The Commerce Department has received more than 530 statements of interest from 42 states for CHIPS funding, Adrienne Elrod, the government affairs director in the department’s CHIPS Program Office said Tuesday.

Speaking at POLITICO’s CHIPS Update in Washington, D.C., Elrod also said the Commerce Department has received more than 130 applications and pre-applications for funding.

But industry experts and academics warn that meeting production goals is at risk unless the U.S. addresses critical workforce shortages.

Here are three key takeaways from today’s event:

1. Applications for subsidies pour in

When asked about the hallmarks of a strong application for subsidies, Elrod said the most important criteria are national and economic security, as well as commercial viability. “We’re not replacing private capital,” she said. “We are doing this to further incentivize the plans that these companies have.”

The flood of interest has not been tempered by the Commerce Department’s labor requirements for applicants asking for more than $150 million in funding, Elrod said. These include providing affordable and accessible child care for workers.

The department has yet to distribute any funds, she said, but added there is a “staggered but very methodical and strategic approach in terms of how we’re releasing the funds,” and that funds will be distributed soon.

2. Immigration reform ‘a self-inflicted wound’

Another key to boosting U.S. semiconductor production is hiring qualified workers, which is throttled by immigration policy, said David Isaacs, vice president of government affairs at the Semiconductor Industry Association.

“We are imposing a self-inflicted wound on our country and this industry without high-skilled immigration reform,” Isaacs said.

A July report from SIA projected that the U.S. chips industry will grow by 33 percent by 2030, but that an estimated 58 percent of those 460,000 new jobs will go unfilled.

And with chaos erupting in the House, it’s unlikely Congress will address immigration any time soon.

3. U.S. STEM education lags behind

The biggest gap in the government’s ambitions to boost the domestic chips industry lies in a shortfall in U.S. training, according to experts on STEM education.

“The time frame is short; 2025 is considered to be when shortfalls are going to happen,” said Michael Spencer, a professor in Morgan State University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

A critical element of that gap is excitement, as well as outreach to underserved communities. Shari Liss, executive director of the nonprofit SEMI Foundation, called for a national workforce strategy to boost the STEM education pipeline, including apprenticeships and internships.

“[Students] want to work for companies where they feel like they belong, so we have to look at the diversity element,” Liss said. “We as an industry have to look at alternative pathways to hiring.”

I’m not a Swiftie. I don’t own a single friendship bracelet, concert merch or a ticket stub from her “Eras Tour” movie.

But I know everything about Taylor Swift and her now official boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce.

Well, saying I know “everything” might be stretching it a bit. But I certainly know way more than I should about the love life of two 30-somethings I’ve never met.

And now, I’m deeply invested in this must-see-NFL-TV romance.

They were on “Saturday Night Live” together, swoon! He helped her from the car like a true gentleman! They even held hands! And omg, his hand is larger than hers! Finally, Taylor has security in a relationship! Not some manboy like the other guys she dated, every one of whom I have never laid eyes on and could not name if I wanted to.

Still, I hope this romance never ends because then I will have to peel my eyes from the VIP box of practically any and every NFL stadium to look at what exactly?

The news is nauseating of late. It was a cruel summer, and so far fall is not an improvement.

I’d rather be trapped in my lavender haze.

After all, who says we must digest every ounce of sadness and death and destruction that the world sees fit to force down our throats? Or that we must choose between baby beheadings and baby bombings?

I cannot. I choose neither.

My inner being has no space available to process the darkness of these days. I don’t need to see any more examples of man’s brutality and inhumanity to further harden my already rocky sense of place in this world.

This does not mean that I do not care. But there is no statement that I or anyone can make that will ease the pain of global madness. There are no words strong enough. No sympathies deep enough. No screams loud enough. No video clear enough.

I choose peace over war, realizing that it is not always up to us when others choose to wage war against our desire for restfulness.

Yet there must remain space for middle ground.

