Nikki Haley, the previous UN ambassador, stated the previous secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s declare that she plotted to interchange Mike Pence as Donald Trump’s vice-president was “lies and gossip to promote a e-book”.
Haley spoke to Fox Information final evening, after the Guardian obtained a replica of Pompeo’s forthcoming memoir, By no means Give An Inch, and reported his feedback about Haley.
Haley resigned from the Trump administration in October 2018. Earlier than that, Pompeo says, she arrange a private assembly with Trump within the Oval Workplace with out checking with him.
Pompeo writes that John Kelly, then Trump’s chief of workers, thought Haley had in reality been accompanied by Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner as they introduced “a attainable ‘Haley for vice-president’ possibility”.
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Pompeo additionally writes unfavourably of Haley’s efficiency as UN ambassador and criticises her resignation.
What did Haley say? Chatting with Fox Information, Haley stated: “I don’t know why he stated it, however that’s precisely why I stayed out of DC as a lot as attainable, to get away from the drama.” She additionally identified that Pompeo says in his e-book he doesn’t know if the story is true.
Is Haley planning the Republican presidential nomination in 2024? Each Haley and Pompeo are amongst attainable contenders within the contest by which Trump stays the one confirmed candidate. Haley appears set to run. She advised Fox Information: “We’re nonetheless working via issues and we’ll determine it out. I’ve by no means misplaced a race. I stated that then, I nonetheless say that now. I’m not going to lose now.”
Zelenskiy anticipating ‘sturdy choices’ as Kyiv’s allies meet in Germany
Volodymyr Zelenskiy is looking for western allies to produce Ukraine with tanks. {Photograph}: Pavlo Palamarchuk/Reuters
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has stated his authorities is anticipating “sturdy choices” from defence leaders of Nato and different nations assembly on Friday to debate boosting Ukraine’s capacity to confront Russian forces with fashionable battle tanks.
The assembly, at Ramstein airbase in Germany, is the newest in a collection since Russia invaded Ukraine almost 11 months in the past, and the place future weapons provides will probably be mentioned, significantly of Germany’s Leopard 2 tanks utilized by armies throughout Europe.
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Berlin has veto energy over any choice to export the tanks and Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s authorities has appeared reluctant thus far to authorise their launch for concern of frightening Russia.
Some allies say Berlin’s concern is misplaced, with Russia already totally dedicated to conflict, whereas Moscow has repeatedly stated western weapons transfers would lengthen the battle and enhance struggling in Ukraine.
What has the US authorities stated? The US defence secretary has known as for the allies to “dig deeper” of their help for Ukraine as “historical past is watching us”, as he gave particulars of the $2.5bn navy assist bundle the US introduced yesterday.
What else is occurring? Right here’s what we all know on day 331 of the invasion.
Ron DeSantis bans African American research class from Florida excessive faculties
The motion by the Republican governor is the newest in a collection of actions to cease conversations about race and gender in public faculties. {Photograph}: Paul Hennessy/Sopa Photos/Rex/Shutterstock
Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, has rejected a brand new superior placement course in African American research from being taught on highschool campuses. He argues that the course violates state regulation and “lacks instructional worth”.
This ban is the newest in a collection of actions to maintain conversations and classes about race, sexuality and gender identification off the state’s college campuses.
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DeSantis formally banned the course in a letter from the state schooling division to the Faculty Board, the group that administers faculty readiness exams such because the scholastic aptitude check (SAT). In addition they oversee superior placement (AP) programs, which permit college students to earn faculty credit in topics similar to English and chemistry.
In a letter on 12 January to the Faculty Board, the Florida schooling division stated the course was “inexplicably opposite to Florida regulation and considerably lacks instructional worth”.
When did faculties begin providing the course? It has not been working for lengthy. In the summertime of 2022, the Faculty Board introduced a pilot program to “provide highschool college students an evidence-based introduction to African American research” can be launching in 60 excessive faculties through the 2022-23 college yr and would develop to different campuses the next yr.
