Some small business owners are relieved after an overtime pay rule was blocked

A federal judge in Texas blocked a new rule from the Biden administration that would have expanded access to overtime pay to millions more salaried workers across the U.S. Small business owners have had a mostly positive reaction to a judge’s decision to strike down an overtime rule that would have qualified more workers for overtime pay.

Published: 2024-11-27 22:00:00

What to know about the Supreme Court’s latest culture war fight: Transgender care

The case brings transgender rights, a major flashpoint in the U.S. culture wars, to the nation’s highest judicial body just as Republican U.S. President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office on Jan. 20. Dr. Susan Lacy had been caring for transgender patients for several years in Tennessee when, in 2023, everything changed. In the span of a few months, the Republican-governed state banned healthcare providers from treating minors for gender dysphoria.

Published: 2024-11-27 21:30:00

Matt Gaetz is dishing out career advice on Cameo

The former Florida congressman joined the celebrity video message app after withdrawing his name from consideration to serve as Trump’s attorney general amid sexual misconduct allegations. After announcing he would not return to Congress, Matt Gaetz is trying out a new career path: making personalized videos on Cameo.

Published: 2024-11-27 20:24:22

Turkey prices dropped in 2024, but side dish costs are gobbling up the savings

Higher grocery prices vary by region, but topping the list of traditional staples are eggs, sugar, yams—and in California, cranberry sauce. It’s almost time to butter, baste, and brown the turkey. Happily, you probably paid less for it this year than you did last year. A new MoneyGeek report showed that turkey prices the week of Thanksgiving fell by 11% since last year. Still, even if the price of the main attraction took a dip, other grocery prices can be soaring.

Published: 2024-11-27 20:17:00

How Trump’s transition agreement differs from ones signed by Biden and Harris

There are no guidelines about individual stock sales—or any stock sales—in the Trump pledge. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump‘s team signed an agreement on Tuesday with President Joe Biden‘s administration to coordinate with federal agencies and share documents, after weeks of delays.

Published: 2024-11-27 20:10:00

Why drivers in America and Europe are more skeptical to buy EVs than in China right now

Concerns about range, charging infrastructure, and higher prices are sore points among both electric car enthusiasts and skeptics in Europe and the U.S. While sales of electric vehicles surge in China, adoption of more environmentally friendly vehicles is stumbling in the United States and Europe as carmakers and governments struggle to meet years-old promises about affordability and charging stations.

Published: 2024-11-27 19:30:00

CFPB moves to finalize rules before Trump can ‘delete’ the agency

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, whom Trump has tasked with slashing government costs, called for the CFPB to be deleted. The U.S. consumer finance watchdog is moving ahead with rulemaking in the final weeks of Joe Biden’s Democratic administration, in a bid to advance consumer protections before President-elect Trump overhauls the agency, said three people familiar with the agency’s thinking.

Published: 2024-11-27 18:30:00

Thanksgiving spectacle: Solar storm to bring Northern Lights to parts of the U.S.

This Thanksgiving, the northern lights are heading south. Discover the best spots to see them. Aurora enthusiasts in northern parts of the U.S. and Canada are in for a treat this Thanksgiving, as a solar storm is expected to send the northern lights, or aurora borealis, further south than usual, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecast.

Published: 2024-11-27 18:21:00

American Airlines is expanding its airport ‘gate lice’ crackdown

The company is expanding new technology to more than 100 airports in hopes of keeping passengers from attempting to board a flight before their assigned group is called. American Airlines is cracking down on “gate lice” ahead of what’s expected to be a record-setting Thanksgiving travel season.

Published: 2024-11-27 18:16:33

TikTok will block beauty filters for European teens following pushback

In the coming weeks, minors will be blocked from making their eyes bigger, plumping their lips, and smoothing or changing their skin tone with filters. TikTok is planning to ban teen users in Europe from using beauty filters that alter their facial features. In the coming weeks, minors will be blocked from making their eyes bigger, plumping their lips, and smoothing or changing their skin tone with filters—all part of an effort to mitigate the impact on teens’ mental health.

Published: 2024-11-27 17:50:24

How to rescue climate change from the culture wars

What if the resistance to climate science is not really about science at all? Household appliances used to be a safe conversation topic, if a boring one. But these days, many Republican politicians see gas stoves, refrigerators, dishwashers, and laundry machines as symbols of the government meddling in people’s lives. Earlier this year, lawmakers in the House passed the “Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act” to make it harder for the Department of Energy to create new energy-saving standards, though it stalled in the Senate. Other appliance-related bills proposed this year included the “Refrigerator Freedom Act” and “Liberty in Laundry Act.”

