By Andrew Freedman, CNN

NEW ORLEANS (CNN) — Stress balls were the swag item of choice at the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s booth Wednesday morning, during the world’s largest gathering of climate scientists.

NCAR representatives came to this meeting — the convention of the American Geophysical Union — to talk about their research, which is crucial to the climate and weather community. Instead, they’ve ended up fielding questions about Trump administration plans to break up this Boulder-based center, which conducts research and maintains supercomputing facilities on behalf of the government and 129 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.

The impending breakup of NCAR, first reported by USA Today and announced on X Tuesday night by OMB director Russ Vought, would be aimed at ending the center’s climate programs while maintaining its supercomputing facilities and weather-related programs.

In his post on X, Vought called the center “one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.”

His announcement landed with a thud, even among some experts who have supported the Trump administration in the past.

Ryan Maue, who briefly served as a top official at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during Trump’s first term, denounced the move against NCAR on X, stating: “If you believe A.I. and numerical weather prediction are important for our economy and national security, then NCAR in Boulder probably is our best bet to compete globally.”

“(American) weather modeling has been neglected for 20 years, and moonshot focus is needed, not dismantling.”

Created in 1960, the lab feeds models, tools and insights into government agencies including NOAA and NASA. At a town hall meeting last week, NOAA’s administrator touted the need to form a closer partnership with NCAR in order to improve the agency’s weather modeling, according to an agency staff member who attended.

That work could be put in jeopardy by the center’s breakup.

The NCAR is funded by the National Science Foundation and managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, which is also in Boulder. As part of the administration’s plans, all the center’s existing facilities, including its I.M. Pei-designed headquarters in the Boulder foothills, would be shuttered and moved to other locations.

In his statement, Vought said “vital activities such as weather research” will move to these new locations. The White House did not respond to CNN’s request for further details about the plan, such as how officials aim to discern the difference between weather and climate programs when deciding which to continue.

At the AGU conference, researchers expressed suspicions that climate research is not the only reason NCAR has been targeted. “Something more is going on,” said Antonio Busalacchi, president of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.

He noted it would be possible, for example, to shut down NCAR’s climate research programs without parceling its facilities to other locations, presumably in other states. The Trump administration has already sought to move major infrastructure out of Democrat-led Colorado, with the Space Force headquarters slated to move to Alabama.

Busa

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By Morgan Rimmer, CNN

(CNN) — The Senate passed the annual defense policy bill, sending it to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature.

Democrats and Republicans in the Senate voted overwhelmingly, 77-20, to approve the National Defense Authorization Act, which authorizes nearly $900 billion in funding for military programs, including a 3.8% pay raise for service members, and sets out the nation’s defense policy agenda.

The House of Representatives approved the package last week, and Trump is expected to sign it, having previously urged its passage.

Among the massive bill’s more controversial measures is a provision that pressures the Pentagon to provide more information on military strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean, which was added after the revelation of a follow-up strike conducted on September 2. The package would cut Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget by 25% until unedited videos of the strikes are released to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.

Earlier this week, Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio held classified briefings for all House members and Senators on the strikes. Hegseth told reporters on Tuesday the Pentagon will not release to the public the full video of the controversial September strike.

The NDAA would also repeal the 1991 and 2002 authorizations for the use of military force against Iraq, repeal sanctions on Syria, and seek to limit the Trump administration’s ability to significantly draw down troops from Europe.

Another provision aims to support efforts to recover Ukrainian children who have been abducted by Russia. The provision, based on bipartisan, bicameral legislation, would restore US support for the work to track and return the stolen children. Earlier this year, the Trump administration cut funding to the leading organization that tracks evidence of Russian war crimes, including the forced relocation of the estimated tens of thousands of Ukrainian children who have been taken by Russia.

Senators from both parties had raised alarms about a measure in the package that they warn will weaken safety measures put in place after last year’s deadly plane crash at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Chairman Ted Cruz and Ranking Member Maria Cantwell, along with Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, pushed for an amendment to the bill to ensure that a new rule instituted after the crash remains in place. The rule requires military aircraft to transmit their locations using a more precise system.

The senators, and others, warned that the NDAA includes a loophole that would permit military aircraft to use a less precise system, like the one that the Black Hawk military helicopter was using on the night of the collision with the American Airlines plane. Their amended language was ultimately not added to the bill.

Senators expressed concerns about other omissions in the bill.

Many lawmakers, including Sen. Tammy Duckworth, were dismayed that language to expand coverage of fertility services like in vitro fertilization for service members on TRICARE was absent from the package. Earlier House and Senate versions of the bill contained such language, but it was left out of the final product.

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CNN’s Ellis Kim and Jenny Hansler contributed to this report.

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Por Charlotte Reck, CNN

Es una historia de probabilidades de 1 en 24 billones: una pareja de Gales que desafió una posibilidad astronómica para convertirse en millonaria no una, sino dos veces.

Richard Davies, de 49 años, y su esposa, Faye Stevenson-Davies, de 43, cobraron este martes su segundo premio que les cambió la vida en la Lotería Nacional del Reino Unido, tras hacer caso a una corazonada que les dijo que ignoraran las probabilidades y lo intentaran.

