President-elect Donald Trump made a largely unexpected pick to run the world’s largest military, nominating Fox News television host and Army veteran Pete Hegseth to be defense secretary. VOA Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb has more.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. government agencies held a classified briefing for all senators on Wednesday on China’s alleged efforts known as Salt Typhoon to burrow deep into American telecommunications companies and steal data about U.S. calls. 

The FBI, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, Federal Communications Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, the National Security Council and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were among the participants in the closed-door briefing, officials told Reuters.  

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden told reporters after the briefing he was working to draft legislation on this issue, while Senator Bob Casey said he had “great concern” about the breach and added it may not be until next year before Congress can address the issue. 

Republican Senator Rick Scott expressed frustration with the briefing. 

“They have not told us why they didn’t catch it; what they could have done to prevent it,” he said. 

Chinese officials have previously described the allegations as disinformation and said Beijing “firmly opposes and combats cyberattacks and cyber theft in all forms.” 

Separately, a Senate Commerce subcommittee will hold a December 11 hearing on Salt Typhoon and how “security threats pose risks to our communications networks and review best practices.” The hearing will include Competitive Carriers Association CEO Tim Donovan. 

There is growing concern about the size and scope of the reported Chinese hacking into U.S. telecommunications networks and questions about when companies and the government can assure Americans over the matter. 

A U.S. official told reporters a large number of Americans’ metadata has been stolen in the sweeping cyber espionage campaign, adding that dozens of companies across the world had been hit by the hackers, including at least eight telecommunications and telecom infrastructure firms in the United States. 

“The extent and depth and breadth of Chinese hacking is absolutely mind-boggling — that we would permit as much as has happened in just the last year is terrifying,” Senator Richard Blumenthal said. 

Incoming FCC Chair Brendan Carr said Wednesday he will work “with national security agencies through the transition and next year in an effort to root out the threat and secure our networks.” 

U.S. officials have previously alleged the hackers targeted Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Lumen and others and stole phone audio intercepts along with a large tranche of call record data. 

T-Mobile said it does not believe hackers got access to its customer information. Lumen said there is no evidence customer data was accessed on its network. 

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg, AT&T CEO John Stankey, Lumen CEO Kate Johnson and T-Mobile took part in a November 22 White House meeting on the issue.  

Verizon said “several weeks ago, we became aware that a highly sophisticated, nation-state actor accessed several of the nation’s telecom company networks, including Verizon” adding the incident was focused on a very small subset of individuals in government and politics. 

AT&T said it is “working in close coordination with federal law enforcement, industry peers and cyber security experts to identify and remediate any impact on our networks.” 

CISA told reporters on Tuesday that it could not offer a timetable for ridding America’s telecom networks of all hackers. 

“It would be impossible for us to predict when we’ll have full eviction,” CISA official Jeff Greene said.
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SAN CARLOS, ARIZONA — After missing 40 days of school last year, Tommy Betom, 10, is on track this year for much better attendance. The importance of showing up has been stressed repeatedly at school — and at home. 

When he went to school last year, he often came home saying the teacher was picking on him and other kids were making fun of his clothes. But Tommy’s grandmother Ethel Marie Betom, who became one of his caregivers after his parents split, said she told him to choose his friends carefully and to behave in class. 

He needs to go to school for the sake of his future, she told him. 

“I didn’t have everything,” said Betom, an enrolled member of the San Carlos Apache tribe. Tommy attends school on the tribe’s reservation in southeastern Arizona. “You have everything. You have running water in the house, bathrooms and a running car.” 

A teacher and a truancy officer also reached out to Tommy’s family to address his attendance. He was one of many. Across the San Carlos Unified School District, 76% of students were chronically absent during the 2022-2023 school year, meaning they missed 10% or more of the school year. 

Years after COVID-19 disrupted American schools, nearly every state is still struggling with attendance. But attendance has been worse for Native American students — a disparity that existed before the pandemic and has since grown, according to data collected by The Associated Press. 

