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20 in 2025. Sorry, Republicans. 2024-04-02 19:53:36+00:00 - Easter celebrations were not entirely joyous for conservatives who were upset that Transgender Day of Visibility, which fell on the same day this year, had been commemorated by the White House. Prominent Republican figures, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, criticized the Biden administration for issuing a proclamation that honored “the extraordinary courage and contributions of transgender Americans.” Donald Trump’s presidential campaign demanded that President Joe Biden apologize to Christians and claimed that the proclamation was part of the administration’s “years-long assault on the Christian faith.” Bafflingly, even Caitlyn Jenner, a onetime California gubernatorial candidate who had very publicly announced and documented her gender transition in 2015, said she was “absolutely disgusted.” As my MSNBC colleague Steve Benen wrote Monday, the right-wing efforts to politicize Easter were clumsy and unnecessary. Trans Day of Visibility has been celebrated on March 31 since its creation in 2009, whereas Easter does not have a fixed date. But there’s more bad news for those set on making such bad faith criticisms: Next year Easter will fall on April 20, a hallowed day in stoner culture. But there’s more bad news for those set on making such bad faith criticisms: Next year Easter will fall on April 20, a hallowed day in stoner culture. Granted, it’s unlikely that the White House — no matter who occupies it after the election — will be issuing an official proclamation commemorating 4/20 as a “high” holiday alongside Easter. But when there’s a will to manufacture outrage, there’s a way.

U.S. Finalizes Rule Requiring Two-Person Crews on Freight Trains 2024-04-02 19:49:47.094000+00:00 - The Biden administration announced on Tuesday that it had finalized a new rule that will require the nation’s largest freight railroads to maintain their current staffing of two crew members per train, settling a contentious issue between organized labor and the industry. Federal regulations had not previously specified a minimum crew size, but the nation’s largest freight railroads typically have two workers on each train, an engineer and a conductor. The industry’s adoption of efficiency measures known as precision scheduled railroading had stoked fears among workers that freight rail companies would move to reduce their crews to one person per train as a way of further cutting costs. The Federal Railroad Administration proposed requiring two-person crews in 2022, arguing that doing so would improve safety. The issue received further attention after a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed last year in East Palestine, Ohio, putting the issue of railroad safety in the spotlight. A bipartisan rail safety bill introduced in Congress in response to the derailment included a requirement for two-person crews, though the legislation has stalled. The Norfolk Southern train, which investigators believe derailed because of an overheated wheel bearing, had three crew members on board: an engineer, a conductor and a conductor trainee.

‘Watching and waiting' — here's a behind-the-scenes look at our debate on stocks to buy in Tuesday’s pullback 2024-04-02 19:26:00+00:00 - Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Jim and the Club's director of portfolio analysis, Jeff Marks, recorded a special video for Tuesday's edition due to sell-off in stocks. Stocks fell across the board Tuesday – but the Club is not seeing a whole lot of buying opportunities just yet, Jim Cramer and Director of Portfolio Analysis Jeff Marks explained during a special video edition of the Homestretch. In sessions like Tuesday's, with the Nasdaq Composite and Dow both down more than 1% and the S & P 500 dropping nearly 1%, we are always on the lookout for chances to purchase stocks falling more than they should. "We're watching and waiting," Jim said. "We are examining everything today. Because the averages are down, I thought there'd be much, much more to buy. I don't see that much to do." The reason is simple: The declines in stocks we want bigger positions in are not meaningful enough to warrant buying. That group includes electronics retailer Best Buy , which we added to the portfolio last week, and health-care firm Abbott Laboratories , which was slightly positive Tuesday. "This is not enough," Jim said, pointing to Best Buy's stock falling only $1.60 a share, or approximately 2%. "This is the pattern: The not-enough pattern." If there was one intriguing part of the market Tuesday, it would be cybersecurity. Palo Alto Networks "is at a level that I'm very interested in," Jim said. "Palo Alto was the only one that hit me." (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED. Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Jim and the Club's director of portfolio analysis, Jeff Marks, recorded a special video for Tuesday's edition due to sell-off in stocks.

Aid organizations suspend operations in Gaza after World Central Kitchen workers’ deaths 2024-04-02 19:06:06+00:00 - NEW YORK (AP) — Several humanitarian aid organizations suspended operations in Gaza on Tuesday after Israeli airstrikes killed seven World Central Kitchen workers. The nonprofits, including World Central Kitchen, said they now need to determine whether their workers can safely provide aid in the region. According to the United Nations, more than 180 humanitarian aid workers have died since the war began in October. “We are horrified and heartbroken by the tragic killing of seven innocent humanitarians in Gaza,” said Chris Skopec, executive vice president of global health at Project HOPE, which operates health clinics in Rafah and Deir al-Balah and provides medical supplies and other aid to area hospitals. The three World Central Kitchen vehicles, hit after loading up with food from a nearby warehouse, were clearly marked and their movements were known to the Israeli military, according to the organization. Those steps are what humanitarian workers use to try to ensure their safety in the dangerous region, Skopec said. For the World Central Kitchen convoy to still be hit with military fire increased apprehension among aid workers in the region, he said. “There needs to be accountability,” Skopec said. “The government of Israel needs to be able to give assurances that they consider aid workers legitimate actors in Gaza and that international law will be respected. We need to be able to do this critical, life-saving work safely.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged that the country’s forces had carried out the “unintended strike ... on innocent people.” He said officials were looking into the strike and would work to ensure it did not happen again. In a briefing Tuesday, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the United States is concerned the incident could have a chilling effect on other groups carrying out aid operations in the territory. Anera, a partner of World Central Kitchen and Project HOPE that provides humanitarian aid in the Middle East, also announced Tuesday it would take the “unprecedented step” of pausing its humanitarian operations in Gaza. Since the war began, Anera’s team has provided an average of 150,000 meals daily in Gaza. “The blatant nature of the attack on WCK’s convoy has proven that aid workers are currently under attack,” said Anera media relations officer Steve Fake. “Our decision to resume aid relies on the safety of our staff.” The International Medical Corps, which has one of the largest fields hospitals in Rafah with 140 beds said it is “rethinking our process,” including its plans to set up another field hospital in Deir al-Balah. “It is devastating,” said Dr. Zawar Ali, who has been running the Rafah field hospital and is working to set up the new hospital. “It really is an immense blow to morale. It puts us (in) a very uncertain position in terms of our coordination with the different actors for security.” ___ El Deeb reported from Beirut. ___ Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

