Philadelphia local news, sports, jobs, cars, homes

Category: Nation World News Wires

  • FCC leader says agency is no longer independent as he’s grilled by Democrats over Kimmel controversy

    FCC leader says agency is no longer independent as he’s grilled by Democrats over Kimmel controversy

    WASHINGTON — Democratic senators on Wednesday hammered the Federal Communications Commission’s leader for pressuring broadcasters to take ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel off the air, suggesting that Brendan Carr was politicizing an independent agency and trampling the First Amendment.

    The FCC chairman refused to disown his comments about Kimmel and, when questioned by Democrats about an agency long considered autonomous, suggested it was not insulated from Trump’s pressure.

    “The FCC is not an independent agency,” Carr said.

    Carr later sidestepped questions about whether he considered the Republican president to be his boss and whether he had taken orders from Trump or his inner circle.

    “President Trump has designated me as chairman of the FCC,” Carr added later. “I think it comes as no surprise that I’m aligned with President Trump on policy.”

    Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D., N.M.) noted that the FCC’s website described it as an “independent U.S. government agency overseen by Congress.”

    Soon after, with the hearing still underway, the website changed, removing “independent” from a section describing its mission.

    Trump has waged an aggressive campaign against the media in his second term, filing lawsuits against outlets whose coverage he dislikes, and threatening to revoke TV broadcast licenses. On Wednesday, he criticized NBC for an interview with Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, saying the network “should be ashamed of themselves.”

    “The Public airwaves, which these Networks are using at no charge, should not be allowed to get away with this any longer!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “They should be properly licensed, and pay significant amounts of money for using this very valuable Public space.”

    The 2½-hour hearing before the Senate Commerce committee repeatedly circled back to Carr’s stance on Kimmel after the late-night host’s comments on slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. At the time, Carr’s vocal criticism and veiled threats were equated with that of a mob boss.

    Carr said he was simply enforcing laws holding networks to stricter scrutiny than cable and other forms of media and that “the FCC has walked away from enforcing the public interest standard.”

    Democrats insisted he was warping the laws Carr invoked.

    “You are weaponizing the public interest standard,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D., Mass.), who told Carr that he should resign.

    Republican senators referenced perceived First Amendment violations by the administration of former President Joe Biden, calling Democrats’ free speech arguments disingenuous. GOP members appeared intent on bringing up broadcast spectrum auctions, undersea cable infrastructure, algorithm-driven content, robocalls, and just about anything other than Carr’s statements about Kimmel.

    The committee chairman, Sen. Ted Cruz, had previously equated Carr’s comments to those of a mobster and called them “dangerous as hell.” But at the hearing, Cruz (R., Texas) took a far softer stance. He dismissed Kimmel as “tasteless” and “unfunny,” and shifted to criticizing Biden’s administration, a tack that Carr parroted throughout the hearing.

    “Joe Biden is no longer president,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, (D., Minn.) shot back at one point.

    The hearing also included the two other commissioners, Olivia Trusty and Anna M. Gomez. Gomez, a Biden appointee, said that the FCC has “undermined its reputation as a stable, independent, and expert-driven regulatory body.”

    “Nowhere is that departure more concerning,” Gomez said, “than its actions to intimidate government critics, pressure media companies and challenge the boundaries of the First Amendment.”

    Carr was nominated to the FCC by both Trump and Biden and unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times. But he has more recently shown more overtly right-wing views, writing a section on the FCC for “Project 2025,” the sweeping blueprint for gutting the federal workforce and dismantling agencies in Trump’s second term.

    Since becoming chairman this year, Carr has launched separate investigations of all three major broadcast networks. After Kimmel’s comments on the September killing of Kirk, who was a Trump ally and leading voice of the right, Carr said: “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

    Cruz was unflinchingly critical at the time, saying “I think it is unbelievably dangerous for government to put itself in the position of saying we’re going to decide what speech we like and what we don’t, and we’re going to threaten to take you off air if we don’t like what you’re saying.”

    While Cruz did not repeat those words Wednesday, they were repeatedly invoked by Democrats. Carr did not directly respond to questions from reporters following the hearing about Cruz’s original comments.

    “I think the hearing went really well,” Carr said in response.

  • Saturn’s moon Titan may not have a buried ocean as long suspected, new study suggests

    Saturn’s moon Titan may not have a buried ocean as long suspected, new study suggests

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Saturn’s giant moon Titan may not have a vast underground ocean after all.

    Titan instead may hold deep layers of ice and slush more akin to Earth’s polar seas, with pockets of melted water where life could possibly survive and even thrive, scientists reported Wednesday.

