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A researcher fired by OpenAI published a 165-page essay on what to expect from AI in the next decade. We asked GPT-4 to summarize it. 2024-06-09 18:42:27+00:00 - Fired researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner published a 165-page essay on the future of AI. Aschenbrenner's treatise discusses rapid AI progress, security implications, and societal impact. Here's what GPT-4 thinks about Aschenbrenner's predictions. Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read preview Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time by visiting our Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of the email. Advertisement Over the past few months, several employees have left OpenAI, citing concerns about the company's commitment to safety. Besides making pithy exit announcements on X, they haven't said much about why they're worried about OpenAI's approach to development — or the future of AI. That is, until earlier this week, when Leopold Aschenbrenner, a researcher fired from OpenAI in April, published his thoughts on the AI revolution in an epic 165-page treatise. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in .
I visited Wayfair's first-ever physical store in Chicago. Take a look. 2024-06-09 18:36:03+00:00 - After more than two decades as an online-only retailer, Wayfair is getting into brick-and-mortar. In May, the housewares company opened its first-ever store outside Chicago. I visited the store to take a look and preferred the experience to an Ikea run. Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read preview Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time by visiting our Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of the email. Advertisement For all of its 22 years in business, housewares retailer Wayfair has been online only. That all changed in May when the company opened its first-ever brick-and-mortar store in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette, Illinois. The 150,000 square-foot, two-story store features furniture, decor, appliances, and much more. It's not every day that a $7.25 billion e-commerce brand takes the plunge into physical retail, so I decided to visit the store to take a look.
OpenAI seems to be hiring undercover security guards at its office and it's creeping out local business owners 2024-06-09 18:30:23+00:00 - By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time by visiting our Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of the email. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read preview OpenAI's office in San Francisco is crawling with undercover security guards who don't take kindly to questions, locals say. And employees at neighboring businesses say it's weirding them out. Photographers for The San Francisco Standard, an online local news outlet, said they recently noticed what looked like undercover security guards standing outside the company's office. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. A photograph of one suspected security guard published by the outlet shows a man wearing a black baseball cap, sunglasses, and a clear earpiece. Owners at nearby businesses, like Candace Combs of In-Symmetry Spa, told the Standard that the men would not tell her who they worked for or which company worked out of the building where they lingered. Advertisement "I asked, 'Is this OpenAI?' And they were like, 'We can't say,'" Combs told the outlet. "I was like, 'Well, I know you're OpenAI. We're a spa that does massages, and here's coupons for 10% off.' So it's like an open secret." OpenAI first moved into its 59,000-square-foot office in San Francisco's Mission District in July 2023. According to planning documents, the building features amenities one might expect from a Silicon Valley tech startup, like nap rooms, micro kitchens, lounges for viewing the sunrise, and a multimillion-dollar library that spans the two floors. Related stories The company has kept information about the office space tightly guarded since moving in, turning away reporters from Business Insider and other publications and refusing to confirm or deny the company's location. Iain Langlands, a cashier at a pet store just one block from the office, told the Standard that the "vibe" surrounding the OpenAI office is "secretive." Advertisement "They have this security, and they look at me when I walk by the building or when I park," he said. James, another worker at a neighboring business, Health Ceramics, told the Standard that he asked some suspected guards if they were working security, but they "never admit to it." "[OpenAI] is not a bad neighbor, but they're secretive," he said. California's Bureau of Security and Investigative Services — which issues security guard licenses — did not immediately return Business a request for comment from Business Insider. Advertisement The Bureau told the Standard that unarmed security guards don't have to wear a uniform or badge, but they must be employed by a security guard company, lawful business, or public agency and must disclose their license information to law enforcement. OpenAI did not immediately return a request for comment from BI on Sunday.
Reflecting on a bad market call 25 years ago reminds me to look for what can go right 2024-06-09 18:14:00+00:00 - When your job is to write a commentary about the stock market you start with a blank Word document. It stares at you and says, "Come up with something noticeable that makes sense of the market." Right at that moment, the inception, you can go either way. You can detect a pattern that points to an absurdity, let's say a warning about a two-track bias, one with light volatility and the other with craziness. Or perhaps a simple jeremiad flagging a dangerous oddity of mega-caps versus non-mega-caps that bemoans, or worse, causes worry that might tempt people to "get out now." "Get out now." That's an ill-advised warning I penned in my "Wrong" column for TheStreet.com, the business website I co-founded, warning readers of impending doom after we had had that doom. That past was at noon ET on October 8, 1998, oh so many years ago. Everything you write online can and will be saved and used against you. I wrote that commentary in a moment of weakness that day, within minutes of the bottom of a painful bear market, a forever-flagged searing panic tattooed to my temporal lobe. It's an instructive, visceral moment, born on the trading desk of Cramer & Co., because Karen Cramer, my now-former wife, the best pure trader on Earth at the time, sitting at my seat at the top of our U-configured desks, catalogs in hand, watching and waiting, dispatched me for a hot pretzel and a Diet Coke. Once I had gone on her mission, instead of getting out of the market, she borrowed a billion dollars, far more than we had a right to, and put it to work. Her firehouse of money struck the market at its absolute bottom minutes before the Federal Reserve issued one of those "any liquidity necessary" bulletins that obliterated the bear for good, followed immediately by the interstitial fire of short covering born of panic making sure that darned thing was slain. The whole thing occurred while I was at the corner of Water and John Streets in the financial district of New York City, slathering mustard and wiping my hands of a bright yellow spill. I had been weakened by months of ursine saturation bombing. It was an ugly moment. Her strategic pivot made our year. It was a humbling bet against what amounted to us, causing me to hastily change the "get out now" to something akin to what she was doing. But it was too late, the damage had been done. I bring up this mortifying moment because it reminds me of what happens if you write to extreme. If you put pen to Word, as it were, and issue an equivalent of "get out now." That's when you write to fright, forever warning all about the hazards of a moment when the mega-caps could bring down the market, or of the dominance of a few stocks versus the sluggish path of the smaller, $100 billion cap brethren. Yes, there's a corrosive jealousy that lingers heavily when I read these pieces, of which there was one in the paper this weekend, no need to flag the siren by name, but it was there alright. So many journalists take advantage of the right to fill that blank page with warnings that amount to "get out now," without the consequence or a post-mortem. How I wish there was an editorial coroner that forever labels a piece as "Wrong," as surely as my unhedged warning posted at the bottom of the bear market of October 1998. Why analogize now? Maybe after a historic run from the bottom to the top, I have read so many of these pieces which ended up as nothing more than defective bricks in the wall of worry. It's a journalistic wall that's noted and often acted upon. Acted on because of its rationality, as in "holy cow I had no idea how narrow the market is," or "I can't believe that Nvidia 's behind so much of the run." These amount to abandoning the wall rather than scaling it, and have kept you out of so many points, hidden in the 5% sidelines that feel so cozy. I hate these pieces. What should be written then? How about a hedge to the thesis, something about how things could go right, perhaps during the time it took to walk from the office to John and Water Street all those years ago? Something like "the narrowness could be a reminder of so many past bull markets, where other stocks joined the resting leaders and broadened the market." Or even better how about "10 stocks that could go up next" not with a quote from some money manager or two but from the journalists, themselves? So many of the "get out now" pieces are the musings of the journalists, while the rare bullish pieces are couched with Panglossian money managers justifying the run. I hate those unaided proclamations. You see, this market rally has been based on the narrowness of itself. But that means nothing. It could simply be a precursor of something bullish next. It could preface a changing of the guard. It might be a screed full of sound and fury signifying nothing. There's nothing wrong with being bullish. There's nothing wrong in warning all of those sidelined bears that the best could be yet to come, or a wider phalanx could beckon. Why necessarily fill that blank Word document with solemn warnings about how foolish the bulls can be? I think the answer is two-fold, both damning. First is that there's no consequence to a journalist penning something that amounts to "get out now," something that dogged me for years after it was time-stamped in thestreet.com. Second is, sadly, the need to write a piece as an assignment, something that's demanded as part of your job. How much better is it to write about "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," thank you Bob Dylan, than to declare the time halcyon? How much easier it is to damn than to praise, knowing that if you are wrong there will be no consequence. Of course, this bias does not exist just in the media. Bearish analysts and commentators can surface, usually though, as a consequence of a sharp decline. But these people tend to be foils and no more, just a series of Mike Wilson barbed wire on top of the worry wall. Thank you, Morgan Stanley. But in the end, what matters is fear. I read this weekend's staple of narrowness as a sign of impending doom, and thought to myself, wow, that's scary. You did, too. But maybe you just weren't aware of the hazards of "get out now," because it's part of the numbing sensation that comes with reading one more obvious warning about how "stupid you are to stay long, you idiot." Too harsh? Maybe something I had to write because it was my turn to write on a cloudy Sunday morning before an afternoon of pulling weeds in my garden. Yes, I am supposed to write something. No, nobody's saying, "How wrong Cramer can be, just watch the collapse that occurs now." So go timestamp my piece. Remember it as being the last piece – the fin de siècle, if you will – before the great collapse of a midweek in June. I don't mind. I already wrote, "get out now." Nothing worse than being the last bear skunk in a bull market party unless it doesn't matter because you had to fill a page of non-consequential bearishness. You did your weekend assignment that had to be done to check the box and head to the Hamptons or the mountains or just to sleep late. And, yes to sleep well, because your prediction had no wake if the market tacked higher, and branded you a genius, perhaps forever, if last week was the top. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long NVDA. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED. Jim Cramer on Squawk on the Street, June 30, 2022. Virginia Sherwood | CNBC
