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The UK has been accidentally sending classified information to Russian-allied Mali because of a one-letter typo in a domain name: report 2023-07-27 - British officials have been accidentally sending emails containing classified information to Mali. Officials misspelled the domain name as ".ml" when it should have been ".mil," per The Times. Millions of US military emails were sent to Mali due to the same error, the FT previously reported. Get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in business, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley — delivered daily. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy The US accidentally sent sensitive information to Mali, a Russian-allied country, due to a typing error — and they're not the only ones. Officials from the UK Ministry of Defence have also been sending emails containing classified information to Mali because of the same mistake, per The Times, which saw five emails from UK email addressess. According to The Times, officials from the UK Ministry of Defence misspelled the domain name for their US counterparts when trying to contact them. The officials used the domain name ".ml" for Mali when it should have been ".mil" for the US. "We have opened an investigation after a small number of emails were mistakenly forwarded to an incorrect email domain," a spokesperson from the UK Ministry of Defence told Insider. "We are confident they did not contain any information that could compromise operational security or technical data." The Times report did not specify over what time period the emails were sent. It's not immediately clear how many emails the UK government sent to Mali. Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that millions of US military emails had been accidentally sent to Mali. Johannes Zuurbier, a Dutch entrepreneur who was contracted to manage Mali's country email domain, told the FT he'd been trying to warn the US for the past decade. According to the FT, none of these emails were classified, though some contained highly sensitive information on active US military personnel, contractors, and their next of kin. The Malian government has received significant assistance from Russia, ranging from military support to providing diplomatic backing. The Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary organization linked to the Kremlin, also conducts operations in Mali. Representatives from the Malian government did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours. Editor's note: July 28, 2023 — This story has been updated with responses from the UK Ministry of Defence.
Superseding indictment in Trump classified documents case could delay trial several months. But thinking about the election date is not a 'legitimate line of inquiry' for a prosecutor, legal expert sa 2023-07-27 - A grand jury returned an updated indictment related to Trump's handling of classified records. The superseding indictment adds a third defendant and additional charges. A new defendant may push the trial date "a couple of months," former federal prosecutor says. Get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in business, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley — delivered daily. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy New additions to the Justice Department's indictment related to Donald Trump's handling of classified records could move the case's May 2024 trial date by "a couple of months," a former federal prosecutor told Insider. On Thursday, a grand jury returned a superseding indictment in the classified documents case, adding more charges, including two obstruction counts, and a third defendant. The indictment now includes a Mar-a-Lago maintenance worker, Carlos De Oliveira, along with Trump and his aide, Walt Nauta — both of whom pled not guilty to the charges in June. Adding De Oliveira, who is accused of working with Trump to delete surveillance footage at the resort, is a "big change," Ken White, a defense attorney and founding partner of Brown White & Osborn LLP, told Insider. The addition adds extra steps before the case can go to trial, including summoning the new defendant and getting an attorney for him. "You would expect it to delay things a couple of months," White said. De Oliveira is expected to appear in a Miami federal court on July 31, the DOJ wrote in a press release of the superseding indictment. His attorney, John Irving, did not respond to a request for comment. Last week, Judge Aileen Cannon set a trial date for May 20, 2024, giving a middle ground between the DOJ's request to go to trial in December and Trump's wish to push the trial until after the 2024 election. In a notice, Jack Smith, the special counsel leading the DOJ's case, wrote that the additions in the superseding indictment "should not disturb the Court's scheduling order." He argues that the new count against Trump and his aide Walt Nauta should not "expand the scope of the unclassified discovery" and that his office will "promptly produce discovery" related to the obstruction charges and for the new defendant. Trump's attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Though the DOJ special counsel has pressed for urgency in the trial, White, the criminal defense attorney, told Insider that the upcoming primaries or election should not be of concern for the prosecutor. "I think it's an appropriate move," White said of the changes to the indictment. Worrying about the election or if Trump may be emboldened to pardon himself is "not a legitimate line of inquiry for a prosecutor." Outside of the new defendant, the indictment's updates are "largely cosmetic," White said. The new charges may have some impact on sentencing, but "it pales in comparison to the rest of the case," he said. And the detailed allegations of how Trump conspired to withhold documents and obstruct investigations, are all about telling a better story, White said. "It's another good thing to convince the jury," White said.
Who is Carlos De Oliveira, the 3rd defendant named in a docket charging Trump and Walt Natua? 2023-07-27 - The superseding indictment against Trump included a new defendant, Carlos De Oliveira. De Oliveira is the property manager at Mar-a-Lago, and helped move boxes to obscure evidence. De Oliveira is charged with multiple crimes, including making false statements. Get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in business, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley — delivered daily. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy Department of Justice In a superseding indictment filed on Thursday, the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida added a new defendant to former President Donald Trump's classified documents case — Carlos De Oliveira, the 56-year-old property manager of the Mar-a-Lago Club. Who is Carlos De Oliveira? Not much is known about De Oliveira beyond that he serves as the Mar-a-Lago property manager starting in January of 2022; before that, he was employed at the club as a valet. What did the special counsel Jack Smith's office charge him with, in the new superseding indictment? De Oliveira faces multiple charges, according to the indictment: trying to obstruct justice; "corruptly" altering, destroying, mutilating and concealing records and documents; altering, destroying, mutilating and concealing an object; and making false statements and representations. On the day Trump's lawyer was supposed to review boxes at Mar-a-Lago so they could have records that a May 11 subpoena requesting classified documents had been complied with, the new court documents allege De Oliveira helped another defendant in the case, Waltine Nauta, move about 30 boxes of documents from Trump's residence into a storage room. The boxes were then presented to Trump's attorney as though they were the entirety of the documents he possessed — in reality, according to the indictment, over 30 boxes remained out of sight in Trump's residence. De Oliveira later helped Nauta load some of the boxes on Trump's plane when he left for the summer, the superseding indictment alleges. De Oliveira is also accused by the DOJ of meeting with an unnamed employee of Trump and asking to meet privately then requesting that they delete the server containing video evidence that the boxes had been moved. After the FBI discovered more classified documents in Trump's personal office and storage room, Trump called De Oliveira and told him he would get De Oliveira an attorney. Law professor at the University of Richmond Carl Tobias said De Oliveira was likely charged because he "just wasn't cooperating." "They were finally so frustrated that they realized he wasn't going to talk," Tobias said. "He probably wasn't because he would incriminate himself… if you push and push and someone isn't responsive, then the next logical step is to charge them as well." Have a news tip? Contact this reporter at scahill@insider.com.