Here's how much Americans say they need to retire — and it's 53% higher than four years ago 2024-04-02 18:42:00+00:00 - Committee proposes raising Social Security retirement age Committee proposes raising Social Security retirement age 02:33 Americans have lofty goals for their retirement, with the typical worker believing they need $1.46 million to retire comfortably — a jump of 53% from their savings target in 2020, according to a new survey from Northwestern Mutual. But most people are far from reaching that objective, with the study finding that the average amount held in a retirement account today is just $88,400. That means that the typical worker has a $1.37 million gap between their actual savings and their retirement aspirations. Due to the impact of inflation and other financial pressures, Americans today believe they need to sock away more for their golden years compared with 2020, when the typical worker pegged a comfy retirement as requiring $951,000 in savings, Aditi Javeri Gokhale, chief strategy officer at Northwestern Mutual, told CBS MoneyWatch. But, she added, many workers are also expecting to live longer and spend more time in retirement, which may also explain why people believe they need bigger nest eggs than in prior years. Indeed, Gen Z workers, who are currently in their early 20s, want to retire at 60, and almost 1 in 3 think they'll live to 100, meaning that they'll need to fund a 40-year retirement, the study found. "The magic number is at an all-time high — it's 50% higher than what it was before the pandemic," Gokhale said. "The cost of living in general, whether in reality or perception, seems to be more costly now than it was before." And more people are worried about Social Security, given that the program's trust fund reserves are set to be depleted in 2033, which will lead to a cut in benefits if the program isn't shored up before then. "We're all seeing stories about Social Security, and you'll see more of that since it's election year," she noted. "So if my benefit will be cut, I have to shoulder more of the burden." How far does $1.46 million get you? Many of the 4,588 adults who responded to the financial service company's survey likely answered with a guesstimate, given that the study also found that only about half of boomers — many of whom are already retired — say they actually know how much they need to retire, Gokhale said. In other words, while some people have talked with a financial adviser or worked out a detailed plan themselves for their retirement, many Americans are heading toward retirement without really sitting down and figuring out what they need. "There is no major calculation; it's a feeling," Gokhale noted. "Some of them probably have done some math, in terms of saving and in terms of average burn to operate [in retirement], but it generally comes [down] to feeling." To be sure, retirement needs vary considerably, based on a person's standard of living while working, their local cost of living, taxes and other financial details. Using the rule of thumb to withdraw 4% of one's retirement savings annually, a nest egg of $1.46 million would result in about $58,400 in annual income. After adding in Social Security benefits, which is about $23,000 annually, that results in retirement income of about $81,000 each year — or above the median household income of $74,580. Of course, most Americans are far from reaching $1.46 million in savings — and many head into retirement with no savings at all. A do-it-yourself system The study underscores the do-it-yourself mentality of the current retirement system, which some experts have said has evolved from the shift to 401(k) programs from pensions, with the latter managed by companies to provide workers with a steady stream of income in retirement. But with 401(k) programs, workers typically pick their own investments and decide how much of their income to save. One of the system's critics is retirement expert Teresa Ghilarducci, an economist and professor at the The New School for Social Research in New York, who recently told CBS News that the current approach has left behind the bottom 90% of workers. For starters, only half of American workers even have access to a retirement plan, leaving the rest to cobble together a savings strategy. Many Americans don't believe they have enough money to consult a financial adviser, but it's a step that she believes more people should take, noted Gokhale, whose company provides that service. "I don't believe you have to be on your own and Google search, 'What do I need for retirement'," she added. But other research indicates there are plenty of hurdles to overcome. For one, about 6 in 10 people over 50 have never talked with a financial professional, and the reasons range from their fears that they don't have enough in savings to justify it and that it's too expensive, according to a study published earlier this year from AARP. "If you are trying to do this on your own, it becomes very very overwhelming and disheartening," Gokhale said. For most Americans, going it alone is the standard way to plan for retirement.

California's $20 minimum wage for fast food workers isn't radical. It's necessary. 2024-04-02 18:21:00+00:00 - Ingrid Vilorio, a cook at a Jack in the Box restaurant in Hayward, California, is getting a raise this week, courtesy of a state law that took effect Monday boosting the wages of fast-food workers in the state to a minimum of $20 an hour. The extra money, she told me, would not go for luxuries. It would, instead, be used for groceries to feed her 9-year-old son. The extra money, she told me, would not go for luxuries. It would, instead, be used for groceries to feed her 9-year-old son. Sounds great, no? Not according to a lot of pundits, who are quick to proclaim a jobs disaster for the state’s half a million fast-food workers. Consider the USA Today columnist Ingrid Jacques who tweeted out a picture last week of self-order kiosks at a McDonald’s at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport with the words “This is what happens when the min wage is too high.” She was apparently unaware that self-service ordering has been in place at this particular location since the local minimum wage was less than $11 per hour for airport workers, or that companies seek to automate to cut costs regardless of how high the cost of labor is. Then there’s the always conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page, in which a headline about California’s new law proclaimed it “crazy.” Au contraire. What’s crazy is that here in the United States, we are captives to a turbocapitalist narrative that questions even the most miniscule gains for workers, while giving egregious corporate greedflation a pass. This is especially true when it comes to the fast-food industry, where it’s normalized to equate cheap and disposable food with cheap and disposable workers. All too many of us are stuck in some decades-old memory loop, recalling an era when a crew of mostly teenagers manned fast-food counters in the evenings after high school. That’s not been true for decades. According to Tia Koonse, legal and policy research manager at the UCLA Labor Center, well over half of California’s fast-food workers are people of color and over 25. The California law is a response to the reality of who is really cooking and serving up that burger with a side of fries and raises their hourly pay $4 above the state’s $16 an hour minimum wage. (It is worth noting that it is not equally large a boost for those working in the state’s most prominent cities. San Francisco’s minimum wage, for example, is set to increase to $18.67 an hour July 1.) At the same time, the law sets up a state council made up of both workers and those representing the fast-food industry who can determine future pay increases and other workplace initiatives. But workers like Vilorio are too busy earning a living to blast your inbox with press releases. Instead, you get people like Jacques and various restaurant industry lobbying groups pushing claims that the gains for workers equals a loss not just for consumers, but also for the employees themselves. The only way to pay the bill for better fast-food wages, they proclaim, is to raise prices and cut workers’ hours and jobs. But there’s lots that gets jettisoned when this story is told. For starters, California’s been raising its minimum wage for the better part of a decade. Over that period of time, Koonse said, "fast food has actually gained employment." She said, "California has added 142,000 jobs to the fast food industry since minimum wage started going up in 2015." Moreover, labor is far from the only expense faced by fast-food restaurants. Where are the pundits asking why McDonald’s raised the royalty fees that franchise owners need to pay the corporate parent last year? What about the marketing fees — which can total 1% of revenues — that name brands charge those owning franchises? Few doomsayers point out that as prices at many fast-food establishments rose at double the rate of inflation over the past decade, profits at corporate giants such as Domino’s and Chipotle remained quite healthy. Industry profits, in turn, are fueling share buybacks, fattening the wallets of the richest 1%. The Roosevelt Institute recently calculated that the 10 largest publicly traded fast-food corporations spent $6.1 billion on share repurchases last year, a sum significantly greater than the estimated $4.6 billion the California pay boost will cost annually. Where are the pundits asking why McDonald’s raised the royalty fees that franchise owners need to pay the corporate parent last year? What about the marketing fees that name brands charge those owning franchises? The majority of people in the United States who receive benefits like food stamps are people who have paid employment. They still don’t earn enough to get by. That’s the reality that fuels the fight for a $20-an-hour living wage. “The ideal that this country once had is that you get up and go to work every day and work hard, you should be able to live on what you earn and not struggling to make ends meet,” Rick Wartzman, author of “Still Broke,” told me. Yes, food prices at your favorite fast-food joint might well go up, at least in California. But that’s not because an iron law of nature demands it. It’s because fast-food corporations and those who own their franchises might well choose to — literally — pass the buck. For decades, we’ve been sold the narrative whopper about how a prosperous economy that prioritizes the needs of big business over people will leave all of us better off. But it’s just not so. This tale has given us record-breaking inequality and a society in which Americans are, on average, unhappier than their international peers. We’ve been treating the people who provide us with things like inexpensive fast food as if their labor isn’t labor. Good for California for trying to change that unappetizing reality.

