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Biden signs bill banning imports of Russian uranium for nuclear fuel 2024-05-14 19:57:00+00:00 - Ready-to-ship canisters filled with enriched uranium at the Urenco USA uranium enrichment facility near Eunice, New Mexico, US, on Tuesday, July 11, 2023. Russia's invasion of Ukraine is forcing the US and Europe to search for alternative sources of enriched uranium to power their reactors. The United States will ban imported Russian uranium starting on Aug. 11, the Department of Energy announced Tuesday. Russia controls nearly half of the world's supply of enriched uranium, according to the Department of Energy, and provides about one quarter of the U.S.'s enriched uranium, which is used to power the country's 94 nuclear reactors. The ban, which President Joe Biden signed into law on Monday, also unlocks $2.72 billion in federal funding to expand the country's uranium industry. Exchange-traded funds that track uranium prices rose slightly following the announcement, with the Global X Uranium ETF and the Sprott Uranium Miners ETF trading around 1% higher Tuesday. Because the ban's implementation could hurt supplies for reactors in the U.S., the law allows some waivers for utilities that otherwise would be forced to shut down reactors without them. All waivers, however, will end on or before Jan. 1, 2028. "Our nation's clean energy future will not rely on Russian imports," Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement. "We are making investments to build out a secure nuclear fuel supply chain here in the United States." While the U.S. continues to import more than 20% of its enriched uranium from Russia's state-owned nuclear power company Rosatom, it has sanctioned more than 35 of the company's subsidiaries since February 2022, when the Kremlin invaded Ukraine. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, said this latest move marks an end to U.S. dependence on Russia for the commodity. "Banning imports of Russian uranium will jumpstart America's nuclear fuel industry, further defund Russia's war machine, and help revive American uranium production for decades to come," Barrasso said in a statement on Monday after the bill's enactment. In response to Biden's signing of the ban, Russia's ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, said in a post on Telegram that it was another "failed" attempt by the Biden administration in "inflicting strategic economic defeat on us." "The current attack — not only on Russia but also on the world market for uranium fuel for nuclear power plants — is leading to new shocks in international economic relations," he said. "The delicate balance between exporters and importers of uranium products is being disrupted."

Disney+ will stream Caitlin Clark's WNBA debut in the platform's first live sports event 2024-05-14 19:45:00+00:00 - Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark, #22, drives to the basket against Atlanta Dream guard Destanni Henderson, #33, during a WNBA preseason game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, on May 9, 2024. The Women's National Basketball Association regular season opens Tuesday night with breakout star Caitlin Clark making her debut as point guard for the Indiana Fever. The game will be streamed on Disney+, the service's first live sports event. As the NCAA's all-time leading scorer for both men's and women's basketball, Clark helped draw a record 18.9 million viewers to the Women's March Madness National Championship game last month. The former Iowa star was drafted as the No. 1 pick on April 15, which alone led 2.45 million viewers to tune in, surpassing the league's previous high for a draft by 307%. Following Clark's debut at 7:30 p.m. ET against the Connecticut Sun, Disney+ will stream the Phoenix Mercury vs. Las Vegas Aces matchup. Disney+ has previously streamed animated simulcasts of sporting events using cartoon characters in place of the athletes, but Tuesday's doubleheader is the first instance of a live sports game streamed on the platform. Disney nearly turned a profit in its streaming unit for the first time during its fiscal second quarter, the company reported last week. The entertainment giant has been increasingly leaning on sports streaming to drive viewership. Disney's ESPN is planning to launch a full direct-to-consumer streaming product in fall 2025 that will allow consumers to subscribe to ESPN without cable. It is also partnering with Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox Corp . to offer a sports streaming service that they expect to launch this fall, the companies announced in February. Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery's exclusive TV rights for NBA games is currently under negotiation. The WNBA's existing media rights deal expires in 2025. The deal is reported to be worth roughly $60 million, and WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said she expects that to double when the rights are renegotiated. Patrick Rishe, director of the Sports Business Program at Washington University's Olin Business School, said the WNBA debut on Tuesday could be a "watershed moment for the league," and the choice to have the game on Disney+ will be critical for the league's "key demographic" of families and younger people. "They covet younger fans, and this is how younger fans view their sports these days — it is through streaming," Rishe told CNBC's "Worldwide Exchange" on Tuesday. "I certainly see some parallels between the potential of Caitlin Clark and her power in terms of increasing the reach of the WNBA and Lionel Messi, of all people, and what is going on with Apple TV," Rishe added, in reference to the soccer superstar's 10-year deal with Major League Soccer, and the league's streaming deal with Apple TV.

Newcastle council could be complicit in sportswashing, campaigners claim 2024-05-14 19:42:00+00:00 - Human rights campaigners have suggested Newcastle city council could be complicit in sportswashing after its executives lobbied officials at the Saudi Arabian-controlled Newcastle United, attempting to secure investments and funding. More than 200 pages of emails obtained under a freedom of information request highlight a close relationship between senior council officials and the St James’ Park hierarchy. As councillors aim to forge strong business, educational and tourism links with Saudi Arabia, NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing (NUFCFAS) says local politicians on Tyneside must fulfil promises to “keep talking about human rights”. Those pledges were made when Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund became the 80% owner of Newcastle United in 2021. A spokesperson for the campaign group said: “NUFCFAS urges Newcastle city council to publicly condemn human rights abuses by the Saudi state and take up specific cases with the football club’s chairman Yasir al-Rumayyan, who is the governor of the PIF and has been described as ‘a sitting minister’ of the Saudi government. “The council should host, at the earliest opportunity, a meeting with a delegation of Saudi human rights advocates in Newcastle.” NUFCFAS staged a protest during a recent win against Sheffield United at St James’ Park, asking fans to hold up posters emblazoned with pictures of Salma al-Shehab, a Saudi citizen, member of the kingdom’s Shia minority and Leeds University PhD student. She is serving a 27-year prison sentence in Saudi Arabia after endorsing tweets advocating women’s rights. One email in the batch released thanks to the efforts of NUFCFAS and BBC Radio 4’s File on 4, was from Michelle Percy, the council’s director of investment and growth, to Amanda Staveley, one of Newcastle’s minority British co-owners. It detailed “an ambition to attract further investment from the Gulf region, to increase exports from the north-east and bring in tourists”. Percy also suggested the north-east could develop a “joint energy institute lead by north-east and Saudi Universities”. Nick Kemp, the council’s Labour leader, asked Newcastle United for more than £23m to fund free school meals, and a council officer wrote to Staveley asking her to lobby high-level UK government contacts to try to secure funding for the restoration of the Tyne Bridge. Darren Eales, Newcastle United’s chief executive, said the club would not fund free school meals, pointing out it had donated cash to a local food bank. Newcastle United declined to comment. A spokesperson for Newcastle city council said: “As a City of Sanctuary we share concerns about human rights issues across the world. However it’s important to recognise it is for government to take on the role of addressing those concerns at a national level. “We also do not think it’s fair to blame those involved in the day-to-day management of Newcastle United, themselves a club of sanctuary, with alleged human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia. We have enjoyed a longstanding relationship with Newcastle United. The club is ingrained into the fabric of our city and they make a huge contribution both on and off the pitch. “The club is a source of immense pride for supporters and a successful Newcastle United can only be a good thing for our city’s residents and the wider region. Like local authorities across the country we will always look at opportunities to drive investment and growth to benefit all our residents. Newcastle is not alone in this. “International investment creates jobs, opportunity and boosts the city economy. It is an important responsibility, one we take seriously and we will continue to work collaboratively to attract international investment from across the world.” Felix Jakens, Amnesty International’s UK head of campaigns, said: “When it comes to attracting Saudi money there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Newcastle city council should be careful. This type of relationship with Saudi Arabia aids its efforts to distract attention from its appalling human rights record.”

