77seven77d Trump taps retired general for key Ukraine conflict roleNEW ORLEANS (AP) — The largest artificial intelligence data center ever built by Facebook’s parent company Meta is coming to northeast Louisiana, the company said Wednesday, bringing hopes that the $10 billion facility will transform an economically neglected corner of the state. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry called it “game-changing” for his state's expanding tech sector, yet some environmental groups have raised concerns over the center's reliance on fossil fuels — and whether the plans for new natural gas power to support it could lead to higher energy bills in the future for Louisiana residents. Meanwhile, Elon Musk's AI startup, xAI, is expanding its existing supercomputer project in Memphis, Tennessee, the city's chamber of commerce said Wednesday. The chamber also said that Nvidia, Dell, and Supermicro Computer will be “establishing operations in Memphis,” without offering further details. Louisiana is among a growing number of states offering tax credits and other incentives to lure big tech firms seeking sites for energy-intensive data centers. The U.S. Commerce Department found that there aren’t enough data centers in the U.S. to meet the rising AI-fueled demand, which is projected to grow by 9% each year through 2030, citing industry reports. Meta anticipates its Louisiana data center will create 500 operational jobs and 5,000 temporary construction jobs, said Kevin Janda, director of data center strategy. At 4 million square feet (370,000 square meters), it will be the company's largest AI data center to date, he added. “We want to make sure we are having a positive impact on the local level,” Janda said. Congressional leaders and local representatives from across the political spectrum heralded the Meta facility as a boon for Richland parish, a rural part of Louisiana with a population of 20,000 historically reliant on agriculture. About one in four residents are considered to live in poverty and the parish has an employment rate below 50%, according to the U.S. census data. Meta plans to invest $200 million into road and water infrastructure improvements for the parish to offset its water usage. The facility is expected to be completed in 2030. Entergy, one of the nation's largest utility providers, is fast-tracking plans to build three natural gas power plants in Louisiana capable of generating 2,262 megawatts for Meta's data center over a 15-year period — nearly one-tenth of Entergy's existing energy capacity across four states. The Louisiana Public Service Commission is weighing Entergy's proposal as some environmental groups have opposed locking the state into more fossil fuel-based energy infrastructure. Meta said it plans to help bring 1,500 megawatts of renewable energy onto the grid in the future. Louisiana residents may ultimately end up with rate increases to pay off the cost of operating these natural gas power plants when Meta's contract with Entergy expires, said Jessica Hendricks, state policy director for the Alliance for Affordable Energy, a Louisiana-based nonprofit advocating for energy consumers. “There’s no reason why residential customers in Louisiana need to pay for a power plant for energy that they’re not going to use," Hendricks said. "And we want to make sure that there’s safeguards in place.” Public service commissioner Foster Campbell, representing northeast Louisiana, said he does not believe the data center will increase rates for Louisiana residents and views it as vital for his region. “It’s going in one of the most needed places in Louisiana and maybe one of the most needed places in the United States of America,” Foster said. “I’m for it 100%.” Environmental groups have also warned of the pollution generated by Musk's AI data center in Memphis. The Southern Environmental Law Center, among others, says the supercomputer could strain the power grid, prompting attention from the Environmental Protection Agency. Eighteen gas turbines currently running at xAI’s south Memphis facility are significant sources of ground-level ozone, better known as smog, the group said. Patrick Anderson, an attorney at the law center, said xAI has operated with “a stunning lack of transparency” in developing its South Memphis facility, which is located near predominantly Black neighborhoods that have long dealt with pollution and health risks from factories and other industrial sites. “Memphians deserve to know how xAI will affect them,” he said, “and should have a seat at the table when these decisions are being made.” Sainz reported from Memphis, Tennessee. Associated Press writer Matt O’Brien in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report. Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96Droplet-based microfluidics with mass spectrometry offers new toolboxes for microproteomics

