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RIO DE JANEIRO — The Brazilian government confirmed on Monday it was in talks on a potential $18 billion payout from a trio of miners involved in a deadly 2015 dam collapse, saying the deal could also involve further repair work by the companies themselves. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Brazilian mining giant Vale and Australia's BHP, together with their joint venture Samarco, could soon reach a deal to pay around $18.2 billion in additional funds for repairs, with final terms of the agreement expected in October. Energy and Mining Minister Alexandre Silveira confirmed the story in a Monday interview with local radio broadcaster Itatiaia, based in Minas Gerais state where the toxic spill took place. Beyond the reparations under discussion, Silveira said the talks also cover some $7 billion in remediation the firms would implement themselves, such as removing toxic mining waste from a local river. The collapse of the dam at a Samarco iron ore mine near the city of Mariana nine years ago unleashed a wave of toxic tailings that killed 19 people, left hundreds homeless, flooded forests and polluted the length of the Doce River. The miners have already paid out some $8 billion on remediation and compensation for the collapse of the tailings dam, Silveira said. A previous proposal from the miners, which was not fully accepted by officials, had set a $15 billion payout to authorities in new resources plus another $3.7 billion in repairs the miners would implement. Vale did not mention the amount of a potential deal in a response to a request for comment on Monday but repeated that it expected to reach a deal in October. BHP and Samarco, meanwhile, confirmed the talks were ongoing in separate statements, adding they believe an agreement could be reached soon.

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LONDON — Malnutrition is the world's worst child health crisis and climate change will only make things more severe, according to Microsoft-co-founder turned philanthropist Bill Gates. Between now and 2050, 40 million more children will have stunted growth and 28 million more will suffer from wasting, the most extreme and irreversible forms of malnutrition, as a result of climate change, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said in a report on Tuesday. “Unless you get the right food, broadly, both in utero and in your early years, you can never catch up,” Gates told Reuters in an online interview last week, referring to a child’s physical and mental capacity, both of which are held back by a lack of good nutrition. Children without enough of the right food are also more vulnerable to diseases like measles and malaria, and early death. "Around 90% of the negative effect of climate change works through the food system. Where you have years where your crops basically fail because of drought or too much rain," he said. Gates was speaking ahead of the publication of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's annual Goalkeepers report, which tracks progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), around reducing poverty and improving health. The report includes the projections above. In 2023, the World Health Organization estimated that 148 million children experienced stunting and 45 million experienced wasting. Gates called for more funding for nutrition, particularly through a new platform led by UNICEF aiming to co-ordinate donor financing, the Child Nutrition Fund, as well as more research. But he said the money should not be taken away from other proven initiatives, like routine childhood vaccinations, for this purpose. “(Nutrition) was under-researched ... it's eye-opening how important this is,” he added, saying initiatives like food fortification or improving access to prenatal multi-vitamins could be as effective as some vaccines in improving child health in the world’s poorest countries. The Gates Foundation said in January it plans to spend more on global health this year than ever before - $6.8 billion – as wider funding efforts stall.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

NEW DELHI — India has condemned comments made by Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on the treatment of Muslims in the South Asian nation, calling his remarks "misinformed and unacceptable." "We cannot consider ourselves to be Muslims if we are oblivious to the suffering that a Muslim is enduring in Myanmar, Gaza, India, or any other place," Khamenei said in a social media post on Monday. In response, India's foreign ministry said it "strongly deplored" the comments. "Countries commenting on minorities are advised to look at their own record before making any observations about others," the foreign ministry spokesperson said. The two countries have typically shared a strong relationship, and signed a 10-year contract in May to develop and operate the Iranian port of Chabahar. India has been developing the port in Chabahar on Iran's southeastern coast along the Gulf of Oman as a way to transport goods to Iran, Afghanistan and central Asian countries, bypassing the ports of Karachi and Gwadar in its rival Pakistan. Khamenei, however, has been critical of India in the past over issues involving Indian Muslims and the troubled Muslim-majority region of Kashmir.

Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of Hawaii, has been charged by a criminal complaint in the Southern District of Florida with firearms charges related to an incident at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on Sept. 15. We talk to John Mark Hansen, a professor in Political Science at the University of Chicago. Gaza is “hell on Earth” says the UN senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza. And Southern Israel is seeing a rise in so-called dark tourism as an increasing number of people are visiting sites hit by the October 7 attack.

