Author: CNN

CNN
 — 

Saturday’s ring of fire annular solar eclipse will alter weather conditions on the Earth’s surface as it plays out in the sky.

Changes to temperature, wind speed and humidity occur as the moon crosses in front of the sun during a solar eclipse and casts a shadow on Earth’s surface.

The more sunlight blocked, the more dramatic the weather changes. The effect is comparable to how shaded areas end up much cooler on a hot day than any place in direct sunlight.

Saturday’s annular eclipse will block up to 90% of the sun In a narrow path from Oregon to Texas. Annular eclipses allow slightly more solar radiation – sunlight and energy – to make it to the Earth’s surface than a total eclipse, which entirely blocks the sun.

But a reduction in solar radiation, no matter how brief, can affect temperatures and other weather.

Not all eclipse weather changes are created equal, though. The exact drop in temperature can vary widely based on other factors like the time of year and cloud cover.

An October annular eclipse is going to have a less dramatic effect on temperatures than an August total eclipse, not just because of the amount of sun blocked by the moon, but also the lower angle at which the sun strikes the Earth in fall compared to summer.

A higher sun angle produces more intense sunshine and elevated temperatures, and the angle starts to drop in fall.

2017’s total solar eclipse took place during a summer afternoon in August, so temperatures were already high, making them more prone to crater in some locations along the path of totality. Temperatures fell 11 degrees over just one hour in Douglas, Wyoming, and widespread temperature drops of 4 to 8 degrees happened across the South.

Temperature drops during Saturday’s eclipse are not expected to be as drastic, but could still dip a few degrees in the path of annularity.

Areas only experiencing a partial solar eclipse could see a slower rise in temperatures from late morning to the early afternoon, Juan Hernandez, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, Texas, told CNN.

A slower rise in temperatures could limit how far high temperatures can climb in the afternoon hours and leave Saturday a bit cooler than if there were no eclipse. This may happen in Dallas and Phoenix, where the moon will block 80% of the sun.

An eclipse affects more than just temperature. Less solar radiation and reduced temperatures can also affect wind, humidity and cloud cover.

The quick cooldown during an eclipse briefly reduces the amount of heat stored in the atmosphere. Heat forces air to rise and makes the atmosphere unstable. The atmosphere then creates clouds, storms and wind to let out heat energy in an attempt to bring itself back into balance.

So as the eclipse cools the air, the atmosphere calms down and wind speeds drop because the atmosphere isn’t working as hard to balance itself out. Scientists took a number of weather measurements in Wyoming and New York during 2017’s total solar eclipse and found wind speeds dropped by an average of 6 mph as a result of the eclipse.

How humid it feels is tied closely to temperature. Humidity rises when the air temperature and the dew point, which measures how much moisture is in the air, approach the same temperature. So when air temperatures briefly dip during an eclipse, they trend closer to the dew point and make the air feel a bit more humid.

A significant temperature drop can also alter cloud cover.

Clouds over parts of South Carolina disappeared during 2017’s total solar eclipse because they lost their fuel – heat that forces air to rise and form clouds. It’s possible a few clouds could also dissipate in Saturday’s eclipse, even with less drastic temperature drops.

CNN
 — 

After a series of setbacks, Republicans ended the week no closer to electing a new speaker as deep internal divisions have left the conference struggling to govern and the House in a state of paralysis.

The chaos within House GOP ranks intensified dramatically over the past several days as the conference has tried and so far failed to find a viable successor to Kevin McCarthy following his unprecedented ouster at the hands of a small faction of hardline conservatives.

Rep. Jim Jordan is the new GOP speaker nominee following Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s exit from the race. But the Ohio Republican faces the same kind of grim vote math that doomed Scalise’s speaker bid as Jordan lacks the 217 votes needed to win the gavel in a full House floor vote.

Jordan has the weekend to continue to make his case and attempt to flip holdouts, but he faces a steep uphill battle.

The GOP conference faced whiplash this week after Scalise won an initial vote to become speaker nominee, only to drop out not long after as a result of entrenched opposition to his candidacy. The week ended with another vote, this time to make Jordan the new nominee. But it soon became clear that Jordan also faces a stiff wall of resistance.