Obviously, there is no way to be a little bit racist or a smidge antisemitic. In the same way, there is no such thing as a tiny bit terrorist — you either are or you are not. These are the hard lines and they must be drawn in every circumstance where they apply.

Other concepts introduce a sliver of doubt and uncertainty. When a country is brutally attacked, is it required to respond with only proportional force? Can a nation wage war against 2 million people, many under 18, who have no organized army, air force or navy? And is that still called war, or is it simply revenge? If a terrorist group becomes the head of a region through force, are citizens then responsible for whatever that group perpetrates in their name? Are they responsible for their own deaths even? Are overwhelming civilian casualties an acceptable price to pay for what is sure to be only a glimmer of peace?

These are the questions that reduce clarity of the moment and the path ahead. I have no answers — and I imagine the ones I would receive depend heavily upon who is asked.

Americans are going to be asked to give deeply even before we have any answers. President Joe Biden is expected to seek about $85 billion from Congress to help both Israel and Ukraine, with the majority of the funds slated for the latter nation’s ongoing battle against Russia. I understand that it is an investment in maintaining our place as a powerful leader on the global stage, as well as our national security interests.

I also understand that the rate of child poverty in America doubled last year to over 12%. And that the average U.S. homebuyer needs to earn about $40,000 more than the median household income to afford a house, according to Redfin. Despite some COVID-19 pandemic improvements, nearly 30 million Americans remain without health care insurance.

This we cannot simply shake off.

What Americans already face is a massive crater of debt, disruption and discord that threatens to swallow us whole both here and abroad.

For my own sanity, I choose to fill that blank space with Travis’ and Taylor’s presumed love story, remotely aware that it too may lead to heartbreak and bad blood.

Michelle Deal-Zimmerman is senior content editor for features and an advisory member of The Sun’s Editorial Board. Her column runs every fourth Wednesday. She can be reached at nzimmerman@baltsun.com.

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RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Rapidly expanding Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip killed more than 700 people in the past day as medical facilities across the territory were forced to close because of bombing damage and a lack of power, health officials said Tuesday.

The soaring death toll from Israel’s escalating bombardment was unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It could signal an even greater loss of life in Gaza once Israeli ground forces backed by tanks and artillery launch an expected offensive into the territory aimed at crushing Hamas.

Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been under increasing bombardment and running out of food, water and medicine since Israel sealed off the territory following the devastating Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on towns in southern Israel. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

On Tuesday, Israel said it had launched 400 airstrikes over the past day, killing Hamas commanders, hitting militants as they were preparing to launch rockets into Israel and striking command centers and a Hamas tunnel shaft. The previous day, Israel reported 320 strikes. Witnesses and health officials said many of the airstrikes hit residential buildings, some of them in southern Gaza where Israel had told civilians to take shelter.

An overnight strike hit a four-story residential building in the southern city of Khan Younis, killing at least 32 people and wounding scores of others, according to survivors.

The fatalities included 13 from the Saqallah family, said Ammar al-Butta, a relative who survived the airstrike. He said there were about 100 people there, including many who had come from Gaza City, which Israel has ordered civilians to evacuate.

“They were sheltering at our home because we thought that our area would be safe. But apparently there is no safe place in Gaza,” he said.

Another airstrike hit a bustling marketplace in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing several shoppers and wounding dozens, witnesses said.

Men used sledgehammers to break up concrete and dug with their bare hands through the jagged wreckage to save anyone they could – or at least recover the dead who had been buying meat and vegetables when the explosion hit.

A man buried up to his chest in rubble looked up at his rescuers with wide eyes, his face coated in dust from the blast. An oxygen mask was placed on his face as they spent 15 minutes working to free him.

Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry said the attacks killed at least 704 people over the past day, including 305 children and 173 women. More than 5,700 Palestinians have been killed in the war, including some 2,300 minors, the ministry said, without giving a detailed breakdown. The figure includes the disputed toll from an explosion at a hospital last week.