    The team led by researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory challenged the decade-long assumption of a buried global ocean at Titan after taking a fresh look at observations made years ago by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft around Saturn.

    They stress that no one has found any signs of life at Titan, the solar system’s second-largest moon spanning 3,200 miles and brimming with lakes of liquid methane on its frosty surface.

    But with the latest findings suggesting a slushy, near-melting environment, “there is strong justification for continued optimism regarding the potential for extraterrestrial life,” said the University of Washington’s Baptiste Journaux, who took part in the study published in the journal Nature.

    As to what form of life that might be, possibly strictly microscopic, “nature has repeatedly demonstrated far greater creativity than the most imaginative scientists,” he said in an email.

    JPL’s Flavio Petricca, the lead author, said Titan’s ocean may have frozen in the past and is currently melting, or its hydrosphere might be evolving toward complete freezing.

    Computer models suggest these layers of ice, slush, and water extend to a depth of more than 340 miles. The outer ice shell is thought to be about 100 miles deep, covering layers of slush and pools of water that could go down another 250 miles. This water could be as warm as 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

    Because Titan is tidally locked, the same side of the moon faces Saturn all the time, just like our own moon and Earth. Saturn’s gravitational pull is so intense that it deforms the moon’s surface, creating bulges as high as 30 feet when the two bodies are closest.

    Through improved data processing, Petricca and his team managed to measure the timing between the peak gravitational tug and the rising of Titan’s surface. If the moon held a wet ocean, the effect would be immediate, Petricca said, but a 15-hour gap was detected, indicating an interior of slushy ice with pockets of liquid water. Computer modeling of Titan’s orientation in space supported their theory.

    Sapienza University of Rome’s Luciano Iess, whose previous studies using Cassini data indicated a hidden ocean at Titan, is not convinced by the latest findings.

    While “certainly intriguing and will stimulate renewed discussion … at present, the available evidence looks certainly not sufficient to exclude Titan from the family of ocean worlds,” Iess said in an email.

    NASA’s planned Dragonfly mission — featuring a helicopter-type craft due to launch to Titan later this decade — is expected to provide more clarity on the moon’s innards. Journaux is part of that team.

    Saturn leads the solar system’s moon inventory with 274. Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is just a little larger than Titan, with a possible underground ocean. Other suspected water worlds include Saturn’s Enceladus and Jupiter’s Europa, both of which are believed to have geysers of water erupting from their frozen crusts.

    Launched in 1997, Cassini reached Saturn in 2004, orbiting the ringed planet and flying past its moons until deliberately plunging through Saturn’s atmosphere in 2017.

  • Jack Smith tells lawmakers his team developed ‘proof beyond a reasonable doubt’ against Trump

    Jack Smith tells lawmakers his team developed ‘proof beyond a reasonable doubt’ against Trump

    WASHINGTON — Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers in a closed-door interview Wednesday that his team of investigators “developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that President Donald Trumphad criminally conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to portions of his opening statement obtained by the Associated Press.

    Smith also said investigators had accrued “powerful evidence” Trump broke the law by hoarding classified documents from his first term as president at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., and by obstructing government efforts to recover the records.

    “I made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 election,” Smith said. “We took actions based on what the facts and the law required — the very lesson I learned early in my career as a prosecutor.”

    He said that if asked whether he would “prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether the president was a Republican or Democrat.”

    The deposition before the House Judiciary Committee gave lawmakers of both parties their first chance, albeit in private, to question Smith about a pair of investigations into Trump that resulted in since-abandoned criminal charges between the Republican president’s first and second terms in office. Smith was subpoenaed by the Republican-led committee this month to provide testimony and documents as part of a GOP investigation into the Trump inquiries during the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden.

    The former special counsel cooperated with the congressional demand, though his lawyers noted that he had been volunteered more than a month before the subpoena was issued to answer questions publicly before the committee — an overture they said was rebuffed by Republicans. Trump had told reporters that he supported the idea of an open hearing.

    “Testifying before this committee, Jack is showing tremendous courage in light of the remarkable and unprecedented retribution campaign against him by this administration and this White House,” Smith lawyer Lanny Breuer told reporters. “Let’s be clear: Jack Smith, a career prosecutor, conducted this investigation based on the facts and based on the law and nothing more.”

    Smith was appointed in 2022 to oversee the Justice Department investigations into Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 loss to Biden and Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Smith’s team filed charges in both investigations but abandoned the cases after Trump was elected to the White House last year, citing Justice Department legal opinions that say a sitting president cannot be indicted.

    Multiple prior Justice Department special counsels, including Robert Mueller, have testified publicly but Smith was summoned for just a private interview. Several Democrats who emerged from Smith’s interview said they could understand why Republicans did not want an open hearing based on the damaging testimony about Trump they said Smith offered.