PHOENIX — A judge has rejected a bid by Mark Meadows, a former chief of staff to President Donald Trump, to move his charges in Arizona's fake elector case to federal court, marking the second time he has failed in trying to get his charges out of state court. In a decision Monday, U.S. District Judge John Tuchi said Meadows missed a deadline for asking for his charges to be moved to federal court, didn't offer a good reason for doing so and failed to show that the allegations against him related to his official duties as chief of staff to the president. Meadows faces charges in Arizona and Georgia in what authorities allege was an illegal scheme to overturn the 2020 election results in Trump's favor. He had unsuccessfully tried to move charges in the Georgia case last year. It's unknown whether Meadows will appeal the decision. The Associated Press left phone and email messages for two of Meadows' attorneys. While not a fake elector in Arizona, prosecutors said Meadows, while chief of staff, worked with other Trump campaign members to submit names of fake electors from Arizona and other states to Congress in a bid to keep Trump in office despite his November 2020 defeat. Meadows has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Arizona and Georgia. In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden won Arizona by 10,457 votes. The decision sends Meadows' case back down to Maricopa County Superior Court. In both Arizona and Georgia, Meadows argued his charges should be moved to federal court because his actions were taken when he was a federal official working as Trump's chief of staff and that he has immunity under the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says federal law trumps state law. Arizona prosecutors said Meadows' electioneering efforts weren't part of his official duties at the White House. Meadows last year tried to get his Georgia charges moved but his request was rejected by a judge whose ruling was later affirmed by an appeals court. Meadows has since asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the ruling. The Arizona indictment says Meadows confided to a White House staff member in early November 2020 that Trump had lost the election. Prosecutors say Meadows also had arranged meetings and calls with state officials to discuss the fake elector conspiracy. Meadows and other defendants are seeking a dismissal of the Arizona case. Meadows' attorneys said nothing their client is alleged to have done in Arizona was criminal. They said the indictment consists of allegations that he received messages from people trying to get ideas in front of Trump — or "seeking to inform Mr. Meadows about the strategy and status of various legal efforts by the president's campaign." In all, 18 Republicans were charged in late April in Arizona's fake electors case. The defendants include 11 Republicans who had submitted a document falsely claiming Trump had won Arizona, another Trump aide and five lawyers connected to the former president. In August, Trump's campaign attorney Jenna Ellis, who worked closely with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, signed a cooperation agreement with prosecutors that led to the dismissal of her charges. Republican activist Loraine Pellegrino became the first person to be convicted in the Arizona case when she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to probation. The remaining defendants have pleaded not guilty to the forgery, fraud and conspiracy charges in Arizona. Trump wasn't charged in Arizona, but the indictment refers to him as an unindicted coconspirator. The 11 people who were nominated to be Arizona's Republican electors met in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign a certificate saying they were "duly elected and qualified" electors and claimed Trump had carried the state. A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored. Prosecutors in Michigan, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin have also filed criminal charges related to the fake electors scheme.

