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The most in-demand work-from-anywhere jobs companies are hiring for in 2024—they're not all in tech 2024-05-12 15:03:00+00:00 - If you want a job that will let you travel and work from anywhere in the world, you may be in luck with a new marketing or tech role. Even as more companies pull back on flexibility, employers in these fields are doubling down on their commitment to a flexible work model, according to new research from FlexJobs exclusively shared with CNBC Make It. Remote work opportunities have fluctuated since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic but FlexJobs has seen a slight uptick in the companies actively recruiting for work-from-anywhere positions. To help job-seekers find the best remote, flexible gigs, FlexJobs has identified the most in-demand work-from-anywhere jobs companies are hiring for by analyzing its database for the work-from-anywhere jobs with the highest volume of postings between January and April 2024. All of the jobs on the list are available remotely, either full-time or part-time, with no location restrictions and no office requirements: Account executive Content writer Data analyst DevOps engineer Editor Engineering manager Marketing manager Product designer Product manager Software engineer In a work-from-anywhere job, employees are 100% remote, independent of location or time zone. Such jobs, however, are increasingly competitive to land, only accounting for about 5% of all remote roles, FlexJobs reports. Most remote jobs have location requirements, mainly due to state and federal regulations that dictate where companies can hire people and do business. Marketing, writing and tech continue to be the top fields with the most work-from-anywhere jobs, but education and bilingual-focused careers are also expanding their remote, flexible offerings, FlexJobs career expert Keith Spencer tells CNBC Make It. If you're hoping to land a work-from-anywhere job, Spencer recommends highlighting in-demand soft skills that commonly appear in remote job ads, including project management and adaptability, on your resume and LinkedIn profile. Spencer says you should also familiarize yourself with different remote communication and collaboration tools including Slack, Trello, Asana, Microsoft Teams and Google Workspace, all of which are staples for most work-from-anywhere jobs. Want to land your dream job in 2024? Take CNBC's new online course How to Ace Your Job Interview to learn what hiring managers are really looking for, body language techniques, what to say and not to say, and the best way to talk about pay. Use discount code NEWGRAD to get 50% off from 5/1/24 to 6/30/24. Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It's newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.
Buy, sell or hold? Knowing a stock's PEG ratio can help decide. What it is and how to use it 2024-05-12 14:56:00+00:00 - Here's our Club Mailbag email investingclubmailbag@cnbc.com — so you send your questions directly to Jim Cramer and his team of analysts. We can't offer personal investing advice. We will only consider more general questions about the investment process or stocks in the portfolio or related industries. This week's question: You advise not to buy stocks that have a PEG of over 2, but it seems many of the stocks recommended on the show have a PEG of well over 2, such as Abbott Labs and Eaton. Is this because there are more important considerations than PEG? — Marcia from Washington Determining the value of a stock and what price-per-share you are willing to pay is both an art and a science. The science is coming up with the appropriate estimates and inputs for the financial metrics that you want to use as yardsticks. The art is determining which metric or metrics should carry the most weight in your buy, sell or hold decision-making process. One of the most well-known metrics is the forward price-to-earnings, or P/E, ratio. It takes a company's stock price and divides it by the next 12 months' earnings estimates. The PEG ratio, as referenced in the question, takes the price-to-earnings ratio and divides it by a company's projected long-term earnings growth rate. As a general rule, a PEG ratio of 1 or lower indicates you're getting future growth at a good value. On the high side, a PEG of 2 or above suggests you may be paying more for future growth than you should be. To be sure, price-to-earnings and PEG ratios are just a couple of metrics in an ocean of different methods to evaluate stocks. While the PEG should be considered, it should only be prioritized when analyzing growth companies. (The PEG of more mature, value-orientated companies, or those not required as part of your investment thesis to deliver strong earnings growth year after year, would be considered less of a factor.) If, for example, your priority is dividend income, you're going to be far more concerned with the sustainability of that dividend — and therefore factors like cash flow resiliency and the dividend payout ratio — than you are with earnings growth and the PEG ratio. Growth companies get their name from the expectation of substantial earnings growth in the future — to the point at which that expected growth is the only way to possibly justify a high current price-to-earnings valuation. That's what the PEG ratio attempts to capture. In other words, the P/E on its own does not make a stock look attractive. (However, looking at historical P/Es for a company and how it compares to industry rivals and the broader stock market can be a useful tool.) The added element of the long-term expected earnings growth, which is captured by the PEG ratio, goes to the heart of buying stocks at lower prices and selling them at higher prices later. While there are many factors at play, we believe as fundamental investors that growing companies in the long term are rewarded with higher stock prices. In the case of Abbott Labs , it's an established health-care company with products already in the market that have significant, resilient demand. For this company, we should concern ourselves more with the current earnings power, and the multiple being put on those earnings, which is currently suppressed versus the historical average, than the PEG ratio of 2.6. Keep in mind that we also collect a dividend to compensate us for any lack of earnings growth. At current levels, about $105 per share, Abbott stock trades at a P/E multiple of 22.7 times forward earnings estimates, which is below its five-year average and only slightly above the S & P 500 and the health-care sector multiples. The annual dividend yield of 2.1% is above the five-year average of 1.6%. These factors outweigh the PEG ratio in our view and are our primary focus right now when it comes to valuing Abbott. It's also worth noting that Abbott stock has also been unfairly punished recently due to litigation concerns resulting from lawsuits over a life-threatening disease in premature babies called necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) related to its Similac formula. The overhang started in March after a competitor in the baby formula market lost a major case and was ordered to pay out $60 million to a single family — that's being appealed. Any type of litigation risk cannot be ignored, however, Abbott has a defensible position because its product had a warning label. Baby formula, especially for premature infants, is also seen as necessary by the medical community. As we reiterated on Wednesday , the market cap Abbott Labs has lost because of litigation fears far exceeds what many analysts think the company could ultimately pay to settle the lawsuits. Eaton also has an elevated PEG of nearly 2.8. But like Abbott, measurable growth is not the sole factor determining our thesis. While valuing the electrical components company at higher levels than seen historically, we think Eaton will beat current estimates due to the strong demand for power solutions in the data centers being revamped and built to handle artificial intelligence workloads. Eaton shares will continue to work as investors continue to gravitate towards secular trends like powering the future. In this case, we're leaning more heavily on the art than the science. By all metrics, Eaton is richly valued. That's not up for debate. The art here is looking at the story, taking a worldview, and concluding that investors will continue to value the company at higher levels than they used to because of the opportunities that lie ahead. The earnings estimates don't account for the promise of this growth, yet. The premium based on current numbers is, in our view, warranted given the positioning of the company relative to the secular growth aspects of its targeted end markets. (See here for a full list of the stocks in ugh.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. Here's our Club Mailbag email investingclubmailbag@cnbc.com — so you send your questions directly to Jim Cramer and his team of analysts. We can't offer personal investing advice. We will only consider more general questions about the investment process or stocks in the portfolio or related industries. This week's question: You advise not to buy stocks that have a PEG of over 2, but it seems many of the stocks recommended on the show have a PEG of well over 2, such as Abbott Labs and Eaton. Is this because there are more important considerations than PEG? — Marcia from Washington
