A federal judge on Monday kicked the battle over an election to fill a spot on North Carolina's Supreme Court back to the state's highest court.

North Carolina's highest court on Tuesday then blocked the certification of the election results between Democratic Associate Justice Allison Riggs and GOP challenger Jefferson Griffin. 

Griffin lost the general election, and two recounts later, one statewide machine recount and a partial hand-to-eye recount of ballots from randomly selected early voting sites and Election Day precincts in each county, still showed Riggs in the lead, according to WUNC. The results show the Democrat ahead by just 734 votes from over 5.5 million ballots cast, but Riggs is contending that 60,000 ballots cast should be invalidated. 

The ultimate winner gets an eight-year term on a Supreme Court where five of the seven current justices are registered Republicans.

Most of the ballots that Griffin is challenging came from voters whose registration records lacked either a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number — which a state law has required be sought in registration applications since 2004. Before the federal Help America Vote Act, or HAVA, of 2002, voter registration forms did not clearly require that people list the last four digits of their Social Security number or their driver's license number. 

GOP LAWMAKER, 81, RECEIVES MEDICAL ATTENTION AFTER FALL AT US CAPITOL

Yet it's still legal to vote in cases where a person's last four Social Security numbers or driver's license digits cannot be validated. People can still present a HAVA document, such as a utility bill, and the state elections administration office is required to then assign that person a special identification number to register to vote, according to WUNC. 

Other large categories of votes that Griffin is challenging were cast by overseas voters who have never lived in the U.S. but whose parents were deemed North Carolina residents and by military or overseas voters who did not provide copies of photo identification with their ballots. In accordance with federal law, the state administrative code says overseas voters are exempt from that requirement, WUNC reported. 

Lawyers for Griffin, who is a judge on the intermediate-level state Court of Appeals, initially asked the state Supreme Court to intervene three weeks ago.

But the elections board quickly moved the matter to federal court, saying Griffin's appeals involved matters of federal voting and voting rights laws.

Griffin disagreed, and so did U.S. District Judge Richard Myers, who on Monday returned the case to the state Supreme Court. 

Myers — a nominee to the bench by Donald Trump — wrote that Griffin’s protests raised "unsettled questions of state law" and had tenuous connections to federal law.

TWO HURRICANE HELENE VICTIMS, A FAMILY OF FOUR AND A VIETNAM VETERAN, GIFTED CAMPERS ON CHRISTMAS DAY

Hours later, Griffin's attorneys asked the state Supreme Court for the temporary stay, which the court granted.

"In the absence of a stay from federal court, this matter should be addressed expeditiously because it concerns certification of an election," Tuesday's order read.

The order said that Riggs recused herself from the matter and that Associate Justice Anita Earls, the other Democrat on the court, opposed the stay in part because the "public interest requires that the Court not interfere with the ordinary course of democratic processes as set by statute and the state constitution."

Attorneys for the State Board of Elections and Riggs quickly filed appeals notices for Myers’ decision with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The state board later on Tuesday asked the appeals court to direct Myers to take back the litigation from the state Supreme Court and block its return to the state court while the matter is appealed.

Barring intervention by federal appeals judges, the Republican-majority state Supreme Court would essentially be asked to decide the winner for one of its own seats. 

The State Board of Elections dismissed Griffin's written protests challenging the ballots last month. That initiated a timeline in which the board would issue a certificate confirming Riggs' election this Friday — ending the litigation — unless a court stepped in. Tuesday's order stops such certification and tells Griffin and the board to file legal briefs with the justices over the next two weeks.

Democratic allies of Riggs have accused Griffin and the state GOP of trying to overturn legitimate election results.

Riggs "deserves her certificate of election and we are only in this position due to Jefferson Griffin refusing to accept the will of the people," state Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton said in a news release.

The state election board that dismissed Griffin's protests is composed of three Democrats and two Republicans.

The Supreme Court in the nation's ninth-largest state has been a partisan flash point in recent years in court battles involving redistricting, photo voter identification and other voting rights.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab is launching a campaign for the state's Democrat-held governor's seat in 2026, announcing his run exclusively with Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

Schwab, who is running as a Republican, is seeking to replace Kansas' Democrat Gov. Laura Kelly, who will have held the seat for eight years when her term ends next cycle.

"We need to return to the values and principles that have always fueled us, and gave me the strength to lead in Topeka," Schwab, Kansas' two-term secretary of state, said in a press release shared with Fox News Digital. "I have a proven conservative record. And a servant’s heart. It’s important for Kansas to take the right path."

