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☆ One woman describes the chaos aboard the Amtrak Auto Train that was delayed for 20 hours: 'I will not be going on another train, that's for sure'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Lloyd Lee | Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

An Amtrak Auto Train was severely delayed due to a freight derailment that occurred Monday night. The Auto Train is a 900-mile train service that goes from Lorton, Virginia, to Sanford, Florida. "I will not be going on another train, that's for sure," she told Insider on Wednesday, exhausted from her long journey. Amtrak told Insider that the incident forced the Auto Train to take a detour. One of the therapy dogs that were aboard the Amtrak Auto Train.

PARIS/MILAN, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Gucci kicked off Milan fashion week on Friday with a lineup of slouchy, androgynous menswear styles, forging ahead with its latest collection while the industry waits for owner Kering (PRTP.PA) to name a new designer for the label. The question of who will steer Gucci's creative direction loomed over the megabrand's first men's show in the Italian fashion capital in three years. Events run through Jan. 17, drawing an audience that includes major retail buyers sizing up which styles might be future top sellers. Gucci held back on marketing investments during the pandemic, while larger rival LVMH's two biggest labels Louis Vuitton and Dior pushed ahead, a move that analysts say helped them gain ground on rivals. Despite the current turbulence at Kering, however, expectations are high given the group's strong track record nurturing brands, analysts say.

☆ Alejandro Jodorowsky’s ‘Dune’ Was Never Made, but With A.I., We Get a Glimpse of His ‘Tron’ - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Frank Pavich | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +12 min

I was recently shown some frames from a film that I had never heard of: Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1976 version of “Tron.” The sets were incredible. However, Mr. Jodorowsky, the visionary Chilean filmmaker, never tried to make “Tron.” I’m not even sure he knows what “Tron” is. caption caption caption caption caption caption caption caption caption caption caption Generation Text prompt The A.I. caption caption caption caption caption caption caption caption caption caption caption Generation Text prompt The A.I. If A.I.s were eligible for the Academy Awards, I’d vote for “Jodorowsky’s Tron” for best A.I.

☆ New $22 million Korean War memorial in Washington has 1,015 spelling errors and 245 service members who didn't die in the war, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Sophia Ankel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Wall of Remembrance at the Korean War Veterans Memorial was unveiled in Washington last year. But the memorial contains over a thousand spelling mistakes and errors, The New York Times reported. Two historians told NBC it will cost US taxpayers millions of dollars to rectify the mistakes. The Wall of Remembrance at the Korean War Veterans Memorial was first unveiled last summer and is meant to include all of the 36,634 names of American service members who died in battle in the Korean War. The Korean War lasted from 1950 to 1953.

☆ Rapper who became the voice of the Iranian revolt is in danger of execution
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Sanam Mahoozi | Sanam Mahoozi Is A Freelance Writer Based In London. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

Fear for his safety have also grown after Salehi’s official Twitter account posted Friday that despite being in danger of losing his eyesight, he was being repeatedly beaten. Iranian mourners march towards Aichi cemetery in Saqez in Iranian Kurdistan to mark 40 days since Mahsa Amini's death on Oct. 26, 2022. ESN / AFP - Getty ImagesUsing his voice and lyrics, Salehi came out in support of the anti-government protesters from the beginning. At the heart of the protests, and Salehi’s lyrics, is the conviction that the government must go. “This is Toomaj Salehi,” he wrote, reposting a Salehi video supportive of the protesters.

☆ Tesla ≠ Apple. Elon Musk ≠ Steve Jobs. Cars ≠ iPhones.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

I'm Diamond Naga Siu, and today, we're looking at where tech workers are getting hired. Startups and Big Tech have major cultural differences, according to some startup founders. My colleague Rebecca Knight and I found that tech jobs remain abundant — they just aren't necessarily in the tech industry. Elon Musk ≠ Steve Jobs. Many industry experts are quick to compare Tesla to Apple and Musk to Jobs.