Paid time off for pregnant women could go national as work movement, led by New York 2024-05-12 14:40:00+00:00 - Paid leave for prenatal care is poised to become a national women's health initiative. That's now that New York has become the first state to mandate a standalone entitlement to paid prenatal leave. In April, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an amendment to New York labor law to require employers to provide up to 20 hours of paid leave in a 52-week period for pregnant employees to attend prenatal medical appointments and procedures. The provision takes effect Jan. 1, 2025. "I think other states and other governors who share a similar set of values in prioritizing women's health, hopefully will follow," said Reshma Saujani, founder and chief executive of Moms First, a campaign of the nonprofit Girls Who Code. The federal government's Family and Medical Leave Act provides job-protected leave for prenatal care or when an expecting mother is unable to work because of her pregnancy. The act entitles covered employees to up to 12 work weeks of leave in a 12-month period. However, while their job is protected during this time, the leave is unpaid. Washington D.C. has enacted a similar law to what New York recently passed, allowing for up to two weeks of paid leave to receive pregnancy-related medical care. The D.C. law also allows for another 12 weeks of paid leave after a baby is born. These laws are predicated on medical research showing that prenatal health care tends to result in better health outcomes for mothers and their babies. "The concept is that working mothers should haven't to dip into their sick leave bank and draw down on that bank for health care associated with having a baby," said Harris M. Mufson, partner with law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and a member of the firm's labor and employment practice. "There's a view that they should have a separate bank for that condition — that that's appropriate and properly supportive of working mothers." No federal labor law precedent exists Although FMLA entitles eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year, no federal law generally requires private employers to provide paid leave to employees needing time off for family and medical needs. Likewise, there's no federal law that covers paid time off for prenatal care. Paid leave is not a partisan issue, but it hasn't necessarily been top-of-mind for legislators, Saujani said. "Federally, it's never passed because I think it's never been prioritized." On the state level, more than a dozen states and at least one local jurisdiction have passed laws requiring private employers to provide paid family and medical leave to their employees. All the laws allow paid leave for the birth of a child or to care for a seriously ill family member, and some states also allow paid leave for other reasons, such as prenatal care, according to Westlaw. As of January, some 14 states — including California, Colorado, Connecticut and Delaware, as well as Washington D.C. and the city and county of San Francisco — have enacted paid family and medical leave programs. For its part, New York embedded the new prenatal protections within its paid sick leave laws. At least 18 states, plus Washington D.C. and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico have passed statewide paid sick leave laws, according to Westlaw. Three of these state laws — Illinois, Maine, and Nevada — allow paid leave to be taken for any reason, not only for sick leave. States more likely to follow New York's lead States that are most likely to pass laws requiring paid leave for prenatal care are those that tend to offer greater employee protections, such as California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Washington, Illinois, New Jersey and Connecticut, said Kelly M. Cardin, shareholder with Ogletree Deakins who focuses on employment law. "I think it's something that could spread," she said. The concept of requiring paid prenatal benefits could be especially compelling given the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which President Biden signed into law in December 2022 and which went into effect on June 27, 2023. In April, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued its final regulation to carry out the law, which becomes effective on June 18. Generally, the PWFA requires employers to provide employees with a "reasonable accommodation" to the known limitations of pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, unless doing so causes an undue hardship. The law does not replace laws that are more protective of workers in this respect. More than 30 states and cities have laws that require employers to provide accommodations for pregnant workers. Given the federal government's focus on pregnant workers through the PWFA, it's likely that states —especially more progressive ones — will follow with additional protections, Cardin said. It also follows a general trend of some states trying to level the playing field for workers when it comes to employee benefits. Few workers take advantage of paid leave programs Of course, it's not just a matter of passing the laws; it's important to make sure women know they exist, Saujani said. Though a state like New York has a broadly commended paid family leave program, the utilization of the program remains low, at only 2% of eligible workers, according to data provided to CNBC by Moms First. Saujani said this is reflective of a national trend where only 3% to 5% of eligible workers take any paid leave. "If no one knows it exists, they aren't going to be able to access it," said Saujani, whose organization has built a website that uses AI to help people determine their eligibility for paid family leave in New York. Saujani said Moms First is in the process of rolling this tool out for other states that offer paid leave to help residents of those states figure out whether they are eligible.
Hobbled by Cyberattack, Christie’s Says Marquee Sales Will Proceed 2024-05-12 14:33:11+00:00 - Officials at Christie’s auction house said on Saturday that the marquee sales that account for nearly half of its annual revenue would continue, despite the company having lost control of its official website last Thursday in a hack that is testing the loyalty of its ultrawealthy clients amid its spring auctions. Natasha Le Bel, a spokeswoman for the auction house, said that Christie’s New York sales of modern and contemporary art “will take place as planned,” but did not respond to questions of how the online portion of the auction would continue. “We remain committed to providing the highest level of service to our clients and look forward to a successful week,” she said. On Thursday, Christie’s experienced what it called a “technology security issue” that took its company website offline, leaving in place an apology and the promise to provide “further updates to our clients as appropriate.” By Sunday, the site was still down. It was the second time in less than a year that Christie’s had suffered a breach. In August, a German cybersecurity company revealed a data breach at the auction house that leaked the locations of artworks held by some of the world’s wealthiest collectors.
Sen. Lindsey Graham says Israel should do 'whatever' it has to while comparing the war in Gaza to Hiroshima and Nagasaki 2024-05-12 14:33:00+00:00 - Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Sunday compared Israel’s war against Hamas to the U.S. decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan in World War II during an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” “When we were faced with destruction as a nation after Pearl Harbor, fighting the Germans and the Japanese, we decided to end the war by the bombing [of] Hiroshima [and] Nagasaki with nuclear weapons,” Graham said. “That was the right decision.” He added, “Give Israel the bombs they need to end the war. They can’t afford to lose.” Graham, a staunch supporter of Israel, used the analogy multiple times while condemning President Joe Biden for threatening to withhold certain weapons from Israel if it launches a military operation in Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza where over a million civilians are sheltering. Lindsey Graham on March 18, 2024. Genya Savilov / AFP via Getty Images file Asked by moderator Kristen Welker why it was OK for President Ronald Reagan to withhold certain weapons from Israel during its war in Lebanon in the 1980s, but not OK for Biden to threaten to do so now, Graham once again brought up World War II. “Can I say this?” he asked. “Why is it OK for America to drop two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end their existential threat war? Why was it OK for us to do that? I thought it was OK.” He added, “So, Israel, do whatever you have to do to survive as a Jewish state. Whatever you have to do.” Welker pushed back, telling Graham that U.S. military officials say technology has vastly changed since World War II, a point she made earlier in the interview as well. “Yeah, these military officials that you’re talking about are full of crap,” Graham answered. His comments came shortly after Secretary of State Antony Blinken joined the program and declined to identify a “red line” with Israel, telling Welker: “Absent a credible plan to get [civilians] out of harm’s way and to support them, the president’s been clear for some time that we couldn’t and would not support a major military operation in Rafah.” Blinken also discussed U.S. concerns about the use of “high-payload” bombs, telling Welker, “We have been holding back and we’re in active conversations with Israel about the provision of heavy or high-payload weapons, large bombs, because of the concern that we have about the effect these weapons can have when they’re used in a dense urban environment like Rafah.” Graham argued that Hamas is to blame for civilian casualties throughout the conflict. “I think it’s impossible to mitigate civilian deaths in Gaza as long as Hamas uses their own population as human shields. I’ve never seen in the history of warfare such blatant efforts by an enemy — Hamas — to put civilians at risk,” he said. “The last thing you want to do is reward this behavior,” Graham added.
