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Over 100 striking Samsung workers detained by Indian police for planning march
CHENNAI, India — Police on Monday detained 104 striking workers protesting low wages at a Samsung Electronics plant in southern India as they were planning a protest march without permission, with the dispute disrupting output at the key factory for the past week.
The detention marks an escalation of a strike by workers at a Samsung home appliance plant near Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu. Workers want higher wages and have stopped work at the plant that contributes roughly a third of Samsung’s annual India revenue of $12 billion.
The Samsung protests have cast a shadow on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan of courting foreign investors to “Make in India” and his goal of tripling electronics production to $500 billion within six years.
Lured by cheap labor, foreign companies are increasingly using India for manufacturing to diversify their supply chain beyond China.
On Monday, the workers planned to start a protest march, but were detained as no permission was given since there are schools, colleges and hospitals in that area, said senior police officer of the Kancheepuram district K. Shanmugam.
“It is the main area which would become totally paralyzed and [the protest would] disturb public peace,” he said.
“We have detained them in wedding halls as all of them can’t be in stations,” he said.
Samsung workers since last week have been protesting at a makeshift tent near the plant, demanding higher wages, recognition for a union backed by influential labor group the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), and better working hours.
Samsung is not keen to recognize any union backed by a national labor group such as the CITU, and talks with workers, as well as state government officials, have not yielded resolution.
The CITU Tamil Nadu Deputy General Secretary, S. Kannan, condemned the police action, saying “This is an archaic move by the state government.”
Despite Monday’s police action, 12 union groups, including one affiliated with the ruling party of Tamil Nadu, said in a public notice dated Sept. 11 that they will stage a protest in support of the striking workers in Chennai on Wednesday, a move that could intensify the tensions between the company and the workers.
“We are going ahead with Wednesday’s protest … no changes to the plan,” said A. Jenitan, a deputy district secretary for the CITU.
The protests add to Samsung’s challenges in India, a key growth market.
The South Korean company is planning job cuts of up to 30% of its overseas staff in some divisions, including in India. And India’s antitrust body has found Samsung and other smartphone companies colluded with e-commerce giants to launch devices exclusively, violating competition laws, Reuters has reported.
Samsung did not respond to a request for comment on Monday, but on Friday said it has initiated discussions with workers at the Chennai plant “to resolve all issues at the earliest.”
Video footage from Reuters partner ANI showed dozens of Samsung workers wearing the company uniform of blue shirts being transported in a bus to a hall.
The Samsung plant employs roughly 1,800 workers and more than 1,000 of them have been on strike. The factory makes appliances such as refrigerators, TVs and washing machines. Another Samsung plant that makes smartphones in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh has had no unrest.
The police also detained one of CITU’s senior leaders, E. Muthukumar, who was leading the Samsung protests at the factory near Chennai, according to the CITU’s Jenitan.
Kancheepuram police official Shanmugam said there was no timeline as to how long the workers will be detained.
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Trump safe after second assassination attempt, authorities say
Donald Trump is safe after what officials say was the second, unsuccessful assassination attempt in two months. The FBI took the lead after Sunday’s shooting with the suspect in custody — and with Americans facing another dramatic event in what is already a high-stakes, high-drama election. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington.
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ОВА: після авіаудару РФ по Харкову 14 госпіталізованих, у тяжкому стані – дитина
Російські військові здійснили черговий удар по Харкову 15 вересня
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Tito Jackson, member of the Jackson 5, has died at 70, family says
‘Shogun’ and ‘Hacks’ win top series Emmy Awards
LOS ANGELES — “Hacks” won the comedy series at Sunday’s Emmy Awards, topping “The Bear,” which took home several of the night’s honors.
“Shogun” won the best drama series win, collecting a whopping 18 Emmys for its first season, just one of several historic wins.
Hiroyuki Sanada won best actor in a drama for “Shogun” on Sunday night at the Emmy Awards, and Anna Sawai won best actress as they became the first two Japanese actors to win Emmys.
Their wins gave the FX series momentum going into one of the night’s top awards, where “Shogun” won best drama series.
“The Bear” came back for seconds in a big way at the ceremony four times including best actor, best supporting actor and best supporting actress in a comedy, while British upstart “Baby Reindeer” won four of its own, including best limited series.
