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A wildfire near Greece's capital darkens the skies over Athens and advances fast None - A wildfire burned northeast of Athens, darkening the sky as the smell of smoke and soot pervaded the Greek capital ATHENS, Greece -- A wildfire burned northeast of Athens on Sunday, darkening the sky as the smell of smoke and soot pervaded the Greek capital. More than 400 firefighters, 110 fire engines and a large number of volunteers were fighting the fire, which broke out around 3 p.m. local time around 35 kilometers (22 miles) from Athens. The 15 firefighting planes and nine helicopters were operating by late afternoon but stopped at sunset. The flames were moving fast toward Lake Marathon, an important reservoir supplying Athens with water, said Fire Col. Vassileios Vathrakogiannis, a spokesman for the fire department. An unknown number of houses have been damaged. Vathrakogiannis said winds reached gale force strength in the area of the fire and flames exceeded 25 meters (80 feet) in height. Residents of the villages near the area of the fire have been warned by emergency text messaging to evacuate. Late in the afternoon, messages were also sent to residents of some northern Athens suburbs to do the same. Police said they evacuated more than 200 individuals, mostly elderly and others who did not heed the warnings. Another fire that broke out west of Athens has been contained, the spokesman said. Hot and dry weather, made worse by strong winds, increases the danger of wildfires. June and July were the hottest months ever recorded in Greece, which also recorded its warmest winter ever. Both meteorologists and government officials have warned of the heightened danger of wildfires because of weather conditions from Sunday until Thursday. Half of the country will be under a “red alert," Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said.
Summer tourists flock to boardwalks and piers while sticking to their budgets None - Small businesses along popular vacation destinations like boardwalks and piers in the U.S. say the number of tourists flocking to the waterfront is back to normal, meaning pre-2020 levels NEW YORK -- Small businesses along popular vacation destinations like boardwalks and piers in the U.S. say the number of tourists flocking to the waterfront is back to normal, meaning pre-2020 levels. But while the affluent are spending freely, lower-income vacationers are sticking to carefully planned-out budgets. Sean Bailey, marketing manager of the SkyWheel observation wheel by the Myrtle Beach, S.C., Boardwalk and Promenade, said ticket sales for the 13-year-old attraction have exceeded 2019 levels since 2021, and so far this year are tracking slightly above 2023 levels. Bailey has noticed that tourists buying the cheaper tickets – which increased from $18 to $21 this year — are planning ahead and buying online instead of walking up to the 200-foot attraction. A regular ride, or “flight,” on the SkyWheel, which has glass enclosed gondolas that seat up to six, takes 10 to 15 minutes. On the other end of the spectrum, the costlier tickets have become more popular. There are $35 sunrise tickets and $109 VIP tickets which include up to four people and get the buyer a flight that lasts 30 minutes. SkyWheel also offers a $250 gender reveal package which includes a light show and a ride for up to six. “People are looking for more enhanced experiences beyond just the regular flight,” Bailey said. According to the U.S. Travel Association’s forecast, 2024 tourism volume is expected to top 2019’s numbers for the first time since the pandemic began, with 2.45 billion trips taken, up from 2.38 billion in 2023 and 2.40 billion in 2019. Domestic tourism is rebounding faster than international tourism. U.S. domestic travel spending, which includes general travel spending and passenger fares, is expected to be $975.6 billion in 2024, 98% of 2019 levels. International travel spending of $153.9 billion is about 83% of 2019 levels. Both are adjusted for inflation, per the USTA. Similar to the CEOs of large, consumer-focused companies, owners of small businesses say they see a divide in spending between affluent Americans, who have maintained their spending levels, and those in lower income brackets who are being more careful. Wall Street racked up double-digit gains last year and so far this year — even with some recent volatility — while wage increases have slowed and inflation remains a burden even though price pressures on consumers have eased. At Navy Pier, which juts out into Lake Michigan in Chicago, Robin Harris, owner of Confidence Apparel, which sells clothing with affirmations on it, says foot traffic and sales are up this year compared with last year. She says customers are being more conscious about their spending, picking things they can wear more than once and choosing quality over quantity. Her top sellers are a $30 T-shirt in a variety of colors that says “Inhale confidence, exhale doubt,” and a $75 jacket with a recipe-like list of ingredients including “Love, kindness, courage and resilience.” “(Customers) are starting to be a little bit more intentional about what they purchase instead of just purchasing anything and everything,” she said. Elsewhere on Navy Pier, Robert Gomez owns Beat Kitchen Cantina, a Mexican concession stand, and Bar Sol, a full restaurant with a patio. He says sales at the concession stand are up 30% compared with last year, with customers content to spend $8 on a taco, up $1 from last year. Gomez expanded his more upscale restaurant Bar Sol and made other improvements so sales aren’t comparable. Gomez also owns two live music venues that serve food, located away from the touristy areas. He said that while tourists on the Pier seem more than happy to pay $40 for an entrée at Bar Sol, those neighborhood restaurants, which mainly attract local Chicagoans, aren’t seeing the same level of spending. “Tourists come in (to Bar Sol), expecting to spend too big, whereas a local patron is looking for better deals,” he said. “It’s much more price sensitive, it’s almost the other extreme. And so, it’s been a struggle for me with the neighborhood businesses in comparison.” At Laura’s Fudge in Wildwood, N.J., which has been around since the 1920s, owner Dave Roach said sales of fudge, saltwater taffy and chocolate-covered turtles have risen each year since 2020. He said many customers, often families that have been going to the boardwalk for generations, save up all year to have money to spend at Wildwood. “They know what it’s going to cost them, and they don’t mind spending the money,” he said. Michelle Rutkowski, who owns Boardwalk Best and Five Mile Marketplace on the Wildwood, N.J., boardwalk, which sell beach goods and souvenirs, has seen business ebb and flow for decades since her family has had businesses there since the 1980s. Rainy weekends slowed business in April and May. But things have picked up since, particularly once school ended in mid-June. Rutkowski said she feels positive about sales momentum this year, with shoppers spending on souvenirs like keychains and magnets and T-shirts with the unofficial Wildwood, N.J., mascot, a seagull with a French fry in its mouth. “People have allotted a reasonable budget for vacation, and they’re spending it,” she said. “Maybe this won’t be the year for back to 100% of that where it was, but definitely we are on that trajectory.”
The US Navy's warship production is in its worst state in 25 years. What's behind it? None - The U.S. Navy is struggling to build affordable warships needed to face expanding threats around the world The US Navy's warship production is in its worst state in 25 years. What's behind it? The Navy’s ability to build lower-cost warships that can shoot down Houthi rebel missiles in the Red Sea depends in part on a 25-year-old laborer who previously made parts for garbage trucks. Lucas Andreini, a welder at Fincantieri Marinette Marine, in Marinette, Wisconsin, is among thousands of young workers who’ve received employer-sponsored training nationwide as shipyards struggle to hire and retain employees. The labor shortage is one of myriad challenges that have led to backlogs in ship production and maintenance at a time when the Navy faces expanding global threats. Combined with shifting defense priorities, last-minute design changes and cost overruns, it has put the U.S. behind China in the number of ships at its disposal — and the gap is widening. Navy shipbuilding is currently in “a terrible state” — the worst in a quarter century, says Eric Labs, a longtime naval analyst at the Congressional Budget Office. “I feel alarmed," he said. "I don’t see a fast, easy way to get out of this problem. It’s taken us a long time to get into it.” Marinette Marine is under contract to build six guided-missile frigates — the Navy’s newest surface warships — with options to build four more. But it only has enough workers to produce one frigate a year, according to Labs. One of the industry's chief problems is the struggle to hire and retain laborers for the challenging work of building new ships as graying veterans retire, taking decades of experience with them. Shipyards across the country have created training academies and partnered with technical colleges to provide workers with the skills they need to construct high-tech warships. Submarine builders and the Navy formed an alliance to promote manufacturing careers, and shipyards are offering perks to retain workers once they're hired. Andreini trained for his job at Marinette through a program at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. Prior to that, he spent several years as a production line welder, making components for garbage trucks. He said some of his buddies are held back by the stigma that shipbuilding is a “crappy work environment, and it’s unsafe.” But that’s not the reality, he said. His health benefits are better than at his previous job, he’ll be getting a pension for the first time, and there’s an opportunity to acquire skills even more advanced than what he received during his initial training. Plus, Andreini says, he feels like he's serving his country. “It makes me happy to be able to do my part, and possibly make sure sailors and some of my friends in the service come home safely," said Andreini, whose father was in the Navy in Vietnam. Alonie Lake, also a welder, fellow graduate of the technical college’s program and a single mom, is happy for a job with long-term stability — something Marinette's backlog of Navy contracts virtually guarantees. Lake, 32, said she thinks a lot of younger people are interested in jobs in the trades "and the satisfaction of working with their hands to create tangible results.” Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro recently underscored the importance of training programs during commencement ceremonies at a community college in Maine. The college has partnered with nearby Portsmouth Naval Shipyard to teach workers the skills needed to repair nuclear submarines. “It is incumbent upon all of us to consider how we can best lend our talents and, in the case of the graduates, their newly developed skills, to build up our great nation for all Americans, and defend against the threats and challenges of today,” he said. The Navy is trying to help shipyards ensure that once new workers are trained and hired, they stick around in a tight labor market. In Wisconsin, part of $100 million in Navy funding that's being provided to Marinette Marine is being used for retention bonuses at the shipyard, whose past employee retention was described by Del Toro as “atrocious.” The shipyard, which employs more than 2,000 workers, is providing bonuses of up to $10,000 to keep workers, said spokesperson Eric Dent. “The workforce shortage is definitely a problem and it’s a problem across the board for all shipyards,” he said. Retention is a concern even for shipyards that have met their goals, including Huntington Ingalls Industries, which makes destroyers and amphibious warships in Mississippi and aircraft carriers and submarines in Virginia. The company is creating training partnerships with colleges and public schools at all grade levels. Enhancements in Mississippi include more than a million square feet (92,900 square meters) of covered work area, cooldown and hydration stations, and a second dining area with a Chick-fil-A. Huntington Ingalls also collaborated with the Navy and the city of Newport News, Virginia, to build a new parking garage for workers and sailors. Much of the blame for U.S. shipbuilding's current woes lies with the Navy, which frequently changes requirements, requests upgrades and tweaks designs after shipbuilders have begun construction. That’s seen in cost overruns, technological challenges and delays in the Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, the USS Ford; the spiking of a gun system for a stealth destroyer program after its rocket-assisted projectiles became too costly; and the early retirement of some of the Navy's lightly armored littoral combat ships, which were prone to breaking down. The Navy vowed to learn from those past lessons with the new frigates they are building at Marinette Marine. The frigates are prized because they're less costly to produce than larger destroyers but have similar weapon systems. The Navy chose a ship design already in use by navies in France and Italy instead of starting from scratch. The idea was that 15% of the vessel would be updated to meet U.S. Navy specifications, while 85% would remain unchanged, reducing costs and speeding construction. Instead, the opposite happened: The Navy redesigned 85% of the ship, resulting in cost increases and construction delays, said Bryan Clark, an analyst at the Washington-based think tank Hudson Institute. Construction of the first-in-class Constellation warship, which began in August 2022, is now three years behind schedule, with delivery pushed back to 2029. The final design still isn't completed. Complicating matters further is something out of the Navy's control: the changing nature of global threats. Throughout its history, the Navy has had to adapt to varying perils, whether it be the Cold War of past decades or current threats including war in the Middle East, growing competition from Chinese and Russian navies, piracy off the coast of Somalia and persistent attacks on commercial ships by Houthi rebels in Yemen. And that's not all. The consolidation of shipyards and funding uncertainties have disrupted the cadence of ship construction and stymied long-term investments and planning, says Matthew Paxton of the Shipbuilders Council of America, a national trade association. “We’ve been dealing with inconsistent shipbuilding plans for years,” Paxton said. “When we finally start ramping up, the Navy is shocked that we lost members of our workforce.” The Navy insists it's taking the shipbuilding problems seriously. “The Navy’s role in defending our nation and promoting peace has never been more expansive or mattered more," said Lt. Kyle Hanton, a spokesperson for Del Toro's office. “We continue to work with our industry partners to identify creative solutions to solving our common challenges."
