‘Den of Thieves 2’ is No. 1 at box office as ‘Better Man’ flops

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New York — On a quiet weekend in movie theaters, while much of Hollywood’s attention was on the wildfires that continue to rage in Los Angeles, Lionsgate’s “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” debuted atop the box office with $15.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Mid-January is often a slow moviegoing period, and that was slightly exacerbated by the closures of about 10 theaters in Los Angeles, the country’s top box-office market.

A sequel to the Gerard Butler 2018 heist thriller, “Den of Thieves 2” performed similarly to the original. The first installment, released by STX, opened with $15.2 million seven years ago. O’Shea Jackson Jr. co-stars in the sequel, which debuted in 3,008 North American theaters.

Butler’s films are becoming something of a regular feature in January. He also starred in “Plane,” which managed $32.1 million after launching on Jan. 13 in 2023.

“Den of Thieves 2,” made for about $40 million, was a bit more costly to make. Audiences liked it well enough, giving it a “B+” CinemaScore. Reviews (58% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) weren’t particularly good. But it counted as Lionsgate’s first No.1 opening since “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” in November 2023.

Also entering wide release over the weekend was the Robbie Williams movie “Better Man,” one of the more audacious spins on the music biopic in recent years. Rather than going the more tradition routes of Elton John (“Rocketman”) or Elvis Presley (“Elvis”), the British popstar is portrayed by a CGI chimpanzee in Michael Gracey’s film.

The Paramount Pictures release, produced for $110 million and acquired by Paramount for $25 million, didn’t catch on much better than Williams’ previous forays into the United States. It tanked, with $1.1 million in ticket sales from 1,291 locations. Gracey’s previous feature, 2017’s “The Greatest Showman” ($459 million worldwide), fared far better in theaters. Reviews, however, have been very good for “Better Man.”

It was bested by “The Last Showgirl,” the Las Vegas drama starring Pamela Anderson. The Roadside Attractions release expanded to 870 theaters and collected $1.5 million.

Also outdoing “Better Man” was Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist.” Coming off winning best drama at the Golden Globes, the A24 postwar epic grossed a hefty $1.4 million from just 68 locations. It will expand wider in the coming weeks.

The weekend’s lion share of business went to holiday holdovers, including “Mufasa: The Lion King,” “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” “Nosferatu” and “Moana 2.”

In its fourth week of release, Barry Jenkins “Mufasa” continued to do well, adding $13.2 million to bring its total to $539.7 million worldwide. Also on its fourth weekend, “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” padded its $384.8 million global total with $11 million. Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu,” the surprise hit of the Christmas period, collected $6.8 million in ticket sales, bringing the vampire tale to $81.1 million domestically.

The Walt Disney Co.’s “Moana 2,” in its seventh week of release, added $6.5 million to bring its global tally to $989.8 million. In the coming days, it will become the third Disney film released in 2024 to notch $1 billion, joining “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool and Wolverine.”

Final domestic figures will be released Monday. Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:

  1. “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera,” $15.5 million.

  2. “Mufasa: The Lion King,” $13.2 million.

  3. “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” $11 million.

  4. “Nosferatu,” $6.8 million.

  5. “Moana 2,” $6.5 million.

  6. “A Complete Unknown,” $5 million.

  7. “Wicked,” $5 million.

  8. “Babygirl,” $3.1 million.

  9. “Game Changer,” $1.9 million.

  10. “The Last Showgirl,” $1.5 million.
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Ethiopia relaunches securities exchange to lure investors

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Ethiopia relaunched its stock exchange, the Ethiopian Securities Exchange, on Friday after a 50-year absence.

The operations of the Ethiopia Securities Exchange were stopped in 1974 following the takeover by a communist military government.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed described the relaunch as an “historic milestone” for Ethiopia’s economic and financial landscape.

“We have officially rung the bell to launch the Ethiopian Securities Exchange — the first stock exchange for our country. Invest in Ethiopia — a fast-growing economy with immense potential and a dynamic trajectory toward prosperity,” he posted on X.

