Donald Trump is planning to cast his vote on Election Day despite having previously said he would vote early. In a radio interview with Fox News host Brian Kilmeade that aired last week, Trump had said that he intended to early vote — something Kilmeade had suggested might serve as an example for his supporters. Trump and his campaign have been urging voters to cast their ballots early, even as the former president and GOP nominee continues to criticize the option and sow unfounded doubts about potential fraud. “I’ll be voting early. I’ll be voting early,” Trump told the host. But he won’t. Trump instead will be voting Tuesday morning near his estate in Palm Beach, Florida, according to a person familiar with his schedule who spoke on condition of anonymity before a formal announcement. Trump’s declaration that he would vote early had come after Kilmeade had asked — on two separate occasions — whether Trump might do so to “kind of set an example.” Trump has made clear his trepidations. “I’m very mixed on it,” Trump responded the first time. “I say the main thing I say is vote.” Kilmeade then re-asked the question as he ended the interview, telling Trump that he “could vote early and set an example if you wanted to in Florida. That would be an interesting decision.” “Well, you know, it’s interesting. I really feel — I’m very mixed,” Trump said once again, pointing to “the old standard of the Tuesday vote” as well as those who like to vote before Election Day. “You know, people have different feelings about it. But the main thing is you got to get out, you got to vote. And I’ll be voting early,” he said. In the final weeks of the race, Trump has been urging his supporters to bank their votes, with large signs at his rallies spelling out: “VOTE EARLY!” “I am telling everyone to vote early,” Trump said in a podcast interview with Dan Bongino, who has widely spread false information about early voting and the 2020 election. But Trump often sows doubts about the process in the very same breath. “We got to get out and vote. And you can start right away. You know that, right?” he told his supporters at a rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania in September. “Now, we have this stupid stuff where you can vote 45 days early. I wonder what the hell happens during that 45.” He went on to describe a hypothetical situation in which ballots could be tampered with, even though allegations of similar issues in 2020 were widely disproven. “‘See these votes? We’ve got about a million votes in there. Let’s move them. We’re fixing the air conditioner in the room, right?’ No, it’s terrible,” he said urging his supporters to deliver him a victory “too big to rig.” Still, Republicans appear to be heeding the early vote call. Republicans have been flocking to the polls for in-person voting ahead of Election Day, with early turnout breaking records in swing states such as Georgia and North Carolina. Trump is planning a flurry of events as the the election comes to a close, ramping up his schedule during the race’s final stretch. He’ll hold four rallies Monday that will include stops in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, […]
Rev. Mitchell Johnson has resigned from his position as president of the Chicago Board of Education following backlash over past social media posts with antisemitic and conspiratorial content. His resignation was requested by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (no relation), according to a report by the Chicago Sun-Times. Mayor Johnson – who had nothing worthwhile to say when a Jewish man was targeted in a shooting this past Shabbos – initially stood by the embattled board president, citing Johnson’s remorse and commitment to making amends. However, pressure escalated after Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and a large majority of Chicago’s council members publicly called for Johnson’s removal. The social media posts in question, reported by Jewish Insider, were made in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attack and during the subsequent conflict in Gaza. In one post, Johnson wrote, “People have an absolute right to attack their oppressors by any means necessary.” Another post read, “My Jewish colleagues appear drunk with the Israeli power and will live to see their payment.” Johnson had only been sworn in last week, with Mayor Johnson appointing him to lead the Chicago Board of Education. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
This election, he has warned, is about the economy. Freedom. Stopping Project 2025 and the MAGA extremes. And, after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, it’s about democracy. And yet, Hakeem Jeffries, in line to make history as the first Black speaker of the House, says he is choosing to stay calm, as Democrats work to wrest control of the chaotic U.S. House from Republicans. “In this unprecedented moment that we’re in, I’ve concluded that calm is an intentional decision,” Jeffries told The Associated Press during an interview at a park-side cafe in between campaign stops in Southern California. “We have to continue to make the decision to remain calm, execute the plan, run through the finish line,” he said. “And then put it into the hands of the American people.” Ever tight, the campaign for control of the House is a toss-up, playing out in unlikely corners of the country far from the presidential race, including in Jeffries’ home state of New York and in California. A single contested seat, among 435, could make the difference if Democrats can flip the majority and dislodge Republican Mike Johnson from the speaker’s office. Never before in the nation’s nearly 250-year history has a Black American been so close to grasping the gavel. Jeffries, 54, is part of a younger generation of leaders, alongside Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, proposing a new way forward, past the era of the former president, Republican Donald Trump. But Jeffries, a lawyer before coming to Congress, doesn’t want to talk about the milestone of becoming House speaker, and he won’t venture to predict that Democrats will sweep the House majority. He wants to talk about