The House remains effectively frozen as long as there is no speaker, a dire situation that comes as Congress faces a fast-approaching government funding deadline in mid-November and as crisis unfolds abroad in Ukraine and with Israel’s war against Hamas.

Asked by CNN’s Manu Raju how the entire episode reflects on the GOP, McCarthy said on Friday, “it’s terrible.”

Republicans have grown increasingly frustrated that the conference has not been able to coalesce around a candidate. Some are openly questioning whether anyone can reach 217 votes.

On Friday, Jordan won the speaker nomination against GOP Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia – who made a surprise last-minute bid – in a 124 to 81 vote, leaving him far short of 217.

Jordan then called a second vote Friday afternoon asking members if they would support him on the floor. That vote, which was cast by secret ballot, was 152 to 55, laying bare the major challenge Jordan faces in his bid for the gavel.

Jordan or any other Republican speaker candidate can only afford to lose four GOP votes when the full House votes for speaker if all members are voting.

Republican Rep. Mike Garcia of California said on Friday that Jordan and his team will have 48 hours to “make phone calls to understand why people aren’t there quite yet, and hopefully get them there before Monday” as he expressed confidence that Jordan can ultimately prevail.

Jordan is a polarizing figure on the national stage, which could contribute to concerns for more moderate members of the conference, though hardliners like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz have celebrated his nomination.

“I think that Kevin McCarthy was ousted by Democrats and Republicans because he made multiple contradictory promises that he never intended to keep,” Gaetz told CNN’s Michael Smerconish on Saturday.

“Jim Jordan puts us back on a path to fiscal sanity and he gets the Republican party back into the fighting posture we need to be in to win elections and push our policy objectives.”

Jordan has been the face of key House GOP investigations as chair of the Judiciary Committee. He has a longstanding reputation as a conservative agitator who helped found the hardline House Freedom Caucus.

As the GOP leadership crisis drags on, some Republicans have pitched the idea of granting more power to Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, who is serving in the role of interim speaker, but that idea is untested and it is not clear how much support it would have.

This story has been updated with additional information.

CNN
 — 

You might have thought it was a Democrat who recently said that House Republicans were in the “same stupid clown car with a different driver.” And while I’m sure many Democrats feel that way, it was Republican Rep. Dusty Johnson who uttered that memorable phrase.

The South Dakota congressman was referring to the current House mess after eight Republicans voted (with Democrats) to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker.

But whether or not the House Republican majority elects a new speaker anytime soon is irrelevant. What we’re seeing now is something we haven’t seen in modern times.

This episode is symptomatic of a historic Republican divide in the House: It’s not just over ideology but also over trust in their leaders to compromise in a way that makes the party happy.

Much of the recent discussion over House Republican divisions tries to frame it along the right-left ideological spectrum. Those who voted against McCarthy are more conservative, on average, than the GOP at large – and this is a very conservative House majority. But there are plenty of Republicans who are quite conservative and didn’t vote McCarthy out (think Texas Rep. Chip Roy, for example).

What’s also going on is a split over whether Republicans should try to govern by way of compromise. Are people willing to line up behind the compromises House GOP leaders have made with Democrats to keep the government going?

Analyzing roll call votes in Congress can offer some answers. Not surprisingly, the Republican representative who has been the least friendly to party leadership this Congress is Florida’s Matt Gaetz, according to a metric produced by the academics at Voteview.

More importantly, the difference on this score between those House Republicans most open to compromise and friendly to party leadership and those most opposed (i.e., the top fifth and bottom fifth percentiles) is wider than it has been in the past 80 years. These lawmakers on the edges of the conference are so important because of how narrow the current GOP majority is – all it takes is a few members to topple the speaker, as we saw earlier this month.

Representatives like Gaetz didn’t pop out of nowhere. They are in the Congress because people elected them.

Specifically, many of the same people who really like former President Donald Trump.

Take a look at a question asked in our latest CNN/SSRS survey published on Thursday. We asked whether Republicans in Congress should “stand firm on beliefs without compromise, even if not much gets done in Washington, or work across the aisle to get things done in Washington, even if it means losing out on some high-priority policies?”

A majority of voters who are behind Trump in the 2024 GOP primary contest (52%) wanted Republicans in Congress to stand firm. Among Republicans not behind Trump, just 23% preferred lawmakers who didn’t compromise. Most (77%) yearned for congressional Republicans who worked across the aisle.

