WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Wednesday passed a $895 billion measure that authorizes a 1% increase in defense spending this fiscal year and would give a double-digit pay raise to about half of the enlisted service members in the military. The bill is traditionally strongly bipartisan, but some Democratic lawmakers opposed the inclusion of a ban on transgender medical treatments for children of military members if such treatment could result in sterilization. The bill passed the House by a vote of 281-140 and will next move to the Senate, where lawmakers had sought a bigger boost in defense spending than the current measure allows. Lawmakers are touting the bill's 14.5% pay raise for junior enlisted service members and a 4.5% increase for others as key to improving the quality of life for those serving in the U.S. military. Those serving as junior enlisted personnel are in pay grades that generally track with their first enlistment term. Lawmakers said service member pay has failed to remain competitive with the private sector, forcing many military families to rely on food banks and government assistance programs to put food on the table. The bill also provides significant new resources for child care and housing. “No service member should have to live in squalid conditions and no military family should have to rely on food stamps to feed their children, but that's exactly what many of our service members are experiencing, especially the junior enlisted,” said Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. “This bill goes a long way to fixing that.” The bill sets key Pentagon policy that lawmakers will attempt to fund through a follow-up appropriations bill. The overall spending tracks the numbers established in a 2023 agreement that then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached with President Joe Biden to increase the nation’s borrowing authority and avoid a federal default in exchange for spending restraints. Many senators had wanted to increase defense spending some $25 billion above what was called for in that agreement, but those efforts failed. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who is expected to serve as the next chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the overall spending level was a “tremendous loss for our national defense," though he agreed with many provisions within the bill. “We need to make a generational investment to deter the Axis of Aggressors. I will not cease work with my congressional colleagues, the Trump administration, and others until we achieve it,” Wicker said. House Republicans don't want to go above the McCarthy-Biden agreement for defense spending and are looking to go way below it for many non-defense programs. They are also focused on cultural issues. The bill prohibits funding for teaching critical race theory in the military and prohibits TRICARE health plans from covering gender dysphoria treatment for children under 18 if that treatment could result in sterilization. Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state, the ranking Democratic member of the House Armed Services Committee, said minors dealing with gender dysphoria is a "very real problem." He said the treatments available, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, have proven effective at helping young people dealing with suicidal thoughts, anxiety and depression. “These treatments changed their lives and in many cases saved their lives,” Smith said. “And in this bill, we decided we're going to bar servicemembers' children from having access to that.” Smith said the number of minors in service member families receiving transgender medical care extends into the thousands. He could have supported a study asking medical experts to determine whether such treatments are too often used, but a ban on health insurance coverage went too far. He said Speaker Mike Johnson's office insisted upon the ban and said the provision “taints an otherwise excellent piece of legislation.” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, called the ban a step in the right direction, saying, “I think these questions need to be pulled out of the debate of defense, so we can get back to the business of defending the United States of America without having to deal with social engineering debates.” Smith said he agrees with Roy that lawmakers should be focused on the military and not on cultural conflicts, “and yet, here it is in this bill.” Branden Marty, a Navy veteran who served for 13 years, said the loss of health coverage for transgender medical treatments could prompt some with valuable experience to leave the military, affecting national security because “we already struggle from a recruiting and retention standpoint.” He also said the bill could regularly force service members into difficult choices financially. “It will be tough for a lot of them because of out-of-pocket expenses, especially enlisted members who we know already struggle with food insecurity,” said Marty, the father of a transgender teenager. “They don’t get paid very much, so they’re going to be making a lot of choices on a day-to-day, tactical level.” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, said his team was not telling Democrats how to vote on the bill. “There's a lot of positive things in the National Defense Authorization Act that were negotiated in a bipartisan way, and there are some troubling provisions in a few areas as well,” Jeffries said. Overall, 81 Democrats ended up voting for the bill and 124 against it. On the Republican side, 200 voted for the bill and 16 against. “It’s disappointing to see 124 of my Democrat colleagues vote against our brave men and women in uniform over policies that have nothing to do with their intended mission,” Johnson said. The defense policy bill also looks to strengthen deterrence against China. It calls for investing $15.6 billion to build military capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region. The Biden administration had requested about $10 billion. On Israel, the bill, among other things, includes an expansion of U.S. joint military exercises with Israel and a prohibition on the Pentagon citing casualty data from Hamas. The defense policy bill is one of the final measures that lawmakers view as a must-pass before making way for a new Congress in January.TROY, Ala. (AP) — Damien Taylor rushed for 169 yards and three touchdowns, Matthew Caldwell threw for a touchdown and ran for another, and Troy scored 21 points in less than two minutes in the fourth quarter to beat Southern Miss 52-20 on Saturday. Taylor went straight up the middle from 56-yards out to give Troy a 24-8 lead midway through the third quarter. He added a 35-yard scoring run for a 38-20 lead with 5:50 left in the fourth. On the ensuing possession, Ian Conerly-Goodly intercepted a deflected pass and returned it 31 yards for a 25-point lead. Southern Miss quarterback Tate Rodemaker was intercepted again and LJ Green returned it 49 yards to the Golden Eagles' 16-yard line. Jordan Lovett capitalized on the short field by running it in from the 5. Taylor reached the 1,000-yard mark on the season for Troy (4-8, 3-5 Sun Belt Conference). Caldwell was 14 of 26 for 187 yards and he carried it seven times for 30 yards. Rodemaker threw for 234 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions for Southern Miss (1-11, 0-8). Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
Bob Bryar, the drummer for My Chemical Romance, posted a chilling message about a late fellow musician on social media before he was found dead . The music world was plunged into grief on Friday when it was announced that Bob had been discovered dead in his home at the age of 44 earlier in the week. The drummer was found in his Tennessee residence on Wednesday, with one report describing him as "badly decomposed." He was last seen in public over three weeks prior, on Monday, November 4. Before his tragic passing, Bob had honored Chester Bennington, the late Linkin Park singer who committed suicide in July 2017 at the age of 41. After the death of their lead singer, Linkin Park disbanded but reformed earlier this year, introducing vocalist Emily Armstrong as the new lead singer. My Chemical Romance drummer Bob Bryar found dead in his home at 44 My Chemical Romance star Bob Bryar 'lay undiscovered for weeks' before being found dead in his home The band has since released a chart-topping album and plans to tour globally in 2025. However, Emily faced criticism from some Linkin Park fans who questioned her addition to the lineup. A day after his last public appearance, Bob took to social media to praise Emily, applauding her work with the rock band. On X, he wrote: "Emily armstrong is destroying, shredding faces and