The ruling Taliban has signed a deal with a Chinese company to extract oil from northern Afghanistan’s Amu Darya basin as the radical Islamist group attempts to bolster the South Asian nation’s increasingly impoverished and isolated economy.
The agreement with China’s Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Co is the first major international energy extraction deal the Taliban has signed since taking control of Afghanistan in 2021.
The contract was signed in Kabul in the presence of Taliban’s Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and the Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan, Wang Yu, according to a statement from the Taliban government.
Baradar referred to the deal as being in Afghanistan’s best interests, adding that it would strengthen the country’s economy, the statement said.
“In terms of natural resources, Afghanistan is a wealthy nation. In addition to other minerals, oil is the wealth of the Afghan people on which the economy of the country can rely,” Baradar said.
According to the contract, the Chinese firm will invest up to $150 million a year, which will increase to $540 million in three years. “The project directly provides job opportunities for 3,000 Afghans,” the statement said.
While no country has officially recognized the Taliban, China has substantial investment in the region. Afghanistan is in desperate need to boost its economy and since the Taliban’s return to power, international funding has remainedlargely frozen.
One of the main issues for Western countries has been the new government’s marginalization of minorities and women. In December, the UN suspended some of its “time-critical” programs in Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban’s ban on female NGO workers.
The Taliban last month also suspended university education for all female students in Afghanistan, drawing condemnation from around the world.
Cue up the Jetson’s theme song. The future is right around the corner.
Some wild new innovations like flying cars, kinder tech, and even more robots are being unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Last year’s hyped focus on VR, AR and the Metaverse feels like it’s falling flat this year for more gear worth living within the real world.
Electric Vehicles will see enormous growth in 2023
Dodge is unveiling the Ram 1500 Revolution, a battery-electric vehicle concept. From the predictable expansion of major car brands into the EV territory, we will see innovative EV technologies coming to our old bike to the extreme version of a flying machine looking for FAA and NTSB certification.
The ASKA A5 4-seater drive and fly vehicle may not hit the road or sky this year, yet its fully working electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing concept is closer than imagined to reality.
Bigger, thinner and better best describes the next generation of televisions coming this year. For 2023, we will see TVs with better wireless capabilities, easier-to-use interfaces inside and a new maker with a unique wireless big screen. The moment any of these are announced to hit retail stores is the perfect time for the best price on last year’s smart TV.
Startup TV company Displace is planning a lightweight 55-inch battery-operated wireless TV that sticks to a surface with no mounting hardware required. Displace describes this 20-pound TV will use a proprietary vacuum suction technology and can be combined to make a giant multi-panel TV display. Reservations are being taken for sets when they become available in late 2023.
Healthier home technology
We are seeing smarter ways home technology can influence your health and well-being. Look for more passive health data tracking inside your bathroom, where you’ll never need to set foot on a scale again. The better health-related technologies accurately work together and yield more meaningful information you and your doctor can use to stay healthy.
I’ve got my eye on how all these health companies are keeping and recording our data. Many of these health tracking devices can come with the danger of your sensitive and personal health information falling into the wrong hands.
Kinder standard for all our smart devices
Imagine if your Amazon Alexa, Google Home and Apple’s Siri could have a conversation with each other. A protocol called Matter, meant to allow this sort of love fest between smart devices, is becoming a reality. The Connectivity Standards Alliance, behind the attempt to standardize interoperability so that everything works together seamlessly, says it is also aiming to enhance security of smart devices by validating credentials with blockchain technology.
Ultimately, transitioning home devices that require the less secure cloud toward locally controlled connected devices can actually help protect your personal data more effectively.
It hasn’t entirely disappeared. I’m still seeing startups with Meta-focused inventions. One of them has you close out the rest of the world with a fragrance-emitting sense accessory attached to a VR headset.
The combination of the two emulates the great outdoors by making it smell like you are outside in nature.
I’ve got an idea. Put down the VR headset, walk into nature and take in a deep breath of the real outside yourself. No headset or smell tech is required.
Sometimes I wish I had a woodchipper for some of the tech that takes us backwards. Do you think VR meta-related technology has gone too far? Or not far enough?