Published: 2024-11-27 16:35:56

How Biden’s AI tech could play a role in Trump’s immigration crackdown

Trump has yet to reveal how he plans to execute his promised deportation of millions of illegal immigrants. President-elect Donald Trump will return to power next year with a raft of technological tools at his disposal that would help deliver his campaign promise of cracking down on immigration—among them, surveillance and artificial intelligence technology that the Biden administration already uses to help make crucial decisions in tracking, detaining and ultimately deporting immigrants lacking permanent legal status.While immigration officials have used the tech for years, an October letter from the Department of Homeland Security obtained exclusively by The Associated Press details how those tools—some of them powered by AI—help make decisions over whether an immigrant should be detained or surveilled.One algorithm, for example, ranks immigrants with a “Hurricane Score,” ranging from 1-5, to assess whether someone will “abscond” from the agency’s supervision.The letter, sent by DHS Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer Eric Hysen to the immigrant rights group Just Futures Law, revealed that the score calculates the potential risk that an immigrant—with a pending case—will fail to check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. The algorithm relies on several factors, he said, including an immigrant’s number of violations and length of time in the program, and whether the person has a travel document. Hysen wrote that ICE officers consider the score, among other information, when making decisions about an immigrant’s case.“The Hurricane Score does not make decisions on detention, deportation, or surveillance; instead, it is used to inform human decision-making,” Hysen wrote.Also included in the government’s tool kit is a mobile app called SmartLINK that uses facial matching and can track an immigrant’s specific location.Nearly 200,000 people without legal status who are in removal proceedings are enrolled in the Alternatives to Detention program, under which certain immigrants can live in the U.S. while their immigration cases are pending.In exchange, SmartLINK and GPS trackers used by ICE rigorously surveil them and their movements. The phone application draws on facial matching technology and geolocation data, which has been used before to find and arrest those using the app.Just Futures Law wrote to Hysen earlier this year, questioning the fairness of using an algorithm to assess whether someone is a flight risk and raising concerns over how much data SmartLINK collects. Such AI systems, which score or screen people, are used widely but remain largely unregulated even though some have been found to discriminate on race, gender, or other protected traits.DHS said in an email that it is committed to ensuring that its use of AI is transparent and safeguards privacy and civil rights while avoiding biases. The agency said it is working to implement the Biden administration’s requirements on using AI, but Hysen said in his letter that security officials may waive those requirements for certain uses. Trump has publicly vowed to repeal Biden’s AI policy when he returns to the White House in January.“DHS uses AI to assist our personnel in their work, but DHS does not use the outputs of AI systems as the sole basis for any law enforcement action or denial of benefits,” a spokesperson for DHS told the AP.Trump has not revealed how he plans to carry out his promised deportation of an estimated 11 million people living in the country illegally. Although he has proposed invoking wartime powers, as well as military involvement, the plan would face major logistical challenges—such as where to keep those who have been detained and how to find people spread across the country—that AI-powered surveillance tools could potentially address.Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Trump, did not answer questions about how the incoming administration plans to use DHS’ tech, but said in a statement that “President Trump will marshal every federal and state power necessary to institute the largest deportation operation” in American history.Over 100 civil society groups sent a letter on Friday urging the Office of Management and Budget to require DHS to comply with the Biden administration’s guidelines. A spokesperson for OMB said that agencies must align their AI tools with the guidelines by December 1, and that any extensions or waivers of that deadline will be publicly disclosed next month.Just Futures Law’s executive director, Paromita Shah, said if immigrants are scored as flight risks, they are more likely to remain in detention, “limiting their ability to prepare a defense in their case in immigration court, which is already difficult enough as it is.”SmartLINK, part of the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, is run by BI Inc., a subsidiary of the private prison company The GEO Group. The GEO Group also contracts with ICE to run detention centers.ICE is tight-lipped about how it uses SmartLINK’s location feature to find and arrest immigrants. Still, public records show that during Trump’s first term in 2018, Manassas, Virginia-based employees of BI Inc. relayed immigrants’ GPS locations to federal authorities, who then arrested over 40 people.In a report last year to address privacy issues and concerns, DHS said that the mobile app includes security features that “prohibit access to information on the participant’s mobile device, with the exception of location data points when the app is open.”But the report notes that there remains a risk that data collected from people “may be misused for unauthorized persistent monitoring.”Such information could also be stored in other ICE and DHS databases and used for other DHS mission purposes, the report said.On investor calls earlier this month, private prison companies were clear-eyed about the opportunities ahead.The GEO Group’s executive chairman George Christopher Zoley said that he expects the incoming Trump administration to “take a much more aggressive approach regarding border security as well as interior enforcement and to request additional funding from Congress to achieve these goals.”“In GEO’s ISAP program, we can scale up from the present 182,500 participants to several hundreds of thousands, or even millions of participants,” Zoley said.That same day, the head of another private prison company told investors he would be watching closely to see how the new administration may change immigrant monitoring programs.“It’s an opportunity for multiple vendors to engage ICE about the program going forward and think about creative and innovative solutions to not only get better outcomes, but also scale up the program as necessary,” Damon Hininger, CEO of the private prison company CoreCivic Inc. said on an earnings call.GEO did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement, CoreCivic said that it has played “a valued but limited role in America’s immigration system” for both Democrats and Republicans for over 40 years.

