynihan-has-a-picture-book-coming-out/
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NEW YORK (AP) — Bobby Moynihan, the former “Saturday Night Live” star, is now a member of another inner circle of comedy: those writing children’s books.
Moynihan’s picture story “Not All Sheep Are Boring!” will be published Sept. 20 by Putnam Books for Young Readers. Julie Rowan-Zoch is providing illustrations for a book featuring adventure-seeking, jetpack-wearing sheep.
“I am pleased as punch to help this little Toad tell his story, Not All Sheep are Boring! Also, just a reminder to keep an eye on Pierre the Sheep. He’s shifty,” Moynihan, who currently appears in the sitcom “Mr. Mayor,” said in a statement Thursday.
Other comedians with picture books include Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel. Moynihan and his wife, actor Brynn O’Malley, have a 4-year-old daughter.
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https://www.cbs42.com/local/fox-news-hires-caitlyn-jenner-as-contributor-and-commentator/
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NEW YORK (AP) — Fox News Channel says it has hired Caitlyn Jenner as a contributor, with her first appearance set for Thursday on Sean Hannity’s program.
Jenner, the former Olympic decathlete, ran an unsuccessful campaign for California governor last year. The network said she’ll offer commentary and analysis across various Fox News Media platforms.
“Caitlyn’s story is an inspiration to us all,” said Suzanne Scott, Fox News Media CEO. “She is a trailblazer in the LGBTQ+ community and her illustrious career spans a variety of fields that will be a tremendous asset for our audience.”
Jenner won the Olympic gold medal in the decathlon in 1976. She later came out as a transgender and identifies as a female.
She said in a statement she was “humbled by this unique opportunity” to speak directly to Fox’s audience.
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https://www.cbs42.com/local/grammy-awards-sets-sight-on-las-vegas-for-first-time/
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Grammysmight be missing stars like Drake, The Weeknd and Kanye West as a performer, but the biggest night in music could still shine bright on the Las Vegas Strip.
The ceremony relocated to Las Vegas for the first-time ever with several artists who could have epic nights including Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo and Jon Batiste. The awards shifted from Los Angeles because of the rising COVID-19 cases and omicron variant in January. Sunday’s show will air live beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern on CBS and the Paramount+ streaming service.
Host Trevor Noah calls Las Vegas a “perfect place to have a celebration” with fans at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Last year, the Grammys had a music festival vibe with parts of the show held outdoors in an intimate in-person setting with music artists mixed with pre-taped performances.
Noah expects an entertaining show with several performers set to hit the stage including Rodrigo, Eilish, Lil Nas X, Jack Harlow, Brandi Carlile, Batiste, Silk Sonic, H.E.R., Chris Stapleton, Leslie Odom Jr. and Brothers Osborne. He said the awards will be a celebration of the music industry coming back to life.
“There’s an element of this (show) that’s like a music camp,” Noah said. “I think it’s going to bring a different energy, and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
It’s still unclear whether the Foo Fighters will take the stage following the recent death of its drummer Taylor Hawkins. The rock band – nominated for three Grammys – is scheduled to perform during the ceremony, but they recently canceled all upcoming concert dates.
The Grammys will continue to move forward without West, known as Ye, after news surfaced earlier this month that he wouldn’t perform at the show because of his “concerning online behavior.” The Weeknd is still boycotting the awards and Drake said he wanted no part in competing for a Grammy, withdrawing his two nominations.
The three popular performers will be missed, but the show will certainly go on.
The multitalented Jon Batiste enters the Grammys as the leading nominee with 11in a variety of genres including R&B, jazz, American roots music, classical and music video. Justin Bieber, Doja Cat and H.E.R. are tied for the second-most nominations with eight apiece.
The awards will introduce its expanded 10 nominees in three major genres — record, album and song of the year. The growing categories will make the competition stronger but could make choosing a winner a lot tougher.
For album of the year, the Recording Academy expanded the category’s eligibility for any featured artists, producers, songwriters and engineers — even if the music creator co-wrote one song on the project. That means there could be a large amount of winners on stage, depending on who wins.
For example, if Bieber’s “Justice” wins at the show, more than 50 creators could pack the stage. The same could be said for Ye, Doja Cat and H.E.R., who have a plethora of contributors.
But Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever” features songs written by the young star and her brother Finneas, who produced all of her tracks. Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga and Rodrigo are sitting in the same boat.
Harvey Mason jr., the academy’s CEO, said the number of creators in a category won’t dictate the winner.
Either way, Noah said he doesn’t mind.
“It’ll be great to see that moment,” he said. “You get to be on stage and celebrated for your work. I’m excited for that. I want to see 25 people on stage celebrating and sharing the love and joy for something they’ve done.”
Before the awards, the academy will hold a couple events including a tribute to Joni Mitchell at the MusiCares Person of the Yearon Friday night. Chaka Khan, Cyndi Lauper, Billy Porter and Beck are among those expected to perform.
On Saturday, Grammy winner John Legend will be honored during the academy’s Black Music Collective. The singer will receive his first-ever Recording Academy Global Impact Award for his personal and professional achievements in the music industry.
Legend will be celebrated with a performance by Summer Walker, D-Nice and MC Lyte as the voice for the evening. Jimmy Jam will be making remarks.
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https://www.cbs42.com/local/greta-thunberg-aims-to-drive-change-with-the-climate-book/
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LONDON (AP) — Climate activist Greta Thunberg has compiled a handbook for tackling the world’s interconnected environmental crises, with contributions from leading scientists and writers.
Penguin Random House announced Thursday that “The Climate Book” will be published in Britain in October.
It contains contributions from more than 100 academics, thinkers and campaigners, including novelists Margaret Atwood and Amitav Ghosh, climate scientist Saleemul Huq and World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The book aims to help readers connect the dots between threats to the climate, environment, sustainability and indigenous populations — among others — and is intended as a guide to understanding and activism.
Contributors including Kenyan environmentalist Wanjira Mathai, Brazilian indigenous activist Sonia Guajajara, French economist Thomas Piketty and Canadian journalist Naomi Klein offer “compelling stories of change, action and resilience,” the publisher said, alongside Thunberg’s own stories of “learning, demonstrating, and uncovering greenwashing around the world.”
“My hope is that this book might be some kind of go-to source for understanding these different, closely interconnected crises,” Thunberg said in a statement.
Chloe Currens, editor at Penguin Press, said it was “a unique book, alive with moral purpose, which aims to change the climate conversation forever.”
Thunberg began skipping classes once a week to protest climate change in 2018, when she was 15, sparking a series of school walkouts that grew into a global youth movement.
Now 19, the Swedish activist has already published a memoir, “Our House Is On Fire” and a collection of speeches, “No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference.”
“The Climate Book” is published Oct. 27 in the U.K. by Allen Lane and in the U.S. in early 2023 by Penguin Press, as well as in countries around the world.
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https://www.cbs42.com/local/korean-pop-star-luna-readies-for-broadway-debut-in-kpop/
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NEW YORK (AP) — Korean pop star Luna is ready to make her Broadway debut this fall in the musical “KPOP” and she’s already dreaming of who might be there on opening night — like BTS.
“I would be thankful if they showed up on opening night,” Luna told The Associated Press through her translator.
She also wants fans and other stars to show up, too.
“This is New York City, it’s got its own celebrities and also audiences who would enjoy this. So, I would love to see New York celebrities, as well as Hollywood celebrities,” Luna said.
Luna was introduced at a press event for the musical Wednesday at the Korean Cultural Center in New York.
Luna began her musical career as a member of the popular K-pop group f(x) before becoming a solo artist. Her latest single, “Madonna,” was released in September.
Her stage resume includes Korean productions of “In the Heights” and “Mamma Mia,” and she’s excited to take her talents to Broadway.
“I have always loved doing all those ever since I was a young child, and I even liked creating some routines,” Luna said.
She added: “For this musical, I get to dance while I sing while I act, that is so exciting, and I cannot wait to do this.”
“KPOP” tells the story of global superstars preparing for a special one-night only concert, when one singer’s inner struggle threatens to dismantle one of the biggest labels in the industry.
The multimedia experience explores the relentless discipline, raw talent, and commercial ambition behind the international phenomenon.
The musical has a story by Jason Kim and music by Helen Park, who has worked on the show for the past eight years. She said she is excited that audiences will finally get to experience her favorite music genre.
“I know recently a K-pop has been really blowing up and a lot of people love the genre. But when we started writing this musical in back in 2014, I was so eager for the world to see what I see. And I wanted to share it with the world in a language that everyone can understand,” she said.
“I think musical theater is that vessel for people to hear and witness other people’s stories and feel the emotions. I really wanted the show to be doing that with the genre that I love so much,” Park said.
“KPOP” begins previews Oct. 13 at the Circle in the Square Theatre, with an opening night scheduled for Nov. 20.
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https://www.cbs42.com/local/oscars-producer-says-police-offered-to-arrest-will-smith/
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oscars producer Will Packer said Los Angeles police were ready to arrest Will Smith after Smith slapped Chris Rock on the Academy Awards stage.
“They were saying, you know, this is battery, was a word they used in that moment,” Packer said in a clip released by ABC News Thursday night of an interview he gave to “Good Morning America.” “They said we will go get him. We are prepared. We’re prepared to get him right now. You can press charges, we can arrest him. They were laying out the options.”
But Packer said Rock was “very dismissive” of the idea.
“He was like, ‘No, no, no, I’m fine,” Packer said. “And even to the point where I said, ‘Rock, let them finish.’ The LAPD officers finished laying out what his options were and they said, ‘Would you like us to take any action?’ And he said no.”
The LAPD said in a statement after Sunday night’s ceremony that they were aware of the incident, and that Rock had declined to file a police report. The department declined comment Thursday on Packer’s interview, a longer version of which will air on Friday morning.
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences met Wednesday to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Smith for violations against the group’s standards of conduct. Smith could be suspended, expelled or otherwise sanctioned.
The academy said in a statement that “Mr. Smith’s actions at the 94th Oscars were a deeply shocking, traumatic event to witness in-person and on television.”
Without giving specifics, the academy said Smith was asked to leave the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre, but refused to do so.
Smith strode from his front row seat on to the stage and slapped Rock after a joke Rock made about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, when he was on stage to present the Oscar for best documentary.
On Monday, Smith issued an apology to Rock, the academy and to viewers, saying “I was out of line and I was wrong.”
The academy said Smith has the opportunity to defend himself in a written response before the board meets again on April 18.
Rock publicly addressed the incident for the first time, but only briefly, at the beginning of a standup show Wednesday night in Boston, where he was greeted by a thunderous standing ovation. He said “I’m still kind of processing what happened.”
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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton
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https://www.cbs42.com/local/ukrainian-youtube-brothers-reach-out-to-japanese-to-end-war/
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TOKYO (AP) — Starting out with funny videos and chat over Mario Kart racing games, two Ukrainian brothers have added a somber tone to their YouTube channel popular with young Japanese with updates from their country that bring the harsh realities of war closer to Japan.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine began just after the duo, Sava Tkachov, 26, and his younger brother Yan, 20, celebrated the second anniversary of their YouTube debut with subscribers exceeding 2 million for their Sawayan Channel and Sawayan Gamesthat Sava hosts.
The first word of war came from their father, a business consultant who had returned to Kyiv two months ago just before Russian troops rolled in and has stayed since to help defend his country. The siblings’ YouTube content, which used to be full of pranks, jokes and action videos, has become more serious.
Worried about their 53-year-old father and friends in Ukraine, the brothers in early March announced on their channel that they planned to volunteer as defenders too. It triggered a wave of reactions, some supporting and others criticizing them.
The father objected and the Tkachovs, who have no military training, abandoned the idea, especially when Sava said he received long and serious messages from some of his teenage fans showing their willingness to follow the brothers to Ukraine.
“By sending out messages through our channel, I made kids want to go to war and I cannot say if it was good or bad,” Sava said at a news conference Thursday. “But at least it was meaningful that they became interested in the issue. Fighting the war on the front-line is not the only way.”
Sava, who uses the handle “No War,” instead turned his gaming channel into a driver for donations and charity game events. He collected some 3.6 million yen ($29,500) in three hours, and donated entirely to the Ukrainian Embassy.
The siblings said they also started receiving messages from parents saying their children started thinking about peace and others thanking them for raising important social issues.
“I believe the merit of YouTube is I can convey the real information from the ground that my father is sharing with us about the situation that is very up to date, and I can stream that online almost immediately, so in that sense it could be much faster and accurate than news provided by traditional news media,” Sava said.
He said that his father would send videos of bombardment and bodies “as in war movies,” but he couldn’t use them because they were too graphic. In a recent appearance on a YouTube talk show hosted by popular former vaccine minister Taro Kono, Sava said the brothers were in regular communication with their father from an undisclosed location.
Japan was quick to join other industrialized nations in imposing sanctions against Russia and providing support for Ukraine.
Tokyo has also sent bulletproof vests, helmets, tents, medical supplies and other nonlethal defense equipment to Ukraine as an exception to Japan’s ban on military equipment transfer to countries in conflict.
Japan has taken tougher measures against Russia, worried about the impact of Moscow’s war on East Asia where Tokyo has faced threats from North Korea and China. In response to sanctions, Russia suspended peace treaty talks with Japan over the disputed Kuril Islands, which Moscow has held since 1945.
Sava Tkachov, who arrived with his family in Japan when he was 4 and studied at a top Japanese university, thanked his adopted country for its support but says Tokyo should stick to its pacifist role.
“Japan is the world’s top-class peaceful nation … and what the country is doing right now is very appropriate,” he said. “As to the question of whether Japan should send weapons, I do not think it’s the kind of role Japan should be playing.”
Instead, he said, Japan can better contribute by continuing to appeal for peace and take a leadership role within Asia.
He also said Japan can provide home to many war-displaced Ukrainians. Some may face challenges of language or unfamiliar food, “but I’m sure they can overcome the difficulties with the empathy of the Japanese people and the spirits of the Ukrainians.”
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https://www.cbs42.com/local/white-house-hosts-transgender-jeopardy-star-amy-schneider/
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden marked Transgender Day of Visibility on Thursday by denouncing “hateful bills” being passed at the state level as the White House played host to “Jeopardy!” champion Amy Schneider, the first openly transgender winner on the popular quiz show.
Schneider met with second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who joined Rachel Levine, the assistant health secretary and the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the Senate, for a conversation with transgender kids and their parents.
Schneider used the moment in the Washington spotlight to speak out against bills affecting transgender people.
“They’re really scary and some of them in particular that are denying medical services to trans youth, those are, those are lifesaving medical treatments,” Schneider told reporters. “These bills will cause the deaths of children and that’s really sad to me and it’s really frightening.”
Biden, in a brief video message, said that “the onslaught of anti-transgender state laws attacking you and your families is simply wrong.” The president said his administration “is standing up for you against all these hateful bills. And we’re committed to advancing transgender equality in the classroom, on the playing field, at work, in our military and our housing and health care systems.”
The administration announced several actions to make the federal government more inclusive for transgender people and said the Health and Human Services Department will be the first agency to fly a trans pride flag.. The steps come as Republican leaders have advanced state measures targeting transgender people as part of a broader push to stoke culture wars heading into a critical election season.
The administration said the federal government will become more inclusive for transgender people, including through the use of a new “X” gender marker on U.S. passport applications, beginning on April 11, and new Transportation Security Administration scanners that are gender-neutral.
It is working to expand the availability of the “X” gender marker to airlines and federal travel programs and will make it easier for transgender people to change their gender information in Social Security Administration records.
Visitors to the White House complex soon will also be able to choose an “X” gender marker option in the White House Worker and Visitor Entry System, which is used to conduct screening background checks.
At airports, changes will be made to screening scanners along with the introduction of the use of an “X” for travelers going through Precheck who do not identify as male or female. Transportation Security Administration agents will receive new instructions on how to make screening procedures less invasive and will work with airlines to promote acceptance of the “X” gender marker.
“Jeopardy!” star Schneider spoke of “being a trans person out there that isn’t monstrous and isn’t threatening and is just a normal person, like we all are,” and said “the more that people like me can be seen, the harder it is to sustain the myths that are … kind of driving a lot of this hate and fear.”
In his video, Biden said there is work still to be done to end “the epidemic of violence against transgender women of color and girls of color” and to ensure that transgender seniors “can age with dignity.” He called anew on Congress to pass the Equality Act to help transgender people around the world “live free from discrimination and violence.”
Biden tried to reassure any transgender person who is struggling, telling them to remember that “you’re not alone.”
“You’re so brave. You belong. And we have your back,” Biden said.
The administration’s actions follow recent steps at the state level to limit activity by transgender people. At least 10 states have banned transgender athletes from participating in sports at all levels in a way that is consistent with their gender identity.
In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who is seeking reelection, has ordered the state’s child welfare agency to probe reports of gender-confirming care for kids as abuse.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who is running for reelection and considering a 2024 presidential bid, on Monday signed into law a measure that bars instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. The law has drawn intense national scrutiny from critics who argue it marginalizes LGBTQ people. Republicans and advocates of the law argue that discussion of these topics should be between parents and their children.
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Associated Press writers Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, and Colleen Long and Ben Fox contributed to this report.
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https://www.cbs42.com/local/will-smiths-oscars-slap-felt-by-comedians-beyond-chris-rock/
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When Will Smith slapped Chris Rock over an Oscars ceremony punchline, other comedians felt the sting.
