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A machinists strike. Another safety problem involving its troubled top-selling airliner. A plunging stock price. 2024 was already a dispiriting year for Boeing, the American aviation giant. But when one of the company's jets crash-landed in South Korea on Sunday, killing all but two of the 181 people on board, it brought to a close an especially unfortunate year for Boeing. The cause of the crash remains under investigation, and aviation experts were quick to distinguish Sunday's incident from the company’s earlier safety problems. Alan Price, a former chief pilot at Delta Air Lines who is now a consultant, said it would be inappropriate to link the incident Sunday to two fatal crashes involving Boeing’s troubled 737 Max jetliner in 2018 and 2019. In January this year, a door plug blew off a 737 Max while it was in flight, raising more questions about the plane. Also read: Boeing expresses condolences as Jeju Air tragedy claims 94 lives in South Korea The Boeing 737-800 that crash-landed in Korea, Price noted, is “a very proven airplane. "It’s different from the Max ...It’s a very safe airplane.’’ For decades, Boeing has maintained a role as one of the giants of American manufacturing. But the the past year's repeated troubles have been damaging. The company's stock price is down more than 30% in 2024. The company's reputation for safety was especially tarnished by the 737 Max crashes, which occurred off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019 and left a combined 346 people dead. In the five years since then, Boeing has lost more than $23 billion. And it has fallen behind its European rival, Airbus, in selling and delivering new planes. Last fall, 33,000 Boeing machinists went on strike, crippling the production of the 737 Max, the company's bestseller, the 777 airliner and 767 cargo plane. The walkout lasted seven weeks, until members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers agreed to an offer that included 38% pay raises over four years. In January, a door plug blew off a 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight. Federal regulators responded by imposing limits on Boeing aircraft production that they said would remain in place until they felt confident about manufacturing safety at the company. In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud for deceiving the Federal Aviation Administration regulators who approved the 737 Max. Acting on Boeing’s incomplete disclosures, the FAA approved minimal, computer-based training instead of more intensive training in flight simulators. Simulator training would have increased the cost for airlines to operate the Max and might have pushed some to buy planes from Airbus instead. (Prosecutors said they lacked evidence to argue that Boeing’s deception had played a role in the crashes.) But the plea deal was rejected this month by a federal judge in Texas, Reed O’Connor, who decided that diversity, inclusion and equity or DEI policies in the government and at Boeing could result in race being a factor in choosing an official to oversee Boeing’s compliance with the agreement. Also read: 236 deaths, 6 horrific crashes: December a dark month for aviation industry Boeing has sought to change its culture. Under intense pressure over safety issues, David Calhoun departed as CEO in August. Since January, 70,000 Boeing employees have participated in meetings to discuss ways to improve safety.Investigators probing South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol over his short-lived declaration of martial law said Monday they sought an arrest warrant for the suspended president after he failed to report for questioning. Yoon briefly suspended civilian rule this month, plunging South Korea into its worst political crisis in decades. He was stripped of his presidential duties by parliament over the action, but a constitutional court ruling is pending on whether to confirm the impeachment. The conservative leader also faces criminal charges of insurrection, which could result in life imprisonment or even the death penalty. A former prosecutor himself, Yoon had been summoned three times by investigators for questioning, but refused to present himself each time — including by yesterday’s deadline. “The Joint Investigation Headquarters filed an arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk Yeol with the Seoul Western District Court”, said the probe team in a statement. The application by investigators marks the first attempt in the country’s history to forcibly detain a president before the impeachment procedure is complete. Yoon is being investigated by prosecutors as well as a joint team comprising police, defence ministry, and anti-corruption officials. A 10-page prosecutors’ report seen by AFP stated that Yoon authorised the military to fire weapons if needed to enter parliament during his failed martial law bid. Yoon’s lawyer Yoon Kab-keun had dismissed the prosecutors’ report, telling AFP it was “a one-sided account that