US Business

Former president Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama finally got their official White House portraits Wednesday, after four years of being snubbed by Donald Trump, in an emotional ceremony doubling as a rousing defense of American democracy.

The paintings, destined to hang alongside those of generations of previous first couples in the White House, were unveiled by the Obamas themselves.

Deafening cheers sounded through the packed East Room as they pulled up the plain blue cloths covering the art works.

Obama, the country’s first Black president, was depicted by Robert McCurdy looking straight out, hands in pockets, his dark suit contrasting against a startlingly white background, and shadow falling over half of his face.

Michelle, who was painted by Sharon Sprung, posed in a light blue gown, seated on a red sofa.

Obama joked that McCurdy’s signature precision and sharp lines meant he “refused to hide any of my grey hairs,” but said the directness of the style countered the tendency where presidents “often get airbrushed,” getting “mythical status, especially after you’ve gone and people forget all the stuff they didn’t like.”

The cheers kept coming during President Joe Biden’s speech kicking off the event and the volume rose further when the Obamas took the podium.

Michelle Obama veered into distinctly political territory with a powerful homage to US democracy and barely disguised criticism of Trump.

“Traditions like this matter,” she said, describing the portraits custom as part of the passing of the torch between successive, even opposing administrations.

“We hold an inauguration to ensure a peaceful transition of power,” she said in a barbed reminder of the way Trump refused to accept his 2020 defeat by Biden, stymied the incoming government’s preparations — then failed to invite the Obamas to unveil their official portraits.

Michelle Obama reduced the room to silence with her observation that growing up as a Black girl in Chicago she’d assumed “she was never supposed to be up there next to Jacqueline Kennedy” or other famous — always white — first ladies.

“Too often in this country, people feel like they have to look a certain way or act a certain way to fit in,” she said. 

“What we are seeing is a reminder that there’s a place for everyone in this country,” where “the two of us can end up on a wall in the most famous address in the world.”

“Our democracy is so much stronger than our differences,” she said.

“We love you,” a man in the crowd called out, prompting more cheers.

– Contempt –

Past presidents and first ladies have typically had their portraits hung in White House halls and corridors after ceremonies hosted by successors. Democrat Obama, for example, hosted George W. Bush, a Republican, and his wife Laura Bush at portrait unveilings in 2012.

However, Trump declined to invite the Obamas — amid undisguised contempt between both leaders in the wake of the Republican’s shock 2016 election win — and the tradition ground to a halt.

The norm-shredding Trump even reportedly ordered portraits of Bush and his predecessor Bill Clinton to be taken down from the walls of the Grand Foyer and put in storage. 

But a portrait of Hillary Clinton, the former first lady whom Trump had defeated in his presidential campaign, remained visible in a lower corridor through his tempestuous 2017-2021 term.

As for Trump, the Biden administration says it has no direct say on whether or when his own portrait could be hung up. It is not clear whether the ex-president, now in deep legal peril after the discovery of top-secret documents taken from the White House to his Florida estate, has even commissioned an official painting.

– Mutual praise –

Biden, who served as vice president throughout Obama’s two terms, poured praise on his former boss, recalling how they first took office in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

“We trusted him, all of you in this room. We believed in him, we counted on him. And I still do,” Biden said.

Obama returned the compliments, telling Biden “I was even luckier to have a chance to spend eight years working day and night with a man who became a true partner and a true friend.”

“Joe, it is now America’s good fortune to have you as president,” he said.

Talking of his own rise to the top job with defeat of Trump in 2020, Biden said “nothing could have prepared me more” for the presidency than working alongside Obama.

Apple launched new smartphones Wednesday at prices similar to recent models despite inflation and supply chain woes, while unveiling a premium digital watch with a price tag to match.

While a 90-minute presentation at the company’s California headquarters did not include any surprise reveals, the tech giant did unveil new digital identification system to obviate the need for a physical sim card.

The company’s newest smartphone, the iPhone 14, costs $799 for the base model — the same price as the current version, while a premium iPhone 14 Pro Max will go for $1,100.

The set of updated products, which also includes new earbuds, is designed to keep customers loyal to its lucrative technology ecosystem.

“Apple continued its strong growth in the first half of 2022, driven by robust demand for the iPhone 13 — which was the best-selling smartphone worldwide,” said Le Xuan Chiew, an analyst at Canalys.