Families of Brazilian plane crash victims gather in Sao Paulo as French experts join investigation None - More than 40 families of victims of an airliner crash in Brazil have gathered at a morgue and hotels in Sao Paulo as three French government investigators arrived in the country SAO PAULO -- More than 40 families of victims of an airliner crash in Brazil gathered Sunday at a morgue and hotels in Sao Paulo as three French government investigators arrived in the country. Forensics experts worked to identify the remains of the 62 people killed. Sao Paulo state government said in a statement Sunday morning that the searches ended at 10:45 p.m. on Saturday, 33 hours after the crash, with the remains of all 34 males and 28 females among the victims recovered. It added that the wreckage remains at the site, so investigators can continue their work. The ATR 72 twin-engine turboprop operated by Brazilian airline Voepass was headed for Guarulhos international airport in Sao Paulo with 58 passengers and four crew members aboard when it went down Friday in Vinhedo, 78 kilometers (49 miles) north of the city. Voepass said that three passengers who held Brazilian identification also carried Venezuelan documents and one had Portuguese identity. ATR is a French-Italian company. International aviation protocols recommend that investigators from the country of origin of the airplane maker follow inquiries on foreign soil whenever a crash involving one of those planes takes place. Local authorities said that the three French investigators in Brazil work at BEA, the European country's body for civil aviation security. The bodies of the pilot, Danilo Santos Romano, and his co-pilot, Humberto de Campos Alencar e Silva, were the first to be identified. Another 10 have been identified since, local authorities said. One body is already set for burial, and another seven are expected to follow on Sunday, Sao Paulo's state government said. The airliner said in a statement to The Associated Press that Romano had just finished his first full year as commander. He was hired by the Brazilian company in November 2022 as a co-pilot. His experience with Voepass included 5,202 flying hours, all in planes of the ATR model, the only one the company owns. At least eight physicians were aboard, Paraná state Gov. Ratinho Júnior said. Four professors at Unioeste university in western Paraná were also confirmed dead. Liz Ibba dos Santos, a 3-year-old girl who was traveling with her father, was the only child known to be on the passenger list. The remains of Luna, a dog that was traveling with a Venezuelan family, were also found in the wreckage. Sao Paulo’s morgue began receiving the bodies Friday evening, and it asked victims’ relatives to bring in medical, X-ray and dental records to help identify the bodies. Blood tests were also done to help identification efforts. The few family members speaking about the tragedy did so on social media. Tânia Azevedo, who lost her son Tiago in the crash, was put up in one of the hotels in Sao Paulo, but said that she was waiting to go to the morgue. “I believe Tiago is somewhere trying to help the other people wounded who also need light and love,” she said. “I couldn't go there (to the morgue). I am here waiting. It is dark here, I need some light and love myself.” Images recorded by witnesses showed the aircraft in a flat spin and plunging vertically before smashing to the ground inside a gated community, leaving an obliterated fuselage consumed by fire. Residents said that there were no injuries on the ground. It was the world's deadliest airline crash since January 2023, when 72 people died on a Yeti Airlines plane in Nepal that stalled and crashed while making its landing approach. That plane also was an ATR 72, and the final report blamed pilot error. Metsul, one of Brazil's most respected meteorological companies, said Friday that there were reports of severe icing in Sao Paulo state around the time of the crash. Local media cited experts pointing to icing as a potential cause for the crash. A video shared on social media channels Saturday shows a Voepass pilot telling passengers on a flight from Guarulhos to the city of Cascavel that the ATR 72 has flown safely around the world for decades. He also asked passengers to be respectful to the memory of his colleagues and the company, and asked for prayers. “This tragedy doesn't hit only those who perished in this accident. It hits all of us," the unidentified pilot said. "We are giving all our hearts, all our best to be here and fulfill our mission to take you safely and comfortably to your destination.” Police restricted access to the main entrance of the Sao Paulo morgue where bodies from the crash were being identified. Some family members of the victims arrived on foot, others came in minivans. None spoke to journalists, and authorities requested that they not be filmed as they came. A flight carrying more family members from Paraná state landed Saturday afternoon at Guarulhos airport. A minivan sponsored by the airline was provided to transport them to the morgue. Sao Paulo's state government said that 26 families have already gone to the morgue for identification efforts, with more expected on Sunday. An American Eagle ATR 72-200 crashed on Oct. 31, 1994, and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board determined the probable cause was ice buildup while the plane was circling in a holding pattern. The plane rolled at about 8,000 feet (2,500 meters) and dove into the ground, killing all 68 people on board. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration issued operating procedures for ATRs and similar planes telling pilots not to use the autopilot in icing conditions. Brazilian aviation expert Lito Sousa cautioned that meteorological conditions alone might not be enough to explain why the Voepass plane fell in the manner it did on Friday. “Analyzing an air crash just with images can lead to wrong conclusions about the causes,” Sousa told the AP by phone. “But we can see a plane with loss of support, no horizontal speed. In this flat spin condition, there’s no way to reclaim control of the plane.” Brazil’s air force said Sunday that both of the plane’s flight recorders had been analyzed at its laboratory in the capital, Brasilia, and their content has been transcribed. The results of its investigations are expected to be published within 30 days, it said. Marcelo Moura, director of operations for Voepass, told reporters Friday night that while there were forecasts for ice, they were within acceptable levels for the aircraft. In an earlier statement, the Brazilian air force’s center for the investigation and prevention of air accidents said that the plane’s pilots didn't call for help or say they were operating under adverse weather conditions. The ATR 72, which is built by a joint venture of Airbus in France and Italy’s Leonardo SpA. is generally used on shorter flights. Crashes involving various models of the ATR 72 have resulted in 470 deaths going back to the 1990s, according to a database of the Aviation Safety Network. Earlier on Sunday, Pope Francis said during a public mass at the Vatican there should be prayers for the victims of the air crash. ___ Tatiana Pollastri reported from Vinhedo.
