Business

Meg Whitman strode to the podium, cloaked in righteous indignation. Her husband stood silently by her side.

Just one day earlier, her former housekeeper had revealed that Whitman — the Republican candidate for governor with the tough talk on immigration — had employed an illegal worker for nine years.

Although she said she fired Nicandra Diaz Santillan after she heard about her housekeeper’s status, Whitman was in a no-win situation. Conservatives wondered why Whitman hadn’t turned “Nicky” over to authorities. Liberals bristled that the candidate hadn’t helped this “member of our extended family” find an attorney.

After a 45-minute barrage of questions, the always-on-message candidate finally delivered her main talking points: “We have to secure the borders. We have to hold employers accountable. We’ve got to eliminate sanctuary cities. And we’ve got to get a temporary guestworker program so people like Nicky can work here legally.”

The dueling news conferences that week — Whitman vs. Diaz Santillan and her attorney, Gloria Allred —were remarkable for more than their political repercussions. Salted between housekeeper tears and candidate bluster were as many details as had ever been known about the closely guarded private life of the billionaire who aspires to be governor.

Whitman has spent a lifetime in business, shepherding, protecting and selling some of America’s most valuable brands: Ivory soap, Keds, Mr. Potato Head, EBay. For the last 19 months, she has burnished her own brand — using more than $141 million of her personal fortune in the process.

Her money has made Whitman a ubiquitous presence in California living rooms, her aristocratic tones wafting out of television sets in an unprecedented barrage of ads. It has allowed her to largely avoid the spontaneity that gets novice politicians into trouble. Campaign stops tend to be by invitation only, or photo ops, like her recent stint as NASCAR grand marshal: “Gentlemen, start your engines!”

The former EBay chief is running on resume, not biography, to an extent rarely seen in modern politics. At a time when candidates’ extended families gambol on stage, and cameras are invited to watch them ski, fish and barbecue, Whitman’s is still largely unknown.

The candidate is married to Dr. Griffith Rutherford Harsh IV; his silent cameo in Santa Monica was a rare appearance on his wife’s behalf. The Stanford University neurosurgeon has given just one interview in their 30-year marriage. Whitman’s sister and brother have neither spoken nor appeared for her. Ditto, her two grown sons. Despite repeated requests, the campaign did not make Whitman available for an interview.

As a result Californians have learned more about Whitman from campaign crises and court cases than they have from the candidate’s own telling: For most of her adult life, she did not vote. She has a temper that can flare under pressure. Her primary residence and household staff are modest by billionaires’ standards: 3,700 square feet in tony Atherton for the first, a part-time housekeeper, landscape and pool service for the second.

Whitman and her campaign staff “refuse to relinquish any kind of control over the candidate, her image and her message,” said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a USC political analyst. “They can afford to; they have all the money in the Western world.… When her people don’t have control, there is danger there.”

It’s not as if Margaret Cushing Whitman’s 54 years haven’t had their share of personal drama. But there are stories she tells on the campaign trail — and ones she doesn’t.

Whitman was raised in wealthy Lloyd Harbor, N.Y., the youngest of three children. Her 6-foot 8-inch father, Hendricks Hallett Whitman, was a World War II veteran who worked in the financial industry. But it was her stay-at-home mother, Margaret C. Whitman, whom the candidate describes as her inspiration, a woman blessed with a “bias for action.”

Whitman actually talks as much about her mother’s personal life as her own.

In the depths of World War II, Whitman’s Boston-born mother wanted to do her share. She ended up in New Guinea with the Red Cross fixing airplane and jeep engines — though she had never popped a hood in her life.

“What that story really told me as a little girl was the price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake,” Whitman said at a recent campaign event. “That you have to try things that you’re not sure you can do.”

Buried deep in Whitman’s recent book, past 200 pages of corporate bromides (Be frugal. Be authentic. Results matter.) are two tales that do not make the campaign-trail cut: the story of her own birth defect and of her sister Anne’s struggle with mental illness.

Tall, patrician and athletic today, Whitman was born with dysplasia; her left hip lacked a socket. Doctors discovered the condition shortly after she was born, and she spent her toddler years strapped in a metal brace that helped mold a socket.

The treatment worked, and Whitman gravitated toward sports. She was captain of the swim team at Cold Harbor High School, where she graduated a year early. At Princeton University, where she was in only the fourth class to admit women, she played lacrosse and squash.

Stories of overcoming hardship are staples for most candidates, but Whitman eschews the emotional in favor of pragmatic connections to her audiences. Her campaign pays particular attention to women voters, and the candidate regularly reminds audiences that she would be the first woman governor. But she spends little time talking about the difficulties of balancing home and family and whether she shared those problems.

At a campaign event last month, a member of the audience asked Whitman: “Does being a woman and a mother give you a different perspective on running this state, and if so, how?” Her answer? Maybe, but it doesn’t really matter.