Schwab was first elected to the Kansas House of Representatives in 2002, serving as speaker pro tempore of the state's House of Representatives before being elected secretary of state in 2018.

KANSAS GOVERNOR VETOES BILL BANNING TRANSGENDER TREATMENT TO MINORS, ABORTION RESTRICTIONS

"A Christian, a father, and a believer in the American dream. I believe that to do something great, you need to throw off the chains holding you back," Schwab said in his official campaign launch. "For Kansas, that’s big government, and that is why I am running for Governor."

TRUMP'S CONVINCING 2024 VICTORY SETS HOUSE GOP UP FOR HOME-FIELD ADVANTAGE IN 2026 MIDTERMS

Schwab noted his alignment with President-elect Donald Trump on several key issues as one of the reasons he is launching a bid for governor.

Specifically, Schwab noted in his first campaign ad that, if elected, he intends to stop China from buying farmland, increase security as it pertains to elections and cut property taxes.

The candidate, who made his Christian faith a focal point of his campaign launch, also highlighted that he wants the U.S. to return to the "values that have always fueled us."

Although the state currently has a Democrat governor, its leadership is predominantly Republican, with two GOP senators and three of its four congressional seats held by Republicans.

Kelly, who has served two terms as governor, insinuated that she might not seek re-election in the 2026 midterms.

"It is really time for me to move on and to let others come up and serve," Kelly told KCUR's Up To Date in 2024.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, the recently elected chair of the Republican Governors Association, said the Kansas race is going to be a top priority for the GOP in 2026.

"I'm going to be very engaged, you can rest assured, to making sure that my [successors] are Republican," Kemp, who is term-limited next cycle, previously told Fox News Digital. 

"We'll be working with the Trump administration and a lot of other people to make sure that that's happening not only in Georgia, but in other states around the country, in places like Kansas, where we have a Democratic governor right now, in places like Arizona, where we have a really good shot at winning the governor's races. So we're going to be on offense."

The rapid development of generative AI creates a buzz of excitement for tech enthusiasts, but on the flip side, many are concerned about the impact on industries where AI could be used to replace real humans in jobs. Filmmaking and […]

The post Digital Actors – Hollywood’s Scourge or a Vast Untapped Opportunity? first appeared on Tech Startups.

• Ryanair is suing a passenger it said had forced a flight to divert, it announced Wednesday.
• The airline said it paid for 160 passengers' accommodation after the diversion meant an overnight delay.
• It said it would take action against "disruptive passengers personally."

Ryanair announced a clampdown on passenger misconduct as it revealed it was suing someone it accused of disrupting a flight and forcing it to divert.

The budget airline said it wants to claim over 15,000 euros, around $15,500, in damages, having filed proceedings in the Irish Circuit Court.

In a statement issued Wednesday, the airline said it would now take action against "disruptive passengers personally" in a "major misconduct clamp down."

It added it would "continue to take decisive action to combat unruly passenger behavior."

In the statement, it said that the incident occurred on April 9, 2024, on a flight from Dublin to Lanzarote — a popular vacation destination in Spain's Canary Islands.

The flight, with 160 passengers on board, diverted to Porto, Portugal, and was delayed overnight, the airline said.

The airline accused the passenger of "inexcusable behavior" but did not elaborate on what they had specifically done.

A Ryanair spokesperson said the incident cost the airline 15,000 euros for overnight accommodation, passenger expenses, and landing costs.

"It is unacceptable that passengers — many of whom are heading away with family or friends to enjoy a relaxing summer holiday — are suffering unnecessary disruption and reduced holiday time as a result of one unruly passenger's behavior," the spokesperson said.

"This demonstrates just one of the many consequences that passengers who disrupt flights will face as part of Ryanair's zero-tolerance policy, and we hope this action will deter further disruptive behavior on flights so that passengers and crew can travel in a comfortable and respectful environment," they added.

• Apple still can't sell iPhone 16s in Indonesia due to a ban in place since October.
• Indonesia's industry minister said that Apple doesn't meet rules to source some materials locally.
• That's despite Apple's plan to invest $1 billion in building an AirTag factory in the country.

Apple is still banned from selling the iPhone 16 in Indonesia after a top government official dismissed its $1 billion plan to meet local investment requirements.

