As the International Rescue Committee copes with dramatic increases in displaced people in recent years, the refugee aid organization has looked for efficiencies wherever it can — including using artificial intelligence. Since 2015, the IRC has invested in Signpost — a portfolio of mobile apps and social media channels that answer questions in different languages for people in dangerous situations. The Signpost project, which includes many other organizations, has reached 18 million people so far, but IRC wants to significantly increase its reach by using AI tools. Conflict, climate emergencies and economic hardship have driven up demand for humanitarian assistance, with more than 117 million people forcibly displaced in 2024, according to the United Nations refugee agency. As humanitarian organizations encounter more people in need, they are also facing enormous funding shortfalls. The turn to artificial intelligence technologies is in part driven by this massive gap between needs and resources. To meet its goal of reaching half of displaced people within three years, the IRC is building a network of AI chatbots that can increase the capacity of their humanitarian officers and the local organizations that directly serve people through Signpost. For now, the project operates in El Salvador, Kenya, Greece and Italy and responds in 11 languages. It draws on a combination of large language models from some of the biggest technology companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. The chatbot response system also uses customer service software from Zendesk and receives other support from Google and Cisco Systems. Beyond developing these tools, the IRC wants to extend this infrastructure to other nonprofit humanitarian organizations at no cost. They hope to create shared technology resources that less technically focused organizations could use without having to negotiate directly with tech companies or manage the risks of deployment. “We’re trying to really be clear about where the legitimate concerns are but lean into the optimism of the opportunities and not also allow the populations we serve to be left behind in solutions that have the potential to scale in a way that human to human or other technology can’t,” said Jeannie Annan, International Rescue Committee’s Chief Research and Innovation Officer. The responses and information that Signpost chatbots deliver are vetted by local organizations to be up to date and sensitive to the precarious circumstances people could be in. An example query that IRC shared is of a woman from El Salvador traveling through Mexico to the United States with her son who is looking for shelter and for services for her child. The bot provides a list of providers in the area where she is. More complex or sensitive queries are escalated for humans to respond. The most important potential downside of these tools would be that they don’t work. For example, what if the situation on the ground changes and the chatbot doesn’t know? It could provide information that’s not just wrong, but dangerous. A second issue is that these tools can amass a valuable honeypot of data about vulnerable people that hostile actors could target. What if a hacker succeeds in accessing data with personal information or if that data is accidentally shared with an oppressive government? IRC said it’s agreed with the tech providers that none of their AI models will be trained on the data that the IRC, […]
The IDF launched airstrikes today targeting key infrastructure and command centers of the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization in Syria, resulting in substantial damage to its facilities and operatives. Islamic Jihad, alongside Hamas and under the direction of leaders outside Gaza, played a role in the October 7th attack on Israel. The group also supports Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, with ongoing operations aimed at Israel, and acts as an Iranian proxy under direct guidance from Iran. Furthermore, Islamic Jihad operates within Syria, shielded by the Syrian regime.
In the past week, the Israeli Air Force has neutralized more than 140 Hezbollah rocket launchers in southern Lebanon, which posed a direct threat to Israeli civilians and IDF troops in the region. Among those targeted were launchers responsible for recent attacks on the Western Galilee and central Israel. The strikes also eliminated key Hezbollah leaders, including a battalion operations commander, an anti-tank missile commander, and a company commander within Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Forces. Additionally, IDF operations over the week have led to the elimination of over 200 Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon. The ongoing actions aim to weaken Hezbollah’s capacity to launch attacks on Israel’s northern border, with the IDF reaffirming its commitment to neutralizing threats to Israeli security.
