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Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Biden brings abortion rights to forefront of campaign
Taiwan Quakes: Aftershocks From Deadly Temblor Hit Island
Taiwan was shaken by a series of earthquakes on Monday and early Tuesday, the strongest with a magnitude of 6.3, partially toppling four buildings and keeping frightened residents up overnight. The tremors were aftershocks from the magnitude 7.4 quake that killed 17 people three weeks ago, the authorities said.
The tremors began just after 5 p.m. on Monday local time with a 5.5 magnitude quake in Hualien County on Taiwan’s east coast, according to Wu Chien-fu, the director of the Taiwanese Central Weather Administration’s Seismological Center. It was followed by a series of smaller tremors some minutes later in the same area.
Four buildings in Hualien County partially collapsed, some residents were evacuated and schools and offices in the county were ordered to close on Tuesday because of the threat of continuing tremors, according to local news outlets. No injuries or deaths had been reported by Tuesday morning.
Mr. Wu said at a news conference on Monday night that the quakes were aftershocks from the deadly April 3 quake, which was the strongest to hit Taiwan in 25 years. The epicenter of that earthquake was also in the Hualien County area.
By Tuesday morning, more than 180 shocks had been recorded in the previous 24 hours, according to the Central Weather Administration. The strongest were at 2:26 a.m., at magnitude 6, off Taiwan’s eastern coast, and 2:32 a.m., at magnitude 6.3, about 10 miles from Hualien County. The latest big tremor came at about 8 a.m. on Tuesday, according to the Central Weather Administration.
Chen Mei-hui, 58, a retired saleswoman who lives in Hualien, said the tremors had put her in a “very torturous mood.”
“I have been unable to sleep well since the earthquake this month,” she said on Tuesday morning. “We can only pray that our house is strong enough to get us through this difficult time.”
Chris Buckley contributed reporting.
Dangerous games: What’s next for Mike Brown, Vivek Ranadivé and the Sacramento Kings
NEW ORLEANS — Fresh off a redemptive demolition of the favored Golden State Warriors in a win-or-go-home game — stomping out a rival’s season as bluntly as had been done to them in the same building a year prior — the Sacramento Kings skipped into New Orleans last week with a level of growing confidence.
There was organizational belief they could and should beat the Pelicanswho were playing without the injured Zion Williamson. And, if initial mission was accomplished, they had enough talent to at least threaten the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the NBA playoffs. They had built a winning foundation (94-70) in coach Mike Brown’s two years, snapping in the process an embarrassing 16-year playoff drought that was the longest in North American professional sports at the time.
But those good vibes were extinguished quickly in New Orleans in another loser-go-home game. Kings controlling owner Vivek Ranadivé watched stoically from a courtside seat near the team’s bench as the season faded away. When it was over, he immediately walked into the tunnel and directly out of the arena through the loading dock, trudging into an offseason full of delicate decisions.
An hour later, as players and coaches came to grips with failing to reach the playoffs, one veteran was asked: Despite the tangible step back, is there at least a level of stability developing?
“Yeah,” the veteran said. “Because we’re not gonna let go of our front office and we’re not going to fire our coaching staff. In Sacramento, that’s a pretty big deal.”
Brown signed a four-year contract in the summer of 2022. But the fourth season, according to league sources, is a mutual option. So for practical purposes, next season is the final guaranteed year on his current deal.
That’s typically extension time in the coaching world. Brown desires a longer-term commitment at his market rate, per league sources, and brings a substantial body of work to the table. The Kings have grown in legitimacy since his arrival, both as a basketball and business entity. But a nuanced negotiation awaits.
Success has a price tag. Steve Kerr ($17.5 million annually), Gregg Popovich ($16 million) and Monty Williams ($13 million) have reset the coaching market since Brown signed his deal. He wouldn’t command Kerr or Popovich money, but it’s fair to assume, considering reputation and résumé, the offer would need to reach double-digit million annually.
Will Ranadivé reward Brown for the progress that has been made, focusing on the bigger picture in play here and the need for the kind of coaching stability that evaded the Kings for so long? Or might he hesitate to pay the increased market value, with their playoff absence this season giving him reason to pause?
Team sources say there’s been a wait-and-see approach from the ownership side to this point, with a feeling from those around the franchise that singular results — the huge win over the Warriors, the gut-punch loss to the Pelicans — could weigh heavily in future decision-making.
