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London faces fresh EU battle over lucrative derivatives marketSAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- An online debate between big tech and politics continues into the weekend. At the center of the issue - the H-1B visa program. It's a gateway for skilled workers from around the world who specialize in areas that include mathematics, technology, engineering, and science; 65,000 visas are issued each year with an additional 20,000 given to those who have masters degrees or higher. Ahmed Banafa is an engineering professor at San Jose State. "This thing about having this limit about having 65,000 - I mean we could miss someone," Banafa said. MORE: Mexico tests cellphone app allowing migrants to send alert if they are about to be detained in US Google and Meta were each approved to hire 5,000 H-1B-workers this year. Trump's new AI advisor has advocated for the U.S. to remove country-specific caps on H-1B visas. Tech industry leaders and Trump advisors Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk both made long posts on X on how their businesses rely on H-1B workers. Ramaswamy pointed to the "American culture" that celebrates the prom queen over the math Olympiad. MORE: Proposed CA bill would offer protection to immigrant children in schools, child care facilities MAGA supporter Laura Loomer tweeted the H-1B program takes away jobs from American STEM students. In a comment post Musk said "OF COURSE my companies and I would prefer to hire Americans and we DO, as that is MUCH easier than going through the incredibly painful and slow work visa process. HOWEVER, there is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America." "Look at Musk himself. He is one of the products of the H-1B visa. I mean, we don't have Elon Musk - you agree or disagree with him we're not going to have Tesla, we're not going to have Space X, Starlink," Musk said. ABC7 News insider Phil Matier weighed in on Musk's support for the visa program. MORE: Attorney General Bonta bolsters California's response to Trump's immigration proposals "He's not only in favor of H-1B visas, he's also in favor of expanding them. To where if someone comes to America and completes a four-year college program they should automatically get a green card. That's bringing a competitive workforce into America that will be competing with native-born Americans for jobs," Matier said. On Friday, Marjorie Taylor Greene made the case young people are spending all their time trying to be "the next YouTuber, content creator or social media influencer instead of pursuing a useful skill set, trade -education." So, what will happen to H-1B visas during Trump's second term? That's unclear. Trump restricted the program in 2020 during his first administration.
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With passenger volumes up by two per cent from 2023, the Thunder Bay International Airport is currently sitting at 88 per cent of pre-COVID-19 levels. Graham Ingham, the airport’s chief executive officer, called the number “average,” but said they are nowhere close to exceeding pre-COVID-19 passenger volumes. “Revenue and passenger service volumes showed positive trends, reflecting the airport’s strong performance and increased regional connectivity,” Ingham said. “Higher passenger traffic underscored the growing demand for services, creating opportunities to expand routes and improve the overall passenger experience.” He noted that service in 2024 was “pretty strong” with a total of seven airlines stopping in Thunder Bay. Flair Airlines extended their summer seasonal flying until the end of October. “WestJet’s Calgary service did exceptionally well with flights up to five times per week and extending until the end of October as well,” he said, adding there was no lost service from 2023. Strategic business plan The development of a new three-year strategic business plan was a critical achievement for the airport. Ingham noted that this comprehensive plan outlined key goals for business development, operational excellence, environmental sustainability, community leadership, and a commitment to investing in Thunder Bay’s workforce. “These accomplishments were a testament to the airport’s resilience, effective leadership, and proactive approach to challenges, setting a solid foundation for continued growth and success in the years to come,” he said. Developments unfold Through 2024, the airport saw many improvements, new infrastructure and equipment procurement. Among the developments were the installation of new restrooms, improvements in the international arrivals area, a technology software upgrade for the parking lot, the painting and modernizing of exterior posts and framing, new technology upgrades to elevators and the replacement of boilers, chillers and cooling towers. The appointment of Ingham as the chief executive officer has brought fresh leadership and vision to the airport’s operations. The smooth transition involved aligning the team with new strategic goals and objectives, ensuring a seamless shift in leadership. On horizon In 2025, Ingham said the airport’s goals will focus on strategic growth, sustainability, and community engagement. “Our key objectives include expanding air service routes, enhancing infrastructure, fostering partnerships with Indigenous communities, and promoting environmental stewardship with measurable carbon reduction goals,” he said. By investing in employee training and development, he said the airport ensures a skilled, motivated team to support long-term success. In driving economic development and building strong community ties, the airport aims to solidify its position as Northern Ontario’s premier aviation hub, supporting regional prosperity and a sustainable future.