The star of FX’s “The Bear” Jeremy Allen White won best actor in a comedy for the second straight year, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach repeated as best supporting actor.
A surprise came when Liza Colón-Zayas won best supporting actor over major competition.
“How could I have thought it would be possible to be in the presence of Meryl Streep and Carol Burnett,” Colón-Zayas said as tears welled in her eyes as she accepted the award on the stage of the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
She is the first Latina to win in the category.
“To all the Latinas who are looking at me,” she said, “keep believing and vote.”
Netflix’s darkly quirky “Baby Reindeer” won best actor and best writing for the show’s creator and star Richard Gadd and best supporting actress for Jessica Gunning, who plays his tormentor.
Accepting the best limited series award, Gadd urged the makers of television to take chances.
“The only constant across any success in television is good storytelling,” he said. “Good storytelling that speaks to our times. So take risks, push boundaries. Explore the uncomfortable. Dare to fail in order to achieve.”
“Baby Reindeer” is based on a one man-stage show in which Gadd describes being sexually abused along with other emotional struggles.
Accepting that award, he said, “no matter how bad it gets, it always gets better.”
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly as Gadd has.
Jodie Foster won her first Emmy to go with her two Oscars when she took best actress in a limited series for “True Detective: Night Country.”
The creator of “The Bear” was also a repeat winner. Christopher Storer took his second straight Emmy for directing, an award handed out by reunited “Happy Days” co-stars Ron Howard and Henry Winkler.
White said backstage that he was watching in the wings as Colón-Zayas won and “that was just the greatest.”
He also shouted out two acting wins the show had already scored at last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmy Awards, when Jamie Lee Curtis won best guest actress in a comedy for playing his mother, and Jon Bernthal won best guest actor for playing his big brother.
“The Bear” won six times including most of the top comedy categories at the strike-delayed Emmys in January.
While the third season of FX’s “The Bear” has already dropped, the trio won their second Emmys for its second, in which White’s chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto attempts to turn his family’s grungy Chicago sandwich shop into an elite restaurant. It could still win more Sunday night including best comedy series.
The father-son hosting duo of Eugene and Dan Levy in their monologue at the top of the show mocked the very dramatic “The Bear” being in the comedy category.
“In honor of ‘The Bear’ we will be making no jokes,” Eugene Levy said, to laughs.
Jean Smart won best actress in a comedy for “Hacks.” She has won for all three seasons of “Hacks,” and has six Emmys overall.
She beat nominees including Ayo Edebiri, who as co-star of “The Bear” moved from supporting actress, which she won in January, to lead actress.
Coming into the show the big story was “Shogun,” which had already taken the most Emmys for a show in a single season with 14 at the Creative Arts ceremony.
The FX series about lordly politicking in feudal Japan can still win best drama series.
If “Shogun” faces competition for the best drama prize, it could come for the sixth and final season of “The Crown,” the only show among the nominees that has won before in a category recently dominated by the retired “Succession.”
Elizabeth Debicki took best supporting actress in a drama for playing Princess Diana at the end of her life in the sixth and final season of the show.
“Playing this part, based on this unparalleled, incredible human being, has been my great privilege,” Debicki said. “It’s been a gift.”
Billy Crudup won best actor in a drama for “The Morning Show.”
Streep wasn’t the only Oscar winner trumped by a little-known name. Robert Downey Jr., the reigning best supporting actor winner for “Oppenheimer,” was considered the favorite to win best supporting actor in a limited series for “The Sympathizer,” but that award went to Lamorne Morris for “Fargo.”
“Robert Downey Jr. I have a poster of you in my house!” Morris said from the stage as he accepted his first Emmy.
Several awards were presented by themed teams from TV history, including sitcom dads George Lopez, Damon Wayans and Jesse Tyler Ferguson and TV moms Meredith Baxter, Connie Britton, and Susan Kelechi Watson.
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The winners: 76th annual Emmy Awards
LOS ANGELES — The 76th annual Emmy Awards were handed out Sunday at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles.
“Shogun” set a single season record for most wins with 18. “Shogun” won best drama series, and Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai won acting awards for their roles.
“Hacks’’ won the award for best comedy series. ”Baby Reindeer” and “The Bear’’ won four awards apiece.
