Trump Pleads Not Guilty, Waves Arraignment in GA; CDC Asked Twitter to Censor its Own Data: Sen.

What's happening in the world, coming up on NTD News. First, our top stories. Former President Trump pleads not guilty in the Georgia election case. We have the latest on if he'll show up in court next week. The aftermath of Hurricane Adalia, with destruction all around, find out why locals say they are making the best of it and confident they can rebuild. With the CDC allegedly censoring its own official COVID vaccine data, a Republican senator accuses the agency of previously colluding with Twitter to censor information. Pennsylvania wants an earlier start to primary elections. Lawmakers are seeking a day which leaves sufficient time for candidates and doesn't conflict with religious holidays. U.S. Open players are saying they smell marijuana on the tennis court during competition. House officials admit there is a smell, but say it's not from anyone in the stands. And over 70 dead after a fire tears through a run-down building in Johannesburg, South Africa's biggest city. Most of the victims are homeless. Welcome to NTD News Today. I'm Chris Beers, our top news. Trump pleading not guilty to election charges in Georgia. According to a court filing, he waived his right to show up at the arraignment hearing next week. Trump's decision to skip court means he'll avoid a dramatic arraignment, as in the three other cases. Earlier this month, Trump and 18 others were charged in a 41-count indictment. It outlines actions questioning Biden's 2020 election victory in Georgia, and argues this was a criminal enterprise to overturn the result. Several other defendants have also already waived their arraignments, which simply means they won't appear to hear the charges read out loud. Senator Ron Johnson is speaking out. He alleges the CDC previously colluded with Twitter to censor its own official COVID vaccine data. And former President Trump says there's a reason why politicians and the media are talking about COVID again. Here are the details. Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson is accusing the CDC of colluding with Twitter to censor certain posts about COVID-19. Johnson says he received information from X, formerly known as Twitter, backing up his claim, as well as documents made public through state-led lawsuits against the Biden administration. He wrote a letter to the CDC this week, saying, it is clear that CDC abused its authority by engaging in a censorship campaign to suppress and discredit certain viewpoints it labeled as misinformation. In the letter, Johnson cites one of his posts from January of 2022. In that post, he showed data from the CDC's Vaccine Adverse Reporting System, or VAERS, database. Johnson highlighted deaths after vaccination and other adverse events. However, the post was labeled misleading, and a note explained that health officials consider COVID-19 vaccines to be safe for most people. Johnson is now asking the CDC to hand over documents detailing communication between all its employees and those of social media platforms such as X, Facebook, and more. Meanwhile, former President Trump on Wednesday published a video accusing officials of fear-mongering about new COVID variants. The left-wing lunatics are trying very hard to bring back COVID lockdowns and mandates with all of their sudden fear-mongering about the new variants that are coming. Recently, there's been many media reports about a new COVID variant circulating. President Biden said last week that all Americans would likely be advised to get another booster. They want to restart the COVID hysteria so they can justify more lockdowns, more censorship, more illegal drop boxes, more mail-in ballots. Multiple drug companies, including Pfizer and Moderna, already introduced new vaccines they say will be effective to protect against the variant of interest called ARIS. Are we about to be shut-ins again? Jeffrey Tucker, author of Liberty or Lockdown, thinks more lockdowns are only a matter of time. He points to recent news warnings about new COVID variant BA286. I spoke with him about this strain. Jeffrey Tucker, thank you for joining us again. Good to have you back on the show as always. It's my pleasure as always. Jeffrey, your recent article describes recent reporting by NPR as reminiscent of the movie Groundhog Day. Why? Well, it just seems like we can't ever get out of the lockdown period. They once again were warning about a new variant this time, I think it was called BA.2.86, but that's one of 45 variants that are circulating according to wastewater testing from CDC. And we're back to talking about masks. And school closures and sure enough, you know, the Biden administration's releasing another vaccine come September, actually in about two weeks, they say. Even though it's not been tested by the FDA at all, they just rubber stamped the thing. And many colleges are reimposing vaccine mandates. So it's like we can't get out of this whole nonsense, even though none of this worked last time to