Trump says he’d ‘free’ the Jan. 6 ‘hostages.’ A report details the violence that would endorse. 2024-04-02 18:19:59+00:00 - The presumptive GOP presidential nominee is running on a platform of retribution. Among other dark things, it features a vow to “free” Jan. 6 defendants — or “hostages,” as he calls them. A new report sheds light on the inmates in Washington who could be released if Donald Trump regains the White House. Overwhelmingly, they’re charged with, or convicted of, violence against law enforcement officers. As of March 23, “27 of the 29 January 6th inmates held in D.C. have been charged with assaulting law enforcement officers in the U.S. Capitol or on its grounds,” according to the report, published by the Just Security website. Of those 27, 19 had been convicted. The report says the cases include “some of the most disturbing acts of violence” at the Capitol and cites, among many others, one person who “helped lead the assault on police guarding the Capitol’s external security perimeter.” Trump’s pledge to free Jan. 6 rioters not only condones, but celebrates, this violence. Trump’s pledge to free Jan. 6 rioters not only condones, but celebrates, this violence. And lest one think that his pledge subverts the “law and order” mantra he touts, it only reinforces it. That’s because the GOP slogan has never been about upholding the law as written, but rather about signaling the maintenance of a certain social order. With the increased merger between the quadruply indicted Trump and the Republican Party, that “order” is whatever serves the party leader, regardless of whether it bends, breaks or even respects the law. Indeed, if he wins in November, Trump would surely “free” himself of his own Jan. 6 charges, too. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for weekly updates on the top legal stories, including news from the Supreme Court, the Donald Trump cases and more.

Is Giving Farmers Millions to Kill Millions of Chickens the Way to Curb Bird Flu? 2024-04-02 18:18:38+00:00 - The highly lethal form of avian influenza circulating the globe since 2021 has killed tens of millions of birds, forced poultry farmers in the United States to slaughter entire flocks and prompted a brief but alarming spike in the price of eggs. Most recently, it has infected dairy cows in several states and at least one person in Texas who had close contact with the animals, officials said this week. The outbreak, it turns out, is proving to be especially costly for American taxpayers. Last year, the Department of Agriculture paid poultry producers more than half a billion dollars for the turkeys, chickens and egg-laying hens they were forced to kill after the flu strain, H5N1, was detected on their farms. Officials say the compensation program is aimed at encouraging farms to report outbreaks quickly. That’s because the government pays for birds killed through culling, not those that die from the disease. Early reporting, the agency says, helps to limit the virus’s spread to nearby farms.

How Biden's fundraising dominance puts Trump on defensive 2024-04-02 18:00:00+00:00 - As the general election comes into focus, one thing is clear: President Joe Biden is winning the fundraising race. His cash advantage is real, and recent events like a $26 million New York City fundraiser only widen his advantage over former President Donald Trump. But they are more than just a sign of campaign prowess. The fundraising lead will also give the Biden campaign three significant advantages as it heads into the general election. Biden is the candidate voters need to learn more about — and ads let him do that. Trump has no problem being heard by his voters, while Biden has significant difficulties getting his accomplishments to break through with the voters he needs the most. His full coffers have allowed the campaign to run ads on his accomplishments historically early — particularly with Black, Hispanic and young voters who supported him in 2020 but have yet to break his way. The divided Republican base means Biden has nontraditional target voters to reach, which costs money. The significant support Nikki Haley won in the Republican primary, in some cases even after dropping out, is a sign that the party is not unifying as much as Trump needs. If the Biden campaign was not so flush with cash, it would have to choose between communicating with Democratic voters or playing offense with moderate Republicans. Now, it can do both. Biden can expand the playing field. Money gives his team flexibility, leaving the cash-strapped Trump campaign vulnerable in more states. On Monday, for example, a Florida court ruled that a six-week abortion ban could take effect, prompting the Biden campaign to declare the state “winnable.” That may or may not be true, given Trump's strength in his adopted home state. However, the Trump campaign can't afford to dismiss this as a bluff because it knows that Biden has the money to run a real campaign in the state. Even if Biden loses Florida, building a campaign operation there will force the Trump team to spend more money than it intended to win his home state, draining it from other states he needs to win. The Florida play shows just how much of a threat the cash advantage is to Trump: The more money Biden has, the more he can bleed from his opponent.