The ability to keep the iPhone prices flat reflected the benefits of diversifying the supply chain to India after China’s zero-tolerance Covid policies crimped production there, the analyst said.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said the launch event underscored Apple’s logistics strength.

“Taking a step back, launching 3 new core hardware products within the Apple ecosystem despite the biggest supply chain crisis seen in modern history is a major feat for Cook & Co. especially with the zero Covid shutdowns in China seen in April/May,” Ives said.

Features of the new iPhone 14 include a more durable battery and new photographic capacities to capture “ultra wide” scenes and low-light settings.

The phones also contain an “emergency SOS” function to enable messaging to emergency services when outside of Wifi coverage.

The iPhone 14 Plus comes in a giant 6.7-inch (17-centimeter) screen that offers a better experience when playing games or watching videos.

Company officials touted new digital watch products with enhanced features. The Apple Watch Series 8 — which can monitor body temperature and other body functions — prices at $400.

The company also unveiled the Apple Watch Ultra, priced at $800, which includes a battery with enough lifespan for hardcore athletes “to complete a long-course triathlon,” according to an Apple press release.

Neil Saunders, analyst at GlobalData Retail, described the new offerings as having “incremental improvements rather than groundbreaking new innovations,” adding that the company “has done enough to drive demand by persuading consumers to upgrade and indulge in its new products.”

A ferocious heat wave scorching the western United States could finally begin to wane in the coming days, forecasters said Wednesday, but they warned of dangerous fire conditions as howling winds sweep through the bone-dry region.

California and neighboring states have endured a week of triple digit temperatures that have already brought deadly wildfires and the daily threat of power blackouts as the electricity grid struggles to cope with soaring demand.

But a predicted cooling as a cold front barrels in from Canada looks set to bring its own dangers, the National Weather Service said.

“This cold front will also aid in producing gusty winds throughout the northern Great Basin and northern High Plains today. Combined with low relative humidity, conditions are likely to support the potential for new wildfires to start and existing fires to spread uncontrollably,” the NWS warned.

The Storm Prediction Center “has issued an Extremely Critical fire weather area over north-central Montana, where winds could gust up to 60 miles (95 kilometers) per hour.”

A number of wildfires are already burning all over the western United States, including two deadly blazes that erupted over the long Labor Day weekend.

The Mill Fire in northern California killed two people, and destroyed over 100 buildings as it tore through 4,000 acres (1,600 hectares) of Siskiyou County.

To the southeast of Los Angeles, the Fairview Fire was continuing to grow, and remained out of control, fire officials said Wednesday.

Two people are known to have perished in the blaze, which exploded from a standing start during soaring temperatures on Monday, and has now consumed 5,000 acres.

More than 10,000 people have been told to evacuate, but the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said not everyone had heeded the warnings — despite the deployment of dozens of deputies going door-to-door.

“You would think more people would take it seriously because it’s so fast-moving, and that’s why we try and do such a large evacuation area because the shift in winds, the weather is unpredictable, and fire moves fast,” department spokeswoman Brandi Swan told the Los Angeles Times.

– Weather whiplash –

More than two decades of drought has left the US West tinder dry and vulnerable to fast-moving fires that burn hotter and are more destructive.

Scientists say human-caused global warming is interfering with the natural weather cycle, amping up the hots and making the storms wetter and more unpredictable.

The kind of weather whiplash climatologists say is becoming more frequent could be on display later in the week, with forecasters predicting the heat wave in the southwest could give way to torrential rain.

While Wednesday and Thursday were expected to continue to be very hot, with the mercury topping 110 Fahrenheit (43 Celsius) in several places, a hurricane looming off the Pacific coast of Mexico looked set to bring up to six inches (15 centimeters) of rain to some parts of Arizona and California.

“This amount of rainfall is likely to produce scattered instances of flash flooding, particularly near recent burn scars,” the NWS said.

The soaring temperatures have put enormous pressure on California’s creaking power grid, with record demand for electricity to cool homes.

Rolling blackouts were narrowly avoided on Tuesday after the California Independent System Operator, which runs the grid, issued an emergency call for households to turn up their air conditioner thermostats and switch off unnecessary lights.

“Consumer conservation played a big part in protecting electric grid reliability,” the body tweeted. “Thank you, California!”

California has abundant solar installations, including on homes, which typically provide for around a third of the state’s power requirements during daylight.

But when the sun goes down, that supply falls quickly, leaving traditional generation to plug the gap. The problem is particularly acute in the early evening when temperatures are still high, but solar starts dropping out of the power mix.