An apparent assassination attempt on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump over the weekend raised new questions Monday about political violence in the United States. Democratic and Republican leaders called for more resources for the U.S. Secret Service. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more

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WASHINGTON — “I love you, China. My dear mother,” former U.S. President Donald Trump, standing in front of a mic at a lectern, appears to sing in perfect Mandarin. “I cry for you, and I also feel proud for you,” Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic opponent in this year’s election, appears to respond, also in perfect Mandarin. Trump lets out a smile as he listens to the lyric. The video has received thousands of likes and tens of thousands of reposts on Douyin, China’s variation of TikTok. “These two are almost as Chinese as it gets,” one comment says. Neither Trump nor Harris knows Mandarin. And the duet shown in the video has never happened. But recently, deepfake videos, frequently featuring top U.S. leaders, including President Joe Biden, singing Chinese pop songs, have gone viral on the Chinese internet. Some of the videos have found their way to social media platforms not available in China, such as Instagram, TikTok and X. U.S. intelligence officials and experts have long warned about how China and other foreign adversaries have been implementing generative AI in their disinformation effort to disrupt and influence the 2024 presidential election. “There has been an increased use of Chinese AI-generated content in recent months, attempting to influence and sow division in the U.S. and elsewhere,” a Microsoft report on China’s disinformation threat said in April. Few of the people who saw the videos of the American leaders singing in Chinese, however, were convinced that they were real, based on what users wrote in the comments. The videos themselves do not contain misinformation, either. Instead, these videos and their popularity reflect, at least in part, a sense of cultural confidence in Chinese netizens in the age of perpetually intensifying U.S.-China competitions, observers told VOA Mandarin. By making the likes of Biden and Trump sing whatever Chinese songs the creators of the videos want them to sing, they can “culturally domesticate powerful Americans,” said Alexa Pan, a researcher on China’s AI industry for ChinaTalk, an influential newsletter about China and technology. “Making fun of U.S. leaders might be especially politically acceptable to and popular with Chinese viewers,” she said. Political opponents sing about friendship Videos of American leaders singing in Chinese started to spread on Chinese social media in May. In many of the videos featuring Biden and Trump, creators made the two politically opposed men sing songs about friendship. After Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race in July, one viral video had him sing to Trump, “Actually I don’t want to leave. Actually, I want to stay. I want to stay with you through every spring, summer, autumn and winter,” to which Trump appeared to sing, “You have to believe me. It won’t take long before we can spend our whole life together.” “Crying eyes,” one Chinese netizen commented sarcastically. “They must have gotten along really well.” Another such video posted on Instagram received mostly positive reactions. Some users said it was a stark contrast to the bitterness that has permeated U.S. politics. “Made me laugh,” an Instagram user wrote. “Wouldn't that be so refreshing to actually have them sing like that together?” Easy to make After reviewing some of the videos, Pan, of ChinaTalk, told VOA Mandarin that she believes they were quite easy to make. Obvious flaws in the videos, including body parts occasionally blending into the background, suggest they were created with simple AI technology, Pan said. “One could generate these videos on the many AI text-to-video generation platforms available in China,” she wrote in an e-mail. On the Chinese internet, there are countless tutorials on how to make AI-generated videos using popular lip-syncing AI models, such as MuseTalk, released by Chinese tech giant Tencent, and SadTalker, developed by Xi'an Jiaotong University, a research-focused university in northwestern China. One Douyin account reviewed by VOA Mandarin has pumped out over 200 videos of American leaders singing in Chinese since May. One of the account’s videos was even reposted by the Iranian embassy. Chinese leaders off-limits The release of ChatGPT by OpenAI in 2022 has triggered a global AI frenzy, with China being one of the leading countries developing the technology. The United Nations said in July that China had requested the most patents on generative AI, with the U.S. being a distant second. On the Chinese internet, the obsession has been particularly strong with deepfakes, which can be used to manipulate videos, images and audio of people to make them appear to say or sing things that they have not actually uttered. Some deepfake videos are made mostly for fun, such is the case with Biden and Trump singing Chinese songs. But there have also been abuses of the technology. Earlier this year, web users in China stole a Ukrainian girl’s image and turned her into a “Russian beauty” to sell goods online.  China has released strict regulations on deepfakes. A 2022 law states that the technology cannot be used to “endanger the national security and interests, harm the image of the nation, harm the societal public interest, disturb economic or social order, or harm the lawful rights and interests of others.” Yang Han, an Australian commentator who used to work for China’s Foreign Ministry, told VOA Mandarin that the prominence of U.S leaders and the absence of Chinese leaders in these viral AI videos reflects a lack of political free speech in China. He said that it reminds him of a joke that former U.S. President Ronald Reagan used to tell during the Cold War. “An American and a Russian compare with each other whose country has more freedom,” Yang said, relaying the joke. “The American says he can stand in front of the White House and call Reagan stupid. The Russian dismisses it and says he can also stand in front of the Kremlin and call Reagan stupid.”