making Chester proud. she was the perfect choice. AND she had to deal with the initial hate. that s--- is hard. trust me. word up." The drummer, who had expressed support for the Republican Party ahead of the 2025 US Presidential election, had posted several seemingly politically charged comments about the Republicans before suddenly falling silent on election day. Tragically, it was revealed on Friday that Bob's lifeless body had been discovered at his home. According to TMZ , local authorities do not suspect foul play in his passing. The outlet reported that animal control specialists recovered two dogs from the property and sadly noted that the musician's body was "badly decomposed" upon discovery. The cause of death has not been disclosed. Bob joined My Chemical Romance in 2004, replacing original drummer Matt Pelissier, shortly after the release of their second album, Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, which featured hit singles like I'm Not Okay (I Promise) and Thank You for the Venom. In 2007, while on tour, Bob had to take a break from drumming due to a wrist injury but continued to work with the band on pyrotechnics and special effects. He left the band in March 2010 after contributing to their fourth album. After his departure, Bob transitioned into real estate while still working behind-the-scenes on music tours, eventually retiring from the music industry in 2021. DAILY NEWSLETTER: Sign up here to get the latest news and updates from the Mirror US straight to your inbox with our FREE newsletter. Click here to follow the Mirror US on Google News to stay up to date with all the latest news, sports and entertainment stories.NonePittsburgh Steelers defensive line could get another boost for Eagles game
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LOWELL — Add a cyber center tied to national security to the ever-expanding portfolio of companies doing business with the Lowell Innovation Network Corridor, a transformative public-private partnership unveiled earlier this year through UMass Lowell. Science Applications International Corporation, a global leader in technology integration, signed an agreement with the university to establish a cyber center that will strengthen the resilience of the defense industrial base and expand the pipeline of skilled cyber professionals across the region. The signing ceremony was held at the UMass Club in Boston Wednesday morning and attended by Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, UMass Lowell and SAIC leadership, as well as state and local dignitaries. “Our administration has been laser-focused on competing for our nation’s leading companies to grow here in Massachusetts, and on providing opportunities to advance and grow our state’s workforce,” Driscoll said. “This partnership prioritizes our state’s innovation economy while also ensuring we’re setting our state, and our country, up for a safer cyber future.” The new cyber center will extend SAIC’s footprint beyond UMass Lowell’s Applied Research Corporation at Hanscom Air Force Base. The center will provide direct support to the U.S. Air Force’s strategic initiatives in the areas of command, control, communications and battle management; cyber; electronic warfare; information systems; and enterprise digital infrastructure. UMass Lowell’s Cybersecurity Studies Program is designated a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Research by the National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security. SAIC is investing an initial $1.3 million to create an anticipated 30 jobs. The funds will increase access to state-of-the-art cyber research and services for local and regional businesses and nonprofits, and train the future STEM workforce through paid internships, job fairs, and training programs in collaboration with Middlesex Community College and local high schools. Chancellor Julie Chen previously said the No. 1 factor for companies when deciding where to base their operations is talent, and Lowell offered a “deep bench.” “So UMass Lowell [is] bringing 17,000-plus students, MCC bringing over 10,000 students working on their associate’s degree,” Chen said in an interview with The Sun in March. “And of course, the Greater Lowell Tech and Lowell Public Schools are all viewed by these companies as pipeline for talent.” LINC was built out from the success of UMass Lowell as a Research 1 university, which puts it in the top 4-5% in the country. It earned a No. 1 ranking for a public university in the Wall Street Journal. The university is focused on companies that align not only with its research goals and expertise, but also with state and federal priorities such as microelectronics, climate technology, robotics, cybersecurity and human performance. Under the notice of intent, the university and SAIC have also agreed to advance post-graduate employment opportunities for students and to reskill or upskill current personnel at Hanscom Air Force Base and at local defense companies. In addition, the agreement calls for collaboration with other state and federal enforcement agencies, including the Massachusetts State Police and Federal Bureau of Investigation. “Establishing this center builds on the success we’ve shared with the University of Massachusetts Lowell in implementing a student internship program at Hanscom Air Force Base focused on the DOD’s critical Cloud One platform,” SAIC CEO Toni Townes-Whitley said. “This expanded partnership will help build the future cyber workforce and ensure a stream of high demand talent for the nation, as well as Hanscom’s many critical programs that directly impact U.S. and global security.” SAIC joins a hit parade of LINC partners spanning the corporate and nonprofit spectrum. Draper Laboratory, the company that operated the computer guidance system that helped land Apollo 11 on the moon, announced in March that it would be an anchor tenant at UMass Lowell’s Wannalancit location off Father Morissette Boulevard. In July, Mass General Brigham announced a collaboration to advance human performance research, followed by Bioversity, a leading Massachusetts nonprofit provider of biotech workforce training, that announced in September that it was opening a dedicated training lab and classroom facility in Lowell. Chen signed a memorandum of agreement welcoming Home Base as a partner in November. The nonprofit will offer critical resources to veterans and military families across northern and western Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine to heal from their invisible wounds. Piece by piece, the LINC vision is clicking into place to create an $800 million development plan that leverages the prestige and innovation of the university and the resources and history of the city of Lowell with the job creation capabilities of industry to envision a vibrant urban village/main street model and economic engine for the city. “It’s a great day in Lowell as we welcome SAIC and celebrate the collaboration with UMass Lowell to create a world-class cyber-research facility,” said City Manager Tom Golden, who was on hand for the ceremony. “The jobs and economic activity that come with SAIC will benefit all residents of Lowell, as we continue to build on the vision and potential of LINC and the Lowell Transformative Development Initiative.”TROY, Ala. (AP) — Damien Taylor rushed for 169 yards and three touchdowns, Matthew Caldwell threw for a touchdown and ran for another, and Troy scored 21 points in less than two minutes in the fourth quarter to beat Southern Miss 52-20 on Saturday. Taylor went straight up the middle from 56-yards out to give Troy a 24-8 lead midway through the third quarter. He added a 35-yard scoring run for a 38-20 lead with 5:50 left in the fourth. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Get updates and player profiles ahead of Friday's high school games, plus a recap Saturday with stories, photos, video Frequency: Seasonal Twice a week