Comcast unveils streaming bundle that includes Apple TV+, Peacock and Netflix 2024-05-14 19:41:00+00:00 - Comcast will offer a new bundled streaming service where customers can watch content from Apple TV+, Peacock and Netflix in one place, the company's chief executive said Tuesday. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts didn't specify a price for the bundle, which will be called StreamSaver, but said it will be "a vastly reduced" compared to other streaming services. StreamSaver will launch this month, Roberts said during a conference hosted by investment research firm MoffettNathanson, but did not give an exact date. "We've been bundling video successfully and creatively for 60 years," Roberts said at the event. "And so, this is the latest iteration of that and I think will be a pretty compelling package." Apple TV+ alone now costs $9.99 a month, up from $6.99 last year. NBC's Peacock, which was launched in July 2020 and now costs $5.99 a month, has 34 million paid subscribers; it includes programming from Bravo, Hallmark, WWE, NBC Sports and NBC, among other channels. Netflix continues to reign supreme with more than 260 million global subscribers. Monthly subscriptions run from $6.99 to $22.99. Apple, Comcast and Netflix didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. StreamSaver is the latest in a trend toward streaming bundles this year launched by media companies in hopes of driving growth while cutting costs. Entertainment and media giants have struggled to turn a profit on streaming, given the hefty costs of producing original content in the highly competitive video-on-demand market. Another problem plaguing streaming content providers is inconsistent subscription revenue due to customers frequently adding and dropping platforms depending on their cost and programming. Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery in May announced they will offer a bundle that includes Disney+, Hulu and Max. Users of the new bundle, set to launch this summer, will have access to content from ABC, CNN, DC, Discovery, Disney, Food Network, FX, HBO, HGTV, Hulu, Marvel, Pixar, Searchlight and Warner Bros. In a separate move, ESPN, Fox Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery earlier this year announced the launch of an app this fall that will group together most of their respective sports content to U.S. users. Fortune in December reported that AppleTV+ and Paramount+ were mulling bundling their streaming services. Former Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish stepped down from his role in April, a management shift at the media and entertainment company as it considers a potential merger or sale (Paramount is the owner of CBS News.) Comcast's stock price was flat Tuesday, trading at around $40 a share.

Another subdued day for stocks. Here's our latest thinking on 4 portfolio names including a 'coiled spring' 2024-05-14 19:32:00+00:00 - Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. (We're no longer recording the audio, so we can get this new written feature to members as quickly as possible.) Market talk: The S & P 500 continues to trade in a tight range Tuesday, with no significant budge in either direction. It's similar to the action we've seen over the past several trading sessions. In four of the past five sessions, the S & P 500 has not closed more than 0.16% in a positive or negative direction; Friday's 0.51% gain is the lone exception. Tuesday's subdued action follows a noisy wholesale inflation report before the bell. The producer price index for April increased a more-than-expected 0.5% month over month. However, downward revisions to the March report make it more difficult to interpret the April numbers than usual. All eyes will be on the consumer price index due out at 8:30 a.m. ET Wednesday. At an event in Amsterdam on Tuesday , Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reiterated that the U.S. central bank is likely to keep interest rates steady for a while due to sticky inflation. Quick takeaways from an Analyst Conference: A couple of our companies spoke at Bank of America's health-care conference Tuesday, including GE Healthcare . Most of the questions centered on the medical equipment maker's ability to meet its full-year outlook — the same debate that caused the stock to fall more than 14% to $76 per share after earnings . We called that sell-off an overreaction, and the stock has climbed more than 5% since then, including Tuesday's slight decline. CFO James Saccaro reiterated Tuesday that the fulfillment delay in its patient-care solutions business — among the reasons for the first-quarter miss — was a "one-off isolated incident" that will be resolved in the second half of the year and won't lead to any lost sales. The other issue is China, where GE Healthcare experienced a more challenged environment due to a delay in ordering patterns from customers lacking clarity around a new government stimulus package. While not an ideal situation, we're taking the long-term view of this temporary issue because once more information is known, GE Healthcare should see a big influx of new orders. But the timing is still unclear, and based on management's comments Tuesday it doesn't sound like the situation has changed in the past two weeks. Executives continue to expect more clarity from the Chinese government at some point in the second quarter. Jim's thoughts: Stanley Black & Decker shares rose about 1.5% Tuesday, among the best-performing Club holdings in the session. We're looking forward to Jim Cramer's interview with the DeWalt parent's CEO, Don Allan, later Tuesday on "Mad Money." "I feel strongly that [Stanley Black & Decker] is a coiled spring with a good safe dividend and some killer products that will take share," Jim said ahead of the interview. "I know [Home Depot] didn't kill it but that's only 15% of revenue. Lots of other ways to win," he added. "Europe and [Latin America] very strong. Aircraft fasteners terrific." Shares of electrical equipment supplier Eaton Corp. are lower for third straight day after closing Thursday's session at an all-time high of $333.26 each. The Club stock is trading around $328 per share Tuesday, so it's hardly been a steep pullback thus far. Still, Jim said, investors should be looking at Eaton's declines opportunistically. "Buy Eaton on any weakness," he said. "It is a data center play," which is a key theme on Wall Street as investors look to capitalize on infrastructure investments to support AI computing needs. Eaton has been the second-best portfolio holding this year, up roughly 36%. Nvidia , the leading AI chipmaker, occupies the top spot, advancing more than 83%. Analysts at Stifel painted Costco Wholesale in a positive light based on the results of its U.S. consumer spending survey. The survey was encouraging for large retailers in general, including Walmart and Target. But the results were "most favorable" for Costco, according to the analysts, who have a buy rating on the stock. Costco is "the only company that can beat Amazon at Amazon's game," Jim said, referring to Costco's focus on offering value to customers on just a few thousand items. Up Next: The lone earnings report on our radar after the closing bell is bullpen name Nextracker, the maker of solar tracker systems. In the morning we'll try to get some clarity on the ongoing inflation debate when we see the CPI report. Expectations are for a 0.4% increase month over month and 3.4% year over year. We'll also be looking at earnings from the enterprise software company Monday.com. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust.) 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. Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. (We're no longer recording the audio, so we can get this new written feature to members as quickly as possible.)