    The committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, said the Republican majority “made an excellent decision” in not allowing Jack Smith to testify publicly “because had he done so, it would have been absolutely devastating to the president and all the president’s men involved in the insurrectionary activities” of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

    “Jack Smith has just spent several hours schooling the Judiciary Committee on the professional responsibilities of a prosecutor and the ethical duties of a prosecutor,” Raskin said.

    Democrats are demanding that Smith’s testimony be made public, along with his full report on the investigation.

    “The American people should hear for themselves,” Rep. Dan Goldman (D., N.Y.) said.

    The committee chairman, Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, told reporters, “I think we’ve learned some interesting things.” He declined to discuss what was being said in the room, but reiterated his position about the investigations.

    “It’s political,” he said.

    Smith’s interview is unfolding against the backdrop of a broader retribution campaign by the Trump administration against former officials involved in investigating Trump and his allies. The Office of Special Counsel, an independent political watchdog, said in August that it was investigating Smith, and the White House issued a presidential memorandum this year aimed at suspending security clearances of lawyers at the law firm that provided legal services to Smith.

    The deposition also comes as Republicans in Congress, aided by current FBI leadership, look to discredit the investigations into Trump through the release of emails and other documents from the probes.

    In recent weeks they have seized on revelations that the team, as part of its investigation, had analyzed the phone records of select GOP lawmakers from on and around the Capitol siege, when pro-Trump rioters stormed the building to try to halt the certification of Trump’s election loss to Biden.

    The phone records reviewed by prosecutors included details only about the incoming and outgoing phone numbers and the length of the call but not the contents of the conversation. Smith’s lawyers have said Republicans have mischaracterized the phone record analysis and implied something sinister about a routine investigative tactic.

    On Tuesday, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released a batch of internal FBI emails leading up to the August 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago. In one email, written weeks before the search, an agent wrote that the FBI’s Washington field office did not believe that probable cause existed to search the property.

    But Republicans who trumpeted the emails as proof that the Biden Justice Department was out to get Trump omitted the fact that agents who later searched the property reported finding boxes of classified, even top-secret, documents. In addition, the then-head of the Washington field office has testified to lawmakers that by the time of the search, the FBI believed probable caused existed to do it.

  • Millions are pledged to a Syrian Australian man who stopped a gunman and became a national hero

    Millions are pledged to a Syrian Australian man who stopped a gunman and became a national hero

    WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Like many Australians strolling at Bondi Beach on long, warm summer evenings, Ahmed al Ahmed just wanted a cup of coffee with a friend. Around him, a bloody massacre erupted as two gunmen targeted Jews during Hanukkah festivities at a park close to the shore.

    Soon al Ahmed was creeping, bent over, between two parked cars, before barreling directly toward one of the unsuspecting shooters. In footage that has been viewed millions of times around the world, the 44-year-old father can be seen tackling one of the gunmen, wrestling the man’s shotgun from his grip and turning it on the attacker.

    The story of the Syrian-Australian Muslim shop owner who put an end to the rampage of one of the shooters on Sunday has been seized upon by a country desperately seeking comfort after one of its darkest hours: the slaying of 15 people as they celebrated their Jewish faith.

    In this photo released by the Prime Minister office, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meets Ahmed al Ahmed at St George Hospital in Sydney on Tuesday.

    Millions have been raised for Bondi hero

    “At a moment where we have seen evil perpetrated, he shines out as an example of the strength of humanity,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday, as he left a Sydney hospital where al Ahmed is being treated for gunshot wounds. “We are a brave country. Ahmed al Ahmed represents the best of our country.”

    A fundraising page established by Australians who had never met al Ahmed had attracted by Tuesday night donations by some 40,000 people, who gave 2.3 million Australian dollars ($1.5 million). Among the supporters was the billionaire hedge fund manager William Ackman, who pledged AU$99,000.

    Father of two faces a long recovery

    Al Ahmed, who is married with two young daughters, faces a long struggle ahead, those who have spoken to him since Sunday’s massacre say. He was shot multiple times in the left arm, apparently by the second gunman in the attack as the man fired indiscriminately from a footbridge.

    He has already undergone surgery and more operations are scheduled, said Lubaba alhmidi Alkahil, a spokesperson for the Australians for Syria Association, who visited al Ahmed in a hospital late Monday. The “quiet and humble” man was conscious but frail and faced at least six months of recovery, Alkahil said.

    A prime minister and a president are fans

    In the days since the attack, a pile of floral tributes and notes of thanks has grown outside the small tobacco store al Ahmed owns opposite a train station in suburban Sydney. Meanwhile, he has received visits at the hospital from Australia’s leaders, apparently telling Chris Minns, the premier of New South Wales state, that he’d take the same action again.