Of course, most Republicans (58%) are backing Trump in the primary, the CNN poll found. Part of Trump’s appeal is that he isn’t a conventional Republican who does business as usual.

Therefore, it shouldn’t be surprising that a majority of Trump supporters (56%) approve of McCarthy being removed as speaker after he made a deal with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown.

Among all other Republicans, only 37% approved of McCarthy’s ousting.

I should note that among Republican voters, the idea of compromising to avert a government shutdown isn’t terribly different than it was a decade ago. What does seem to have changed, to some degree, is the people in Congress.

GOP lawmakers who were seen as anti-establishment a decade ago – like Kentucky’s Thomas Massie, who voted to retain McCarthy as speaker – are apparently not anti-establishment enough these days.

Folks like Massie have been pushed aside for folks like Gaetz. For at least some Republicans in Congress, this now is the party of Trump.

Another key difference is that the current size of the House GOP majority is more reminiscent of the late 1990s and early 2000s than the tea party era of a decade ago.

Some 25 years ago, NBC polling found that Republicans were far more open to compromise than they were to standing on principle. When it came to negotiations with Democratic President Bill Clinton, 63% of Republicans wanted compromise and only 28% wanted to stand on principles when forced to pick between the two choices.

Today, Republicans again have a slim majority in the House – but with a party electorate willing to tolerate a lot in the name of principle. It’s no surprise then that we’re dealing with a House GOP leadership fight that seems more fitting of an Aaron Sorkin script than the real world.

CNN
 — 

Top officials from the campaigns of Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and Tim Scott made their case Friday to major Republican donors, as they compete to position themselves as the most viable alternative to former President Donald Trump.

To a room of prospective top donors gathered in Texas, the DeSantis team argued that if Haley was out of the race, her ballot share would bounce around to candidates other than Trump, one attendee told CNN. But if DeSantis was no longer in the race, his campaign argued, his supporters would largely move to Trump, meaning the Florida governor’s presence in the race was a greater threat to Trump’s chances at the nomination.

DeSantis himself made that argument publicly while campaigning in New Hampshire on Friday, telling reporters, “If I wasn’t in the picture, most of those voters who are going to caucus for me would go to Trump, they would not go to Haley.”

“People can support who they want, but let’s just not kid ourselves that the nominee for the GOP is either going to be Donald Trump or it’s going to be me. There’s not a path for anybody else,” DeSantis added.

The DeSantis campaign also presented donors with Iowa polling that shows movement since the second debate.

“We are moving at the right time,” a DeSantis adviser told the group, according to a second attendee.

They also argued the best path to stopping Trump is in Iowa and said the DeSantis campaign is the one best positioned in the Hawkeye State, according to a person familiar with their pitch. The presentation also included an explanation about how their campaign is in better position financially than it was during the summer.

The campaign advisers for DeSantis and Haley were ushered in right before and out right after their respective presentations today, the second attendee added, so neither side could hear their rival’s specific argument.

A source familiar with the arguments from Haley’s camp said her team made the case that the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador is ahead of DeSantis in New Hampshire and South Carolina and tied in Iowa. “By every metric, Nikki is moving up and Ron is moving down,” the person said. “It is a two-person race: one man and one woman.”

Her camp also noted that Haley previously announced she ended the third quarter with $9 million in available cash for the primary, surpassing the $5 million in primary dollars that the DeSantis campaign said it had on hand. DeSantis has relied heavily on a super PAC to underwrite his advertising and campaign infrastructure.

Scott’s team also spoke to the donors meeting, according to a source familiar, with staff presenting data about his rising favorability ratings in early states like Iowa and New Hampshire.

They argued the South Carolina senator can compete in the lane pursuing evangelical voters, the source said, and maintained half of that group are not committed to former Trump, are still up for grabs and make up a significant portion of the GOP electorate in Iowa. They also pointed to Scott’s support of a 15-week national abortion ban as popular with the voters they need in the Hawkeye State.

The event was organized by the American Opportunity, a group whose members are among some of biggest names in Republican financial circles, including hedge fund billionaires Paul Singer and Ken Griffin, real-estate developer Harlan Crow and some members of the Ricketts family – whose patriarch, Joe Ricketts, founded the brokerage giant TD Ameritrade.

