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Column: Time to press for peace in Russia-Ukraine warNEW YORK -- A New Jersey family on Sunday marked the birthday of their son, Edan Alexander, who is among the hostages still being held by Hamas . They gathered in Central Park and solemnly sang "Happy Birthday" in Hebrew for now 21-year-old, who was 19 when he was captured by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. "This is a day that should be filled with joy and celebration, but instead we are marked by pain and worry," father Adi Alexander said. Edan Alexander, a swimmer, Boy Scout, and Knicks fan from Tenafly, joined the Israel Defense forces out of high school. Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, families have gathered periodically in Central Park to call for the release of hostages . On Sunday, his mother, Yael Alexander, focused on staying positive. "So we have a restaurant that we go to for every celebration with the kids. So definitely, going for shopping, and that's it, just to spend it with the family," she said. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said on social media Sunday that the Israeli-American should be home with his family, adding, "We will not relent until he is home." Edan Alexander has a younger brother and sister, 13-year-old Roy Alexander and 18-year-old Mika Alexander. His sister said she was thinking of how she'd celebrate if her older brother was home. "We would just go to a restaurant with him and just share fun memories that we have with him," Mika Alexander said. Omer Hortig has known Edan Alexander since the second grade. "He's the type of person that today, on his birthday, he would be having a lot of fun. We'd be going out. I mean, he's turning 21," Hortig said. Edan Alexander's birthday also falls on the fifth night of Hanukkah this year, a time when his family and friends say his absence is certainly felt. "Every night of Hanukkah you light a candle and you're reminded of him and the other hostages and it's usually a very happy holiday. This year, it's not so happy, as well as last year, so I hope it's the last year we have to spend the holiday like this," Hortig said. The last time Edan Alexander's family saw him was in a Hamas propaganda video just after Thanksgiving . They say it gave them hope that he's still alive. His father sent him the same message as he has for the past 450 days. "Stay strong, survive, and you'll be out soon," Adi Alexander said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is having his prostate removed on Sunday, his office said, a procedure that comes as he manages multiple crises at once, including the ongoing war in Gaza and his own trial for alleged corruption, AP reported. ET Year-end Special Reads What kept India's stock market investors on toes in 2024? India's car race: How far EVs went in 2024 Investing in 2025: Six wealth management trends to watch out for 75-year-old Netanyahu is among a cohort of older world leaders, including 82-year-old outgoing US President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump, 78, whose health and physical fitness are under deep scrutiny both at home and abroad because of their advanced age and the effect that could have on their leadership, as per a report on Associated Press. Netanyahu, who has had a string of health issues in recent years, has gone to great lengths to bolster a public image of himself as a healthy, energetic leader. During his trial this month he boasted about working 18-hour days, even if those long hours are accompanied by a cigar. But as Israel's longest-serving leader, such a grueling workload over a total of 17 years in power could also take a toll on his well-being. The procedure has already had a fallout: Netanyahu’s lawyer Amit Hadad said in a letter to the court the Israeli prime minister would be fully sedated for the procedure and would be hospitalized for “a number of days," asking that his three days of testimony this week be canceled. The court agreed. Netanyahu's office said that Justice Minister Yariv Levin, a close Netanyahu ally, would serve as acting prime minister during the procedure. With so much at stake in the turbulent region, Netanyahu’s health in wartime is a concern for both Israelis and the wider world. Artificial Intelligence(AI) Java Programming with ChatGPT: Learn using Generative AI By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Basics of Generative AI: Unveiling Tomorrows Innovations By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Generative AI for Dynamic Java Web Applications with ChatGPT By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Mastering C++ Fundamentals with Generative AI: A Hands-On By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Master in Python Language Quickly Using the ChatGPT Open AI By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Marketing Performance Marketing for eCommerce Brands By - Zafer Mukeri, Founder- Inara Marketers View Program Office Productivity Zero to Hero in Microsoft Excel: Complete Excel guide 2024 By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Finance A2Z Of Money By - elearnmarkets, Financial Education by StockEdge View Program Marketing Modern Marketing Masterclass by Seth Godin By - Seth Godin, Former dot com Business Executive and Best Selling Author View Program Astrology Vastu Shastra Course By - Sachenkumar Rai, Vastu Shashtri View Program Strategy Succession Planning Masterclass By - Nigel Penny, Global Strategy Advisor: NSP Strategy Facilitation Ltd. View Program Data Science SQL for Data Science along with Data Analytics and Data Visualization By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) AI and Analytics based Business Strategy By - Tanusree De, Managing Director- Accenture Technology Lead, Trustworthy AI Center of Excellence: ATCI View Program Web Development A Comprehensive ASP.NET Core MVC 6 Project Guide for 2024 By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Marketing Digital Marketing Masterclass by Pam Moore By - Pam Moore, Digital Transformation and Social Media Expert View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) AI-Powered Python Mastery with Tabnine: Boost Your Coding Skills By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Office Productivity Mastering Microsoft Office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and 365 By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Marketing Digital marketing - Wordpress Website Development By - Shraddha Somani, Digital Marketing Trainer, Consultant, Strategiest and Subject