Early winners included Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Jeremy Allen White and Liza Colón-Zayas, who won awards for their work in the comedy series “The Bear.”
Stars presenting Emmys to their peers included: Billy Crystal, Viola Davis, Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, Maya Rudolph and Martin Sheen.
Several actors and shows, including Rudolph, won last week. Rudolph won her sixth Emmy Award at last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys for her voice work on “Big Mouth.” Jamie Lee Curtis also picked up a supporting actress Emmy last weekend for her appearance on “The Bear.”
Here’s a list of winners at Sunday’s Emmys:
Supporting actor in a comedy series
Ebon Moss-Bachrach, “The Bear”
Supporting actor in a drama series
Billy Crudup, “The Morning Show”
Actor in a comedy series
Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear”
Supporting actress in a comedy series
Liza Colón-Zayas, “The Bear”
Supporting actress in a drama series
Elizabeth Debicki, “The Crown”
Actress in a comedy series
Jean Smart, “Hacks”
Reality competition program
“The Traitors,” Peacock
Supporting actress limited
Jessica Gunning, “Baby Reindeer”
Scripted variety series
“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” HBO/Max
Writing for a variety special
Alex Edelman, “Just for Us”
Directing for a limited or anthology series
Steven Zaillian, “Ripley”
Writing for a comedy series
Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky, “Hacks”
Talk series
“The Daily Show,” Comedy Central
Supporting actor in a limited or anthology series
Lamorne Morris, “Fargo”
Writing for a drama series
Will Smith, “Slow Horses”
Writing for a limited series, anthology or movie
Richard Gadd, “Baby Reindeer”
Directing for a comedy series
Christopher Storer, “The Bear”
Governors award
Greg Berlanti
Directing for a drama series
Frederick E.O. Toye, “Shogun”
Actor in a limited, anthology series or movie
Richard Gadd, “Baby Reindeer”
Actress in a limited, anthology series or movie
Jodie Foster, “True Detective: Night Country”
Limited, anthology series or movie
“Baby Reindeer”
Actor in a drama series
Hiroyuki Sanada, “Shogun”
Actress in a drama series
Anna Sawai, “Shogun”
Drama series
“Shogun”
Comedy series
“Hacks”
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Emmys return with ‘Shogun’ and ‘The Bear’ leading the pack
Los Angeles — Hollywood will dole out the annual Emmy Awards, the highest honors in television, Sunday at a red-carpet ceremony where the historical drama “Shogun” and restaurant tale “The Bear” are poised to dominate the night.
“Shogun,” a lavish epic about a power struggle in 17th-century Japan, is the front-runner to take the night’s top trophy for best drama series, according to awards pundits. Reigning best comedy champion “The Bear” is expected to claim that prize again.
Both shows debuted on the FX cable network and stream on Hulu, setting up a big night for owner Walt Disney and its TV chief Dana Walden.
Sunday’s ceremony will take place just eight months after the last Emmys, which aired in an unusual January slot because of disruptions caused by Hollywood labor strikes.
Back on a September schedule, the show will air live from downtown Los Angeles on Disney’s ABC starting at 5 p.m. Pacific time Sunday (12 a.m. GMT on Monday).
“Schitt’s Creek” father-son duo Eugene and Dan Levy will host the festivities. Producers have promised cast reunions from shows past, such as “Happy Days,” and other moments to celebrate the history of television.
Olympic gold medalist swimmer Caeleb Dressel and bronze medalist rugby player Ilona Maher also are scheduled to appear.
Ahead of the ceremony, “Shogun” has already set records. It won 14 trophies — the most ever for one season of a drama series — at last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys, where awards were given for guest actors and crafts such as cinematography.
The expensive series was no sure thing. It had been in development for years before it came together with elaborate sets, makeup and costumes and storytelling that impressed critics with its attention to detail.
“That’s part of the Cinderella story of this series,” said Clayton Davis, awards editor at Hollywood publication Variety.
Competitors for best drama include British royal family saga “The Crown” and spy thriller “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” from Amazon’s Prime Video.
“The Bear” also performed well at the Creative Arts Emmys, earning seven awards. The show is competing with its second season, which featured a widely praised episode about a disastrous family holiday gathering.
HBO’s “Hacks,” about a 70-something comedienne and a millennial writer, could play the role of spoiler in the comedy category. Due to the timing of their seasons, the shows have never competed head-to-head at the Emmys.