The meeting comes as some Republican donors voice growing concerns about Trump’s dominance over the rest of the Republican field and publicly fret he will lose the general election if the party nominates him next year.

This headline and story have been updated with additional reporting.

CNN
 — 

Construction workers in northeast Florida have unearthed a piece of 19th-century history buried beneath the oldest city in the United States.

Florida Department of Transportation crews were digging as part of an ongoing drainage improvement project in downtown St. Augustine on October 5 when they discovered a nearly intact vessel hidden in the dirt, the department said in a news release.

The shipwrecked boat – found more than 8 feet below ground – was fully removed and in wet storage by Wednesday, department officials said.

The fishing boat was found on State Road A1A near the Bridge of Lions in the city known as the “oldest continuously occupied settlement of European and African-American origin” in the US, according to the historic city’s website.

DOT officials say they believe the vessel dates back to around the mid- to late 1800s.

“We believe the vessel may have sunk unexpectedly and, over time, was silted in,” said Greg Evans, the department’s District 2 secretary, in a statement. “That is why it was preserved so well – it was encapsulated in soil and mud, so there was no air contact for it to decay. It’s truly an incredible find.”

The transportation department contracted SEARCH (Southeastern Archaeological Research Inc.) as part of its drainage improvement project due to the historic nature of the St. Augustine area, officials said.

SEARCH, which says it has the nation’s largest maritime archaeology team, is a cultural resources management company made up of archaeologists, architectural historians, conservators and other experts.

The company sends archaeological monitors to construction sites like the one in St. Augustine where historical finds may be uncovered, according to James Delgado, the senior vice president and exploration sector leader for SEARCH’s station in Washington, DC.

Sam Turner, a principal investigator and maritime archaeological expert for SEARCH, was on site when the tip of an excavator bucket digging in the trench exposed the water-soaked wood of the unexpected discovery, Delgado said in an email to CNN.

“Sam asked the operator to stop, got into the hole and gently scraped with his trowel to reveal a gently curving outline of what he immediately identified as the edge of the hull, with a displaced piece of timber from a frame,” Delgado said.

Delgado, whose archaeological experience includes working with buried ship excavations, joined Turner in Florida to recover the historic vessel.

“Detailed hand mapping and measurement was done, but the main focus was measurable, three-dimensional photo-modeling of all major construction features as well as measured photomosaics of the hull throughout the careful excavation and disassembly of the vessel,” Delgado said.

“We used water and gentle troweling and gloved hands to wash and brush off the mud to expose the fragile wood,” he added.

Investigators believe the flat-bottomed boat, possibly made of soft wood such as pine and cedar, was originally about 28 feet long. It measured 19 feet in length when it was found, according to Delgado.

“The stern was missing when exposed by the excavation, consumed by marine organisms long ago,” he said, describing it as a well-built boat possibly constructed by “the people who owned and worked it.”

SEARCH experts say the boat may have been abandoned near the end of its working life on what were once the banks of a local river and bay.

It was likely buried for “as much as a century” before crews found it, Delgado said.

“Many waterfronts that have changed over time through landfill have buried boats and ships,” he said. “That being said, these are still rare finds in the world of maritime archaeology.”

Before the boat is relocated to a permanent home, the next step is to stabilize the vessel, according to Ian Pawn, Florida DOT District 2 cultural resources manager.

“When an object this well-preserved is discovered in wet conditions, archaeologists have to work quickly as the drying of wood will begin the decaying process,” Pawn said in a statement.

“The pieces will be observed in wet storage to stabilize as we determine future preservation efforts,” he said.

CNN
 — 

A Mexican American woman has become the first female kicker at Jackson State University, a NCAA Division I Historically Black College and University.

Leilani Armenta told CNN she was nervous when she stepped onto the field during the team’s September 23 game against rival Bethune-Cookman University, but she knew she had a job to do. She said she just focused on playing the game.

“At first, I was like, ‘Okay, I’m playing. I’m playing football,’ Armenta said. “It was after the game, I was like, ‘Wow, that was history that was made. History that was positive and impacted so many people.’”

Armenta wasn’t just nervous about her historic game time debut – the freshman communications major is also recovering from ACL surgery she had last year and has spent the season training and kicking in a brace.