Preview: Lincoln City vs. Charlton Athletic - prediction, team news, lineupsVestdavit has boosted davit manufacturing capacity by 60-70% through expansion of its production plant in Poland with a new assembly hall that will enable the leading Norwegian supplier to meet growing demand from its core naval and offshore energy markets for advanced boat-handling systems. The state-of-the-art 1000 square-metre facility, recently opened at the Vestdavit Production site at Redzikowo in northern Poland, will greatly enhance the efficiency of the davit fabrication process by eliminating an assembly bottleneck to increase annual throughput to around 100 units, while allowing construction of larger davits and bolstering innovation, according to the company. “We expect to achieve efficiency gains of at least 10% through this significant investment, while also creating jobs as a responsible citizen to boost local employment after increasing the workforce at the factory from 65 to 85 in recent years,” says Vestdavit Managing Director Rolf Andreas Wigand. Importantly, he points out, construction of the assembly hall means that Vestdavit has become a fully integrated davit supplier with engineering, procurement, production and quality control consolidated at a single manufacturing hub. Design, administrative and sales support is also instantly available from the Norway head office via a newly upgraded ERP system that enables real-time data-sharing. Vestdavit Managing Director Rolf Andreas Wigand is looking to further expand davit production based on market optimism. Photo: Steve Marshall/Blue-C “This enables us to control every part of the value chain throughout the davit production process. Consequently, we can streamline the workflow and optimise fabrication to accelerate deliveries of sophisticated bespoke davit systems for our clients within demanding schedules, as well as budget and quality parameters, through time savings of 20-30%,” Wigand explains. In practice, this means immediate availability of diverse davit components from a storage and logistics depot in the adjacent main building that was formerly used for assembly work prior to construction of the dedicated assembly hall. Vestdavit can tap an efficient local supplier network to source items such as steel structures and components, as well as services like machining and painting. The main building also houses offices, welding area, machining room and tool storage area, while the close proximity to production teams under one roof facilitates efficient interaction among personnel to tackle any issues during the manufacturing process, which is supported by advanced automation technology. The new facility enables faster turnaround on orders through parallel assembly of multiple davits to boost productivity, as is the case with several PLAR-6501 units currently under construction for shipbuilder Austal Australia for vessels on order with the Royal Australian Navy. The new assembly hall at Vestdavit Production in Poland. Photo: Vestdavit Furthermore, the spacious hall with a high ceiling to accommodate large cranes allows fabrication of much larger boat-handling systems, such as docking-head davits favoured by the offshore wind industry for deployment of large workboats for turbine maintenance. “As well as providing greater production flexibility, the new facility allows room for more innovation to expand product development in accordance with client specifications. There is a great benefit from being able to produce everything internally given the increasing complexity of davit projects,” Wigand says. There are also davit testing facilities at the extensive 2.6-hectare (26,000 square-metre) site, acquired by Vestdavit in early 2020, which is located within the Slupsk special economic zone in the Pomerangia region of northern Poland. Vestdavit has adopted the innovative augmented reality solution xAssist that allows remote inspection, testing and verification of equipment, with digital goggles used by workers at the factory to transmit visuals for viewing on the Teams meeting application, which was a boon with travel challenges during the earlier Covid-19 pandemic. This is part of a push by the company to increase application of digital solutions throughout the davit development process to improve production efficiency, while customer relations management has been enhanced with a web-based system to interact with clients to optimise productivity from design to delivery. But Wigand emphasises that the “extremely competent workforce represents our greatest asset and most important resource” at Vestdavit Production, with a strong contingent of female employees reinforcing the company’s policy of gender diversity. Davit testing at Vestdavit Production. Photo: Vestdavit “Our production team in Poland, including warehouse workers, fitters and assemblers as well as administrative staff, has a high level of expertise with a strong commitment to quality and sustainability underpinned by ISO certification that ensures safety and environmental responsibility,” he says, adding the company also has a good working relationship with the local authorities, banks and partners. Vestdavit is focused on upskilling opportunities for its Polish team to improve their technical capabilities and problem-solving skills, while also providing apprenticeships for new recruits in areas such as hydraulic pipelaying. The combination of a well-trained and highly skilled workforce with a more efficient production facility has given Vestdavit an enhanced capability to roll out rush orders, as well as quickly turn around repeat orders for standardised designs, according to Wigand. “With this additional capacity, we have the ability to produce everything in our orderbook now and in the foreseeable future,” he says, after the company boosted orders by 76% last year to hit a sales record due largely to increased activity in offshore wind. But he does not rule out further expansion of Vestdavit Production and its workforce based on the company’s optimism over further exponential sales growth in its main markets going forward. “With another 3000 square metres available for additional construction at the site, we have the possibility of doubling the size of the production plant,” he says. Source: Vestdavit
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NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes rose to more records Wednesday after tech companies talked up how much of a boost they’re getting from the artificial-intelligence boom. The S&P 500 climbed 0.6% to add to what’s set to be one of its best years of the millennium. It’s the 56th time the index has hit an all-time high this year after climbing in 11 of the last 12 days . The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 308 points, or 0.7%, while the Nasdaq composite added 1.3% to its own record. Salesforce helped pull the market higher after delivering stronger revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, though its profit fell just short. CEO Mark Benioff highlighted the company’s artificial-intelligence offering for customers, saying “the rise of autonomous AI agents is revolutionizing global labor, reshaping how industries operate and scale.” The stock price of the company, which helps businesses manage their customers, jumped 11%. Marvell Technology leaped even more after delivering better results than expected, up 23.2%. CEO Matt Murphy said the semiconductor supplier is seeing strong demand from AI and gave a forecast for profit in the upcoming quarter that topped analysts’ expectations. All the optimistic talk helped Nvidia , the company whose chips are powering much of the move into AI, rally 3.5%. It was the strongest force pushing upward on the S&P 500 by far. They helped offset an 8.9% drop for Foot Locker, which reported profit and revenue that fell short of analysts’ expectations. CEO Mary Dillon said the company is taking a more cautious view, and it cut its forecasts for sales and profit this year. Dillon pointed to how keen customers are for discounts and how soft demand has been outside of Thanksgiving week and other key selling periods. Retailers overall have offered mixed signals about how resilient U.S. shoppers can remain. Their spending has been one of the main reasons the U.S. economy has avoided a recession that earlier seemed inevitable after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates to crush inflation. But shoppers are now contending with still-high prices and a slowing job market . This week’s highlight for Wall Street will be Friday’s jobs report from the U.S. government, which will show how many people employers hired and fired last month. A narrower report released Wednesday morning suggested employers in the private sector increased their payrolls by less last month than economists expected. Hiring in manufacturing was the weakest since the spring, according to Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP. The report strengthened traders’ expectations that the Fed will cut its main interest rate again when it meets in two weeks. The Fed began easing its main interest rate from a two-decade high in September, hoping to offer more support for the job market. The central bank had appeared set to continue cutting rates into next year, but the election of Donald Trump has scrambled Wall Street’s expectations somewhat. Trump’s preference for higher tariffs and other policies could lead to higher inflation , which could alter the Fed’s plans . Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that the central bank can afford to cut rates cautiously because inflation has slowed from its peak two years ago and the economy remains sturdy. A separate report on Wednesday said health care, finance and other businesses in the U.S. services sector are continuing to grow, but not by as much as before and not by as much as economists expected. One respondent from the construction industry told the survey from the Institute for Supply Management that the Fed’s rate cuts haven't pulled down mortgage rates as much as hoped. Plus, “the unknown effect of tariffs clouds the future.” In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.18% from 4.23% late Tuesday. On Wall Street, Campbell’s sank 6.2% for one of the S&P 500’s sharper losses despite increasing its dividend and reporting a stronger profit than analysts expected. Its revenue fell short of Wall Street’s expectations, and the National Football League’s Washington Commanders hired Campbell’s CEO Mark Clouse as its team president. Gains for airline stocks helped offset that drop after JetBlue Airways said it saw stronger bookings for travel in November and December following the presidential election. It also said it’s benefiting from lower fuel prices, as well as lower costs due to improved on-time performance. JetBlue jumped 8.3%, while Southwest Airlines climbed 3.5%. All told, the S&P 500 rose 36.61 points to 6,086.49. The Dow climbed 308.51 to 45,014.04, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 254.21 to 19,735.12. In stock markets abroad, South Korea’s Kospi sank 1.4% following a night full of drama in Seoul. President Yoon Suk Yeol was facing possible impeachment after he suddenly declared martial law on Tuesday night, prompting troops to surround the parliament. He revoked the martial law declaration six hours later. In the crypto market , bitcoin climbed near $99,000 after Trump said he would nominate Paul Atkins , a cryptocurrency advocate, to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission. AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.
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Several directors of photography are in Oscar contention this year after reteaming with a director they had worked with previously. Some lensed $100 million-plus epics, while others shot films with tighter budgets. Whatever their situation, six of this year’s leading DPs gathered on Zoom in October for ’s annual to discuss their paths into the profession, their stance on VFX and the biggest challenges they faced on their projects this year. The six roundtablists were ’s Ed Lachman, who previously worked with Pablo Larraín on ; ’s John Mathieson, who lensed the first movie as well as others from Ridley Scott’s filmography; ’s Alice Brooks, whose collaborations with director Jon M. Chu include ; s Paul Guilhaume, who shot Jacques Audiard’s ; ’s Greig Fraser, who, of course, also shot ; and ’ Jomo Fray, working for the first time with director RaMell Ross. Related Stories I grew up in New York City with a playwright father and a dancer and singer mother. And we were super poor. We lived in a one-bedroom tenement apartment, 300 square feet, with the bathtub in the kitchen. My mother put my sister and me into child acting when I was 5 and my sister was 3. When I was 15, I had my last audition, for a movie called . It was a Sandra Bullock movie; I knew in my heart I hadn’t gotten the role. I said to my mom, “I don’t want to be an actress. I want to be a cinematographer.” And she said, “I know.” And I looked down and there was this little gray and white feather. I still have it. I applied to film school at USC and my mom made me walk my application in, and she said, “We don’t have the money to send Alice here, but she deserves to go here.” And two weeks later, I had a full scholarship. Back then I thought that was the best day of my life. My journey, similar to Alice, started really young. I have a picture of myself behind a video camera telling my parents at age 7 that I wanted to be a filmmaker. I grew up constantly changing my ideas, like, “I want to be a scientist,” “I want to be an astronaut.” I want to be this. I want to be that. And I remember thinking I want to do film because that way I can live the life of a scientist for three months and then think about the life of an astronaut for two months. It felt like this ultimate hack somehow. I remember when I first saw [which is in several languages] and calling my mom and saying, “Fifteen minutes in, I stopped reading the subtitles and I was just completely enraptured by the images, because I feel like they were transferring emotion into me.” I think it was at that moment that I specifically became obsessive about image making. I drifted into it. I moved to London and found other people who were mucking around with cameras. I went from there — someone lending you this, someone lending you that. I couldn’t get into the union; they were horrible, bigoted, Rupert Murdoch-reading, nasty people. So then I did music videos. You didn’t have to have a union ticket to work on those. Everyone loves the movies, but then you notice the photography. You remember if a film’s still staying with you three days later, but you don’t really know why. That’s when it changed, I suppose. I’m in my mid-20s and I got on board with music videos, and one thing led to another and I ended up in drama. I grew up in Paris, France. My mother was an art teacher, but she was also taking photos. Very early, I wanted to do cinema. There was this line producer that my parents knew, and one day — I was 14 — she told me, “You want to do cinema? What do you know about it?” And she told me about the journey of a director preparing a movie, meeting directors, writing the script, et cetera. And one of the jobs was meeting this person and talking about the look of the film and going to the museum and saying, “The film could look like this painting.” I thought, “I want to be this person.” I grew up with a father that was an amateur photographer, and I abhorred photography. I took the position that it stole your soul. I went to art school and I took a survey course in film appreciation. And it was Italian neorealism. It was a film by Vittorio De Sica, I was so taken with the film because it had sound, but it was basically a silent film. I realized those images just don’t get up there on the screen. I was always interested in the found image, so for me it was like you could put together images to tell a story. My journey began not really knowing anything about the film business, but I started getting pretty good at photography when I was in high school. I also didn’t understand what a cinematographer for cinema was. I knew what a cameraman in the news did, but that wasn’t of interest to me. Creating art images was. It wasn’t until I joined a film photography studio that I actually saw a cinematographer work and realized that it was the best of both worlds. Well, they hire us. You just build a familiarity with that person. Generally, there’s a reason why it worked out on the first film, so they want to work with you on the second film. But Ed, how would you choose a film with a director that you haven’t worked with before? Everything that you do is significantly different from each other. With Pablo, all his films were totally different visually. Not all directors are visual, but if you have the ability to work with someone that’s visual, who understands what your contribution is, that’s going to excite you. And generally, when you work with someone you connect with, you want to continue that. Certain directors use cinematographers as they move up the scale to bigger films, so they want to work with the next biggest DP. But the directors that everybody here works with are already very established in their own visual language, so they know why they want to work with these cinematographers. [Ridley Scott] chose me, as simple as that. I’d like to say that you can choose. I don’t think you really can. There comes a point you can’t wait for something anymore and you have to jump. Before this one, I did a small film, but no one’s going to see that. They know me as the guy. “Give me men in leather miniskirts!” I don’t want to do men in leather miniskirts anymore. I think [Ridley] has various projects he wants to do, but you get folded into what [you’ve done before]. So, yes, I do well, but it’s a curse. Everyone wants to be Ed. He’s got better hats than I have, for one thing. I admire his film diversity. I don’t know. ... This idea you choose the project is not really true. But you can choose not to do it, John. Yes, and there’s been plenty of that. I waited for months, even years, for people to make a film just to watch them dry up, and missed so many things because I believed that it would happen. I’ve known Jon Chu since USC film school, where