“I know Chris and I know what it’s like to be on a stage in front of an audience that doesn’t like your material,” said stand-up comedian Judy Gold. “But to be physically assaulted, that’s a whole other thing. It felt like every comedian was smacked across the face. It really felt like that.”
Smith’s act comes during a stressful time for comedy. While boundaries for humor constantly shift — think George Carlin’s 1972 monologue on seven so-called “dirty words” banned by TV — comics say they have felt increased pushback from audiences and society. Comedy great Dave Chappelle drew sharpcriticism last year for what some deemed anti-transgender humor in his Netflix special “The Closer.” Kathy Griffin’s careerwas derailed in 2017 when she was photographed holding a mock-up of former President Donald Trump’s head.
Some comedians expressed concern that Smith’s behavior might embolden other displeased audience members.
“No one went up to Chris Rock and said, ‘Are you OK?’” Sheryl Underwood, co-host of “The Talk,” said on the show Tuesday. “I’m going to say this as a comic, I am afraid now to get on a stage, because in my third show, when everyone’s been drinking, if you don’t like my joke, do you now believe that you can get up and slap me? There’s got to be accountability quicker.”
Griffin tweeted that “now we all have to worry about who wants to be the next Will Smith in comedy clubs and theaters.”
“Which is the worst crime here?” veteran comedian Gilbert Gottfried said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Chris Rock being physically assaulted? Or Chris Rock making a joke? That’s it, pure and simple. He made a joke.”
Dean Obeidallah, a lawyer and stand-up comic who hosts a show on the SiriusXM Progress channel, said there is never “a place for a violent response to a joke” but doubted there would be copycat behavior. In his time in comedy clubs, he’s seen yelling, screaming and, once, a glass thrown at somebody. But he’s never seen a punch thrown, nor a comedian slapped.
“If someone were to strike a comedian, they’re going to be prosecuted criminally. They don’t have the privilege that Will Smith has,” Obeidallah said.
The Los Angeles Police Department said Sunday that it was aware of the incident, but Rock had declined to file a police report. Smith stayed through the rest of the ceremony Sunday and received the best-actor Oscar.
Gold said she’s been confronted but never struck, and she knows other female comedians have faced difficult circumstances. “People have been getting on stage, people have thrown things,” she said.
Comedian-actor Yamaneika Saunders calls Smith’s behavior upsetting and Sunday a sad day for ”two beloved Black men in entertainment.” She also views what happened through the lens of a “Black woman in comedy.”
“I’m constantly being threatened….by some man who doesn’t like some (expletive) I said about being a woman, some white guy who doesn’t like some (expletive) I said about being Black,” she said.
Insult humor isn’t new to high-profile ceremonies, which call on comics to liven up what can be tedious events. Ricky Gervais made a meal of celebrities at successive Golden Globe ceremonies, and they grin — or grimace — and bear it. The most famous bad sport: Trump at the 2011 White House correspondents’ dinner, where he sat stone-faced during then-President Barack Obama’s extended ribbing of him.
Rock wasn’t the first to tweak Smith or wife Jada Pinkett Smith at Sunday’s Oscars. Ceremony co-host Regina Hall made what appeared to be a veiled joke about their marriage in trying, unsuccessfully, to draw Smith into a comedy bit.
Rock’s wisecrack was targeted at Pinkett Smith. “Jada, I love you. ‘G.I. Jane 2,’ can’t wait to see it,” the comedian said to Pinkett Smith, whose close-shaven head looked similar to Demi Moore’s in the 1997 movie. Whether Rock was aware that she has a hair-loss condition, alopecia, is unknown, but Smith reacted with the smack and an angry warning to “keep my wife’s name out your (expletive) mouth!”
A tearful Smith later accepted the top acting award for “King Richard,” his somewhat remorseful speech eliciting a standing ovation from the Dolby Theatre crowd. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has since condemned Smith’s attack and said it’s reviewing the matter.
Whatever the result, his actions indelibly marred the ceremony and ignited discussions about violence, toxic masculinity and the advantages of fame. Smith, who’d conspicuously left Rock out of his remarks Sunday, apologized to the comic and decried “violence in all of its forms” in a statement the next day issued by his publicist and posted on Instagram.
Pinkett Smith’s first public comment came in an Instagram post in which she said, “This is a season for healing and I’m here for it.”Rock referred briefly to the slap at a comedy show Wednesday in Boston, saying he was “still kind of processing what happened.” He appeared to become emotional as the audience gave him several standing ovations.
Whatever pushback comedians may encounter on stage, verbal or physical, they have to guard against censoring themselves to avoid it — and they will, said Obeidallah: “They shouldn’t change, and there’s nothing about this that tells me that they will change.”
They can’t because their role goes beyond providing laughs, as comedians see it.
“We are the truth tellers. We speak truth to power,” said Gold, author of the 2020 book, “Yes, I Can Say That: When They Come for the Comedians, We Are All in Trouble.”
Gottfried cites a favorite Carlin quote — “It’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately” — and can’t resist serving up a punchline.
“If Will Smith is reading this, dear God, please don’t come to my shows,” he said.
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AP Television Writer Lynn Elber reported from Los Angeles, AP Media Writer David Bauder from New York.
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/a-key-inflation-gauge-sets-40-year-high-as-gas-and-food-soar/
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WASHINGTON (AP) — An inflation gauge that is closely monitored by the Federal Reserve jumped 6.4% in February compared with a year ago, with sharply higher prices for food, gasoline and other necessities squeezing Americans’ finances.
The figure reported Thursday by the Commerce Department was the largest year-over-year rise since January 1982. Excluding volatile prices for food and energy, so-called core inflation increased 5.4% in February from 12 months earlier.
Robust consumer demand has combined with shortages of many goods to fuel the sharpest price jumps in four decades. Measures of inflation will likely worsen in the coming months because Thursday’s report doesn’t reflect the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which occurred Feb. 24. The war has disrupted global oil markets and accelerated prices for wheat, nickel and other key commodities.
Squeezed by inflation, consumers increased their spending by just 0.2% in February, down from a much larger 2.7% gain in January. Adjusted for inflation, spending actually fell 0.4% last month. The decline partly reflected a shift away from heavy spending on goods to a focus on services, such as health care, travel and entertainment, which consumers had long avoided during the worst of the pandemic.
Spending on such services grew 0.6%, the most since July, while purchases of autos, furniture, clothes and other goods dropped 2.1%. Many economists had previously suggested that a shift away from goods purchases might loosen supply chain snarls and cool inflation. But prices are still rising rapidly for goods, including a 1.1% increase in February.
Americans’ overall incomes rose 0.5% in February, the highest gain since November and up from just 0.1% in January. Wages and salaries jumped 0.8%, the most in four months.
Businesses have been raising pay to attract and keep employees — a trend that is benefiting workers but also giving employers cause to raise prices to offset their higher labor costs. That cycle is helping fuel inflation.
Last month, food costs climbed 1.4%, the most in nearly two years. Energy costs spiked 3.7%, the biggest such increase since October.
The Federal Reserve responded this month to the inflation surge by raising its benchmark short-term interest rate by a quarter-point from near zero, and it’s likely to keep raising it well into next year. Because its rate affects many consumer and business loans, the Fed’s rate hikes will make borrowing more expensive and could weaken the economy over time.
Michael Feroli of JPMorgan is among economists who now think the Fed will raise its key rate by an aggressive half-point in both May and June. The central bank hasn’t raised its benchmark rate by a half-point in two decades, a sign of how concerned it has become about the persistent surge in inflation.
On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.6% from January to February, up slightly from the previous month’s increase of 0.5% and matching the highest monthly figure since 2008. Core prices rose 0.4%, down from a 0.5% increase in January.
Gas prices have soared in the past month in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion, which led the United Kingdom and the Biden administration to ban Russia’s oil exports. The cost of a gallon of gas shot up to a national average of $4.24 a gallon Wednesday, according to AAA. That’s up 63 cents from a month ago, when it was $3.61.
Michael Pearce, an economist at Capital Economics, estimated that the gas price spike will cost Americans an annualized $100 billion in March.
Americans will likely dig into their savings to cover the higher gas costs in the near term, he said. “But if higher gasoline prices are sustained, that will eventually weigh on spending in other areas.”
On Thursday, President Joe Biden is expected to order the release of up to 1 million barrels of oila day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve in an effort to reduce gas prices.
Thursday’s report follows a more widely monitored inflation gauge, the consumer price index, that was issued earlier this month. The CPI jumped to 7.9% in February from a year ago, the sharpest such increase in four decades.
Many economists still expect inflation to peak in the coming months. In part, that’s because price spikes that occurred last year, when the economy widely reopened, will begin to make the year-over-year price increases appear smaller. Yet Fed officials project that inflation, as measured by its preferred gauge, will still be a comparatively high 4.3% by the end of this year.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Marjorie Miller, vice president and global enterprise editor at The Associated Press, has been named as the new administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes.
Miller spent 27 years at the Los Angeles Times as a correspondent in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. She was the newspaper’s foreign editor when it won a Pulitzer Prize for Russia coverage and was a finalist for Iraq War coverage.
She joined AP in 2010 as the regional editor for Latin America, where her team produced award-winning coverage of cartel violence. In 2015, she moved to New York to help lead daily news coverage and enterprise. Two years later she became the founding leader of AP’s Global Enterprise Team, overseeing reporting projects in all formats, including work from Yemen that won the 2019 Pulitzer for International Reporting.
Her appointment was announced Thursday by the Pulitzer Prize Board and by Lee C. Bollinger, president of Columbia University, which hosts the prestigious journalism awards.
“I cannot think of a better steward for the Pulitzer Prizes, which celebrate excellence in journalism, arts, and letters and recognize the powerful, public service role they play in promoting tolerance, advancing the search for truth, and protecting the free exchange of information and ideas,” Bollinger said.
Miller succeeds acting administrator Edward Kliment, who will stay on as Miller’s deputy. She begins her new role on April 11.
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/as-russia-sees-tech-brain-drain-other-nations-hope-to-gain/
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VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Russia’s tech workers are looking for safer and more secure professional pastures.
By one estimate, up to 70,000 computer specialists, spooked by a sudden frost in the business and political climate, have bolted the country since Russia invaded Ukraine five weeks ago. Many more are expected to follow.
For some countries, Russia’s loss is being seen as their potential gain and an opportunity to bring fresh expertise to their own high-tech industries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has noticed the brain drain even in the throes of a war that, according to the U.N. refugee agency, has caused more than 4 million people to flee Ukraine and displaced millions more within the country.
This week, Putin reacted to the exodus of tech professionals by approving legislation to eliminate income taxes between now and 2024 for individuals who work for information technology companies.
Some people in the vast new pool of high-tech exiles say they are in no rush to return home. An elite crowd furnished with European Union visas has relocated to Poland or the Baltic nations of Latvia and Lithuania.
A larger contingent has fallen back on countries where Russians do not need visas: Armenia, Georgia and the former Soviet republics in Central Asia. In normal times, millions of less-skilled laborers emigrate from those economically shaky countries to comparatively more prosperous Russia.
Anastasia, a 24-year-old freelance computer systems analyst from the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, chose Kyrgyzstan, where her husband has family.
“When we heard about the war on (Feb. 24), we thought it was probably time to leave, but that we might wait and see. On February 25, we bought our tickets and left,” Anastasia said. “There wasn’t much thinking to do.”
Like all the Russian workers contacted for this story, Anastasia asked to remain anonymous. Moscow was cracking down on dissent even before the invasion of Ukraine, and people living outside Russia still fear reprisals.
“As long as I can remember, there has always been fear around expressing one’s own views in Russia,” Anastasia said, adding that the war and “the background noise of patriotism” made the environment even more forbidding. “I left one day before they began searching and interrogating people at the border.”
The scale of the apparent brain drain was laid bare last week by Sergei Plugotarenko, the head of the Russian Association for Electronic Communications, an industry lobbying group.
“The first wave – 50,000-70,000 people – has already left,” Plugotarenko told a parliamentary committee.
Only the high cost of flights out of the country prevented an even larger mass exit. Another 100,000 tech workers nevertheless might leave Russia in April, Plugotarenko predicted.
Konstantin Siniushin, a managing partner at Untitled Ventures, a tech-focused venture capital fund based in Latvia, said that Russian tech firms with international customers had no choice but to move since many foreign companies are hastily distancing themselves from anything Russia-related.
“They had to leave the country so their business could survive, or, in the case of research and development workers, they were relocated by HQs,” Siniushin wrote in emailed remarks.
Untitled Ventures is helping in the migration; the firm charted two flights to Armenia carrying 300 tech workers from Russia, Siniushin said.
Some nearby countries are eager to reap the dividends.
Russian talent is primed for poaching. A 2020 Global Skills Index report published by Coursera, a leading provider of open online courses, found that people from Russia scored highest for skill proficiency in technology and data science.
As soon as the war started in Ukraine, the Central Asian nation of Uzbekistan radically streamlined the process for obtaining work visas and residence permits for IT specialists.
Anton Filippov, a mobile app programmer from St. Petersburg, and the team of freelancers with whom he works made the move to Tashkent, the Uzbek capital, where he grew up, even before those incentives were made public.
“On February 24, it was like we had woken up to this different terrible reality,” Filippov said. “We’re all young, less than 27 years old, and so we were afraid we might be called up to take part in this war.”
As in-demand tech workers explore their options, their diaspora resembles a roaming caravan. Some countries, like Uzbekistan, are picked as stepping stones because Russian citizens do not need visas for short-term stays. But young professionals like Filippov do not plan to necessarily stay where they first landed.
“If the conditions they find differ from the ones they were promised, they will simply move on,” he said.
In many cases, entire companies are looking to relocate to avoid the fallout from international sanctions. A senior diplomat from another Russian neighbor, Kazakhstan, made a naked appeal this week for fleeing foreign enterprises to come to his country.
Kazakhstan is eyeing high-tech investors with particular interest as the country tries to diversify its economy, which relies on oil exports. In 2017, the government set up a technology park in the capital, Nur-Sultan, and offered tax breaks, preferential loans, and grants to anybody prepared to set up shop there.
The uptake has been moderate so far, but the hope is that the Russian brain drain will give this initiative a major shot in the arm.
“The accounts of Russian companies are being frozen, and their transactions do not go through. They are trying to keep customers, and one available opportunity is to go to Kazakhstan,” said Arman Abdrasilov, chairman of Zerde Holding, an investment fund in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s business hub.
Not all countries are so eager, though.
“Russian companies or startups cannot move to Lithuania,” said Inga Simanonyte, an adviser to the Baltic nation’s Economy and Innovation Minister. “We do not work with any Russian company with their possible relocation to Lithuania, and the ministry has suspended all applications for startup visas since February 24.”
Security concerns and suspicion that Russians might spy or engage in cyber mischief abroad make some governments wary about welcoming the country’s economic refugees.
“The IT sector in Russia is very closely connected to the security services. The problem is that without an extremely strong vetting process, we risk importing parts of the criminal system of Russia,” Lithuanian political analyst Marius Laurinavicius told The Associated Press.
Siniushin, the managing partner at Untitled Ventures, is urging Western nations to throw open their doors so their employers can take advantage of the unusual hiring opportunity the war created.
“The more talent that Europe or the United States can take away from Russia today, the more benefits these new innovators, whose potential will be fully realized abroad, will bring to other countries,” he said.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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A late burst of selling left stocks broadly lower on Wall Street Thursday, as the market closed out its worst quarter since the pandemic broke out two years ago.
Despite posting a 3.6% gain for March, a dismal January and February left U.S. indexes lower for the year to date. The S&P 500 ended the day 1.6% lower, bringing its loss since the beginning of the year to 4.9%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.6%, while the Nasdaq composite fell 1.5%. Both indexes also notched gains for March, thanks largely to a market rally in the two weeks heading into this week.
Oil prices fell as President Joe Biden ordered the release of up to 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve. The move to pump more oil into the market is part of an effort to control energy prices, which are up nearly 40% globally this year.
Wall Street’s downbeat finish to March comes as investors try to navigate the market risks amid surging inflation, geopolitical instability and uncertainty over how aggressively the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates to quash inflation.
“Yesterday’s weakness and some weakness today may be in response to sentiment that’s a little more cautious given the recent strength in the last two weeks and the ongoing uncertainty related to inflation and earnings,” said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.
The S&P 500 fell 72.04 points to 4,530.41. The Dow fell 550.46 points to 34,678.35, and the Nasdaq slid 221.76 points to 14,220.52.
Smaller company stocks also fell. The Russell 2000 index dropped 20.94 points, or 1%, to 2,070.13.
About 85% of stocks in the benchmark S&P 500 fell. Much of the movement seemed like a “consolidation” for investors, said Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
“This is a little give back today just from the big run that we had, but we’re hanging in here pretty well,” Wren said. Major indexes fell on Wednesday to end a four-day winning streak.
Technology and communications stocks were among the biggest weights on the market. Many of the companies in those sectors have pricey stock values that tend to give the broader market a more forceful push either up or down. Chipmaker Intel fell 3.6%, while Facebook parent Meta Platforms slid 2.4%.
Banks also fell along with bond yields, which forces interest rates on loans lower, making lending less profitable for banks. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 2.34% from 2.36% late Wednesday. Bank of America fell 4.1%.