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OMAHA, Neb. — The next generation of Buffetts — Howard, Susie and Peter — is poised to become one of the most powerful forces in philanthropy when their 94-year-old father, the legendary businessman and leader of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett, eventually passes away. But it wasn't always going to be that way. Buffett announced in June that he would donate his fortune, now valued at nearly $144 billion, to a charitable trust managed by his three children when he dies, instead of giving it to the Gates Foundation, as he indicated 18 years ago. The next generation of Buffetts will then have 10 years to give the money away, Warren Buffett said. In the meantime, the elder Buffett continues to make huge annual donations to the Gates Foundation and his four family foundations, which will continue throughout his lifetime. He first mentioned plans for a new charitable trust in November. Howard Buffett told The Associated Press he's learned what his father told him and his siblings about philanthropy was true: "It's not so easy to give away money if you want to do it smart, if you want to be intelligent about it." The middle Buffett child, Howard said his father is as sharp as ever and that he hopes he lives a long time, adding: "It's pretty amazing that he's giving us this opportunity." Buffett has entrusted Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates with significant annual gifts to their foundation since 2006 — a remarkable $43 billion to date. "Wealthy people don't tend to give their money to other people to give away," said James Ferris, founding director of The Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy at the University of Southern California. But many of the wealthiest people are also hesitant to hand over their fortunes to the next generation over concerns that it hampers their ingenuity, he said. Ferris thinks the story of Buffett's changing philanthropic intentions is a positive one. "It shows how a donor is making choices and is adapting to circumstances," he said. The Gates Foundation did not say when it learned of Buffett's decision or what the impact will be on its budget. It previously said in a statement that "Warren Buffett has been exceedingly generous," and that he has "played an invaluable role in championing and shaping the foundation's work to create a world where every person can live a healthy, productive life." Over the years, Buffett gave the Gates Foundation large annual donations, but also donated billions to foundations run by his three children and a fourth family foundation. Their work offers some insight into the priorities of the next generation of Buffetts. The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named after Warren Buffett's first wife, is the largest in terms of donations. It supports organizations that provide reproductive health care and access to contraception and abortion around the world. Susie Buffett, 71, is its board chair and Peter Buffett, 66, is a board member. Susie Buffett also leads The Sherwood Foundation, a major supporter of early childhood development nationally that gives grants to organizations and projects within Omaha, Nebraska, the Buffetts' hometown. Peter Buffett's NoVo Foundation has been an important funder of organizations advocating for the autonomy of girls and women and against gender-based violence. In 2020, Peter and his wife, Jennifer, decided to reorient their focus, expanding their support for Native American communities and projects to build sustainable, local communities with a focus on agriculture and food access. The Howard G. Buffett Foundation has focused on conflict mitigation and agriculture around the world. Since 2022, it has donated some $800 million — more than most countries — to humanitarian initiatives in Ukraine during the country's war with Russia. These include supporting food distribution at schools, demining activities, and the rebuilding of a major publishing company and a key bridge transporting grain. In a relatively rare interview for a family that seldom makes time to speak with the media, Howard Buffett, 69, said he couldn't predict exactly how he and his siblings would give away their father's fortune. However, he said they would continue to take risks and find ways to make the biggest difference as their father recommended. "I can tell you, we'll sit down in a room when the time comes, and we'll get it figured out pretty quickly," he said, acknowledging that the directive to donate all the money within 10 years was a challenge. The siblings' different ways of thinking and approaches to giving are assets, he said. "What this is going to do is we're going to bring all of our collective experience together," he said. But don't expect to find the family name on a lot of buildings, which the siblings have largely avoid even as they've given away more than $15 billion of their father's money since 2006. Kathleen Enright, president and CEO of the Council on Foundations, said the Buffetts have effectively made philanthropy a family business, with the next generation now seasoned donors who have built enduring institutions in their foundations. "It is a big deal," she said, of the amount of money that the Buffetts are poised to give away, noting that because the fortune will likely continue to grow, they will have to give away highly visible sums to spend it down. The tight timeframe to give away his fortune after his death reflects one of Warren Buffett's longstanding conditions for receiving charitable funding. He has instructed the Gates Foundation and his family's foundations to grant out the full amount they received within a year. The next generation of Buffetts have run their foundations with tiny staffs — much like how Warren Buffett oversees his massive Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate with only about two dozen people at its headquarters in Omaha. Howard Buffett said his foundation employs just 22 staff members. It granted $458.1 million in 2023, according to tax documents. He acknowledged that his "lean" staff puts some limits on their capacity, but said the way they've scaled their work is through creating strong and enduring relationships with other organizations to help implement their ideas. In contrast, the Gates Foundation has one of the largest endowments at $75.2 billion, funded by donations from Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. It employs more than 2,000 people, many of them technical experts all over the world, and is known for making highly directed grants with rigorous reporting requirements. The foundation has said it will wind down its operations within 25 years after its founders' deaths. Howard Buffett said he likes a challenge and thinks that in general, wealthy people should give their money away within their lifetimes, rather than holding it in perpetual foundations. "Somebody is going to spend that money. Somebody is going to give that money away," he said. "So, I would rather do that with my brother and sister and do it together, as a partnership, than see it done any other way."