    He has been hailed as a hero by world leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump and Australia’s Governor General, who is the representative of Britain’s King Charles in the country. Minns said al Ahmed saved “countless” lives in what the premier said was “the most unbelievable scene I’ve ever seen.”

    Al Ahmed was once a police officer

    Al Ahmed lived in the town of Nayrab in Syria’s Idlib region before he arrived in Australia, his cousin Mohammad al Ahmed told the Associated Press. He left Syria in 2006 after finishing his studies, before the 2011 mass protests against the government of then-President Bashar Assad that were met with a brutal crackdown and spiraled into a nearly 14-year civil war.

    Nayrab was heavily bombed by Assad’s forces with most of the town’s houses flattened and reduced to rubble. On Tuesday, al Ahmed was the talk of the town.

    “Ahmed did really a heroic job,” his cousin, Mohammad al Ahmed told the Associated Press. “Without any hesitation, he tackled the terrorist and disarmed him just to save innocent people.”

    Ahmed al Ahmed’s parents, who came to Sydney this year to reunite with their son, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. that their son had served with the police and in the central security forces in Syria. Father Mohamed Fateh al Ahmed said his son’s “conscience and soul” compelled him to act on Sunday.

    “I feel pride and honor because my son is a hero of Australia,” the father said.

    Tale of heroism gives hope amid tragedy

    In the aftermath of the mass killing, a country roiling from one of the worst hate-fueled attacks ever on its soil — allegedly committed by an Australian resident who arrived from India in 1998 and his Australian-born son — looked for hope amid their grief. Stories of heroism have started to emerge.

    They included the tale of a married couple, Boris and Sofia Gurman, who were both killed while trying to stop one of the shooters as he climbed from his car and began the massacre, their family has told Australian news outlets.

    Reuven Morrison, 62, was also killed while trying to stop the horror, according to his daughter, Sheina Gutnick. After al Ahmed wrestled the gun from one shooter, a person Gutnick identified as Morrison is seen throwing objects at the gunman — before he was shot by the second man.

    Acts of courage like these were cited by many on social media and in news outlets as examples of what being Australian should mean.

    “When he did what he did, he wasn’t thinking at all about the background of the people he’s saving, the people dying in the street,” Mohamed Fateh al Ahmed said of his son. “He doesn’t discriminate between one nationality and another, especially here in Australia there’s no difference between one citizen and another.”

  • Four Republicans, including Pa. Reps. Fitzpatrick, Bresnahan and Mackenzie, defy Speaker Johnson to force House vote on ACA subsidies

    Four Republicans, including Pa. Reps. Fitzpatrick, Bresnahan and Mackenzie, defy Speaker Johnson to force House vote on ACA subsidies

    WASHINGTON — Four centrist Republicans broke with Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday and signed onto a Democratic-led petition that will force a House vote on extending for three years an enhanced pandemic-era subsidy that lowers health insurance costs for millions of Americans.

    The stunning move comes after House Republican leaders pushed ahead with a health care bill that does not address the soaring monthly premiums that millions of people will soon endure when the tax credits for those who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act expire at year’s end.

    How Affordable Care Act premiums are estimated to rise across the region

    Democrats led by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York needed 218 signatures to force a floor vote on their bill, which would extend the subsides for three years.

    Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, Robert Bresnahan and Ryan Mackenzie, all from Pennsylvania, and Mike Lawler of New York signed on Wednesday morning, pushing it to the magic number of 218. A vote on the subsidy bill could come as soon as January under House rules.

    “Unfortunately, it is House leadership themselves that have forced this outcome.” Fitzpatrick said in a statement.

    Johnson told reporters Wednesday that “I have not lost control of the House” and he noted that Republicans have a razor-thin majority that allows a small number of members to employ procedures that would not usually be successful in getting around leadership.

    “These are not normal times,” said Johnson, R-La.

    Brian Fitzpatrick has a plan to extend ACA subsidies and avoid premium hikes for millions. He’s ready for an uphill battle.

    Origins of a Republican revolt

    The revolt against GOP leadership came after days of talks centered on the health care subsidies.

    Johnson had discussed allowing more politically vulnerable GOP lawmakers a chance to vote on bills that would temporarily extend the subsidies while also adding changes such as income caps for beneficiaries. But after days of discussions, the leadership sided with the more conservative wing of the party’s conference, which has assailed the subsidies as propping up a failed marketplace through the ACA, which is widely known as “Obamacare.”