Matter expert View Program Office Productivity Mastering Google Sheets: Unleash the Power of Excel and Advance Analysis By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Web Development Mastering Full Stack Development: From Frontend to Backend Excellence By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Finance Financial Literacy i.e Lets Crack the Billionaire Code By - CA Rahul Gupta, CA with 10+ years of experience and Accounting Educator View Program Data Science SQL Server Bootcamp 2024: Transform from Beginner to Pro By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program According to Netanyahu’s office, the Israeli leader was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection on Wednesday stemming from a benign enlargement of his prostate. The infection was treated successfully with antibiotics but a procedure on Sunday will remove his prostate. Complications from prostate enlargement are common in men in their 70s and 80s, Dr. Shay Golan, head of the oncology urology service at Israel’s Rabin Medical Center, told Israeli Army Radio. Golan spoke in general terms about the procedure and was not involved in Netanyahu's care or treatment. He said that an enlarged prostate can block proper emptying of the bladder, leading to a build-up of urine that can then lead to an infection or other complications. After medicinal treatment, doctors can recommend a procedure to remove the prostate to prevent future blockages, Golan said. In Netanyahu’s case, because the prostate is not cancerous, Golan said doctors will likely perform an endoscopic surgery, which is carried out by inserting small instruments into a body cavity, rather than making any surgical cuts in the abdomen to reach the prostate. The procedure lasts about an hour, Golan said, and recovery is quick. Golan also said that aside from catheter use for one to three days after the procedure, patients can return to normal activity without any significant limitations. FAQs Q1. How old is Benjamin Netanyahu? A1. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is 75-year-old. Q2. What is Donald Trump's age? A2. Donald Trump's age is 78. (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel )
PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Newly married and sworn as a Naval officer, Jimmy Carter left his tiny hometown in 1946 hoping to climb the ranks and see the world. Less than a decade later, the death of his father and namesake, a merchant farmer and local politician who went by “Mr. Earl,” prompted the submariner and his wife, Rosalynn, to return to the rural life of Plains, Georgia, they thought they’d escaped. The lieutenant never would be an admiral. Instead, he became commander in chief. Years after his presidency ended in humbling defeat, he would add a Nobel Peace Prize, awarded not for his White House accomplishments but “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” The life of James Earl Carter Jr., the 39th and longest-lived U.S. president, ended Sunday at the age of 100 where it began: Plains, the town of 600 that fueled his political rise, welcomed him after his fall and sustained him during 40 years of service that redefined what it means to be a former president. With the stubborn confidence of an engineer and an optimism rooted in his Baptist faith, Carter described his motivations in politics and beyond in the same way: an almost missionary zeal to solve problems and improve lives. Carter was raised amid racism, abject poverty and hard rural living — realities that shaped both his deliberate politics and emphasis on human rights. “He always felt a responsibility to help people,” said Jill Stuckey, a longtime friend of Carter's in Plains. “And when he couldn’t make change wherever he was, he decided he had to go higher.” Carter's path, a mix of happenstance and calculation , pitted moral imperatives against political pragmatism; and it defied typical labels of American politics, especially caricatures of one-term presidents as failures. “We shouldn’t judge presidents by how popular they are in their day. That's a very narrow way of assessing them," Carter biographer Jonathan Alter told the Associated Press. “We should judge them by how they changed the country and the world for the better. On that score, Jimmy Carter is not in the first rank of American presidents, but he stands up quite well.” Later in life, Carter conceded that many Americans, even those too young to remember his tenure, judged him ineffective for failing to contain inflation or interest rates, end the energy crisis or quickly bring home American hostages in Iran. He gained admirers instead for his work at The Carter Center — advocating globally for public health, human rights and democracy since 1982 — and the decades he and Rosalynn wore hardhats and swung hammers with Habitat for Humanity. Yet the common view that he was better after the Oval Office than in it annoyed Carter, and his allies relished him living long enough to see historians reassess his presidency. “He doesn’t quite fit in today’s terms” of a left-right, red-blue scoreboard, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who visited the former president multiple times during his own White House bid. At various points in his political career, Carter labeled himself “progressive” or “conservative” — sometimes both at once. His most ambitious health care bill failed — perhaps one of his biggest legislative disappointments — because it didn’t go far enough to suit liberals. Republicans, especially after his 1980 defeat, cast him as a left-wing cartoon. It would be easiest to classify Carter as a centrist, Buttigieg said, “but there’s also something radical about the depth of his commitment to looking after those who are left out of society and out of the economy.” Indeed, Carter’s legacy is stitched with complexities, contradictions and evolutions — personal and political. The self-styled peacemaker was a war-trained Naval Academy graduate who promised Democratic challenger Ted Kennedy that he’d “kick his ass.” But he campaigned with a call to treat everyone with “respect and compassion and with love.” Carter vowed to restore America’s virtue after the shame of Vietnam and Watergate, and his technocratic, good-government approach didn't suit Republicans who tagged government itself as the problem. It also sometimes put Carter at odds with fellow Democrats. The result still was a notable legislative record, with wins on the environment, education, and mental health care. He dramatically expanded federally protected lands, began