WASHINGTON — Tech entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy came to Capitol Hill Thursday to join Republicans in a celebration of the new initiative named the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) proclaimed it a “new day in Washington and a new day in America” and said Thursday’s meeting marked “the beginning of a journey.” Just don’t ask where the journey’s going or what DOGE, whose name is a nod to both a meme and a digital currency , will actually do. “There won’t be a lot of detail for the press today — and that’s by design, because this is a brainstorming session,” Johnson told reporters, before ducking into a meeting with Musk, Ramaswamy and a bunch of Republican lawmakers. The two men, who have outsize influence in Trump’s forthcoming White House without being in Trump’s Cabinet, created a spectacle on the Hill. The Tesla CEO moved between meetings carrying one of his young children on his shoulders, flanked by an entourage. Neither he nor Ramaswamy responded to questions from reporters. (Editor’s note: Ramaswamy owns a stake in HuffPost’s parent company, BuzzFeed.) Earlier on Thursday, Ramaswamy met alone with GOP senators, some of whom stressed afterwards that it is still up to Congress, not Musk and Ramaswamy, to set spending levels. President-elect Donald Trump has described DOGE as a non-governmental project that would function as more of an advisory panel for ways to root out waste, rather than a traditional government agency. “They’re more of an advisory group that works behind the scenes with the White House,” Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) told reporters after leaving the meeting. Asked why DOGE would succeed when previous efforts to drive down spending with the help of an outside commission, like the 2010 deficit commission , have failed, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told reporters, “That question is way too early for this process.” Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who’s leading the House group working with DOGE, told reporters the lawmakers talked with Musk and Ramaswamy about the national debt. “It’s unsustainable and our country is on a crash course,” she said. Greene also offered some insight into how DOGE would rate lawmakers: “Elon and Vivek talked about having a naughty list and a nice list for members of Congress and senators, and how we vote and how we’re spending the American people’s money,” she said . While lawmakers await DOGE recommendations, its leaders are both in favor of dramatically slashing federal spending. Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur who ran for president and then became a top surrogate for Trump, wants to eliminate 75% of the federal workforce. Musk has talked about wanting to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget — a goal that budget experts consider laughably unrealistic without reductions to Social Security and Medicare, which Trump has previously vowed not to touch. But Rep. Aaron Bean (R-Fla.), co-founder of the House DOGE caucus, told reporters that lawmakers would, in fact, examine cuts to “mandatory spending,” a category that includes these popular programs for older Americans. “I don’t want to take away benefits, but we do want to look at how we give those benefits away to do it in the most efficient way possible,” Bean said. Bean and many other Republicans are excited that Musk and Ramaswamy have brought renewed interest in cutting spending. Bean mused about other ways of driving attention to the project. “I envision some type of scoreboard where we can go to a website and see exactly how many positions we’ve cut, agencies we’ve cut,” he said. The House DOGE group includes at least one Democrat, Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz, who said eliminating waste and fraud “shouldn’t be a partisan issue.” But Democrats weren’t invited to attend Thursday’s meeting. As he left the meeting, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) offered a pessimistic take on the DOGE mission. “If Congress doesn’t have the guts to do those things they’re talking real big about, it’s just a waste of time,” Burchett said. Republicans Say Letting These Tax Cuts Expire Would Crash The Economy. Congress' Own Experts Say Otherwise. Trans Rights Activists Stage Protest In Bathroom Next To Mike Johnson’s Office Why Donald Trump And Elon Musk's Bromance Might Spell Trouble For UkraineTwo weeks before Election Day, Rake Force’s Jake Dailey and a small group of colleagues drove two pickup trucks, a mini-excavator and a handful of chainsaws up to the tree-covered ridgetops south of Cle Elum Lake. The small agroforestry company had contracted with The Nature Conservancy to thin stands on the Ellsworth Creek Preserve. Now, the conservancy was bringing them to Washington’s Central Cascades. During the days that followed, while now President-elect Donald Trump held a series of increasingly profane and aggrieved rallies across the country, Dailey and his crew did just what the soon-to-be president had once offhandedly suggested: they “cleaned” the forest. Or more precisely, they thinned several acres of young conifers in order to reduce fuel density and obtain the biomass needed for biochar production. But to Dailey and a few others who were up on that ridge — veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — the work was more than just good land stewardship. It was also a form of personal healing. There was a time when Dailey was much more politically aligned with the President-elect and many of his supporters. Those views were part of what drove him to join the military in the first place. “I was super patriotic, like, born on the Fourth of July, born at Pearl Harbor,” Dailey said. “I grew up as a conservative Republican, and I believed ... in American exceptionalism, and that’s why I joined.” From Idaho, where he spent much of his childhood camping, hunting and fishing, he went first to Fort Lewis — now Joint Base Lewis-McChord — and then to Iraq, where he served as a combat medic with the U.S. Army from 2009 to 2010. Jake Dailey bucks young Douglas fir trees. The hypocrisy and trauma he witnessed there, culminating with the suicide of a fellow soldier, crumbled his previously jingoistic worldview and left him with post-traumatic stress disorder — part of what Dailey considers a grave, “moral injury.” “My thought was, ‘What are we doing?’ But I couldn’t answer my own question because I needed to survive,” he said. “I couldn’t do anything to help those people ... except not shoot them, like, I’m not gonna do anything to hurt these people. I’ve already contributed to (that) enough, and I sort of became a conscientious objector in my own mind.” For Jared Busen, a friend of Dailey’s and fellow veteran who has helped with several of Rake Force’s early projects, switching from the reserves to active duty had less to do with politics and more to do with a need for purpose. His engineering job with equipment manufacturing giant Caterpillar had left him unfulfilled, and Busen thought he might find more meaning in flying helicopters for the Army. “I needed to do something cool, and I thought maybe that was the answer,” he said. Not only did that job, which Busen likens to being a “glorified taxi cab driver,” prove just as unfulfilling. The war he went to and its aftermath left him questioning. Like Dailey, Busen came home traumatized — a fact that he avoided confronting head-on for years. “I very intentionally made sure I never got diagnosed with (PTSD) while I was in, because it’s a four-letter word still in the military ... especially as a pilot,” he said. “And then eventually I just had to come to terms with it. And it really was, like, five weeks ago when I had my appointment to officially get the diagnosis.” In many ways, fieldwork is a natural fit for somebody accustomed to life in the military. It’s mission-oriented, teamwork-dependent and requires a certain amount of mental and physical grit. “You learn to accept being uncomfortable, and then it’s just your new norm,” Busen said. “And then obviously, fuels reduction is really straightforward,” he added. “And sometimes it’s nice to work like that, because you don’t have to think too much. It’s like, ‘All right, here’s my task for the day.’” Jared Busen limbs a young conifer while working on a thinning project. Dailey first got into conservation work when he and his wife began homesteading near Toledo, and also found the physicality of it to be “a lot like Army PT.” But what felt even more familiar was the way working in the woods gave him a chance to once again rely on the person next to him, as he was trained to do. “We can’t do anything without a battle buddy, and when we get out, they expect us to go it on our own,” he says. “We suffer in that case, and I believe this work re-immerses us in that camaraderie.” But there was an even deeper effect that conservation work was having on Dailey. The relief it brought was more than just physical, or even mental. It was metaphysical. It provided moral healing for the moral injuries he’d suffered during the war. And it did so not by replicating the military ethos, but rather by actively undermining it. “We committed to serve our country ... but what we did over in Iraq and Afghanistan wasn’t really service to our country,” he said. “I believe it was theft of resources.” And the choices Dailey believes veterans are left with, as they wrestle with this cognitive dissonance, are stark. “You either lie to yourself, or you kill yourself — that’s our options. Or, you get into conservation — you get into atoning for the thing you contributed to.” To Busen, conservation work is perhaps a little less monumental than an act of moral atonement, but no less important or impactful. Simply put, it provided meaning and fulfillment in a way that none of his previous jobs had. It gave him a chance to exercise certain deeply gratifying sensibilities that he’d developed well before joining the military — sensibilities that he first acquired as a young man and avid bird-watcher. “When (you) get heavy into birding ... you can’t help but start seeing all the destruction,” he said. “It was through birding that I started seeing the bigger picture of our ecosystems.” Young hemlock trees seen on the Ellsworth Creek Preserve. Busen still remembers the specific bird that first got him hooked and opened his eyes to this bigger picture of ecological interconnectedness — the species that many in the birding community call one’s “spark bird.” He was 20, and living and working in the Midwest. The bird was a black-necked stilt, which typically dwells along coastlines, but was somehow in front of him in a Minnesota farm field. And the strangeness of this situation induced a paradigm shift in his thinking. “The world had suddenly opened up around me, and I started paying more attention to it,” Busen said. “There was this whole world I had been ignoring all of my life ... so it kind of just introduced me to, like, ‘Hey, pay attention to nature, because it’s everywhere, and it’s interacting with us, and we’re interacting with it, and we’re surrounded by it.’” Busen brought this newfound awareness with him to the Army — to Afghanistan, South Korea and Alabama. When he wasn’t flying helicopters, he was paying attention to whatever birds there were around him. In Korea, he conducted shorebird surveys with a local nonprofit. In Alabama, he worked weekends as a coastal bird steward for the Audubon Society, and would spend whole days answering questions and talking to beachgoers. He brings his sensibilities with him to his current work as a wetland technician for the Tulalip Tribes — to the way he crafts his planting plans for riparian areas and food forests. “I try to make sure that insects and small mammals and birds and any larger fauna are accounted for and have habitat and space in whatever I’m developing,” he said. “And not just, ‘Oh it’s pretty from a distance,’ or ‘It’s only for human use.’” He thinks on behalf of, and tries to give back to the whole ecosystem. “It pays a quarter of what I used to make,” he says. “But now I have a purpose I believe in.”