Tina Knowles Defends Beyoncé Following Troll Response to Netflix Christmas Day Halftime Show
As Earth grows warmer, its ground is becoming drier and saltier, with profound consequences for the planet’s 8 billion inhabitants — nearly a third of whom already live in places where water is increasingly scarce and the ability to raise crops and livestock is increasingly difficult. Climate change is accelerating this trend. New research has found global warming has made 77 percent of the Earth’s land drier over the past three decades while rapidly increasing the proportion of excessively salty soils. Drylands, or arid areas where water is hard to come by, now make up more than 40 percent of the planet (excluding Antarctica), a likely permanent consequence of climate change, according to a landmark report by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, or UNCCD. Another new analysis, by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, or FAO, found that roughly 10 percent of the world’s soils are affected by excess salt, with another 2.5 billion acres at risk. These interwoven trends threaten agricultural productivity, biodiversity, and ecosystem health while exacerbating food and water insecurity. Together, the two reports sound an urgent alarm: Unless the world curbs emissions, these shifts will continue, with grave implications. “Without concerted efforts, billions face a future marked by hunger, displacement, and economic decline,” said Nichole Barger, an aridlands ecologist who works with the UNCCD. Some 7.6 percent of the planet’s land was remade by climate change between 1990 and 2020, with most of the impacted areas shifting from humid landscapes to drylands — defined as an area where 90 percent of rainfall evaporates before reaching the ground. Together, they cover a geographic expanse larger than Canada, researchers found, and in 2020 were home to about 30 percent of the world’s population. That’s a jump of more than 7 percent in recent decades. Unless the world sharply limits emissions, that proportion could more than double by the end of the century. By that point, more than two-thirds of land worldwide, with the exception of Greenland and Antarctica, is expected to store less water . These changes are not limited to regions already considered dry, or expected to experience desertification. When modeling global high-emissions scenarios, the researchers found similar changes could occur in the Midwest, central Mexico, and the Mediterranean, to name three examples. The researchers have no expectation that this trend will reverse. What Hannah Waterhouse, a soil and water scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, finds “important, and unnerving to emphasize” is that this expansion occurred under conditions that aren’t nearly as hot as what’s to come. That suggests the problem will only escalate and, as food and water grow more scarce, usher in issues like widespread conflict , she said. “We can look to current geopolitical and ecological events that are playing out currently to understand what we can expect in the future,” Waterhouse said. “Think of what is occurring in Sudan right now, where climate change is exacerbating resource scarcity, which is interacting in governance and geopolitics in violent outcomes for civilians.” Aridity is not to be confused with drought. Drought is best described as a sudden and startling, but temporary, water shortage often caused by low precipitation, high temperatures, little humidity, and unusual wind patterns. Arid regions, on the other hand, experience persistent, long-term climatic conditions in which evaporation exceeds rainfall, creating conditions in which it can be difficult to sustain life. It is much more subtle than a drought, but no less significant. “Droughts end,” Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the UNCCD, said in a statement . “When an area’s climate becomes drier, however, the ability to return to previous conditions is lost. The drier climates now affecting vast lands across the globe will not return to how they were, and this change is redefining life on Earth.” Expanding drylands are widely considered the biggest contributor to the degradation of Earth’s agricultural systems and difficulty producing enough food. Such conditions also have been linked to loss of gross domestic product, large-scale migration, and adverse health impacts and rising mortality. They intensify wildfires, sand storms, and dust storms while degrading ecosystems. They also promote erosion and the salinization of water and soil. Climate change is already hampering food production, leaving one in 11 people worldwide hungry last year, and the research suggests the problem will intensify, particularly in much of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. Under the business-as-usual emissions scenario, sub-Saharan Africa could lose as much as 22 percent of its current crop production capacity by 2050. The production of staple food crops grown in regions highly susceptible to aridity, such as soybeans, wheat, and rice, could plummet worldwide as well. Rapid expansion of the world’s drylands is “100 percent interconnected” with the coinciding surge in saltier soils, said Maria Konyushkova, a soil scientist at the Food and Agriculture Organization and lead author of the report the U.N. agency released December 11. The more arid an area is, the less freshwater is available. That requires farmers to rely upon brackish water, increasing soil salinity. While water-soluble salt is a component of all soils, too much of it impairs plants’ water absorption, effectively stealing moisture from them and suppressing their growth. High salinity also changes soil structure, making it more prone to erosion. All of this diminishes soil fertility, and could lead to yield losses as high as 70 percent for crops like rice and beans in the countries most impacted, the researchers found. Roughly 10 percent of the world’s irrigated cropland, and a similar proportion of its rain-fed cropland, already has been impacted by this dire trend. As it stands, 10 countries, including