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Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood predicts Amazon will have more robot employees than humans by 2030.

A town in Virginia voted to provide Amazon with a special use permit to build a data center despite protests from over 100 speakers, including actor Robert Duvall, at a town hall meeting on Tuesday. 

"As an actor, I have the privilege to play many roles. My work has taken me all over the world, but I have always returned to Fauquier County, Virginia, with a sense of relief that comes from my appreciation for all that makes this place special," Duvall said. "The remarkable outpouring of opposition to this proposal indicates that the vast majority of the town and county believe this is a bad use of this site."

Robert Duvall during an interview for the June 24, 2021 show for the “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert. Image is a screen grab. (CBS via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Duvall, noting that he has lived on a farm in Virginia for 27 years, called the state "the last station before heaven" and demanded the town "keep it that way." The crowd gave him a standing ovation as he returned to his seat.

Amazon wants to build a 220,000-square-foot data center in Warrenton, and town councilmember Henry Herouix stressed the company has not asked for any tax breaks.

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Amazon projects that about 50 workers will be employed at the data center, and supporters said the data center will generate about $900,000 in tax revenue for the town annually. Ticker Security Last Change Change % AMZN AMAZON.COM INC. 97.20 -0.95 -0.97%

Herouix argued the tax revenue could go toward the county and schools. The permit for Amazon’s construction would include noise restrictions, bans on construction of an electric substation on the site and the requirement that any distribution lines go underground.

AMAZON TO DOUBLE DOWN ON GROCERY BUSINESS DESPITE RECENT SETBACKS

Debate over the data center lasted some eight hours, but 92-year-old Duvall’s impassioned speech, along with the protests of roughly one hundred other speakers, seemed to make little impact as Warrenton’s town council voted 4-3 on Wednesday to approve a special permit for Amazon. 

The groups Protect Fauquier, Citizens for Fauquier County and the Piedmont Environmental Council organized an Oct. 26, 2022 town hall meeting in Warrenton, Virginia to explain to residents why they are opposed to a plan from Amazon Web Services to bu (Teo Armus/The Washington Post via Getty Images / Getty Images)

The northern Virginia region is home to the greatest concentration of data centers, 275 in total, which support modern internet use.

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But the continued expansion of data centers has faced pushback as residents complain about the noise, the increased resource use to power the stations, and the increasing wires and other infrastructure that appear across the towns. 

Kevin Ramundo with Citizens for Fauquier County and Cindy Burbank with Protect Fauquier walk on Main Street on February 10, 2023 in Warrenton, Virginia. Both are opposed to Amazons plan to build a data center in the area. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Councilmember David McGuire acknowledged that the decision was a "pivotal moment" for the town, which would "never be the same as we know it, whether that’s good or bad," WUSA 9 reported. 

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Amazon has committed to invest roughly $35 billion by 2040 to build more data centers across Virginia. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Elon Musk steps up attacks on Trump once again – as the president fights back

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Elon Musk steps up attacks on Trump once again - as the president fights back

Elon Musk has stepped up his attacks on Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill – weeks after a spectacular fallout between the world’s richest man and the US president.

Following weeks of relative silence after clashing with Mr Trump over his “big beautiful bill”, the billionaire vowed to unseat politicians who support it.

In a post on X, Musk said those who had campaigned on cutting spending but then backed the bill “should hang their heads in shame”.

He added: “And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”

Musk also threatened to put their faces on a poster which said “liar” and “voted to increase America’s debt” by $5trn (£3.6trn).

The posts attracted a swift reply from Mr Trump, who claimed the billionaire “may get more subsidy than any human being in history” for his electric car business.

“Without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa,” he wrote on Truth Social.

“No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!”

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Elon’s dad on the Musk-Trump bust-up

Musk spent at least $250m (£182m) supporting Mr Trump in his presidential campaign and then led the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which sacked about 120,000 federal employees.

He has argued the legislation would greatly increase the US national debt and wipe out the savings he claimed he achieved through DOGE.

As the Senate discussed the package, Musk called it “utterly insane and destructive”.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said the bill’s massive spending indicated “we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!”

“Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people,” he wrote.

Read more from Sky News:
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Musk previously said some of his social media posts during his dramatic fallout with Mr Trump “went too far”.

He had shared a series of posts on X, including one that described Mr Trump’s tax and spending bill as a “disgusting abomination”.

He also claimed, in a since-deleted post, that the president appeared in files relating to the disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

But Musk later wrote: “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.”

In response, the president told the New York Post: “I thought it was very nice that he did that.”

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What’s in Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’?

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What's in Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill'?

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Martha Kelner and Mark Stone break down what’s in Donald Trump’s huge tax and spending bill. He’s trying to sign it into law by the end of the week.

They also discuss the State Department’s decision to revoke US visas for British band Bob Vylan after their Glastonbury performance.

If you’ve got a question you’d like the Trump100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.

You can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.

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Major German bank to offer crypto trading by 2026 amid bank ‘FOMO’

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Major German bank to offer crypto trading by 2026 amid bank ‘FOMO’

Major German bank to offer crypto trading by 2026 amid bank ‘FOMO’

Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe execs once ruled out adopting crypto over concerns of volatility and risk, and the banking giant also blocked customer crypto transactions back in 2015.

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