Limited series looks like a lock for “Baby Reindeer,” awards watchers said. The Netflix series tells the tale of a bartender stalked and harassed by a customer.
Scottish comedian and star Richard Gadd has said the Netflix show is based on his real-life story, although a defamation lawsuit argues the stalker’s behavior is exaggerated.
Rivals for limited series include Netflix’s psychological thriller “Ripley,” FX’s “Fargo” and HBO’s “True Detective: Night Country,” starring lead actress nominee Jodie Foster.
Winners are chosen by the nearly 22,000 performers, directors, producers and other members of Hollywood’s Television Academy.
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‘Trump Train’ convoy surrounded Biden-Harris bus. Was it political violence?
Austin, Texas — A Texas jury will soon decide whether a convoy of supporters of then-President Donald Trump violently intimidated former Democratic lawmaker Wendy Davis and two others on a Biden-Harris campaign bus when a so-called “Trump Train” boxed them in for more than an hour on a Texas highway days before the 2020 election.
The trial, which began on Sept. 9, resumes Monday and is expected to last another week.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued that six of the Trump Train drivers violated state and federal law. Lawyers for the defendants said they did not conspire against the Democrats on the bus and that their actions are protected speech.
Here’s what else to know: What happened on Oct. 30, 2020?
Dozens of cars and trucks organized by a local Trump Train group swarmed the bus on its way from San Antonio to Austin. It was the last day of early voting in Texas for the 2020 general election, and the bus was scheduled to make a stop in San Marcos for an event at Texas State University.
Video recorded by Davis shows pickup trucks with large Trump flags aggressively slowing down and boxing in the bus as it tried to move away from the Trump Train. One defendant hit a campaign volunteer’s car while the trucks occupied all lanes of traffic, slowing the bus and everyone around it to a 15-mph crawl.
Those on the bus — including Davis, a campaign staffer and the driver — repeatedly called 911 asking for help and a police escort through San Marcos, but when no law enforcement arrived, the campaign canceled the event and pushed forward to Austin.
San Marcos settled a separate lawsuit filed by the same three Democrats against the police, agreeing to pay $175,000 and mandate political violence training for law enforcement.
Davis testified that she felt she was being “taken hostage” and has sought treatment for anxiety.
In the days leading up to the event, Democrats were also intimidated, harassed and received death threats, the lawsuit said.
“I feel like they were enjoying making us afraid,” Davis testified. “It’s traumatic for all of us to revisit that day.”
What’s the plaintiffs’ argument?
In opening statements, an attorney for the plaintiffs said convoy organizers targeted the bus in a calculated attack to intimidate the Democrats in violation of the “Ku Klux Klan Act,” an 1871 federal law that bans political violence and intimidation.
“We’re here because of actions that put people’s lives in danger,” said Samuel Hall, an attorney with the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher. The plaintiffs, he said, were “literally driven out of town by a swarm of trucks.”
The six Trump Train drivers succeeded in making the campaign cancel its remaining events in Texas in a war they believed was “between good and evil,” Hall said.
Two nonprofit advocacy groups, Texas Civil Rights Project and Protect Democracy, also are representing the three plaintiffs.
What’s the defense’s argument?
Attorneys for the defendants, who are accused of driving and organizing the convoy,
said they did not conspire to swarm the Democrats on the bus, which could have exited the highway at any point.
“This was a political rally. This was not some conspiracy to intimidate people,” said attorney Jason Greaves, who is representing two of the drivers.
The defense also argued that their clients’ actions were protected speech and that the trial is a concerted effort to “drain conservatives of their money,” according to Francisco Canseco, a lawyer for three of the defendants.
“It was a rah-rah group that sought to support and advocate for a candidate of their choice in a very loud way,” Canseco said during opening statements.
The defense lost a bid last month to have the case ruled in their favor without a trial. The judge wrote that “assaulting, intimidating, or imminently threatening others with force is not protected expression.”
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Air Canada, pilots’ union reach tentative agreement to avoid shutdown
OTTAWA, Ontario — Air Canada and the union representing its pilots have come to terms on a labor agreement that is likely to prevent a shutdown of Canada’s largest airline.
