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Giant glowing ‘X’ sign atop Twitter office in San Francisco removed 2023-07-31 - It is gone. A giant, glowing X no longer marks the spot on the San Francisco high-rise that is headquarters to Elon Musk’s company X, formerly known as Twitter. The city building department logged 24 complaints after a weekend of the big X, which on Friday was erected on the roof of the company’s downtown San Francisco headquarters, on Market Street, to the chagrin of neighbors who complained about intrusive lights. The move followed a post from Musk, the billionaire who acquired the company in October2022 for $44bn, announcing the newly renamed firm would remain in San Francisco despite what he termed the city’s recent “doom spiral, with one company after another left or leaving.” But the big X didn’t stay long. “This morning, building inspectors observed the structure being dismantled,” a spokesperson from the city department of building inspection said by email on Monday. “The property owner will be assessed fees for the unpermitted installation of the illuminated structure.” X said the removal was voluntary. Over the weekend locals recorded video of the giant X glowing, pulsing and strobing, with some criticizing its intrusive lights. Patricia Wallinga, who lives across from the headquarters, told CBS news it was “a danger” and “a clown show”. “I thought it was lightning, and I was very confused. I went to my window, I looked around, I didn’t see anything. I thought it was maybe a police siren.” Attorney George Wolf told the news outlet that residents were entitled to a chance to approve or reject such a development – “it’s very, very reckless [for Musk] to do things this way … It just sounds like it’s just his normal means of doing business. Break things and try and fix them later.” Over the weekend a department of building inspection official wrote in a report that company representatives denied roof access, twice, to city officials seeking to inspect the logo. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to The Guardian Headlines US Free newsletter For US readers, we offer a regional edition of our daily email, delivering the most important headlines every morning 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 inspector noted one representative said the sign was temporary. The company, and its owner, have become a growing headache for city officials, the Washington Post reported last week. City officials began investigating X last year after a complaint that it allegedly converted rooms in its headquarters to sleeping quarters. The San Francisco district attorney accused Musk of spreading misinformation following the high profile killing of tech founder Bob Lee. “There are business leaders in the city who want to engage in solutions, and the mayor wants to work with them,” said Jeff Cretan, a spokesperson for Mayor London Breed, told the Post. “But to have one person who has a megaphone who creates all this tumult, it creates this perception of chaos.”
Dismay as Rishi Sunak vows to ‘max out’ UK fossil fuel reserves 2023-07-31 - Rishi Sunak has pledged to “max out” the UK’s oil and gas reserves as he revealed a new round of intensive North Sea drilling, which experts said could be catastrophic for the climate. Unveiling a plan to authorise more than 100 new North Sea licences on a visit to north-east Scotland, the prime minister also indicated he would approve drilling at the UK’s largest untapped reserves in the Rosebank field, which hold 500m barrels of oil. Speaking to reporters on a visit to a Shell gas terminal north of Aberdeen, Sunak insisted the plan was compatible with net zero commitments given the anticipated part-reliance on fossil fuels for years to come, saying it was more carbon-intensive to ship oil and gas from other countries. But experts said this ignored the fact that much of the UK’s imported gas comes by pipeline and tends to be produced more cleanly than its British equivalent. Environmental groups said Sunak’s plan would “send a wrecking ball” through climate commitments. Tory and Labour MPs said Sunak’s “economically illiterate” announcement was “driving a coach and horses” through previous promises, and warned the prime minister he was “on the wrong side of history” and that modern voters wanted leaders who “protect, and not threaten, our environment”. Kicking off a week of announcements intended to highlight the distance between the Tory stance and Labour’s pledge to bar any new North Sea projects, Sunak criticised the latter’s policy as “bad for energy security, bad for the British economy [and] actually bad for the environment”. He said: “My view is we should max out the opportunities that we have here in the North Sea, because that’s good for our energy security. “It’s good for jobs, particularly here in Scotland, but it’s also good for the climate because the alternative is shipping energy here from halfway around the world with three or four times the carbon emissions. So any which way you look at it, the right thing to do is to invest into back our North Sea, and that’s what we’re doing.” 01:53 Rishi Sunak announces new oil and gas licences despite outcry – video While the new round of licences has been in progress for many weeks, Sunak’s visit highlight the shift towards greater scepticism over green policies since the Conservatives narrowly won the Uxbridge byelection, thanks in part to concern about London’s soon-to-be-expanded ultra-low emission zone. The new round of licences will permit drilling closer to existing projects than previously allowed, something Sunak’s press secretary said was intended to maximise the amount that could be extracted. While Sunak has insisted he remains committed to the UK’s target to reach net zero by 2050 and other green targets, his new approach has prompted concern among some Tory MPs, who worry the party could suffer among young voters and those tempted by the Liberal Democrats. Chris Skidmore, the Conservative MP who led a review for the government into net zero, was fiercely critical of the North Sea plans, calling it “the wrong decision at precisely the wrong time”. He said: “It is on the wrong side of a future economy that will be founded on renewable and clean industries, and not fossil fuels. “It is on the wrong side of modern voters who will vote with their feet at the next general election for parties that protect, and not threaten, our environment. And it is on the wrong side of history, that will not look favourably on the decision taken today.” Green groups were even more scathing. Oxfam’s climate policy adviser, Lyndsay Walsh, said: “Extracting more fossil fuels from the North Sea will send a wrecking ball through the UK’s climate commitments at a time when we should be investing in a just transition to a low-carbon economy and our own abundant renewables.” Mike Childs, the head of policy for Friends of the Earth, said: “Climate change is already battering the planet with unprecedented wildfires and heatwaves across the globe. Granting hundreds of new oil and gas licences will simply pour more fuel on the flames, while doing nothing for energy security as these fossil fuels will be sold on international markets and not reserved for UK use.” Ed Miliband, Labour’s shadow climate secretary, said the proposals were “economic illiteracy” which would “do nothing for our energy security and drive a coach and horses through our climate commitments”. No 10 insists that expanded UK production of oil and gas will help keep bills lower and reduced emissions from not having to ship supplies from overseas will help with net zero targets. Speaking at the Shell terminal, Sunak said data published on Monday by the North Sea Transition Authority, a government advisory body, showed that importing and burning liquid petroleum gas made overseas released three to four times more CO2 than domestically produced natural gas. “We’re still going to need oil and gas in 2050, a quarter of our energy needs, and therefore the question is, where would you rather get that from?” he said. “Would you rather get it from here at home? Or would you rather ship it here from halfway around the world being reliant on dictators, or coming with three or four times the carbon emissions?” Tessa Khan, founder and director of the green campaign group Uplift, said it was highly questionable whether domestic production was better for the environment than imports. “The UK is in the bottom half of the global table in terms of how clean its oil and production is,” she said. “The government often points to the most carbon-intensive form of imports, but the truth is that the main source of our gas imports is by pipeline and is much cleaner than UK-produced gas.”
China restricts civilian drone exports, citing Ukraine and concern about military use 2023-07-31 - BEIJING (AP) — China imposed restrictions Monday on exports of long-range civilian drones, citing Russia’s war in Ukraine and concern that drones might be converted to military use. Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s government is friendly with Moscow but says it is neutral in the 17-month-old war. It has been stung by reports that both sides might be using Chinese-made drones for reconnaissance and possibly attacks. Export controls will take effect Tuesday to prevent use of drones for “non-peaceful purposes,” the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement. It said some drone exports still will be allowed. China is a leading developer and exporter of drones. DJI Technology Co., one of the global industry’s top competitors, announced in April 2022 it was pulling out of Russia and Ukraine to prevent its drones from being used in combat. “The risk of some high specification and high-performance civilian unmanned aerial vehicles being converted to military use is constantly increasing,” the Ministry of Commerce said. Restrictions will apply to drones that can fly beyond the natural sight distance of operators or stay aloft more than 30 minutes, have attachments that can throw objects and weigh more than 7 kilograms (15½ pounds), according to the ministry. “Since the crisis in Ukraine, some Chinese civilian drone companies have voluntarily suspended their operations in conflict areas,” the Ministry of Commerce said. It accused the United States and Western media of spreading “false information” about Chinese drone exports. The government on Friday defended its dealings with Russia as “normal economic and trade cooperation” after a U.S. intelligence report said Beijing possibly provided equipment used in Ukraine that might have military applications. The report cited Russian customs data that showed Chinese state-owned military contractors supplied drones, navigation equipment, fighter jet parts and other goods. The Biden administration has warned Beijing of unspecified consequences if it supports the Kremlin’s war effort. Last week’s report didn’t say whether any of the trade cited might trigger U.S. retaliation. Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin declared before the February 2022 invasion that their governments had a “no-limits” friendship. Beijing has blocked efforts to censure Moscow in the United Nations and has repeated Russian justifications for the attack. China has “always opposed the use of civilian drones for military purposes,” the Ministry of Commerce said. “The moderate expansion of drone control by China this time is an important measure to demonstrate the responsibility of a responsible major country.” The Ukrainian government appealed to DJI in March 2022 to stop selling drones it said the Russian ministry was using to target missile attacks. DJI rejected claims it leaked data on Ukraine’s military positions to Russia.
