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NoneArizona AG sues Saudi firm over 'excessive' groundwater pumping, saying it's a public nuisance PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes says she is suing a Saudi Arabian agribusiness over what she calls “excessive pumping” of groundwater. She alleges that the Fondomonte alfalfa farm in western Arizona is violating a public nuisance law even though the area has no groundwater pumping regulations. Mayes said Wednesday that Fondomonte's use of groundwater threatens the public health, safety and infrastructure of local communities in rural La Paz County. It's Arizona's latest action against foreign companies that use huge amounts of groundwater to grow thirsty forage crops for export. The Associated Press emailed Fondomonte seeking a response to the lawsuit. US inflation ticked up last month as some price pressures remain persistent WASHINGTON (AP) — Fueled by pricier used cars, hotel rooms and groceries, inflation in the United States moved slightly higher last month in the latest sign that some price pressures remain elevated. Consumer prices rose 2.7% in November from a year earlier, up from a yearly figure of 2.6% in October. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called core prices increased 3.3%. Measured month to month, prices climbed 0.3% from October to November, the biggest such increase since April. Wednesday’s inflation figures are the final major piece of data Federal Reserve officials will consider before they meet next week to decide on interest rates. The November increase won’t likely be enough to discourage the officials from cutting their key rate by a quarter-point. Albertsons sues Kroger for failing to win approval of their proposed supermarket merger Kroger and Albertsons’ plan for the largest U.S. supermarket merger in history has crumbled. The two companies accusing each other of not doing enough to push their proposed alliance through, and Albertsons pulled out of the $24.6 billion deal on Wednesday. The bitter breakup came the day after two judges — a federal judge in Oregon and a state judge in Washington — issued injunctions to block the merger, saying it could reduce competition and harm consumers. Albertsons is now suing Kroger, seeking a $600 million termination fee, as well as billions of dollars in legal fees and lost shareholder value. Kroger says the claims are “baseless.” Donald Trump will ring the New York Stock Exchange bell as he's named Time's Person of the Year NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump is expected to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange for the first time and be named Time magazine's Person of the Year. Thursday's events will be a notable moment of twin recognitions for Trump, a born-and-bred New Yorker who has long seen praise from the business world and media as a sign of success. Four people with knowledge of his plans told The Associated Press that Trump was expected to be on Wall Street on Thursday to mark the ceremonial start of the day's trading, while a person familiar with the selection confirmed that Trump had been selected as Time's Person of the Year. Supreme Court allows investors' class action to proceed against microchip company Nvidia WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is allowing a class-action lawsuit that accuses Nvidia of misleading investors about its past dependence on selling computer chips for the mining of volatile cryptocurrency to proceed. The court’s decision Wednesday comes the same week that China said it is investigating the the microchip company over suspected violations of Chinese anti-monopoly laws. The justices heard arguments four weeks ago in Nvidia’s bid to shut down the lawsuit, then decided that they were wrong to take up the case in the first place. They dismissed the company’s appeal, leaving in place an appellate ruling allowing the case to go forward. Apple's latest iPhones get the gift of more AI as holiday shopping season heats up SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple is pumping more artificial intelligence into the latest iPhones during the holiday shopping season. It comes in the form of a free software update that includes a feature that enables users to create customized emojis within a matter of seconds. The Wednesday release of the iPhone’s upgraded operating system extends Apple’s expansion into AI months after rivals such as Samsung and Google began implanting the revolutionary on their devices. The update builds upon another one that came out in late October. The latest round of AI tricks includes “Genmojis,” Apple’s description of emojis that iPhone users will be able to ask the technology to create and then share. EU targets Russia's ghost fleet shipping oil in a new round of sanctions BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union envoys have agreed a new raft of sanctions against Russia over its war on Ukraine. The EU's Hungarian presidency said Wednesday that the measures will target in particular a vast shadow fleet of ships that Moscow is exploiting to skirt restrictions on transporting oil and fuel. The sanctions are aimed at about 50 of what are routinely decrepit ships. The sanctions will hit more officials and entities alleged to be helping Russia to improve its military technology by evading export restrictions. EU foreign ministers are set to formally adopt the sanctions package on Monday. Making a $1B investment in the US? Trump pledges expedited permits — but there are hurdles WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump is promising expedited federal permits for energy projects and other construction worth more than $1 billion. But like other Trump plans, the idea is likely to run into regulatory and legislative hurdles, including a landmark law that requires federal agencies to consider the environmental impact before deciding on major projects. Environmental groups called the plan a clear violation of the National Environmental Policy Act. The chief policy advocacy officer at the Natural Resources Defense Council says Trump should be careful what he wishes for. She said, "What if someone wants to build a waste incinerator next to Mar-a-Lago or a coal mine next to Bedminster golf course?” Trump says he'll name Andrew Ferguson head of FTC and Kimberly Guilfoyle as ambassador to Greece WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has made another flurry of job announcements. He said Tuesday that he had selected Andrew Ferguson as the next chair of the Federal Trade Commission, Kimberly Guilfoyle as the ambassador to Greece and Tom Barrack as the ambassador to Turkey. Ferguson is already one of the FTC's five commissioners and will replace Lina Khan. She became a lightning rod for Wall Street and Silicon Valley by blocking billions of dollars’ worth of corporate acquisitions and suing Amazon and Meta while alleging anticompetitive behavior. Guilfoyle became engaged to Don Trump Jr. in 2020, adn Tom Barrack is a longtime friend who was also the former Trump inaugural chair. Bank of Canada cuts interest rate by half a percentage point, highlights risk of Trump's tariffs TORONTO (AP) — Canada’s central bank lowered its key interest rate by half a percentage point while highlighting the risk of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's threat of tariffs on all Canadian products. The Bank of Canada’s decision marked the fifth consecutive reduction since June and brings the central bank’s key rate down to 3.25%. The central bank noted a number of risks to the economy, including U.S. tariffs. Trump has threatened to impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico unless they stem the flow of migrants and drugs.
