ЦІКАВЕ

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In the Western United States, livestock auctioneers compete in a fast-talking contest to crown the Mile High Auctioneer champion. In Denver, Colorado, VOA’s Scott Stearns has the story.
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Nashua, New Hampshire — Michael Suarez’ girlfriend thought he was nuts for going to the event. But when the prized invitation appeared in his email, the Merrimack, New Hampshire, voter knew he couldn’t miss the post-election party for Donald Trump.

“In this world, we need a tough guy,” Suarez said, referring to what he sees as the need for a president to interact with dictators like North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, “a macho guy who doesn’t pull punches.”

Minutes later, he cheered along with several hundred volunteers and supporters as his candidate took the stage in a Nashua, New Hampshire, hotel ballroom. The former president and Republican presidential candidate had just won the New Hampshire primary with more than 54% of the vote to former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley’s 43%, based on 91% of votes counted.

Setting records

The results made history in several ways. It is Trump’s third time to best his competitors in the New Hampshire primary over three presidential cycles and his second campaign win in two weeks. By winning the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, Trump becomes the first non-incumbent Republican in 40 years to win both contests.

“We set a record,” exclaimed the Republican candidate, pointing to his 30-point win in the Iowa caucuses. “It was the best in the history of the caucus.”

The New Hampshire primary narrowed to two candidates when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis dropped out of the race on Sunday and threw his support behind Trump. On the eve of the election, the former president was joined at a rally by three other presidential campaign competitors-turned-supporters: South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burnam.

Come together

Haley narrowed the gap with Trump, coming in a strong second, much stronger than polls indicated.

“At one point in this campaign, there were 14 of us running,” Haley said at her post-election rally. “And we were at 2% in the polls. Well, I’m a fighter. And, I’m scrappy. And now we are the last one standing next to Donald Trump.”

Haley also benefitted from the endorsement of New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu and the votes of independents who chose her on a Republican ballot, like Peggi Sawiki from Pelham, New Hampshire. “She’s going to bring people together,” the schoolteacher said, “and that’s what we need in this country right now.”

Write-in scores

President Joe Biden was not on the ballot, yet he easily won the Democratic primary, albeit with a little help from some friends. Last year, the Democratic National Committee demoted New Hampshire from its historic spot as the first state primary in favor of South Carolina’s more diverse voters. New Hampshire party officials angrily forged ahead with the primary and supporters launched a write-in campaign.

Heading south

The next primary is in February in South Carolina where Trump and Haley will do battle again. Haley is a former governor of the state, while Trump has been collecting endorsements from state officials. Trump predicts he will “win easily.” Haley seemed to welcome the challenge, joyously announcing at her Tuesday night rally, “Thank you for the love, New Hampshire, we’re goin’ home to South Carolina!”
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New Hampshire voters gave decisive wins to candidates Tuesday, in one of the first votes leading to the 2024 presidential election. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti is in Nashua, New Hampshire, to bring us the winners and losers and what it means looking ahead to the next contest in South Carolina.
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San Francisco — Netflix added 13 million subscribers in the final three months of last year, the company said on Tuesday, despite price hikes at the leading streaming service.

Netflix finished 2023 with slightly more than 260 million subscribers worldwide, with a profit of $938 million in the final quarter versus just $55 million in the same period a year earlier.

“We believe there is plenty of room for growth ahead as streaming expands,” the U.S. company said in an earnings letter.

Netflix shares were up more than 8% to $532.75 in after-market trades that followed the release of the earnings figures.

“Netflix sticks out as the clear front-runner in the streaming wars,” said Insider Intelligence principal analyst Ross Benes.

The streaming pioneer said that despite last year’s strikes by Hollywood actors and writers, the company has a “big, bold” slate of content for release this year.

The company touted coming content including a sequel to the hit Squid Game series out of South Korea and a brand new “3 Body Problem” show based on a bestselling novel by the same name.

“Choice and control are the price of entry in modern entertainment, and that is streaming,” Netflix said in the letter. “It’s what consumers want, and we believe it’s the best way for our industry to stay relevant and growing.”

The earnings news came the same day that Netflix sealed a long-term broadcast deal with the WWE professional wrestling juggernaut, as it pushes further into sporting events.