US colleges are cutting majors and slashing programs after years of putting it off None - Colleges large and small in the U.S. are cutting programs and eliminating majors to make ends meet US colleges are cutting majors and slashing programs after years of putting it off Christina Westman dreamed of working with Parkinson’s disease and stroke patients as a music therapist when she started studying at St. Cloud State University. But her schooling was upended in May when administrators at the Minnesota college announced a plan to eliminate its music department as it slashes 42 degree programs and 50 minors. It’s part of a wave of program cuts in recent months, as U.S. colleges large and small try to make ends meet. Among their budget challenges: Federal COVID relief money is now gone, operational costs are rising and fewer high school graduates are going straight to college. The cuts mean more than just savings, or even job losses. Often, they create turmoil for students who chose a campus because of certain degree programs and then wrote checks or signed up for student loans. “For me, it’s really been anxiety-ridden,” said Westman, 23, as she began the effort that ultimately led her to transfer to Augsburg University in Minneapolis. “It’s just the fear of the unknown.” At St. Cloud State, most students will be able to finish their degrees before cuts kick in, but Westman’s music therapy major was a new one that hadn’t officially started. She has spent the past three months in a mad dash to find work in a new city and sublet her apartment in St. Cloud after she had already signed a lease. She was moving into her new apartment Friday. For years, many colleges held off making cuts, said Larry Lee, who was acting president of St. Cloud State but left last month to lead Blackburn College in Illinois. College enrollment declined during the pandemic, but officials hoped the figures would recover to pre-COVID levels and had used federal relief money to prop up their budgets in the meantime, he said. “They were holding on, holding on,” Lee said, noting colleges must now face their new reality. Higher education made up some ground last fall and in the spring semester, largely as community college enrollment began to rebound, National Student Clearinghouse Research Center data showed. But the trend for four-year colleges remains worrisome. Even without growing concerns about the cost of college and the long-term burden of student debt, the pool of young adults is shrinking. Birth rates fell during the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009 and never recovered. Now those smaller classes are preparing to graduate and head off to college. “It’s very difficult math to overcome,” said Patrick Lane, vice president at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, a leading authority on student demographics. Complicating the situation: the federal government’s chaotic overhaul of its financial aid application. Millions of students entered summer break still wondering where they were going to college this fall and how they would pay for it. With jobs still plentiful, although not as much as last year, some experts fear students won’t bother to enroll at all. “This year going into next fall, it’s going to be bad,” said Katharine Meyer, a fellow in the Governance Studies program for the Brown Center on Education Policy at the nonprofit Brookings Institution. “I think a lot of colleges are really concerned they’re not going to make their enrollment targets.” Many colleges like St. Cloud State already had started plowing through their budget reserves. The university’s enrollment rose to around 18,300 students in fall 2020 before steadily falling to about 10,000 students in fall 2023. St. Cloud State’s student population has now stabilized, Lee said, but spending was far too high for the reduced number of students. The college’s budget shortfall totaled $32 million over the past two years, forcing the sweeping cuts. Some colleges have taken more extreme steps, closing their doors. That happened at the 1,000-student Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama, the 900-student Fontbonne University in Missouri, the 350-student Wells College in New York and the 220-student Goddard College in Vermont. Cuts, however, appear to be more commonplace. Two of North Carolina’s public universities got the green light last month to eliminate more than a dozen degree programs ranging from ancient Mediterranean studies to physics. Arkansas State University announced last fall it was phasing out nine programs. Three of the 64 colleges in the State University of New York system have cut programs amid low enrollment and budget woes. Other schools slashing and phasing out programs include West Virginia University, Drake University in Iowa, the University of Nebraska campus in Kearney, North Dakota State University and, on the other side of the state, Dickinson State University. Experts say it’s just the beginning. Even schools that aren’t immediately making cuts are reviewing their degree offerings. At Pennsylvania State University, officials are looking for duplicative and under-enrolled academic programs as the number of students shrinks at its branch campuses. Particularly affected are students in smaller programs and those in the humanities, which now graduate a smaller share of students than 15 years ago. “It’s a humanitarian disaster for all of the faculty and staff involved, not to mention the students who want to pursue this stuff,” said Bryan Alexander, a Georgetown University senior scholar who has written on higher education. “It’s an open question to what extent colleges and universities can cut their way to sustainability.” For Terry Vermillion, who just retired after 34 years as a music professor at St. Cloud State, the cuts are hard to watch. The nation’s music programs took a hit during the pandemic, he said, with Zoom band nothing short of “disastrous” for many public school programs. “We were just unable to really effectively teach music online, so there’s a gap,” he said. “And, you know, we’re just starting to come out of that gap and we’re just starting to rebound a little bit. And then the cuts are coming.” For St. Cloud State music majors such as Lilly Rhodes, the biggest fear is what will happen as the program is phased out. New students won’t be admitted to the department and her professors will look for new jobs. “When you suspend the whole music department, it’s awfully difficult to keep ensembles alive,” she said. “There’s no musicians coming in, so when our seniors graduate, they go on, and our ensembles just keep getting smaller and smaller. “It’s a little difficult to keep going if it’s like this,” she said. ___ The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Thousands protest lithium mining in Serbia. Officials say it's a plot against populist president None - Tens of thousands of protesters have rallied in downtown Belgrade against lithium mining in Serbia BELGRADE, Serbia -- Tens of thousands of protesters rallied on Saturday against lithium mining in Serbia, despite officials' warnings of their alleged plot to topple populist President Aleksandar Vučić and his government. Vučić said earlier he had been tipped off by Russian intelligence services that a “mass unrest and a coup” were being prepared in Serbia by unspecified Western powers that wish to oust him from power. The crowd chanted: “There will be no mining” and “Treason, treason.” After one of the biggest protests in downtown Belgrade in years ended, some people in the crowd marched toward the capital's two main railway stations, pledging to block train traffic until their demands that lithium mining be officially banned are met. Government officials and state-controlled media have launched a major campaign against the rally, comparing it to the Maidan uprising in Ukraine's capital, Kiev, that led to the toppling of the country's then pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych in 2013. Organizers of the Belgrade protest have said the protest would be peaceful. “Our rally today is ecological and has no political ambitions, but the government has accused us of seeking to stage a coup,” actor Svetlana Bojković said. “We came here today to raise our voice against something that is beyond politics,” she said. The demonstration came after weeks of protests in dozens of cities throughout Serbia against a government plan to allow lithium mining in a lush farming valley in the west of the country. This plan had been scrapped in 2022 after large demonstrations were held that included the blocking of key bridges and roads. But it was revived last month and received a boost in a tentative deal on “critical raw materials” signed by Vučić's government with the European Union. The Balkan nation is formally seeking EU membership while maintaining very close ties with both Russia and China. The EU memorandum on the mining of lithium and other key materials needed for green transition would bring Serbia closer to the bloc, and would reduce Europe's lithium battery and electric car imports from China. While the government insists that the mine is an opportunity for economic development, critics say it would inflict irreparable pollution on the Jadar valley, along with its crucial underground water reserves and farming land. Locals in the valley are strongly opposed to the mine, which would be operated by multinational Rio Tinto mining company. Both the government and the company have pledged the highest environmental standards in the mining process, but opponents haven't been convinced. Tens of thousands have turned out for environment protection rallies held throughout Serbia in the past several weeks, posing a major challenge to Vučić and his increasingly autocratic rule. Opponents want the government to formally outlaw any lithium and boron mining in Serbia. The government has set up a medical team to monitor any potential health hazards and a call center for citizens to voice their concerns, an apparent bid to soften some of the opposition. Serbian Mining and Energy Minister Dubravka Đedović Handanović told The Associated Press earlier this week in an interview that Serbia wouldn't only export raw materials, but would develop a “value chain” in the country linked to producing batteries and electric vehicles to help develop new technologies. Residents of the Jadar valley, however, said that nothing could persuade them to agree to the mine. They said they were ready to do everything to prevent the mine from opening. ___ Dušan Stojanović contributed to this story.
No water, no power, hordes of birds: who will buy San Francisco’s $25m private island? None - Chris Lim gazed across the water, perched at the hull of a small speedboat hurtling over choppy waves towards the only private island in the San Francisco bay. The stony cliffs of Red Rock Island loomed in the distance, encircled by seagulls, the noise of traffic on the nearby Richmond-San Rafael Bridge droning overhead. As we reached the shore, Lim, the former president of Christie’s International Real Estate, jumped from the boat, adeptly hurdling over the waves and landing on dry sand. “The deepest part of the bay is right there – it’s actually perfect for a yacht,” Lim said as he crunched along the rocky beach in a blue vest and Gucci glasses. A future owner, he surmised, “could also come on a helicopter”. While “private island” may bring to mind a tropical beach with gleaming white sand, Red Rock Island is something else. The 5.8-acre property is a hunk of red rock, complete with a narrow strip of stony beach and a thriving bird population. When the island hit the market last year, asking price $25m, the news made national headlines. Lim is the longtime Christie’s realtor now tasked with trying to make this guano-encrusted outcropping appealing to potential billionaire buyers. When Lim launched the sale last November, he positioned it as a “prestigious trophy investment” and a “mysterious and sought-after gem”. When the Guardian toured the island in June, it had still not sold. Red Rock is something of an outlier in the private island market. It’s far from remote – situated a stone’s throw from the Richmond Bridge, which registers nearly 13m cars each year. While the vistas are sweeping, the island lacks basic amenities, such as running water or electricity. Then there are the obstacles to future development. Red Rock Island is partially located in three different California counties, which have each zoned it for different uses (residential, industrial and general use). In California, where navigating the regulations of even one local government can be challenging, this could prove a major headache for any future owner. Still, on that sunny day in June, Lim was optimistic and seemed to genuinely enjoy his adventurous journey to the Rock. In his two decades in Bay Area real estate, Lim had sold quirky properties before, from a San Francisco church to a firehouse turned into a condominium and even a parking spot – but this was his first island. To him, marketing the island is not so different from many other luxury goods. “It’s like selling a really rare painting,” he said. “It’s one of one – and that is what Christie’s does best.” Who buys an island? Despite the island’s central location in the San Francisco Bay, few people even know its name, according to James A Martin, a photographer and author who published a book on Bay Area islands. He said the island had become a bit of a joke in his presentations over the years, lacking the amenities that many private islands boast. If you have so much money that you can buy this just to preserve in its original form, that might be the greatest flex of all Chris Lim “I always tell people: you can buy your own island – but there’s no water, no gas, and you’re going to have to get a building permit from three different counties to do anything. And people driving on the Richmond Bridge will be able to look right in your front room window,” he said. Red Rock has a colorful history. It was inhabited by the San Francisco businessman Selim E Woodworth in the 1850s, and Russian fur traders before that. It was ultimately taken over by miners seeking to harvest manganese – a mineral that was popular in Europe as an artists’ pigment, and gives the island its namesake red color. There had been different proposals for developing the island over