Republicans pushing to embrace mail-in voting encounter widespread resistance 2024-04-02 18:00:00+00:00 - When Donald Trump held a rally last year in Erie County, an important area in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, the top Republican official there went one by one to the 11,000 people waiting in line to ask one question: Would you like to vote by mail? It did not go well. “I tried to give them a mail-in ballot application, and could only get out about 300,” Tom Eddy, head of the county’s Republican Party, said. “Every one of them said either, ‘No, that’s not the right way to vote,’ or ‘Trump does not agree with it.’” What happened in Erie County is emblematic of the ongoing feud within the GOP over one of the most fundamental elements of elections: how to vote. And it reflects a strain at a critical time for the party, when national and battleground polling has shown the 2024 presidential election could be won at the margins. National Republicans are attempting a shift to embrace mail-in and early voting to match what’s been a Democratic advantage in recent years. But interviews with nearly 20 Republican officials and voters across the country say there is lingering, and sometimes fierce, resistance to the idea — from Trump on down. The schism signals potential peril for the party in the fall if it once again fails to match Democrats’ on-the-ground ballot organization. It starts at the top. As the leader of the Republican Party, Trump has used his position to blast, without evidence, mail-in voting as a Trojan horse for widespread voter fraud. In the process, the former president has eroded trust in a method that was once widely embraced by many people in his party, putting Republicans at a disadvantage against Democrats. It's the worst system in the entire universe. Bruce Parks, chair of the Washoe County GOP, in nevada, on mail-in voting “Mail-in voting is totally corrupt,” Trump said bluntly during a February rally in Michigan. In his stump speeches, written remarks often include a plug for mail-in voting, but Trump struggles to recite the lines without casting doubt on early-voting options. Trump won Erie County, for instance, by 1,500 votes in 2016, but lost it by 1,200 votes in 2020. Eddy, who said he personally prefers voting in person, added that he believes Trump lost there four years ago because of Republicans’ reluctance to use mail ballots. “I think Trump can win Erie County, but I have to get Republicans to accept the mail-in ballot,” he said. Republican officials at the national and local levels widely say they prefer voting in person, but many concede times have changed, and they need to build up a vote-by-mail operation to mitigate huge investments Democrats have made in recent years. “Trump … and all of our top-of-the-ticket leaders need to make it clear: If you’re an infrequent voter, use whatever means necessary,” said Brandon Maly, chair of the Dane County GOP in Wisconsin. But that is easier said than done. There remains a large swath of passionate Trump voters — including some party officials — who are taking their cues from the former president. “I always vote in person. … Don’t trust mail-in voting,” said Linda Ragsdale, a 66-year-old two-time Trump voter from Ohio. “Things conveniently get lost. Especially when concerned with Trump votes.” In the critical Washoe County in Nevada, a swing county that could help make or break the battleground state for Republicans, the county chair wants nothing to do with mail-in voting. “Absolutely not. It’s horrific,” Washoe County GOP Chair Bruce Parks said. “It’s the worst system in the entire universe.” Leo Blundo, GOP chair in Nevada’s Nye County, holds similar reservations, saying that, instead of advocating for mail-in voting in the fall, he and others with the party plan to go door-to-door to personally collect ballots from voters, put them in a secure box and drop them off at the local clerk’s office. Blundo made clear he didn’t trust the mail. He asked, sarcastically, whether a voter would take a $100 bill and put it in the mailbox. “Yeah, you trust the mail? Ship it,” he said. “Let’s see if it gets there.” Trump likewise has spent years hammering mail-in-ballots at a time when the process has become increasingly popular. Mail ballots peaked during the pandemic-plagued 2020 election cycle at 43 million, according to the MIT Election Data Science Lab. That number dropped to 31 million during the 2022 midterms, a falloff that was expected because there were no pandemic-era voting restrictions and midterm elections generally have lower turnout than presidential elections. It was still up substantially from the 23 million mail ballots cast during the 2018 midterms. Despite the spiking popularity, Trump has maintained that the institution of mail voting is inherently riddled with fraud and abuse. In 2020, Trump filed several lawsuits in key states trying to stop vote-counting or force recounts after his campaign said post-Election Day increases in vote totals for President Joe Biden — much of which came from mail ballots, which were counted after the in-person votes — were evidence of fraud. None of the lawsuits were successful, and FBI officials at the time said there was “no evidence” to back up Trump’s claims that mail ballots increase the chances of fraud. The position has put Trump’s hand-picked leadership team at the Republican National Committee in a bind. Many party leaders at both the national and state levels continue to believe that voting by mail is a helpful political tool, but they must urge their voters to at least consider the practice without attracting the wrath of the man who controls the party. “Programs at the RNC focusing on early voting, ballot harvesting where legal, absentee ballot and mail in programs will continue to be enhanced,” Trump-backed RNC Chair Michael Whatley wrote to his members in a memo last week. “Our Bank Your Vote program will continue educating and empowering voters to feel confident in early voting and voting by mail.” In a follow-up memo last week, Whatley again emphasized the need to vote by mail. “Encouraging our voters to utilize early voting and vote-by-mail are top priorities as we reorganize our political operation at the RNC,” wrote Whatley, who estimated that more than half of all 2024 voters will vote before Election Day. National Republicans think that Trump’s concerns about mail-in voting are valid, but they said that does not mean the party should not continue to encourage people to vote in many different ways. “Both things can and do co-exist,” Trump spokesperson Danielle Alvarez said when asked about Trump’s aversion to mail voting and the party’s desire to continue it. “Different states have different rules because elections are state by state. There are states with bad laws on the books, and we want to be aggressive in ensuring that elections are safe and secure.” “At the same time, we have to play by the rules we are given, and we will bank votes for President Trump,” she added, using a term that refers to campaigns collecting, or “banking,” votes ahead of Election Day. Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law whom he recently installed as RNC co-chair, told NBC News that Trump is now “very much embracing early voting” — even though just last month, he said that “you automatically have fraud” with voting by mail. Republican candidates and officials across the country hope she is right as the party tries not only to retake the White House, but win key congressional races to recapture the Senate and keep the House. “The election laws did change, and Republicans ought to take every opportunity that the law allows, which includes harvesting, voting by mail, voting early,” Sam Brown, the front-runner to become the Republican nominee for Senate in Nevada, said. “And I’ve seen there’s been a shift and sort of a recognition that we ought to embrace the full spectrum of methods and opportunities and time for us to vote.” His state party learned the hard way in the 2022 midterms, when Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto won the closely watched race in a key contest that helped Democrats win the Senate. She won by fewer than 8,000 votes after Democrats, with the help of the powerful Culinary Workers Union, mounted a massive ground game that included a robust vote-by-mail effort. Republicans, meanwhile, complained repeatedly about the problems of voter fraud in the state. Complicating matters is the fact Republicans will be at a significant financial disadvantage up-and-down the ballot in 2024. Biden and a constellation of Democratic committees announced they raised $53 million in February and have $155 million cash on hand. Trump and the RNC had $42 million in the bank headed into March. State-level political parties are heavily reliant on national parties to fund much of their basic operations during a presidential election, including things like building programs designed to increase the number of people who sign up for mail ballots, then “chase” those ballots to make sure people who request them actually cast them. Democrats have been more quicker to embrace mail-in voting in recent election cycles. Sait Serkan Gurbuz / AP file A Republican operative in Georgia said the RNC’s money problems are “real” and would affect “everyone, not just Trump.” “I don’t think state parties in places like Arizona, Wisconsin and Michigan are going to be able to raise money to fund these programs in a real way,” the operative said. The person added that because Democrats will push heavily for both early voting and voting by mail, the problem for Republicans will be exacerbated, as it will be more expensive and inefficient to continue to target voters up until Election Day. “Every Republican campaign in the country is going to be outspent by Democrats this year, we know that,” the Georgia operative said. “And if you can’t bank your vote [through mail voting], you spend so much money in the final weeks of the campaign trying to reach people.” Some longtime Republican operatives in other presidential battleground states said that mail ballot programs will continue, but likely in a quieter way. “They will do the usual chase,” said Andrew Hitt, the Wisconsin GOP’s former executive director, referring to the practice of making sure voters send in the ballots they receive in the mail. “I did it in 2020 and I can’t imagine that changing.” “It will be a behind-the-scenes effort that no one sees,” he added. “They won’t talk about it, but they will be pressing hard.” In Arizona, another presidential battleground state, some Republicans will also continue to push for voting by mail even though key party leaders, including Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward and Senate candidate Kari Lake, have sided with Trump in advocating for in-person Election Day voting. Lake, a staunch Trump ally, does not overtly encourage people to avoid voting by mail, but she remains skeptical of the process. “I’d like to get back to Election Day, not election month, where we count the votes on Election Day, and we know the results at night,” she said. “But we’re not in that world right now. So we got to vote the way we have it. And that is vote early.” Shiree Verdone, a longtime Republican operative in Arizona who co-chaired both of Trump’s state campaigns, is much more blunt about her support of voting by mail. “Too many things can happen on Election Day. The kids can get sick. It can rain, or whatever,” she said. “The safest way for Republicans to vote is by mail.” “I think it’s insane to try to stop that,” she said. “It puts us at a total disadvantage.”