The launch of the stock exchange means the government initiated a domestic stock market, starting with the state-owned Ethio Telecom, which is yet to commence an initial public offering of shares despite announcing the move in October.

Ethiopian officials announced Friday that Wegagen Bank, a private bank, was the first company to list on the exchange.

Ethiopian Insurance Corporation, Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Services Enterprise, and Berhanena Selam Printing joined Ethiopia Telecom as founding members of the exchange, although they are not yet listed.

The list of investors also included foreign strategic investors, along with 16 domestic private commercial banks, 12 private insurance companies, and 17 other private domestic investors, according to a newsletter distributed during the event.

Based on the shareholding structure of the Ethiopian Securities Exchange, 75% of it is allocated to private investors and 25% is capped for public shareholding. This means the share company is a private-government partnership.

Abiy assured investors that all the necessary preparations had been made. Speaking in Amharic, Abiy said the government did extensive research, passed legislation and built more institutions and human capital over the past 2½ to “avoid failure.”

He also praised the country’s economy.

“Ethiopian economy means an economy that operates the biggest airline in Africa. Ethiopian economy means an economy that operates the largest telecom operator in Africa. Ethiopian economy means an economy that built the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa,” he said touting Africa’s largest airline and the Grand Renaissance Dam, which is considered the biggest project of its type on the continent.

In July 2021, the Parliament established the Ethiopian Capital Market Authority and tasked it with ensuring the existence of an environment in which securities could be issued and traded in an “orderly, fair, efficient and transparent manner.”

Ethiopia’s economy heavily relies on agriculture, with coffee, oilseed, flowers and gold being the main export items. Last year, the government introduced financial reforms that included floating the Ethiopian currency, a move backed by international financial institutions.

But the market-based currency policy increased inflation and led to skyrocketing prices for imported food and fuel.

This week, the government announced an increase in the price of benzene from 73 cents to 82 cents per liter. Similarly, the price of white diesel jumped from 72 cents to 78 cents per liter, with corresponding increases applied to other fuel types, a move residents said will worsen the cost of living and transportation challenges.

Ethiopian economist and the executive director of Initiative Africa Kibur Gena said the Ethiopian stock exchange should align with the broader development goals of the country.

Ethiopia’s government “should approach the establishment of a stock exchange gradually and strategically,” he told VOA.

He argued that the government should also build strong institutions and a regulatory framework “so that it can attract foreign direct investment.”

The relaunch also comes at a time when the country is facing security challenges in the Amhara and Oromia regions.

Kibur said to attract foreign investors, there needs to be peace throughout the country.

“I suppose this government will sort of realize that if it wants to achieve its objectives, it will certainly address the peace issues,” he said.
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US added 256,000 jobs in December; unemployment rate dips to 4.1%

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WASHINGTON — U.S. hiring picked up unexpectedly in December as employers added a strong 256,000 jobs, another sign of the economy’s resilience in the face of high interest rates. 

Job growth rose 212,000 last month from November, the Labor Department reported Friday. 

For all of 2024, the economy added 2.2 million jobs, a solid number but down from 3 million in 2023, 4.5 million in 2022 and a record 6.4 million in 2021 as the economy bounded back from massive pandemic layoffs. 

The monthly numbers beat forecasters’ expectations of around 155,000 new jobs and 4.2% unemployment. Health care companies added 46,000 jobs, retailers 43,000 and government agencies at the federal, state and local 33,000. But manufacturers cut 13,000 jobs. 

Labor Department revisions shaved 8,000 jobs from October and November payrolls. 

Average hourly wages rose 0.3% from November and 3.9% from a year earlier. The year-over-year wage gain was slightly less than economists had forecast. 

Stocks fell Friday morning on the expectations that the strong jobs report will make the Federal Reserve less likely to cut interest rates. The economy doesn’t seem to need help. “It seems pretty certain that the pace of Fed rate cuts is now going to slow down,” said Brian Coulton, chief economist at Fitch Ratings. 