Healthy Returns: 1 in 8 adults have taken Ozempic or other GLP-1s, survey says 2024-05-14 19:31:00+00:00 - Rebekah Carl poses with her prescription of Wegovy in New Columbia, Pennsylvania, U.S., November 13, 2023. Think a friend or colleague should be getting this newsletter? Share this link with them to sign up. Good afternoon! The use of a buzzy class of weight loss and diabetes medications is more common than ever. About 1 in 8 adults in the U.S. has used a GLP-1 drug at some point, according to a survey from health policy research organization KFF released Friday. Roughly half of those Americans, or around 6% of U.S. adults, are currently using one of the treatments. That includes Novo Nordisk 's weight loss injection Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic, along with Eli Lilly 's weight loss treatment Zepbound and diabetes counterpart Mounjaro. The survey shows large numbers of Americans are taking the drugs despite intermittent shortages caused by unrelenting demand. The treatments have skyrocketed in popularity over the last year despite their high costs and limited insurance coverage. Let's dive into some of the data. Most adults, or more than 60%, who have used a GLP-1 reported taking them in part to manage chronic conditions such as diabetes or heart disease. That includes 39% who took a GLP-1 solely to treat a chronic condition, and 23% who took one to both treat a chronic condition and lose weight. Meanwhile, 38% of adults who have taken a GLP-1 reported using them specifically to lose weight. Notably, GLP-1 usage differed depending on race and ethnicity. Around 18% of Black adults have taken one of the drugs About 14% of Hispanic adults have used them Roughly 10% of white adults have taken one of the drugs Black and Hispanic adults in the U.S. have a higher rate of obesity than white adults, according to KFF's analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. There were also differences by age group, the survey said. Nearly 20% of adults ages 50 to 64 said they have taken a GLP-1 before, which is higher than the shares reported by other age groups. However, younger adults were more likely than those 65 and above to report taking a GLP-1 specifically for weight loss. KFF said that may reflect the fact that the federal Medicare program does not cover prescription weight loss drugs. Medicare can only cover treatments for weight loss if they are approved in the U.S. for an additional health benefit, such as treating diabetes and reducing the risk of heart disease. But the majority of all adults, regardless of whether they have taken a GLP-1, said they think Medicare should cover the cost of the drugs when prescribed for weight loss and for people who are overweight, according to the KFF survey. Still, more than half of adults with health insurance who have taken GLP-1s said their plans covered part of the cost of these drugs. Meanwhile, 24% said their insurance covered the full cost of the drug, and 19% said they paid for the entire cost themselves. The data points in this survey could change in the future as GLP-1s win approval to be used to treat other conditions, such as sleep apnea and fatty liver disease, which would put more pressure on health plans to cover them. Stay tuned for our coverage on the use of these drugs. Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com.

Disney+ will stream Caitlin Clark’s WNBA debut in the platform’s first live sports event 2024-05-14 19:29:00+00:00 - The WNBA regular season opens Tuesday night with breakout star Caitlin Clark making her debut as point guard for the Indiana Fever. The game will be streamed on Disney+, the service’s first live sports event. As the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer for both men’s and women’s basketball, Clark helped draw a record 18.9 million viewers to the Women’s March Madness National Championship game last month. The former Iowa star was drafted as the No.1 pick on April 15, which alone led 2.45 million viewers to tune in, surpassing the league’s previous high for a draft by 307%. Following Clark’s debut at 7:30 pm ET against the Connecticut Sun, Disney+ will stream the Phoenix Mercury vs. Las Vegas Aces matchup. Disney nearly turned a profit in its streaming unit for the first time during its fiscal second quarter, the company reported last week. The entertainment giant has been increasingly leaning on sports streaming to drive viewership. Disney’s ESPN is planning to launch a full direct-to-consumer streaming product in fall 2025 that will allow consumers to subscribe to ESPN without cable. It’s also partnering with Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox Corp to offer a sports streaming service that they expect to launch this fall, the companies announced in February. Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery’s exclusive TV rights for NBA games is currently under negotiation. The WNBA’s existing media rights deal expires in 2025. The deal is reported to be worth roughly $60 million and WNBA Commissioner Engelbert said she expects that to double when the rights are renegotiated. Patrick Rishe, director of the Sports Business Program at Washington University’s Olin Business School, said the WNBA debut on Tuesday could be a “watershed moment for the league,” and the choice to have the game on Disney+ will be critical for the league’s “key demographic” of families and younger people. “They covet younger fans, and this is how younger fans view their sports these days, it is through streaming,” Rishe told CNBC’s “Worldwide Exchange” on Tuesday. “I certainly see some parallels between the potential of Caitlin Clark and her power in terms of increasing the reach of the WNBA and Lionel Messi, of all people, and what is going on with Apple TV,” Rishe added, in reference to the soccer superstar’s 10-year deal with Major League Soccer, and the league’s streaming deal with Apple TV.

Bumble dating app removes ads mocking celibacy after backlash 2024-05-14 19:27:00+00:00 - The popular dating app Bumble is canceling an ad campaign that derides celibacy to promote its matchmaking service. It has also issued an apology. The company ran a series of ads in commercials and on billboards mocking celibacy as an alternative to dating as it launched a rebrand of the company and introduced what it is calling "the new Bumble." Tag lines included "You know full well a vow of celibacy is not the answer," and "Thou shalt not give up on dating and become a nun." Bumble had long distinguished itself from other dating apps by requiring that women make the first move; it has since reversed course on its former signature feature. On Monday, Bumble addressed the controversial anti-celibacy ads, saying in a statement on Instagram, "We made a mistake. Our ads referencing celibacy were an attempt to lean into a community frustrated by modern dating, and instead of bringing joy and humor, we unintentionally did the opposite." The company acknowledged the backlash from individuals who choose to be celibate, people who identify as asexual and other groups with whom the ads failed to resonate. "Some of the perspectives we heard were: from those who shared that celibacy is the only answer when reproductive rights are continuously restricted; from others for whom celibacy is a choice, one that we respect; and from the asexual community, for whom celibacy can have a particular meaning and importance, which should not be diminished. We are also aware that, for many, celibacy may be brought on by harm or trauma," Bumble said. Bumble said it is removing anti-celibacy messaging from its global marketing efforts. It is also making a donation to the National Domestic Violence Hotline (The Hotline) and other organizations that support marginalized communities, the company said. And where the anti-celibacy billboards once were, Bumble is offering the ad space to these advocacy groups. The Hotline is "thankful our partner, Bumble, recognizes the impact their campaign has had and is taking responsibility. Their contribution to The Hotline will provide support to those affected by relationship abuse across the U.S," the group told CBS MoneyWatch. A spokesperson for the group added that it is "evaluating the opportunity for the billboard space." Bumble rolled out the campaign as it struggles to grow its user base and attract younger members, who increasingly say they prefer to interact with other people who are looking for romantic connections on social media apps like Instagram or TikTok. Bumble shares have dropped about 45% since last July.