Indonesia's industry minister, Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita, said in a briefing on Wednesday that Apple's proposal, which included a plan to build an AirTag factory in the country, did not fulfill the demands of its local regulations.

Apple has been blocked from selling its latest iPhone model in the country of over 280 million people since October. It currently falls short of a requirement for tech firms to locally source at least 40% of the material in their smartphones and tablets.

Indonesia's investment minister, Rosan Roeslani, said on Tuesday that Apple had "committed" to building the AirTag factory on Batam Island, with operations beginning in early 2026.

However, Kartasasmita said on Wednesday that the factory would not be enough to reverse the ban, with AirTags considered just an accessory, according to comments reported by Bloomberg.

"As of this afternoon, the government does not have a basis for issuing the local content certificates" that Apple needs to sell its flagship device in Indonesia, Kartasamita said. "Apple needs to negotiate with us so that we can issue a certificate."

The comments came after Reuters reported that Indonesia's industry minister had met with Apple representatives on Tuesday to discuss the tech giant's plans to comply with investment expectations and get the iPhone 16 ban lifted.

However, Kartasasmita's comments on Wednesday suggest negotiations between Indonesia and the world's most valuable company had failed to reach a resolution, extending Apple's drought on iPhone 16 sales in Indonesia.

Apple's difficulties in Southeast Asia's largest economy have been deepened as smartphone rivals such as Samsung have pushed forward with their own efforts to meet Indonesia's regulatory demands.

"There's no deadline for compliance," Kartasasmita said. "If Apple wants to sell the iPhone 16, and especially if they plan to launch the iPhone 17, the decision is entirely up to them."

Apple did not immediately respond to BI's request for comment.

• Advertising giant WPP is telling workers to come to the office four days a week from April.
• Business Insider obtained the internal memo sent to the company's 114,000 employees.
• "I believe that we do our best work when we are together in person," CEO Mark Read said in the memo.

Advertising giant WPP has told its workforce of more than 100,000 employees to return to the office at least four days a week.

"From the beginning of April this year, the expectation across WPP will be that most of us spend an average of four days a week in the office," CEO Mark Read wrote in a memo sent to staff on Tuesday and seen by Business Insider.

The move was first reported by The Financial Times.

The policy will come into effect in April to give staff time to make adjustments and to "address capacity requirements" in offices, he wrote.

The CEO said in-office attendance was associated with "stronger employee engagement, improved client survey scores and better financial performance."

"I believe that we do our best work when we are together in person. It's easier to learn from each other, it's a better way to mentor colleagues starting out in the industry, and it helps us win pitches as a truly integrated team."

Under the new policy, WPP will allow staff one flexible working day a week and take individual circumstances into account through a formal approval process, a source familiar with the matter told BI.

One WPP employee, speaking to BI on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on company policy, said they still had outstanding questions about the practicalities of the return-to-office plan. They noted that in some offices there were already issues with securing enough desk space or meeting rooms, for example.

AT&T began implementing a staggered five-day RTO mandate this week, and workers told BI that limited available desks and elevators at some locations complicated their return.

Amazon encountered office capacity issues last year, which, as BI previously reported, delayed its full return-to-office plan for some employees.

Another WPP insider, also speaking anonymously, said they felt the move would be positive for younger staff and to help them network and learn from colleagues, while also allowing flexibility for those who required it.

WPP's announcement follows that of fellow advertising giant Publicis Groupe, which last year told employees to return to the office at least three days a week. The company later fired hundreds of employees for non-compliance with the mandate, AdAge reported in October.

Workplace culture consultant and former Twitter vice president Bruce Daisley said WPP's return-to-office policy would be an employee morale gamble because advertising jobs already aren't as lucrative and aspirational as they once were.

"Working in an advertising agency used to be gloriously paid, now those who work in the field squint into spreadsheets all day earning salaries that are often substantially lower than the clients and media owners they deal with," Daisley wrote in his "Make Work Better" newsletter.

Read the full memo CEO Mark Read sent to WPP employees:

To everyone at WPP

I hope you had a restful holiday season and the chance to recharge over the break.

As I wrote to you in December, 2025 is going to be a year of opportunity for WPP – a year when we can win through a relentless focus on our clients.

With that in mind, I wanted to share our priorities for the next 12 months, as well as a change we are going to make in the way we work.

