Year: 2024

UAW reaches agreement on pay and safety at electric vehicle battery plant

UAW reaches agreement on pay and safety at electric vehicle battery plant

GM and Ultium released statements saying they were pleased with the deal. The union said it wants to use the Ultium Cells contract as a model to negotiate local deals at other battery plants that GM and its Detroit rivals are building. GM began production this year at a battery plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and has another under construction in Lansing, Michigan. Ford Motor plans two battery plants in Kentucky, one in Tennessee and one in Michigan. Stellantis, the maker of Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram vehicles, plans two battery plants in Indiana. Aside from a Ford location, these…
Read More
John Jaso gave up baseball to enjoy life on a boat

John Jaso gave up baseball to enjoy life on a boat

He also took several trips to Europe, discovering a passion for exploring his father's ancestral land in the Basque Country in northern Spain. And he drove a camper van around Australia and Indonesia. But the boat was his greatest pleasure. “I want my life to be simple and there's nothing simpler than being on a sailboat,” she said. “You treat the boat well and it treats you well. That's all. Before the pandemic, the Roaming Rose docked in Turks and Caicos. Due to travel restrictions, she was stuck there for nearly two years. When he was allowed to return to…
Read More
The young people have spoken: wallets are not cool.  Go digital.

The young people have spoken: wallets are not cool. Go digital.

In a survey that asked just over 2,500 Americans about digital payments, about 80% of Gen Z respondents said they use mobile wallets, and among them, half were eager to use their phone much more than pay, according to recent data. from Pymnts Intelligence, a research firm that studies trade. Younger people are increasingly using their phones for purposes that older adults would use a traditional wallet for, such as carrying around documents like driver's licenses, boarding passes and event tickets. Some of these digital items can be added to Apple and Google's Wallet apps, while others, like insurance cards,…
Read More
Crisis in the Middle East: The United States imposes sanctions on the Israeli group for blocking humanitarian convoys in Gaza

Crisis in the Middle East: The United States imposes sanctions on the Israeli group for blocking humanitarian convoys in Gaza

The State Department announced Friday that it will impose sanctions on a right-wing Israeli group that tried to prevent aid from reaching people in the Gaza Strip by blocking trucks traveling from Jordan to the coastal enclave.The department's statement said the sanctioned organization, Tzav 9, was "a violent Israeli extremist group that blocked, harassed and damaged convoys carrying life-saving humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza."Members of the group have tried for months to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza, the department said. They blocked roads on which aid trucks travel between Jordan and Gaza, including the West Bank, and…
Read More
BTS’s Jin completes military service

BTS’s Jin completes military service

K-pop juggernaut BTS is one step closer to a reunion. The first member of the boy band to enlist in South Korea's army, Jin, 31, was discharged Wednesday morning, BTS' label said. Over the next year, his bandmates are expected to complete their military service, which is required of nearly all South Korean men. BTS shocked their own army – as the seven-member group's fervent following is collectively known – in June 2022 when they said they would take time off to enlist. Jin, the group's oldest member, whose birth name is Kim Seok-jin, began his 18-month stint in the…
Read More
Google CEO testifies in Ozy Media founder’s fraud trial

Google CEO testifies in Ozy Media founder’s fraud trial

At the center of the federal criminal trial is an incident in 2021 in which Mr. Watson's deputy deceived Goldman Sachs employees on a fundraising call by posing as a YouTube executive. The revelation of the call precipitated Ozy's downfall. Defense lawyers for Mr. Watson and Ozy accused his deputy, Samir Rao, of the false phone call and of misrepresenting Ozy's financial details to potential investors. Ms. Frison said in her opening statement in May that Mr. Rao was “incompetent for the role he was filling.” Mr. Rao and Suzee Han, Ozy's former chief of staff, pleaded guilty last year…
Read More
Putin’s presidential planes: what we know

Putin’s presidential planes: what we know

When President Vladimir V. Putin travels abroad — as he did this week to North Korea and Vietnam to strengthen alliances and cultivate security ties amid Russia's war in Ukraine — he usually flies on Ilyushin Il-series jets 96 of Soviet design. With his latest trip coming shortly after plane crashes that killed two other world leaders, President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran and Vice President Saulos Chilima of Malawi, a Kremlin spokesperson found it necessary recently to reassure the Russian public that Putin's planes were “very reliable. “ Although Russian airlines have abandoned Ilyushin models in favor of new Western…
Read More
During Eid al-Adha, Gazans find little to celebrate

During Eid al-Adha, Gazans find little to celebrate

Now, due to the lack of electricity and higher costs in the markets, Abdul Aziz has to buy food every day, depending on what is available and what he can afford. But the party isn't the only thing he'll miss this year, he said. “There are family visits and gatherings, money is given to children, new clothes are bought for everyone, sweets are baked, Eid prayers are said,” he said. “None of this is feasible this year. Everyone is sad and has lost someone or something." Aya Ali Adwan, 26, had become engaged before the war began. Her wedding, set…
Read More
Spicy noodles and pickled fish: Chinese restaurants move to Hong Kong

Spicy noodles and pickled fish: Chinese restaurants move to Hong Kong

In the Shek Tong Tsui area, where Return Home Hunan opened in May, many of the brightly colored restaurants – once mainstays of the neighborhood – had recently closed their doors. A restaurant that served cheap noodles and milk tea was gone, as was a restaurant where retirees gathered to eat dim sum and catch up on the day's news. “The restaurant business is hard work,” said Roy Tse, the owner of a local restaurant that sold lunch rice dishes once popular among office workers in Hong Kong's Taikoo Shing business district. There are fewer visitors at lunchtime these days.…
Read More
The setback deals a severe blow to Neuralink’s first brain implant patient, but he remains optimistic

The setback deals a severe blow to Neuralink’s first brain implant patient, but he remains optimistic

All work is strictly regulated by the FDA, which evaluates the risks and benefits of the procedures and is expected to first consider the use of these devices in people with severe disabilities or degenerative diseases. (The agency did not comment specifically on Neuralink, but said it requires routine reporting of expected and unanticipated events in such studies.) Beyond that, researchers are divided over the prospect of widespread use by people without disabilities, who might want an implant to communicate without speaking or to download a language, as Musk has mused. Some researchers predict that availability for general consumers will…
Read More