Beginning in the United States in 2025, Netflix will become the exclusive new home of “Raw,” the WWE’s flagship program that has been broadcasting on television since 1993.

The agreement will also see WWE shows and live events streamed across the globe as their rights become available.

With an initial 10-year term for $5 billion, the deal has an option for Netflix to extend the deal for an additional 10 years or opt out after the first five years.

“We expect our industry to remain highly competitive,” Netflix said, citing heavy investment by rivals including Amazon, Apple and YouTube. “It’s why continuing to improve our entertainment offering is so important.”

Netflix late last year increased the price of its basic plan in the United States to $11.99 monthly and its premium plan to $22.99, with similar price increases seen in Britain and France.

After a period of rocky earnings, earlier in 2022, the Silicon Valley giant expanded its crackdown on users sharing passwords with people beyond their immediate family.

In a separate bid for revenue, Netflix launched an ad-subsidized offering around the same time as the crackdown.

The ad-supported tier is priced at $7 monthly and is growing fast but has yet to become a main driver of overall revenue, according to Netflix.

As the ad-tiers gain momentum, the company said on Tuesday that it would retire the lowest cost ad-free plan, starting with Canada and the UK in the second quarter of this year.

The company said earlier this month it has 23 million subscribers using the ad-supported tier, which accounts for 40% of new sign-ups.

Netflix Co-Chief Executive Greg Peters said during an earnings call that the company is continuing to expand its lineup of more than 80 mobile games that subscribers can play, having recently added the blockbuster “Grand Theft Auto.”

“We’re stoked by the performance of GTA,” said Peters, noting that the Netflix mobile game exceeded even the company’s high hopes for it.
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The U.S. military says it struck three facilities Tuesday in western Iraq used by the Iranian-backed militant group Kataib Hezbollah. It’s the latest retaliatory strikes after militant groups have hit U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria more than 150 times since mid-October. There are growing concerns that the U.S. may soon be entangled in another war in the Middle East as it supports Israel in its fight against Hamas and its European partner, Ukraine, as it fights off Russian invaders. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has details.
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Denver — An orphanage founder in Haiti who faced past accusations of abusing boys in his care is facing criminal charges in the U.S. after an investigation revealed that he traveled to the Caribbean country to sexually abuse minors, federal officials said Tuesday.

Michael Geilenfeld, 71, previously sued a Maine activist over accusations he abused boys in Haiti, calling the claims “vicious, vile lies,” before an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI led to an indictment contending he traveled from Miami to the island nation “for the purpose of engaging in any illicit sexual conduct with another person under 18.”

Geilenfeld, who was arrested in Colorado, is expected to have a detention hearing in Denver on Thursday before being flown to Miami, where the case originated, officials said. His Massachusetts lawyer, Robert Oberkoetter, declined to comment.

Geilenfeld and North Carolina-based Hearts with Haiti sued the activist, Paul Kendrick, who accused Geilenfeld of being a serial pedophile after speaking to young men who claimed they were abused by Geilenfeld as boys in Port-au-Prince, where Geilenfeld founded the St. Joseph’s Home for Boys in 1985.

In a federal civil lawsuit in Maine, Geilenfeld and the charity blamed Kendrick for Geilenfeld’s 237-day imprisonment in Haiti, damage to his reputation and the loss of millions of dollars in donations.

The activist’s insurance companies ended the lawsuit in 2019 by paying $3 million to Hearts with Haiti, but nothing to Geilenfeld.

Kendrick had praise Tuesday for those who stood up to the man who held the purse strings to their education, food, shelter and clothing.

“It took an unbelievable amount of courage for them to come forward and report their abuse,” he said.

The conduct cited by the grand jury happened between November 2006 and December 2010, when Geilenfeld was operating the orphanage.

The charge of traveling in foreign commerce for illicit sexual conduct has a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

Authorities in Haiti have long investigated sex abuse allegations against Geilenfeld, who was arrested in the Caribbean country in September 2014 but released a year later after his case was dismissed.