Britain tests ‘the kindness of strangers’ as gilts lose their lustre 2023-07-30 - Hunt Kwarteng It was a dire warning. Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng was told in no uncertain terms last September that his financial war chest was evaporating. The Office for Budget Responsibility’s decision last week to publish previously blocked forecasts showed the headroom to cut taxes or raise spending was down from £29bn in March 2022 to just £8.8bn by that autumn. Kwarteng pressed ahead with his £45bn tax-cutting plan. Markets took fright and Kwarteng and his Prime Minister Liz Truss were relegated to the backbenches. The moron premium of the Truss era became a self-styled dull dividend as Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak entered Downing Street. But nine months after the debacle, markets have not fully settled. The British Government has to pay an interest rate of 4.3pc to borrow for 10 years. This is above the 3.94pc markets currently charge the US or the 2.5pc paid by Berlin. It’s not a position the current Chancellor wants to be in. Until the turmoil last autumn, the UK tended to pay a lower rate than the US. And pre-Covid, the gap between British and German rates was barely half the current spread. Buying British still has a premium. That’s bad news for the Government. With the national debt mountain now equivalent to the size of the economy, higher borrowing costs are dragging on the public finances. According to ratings agency Fitch, the Government will spend £110bn on debt interest this year, equivalent to around one pound in every 10 that the Exchequer raises, the highest ratio of any rich nation. With tectonic shifts expected in the bond market this year as even the Japanese start thinking about higher borrowing costs, the implications for taxes, spending and the upcoming election are huge. James Lynch, investment manager at Aegon, says the legacy of political risk combined with fears the UK is more exposed to inflation than other nations suggests Britain is more vulnerable to a surge in borrowing costs. “The politics, the inflation, the cost of living, the wages and the Bank of England response has all been a bit more heightened in the UK than in other areas,” he says. Story continues Overcoming this is not a simple matter. Higher inflation means investors demand a higher return on bonds to guard against the value of their cash being eroded by rising prices. The Bank of England must also shoulder the blame for failing to convincingly get on top of price rises. Orla Garvey, portfolio manager at Federated Hermes, says a disciplined response is needed to give investors more confidence in the UK. She says: “The market is very keenly aware of the debt burden and of higher inflation, so it is really important the Government is credible in its fiscal response and the Bank of England is credible in its monetary response.”. There are hints it is working. Last month’s surprisingly large fall in inflation – to 7.9pc, still four-times the Bank’s 2pc target – was welcomed by markets. But there is further to go to get rid of that premium. As Government debts spiralled from 35pc of GDP before the financial crisis to more than 100pc today, the Bank of England emerged as the crucial new buyer of gilts. By the end of 2021, it had snapped up £875bn of Government debt under its quantitative easing (QE) programme. At times of very heavy borrowing, such as the early months of the pandemic, the Bank effectively took the strain and markets absorbed very little net new debt. But the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street has now started selling that debt back to the market. It is currently on track to ditch £80bn of its QE stockpile this year, roughly half as bonds mature and half as it actively sells gilts. Sir Dave Ramsden, a deputy governor, insists the process is going so well that it may be time for “a carefully considered increase in the pace of reduction in the stock of gilts in the 12 months ahead”. Meanwhile, the Government is expected to borrow a near record £130bn this year and another £100bn next year. Traditionally, pension funds, insurance companies and overseas investors would be first in line to snap up gilts. More than a quarter of the national debt last year was held by foreign investors, according to the OBR, roughly doubling the share of two decades ago. That puts the UK second only to France among the G7 nations. This opens up wider and more diverse sources of funding. But it also leaves the UK more vulnerable to violent movements in borrowing costs. Investors are prone to pulling money out of foreign countries in times of crisis. Japan’s decision last week to rip up a cornerstone of its interest rate policy also has the potential to shock markets. Easing controls on bond buying may see investors “withdrawing abruptly” from other bond markets, the European Central Bank warned in May, with a “material effect on prices”. Japanese investors are some of the biggest investors in UK bonds. James Athey, investment director at Abrdn, notes that “relying on the kindness of strangers” at a time of economic and political turbulence can be risky. He says: “The UK has made its problem worse for itself because of the setting of monetary policy, the volatility in Government policy and the interaction of the two, so a period of something more orthodox and stable and consistent would be welcome.” Lynch at Aegon, notes that pension funds were one of the dominant buyers of recent years, alongside the Bank of England, to the extent that they were “almost price-insensitive buyers of gilts, and it crowded out a lot of other investors”. “What we have seen since last year is that the pension funds have not been buying as much, and obviously we had that period in September-October of last year when they were sellers,” he says, which is worrying. But there are also signs that some investors are returning, says Jim Leaviss at M&G Investments. “During Trussonomics, the pound collapsed. This time, the pound is actually quite strong,” he says. “If people really were averse to owning UK assets, you would see the pound lower, rather than higher.” Monthly figures are volatile, but the latest numbers from the Bank of England point to a rise in demand from abroad in April and May. An extra source of demand for Government debt is households. Tax breaks mean individuals are “aggressively buying” to cash in, says one wealth manager. Households are also piling cash into newly-attractive fixed-term savings accounts. Alexander Batten at Columbia Threadneedle calls this “the most likely source of demand for gilts” as banks in turn buy gilts to match these fixed exposures. Investment managers, including those at Aegon and Columbia Threadneedle are also all increasingly keen on gilts. Harry Richards at Jupiter Asset Management says he has “very recently started to buy” in some of his funds. “Bonds have had pretty much one of the biggest selloffs on records,” he says. “For us, Government bonds are on sale and this is the time to pick them up.” The higher returns on offer should help keep the Government covered for now. But the risk in the longer term is that UK debts keep rising. The OBR blames an ageing population for higher costs in the decades to come, focused on pensions and healthcare spending. Its fiscal risks report warned that, on current trajectories, the national debt will rise to 300pc of GDP in 50 years’ time. Similar threats face most rich countries. That will test the “kindness of strangers” even further, as well as the domestic savings market. Leaviss at M&G says that ultimately “the only way we can resolve that as a nation is to increase productivity and growth rate”. Ultimately, what matters is economic growth. 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What’s at the center of the U.S.-China power struggle? Crypto 2023-07-30 - While a great global power struggle between the U.S. and China continues to escalate, many may not realize crypto is a battlefront. Chinese spy balloons in America and naval provocations in the Taiwan Strait create exciting and dramatic headlines, but just last year Chinese President Xi Jinping himself argued that “technological innovation has become the main battleground of the global playing field, and competition for tech dominance will grow unprecedentedly fierce.” Whether U.S. policymakers like it or not, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology are a primary battleground in America’s contest with China—and the U.S. is dramatically falling behind. Forefront in China Chinese-affiliated cryptocurrency exchanges account for the vast majority of global trading. The Chinese Communist Party has already established bilateral agreements and deployed its central bank digital currency, the e-Yuan, beyond its own borders in places such as in Ecuador, Peru, and other major port locations across South America. And, last year, the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People’s Bank of China and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates joined the Multiple CBDC, or m-CBDC, Bridge, a project to build a system for real-time cross-border forex payments. In parallel, criminal networks operating out of China and its neighbors have stolen and laundered billions of dollars in digital assets globally—including in the U.S. Chinese intermediaries, for example, that helped North Korean hackers launder hundreds of millions in stolen crypto. And it's an unknown Chinese transnational criminal network behind the multibillion-dollar crypto scam called “Pig Butchering” that's plagued everyday Americans looking to enter crypto markets for nearly a decade. “Pig Butchering” victims typically are new to crypto and unknowingly send their savings to these scammers. More robust markets in the U.S., with safe investment options from both crypto-native firms and traditional financial institutions, would reduce the scale and effectiveness of these operations. Story continues Retreat in the U.S. Of the top 15 cryptocurrency exchanges by volume, only three are American companies. While China banned cryptocurrency exchange operations in 2017 and transactions in 2021, the other 12 top exchanges by volume all have affiliations with China or Hong Kong, which China has used as an avenue for access to global markets broadly in the past and reportedly now as a testing ground for crypto markets. That amounts to over $10 billion in daily trading volume that's outside U.S. jurisdiction. At the same time, and particularly of late with the current regulatory landscape, some of the largest American market makers and exchanges are moving offshore. Jane Street and Jump Crypto, for example, have both scaled back operations in the U.S., and many others are searching for new headquarters in Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, and other jurisdictions that have established clear regulatory frameworks. Coinbase, the U.S.-based publicly traded exchange that was recently sued by the SEC, is considering setting up an international hub in the United Arab Emirates, and Galaxy Digital, a crypto investment company, is moving more of its operations offshore. Coinbase and Gemini, another U.S.