the choices before voters right now. “Everything we care about is on the line. Everything we care about is on the ballot. We can either move this country forward or turn back the clock,” he said on an early Sunday morning in the high desert community of Palmdale, the dusty far reaches of Los Angeles County. “We’re not going back!” chanted the hundreds of volunteers, ready to go knock on doors to get out the vote for Democrat George Whitesides in the race against Republican Rep. Mike Garcia. The Brooklyn-born Jeffries took over as House Democratic leader when Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi stepped aside, making him heir apparent to the speaker’s office. He is poised to win internal party balloting as leader again later this year, regardless of the election results. Yet if Democrats win majority control, he would stand for election as speaker by the whole House, when the new Congress convenes in January. One of the party’s most effective communicators, Jeffries’ free-form speeches on the House floor stand out among modern oratory, popping with cultural references of the times. He is sometimes compared to former President Barack Obama. Now, the congressman’s skills and savvy as he traverses the country and fundraises for the party are being put to the test. He is open and accessible to colleagues, methodical and even meditative, though sometimes slow to act, and keeps his counsel very close. He appears to have told almost no one what he said to President Joe Biden when the two spoke privately during a tumultuous July, before the president announced his decision to withdraw from the race […]
A national campaign is backing ballot measures in six states to end partisan primaries, seeking to turn down the temperature in a polarized country by removing a process that gives the most active members of both major parties an outsize role in picking the country’s leaders. The $70 million effort to replace traditional primaries with either nonpartisan ones or ranked choice voting is run by Unite America, a Denver organization dedicated to de-polarizing the country. “People are losing faith in democracy itself,” said Kent Thiry, the group’s co-chair and the former chief executive officer of the kidney dialysis firm DaVita Inc, during a Denver debate about the initiative on the Colorado ballot. Nick Troiano, Unite America’s executive director, said the goal is to end a system where 85% of congressional seats are effectively filled in partisan primaries because the districts are so overwhelmingly Democratic or Republican that whoever wins the relevant primary is virtually guaranteed victory in November. Troiano said the Republican congressmen who voted to overturn the 2020 election after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol almost all represented noncompetitive districts and have had to answer only to their party’s voters. Supporters are excited at the breadth of the campaign. “It’s eclipsed by the presidential election, but this is the most important year for this sort of structural reform that I can recall,” said Edward Foley, a law professor at Ohio State University. But some skeptics contend that changing the structure of primaries won’t make much of a difference in polarization given how so much of the country lives in either heavily Democratic or heavily Republican communities — and will naturally elect people who occupy those ideological extremes. “It seems like it’s adding political complexity, weakening political parties, and it’s not clear what problem they’re solving,” said Lee Drutman of the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C. The ballot measures include proposals to switch to ranked choice voting in reliably Democratic Colorado, evenly divided Nevada and two reliably Republican states where a sharp swing to the right among GOP primary voters have left traditional Republicans scrambling — Idaho and South Dakota. Swing-state Arizona and conservative Montana both have measures to shift from partisan primaries to nonpartisan ones. In deep blue Oregon, an initiative would allow parties to still run their own primaries but require them to use ranked choice voting in certain statewide and federal races. The ballot initiatives come as an unusual number of measures affecting voting are on state ballots in November. Eight states will consider conservative-led measures to ban voting by noncitizens, which is already illegal under federal law. Connecticut voters will decide whether to allow anyone in their state to vote by mail, and Ohio whether to have a nonpartisan commission draw their state’s legislative lines. The biggest change in U.S. elections could come from increased adoption of ranked voting. It requires every voter to rank candidates in order of preference. If one does not get a majority, the lowest-scoring candidate is eliminated and that politician’s votes are reallocated to whoever their voters picked second. This continues until one candidate wins more than 50% of the vote. Ranked voting is a more complex way of running elections that is touted as producing winners who better represent the whole electorate. The process is […]
The House Education Committee has released a damning report on antisemitism in colleges, following a nearly year-long investigation that led to the resignation of at least two university presidents. The probe collected over 400,000 documents from 11 schools, exposing shocking concessions made by universities to protesters, including partnering with a Palestinian university tied to Hamas and going as far as removing Sabra hummus from campus. This investigation marked the first time in the committee’s history that lawmakers subpoenaed university leadership. The report concluded that universities prioritized protester demands over Jewish students’ safety, administrators withheld support from Jewish students, university leaders failed to discipline students engaging in antisemitic activities, and universities resisted the House’s investigation. Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) condemned university administrators, saying, “While Jewish students displayed incredible courage, university administrators, faculty, and staff were cowards who fully capitulated to the mob and failed the students they were supposed to serve.” Northwestern University considered removing Sabra hummus, while Columbia University offered secret concessions, including reviewing divestment from certain companies and partnering with a Palestinian university. Harvard University refused to condemn a letter blaming Israel for the October 7 attack, leaving Jewish students feeling unsupported. Columbia University let students who occupied Hamilton Hall go unpunished. Critics accuse Republicans of overstepping, with Columbia saying it “strongly condemns antisemitism and all forms of discrimination.” The committee urges the executive branch to enforce laws and ensure colleges provide a safe learning environment, citing potential Title VI violations. Foxx emphasized, “It is time for the executive branch to enforce the laws and ensure colleges and universities restore order and guarantee that all students have a safe learning environment.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
The news rippled through Treasure Island, Florida, almost like a third storm: The mayor planned to move off the barrier island a month after Hurricane Helene flooded tens of thousands of homes along the Gulf Coast and two weeks after Hurricane Milton also ravaged the state. Mayor Tyler Payne’s home had been flooded and damaged beyond repair, he explained in a message to Treasure Island residents, and he and his husband can’t afford to rebuild. He also was stepping down as mayor. “While it pains my heart to make this decision in the midst of our recovery from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, this is the best decision for me and my family,” Payne, who had held the office for more than three years and was a fourth-generation Treasure Island resident, said Monday. Up and down Florida’s storm-battered Gulf Coast, residents are making the same calculations about whether they should stay or go. Can they afford to rebuild? What will insurance cover? People considering moving to Florida are contemplating whether it’s worth the risk to come to a hurricane-prone state. These existential questions about Florida’s appeal are raised regularly after the state experiences a busy hurricane season, such as in 2004, when four hurricanes crossed the Sunshine State. If moves into the state offer any answer, then hurricanes have served little as deterrents. Florida’s population has grown by one-third to 23 million residents in the two decades since Charley, Frances, Jeanne and Ivan ravaged the state. Last year, Florida added more than 365,000 residents, second only to Texas among states. On the other hand, there are signs that Florida’s white-hot real estate market has cooled. Sales of single-family homes were down 12% in September compared with the same time in the previous year. But interest rates, rising home prices and skyrocketing insurance costs likely played bigger roles than the recent hurricanes. “Florida recovers much faster than you think,” said Brad O’Connor, chief economist for Florida Realtors. What happens after a storm? Studies of hurricanes along the Gulf Coast have shown that any outbound migration tends to be short-lived, and if people do leave, it’s usually a short-distance move, such as from a barrier island to the mainland. Older people with more financial resources are more likely to return to devastated communities. When it comes to the housing market, there may be an initial shock to the supply as homeowners wait for reimbursement from insurance companies to fix up their homes or sell them. But in the three years after a hurricane, home prices in areas of Florida that were hit by one are 5% higher on average than elsewhere in the state because of smaller supply, according to a study of the impact of hurricanes on Florida’s housing market from 2000 to 2016. New homeowners tend to be richer than previous ones since wealthier buyers can absorb price increases. Other factors that determine how quickly communities bounce back include whether homes were insured, the speed of insurance reimbursements and whether there are enough construction workers. Because of stricter building codes implemented in the years after Hurricane Andrew devastated South Florida in 1992, newer homes withstand hurricanes better than older ones, O’Connor said. “If a property is damaged and uninsured, and the homeowner says, ‘I don’t want to deal with this,’ there are always people willing to scoop up that property because it’s valuable land,” […]
Boeing overcharged the Air Force nearly $1 million for spare parts on C-17 cargo planes, including an 8,000% markup for simple lavatory soap dispensers, according to the Pentagon’s inspector general. The Defense Department’s auditor reviewed prices paid for 46 spare parts on the C-17 from 2018 to 2022 and found that 12 were overpriced and nine seemed reasonably priced. It couldn’t determine the fairness of prices on the other 25 items. The Office of the Inspector General said it reviewed the soap dispenser prices after getting a hotline tip. Boeing disputed the findings. “We are reviewing the report, which appears to be based on an inapt comparison of the prices paid for parts that meet aircraft and contract specifications and designs versus basic commercial items that would not be qualified or approved for use on the C-17,” Boeing said in a statement. “We will continue to work with the OIG and the U.S. Air Force to provide a detailed written response to the report in the coming days.” The C-17 Globemaster is one of the military’s largest cargo aircraft. It can carry multiple military vehicles, large pallets of humanitarian supplies or, in extreme circumstances, hundreds of people. The Air Force flew C-17s nonstop for two weeks during the hectic August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, evacuating more than 120,000 civilians fleeing the Taliban. Since 2011, the U.S. government has awarded Boeing more than $30 billion in contracts to purchase needed spare parts for the C-17 and be reimbursed by the Air Force. Boeing is still trying to recover from financial and reputational damage caused