By Simon Johnson and Johan Ahlander
STOCKHOLM, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Canadian poet and writer Anne Carson won the 2026 **** el Prize in Literature "for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature", the Swedish Academy said on Thursday.
"She was very taken by surprise," said Ingrid ‌Carlberg, permanent secretary of the academy, which awards the prize worth 12 million Swedish crowns ($1.2 million).
"We didn't have so much time to speak, and all she had time to tell ‌me was that she is for the moment in Iceland, where she's listening to the wind."
Carson's work often blends verse, prose, dialogue and translation in a genre-defying mix. Born in Toronto, the 76-year-old has also held Icelandic citizenship since 2022 and has spent considerable time on the Arctic island in recent years.

#swedish #academy #dialogue #simon

Michael Dell, philanthropist and founder of Dell Technologies, pushed back against critics who argue that allowing wealthy investors to donate individual company stocks to Trump Accounts could have a nefarious impact.
Under new rules that took effect last week, charities can put individual stocks into kids' accounts as a donation. Trump Accounts are tax-advantaged investment vehicles that can be used for education expenses, starting a business, or saving for retirement. They were authorized in last year's One Big Beautiful Tax bill. Previously, the money was required to be invested in low-cost index funds.
Read more: Trump Accounts expand to stock donations. What are the benefits and risks?
So far, ***** eX President Gwynne Shotwell is the only donor to announce a major stock contribution, pledging more than 2 million shares to benefit lower-income children ages 11 to 17 living in lower-income areas.
"It's kind of hard for me to believe that's a bad thing, right?" Dell said Wednesday in an interview with Yahoo Finance. "That these children are going to somehow be negatively influenced because they now have one share of ***** eX, but they didn't have before, right? The alternative is they didn't have it, right?"

#last #lower

Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic challenger Troy Jackson debated for the first time Tuesday in Maine, trading attacks over President Donald Trump, the cost of living and abortion in one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country.
Maine is central to Democrats’ path to the Senate majority as they try to capitalize on Trump’s unpopularity. Jackson tried to do just that Tuesday by tying Collins to Trump, name-checking him at least 20 times in one hour of debating on WGME-TV.
“It matters who you stand with,” Jackson said in his opening statement. “I don’t owe Donald Trump and the billionaires anything. I don’t fight for billionaires like she does.”
Collins, meanwhile, emphasized multiple instances when she opposed the Trump administration.
She also sought to localize the race and pitch her seniority — and her perch as chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee — as a boost to Maine. She touted $1.5 billion in federal funds that she has brought home to the state for 672 projects in the last five years, “from Madawaksa to Kittery, from Eastport to Rumford.”

#maine #tuesday #donald #susan

Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across France on Tuesday, as unions and teachers joined high school students who for days have been demanding better learning conditions in protests punctuated by violent confrontations.
Students have blocked the entrances to hundreds of high schools for 15- to 17-year-olds since late September, complaining of missing teachers, overloaded timetables, dilapidated classrooms and buildings that cannot cope with rising temperatures.
Unions, rights groups and the children have accused the authorities of using disproportionate force -- a police stun grenade tore the hand off one teenager on Monday and another youngster had his teeth knocked out last week after police fired a grenade launcher at his head.
"I'm afraid for my future," Selma, 15, told AFP without giving her surname, among the thousands marching in the country's second largest city of Marseille.
The unrest has erupted with just months to go before the 2027 election to choose a successor to centrist President Emmanuel Macron, with far-right veteran candidate Marine Le Pen riding high in the polls despite a graft conviction.

#students #teachers #tens

President Donald Trump used an anti-trans slur Monday to attack the Democratic nominee for the Senate in South Carolina as he urged voters to back Republican Sen. Darline Graham.
In a Truth Social post, Trump referred to Democratic candidate Annie Andrews three times as “trannie.” He said Andrews, who is not transgender, is “not for South Carolina.”
“And South Carolina must show, in the upcoming Election, that it is not for her,” Trump added.
Andrews responded by largely ignoring the insult, saying in a statement first shared with NBC News that she will “work with anyone to put South Carolina first.”
“As a mom and a pediatrician, I’m in this race to fight for my patients, my three kids, and South Carolina,” Andrews said, adding that “lowering costs and making life better for families across our state is going to take all of us working together.”