U.S. crude oil prices fell 7% and Brent, the international standard, fell 4.9%. The pullback slightly trimmed what have been soaring oil prices amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The conflict has elevated concerns that tightened supplies will only worsen persistently rising inflation that threatens businesses and consumers globally.
An inflation gauge that is closely monitored by the Federal Reserve jumped 6.4% in February compared with a year ago, marking the largest year-over-year rise since January 1982.
Energy prices have been a key factor in pushing inflation higher and Biden’s plan to release more oil into the system comes as little relief is expected from the oil cartel OPEC. The cartel and its allied oil producers including Russia are sticking to a modest increase in the amount of crude they pump to the world, a step that supports higher prices.
Higher prices for everything from energy to food has been a key concern of central banks globally, which are moving to raise interest rates to help temper the impact. Investors have been trying to measure how the economy and companies will fare amid rising inflation, higher interest rates, the war in Ukraine and other factors. That has made for a rocky start to the year.
Investors received a lukewarm update on the job market on Thursday. More Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, but layoffs remain at historic lows. Wall Street will get a fuller report on Friday when the Labor Department releases employment data for March.
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DALLAS (AP) — President Joe Biden is again dipping into the nation’s petroleum stockpile to try to corral rising energy prices.
The White House announced Thursday that Biden ordered the daily release of 1 million barrels of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve for the next six months. Biden will also ask Congress to penalize oil and gas companies that lease public land but aren’t producing energy.
The administration hopes that tapping the petroleum reserve will buy time and tamp down gasoline prices long enough until domestic producers can boost output.
Global oil prices were rising even before Russia invaded Ukraine in February. When Biden announced a ban on Russian oil imports in early March, he acknowledged it would come at a cost to American consumers.
This is the third time Biden has turned to the strategic petroleum reserve in a little over four months. Back in November, he ordered the release of 50 million barrels of oil. Then, in his state of the union speech in March, Biden announced another 30 million barrels as part of a multi-nation effort to boost the oil supply.
Tapping the reserve among the few things a president can do alone to try to control inflation, which makes Americans poorer and often creates a political liability for the party in control of the White House.
Here is a look at what’s involved:
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WHAT IS THE PETROLEUM RESERVE?
America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a collection of underground salt caverns in Texas and Louisiana that can hold more than 700 million barrels of oil, although it is not currently full. The reserve held about 568 million barrels last week, down from more than 650 million barrels in mid-2021, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
The reserve was created after the 1970s Arab oil embargo to give the United States a supply that could be used in an emergency.
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WHY IS IT USED?
The U.S. now exports more oil than it imports, but the reserve remains and has been tapped for various reasons, from offsetting the impact of hurricanes and ship-channel closings to raising money for deficit reduction.
In 1991, President George H.W. Bush authorized withdrawing nearly 34 million barrels during the Gulf War, although only 17 million barrels were used. In 2011, President Barack Obama approved the release of 30 million barrels to offset the disruption of supply from Libya.
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HOW DO THEY GET THE OIL OUT?
Oil is lighter than water — that’s why disasters like those caused by the Exxon Valdez tanker and the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig create slicks on the surface. To remove oil from the reserves, water is pumped into the salt caverns, making the crude float to the surface, where it is captured and sent through pipelines to refineries.
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WHY IS BIDEN TAPPING THE RESERVE?
Supply and demand. Biden is hoping that by releasing more oil on the market, prices will fall. Prices did dip for nearly two weeks after Biden’s initial announcement about tapping the reserve back in November but then resumed their steep climb. U.S. crude is up almost 40% this year and has grown even more volatile in the past month.
Whether Biden’s latest move works will depend on several factors. One factor to keep in mind: Even though 1 million barrels a day is a huge amount of oil, the U.S. consumed nearly 20 million barrels a day last year, and worldwide consumption topped 97 million barrels a day.
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WILL GASOLINE GET CHEAPER?
What most people want to know is what’s going to happen to prices at the pump. Many factors go into the price of gasoline. Refineries buy crude oil in advance, so they could still be working with more expensive oil. States have differing tax rates that affect the price that motorists pay.
On Thursday, the national average price for a gallon of regular was more than $4.22, down about a dime from the peak earlier in March, according to auto club AAA.
The average is still under $4 a gallon in many states in the middle of the country, but it’s higher in the Northeast and highest in the West. In California, it’s an eye-popping $5.90 a gallon.
Even if those prices don’t drop, Biden can argue that by tapping the reserve he tried to help.
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WHO GETS HURT MOST?
Gasoline prices are regressive — lower-income people are more likely to spend a higher percentage of their money on gasoline than are affluent Americans — so increases hurt the most price-sensitive consumers. Kevin Book, managing director at Clearview Energy Partners, says those consumers might not show up in measures of the nation’s economy, “but they show up in vote counts … if we get down to it, that’s really what this is about.”
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WHY DOES OIL MATTER?
The future of oil and gas in the U.S. is a political flashpoint and source of tension, especially as companies and government agencies grapple with climate change and the transition to cleaner sources of energy.
On one hand, the U.S. oil and gas industry has been praised by some political leaders for creating energy independence. Where the U.S. once relied heavily on imports, other nations now rely on the U.S. for oil. It’s also a job supplier: The oil and gas industry employs more than 10 million people in the U.S. and contributes about 8% of the nation’s gross domestic product, according to the American Petroleum Institute.
Companies that supply oil benefit from higher prices. But consumers don’t like it when those higher prices trickle down to the pump.
The institute has previously said that any release of oil from the strategic reserve should be paired with policy measures that encourage more U.S. energy production. That collides with Biden’s promise to reduce dependence on fossil fuels that contribute to climate change.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s hiring boom of the past year has narrowed racial disparities in unemployment. Yet the Federal Reserve’s ongoing interest rate hikes — shaping up to be the steepest in 15 years — threaten to reverse that progress.
The Fed’s rate hikes will mean higher borrowing rates that could hobble the job market and undercut a goal the Fed unveiled two years ago: To keep rates ultra-low for as long as possible, to help less advantaged workers, who often don’t benefit much from job growth until late in an economic expansion.
Now, though, facing the worst inflation in four decades, the Fed has begun tightening credit and is expected to keep raising its benchmark short-term rate multiple times this year and next. Such rapid hikes typically slow borrowing and spending and can raise unemployment and even cause a recession. During such downturns, Black and Hispanic Americans commonly suffer higher jobless rates.
The Fed’s shift away from low rates comes as the African American unemployment rate has reached 6.6%, down sharply from its pandemic high of nearly 17% and a relatively low level historically. Yet it remains twice the 3.3% rate for whites. Hispanic unemployment is 4.4%.
“The reason why this matters in the Black community is because we are literally the last hired, and it’s only when you get to this point in a recovery where black workers really see their gains,” said William Spriggs, chief economist at the AFL-CIO. “When you slow the pace of hiring, then you cut off that path.”
On Friday, the government will issue the March jobs report, which could shine further light on racial disparities. Economists estimate that employers added a healthy 478,000 jobs last month and that the unemployment rate dipped from 3.8% to 3.7%, according to data provider FactSet. That would be near the 3.5% rate just before the pandemic struck, which was the lowest level in a half-century.
In August 2020, the Fed redefined its goal of maximum employment as being “broad-based and inclusive.” For the first time, it would look beyond the overall unemployment rate and also consider jobless rates for Black and Hispanic workers in setting interest rates. Fed officials hoped that by keeping rates down, they could help narrow the nation’s persistent racial unemployment gaps.
The policy represented “a significant shift,” said Stephanie Aaronson, director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution and a former Fed economist. “Prior to that, every Fed chair would have said something along the lines of, a rising tide lifts all boats. Now they were saying, a rising tide lifts all boats — but not to the same level, and not at the same pace.”
For Chair Jerome Powell and other Fed officials, the goal was to keep the economy running “hot” to reduce unemployment as much as possible. The Fed also wanted to raise too-low inflation, which had stayed stubbornly below its 2% annual target for roughly a decade.
In a so-called hot economy, businesses become so desperate for workers that they hire applicants they would otherwise have neglected. They are more likely, for example, to hire and train workers who lack certain skills or even people who have completed prison sentences.
But the pandemic has upended the Fed’s intentions. The combination of supply-chain snarls and robust consumer demand, fueled by government rescue aid and the Fed’s own low rates, fed an unexpectedly large and persistent spike in inflation. The result is that the central bank must raise rates to fight inflation.
Powell and other Fed officials say they hope that by doing so, they will prolong, rather than derail, economic growth and further narrow racial inequities. Among those officials is Raphael Bostic, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, who said last week that he expected the economy to keep growing even in the face of higher rates.
“And if that is in fact what happens, then it is possible that we can still see the narrowing of these (racial) gaps,” Bostic said.
With inflation chronically high, economists are in overwhelming agreement that the Fed has no choice but to tighten credit — perhaps aggressively — well into 2023.
“When inflation is not a problem, then it’s much easier to say, ‘We’re going to maximize employment and see how far we can take this,’ ” said Valerie Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s program on race, ethnicity and the economy. “But with inflation in the mix, they’re in a position now where they can’t really ignore that.”
The seeds of the Fed’s shift toward pursuing a more inclusive recovery were sown during the economic expansion that followed the 2008-2009 Great Recession, the longest in U.S. history. The Fed pinned its key rate at nearly zero in December 2008, where it remained for seven years. Over time, its policies helped shrink unemployment to its lowest point in a half-century. Black and Hispanic jobless rates reached record lows.
Black unemployment fell to 5.4% in 2019, the lowest on records dating to 1972. It was just 1.9 percentage points above the white rate of 3.5%, the smallest such gap on record.
Other racial gaps vanished altogether. The proportions of Black and white Americans who were either working or seeking work equaled each other in 2019, for example, after roughly four decades in which Black workers had trailed whites.
In part, that reflected an aging white population with comparatively more retirements. But it also resulted from a steady rise in Black Americans who either found jobs or had begun seeking one.
That progress bolstered a view among economists that the Fed’s rate policies could make a major difference. Research by Aaronsonfound that when the unemployment rate falls especially low, disadvantaged groups disproportionately benefit.
Still, the reality that racial unemployment gaps exist even during hot economies has fueled a perception among economists that there are limits to what the Fed’s low rates — and a strong economy — can achieve. Economists generally believe that federal spending and tax policies have a more significant impact on household finances.
Algernon Austin, who leads the race and economic justice program at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, suggested that while the central bank deserves credit for pursuing an inclusive recovery, “what the Fed does is not going to solve the problem.”
Likewise, Powell said last year that he believed Congress and other institutions would have to pursue policies, in education and other areas, to fully eliminate racial inequalities in jobs and incomes.
“We would all love to see no such gap,” he said. “I think eliminating inequality and racial discrimination … is really something that fiscal policy and other policies — frankly, education policies and that kind of thing — are better at focusing on.”
For now, Black Americans face higher unemployment than whites at every level of education, according to data compiled by the Economic Policy Institute. In 2019, Black workers with a four-year college degree had a higher jobless rate than whites with only some higher education did.
Spriggs suggested that stricter enforcement of civil rights laws to fight discrimination in hiring could help narrow the racial disparities. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s budget has stagnated for years, Spriggs noted, even while it has taken on additional tasks, including the enforcement of age bias laws.
Better enforcement by the EEOC might, for example, help address the fact that Black unemployment has remained roughly double the white rate for decades. At a conference last week held by the Brookings Institution, William Darity, an economist at Duke University, called that ratio “a powerful index of discrimination.”
Darity has called for a federal jobs guarantee that would give the unemployed the option of a public sector job. With that policy as a “cushion,” Darrity said, “the Fed could tackle inflation without fear of extreme adverse social consequences.”
In a speech last February, Powell acknowledged the limits of the Fed’s powers.
“Over the course of a long expansion, these persistent disparities can decline significantly,” he said. “But without policies to address their underlying causes, they may increase again when the economy ultimately turns down.”
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BERLIN (AP) — The operator of Frankfurt Airport said Thursday that it is selling its minority stake in China’s Xi’an Airport after failing to expand its business in the huge Chinese market.
Fraport AG said it is selling its 24.5% stake in the airport’s operating company to Chang’an Huitong Co. Ltd. for 1.11 billion yuan ($175 million).
CEO Stefan Schulte said Xi’an “gave us an opportunity to showcase our expertise in airport management,” with passenger numbers more than quadrupling to over 40 million per year over the 14 years since Fraport acquired its stake.
“We always regarded our minority stake in Xi’an as a starting point for expanding our business in China,” Schulte said in a statement.
“However, this never materialized in Xi’an or at any other Chinese airport,” he added. “Consequently, we have now decided to cease our activities in the Chinese market.”
Fraport said the Xi’an operating company, Xi’an Xianyang International Airport Co. Ltd., expects the transaction to be concluded during the second quarter.
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/german-panel-recommends-booster-for-recipients-of-4-vaccines/
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BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s independent vaccination advisory panel is recommending a booster shot with a messenger RNA vaccine for people who have had a full course of four Chinese, Indian and Russian COVID-19 vaccines that aren’t currently approved for use in the European Union.
In a draft recommendation Thursday, the panel, known by its German acronym STIKO, said the advice applies to people given a full course and also a booster of the Chinese Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines, the Indian-made Covaxin and Russia’s Sputnik V.
It said that the new booster shot should be administered at least three months after the previous vaccination.
The German panel said that people who have received only a single shot of the four vaccines should start a new vaccination series.
And it added that recipients of other vaccines not cleared by the EU should in general start a new series with a vaccine European authorities have approved.
Scientists believe that mixing and matching vaccines prompts a better immune response.
The BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines have been the mainstay of Germany’s vaccination program. Three other vaccines using different technologies have been cleared for use in the 27-nation EU — the AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax products.
The mRNA vaccines have shown to be better than others at protecting against newer variants like omicron.
Separately, efforts to find a majority in the German parliament for a bill that would require all adults to be vaccinated against COVID-19 have reportedly stalled.
German publications Bild and Der Spiegel reported that talks between parties haven’t resulted in the necessary support, and lawmakers may now focus on a vaccine mandate for residents age 50 and over.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz declined Thursday to comment on the reports but said he continues to back the idea of a vaccine mandate for all adults.
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Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Got a dime you can spare? Coins are in short supply — again.
Retailers, laundromats and other businesses that rely on coins want Americans to empty their piggy banks and look under couch cushions for extra change and “get coin moving.”
A group of trade associations that represent individual businesses including banks, retail outlets, truck stops, grocery stores and more is asking the Treasury Department for more help convincing Americans to get coins back in circulation.
The consequences of the circulation slowdown hit people who don’t have an ability to pay for items electronically, they say.
“If retailers are not able to offer change for cash purchases consumers who rely on cash will be vulnerable,” the associations said in a letter to Treasury.
For example, people who do their laundry at coin laundry mats could have a harder time finding change to wash their clothes. And on a larger scale, people who don’t have cash access aren’t able to patronize certain card-only businesses.
It’s not a coin shortage America faces, but a lack of circulation.
“We can’t print our way out of this problem,” said Austen Jensen, a senior vice president for government affairs at the Retail Industry Leaders Association.
Jensen’s group, along with the American Bankers Association, National Association of Convenience Stores, and National Grocers Association, is trying to meet consumer demand and wants a new public campaign to increase coin circulation.
Jensen said his group is also encouraging member retailers to find creative ways to deal with the shortage of coins, including rounding-up purchases for charity promotions. And he says businesses with multiple locations could send coins from one store to another.
This is not the first time during the pandemic that the issue of low coin circulation has arisen.
The coronavirus disrupted consumers’ buying habits and shifted purchases largely to plastic cards to such an extent that in July 2020, the Federal Reserve restricted coin orders by financial institutions.
The Fed also convened a U.S. Coin Task Force, made up of representatives from various federal agencies, which led to a campaign encouraging the public to get coins into circulation.
This February, the task force issued a State of Coin report, which said pandemic lockdowns slowed small transactions that generated change and there was a temporary aversion to cash for perceived hygienic reasons. The report also said the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Mint contracted with a third party consultant to review the coin supply chain.
Coin deposit volumes began to increase gradually starting in the summer of 2020, but businesses say the problem has come up again as people have stopped using coins and have stuck to plastic cards.
The issue has had the biggest impact on people who don’t have bank accounts. An estimated 22 percent of U.S. Americans were “unbanked” or “underbanked” in 2019, according to the Federal Reserve.
The Treasury Department has yet to respond to the letter. The government encourages people to help get coin moving by spending it with retailers, taking it to their banks and credit unions, or using a coin recycling kiosk like the ones found at grocery stores.
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/house-passes-35-a-month-insulin-cap-as-dems-seek-wider-bill/
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Thursday passed a bill capping the monthly cost of insulin at $35 for insured patients, part of an election-year push by Democrats for price curbs on prescription drugs at a time of rising inflation.
Experts say the legislation, which passed 232-193, would provide significant relief for privately insured patients with skimpier plans and for Medicare enrollees facing rising out-of-pocket costs for their insulin. Some could save hundreds of dollars annually, and all insured patients would get the benefit of predictable monthly costs for insulin. The bill would not help the uninsured.
But the Affordable Insulin Now Act will serve as a political vehicle to rally Democrats and force Republicans who oppose it into uncomfortable votes ahead of the midterms. For the legislation to pass Congress, 10 Republican senators would have to vote in favor. Democrats acknowledge they don’t have an answer for how that’s going to happen.