by two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019 of its bestselling airline jet, the 737 Max. This has been a particularly volatile year for the aerospace giant. It came under renewed scrutiny and federal investigations after a door plug flew off a 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. Federal regulators limited Boeing production of the plane. In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to a felony count of conspiracy to defraud the government for misleading regulators who approved pilot training rules for the Max. That plea deal is pending before a federal judge in Texas. Boeing is on its third chief executive in five years, having hired an outsider who joined the company in August. Last week, Boeing reported a third-quarter loss of more than $6 billion because of charges for several commercial, defense and space programs. A strike by 33,000 union machinists is now seven weeks old and has crippled production of 737s, 777s and 767 freighters, cutting off much-need cash. New CEO Kelly Ortberg has announced roughly 17,000 layoffs, and the company will issue new stock to raise up to $19 billion to shore up its debt-laden balance sheet. (AP)
Never before in a presidential election cycle has there been so much discussion of the child tax credit — a tool many Democrats and Republicans have endorsed as a way to lift children and young families out of poverty. Just three years ago, child poverty rates fell significantly when President Joe Biden’s administration raised the child tax credit and made even the poorest families eligible. But the expansion only lasted a year. Congress declined to renew it. There is hope for another increase in the tax credit, regardless of who wins Tuesday’s presidential election, but tension remains over who should qualify. Democrats seek a massive — and costly — expansion of the social safety net. Vice President Kamala Harris has pitched a major increase to the child tax credit as part of her presidential campaign. Rather than providing the benefit through a tax refund, she wants to send monthly payments to parents, even those who aren’t working and pay no income tax. Republicans have expressed support for increasing the tax credit but also concern that for some parents, it could become an incentive not to work. For all its economic prosperity, childhood poverty remains pervasive in the United States. Children under 5 are the age group most likely to encounter poverty and eviction, and more than one in six young people under 18 live below the federal poverty line. Meanwhile, it’s getting more expensive to raise a child, with the cost of groceries, child care and housing going up. “Expanding the child tax credit is the single most effective option on the table for reducing child poverty in America,” said Christy Gleason of Save the Children, a global humanitarian organization focused on the well-being of children. “Families are demanding it. Voters are demanding it.” Currently, the child tax credit gives families a $2,000 discount on their tax bill for every child under the age of 17 in their care. Families that pay less than $2,000 in income tax get a smaller benefit, and parents who are out of the workforce get none. Harris has made expanding the tax credit central to her campaign’s messaging on the economy. Her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, has a resume that includes passing a state child tax credit. Former President Donald Trump doubled the amount of the child tax credit during his administration. His presidential campaign declined to provide specifics on his plans for the child tax credit except to say he would weigh significantly increasing it. Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, raised the possibility of increasing the child tax credit to $5,000 so that more parents can stay home with their children in an interview on CBS’ Face the Nation. But some Republicans have been leery about expanding it to parents who are not working outside the home. After voting down a child tax credit bill in August, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said for stay-at-home parents the benefit amounts to “cash welfare instead of relief for working taxpayers.” The stakes of that debate are high for parents who are unable to work because of a disability, or because they are caring for children or elderly parents. Many have been excluded from the benefit because they are not earning income. Kandice Beckford, 25, is among those. She was […]
Donald Trump is calling former Rep. Liz Cheney, one of his most prominent Republican critics, a “war hawk” and suggesting she might not be as willing to send troops to fight if she had guns pointed at her. Cheney responded by branding the GOP presidential nominee a “cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.” At an event late Thursday in Arizona, with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Trump was asked whether it is strange to see Cheney campaign against him. The former Wyoming congressman has vocally opposed Trump since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and has endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris in the White House race, joining the vice president at recent stops. Trump called Cheney “a deranged person” and added, “But the reason she couldn’t stand me is that she always wanted to go to war with people. If it were up to her we’d be in 50 different countries.” The former president continued: “She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with the rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her. OK, let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face. “You know they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, oh gee, well let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy,” Trump said. Cheney responded Friday in a post on X: “This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.” Earlier, after Harris’ campaign and other Trump critics on social media had pounced on his comment, Trump’s campaign said he “was talking about how Liz Cheney wants to send America’s sons and daughters to fight in wars despite never being in a war herself.” (AP)