Who is Jimmy McCain, the man who blasted Donald Trump over the Arlington National Cemetery scuffle? The son of ex-senator John McCain was also the first in his family to split from the RepublicansA New Jersey school board agreed last week to refund the state more than $33,000 after a “Staff Fun Day” was determined to violate state laws on the use of taxpayer funds. The Newark Board of Education unanimously voted to pass a resolution requiring the return of the funds. The move follows an Oct. 25 letter to Newark Public School Superintendent Roger León from the New Jersey Department of Education’s Office of Accountability and Compliance, which raised concerns over the event. The “Central Office Staff Fun Day” was hosted on June 1 at a local catering facility, according to the letter. The event boasted a price tag of $43,813.90 and Newark Public Schools allocated $33,649.07 in state aid, or 76.8% of the bill. The “Staff Fun Day” was intended to “promote team building” and “enhance a positive organizational culture,” according to the New Jersey Department of Education. Activities featured during the event included, among others, a hula hoop contest, trivia games, a “social media photo booth” and an inflatable axe-throwing tournament. However, a review conducted by the department found the activities lacked educational and professional content, were not facilitated by district staff and did not meet required goals for use of public funds. These findings placed Newark Public Schools in violation of multiple state statutes regarding use of public funds, according to the letter. “The event lacked an educational or professional development component and did not demonstrate a clear connection to the district’s strategic objectives or organizational development,” the letter read. “As a result, the costs associated with this event are not eligible for State aid.” The education department in the letter ordered Newark Public Schools to direct the $33,649.07 back to the state. The resolution passed by the Newark Board of Education last Tuesday approved the refund, but the district’s lawyer said the board is not being asked to “admit any wrongdoing.” Board member Crystal Williams expressed frustration with the situation, demanding to know who was “responsible” for planning the “Staff Fun Day.” “Why was there no professional development?” Williams asked. “Where specifically can we expect to take this $30,000 from and how can we ensure that this does not happen again?” Board secretary Valerie Wilson said the repayment will not come from a “specific account,” suggesting it may instead be subtracted from future disbursements to the district. She also noted that the district will ensure that any “professional development” planned for the event in the future is “clear, defined and understandable.” Newark Public Schools did not immediately respond to a request for comment from FOX45 News.FL lawmakers discuss budget, hurricane recovery and insurance issues at 'legislature university'
At least one judge has seen the transphobic hysteria for what it is. In denying a request to upend this week’s Mountain West volleyball tournament and/or force San Jose State to leave one of its players home, a federal judge called out the disingenuousness of the lawsuit. And in doing so, revealed the farce behind this sudden groundswell of opposition to transgender women athletes. “The Court finds their delay in filing this action and seeking emergency relief related to the MWC Tournament weakens their arguments," U.S. District Judge S. Kato Crews wrote in his ruling issued Monday. “The movants could have sought injunctive relief much earlier if the exigencies of the circumstances required mandatory court intervention.” For three years now, San Jose State’s volleyball team has included a transgender woman. (Neither the young woman nor San Jose State has confirmed it but, as Crews pointed out, no one has denied it, either.) The Mountain West Conference created a participation policy for transgender athletes back in 2022, which included forfeit as punishment for refusing to play a team with a transgender athlete, and athletic directors at every school in the conference agreed to it. Yet not until this season, after the player had been outed by a right-wing website and then thrown under the bus by one of her own teammates, did the howling and forfeits begin. This is an important point, so I’m going to repeat it: For two years, the San Jose State player was on the volleyball team and the world continued to spin. No one was injured, no one was assaulted in a locker room, no legion of transgender women showed up in formation behind her to take over women’s sports. The San Jose State player practiced and played and no one, not her teammates and not her opponents, took issue with it. Whether that’s because no one realized she’s transgender or it was deemed inconsequential are two sides of the same coin. So what changed? Other than teammate Brooke Slusser and the other grifters deciding that demonizing a young woman would get them a spot on Fox News? Nothing . Not a damn thing. If the San Jose State player was such a threat, if the Mountain West’s transgender participation policy was so onerous, surely the athletes and the schools who filed the lawsuit would have done so immediately. Unless, of