“If 10 Republicans stand between the American people being able to get access to affordable insulin, that’s a good question for 10 Republicans to answer,” said Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., a cosponsor of the House bill. “Republicans get diabetes, too. Republicans die from diabetes.”
Public opinion polls have consistently shown support across party lines for congressional action to limit drug costs.
But Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., complained the legislation is only “a small piece of a larger package around government price controls for prescription drugs.” Critics say the bill would raise premiums and fails to target pharmaceutical middlemen seen as contributing to high list prices for insulin.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Democrats could have a deal on prescription drugs if they drop their bid to authorize Medicare to negotiate prices. “Do Democrats really want to help seniors, or would they rather have the campaign issue?” Grassley said.
The insulin bill, which would take effect in 2023, represents just one provision of a much broader prescription drug package in President Joe Biden’s social and climate legislation.
In addition to a similar $35 cap on insulin, the Biden bill would authorize Medicare to negotiate prices for a range of drugs, including insulin. It would penalize drugmakers who raise prices faster than inflation and overhaul the Medicare prescription drug benefit to limit out-of-pocket costs for enrollees.
Biden’s agenda passed the House only to stall in the Senate because Democrats could not reach consensus. Party leaders haven’t abandoned hope of getting the legislation moving again, and preserving its drug pricing curbs largely intact.
The idea of a $35 monthly cost cap for insulin actually has a bipartisan pedigree. The Trump administration had created a voluntary option for Medicare enrollees to get insulin for $35, and the Biden administration continued it.
In the Senate, Republican Susan Collins of Maine and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire are working on a bipartisan insulin bill. Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock has introduced legislation similar to the House bill, with the support of Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
Stung by criticism that Biden’s economic policies spur inflation, Democrats are redoubling efforts to show how they’d help people cope with costs. On Thursday,the Commerce Department reported a key inflation gauge jumped 6.4% in February compared with a year ago, the largest year-over-year rise since January 1982.
But experts say the House bill would not help uninsured people, who face the highest out-of-pocket costs for insulin. Also, people with diabetes often take other medications as well as insulin. That’s done to treat the diabetes itself, along with other serious health conditions often associated with the disease. The House legislation would not help with those costs, either. Collins says she’s looking for a way to help uninsured people through her bill.
About 37 million Americans have diabetes, and an estimated 6 million to 7 million use insulin to keep their blood sugars under control.It’s an old drug, refined and improved over the years, that has seen relentless price increases.
Steep list prices don’t reflect the rates insurance plans negotiate with manufacturers. But those list prices are used to calculate cost-sharing amounts that patients owe. Patients who can’t afford their insulin reduce or skip doses, a strategy born of desperation, which can lead to serious complications and even death.
Economist Sherry Glied of New York University said the market for insulin is a “total disaster” for many patients, particularly those with skimpy insurance plans or no insurance.
“This will make private insurance for people with diabetes a much more attractive proposition,” said Glied.
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/italy-russia-wont-seek-payment-in-rubles-for-natural-gas/
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BERLIN (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted Thursday that the country’s natural gas must be paid for with rubles, a demand apparently intended to help bolster the Russian currency but one that European leaders say they will not comply with because it violates the terms of contracts and sanctions.
Putin said Russia will start accepting ruble payments Friday and gas supplies will be cut off if buyers don’t agree to the new conditions, including opening ruble accounts in Russian banks, from which the gas payments will be made.
“If these payments are not made, we will consider it a failure of the buyer to fulfill its obligations, with all the ensuing consequences,” Putin said.
European leaders cautiously insisted they will continue to pay for natural gas in euros and dollars and want to see the fine print of how the Kremlin will implement its decree. It came a day after the leaders of Italy and Germany said they received assurances from Putin about gas supplies.
Putin announced last week the countries deemed “unfriendly” for imposing sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine must pay for natural gas only in Russian currency. His proposal has caused natural gas prices to gyrate and raised fears it could be a prelude to an interruption of supplies to Europe, which is heavily dependent on Russian natural gas and would struggle with a sudden cutoff. At the same time, Russia depends on oil and gas sales for much of its government revenue at a time its economy is under severe stress from Western sanctions.
Putin’s demand appeared to be part of Russia’s efforts to boost the ruble after the currency plunged under Western sanctions. After dropping as low as 143 rubles to the dollar in early March, on Thursday it took 82 rubles to buy a dollar, around the same level as the day Russia launched its invasion.
Economists say switching the gas payments to rubles would do little to support the Russian currency, since gas exporter Gazprom has to sell 80% of its foreign currency earnings for rubles anyway. The White House said Thursday that the ruble is no longer a reliable measure of Russia’s economy because it’s being artificially propped up.
Analysts at Evercore ISI said Putin’s primary motive seems to be “to prove he can bend EU leaders to his will.” They also said that even if Russia is able to force the EU to pay for gas in rubles, the European countries could retaliate by imposing more tariffs on Russian oil imports or banning them outright. While Russia could eventually sell the oil, the price would likely be at a steep discount, the analysts said.
The decree Putin signed and state news agency RIA Novosti published says a designated bank will open two accounts for each buyer, one in foreign currency and one in rubles. Buyers will pay in foreign currency and authorize the bank to sell it for rubles on Moscow’s currency exchange. The rubles would then be placed in the second account, where the gas is formally purchased.
People are “wondering what Putin is up to,” said Tim Ash, senior emerging markets sovereign strategist at BlueBay Asset Management. Putin may have read the German government’s unwillingness to boycott Russian energy “as weakness and is now trying to engineer this energy crisis … the solution here is to call Putin’s bluff and say, sure, cut off energy supplies and see who breaks first.”
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D’Emilio contributed from Rome. AP reporter Colleen Barry in Milan contributed.
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/mcconnell-says-covid-spending-package-could-shrink-to-10b/
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers moved to the brink Thursday of shaking hands on a scaled-back bipartisan compromise providing a fresh $10 billion to combat COVID-19, a deal that could set up final congressional approval next week.
The price tag was down from an earlier $15.6 billion agreement between the two parties that collapsed weeks ago after House Democrats rejected cutting unused pandemic aid to states to help pay for it. President Joe Biden requested $22.5 billion in early March. With leaders hoping to move the package through Congress quickly, the lowered cost seemed to reflect both parties’ calculations that agreeing soon to additional savings would be too hard.
The effort, which would finance steps like vaccines, treatments and tests, comes as Bidenand other Democrats have warned the government is running out of moneyto counter the pandemic. At the same time, the more transmissible omicron variant BA.2 has been spreading quickly in the U.S. and abroad.
“We’ve reached an agreement in principle on all the spending and all of the offsets,” Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the lead Republican bargainer, told reporters, using Washington-speak for savings. “It’s entirely balanced by offsets.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and others were more circumspect.
“We are getting close to a final agreement that would garner bipartisan support,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. He said lawmakers were still finalizing the bill’s components and language, and awaiting a cost estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chair of the Senate health committee and another bargainer, said, “I’m hoping,” when asked about Romney’s assessment.
Once clinched, an agreement would represent a semblance of bipartisan cooperation in battling the pandemic that dissolved a year ago, when a far larger, $1.9 trillion measure proposed by the new president cleared Congress with only Democratic votes. That bill was laden with spending to help struggling families, businesses and communities, while this one would be aimed exclusively at public health.
Many Republicans have been willing to go along with the new expenditures but have insisted on paying for them with unspent funds from previous bills Congress has enacted to address the pandemic.
Half the new measure’s $10 billion would be used for treatments, said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who has helped negotiate the agreement. He said top federal health officials would be given wide discretion on spending the rest of it but it would include research and other steps for battling the disease, which has killed around 975,000 Americans and millions across the world.
Romney and others said savings the two parties had agreed to for the new bill would not include the cuts in state assistance that House Democrats opposed. He said some unused funds would be culled from another pandemic program that gives state and local governments funds for grants to local businesses.
Blunt said both sides had also agreed to savings that include pulling back an unspent $2.2 billion for aiding entertainment venues closed during the pandemic and more than $2 billion still available for assisting aviation manufacturing.
Romney said the $10 billion might include $1 billion for vaccines, treatments and other support for countries overseas. Blunt said that figure seemed unresolved. One third of the earlier, $15.6 billion measure had been slated to go abroad.
The lowered figure for assisting other countries encountered opposition in the House, where some Democrats wanted to boost the figure. Epidemiologists have cited the need to vaccinate more people around the world and reduce the virus’ opportunities for spinning off new variants.
“It’s a problem,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters. “It’s a shame.”
Kate Bedingfield, White House communications director, said officials were “very hopeful” an agreement would be reached and prodded lawmakers to include funds to help other countries cope with the disease.
“We’re not going to be able to put this pandemic behind us until we stop the spread and proliferation of new variants globally,” Bedingfield said.
Leaders hope Congress can approve the legislation before lawmakers leave for a spring recess after next week.
Republicans have leverage in the Democratic-controlled, 50-50 Senate because 60 votes are needed to pass most major bills. Romney and Blunt both said they believed a finalized package they described would attract significantly more than the 10 GOP votes needed.
Since the pandemic began, Congress has approved more than $5 trillion to address the economic and health crises it produced. Only a small fraction of that has been for public health programs like vaccines.
In an interview earlier Thursday with Punchbowl News, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the measure’s price tag seemed to have fallen to $10 billion because Democrats weren’t agreeing to additional savings.
Minutes later, Schumer took to the Senate floor and mentioned no figures but suggested its size could fall.
“I’m pleading with my Republican colleagues, join us,” Schumer said. “We want more than you do, but we have to get something done. We have to get something done.”
Asked if he thought an agreement could be reached before lawmakers’ recess, McConnell said, “We’ll see. Hope so.”
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Associated Press writer Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, but layoffs remain at historic lows.
Jobless claims rose by 14,000 to 202,000 for the week ending March 26, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The previous week’s tally of 188,000 claims was the fewest since 1969. First-time applications for jobless aid generally track the pace of layoffs.
The four-week average for claims, which compensates for weekly volatility, fell to 208,500 from 212,000 the previous week.
In total, 1,307,000 Americans were collecting jobless aid for the week ending March 19, the fewest since December 1969.
Employers added a robust 678,000 jobs in February, according to recent government data, the largest monthly total since July. The unemployment rate dropped to 3.8%, from 4% in January, extending a sharp decline in joblessness to its lowest level since before the pandemic erupted two years ago. The government reports March jobs data on Friday, and analysts forecast that the U.S. economy gained 477,500 jobs for the month.
Job openings hovered at a near-record level in February, little changed from the previous month, continuing a trend that Federal Reserve officials see as a driver of inflation. There were 11.3 million available jobs last month, matching January’s figure and just below December’s record of 11.4 million, the Labor Department said Tuesday.
The number of Americans quitting their jobs was also historically high, at 4.4 million, up from 4.3 million in January. More than 4.5 million people quit in November, the most on records dating back two decades.
The Federal Reserve launched a high-risk effort two weeks ago in an effort to tame the worst inflation since the early 1980s, raising its benchmark short-term interest rate and signaling up to six additional rate hikes this year.
The Fed’s quarter-point hike in its key rate, which it had pinned near zero since the pandemic recession struck two years ago, marks the start of its effort to curb the high inflation that followed the recovery from the recession. The rate hikes will eventually mean higher loan rates for many consumers and businesses.
The central bank’s policymakers have projected that inflation will remain elevated at 4.3% through 2022.
Also Thursday,an inflation gauge closely monitored by the Federal Reserve jumped 6.4% in February compared with a year ago, with sharply higher prices for food, gasoline and other necessities squeezing Americans’ finances.
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/nevada-gun-manufacturers-license-is-revoked-after-lawsuit/
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal officials have revoked the license of a Nevada-based gun manufacturer that was accused of illegally selling guns and went bankrupt but then rebranded itself.
The revocation comes after a lawsuit that alleged the Justice Department didn’t conduct proper oversight before issuing the license.
The decision to revoke the license of JA Industries was spelled out in a court filing late Wednesday as part of the lawsuit brought by Illinois; Kansas City, Missouri; and gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.
The lawsuit alleged that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a law enforcement agency in the Justice Department, awarded the license to JA Industries, renamed from Jimenez Arms, after it violated federal firearms law. The suit also alleged that the company’s guns were contributing to rising violent crime rates in Chicago and Kansas City.
Kansas City and Everytown had sued Jimenez Arms and several gun dealers previously, alleging they contributed to surging gun violence in the Kansas City region by ignoring evidence that guns were being sold illegally in the area. Jimenez Arms filed for bankruptcy about a month after the suit was filed.
That suit contended that Jimenez Arms every year made tens of thousands of cheap handguns that turned up at crime scenes in Kansas City and Chicago “at a rate disproportionate to the company’s market share.”
The plaintiffs alleged in their suit against the ATF that the company’s owner, Paul Jimenez, applied for a new license under the name JA Industries and that it took the ATF less than a month to award the license. The suit alleged that company officials had made false statements to the ATF and had unlawfully shipped guns to a firearms trafficker, which should’ve made the company and its officials ineligible for holding a federal firearms license.
A message seeking comment from JA Industries on Thursday was not immediately returned.
Everytown for Gun Safety heralded the decision to revoke the company’s license.
“We can only hope this decision marks the beginning of a new era at ATF, one that is consistent with President Biden’s commitment to holding rogue and reckless members of the gun industry accountable for breaking the law and putting lives in danger,” said John Feinblatt, Everytown’s president.
In a statement, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said it was a “bold action to stop the flow of illegal firearms into Kansas City.”
An ATF spokesperson, Erik Longnecker, declined to comment specifically, citing the ongoing case. But he said the agency “revokes Federal firearms licensees who are found to have committed willful violations of the Gun Control Act and have an adverse impact on public safety.”
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/opec-likely-to-stick-to-modest-oil-boost-despite-war-jitters/
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LONDON (AP) — OPEC and allied oil producers including Russia decided Thursday to stick to a modest increase in the amount of crude they pump to the world, a step that supports higher prices even as the Biden administration plans to try to lower them by releasing oil from strategic reserves.
The group, known as OPEC+, said it would add 432,000 barrels per day in May, as it works to gradually restore production cuts made during the depths of the coronavirus pandemic. That’s slightly up from 400,000 barrels in previous months, with officials saying they’re revising baseline production levels.
The alliance has been unmoved by pleas from oil-consuming countries to pump more oil as energy prices soar, fueling inflation worldwide. High prices have helped Russia — the world’s largest exporter with 12% of the global market — offset some of the economic pain from Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine.
The U.S. and European sanctions have dealt a severe blow to Russia’s economy but contain exceptions for energy payments. That is a U.S. concession to European allies who are much more dependent on Russian energy than the U.S., which has banned the import of Russian oil. Europe by contrast gets 40% of its natural gas and 25% of its oil from Russia, and officials there have shied away from a boycott, instead aiming to reduce dependency through conservation and boosting wind and solar energy as fast as they can over the next several years.
Oil prices have risen as global demand rebounded for fuel for cars, trucks and airplanes. The war pushed them ever higher over fears Russian oil might be lost to the market if sanctions tighten.
They have a major influence on how much U.S. drivers pay at the pump, with crude oil accounting for about half the price of a gallon of gas. To combat high gasoline prices — averaging $4.24, up $1.38 from a year ago — U.S. President Joe Biden is preparing to order the release of up to 1 million barrels per day from strategic petroleum reserves, with an announcement expected as soon Thursday.
Diesel fuel for trucks, farm equipment and factories has also jumped in price, to a U.S. average of $5.25 per gallon, up $2.02 from a year ago, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
In November, the White House announced the release of 50 million barrels in coordination with other countries, and after the war began, the U.S. and 30 other countries agreed on an additional release of 60 million barrels.
Oil prices slumped on expectations of a new release, but analysts at UniCredit bank said the impact of such moves on prices “is usually short-lived.” That’s because reserves are finite, and the production shortfall is open-ended. Once reserves fall below a certain level, the market might fear they would be insufficient to combat a further shortfall and prices would go up.
U.S. oil prices were down 6.3%, to $100.99, while international benchmark Brent crude dropped 5.6%, to $107.50.
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/partys-over-dubais-monthslong-expo-202o-comes-to-a-close/
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The world’s fair in Dubai, a tech-saturated site teeming with talking robots and solar canopies, sought to be the future.
Now, it’s history.
The pandemic-delayed Expo 2020 in the United Arab Emirates closed on Thursday after eight years of anticipation, over $7 billion in investment, 240 million hours of labor and six months of festivities.
The fate of the fairgrounds is clear. Some national pavilions will be demolished. A few will remain, like an enormous lacework dome and the UAE’s soaring falcon-shaped pavilion. Other buildings will be rebranded for a new business district soon to rise from the site.
But the deeper legacy of the event proves more elusive.
When Dubai won the bid to host Expo back in 2013, it felt like a rebirth. Just four years earlier, the glitzy city-state suffered a real-estate crash in the Great Recession, rescued by a $20 billion bailout from oil-rich Abu Dhabi.
As property prices roared back, the Expo — the first world’s fair in the Middle East — appeared to signal Dubai’s troubles were behind it. Officials offered bright predictions. The “world’s greatest show” would draw 25 million visitors. It would generate $33.4 billion in investment until 2031. It would help Dubai push into the top tier of global financial centers.