Trump had his 'body man' travel to Mar-a-Lago to figure out how to delete security footage of classified documents, DOJ alleges in new charges 2023-07-27 - The Justice Department filed new charges to the Trump classified documents case on Thursday. Trump was previously hit with 37 criminal counts related to the handling of classified records. The DOJ added another defendant and two new obstruction counts, filing shows. Get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in business, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley — delivered daily. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy Donald Trump obstructed federal investigations by attempting to get Mar-a-Lago security footage deleted, the Department of Justice alleged in an updated indictment related to special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into the former president's handling of classified documents. The superseding indictment claims that newly added defendant, Carlos De Oliveira, a Mar-a-Lago maintenance worker, and Waltine Nauta, a former member of the US Navy who was stationed at the White House during Trump's presidency and later became his so-called "body man," were directly involved in attempting to delete surveillance footage at the Mar-a-Lago resort. The new charges allege that after the DOJ emailed Trump's business attorney on June 24, 2022, requesting "all surveillance records, videos, images, photographs, and/or CCTV from internal cameras" at specific Mar-a-Lago locations including around the basement where classified documents were alleged to have been stored, Trump met with Nauta. Nauta then rescheduled his plans to travel with Trump to Illinois and instead made his way to Florida, but provided "inconsistent explanations" for his sudden change of plans, according to the documents. In one case, Nauta texted one person that he wouldn't be going to Illinois "because he had a family emergency and used 'shushing' emojis," the documents allege. While Nauta made his travel plans to Florida, according to the superseding indictment, he began texting the Director of Information Technology at Mar-a-Lago to see if he was around over the weekend. De Oliveira also texted the employee, saying: "Hey buddy how are you… Walter call me early said it was trying to get in touch with you I guess he's coming down tomorrow I guess needs you for something." The employee responded that he had family plans but told Nauta he could "get away for a few" if needed, according to the documents. Prior to Nauta's trip, De Oliveira told a valet employee at Mar-a-Lago not to tell anyone Nauta was coming to the resort and to keep his trip a secret, the new court documents allege. After Nauta arrived on the evening of June 25, he and De Oliveira then made a trip to the Mar-a-Lago security guard booth, and the following Monday, they allegedly talked with the Director of IT about the surveillance systems and video footage, per the court documents. This is all part of the Justice Department's additional three charges and new defendant to the classified documents case in a superseding indictment that was returned by a grand jury in the Southern District of Florida on Thursday. Two of those charges include obstruction of justice stemming from the DOJ's allegations that the former president asked De Oliveira to delete surveillance footage at his Mar-a-Lago resort. De Oliveira was added as a new defendant in the case and faces several charges: conspiracy to obstruct justice; altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing an object; corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing a document, record, or other object; and false statements and representations. In all, the superseding indictment gives Trump an additional count of willful retention of national defense information, and charges all three defendants with two new obstruction counts, Peter Carr, a DOJ spokesperson, said in an announcement. De Oliveira's attorney did not respond to a request for comment. Trump's campaign called the new charges "a continued desperate and flailing attempt" by the Biden administration and the DOJ to harass Trump.
Elon Musk’s Quixotic Quest to Turn X Into an ‘Everything App’ 2023-07-27 - Four years ago, a billionaire tech executive leading one of the world’s pre-eminent social platforms laid out a vision to transform it into an app that could do it all. In an online manifesto, he wrote that the app would not only be central to written communications but have audio, video, payments, commerce and more. The idea was akin to that of an “everything app” espoused recently by Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter. But the dream belonged to Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and chief executive of Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. In a 2019 blog post, Mr. Zuckerberg outlined how he would turn WhatsApp into an app that could be a platform for many “kinds of private services.” In Silicon Valley, the pursuit of an everything app has come up time and again as tech leaders have strained to expand their digital empires. Mr. Zuckerberg tried it. So did Dara Khosrowshahi, the chief executive of Uber. Evan Spiegel, the head of Snap, said he wanted to go for it, too. Yet those efforts fell short, with the tech executives unable to replicate the magic that has abounded in Asia with “super apps” like China’s WeChat, Japan’s Line and South Korea’s KakaoTalk. U.S. tech giants have instead run into cultural differences, regulatory scrutiny and a splintered financial system that has made the quest to build such apps more difficult.