Tesla sales drop as competition in the electric vehicle market heats up 2024-04-02 17:57:00+00:00 - Tesla sales fell sharply last quarter as competition in the electric vehicle market increased worldwide and price cuts the company enacted months ago failed to entice more buyers. The Austin, Texas, company owned by Elon Musk, said Tuesday it delivered 386,810 vehicles from January through March, almost 9% below the 423,000 it sold during the same period last year. The company blamed the decline in part on phasing in an updated version of the Model 3 sedan at its Fremont, California factory. Plant shutdowns due to shipping diversions in the Red Sea, and an arson attack that knocked out power to its German factory also caused fewer deliveries, it said. Last year, Tesla dramatically lowered prices by up to $20,000 for some models. In March, it temporarily knocked $1,000 off the Model Y, its top-selling vehicle. The reductions cut into the company's profit margins, which spooked investors. The drop in Tesla's sales marks the first time its number of vehicle deliveries has fallen since 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company's poor performance last quarter "was an unmitigated disaster that is hard to explain away," Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said Tuesday. In its letter to investors in January, Tesla predicted "notably lower" sales growth this year. The company added that it's between two big growth waves — one from global expansion of the Models 3 and Y; and one from the Model 2, a new smaller and less expensive vehicle. "For Musk, this is a fork-in-the-road time to get Tesla through this turbulent period, otherwise troubling days could be ahead," Ives said. "With the ongoing debacle around margins, production and ongoing macro events, Musk will need to quickly take the reins back in to regain confidence in the eyes of Wall Street with a big few quarters ahead." Automakers around the globe have indeed rolled out EVs aimed at competing with the likes of Tesla's Model Y and Cybertruck. As more Americans grow curious about owning EVs, companies like Ford and General Motors are investing billions of dollars to produce vehicles that are less expensive than Tesla cars. Between 2018 and 2020, Tesla accounted for 80% of EV sales in the U.S., but that figure fell to 55% in 2023, according to Cox Automotive. A record 1.2 million EVs were sold in the U.S. last year, according to Cox data. A semiconductor chip shortage three years ago kept some major automakers from running their EV factories at full capacity, but those woes have dissipated and companies are starting to rev up production, auto experts said. During the quarter, Tesla lost production time in Germany after what is suspected to have been an arson attack cut its power supply. U.S. production was slowed by an upgrade to the Model 3, and Ives estimated that Tesla's China sales slid 3% to 4% during the period. Deliveries of the Models 3 and Y, which are by far Tesla's top sellers, fell 10.3% year over year to 369,783. Sales of the company's other models, the X and S and the new Cybertruck, rose almost 60% to 17,027. Tesla produced 10% more vehicles than it sold during the first quarter. —The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Taylor Swift among 141 new billionaires in ‘amazing year for rich people’ 2024-04-02 17:47:00+00:00 - There are more billionaires than ever before. The world has 2,781 people with fortunes exceeding $1bn (£800m), an increase of 141 on 2023, according to Forbes’ annual ranking of the world’s richest people – with Taylor Swift among those making the list. The billionaires are also collectively worth more than ever, with combined assets estimated at $14.2tn – a $2tn increase on 2023 and more than the GDP of every country except the US and China. Their collective wealth has risen by 120% in the past decade, at the same time as billions of people across the world have seen their living standards decrease in the face of inflation and the cost of living crisis. “It’s been an amazing year for the world’s richest people, with more billionaires around the world than ever before,” said Chase Peterson-Withorn, Forbes’ wealth editor. “A record-breaking 14 centibillionaires [$100bn] have 12-figure fortunes. Even during times of financial uncertainty for many, the super-rich continue to thrive.” Equality campaigners said the “staggering wealth” being accumulated by the super-rich should lead to urgent efforts “to spread this wealth more evenly, proportionately and efficiently”. Daisy Pearson, of the campaign group Global Justice Now, said: “It is utterly unconscionable that at a time where masses of the world’s population are living in dire poverty, a few individuals are allowed to amass staggering wealth. This is only possible through exploitation, and their monopolisation of wealth and resources further allows them to amass huge power and influence over decisions that affect our everyday lives. Enough is enough – we should be regulating these barons out of existence.” Luke Hildyard, the executive director for the High Pay Centre thinktank, said: “The billionaire list is essentially an annual calculation of how much of the wealth created by the global economy is captured by a tiny caste of oligarchs rather than being used to benefit humanity as a whole. It should be the most urgent mission of the coming decades to spread this wealth more evenly, proportionately and efficiently.” Taylor Swift is one of 265 newcomers to feature on Forbes’ list this year. Swift, 34, reached the milestone with an estimated $1.1bn fortune following her record-breaking Eras tour and concert film. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Business Today Free daily newsletter Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion The Eras tour, a 44-plus song mega-concert that stretched to nearly three and a half hours, generated more than $700m in ticket sales in the US alone, according to Bloomberg; that’s before including the 89-date international leg. The richest person on the planet is Bernard Arnault, the majority owner of the luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, whose fortune, according to Forbes, increased by 10% to $233bn. Elon Musk is in second place with $195bn, an 8% increase on last year.