Shares of under-the-radar foot and apparel retailer Boot Barn can surge as consumers buy up western wear, Bank of America said Friday. Analyst Jason Haas initiated coverage of the company with a buy rating and $85 price target, saying that Boot Barn’s expansion toward its 900 domestic store target should help it take share from a fragmented mom and pop market and win over rural consumers. Haas’ price target implies upside of 35% from Thursday’s close. “Boot Barn has a multi-year runway to grow its store count and take share in the fragmented western, work, and country lifestyle footwear and apparel market,” he wrote, calling Boot Barn a “best-in-class western footwear and apparel” retailer. “With larger scale comes better pricing, better selection, more exclusive brands, and better customer service.” Boot Barn is benefitting from a pandemic-induced migration to rural areas, and booming interest in cowboy boots and western apparel, Haas said. He does, however, expect this fashion trend to moderate going forward. “While still ‘in-style,’ we’re concerned that this trend has peaked and expect a decline in Boot Barn’s ladies’ fashion boots and apparel going forward,” he wrote. “But we estimate these categories account for just 14% of sales.” Despite their recent earnings revision and 49% drop in 2022, shares are still trading cheap, and well below their historical 19 times forward EPS estimates, Haas also noted. — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed reporting
Friday, Jan. 6, marks day four of voting for Speaker in the GOP-led House. Lawmakers will convene for a 12th round of voting, among the highest in history.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), minority leader in the last Congress, remains by far the leading Republican nominee. His support has stood at 200 votes in several rounds, short of the 218 needed to win the Speaker’s gavel if all are voting.
Despite a plea for unity from former President Trump, McCarthy so far has gained no additional votes. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R–Fla.), in the group supporting protest candidates, has gone as far as to vote for Trump himself. Gaetz maintains McCarthy has not given enough consideration to the faction’s priorities.
Democrats have kept together in voting for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), although at least a few on their side of the aisle have suggested forming a coalition with Republicans willing to consider a compromise candidate.
The vote is scheduled to begin at noon ET.
Watch the live video above.
House, News, McCarthy, Speakership vote Read More
A federal judge in West Virginia has upheld a state law that prohibits biological male student athletes who identify and present themselves as female from playing on girl’s school sports teams.
Judge Joseph R. Goodwin of the Southern District of West Virginia ruled on Thursday that H.B. 3293, the “Save Women’s Sports Bill,” which defines “girl” and “woman” as biologically female for the purpose of secondary school sports, is “constitutionally permissible.” The court found that West Virginia’s definition of “biological sex” for school sports is “substantially related to its important interest in providing equal athletic opportunities for females.”
“I have no doubt that H.B. 3293 aimed to politicize participation in school athletics for transgender students,” Goodwin wrote. “Nevertheless, there is not a sufficient record of legislative animus. Considering the law under the intermediate scrutiny standard, I find that it is substantially related to an important government interest.”
The law, introduced in March 2021, is one of several recent attempts by Republican-controlled state legislatures to bar transgender student athletes from competing against members of the opposite sex. Critics say such efforts are hateful, discriminatory and even harmful towards transgender youth. Supporters counter that male and female biological differences make physical competition between transgender athletes and girls unfair and can deny women opportunities.
Demonstrators listen to the speaking program during an “Our Bodies, Our Sports” rally for the 50th anniversary of Title IX at Freedom Plaza on June 23, 2022 in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed the Save Women’s Sports Act into law on April 29, 2021. (Reuters)
The “Save Women’s Sports Bill” was challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union, representing Becky Pepper-Jackson, a transgender middle school student who was barred from joining the girl’s cross-country team. The ACLU argued the law violated Pepper Jackson’s rights under the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and Title IX, a federal statute that prohibits sex-based discrimination.
Goodwin agreed that the law was designed to “prevent transgender girls from playing on girl’s sports teams,” but said this was legally permissible if there was a substantial government interest in doing so.
He declined to define the terms “girl” or “women,” writing, “the courts have no business creating such definitions, and I would be hardpressed to find many other contexts where one’s sex and gender are relevant legislative considerations.” However, he pointed to biological differences between men and women that are relevant in athletic competition.
“While some females may be able to outperform some males, it is generally accepted that, on average, males outperform females athletically because of inherent physical differences between the sexes. This is not an overbroad generalization, but rather a general principle that realistically reflects the average physical differences between the sexes,” Goodwin wrote.