Netanyahu rival Benny Gantz quits war Cabinet 2024-06-09 17:52:00+00:00 - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's key rival, Benny Gantz, announced Sunday that he is quitting the war Cabinet after a postwar plan for the Palestinian enclave failed to materialize. Gantz' resignation comes amid global condemnation of the Palestinian civilian death toll in the war on Gaza that has piled domestic and international pressure on Netanyahu. Gantz announced his resignation in a televised event on Sunday, stating that Netanyahu stood in Israel's way to "a real victory." "That is why we are leaving the emergency government today with a heavy heart, but with a whole heart,” Gantz said. Netanyahu addressed Gantz in an X post following his resignation, saying, "this is not the time to abandon the campaign — this is the time to join forces." "Citizens of Israel, we will continue until victory and the achievement of all the goals of the war, primarily the release of all our hostages and the elimination of Hamas," Netanyahu wrote. Benny Gantz, a centrist member of Israel's three-member War Cabinet, announces his resignation in Ramat Gan on Sunday. Ohad Zwigenberg / AP During his resignation address, Gantz said there should be elections this fall “that will eventually establish a government that will win the trust of the people and be able to face challenges.” “I call on Netanyahu: set an agreed election date. Don’t let our people be torn apart,” Gantz said. In May, Gantz demanded that Netanyahu agree to a day-after plan for the war in Gaza and threatened to withdraw his National Unity party from the coalition on June 8 unless the prime minister had a plan for the enclave’s postwar governance. Netanyahu missed the Gantz' deadline after distancing himself from President Joe Biden’s cease-fire deal, presented last month as an Israeli proposal. On Saturday, Netanyahu called on Gantz to remain in the coalition, saying in a post on X, “This is the time for unity and not for division.” Widespread condemnation of the civilian death toll in the war on Gaza has escalated in recent weeks after dozens of people were killed in Rafah in an area where displaced civilians were sheltering in tents. On Saturday, an Israeli attack on central Gaza that rescued four hostages also killed over 270 Palestinians, bringing Gaza's death toll to more than 37,000 since the start of the war last October, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health. A U.N. top court has already ordered Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah, and the latest round of civilian casualties, including two attacks on U.N.-run schools in the Nuseirat and Shati refugee camps, will only deepen hostilities between it and Israel. The U.N. added both Israel and Hamas to a global blacklist of states and armed groups that harm children during wartime. Last month, the U.N. said at least 7,797 children had been killed in Gaza. Netanyahu slammed the decision, saying the U.N. had "added itself to the black list of history when it joined those who support the Hamas murderers,” and repeated his claim that the Israeli military was the “most moral army in the world.” In May, the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court said he was seeking arrest warrants for both Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leaders. Gantz apologized to the families of the hostages during his speech Sunday, saying "we failed" to bring most of them home. "The responsibility is also mine," Gantz said. "I stand behind the outline we received in the War Cabinet, the principles of which were presented by President Biden, and demand from the prime minister the courage required to stand behind it and do everything to promote it." While Netanyahu's government can survive if Gantz resigns, Netanyahu will be left further isolated in Israel and forced to rely on support from the far-right members of his government, leaving hopes for Biden's proposal hanging by a thread. Bezalel Smotrich, finance minister and chairman of the far-right Religious Zionist Party, said on X las week that he would “not be part of a government that agrees to the proposed outline and ends the war without destroying Hamas.” Itamar Ben-Gvir, national security minister and leader of the far-right Jewish Power Party, called the proposal “a victory for terrorism” that would mean “absolute defeat,” and threatened on X “to dissolve the government” should Netanyahu agree to the proposal.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem says Trump choosing a woman VP would help him win 2024-06-09 17:27:00+00:00 - South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem speaks at the NRA-ILA Leadership Forum during the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual convention in Houston, Texas, U.S. May 27, 2022. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, once a strong contender to be former President Donald Trump's vice presidential pick, suggested on Sunday that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee should choose a woman running mate. "Having a woman that is helping him campaign makes a difference. Listen, I could be home in bed or feeding my horses or rocking my grandbabies," Noem said on CNN's "State of the Union." "But I'm in Wisconsin because I believe President Trump needs to win." Noem added that women voters tend to prioritize small business policy, along with child care and health care, an issue that Trump has lagged President Joe Biden, according to polling in recent months. In March, a Quinnipiac University poll found that Trump's support from female voters had dropped by 5% in the wake of the civil lawsuit filed by E. Jean Carroll related to sexual assault and defamation claims. Since then, the former president has also been convicted on 34 felony counts in a New York trial about a hush money payment he made to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. Trump's support from women also posed a threat to his election chances in 2016, especially after the leaked "Access Hollywood" tape that caught the GOP candidate making crude remarks about nonconsensual sexual advances on women. "All the polls tell him in these swing states that a woman on the ticket helps him win," Noem said Sunday. Noem's comments also come as she reinforces her loyalty to Trump, despite reportedly being excluded from his vice presidential shortlist. Trump has narrowed his search to four top contenders, according to NBC News: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and Ohio Sen. JD Vance. "I don't care. I love my job in South Dakota," Noem said Sunday about those reports. Noem once had optimistic prospects as a potential Trump running mate, but recent backlash involving a controversial anecdote in her new memoir downgraded her position. The snippet described a situation several decades ago where Noem decided to shoot and kill her 14-month-old puppy, Cricket, due to misbehavior that she claimed posed safety concerns. Noem has repeatedly stood by her decision to kill Cricket, including in the Sunday interview: "That story is a 20-year-old story of a mom who made a very difficult decision to protect her children from a vicious animal that was attacking livestock."
Stop Shein listing on the FTSE, workers’ rights campaigners urge 2024-06-09 17:14:00+00:00 - Workers rights campaigners have called for the UK’s next government to oppose the online fashion business Shein joining the FTSE, arguing that a London listing would be “yet another betrayal to working people everywhere and the planet”. Alena Ivanova, campaigns lead at Labour Behind the Label, said it had heard the news of senior British politicians courting Shein’s £50bn listing “with dismay” given what she claimed was a lack of transparency about its supply chain and ethical concerns. She highlighted: an investigation last month by Switzerland-based non-profit group Public Eye, which found that workers producing garments for Shein routinely work more than 70-hour weeks; exposés alleging forced labour in the Uyghur region of China; and the company’s “cavalier approach to design appropriation”, which has led to a string oflawsuits relating to allegedly copied garments. Mathias Bolton, head of commerce at UNI Global Union, which represents service industries around the world, said: “Shein shouldn’t be rewarded with the credibility of being listed in the City, or anywhere else, given the lack of transparency in their supply chain and shocking reports of severe labour violations.” The company, which operates largely from China, where it was founded, but is headquartered in Singapore, is rumoured to be planning to release documents outlining plans to list on the London Stock Exchange imminently. However, reports this weekend suggested it may not attempt to join the London market until September, after the election, when a Labour administration is expected to be in power. The campaigners voiced their concerns after the British Fashion Council (BFC), whose members include Burberry, Mulberry and Victoria Beckham’s fashion label, warned that Shein’s planned flotation on the London Stock Exchange was a “significant concern” to the industry. Caroline Rush, the chief executive of the BFC said that if the government welcomed Shein into the British fashion community, it must commit to “greater clothing market regulation and due diligence to ensure a level playing field for all businesses in the sector”. “Whilst we appreciate that Shein has committed to meeting acceptable industry standards, questions remain about the ethicality and sustainability of a business model and supply chain that consistently undercuts British designers and retailers,” she said in comments first reported by the Mail on Sunday. A Shein spokesperson said it “has a zero-tolerance policy for forced labour, and we are committed to respecting human rights. We take visibility across our supply chain seriously and have invested millions of pounds in strengthening governance and compliance.” The company said its supplier audits showed “a consistent improvement in performance and compliance”, including “improvements in ensuring that workers are compensated fairly for what they do”. It said research carried out by third-party auditors at Shein supplier facilities in China has found that basic salaries were on average twice the local minimum wage. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Business Today Free daily newsletter Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion Shein said it took copyright infringement seriously, adding: “It is not our intent to infringe anyone’s valid intellectual property and it is not our business model to do so.” The company said it had published a Modern Slavery statement on its website, as required by UK law, and added: “As a global company serving customers across more than 150 countries, we believe it is healthy to attract scrutiny and transparency and we want to be held to the highest standards.” The potential London listing of Shein is seen by some as a sign of hope for the City after a number of other major companies have chosen to list elsewhere. The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, met the company earlier this year, while the Labour party has indicated its support for Shein’s potential London listing, which could be the UK’s biggest ever stock market flotation. However, some senior politicians, including three parliamentary committee chairs, have questioned the efforts to woo Shein, raising concerns about labour conditions in its supply chains. Labour said it had talked to Shein as the party sees “raising investment, productivity and growth” as a key mission for government, and added that it expected “the highest regulatory standards and business practices from any company operating in the UK”.