Trump's DJT stock is plummeting. His investors don't care. 2024-04-02 17:44:49+00:00 - To anyone who cashed out their retirement fund and moved it all into shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, we have some bad news. Just a week after the former president’s supporters rushed to invest in a company that looked to be Trump’s financial salvation, its stock is plunging faster than Wile E. Coyote after he realizes he’s stepped off the side of a cliff. It didn’t take a savvy investment analyst to see that the latest offering from the man responsible for such ventures as Trump University, the Trump Foundation, the Trump Network and the Trump Institute had all the hallmarks of another scheme in which Trump gets away with millions and leaves other people holding the bag. But don’t be mistaken: The victims here are willingly opening their bank accounts, and when it crashes to earth they’ll thank Trump for the privilege of being shaken down. For them, losing their shirts in a failed Trump venture isn’t a reason to feel betrayed or outraged. It’s a privilege, and they couldn’t be happier to do it. Should Trump dump and run, will his devotees who bought shares feel betrayed? Don’t bet on it. When the stock was first offered a week ago, retail investors rushed to scoop up shares in an intense day of trading. At one point the price of a share exceeded $79; eventually, the stock closed the day at a still-lofty $57.99 (exactly two dollars less than the price of the God Bless the USA Bible Trump is also hawking). The news was full of stories trumpeting the dramatic increase in Trump’s wealth; with the company valued at $8 billion, his shares gave him an extra $4 billion on paper. But on Monday, documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed that the company lost over $58 million in 2023, with just $4.1 million in revenue. The latter number is about what a single Shake Shack restaurant brings in each year. In a note included with the filing, an independent auditor said “the Company’s operating losses raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.” By the end of the day, the stock had fallen by over 21%. Trump Media would hardly be the first technology company to attract investment with little apparent path to profitability. And making money with a right-wing version of Twitter was never going to be easy. CNN reported that Truth Social’s mobile user base has shrunk 39% in just the past year; though the company has not released any user data, industry analysts estimate the number of monthly users at around 1 million, a minuscule number compared to sites like Facebook and X. That may be because a social network devoted to trolling the left just isn’t all that fun if there aren’t any liberals on it. If you "own the libs" but the libs don’t know they’ve been owned, have you really owned them at all? Trump will want to dump his shares before their price approaches zero, but according to the terms of the arrangement, he can’t sell his stock for six months — unless he gets permission from the board of directors. Fortunately for him, the seven-member board includes three former Trump administration officials, ex-congressman and Trump loyalist Devin Nunes, and Donald Trump Jr. Getting their approval probably won’t be too much of a problem. Should Trump dump and run, will his devotees who bought shares feel betrayed? Don’t bet on it. Truth Social as a company and as a stock have little to do with each other, since the stock is basically a way for people to give Trump their money, no matter how small-time the company itself is. No matter how far it falls, there won’t be a wave of Trump supporters saying they got conned into buying it with a broken promise of riches. They have a remarkable ability to explain anything he does, no matter how repugnant, foolish or contradictory, as all part of his plan. If he tripped over a golf ball, fell into a sand trap and landed with his pants around his ankles, they’d say it was a brilliant move meant to drive liberals crazy. Buying shares in a company that will become nearly valueless once he cashes out will be a magnificent sacrifice to his cause. Trump’s innovation was to create a cult so encompassing that each dollar they lose is only more proof of their devotion. Though the supporters who bought Trump Media shares are certainly victims of a con, they are different from most who find themselves in that position. Ordinarily, being conned does two kinds of damage, the practical and the emotional. There’s the money you lose, and then there’s the psychological damage of knowing you got fooled. This can be a profound trauma, leading people to question themselves long after the event is over. It’s not dissimilar from being robbed; whatever money the victim lost, they can also feel a sense of powerlessness, frustration and anger. That may have been true of many past victims of Trump’s scams, but it won’t be true of those who lost their money on his meme stock. In fact, they’re probably happy to lose money, so long as Trump walks away a winner, which he probably will, especially since he didn’t put up any of his own money to create Truth Social. “It’s mainly to support Trump and his legal battles. Or making a statement,” one early investor told USA Today. “It’s more just to show that people are supporting him.” Take that, libs! There’s a long history of right-wing grifters exploiting the gullibility of audiences to separate them from their money. Even prominent conservatives occasionally lament how many cons and scams grow out of their movement. Trump’s innovation was to create a cult so encompassing that each dollar they lose is only more proof of their devotion. So don’t feel bad for the buyers of Trump’s meme stock. They’re glad to be swindled.

Endeavor, the Entertainment Company Led by Ari Emanuel, to Go Private 2024-04-02 17:33:35+00:00 - Endeavor, the sports and entertainment company led by the Hollywood superagent Ari Emanuel, said on Tuesday that it planned to go private, nearly three years after joining the public stock markets. The transaction — led by Silver Lake, the investment firm that has been Endeavor’s longtime financial backer — is meant to usher in a new era for Endeavor, whose ambitious growth story failed to gain traction on Wall Street. Under the terms of the deal, Silver Lake will buy the shares in Endeavor that it doesn’t already own for $27.50 a share in cash. That price is 55 percent above where Endeavor’s shares were trading on Oct. 25, the day before the company said it was weighing deal options. The transaction values Endeavor at about $8.2 billion. Including its debt, the company is valued at $13 billion, making the acquisition among the biggest by a private equity firm this year.