That’s a dangerous game to play. Ranadivé has not yet approached Brown with an extension offer. Both sides have known for months now that this discussion was nearing, but the outcome of it will set the tone for the next Kings season to come. Without a resolution, it has a chance to become a distraction.
The Kings went 15-8 against six of this season’s eight Western Conference playoff teams. They swept the Lakers in four meetings, finished 3-1 against the Denver Nuggets2-1 against the The Minnesota Timberwolves and 2-2 against the Oklahoma City Thunder, LA Clippers and Phoenix Suns. They have reason to believe they can compete with the top of the conference.
“I feel like we got better,” Domantas Sabonis said. “We just couldn’t finish some games. We dropped a couple, the West is tougher. We kind of put ourselves in a bad situation.”
Two problems surfaced: They couldn’t solve the Pelicans’ length and shooting. New Orleans went 6-0 against them, a tricky matchup that continually killed them at the wrong time. Then there’s the more debilitating issue. The Kings too often no-showed at the wrong time. Here’s a list of non-playoff teams that beat them: Charlotte Hornets, Detroit Pistons, Houston Rockets, Portland Trail Blazers and Washington Wizards. The Rockets doing so thrice. The Kings won only two fewer games than the season before (48 to 46), but still dropped from third to ninth in the crowded Western Conference standings, ultimately failing to check that playoff box.
“It’s easy to focus on the last two weeks,” Harrison Barnes said, alluding to a stretch in which the Kings went 3-6. “People say: ‘Oh, look at the dallas games, the back-to-back against the Pelicans and Suns.’”
Those losses came after key players Malik Monk and Kevin Huerter suffered season-ending injuries, bumping the Kings from the fifth or sixth seed (where they sat most of the season) to the ninth seed.
“But I think there’s a lot of games early in the season (to blame),” Barnes said. “We had games we didn’t show up, games where we didn’t have the right approach. Stack those up and you look at where things finish, if we would have had three or four more wins, five more wins, where would we be?”
Four more wins would’ve meant the fifth seed and Game 1 of a playoff series after a week of rest.
“To me, I think that’s where a step has to be taken,” Barnes said. “Look at the six teams that were in the playoffs (prior to the Play-In Tournament). Those teams did a good job of taking care of business against the teams that were below .500. That was the step that we did not take this year.”
Mike Brown and the Kings dropped from third to ninth in the West this season. (Sergio Estrada / USA Today)
No one should be surprised a step backward was not well received by Ranadivé — or any of the Kings, for that matter. He bought the team in 2013 and shuffled through six coaches before Brown, displaying an impulsive streak that was scrutinized all along the way. But the tide had turned some, his once-tattered reputation repaired in NBA circles. Last season’s playoff return was a blissful moment for him and his organization. To get here, he made a series of pivotal hires paramount to the recent success.
Monte McNair, the longtime Houston Rockets executive, was given his first general manager job in September 2020, replacing Vlade Divac after his tumultuous exit. McNair built a respectable front office and sparked the Kings’ resurgence. He drafted Tyrese Haliburton and Keegan Murrayflipped Haliburton for Sabonis and built around the De’Aaron FoxSoaps, Murray Trio.
Brown was hired in May 2022, plucked from a Warriors organization Ranadivé knows so well, having spent time there as a minority owner. Brown was the first unanimous NBA Coach of the Year in his first season with the franchise. When judged against the backdrop of the Kings’ woeful history, this front office-coach pairing has been an indisputable hit.
Yet, while team sources say Brown will definitely return for next season, the conversation about his value beyond the 2024-25 campaign runs the risk of being complicated and, potentially, uncomfortable if Ranadivé is unwilling to reinvest in this partnership.
It’s about both basketball and business. Not only has Brown led a winning program in his time in Sacramento, but also the team’s ability to remain relevant all season has been a game-changer on the financial front when it comes to keeping fans engaged.
That’s quite a change from the Kings’ days of old, when even their most ardent loyalists would lose interest once the team fell in the standings during the second half of the season. When it comes to the way the Kings are viewed within the league and agent world, the optics have improved greatly since Brown’s arrival. And while the Kings’ offense that was the league’s best two seasons ago regressed, Brown sees long-term promise in that the defense — which has long been an issue in Sacramento — improved from 24th in his first season to 14th in his second. As Brown’s side sees it, the list of reasons justifying a new market-value deal is long.