Despite playing through the pain, Armenta was instrumental in Jackson State’s 22-16 victory over Bethune-Cookman University. Her 25-yard kick-off late in the game helped seal the win.

Fans and teammates alike are hoping she can bring the same precision and energy to the team’s October 14 homecoming game against Alabama State University.

Armenta told CNN she chose to attend the Jackson State University, an HBCU, because the school had one of the best programs for her major. But she’s also passionate about sports and has cultivated a love for football since high school.

As a freshman, her talent and skill shocked coaches at St. Bonaventure High School in Ventura, California.

“She was the best freshman kicker that we had,” said Joseph Goyeneche, Armenta’s high school football head coach. “There was no question she was she was the best that we had.”

Armenta also played soccer in high school, which helped her with her accuracy, Goyeneche said. But she tore her ACL playing soccer during her senior year in high school. Doctors told her while she couldn’t continue to play soccer, she could play football.

Goyeneche remembers the conversation he had with Armenta after her doctors gave her the news.

“The doctor said, ‘Well, you’re not going to be able to play soccer this year. But we can hold off on surgery and it’s not going to get worse … you can kick and it’s going to be a little painful,” Goyeneche said.

Armenta said she jumped at the opportunity to continue playing the game she loved.

“I wasn’t going to turn it down,” Armenta said. “I had some of the best days I’ve had playing high school football on and off the field.”

Throughout her high school career, Goyeneche said Armenta made 98 out of 105 extra points attempted and was 5 for 5 in kicking field goals. Her longest kick was 30 yards, he said.

Armenta told CNN she’s now made a 46-yard kick in practice but she’s working with coaches to increase her leg strength and distance. She hasn’t attempted a field goal this season, but her former coach said whenever the time comes, Armenta will be ready.

“She’s incredible and her journey has been incredible,” Goyeneche said. “There’s no difference between her and a male kicker.”

T.C. Taylor, head football coach at Jackson State University, told CNN the freshman is a vital part of the team and has been welcomed with open arms.

“They were excited,” he said, adding Armenta’s arrival filled a huge need for the team. “Our kicker was hurt, our punter was hurt, and we didn’t have anybody else.”

Taylor said Armenta’s soccer teammate recommended her to the coaching staff and her performance on the field stunned everyone.

“She came out and when we saw her moving around and kicking it was like, ‘Okay, this is what God dealt us, so we’re going to go with it.’”

A handful of female athletes have made history playing college football. In 2003, Katie Hnida, a kicker for the University of New Mexico, became the first woman to score in an NCAA Divison I game.

In 2020, Vanderbilt kicker Sarah Fuller became the first woman in history to score in a Power Five college game when she successfully kicked two extra points against the University of Tennessee.

And last month, Haley Van Voorhis, became the first female football player to appear in an NCAA football game outside of the kicker position. Van Voorhis plays safety for Shenandoah University, a Division III school.

Despite her success at Jackson State, Armenta has faced critics who say she’s taking a spot on the team’s roster away from a male. But she told CNN she doesn’t let the criticism bother her.

“The (ACL) injury was like a blessing in disguise. I’ve always loved sports and been thankful to play but when you get hurt and you realize you can’t do something that you love, it was really, really hard,” she said. “I think I’m just not fazed by what people have to say. I feel like I’ve earned (the right) to be here I’m going to continue working hard just to get better and better.”

Coach Taylor described Armenta as a competitor and said he wants her to be more involved in games as she continues to regain strength in her leg.

“The way this team operates, you know, if you can help us win football games, and you come out there and work hard, they’re going to accept you. And she did that from day one,” Taylor said, adding Armenta will be a member of the team for as long as she wants.

“I’d like to stick with it in college. That’s my goal,” she said, “I love kicking.”

As for what comes next, Armenta said she’s focusing on the present but welcomes an opportunity if a professional sports league comes calling.

“If it happens, I would love it,” she said, “If anyone wants to pick me up, I’m more than happy to do it. That would be awesome.”

The United Nations has described the situation in the Gaza Strip as a matter of “life and death,” warning that the clean water supply for the 2 million people there is running dangerously low. The UN also warned of increasing risks of waterborne diseases. 