24-year-old earns $50,000 a year living in a town of 121—how she spends her time and money 2024-05-12 14:26:00+00:00 - Madi Lee says she lives comfortably in Medora earning $50,000 per year working at the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation. New York City; Washington, D.C.; and Salt Lake City are some of the most popular places new grads want to live after college, but not everyone aspires to life in the city. Take Madi Lee, 24, who graduated in 2022 and found herself working in Medora, North Dakota — popoulation: 121. Medora is a tourist town near Theodore Roosevelt National Park where the busy season brings in thousands of visitors. But the overall quieter setting means Lee can afford a quality of life she couldn't elsewhere, she says, even while making friends, dating and building a future for herself there. After visiting as a kid and returning for summer jobs during college, Lee, who studied to become a high school math teacher, now works for the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes travel and tourism to the town. She now earns roughly $50,000 per year before overtime as a ticketing and reservations manager. "I'm really happy with how everything worked out," Lee says. Low cost of living but higher everyday prices Lee's salary is a bit under Medora's $65,000 median household income, but as a single young person, her paycheck goes far. Lee makes consistent progress on her financial goals: She contributes 6% of her paycheck to her 401(k) to get her company's match, $230 to a Roth IRA and about $300 for savings every month. She recently bought a Ford Bronco, which comes with a $600 monthly payment. She rents a a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in a building owned by her company, where she qualifies for a discounted rate of $850 per month. For comparison, Lee split a similarly sized apartment with a friend in college at University of Minnesota Duluth, and their combined rent was close to $1,300 per month. Madi Lee, 24, moved to Medora, North Dakota, which has a year-round population of 121 people. Courtesy of Madi Lee Outside of employer-provided apartments, however, Lee says housing can be hard to find in Medora. Some of her older colleagues live in houses outside of town and drive into work every day. One of the trickiest things to plan for is groceries. Medora doesn't have any supermarkets, only convenience stores and gas stations, so Lee drives 30 minutes to nearby Dickinson, North Dakota, to stock up on food about every other week. She spends roughly $300 to $400 per month on groceries, and she has to be extra mindful of her biweekly hauls during the winter, when snowstorms can shut down the interstate. That planning ahead helps save her money in the long run. Food prices are more expensive in town because it's a tourist destination, she says, so she tries to keep convenience-store runs and eating out at restaurants to a minimum. Lee estimates she spends about $200 per month on dining out. Another tradeoff is having to drive far for entertainment. Lee and her friends will plan trips out to Fargo (a nearly five-hour drive) for concerts and other big events. She estimates she spends about $250 on gas each month. That being said, her job saves her a lot of money during the busy season. From May to October, Lee and other full-time employees (plus their family members) get free breakfast, lunch and dinner from the onsite cafeteria. That's hundreds of dollars in savings every month, and thousands every year. Making friends and dating in a small town Despite its small size, there are actually a lot of young people in Medora. Most residents are either in their 20s or 65-plus, according to Census data, and many of those on the younger side work alongside Lee in the tourism industry. Many of her friends in town are co-workers who started off as seasonal employees and moved to Medora after college, Lee says, "so we really had the opportunity to become friends going into the same experience together of living somewhere in a unique little town." Lee and her friends make frequent trips to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park to hike, stargaze and catch the northern lights. "We're in such a remote place that the sky is incredible," Lee says. Medora is so remote that Madi Lee has been able to catch the northern lights. Winters are harder when the town is empty and the weather is harsh, but Lee lives in the same building as many of her friends, so they hang out all the time. Making friends may be easy, but the dating scene is a little trickier. Lee says that dating people who become your co-workers comes with the territory. "It's definitely interesting dating in such a small town" and having to consider "this is someone who I'm going to continue to see at work," she says. Even so, she's remained cordial and professional with her exes, and many of them remain good friends. That being said, Lee says she'll likely consider expanding her dating pool to neighboring towns in the future. Building a career and future Lee feels confident that she'll stay in Medora "for the foreseeable future" and only thinks she'll leave to be closer to where she grew up in Roseau, Minnesota, which has a population of around 2,700, further down the line. Within a few years, Lee has already secured several promotions and feels she has room to grow at the company. She feels positively about her company's goal of "connecting people to historic Medora for positive, life-changing experiences," she says. Madi Lee says it's easy to make friends her age in Medora, despite its small size. Courtesy of Madi Lee
Should all workers get unhappiness leave? It beats awaydays, work-life balance seminars and company yoga | Emma Beddington 2024-05-12 14:01:00+00:00 - No more croaky, fake phone-in-sick voice for the employees of one regional Chinese supermarket chain: the founder of Pang Dong Lai, Yu Donglai, is offering employees up to 10 days’ “unhappiness leave”. “I want every staff member to have freedom. Everyone has times when they’re not happy, so if you’re not happy, do not come to work,” Yu said at an industry conference, according to the South China Morning Post. Staff can take “unhappy days” when they want, in addition to normal sick and holiday leave entitlements, and management can’t refuse: “Denial is a violation,” Yu said. He seems like a decent boss: employee salaries are nearly double the sector average, and Yu has reportedly spoken out against China’s long hours culture and said: “We want our employees to have a healthy and relaxed life, so that the company will be too.” (Though, combined with Pang Dong Lai’s slogan, “Freedom and love”, there’s a slight echo of the “free granola bar, nap pod, good vibes” tyranny of tech’s punishing work culture.) At heart, “unhappy days” aren’t that different from duvet, wellness or mental health days, those other corporate concessions to the various manifestations of late capitalism’s malaise. Still, whatever you call it, a no-questions-asked day off is definitely better than those team awaydays where you plant some trees or pick litter in corporate-branded T-shirts, or online work-life balance seminars (or indeed the lunchtime yoga in the library offered by the law firm that I used to work for, with the partner who was shouting at you about spreadsheets an hour ago downward-dogging next to you in his socks). I read recently about a US law firm giving associates working 16-hour days a “sleep kit” of a pillow spray and eye mask. The real difference with “unhappy days” is the bluntness of the language. That may be a translation quirk – perhaps it sounds as mealy-mouthed as “mental health day” in the original – but the translation still gets to a basic truth: work doesn’t make us happy. It can be fulfilling, interesting, even important for a few, but it’s rarely a rip-roaring good time. “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” is nonsense: pretty much anything you love becomes a chore a good percentage of the time once you depend on it to live. Professional gamers burn out and so do influencers in over-water Maldives villas. I have the job I always wanted, but it doesn’t stop me spending an unconscionable amount of time complaining about aspects of it; a friend said only yesterday that she loved writing until she had to do it for work. I bet Yu doesn’t get up every morning thrilled to tackle the challenges of supply chain logistics. I always find myself wondering about work and its place in May. There’s the obvious prompt of the 1st – workers’ day, celebrated by not working in all right-thinking places – and the month is studded with days off in mainland Europe, like chocolate chips in your breakfast pastry. But it’s also because May tends to be spectacularly beautiful, truly the worst time to be working. It’s a time for feeling still-green grass beneath you and the first warmth on your neck; watching the natural world unfurl and listening to birds and bees. (The swifts are back! I kicked off our annual swift-sighting text thread with my stepfather just last week.) To do anything but enjoy it – pollen permitting – feels like a waste of your life. But here you are, at your desk, and here I am at mine. And there are all those students stuck inside revising, preparation for a life of professional frustration as much as for their exams. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could implement “bare minimum May”? A bit more radical than just “bare minimum Mondays” and definitely more fun. Failing that, perhaps enlightened employers should take Yu’s idea one step further and recognise explicitly how little of our happiness comes from what we do for them. It would just be a gesture, too, mere semantics, but how about offering us “happy days”?
