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Qualcomm forecast beats estimates as AI revives smartphone market 2024-05-02 05:15:00+00:00 - By Stephen Nellis and Arsheeya Bajwa (Reuters) - Qualcomm on Wednesday forecast fiscal third-quarter sales and adjusted profit above Wall Street expectations, driven by a faster-than-expected recovery in smartphone markets thanks to artificial-intelligence features. The company has also branched out into selling chips for cars and devices such as headphones, which in the second quarter helped it beat Wall Street expectations. Shares were up 4% in after-hours trading. The company said its sales to Chinese smartphone makers have grown 40% in the first half of its fiscal year, a sign of recovery in that market. "Recently launched flagship Android devices powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 are seeing strong demand globally, especially in China," Chief Executive Cristiano Amon told analysts on a conference call. The company also beat expectations in areas such as its automotive chip business. "Demand for all their products overall seems strong," said analyst Ben Bajarin of Creative Strategies. "The auto business is particularly interesting as they keep growing while others who compete there keep struggling." Qualcomm forecast third-quarter sales and adjusted profit with midpoints of $9.2 billion and $2.25 per share, beating analyst estimates of $9.05 billion and $2.17 per share, according to LSEG data. The San Diego, California-based company is the world's biggest supplier of chips for smartphones and counts both Apple and Samsung as customers. The company's sales declined sharply last year following a boom during the pandemic. The drop was felt especially in the Android phone market where Qualcomm draws most of its business. The company faces competitive pressure from China's Huawei Technologies Co, which last year introduced a domestically made smartphone chip, and Taiwanese rival MediaTek, which last week said it expects rising sales this year as it gains market share among the premium-priced Android handsets. Unlike MediaTek, Qualcomm has a license from the U.S. government to sell some older chips to Huawei despite wide restrictions on the Chinese company. Qualcomm said on Wednesday it expects that revenue to disappear by the end of this year and that it is pursuing negotiations with Huawei over a patent license agreement that expires in Qualcomm's fiscal 2025. Even though Huawei's 5G chips are made in what analysts believe are violations of U.S. export control rules, the company still pays Qualcomm for the use of the U.S. firm's 5G patents. For the fiscal second quarter ended March 24, Qualcomm's sales and adjusted profit were $9.39 billion and $2.44 per share, respectively, above analyst expectations of $9.34 billion and $2.32, according to LSEG data. Story continues Qualcomm is hoping to benefit from consumer demand to upgrade devices to run AI chatbots directly on the device rather than going over to a data center. In a challenge to Apple, Qualcomm plans to release a chip designed to power laptops starting this summer, though that small amount of early sales is unlikely to play a major role in the company's third-quarter forecast, analysts said. In Qualcomm's chip segment, the company forecast fiscal third-quarter sales with a midpoint of $7.8 billion, compared with analyst estimates of $7.74 billion, according to LSEG data. Qualcomm predicted third-quarter patent-licensing sales with a midpoint of $1.3 billion, compared with estimates of $1.29 billion. For the just-ended fiscal second quarter, Qualcomm said chip and licensing revenues were $8.03 billion and $1.32 billion, respectively, compared with analyst estimates of $7.95 billion and $1.32 billion, according to LSEG. Within Qualcomm's chip business, the company said that mobile handsets generated $6.18 billion in sales in the second quarter, compared with estimates of $6.23 billion, according to data from Visible Alpha. Automotive and Internet-of-Things chip revenues in the second quarter were $603 million and $1.24 billion, respectively, compared with analyst estimates of $578.9 million and $1.22 billion. (Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco and Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Noel Randewich in Oakland, California; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

First Solar posts higher quarterly profit on strong demand 2024-05-02 05:00:00+00:00 - (Reuters) - First Solar reported higher first-quarter profit on Wednesday compared to the same period last year, helped by resilient demand for solar energy. The company reported a net profit of $236.6 million, or $2.20 per share, for the three months ended March 31, compared to $42.5 million, or 40 cents per share, in the same period last year. Analysts expected an average of $1.99 per share, according to LSEG data. The U.S. solar market has seen significant momentum since last year, helped by regulatory steps such as the Biden administration's 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which provides tax credits for panels made in the United States. Additionally, module supply in the U.S. has remained comparatively isolated from the oversupply witnessed globally due to the Biden administration limiting imports from China by placing additional tariffs. First Solar's revenue came in at $794.1 million, higher than $548.3 million in the same period last year and beating analysts' estimate of $702.2 million, according to LSEG data. The company maintained its 2024 forecasts for revenue and volume at between $4.4 billion and $4.6 billion, and 15.6 gigawatt to 16.3 gigawatt, respectively. Year-to-date bookings were 2.7 gigawatt, compared to 4.8 gigawatt for the same period last year. Cash at the end of the first quarter decreased to $1.4 billion, from $1.6 billion at the end of the previous quarter, primarily due to capital expenditures related to manufacturing capacity expansions in Alabama, Louisiana and Ohio, the company said. The average selling prices of bookings was 31.3 cents per watt, compared to 31.8 cents per watt in the same period last year. (Reporting by Seher Dareen in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)

