Boeing will lay off 10% of its employees as a strike by factory workers cripples airplane production

Boeing plans to lay off about 10% of its workers in the coming months, about 17,000 people, as it continues to lose money and tries to deal with a strike that is crippling production of the company’s best-selling airline planes.

New CEO Kelly Ortberg told staff in a memo Friday that the job cuts will include executives, managers and employees.

The company has about 170,000 employees worldwide, many of them working in manufacturing facilities in the states of Washington and South Carolina.

Boeing had already imposed rolling temporary furloughs, but Ortberg said those will be suspended because of the impending layoffs.

The company will further delay the rollout of a new plane, the 777X, to 2026 instead of 2025. It will also stop building the cargo version of its 767 jet in 2027 after finishing current orders.

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Residents slog through flooded streets, clear debris after Hurricane Milton tore through Florida

LITHIA, Fla. (AP) — Florida residents slogged through flooded streets, gathered up scattered debris and assessed damage to their homes on Friday after Hurricane Milton smashed through coastal communities and spawned a barrage of deadly tornadoes.

At least 10 people were dead, and rescuers were still saving people from swollen rivers, but many expressed relief that Milton wasn’t worse. The hurricane spared densely populated Tampa a direct hit, and the lethal storm surge that scientists feared never materialized.

Gov. Ron DeSantis warned people to not let down their guard, however, citing ongoing safety threats including downed power lines and standing water that could hide dangerous objects.

“We’re now in the period where you have fatalities that are preventable,” DeSantis said. “You have to make the proper decisions and know that there are hazards out there.”

As of Friday night, the number of customers in Florida still without power had dropped to 1.9 million, according to poweroutage.us. St. Petersburg's 260,000 residents were told to boil water before drinking, cooking or brushing their teeth, until at least Monday.

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Are male voters reluctant to vote for a woman? Harris' backers are confronting the question head on

WASHINGTON (AP) — The concern has been there all along, but now it's being talked about openly: Are some men reluctant to vote for Democrat Kamala Harris because she’s a woman?

The vice president rarely references her gender on the campaign trail, but her key supporters are starting to make more direct appeals to male voters, hoping to overcome ingrained sexism — or just plain apathy — as Election Day looms.

Former President Barack Obama said he was speaking to Black men in particular when he suggested some “aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president.” Actor Ed O'Neill implores in a new ad, “Be a man: Vote for a woman.” And Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is helping lead “ Hombres con Harris ” — “Men with Harris” — to help energize Hispanic male voters.

“I think, in many ways, it's other people who need to be the messenger,” said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University. She added of appeals to men by the vice president, “I don't think she can get up and say, ”Shame on you."'

"It's sad, but I think she needs these outside validators," Walsh said.

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Trump drives his anti-immigration message in Aurora, Colorado

AURORA, Colo. (AP) — Donald Trump detoured from the battleground states Friday to visit a Colorado suburb that's been in the news over illegal immigration as he drives a message, often using false or misleading claims and dehumanizing language, that migrants are causing chaos in smaller American cities and towns.

Trump’s rally in Aurora marked the first time ahead of the November election that either presidential campaign has visited Colorado, which reliably votes Democratic statewide.

The Republican nominee has long promised to stage the largest deportation operation in U.S. history and has made immigration core to his political persona since launching his first campaign in 2015. In recent months, Trump has pinpointed specific smaller communities that have seen large arrivals of migrants, with tensions flaring locally over resources and some longtime residents expressing distrust about sudden demographic changes.

Aurora entered the spotlight in August when a video circulated showing armed men walking through an apartment building housing Venezuelan migrants. Trump has claimed extensively that Venezuelan gangs are taking over buildings, even though authorities say that was a single block of the suburb near Denver, and the area is again safe.

Ignoring those denials from local authorities, Trump painted a picture of apartment complexes overrun by “barbaric thugs" and streets unsafe to travel, blaming President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump's Democratic rival.

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Israeli forces kill 2 Lebanese soldiers and injure 2 UN peacekeepers in separate strikes

BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli airstrike killed two Lebanese soldiers and wounded three on Friday, Lebanon's military said, just hours after the Israeli military fired on the headquarters of U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, injuring two of them for the second day in a row.

The incidents entangling both Lebanon's official army — which has largely stayed on the sidelines of the conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah — and the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon raised alarm as Israel broadens its campaign against Hezbollah with waves of heavy airstrikes across the country and a ground invasion at the border.

In central Beirut, rescue workers combed Friday through the rubble of a collapsed building, searching for survivors of an Israeli airstrike that killed at least 22 people and wounded dozens in the Lebanese capital the night before.

Hezbollah has been firing rockets into Israel over the past year in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza following Hamas' devastating Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and resulted in 250 taken hostage.

In return, Israel’s military has pounded Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, killing more than 2,237 Lebanese — including Hezbollah fighters, civilians and medical personnel — according to the Lebanese health ministry.