Chipotle earnings: Stock falls 6% after sales growth misses forecasts 2023-07-26 - Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) reported fiscal second quarter earnings results on Wednesday, July 26, after the market close that showed sales rose less than expected, sending the company's stock down as much as 6.5% in after-hours trading. Revenue grew 13.6% to $2.5 billion as same-store sales rose 7.4%, slightly lower than analyst estimates for sales to rise 7.67% from a year ago. Operating margins also rose last quarter to 17.2%, up from 15.3% a year ago but slightly lower than analyst estimates for margins closer to 17.55%. The company did manage to post a bottom-line beat, with adjusted earnings per share coming in at $12.32, more than the $12.25 expected by analysts. In the third quarter, Chipotle execs expect same-store sales to grow in the low- to mid-single-digit range and 2023 full-year sales to grow in the mid- to high-single-digit range. In the company's earnings release, CEO Brian Niccol said the quarter reflected Chipotle's "ability to drive strong performance by focusing on exceptional food and exceptional people." Chipotle stock has gained about 50% so far this year through Wednesday's close. In-restaurant sales, as opposed to online orders, also moved higher last quarter, up 14.8% compared to last year while digital sales made up 38% of total food and beverage revenue. Food, beverage, and packaging costs made up 29.4% of total revenue last quarter, down 100 basis points compared to Q2 2022, in part due to the "benefit of menu price increases taken in the prior year" and lower avocado costs, which offset higher prices for other food items such as beef, tortillas, dairy, salsa, beans, and rice. Beef and avocados make up 20% and 9% of Chipotle's food basket, respectively. Restaurant-level operating margins came in at 27.5%, slightly higher than estimates of 27.17% and up from last year's second quarter results, at 25.2%. "The improvement was primarily due to the benefit of sales leverage and, to a lesser extent, lower avocado prices. These decreases were partially offset by higher inflation across several food costs, and to a lesser extent, wage inflation," the company said. Story continues Is Chicken Al Pastor the fiscal second quarter hero for Chipotle Mexican Grill? (Courtesy: Chipotle) Chipotle is also investing in expansion. Last quarter, the company opened 47 new restaurants with 40 locations including a Chipotlane — what it calls its drive-thrus. In 2023, it plans to open a total of 255 to 285 new restaurants, and 10-15 existing locations will add a Chipotlane. Last week, the company announced its first-ever development agreement to open restaurants in the Middle East and accelerate its international efforts early next year. Brooke DiPalma is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @BrookeDiPalma or email her at bdipalma@yahoofinance.com. For the latest earnings reports and analysis, earnings whispers and expectations, and company earnings news, click here Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
Meta earnings: Facebook parent beats on revenue, guidance, stock climbs after hours 2023-07-26 - Meta Platforms (META) reported second quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday, beating estimates on the top and bottom line and sending the company's stock up as much as 5% in after-hours trading. Meta's revenue numbers came in above expectations, totaling $32 billion against the $31.06 billion estimated by Wall Street. The company also guided to revenue of $32 billion-$34.5 billion for the current quarter, more than the $31.2 billion expected by analysts. The company reported earnings per share of $2.98, more than the $2.92 expected by analysts. The Facebook and Instagram parent also reported ad revenue of $31.5 billion, more than the $30.43 billion expected. Meta's ad impressions — key to the company's monetization of its platforms — jumped 34% year-over-year, as the price per ad went down by 16% in that same period. "Impression growth was primarily driven by Asia-Pacific and the rest of the world," Meta CFO Susan Li told analysts in the company's earnings call. Facebook's daily active user counts also topped expectations, as the company reported 2.06 billion as compared to estimates of 2.03 billion. "We had a good quarter," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. "We continue to see strong engagement across our apps and we have the most exciting roadmap I've seen in a while with Llama 2, Threads, Reels, new AI products in the pipeline, and the launch of Quest 3 this fall." However, the company did report a wider operating loss than expected in its VR division Reality Labs. And the company expects to see these losses continue as it keeps making AR and VR investments. Reality Labs lost $3.74 billion in Q2, more than the $3.68 billion Wall Street expected the division to lose. A person tries an Oculus Meta Quest virtual reality headset at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecom industry's biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona on February 28, 2023. (Photo by Josep LAGO / AFP) (Photo by JOSEP LAGO/AFP via Getty Images) In a statement, Li said, "for Reality Labs, we expect operating losses to increase meaningfully year-over-year due to our ongoing product development efforts in augmented reality/virtual reality and investments to further scale our ecosystem." Story continues In 2022, Reality Labs lost more than $13 billion. The company's newest headset, the Meta Quest 3, will be coming out in the fall, just as the VR race is getting hotter with Apple (AAPL) entering the space with its mixed-reality headset, the Apple Vision Pro, later this year. In the company's earnings call, Zuckerberg said that, though others are entering the space, Meta spearheaded the tech. "We pioneered mixed reality with our Quest Pro headset, and Quest 3 takes it to a whole new level," he told analysts. "Now, others in the industry are, of course, working on bringing mixed reality to the market too, but Quest 3 is going to be the first mainstream accessible device that we expect many millions of people will get to experience." Further, Meta, which laid off more than 20,000 of its employees throughout 2022 and 2023, said it expects expenses to rise, as the company anticipates higher infrastructure and payroll costs. Meta, in a statement, said it's evolving its "workforce composition toward higher-cost technical roles." Accordingly, the company said that its overall 2023 expenses will come in between $88 billion-$91 billion, higher than the previously anticipated $86 billion-$90 billion range. AI, of course, featured in the company's earnings call – and while it's a huge opportunity, building and offering AI products at scale still involves a number of questions. "In terms of how quickly some of these new products scale, that's one of the big unknowns for the business," Zuckerberg told analysts. "One of the things we're debating heavily [is] thinking through the amount of AI capex to bring online, because the reality is that we just don't know how quickly these things will scale and we want to have the capacity in place in case they scale quickly." Allie Garfinkle is a Senior Tech Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @agarfinks and on LinkedIn. Click here for the latest trending stock tickers of the Yahoo Finance platform. Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance. Download the Yahoo Finance app for Apple or Android. Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Dow rises for 13th straight day, stocks split after Fed decision: Stock market news today 2023-07-26 - Stocks ended close to where they began Wednesday after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates by 0.25% and investors weighed earnings reports from Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOGL). The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) clung on to gains as it extended its winning streak to 13 sessions, its longest since 1987. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) was roughly flat, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) finished down 0.1%. The Fed had been overwhelmingly expected to hike interest rates Wednesday. In a press conference following the decision, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank had not made a decision on whether to hike rates at its next meeting in September. He noted that between now and that meeting, the Fed would consider a slew of economic data including two monthly jobs reports, inflation reports, and data on economic activity. "All of that information is going to inform our decision," he said. Next up on the Big Tech earnings docket is Meta (META), expected to report after trading ends. In focus is what the Facebook parent will say about its artificial intelligence efforts, given that hopes for the tech helped drive a rally in stocks. Microsoft's and Alphabet's AI updates came under close scrutiny, and both topped estimates in their after-hours reports. But the stocks are headed in opposite directions early Wednesday, with the Google owner on the rise. Click here for the latest stock market news and in-depth analysis, including events that move stocks Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
Here's Zillow Founder's Only Real Estate Investment — He Finds The Sector 'Unapproachable And Complex' 2023-07-26 - Serial entrepreneur Spencer Rascoff is best known as the co-founder and former CEO of the online real estate marketplace Zillow. He also co-founded Pacaso, a platform that aims to make owning a second home more accessible by offering a shared ownership model. Given his role in creating these platforms, one might think that Rascoff must be a big real estate investor. But that's not really the case. In a recent fireside chat, Arrived Co-Founder and CEO Ryan Frazier asked Rascoff whether he has invested in real estate. "Not for any income," Rascoff said. "I own a couple of homes for my own use, and I own a Pacaso, but no, I have not done any proper real estate investing." The obstacle that's preventing the accomplished businessman from becoming a real estate mogul is the same one that hinders many everyday investors from building a real estate portfolio. "The reason for that is what allows Arrived to exist, which is I always found it unapproachable and complex. I didn't know where to start. It seemed really expensive. I didn't really know how to do it. I didn't want to deal with the operational elements of it," Rascoff said. Arrived is an online investment platform that addresses the issue. It allows people to easily invest in real estate by purchasing shares of rental properties for as little as $100. It also manages everything from finding tenants to handling repairs. And Rascoff is using it to tap into the segment. "So I am an Arrived customer. I have an account," he said. "I own shares in a couple of different Arrived homes, but other than that I have never been a real estate investor." Why Real Estate Investing Can Be ‘Unapproachable And Complex' If you want to collect rental income the traditional way, you'd have to put together a hefty down payment, get a mortgage and buy a property. Then you would need to screen potential tenants, prepare lease agreements and ensure that rent is paid on time. Chasing late payments and dealing with delinquent tenants is never fun. Story continues At the same time, landlords are responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of their properties, which can require frequent repairs and updates. Landlords are also on the hook for securing proper insurance coverage for their properties and paying property taxes, which can require ongoing attention. All of this can make the supposedly passive income a lot less passive. Collect Rental Income Without Becoming A Landlord Despite being expensive to purchase and maintain, residential real estate remains a popular option for investors. One of the reasons is that it is a well-known hedge against inflation. As the price of raw materials and labor goes up, constructing new properties becomes more expensive. And that contributes to the appreciation of existing property values. The supply and demand dynamics in housing also deserve attention according to Frazier. "I think there's just such low supply both in homes to buy but also homes to rent," he said. "And with more people working from home, they're looking for larger spaces and we've certainly seen, you know, the rental demand has been really strong, probably also because of higher interest rates, the cost of buying goes up ... there's just so much need for more housing." Simply put, elevated home prices and high mortgage rates mean owning a home is less feasible. And when people can't afford to buy a home, renting becomes the only option. This creates a stable rental income stream for landlords. These days, you don't have to become a landlord to invest in real estate. You can invest in real estate investment trusts (REITs) that specialize in residential properties. And if you don't want the volatility associated with publicly traded REITs, there are also platforms — like the one Zillow Co-Founder Rascoff is using — that enable retail investors to invest directly in rental properties through the private market. Check out: Investing in real estate just got a whole lot simpler. With as little as $100, average investors are becoming landlords thanks to this Jeff Bezos-backed startup. Elon Musk has reportedly bought 6,000 acres of land just outside of Austin. Here’s how to invest in the city’s growth before he floods it with new tech workers. Send To MSN: 0 Don't miss real-time alerts on your stocks - join Benzinga Pro for free! Try the tool that will help you invest smarter, faster, and better. This article Here's Zillow Founder's Only Real Estate Investment — He Finds The Sector 'Unapproachable And Complex' originally appeared on Benzinga.com . © 2023 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Drugmaker Mallinckrodt in talks with hedge funds to avoid opioid settlements - WSJ 2023-07-26 - Bottles of prescription painkiller Oxycodone Hydrochloride, 30mg pills, made by Mallinckrodt sit on a shelf at a local pharmacy in Provo (Reuters) - Drugmaker Mallinckrodt is talking to hedge funds about filing for bankruptcy and avoiding payments intended to help people addicted to opioids, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Shares of the company rose 53.3% to 69 cents in afternoon trade. As part of a prearranged deal, Mallinckrodt will propose to write off about $1 billion from what it still owes to addiction victims and state and local governments, while making a one-time payment of roughly $250 million, the report said, citing people familiar with the discussions. Mallinckrodt did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. A group of hedge funds, including Greenwich and Silver Point Capital, is in negotiations with Mallinckrodt's board to give them control of the business through a bankruptcy filing, according to people familiar with the discussions, the report said. Mallinckrodt, which is one of the largest manufacturers for opiods, had filed for bankruptcy protection nearly three years ago. It reached a $1.7 billion nationwide settlement as part of its bankruptcy reorganization plan and emerged from Chapter 11 last year. The company in June said it was considering a second bankruptcy filing and other options after its lenders raised concerns over the $200 million payment related to opioid-related litigation. (Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
