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Anchor Brewing, the Oldest Craft Brewer in the U.S., Will Close After 127 Years 2023-07-13 - It survived San Francisco’s devastating 1906 earthquake, Prohibition and both world wars. But recent economic pressures proved too much for the oldest craft brewer in the country: After 127 years, Anchor Brewing Company is shutting down. In a statement released Wednesday, the company, founded in 1896, said that the impacts of the pandemic, inflation and a highly competitive market left it “with no option but to make this sad decision to cease operations.” Employees were given 60 days’ notice and promised severance packages, the company said. Anchor added that although it had stopped brewing, it would continue packing and distributing beer while available. It will be sold on draft while inventory remains, it said. The brewer’s sales had been declining since 2016, and in 2017, the company was acquired for around $85 million by the Japanese beer giant Sapporo. “The stake through the heart of Anchor was the pandemic,” Sam Singer, a spokesman for the company, said by phone on Wednesday, noting that 70 percent of its product had been sold in restaurants and bars. In 2021, Anchor Brewing tried to adapt, rebranding and bottling and canning more of its beers to sell in grocery stores. But those changes “couldn’t make up for the significant loss of sales,” he added. In a last-ditch attempt to stay afloat, Anchor limited sales of its beer to California, and stopped producing one of its products, a Christmas ale.
Banana Republic Wants to Outfit Your Home, Too 2023-07-13 - Inside Banana Republic’s design studio in San Francisco, Sandra Stangl, the company’s chief executive, pointed to an item that had been creating buzz in stores. It was not a shirt or dress draped on a mannequin. Instead, Ms. Stangl walked toward a king-size bed with a parchment-colored backboard. The company has started putting these bed frames, which sell for around $5,000, near the front of its stores in Los Angeles and New York. Enough shoppers have asked if they were for sale — the answer: Not yet, but Ms. Stangl and her team are taking a limited number of pre-orders for the fall. Shoppers usually think about outfitting themselves, not their homes, when they walk into Banana Republic. But the brand is trying to change that. In March, the retailer announced it would begin selling home textiles, and since then it has rolled out items like throw blankets, rugs and the attention-grabbing bed frames, selling home products online and in 16 of its stores. The home category “gives us a bigger addressable audience,” Ms. Stangl said, standing in front of an embroidered linen and cotton duvet, which the company says is a best seller. She added that offering home goods “stabilizes out the business a little bit.”
How Netflix Plans Total Global Domination, One Korean Drama at a Time 2023-07-13 - When Netflix’s “Too Hot to Handle,” a tawdry reality dating show with contestants from the United States and Britain, did well in South Korea and Japan, the company decided to make its own shows in the respective countries. But instead of programs replete with sex and hooking up, Netflix’s versions in South Korea (“Singles Inferno”) and Japan (“Terrace House”) were more suited to local sensibilities: only hints of romance with minimal touching or flirting. Storytelling can also differ. Impressions of the first episode of “Physical: 100” were divided by geography. Ms. Kim said she found that in general, American audiences thought the extensive back stories about the contestants slowed the show. Korean audiences liked the back stories because they wanted to know more about the contestants. Ms. Kim recalled how Netflix’s U.S. executives asked her why the first Squid Game contest did not come until the last 20 minutes of the first episode. She was puzzled, because this was fast for Korean audiences — but not fast enough for American sensibilities. In South Korea, the action often does not start until the fourth episode because shows often follow the cadence of a story arc suited to a 16-episode broadcast TV schedule. Ms. Kim said she thought that audiences would tolerate work that defied their expectations or values when it was foreign, but that it must be authentic when it was local. So far, that philosophy has been successful. “Squid Game” proves that. But it also shows the new challenge that awaits Netflix — once something is a global hit, there are global expectations.
Looming U.S. Investment Restrictions on China Threaten Diplomatic Outreach 2023-07-13 - “They’re going to have concerns about our investment policies toward China,” said Mark Sobel, a former longtime Treasury Department official who is now the U.S. chairman of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum. “The Chinese have their issues with us, and both sides have a pretty clear understanding that there’s tension.” U.S.-Chinese relations have recently been pushed to their weakest point in years. Tensions have flared over the flight of a Chinese surveillance balloon over the United States, tougher restrictions on technology from Washington, Beijing’s partnership with Moscow during the war in Ukraine and China’s continued threatening of Taiwan. In recent months, the Biden administration has been working to halt a further decline in the relationship, which it sees as a potential threat to global peace and stability. In addition to Ms. Yellen, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken visited Beijing last month and John Kerry, President Biden’s special envoy for climate change, is heading there on Sunday. But new investment restrictions from the United States could escalate the tit-for-tat measures that the two countries have been deploying just as they are trying to set a “floor” under their relationship. The new measures seem to have been largely settled for many months now. But the Biden administration appears to have delayed announcing them given the tumultuous relationship with China. Some of the details also continue to be debated by U.S. government agencies. Once the restrictions are proposed, the private sector will have time to comment on the limits, which could shape how they are put in place.