But, in the end, the billions of dollars, frenzy of fantastical construction projects and barrage of publicity proved powerless against the coronavirus pandemic, which forced Dubai to postpone the event for a year.
“It definitely fell short of what officials would have wanted,” said James Swanston, an economist at Capital Economics. “There were extremely optimistic assessments about Expo driving the next five to 10 years of growth in real estate and business, and COVID disrupted that.”
Dubai raced to widespread vaccination so it could open its borders and relax virus restrictions — earning it a reputation as a party haven for tourists escaping lockdowns back home.
The fair has since logged a staggering, albeit murky, total of 23 million visits — fueled by repeated stops by those already living in the city. Public sector employees got six days paid leave to visit. Schoolchildren regularly descended on Expo for field trips.
While concert lineups included just a few starry names, such as Coldplay and Alicia Keys, culturally specific crowd-pleasers succeeded in drawing diverse and rabid fan bases. K-pop stars, Bollywood singers and a beloved Iranian pop diva lured thousands.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience for all of us,” said 37-year-old Samiya Awan, a Pakistani resident of Dubai and Expo fanatic who volunteered at three national pavilions. “I am coming here every day, even if I’m not volunteering, I’m coming with my kids.”
But the event brought scrutiny as well.
As the FIFA World Cup has for host Qatar, Expo has shined a light on the troubles of migrant laborers. Many low-paid Expo workers have told of plunging into debt to cover recruitment fees, having their passports confiscated and struggling to afford food while toiling at the multibillion-dollar fair.
However, no companies or countries ultimately heeded calls by the European Parliament to withdraw their involvement in Expo over human rights concerns. Dubai has counted on the event to raise its international profile and offer a jolt toits economy as it bounces backfrom the pandemic.
“Bringing the world to Dubai and showcasing Dubai to the world has been one of the successes of this event,” said Tarek Fadlallah, chief executive at Nomura Asset Management Middle East.
Other analysts note that while Dubai increasingly has elbowed its way onto the world stage in recent months, that may have less to do with Expo’s allure than the government’s pandemic response and major reforms.
The UAE has changed its weekend to align with the West, allowed unmarried couples to legally live together and eased visa restrictions and foreign investment rules. Gambling appears to be next. As hordes of well-heeled foreigners flock to the emirate, the prices of luxury properties and villas have surged.
“I wouldn’t give Expo all the credit for residential property price increases,” said Sapna Jagtiani, a director at S&P Global Ratings. “It was mostly driven by how the UAE managed the pandemic and high net-worth individuals moving to the country.”
Dubai may no longer have a major global event but observers say the city’s business-friendly rules and absence of sanctions and politics will buoy the emirate in its Expo comedown. That’s especially true as Russia’s war on Ukraine has pushed oil prices to multi-year highs and stirred economic turmoil in the region.
“We have a lot of oil money that finds its way to Dubai real estate,” Jagtiani added. “It’s considered a safe haven where investment flows whenever there’s conflict.”
However, concerns linger that the end of Expo could aggravate Dubai’s debt and oversupply problems if demand fails to materialize for the expected flood of new hotel and housing construction. Rising interest rates loom as well.
“It may not blow up in the same way as 2009, but it could raise concerns about debt repayments where Abu Dhabi has to step in again,” Swanston said.
But while uncompleted white elephant projects still litter Dubai, others more successful have propelled growth and transformed swaths of its vast deserts into gleaming new developments.
Whether the Expo site has a lasting impact remains to be seen, even as crowds rushed in for the final few hours of the party.
“I’ve heard a lot of mixed feedback about how good or how bad the Expo was, how it didn’t meet certain expectations,” said Khaled Iskandar, a Palestinian architect visiting the site for the fourth time this week. “Personally … I was in awe.”
At a razzle-dazzle closing ceremony, Expo’s dome gleamed with hypnotic scenes of swirling water and orange-yellow light.
“When the Expo ends and this site evolves … the enduring spirit of Expo 2020 Dubai will persist,” proclaimed Jai-chul Choi, president of the General Assembly of the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions that oversees Expos.
Renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma performed a slow and mournful solo. The dark sky lit up with fireworks.
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Associated Press writer Malak Harb in Dubai contributed to this report.
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Follow Isabel DeBre on twitter at www.twitter.com/isabeldebre.
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/un-chief-names-panel-to-probe-companies-climate-efforts/
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BERLIN (AP) — The head of the United Nations announced the appointment Thursday of an expert panel led by Canada’s former environment minister to scrutinize whether companies’ efforts to curb climate change are credible or mere “ greenwashing.”
Recent years have seen an explosion of pledges by businesses — including oil companies — to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to “net zero” amid consumer expectations that corporations bear part of the burden of cutting pollution. But environmental campaigners say many such plans are at best unclear, at worst designed to make companies look good when they are actually fueling global warming.
“Governments have the lion’s share of responsibility to achieve net-zero emissions by mid-century,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, adding that this was particularly true for the Group of 20 major emerging and industrialized economies that account for 80% of greenhouse gas emissions.
“But we also urgently need every business, investor, city, state and region to walk the talk on their net-zero promises,” he said.
The 16-member panel will make recommendations before the end of the year on the standards and definitions for setting net-zero targets, how to measure and verify progress, and ways to translate that into international and national regulations.
In addition to examining net-zero pledges by the private sector, it will also scrutinize commitments made by local and regional governments that don’t report directly to the U.N.
The panel includes prominent Australian climate scientist Bill Hare, South Africa-based sustainable finance expert Malango Mughogho and the former long-time governor of the People’s Bank of China, Zhou Xiaochuan.
It will be chaired by Catherine McKenna, who was Canada’s minister of environment and climate change from 2015 to 2019.
One outside expert called the creation of the new panel “well overdue,” noting that targets such as “net zero” are interpreted in different ways by companies and officials.
Harry Fearnehough, a policy analyst at the NewClimate Institute, said the think tank had recently reviewed several major companies and found “a number of critical issues with net-zero pledges, many of which are misleading consumers, regulators and shareholders.”
“Clear guidance on what is right, and what not, is welcome,” he said.
A report last month by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that more than three billion people worldwide are already at risk from global warming.
The panel will publish another report next week which is expected to confirm that the world is not on track to meet the goal of capping temperature rise at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, which was laid down in the 2015 Paris climate accord.
“If we don’t see significant and sustained emissions reductions this decade, the window of opportunity to keep 1.5 alive will be closed — forever,” said Guterres. “And that will be disaster for everyone.”
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Follow AP’s coverage of climate change at https://apnews.com/hub/climate
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WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. airport security procedures will become more gender-neutral, with changes to scanners used for screening and the use of an “X” for travelers going through Precheck who do not identify as male or female, the Biden administration said Thursday.
Transportation Security Administration officers will also receive new instructions on screening intended to make procedures less invasive, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
They are among a series of travel-security measures announced by the department in conjunction with Transgender Day of Visibility. President Joe Biden is marking the day by advocating against what his administration terms “dangerous anti-transgender legislative attacks” that have passed in statehouses across the country.
“DHS is committed to protecting the traveling public while ensuring that everyone, regardless of gender identity, is treated with respect,” Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in the statement.
The use of the “X” pronoun in the TSA Precheck advanced security program will begin April 11 and is intended to keep pace with identity documents that already include that option, DHS said. A new “X” gender marker on U.S. passport applications also begins April 11.
Later this year, TSA will begin using scanners with new technology that will replace gender-based systems and are intended to “advance civil rights and improve the customer experience.”
The TSA will work with airlines to promote the acceptance of the “X” gender marker and will also update the guidance for airport security screening officers to remove gender considerations when validating documents, DHS said.
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BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. officials on Thursday adopted a rule aimed at reducing deaths and environmental damage from oil and gas pipeline ruptures — a long-delayed response to fatal explosionsand massive spillsthat have occurred over decades in California, Michigan, New Jersey and other states.
But safety advocates said the move by the U.S. Transportation Department would not have averted the accidents that prompted the new rule. That’s because it applies only to newly constructed or replaced pipelines — and not to hundreds of thousands of miles of lines that already crisscross the country, many of them decades old and corroding.
The rule requires companies to install emergency valves that can quickly shut off the flow of oil, natural gas or other hazardous fuels when pipelines rupture. It came in response to a massive gas explosion in San Bruno, California, that killed eight people in 2010, and to large oil spills into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River and Montana’s Yellowstone River and other spills.
The National Transportation Safety Board since the 1990s has recommended the use of automatic or remote controlled valves on large pipelines — whether they are existing or new — to reduce the severity of accidents. Following a 1994 gas pipeline explosion and fire that destroyed eight buildings in Edison, Jersey, the safety board urged the Transportation Department to expedite requirements for shut-off valves in cities and natural areas.
But pipeline companies for years resisted new valve requirements because of the expense of installing them and concerns they could close accidentally and shut off fuel supplies.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the more stringent regulations for the industry were needed because too many people have been harmed by pipeline failures.
He said installation of the valves would also protect against large releases of methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas blamed for helping drive climate change.
“Today we are taking an important step to protect communities against hazardous pipeline leaks — helping to save the lives, property, and jobs of people in every part of the country while preventing super-polluting methane leaks.” Buttigieg said.
The Pipeline Safety Trust, a Bellingham, Washington-based advocacy group, said the rule marked progress since Congress mandated more stringent pipeline regulations over a decade ago.
But the group said exempting pipelines that are already in the ground means it would not prevent a repeat of the accident at San Bruno, which involved a pipeline that was more than 50 years old.
“This rule falls far short of the NTSB recommendation and will offer no additional safety to communities living near existing pipelines,” said Bill Caram, executive director of the safety trust.
The government estimated it would cost a combined $5.9 million annually for companies to comply with Thursday’s rule. By comparison, industry representatives said a single valve on an existing line could cost up to $1.5 million and it would take billions of dollars to retrofit lines nationwide.
Industry representatives were closely involved in crafting the rule. Their request to allow valves to be more widely spaced along pipelines and remove the requirement for some low-risk pipes was rejected. However, transportation officials adopted some of industry recommendations that will give operators latitude to make adjustments to where valves are placed.
Association of Oil Pipe Lines Vice President John Stoody said the final rule still contains “arbitrary requirements” for pipeline operators that don’t reflect real-world operating conditions or the low risk of spills in some scenarios.
Amy Andryszak, president of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, said her organization and companies it represents were still reviewing the rule but were “generally supportive” of rules that encourage safety.
Experts say automatic valves can help eliminate some human-caused errors that contribute to accidents, such as a delay of more than 17 hours to confirm the 2010 Kalamazoo, Michigan, pipeline rupture because workers ignored alarms indicating a possible spill. The break released more than 800,000 gallons (3,600,000 liters) of crude oil and caused roughly $1 billion in property and environmental damage.
In San Bruno, a 30-inch (76-centimeter) gas pipeline exploded and burned like a massive blowtorch in a suburban California neighborhood for 89 minutes before a manual valve was used to shut it down. An AP investigation found that pipeline operator Pacific Gas & Electric Co. agreed as far back as 1997 that remotely operated valves did a better job of protecting public safety, but opted against using them widely because they weren’t necessary or required.
Officials with the Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration did not immediately respond to questions about the new rule.
Also missing from the new rule are standards for equipment that can detect when and where leaks hit, a recurring problem in pipeline accidents, Caram said.
Instead, the rule says pipeline companies must quickly take steps to confirm a spill if they get an alarm or other notification, but the confirmation process itself remains up to the company.
Faulty leak detection systems played a role in recent accidents including a 350,000 gallon diesel oil spill in December into a wetlandsoutside New Orleans and an underwater rupture off California’s coastlast October that fouled the ocean with tens of thousands of gallons crude oil.
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Follow Matthew Brown: @matthewbrownAP
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A nonprofit arm of West Virginia University took ownership of a shuttered pharmaceutical plant Thursday with the goal of improving area job and education opportunities.
WVU Medicine will work with the university through the WVU Innovation Corp. to oversee the 1.1-million-square-foot (102,190-square-meter) facility in Morgantown. Discussions with potential private industry tenants are ongoing, said WVU Health System President and CEO Albert Wright.
“There is significant interest from many parties in that building,” Wright said on a conference call. “We’re going to be working up a lot of different possibilities as to how we use that building over time.”
Wright said he envisions a few anchor tenants and other, smaller businesses in the building, as opposed to one big tenant. He said it’s possible that portions, but not all, of the building could be available for use as a pharmaceutical business.
“We’re looking to be an economic engine here,” Wright said. “We’re looking for some big-anchor tenants, but we’re also going to have a component to what we’re doing to be an incubator for startup businesses, to provide some of the infrastructure to get them going from the start.”
Prospective tenants don’t necessarily have to be health-care related, “but we’d like to tie it into the health science capability of the university,” Wright said. “So we have had a number of small startups that are interested.”
Viatris Inc. transferred the facility for $1 under a memorandum of understanding with the university. Viatris announced in December 2020 that it was laying off 1,500 workers at the plant, which was formerly operated by the generic drug company Mylan.
Mylan merged with Upjohn in 2020 to form the new company. Viatris, which announced it would slash 20% of its workforce worldwide, is now one of the world’s leading makers of generic drugs and maintains research and development operations in Morgantown.
“Our goal has always been to identify a responsible new steward for this unique site that would secure the best possible future for the facility, our impacted employees and the Morgantown community, a community that continues to play an important and vital role for Viatris,” company executive chairman Robert J. Coury said in a statement.
The plant closing left workers scrambling to find new jobs in a state that is often trying to lure new companies to uplift a stagnant economy once dominated by the coal industry.
Rob Alsop, WVU’s vice president for strategic initiatives, said former Mylan employees will be offered a tuition-free education at the university. Coupled with the state’s existing offer of free tuition at its community colleges, it will “make sure that those employees are ready for the new job opportunities that we hope come from this,” he said.
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YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Thursday he will meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Brussels next week to lay the groundwork for peace talks to end the decades-long conflict over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The two leaders will meet in Brussels on April 6 with European Council President Charles Michel.
There have been recent clashes that have raised concerns about the stability of a cease-fire that ended the 2020 war over the separatist region.
“I hope to discuss at this meeting with the president of Azerbaijan and agree on all issues related to the start of negotiations on a peace agreement,” Pashinyan told a government meeting Thursday. He said Armenia “is ready for the immediate start of peace negotiations.”
Fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces reignited in Nagorno-Karabakh this month, and three soldiers in the breakaway region were killed last week.
More than 6,600 people were killed in the six-week war in 2020 that ended with Azerbaijan reclaiming control over large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas that the Armenia-backed separatists controlled.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a decades-old dispute over the separatist region, which lies within Azerbaijan but was under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994.
The cease-fire in 2020 was mediated by Russia, which then sent some 2,000 troops it called peacekeepers to the region.
Tensions on the two nations’ shared border have been building since May, when Armenia protested what it described as an incursion by Azerbaijani troops into its territory. Azerbaijan has insisted that its soldiers were deployed to what it considers its territory in areas where the border has yet to be demarcated.
Clashes have been reported ever since, and they intensified this month as Russia became increasingly bogged down in its invasion of Ukraine.
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BEIJING (AP) — Residents of eastern Shanghai hoping to emerge from a four-day lockdown got some bad news Thursday night: Some will be confined to their homes for at least 10 more days.
It was the latest wrinkle in the lockdown of China’s largest city as it struggles to eliminate an omicron-driven coronavirus outbreak under China’s zero-COVID policy. Shanghai’s 26 million residents were initially told the eastern part of the city would be locked down for mass testing over four days, followed by a similar exercise in the west.
The city announced new restrictions nine hours before the lockdown of the east was scheduled to end at 5 a.m. Friday. It was unclear how many people would have to stay in their homes beyond that. Meanwhile, the four-day lockdown of the western part of Shanghai was set to start at 3 a.m.
There was a bit of good news elsewhere in China in the country’s largest COVID-19 outbreak since the initial one in early 2020 that devastated the city of Wuhan and other parts of Hubei province. Authorities announced the lifting of a citywide lockdown in the province that has been hardest hit.
Residents of Jilin will be able to move about freely starting Friday for the first time in more than three weeks, state broadcaster CCTV said, citing a city notice. They will be required to wear masks and, when indoors, stay 1 meter (3 feet) apart. Public gatherings in parks and squares are prohibited.
The spread of COVID-19 has been brought under control in Jilin but not in the rest of Jilin province, officials said at a news conference. Some progress has been made in Changchun, the provincial capital and an auto manufacturing hub that has been locked down since March 11.
By far, most of the cases in the ongoing outbreak have been in Jilin province, which borders North Korea in China’s industrial northeast. Smaller outbreaks have popped up across the country, including Shanghai, the country’s financial capital.
Ma Chunlei, a senior Shanghai official, acknowledged shortcomings in the city’s response. Authorities have rushed to bolster food deliveries to the city after panic buying stripped store shelves of necessities.
“We didn’t prepare sufficiently enough,” Ma said. “We sincerely accept the criticisms from the public and are making efforts to improve it.”
He spoke before the new rules for Pudong, the half of Shanghai on the east side of the Huangpu River, were announced Thursday night. People living in a building where a positive case had been found will be required to stay home for 10 more days. Residents of other buildings in the same residential compound will be confined for three more days.
People living in the surrounding neighborhood of a positive case will face less restrictive limits. They may be allowed out to shop for necessities, but only for a limited time on certain days.