course, this was all for show. In which case, waiting until the 11 th hour would add fuel to their faux outrage. “At the earliest, Moving Plaintiffs or their institutions began to learn that one of SJSU’s teammates was an alleged trans woman with an article published in the spring of 2024. And they certainly had knowledge of this alleged player when the string of member institutions started forfeiting matches against SJSU in September 2024,” Crews wrote. Predictably, Slusser and three other athletes filed a notice of appeal. But the likelihood of it succeeding would seem to be slim, as well, given Crews’ painstaking detailing of precedent. The anti-trans ilk likes to claim that allowing transgender women to play sports is a violation of Title IX. But Crews says it’s actually the opposite, taking five pages of his 28-page ruling to cite previous Supreme Court and Tenth Circuit cases that found discriminating against someone for being transgender is sex discrimination. Which is prohibited by Title IX. “The (plaintiffs') Title IX theory raised in this case directly conflicts with Title IX’s prohibition on discrimination against trans individuals,” Crews wrote. San Jose State is the No. 2 seed in the Mountain West Conference tournament, which begins Wednesday. The Spartans have a bye in the first round and will play either Boise State or Utah State on Friday. Those are two of the schools that forfeited games during the regular season, which means we’re about to find out how committed to the bigotry those teams are. For all the shrieking there is about transgender women athletes, it’s the cisgender women pushing the forfeits who cost their fellow athletes opportunities to play and saddled their teams with losses. It’s those women, not the San Jose State player, who are the real threat . Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.Pieridae Announces 2025 Guidance & Capital Program
Jamie Carragher addressed Mo Salah's interview. Jamie Carragher has branded Mo Salah "selfish" for discussing his Liverpool contract situation in a rare public interview after Sunday's 3-2 win at Southampton. Salah was characteristically crucial in the Reds' comeback triumph at St. Mary's, scoring twice after the hosts took a second-half lead. The dramatic victory extended Liverpool's lead at the Premier League summit to eight points, continuing the near-perfect start to Arne Slot's reign. However, Salah made more headlines after the match when he decided to open up to the media about his uncertain future on Merseyside. The 32-year-old winger is set to become a free agent at the end of the season and admitted he was "disappointed" that Liverpool hadn't yet tabled a new contract offer. He added that he was "probably more out than in," fuelling speculation that the current campaign will be the last of his eight-year stretch at the club. Salah's comments marred the positive outlook on Liverpool's latest triumph, and Carragher didn't hold back with his assessment on Monday Night Football. "Of course, there have been discussions, yeah," the former Liverpool defender explained on Sky Sports. "Right now, there's obviously a big difference in the valuation from what Mo Salah and his agent value themselves at, whether that's financially or in terms of length of contract, to what... Alex Turk
News digest: Danko derides hobby horsing as ‘liberal nonsense’Kansas holds off Auburn for No. 1 in AP Top 25 as SEC grabs 3 of top 4 spots; UConn slides to No. 25 Kansas continues to hold the No. 1 ranking in The Associated Press Top 25 men’s college basketball poll. Auburn is pushing the Jayhawks in the latest poll after winning the Maui Invitational and checked in at No. 2. Two-time reigning national champion UConn nearly fell out entirely after an 0-3 week at Maui, falling from No. 2 to 25th. The Southeastern Conference had three of the top four teams with No. 3 Tennessee and No. 4 Kentucky behind the Tigers. The poll featured six new teams, headlined by No. 13 Oregon, No. 16 Memphis and No. 18 Pittsburgh. TCU, Duke climb into top 10, Notre Dame drops in women's AP Top 25; UCLA and UConn remain 1-2 TCU has its best ranking ever in The Associated Press Top 25 women’s basketball poll after a convincing win over Notre Dame. The Horned Frogs jumped eight spots to No. 9, the first time the school has ever been in the top 10. The Fighting Irish, who were third last week, fell seven spots to 10th after losses to TCU and Utah. UCLA remained No. 1, followed by UConn, South Carolina, Texas and LSU. USC, Maryland and Duke are next. Houston's Al-Shaair apologizes for hit on Jacksonville's Lawrence that led to concussion HOUSTON (AP) — Houston’s Azeez Al-Shaair took to X to apologize to Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence after his violent blow to the quarterback’s facemask led to him being carted off the field with a concussion. Back in the starting lineup after missing two games with a sprained left shoulder, Lawrence scrambled left on a second-and-7 play in the second quarter of Houston’s 23-20 win on Sunday. He initiated a slide before Al-Shaair raised his forearm and unleashed on the defenseless quarterback. In the long post, Al-Shaair says "To Trevor I genuinely apologize to you for what ended up happening.” Philadelphia ready to go the distance with RockyFest