Hollywood actors set the stage for strike action after contract negotiations fail 2023-07-13 - Hollywood actors could soon have a new role: picketers. Thousands of screen performers represented by the powerful labor union SAG-AFTRA, which stands for the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, are on course for strike action after the guild and a trade association representing the industry’s leading studios could not agree on a new contract. "SAG-AFTRA’s Television/Theatrical/Streaming contracts have expired without a successor agreement," the union said in a statement early Thursday. It is seeking higher compensation and safeguards around the use of artificial intelligence in the creative arts. The union said that after more than four weeks of bargaining the group that represents major studios and streamers including Amazon, Apple, Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros. Discovery "remains unwilling to offer a fair deal on the key issues that are essential to SAG-AFTRA members." The union's national board will meet Thursday morning to decide whether to order a strike, with a press conference set to be held at 12 noon PT. SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said: "SAG-AFTRA negotiated in good faith and was eager to reach a deal that sufficiently addressed performer needs, but the AMPTP’s responses to the union’s most important proposals have been insulting and disrespectful of our massive contributions to this industry." The contract between the two sides expired just before midnight on Wednesday, capping days of high-stakes negotiations and suspense. The strike will be limited to film and television productions. The walkout will not involve SAG-AFTRA members who work in the news business, such as certain broadcast hosts and announcers. The announcement comes more than two months after the Writers Guild of America, a union that represents film and television scribes, started striking amid its own dispute with the AMPTP. (The group represents Comcast, the corporation that owns NBCUniversal; some employees of the NBCUniversal News Group are represented by the WGA.) The writers’ walkout halted most most television production, delayed the filming of some high-profile movies and sent late-night talk shows into reruns. The actors’ strike will likely force other sets to go dark. SAG-AFTRA members authorized a strike on June 5 by an overwhelming margin: 97.91% of the nearly 65,000 members who cast votes. The guild began negotiating with the top studios and streaming services two days later. The union’s existing contract with the major studios originally expired at midnight on June 30, but both sides agreed to continue negotiations and extended the talks until July 12. SAG-AFTRA has argued that performers have been undermined by the new economics of streaming entertainment and threatened by rising technologies. The guild is seeking increased base compensation for performers, which union leaders say has declined as streaming-first studios pivot away from paying out residuals to talent and inflation takes its toll on the economy in general. The union’s actors are also alarmed by the threat posed by the unrelated use of artificial intelligence (such as tools that can make digital replacements for recognizable stars) and the cost of “self-taped auditions” — videos that used to be paid for by casting departments and production offices. In recent weeks, some in the entertainment business worried that all three major Hollywood guilds — SAG-AFTRA, the WGA and the Directors Guild of America, or DGA — would walk off the job simultaneously. But that will not be the case since the DGA announced in early June it had reached a “truly historic” tentative agreement with the studios.
Person of interest in case of Minnesota woman found dead in storage unit threatened to kill her friend, documents say 2023-07-13 - A tipster who reported a Minnesota woman missing before her body was found in a storage unit last week said he tried to get her help for a drug addiction but was threatened by a man whom authorities have identified as a person of interest in her case, law enforcement documents show. The person of interest, Joseph Jorgenson, 40, was charged with second-degree murder in the killing of a second missing woman whose dismembered remains were discovered in a different storage unit on June 28. The tipster called the Minnesota Human Trafficking Investigators Task Force and said a friend, Fanta Xayavong, 33, was missing and possibly a victim of sex trafficking, according to applications for search warrants filed this month that were obtained by NBC affiliate KARE of Minneapolis. Fanta Xayavong. St. Paul Police Department He told authorities that before Xayavong disappeared roughly two years ago, she’d struggled with drug addiction and he’d tried to get her into rehab, according to the documents. “JORGENSON threatened to kill him,” the documents say, adding that the tipster provided text messages showing the threats. The tipster, who didn’t respond to a request for comment, described Jorgenson as “very abusing” toward Xayavong, according to the documents. He contacted authorities after he learned that the remains of another woman linked to Jorgenson, Manijeh “Mani” Starren, had been found in a storage unit, St. Paul police spokesman Mike Ernster told reporters last week. Authorities confirmed with her family that Xayavong had last been seen in July 2021, according to the documents. She was reported missing on May 25, Ernster said. Both women had been in relationships with Jorgenson, Ernster said. The applications, filed in Ramsey County District Court, sought access to the property surrounding Jorgenson’s suburban apartment, along with his email, Facebook and Uber accounts. Xayavong’s body was found July 6 in a storage unit in Coon Rapids, about 25 miles northwest of St. Paul, St. Paul police said in a statement last week. Ernster said the manner of death was homicide. He didn’t provide additional details about the cause of death. According to a statement of probable cause in Starren's case, her dismembered remains were found in a storage unit in Woodbury, about 9 miles southeast of St. Paul. Starren's father reported her missing on May 1 and told authorities that she'd struggled with drug addiction and mental health issues and that she was supposed to have gone to a drug treatment center when she disappeared, according to the document. During her father's last call with her on April 18, she seemed paranoid and afraid, and he believed she was afraid of her boyfriend, the document says. Authorities later found security video showing Jorgenson pushing her into her St. Paul apartment on April 21, according to the statement. Starren was never seen leaving the home again, though Jorgenson was later recorded on video leaving her apartment with two duffel bags and a suitcase, and in a search of her apartment, authorities found large amounts of blood around the apartment that someone appeared to have cleaned up, the document says. Jorgenson was arrested June 26 after he allegedly started a fire in his apartment when authorities tried to take him into custody, police said in a statement. Authorities said he fought with officers and tried to disarm them. Jorgenson's bond was set at $5 million. A lawyer for Jorgenson couldn’t be reached for comment. A relative didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Body of backpacker missing in Yosemite National Park is found 2023-07-13 - YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — The body of a hiker who went missing in Yosemite National Park after being swept away by a cold and fast-flowing creek as California’s epic winter snowpack melts was found over the weekend, authorities confirmed Wednesday. Hayden T. Klemenok vanished July 2 while backpacking with a group at Upper Chilnualna Falls, the National Park Service said in a statement. Hayden Klemenok was last seen entering Chilnualna Creek in Yosemite National Park on July 2. Yosemite National Park He went missing shortly after entering Chilnualna Creek near the trail junction, the service said. That section of the creek is about a dozen miles south of Yosemite Valley and features a series of waterfalls and cascades that plunge hundreds of feet. Klemenok’s body was found Sunday and recovered Monday. How he died remains under investigation, said Scott Gediman, a spokesperson with Yosemite National Park. “The cause of death is currently presumed to be accidental drowning.” Kelmenok’s sister, Taylor McKinnie, said in a statement posted on Facebook. She didn’t immediately respond to a Facebook message seeking comment. Klemenok’s parents told The San Francisco Chronicle that his friends said the day of the accident was hot and the 24-year-old from Petaluma, California, had gotten down on all fours to wet his face, but his hands slipped and he went into the water. “It’s the worst experience any parent or family should go through,” Michelle Klemenok said. California authorities have been warning the public that rivers, streams and lakes are extremely dangerous this year because of the massive runoff. The water is so cold that a person can lose muscle control within minutes, officials say. Despite the warnings, there have been repeated tragedies. Nearly two dozen people have drowned or gone missing in California rivers since mid-April, according to the Bay Area News Group, which has been tracking reports from local authorities.