we bonded over our love of musicals. We made a short musical film called , and his career took off, and we didn’t see each other for a few years. And then we started doing this little web series together, . He always has believed in me, and I think someone who believes in you and trusts you and is able to speak the same language — this has been really lucky for me. There are jobs I’d go in knowing a hundred percent I’m not getting the job. It was year after year of “no, no, no,” and then, one day, things changed and suddenly, Jon was at the point in his career when he got to make his own choices. was the first movie I never interviewed for, and I didn’t interview for . Maybe we do get to choose some things, but the projects have to come to you. Thinking about working with a new director, I want to work with someone who I’d love to dream together with. Maybe it’s a hot take, but I love signing on to a script that I can’t previsualize. Like, if it is beautiful to me as I’m reading it, I don’t feel like I’ll be truly challenged as an artist to do it because I’m already half of the way there thinking about what it could look like. I love taking on a project that is fundamentally going to be a challenge for me, not only as a cinematographer, but as an artist. For , the entire movie is shot from a first-person perspective. When I was reading the script, I was like, “I don’t really know what that means.” We came up with this concept that we call “ascension perspective.” We would use “first person” with the crew so people could previsualize, but for us, it was the idea of this sentient image that was less concerned about what it looks like to see, but more what it feels like to see, and toward that, an image that’s just always tied to a real body, a real person with real stakes as they’re navigating, in our case, the Jim Crow South. Jomo, would you say that you took away a lot from that process, having learned from that director, given that he’d shot his own stuff before? Absolutely. He thinks about images in a totally different way, so our conversations always felt so fruitful. With this movie, it was a totally different relationship as a cinematographer, capturing an image from inside the scene. If Hattie, one of the characters, hugs the protagonist Elwood, it’s me she’s hugging physically. It was a collective process of many people sitting in a room for many months, and in the end, you don’t know where the ideas come from. was first going to be a very gritty handheld film shot in Mexico, and we were talking about and someone else said, “Let’s shoot an opera onstage, and we’ll do a lot of lighting effects,” and the two projects gradually merged into one. We realized during location scouting [in Mexico] that the film would be very much to the ground, maybe too much, and the opera would be maybe not in the world enough. We managed on the first one to get all the technicals sorted. On the one hand, it’s fantastic, but on the other hand, it also can sometimes make you confident that you’ve solved all the problems. Whereas, you know, if you’re making a film, as Paul just said, you’re constantly looking for what the film is. As Jomo just said, you’re constantly watching and trying to sort out what is this film we’re making. We knew what the film was because we’d made it, but actually we didn’t, and we were discovering it as we went. Denis definitely had some opinions about the choices we’d made on . I discovered at the beginning of that he didn’t like the anamorphic lenses we were using, which is a really tough time to hear about that. When the film’s out, you’ve done it, and he came to me and said, “Mate, I just don’t love those lenses.” I was mortified because those lenses are my babies. I do stand by our choice to shoot anamorphic for some of the first film, but we didn’t shoot anamorphic for the second film because it didn’t fit the story where we were. I still have to get to the bottom of what about them he does not like. Yeah, not much discussion, I’m afraid. Was the process different on ? There were so many years between them, John. The only difference to me was filming digital. But did he change his style? I think he’s moved with the times and he’s made a lot of films between those two. He’s very prolific. I know he used to go in the lab and time the dailies, even. He never timed dailies for me. He likes digital — he likes to see the image instantly. I found an old thing on YouTube the other day and it was a making of . He was a lot more active and a lot more around the camera when it was on film, and everybody else was too. They’d come to the machine and say, “What are you doing?” And I prefer that, because if something was wrong immediately after a take, everyone was there. I thought you shot on film, but no — you’re telling us you shot digital. There’s a lot of film in there. We had days of 5,000 extras last time; this time, we barely had 500. You can’t reshoot everywhere with lots of cameras because you don’t have enough background, but you can if you do it digitally. The first was 50 shots of visual effects. I think it’s one of the reasons it stood the test of time: because there was so little CGI. This one has — I don’t know how many, but of course he’s embraced that now. He was suspicious of it before, which rightly he should have been. But we jumped from 50 shots to , which was 800, to I don’t know what this is. Thousands. The first has very little bluescreen in it. We shot on 17 stages across three different studios, and our sets were built fire lane to fire lane, floor all the way to the reds. Every single inch of every stage was used. Two of our sets were the size of four American football fields each, and we had four backlot sets. Jon, Nathan Crowley, our production designer, and our visual effects supervisor, Pablo Helman, and I all had a conversation very early on, maybe a year before we started shooting, that we wanted to do as much on camera as possible, that our goal was to make an Old Hollywood movie and not rely on visual effects. And of course we do have visual effects: We have visual effects characters, the animals. But I had real practical sets to light. Jon is a director who likes to be able to go in and shoot 360 degrees, and so I would pre-light every Saturday and Sunday. The sets were so massive that there was no other way to do it. There are people that have said to me, “The ceiling in the wizard’s throne room, how was the set extension on that?” There is no set extension. That is all real. at the time was thought of as very VFX-heavy. But the standard way to make [a film like this], you have five stages. One’s green, one’s blue, and you go there for however many days it is, and then you get a movie. Ridley, like me, we got into this game to go around the next bend in the river. We wanted to go on location. He very rarely shoots in a studio. We had one studio scene in this film, which wasn’t really a proper studio, but a warehouse. He builds on this old sort of Napoleonic, neoclassical fort in Malta, and Malta is made up of crumbling, rich tea biscuits, everything’s falling down the whole time, so you get this sense of decay. You don’t know how old things are, but the background is there. These are the walls of the old Napoleonic fort, there’s a big area and then in the middle of that, you put the Colosseum, some temples, the Forum, some palaces, and then they need to be topped up. But [the actors] walk into, essentially, Rome. It’s real. Rome’s one of the oldest cities as we understand it, so people know what it looks like, so you’ve got to get that VFX balance right. The first film, I don’t think he trusted the VFX. I don’t think he understood it fully, which was just as well. But I think one of the reasons it stayed with us is that it’s real. You have the sense of what it was like to be there. He really does worlds. I’d rather shoot it on film, of course, but he won’t go back there. Look at the awards last year. Look at how many of those films were shot on film, and I liked them all. But he will stay digital. He will never go back. He likes that, and for this sort of filmmaking, it’s better suited. Undoubtedly. I don’t say I like it. Rather than bluescreen hell, I’d rather go to a yoga retreat. In my career, I’ve shot both digital and film. Film has a real special quality to it, and it does seem like the default for budgets and for filmmakers is to go with digital, which I think is a real shame. I wouldn’t say it’s getting harder to win. I think maybe it’s getting slightly easier to win because again, I think that digital has come full circle and film is starting to get back into the good graces of the accountants in the budget. But it is incredibly important to fight for film at every step of the way because it’s important that film