The two-phase lockdown of Shanghai, being carried out over eight days, has shaken global markets worried about the possible economic impact. China’s manufacturing activity fell to a five-month low in March, a monthly survey showed Thursday, as lockdowns and other restrictions forced factories to suspend production.
German automaker BMW’s plants in Shenyang, a northeastern city in Liaoning province, have been closed for more than a week because of pandemic controls.
About 16 million people will be tested during the lockdown in Puxi on the west side of the river in Shanghai. Residents are not allowed to leave their neighborhoods or housing compounds during the four-day period, with groceries or meals delivered to their complexes.
China on Thursday reported 8,559 new cases in the previous 24-hour period, of which 6,720 had no symptoms. The proportion of asymptomatic cases has been higher than in previous outbreaks, particularly in Shanghai. About 100 of the new cases were imported ones among people who had recently arrived from abroad.
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Associated Press researchers Chen Si in Shanghai and Yu Bing in Beijing contributed.
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CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Ethiopia’s Supreme Court has upheld the order to release on bail journalist Amir Aman Kiyaro, who has been imprisoned for four months without charges, rejecting a police effort to block his bail.
The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the appeal by police against bail that had been granted by a lower court earlier this week for Kiyaro, an Ethiopian video journalist accredited to The Associated Press. That ruling said Kiyaro should be freed on bailwhile prosecutors determine whether or not to press charges against him.
The bail of 60,000 Ethiopian birr, about $1,170, has been paid, but Kiyaro remained in custody Thursday while police processed the bail paperwork before his expected release, according to his lawyer.
Kiyaro, 30, was detained on Nov. 28 in Addis Ababa under the country’s war-related state of emergency powers.
Kiyaro is accused of “serving the purposes” of what the government has classified as a terrorist group by interviewing its officials, according to reports by Ethiopian state media, which cited federal police. Local journalist Thomas Engida was arrested at the same time and faces similar charges. Ethiopia’s Supreme Court also ruled that Engida should be released on bail.
If the journalists are found guilty of violating Ethiopia’s anti-terrorism law or the state of emergency law, they could face sentences of seven to 15 years behind bars, federal police inspector Tesfaye Olani has told state media.
Despite the granting of bail after four months of police investigation and detention, it still remains uncertain whether prosecutors will proceed to press charges against Kiyaro. The state of emergency was lifted in Februaryas the government cited changing conditions in the deadly conflict between Ethiopian forces and those of the northern Tigray region.
“We are relieved that journalist Amir Aman Kiyaro has again been granted bail,” Julie Pace, the AP’s executive editor, said. “However, Ethiopian authorities continue their investigation against him. We urge the Ethiopian authorities to drop their baseless investigation against Amir, an independent journalist targeted for his work.”
Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders urged Ethiopian authorities to immediately release Kiyaro and Engida and to not press any charges against them. “They should be freed with no further delay and the case be dropped!” said the group in a tweet.
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ROME (AP) — Drums pounded through the frescoed halls of the Apostolic Palace on Thursday and out into St. Peter’s Square as Pope Francis welcomed a First Nations delegation seeking an apology for the Catholic Church’s role in running Canada’s notorious residential schools.
Francis met privately for two hours with the representatives of the Assembly of First Nations, following his meetings earlier in the week with delegations from the Metis and Inuit communities of Canada.
“I feel the pope and the church have expressed a sentiment of working toward reconciliation,” said Grand Chief Mandy Gull-Masty of the Creen Nation, after the audience.
The trip was years in the making but gained momentum last year after the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves outside some of the residential schools.
More than 150,000 native children in Canada were forced to attend state-funded Christian schools from the 19th century until the 1970s in an effort to isolate them from the influence of their homes and culture. The aim was to Christianize and assimilate them into mainstream society, which previous Canadian governments considered superior.
Even before the grave sites were discovered, Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission specifically called for a papal apology to be delivered on Canadian soil for the church’s role in the abuses against the Indigenous.
Francis has committed to traveling to Canada, though no date for such a visit has been announced.
The Vatican said Thursday’s meeting was held “in a climate of listening and closeness” and would be followed by Francis’ audience with all three groups on Friday, when he is to deliver a public address.
“If you were to ask me am I optimistic leaving our discussion with the Holy Father, I am,” said Phil Fontaine, who was national chief of the Assembly of First Nations in 2009 when he led an Indigenous delegation to meet with Pope Benedict XVI.
At the time, Benedict only expressed his “sorrow at the anguish caused by the deplorable conduct of some members of the church.” But he did not apologize.
“It’s 2022, I’m back, for another shot at … convincing Pope Francis to apologize,” Fontaine told reporters in St. Peter’s Square, wearing a feathered headdress. “A full apology for all that he heard today and probably heard from the Metis and Inuit delegations about the horrible experience of too many of our people that attended residential schools.”
“Our preference is for the Holy Father to come to Canada and apologize on Canadian soil, and do it on one of our territories,” he added. “That is our hope and wish and we made that very clear to the Holy Father.”
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BERLIN (AP) — Germany says it has brought home 10 women and 27 children from a camp in northeastern Syria where suspected members of the Islamic State group have been held.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the group was repatriated from the Roj camp on Wednesday in what she called an “extremely difficult” operation. She said some of the mothers were taken into custody immediately after arriving in Germany.
“The 27 children are, at the end of the day, victims of IS, and they have a right to a better future far from its deadly ideology, and also to live in security, as we would wish for our own children,” Baerbock said in a statement. “The mothers must be held accountable for their actions.”
Germany previously repatriated 23 children and their eight mothers from Roj in October. At the same time, neighboring Denmark brought home 14 children and three women.
Baerbock thanked Kurdish authorities in Syria and “our U.S. partners, who once again provided us with logistical support.”
With Wednesday’s operation, “the majority of the German children whose mothers are willing to return to Germany have been brought to safety,” she said. “There are now only a few special cases for which we are continuing to work on individual solutions.”
Federal prosecutors said Thursday that four women had been arrested on arrival at Frankfurt Airport — three German citizens, identified in line with local privacy rules only as Nadine K., Gulseren T. and Emilie R., and a German-Moroccan dual citizen identified as Fatiha B.
All are accused of membership in a foreign terrorist organization and Nadine K. of other crimes — including keeping a Yazidi woman as a slave who allegedly was regularly sexually assaulted by the suspect’s husband, with her knowledge. Prosecutors said they traveled separately to Syria or Iraq in 2014 and joined IS.
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ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A 33-year-old woman from southern Greece has been charged with the murder of her 9-year-old daughter, and the deaths of her two other daughters in the past three years are being reviewed in a case that has drawn national attention.
Flanked by riot police and in handcuffs, she appeared in court in Athens Thursday for her arraignment. She was wearing a hood and a protective vest as authorities held back a crowd of onlookers and journalists.
The suspect, who was not formally identified in accordance with Greek law, was arrested a day after being detained for questioning Wednesday. It followed the results of tissue tests that showed the presence of an anesthetic drug that had not been administered by the girl’s doctors.
The 9-year-old died in January following an eight-month hospitalization.
Protesters also gathered outside the mother’s home in the port city of Patras, 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Athens, where police again intervened to maintain order.
A panel of senior coroners is leading a review into the death of the suspect’s two other children: a 3-year-old girl from liver failure in 2019 and a 6-month-old girl in 2021 from a suspected heart defect.
Tissue samples retained from the two girls are now being re-examined, authorities said.
The suspect has denied any wrongdoing and is expected to formally respond to the charges on Monday.
In a private television interview last month, the suspect criticized news reports that described the three deaths as suspicious.
“I find myself in a position to defend myself against things that are unspeakable… this was a house that was filled with joy,” she said in the Feb. 17 appearance on private Star television. “How could I hurt my own children? I gave birth to them, raised them, and was always with them. It doesn’t make sense.”
In the same interview, the suspect’s husband described her as “a rock” for her children. Police investigators have been granted access to her private online communications.
“The emotional and moral burden of this event surpasses most if not all of us,” government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou said, congratulating the police on their work in the monthslong investigation.
“There are no words to express the pain this has caused. This requires considerable thought and reflection.” ___ Follow Gatopoulos at https://twitter.com/dgatopoulos
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The last Russian troops left the Chernobyl nuclear plant early Friday, according to the Ukrainian government agency responsible for the exclusion zone around the plant.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Russian troops who dug trenches in the forest were exposed to radiation, but that could not be confirmed.
The Ukrainian nuclear operator company Energoatom said Thursday that Russian troops were headed toward Ukraine’s border with Belarus.
Energoatom said that the Russian military was also preparing to leave Slavutych, a nearby city where power plant workers live.
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
— Heavy fighting rages near Kyiv as Russia appears to regroup
— Kremlin decree says foreign currency can still buy natural gas
— As Russia sees tech brain drain, other nations hope to gain
— Ukraine refugees encouraged to find work as exodus slows
— Ukrainians in US mobilize to help expected refugees
— Go to https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine for more coverage
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
LVIV, UKRAINE — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after Russian troops withdrew from the north and center of the country, the situation has been heating up in the southeast where Russian forces are building up for new powerful attacks.
In his nighttime video address to the nation Thursday, Zelenskyy said it was heartening for all Ukrainians to see Russian troops retreating from north of Kyiv, from around the northern town of Chernihiv and from Sumy in the northeast. By he urged Ukrainians not to let up, saying the withdrawal was just a Russian tactic.
“We know their intentions. We know what they are planning and what they are doing,” Zelenskyy said. ““We know that they are moving away from those areas where we hit them in order to focus on other, very important ones where it may be difficult for us.
“We all want to win,” Zelenskyy added. “But there will be battles ahead. We still have to go through a very difficult path ahead to get everything we are striving for.”
Zelenskyy said he spoke Thursday with European Council President Charles Michel and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while his adviser spoke with U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
“We need more support from our partners right now when Russian troops are concentrating additional forces in certain areas,” Zelenskyy said.
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WASHINGTON — The top-ranking Ukrainian Catholic cleric in the United States warned Thursday that religious minorities in the Eastern European country stand to be “crushed” if Moscow gains control, as fighting raged on more than a month after the Russian invasion began.
Archbishop Borys Gudziak said groups at risk include Catholics, Muslims and Orthodox who have broken away from the patriarch of Moscow.
Gudziak also cited reports that Russian forces have damaged two Holocaust memorials and Moscow’s false portrayal of Ukraine as a “Nazi” state although Ukraine overwhelmingly elected a Jewish president in Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“What is at stake for the people of faith is their freedom to practice their faith,” Gudziak said during an online panel discussion on the war, hosted by the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University.
Gudziak is head of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia and president of Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine. He also oversees external relations for the Kyiv-based Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
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WASHINGTON — The Pentagon says an initial half-dozen shipments of weapons and other security assistance have reached Ukraine as part of the $800 million package of aid that President Joe Biden approved on March 16.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that the shipments included Javelin anti-tank weapons, Stinger anti-aircraft missile systems, body armor, medical supplies and other material. He said the 100 Switchblade armed drones that Biden approved as part of the package have not yet been delivered.
Kirby said the $800 million in assistance is likely to be fully delivered within about two weeks. It also includes Mi-17 helicopters, small arms, ammunition, vehicles, secure communications systems, and satellite imagery and analysis capability.
Separately, Kirby said U.S. troops are not training Ukrainian troops in Poland but are acting as liaisons with Ukrainian personnel who cross the border into Poland to take possession of U.S. security assistance. He noted that the standard U.S. military training mission that had existed in Ukraine for years was suspended shortly before Russia invaded.
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DOHA, Qatar — A video showing the head of Ukrainian soccer wearing an armored vest on the streets of Kyiv brought the impact of Russia’s war into the FIFA Congress.
Andriy Pavelko used a recorded message to the gathering in Qatar on Thursday to talk about the deaths of footballers even as the sport “has taken a back seat in our country.”
The gathering in Doha featured delegates from Russia, including Alexey Sorokin, the chief executive of Russia’s 2018 World Cup organizing committee.
Russia won’t be in the draw for the World Cup on Friday after being disqualified from playing internationally by FIFA over the war. Ukraine can still qualify but its playoff semifinal against Scotland has been postponed until June with the hope the team will be in a position to return to the field by then.
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LVIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s ombudsperson says that at least one person has been killed and four others have been wounded in the Russian shelling of a humanitarian convoy.
Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmyla Denisova said those who came under the shelling on Thursday were volunteers accompanying a convoy of buses sent to the northern city of Chernihiv to evacuate residents.
She said that the Russian forces besieging Chernihiv have made it impossible to evacuate civilians from the city that has been cut from food, water and other supplies.
The Russian shelling continued two days after Moscow announced it would scale back military operations around Kyiv and Chernihiv.
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BERLIN — The International Atomic Energy Agency says it has been informed by Ukraine that the Russian forces which were in control of the Chernobyl nuclear plant have “in writing, transferred control” of the facility to Ukrainian personnel.
Ukraine said three convoys of Russian forces have already left the site toward Belarus, while the remaining troops were presumed to be preparing to leave, the agency said Thursday.
The IAEA added that it was in close consultations with Ukrainian authorities on sending a first assistance and support mission to Chernobyl in the next few days.
The agency said it has not been able to confirm reports of Russian forces receiving high doses of radiation while being inside the exclusion zone of the now-closed plant, but is seeking further information in order to provide an independent assessment of the situation.
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ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed his offer to host a meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian leaders during a telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
A statement from Erdogan’s office said the Turkish president also told Zelenskyy Thursday that a meeting between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators who met in Istanbul earlier this week had given “a meaningful impetus” to efforts to end the fighting.
Earlier this week, Ukraine’s delegation laid out a framework under which the country would declare itself neutral and its security would be guaranteed by an array of nations, including Turkey.
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a joint news conference with a top Turkish Cypriot official that Erdogan also is expected to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday said there’s “no clear evidence” that Vladimir Putin is scaling back military operations around Kyiv and suggested that the Russian president may have ordered some of his advisers fired or placed under house arrest.
Biden told reporters that “there’s some indication” that Putin has taken those steps against some of his advisers. He added, “But I don’t want to put too much stock in that at this time because we don’t have that much hard evidence.”
The White House on Wednesday released unclassified intelligence findings that Putin is being misinformed by his advisors about how badly the Russian military is performing.
The president made the comments after formally announcing that the U.S. would release 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve in hopes of easing surging gasoline prices.
Biden also reiterated that his administration remains skeptical that Russia will scale back operations around Kyiv as Moscow announced earlier this week.
Russian forces continued to shell Kyiv suburbs Thursday, two days after the Kremlin announced it would significantly scale back operations near both the capital and the northern city of Chernihiv.
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UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine says the United Nations and its partners have delivered supplies for thousands of people in the country’s northeast but have been unable to reach some encircled cities in the south.
Osnat Lubrani said Thursday that food rations from the humanitarian organization People in Need and the U.N. World Food Program will benefit nearly 6,000 people in Sumy and areas including Trostianets and Okhtyrka.
In addition, she said, basic household items including blankets and kettles from the U.N. refugee agency will support 1,500 people and sanitation kits will help 6,000 people with hygiene and drinking water.
Lubrani said medical supplies and trauma kits from the U.N. World Health Organization will treat 150 patients needing intensive care for serious injuries while other medical supplies will support 10,000 people for three months.
Shei said the U.N.-facilitated humanitarian notification system with Ukraine and Russia enabled safe passage for the convoy to Sumy on Thursday “but this is clearly not enough.” Efforts over the past month to reach Mauripol, Kherson and other encircled cities in the south have been unsuccessful because of safety concerns.
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BERLIN — The U.N. nuclear watchdog says its director-general has arrived in Russia’s Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad for talks with senior Russian officials.
The International Atomic Energy Agency didn’t specify in a tweet whom exactly Rafael Mariano Grossi will meet on Friday or give further details of his agenda.
He arrived in Kaliningrad Thursday following a visit to Ukraine, where he visited a nuclear power plant and conferred with the energy minister and other officials on efforts to ensure the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants.
Ukraine has 15 active nuclear reactors at four plants — one of which, at Zaporizhzhia, is under the Russian military’s control.
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GENEVA — A team with the International Committee of the Red Cross has arrived in a Ukraine-held city where staff are preparing to take civilians out of the beleaguered port city of Mariupol.
Julien Lerisson, deputy director of operations for the ICRC, said Thursday that the team assembling in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, has medicines, food, water, hygiene items and other essentials.
He said the organization has high-level agreement for the mission but is focused on making sure “the order trickles down the chain of command,” allowing the team to enter and leave Mariupol safely.
The Russian military has said it committed to a cease-fire along the route from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian authorities have said 45 buses would be sent to collect citizens and provide resources to those who remain.
Lucile Marbeau, a staff member with the ICRC team hoping to enter Mariupol, said on Thursday: “We’re here because really, we hope to be able to facilitate safe passage for civilians desperately wanting to flee Mariupol.”
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LONDON — Britain’s defense minister says Ukraine’s international allies have agreed to send more military equipment, including artillery ammunition and armored vehicles.
U.K. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace held a conference call Thursday with defense ministers from more than 35 countries, including the United States, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan.
Wallace said that as a result “there will be more lethal aid going into Ukraine.” He said that would include “more long-range artillery, ammunition predominantly,” to help counter Russia’s bombardment of Ukraine’s cities.