For Ranadivé, though, there’s surely frustration with the fact that the Dr. Jekyll-and-Mr. Hyde ways of this Kings team ultimately cost it an invitation to the postseason party. The meeting of the minds, if there’s going to be one, will need to be somewhere in between.
About an hour before the season-ender on Friday night in New Orleans, Ranadivé and his daughter, Anjali, posed for a picture on the court. They held up the back of the jean jacket that Anjali wore to the game and posted it on Instagram. It had Monk’s name and number spray-painted onto it.
Luka Dončić fell on Monk’s right knee on March 29. It sprained his MCL. Monk couldn’t make it back, stripping the Kings of their third-most productive player during the stretch run, generating an unanswerable “what if?” about the playoff ceiling of this team.
Now there’s another: What if Monk leaves this summer? In an interview with The Athletic in early March, Monk expressed a desire to return. Ownership, management, coaches and teammates all want him back.
But the Kings are in a financial crunch. CBA rules limit what they can give Monk. The projected max starting salary they can offer is $17.4 million, translating into a four-year, $77.9 million max long-term offer if extended out with maximum allowable raises.
There’s fear that a team with plenty of cap room, knowing these constraints, will swoop in with a similar long-term offer in the $100 million range that could be too lucrative for Monk to decline. He’s 26 and was nearly out of the league a couple years ago.
“Money talks,” Fox said. “You can’t play this game forever. We have such a short window to play basketball. Not everyone is going to be (LeBron James) or (Chris Paul), play 19, 20 years. You have to be able to get paid whenever you can. That’s what Vince Carter told me. He played 21, 22 years. I’d love to have (Malik) back, but I don’t know what the future holds.”
If Monk departs, the Kings can’t use all that money in free agency. They’ll be limited to the midlevel exception, projected at $12.9 million. There should be some rotation players available in that range, but the larger question is whether this team needs a more substantial piece, someone alongside Fox and Sabonis in the pecking order.
That would need to be done via trade. Because they missed the playoffs, the Kings retained their first-round pick in June’s draft. It’ll be either 13th or 14th. They still owe a top-12 protected first-round pick to Atlanta next season for the Huerter deal.
But the draft asset cupboard is still pretty loaded and they have plenty of mid-sized contracts to facilitate deals. Barnes makes $18 million next season. Huerter makes $16.8 million. Trey Lyles makes $8 million.
The Kings front office was protective of Murray in trade talks for Pascal I’m sorry and others near the trade deadline. It’s difficult to imagine that changing. But McNair, in an interview with The Athletic last summer, did indicate there’d be a time to press fast forward if the opportunity presents: “I think we’re in a spot where if there is an aggressive play out there, we’ll be one of the teams that can knock on that door.”
That’s the rub for these Kings. They’re stuck, for now, on the doorstep of something special.
They have foundational players such as Fox and Sabonis, whose presence raises their collective floor, but lack the sort of dynamic talent (even potentially at the top-end) and depth that would elevate them to true contention. They added Sasha Vezenkov and Chris Duarte last summer, but neither could crack the regular rotation.
They enter the summer with roster flexibility that could lead to real improvements, but more than enough uncertainty on that front to inspire some angst. Do they have the sort of organizational continuity that is so important in times like these? That part remains to be seen.
“There’s something to build off still,” Fox told reporters after the loss to the Pelicans. “The West isn’t getting any easier. It’s a disappointment not being in the playoffs. But it’s something to build off … Obviously there is a lot more stability than there has been in the past. But as a team we have to get better. You never know what can happen.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photo courtesy of Rocky Widnern, Kelsey Grant, Jed Jacobsohn /NBAE / Getty Images)
In San Francisco, a Home Renovation Can Become a Battle Royale
San Francisco’s top governing body spent time on Tuesday discussing what most residents surely would not consider a major priority for the city: whether Julie Park and Tom McDonald can raise the roof of their $2.1 million Victorian home by 7 feet and 3 inches.
The project complies with city codes, and the San Francisco Planning Commission gave unanimous approval months ago; in many cities that would have been good enough for the remodel to move forward. But in San Francisco, neighbors wield unusual power over next-door renovations and modest improvements and can appeal even the replacement of rotted front steps.