Trump probation interview set for Monday after hush money conviction 2024-06-09 17:02:00+00:00 - Former President Trump is scheduled to sit for a virtual interview on Monday with a New York City probation officer from his home at Mar-a-Lago with his attorney Todd Blanche at his side after he was found guilty on all counts in the hush money trial against him last month, three sources familiar with the matter told NBC News. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was convicted last month on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the historic case. The probation interview is required by the court as part of the former president’s pre-sentencing report. Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the hush money case, permitted Blanche to be present for the probation interview after prosecutors did not object. The Trump defense team is scheduled to submit their sentencing recommendation on June 13. The former president is scheduled to be sentenced for all 34 felony counts in New York on July 11, days before the Republican National Convention begins. Some legal experts noted that holding a probation interview over a video conference call is unusual but having the former president in a New York probation would also be unprecedented. Martin Horn, former commissioner of the New York City Department of Corrections and Probation, told NBC News, “it is highly unusual for a pre-sentence investigation interview to be done over Zoom," but acknowledged that an in-person visit by Trump to the probation office would be "very disruptive." “But you can argue that Trump’s appearance at the probation office on the 10th floor of the Criminal Court Building in Manhattan where his trial took place, with Secret Service and press following him, would be very disruptive to the probation office and unfair to other defendants who might not want to be identified,” he said. “So in the end, this might be better for the probation officer.” Horn noted that the typical purpose of a probation interview is to obtain information on Trump’s social and criminal history, financial resources, history of mental health, physical or addiction issues as well as to assess his living situation. Trump could also be asked if he is associating with anyone with a criminal record because he cannot associate with them if he is placed on probation, Horn said. The probation officer may also want to interview others in Trump’s home afterward. Although officers typically fulfill their inquiries in one session, there could be follow-up interviews. The probation officer will then write a report and deliver it to Merchan. The former president is facing anywhere from probation to up to four years in prison. Some legal experts have argued Trump is unlikely to face imprisonment due to his age, lack of a criminal record and other factors. Former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters accompanied by his lead attorney Todd Blanche at Manhattan criminal court on May 6, 2024. Peter Foley / AP Duncan Levin, a former Manhattan prosecutor turned defense attorney, said the prosecution is likely to ask for jail time. Blanche, Trump’s lawyer, will be present to ensure no questions put his client in legal jeopardy, Levin said. Although the hearing may seem like an unnecessary step due to Trump being one of the most vetted public figures, it is the court’s way of judging who he is beyond what came to light during the trial. “It is unlikely to move the needle because the judge knows so much about his background,” Levin said, referring to the probation hearing. Levin also pointed to Merchan’s gag order against Trump after he attacked members of his family and the past jail sentence of Michael Cohen, Trump’s self-described former fixer who acted as the prosecution’s star witness, for a series of federal charges, including lying to Congress. “To the extent that an E felony is punishable by jail, this case screams out for jail time, he has shown no remorse and has been held in contempt 10 times, but the judge warned him if he breaks the gag order I will send you to jail and then he did it again several times,” Levin said. “And subverting the election process is as serious a records violation as has ever come through the New York courts.”
With congestion pricing stop, New York City enters new era of economic gridlock 2024-06-09 16:38:00+00:00 - Alexander Spatari | Moment | Getty Images As U.S. cities continue their recovery from the pandemic and inflation, New York City was expected to provide a key national test for the economic value of congestion pricing. A cost of living crisis, preparing for climate challenges, and aging infrastructure, including public transportation, all made the congestion pricing plan make sense to many. The basics of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority plan were easy to understand: a $15 fee for daytime automobile commuters entering New York City at or below Manhattan's 60th Street — which would have been the first of its kind in the United States — designed to fund transit system improvements with an estimated $1 billion in annual funding. The MTA estimated the toll would cut car traffic in the country's most automobile-congested area by about 100,000 cars per day, or 17%. In killing the latest version of that plan on Wednesday, which was set to go into effect in just weeks, current New York Governor Kathy Hochul spurned an idea she had supported as a model for cities in improving mass transit, quality of life, and environmental sustainability. Hochul cited the citywide post-pandemic economic recovery as a key driver for the decision, and concerns about deterring commuters from working in or visiting the area, called the "Central Business District." At the time of the pre-Covid state legislature approval in 2019, workers were in the office five days a week and tourism was at a record high. Still, the plan was federally approved in June 2023, and slated to go into effect on June 30, even with office vacancy rates in Manhattan as high as 15%. Did remote work kill congestion pricing? Hochul cited the three-day in-person workweek of many office workers as a symptom of the pandemic, and expressed concerns that people would return to fully remote work with this toll. A 2024 Gallup poll found that 54% of remote capable jobs, like those in finance and technology, operate on a hybrid model, and 27% are exclusively remote. It's true that the bosses of some of the city's biggest businesses want workers back more often. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has been among the most vocal about the importance of in-office work. The plan, Hochul said, would cause commuters to tell "employers they need to work fully remote again." But that may have been unlikely. Fully remote job listings are in decline, and executives are setting stricter mandates for office attendance in 2024. The return of five-day-a-week, in-person work may not be coming — with or without congestion pricing. Even before congestion pricing, a bridge crossing into New York City and parking could run as high as $75 a day, a price that many white-collar workers were already willing to pay, or have paid by their employers. It's hard to say whether a $10-$15 fee, including breaks for commuters who pay other tolls — especially in cases subsidized by employers — would be a breaking point, or rather, nowhere near the level of a deal breaker. Hochul endorsed delaying the plan to avoid hurting lower-income households, which she said "can break the budget of a hard-working middle-class," and "put a squeeze on the very people who make our city go," referencing small business owners, nurses and other working and middle-class New Yorkers. Yet New York's Department of Transportation found that the congestion toll would primarily affect commuters with an income 31% higher than the median Manhattan worker. In 2023, the subway had a daily ridership of 3.2 million people and MTA buses had a ridership of 1.4 million. Many New York City residents, especially lower-income residents, use MTA services as their primary method of transportation. Kathryn S. Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, a nonprofit organization representing city business leaders, noted on CNBC's Squawk Box after the decision that about 3% of commuters into the city drive cars, and they tend to be "higher paid people or government employees." In effect, she said, the congestion toll would reduce "discretionary" driving. A study by the Community Service Society found that a similar 4% of outer-borough workers drove vehicles to Manhattan for work, while 56% of outer-borough residents use mass transit to commute to work in Manhattan. Among workers who do drive to Manhattan, 55% were high income. "Most people ride public transit," Wylde said, whether that is rail, subway, or express bus into the city. watch now Wylde said many of her members from the business leader community did express concerns about the policy, but she staunchly advocated for it as an MTA Traffic Mobility Board member. Her group also has supported a congestion pricing plan for two decades. The result of its loss will be what she estimates at a $20 billion-plus cost in lost productivity, overtime and fuel expenses, as well as the environmental and health toll. There's another reason business leaders may have supported the plan. Governor Hochul has suggested a tax on the biggest business in the city to make up for the $1 billion per year in lost revenue, an increase in the payroll mobility tax that would target employers in New York City's five boroughs with payrolls of $1.75 million or more. The initial response from state legislators was not positive. Wylde noted that a tax can help solve the issue of raising new revenue, but it does nothing about traffic. A big win for the burbs The biggest winner was the suburbs. "A huge win for New Jersey and New York families," said Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) on CNBC's "Squawk Box." Gottheimer referenced the increased financial pressure on New Jersey's Sussex County commuters, who have little access to mass transit and must take cars to essential jobs. New Jersey commuters make up 9.6% of the New York City workforce, according to the Regional Plan Association. The MTA does not fund Jersey Transit, but oversees mass transit in Connecticut, Long Island, Southeastern New York and New York City. watch now Every driver to New York City loses though, in the actual experience on the road. The MTA has found that since 2010, average car travel speeds have decreased by 23%, to 7.1 miles per hour. Smaller streets — a function of growing bike lanes, bus lanes and increased space for outdoor dining post-pandemic — are a factor in workers spending more time in traffic. The long, and often losing, history of congestion pricing The battle over congestion pricing in New York City has a much longer history than you may think. For over 70 years, a local population that loves to complain about traffic and argue over the best ways to avoid it has been discussing ideas to make life in the city a little less crowded. Nobel Prize-winning economist William Vickrey first proposed the concept of congestion pricing in 1952 — at that time, ironically, for subway riders, though he later proposed a similar idea for roads. Among elected officials, the past week's surprise turn is in keeping with the recent history of losing battles. In 2007, then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg made the case for congestion pricing, but couldn't get enough support in the state's capital. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo first proposed the latest plan in 2017, but political tensions and pandemic financial challenges delayed its adoption. And while expressing support right up to the start date, Hochul was never transparent with the public about her concerns, according to a New York Times report on Sunday. Cuomo came out against his own congestion pricing plan in recent months, citing a kitchen sink of reasons to at least pause implementation of what he said remains "the right policy", from the migrant crisis to crime, homelessness, quality of life and taxes — but primarily, he wrote in a New York Post op-ed, because of a recent crime wave on the public transit system and need to restore passenger confidence in using mass transit. Cuomo also cited fare evasion on the public transit system, which has spiked since the law was passed in 2019. "A top priority," Wylde said on "Squawk Box," noting her group has helped to staff an MTA task force to figure out a solution to fare evasion. "We have to stop the hemorrhaging of funds from fare evasion, but that's not going to pay for the [MTA] capital program," she said, which is $50 billion over five years, $15 billion of which was to come from congestion pricing based on the passage of the law over four years ago. Fare and toll evasion has been estimated as high as $700 million in 2023. The ideas for where that money may come from in the future range far across the state, including to the governor's hometown of Buffalo. Rep. Gottheimer said in a "Squawk Box" interview, "There's $600 million that the Buffalo Bills are going to get for a new stadium, the owners there ... Don't give it to them to build a new stadium." watch now
‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ boosts Will Smith’s comeback and the box office with $56 million opening 2024-06-09 16:34:36+00:00 - NEW YORK (AP) — “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” the fourth installment in the Will Smith-Martin Lawrence action comedy series, opened with an estimated $56 million in theaters over the weekend, handing Hollywood a much-needed summer hit and Smith his biggest success since he slapped Chris Rock at the Academy Awards. Expectations were all over the map for “Ride or Die” given the dismal moviegoing market thus far this summer and Smith’s less certain box-office clout. In the end, though, the Sony Pictures release came in very close to, or slightly above, its tracking forecast. “Ride or Die,” produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, is Smith’s first theatrical test since his 2022 slap of Rock earned him a 10-year Oscar ban. The “Bad Boys” film was in development at the time and ultimately went forward with about a $100 million production budget. Smith starred in the Apple release “Emancipation,” but that film — released in late 2022 — was shot before the slap and received only a modest theatrical release before streaming. This time around, Smith largely avoided soul-searching interviews looking back on the Oscars and instead went on a whistle-stop publicity tour of red carpets from Mexico to Saudi Arabia, where he attended what was billed as the country’s first Hollywood premiere. The 55-year-old Smith, who for years was one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars, appeared on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon,” the YouTube series “Hot Ones” and on Friday, made a surprise appearance at a Los Angeles movie theater. Given that “Bad Boys” trailed May disappointments like “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” and “The Fall Guy” – both of which struggled to pop with ticket buyers despite very good reviews – the “Ride or Die” opening counts as a critical weekend win for the movie business. “The fact that a movie overperformed is the best possible news,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. “It seems like all we’ve been doing over the past few weeks and almost since the beginning of the year, with a couple of exceptions, is try to figure out why seemingly well-marketed, well-reviewed movies have underperformed. This ignites the spark that the industry has been waiting for.” “Ride or Die” still didn’t quite manage to match the opening of the previous “Bad Boys” film: 2020’s “Bad Boys for Life.” That movie, released in January 2020, debuted with $62.5 million. After the pandemic shut down theaters, it was the highest grossing North American release of that year, with $204 million domestically. “Ride or Die” added $48.6 million internationally. Though reviews were mixed (64% on Rotten Tomatoes), audiences gave the film a high grade with an “A-” CinemaScore. Black moviegoers accounted for 44% of ticket buyers, the largest demographic. In the film, which comes 29 years after the original, Smith and Lawrence reprise their roles as Miami detectives. The plot revolves around uncovering a scheme to frame their late police captain (Joe Pantoliano). In one of the movie’s most notable scenes, Lawrence slaps Smith and calls him a “bad boy.” Movie theaters will need a lot more than “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” though, to right the ship. Ticket sales are down 26% from last year and more than 40% below pre-pandemic totals, according to Comscore. A big test comes next weekend with the release of Pixar’s “Inside Out 2.” After sending several Pixar releases straight to Disney+, the studio has vowed a lengthy, traditional theatrical rollout this time. Last weekend’s top film “The Garfield Movie,” slid to second place. Also from Sony, the family animated comedy collected $10 million in ticket sales over its third weekend, bringing its domestic gross to $68.6 million. The weekend’s other new wide release, “The Watchers,” failed to click with moviegoers. The horror film, directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, daughter of M. Night Shyamalan, is about a stranded 28-year-old artist in Ireland. Following poor reviews, the Warner Bros. release grossed $7 million in 3,351 theaters. That allowed “If,” the Ryan Reynolds imaginary friend fantasy, to grab third place in its fourth weekend of release, bringing the Paramount Pictures cumulative domestic total to $93.5 million. Rounding out the top five was “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” which added $5.4 million in its fifth weekend of release. It has grossed $150 million domestically and $360 million worldwide. Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday. 1. “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” $56 million. 2. ”The Garfield Movie,” $10 million. 3. “If,” $8 million. 4. “The Watchers,” $7 million. 5. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” $5.4 million. 6. “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” $4.2 million. 7. “The Fall Guy,” $2.7 million. 8. “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” $2.4 million. 9. “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” $1.9 million. 10. “The Strangers: Chapter 1,” $1.8 million.
This Dividend Stock Is Carl Icahn's Biggest Bet. Should You Buy It? 2024-06-09 16:23:00+00:00 - Carl Icahn is one of the most famous activist investors on Wall Street. He's known for investing in companies with the goal of unlocking value for himself and other shareholders. Today he owns around 15% of Southwest Gas (NYSE: SWX) via his Icahn Enterprises (NASDAQ: IEP) investment vehicle. Should you invest in Southwest Gas, too? It depends. A quick look at Southwest Gas and Icahn Enterprises Icahn Enterprises owns or effectively owns some companies, meaning it has total control of the entities. An example of this is CVR Energy (NYSE: CVI), which the company treats as an operating subsidiary because it owns a controlling stake (66% of the shares) in the still publicly traded company. But it has also invested in a portfolio of five stocks, in which it owns only part of the public companies. The investment in which it has the largest ownership stake is Southwest Gas, at a bit over 15%. The other holdings are IFF, American Electric Power, Bausch Health, and Illumina. None of the other positions it has crosses the 10% threshold, with three of the four under 2%. Image source: Getty Images. That means that Icahn has, by far, the most say at Southwest Gas among his non-controlled stakes. Icahn is an activist investor, which generally means he likes to buy companies where he believes changes can be made to unlock value for shareholders like himself. And, as a large shareholder, he pushes for those changes. Southwest Gas describes itself as a business that purchases, distributes, and transports natural gas. It