neither corresponds to objective circumstances nor common sense”. – ‘Drag them out’ – Yoon declared martial law in an unannounced televised address on December 3, saying it was aimed at eliminating “anti-state elements”. Lawmakers rushed to parliament within minutes of the declaration to vote it down. At the same time, heavily armed troops stormed the building, scaling fences, smashing windows and landing by helicopter. According to the prosecution indictment report, Yoon told the chief of the capital defence command, Lee Jin-woo, that military forces could shoot if necessary to enter the National Assembly. “Have you still not got in? What are you doing? Break down the door and drag them out, even if it means shooting,” Yoon told Lee, according to the report. Yoon also allegedly told the head of the Defense Counterintelligence Command, General Kwak Jong-keun, to “quickly get inside” the National Assembly since the quorum for lifting the martial law declaration had not been met. “So quickly get inside the National Assembly and bring out the people inside the chamber, and break down the doors with an axe if necessary and drag everyone out,” the report quotes Yoon as saying at the time. The report also said there was evidence that Yoon had been discussing declaring martial law with senior military officials as early as March. As investigations began against Yoon, attempts by prosecutors to search his offices were blocked by the presidential security team. South Korea’s political turmoil deepened late last week when Yoon’s replacement, Han Duck-soo, was also impeached by parliament for failing to sign through bills for investigations into Yoon. Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok has taken over as the new acting president, and found himself thrust immediately into a disaster with the Jeju Air plane crash that claimed 179 lives. With 2,400 staff representing 100 different nationalities, AFP covers the world as a leading global news agency. AFP provides fast, comprehensive and verified coverage of the issues affecting our daily lives.
Thompson-Herro fight leads to ejections of multiple players and coaches in Heat's victory in HoustonDiVincenzo scores 26 to lead Timberwolves past Spurs 112-110 despite 34 points from Wembanyama
NoneLONDON (AP) — When had their say in 2024, their message was often: “You’re fired.” Some 70 countries that are home to half the world’s population held elections this year, and in many . From and to , and , voters tired of economic disruption and global instability rejected sitting governments — and sometimes turned to disruptive outsiders. The rocky democratic landscape just seemed to get bumpier as a dramatic year careened toward its end, with mass protests in and , an election and an attempt to impose Cas Mudde, a professor of international affairs at the University of Georgia who studies extremism and democracy, summed up 2024 in Prospect magazine as “a great year for the far right, a terrible year for incumbents and a troublesome year for democracy around the world.” Incumbents battered One message sent by voters in 2024: They’re fed up. University of Manchester political scientist Rob Ford has attributed the anti-incumbent mood to “electoral long COVID” -– lingering pandemic-related health, education, social and economic disruptions that have made millions of people unhappier and worse off. High inflation, fueled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and mass displacement from that war and conflicts in the Middle East and Africa have added to the global unease. In South Africa, high helped drive a dramatic loss of support for the African National Congress, which had governed for three decades since the end of the . The party lost its political dominance in May’s election and was forced to go into coalition with opposition parties. Incumbents also were defeated in Senegal, Ghana and , where voters ousted the party that had been in power for 58 years since independence from Britain. Namibia’s extended its 34 years in power in December -– but only by a whisker. Uruguay’s leftist opposition candidate, , became the country’s new president in a November runoff that delivered another rebuke to incumbents. In India, the world’s largest democracy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party lost its parliamentary majority in a shock election result in June after a decade of dominance. It was forced to govern in coalition as the opposition doubled its strength in Parliament. Japanese politics entered a new era of uncertainty after Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s governing Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled almost without interruption since 1955, suffered a major loss in October amid voter anger at party financial scandals. It now leads a minority government. The saw the right-of-center Conservatives ousted after 14 years in office as the center-left Labour Party swept to power in a landslide. But the results also revealed growing fragmentation: Support for the two big parties that