WASHINGTON — On Monday, after the U.S. State Department announced the release of David Lin, an American pastor, from nearly two decades of imprisonment in China, officials said more work remains to secure the freedom of other Americans held in China.  U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters that the U.S. government had been working to secure Lin's release for some time.  “When it comes to David Lin, we are glad to see he is released. We welcome it. We’ll continue to push the release of other Americans,” Miller said during a regular press briefing. Lin, 68, was detained in 2006 after entering China. He was later convicted of contract fraud and given a life sentence in 2009. After Chinese courts reduced his sentence, he was set to be released from Beijing in 2029. Bob Fu, a pastor and founder of ChinaAid, a nonprofit dedicated to religious freedom in China, called the original charges against Lin a “scam” and said they were facilitated by the Chinese government as a gambit to unjustly take hostages. The imprisonment and now release of Lin, Fu told VOA, is especially significant as China is increasingly cracking down on religious practices within the country, with human rights violations in Xinjiang and Tibet and growing governmental restrictions on Christian traditions.  Despite this, Fu said that the success of Lin’s release could be attributed to two factors: the souring of the global public opinion on China and the hard work of U.S. officials. “This shows that if our top political leaders really take this seriously and persistently, it will bear fruits for our citizens' freedom,” he said. According to the Dui Hua Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to freeing detainees through dialogue with China, over 200 American nationals in China under coercive measures, including wrongful detentions and exit bans. The State Department has listed two other detained individuals as priority cases: Businessman Kai Li, accused of espionage in 2016, and Mark Swidan, convicted of drug trafficking in 2019. “We’ll continue to push the release of other Americans,” Miller said. “It’s something that we have been working on for some time.” Miller declined to say if Lin's release had been the result of a swap, according to a report by Reuters. China's embassy in Washington declined to comment when asked if Beijing had received anything from the U.S. in return for Lin's release, according to Reuters. The embassy also told Reuters that Chinese authorities handle criminal suspects in accordance with the law and "treat them equally regardless of their nationality." Later this week, a U.S. congressional hearing is set to be held on Americans who have been arbitrarily imprisoned in China. Some material for this report came from Reuters.

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Northern Syria/Washington — A village in northwestern Syria has been under siege by a Turkish-backed group of armed militants following a women-led protest against ongoing abuses carried out by the Syrian faction.  The Kurdish village of Kakhira in Syria’s Afrin district came under siege Sunday after fighters affiliated with the Suleiman Shah Brigade cut off internet access and set up additional checkpoints in and around the community, Kurdish news network Rudaw reported on Monday. The village and other parts of Afrin came under the control of Turkish military and Turkish-backed Syrian groups in March 2018 following a major military offensive against Kurdish forces. Many armed factions operating in the area, including the Suleiman Shah Brigade, are extremist groups that have imposed stringent restrictions on the local Kurdish population. International rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have accused these groups of carrying out violations against civilian residents of Afrin. The recent protest in Kakhira was sparked by the announcement of a new set of taxation against olive farmers and the subsequent arrests of several residents who had opposed the new levy, according to local sources. “The demonstrators were met with harsh beatings and live bullets by the armed group, leaving at least six people wounded, including four women,” said Sozdar Rizgar, a former village resident who currently lives in a displacement camp elsewhere in northern Syria. She told VOA that the militiamen have restricted all access to and from the village. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, which has researchers throughout the war-torn country, put the number of those wounded at eight. Another source inside Afrin, who insisted on anonymity for fear of retribution, told VOA that fighters linked to the Suleiman Shah Brigade have in recent weeks seized several properties belonging to Kakhira villagers. “The most recent example was last week, when the fighters confiscated a civilian house whose owner later died of a heart attack,” the source said. Last year, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on the Suleiman Shah Brigade and another armed group called the Hamza Division for “serious human rights abuses against those residing in the Afrin region of northern Syria.” In a report released last week, the U.N. Syria Commission of Inquiry said armed groups in northwest Syria use brutal torture tactics in their detention centers that are like those of the Syrian government. Ahmed Qitme, a researcher at the Paris-based advocacy group Syrians for Truth and Justice, said such international designations and condemnations have not deterred armed groups in Afrin from carrying out these abuses. “They act with impunity because they feel that nobody could stop them as long as they have the backing of Turkey,” he told VOA. The Kurdish National Council in Syria, an opposition group based in northern Syria, has called on Turkish authorities to exert pressure on armed factions and put an end to rights violations in Afrin. The Turkish government has not publicly commented on the ongoing events in northwest Syria. Officials at Turkey's Foreign Ministry did not respond to VOA's requests for comment in time for publication.   The Syrian National Army — an umbrella group for all armed factions in northwest Syria, including Suleiman Shah Brigade — also did not respond to VOA's request for comment. This story originated in VOA’s Kurdish Service.