Republicans have won enough seats to control the U.S. House, completing the party’s sweep into power and securing their hold on U.S. government alongside President-elect Donald Trump. A House Republican victory in Arizona, alongside a win in slow-counting California earlier Wednesday, gave the GOP the 218 House victories that make up the majority. Republicans earlier gained control of the Senate from Democrats. With hard-fought yet thin majorities, Republican leaders are envisioning a mandate to upend the federal government and swiftly implement Trump’s vision for the country. The incoming president has promised to carry out the country’s largest-ever deportation operation, extend tax breaks, punish his political enemies, seize control of the federal government’s most powerful tools and reshape the U.S. economy. The GOP election victories ensure that Congress will be onboard for that agenda, and Democrats will be almost powerless to check it. When Trump was elected president in 2016, Republicans also swept Congress, but he still encountered Republican leaders resistant to his policy ideas, as well as a Supreme Court with a liberal majority. Not this time. When he returns to the White House, Trump will be working with a Republican Party that has been completely transformed by his “Make America Great Again” movement and a Supreme Court dominated by conservative justices, including three that he appointed. Trump rallied House Republicans at a Capitol Hill hotel Wednesday morning, marking his first return to Washington since the election. “I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say, ‘He’s good, we got to figure something else,’” Trump said to the room full of lawmakers who laughed in response. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who with Trump’s endorsement won the Republican Conference’s nomination to stay on as speaker next year, has talked of taking a “blowtorch” to the federal government and its programs, eyeing ways to overhaul even popular programs championed by Democrats in recent years. The Louisiana Republican, an ardent conservative, has pulled the House Republican Conference closer to Trump during the campaign season as they prepare an “ambitious” 100-day agenda. “Republicans in the House and Senate have a mandate,” Johnson said earlier this week. “The American people want us to implement and deliver that ‘America First’ agenda.” Trump’s allies in the House are already signaling they will seek retribution for the legal troubles Trump faced while out of office. The incoming president on Wednesday said he would nominate Rep. Matt Gaetz, a fierce loyalist, for attorney general. Meanwhile, Rep. Jim Jordan, the chair of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, has said GOP lawmakers are “not taking anything off the table” in their plans to investigate special counsel Jack Smith, even as Smith is winding down two federal investigations into Trump for plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Still, with a few races still uncalled the Republicans may hold the majority by just a few seats as the new Congress begins. Trump’s decision to pull from the House for posts in his administration — Reps. Gaetz, Mike Waltz and Elise Stefanik so far — could complicate Johnson’s ability to maintain a majority in the early days of the new Congress. Gaetz submitted his resignation Wednesday, effective immediately. Johnson said he hoped the seat could be filled by the time the […]
After ripping higher for much of this year, the price of gold has suddenly become not so golden since Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election. Gold fell more than 4% in the four days since Election Day, when the broad U.S. stock market climbed nearly 4%. That’s even though investors are expecting a Trump White House to drive tax rates lower and tariffs higher. Such a combination could push the U.S. government’s debt and inflation higher, which are both things that can help gold’s price. That’s left gold at $2,618 per ounce, as of late Monday, down from a record of roughly $2,800 set late last month. It also means gold has lost some luster as the best performing investments of the year. The largest exchange-traded fund that tracks the price of gold has seen its gain for 2024 drop back below 27% from nearly 35% a couple weeks earlier. What’s going on? Part of the decline has coincided with the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against other major currencies. Tariffs and trade wars instigated by the United States could push down the value of the euro and other countries’ currencies, and a strong U.S. dollar makes it more expensive for buyers using those other currencies to purchase gold. Trump’s preference for lower taxes and higher tariffs is also forcing Wall Street to ratchet back expectations for how many cuts to interest rates the Federal Reserve will deliver next year. Fewer rate cuts would mean Treasury bonds pay more in interest than previously expected, and that in turn could hurt gold’s price. Gold, which pays its owners zero dividends or income, can look less attractive when bonds are paying more. Gold, of course, still has its reputation for offering a safer place for investors when things are shaky around the world. Whether it’s been because of wars or political strife, investors often flock to gold when they’re not feeling confident about other investments. And with wars still raging in the Middle East, Ukraine and elsewhere, while political tensions still seem as high as ever, gold will likely stay in many investors’ portfolios. “Gold continues to be the safe haven asset class of choice for both investors and central banks,” according to money managers at Robeco, which handles investments for big institutional investors. (AP)
Zebulon Simantov, known as Afghanistan’s last remaining Jew, arrived in Israel last week after spending three years in Istanbul following his dramatic rescue from Kabul in September 2021. Simantov’s relocation to Israel was prompted by health concerns, according to U.K.’s Jewish News. He will now settle in Ashdod, where he joins his ex-wife, daughters, and five siblings. Simantov, who had lived for decades in Kabul maintaining the city’s defunct shul, was evacuated in a complex rescue mission led by Israeli-American businessman Moti Kahana. Simantov. Rabbi Mendy Chitrik, the Chabad rabbi in Istanbul and chairman of the Alliance of Rabbis of Islamic States, played a key role in coordinating support for Simantov. Despite extensive negotiations, Simantov’s evacuation was complicated by his demands for financial compensation to leave, reportedly seeking as much as $150,000 before finally agreeing to depart. Simantov’s departure became urgent after the Taliban regained control of Kabul in August 2021, and his neighbors, part of the persecuted Hazara minority, pleaded for his help in escaping. Though he initially planned to evacuate 18 people, Simantov sought to include over 100 individuals. After further negotiation, Kahana’s team managed to transport 31 people, including Simantov. As part of the rescue arrangement, Simantov was required to grant a get to his estranged wife in Israel, whom he had not seen in over 20 years. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
IDF Commando Brigade units, including Egoz, Maglan, and Duvdevan soldiers, are carrying out precise ground operations on new enemy targets in southern Lebanon, supported by detailed intelligence. These limited raids are taking place in dense, mountainous terrain, where Hezbollah has set up “combat compounds,” some within civilian villages used to launch rocket attacks on Israel. During one of the operations, troops discovered a 32-barrel rocket launcher aimed at Israel, as well as a range of additional weapons and combat equipment. All of these items were confiscated and destroyed, while IDF forces continue to eliminate threats from both the ground and the air.