“In the end, as all the women in this audience know and all the men, you have to deliver the results, don’t you?” she responded. “And that’s what I did in my business career, and that is what I will do as governor.”

Whitman argues that her corporate experience makes her uniquely qualified to run a place as complex as California. And she offers up her decade at online auction giant EBay as exhibit A for why voters should choose her over Brown.

But between consulting firm Bain & Co, one of her first jobs out of business school, where she said she learned to be a corporate “all-around athlete,” and EBay, which she boasts grew from 30 to 15,000 employees during her tenure, there was FTD. In her book she describes her two years there in the mid-1990s as “probably the most frustrating and, ultimately, least satisfying executive experience in my career.”

When Whitman arrived, the member-owned association of florists had just been bought by an investor group and turned into a for-profit company. To service the debt, the company had to be immediately profitable, but many of the association’s florists had decamped to the competition.

“I finally quit that job,” she wrote, telling the arbitrageur who bought FTD: “ ‘This company is not fixable, at least by me.’ ”

Whitman wasn’t the only one who rued her time at the Southfield, Mich., headquarters.

Peggy Thompson, her assistant, recalled that FTD administration had been segregated in an isolated executive wing. Whitman shut that down and “moved us in with everyone else. We thought, ‘That’s really awesome. She wants us to be one team.’ But she didn’t have anything to do with us. She didn’t like us…. She was the worst boss I’ve ever had, and I’ve had some winners.”

Nearly a year into her stint at FTD, Whitman was sued for age discrimination by a 55-year-old technology executive named David M. Carlson, whom she fired and replaced with a 39-year-old, a man her age.

At a strategy session shortly before Carlson was let go, Whitman said the company needed “about fifteen killer young executives,” according to court documents. When FTD’s head of government affairs suggested that she not use the word “young” and probably didn’t mean it, she replied: “Actually, I do.”

The suit ended in a confidential settlement. Carlson could not be reached for comment.

It was EBay, of course, that Whitman helped make a household name, and the quirky online auction company returned the favor with wealth and opportunity. In the course of a decade, two brands were born.

No campaign appearance or debate is complete without at least a taste of her EBay experience. As she noted during the final debate: “I ended up running one of the great Internet success stories…. I was a job creator.”

Her tenure earned her accolades. Harvard Business Review named her one of the top performing CEOs of the past decade; Fortune magazine put her on its list of the Top Five most powerful women.

Maynard Webb, whom she wooed to the company to rebuild its faulty computer system after a 22-hour outage, calls her “the best boss and leader that I ever had.”

He saw her push the company to expand outside of North America, and “today international is over 50% of EBay’s revenues.” And he remembers the day in 2001 when the system again broke down. First the primary system failed, then the backups.

The site was down for hours, leaving buyers and sellers paralyzed. Even after the outage ended, time-consuming technical cleanup followed.

“Meg stayed with the team, made sure it was all OK,” Webb recounted. “She left at 2 a.m. This was the kind of leader she was.”

But her tenure was not without controversy. She pushed the company into a string of acquisitions. Some, like PayPal, were successes. Others, like Skype and Butterfield & Butterfield, were widely panned. Her last three years at the company coincided with slowing growth and a faltering stock price.

In 2007, while being prepped for an interview with Reuters, Whitman became angry with a communications aide, uttered an expletive and shoved the young woman.

The incident led to a confidential settlement in which Young Mi Kim reportedly received $200,000. At first the campaign sought to portray the matter as a “verbal dispute,” but Whitman later acknowledged that she had laid hands on Kim.

“Sometimes,” she said, “these things happen.”

Whitman never planned to go into business or politics. Her ambition to become a medical doctor was derailed by a collision with organic chemistry; she opted for business after selling ads for a student magazine called Business Today.

Her shift to politics came at the request of Mitt Romney, who had been her mentor at Bain. Romney asked her to help him run for president; she raised millions for him. When he dropped out of the 2008 race, she shifted her support to John McCain. Forever the marketer, she also came up with his slogan: “Country first.”

Her own venture into politics left many to wonder why the deeply private Whitman would open herself up to the scrutiny of campaigning. Introducing her to his employees at Cisco Systems recently, Chief Executive John Chambers asked her if a particular event pushed her to run because, “as a friend, I worry.”

An hour or so later, Whitman would make her first remarks about her housekeeper. But she made no mention of that in responding to Chambers. Characteristically impersonal, Whitman recalled a meeting at EBay, where the company’s executive team rued how hard it was for businesses to function here. Today, she told Chambers, she wants to change that.

“I remember my executive team sitting in a conference room,” she recounted. “And I said, ‘If we were going to start EBay again, would we start it in California?’ And you know, I’m not sure the answer to that is ‘Yes.’ ”

maria.laganga@latimes.com

Online sales of South Korean products in overseas markets rose for the third consecutive year to a record high in 2025, government data showed Monday.