Talks between the company and the Air Line Pilots Association produced a tentative, four-year collective agreement, the airline announced in a statement early Sunday.
The prospective deal recognizes the contributions of the pilots flying for Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge while setting a new framework for company growth. The terms will remain confidential until ratification by union members and approval by the airline’s board of directors over the next month, the airline said.
The pilots’ association said its Air Canada Master Executive Council voted to approve the tentative agreement on behalf of more than 5,400 Air Canada pilots. After review and ratification by a majority of members, the deal is expected to generate an additional $1.9 billion for the pilots over the period of the agreement, the union said in a statement.
“While it has been an exceptionally long road to this agreement, the consistent engagement and unified determination of our pilots have been the catalyst for achieving this contract,” Charlene Hudy, the executive council’s chair, said in the statement. “After several consecutive weeks of intense round-the-clock negotiations, progress was made on several key issues including compensation, retirement, and work rules.”
Federal Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon confirmed the agreement Sunday and lauded the company and the union.
“Thanks to the hard work of the parties and federal mediators, disruptions have been prevented for Canadians,” MacKinnon said in a statement. “Negotiated agreements are always the best way forward and yield positive results for companies and workers.”
The airline and its pilots have been in contract talks for more than a year. The pilots have sought wages competitive with their U.S. counterparts, but Air Canada continues to post record profits while expecting pilots to accept below-market compensation, the union said.
The two sides could have issued a 72-hour notice of a strike or lockout beginning Sunday. The airline said the notice would have triggered its three-day wind down plan and started the clock on a full work stoppage as soon as Sept. 18.
Air Canada spokesperson Christophe Hennebelle previously said the airline was committed to negotiations but faced union wage demands that the company could not meet.
The airline was not seeking federal intervention, but cautioned the government should be prepared to help avoid major disruptions from the possible shutdown of an airline carrying more than 110,000 passengers daily, Hennebelle said.
Business leaders had urged the federal government to intervene in the talks earlier in the week, but MacKinnon said there was no reason the sides should not have been able to reach a collective agreement.
In August, the Canadian government asked the country’s industrial relations board to issue a back-to-work order to end a railway shutdown.
Leaders of numerous business groups including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Business Council of Canada convened in Ottawa on Thursday to call for action, including binding arbitration, to avoid the widespread economic disruptions of an airline shutdown.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Thursday his party would not support efforts to force pilots back to work.
“If there’s any bills being proposed on back to work legislation, we’re going to oppose that,” he said.
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US Fed expected to announce its first interest rate cut since 2020
Washington — The Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut for more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the U.S. presidential election.
Senior officials at the U.S. central bank including Fed chair Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool.
The Fed, which has a dual mandate from Congress to act independently to ensure both stable prices and maximum sustainable employment, has repeatedly stressed it will make its decision on rate cuts based solely on the economic data.
But a cut on Wednesday could still cause headaches for Powell, as it would land shortly before the election, in which former Republican president Donald Trump is running against the current Democratic vice president, Kamala Harris.
“As much as I think the Fed tries to say that they’re not a political animal, we are in a really wild cycle right now,” Alicia Modestino, an associate professor of economics at Northeastern University, told AFP.
How big a cut?
The debate among policymakers on Tuesday and Wednesday this week will likely center on whether to move by 25 or 50 basis points.
However, a rate cut of any size would be the Fed’s first since March 2020, when it slashed rates to near-zero in order to support the US economy through the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Fed started hiking rates in 2022 in response to a surge in inflation, fueled largely by a post-pandemic supply crunch and the war in Ukraine.
It has held its key lending rate at a two-decade high of between 5.25 and 5.50 percent for the past 14 months, waiting for economic conditions to improve.
Now, with inflation falling, the labor market cooling, and the US economy still growing, policymakers have decided that conditions are ripe for a cut.
Policymakers are left with a choice: making a small 25 basis point cut to ease into things, or a more aggressive cut of 50 basis points, which would be helpful for the labor market but could also risk reigniting inflation.
“I think that in advance of the November meeting, there’s not quite enough data to say we’re in jeopardy on the employment side,” said Modestino, who was previously a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Analysts see the smaller cut as a safe bet.
“We expect the Fed to cut by 25bp [basis points],” economists at Bank of America wrote in a recent note to clients.