-based exchange, also both recently launched derivatives platforms for non-U.S. users. This industry is not going away—just shifting offshore—and America is losing what little influence it has over its trajectory. What's next? A future where China owns the crypto forefront means less financial freedom for those who adopt its system, less creative influence, more opportunity for hidden financial crimes, a limited ability in the U.S. to impose sanctions and other financial penalties globally, and a diminished reliance on U.S. financial firms and the U.S. dollar. America needs something more thoughtful and strategic than simply cracking down on exchanges. Despite the recent challenges cryptocurrency markets have faced—frauds, scams, hacks, and a bear market—decentralized finance has proven its value proposition and will rebound to continue to play a growing role in our global markets. When China announced that a digital Yuan would be piloted in May of 2020, Mu Changchun, the head of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the PBoC, told a forum in Hong Kong about the nation's “horse race approach” to cryptocurrency, and that “the front-runner will take the whole market—who is more efficient, who can provide a better service to the public—they can survive in the future.” America must respond. The way the U.S. can win is the way it always has, with what's fundamental to America: an open society with bold thinkers and entrepreneurs pushing the limits of the system with responsible technological innovation. We must foster innovation in decentralized finance because it's the only way U.S. interests can win this “horse race.” Our national security depends on it. Adam Zarazinski is the founder of the digital asset data analytics company Inca Digital and a major in the Air Force Reserve JAG Corps. The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com More from Fortune: 5 side hustles where you may earn over $20,000 per year—all while working from home Looking to make extra cash? This CD has a 5.15% APY right now Buying a house? Here's how much to save This is how much money you need to earn annually to comfortably buy a $600,000 home
Saudi Arabia's Ma'aden to acquire 10% of Brazil base metals firm - statement 2023-07-30 - FILE PHOTO: A logo of the Brazilian mining company Vale SA is seen in Brumadinho DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian Mining Company, known as Ma'aden, has agreed to acquire a 10% stake in Brazil's base metals company Vale, it said in a bourse statement on Sunday, as part of a strategy to invest in global mining assets. Ma'aden, through Manara, its joint venture established with the Public Investment Fund, on Thursday signed a binding agreement to acquire the 10% stake in Vale Base Metals, based on an enterprise value of $26 billion. "Manara’s investment into Vale will play a key role in helping it expand the production of copper and nickel across its asset portfolio, which are critical to the development of new technologies that will benefit the global energy transition," the company statement said. The transaction, which will be financed by Ma'aden's own resources, is subject to regulatory approvals and expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2024. (Reporting by Rachna Uppal; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
TipRanks ‘Perfect 10’ List: These 2 Tech Titans Could Reach New Highs 2023-07-30 - AI, artificial intelligence, has come into its own in recent years. Machine learning technology has found its way into a wide range of day-to-day activities, from internet searching to marketing and advertising to just driving down the highway. Artificial intelligence promises to change the way that we interact with the world and with computers, and the launch of ‘generative AI,’ embodied in real-language chatbots like ChatGPT, shows just how close that promise is. The emergence of any new technology brings with it an ever-proliferating array of opportunities, and AI is no exception. Tech firms all around the world are neck-deep in AI, from making the semiconductor chips that power the technology to developing the software that will interface between AI and us – to creating the new technologies that will build on machine learning. While tech companies at all scales are gravitating to AI, the larger tech firms have a leg up. They’re huge to begin with, some with trillion-dollar market caps; they are already industry leaders – and they’ve been involved in AI from the beginning. The giant tech titans have been leading the market gains we’ve seen so far this year, making those gains partly on AI. Market-leading positions and connections to a world-changing technology have helped put some of the tech giants on the Smart Score‘s ‘Perfect 10’ list. The Smart Score uses machine learning as well, to gather and collate the data behind thousands of publicly traded equities and assigns those stocks a simple score pointing toward likely future performance, based on 8 data-based factors. Considering all of this, the ‘Perfect 10’ tech titans are a logical place to look for riding the market on the way to new highs. Let’s take a closer look at two of them. Nvidia Corporation (NVDA) The first stock on our list of ‘Perfect 10s’ is Nvidia, one of the world’s leading semiconductor chip firms. Nvidia built its reputation on the strength of its graphics processing units, GPUs, chips designed to run advanced graphics programs and beloved by both professional graphic designers and high-level gamers. This niche nicely preadapted Nvidia for the advent of AI, as the company’s GPUs are also capable of handling the high processing demands of AI computing. Story continues Demand for AI-capable chips has been booming all year, and Nvidia has realized strong gains as a direct result – the stock is up over 226% year-to-date. It’s no surprise that Nvidia is a major supplier of GPU chips for OpenAI, the company that launched ChatGPT last November. OpenAI has been using Nvidia’s chips in its machine learning applications – ‘teaching’ its AI – since 2020, and has already indicated a need for another 10,000 chips to maintain ChatGPT going forward. This can only bode well for Nvidia, which is already one of the select few $1 trillion-plus companies in the stock market. The rapid expansion of AI has led to solid beats compared to the financial expectations in Nvidia’s last financial release. In the company’s last quarterly report, for Q1 of fiscal year 2024, it showed total revenues of $7.19 billion, a total that was down 13% year-over-year but was also $669 million above the forecasts. The company’s earnings were also higher than had been anticipated; at $1.09 per share, the non-GAAP EPS beat the forecast by 17 cents per share. The company finished its fiscal Q1 with over $5 billion in cash and other liquid assets on hand, compared to $3.9 billion in in the prior year quarter. Investors were also mightily impressed by Nvidia’s forward guidance. The chip maker is guiding toward $11 billion in fiscal Q2 sales, far above the $7.11 billion consensus figure. Hitting that guidance will equate to a 41% y/y revenue gain. All of this – but especially the company’s strong link to AI and its ability to generate cash – brought Nvidia to the attention of 5-star analyst Chris Caso, from Wolfe Research. Caso writes of Nvidia’s attraction for investors, “There is now little investor debate about NVDA’s dominance of AI, or the potential growth rates. The main question is whether there is still room for the stock to move further, given the big move and elevated valuation – we think there is given NVDA’s strong FCF. We think it’s unprecedented to have a company growing this fast (30% 8-year CAGR, 35% 3-year CAGR), and still throw off this much cash (~2.2% FCF yield even after >200% YTD stock gain). That cash flow, coupled with NVDA’s dominant position in AI, keep us in the stock despite the move.” Caso gives NVDA an Outperform (Buy) rating, and his price target, set at $570, implies the stock will gain another 22% in the year ahead. (To watch Caso’s track record, click here.) The giant tech firms pick up plenty of reviews from Wall Street, and Nvidia has 32 recent calls on file – including 30 to Buy and 2 to Hold, for a Strong Buy consensus rating. The shares are priced at $467.5, and the stock’s $504.46 average price target suggests a 12-month appreciation of 8%. (See Nvidia’s stock forecast.) Alphabet, Inc. (GOOGL) The second AI-related stock on today’s list is Alphabet, the parent of Google and an array of other subsidiaries – many of which are tied directly into AI. For Google, of course, the connection is obvious – Google has been the dominant player in internet search for decades, and for much of that time has been using AI-powered algorithms to enhance its search modes. Google also uses AI in its digital advertising applications, which are the go-to for online marketing companies. Alphabet’s other AI-related enterprises cover a range of niches, including AI research (DeepMind), drone-based local air-freight delivery (Wing), autonomous vehicles (Waymo), and YouTube, the web’s premier video search engine. Alphabet is also advancing its head-to-head competitor to ChatGPT, an AI chatbot called Bard. While Alphabet does not have a leading position in every AI niche, it’s a strong competitor – and the company’s long history with AI development gives it an edge in creating workable systems quickly. All of this has powered Alphabet’s growth. Its attraction for investors has supported the stock price – and pushed the market cap up to $1.63 trillion, the third-highest among publicly traded firms. The stock has also obviously benefited from strong financial results, such as those on display in the recent Q2 readout, which beat the forecasts all around. Top line revenues at $74.6 billion, beat expectations by $1.84 billion and grew 7% year-over-year, while the bottom-line EPS, at $1.44, was 10 cents per share over the estimates. For Truist analyst Youssef Squali, Alphabet’s AI connection, amongst other elements, informs his bullish take. Explaining his stance, the 5-star analyst writes, “We remain constructive on GOOGL following stronger than expected 2Q23 results, reflecting faster recovery for Search and YT, and sustained momentum in Cloud as mgmt reigns in costs and focuses investments on the highest growth priorities. We expect to see further growth acceleration in 2H23 with margins improving, supporting a compelling case for the stock N/M term. LT, while questions about AI’s impact on Search advertising remain, we believe that GOOGL is at the forefront of this race and expect mgmt to continue to lean in, more assertive in the rollout of its AI initiatives and in how it communicates them.” Squali goes on to rate the stock as a Buy, with a $160 price target pointing toward 21% share gains over the next 12 months. (To watch Squali’s track record, click here.) There are 35 recent analyst reviews of Alphabet on file and they break down 30 to 5 favoring Buys over Holds, for a Strong Buy consensus rating. The shares have a current trading price of $132.58 with an average price target of $149.45, indicating a 13% one-year gain. (See Alphabet’s stock forecast.) To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.