In different information …
David Crosby. ‘Though he’s now not right here with us, his humanity and sort soul will proceed to information and encourage us.’ {Photograph}: Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP
The legendary US musician David Crosby has died at 81 after a “lengthy sickness”. The singer, guitarist and songwriter was a part of the unique lineup of the Byrds and appeared on their first 5 albums. He additionally co-founded the folks rock supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash.
One of many world’s oldest Zionist organisations with shut ties to the Israeli authorities, the Jewish Nationwide Fund (JNF), is utilizing American anti-terrorism legal guidelines to sue a significant Palestinian rights group within the US over its help for the worldwide boycott motion.
A federal choose has ordered Donald Trump and one in every of his attorneys to collectively pay almost $1m in penalties for pursuing a frivolous lawsuit that accused Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Nationwide Committee and others of partaking in racketeering and concocting an enormous conspiracy in opposition to him.
A small city in Alabama is honoring a person who paid off his neighbors’ pharmacy payments for years, and saved his generosity a secret till shortly earlier than his dying, by choosing up precisely the place he left off. Hody Childress donated $100 a month for neighbors who couldn’t pay their prescriptions.
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Stat of the day: Joshua Tree’s ‘Invisible Home’ may very well be yours for $18m
‘Individuals have a greater understanding of the cultural attraction of Joshua Tree’s distant desert panorama than potential worldwide patrons.’ {Photograph}: R Patrick Jennings/Alamy
Joshua Tree’s actual property growth could have reached a symbolic peak, because the desert city’s iconic, mirror-walled mansion goes available on the market for $18m in what is claimed to be a record-setting asking value. The Invisible Home, constructed in 2019 by the movie producers Chris and Roberta Hanley, has hosted celebrities together with Alicia Keys and Ariana Grande. It’s a surreal, box-like construction, with glinting glass partitions that replicate the desert panorama, and an enormous, 100ft indoor pool that stretches almost half the size of the home. Even when the Invisible Home finally ends up promoting for $9m, half the asking value, “it is going to be the most costly house ever offered in Joshua Tree”, the native newspaper San Bernardino Solar reported.
Don’t miss this: ‘It’s important to set time apart for friendship’– the unconventional energy of hanging out
‘It’s important to set that point apart’ for stress-free with mates, says the tutorial Sheila Liming. {Photograph}: Carlos G Lopez/Getty Photos
From sharing a cuppa to lazing within the park, is the important thing to happiness doing on a regular basis actions with friends? Leisure time, shrinking for the reason that Nineteen Seventies, is more and more treasured for girls, specifically, with US and UK statistics exhibiting a stark gender hole. What free time individuals do have, time-use surveys persistently present, is usually spent watching tv – maybe as a result of we discover ourselves too exhausted to do the rest. The writer and educational Sheila Liming desires us to search out the time – or, extra exactly, to reclaim it. Her new e-book, Hanging Out: The Radical Energy of Killing Time, is partly a paean to the pleasures of idling with others and partly a manifesto to “take again our social lives from the deadening whirl of latest life”.
Local weather verify: ‘Tremendous-tipping factors’ might set off cascade of local weather motion
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Aerial view of rental vehicles in Sydney, Australia. {Photograph}: Cameron Spencer/Getty Photos
Three “super-tipping factors” for local weather motion might set off a cascade of decarbonisation throughout the worldwide financial system, in keeping with a report. Comparatively small coverage interventions on electrical vehicles, plant-based alternate options to meat and inexperienced fertilisers would result in unstoppable progress in these sectors, the specialists stated. However the increase this could give to battery and hydrogen manufacturing would imply essential knock-on advantages for different sectors, together with power storage and aviation. Pressing emissions cuts are wanted to keep away from irreversible local weather breakdown and the specialists say the super-tipping factors are the quickest approach to drive world motion, providing “believable hope” {that a} fast transition to a inexperienced financial system can occur in time.
