Політика

Від початку доби командування зафіксувало 123 російські атаки
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До лікарні доправили 57-річну жінку та 59-річного чоловіка, постраждалих у Дар’ївській громаді
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NEW YORK — The holiday shopping season is about to reach full speed with Black Friday, which kicks off the post-Thanksgiving retail rush this week.

The annual sales event no longer creates the midnight mall crowds or doorbuster mayhem of recent decades, in large part due to the ease of online shopping and habits forged during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hoping to entice equivocating consumers, retailers already have spent weeks bombarding customers with ads and early offers. Still, whether visiting stores or clicking on countless emails promising huge savings, tens of millions of U.S. shoppers are expected to spend money on Black Friday itself this year.

Industry forecasts estimate that 183.4 million people will shop in U.S. stores and online between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, according to the National Retail Federation and consumer research firm Prosper Insights & Analytics. Of that number, 131.7 million are expected to shop on Black Friday.

At the same time, earlier and earlier Black Friday-like promotions, as well as the growing strength of other shopping events (hello, Cyber Monday), continue to change the holiday spending landscape.

Here’s what you need to know about Black Friday’s history and where things stand in 2024.

When is Black Friday in 2024?

Black Friday falls on the Friday after Thanksgiving each year, which is November 29 this year.

How old is Black Friday? Where does its name come from?

The term “Black Friday” is several generations old, but it wasn’t always associated with the holiday retail frenzy that we know today. The gold market crash of September 1869, for example, was notably dubbed Black Friday.

The phrase’s use in relation to shopping the day after Thanksgiving, however, is most often traced to Philadelphia in the mid-20th century — when police and other city workers had to deal with large crowds that congregated before the annual Army-Navy football game and to take advantage of seasonal sales.

“That’s why the bus drivers and cab drivers call today ‘Black Friday.’ They think in terms of headaches it gives them,” a Gimbels department store sales manager told The Associated Press in 1975 while watching a police officer try to control jaywalkers the day after Thanksgiving.

Earlier references date back to the 1950s and 1960s.

Jie Zhang, a professor of marketing at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, points to a 1951 mention of “Black Friday” in a New York-based trade publication — which noted that many workers simply called in sick the day after Thanksgiving in hopes of having a long holiday weekend.

Starting in the 1980s, national retailers began claiming that Black Friday represented when they went from operating in the red to in the black thanks to holiday demand. But since many retail companies now operate in the black at various times of the year, this interpretation should be taken with a grain of salt, experts say.

How has Black Friday evolved?

In recent decades, Black Friday became infamous for floods of people in jam-packed stores. Endless lines of shoppers camped out at midnight in hopes of scoring deep discounts.

But online shopping has made it possible to make most, if not all, holiday purchases without ever stepping foot inside a store. And while foot traffic at malls and other shopping areas has bounced back since the start of the pandemic, e-commerce isn’t going away.

November sales at brick-and-mortar stores peaked more than 20 years ago. In 2003, for example, e-commerce accounted for 1.7% of total retail sales in the fourth quarter, according to Commerce Department data.

Unsurprisingly, online sales make up a much bigger slice of the pie today. For last year’s holiday season, e-commerce accounted for about 17.1% of all nonadjusted retail sales in the fourth quarter, Commerce Department data show. That’s up from 12.7% seen at the end of 2019.

Beyond the rise of online shopping, some big-ticket items that used to get shoppers in the door on the Black Friday — like a new TV — are significantly cheaper than they were decades ago, notes Jay Zagorsky, a clinical associate professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business.

“There is less need to stand in line at midnight when the items typically associated with doorbuster sales are now much cheaper,” Zagorsky told The Associated Press via email. He pointed to Bureau of Labor Statistics data that show the average price for a TV has fallen 75% since 2014.

While plenty of people will do most of their Black Friday shopping online, projections from the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights indicated that most Black Friday shoppers (65%) still planned to shop in stores this year.

Black Friday ‘month’ and the rise of Cyber Monday

It’s no secret that Black Friday sales don’t last just 24 hours anymore. Emails promising holiday deals now start arriving before Halloween.

“Black Friday is no longer the start of the holiday shopping season. It has become the crescendo of the holiday shopping season” during what now feels like “Black Friday month,” Zhang said. Some retailers have updated their official marketing to refer to “Black Friday week.”