Outbound online sales by South Korean businesses reached 3.02 trillion won (US$2.09 billion) last year, up 16.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics. The figure has been on a steady increase since 2023.

By region, sales increased by 26.3 percent on-year in the United States and 10.9 percent in China, while sales to the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) fell 4.4 percent.

By product category, food and beverage sales surged 49.2 percent to 112.9 billion won, the highest level since the statistical standards were revised in 2017.

Sales of cosmetics rose 20.4 percent, while those of albums, videos and musical instruments increased 7 percent.

Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.

Feb. 15 (UPI) — The U.S. military intercepted an oil tanker overnight that was linked to Venezuela after tracking it from the Caribbean into the Indian Ocean.

The tanker, the Veronica III, was boarded without incident late Saturday night in the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility after it attempted to outrun the Trump administration’s naval blockade in the Caribbean, the Department of Defense announced early Sunday.

The United States has now intercepted or seized nine oil tankers associated with Venezuela since Dec. 10 when the administration started enforcing a blockade on oil tankers leaving the South American nation to pressure it’s president, Nicolas Maduro, to leave power.

After the U.S. military captured Maduro in a clandestine early morning mission in January, several tankers scattered from the country, according to reports.

“The vessel tried to defy President Trump’s quarantine — hoping to slip away,” the Pentagon said in a post on X. “We tracked it from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, closed the distance and shut it down. No other nation has the reach, endurance or will to do this.”

The Veronica III, flagged in Panama, has previously been linked with transporting sanctioned Iranian oil and working with a sanctioned Chinese ship-management company, Fox News reported.

The tanker was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury for shipping Iranian oil to other markets and has since used different names and flags in order to evade capture.

At least 16 tankers docked in Venezuelan ports tried to escape the U.S. naval blockade in the days after Maduro’s capture, the New York Times reported, with at least 12 of them turning off their transmission signals in the effort.

Feb. 13 (UPI) — Brazilian authorities have ordered that Elon Musk’s platform, X, must implement measures to prevent its artificial intelligence tool, Grok, from generating sexualized content involving minors and involving adults without consent.

The case is being reviewed by Brazil’s National Data Protection Authority, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office and the National Consumer Secretariat. The agencies contend that, despite prior warnings, the social network failed to show effective action to curb these practices.

“X must immediately implement appropriate measures to prevent the production, through Grok, of sexualized or eroticized content involving children and adolescents, as well as adults who have not expressed their consent,” Brazilian authorities said in a joint statement.

The agencies gave the platform five days to comply with the determination, under penalty of fines and legal action.

On Jan. 20, the agencies recommended that X establish, within up to 30 days, technical and operational procedures to identify, review and remove sexualized content generated by Grok that remained available on the social network. That deadline co-existed with the requirement to adopt immediate actions to prevent new posts.

The company said at the time that it had removed thousands of posts and suspended hundreds of accounts for violating its policies.

However, Brazilian authorities said the information provided “was not accompanied by concrete evidence, technical reports or monitoring mechanisms that would allow its effectiveness to be assessed.”

Tests conducted by technical teams indicated that the platform still allows the generation and sharing of sexualized or eroticized images of minors and adults without authorization.

Since late last year, thousands of complaints in several countries have alleged that Grok responds to requests to alter photographs posted by women on social media, making them appear nude or in bikinis. At least two Brazilian women have reported being victims of these deepfakes.

The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office ordered X to submit monthly reports on the actions taken to prevent the production of these images and pointed to a lack of transparency in the company’s response.

The National Data Protection Authority also required the platform to detail the measures implemented and provide evidence that can be verified by authorities.

The new five-business-day deadline requires the company to explain what specific actions it will take to prevent Grok from creating this type of content. The official document does not specify when clock began.

If the order is not met, the company could face fines and other administrative sanctions. Those responsible could also be prosecuted for disobedience.

The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office said it could open broader investigations that may lead to legal action to seek damages for harm caused by the creation and dissemination of these images.

The case adds to investigations in Europe. On Feb. 3, the Paris Prosecutor’s Office searched Grok’s offices as part of a preliminary investigation into the alleged dissemination of child pornography and deepfakes. Authorities in the United Kingdom and the European Union are also examining Grok’s use to manipulate images.

Grok is developed by xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence company, which also controls X. Earlier this month, the entrepreneur announced the merger of xAI with SpaceX, his aerospace company. SpaceX is expected to debut on the New York Stock Exchange later this year.

Walt Disney Co. will pay $2.75 million to settle allegations that it violated the California Consumer Privacy Act by not fully complying with consumers’ requests to opt out of data sharing on its streaming services, the state attorney general’s office said Wednesday.