doesn’t go away and if no one uses it, then it will go away. In , we found that the look that we were after, we could only achieve by using film as an analog intermediate instead of a digital intermediate. And we captured on digital and then went through an analog intermediate. Film is being steadily being written off by many. It is per frame more expensive than shooting digital, however, there is something I call the hidden dollar. With digital, a camera can run for 45mins continuously on a set per take, you can easily shoot 4 hours of footage a day. At the end of the day, those extra hours all have to be transferred, logged, that directly becomes many hours of burning the midnight oil, extra work for the DIT and digital lab department and editorial. Worse, still no one gets together and watches the dailies anymore, a very important collaboration ritual we would all do to find out what we could do better or to see something that had been very difficult work well. That ritual made us better filmmakers. We don’t we do it? We simply don’t have the time. Why are we wasting so much of our day shooting material that will never make the first assembly? The studios and producers should listen to the people they ask to make films what they want to do, how they see it. The more choices we have access to the more expansive our vision! There is something in the image that happens when you shoot on celluloid. Not only in the colors and the way light is captured, but to me it even manifests in the very process of making the movie. When you shoot on film these days, you have to trust yourself and your team in a different way. I think that creates a certain added intimacy with your team and a real singularity of purpose. ... I don’t think it’s the right tool for every project, but believe it is the right tool for the right projects. It has a real impact on the image; it brings us a simple poetry, it brings magic on the set. The take is sacred; at each take the actors, the team feels absolutely present to the moment. Shooting on film is to light and to understand light. Not having a monitor and learning to trust the film negative, but also trust your instincts, is really important. But for me now, I love shooting digitally. I think the workflow that Jon and I have together, we couldn’t do on film. I love where technology is going ... I’m not one of the people that go, “I absolutely have to shoot film.” Some stories work well with digital, and other stories might work better with film. For me, there’s more depth with film through the RGB layers, and the random grain movement gives anthropomorphic quality like something living, not pixel fixated on one film plain as digital. Colors also renders differently. Film is more like oil paint, and digital is more like watercolor, it doesn’t mix the same way to produce the nuances of colors in the image. It was very important for Pablo to shoot in La Scala. They’d never let a film crew in, other than a documentary crew. It was finally negotiated, four hours for $250,000, so I had to figure out, “How am I going to go in and shoot this massive scene of this opera with an audience?” They wouldn’t let me in with the pre-lights. I literally went in with 12 PAR cans to bounce off the ceiling. And then I brought in a big projector. And the way I was able to do it was work with their lighting crew because they knew the lights on that stage. And in 45 minutes, we were up and running. The most hair-raising or complicated technical part for me was how to light La Scala in the shortest time I could. The most challenging for me, because I had not worked on films of that scale before, was the ending of . There is a long night scene where you have mixed interiors in a studio, exteriors that we shot in a quarry near Paris, and full 3D VFX shots that were mixed in, where you can see the cars riding in the desert, and the exteriors are full 3D. It was a lot to figure out, what would be the right balance between all of these elements. What has been said here about the crews is something that’s more and more true. For example, the gaffer, Thomas Garreau, really found a solution for this quarry shot. First I thought about balloons, but he told me that it would be too fragile [with the weather], so we took this 200-foot crane and you have this soft box that naturally lights the set, like the moon. He brought automatic projectors all the way around and was able to shape the space around this final scene where the movie almost ends. I think the bigger things get, the harder it is to wrangle. It’s like wrangling cats, isn’t it? Alice’s descriptions of what she went through, it blows my mind. It actually makes me have an anxiety attack. And then ultimately all it ends up being is an emotional shot of a character. You need to record emotion through that lens, and everything else be damned. But if you’re not getting the emotion, then it doesn’t make a difference. You may as well not be there. Not so much the cameras. I mean, you’re not going to like all of the frames when you have eight cameras. Ridley will choose the strongest ones, but obviously he wants to try and capture everything at once. A lot of cameras will be sitting there twiddling their thumbs and they’d just be on for five, six seconds. I did spend time in cutting rooms. I suppose the nights are difficult because you don’t have all night, you have until about 8 o’clock, and we shot the summers during the wrong time of year. The previous film, we shot in the beginning of the year and had a longer light. But also the night, when it comes, it will come late in the evening, and by then he just wants to be gone. For us, it really came down to, in thinking about point of view, just how deeply literate everyone is with that perspective. We spend our entire lives inside our own bodies. We wanted POV, but we wanted fundamentally poetic images. So toward that, there was a situation where every single scene we designed as a oner. We wanted to spare the actors more artifice than they were already interacting with, looking into the camera and having these apparatuses for every single shot. And for the lighting with almost all reflective surfaces, I would just surround buildings with mirrors and redirect light into spaces. It’s an odd thing: If I was trying to think of what point-of-view might look like, I might grab something like a Steadicam, because we as humans stabilize our own vision and our mind. But in reality, it looked more ghostly. So there was a way in which handheld actually feels more present. In another room, I could do handheld and look down on my body and the camera would look down on the actor’s body. So there was a lot of engineering, and each scene needed a very specific camera. They were meticulously designed between RaMell and I to match this feeling of sight and connecting different pieces together. There are so many shots of the movie that I think seem and look simply gestured, but almost every single shot had some amount of intense orchestration. It was “Defying Gravity.” Jon and I, during our lengthy prep, we talked about the theme of the light is not the light and the darkness is not the darkness. Good is not good and evil is not evil in our movie. I had this idea that the sun would always rise for Glinda and always set for Elphaba. We meet Glinda in her bubble and it’s bright, beautiful and wondrous and Oz is this beautiful, bright space. She meets Fiyero in the morning and Elphaba meets Fiyero at night, and there’s a long sunset sequence that we did through “I’m Not That Girl.” Then in “Popular,” the sun rises for Glinda. The last 40 minutes of the movie, that takes us through “Defying Gravity,” is all one long sunset. I had this image of what the sunset was going to be like, and I had to get everyone on board. Emerald City is our biggest set and it costs a lot more money to shoot at night. We go through the wizard’s palace and end up on top of the highest tower in Emerald City, and Elphaba finds her power as she leaps off a building and into the sunset, as darkness descends. My work was not really to decide that, it was much more to decide what kind of night would be the first act and what kind of night would be the last act and for the first night, it was pretty easy in the way we approached it. I thought, even if we’re in a studio, it should feel natural. The first big musical scene is a market building up Zoe Saldana, who is dancing and singing in Mexico, but that was shot in a studio, and we actually brought a lot of references and even light bulbs that we bought in Mexico, equipped all the lighting stands with wheels and it was equipped with batteries and the choice was to do only practicals for this sequence and obviously with a lot of lighting in them, and the last night was not as contrasty, you