A moving company representative and lawyers were expected to be given access to Rudy Giuliani’s Manhattan apartment on Thursday after the former New York City mayor failed to turn over belongings to two former Georgia election workers who won a $148 million defamation judgment against him. The two sides hurled allegations against each other this week as the deadline for Giuliani to surrender the items passed Tuesday without any of the assets changing hands. U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman ordered Giuliani last week to give the election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, many of his prized possessions. Among them: his $5 million Upper East Side apartment, a 1980 Mercedes once owned by movie star Lauren Bacall, and a variety of other belongings, from his television to a shirt signed by New York Yankees legend Joe DiMaggio to 26 luxury watches. The moving company representative and lawyers for Freeman and Moss were expected to be let into Giuliani’s apartment to see what property was there and estimate the cost of moving items named in Liman’s order, according to a court document filed late Wednesday by Aaron Nathan, an attorney for the election workers. In the document, Nathan said he had talked with Giuliani’s lawyers but that they were not ready to turn over any items and could not “even answer basic questions” about the location of the assets. Giuliani’s attorney, Kenneth Caruso, had said in a court filing late Tuesday that his client was ready to hand over the assets but lawyers for Freeman and Moss had not provided instructions on how to do so. Nathan declined to comment Thursday. The Associated Press left phone and email messages on Thursday with a representative and lawyers for Giuliani. Voting in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Thursday afternoon, Giuliani did not confirm that anyone had been in his New York apartment. He said he didn’t get a chance to defend himself in the Georgia election workers case and said he believes the judgment will be reversed on appeal. “It will probably be one of the most unfair trials in American history, with the exception of the J6 people,” he said, referring to the criminal cases against Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In fact, Giuliani was given a chance to turn over information requested by lawyers for Freeman and Moss last year, but didn’t do so. As punishment, a separate judge found Giuliani liable for defamation before any trial was held. A trial to determine damages was held later. On Thursday, Liman ordered both sides to submit a status report on any property exchanges by Monday. He said he would hold a status conference on Nov. 7 if the assets aren’t turned over. Giuliani’s legal defense fund sent out emails Thursday asking for donations as he fights “Deep State plans to utterly ruin me.” “They want my home, my belongings, even all of the nostalgic keepsakes that I’ve collected throughout my 80 years of life,” the email said. Giuliani’s lawyers had argued that Freeman and Moss should not be allowed to obtain and sell his belongings while his appeal of the $148 million judgment is pending. But Liman ruled against him last week and set the Tuesday deadline. Giuliani’s appeal is currently before a […]
America’s employers added just 12,000 jobs in October, a total that economists say was held down by the effects of strikes and hurricanes that left many workers temporarily off payrolls. The report provided a somewhat blurry view of the job market at the end of a presidential race that has pivoted heavily on voters’ feelings about the economy. Last month’s hiring gain was down significantly from the 223,000 jobs that were added in September. But economists have estimated that Hurricanes Helene and Milton, combined with strikes at Boeing and elsewhere, had the effect of pushing down net job growth by tens of thousands of jobs in October. Friday’s report from the Labor Department also showed that the unemployment rate remained at 4.1% last month. The low jobless rate suggests that the labor market is still fundamentally healthy, if not as robust as it was early this year. Combined with an inflation rate that has tumbled from its 2022 peak to near pre-pandemic levels, the overall economy appears to be on solid footing on the eve of Election Day. Economists have noted, too, that the United States has the strongest of the world’s most advanced economies, one that has proved surprisingly durable despite the pressure of high interest rates. This week, for example, the government estimated that the economy expanded at a healthy 2.8% annual rate last quarter, with consumer spending — the heart of the economy — helping drive growth. Yet as voters choose between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, large numbers of Americans have said they are unhappy with the state of the economy. Despite the plummeting of inflation, many people are exasperated by high prices, which surged during the recovery from the pandemic recession and remain about 20% higher on average than they were before inflation began accelerating in early 2021. With inflation having significantly cooled, the Federal Reserve is set to cut its benchmark interest rate next week for a second time and likely again in December. The Fed’s 11 rate hikes in 2022 and 2023 managed to help slow inflation without tipping the economy into a recession. A series of Fed rate cuts should lead, over time, to lower borrowing rates for consumers and businesses. In the meantime, there have been signs of a slowdown in the job market. This week, the Labor Department reported that employers posted 7.4 million job openings in September. Though that is still more than employers posted on the eve of the 2020 pandemic, it amounted to the fewest openings since January 2021. And 3.1 million Americans quit their jobs in September, the fewest in more than four years. A drop in quits tends to indicate that more workers are losing confidence in their ability to land a better job elsewhere. (AP)