    House Republicans pushed ahead Wednesday a 100-plus-page health care package without the subsidies, instead focusing on long-sought GOP proposals designed to expand insurance coverage options for small businesses and the self-employed.

    Fitzpatrick and Lawler tried to add a temporary extension of the subsidies to the bill, but were denied.

    “Our only request was a floor vote on this compromise, so that the American People’s voice could be heard on this issue. That request was rejected. Then, at the request of House leadership I, along with my colleagues, filed multiple amendments, and testified at length to those amendments,” Fitzpatrick said. “House leadership then decided to reject every single one of these amendments.

    “As I’ve stated many times before, the only policy that is worse than a clean three-year extension without any reforms, is a policy of complete expiration without any bridge,” Fitzpatrick said.

    Lawler, in a social media post, similarly said that “the failure of leadership” to permit a vote had left him with “no choice” but to sign the petition. He urged Johnson to bring the plan up for an immediate floor vote.

    Jeffries, for several weeks, had called on Republicans to sign his discharge petition. He particularly challenged Republicans in competitive congressional districts to join the effort if they really wanted to prevent premium increases for their constituents.

    “Mike Johnson needs to bring the bill to the floor today,” Jeffries said. “Our position from the very beginning was that we are standing on the right side of the American people who want to see the Affordable Care Act tax credits extended, and we’re appreciative that we now have the bipartisan coalition to get that done.”

    Path ahead is uncertain

    Even if the subsidy bill were to pass the House, which is far from assured, it would face an arduous climb in the Republican-led Senate.

    Republicans last week voted down a three-year extension of the subsidies and proposed an alternative that also failed. But in an encouraging sign for Democrats, four Republican senators crossed party lines to support their proposal.

    Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., argued against the Democratic extension as “an attempt to disguise the real impact of Obamacare’s spiraling health care costs.”

  • Warner Bros asks its investors to reject the takeover bid from Paramount Skydance, saying Netflix’s will be better for customers

    Warner Bros asks its investors to reject the takeover bid from Paramount Skydance, saying Netflix’s will be better for customers

    NEW YORK — Warner Bros. is telling shareholders to reject a takeover bid from Paramount Skydance, saying that a rival bid from Netflix will be better for customers.

    “We strongly believe that Netflix and Warner Bros. joining forces will offer consumers more choice and value, allow the creative community to reach even more audiences with our combined distribution, and fuel our long-term growth,” Warner Bros. said Wednesday. “We made this deal because their deep portfolio of iconic franchises, expansive library, and strong studio capabilities will complement—not duplicate—our existing business.”

    Paramount went hostile with its bid last week, asking shareholders to reject the deal with Netflix favored by the board of Warner Bros.

    Paramount goes hostile in bid for Warner Bros., challenging a $72 billion offer by Netflix

    Paramount’s bid isn’t off the table altogether. While Wednesday’s letter to shareholders means Paramount’s is not the offer favored by the board at Warner Bros., shareholders can still decide to tender their shares in favor of Paramount’s offer for the entire company — including cable stalwarts CNN and Discovery.

    Unlike Paramount’s bid, the offer from Netflix does not include buying the cable operations of Warner Bros. An acquisition by Netflix, if approved by regulators and shareholders, will close only after Warner completes its previously announced separation of its cable operations.

  • States sue Trump administration again over billions in withheld electric vehicle charging funds

    States sue Trump administration again over billions in withheld electric vehicle charging funds

    DETROIT — Sixteen states and the District of Columbia are suing President Donald Trump’s administration for what they say is the unlawful withholding of more than $2 billion dollars in funding for two electric vehicle charging programs, according to a federal lawsuit announced Tuesday.

    The lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington is the latest legal battle that several states are pursuing over funding for EV charging infrastructure that they say was obligated to them by Congress under former President Joe Biden, but that the Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration are “impounding.”

    “The Trump Administration’s illegal attempt to stop funding for electric vehicle infrastructure must come to an end,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a release. “This is just another reckless attempt that will stall the fight against air pollution and climate change, slow innovation, thwart green job creation, and leave communities without access to clean, affordable transportation.”

    The Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to request for comment.

    The Trump administration in February ordered states to halt spending money for EV charging that was allocated in the bipartisan infrastructure law passed under the previous administration.

    Several states filed a lawsuit in May against the administration for withholding the funding from the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program for a nationwide charging buildout. A federal judge later ordered the administration to release much of the funding for chargers in more than a dozen states.

    Tuesday’s separate lawsuit addresses the withholding of funding obligations for two other programs: $1.8 billion for the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grant program, as well as about $350 million in Electric Vehicle Charger Reliability and Accessibility Accelerator money.