Getting a clear view of the U.S. job market hasn’t been easy over the past few months. 

Hurricanes and a big strike at Boeing threw off the October jobs numbers, pushing them down and setting up a payback rebound in November that likely exaggerated the strength of hiring. 

Thomas Simons, chief U.S. economist at Jefferies, said that seasonal adjustments around the holidays may have affected the December numbers, but he added that nonetheless “it is hard to say anything negative about the details of this report.” 

Over the past few years, the economy and the job market have shown surprising resilience. Responding to inflation that hit a four-decade high two and a half years ago, the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate — the fed funds rate — 11 times in 2022 and 2023, taking it to the highest level in more than two decades. 

The higher borrowing costs were widely expected to cause a recession but didn’t. Companies kept hiring, consumers kept spending, and the economy kept rolling along. In fact, U.S. gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — has expanded at a robust annual pace of 3% or more in four of the last five quarters. 

Layoffs are running below the pre-pandemic trend. On Thursday, the Labor Department reported that 211,000 people applied for unemployment benefits last week, the fewest in nearly a year. 

Inflation has come down, too, from a peak of 9.1% in June 2022 to 2.7% in November. The drop in year-over-year price increases gave the Fed enough confidence to cut rates three times in the last four months of 2024. 

But Fed officials signaled at their December meeting that they planned to be more cautious about rate cuts this year. They now project just two rate reductions in 2025, down from the four they envisioned back in September. Progress against inflation has stalled in recent months, and it remains stuck above the Fed’s 2% target.
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Trump will be sentenced in hush money case, days before his inauguration 

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New York — In a singular moment in U.S. history, President-elect Donald Trump faces sentencing Friday for his New York hush money conviction after the nation’s highest court refused to intervene.

Like so much else in the criminal case and the current American political landscape, the scenario set to unfold in an austere Manhattan courtroom was unimaginable only a few years ago. A state judge is to say what consequences, if any, the country’s former and soon-to-be leader will face for felonies that a jury found he committed.

With Trump 10 days from inauguration, Judge Juan M. Merchan has indicated he plans a no-penalty sentence called an unconditional discharge, and prosecutors aren’t opposing it. That would mean no jail time, no probation and no fines would be imposed, but nothing is final until Friday’s proceeding is done.

Regardless of the outcome, Trump, a Republican, will become the first person convicted of a felony to assume the presidency.

Trump, who is expected to appear by video from his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, will have the opportunity to speak. He has pilloried the case, the only one of his four criminal indictments that has gone to trial and possibly the only one that ever will.

The judge has indicated that he plans the unconditional discharge — a rarity in felony convictions — partly to avoid complicated constitutional issues that would arise if he imposed a penalty that overlapped with Trump’s presidency.

The hush money case accused Trump of fudging his business’ records to veil a $130,000 payoff to porn actor Stormy Daniels. She was paid, late in Trump’s 2016 campaign, not to tell the public about a sexual encounter she maintains the two had a decade earlier. He says nothing sexual happened between them, and he contends that his political adversaries spun up a bogus prosecution to try to damage him.

“I never falsified business records. It is a fake, made up charge,” the Republican president-elect wrote on his Truth Social platform last week. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office brought the charges, is a Democrat.

Bragg’s office said in a court filing Monday that Trump committed “serious offenses that caused extensive harm to the sanctity of the electoral process and to the integrity of New York’s financial marketplace.”

While the specific charges were about checks and ledgers, the underlying accusations were seamy and deeply entangled with Trump’s political rise. Prosecutors said Daniels was paid off — through Trump’s personal attorney at the time, Michael Cohen — as part of a wider effort to keep voters from hearing about Trump’s alleged extramarital escapades.

Trump denies the alleged encounters occurred. His lawyers said he wanted to squelch the stories to protect his family, not his campaign. And while prosecutors said Cohen’s reimbursements for paying Daniels were deceptively logged as legal expenses, Trump says that’s simply what they were.

