Campus protests of the war in Gaza continue, despite college administrations’ warnings — and new ones are being launched. VOA Natasha Mozgovaya reports from an encampment set up Monday at the University of Washington in Seattle.
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While Washington has so far failed to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a cease-fire in the Gaza conflict, Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the Middle East on Monday to try to improve the humanitarian situation and lay the groundwork for what happens in Gaza — and the region — after the war ends. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House.
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U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump is planning to campaign in the Midwest state of Michigan this week. It’s one of a handful of states that could swing the results of November’s presidential election. VOA Correspondent Scott Stearns has our story.
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«Вони отримують якісь інструкції, переводять кудись кошти, фактично, за інструкцію. А потім стикаються з тим, що маршрут пролягає по гірській річці»
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Top US diplomat is in Middle East for talks on Gaza, regional security
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Повідомлення, які пересилають шахраї, містять посилання на сайт-двійник, який імітує офіційну вебсторінку «Електронних петицій»
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WASHINGTON — U.S. House and Senate negotiators said early Monday they had reached a deal to boost air traffic controller staffing and boost funding to avert runway close-call incidents, but will not increase the airline pilot retirement age to 67 from 65.
The U.S. House of Representatives in July voted 351-69 on a sweeping bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that would also raise the mandatory pilot retirement age to 67 but the Senate Commerce Committee had voted in February to reject the retirement age increase. International rules would have prevented airline pilots older than 65 from flying in most countries outside the United States.
Congress has temporarily extended authorization for the FAA through May 10 as it works on a new $105 billion, five-year deal. The Senate is set to vote this week on the more than 1,000-page bipartisan proposal.
The bill prohibits airlines from charging fees for families to sit together and requires airlines to accept vouchers and credits for at least five years, but did not adopt many stricter consumer rules sought by the Biden administration.
The bill also requires airplanes to be equipped with 25-hour cockpit recording devices and directs the FAA to deploy advanced airport surface technology to help prevent collisions.
Efforts to boost aviation safety in the United States have taken on new urgency after a series of near-miss incidents and the Jan. 5 Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9
door plug mid-air emergency.
Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell, the panel’s top Republican, Ted Cruz, House Transportation Committee chair Sam Graves and the committee’s top Democrat, Rick Larsen, in a joint statement announced the agreement and said, “now more than ever, the FAA needs strong and decisive direction from Congress to ensure America’s aviation system maintains its gold standard.”
The proposal raises maximum civil penalties for airline consumer violations from $25,000 per violation to $75,000 and aims to address a shortage of 3,000 air traffic controllers by directing the FAA to implement improved staffing standards and to hire more inspectors, engineers and technical specialists.
Congress will not establish minimum seat size requirements, leaving that instead to the FAA. The bill requires the Transportation Department to create a dashboard that shows consumers the minimum seat size for each U.S. airline.
The bill boosts by five the number of daily direct flights from Washington Reagan National Airport.
Cantwell said the agreement – including a five-year reauthorization for the National Transportation Safety Board – demonstrates aviation safety and stronger consumer standards are a big priority.
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Beijing — Tech billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk met in Beijing on Sunday with China’s number two official, Premier Li Qiang, who promised the country would “always” be open to foreign firms.
Musk — one of the world’s richest people — arrived in China earlier the same day on his second trip in less than a year to the world’s biggest market for electric vehicles.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said that during their meeting, Li had promised the country would do more to help foreign firms.
“China’s very large-scale market will always be open to foreign-funded firms,” Li was quoted as saying.
“China will stick to its word and will continue working hard to expand market access and strengthen service guarantees.”
Beijing would also provide foreign companies with “a better business environment” so “that firms from all over the world can have peace of mind while investing in China,” Li added.
Musk later said on X, which he also owns, that he was honored to meet with Li, adding the pair “have known each other now for many years.”
Musk has extensive business interests in China and his most recent visit was in May and June of last year. Tesla has not shared his itinerary for the current trip.
CCTV quoted him as praising the “hardworking and intelligent Chinese team” at his Tesla Gigafactory in Shanghai during his meeting with Li.
“Tesla is willing to take the next step in deepening cooperation with China to achieve more win-win results,” Musk reportedly added.
Earlier in the day, the billionaire met with the head of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Ren Hongbin, “to discuss next steps in cooperation and other topics,” CCTV said.
The mercurial magnate is a controversial figure in the West, but in China, Tesla’s electric vehicles have become a staple of middle-class urban life.
The future
Having once derided Chinese EVs, Musk described their manufacturers this year as being “the most competitive car companies in the world.”
“It’s good to see electric vehicles making progress in China,” he was quoted as saying by a state-backed media outlet Sunday.