By Nimesh Vora MUMBAI, Dec 30 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee is poised to rise on Monday, building on the momentum from the previous session in which the central banks' interventions prompted the exit of speculative dollar-long positions. The one-month non-deliverable forward indicated the rupee will open at 85.40-85.42 to the U.S. dollar, compared with its close of 85.5325 in the previous session. The rupee catered to a lifetime low of 85.8075 on Friday, leading to heavy dollar sales by the Reserve Bank of India. On the back of what a trader said "was a very busy intervention", the speculative dollar-long positions booked profits. "The excessive positions are being flushed out now that the RBI has intervened with intent," a currency dealer at a mid-sized private bank said. "This corrective downward move (on dollar/rupee) likely extends to 85.30 at best, not beyond that. I see this dip an opportunity to buy." The rupee has been struggling for several weeks due to dollar demand in the non-deliverable forward market, the weakness in Asian peers on concerns over U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's trade policies, the rally in U.S. Treasury rates and the dip in India's growth rate. The RBI has been intervening to slow the pace of the currency's decline, although its dollar sales have been a big factor in driving India's forex reserves to a seven-month low. HIGH US YIELDS TO KEEP RUPEE IN CHECK The 10-year U.S. yield last week climbed to its highest level since late April amid expectations that Trump's trade and immigration policies would lift inflation and his planned tax cuts would add to the U.S. debt load. The jump in yields is keeping the dollar index well supported. "Unless the trajectory of U.S. yields turns, the rupee will have it difficult," the currency dealer said. KEY INDICATORS: ** One-month non-deliverable rupee forward at 85.70; onshore one-month forward premium at 28 paisa ** Dollar index at 108 ** Brent crude futures up 0.1% at $74.2 per barrel ** Ten-year U.S. note yield at 4.63% ** As per NSDL data, foreign investors sold a net $186.7 mln worth of Indian shares on Dec. 26 ** NSDL data shows foreign investors bought a net $4 mln worth of Indian bonds on Dec. 26 (Reporting by Nimesh Vora; Editing by Savio D'Souza)Andrew met the individual through “official channels” with “nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed”, a statement from his office said. The businessman – known only as H6 – lost an appeal over a decision to bar him from entering the UK on national security grounds. He brought a case to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) after then-home secretary Suella Braverman said he should be excluded from the UK in March 2023. H6 was described as a “close confidante” of The Duke. Judges were told that in a briefing for the home secretary in July 2023, officials claimed H6 had been in a position to generate relationships between prominent UK figures and senior Chinese officials “that could be leveraged for political interference purposes”. They also said that H6 had downplayed his relationship with the Chinese state, which combined with his relationship with Andrew, 64, represented a threat to national security. A statement from Andrew’s office said: “The Duke of York followed advice from His Majesty’s Government and ceased all contact with the individual after concerns were raised. “The Duke met the individual through official channels with nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed. “He is unable to comment further on matters relating to national security.” At a hearing in July, the specialist tribunal heard that the businessman was told by an adviser to Andrew that he could act on the duke’s behalf when dealing with potential investors in China, and that H6 had been invited to Andrew’s birthday party in 2020. A letter referencing the birthday party from the adviser, Dominic Hampshire, was discovered on H6’s devices when he was stopped at a port in November 2021. In a ruling on Thursday, Mr Justice Bourne, Judge Stephen Smith and Sir Stewart Eldon, dismissed the challenge.