Stocks Crush ‘Year of Bond’ in Biggest Sentiment Shift Since ‘99 2023-07-30 - (Bloomberg) -- All the chatter back in December was that 2023 was to be the “year of the bond.” And for a brief moment or two in the winter, that call — and the economic doom-and-gloom that underpinned it — looked right. Most Read from Bloomberg It is now being overrun, though, by an avalanche of demand for equities that has unleashed a furious rally across the globe and, in a sign the gains are likely far from over, made investors more optimistic about stocks relative to bonds than at any point since SentimenTrader models began comparing them 24 years ago. “As sentiment, technicals and risk of the recession got pushed further out we moved from being underweight stocks to overweight,” said Nathan Thooft, global head of asset allocation at Manulife Asset Management in Boston, who’s reduced his credit exposure in favor of an equity overweight. 2023 had all the makings of a breakout year for fixed income. The end of aggressive Federal Reserve rate hikes and a pivot to easier policy should have set up a rally in bonds and made them an insurance policy against a growth downturn. Instead, the economy seems to have pulled off a rare feat: inflation has slowed while new jobs are being created. Growth keeps accelerating and even staff at the US central bank are no longer forecasting a recession. The Fed is still raising rates — though it may have just completed its last increase this week — and bonds aren’t living up their billing as a safety valve. The surprising reversal has found some prominent sell-side strategists issuing mea culpas, others upgrading their stock targets, and more downgrading their recession forecasts or giving them up altogether. More than half of clients surveyed last week by JPMorgan Chase & Co. say they are now convinced the US economy can continue to expand despite rapid-fire hikes, so-called “soft” or “no landing” scenarios. The survey shows a jump in the number of investors planning to boost equity exposure at the expense of bonds. Story continues That’s already happening. Discretionary investors — who allocate cash based on their view of the economy — have ramped up their pace of stocks buying on par with the time of the vaccine announcement in late 2020, according to Deutsche Bank AG. Flows into exchange-traded funds show a strong preference for equities over fixed income in the last three months, a big reversal from the start of the year. “The bears were loud all year and still are and meanwhile the market climbed the wall of worry perfectly the entire time,” said Ken Mahoney, chief executive officer of Mahoney Asset Management. “We definitely can understand their point of view. But they are missing out on the technicals that have been telling us stocks are working their way higher.” It’s not like predictions that bonds would win this year have been entirely wrong — across the curve they’ve posted positive returns and investors are collecting big yields for little risk. It’s just that equities have posted once-unimaginable gains this year — the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 is up 44% — that’s juiced their relative performance in ways that have blindsided Wall Street pros. And while the soft-landing scenario is now the market’s favorite, it’s by no means certain. “What the market’s now pricing is a soft landing — a lot has to go right for that, and the risks are in one direction,” Alex Brazier, deputy head of BlackRock Investment Institute, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. The lagged effect of 525 basis points of Fed rate hikes could take two years or more to ripple through the economy. The disinflation trend might be a blip that owes too much to falling oil prices. Tech stocks in the S&P 500 trading at 28 times prospective earnings may mean they are ripe for a selloff while positioning is so skewed to the upside, any pullback risks a bigger fall. Still, Brazier admitted this year so far isn’t turning out like he and his BlackRock colleagues anticipated. “What’s happened, particularly in the US stock market, has taken a lot of people by surprise,” he said. SentimenTrader suggests the shift may endure. Unlike in the past, corporate insiders are big buyers, while technicals like subdued volatility and bullish options are keeping equity sentiment elevated. The only other two instances when stocks versus bond sentiment were so wide apart were in 2003 and 2009 “both coming out of protracted bear markets and indicating a dramatic shift in investor expectations,” said Jason Goepfert, director of research at Sundial Capital Research and SentimenTrader, which analyzes futures positioning, surveys, options activity and fund flows. “Both preceded new bull markets.” --With assistance from Colin Keatinge, Sid Verma and David Papadopoulos. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek ©2023 Bloomberg L.P.
93-Year-Old Wendy's Employee Still Hard At Work 2023-07-30 - -- Not many people reach the age of 93, let alone make it to work every day. Enter Joel Presson, who has been an Oxford, Ohio, Wendy’s employee for 25 years and counting. “He’s pretty much an ambassador for us,” Oxford Wendy’s operator Mo Murphy told ABC News. “He talks to customers and a lot of them come in here just to see him.” Presson got his start in the restaurant industry at just nine years old, and he worked at restaurants off and on until he joined Wendy’s in 1989 at 67 years old. “I was hungry and didn’t want to get any hungrier,” he bluntly told ABC News. “The founder of our company of course was Dave Thomas, and I read his books and liked the style. We were a people business as much as a restaurant business and it gave me a chance to meet with the people out front and I worked on the floor and I gave service.” After working alone on his father’s farm as a child, Presson swore to himself he’d never work alone again. “When you’re working on a one-horse farm, nobody but you and the mule can talk to each other,” he said. Presson fills his days with a variety of responsibilities, but mainly chatting with the customers and getting drink refills. “He does a little bit of everything, anywhere form filling ice bins to taking out the trash and mopping floors to prepping product for us,” Murphy said. “But the most important thing he does is taking care of the customers. He works the dining room for us, greeting customers and getting drinks for them. He’s really a public relations person for us. He does remarkable for 93 years old.” Presson said he has no plans to stop anytime soon. “I’m grateful for the years I’ve had and been able to work. You hope that you can do it because if you can keep active, that’s the only way,” he said. “I love the people here, and I don’t feel like a real fast food place, although we really are. But the food we have is, in my opinion, better than most restaurants. I eat any of it as long as my teeth will let me do the job.”
High winds stall efforts to tow a burning cargo ship packed with cars off northern Dutch coast 2023-07-30 - THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — High winds blowing across the North Sea are delaying efforts to tow a burning cargo ship loaded with thousands of new cars to safety off the Dutch coast, the government said Sunday. The Fremantle Highway was unlikely to be moved Sunday because of the southwesterly wind, according to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. “The wind will continue to blow from the southwest for the next few days. The towing of the Fremantle Highway to the new temporary location may therefore still take several days to start,” the ministry said in an update Saturday night. “The smoke from the fire and the wind direction mean that during the towing operation of the ship smoke is blowing over the tugboat,” it added. Salvage crews on Saturday attached a second towing cable to the ship, which is transporting 3,783 new vehicles, including 498 electric vehicles, from the German port of Bremerhaven to Singapore. The salvage teams ultimately want to tow the stricken ship to a port but it is not yet clear where or when that will happen. The ship has been burning since Tuesday. Firefighters decided not to douse the flames with water for fear of making the nearly 200-meters (219-yard) ship unstable as it floats close to North Sea shipping lanes and a world-renowned migratory bird habitat. One crew member died and others were injured after the fire broke out. The crew was evacuated in the early hours of Wednesday. The cause of the fire has not been determined.