Today, there are 54 Hispanic American banks and credit unions that are FDIC or NCUA insured around the US. We selected Hispanic American-owned credit unions from the National Credit Union Administration's list of minority depository institutions which was also updated in September 2022. In our list of Hispanic American-owned banks and credit unions, many of the institutions listed offer customer support in Spanish and English. You can open up savings accounts, checking accounts, CDs, and money market accounts in most of the institutions listed. To help you learn more about a specific Hispanic American-owned bank or credit union, we've included links to reviews of individual institutions.

☆ Check out this flying motorcycle powered by 8 jet engines that's designed to reach 200 mph
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

So far, the P2 speeder prototype has taken off and landed on its own with success. It has also been able to hover and fly forward, though it hasn't been tested by a rider yet. A speeder P2 with cargo during a test flight. Courtesy of Mayman Aerospace. Source: Robb Report.

☆ Pro-Putin operatives in Germany work to turn Berlin against Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +17 min

Now the main Russian Cossack organisations are loyal to Putin, and they are fighting alongside Russia’s forces in Ukraine. He is regularly pictured on his and other social media pages at Cossack gatherings, often wearing Cossack military uniform. Felk has worked as a security guard and has run a logistics firm, according to posts on Felk’s OK social media account. Photos shared by Kharkovsky on social media show him and other participants standing in front of a Great Don Army flag. Eremenko confirmed to Reuters that he worked for Russian military intelligence, the GRU.

☆ Final farewell: From Sidney Poitier to Pope Emeritus Benedict a look back at the influential figures who died in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +55 min

Other world leaders who died in 2022 include former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who died in August. The final days of 2022 saw the loss of some exceptionally notable figures, including Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Here is a roll call of some influential figures who died in 2022 (cause of death cited for younger people, if available):___JANUARY___Dan Reeves, 77. A Cuban-born artist whose radiant color palette and geometric paintings were overlooked for decades before the art world took notice. A prolific character actor best known for playing villains and tough guys in “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Ocean’s Eleven” and other films.

☆ Iran top court accepts protester's appeal against death sentence
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"The Supreme Court has accepted the appeal of Sahand Noor Mohammadzadeh, one of the accused in the recent riots. It said 66 members of the security forces had also been killed. Iranian officials have said that up to 300 people, including members of the security forces, have lost their lives. Last week, the Supreme Court accepted the death sentence appeal of rapper Saman Seydi Yasin but confirmed the same sentence against protester Mohammad Qobadloo. Earlier this month it suspended the death sentence of protester Mahan Sadrat, who had been charged with various alleged offences including stabbing a security officer and setting fire to a motorcycle.

☆ California deputy killed by driver with violent history who was later killed in a shootout
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

JURUPA VALLEY, Calif. — A Southern California sheriff’s deputy was shot and killed Thursday by a man with a violent criminal history during a traffic stop and the suspect later died in a shootout on a freeway, authorities said. As he approached the vehicle, the driver pulled a gun and shot him, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said at an evening news conference. TV news showed dozens of Sheriff’s Department and California Highway Patrol cars chasing the truck. Cordero was a motorcycle officer assigned to Jurupa Valley, a city about 45 miles east of downtown Los Angeles that contracts with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department for policing services. Cordero “learned from his mother the value of serving and helping others” and his goal at the department was always to become a motor deputy, Bianco said.

☆ China's factory activity likely cooled in December on COVID surge: Reuters poll
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BEIJING, Dec 30 (Reuters) - China's factory activity is expected to have extended declines in December, a Reuters poll showed on Friday, as the end of the country's "zero-COVID" policy and rising infections began to affect production lines. An index reading below the 50-mark indicates contraction in activity on a monthly basis and a reading above indicates expansion. The official manufacturing PMI, which largely focuses on big and state-owned firms, and its survey for the services sector, will be released on Saturday. The private sector Caixin manufacturing PMI, which centres more on small firms and coastal regions, will be published on Jan. 3. Analysts polled by Reuters expect a headline reading of 48.8, down from 49.4 in November.