    Tuesday’s lawsuit is led by attorneys general from California and Colorado, joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, the District of Columbia, and the governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro.

    The Trump administration has been hostile to EVs and has dismantled several policies friendly to cleaner cars and trucks that were put in place under Biden, in favor of policies that instead align with Trump’s oil and gas industry agenda.

    Once in office a second time, President Trump immediately ordered an end to what he has called Biden’s “EV mandate.” While Biden targeted for half of new vehicle sales in the U.S. to be electric by 2030, policies did not force American consumers to buy or automakers to sell electric vehicles.

    Biden did set stringent tailpipe emissions and fuel economy rules in an effort to encourage more widespread EV uptake, as the auto industry would have had to meet both sets of requirements with a greater number of EVs in their sales mix.

    Under the Biden administration, consumers could also receive up to $7,500 in tax incentives off the price of an EV purchase.

    The Trump administration has proposed rolling back both tailpipe rules and the gas mileage standards, cut the fines to automakers for not meeting those standards, and eliminated the EV credits.

    The lawsuit comes amid those regulatory changes and as the pace of EV sales have slowed in the U.S. as mainstream buyers remain concerned about both charging availability and the price of the vehicles.

    New EVs transacted for an average of $58,638 last month, compared with $49,814 for a new vehicle overall, according to auto buying resource Kelley Blue Book.

    Automakers, meanwhile, have responded to consumers accordingly.

    Earlier this week, Ford Motor Co. announced it was pivoting away from its once-ambitious, multibillion-dollar electrification strategy in lieu of more hybrid-electric and more fuel-efficient gasoline-powered vehicles.

    In the spring, Honda Motor Co. also said it would take a significant step back from its EV efforts.

    Still, EVs are gaining traction in other areas around the world.

  • Hyundai and Kia will repair millions of vehicles under a deal to fix anti-theft technology

    Hyundai and Kia will repair millions of vehicles under a deal to fix anti-theft technology

    Automakers Hyundai and Kia must offer free repairs to millions of models under a settlement announced Tuesday by Minnesota’s attorney general, who led an effort by dozens of states that argued the vehicles weren’t equipped with proper anti-theft technology, leaving them vulnerable to thefts.

    Under the nationwide settlement, the companies will offer a free repair to all eligible vehicles at a cost that could top $500 million, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said. Hyundai and Kia must also outfit all future vehicles sold in the U.S. with a key piece of technology called an engine immobilizer and pay up to $4.5 million of restitution to people whose vehicles were damaged by thieves.

    The settlement was reached by 35 states, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, California, and New York. The vehicles eligible for fixes date as far back as 2011 and as recently as 2022. About 9 million eligible vehicles were sold nationwide.

    Thefts of Hyundai and Kia vehicles soared in part because beginning in 2021, videos posted to TikTok and other social media demonstrated how someone could steal a car with just a screwdriver and a USB cable. Minneapolis reported an 836% increase in Hyundai and Kia thefts from 2021 to 2022. Ellison announced an investigation into the automakers in early 2023.

    Ellison said the two companies installed engine immobilizers on cars sold in Mexico and Canada, but not widely in the U.S., leading to car thefts, crimes, and crashes that injured and even killed people, including teenagers.

    “This crisis that we’re talking about today started in a boardroom, traveled through the Internet, and ended up in tragic results when somebody stole those cars,” Ellison said at a news conference.

    He was joined by Twin Cities officials, a woman whose mother was killed when a stolen Kia crashed into her parents’ vehicle, and a man whose car was stolen nine times — as recently as Monday night, and including seven times after a previous software fix.

    Under the settlement, Hyundai and Kia will install a zinc sleeve to stop would-be thieves from cracking open a vehicle’s ignition cylinder and starting the car.

    Eligible customers will have one year from the date of the companies’ notice to get the repair at an authorized dealership. The repairs are expected to be available from early 2026 through early 2027.

    In a statement, Kia said the agreement is the latest step it has taken to help its customers and prevent thefts.

    “Kia is eager to continue working with law enforcement officers and officials at federal, state, and local levels to combat criminal car theft, and the role social media has played in encouraging it, and we remain fully committed to upholding vehicle security,” the company said.

    Hyundai said, “We will continue to take meaningful action to support our customers and ensure peace of mind.”

  • Rob Reiner’s son Nick charged with 2 counts of murder in killing of his parents

    Rob Reiner’s son Nick charged with 2 counts of murder in killing of his parents

    LOS ANGELES — Rob Reiner’s son Nick Reiner was charged Tuesday with two counts of first-degree murder in the killing of his parents, which stunned their communities in Hollywood and Democratic politics, where both were widely beloved.