China, Russia, and the United States, account for 70 percent of the planet’s salt-affected soils. This costs the global agriculture sector at least $27 billion every year. If the world continues to warm at its current rate, past research has estimated that more than 50 percent of the world’s cropland would be similarly impacted by 2050, exacerbating the declining yields that are already driving rising hunger rates . Where to go from here was the central topic of UNCCD COP16 earlier this month, as representatives of nearly 200 nations gathered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to discuss land degradation, desertification, and drought. “We depend on land for our survival,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said at the conference . “Yet we treat it like dirt.” Nature-based solutions like agroecology are among the slate of locally-deployed mitigation and adaptation tactics the two reports suggest, alongside improved crop and water management, technological solutions, and the development of water-efficient and salt-resistant varieties of crops. Big-dollar investments are being touted as solutions, too. Previous UNCCD reports found that halting the planet’s rate of land degradation, which they suggest could lose the global economy $23 trillion by 2050, would cost roughly $4.6 trillion. The agency told negotiators at the summit that at least $2.6 trillion for restoration and resilience purposes is needed by 2030. By the time the summit concluded, just over $12 billion had been pledged to tackle the issue across 80 vulnerable countries, while negotiators departed having failed to agree on a legally binding protocol for action. Waterhouse has doubts about some proposals highlighted in the research she considers “top-down technocratic solutions.” The Great Green Wall, a multibillion-dollar initiative to plant trees to combat desertification in the Sahel region of Africa, is one example. The effort, launched in 2007, has drawn criticism for exacerbating water scarcity and biodiversity loss. Konyushkova considers the two reports an urgent call for governments worldwide to prioritize investing in resilience efforts to manage what is clearly becoming a crisis. “All the trends show that the freshwater resources will be depleting ... but we have so many approaches to adapt,” she said. “We just need to start doing it right now, because it’s already here. Even if governments don’t always understand, it’s already here, and deteriorating.” Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.orgMONTREAL — A childhood friend of the Quebec man killed in a Florida boat explosion Monday said one of the victim's sisters was among the other six passengers injured in the blast. Thi Cam Nhung Lê said 41-year-old Sebastien Gauthier was celebrating the holidays with his family when the explosion occurred in Fort Lauderdale. Lê said Gauthier’s older sister was also on the boat when it erupted into flames, and she was taken to a hospital. “It’s unimaginable, incomprehensible,” Lê said Saturday, adding that Gauthier’s family and mutual friends informed her about his death. Lê, 40, said she first met Gauthier in her early adolescence and they grew up together in Quebec City. She remembers him as a globetrotter who always had a smile on his face. “He’s still my best friend. It’s always him I call if I need something, but he’s no longer with us,” she said. The last time the two friends saw each other face-to-face was about two years ago, Lê said, but she last messaged Gauthier on social media in the days before Monday's explosion. And on Jan. 1, her birthday, she would have expected a call from him, just like every year. “I’m shocked, surprised, and feeling a little bit of regret," she said. "You regret not having seen him more. I spent yesterday crying. You can’t believe your friend disappears from one day to the next." Earlier this week, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission confirmed that Gauthier died of his injuries in Broward County. The FWC said its preliminary investigation in Fort Lauderdale showed a 37-foot vessel exploded after its engines were started, injuring all seven passengers on board. Video posted on social media Monday showed the vessel engulfed in flames, with a thick column of black smoke billowing into the sky. However, Florida authorities have not provided The Canadian Press with more information about the investigation. Searching for an explanation has also left Lê angry. As she mourns the loss of her longtime friend, she said she’s still waiting for answers about what led to his unexpected death. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 28, 2024. Joe Bongiorno, The Canadian Press
The Chandra Layout police have arrested a couple who, posing as relatives of former MP D.K. Suresh, allegedly cheated a city-based jewellery shop owner out of gold worth ₹8.4 crore. The police arrested Aishwarya Gowda and her husband, Harish K.N., on Saturday based on a complaint by Vanitha S. Aithal, owner of Vaarahi World of Gold. The couple was produced before the magistrate and remanded to judicial custody. The police also issued notice to Kannada film actor Dharmendra B., who is also charged as an accused, for questioning. According to the complaint, the accused, residents of R.R. Nagar, befriended the complainant posing as close relatives of former MP D.K. Suresh. Ms. Gowda claimed to be Suresh’s younger sister and a prominent businesswoman with political connections. She initially borrowed jewellery from Vanitha’s shop and promptly repaid them, earning her trust. However, between October last year and January this year, the couple allegedly borrowed 14.6 kilos of gold worth ₹8.42 crore, promising to return it. However, neither the gold nor its monetary value was repaid. Published - December 28, 2024 10:06 pm IST Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp RedditZelenskyy accuses Slovakia of opening ‘second energy front’ against UkraineMusk reaffirms support for AfD, Germany’s far-right party, praising its immigration stance
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