Top Wall Street analysts are feeling confident about these 3 stocks after earnings 2024-05-12 13:52:00+00:00 - As investors grapple with macro uncertainty and a cloudy path on the Federal Reserve's rate cuts, they will need to adopt a long-term mindset to pick the best names for their portfolios. To make the right decisions, investors can track the recommendations of Wall Street experts, who carefully assess the financial performance of a company and its growth strategies before assigning their ratings. Bearing that in mind, here are three stocks favored by the Street's top pros, according to TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance. Domino's Pizza This week's first pick is restaurant chain Domino's Pizza (DPZ). The company recently reported a beat on earnings per share for the first quarter, driven by higher U.S. franchise royalties and fees, as well as improved gross margin within the supply chain. Following the Q1 print, Deutsche Bank analyst Lauren Silberman reiterated a buy rating on DPZ stock and increased the price target to $580 from $555, citing increased visibility in the same-store sales growth outlook. Silberman noted that U.S. same-store sales growth of 5.6% reflected broad-based momentum, with improved traffic experienced in carryout and delivery. She added that the traffic growth was driven by Domino's revamped loyalty program, strong value proposition, operations and innovation. The analyst also noted that DPZ is benefiting from increased contributions from Uber Eats, thanks to growing marketing efforts and awareness. Overall, the Q1 results reinforced Silberman's positive view on DPZ, backed by the company's initiatives to support an increase in same-store sales, accelerating unit growth with improving franchisee profitability and better margins. "We believe a premium valuation is warranted, and given the improving fundamental story, we think DPZ offers a favorable risk/reward," she said. Silberman ranks No. 446 among more than 8,800 analysts tracked by TipRanks. Her ratings have been profitable 69% of the time, with each delivering an average return of 13.9%. (See Domino's Technical Analysis on TipRanks) Shake Shack We move to burger chain Shake Shack (SHAK), which reported mixed first-quarter results earlier this month. Nonetheless, investors were pleased with the company's commentary about improving business trends. BTIG hosted an investor meeting with the company's management following the Q1 results. The firm's analyst Peter Saleh reiterated a buy rating on SHAK stock and increased the price target to $125 from $120 based on the key takeaways from the management meeting. "We believe the combination of technology (kiosks), enhanced operating model (less labor), and greater marketing are adding up to a very powerful, and profitable combination," said Saleh. The analyst thinks that the company's strategic initiatives will enhance same-store sales growth and drive meaningful restaurant margin expansion in the near and long term. Saleh highlighted that management is witnessing a high-teens check growth in kiosk orders compared to traditional in-store orders, as consumers like the customization options available at the kiosks. The analyst sees more sales benefit from the kiosks going forward, in addition to the labor savings and efficiency. Saleh ranks No. 353 among more than 8,800 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 61% of the time, with each delivering an average return of 12.1%. (See Shake Shack's Ownership Structure on TipRanks) Apple Finally, we look at tech giant Apple (AAPL), which recently reported better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter results despite a decline in its revenue. The company cited tough comparisons with the prior-year quarter as the reason for the lower revenue. Investors reacted positively to the results and the company's announcement of an expanded buyback program. Apple's board authorized an additional $100 billion worth of share repurchases. Calling Apple's fiscal Q2 results "solid," Baird analyst William Power reaffirmed a buy rating on the stock with a price target of $200. The analyst noted that the company exceeded his estimates for revenue, earnings per share and gross margin. Power added that Apple's Services revenue grew 14.2% year over year, marking an acceleration from the 11.3% growth experienced in the fiscal first quarter. He also observed that Apple's performance in China was better than feared. Greater China revenue declined 8.1%, reflecting an improvement from the 12.9% drop seen in the previous quarter. The analyst thinks that the company's AI update at its June developer conference could be a catalyst for the stock. Power explained that his price target for AAPL stock indicates a premium valuation compared to the peer group, "reflecting strong execution, growing services contribution, continued eco-system benefits and strong free cash flow." Power ranks No. 245 among more than 8,800 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 56% of the time, with each delivering an average return of 16.1%. (See Apple Stock Buybacks on TipRanks)
Battles rage across Gaza as death toll tops 35,000 and tens of thousands evacuate Rafah 2024-05-12 13:36:00+00:00 - CAIRO — As battles raged across Gaza where the health ministry said the death toll since Oct. 7 had topped 35,000 Sunday, there was widespread panic in the enclave’s southernmost city of Rafah as tens of thousands people upped sticks and left fearing an imminent Israeli invasion. In parts of the north that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had cleared months ago, Palestinians reported heavy fighting Sunday after Israeli bombardment overnight. Elsewhere, the IDF said Sunday that dozens of militants had been killed in Rafah where more than 1 million Palestinians, many displaced from elsewhere, had been seeking shelter. Hamas’ military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said on Telegram Sunday that there had been “fierce fighting” to the east of the Jabalia refugee camp, near Gaza City in the north of the strip, suggesting the militant group has regrouped in the area once claimed by Israel. It came after heavy Israeli bombardment was reported there overnight by several Palestinian officials including lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti. The IDF called on the civilian population to evacuate the camp in a post on Telegram Saturday. It said Hamas has attempted to “reassemble its terrorist infrastructure and operatives in the area.” The fighting in the north — which has been largely isolated for months, prompting the United Nations to warn of famine in the region — came after the IDF issued an “urgent warning” to civilians on Saturday to evacuate parts of Rafah. The IDF, whose troops have been battling militants in Rafah since the army seized the nearby border crossing with Egypt last week, published a map Saturday showing that sectors of the city were now considered a “dangerous combat zone” and warned civilians that it would “act with extreme force against terrorist organizations in your area of residence.” Smoke rises above buildings during an early morning Israeli strike on Rafah, Gaza, on Saturday. AFP - Getty Images Israel has already sent some tanks into Rafah, and has said for months that it will launch a full-scale ground assault on the city. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of his government have insisted it is necessary to ensure the destruction of Hamas following the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel that saw some 1,200 people killed and around 240 taken hostage. Gaza's health ministry said Sunday more than 35,000 people had been killed since Oct. 7, most of them women and children. Were Israel to invade, it would defy pressure from the U.S. and others that have warned that such an attack threatened devastating consequences for the Palestinians who have fled there from the rest of the enclave. The U.N. said Sunday that an estimated 300,000 Palestinians have been forced to flee the city in a week. Citing the same number, the IDF said in Saturday’s Telegram post that many had gone to Muwasi, a nearby coastal area where Israel has promised an “expanded humanitarian area” would await them. However the concept of “safe zones” has been widely questioned. An NBC News investigation found last month that Palestinians were killed in areas of southern Gaza that the Israeli military had explicitly designated as such. Displaced Palestinians transport their belongings on the back of a truck as they move to a safer area in Rafah, Gaza, on Thursday. AFP - Getty Images And Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, known as UNRWA, said in a post on X Saturday that “the claim of ‘safe zones’ is false and misleading.” His comments came after the U.N. on Thursday said Muwasi, where the Israeli military has instructed evacuees to go, “is already without sufficient food, water, medicine, hygiene products, electricity, shelter and access to education for children; it cannot cope with a population influx.” Inside Rafah, Ammar Ghanem, a doctor with the Palestinian American Medical Society, told an NBC News camera crew Saturday that doctors and nurses were having to abandon their patients to evacuate their families. “Two days ago, we had to have four local physicians covering the three hospitals. None of them were able to show up,” he said. “They took the whole day to transport them and they came the second day.” “We have half of the nurses on average not showing up for the same reason,” he added. A Palestinian wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip is brought to a hospital in Rafah, Gaza, on Tuesday. Ismael Abu Dayyah / AP Adding to the confusion, the largest telecommunications provider in the region, Paltel, said in a statement Sunday that “fixed internet services have been cut off in the southern regions of the Gaza Strip.” Facing rising anger domestically, President Joe Biden has become increasingly critical of Israel’s conduct in the war. Senior administration officials previously told NBC News that the U.S. halted a large shipment of weapons to Israel last week over fears that they would be used to invade Rafah. And Biden said later that the U.S. would not provide Israel with certain weapons and artillery shells if it launched a ground offensive on the city. On Friday, the Biden administration said it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel has violated international law in Gaza using weapons provided by the United States, but that it hasn’t violated terms of U.S. weapons agreements. Along with representatives from Qatar and Egypt, American officials, including CIA Director William Burns, have been leading attempts to broker a cease-fire in the conflict. But the latest efforts looked dashed after Israeli and Hamas mediators left Cairo last week having failed to reach a deal. Hamas — a banned terrorist group in most of the West — said negotiations were back to square one. Hala Gorani reported from Cairo and Mithil Aggarwal from London.