deregulating air travel, railroads and trucking, and he put human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy. As a fiscal hawk, Carter added a relative pittance to the national debt, unlike successors from both parties. Carter nonetheless struggled to make his achievements resonate with the electorate he charmed in 1976. Quoting Bob Dylan and grinning enthusiastically, he had promised voters he would “never tell a lie.” Once in Washington, though, he led like a joyless engineer, insisting his ideas would become reality and he'd be rewarded politically if only he could convince enough people with facts and logic. This served him well at Camp David, where he brokered peace between Israel’s Menachem Begin and Epypt’s Anwar Sadat, an experience that later sparked the idea of The Carter Center in Atlanta. Carter's tenacity helped the center grow to a global force that monitored elections across five continents, enabled his freelance diplomacy and sent public health experts across the developing world. The center’s wins were personal for Carter, who hoped to outlive the last Guinea worm parasite, and nearly did. As president, though, the approach fell short when he urged consumers beleaguered by energy costs to turn down their thermostats. Or when he tried to be the nation’s cheerleader, beseeching Americans to overcome a collective “crisis of confidence.” Republican Ronald Reagan exploited Carter's lecturing tone with a belittling quip in their lone 1980 debate. “There you go again,” the former Hollywood actor said in response to a wonky answer from the sitting president. “The Great Communicator” outpaced Carter in all but six states. Carter later suggested he “tried to do too much, too soon” and mused that he was incompatible with Washington culture: media figures, lobbyists and Georgetown social elites who looked down on the Georgians and their inner circle as “country come to town.” Carter carefully navigated divides on race and class on his way to the Oval Office. Born Oct. 1, 1924 , Carter was raised in the mostly Black community of Archery, just outside Plains, by a progressive mother and white supremacist father. Their home had no running water or electricity but the future president still grew up with the relative advantages of a locally prominent, land-owning family in a system of Jim Crow segregation. He wrote of President Franklin Roosevelt’s towering presence and his family’s Democratic Party roots, but his father soured on FDR, and Jimmy Carter never campaigned or governed as a New Deal liberal. He offered himself as a small-town peanut farmer with an understated style, carrying his own luggage, bunking with supporters during his first presidential campaign and always using his nickname. And he began his political career in a whites-only Democratic Party. As private citizens, he and Rosalynn supported integration as early as the 1950s and believed it inevitable. Carter refused to join the White Citizens Council in Plains and spoke out in his Baptist church against denying Black people access to worship services. “This is not my house; this is not your house,” he said in a churchwide meeting, reminding fellow parishioners their sanctuary belonged to God. Yet as the appointed chairman of Sumter County schools he never pushed to desegregate, thinking it impractical after the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board decision. And while presidential candidate Carter would hail the 1965 Voting Rights Act, signed by fellow Democrat Lyndon Johnson when Carter was a state senator, there is no record of Carter publicly supporting it at the time. Carter overcame a ballot-stuffing opponent to win his legislative seat, then lost the 1966 governor's race to an arch-segregationist. He won four years later by avoiding explicit mentions of race and campaigning to the right of his rival, who he mocked as “Cufflinks Carl” — the insult of an ascendant politician who never saw himself as part the establishment. Carter’s rural and small-town coalition in 1970 would match any victorious Republican electoral map in 2024. Once elected, though, Carter shocked his white conservative supporters — and landed on the cover of Time magazine — by declaring that “the time for racial discrimination is over.” Before making the jump to Washington, Carter befriended the family of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., whom he’d never sought out as he eyed the governor’s office. Carter lamented his foot-dragging on school integration as a “mistake.” But he also met, conspicuously, with Alabama's segregationist Gov. George Wallace to accept his primary rival's endorsement ahead of the 1976 Democratic convention. “He very shrewdly took advantage of his own Southerness,” said Amber Roessner, a University of Tennessee professor and expert on Carter’s campaigns. A coalition of Black voters and white moderate Democrats ultimately made Carter the last Democratic presidential nominee to sweep the Deep South. Then, just as he did in Georgia, he used his power in office to appoint more non-whites than all his predecessors had, combined. He once acknowledged “the secret shame” of white Americans who didn’t fight segregation. But he also told Alter that doing more would have sacrificed his political viability – and thus everything he accomplished in office and after. King's daughter, Bernice King, described Carter as wisely “strategic” in winning higher offices to enact change. “He was a leader of conscience,” she said in an interview. Rosalynn Carter, who died on Nov. 19 at the age of 96, was identified by both husband and wife as the “more political” of the pair; she sat in on Cabinet meetings and urged him to postpone certain priorities, like pressing the Senate to relinquish control of the Panama Canal. “Let that go until the second term,” she would sometimes say. The president, recalled her former aide Kathy Cade, retorted that he was “going to do what’s right” even if “it might cut short the time I have.” Rosalynn held firm, Cade said: “She’d remind him you have to win to govern.” Carter also was the first president to appoint multiple women as Cabinet officers. Yet by his own telling, his career sprouted from chauvinism in the Carters' early marriage: He did not consult Rosalynn when deciding to move back to Plains in 1953 or before launching his state Senate bid a decade later. Many years later, he called it “inconceivable” that he didn’t confer with the woman he described as his “full partner,” at home, in government and at The Carter Center. “We developed a partnership when