Out of 34 states with data available for the 2022-2023 school year, half had absenteeism rates for Native American and Alaska Native students that were at least 9 percentage points higher than the state average. 

Many schools serving Native students have been working to strengthen connections with families, who often struggle with higher rates of illness and poverty. Schools also must navigate distrust dating back to the U.S. government’s campaign to break up Native American culture, language and identity by forcing children into abusive boarding schools. 

History “may cause them to not see the investment in a public school education as a good use of their time,” said Dallas Pettigrew, director of Oklahoma University’s Center for Tribal Social Work and a member of the Cherokee Nation. 

On-site health, trauma care 

The San Carlos school system recently introduced care centers that partner with hospitals, dentists and food banks to provide services to students at multiple schools. The work is guided by cultural success coaches — school employees who help families address challenges that keep students from coming to school. 

Nearly 100% of students in the district are Native and more than half of families have incomes below the federal poverty level. Many students come from homes that deal with alcoholism and drug abuse, Superintendent Deborah Dennison said. 

Students miss school for reasons ranging from anxiety to unstable living conditions, said Jason Jones, a cultural success coach at San Carlos High School and an enrolled member of the San Carlos Apache tribe. Acknowledging their fears, grief and trauma helps him connect with students, he said. 

“You feel better, you do better,” Jones said. “That’s our job here in the care center is to help the students feel better.” 

In the 2023-2024 school year, the chronic absenteeism rate in the district fell from 76% to 59% — an improvement Dennison attributes partly to efforts to address their communities’ needs. 

“All these connections with the community and the tribe are what’s making a difference for us and making the school a system that fits them rather than something that has been forced upon them, like it has been for over a century of education in Indian Country,” said Dennison, a member of the Navajo Nation. 

In three states — Alaska, Nebraska and South Dakota — the majority of Native American and Alaska Native students were chronically absent. In some states, it has continued to worsen, even while improving slightly for other students, as in Arizona, where chronic absenteeism for Native students rose from 22% in 2018-2019 to 45% in 2022-2023. 

AP’s analysis does not include data on schools managed by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Education, which are not run by traditional districts. Less than 10% of Native American students attend BIE schools. 

Schools close on days of Native ceremonial gatherings 

At Algodones Elementary School, which serves a handful of Native American pueblos along New Mexico’s Upper Rio Grande, about two-thirds of students are chronically absent. 

The communities were hit hard by COVID-19, with devastating impacts on elders. Since schools reopened, students have been slow to return. Excused absences for sick days are still piling up — in some cases, Principal Rosangela Montoya suspects, students are stressed about falling behind academically. 

Staff and tribal liaisons have been analyzing every absence and emphasizing connections with parents. By 10 a.m., telephone calls go out to the homes of absent students. Next steps include in-person meetings with those students’ parents. 

“There’s illness. There’s trauma,” Montoya said. “A lot of our grandparents are the ones raising the children so that the parents can be working.” 

About 95% of Algodones’ students are Native American, and the school strives to affirm their identity. It doesn’t open on four days set aside for Native American ceremonial gatherings, and students are excused for absences on other cultural days as designated by the nearby pueblos. 

For Jennifer Tenorio, it makes a difference that the school offers classes in the family’s native language of Keres. She speaks Keres at home but says that’s not always enough to instill fluency. 

Tenorio said her two oldest children, now in their 20s, were discouraged from speaking Keres when enrolled in the federal Head Start educational program — a system that now promotes native language preservation — and they struggled academically. 

“It was sad to see with my own eyes,” said Tenorio, a single parent and administrative assistant who has used the school’s food bank. “In Algodones, I saw a big difference to where the teachers were really there for the students, and for all the kids, to help them learn.” 

Over a lunch of strawberry milk and enchiladas on a recent school day, her 8-year-old son Cameron Tenorio said he likes math and wants to be a policeman. 