the past decades, Lim said, from an offer to make it “a beach club with a marina” to plans for “an eco-friendly resort” or “a tourist attraction with a wedding chapel”. Playboy magazine considered purchasing it in the 1970s and using it as the location for a Playboy mansion. The controversial guru and commune leader Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was reportedly once interested in the island. So were advertisers who wanted to use it for giant billboards. View image in fullscreen Red Rock Island is somewhere in the middle when it comes to private island prices. Photograph: Aerial Canvas Martin, the de facto expert on islands in the Bay, said he knew “very little” about such plans – other than that they had never succeeded. The island is owned by the Durning family, whose late father received Red Rock from his business partner, who purchased it for under $50,000 in the 1960s. The family lived in the Bay Area and once used their island for camping and hiking vacations, like an ordinary vacation house. Lim said Brock Durning, the trustee for the rest of the family, now lived in Alaska, and wanted to sell it to raise funds for his ageing mother’s care. In an area renowned for ultra-rich residents, Lim and During should, in theory, have a wealth of potential buyers. But while Bay Area tech billionaires have certainly shown an interest in owning islands, they have usually sought properties a bit further from San Francisco: Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly building a $270m compound with a bunker in Hawaii, while the former Oracle CEO Larry Ellison purchased almost all of Lanai, the sixth-largest island in Hawaii, for several hundred million dollars in 2012. Private island properties tend to attract “people who value their privacy”, according to Tim Rodlands, who runs a luxury real estate company in the Bahamas, though buyers also include aspiring developers of luxury hotels, Airbnbs, or condos, who “want to create their own utopias”. “It’s mainly your upper echelon of the 1% of the world,” agreed Danny Prell, vice-president of business development at Concierge Auctions, a luxury real estate auction house. Movie stars and developers are interested, along with “owners of companies, big CEOs, people that you know are on the Forbes list”. View image in fullscreen Brock Durning, kneeling, as a child with his father and brothers on Red Rock Island in 1979. Photograph: Courtesy Brock Durning Private islands are available around the world at a wide range of price points, from small wooded isles in Canada for under $1m to Caribbean island estates that can be priced from $30m to $60m, to $150m and above. Islands have an enduring appeal to “ego purchasers, who want to say they own an island”, said Rodlands. The market for islands also boomed during the early pandemic, realtors said, as super-wealthy individuals sought an escape from social conflict and the risk of infection. The asking price for some private islands is lower than many people might expect: in the Bahamas, it’s possible to buy an “entry level” small island, or cay, for between $600,000 and a few million, Rodlands said. That puts Red Rock Island somewhere in the mid-range market, but development could drive up the costs significantly. Potential buyers need to consider how they will get construction materials, and construction workers, to their island, and how they will house or transport their staff over the long term. “You can buy an island for $10m and spend $100m on it doing the infrastructure,” Prell said. View image in fullscreen A baby western gull on Red Rock Island. Photograph: Kari Paul/The Guardian The birds and the billionaires Back on the island, Lim and the Guardian scrambled over rocks and tried to identify the best way to reach its steep summit, before ultimately abandoning the plan. During the process, a turkey vulture zoomed out of an abandoned mine and soared above us. Fishermen on boats bobbed nearby. Fluffy baby gulls waddled along the shore. Despite being at the center of such urban environments, the island feels truly untouched, raising the question: when it is purchased, who will it really belong to – a billionaire, or the wildlife that has long called it home? Over the last year, Lim has shown the island to several “high-profile” potential buyers, including wealthy clients from Miami. One interested buyer who had recently toured the island wanted to leave it exactly as it was, he said. “If you have so much money that you can buy this just to preserve this in its original form, I think that might be the greatest flex of all,” Lim said. Now, it appears the island may have found a buyer after all. On 19 July, the island finally went into contract with a buyer who wished to remain anonymous, Lim said. The sale process was not yet complete, and Lim would not comment on the final price or any other details: “We have signed an NDA.” So, the shape of Red Rock’s future remains open ended. Leaving the island in its natural state is an idea that some local residents can get behind. Casey Skinner, a Bay Area program director with the Audubon Society, said the island had “incredible roosting habitat” for a variety of seabirds, and was an important refuge for “all kinds of wildlife”, including sea mammals and birds needing a place to rest while migrating. Martin, who had visited the island a handful of times via kayak, said that preserving the island for wildlife would be the best possible outcome. “I can’t imagine any other purpose that would be beneficial to anybody, or anything,” he said. “Just let the birds take it over.”
Should artists be terrified of AI replacing them? None - I’m standing on an eroding cliff edge. As it inches towards me, various objects teeter cartoonishly before disappearing into oblivion. One by one sculptures, paintings, books, buildings and other artefacts of human creativity are swallowed up. The erosion is accelerating, vertiginous, starting to give way beneath my feet. Stormy. Crashing waves. HD. Photo-realistic. “Is that Land’s End?” my partner asks absentmindedly as she looks at my screen. The prompt I entered into the generator was supposed to be an expression of AI vertigo, but I clearly need to brush up on my prompting skills because the image generated is not the apocalypse I had in mind. It looks more like an ad for a holiday destination starring Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer. I’ve been avoiding tools like this – they feel like a threat to my livelihood. Whether it’s image-making, sentence-making, music-making or film-making, every day we wake up to some new AI-generated artefact. Give me a Stevie Wonder version of Big Yellow Taxi in 5.1 surround sound! Give me a sci-fi romcom starring Timothée Chalamet, Marilyn Monroe and Ye shot on 16mm! Scratch that – starring Marilyn Monroe and me! Every day there’s some new AI-generated artefact. Give me a Stevie Wonder version of Big Yellow Taxi! I don’t know if these AI features exist, but would it surprise you if they did? They may seem quaint in five years’ time. A symptom of my vertigo is a preoccupation with speculation. You spend so much time thinking about the future that the present feels primitive. It reminds me of the shot in 2001: A Space Odyssey where the spinning bone tossed by the hominid jump-cuts 100,000 years to the spaceship. Now, substitute the bone for ChatGPT. In 1964, Arthur C Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, predicted AI as the next evolutionary step: “[Machines] will start to think and eventually they will completely outthink their makers… I suspect that organic or biological evolution has about come to its end and we are now at the beginning of inorganic or mechanical evolution, which will be thousands of times swifter.” The artist at the mercy of technological advancement is a theme perfectly summed up in the Buggles song Video Killed the Radio Star… “They took the credit for your second symphony, rewritten by machine and new technology.” What makes this technological leap so different from others (fountain pen to typewriter to word-processor) is that these were tools for artists – but AI is different. It may be the tool and the artist. So where does this impending redundancy leave the human creative urge? Does it mean I need to churn out my best efforts before AI dominates the field? As a musician and writer, I always thought I’d get around to writing a book, a screenplay, another album. But what’s the rush, I thought? It’s a bucket list. Now I feel rushed, the goals archaic, even. AI has killed my bucket list! I’m gloomy. I have many questions and few answers. I wasn’t surprised that my grandmother didn’t like electronic musician Aphex Twin in the 00s, but I didn’t expect that I’d be failing to keep up in my tender 30s. I need to speak to artists who are in lockstep with the technological vanguard to help me exorcise my malaise. Artist-musicians Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst are AI veterans. They’ve been grappling with and educating people about it for more than a decade. The Berlin-based collaborative life partners birthed an AI baby to help them create Herndon’s 2019 album Proto. I emailed them a cry for help. I asked if AI is going to kill the human artist. “No. Human artists will make works using AI and works that will reject AI… Artistry is always evolving. We have to digest that many things that would have appeared virtuosic by 20th-century standards will be able to be generated in microseconds by an AI model. But a media file that sounds like a choir is not a choir. Culture will persist and evolve in unexpected ways.” Human artists will be fine, so long as we don’t delude ourselves that the culture and media landscape are not about to change considerably. Is human performance replaceable? Or is AI in fact inspiring more human modes of performance? “We like to raise the example of DJing as a reason for hope here. In most cases, DJing is very, very easy to automate. But there are all kinds of reasons why people go to see DJs perform – to meet other people, to celebrate someone, to take a break from looking at a screen.” At the same time, Herndon and Dryhurst warn that the creative industry may turn into a popularity contest. “We have already seen glimpses of the blurring of artists and influencers. Soon the most attractive kid in class will have all the tools to choose to be the most popular metal artist, or crime thriller author, with very little impudence.” Plot twist: the influencers will steal my bucket list. And what about my malaise? “As veterans of AI vertigo, it gets better. You just have to ride out the uncomfortable part of the trip. Perhaps the best analogy is the nausea one initially feels when eating a magic mushroom. The mind-expanding part will follow if you make peace with it.” This does resonate. The AI revolution has felt uncanny and hallucinatory at times. Battling against a mushroom trip is never a good idea. Is it time to extend an olive branch? I also contacted artist Rachel Maclean for AI counsel. Her latest work, DUCK, explores themes of paranoia, authenticity and reality, through the cyphers of 1960s icons Marilyn Monroe, Sean Connery’s James Bond and JFK. Maclean acted all parts and used deepfake technology to transpose their faces on to hers. She is keen to point out that “aside, from the deepfakes, DUCK is in many ways a conventional film, one I wrote, scripted and directed.” Text-to-image models, on the other hand, she says, are “totally incredible in that the AI has a sense of creativity. You work with it like a collaborator.” She is currently making a series of AI-generated paintings about motherhood, using a model trained on Old Masters’ paintings. “We’re in this sweet spot at the moment,” she grins mischievously. “It is fallible. People come out with eight fingers.” But in a few months, I warn, they’ll produce five-fingered people, won’t they? Maclean is a circuit bender: “I’ve been looking into capturing the models that produce eight fingers and encouraging them to continue making that error.” There are unexpected truths to be found in the imperfect images of mothers and babies she has been generating with AI. The limbs are fused and you can’t differentiate between the bodies. “This is what it feels like to be a mother, more so than a conventional depiction of motherhood.” I confess, that does sound exciting – to collaborate with an entity that thinks differently to humans, innovating the artform as well as the way in which we see our species. But it also compounds my fear that human craft, certainly in digital media, will disappear. Are we becoming redundant? “The exciting thing about this technology,” says Maclean, “is that people are still figuring out what it’s for. Its use-value becomes apparent by people shaping it.” A couple of weeks ago my partner, a freelance writer, was offered two – two! – jobs from companies offering to pay writers to teach AI how to write better. The brass neck! Why don’t they give you some rope with which to hang yourself, I said? But it’s a job, she said, and it might be interesting. So is my belligerence helping anyone? Interviewing those at the techno-cultural vanguard, including Herndon, Dryhurst and Maclean, has given me some sense of peace. I realise that I have been hanging on to 20th-century notions of art practice and the cultural landscape, one where humans spent months and years writing, painting, recording and filming works that defined the culture of our species. They provided meaning, distraction, wellbeing. A reason to exist. Making peace may mean letting go of these historical notions, finding new meaning. While digitally generatable media is increasingly becoming the domain of AI, for example, might performance and tactile artforms, such as live concerts, theatre and sculpture, be reinvigorated? “A screaming comes across the sky,” writes Thomas Pynchon at the beginning of Gravity’s Rainbow as Captain “Pirate” Prentice watches an inbound V2 vapour trail on the horizon. Having considered what it would feel like were the bomb to land directly on his head, instead of fleeing or making calls, he collects some tropical fruit from his greenhouse. What’s the point in panicking? It’s already on its way. People like AI researcher and decision theorist Eliezer Yudkowsky are comparing the threat of AI to nuclear war. It’s the new apocalypse. I can see a vapour trail on the horizon. But what can I do? Run for shelter, take up arms? Humans have survived apocalypses before. I guess I’ll pick bananas. Follow Rudi Zygadlo @rudizyga. His latest single, F*** AI, is on Spotify and the music video on YouTube