we were working in the farm supply business, and it continued when Jimmy got involved in politics,” Rosalynn Carter told AP in 2021. So deep was their trust that when Carter remained tethered to the White House in 1980 as 52 Americans were held hostage in Tehran, it was Rosalynn who campaigned on her husband’s behalf. “I just loved it,” she said, despite the bitterness of defeat. Fair or not, the label of a disastrous presidency had leading Democrats keep their distance, at least publicly, for many years, but Carter managed to remain relevant, writing books and weighing in on societal challenges. He lamented widening wealth gaps and the influence of money in politics. He voted for democratic socialist Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in 2016, and later declared that America had devolved from fully functioning democracy to “oligarchy.” Yet looking ahead to 2020, with Sanders running again, Carter warned Democrats not to “move to a very liberal program,” lest they help re-elect President Donald Trump. Carter scolded the Republican for his serial lies and threats to democracy, and chided the U.S. establishment for misunderstanding Trump’s populist appeal. He delighted in yearly convocations with Emory University freshmen, often asking them to guess how much he’d raised in his two general election campaigns. “Zero,” he’d gesture with a smile, explaining the public financing system candidates now avoid so they can raise billions. Carter still remained quite practical in partnering with wealthy corporations and foundations to advance Carter Center programs. Carter recognized that economic woes and the Iran crisis doomed his presidency, but offered no apologies for appointing Paul Volcker as the Federal Reserve chairman whose interest rate hikes would not curb inflation until Reagan's presidency. He was proud of getting all the hostages home without starting a shooting war, even though Tehran would not free them until Reagan's Inauguration Day. “Carter didn’t look at it” as a failure, Alter emphasized. “He said, ‘They came home safely.’ And that’s what he wanted.” Well into their 90s, the Carters greeted visitors at Plains’ Maranatha Baptist Church, where he taught Sunday School and where he will have his last funeral before being buried on family property alongside Rosalynn . Carter, who made the congregation’s collection plates in his woodworking shop, still garnered headlines there, calling for women’s rights within religious institutions, many of which, he said, “subjugate” women in church and society. Carter was not one to dwell on regrets. “I am at peace with the accomplishments, regret the unrealized goals and utilize my former political position to enhance everything we do,” he wrote around his 90th birthday. The politician who had supposedly hated Washington politics also enjoyed hosting Democratic presidential contenders as public pilgrimages to Plains became advantageous again. Carter sat with Buttigieg for the final time March 1, 2020, hours before the Indiana mayor ended his campaign and endorsed eventual winner Joe Biden. “He asked me how I thought the campaign was going,” Buttigieg said, recalling that Carter flashed his signature grin and nodded along as the young candidate, born a year after Carter left office, “put the best face” on the walloping he endured the day before in South Carolina. Never breaking his smile, the 95-year-old host fired back, “I think you ought to drop out.” “So matter of fact,” Buttigieg said with a laugh. “It was somehow encouraging.” Carter had lived enough, won plenty and lost enough to take the long view. “He talked a lot about coming from nowhere,” Buttigieg said, not just to attain the presidency but to leverage “all of the instruments you have in life” and “make the world more peaceful.” In his farewell address as president, Carter said as much to the country that had embraced and rejected him. “The struggle for human rights overrides all differences of color, nation or language,” he declared. “Those who hunger for freedom, who thirst for human dignity and who suffer for the sake of justice — they are the patriots of this cause.” Carter pledged to remain engaged with and for them as he returned “home to the South where I was born and raised,” home to Plains, where that young lieutenant had indeed become “a fellow citizen of the world.” —- Bill Barrow, based in Atlanta, has covered national politics including multiple presidential campaigns for the AP since 2012.US stocks mostly rose Friday after a report showed a healthy jobs market, and Paris rallied as President Emmanuel Macron vowed to serve out his full term and end France's political crisis. Oil fell on concerns of oversupply and Bitcoin held at a level over $100,000 after hitting records Thursday. The world's biggest economy gained 227,000 jobs in November, more than analysts expected and up from a revised 36,000 in October, said the US Department of Labor. "The US jobs market has emphatically rebounded following October's disappointing data," said Neal Keane, head of global sales trading at ADSS. October's figures had been depressed by hurricanes and workers' strikes, while November's increases may have been exaggerated by the end of a strike at Boeing in particular -- and by retail hiring ahead of the holiday season. US stocks mostly closed higher, with the broad-based S&P 500 and tech-focused Nasdaq both hitting fresh records, although the Dow retreated slightly. Investors are mostly betting that November's jobs numbers, while comforting, are probably not strong enough to deter the Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates again this month. "Investors needed a reassuring jobs report and that's exactly what they got," said eToro analyst Bret Kenwell. "The market still favors a rate cut from the Fed later this month and this report may not change that expectation." The Paris stock market closed up 1.3 percent on "hope that President Emmanuel Macron will serve out his term and that a (French) budget can be passed in the coming weeks," noted Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown. Macron on Friday was holding talks with French political leaders on the left and right as he seeks to quickly name a new prime minister after Michel Barnier's government was ousted in a historic no-confidence vote. Macron adopted a defiant tone in an address to the nation Thursday evening, just 24 hours after parliament voted out Barnier over his 2025 budget plan, which included unpopular austerity measures forced through without a vote using special powers. The