Volkswagen buys stake in Xpeng, will jointly develop two new EVs with the Chinese automaker 2023-07-26 - Volkswagen and Xpeng will jointly develop two new VW-brand EVs for China based on Xpeng's electric G9. Volkswagen said Wednesday that it has signed a deal to jointly develop two new electric vehicles for China with Chinese EV maker Xpeng . As part of the deal, Volkswagen will invest about $700 million in Xpeng, taking a 4.99% stake. Xpeng's U.S.-traded shares ended the day up over 26% following the news. Under the deal, Volkswagen and Xpeng will develop two midsize battery-electric models based on the platform that underpins Xpeng's G9, a midsize electric crossover SUV. In a separate statement confirming the deal, Xpeng said the two new vehicles will also incorporate its advanced driver-assist software. The new EVs, which will be branded as VWs and sold only in China, are expected to launch in 2026. Volkswagen is paying $15 per U.S.-traded share for its Xpeng stake and will receive a seat on the EV maker's board of directors, subject to regulatory approvals. Volkswagen also confirmed that its Audi subsidiary has signed a separate deal with its longtime Chinese joint venture partner, Shanghai-based SAIC Motor , to jointly develop new Audi-branded EVs for the Chinese market. The plan is to develop new EVs in segments where Audi does not currently have entries in China, the company said. "We are leveraging the strengths of Volkswagen and our partners to create synergies to bring additional products to market faster," said Ralf Brandstätter, Volkswagen's China chief, in a statement. "In doing so, we focus on the specific needs of our customers in China. At the same time, we want to significantly optimize development and procurement costs."
Teladoc Health Shares Are Seeing Increased Investor Interest Today: Here's Why - Teladoc Health (NYSE:TDOC) 2023-07-26 - Teladoc Health Inc TDOC shares are moving higher Wednesday after the company reported better-than-expected financial results. What Happened: Teladoc said second-quarter revenue increased 10% year-over-year to $652.4 million, which beat the consensus estimate of $649.19 million, according to Benzinga Pro. The company reported a quarterly loss of 40 cents per share, which beat analyst estimates for a loss of 41 cents per share. Adjusted gross margin came in at 70.8%, up from 69.2% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA was up 54% year-over-year. Access fees revenue grew 11% to $575.7 million, and other revenue grew 4% to $76.7 million. U.S. revenue grew 8% to $561.8 million, and International revenue grew 28% to $90.6 million. Cash flow from operations totaled $101.2 million. Free cash flow came in at $64.6 million. "This performance is a direct result of introducing and expanding new products and services, investing in a robust innovation pipeline, controlling expenses, and vertically integrating care to capitalize on customer demand for unified virtual and in-person healthcare experiences," said Jason Gorevic, CEO of Teladoc. See Also: AT&T Q2 Earnings: Revenue and EPS Beat, Margin Growth, Confidence in FY23 Outlook and More Outlook: Teladoc sees third-quarter revenue in the range of $650 million to $675 million versus estimates of $663.11 million. The company anticipates a third-quarter loss of 40 to 50 cents per share versus estimates for a loss of 33 cents per share. Teladoc expects full-year 2023 revenue to be between $2.6 billion and $2.675 billion versus estimates of $2.63 billion. The company sees a full-year earnings loss of $1.25 to $1.60 per share versus estimates for a loss of $1.34 per share. TDOC Price Action: Teladoc shares were up 7.46% at $24.48 at the time of writing, according to Benzinga Pro. Photo: courtesy of Teladoc.
Mega Millions lottery jackpot nears $1B ahead of Friday drawing 2023-07-26 - COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The Mega Millions lottery jackpot is approaching $1 billion ahead of Friday’s drawing, driving first-time buyers and other hopefuls to stock up on tickets. Regeina Whitsitt, a lottery clerk for RED X Grocery Store in the Missouri city of Riverside near the border of Kansas, said she’s sold tickets to a number of new players trying to win the $910 million jackpot. Customers are buying $60 to $100 worth of tickets, Whitsitt said. The $910 million prize is one of the largest in U.S. lottery history and follows a $1.08 billion Powerball prize won by a player July 19 in Los Angeles. California lottery officials haven’t announced a winner for that jackpot, the sixth-largest in U.S. history. The largest U.S. jackpot was a $2.04 billion Powerball prize won in November 2022. The current Mega Millions jackpot is shaping up to be the fifth highest in Mega Millions history, with a one-time cash prize estimated at $464 million. The last winner took home $20 million in April. Since then, there have been 28 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner. The highest Mega Millions jackpot, won in 2018, was more than $1.5 billion. WHAT ARE THE CHANCES OF WINNING? The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350. Your odds of winning are only slightly improved by buying more than one ticket. And the odds are so long that it’s certainly not worth spending money you’ll miss for more tickets, experts warn. If buying one ticket gives you a 1 in 302,575,350 of winning the jackpot, spending $10 for five tickets improves your chances to only 5 in 303 million. The same is true is you spend $100. So you could spend a lot of money on tickets and still almost undoubtedly not hit the jackpot. Lottery officials say the average player buys two or three tickets, meaning they’re putting money down on a dream with very little chance of a jackpot payoff. For every dollar players spend on the lottery, they will lose about 35 cents on average, according to an analysis of lottery data by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland. WHY ARE LOTTERY JACKPOTS SO LARGE THESE DAYS? That’s how the games have been designed. The credit for such big jackpots comes down to math -- and more difficult odds. In 2015, the Powerball lottery lengthened the odds of winning from 1 in 175.2 million to 1 in 292.2 million. Mega Millions followed two years later, stretching the odds of winning the top prize from 1 in 258.9 million to 1 in 302.6 million. The largest lottery jackpots in the U.S. have come since those changes were made. WHERE IS MEGA MILLIONS PLAYED? Mega Millions is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. HOW MUCH MONEY DOES THE LOTTERY MAKE FOR STATES? State-run lotteries brought in roughly $95 billion in revenue in 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Of that, about $64 billion was paid out in prizes and another $3.4 billion was used to run the programs. A little under $27 billion in revenue was left for states to pad their budgets. State lotteries spend more than a half-billion dollars a year on pervasive marketing campaigns designed to persuade people to play often, spend more and overlook the long odds of winning. For every $1 spent on advertising nationwide, lotteries have made about $128 in ticket sales, according to an analysis of lottery data by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland. ___ Associated Press video journalist Nicholas Ingram contributed to this report from Riverside, Missouri.