week dedicated to 'Rocky' movies PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Rocky Balboa fans are ready to go the distance to honor Philly’s favorite fictional fighter almost 50 years after the first movie launched the enduring series of an underdog boxer persevering despite the odds. The city Rocky called home at last has a week dedicated to the box office heavyweight champion of the world a year after the inaugural Rocky Day was held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps. RockyFest officially kicks off Tuesday and a series of events dedicated to the movies series are set to be held around the city. How to sum up 2024? The Oxford University Press word of the year is 'brain rot' LONDON (AP) — Oxford University Press has named “brain rot” its word of the year. It's defined as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state,” especially from consuming too much low-grade online content. Oxford University Press said Monday that the phrase “gained new prominence in 2024,” with its frequency of use increasing 230% from the year before. It was chosen by a combination of public vote and language analysis by Oxford lexicographers. The five other word-of-the-year finalists were demure, slop, dynamic pricing, romantasy and lore. Oxford Languages President Casper Grathwohl said the choice of phrase “feels like a rightful next chapter in the cultural conversation about humanity and technology.” Scientists gather to decode puzzle of the world's rarest whale in 'extraordinary' New Zealand study WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Scientists and culture experts in New Zealand have begun the first-ever dissection of a spade-toothed whale, the world's rarest whale species. The creature, which washed up dead on a beach on New Zealand's South Island in July, is only the seventh specimen ever found. None has ever been seen alive at sea. Almost nothing is known about it but scientists, working with Māori cultural experts, hope to answer some of the many lingering questions this week, including where they live, what they eat, how they produce sound and how this specimen died. Hong Kong launches panda sculpture tour as the city hopes the bear craze boosts tourism HONG KONG (AP) — Thousands of giant panda sculptures will greet residents and tourists starting on Saturday in Hong Kong, where enthusiasm for the bears has grown since two cubs were born in a local theme park. The 2,500 exhibits will be publicly displayed at the Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui, one of Hong Kong’s popular shopping districts, this weekend before setting their footprint at three other locations this month. The displays reflect Hong Kong’s use of pandas to boost its economy as the Chinese financial hub works to regain its position as one of Asia’s top tourism destinations. Violent hit on Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence 'has no business being in our league,' coach says JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence was carted off the field after taking a violent elbow to the facemask from Houston linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair. It prompted two sideline-clearing scuffles. Lawrence clenched both fists after the hit, movements consistent with what’s referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury. Lawrence was on the ground for several minutes as teammates came to his defense and mobbed Al-Shaair. Lawrence eventually was helped to his feet and loaded into the front seat of a cart to be taken off the field. He was not transported to a hospital. He was quickly ruled out with a concussion, though. Al-Shaair and Jaguars rookie cornerback Jarrian Jones were ejected after the first altercation. Big Ten fines Michigan and Ohio State $100,000 each for postgame melee ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) — The Big Ten Conference has announced it fined Michigan and Ohio State $100,000 each for violating the conference’s sportsmanship policy for the on-field melee at the end of the Wolverines’ win in Columbus .A fight broke out at midfield Saturday after the Wolverines’ 13-10 victory when Michigan players attempted to plant their flag on the OSU logo and were confronted by the Buckeyes. Police used pepper spray to break up the players, who threw punches and shoves. One officer suffered a head injury when he was “knocked down and trampled while trying to separate players fighting." The officer was taken to a hospital and has since been released. Marshall Brickman, who co-wrote 'Annie Hall' with Woody Allen, dies at 85 NEW YORK (AP) — The Oscar-winning screenwriter Marshall Brickman, whose wide-ranging career spanned some of Woody Allen’s best films, the Broadway musical “Jersey Boys” and a number of Johnny Carson’s most beloved sketches, has died. He was 85. Brickman died Friday in Manhattan, his daughter Sophie Brickman told The New York Times. No cause of death was cited. Brickman was best known for his extensive collaboration with Allen, beginning with the 1973 film “Sleeper.” Together, they co-wrote “Annie Hall," “Manhattan” and “Manhattan Murder Mystery." The loosely structured script for “Annie Hall,” in particular, has been hailed as one of the wittiest comedies. It won Brickman and Allen an Oscar for best original screenplay.