☆ Marchers in southeast Iran denounce top leader in renewed protests
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

protesters chanted in reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a social media video said to be from Zahedan, capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province. The impoverished province is home to Iran's Baluch minority of up to 2 million people, who human rights groups say have faced discrimination and repression for decades. Separately, a rights group said at least 100 detained protesters in Iran faced possible death sentences. This is a minimum as most families are under pressure to stay quiet, the real number is believed to be much higher," the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group said on its website. Reporting by Dubai newsroom Editing by Hugh Lawson and Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Ten of the 13 people Dominican authorities accused of attempting to murder former Major League Baseball player David "Big Papi" Ortiz have been convicted. On June 2019, Ortiz was shot in the back while at a bar in his native Dominican Republic. According to the attorney general, Rodríguez Mota is "the person who paid those who carried out the act" against Ortiz. The remaining seven men received sentences of less than 10 years. Ortiz underwent multiple surgeries in the Dominican Republic and the U.S. after the attack.

☆ The 'world's coolest dictator' rounded up 60,000 people in a crackdown on MS-13. A shrimp farming community is fighting back.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Danielle Mackey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

SISIGUAYO, EL SALVADOR — On the morning that Walber Rodriguez was arrested last May, he was just two minutes from his home in Sisiguayo, El Salvador. Outside El Salvador, Bukele is best known for adopting Bitcoin as a national currency. All around them in Sisiguayo and the surrounding Bajo Lempa valley, people were arrested with no satisfactory explanation. Residents of the Bajo Lempa who'd been touched by the arrests had begun meeting weekly at a nearby retreat center. A meeting of the Bajo Lempa families on June 17, 2022.

☆ The 'world's coolest dictator' rounded up 60,000 people in a supposed crackdown on MS-13. A shrimp farming community is fighting back.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Danielle Mackey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

☆ Battery swapping spurs Kenya's electric motorbike drive
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Ayenat Mersie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/5] Workers at ARC Ride assemble an electric motorcycle at the company's warehouse in Industrial Area, Nairobi, Kenya November 2, 2022. REUTERS/Monicah MwangiSummary Electric motorbike startups making inroads in KenyaSay battery swapping saves drivers time, moneyPlanning to expand model to Tanzania, UgandaNAIROBI, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Over recent months, sets of sturdy, brightly-branded battery swapping stations have cropped up around Kenya's capital Nairobi, allowing electric motorcyclists to exchange their low battery for a fully-charged one. "It doesn't make a lot of economic and business sense for them to acquire a battery...which would almost double the cost of the bike," said Steve Juma, the co-founder of electric bike company Ecobodaa. EXPANSION PLANSEcobodaa is just one of several Nairobi-based electric motorcycle startups working to prove themselves in Kenya before eventually expanding in East Africa. "We're putting over 200 swapping stations in Nairobi and expanding to Dar es Salaam and Kampala," said Hurst-Croft.

☆ Iran's clerical leaders to grapple with deepening dissent in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Parisa Hafezi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Amini's family said she was beaten after being arrested by the morality police on Sept. 13 for violating the Islamic Republic's imposed dress code. Facing their worst legitimacy crisis since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran's religious leaders have tried to portray the unrest as breakaway uprisings by ethnic minorities threatening national unity rather than its clerical rule. Protesters from all walks of life have taken to the streets, calling for the downfall of the Islamic Republic. However, the persistent unrest does not mean the four-decade-old Islamic Republic will disappear any time soon given the power wielded by its security apparatus. The Islamic Republic will be engulfed by what analysts call a "revolutionary process" that will likely fuel more protests into 2023, with neither side backing down.