“The Fed likes predictability,” Modestino from Northeastern said. “It’s good for markets, good for consumers, good for workers.”
“So a 25 basis point cut now, followed up by another 25 basis point cut in November after the next round of economic data, offers a somewhat smoother glide path for the economy,” she added.
How many cuts?
While analysts overwhelmingly expect the Fed to start cutting in September, there is less clarity about what comes next.
Economists at some banks, including Goldman Sachs, expect cuts totaling 75 basis points over the last three meetings of the year, while others see more aggressive cuts, like economists at Citi, who have 125 basis points of easing as their base case.
“The continued softening of the labor market is likely to provoke larger-sized cuts if not at this FOMC meeting then in November and December,” the Citi economists wrote in a recent note to clients, referring to the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).
The Fed will shed some light on the issue on Wednesday, when it publishes the updated economic forecasts of its 19-member FOMC — including their rate cut expectations.
In June, FOMC members sharply reduced the number of cuts they had penciled in for this year from a median of three down to just one amid a small uptick in inflation.
But as inflation has fallen and the labor market has weakened, expectations of more cuts have grown.
Traders also see a greater-than 99 percent chance of at least four more cuts in 2025, which would bring the Fed’s key lending rate down to between 3.5 and 3.75 percent — 175 basis points below current levels.
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Vance defends claim Haitian migrants are eating neighbors’ pets
US, China military leaders finish discussions on South China Sea, other issues
BANGKOK — Military leaders from the U.S. and China met in Beijing for routine talks that only resumed in January after being suspended for two years as ties between the two countries soured. The meetings ended Sunday and officials discussed ongoing issues such as Taiwan, the Russia-Ukraine war and clashes in the South China Sea.
Michael Chase, deputy assistant secretary of defense for China, Taiwan and Mongolia led a delegation to engage in the bilateral Defense Policy Coordination Talks, which were last held in January. While the talks weren’t expected to resolve long-standing differences in stances over issues ranging from South China Sea claims to Taiwan, the U.S. has continued to push for the discussions to avoid conflict.
The meetings were held after Chase attended the Xiangshan forum in Beijing, a defense forum that is China’s answer to the Shangri-La Dialogue.
Communication between the two militaries broke off in 2021, as U.S.-China tensions ratcheted up over widening differences on issues such as Taiwan’s sovereignty, the origin of COVID-19 and economic issues.
Beijing has ignored U.S. requests to engage in the past, especially over intercepts between U.S. and Chinese aircraft and ships. While communications resumed after U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in San Francisco last November, it is unclear whether the talks could continue as the U.S. is poised for a presidential election.
In the bilateral talks, the two sides discussed China’s support for Russia during the ongoing Ukraine war, as well as China’s actions in the South China Sea, said a U.S. senior defense official briefing reporters on the meetings. On Sunday, the Philippine ship at a disputed shoal, BRP Teresa Magbanua, had left to resupply and provide medical care to its crew members. The defense official said that they were “watching further developments there very closely.”
China’s claims over the South China Sea have become increasingly assertive, with increasing clashes with the Philippine coast guard. In August, both sides accused each other over a collision between their ships which left gaping holes in the Philippine ships.
The maritime claims have meant clashes at sea, such as at the Sabina Shoal, which both China and the Philippines claim. China had blocked attempts to resupply the BRP Teresa Magbanua, in August, with a force of 40 ships.
The Philippines said it would replace the ship immediately, but the departure of the ship raises questions of whether China would seize the shoal. Filipino scientists had previously found submerged piles of crushed corals in its shallows, leading to concern that China may be preparing to build a structure to stake its claim.
China confirmed the departure of the ship, which it said, “infringed on China’s territorial sovereignty.”
“During this period, China had taken control measures against the ship in accordance with the law and multiple attempts by the Philippine side to forcibly resupply the ship had failed,” China Coast Guard spokesperson Liu Dejun said in a statement.
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Hispanic Heritage Month puts diversity and culture at the forefront
Tech billionaire returns to Earth after first private spacewalk
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — A billionaire spacewalker returned to Earth with his crew on Sunday, ending a five-day trip that lifted them higher than anyone has traveled since NASA’s moonwalkers.
SpaceX’s capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida’s Dry Tortugas in the predawn darkness, carrying tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, two SpaceX engineers and a former Air Force Thunderbird pilot.