Congress urged to revive long-stalled debate about regulating self-driving vehicles 2023-07-26 - WASHINGTON (AP) — Advocates for the self-driving vehicle industry on Wednesday warned that years of regulatory inaction is putting American manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage and urged Congress to expand their ability to test and eventually sell autonomous cars and trucks. “I’m sure it’s rare for you that someone from the private sector comes before you to ask, to plead, for their business to be regulated,” said John Bozella, president for the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents several major auto manufacturers. “We’re at a crossroads, and without a comprehensive AV framework, companies are not going to succeed.” While most Republicans, and some Democrats, on the House Energy and Commerce Committee seemed enthusiastic about speeding up the pace of AV research and testing in America, others warned about going too fast without addressing long-standing issues of safety and liability. Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the committee’s ranking Democrat, warned that Congress “cannot simply dust off 6-year-old legislation and ignore the substantial issues that have emerged in recent years ... Troubling safety incidents are mounting, liability loopholes are emerging.” The legislation in question is a 2017 bill on AV regulations that passed the House but stalled in the Senate. Currently AV manufacturers can deploy a maximum of 2,500 self-driving vehicles for testing, provided they have permission from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. AV advocates have complained that the limits represent a bottleneck that is holding back the growth of the industry at a crucial time. Currently the NHTSA has spent more than a year considering a petition from General Motors to deploy 2,500 vehicles from its Cruise AV unit for street testing and a ride-hailing service. Among the new proposals currently before the committee is one that would provide exemptions for manufacturers to deploy thousands of autonomous vehicles without meeting existing auto safety standards. One of the main sticking points surrounds liability in case of an accident caused by a malfunctioning AV. Industry advocates argued Wednesday that accidents involving self-driving vehicles are exaggerated and that the machines are already far more reliable than human beings. Gary Shapiro, head of the Consumer Technology Association, told the committee that self-driving vehicles, “are never distracted, never tired, they don’t get drunk and they don’t fall asleep.” But Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., countered that the human driving model at least provides clarity on who to blame and who should pay for the damage. “When somebody gets injured, somebody gets sued,” he said. “When a minivan goes off the road in Florida and five people are killed, somebody is getting sued ... Each one of these (crashes) is still going to be subject to a plaintiff’s lawyer, an insurance company and a defense lawyer. And until we’ve figured that out, this is just a science project.” On General Motors’ earnings conference call Tuesday, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said his company’s analysis of the first million miles of autonomous vehicle use shows they had 54% fewer collisions than humans in similar environments, and 92% fewer crashes where the autonomous vehicle was at fault. “The vast majority of collisions are caused by inattentive or impaired human drivers, not the AV,” he said. But auto safety advocates have cast doubt on industry claims about the safety of autonomous vehicles and the numbers they use to back up those claims. Missy Cummings, a former senior safety adviser to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration who is now an engineering and computer science professor at George Mason University, said that analysis of available data challenges those safety claims. Robotaxis from Cruise are eight times more likely to get into a crash than humans, she said, while autonomous vehicles from Waymo, a spinoff of Google, are four times more likely than humans to crash. “I think we need to take their claims of being safer with a grain of salt,” Cummings said. —- Krisher reported from Detroit.
Facebook parent Meta posts higher profit, revenue for Q2 as advertising rebounds 2023-07-26 - Facebook parent company Meta Platforms posted stronger-than-expected results for the second quarter on Wednesday, buoyed by a rebound in online advertising after a post-pandemic slump. The Menlo Park, California-based company earned $7.79 billion, or $2.98 per share, in the April-June period. That’s up 16% from $6.69 billion, or $2.46 per share, in the same period a year earlier. Revenue jumped 11% to $32 billion from $28.82 billion in the year-ago quarter. It’s the first double-digit revenue growth for the company since 2021. Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $2.91 per share on revenue of $31.08 billion, according to a poll by FactSet Research. Facebook had 3.03 billion monthly active users as of June 30, up 3% year-over-year. Squeezed by a slump in online advertising and uncertainty around the global economy, Meta has cut more than 20,000 jobs since last November. It had 71,469 employees as of June 30, down 14% from a year earlier. Many other tech companies, including Google parent Alphabet and Amazon, have also cut thousands of jobs. “There’s a lot to feel good about when it comes to Meta right now. It has been able to maintain decent growth in monthly and daily active users across both Facebook and its family of apps, and it has seen strong performance from Advantage, its AI-driven suite of ad automation tools,” said Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst with Insider Intelligence. For the current quarter, Meta is forecasting revenue of $32 billion to $34.5 billion. That’s above the $31.22 billion that analysts are expecting. Meta’s rebound followed a solid earnings report from Alphabet a day earlier. Meta’s stock jumped $14.45, or 4.8%, to $313.02 in after-hours trading in response to the results.