☆ Mexican journalists, cultural commentators demand president end provocations
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( David Alire Garcia | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Gustavo GrafMEXICO CITY, Dec 21 (Reuters) - A cross-section of Mexican journalists, columnists and cultural commentators demanded in an open letter on Wednesday that President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador stop harassing critical media, arguing he fans the flames of violence with his rhetoric. The open letter accused Lopez Obrador of being "politically responsible" for the attack on Gomez, adding that "practically all the expressions of hate against journalists, are born, incubated and spread" from the president's office. Lopez Obrador immediately condemned the attack, but then quickly pivoted to attacking elite journalists he dismissed as conservative pundits, including Gomez. According to Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Mexico is the world's deadliest country for journalists with 11 killed so far this year. The open letter, also signed by well-known figures in Mexican film and magazine publishing, warned that even more violent attacks on media are likely if the president refused to exercise more "self-control."

☆ Indonesia considers $320 mln in incentives to boost EV sales in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

President Joko Widodo told the same news conference: "We hope with these incentives, the electric motorcycle and electric car industry will grow". Indonesia targets 20% of overall car sales in 2025 to be EVs, Airlangga said. Companies that have invested or have announced planned investments in EV manufacturing in Indonesia include Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), Mitsubishi Motors Corp (7211.T) and Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS). SGMW Motor Indonesia, part of a joint venture of SAIC Motor Corp Ltd (600104.SS), General Motors Co (GM.N) and Wuling Motors Holdings (0305.HK), has an EV assembly facility in the Southeast Asian country. Indonesia has also tried to court U.S. firm Tesla (TSLA.O) to invest to produce not just EV batteries but also cars in the country.

☆ The Year in Pictures 2022
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( The New York Times | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +57 min

Every year, starting in early fall, photo editors at The New York Times begin sifting through the year’s work in an effort to pick out the most startling, most moving, most memorable pictures. But 2022 undoubtedly belongs to the war in Ukraine, a conflict now settling into a worryingly predictable rhythm. Erin Schaff/The New York Times “When you’re standing on the ground, you can’t visualize the scope of the destruction. Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 25. We see the same images over and over, and it’s really hard to make anything different.” Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb 26.

☆ Mexican president laments attack on journalist, then bashes media
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MEXICO CITY, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Just days after condemning an assassination attempt on a prominent journalist, Mexico's president on Monday criticized the media for allegedly protecting special interest groups, even singling out the targeted news anchor. "Now they play victim," added Lopez Obrador. "(But) they are the elite, from the most select media," he said, claiming well-paid media figures seek to protect interest groups he did not name. Lopez Obrador on Monday denied using his regular news conference to "stigmatize" perceived opponents, including the media. Mexico is the world's deadliest country for media with 11 journalists killed so far this year, according to Reporters Without Borders.

☆ 6 Uber and Lyft drivers share their wildest holiday work tales, from drunk passengers to extreme tips
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Jenny Powers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Christmas can be a busy season for Uber and Lyft drivers taking passengers to their families' homes. Shelly Castle, 43, a Lyft driver in Houston, Texas: 'They wound up inviting me in and treating me to breakfast'Shelly Castle. Jonathan Gaurano, 29, an Uber driver in Los Angeles, California: 'I hatched a plan and set out to create an epic compilation video'Jonathan Gaurano. While this wasn't the first video I'd created incorporating Uber passengers, it was certainly my most popular. Bunny Rivera, 35, an Uber driver in Washington, DC: 'They refused to not give up and began chanting'Bunny Rivera and her son.

☆ 2023 Zero DSR/X: An ‘Adventure’ Bike That’s More Appropriate for Commuters
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Dan Neil | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

LOST WEEKEND The 2023 Zero DSR/X is the California-based company’s dual-sport variant, set up for on-road and soft-road terrain. The DRS/X has a stated highway range of 85 miles (at 70 mph) and up to 180 miles in the city. WHEN THE representative for Zero Motorcycles pinged to ask if I wanted to ride their new trail-ready electric motorcycle, the DSR/X, he had me at hello. I’ve been watching a lot of solo winter camping videos on YouTube, with growing envy. The Zero offer sounded like they were asking if I wanted to drop everything, pack a tent and ride off into the sunset.

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