Video shows L.A. deputy punching mother holding baby; sheriff calls it 'unacceptable' 2023-07-13 - LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles County sheriff’s office deputy punched a mother who was holding a 3-week-old infant during an arrest last year, in a case that has been referred to prosecutors, the sheriff said. The woman was punched twice in the face on July 14, 2022, after she and other women with children were being arrested on alleged child endangerment after a traffic stop, Sheriff Robert Luna said. “I found the punching of the woman in these circumstances completely unacceptable,” Luna said at a news conference. The deputy was not identified. The incident occurred before Luna was sheriff. He was elected in November, defeating then-sheriff Alex Villanueva. Luna was sworn in as sheriff in December. The woman was punched after deputies pulled over a vehicle because it was driving without headlights just before midnight on July 13, 2022, in Palmdale, Luna said. Deputies smelled alcohol and made the “discretionary decision” to arrest three women passengers who had three babies in their arms but not in car seats, as well as the driver, on felony child endangerment, Luna said. Body camera video released Wednesday shows one of the women telling deputies “you’re not taking my baby,” and there is a struggle. At least one deputy says the child is being hurt, the mother says to let go and that “you’re breaking his ... leg,” and a deputy appears to punch her twice in the face, the video shows. Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna speaks Wednesday in Los Angeles. NBC Los Angeles Luna said the incident it was brought to his attention over the weekend by one of his area chiefs. He said he took action but was prohibited by state law from disclosing disciplinary actions. Luna said the deputy has been relieved of field duty. He said he directed the department to refer the matter to the Los Angeles Country District Attorney's Office for criminal consideration. He said the FBI would also be looking into it. Laura Eimiller, a spokesperson for the FBI's Los Angeles field office, said the FBI was in contact with the sheriff's department "and will review the facts to determine whether a violation of federal law occurred.” The district attorney’s office said Wednesday night that a case had not yet been presented to it. The video released Wednesday also shows a different woman having her baby taken from her as she is sitting on the ground, holding the child wrapped in a blanket. For several minutes, the video shows the woman talking to the deputies standing around her about the traffic stop. A deputy tells her she was endangering her child and a female deputy asks, “are you going to give up the baby nicely, or am I going to have the grab him, and they’re going to grab your hands? I don’t want to do that, but those are your two options.” Deputies take the baby away and put the woman in handcuffs as she is seated, the video shows. Earlier this month, the sheriff’s department said it was opening an investigation into a different incident in which a deputy threw a woman to the ground outside a grocery store in Lancaster, NBC Los Angeles has reported. Deputies were responding to a call about people fighting with store loss-prevention officers, the station reported, and Luna said deputies sought to detain two people matching the description provided when it escalated. That deputy is also no longer in the field, Luna said Wednesday. Palmdale and Lancaster are cities in the Antelope Valley, in Los Angeles County but north of the city. Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose district includes Palmdale and Lancaster, called the video released Wednesday “gut wrenching.” She said there have been calls for more transparency in policing in the Antelope Valley. "Discipling deputies, including firing them, is an immediate but short term fix," Barger said in a statement. "Investing in training and increased supervision yields long lasting change." In 2015, after a federal investigation found patterns of excessive use of force, bias and unlawful searches and seizures, the Justice Department announced a settlement with the sheriff’s department over its stations in Lancaster and Palmdale to promote reforms. The male driver of the vehicle in the July 2022 traffic stop in Palmdale was arrested on charges of driving with a suspended license and driving under the influence of alcohol, Luna said. The actions of other deputies and supervisors who were there are also being reviewed, he said. “I still believe this is an isolated incident that was committed by an individual that will be held accountable, make no mistake about that,” Luna said Wednesday. He said the Palmdale incident and others would be used to improve training.
India’s tomato prices surge over 300%, sparking theft and turmoil 2023-07-13 - India is facing a tomato crisis as prices have skyrocketed more than 300% due to extreme weather conditions. Tomato prices surged 341% year-to-date, from 24.68 rupees per kg to 108.92 rupees per kg as of July 11, data from the Department of Consumer Affairs showed. Flooding in major tomato-producing states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka has been a key driver to the price surge, according to India’s National Institute of Biotic Stress Management, a council dedicated to agricultural research. “Due to excess rainfall in these states, tomato [crops have] been highly affected… A large part of the tomato crop has been destroyed due to rains and flood,” the council stated. India is the second-largest producer of tomatoes in the world, and alongside onions, tomatoes are “an absolute essential” to the daily lives of Indian consumers, said Damien Yeo, food and drink analyst at BMI, a Fitch Solutions research unit. Masala, one of the most popular dishes in Indian cuisine, uses tomatoes as a key ingredient in its base sauce. Another popular Indian dish, Andhra Tomato Kura (tomato curry), is also widely enjoyed by locals. Local farmers reported large-scale thefts of their tomato crops, with one report chronicling how thieves took off with boxes of tomatoes weighing some 150kg. Several McDonald’s outlets in India have also decided to drop tomatoes from their menu.