They pulled off the first private spacewalk while orbiting nearly 740 kilometers above Earth, higher than the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope. Their spacecraft hit a peak altitude of 1,408 kilometers following Tuesday’s liftoff.
Isaacman became only the 264th person to perform a spacewalk since the former Soviet Union scored the first in 1965, and SpaceX’s Sarah Gillis the 265th. Until now, all spacewalks were done by professional astronauts.
“We are mission complete,” Isaacman radioed as the capsule bobbed in the water, awaiting the recovery team. Within an hour, all four were out of their spacecraft, pumping their fists with joy as they emerged onto the ship’s deck.
It was the first time SpaceX aimed for a splashdown near the Dry Tortugas, a cluster of islands 113 kilometers west of Key West. To celebrate the new location, SpaceX employees brought a big, green turtle balloon to Mission Control at company headquarters in Hawthorne, California. The company usually targets closer to the Florida coast, but two weeks of poor weather forecasts prompted SpaceX to look elsewhere.
During Thursday’s commercial spacewalk, the Dragon capsule’s hatch was open barely a half-hour. Isaacman emerged only up to his waist to briefly test SpaceX’s brand-new spacesuit followed by Gillis, who was knee-high as she flexed her arms and legs for several minutes. Gillis, a classically trained violinist, also held a performance in orbit earlier in the week.
The spacewalk lasted less than two hours, considerably shorter than those at the International Space Station. Most of that time was needed to depressurize the entire capsule and then restore the cabin air. Even SpaceX’s Anna Menon and Scott “Kidd” Poteet, who remained strapped in, wore spacesuits.
SpaceX considers the brief exercise a starting point to test spacesuit technology for future, longer missions to Mars.
This was Isaacman’s second chartered flight with SpaceX, with two more still ahead under his personally financed space exploration program named Polaris after the North Star. He paid an undisclosed sum for his first spaceflight in 2021, taking along contest winners and a pediatric cancer survivor while raising more than $250 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
For the just completed so-called Polaris Dawn mission, the founder and CEO of the Shift4 credit card-processing company shared the cost with SpaceX. Isaacman won’t divulge how much he spent.
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Bag of Cheetos has huge impact on national park ecosystem
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — A bag of Cheetos gets dropped and left on the floor. Seems inconsequential, right?
Hardly.
Rangers at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in southern New Mexico describe it as a “world-changing” event for the tiny microbes and insects that call this specialized subterranean environment home. The bag could have been there a day or two or maybe just hours, but those salty morsels of processed corn made soft by thick humidity triggered the growth of mold on the cavern floor and on nearby cave formations.
“To the ecosystem of the cave it had a huge impact,” the park noted in a social media post, explaining that cave crickets, mites, spiders and flies soon organized to eat and disperse the foreign mess, essentially spreading the contamination.
The bright orange bag was spotted off trail by a ranger during one of the regular sweeps that park staff make through the Big Room, the largest single cave chamber by volume in North America, at the end of each day. They are looking for straggling visitors and any litter or other waste that might have been left behind on the paved trail.
The Big Room is a popular spot at Carlsbad Caverns. It is a magical expanse filled with towering stalagmites, dainty stalactites and clusters of cave popcorn.
Tons of trash
From this underground wonderland in New Mexico to lake shores in Nevada, tributaries along the Grand Canyon and lagoons in Florida, park rangers and volunteers collect tons of trash left behind by visitors each year as part of an ongoing battle to keep unique ecosystems from being compromised while still allowing visitors access.
According to the National Park Service, more than 300 million people visit the national parks each year, bringing in and generating nearly 70 million tons of trash, most of which ends up where it belongs – in garbage bins and recycling containers.
But for the rest of the discarded snack bags and other debris, it often takes work to round up the waste, and organizations like Leave No Trace have been pushing their message at trailheads and online.
At Carlsbad Caverns, volunteers comb the caverns collecting lint. One five-day effort netted as much as 50 pounds (22.68 kilograms). Rangers also have sweep packs and spill kits for the more delicate and sometimes nasty work that can include cleaning up human waste along the trail.
“It’s such a dark area, sometimes people don’t notice that it’s there. So they walk through it and it tracks it throughout the entire cave,” said Joseph Ward, a park guide who is working specifically on getting the “leave no trace” message out to park visitors and classrooms.