Georgian former chess world champion Nona Gaprindashvili has resolved her legal dispute with Netflix after suing the streaming giant for defamation over its hit show “The Queen’s Gambit,” her attorney said Wednesday.

“I am pleased that the matter has been resolved,” Alexander Rufus-Isaacs told AFP.

A court filing the previous day said the case was dismissed with the agreement of all parties, and The Hollywood Reporter website also reported the two sides had reached a deal.

Gaprindashvili sued Netflix in September 2021 for $5 million, claiming a line in the series in which a character claims she had “never faced men” in her career was “grossly sexist and belittling.” 

Gaprindashvili had faced dozens of male competitors by 1968, the year in which the wildly popular limited series “The Queen’s Gambit” is mainly set.  

Lawyers for Netflix tried to have the suit dismissed on the grounds that the series is a work of fiction and therefore is covered by the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects free speech.

But a federal judge denied their motion, noting that “the fact that the series was a fictional work does not insulate Netflix from liability for defamation if all the elements of defamation are otherwise present.”

“The Queen’s Gambit,” starring Anya Taylor-Joy, is based on a 1983 novel by Walter Tevis and tells the story of a young orphan who becomes the world’s greatest chess player.

While central character Beth Harmon is fictional, the series features several real-life chess characters, including Gaprindashvili.

Gaprindashvili was the first woman to be awarded the International Chess Federation title of Grandmaster, in 1978.

President Joe Biden will evoke John F. Kennedy’s famous 1962 speech on putting an American on the moon next week when he outlines his government’s goal of halving cancer deaths, the White House said Wednesday.

Biden will mark the 60th anniversary of JFK’s “Moonshot” speech with an event at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston “to deliver remarks on the Cancer Moonshot and the goal of ending cancer as we know it,” the White House said.

While Kennedy used his speech to announce the program that ultimately put a human on the Moon for the first time in 1969, Biden will discuss what he calls the Cancer Moonshot initiative, which seeks to cut cancer death rates by half in the next 25 years.

Caroline Kennedy, the US ambassador to Australia and daughter of the assassinated JFK, told CNN she approved of the parallels drawn by Biden in the struggle to conquer space and the deadly disease.

“Sixty years after my father challenged Americans to land on the moon, President Biden is welcoming great challenges as new opportunities by setting us on a bold course to end cancer as we know it,” she said.

Biden’s son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015 when Biden was vice president to Barack Obama.

The following year, Obama asked Biden to lead the Cancer Moonshot plan. In February of this year, Biden relaunched the program, which seeks to provide government funding and support for everything from medical research to improving access to healthcare and better environmental conditions.

Biden’s focus on the cancer fight comes as NASA is once again looking to return to the Moon.

Two attempts to launch the agency’s huge Artemis 1 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida were shelved last week due to problems with a fuel leak. The next possible launch window is between September 19 and October 4.

The rocket is to carry an empty capsule in a test flight before an eventual crewed mission back to the lunar surface.

Reality TV star-turned-entrepreneur Kim Kardashian announced Wednesday she is branching into a new business arena with the launch of a private equity firm co-founded with a former partner at industry giant Carlyle.

“I’m pleased to announce the launch of @SKKYPartners with private equity veteran Jay Sammons as co-founder and co-managing partner,” Kardashian wrote on Twitter.

Kardashian said her mother, Kris Jenner, would also serve as partner.  

According to the new firm’s Instagram account, SKKY Partners will focus on investments in consumer and media companies in sectors including “consumer products, digital and e-commerce, consumer media, hospitality and luxury.” 

It is the latest of a series of business ventures for megastar Kardashian, who came to fame with the US reality show “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” which tracked the lives of her family members in Los Angeles.

The 41-year-old has steadily built her business empire in recent years — most visibly with her apparel and beauty brands — and has a net worth of $1.8 billion, according to Forbes. 

Jay Sammons, who in the summer left his long-time role as head of consumer, media and retail at Carlyle — one of the top private equity companies in the world — told The Wall Street Journal he approached Kardashian and her mother about launching the firm this year.

Kardashian told the Journal she liked the idea of working closely with entrepreneurs to help them grow their vision.

“The exciting part is to sit down with these founders and figure out what their dream is,” Kardashian told the paper, adding the firm plans to make its first investment before the end of 2022.  

“I want to support what that is, not change who they are in their DNA, but just support and get them to a different level.”

SKKY did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.