Clients, creativity and our work

WPP's mission is to deliver creative transformation for the world's leading brands. This means not only producing exceptional work in every discipline of modern marketing, but helping clients transform how they operate for a very different world. This is ever more true of our largest and most important clients, who come to us for the quality of what we do, the breadth of our skills, and our ability to prepare them for the future.

While industry mergers and jostling for status may distract our competitors, focus will be paramount for us in 2025. We have the opportunity to stand out by being more obsessed than ever with serving our clients. In every single decision we make, we should ask ourselves "how will this help us do even better work for our clients?" Those companies who embrace this philosophy will be those who emerge on top.

Technology, data and AI

Demand from clients for creative ideas, effective media plans, brilliant PR campaigns and outstanding design remains constant, but the way in which we deliver our work is changing faster than I have ever seen. That's why technology, data and AI are at the heart of our plans for the future, and why adoption of our AI-driven marketing operating system WPP Open has grown so quickly. Keeping up that momentum is another key objective for 2025.

WPP Open helped us win a number of 2024's biggest reviews and we are going to increase our investment in Open this year to build on the success it has brought us. It will be central to how we bring an integrated, AI-enabled offer to market, with the goal of producing better results for clients and winning more than our fair share of pitches in the year ahead.

A culture of winning, together

Finally, we are going to focus on the culture of our company. For all our technological sophistication, we remain a people business. Across everything we do, our success still relies on the fundamentals of human connection, creativity and relationships. Teams of talented individuals, working towards common goals, are what drives growth for our clients and our agencies.

I believe that we do our best work when we are together in person. It's easier to learn from each other, it's a better way to mentor colleagues starting out in the industry, and it helps us win pitches as a truly integrated team. The data from across WPP agencies shows that higher levels of office attendance are associated with stronger employee engagement, improved client survey scores and better financial performance. More of our clients are moving in this direction and expecting it of the teams who work with them.

For all these reasons, spending more time together is important to all of us, and we are making a change to help that happen. From the beginning of April this year, the expectation across WPP will be that most of us spend an average of four days a week in the office.

This doesn't mean we're going back to old ways of doing things. During the pandemic we all learned the value of greater flexibility in our working lives and of being trusted to balance work and personal commitments. We need to keep that spirit of flexibility and trust, and will approach this transition with pragmatism and an understanding of people's different circumstances. There will be a clear process to request additional flexibility – including for those with caring responsibilities, health issues and other considerations. Some roles that have always been fully or largely remote will continue as they are.

We know that for some colleagues this new policy will require adjustments to their routines and arrangements, which is why it will not come into effect until April – giving people time to make any changes they need to. There is also work to do between now and April to ensure we make the best use of our workspaces. Our WPP campuses offer superb working environments in beautifully designed buildings with leading environmental credentials. But it will take detailed planning in the coming months to address capacity requirements and other related areas, and I'd like to thank the teams who are already hard at work figuring that out.

Your leaders are working closely with the WPP People and Real Estate teams, and will follow up with next steps for your part of the business. It's important that we take a consistent approach across our agencies, who will communicate the requirements to you in detail. In the meantime, visit insideWPP for FAQs, details of the policy, and an AI-powered chat agent to help answer your questions.

A collaborative, winning culture is what makes WPP and our agencies a great place to work, and it's the key to our future growth and success. I firmly believe this change we are making will protect and enhance that culture, for the benefit of everyone.

As always, if you want to get in touch, email me.

Mark

• I started making my daughter's bed when she was little and still do it now that she's 18.
• I plump her pillows and make it a comfortable place for her to return to.
• Now that her departure to college is approaching, I'm trying to do as many things for her.

I remember when my daughter was a little girl of around 5. While she was out at school, I would carefully make her bed before I set off for work.

I'd plump up her pillows, usually adorned with princesses or mermaids or whatever Disney character she was obsessed with at the time. I'd fluff out her duvet and artfully arrange her array of fluffy cushions, placing her selection of beloved toys and teddy bears in just the right line-up to welcome her home. I wanted to make sure my little girl's bed was a lovely, cozy place for her to fall asleep in and ensure the sweetest of dreams.

The problem is, 13 years on, I still make her bed.

I make her bed every morning

Of course, the bedding designs have changed. Now, there are cool abstract swirls and patterns instead of princesses; the teddy bear waiting on her pillow is a gift from her boyfriend, not a bedraggled childhood comforter. And instead of tucking a fleecy nightie under her pillow, I'm folding up a sexy silk Victoria's Secret camisole.