Argentina reports its first single-digit inflation in 6 months as markets swoon and costs hit home 2024-05-14 19:05:45+00:00 - BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina’s monthly inflation rate eased sharply to a single-digit rate in April for the first time in half a year, data released Tuesday showed, a closely watched indicator that bolsters President Javier Milei’s severe austerity program aimed at fixing the country’s troubled economy. Prices rose at a rate of 8.8% last month, the Argentine government statistics agency reported, down from a monthly rate of 11% in March and well below a peak of 25% last December, when Milei became president with a mission to combat Argentina’s dizzying inflation, among the highest in the world. “Inflation is being pulverized,” Manuel Adorni, the presidential spokesperson, posted on social media platform X after the announcement. “Its death certificate is being signed.” Argentina President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) Although praised by the International Monetary Fund and cheered by market watchers, Milei’s cost-cutting and deregulation campaign has, at least in the short term, squeezed families whose money has plummeted in value while the cost of nearly everything has skyrocketed. Annual inflation, the statistics agency reported Tuesday, climbed slightly to 289.4%. “People are in pain,” said 23-year-old Augustin Perez, a supermarket worker in the suburbs of Buenos Aires who said his rent had soared by 90% since Milei deregulated the real estate market and his electricity bill had nearly tripled since the government slashed subsidies. “They say things are getting better, but how? I don’t understand.” Milei’s social media feed in recent weeks has become a stream of good economic news: Argentine bonds posting some of the best gains among emerging markets, officials celebrating its first quarterly surplus since 2008 and the IMF announcing Monday it would release another $800 million loan — a symbolic vote of confidence in Milei’s overhaul. People eat a free breakfast served by a soup kitchen that was set up at the Obelisk as a protest against the city government’s “hygiene and cleanliness” policy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, May 14, 2024. The policy involves authorities removing the homeless from the streets. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello) “The important thing is to score goals now,” Milei said at an event Tuesday honoring former President Carlos Menem, a divisive figure whose success driving hyperinflation down to single digits through free-market policies Milei repeatedly references. “We are beating inflation.” Even so, some experts warn that falling inflation isn’t necessarily an economic victory — rather the symptom of a painful recession. The IMF expects Argentina’s gross domestic product to shrink by 2.8% this year. “You’ve had a massive collapse in private spending, which explains why consumption has dropped dramatically and why inflation is also falling,” said Monica de Bolle, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics who studies emerging markets. “People are worse off than they were before. That leads them to spend less.” A worker counts money at a grocery store in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Nov. 21, 2023. Prices have surged so dramatically that the government has multiplied the size of its biggest banknote in circulation to 10,000 peso note, five times the value of the previous biggest bill, according to the central bank on May 8, 2024, and the new bill is expected circulate in June. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) Signs of an economic slowdown are everywhere in Buenos Aires — the lines snaking outside discounted groceries, the empty seats in the city’s typically booming restaurants, the growing strikes and protests. At an open-air market in the capital’s Liniers neighborhood, Lidia Pacheco makes a beeline for the garbage dump. Several times a week, the 45-year-old mother of four rummages through the pungent pile to salvage the tomatoes with the least mold. “This place saves me,” Pacheco said. Sky-high prices have forced her to stick to worn-out clothes and shoes and change her diet to the point of giving up yerba mate, Argentina’s ubiquitous national drink brewed from bitter leaves. “Whatever I earn from selling clothes goes to eating,” she said. A youth picks through discarded produce at the central market for fruit and vegetables in Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) Argentina’s retail sales in the first quarter of 2024 fell nearly 20% compared to the year before, a clip comparable to that of the 2020 pandemic lockdowns. The consumption of beef — an Argentine classic — dropped to its lowest level in three decades this quarter, the government reported, prompting panicked editorials about a crisis in Argentina’s national psyche. “Now I buy pork and chicken instead,” said Leonardo Buono, 51-year-old hospital worker. “It’s an intense shock, this economic adjustment.” Milei, a self-proclaimed “anarcho-capitalist” and former TV personality, warned his policies would hurt at first. He campaigned brandishing a chainsaw to symbolize all the cutting he would do to Argentina’s bloated state, a dramatic change from successive left-leaning Peronist governments that ran vast budget deficits financed by printing money. Promising the pain would pay off, he slashed spending on everything from construction and cultural centers to education and energy subsidies, from soup kitchens and social programs to pensions and public companies. He has also devalued the Argentine peso by 54%, helping close the chasm between the peso’s official and black-market exchange rates but also fueling inflation. Inflation in the first four months of 2024 surged by 65%, the government statistics agency reported Tuesday. Prices in shops and restaurants have reached levels similar to those in the U.S. and Europe. But Argentine wages have remained stagnant or declined, with the monthly minimum wage for regulated workers just $264 as of this month, with workers in the informal economy often paid less. Today that sum can buy scarcely more than a few nice meals at Don Julio, a famous Buenos Aires steakhouse. Nearly 60% of the country’s 46 million people now live in poverty, a 20-year high, according to a study in January by Argentina’s Catholic University. Even as discontent appears to rise, the president’s approval ratings have remained high, around 50%, according to a survey this month by Argentine consulting firm Circuitos — possibly a result of Milei’s success blaming his predecessors for the crisis. “It’s not his fault, it’s the Peronists who ruined the country, and Milei is trying to do his best,” said Rainer Silva, a Venezuelan taxi driver who fled his own country’s economic collapse for Argentina five years ago. “He’s like Trump, everyone’s against him.” Argentina’s powerful trade unions and leftist political parties have pushed back against Milei with weekly street protests, but haven’t managed to galvanize a broad swath of society. That could change — last week, a massive protest against budget cuts to public universities visibly hit a nerve, drawing hundreds of thousands of people. “The current situation is completely unsustainable,” said de Bolle, the economy expert. ___ Associated Press writer Almudena Calatrava contributed to this report.

Anglo American’s breakup is overdue. BHP must have seen it coming | Nils Pratley 2024-05-14 19:03:00+00:00 - Get rid of the bad bits, keep the good ones. Anglo American’s defence strategy cannot be called original – especially as half of it is borrowed from the approach of the would-be bidder, BHP. One could also ask why, since Anglo has been simplifying itself for about two decades already, its board required the heat of a £34bn takeover battle to discover more urgency. But there is a genuine plus in the mix: Anglo’s breakup plan is plainly more radical than anything it has attempted in the recent past. It also achieves the first requirement of a quasi-defence document by putting the onus on the bidder to come up with a real bid or shut up. BHP, if it wants to own Anglo’s best assets, will have to table a clean offer for the whole collection, as opposed to making a complex approach to own two-thirds of the company as long as the defender demerges the unwanted other third beforehand. In a showdown between the two “complicated” breakup visions for Anglo’s short-term future, the defender’s plan looks superior: clean the decks first and then, if returns are still inadequate in a few years’ time, a conventional bid battle can be allowed to happen. The assets deemed by Anglo as worth retaining are copper, iron ore and crop nutrients – the last being the planned fertiliser mine under the North York Moors, which was acquired in 2020 and is the only “Anglo” part of Anglo aside from the head office. As a portfolio, yes, two of those parts make sense. Copper is the go-to metal for electrification of the world’s energy systems; iron ore never goes out of fashion. The loose element is the Woodsmith mine near Whitby, which has been a money pit to this point. Anglo now says it will slash investment to zero in 2026 to protect its balance sheet. When will first production happen? Answers are noncommittal. That is the weakness in the plan: even with the offloading of other assets, the group is still muttering about recruiting “one or more strategic partners” to help fund a “multigenerational resource”. But there’s not much to complain about in the exit corner. Anglo American Platinum, which already has a separate listing in Johannesburg, will be demerged; nickel put on “care and maintenance”; the 85% stake in diamond giant De Beers will be sold; coking coal in Australia is also up for grabs. None of that is problematic because most of those assets are reasons why Anglo’s shares labour under a conglomerate discount. BHP, which would have kept the coking coal in Queensland, might be interested in that asset. Some sovereign wealth fund or other might want De Beers. The future-looking question is how long Anglo will take to complete its rejig. The chief executive, Duncan Wanblad, reckons most of the job will be done by the end of 2025, which would count as reasonably slick if achieved. At that point, Anglo would be in a position where it would either perform for its shareholders or represent a cleaner takeover target. 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 The immediate question is whether BHP comes back with a fresh approach. The market’s guess was no, which is why Anglo’s shares fell 3% on Tuesday. But it would be an odd tactic on the part of the BHP boss, Mike Henry, to make a weird-looking initial offer and then bow out when Anglo adopts a predictable breakup defence. Henry has either played this all wrong, or else he’s yet to show his true cards.