Lazzarini highlighted the devastating impact of the blockade on Gaza, which has received no fresh humanitarian aid for one week now.

“Clean water is running out in the Gaza Strip, after its water plant and public water networks stopped working. People are now forced to use dirty water from wells, increasing risks of waterborne diseases. Gaza has also been under an electricity blackout since 11 October, impacting the water supply,” the statement said. 

The UNRWA was forced to move its central operations from Gaza City to a location in southern Gaza following the Israeli evacuation order issued Friday. The agency warned that water is now “also running out” at its new location, as thousands of displaced civilians from northern Gaza continue to arrive. 

“Only in the past 12 hours, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced. The exodus continues as people move to the southern parts of the Gaza Strip. Nearly 1 million people have been displaced in one week alone,” the statement said. 

“We need to truck fuel into Gaza now. Fuel is the only way for people to have safe drinking water. If not, people will start dying of severe dehydration, among them young children, the elderly and women. Water is now the last remaining lifeline,” Lazzarini added. “I appeal for the siege on humanitarian assistance to be lifted now.”

CNN
 — 

UAW President Shawn Fain said the union would not expand its strike against the Big Three automakers on Friday, but that the UAW stood ready to add more workers to the picket lines at any time as its labor action enters a new phase.

“We are prepared at any time to call on more locals to stand up and walk out,” Fain said in a livestream update on negotiations. He later added: “We changed the rules. Now there is only one rule – pony up.”

The announcement marks a tactical shift, Fain said. Previously the UAW had announced strike expansions on Fain’s weekly Friday updates. But now, as part of the union’s strategy to keep the automakers off balance, Fain said strike expansions could come at any day of the week, at any time.

This past Wednesday for the first time it announced an expansion midweek, and without warning, when 8,700 UAW members went on strike suddenly at Ford’s largest factory, the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville.

“We’re entering a new phase of this strike, and it demands a new approach,” Fain said. “We’re done waiting until Fridays to escalate our strike.”

Fain said that the companies had started to wait until Fridays to make progress in their bargaining positions, and that the union is changing it strategy in order to speed up progress in negotiations.

“A negotiation requires both sides making movement. If they’re not ready to move, we’re going to give them a push in a language they understand – dollars and cents,” he said.

This is the first time that the union has gone on strike against GM, Ford and Stellantis at the same time. But rather than shut down any of the companies’ US operations completely, the union has targeted its strike against specific facilities, and then expanded the strike gradually in order to increase pressure at the bargaining table.

The Kentucky Truck Plant is a key money maker for Ford, assembling heavy duty pickup trucks and full-size SUVs and producing $25 billion in annual sales, or about one-sixth of its revenue. It also produced an estimated $150 million in profits a week, according to an estimate from Colin Langan, auto analyst at Wells Fargo.

Ford officials told reporters Thursday that the company has gone as far as it can on the additional money it can offer members.

“We have reached our limit. We’ve actually stretched ourselves to get to this point,” said Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford Blue, which is the unit that sells most of Ford’s gasoline-powered cars to consumers. “We are still working to get this done. We’re open to moving some money around within the deal that might fit the union’s needs better, but in terms of cost of deal, we’re there. We have been very clear, we’re at the limit. Going further will hurt our ability to invest in the business as we need to invest.”

Fain mocked that statement from Ford, saying that while Ford has recovered well since the Great Recession, its workers have seen only modest pay increases, which were outweighed by rising prices.

“I found a pathetic irony in that statement,” he said on Friday. “You know who stretched themselves? The Ford workers who didn’t get a single raise for a decade.”

Fain said the union is in a strong bargaining position and has already achieved a lot in negotiations, but not enough to make up for past concessions by workers.

“We’re at the point in this process where we’re looking for one thing only – a deal,” Fain said. “We’re not giving these companies an extra hour, or an extra day. They know what needs to happen, and they know how to get it done. Taking out Kentucky Truck sent a very clear message not only to Ford, but to GM and Stellantis as well. Don’t you dare slow walk us or low ball us. We will take out whatever plants you force us to.”

While the union didn’t increase the number of plants where it is on strike, the number of UAW members off the job increased at two automakers.