Why Canopy Growth, Tilray, and Cronos Group Stocks Just Cratered 2024-05-02 04:13:00+00:00 - Easy come, easy go. Yesterday, shares of cannabis companies like Canopy Growth (NASDAQ: CGC), Tilray Brands (NASDAQ: TLRY), and Cronos Group (NASDAQ: CRON) all soared on news that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has agreed to recommend downgrading marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug. Already today, the high is starting to wear off. As of 11:15 a.m. ET Wednesday, Canopy Growth stock is down a shocking 25.7%, followed by losses of 17.6% at Tilray and 7% at Cronos (which I suppose qualifies as the "good" news today). The great marijuana stock sell-off Why are marijuana investors panicking today? Let's start with the obvious. A Schedule III drug (such as ketamine, anabolic steroids or, soon, marijuana) may not be as strictly regulated a Schedule I drug (like heroin). But it's still regulated. You can't just stroll into a liquor store, show your ID, and pick up a pack of weed like you can when buying smokes or alcohol. You can't even buy a Schedule III drug at the pharmacy desk at CVS or Walgreens. Furthermore, state-licensed marijuana dispensaries are still selling a product that it's illegal for them to sell under federal law. Rescheduling marijuana will also come with new costs for the marijuana industry, first and foremost, from requiring the nation's 15,000 licensed dispensaries to all register with the DEA and make regular reports on their activities. Should you buy marijuana stocks? If you ask me, though, the main reason marijuana stocks are selling off today is because marijuana investors made a lot of money yesterday, and they're cashing in their chips and taking profits. That's short-term thinking, however. Dropping marijuana two rungs to a Schedule III controlled substance is really good news for the industry and will accelerate the movement among states to legalize the drug both for medical purposes (as 38 have done) as well as for recreational purposes (as 24 have done). It will also provide some tax benefits for marijuana companies, permitting the deduction of certain operating expenses that could not be deducted when marijuana was a Schedule I drug. This will have a direct benefit for cannabis companies' bottom line, boosting profits and making marijuana stocks look cheaper as a result. At the same time, rescheduling marijuana adds momentum to the federal legalization movement. In the U.S. Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., yesterday reaffirmed his support for passing marijuana banking reform. He furthermore expressed his commitment to "removing [marijuana] from the Controlled Substances Act" entirely -- legalizing the drug once and for all. Story continues Despite today's sell-off, Canopy Growth, Tilray Brands, and Cronos Group stocks are still trading higher than they did before the DEA's announcement. With profits moving higher and full-scale legalization looking increasingly likely, there's good reason for that. Should you invest $1,000 in Canopy Growth right now? Before you buy stock in Canopy Growth, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Canopy Growth wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $529,390!* Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of April 30, 2024 Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends CVS Health and Tilray Brands. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why Canopy Growth, Tilray, and Cronos Group Stocks Just Cratered was originally published by The Motley Fool

Super Micro Computer Stock Just Dropped. Is It a Buying Opportunity? 2024-05-02 04:01:00+00:00 - Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ: SMCI) just announced a blowout quarter. Sort of. Super Micro's fast-growing sales increased 5% sequentially from the previous quarter but exploded by more than 200% compared to the prior-year period. That's because Super Micro is in the business of providing server and storage system components to data centers building artificial intelligence (AI) capacity. And its bottom-line earnings expanded even more than sales in the quarter. But investors sold the stock in droves anyway today for a couple of reasons. Predicting the future for Super Micro One big reason the stock tanked after earnings is that it had already soared by more than 700% over the last year as investors anticipated the huge jump in sales. Another is that the costs to generate those growing sales are increasing even faster. Super Micro's gross margin dropped from 17.6% in the year-ago period to 15.5% this year. That's because there's growing competition in this fast-moving sector. Neither Super Micro nor its competitors make the powerful semiconductor chips needed for AI applications. They assemble the systems that include those chips to install in the booming data center market. But that data center growth is exploding along with the growth in AI use cases. That's why Super Micro increased its sales guidance and expects revenue to more than double for its fiscal year 2024 (ended June 30) versus last year. The AI data center supercycle is driving Super Micro's sales and earnings. Even competitors like Dell Technologies are seeing their backlogs double for their AI server business. When the cycle comes to an end, though, the stock of a pure play like Super Micro could drop as fast as it has soared in the last year. For investors adept at closely following the business and the macro environment, Super Micro could make a great investment after today's decline. But those who take a more hands-off investing approach might want to pass on this volatile name. Should you invest $1,000 in Super Micro Computer right now? Before you buy stock in Super Micro Computer, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Super Micro Computer wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $529,390!* Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*. Story continues See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of April 30, 2024 Howard Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Super Micro Computer Stock Just Dropped. Is It a Buying Opportunity? was originally published by The Motley Fool

A United Airlines passenger got "belligerent" with flight attendants. Here's what that will cost him. 2024-05-02 00:07:00+00:00 - Unruly passengers still an issue on flights Unruly passengers still an issue on flights Unruly behavior on airplanes can lead to hefty fines for passengers. Just ask Alexander Michael Dominic MacDonald, from Chelmsford, England, who this week was ordered to pay $20,638 to United Airlines for his outbursts on a flight from London to Newark, New Jersey, in March. The incident kicked off when MacDonald, 30, was having a loud argument with his girlfriend, according to an affidavit. The situation soon escalated and he started yelling at a flight attendant. He was both verbally and physically aggressive, according to court documents. "When flight attendants asked MacDonald to be quiet and attempted to calm him, he became belligerent, threatening, and intimidating towards them," the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement announcing the fine. He also told the cabin crew lead that he would "mess up the plane," court documents show. MacDonald was eventually restrained with flex cuffs, and the flight, with 160 people on board, was diverted to Bangor, Maine. MacDonald pleaded guilty on March 22 to one count of interfering with a flight crew and was also sentenced to time already served. At the time of the incident, United said in a statement that the plane had landed in Bangor "after two passengers, who appeared intoxicated, became disruptive." Law enforcement officials removed the passengers, who were not identified, from the flight, which took off again to land at Newark airport. Bad behavior on flights surged during the pandemic, with tensions running high among passengers and flight crew over issues like mask-wearing. In 2022, the FAA announced it was making permanent a zero-tolerance policy against unruly passengers. "Behaving dangerously on a plane will cost you; that's a promise," said Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen at the time. "Unsafe behavior simply does not fly and keeping our Zero Tolerance policy will help us continue making progress to prevent and punish this behavior."