Most of the Palestinians killed since Oct. 7 were in the north and central areas of the enclave that Israel had told them evacuate, the ministry said.

The fighting has killed more than 1,400 people in Israel — mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack.

As the death toll in Gaza spiralled, facilities to deal with the casualties were dwindling. A total of 46 out of 72 primary health-care facilities, and 12 out of 35 hospitals, stopped functioning, the World Health Organization said. Palestinian health officials said the lack of electricity and fuel to power generators from the Israeli blockade, as well as damage from airstrikes, has forced many of the facilities to close.

Gaza’s five main hospitals were all filled beyond capacity, it said.

While Israel has allowed a small number of trucks filled with aid to enter, it has barred deliveries of fuel to Gaza.

The rising toll has made it hard for Palestinians to bury the huge numbers of dead, with cemeteries being forced to excavate and reuse old plots and bury up to five bodies in one grave.

“Bodies pour in by the hundreds every day. We use every empty inch in the cemeteries,” said Abdel Rahman Mohamed, a volunteer who helps transfer bodies to Khan Younis’ main cemetery. “Some bodies arrive in pieces in bags. It’s horrible.”

Israel says it does not target civilians and that Hamas terrorists are using them as cover for their attacks. Palestinian militants have fired over 7,000 rockets at Israel since the start of the war, Israel said, and Hamas said it fired a new barrage Tuesday morning.

“We continue to attack forcefully in Gaza City and its environs, where Hamas is building up its terrorist infrastructure, where Hamas is arraying its troops,” said Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari. He again told Palestinians to head south “for your personal safety.”

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said six of its staff were killed in bombings, bringing to 35 the death toll of its workers since the war started.

Amid fears the fighting to spiral into a wider regional war, French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday and told top Israeli officials that he came “to express our support and solidarity and share your pain” as well as to assure Israel it is “not left alone in the war against terrorism.”

In a joint news conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Macron stressed Israel’s right to defend itself, but added that it shouldn’t target civilians and should allow aid to Gaza and electricity for its hospitals.

Netanyahu blamed Hamas for the civilian casualties and said “it could be a long war.”

On Monday, Hamas released two elderly Israeli women who were among the more than 200 people Israel says were taken to Gaza during the attack.

Appearing weak in a wheelchair and speaking softly, 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz told reporters Tuesday that the terrorists beat her with sticks, bruising her ribs and making it hard to breathe as they kidnapped her. They drove her into Gaza, then forced her to walk several kilometers (miles) on wet ground to reach a network of tunnels that looked like a spider web, she said.

Once there, though, her treatment improved, she said. The people assigned to guard her “told us they are people who believe in the Quran and wouldn’t hurt us.” Lifshitz, whose husband remains a hostage, said conditions were kept clean, she received medical care, including medication, and was given the same one meal a day of cheese and cucumber that her captors had.

Lifshitz and 79-year-old Nurit Cooper were freed days after an American woman and her teenage daughter were released. Hamas and other militants in Gaza are believed to have taken roughly 220 people, including an unconfirmed number of foreigners and dual citizens.

The Israeli military later dropped leaflets in Gaza asking Palestinians to reveal information on the hostages’ whereabouts. In exchange, the military promised a reward and protection for the informant’s home.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas. Iranian-backed fighters around the region are warning of possible escalation, including the targeting of U.S. forces deployed in the Mideast, if a ground offensive is launched.

The U.S. has told Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and other groups not to join the fight. Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire almost daily across the Israel-Lebanon border, and Israeli warplanes have struck targets in Syria, Lebanon and the occupied West Bank in recent days.

___

Magdy reported from Cairo and Nessman from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Aamer Madhani in Washington, Amy Teibel in Jerusalem and Brian Melley in London, contributed to this report.

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This story has been corrected to show that the hospitals forced to close were in addition to the primary health facilities that closed.

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