Ford on Friday said it was laying off more workers. “Approximately 550 employees have been asked not to report to work beginning Oct. 16,” the company said in a statement. including the Sharonville Transmission Plant, the Dearborn Stamping Plant, the Dearborn Diversified Manufacturing Plant, the Rawsonville Components Plant, the Sterling Axle Plant and the Chicago Stamping Plant.

“This brings Ford’s total to approximately 2,480 employees impacted by strike-related layoffs,” the company added.

Stellantis, which makes cars under the Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler brands, announced an additional 700 layoffs at two plants, one a transmission plant and one a casting plant, in Kokomo, Indiana. Those plants supply the Toledo Assembly complex that has been on strike since September 15.

The latest layoffs bring Stellantis strike-related layoffs to 1,340. GM has 2,330 on layoff. Ford warned Thursday that there could be 4,600 additional layoffs within the next week at nine other plants due to the lost production at the Kentucky Truck Plant.

The automakers insist they have no choice but to lay off workers who would have nothing to do because of the strikes at other plants. Stellantis said its latest layoffs Friday was because the two Kokomo plants have reached maximum inventory levels of the parts or components they supply for the Jeep Wrangler or Jeep Gladiator built in Toledo.

In most cases the laid-off workers are not eligible to receive unemployment benefits the way they would be if on layoff in other cases.

The union disputes the need for the layoffs, but said the laid-off workers are entitled to the same $500 a week in strike benefits as the nearly 35,000 now on strike.

“That’s them trying to put the squeeze on our members to settle for less,” Fain has previously said about the layoffs. “With their record profits, they don’t have to lay off a single employee.”

The companies are on record as offering members an immediate 10% raise to union members and additional raises totaling 10 percentage points or more during the life of the contracts, which are likely to run through the spring of 2028.

The companies are also agreeing to some kind of return of the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to union pay scales to protect workers from rising prices. The union gave up the COLA in 2007, as well as traditional pension plans and health care coverage for retirees for workers hired after the concession contracts reached that year.

In addition, a week ago, Fain announced that GM had agreed to a major union demand to place workers at new and planned EV battery plants under the national master agreement at the company.

GM, Ford and Stellatis have all announced plans to shift from traditional gasoline-powered vehicles to electric vehicles, or EVs. That would end the need for the jobs in their current plants that build engines and transmissions.

All three are in the process of building at least three plants each, almost all in joint ventures with Asian battery makers, that will be used to power EVs. All are expected to pay significantly less than UAW members at those engine and transmission plants are now paid.

Going into negotiations, the companies had insisted the battery plant workers would be employees of the joint ventures, not the companies themselves, and that their pay scale would not be included in this contract.

Details of what GM has agreed upon in relation to workers battery plant workers is not yet known, as GM has not confirmed the tentative agreement on the issue. Ford officials have said they also have been negotiating with the union on the battery plant issue and that progress had been made, without giving details.

Brisbane, Australia
CNN
 — 

Most polls have closed in an Australian referendum that will set the tone of relations with the country’s First Nations people for decades to come.

Counting was underway Saturday in several eastern states and territories, with very early results pointing to a possible defeat for the proposal, according to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).

Voters were asked to approve an amendment to the constitution to recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and to create a body – the Voice to Parliament – of Indigenous people to advise the government on matters that affect them.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had called it a “simple proposition,” but months of debate revealed a complex mix of hostility and apathy toward the proposal.

To pass, the Voice needed a majority Yes vote nationwide and in at least four of six states – a feat only accomplished in eight of the past 44 referendums since the first was held in 1906.

The last referendum to pass was in 1977, before the arrival of the internet in Australia, and well before the rise of social media that has helped polarize debate and supercharge the spread of misinformation around this vote.

On Thursday – two days before polls closed – a YouGov survey of more than 1,500 prospective voters, gave the No camp a commanding lead of 18 points – 56% to 38% with the remainder undecided– a pattern roughly reflected in several other polls. Voting is compulsory in Australia, so turnout was expected to be high.

A record 17.6 million people were expected to cast a vote, and the result was expected within hours of polls closing on Saturday.

The prime minister had approached the campaign as a personal mission, and this week he returned to Uluru, the huge rock formation in the country’s center, where Indigenous leaders agreed in 2017 to reach out for constitutional recognition.