Retailers trying to get a head start on the competition and to manage shipping logistics helps explain the rush, Zhang said. Offering early holiday deals spreads out purchases, giving shippers more breathing room to complete orders. Zhang therefore doesn’t expect the five fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year to cause significant strain because retailers would have taken them into account.

Linking pre-Thanksgiving sales with Black Friday is also a marketing technique since it’s a name consumers recognize and associate with big, limited-time bargains, Zhang said.

Multiple post-Thanksgiving sales events keep shoppers enticed after Black Friday, including Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, which the National Retail Federation’s online arm designated in 2005.

U.S. consumers spent a record $12.4 billion on Cyber Monday in 2023, and $15.7 million per minute during the day’s peak sales hour, according to Adobe Analytics. On Black Friday, they spent $9.8 billion online, Adobe Analytics said.

Enough people still enjoy shopping in person after Thanksgiving that the activity is unlikely to become extinct, Boston University’s Zagorsky said.

While Black Friday’s significance “is being slightly diminished” over time, the shopping event is still “a way to connect with others,” he said. “This social aspect is important and will not disappear, ensuring that Black Friday is still an important day for retailers.”
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WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA — At least five Democratic members of Congress from Connecticut were targeted by bomb threats on their homes Thursday, the lawmakers or their offices said.

Senator Chris Murphy and Representatives Jim Himes, Joe Courtney, John Larson and Jahana Hayes all reported being the subject of such threats. Police who responded said they found no evidence of explosives on the lawmakers’ properties.

There was no immediate word whether Representative Rosa DeLauro, the fifth Democratic House member from the state, and Connecticut’s other Democratic senator received threats.

The bomb threats against Democrats came a day after a number of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks and appointees reported that they had received such threats, as well as “swatting attacks,” in which perpetrators initiate an emergency law enforcement response against a victim under false pretenses.

Murphy’s office said his Hartford home was the target of a bomb threat, “which appears to be part of a coordinated effort involving multiple members of Congress and public figures.” Hartford Police and U.S. Capitol Police determined there was no threat.

Hayes said the Wolcott Police Department informed her Thursday morning that it had received “a threatening email stating a pipe bomb had been placed in the mailbox at my home.” State police, U.S. Capitol Police, and the House sergeant at arms were notified, Wolcott and state police responded, “and no bomb or explosive materials were discovered.”

Courtney’s Vernon home received a bomb threat while his wife and children were there, his office said.

Himes said he was told of the threat against his home during a Thanksgiving celebration with his family. The U.S. Capitol Police, and Greenwich and Stamford police departments responded.

Hines extended his family’s “utmost gratitude to our local law enforcement officers for their immediate action to ensure our safety.” Echoing other lawmakers who were threatened, he added: “There is no place for political violence in this country, and I hope that we may all continue through the holiday season with peace and civility.”

Larson said Thursday that East Hartford Police responded to a bomb threat against his home.

The threats follow an election season marked by violence. In July, a gunman opened fire at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing his ear and killing one of his supporters. The Secret Service later thwarted a subsequent assassination attempt at Trump’s West Palm Beach, Florida, golf course when an agent spotted the barrel of a gun poking through a perimeter fence while Trump was golfing.

Among those who received threats Wednesday were New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump’s pick to serve as the next ambassador to the United Nations; Matt Gaetz, Trump’s initial pick to serve as attorney general; Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, whom Trump chose to lead the Department of Labor, and former New York congressman Lee Zeldin, who has been tapped to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. 
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Мер Києва повідомляє про роботу протиповітряної оборони в столиці
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Уламки пошкодили скління вікон та фасадних частин під’їздів в трьох багатоповерхових житлових будинках
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LONDON — British and American authorities are investigating after several drones were spotted in recent days flying over four U.S. military bases in England. Britain has deployed dozens of troops around the bases amid concerns the overflights could be acts of deception or sabotage by an adversary such as Russia.

In a statement issued Wednesday, U.S. Air Forces in Europe said that “small unmanned aerial systems continue to be spotted in the vicinity of and over Royal Air Force Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall, RAF Feltwell and RAF Fairford since Nov. 20.” It said the number of drones sighted has fluctuated and has ranged in size and configurations.

“To date, installation leaders have determined that none of the incursions impacted base residents, facilities or assets. The air force is taking all appropriate measures to safeguard the aforementioned installations and their residents,” the statement said.

RAF Lakenheath in the east of England is home to the U.S. Air Force 48th Fighter Wing, a cornerstone of its combat capability in Europe and home to several F-35 stealth fighter jets, among other aircraft. Four American B-52 strategic bombers are currently based at RAF Fairford in the west of the country.