mitigate the disease or change the trajectory of the virus. But they want to do it all over again. And this time, it's only different in the sense that there's a tremendous amount of population resistance. How much there is and whether it can make a difference, we're just going to have to wait and see. You're also saying it seems like lockdowns could be back soon. How do you figure that? Well, you know, here's the problem we face is that the lockdowns from three and a half years ago were the most successful plan by the administrative state ever concocted. I mean, we've never seen anything like this where they can tell you how many people you had in your home, your church had to be shut on Easter and that sort of thing. When I say it was successful, it was successful for the agencies. All 436 of them were riding high for a very long time, pretty much overriding the will of the elected representatives of the people and seriously oppressing the people. You don't have a program like that take place and expect it just to disappear. It's going to come back precisely because it was so successful for the powerful administrative state. So I fully expected these things were going to come back and I'm just not sure whether we're at the point where there's enough population resistance to roll it back. Yeah, and you mentioned that, why do you feel like there wouldn't be enough resistance? It's really hard to gauge. I've just noticed that polling firms are not really asking people what they think about a new lockdowns or masks or plexiglass or hand sanitizer mandates or travel restrictions. Here's the problem. You've got a whole professional class out there that got a vacation for the better part of a year or two, and then they're forced back into the office and it turns out they hate it. They don't like the office. They don't like all the politics of the office, the fears of liability, complaints about this and that being ruled by HR. We're talking about many, many millions of very powerful people who are very influential over manipulation of the public mind. They really would like to go back to working at home. And if lockdown's the way to get it, they would be perfectly okay with that. So this is something we need to be very attentive to. Jeffrey Tucker, author of Liberty or Lockdown, thank you. Okay, my pleasure, thank you. The CDC has responded to the speculation about lockdowns. A spokesperson told the Associated Press last week that the rumors are quote, utterly false. A spokesperson also told the Epoch Times on Tuesday that there is no new mask mandate and that recommendations are based on hospitalization numbers, which are still low if increasing slightly. Pennsylvania is looking at changing the day when the state's presidential primaries are held in 2024. It might hold them earlier. State lawmakers pushed legislation to move it from April 23rd to March 19th. Lawmakers say there are still many factors to consider. A lot of states like holding primary elections earlier in order to give residents more influence over the general election that follows. The state's Jewish population, which includes the governor, also like the date change because April 23rd is the first day of Passover in 2024. Some lawmakers oppose the move to March 19th since it would force candidates to start gathering signatures the week before Christmas. But other dates under consideration could conflict with Easter. March 19th would give Pennsylvania the same primary date as Ohio, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, and Arizona. Hurricane Adalia split trees in half, ripped roofs off hotels, and flooded cars as it tore through Florida yesterday. Now residents are picking up the pieces. NTD's Andrew Thomas has the latest on the aftermath. Belonged Thomas and her family were forced to flee from her home in Perry. After they left the small town in Florida's Big Bend region, they found a motel. But as Adalia's eye passed over at about 8.30am, high winds ripped the building's roof off. So the top of the roof just came, slapped in on me and my three kids and my grandson. My daughter is pregnant, she's five months pregnant, so she was laying on the side of the bed where the roof was coming in and it fell on her, but I was able to pull her out of it. As the hurricane moved inland, high winds shredded signs, blew off roofs, sent sheet metal flying, and snapped tall trees. Rushing water flooded streets near the coast and untethered small boats. But the Perry community remains united. I think the city really came together. I see a lot of people helping people, a lot of people reaching out to each other, strangers, people I've never seen before in my life. They everyone's trying to make sure everybody else okay. So I think it brought us together in a way too. In Perry, the wind blew out store windows, tore siding off buildings, and overturned a gas station canopy. You know, we're going to go with it and have a good attitude about it. You know, we can rebuild all of this. No one's hurt, not right here. And it's just really