has around 2 million utility customers in parts of Arizona, Nevada, and California. It also provides infrastructure services across North America through its controlling stake in Centuri Holdings (more on this below). So, as currently configured, it is a mix of a regulated natural gas utility and an infrastructure services company. Southwest Gas' big change Southwest Gas won't look the way it does today for very long. It is working on the complete separation of Centuri Holdings. It has already held an initial public offering for a portion of Centuri Holdings, with Icahn Enterprises buying a substantial number of the shares. According to Southwest Gas: SWX retained ~81% interest in Centuri Holdings stock. Centuri's market capitalization was valued at $2.21 billion as of 5/7/20241. We expect to consolidate Centuri until conditions for consolidation are no longer met. That basically suggests that Southwest Gas will sell shares of Centuri over time (though it could also just distribute Centuri shares to Southwest Gas shareholders) to raise capital for its own capital investment needs. And it's definitely possible the company will need those resources to expand its business given that it expects population growth of 3.5% between 2024 and 2029 in the regions it serves of Arizona and 2.6% in Nevada, relative to 2.4% population growth throughout the rest of the country. Regulated utilities are given monopolies in the regions they serve, but must get rates and capital investments approved by the government. Story continues It looks like Southwest Gas's unlocked value is freeing up the value that was essentially locked in Centuri. But is that enough to make the stock a buy? Although Arizona and Nevada have encouraging population growth projections, California hasn't been growing as quickly as the rest of the country. So, overall, the customer count at Southwest Gas is expected to increase 1.6% per year through 2026. That's not terrible, but it isn't nearly as exciting as the 3.5% population growth figure the company highlights for Arizona. Basically, slow and steady is likely to be the case here for the foreseeable future. That's what you would expect from a utility, but that doesn't make Southwest Gas stand out. SWX Chart As for the stock itself, the yield is currently around 3.2%, which is just in line with the average utility, using Vanguard Utilities Index ETF as a proxy. Meanwhile, Southwest Gas' dividend has been boosted annually for 17 years, but it hasn't actually been increased since Q2 2022. If the company doesn't raise the dividend in the fourth quarter of 2024, the annual streak will end. But that's not the real story. The company states that, "Upon completion of the separation of Centuri, Southwest Gas Holdings plans to target a dividend payout ratio in line with gas utility peers." That suggests that there's a dividend cut coming at some point in the near future. Probably better off with a diversified utility ETF If you are looking for a utility stock to add to your portfolio, you will probably be better off avoiding the complexity of Southwest Gas today. There are a lot of moving parts as Carl Icahn pushes for change. It isn't yet clear where all the pieces will fall, but Southwest Gas is hinting that a dividend cut is on the way. As such, income-focused investors should be particularly careful here. Basically, only more aggressive investors that want to take on a special situation stock should be looking at Southwest Gas right now. More conservative investors might want to consider a utility with a less complicated story or a diversified utility ETF like Vanguard Utilities Index ETF. Should you invest $1,000 in Icahn Enterprises right now? Before you buy stock in Icahn Enterprises, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Icahn Enterprises wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $740,688!* Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 3, 2024 Reuben Gregg Brewer has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Bausch Health Companies and Illumina. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This Dividend Stock Is Carl Icahn's Biggest Bet. Should You Buy It? was originally published by The Motley Fool
EU expected to impose import tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles 2024-06-09 16:01:00+00:00 - The EU is expected to notify China that it will impose tariffs on electric vehicle imports this week, firing the starting gun on a potential summer trade war with Beijing. A formal pre-disclosure of tariffs could happen as early as Wednesday, after a lengthy investigation into China’s state subsidies for its car manufacturing, which is predicted to conclude that massive support continues to be concentrated on the EV sector. Chinese manufacturers are already bracing themselves for new import duties, but experts anticipate that Beijing will retaliate with countermeasures that could hit a range of EU exports to the country, ranging from cognac to dairy products. After meeting the Chinese president, Xi Jingping, in Paris last month, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, warned that “the world cannot absorb China’s surplus production”, saying the EU would “not waver” from protecting industries and jobs inside the bloc. The anti-subsidy investigation was launched last October amid suspicions that China was flooding the EU with cheaper EVs as a result of overcapacity and dampened domestic consumer demand. It is one of more than a dozen inquiries being conducted by the EU into Chinese state aid, including an investigation into exports of solar panels, heat pumps and wind turbines, which the energy sector says are undercutting the EU by 50%. Experts suggest Beijing will see the imposition of tariffs as a test of strength, given that the electric car sector is fuelling China’s success in exports. They predict that Xi will not waver from the national bet he has made to dominate the green tech sector around the world through EVs, solar panels and electric vehicle batteries, instead seeing trade as a battleground where he can set the terms. Should the EU investigation conclude on Wednesday, as expected, that Chinese car manufacturers have won a competitive advantage, Beijing will receive a formal pre-notification of tariffs and will have four weeks to provide any evidence to disprove the European case. Any decision to apply tariffs permanently must be backed by member states in November, about 13 months after the launch of the investigation. If imposed, the tariff schedule would involve three tiers: individual rates for the sample of companies investigated by the EU, which include the world’s biggest EV seller, BYD; an average tariff for companies that cooperated with inquiries but were not fully investigated; and a residual tariff for those that were not investigated at all. The Rhodium Group consultancy, which specialises in research on China, said it expects the tariffs to be set at 15%-30%, which will be easy to absorb for conglomerates such as BYD, which launched its entry-level Dolphin hatchback in the EU last summer priced at just under €30,000 (£25,000). As part of its marketing push it is also an official partner of Uefa in the Euro 2024 football championship. “Some China-based producers will still be able to generate comfortable profit margins on the cars they export to Europe because of the substantial cost advantages they enjoy,” Rhodium said. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Business Today Free daily newsletter Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion “Duties in the 40-50% range – arguably even higher for vertically integrated manufacturers like BYD – would probably be necessary to make the European market unattractive for Chinese EV exporters.” China has long argued that it has not been subsidising its automotive sector, and even if it were, its exports help the countries of the west achieve their green targets. Earlier this week on a tour of Spain and Portugal the commerce minister, Wang Wentao, insisted cooperation with the EU was a “win-win” strategy. “I hope that the European side will abandon protectionism and return to the correct path of dialogue and cooperation,” Wang said, calling on Spain to easy “anxiety” over a potential costly rift. He said the overcapacity the EU keeps talking about is not an excess of production capacity but an excess of anxiety, and the so-called market distortion is not a distortion of the market but a distortion of mindsets. Western governments say China can easily modulate its strategy, absorb tariffs and compete on a level playing field, but it cannot be allowed to dominate the future clean energy and tech market. European consumers have already paid a heavy price through higher energy bills after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exposed the EU’s over-reliance on Russian gas, and EU officials are determined not to repeat the mistake with China, pursuing an official “de-risk” strategy.
The 5 places with the world's longest-living people all have this in common: 'It seems to make us happier' 2024-06-09 15:56:00+00:00 - After 20 years of interviewing centenarians and visiting "Blue Zones," the areas in the world where people tend to live the longest, Dan Buettner learned something that he didn't expect. "When you take worldwide data on happiness, and you control for everything else, you find that people who live next to water are...happier than people who [don't]," Buettner says. In fact, all five Blue Zones — Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Loma Linda, Calif., U.S.; Ikaria, Greece; Nicoya, Costa Rica — are on the water. While there are various theories about why this is the case, the end result is clear. "It may be the tranquilizing effect of water or it may be that the climate is moderated because of the water," Buettner says. "But it seems to make us happier." And happiness isn't the only positive side-effect of living by the water. A 2017 systematic review published in BMJ Open found that spending time near coasts, lakes or rivers can "promote health and well-being and prevent disease."