    Nick Reiner, 32, is charged with killing Rob Reiner, the 78-year-old actor and director, and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced at a news conference with Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell.

    “Their loss is beyond tragic and we will commit ourselves to bringing their murderer to justice,” Hochman said.

    Along with the two counts of first-degree murder, prosecutors added special circumstances of multiple murders and a special allegation that the defendant used a dangerous weapon: a knife. The additions could mean a greater sentence.

    Hochman said his office had not decided whether to seek the death penalty.

    “This case is heartbreaking and deeply personal, not only for the Reiner family and their loved ones but for our entire city,” McDonnell said. “We will continue to support the Reiner family and ensure that every step forward is taken with care, dignity, and resolve.”

    The announcement came two days after the couple were found dead with apparent stab wounds in their home in the upscale Brentwood neighborhood on the west side of Los Angeles. Nick Reiner did not resist when he was arrested hours later in the Exposition Park area near the University of Southern California, about 14 miles from the crime scene, police said.

    Nick Reiner had been expected to make an initial court appearance Tuesday, but his attorney Alan Jackson said he was not brought from the jail to the courthouse for medical reasons and the appearance would not come before Wednesday.

    An email sent to Jackson seeking comment on the charges was not immediately answered. Nick Reiner has not entered a plea.

    Rob Reiner was the Emmy-winning costar of the sitcom All in the Family who went on to direct films including When Harry Met Sally … and The Princess Bride. He was an outspoken liberal activist for decades. Michele Singer Reiner was a photographer, a movie producer, and an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. They had been married for 36 years.

    Representatives for the Reiner family did not respond to requests for comment. Police have not said anything about a motive for the killings.

    Nick Reiner is being held in jail without bail. He was arrested several hours after his parents were found dead on Sunday, police said.

    Jackson is a high-profile lawyer who represented Harvey Weinstein at his Los Angeles trial and Karen Read at her trial in Massachusetts. He was a central figure in the HBO documentary on the Read case.

    Investigators believe Rob and Michele Singer Reiner died from stab wounds, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press. The official, who was briefed on the investigation, could not publicly discuss the details and spoke on condition of anonymity.

    The killings were especially shocking given the warm comic legacy of the family. Rob Reiner was the son of comedy legend Carl Reiner, who died in 2020 at age 98.

    Kathy Bates, who won an Oscar as the star of Rob Reiner’s 1990 film Misery, was among those paying tribute to the couple.

    “I loved Rob,” Bates said in a statement. “He was brilliant and kind, a man who made films of every genre to challenge himself as an artist. He also fought courageously for his political beliefs. He changed the course of my life. Michele was a gifted photographer.”

    Former President Bill Clinton called the couple “good, generous people who made everyone who knew them better.”

    “Hillary and I are heartbroken by the tragic deaths of our friends Rob and Michele Reiner,” he said in a statement. “They inspired and uplifted millions through their work in film and television.”

    Three months ago, Nick Reiner was photographed with his parents and siblings at the premiere of his father’s film Spinal Tap 2: The End Continues.

    He had spoken publicly of his struggles with addiction, cycling in and out of treatment facilities with bouts of homelessness in between through his teen years. Rob and Nick Reiner explored — and seemed to improve — their relationship through the making of the 2016 film Being Charlie.

    Nick Reiner cowrote and Rob Reiner directed the film about the struggles of an addicted son and a famous father. It was not autobiographical but included several elements of their lives.

    “It forced us to understand ourselves better than we had,” Rob Reiner told the AP in 2016. “I told Nick while we were making it, I said, ‘You know, it doesn’t matter, whatever happens to this thing, we won already.’”

    Rob Reiner was long one of the most prolific directors in Hollywood, and his work included some of the most memorable and endlessly watchable movies of the 1980s and ’90s, including This is Spinal Tap and A Few Good Men.

    He met Michele Singer Reiner on the set of When Harry Met Sally …, and their meeting would inspire the film’s shift to a happy ending, with stars Billy Crystal — one of Reiner’s closest friends for decades — and Meg Ryan ending up together on New Year’s Eve.

    The Reiners were outspoken advocates for liberal causes and major Democratic donors.

    President Donald Trump on Monday blamed Rob Reiner’s outspoken opposition to the president for the actor-director’s killing, delivering the unsubstantiated claim in a social media post that seemed intent on decrying his opponents even in the face of a tragedy.

  • Investigators release video timeline of the Brown campus shooting suspect’s movements

    Investigators release video timeline of the Brown campus shooting suspect’s movements

    PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Authorities on Tuesday released a new video timeline and a slightly clearer image of the man suspected in the Brown University shooting, though investigators provided no indication that they were any closer to zeroing in on his identity.