“He’s inspired,” Tenorio said. “He tells me every day what he learns.” 

Home visits 

In Arizona, Rice Intermediate School Principal Nicholas Ferro said better communication with families, including Tommy Betom’s, has helped improve attendance. Since many parents are without working phones, he said, that often means home visits. 

Lillian Curtis said she has been impressed by Rice Intermediate’s student activities on family night. Her granddaughter, Brylee Lupe, 10, missed 10 days of school by mid-October last year but had missed just two days by the same time this year. 

“The kids always want to go — they are anxious to go to school now. And Brylee is much more excited,” said Curtis, who takes care of her grandchildren. 

Curtis said she tells Brylee that skipping school is not an option. 

The district has made gains because it is changing the perception of school and what it can offer, said Dennison, the superintendent. Its efforts have helped not just with attendance but also morale, especially at the high school, she said. 

“Education was a weapon for the U.S. government back in the past,” she said. “We work to decolonize our school system.”   

This story is part of a collaboration on chronic absenteeism among Native American students between The Associated Press and ICT, a news outlet that covers Indigenous issues.
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Bluesky, a decentralized social media platform, recently experienced significant growth, surpassing 22 million users. The surge is attributed to users migrating from X due to their dissatisfaction with changes under Elon Musk’s ownership. Andrei Dziarkach has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: David Gogokhia
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GARYVILLE, La. — Louisiana has long relied on a vast levee system to rein in the Mississippi River and protect surrounding communities from flooding. But cutting off the natural flow of the river with man-made barriers has been slowly killing one of the nation’s largest forested wetlands.

The 456 square kilometers of Maurepas Swamp just to the west of New Orleans holds Louisiana’s second-largest contiguous forest, a state wildlife refuge filled with water tupelo and bald cypress trees, their branches adorned by wisps of Spanish moss. A beloved recreation site, the swamp also houses bald eagles, ospreys, black bears and alligators and serves as a waystation for hundreds of different migratory birds.

Deprived of nutrients from the stanched Mississippi River, the swamp’s iconic trees are dying in stagnant water. Yet they’re now set to receive a life-saving boost.

State and federal authorities on Tuesday celebrated breaking ground on an ambitious conservation project intended to replenish the ailing trees by diverting water from the Mississippi back into the swamp.

“This is about reconnecting a natural system, actually fixing it to what it used to be,” said Brad Miller, who has shepherded the project for the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority since 2006.

Miller likened the $330 million river diversion to watering a garden: “The swamp needs river water to be a good swamp.”

The River Reintroduction into Maurepas Swamp will allow for a maximum of 57 cubic meters per second to flow out of a gated opening to be built in the levee system and routed along a 9 9-kilometer diversion channel. The project expects to revitalize around 182 square kilometers of swamp in an area where less than a third of the forest is considered healthy according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Besides injecting much-needed nutrients and oxygen into the swamp, river water will leave thin layers of sediment deposits that mitigate the effect of subsidence — a natural phenomenon on Louisiana’s fragile coast exacerbated by fossil fuel extraction — and climate change-induced sea level rise, said Nick Stevens, a researcher at Southeastern Louisiana University’s wetlands ecology and restoration lab. Healthier forests bolster the swamp with decomposing matter from branches and leaves, he added.

“All of that is completely hindered by not having the Mississippi River attached to it anymore,” Stevens said. “You’ve got all this land sinking as a result of just not getting nutrients.”

The swamp’s diminishing health has had ripple effects on biodiversity, says Erik Johnson, director of conservation science at Audubon Delta, an organization focused on bird ecology in the Mississippi River delta. Some migratory birds like the yellow-throated warbler, prothonotary warbler and the northern parula have had their populations plummet by nearly 50% in the past two decades, Johnson said.

These birds rely on caterpillars who are dependent on water tupelo and bald cypress foliage. When there are fewer healthy leaves for the caterpillars to gorge on, there’s less food for the birds.