The main reason why self-driving cars are not ready for prime time 2024-05-01 22:50:00+00:00 - Self-driving cars have been crowned the future of the automotive industry, but in their current form, the software powering those vehicles is stuck in the present. One significant flaw in the self-driving systems has yet to be worked out, according to experts. When there's potential for an accident, the systems often returns control to the human driver without enough time for someone to avoid a collision, automotive industry experts told CBS MoneyWatch. In other words, the software does not know how to react when the unexpected happens, such as an animal darting onto the road. The major flaw came to bear earlier this year when a Ford Mustang Mach-E SUV crashed into a 56-year-old Texas man who was driving a Honda CR-V. The Mach-E had its partially self-driving feature — which Ford calls BlueCruise — activated during the crash, in which the CR-V driver was killed. On Monday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it's looking into what role BlueCruise played in causing the Texas accident. But Monday isn't the first time NHTSA has launched an investigation into self-driving vehicles. The BlueCruise probe follows a 2022 NHTSA investigation into what caused robotaxis run by General Motors' autonomous software, Cruise, to stop short or quit moving altogether. NHTSA has also launched several investigations into crashes involving Tesla's autopilot feature dating back to 2021. The NHTSA investigations are proof that even though autonomous driving is considered the next competitive frontier for automakers, the technology still hasn't matured enough for widespread usage, Robert Sumwalt, CBS News' transportation safety analyst told CBS MoneyWatch. "It's not a perfect science yet," said Sumwalt, a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. "Right now it's like trying to send a rocket to the moon in 1910 when the Wright Brothers were still working on their planes." The makings of vehicle autonomy The self-driving mode most automakers have today is known in the industry as Level 2. There are six increasing levels of autonomy in total. Essentially, Level 2 is a vehicle with an on-board computer equipped with a map in its database. The vehicle is also outfitted with camera sensors, radars, lidar (light and range detection) and ultrasonic systems, all of which work together to detect what's going on around the vehicle in real time. "The maps they have on them can drive perfectly, if there's nothing on the road," Sean Tucker, senior editor at Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader told CBS MoneyWatch. "It's a problem if someone stops in the middle of a highway or if a deer runs out in the middle of the road. That's the hard part for the computer." Ford's BlueCruise is a Level 2 system that allows drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel while the vehicle handles steering, braking and acceleration on highways. Like other major automakers, Ford is betting big on autonomous technology. The company last year created its own in-house division called Latitude AI, which is developing help the automaker develop Level 3 autonomous systems for vehicles. During a 2023 company event, Ford's electric vehicle chief Doug Field outlined how advancing some vehicles to Level 3 would help the automaker. "We want L3 to work everywhere BlueCruise works," he said. "The key use cases that we see are stop-and-go traffic — which is really tedious and actually a cause of a lot of accidents because people take their mind off of what's going on — and then steady-state cruise long trips, in which, the same thing, you can tend to get bored or sleepy." Race for the Holy Grail Self-driving cars are much more advanced now compared to when they were first developed, said K. Venkatesh Prasad, senior vice president of research at the Center for Automotive Research. Still, they have to be able to navigate, not only humans driving cars and trucks, but people making unpredictable moves on scooters, skateboards and bicycles, Prasad told CBS MoneyWatch. Automakers are testing their self-driving cars on closed tracks as much as they can, but they can advance the technology faster by putting the vehicles on an actual road, Sumwalt said. But real-world testing, he said, comes at a high price — crashes, fatalities and federal investigations. Indeed, Ford, GM, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Subaru and Tesla all have a variation of Level 2 autonomous driving. They're all in a technology arms race to perfect self-driving and claim all the benefits that come with it, experts said. "If you can be first to this Holy Grail of autonomy, you get a lot of attention," said Jonathan Elfalan, director of vehicle testing at Edmunds. "And you are probably going to make profit off the end of it."

UnitedHealth data breach caused by lack of multifactor authentication, CEO says 2024-05-01 22:30:00+00:00 - Hackers breached the computer system of a UnitedHealth Group subsidiary and released ransomware after stealing someone's password, CEO Andrew Witty testified Wednesday on Capitol Hill. The cybercriminals entered through a portal that didn't have multifactor authentification (MFA) enabled. During an hourslong congressional hearing, Witty told lawmakers that the company has not yet determined how many patients and health care professionals were impacted by the cyberattack on Change Healthcare in February. The hearing focused on how hackers were able to gain access to Change Healthcare, a separate division of UnitedHealth that the company acquired in October 2022. Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee asked Witty why the nation's largest health care insurer did not have the basic cybersecurity safeguard in place before the attack. "Change Healthcare was a relatively older company with older technologies, which we had been working to upgrade since the acquisition," Witty said. "But for some reason, which we continue to investigate, this particular server did not have MFA on it." Multifactor authentication adds a second layer of security to password-protected accounts by having users enter an auto-generated code sent to their phone or email. A common feature on apps, the safeguard is used to protect customer accounts against hackers who obtain or guess passwords. Witty said all logins for Change Healthcare now have multifactor authentication enabled. The cyberattack came from Russia-based ransomware gang ALPHV or BlackCat. The group itself claimed responsibility for the attack, alleging it stole more than six terabytes of data, including "sensitive" medical records. The attack triggered a disruption of payment and claims processing around the country, stressing doctor's offices and health care systems by interfering with their ability to file claims and get paid. Witty confirmed Wednesday that UnitedHealth paid a $22 million ransom in the form of bitcoin to BlackCat, a decision he made on his own, according to prepared testimony before the hearing. Despite the ransom payment, lawmakers said Wednesday that some of the sensitive records from patients have still been posted by hackers on the dark web. The ransom payment "was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make and I wouldn't wish it on anyone," Witty said. The scale of the attack — Change Healthcare processes 15 billion transactions a year, according to the American Hospital Association — meant that even patients who weren't customers of UnitedHealth were potentially affected. The company said earlier this month that personal information that could cover a "substantial portion of people in America" may have been taken in the attack. The breach has already cost UnitedHealth Group nearly $900 million, company officials said in reporting first-quarter earnings last week, not including ransom paid. Ransomware attacks, which involve disabling a target's computer systems, have become increasingly common within the health care industry. The annual number of ransomware attacks against hospitals and other health care providers doubled from 2016 to 2021, according to a 2022 study published in JAMA Health Forum.

Exxon Mobil reaches agreement with FTC, poised to close $60 billion Pioneer deal 2024-05-01 22:14:00+00:00 - The Federal Trade Commission will wave through Exxon Mobil 's roughly $60 billion acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources after reaching an agreement with the energy giant, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC. The FTC will not block the deal now that the regulator and Exxon have reached a consent agreement, the source said. The agreement will bar Pioneer's former CEO Scott Sheffield from joining the Exxon board. The push to remove Sheffield was due to concerns about his prior discussions with OPEC, according to the source. Exxon and the FTC both declined to comment. The agreement was first reported by Bloomberg News. Exxon first announced the deal for Pioneer in October, in an all-stock transaction valued at $59.5 billion. Exxon said the acquisition would more than double its production in the Permian Basin. "Pioneer is a clear leader in the Permian with a unique asset base and people with deep industry knowledge. The combined capabilities of our two companies will provide long-term value creation well in excess of what either company is capable of doing on a standalone basis," Exxon chairman and CEO Darren Woods said in a press release at the time. Shares of Exxon and Pioneer were both little changed in extended trading Wednesday. — CNBC's Pippa Stevens and Mary Catherine Wellons contributed reporting.