Nadia Mirza is a well-known journalist in Pakistan. But her high-profile status is no protection from online trolls who threaten her and target her appearance and competence. Analysts say the treatment of women in media is a global issue. For Tabinda Naeem, Elizabeth Cherneff has the story for VOA News.

seattle — Boeing plans to freeze hiring and reduce travel and is considering temporary layoffs to save cash during a factory worker strike that began last week, the company told employees Monday.  The company said the moves, which include reduced spending on suppliers, were necessary because "our business is in a difficult period."  Chief financial officer Brian West detailed 10 immediate cutbacks in a memo to employees. They include a freeze on hiring across all levels, a pause in pay increases for managers and executives who get promoted, and a cancellation of all travel that isn't critical.  "We are also considering the difficult step of temporary furloughs for many employees, managers and executives in the coming weeks," West said.  Boeing's business is in a difficult spot, he said, adding: "This strike jeopardizes our recovery in a significant way."  About 33,000 workers represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers began a strike early Friday. The walkout came after workers rejected an offer of a 25% increase in pay over four years. The union originally sought a pay hike of at least 40%.  Representatives of the company and the union are scheduled to meet Tuesday with federal mediators. The union has started to survey its members to learn what they want most in a new contract.  Striking workers are picketing at several locations around Washington state, Oregon and California.  Outside Boeing's huge factory in Everett, Washington, Nancie Browning, a materials-management specialist at Boeing for more than 17 years, said last week's offer was worse than the one that prompted a two-month strike in 2008. She said that without annual bonuses that workers have come to depend on, the proposed pay increase was more like 9%, not 25%.  "We just want a piece of the pie like everybody else," she said. "Why should we work all this overtime and bust our backs while these guys [Boeing executives] are sitting up in their suites just raking in the cash?"  The bonuses have emerged as a flash point for union members. Workers say they range from $3,000 to $5,000 a year.  Boeing says it is hard to calculate bonuses in a way that is fair to 33,000 people who perform different jobs. So instead, the company proposes to ditch the payouts and replace them with automatic contributions of $4,160 per year to each employee's 401(k) retirement account.  Workers are bitter that in contract extensions over the past 16 years, Boeing ended its traditional pension plan and lowered health care benefits.  "We want our pension back," said Jacob Bustad, a machinist with Boeing for 14 years who was also on the picket line in Everett. "We just keep losing and we never gain, while the people at the top just get more and more money. Boeing has done really good for me and my family, but these last years have been hard."  Boeing has lost more than $25 billion since the start of 2019 and burned through $4.3 billion in the second quarter of 2024 alone as it stood poised to post another money-losing year. The strike will delay deliveries of new planes, which are an important source of cash for the company.  Stephanie Pope, the head of Boeing's commercial airplanes division, cited the company's $60 billion in total debt in urging blue-collar workers to accept the contract offer last week. She called it the best offer Boeing had ever made — and it was endorsed by the union's local president and negotiators.  But workers rejected the recommendation of their own leaders, which had not happened since 1995.  Additional cost-cutting moves spelled out in the chief financial officer's memo included eliminating first- and business-class service for anyone on travel that is deemed critical and stopping spending on outside consultants.  West also said Boeing plans to make "significant reductions in supplier expenditures" and will stop most supplier purchase orders related to the 737, 767 and 777 airplane models.  After the strike started, Moody's put Boeing on review for a possible credit downgrade, and Fitch said a strike longer than two weeks would make a downgrade more likely. Both agencies rate Boeing debt one notch above noninvestment or junk status. 