#Trump

When it comes to the battle for control of the U.S. Senate, Republicans are mostly playing defense. The lion's share of the races that will decide which party secures a majority in November are in red states — including Texas, Iowa and Ohio — where the GOP is hoping to hold on against ascendant Democratic challengers.
Minnesota is one of the few states in the country where the party is in a position to go on offense and potentially turn a blue seat red.
In pursuit of that goal, the GOP has put its hopes in Michele Tafoya, a former sports broadcaster and NFL sideline reporter turned politician who polls suggest has a real chance of winning in a state that has been dominated by Democrats in recent election cycles.
Tafoya is running for the seat currently held by Democrat Tina Smith, who is not pursuing re-election. Instead her opponent will be Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flannagan, a progressive who supports policies like Medicare for All and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Minnesota has been at the center of some of the biggest controversies of President Trump's second term, particularly his administration's sweeping immigration crackdown. Though a majority of Minnesotans disapprove of Trump's performance as president, Tafoya has steadily chipped away at Flanagan's lead in polls since the primary.

#tafoya

The OpenAI CEO sought to distinguish his policy stance from rival developer Anthropic.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman argued in an exclusive interview with Decoded by POLITICO that AI’s benefits justify accepting some risks. | Heather Diehl/Getty Images
10/05/2026 05:55 AM GMT+9
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said there remains a fundamental difference in worldview between his company and rival Anthropic on artificial intelligence regulation, arguing in an exclusive interview with Decoded by POLITICO that the technology’s benefits justify accepting some risks — and that AI should remain broadly accessible to the public.

#anthropic #decoded #benefits #justify

Iran's top diplomat insisted on Sunday that there would be no military solution to the United States' war against the Islamic republic, with talks on ending the conflict apparently at an impasse.
A campaign of heavy bombardment failed to bring a decisive close to the war launched by the US and Israel in late February, and Washington in recent weeks has dialled back military operations in favour of economic pressure.
The main point of contention remains Iran's attempt to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, a vital conduit for Gulf oil and gas where a UK maritime agency reported on Sunday another tanker struck by an unknown projectile.
"If our enemies again choose the path of military confrontation, our response will be stronger than before, and we will defend ourselves with even more force," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said at a gathering of foreign ambassadors.
"There is no military solution, nor any solution based on new sanctions," he continued, adding "only negotiations based on justice and fairness" could end the conflict.

#sunday #Israel

President Donald Trump on Saturday pressured Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas to support a bill to make daylight saving time permanent, urging Americans to call what appeared to be the personal cellphone number of Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The Sunshine Protection Act passed the House in July, but it faces roadblocks in the Senate where some Republicans are strongly opposed. Proponents, including the White House, argue that the change would provide more daylight during the times that Americans are most active. Detractors said permanent daylight saving time would lead to darker and potentially more hazardous winter mornings when children will be waiting for school buses and parents will be driving to work in darkness.
It was a remarkable escalation on Trump's part of a longstanding fixation shared by both men — with Trump supporting making daylight saving time permanent, and Cotton vociferously opposed — at a time just weeks before the midterms, when Republicans would prefer that the president focus on talking about affordability issues and the party's achievements. Cotton is also up for reelection this November, although that race is not expected to be competitive.
Daylight saving time is that period between spring and fall when clocks in most parts of the United States are set one hour ahead of standard time. Not all states observe it — and under the bill, states can opt out of the change if their respective legislatures act to do so before the bill's enactment.
"It's a lot of work for a lot of people, running around for two days, changing all the clocks in the house," Trump told reporters as his left the White House on Saturday for a rally in Vandalia, Ohio. "It discombobulates everybody," he said.

#House #Trump #saving #states

An Arizona road rage killer will be resentenced after an appeals court ruled that an AI-generated video message from his dead victim was improperly aired in court.
Gabriel Paul Horcasitas was found guilty by a jury of shooting and killing Christopher Pelkey, 37, during a confrontation at a red light in 2021. He was sentenced to 10 years behind bars.
But his legal team appealed, arguing that the trial judge should not have allowed an AI video, created by Pelkey's family, to be shown in court ahead of last year's sentencing.
The Arizona Court of Appeals agreed, ruling that Horcasitas, 55, must be resentenced because the AI clip "crossed that line".
"Rather than document an event or recording a particular moment, the AI video presents a depiction of the victim and his thoughts created from the imaginings of the victim's sister," the court of appeals wrote on Wednesday.