Washington state judge blocks use of AI-enhanced video as evidence in possible first-of-its-kind ruling 2024-04-02 17:32:00+00:00 - A Washington state judge overseeing a triple murder case barred the use of video enhanced by artificial intelligence as evidence in a ruling that experts said may be the first-of-its-kind in a United States criminal court. The ruling, signed Friday by King County Superior Court Judge Leroy McCullogh and first reported by NBC News, described the technology as novel and said it relies on "opaque methods to represent what the AI model 'thinks' should be shown." "This Court finds that admission of this Al-enhanced evidence would lead to a confusion of the issues and a muddling of eyewitness testimony, and could lead to a time-consuming trial within a trial about the non-peer-reviewable-process used by the AI model," the judge wrote in the ruling that was posted to the docket Monday. The ruling comes as artificial intelligence and its uses — including the proliferation of deepfakes on social media and in political campaigns — quickly evolve, and as state and federal lawmakers grapple with the potential dangers posed by the technology. Lawyers for a man accused of opening fire outside a Seattle-area bar in 2021, killing three people and wounding two, had sought to introduce cellphone video enhanced by machine learning software, court filings show. Machine learning is a particular field within artificial intelligence that has risen to prominence in recent years as the underpinning of most modern AI systems. Prosecutors in the case said there appeared to be no legal precedent allowing the technology in a U.S. criminal court, according to a February filing in King County Superior Court. Jonathan Hak, a solicitor and barrister in Canada and an expert on image-based evidence in the United States and elsewhere, said this was the first case he was aware of where a criminal court had weighed in on the matter. The defendant, Joshua Puloka, 46, has claimed self-defense in the Sept. 26 killings, with his lawyers saying in a court filing in February that he had been trying to de-escalate a violent situation when he was assaulted and gunfire erupted. Puloka returned fire, fatally striking innocent bystanders, the filing says. The man accused of assaulting Puloka was also fatally shot, a probable cause statement shows. The deadly confrontation was captured in the cellphone video. To enhance the video, Puloka’s lawyers turned to a man who had not previously handled a criminal case but had a background in creative video production and editing, according to the prosecutors' filing. The software he used, developed by Texas-based Topaz Labs, says its software is used by film studios and other creative professionals to "supercharge" video, according to the filing. Puloka’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement, a spokesperson for Topaz Labs said the company "strongly" recommends against using its AI technology for forensic or legal applications. The prosecutor’s office said the enhanced video predicted images rather than reflect the size, shape, edges and color captured in the original video. The enhanced images were “inaccurate, misleading and unreliable,” the filing says. In a declaration for the prosecution included in the filing, a forensic video analyst who reviewed the original and enhanced recordings said the enhanced version contained visual data that was not in the original. Data had also been removed from the enhanced version, according to the expert, Grant Fredericks. Every pixel “in the AI-generated video is new, resulting in a video that may appear more pleasing to the eye of a lay observer, but which contains the illusion of clarity and increased image resolution that does not accurately represent the events of the original scene,” Fredericks wrote in the declaration. In a separate filing, Puloka’s lawyers countered that such claims were “exaggerated and overblown.” A comparison of the two videos shows the enhanced version is a “faithful depiction of the original,” the filing says. “And that is what matters.” In his declaration, Fredericks, who has taught for the FBI and has worked as a video analyst for 30 years, said he was unaware of peer-reviewed publications that establish an accepted methodology for AI video enhancements. The FBI includes nothing on the subject in its best practices for handling forensic video, he said. George Reis, a former crime scene investigator and longtime forensic video analyst in Southern California, said he was aware of a handful of examples of artificial intelligence being used as a potential investigative tool to clarify license plate images. One of the companies that has developed such software, Amped, said in a post in February that artificial intelligence is not reliable enough to use for image enhancement in a legal setting. The company pointed to the technology’s opaque results and potentially biased outcomes. “It’s a novel science,” Reis said. “There should be research done on it before someone uses it in actual case work. It should be peer-reviewed. I’m not certain what level is going to be appropriate at some time in the future for the use of AI in actually doing a clarification of a still photograph or a video, but at this particular point it’s premature.”

Private equity firm Silver Lake to take entertainment company Endeavor private at $27.50 a share 2024-04-02 17:30:00+00:00 - Ariel Emanuel, Chief Executive Officer, Endeavor, at the New York Stock Exchange, April 29, 2021. Private equity firm Silver Lake announced Tuesday that it's acquiring entertainment company Endeavor Group Holdings for $27.50 a share. Endeavor's stock rose more than 2% Tuesday afternoon after a brief halt ahead of the announcement. It was trading just under $26 per share. Silver Lake will acquire 100% of the shares it does not already own. Endeavor is being acquired at an equity value of $13 billion, according to a release from the entertainment company. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2025. "We believe this transaction will maximize value for all of Endeavor's public stockholders and are excited to continue to unlock and invest in the growth opportunities ahead as a private company," Endeavor CEO Ariel Emanuel said in a statement. Endeavor works on talent representation, through agency WME, along with brand licensing and live events. It has undergone a shift in recent years. In 2022, the company acquired OpenBet, a sports betting platform. In 2023, it sold IMG Academy, a sports education institution, in a $1.25 billion deal. Endeavor is also the majority owner of TKO Group Holdings , which owns the UFC and WWE. TKO will remain a publicly traded company as part of the deal. Endeavor previously said it would explore strategic alternatives, including a possible sale. Silver Lake initially invested in Endeavor in 2012 and supported the company's acquisition of UFC in 2016. Silverlake's co-CEO Egon Durban and managing director Stephen Evans were members of Endeavor's board ahead of the acquisition.

Elon Musk's X appoints new safety chiefs as it seeks to rebuild ads business 2024-04-02 17:00:00+00:00 - Elon Musk’s X said Tuesday it was appointing two new employees to oversee safety on the platform, as it seeks to rebuild relationships with the advertising industry and trust among users. The social media app said that Kylie McRoberts, an existing X employee, was being promoted to head of safety and that Yale Cohen, an executive vice president at advertising and public relations firm Publicis Media, was joining X as head of brand safety and advertiser solutions. McRoberts is the first announced safety head at X in 10 months — a period that covers more than half of Musk’s ownership. X’s advertising business has had a rocky 18 months since Musk bought the company formerly known as Twitter. In November, Musk sparked an advertiser exodus when he embraced an antisemitic conspiracy theory by calling it “the actual truth.” He then accused advertisers of trying to “blackmail” him and publicly cursed at them at a New York business summit. As of February, 75 out of the top 100 U.S. advertisers on X from October 2022 had ceased ad spending on the platform, according to Sensor Tower, a market intelligence firm. X has also faced criticism for the safety of users on X during Musk’s tenure. Musk eliminated the jobs of many people who worked on content moderation and reinstated the accounts of some white supremacists and other extremists. He also disbanded Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council, a group of 12 outside experts who advised the company on subjects including fighting child exploitation material. Many members of vulnerable groups such as the LGBTQ community have said that X has become toxic under Musk, with harassment and bullying largely unchecked. Last month, Musk announced that he was dropping the word “trust” from X’s trust and safety team, saying that the word “is obviously a euphemism for censorship.” The term “trust and safety” is used throughout the tech industry as an umbrella term that includes content moderation and related subjects. Joe Benarroch, a spokesperson at X, said in a statement that McRoberts “has been instrumental in our recent progress towards achieving unparalleled safety and security for our platform.” She will oversee the global safety team, which is responsible for developing new safety features and maintaining safety policies, he said. Historically, the position has attracted intense scrutiny and controversy. McRoberts is at least the third safety head at the company since Musk bought it. The two people who held the title previously, Ella Irwin and Yoel Roth, both left after less than a year working for Musk. Roth resigned and warned that Musk was making policy by “edict,” rather than through a thoughtful process, and Musk later smeared him with false accusations that he advocated child grooming in a 2016 academic paper. Irwin left in June 2023, after Musk overruled a previous decision to limit the spread of an anti-transgender video. She said that Musk was no longer aligned with her core principles. Cohen and two additional hires working with him “will continue to ensure a safe advertising experience for customers and brands on X,” Benarroch said. X did not immediately respond to an interview request for McRoberts and Cohen.