Sitting in the dirt holding hands with Indigenous women, his eyes welled with tears as they sang a traditional song.

Explaining the emotional moment to reporters later, Albanese said: “To be able to sit in this red dirt, there was a sense of how big Australia is, our culture, and the incredible privilege.”

Albanese has pitched this vote as an expression of love.

“This is a campaign about love for our fellow Australians, and about respect,” Albanese said. “But it’s also about love of ourselves, whether we have the courage to love what Australia is. It isn’t something that began when a few ships came in 1788. This is Australia, that fullness and richness of our history.”

In the final days of the campaign, Yes campaigners reiterated the message, releasing statements urging people to “choose love over spin” and sending text messages that spoke of the need to win “hearts and minds.”

Indigenous leader Noel Pearson, one of the architects of the calls for constitutional change, said in a speech to the National Press Club in September that the largest motivation for voting Yes was the “love of country.”

“It is not the love of each other that joins us, it is our mutual love of country … we don’t need mutual affection to succeed in this referendum,” said Pearson.

However, a leading No campaigner mocked Pearson’s speech, accusing the Yes campaign of promoting empty slogans.

“The Yes campaign, it’s the vibe. Everything’s love. Like they’ve … had a few joints,” Nyunggai Warren Mundine said to laughs from the audience at a No event in Brisbane on the same day as Pearson’s address.

“We are about real solutions, accountability, all the billions of dollars that got spent, we want outcomes,” said Mundine, a member of the Bundjalung, Gumbaynggirr and Yuin people and leader of the Recognise a Better Way campaign group.

The Voice was conceived to get better outcomes for the most disadvantaged Indigenous Australians among 800,000 people – or about 3.8% of Australia’s total population of 26 million.

Of 19 targets aimed to “Close the Gap” between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, some statistics are worsening, including the standard of development for children when they start school, the number of children in out-of-home care, and the rates of adult imprisonment and suicide.

Albanese said if the referendum failed he would respect the democratic vote of the nation and wouldn’t legislate a Voice to Parliament.

“I don’t believe that it would be appropriate to then go and say, ‘oh, well, you’ve had your say, but we’re going to legislate anyway,’” he told the told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Insiders program on Sunday.

And there would be no change in the constitution or policy governing Indigenous affairs.

Mundine told his audience in late September that the No campaign would be seeking better outcomes through greater economic participation and accountability.

“When we get up in the morning on the 15th of October, after we’ve defeated this Voice, we’re going to make those people accountable,” Mundine said.

“We’re going to make those kids get to school. We’re going to make people get into jobs and run businesses and invest in their communities. And we’re going make their communities safe … and make sure those family and community values are back there,” he said, without explaining how that would be done.

“No more virtue signaling. No more dividing us,” he continued. “We’re all going to put our shoulder to the wheel and we’re going to make all these politicians and all these people do the job and make sure they spend our money properly.”

CNN
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Elon Musk’s social media company, X (formerly known as Twitter), broke the law when it fired one of its employees for “exercising their right to protected concerted activity” following X’s return-to-office mandate, according to a complaint from the National Labor Relations Board.

The complaint alleges that a high-ranking X official told workers, “If you can physically make it to an office and you don’t show up, resignation accepted.” One employee reached out to coworkers on Slack and encouraged them not to resign but instead wait to get fired. The employee was illegally terminated for their actions, according to the complaint.

The NLRB protects workers’ legal right to engage in “concerted activity,” which is when two or more coworkers band together to address workplace issues.

A hearing about the complaint is scheduled for January 30 in San Francisco. The NLRB’s general counsel intends to prosecute the charge if X and the former employee don’t settle first, according to a statement from Kayla Blado, a spokesperson for the NLRB.

X did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

While Musk has said he has cut about 80% of X’s staff since taking over the social media company last year, this is the first complaint issued against X by the NLRB.

However, this is not Musk’s first run-in with the labor agency.

The NLRB has repeatedly cited Tesla and Musk for illegal or improper anti-union activities, such as interrogating or discriminating against employees who support unionizing. Workers have attempted to organize at Tesla at least three different times.

Musk has also been vocal about his opposition to labor organizing, and the NLRB once directed Musk to delete a 2018 tweet saying Tesla employees would lose their stock options if they formed a union.