France’s Le Maire presses China on market access and lobbies for electric car investment 2023-07-30 - BEIJING (AP) — The French finance minister said Sunday he pressed Chinese leaders to open their markets wider to foreign companies and lobbied for investment in France’s electric car industry, as the European Union’s second-largest economy followed Washington in reviving post-COVID economic talks amid tension over Beijing’s surging trade surpluses. Bruno Le Maire also defended Paris’s controls on foreign access to technology after authorities said two Chinese citizens are under investigation for what news reports say is possible smuggling of French-made processor chips with military uses to China and Russia. Le Maire met Saturday with Vice Premier He Lifeng, Beijing’s top envoy on economic issues. He followed Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who visited Beijing on July 9-10 as part of U.S. efforts to revive frosty relations with China. Chinese officials gave Le Maire and Yellen a warm welcome as part of efforts to reverse an economic slump by reviving foreign investor interest. But Beijing has given no indication of possible changes in technology and other policies that its trading partners say violate Chinese market-opening commitments. Officials of the 27-nation European Union are trying to narrow a trade deficit with China that swelled to 396 billion euros ($432 billion) last year. Le Maire cited cosmetics, aerospace and agriculture as possible areas for more French exports. “There is a need to improve access to the Chinese market. I think that it was at the core of our discussions,” Le Maire said in an interview at the French Embassy. “We want to have a stronger economic relationship between Europe and China, between France and China, which means to get access for all European goods.” Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s government has looked to Europe as an alternative market and source of technology since Washington tightened controls on access to U.S. processor chips and other high-tech goods and hiked tariffs on imports from China in a feud over its industry development ambitions. Le Maire and Chinese officials pledged to cooperate on climate change, financing for developing countries and nuclear power. They announced plans to set up a group to settle a dispute over access to China’s market for cosmetics, a major French export. Le Maire also lobbied for investment from China’s fast-growing electric car industry. He was due to fly to the southern city of Shenzhen to meet Wang Chuanfu, founder of BYD Auto, one of the world’s biggest electric vehicle producers. BYD Auto and other Chinese brands are starting to sell in developed markets including Europe and Japan. Chinese battery supplier CATL has set up a factory in Germany to supply automaker BMW. “We want China to make investments in France in electric vehicles,” Le Maire said. “In the climate transition, there is a place for Chinese investment in France, which allows us to reinforce our economic relations and also speed up action against global warming.” The talks were overshadowed by Russia’s war against Ukraine and complaints China might be helping Moscow evade Western sanctions, but Le Maire said he didn’t discuss the war with Chinese officials. However, he said it was in Beijing’s interest to end the 17-month-old war. President Emmanuel Macron’s security adviser, Emmanuel Bonne, said this month China was delivering “military equipment” to Russia but gave no details. “I want to make very clear that we want this war to go to an end as soon as possible,” Le Maire said. “Indeed, (it is) in the interest of China, it is in the interests of the global growth to have peace as soon as possible.” Le Maire also defended French controls on technology exports and foreign investment in high-tech industry. French authorities are investigating two Chinese citizens associated with chip producer Ommic who the newspaper Le Parisien said face possible charges of exporting chips to a Chinese armaments maker using forged documents. French counter-espionage officials believe a Chinese investor who bought control of Ommic in 2018 was trying to transfer chip manufacturing technology to China, according to the newspaper. The ruling Communist Party is trying to develop its own chip industry, but Washington has blocked access to advanced manufacturing tools and persuaded allies Japan and the Netherlands to impose their own restrictions. Chinese authorities complain their companies are unfairly targeted by restrictions on access to foreign technology. They have warned curbs on access to semiconductors will disrupt smartphone and other industries. “Everybody can understand that France wants to protect its key technologies,” Le Maire said. “We don’t want any foreign country to get access to those French sovereign technologies.”
Russian missile attacks leave few options for Ukrainian farmers looking to export grain 2023-07-30 - PAVLIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — The summer winds carried the smell of burned grain across the southern Ukrainian steppe and away from the shards of three Russian cruise missiles that struck the unassuming metal hangars. The agricultural company Ivushka applied for accreditation to export grain this year, but the strike in mid-July destroyed a large portion of the stock, days after Russia abandoned the grain deal that would have allowed the shipments across the Black Sea without fear of attack. Men shirtless and barefoot, with blackened soles from ash, swept unburnt grain into piles and awaited the loader, whose driver deftly steered around twisted metal shrapnel, bits of missile and craters despite his shattered windshield. They hoped to beat the next rain to rescue what was left of the crop. According to the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office, Russia struck the facility July 21 with three Kalibr- and Onyx-class cruise missiles. “We don’t have a clue why they did it,” explained Olha Romanova, the head of Ivushka. Romanova, who worked in the debris alongside the others, wore a red headscarf and an exhausted expression and was too frazzled to even estimate her losses. She cannot comprehend why the Russians targeted Ivushka, as there are no nearby military facilities and the frontlines are far from the village in the Odesa region. “They spent so much money on us,” she said, puzzled. The missiles that ruined the silos are worth millions of dollars — far more than the crop they destroyed. But Ivushka wasn’t the only target in Odesa. The main port also was struck, leaving Black Sea shipping companies that relied upon the grain deal to keep them safe and food supplies flowing to the world at a standstill. The Black Sea handled about 95% of Ukrainian grain exports before Russia’s invasion and the U.N.-brokered initiative allowed Ukraine to ship much of what farmers harvested in 2021 and 2022, said Joseph Glauber, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute. Ukraine, a major supplier of corn, wheat, barley and vegetable oil, shipped 32.9 million metric tons (36.2 million U.S. tons) of grain under the nearly yearlong deal designed to ease a global food crisis. It has been able to export an additional 2 million to 2.5 million metric tons (2.2 to 2.7 million U.S. tons) monthly by the Danube River, road and rail through Europe. Those are now the only routes to ship grain, but have stirred divisions among nearby European countries and generated higher costs to be absorbed by Ukrainian farmers, said Glauber, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Russian missiles strikes against the Danube port last Monday also raised questions about how much longer that route will remain viable. That’s a disincentive to keep planting fields already threatened by missiles and strewn with explosive mines. Corn and wheat production in agriculture-dependent Ukraine is down nearly 40% this year from prewar levels, analysts say. From the first of July last year until June 30 this year, Ukraine exported 68 million tons of grain, according to data from Mykola Horbachov, the president of the Ukrainian Grain Association. Ukrainian farmers shipped 11.2 million tons via railways, 5.5 million tons by road transport and around 18 million tons through Danube ports. Additionally, nearly half of the total exported grain, 33 million tons, was delivered through seaports under the Black Sea Grain Initiative. Ihor Osmachko, the general director of Agroprosperis Group, was unsurprised by Russia’s withdrawal from the deal leading to its collapse. His company had never considered it a reliable or permanent solution during wartime. He said Russians frequently stymied the deal, even while it was functioning, by delaying ship inspections until the cargos were sent back, leading to $30 million in losses for his company alone. Now, they are once again forced to pay to reroute 100,000 tons of grain trapped in ports that are no longer safe, Osmachko said. “We have been preparing for this whole time,” Osmachko said. “We haven’t stopped. We are moving forward.” Osmachko estimated around 80% to 90% of the approximately 3.2 million tons of grain Agroprosperis exported to China, Europe and African countries during the past year went through the grain corridor. “The most significant problem today is the cost of logistics,” explained Mykola Horbachov, president of the Ukrainian Grain Association. Before the war, farmers paid approximately $20 to $25 per ton to transport grain to the Odesa ports. Now, logistics costs have tripled as they are forced to pay more than $100 to transport a single ton via alternative routes through the Danube port to Constanta, Romania. “If we were to go on the Danube with the grain corridor closed, practically all our production would be unprofitable,” Osmachko said. The Danube ports can’t handle the same volume as seaports. The most Agroprosperis has sent through this route is 75,000 tons per month, compared with a monthly average of 250,000 tons through Black Sea ports. The Ukrainian harvest this year is the lowest in a decade, according to a July report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Horbachov said shipping costs to export around the world and uncertainty about the length of the war will last could quickly make new planting unprofitable for Ukrainian farmers. Ukraine currently produces three times more grain than it consumes, while global prices will inevitably rise if the country’s exports decrease. “I think you’re looking at a diminished Ukraine for at least the next couple of years and maybe longer,” said Glauber, the former U.S. agricultural official. “That’s something the rest of the world just needs to make up.” The war from all sides poses risks for Agroprosperis. In the Sumy region on the Russian border, farmers harvest their crops wearing body armor. Sometimes they must stop their combines in the middle of the wheat fields to pick up shrapnel from Russian projectiles. “It can get tough at times,” Osmachko acknowledged. “But there are responsibilities — some have duties on the front. Some must grow food and ensure the country’s and world’s security.” ___ Volodymyr Yurchuk in Lviv, Ukraine, and Courtney Bonnell in London contributed. ___ Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Consumer demand for speed and convenience drives labor unrest among workers in Hollywood and at UPS 2023-07-30 - NEW YORK (AP) — Six straight days of 12-hour driving. Single digit paychecks. The complaints come from workers in vastly different industries: UPS delivery drivers and Hollywood actors and writers. But they point to an underlying factor driving a surge of labor unrest: The cost to workers whose jobs have changed drastically as companies scramble to meet customer expectations for speed and convenience in industries transformed by technology. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated those changes, pushing retailers to shift online and intensifying the streaming competition among entertainment companies. Now, from the picket lines, workers are trying to give consumers a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to produce a show that can be binged any time or get dog food delivered to their doorstep with a phone swipe. Overworked and underpaid employees is an enduring complaint across industries — from delivery drivers to Starbucks baristas and airline pilots — where surges in consumer demand have collided with persistent labor shortages. Workers are pushing back against forced overtime, punishing schedules or company reliance on lower-paid, part-time or contract forces. At issue for Hollywood screenwriters and actors staging their first simultaneous strikes in 40 years is the way streaming has upended entertainment economics, slashing pay and forcing showrunners to produce content faster with smaller teams. “This seems to happen to many places when the tech companies come in. Who are we crushing? It doesn’t matter,” said Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, a screenwriter and showrunner on the negotiating team for the Writers Guild of America, whose members have been on strike since May. Earlier this month, the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists joined the writers’ union on the picket line. Actors and writers have long relied on residuals, or long-term payments, for reruns and other airings of films and televisions shows. But reruns aren’t a thing on streaming services, where series and films simply land and stay with no easy way, such as box office returns or ratings, to determine their popularity. Consequently, whatever residuals streaming companies do pay often amount to a pittance, and screenwriters have been sharing tales of receiving single digit checks. Adam Shapiro, an actor known for the Netflix hit “Never Have I Ever,” said many actors were initially content to accept lower pay for the plethora of roles that streaming suddenly offered. But the need for a more sustainable compensation model gained urgency when it became clear streaming is not a sideshow, but rather the future of the business, he said. “Over the past 10 years, we realized: ‘Oh, that’s now how Hollywood works. Everything is streaming,’” Shapiro said during a recent union event. Shapiro, who has been acting for 25 years, said he agreed to a contract offering 20% of his normal rate for “Never Have I Ever” because it seemed like “a great opportunity, and it’s going to be all over the world. And it was. It really was. Unfortunately, we’re all starting to realize that if we keep doing this we’re not going to be able to pay our bills.” Then there’s the rising use of “mini rooms,” in which a handful of writers are hired to work only during pre-production, sometimes for a series that may take a year to be greenlit, or never get picked up at all. Sanchez-Witzel, co-creator of the recently released Netflix series “Survival of the Thickest,” said television shows traditionally hire robust writing teams for the duration of production. But Netflix refused to allow her to keep her team of five writers past pre-production, forcing round-the-clock work on rewrites with just one other writer. “It’s not sustainable and I’ll never do that again,” she said. Sanchez-Witzel said she was struck by the similarities between her experience and those of UPS drivers, some of whom joined the WGA for protests as they threatened their own potentially crippling strike. UPS and the Teamsters last week reached a tentative contract staving off the strike. Jeffrey Palmerino, a full-time UPS driver near Albany, New York, said forced overtime emerged as a top issue during the pandemic as drivers coped with a crush of orders on par with the holiday season. Drivers never knew what time they would get home or if they could count on two days off each week, while 14-hour days in trucks without air conditioning became the norm. “It was basically like Christmas on steroids for two straight years. A lot of us were forced to work six days a week, and that is not any way to live your life,” said Palmerino, a Teamsters shop steward. Along with pay raises and air conditioning, the Teamsters won concessions that Palmerino hopes will ease overwork. UPS agreed to end forced overtime on days off and eliminate a lower-paid category of drivers who work shifts that include weekends, converting them to full-time drivers. Union members have yet to ratify the deal. The Teamsters and labor activists hailed the tentative deal as a game-changer that would pressure other companies facing labor unrest to raise their standards. But similar outcomes are far from certain in industries lacking the sheer economic indispensability of UPS or the clout of its 340,000-member union. Efforts to organize at Starbucks and Amazon stalled as both companies aggressively fought against unionization. Still, labor protests will likely gain momentum following the UPS contract, said Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of the Worker Institute at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, which released a report this year that found the number of labor strikes rose 52% in 2022. “The whole idea that consumer convenience is above everything broke down during the pandemic. We started to think, ‘I’m at home ordering, but there is actually a worker who has to go the grocery store, who has to cook this for me so that I can be comfortable,’” Campos-Medina said. ___ Associated Press video journalist Leslie Ambriz contributed from Los Angeles.
Bitcoin ETF Potential, Musk's Dogecoin Support, RFK's Investment And More: This Week In Cryptocurrency - BlackRock (NYSE:BLK), Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) 2023-07-30 - This week in the cryptocurrency sector was marked by significant developments, from the potential impact of a Bitcoin ETF to Elon Musk’s continued influence on Dogecoin. Here’s a look at the top stories: Bitcoin ETF Impact: Investment research firm Fundstrat predicts that the potential launch of a Bitcoin ETF from BlackRock BLK could skyrocket Bitcoin’s BTC/USD price to $180,000 before the scheduled halving in April 2024. The firm sees a 75% probability that a spot bitcoin ETF is approved in the near term. Read the full article here. Musk’s Dogecoin Support: Elon Musk subtly updated his Twitter bio to display the Dogecoin symbol, triggering an 8% surge in Dogecoin’s price. The move sparked speculation about potential integration of Dogecoin into the Twitter platform. Read the full article here. Kennedy Jr.’s Bitcoin Investment: Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. revealed that he purchased 14 Bitcoin in May of this year, currently worth around $400,000. Kennedy touted Bitcoin as the currency of freedom and acknowledged his investment after facing criticism for promoting Bitcoin without owning any. Read the full article here. Sherman’s Bitcoin Criticism: U.S. Congressman Brad Sherman expressed skepticism about the innovation of cryptocurrency, mistakenly referring to Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto as "Saratoshi Nagamoto." Dogecoin DOGE/USD co-creator Billy Markus criticized Sherman for his error and his stance on cryptocurrency. Read the full article here. Tesla’s Payment Options: Tesla Inc TSLA reportedly removed Bitcoin from its payment page source code while retaining Dogecoin. The move comes amidst increased regulatory scrutiny and environmental concerns about Bitcoin. Read the full article here. For more in-depth coverage of these stories and more, you can read more on Benzinga's cryptocurrency coverage by following this link. Dogecoin Photo by Chinnapong on Shutterstock
Inside the Party Switch that Blew Up North Carolina Politics 2023-07-30 - When Tricia Cotham, a former Democratic lawmaker, was considering another run for the North Carolina House of Representatives, she turned to a powerful party leader for advice. Then, when she jumped into the Democratic primary, she was encouraged by still other formidable allies. She won the primary in a redrawn district near Charlotte, and then triumphed in the November general election by 18 percentage points, a victory that helped Democrats lock in enough seats to prevent, by a single vote, a Republican supermajority in the state House. Except what was unusual — and not publicly known at the time — was that the influential people who had privately encouraged Ms. Cotham to run were Republicans, not Democrats. One was Tim Moore, the redoubtable Republican speaker of the state House. Another was John Bell, the Republican majority leader. “I encouraged her to run because she was a really good member when she served before,” Mr. Bell recalled in an interview.
Russia Takes Its Ukraine Information War Into Video Games 2023-07-30 - Russian propaganda is spreading into the world’s video games. In Minecraft, the immersive game owned by Microsoft, Russian players re-enacted the battle for Soledar, a city in Ukraine that Russian forces captured in January, posting a video of the game on their country’s most popular social media network, VKontakte. A channel on World of Tanks, a multiplayer warfare game, commemorated the 78th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in May with a recreation of the Soviet Union’s parade of tanks in Moscow in 1945. On Roblox, the popular gaming platform, a user created an array of Interior Ministry forces in June to celebrate the national holiday, Russia Day. These games and adjacent discussion sites like Discord and Steam are becoming online platforms for Russian agitprop, circulating to new, mostly younger audiences a torrent of propaganda that the Kremlin has used to try to justify the war in Ukraine. In this virtual world, players have adopted the letter Z, a symbol of the Russian troops who invaded last year; embraced legally specious Russian territorial claims in Crimea and other places; and echoed President Vladimir V. Putin’s efforts to denigrate Ukrainians as Nazis and blame the West for the conflict.
We’re in the Era of the ‘Top Gun’ C.E.O. 2023-07-30 - “Your company is about to go on a rescue,” declared Christian Boucousis, who goes by the name Boo at work. “One of your company members went out to do reconnaissance and was shot down. Now you’re going to rescue your teammate and bring them home.” Mr. Boucousis, a former fighter pilot, is chief executive of an organization called Afterburner, which promises to teach “the same precision and accuracy as elite military aviators” to corporate clients. His firm has worked with Nike, Pepsi, Bank of America and many other brands. These businesses aren’t struggling to save teammates shot down by enemy squadrons. Their problems? Market competition, shareholder pressures, employee turnover. Some corporate executives find it thrilling, though, to spend a few hours feeling less like C-suite dwellers and more like Tom Cruise.Even for a significant cost: Afterburner’s “Top Gun Experience” training starts at $10,000 for a small team and can climb to $100,000 for a larger one. “If you lose sight of the airplane you’re fighting against, you lose the fight,” Mr. Boucousis said. “We use that as a metaphor — if you lose sight of your business objectives, you’re not going to achieve them.”