Invest in heritage to boost wealth of failing English towns, says new report None - The best way to boost a town’s ailing economy is to invest in its cultural past rather than simply pour money into new businesses. This is the clear-cut evidence produced by a new piece of expert academic analysis that will put hard facts into the hands of those hoping to revive declining English regions. The report, commissioned by Historic England, the public body that promotes and looks after the country’s historic environment, has applied strict mathematical criteria to reveal the true value of any area rich in cultural heritage. It has found that wherever heritage and cultural history are linked to the work of new artistic and scientific communities, greater economic productivity and business growth are the result. “This report reveals what has been suspected for a long time – that there is a tangible link between historic places and increased creativity and economic activity,” Neil Mendoza, chair of Historic England and chair of the government’s culture and heritage capital programme, told the Observer. “It demonstrates that the heritage that surrounds us and belongs to us all has a positive, significant effect on artistic creativity as well as a positive impact on scientific creativity. It makes sense, because we know that heritage is a catalyst for regeneration. It boosts local pride and it makes people feel good – 93% of people agree that local heritage raises their quality of life.” View image in fullscreen An archive shot of typesetters at the Observer building in Hastings, built for FJ Parsons Ltd and abandoned in 1985. Photograph: Courtesy of the Observer Building The detailed research, to be released on Tuesday, was conducted by the Italian academic Prof Silvia Cerisola of the Polytechnic of Milan, who has carried out similar studies across Europe. This time she has drawn on not only her own methodology but also on other recent analyses of cultural value across England. Comparing data on local heritage sites and on the presence of listed buildings against wider census and business information on industry and commerce, Cerisola and her team have established what they call “a significant step forward” in proving the strength of arguments regularly deployed on behalf of the creative and heritage sectors. “In particular,” the report concludes, “cultural heritage came out to be a determinant of economic creativity, which in turn – when interacting with artistic and scientific creativity – favours economic development.” skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Observed Free weekly newsletter Analysis and opinion on the week's news and culture brought to you by the best Observer writers Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion View image in fullscreen Board room in the refurbished Hastings building. Photograph: Courtesy of the Observer Building The report also suggests that regions with high levels of creative talent perform better at wealth creation. One example is the regeneration of the former home of the Hastings Observer in Sussex, a 1924 building which has been unoccupied since 1985 and which, after £6.7m of investment, including £3m from one of Historic England’s High Streets Heritage Action Zone grants, now offers 64 creative workspaces and a refurbished board room for meetings and events. Mendoza believes the wider implications are just as clear. “The results show how important our built heritage really is as a magnet for creative industries, and how much it brings to the table,” he said. “It is a signal that we should see our heritage as a vital influencer of creativity and economic growth, and one of our country’s core strengths.”
Labour go-ahead for march of the pylons promises to spark conflict None - Within weeks, work is expected to begin on a 121-mile (195-kilometre) clean energy “superhighway” designed to channel green electricity from Scotland’s rich renewable resources to the north of England. The industry regulator Ofgem is expected to give the green light for work to begin on the first section of the multibillion-pound high-voltage cable project, Eastern Green Link (EGL), in the coming days. Ofgem’s approval for a second section is expected to follow within weeks. By the autumn, construction is expected to begin on what will be one of Britain’s biggest power grid projects, carrying enough green electricity along the east coast of Britain, mostly under the sea, to power 4m homes by 2029. The first section to gain approval – officially phase 2 of EGL – will be built by National Grid in partnership with the energy company SSE and run from Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, to Wilsthorpe on the Yorkshire coast near Bridlington. The second project expected to be greenlit – EGL phase 1 – will link the Torness area in East Lothian to the Hawthorn Pit in County Durham, constructed by National Grid and Scottish Power. The scale of the project is expected to double in the years to come as EGL’s third and fourth phases form the electrical backbone of Britain’s future green electricity system. “The scale of these projects is absolutely massive,” said one industry source. The size of EGL matches the scale of the challenge ahead in creating an electricity system fit for a net-zero future. It is one of 26 critical energy infrastructure schemes, worth an estimated £20bn, being fast-tracked by the regulator to meet Britain’s ambitious green energy targets. Under the new Labour government these targets are even more pressing: to create a net-zero electricity system by 2030, ministers plan to double the UK’s onshore wind, triple its solar power and quadruple its offshore wind capacity. This clean energy boom will require a big change in the UK’s approach to energy infrastructure, both in the speed and scale of the work and how it affects local communities. National Grid estimates that the UK will need to build five times more electricity infrastructure by 2030 than it has in the past three decades. But not everyone welcomes the change. The EGL undersea cables will require substations, converter stations and miles of overhead lines on land to connect the projects to Britain’s existing electricity grid. The energy companies have undertaken some of the most in-depth public consultation exercises ever seen in the sector to address concerns over the sharp increase in energy infrastructure across rural areas. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Observed Free weekly newsletter Analysis and opinion on the week's news and culture brought to you by the best Observer writers Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion People don’t seem prepared for the fact that this infrastructure is both very necessary and very visible Industry source “As a country we are trying to put as much of this new transmission as possible out at sea,” said an industry source. “But these cables do need to come ashore somewhere, and there needs to be the infrastructure in place to carry the power from the coast into people’s homes. This means substations, pylons and cables. It means more power lines and poles. And people don’t seem prepared for the fact that this infrastructure is both very necessary and very visible.” For SSE the green link project is one of four new critical national transmission schemes across the north of Scotland that will enable the supply of clean energy to homes and businesses around Great Britain. It believes that its public consultation on the projects amounts to “one of the biggest listening exercises in Scotland’s history”. The company has directly contacted nearly 300,000 people within six miles of the proposed projects to have their say in more than 220 consultation events and public meetings. It estimates that more than 10,000 people attended and it has received more than 12,000 written responses. Lesley Dow, SSE’s head of community engagement, said the company was working to balance “the clear need for these projects to deliver energy security and net zero” with community concerns and technical and environmental constraints. “This balance is by no means easily reached, but by listening closely to communities we have already made significant changes to project plans, including moving substation locations and altering overhead line routes,” she said. This level of public engagement will need to be replicated across the major infrastructure projects needed across the country as the UK moves towards becoming a net-zero economy by 2050. “Most people in the UK are not used to seeing where their electricity comes from,” the source added. “In the past it was possible to keep a few giant power plants from view by basing them far from the most populated areas. But in a low-carbon world we’ll need a lot more electricity, and we’ll rely on a lot more energy projects to get it. This won’t be inconspicuous.”
Ariana Ramsey's Paris Olympics TikTok videos make case for free healthcare None - The Olympics have come to an end after what feels like an exceptionally triumphant two weeks. Paris 2024 is being hailed by some as the best Olympics we’ve ever seen, in terms of production, ratings and the overall quality of competition. It was certainly triumphant for the United States, which finishes the Games atop the leaderboard in overall medals and tied with China for first in golds. Between Team USA basketball, the USWNT, Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, track and field — these Olympics were a showcase of excellence and at times redemption for the Americans. At a time of great division, for two weeks at least, we were all patriots. Major sporting events serve to distract from a country’s very real problems, whether it’s political turmoil, human rights abuses or the struggles of everyday people to pay for housing or healthcare. But the Olympics have always presented a profound dilemma to me, as someone who has covered sport through a critical lens for more than a decade. (Shameless plug: There’s an entire chapter in my book about this very dilemma.) I absolutely adore the Olympics — the joy, the spectacle, and most of all, the all-too-rare showcasing of women’s sports. But historically, they’ve been a hotbed for corruption and bribery, cost overruns, doping scandals, environmental havoc, militarized policing, population displacement and sportswashing — when major sporting events serve to distract from a country’s very real problems, whether it’s political turmoil, human rights abuses or the struggles of everyday people to pay for housing or health care. It’s that last part I find myself thinking about now that the Games are over, as we all return to the reality of the challenges we face at home. The Olympics highlighted many issues we can’t just ignore through gold-colored glasses. The USA Water Polo team was among the feel-good stories of the competition, with Flavor Flav becoming its No. 1 hype man, lending his star power and his dollars to the women’s team in particular. But let’s not lose sight of why he felt he had to get involved in the first place: It was in response to Maggie Steffen’s Instagram post calling for increased financial support. Steffens noted that most athletes work second and third jobs to fund their journeys to the Olympic stage. For two weeks every four years, we exalt these athletes as the best examples of American excellence; we proudly uphold them as star-spangled avatars for all of us; we point to every medal as evidence that we are indeed the greatest country in the world. But once the Olympics are over, we largely leave these athletes to fend for themselves, implying that the glory and privilege of representing our nation should be enough. That dynamic was especially stark in the case of discus thrower Veronica Fraley, who posted on social media that she was struggling to pay her rent the day before she was set to compete. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian saw the post and sent her money, and her GoFundMe page has raised more than her $20,000 goal since the story went viral. It was a lovely gesture. But athletes shouldn’t have to rely on the benevolence of wealthy, celebrity fans or crowdsourcing just to make ends meet, especially not when the institutions they play for are benefiting so much from their achievements. It’s indicative of a broader trend we’re seeing with everyday Americans. Stories abound detailing people with catastrophic medical conditions in dire financial straits who were only able to survive due to the kindness of strangers. Some medical professionals actively recommend crowdsourcing as a way to pay for medical bills, to the point where The Atlantic declared GoFundMe “a health care utility.” USA Rugby player Ariana Ramsey went viral for using her time in Paris to take advantage of the free healthcare provided in the Olympic Village. The heartwarming headlines from the Olympics and the generosity of people like Flavor Flav, Ohanian and smaller GoFundMe donors are billed as feel-good stories, but they also serve to placate us into accepting the current state of things. But if anything, these Olympics demonstrated firsthand that it doesn’t have to be this way. USA Rugby player Ariana Ramsey went viral for using her time in Paris to take advantage of the free health care provided in the Olympic Village. Ramsey was astounded to walk into the clinic and receive basic preventative care like pap smears and teeth cleaning at no cost. “I haven’t had an eye exam in a really long time,” Ramsey told The Washington Post. “So, I was like: Why not get one if it’s going to be completely free? I don’t have to worry about trying to find a primary care practitioner who takes my insurance.” All the medals in the world can’t obscure the fact that the United States is the only high-income country without universal health care. So, as we come down from our Olympic high and continue to celebrate our beloved athletes (I would run through a brick wall for Jordan Chiles), let’s stop to think about the things that truly make a country great. Access to health care, education, voting, personal safety, freedom to love, the pillars of democracy — they’re worth their weight in gold.