    Investigators have been canvassing Providence homes, yards, and dumpsters in search of videos or other clues that might help them figure out who was behind Saturday’s campus shooting, which killed two students and wounded nine others.

    In all of the videos made public, the suspect’s face was masked or turned away, and authorities have been able to give only a vague description of him as being stocky and about 5 feet, 8 inches tall.

    The FBI’s video timeline includes new footage of the man that was recorded before the attack. It shows him running at times along quiet and empty residential streets near campus. Authorities believe he was casing the area, Col. Oscar Perez, the Providence police chief, said in a news conference Tuesday.

    Perez asked residents to look at their camera systems in the area to see if they have any footage that might help officials identify him.

    “We’re looking for a moment that is shorter than someone taking a breath,” Perez said.

    Perez said there was no clear video of the gunman from inside the engineering building where the shooting took place. Attorney General Peter Neronha said there were cameras in the newer part of the building but “fewer, if any, cameras” where the shooting happened “because it’s an older building.”

    The Brown University president said the campus is equipped with 1,200 cameras.

    Neronha said that from his perspective, the investigation was going “really well.” He pleaded for public patience in locating the suspected killer.

    Providence is understandably tense, and additional police were sent to city schools on Tuesday to reassure worried parents that their kids will be safe. Ten state troopers were assigned to support the local police sent to beef up security at schools, district Superintendent Javier Montañez said.

    “We recognize that the tragic incident at Brown University, occurring so close to where many of our students and families live and learn, is deeply unsettling and frightening,” he wrote in an email to parents.

    Alex Torres-Perez, a spokesperson for the Providence Public School District, said the district canceled all after-school activities and field trips for the week “as a precaution.”

    A city on edge

    Locals expressed fear as well as defiance as the investigation continued Tuesday.

    “Of course it feels scary. But at the same time, I think that if the person really wanted to scare us, we shouldn’t allow him or her to win,” said Tatjana Stojanovic, a Providence parent who lives next door to the Brown campus. ”Despite all of that, we should just go about our lives. I mean, obviously, you cannot forget this. But I think we shouldn’t cower and just sort of stop living despite what has happened.

    The attack and the shooter’s escape have raised questions about campus security, including a lack of security cameras, and led to calls for better locks on campus doors. Others pushed back, though, saying such efforts do little to address the real issue.

    “The issue isn’t the doors, it’s the guns,” said Zoe Kass, a senior who fled the engineering building as police stormed in Saturday. “And all of this, like, ‘Oh, the doors need to be locked.’ I get it, parents are scared. But any of us could have opened the door for the guy if the doors had been locked.”

    After spending of her life in schools where every door was locked and school shootings persisted, Kass said, such security measures only created “the illusion of safety.”

    FBI Boston special agent in charge Ted Docks said the bureau had 30 people in the city to support survivors, victims, and loved ones, noting that the toll a tragedy like this takes on them is “immeasurable.”

    A fuller picture of the victims emerges

    Meanwhile, details have emerged about the victims, who were in the first-floor classroom in the school’s engineering building studying for a final.

    Two of the wounded students had been released as of Tuesday, Brown spokesperson Amanda McGregor said. Of the seven people who remained hospitalized, Mayor Brett Smiley said, one remained in critical condition, five were in critical but stable condition, and one was in stable condition.

    One of the wounded students, 18-year-old freshman Spencer Yang of New York City, told the New York Times and the Brown Daily Herald that there was a mad scramble after the gunman entered the room. Many students ran toward the front, but Yang said he wound up on the ground between some seats and was shot in the leg. He expected to be discharged within days.

    Jacob Spears, 18, a freshman from Evans, Ga., was shot in the stomach, “but through sheer adrenaline and courage, he managed to run outside, where he was aided by others,” according to a GoFundMe site organized for him.

    Ella Cook, a 19-year-old sophomore who was one of the two students killed, was vice president of the Brown College Republicans and was beloved in her church in Birmingham, Ala. In announcing her death Sunday, the Rev. R. Craig Smalley described her as “an incredible grounded, faithful, bright light” who encouraged and “lifted up those around her.”

    The other student killed was MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, an 18-year-old freshman from Brandermill, Va., who was majoring in biochemistry and neuroscience. His family immigrated to the U.S. from Uzbekistan when he was a kid.

    As a child, Umurzokov suffered a neurological condition that required surgery, and he later wore a back brace because of scoliosis, his sister Samira Umurzokova told the Associated Press by phone. He knew from an early age that he wanted to be a neurosurgeon to help others like him.

    “He had so many hardships in his life, and he got into this amazing school and tried so hard to follow through with the promise he made when was 7 years old,” she said.