More US parents than ever have paid leave this Mother’s Day - but most still don’t 2024-05-12 13:00:06+00:00 - NEW YORK (AP) — More working U.S. parents than ever are celebrating their first Mother’s Day with hard-fought access to paid time off to care for newborns. But the majority still must forego pay to care for new babies or other loved ones, even as efforts to expand paid parental and family leave gain traction. Bipartisan groups in the U.S. Senate and House have revived efforts to expand paid family leave to more workers, with momentum building to introduce legislation this year. In the absence of a federal law, 13 states plus the District of Columbia have adopted paid family and medical leave laws, which entitle workers to paid time off to care for newborns or other loved ones who require care. Still, just 27% of civilian workers in the U.S. get paid family leave, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Workers who can least afford to take unpaid time off are also the least likely to have access to paid leave: According to the BLS, just 14% percent of workers in the lowest 25% wage category get that benefit, compared to 48% of those in the top 10%. For families without paid leave, babies “are going to day care when they are two weeks old. They do not even have immunizations. They’re not on regular feeding patterns. Moms are giving up breastfeeding far sooner than they would like to,” Elizabeth Gedmark, vice president at nonprofit advocacy organization A Better Balance, said during a recent virtual conference to advocate for federal paid family leave organized by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The U.S. is one of just of seven countries — and the only industrialized one — that does not have a national paid maternity leave policy, according to the World Policy Analysis Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. Caitlyn Householder has become an advocate for a universal paid family leave law in Pennsylvania since she was forced to quit her job as a floor supervisor of a clothing company five ago when she learned that she was pregnant shortly after being diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s B-Cell Lymphoma. Householder, of Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, could hardly drive herself to work because of agonizing pain in her leg, and it quickly became apparent that her employer wouldn’t allow her to take enough time off for her medical needs. “They showed their true colors,” said Householder, who shared her story through the Children First, a organization campaigning for Pennsylvania’s proposed law. Householder’s husband, an oil rig worker, also gets no paid parental or family leave to care for her and their kids. Most of the time, Householder took her baby and stepdaughter with her to the radiation treatments. When her husband did take off work, such as when Householder couldn’t hold her baby for 24 hours after radiation, it meant foregoing hundreds of dollars in income. The family fell behind on mortgage payments during the most difficult months. Pennsylvania’s House and Senate are considering legislation that would provide up to 20 weeks of paid family leave through a payroll tax. The proposed measure has bipartisan sponsorship but some Republicans have vocally opposed it because of the cost to taxpayers. Disagreements over how to fund family leave programs have been an obstacle in other states, and have long thwarted efforts to pass a federal law. Democrats generally favor funding such programs through payroll taxes, while many Republicans prefer tax incentives to encourage, but not require, employers to offer paid leave. In January, a House bipartisan group led by Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, a Pennsylvania Democrat, and Rep. Stephanie Bice, an Oklahoma Republican, released a four-part framework to extend paid family leave to more workers, including funding for state programs or stronger tax breaks for small businesses to do so. In a statement, Bice said the group is “excited about the momentum and will continue working together to craft legislative text which can get across the finish line.” In an interview with The Associated Press, Houlahan said she was optimistic that legislation could be introduced this year. While any measure would fall short of a federal paid leave law, Houlahan said it reflects a yearlong effort to find common ground for policies that would extend the benefit to as many workers as possible. Colorado’s benefits kicked in on Jan. 1, four years after the state’s paid family and medical leave program passed by ballot measure following a failed effort to move a bill through the legislature. The law gives most Colorado workers the right to take up to 12 week of paid leave to bond with a new baby and other family needs. The new benefits came too late for Carrie Martin-Haley’s family. Neither Martin-Haley, a small business owner in Denver who gave birth to her son in September 2023, nor her husband had any paid time off, so Martin-Haley had to put aside her dreams of opening a brick-and-mortar storefront for her business, Summit Sustainable Goods. “That’s been hard to sit with,” said Martin-Haley, who shared her story through Small Business Majority, an advocacy group that is campaigning for federal paid family leave. “With the lack of sleep and everything else that comes along with new parenthood, and all of the uncertainties, finances should be the last thing on the totem pole.” Women’s participation in the U.S. labor force has reached historic highs, but changes such as paid parental leave often come after long-fought campaigns by mothers. Keenan Manzo of Dallas, a mother of three who has worked as a Southwest flight attendant for 18 years, said she launched a Facebook page for mothers at the company after having her first child 11 years ago to galvanize support for paid leave and other policies. She said paid leave often took a backseat to other priorities such as higher pay, but support grew as women shared stories of returning to work too early and struggling to pump during flights, sometimes as impatient passengers knocked on the bathroom stalls. Southwest flight attendants finally won paid parental leave — up to eight weeks for birthing parents and two weeks for non-birth parents — in a contract ratified in April by the Transport Workers Union. TWU International President John Samuelsen called the benefit a first for an industry with a long history of sexism against flight attendants, who are mostly women. “I fought so hard. I’m done having babies, but I still get emotional just thinking about the moms that are coming after me that have this reprieve,” Manzo said. ____ Savage is based in Chicago. ____ The Associated Press’ women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. 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.
Something is stirring in England: right to buy looks imperilled, and not a moment too soon | John Harris 2024-05-12 13:00:00+00:00 - More than a decade after her death and 34 years since she left Downing Street, Margaret Thatcher continues to haunt us. After Liz Truss’s cosplay as the Iron Lady, Rishi Sunak has drawn comparisons between “the grocer’s daughter and the pharmacist’s son”. In December last year, Keir Starmer admiringly said that Thatcher “set loose our natural entrepreneurialism”. All this suggests a very British mixture of muddle and masochism: her spirit, it seems, must be summoned so we can be magicked out of our current mess, even if so many of the UK’s crises began with what she did. One of her most painful legacies is the policy that defined her political essence: right to buy, that totemic scheme whereby the tenants of council houses and flats can purchase such properties at a discount, and become members of what Conservatives call the property-owning democracy. Since it was introduced in 1980, more than 2m dwellings have moved from the public realm into private hands. Stringent restrictions preventing councils spending the receipts on new homes have had predictable effects: since 1991, there has been an average net loss of 24,000 social homes a year. All this feeds our ever-worsening housing crisis – and, as a result, the fragile condition of millions of ordinary lives. Meanwhile, right to buy is increasingly resurfacing in our politics. Look, for example, at Angela Rayner, and the absurd controversy cooked up by the Conservatives and their allies in the press. The story of a former council house she bought in 2007 with a 25% discount and then sold eight years later is replete not just with a ridiculous antipathy to exactly what the policy was designed to achieve – working-class people making a bit of money – but a proprietorial sense of who right to buy belongs to. Clearly, Tories still see the policy as a shining symbol of Thatcher’s greatness, and any left-leaning beneficiaries of it open themselves to allegations of hypocrisy. Right to buy also crops up in the backstory of Starmer’s seemingly omnipotent campaign director, Morgan McSweeney. According to a brilliant profile published on Saturday by the journalist Tom McTague, one of the key reasons he insists that Labour must doggedly maintain the support of its traditional working-class base lies in his early experiences overseeing community relations in Barking and Dagenham – the outer London borough that, between 2006 and 2010, saw Labour’s dominance threatened by the neo-fascist British National party. That change was partly traceable to right to buy’s awful local legacy, which I have seen close-up: huge numbers of former council houses first sold to tenants being snapped up by absentee landlords, and then left to fall into squalor. One of McSweeney’s object lessons in the importance of nitty-gritty politics was the success of an “eyesore gardens policy”: the Labour-run council removing the rubbish outside people’s houses, and then billing the landlords for the work. Though it has pledged to reduce discounts, Labour still supports right to buy, seemingly because to do anything that fundamentally threatened it would invite unwelcome questions about the party’s support for “aspiration”. But increasing numbers of influential voices, in Labour and other parties, have long since decided that the policy needs to either be forced into retreat, or completely binned. In Scotland, having already scrapped it for new tenants, the SNP government legislated to get rid of right to buy in 2014. The Labour administration in Wales followed a similar path to abolition; at the 2019 election, the party’s UK manifesto promised to end it in England. In 2023, Sadiq Khan said he wanted Whitehall to devolve the powers necessary to pause right to buy in London. And last week came another big demand for change: Labour’s Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, called on the government – and, by implication, his own party – to lift the right to buy requirement on new-build flats and houses, and give his plans to build 10,000 new social homes a firm foundation. As evidenced by his re-regulation of buses, Burnham seems set on belatedly avenging the worst political excesses of the 1980s. Something is obviously in the air. The last month has also seen two big policy reports about right to buy, making very similar suggestions. The latest, from the New Economics Foundation, is brimming with shocking findings: 40% of homes sold under the policy are now being let on the private market – in Brighton, the proportion is 86%. Worse still, discounts – which, in 2014, were increased to a maximum of 70% – enshrine one of right to buy’s worst aspects: the fact that it often means councils losing money on houses they build. Unless this changes, Burnham says, trying to solve the housing crisis is like trying to fill a bath but with the plug out. He’s right, but his comrades in Westminster still seem to be putting their fingers in their ears: “It’s an incoming government that would determine the rules around right to buy,” says the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves. “We have no plans to reform that.” Particularly in cities, selling council houses sooner or later eats away at places’ sense of stability and continuity: once buy-to-let landlords enter the picture, most tenants tend to become transient and disconnected from where they live. At the same time, housing that once ensured families could still live in urban centres passes into very different hands. Back in 2016, I reported on a former council development a stone’s throw from Old Street roundabout in London called Quaker Court. Some former family homes were now let to students; another had been bought by a lone American resident who had two computers in his shed used for high-end financial trading. “It’s like a little Wall Street, in a back garden on a council estate,” said my guide. “This is what is happening.” As changes like these deepen, a strange silence descends, schools close, and any meaningful sense of community evaporates. But the effects of right to buy now afflict just about every corner of the country. Three weeks ago, that was the message conveyed by Julian Brazil, the Liberal Democrat leader of the district council that runs South Hams, in Devon. “Good luck to you if you’ve been lucky enough to take advantage of these schemes,” he wrote, “but the failure of government to replace these houses means future generations are paying the price. Once a council house has gone, it’s gone … We’ve lost millions of council houses due to right to buy and they need to be replaced.” Many Conservatives, amazingly enough, cling to the dream of right to buy being extended to housing associations, a mad idea that was announced by Boris Johnson in 2022 after being piloted, but has so far been avoided. If we are going to build social housing, we need to stop selling it off. Westminster politicians should devolve decisions on right to buy to politicians who can adjust housing policy to fit local realities, and face the electoral consequences if any significant numbers of people object. I doubt they would: the Thatcher era is long over, her ghostly powers are dwindling, and the dire legacy of her most radical bit of social engineering needs to finally be brought to a close.