#arizona #horcasitas #resentenced #created

Trump also again urged supporters to imagine that he himself was on the ballot.
President Donald Trump warned Republicans that Texas and Michigan are among the states the party is “worried about” ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, while speaking to voters in Oklahoma on Thursday.
Fresh off an event in Texas, Trump told a crowd in the reliably Republican state that he was not concerned about Oklahoma but that Republicans needed to turn out voters in other states.
"I feel a little foolish, you know. I’m saying, 'go out and vote, go out and vote.' You’re gonna, they’re gonna win in the last half, but still go out and vote," Trump said. "But we’re not worried about them. We’re worried about Michigan. We’re worried about Texas. We’re worried about a few states."
Trump later said Republicans need to get the word out about the midterms, citing what he described as 35 to 40 races that the party is concerned about.

#republicans #texas

WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge in the nation's capital agreed on Thursday to permanently dismiss a criminal case charging a former Olympian with vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a move that could prevent federal prosecutors from reviving the case under political pressure from President Donald Trump.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman ordered the dismissal of David Hearn's case with "prejudice," which would block U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office from refiling the felony charge against him. The judge ruled nearly a month after hearing attorneys' arguments.
Hearn's lawyers say Trump administration officials have continued to falsely accuse the Maryland resident of vandalizing the reflecting pool despite Pirro's decision to drop the case on July 31. Trump responded by saying Pirro "choked" and "folded like an umbrella."
Edelman said the case presents "exceptional circumstances" that warrant dismissing the case permanently. He agreed with defense attorneys that the government "shot first and asked questions later" by charging Hearn in a "a lightning-fast indictment process."
"While the government wishes to hold open the possibility of the development of evidence that would support a future prosecution, its own representations make plain that such a possibility is theoretical at best, and more likely, is simply fanciful," the judge wrote.

#reflecting

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – Kristi Noem, the former governor of South Dakota and former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, has filed for divorce from her husband, Bryon Noem, according to court records.
Kristi Noem filed for divorce in Hamlin County, South Dakota, on April 6, but the documents were not posted to the online court service until Monday. The basis for the divorce is irreconcilable differences, documents show.
The couple has been married since May 23, 1992, according to the documents. Speculation about the Noem marriage has swirled around the couple for several months.
When contacted by Nexstar’s KELO on Tuesday, Bryon Noem said, “I can’t comment right now.”
Attempts to reach Kristi Noem, who now serves as the Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, were unsuccessful.

#noem #kelo

Ahead of the release of Zach Cregger's reboot today, there were already seven Resident Evil movies — six of them in a more action-oriented series starring Milla Jovovich, four of which were directed by her husband, Paul W.S. Anderson, plus an unrelated "reboot" in 2021 called Welcome to Raccoon City that went for more of a John Carpenter vibe and was an attempt to truly "adapt" the games. There's also a Netflix TV show version that ran for a single season in 2022. Countless other works in the horror genre have unofficially cribbed from the Resident Evil games over the years. It's an incredibly influential series.
And yet, Zach Cregger, hot off his Oscar-winning original horror film Weapons, is the first filmmaker to truly feel like he's adapting the experience of playing the games, arguably the scariest survival-horror ones ever made, rather than simply incorporating story and plot elements to explain the outbreak of infected people. In Cregger's hands, Resident Evil is pure crowd-pleasing popcorn cinema, best experienced in a packed movie theater with dozens of other people reacting loudly to the madness.
The premise couldn't be simpler — and the runtime a brisk 90ish minutes — as we follow a medical courier named Bryan (Austin Abrams, proving himself to be the Bruce Campbell for a new generation) who unwittingly finds himself fighting for survival as one fateful, horrifying night collapses around him in a swirl of chaos. Fans of the video games will recognize various easter eggs and nods to game mechanics, including the importance of conserving ammo and checking every last drawer for more of it.
But you don't need to be familiar with the games at all to enjoy the movie, which is an efficient horror set-piece machine that just keeps putting Abrams in increasingly concerning situations. I can't stress enough how much this is a one-man show anchored by Abrams, and he crushes it. He's in every scene, earning tons of laughs simply by reacting as a normal person would in this situation; he's a true audience-surrogate character, ushering us through the chaos. His comedic timing, paired with Cregger's ****** ured camerawork and editing, is a match made in genre-movie heaven.
I didn't expect it to be so heavily inspired by genre classics like The Thing and Evil Dead. In fact, it's a better Evil Dead movie than the last several movies with "Evil Dead" in the ****** le, nailing the horror-comedy tone that only Sam Raimi and a few others can pull off with aplomb. Cregger has a ton of fun with the various monstrous forms that the infected take here, from fusing multiple humans together to crafting his own horror take on a big, scary guy like Dune's Baron Harkonnen. Resident Evil movies have thus far treated the zombies as pretty traditional movie zombies; Cregger's version gets at the attempt to create the next stage of human evolution.