Published: 2024-11-27 16:33:44

Canada blasts Trump’s tariff threat

Trump is promising to impose a 25% tax on all Canadian and Mexican goods on his first day in office. Canadian officials on Tuesday blasted President-elect Donald’s Trump’s threat to impose sweeping tariffs, as the leader of the country’s most populous province called Trump’s comparison of Canada to Mexico “the most insulting thing I’ve ever heard.”Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada, Mexico and China as soon as he takes office in January as part of efforts to crack down on illegal immigration and drugs. He said he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders.“To compare us to Mexico is the most insulting thing I’ve ever heard from our friends and closest allies, the United States of America,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said. “I found his comments unfair. I found them insulting. It’s like a family member stabbing you right in the heart.”Ford said Canada will have no choice but to retaliate.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will convene an emergency meeting with provincial leaders on Wednesday. The Canadian dollar weakened sharply in foreign exchange markets.Trudeau said he spoke with Trump after his threat of tariffs. “We talked about the intense and effective connections between our countries that flow back and forth. We talked about some of the challenges that we can work on together. It was a good call,” Trudeau said.Trump made the threat Monday while railing against an influx of illegal migrants, even though apprehensions at the southern U.S. border have been near four-year lows.Apprehension numbers at the Canadian border pale in comparison.“We shouldn’t confuse the Mexican border with the Canadian border,” Canadian Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said.The U.S. Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests at the Mexican border in October—and 23,721 arrests at the Canadian one between October 2023 and September 2024, up from 10,021 the previous 12 months.“It’s the equivalent to a significant weekend at the Mexico border,” Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller said, adding that Canada is considering a number of border measures including additional resources.Quebec Premier François Legault acknowledged that the issue along the Mexican border is far worse but called Trump’s concerns legitimate, citing the recent increase in illegal immigrants entering the U.S. from Canada.“A 25% tariff would mean tens of thousands of jobs lost,” Legault said. “We cannot start a war. We have to do everything we can to not have these tariffs.”Canada is one of the most trade-dependent countries in the world, and 77% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day. About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports are from Canada. Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is investing in for national security.“The fact is, we need them and they also need us,” Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said. “Canada is the largest market for the U.S in the world, larger than China, Japan, the U.K. and France combined. It is also the case that the things we sell to the United States are the things they really need.”When Trump imposed higher tariffs during his first term, countries responded with retaliatory tariffs. Canada announced billions of dollars in new duties in 2018 in response to new U.S. taxes on Canadian steel and aluminum.Many of the U.S. products were chosen for their political rather than economic impact. For example, Canada imports $3 million worth of yogurt from the U.S. annually and most comes from one plant in Wisconsin, home state of then-House Speaker Paul Ryan. That product was hit with a 10% duty.Now, again, Canadians are particularly worried about auto tariffs. The North American auto industry is highly integrated, and parts made in Canada often go to cars manufactured in the U.S. and sold back to Canadians.“To try and undo it with a tariff would be like trying to separate the yolks from the whites in a omelet. You cannot,” said Flavio Volpe, president of Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association. “You cannot hurt Canadian automotive without immediately hurting American automotive.”The tariffs would also throw into doubt the reliability of the 2020 trade deal brokered in large part by Trump with Canada and Mexico that replaced NAFTA. It is up for review in 2026.