The Burbank media and entertainment company allegedly restricted the extent of opt-out requests, including complying with users’ petitions only on the device or streaming services they processed it from, or stopping the sharing of consumers’ personal data through Disney’s advertising platform but not those of specific ad-tech companies whose code was embedded on Disney websites and apps, the attorney general’s office said.

In addition to the fine, the settlement, which is subject to court approval, will require Disney to enact a “consumer-friendly, easy to execute” process that allows users to opt-out of the sale or sharing of their data with as few steps as possible, according to court documents.

“Consumers shouldn’t have to go to infinity and beyond to assert their privacy rights,” Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said in a statement. “In California, asking a business to stop selling your data should not be complicated or cumbersome.”

A Disney spokesperson said in a statement that the company “continues to invest significant resources to set the standard for responsible and transparent data practices across our streaming services.”

“As technology and media continue to evolve, protecting the privacy and preserving the experience of Californians and fans everywhere remains a longstanding priority for Disney,” the spokesperson said.

The settlement with Disney stemmed from a 2024 investigation by the attorney general’s office into streaming devices and apps for alleged violations of the California Consumer Privacy Act, which governs the collection of consumers’ personal data by businesses.

Under the law, businesses that sell or share personal data for targeted advertising must give users the right to opt-out.

Disney’s $2.75-million payment is the largest such settlement under the state privacy act, Bonta’s office said.

The attorney general has also reached settlements with companies such as beauty retailer Sephora, food delivery app DoorDash and SlingTV for alleged violations of the privacy act.

Feb. 13 (UPI) — Amazon-owned Ring announced it is ending its partnership with Flock Safety, a company whose artificial intelligence-powered technology came into question after a Ring Super Bowl ad touting new surveillance features.

In a blog post published Thursday, Ring said the two companies “made the joint decision to cancel the planned integration” they initially announced in October.

“Following a comprehensive review, we determined the planned Flock Safety integration would require significantly more time and resources than anticipated,” the Ring post read.

Ring’s surveillance camera capabilities came under fire Sunday after the company aired a 30-second commercial highlighting its new Search Party feature.

The feature allows users to upload images of their missing pets to the Ring Neighbors app, which would then use AI to trawl footage in the cloud to find the missing pet. If a missing pet is spotted in the footage, the information would be sent to the owner of the camera that picked up the footage and give them the option to notify the missing pet’s owners.

Ring said the Search Party feature is automatically enabled on all outdoor cameras enrolled in a Ring subscription. But critics questioned whether the AI technology could be combined with Ring’s new facial recognition technology, Familiar Faces, and provide law enforcement surveillance on humans.

Of additional concern, Flock Safety’s technology allows customers to grant local and federal government agencies access to the data picked up by the cameras. Among the organizations that could have access to this data are Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Secret Service and the Navy.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., in November called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Flock Security for allowing government access to the data without “meaningful privacy protections.”

“At the urging of concerned constituents, I conducted further oversight and have determined that Flock cannot live up to its commitment to protect the privacy and security of Oregonians,” Wyden wrote in a letter to the FTC. “Abuse of Flock cameras is inevitable, and Flock has made it clear it takes no responsibility to prevent or detect that.”

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Ma., who has previously criticized Ring’s connections to law enforcement, posted his thoughts on the Super Bowl ad on X.

“This definitely isn’t about dogs — it’s about mass surveillance,” he wrote.

Emma Daniels, a spokeswoman for Ring, told The Verge, that the Search Party feature works only with dogs and is “not capable of processing human biometrics.”

“These are not tools for mass surveillance,” she added. “We build the right guardrails, and we’re super transparent about them.”

In a January blog post, Flock Safety maintained that it doesn’t work directly with ICE or other agencies within the Department of Homeland Security. The company said every piece of data collected by its technology is owned by the customers.

“Decisions about whether, when, and how data is shared are made by the customer that owns the data, not by Flock,” the post read. “There is no hidden back-door access in Flock technology.

“If a local agency chooses not to collaborate with any federal entity, including ICE, Flock has no ability to override that decision.”

Ruemmler’s resignation comes after emails revealed her links to the late sex offender.

The top lawyer at Goldman Sachs, Kathy Ruemmler, has announced that she will resign following revelations of her links to the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Ruemmler’s resignation comes after the United States Department of Justice’s latest release of investigative files about Epstein showed that she had received gifts from Epstein, offered him advice on managing his reputation, and likened him to an older brother.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon confirmed Ruemmler’s resignation in a statement on Thursday, saying that he respected her decision.

“Throughout her tenure, Kathy has been an extraordinary general counsel, and we are grateful for her contributions and sound advice on a wide range of consequential legal matters for the firm,” Solomon said in a statement provided to Al Jazeera.

“As one of the most accomplished professionals in her field, Kathy has also been a mentor and friend to many of our people, and she will be missed,” he said.