sad, you know, but it is what it is, and we make the best of it, and we will. Residents in Horseshoe Beach also returned to a scene of devastation. A collapsed house, a submerged pickup truck, and a partially destroyed warehouse were among the wreckage. But Dan Ellison said the tight-knit community would come together. Horseshoe Beach is one of the best communities on this coastline to me. I've been all over it. Well, I've lived here my whole life, but the people here is like family. It could be days before residents and authorities realize the full extent of the damage. Andrew Thomas, NTD News. As the Dahlia leaves behind a trail of destruction, what is the economic impact to businesses and people's livelihoods? Here with me live is my friend and colleague, NTD Businesses Don Ma. Don, how does the situation look? Chris, the impact has been overwhelming for some, as we've seen just now. And sources are saying some 300,000 homes and businesses are now without power on the East Coast. And for damage in Florida, UBS Bank estimates average insured losses of over $9 billion, Chris. Several U.S. retailers, including Target, Walmart, closed stores because of Dahlia. About 80 Walmart and Sam's Club stores were closed in Florida and Georgia, according to Walmart's website as of yesterday. And on top of that, Chris, airlines in the U.S. canceled more than 1,000 flights as of Wednesday afternoon. About 2,000 were delayed. Wow. And we know Georgia is a leading producer of many agricultural products produced in the U.S. What's the impact on that aspect? Yeah, that's a good question, Chris. So the former administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, pointed this out yesterday as well. He said that this is going to have a big agricultural impact in southern Georgia. That's for products like cotton, corn, soybeans, peanuts. And that a lot of the workers in those areas are going to be out of work. But actually, let's take a look at what he said yesterday. This isn't like, you know, going down and it's a beach community. And once you get things back up, tourists come back. These impacts in the agriculture areas could be you've lost your crops for the year and it may take another year to get to your next crops. So all the people that depend upon that, the jobs and businesses that depend upon that, this could be a significant impact, not just from the initial storm. And on top of what he mentioned, there's also a lot of processing plants there as well. That's like poultry processing. So how badly they're impacted is going to affect the long term recovery, Chris. Don, how does the economic impact of Adalia compare to that of other hurricanes we've seen? Yeah, Adalia's impact has been severe for some, for sure. But it appears from early reports that it has been far less destructive than Hurricane Ian, which struck Florida last September. Ian was a category five and caused one hundred and twelve billion dollars in damage. If Hurricane Adalia is to cost insurers around nine billion dollars, it would actually not break into the top ten of the costly, costliest hurricanes to hit the US. But that said, it seems like natural disasters like this one are leading some insurance companies to pull out of Florida because of the risk of heavy losses. Thank you very much, Don. Thank you, Chris. Coming up, a federal court reinstates a Trump era student loan rule meant to lessen the financial burden on people repaying loans who are already in default. And Arizona agrees to pay two million dollars to the Biden administration in a settlement over its makeshift border wall. More in just a moment here on NTD News Today. Did you know ESG is impacting every part of your life? From rising gas prices to global food shortages to out of control inflation, even losing your freedom of speech and being censored on the internet. It's all being driven by ESG ideology. Who's in control? What can you do about it? Find out in The Shadow State, the first documentary exposing ESG. The ESG movement of governments and corporations operates in the shadows. Only the light of truth can expose it. Watch The Shadow State documentary streaming now. Anyone who's ever sold a home can tell you it is really hard. That's why who you work with matters. Together with Homelite, we've helped thousands of people sell faster and for the best price. You're not gonna get it all right. Just make sure you nail the big stuff, like making sure your kids are in the right seat for their age and size. Get it right at nhtsa.gov slash the right seat. To a child, this is what conflict looks like. Children in Ukraine are caught in the crossfire of war, forced to flee their homes. A steady stream of refugees has been coming across all day. It's bitterly cold. Lacking clean water and sanitation, exposed to injury, hunger. You've got to do it. Exhausted and shell-shocked from what they've been through. Every dollar you give can help bring a meal, a blanket, or simply hope to a child living in conflict. Please call or go online to givenowtosave.org today with your gift