TikTok Ban: Is The US Government Taking A Page From China's Censorship Book? - Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) 2024-05-01 22:07:00+00:00 - Loading... Loading... The recent divest-or-be-banned legislation aimed at TikTok has sparked a wave of debate over how much the government should be allowed to control people’s access to content and media. The legislation, signed into law by President Joe Biden last week, gives the Beijing-based social media platform nine months to a year to sell its U.S. operations or face an outright ban. While the law presents TikTok's parent company ByteDance with two options, some commentators, including the company's CEO, have said the dilemma is actually a moot point and lawmakers supporting the law passed it knowing it would effectively signify a ban on the platform. The bill achieved bipartisan support after a series of classified briefings convinced lawmakers that having 170 million TikTok users in the country presents a sufficiently important national security risk to push the bill forward. On Monday, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the European Union might soon follow suit. The event is a first in U.S. internet history. Congress has passed several laws aimed at responsible internet usage among the population, like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, which has the intent of stopping piracy and copyright violations. Certain types of content like child pornography are deemed obscene and therefore are illegal and not protected by the First Amendment, yet the TikTok bill marks the first time the federal government opens the possibility of banning a massively used app or site. TikTok CEO Shou Chew has called the ban an attack on freedom of speech and promised his company will contest the law in court. Read also: Xi Jinping Puts On European Charm Offensive: Can China Woo EU Amid Simmering US Tensions? What Is The Great Firewall Of China? Named in reference to the country's ancient 13,000-mile fortification, the Great Firewall of China refers to a series of measures taken by the Chinese government to control internet traffic within the country's borders since the mid-1990s. Visitor from another country will find that sites like Google and YouTube, owned by Alphabet Inc GOOG; Facebook, owned by Meta Platforms Inc META; Wikipedia or Twitter won't work when connected to a Chinese wifi network or cell phone carrier. Apps like Instagram; Snapchat, owned by Snap Inc SNAP; and Whatsapp, as well as sites for all the major U.S. publications like the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times Co NYT, are also banned, Time reports. TikTok itself is banned in China. ByteDance offers Douyin, a cousin app with a similar design that adheres to the country's strict censorship laws. The app is the country's most popular short-video sharing app, with 700 million active monthly users last May, according to QuestMobile. Some years after the internet arrived in China, the Chinese Communist Party began a campaign to block all sites that would conflict with the country's goals of "internet sovereignty," which aspires to control the inflow and outflow of information to keep in line with the party's ideology, The Washington Post reports. Loading... Loading... The measures are aimed at avoiding at what the Chinese government views as the social, economic and national security risks of allowing foreign websites into the population's devices. The consequences of the Great Firewall are palpable: China's main internet products and services are Chinese-owned. Baidu BIDU is the country's main search engine, while social platforms WeChat and Qzone, owned by Tencent Holdings ADR TCEHY, have the highest number of users. Chinese people and foreigners can illegally access forbidden sites and apps in China by using a VPN service. The U.S. government has not made clear what method it would use to effectively ban the app in the country, making it hard to speculate how users might be able to bypass the government restrictions and still be able to use TikTok. Benzinga's Take: The historic measure to force TikTok to divest its U.S. assets or face a ban can be seen within the context of a recent wave of protectionist measures that are gaining bipartisan support in Washington. As armed conflicts and geopolitical tensions gain weight in the political discussion, many Western nations, including the U.S., are developing protectionist measures in an effort to secure economic stability and national security as the global stage becomes increasingly unstable. Limiting Chinese penetration into the U.S. economy has been a central part of Biden's plan to boost and protect domestic industries, including semiconductors and electric vehicles. Shutterstock image.

A young Duke professor won $250,000 for her algorithms that could find symptoms of heart disease when they start 2024-05-01 21:47:50+00:00 - A Duke University professor has won the ACM Prize in Computing for her work with algorithms. Amanda Randles creates virtual simulations that incorporate data from patients' wearable devices. Randles is also trying to make medicine more personalized by learning how cancer cells move. NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read preview Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time. Advertisement Amanda Randles is shaping the future of medicine with her award-winning research. Not so long from now, Randles envisions a world where your smartwatch, or similar device, would constantly feed data into a virtual simulation of your entire body, allowing doctors to closely monitor your health on a personalized level, unlike anything we have today. "The long-term vision is building, essentially, your virtual human, your digital twin," Randles told Business Insider. To that end, Randles, a professor of biomedical sciences at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, spends her time building some of those virtual simulations. Advertisement In particular, she focuses on simulating blood flow and cell movement throughout the body. Her work recently won her the Association for Computing Machinery's $250,000 Prize in Computing. "Her innovative techniques will not only deepen our understanding of diseases but also herald a new era of biomedical simulation," Salil Parekh, CEO of Infosys, which provides funding for the award, said in a statement. Putting your Apple Watch data to work Today's standard fitness wearables can track a person's heartbeat during their daily routines. However, if they could also follow changes to blood flow in real-time, then that could help doctors move from "reactive care to the proactive," Randles said. In other words, it could help doctors identify signs of potentially fatal conditions like heart disease much sooner, which could lead to better treatment. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the US, accounting for one in five deaths each year. Advertisement While there are privacy concerns, a virtual twin that tracks your health daily would be revolutionary for healthcare. However, one of the hurdles folks like Randles face is data overload. Since your heart beats 100,000 times a day, that's an enormous amount of data. Randles and her team are working on figuring out how to take snapshots of moments and apply them to larger scenarios. Related stories If you're sitting at your computer for a couple of hours every morning for a week, for example, the model might not need to incorporate every second. Randles' algorithm uses smartwatch data to simulate a person's blood flow and help monitor for heart disease. BioHues Digital Once you have that personalized baseline, "we have to have ways of calibrating when have you gone off the rails and it's not matching any longer," Randles said. Advertisement The model would be able to pick up if plaque is developing in the heart, for example. While she's hopeful that regular wearables will provide good enough data for the model, Randles said some heart disease patients may need medical-grade devices. These sort of wearable-driven blood maps could be on the horizon, Randles said. "It's not decades away," she said. "I think we will see it in the next five to seven years." Right now, the circulatory system is just one piece of the whole human body, and Randles is interested in incorporating the brain and other systems into the concept of a virtual twin. That technology is at least a decade away, she said. Advertisement In the meantime, Randles's simulations are already helping doctors in other ways. A personalized 3D map of your circulatory system Using Randles' simulations, doctors can determine when a patient needs a stent to improve blood flow in their heart in a noninvasive way. The traditional method is to insert a guide wire into the coronary artery to measure the pressure. "Using the virtual models, we don't have to put the guide wire in the patient," Randles said. Randles is working on allowing doctors to virtually try different treatment options, like the placement of the stent, to see which best fits the patient before they go into the operating room. Advertisement Right now it takes a lot of computing power, so her lab is incorporating machine learning to make the process faster. Tracking cancer cells When cancer cells circulate through the bloodstream, they can sometimes acclimate in a different part of the body and form new tumors, which is known as metastasis. For another part of her research, Randles is examining how a cancer cell moves. In her simulations, Randles changes different parameters, like how the size of the cell's nucleus affects its movement. Once there's enough data on the characteristics of different cells and how they move, doctors may be better able to predict how and where certain cancer cells metastasize. Advertisement "What is it about the cancer cells that are making them more likely to go to the brain or to the breast," she said. "If we can understand what it is about the cell that's causing it to go in that direction, that can inform treatments," she said.