Biden taps Obama, George Clooney, Julia Roberts and the Clintons for mega fundraisers 2024-05-12 11:00:00+00:00 - WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s campaign plans to host a major fundraiser in Los Angeles next month with former President Barack Obama and Hollywood superstars George Clooney and Julia Roberts, according to a campaign official. The star-studded lineup is expected to boost Biden’s fundraising efforts at a time when Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee are aiming to close the cash gap now that the former president has won the delegates needed to secure the nomination, allowing him to use all the GOP tools at his disposal. The high-profile Biden event, set for mid-June, will feature a contest with Clooney and Roberts run across the campaign’s social media platforms to engage grassroots donors, as well as top celebrities and surrogates, according to details first shared with NBC News. The two Academy Award winners will also lend their names for campaign emails and text messages, in hopes of attracting more contributions. The campaign plans to promote the Los Angeles fundraiser in a fashion similar to the glitzy evening Biden held with Obama and former President Bill Clinton in New York City in late March, which brought in $26 million. Biden campaign aides said that amount was a Democratic fundraising record for a single event. The president is also expected to hold a fundraiser with Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the East Coast early this summer, according to a source familiar with the plans, first shared with NBC News. Julia Roberts and George Clooney arrive for the premiere of "Ticket to Paradise" in Westwood, Calif., on Oct. 17, 2022. Michael Tran / AFP via Getty Images For months, the Biden campaign has had a cash advantage over Trump, allowing it to build out infrastructure in battleground states and hire staff. “We’re not under any illusion that he’s not going to narrow the gap,” a Biden campaign adviser said. “But what he can’t get back is the time we’ve had with all this money to do what we’ve done.” Biden just concluded a West Coast fundraising swing through Northern California and the Seattle area this weekend, raking in $10 million in two days, according to a source familiar with the total amount who first shared the details with NBC News. News of another marquee fundraiser comes as the campaign is bracing for new campaign finance filings that may for the first time show Trump’s campaign eating into what had been Biden’s biggest advantage so far in the 2024 race. The Biden campaign ended March with $85.5 million in cash on hand after raising $43.8 million that month — nearly tripling the Trump campaign’s haul in that period, according to the most recent filings with the Federal Election Commission. The Biden campaign’s financial position when factoring in the Democratic National Committee is almost double that of Trump and the Republican National Committee — $131 million versus $67 million. Team Biden’s strong March was boosted by the three-presidents fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall. But Trump answered back quickly with his own high-dollar affair in Palm Beach, Florida, in early April. His campaign said the event raised $50.5 million, portions of which will likely be reflected in the next FEC filing. The Republican National Committee said this month that along with the Trump campaign it expects to report raising a combined $76 million in April. The Biden campaign expects to release its April fundraising figures closer to the May 20 deadline. One campaign official said it’s to be expected that Trump’s fundraising would pick up now that the Republican nomination fight is over, but insisted that Biden’s fundraising pace remains strong. Speaking with reporters last week, Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler said regardless of what Trump’s tally is from April, the president’s campaign has long been leveraging its cash advantage to build out a significant re-election effort on the ground and boost its message across the battleground state airwaves. “I’ll take that over whatever dollar figure Trump and his team actually end up filing in their report,” Tyler said. Biden has often seen significant spikes in small-dollar donations around major events, like Trump’s victories this year in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries, as well as the State of the Union address in March. April, though, was largely dominated by Trump’s court cases as Biden held a series of battleground-state visits to discuss the economy, abortion rights and student debt. Biden attended only two high-dollar fundraisers — in Chicago and the New York area — in April. One New York-based Biden campaign donor who serves on the national finance committee said the number of events featuring not just Biden but other surrogates has “dried up” as donors felt tapped out after the event with Obama and Clinton. But the donor expects the pace to pick up again this summer. Obama has been a key part of Biden’s fundraising efforts. In April, the campaign launched a series of digital ads featuring Obama and Biden pitching viewers to make small-dollar donations. In the year since Biden kicked off his re-election effort, small-dollar solicitations from Obama have helped generate more than $17 million, the campaign said. The Biden and Obama teams continue to discuss the scope of the former president’s engagement, including a recent in-person meeting between Obama and Biden senior adviser Mike Donilon, according to two people familiar with the matter. Obama is also expected to do fundraisers in the coming months for the Democrats’ Senate and House campaign committees, as well as the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, according to an Obama official.
A police officer was killed in Pakistan-held Kashmir during protests against price hikes 2024-05-12 10:09:09+00:00 - ISLAMABAD (AP) — A protest against rising costs of food, fuel and utility bills turned violent in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, leaving a police officer dead and dozens of people injured, officials said Sunday. Traders in some of the cities in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir pulled their shutters down on Saturday while protesters burned tires to express their anger. A police officer was killed in Dadyal town, authorities said. Police have detained several demonstrators across Kashmir, which is divided between Pakistan and India. Chaudhry Anwarul Haq, the prime minister in Pakistan-held Kashmir, said he was ready to consider the demands of the protesters but urged them not to indulge in violence. Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday convened a meeting to discuss how to calm the protests. Pakistan last year narrowly avoided a default on the payment of foreign debts when International Monetary Fund and several friendly nations came to its rescue by giving it loans. Pakistan’s monthly inflation rate at one point reached over 40%, but authorities say it had come down to 17% ahead of the talks with IMF for a new bailout. Pakistan plans to get at least $6 billion from IMF when it reaches a deal expected in the coming months.