The Pentagon said this week it is actively monitoring the situation. “The bottom line is it’s something that we’re going to take seriously. We’re continuing to look into it. But as of right now, [it] has not had any significant mission impact,” Pentagon spokesperson Major General Patrick Ryder told reporters Tuesday, adding that small drones have become “relatively common now across the landscape.”

Britain has deployed about 60 soldiers around the U.S. bases. British Defense Minister Maria Eagle said they are using “multilayered force protection measures.”

“We will be making sure that anybody that we manage to catch for engaging in this behavior is shown the full force of the law,” Eagle told lawmakers Wednesday.

The nature of the sightings suggests the drones are not being operated by hobbyists, said David Dunn, a professor of international politics at Britain’s University of Birmingham, who has written extensively on the dangers posed by drones.

“It’s particularly alarming in this context that actually talked about there [being] several different sizes of drones. It does seem to be a coordinated and planned activity. The most obvious thing is that these are disruptive practices and that they actually force the airfield to operate in a different way, to suspend air operations,” Dunn told VOA.

The drones can also be used for other purposes.

“They can gather intelligence on how many planes are operating, where they’re based, what the movements are. And, actually, they can also do that for individuals,” Dunn said.

Drones have been sighted above the U.S. base at RAF Feltwell, which primarily serves as living quarters for U.S. military personnel — a “particularly sinister” development, according to Dunn.

“Because in an age where you have highly sophisticated fifth-generation aircraft that operate stealthily and invisibly in the electronic spectrum when they’re flying — and are highly protected on the airbase in hardened aircraft shelters — the most vulnerable part of the overall system is actually the aircrew,” Dunn told VOA.

“And so, if you can identify where they live by following them home onto their married quarters, you can identify where you can actually break the weakest part of that chain,” he said.

The Times of London newspaper reported that authorities have not ruled out Russia as the culprit. Dunn said there’s evidence of Moscow seeking to step up hybrid attacks, meaning a nonmilitary form of warfare that can still be destructive.

“Whether that be the disruption of undersea cables or of incendiary parcels being sent to the city I live in, Birmingham — there was an incendiary parcel found in Birmingham airport. There’s another [example] of a warehouse being burned down, which stored material going to Ukraine. These things are typically, it seems, done at third party, whereby the Russian state, it seems, has employed criminals in the U,K.,” Dunn said.

The Russian Embassy in London had not responded to VOA requests for comment by the time of publication. Moscow has previously denied any involvement in hybrid attacks on the West.
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British and American authorities are investigating why several drones were flying over four U.S. air bases in England in recent days. As Henry Ridgwell reports, Britain has deployed dozens of troops around the bases amid concerns such drones could be used to disrupt operations or carry out acts of deception and sabotage.
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Some images from the 98th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in New York.
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Since 2004, former New York Times editor and now artist Sheryl Oring has been giving Americans a chance to speak their truth to the world. Dressed in 1950s secretary attire, she invites the public to speak their mind and records it on her vintage typewriter as part of a project called, “I Wish To Say.” Elena Wolf has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Vladimir Badikov
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«Четверо військовослужбовців Збройних Сил України вимушено здались у полон. Одразу після цього окупанти відкрили по них вогонь на ураження»
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Вирок наразі не набрав чинності, його можна буде оскаржити в судах апеляційної та касаційної інстанцій
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«Причина тимчасового посилення обмежень — пошкодження енергообʼєктів під час масованої ракетно-дронової атаки 28 листопада»
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New York — A century after the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the annual holiday tradition kicks off Thursday in New York City with new Spider-Man and Minnie Mouse balloons, zoo and pasta-themed floats, performances from Jennifer Hudson and Idina Menzel, and more.

This year’s star-studded lineup is a far cry from the parade’s initial incarnation, which featured floats showing scenes from Mother Goose, Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, Miss Muffet and the Spider, and other fairy tales.

Some things remain the same, though. As in 1924, there will be plenty of marching bands and lots of clowns, followed by the grand finale of Santa Claus riding through Manhattan and ushering in the holiday season.

This year’s parade features 17 giant, helium-filled character balloons, 22 floats, 15 novelty and heritage inflatables, 11 marching bands, 700 clowns, 10 performance groups, award-winning singers and actors, and the WNBA champion New York Liberty.

