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US Republicans seek documents on California high-speed rail project
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Two senior congressional Republicans asked the U.S. Department of Transportation on Wednesday to disclose documents detailing a decision by President Joe Biden’s administration to award billions of dollars to a California high-speed rail project that they doubted would ever be completed.
Sam Graves, who chairs the House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Ted Cruz, the Senate Commerce Committee’s top Republican, requested documents by June 12 about the department’s December decision to award the project another $3.07 billion.
California voters approved $10 billion in 2008 for the ambitious project, which aims to move passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles in under three hours. The lawmakers said the project has experienced numerous delays and rising costs, and that the California High-Speed Rail Authority, the state agency in charge of it, has not identified key funding needed for it.
The full project was initially estimated to cost around $40 billion but has now jumped to $89 billion to $128 billion.
A spokesperson for the state agency said it takes the issues raised by the two lawmakers seriously and is ready to respond to the Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration, which is part of the department.
Graves and Cruz cited a 2023 review by an independent body that concluded that the project faced an “unfunded gap of $92.6 billion to $103.1 billion between estimated costs and known state and federal funding” for completion of the full system.
“Despite evidence that continues to show that the California High-Speed Rail project has critical issues indicating there is no reasonable path forward for successful completion of the project … the Biden administration continues to allocate substantial federal taxpayer dollars on this highly questionable endeavor,” the lawmakers wrote.
The Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in December the California project “is facing a lot of the challenges that come with being the very first at anything,” and added that rail project awards face an “extraordinary level of scrutiny.”
The state agency estimated that costs for an initial 171-mile (275-km) segment connecting Merced to Bakersfield have risen from $25.7 billion to $33 billion, and it will be operational by 2033.
It is a major project in California, the Democratic-governed and most populous U.S. state. It eventually is envisioned as connecting Sacramento to San Diego.
The project, which has spent $18 billion since 2006, has received funding from two Democratic presidential administrations amid opposition by Republicans.
President Barack Obama’s administration awarded California $3.5 billion in 2010 and the state has dedicated $4.2 billion to the project. The Biden administration in 2021 restored $929 million for the project after President Donald Trump’s administration pulled funding.
California wants $8 billion in total from the Biden administration for the project and last year won another $202 million in federal funds for grade separation projects. On Tuesday, the state said it was seeking another $450 million in federal funding.
(Reuters) -Private equity firm Insight Partners is on the brink of closing a new $10 billion-plus fund, roughly half the amount originally targeted, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing five people with knowledge of its plans.
Insight will not formally close its 13th fund until early next year, the report said, adding that the final figure may be closer to $12 billion.
Insight Partners declined to comment on the report.
The report said Insight is using a private equity-style structure to sell more than $1 billion worth of stakes in start-ups and to free up cash to return to investors.
One of the start-ups is Israeli cybersecurity firm Wiz, which had called off a $23 billion deal with Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:) in July, the report said.
New York-based Insight raised $20 billion for its 12th flagship fund in 2022, aiming to ramp up investments in software and technology companies.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would inflict a “heavy price” on the Iran-aligned Houthis who control northern Yemen, after they reached central Israel with a missile on Sunday for the first time.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said the group struck with a new hypersonic ballistic missile that travelled 2,040 km (1270 miles) in just 11 1/2 minutes.
After initially saying the missile had fallen in an open area, Israel’s military later said it had probably fragmented in the air, and that pieces of interceptors had landed in fields and near a railway station. Nobody was reported hurt.
Air raid sirens had sounded in Tel Aviv and across central Israel moments before the impact at around 6:35 a.m. local time (0335 GMT), sending residents running for shelter. Loud booms were heard.
Reuters saw smoke billowing in an open field in central Israel.
At a weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the Houthis should have known that Israel would exact a “heavy price” for attacks on Israel.
“Whoever needs a reminder of that is invited to visit the Hodeida port,” Netanyahu said, referring to an Israeli retaliatory air strike against Yemen in July for a Houthi drone that hit Tel Aviv.
The Houthis have fired missiles and drones at Israel repeatedly in what they say is solidarity with the Palestinians, since the Gaza war began with a Hamas attack on Israel in October.
The drone that hit Tel Aviv for the first time in July killed a man and wounded four people. Israeli air strikes in response on Houthi military targets near the port of Hodeidah killed six and wounded 80.
Previously, Houthi missiles have not penetrated deep into Israeli air space, with the only one reported to have hit Israeli territory falling in an open area near the Red Sea port of Eilat in March.
Israel should expect more strikes in the future “as we approach the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 operation, including responding to its aggression on the city of Hodeidah,” Sarea said.
The deputy head of the Houthi’s media office, Nasruddin Amer, said in a post on X on Sunday that the missile had reached Israel after “20 missiles failed to intercept” it, describing it as the “beginning”.
The Israeli military also said that 40 projectiles were fired towards Israel from Lebanon on Sunday and were either intercepted or landed in open areas.
“No injuries were reported,” the military said.
PARIS (Reuters) – Eight people have died trying to cross the Channel from France to England, French authorities said on Sunday, confirming earlier media reports.
This latest incident follows the deaths of 12 people earlier this month when their boat capsized in the Channel on its way to Britain and highlights the pressure on the British and French governments to find ways to tackle the boat crossings.
Jacques Billant, the Prefect of the Pas-de-Calais region, said that rescue crews were alerted that a boat with 59 people onboard was in difficulty in waters off the coast of Ambleteuse in the Pas-de-Calais area.
“A new drama took place around one in the morning and we deplore the death of eight people,” he told a news conference, adding that the other 51 onboard were now in the care of rescue and medical crews.
The dead were men from Eritrea, Sudan, Syria, Egypt, Iran and Afghanistan, he added.
The Channel is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and currents are strong, which makes crossing on small boats dangerous.
The latest incident brings to 46 the number of people who have died trying to cross the Channel from France since the start of the year, Billant said.
On September 14 alone there were eight attempts to cross the Channel from France and some 200 migrants were rescued, he said.
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