luxury sector benefitted also from hopes of a pickup in Chinese demand. Gucci owner Kering topped the Paris CAC 40 as its shares gained more than six percent, while LVMH rose more than three percent. French video game company Ubisoft jumped 13 percent on takeover speculation. Frankfurt closed slightly higher, other continental markets were mixed, and London slid. In Asia, shares in Seoul sank more than one percent and the won weakened to about 1,420 per dollar as lawmakers prepared to hold an impeachment vote Saturday after President Yoon Suk Yeol's dramatic, short-lived imposition of martial law this week. While analysts said the economic fallout from the crisis would likely be limited, a political storm is ongoing. Hong Kong and Shanghai rallied as investors grew hopeful of fresh stimulus when top Chinese leaders including President Xi Jinping meet to discuss economic policy next week. Bitcoin hovered above $100,000 after having blasted to the historic peak of $103,800 Thursday on news that US President-elect Donald Trump had picked crypto proponent Paul Atkins to head the nation's markets regulator. New York - Dow: DOWN 0.3 percent at 44,642.52 points (close) New York - S&P 500: UP 0.3 percent at 6,090.27 (close) New York - Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.8 percent at 19,859.77 (close) Paris - CAC 40: UP 1.3 percent at 7,426.88 (close) Frankfurt - DAX: UP 0.1 percent at 20,384.61 (close) London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.5 percent at 8,308.61 (close) Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.8 percent at 39,091.17 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 1.6 percent at 19,865.85 (close) Shanghai - Composite: UP 1.1 percent at 3,404.08 (close) Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0566 from $1.0591 on Thursday Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2740 from $1.2760 Dollar/yen: DOWN at 149.97 yen from 150.09 yen Euro/pound: DOWN at 82.93 from 82.97 pence West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.6 percent at $67.20 per barrel Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.4 percent at $71.12 per barrel gv/rl/bys/aha
A 7-year-old rivalry between tech leaders Elon Musk and Sam Altman over who should run OpenAI and prevent an artificial intelligence "dictatorship" is now heading to a federal judge as Musk seeks to halt the ChatGPT maker's ongoing shift into a for-profit company. Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company earlier this year alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits. Musk has since escalated the dispute, adding new claims and asking for a court order that would stop OpenAI’s plans to convert itself into a for-profit business more fully. The world's richest man, whose companies include Tesla, SpaceX and social media platform X, last year started his own rival AI company, xAI. Musk says it faces unfair competition from OpenAI and its close business partner Microsoft, which has supplied the huge computing resources needed to build AI systems such as ChatGPT. “OpenAI and Microsoft together exploiting Musk’s donations so they can build a for-profit monopoly, one now specifically targeting xAI, is just too much,” says Musk's filing that alleges the companies are violating the terms of Musk’s foundational contributions to the charity. OpenAI filed a response Friday opposing Musk’s requested order, saying it would “debilitate OpenAI’s business” and mission to the advantage of Musk and his own AI company and is based on “far-fetched” legal claims. A hearing is set for January before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California. At the heart of the dispute is a 2017 internal power struggle at the fledgling startup that led to Altman becoming OpenAI's CEO. Musk also sought to be CEO and in an email outlined a plan where he would “unequivocally have initial control of the company” but said that would be temporary. He grew frustrated after two other OpenAI co-founders said he would hold too much power as a major shareholder and chief executive if the startup succeeded in its goal to achieve better-than-human AI known as artificial general intelligence , or AGI. Musk has long voiced concerns about how advanced forms of AI could threaten humanity. “The current structure provides you with a path where you end up with unilateral absolute control over the AGI," said a 2017 email to Musk from co-founders Ilya Sutskever and Greg Brockman. “You stated that you don't want to control the final AGI, but during this negotiation, you've shown to us that absolute control is extremely important to you.” In the same email, titled “Honest Thoughts,” Sutskever and Brockman also voiced concerns about Altman's desire to be CEO and whether he was motivated by “political goals.” Altman eventually succeeded in becoming CEO, and has remained so except for a period last year when he was fired and then reinstated days later after the board that ousted him was replaced. OpenAI published the messages Friday in a blog post meant to show its side of the story, particularly Musk's early support for the idea of making OpenAI a for-profit business so it could raise money for the hardware and computer power that AI needs. It was Musk, through his wealth manager Jared Birchall, who first registered “Open Artificial Intelligence Technologies, Inc.,” a public benefit corporation, in September 2017. Then came the “Honest Thoughts” email that Musk described as the “final straw.” “Either go do something on your own or continue with OpenAI as a nonprofit,” Musk wrote back. OpenAI said Musk later proposed merging the startup into Tesla before resigning as the co-chair of OpenAI's board in early 2018. Musk didn't respond to emailed requests for comment sent to his companies Friday. Asked about his frayed relationship with Musk at a New York Times conference last week, Altman said he felt “tremendously sad” but also characterized Musk’s legal fight as one about business competition. “He’s a competitor and we’re doing well,” Altman said. He also said at the conference that he is “not that worried” about the Tesla CEO’s influence with President-elect Donald Trump. OpenAI said Friday that Altman plans to make a $1 million personal donation to Trump’s inauguration fund, joining a number of tech companies and executives who are working to improve their relationships with the incoming administration. —————————— The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement allowing OpenAI access to part of the AP’s text archives. This story has been updated to correct the name of the company registered in 2017. It was Open Artificial Intelligence Technologies, Inc., not Open Artificial Technologies Technologies, Inc.Washington, on the rebound from loss to rival, takes on NJIT