President Joe Biden tried to explain this week that he doesn’t really think Donald Trump’s supporters are “garbage,” but that doesn’t mean that other people don’t believe the label occasionally fits. “I would say that some of them are garbage,” said Samantha Leister, 32, who went to see Kamala Harris at a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. As for the rest of them? Leister, whose parents and father-in-law are backing Trump, says they are “misguided.” That same day, at Trump’s rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the idea of voting for Harris was impossible to fathom. “I just think they are uneducated, and they believe all the lies,” said Shawn Vanderheyden, 44, who went to see Trump with his wife and two young daughters. “It’s unfortunate.” Vanderheyden still has faith in some people who are supporting the Democratic vice president, saying “hopefully they open their eyes.” The enduring truth of American politics — one that will undoubtedly outlast the controversy over Biden’s comments and this year’s presidential campaign — is that many Trump and Harris voters view one another with disdain and suspicion. At best, they feel confused by people supporting the other party and anxious about the country’s future after the election. The wariness between Americans is not new, but interviews with voters in battleground states reveal that it’s only growing deeper and more insurmountable. It’s divided families and friends, and it’s driven people further into their own political tribes. Some said they believe the country is headed for an even more dramatic splintering. Braxton Wadford, 20, predicted there would be a “mass exodus” of Americans after the election, regardless of who wins. He said people on both sides can’t imagine living under the opposing party’s leadership. “The American dream is turning into leaving America,” said Wadford, who voted early for Trump in North Carolina. Jennifer Phelan, 60, has been volunteering for Harris’ campaign in the same state, pushing undecided voters to cast ballots for the vice president. She’s nervous about the election and can’t see why it’s so close. “It just seems very much like a cartoon of good and evil,” she said at Harris’ rally in Raleigh. The political animosity has been building for a while, helped along by historic upheaval. There was the outbreak of a global pandemic, a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and nationwide protests over racial injustice — and that was just in the span of a single year. The Pew Research Center found that Democrats and Republicans are becoming more likely to view members of the other party as unintelligent, lazy, immoral or dishonest. And nearly everyone has a very or somewhat unfavorable view of the opposing party, according to an AP-NORC Poll from September. Travis Waters, 54, said Trump supporters are “detached from reality.” He has no one close to him who is a Trump supporter — and he’s not looking to add any. “I would think that the people who I choose to associate with are not people who support invading the Capitol, say Haitians are eating pets and tell lies,” Waters said while waiting in line for Harris’ event in Harrisburg. Trump has been a dominant figure in American politics for nearly a decade, contributing to polarization by demonizing his political opponents and fostering a sense of persecution among his […]
As the annual New York City Marathon gears up for Sunday, residents and travelers should prepare for significant road closures along the marathon route. The 26.2 marathon route starts in Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island before traveling across the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge into Brooklyn. The race begins with the professional wheelchair division at 8 a.m., with the final wave of runners taking off at 11:30 a.m. The marathon route then moves into Brooklyn, over the Pulaski Bridge into Queens, the Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan, the Madison Avenue Bridge into the Bronx and the Willis Avenue Bridge into Manhattan. The finish line is located at West 67th Street in Manhattan’s iconic Central Park. Two million spectators are expected to line up along the route to cheer on the 50,000 participants. The five bridges listed above will be closed, along with dozens of roads across the boroughs. Key Road Closures Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge: The upper level will close Saturday night at 11 p.m. and reopen on Sunday at 4 p.m. The lower level will close at 7 a.m. on Sunday, reopening at 2 p.m. Other Road Closures Along the Route: Roads across Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx will close between 6:45 and 8:30 a.m. on Sunday and will reopen on a rolling basis after runners pass, starting at 1:15 p.m. in early parts of the route and extending as late as 6:45 p.m. for Central Park South. While roads will reopen as the race progresses, spectators and remaining runners have been told to stay on sidewalks to keep streets clear. The following streets will be closed on Sunday, Nov. 3: Marathon Staten Island Richmond Terrace between Jersey Street and Bay Street Wall Street (aka Richmond County Ballpark Driveway) between Richmond Terrace and Bank Street Jersey Street between Richmond Terrace and Victory Boulevard Victory Boulevard between Jersey Street and Bay Street Bay Street between Richmond Terrace and School Road Fingerboard Road between Bay Street and Tompkins Avenue Tompkins Avenue between Fingerboard Road and School Road School Road between Bay Street and Staten Island Expressway Lily Pond Avenue between Staten Island Expressway and Father Capodanno Boulevard McClean Avenue/Battery Road between Lily Pond Avenue and New York Avenue Hylan Boulevard between Bay Street and Olga Place Steuben Street between Olga Place and West Fingerboard Road West Fingerboard Road between Steuben Street and Hylan Boulevard Sand Lane between Hylan Boulevard and Father Capodanno Boulevard Father Capodanno Boulevard between Sand Lane and Lily Pond Avenue Verrazano Bridge Brooklyn Dahlgren Place between Verrazano Bridge and 92nd Street (Northbound) 92nd Street between Dahlgren Place and 4th Avenue Brooklyn Queens Expressway (Southbound) between Verrazano Bridge and 79th Street Gatling Place/79th Street BQE Entrance Ramp between 83rd Street and 79th Street 7th Avenue (Southbound) between 79th Street and 74th Street 74th Street between 6th Avenue and 7th Avenue 6th Avenue between 74th Street and 75th Street/Bay Ridge Parkway 75th Street/Bay Ridge Parkway between 7th Avenue and 4th Avenue Fort Hamilton Parkway between 92nd Street and 94th Street 94th Street between Fort Hamilton Parkway and 4th Avenue 4th Avenue between 94th Street and Flatbush Avenue Flatbush Avenue between 4th Avenue and Lafayette Avenue Lafayette Avenue between Flatbush Avenue and Bedford Avenue Bedford Avenue between Lafayette Avenue and Nassau Avenue Nassau Avenue between Bedford Avenue/Lorimer Street and Manhattan Avenue Manhattan Avenue between Nassau Avenue […]