One new float will spotlight the Rao’s food brand, featuring a knight and a dragon in battle made with actual pasta elements. Another will celebrate the Bronx Zoo’s 125th anniversary with representations of a tiger, a giraffe, a zebra and a gorilla.

“The work that we do, the opportunity to impact millions of people and bring a bit of joy for a couple of hours on Thanksgiving morning, is what motivates us every day,” said Will Coss, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade executive producer.

The parade begins at 8:30 a.m. on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and ends 4 kilometers away around noon at Macy’s Herald Square flagship store on 34th Street, which serves as a stage and backdrop for performances.

It’ll happen rain or shine — the parade has only been canceled three times, from 1942 to 1944 during World War II — but organizers will be monitoring wind speeds throughout the festivities to make sure it’s safe for the big balloons to fly.

So far, the forecast calls for rain with temperatures in the upper-40s and winds around 16 kph, well within the acceptable range for letting Snoopy, Bluey and their friends soar. New York City law prohibits Macy’s from flying the full-size balloons if sustained winds exceed 37 kph or wind gusts are over 56 kph.

The parade airs on NBC with hosts Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Al Roker and streams on the network’s Peacock service. Carlos Adyan and Andrea Meza will host a Spanish simulcast on Telemundo.
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WASHINGTON — As President-elect Donald Trump prepares for his second term as president of the United States, questions arise about what this means for U.S.-Africa relations. In this interview with VOA English to Africa’s Paul Ndiho, former diplomat Tibor Nagy, who served as Trump’s Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from 2018 to 2021, shares insights into the administration’s past approach. Nagy shares his perspective on U.S. competition with China and Russia, trade policies, including the extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, commonly known as AGOA, which provides eligible sub-Saharan African countries with duty-free access to U.S. markets and the ongoing crises in the Sahel and other regions on the continent.

This interview, which aired on VOA’s Africa 54 TV program on November 27, from VOA headquarters in Washington, D.C., has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Paul Ndiho: As the former top diplomat for African affairs, what should we expect when it comes to President-elect Donald Trump’s second term for Africa?

Tibor Nagy: I’m very optimistic. I don’t think people should worry about the slogan “America First” because that doesn’t mean “America only.” There are many areas where interests between the U.S. and Africa intersect. China, we very much see as a long-term existential threat, and so I think we’ll be a little bit more honest in saying that part of our Africa relations is about China. Then there’s the very important issue of critical minerals. Why should China monopolize all the critical minerals in Africa when it would do much better if Western, i.e., American companies were also involved? So, I think Africans should be optimistic — I think they’ll have a lot more deals and a lot fewer lectures.

VOA: Many argue that China and Russia have an edge over the U.S. in Africa. What can the incoming Trump administration do better to compete with those two countries?

Nagy: I think you would agree that what Africans want more than anything else, especially young Africans, and everyone knows that there are millions and millions and millions of young Africans, are jobs. Frankly, yes, China has done an awful lot of infrastructure projects, but how many jobs did the African young people get out of that? I think the truth is that American and Western types of investments, do lead to the kind of jobs that young Africans are looking for. And I think that will be a successful foreign policy. And I think that that will be the true kind of win-win for both sides.

VOA: President-elect Trump is proposing a 10% tariff on all goods coming into the United States, obviously with AGOA, Africans are supposed to bring goods to the United States free of tariffs. What should we expect?

Nagy: What we should expect is to see what happens, aside from during campaigns, a lot of things are said, and then what the actual policy is might be a little bit different. I mean, AGOA is a law passed by Congress and I’m sure that the United States of America will comply with that law. And as you also well know that law will be going out soon and everybody’s kind of looking forward and wondering what kind of a new AGOA there will be.

VOA: How about the issue of the Sahel? There is a crisis in the Sahel. There are wars in Sudan, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. How can the incoming Trump administration do better on this front?

Nagy: The “three Cs” — crises, conflicts, and coups — have been really horrible. Again, here, U.S. engagement needs to be different. Lecturing, for example, the military government in Niger, I think had a lot to do with us being kicked out of some very valuable air bases that where we had agreements with and the whole issue of coups, I think it’s important for the United States to look at coups individually. When a coup happens and we say it’s a coup, then we have to cut certain ties and engagements. What we do is we call some coups, coups, and other coups, not coups, as it happened, for example, in Gabon, we didn’t call it a coup. We just need to be a little bit more honest and say we really need to be much more flexible in how we engage with those governments because often the military government really needs engagement more to kind of help them see the way forward, especially those that are very popular with the people when they happen.