The alleged victims, who did not appear in court in Haiti, were granted an appeal, but the case has yet to go to trial as Haiti’s judicial system continues to crumble amid widespread corruption and a spike in gang violence.
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New York — United Airlines cast doubt Tuesday on future orders and deliveries of Boeing 737s after it was forced to ground dozens of planes following the dramatic Alaska Airlines incident earlier this month.

The U.S. airline grounded its fleet of 79 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft on January 6, a day after a panel blew off the Alaska Airlines plane mid-flight, leaving a hole in the fuselage and forcing an emergency landing.

Although there were no fatalities or serious injuries in the January 5 incident, U.S. regulators grounded 171 jets from the 737 Max 9 fleet with the same configuration as the plane involved in that drama.

United announced Monday that it predicts the aircraft will remain out of action through the end of January, leading to losses in the first quarter of 2024.

In a conference call Tuesday, United’s chief financial officer Michael Leskinen said 31 out of the 107 aircraft United expects to take delivery of this year are Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft.

“It is unrealistic at this time to believe all of those aircraft will deliver as currently planned,” he said.

Alongside its Max 9 orders, United also has 277 as-yet-uncertified Boeing 737 Max 10 aircraft on order through the rest of the 2020s, and options to purchase 200 further aircraft, Leskinen told the conference call.

“We also expect a reduction in orders and deliveries from Boeing in 2025,” he said, noting that orders of 737 Max 10s would also likely be affected.

The Max grounding was “kind of straw that broke the camel’s back with believing that the Max 10 will deliver on the schedule we had hoped for,” he said.

“So we are working through an alternate plan,” he added. 

United’s shares were up almost seven percent in mid-day trading, following the release of strong fourth-quarter results after the market closed Monday, while Boeing’s shares slipped by around 0.7 percent. 
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NEW YORK — Charles Osgood, a five-time Emmy Award-winning journalist who anchored “CBS Sunday Morning” for more than two decades, hosted the long-running radio program “The Osgood File” and was referred to as CBS News’ poet-in-residence, has died. He was 91. 

CBS reported that Osgood died Tuesday at his home in Saddle River, New Jersey, and that the cause was dementia, according to his family. 

Osgood was an erudite, warm broadcaster with a flair for music who could write essays and light verse as well as report hard news. He worked in radio and television with equal facility and signed off by telling listeners: “I’ll see you on the radio.” 

“To say there’s no one like Charles Osgood is an understatement,” Rand Morrison, executive producer of “Sunday Morning,” said in a statement. “He embodied the heart and soul of ‘Sunday Morning.’ … At the piano, Charlie put our lives to music. Truly, he was one of a kind — in every sense.” 

“CBS News Sunday Morning” will honor Osgood with a special broadcast on Sunday. 

Osgood took over “Sunday Morning” after the beloved Charles Kuralt retired in 1994. Osgood seemingly had an impossible act to follow, but with his folksy erudition and his slightly bookish, bow-tied style, he immediately clicked with viewers, who continued to embrace the program as an unhurried TV magazine. 

Osgood, who graduated from Fordham University in 1954, started as a classical music disk jockey in Washington, served in the Army and returned to help start WHCT in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1963, he got an on-air position at ABC Radio in New York. 

In 1967, he took a job as reporter on the CBS-owned New York news radio station NewsRadio 88. Then, one fateful weekend, he was summoned to fill in at the anchor desk for the TV network’s Saturday newscast. In 1971, he joined the CBS network and launched what would be known as “The Osgood File.” 

In 1990, he was inducted into the radio division of the National Association of Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame. In 2008, he was awarded the National Association of Broadcasters Distinguished Service Award. He won four Emmy Awards and earned a fifth lifetime achievement honor in 2017. 

Jane Pauley succeeded Osgood as host of “Sunday Morning,” becoming only the third host of the program. 

When he retired in 2016 after 45 years of journalism, Osgood did so in a very Osgood fashion. 

“For years now, people — even friends and family — have been asking me why I continue doing this, considering my age,” the then-83-year-old Osgood said in brief concluding remarks. “It’s just that it’s been such a joy doing it! It’s been a great run, but after nearly 50 years at CBS … the time has come.” 

And then he sang a few wistful bars from a favorite folk song: “So long, it’s been good to know you. I’ve got to be drifting along.” 
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