So on Tuesday, 11 members of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors served as judges in home construction, hearing from Ms. Park, a lawyer representing her neighbors and Planning Department experts.
The feud between wealthy neighbors is emblematic of the city’s languor when it comes to building anything. San Francisco has already drawn the ire of state housing officialswho have demanded that the city add 82,000 units in the next seven years, a goal that seems out of reach when many projects draw multiple rounds of challenges and years of delays.
“This isn’t to say that other California cities don’t have similar planning battles royale, but historically speaking, San Francisco has distinguished itself as the leader of the pack,” Dan Sider, chief of staff for the San Francisco Planning Department, said.
Ms. Park, a 40-year-old consultant for start-ups and small businesses, began her quest during the pandemic when she and Mr. McDonald, a 38-year-old climate researcher, bought their three-story home on Harper Street on the edge of Noe Valley in 2020. The neighborhood is popular with families and close to hilltop hikes that provide stunning views.
The four-bedroom, one-bath home was built in 1905 and still had its original foundation and old plumbing. The couple’s idea was to turn the ground level into a separate living unit for Mr. McDonald’s parents and the middle level into the family’s living space and kitchen.
The plan was to raise the upper level’s gabled roof to make way for two bathrooms and three bedrooms for the couple and hoped-for children.
As required by city law, Ms. Park and Mr. McDonald notified their neighbors in February 2023 and quickly learned that several of them worried that a taller building would affect their views of the city, cast shadows and allow the couple to peer into their homes.
In a city full of tech workers, the squabble led one neighbor to post signs with a QR code and the words “SAVE THE NEIGHBORHOOD” on utility poles. The QR code led to a website, whatupsf.comwhich encouraged people to sign a petition opposing the renovation, to attend Tuesday’s meeting and to fight the “monster home.”
“This whole thing has become a legal and financial nightmare,” Ms. Park said in an interview, adding that she had already spent $250,000 on architecture fees, the permit application and a lawyer.
Building new projects in San Francisco can be famously expensive and time-consuming. A new public toilet was slated to cost $1.7 million and take up to three years until a donor gave the city a free one. Constructing 1.7 miles for the new Central Subway line took 12 years and went hundreds of millions of dollars over budget.
The state and city have recently enacted laws to rubber-stamp some housing projects without the say of neighbors, but getting approval for changes to single-family homes can still be excruciating.
The Planning Department approved Ms. Park’s plans in October, but a month later four neighbors filed an appeal, which went to the Planning Commission for review. The commission unanimously approved the project, calling it “modest” and “lovely” and applauding it for adding another housing unit to the city.
The neighbors, however, said that the Planning Department erred by exempting the project from the California Environmental Quality Act and that the Harper home must account for various impacts.
The neighbors wanted the city’s top leaders to consider on Tuesday, among other things, that it should be preserved intact because of “the property’s history as a post-Civil War era home for working class San Franciscans.”
Ryan Patterson, an attorney for the neighbors fighting the project, declined to comment before the hearing and said that the neighbors should speak for themselves. Just one of them did.
David Garofoli owns a home next door. He doubled the size of the home, which was built in 1908, with a big remodel eight years ago but said that he did a better job of preserving the historic facade. Mr. Garofoli, a former developer who is now a business coach, said that he had since moved to Boston and was renting out his house.
But he remains invested in his old neighborhood. He paid for a light expert to study shadows that would be cast by Ms. Park’s raised roof; an architect to study whether her house was historic; and lawyers to work on the appeals.
“I care about the neighborhood, and I care about the historic nature of our homes,” he said.
Scott Wienera state senator from San Francisco, used to represent the neighborhood on the Board of Supervisors and said he had spent a lot of time mediating disputes among neighbors. He said that most California cities automatically approve projects that abide by city code.
“Good government means setting clear rules ahead of time, and if you comply with the rules, you get your permit,” Mr. Wiener said. “In San Francisco, we’ve chosen to make everything political instead of predictable. It creates a lot of bad blood.”
Aaron Peskinpresident of the Board of Supervisors and a candidate for mayor, largely supports the current system. He said that project reviews do not take up too much of the supervisors’ time and do recognize the due process rights of residents.