The rangers’ kits can include gloves, trash bags, water, bleach mixtures for decontamination, vacuums and even bamboo toothbrushes and tweezers for those hard-to-reach spots.
As for the spilled Cheetos, Ward told The Associated Press that could have been avoided because the park doesn’t allow food beyond the confines of the historic underground lunchroom.
Cheetos response
After the bag was discovered in July, cave specialists at the park settled on the best way to clean it up. Most of the mess was scooped up, and a toothbrush was used to remove rings of mold and fungi that had spread to nearby cave formations. It was a 20-minute job.
Some jobs can take hours and involve several park employees, Ward said.
Robert Melnick, professor emeritus at the University of Oregon, has been studying the cultural landscape of Carlsbad Caverns, including features like a historic wooden staircase that has become another breeding ground for exotic mold and fungi. He and his team submitted a report to the park in recent days that details those resources and makes recommendations for how the park can manage them in the future.
The balancing act for park managers at Carlsbad and elsewhere, Melnick said, is meeting the dual mandate of preserving and protecting landscapes while also making them accessible.
“I don’t quite know how you would monitor it except to constantly remind people that the underground, the caves, are a very, very sensitive natural environment,” he said.
Pleas to treat the caverns with respect are plastered on signs throughout the park, rangers give orientations to visitors before they go underground, and reminders of the dos and don’ts are printed on the back of each ticket stub.
But sometimes there is a disconnect between awareness and personal responsibility, said JD Tanner, director of education and training at Leave No Trace.
Personal stake is vital
Many people may be aware of the need to “keep it pristine,” but Tanner said the message doesn’t always translate into action or there is a lack of understanding that small actions — even leaving a piece of trash — can have irreversible damage in a fragile ecosystem.
“If someone doesn’t feel a personal stake in the preservation of these environments, they may not take the rules seriously,” Tanner said.
Diana Northup, a microbiologist who has spent years studying cave environments around the world, once crawled up the main corridor at Carlsbad Caverns to log everything that humans left behind.
“So this is just one thing of very many,” she said of the Cheetos.
As many as 2,000 people go through the caverns on any given day during the busy season. With them come hair and skin fragments, and those fragments can have their own microbes on board.
“So it can be really, really bad or it can just be us and all the stuff we’re shedding,” Northup said of human contamination within cave environments. “But here’s the other side of the coin: The only way you can protect caves is for people to be able to see them and experience them.”
“The biggest thing,” she said, “is you have to get people to value and want to preserve the caves and let them know what they can do to have that happen.”
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Boeing strike could last ‘a while’; workers confident of higher wages, union says
SEATTLE — A strike at Boeing “could go on for a while” as workers are confident they can get bigger wage increases and an improved pension, union leader Jon Holden said in an interview with National Public Radio on Saturday.
More than 30,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), who produce Boeing’s top-selling 737 MAX and other jets in the Seattle and Portland, began a strike Friday after overwhelmingly voting down a new contract.
Boeing and union negotiators are to return to the bargaining table next week, in talks overseen by U.S. federal mediators, after more than 94% of workers voted to reject an initial contract offer that Holden had endorsed.
Holden said the priorities for his members were a bigger wage increase and the restoration of a defined-benefit pension scheme that the union lost during a previous round of negotiations with Boeing a decade ago.
“We have the most leverage and the most power at the most opportune time that we’ve ever had in our history, and our members are expecting us to use it,” Holden told NPR.
“I know that our members are confident. They’re standing shoulder to shoulder and they’re ready. So it (the strike) could go on for a while,” he said.
The initial deal included a 25% pay raise spread over four years and a commitment by Boeing to build its next commercial jet in the Seattle region, if the plane program is launched within the four-year period of the contract.
Union members, venting frustration at years of stagnant wages and rising living costs, said removal of a performance bonus in the Boeing offer would erode half of the headline salary increase.
Boeing’s stock fell 3.7% on Friday. It has tumbled almost 40% so far this year, slashing the company’s market value by roughly $58 billion.
A long strike could further damage Boeing’s finances, already groaning because of $60 billion in debt. A lengthy pause on plane production would also weigh on airlines that fly Boeing jets and suppliers that manufacture parts.
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