“There was nothing else it could have been called,” he wrote on Truth Social last week, adding, “I was hiding nothing.”

Trump’s lawyers tried unsuccessfully to forestall a trial. Since his May conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records, they have pulled virtually every legal lever within reach to try to get the conviction overturned, the case dismissed or at least the sentencing postponed.

They have made various arguments to Merchan, New York appeals judges, and federal courts including the Supreme Court. The Trump attorneys have leaned heavily into assertions of presidential immunity from prosecution, and they got a boost in July from a Supreme Court decision that affords former commanders-in-chief considerable immunity.

Trump was a private citizen and presidential candidate when Daniels was paid in 2016. He was president when the reimbursements to Cohen were made and recorded the following year.

On one hand, Trump’s defense argued that immunity should have kept jurors from hearing some evidence, such as testimony about some of his conversations with then-White House communications director Hope Hicks.

And after Trump won this past November’s election, his lawyers argued that the case had to be scrapped to avoid impinging on his upcoming presidency and his transition to the Oval Office.

Merchan, a Democrat, repeatedly postponed the sentencing, initially set for July. But last week, he set Friday’s date, citing a need for “finality.” He wrote that he strove to balance Trump’s need to govern, the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling, the respect due a jury verdict and the public’s expectation that “no one is above the law.”

Trump’s lawyers then launched a flurry of last-minute efforts to block the sentencing. Their last hope vanished Thursday night with a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling that declined to delay the sentencing.

Meanwhile, the other criminal cases that once loomed over Trump have ended or stalled ahead of trial.

After Trump’s election, special counsel Jack Smith closed out the federal prosecutions over Trump’s handling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. A state-level Georgia election interference case is locked in uncertainty after prosecutor Fani Willis was removed from it.
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UK Treasury chief heading to China to revive suspended economic, financial talks 

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London — Britain’s Treasury chief is travelling to China this weekend to discuss economic and financial cooperation between the countries, as the U.K.’s Labour government seeks to reset strained ties with Beijing.

The Treasury said Friday that Rachel Reeves will travel to Beijing and Shanghai and will meet with her Chinese government counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng.

Reeves’ trip is expected to revive the China-U.K. Economic and Financial Dialogue — annual bilateral talks that have been suspended since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and deteriorating relations in recent years.

A series of spying allegations from both sides, China’s support for Russia in the Ukraine war and a crackdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong, a former British colony, have soured ties.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority’s chief executive, Nikhil Rathi, are also in the delegation, according to the Treasury. Representatives from some of Britain’s biggest financial services firms will join the trip.

Officials did not provide details, but media reports have said senior executives from HSBC Holdings and Standard Chartered were included.

Reeves’ visit comes after Foreign Secretary David Lammy travelled to China in October and Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil in November.

The meetings form part of a bid by Starmer, who was elected as leader in July, to strengthen political and economic ties with China, the U.K.’s fifth-largest trading partner.

Officials said Starmer wanted a “pragmatic” approach to working with Beijing on global stability, climate change and the transition to clean energy.

But some in the opposition Conservative Party have criticized his stance and said trade ties should not come at the expense of national security and human rights concerns.

British political leaders and intelligence chiefs have warned repeatedly of the security threats that China poses. Calls to tackle the challenge grew louder last month when it emerged that an alleged Chinese spy had cultivated close ties with Prince Andrew and carried out “covert and deceptive activity” for China’s ruling Communist Party, according to officials.

Nevertheless, Lammy told reporters in London on Thursday that “there are many areas of trade that don’t impact on national security.”

He said Reeves “will repeat many of the messages that I took to China.”