“Sabíamos que las probabilidades de que volviera a ocurrir eran mínimas”, dijo Stevenson-Davies, profesional de la salud mental, en un comunicado difundido por la Lotería Nacional. “Pero somos la prueba de que, si lo crees, todo es posible”.

La pareja afortunada ganó por primera vez en junio de 2018, cuando sus números fueron seleccionados en el juego EuroMillions Millionaire Maker y se llevaron un premio de US$ 1,3 millones (unos 1.000.000 de libras esterlinas).

Incluso después de ese triunfo, ambos siguieron comprando boletos de lotería, alimentando la esperanza de que otro gran premio pudiera estar en su destino.

Y no se equivocaron al seguir su intuición, aunque su segundo éxito fue un poco más difícil de conseguir. Esta vez, necesitaron cuatro sorteos consecutivos para alcanzar el premio mayor.

“Cuando aciertas dos números en el sorteo del Lotto automáticamente ganas un Lucky Dip para el siguiente juego”, explicó Davies, un peluquero reconvertido en mensajero. “Eso es lo que nos pasó. Acertamos dos números y ganamos un Lucky Dip gratis… Eso nos llevó al siguiente sorteo y así sucesivamente, hasta el sorteo ganador”.

En lo que describen como su propio milagro navideño, la pareja se llevó otro premio de US$ 1,3 millones (unos 1.000.000 de libras), dejando atónitos a los expertos, que estiman las probabilidades de una doble victoria es de 1 entre 24 billones.

Pese a las ganancias, ninguno de los dos ha perdido las ganas de trabajar. Davies dijo que seguirá trabajando siete días a la semana como mensajero durante la Navidad, decidido a repartir los numerosos paquetes de la temporada festiva.

Por su parte, Stevenson-Davies aseguró que continuará ofreciendo apoyo en salud mental a sus pacientes, incluso el día de Navidad.

Aun así, la pareja deberá tomarse un tiempo para pensar cómo gastará el dinero, ya que todavía no lo ha decidido. “La primera vez regalamos autos, donamos un minibús al equipo local de rugby e hicimos todo lo posible por ayudar a amigos y familiares… Fue increíble poder marcar una diferencia”, dijo Davies.

Y añadió: “Esta vez, quién sabe. Nos tomaremos nuestro tiempo y disfrutaremos el momento”.

Al otro lado del Atlántico, Estados Unidos también ha tenido algunos ganadores dobles. En julio, Paul Corcoran, de Massachusetts, ganó el Powerball dos veces en una sola noche y obtuvo un total de US$ 2 millones.

En 2020, un jugador del Powerball en Colorado tuvo suerte dos veces en un mes usando los mismos números que había jugado durante 30 años. Dijo que su premio de US$ 2 millones ya tenía destino, en agradecimiento a su esposa, a quien llamaba cariñosamente “la jefa”.

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By Chris Isidore, CNN

(CNN) — Federal prosecutors have charged top executives at the subprime auto lender Tricolor with conspiring to defraud lenders and investors of the now-bankrupt company.

Tricolor, which went out of business in September, specialized in offering loans and selling used cars to buyers without Social Security numbers or credit histories, often undocumented immigrants. The federal indictment claims that Tricolor founder and CEO Daniel Chu oversaw a scheme to defraud lenders to the tune of billions of dollars.

“Fraud became an integral component of Tricolor’s business strategy,” said Jay Clayton, US attorney for the Southern District of New York. “The resulting billion-dollar collapse harmed banks, investors, employees and customers.”

The indictment, unsealed Wednesday in Manhattan, said that at Chu’s direction, “multiple Tricolor executives repeatedly defrauded lenders” with schemes including “double-pledging collateral,” or pledging the same assets to multiple lenders at the same time.

The other major defendant in the case is Tricolor’s COO, David Goodgame. Two other former executives, Jerome Kollar and Ameryn Seibold, pled guilty and are cooperating with the investigation.

As Tricolor approached its collapse in August, and after Chu observed that the company was “basically history,” the indictment claims he directed Kollar to pay him $6.25 million in bonuses. He allegedly used some of this money to purchase a multimillion-dollar property in Beverly Hills, California.

Three weeks later, Tricolor placed more than 1,000 employees on unpaid leaves of absence and a month later the company filed for bankruptcy, according to the indictment.

Since then, several large banks that loaned to Tricolor have warned their own investors they were likely victims of fraud.

JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank, said it would take a $170 million hit from its dealings with Tricolor. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon later said of the losses connected to Tricolor and other commercial lenders: “there clearly was, in my opinion, fraud involved in a bunch of these things.”

“I probably shouldn’t say this, but when you see one cockroach, there are probably more,” he added.

Another lender, Fifth Third Bank, said in a September filing that it had been working with law enforcement to investigate apparent fraud in its dealings with a commercial lender, taking a $200 million loss on those loans. A spokesperson for Fifth Third later confirmed to CNN that Tricolor was the commercial borrower.

A court-appointed trustee in Tricolor’s bankruptcy case told the court in October that there been a “pervasive fraud” of “extraordinary proportion,” according to a report by Bloomberg.

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