A conversation about recent real estate scams in our community left me deeply disturbed—not only because of the pain and financial loss inflicted on the victims but because of the disturbing response from those around me. Instead of a united call for accountability, I witnessed people urging others to stay quiet, to “protect the family” of the perpetrator, to keep things hush-hush and “not publicize the details.” I’m sorry, but there is no justification for this kind of protection. In fact, there is a strong precedent for the opposite response, and it is time we follow it. When we whitewash these actions, offering sympathy and protection to those who harm others, we’re sending a clear message: commit any wrong you want, hurt as many as you want, and we’ll look the other way. This approach fails us all. Rav Shimon Schwab zt”l famously warned against the chillul Hashem that arises when a member of our community acts dishonestly. He spoke about a Jewish businessman who went to trial for embezzlement and publicly rebuked those who asked him to intervene. Rav Schwab saw the man’s public actions as a disgrace to the Jewish people, a “virtual rodef”—a pursuer who threatens the integrity and safety of the entire community. His message was clear: no whitewashing, no condoning, and no protecting the desecrators of Hashem’s name. Rav Schwab even went so far as to demand that this man remove his yarmulke and shave his beard when appearing in court to avoid further shame to the Jewish people. He urged that we treat those who act with such disregard for honesty and ethics as having “unwittingly defected from our ranks.” Yet today, when faced with similarly shameful actions in our midst, some in our community still rush to shelter the perpetrators and preserve their public image. Why? We must ask ourselves a hard question: Why do we allow individuals who tarnish the reputation of our community to slip back in, protected from shame and consequence? Why do we insist on preserving the image of someone who scammed, stole, or cheated, all in the name of “protecting” their family, while overlooking the innocent families whose lives were turned upside down? Our communities have seen far too many of these scandals in recent years. And why wouldn’t they? When there’s little consequence for dishonest actions—when we let perpetrators blend back in without repercussions or shame—they become emboldened. They know they can offer a hollow apology, make some empty promises, and continue on as if nothing happened. And so the cycle repeats, leaving victims traumatized and the community’s integrity eroded. It’s time to say “enough.” Instead of protecting the guilty, we should be standing with the victims, making it clear that deceit, theft, and fraud have no place among us. Public shaming may seem harsh, but it is a necessary step. If a scammer and their family faces the prospect of genuine public disgrace, perhaps they will think twice before causing such harm. If we take an uncompromising stance, if we refuse to protect those who desecrate our values, we may finally create a culture that holds each person accountable. We have always prided ourselves on values of honesty, kindness, and justice. If we allow these values to be tarnished by those who act with impunity, we […]
A report from Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Ministry alleges that Dutch organizations with ties to Hamas were primary instigators in last week’s violent disturbances in Amsterdam. The report, released Wednesday, details how local groups allegedly leveraged social media to incite attacks on Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer fans following the team’s match against a Dutch club. According to the report, these organizations posted explicit calls for violence and coordinated real-time sharing of location and tactical information. Screenshots included in the document reveal calls for aggression aimed at Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, underscoring the role of social media in escalating tensions. The Diaspora Affairs Ministry identified the Palestinian Community in the Netherlands (PGNL) as a key organization behind the unrest, claiming the group maintains direct links to Hamas. Specific individuals within PGNL are reportedly named as intermediaries facilitating this connection. Additionally, the report notes involvement from entities linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), another group with significant European support. The report has sparked a political response within the Netherlands. Geert Wilders, 5he pro-Israel leader of the Dutch Parliament’s largest party, publicly demanded the resignation of Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema, sharply criticizing her approach to the violence. “Her incompetence is unprecedented,” Wilders said, calling for accountability over the city’s response to the disturbances. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) has denied a report alleging that Israeli intelligence provided alerts of suspicious Hamas activity hours before the October 7 attack, which caught the country off guard. According to a report in Yediot Achronot, at around 2 a.m. on October 7, the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate reportedly informed the IDF Chief of Staff and an intelligence officer in the Prime Minister’s Office about Hamas operatives activating Israeli phone SIM cards—a potential indicator of an impending attack. The report noted that this tactic had been observed during a Hamas exercise the previous year. The report further claims that by 3 a.m., intelligence officers had notified the NSC’s situation room of multiple concerning signs from Gaza, including what was described as a “meaningful indication.” By 3:55 a.m., the NSC was reportedly informed that Hamas appeared to be shifting to an emergency mode, heightening suspicions of a forthcoming assault. At 4:00 a.m., IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi reportedly conducted a situational assessment on developments in Gaza, with findings relayed to the Prime Minister’s Office. In a statement, however, the NSC categorically denied these claims. “Contrary to Ronen Bergman’s false publication in Yedioth Ahronoth,” the statement read, “no warning was given to the NSC in the early morning of October 7.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Wholesale prices in the United States rose last month, remaining low but suggesting that the American economy has yet to completely vanquish inflationary pressure. Thursday’s report from the Labor Department showed that its producer price index — which tracks inflation before it hits consumers — rose 0.2% from September to October, up from a 0.1% gain the month before. Compared with a year earlier, wholesale prices were up 2.4%, accelerating from a year-over-year gain 1.9% in September. An increase in services prices drove the October increase. Excluding food and energy prices, which tend to bounce around from month to month, so-called core wholesale prices rose 0.3 from September and 3.1% from a year earlier. The readings were about what economists had expected. Since peaking in mid-2022, inflation has fallen more or less steadily. But average prices are still nearly 20% higher than they were three years ago — a persistent source of public exasperation that led to Donald Trump’s defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris in last week’s presidential election and the return of Senate control to Republicans. The October report on producer prices comes a day after the Labor Department reported that consumer prices rose 2.6% last month from a year earlier, a sign that inflation at the consumer level might be leveling off after having slowed in September to its slowest pace since 2021. Most economists, though, say they think inflation will eventually resume its slowdown. Inflation has been moving toward the Federal Reserve’s 2% year-over-year target, and the central bank’s inflation fighters have been satisfied enough with the improvement to cut their benchmark interest rate twice since September — a reversal in policy after they raised rates 11 times in 2022 and 2023. The producer price index released Thursday can offer an early look at where consumer inflation might be headed. Economists also watch it because some of its components, notably healthcare and financial services, flow into the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge — the personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, index. Trump’s election victory has raised doubts about the future path of inflation and whether the Fed will continue to cut rates. In September, the Fed all but declared victory over inflation and slashed its benchmark interest rate by an unusually steep half-percentage point, its first rate cut since March 2020, when the pandemic was hammering the economy. Last week, the central bank announced a second rate cut, a more typical quarter-point reduction. Though Trump has vowed to force prices down, in part by encouraging oil and gas drilling, some of his other campaign vows — to impose massive taxes on imports and to deport millions of immigrants working illegally in the United States — are seen as inflationary by mainstream economists. Still, Wall Street traders see an 82% likelihood of a third rate cut when the Fed next meets in December, according to the CME FedWatch tool. Inflation began surging in 2021 as the economy accelerated with surprising speed out of the pandemic recession, causing severe shortages of goods and labor. The Fed raised its benchmark interest rate 11 times in 2022 and 2023 to a 23-year high. The resulting much higher borrowing costs were expected to tip the United States into recession. It didn’t happen. The economy kept growing, and employers kept hiring. And, for the […]
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer told President-elect Donald Trump and Jared Kushner this week that Israel is “rushing” to advance a ceasefire deal in Lebanon, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing three current and former Israeli officials briefed on the meeting. According to the report, the aim is to “deliver an early foreign policy win to Trump.” As YWN reported on Tuesday, Dermer, one of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s closest confidants, met with Trump and Kushner on Sunday to clarify the president-elect’s stance on Middle East issues before flying to Washington to meet with Biden administration officials. “There is an understanding that Israel would gift something to Trump … that in January there will be an understanding about Lebanon,” an Israeli official said. Although Trump has said he wants to end the wars in the Middle East, he also told Netanyahu in a phone call last month to “do what you have to do” against Hezbollah and Hamas, the report