Far-right fossil fuel company allies pressure US supreme court to shield firms in unprecedented campaign 2024-06-09 15:09:00+00:00 - Far-right fossil fuel allies have launched a stunning and unprecedented campaign pressuring the supreme court to shield fossil fuel companies from litigation that could cost them billions of dollars. Some of the groups behind the campaign have ties to Leonard Leo, the architect of the rightwing takeover of the supreme court who helped select Trump’s supreme court nominees. Leo also appears to have ties to Chevron, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “He’s really crafted the supreme court,” said Lisa Graves, executive director of the progressive watchdog group True North Research and an expert on Leonard Leo’s network. Honolulu is one of 40 cities and states suing big oil for an alleged decades-long effort to sow doubt about the dangers of burning fossils. If successful, the case could force the defendants to pay for climate damages. In October, the Hawaii supreme court ruled that the suit can go to trial. But oil companies petitioned the US supreme court in February to review the state court’s decision; they argued the cases should be thrown out because emissions are a federal issue that shouldn’t be tried in state courts. Supreme court justices met on Thursday to consider whether or not to take up the fossil fuel companies’ request, and the justices could grant or reject the petition in the coming days. If granted, the request could catalyze the dismissal of the wave of climate accountability lawsuits against big oil – a major win for the defendants seeking to limit their liability for the climate crisis. But it’s the kind of ask about which the supreme court would not normally offer its opinion, advocates and legal experts say. “The court would probably not think this request is important, unless someone told them it was very important,” said Kert Davies, a director at the Center for Climate Integrity, which supports the litigation against big oil. Some conservatives have been telling them exactly that. “I have never, ever seen this kind of overt political campaign to influence the court like this,” said Patrick Parenteau, professor and senior climate policy fellow at Vermont Law School. In recent weeks, conservatives have published opinion pieces in Bloomberg, the Hill, the Wall Street Journal and the National Review calling on the court to grant the petition. “Honolulu is attempting to use the law of one state to dominate the others,” wrote Carrie Severino, president of the conservative dark money group JCN, formerly known as the Judicial Crisis Network, in the rightwing National Review. JCN is a trade name for the Concord Fund, one of many non-profits led by Leo, the powerful far-right judicial activist who also co-chairs the rightwing legal advocacy group the Federalist Society. Justice Clarence Thomas once quipped that Leo was the third most powerful person in the world. Asked about the influence campaign, Severino told the Guardian: “Liberal dark money groups … are freaking out because the supreme court is being asked to step in and correct the damage those dark money groups are doing with their massive campaign to subvert the law and the constitution with a radical climate agenda.” Another Leo-tied non-profit, the Alliance for Consumers, has also been running social media ads making similar arguments, Rolling Stone reported this month. Leo has said he will attempt to use the non-profit to “institute a lot of legal and social change”. In April, 20 Republican state attorneys general also filed “friend of the court” briefs asking the supreme court to grant the petition. Each of them are members of the Republican Attorneys General Association, to which Leo’s Concord Fund is a major contributor. The opinion pieces in the Hill were authored by Donald Kochan, a professor at George Mason University law school, which in 2016 received a $30m donation brokered by Leo, E&E News noted. View image in fullscreen Leonard Leo, left, welcomes supreme court justice Neil Gorsuch for a speech at the Federalist Society on 16 November 2017. Photograph: Sait Serkan Gurbuz/AP George Mason University has also taken tens of millions of dollars from rightwing organizations cultivated by fossil fuel billionaire Charles Koch. A strategist at one Koch group said in 2022 that her organization was “partnering with organizations that can get the right cases to the supreme court”, the Guardian and Documented reported. The Koch network is also a longtime major funder to the Federalist Society, which Leo co-chairs. Thousands of petitions are filed with the supreme court every year, each with only a small chance of being reviewed, E&E News noted. Federal rules also say that the supreme court only has jurisdiction over final judgments, Parenteau said. “There is no final judgment in the Honolulu case, period, full stop,” said Parenteau. “For the court to grant this petition, it would have to ignore or find some way around those clear procedural rules.” Oil industry relationships Some environmental advocates are wondering if another Leo-tied group, CRC Advisors, has been involved in the political campaign. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Down to Earth Free weekly newsletter The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion The emailed comment the Guardian obtained from Severino, the president of JCN, quoted above, was sent not by JCN itself, but by a senior account executive at CRC Advisors. Leo is the founder and chair of the public relations firm, which reportedly works with high-profile rightwing clients including the Americans for Prosperity and the Competitive Enterprise Institute – both part of the Koch network, which has long worked to sow climate doubt. In 2020, E&E News revealed another apparent CRC Advisors client: Chevron, which is one of the defendants in the Honolulu lawsuit and many other climate accountability cases. The firm mistakenly sent email to reporters ending with the tagline: “If you would rather not receive future communications from Chevron, let us know by clicking here.” An archived webpage found by True North Research also shows that CRC listed the “second-largest integrated energy company in the US” as a client in 2019, saying that for the client, the agency “developed winning communications, media relations, crisis communications and social media strategies”. The second largest US energy company that year was Chevron, noted Graves of True North Research. CRC Advisors did not directly address the Guardian’s questions about its involvement with the campaign or its current relationship with Chevron. Kert Davies said there is no direct evidence that Chevron was involved in the media push, but that the campaign has raised suspicions. “This Honolulu case directly impacts Chevron as well as many other climate cases where Chevron is a defendant, so while we don’t yet know what corporate interests are behind the Alliance for Consumers pressure campaign, we keep following our noses,” he said. Chevron did not respond to a request to comment. Potential ‘backfiring’ The political campaign, said Graves, is a clear sign that the US judiciary has been “captured by Leonard Leo and his billionaire benefactors”. “These lawsuits are important measures to address the serious harms being caused by the [fossil fuel] industry,” she said. “But … they have leveraged their resources in order to advance an agenda that does not allow for climate accountability.” But Parenteau said that the public strategy could “backfire”, because John Roberts, the chief justice, appears to be “sincerely” concerned about the supreme court maintaining its integrity and reputation. “I think the more that you politicize the petition, I think the more you’re going to see concern,” he said. The justices have three options when it comes to the oil companies’ petition. If they grant the request – the worst possible outcome for the lawsuits’ supporters – the court will hear arguments in the fall. If the justices instead ask the solicitor general for an opinion, that would significantly delay the case. They could also deny the petition outright, which would be a win for climate advocates, said Parenteau. “It’s one to watch closely” he said. Another climate lawsuit, filed by non-profit law firm Our Children’s Trust on behalf of a group of young people, will go to trial later this month.
Nearly half of England’s care workers get less than real living wage, study finds 2024-06-09 15:01:00+00:00 - Nearly half of all care workers in England earn less than a real living wage, according to research. Analysis by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) for the Living Wage Foundation found that 400,000 workers in social care (43% of the workforce) in England are paid less than £12 an hour, the amount required to cover living costs. In London the picture is even starker, with 80% of care workers paid less than £13.15, the London living wage. In Scotland and Wales, social care workers earn at least the real living wage. With job vacancy rates running at about 10% and turnover almost double the average of other sectors, campaigners want all English care staff to have the same guarantees. Matthew Bolton, the executive director of Citizens UK, a campaign group, said: “It’s not right that those caring for our loved ones when they need it most are barely surviving because of their low wages. This also has knock-on effects for the sector: staff turnover is high, the quality of care is compromised and morale is low. It simply can’t continue this way. “We urge the next UK government to ensure all care workers are paid at least the real living wage and build on the example set by Scotland and Wales.” The IPPR’s analysis shows it would cost £415m to pay all social care workers in England the real living wage, but as higher wages would generate extra income tax and national insurance revenues, it calculates that the total net cost to the next government would be £330m, less than 2% of the social care budget for the coming year. The leaders of 18 local authorities have signed an open letter to Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer calling for the next government to ensure all care workers in England earn at least the real living wage, including for travel time and sleep-in shifts. “Care work is vital, demanding, skilled work and people taking on this responsibility should earn more than the legal minimum,” the letter states. “If we want to build a social care workforce which is fit for the demands of the future, we must ensure that staff earn enough to meet their everyday needs.” The signatories, who include the leaders of Liverpool and Dorset councils and eight London boroughs, say that while some local authorities have been able to implement the real living wage for care workers, many cannot afford it “without greater support from central government”. Simon Bottery, a senior fellow in social care at the King’s Fund thinktank, said improving social care pay would be popular with the public but needed to be rooted in a wider workforce strategy to improve training and career development, rather than tackled in isolation. Nina Hemmings, a Nuffield Trust researcher, said: “For too long pay and conditions for care workers have been pitiful and unattractive compared to roles in other sectors, with the result being chronically high vacancy rates and around one in five care home workers living in poverty and deprivation. “Boosting pay for care workers in line with the real living wage is one of several measures that could be taken to fix this. The next government should be emboldened by the precedent set by the Scottish and Welsh governments.” Social care pay is likely to feature in a number of election manifestos. The Liberal Democrats have pledged to introduce a carer’s minimum wage set £2 above the standard minimum wage to tackle the huge shortage of care workers.