Trump cites Judge Cannon in seeking compensation for the Mar-a-Lago search None - U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon and the Supreme Court have already helped Donald Trump in his criminal cases. Now he's using them to support his request for civil damages, too. A lawyer for the former president is citing Cannon and the justices in a filing that serves as a precursor to a possible federal lawsuit stemming from the 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago property and subsequent charges for alleged unlawful retention of national defense information and obstruction. The filing may be best understood as a political document — claiming, as it does, “political persecution” against the GOP presidential nominee. But it’s notable how it leans on Trump’s own judicial appointees to justify that persecution narrative — even if closer inspection reveals that their rulings might not support this civil effort, however much they have helped him in his criminal cases. Cannon dismissed the classified documents case last month on the grounds that special counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed and funded — a decision that Smith is challenging on appeal. The former president also invokes the recent Supreme Court ruling granting broad presidential immunity from prosecution, arguing in support of his civil “malicious prosecution” claim that: As former U.S. Court of Appeals Judge and now-Attorney General Merrick Garland should have foreseen, President Trump had immunity from prosecution for official acts. As such, given the Supreme Court’s immunity decision and Judge Cannon’s dismissal of the prosecution on grounds that the Special Counsel’s appointment violated the appointments clause and his office was funded through an improper appropriation, there was no constitutional basis for the search or the subsequent indictment. That argument is a little difficult to follow. Putting aside the relevance of Garland’s legal foresight, the Supreme Court broke new ground last month with a new (and vague) presidential immunity test. Whatever anyone might have guessed the court would do ahead of time, it wasn’t apparent until long after Mar-a-Lago was searched and Trump was charged. Plus, while the high court said that presidents get at least some immunity for official acts, that ruling came in the federal election interference case — not in the classified documents case, whose charges relate to Trump’s post-presidency conduct. Cannon likewise broke new ground last month when she dismissed the classified documents case. But that ruling didn’t deal with the underlying merits of the prosecution or the court-approved search that Trump complains of in his civil filing. There’s also the fact that it’s a trial-level ruling currently on appeal. Even if it survives appeal, it’s still difficult to see how Cannon’s decision on Smith’s appointment and funding calls into question the Mar-a-Lago search, which predated Smith’s appointment. Trump also cites Cannon and the immunity ruling in his civil “abuse of process” claim — his third argument, in addition to malicious prosecution and “intrusion upon seclusion” (essentially, an invasion of privacy claim). In making his abuse of process argument, Trump’s counsel writes that “the lack of appropriations, a lack of a constitutionally appropriate appointment, and the unconstitutional nature of prosecuting an immune former President reflect the misuse of the prosecutorial process for an inappropriate — that is, a political — end.” But again, even if the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling somehow affects the classified documents case, and even if Cannon’s dismissal is upheld on appeal, it’s unclear how these rulings — which came after Trump was searched and charged — signal legal abuse in retrospect. There’s more to say about this new civil filing, and it’s unclear if it will turn into a full lawsuit or what will come of it if it does. The reason that it doesn’t go straight into court is that this sort of legal action against the federal government, under the Federal Tort Claims Act, starts with filing a notice to the agency involved — here, the Department of Justice, which can respond within six months. Trump claims $15 million in compensatory damages for alleged harm from legal costs, and $100 million in punitive damages (though, perhaps importantly if this moves forward, courts have noted that punitive damages aren’t available in FTCA cases). Whatever the outcome of this development, if it does go to court, it could test the degree to which Trump's luck in some of his criminal cases may extend to a civil case. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for updates and expert analysis on the top legal stories. The newsletter will return to its regular weekly schedule when the Supreme Court’s next term kicks off in October.
Was the Trump campaign hacked by Iran? Americans deserve more answers None - Politico reported Saturday that last month it began receiving internal documents, reportedly assessed as authentic by two knowledgeable sources, that seem to have been hacked from within the Trump campaign. Also on Saturday, The Washington Post revealed that it had received similar documents two days before. The Trump campaign issued a statement Saturday asserting that it had been hacked and blamed Iran. As a former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, I have questions. As a former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, I have questions. The documents in question reportedly include a 271-page research document containing the results of Trump’s vetting of vice presidential nominee JD Vance. Forbes referred to that document as Vance’s “dirty laundry dossier,” implying that it might contain information painting Vance in a more unfavorable light than the struggling candidate is already in. Politico provided intriguing details of the email it received offering the material: “The person said they had a ‘variety of documents from [Trump’s] legal and court documents to internal campaign discussions.’ Asked how they had obtained the documents, the person responded: ‘I suggest you don’t be curious about where I got them from. Any answer to this question, will compromise me and also legally restricts you from publishing them.’” Here are three questions that should be foremost on our minds as we process this alleged foreign attack on our election process. First, could it be true? Reports of the hack are eerily consistent with a report Friday from the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center. Microsoft said Iran had “launched operations that Microsoft assesses are designed to gain intelligence on political campaigns and help enable them to influence the elections in the future.” The Microsoft report then gets even more specific: “The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign from the compromised email account of a former senior advisor.” That scenario reportedly matches the description of what happened to Trump’s campaign. Microsoft said it “notified those targeted.” Trump, on his Truth Social platform, said he was the person Microsoft had notified. Trump and Microsoft aren’t the only ones pointing to Iran. Just last month, the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) publicly warned us of Iran’s intentions to influence the U.S. presidential election and to sow discord in America. When it comes to trying to mess with our election, this isn’t Iran’s first rodeo. According to a declassified ODNI report, in 2020 Iran “carried out a multi-pronged covert influence campaign intended to undercut former President Trump’s reelection prospects.” As that election approached, Facebook announced it had disrupted Iranian and Russian operations aimed at U.S. election interference. Iran has the motive and means to carry out a cyber hack against the Trump campaign. The country wants revenge for Trump’s 2020 decision to assassinate top Qods Force general, Qassem Soleimani, by missile strike as he arrived in Baghdad. In fact, Iran doesn’t seek to simply eliminate Trump as a candidate but to eliminate him altogether. After the attempted assassination of Trump last month at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, we learned that U.S. intelligence agencies had detected an Iranian plot to kill the former president. On Aug. 6, a Pakistani man with ties to Iran was arrested by the FBI on charges of plotting to assassinate a U.S. official not yet publicly identified. On Aug. 6, a Pakistani man with ties to Iran was arrested by the FBI on charges of plotting to assassinate a U.S. official not yet publicly identified. Second, what are the reasons to doubt that the documents were hacked by Iran? Despite all the evidence pointing to Iran, we don’t yet have the proverbial smoking gun, or laptop, in the hands of an Iranian operative. That kind of evidence may come soon, but in the interim, we might ask what else could have happened here? After all, the fruits of a successful state-sponsored malware attack against a presidential nominee ending up in the hands of a solely digital political newsroom might seem a bit, well, weird. And, while Politico may have been figuring out what to do with its unsolicited “gift,” whoever had possession of the documents may have grown impatient and forwarded it to the more traditional influencer, The Washington Post. Could someone within the Trump campaign have leaked the documents, and why? Well, a document containing potentially injurious details on the fledgling vice presidential pick could bolster calls for his ouster. Trump can’t like the fact that he has had to increasingly defend his choice of Vance. At least one former Trump staffer insists that Trump has to replace Vance, who has already been labeled a “historically unpopular pick.” Two things can be true at the same time. Iran is intent on interfering with our next election. Yet, could it also be true that, having been warned by Microsoft of the Iranian threat, someone with the Trump campaign decided to leverage that knowledge and leak some embarrassing data about Vance, then blame Iran? We don’t yet know the timing of Microsoft’s notification to Iran’s target, but we know Microsoft started spotting Iran’s efforts against the campaign in June. The hack, or appearance thereof, also allows Trump to play the victim — a role he seems to relish. If things don’t go his way in November, don’t be surprised if Trump blames Iran, the U.S. Intelligence Community, Politico and The Washington Post for his demise. Third, why should we care? The hack, or appearance thereof, also allows Trump to play the victim — a role he seems to relish. Word of the Iran hacking allegation immediately triggered a tsunami of skepticism and even outright rejection of the claim across social media. The disbelief is understandable. Trump is a polished pro at lies and deceit, and the public, even when equipped with the latest intelligence on Iran’s cyber efforts, knows it can’t take anything Trump says at face value. The U.S. intelligence community is feverishly working to thwart foreign power attempts to disrupt our election. The FBI said it was “aware of the media reporting” on the Trump campaign incident, but declined to comment. That’s why I’m calling on the Trump campaign to fully cooperate with any FBI investigation of the alleged Iranian attack, if it isn’t cooperating already. The FBI should be as transparent as possible with its findings — given the constraints of classified details — as quickly as possible. If our intelligence agencies determine that Iran really did compromise the campaign of a major party's presidential nominee, and we’ve reached the point where we’re so distrustful that we can’t rally against a foreign adversary’s attack on our processes, the adversary wins. We know that the Department of Justice is already reticent to do anything that might affect the outcome of an election this close to Election Day, even including the opening of a counterintelligence or criminal investigation “related to politically sensitive individuals and entities.” But, not letting us know if a nominee — any nominee — has or has not been allegedly attacked by a foreign power may have the unintended consequence of depriving us of information we need to assess before we vote.