said. One of the Israeli officials told the Post that Netanyahu has long been planning for “a new era in Washington” – well before Election Day – with Netanyahu maintaining regular contact with Trump and Dermer with Kushner. Negotiations to reach a ceasefire deal with Lebanon, with the help of Russia, are ongoing but no plan has yet been presented to Hezbollah. One of Israel’s main conditions for a ceasefire is an allowance for military action in Lebanon in the case of violations of the deal. Hezbollah, on the other hand, asserts that it will not accept any plan allowing Israel to operate on Lebanese soil. Kan‘s Arab Affairs Correspondent Roi Kais on Thursday posted a photo of the front page of the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, translating the title into Hebrew: “We have nothing to do with negotiations between Israel and the US. There are no security guarantees for the enemy. The resistance is bombarding the heart of Tel Aviv.” Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who is a Hezbollah ally and involved in the negotiations, said on Tuesday: “Is there any sane person who believes that we will agree to a settlement or a solution that serves Israel’s interests at the expense of Lebanon’s interests and sovereignty?” Another source close to Hezbollah said the group’s “condition for progress remains clear: Israel must be prohibited from conducting operations within Lebanese territory.” In Israel, newly appointed Defense Minister Yisrael Katz on Tuesday denied reports of a ceasefire with Lebanon. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to their lowest level in six months last week as layoffs remain at relatively healthy levels. The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claim applications fell by 4,000 to 217,000 for the week of Nov. 9. That’s less than the 225,000 analysts forecast. The four-week average of weekly claims, which evens out some of the weekly ups and downs, fell by 6,250 to 221,000. Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered representative of U.S. layoffs in a given week. In response to weakening employment data and receding consumer prices, the Federal Reserve slashed its benchmark interest rate in September by a half a percentage point and by another quarter-point last week. The central bank is shifting its focus from taming inflation toward supporting the job market in an attempt to pull off a rare “soft landing,” whereby it brings down inflation without igniting a recession. The half-point rate cut in September was the Fed’s first rate cut in four years after a series of increases starting in 2022 that pushed the federal funds rate to a two-decade high of 5.3%. Inflation has retreated steadily the past two years, approaching the Fed’s 2% target and leading Chair Jerome Powell to declare recently that it was largely under control. Two weeks ago, the government reported that an inflation gauge closely watched by the Fed fell to its lowest level in three-and-a-half years. During the first four months of 2024, applications for jobless benefits averaged just 213,000 a week before rising in May. They hit 250,000 in late July, supporting the notion that high interest rates were finally cooling a red-hot U.S. job market. In October, the U.S. economy produced a meager 12,000 jobs, though economists pointed to recent strikes and hurricanes that left many workers temporarily off payrolls. In August, the Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy added 818,000 fewer jobs from April 2023 through March this year than were originally reported. The revised total was also considered evidence that the job market has been slowing steadily, compelling the Fed to start cutting interest rates. 2021. Continuing claims, the total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits, fell to 1.87 million for the week of Nov. 2, in line with analysts’ expectations. (AP)
High-level Israeli sources told Yisrael Hayom that the Trump team is working on a strategic plan targeting the Iranian regime, indicating a dramatic shift in policy toward the Islamic Republic, the Israeli media outlet reported on Thursday. The sources emphasized that the plan, which will involve close strategic cooperation with Israel, would specifically challenge Iran’s leadership structure. The report added that Trump’s approach toward Iran “may have influenced Tehran’s “recalculation” regarding its vow to retaliate against Israel for its October 26 attack on its soil, which decimated most of its air defenses. As YWN reported on Wednesday, multiple Iranian sources told Sky News Arabia that the Islamic Republic has postponed Operation True Promise 3, its plan to attack Israel directly for the third time, until it “negotiates” with Trump. The sources noted that “dismantling the current Iran leadership structure” would effectively end funding to Iranian-backed groups targeting Israel and Jews, paralyzing their operational abilities. The report emphasized that Trump’s pick for national security adviser, Rep. Mike Waltz, supports a “more assertive approach” toward Iran, quoting his statement to the Jewish Insider in September regarding the war in Gaza: “The United States needs to pressure Hamas and its allies in Iran. Unilateral pressure on Israel will not lead to a ceasefire.” Yisrael Hayom also quoted Trump’s pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who stated to US media outlets regarding the Iranian threat to Israel: “This is an existential threat to them, let them do what they need to do.” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
