Новости за 04.01.2024

A U.S. labor agency has accused SpaceX of unlawfully firing employees who penned an open letter critical of CEO Elon Musk and creating an impression that worker activities were under surveillance by the rocket ship company. A Los Angeles-based regional director for the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday filed a complaint that consolidates eight unfair labor practice charges against SpaceX. The cases stem from the company’s alleged actions following the circulation of the employees’ letter in June 2022. Читать дальше...

As the Biden administration grapples with an increasingly tense and unstable situation in the Middle East, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to the region this weekend for the fourth time in three months on a tour expected to focus largely on easing resurgent fears that the Israel-Hamas war could erupt into a broader conflict. The Biden administration had breathed a sigh of relief about the potential for a broader Mideast war in the immediate aftermath of Israel’s military response to the deadly Oct. Читать дальше...

Government buildings in several states were evacuated following bomb threats, causing brief disruptions for the second day in a row in some places. The Mississippi Capitol and courthouses in Arkansas and Montana were evacuated Thursday. No explosives were immediately found, and the buildings were reopened to the public. The latest round of evacuations comes after an emailed threat to officials in several states prompted lockdowns at multiple state capitols Wednesday. The threats also follow a spate... Читать дальше...

Two private companies are aiming to get the U.S. back in the moon-landing business, more than five decades after the Apollo program ended. Since then China and India have successfully landed on the moon, while recent attempts by Russia, Japan and Israel have ended up in the lunar trash heap. Landers from Pittsburgh's Astrobotic Technology and Houston's Intuitive Machines are due to launch from Florida this month and next. It's part of a NASA-supported effort to kick-start commercial moon deliveries... Читать дальше...

Donald Trump's lawyers are pressing to have special counsel Jack Smith’s team held in contempt. The Republican former president's lawyers said Thursday prosecutors have taken steps to advance the 2020 election interference case against him in violation of a judge’s order that put the case on hold. The attorneys told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, D.C., she should consider holding Smith and two of his prosecutors in contempt. A spokesman for Smith has declined to comment. Prosecutors... Читать дальше...

Police in New Jersey are hunting for the killer of a Muslim leader who was shot outside his mosque. They're offering a cash reward and reiterating they don't think bias played a role in the violence. The pre-dawn killing of imam Hassan Sharif as he prepared to open the Masjid Muhammad-Newark mosque for Wednesday morning prayers has generated an intense law enforcement dragnet. The state’s attorney general pledged to assist county and local officials. The Essex County sheriff announced a $25,000 reward... Читать дальше...

A customer who claims he was injured by an exploding toilet at a Dunkin' store in central Florida has filed a negligence lawsuit against the coffee chain. Paul Kerouac filed the lawsuit seeking more than $100,000 Wednesday. He says he suffered “severe and long term injuries” after the toilet explosion a year ago. When contacted Thursday for details on the injuries, Kerouac's attorney, Scott Spradley, said he wasn't available to answer questions until the following day. An email was sent to Dunkin’ seeking comment. Читать дальше...

The Kia EV9 large electric SUV won the 2024 North American Utility of the Year award, while the Toyota Prius hybrid took the top car honors, and Ford’s Super Duty pickup won the truck award. The honors announced Thursday are often used in advertising by automakers. About 50 automotive journalists from the U.S. and Canada tested and rated the vehicles based on how much they set new benchmarks for their segment of the automobile market. All the SUV finalists this year have electric versions including the electrified GV70 small SUV from Genesis... Читать дальше...

Starting this month, some new personal computers that run Microsoft’s Windows operating system will have a special “Copilot key” that launches the software giant’s AI chatbot. Getting third-party computer manufacturers to add an AI button to laptops is the latest move by Microsoft to capitalize on its close partnership with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and make itself a gateway for applications of generative AI technology.

A father and son in Texas have been charged in the killings of an 18-year-old pregnant woman who disappeared before Christmas and her boyfriend. The arrests announced Wednesday night by San Antonio police come more than a week after the bodies of 18-year-old Savanah Nicole Soto and 22-year-old Matthew Guerra were found in the parking lot of an apartment complex. San Antonio police say the couple was fatally shot over an apparent drug deal before their bodies were moved and left in a car. Police charged... Читать дальше...

A study shows that carbon dioxide emissions in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, dropped to their lowest level in seven decades. The use of coal declined unexpectedly sharply in 2023 and economic pressures weighed down production by energy-intensive industry. The Agora Energiewende think tank said Thursday its preliminary calculations show that Germany emitted 673 million metric tons of CO2 last year. That's a decline of 73 million metric tons compared with 2022. It's also the lowest level since the 1950s. Читать дальше...

The Biden administration is providing $162 million to Microchip Technology to support the domestic production of computer chips. It's the second funding announcement tied to a 2022 law designed to revive U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. The incentives include $90 million to improve a plant in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and $72 million to expand a factory in Gresham, Oregon. The investments would enable Microchip Technology to triple its domestic production and reduce its dependence on foreign factories.