Final Factor: ‘We dubbed it Toadzilla’: big cane toad believed to be the biggest of its species present in Australia
Rangers in Conway nationwide park, close to Airlie Seashore, Queensland, Australia, have found an enormous cane toad, dubbed Toadzilla, weighing 2.7kg, which may very well be a brand new document for the species. {Photograph}: Division of Setting and Science QLD
She’s poisonous, weighs as a lot as some new child infants and was discovered within the wilds of Australia’s far north. A large cane toad, dubbed “Toadzilla”, discovered by rangers in Queensland’s Conway nationwide parkthis week, is believed to be the biggest of her species ever discovered. The Guinness world document for the biggest toad in historical past is 2.65kg (5.8lbs), present in 1991. The rangers who discovered “Toadzilla” took it again to their base and weighed it. She tipped the scales at 2.7kg (6lbs). Ranger Kylee Grey noticed the large toad whereas strolling within the nationwide park. “I reached down and grabbed the cane toad and couldn’t imagine how large and heavy it was,” she stated. “We dubbed it Toadzilla.”
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Joe Biden is set to impose tariffs on double-sided solar panel imports, as the president moves to protect US clean energy manufacturers and boost jobs ahead of November’s election.
US officials said the move would immediately end an exemption from Trump-era tariffs on imports of a type of panel unit often used in large solar projects, one of the fastest-growing forms of clean energy in the country. They will now attract a tariff rate of 14.25 per cent.
The steeper levy marks the latest protectionist move by the president, who is competing with Republican rival Donald Trump to court blue-collar voters in US manufacturing heartlands, with less than six months to go until the election.
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On Tuesday, Biden sharply increased tariffs on Chinese imports including electric vehicles and solar cells, deepening trade tensions with Beijing and thrusting trade policy to the centre of the election battle.
US officials have warned that China is producing more goods than its own market can absorb, triggering fears that Beijing could use cheap exports to undercut producers in other countries.
Ali Zaidi, Biden’s climate adviser, said the US solar “investment boom” was threatened by “unfair and non-market practices taking place overseas”.
“The Chinese solar panel overcapacity, now projected to be double world demand, threatens to undercut panel manufacturing and solar supply chains around the world,” Zaidi said.
The announcement from the Biden administration comes as US imports of cheap solar panels and cells, largely from south-east Asia, have soared to record highs. An overproduction of solar panels from China has led to a collapse in global panel prices, threatening US manufacturing plans.
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The US imported 55 gigawatts of panels and 3.8GW of solar cells in 2023, with more than three-quarters of cell imports coming from Malaysia, South Korea and Vietnam, according to BloombergNEF.
Alongside the new tariff on double-sided panels, the US is also offering some relief to domestic developers still reliant on imported cells — the units that make up panels — by increasing the amount that can be imported without levies from 5GW to 12.GW.
While some companies have announced their intent to open solar cell factories since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act — aimed at boosting the domestic clean energy industry, among other goals — the US does not have any manufacturing capacity in operation.
The relief applies to cells imported from Asian countries except China, whose cell exports to the US face a 50 per cent tariff under the new regime announced on Tuesday.
“We know that the process of onshoring, friendshoring and frankly just diversifying the supply chains is not one that can be executed overnight,” said Zaidi.
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Raising the quota would ensure manufacturers in the US would have solar cells available to them and would support expanded US solar manufacturing, he added.
US manufacturers including First Solar and Heliene had called for the US International Trade Commission to remove the tariff exemption for double-sided panels.
But the increase in the cell quota could anger large US manufacturers that make their own cells, including First Solar and Qcells, which have petitioned for antidumping duties on south-east Asian solar cells.
LOMITA, Calif. (KABC) — Authorities are asking for the public’s help in identifying a baby who was left at a business in Lomita.
A photo of the child was released, along with a surveillance image of an unidentified pregnant woman who authorities say abandoned the infant inside the store.
The child is believed to be seven to nine months old.
Deputies responded around 5 p.m. Tuesday to a business in the 2000 block of Pacific Coast Highway. When they arrived, a store employee told them a pregnant woman with a baby had entered the store and asked for a taxi.