A protester voices support for the promotion of transgender ideology in schools during a pro-transgender march. (Mark Kerrison/In Pictures via Getty Images)
From left to right, Chelsea Mitchell, Selina Soule and Alanna Smith, three former Connecticut high school track athletes, listen during an “Our Bodies, Our Sports” rally for the 50th anniversary of Title IX at Freedom Plaza on June 23, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Though Pepper-Jackson has taken puberty blockers, Goodwin observed, “there is much debate over whether and to what extent hormone therapies after puberty can reduce a transgender girl’s athletic advantage over cisgender girls.” He also pointed out that some transgender people may only transition socially, not medically and physically.
“The fact is, however, that a transgender girl is biologically male and, barring medical intervention, would undergo male puberty like other biological males. And biological males generally outperform females athletically. The state is permitted to legislate sports rules on this basis because sex, and the physical characteristics that flow from it, are substantially related to athletic performance and fairness in sports,” he ruled.
The ACLU of West Virginia said it was reviewing the decision with co-counsel to determine the next steps. The ban applies to middle and high schools, as well as colleges.
The decision was welcomed by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who defended the law in court.
University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, who is transgender, and Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, right, react after finishing tied for 5th in the 200 Freestyle finals at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on March 18th, 2022 at the McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta. (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
“This is not only about simple biology, but fairness for women’s sports, plain and simple,” Morrisey said in a statement. “Opportunities for girls and women on the field are precious and we must safeguard that future. Protecting these opportunities is important, because when biological males compete in a women’s event women and girls lose their opportunity to shine.”
The West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission, which oversees scholastic sports, said in 2021, when the suit was filed, that it had not received any complaints about transgender athletes on girls’ teams.
A 2017 study by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law used state-level, population-based surveys to estimate that West Virginia had the highest percentage (1.04%) of residents ages 13 to 17 among all states who identified as transgender. That equated to about 1,150 teenagers.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Chris Pandolfo is a writer for Fox News Digital. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @ChrisCPandolfo.
A female applicant to Kuwait Airways was told she was rejected because she’s “dark-skinned,” El Diarios reported.
Yasser Al-Zayyat/AFP/Getty Images
A cabin crew applicant to Kuwait Airways says she was rejected from a job because she’s “dark-skinned.”
A WhatsApp message sent to the candidate was shared by Spanish newspaper El Diario.
It was previously reported that at the same event candidates were made to strip to their underwear.
A woman applying to work for Kuwait Airways as a member of cabin crew says she was rejected from the job because she was “dark-skinned,” Spanish newspaper El Diario reported.
The Spanish woman, known only as Maria, told El Diario that she cleared the entire selection process for Kuwait Airways before an external recruiter informed her that the airline does not hire “dark-skinned,” staff.
Maria attended a selection process at a hotel in Spain’s capital, Madrid, on November 5, 2022, hosted by an external agency named Meccti, which describes itself as the world’s largest cabin crew recruitment firm.
After being selected to work for Kuwait Airways, Maria was asked to send documentation including several photographs of herself.
A recruiter from Meccti then told her in a WhatsApp message published by El Diario: “I’m sorry to have to announce that Kuwait Airways is not going to hire dark-skinned cabin crew.” The message was sent in English.
Maria was told in a second message that the decision came from Kuwait Airways. She told El Diario that she was eliminated from the process and removed from a WhatsApp group chat that the recruiter had made for all applicants who had passed the selection process.
“I felt denigrated, discriminated against, like a commodity,” told El Diario. “This has affected me a lot,” she added, per an Insider translation of her comments.
On Monday, El Diario reported that during the same recruitment process, female cabin crew applicants for Kuwait Airways were forced to strip to their underwear for inspection by recruiters.
Recruiters said they were checking for “scars, birthmarks or tattoos,” a source told El Diario.
Maria was one of those applicants and recalled being inspected by a recruiter in her underwear: “He looked at me whole, from above, from below. He also looked into my mouth.”
A statement from Meccti’s legal representatives Molins Defensa Penal sent to Insider said that Meccti had subcontracted the recruitment process to a Moroccan firm named Meiservices, which it said was “ultimately responsible for how the process was implemented and executed.”
“Meccti does not provide in its collaboration agreements with third parties for them to carry out the selection processes, of any type of guideline that could imply any discriminatory practice based on race,” the statement said.
