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Tear Down This Wall: Arizona Will Remove Shipping Containers From Mexico Border

PHOENIX — Arizona will take down a makeshift wall made of shipping containers at the Mexico border, settling a lawsuit and political tussle with the U.S. government over trespassing on federal lands.

The Biden administration and the Republican governor entered into an agreement that Arizona will cease installing the containers in the Coronado National Forest — the only national forest along the border — according to court documents filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Phoenix.

Read More: How Arizona’s Border Wall Could Stop Animals Escaping From Climate Change

The agreement also calls for Arizona to remove the containers that were already installed in the remote San Rafael Valley, in southeastern Cochise County, and in the Yuma area where the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has an easement on the Cocopah Indian Tribe’s reservation. All this must be done by Jan. 4 without damaging any natural resources. State agencies will have to consult with U.S. Forest Service representatives.

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Gov. Doug Ducey has long maintained that the shipping containers were a temporary fixture. Even before the lawsuit, he wanted the federal government to say when it would fill any remaining gaps in the permanent border wall, as it announced it would a year ago.

“For more than a year, the federal government has been touting their effort to resume construction of a permanent border barrier. Finally, after the situation on our border has turned into a full blown crisis, they’ve decided to act,” said C.J. Karamargin, Ducey’s spokesperson. “Better late than never.”

“Final details are still being worked out on how much it will cost and when it will start,” he told The Associated Press.

Representatives for U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately return messages seeking comment Thursday.

Read More: The U.S.-Mexico Border Has Long Been a Magnet for Far-Right Vigilantes

The resolution comes two weeks before Democrat Katie Hobbs, who opposes the construction, takes over as governor.

The federal government filed a lawsuit last week against Ducey’s administration on behalf of the Bureau of Reclamation, the Department of Agriculture and the Forest Service.

The federal government “owes it to Arizonans and all Americans to release a timeline,” Ducey wrote last week, responding to news of the pending federal lawsuit.

The work placing up to 3,000 containers at a cost of $95 million was about a third complete, but protesters concerned about its impact on the environment held up work in recent days.

Meanwhile, limits on asylum seekers hoping to enter the U.S. had been set to expire Wednesday before conservative-leaning states sought the U.S. Supreme Court’s help to keep them in place. The Biden administration has asked the court to lift the Trump-era restrictions, but not before Christmas. It’s not clear when the court might rule on the matter.

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Jan. 6 Committee Issues Final Report

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On Dec. 22, the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the United States Capitol released its final report.

The release of the 845-page report follows nearly 18 months of hearings and investigations by the committee and covers various aspects of former President Donald Trump’s alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

You can read the report here or below:

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Russia-Ukraine war live: North Korea denies supplying Russia’s Wagner group with weapons; air raid sirens sound in Mykolaiv

Foreign ministry in Pyongyang says White House report is ‘groundless’; residents in southern city of Mykolaiv wake up to air sirens

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Apple“s Australian workers go on Christmas strike demanding better wages, work terms

2022-12-23T05:17:00Z

A customer stands underneath an illuminated Apple logo as he looks out the window of the Apple store located in central Sydney, Australia, May 28, 2018. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo

Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) workers in Australia initiated a strike Friday afternoon, demanding better working conditions and wages, a workers’ union said, a move that might dent sales of the tech giant during the peak Christmas shopping time.

Workers represented by Australia’s Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (RAFFWU) had earlier this month announced a walk out from Apple’s retail outlets nationwide at 3 PM local time (0400 GMT) on Dec. 23, with plans to stay away throughout Christmas Eve.

The strike comes in the wake of the tech giant facing disruption at its flagship iPhone plant in China owing to a rare workers’ protest against ultra-severe COVID rules in the country and poor handling of the situation at the factory.

Earlier in June, Apple workers in Maryland, United States, became the first retail employees of the tech giant to unionize in the country as workers continued to criticize the company’s working conditions.

RAFFWU, which is at the forefront of the strike, claims an eight-year old agreement denies workers “weekends, consecutive days off, set rosters, set days of work, 12-hour breaks between shifts, overtime rates,” among others.

“The 2014 agreement is one such agreement which pushed workers below the legal minimum,” the union alleged, demanding the iPhone maker immediately return to the table and negotiate a fair agreement.

Apple declined a Reuters request for comment.


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Justin Bieber vs H&M: The Swedish fast-fashion giant says it has the rights to sell merch with Bieber’s imagery, such as hoodies and t-shirts featuring the lyrics of the song ‘Ghost’

justin bieberH&M said it had the rights to sell Justin Bieber merch days after the Canadian singer said he “didn’t approve it.”

Jason Merritt/Getty Images for Universal Music

  • Justin Bieber had lashed out at H&M on Instagram for selling “trash” merch featuring his image.
  • The Swedish fast-fashion giant clarified Thursday it has the rights to sell merch featuring the singer’s imagery.
  • H&M said it still removed the items from sale “out of respect” for Bieber.

The ongoing tiff between Canadian singer Justin Bieber and Swedish fast-fashion giant H&M has intensified. 

H&M said on Thursday it had obtained the rights to sell merchandise featuring Bieber’s imagery, following the artist’s harsh criticism that he “didn’t approve” them.

“Justin’s license holder has confirmed that H&M had the right contracts in place and followed all proper approval procedures for each selected design,” the Stockholm-based retailer said in a statement.

The clarification came after Bieber slammed the items on his Instagram stories on Monday, where he called the merch “trash” and urged his 270 million followers not to buy them. “I didn’t approve it,” he said.

H&M’s online store was offering hoodies, t-shirts and sweatshirts with pictures of Bieber or quotes from his lyrics such as “I miss you more than life” from the song “Ghost” for prices between $49.80-$114.

H&M has now said it removed the merch from its stores and website “out of respect” for Bieber.

“We have been Justin Bieber’s merchandise partner since 2016 and we are very proud of the work we have done so far,” H&M added.

Representatives for Bieber did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment sent outside regular business hours.

The fracas surrounding H&M came amid weak sales at the company, as consumers tighten spending in the uncertain market environment. In November, H&M started laying off 1,500 staff to cut costs.

H&M is the world’s second-largest fashion retailer after Inditex, the owner of Zara.

H&M shares are down about 37% this year.

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