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Nobel Peace Prize given to Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo for its work against nuclear weapons

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activism against nuclear weapons.

Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the award was made as the “taboo against the use of nuclear weapons is under pressure.”

Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a shift in his country’s nuclear doctrine, in a move aimed at discouraging the West from allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with longer-range weapons. It appeared to significantly lower the threshold for the possible use of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.

Watne Frydnes said the Nobel committee “wishes to honor all survivors who, despite physical suffering and painful memories, have chosen to use their costly experience to cultivate hope and engagement for peace.”

Hidankyo's Hiroshima branch chairperson, Toshiyuki Mimaki, who was standing by at the city hall for the announcement, cheered and teared up when he received the news.

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Harris viewed more positively by Hispanic women than by Hispanic men: AP-NORC poll

WASHINGTON (AP) — A solid majority of Hispanic women have a positive opinion of Vice President Kamala Harris and a negative view of former President Donald Trump, but Hispanic men are more divided on both candidates, according to a recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Hispanic men are also more likely than Hispanic women to say Trump is the candidate who represents their views on key issues, underscoring the potential importance of this group, which both candidates have courted aggressively.

As the election approaches, the extent to which Trump can erode Harris' support among Hispanic voters could be an important factor in swing states like Arizona. Hispanic voters are more supportive of the Democrats overall: According to the poll, nearly half identify as Democrats, about one-third as Republicans, and around 2 in 10 as independents. But the poll signals that Hispanic men, while not overwhelmingly in favor of Trump, are more open to his candidacy than Hispanic women — and less open to Harris'.

Antonio Melcon, 65, a Republican from Florida, said Trump has his vote because he is the best option for the country. In Melcon's view, the Biden administration has taken the nation down a bad path, and Harris has done nothing to stop it.

“She wasn’t the one that implemented the route this country has taken, but she’s been there and done nothing that merits I vote for her,” Melcon said. “I would definitely never vote for her.”

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The drownings of 2 Navy SEALs were preventable, military investigation finds

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two U.S. Navy SEALs drowned as they tried to climb aboard a ship carrying illicit Iranian-made weapons to Yemen because of glaring training failures and a lack of understanding about what to do after falling into deep, turbulent waters, according to a military investigation into the January deaths.

The review concluded that the drownings of Chief Special Warfare Operator Christopher J. Chambers and Navy Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Nathan Gage Ingram could have been prevented. But both sank quickly in the high seas off the coast of Somalia, weighed down by heavy equipment they were carrying and not knowing or disregarding concerns that their flotation devices could not compensate for the additional weight. Both were lost at sea.

The highly critical and heavily redacted report — written by a Navy officer from outside Naval Special Warfare Command, which oversees the SEALs — concluded there were “deficiencies, gaps and inconsistencies” in training, policies, tactics and procedures as well as “conflicting guidance” on when and how to use emergency flotation devices and extra buoyancy material that could have kept them alive.

The Associated Press obtained the report upon request before its public release.

The mission's goal was to intercept weapons headed to the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, who have been launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and U.S. Navy ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began a year ago. U.S. retaliatory strikes have so far not deterred their assaults.

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Brazil starts blocking irregular online gambling as concern rises over addiction

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil on Friday started blocking over 2,000 gambling websites designated as irregular, part of a push by the government to regulate the sector. The move comes as concerns grow about addiction, especially among tens of millions of vulnerable people.

Authorities have begun enforcing a law signed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in December 2023, regulating and taxing betting companies. Brazil's government estimates more than 52 million people started betting online in the last five years.

Most types of gambling, such as casinos and slot machines, are illegal in Brazil, but online betting was authorized in 2018.

Currently, 96 companies which hold 210 gambling websites remain active. The federal government said in a statement that these firms have demonstrated a willingness to comply with the new legislation and can operate until the end of the year, while their license applications are reviewed.

Some of the betting companies that have not been authorized to operate in Brazil are taking their case to court. Others are seeking state authorizations that could give them the rest of the year to seek approval from the federal government.

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What's behind the northern lights that dazzled the sky farther south than normal

Another in a series of unusually strong solar storms hitting Earth produced stunning skies full of pinks, purples, greens and blues farther south than normal, including into parts of Germany, the United Kingdom, New England and New York City.

“It was a pretty extensive display yet again,” said Shawn Dahl, a space weather forecaster at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center. He said the center has gotten reports of northern lights sightings as far south as New Mexico. “It's been a wonderful year.”

There were no immediate reports of disruptions to power and communications.

NOAA issued a severe geomagnetic storm alert on Wednesday after after an outburst from the sun was detected earlier in the week. Such a storm increases the chance of auroras — also known as northern lights — and can temporarily disrupt power and radio signals.

NOAA's Friday forecast shows continued higher-than-normal activity, but the chances for another overnight show are slim farther south of Canada and the northern Plains states.

News from © The Associated Press, 2024