#resident #dead

Tegan Lecheler, founder and director of Mothers & Infant Cash Coalition, told Fox News Digital its support for cash ****** istance has been praised by the right.
Although guaranteed income programs have faced partisan pushback nationwide since gaining national traction in 2018, a growing faction of conservatives is finding common ground with direct cash initiatives centered on mothers and newborns.
According to Tegan Lecheler, national program director for the Mother and Infant Cash Coalition (MICC), the "common-sense" nature of early childhood cash transfers has prompted conservative lawmakers and advocates to reach out to her organization in support.
"I think we're in a really polarized time politically right now," Lecheler told Fox News Digital. "We are not a political organization and want to work to improve families' outcomes. We believe an effective strategy for doing that is to build a big tent – a wide tent with a lot of people underneath it."
EXCLUSIVE: PENCE GROUP KNOCKS VANCE PLAN TO PAY STAY-AT-HOME PARENTS UP TO $9K PER CHILD

#support

What is McConnell's stance on the filibuster?
What occurred during the farm bill vote?
Why did Republicans express concern about McConnell's health?
Full Summary
WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans' three-month headache about Mitch McConnell's health seems to have subsided – at least for now.

#full #summary #washington

A woman from a low-income family in China crossed over into Hong Kong to get to a concert she had spent months saving up for.
It was a trip that Beijing’s vast surveillance apparatus didn’t miss. Now her family face the prospect of losing their government benefits for splurging on “high-end consumption.”
The incident has sparked massive debate across Chinese social media over whether those receiving benefits are also entitled to small luxuries. It’s also a reminder of the staggering extent of the Chinese government’s surveillance system, one turbocharged by advances in AI and the embrace of digital payments.
The story first surfaced in a post on popular site Red Note in early September by a user who said they were the young woman’s cousin.
The woman, surnamed Huang, had “worked hard doing manual labor and saved up from the subsidies” to pay for the concert ticket and expenses of traveling to Hong Kong, around 235 miles (380 kilometers) from her home in Jiangxi province, the post said.

#hong #family #government #benefits

Senate Republicans aren’t happy with the lack of progress in the Iran war and what they say is the administration’s failure to identify clear objectives to end the conflict.
The war continues to be a major drag on GOP candidates as the failure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and new threats facing oil exports from Iranian-backed Houthi militias have sent the prices to nearly $106 a barrel, while raising the national gas price average to $4.37 a gallon.
But Republicans are particularly concerned about the war’s impact on the price of diesel, which has soared to a national average of $6.31 and hit several Senate battleground states — including Alaska, Nebraska, Iowa and Maine — especially hard.
Some Republicans are now floating the idea of embargoing diesel exports produced in the United States to lower prices.
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) expressed frustration over “the lack of just transparency and information from the administration on what’s happening, what we should expect, the costs,” joining other GOP senators who have expressed similar grievances.

#senate #prices #national

By Jacob Bogage
WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Postal Service has told confidants that he is deeply discouraged by his job and wants to resign, according to four people familiar with his thinking, as the agency comes under scrutiny over financial losses and President Donald Trump's ‌effort to tighten rules on mail-in voting.
Postmaster General David Steiner, who took office in July 2025 after the White House forced out his predecessor, has ‌expressed frustration over a lack of help from the White House and Congress in addressing the mail service's long-running financial woes, the people said.
At the same time, the Postal Service was thrust to the center of a debate over the federal government's role in voting after Trump directed it in March to serve as a clearinghouse for mail ballots. The Supreme Court on Monday blocked the agency from implementing key elements of the plan, dealing the White House a significant setback.
The pressures culminated in a contentious June Senate hearing, where lawmakers from both parties interrogated Steiner over poor delivery service, Trump's ballot restrictions and his compensation.