don’t have these highlights to fill that the black is black and the colors pop out thanks to these bright lights that you have in the frame. LACHMAN I think everyone’s talking about a psychological authenticity, whatever style the film that you’re shooting in. You want people to believe what the image represents. And the other thing that I wanted to say is what’s so important is we as the operator, even if you’re not operating, is that we’re another actor. For me, we give a performance in the action with the actors, through light, through movement of the camera, through our movement with the camera, that enhances what the emotions are for the story. And that’s something that I don’t think gets discussed about how the movement is. You know, if acting is acting and reacting, what they say acting is about, that’s really another aspect of what we do as cinematographers is we’re able to interplay with the images, but also with the performance. When I’m not on set, you can oftentimes find me at camera houses playing with different lenses and cataloguing what emotional impression they give me so when I’m next thinking of a project I have a wider selection of ideas to pull from. I’m always on the search for images I have never seen before and the tools that can make them a reality. Short films, music videos and commercials are a special place for experimenting new technologies. Technology will never replace the story we need to tell, so that’s what’s important for me. You talk to vendors. NANLUX gave us prototype lights on that weren’t ready either, that are now their lights. It’s about keeping vendor relationships and knowing what’s about to come out. I’ve got, I don’t know, seven different vendors who have emailed me saying, “will you test these things?” Being in this position is great with a big movie about to come out, and people eager and excited to collaborate with you. ... Panavision is my old relationship. ... [Back in the day] I couldn’t get a job. I had just had a baby. I had an agent tell me I was way too old to ever be successful as a cinematographer. After flying to L.A. (these people said, we would love to meet with you), I sat down, and they said the reason we brought you in is because we wanted to tell you you’re way too old. And I was 35! I was at a low, low point, and Kim Snyder, who is now the president of Panavision, just kept saying to me, “it’s going to happen. Just stay focused.” She’d take me to lunch, and she’d just be so encouraging. And so that relationship has always been very strong with Panavision. So then, as soon as I knew I was doing , I called Panavision six months before. I looked at some cameras at the time, but Dan Sasaki [Vice President of Optical Engineering at Panavision] had this idea for a new lens. I couldn’t tell him what movie I was working on, and I showed him my look book, and we started talking about color and image and feeling and emotion. And then he’s like, “I’ve got this idea. I’ll make one, and then we can see how you want to adjust it.” So he made one, and I think it was a 35 millimeter lens, which is what I tested first. I had said we were going to shoot on Alexa Mini and then we tested all the cameras again, because there were also new cameras. When we projected the test at Company 3, I only had one shot from the Alexa 65 and Jon and I looked at each other and we said, “we’re going to shoot on the Alexa 65,” but the lens he was creating didn’t cover that sensor. So I call Panavision, and I said, “can you make this lens these? Can you make this set of lenses for the Alexa 65?” And he said, “No, not on your timeline.” I started testing other lenses, but those lenses were exactly what was in my head, that I had dreamed of. And then we pushed six months, and I called him the day we pushed and I said, “we’re pushing six months. Can you make these lenses now for the Alexa 65?” And he’s like, “let’s try.” And they’re what’s now called Ultra Panatar II, but we called them the Unlimiteds on our movie because they didn’t have a name, and we called them after a name. But the ones that they made for us are not like the ones that they actually mass produce, and so no one’s touched them. They’re in a closet in London. We have three sets. No one has used them since. No one’s going to use them till we finish movie two. It does feel like every month something new comes out that changes the game somewhat, and it is hard when you are doing longer projects and you’ve locked into a camera and lens system and a lighting system. Often it feels like when you come out the other end of that, the world’s changed a little bit from when you went in. There are new lights, new brands, new concepts, new ideas. So it is really important to stay on top of it. I do my best to try and test as much as I can, even as we’re filming, particularly gaming 3D gaming engine technology, which I’ve been using now for a number of years from the early days of and right through to right now where I’m using 3D gaming technology, Unreal Engine, to game out and technically solve problems. We can now do in 20th of the time in Unreal. Like all ecosystems, it is when the system is challenged that it is able to continue to evolve and thrive — new growth comes from the infusion of new ideas. I think as a filmmaker and as a film lover that is what I have always wanted from film — to be inspired by others seeing the world in ways I haven’t seen it and to challenge me to integrate different ways of moving through it myself. Film is a space we are able to collectively dream together, the more dreams and dreamers invited to the table the more impactful and powerful our collective art will become. I can only talk about what I know which is the situation in France. Here, the cinema schools play a very important role. Inequalities start there, with a strong tendency to reproduce the same population of students from year to year. Some schools work very hard on equality in the admission process and you can see there is a little more diversity among young DPs but big budget films still are almost exclusively shot by white males. It’s like as soon as there is a lot of money involved directors and producers suddenly are much less inclined to diversity and equality. I can’t personally speak to the why – but what I can do is celebrate the great talent seen in the many female and black cinematographers whose work I admire. To name a few – Maryse Alberti, Alice, Ernest Dickerson, Chayse Irvin, Kira Kelly, Shabier Kirshner, Ellen Kuras, Kirsten Johnson, Tommy Maddox-Upshaw, Rachel Morrison, Mandy Walker, Ari Wegner and Bradford Young – have all shot projects that have moved me and advanced the work done in our field. As of last year, published a story that said the lowest branch of female members in the academy was cinematography. When I first went to the ASC, when I was a film student, there were five female members of the ASC. I’m the 20th female member. Now, there’s 25 women out of 415. It’s ridiculously low, considering how many wonderful, talented women there are. ... I think there needs to be a clear decision that we’re going to make sure women are being hired on these huge movies. I mean, is one of the only movies I didn’t interview on. Marc Platt had not seen ... We had a rapport, and then he trusts Joh as well. But I think there needs to be more storytellers and filmmakers that are hiring people of diversity. Jon hires people of diversity, and I think there needs to be a conscious effort, because if there’s not a conscious effort towards choosing people from all backgrounds, then there’s just no way it’s going to keep growing. We’re going to stay stagnant.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown’s troubles connecting on the field have yet to blow into a family feud inside the locker room — honest, both Philadelphia Eagles stars said. Between Hurts and Brown, it’s all good in Philly. “Me and Jalen are good,” Brown said. Added Hurts, “We’re good, we’re good.” So there will be no sit-ups in the driveway, no apologies on the front lawn, and certainly, it seems, no rift between Hurts and his No. 1 receiver. Hurts and Brown each downplayed any hint of a fissure Wednesday between the two after defensive end Brandon Graham appeared this week on a Philadelphia sports radio station and suggested there was friction between the Pro Bowl duo. The two were close friends long before they became teammates and Hurts is the godfather for Brown’s daughter. Graham's comments — in which he noted “ things have changed ,” between the two, without offering specifics — exploded into tabloid and fan fodder this week in Philadelphia. His insinuations that the duo were not on the same page came on the heels of Brown's quote after a sluggish win over Carolina that the “ offense ” wasn’t playing up to standard, even with the Eagles at 11-2. “BG knows he spoke out of place,” Hurts said. Graham, who is sidelined with a triceps injury, clarified his comments later to an ESPN reporter, saying he made the wrong assumption about the relationship between Hurts and Brown and planned to apologize to both players. Brown, with 109 yards receiving combined the last two games, said his beef with the offense wasn't directed at Hurts. It was everything from offensive coordinator Kellen Moore's play calling to execution to all the ingredients in a successful offense that make a team a Super Bowl contender. The usually pass-happy Eagles have leaned more on running back Saquon Barkley, who set the franchise season rushing record of 1,623 yards against the Panthers and is chasing Eric Dickerson for the NFL mark. “Obviously, it's not about running the ball,” Brown told reporters. “He's about to win MVP. Clearly. What other things can we do on offense? We have to pass the ball. That can go into protection, that can go into picking up the block, that goes to us getting open quicker. Getting on the same page.” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said he never witnessed any issues between Hurts and Brown and only saw two players who worked hard together, even working on routes after practice and seemed to have a deep personal connection on and off the field. “You guys get to see three hours every Sunday where emotions can play as high as they’re going to play,” Sirianni said. “I get to see these guys every single day, how they go about their business and interact with each other.” Brown, who was coming off consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons, wasn't necessarily wrong in his frustration with the recent stagnation of the passing game. Hurts, who signed a contract extension ahead of the 2023 season that was worth $179.3 million guaranteed , has thrown for fewer than 200 yards in three straight games. Wide receiver DeVonta Smith — who also complained Sunday about the offense — was also coming off consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons but has yet to break 100 yards in a game this season. Brown has four 100-yard games, well off last season’s run when he topped 100 yards in six straight games and seven times overall. Hurts has been more efficient than explosive this season but has still thrown 12 touchdown passes to just one interception — and rushed for 11 more scores — during the Eagles' nine-game winning streak that has them on the brink of clinching the NFC East. Maybe playing the Steelers on Sunday at home can snap the Eagles out of their offensive malaise. Hurts threw three TD passes to Brown in a 35-13 win in 2022. “Do we all have things to get better at in the passing game? Yeah, I think that’s obvious,” Sirianni said. “I think that’s what we’ve been talking about. We all have things that we’ve got to get better at, coaches, players. But this is why this is the greatest team sport there is. It takes everybody. It takes every single person being together, every single person for the success to happen. It’s just not a one-person thing.” AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFLCHATHAM, N.J. -- The mystery in the skies over New Jersey continues. One law enforcement official said flying objects were seen over critical infrastructure, while residents have reported seeing some hovering over their homes in the northern and central parts of the state. The FBI is investigating the clusters of possible drones reported over the last few weeks. The bureau is still asking residents to send in pictures and videos. Anyone with information can call the FBI at 1-800-CALLFBI, or submit online here . Florham Park's police chief sent a message to residents that says drone sightings have been reported above "water reservoirs, electric transmission lines, rail stations, police departments, and military installations." He added that "their presence appears nefarious in nature." Local police say there's no immediate threat to the public, but all eyes remain fixated on the sky. "It looked like a huge drone. It definitely wasn't a plane because it was too low, and it was also going back and forth and then forwards and backwards," Chatham resident Melissa Koscielniak said. Koscielniak took cellphone video on Wednesday night from her home in Morris County. She said a large object with flashing red and green lights was hovering just above her neighbors' rooftops. "I think the creepy part is not that it's just a drone, but that they're so large," Koscielniak said. "They look like a small car to me. Their wing spans are probably six feet across," Florham Park Mayor Mark Taylor said. Florham Park is one town north of Chatham. "People are calling myself, my home. You know, it's one of those things where they are alarmed," Taylor said. In Somerset County last week, officials had to cancel an emergency medical helicopter transport because drones were seen near the landing area. Some residents across the Garden State said they're starting to worry. "So for some reason, like I think of terrorism, which is very morbid," Chatham resident Anna Macias-Mosberg said. Nick Caloway is a multi-skilled journalist who was thrilled to join the CBS News New York news team in August 2019. Since then, Nick has covered crime, politics, the pandemic and more across the Tri-State Area.
By MARY CLARE JALONICK and MATT BROWN WASHINGTON (AP) — Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Defense Department, said he had a “wonderful conversation” with Maine Sen. Susan Collins on Wednesday as he pushed to win enough votes for confirmation. He said he will not back down after allegations of excessive drinking and sexual misconduct. Related Articles National Politics | Donald Trump will ring the New York Stock Exchange bell. It’ll be a first for him National Politics | The Trump and Biden teams insist they’re working hand in glove on foreign crises National Politics | ‘You don’t know what’s next.’ International students scramble ahead of Trump inauguration National Politics | Trump is threatening to raise tariffs again. Here’s how China plans to fight back National Politics | Trump won’t be able to save the struggling US beef industry Collins said after the hourlong meeting that she questioned Hegseth about the allegations amid reports of drinking and the revelation that he made a settlement payment after being accused of a sexual assault that he denies. She said she had a “good, substantive” discussion with Hegseth and “covered a wide range of topics,” including sexual assault in the military, Ukraine and NATO. But she said she would wait until a hearing, and notably a background check, to make a decision. “I asked virtually every question under the sun,” Collins told reporters as she left her office after the meeting. “I pressed him both on his position on military issues as well as the allegations against him, so I don’t think there was anything that we did not cover.” The meeting with Collins was closely watched as she is seen as more likely than most of her Republican Senate colleagues to vote against some of Trump’s Cabinet picks. She and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a fellow moderate Republican, did not shy from opposing Trump in his first term when they wanted to do so and sometimes supported President Joe Biden’s nominees for the judicial and executive branches. And Hegseth, an infantry combat veteran and former “Fox & Friends” weekend host, is working to gain as many votes as he can as some senators have expressed concerns about his personal history and lack of management experience. “I’m certainly not going to assume anything about where the senator stands,” Hegseth said as he left Collins’ office. “This is a process that we respect and appreciate. And we hope, in time, overall, when we get through that committee and to the floor that we can earn her support.” Hegseth met with Murkowski on Tuesday. He has also been meeting repeatedly with Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, a military veteran who has said she is a survivor of sexual assault and has spent time in the Senate working on improving how attacks are reported and prosecuted within the ranks. On Monday, Ernst said after a meeting with him that he had committed to selecting a senior official to prioritize those goals. Republicans will have a 53-49 majority next year, meaning Trump cannot lose more than three votes on any of his nominees. It is so far unclear whether Hegseth will have enough support, but Trump has stepped up his pressure on senators in the last week. “Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!” Trump posted on his social media platform last week.A suspected Chinese spy with business ties to Prince Andrew is barred from UK