The initial investigation of Debra Lee Miller’s murder became mired in allegations of potential police misconduct.
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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s peso weakened nearly 23% this year to close the final day of trading at 20.82 pesos per U.S. dollar on Tuesday, the currency’s deepest drop against the greenback since the 2008 global financial crisis.
The peso’s volatile year kicked off with months of steady gains until the days following June’s general election, which swept the leftist coalition led by the ruling Morena party to a resounding victory in the presidential race as well as large congressional majorities.
Ahead of the election, the Mexican currency traded in April at about 16.26 pesos per dollar to reach a nine-year high.
The election win for Morena paved the way for passage of constitutional reforms in September, including a major overhaul of the judiciary that critics argue will undermine the independence of the courts in Latin America’s second-biggest economy.
The election of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in November exacerbated the peso’s rocky ride, amid his fresh tariff threats against Mexico, which sends around 80% of its exports to its northern neighbor.
Mexico’s main stock index also shed value during the year, dipping nearly 14% to close on Tuesday at 49,513 points, its steepest fall since 2018.
(Reporting by Noe Torres; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Rod Nickel)
DUBAI (Reuters) – The next round of nuclear talks between Iran and three European countries will take place on Jan. 13 in Geneva, Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency cited the country’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi as saying on Wednesday.
Iran held talks about its disputed nuclear programme in November, 2024 with Britain, France and Germany.
Those discussions, the first since the U.S. election, came after Tehran was angered by a European-backed resolution that accused Iran of poor cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
Tehran reacted to the resolution by informing the IAEA watchdog that it plans to install more uranium-enriching centrifuges at its enrichment plants.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told Reuters in December that Iran is “dramatically” accelerating its enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, closer to the roughly 90% level that is weapons grade. Tehran denies pursuing nuclear weapons and says its programme is peaceful.
In 2018, the then administration of Donald Trump exited Iran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six major powers and reimposed harsh sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to violate the pact’s nuclear limits, with moves such as rebuilding stockpiles of enriched uranium, refining it to higher fissile purity and installing advanced centrifuges to speed up output.
Indirect talks between U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration and Tehran to try to revive the pact have failed, but Trump said during his election campaign in September: “We have to make a deal, because the consequences are impossible. We have to make a deal”.
(Reporting by Elwely Elwelly; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
Stock indexes closed mostly lower on Wall Street on the final day of another record-setting year. The S&P 500 slipped 0.4% Tuesday, but still managed to rack up a gain of 23.3% for the year, its second straight year with gains of more than 20%. The last time it had back-to-back yearly gains that big was 1998. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite lost 0.9%. Big Tech stocks led this year’s rally, pushing the Nasdaq composite to a yearly gain of 28.6%. The Dow, which is far less weighted with tech, rose 12.9% for the year.
Value-seekers drove 2024’s retail trends and dead ends
Value was in vogue in 2024. Shoppers and restaurant patrons in the U.S. were choosy about where and how to spend their money as they wrestled with high housing and food prices. Well-heeled shoppers traded down to Walmart and Aldi. Diners opted for fast food or home cooking instead of sit-down restaurants. Department stores struggled as people shopped online or at less-expensive chains like H&M. The behavior shifts changed the buying and eating landscape. Consumer research company Coresight Research tracked 48 retail bankruptcies as of Dec. 20 compared with 25 last year. And at least 22 restaurant chains — including Red Lobster and TGI Fridays — filed for bankruptcy, the highest number since 2020.
In 2024, artificial intelligence was all about putting AI tools to work
Just over two years after the debut of ChatGPT, the world is getting a little savvier about what artificial intelligence technology can do for us and what it’s not so great at. The first 100 million or so people who experimented with ChatGPT upon its release two years ago actively sought out the chatbot, finding it amazingly helpful at some tasks or laughably mediocre at others. Now such generative AI technology is baked into an increasing number of technology services whether we’re looking for it or not — for instance, through the AI-generated answers in Google search results or new AI techniques in photo editing tools.
US and Boeing investigators examine the site of a deadly South Korean plane crash
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A team of U.S. investigators including representatives from Boeing have examined the site of a plane crash that killed 179 people in South Korea. Authorities meanwhile are conducting safety inspections on all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country’s airlines. All but two of the 181 people aboard the Boeing 737-800 operated by budget airline Jeju Air died in Sunday’s crash. The plane was seen having an engine trouble and preliminary examinations also say the pilots received a bird strike warning from the ground control center and issued a distress signal as well. But many experts say the landing gear issue was likely the main cause of the crash.
Small businesses brace themselves for potentially disruptive TikTok ban
A looming TikTok ban could affect the millions of small businesses that use the short-video social media app to grow their business. Though TikTok has been around only since 2016, small business owners are using the platform in a variety of ways, from growing a customer base to advertising and marketing, as well as selling goods directly from the site. The Justice Department ordered the app’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell TikTok or face a U.S. ban by Jan. 19, citing security concerns. The Supreme Court will take up the matter in January.