TikTok content creators sue the U.S. government over law that could ban the popular platform 2024-05-14 19:01:30+00:00 - Eight TikTok content creators sued the U.S. government on Tuesday, issuing another challenge to the new federal law that would ban the popular social media platform nationwide if its China-based parent company doesn’t sell its stakes within a year. Attorneys for the creators argued in the lawsuit that the law violates users’ First Amendment rights to free speech, echoing legal arguments made by TikTok in a separate lawsuit filed by the company last week. The legal challenge could end up before the Supreme Court. The complaint filed Tuesday comes from a diverse set of content creators, including a Texas-based rancher who has previously appeared in a TikTok commercial, a creator in Arizona who uses TikTok to show his daily life and spread awareness about LGBTQ issues as well as a business owner who sells skincare products on TikTok Shop, the e-commerce arm of the platform. The lawsuit said the creators “rely on TikTok to express themselves, learn, advocate for causes, share opinions, create communities, and even make a living.” “They have found their voices, amassed significant audiences, made new friends, and encountered new and different ways of thinking—all because of TikTok’s novel way of hosting, curating, and disseminating speech,” it added, arguing the new law would deprive them and the rest of the country “of this distinctive means of expression and communication.” A spokesperson for TikTok said the company was covering the legal costs for the lawsuit, which was filed in a Washington appeals court. It is being led by the same law firm that represented creators who challenged Montana’s state-wide ban on the platform last year. In November, a judge blocked that law from going into effect. The federal law comes at a time of intense strategic rivalry between the U.S. and China on a host of issues and as the two have continued to butt heads over sensitive geopolitical topics like China’s support for Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. U.S. lawmakers and other administration officials have aired concerns about how well TikTok can protect users’ data from Chinese authorities and have argued its algorithm could be used to spread pro-China propaganda, which TikTok disputes. Under the law, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance would be required to sell the platform to an approved buyer within nine months. If a sale is in progress, the company will get a three-month extension to complete the deal. However, TikTok and ByteDance said in their lawsuit last week that they would still have no choice but to shut down by next Jan. 19 because continuing to operate in the U.S. wouldn’t be commercially, technologically or legally possible. They asserted it would be impossible for ByteDance to divest its U.S. TikTok platform as a separate entity from the rest of TikTok, which has 1 billion users worldwide — most of them outside of the United States. A U.S.-only TikTok would operate as an island that’s detached from the rest of the world, the lawsuit argues. It also said the Chinese government – which would need to approve such a sale – has “made clear” it would not permit a sale of the recommendation algorithm that populates users’ feeds and has been the “key to the success of TikTok in the United States.” In an interview, Brian Firebaugh, the Hubbard, Texas-based rancher who is part of the creator lawsuit, said he started his TikTok account in 2020 to help establish his brand and market the cattle-related products that he sells online. That decision allowed him to quit his full-time job and live off the income he was making from TikTok, where he currently has more than 430,000 followers. Firebaugh, 44, said TikTok has also helped him build an online community with other ranchers and gave him the opportunity to participate in a Netflix reality show where his winnings allowed him and his wife to afford the adoption process for their son. Losing TikTok, he said, would disrupt everything. “One hundred percent of our customers come from TikTok,” Firebaugh said. “For that to go away, you’re now stealing money out of my family’s mouths.” Chloe Joy Sexton, a 29-year-old content creator who lives in Memphis, Tennessee, and runs a cookie business called Chloe’s Giant Cookies, said she started experimenting with TikTok four years ago after losing her prior job. Sexton said she had been posting content on other social media platforms, but only TikTok created a viral trajectory for her baking. Today, she has more than 2 million followers on the app, where she has also shared more intimate details about her life, such as losing her mother to brain cancer and subsequently adopting her little sister. “There has been no evidence whatsoever that my information is in danger or anybody else’s,” said Sexton, who is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “Nobody has provided that – not the government, not anybody else. And to base this purchase, this tug of war that changes my life off of a hypothetical is so hurtful to me personally, because my government at that point is not protecting me.” The creators are asking the court to issue a declaration saying the law is unconstitutional and an order that would prevent Attorney General Merrick Garland from enforcing it. The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

OpenAI’s new GPT-4o model offers promise of improved smartphone assistants 2024-05-14 19:01:00+00:00 - In the year and a half since the launch of ChatGPT, one nagging question has only got more pressing: if AI can do this, why is my phone’s assistant still so bad? On Monday, the gulf grew larger still, as OpenAI announced a new model called GPT-4o – the ‘o’ stands for Omni – which gives the chatbot new abilities to understand and create audio, video, and still images. The system is uncanny to behold. It can engage in prolonged conversations about the world seen through a camera lens, carry out live translation between two different languages, and even laugh at appropriate points. The shine will inevitably wear off after users find the shortcomings in the system, but its creators are more confident than ever. When GPT-4 was launched in 2023, the OpenAI founder, Sam Altman, tweeted that the AI “is still flawed, still limited, and it still seems more impressive on first use than it does after you spend more time with it”. A year on, there was no such doubt with the launch of its successor: as well as a longer statement about an “an exciting future where we are able to use computers to do much more than ever before”, Altman tweeted a single word: “her”, the name of the 2013 Spike Jonze film depicting a man slowly falling in love with his AI assistant. GPT-4o is closer than ever to that science fiction scenario. Previous versions of the AI have been able to talk to the user, but only through a laborious process of transcribing speech to text, running it through the normal ChatGPT system, then generating human-sounding speech in reply. By contrast, the new system can operate directly in speech without needing to lean on other models to prop it up, speeding up responses and allowing it to acknowledge quirks such as tone of voice. But it still isn’t quite an AI assistant. It can answer questions and perform knowledge work, but not – yet – act on requests. The GPT Store, a repository of third-party integrations collated by OpenAI, could help, but to really embed itself in normal people’s lives, GPT needs the power of Siri. And it seems Apple agrees. The iPhone maker has reportedly been in talks since March with AI developers, including Google and OpenAI, over licensing their technology to improve its own AI assistant. Over the weekend it reportedly “neared” a deal with the latter. According to Bloomberg, which broke the news, the deal would allow Apple to offer ChatGPT alongside the other AI features it will announce at its annual Worldwide Developers conference in June. The link-up would probably fall short of fully replacing Siri with ChatGPT. That is partly because Apple is wary of embedding another company’s technology too deeply in its own devices – the scars from the painful replacement of Google Maps with Apple Maps over a decade ago still smart – but also because even the best AI systems aren’t quite ready for the sort of demands an assistant requires. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to TechScape Free weekly newsletter Alex Hern's weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives 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 When it comes to an AI system that can carry out tasks, generic smarts are less important than predictability. You don’t want your AI to be able to send text messages to your friends if you can’t be certain what it will say when it sends them – a real problem faced by some of the trendy AI hardware startups such as Humane and Rabbit, whose promises to replace the smartphone with AI went awry. Training an AI system to do exactly the same thing, in the same way, every time it is asked to do so is, counterintuitively, slightly harder than making one that gives varied but correct answers to every question. But if the technology continues to improve at the rate it has done, even your phone’s AI assistant might not be bad for much longer.