Fear of Kannur-style Tongue Lashing Many Congress leaders from Kerala have started a campaign for a new PCC president, saying a leader from the Christian community should head the party to check the perceived tilt of many Christians to the BJP. But incumbent K Sudhakaran insists he enjoys overwhelming support to continue as PCC president. The change seekers hope AICC will eject Sudhakaran but many are wary of facing the "Kannur-style" tongue-lashing, if the former is pushed out. Leaving Nothing to Chance Shiv Sena ( Eknath Shinde ) MLA Bharat Gogawale ’s desire to become a minister is known to one and all. So, while in the midst of giving a byte to a news channel outside the assembly, the MLA abruptly cut it short and literally ran to greet Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis . While Gogawale is in the Shiv Sena, he is aware that with 132 MLAs with BJP, Fadnavis would hold a veto on which of the Sena MLAs could be made a minister and hence Gogawale leaving nothing to chance. (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel )

Judy Garland's Wizard of Oz ruby slippers are set to go under the hammer for £2m - after being stolen by mobster By GRANT TUCKER ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Published: 22:37 GMT, 27 November 2024 | Updated: 22:40 GMT, 27 November 2024 e-mail View comments The iconic red slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz movie have gone on display in London ahead of an international auction next month. The magical footwear is expected to sell for upwards of £2million when it goes under the hammer at Heritage Auctions in Dallas on December 7. They are just one of the four pairs of surviving slippers from the 1939 technicolour film. The pair, which is being displayed at Heritage’s Mayfair showroom in London, was worn by Garland for the majority of the film, including three famous close-up scenes, when the Wicked Witch is shocked as she attempts to touch them, a close-up at the Gates of Oz, and the climactic heel-tapping scene as Garland’s character Dorothy repeatedly says ‘There is no place like home’. They are being sold by private collector Michael Shaw, a former child actor with MGM, and have an interesting back story. He loaned the slippers to the Judy Garland Museum in her home town of Grand Rapids, Minnesota in 2005, but they were quickly stolen. The pair, which is being displayed at Heritage’s Mayfair showroom in London, was worn by Garland for the majority of the film, including three famous close-up scenes Film stills taken of 'Wizard of Oz' from 1939. The magical red slippers are expected to sell for upwards of £2million when it goes under the hammer at Heritage Auctions in Dallas on December 7 It was not until 2018 that the FBI finally recovered the famous memorabilia buried in a Tupperware box. Terry Martin later admitted to the theft and said he did so because he believed they were encrusted with real rubies. The 76-year-old was given a suspended prison sentence in January this year. Joe Maddalena, executive vice president at Heritage Auctions, said: ‘You cannot overstate the importance of Dorothy’s ruby slippers: They are the most important prop in Hollywood history.’ The slippers will be auctioned alongside the black pointed hat worn by Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. Other memorabilia from The Wizard of Oz will also be on sale, including Garland’s wigs, film posters and photographs, as well as other items such as a wooden game board from Jumanji starring Robin Williams. Share or comment on this article: Judy Garland's Wizard of Oz ruby slippers are set to go under the hammer for £2m - after being stolen by mobster e-mail Add commentNEW YORK (AP) — Angelina Jolie never expected to hit all the notes. But finding the breath of Maria Callas was enough to bring things out of Jolie that she didn’t even know were in her. “All of us, we really don’t realize where things land in our body over a lifetime of different experiences and where we hold it to protect ourselves,” Jolie said in a recent interview. “We hold it in our stomachs. We hold it in our chest. We breathe from a different place when we’re nervous or we’re sad. “The first few weeks were the hardest because my body had to open and I had to breathe again,” she adds. “And that was a discovery of how much I wasn’t.” In Pablo Larraín’s “Maria,” which Netflix released in theaters Wednesday before it begins streaming on Dec. 11, Jolie gives, if not the performance of her career, then certainly of her last decade. Beginning with 2010’s “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” Jolie has spent recent years directing films while prioritizing raising her six children. “So my choices for quite a few years were whatever was smart financially and short. I worked very little the last eight years,” says Jolie. “And I was kind of drained. I couldn’t for a while.” But her youngest kids are now 16. And for the first time in years, Jolie is back in the spotlight, in full movie-star mode. Her commanding performance in “Maria” seems assured of bringing Jolie her third Oscar nomination. (She won supporting actress in 2000 for “Girl, Interrupted.”) For an actress whose filmography might lack a signature movie, “Maria” may be Jolie's defining role. Jolie's oldest children, Maddox and Pax, worked on the set of the film. There, they saw a version of their mother they hadn't seen before. “They had certainly seen me sad in my life. But I don’t cry in front of my children like that,” Jolie says of the