Medieval tools for 'haunting' injuries: How one American surgeon is bringing his skills to Ukraine 2023-07-30 - The first time Conor Berlin scrubbed into theater at Ukraine’s Mechnikov Hospital, he was given a hand-cranked neurosurgical drill that’s long been outmoded in the United States. The American’s task: using this “medieval” tool to operate on a Ukrainian soldier with horrific head injuries from a suspected land mine. “His left eye socket was totally destroyed, completely gone, and we had to reconstruct that entirely,” said Berlin, 30, a resident brain surgeon at the University of Virginia, who is using his vacation time to volunteer in the city of Dnipro, less than 70 miles from the front line of Ukraine’s war against Russia. “Some of the traumatic injuries to soldiers we’re seeing every day here are unlike anything you will ever see in the United States.” “The gruesomeness of what one man can do to another, it can be haunting,” he said. Born in New York, Berlin is indelibly linked with Ukraine through his Jewish faith and his ancestors, who fled the country following a murderous, antisemitic pogrom more than 100 years ago. Today he believes he is the only neurosurgery resident from the U.S. operating there, giving him rare insight for an American into the human cost of the worst fighting in Europe since the end of World War II. From left, Rostilav Malyi, 28, cranial neurosurgeon, Nikita Lombrozo, 28, neurovascular neurosurgeon, Dmytro Cherevko, 26, spine neurosurgeon, and Conor Berlin, 30. Conor Berlin He sees dozens of bloodied, mutilated soldiers brought in on gurneys every night; staff juggling workloads outlandish even to overworked American health care professionals; intensive care units overflowing into hallways; water bottles used as IV bags; and bed sheets with holes cut in them for surgical drapes. “The first day I came to the ICU, I almost cried,” said Berlin, who is volunteering through Razom, a New York-based nonprofit formed in 2014 to support Ukraine. “The ICU was just a converted operating theater, with five soldiers on ventilators who had suffered terrible, terrible maiming injuries.” “I thought to myself: What more can these men and boys give to their country?” he remembered. “There is nothing left to give.” Berlin stresses that he does not want to be pejorative about the Ukrainian tools or staff using them; he wants to highlight the skilled, passionate people desperately trying to help but too often being overwhelmed. “They don’t have the fancy things that we have in the U.S., but despite their lack of resources, they still get the job done,” he said, emphasizing he has learned as much as he’s taught while working in the country. “They don’t complain; they are very adaptable, impressive individuals. And I’m very inspired by a lot of them.” His July 11 arrival came days after Ukraine launched a grinding, attritional counteroffensive. The Ukrainians are making some progress, picking their way through minefields, but slower than some Western officials and experts expected. Dnipro, around 240 miles southeast of Kyiv, has been bombed by Russia throughout this war and bears the scars of burned out buildings and dead residents. But most of the time it feels like a regular city, Berlin said, with locals going out to bars and restaurants and enjoying bucolic parks. A Ukrainian Army doctor from the 72nd Mechanized Brigade tends to an injured soldier's wounds, in Donbas, Ukraine, on Feb. 22, 2023. John Moore / Getty Images file It is only from his vantage point, in the region’s main head trauma hospital, that he has seen firsthand what happens when modern weaponry meets the trenches, tanks and land mines of old, deployed on a scale Europe hoped it had long forgotten. Estimates vary, with the U.S. in November putting each side’s casualties at around 100,000. Mechnikov Hospital has seen 17,000 civilian and military casualties since the invasion, Berlin said. Doctors there told The Associated Press this month that the hospital is busier than ever, treating civilians by day for everything from cancer to car accidents, before becoming swamped at night by wounded soldiers sent directly from the front lines. ‘I hope others will be inspired’ Berlin has traced his family back to Ukraine, where in 1918 his great-great grandfather, Yankel, was killed in his backyard during a pogrom by locals. His great-grandmother, Lilly, fled to New York, giving birth to his grandmother, Ruth, along the way. He sees an echo of his own family’s story of persecution and endurance in Ukraine’s fight against Russia, a conflict he describes as “purely good versus evil.” The Ukrainians he is helping today “are clearly not the same people that punished my family over 100 years ago,” he said. “These are good people, freedom-loving people, democracy-loving people, kind, generous people, who deserve to live and deserve to have their country.” But “if I can come to this country, after everything that happened in my family, and find it in my heart to come here and help them, then I hope that others will be inspired to do the same,” he said. As well as the hand-powered drill, his photo diary shows him and colleagues using a “gigli saw” — a flexible but “primitive” cutting tool used to slice through bone. “We rarely use them in the U.S. nowadays, but in Ukraine sometimes that’s all that’s available,” he said. “It still gets the job done.” The nurse- and doctor-to-patient ratios “are insane,” he said. “I am so inspired by them.” Another of his photos shows him operating alongside Rostislav Malyi, a Ukrainian surgeon and fellow member of the self-styled “dream team” — as their four-person crew jokingly calls itself. When he started working at the hospital, he gave Malyi, 28, his University of Virginia scrub cap, as a gift. “He always wears it now,” Berlin said in a message alongside the photo. “I have built a very strong bond with these guys. We are in the ‘trenches’ together.”
Dozens served in Trump’s Cabinet. Four say he should be re-elected. 2023-07-30 - WASHINGTON — Donald Trump may have put them in the most powerful and prestigious jobs many will ever hold, but few who worked in his Cabinet are rushing to endorse him in his bid to return to the White House. NBC News reached out to 44 of the dozens of people who served in Trump's Cabinet over his term in office. Most declined to comment or ignored the requests. A total of four have said publicly they support his run for re-election. Several have been coy about where they stand, stopping short of endorsing Trump with the GOP primary race underway. Then there are those who outright oppose his bid for the GOP nomination or are adamant that they don't want him back in power. “I have made clear that I strongly oppose Trump for the nomination and will not endorse Trump,” former Attorney General Bill Barr told NBC News. Asked how he would vote if the general election pits Trump against President Joe Biden, a Democrat, Barr said: “I’ll jump off that bridge when I get to it.” The Trump campaign declined to comment beyond pointing to three former Cabinet members as people to contact — one of whom has endorsed Trump and two others who, when asked, didn't commit to endorsing him at this time. A president’s Cabinet gets a unique window into his priorities, temperament and managerial style. Tasked with running the administration day-to-day, Cabinet members see first-hand the impact of policies he touted on the campaign trail and put forward in office. They sit with him in regular meetings at the White House, listen to him vent and act as surrogates, crisscrossing the country to amplify his message. “I’ll jump off that bridge when I get to it.” Former Attorney General Bill Barr on a possible Trump v Biden election As president, Trump for the most part didn’t seem to either prize or develop the reciprocal loyalty that might have turned his Cabinet into a campaign asset that would help validate his contention that his was a hugely successful presidency. "They’re not friends; they’re not hanging on forever," Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, said of Trump's Cabinet members. "They’re going to skip out, or he’s going to push them out in some instances." Those backing Trump's bid for another term include former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker; Mark Meadows, his final chief of staff; former budget chief Russell Vought; and former acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell, who in June tweeted "Trump 2024" above a tweet from Trump's main GOP rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. A spokesman for Meadows said he “fully” supports Trump, while Vought tweeted in May that Trump “is the only person I trust to take a wrecking ball to the Deep State.” “I’ve seen his willingness up close & behind closed doors,” Vought added. “My friend & former boss is going to finish what he started.” Linda McMahon, the former head of the Small Business Administration, now chairs the board of the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank staffed by a number of Trump allies and former administration officials. McMahon, through an institute spokesman, did not respond to NBC News’s inquiry about whom she plans to endorse. The upper reaches of Trump’s government were something of a revolving door during his four-year term. In some cases, he jettisoned Cabinet members he deemed disloyal or incompetent; in others, the Cabinet members left him over policy disputes. Two resigned at the bitter end in disapproval of his actions during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. A Brookings Institution analysis of Cabinet members directly in the presidential line of succession showed that turnover in Trump’s final year in office — when he was running for re-election — dwarfed that of every president since Ronald Reagan. Those who’ve not endorsed Trump at this point include his former secretary of state and CIA director, Mike Pompeo; two of his former defense secretaries, Mark Esper and Pat Shanahan; one former chief of staff, John Kelly; and two of his directors of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire and Dan Coats. Another former chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, is among those who wants Trump defeated in the GOP primaries. “I am working hard to make sure that someone else is the nominee,” Mulvaney said. “I think he’s the Republican who is most likely to lose in a general election, of all our leading candidates. If anyone can lose to Joe Biden, it would be him.” Mick Mulvaney in the Oval Office, in 2020. Kevin Dietsch / Bloomberg via Getty Images file Two former Cabinet members are now running against Trump for the GOP presidential nomination: former Vice President Mike Pence, and Nikki Haley, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Coats said he is backing Pence. "I think he has all the qualities to be a great president," said Coats, a former Republican senator from Pence's home state of Indiana. "I know it's a steep climb for him, but I think the steps