“There are people who file frivolous lawsuits, but they get their day in court, and the judge can tell them to pound sand,” he said. “This has not been a distraction.”
The neighborhood has had similar disputes before. Several years ago, behind the home owned by Ms. Park and Mr. McDonald, property owners wanted to tear down an 875-square-foot cottage from the early 1900s and turn it into a 5,100-square-foot home with an elevator, two outdoor kitchens and walls of glass. Neighbors intensely fought that project but lost.
The home was built and dubbed the “Some Looking Glass” before it was sold for $7.4 million in 2018.
Its current owners, who did not respond to a request for comment, were among those disputing Ms. Park’s and Mr. McDonald’s project.
On Tuesday, none of the neighbors personally addressed the board, letting a lawyer speak on their behalf instead. But he was unsuccessful. After one supervisor asked why they were discussing the matter at all, the board sided unanimously with the couple.
Israel Plans to Expand ‘Humanitarian Zone’ if It Invades Rafah
The Biden administration has repeatedly urged Israel to hold off on a major military assault on Rafah, including in a virtual meeting last week. During that meeting, U.S. officials evaluated options for the attack presented by Israel, but were not convinced that those plans met President Biden’s insistence that any operation be calibrated to minimize civilian casualties, according to a White House statement.
At a news conference in Washington on Tuesday, David Satterfield, the U.S. special envoy for humanitarian issues in Gaza, reiterated the Biden administration’s concerns about Israel’s plans to invade Rafah.
“We could not support a Rafah ground operation without an appropriate, credible, executable humanitarian plan,” Mr. Satterfield said, warning that an invasion would complicate aid deliveries and displace civilians who have already been uprooted multiple times.
“Where do they go?” he said. “How will their needs be met — shelter, medicine, water, sanitation?”
Al-Mawasi has previously been struck by the Israeli army, according to Palestinians in the area. Israel has accused militants of firing rockets from Al-Mawasi.
“There’s no safe place,” said Mr. al-Hassi, the medic sheltering in Al-Mawasi. “I’m someone with no hostility toward Israel or anyone in the world, but I can’t guarantee that the building, the land, or the car I’m next to won’t be targeted.”
In Rafah, Rajab al-Sindawi, a secondhand clothing salesman who had fled there from Gaza City in the north, said he was feeling anxious as he, his wife and their seven children squeezed into a small tent on a sidewalk.
“The people are all waiting to hear how they will move us,” he said.
Michael Levenson, Anushka Patil and Lauren Leatherby contributed reporting.
Julie Andrews on finding her voice again, as a children's book author
“Mary Poppins” was Julie Andrews’ first film. Her second film was “The Sound of Music.” If she had never made another movie, she might still be one of Hollywood’s most endearing and beloved stars … and generation after generation would still be singing along.
Though that was just the beginning of a career literally in its eighth decade, it’s a very good place to start. Because now, Julie Andrews is a writer of children’s books, with co-author, and daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton. Their latest is a story of the theater from the perspective of … a duck.
And it’s a true story! Hamilton said, “Some years ago, here at Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, we happened to notice that a pair of ducks were nesting in a planter in our courtyard out front.”
“And of course, our ducks in the book are theatrical ducks, very much so,” said Andrews. “They hear music.” And Mr. Puddle Duck sneaks into the theater…
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“Waiting in the Wings” is the 35th book by this prolific partnership, a collaboration that has given Andrews a new voice. Thirty years ago, a surgical procedure went horribly wrong, destroyed her famous soprano, and took her identity. “One day I was bemoaning my fate and missing very much the fact that I couldn’t sing, because the surgery went awry and it took away my ability to do what I love to do,” Andrews said. “And so, I was bemoaning my fate to Emma, and she said, ‘Oh, Mum, you’ve just found another way of sharing your voice.’ And I tell you, it hit me so hard what she said. And I’ve never really bemoaned it since.”
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Sounding a lot like a younger Julie Andrews, who as Maria said, “When the Lord closes a door, somewhere he opens a window.”
And there are some other intriguing parallels: “Both Maria and Mary Poppins must win over skeptical children,” said Pauley. “They are all about fun, but not all about fun. They are sly teachers. They are optimists. But they recognize that children have real problems.”
“We don’t talk down to kids,” said Andrews. “We try to bring them up so that you don’t condescend in any way.”