US stock markets to remain closed in honor of Jimmy Carter on National Day of Mourning
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock markets will close on Thursday of next week in honor of former President Jimmy Carter, continuing a long-held Wall Street tradition in mourning the nation’s leaders. Both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq announced this week that they plan to close their equity and options markets on January 9 in observance of a National Day of Mourning for the 39th U.S. president and global humanitarian. Carter died on Sunday. He was 100 years old. The suspension of trading following the death of a U.S. president dates back years. According to the NYSE, for example, surviving records indicate that the first time the centuries-old exchange closed to honor a deceased president was likely in April 1865, following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
PHOENIX (AP) — An appeals court has rejected an Arizona official’s argument that felony charges against him for delaying certification of his rural county’s 2022 election results should be dismissed because he has legislative immunity.
In an order Tuesday, the Arizona Court of Appeals concluded Cochise County Supervisor Tom Crosby’s duty to certify the election results wasn’t discretionary. The court also said certifying election results is an administrative responsibility and that legislative immunity doesn’t apply to Crosby’s situation.
Crosby and Cochise County Supervisor Peggy Judd, both Republicans, were criminally charged after they balked at certifying the results. Two months ago, Judd pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of failing to perform her duty as an election officer and was sentenced to probation.
Crosby has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy and interference with an election officer. His trial is scheduled for Jan. 30.
Dennis Wilenchik, one of Crosby’s lawyers, said his client will ask the state Supreme Court to review the matter. Wilenchik said moving the certification’s date by a few days wasn’t a criminal act and that Crosby should be immunized.
“If it’s just a rubber stamp then why is it (certification) needed at all?” Wilenchik said.
The Cochise County results were ultimately certified past the deadline after a judge ordered Judd and Crosby to carry out their legal duties. Judd and Supervisor Ann English, the board’s lone Democrat, finally approved the canvass, allowing the statewide certification to go forward as scheduled.
Preparations have started for the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at age 100. Events are set in Carter’s hometown of Plains, Georgia, and in Washington, D.C. Mark Strassman has more.
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KYIV (Reuters) -Russia launched a drone strike on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Wednesday, killing one person, wounding six others and damaging buildings in two districts, city officials said.
Explosions boomed across the morning sky as Ukraine’s air force warned of drones approaching the capital and Mayor Vitali Klitschko said air defences were repelling an enemy attack.
Two floors of a residential building were partially destroyed in the strike, Klitschko said. The body of a woman was later pulled from the debris, the city’s military administration said.
Photos posted by the State Emergency Service showed firefighters dousing a gutted corner of a building and rescuers helping elderly victims.
The National Bank of Ukraine said in a statement that one of its buildings had been damaged by debris from a downed drone. Debris also damaged a non-residential building in a different neighbourhood, Klitschko added.
“Even on New Year’s Eve, Russia was only concerned about how to hurt Ukraine,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on social media in response to the strike.
Kyiv’s military said it had shot down 63 out of 111 drones launched by Russia overnight across various regions of Ukraine. Another 46 had been downed by electronic jamming, it added.
Russia has carried out regular air strikes on Ukrainian towns and cities far behind the front line of its nearly three-year-old invasion.
(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk; Additional reporting by Valentyn Ogirenko and Gleb Garanich; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Gareth Jones)
President-elect Donald Trump on Monday endorsed Mike Johnson to remain as speaker of the House, where the GOP holds a narrow majority. Democrats plan to nominate House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to oppose Johnson. CBS News political reporter Libby Cathey has the latest.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on entities in Iran and Russia, accusing them of attempting to interfere in the 2024 U.S. election.
The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement the entities – a subsidiary of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and an organization affiliated with Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU) – aimed to “stoke socio-political tensions and influence the U.S. electorate during the 2024 U.S. election”.
“The Governments of Iran and Russia have targeted our election processes and institutions and sought to divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns,” Treasury’s Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley Smith, said in the statement.
“The United States will remain vigilant against adversaries who would undermine our democracy.”
Russia’s embassy in Washington said in a statement to Reuters: “Russia has not and does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, including the United States.”
“As President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stressed, we respect the will of the American people. All insinuations about ‘Russian machinations’ are malicious slander, invented for use in the internal political struggles in the United States,” the spokesperson added.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Republican Donald Trump was elected president in November, beating Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and capping a remarkable comeback four years after he was voted out of the White House.
The Treasury said the Cognitive Design Production Center planned influence operations since at least 2023 designed to incite tensions among the electorate on behalf of the IRGC.
The Treasury accused the Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise (CGE) of circulating disinformation about candidates in the election as well as directing and subsidizing the creation of deepfakes.
The Treasury said CGE also manipulated a video to produce “baseless accusations concerning a 2024 vice presidential candidate.” It did not specify which candidate was targeted.
The Moscow-based center, at the direction of the GRU, used generative AI tools to create disinformation distributed across a network of websites that were designed to look like legitimate news outlets, the Treasury said.
It accused the GRU of providing financial support to CGE and a network of U.S.-based facilitators in order to build and maintain its AI-support server and maintain a network of at least 100 websites used in its disinformation operations.
CGE’s director was also hit with sanctions in Tuesday’s action.
An annual U.S. threat assessment released in October said the United States sees a growing threat of Russia, Iran and China attempting to influence the elections, including by using artificial intelligence to disseminate fake or divisive information.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Katharine Jackson; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Chizu Nomiyama, Angus MacSwan and Alistair Bell)
Preparations are underway in New York and across the country ahead of New Year’s Eve celebrations. CBS News national correspondent Nikki Battiste has more on the safety measures.
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