“That’s driving a really rapid decline in these bird populations that depend on this one forest,” Johnson said. “The whole system has shifted.”

Scientists say they expect to start seeing an increase in canopy cover and new tree growth within a few years of the project’s anticipated completion in 2028.

Unlike the state’s controversial $3 billion river diversion project intended to combat coastal land loss, the Maurepas project has received widespread support from elected officials and local communities.

The Maurepas project is primarily funded by the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council, a multi-state and federal program managing settlement funds from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill that devastated the Gulf Coast.

The Maurepas project benefits from an innovative partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is building an adjacent 30-kilometer levee system to protect several southeast Louisiana parishes. The Corps will count 36 square kilometers of Maurepas Swamp restoration towards offsetting environmental damage caused by the new levee construction, meaning it can direct additional federal funds toward the diversion program.

“For every dollar the state can save here, they have more to invest” in other coastal restoration projects, said John Ettinger, director of policy and environmental compliance with Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council.

And conservationists say the Maurepas reintroduction project highlights the importance of coastal protection and wetlands restoration going hand in hand in a hurricane-prone region.

“You’re going to have a healthier ecosystem on the outside of that levee, which means you’re going to have a better buffer for storm surge and it’s going to allow the levees to be more effective,” said Amanda Moore, National Wildlife Federation’s Gulf Program senior director. “This is how we need to be thinking at large about what’s possible and how we can how we can do more effective conservation by working with nature.”
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The FBI has charged Nomma Zarubina, a Russian national living in New York, with two counts of making false statements to FBI agents regarding her ties to Russian intelligence services.

According to the FBI, Zarubina sought connections with U.S. journalists, military personnel, and think tank experts on behalf of Russian intelligence agencies. Court documents reveal that she initially lied to U.S. authorities about her ties to FSB but later admitted to cooperating with FSB agents.

See the full story here.
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WASHINGTON — The United States says it is closely monitoring the rapidly evolving situation in South Korea, where President Yoon Suk Yeol declared emergency martial law, citing the need to protect the nation from North Korea’s communist forces and to eliminate anti-state elements.

Taken by surprise, U.S. officials are actively engaging with the South Korean government to address the situation.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said on Tuesday that the U.S. is watching developments in South Korea “with grave concern” and expressed every hope and expectation that “any political disputes will be resolved peacefully and in accordance with the rule of law.”

President Joe Biden, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have been briefed on the developments and are being kept updated as the situation unfolds, according to Campbell.

He added that U.S. officials are actively engaging with their South Korean counterparts at all levels, in Washington and Seoul.

Late Tuesday, Yoon declared martial law during an unannounced late-night address, vowing to eliminate what he described as “anti-state” forces amid a power struggle with the opposition-controlled parliament, which he accuses of sympathizing with communist North Korea.

Within hours, the National Assembly voted to overturn the declaration. Speaker Woo Won Shik announced that lawmakers “will protect democracy with the people” and called for the immediate withdrawal of police and military forces from the Assembly grounds.

Some information in this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press.
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Bangkok — China announced Tuesday it is banning exports to the United States of gallium, germanium, antimony and other key high-tech materials with potential military applications, as a general principle, lashing back at U.S. limits on semiconductor-related exports.  

The Chinese Commerce Ministry announced the move after Washington expanded its list of Chinese companies subject to export controls on computer chip-making equipment, software and high-bandwidth memory chips. Such chips are needed for advanced applications.  

The ratcheting up of trade restrictions comes as President-elect Donald Trump has been threatening to sharply raise tariffs on imports from China and other countries, potentially intensifying simmering tensions over trade and technology.  

China’s Foreign Ministry also issued a vehement reproof.  

“China has lodged stern protests with the U.S. for its update of the semiconductor export control measures, sanctions against Chinese companies, and malicious suppression of China’s technological progress,” Lin Jian, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said in a routine briefing Tuesday.  