Amazon will emerge as 'cleaner name' among Mag 7: Analyst 2024-05-01 21:45:00+00:00 - Amazon (AMZN) shares rose after the tech giant delivered strong first quarter earnings largely driven by Prime Video ad revenue and its cloud computing business, Amazon Web Services (AWS). However, the tech giant's retail and e-commerce segments lagged behind, as the company's second quarter outlook fell short of Wall Street expectations. Bernstein Internet Equity Research Analyst Mark Shmulik breaks down Amazon's earnings and how the company's generative AI investments are driving significant growth despite weak retail guidance. "When the dust settles on earnings, Amazon's gonna emerge as the cleaner name amongst the 'Mag Seven,'" he tells Brad Smith, adding that its investments in AWS and artificial intelligence speak to "the leverage in the business." For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Wealth! This post was written by Melanie Riehl

Estee Lauder is punished for its light guidance. Here's why we are not joining the sellers 2024-05-01 21:43:00+00:00 - Estee Lauder tumbled Wednesday as investors focused on the company's weak fiscal fourth-quarter outlook instead of its strong third-quarter numbers. We're looking deeper and believe that business fundamentals and profit are set to improve into the next fiscal year. Revenue in the three months ended March 31 advanced 5% year over year to $3.94 billion, edging out the Wall Street consensus of $3.91 billion, according to estimates compiled by LSEG. Sales were up 6% on an organic basis, also better than the 5% organic growth expected by analysts. Adjusted earnings per share more than doubled on annual basis to 97 cents per share, well ahead of 49-cent estimate, LSEG data showed. Estee Lauder Why we own it: We see profitability improving as management executes on its turnaround plan and works to improve gross margin performance. Operating margin also stands to benefit as management looks to right-size and streamline the business and structurally reduce operating expenses. Competitors: L'Oreal, Chanel, LVMH and Bath & Body Works Most recent buy: April 18, 2024 Initiated: Sept. 27, 2022 Bottom line The market reaction does not accurately reflect the positive underlying trends we're seeing at Estee Lauder. The current-quarter outlook is clearly overshadowing largely positive results for the January-to-March period. However, the real focus should be on the directionality of the business and improving profitability going forward. We are, in fact, seeing an inflection play out in the back half of Estee Lauder's fiscal year, as CEO Fabrizio Freda said in February would be the case. Inventory continues to normalize in Asian travel retail — think duty-free stores located in airports — and, as result, the company has finally returned to net sales growth in that highly problematic part of the business. We were encouraged to hear Freda on Wednesday call for sequential acceleration in organic growth in the current quarter — its fiscal 2024 fourth quarter — and indicate the company's second-half operating margin is set to expand compared with the first half of the year and the year-ago period. These are signs the worst should be behind Estee Lauder. EL YTD mountain Estee Lauder's year-to-date stock performance. While full-year adjusted earnings are still expected to decline on an annual basis, Estee Lauder encouragingly bumped up its outlook. That adds support to the strong second half idea — even if its fourth-quarter sales and earnings forecast came in light. Moreover, management remains on track with its so-called Profit Recovery Plan, and we expect to see further margin improvement lead to continued earnings growth in fiscal 2025 and beyond. Against this backdrop, we're reiterating our 1 rating and $162 price target. However, we're not stepping in to buy more just yet. Last month, when we added to our position and upgraded the stock back to a 1, we emphasized that Estee Lauder still isn't out of the woods, calling it a "high-risk, volatile situation." For that reason, we still intend to keep the position small for the time being and will remain patient as we look for the stock to find support and settle. Guidance Estee Lauder expects sales to increase 5% to 9% year over year in its fiscal fourth quarter, below the 12.7% expected by analysts, according to FactSet. Organic sales — which remove the impact of acquisitions and foreign currency — are expected to increase 6% to 10% in the quarter versus the year-ago period, also below the 12.7% growth expected by the Street. Management expects adjusted earnings in the range of 19 cents to 29 cents on a constant currency basis, a pretty large miss versus the 75 cents per share the Street was looking for, according to FactSet. The fourth-quarter projections forced management to also lower its full-year fiscal 2024 sales outlook. Management is now looking for reported sales to be down 2% to 3% on annual basis and organic sales to be down 1% to 2% year over year. Previously, both sales figures were projected to land in a range of down 1% to up 1% versus its fiscal 2023. Wall Street had projected both to fall less than 1%. Despite the haircut to the sales outlook, management increased their full year 2024 diluted earnings outlook to a range of $2.14 to $2.24 per share, up from $2.08 to $2.23. However, that is still lower than the Wall Street estimate of $2.25 per share. The implication of the upward revision to full-year earnings is likely that the back half of the year — the third and fourth quarters — is shaping up to at least be in-line and possibly better than expected. However, despite the Asian travel retail rebound materializing sooner than expected, some company spending that was anticipated to occur in the third quarter was pushed out into the fourth quarter, pressuring the earnings guidance for the current quarter. That's also part of the reason we got such a large beat this time around. Given our view that management is likely guiding conservatively so it can overdeliver — a smart move as it works to regain credibility with investors following a string of disappointing results — we think it's highly likely the back half will ultimately come in better than expected. Ultimately, we think Wednesday's 13% decline is way overdone relative to the new information we received. If we combine Estee Lauder's third-quarter earnings of 97 cents per share with the midpoint of its fourth-quarter guidance, we end up with second-half earnings of $1.21 per share. Prior to the report, Wall Street's estimate was for second-half earnings of $1.24 per share. Yes, Estee Lauder's refreshed outlook is a little light at the midpoint, but it doesn't strike us as worthy of the dramatic stock plunge that took place. Profit Recovery Plan Management offered encouraging commentary beyond the current quarter into fiscal years 2025 and 2026. Estee Lauder's so-called Profit Recovery Plan appears to be on track. It is expected to result in profit margin expansion, with an emphasis on gross margin expansion delivered through a combination of improving product mix, increased supply chain efficiencies and higher price realization. Estee Lauder executives continue to expect this plan to drive an increase of $1.1 billion to $1.4 billion in operating income by the end of fiscal 2026, with "slightly more than half" to be realized in fiscal 2025. Quarterly commentary Operating income outpaced expectations, though that was not necessarily a shock given the sales and earnings beats. Operating profit margin also was significantly better than expected, coming in at just over 14% versus 8.5%, reflecting strong expense management. In the year-ago period, it stood at 8.4%. Estee Lauder's skincare business — its highest-margin category — realized 9% organic growth, benefiting from growth in all geographic regions. Notably, its Asia travel retail operations helped drive the double-digit sales growth seen in the EMEA geographic segment. Management called out a "significant sequential improvement" in retail sales trends. Inventory normalization efforts also continue to progress. The recovery in Asia travel retail also drove results in Estee Lauder's makeup segment, which was up 4% organically versus the year-ago period. Fragrance was up 1% year over year organically, as a decline in Estee Lauder-branded products was more than offset by mid-single digit growth in the company's luxury brands, which saw growth in all geographic regions. In hair care, where organic sales declined 4% versus the prior year, the weakness reflects softness of the Aveda brand as a result of weak salon channel sales in North America. Geographically, Estee Lauder's segment called The Americas benefited from double-digit growth in Latin America, which itself was driven by strength in the makeup business in Mexico and Brazil. Revenue in North America, meanwhile, was flat versus the year-ago period as growth in its fragrance segment was offset by weakness in makeup and hair-care sales. Sales in the Asia/Pacific segment were up thanks to growth in skin care and fragrance in Hong Kong, mainland China and Japan. Hong Kong benefited from a rebound in consumer travel. Mainland China results reflect the lapping of Covid-19 related headwinds in the year-ago period, though sales of prestige beauty products remain challenged. Japan benefited from strong fragrance sales. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long EL. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED. An Estee Lauder pop-up store is seen inside daimaru Department Store on Nanjing Road Pedestrian street in Shanghai, China, August 6, 2021. Costfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images