Each morning, as she heads out for high school, blowing me kisses over her shoulder, I know she is more than capable of making her own bed before she leaves or even, heaven forbid, leaving it unmade for a day or so. But somehow, without fail, I find myself uncontrollably drawn to her bedroom, to plump and smooth and fluff and carefully arrange her bed into the same cozy place to welcome her home to.

So, where does this irrepressible urge to baby my grown-up girl come from? At 18, Gracie is now a young woman. She is about to complete her SATs and heading off for college in the fall. She has a serious boyfriend, a car, and a circle of sensible, independent girlfriends. And there lies the rub. Her need for her mom is reducing every day as little by little, she moves away from me and toward adulthood that I have prepared her for.

I'll miss her when she's off to college

Of course, I am not completely naive to a teenager's well-honed arsenal of tactics to avoid household chores. I know my daughter has cultivated a handy weaponized helplessness to free her from any kind of domestic drudgery.

She places dirty dishes and cups BY but not IN the dishwasher, as if their very proximity to the machine means they will magically be washed and dried by some mysterious dark art. Her washing piles up hopefully in her laundry bin, as she knows it will reach such a teetering, accusatory pile that my OCD will succumb, and hey presto, it will be returned to her, cleaned and tumbled, dried and smelling faintly of maternal servitude.

The dog that she long campaigned for (" I'll walk it every day !" ) would have never seen sunshine if it were not for the rest of the family walking it. So, I know that my compulsive bed-making is helped along by her conveniently "forgetting" to do it.

Nevertheless, as the day that she will head off to college draws ever closer, I find myself squeezing in as many activities as possible with her in these last few precious months while she is still so easily available to me. Even if it's just driving to pick up a Starbucks and singing "The Sound of Music" at the tops of our voices, I appreciate every minute — and if that means us having a pajama and Netflix day in bed, then all the better that the bed is a perfectly made one.

• Ukraine says it's designed a new type of river drone to target Russian vessels.
• The Black Widow 2 is also able to perform reconnaissance operations, it said.
• Ukraine's military requested it to combat Russian forces and supply runs on the Dnipro River.

Ukraine says it has developed a new type of drone to target Russian vessels deployed on Ukrainian rivers.

Hard Cat, a Kyiv-based drone manufacturer, told Business Insider that the uncrewed river drone, the Black Widow 2, can take out surface targets, including small boats.

It can also carry out reconnaissance and patrolling operations, providing real-time situational awareness, it said, with a maximum speed of almost 25 miles an hour and a communication range of up to 6.2 miles.

And unlike sea drones, which operate in wider bodies of water, the one-meter-long drone's "compact size and high maneuverability allow it to operate effectively" in narrow waterways and river areas.

Drones have been a hallmark of the war in Ukraine, with both sides using them to attack, surveil, and target more accurately.

Ukraine has heavily targeted Russia's fleet in the Black Sea using sea drones, with notable effect.

Hard Cat unveiled the river drone's prototype at the Defense Tech Valley investment summit in Kyiv in October 2024.

It told BI the drone has now been successfully tested in rear-area conditions and is undergoing combat trials with two Ukrainian army brigades. It didn't say where those trials were taking place.

"Warfare on water is quite specific and comes with unique challenges, making such a small water drone potentially very useful," it added.

One of the developers, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, told BI that they began work on the drone in December 2023, at the request of the Ukrainian military, as a way to counter Russian motorboats used for personnel rotation, supply runs, and reconnaissance.

At the time, Ukrainian troops were fighting to hold out on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, against Russian forces that vastly outnumbered them.

John Hardie, deputy director of the Russia Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told BI that he expects Ukraine to use these new systems primarily on the Dnipro.

"They would probably be most useful in a defensive role, such as striking small vessels carrying Russian assault troops or supplies," he said, rather than working in conjunction with larger, longer-range naval drones to attack Russian ships in the Black Sea.

Basil Germond, an expert in international security at Lancaster University in the UK, made a similar assessment.

"It is important to understand that Russia not only operates big warships and submarines but also a wide array of small boats that support land operations at the tactical level, especially in the wet areas such as the Dnipro Estuary and other rivers," he said.

Germond added: "River drones are likely to contribute to operations against these sorts of assets."

Samsung has reminded us time and time again that its Galaxy AI features probably won’t be free forever, and right on schedule, the company is reportedly planning to introduce a new “AI subscription” ahead of its Galaxy S25 event.