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Armed guards, fences, boarded windows: Washington under heavy security
Washington (AFP) - Lawmakers walked among armed National Guard patrols in the halls of the US Capitol on Wednesday, as downtown Washington was fenced off and boarded up while Congress weighed a historic second impeachment of President Donald Trump. The city at the heart of American democracy has been a shadow of itself during pandemic shutdowns, but now it is also under heavy guard after Trump supporters' deadly attack on the Congress building. Dozens of National Guard members in body armor and camouflage could be seen asleep or resting on floors inside the Capitol, their black rifles leaning ...
AFP
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Almost 100,000 sexual abuse claims filed against US Boy Scouts
Washington (AFP) - Almost 100,000 victims of sexual abuse that took place in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) had come forward by Monday evening, the deadline to receive compensation from the organization, a lawyer for the victims told AFP. "As of today, 95,000 claims have been filed," attorney Paul Moses told AFP.The figure, revealing the scale of alleged abuse committed over decades by scout leaders, dwarfs the roughly 11,000 complaints believed to have been filed in recent years against the Catholic Church."It's by far the largest sexual abuse scandal in the US," Moses said, adding that sco...
AFP
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Almost 90,000 sexual abuse claims expected against US Boy Scouts
Washington (AFP) - Almost 90,000 victims of sexual abuse that took place in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) had come forward by Monday evening, the deadline to receive compensation from the organization, a lawyer for the victims told AFP. Attorney Michael Pfau said that there had been "88,000 claims filed to date. It will probably be 100,000 by day's end."The figure, revealing the scale of alleged abuse committed over decades by scout leaders, dwarfs the roughly 11,000 complaints believed to have been filed in recent years against the Catholic Church."We are devastated by the number of lives ...
AFP
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Zoom opens platform for paid events, following Facebook
New York (AFP) - The fast-growing online video app Zoom said Wednesday it would open its platform to paid events to help performers, teachers and others monetize their activity.The announcement of the new service called OnZoom comes after a similar initiative by Facebook to help people and groups unable to hold in-person events because of pandemic restrictions."The difficult period we are going through has taught us that it's possible to work remotely," said Zoom founder and chief executive Eric Yuan, who announced the new service at the company's Zoomtopia conference."The future of communicat...
AFP
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Playboy set to emerge anew as public company
New York (AFP) - Playboy will become a public company again under a deal announced Thursday with the group famous for the iconic nudes in its long-running lifestyle magazine.The deal will make Playboy Enterprises a publicly traded firm nine years after going private and a long period of turmoil for the group which from its founding in the 1950s broke taboos on sexual content.The plan calls for investors in a special purpose acquisition corporation to buy Playboy, which will be listed on the Nasdaq as PLBY, in a deal valued at $381 million -- including $142 million in debt.The deal led by the s...
AFP
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Major US firms roll out parade of layoffs over virus crisis
New York (AFP) - Hit hard by the coronavirus crisis and with new government stimulus funding in limbo, Disney, American Airlines and United Airlines announced 60,000 layoffs in just 24 hours -- leading a barrage of job losses a month before US elections.Insurance firm Allstate warned Wednesday that it would have to cut 3,800 jobs, and Marathon Petroleum is slashing more than 2,000 jobs -- 12 percent of its workforce.No sector is expected to be spared in the wave of layoffs and furloughs.Financial giant Goldman Sachs is cutting what it called a "modest" total of about 400 people, ending a morat...
AFP
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Is zero-emission truck maker Nikola the new Tesla, or just hot air?
New York (AFP) - With its electric and hydrogen-fueled trucks, the firm Nikola aims to revolutionize the future of the transportation sector. But with one investor claiming the group is running on empty, it has been having a rollercoaster ride on the stock exchange for the past week.Founded in 2015 by Trevor Milton, the company is mainly working on the development of trucks and pick-ups powered by electric batteries or hydrogen fuel cells, as well as building out hydrogen recharging stations. Although it has not yet built anything, it has forged strategic partnerships with several renowned i...
AFP