have dominated British politics for a century shrank as voters turned to smaller parties, including the hard-right party Reform U.K. led by Nigel Farage. Authoritarians advance Britain is not alone in seeing a rise for the right. Elections in June for the parliament of the saw conservative populists and the far right rock ruling parties in France and Germany, the EU’s biggest and most powerful members. The anti-immigration National Rally party won the first round of in June, but alliances and tactical voting by the center and left knocked it down to third place in the second round, producing a and a fragile government that collapsed in a Dec. 4 no-confidence vote. In Austria, the conservative governing People’s Party was beaten by the far-right, pro-Russia Freedom Party in September, though other parties allied to keep it out of a coalition government. Nepotism and political dynasties continued to exert influence -– and to be challenged. After in February, Pakistan elected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, younger brother of three-time leader Nawaz Sharif. Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest democracy, elected , son-in-law of the late dictator . Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the world’s longest-serving female leader, won in a January election that . Months later, her 15-year rule came to a tumultuous end: After mass student-led protests in which hundreds were killed, Hasina was ousted in August and fled to India. In Sri Lanka, voters also rejected a discredited old guard. Voters elected the Marxist as president in September, two years after an island-wide public movement by an engaged middle class removed the long-ruling Rajapaksa clan. Interference allegations Covert meddling and online disinformation were growing concerns in 2024. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said that this year it took down 20 election-related “covert influence operations around the world, including in the Middle East, Asia, Europe and the U.S.” It said Russia was the top source of such meddling, followed by Iran and China. In Romania, far-right candidate Călin Georgescu came from nowhere to win the first round of the presidential election in November, aided in part by a flood of TikTok videos promoting his campaign. Amid allegations of Russian meddling, Romania’s runoff two days before it was due to take place after a trove of declassified intelligence alleged Russia organized a sprawling campaign across social media to promote Georgescu. No date has yet been set for a rerun. Moldova’s won a November runoff against her Moscow-friendly rival in an election seen as pivotal to the future of one of Europe’s poorest nations. Georgia has seen huge protests since an election in October was won by the pro-Moscow Georgian Dream party, which suspended negotiations on joining the European Union. The opposition and the pro-Western president, Salome Zourabichvili, have accused the governing party of rigging the vote with Russia’s help. Uncertainty reigns Possibly the year’s most seismic result, in November’s U.S. presidential election, has America’s allies and opponents bracing for what the unpredictable “America-first” leader will do with his second term. And instability already reigns on several continents as the year ends. Venezuela has been in political crisis since a July election marred by serious fraud allegations which both President Nicolás Maduro and the opposition claim to have won. Amid opposition protests and a harsh crackdown, opposition candidate Edmundo González went into exile in Spain. In Mozambique, the Frelimo party that has ruled for half a century was declared the winner of an October election that the opposition called rigged. across the country South Korea’s conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol — weakened after the liberal opposition retained control in an April election -– astonished the country by declaring martial law in a late-night announcement on Dec. 3. Parliament voted to overturn the decision six hours later, and within days voted to impeach Yoon. The crisis in the deeply divided country is far from over. Democracy’s bumpy ride looks likely to continue in 2025, with embattled incumbents facing challenge in countries including Germany, where Chancellor lost a confidence vote on Dec. 16, triggering an early election likely in February. Canada will also vote in 2025, with the governing Liberals and increasingly divided after almost a decade in power. Seema Shah, head of democracy assessment at the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, said global surveys suggest support for the concept of democracy remains strong, but the numbers plummet “when you ask people how satisfied they are with their own democracy.” “People want democracy. They like the theory of it," she said. “But when they see it actually play out, it’s not living up to their expectations.” ___ Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Gerald Imray in Cape Town, South Africa, contributed to this story.