The woman went to the bathroom as the employee arranged for a taxi. When the taxi arrived, authorities say the woman got in the car and left the child behind in a shopping cart.
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The woman’s whereabouts are unknown, and the child is in the care of the Department of Children and Family Services, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Lomita Sheriff’s Station at 310-539-1661. Anonymous tips can be made by calling Crime Stoppers at 800 222-8477.
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One of the world’s best known luxury brands recently conducted a survey of its global store network, sending local platoons of secret shoppers to assess the level of customer service. Despite their stellar reputation, the outlets in Japan fared dismally.
“The problem was not the service. It was the shoppers,” relates the senior director in charge. “In reality, we knew the service in our Japan stores was by far the best anywhere in the world, but the Japanese customers that we sent found faults that nobody else on earth would see.”
Many will see an enviable virtuous circle in this tale — a parable of what happens when a service culture seems genuinely enthusiastic about and responsive to the idea that the customer is always right. High service standards have begotten high expectations, and who would see downside in this?
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The trouble is that, in Japan as elsewhere in the world, the “customer is always right” mantra is having a bit of a wobble. Perhaps existentially so.
The concept has always come with pretty serious caveats; fuller versions of the (variously attributed) original quote qualify it with clauses like “in matters of taste” that shift the meaning. But in a tetchier, shorter-fused world the caveats are multiplying.
Japan’s current experience deserves attention. After many decades at the extreme end of deifying the customer (Japanese companies across all industries routinely refer to clients as kamisama, or “god”), there is now an emerging vocabulary for expressing a healthy measure of atheism.
The term “customer harassment” has, over the past few years, entered the Japanese public sphere to describe the sort of entitled verbal abuse, threats, tantrums, aggression and physical violence inflicted by customers on workers in retail, restaurants, transport, hotels and other parts of the customer-facing service economy. One recurrent complaint has been customers demanding that staff kneel on the floor to atone for a given infraction.
However tame these incidents may appear in relative terms — comparing them with often violent equivalents in other countries — the perception of a sharp increase in frequency means the phenomenon is being treated as a scourge. The Japanese government is now planning a landmark revision of labour law to require companies to protect their staff from customer rage.
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The real breakthrough, though, lies in legislating the idea that customers can be wrong — a concept that could prove more broadly liberating.
Luxury goods and virtuous circles aside, customer infallibility has not necessarily been the optimal guiding principle for Japan, and is arguably even less so now that demographics are squeezing the ability to deliver the same levels of service as before. Excessive deference to customers came, during the country’s long battle with deflation, to border on outright fear that the slightest mis-step risked losing them forever.
So much deference was paid to the customer that companies were reluctant to raise prices even as they themselves bore the cost of maintaining high standards of service. Japan, during its deflationary phase, became one of the great pioneers of product shrinkflation: a phenomenon that, from some angles, made deference to customers look a lot like contempt for their powers of observation.
Perhaps the biggest dent left by Japan’s superior standards of service, though, has been the chronic misallocation of resources. The fabulous but labour-intensive service that nobody here wants to see evaporating has come at a steadily rising cost to other industries in terms of hogging precious workers. That has become more evident as the working-age population begins to shrink and other parts of the economy make more urgent or attractive demands. As with any large-scale reordering, the process will be painful.
Worldwide, though, the sternest challenge to the customer is always right mantra arises from its implication of imbalance. Even if the phrase is not used literally, it creates a subservience that seems ever more anachronistic. In a research paper published last month, Melissa Baker and Kawon Kim linked a general rise in customer incivility and workplace mental health issues to the customer is right mindset. “This phrase leads to inequity between employees and customers as employees must simply deal with misbehaving customers who feel they can do anything, even if it is rude, uncivil and causes increased vulnerability,” they wrote.
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Japan may yet be some way from letting service standards slip very far. It may be very close, though, to deciding that customers can have rights, without being right.