“What we’ve said is in this complex relationship with a global superpower, we are guided by three Cs”: challenge, compete and cooperate, for example in areas including health and climate challenges, Lammy added.
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Death toll rises to 10 as Los Angeles wildfires ravage city

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Authorities in the western U.S. state of California say at least 10 people have been killed in massive wildfires that have ravaged the city of Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles County medical examiner late Thursday announced the new death toll, which doubled from earlier reports. Officials warn that number could increase once the fires have been brought under control and workers can comb through the ruins.

Firefighting operations continued into the night, with water-dropping helicopters taking advantage of a temporary lull in winds.

President Joe Biden told a White House briefing Thursday afternoon that federal resources and additional funding have been made available to California to fight the wildfires that he described as the “worst fires to ever hit Los Angeles.”

The money will be used, the president said, to cover all of the costs for 180 days for temporary shelters, the removal of hazardous materials, first responder salaries and measures to protect life.

Vice President Kamala Harris, a former U.S. senator for California, also spoke at the briefing.

Harris described the situation in California as “apocalyptic” and “something that is going to have an impact for months and years to come.”

The vice president has a home in an evacuation zone, but it was not immediately clear whether her house sustained any damage.

While the death toll from the Los Angeles wildfires stands at five, Southern California officials say that number will likely increase once the fires have been brought under control and workers can comb through the ruins.

Authorities said the wildfires burning in and around the city of Los Angeles have prompted the evacuation of nearly 180,000 people, destroyed thousands of homes, and burned tens of thousands of hectares of land.

“This is absolutely an unprecedented, historic firestorm,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said.

At a news briefing Thursday, Los Angeles city and county officials provided an update on the fires and the efforts to bring them under control.

Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley told reporters the fierce winds that had driven the fires calmed enough to allow firefighters to increase containment and air operations to resume.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said it is fighting five active wildfires in the Los Angeles area: the Palisades, Eaton, Hurst, Lidia and Sunset fires, with the Palisades and Eaton fires being the largest.

The sparking of a sixth fire — the Kenneth Fire, near Woodland Hills — was announced Thursday, and a mandatory evacuation order was in effect for that area, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said in its last report that the fires had burned more than 11,750 hectares of land, an announcement made before the addition of the Kenneth Fire.

Some people are apparently preying on the devastated neighborhoods, and at least 20 people have been arrested in recent days for looting.

“I promise you, you will be held accountable,” Los Angeles Supervisor Kathryn Barger said at a press conference Thursday.

“Shame on those who are preying on our residents during this time of crisis,” Barger said, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said the Palisades, Eaton, Hurst and Lidia fires have prompted the evacuation of nearly 180,000 residents, and another 200,000 residents are under evacuation orders.

Fire Chief Crowley called the Palisades Fire alone “one of the most destructive natural disasters in the history of Los Angeles.” Officials said Thursday that more than 5,000 homes and other structures have been lost in Palisades.

A leading national credit rating service echoed that view. In a statement Thursday, Morningstar-DBRS credit service said preliminary estimates show the fires could result in more than $8 billion in property losses.

Citing local fire officials, Morningstar-DBRS said the fires have already destroyed more than 1,100 homes and threaten more than 28,000 structures. The organization, which monitors and evaluates risk, said it expects the wildfires to have an adverse but manageable impact on California property insurers.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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US court declines to block release of one special counsel report on Trump

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A U.S. appeals court on Thursday declined to block the U.S. Justice Department from releasing a special counsel’s investigative report on President-elect Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election.

The ruling from the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit appeared to clear the way for the release of the report as early as next week.

The appeals court’s decision did not immediately lift an order from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon earlier this week pausing the release of the report. But Cannon set her order to expire three days after the appeals court ruled on the issue.

The appeals court invited the Justice Department to bring a separate appeal if it wished to reverse that ruling.

The report is likely to be the final act from special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two historic cases against Trump for attempting to subvert the 2020 election results and for mishandling classified documents.

Smith dropped both cases after Trump’s election victory and neither reached a trial.

Thursday’s ruling came after Trump’s two former co-defendants in the classified documents case, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, asked the appeals court to block the release of the report, arguing it would interfere with their ongoing prosecution.