Under Fire for ‘Toxic’ Work Culture, Bank Regulator Apologizes Again 2024-05-14 19:00:09+00:00 - Just days after the release of a scathing report detailing a culture of widespread sexual harassment and discrimination at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, its chair, Martin Gruenberg, submitted congressional testimony on Tuesday that indicated he had no plans to step down. In prepared remarks he plans to deliver to the House Financial Services Committee Wednesday, Mr. Gruenberg largely repeated his previous statements — that he was sorry for the harassment and abuse employees suffered, and that he and his staff were already working on making changes. “I accept the findings of the report and, as chairman, I take full responsibility,” he said. The hearings come as Mr. Gruenberg, a Democrat, faces calls from Republican lawmakers to resign. He has so far survived those demands with the backing of the White House and key Democratic lawmakers like Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Representative Maxine Waters of California. Should Mr. Gruenberg be pressured to depart the agency after the hearings, that could also put into jeopardy a rule that the agency is proposing, along with other federal bank regulators, to tighten and expand oversight of the nation’s largest lenders, but that big banks have fiercely opposed.

Walmart is laying off and relocating hundreds of corporate workers 2024-05-14 18:46:00+00:00 - Walmart is laying off hundreds of corporate workers across the country as it relocates many employees to its Arkansas headquarters. The big-box retailer confirmed the layoffs and relocations in a memo sent to employees Tuesday. In the memo, Chief People Officer Donna Morris said the move is meant to bring more of its employees back to the office after the Covid pandemic. The company brought corporate employees back to its Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters in February 2022. Now, she said, Walmart is taking that a step further: The majority of employees working remotely and in offices in Dallas, Atlanta and Toronto have been asked to relocate. Most will be moved to the company’s Arkansas headquarters, but some will also relocate to offices in the San Francisco Bay Area or Hoboken, New Jersey, she said. “In addition, some parts of our business have made changes that will result in a reduction of several hundred campus roles,” she said in the memo. “While the overall numbers are small in percentage, we are focused on supporting each of our associates affected by these changes.” Walmart did not say how many people were affected by the cuts. The news comes days before Walmart’s much-anticipated earnings report on Thursday. The layoffs are the latest cost cut for the discounter. In late April, Walmart announced it would shutter 51 health clinics across Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Texas. The new clinics, which offered doctor, dentist and therapy appointments, were part of Walmart Health, a broad effort by the discounter to bring lower prices to the health-care industry. It had opened the health clinics next to its big-box stores, but said in an announcement on its website that the business was not financially sustainable. Walmart is the nation’s largest private employer with about 1.6 million employees, most of whom work at its stores across the country. Walmart has another reason to bring more employees to Bentonville: It’s building a nearly 350-acre campus there. The major development, which is well underway, includes 12 office buildings, along with parking lots, a hotel and other amenities. The campus’s first few buildings have already opened, including a fitness center and a daycare. The Wall Street Journal first reported the layoffs and relocations. Read the full memo from Morris to Walmart employees: It has been a little over four years since we faced the global pandemic that reshaped our lives in many ways, including our ways of working. In February 2022, we made the decision to bring Home Office associates back into our campus offices. We believe that being together, in person, makes us better and helps us to collaborate, innovate and move even faster. We also believe it helps strengthen our culture as well as grow and develop our associates. With the goal of bringing more of us together more often, we are asking the majority of associates working remotely, and the majority of associates within our offices in Dallas, Atlanta, and our Toronto Global Tech office, to relocate. Most relocations will be to our Home Office in Bentonville, but some will be to our offices in the San Francisco Bay Area or Hoboken/New York. In addition, some parts of our business have made changes that will result in a reduction of several hundred campus roles. While the overall numbers are small in percentage, we are focused on supporting each of our associates affected by these changes. We have had discussions with associates who were directly impacted by these decisions. We will work closely with them in the coming days and months to navigate the best path forward.

Nearly 40% of dirty money is laundered in London and UK crown dependencies 2024-05-14 18:33:00+00:00 - Nearly 40% of the dirty money in the world is going through the City of London and other crown dependencies, the UK’s deputy foreign secretary has said. Andrew Mitchell added the crown dependencies and overseas territories will face fresh demands from the Foreign Office to comply with UK laws setting up public registers of beneficial share ownership. Since legislation was passed in the House of Commons in 2016 the UK has faced prevarication from overseas territories which are reluctant to set up public registers that disclose the ultimate owners of funds in tax havens. Speaking to the Bright Blue thinktank, Mitchell said: “On the issue of dirty money, it is important to recognise that Britain has a dog in the fight. According to some estimates, 40% of money laundering around the world – this is money often stolen from Africa and Africans by corrupt businessmen, bent politicians and war lords and so on – 40% of that money comes through London and overseas territories and crown dependencies.” He added that “crown dependencies and the overseas territories have not yet done as much as they must do”. Mitchell predicted that with David Cameron as foreign secretary, the UK would “see a greater emphasis now on introducing these open registers of beneficial ownership”. View image in fullscreen Overseas territories, such as British Virgin Islands, ‘have not yet done as much as they must do’ to eradicate dirty money. Photograph: Hemis/Alamy He warned: “If these overseas territories and crown dependencies want to have our king and our flag, then they must also accept our values, which is why we are so intent on ensuring dirty money cannot flow in and from there.” The minister said that during the British chairing of the G8 group of industrialised nations in 2016, Lord Cameron put the attack on dirty money and the importance of open registers of beneficial ownership “front and centre”. It is widely accepted that after his resignation as prime minister in 2016 the momentum inside the government about fighting corruption in the overseas territories dissipated. Nevertheless, in 2018 the UK passed a law requiring the government to issue a draft order in council imposing beneficial ownership registers by 2020, following a Conservative backbench revolt. Mitchell, then a backbencher, was one of the rebel Tory MPs. The British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands have still not introduced public registers, and are now citing European court of justice (ECJ) rulings to place restrictions on those able to access the registers. Neither the BVI or the Cayman Islands are subject to ECJ rulings. In 2013 the BVI financial services minister Lorna Smith said the government would not push ahead with plans to implement publicly accessible registers because of an ECJ ruling she said could infringe on people’s human rights. The Cayman Islands government soon afterwards said: “We are currently progressing to provide access to those members of the public who meet the ‘legitimate interest test’ required by that case. This will include access to parties who are genuinely seeking information so as to prevent or combat money laundering and terrorist financing (for instance media and civil society organisations under specific circumstances per the ECJ judgment). “We anticipate that this enhanced framework will be introduced no later than [late-]2024.”