“All cars will be electric in the future.”
Musk’s own company has run into trouble in the world’s second-largest economy: in January, Tesla recalled more than 1.6 million electric vehicles in China to fix their steering software.
His arrival in China coincides with a cut-throat price war between firms desperate to get ahead in the fiercely competitive EV market.
China’s local car giant BYD — “Build Your Dreams” — beat out Tesla in last year’s fourth quarter to become the world’s top seller of EVs.
Tesla reclaimed that title in the first quarter of this year, but BYD remains firmly on top in its home market.
An analysis by Wedbush Securities called the visit “a watershed moment for Musk as well as Beijing,” given the level of domestic competition and recent “softer demand” for Tesla.
The trip also comes as Beijing hosts a massive auto show, which held press events from Thursday and opened to the public over the weekend.
Tesla’s last hope
Comments under posts about Musk’s arrival on the social media site Weibo were full of speculation that the celebrity tycoon would attend Auto China while in Beijing.
One user suggested Musk’s visit was motivated by a desire to test drive an SU7, the first car model released earlier this year by Chinese consumer tech giant Xiaomi.
Xiaomi’s entrance into the competitive EV sector appears to be off to a positive start, with CEO Lei Jun saying this month that pre-orders had outpaced expectations by three to five times.
Other commenters responded to reports that Musk’s trip was intended to give him an opportunity to talk with Chinese officials about the possibility of bringing Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology to the local market.
“FSD is Tesla’s last hope for saving its domestic sales,” one Weibo user said.
“While the long-term valuation story at Tesla hinges on FSD and autonomous, a key missing piece in that puzzle is Tesla making FSD available in China which now appears on the doorstep,” the Wedbush analysis said.
Musk’s interests in China have long raised eyebrows in Washington, with President Joe Biden saying in November 2022 that his links to foreign countries were “worthy” of scrutiny.
The tycoon has also caused controversy by suggesting the self-ruled island of Taiwan should become part of China — a stance that was welcomed by Chinese officials but deeply angered Taipei.
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HOLDENVILLE, Okla. — At least two people, including a child, died in tornadoes that swept through Oklahoma, authorities said Sunday as emergency crews assessed the extensive damage to homes and businesses from the high winds, hail and flooding.
Dozens of reported tornadoes have wreaked havoc in the nation’s midsection since Friday, with flood watches and warnings in effect Sunday for Oklahoma and other states — including Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas.
In Oklahoma, a tornado ripped through Holdenville, a town of about 5,000 people, late Saturday, killing two people, and injuring four others, Hughes County Emergency Medical Services said in a statement Sunday. Holdenville is roughly 129 kilometers (80 miles) from Oklahoma City.
“My prayers are with those who lost loved ones as tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma last night,” Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a statement.
He issued an executive order Sunday declaring a state of emergency in 12 counties due to the fallout from the severe weather as crews worked to clear debris and assess damage from the severe storms that downed power lines.
Nearly 33,000 customers were without power in Oklahoma as of Sunday morning, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks electric utility outages. In Texas, nearly 67,000 customers were without power.
Significant destruction from the storm was reported in the southern Oklahoma community of Sulphur and well as around Marietta, where a hospital was damaged, according to the Oklahoma Office of Emergency Management.
Residents in other states were also digging out from storm damage. A tornado in suburban Omaha, Nebraska, demolished homes and businesses Saturday as it moved for kilometers through farmland and into subdivisions, then slammed an Iowa town.
Fewer than two dozen people were treated at Omaha-area hospitals, said Dr. Lindsay Huse, health director of the city’s Douglas County Health Department.
“Miraculous” she said, stressing that none of the city’s injuries was serious. Neighboring communities reported a handful of injuries each.
The tornado damage started Friday afternoon near Lincoln, Nebraska. An industrial building in Lancaster County was hit, causing it to collapse with 70 people inside. Several were trapped, but everyone was evacuated, and the three injuries were not life-threatening, authorities said.
One or possibly two tornadoes then spent around an hour creeping toward Omaha, leaving behind damage consistent with an EF3 twister, with winds of 217 to 266 kilometers per hour (135 to 165 mph), said Chris Franks, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Omaha office.
Ultimately the twister slammed into the Elkhorn neighborhood in western Omaha, a city of 485,000 people with a metropolitan-area population of about 1 million.
Staci Roe surveyed the damage to what was supposed to be her “forever home,” which was not even two years old. When the tornado hit, they were at the airport picking up a friend who was supposed to spend the night.
“There was no home to come to,” she said, describing “utter dread” when she saw it for the first time.
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds spent Saturday touring the damage and arranging for assistance for the damaged communities. Formal damage assessments are still underway, but the states plan to seek federal help.