Published: 2024-11-27 15:57:32

Pony AI stock price: Chinese autonomous car company’s Nasdaq IPO will be closely watched today

The firm, which has headquarters in Silicon Valley and Guangzhou, China, makes tech that can turn cars into self-driving vehicles. Pony AI is having its initial public offering today. The firm, which is based in Silicon Valley but also has a headquarters in Guangzhou, China, makes autonomous mobility tech that can turn cars into self-driving vehicles. Here’s what you need to know about Pony AI and its IPO.

Published: 2024-11-27 15:45:00

U.S. trade tensions escalate as Mexico’s Sheinbaum suggests retaliatory tariffs

Responding to Trump’s tariff threats, President Sheinbaum also said Mexico was open to talks. President Claudia Sheinbaum suggested Tuesday that Mexico could retaliate with tariffs of its own, after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose 25% import duties on Mexican goods if the country doesn’t stop the flow of drugs and migrants across the border.Sheinbaum said she was willing to engage in talks on the issues, but said drugs were a U.S. problem.“One tariff would be followed by another in response, and so on until we put at risk common businesses,” Sheinbaum said, referring to U.S. automakers that have plants on both sides of the border.She said Tuesday that Mexico had done a lot to stem the flow of migrants, noting “caravans of migrants no longer reach the border.” However, Mexico’s efforts to fight drugs like the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl—which is manufactured by Mexican cartels using chemicals imported from China—have weakened in the last year.Sheinbaum said Mexico suffered from an influx of weapons smuggled in from the United States, and said the flow of drugs “is a problem of public health and consumption in your country’s society.”Sheinbaum also criticized U.S. spending on weapons, saying the money should instead be spent regionally to address the problem of migration. “If a percentage of what the United States spends on war were dedicated to peace and development, that would address the underlying causes of migration,” she said.Sheinbaum’s bristly response suggests that Trump faces a much different Mexican president than he did in his first term.Back in late 2018, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was a charismatic, old-school politician who developed a chummy relationship with Trump. The two were eventually able to strike a bargain in which Mexico helped keep migrants away from the border—and received other countries’ deported migrants—and Trump backed down on the threats.But Sheinbaum, who took office Oct. 1, is a stern leftist ideologue trained in radical student protest movements, and appears less willing to pacify or mollify Trump.“We negotiate as equals, there is no subordination here, because we are a great nation,” Sheinbaum said, while adding, “I think we are going to reach an agreement.”But Gabriela Siller, director of economic analysis of the financial group Banco Base, fears the personality clash could escalate things into brinkmanship; Trump clearly hates to lose.“Trump may have just tossed the threat out there, as he does,” Siller said. “But Mexico’s response, that we’re going to respond to you with tariffs, that will make Trump really impose them.”It’s not clear how serious Trump’s threat is. The U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement forbids just imposing tariffs on other member countries. And it’s not clear whether the economy could even tolerate sudden levies on imports: Auto plants on both sides of the border rely on each other for parts and components, and some production lines could screech to a halt.“It is unacceptable and would cause inflation and job losses in Mexico and the United States,” Sheinbaum said, while offering to talk about the issues. “If tariffs go up, who will it hurt? General Motors,” she said.“Dialogue is the best path to achieve understanding, peace and prosperity for our two countries,” Sheinbaum said. “I hope our teams can meet soon.”Late Monday, Trump said he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the country from Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10% tariff on goods from China, as one of his first executive orders.The tariffs, if implemented, could dramatically raise prices for American consumers on everything from gas to automobiles to agricultural products. The U.S. is the largest importer of goods in the world, with Mexico, China and Canada its top three suppliers, according to the most recent U.S. Census data.Trump made the threats Monday in a pair of posts on his Truth Social site in which he railed against an influx of illegal migrants, even though apprehensions at the southern border have been hovering near four-year lows.“On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders,” he wrote.He said the new tariffs would remain in place “until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!”“Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem. We hereby demand that they use this power,” he went on, “and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!”

Published: 2024-11-27 15:30:24

GM, Stellantis, and Ford could bear the brunt of Trump’s planned 25% tariff hike

Detroit automakers will likely suffer if Trump executes the steep tariff hike on Canadian and Mexican imports. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to slap a 25% tax on all imports from Mexico and Canada could strike the bottom lines of U.S. automakers, especially General Motors, and raise prices of SUVs and pickup trucks for U.S. consumers.

Published: 2024-11-27 14:56:26

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