A Florida sinkhole that killed a man in 2013 opens for a third time 2023-07-13 - ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A Florida sinkhole that in 2013 fatally swallowed a man sleeping in his own house has reopened for a third time, only now it’s behind chain-link fencing and doing no harm to people or property. Hillsborough County officials said the sinkhole located in the Tampa suburb of Seffner appeared again Monday, which they said is not unusual for such underground formations especially in central Florida with its porous limestone base. The hole was about 19 feet wide at its largest point. “None of the homes surrounding this appear to be in any danger,” said Jon-Paul Lavandeira, director of the county code enforcement department. “This is not uncommon, what we’re seeing here.” A decade ago, 37-year-old Jeff Bush was sleeping in a bedroom when the earth opened up and devoured him and part of the house. Five other people escaped unharmed and Bush’s brother, Jeremy, tried in vain to dig him out of the hole. Jeff Bush’s body has never been found. “There’s not a day goes by I don’t think about my brother,” Jeremy Bush told WTSP-TV. “This is the only place I’ve got to visit him.” After Bush’s home was demolished, county officials erected a pair of fences around the lot to prevent any further injury. The sinkhole opened again in 2015 and was filled in with a water-gravel mixture, Lavandeira said at a news conference Tuesday. That will be done again. “If there’s a reoccurrence, it’s in a controlled area. It’s going to stay right there,” he said. Sinkholes are as much a part of the Florida landscape as sandy beaches, alligators and developers. Florida has more sinkholes than any state in the nation, mainly because the peninsula is comprised of porous carbonate rocks such as limestone that store and help move groundwater. When dirt, clay or sand on top gets too heavy for the limestone roof, it can collapse and form a sinkhole. Sinkholes are caused naturally but they can be triggered by outside events such as rainfall or from pumping groundwater used to irrigate crops. The central Florida region is ground zero for sinkholes, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection. The state Office of Insurance Regulation said sinkhole claims in Florida cost insurers $1.4 billion from 2006 to 2010. Most sinkholes are small, affecting things like parking lots and roadways. But some are quite large, such as one near Orlando that grew to 400 feet across in 1981 and swallowed five cars, most of two businesses, a three-bedroom house and the deep end of an Olympic-size swimming pool. It’s quite likely the Seffner sinkhole will reopen sometime in the future, Lavandeira said. “This is Mother Nature. This is not a man-made occurrence,” he said.
Colorado dentist accused of poisoning wife searched 'how to make murder look like a heart attack,' officials say 2023-07-13 - CENTENNIAL, Colo. — Shortly after beginning an affair, a Colorado dentist accused of killing his wife searched online for answers to questions such as “is arsenic detectable in an autopsy?” and “how to make murder look like a heart attack,” police said. Days later, James Craig’s wife, Angela Craig, turned to Google to try to figure out why she was experiencing symptoms like vertigo, shaking and cold lips, and she searched for doctors who could help her, District Attorney John Kellner said Wednesday in a court hearing on the evidence in the case. “This is a person who is tragically being slowly poisoned by her husband,” he said. Angela and James Craig. Facebook While Craig’s lawyers argued there was no direct evidence that he put poison in his wife’s protein shakes, as police allege, and accused the lead detective of being biased against him, Judge Shay Whitaker ruled at the end of the hearing that there was enough evidence for the case to proceed toward a trial. She noted that Craig is alleged to have bought poisons online just before Angela Craig experienced her mysterious symptoms. Toxicology tests showed that Angela Craig died because she had been poisoned with cyanide and tetrahydrozoline, a substance found in over-the-counter eye drops, Arapahoe County coroner Kelly Lear testified during the hearing. Craig, dressed in an orange jail uniform, sat at the table with his three lawyers, listening to testimony in a courtroom filled with Angela Craig’s relatives as well as his parents, who declined to talk. Angela Craig died March 18 after being taken off life support during her third trip to the hospital. She was married to her husband for 23 years and was the mother of six children, according to her obituary. As she languished in the hospital, with doctors unable to figure out what was wrong, police alleged her husband was meeting another woman, fellow dentist Karin Cain, who flew from Texas to visit him. Police began investigating James Craig after his dental practice partner and friend, Ryan Redfearn, told a nurse that Craig had ordered potassium cyanide even though they did not need it for their work, according to an arrest warrant laying out evidence gathered by investigators. Cain, an orthodontist, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that she had been in the process of divorcing her husband of almost 30 years when she met James Craig at a dental conference in February. She said they were together for three weeks. Cain said she didn’t willingly have a relationship with someone who was married and she doesn’t like being called Craig’s “mistress.” “I don’t like that label,” Cain said. “If I had known what was true, I would not have been with this person.” Asked whether she thought Craig killed his wife to be with her, Cain said they hadn’t been planning a future together. “There’s no way I’m motive,” she said. Investigators believe James Craig put arsenic in one of the protein shakes he routinely made for his wife for their workouts on March 6 and then, after she survived, he ordered a rush shipment of potassium cyanide that he told the supplier was needed for a surgery, according to court documents. James Craig had asked an office manager not to open that package, but another employee did, leading to its discovery and eventual disclosure to authorities, Craig’s arrest affidavit says. James Craig in court in Aurora, Colo., on March 3. KUSA Neither the affidavit nor testimony during the hearing addressed how investigators believe Angela Craig was poisoned with tetrahydrozoline. The lead detective in the case, Bobbi Olson, testified that testing was still being conducted on an eye dropper sent to a laboratory for analysis. Under questioning from defense attorney Andrew Ho, Olson acknowledged that FBI testing of two bottles used for shakes did not reveal any sign of cyanide or arsenic. Ho also suggested that Craig, who he said had previously tried to kill himself, had been searching online for ways to kill himself. Outside the courtroom, Angela Craig’s brother, Mark Pray, said that he had never heard anyone want to conceal the method of a suicide. The delivery of a third substance Craig is accused of ordering, Oleandrin, was intercepted by authorities after they began investigating him, the document says. Oleandrin is a poisonous substance found in the leaves of the oleander plant. James Craig told Redfearn that he ordered the potassium cyanide for his wife and told a social worker that she had been suicidal and depressed since he asked for a divorce in December, although neither of their children said anything about suicide attempts, according to the arrest affidavit. Redfearn also told investigators that James Craig was on the verge of bankruptcy and had been having problems in his marriage, according to the document. Angela Craig’s sister, Toni Kofoed, told police that James Craig had drugged his wife about five years ago with an unknown drug because he said he planned to kill himself and did not want her to be able to save him. Kofoed believes that incident is what James Craig referenced in a series of texts between Angela and James Craig about her symptoms after she first fell ill on March 6. According to the arrest affidavit, James Craig wrote: “Given our history I know that must be triggering. Just for the record, I didn’t drug you. I am super worried though.”