She’s loved books since she was a child. Born in 1935, her childhood memories include air raid sirens and running for cover during the Blitz, the German bombing of London in World War II. Her parents had already split up. It was her stepfather who discovered her voice – a nine-year-old soprano with an astonishing four-octave range. “Little Julie” became part of her parents’ musical act on the vaudeville circuit.
Before long, she was supporting the family, paying the family mortgage while still a teenager. “Well, we needed cash dreadfully,” Andrews said. “So eventually, when I was about 15, I went out on my own all around England, ’round and around and around.”
“But with the responsibility that your family needed a roof over their head and it was your job to do it?” asked Pauley.
“Well, I was part of the family trying to do it,” she replied. “But eventually, it was just me, because my stepfather was an alcoholic, sadly.”
But she said at that young age she was not, despite her training, reaching for the stars. “No, in fact, doubting that I ever would,” Andrews said. “I mean, I was doing it because it helped and I had to. In my teens, I would think, ‘What is all this for? Where is it going to lead?’ And then, suddenly, the world broke open.”
At 19, she was cast as the lead in a Broadway show, Sandy Wilson’s “The Boy Friend.” She was a 10-year veteran of the stage and a trained vocalist, but she was not quite ready. “I didn’t have acting lessons or anything like that,” she said. “I picked it up and learned, and people are very kind. You know, they don’t hurt puppies, actually, if you know what I’m saying! And I was a puppy, and I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. But I learned and was grateful for all of the teaching that I got.”
Still a newcomer, at 20 she created the role of Eliza Doolittle opposite veteran Rex Harrison in Lerner & Loewe’s 1956 smash hit, “My Fair Lady.” The following year, she starred in a CBS production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Cinderella” on television. One hundred million Americans saw Andrews for the first time.
In 1960 she was Guenevere to Richard Burton’s King Arthur in “Camelot.” But when Walt Disney was in the audience one night, he saw his Mary Poppins. It was an Academy Award-winning performance in her very first motion picture.
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Andrews still radiates grace, and gratitude, but in the very British tradition of “getting on with things.” “I just feel most of my life that I’ve been so very, very fortunate to have the identity of a singing voice, to have the opportunities to learn about how to be on stage or film or whatever,” she said.
Hamilton added, “You were very fortunate, and you were also very unfortunate in some ways – growing up in the war with alcoholic parents and being put to work at a very young age and being, essentially, robbed of a childhood.”
“Feeling needed and vital and valuable, too, yeah,” said Andrews.
Hamilton noted that her mother’s mantra has always been, Are we lucky or what? “I think whether or not it’s true, it is the thing that got you through,” Hamilton said.
Pauley said, “When Maria in ‘The Sound of Music,’ as she’s falling in love and he’s in love, she sings the song that includes a line, ‘Somewhere in my youth and childhood, I must have done something good.'”
“Well, somebody must have, ’cause I got so damn fortunate,” Andrews laughed. “Are we lucky …?”
“… or what?” laughed Hamilton.
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Story produced by Kay Lim. Editor: Remington Korper.
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More Amazon shoppers are scamming sellers with fraudulent returns
Amazon makes it so easy for consumers to return products that some shoppers are taking advantage of the policy and scamming sellers.
Nicole Barton, a small business owner who used to sell clothing and accessories on Amazon described a customer returning a pair of flip-flops on an order for Nike cleats. Another shopper swapped a Coach wallet for an imitation accessory, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report.
“Amazon sellers get all kinds of junk returned back to them,” Wall Street Journal reporter Sebastian Herrera, the author of the report, told CBS News.
He said another business owner that sells households items received cable boxes and dirty soap bars back from buyers making phony returns. “It’s really anything you can imagine. People ship all kinds of junk back and they do it every day.”
Sellers who get bogus returns lack much in the way of recourse. They can file what’s called a return theft claim, but that doesn’t guarantee they’ll be made whole.
For its part, Amazon said it has “no tolerance for fraudulent returns,” a company spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal.
The problem is a “major issue for our industry,” according to the National Retail Federation, which reports that almost 14% of returns in 2023 amounted to fraud. Such returns led to $101 billion in losses for retailers, according to the federation.