VOA: What would you do differently if you got your old job back?

Nagy: I’m not looking to get my old job back because being Assistant Secretary once — is enough. I would look differently to be a little bit less hypocritical, to drop the megaphone, to engage with African governments where they are, not where we want them to be, and to see the world as it is and especially put so much more energy into Sudan, Ethiopia, Sahel, those kinds of conflicts.

This Q&A originated in VOA’s English to Africa Service.
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Three U.S. citizens imprisoned by China were on their way home late Wednesday, U.S. officials said, culminating years of U.S. diplomatic efforts to free Americans Washington says were wrongfully detained by Beijing.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he spoke to Kai Li, Mark Swidan and John Leung “as they traveled home to the United States just in time for Thanksgiving.”

“I told them how glad I was that they were in good health and that they’ll soon be reunited with their loved ones,” Blinken posted on X, formerly Twitter.

The White House announced the release of the Americans on Wednesday.

“We are pleased to announce the release of Mark Swidan, Kai Li, and John Leung from detention in the People’s Republic of China,” a National Security Council spokesperson said in a statement.

The development is a diplomatic win for President Joe Biden, who will be leaving office in January. With the men’s release, “all of the wrongfully detained Americans” in China have been returned, the spokesperson added.

Biden and his aides have raised the issue of the three Americans with Beijing repeatedly, according to U.S. officials. In his last in-person meeting on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru earlier this month, Biden also spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping to press for their return.

China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Thursday three Chinese nationals “wrongfully imprisoned” by the United States had been returned to China.

Mark Swidan had been held since 2012 and received the death sentence in 2019. He maintained his innocence.

John Leung was sentenced last year to life in prison. A U.S. citizen who also holds permanent residency in Hong Kong, he was detained on April 15, 2021, by the local bureau of China’s counterintelligence agency in the southeastern city of Suzhou, according to The Associated Press.

Kai Li, a naturalized U.S. citizen who owned an export business and worked in New York, was arrested after flying into Shanghai in September 2016. He was placed under surveillance, interrogated without a lawyer and accused of providing state secrets to the FBI. In 2018, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for espionage, a charge that he has denied.

The release comes just two months after China freed a Christian pastor from California, David Lin, who had been held since 2006. He was convicted of contract fraud.

Revised travel warning

On Wednesday, the State Department lowered its travel warning for China to “reflect a shift to Level 2,” according to the department’s website.

The current advisory warns travelers, “Exercise increased caution when traveling to Mainland China due to arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including in relation to exit bans.”

The alert had previously been at Level 3, telling Americans they should “reconsider travel” to China in part because of the “risk of wrongful detention” of Americans.

VOA Senior White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report. Information from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Press was also used in this report. 
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NEW YORK — Donald Trump has sought to have a civil judgment against him for fraud and a $464 million penalty set aside “for the greater good of the country” as he prepares to return to power. 

Trump’s lawyers filed a letter Tuesday with New York attorney general Letitia James, who brought the proceeding against the president-elect for manipulating his assets when applying for loans and insurances. 

Judge Arthur Engoron ruled against Trump in February, going on to order the mogul-turned-politician pay $464 million, including interest, while his sons Eric and Don Jr. were told to hand over more than $4 million each. 

Trump subsequently sought to challenge the civil ruling as well as the scale and terms of the penalty, which has continued to accrue interest while he appeals. 

“We write to request that you completely dismiss the above-referenced case against President Donald J. Trump, his family, and his businesses, and stipulate to vacate the Judgment and dismiss all claims with prejudice,” said the letter from attorney John Sauer, Trump’s nominee for solicitor general. 

“In the aftermath of his historic election victory, President Trump has called for our Nation’s partisan strife to end, and for the contending factions to join forces for the greater good of the country.  

“This call for unity extends to the legal onslaught against him.” 

In the letter, reported by U.S. media, Sauer pointed to recent moves to end or suspend proceedings in several of the criminal cases that Trump had faced. 

“This case warrants the same treatment. As detailed in our appellate briefing, this action exceeds the New York Attorney General’s authority under Executive Law … the dismissal of the case would restore (her) power to its more legitimate scope,” the letter said. 

Sauer suggested that if James does not dismiss the case outright, he might seek to argue that the case is unconstitutional, as it interferes with Trump’s role as president.  

Sauer did not respond to an AFP request for comment. 
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