The report for now is set to detail only the 2020 election probe after Attorney General Merrick Garland, who appointed Smith, decided not to publicly release the portion focused on the classified documents while legal proceedings against Trump’s two former co-defendants continue.

The Justice Department plans to allow only certain senior members of Congress to review that section of the report, the department said in a court filing.

Nauta and De Oliveira argued that even the limited release of the documents section of the report to Congress could harm their defense against obstruction charges. Both have pleaded not guilty.

It is unclear how much new information the public portion of the report will contain. Smith and a House of Representatives panel have already released detailed accounts of Trump’s actions surrounding the 2020 election, including during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges and claimed the cases against him were part of an effort to damage his political campaign.
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Carter funeral brings together 1 current, 4 ex-presidents to honor one of their own

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WASHINGTON — As they filed into the front pews at the National Cathedral, wearing dark suits and mostly solemn faces, one current and four former presidents came together for Jimmy Carter’s funeral. For a service that stretched more than an hour, the feuding, grievances and enmity that had marked their rival campaigns and divergent politics gave way to a reverential moment for one of their own.

Barack Obama and Donald Trump, the first two of the group to take their seats Thursday, shook hands and chatted at length. Trump, the former president who will retake the Oval Office in 11 days, leaned in and listened intently to his predecessor. At times, the two flashed smiles.

Obama, who attended without his wife, Michelle, shared a second-row pew with former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, along with their spouses. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrived last and sat in the pew just in front of them.

Members of the exclusive presidents’ club were on their best behavior. Bonded by the presidency, they rarely criticize one another or the White House’s current occupant — although Trump has flouted those rules frequently. He has praised and criticized Carter in recent days, and he complained that flags will still be at half-staff to honor the deceased president during his inauguration.

Trump looked up when Vice President Kamala Harris — whom he defeated in November’s hard-fought election — entered the cathedral, but he didn’t move to greet her as she and husband Doug Emhoff took seats directly in front of him and Melania Trump. Nor did Harris acknowledge him.

After the service, Emhoff turned around to shake hands with Trump.

Obama, with Trump on his left, also turned to his right to chat with Bush. Clinton, with wife Hillary, was the last of the ex-presidents to take a seat and got in some chatter with Bush as well.

The White House said the former presidents also met privately before taking their seats.

Funerals are among the few events that bring members of the presidents’ club together. In a way, former President Gerald Ford was there, too: Ford’s son Steven read a eulogy for Carter that Ford had written before he died in 2006.

Busy with personal pursuits, charitable endeavors and sometimes lucrative speaking gigs, the former leaders don’t mingle often. They all know the protocol of state funerals well — each has been involved in planning his own.

During the 2018 funeral for George H.W. Bush, then-President Trump sat with his predecessors and their spouses, including the Carters, and the interactions were stiff and sometimes awkward.

This time, Trump also didn’t appear to interact with Hillary Clinton, whom he defeated in the 2016 election.

Trump was seated in the pew in front of his former vice president, Mike Pence — one of the few times they have coincided at events since Pence refused to overturn the results of the 2020 election after Trump lost to Biden. The two shook hands but didn’t speak much beyond that.

Trump, who largely avoided contact with the former presidents during his first term — and pointedly did not seek their advice — has been critical of Republican former presidents, particularly the Bush family, which made him an uneasy member of the former presidents’ club. Carter himself didn’t particularly relish being a member of the club, at times criticizing its staid traditions.

Many past presidents have built relationships with their predecessors, including Bill Clinton, who reached out to Richard Nixon for advice on Russian policy, and Harry Truman, who sought counsel from Herbert Hoover.

One of the first calls Obama made after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 was to George W. Bush to spread the word that the mission had been accomplished, said Kate Andersen Brower, author of Team of Five: The Presidents Club in the Age of Trump.