Wallace said Ukraine was “also looking for armoured vehicles of some types, not tanks necessarily, but certainly protective vehicles.”
He said allies were also “looking to see what more we can do” to help Ukraine defend its coastline.
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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has sanctioned an employee of a state-affiliated Russian defense firm that developed malicious software that was used to target the energy sector.
The Treasury Department on Thursday sanctioned Evgeny Viktorovich Gladkikh. He was one of four Russians charged in Justice Department indictments unsealed last week that alleged the hacking by Russia of critical infrastructure around the globe, including in the U.S. energy and aviation sectors.
Among the thousands of computers targeted in some 135 countries were of a Saudi petro-chemical plant where the hackers overrode safety controls.
That hack is singled out in a Treasury Department release announcing sanctions against Gladikh and several other employees of the research firm. In total, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced that it was designating 21 entities and 13 individuals, including in the aerospace, marine and electronics sectors.
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LVIV, Ukraine — Russian troops were leaving the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and heading towards Ukraine’s border with Belarus, the Ukrainian nuclear operator company said Thursday.
The operator, Energoatom, said that the Russian military was also preparing to leave Slavutych, a nearby city where power plant workers live.
Energoatom also said reports were confirmed that the Russians dug trenches in the Red Forest, the 10-square-kilometer (nearly four-square-mile) area surrounding the Chernobyl plant within the Exclusion Zone, and received “significant doses of radiation.”
The Russian troops “panicked at the first sign of illness,” which “showed up very quickly,” and began to prepare to leave, the operator said. The claim couldn’t be independently verified.
Energoatom said the Russians have signed a document confirming the handover of the Chernobyl plant and stating that the plant’s administration doesn’t have any complaints about the Russian troops who were “guarding” the facility.
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LONDON — The head of Britain’s military says Russian President Vladimir Putin has “already lost” in Ukraine and is weaker than he was before the invasion.
Adm. Tony Radakin at a think-tank seminar Thursday in London said Moscow’s aim to “take the whole of Ukraine” fell apart. He added that the coming weeks “will continue to be very difficult” for Ukraine.
“But in many ways, Putin has already lost,” he said. “Far from being the far-sighted manipulator of events that he would have us believe, Putin has damaged himself through a series of catastrophic misjudgements.”
Radakin also said there was “disquiet” at all levels of Russia’s military about the campaign, from troops who were not told they were invading Ukraine up to senior commanders.
Western officials say Putin’s small inner circle is not giving him the true picture of the war, and his isolation may have contributed to miscalculating the strength of resistance Russian troops would meet.
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BERLIN — The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe expressed regret Thursday at Russia’s decision to veto the extension of its observer mission in Ukraine.
The OSCE’s special monitoring mission has been present in Ukraine since 2014, when fighting between Ukrainians and Russia-backed separatists broke out in the country’s eastern regions after Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, who holds the OSCE rotating chair, said the observers had played a “crucial role by providing objective information on the security and humanitarian situation on the ground and relentlessly working to ease the effects of the conflict on the civilian population” in Ukraine for the past eight year.
The Vienna-based body’s secretary general, Helga Maria Schmid, expressed gratitude to the mission’s members, several of whom were wounded or killed over the years.
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BERLIN — Germany’s economy minister says Europe should impose additional sanctions on Russia to prevent what he described as a “barbaric” war in Ukraine.
Robert Habeck said he discussed what further measures could be taken with his French counterpart during a bilateral meeting in Berlin on Thursday.
“The last package (of sanctions) doesn’t need to be the final one, it should not be the final one,” he told reporters, adding that he and French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire had “identified additional points that could be included in a (sanctions) package.”
Habeck declined to elaborate on what those points might be.
Speaking ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement on new rules requiring countries to pay for Russia’s natural gas sales in rubles, Habeck insisted that contracts would be adhered to. These stipulate payment in euros or dollars.
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BERLIN — The Austrian and German leaders have underlined their rejection of a halt to Russian energy deliveries at this point.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer noted that several central and eastern European countries depend to one extent or another on Russian gas deliveries.
He and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz argued that existing sanctions already are having a significant effect and said they need time to switch to new providers and renewable energy sources.
Nehammer said that “sanctions only make sense … when they hit those they are supposed to hit, and don’t weaken those who carry out sanctions.”
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ROME — A Kremlin decree says “unfriendly countries” can continue to pay for natural gas in foreign currency through a Russian bank that will convert the money into rubles.
The decree published Thursday by state media came a day after the leaders of Italy and Germany said they received assurances from President Vladimir Putin.
Putin talked tougher, saying Russia will start accepting ruble payments starting Friday for Western countries that imposed sanctions over its conflict with Ukraine. He said contracts will be stopped if buyers don’t sign up to the new conditions, including opening ruble accounts in Russian banks.
European leaders had rejected paying for deliveries in rubles, saying it would undermine sanctions imposed because of the war in Ukraine.
The decree Putin signed and published by state news agency RIA Novosti says a designated bank will open two accounts for each buyer, one in foreign currency and one in rubles. The buyers will pay in foreign currency and authorize the bank to sell that currency for rubles, which are placed in the second account, where the gas is formally purchased.
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ROME — Italy’s leader is urging Europe to “cultivate all available land” as a partial remedy to reductions in agricultural imports, especially of Russian grain, due to the war in Ukraine.
Premier Mario Draghi told reporters on Thursday that under existing agricultural practices in the European Union 10% of land is purposely left fallow, but that must now change as European countries search for ways to reduce dependency on farm imports.
It’s not clear whether Ukraine, one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, maize and sunflower oil, might be able to salvage any of this planting season.
Meanwhile, Draghi noted that Western Europe will be looking to food producers like Canada, the United States and Argentina to help make up the shortfall of imports from Ukraine and Russia.
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STOCKHOLM — The deputy director of Sweden’s Military Intelligence and Security agency says Russia has made “a strategic miscalculation when invading Ukraine.”
Daniel Olsson said the invasion of Ukraine “has shown that the Russian leadership is ready to take great risks, larger than previously taken.”
The government agency’s analysis suggested a likely “a western containment of Russia,” including reducing trade in Russian energy.
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DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The French medical charity Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, says that five of its employees have been released in Nigeria after being kidnapped last month in neighboring Cameroon.
Armed men kidnapped the MSF employees on Feb. 24 from the group’s base in Cameroon’s Far North region in Fotokol, which is near Nigeria and Chad. Those kidnapped and subsequently released include a Senegalese, Chadian and Franco-Ivorian along with their two Cameroon security guards.
The organization said the workers were released Wednesday in Nigeria and have been “taken to a safe place.”
“We are happy to find our colleagues safe and sound,” said the director general of the organization, Stephen Cornish. “We share the deep relief of their parents and loved ones, who were impatiently awaiting this news.”
The organization did not give details on the condition of the release.
Cheikh Ndiaye, the uncle of the Senegalese humanitarian who was taking hostages expressed his family’s relief.
”They are free. We were told they are in Nigeria. We rejoice and look forward with great relief to his return among us,” he said.
Islamic extremist groups Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province are known to carry out attacks in this region.
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CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — More than a dozen migrants excitedly ran out of their dormitory at the Good Samaritan shelter here at the mere mention that the Biden administration may lift a rule that expels people at the border before they can request a chance at humanitarian protection in the United States.
They quizzed a reporter they’d overheard speak of the expected change in a rule that for the past two years has forced asylum seekers to wait at shelters in in Mexican border cities terrorized by organized crime.
At times the wait has seemed interminable. They struggle to find work, worry about debts accumulated to just reach the border and live in fear that they or their children could be snatched by drug cartels preying on the most vulnerable.
Migrants have been expelled more than 1.7 million times from the U.S. under public health powers invoked in March 2020 that are designed to prevent spread of Covid-19. The Biden administration plans to lift Title 42 authority – named for a 1944 public health law – by May 23, according to people familiar with the matter, with an official announcement expected as early as Friday. Near the height of the omicron variant in late January, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had extended the order to this week.
Reaction at migrant shelters in Ciudad Juarez shows the determination of many migrants to settle in the United States as soon as possible.
Most of the 63 people staying at Good Samaritan, across the border from El Paso, Texas, were women and their children from Mexico and Central America. The Rev. Juan Fierro, the shelter’s director, said the vast majority had either been expelled under Title 42 authority or were still waiting to try for asylum.
A group of women said that if Title 42 ended they would run to the bridge at the border to request asylum, because returning to their homes was not an option.
Melida Castro, a 32-year-old from Honduras, has been at the shelter for four months with her children, ages 3 and 8. “There’s nothing more for us to do but wait,” she said, explaining she had fled Honduras after a gang killed her uncle.
“I saw him die in my arms,” she said. Her family crossed the border once and turned themselves over to Border Patrol agents, but they were flown to El Paso and pushed back to Mexico. She said the agents mentioned Title 42, but didn’t explain what it meant.
While word of lifting the asylum limits provided a glimmer of hope, the possibility was also met with suspicion.
Delaying the lifting until late May, when the Biden administration has had more than a year in office to prepare, struck some as a way to buy time until the U.S. government can come up with another obstacle.
“Suddenly they’re going to say, ‘We’re not going to lift it,’” said Victor Sanchez, who fled Honduras with his wife and her three younger siblings. They have been staying at another shelter in Ciudad Juarez for a month.
The nine-bedroom concrete Oscar Romero House shelter clusters around a small courtyard with a pomegranate tree where children play after returning from school. The parents sit on the second floor terrace, fearful to go outside, sharing care of the youngest children and looking across the dusty desert cityscape to the mountains of El Paso less than 10 miles away.
Katherine, Sanchez’s wife, had a baby while in Mexico. “If we have to wait, we wait,” she said. “Now that there are organizations that can help us, we’ll wait for a legal way.”
There have been signs that the Biden administration has been preparing for an expected surge of asylum seekers trying to make their way to the border.
Two weeks ago, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas visited Mexico and Costa Rica to discuss managing migration flows. Without providing details, Mayorkas said he had reached a “migration arrangement” with Costa Rica.
In his State of the Union Address this month, President Joe Biden had said, “We’re securing commitments and supporting partners in South and Central America to host more refugees and secure their own borders.”
Both Mexico and Costa Rica are taking in substantial numbers of asylum seekers that in many cases would otherwise try to enter the United States. They could also be critical in trying to control the flow of migrants to the U.S. border.
Last month, Costa Rica started requiring visas for Venezuelans and Cubans, a step toward slowing their migration north. Mexico already required visas of Cubans and added Venezuelans in January.
Still, large numbers of migrants have been reaching the border. The Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that about 7,100 migrants were coming daily, compared with an average of about 5,900 a day in February and on pace to match or exceed highs from last year, 2019 and other peak periods.
Camilo Cruz, a spokesman with the United Nations International Organization for Migration, said this week that every U.S. move on immigration affects migration flows in the region.
“It moves people, generates hope or some kind of speculation by the traffickers,” Cruz said. “That motivates people to come to try to cross the border.” He said the IOM supports a network of shelters along the border and has worked in recent years to build their capacity.
Immigration advocacy groups applauded the decision, which they universally viewed as long overdue. Like the migrants, some questioned the delay until late May when the Biden administration has had months to prepare.
“A phased wind-down strategy just further proves this was never about public health,” Erin Mazursky, interim director of Families Belong Together, a coalition of groups opposed to Trump-era immigration policies, said in a statement. “This policy was in place for two years too long and the reported decision to extend Title 42 until May 23rd is simply another excuse to expel more people. If the intent is to stop upending people’s lives and hold true to America’s commitment to asylum and due process, the expulsions must end now.”
U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, a Los Angeles-area Democrat, told reporters in a conference call Thursday that administration officials visited congressional offices this week to brief lawmakers and their staffs on plans for accommodating larger numbers of migrants — up to about three times the current flow under one scenario.
The administration is “working very hard at finding a way to process migrants lawfully, humanely and efficiently,” she said.
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Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.
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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The Turkish prosecutor in the case against 26 Saudi nationals charged in the slaying of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi made a surprise request Thursday that their trial in absentia be suspended and the case transferred to Saudi Arabia, raising fears of a possible coverup.
The panel of judges made no ruling on the prosecutor’s request but said a letter would be sent to Turkey’s Justice Ministry seeking its opinion on the possible transfer of the file to Saudi judicial authorities, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Trial was adjourned until April 7.
The development comes as Turkey has been trying to normalize its relationship with Saudi Arabia, which hit an all-time low following Khashoggi’s grisly October 2018 killing. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview on Thursday that Saudi authorities were more cooperative on judicial issues with Turkey, but did not elaborate.
In arguing for the transfer, the prosecutor told the court that the Saudi chief public prosecutor’s office requested the Turkish proceedings be transferred to the kingdom in a letter dated March 13, and that international warrants issued by Ankara against the defendants be lifted, according to the private DHA news agency.
The prosecutor said that because the arrest warrants cannot be executed and defense statements cannot be taken, the case would remain inconclusive in Turkey.
Amnesty International urged Turkey to press ahead with the trial, saying if it is transferred to Saudi Arabia, Turkey will be “knowingly and willingly sending the case to a place where it will be covered up.”
Moving Khashoggi’s trial to Saudi Arabia would provide a diplomatic resolution to a dispute that represented the wider troubles between Ankara and the kingdom since the 2011 Arab Spring.
Turkey under Erdogan supported Islamists as the uprisings took hold, while Saudi Arabia and its ally the United Arab Emirates sought to suppress such movements for fear of facing challenges to their autocratic governments. Meanwhile, Turkey sided with Qatar in a diplomatic dispute that saw Doha boycotted by Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Since then-President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, the Gulf Arab states have set aside — but not fully resolved — the Qatar dispute. Meanwhile, Turkey under Erdogan has faced a rapid devaluation of its lira currency over his refusal to hike interest rates. Bilateral trade to the kingdom and the UAE, a major transshipment point for the world economy, also collapsed.
Since the start of 2022, Erdogan has sought to improve those ties, including making his first visit to the UAE in nearly a decade. Saudi Arabia and the UAE, after fighting through the coronavirus pandemic’s economic effects, facing a grinding war in Yemen and struggling with renewed tensions with Iran, also want to resolve the outstanding feud.
Khashoggi disappeared on Oct. 2, 2018, after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, seeking documents that would allow him to marry Hatice Cengiz, a Turkish national who was waiting outside the building. He never emerged.
Turkish officials allege that the Saudi national, who was a United States resident, was killed and then dismembered with a bone saw inside the consulate. His body has not been found. Prior to his killing, Khashoggi had written critically of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in columns for the Washington Post.
Turkish authorities said he was killed by a team of Saudi agents. Those on trial in absentia include two former aides of the prince.
Saudi officials initially offered conflicting accounts concerning the killing, including claims that Khashoggi had left the consulate building unharmed. But amid mounting international pressure, they stated that Khashoggi’s death was a tragic accident, with the meeting unexpectedly turning violent.
Turkey decided to try the defendants in absentia after Saudi Arabia rejected Turkish demands for their extradition.
The slaying had sparked international condemnation and cast a cloud of suspicion over Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Western intelligence agencies, as well as the U.S. Congress, have said that an operation of this magnitude could not have happened without his knowledge.
In urging Turkey to proceed with the trial, Amnesty International said Ankara would be complicit in a coverup if it grants the Saudi request for a transfer.
“If the prosecutor’s request is granted, then instead of prosecuting and shedding light on a murder that was committed on its territory … Turkey will be knowingly and willingly sending the case to a place where it will be covered up,” said Tarik Beyhan, Amnesty’s campaign director for Turkey.
Beyhan said he didn’t want to “think about the possibility” that the prosecutor’s request may be related to the improving ties between Riyadh and Ankara.
“Basic human rights … should not be made the subject of political negotiations,” he said. “A murder cannot be covered up to fix relations.”
Some of the men were put on trial in Riyadh behind closed doors. A Saudi court issued a final verdict in 2020 that sentenced five mid-level officials and operatives to 20-year jail terms. The court had originally ordered the death penalty, but reduced the punishment after Khashoggi’s son Salah, who lives in Saudi Arabia, announced that he forgave the defendants. Three others were sentenced to lesser jail terms.
On Thursday, Khashoggi’s fiancee, Cengiz, appeared to criticize the prosecutor’s request in a tweet in English. “It is an exemplary situation in terms of showing the dilemma facing humanity in the modern era,” she wrote. “Which of the two will we choose? To want to live like a virtuous human being or to build a life by holding material interests above all kinds of values.”
She did not respond to a request for comment.
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Associated Press Writer Jon Gambrell contributed from Dubai.
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BERLIN (AP) — Investigators said Thursday they have identified a 32-year-old student as the suspect in the poisoning of seven people at a university in western Germany last year.
In August, prosecutors opened an investigation after employees and students at the Technical University in Darmstadt, south of Frankfurt, received medical treatment for symptoms of possible poisoning. Police said at the time that milk cartons and water containers in a building on the campus appeared to have been contaminated.
On Thursday, they said the 32-year-old from the German city of Mainz, a materials science student at the university since 2017, has been sent to a psychiatric hospital. She is suspected of attempted murder, but officials believe she can’t be held criminally responsible because of a psychiatric illness. Police said the suspect hasn’t yet responded to the allegations.
They said information from over 1,000 witnesses helped firm up their case against the suspect, and that forensic analysis pointed to her having been in the building the night before the victims’ symptoms appeared.