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geneva — Seven candidates are competing for one of the biggest and best jobs in world sports that traditionally becomes available only every 12 years. The International Olympic Committee announced on Monday which of its members in a most exclusive and discreet club have entered the race to be its next president. The election by secret ballot is in March. The winner will replace Thomas Bach, a German lawyer who steps down in June upon reaching the maximum 12 years in office. The 10th IOC president could be its first female leader, or its first from Africa or Asia. Or even its first from Britain. They will take over a financially stable organization that demands deft skills in the challenging arenas of sports and real-world politics. Who are the candidates? - Prince Feisal al Hussein, an IOC member since 2010, on its executive board since 2019. Founder of the Generations for Peace sports charity. His older brother is King Abdullah II of Jordan. - Sebastian Coe, IOC member since 2020. President of World Athletics since 2015. Olympic champion in men's 1,500 meters in 1980 and 1984. Elected lawmaker in British Parliament from 1992 to 1997. Led the 2012 London Olympics organizing committee. - Kirsty Coventry, IOC member since 2013, on executive board for a second time since 2023. Olympic champion in women's 200-meter backstroke in 2004 and 2008. Appointed sports minister in Zimbabwe government since 2018. Chairs IOC panel overseeing the 2032 Brisbane Olympics. - Johan Eliasch, IOC member since August. President of International Ski and Snowboard Federation since 2021. Owner of Head sports equipment brand, CEO until 2021. Swedish-British citizen. - David Lappartient, IOC member since 2022. President of International Cycling Union since 2017. President of France's Olympic committee and leader of French Alps bid that will host 2030 Winter Games. Chair of IOC esports panel that steered the Esports Olympic Games to Saudi Arabia. - Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., IOC member since 2001, vice president since 2022, and member of the executive board from 2012 to 2020. Founder of a Spain-based investment bank. Created Samaranch Foundation to promote the Olympics in China in honor of his father, who was IOC president from 1980 to 2001. - Morinari Watanabe, IOC member since 2018. Japanese president of the International Gymnastics Federation since 2017. When is the election and who votes? The IOC election meeting is on March 18-21 at a resort hotel in Greece, near the site of Ancient Olympia. Candidates and their compatriots cannot vote, leaving about 95 eligible to take part in March. Among them, members of European and Asian royal families, including the Emir of Qatar; diplomats and lawmakers, including a former president of Croatia, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović; businesspeople, including Nita Ambani, whose husband is India's richest man; leaders of sports bodies; current and former Olympic athletes. What is the IOC president's job? It's an executive role running a not-for-profit organization that employs hundreds of staff at a modern lakeside headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. The IOC earns several billion dollars in revenue every four years from selling broadcasting and sponsor rights for the Summer Games and Winter Games. Most of the money is distributed to the Olympic family: organizers of upcoming Games, including youth editions, governing bodies of Olympic sports, more than 200 national Olympic bodies, scholarships for potential Olympic athletes and special projects. The job ideally calls for a deep knowledge of managing sports, understanding athletes' needs and political skills. How long can IOC presidents stay in the job? A maximum of 12 years, with a first term of eight years and the chance for one re-election for a further four. However, the IOC has an age limit of 70 and complex rules around membership status. It means some of the seven candidates could have to seek a special exemption while in office to complete a full eight-year mandate. What are the challenges and big decisions ahead? - Picking a host for the 2036 Summer Games, with India and Qatar as strong contenders. - Renewing the United States broadcast deal that has typically underwritten Olympic finances. Bach moved quickly in 2014 to renew NBC's deal through 2032. The next deal starts with the 2034 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. - Both decisions factor into wider questions in regard to drafting the global sports calendar. July-August has been the optimal Summer Games slot since 2004. But a 2036 Doha Olympics could not be held in those months, and where could Games be comfortably held after another decade of climate change? - When and how can Russia be reintegrated fully into international sports with no end to its invasion of Ukraine in sight? Coe's world track and field body currently excludes Russian athletes entirely.