China exports slumped 12.4% in June from a year earlier as global demand weakened 2023-07-13 - Driverless trucks move shipping containers at a port in Tianjin, China, Monday, Jan. 16, 2023. China's exports tumbled 12.4% in June from a year earlier as demand weakened after central banks raised interest rates to curb inflation. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) Driverless trucks move shipping containers at a port in Tianjin, China, Monday, Jan. 16, 2023. China's exports tumbled 12.4% in June from a year earlier as demand weakened after central banks raised interest rates to curb inflation. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) Driverless trucks move shipping containers at a port in Tianjin, China, Monday, Jan. 16, 2023. China's exports tumbled 12.4% in June from a year earlier as demand weakened after central banks raised interest rates to curb inflation. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) Driverless trucks move shipping containers at a port in Tianjin, China, Monday, Jan. 16, 2023. China's exports tumbled 12.4% in June from a year earlier as demand weakened after central banks raised interest rates to curb inflation. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) China has reported its exports tumbled 12.4% in June from a year earlier as demand weakened after central banks raised interest rates to curb inflation HONG KONG -- China's exports tumbled 12.4% in June from a year earlier as demand weakened after central banks raised interest rates to curb inflation even as Chinese leaders struggled to keep a post-COVID recovery from faltering. Customs data released Thursday showed imports slid 6.8% to $214.7 billion. Exports edged up slightly from the month before, totaling $285.3 billion. The trade surplus was $70.6 billion, rising from $65.8 billion in May. Trade weakness adds to downward pressure on the world’s second-largest economy. Global consumer demand has weakened after the Federal Reserve and central banks in Europe and Asia raised interest rates to bring inflation down from near multi-decade highs by reining in business and consumer activity. In January-June, China’s total trade including imports and exports fell nearly 5% from a year earlier. Exports slipped 3.2% and imports declined 6.7% as prices of commodities like oil fell and demand inside China also faltered. Exports to the United States tumbled 23.7% from a year earlier to $42.7 billion, a six-month low, while imports of American goods sank 4.1% to $14 billion. China’s politically volatile trade surplus with the United States narrowed by 30.6% to $28.7 billion. Trade also has been dampened by tension with Washington and restrictions on access to U.S. processor chips and other technology in a feud with Beijing over security and Chinese industrial policy. Chinese factories assemble most of the world’s smartphones and other electronics. “With the global downturn in goods demand continuing to weigh on exports, we think exports will decline further for now before bottoming out toward the end of the year,” Zichun Huang of Capital Economics said in a commentary. “But the good news is that the worst of the decline in foreign demand is probably already behind us.” Imports from Russia were up 15.7% to $11.3 billion. China has been buying more Russian oil and gas to take advantage of price cuts. That has helped shore up the Kremlin’s cash flow after the United States, Europe and Japan cut off most purchases to punish Moscow for President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Beijing can buy Russian oil and gas without triggering Western sanctions. China has also become Russia’s biggest export market and an important source of manufactured goods. Exports to Russia surged 90.9% in June from the year before to $9.5 billion. The ruling Communist Party set this year’s official economic growth target at “around 5%,” up from last year’s 3% expansion, which was the second-weakest since the 1970s. Some economists raised their growth forecasts to closer to 6% following unexpectedly strong trade figures in March. In April, the government announced steps to support struggling exporters, including by making more trade finance available and encouraging cross-border e-commerce. A five-month campaign launched late April also is meant to increase trade by improving logistics and cutting costs for exporters in 17 cities including Beijing and Shanghai.
Elon Musk unveils his new AI startup with a team of top researchers but a vague mission 2023-07-13 - FILE - Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk speaks at the SATELLITE Conference and Exhibition, March 9, 2020, in Washington. Musk is finally starting to talk about the artificial intelligence company he founded to compete with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. The startup, xAI, had its formal launch Wednesday, July 12, 2023, and says its goal “is to understand the true nature of the universe.” (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) FILE - Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk speaks at the SATELLITE Conference and Exhibition, March 9, 2020, in Washington. Musk is finally starting to talk about the artificial intelligence company he founded to compete with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. The startup, xAI, had its formal launch Wednesday, July 12, 2023, and says its goal “is to understand the true nature of the universe.” (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) FILE - Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk speaks at the SATELLITE Conference and Exhibition, March 9, 2020, in Washington. Musk is finally starting to talk about the artificial intelligence company he founded to compete with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. The startup, xAI, had its formal launch Wednesday, July 12, 2023, and says its goal “is to understand the true nature of the universe.” (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) FILE - Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk speaks at the SATELLITE Conference and Exhibition, March 9, 2020, in Washington. Musk is finally starting to talk about the artificial intelligence company he founded to compete with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. The startup, xAI, had its formal launch Wednesday, July 12, 2023, and says its goal “is to understand the true nature of the universe.” (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) Elon Musk is finally starting to talk about the artificial intelligence company he founded to compete with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI Elon Musk is finally starting to talk about the artificial intelligence company he founded to compete with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. The startup, xAI, formally launched on Wednesday and its goal “is to understand the true nature of the universe.” It hasn't said much more than that. Led by Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX who also owns , the new startup centered in the San Francisco Bay Area has hired a group of top AI researchers who formerly worked at OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Tesla. It will be independent from Twitter's new parent company, X Corp., but will work closely with that company, as well as Tesla, “to make progress towards our mission,” according to a statement. Musk was a co-founder and early funder of OpenAI who parted ways with the San Francisco-based research lab several years ago. He’s grown increasingly critical of OpenAI as it's gained global prominence and commercial success with last year’s release of ChatGPT and solidified its financial ties to Microsoft. The public unveiling of xAI follows comments Musk made about it in April to then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Musk told Carlson that OpenAI's popular chatbot had a liberal bias and that he planned an alternative that would be a “maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe.” The startup reflected Musk's long-voiced concerns about a future in which AI systems could present an existential risk to humanity. The idea, Musk told Carlson, is that an AI that wants to understand humanity is less likely to destroy it. Musk was one of the tech leaders who earlier this year called for AI developers to agree to a six-month pause before building systems more powerful than OpenAI's latest model, GPT-4. Around the same time, he had already been working to start his own AI company, according to Nevada business records.