A Mother's Day message: Don't repeat my mistake with your LGBTQ child 2024-05-12 10:00:40+00:00 - When my son was 8 years old, he told me he was gay. And then I changed his mind. I was lying on my bed reading. My husband and I had recently separated and my two sons and I were navigating our new reality. Suddenly, I was aware of Spencer standing in the doorway. “Mom?” “Yes.” He flew across the room landing facedown next to me. He buried his large, curly-topped head into the pillow. His body was rigid, his voice muffled. “I think I’m gay.” A wave of terror flooded through me. But why? I was an actor. Many of my friends were gay. In the 1980s at the height of the AIDS epidemic, I had helped care for one as he battled unsuccessfully with the disease. “What makes you think that?” I wondered at the calm in my voice. A few years ago, I wouldn’t have thought it important to share my experience. “Duncan told me.” I exhaled. Duncan was his 12-year-old brother. “Spencer, what color is that laundry basket?” “Blue,” he sniffled. “If Duncan called it red, would that make it red?” “No.” “So why would him calling you gay make you gay?” I felt his body relax a bit. And as his body relaxed, so did mine. To this day I cannot look back on that conversation without pain and deep shame. My beloved little boy had put his trust in me and I didn’t listen. Oh, I heard him all right. But I couldn’t handle it. We don’t have this in our family, I thought, as though “this” was an autoimmune disease. Plus, how would I tell my 80-year-old parents? So instead of staying with him, acknowledging that what he told me was true, I put my fears ahead of his and dismissed his 8-year-old courage. And with this dismissal, I signaled to him that what he told me was not acceptable. I betrayed his trust, leaving him to carry this burden of shame, my shame, for another eight years. As I write this on Mother’s Day, it strikes me that a few years ago I wouldn’t have thought it important to share my experience. But the pendulum has swung. Today we face an alarming retreat from LGBTQ rights, with hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills sweeping through state legislatures. Along with it has come a growing animus toward the community that’s often ironically spearheaded by so-called parental rights groups, like Moms for Liberty. Spencer and Eve. Courtesy Eve Crawford And according to a 2017 study in the Journal of Family Psychology, up to 70% of gay and bisexual youth are met with parents’ disapproval or rejection. Is it any wonder that in 2022, 41% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered suicide? At 15, Spencer told me again. We were visiting my parents’ ranch outside Calgary, Alberta. One night after dinner, Spence asked me to go for a walk in a nearby field. The evening sun had painted the countryside gold and the sweet scent of newly cut hay hung in the evening air. “I love you,” he said. I looked at him. His face was contorted as he fought back tears. A nauseating dread washed through me. Had he hurt someone? Stolen something? Did he have a drug addiction? “Mom, I’m gay.” Then this 6-foot-4-inch athletic honor student collapsed in my arms. His not-yet-mature voice broke through the sobs as he croaked, “I’ll never be able to give you grandchildren.” When his breathing slowed, I asked him how he knew. He said he didn’t know. And then — I did it again. “Maybe you don’t know right now. At your age there’s confusion about all sorts of things.” According to a 2017 study in the Journal of Family Psychology, up to 70% of gay and bisexual youth are met with parents’ disapproval or rejection. Is it any wonder that in 2022, 41% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered suicide? I look back on it now and try to make sense of the fear that roiled inside me. Was it the prejudice and danger I knew he might face? Perhaps. But something more selfish was at play. I had plans for this kid. I had envisioned the woman he might marry, the children he would have. I had projected my view of his life onto him and suddenly that construct had come toppling down. Shortly after we returned home, Spencer took the “out” I had offered him. “Mom, remember what I told you at the ranch? I don’t think I am.” “Oh, OK,” I said too quickly. He started to date and had “sort of” girlfriends. He competed in tennis tournaments. He excelled at school. All was well. Denial, in full force, gave me a reprieve. When he was 16, Spencer went to Paris with his dad. He returned, furious with his father for making homophobic jokes during their trip. The next day, I was on the phone with my friend Marie. Spencer had loved her since he was 5 and confided in her on a regular basis. I was in mid-diatribe about my ex-husband’s homophobic remarks when she interrupted me. “Eve — are you listening! This is not about his father. He phoned me yesterday. He is going to tell you.” “Oh,” I said. The next day, at a pub near the tennis courts, Spencer, for the third time in his life, said, “Mom, I am gay.” Eve and Spencer. Courtesy Eve Crawford And yes. At last, I listened. “Oh, are you? That’s OK.” It would be a sweet ending to suggest that all went smoothly from this point on. But the following year, after his acceptance to McGill University, I arranged a road trip to Montreal to check the place out. “Invite one of your buddies. It’ll be fun,” I said. A day later, he told me that Eliot was coming. Eliot was gay. And now, these two 17-year-old boys would be sharing a hotel room next to mine? Would I allow his older brother to share with a girl at that age? No! And I told Spencer so. “Oh, so now you’re homophobic!” I wanted to bark; don’t you dare play the gay card with me. But I was struck dumb. I called Marie. “Look, by September, he will be out of your clutches, doing whatever the hell he wants.” So, a couple of days later, I found myself checking into a Montreal hotel with the two boys. I told them to meet me at 6 for dinner. When I got to my room, I poured a beer to relax the growing knot in my stomach. Then a strange thing happened. It was an otherworldly sensation. It felt like someone was lifting a massive weight from my shoulders. I’m not particularly religious, but Christ’s words, “Come unto me all you that are heavy laden, and I will refresh you,” whispered like a soft breeze through my being. And with it came a profound sense of peace. Eve and Spencer. Courtesy Eve Crawford Later, the boys and I had dinner on an outdoor terrace. The evening was soft and unusually warm for April. Spencer and Eliot and I shared stories and laughter, then wandered the streets looking for the perfect ice cream cone. We parted on Saint-Catherine Street. The boys were off to grab a coffee and wander around some more. As I watched my son walk off with his friend, a wave of melancholy swept over me. I couldn’t know at the time that our relationship going forward would be an embarrassment of riches: brainstorming our New Year’s resolutions on a whiteboard, sharing his graduation from Columbia, his futile efforts to get me to do a split step in tennis. Most of all, there would be the laughter. But that April evening, my heart ached for the nine lost years of joyous and true connection. Then the tears started to spill, and as they did I felt the sadness wash away. I felt, at last, my heart surrender as it made way for warmth and light. As it made way for love. If I learned one thing from my nine-year struggle accepting my son’s truth it was to listen to my child. With all my being. If a child says they are gay, believe them. That truth is as real as the color of their eyes. I had to learn to let go of my fears, beliefs, my need for control. In today’s world especially, an LGBTQ child will need all the support and love they can get from the person who means the most in the world to them. But here’s the best part. It feels good to surrender. Because on the other side of that there is love. Don’t waste time. We don’t have that much of it.
Winning elections is expensive. Trump’s lies are much cheaper. 2024-05-12 10:00:40+00:00 - Elections are an expensive business. What doesn’t cost a lot of money, though, is claiming that the only reason for one’s narrow loss is fraudulent votes. “If everything’s honest, I’d gladly accept the results,” former President Donald Trump told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel earlier this month when asked if he’d concede if President Joe Biden wins re-election. “If it’s not, you have to fight for the right of the country.” Call it the Trump Theory of Electoral Savings. Trump supporters recently told NBC News “they weren’t prepared to accept a Biden victory as legitimate, potentially setting up another presidential election — and potentially a volatile aftermath — in which a large part of the public refuses to believe the results.” It’s a particularly dangerous situation for the country when you consider that Trump is setting up expectations for success while at the same time refusing to devote resources to Republicans winning. Call it the Trump Theory of Electoral Savings. Consider for a moment that political campaigns are expected to spend more than $10 billion on ads alone by the end of the 2024 election cycle. That doesn’t factor in the money that goes into knocking on doors, polling, opening offices and the other sundry costs of running for office. National political parties usually help to defray some of those state and local costs around the country, which is why the Republican National Committee’s ongoing cash crunch should be a concern for those hoping for a red wave this fall. What money the GOP is raising, though, isn’t necessarily going toward state-level campaigns — or even to Trump’s own re-election efforts. Trump “has told people in charge of the RNC to focus on election security more than field programs, because he believes he will be able to personally motivate his voters to the polls in the fall,” The Washington Post reported Friday. The emphasis on election security is troubling on its own, given the utter lack of evidence to support Trump’s claims that voter fraud marred the 2020 election. As I’ve argued before, the problem the GOP faces when it comes to winning races isn’t “election security,” it’s Trump himself. But his campaign and the RNC — which is now run by loyal Trump allies and family members and which has reportedly asked potential new hires whether they believe the 2020 election was stolen — have also committed to running a “leaner” campaign that uses fewer resources. For example, the Post reports that the campaign has “decided not to hire separate political, communications and research operations at the campaign and the national party.” That sounds like a potentially prudent cost-saving measure — that also raises the question of whether down-ballot races will be a priority compared to the Trump operation. It’s a genuine worry, because the RNC has traditionally concerned itself with candidates up and down state ballots across the country. So even more eyebrow-raising is the decision to scrap the committee’s earlier plan to ramp up nationwide for the general election. There are anxious rumblings within state-level parties that those efforts will go by the wayside in favor of the presidential race. And that could be a real problem for the GOP in states like Arizona and Georgia where the results may be even closer this year than they were in 2020: The original RNC plan for the state of Georgia, reviewed by The Washington Post, called for hiring 12 regional field directors in April and 40 field organizers by the end of May, in addition to eventually opening 20 offices and a community center in the College Park, a mostly Black suburb of Atlanta. Arizona was slotted to receive six regional field directors, seven offices and 23 field organizers by the end of May. Party leaders had drafted similar road maps for other battleground states before Ronna McDaniel was replaced as chairwoman. This isn’t to say that the RNC is definitely banking on cries of voter fraud and the resulting chaos as its main strategy for victory in the fall. There’s still time for the GOP to start investing in battleground states ahead of November. And as the failure to sway Republican governors and secretaries of state in 2020 showed us, trying to fraudulently blame voter fraud for your electoral losses only works when everyone is on the same page. As far as scams go, the one Trump is pulling here is pretty basic. But tell that to the 46% of Republicans who have only a little faith, or none at all, that the 2024 presidential votes will be counted accurately, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted last year. Or to the growing list of top Republicans who have danced around the issue lately when asked whether they would accept the 2024 election results. (It’s notable that this strategy only comes cheap if it’s successful. Many Trump-aligned lawyers who championed his lies in 2020 have been heavily fined or faced disbarment; and several have been charged with crimes including the RNC’s new election integrity lead.) As far as scams go, the one Trump is pulling here is pretty basic. He’s still trying to raise money for the campaign, begging big-spending billionaires to fill the quickly draining coffers. He’s out at rallies telling his fans that there’s no way he loses, absent massive voter fraud, priming them to reject any loss. Meanwhile, Trump is siphoning off money that should be spent on GOP election efforts to pay his legal fees so he can keep from having to shell out that money himself. What we’re seeing play out is a cheapskate’s plot to destroy faith in democracy for no better reason than to save a few bucks (although, in fairness, it’s not just a few). The real question is whether this time around, Republican leaders go along with the ruse.