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Vanguard: U.S. Stocks May Be Too Expensive in 2025North Dakota regulators OK underground storage for proposed Midwest carbon dioxide pipelineTHE HAGUE, Netherlands -- A United Nations watchdog has been selected to lead an external probe into allegations of sexual misconduct against the top prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, The Associated Press learned Tuesday. The move will likely generate conflict of interest concerns owing to the prosecutor’s wife’s past work for the oversight body. Chief prosecutor Karim Khan provided updates on the court's politically sensitive investigations into war crimes and atrocities in Ukraine, Gaza and Venezuela among other conflict areas during the institution's annual meeting this week in The Hague, Netherlands. But hanging over the gathering of the ICC's 124 member states are allegations against Khan himself. An AP investigation in October found that at the same time the ICC was readying a warrant for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Khan was facing internal accusations that he tried to coerce a female aide into a sexual relationship and groped her against her will over a period of several months. The Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute, which oversees the ICC, previously announced an external probe into the allegations but hadn’t said who it would select to conduct the probe. At this week’s meeting, Päivi Kaukoranta, a Finnish diplomat currently heading the ICC’s oversight body, told delegates that she has settled on the U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services, two diplomats told the AP on the condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks. Two respected human rights group last month already expressed concern about the possible selection of the U.N. because Khan’s wife, a prominent human rights attorney, worked at the agency in Kenya in 2019 and 2020 investigating sexual harassment. The International Federation for Human Rights and Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice, in a joint statement, said Khan should be suspended while the probe is being carried out and called for “thoroughly vetting the chosen investigative body, firm, or institution to ensure it is free from conflicts of interest and possesses demonstrated expertise.” What they described as Khan’s “close relationship” with the U.N. agency deserved added scrutiny, the two groups said. “We strongly recommend ensuring that these concerns are openly and transparently addressed before assigning the mandate to the OIOS,” the two organizations said. Kaukoranta declined to comment when asked about the investigation by the AP on Tuesday on the sidelines of the annual meeting. The U.N. and Khan’s attorney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The accusations against Khan surfaced when two court employees in whom the alleged victim confided came forward with the accusation in May, a few weeks before Khan sought arrest warrants against Netanyahu , his defense minister and three Hamas leaders on war crimes charges. A three-judge panel last month signed off on those charges for the Israelis and the sole remaining Hamas leader whose death from Israel's bombing campaign hasn't been confirmed. AP reported that Khan traveled frequently with the woman after transferring her to his office from another department at the ICC’s headquarters. During one foreign trip, Khan allegedly asked the woman to rest with him on a hotel bed and then “sexually touched her,” according to whistleblower documents shared with the court’s watchdog and seen by the AP. Later, he came to her room at 3 a.m. and knocked on the door for 10 minutes. Other allegedly nonconsensual behavior cited in the documents included locking the door of his office and sticking his hand in her pocket. He also allegedly asked her on several occasions to go on a vacation together. After the two co-workers reported the alleged behavior, the court’s internal watchdog interviewed the woman but she opted against filing a complaint due to her distrust of the watchdog, according to the AP investigation. Khan was never questioned and the watchdog’s inquiry was closed within five days. Although the 900-employee ICC has long had a “zero-tolerance” policy on sexual harassment, an outside review of the court’s inner-workings in 2020 found an unacceptable level of predatory behavior by male bosses, a lack of women in senior positions and inadequate mechanisms for dealing with complaints and protecting whistleblowers. “There is a general reluctance, if not extreme fear, among many staff to report any alleged act of misconduct or misbehavior” by a senior official, the experts concluded in their 348-page report. “The perception is that they are all immune.” Although the ICC’s policies have been updated since the report, a 2024 internal reported obtained by AP showed that 30% of respondents to a staff survey reported they had experienced discrimination, abuse or harassment in the previous 12 months. While the court’s watchdog could not determine wrongdoing, it nonetheless urged Khan in a memo to minimize contact with the woman to protect the rights of all involved and safeguard the court’s integrity. Complicating any truth-seeking investigation have been attempts by Israel and others to undermine the court's credibility. Under Khan, the ICC has become more assertive in combating crimes against humanity and along the way it has added to a growing list of enemies. Last September, following the opening of a probe into Russian atrocities in Ukraine, the court suffered a debilitating cyberattack that left staff unable to work for weeks. It also hired an intern who was later criminally charged in the U.S. with being a Russian spy. Israel has also been waging its own influence campaign ever since the ICC recognized Palestine as a member and in 2015 opened a preliminary investigation into what the court referred to as “the situation in the State of Palestine.” London’s The Guardian newspaper and several Israeli news outlets reported this summer that Israel’s intelligence agencies for the past decade have allegedly targeted senior ICC staff, including putting Khan’s predecessor under surveillance and showing up at her house with envelopes stuffed with cash to discredit her. Netanyahu himself, in the days leading up to Khan’s announcement of war crimes charges, called on the world’s democracies “to use all the means at their disposal” to block the court from what he called an “outrage of historic proportions.” ___ Goodman reported from Miami.