IMF approves much-awaited $3 billion bailout for Pakistan, saving it from defaulting on debt 2023-07-13 - Girls sells toffee, as they pose for photograph on a roadside in Murree, Pakistan, near Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, July 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul) Girls sells toffee, as they pose for photograph on a roadside in Murree, Pakistan, near Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, July 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul) Girls sells toffee, as they pose for photograph on a roadside in Murree, Pakistan, near Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, July 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul) Girls sells toffee, as they pose for photograph on a roadside in Murree, Pakistan, near Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, July 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul) The International Monetary Fund has approved a much-awaited $3 billion bailout for Pakistan that likely will save the nation from defaulting on its debt repayments ISLAMABAD -- The International Monetary Fund approved a much-awaited $3 billion bailout for Pakistan on Wednesday, the global lender said, a move that's likely to save the nation from defaulting on its debt repayments. The IMF said its executive board approved an agreement to release the funds over nine months to support Pakistan's economic stabilization program. The announcement comes less than two weeks after Pakistan and the IMF agreed to the plan following meetings with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and other officials. "The arrangement comes at a challenging economic juncture for Pakistan. A difficult external environment, devastating floods, and policy missteps have led to large fiscal and external deficits, rising inflation, and eroded reserve buffers" in the fiscal year 2023, the IMF said in a statement. Later, IMF head Kristalina Georgieva said in a statement that “Pakistan’s economy was hit hard by significant shocks last year, notably the spillovers from the severe impacts of floods, the large volatility in commodity prices, and the tightening of external and domestic financing conditions." She said the $3-billion bailout, if “implemented faithfully” by Pakistan, will give it an opportunity to regain macroeconomic stability and address imbalances through consistent policy implementation. Sharif quickly welcomed the IMF decision, saying it was a major step forward in the government’s efforts to stabilize the economy. “It bolsters Pakistan’s economic position to overcome immediate to medium-term economic challenges, giving the next government the fiscal space to chart the way forward,” he said in a tweet. “This milestone, which was achieved against the heaviest of odds & against seemingly impossible deadline, could not have been possible without excellent team effort.” The bailout had been on hold since December when the IMF refused to release a critical $1.1 billion part of the loan because of the country's lack of compliance with a 2019 agreement signed between the IMF and former Prime Minister Imran Khan. A breakthrough was announced recently after Sharif met with IMF head Georgieva in Paris at the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact to discuss the revival of the $6-billion bailout package amid shrinking foreign exchange reserves and increasing inflation, which resulted in higher food costs. Sharif has been trying to overcome the economic crisis since he came into power after Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in parliament in April 2022. Pakistan's economy witnessed a major shock last summer when devastating floods killed 1,739 people, destroyed 2 million homes and caused $30 billion in damage. “Things are now moving in the right direction,” said Dar, the finance minister Wednesday. According to analysts, Pakistan needs at least $20 billion in the next two years to pay back foreign loans with interest. However, earlier this year, foreign exchange reserves fell to less than $4 billion. This money was only enough for the import bill of four weeks, although Pakistan banned some of the imports to save dollars. The approval for the IMF loan came a day after Saudi Arabia deposited $2 billion into Pakistan’s central bank. On Wednesday, the United Arab Emirates also deposited $1 billion to the central bank of Pakistan, according to the finance minister, Dar, who said the country’s economy was now back on the path of growth. According to analysts, the approval of the IMF bailout will help Pakistan because it could encourage other international financial institutions to help Islamabad overcome economic challenges. Pakistan, China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have provided financial assistance in the past five months to avoid a default on debt payments. Dar said Pakistan’s economy will be in a much better position when the government of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League party completes its tenure next month. The next parliamentary elections are expected to take place in October or November, Sharif said in his televised speech earlier in the day, saying he hopes Pakistan will avoid any further loans from the IMF by generating funds domestically.