Elon Musk’s future-forward energy is forging a new Trump brand of populism
A nonprofit leader who supports at-risk New Orleans youth. A social worker who fosters animals. A postdoctoral researcher. They are among the roughly 1,540 people whose sentences were commuted or who were pardoned by President Joe Biden on Thursday in what was the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history. But not everyone was pleased by Biden’s decisions. A Republican state senator said a commutation for a woman who stole $54 million from a small town in Illinois was “a slap in the face” to residents. The Democratic governor of Pennsylvania said Biden "got it absolutely wrong” when he commuted the sentence of a judge who orchestrated a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks. People are also reading... Here are some of their stories: TRYNITHA FULTON, 46, OF NEW ORLEANS Fulton was pardoned after pleading guilty to participating in a payroll fraud scheme while serving as a New Orleans middle school teacher in the early 2000s. She was convicted of a felony and sentenced to three years of probation in 2008. Fulton, who has two children and works as an elementary school teacher, said that for years she had lived with “a sense of embarrassment and shame” about the felony conviction. Even though she completed a master’s degree in educational leadership in 2017, Fulton felt that her criminal record disqualified her from applying for principal positions she felt she could handle. “The conviction has served as a mental barrier for me, limiting my ability to live a full life,” Fulton said. Nearly a decade after she first applied for a presidential pardon, Fulton this week received a phone call informing her that it had been granted. “It was astonishing for me, I wasn’t expecting a call,” Fulton said, adding that the pardon will enable her to explore more career opportunities. A White House news release commended Fulton as “someone who goes above and beyond for her community.” For years, Fulton has helped lead a nonprofit supporting at-risk New Orleans youth with hot meals, clothing and shelter and mental health referrals. STEVONI DOYLE, 47, OF SANTAQUIN, UTAH Doyle applied for a pardon six years ago. It had been so long that she had all but forgotten about it — until Wednesday. “I was in shock,” Doyle said of the call she received from a Justice Department pardon attorney. “And honored.” Doyle, who was once addicted to meth, had pleaded guilty to drug possession and check forging charges when she was 24. She served more than two years in state and federal prison. Released in 2006, Doyle resolved to stay clean. She started a family, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees and now works as a social worker with a behavioral health center. Doyle applied for a pardon in 2018 and heard nothing until 2020, when the FBI reached out — and the vetting began. “They talked to my boss, my boss’ boss, they talked to my mother’s boss, they called my doctors," Doyle said. “Just pretty much anybody that had any type of relationship with me in the past 20 years they contacted.” After the vetting was over, she would have to wait some more: four years, it turned out. “I just want people to know that are in the throes of addiction, or families to know that when they have somebody in their family that is addicted, that there is hope,” Doyle said Thursday. “This has just brought so much joy to me and my family and is just the continuation of my recovery.” She has five children and three grandchildren, volunteers in her community, fosters animals and competes in roller derby. RITA CRUNDWELL, 71, OF DIXON, ILLINOIS Crundwell was sentenced to more than 19 years in prison in 2013 for stealing about $54 million over two decades when she was in charge of finances for Dixon, Illinois. She was released to a halfway house program in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic before moving to home confinement. Biden’s commutation releases Crundwell from any restrictions. Paul Gaziano, a lawyer who represented Crundwell in federal court, declined to comment Thursday. Dixon Mayor Glen Hughes said he believes most of the town is probably stunned, and maybe even angry, that Biden would provide clemency to Crundwell. Republican state Sen. Andrew Chesney called Biden’s act “nothing short of a slap in the face to the people of Dixon.” Dixon, best known as the childhood home of President Ronald Reagan, sued auditors and a bank after Crundwell’s theft was revealed and recovered $40 million in settlements. Crundwell, who was a horse breeder, told a judge in 2020 that more than $15 million was repaid from the sale of her horses and other assets. “I am going to do everything possible to make up for my mistakes," she told the judge in a handwritten letter that described various health problems. “I have taken responsibility for my actions since the first day.” MICHAEL CONAHAN, 72, OF NORTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA Conahan was sentenced to 17 years in prison for helping orchestrate one of the worst judicial scandals in U.S. history: a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks . Biden’s decision to commute his sentence angered many in northeastern Pennsylvania, from the governor to the families whose children were victimized by the disgraced former judge. Conahan had already served the vast majority of his sentence, which was handed down in 2011. “I do feel strongly that President Biden got it absolutely wrong and created a lot of pain here in northeastern Pennsylvania,” Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said Friday. A message seeking comment was sent to an attorney who recently represented Conahan, the former judge of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas. In what came to be known as the kids-for-cash scandal, Conahan and Judge Mark Ciavarella shut down a county-run juvenile detention center and accepted $2.8 million in illegal payments from a friend of Conahan’s who built and co-owned two for-profit lockups. Sandy Fonzo, whose son killed himself at age 23 after Ciavarella locked him up as a teen, called Conahan’s commutation an “injustice.” “I am shocked and I am hurt,” Fonzo said in a statement provided to The Citizens’ Voice of Wilkes-Barre. “Conahan‘s actions destroyed families, including mine, and my son‘s death