“I want to reiterate that China firmly opposes the U.S. overstretching the concept of national security, abuse of export control measures, and illegal unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction against Chinese companies,” Lin said.  

Minerals sourced in China used in computer chips, cars

China said in July 2023 it would require exporters to apply for licenses to send to the U.S. the strategically important materials such as gallium and germanium.  

In August, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said it would restrict exports of antimony, which is used in a wide range of products from batteries to weapons, and impose tighter controls on exports of graphite.  

Such minerals are considered critical for national security. China is a major producer of antimony, which is used in flame retardants, batteries, night-vision goggles and nuclear weapon production, according to a 2021 U.S. International Trade Commission report.  

The limits announced by Beijing on Tuesday also include exports of super-hard materials, such as diamonds and other synthetic materials that are not compressible and extremely dense. They are used in many industrial areas such as cutting tools, disc brakes and protective coatings. The licensing requirements that China announced in August also covered smelting and separation technology and machinery and other items related to such super-hard materials.  

China is the biggest global source of gallium and germanium, which are produced in small amounts but are needed to make computer chips for mobile phones, cars and other products, as well as solar panels and military technology.  

China says it’s protecting itself from US trade restrictions  

After the U.S. side announced it was adding 140 companies to a so-called “entity list” subject to strict export controls, China’s Commerce Ministry protested and said it would act to protect China’s “rights and interests.” Nearly all of the companies affected by Washington’s latest trade restrictions are based in China, though some are Chinese-owned businesses in Japan, South Korea and Singapore.  

Both governments say their respective export controls are needed for national security.  

China’s government has been frustrated by U.S. curbs on access to advanced processor chips and other technology on security grounds but had been cautious in retaliating, possibly to avoid disrupting China’s fledgling developers of chips, artificial intelligence and other technology.  

Various Chinese industry associations issued statements protesting the U.S. move to limit access to advanced chip-making technology.  

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said it opposed using national security as a grounds for export controls, “abuse of export control measures, and the malicious blockade and suppression of China.”

 “Such behavior seriously violates the laws of the market economy and the principle of fair competition, undermines the international economic and trade order, disrupts the stability of the global industrial chain, and ultimately harms the interests of all countries,” it said in a statement.  

The China Semiconductor Industry Association issued a similar statement, adding that such restrictions were disrupting supply chains and inflating costs for American companies.

 “U.S. chip products are no longer safe and reliable. China’s related industries will have to be cautious in purchasing U.S. chips,” it said.  

The U.S. gets about half its supply of both gallium and germanium metals directly from China, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. China exported about 23 metric tons (25 tons) of gallium in 2022 and produces about 600 metric tons (660 tons) of germanium per year. The U.S. has deposits of such minerals but has not been mining them, though some projects underway are exploring ways to tap those resources.

The export restrictions have had a mixed impact on prices for those critical minerals, with the price of antimony more than doubling this year to over $25,000 per ton. Prices for gallium, germanium and graphite also have mostly risen.
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A day after U.S. President Joe Biden announced the pardon of his son Hunter, the White House said the president is expected to issue more pardons and clemencies before he leaves office next month.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday that Biden is “thinking through that process very thoroughly.”

“I don’t have a timeline for you,” Jean-Pierre said.  “As you know, this usually happens towards the end.  And so, the president is going through that process, thinking through that process. I’m not going to get ahead of him. But you can expect more announcements to come.”

Hunter Biden was facing sentencing this month for gun and tax offenses and could have been imprisoned for years.

Biden had for months pledged not to pardon his 54-year-old son, a lawyer who for years was caught up in cocaine addiction as his life spiraled out of control. 

But the president said in a statement late Sunday that Hunter Biden’s prosecution was selective and politically motivated, aimed at undercutting his reelection campaign before he dropped out of the race in July for another four-year term. 