Sunak’s food security plan fails to fix immediate problems, says farming chief 2024-05-14 18:31:00+00:00 - Rishi Sunak’s plan to improve the UK’s food security will not help build farmer’s confidence in the short-term, the head of the country’s biggest farming body has said. Food production was likely to drop next year, said Tom Bradshaw, the president of the National Farmers’ Union, who warned that the prime minister’s plan, published during the UK’s second annual Farm to Fork summit, failed to give farmers the solutions they needed. On Tuesday, 70 food and farming businesses met at No 10 to discuss how to improve food security, as the government unveiled a plan to boost food production and security. The plan focused particularly on fruit and vegetables, the two food types most reliant on imports from abroad. The new policies include changing planning laws to make it easier to build greenhouses and a replacement for the EU horticulture resilience scheme that would double the funding available to £80m a year. In a briefing after the summit, Bradshaw said overall the changes would do little to fix the short-term challenges farmers currently faced. He said: “I think that what’s missing from today, really. Today was more about the strategic long-term plan, it’s not about putting the building blocks in place that rebuild that confidence immediately.” Last month, an annual survey by the NFU found farmers’ confidence was at its lowest since the first survey of its kind in 2010, which followed a winter of extreme weather when many farms flooded and farmers were unable to plant crops. There are also widespread concerns about the impact phasing out the EU’s basic payment scheme subsidies will have on farmers. Bradshaw was keen to stress the importance of the Farm to Fork summit and said it marked a change from previous governments when it came to the importance of farming. However, he said: “I believe as we go into next year, we will have less food, [a] lower food security index than now.” “I think that the government needs to take critical steps to get the industry on to a firmer footing, and willing to start that investment cycle. If they’re not doing that, then an industry that is not investing is not preparing for the future.” The government has published its first ever food security index, which uses official data to paint a picture of Britain’s overall ability to produce enough food for its population. The table revealed that the UK only produced 17% of its own fruit, and 55% of its own vegetables. Lamb and milk were the most secure foods, with producers respectively generating 7% and 5% more than the country needs. Bradshaw welcomed the index but called on the government to begin setting food security targets for different food types. Other sector figures, however, cautioned that the index was based on old data. Tom Lancaster, a land analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said: “In only running to 2022, the new food security index is lagging behind the impacts of extreme weather and climate change that we’ve seen in the last 18 months. 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 “To address this, they could have done some interim analysis or even provided some interim commentary, but clearly chose not to.” The index also outlined the main risks to future food security but the government was widely criticised for listing climate change as a “longer-term risk”. Dustin Benton, the policy director at the Green Alliance, said: “The past 12 months have been 0.7C higher than the 1990-2020 average. Higher temperatures are associated with the sorts of extreme weather that cuts food production. Climate risks are no longer just a long-term problem.” Rob Percival, the head of food policy at the Soil Association, said: “Absurdly, climate change is described as a ‘longer-term’ risk, despite the steady ratcheting of climate extremes and the profound effects already being felt on the ground.” Steve Barclay, the environment secretary, said: “Today’s announcements will turbocharge the growth of our horticultural sector, supporting the building of cutting-edge glasshouses and innovative farming techniques to put British fruit and vegetables on our plates all-year round. “We will continue to invest in and support farmers to produce the best of British food to strengthen our food security, championing innovation in the sector.”

Seattle Times publisher Frank Blethen to step down after 4 decades in charge of family-owned paper 2024-05-14 18:24:04+00:00 - SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle Times publisher and CEO Frank Blethen has announced he will step down at the end of next year after four decades leading the newspaper his family has owned since 1896. Blethen, 79, confirmed his plans Monday in a Seattle Times interview. He said he expects to retain his position as board chair of The Seattle Times Co. “My mantra is that good content and useful content is what you need to attract an audience, and you need to attract an audience if you’re going to get revenue and get paid for what you do,” Blethen said. “And you know, I think right now we’re putting out a really, really, really good newspaper.” Blethen, the newspaper’s seventh publisher, led The Times as it won nine Pulitzer Prizes, including one awarded in 2020 for the paper’s coverage of mistakes by Boeing leading to two 737 MAX crashes. He has also seen it through difficult lows, including the Great Recession, an industrywide contraction and a seven-week strike by Seattle Times workers that began in 2000. Alan Fisco, the company’s president and chief financial officer, will be named CEO when Blethen steps down, Blethen wrote in a message to employees sent Monday afternoon. Blethen declined to share his preference for a successor as publisher, but he said he would like it to be a member of the Blethen family.

Labour and unions reach agreement on workers’ rights proposals 2024-05-14 18:14:00+00:00 - Labour has reached agreement with the unions on its flagship workers’ rights proposals after general secretaries demanded the party commit to no further weakening of the original plans. One of the key critics of changes, the Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham, said the unions had “been listened to and the workers’ voice heard in what she described as a “red line” summit with Keir Starmer on Tuesday. The Labour leader and his senior team met union leaders for the crunch meeting to thrash out a deal on the plans, which were originally agreed last July. One union source told the Guardian the general secretaries had presented a united front and told the Labour leader he should agree to return to the language agreed at the national policy forum last summer. Another meeting will take place in three weeks’ time to confirm the changes. In a joint statement after the talks, Labour and the unions said: “Labour and the affiliated unions had a constructive discussion today. “Together we have reiterated Labour’s full commitment to the ‘New deal for working people’ as agreed in July. We will continue to work together at pace on how a Labour government would implement it in legislation.” It means the deal agreed last July, which already represented what critics described as a “watering down” of several of the original proposals, is now the party’s agreed position. Unite and the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) had been among the unions to have publicly criticised what they termed a “betrayal” of the previous promises to overhaul rights at work. The Guardian understands that concerns about the draft document extended well beyond those unions which had been openly critical. Senior Labour figures are also understood to have been bruised by the leaking of the internal draft to newspapers including the Guardian. The general secretaries convened on Tuesday morning before the lunchtime meeting with Starmer, the deputy leader, Angela Rayner, the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, party chair, Anneliese Dodds, shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, and the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones. The majority of unions affiliated to Labour had privately raised concerns about the latest draft of the document that included several changes to the proposals, including the speed and methods of the changes. “We believed that the party had agreed all of these measures with us at the national policy forum last summer,” one union source said. “We are trade unionists and we know when we make an agreement – we don’t expect to be then given a different draft months later and be told, actually this is what’s going to happen.” Another union official said: “There are those who want to make their case publicly, but the concerns are shared privately by most unions. It’s not only about consultations, which is how the Labour party have tried to frame this; there are promises that were made, such as on sick pay, which have gone completely.” Dave Ward, the general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, told LBC the deal “will be implemented as we agreed previously. Keir’s made it very clear how transformational that will be for working people. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Headlines UK Free newsletter Get the day’s headlines and highlights emailed direct to you 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 “We’ve got the position we all want … this will be the biggest difference in rights the country has ever seen in decades; it will be a flagship policy for the general election. We need to shift the balance of forces in the world of work back towards working people, that’s the only way you’re going to grow the economy.” Labour has proposed sweeping overhauls of workers’ rights, including maternity and sick pay, day-one protection against unfair dismissal, bans on zero-hours contracts and fire and rehire practices, fair pay agreements and union access. One of the subsequent changes that angered unions was allowing workers to stay on zero-hours contracts if they preferred – which they said would be a loophole for exploitation. A key point of contention was over changes to the language on fire and rehire, which Labour had committed to banning in law. The leaked draft shared with unions says Labour would “replace the inadequate statutory code brought in by the government with a strengthened code of practice and reform the law to provide effective remedies against abuse”. But the document also says it is “important businesses can restructure to remain viable … when there is genuinely no alternative”. A Labour source said before the meeting the party defended those changes. “If a company is faced with changing terms and conditions or mass redundancies then there needs to be an exception to protect jobs,” the source said. “Protecting jobs is always the final priority. Even Barry Gardiner in his private member’s bill [on fire and rehire practices] had similar exemptions.”