When students graduate debt-free 2024-06-09 14:11:00+00:00 - Back in 2019, Freddie Williams Jr. had a lot on his mind at his college graduation: "That's when, you know, it started really kicking in – hey, this is how much you owe, you're gonna have to start paying this back," he said. Growing up on the south side of Chicago, he had dreamed of going to Morehouse, the historically Black college in Atlanta that counts Martin Luther King Jr. among its distinguished alumni. "Once I got accepted and saw that, hey, the money is being offered, [I] didn't have an idea of what I was really getting myself into," he said. And then at commencement, Williams got the surprise of a lifetime, when billionaire businessman Robert F. Smith pledged to pay the student loans for the entire class, clearing some $34 million in student and parent debt. "We're gonna put a little fuel on your bus," Smith said. Williams said, "It was crazy, you know? To look back and see my parents in the stands crying and celebrating. That's when I knew like, okay, this is big." He said his total debt – around $125,000 – was a "tremendous" weight to be lifted. Total student loan debt in the U.S. is now nearly $1.8 trillion, and experts say many young people are delaying buying homes and starting families because of it. But the Morehouse Class of 2019 is something of an experiment: What could lives look like when students graduate debt-free? Filmmakers Joshua Reed and Emani Rashad Saucier, who were also part of the class of 2019, are making a documentary about how their classmates are faring thanks to that generous gift. "I think only now, as we get five years out, people realize the implication of what having no loans is," said Reed. "You can buy a house right after graduation, which people we've interviewed did. Someone started a nonprofit to get Black and Brown students into tech. Someone became a family man." Saucier said, "This is what happened at Morehouse: They got the debt cleared and they were able to have this exponential effect. What happens when we clear the debt for millions of Americans?" Last year the Supreme Court struck down President Biden's ambitious $430 billion student debt relief plan. Since then, the Biden Administration has expanded existing programs to cancel $167 billion in debt, with most relief going to people working in the public sector and for nonprofits. Josh Mitchell, author of "The Debt Trap: How Student Loans Became a National Catastrophe," said, "They're sort of doing these piecemeal fixes, but they're not doing anything to stop the underlying problem." Simon & Schuster Mitchell said Congress created the federal student loan program to expand college access. But by allowing students and their parents to borrow virtually any amount to study virtually anything, the government has enabled colleges to raise tuition without consequence. "There's a cycle of: students take out loans, schools raise their tuition, students take out more loans," said Mitchell. "That's essentially what's happened over the past 40 years. That's why tuition (up until recent years) has grown at sometimes triple the rate of inflation." More than half (51%) of all college students now graduate with student loan debt, with the average owing $29,400, according to the College Board's "Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid 2023" report. Mitchell says those levels of student debt are negatively affecting the economy: "The U.S. economy is the world's biggest, most dynamic, in large part because of higher education," he said. "But you also have a lot of students who are – not in default in their loans, but are devoting more and more of their paychecks to paying off debt. That's money that they could have been using to save for retirement, or buy a house, or to even start a business. For the average student, there is a payoff for going to college. But I think that the problem is they're overpaying," Asked why the cost of tuition has increased at a rate greater than inflation, Nicole Hurd, president of Lafayette College, a private four-year school in Easton, Pennsylvania, said, "Colleges and universities obviously have to be good stewards, and we have to constantly look at our business model. But I will say this: We're in the business of human capital, and human capital is expensive. So, when you think about investing in teaching, research, scholarship, those things are investments we have to make." Hurd worries that fear of student debt is discouraging the lower- and middle-income students who benefit most from attending college: "We're so fixed on the price, and we're thinking about the sticker shock of the price. We're not thinking about the long-term investment as individuals, as families, and as a country. If somebody goes to college, their children will go to college, their grandchildren will go to college. It changes everything." Tuition and room and board at Lafayette is more than $87,000 a year, though in recent years, the school has made efforts to offer more grants and fewer loans as part of its financial aid packages. Hurd said, "Some debt is okay. A little skin in the game is not the end of the world. What we can't have is people [having] tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars of student debt. That's not okay. But the non-profit sector in higher education is getting much better about being transparent about what debt is, and then making sure students and families make good choices." Still, more than 40 million Americans have student loan debt, with 3.5 million owing more than $100,000, according to the College Board. The Education Data Initiative says the average interest on that debt is 6.87 percent; the average length of repayment, 21.1 years. It's why filmmaker Joshua Reed believes the story of the Morehouse Class of 2019 needs to be told. "People are being crushed by the immense weight of this debt," he said. "But once it's relieved, they can go on to do all sorts of things." Freddie Williams Jr. said he thinks about not having to pay back student loans almost every day. He was back on campus last month for the five-year reunion of that lucky class. Now a 26-year-old software engineer, he said that, instead of paying back a mountain of debt, he gets to pay the gift forward: "It was, you know, bigger than just having my debt paid off. Because of that gift, you know, I was able to buy a house, and with me buying a house, that allowed for my brother to move in while he's finishing his degree. And I know it, you know, in my soul that I have to continue to give back and pass it forward." For more info: Story produced by Mark Hudspeth. Editor: Emanuele Secci.
‘Failure of the negotiations’: Israel’s hostage rescue leads to one of the bloodiest days in the war 2024-06-09 13:23:00+00:00 - In Israel, the news of four hostages rescued from Gaza was met with cheering crowds and tearful scenes of reuniting families. Officials hailed the operation as miraculous and heroic, and offered a rare win for Israel's embattled Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. But it came at the expense of hundreds of Palestinians, who suffered one of the bloodiest days in Gaza. Video filmed by an NBC News crew on the ground showed streets scattered with charred bodies, survivors gathering body parts into sacks, rescuers carrying mangled and blood-soaked children into chaotic hospitals overwhelmed with the injured. By Sunday, joy in Israel was fading and giving way to the realities of a war that has dragged on for nine months and whose fissures and deep divisions remained largely unchanged by the rescue. Freed hostage Almog Meir Jan, 21, arrives by helicopter Saturday at the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, Israel. Tomer Appelbaum / AP “What we saw yesterday is actually failure of the negotiations,” Yossi Mekelberg, an associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, said in a phone interview with NBC News. “Had there been a cease-fire, these hostages would already have been at home, and the civilians that were killed yesterday would be alive," Mekelberg said. The destruction wrought during the rescue is unlikely to ease Israel's isolation from an international community that has censured Israel for months over the civilian death toll in Gaza. United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese said in a statement that she was “Relieved that four hostages have been released," but that “it should not have come at the expense of Palestinians.” Injured Palestinians are brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital after the Israeli operation in central Gaza on Saturday. Anadolu via Getty Images “Israel has used hostages to legitimize killing, injuring, maiming, starving and traumatizing Palestinians in Gaza,” she said. At home, opposition leader Benny Gantz was expected to resign from Israel’s war cabinet on Saturday over Netanyahu’s failure to adopt a postwar plan. Gantz delayed his statement after the rescue and Netanyahu asked him not to leave the emergency government in a post on X. But the delay may be brief. Gantz will be making a statement on Sunday evening, where he is expected to announce his resignation and withdraw his National Unity Party from the coalition. If he does so, it would leave Netanyahu to rely on support from far-right members of his government who have loudly opposed a cease-fire deal, including the one proposed by President Joe Biden earlier this month. As of Sunday, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said at least 270 people were killed, pushing the overall death toll past 37,000. Another 700 were injured in the assault and rescue operation, and more were believed to be buried in the rubble. Video from an NBC News crew on the ground captured the aftermath in Nuseirat that included a rush of wounded at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, including the bodies of surviving children wrapped in gauze that was soaked pink.
Beer and new TVs: Euro 2024 ‘to fuel £2.75bn spree for UK shops and pubs’ 2024-06-09 13:02:00+00:00 - Football fans are predicted to spend £2.75bn on items including beer, pizzas and new TVs during the men’s Euro 2024 tournament, which kicks off this week, providing a much-needed boost to retailers, pubs and bars. In the pubs sector alone, the British Beer & Pubs Association is expecting an extra 20m pints to be sold over the four weeks of the first major summer men’s tournament since the pandemic without social distancing restrictions. The estimated 300m pints served will bring in an extra £94m for publicans. The wider hospitality sector could receive a £613.7m boost, according to research by industry analyst GlobalData Retail for the website Vouchercodes, while retailers are in line for a £2.1bn windfall from sales of goods such as televisions and sportswear. An estimated 35.4 million supporters are likely to tune in and cheer or jeer the Three Lions and Scotland, helped by favourable kick-off times as the tournament is being held in Germany. Almost half are expected to head to their local pub, bar or restaurant to watch at least one game, a 115% increase on the last major international men’s event, the 2022 World Cup, held in Qatar during the winter months. High hopes for the England team mean fans are expected to spend an additional £172m on hospitality compared with the 2022 competition. One of the venues eagerly awaiting the first kick-off is Dartford Sports Bar in Kent, which was opened by Chris Michaelas and his partner April on the same day that Boris Johnson announced the first lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. “We were loading fridges, the DJ was setting up, and Boris went on the telly in the afternoon saying all pubs have to shut tonight,” said Michaelas. He said the Euro 2024 tournament would be the first to deliver them the takings boost typical for a summer sports event. “For the Euros in 2021, we had instructions about where to sit and the ‘rule of six’ and one-metre spacing. We were unfortunate with the one-off winter World Cup last Christmas because it overlapped with our Christmas bookings, where we normally have a peak, and it watered that peak down a bit. “This is our first proper summer tournament as a company. Our turnover will double – that’s the simplest way of putting it.” The venue is doubling its staff to 20 for the first England match of the tournament and has sold 1,000 tickets for games, which will be shown on 24 screens in the bar, while the sound will be piped into the garden and even the toilets. Michaelas said the multicultural nature of the area had also delivered a boost, as groups of people had booked to watch matches involving Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Turkey, Slovakia and Scotland. “We’re just praying for good weather.” Retailers are hoping that a bit of sunshine will help fuel a £2.1bn spending spree on food, drink and equipment for barbecues and alfresco pizza making, as well as electrical goods, such as new TVs, sportswear, and merchandise. With TV sales lacklustre, and sports brands and retailers also hit by consumers reining in spending in the cost of living crisis, the 2024 competition could change fortunes. A final appearance for either of the two qualifying home nations will mean an even stronger boost to spending and a feelgood factor that could mean better business for those not selling products directly linked to the tournament.