I Forgot To Bring A Mother's Day Gift For My Mom — So I Planned These 5 Surprises To Make Her Day Extra Special 2024-05-12 09:56:00+00:00 - Loading... Loading... Given the work schedule most of us have today, it's not unsurprising that we forget a lot of days that should be celebrated with utmost enthusiasm. One of those days is Mother's Day – the one day where we get to make our mothers feel special. So, when you forget to buy a gift for your mom on her special day, that feels like a major slip-up… and the guilt doesn't help. So here are five simple yet heartfelt surprises that I planned for my mother to make her ordinary day extraordinary: Breakfast In Bed: Because Breaking The Routine Is The Perfect Kickstart It's usually our mothers who prepare the morning meals and get ready everything so that other family members and start their day on a positive note. So, on Mother's Day, you can try to break the routine and prepare a delicious surprise for her. Representational image of a mother getting breakfast in bed| Image generated using Dall-E DIY Spa Day: Because Who Doesn't Like To Get Pampered From Time To Time Our mothers handle everything. Whether your mother is a homemaker or goes to the office, more often than not, she is too busy worrying about others and forgets to take care of herself. So, a simple, relaxing, at-home spa treat can be the perfect surprise for her. Representational image of a mother getting DIY spa treatment| Image generated using Dall-E Trip Down Memory Lane: Because Revisiting Memories Can Bring Laughter And Tears Loading... Loading... In the modern world, how many of us get to speak to our mothers at length about topics that make them laugh? So, this Mother's Day, prepare a new photo album of old memories or revisit any old family video to reminisce about the cherished time you both have spent together. And maybe, this sentimental journey can give some idea about what to plan for the coming years. Representational image of a mother and daughter revisiting old memories| Image generated using Dall-E Handwritten Letter: Because Nothing Can Beat The Classics I know that we all have become used to messaging each other and handwritten letters are almost extinct, but some things are timeless. Pour your heart out in a beautiful handmade paper, express your love and gratitude to her, and this piece of paper will be her most treasured possession ever. Representational image of a daughter writing a handwritten letter to her mother| Image generated using Dall-E Quality Time Together: Because No Gift Is Bigger Than You Out of all the things in the world, if there's one gift for which there is no substitute for a mother, it is quality time with her kids. So, on this special day, try spending some quality time and doing some activities together. You can watch a movie together, bake something, go to her favorite restaurant, or simply have a conversation over a cup of hot mocha, there's nothing more dear to her than you. Representational image of a mother spending quality time with her kids| Image generated using Dall-E Photo generated using Dall-E
Honey, I Love You. Didn’t You See My Slack About It? 2024-05-12 09:02:20.127000+00:00 - Ben Lang didn’t expect to get so much hate just for being organized. For the past three years, he and his wife, Karen-Lynn Amouyal, have been using Notion, a popular software tool, to optimize their household and relationship. His version of the tool, commonly used by businesses to manage complex projects, functions like a souped-up Google Doc, with sections for a grocery list, to-do lists and details of upcoming trips. More unusual is a section Mr. Lang, a venture capital investor who previously worked at Notion, created about principles (“what’s important to us as a couple”). Another section, called “Learnings,” outlines things the couple have discovered about each other, such as their love languages and Myers-Briggs test results. There’s a list of friends they want to set up on dates. They also maintain a log of memories from their date nights. Mr. Lang, 30, was so proud of the creation that last month, he started promoting a template of the setup to others. “My wife and I use Notion religiously to manage our day-to-day life,” he wrote on X. “I turned this into a template, let me know if you’d like to see it!” The internet responded with a venomous outrage. “People have told me my wife is cheating on me, people have told me I have a dead body in my basement, people have told me I’m autistic,” he said. But his approach isn’t entirely unusual, especially among people who work in the tech industry and want to manage their personal lives the same way they manage their professional lives. For a class of young workers, it’s only rational to apply the tools of the corporate world to their relationships and families. Businesses have goals and systems for achieving them, the thinking goes. They get things done.
Frustrated by Gaza Coverage, Student Protesters Turn to Al Jazeera 2024-05-12 09:02:13+00:00 - Nick Wilson has closely followed news on the war in Gaza since October. But Mr. Wilson, a Cornell student, is picky when it comes to his media diet: As a pro-Palestinian activist, he doesn’t trust major American outlets’ reporting on Israel’s campaign in Gaza. Instead, he turns to publications less familiar to some American audiences, like the Arab news network Al Jazeera. “Al Jazeera is the site that I go to to get an account of events that I think will be reliable,” he said. Many student protesters said in recent interviews that they were seeking on-the-ground coverage of the war in Gaza, and often, a staunchly pro-Palestinian perspective — and they are turning to alternative media for it. There’s a range of options: Jewish Currents, The Intercept, Mondoweiss and even independent Palestinian journalists on social media, as they seek information about what is happening in Gaza.
Fast Food Forever: How McHaters Lost the Culture War 2024-05-12 09:01:03+00:00 - The camera zooms in on a large woman, sitting on a cooler at the beach. It cuts to a shirtless man, also quite large, his face blurred out. The next shot shows another overweight man, sitting on a beach towel with plastic grocery bags arrayed in front of him. “America has now become the fattest nation in the world. Congratulations,” a voice narrates. “Nearly 100 million Americans are today either overweight or obese.” At the end of this soliloquy, the opening credits roll — accompanied by Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls.” So begins “Super Size Me,” which was released 20 years ago this month. Directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, the bootstrapped, lo-fi documentary was a smash hit, grossing more than $22 million on a $65,000 budget. Following Mr. Spurlock as he ate nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days — and the ill effects that diet had on his health — the film became the high-water mark in a tide of sentiment against fast food. McDonald’s, specifically, became a symbol for the glossy hegemony of American capitalism both at home and abroad.
Elon Musk’s Diplomacy: Woo Right-Wing World Leaders. Then Benefit. 2024-05-12 09:00:21+00:00 - Minutes after it became clear that Javier Milei had been elected president of South America’s second-largest nation in November, Elon Musk posted on X: “Prosperity is ahead for Argentina.” Since then, Mr. Musk has continued to use X, the social network he owns, to boost Mr. Milei. The billionaire has shared videos of the Argentine president attacking “social justice” with his 182 million followers. One doctored image, which implied that watching a speech by Mr. Milei was better than having sex, is among Mr. Musk’s most viewed posts ever. Mr. Musk has helped turn the pugnacious libertarian into one of the new faces of the modern right. But offline, he has used the relationship to press for benefits to his other businesses, the electric carmaker Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX. “Elon Musk called me,” Mr. Milei said in a television interview weeks after taking office. “He is extremely interested in the lithium.”