Maupay also had a dig at Everton when he departed on loan to Marseille in the summer and his latest taunt has further angered the Premier League club’s supporters. The 28-year-old said on X after Sean Dyche’s side had lost 2-0 to Nottingham Forest at Goodison Park on Sunday: “Whenever I’m having a bad day I just check the Everton score and smile.” Whenever I’m having a bad day I just check the Everton score and smile 🙂 — Neal Maupay (@nealmaupay_) December 29, 2024 Former boxer Tony Bellew was among the Toffees’ supporters who responded to Maupay, with the ex-world cruiserweight champion replying on X with: “P****!” Maupay endured a miserable spell at Everton, scoring just one league goal in 29 appearances after being signed by the Merseysiders for an undisclosed fee in 2022. He departed on a season-long loan to his former club Brentford for the 2023-24 season and left Goodison for a second time in August when Marseille signed him on loan with an obligation to make the deal permanent. After leaving Everton in the summer, Maupay outraged their fans by posting on social media a scene from the film Shawshank Redemption, famous for depicting the main character’s long fight for freedom.DETROIT – If President-elect Donald Trump makes good on his threat to kill federal tax credits for electric vehicle purchases, it's likely that fewer buyers will choose EVs. Yet tax credits or not, auto companies show no intention of retreating from a steady transition away from gas-burning cars and trucks, especially given the enormous investment they have already made: Since 2021, the industry has spent at least $160 billion on planning, designing and building electric vehicles, according to the Center for Auto Research. Recommended Videos In campaigning for the presidency, Trump condemned the federal tax for EV buyers — up to $7,500 per vehicle — as part of a “green new scam” that would devastate the auto industry. His transition team is reportedly working on plans to abolish the tax credits and to roll back the more stringent fuel-economy rules that were pushed through by the Biden administration. It is far from clear, though, that the Trump administration could actually rescind the credits. Trump's argument — one that most economists dispute — is that a rapid U.S. shift toward electric vehicles would lead to most EVs being made in China and would swell prices for America’s auto buyers. He has said he would redirect federal revenue recaptured from a canceled tax credit to build roads, bridges and dams. Ending the credits, which were a key provision of President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, almost certainly would reduce EV sales, which have been growing in the United States this year, though not nearly as fast as automakers had expected. The slowing growth has forced nearly all auto companies to scale back EV production and delay construction of battery factories that are no longer needed to handle a more gradual transition. Jonathan Chariff, an executive at Midway Ford in Miami, one of the company's top EV-selling dealers, said he thinks ending the tax credits would severely hurt sales. The credits reduce monthly payments, he noted, making an EV closer in price to a gasoline counterpart. “It becomes more affordable,” he said. “Otherwise, those individuals won't be able to afford the payments.” Chariff calculated that the $7,500 credit could shrink a buyer's monthly payment by between $200 and $250, allowing many to afford an EV. On average, electric vehicles sell for about $57,000, compared with around $48,000 for a gasoline vehicle, according to Cox Automotive. (Though they cost more up front, EVs generally are cheaper to operate because maintenance costs are lower, and in most cases electricity is much cheaper than gasoline.) To qualify for the credits, EVs must be built in North America. EVs that contain battery parts or minerals from China or any other nation that is deemed an economic or security threat to the United States qualify for only half the federal credit. Because of that restriction, most of the 75 EV models on sale in the U.S. are not eligible for the full credit. All EVs, though, can receive the full credit toward a lease — a benefit that Trump likely will target. Some plug-in gas-electric hybrids qualify for the credits, too. Asked about the president-elect's opposition to EV tax credits, Trump's transition team would say only that he has “a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail.” Elon Musk, a close adviser to Trump and co-leader of a commission that intends to identify ways to vastly shrink the federal government, appears to be aligned with the president-elect in canceling the tax credits. Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla who spent an estimated $200 million to help elect Trump, has said that ending the credits would hurt his rival companies more than it would Tesla, the U.S. sales leader in EVs by far. “I think it would be devastating for our competitors and would hurt Tesla slightly,” he said. Even so, it might prove difficult for Trump to rescind the credits without help from the new Republican-led Congress, many of whose members represent districts where the EV credit is popular. Trump has floated the idea of using a constitutional theory by which a president could decide whether or not to spend money Congress has appropriated. The president-elect has promoted the concept of “impoundment,” under which congressional appropriations set a ceiling — but not a floor — for spending federal money. John Helveston, an assistant professor at George Washington University who studies electric vehicles and policies, said that in his view, the impoundment theory wouldn't apply in this circumstance because the EV tax credits affect government revenue and are not an appropriation. In any case, Helveston said he doubts Trump could persuade Republican lawmakers to remove the credits from the Inflation Reduction Act because so many congressional districts benefit from the tax breaks. “Cutting the EV tax credit makes it harder for the battery factory in their town to sell their product,” he noted. A 1974 federal law