is a tragic reminder of the consequences of his abuse of power." The Juvenile Law Center, which represented plaintiffs in a $200 million civil judgment against Conahan and Ciavarella, said it “supported President Biden’s actions” but wants to see the “same kind of compassion and mercy” extended to juvenile defendants around the country. When he pleaded guilty in 2010, Conahan apologized to the youths he had hurt. “The system is not corrupt,” Conahan said at the time. “I was corrupt.” KELSIE LYNN BECKLIN, 38, of NEW BRIGHTON, MINNESOTA Becklin was 21 when she got into trouble, which she said was due to trying to get money to support her drug addiction. She pleaded guilty to a nonviolent felony charge for failing to provide information to police about a 2007 bank robbery. She served four months in a halfway house, four months of home confinement and three years of probation. She found out she was pregnant after she’d been out of custody for about a year. She said she had her “aha moment” when her son was 1 year old. “And I was living at home with my parents. I had, like, no job, no education, no future,” Becklin said. “Had a felony on my record. I had substance use history, you know, all these things. And he was 1. And I just remember, like looking at him and realizing that his whole life was, like, really dependent on what I did with mine.” Within days, she said, she enrolled at a community college. She recently earned her doctoral degree in comparative molecular biosciences at the University of Minnesota. For her doctorate, she used stem cell biology and genetic engineering to better understand how pediatric cancers grow and develop. She’s still working in the cell and gene therapy space, now as a postdoctoral researcher at the university. The White House noted in its announcement that Becklin also mentors currently and previously incarcerated people who are seeking to pursue higher education. She said she does it as part of a program called Prison to Professionals. They help guide people on the unique issues they’ll face in higher education and provide them with a support network. She said she still doesn’t know exactly how being pardoned and having her record cleared will affect her future. “I think there was a point in my life where it really mattered if I, like, had a certain career path or if I did that. But I have found that, kind of wherever I am, I find my purpose and my need there. And, you know, it’s kind of a beautiful way to live,” she said. Associated Press writers Jack Brook in New Orleans, Ed White in Detroit, Mead Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyo., Michael Rubinkam in Pennsylvania; Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis; and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Wash., contributed to this report. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter.Hail Flutie: BC celebrates 40th anniversary of Miracle in MiamiOrganised crime gangs lurking on motorways send cargo thefts soaring by half to £102m - with 'homegrown' groups blamed for majority of raids on lorry drivers to seize luxury brands
Premier David Eby made his annual visit to the B.C. business community this week, but if you were looking for specifics and good news, you were left grasping at straws. Paper straws, which fall apart pretty much right away. As evidence that he’s turned a page with the business community, Eby cited fast-tracking nine wind energy projects. There will be more examples, he promised vaguely, with no hint of what industries or projects he may be favouring. Or why. Or how. Or when. So it’s fair to say Eby is not exactly throwing caution to the wind to attract more investment into B.C. – which is seeing the conclusion of a $100 billion burst in energy infrastructure construction , and virtually nothing in line to replace it. B.C. Chamber of Commerce president Fiona Famulak tried her best to coax a commitment to natural resources out of Eby, asking a question that cited the Mining Association of B.C.’s analysis that it takes 12-15 years to permit a mine in this province. Pushing back, Eby claimed his government had reduced the timeline for mining permits by 40 per cent, but offered no corroborating evidence. Even if we take the premier at his word, that means the 12-15-year review period has been cut to seven to nine years. That’s some thin gruel. And even thinner when one considers it came just minutes after U.S. president-elect Donald Trump put this out on his Truth Social: “Any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals. GET READY TO ROCK!!!” Or, put another way: “Drill, baby, drill!” How does that affect Canada? It’s better understood that Trump’s proposed 25 per cent tariffs would be incredibly harmful. For example, the softwood lumber tariff has resulted in $9 billion paid by Canadian producers since 2017. That’s by one industry on one product, at a rate less than half of what Trump is threatening. And yet this policy of “fully expedited approvals” could be even more damaging to the B.C. economy. If you’re an investor in oil, natural gas, tech, automobile manufacturing, mining, battery plants, pipelines, large development projects or other big-ticket items, why would you ever come to B.C., when you could get to work in any American state far faster and cheaper? Where your jobs and investment would be welcomed with open arms and the removal of regulatory barriers? By contrast, the BC NDP government has slathered cost and red tape on to business since 2017: multiple tax hikes, anti-employer rhetoric, WorkSafe regulations skewed completely to labour. And their soft-on-crime and drug-friendly policies have ramped up petty crime, again harming business. “When you have a near-death experience as a politician, it focuses the mind,” Eby said at the end of his speech, turning the focus back to himself. That’s all well and good. But it’s our provincial economy and our businesses that are having a near-death experience right now, as the provincial deficit and debt rush out of control, government hiring and costs far outpace the corporate sector that has to pay for them, and both private sector payroll and hiring are falling . America’s arms are wide open. But despite his political near-death experience, B.C.’s premier seems as unfocused and as unhelpful as ever. Jordan Bateman is vice-president of communication at the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association.