Some of the affected employees were mentioned in notes written by the woman, and the investigation found indications that she felt persecuted by them, police said. They didn’t identify the “harmful substances” that were used.
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LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s nuclear operator company said Thursday that Russian troops were leaving the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and were heading towards the country’s border with Belarus.
The operator, Energoatom said that the Russian military are also preparing to leave Slavutych, a nearby city where power plant workers live.
It wasn’t immediately clear why the Russian troops decided to leave Chernobyl.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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WARSAW, Poland (AP) — As the number of people fleeing Ukraine slows, authorities in Poland and other neighboring nations are encouraging refugees from the war to find jobs, especially in health care and education.
The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR reported Thursday that the daily number of arrivals recorded by the countries that border Ukraine dropped below 40,000 on Wednesday, the fewest s ince Russian troops invaded five weeks ago.
Poland’s Border Guard registered more than half of the new arrivals, maintaining a pattern seen since the start of the war. Of the conflict’s more than 4 million refugees, almost 2.4 million went to Poland, according to the country’s border agency. It’s Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II.
Humanitarian organizations and other observers have attributed the slowing of the Ukrainian exodus in recent days to several possible factors, including residents of surrounded and besieged cities having no way to safely evacuate. Others may be reluctant to leave their homes and hoping to wait out the hostilities, observers say.
A spokesperson for Poland’s Border Guard, Anna Michalska, said the numbers could pick up again if Russian attacks continue.
Recent legislation passed in Poland allows refugees from Ukraine to obtain ID numbers that entitle them to free medical care, education, social benefits and the right to work for 18 months.
Many Poles are putting up refugees in their homes or volunteering in civic groups that bring all sorts of assistance.
Refugees in Warsaw have submitted about 700 applications and some 100 have been hired for jobs in the Polish capital’s medical centers and schools, according to city officials.
To boost the employment drive, Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski and Deputy Mayor Renata Kaznowska met Thursday with the director of the Bielanski Hospital and some Ukrainian and Polish staff members.
“Our guests are full of fortitude, they want to start to help us right away, they want to find jobs,” Trzaskowski told a news conference.
Kaznowska said employment and professional activity were the best way to integrate the adults who have fled Ukraine into Polish society.
Educators are also needed to help thousands of refugee children adjust to their new school environment, where lessons are taught in Polish and where the curriculum is largely different from the one in Ukraine. Adjusting the school system will cost over 440,000 zlotys ($105,000) in Warsaw alone, city authorities said.
Two nurses who are in the hiring process, speaking in Ukrainian mixed with Polish, said they appreciated the chance to continue their careers.
Olena Halych had to fight back tears as she spoke of fleeing home near shelled Bucha “to save my children.”
“I want to truly thank people in Poland for offering us shelter,” Halych said in Ukrainian. “I have found a job at the Bielanski Hospital, I want to really thank you for that.”
Hospital director Dorota Galczynska-Zych said the new recruits have provided valuable skills, and added that language has not been a barrier.
Some 570,000 refugees have reached Warsaw, a city of some 1.8 million, and some 300,000 remain in the capital for now, Trzaskowski said.
In Romania, which has received over 608,000 refugees, 35-year-old Uliana Polyakova from Odessa was busy Thursday registering at the Brasov city refugee center’s integration office that helps find accommodation, jobs and access to social assistance.
“Some people told me to arrive here at the center … in case we need medicine or something else,” she said, as her 7-year-old son enjoyed some screen-time nearby. “(A) Romanian family invited us to live with them. I did not expect that Romania is so kind to Ukrainians.”
“We’re not here because we want to leave Ukraine, me and my husband want to live with our relatives in Odessa,” she said. “I hope that the war is over in two weeks, one month, and we will go home.”
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Stephen McGrath in Brasov, Romania, contributed to this report.
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Follow all of AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to endorse the African Union’s new transitional mission in Somalia and authorized it to take action against al-Qaida and Islamic State extremist groups and conduct a phased handover of security responsibilities to Somalia’s government.
The African Union Transitional Mission in Somalia, known as ATMIS, replaces the African Union Mission in Somalia, known as AMISOM, which has been in the Horn of Africa nation for 15 years trying to build lasting peace and security.
While the resolution adopted by the council recognizes significant changes in the security situation since it authorized AMISOM in February 2007 and improvements in Somalia’s capability to respond to security challenges, it also reaffirms “the need to combat terrorist threats by all means.”
Only in the past few years has Somalia begun to find its footing after three decades of chaos from warlords to the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group and the emergence of Islamic State-linked extremist groups. Last year, a political crisis further postponed long-delayed elections and lower house elections which were to be completed on March 15 are still not complete, further delaying the vote for a new president.
The British-drafted resolution authorizes the new ATMIS mission to support the Somali forces “in providing security for the political process at all levels.”
The Security Council underscored that completing the electoral process without further delay and achieving “a peaceful transition of power” will help Somalia move ahead with its national priorities and support its 2021 transition plan which outlines steps toward the gradual handover of responsibilities for security from international forces to the government.
The council reiterated its objective “of enabling Somalia to take full responsibility for its own security, including through assuming the leading role in countering and addressing the threat posed by al-Shabab.”
The resolution authorizes ATMIS to conduct jointly planned operations with Somali security forces “to degrade al-Shabab and affiliates linked to ISIL,” an acronym for the Islamic State group.
The council authorized AU member nations to deploy up to 19,626 uniformed personnel, including a minimum of 1.040 police, until Dec. 31, and endorsed the AU Peace and Security Council’s decision to reduce the peacekeeping force by 2,000 by that date. It authorized a reduced force of 17,626 between Jan. 1 and March 31, 2023, and noted that a joint proposal including the AU and Somalia envisions further cuts to 14,626 in September 2023, 10,626 in June 2024 and “zero personnel” by the end of December 2024.
The resolution welcomes the Somali government’s intention to generate 3,850 new security forces by December 2022, 8,525 new forces by September 2023 and 10,450 new forces by June 2024.
AMISOM was funded by voluntary contributions, especially from the European Union, with logistical support from the United Nations. The Security Council urged U.N. member nations, including new donors, “to consider providing predictable, sustainable and multi-year support for ATMIS.”
After the vote, Britain’s deputy U.N. ambassador James Kariuki thanked council members for their support “in the adoption of this landmark resolution.”
U.S. deputy ambassador Richard Mills said the resolution “provides a vital opportunity to build on AMISOM’s efforts and take the next steps to roll back al-Shabaab, enabling Somalia to provide the security and stability required for the Somali people to achieve their aspirations.”
“Al-Shabab is a formidable and adaptable threat to Somalia, and to East Africa more broadly,” he said. “As al-Qaeda’s largest and best financed affiliate, al-Shabab represents a threat that requires a vigorous and broad-based response. The ATMIS mandate provides the opportunity to adapt and reinvigorate the African-led, international effort against al-Shabab.
Albania’s political coordinator Arian Spasse noted al-Shabab’s increased attacks on security forces and civilians in recent months and called on the government again to complete elections.
“It is crucial the newly elected government turn its focus to the deteriorating security situation, to the undertaking of reforms, and to the humanitarian crisis caused by the unprecedented droughts, which is plunging the population into another famine,” he said. “Further delays will give al-Shabaab more time to overshadow the government’s effort to provide peace and prosperity, and will fuel al-Shabab propaganda as an alternative to a democratically elected government.”
Somalia’s U.N. Ambassador Abukar Osman expressed disappointment that the council’s resolution didn’t provide more funding for its security forces, address the need for a unified and centralized command for ATMIS, and greater logistical support
Addressing these issues will ensure that the resolution is aligned with Somalia’s strategic document on security, he said.
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CLAVERIA, Philippines (AP) — With assault weapons ready, U.S. and Filipino marines sprang from amphibious vehicles and transport helicopters to defend an island from potential aggressors in a war exercise and show of American firepower staged on Thursday in the northern Philippines.
The exercise — held in far-flung Claveria town across the sea from China and Taiwan — fits into a strategy unveiled in February by the Biden administration to considerably broaden U.S. engagement in the Indo-Pacific region by strengthening a web of security alliances and partnerships, with an emphasis on addressing China’s growing influence and ambitions.
Watched by invited journalists, the mock combat ended with the allied forces successfully securing the island before it could be seized by invaders in a clear warning to would-be aggressors in a region with multiple trouble spots.
“We should indeed improve our preparation for external aggression,” said Philippine regional military commander Maj. Gen. Lawrence Mina, who spoke with reporters as the marines took combat positions on the sandy beach and a narrow trench under the scorching summer heat.
“It’s high time because we never know if we’ll get embroiled in the unfolding events that we’re hearing in the international scene,” he said. “At least we’re ready.”
The beach landing and coastal defense maneuvers were part of one of the largest combat exercises in years between the longtime treaty allies that began Monday and would include live-fire drills, aircraft assaults, urban warfare and civic projects mostly in northern and the western Philippines, which faces the disputed South China Sea.
Col. Timothy Brady Jr., who heads the U.S. 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, said he was “very pleased” with the outcome of the mock beach maneuvers, which started in the nearby coastal town of Aparri.
“Certainly, the objective of what we’re doing is demonstrating the strength of the alliance as well as the commitment to regional security,” Brady said.
Called Balikatan — Tagalog for shoulder-to-shoulder — the annual exercises will run up to April 8 with nearly 9,000 navy, marines, air force and army troops, including 5,100 American military personnel, to strengthen their joint fighting capabilities and readiness “for real-world challenges,” according to U.S. and Philippine military officials.
First staged in 1991, the Balikatan exercises are anchored on the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, which commits the United States and the Philippines to come to each other’s aid in case of an attack.
When President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016, he threatened to scale back U.S. military activities in the country as he nurtured closer ties with China and Russia but walked back on many of his threats, including a move to abrogate a defense pact that would have restricted American forces from largescale combat exercises in the country.
China’s “coercion and aggression spans the globe, but it is most acute in the Indo-Pacific,” the strategy paper said, citing Beijing’s “economic coercion” of Australia, the intensifyingpressure on Taiwan, bullying of neighbors in the East and South China seas and theconflict along the Line of Actual Control with India.
“Integrated deterrence will be the cornerstone of our approach,” the strategy paper said. “We will more tightly integrate our efforts across warfighting domains and the spectrum of conflict to ensure that the United States, alongside our allies and partners, can dissuade or defeat aggression in any form or domain.”
Last week, U.S. Indo-Pacific commander Adm. John C. Aquilino said China has fully militarizedat least three of several islands it built in the South China Sea, arming them with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile systems, laser and jamming equipment, and military aircraft in an increasingly aggressive move that threatens all nations operating in the disputed waters.
“I think over the past 20 years we’ve witnessed the largest military buildup since World War II by the PRC,” Aquilino, using the initials of China’s formal name, told The Associated Press in an interview on board a U.S. Navy reconnaissance aircraft that flew near Chinese-held outposts in the South China Sea’s Spratly archipelago, one of the most hotly contested regions in the world.
China has been staging threatening exercises and flying military planes near Taiwan’s airspace, including on Feb. 24, when Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, in what it calls a warning to Taiwan independence supporters and their foreign allies.
Chinese officials led by President Xi Jinping say they are committed to using peaceful means to bring Taiwan, which they claim as Chinese territory, under Beijing’s control. Chinese military action against the island in the short- to medium-term is generally considered a remote possibility.
While adhering to a One-China policy — recognizing Beijing as the government of China but allowing informal relations and defense ties with Taipei — the U.S. said in its strategy paper that it “will also work with partners inside and outside of the region to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, including by supporting Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities, to ensure an environment in which Taiwan’s future is determined peacefully in accordance with the wishes and best interests of Taiwan’s people.”
The U.S. and its allies have been routinely sailing warships through the Taiwan Strait, between the island and mainland China, to visibly demonstrate that they are international waters, and conduct major naval exercises in the region.
Beijing maintains its military profile is purely defensive, aimed at protecting what it says are its sovereign rights. But after years of increased military spending, China now boasts the world’s second-largest defense budget after the U.S. and is rapidly modernizing its force with weapons systems.
China is also expanding its nuclear arsenal, with the Pentagon saying Beijing is on track to field at least 1,000 warheads by 2030 — five times the current number.
Philippine marine Col. Romulo Quemado said the Balikatan exercises were complementing crucial efforts to bolster his country’s coastal defense, including the acquisition of armored amphibious vehicles, but were not meant to antagonize any particular country.
“Deterrence is all about perception,” Quemado said.
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Associated Press journalists Aaron Favila and David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this report.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Police found five fetuses in the home of a self-proclaimed “anti-abortion activist” who was indicted this week on federal charges alleging that she was part of a group of people who blocked access to a Washington, D.C. reproductive health center.
The Metropolitan Police Department says officers were responding to a tip about “potential bio-hazard material” at a home in Southeast Washington on Wednesday when they located the five fetuses inside.
A local television station, WUSA9, captured video of police searching the home and reported that the home belonged to Lauren Handy. The 28-year-old was one of nine people charged in an indictment that was made public on Wednesday that accused the group of traveling to Washington, blocking access to the reproductive health center and streaming it on Facebook.
The station, which first reported the discovery, said Handy told a reporter that “people will freak out when they hear” what detectives found inside her house. Handy did not respond to a message sent to her Facebook profile seeking comment.
Police said the five fetuses were collected by Washington’s medical examiner and the investigation is ongoing.
In the indictment, prosecutors said Handy had called the clinic pretending to be a prospective patient and scheduling an appointment. Once there, on Oct. 22, 2020, eight of the suspects pushed their way inside and began blocking the doors, according to the indictment. Five of them chained themselves together on chairs to block the treatment area as others blocked the employee entrance to stop other patients from coming inside, the indictment alleges. Another suspect blocked people from coming into the waiting room, prosecutors charge.
Handy and the eight others were charged with conspiracy against rights and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. The federal law, more commonly known as the FACE Act, prohibits physically obstructing or using the threat of force to intimidate or interfere with a person seeking reproductive health services.
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PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey refused to say Thursday if transgender people actually exist, twice dodging direct questions on the subject just a day after he signed legislation limiting transgender rights.
The Republican worked instead to defend his signatures on bills that bar transgender girls and women from playing on girls high school and women’s college sports teams and barring gender affirming surgery for anyone under age 18.
When specifically asked if he believed that there “are really transgender people,” the governor paused for several seconds before answering.
“I’m going to ask you to read the legislation and to see that the legislation that we passed was in the spirit of fairness to protect girls sports in competitive situations,” Ducey said, referring to the new law that targets transgender girls who want to play on girls sports teams. “That’s what the legislation is intended to do, and that’s what it does.”
Asked again if he believed there are “actual transgender people,” he again answered slowly and carefully.
“I … am going to respect everyone, and I’m going to respect everyone’s rights. And I’m going to protect female sports. And that’s what the legislation does,” Ducey said.
Ducey’s response was “appalling,” according to the Arizona director of the Human Rights Campaign, a national civil rights group that advocates for equality for LGBTQ people. The organization worked to ensure families and transgender young people came to the Capitol to testify against the bills as the Republican-led House and Senate considered them this session.
“It’s quite shocking that he can’t even address trans people or even say that he thinks they exist,” Bridget Sharpe said.
Wednesday’s signing of the two transgender bills and a third that bars abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy and is currently unconstitutional put Ducey right in the middle of two top issues national Republicans are highlighting in the runup to November’s midterm elections.
Ducey also signed election legislation that minority Democrats said amounted to voter suppression by requiring longtime Arizonans to be thrown off the voter rolls if they did not prove their citizenship and residence location.
The governor leads the Republican Governors Association, which is charged with helping elect GOP chief executives in U.S. states. He in is the last year of his second term as Arizona governor and term limits bar him from seeking reelection.
The top Democrat in the state House, Rep. Reginald Bolding, called Wednesday “probably one of the darkest days we’ve seen in the history of Arizona.”
“With the stroke of a pen, Gov. Ducey has hurled Arizona backwards to its ugliest past,” Bolding said Wednesday. “And today, he put in jeopardy pregnant people, transgender youth in danger and curtailed voting rights for people of color.”
Social conservative groups and the Arizona Republican Party praised Ducey’s action. The Center for Arizona Policy, whose president shepherded the abortion and women’s sports bills through the Legislature, called it a victory.
“Thank you, Governor Ducey, for taking a bold stand for women athletes, vulnerable children, and the unborn by putting your signature on (the bills) in the face of intense opposition from activists,” Center for Arizona Policy president Cathi Herrod said in a news release she posted on Twitter.
She said the legislation protects the unborn, ensures a level playing field for female athletes and shows that “Arizona will do everything it can to protect vulnerable children struggling with gender confusion” by enacting the surgery ban.
Ducey said the surgery ban protects children from irreversible decisions.
“These are permanent surgeries of reassignment that are irreversible, and those discussions can happen once adulthood is reached,” he said.
The American Civil Liberties Association has vowed to sue over the surgery ban. U.S. Supreme Court precedent currently says women have a constitutional right to abortion until about 24 weeks of pregnancy, although it is considering whether to uphold a 15-week ban enacted in Mississippi and may overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision enshrining a woman’s right to choose.
Arizona joins 13 other states in enacting laws preventing transgender girls and women from playing on girls teams. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox vetoed a transgender sports ban in his state, saying it would harm transgender girls, but the Legislature overrode the veto. Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb also vetoed a sports bill, but lawmakers hope to override his action as well.
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