The U.S. Senate election in Pennsylvania between Democratic incumbent Sen. Bob Casey and Republican David McCormick is headed for a statewide recount, as counties continued Wednesday to sort through outstanding ballots and the campaigns jousted over which ones should count. The Associated Press called the race for McCormick last week, concluding that not enough ballots remained to be counted in areas Casey was winning for him to take the lead. A noon deadline passed Wednesday for Casey to waive his right to a statewide recount and Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s top election official, Secretary of State Al Schmidt, a Republican, announced that preliminary results had triggered a legally required statewide recount. As of Wednesday, McCormick led by about 28,000 votes out of more than 6.9 million ballots counted — inside the 0.5% margin threshold to trigger an automatic statewide recount under Pennsylvania law. Counties must begin the recount no later than Nov. 20 and must finish by noon on Nov. 26. It largely involves running paper ballots through high-speed scanners, a process that former election officials say might not change the outcome by more than a few hundred votes. ”It is an infinitesimal number, compared to the overall vote totals,” said Jeff Greenberg, a former Mercer County elections director. Meanwhile, McCormick was in Washington this week, attending Senate orientation and caucus meetings to pick a new leader after Republicans won control of the U.S. Senate in last week’s election that saw Donald Trump win the White House. Casey hasn’t conceded and, while Republicans pressure him on social media, his campaign manager said in a statement Wednesday that “McCormick and his allies are trying to disenfranchise Pennsylvania voters.” Adam Bonin, a lawyer representing the Casey campaign in Philadelphia, said Republicans were aggressively and systematically challenging the provisional ballots of registered Democrats, delaying the vote counting process. “What we are seeing this year is more organized, more disciplined, more directed and more comprehensive than what we saw in 2020,” Bonin said. McCormick’s campaign consultant, Mark Harris, said large Democratic-controlled counties were dragging out the process by not adding the results of processed ballots to vote totals. The McCormick campaign was challenging provisional ballots that it is allowed to challenge under the law, Harris said. “This is clearly an effort to use lawfare to chip away at our lead,” Harris said. “This is not going to work. Dave McCormick is the senator-elect and will be the senator.” Counties, meanwhile, were busy Wednesday processing tens of thousands of provisional ballots and hearing challenges to some of them by lawyers for Casey, McCormick and the state parties. A provisional ballot is typically cast at a polling place on Election Day and is separated from regular ballots in cases when elections workers need more time to determine a voter’s eligibility to vote. Litigation is possible. For instance, Bucks County’s Democratic-majority election board voted to count more than 400 mail-in ballots that lack a correct handwritten date on the outer envelope — something that Republicans are challenging and have opposed repeatedly in court. Bucks County’s decision is in line with various decisions in state and federal courts that have deemed it unconstitutional or illegal to throw out such ballots. But higher courts — including the state Supreme Court most recently on Nov. 1 — have blocked those […]
In picking billionaire Elon Musk to be “our cost cutter” for the U.S. government, President-elect Donald Trump won’t be the first American president to empower a business tycoon to look for ways to dramatically cut federal regulations. President Ronald Reagan tapped J. Peter Grace to lead a bureaucratic cost-cutting commission in 1982. Still, the chemical business magnate had fewer conflicts of interest than the world’s richest man does today. Musk’s SpaceX holds billions of dollars in NASA contracts. He’s CEO of Tesla, an electric car business that benefits from government tax incentives and is subject to auto safety rules. His social media platform X, artificial intelligence startup xAI, brain implant maker Neuralink and tunnel-building Boring company all intersect with the federal government in various ways. “There’s direct conflicts between his businesses and government’s interest,” said Ann Skeet, director of leadership ethics at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center. “He’s now in a position to try and curry favor for those enterprises.” Musk is also more influential, having pumped an estimated $200 million through his political action committee to help elect Trump, made himself a fixture at Mar-a-Lago since the presidential election and is on regular speaking terms with like-minded political world leaders, from Argentina’s President Javier Milei to Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Trump has said Musk and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, — a joke name that references the cryptocurrency Dogecoin and appeals to Musk’s sense of humor. “We finally have a mandate to delete the mountain of choking regulations that do not serve the greater good,” Musk said Wednesday on X. Trump