Maybe Kristi Noem doesn't want to be Trump's vice president 2024-05-01 21:42:59+00:00 - By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has campaigned so badly to be former President Donald Trump's vice president that even some of the most controversial Trumpworld figures are turned off. It turns out that telling the world you killed your dog, as Noem does in her forthcoming memoir, is not the best political strategy. "I've always been a strong advocate of a woman as VP, because I think you have some strong women — although maybe Kristi Noem is maybe a little too based," former White House strategist Steve Bannon told Donald Trump Jr. on Trump's "Triggered" show. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. "Shooting the puppy in the gravel," Bannon added, struggling not to laugh. Advertisement Yes, even Bannon, who has embraced the honey badger as an avatar for his ruthlessness, thinks Noem went too far. Trump Jr. echoed his thoughts. "Not ideal," Trump Jr. said. "I read that and I'm like, 'Who put that in the book?' Your ghost writer must really not like you, if they are going to include that one. That was rough." Noem has defended her decision to kill Cricket, a 14-month-old dog that she struggled to train to hunt pheasants. She wrote in the book, which was first reported by The Guardian, that she "hated that dog." A final struggle, which included Cricket mauling some chickens, proved to be it. Noem wrote that shortly after, she grabbed her gun, led the dog down a gravel pit, and then killed it. Related stories "Whether running the ranch or in politics, I have never passed on my responsibilities to anyone else to handle," Noem wrote on X. "Even if it's hard and painful. I followed the law and was being a responsible parent, dog owner, and neighbor." Advertisement Democrats have had a field day. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz encouraged people to post photos of them not killing their dogs. One House GOP lawmaker said the anecdote and Noem's disclosure of it herself were enough to rule the South Dakotan out of contention to be Trump's running mate. "The worst part of it is that it wasn't a hit job. She volunteered the information. So, when somebody tells you who they are, believe them," Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a New York Republican, told Politico. If Noem truly wants to be vice president, this has been one of the worst efforts to obtain the job. Previously, she caused a minor scandal by bizarrely touting services she received from a Texas dentist. Noem was already facing more traditional scandal fare, such as a 2022 legislative report that found her daughter received special treatment when she applied for a real estate appraising license. Gov. Noem has repeatedly denied such treatment, but the report makes it transparent that it did happen. Advertisement It's a difficult balance trying to become vice president. No one wants to appear over-eager for the job, which comes off as desperate at best. At worst, a potential vice president could lose all the leverage to shape the role in a way that would benefit him or her the most. Modern vice presidents want a partnership like President Joe Biden shared with Barack Obama. No one wants to relive historical complaints about the No. 2 role, such as future President Harry Truman, who, during his brief vice presidency, barely even saw FDR. The ultimate goal, after all, is to claim the presidency itself after eight years as an understudy. In comparison to Noem, others on Trump's shortlist are behaving much more in line with tradition. Sen. JD Vance, an Ohio Republican, will reportedly appear at a major fundraiser for Trump. Sen. Marco Rubio, a former 2016 GOP primary rival, is reportedly willing to move to settle a potential dispute over living in the same state as Trump. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who briefly ran against Trump in the most recent primary, has defended the former president on cable TV. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, also a brief 2024 primary challenger, stoked speculation with his comments to the Wall Street Journal. Noem is scheduled to appear at a big fundraiser with many other veepstakes contenders, but this appears to a the rare exception to how she's handling her chances. Her recent moves are reminiscent of fictional TV characters like George Costanza and Saul Goodman, who purposely tried to get fired from their jobs (only Saul was successful). But she actually needs this. As a term-limited governor, Noem will have to find some way to further her career, which also includes time in the state legislature and Congress. Advertisement It really is an honor just to be nominated, or in this case, to receive coverage about becoming a running mate. Biden tasked his team with ensuring all the finalists on his shortlist experienced it as a boost, as former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told The New York Times. It worked. Rep. Karen Bass is now mayor of Los Angeles, former UN Ambassador Susan Rice has a top post in Biden's White House, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has a book deal and boosted presidential speculation of her own. Some, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, already had a national profile. But at the very least, it certainly wasn't a drag on their careers. Noem's actions have made her future a lot less promising. And as South Dakota's newspaper put it, "There may be no coming back from the immediate damage to Noem's political career." That dog just won't hunt.