As young women show distended bellies on TikTok, bloating gets new attention 2024-06-09 13:00:00+00:00 - Nadya Okamoto had the perfect costume for her friend’s Rihanna-themed birthday party: a likeness of the pregnant pop star in black lingerie, based on her iconic outfit at Paris Fashion Week. Okamoto was not pregnant but her belly was distended: “I literally had a watermelon-sized bloat,” she said. The 26-year-old TikTok creator is vocal about her digestive issues. A video Okamoto posted of the Rihanna costume, showing her “bloated, poo-filled belly,” has amassed 3.8 million views. “This made me feel so much better!!” one commenter wrote. “I’ve had a bloated stomach since I was little and I was so insecure about it today.” Okamoto is one of many young, female creators who are documenting and discussing bloating on the app, filming their distended bellies. Some attribute the issue to menstruation or constipation, while many others just describe it as mysterious and painful. Around 158,000 TikTok posts feature the #bloating or #bloated hashtags. The company did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the rise or reach of the trend. Women have discussed bloating across various forums for many decades, but the recent uptick is part of a broader focus on gut health, arising from research about the importance of good bacteria in the gut. Many recent TikTok videos about bloating encourage viewers not to dismiss it as normal or benign. And plenty of wellness influencers now promote “gut-healthy” products or share hacks for improving digestive issues. Several gastroenterologists said that anecdotally, they have seen an increase in patients who report symptoms of bloating. “It just strikes me that people are much more concerned about bloating and distension than they have been in the past,” said Dr. William Chey, chief of the gastroenterology division at the University of Michigan Medical Center. “It’s a really frequent complaint that I care for in 2024, and it seemed like it was very much more of a sideshow in years past.” Experts offered a guess as to why that may be: The consumption of ultraprocessed foods with high quantities of gluten or fructose has increased in recent decades. The trend could also be a result of greater awareness or discussions of bloating, they said. “Partially because of social media, talking about GI symptoms in general is becoming much less taboo, much more the norm,” said Dr. Kyle Staller, director of the Gastrointestinal Motility Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Being that bloating is both common and bothersome, people are really starting to air their grievances online.” Dr. Satish Rao, a professor of medicine at Augusta University, said some physicians may also be taking reports of bloating more seriously than they did decades ago because patients document their distended stomachs on their phones. “From the patient’s own evidence, you can actually say, ‘Yeah, you know, there is something not right,’” he said, adding that he has seen a steady rise in bloating cases over the last 20 years. One likely catalyst for the proliferation of bloating videos on TikTok was a Los Angeles billboard that a company called BelliWelli launched in 2022. It bore a now-popular phrase: “Hot girls have IBS.” BelliWelli makes snack bars advertising “zero bloat” for people with gut issues. Katie Wilson, the company’s founder and CEO, said a line formed by the billboard — people wanted to take photos. “It was women sticking out their stomachs. It was a reclaiming, like it is cool to be bloated,” she said. (A majority of people with irritable bowel syndrome report bloating as a symptom, and women are more likely to have these issues.) The phrase went viral on social media. Wilson said the campaign also had a secondary message: “It’s not normal to be uncomfortable day in and day out.” A billboard promoting BelliWelli products. BelliWelli That message resonates with Alex Hanan, 23, an intensive care unit nurse in Boston. Her TikTok video about foods that have made her feel bloated — such as caffeine on an empty stomach and protein bars — has 1.2 million views. “It’s something that people maybe don’t even realize that they have, which is yet another reason why I talk about it,” she said. Not all gastroenterologists agree that bloating is any more common now than in years past, however. “I can’t say that I’ve seen some remarkable uptick. I’ve just seen a steady, constant flow of people with bloating,” said Dr. Brennan Spiegel, a professor of medicine and director of Health Services Research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Spiegel and Chey co-authored a 2022 study, which found that almost 1 in 7 Americans said they’d experienced bloating in the prior week, but Spiegel said there is not good data on trends over time. Some degree of bloating is normal, according to doctors — especially after a large meal — but experiencing it chronically may be a sign of a medical issue such as IBS or lactose intolerance. Bloating can be difficult to treat. “We try and treat some of the usual culprits like constipation, but so many patients even after treating those things are still bothered,” Staller said. “I think that is the real reason why we see so many people coming to say, ‘What can I do? What’s the mystery here?’” That element of mystery has led plenty of people on TikTok to test or promote remedies that aren’t well supported by science, including probiotics and supplements. “Unfortunately, we don’t yet have enough science to know for sure whether, when and how best to take probiotics,” Spiegel said. Okamoto is among those who does not know the cause of her bloating, which she said has bothered her since childhood. She suspects constipation or a gluten intolerance may be contributing and said lowering her gluten intake has helped. But she hasn’t found a clear answer yet, even after seeing multiple doctors. Nadya Okamoto. Sophia Wilson Okamoto said she has tried just about everything — medication, probiotics, fiber supplements, even an enema. “Someone told me to swallow two tablespoons of olive oil and I fully did that on TikTok and then just felt sick,” she said. Some bloating can be reduced via dietary changes. After screening for constipation, doctors often check for food sensitivities by putting people on diets with minimal FODMAPs — sugars that are poorly absorbed by the small intestine. This usually involves eliminating categories such as dairy, wheat, beans or certain fruits and vegetables, then reintroducing them to see which cause issues. In some cases, trapped gas can cause bloating, so people can take an over-the-counter pill like Gas-X, or a peppermint oil capsule. But neither is a long-term solution. In other cases, bloating may be caused by an abnormal reflex that causes the diaphragm to descend and the abdominal wall to relax and push out. Swallowing too much air when eating or sleeping could also be a culprit, so doctors may recommend chewing food slowly and avoiding carbonated beverages, gum, mints or hard candies. But there’s a big difference, Spiegel said, between mild and severe bloating. “Having some stomach aches, some bloating — they’re so common, it’s almost part of being a human,” he said. “When it becomes a problem, though, is when it’s really affecting your quality of life.”
As the need for copper rises, cable manufacturers recycle more 2024-06-09 12:48:11+00:00 - MONTREAL (AP) — In an industrial suburb of Montreal, sheets of copper move along a conveyor belt suspended four stories above the floor of a foundry — a metals plant — until they drop into a lava-hot furnace. Next come pieces of discarded copper wire. Out of the furnace comes liquid copper, alight with green fire. It travels to a second furnace and from there, a river of orange copper flows out, to be shaped into copper rods, the raw material for copper wire. This Nexans mill has made copper rod from ore for nearly a century. But now it also makes an increasing amount of it from used copper, with the rods containing some 14% recycled metal. It hopes to get to 20%. “We say to our customers: Your waste of today, your scrap of today is your energy of tomorrow, so bring back your scrap,” said Nexans CEO Christopher Guérin. Copper wire scraps are visible at Nexans, one of the world’s largest wire and cable manufacturers, Friday, April 12, 2024, near Montreal. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP) Across the industry, manufacturers have been reusing and recycling some degree of copper for many years. Now they’re stepping up these efforts as the need for the metal is projected to nearly double by 2035. It’s partly due to a move away from fossil fuels to cut planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. There’s a growing movement to power buildings, vehicles and manufacturing operations with clean electricity, to “electrify everything” — which uses more copper. Building construction, cell phones and data centers account for the other half of the increase in demand. Every ton of copper that is recycled means some 200 tons of rock that won’t need to be mined, though the amount depends on how rich the ore is. That’s important because mining can cause erosion, contaminate soil and water, threaten local biodiversity and pollute the air. Copper is an especially good candidate for reuse, because it can be recycled indefinitely without losing its value or performance, Guérin said. Daily, up to 10 trucks drop off bare wire, cable and copper scrap at the Nexans mill. Some comes from customers, some from scrap dealers. The purity must be high if it’s to be used to conduct electricity. One of the world’s largest wire and cable manufacturers, Nexans uses more than 2,600 times the weight of the Statue of Liberty in copper each year. A worker looks at a coil at Nexans, one of the world’s largest wire and cable manufacturers, Friday, April 12, 2024, near Montreal. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP) People may have a closer connection to this metal and this mill than they realize — copper connects them to the world, said Daniel Yergin, an expert on energy and vice chairman of the analytics firm S&P Global. “We depend on electricity for everything now,” he said. “None of it works without copper.” Aluminum is used in electrical wiring too, but it takes a lot of energy to produce. Some aluminum smelters, where machines separate metal from ore, have cut production or closed as electricity prices have increased, adding to the demand for copper. Roughly two-thirds of all the copper produced in the last century is still in use, mostly for electrical grids, home appliances and communications, according to the International Copper Association. When those get past their useful life, they are an enormous stock that can be recycled in the future, the ICA said. An employee at works at Nexans, one of the world’s largest wire and cable manufacturers, Friday, April 12, 2024, near Montreal. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP) Colin Williams, program coordinator for the USGS Mineral Resources Program, said companies should recycle more of the copper that is already out there, taking advantage of what is, effectively, the “urban mine.” “It increases the supply available,” he said. "... It reduces the energy and environmental impacts associated with new mining by being able to reuse material we’ve already mined. It’s an important step.” ___ The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.