of $10 a month. That's just 33 cents a day. We cannot forget the children in places like Syria, born in refugee camps, playing in refugee camps, thinking of the camps as home. Please call or go online to givenowtosave.org today with your gift of $10 a month. Your gift can help children like Ara in Afghanistan, where nearly 20 years of conflict have forced the people into extreme poverty, weakened and unable to hold herself up. Ara was brought to a Save the Children center where she was diagnosed and treated for severe malnutrition. Every dollar helps. Please call or go online to givenowtosave.org today with your gift of $10 a month, just 33 cents a day. And thanks to special government grants that are available now, every dollar you give can multiply up to 10 times the impact. And when you use your credit card, you'll receive this special Save the Children tote bag to show you won't forget the children who are living their lives in conflict. Every war is a war against children. Please give now. Welcome back. If you've defaulted on your student loan, but you start paying it back soon, you may be eligible for lower fees. But not if you took out your loan in the last 10 years. A federal appeals court reinstated a rule prohibiting student loan guarantee agencies from charging collection fees from defaulted borrowers who quickly resume paying. The rule was finalized by the Trump administration in 2019. It only applies to debt from the Federal Family Education Loan Program. That program was discontinued during the 2009-2010 academic year and replaced with the Direct Loans Program. Newer program has students and parents borrowed directly from the Department of Education, so the rule doesn't affect those loans. Starting on September 1st, interest on federally held student loans will once again accrue after being suspended in 2020 due to the pandemic. The Biden administration is moving to extend mandatory overtime pay. A new plan would go even further than an Obama-era rule that was struck down in court. The Department of Labor released a proposed rule that would require employers to pay overtime premiums to workers who earn a salary of less than $1,059 per week or about $55,000 per year. The Trump administration in 2020 set the current salary threshold at about $35,500 per year. U.S. wage law requires employers to pay eligible workers one and a half times their regular rate of pay when they work more than 40 hours in a week. President Biden's proposal would not affect overtime eligibility for workers who are paid hourly. Publication of the proposal will kick off a 60-day public comment period. Arizona has agreed to fork over $2 million to the Biden administration for its makeshift border wall. That's to settle a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice. Under former Republican Governor Doug Ducey, storage containers were placed at southern border wall gaps reportedly to stem the tide of illegal border crossings. More than 120 ship containers were used to plug nearly 4,000 feet of gaps in the wall in Yuma County. Arizona was told by federal officials in October 2022 it was violating federal law. Once Arizona pays the bill, the case will be dismissed. The funds will reportedly be used by the Forest Service. The agency says the money will address damage done to federal and tribal territories. The wheels are falling off the ESG bandwagon. That's according to Samuel Gregg, a distinguished fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research. I spoke with him about the uncertain future of investing with a progressive twist. Samuel Gregg, thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. Samuel, Vanguard accepted significantly less ESG proposals last year, joining BlackRock. Why is this happening? Well, I think there's many reasons why the wheels are falling off the ESG bandwagon. Some of the basic economic realities are that ESG funds tend to underperform what's called non-ESG funds. And remember, people are paying higher fees for ESG funds. So at some point, people are going to be looking and saying, look, the bottom line is not being met here in terms of profit, in terms of shareholder value. So unless ESG can show that it's capable of performing at the same type of economic level as non-ESG funds, at some point, economic considerations will override the type of social and political considerations that ostensibly underlie ESG proposals. So if you, to put it very simply, economic reality and economic self-interest are causing some big problems for ESG advocates now. Does feedback from shareholders have anything to do with this? Feedback from big shareholders certainly has something to do with that. So let's keep in mind that lots of shares in companies are owned by mutual funds, and mutual funds in turn are responsible to their own investors. And some of those investors are very big investors, and when they become unhappy with what's going on in corporate America, they make their opinions felt, and mutual funds make their opinions felt to companies that are going down