Rescue workers are braving the cold to save people still trapped under collapsed buildings in western Japan. More soldiers have been ordered to bolster the rescue operations Thursday, providing those in need with drinking water, hot meals and setting up bathing facilities after a magnitude 7.6 quake hit Ishikawa Prefecture and nearby regions Monday. So far, 81 people have been reported dead. A downpour and possible snow are expected, raising the risk of landslides. The list of those officially missing... Читать дальше...

TOKYO (AP) — Asian stocks slipped on Thursday, tracking a weak start to 2024 on Wall Street as Japan’s markets reopened.

Dozens of previously sealed court documents related to Jeffrey Epstein were made public late Wednesday, as a court releases more details of a years-old lawsuit connected to the late financier. They’re likely to disappoint sleuths online, where the plan to release documents prompted rumors of a list of “clients” or “co-conspirators.” In fact, the judge who made the call wrote in December that she was ordering the records released because much of the information within them is already public. The first 40 documents... Читать дальше...

A winter weather system moving through the U.S. is expected to wallop the East Coast this weekend with a mix of snow and freezing rain. But forecasters say it's too soon to say which areas will get snow and which will get rain and how much. The Pacific system is moving through Western and Southern states before moving up the East Coast this weekend. Major U.S. cities accustomed to white winters didn't receive much snow last year due to a lack of cold air. The National Weather Service in New York... Читать дальше...

Former President Donald Trump is spending the third anniversary of a mob of his supporters overrunning the U.S. Capitol by campaigning to win back the White House. He has two events in Iowa and repeats lies that seek to reframe how the country remembers the deadly insurrection. President Joe Biden is marking the same milestone on Friday in Philadelphia, where he'll brand Trump and top supporters of his “Make America Great Again” movement as dire threats to American democracy. Both are talking about the same events in very different ways ... Читать дальше...

A Nevada judge was attacked in court by a defendant who vaulted the bench and sparked a bloody brawl with court officials and attorneys as he was about to sentenced to prison in a felony battery case. The violent scene was captured Wednesday by courtroom video in Las Vegas. Court officials said the judge has unspecified injuries but wasn't hospitalized. A courtroom marshal was hospitalized for treatment of a gash on his forehead and a dislocated shoulder. The 30-year-old defendant was punched, wrestled... Читать дальше...

A less flashy Chinese electric vehicle maker is fast closing the gap with Tesla, the longtime, market-leading pioneer. BYD Co., based in the southern China tech hub of Shenzhen, dethroned Texas-based Tesla Inc. as the top seller of electric cars in the last three months of 2023, according to sales figures released by the companies this week. Tesla retained the crown for all of 2023, but BYD’s sales have skyrocketed on the back of a government-driven EV boom in China. The rise of BYD and other Chinese... Читать дальше...

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear has reached across the partisan divide to urge a cohesive effort with Republican lawmakers to uplift Kentucky's economy, education and health care. He says the state has an opportunity to assert itself as an “economic and a moral leader.” Beshear's comments came in his State of the Commonwealth speech Wednesday night. He also renewed his pitch for higher salaries for teachers, state-backed pre-K for every 4-year-old and increased funding for roads and bridges. The governor... Читать дальше...

Regulators have rejected an effort by New Mexico's largest electric utility to recoup from customers millions of dollars of investments made in a coal-fired power plant in the northwestern corner of the state. The Public Regulation Commission issued its decision Wednesday. It means Public Service Co. of New Mexico customers will not have to bear some costs associated with the company's stake in the Four Corners Power Plant near Farmington or in the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona. Читать дальше...

The Federal Reserve’s policymakers concluded last month that inflationary pressures were easing and that the job market was cooling. In response, the officials chose to leave their key interest rate unchanged for the third straight time and signaled that they expected to cut rates three times in 2024. According to the minutes of their Dec. 12-13 meeting, Fed officials indicated in their own interest-rate forecasts that a lower benchmark rate “would be appropriate by the end of 2024" given the steady progress toward taming inflation. Читать дальше...

The falling-block video game Tetris has met its match in 13-year-old Willis Gibson. In late December, he became the first player to officially beat the original Nintendo version of the game — by breaking it. Technically, Willis — aka “blue scuti” in the gaming world — made it to what gamers call a “kill screen,” a point where the Tetris code glitches, crashing the game. That might not sound like much of a victory to most people, but it’s a highly coveted achievement in the world of video games. And it’s a very big deal for Tetris... Читать дальше...

The University of California, Los Angeles, will turn a sprawling former shopping mall into cutting-edge centers for immunology and quantum science research. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and university officials announced the plan for the former Westside Pavilion at a news conference Wednesday. UCLA did not disclose costs but the joint venture companies that owned the 700,000-square-foot site say the University of California acquired it for $700 million. The mall shut down in the early 2000s. Google... Читать дальше...

Former President Donald Trump is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Colorado ruling that bars him from the state’s ballot over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. The Republican presidential candidate on Wednesday appealed the Colorado Supreme Court’s finding that an insurrection clause in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment renders him ineligible. The Colorado court’s December ruling was the first time in history a court disqualified someone from running for the White House for having... Читать дальше...