UnitedHealth CEO estimates one-third of Americans could be impacted by Change Healthcare cyberattack 2024-05-01 21:42:00+00:00 - UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty on Wednesday told lawmakers that data from an estimated one-third of Americans could have been compromised in the cyberattack on its subsidiary Change Healthcare, and that the company paid a $22 million ransom to hackers. Witty testified in front of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, which falls under the House of Representatives' Committee on Energy and Commerce. He said the investigation into the breach is still ongoing, so the exact number of people affected remains unknown. The one-third figure is a rough estimate. UnitedHealth has previously said the cyberattack likely impacts a "substantial proportion of people in America," according to an April release. The company confirmed that files containing protected health information and personally identifiable information were compromised in the breach. It will likely be months before UnitedHealth is able to notify individuals, given the "complexity of the data review," the release said. The company is offering free access to identity theft protection and credit monitoring for individuals concerned about their data. Witty also testified in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance on Wednesday, when he confirmed for the first time that the company paid a $22 million ransom to the hackers that breached Change Healthcare. At the hearing before the House legislators later that afternoon, Witty said the payment was made in bitcoin. UnitedHealth disclosed that a cyberthreat actor breached part of Change Healthcare's information technology network late in February. The company disconnected the affected systems when the threat was detected, and the disruption has caused widespread fallout across the U.S. health-care sector. Witty told the subcommittee in his written testimony that the cyberattackers used "compromised credentials" to infiltrate Change Healthcare's systems on Feb. 12 and deployed a ransomware that encrypted the network nine days later. The portal that the bad actors initially accessed was not protected by multifactor authentication, or MFA, which requires users to verify their identities in at least two different ways. Witty told both committees Wednesday that UnitedHealth now has MFA in place across all external-facing systems.

RFK Jr.'s campaign has hired a Jan. 6 conspiracy theorist for 'influencer engagement' 2024-05-01 21:35:07+00:00 - A recent hire on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign has raised eyebrows for his comments on the Jan. 6 riots. But, for a candidate who's been as willing to embrace conspiracy theories as Kennedy and has expressed muddled views on the insurrection, it's not entirely surprising. Campaign finance records show that Kennedy's campaign initially hired a company called Total Virality in March, as NBC News reported. The firm, hired for “influencer engagement” per the filing, is run by Zach Henry, whose social media posts suggest that he's a Jan. 6 conspiracy theorist. (Neither Henry nor Kennedy's campaign responded to NBC News' request for comment.) In posts on X dating to 2022 that NBC News found, Henry falsely called the insurrection "Democrat misdirection" and the House committee investigation into Jan. 6 a "witch hunt of patriots," and mocked the lingering trauma of congressional staffers who were in the Capitol when an angry mob stormed the building. Given Trump's own valorization of the insurrectionists, it's no great shock that such views have not disqualified Henry from working in Republican politics: Henry served as deputy communications director for long-shot GOP primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy before the businessman dropped out of the race. But those beliefs also don't appear to have raised red flags for Kennedy, an independent candidate whose own views on Jan. 6 have been opportunistic in his apparent attempt to avoid alienating voters of either party, as well as weak on the facts. In April, his campaign called the rioters "activists," which a spokesperson later said was an "error." Later, Kennedy released a long statement to outline his personal views on Jan. 6, which he said "reasonable people" had told him was not a "true insurrection" (although he conceded he had not examined the evidence himself). He also wrongly asserted that the rioters did not carry weapons (he retracted this later) and claimed that federal law enforcement was being "weaponized" against Donald Trump.

Carvana shares spike 30% as used car retailer posts record first quarter 2024-05-01 21:35:00+00:00 - Vehicles are seen on display at a Carvana dealership in Austin, Texas, on Feb. 20, 2023. Shares of Carvana popped more than 30% during after-hours trading Wednesday after the automaker reported record quarterly results and turned a profit during the first quarter. Here is how the company performed in the first quarter, compared with average estimates compiled by LSEG: Earnings per share: 23 cents — it was not immediately clear if it was comparable to the loss of 74 cents expected 23 cents — it was not immediately clear if it was comparable to the loss of 74 cents expected Revenue: $3.06 billion vs. $2.67 billion expected Carvana reported record first-quarter net income of $49 million, compared to a $286 million loss during the prior-year period. It also posted an all-time-best adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $235 million, up from a $24 million loss a year earlier. The company's gross profit per unit, or GPU, which is closely watched by investors, was $6,432. Carvana's adjusted profit margin for the quarter was 7.7%. "In the first quarter, we delivered our best results in company history, validating our long-held belief that Carvana's online retail model can drive industry-leading profitability while delivering industry-leading customer experiences," Carvana CEO and Chairman Ernie Garcia III said in a release. The results follow a major restructuring by the company over the past two years to focus on profitability rather than growth, after bankruptcy concerns when Carvana's stock lost nearly all of its value in 2022. Shares of the company have recovered since then. They had climbed roughly 67% so far this year before the company reported its first-quarter results. The stock closed Wednesday up about 5% at $87.09 per share. In a joint letter to shareholders Wednesday, Garcia and Chief Financial Officer Mark Jenkins said the company is now focused once again on growth, but doing so profitability. "We are now focused on our long-term phase of driving profitable growth and pursuing our goal of becoming the largest and most profitable auto retailer and buying and selling millions of cars," read the shareholder letter. For the second quarter, the company said it expects a sequential increase in its year-over-year growth rate in retail units, and a sequential increase in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

The list of Tesla execs who have left as Elon Musk shakes things up with 'hard core' layoffs 2024-05-01 21:29:31+00:00 - Since Tesla's layoffs announcement in mid-April, six known executives have left the company. Some of the execs have cited plans to spend more time with family, while others have stayed silent. Elon Musk vowed to cut 10% of Tesla's workforce last month and called for "hardcore" cuts Monday. NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read preview Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time. Advertisement Elon Musk is down half a dozen executives. Since Musk announced layoffs of more than 10% of its workforce in April, six executives have departed. While some cited resignations, others left as their teams were completely dissolved. In his latest email to employees regarding further layoffs on Monday, Musk said "we need to be absolutely hard core about headcount and cost reduction," according to a report from The Information. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in .