this particular path. So yes, shareholder pressure does matter at some point, particularly if there's a critical mass across the economy of individuals and institutional investors saying enough is enough. And maybe you can tell us a little bit more about why ESG investing is so controversial to begin with. Well, the reasons are a legion, but the basic reasons are, first of all, it's highly progressive in the political sense in terms of the types of goals and aspirations that ESG embodies. Now, you have to keep in mind, at least half the country does not embrace progressive ideals and values and priorities. Secondly, as I mentioned before, ESG funds are underperforming compared to normal funds. And thirdly, measuring performance of ESG funds is extremely difficult. And when you can't prove that you're achieving your particular goals, in the end, people will start to become very skeptical of the entire enterprise. Samuel, are we seeing a decline in the ESG movement as a whole here with these recent moves by Vanguard and BlackRock, or is this more of a flash in the pan kind of thing? Well, ESG was on the rise really, I think, from 2015 onwards and became, if you like, very popular among big funds like BlackRock, as you mentioned, and Vanguard and other institutional fund managers, because it seemed to many to be the case of, well, this is how we can do good economics plus what they regard as good social and environmental goals. But I think the wheels are starting to come off because of some of the reasons we've already talked about. And I also think that in the end, if you look into ESG very carefully, you find it wrapped in a web of contradictions and incoherence. And the fact that outfits like BlackRock have distanced themselves from ESG and even said that they don't even like the phrase anymore tells us that there's a type of movement going on that ESG advocates are having enormous difficulty trying to stand against. All right, Samuel Gregg, thank you again. Thanks for having me. President Biden will observe 9-11 from Alaska. It's the first time a president will mark the day away from either one of the crash sites or the White House. Biden will observe the 22nd year since the 9-11 attacks from a military base in Alaska. He will arrive in the state after a planned meeting in Vietnam. As Biden holds the ceremony in Alaska, Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff, will visit the National September 11th Memorial and Museum in New York City. First Lady Jill Biden will mark the occasion from the National 9-11 Pentagon Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. 9-11 also marks the day in 2021 that Biden ordered as the deadline for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. Coming up, a US Open player says the tennis court smelled like Snoop Dogg's living room. Not the only player to smell marijuana during fishing. And flight attendants at American Airlines voted to authorize a strike, but the vote may just be symbolic. Stay tuned to find out why. NTD's Capitol Report. It's about getting answers, cutting through the fog of politics. It's about your questions and our chances to ask. We're speaking to those in power to find out what does this mean for the people. We're here so you're in the know. Morning I'm Evelyn Lee and I'm Kevin Hogan. What does it mean to devote your life to the truth? Does it mean investigating communist subversion here in America? Does it mean exposing the deadly fentanyl crisis in the Midwest? Or spending late nights uncovering deep government corruption? Because at a time when America's traditional values are under attack, it's the responsibility of righteous journalists to uphold truth and tradition. Back to the news. US Open players are saying they smell marijuana on one of the courts. German tennis star, Alexander Zverev, said it, quote, "'definitely smells like Snoop Dogg's living room.'" Zverev also told the Associated Press that the smell is everywhere and that the whole court smelled like weed. Greek tennis player, Maria Sakkari, also said she smelled marijuana on the same court during her first round loss. Tennis officials investigated and said there is no evidence anyone was smoking marijuana in the stands during Sakkari's match. A US Tennis Association representative told WNBC, marijuana smell wafted in from public places nearby, including a local park. US Open players previously also said they smelled weed there. Australia's Nick Kyrgios complained about the smell last year, saying it could affect his asthma. New York legalized recreational marijuana use in 2021. Adults 21 years and older can now carry and use a limited amount. Flight attendants at American Airlines have voted to strike. They're fighting for a new contract with pay raises and more staffing on flights. It's a good time to ask for it. Just last week, the airline reached a deal with pilots that gives them a 21% pay raise and a 46% raise by 2027. American also posted a $1.3 billion profit last quarter in the face of strong ticket sales and a decline in the price