emotion Callas dredged up in her. “That was a moment in realizing they were going to be with me, side by side, in this process of really understanding the depth of some of the pain I carry.” Jolie, who met a reporter earlier this fall at the Carlyle Hotel, didn't speak in any detail of that pain. But it was hard not to sense some it had to do with her lengthy and ongoing divorce from Brad Pitt, with whom she had six children. Just prior to meeting, a judge allowed Pitt’s remaining claim against Jolie, over the French winery Château Miraval, to proceed. On Monday, a judge ruled that Pitt must disclose documents Jolie’s legal team have sought that they allege include “communications concerning abuse.” Pitt has denied ever being abusive. The result of the U.S. presidential election was also just days old, though Jolie — special envoy for the United Nations Refugee Agency from 2012 to 2022 – wasn’t inclined to talk politics. Asked about Donald Trump’s win , she responded, “Global storytelling is essential,” before adding: “That’s what I’m focusing on. Listening. Listening to the voices of people in my country and around the world.” Balancing such things — reports concerning her private life, questions that accompany someone of her fame — is a big reason why Jolie is so suited to the part of Callas. The film takes place during the American-born soprano’s final days. (She died of a heart attack at 53 in 1977.) Spending much of her time in her grand Paris apartment, Callas hasn’t sung publicly in years; she’s lost her voice. Imprisoned by the myth she’s created, Callas is redefining herself and her voice. An instructor tells her he wants to hear “Callas, not Maria." The movie, of course, is more concerned with Maria. It’s Larrain’s third portrait of 20th century female icon, following “Jackie” (with Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy) and “Spencer” (with Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana). As Callas, Jolie is wonderfully regal — a self-possessed diva who deliciously, in lines penned by screenwriter Steven Knight, spouts lines like: “I took liberties all my life and the world took liberties with me.” Asked if she identified with that line, Jolie answered, “Yeah, yeah.” Then she took a long pause. “I’m sure people will read a lot into this and there’s probably a lot I could say but don’t want to feed into,” Jolie eventually continues. “I know she was a public person because she loved her work. And I’m a public person because I love my work, not because I like being public. I think some people are more comfortable with a public life, and I’ve never been fully comfortable with it.” When Larraín first approached Jolie about the role, he screened “Spencer” for her. That film, like “Jackie” and “Maria,” eschews a biopic approach to instead intimately focus on a specific moment of crisis. Larraín was convinced Jolie was meant for the role. “I felt she could have that magnetism,” Larraín says. “The enigmatic diva that’s come to a point in her life where she has to take control of her life again. But the weight of her experience, of her music, of her singing, everything, is on her back. And she carries that. It’s someone who’s already loaded with a life that’s been intense.” “There’s a loneliness that we both share,” Jolie says. “That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I think people can be alone and lonely sometimes, and that can be part of who they are.” Larraín, the Chilean filmmaker, grew up in Santiago going to the opera, and he has long yearned to bring its full power and majesty to a movie. In Callas, he heard something that transfixed him. “I hear something near perfection, but at the same time, it’s something that’s about to be destroyed,” Larraín says. “So it’s as fragile and as strong as possible. It lives in both extremes. That’s why it’s so moving. I hear a voice that’s about to be broken, but it doesn’t.” In Callas’ less perfect moments singing in the film, Larraín fuses archival recordings of Callas with Jolie’s own voice. Some mix of the two runs throughout “Maria.” “Early in the process,” Jolie says, “I discovered that you can’t fake-sing opera.” Jolie has said she never sang before, not even karaoke. But the experience has left her with a newfound appreciation of opera and its healing properties. “I wonder if it’s something you lean into as you get older,” Jolie says. “Maybe your depth of pain is bigger, your depth of loss is bigger, and that sound in opera meets that, the enormity of it.” If Larraín’s approach to “Maria” is predicated on an unknowingness, he's inclined to say something similar about his star. “Because of media and social media, some people might think that they know a lot about Angelina,” he says. “Maria, I read nine biographies of her. I saw everything. I read every interview. I made this movie. But I don’t think I would be capable of telling you who she was us. So if there’s an element in common, it’s that. They carry an enormous amount of mystery. Even if you think that you know them, you don’t.” Whether “Maria” means more acting in the future for Jolie, she's not sure. “There's not a clear map,” she says. Besides, Jolie isn't quite ready to shake Callas. “When you play a real person, you feel at some point that they become your friend,” says Jolie. “Right now, it’s still a little personal. It’s funny, I’ll be at a premiere or I’ll walk into a room and someone will start blaring her music for fun, but I have this crazy internal sense memory of dropping to my knees and crying.”