In an interview with the Financial Times on Thursday, Ruemmler, who previously served as White House counsel under US President Barack Obama, said that she would step down as chief legal officer and general counsel at the end of June.

Ruemmler told the newspaper that media attention on her relationship with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, had become a “distraction”.

She had previously expressed regret for knowing Epstein, and denied providing the financier with legal representation or advocating on his behalf to any third party.

Ruemmler is just the latest in a slew of high-profile and powerful figures to exit prominent roles or face legal scrutiny in connection with the Epstein case.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday announced the resignation of his cabinet secretary, Chris Wormald, in his latest effort to quell controversy surrounding his appointment of Peter Mandelson, Britain’s former ambassador to the US, whose ties to Epstein have prompted a police investigation into suspected misconduct in public office.

Also on Thursday, police in Norway searched properties belonging to former Prime Minister Thorbjorn Jagland as part of a corruption probe focused on the politician’s associations with Epstein.

Feb. 12 (UPI) — Russia has attempted to block access to WhatsApp, the Meta-owned encrypted smartphone messaging application said, accusing the Kremlin of trying to force its citizens to use a state-owned service.

WhatsApp said the Russian attempt to block the service occurred Thursday.

“Trying to isolate over 100 million users from private and secure communication is a backwards step and can only lead to less safety for people in Russia,” WhatsApp said in a brief statement in both English and Russian.

“We continue to do everything we can to keep users connected.”

Little information about the alleged effort was made public by the U.S.-based company. UPI has contacted WhatsApp and Roskomnadzor, Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, for comment.

The application Russia was allegedly attempting to drive users to was not named by WhatsApp, but is widely believed to be Max, a smartphone application that Reporters Without Borders condemns as a tool for digital control.

According to the free speech and media watchdog, Russia is seeking to make Max the most widely used messaging app in Russia and the occupied Ukrainian territories. It said the service requires a Russian or Belarusian phone number and blocks communication with other parts of Ukraine while harvesting user data and disseminating pro-Kremlin news and information.

“Max gives the Kremlin a powerful tool for spreading its propaganda in a centralized digital space,” Vincent Berthier and Pauline Maufrais of RSF said in a joint statement published in November.

“This forced adoption also creates an information blackout for Ukrainian citizens in the occupied territories, cut off from free Ukraine.”

WhatsApp made its accusation after Telegram founder Pavel Durov made similar allegations against Moscow.

“Russia is restricting access to Telegram in an attempt to force its citizens to switch to a state-controlled app built for surveillance and political censorship,” he said in a post on Telegram.

“Restricting citizens’ freedom is never the right answer. Telegram stands for freedom of speech and privacy, no matter the pressure.”

Roskomnadzor said in a statement that it will continue to restrict access to Telegram over alleged violations of Russian law, privately owned Russian business news outlet RBC reported.

It accused Telegram of not implementing legally regulated measures to protect the security of citizens’ data and said it would continue to take steps to compel its compliance with the law.

“By decision of the authorized bodies, Roskomnadzor will continue the introduction of phased restrictions in order to achieve compliance with Russian legislation and ensure the protection of citizens,” the agency said.

Meta was designated as an extremist organization by a Russian court in 2022, leading to bans of Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram. Other social media platforms, including X, are blocked or restricted in the country.

Feb. 12 (UPI) — President Donald Trump has directed the Pentagon to purchase coal-fired electricity to boost domestic coal production, a move that has drawn staunch criticism from energy and environmental experts.

Trump issued the directive via an executive order that he signed Thursday at the end of a White House ceremony attended by coal executives called “The Champion of Coal Event.”

“We’re going to be buying a lot of coal through the military now,” he said. “And it’s going to be less expensive and actually much more effective than what we have been using for many, many years. And again, with the environmental progress that’s been made on coal, it’s going to be just as clean.”

The executive order directs the Department of Defense to approve agreements with coal-fired power facilities to serve its installations and other mission-critical facilities.

The order aligns with Trump’s domestic policy focus of reinvigorating the U.S. coal industry, which has declined over recent years due to environmental concerns.

“Kentucky coal is BACK — and it’s because President Trump fights for American energy,” Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., said in a statement.

Barr was at the White House for the ceremony, and said in a recorded statement that the Trump administration was ending the “war on coal” waged by the previous Democratic presidencies of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

“We’re putting our coal miners back to work to make America energy dominant again,” he said in a recorded statement, while describing Trump’s executive order as “great.”

During the ceremony at the East Room of the White House, Trump was given a trophy inscribed with the words “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal” by the Washington Coal Club lobby group.

After receiving the trophy, which is shaped like a miner, Trump signed the executive order.

While the Trump administration and Republicans champion the resource as “beautiful clean coal,” energy economists and environmental advocates broadly describe coal as a costly and highly polluting power source.