UK GDP: mortgage payers’ worst fears are likely to come true 2023-07-13 - For mortgage payers, the latest economic growth figures are a disappointment. The 0.1% contraction in gross domestic product (GDP) between April and May tells the Bank of England that the jump in interest rates over the previous 18 months has only had a mild dampening effect on the economy. A majority of the central bank’s decision-making body – the monetary policy committee – have shown they want to see a much bigger downturn to reduce consumer spending before they pause regular increases in the cost of borrowing. As such, a further interest rate rise from 5% looks likely next month, whatever the inflation rate for June turns out to be when it is published next week. Resilience is the word commonly used now about the UK economy, and from a central bankers point of view, that is frustrating. City analysts thought the UK was more susceptible to rising interest rates and one-off events. They were expecting a 0.3% fall in GDP during May. One of the factors cited in their forecasts was the extra bank holiday for King Charles’s coronation, which it thought would lead to a big cut in services and manufacturing output. However, May’s 0.1% contraction was a big improvement on the 0.7% falls seen in June and September 2022 – months when there were also extra bank holidays. Manufacturing output dropped in May, but only by 0.2% while April’s figure of -0.3% was revised up to -0.1%. “The impact on output from the loss of a working day was smaller in most sectors than in June and September 2022, while some parts of leisure and hospitality saw a boost from the extra holiday,” says Martin Beck, the chief economic adviser to the EY Item Club. Beck added that “May’s relative resilience” was also partly a reflection of a rebound in public sector output, with industrial action less widespread than in April. The return to work in the public sector therefore disguised an unspectacular, yet steady fall across most of the private sector. The category used by the Office for National Statistics to cover “arts, entertainment and recreation” expanded by 4.7%, but there was a marked 0.7% fall in wholesale and retail trading and a chunky 0.5% drop in “professional, scientific and technical activities”. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Business Today Free daily newsletter Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning 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 Construction and estate agency also contracted, indicating that much of the property sector is already suffering from higher interest rates. Samuel Tombs, the chief UK economist at the consultancy Pantheon Macroeconomics, says that, overall “the economy remains listless” and modest growth over the rest of the year should persuade the Bank of England to keep interest rates steady. If the economy was ever “overheating” it isn’t now, he says. Resilience is, after all, another word for stagnation in this context. Yet Tombs is out of step with the international agencies and many UK economists who believe the UK’s 8.7% inflation rate must be stamped out by any means possible. And if governments refuses to use tax policies to calm spending in the economy, then the likes of the International Monetary Fund and the Basel-based Bank of International Settlements, which advises the world’s central banks, are relaxed about further interest rate rises. Mortgage payers have been warned. Their worst fears are likely to come true.
Profits at UK homebuilder Barratt drop as buyer demand slumps 2023-07-13 - Britain’s largest housebuilder, Barratt Developments, has suffered a double-digit drop in annual profits after a significant slump in demand, as the surge in interest rates and the end of the help-to-buy scheme drove away first-time buyers. Demand from would-be homeowners fell by 49% in the year to June, which dragged on overall sales and accounted for half of the total decline in its home reservations. While demand from existing homeowners was more resilient, buyers across the country have become increasingly cautious about taking on new debts given the rapid rise in interest rates, which have made monthly mortgage payments more expensive. The UK base rate has climbed from 0.1% to 5% in just over a year and is expected to rise further in the months ahead as policymakers try to reduce inflation. The base rate rises have so far pushed the average rate on two-year fixed-rate mortgages to 6.7%, the highest level since the 2008 financial crisis. “We experienced a significant deterioration in demand during the second quarter and, whilst the position improved during the third quarter, reservations then slowed more than normal,” Barratt said. That surge in rates, coupled with the end of the government’s help-to-buy scheme, which helped first-time buyers get on the property ladder with a 5% deposit, has taken its toll on housebuilders such as Barratt. Barratt said its adjusted profits would be in line with market expectations, with consensus estimates pointing to £880m for the year to June, according to preliminary estimates. That is down 15% from just over £1bn the year before. “We have delivered a strong performance in what has been a challenging year,” the housebuilder said in its trading update. However, the figures spooked investors and Barratt shares fell by 4% to the bottom of the FTSE 100 in early trading. The trend is likely to continue, though, with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) reporting that the steep rise in rates, as well as anxiety about the prospect of an economic downturn, had sent new homebuyer inquiries to an eight-month low in June. While the housing market was in better shape than the period after Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget last autumn, Rics said the index pointed towards “a renewed deterioration in UK home sales”. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Business Today Free daily newsletter Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning 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 Rics’ survey of estate agents showed that new buyer inquiries has slipped from a net balance of -20% in May to -45% in June, which was the lowest reading since October 2022’s balance of -51%. Barratt said it was aware of the headwinds but was comfortable with its cash position and would focus on sales to private landlords in the months ahead. It said that it had the “resilience and flexibility to adjust to changes in the operating environment”.
HMRC has paid my £1,617.60 tax refund to an agent, but I don’t know why 2023-07-13 - Last year HMRC informed me that I have been awarded a £1,617.60 tax refund. However, the money has been paid to a company called Tax Returned Ltd which, unbeknownst to me, has become my agent. I’ve tried to contact it by phone, but it never answers, and there’s been no reply to my email or letter. HMRC insists it requires a letter of authorisation from Tax Returned before it can remove it from my account and put me back in charge of my own tax affairs. OF, Padiham, Lancashire You’ve tumbled into a sinister corner of the tax world in which companies you may never have heard of can signed you up, without you realising, to a deed that entitles it to receive all your refunds of overpaid tax for up to four years – whether or not it was they, or you, who submitted the claim. Worse, you can’t get rid of it unless it gives HMRC written permission to remove it as your representative. And why would it when it can pocket up to 50% of your rebate in fees? In your case, you haven’t yet seen a penny of the payment. Tax Returned is a familiar name. I wrote about it last year after it pocketed half the rebate due to another reader. It has tweaked its website since, and a banner on the homepage explains its fees which are eye-watering – 28% plus VAT of any refund and an extra £50 plus VAT. If you ever get your money, nearly £450 will have been deducted for a claim you can make for free yourself. Its communications haven’t improved, however. Whatever time you ring, a recorded message states it is too busy to take calls and my email, like yours, went unanswered. You say you don’t know how you came to be signed up and it is not inclined to explain. HMRC tells me it can’t comment on individual companies and that customers with concerns must take it up with the company itself, or report a suspected scam to Action Fraud. HMRC is only interested in investigating if a firm makes an invalid claim for a rebate a customer is not entitled to. The good news is the rules have changed. Deeds of assignment signed since March are no longer legally binding, and repayments remain the property of the taxpayer, while claims agents now have to register with HMRC. But since agents are unregulated, and can be set up by anyone from a front room, registration is no proof of probity. Tax Returned’s website points to its Trustpilot score as evidence of its reputation. This is startling- 93% of reviews give it four or five stars, yet the 2% of one-star reviews tell dire tales of unsolicited contracts and unpaid rebates. Many of the satisfied customers appear to have chosen to, or been encouraged to, submit reviews straight after filling out the online application form, before their claim has been processed. I’ve reported my concerns to Trustpilot, which is investigating. You can try your luck with Action Fraud and consider the small claims court. Always be wary of filling in online forms, especially via pop-up ads on social media. One click of a button can sign away your money or rights. Email your.problems@observer.co.uk. Include an address and phone number. Submission and publication are subject to our terms and conditions