“It’s the loneliest job in the world, so usually they reach out and rely on each other,” said Andersen Brower. “But Trump didn’t have that the first term, so this will just be another four years where he doesn’t depend on anyone who came before him.”

She noted that Carter spent years as a proud Washington outsider and skipped the unveiling of his own portrait to avoid being in the same room with the man who beat him in 1980, President Ronald Reagan.

“Carter and Trump, even though they have the least in common about everything else, are similar,” Andersen Brower said, “in just how they approach telling what they actually think.”
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‘Worst in Show’ CES products put data at risk and cause waste, privacy advocates say

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LAS VEGAS — So much of the technology showcased at CES includes gadgets made to improve consumers’ lives — whether by leveraging AI to make devices that help people become more efficient, by creating companions to cure loneliness, or by providing tools that help people with mental and physical health. 

But not all innovation is good, according to a panel of self-described dystopia experts that has judged some products as “Worst in Show.” The award that no company wants to win calls out the “least repairable, least private, and least sustainable products on display.” 

“We’re seeing more and more of these things that have basically surveillance technology built into them, and it enables some cool things,” Liz Chamberlain, director of sustainability at the e-commerce site iFixit told The Associated Press. “But it also means that now we’ve got microphones and cameras in our washing machines, refrigerators and that really is an industry-wide problem.” 

The fourth annual contest announced its decisions Thursday. 

A new smart ring every few years? 

Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, awarded the Ultrahuman Rare Luxury Smart Ring the title of “least repairable.” 

The rings, which come in colors like dune and desert sand, cost $2,200. Wiens said the jewelry “looks sleek but hides a major flaw: its battery only lasts 500 charges.” Worse, he said, is the fact that replacing the battery is impossible without destroying the device entirely. 

“Luxury items may be fleeting, but two years of use for $2,200 is a new low,” he said. 

Ultrahuman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

An AI-powered smart crib? 

Bosch’s “Revol” crib uses sensors, cameras and AI that the company says can help monitor vital signs like how an infant is sleeping, heart and respiratory rates and more. The crib can also rock gently if the baby needs help falling asleep and signal to parents if a blanket or other object is interfering with breathing. 

EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn said the crib preys on parents’ fears and “collects excessive data about babies via a camera, microphone, and even a radar sensor.” 

“Parents expect safety and comfort — not surveillance and privacy risks — in their children’s cribs,” she said in the report. 

A spokesperson for Bosch told The Associated Press that all data is encrypted end-to-end and stored on Bosch-administered servers, “while all data at rest is secured locally with individual data encryption keys.” 

“Caregivers have the final say on whether data is transmitted at all. The Revol has an offline mode, which keeps data local if preferred,” the spokesperson said, adding that the smart crib helps keep children safe. 

Too much waste? 

Although AI is everywhere at CES, Stacey Higginbotham, a policy Fellow at Consumer Reports, felt that SoundHound AI’s In-Car Commerce Ecosystem, powered by its Automotive AI, pushes it to unnecessary extremes. 

The feature “increases energy consumption, encourages wasteful takeout consumption and distracts drivers — all while adding little value,” Higginbotham said. That landed the in-car system as “least sustainable” on the list. 

Soundhound AI’s platform allows drivers and passengers to order takeout for pick-up directly from the car’s infotainment system. The company did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement Tuesday, Keyvan Mohajer, CEO of SoundHound AI, said the product’s launch marks a moment “decades in the making.” 

“What begins here with food and restaurants will ultimately open up a whole new commercial ecosystem for vehicle and device manufacturers everywhere,” he said. 

Vulnerable to hacking? 

TP-Link’s Archer BE900 router won for “least secure” of CES. The company is a top-selling router brand in the U.S. But its products are vulnerable to hacking, said Paul Roberts, founder of The Security Ledger. 

“By Chinese law, TP-Link must report security flaws to the government before alerting the public, creating a significant national security risk,” he said. “Yet TP-Link showcased its Archer BE900 router at CES without addressing these vulnerabilities.” 