#white #mail

Newly declassified FBI documents are providing a clearer picture of the gunman who nearly ****** assinated President Donald Trump at a 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The documents reveal the shooter visited a gun range alone a day before the ****** assination attempt, shooting targets at a range of 100 yards. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports for TODAY.

#president #donald #Trump #pennsylvania

Taxes paid by pubs, hotels and cinemas in Wales will fall after the Welsh government announced a 30% cut in some business rates.
First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth said hospitality, accommodation and leisure venues would receive the permanent cut in rates from April 2027.
"It is about helping businesses like this to thrive, so our communities can thrive," ap Iorwerth said on a visit to a pub in Cardiff.
The cut, which will be funded by an increase in the rates paid by businesses with the highest-value properties, was welcomed by UK Hospitality Cymru. But the trade body warned businesses still faced "massive amounts of taxation coming from all areas".
Pubs will be among the hospitality businesses in Wales to receive a permanent tax cut from April [Getty Images]

#april

A man who stabbed his housemate to death over a £10 phone debt has been jailed for life.
Mark Jesse, 51, attacked Charlie Belsham at their address on Castle Road in Chatham on 1 November 2025, after Jesse became angered about a row between his victim and Ashley Robinson - a visitor to the property - regarding the sale of a mobile.
Kent Police said Jesse later went to Belsham's room, then reportedly emerged saying: "I've stabbed him in the ribs."
Having previously been found guilty of murder, Jesse was jailed for a minimum of 20 years at Maidstone Crown Court on Friday for "unjustifiable and rash" actions which "tragically cut short someone's life over a simple argument", according to police.
Police said Belsham, who was in his 40s, was found with a single fatal stab wound to the chest.

#belsham #stabbed #found #charlie

The desperate pleas for air cover from Yemeni generals started coming mid-morning on Thursday. An advance by the Iran-backed Houthis toward Yemen's strategic port city of Mocha was in full swing, and backup support from chief ally Saudi Arabia was nowhere in sight.
"The Houthis committed everything they had – waves upon waves of fighters … along with their available ballistic missiles and weapons," a senior Yemeni source attached to their military forces told CNN. The source said he contacted the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) and was ******* ured the US was "watching the situation closely and that Saudi air support was coming."
"But the air support never came," the source said. "And Mocha has now fallen."
Hours later, on Friday, the Houthis captured another key coastal ******* et, Perim Island, at the mouth of the Red Sea. The island splits the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in two, giving Tehran de facto control over another key shipping route.
The Houthis' rapid advance amounts to an extraordinary 36 hours in a conflict that had been largely on ice for years. But the kindling for renewed fighting had been laid for months amid the conflict between the United States and Iran, as Tehran seeks to use oil prices – and their impact on the global economy – as leverage.

#saudi

Annual U.S. cancer deaths tied to alcohol consumption more than doubled over a three-decade period, according to a recent study led by researchers at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
The findings, published in The Lancet Regional Health — Americas and presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago, revealed that alcohol-attributable cancer deaths jumped from 11,361 in 1990 to 23,126 in 2023.
Researchers ******* yzed more than 30 years of data from the Global Burden of Disease study to track the trends.
Beer, Wine Or Liquor? Massive Study Reveals Which Was Linked To Lower Death Risk
While alcohol has long been classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, surveys show that awareness of its link to cancer remains limited.

#study

Sen. John Fetterman has faced a tide of public criticism from fellow Democrats as he stakes out lonely ground as a critic of the far-left wing of his party — and another wave rolled in Wednesday after he made a surprise video appearance at the Republican midterm convention.
So far, however, his Senate colleagues haven't joined the pile-on.
Democratic senators are staying above the fray as they work to flip the majority in November amid constant speculation that the 57-year-old Pennsylvanian could trigger a nightmare scenario by leaving the party and caucusing with the GOP.
Some have worked to publicly bat down suggestions that Fetterman could abandon Democrats for the final two years of his term — something he has denied considering, even as he continues to raise eyebrows with his outspoken support of Israel, bashing of democratic socialists and close relationships with Senate Republicans.
"John Fetterman is a friend and an important member of our caucus. It's a waste of energy to get spun up about his voting record or place in our party — he votes with us 90 percent of the time," Democratic Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont, who is close with Fetterman, said in a statement to POLITICO before the convention appearance. "We need a big tent if we're going to win in November."