“Sellers don’t have a lot of ways to combat this,” Herrera said, noting that Amazon’s policies tend to favor buyers. “A big part of this issue is Amazon has really set up its system to please customers, and a lot of that has to do with easy returns,” he said.
Sometimes, when Amazon decides the cost of processing a return is too high, the retail giant even gives customers refunds on low-cost items they don’t want while still allowing them to keep the products.
It’s but one challenge merchants on the platform face, and a reason why the Federal Trade Commission is suing the online retailer.
“A lot of sellers are not happy with Amazon because they feel squeezed by the company and not very supported,” Herrera told CBS News. “And return theft is just one example that they list [as] an area where they don’t have a lot of power over Amazon.”
2 more endangered ferrets cloned from animal frozen in the 1980s: "Science takes time"
Two more black-footed ferrets have been cloned from the genes used for the first clone of an endangered species in the U.S., bringing to three the number of slinky predators genetically identical to one of the last such animals found in the wild, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday.
Efforts to breed the first clone, a female named Elizabeth Ann born in 2021, have failed, but the recent births of two more cloned females, named Noreen and Antonia, in combination with a captive breeding program launched in the 1980s, are boosting hopes of diversifying the endangered species. Genetic diversity can improve a species’ ability to adapt and survive despite disease outbreaks and changing environmental conditions.
Kika Tuff / AP
“More diversity is better. Then, you’re more prepared for things like change, climate and otherwise,” Dr. Della Garelle, a FWS veterinarian who works with the ferrets, told CBS “Sunday Mornings” in 2023.
Energetic and curious, black-footed ferrets are a nocturnal type of weasel with dark eye markings resembling a robber’s mask. Their prey is prairie dogs, and the ferrets hunt the rodents in often vast burrow colonies on the plains.
Black-footed ferrets are now a conservation success story – after being all but wiped out in the wild, thousands of them have been bred in captivity and reintroduced at dozens of sites in the western U.S., Canada and Mexico since the 1990s.
Because they feed exclusively on prairie dogs, they have been victims of farmer and rancher efforts to poison and shoot the land-churning rodents – so much so that they were thought to be extinct until a ranch dog named Shep brought a dead one home in western Wyoming in 1981. Conservationists then managed to capture seven more and establish a breeding program.
But their gene pool is small – all known black-footed ferrets today are descendants of those seven animals – so diversifying the species is critically important.
Noreen and Antonia, like Elizabeth Ann, are genetically identical to Willa, one of the original seven. Willa’s remains — frozen back in the 1980s and kept at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s Frozen Zoo — could help conservation efforts because her genes contain roughly three times more unique variations than are currently found among black-footed ferrets, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
There are more than 10,000 samples at the Frozen Zoo, everything from skin to feathers, CBS News’ Jonathan Vigliotti reported last year.
“When I was freezing cells from the northern white rhino, there were 50 living. And then now, there’s two left,” Curator Marlys Houck told Vigliotti.
Barbara Durrant, the director of reproductive sciences at the Frozen Zoo, said their bank of cells could help save an estimated one million species at risk of extinction, mostly because of humans.
And in some cases, a species’ depleted population might only be corrected by science. Durrant said, “If we disappeared, a lot of things would grow back. But some populations are so small, or don’t even exist except here, that they would not be able to regenerate without us.”
Elizabeth Ann still lives at the National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center in Fort Collins, Colorado, but she’s been unable to breed, due to a reproductive organ issue that isn’t a result of being cloned, the Fish and Wildlife Service said in a statement.
Biologists plan to try to breed Noreen and Antonia after they reach maturity later this year.
The ferrets were born at the ferret conservation center last May. The Fish and Wildlife Service waited almost a year to announce the births amid ongoing scientific work, other black-footed ferret breeding efforts and the agency’s other priorities, Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Joe Szuszwalak said by email.
“Science takes time and does not happen instantaneously,” Szuszwalak wrote.
Cloning makes a new plant or animal by copying the genes of an existing animal. To clone these three ferrets, the Fish and Wildlife Service worked with zoo and conservation organizations and ViaGen Pets & Equine, a Texas business that clones horses for $85,000 and pet dogs for $50,000.
The company also has cloned a Przewalski’s wild horse, a species from Mongolia.