Employer of visiting nurse who was killed didn’t protect her and should be fined, safety agency says 2024-05-01 21:28:59+00:00 - HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A home health care company failed to protect a visiting nurse who was killed during an appointment with a convicted rapist at a Connecticut halfway house and should be fined about $161,000, federal workplace safety officials said Wednesday. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration released the results of its investigation into Elara Caring and the Oct. 28 death of Joyce Grayson, a 63-year-old mother of six and nurse for 36 years. The Dallas, Texas-based company, which provides home care for more than 60,000 patients in 17 states, said it disputes OSHA’s findings and plans to contest them. OSHA determined the company “exposed home healthcare employees to workplace violence from patients who exhibited aggressive behavior and were known to pose a risk to others,” the agency said in a statement. “Elara Caring failed its legal duty to protect employees from workplace injury by not having effective measures in place to protect employees against a known hazard and it cost a worker her life,” Charles McGrevy, an OSHA area director in Hartford, Connecticut, said in the statement. OSHA said the company could have reduced the risk of workplace violence in a number of ways including providing its health care providers with comprehensive background information on patients, giving them panic alert buttons and developing procedures for using safety escorts with certain patients. The agency said Elara Caring must develop and implement required safeguards including a comprehensive workplace violence prevention program. OSHA cited Elara and two subsidiaries, Jordan Health Services and New England Home Care. Elara Caring said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press that “the citation that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued to the company is unwarranted, and we intend to contest it vigorously.” The company said Connecticut officials determined the convicted rapist accused of killing Grayson, Michael Reese, was not a danger to the community. Reese, 39, was on probation and living in a halfway house in Willimantic after serving more than 14 years in prison for stabbing and sexually assaulting a woman in 2006 in New Haven. “Post-release, state authorities were responsible for monitoring and managing the patient’s activities,” the company said. “The death of Joyce Grayson was a tragedy, and we continue to grieve with the family.” The company has previously said it had safeguards in place to protect workers and was reviewing them in response to Grayson’s death. The state court system, which oversees probation, says it does not comment on cases involving potential litigation. An informal meeting between OSHA and Elara Caring was set for Thursday, an OSHA spokesperson said. The company has until May 17 to respond to the OSHA citation, including complying with the agency’s directives or challenging them. Grayson’s death spurred a call for greater protections for home health care workers in Connecticut and across the country. Connecticut lawmakers are now considering a bill that would improve safety for health care workers. On the day she was killed, Grayson had a morning appointment at Reese’s halfway house to administer his medication. After she missed subsequent appointments, her daughter called police to request a well-being check. Grayson was found strangled in the basement of the halfway house, police and the medical examiner’s office said. She also had blunt-force injuries to her head, torso and extremities, an arrest warrant for Reese said. Reese is charged with murder, attempted first-degree sexual assault and other crimes in connection to Grayson’s death. He has not entered pleas, and his public defender has not returned messages seeking comment including an email sent Wednesday. Kelly Reardon, a lawyer for Grayson’s family, said the family hopes the OSHA findings will prompt safety changes in the home health care industry. “OSHA has recognized what the Grayson family has known since Joyce was murdered on October 28, 2023 — that Elara Caring willfully placed her in harm’s way by repeatedly ignoring employees complaints about aggressive and violent patients they were required to treat,” Reardon said in an email to the AP. OSHA also cited Elara Caring for a less serious alleged violation — not providing work-related injury and illness records to OSHA within the required four business hours — and proposed an additional fine of $2,300.

Giant Pandas Are Returning to San Diego, China Announces 2024-05-01 21:28:25.300000+00:00 - The United States and China may be at odds these days over Russia’s war in Ukraine, cheap Chinese exports, tensions with Taiwan and matters of human rights. But when it comes to giant pandas, diplomacy is back. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in China confirmed this week that two giant pandas — Yun Chuan and Xin Bao — would be sent from the China Conservation and Research Center to the San Diego Zoo. The zoo has a longstanding partnership with China on panda conservation research, and a ministry spokesman said the upcoming exchange would focus on prevention and treatment of major diseases and habitat protection. “We believe as China-U.S. cooperation in this area deepens, it will enhance the capacity for cooperation and research on endangered wildlife and biodiversity conservation and contribute to the conservation of endangered wildlife and the friendship between Chinese and Americans,” the spokesman, Lin Jian, said. It is not clear when the new pandas will arrive, but the agreement should allay concerns that the recent tensions between the United States and China would threaten the beloved tradition of panda diplomacy.

Trump-appointed judges strike down Louisiana map creating another Black voter district 2024-05-01 21:21:16+00:00 - Two Donald Trump-appointed federal judges handed down a ruling Tuesday that would block Louisiana from using a newly authorized voter map that established an additional majority-Black district. The judges’ decision forbids Louisiana from using the map in this fall’s elections — a potential boon for Republicans, who hold a slim majority in the House of Representatives. Black Louisianans and a number of civil rights organizations have already filed an appeal to the Supreme Court. And Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, a Republican, told the USA Today Network, “We will of course be seeking (Supreme Court) review,” adding, “I’ve said all along the Supreme Court needs to clear this up.” The 2-1 decision out of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana effectively undercuts a previous federal court ruling that found that a map proposed by the state Legislature unlawfully diluted Black voter power. Or put another way: It was effectively racist. The state’s Republican governor even signed off on the new map, over some objections from the far right. Tuesday’s ruling deploys a perverse logic to claim that establishing another majority-Black voter district to correct this racist wrong was itself a violation of laws designed to protect people from ... racist voter dilution. The two Trump-appointed judges argued that Louisiana’s new map violated a clause in the 14th Amendment that guarantees equal protection under the Constitution. It's worth noting that the 14th Amendment was used to give voting rights to formerly enslaved Black folks and others who’d been deliberately disenfranchised. The conservative justices’ argument is a tired rehash of right-wing arguments against affirmative action: that things done to remedy racist harms are inherently racist because they take race into consideration. For example, the justices wrote: The predominate role of race in the State’s decisions is reflected in the statements of legislative decision-makers, the division of cities and parishes along racial lines, the unusual shape of the district, and the evidence that the contours of the district were drawn to absorb sufficient numbers of Black-majority neighborhoods to achieve the goal of a functioning majority-Black district. It stands to reason that a clear attempt to dilute Black voters' representation — as the map initially proposed by Louisiana Republicans did — would require, in response, taking race into consideration to empower those voters. But not according to District Judges Robert Summerhays and David Joseph. This is just the latest example of right-wing judges putting their thumbs on the scale for Republicans in the lead-up to the 2024 elections. Clearly, Republicans would want all the help they can get to maintain, if not grow, their House majority. State-level Republican lawmakers and their ideological kin on state and federal benches seem happy to oblige. Unless the conservative-packed Supreme Court steps in, Louisiana is set to join South Carolina and Florida as states using maps previously deemed racist by federal or state courts. And this kind of blatant illiberalism poses a legitimacy crisis for American electoral politics. When scores of Black people are voting in districts that have been gerrymandered to dilute their power, our elections cannot possibly be considered free or fair.