“The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election,” Biden said.  

Hunter Biden was convicted of three felonies in June for a 2018 gun purchase. Prosecutors said he falsely claimed on a federal form to not be illegally using or addicted to drugs.  

He also pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges in a case where he was accused of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes.  

He faced up to 17 years in federal prison in the tax case during a scheduled sentencing hearing in Los Angeles on December 16, although sentencing experts said that most likely as a first-time offender, he would have served no more than 36 months behind bars. 

Hunter Biden was facing a stiffer maximum sentence, 25 years, in the gun case but was more likely, based on precedent in similar cases, to be handed a much shorter sentence, perhaps up to 16 months during a hearing scheduled in Delaware for December 13. 

The president’s action Sunday pardoned Hunter Biden in both cases, as well as any offense he “has committed or may have committed or taken part” from January 1, 2014, to January 1, 2024.   

Hunter Biden said in a statement, “I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction – mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport.” 

The president said in his statement that he hopes “Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision.”   

“For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth. They’ll be fair-minded. Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further,” Biden said.  

President-elect Donald Trump criticized the move, calling it “such an abuse and miscarriage of justice” compared to hundreds of Trump supporters who have been imprisoned after being convicted for an array of offenses stemming from the rioting at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, while they tried to block Congress from certifying that Biden had defeated Trump’s reelection bid in the 2020 campaign. 

Trump has said he will consider pardoning many of the rioters when he takes power again on January 20 after winning the November presidential election. Some of the rioters have already served their sentences, but many are still in prison for years to come, while other trials have yet to occur. 

Trump, in the late stages of his first term in office, pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who was convicted on tax offenses and other charges. On Saturday, Trump said he intends to nominate the elder Kushner to be the U.S. ambassador to France. 

Trump also pardoned one of his former national security advisers, Michael Flynn, former campaign manager Paul Manafort, former chief strategist Steve Bannon and campaign aide George Papadopoulos, among others.  

Reactions to President Biden pardoning his son varied across the U.S. political landscape and not always predictably along political party lines as is usually the case when contentious decisions are announced. 

Jared Polis, the Democratic governor of Colorado, said that while he understood the “natural desire” of Biden wanting to help his son, he said, “I am disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country. This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation.” 

Greg Stanton, a Democratic congressman from Arizona, said, “I respect President Biden, but I think he got this one wrong. This wasn’t a politically motivated prosecution. Hunter committed felonies and was convicted by a jury of his peers.” 

Chuck Grassley, a Republican senator from Iowa, posted on X that he was “shocked” by the pardon because the elder Biden “said many, many times he wouldn’t & I believed him. Shame on me.”  

But Eric Holder, a Democrat who was the U.S. attorney general under former President Barack Obama, said the president’s son was only prosecuted because his last name was Biden. He said no U.S. attorney “would have charged this case given the underlying facts.” 

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters. 
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NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump will attend the reopening celebration for Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris this weekend, his first foreign trip since the election.

The cathedral is set to reopen Saturday after more than five years of reconstruction following a devastating fire in 2019. The invite-only ceremonies Saturday and Sunday will be high-security affairs, with about 50 heads of state and government expected to attend.

Trump announced his trip in a post on his Truth Social site Monday evening.

“It is an honor to announce that I will be traveling to Paris, France, on Saturday to attend the re-opening of the Magnificent and Historic Notre Dame Cathedral, which has been fully restored after a devastating fire five years ago,” he wrote. “President Emmanuel Macron has done a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so. It will be a very special day for all!”

Trump and Macron have had a complicated relationship.

Macron was the guest of honor at Trump’s first state dinner and Trump traveled to France several times. But the relationship soured as Trump’s term progressed and Macron criticized him for questioning the need for NATO and raising doubts about America’s commitment to the mutual-defense pact.

