2024 - Page 94 of 95 - Hu creative

U.S. Awards Chip Supplier 2 Million to Bolster Critical Industries

Jan

U.S. Awards Chip Supplier $162 Million to Bolster Critical Industries

The Biden administration on Thursday announced plans to provide $162 million in federal grants to Microchip Technology, an Arizona-based semiconductor company that supplies the automotive, defense and other industries.The agreement is the second award announced under a new program intended to help ensure that American companies that rely on semiconductors have a stable supply. Last month, the Biden administration announced a $35 million grant for BAE Systems, a defense contractor.The investment will enable Microchip to increase its production of semiconductors that are used in cars, airplanes, appliances, medical devices and military products. The administration said it expected the award to…

Canada’s Boreal Forests Badly Damaged by Logging

Jan

By Álvaro Sanz

Economy

Canada’s Boreal Forests Badly Damaged by Logging

Canada has long promoted itself globally as a model for protecting one of the country’s most vital natural resources: the world’s largest swath of boreal forest, which is crucial to fighting climate change.But a new study using nearly half a century of data from the provinces of Ontario and Quebec — two of the country’s main commercial logging regions — reveals that harvesting trees has inflicted severe damage on the boreal forest that will be difficult to reverse.Researchers led by a group from Griffith University in Australia found that since 1976 logging in the two provinces has caused the removal…

Covid Has Resurged, but Scientists See a Diminished Threat

Jan

By Álvaro Sanz

Economy

Covid Has Resurged, but Scientists See a Diminished Threat

The holidays have come and gone, and once again Americans are riding a tide of respiratory ailments, including Covid. But so far, this winter’s Covid uptick seems less deadly than last year’s, and much less so than in 2022, when the Omicron surge ground the nation to a halt.“We’re not seeing the signs that would make me think that we’re heading into another severe wave,” said Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “So far, we’re in relatively good shape.”Still, there are few masks in sight, and just a fraction of the most vulnerable people…

Valencia’s Nou Mestalla ‘ghost ground’: After 15-year delay, will it finally be built?

Jan

By Álvaro Sanz

Economy

Valencia’s Nou Mestalla ‘ghost ground’: After 15-year delay, will it finally be built?

The cheers rang long and loud around Valencia’s Mestalla Stadium as fans celebrated Hugo Guillamon’s late equaliser against Barcelona in their final home match before La Liga’s Christmas break.Four kilometres away, on the other side of Valencia’s old city centre, all was quiet around the site of the Nou Mestalla — where the club’s half-built new home has sat untouched for the past 15 years.Through all that time, one of La Liga’s most storied clubs has found itself stuck in this bizarre situation — unable to raise the money to finish a modern new ground, unable to sell its historic…

General Motors Reports a 14% Jump in U.S. Auto Sales in 2023

Jan

By Connor Hughes

Science and Technology

General Motors Reports a 14% Jump in U.S. Auto Sales in 2023

General Motors said on Tuesday that its sales of new vehicles in the United States jumped 14 percent last year, amid a broader rebound in the auto industry driven by a strong economy and an improved supplies of critical components.The company sold 2.6 million cars and light trucks in 2023, up from 2.3 million in 2022, when a shortage of computer chips prevented G.M. and other manufacturers from producing as many cars as consumers were looking to buy.But in a potentially worrying sign for the company, sales in the fourth quarter were relatively weak. They climbed just 0.3 percent from…

The Eugene Weekly Halts Publication After Employee’s Embezzlement

Jan

By Sophie Caldwell

Investments and Business

The Eugene Weekly Halts Publication After Employee’s Embezzlement

A weekly newspaper in Oregon abruptly stopped publishing and laid off all of its workers after an employee embezzled tens of thousands of dollars and left months of bills unpaid, its editor said.The newspaper, The Eugene Weekly, announced on Thursday that it would stop printing after it discovered financial problems, including money not being paid into employee retirement accounts and $70,000 of unpaid bills to the newspaper’s printer, Camilla Mortensen, the newspaper’s editor, said on Sunday.The entire 10-person newspaper staff was laid off three days before Christmas, though some workers, including Ms. Mortensen, were still volunteering to publish articles online.The…

Deputy Hamas Leader Killed by Blast in Beirut: Israel-Hamas Live Updates

Jan

By Álvaro Sanz

Economy

Deputy Hamas Leader Killed by Blast in Beirut: Israel-Hamas Live Updates

The decision by the Israeli Supreme Court to reject legislative control over the judiciary ends for now the languishing effort by the far-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu to diminish the courts, which had already sparked nine months of protests that only ended when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.The protests had deeply divided Israel, but the subsequent war united it, with even pilots and reservists who had vowed to ignore military exercises immediately showing up to fight before they were called.If the court’s decision on Monday ripped off this wartime poultice, displaying anew the cultural war at the heart of…

Monica Bertagnolli, NIH’s New Leader, Wants to Broaden Participation in Medical Research

Jan

By Álvaro Sanz

Economy

Monica Bertagnolli, NIH’s New Leader, Wants to Broaden Participation in Medical Research

When Dr. Monica M. Bertagnolli moved into the director’s suite at the National Institutes of Health, she brought with her a single piece of art, a lithograph created by the granddaughter of a cancer patient she once treated. It depicts an abstract geometric female figure and the organs she lost to cancer. Its title: “We Are Not What You Have Taken: A Response to Cancer.”The image speaks to Dr. Bertagnolli, a cancer surgeon who previously led the National Cancer Institute and is a breast-cancer survivor herself.After being nominated by President Biden in the spring and winning Senate confirmation last month,…

Michael Penix Jr. led Washington to soaring heights while overcoming deep lows: ‘I was scared to play’

Jan

By Álvaro Sanz

Economy

Michael Penix Jr. led Washington to soaring heights while overcoming deep lows: ‘I was scared to play’

The Athletic has live coverage of Texas vs. Washington in the College Football Playoff at the Sugar Bowl. He has come further than any star player in college football the last two years — 3,064 miles and from two wins to the College Football Playoff — but on a dreary Monday in Seattle in April, Michael Penix Jr. showed much more than tangible measurements of the depth of his journey. It’s one even his parents at the time didn’t fully realize. But now, days before Penix leads No. 2 Washington in the CFP Semifinal Sugar Bowl against No. 3 Texas,…

Asian American Officials Cite Unfair Scrutiny and Lost Jobs in China Spy Tensions

Jan

By Connor Hughes

Science and Technology

Asian American Officials Cite Unfair Scrutiny and Lost Jobs in China Spy Tensions

When Thomas Wong set foot in the United States Embassy in Beijing this summer for a new diplomatic posting, it was vindication after years of battling the State Department over a perceived intelligence threat — himself.Diplomatic Security officers had informed him when he joined the foreign service more than a decade ago that they were banning him from working in China. In a letter, he said, they wrongly cited the vague potential for undue “foreign preference” and suggested he could be vulnerable to “foreign influence.”Mr. Wong had become a U.S. diplomat thinking that China was where he could have the…