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Don’t Expect to see Folding Apple Devices Anytime SoonHouse Republicans vote to block release of Gaetz ethics reportSteep price hikes could be on the way if President-elect Donald Trump follows through on his pledge to impose sweeping new tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada and China. He threatened to implement the tariffs on the country’s top three trading partners on his first day back in office, including a 10% tariff on products from China. In a pair of social media posts, he explained the decision as a way to crack down on illegal immigration and drugs. “On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States,” he said. “It is time for them to pay a very big price!” Ultimately, consumers could end up absorbing the brunt of those costs. When tariffs are levied on imports, American companies have to pay taxes to the U.S. government on their purchases from other countries; the companies often pass on those extra costs to customers. “This is a bully effort to put everybody on notice,” said economist Chris Thornberg, founding partner of Beacon Economics in Los Angeles. “One of the reasons he uses tariffs is because it’s one of the few places that he actually has some leverage.” Though Thornberg noted it’s still a “giant remains-to-be seen” whether and how Trump’s proposed tariffs are implemented, consumer goods across the board could be dramatically affected. Here are a few top categories: Mexico was the U.S.’s top goods trading partner last year, surpassing China. Mexico is a major manufacturer of passenger vehicles, light vehicles, trucks, auto parts, supplies and electric-vehicle technologies. Eighty-eight percent of vehicles produced there are exported, with 76% headed for the U.S., the International Trade Administration says. Automakers with manufacturing operations in Mexico include General Motors, Ford, Tesla, Audi, BMW, Honda, Kia, Mercedes Benz, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen. “If we get tariffs, we will pass those tariff costs back to the consumer,” Phil Daniele, chief executive of AutoZone, said in the company’s most recent earnings call. “We’ll generally raise prices ahead of ... what the tariffs will be.” Last year, China accounted for 77% of toy imports — about 25 times greater than the total value of toy imports from Mexico, the next largest foreign source of supply, according to the National Retail Federation. U.S. producers account for less than 1% of the toy market. The federation recently released a study that found the tariffs Trump proposed during his campaign — a universal 10% to 20% tariff on imports from all foreign countries and an additional 60% to 100% tariff on imports specifically from China — would apply to a wide range of toys imported into the U.S., including dolls, games and tricycles. “Prices of toys would increase by 36% to 56%,” the study concluded. The National Retail Federation study also analyzed more than 500 items of clothing and found prices “would rise significantly” — as much as 20.6%. That would force consumers to pare spending on apparel. Low-income households would be hit especially hard, the group said, because they spend three times as much of their after-tax income on apparel compared with high-income households. “U.S. apparel manufacturers would benefit from the tariffs, but at a high cost to families,” the study said. “Even after accounting for domestic manufacturing gains and new tariff revenue, the result is a net $16 billion to $18 billion loss for the U.S. economy, with the burden carried by U.S. consumers.” Imported footwear products already face high U.S. duties, particularly those made in China. The Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America expressed concern that new tariffs would make it more difficult for consumers to afford shoes and other everyday essentials. Trump’s proposed tariffs would increase the costs of several imported fruits and vegetables, said Jerry Nickelsburg, faculty director of UCLA Anderson Forecast, an economic forecasting organization. The vast majority of U.S. produce imports come from Mexico and Canada, including avocados, cucumbers, potatoes and mushrooms. The U.S. spent $88 billion on agricultural imports from the two countries in fiscal year 2024. Big-ticket electronic products such as televisions, laptops, smartphones, dishwashers and washing machines — many of which are manufactured in Mexico and China, or made with parts imported from those countries — likely would become more expensive. The U.S. imported $76 billion worth of computers and other electronics from Mexico in 2023, and more than a quarter of U.S. imports from China consist of electronic equipment. Get local news delivered to your inbox!Coreline Soft Receives Innovation Award in Bio-Medical Technology at Seoul R&D Sharing Event
The MTA’s Transit and Bus Committee voted Monday to add more than 400 new R211 subway cars, including dozens of “ open-gangway ” cars, to its fleet of trains in NYC. Transit authority officials said that by early 2025, at least two open-gangway trains , which allow passengers to walk between train cars , will launch on the G line through Brooklyn and Queens. Additionally, 355 traditional train cars with improved features will start rolling on the tracks by 2027. “W hat is on the agenda today is actually hugely exciting for riders,” MTA chair and CEO Janno Lieber explained at the start of the committee meeting. “ And, part of the fun here is that we are really going into — in a big way — the open-gangway business. It’s going to be OG on the G !” Lieber said trains with an open gangway, similar to an articulated bus, will help alleviate overcrowding because they allow passengers to move between cars safely . Open gangway trains debuted earlier this year on the C line in Manhattan . “O ur friends in Greenpoint, people who ride the G and are passionate about transit, I know, are going to welcome getting new trains, ” he said. New railcars such as the R211 are a priority project in the MTA’s $68 billion capital plan