has said that Musk and Ramaswamy will work from outside the government to offer the White House “advice and guidance” and will partner with the Office of Management and Budget to drive structural reform — some of which could only be done through Congress. “If it’s a commission, it’s outside the government” and Musk could not have a White House office or official government title, said Richard Painter, a White House ethics lawyer during the George W. Bush administration. “Then, the president takes the advice or doesn’t.” If it were a true government agency, however, Musk would run afoul of federal conflict of interest laws unless he divested from his businesses or recused from government matters involving them, Painter said. Trump could grant a rare waiver exempting Musk from those laws, a move that has been politically unpopular in the past, Painter said. Tesla, SpaceX and X didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday about whether Musk would recuse himself. The Trump transition team also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. However it is structured, Musk’s ideas are expected to have an influence. Regulating auto safety Tesla, the electric vehicle company that made Musk the world’s wealthiest person, has had repeated skirmishes with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which regulates vehicle safety. So any cuts to NHTSA funding or staffing could help Tesla. The agency has forced Tesla to do recalls it didn’t want, and it has opened investigations of Tesla vehicles, some of which raised questions about Musk’s claims that Tesla is close to deploying autonomous vehicles without human drivers. The agency also is working on regulations that cover vehicle automation. Auto safety advocates are worried that a Department […]
More than two decades after spotting a mysterious, gelatinous, bioluminescent creature swimming in the deep sea, California researchers this week announced that it is a new species of sea slug. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute posted video online of the new sea slug floating gently in the depths. Using a remote vehicle, scientists with the institute first noticed what they called a “mystery mollusc” in February 2000 at a depth of 8,576 feet (2,614 meters) in the Pacific. “With a voluminous hooded structure at one end, a flat tail fringed with numerous finger-like projections at the other, and colorful internal organs in between, the team initially struggled to place this animal in a group,” the institute said in a statement Tuesday. After reviewing more than 150 sightings of the creature and studying it in a lab, researchers determined it was a new type of nudibranch, or sea slug. It lives in the so-called midnight zone, an area of deep ocean known for “frigid temperatures, inky darkness, and crushing pressure,” the statement said. The findings were published in the journal Deep-Sea Research Part I. (AP)
Some evidence that a federal judge had excluded from the bribery trial of former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez was inadvertently put on a computer given to jurors, federal prosecutors revealed Wednesday, though they insisted it should have no effect on the Democrat’s conviction. The prosecutors told Judge Sidney H. Stein in a letter that they recently discovered the error which caused a laptop computer to contain versions of several trial exhibits that did not contain the full redactions Stein had ordered. Menendez, 70, resigned from the Senate in August after his July conviction on 16 charges, including bribery, extortion, honest services fraud, obstruction of justice and conspiracy. He was forced to give up his post as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after he was charged in the case in fall 2023. He awaits a sentencing scheduled for Jan. 29 after a trial that featured allegations that he accepted bribes of gold and cash from three New Jersey businessmen and acting as an agent for the Egyptian government. Two businessmen were convicted with him while a third testified against him in a cooperation deal. His lawyers did not immediately return messages seeking comment. In their letter, prosecutors said incorrect versions of nine government exhibits were missing some redactions ordered by Stein to ensure that the exhibits did not violate the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause, which protects speech relating to information shared by legislators. Prosecutors told Stein Wednesday that no action was necessary in light of the error for several reasons, including that defense lawyers did not object after they inspected documents on that laptop before it was given to jurors. They also said there was a “reasonable likelihood” that no jurors saw the erroneously redacted versions of the exhibits and that the documents could not have prejudiced the defendants even if they were seen by jurors, in part because they were of “secondary relevance and cumulative with abundant properly admitted evidence.” Menendez has indicated he plans to appeal his conviction. He also has filed papers with Stein seeking an acquittal or new trial. Part of the grounds for acquittal he cited was that prosecutors violated his right as a lawmaker to speech and debate. “The government walked all over the Senator’s constitutionally protected Speech or Debate privilege in an effort to show that he took some official action, when in reality, the evidence showed that he never used the authority of his office to do anything in exchange for a bribe,” his lawyers wrote. “Despite a 10-week trial, the government offered no actual evidence of an agreement, just speculation masked as inference,” they said. Menendez was appointed to be a U.S. senator in 2006 when the seat opened up after incumbent Jon Corzine became governor. He was elected outright in 2006 and again in 2012 and 2018. (AP)