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A look at Jimmy Carter's Grammy AwardsThe Manhattan district attorney's office asked Judge Juan M. Merchan to "pretend as if one of the assassination attempts against President Trump had been successful," Trump's lawyers wrote in a 23-page response. In court papers made public Tuesday, District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office proposed an array of options for keeping the historic conviction on the books after Trump's lawyers filed paperwork this month asking for the case to be dismissed. They include freezing the case until Trump leaves office in 2029, agreeing that any future sentence won't include jail time, or closing the case by noting he was convicted but that he wasn't sentenced and his appeal wasn't resolved because of presidential immunity. Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove reiterated Friday their position that the only acceptable option is overturning his conviction and dismissing his indictment, writing that anything less will interfere with the transition process and his ability to lead the country. The Manhattan district attorney's office declined comment. It's unclear how soon Merchan will decide. He could grant Trump's request for dismissal, go with one of the prosecution's suggestions, wait until a federal appeals court rules on Trump's parallel effort to get the case moved out of state court, or choose some other option. In their response Friday, Blanche and Bove ripped each of the prosecution's suggestions. Halting the case until Trump leaves office would force the incoming president to govern while facing the "ongoing threat" that he'll be sentenced to imprisonment, fines or other punishment as soon as his term ends, Blanche and Bove wrote. Trump, a Republican, takes office Jan. 20. The prosecution's suggestion that Merchan could mitigate those concerns by promising not to sentence Trump to jail time on presidential immunity grounds is also a non-starter, Blanche and Bove wrote. The immunity statute requires dropping the case, not merely limiting sentencing options, they contend. Blanche and Bove, both of whom Trump tapped for high-ranking Justice Department positions, expressed outrage at the prosecution's novel suggestion that Merchan borrow from Alabama and other states and treat the case as if Trump died. Blanche and Bove accused prosecutors of ignoring New York precedent and attempting to "fabricate" a solution "based on an extremely troubling and irresponsible analogy between President Trump" who survived assassination attempts in Pennsylvania in July and Florida in September "and a hypothetical dead defendant." Such an option normally comes into play when a defendant dies after being convicted but before appeals are exhausted. It is unclear whether it is viable under New York law, but prosecutors suggested that Merchan could innovate in what's already a unique case. "This remedy would prevent defendant from being burdened during his presidency by an ongoing criminal proceeding," prosecutors wrote in their filing this week. But at the same time, it wouldn't "precipitously discard" the "meaningful fact that defendant was indicted and found guilty by a jury of his peers." Prosecutors acknowledged that "presidential immunity requires accommodation" during Trump's impending return to the White House but argued that his election to a second term should not upend the jury's verdict, which came when he was out of office. Longstanding Justice Department policy says sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution. Other world leaders don't enjoy the same protection. For example, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on trial on corruption charges even as he leads that nation's wars in Lebanon and Gaza. Trump has fought for months to reverse his May 30 conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors said he fudged the documents to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels to suppress her claim that they had sex a decade earlier, which Trump denies. Trump's hush money conviction was in state court, meaning a presidential pardon — issued by Biden or himself when he takes office — would not apply to the case. Presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes. Since the election, special counsel Jack Smith ended his two federal cases, which pertained to Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and allegations that he hoarded classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. A separate state election interference case in Fulton County, Georgia, is largely on hold. Trump denies wrongdoing in each case. Trump was scheduled for sentencing in the hush money case in late November, but following Trump's Nov. 5 election win, Merchan halted proceedings and indefinitely postponed the former and future president's sentencing so the defense and prosecution could weigh in on the future of the case. Trump is the first former president to be convicted of a crime and the first convicted criminal to be elected to the office.EDMONTON - The Alberta government has released new wind and solar development rules it says are needed to protect the environment, food security and the province's scenery. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * EDMONTON - The Alberta government has released new wind and solar development rules it says are needed to protect the environment, food security and the province's scenery. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? EDMONTON – The Alberta government has released new wind and solar development rules it says are needed to protect the environment, food security and the province’s scenery. The regulations say wind projects will no longer be permitted within specified “buffer zones” that encompass much of the Rocky Mountain areas. Wind and non-renewable electricity projects located in other select areas — including around Cypress Hills provincial park and large pockets of southern Alberta — will need to be assessed for their impact on landscape views before possible approval. All non-renewable developers must pony up ahead of time all reclamation costs through a mandatory security or bond either to the province or to private landowners. Renewable energy projects won’t be allowed on top grade agricultural land unless developers can prove the projects can productively coexist with livestock and crops. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. The regulations give teeth to many policy promises announced earlier this year by Premier Danielle Smith’s government after a seven-month moratorium on new renewable energy projects. This report by The Canadian Press was first publishedDec. 6, 2024. Advertisement