In an email response, TP-Link Systems contested the report. 

“TP-Link Systems Inc. is a U.S.-headquartered company and does not provide any such security reporting to China as referenced by iFixit,” the company said. “TP-Link Systems has a secure, vertically-integrated, and U.S.-owned international supply chain. Nearly all products sold in the United States are manufactured in Vietnam.” 

TP-Link said it controls its own supply chains, and “is constantly assessing potential risks to its U.S. operations, customers, and supply chain,” adding that it acknowledges that vulnerabilities exist across the industry. 

“However, contrary to claims of widespread vulnerabilities, comparative data places TP-Link on par with, or in some cases ahead of, other major industry players in terms of security outcomes,” the company said. 

Who asked for this? 

The awards also feature a category called “who asked for this?” Top of that list was Samsung’s Bespoke AI Washing Machine, which Nathan Proctor, senior director of U.S. PIRG, a consumer advocacy group, said is filled “with features no one needs,” including the ability to make phone calls. 

“These add-ons only make the appliance more expensive, fragile, and harder to repair,” he said. 

Samsung did not respond to a request for comment. 

At a press conference at CES Tuesday, Jong-Hee Han, vice chairman of Samsung’s device experience division, said that he was “proud of how we have introduced new technologies and intelligence to the home, connected key devices and set the standard for the home of the future.” 

“We are reinforcing our commitment to delivering personalized experiences through our widespread implementation of AI and we will continue this journey of AI leadership in the home and beyond, not just for the next decade, but for the next century,” he said. 

Worst overall 

Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of The Repair Association, called the LG “AI Home Inside 2.0 Refrigerator with ThinkQ” the worst product overall. The fridge adds “flashy features,” Gordon-Byrne said, including a screen and internet connection. 

“But these come at a cost,” Gordon-Byrne said. “Shorter software support, higher energy consumption, and expensive repairs reduce the fridge’s practical lifespan, leaving consumers with an expensive, wasteful gadget.” 

LG did not respond to a request for comment.
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New York’s highest appeals court declines to block Trump’s sentencing in hush money case

PolitCens Новини, Політика, Суспільство 0 Comment

ALBANY, NEW YORK — New York’s highest court on Thursday declined to block Donald Trump’s upcoming sentencing in his hush money case, leaving the U.S. Supreme Court as the president-elect’s likely last option to prevent the hearing from taking place Friday. 

One judge of the New York Court of Appeals issued a brief order declining to grant a hearing to Trump’s legal team. 

Trump has asked the Supreme Court to call off Friday’s sentencing. His lawyers turned to the nation’s highest court Wednesday after New York courts refused to postpone the sentencing by Judge Juan M. Merchan, who presided over Trump’s trial and conviction last May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Trump has denied wrongdoing. 

In a filing to the top New York court, Trump’s attorneys had said Merchan and the state’s mid-level appellate court both “erroneously failed” to stop the sentencing, arguing that the Constitution requires an automatic pause as they appeal the judge’s ruling upholding the verdict. 

While Merchan has indicated he will not impose jail time, fines or probation, Trump’s lawyers argued a felony conviction would still have intolerable side effects, including distracting him as he prepares to take office. 

Trump’s attorneys have argued that the Manhattan trial violated last summer’s Supreme Court ruling giving Trump broad immunity from prosecution over acts he took as president. At the least, they have said, the sentencing should be delayed while their appeals play out on the immunity issue. 

Judges in New York have found that Trump’s convictions related to personal matters rather than official acts. 

Trump’s attorneys called the case politically motivated, and said that the sentencing threatens to disrupt the Republican’s presidential transition as he prepares to return to the presidency on Jan. 20. 

Sentencing Trump now would be a “grave injustice,” his attorney D. John Sauer wrote. Sauer is also Trump’s pick to be solicitor general, who represents the government before the high court. 

The emergency motion to the U.S. Supreme Court was submitted to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who hears emergency appeals from New York.
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