“Rather than helping people with their crippling electrical bills, Donald Trump is illegally bailing out his coal industry buddies with precious taxpayer dollars,” Laurie Williams, director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, said in a statement.

“As energy bills and hospital bills stack up for everyday families, Americans have one man to blame: Donald Trump — the undisputed champion of expensive energy and deadly pollution.”

Julie McNamara, associate policy director of the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, lambasted the executive order as a wast of time, money and opportunity.

She said there are cheaper, cleaner and more efficient options at the president’s disposal, but he chose coal while ending development of new solar and wind projects and stopping investment to build out a modern grid infrastructure.

“Reality doesn’t lie: coal is a rapidly dwindling relic of the past, not a solution for the future,” McNamara said in a statement.

“The Trump administration’s failings come with real consequences,” she said, adding that forcing the use of aging coal plants risks power outages and will increase electricity costs.

Former Environmental Protection Agency scientist and vice president of federal policy Matthew Davis similarly said this plan risks driving up energy prices for Americans.

“Coal power not only has one of the highest costs of any energy source, but also has the worst reliability record of any form of energy, with twice as many unplanned shutdowns and interruptions in generation as wind power,” he said in a statement.

“Instead of forcing the government to waste taxpayer dollars on dirty outdated coal, we should be focusing on increasing access to clean, reliable energy sources like wind and solar that are the fastest, cheapest way to deploy energy onto the grid.”

Jeffrey Epstein used a former Russian official with links to Moscow’s FSB intelligence services to collect information on a woman he claimed was attempting to blackmail his business associates, according to documents released by the United States Department of Justice.

Epstein reached out to Sergei Belyakov, a former deputy minister of economic development, for advice in 2015 about what he described as an attempt to blackmail a group of “powerful” businessmen in New York, the documents contained in the latest tranche of the so-called Epstein files show.

“I need a favor,” Epstein wrote to Belyakov in a July 2015 email, describing an extortion attempt by a Russian woman who had arrived at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York the previous week.

Epstein said the situation was “bad for business for everyone involved” and asked for “suggestions”.

Belyakov, a graduate of the FSB Academy, Moscow’s institute for training intelligence personnel, wrote back that he needed some time to “get information about her” and that he would meet a man who knew the woman the next day.

Several days later, Belyakov sent Epstein a roughly 100-word description of the woman’s background and what the ex-official described as her “sex and escort” business.

“She has nobody behind her,” Belyakov said, adding that she was believed to have “no patronage”.

Belyakov said “business problems” may have led the woman to resort to blackmail, and suggested that denying her entry to the US would be a “real threat” to her business.

Epstein, the FSB Academy graduate and US billionaires

Belyakov, who took up the position of board chairman at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum after leaving the Kremlin in 2014, relied on Epstein for access to high-profile figures in the financier’s orbit, according to the documents.

After a meeting with Epstein in May 2014, Belyakov told the convicted sex offender that he did not know many people who could offer “new horizons and prospects”.

“And I’m looking forward for next meeting with you,” he told Epstein.

In July 2015, Belyakov sought Epstein’s help to organise meetings with American venture capitalist Peter Thiel and the billionaire heir and businessman Thomas Pritzker.

“Sergey – let me know when you are in SF and it would be good to find a time to meet,” Thiel wrote to Belyakov in an email in July 2015, following an introduction by Epstein.

A little over a week later, Belyakov told Epstein that Thiel and Pritzker had shared their views on Russia’s economy and other topics, calling the meetings “very helpful”.

“By the way I was surprised that they had a lot of information about Russian economy and their view about our society,” Belyakov wrote, adding he hoped to see both businessmen again in Moscow.

In 2016, Belyakov sought Epstein’s feedback on proposals he wished to discuss with business leaders in the US.

Epstein told Belyakov he liked the idea, which was not specified in the emails, but that he should get a “good English speaking editor” before sharing business proposals, and there were “pretty women” who could fill the role.

Efforts by Al Jazeera to contact Belyakov, including through the St Petersburg International Economic Forum and the e-commerce company Ozon, where he served as managing director from 2021 to 2024, were unsuccessful.

Thiel’s foundation did not respond to a request for comment. Pritzker declined to comment through a spokesperson for his foundation.

Epstein also sought to arrange meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, according to the documents, though there is no indication he was successful.

“I think you might suggest to putin, that lavrov, can get insight on talking to me,” Epstein wrote in an email to former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjorn Jagland in June 2018.

Jagland, who is under investigation in Norway on suspicion of corruption in his dealings with Epstein, wrote back that he would “suggest” the idea to Lavrov’s assistant.

Epstein, who died in 2019 while in prison awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, has long been the focus of speculation that he worked for or with intelligence agencies on behalf of various countries, including Israel.

He had close ties with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak during his lifetime, with the two men exploring numerous business ventures and regularly exchanging correspondence on personal matters.