Tesla quarterly car deliveries fall for the first time in nearly four years 2024-04-02 16:42:00+00:00 - Tesla posted a fall in deliveries for the first time in nearly four years and missed Wall Street estimates, a sign that the effects of its price cuts are waning as the automaker battles rising competition and softer demand. Tesla’s shares have fallen nearly 30% in value so far this year, sliding 5.7% in early trading on Tuesday. The world’s most valuable automaker handed over about 386,810 vehicles in the three months to 31 March, down 20.2% from the prior quarter. It produced 433,371 vehicles during the period. Wall Street on average had expected Tesla to deliver 454,200 vehicles, according to 18 analysts polled by Visible Alpha. The electric automaker’s deliveries fell 8.5% from a year ago. The last time it posted a sales fall was in the second quarter of 2020 when Covid-19 pandemic forced the automaker to shut down production. The company said the drop in volumes was partially due to its efforts to prepare the Fremont factory in California to increase production of the updated Model 3 and shutdowns at its plant in Berlin caused by shipping diversions due to the Red Sea conflict and an arson attack in early March. A leftwing group claimed responsibility for setting fire to a pylon at the German factory, which produces half a million vehicles a year. Tesla has been facing intense competition in China from local players including the market leader BYD – which overtook the US company as the largest EV maker in the fourth quarter – and new entrant Xiaomi. However, the Elon Musk-led company managed to steer ahead of BYD, which sold about 300,000 battery electric vehicles in the quarter. Tesla delivered 369,783 Model 3 and Model Y, and about 17,000 units of other models, including Model S sedan, Cybertruck and Model X premium SUV. In January, Tesla also warned of “notably lower” sales growth this year as it focuses on the production of its next-generation electric vehicle.

US and UK announce formal partnership on artificial intelligence safety 2024-04-02 16:41:00+00:00 - The United States and Britain on Monday announced a new partnership on the science of artificial intelligence safety, amid growing concerns about upcoming next-generation versions. The US commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, and British technology secretary, Michelle Donelan, signed a memorandum of understanding in Washington DC to work jointly to develop advanced AI model testing, following commitments announced at an AI safety summit in Bletchley Park in November. “We all know AI is the defining technology of our generation,” Raimondo said. “This partnership will accelerate both of our institutes’ work across the full spectrum to address the risks of our national security concerns and the concerns of our broader society.” Under the formal partnership, Britain and the United States plan to perform at least one joint testing exercise on a publicly accessible model and are considering exploring personnel exchanges between the institutes. Both are working to develop similar partnerships with other countries to promote AI safety. “This is the first agreement of its kind anywhere in the world,” Donelan said. “AI is already an extraordinary force for good in our society, and has vast potential to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges, but only if we are able to grip those risks.” Generative AI – which can create text, photos and videos in response to open-ended prompts – has spurred excitement as well as fears it could make some jobs obsolete, upend elections and potentially overpower humans since the release of ChatGPT in November 2022. Both countries plan to share key information on capabilities and risks associated with AI models and systems and technical research on AI safety and security. In October, Joe Biden signed an executive order that aims to reduce the risks of AI. In January, the commerce department said it was proposing to require US cloud companies to determine whether foreign entities are accessing US data centers to train AI models. Britain said in February it would spend more than £100m ($125.5m) to launch nine new research hubs and train AI regulators about the technology.

'I kept on saying goodbye': Gaza hospital reports rise in stillbirths and neonatal deaths 2024-04-02 16:21:00+00:00 - Zaqout said she visited the Emirati Hospital in Rafah during her pregnancy. Dr. Haider Abu Sneima, the hospital’s director, told NBC News last month that various factors were affecting maternal health there. The little food that is available lacks “proteins, vitamins or vegetables, and if you find them, prices are out of the imaginary,” he said. "A pregnant woman or her family can’t obtain them." On top of that, Abu Sneima added, the psychological pressures of the war have “a very negative effect on the mother and her baby.” In recent weeks, he said, there appeared to be a rise in babies being born premature and generally “small in size.” “We don’t see big children like we used to give birth to in the past. We don’t see these children anymore,” he said. Dominic Allen, the designated representative for Palestinian territories with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said that when he visited Gaza last month, doctors at the Emirati Hospital similarly told him that they were no longer seeing “normal-sized” babies. They reported “more complications around births caused, they’re telling us, by malnutrition and dehydration and from stress,” Allen said. “What they are seeing is an increased number of stillborn babies and neonatal deaths.” NBC News could not independently verify those reported trends, and no data was available to confirm them. The Israel Defense Forces did not respond to a request for comment. The World Health Organization has repeatedly said that malnourishment is rising in Gaza. “Different doctors particularly in the maternity hospitals are reporting that they’re seeing a big rise in children born [with] low birth weight and just not surviving the neonatal period because they are born too small,” WHO spokeswoman Dr. Margaret Harris said Tuesday at a briefing. The reports come amid mounting concerns about looming famine in Gaza. Already, Palestinian health authorities reported that at least 27 people, including children, have died from severe malnutrition in the enclave. Israel faces growing pressure from the international community to expedite the delivery of aid into Gaza, which it has been accused of restricting. Israeli authorities have denied hindering the flow of aid into Gaza and have instead blamed humanitarian groups for the issue. According to the UNFPA, around 155,000 pregnant women and new mothers in Gaza are “struggling to survive.” “They are suffering from hunger and the diseases that stalk it, amid life-threatening shortages of food, water and medical care,” the agency wrote on its website. “For the 5,500 women who will give birth in the coming month, accessing adequate health care is an unimaginable challenge. Only three maternity hospitals remain in the Gaza Strip, and they are overwhelmed with patients,” it said, adding: “Doctors and midwives — desperate for medicines and supplies — are struggling to provide adequate care to newborns.” Dr. Angela Bianco, director of maternal fetal medicine and a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, said she wasn’t surprised by the Rafah doctors’ reports, though limited data makes it difficult to draw conclusions. “When you look at the world’s medical literature and you look at the impact of stress on pregnancy outcomes, there is data that definitely supports that there’s an increased rate of adverse pregnancy outcomes and specifically stillbirth and preterm birth in the face of maternal stress — specifically more so extreme stress.” Zaqout said that after losing her husband, her baby girl was “my last hope.” “For real. I was dreaming about her,” she said. Zaqout’s husband is one of the more than 32,600 people killed in Gaza in the nearly six months since Israel launched its offensive after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. Roughly 1,200 people were killed in Israel that day, and some 260 were taken hostage. At least 252 IDF soldiers have been killed since Israel’s ground offensive began. Speaking with NBC News in Gaza on March 23, UNICEF’s global spokesperson, James Elder, said a cease-fire is necessary to address the spiraling humanitarian crisis in the enclave. “People are exhausted, the coping mechanisms have been smashed,” he said. “The health system is teetering on collapse, and now we have imminent famine.” Zaqout does not know exactly why her baby was stillborn, but she said she believes it was a consequence of Israel’s offensive in Gaza. After the delivery, she said, “I kept on saying goodbye.” “I told her, ‘Go to your father, a bird in paradise. I will wait for you and be patient, and we’ll back to what we were,’” she said. “We were a family on Earth. We will be in the afterlife.”