Some people who took a new schizophrenia drug for a year improved with only a few side effects, but many dropped out of the research, the company announced Thursday. The results underscore the difficulties in treating schizophrenia, a severe mental illness that can cause people to hear voices, feel paranoid and withdraw from others. High dropout rates are typical in schizophrenia drug studies. Finding a drug that works can be a long ordeal punctuated by crises and hospitalizations. Side effects of existing medications — weight gain, tremors, restlessness — cause some people to stop taking medicine and relapse. There’s been great hope among doctors for Cobenfy, which was approved in September, because it acts in the brain differently than other schizophrenia drugs. Instead of blocking dopamine receptors, Cobenfy’s main ingredient, xanomeline, works on a different receptor that indirectly blocks dopamine release. Cobenfy also contains trospium, which blocks some of the side effects. The most common are nausea, vomiting and indigestion. In contrast to the weight gain seen with other schizophrenia drugs, people lost a few pounds while taking Cobenfy, made by Bristol Myers Squibb. Dr. John Krystal of Yale University has led research on other schizophrenia drugs but was not involved in the new studies. He noted that just 10% to 20% of participants in the new studies dropped out because of side effects. “That is pretty good,” he said, noting that fewer or milder side effects could mean people will stay in treatment longer. That could mean fewer problems associated with untreated mental illness: substance use, homelessness and unemployment. So why did some patients stick with treatment while others dropped out? Krystal said it will be important to understand more about that as doctors start prescribing the drug. The Food and Drug Administration approved Cobenfy on the strength of two encouraging company-sponsored five-week trials and other safety data. The latest results announced Thursday at the Psych Congress meeting in Boston come from two longer studies, providing a fuller picture. In one study, focused on severely ill patients, 78% dropped out, leaving only 35 people for the final analysis. In the other, focused on more stable people, 51% left the study, leaving 283 who took the drug for a year. “It’s not any higher or any lower than what we typically see” in schizophrenia studies, said Dr. Greg Mattingly of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Mattingly is a consultant for Bristol Myers Squibb and a researcher on one of the studies. In the more severely ill group, 69% of people had a meaningful improvement in their symptoms at the end of the year. In the other group, 30% saw a meaningful benefit. Results of interviews with a sample of study participants conducted by an independent research team and shared by Bristol Myers Squibb showed the likelihood of continuing treatment. After six months, 36 said they would continue taking Cobenfy after the trial if given the option; 10 said they would not. Some participants said the drug reduced the voices while others said it didn’t work for them. The estimated yearly cost for Cobenfy is $22,500 compared to $540 for a generic antipsychotic. Krystal and others worry that insurers will require people to try cheaper drugs first before covering Cobenfy. Most patients’ out-of-pocket costs will be much lower, […]
The IDF announced today that Cpt. Yarden Zakay, a 21-year-old platoon commander with the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion from Hadera, has died from injuries sustained in a September battle in southern Gaza. Zakay was critically injured on September 17 during intense fighting in Rafah. The same incident claimed the lives of four of his comrades: Cpt. Daniel Mimon Toaff, Staff Sgt. Agam Naim, Staff Sgt. Amit Bakri, and Staff Sgt. Dotan Shimon, with several others also wounded. An IDF investigation found the soldiers were caught in an explosion caused by weaponry inside a building they were operating in. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
North Korea boasted Friday that the new intercontinental ballistic missile it just test-launched is “the world’s strongest,” a claim seen as pure propaganda after experts assessed it as being too big to be useful in a war situation. The ICBM launched Thursday flew higher and for a longer duration than any other weapon North Korea has tested. But foreign experts say the test failed to show North Korea has mastered some of the last remaining technological hurdles to possess functioning ICBMs that can strike the mainland U.S. The North’s Korean Central News Agency identified the missile as a Hwasong-19 and called it “the world’s strongest strategic missile” and “the perfected weapon system.” The official media outlet said leader Kim Jong Un observed the launch, describing it as an expression of North Korea’s resolve to respond to external threats to North Korea’s security. The color and shape of the exhaust flames seen in North Korean media photos of the launch suggest the missile uses preloaded solid fuel, which makes weapons more agile and harder to detect than liquid propellants that in general must be fueled beforehand. But experts say the photos show the ICBM and its launch vehicle are both oversized, raising a serious question about their wartime mobility and survivability. “When missiles get bigger, what happens? The vehicles get larger, too. As