Barak’s former aide Yoni Koren, an ex-Israeli military intelligence officer who died in 2023, also stayed at residences belonging to Epstein for long stretches while receiving cancer treatment in the US in the late 2010s.

Feb. 10 (UPI) — Officials for the Environmental Protection Agency said they are working to end a 2009 declaration that says climate change is a danger to public health.

During the weekend, EPA officials submitted to the Office of Management and Budget a proposed rule revoking the 2009 endangerment finding that guided U.S. climate and greenhouse gas regulations.

The EPA did not say when the endangerment finding officially would be revoked, but White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested it would happen this week.

“This week at the White House, President [Donald] Trump will be taking the most significant deregulatory actions in history to further unleash American energy dominance and drive down costs,” Leavitt said in a prepared statement.

Revoking the endangerment finding removes the EPA’s statutory authority to regulate motor vehicle emissions that was provided via Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act of 1970, an EPA spokesperson told The Hill.

The endangerment finding is “one of the most damaging decisions in modern history,” the Leavitt said.

The Clean Air Act forces the EPA to regulate vehicle emissions that produce any pollutant that are reasonably thought to pose a danger to public health or welfare.

A 2007 Supreme Court ruling determined that greenhouse gas emissions that are thought to contribute to global warming meet the standard for air pollutants that require regulation due to their potential for harming public health.

The Obama administration in 2009 issued the endangerment finding for greenhouse gas emissions, which the prior Supreme Court ruling said requires the EPA to regulate them.

The EPA that year decided that greenhouse gas emissions likely would cause widespread “serious adverse health effects in large-population areas” due to increased ambient ozone over many areas of the United States.

“The impact on mortality and morbidity associated with increases in average temperatures, which increase the likelihood of heat waves, also provides support for a public health endangerment finding,” the EPA said in its endangerment finding.

“The evidence concerning how human-induced climate change may alter extreme weather events also clearly supports a finding of endangerment,” the EPA said, while acknowledging that the conclusion was based on “consensus.”

The finding said carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases are fueling storms, drought, heat waves, wildfires and rising seas, which pose a threat to public health.

Because the finding determined emissions from the burning of coal, gas and oil were said to contribute to climate change, the EPA undertook regulations of power plants, vehicles and other sources of greenhouse gas emissions, including gas stoves, ovens, water heaters and heating systems.

Revoking the endangerment finding ends those regulations, which could be reversed if a future administration reinstates the finding.

Feb. 10 (UPI) — Paramount Skydance announced enhancements to its offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery as it tries to woo shareholders away from Netflix.

Paramount added a 25-cent-per-share ticking fee, adding up to $650 million cash value per quarter that the transaction doesn’t close beginning in January 2027. It also said it would pay the $2.8 billion termination fee that would be due to Netflix.

The sweetening of the Paramount deal is the latest in the ongoing battle against Netflix to buy the company, which includes Warner Bros. Studios, HBO and HBO Max, among other titles. WBD shareholders must vote to choose between Netflix and Paramount, and the merger must pass federal scrutiny.

In October, Warner Bros. said it was open to offers after getting unsolicited ones. On Dec. 5, after a bidding war between Netflix and Paramount Skydance, Warner Bros. said it would accept Netflix’s offer.

Then Paramount launched a hostile bid to buy WBD. The Warner Bros. board told shareholders not to accept the Paramount bid because Oracle creator Larry Ellison, father of Paramount CEO David Ellison, wasn’t backing the deal. On Dec. 22, Paramount said that it has Larry Ellison’s backing of $40 billion in equity. On Jan. 20, Netflix changed its offer to all cash to make it more attractive to shareholders.

In the new deal, Paramount would eliminate the potential $1.5 billion financing costs that would come with the debt exchange offer. Paramount would fully reimburse WBD shareholders for the $1.5 billion fee without reducing the $5.8 billion reverse termination fee if the deal doesn’t close.

Paramount said it will also cover WBD’s bridge loan if its financing sources won’t extend theirs, including covering the costs.

Paramount’s financing again includes an irrevocable personal guarantee from Larry Ellison of $43.3 billion, covering the equity financing for Paramount’s amended offer as well any damages claims against Paramount.

“The additional benefits of our superior $30 per share, all-cash offer clearly underscore our strong and unwavering commitment to delivering the full value WBD shareholders deserve for their investment,” said David Ellison, Paramount chair and CEO, in a statement. “We are making meaningful enhancements — backing this offer with billions of dollars, providing shareholders with certainty in value, a clear regulatory path, and protection against market volatility.”

On Feb. 4, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee on the merger. Paramount declined to participate.

SEOUL, Feb. 10 (UPI) — South Korea’s Mirae Asset Securities said it posted a record bottom line last year, based on solid performances across its business sectors, including brokerage, wealth management and trading.

