MADISON, Wis. — Foxconn Technology Group has shifted its stated strategy yet again on Friday for a massive Wisconsin campus, crediting a conversation with President Donald Trump for cementing plans to proceed with building a factory to make high-tech liquid display screens.
The news capped a week of confusion about Foxconn’s plans in Wisconsin. The company announced in 2017, to much fanfare, that it planned to invest $10 billion in the state and hire 13,000 people to build an LCD factory that could make screens for televisions and a variety of other devices.
The company last year said it was reducing the scale of what was to be made in Wisconsin, from what is known as a Gen 10 factory to Gen 6. But this week, even that was thrown into question with Foxconn executive Louis Woo said it couldn’t compete in the television screen market and would not be making LCD panels in Wisconsin.
But on Friday, in yet another twist, Foxconn said after discussions with the White House and a personal conversation between Trump and Foxconn chairman Terry Gou, it plans to proceed with the smaller manufacturing facility.
WASHINGTON — Cory Booker leapt into the 2020 presidential race on Friday with a call for Americans to unite in a time of bitter polarization while some of his Democratic rivals are taking a more combative stance as they vie to take on President Donald Trump.
Booker’s entry into the Democratic primary was steeped in history and symbolism, befitting his status as the second black candidate in a historically diverse field. Invoking the legacy of the national movements for civil rights and for women’s suffrage, the New Jersey senator urged a return to a “common sense of purpose” and cast his appeal to the nation’s better angels as an uplifting alternative to Trump.
The 49-year-old Booker told reporters outside his home in Newark that “love ain’t easy,” adding: “The people I admire are the people that lead by calling out the best of who we are and not the worst. So, I’m running for president because I believe in us. I believe in these values.”
Whether Democrats are in the mood to embrace Booker’s optimistic persona after two years of fuming about Trump’s presidency remains to be seen. With Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren running as a champion for the middle class in a fight against powerful interests, and California Sen. Kamala running on taking on Trump directly, Booker’s fate may hinge on the electorate will responding again to the soaring oratory that helped Barack Obama break through in 2008.
CHICAGO — The dangerous cold and heavy snow that hobbled the northern U.S. this week has retreated, but not before exacting a human toll: more than two dozen weather-related deaths in eight states and hundreds of injuries, including frostbite, broken bones, heart attacks and carbon monoxide poisoning.
In Illinois alone, hospitals reported more than 220 cases of frostbite and hypothermia since Tuesday, when the polar vortex moved in and overnight temperatures plunged to minus 30 (minus 34 Celsius) or lower — with wind chills of minus 50 (minus 45 Celsius) or worse in some areas.
Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis normally sees around 30 frostbite patients in an entire winter. It admitted 28 in the past week, spokeswoman Christine Hill said Friday.
“I definitely saw more frostbite than I’ve ever seen in my entire career just in the last three days,” said Dr. Andrea Rowland-Fischer, an emergency department physician at Hennepin Healthcare.
Most of those patients, she said, had underlying problems that made it difficult for them to take care of themselves: the developmentally delayed, the mentally ill, the very young and the very old. They also included people with injuries related to drugs and alcohol — people who passed out or did not realize they were cold or injured.
WASHINGTON — For all of President Donald Trump’s talk about “America first,” the next two years of his presidency could shine a sharp spotlight on America abroad.
His State of the Union address next week will be dissected for clues on how he’ll deal with a full plate of foreign policy challenges. His words will serve as fodder for ongoing partisan debate about whether his decisions will have passing or long-lasting effects on the world.
Will he pull troops from Afghanistan? Can he coax North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program? What will America’s future role be in Syria? What about U.S. power struggles with China, Russia and Iran, instability in the Middle East and U.S. relations with European allies?
“There is so much polarization around this whole discussion of Trump — pro-Trump, anti-Trump — that it’s hard to make sweeping declarations about the success or failure of Trump’s foreign policy,” said John Hannah, who has held foreign policy posts in both Democratic and Republican administrations.
From Associated Press