Meme stocks are roaring again. Yes, again 2024-05-14 18:13:49+00:00 - NEW YORK (AP) — Meme stocks are shaking Wall Street once again Monday. And, as is so usually the case, it all started online. A post on Reddit late Sunday indicated that Keith Gill, a central character in the original 2021 meme stock crack, had built a sizeable stake in GameStop. Shares of GameStop closed up 21% to $28 after jumping above $40 right after the opening of trading. AMC Entertainment, another popular meme stocks, rose 11.1%. If it all sounds familiar, it should. It was just three weeks ago that GameStop shares were soaring on excitement about a post on social media by another account tied to Gill. At that time, a Twitter account associated with him made its first posting since June 2021, though the gains fizzled relatively quickly. Ever since bands of smaller-pocketed and novice investors began taking stock prices of downtrodden companies to breathtaking heights three years ago, the potential for more flareups has been obvious. This time, Wall Street is better prepared to more easily digest the sharp movements, experts say. But some things remain firmly the same. Chief among them is the risk associated with such volatile stocks, where prices can soar — and crater — quickly. Here’s a look at what’s going on: ___ WHAT TRIGGERED THE LATEST MOVES? Gill has become a hero online, known for continually professing how much he liked GameStop’s stock as it charged to heights in 2021 that professional investors saw as irrational. He even said it in testimony before Congress when it was looking into the meme-stock craze. Late Sunday, an account on Reddit with the handle Deep F- - - - - - Value shared a screenshot showing an account holding 5 million shares of GameStop stock, plus options to buy more. The total holdings were worth $181.4 million, as of Friday’s close, and the screenshot looked just like ones that the account had shared during the supernova run for GameStop in early 2021. It was the first post for the Reddit account since April 2021, when it had posted what it called a “final update” on its “YOLO”, or you-only-live-once, investment in GameStop. Euphoria erupted quickly, with users on Reddit exclaiming “I’M HERE FOR HISTORY!” and “If he’s still in, I’m still in.” When the stock market opened for trading on Monday, GameStop immediately soared. SHOULD THE STOCK BE RISING THAT FAST? Financial analysts and professional investors who care mostly about numbers like profits, cash flow and interest rates would say no. GameStop’s financial prospects did not change over the weekend, before the dizzying swings in its stock price. Conventional wisdom says a stock should eventually settle at a price that reflects how much cash the company is generating, where interest rates are heading and other factors. But in the short term, what sets a stock’s price is how much investors are willing to pay for it. And, on Monday at least, people are willing to pay much higher prices for shares of GameStop. HOW CAN THE REACTION HAVE BEEN SO QUICK? This is the new age of investing, one where anyone can buy a stock with zero commissions simply by tapping a few times on a phone. It’s the culmination of years of innovation. At each step of the way, consumer advocates hailed the broadening playing field, which allowed more people to invest in stocks and build wealth. But they also warned that easy access could encourage people to trade too quickly or too rashly. HOW IS THIS TIME DIFFERENT FROM 2021? Meme-stock companies have more shares trading in the market than they did in 2021, which could lessen the chances of what’s called a “short squeeze,” according to Nick Battista, director of market intelligence at tastylive, a streaming network geared toward options traders. A short squeeze is a relatively rare event that can yield eye-popping profits for people riding the wave. When investors bet a stock’s price will go down in the future, they “short” it by borrowing shares and selling them. Later, if the price does indeed fall, the short sellers can buy the stock, return the borrowed shares and pocket the difference. But when a highly shorted stock rises in price quickly, short sellers sometimes scramble to get out of their trades. They can do that only by buying shares of the stock, which can set off a self-feeding cycle that makes the price shoot even higher. Such a short squeeze likely contributed to GameStop’s thrilling ascent in 2021, but the SEC"s staff said it was a small fraction of the overall purchases and that GameStop’s stock stayed high even after short sellers had gotten out of their trades. GameStop in March had roughly 305.9 million shares of its stock trading in the market, more than four times the number of shares it had in March 2021. Such growth “greatly increases the amount of activity needed to squeeze higher” for GameStop and other meme stocks, Battista said. “Can they move higher? Sure, but it’s going to be a tougher task this time around.” WHAT ARE THE RISKS OF JOINING IN? It’s important to know the momentum can shift just as suddenly the other way. It took just four weeks in 2021 for GameStop’s stock to go from less than $5 to more than $120. But it has yet to touch that price again. Even after its big jump in recent days, GameStop shares can still be bought for less than $30. After briefly reaching $390 during the summer of 2021, AMC’s stock is now at roughly $5.

Can Google Give A.I. Answers Without Breaking the Web? 2024-05-14 18:09:12+00:00 - For the past year and a half since ChatGPT was released, a scary question has hovered over the heads of major online publishers: What if Google decides to overhaul its core search engine to feature generative artificial intelligence more prominently — and breaks our business in the process? The question speaks to one of the most fragile dependencies in today’s online media ecosystem. Most big publishers, including The New York Times, receive a significant chunk of traffic from people going to Google, searching for something and clicking on articles about it. That traffic, in turn, allows publishers to sell ads and subscriptions, which pay for the next wave of articles, which Google can then show to people who go searching for the next thing. The whole symbiotic cycle has worked out fine, more or less, for a decade or two. And even when Google announced its first generative A.I. chatbot, Bard, last year, some online media executives consoled themselves with the thought that Google wouldn’t possibly put such an erratic and unproven technology into its search engine, or risk mucking up its lucrative search ads business, which generated $175 billion in revenue last year. But change is coming. At its annual developer conference on Tuesday, Google announced that it would start showing A.I.-generated answers — which it calls “A.I. overviews” — to hundreds of millions of users in the United States this week. More than a billion users will get them by the end of the year, the company said.