Further federal probes into false Connecticut traffic stop data likely, public safety chief says 2023-07-26 - HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut’s public safety commissioner on Wednesday told state lawmakers to expect a federal investigation into a recent audit’s findings, which showed hundreds of state troopers submitted false information from 2014 to 2021 on at least 26,000 traffic stops — information ultimately reported to a racial profiling board. State legislators from two committees called the legislative informational meeting after data analysts with the University of Connecticut said the traffic stop reports resulted in too many drivers being identified as white. The Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, which oversees the Connecticut State Police, is already complying with a subpoena related to the traffic stop matter issued by the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Transportation, department head James Rovella confirmed. The DOT intends to determine whether the false data was used to secure federal money, he said. “I don’t think that’s it, ladies and gentlemen,” Rovella told lawmakers. “I think there’s more to come from our federal agencies, at least the Department of Justice on this one.” On Monday, Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont ordered an independent investigation to “learn how it happened, why it happened, and how to prevent it from ever happening again.” Ken Barone, associate director of UConn’s Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy and project manager of the Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Project, said the group did not assess the intentions of the troopers in the analysis of the traffic reports. He said no member of the public actually received a ticket. Rather, it was erroneous data entered into the system. While Barone said further investigation could determine some of the false records were due to human error, he stressed how researchers used “very conservative methodology” that gave troopers the benefit of the doubt. “We ran the analysis well over 20 times. One of the things that stood out to me: The trend never changed. And that’s telling in statistical analysis,” he said. “The more we ran it, the more the trend stayed the same.” The audit was spurred by a Hearst Connecticut Media report last year that said four state troopers in an eastern Connecticut barracks intentionally created hundreds of bogus traffic stop tickets to boost their productivity numbers. After internal affairs investigations, one trooper was suspended for 10 days, another was suspended for two days and the other two retired before the probe was completed. The audit found the number of false traffic infractions reported to the Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Project advisory board didn’t match those reported to the state court system, which handles all traffic citations. The false tickets also more often identified drivers as being white. Rovella, who said he was taking the matter seriously and was “angry, to say the least,” said he doesn’t understand why someone would intentionally submit erroneous information. After the four troopers were disciplined, steps were taken to make sure troopers would not be motivated to submit bogus tickets in order to get a newer police cruiser, a favorable assignment or benefits. “What was the purpose? That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” said Rovella, noting an internal investigation will also be conducted. “If you’re not getting a better assignment, if you’re not getting a better car, why falsify?” Rovella pledged to dig into the numbers and said anyone found to have intentionally falsified records “will be held to account.” State Police union officials urged legislators not to rush to judgement and said many of the troopers identified as having submitted false reports have had stellar careers. “This isn’t a systemic issue,” said Andrew Matthews, the union’s executive director and counsel. “It’s an individual issue.” State Rep. Steve Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport and co-chair of the Judiciary Committee, acknowledged the point of the hearing is “not to jump to conclusions” about whether the erroneous reports were intentionally submitted. However, he said lawmakers need to take a closer look at the issue because it calls into question police data the General Assembly relies on to oversee law enforcement. Claudine Constant, the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut’s director of public policy and advocacy, called for “swift, transparent, meaningful accountability” for individual troopers determined to have falsified traffic stop records as well as for the State Police as a whole. “This problem was widespread, long-lasting, and it happened because of lack of systemic oversight of police,” she said in a statement. “The question now is how our elected officials are going to respond when police violate an anti-racist law tens of thousands of times for years.”
How major US stock indexes fared Wednesday, 7/26/2023 2023-07-26 - Wall Street held steady after the Federal Reserve followed through on expectations and raised its benchmark interest rate to the highest level in more than two decades. Treasury yields fell following Wednesday’s announcement, which traders hope will mark the final increase of this cycle. The S&P 500 closed just barely lower. The Dow rose 82 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.1%. Microsoft fell 3.7% following its earnings report, while Alphabet rose 5.6%. The parent company of Google and YouTube reported better profit and revenue than analysts expected. On Wednesday: The S&P 500 fell 0.71 points, less than 0.1%, to 4,566.75. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 82.05 points, or 0.2%, to 35,520.12. The Nasdaq composite fell 17.27 points, or 0.1%, to 14,127.28. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 14.24 points, or 0.7%, to 1,980.36. For the week: The S&P 500 is up 30.41 points, or 0.7% The Dow is up 292.43 points, or 0.8% The Nasdaq is up 94.48 points, or 0.7% The Russell 2000 is up 20.10 points, or 1% For the year: The S&P 500 is up 727.25 points, or 18.9%. The Dow is up 2,372.87 points, or 7.2%. The Nasdaq is up 3,660.80 points, or 35%. The Russell 2000 is up 219.11 points, or 12.4%.
The US is requiring more planes to have accessible restrooms, but change will take years 2023-07-26 - Some new planes eventually will be required to have lavatories big enough to be accessible to wheelchair users, a change that disability advocates have sought for many years. The U.S. Department of Transportation issued a long-awaited final rule on the subject Wednesday. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the new rule will give travelers in wheelchairs “the same access and dignity as the rest of the traveling public.” The rule will only apply to new single-aisle planes with at least 125 seats, such as the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320. The restriction means that smaller regional jets used on hundreds of flights a day for the major airlines won’t be covered. Also, airlines won’t be required to retrofit current planes, so the number of planes with larger lavatories will grow slowly over time. The requirement for at least one accessible lavatory will apply to planes ordered 10 years or delivered 12 years after the rule takes effect this fall, except for future models of planes, which will have to comply within one year. Two-aisle planes — more commonly used on international flights — have long been required to have accessible lavatories. Despite the limitations, advocates for people with disabilities praised the new rule, which largely follows 2016 recommendations from a Transportation Department-backed committee that included representatives of airlines and aircraft maker Boeing. In a recent survey by disability groups, more than half of the respondents said the lack of restroom access was reason to avoid flying. Others avoid drinking liquids before flights. Charles Brown, a past president of Paralyzed Veterans of America, said he booked layovers instead of nonstop flights when he traveled recently from his home in Miami to Portland, Oregon, so that he could use airport bathrooms during the cross-country round trip. The new rule, he said, “will make flying a lot more palatable. It makes the real world more accessible to those with disabilities.” Brown said accessible lavatories on planes have long been a top priority for his group, and he was willing to overlook limitations in the new rule. “This is a huge win,” he said. “We have stepped out of 1986.” In issuing the rule, the Transportation Department cited its authority under a 1986 law, the Air Carrier Access Act. Airlines for America, which represents the largest U.S. carriers, pledged to work with government and others to improve accessibility on planes.