Trump's false claims about A.I. crowd photos are incredibly ironic None - Seemingly stumped in efforts to stem the energy surrounding Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, Donald Trump is asking voters not to believe what they can see with their own eyes. In social media posts shared Sunday, Trump falsely accused the Harris campaign of using artificial intelligence to generate images of large crowds at her events. “Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport? There was nobody at the plane, and she ‘A.I.’d’ it, and showed a massive ‘crowd’ of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform. He continued, saying, “She’s a CHEATER. She had NOBODY waiting, and the ‘crowd’ looked like 10,000 people! Same thing is happening with her fake ‘crowds’ at her speeches. This is the way the Democrats win Elections, by CHEATING.” To be clear: the crowds were real. The TruthSocial post included an image from a Detroit-area airport rally that drew thousands of people, as NBC News reported. And while Trump said there was “nobody at the plane” when she arrived, you can see her being greeted by a large crowd as she steps off her plane in footage captured by NBC News. You can also see an image of her plane being welcomed by a large crowd here. And a Getty photographer confirmed the large crowd to The Daily Beast. Trump is no stranger to getting crowd size wrong. He's notoriously obsessed with inflating the crowds at his own events. And his claim that Harris was waving at nobody is particularly rich considering he's the one who has been captured in a video appearing to wave at nonexistent crowds in footage his campaign has shared to give the impression he’s immensely popular. It's also ironic that Trump is claiming that Harris is sharing A.I.-generated images for political gain when he and his followers have done that. In one example, he used his social media platform to share an image that appeared to depict him praying in a church, only for the image to be called out as fake after people noticed he had six fingers on both hands. And Trump’s followers have shared other A.I.-generated images depicting him around Black people to give the impression he’s popular among Black folks. So his claims about Harris fit his pattern of accusing other people of doing things he has done. But they also speak to his desperation over Harris’ apparent popularity, his increasingly public detachment from reality and his disturbing command that his followers join him in that delusion to undermine faith in democracy. If he can convince his supporters that the photographs are fake, it's a short step to convincing them that any votes for her in November are bogus, too.
Céline Dion rebukes Trump use of ‘Titanic’ song None - Céline Dion has joined the long list of musicians who have rebuked the use of their music at Donald Trump’s campaign events. After a video of Dion performing her hit song “My Heart Will Go On” was shown at Trump’s rally in Bozeman, Montana, on Friday, the Canadian singer expressed her disapproval in a statement posted on X. “Today, Celine Dion’s management team and her record label, Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc., became aware of the unauthorized usage of the video, recording, musical performance, and likeness of Celine Dion singing ‘My Heart Will Go On’ at a Donald Trump / JD Vance campaign rally in Montana,” Dion posted. “In no way is this use authorized, and Celine Dion does not endorse this or any similar use. …And really, THAT song?” The romantic ballad, released as the theme to the 1997 film “Titanic,” is an odd choice for a political rally, as campaigns generally avoid imagery of sinking ships. The romantic ballad, released as the theme to the 1997 film “Titanic,” is an odd choice for a political rally, as campaigns generally avoid imagery of sinking ships. The campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris took note of the irony, posting a video of the song playing at the rally with the caption, “Trump campaign plays the theme from the Titanic at his rally.” The song was in keeping with Trump's more unorthodox approach to campaign music, which ranges from the usual patriotic anthems such as Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” to unexpected picks such as the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and musical theater numbers from “The Phantom of the Opera.” That wide-ranging taste has also gotten Trump in trouble. Since 2016, many prominent musicians have disavowed Trump’s use of their music at his campaign events — so many, in fact, that there’s a Wikipedia page titled “Musicians who oppose Donald Trump’s use of their music.” Dion reportedly turned down an invitation to perform at Trump’s inauguration in 2017.
BREAKING: Trump plans to sue DOJ over Mar-a-Lago search None - Former President Trump informed the Department of Justice that he intends to sue them over the Mar-a-Lago search. MSNBC's Lisa Rubin joins Ana Cabrera to break down the legal analysis and to explain what's next.Aug. 12, 2024
Republicans’ 2024 case has three pillars. All three are collapsing. None - Giving Donald Trump advice is much like attempting to steer a hurricane — neither will change course. Yet that hasn’t stopped Republicans from offering the former president what they think is a simple prescription to reverse Vice President Kamala Harris’ momentum: Stick to the issues. Trump’s campaign “has sought to attack her on policy grounds while casting her as unfit,” reports The Washington Post. “The policy- and issue-related attacks would get more traction,” Republican pollster Neil Newhouse told The New York Times. But there’s a problem. The GOP’s policy argument against Democrats is built on three pillars: inflation, immigration and crime. Yet on all three fronts, the Republican case is collapsing. Last month, the Border Patrol made 56,000 apprehensions, the lowest since the fall of 2020. One of these pillars, crime, was admittedly in shoddy shape well before 2024. When Americans understandably worried about crime rates spiking during the pandemic, Republicans pounced on the issue. Even though crime rose in liberal- and conservative-run cities and states alike, the GOP hoped to reuse its old “soft on crime” playbook from the late 20th century to put Democrats on the back foot. Then crime rates fell in 2021 — and 2022 and 2023. Most recently, Justice Department data shows a 15% drop in violent crime in the first three months of 2024. According to the Major Cities Chiefs Association, the murder rate in nearly 70 large U.S. cities is down more than 8% since Trump left office. GOP attempts to run on reducing crime were always going to be complicated after their presidential nominee was convicted of 34 felony counts. But the data should make it impossible. I say “should” because for Trump, crime isn’t really about crime; it’s about Black and brown people doing crime. Crime and immigration are essentially inseparable to him — and indeed the entire right-wing media machine. And with unlawful border crossings much higher for most of President Joe Biden’s tenure than under other recent presidents, conservative attacks on immigration have gone into overdrive. So worried were Senate Democrats that earlier this year they reached a border agreement with their Republican counterparts heavily tilted toward GOP priorities. Then Trump killed the deal at the last minute anyway so he could keep campaigning on the issue. Instead, Biden issued an executive action that heavily restricted the number of asylum-seekers allowed to remain in the U.S. But even before Biden announced that new policy, unlawful crossings were already declining. Last month, the Border Patrol made 56,000 apprehensions, the lowest since the fall of 2020. “Shelters on the southern U.S. border and in some major cities that were inundated with migrants a year ago say they are seeing sharp declines in migrants seeking refuge,” reported NBC News on Friday, “some reporting drops as high as 60% in just the past few months.” Republicans’ best hope was that the former president could win the same way he did in 2016: in spite of himself. How long this decline continues remains to be seen. The U.S. is counting on Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum, to continue that country’s stepped-up enforcement against non-Mexican immigrants trying to reach the countries’ border. And as Dara Lind wrote for MSNBC about Biden’s action soon after it was announced, “generally, a crackdown engenders a ‘wait and see’ period [among would-be migrants] of a few weeks or months,” after which “the deterrent effect fades.” Our immigration system needs a complete overhaul, including far more resources. But for the moment, Democrats will take the good news. That leaves the most important issue to voters: inflation. Sustained inflation rates not seen in years provided Biden’s greatest political obstacle aside from his age. Though polls show voters trust Harris far more than Biden on the issue, the GOP would like to change that. Republicans have wildly overstated how much fault lies with government spending, when corporate price hikes and Covid-induced supply shocks deserve far more of the blame. But they had every reason to be confident in using the issue as a cudgel against the Democrats. “You have people dying financially because they can’t buy bacon,” Trump claimed (wrongly) at his low-energy press conference Thursday. “They can’t buy food, they can’t buy groceries, they can’t do anything.” Yet even shortly after inflation’s peak, the GOP underperformed in the 2022 midterms — suggesting voters didn’t believe that electing Republicans would slow the rise in prices. With each passing month, the case has weakened: In June 2023, the annual rate of inflation dropped to 3%, where it has hovered ever since. The consumer price index dropped 0.1% between May and June, the first month-to-month decline since the pandemic. Even mortgage rates — which are not included in inflation statistics but are a key cost for millions of prospective homebuyers and sellers — hit a 15-month low last week. By itself, the declining rate of inflation might not be enough. Millions of Americans still struggle furiously to make ends meet. But Trump has further undermined his own party by refusing to walk back his calls for sweeping tariffs — 10% on all imports and 60% on Chinese-made goods. (He has even suggested using tariffs to replace income taxes.) Economists on both the left and right say these tariffs would only exacerbate inflation. Add it all together, and the GOP case on inflation has become as laughable as the idea that Trump has ever done his own grocery shopping. Not since the early years of the Great Depression has news cut so uniformly against one party’s case for power. Republicans’ best hope was that the former president could win the same way he did in 2016: in spite of himself. With roughly three months to go, there’s still time for some news event to change matters, as Jim Comey’s letter did in 2016. But as of now, real-world trends won’t save Trump. Given his tenuous relationship to reality, that’s entirely appropriate.