of jet fuel. The strike vote is largely symbolic because there are many steps that would have to take place before an actual strike happened. But off-duty flight attendants are already holding informational picketing events at a dozen airports to put pressure on their employer. The annual cost of owning and operating a new car has soared to new heights. AAA says the average cost this year is over $12,000 for a year. That's $1,015 a month. That's a big jump from 2022 when the average cost was nearly 11,000 a year. The increase is being driven in part by record high vehicle prices and a 90% jump in finance rates. New car prices are up nearly $1,600 since last year. Fuel was one of the higher annual cost categories compared to 2022. However, this year's average cost per mile has gone down by roughly 2 cents. EV charging has also gotten more expensive. Additionally, automakers have been making more oversized, luxurious, and pricey vehicles with extra features that add to the price increase. Continuing with your car costs, if you plan to fill up your gas tank ahead of Labor Day weekend, you may notice the unusually high prices at the pumps. Gas prices are near all-time highs right now. AAA says the average national price is $3.82 a gallon. That's just days before the Labor Day weekend, and 11 states across the country are averaging $4 a gallon or more. Analysts say for a variety of reasons, including extreme heat, OPEC holding back supplies, gas prices could remain elevated well into the fall. A brand of eye drops is expanding its recall due to contamination concern. Following analysis by the US Food and Drug Administration, bacteria and fungus were found in Dr. Burns Whole Health products, the recalls for the 5% and 15% eye drop solutions, missed 15% solution, and organic castor oil eye drops. According to the FDA, you should stop using these products because they could cause a serious and life-threatening vision infection. If you have experienced any problems, call your doctor. Only two cases of adverse effects have been reported so far. And a dramatic bust in West Virginia. After more than a full year on the run, an escaped inmate was finally captured. Samuel Hartman is a convicted child rapist who was sentenced to life in prison. Last August, he escaped prison work detail on a highway in Arkansas. According to investigators, a vehicle with two women inside approached the work crew. They allegedly got out and started shooting at workers while Hartman ran to the waiting vehicle. Two women were later identified as Hartman's wife and his mother. They were arrested along with Hartman on Tuesday. North Dakota's oil industry is attracting a new labor force, Ukrainian refugees. National unemployment remains low, so North Dakota has struggled to attract out-of-state workers. We have more on the new hires. Talk and grow in North Dakota is connecting Ukrainians with potential employers. For Maksim Bunchakov, it's a welcome opportunity. A Biden administration initiative allows eligible Ukrainians to live and work in the U.S. for up to two years. For Dmytro Hayman, that meant coming to the Great Plains. Now I got some job here in North Dakota, and I hope that soon the war will be over and I can work here to get some money to help to my family, to help us to rebuild our country. Brent Sanford is the project lead for Talk and Grow. He says the oil industry and Ukrainian refugees are in a position to help each other. And what you can find with a refugee population is that they're very needing an opportunity and very willing to work and open to what might come. And these employers are willing to try something different. So it seems like a good marriage of needs on both sides. The pilot class aims to bring 25 recruits to towns across North Dakota by the end of August. And if you have any news tips or feedback for the show, please feel free to email us at news.today at ntd.com. Coming up, do you need a visa to travel to Europe? A new set of rules is in place now. We have a list of what extra steps are needed. And in Japan, a rare strike occurred at an iconic department store, the first time in over 60 years. What's behind it? More shortly here on NTD News Today. Hey, Bobo, do trees tell each other stories? I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't know that. Hey, why don't we go find out? Do clouds take naps? I couldn't tell you. Dad, do stars visit their friends? Look! My dad's name was David. He always talked about getting life insurance, and now it's too late. No one was expecting my husband Dave to suffer from a heart attack. We didn't have life insurance. We thought we had more time. Don't be Dave, and don't wait until it's too late to get the life insurance coverage you need. And if you don't have enough insurance to cover funeral costs, credit card debt, and other expenses, your family is gonna get stuck with the bill. Call now to get affordable life insurance. Just call 800-494-1562. If you're over 50, you can't be turned down for this insurance, regardless of your health. 