bars a president from substituting his own view of spending programs, said David Rapallo, associate law professor at Georgetown University. If Trump cancelled the tax credits, Rapallo said, it would be challenged in court. Research by J.D. Power shows that once people know about the tax credits, they're far more likely to consider an electric vehicle. In the meantime, federal subsides, not only for buyer tax credits but also for converting factories to EV production, are helping General Motors, Ford and Stellantis make the enormously expensive transition away from gasoline vehicles. It's also helping Detroit's Big Three compete with foreign rivals, notably Chinese automakers that received government subsidies and had a head start in developing EVs, said Sam Fiorani, a vice president at the consultancy AutoForecast Solutions. At present, Ford and GM, while profitable overall, are losing money on EVs, unlike Tesla, though both expect their electric-vehicle operations to generate positive earnings in the coming years as costs ease and more vehicles are sold. Eliminating the federal tax credits, Fiorani suggested, would “hurt the Detroit Three in the long run as they become less competitive against global players making the technological leaps” for electric vehicles, GM, Ford and Stellantis all declined to comment, though their executives have said in the past that they will continue to develop EVs while still selling gasoline vehicles and hybrids. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group that represents most automakers, has written to Trump in support of the tax credits, arguing that they help ensure that the U.S. “continues to lead in manufacturing critical to our national and economic security.” Hyundai, the Korean automaker, which has spent more than $7 billion on an EV factory in Georgia, could also suffer. The company sped up construction of the huge plant near Savannah and is now building EVs in the United States to try to capitalize on the tax credits for buyers. In the end, most automakers say their ambitious plans for transitioning to electric vehicles won't change regardless of policy changes in Washington. “We plan for the long term, so political considerations aren’t a factor in how we approach product development or capital investments,” said David Christ, vice president of Toyota North America, which is building a battery factory in North Carolina. ____ AP writers Fatima Hussein in Washington and Jeff Amy in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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Trump's win means less scrutiny for shady sugar daddy Elon MuskCade Metz NEW YORK: OpenAI revealed details Friday about its plans to adopt a new corporate structure that will remove the company from control by a nonprofit that has been the focus of contention. OpenAI’s leaders have been privately discussing a change for several months but had provided few specifics. In a company blog post published Friday, OpenAI said it planned to restructure as a public benefit corporation, or PBC, which is a for-profit corporation designed to create public and social good. OpenAI rivals like Anthropic and Elon Musk’s xAI use a similar structure. “The PBC is a structure used by many others that requires the company to balance shareholder interests, stakeholder interests, and a public benefit interest in its decision making,” the company said. “It will enable us to raise the necessary capital with conventional terms like our competitors.” A year ago, the board of the nonprofit tried to fire CEO Sam Altman. It failed, but the incident spooked OpenAI’s investors, including Microsoft. In the months since, Altman and his colleagues have been working toward a new structure. With the change in structure, Altman and his colleagues must find ways to compensate the nonprofit for its loss of control. OpenAI said the nonprofit would receive shares in the PBC but added that the value it would receive was still being negotiated by independent financial advisers. The plan “would result in one of the best resourced nonprofits in history,” the company said in its blog. OpenAI’s latest funding round valued the company at $157 billion. OpenAI set off the generative artificial intelligence boom in late 2022 with the release of its online chatbot ChatGPT, which can answer questions in a near humanlike manner. In the months that followed, startups and tech giants like Google, Meta and Amazon raced to build similar technologies. Altman founded OpenAI as a nonprofit in 2015 with several AI researchers and entrepreneurs, including Musk. The aim, Altman and his co-founders said, was to build AI for the benefit of humanity — not for corporate shareholders. But by 2018, OpenAI’s founders realized that building powerful AI technology would require far more money than they could raise through a nonprofit. Early that year, Musk left the lab. When Altman took over as CEO, he created a for-profit company able to take on investors and promise them financial return while still answering to the nonprofit board. Eventually, it raised more than $13 billion in funding from Microsoft and others. As OpenAI’s largest investor, Microsoft also negotiated a partnership that has tightly bound the two companies as they compete with other AI companies. Microsoft supplies the raw computing power needed to build OpenAI technologies and it has an exclusive license to use these technologies in its own products. But Microsoft and other investors grew unhappy with the nonprofit’s control over the startup when its board tried to remove Altman in November 2023. The board said it no longer trusted Altman to build AI for the benefit of humanity. Musk sued OpenAI this year, claiming that the company and two of its founders, Altman and Greg Brockman, breached the company’s founding contract by putting commercial interests ahead of the public good. OpenAI has denied the claim. (The New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming copyright infringement of news content related to AI systems. The two companies have denied the suit’s claims.)
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