The Seoul-based company said Monday it netted $1.1 billion in the 2025 profit, up 72% from a year earlier, as assets under management rose 25% to $410 billion. Among them, 14% was operated in the global markets.

The pretax profit from its brokerage business jumped 43% year-on-year thanks to a bullish stock market, which saw the country’s benchmark KOSPI surge more than 75% last year.

Those from its wealth management and trading divisions rose 21% and 14%, respectively.

Another key contributor to the results was its global business, of which pretax profit doubled to $342 million. Mirae Asset Securities noted that its investments in such innovative companies as SpaceX and xAI boosted profitability.

“Since our founding, we have strategically reinvested capital secured through globally diversified investments, building a virtuous circle that has led to meaningful achievements,” Mirae Asset Securities said in a statement.

The share price of Mirae Asset Securities climbed 11.25% on the Seoul bourse Monday before dipping 2.43% Tuesday.

The largest brokerage house of South Korea is a representative subsidiary of Mirae Asset Group, one of the country’s leading financial conglomerates.

Feb. 10 (UPI) — Air Canada became the first scheduled airline to withdraw services to Cuba due to shortages of jet fuel as the United States tightened its energy embargo on the Caribbean island.

Canada’s Montreal-headquartered flag-carrier announced Monday it was suspending its 16 weekly flights serving Havana and three other cities, effectively immediately, but said it would send aircraft to bring home 3,000 customers already in Cuba.

“For remaining flights, Air Canada will tanker in extra fuel and make technical stops as necessary to refuel on the return journey, if necessary,” the airline said.

Airlines in Russia, where Cuba is also a top holiday destination, said they had no plans to change their schedules, but Russian media reported at least one Rossiya Airlines flight was canceled with the carrier instead dispatching an empty aircraft to collect Russian tourists.

As many as 4,700 Russians on package holidays were thought to be on the island currently, according to the Association of Tour Operators of Russia.

Spain’s Iberia and Air Europa said flights from Madrid to Havana would now stopover in the Dominican Republic to refuel but would otherwise continue as normal.

American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Aeromexico said they would continue flying the route, with American telling CNN that the aircraft it used on the route could carry enough fuel for the round trip without refueling.

On Sunday, an international NOTAM system notice confirmed that no A-1 jet fuel, the standard for commercial aviation, would be available at Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport for one month between Tuesday and March 11.

The aviation fuel shortage and its knock-on effect on tourism was the most visible economic casualty of additional measures imposed 10 days ago by U.S. President Donald Trump aimed at shutting off all oil shipments to the island.

Accusing Cuba of harboring terrorist groups, Trump threatened any country supplying oil to Cuba with tariffs in a move principally aimed at Mexico, one of the only remaining points of supply since the United States severed the economic lifeline provided by Venezuela in January.

Venezuela was the source of most of Cuba’s oil imports until the United States’ Jan. 3 military operation to remove President Nicolas Maduro, seize control of the country’s oil and turn off the tap to Cuba.

The move was in line with the Trump administration’s efforts to ratchet up a six-decade-long U.S. trade embargo with the energy blockade exacerbating rolling blackouts and forcing the communist government to ration health and transport, shorten hours in schools and state-owned workplaces, and close some hotels as it scrambles to conserve fuel.

Official Cuban government data shows Canada was the number one source of tourists to the island with more than 754,000 Canadians traveled there in 2025, compared with 110,000 from the United States, 56,000 from Mexico and 46,000 from Spain.

Feb. 9 (UPI) — The unions that represent flight attendants and pilots who work for American Airlines on Monday expressed frustration with the company’s CEO, and in one case issued a unanimous vote of non-confidence in him.

The unions, which represent 28,000 flight attendants and 16,000 pilots that work for the airline, said that the company’s leadership has set it on “an underperforming path” amid aviation experts noting that Delta and United, American’s primary competitors, have made better decisions in recent years, CBS News and The New York Times reported.

“From abysmal profits earned to operational failures that have front-line workers sleeping on floors, this airline must course-correct before it falls even further behind,” Julie Hedrick, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, said in a press release.

“This level of failure begins at the very top, with CEO Robert Isom,” she added.

The vote of no confidence from the AFPA comes as the airline has been pilloried by analysts and employees for its failure to increase reliability and its treatment of employees.

WFAA-TV reported that American Airlines directed reporters to a statement from Isom on an investor call last month, wherein he said that multi-year efforts are poised to deliver an improved, consistent customer experience and to maximize its network and fleet, with expectations that recent changes will “bear fruit” in 2026.

For its part, the Allied Pilots Association on Friday sent a letter to American’s board of directors calling for the company to reform its practices and better plan for the future.

“Our airline is on an underperforming path and has failed to define an identity or a strategy to correct course,” the union said in the letter. “Copying competitors’ initiatives and reactive repairs to the mistakes of the past is not a strategy that closes the gap between American and our premium competitors, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines.”