President Biden on Friday cheered the final jobs report of 2022, calling it good news for the economy and a sign that the U.S. is “moving in the right direction” to bring down inflation.
The December report showed U.S. employment growth slowing due to higher interest rates and stubborn inflation, but not enough to derail the historically strong labor market.
“This moderation in job growth is appropriate, and we should expect it to continue in the months ahead, even as we maintain resilience in our labor market recovery,” Biden said in a statement.
The U.S. added 223,000 jobs in December and brought the unemployment rate down to 3.5 percent, the same level in February 2020, from 3.7 percent in November, according to the Labor Department. The employment gain still came in above economists’ expectations and without other warning signs of an overheating economy.
“Today’s report is great news for our economy and more evidence that my economic plan is working,” the president said.
He added that while there is still work to do to bright down inflation, “we are moving in the right direction.”
Wage growth continued to slow in December, according to the report, as earnings rose 0.3 percent on the month and 4.6 percent over the past 12 months.
Biden said that the report points to signs that Americans are getting more breathing room.
“These historic jobs and unemployment gains are giving workers more power and American families more breathing room. Real wages are up in recent months, gas prices are down, and we are seeing welcome signs that inflation is coming down as well. It’s a good time to be a worker in America,” he said.
Olivia Beavers: We’re still in the press gallery and we’re seeing alerts. This is inching up close to us.
Sarah Ferris: At one point, I saw a group of officials pull House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and House Majority Whip Clyburn from the floor in a quick flurry.
Olivia Beavers: Then a House press gallery staffer ran up behind us and locked the doors.
Marianne LeVine, Senate reporter: Then there was an announcement the building wasn’t secure. Intercom, probably Capitol Police. We decided to barricade the doors with couches and chairs. We turned off the lights and we hid behind the desks.
Marianne LeVine: We started hearing noise. We could hear they’d gone into the Capitol. We heard a lot of stampeding and cheers and people. We could hear chants of, “Four more years!” and all that.
Burgess Everett: We could hear people shaking the walls. At this point, people are on the Senate floor and all over the Capitol that shouldn’t be. We don’t even know this because we turned everything off because we’re trying to make it seem like nobody is in this room. We don’t know who the heck is in there. … I just heard banging and yelling, and police screaming and radio. I mean, it just sounded like bedlam.
Stephen Voss: On the north side of the Capitol is a security door. It was very chaotic there. About a dozen rioters had forced themselves through the door but then were pepper sprayed and pushed out; they fell on top of each other in a pile. The Capitol Police tried to close the door, but a rioter had jammed a flagpole into the top of the door to keep it open. The police kept trying to close the door and eventually bent the flagpole. This went on for about 45 minutes. At one point the rioters used a metal barricade to try to ram the door. The door glass eventually broke but the police managed to keep the rioters out.
Olivia Beavers: That’s when you notice this sizable shift on the floor below, especially on the Democratic side, which I could see more clearly because I was closer, that, “Oh sh–, something is going on.”
Sarah Ferris: Hundreds of lawmakers, who had been seated on the floor or in the upper galleries, began turning to whisper to each other, some raising their voice as they asked what was going on, others frantically checking their phones.
Olivia Beavers: What we could see was the looks on the faces of the members: “Is this really happening?”
Melanie Zanona: Members started to get loud, they were talking to each other, they were starting to kind of go at each other. One member at one point, a Democrat, Steve Cohen, yelled over towards the Republican side of the room and said, “Call Trump and tell him to call this off.” And then a little bit later on, a lawmaker sitting on the Republican side shot back and said something along the lines of, “I bet you liberals are glad now you didn’t defund the police.” And he then said, “Let’s hear it for the Capitol Police.” Got a few people to start clapping.
Sarah Ferris: We were also told tear gas has been dispersed, spurring another flurry on the floor as staff sprinted to start distributing the escape hoods that Congress ordered as an emergency precaution after 9/11.
Olivia Beavers: We’re watching members take out these gas masks and you can hear the crumpling sound of the wrapping.
Melanie Zanona: And the Capitol Police officer said there’s protesters [in Statuary Hall], tear gas has been dispersed. And he started advising everyone where the escape hoods were located up in the gallery. The gallery staff started then passing out—there were these big black duffel bags, and they started taking out these escape hoods. They were contained in this foil, wrapped up in this foil. It was like a double package.