New Jersey’s governor declared a drought warning Wednesday, and authorities revealed they’ve charged a youth with starting one of many wildfires that has plagued the state in recent weeks. The actions came as conditions are the driest they’ve been in nearly 120 years as numerous wildfires continue to burn in places that haven’t seen significant rain since August. The declaration by Gov. Phil Murphy asked people to take voluntary conservation steps, like shorter showers, turning the faucet off while brushing teeth, and waiting until the dishwasher is full to run it. But it stopped short of mandatory water usage restrictions, which would be included in a drought emergency, the highest alert the government can impose. New Jersey is not yet at the point where communities are in danger of running out of water for drinking or fighting fires. And the state wants to prevent things from reaching that point. “Please take this seriously,” Murphy said. “We have a very dry winter ahead of us.” Late Wednesday, police in the Philadelphia suburb of Evesham Township said they had charged a juvenile with deliberately setting an Oct. 30 fire that burned less than a tenth of a square mile. The youth, whose age was not released, was arrested on Nov. 7 and taken to a juvenile detention center, charged with aggravated arson and causing or risking widespread injury or damage. That fire was separate from an additional blaze in Evesham that broke out the day he was arrested. That second fire burned over half a square mile over several days, and authorities are investigating whether the two blazes are related. Dry conditions from coast to coast were contributing to the spread of wildfires. California made good progress against a major wildfire in Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles, that broke out a week ago and quickly exploded in size because of dry Santa Ana winds. The Mountain fire was 60% contained on Wednesday. The 32-square-mile (83-square-kilometer) fire forced thousands of residents to flee and has destroyed more than 215 structures, most of them houses, and damaged at least 210. Things were more difficult on the East Coast, where efforts to bring a wildfire burning on the New Jersey-New York border basically stalled overnight. It had burned 2,283 acres (3.6 square miles) in New Jersey’s Passaic County and 2,100 acres (3.3 square miles) in New York’s Orange County. Greg McLaughlin, an administrator with the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, said steep mountainous terrain and high winds, coupled with few road access points, were making it difficult to fight the blaze from the ground. A water-dropping helicopter also was being used, but the usual array of bulldozers and plows was not effective on this particular fire. That blaze claimed the life of a New York state parks employee who was assisting firefighters over the weekend. Dry conditions in New Jersey and New York are a growing concern, not only for firefighting efforts but for the continued availability of drinking water. Two major reservoirs in New Jersey were at 51% and 45% of capacity on Wednesday, enough to keep the taps flowing, but low enough to cause concern for what might happen with additional weeks or months of low rainfall. One river that is a supplemental source of drinking water was at 14% of normal. […]
President Joe Biden raised the issue of American hostages held in Gaza during an Oval Office meeting with President-elect Donald Trump earlier today, according to U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. In a press briefing, Sullivan said that the Biden administration has sent a clear “signal” to the Trump transition team, expressing its willingness to collaborate on efforts to secure the release of the hostages. Sullivan noted that families of the American hostages, with whom he met yesterday, strongly advocated for such bipartisan cooperation. “My answer to them was an emphatic yes,” Sullivan said, stressing that the Biden administration is committed to using every day left in its term to bring the hostages home. When asked if Israel has remained responsive to U.S. requests after Trump’s election victory, Sullivan confirmed that productive discussions are ongoing. He highlighted a recent conversation with Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, where they discussed boosting humanitarian aid to alleviate the suffering of innocent civilians in Gaza. They also reviewed potential measures to establish ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon. Sullivan revealed that the U.S. has received additional commitments from Israel in recent days to increase aid flow into Gaza. He added that the administration will closely monitor the implementation of these commitments. Pressed on the most critical national security concern facing the U.S., Sullivan cited the threat from Iran and its proxies, ranking it alongside the U.S.’s strategic competition with China. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