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Former President Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges in the Georgia-Rico case this morning. It means he will not be appearing in court for the arraignment next Wednesday. Senator Ron Johnson accuses the CDC of colluding with Twitter to censor information about COVID vaccines. He says posts linking the CDC's own data on adverse vaccine events were labeled as misleading. Florida and Georgia residents begin to clean up the destruction from Hurricane Adalia. Locals say they'll make the best of it to help each other out. U.S. Open players say they smell marijuana on one of the courts. One compares it to Snoop Dogg's living room. A U.S. Tennis Association representative said the smell wafted in from public places nearby. At least 73 people have died overnight when a fire tore through a derelict apartment block in South Africa. The building was occupied by homeless people. Dozens have been killed and scores more wounded after flames engulfed a derelict building occupied by homeless people in South Africa's Johannesburg on Thursday. This disturbing Reuters footage shows bodies lying covered near the site of the blaze. Some of the gates were closed. One distraught, grieving woman was comforted as she cried on the street. Search and rescue efforts were ongoing, the city administration said on the Platform X, formerly known as Twitter. We started evacuating the people who were inside the building and also conducting our firefighting operations. Media said the fire engulfed a five-story building that had been abandoned at one stage, but where people had been living. It was not immediately clear what caused the fire. UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace is officially stepping down. He tendered his resignation letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak earlier today. Wallace had said he would quit the role in the next cabinet reshuffle. He held the post for four years, serving as a minister for a total of eight years. Wallace was once touted as a potential successor to NATO Secretary Jen Stoltenberg. He played a leading role in shaping Britain's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year. In his official resignation letter, Wallace renewed his appeal for the government not to turn to defense to make spending cuts. His successor will be former Energy Secretary Grant Schapp. A big change for traveling to Europe next year. To go to most countries, you'll need to take a few extra steps before setting off on your vacation. That's because of a new set of rules. So, you wanna go to Europe in the new year. Well, this will likely be a new must-do. Applying online to enter most European countries first before you get on a plane. You'll enter your passport details, you'll enter a few security questions, maybe some questions about your trip details. It's because of a new layer of European border security called the European Travel Information and Authorization System, or ETIOS. Citizens of the 60 or so non-EU countries that don't currently require a visa to enter the EU, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, will now need a visa waiver to enter the world's largest visa-free zone. That includes countries like Italy, France, Greece, and Switzerland. The ETIAS is basically being implemented to improve the safety, security, and to strengthen their borders in this visa-free zone. So, this will screen travelers who don't require a full visa. Designers of the system say, applications should be processed in minutes, the vast majority completed in 96 hours. But authorities from the EU caution, some applicants may be asked to provide additional information or documentation, or to participate in an interview with national authorities, which may take up to additional 30 days. We recommend you do these at least 30 days prior to your travel. That's why it's advised not to book flights or accommodations until confirmation that the application is approved. The first walkout in six decades, spotted at a landmark department store in Japan. It comes after talks broke down between workers and management over a plan to sell the company. Here's the latest. It's a sight not seen for generations. Workers at a major Japanese department store went on strike Thursday. There hasn't been a walkout like it at any equivalent store for 61 years. Staff at the Seibu flagship branch in Tokyo were protesting against the sale of their firm. Sogo and Seibu, a unit of retail giant Seven & I, is the subject of a bid by US investment group Fortress. Workers want guarantees over jobs and business continuity. They're unhappy at proposals for a local discount retailer to take over much of the store. Critics say that would cheapen its image. Union representative Takeshi Sakamoto said the walkout came after talks with management broke down. What we wanted was to have a continuous discussion before the closing of the deal, but we did not get to have it. So that's why we came here to go on strike. The stoppage is unusual in Japan where