he has taken now show the integrity of who he is and his qualifications." A number of Cabinet members contacted by NBC News either declined comment or did not respond. That in itself is a source of frustration for some anti-Trump advocates, who would like to see more people who've worked closely with Trump speak candidly about the experience. "Incredibly, this guy [Trump] and this movement are not just alive, they’re thriving," said Miles Taylor, a former Trump administration official and fierce critic of the ex-president. "And that is really alarming to me. There’s an obligation for folks to paint a clear-eyed picture of what this means." In some cases, former officials publicly broke with Trump years ago, and there has been no sign that relations have thawed. Elaine Chao, Trump’s former transportation secretary, resigned in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot. Trump has derisively referred to her as “Coco Chao” and she, in turn, has condemned his rhetoric. "When I was young, some people deliberately misspelled or mispronounced my name," Chao has said. "Asian Americans have worked hard to change that experience for the next generation. He doesn’t seem to understand that, which says a whole lot more about him than it will ever say about Asian Americans." Elaine Chao speaks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex, on July 2, 2020. Andrew Harnik / AP file Through a spokesman, Chao did not respond to requests for comment. She is married to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. When NBC News asked McConnell in the Capitol last week if his wife would weigh in on the 2024 presidential race, he listened to the question, smiled and then walked onto the Senate floor without answering. Rex Tillerson, a former secretary of state, declined comment through a spokeswoman. He ran afoul of Trump early in the term. In a meeting in the summer of 2017, Tillerson privately referred to Trump as a “moron,” NBC News reported at the time. Trump ousted Tillerson the following year. James Mattis, Trump’s first defense secretary, has been searing in his criticism of his former boss, though he declined to comment when asked if he supports Trump’s candidacy. In a statement to Politico after the Jan. 6 attack, Mattis said that the U.S. would overcome “this stain,” while Trump “will deservedly be left a man without a country.” (As for Trump, he’s described Mattis as “the world’s most overrated general.”) A few ex-Cabinet members have publicly spoken of Trump in admiring terms, though they haven’t gone so far as to endorse his presidential bid. “There are probably some uneasy with what they saw,” said Julian Zelizer, a history professor at Princeton University. “But for many others, especially given the DeSantis factor, they are hedging their bets,” he added, referring to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s struggling campaign. “They are waiting to see how the field unfolds before jumping behind one campaign. The lack of stability in this primary — especially with Trump’s legal problems — will result in caution.” Ben Carson, Trump’s former housing director, said in a statement to NBC that “Donald Trump is my friend and would make a fantastic president, and if I have an announcement to make about 2024, I’ll look forward to doing so in an appropriate way.” Ben Carson, at his confirmation hearing for housing secretary, on Jan. 12, 2017. Zach Gibson / AP file Ryan Zinke, who served as Trump’s interior secretary and now is a Republican congressman from Montana, did not directly answer when asked by NBC News if he is endorsing Trump. He said his focus now is on Congress. “I think the president is on glide slope right now, but he’s got some hurdles,” Zinke said of Trump. “From an individual who worked for him, I know he’s tough. They’re throwing everything at him, and he’s got some significant hurdles ahead. I take the indictment seriously, I think everyone should. So he’s got some tough hurdles before him, but I tell you what, there’s only one Donald J. Trump.” Kelly Craft, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, could not be reached for comment. In her unsuccessful campaign for governor of Kentucky this year, Trump endorsed her rival for the Republican nomination, Daniel Cameron. Craft highlighted her ties to Trump during the campaign. Yet she has made a campaign donation to at least one of Trump’s rivals — Pence, whose campaign said it had gotten a donation from Craft. Federal campaign finance records show the amount to be $6,600.
Marines recruiting surges while other services struggle 2023-07-30 - Not long ago, Marine Col. Jennifer Nash, a combat engineer with war deployments under her belt, made a vow to fellow officers as they headed to a dinner in Atlanta: She would get two new recruiting contacts by the end of the evening. She admits recruiting is not the job that she or other Marines had in mind when they enlisted. But after stints as a recruiter and senior officer at the Eastern recruiting command, she has become emblematic of the Corps’ tradition of putting its best, battle-tested Marines on enlistment duty. They get results. Marine leaders say they will make their recruiting goal this year, while the active-duty Army, Navy and Air Force all expect to fall short. The services have struggled in the tight job market to compete with higher-paying businesses for the dwindling number of young people who can meet the military’s physical, mental and moral standards. On that night, Nash achieved her own goal. She had gotten the valet at the hotel and the hostess at the restaurant to provide their phone numbers and to consider a Marine career. Nash’s boss, Brig. Gen. Walker Field, who head the Eastern recruiting region, says the Corps has historically put an emphasis on selecting top-performing Marines to fill recruiting jobs. He says that has been a key to the Marines’ recruiting success, along with efforts to increase the number of recruiters, extend those who do well and speed their return to high schools, where in-person recruiting stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said his recruiters — who cover the territory between Canada and Puerto Rico and as far west as Mississippi — will meet their mission and expect to have 30% of their 2024 goal when they start the next fiscal year, Oct. 1. More broadly, Marine officials say they expect the Corps to achieve its recruiting target of more than 33,000. Last year, the Navy, Air Force and Marines had to eat into their pools of delayed entry applicants in order to make their goals. The Marines will avoid that this year. “That would be a great ending,” said Field, speaking to The Associated Press on a recent steamy day at South Carolina’s Parris Island, along the Atlantic Coast. “I’m bearish for not only concluding FY23 on a strong footing, but also how we set the conditions for FY24.” The Marine Corps may get some help from its small size. The Army, for example, has a recruiting goal of 65,000 this year, which is nearly double the Corps’, and expects to fall substantially short of that. Air Force and Navy officials say they will also miss their goals, although the Space Force, which is the smallest service and does its recruiting within Air Force stations, is expected to meet its goal of about 500 recruits. Sitting in the shadow of Parris Island’s replica of the Iwo Jima monument, Field said his biggest challenge is that a number of Marine hopefuls cannot pass the military’s academic test, known as the Armed Services Voluntary Aptitude Battery. That is a widespread problem, but the Army recently set up a program that targets recruits who score below 30 on the test and provides schooling for several weeks to help them pass. Already more than 8,800 recruits have successfully gone through the classes, raised their scores and moved on to basic training. The Navy is taking another route with a pilot program that allows up to 20% of their recruits to score below 30 on the test, as long as they meet specific standards for their chosen naval job. Marine leaders, however, do not take those lowest scoring recruits, and so far have no plans for any type of formal improvement program such as the Army’s. Field said the Marines are repositioning recruiting stations, moving them around based on where population totals have increased in the latest census. More important, he said, the Corps maintains its focus on choosing the right recruiters, encouraging successful ones to stay in the job and increasing the number of Marine reservists tapped for recruit duties from the current 31 to 96 by the end of next year. Nash, who until last month was assistant chief of staff for the Eastern region, said Marines are hand-selected for recruiting command jobs. Many three- and four-star Marines, including former Defense Secretary James Mattis, will cite their years doing enlistment duty. “We put our best and brightest in those positions,” said Nash, adding that those chosen for recruiting posts have a proven track record of success in previous assignments and have demonstrated critical leadership skills. “That’s why they got selected, because they were above their peers.” She acknowledged that the first time she was picked for a recruiting job she was “voluntold.” But now, recounting her sales pitch in Atlanta, her rapid fire pitch comes without taking a breath. “I say, ‘Hey, ever thought about being Marine? We’re a bunch of Marines. And, you know, I think you potentially could be a good Marine. You ever thought about it?’ And usually you get, ‘Yeah, I thought about it.’ And I’m, like, ‘What’s holding you back? Would you like to learn more about your opportunities?’ ‘Absolutely.’ `OK. Mind giving me your name and phone number? I’ll have one of my recruiters give you a phone call.’” The Marines have resisted increasing bonuses to attract recruits — something the other services have found helpful. Gen. Eric Smith, the acting Marine Corps commandant, got some ribbing for his response when he was asked about bonuses during a naval conference in February. “Your bonus is you get to call yourself a Marine,” he said. “That’s your bonus, right? There’s no dollar amount that goes with that.” Field, Nash and others also say the Corps prefers to give a lot of recruits a few thousand dollars, rather than increasing the amount and giving money to far fewer people. Field said that getting Marine recruiters in uniform back into high schools this year, after several years of COVID-19 restrictions, has been a key driver. There, young people line up to compete in pull-up contests, vying for a free T-shirt if they can do 20. And recruiters say many are drawn to the cache of being a Marine. “If you told me you’ll give me $10 million worth of advertising and I can do something with it, or you’ll give me 10 great-looking Marines in a Marine uniform — what’s going to get the most value? Give me those 10 Marines and give me a day,” Nash said. “We’ll go out and we’ll get more out of that, I think, than $10 million in advertising.”