Israel lashes out as U.S. expected to cut aid to IDF battalion over alleged human rights violations
Tel Aviv — Israeli leaders have lashed out at the prospect that the Biden administration may cut off aid to one of the Jewish state’s army battalions over accusations that it’s committed human rights abuses in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. According to a report by Axios, sanctions against the Israeli army’s ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda battalion could be announced in the coming days.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested a decision had been made on Friday when he was asked about internal investigations under a U.S. law that prohibits military aid being sent to foreign forces found to be violating human rights.
Asked about the U.S. probe, Blinken said Friday that it would be “fair to say that you’ll see results very soon. I’ve made determinations; you can expect to see them in the days ahead.”
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The government has been investigating the IDF unit since 2022, a U.S. official told CBS News. The battalion came under heavy criticism after a 78-year-old Palestinian-American man was found dead in January of that year after being detained by IDF soldiers at a checkpoint in the West Bank.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reacted angrily to the possibility of his military being sanctioned over the more than two-year-old accusations as it continues its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“If anyone thinks they can impose sanctions on a unit of the IDF, I will fight it with all my strength,” said the Israeli leader.
In a separate statement, Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant lauded the Netzah Yehuda battalion, heaping praise on it for fighting Hamas’ ally Hezbollah along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, and “most recently, they are operating to dismantle Hamas brigades in Gaza.”
“The battalion’s activities are carried out in accordance with the values of the IDF and in accordance with international law,” Gallant said, insisting that “any event that deviates from the aforementioned standards is addressed accordingly” by the IDF and Israel’s justice system.
“Any attempt to criticize an entire unit casts a heavy shadow on the actions of the IDF, which operates to protect the citizens of Israel. Damage to one battalion, affects the entire defense establishment — this is not the right path for partners and friends,” he said. “I call on the U.S. Administration to withdraw its intention to impose sanctions on the Netzah Yehuda battalion.”
A U.S. official pointed out that the U.S. is not and has not been considering sanctioning units in the IDF clarifying that “without confirming what may be under consideration, under the Leahy Act, certain units would be ineligible for American security assistance until the violations are remedied.”
The suggestion that the U.S. could cut off aid from a military unit of its long-time ally has turned the spotlight on the IDF as Netanyahu and his military continue dealing with a domestic backlash for failing to thwart Hamas’ bloody Oct. 7 terror attack, which sparked the war in Gaza.
In the first top-level fallout from that failure, the IDF announced that the head of Israel’s military intelligence agency, Major General Aharon Haliva, would be resigning as soon a successor was appointed.
Haliva said last year, not long after Oct. 7, that he accepted responsibility for the intelligence failures that allowed Hamas to launch its unprecedented attack on Israel. That assault saw Hamas kill about 1,200 people and take more than 200 others hostage.
Israel’s war of retaliation against Hamas, with which Netanyahu has vowed to destroy the Palestinian group, has killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. The ministry’s tally does not distinguish between combatant and civilian casualties, but a majority of those killed have been women and children, according to the United Nations.
WAHAJ BANI MOUFLEH/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
The IDF released video that it said was of a counter-terrorism operation in the West Bank city of Tulkarm over the weekend. The IDF said 14 militants were killed, but residents, just like Palestinians in Gaza, say they have borne the brunt of Israel’s retaliation.
When the IDF forces pulled out of Tulkarm, they left massive destruction in their wake, and residents told CBS News they had seen nothing like it before in the occupied Palestinian territory, which is considerably larger than Gaza.
During the mission, Israeli bulldozers smashed through homes and shops, tore up roads and severed pumps and power lines — cutting off electricity and water supplies.
“The attack was wild,” said resident Salah Yousif. “They came from four different sides.”
Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu/Getty
In Gaza, meanwhile, the war grinds on toward the seven-month mark, with officials in the Hamas-run enclave saying nearly 15,000 children have been killed. That includes members of a family killed in a strike over the weekend on the southern city of Rafah. Gazan officials said 16 people were killed in that strike, most of them children.
The U.S., along with other Israeli allies, has warned Netanyahu against carrying through with his plan to launch a major military ground operation in Rafah, fearing it could lead to huge civilian casualties in the city, where an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians have sought refuge. It is the only major city in Gaza that IDF forces have yet to invade since Oct. 7, but Netanyahu has vowed to order the incursion as he says there are still a couple Hamas combat units hiding out there.
Tucker Reals and Sara Cook contributed to this report.