for 2025-2029. It is unclear if the new train procurement will be affected by future cuts or pauses in congestion pricing, which debuts on Jan. 5. The purchase of the cars was based on pre-COVID costs, Lieber explained, before supply-chain issues increased price tags on a magnitude of goods and services around the country. In January 2018, the MTA Board awarded Kawasaki Rail Car, Inc. a contract to design, build and deliver the new train stock to the city’s tracks and stations. The R211s will replace all R44s on the Staten Island Railway and the current fleet of R46 subway cars, which have been in service on the A and C lines as well as the N, Q, R and W line for decades. The procurement allows the MTA to begin replacement of the R68s, which entered service in the mid-1980s and primarily operate on the B, D, N and W. The R211 features security cameras in every car, more accessible seating, brighter lights, clearer signage, and 58-inch-wide door openings, eight inches wider than the standard door openings on the agency’s existing cars. “T hese new train cars make the world of difference for transit riders, in both reliability and the customer experience with better amenities for passengers, ” NYC Transit president Demetrius Crichlow said. The choo-choo news has delighted straphangers and train buffs who attended the committee meeting. Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA (PCAC), called Monday’s announcemed a “ holiday gift ” for passengers. “T he new subway cars that will soon be rolling in will help modernize our aging fleet, and though we’ll miss the conversational seating, we will welcome the technology and mechanical improvements, ” she said. The new RT11 trains will come installed with communications-based train control (CBTC), which is set to modernize the subways 1030s-era analog system with wireless technology that will allow more trains on the tracks and fewer delays.
Romania's far-right presidential candidate denounces canceled vote at closed polling stationAP Sports SummaryBrief at 5:08 p.m. EST
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Known across the globe as the stuck astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams hit the six-month mark in space Thursday with two more to go. The pair rocketed into orbit on June 5 , the first to ride Boeing's new Starliner crew capsule on what was supposed to be a weeklong test flight. They arrived at the International Space Station the next day, only after overcoming a cascade of thruster failures and helium leaks . NASA deemed the capsule too risky for a return flight, so it will be February before their long and trying mission comes to a close. While NASA managers bristle at calling them stuck or stranded, the two retired Navy captains shrug off the description of their plight. They insist they're fine and accepting of their fate. Wilmore views it as a detour of sorts: "We're just on a different path." NASA astronauts Suni Williams, left, and Butch Wilmore stand together for a photo June 5 as they head to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 in Cape Canaveral, Fla., for their liftoff on the Boeing Starliner capsule to the International Space Station. "I like everything about being up here," Williams told students Wednesday from an elementary school named for her in Needham, Massachusetts, her hometown. "Just living in space is super fun." Both astronauts lived up there before, so they quickly became full-fledged members of the crew, helping with science experiments and chores like fixing a broken toilet, vacuuming the air vents and watering the plants. Williams took over as station commander in September. "Mindset does go a long way," Wilmore said in response to a question from Nashville first graders in October. He's from Mount Juliet, Tennessee. "I don't look at these situations in life as being downers." Boeing flew its Starliner capsule home empty in September, and NASA moved Wilmore and Williams to a SpaceX flight not due back until late February. Two other astronauts were bumped to make room and to keep to a six-month schedule for crew rotations. Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore, left, and Suni Williams pose for a portrait June 13 inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Station's Harmony module and Boeing's Starliner spacecraft. Like other station crews, Wilmore and Williams trained for spacewalks and any unexpected situations that might arise. "When the crews go up, they know they could be there for up to a year," NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free said. NASA astronaut Frank Rubio found that out the hard way when the Russian Space Agency had to rush up a replacement capsule for him and two cosmonauts in 2023, pushing their six-month mission to just past a year. Boeing said this week that input from Wilmore and Williams was "invaluable" in the ongoing inquiry of what went wrong. The company said it is preparing for Starliner's next flight but declined to comment on when it might launch again. NASA also has high praise for the pair. "Whether it was luck or whether it was selection, they were great folks to have for this mission," NASA's chief health and medical officer, Dr. JD Polk, said during an interview with The Associated Press. NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, both Expedition 71 flight engineers, make pizza Sept. 9 aboard the International Space Station's galley located inside the Unity module. Items are attached to the galley using tape and Velcro to keep them from flying away in the microgravity environment. On top of everything else, Williams, 59, had to deal with "rumors," as she calls them, of serious weight loss. She insists her weight is the same as it was on launch day, which Polk confirms. During Wednesday's student chat, Williams said she didn't have much of an appetite when she first arrived in space. But now she's "super hungry" and eating three meals a day plus snacks, while logging the required two hours of daily exercise. Williams, a distance runner, uses the space station treadmill to support