talks over pay and conditions are normally settled amicably. Seven & I apologized for the strike and said talks would continue. At least some locals were supportive of the action. I really hope the Seibu store will survive and continue business as usual. So as a customer, even though it's disappointing the store is closed because of the strike, I'll take it no matter what if it can change management decisions. The strike comes amid a tight labor market in Japan. Though unions have won big pay rises, those gains have been eroded by mounting inflation. Labor experts said the walkout could spur workers elsewhere to be more militant. Still to come, a Ukrainian entrepreneur designs easy to build houses for his employees who lost their homes. A new place takes just a few days to manufacture and assemble. And artificial intelligence is coming to kitchen appliances. Find out how your coffee maker and your stove can help with cooking. We'll be back with more soon here on NTV News. Hey, I told you enough of that. But look, this is different. It's gone gene world. you Say goodbye to harsh, bitter coffee, and hello to a delicious, smooth brew with specialty quality beans expertly roasted in-house. You'll taste the difference with every sip. Fermented with a blend of 50 enzymes, today's coffee delivers a rich brew like no other. Made with the highest grade specialty beans available. Be sure to taste the difference. Elevate your morning with today's enzyme fermented coffee. Does this look familiar? You probably think this is what owning hearing aids would be like. Let me tell you, there's a better way. 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Now a local entrepreneur is designing easy to build houses for his employees. NTD's Andrew Thomas has the blueprints. A Russian missile has left these apartments in ruins in Kiev. It's a familiar sight across Ukraine. Employers like Alex Stepura are looking for places for their staff to stay. I called people trying to collect them back to Kiev. But again, it turned out many of them really lost accommodation near Kiev. As an engineer, Stepura has a talent for problem solving. So he began designing houses. We understood the houses we produced should be really fast assembling and disassembling. It allows people to shift to move houses if needed. Chris Baxter is the co-founder of Homers. He and his family are living in a module while their house undergoes renovations. It's the company's first outside of Ukraine. I think the property has been tested quite extreme circumstances. It's held up well. Everything works, the electricity, the water, so on and so forth. So we're living in very comfortable accommodation. A series of modules can be bolted together and expanded. Each block comes fully furnished. And they can be broken down quickly too. Each module is three meters by three meters by three meters. Imagine a cube. And you can put as many of those together as you want to form a larger or smaller or larger house. It's a little bit like Lego. A four module, 380 square foot home takes just a few days to manufacture. An experienced team can put it together on site in just a couple of days. Homers hopes to crowdfund up to $3 million to expand the business. Would you use a smart coffee maker or a smart stove? German company Siemens is showing off artificial intelligence in appliances this weekend. Here's the latest products at the IFA Berlin 2023 trade show. Siemens is focusing its efforts on home cooking at this year's IFA show in Berlin. Over the next several days, the German tech company will present a more integrated kitchen experience. We've been pushing the connectivity of household appliances and we do everything. We work with sensors and sophisticated programs at the same time. More things are becoming automatic. Everything is going on its own. Our appliances even talk to one another. A coffee machine is often a permanent fixture in any young professional's kitchen. Siemens' new coffee maker uses artificial intelligence to make the perfect cup of joe. With the help of the barista mode, the individual has the right control of all the coffee meters. That is the right amount of coffee, how fine the coffee is ground, temperature, and the amount of milk according to your taste. Siemens has also developed a frying sensor that connects with the stove. The new appliance can adjust and control the temperature of the pots and pans. With the new IQ700 hob, we've developed a new frying sensor probe so users can select from different settings between 70 and 270 degrees centigrade. The hob itself measures and controls the temperature and accordingly adjusts the output so that the temperature remains constant. FIFA 2023 runs from September 1st to September 5th in Berlin. Thank you for tuning in today. I'm Chris Beers. you Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Did you know YouTube only keeps selected videos on its platform? So if you want to make sure you get the full picture, just subscribe to our newsletter. Go to newsletter.ntd.com and sign up. It's free.