the transporter-erector launchers get bigger, their mobility decreases,” Lee Sangmin, an expert at South Korea’s Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. The Hwasong-19 was estimated to be at least 28 meters long (92 feet) while advanced U.S. and Russian ICBMs are less than 20 meters long (66 feet), said Chang Young-keun, a missile expert at Seoul’s Korea Research Institute for National Strategy. He suggested that the missile’s size likely helped South Korean intelligence authorities detect the launch plan in advance. “In the event of a conflict, such an exposure makes the weapon a target of a preemptive attack by opponents so there would be a big issue of survivability,” Chang said. Lee Illwoo, an expert with the Korea Defense Network in South Korea, said North Korea may have developed a larger missile to carry bigger and more destructive warheads or multi-warheads. If that’s the case, Lee said North Korea could have used liquid fuels as they generate higher thrust than solid fuels. He said some advanced liquid propellants can be stored in missiles for a few weeks before liftoffs. Lee said North Korea may have placed a dummy, empty warhead on the Hwasong-19 to make it fly higher. In recent years, North Korea has reported steady advancement in its efforts to obtain nuclear-tipped missiles. Many foreign experts believe North Korea likely has missiles that can deliver nuclear strikes on all of South Korea, but it has yet to possess nuclear missiles that can strike the mainland U.S. The hurdles it has yet to overcome, according to experts, include ensuring its warheads survive the heat and stress of atmospheric reentry, improving the altitude control and guidance systems for the missiles, and being able to use multiple warheads on a single missile to defeat missile defenses. “Acquiring reentry technology is currently the most important goal in North Korea’s missile development, specifically for ICBMs, but they just keep increasing the ranges instead. This possibly suggests they still lack confidence in their reentry […]
OpenAI is launching a ChatGPT-powered search engine that could put the artificial intelligence company in direct competition with Google and affect the flow of internet traffic seeking news, sports scores and other timely information. San Francisco-based OpenAI said Thursday it is releasing a search feature to paid users of ChatGPT but will eventually expand it to all ChatGPT users. It released a preview version in July to a small group of users and publishers. The original version of ChatGPT, released in 2022, was trained on huge troves of online texts but couldn’t respond to questions about up-to-date events not in its training data. Google upended its search engine in May with AI-generated written summaries now frequently appearing at the top of search results. The summaries aim to quickly answer a user’s search query so that they don’t necessarily need to click a link and visit another website for more information. Google’s makeover came after a year of testing with a small group of users but usage still resulted in falsehoods showing the risks of ceding the search for information to AI chatbots prone to making errors known as hallucinations. A pivot by AI companies to have their chatbots deliver news gathered by professional journalists has alarmed some news media organizations. The New York Times is among several news outlets that have sued OpenAI and its business partner Microsoft for copyright infringement. Wall Street Journal and New York Post publisher News Corp sued another AI search engine, Perplexity, earlier in October. OpenAI said in a blog post Thursday that its new search engine was built with help from news partners, which include The Associated Press and News Corp. It will include links to sources, such as news and blog posts, the company said. It was not immediately clear whether the links would correspond to the original source of the information presented by the chatbot. (AP)
Despite the threats looking in Iran, on Thursday, a bris milah took place in the city of Isfahan, Iran. the Chief Rabbi of Iran, Rabbi Yehuda Garami, served as the sandak, and the mohel was from the local Jewish community. The child’s name was Adriel Moshe.
In a video released by the IDF, a former security guard for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Jabalia alleged that Hamas fighters stormed an UNRWA facility following the outbreak of the post-October 7 war, forcibly seizing supplies and vehicles. According to the man’s account in the video, Hamas terrorists overtook trucks filled with supplies and then commandeered UNRWA vehicles, using them as shields. “It’s a form of defense for them, so they can move around easily, transport, and get things,” he stated, as translated by the IDF. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Israel has been the target of around 1,300 drone attacks since the start of the war last year, with drones launched from Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Iran, according to new data from the IDF. Of these, 231 drones have successfully struck Israeli territory, causing casualties and damage in certain instances, while drones that detonated in open areas were also counted among the strikes. Despite the intensity of the drone threat, IDF forces have intercepted about 80% of the incoming drones. In response, the IDF has ramped up its operations against Hezbollah’s drone division, known as Unit 127, which has been responsible for orchestrating many of these attacks. Israeli forces recently eliminated the unit’s commander and several high-ranking officers, with the IDF estimating that around 10% of Unit 127’s personnel have been killed or injured. Additionally, Hezbollah is believed to have lost nearly 70% of its drone arsenal since the war began, significantly depleting its aerial force capabilities. The IDF’s strategy has included precise strikes on Hezbollah’s infrastructure, targeting 54 drone storage sites, 24 locations holding cruise missiles, eight drone and missile assembly facilities, six underground sites, and seven weapons depots used by the group. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