Olivia Beavers: Congressman [Ruben] Gallego stood up on a chair and told people to stay calm and take deep breaths or they’d pass out.
Melanie Zanona: When they were passing out the escape hoods on the balcony, the Capitol police officer was like, OK, everyone, you know, put on your hoods and then someone else got on the microphone. I think it was the new chaplain, who’s a female, but a female voice did get on the microphone and said, “Let’s pray,” and started praying as all the members and staffers and everyone is putting on these escape hoods, preparing to be evacuated. She said a prayer.
Olivia Beavers: They’re getting evacuated. This is really escalating.
Melanie Zanona: And then a police officer is like, “OK, everyone, follow me.” The way the balconies are set up, it’s like they’re sectioned off. So we have to climb over these gold railings.
Olivia Beavers: As I’m climbing over one railing, this police officer yelled at us to take cover and duck.
Olivia Beavers: There was a moment when a reporter asked me: “Do you think we should take off our press badges?” I said, No.
WASHINGTON — An independent review warned of potential cost overruns on a future major NASA Earth science mission, prompting NASA to consider removing some instruments from it.
NASA is in the process of conducting reviews known as Key Decision Point (KDP) A for three elements of its Earth System Observatory line of missions: Atmosphere Observing System (AOS), Mass Change, and Surface Biology and Geology. The KDP-A reviews would allow the proposed missions to move into Phase A of initial development.
NASA, though, delayed the KDP-A review for AOS, which had been scheduled for December, after receiving an independent review of the Earth System Observatory effort commissioned by NASA in June and completed in October. That review concluded that AOS, which will include satellites both in polar and mid-inclination orbits, would cost $2.4 billion, $500 million more than the project’s own estimate.
“That is a warning that got a lot of attention at the agency level,” said Julie Robinson, deputy director of NASA’s Earth science division, during a town hall meeting about the mission at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union Dec. 16. “It’s a red flag.”
A major factor for the cost growth in the opinion of the independent review board (IRB) is the low technical maturity of two instruments planned for it, a dual-band Doppler radar that would operate at Ka and W bands, and a high spectral resolution (HSRL) lidar. The radar would enable measurements of clouds and precipitation, while the lidar would characterize aerosols in the atmosphere.
While the independent review suggested saving money by replacing the dual-band with a single-band one, and the HSRL lidar with a more conventional lidar, Robinson said it was too early in the development of AOS to make that decision.
“We really need more time to study it,” she said, something that can be done during Phase A of AOS. That includes studies on building the instruments in-house versus procuring them, and requests for information to assess industry’s capability to provide those instruments.
NASA now plans to hold the KDP-A review in January, a delay she said was primarily intended to coordinate work among centers involved in AOS as well as international partners. Canada and Japan are providing their own spacecraft for AOS, along with instruments from France.
The prospect of removing the dual-band radar and HSRL lidar had alarmed scientists, who worried it would significantly reduce the scientific productivity of AOS. Robinson agreed, but noted the agency had not made any decisions about those instruments. “The IRB report did discuss that these descopes are significant, and we recognize that as well. This is not what you were hoping to get out of this mission,” she said. “We have to do these Phase A studies.”
However, she said that the agency needed to find some way to reduce the cost of AOS to avoid cuts elsewhere in the overall Earth System Observatory. “If it would really be half a billion dollars more than is budgeted to do AOS,” she said, “then we would need to drop another mission.”
The independent review concluded the costs of the other two missions, Mass Change and Surface Biology and Geology, were close to project estimates: $454 million for Mass Change and $752 million for Surface Biology and Geology. The review, though, warned that Mass Change, which it described as a “near-copy” of the current GRACE-FO mission, carries risks from using that design and doesn’t improve on resolution and sampling as recommended by the Earth science decadal survey.
NASA initiated the Earth System Observatory effort in 2021, using it as the umbrella for the missions that will implement the five “designated observables” from the decadal survey: aerosols; clouds, convection and precipitation; mass change in snow, ice and water; surface biology and geology; and surface deformation and change. AOS will handle the aerosols and clouds, convection and precipitation observables.
The agency has not started formal planning yet for the mission to implement the fifth designated observable, surface deformation and change. Instead, NASA will use data from the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission scheduled for launch in 2024 to support science involving surface deformation and change.