races in her home state. She competed in Cape Cod's 7-mile Falmouth Road Race in August. She ran the 2007 Boston Marathon up there as well. She has a New England Patriots shirt with her for game days, as well as a Red Sox spring training shirt. "Hopefully I'll be home before that happens — but you never know," she said in November. Husband Michael Williams, a retired federal marshal and former Navy aviator, is caring for their dogs back home in Houston. As for Wilmore, 61, he's missing his younger daughter's senior year in high school and his older daughter's theater productions in college. The astronauts in the video seemed to be in good spirits with one stating, “It’s gonna be delicious.” (Scripps News) "We can't deny that being unexpectedly separated, especially during the holidays when the entire family gets together, brings increased yearnings to share the time and events together," his wife, Deanna Wilmore, told the AP in a text this week. Her husband "has it worse than us" since he's confined to the space station and can only connect via video for short periods. "We are certainly looking forward to February!!" she wrote. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with a crew of two astronauts, lifts off from launch pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara) A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with a crew of two astronauts, lifts off from launch pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara) NASA astronaut Nick Hague, left, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, left, gives a thumbs up as they leave the Operations and Checkout Building on their way to Launch Complex 40 for a mission to the International Space Station Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 at Cape Canaveral, Fla., (AP Photo/John Raoux) NASA astronaut Nick Hague, right, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov leave the Operations and Checkout building for a trip to the launch pad 40 Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara) NASA astronaut Nick Hague, right, talks to his family members as Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov looks on after leaving the Operations and Checkout building for a trip to the launch pad 40 Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Two astronauts are beginning a mission to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara) In this image from video provided by NASA, Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, left, and astronaut Nick Hague travel inside a SpaceX capsule en route to the International Space Station after launching from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (NASA via AP) A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with a crew of two astronauts, lifts off from launch pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara) A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with a crew of two astronauts, lifts off from launch pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara) A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a crew of two lifts off from launch pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 at Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux) The Falcon 9's first stage booster returns to Landing Zone 1 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 at Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux) A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a crew of two lifts off from launch pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 at Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux) Get local news delivered to your inbox!The Detroit Lions have arguably been the best team in the NFL this season, as Dan Campbell's squad is 11-1 and atop the NFC North through 13 weeks. The Lions have won ten consecutive games after a 1-1 start and tallied a scrappy 23-20 victory over the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving Day in Week 13. One of the primary reasons for the Lions' success in 2024 has been the impressive play of the defense, especially the interior defensive line. Alim McNeill and Levi Onwuzurike have been one of the better defensive tackle duos in the league this season, as the tandem admirably anchors the middle of Detroit's injury-riddled defensive line. The Lions signed McNeill to a four-year, $97 million contract extension on Oct.16 , but Onwuzurike is set to hit unrestricted free agency this offseason. If general manager Brad Holmes fails to retain the 2021 second-round pick this offseason, Bleacher Report's Matt Holder believes New York Jets defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw could sign with Detroit. Detroit wisely signed Alim McNeill to a contract extension, but Levi Onwuzurike and John Cominsky are impending free agents. So the team will still need to add some depth on the interior defensive line this offseason. Kinlaw isn't a game-changer by any means. However, he has been a solid player throughout his career. In other words, the 27-year-old could contribute off the bench and should be affordable in free agency. Though Kinlaw isn't an elite player, the 2020 No.14 overall pick would be an adequate replacement for Onwuzurike if the star defensive tackle departs Detroit this offseason. Kinlaw spent the first four seasons of his career with the San Francisco 49ers before signing with the Jets in the 2024 offseason. The former South Carolina standout saw limited playing time in San Francisco till his final year with the team in 2023, when he posted 3.5 sacks and 31 quarterback pressures in six starts. Thus far in 2024, Kinlaw has started every game for the Jets and has tallied 2.5 sacks and 21 quarterback pressures . The 27-year-old has been inconsistent this season but is set to have his most productive campaign yet and should be relatively cheap to acquire. Overall, signing Kinlaw to a low-risk, high-reward deal would be a savvy move from Brad Holmes if Onwuzurike walks in free agency. MORE DETROIT LIONS NEWS Lions injury updates: Carlton Davis, D.J. 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