Federal prosecutors charge ex-Los Angeles County deputies in sham raid and $37M extortion None - Federal prosecutors have charged two former Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and two former foreign military officials with threatening a Chinese national and his family with violence and deportation during a sham raid at his Orange County home LOS ANGELES -- Two former Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and two former foreign military officials have been charged with threatening a Chinese national and his family with violence and deportation during a sham raid at his Orange County home five years ago, federal prosecutors said Monday. The four men also demanded $37 million and the rights to the man's business, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles. Authorities have not released the businessman’s name. The men were arraigned Monday on charges of conspiracy to commit extortion, attempted extortion, conspiracy against rights, and deprivation of rights under color of law. All pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors said the group drove to the victim's house in Irvine on June 17, 2019, and forced him, his wife and their two children into a room for hours, took their phones, and threatened to deport him unless he complied with their demands. Authorities said the man is a legal permanent resident. The men slammed the businessman against a wall and choked him, prosecutors said. Fearing for his and his family's safety, he signed documents relinquishing his multimillion-dollar interest in Jiangsu Sinorgchem Technology Co. Ltd., a China-based company that makes rubber chemicals. Federal prosecutors said the man's business partner, a Chinese woman who was not indicted, financed the bogus raid. The two had been embroiled in legal disputes over the company in the United States and China for more than a decade, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said one of the men charged, Steven Arthur Lankford — who retired from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in 2020 — searched for information on the victim in a national database using a terminal at the sheriff's department. They said Lankford, 68, drove the other three men to the victim's house in an unmarked sheriff’s department vehicle, flashed his badge and identified himself as a police officer. It was not immediately clear if Lankford has an attorney who can speak on his behalf. The Associated Press left a message Monday at a telephone number listed for Lankford, but he did not respond. Federal prosecutors also charged Glen Louis Cozart, 63, of Upland, who also used to be a sheriff’s deputy. The AP left a phone message for Cozart, but he didn't immediately respond. Lankford was hired by Cozart, who in turn was hired by Max Samuel Bennett Turbett, a 39-year-old U.K. citizen and former member of the British military who also faces charges. Prosecutors said Turbett was hired by the Chinese businesswoman who financed the bogus raid. Matthew Phillip Hart, 41, an Australian citizen and former member of the Australian military, is also charged in the case. “It is critical that we hold public officials, including law enforcement officers, to the same standards as the rest of us,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. “It is unacceptable and a serious civil rights violation for a sworn police officer to take the law into his own hands and abuse the authority of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.” If convicted, the four men could each face up to 20 years in federal prison.
Vance backs Trump's support for a presidential 'say' on Federal Reserve's interest rate policy None - JD Vance has endorsed former President Donald Trump’s call for the White House to have “a say” over the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policies — a view that runs counter to decades of economic research suggesting that politically independent central ... WASHINGTON -- JD Vance has endorsed former President Donald Trump's call for the White House to have “a say” over the Federal Reserve's interest rate policies — a view that runs counter to decades of economicresearch suggesting that politically independent central banks are essential to controlling inflation and maintaining confidence in the global financial system. “President Trump is saying I think something that’s really important and actually profound, which is that the political leadership of this country should have more say over the monetary policy of this country,” the Republican vice presidential nominee said in an interview over the weekend. “I agree with him." Last week, during a news conference, Trump responded to a question about the Fed by saying, “I feel the president should have at least a say in there, yeah, I feel that strongly.” Economists have long stressed that a Fed that is legally independent from elected officials is vital because politicians would almost always prefer for the central bank to keep interest rates low to juice the economy — even at the risk of igniting inflation. “The independence of the Fed is something that not just economists, or investors, but citizens should place a high value on,” said Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at Northern Trust, a wealth management firm. Tannenbaum pointed to the recent experience of Turkey, where the autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdogan forced the nation’s central bank to cut rates in response to inflation, with “horrible results.” Inflation spiked above 65% before Erdogan appointed different leaders to the central bank, who have since raised its key rate to 50% — nearly ten times the Fed’s current rate of 5.3%. By adjusting its short-term interest rate, the Fed influences borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, including for mortgages, auto loans and credit card borrowing. It can raise its rate, as it did aggressively in 2022 and 2023, to cool spending and slow inflation. The Fed also often cuts its rate to encourage borrowing, spending, and growth. At the outset of the pandemic, it cut its rate to near zero. On Saturday, Vice President Kamala Harris said she couldn’t “disagree more strongly" with Trump's view. “The Fed is an independent entity, and, as president, I would never interfere in the decisions that the Fed makes,” she said. President Richard Nixon's pressure on Fed Chair Arthur Burns to keep rates low leading up to the 1972 presidential election has been widely blamed for accelerating rampant inflation that wasn't fully controlled until the early 1980s, under Chair Paul Volcker. Tannenbaum warned of potentially serious consequences if the Trump-Vance proposal for the White House to have some role in Fed policymaking were to take effect. “If it does carry through to proposed legislation ... that’s when I think you would begin to see the market reaction that would be very negative,” he said. “If we ignore the history around monetary policy independence, then we may be doomed to repeat it.” Trump has a combative history with the Fed's current chair, Jerome Powell, whom Trump appointed in 2018. As Powell oversaw a series of modest interest rate hikes in 2018, Trump began attacking him, calling Powell “my biggest threat” that October after the stock market fell sharply. In 2019, the Fed began to cut rates amid a slowdown in manufacturing and uncertainty over the impact of Trump's trade fight with China. In August that year, he asked on social media whether Powell was a greater enemy than China's president Xi Jinping. He later ridiculed Fed officials as “boneheads. ” As COVID ravaged the economy in 2020, Trump attacked Powell for not cutting rates fast enough, and said he could fire Powell, though his legal power to do so is unclear. “I used to have it out with him, I had it out with him a couple of times very strongly,” Trump said last week. "I fought him very hard. We get along fine.” Historically, it has been common for many presidents, from Harry Truman through Ronald Reagan, to press Fed chairs to cut rates or to refrain from hiking them, though they typically did so in private meetings. Starting with President Bill Clinton in 1993, however, for about a quarter-century until Trump, presidents took a hands-off approach, said Sarah Binder, a political scientist at George Washington University and author of a book on Fed independence. “Presidents really restrained themselves,” she said. “They didn’t talk about monetary policy. They didn’t talk about interest rates. They were convinced that maybe if they just kept their mouth shut, the Fed would do the right thing.” When Trump attacked Powell in 2018 and 2019, the Fed chair received public and private support from members of Congress, including Republicans. But that was partly because the economy was doing well, Binder noted. When the economy struggles, she said, criticism of the Fed is often more widespread. Should Trump win re-election and the economy were to sour, it's hard to know whether members of Congress would defend Powell again. “If the economy is much worse off, the question is, who comes to the Fed's defense?" Binder asked. “And I think that's really financial markets. They're really the ones that are going to react in real time to what Trump is threatening to do."
Google and Selena Gomez partner to fund teen mental health in the classroom None - The unprecedented mental health crisis for children in the United States often surfaces where they spend much of their days: school The unprecedented mental health crisis for children in the United States often surfaces where they spend much of their days: school. With that in mind, Google’s philanthropic arm is directly financing high school wellbeing projects on a classroom crowdfunding platform. Google.org on Monday flash funded all mental health-related listings on DonorsChoose, an online charity where members help purchase supplies requested by public school teachers. With $10 million in new gifts and the help of actress Selena Gomez, the Silicon Valley giant hopes to center mindfulness as an educational goal at the start of the academic calendar. Districts have turned to teachers for psychological help after the coronavirus pandemic brought alarming levels of childhood depression, anxiety and fights. But experts say that increased attention has not translated to more philanthropic money overall toward mental health. Google.org committed earlier this year to back nonprofits that support kids’ mental health and online safety. Monday’s announcement — which will also provide $500 vouchers for eligible DonorsChoose campaigns in the near future — ups that pledge to $25 million. The move comes amid widespread criticism and lawsuits claiming Google-owned YouTube and other social media sites have fueled the childhood mental health crisis by deliberately designing addictive features. Justin Steele, Google.org’s Director for the America, said its initiative highlights Google’s efforts to lead this “important conversation” and “be one part of contributing to positive solutions.” Its internet browser’s own data has showcased the rising interest; Steele said searches for “teen mental health” doubled over the last four years. “Obviously, we want people to be able to take advantage of all the amazing things technology has to offer,” Steele said. “But we also want them to be able to do it in a healthy and safe way.” Google.org is giving $6 million overall to DonorsChoose. The technology company also announced $1.5 million in donations to the Jed Foundation, the Steve Fund and Child Mind Institute — groups focused on emotional wellbeing among young adults, people of color and children, respectively. The organizations will design half-hour training sessions to help educators navigate new mental health challenges. Teachers can earn $200 DonorsChoose credits upon course completion. Gomez’s Rare Impact Fund, which seeks to drive more money into this “underfunded field,” is receiving $1.25 million. The “Only Murders in the Building” star has been vocal about her own bipolar diagnosis. In a Monday blog post, Gomez said she knows firsthand that “caring adults” can make a big difference for teenagers. “As young people find their way through the world, it’s crucial that they get guidance in building healthy, positive and productive mental health habits,” Gomez wrote. “Few people are in a better position to help do this than teachers.” The need to address behavioral issues in high school was further emphasized by a recent report from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Students said they faced bullying and missed school due to safety concerns at higher rates than previous years in data released August 6. Yes, Mindful Philanthropy Executive Director Alyson Niemann acknowledged, the greater focus on mental health has brought minimal funding boosts for nonprofits in this space. But she said the dollars don’t match the new levels of awareness. One major barrier is that donors don’t know which solutions work, according to Niemann. School-based mental health support is one of the most effective remedies, she said. That’s where many students begin the path to treatment and find trusted adults in teachers or coaches. DonorsChoose CEO Alix Guerrier emphasized that teachers are not substitutes for mental health professionals. But he said DonorsChoose has seen a fourfold increase over the past four years in the number of mental health submissions. Such requests include saucer chairs for a “calm corner” and meditative stuffed animals that guide deep breathing. “There is no limit to teachers’ creativities," Guerrier said. Mental health has long been a priority for Aileen Gendrano Adao in her Los Angeles classrooms. The high school English teacher said she asks students to ground themselves with three deep breaths at the start of class. Wall posters affirm students’ self-worth. She said DonorsChoose gives her the freedom to creatively engage with students — especially when districts lack the money to meet needs that emerge in real time. As Asian Americans faced racially motivated attacks during the pandemic, she obtained graphic novels about Asian American identity. She hopes this additional funding encourages educators to prioritize mental health. “Schools are transforming in a way that’s needed and necessary to heal from post-pandemic chaos,” she said. “There’s an investment. People are seeing us and wanting us to be better and whole again. ___ Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.