#party #democrats #appearance

BOSTON (AP) — The highest court in Massachusetts on Thursday issued a public reprimand against a district court judge who was accused of allowing an immigrant to escape U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
The case dates back to 2018 when Judge Shelley Joseph was accused of colluding with the immigrant's attorney and a court officer to allow him to escape out a back door of the courthouse after a hearing on charges that included drug possession.
The decision by the Supreme Judicial Court follows a recommendation for the reprimand by a hearing officer for the Commission on Judicial Conduct. It concluded that Joseph created the appearance of impropriety and failed to comply with the law.
"The respondent's statements during that conversation, including her proposal to detain (the immigrant) overnight in State custody, and her conduct in instructing the clerk to turn off the court room audio recording system, created an appearance of impropriety in violation of her duties," according to the Supreme Judicial Court ruling.
Joseph's attorney, Elizabeth Mulvey, argued at the commission hearing last year that the case had been distorted over time and that everyone had come to believe that her client "let an illegal immigrant out of the door" with half the public believing she should be jailed and the other half calling her a "folk hero."

#supreme #conduct #public

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman's support for Elon Musk's idea to put AI data centers in **** e and power them with solar panels did not occur in a vacuum. It comes not just against a background of rising, bipartisan opposition to ground-based data centers but also the recent announcement of an immense, **** eX Starbase to be built in Louisiana.
Many people oppose data centers out of the same kind of "NIMBY" emotion that fueled opposition to nuclear power plants and hydraulic fracking. They view them as big, noisy eyesores that will consume a lot of electricity and water to the detriment of local communities.
Opposition to ground-based AI data centers is not universal. Trade unions, which foresee lots of jobs being created in their construction and operation, are warmly supporting them. On the other hand, if Meta's experiments with using robots at data centers pans out, those jobs may be fewer than many expect.
The reason that many people are opposed to AI data centers in their communities may have less to do with objective facts than a Chinese disinformation campaign to turn them against such facilities. Engadget reports that X uncovered a Chinese bot farm with 200,000 accounts, 200 of which were used to manipulate the debate about data centers.
It should be noted that the Chinese are going pedal to the metal to create their own data centers. As a totalitarian country, China is not concerned with public opinion one way or the other. Beijing is determined to dominate AI according to its ideology and interests.

#centers #opposition #people #communities

SEOUL, Sept 7 (Reuters) - South Korea and the United States have agreed on the size of Seoul's planned ‌investment in a gas project in Texas at ‌around $22.3 billion, Korean media outlet Edaily reported on Monday, citing unidentified officials and politicians.
The project, which would be Seoul's first U.S. investment under last year's trade agreement, aims to build a 6.3-gigawatt gas plant in Encinal, Texas, to meet rising power demand for ‌AI data centres, according ⁠to the media reports.
The investment would be part of the trade deal signed by the two ⁠allies last year, under which Seoul pledged $350 billion worth of U.S. investments in exchange for favourable U.S. tariffs on imports of South Korean goods.
The reports did not say whether Seoul would shoulder ‌the whole cost of the Texas project.
Seoul is also considering other potential projects in the United States, including building a large-scale nuclear power plant or a liquefied natural gas project in Alaska, the reports said.

#states

(Fixes typo in byline)
By Yasmine Ghania and Hatem Maher
DUBAI, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Iran said it will announce a new restricted zone in the Gulf in the coming days, along with maps of a new shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz, as a weekend exchange of strikes on shipping sent oil prices higher on Monday.
The new restricted zone will ‌begin from where the U.S. blockade of Iran begins and extend into areas of the Gulf, Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said on Sunday in an ‌interview with state TV.
Few details were provided on the plan, but Rezaei said any ship entering the new zone would be added to a sanctions list.

#gulf #hatem

By Adnan Abidi
BETRAWATI, Nepal, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Believing she had perished in Nepal's deadly floods, the family of Chandika **** ari Shrestha started the ritual of mourning the elderly woman's death.
Ten ‌days later, rescuers found her alive inside her collapsed home in the devastated Betrawati village, ‌where she had survived in a narrow pocket of air amid water and mud.
"The four-storey house was swept (away) by the floods and the house was left in the middle of a quicksand. While walking around it, we heard a voice 'save me,'" police officer Mahendra Darnal said.
In a rescue operation on Saturday lasting 45 minutes, Darnal and his team found Shrestha in a confined **** e and sent her to an army hospital.

#floods #House #adnan