As he ran for a second term this year, Trump often mocked Macron on the campaign trail, imitating his accent and threatening to impose steep tariffs on wine and champagne bottles shipped to the U.S. if France tried to tax American companies.

After Trump won another term last month, Macron rushed to win favor with the president-elect. He was among the first global leaders to congratulate Trump — even before The Associated Press called the race in his favor — and beat UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to the punch in delivering a congratulatory phone call.

“Congratulations, President @realDonaldTrump,” Macron posted on X early on Nov 6. “Ready to work together as we did for four years. With your convictions and mine. With respect and ambition. For more peace and prosperity.”

The reopening of Notre Dame will be an elaborate, multiday celebration, beginning Saturday.

Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich will preside at a reopening service that afternoon, banging on Notre Dame’s shuttered doors with his staff to reopen them, according to the cathedral’s website.

The archbishop will also symbolically reawaken Notre Dame’s thunderous grand organ. The fire that melted the cathedral’s lead roofing coated the huge instrument in toxic dust. Its 8,000 pipes have been painstakingly disassembled, cleaned and returned.

Macron will attend and address the VIP guests.

After the service, opera singers Pretty Yende, from South Africa, and Julie Fuchs, from France; Chinese pianist Lang Lang; Paris-born cellist Yo-Yo Ma; Benin-born singer Angelique Kidjo; Lebanese singer Hiba Tawaji and others will perform at a concert Saturday evening, according to the show’s broadcaster, France Télévisions.

On Sunday morning, the Paris archbishop will lead an inaugural Mass and consecration of the new altar.

Nearly 170 bishops from France and other countries will join the celebration, along with priests from all 106 parishes in the Paris diocese. The Mass will be followed by a “fraternal buffet” for the needy.

Ile de la Cité, where the cathedral sits in the middle of the River Seine, will be blocked off to tourists for the events. A public viewing area with room for 40,000 spectators will be set up along the Seine’s southern bank.
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Consumers in the United States are scouring the internet for online deals as they look to take advantage of the post-Thanksgiving shopping marathon with Cyber Monday.

Even though e-commerce is now part of many people’s regular routines and the holiday shopping season, Cyber Monday — a term coined in 2005 by the National Retail Federation — has become the biggest online shopping day of the year, thanks to the deals and the hype the industry has created to fuel it.

Adobe Analytics, which tracks online shopping, expects consumers to spend a record $13.2 billion on Monday, 6.1% more than last year. That would make it the season’s — and the year’s — biggest shopping day for e-commerce.

Online spending is expected to peak between the hours of 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Monday, per Adobe — reaching an estimated $15.7 million spent every minute.

For several major retailers, a Cyber Monday sale is a dayslong event that began over the Thanksgiving weekend. Amazon kicked off its sales event right after midnight Pacific time Saturday. Target’s two days of discount offers on its website and app began overnight Sunday. Walmart rolled out its Cyber Monday offers for Walmart+ members Sunday afternoon and opened it up to all customers three hours later, at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

Consumer spending for Cyber Week — the five major shopping days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday — provides a strong indication of how much shoppers are willing to spend for the holidays.

Many U.S. consumers continue to experience sticker shock following the period of post-pandemic inflation, which left prices for many goods and services higher than they were three years ago. But retail sales nonetheless have remained strong, and the economy has kept growing at a healthy pace.

At the same time, credit card debt and delinquencies have been rising. More shoppers than ever are also on track to use “buy now, pay later” plans this holiday season, which allows them to delay payments on holiday decor, gifts and other items.

Many economists have also warned that President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to impose tariffs next year on foreign goods coming into the United States would lead to higher prices on everything from food to clothing to automobiles.

The National Retail Federation expects holiday shoppers to spend more this year both in stores and online than last year. But the pace of spending growth will slow slightly, the trade group said, growing 2.5% to 3.5% — compared to 3.9% in 2023.

A clear sense of consumer spending patterns during the holiday season won’t emerge until the government releases sales data for the period. But some preliminary data from other sources shows some encouraging signs for retailers.

Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, notes that discounts from Thanksgiving onward have “exceeded expectations” — and online spending throughout Cyber Week is on track to cross a record $40 billion mark combined.

U.S. shoppers spent $10.8 billion online on Black Friday, a 10.2% increase over last year, according to Adobe Analytics. That’s also more than double what consumers spent in 2017, when Black Friday pulled in roughly $5 billion in online sales. Consumers also spent a record $6.1 billion online on Thanksgiving Day, Adobe said.

Meanwhile, software company Salesforce, which also tracks online shopping, estimated that Black Friday online sales totaled $17.5 billion in the U.S. and $74.4 billion globally. And Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks in-person and online spending, reported that overall Black Friday sales excluding automotive rose 3.4% from a year ago. The retail sales indicator, which is not adjusted for inflation, showed online sales jumped by double-digits while in-store purchase rose a modest 0.7%.

E-commerce platform Shopify said its merchants raked in a record $5 billion in sales worldwide on Black Friday. At its peak, sales reached $4.6 million per minute — with top categories by volume including clothing, cosmetics and fitness products, according to the Canadian company.

Toys, electronics, home goods, self-care and beauty categories were among the key drivers of holiday spending on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, according to Adobe. “Hot products” included Lego sets, espresso machines, fitness trackers, makeup and skin care.

Other data showed physical stores saw fewer customers on Black Friday, underscoring how the huge crowds that were once synonymous with the day after Thanksgiving are now more than happy to shop from the comfort of their homes.

RetailNext, which measures real-time foot traffic in stores, reported that its early data showed store traffic on Friday was down 3.2% in the U.S. compared to last year, with the biggest dip happening in the Midwest.

While physical items like toys and electronics are always popular around the holidays, experts note that consumers have turned to more “experience-driven spending” in recent years, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic waned.

Adobe notes that shoppers are also buying higher-ticket items this season — with consumers opening their wallets to invest or “trade up” to more premium versions of products like electronics, appliances and sporting goods.
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ROSEMONT, Ill. — The Big Ten Conference announced it fined Michigan and Ohio State $100,000 each for violating the conference’s sportsmanship policy for the on-field melee at the end of the Wolverines’ win in Columbus on Saturday.

“Not only did the actions of both teams violate fundamental elements of sportsmanship such as respect and civility, the nature of the incident also jeopardized the safety of participants and bystanders,” the Big Ten said in a statement Sunday.

A fight broke out at midfield after the Wolverines’ 13-10 victory when Michigan players attempted to plant their flag on the OSU logo and were confronted by the Buckeyes.

Police used pepper spray to break up the players, who threw punches and shoves. One officer suffered a head injury when he was “knocked down and trampled while trying to separate players fighting,” a police union official said. The officer was taken to a hospital and has since been released.

After the Ohio State players confronted their rivals at midfield, defensive end Jack Sawyer grabbed the top of the Wolverines’ flag and ripped it off the pole as the brawl moved toward the Michigan bench.

“We respect the Big Ten Conference’s decision in this matter,” Ohio State said in a statement. “What happened post-game yesterday was unfortunate. Good sportsmanship is always important in everything we do at Ohio State. Moving forward, we will continue to examine and address our post-game protocols to ensure our student-athletes, coaches, visiting teams and staff safely exit the field.”

Ohio State police said in a statement that “multiple officers representing Ohio and Michigan deployed pepper spray.” Michigan players could be seen rubbing their eyes after exposure to the chemical irritant.

Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said after the game both teams could have handled the situation differently.

“So much emotions on both sides,” he said. “Rivalry games get heated, especially this one. It’s the biggest one in the country, so we got to handle that better.”

A Michigan athletic department spokesman said Sunday night the football program would have no comment beyond the team’s remarks Saturday.

The scuffle was one of many that broke out Saturday in rivalry games across the country.
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