Are you a Facebook user? You have one month left to apply for a share of this $725M settlement 2023-07-26 - U.S. Facebook users have one more month to apply for their share of a $725 million privacy settlement that parent company Meta agreed to pay late last year. Meta is paying to settle a lawsuit alleging the world’s largest social media platform allowed millions of its users’ personal information to be fed to Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Anyone in the U.S. who has had a Facebook account at any time between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022, is eligible to receive a payment. To apply for the settlement, users can fill out a form and submit it online, or print it out and mail it. The deadline is August 25. It’s not clear how much money individual users will receive. The larger the number of people submitting valid claims, the smaller each payment will be since the money has to be divided among them. The case sprang from 2018 revelations that Cambridge Analytica, a firm with ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon, had paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of about 87 million users of the platform. That data was then used to target U.S. voters during the 2016 campaign that culminated in Trump’s election as the 45th president. Uproar over the revelations led to a contrite Zuckerberg being grilled by U.S. lawmakers and spurred calls for people to delete their Facebook accounts. Facebook’s growth has stalled as more people connect and entertain themselves on rival services such as TikTok, but the social network still boasts more than 2 billion users worldwide, including an estimated 250 million in the U.S. Beyond the Cambridge Analytica case, Meta has been under fire over data privacy for some time. In May, for example, the EU slapped Meta with a record $1.3 billion fine and ordered it to stop transferring users’ personal information across the Atlantic by October. And the tech giant’s new text-based app, Threads, has not rolled out in the EU due to privacy concerns. ___________________ AP Business Writer Wyatte Grantham-Philips contributed to this report from New York.
Facebook parent Meta sees advertising jump, tops Wall Street targets 2023-07-26 - July 26 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms (META.O) on Wednesday reported a quick rise in advertising revenue, topping Wall Street financial targets for the second quarter and forecasting third-quarter revenue above market expectations. The results from Meta come a day after a strong performance from Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google and make the case that consumers, and the advertisers eager to reach them, are spending despite broad economic concerns. Still, the company also forecast that expenses would rise in both 2023 and 2024, citing costs including legal fees and increased spending on infrastructure considered key to the tech sector's feverish AI race. That spending comes after aggressive cost-cutting. Meta shares were up about 6% in after-hours trade, paring initial gains of 8%. "We continue to see strong engagement across our apps and we have the most exciting roadmap I've seen in a while with Llama 2, Threads, Reels, new AI products in the pipeline, and the launch of Quest 3 this fall," Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said. Meta second-quarter revenue grew 11% to $32 billion in the quarter ended June 30, compared with analysts' average estimate of $31.12 billion. Meta ad revenue rose 12% in the quarter, faster than growth at Google, where ad revenue rose 3%. Adjusted earnings per share of $2.98 topped Wall Street targets of $2.91, according to data from Refinitiv. The social media giant has been climbing back from a bruising 2022, buoyed by hype around emerging AI technology and an aggressive austerity drive in which it has shed around 21,000 employees since last fall. The company's shares have more than doubled in value this year as a result. Advertisers are reinforcing those gains by pumping money into digital ads again after months of muted spending, heartened by signs that the economy may overcome a bout of high inflation without suffering a major meltdown. Brands are hedging their bets, however, and sticking with tried and true platforms. That helps Meta and Alphabet while punishing smaller players like Snap (SNAP.N), which reported disappointing sales on Tuesday. Meta's revenue forecast did not specify whether the figure includes any sales that might be contributed by the recently launched Threads app, which does not yet have ads. LOSSES AND EXPENSES The revenue gains provide relief as Meta makes massive investments to upgrade its data centers and stay competitive in an emerging arms race around AI technology, while continuing to invest more than $10 billion a year in a longer-term bet on "metaverse" hardware and software. Meta's Reality Labs unit, which is responsible for developing metaverse-oriented technology like augmented-reality glasses, reported sales of $276 million, down from $452 million in the same quarter last year. The unit lost $3.7 billion in the second quarter, putting it on track to have far higher costs than the $5 billion annual target set out in a widely circulated investor note in the fall. The unit lost $13.7 billion last year. Meta said it expected Reality Labs operating losses to "increase meaningfully" in 2024 as the company continued to invest in augmented and virtual reality and "scale our ecosystem." Zuckerberg had previously said Meta would "pace" investments in the division after 2023. The company said it expected 2023 expenses in the range of $88 billion to $91 billion, compared with its previous forecast of $86 billion to $90 billion, citing "legal-related expenses." Meta said second-quarter expenses included legal costs of $1.87 billion, mostly related to a fine by Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner in May for transferring user information to the United States. The fine itself was 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion). It said it expected "higher infrastructure-related costs" in 2024, as well as growth in payroll expenses "as we evolve our workforce composition toward higher-cost technical roles." Reporting by Katie Paul in New York and Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru Writing by Peter Henderson Editing by Arun Koyyur and Matthew Lewis Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.