Scottish windfarm built in 1995 to be ‘repowered’ with new turbines 2023-07-13 - One of Britain’s oldest onshore windfarms will soon be “repowered” so it can generate five times as much green electricity as it did in 1995 – with almost half as many turbines. The owner of the Hagshaw Hill windfarm, ScottishPower, began dismantling 26 turbines on its site in rural South Lanarkshire on Wednesday. The renewables developer will replace the ageing turbines with 14 larger versions that use updated technology to generate renewable energy more efficiently. The tip of each new turbine will stand at a height of about 200 metres (over 650ft), compared with the older turbines that had a height of 55 metres, according to ScottishPower. The windfarm will also be equipped with a battery storage facility of about 20 megawatts to help make better use of the green electricity. The “repowering” project means the 16MW windfarm, which was the first commercial windfarm to operate in Scotland when it began generating 28 years ago, will have a capacity of 79MW once complete. Charlie Jordan, the chief executive of ScottishPower Renewables, told the Guardian that there was “massive potential” to increase the UK’s renewable energy capacity by repowering its older windfarms using new technology. “Wind power technology has improved so much in the last 30 years. Three modern wind turbines could produce as much power as the whole [Hagshaw] site,” he said. “Although Hagshaw is our oldest site, there were a number of windfarms built in the late 1990s which are coming to the end of their operational lives. We have a dozen more to repower over the next three or four years.” The local community had been “really supportive” of the project, which would employ up to 100 people when work reached its peak, he said. Currently, repowering an existing windfarm is subject to the same planning consent process as building a new onshore windfarm from scratch, according to Jordan. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Business Today Free daily newsletter Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning 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 “At the moment, we have to start right at the beginning again,” he said. ScottishPower is calling on the government to streamline the planning process for existing windfarms to take into account the lower risks of developing in an area that is well understood by developers and supported by local communities. Barry Carruthers, a director at ScottishPower Renewables, said: “We’ve worked in this area for almost 30 years, we know how good this site is and now we’ll be able to produce enough electricity to power almost 61,000 homes each year – almost half the homes in South Lanarkshire.” ScottishPower expects to continue dismantling Hagshaw Hill over the summer and into early autumn. The first new turbines are expected to arrive at the site in May 2024, and the repowering will be complete by early 2025.
Loophole lets farmers pollute UK rivers with excess manure – report 2023-07-13 - A loophole in the UK’s pollution legislation allows farmers to pollute rivers by spreading excess manure, an investigation has found, with those acting unlawfully not facing any action in most cases. The government introduced new farming rules for water in 2018, aimed at cleaning up England’s waterways. However, after lobbying from the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), including at least two meetings with ministers, the guidance was watered down. According to internal guidance revealed by the investigations website openDemocracy, polluting farmers may not even be informed of their rule-breaking. Some farm businesses pollute waterways by spreading excess animal waste on their land. When it rains, this runs off into local rivers, causing nutrient pollution and in severe cases, ecosystem collapse. Natural England recently downgraded the status of the River Wye, a designated special area of conservation, due to a decline of key species. The decline is due partly to large quantities of manure being washed into the river from nearby farms. In August 2021, the NFU met Lord Benyon, then the parliamentary undersecretary for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), to discuss the legislation. Four months later, it attended another meeting, this time with Victoria Prentis MP, then the minister of state for Defra, along with officials from the Environment Agency and the British Egg Industry Council and British Poultry Council, two trade associations representing farmers. In response to a freedom of information request, Defra refused to release the minutes of this second meeting, claiming policymaking in this area was “still ongoing” and that releasing this information could “risk inhibiting officials from having full, frank and open discussions as part of the process of formulating policy”. But in written evidence submitted to parliament’s environment, food and rural affairs committee, the NFU said it was decided in this meeting that an Environment Agency team tasked with implementing the legislation would have its terms of reference “rewritten” to “reflect our dialogue”. The guidance now says: “Where a land manager has acted in accordance with the statutory guidance, we will not inform them that they are non-compliant with the FRfW (farming rules for water).” It allows manure to be spread in direct contradiction with the rules, as long as all “reasonable precautions” are taken to reduce pollution, or in circumstances when reducing manure use is not “reasonably practicable”. “The regulations have not changed,” the document states, but goes on to say that enforcement action will not usually be taken providing farmers “can demonstrate that they are operating in accordance with the statutory guidance even if they are not compliant with regulation 4(1)(a)(i) and (ii)”. These specific regulations are in place to limit how much poultry manure can be spread on farmland, ensuring that nutrients “[do] not exceed the soil and crop needs or give rise to a significant risk of agricultural diffuse pollution”. Charles Watson, the founder and chairperson of River Action UK, said: “That loophole is why the soils are now overloaded several times above and beyond what they can take. It is cause and effect, black and white. “The River Wye has basically turned into a green pea soup. It smells, and what used to be beautiful clean gravel on the riverbed is covered with green slime. The river is now very close to complete ecological collapse.” An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “The farming rules for water are one of a number of regulations we use as part of our advice-led regulatory approach with farmers, to protect water quality and nature. If we find pollution or significant risk of pollution occurring we will not hesitate to take further action – evidenced by the enforcement action being taken against 140 farms this financial year.” The NFU deputy president, Tom Bradshaw, said: “Farmers are working hard, through a range of voluntary measures, to prevent valuable nutrients and soil from contributing to water pollution. We can and want to do more and are working with government, local authorities and regulatory bodies to find solutions to address farming’s impact, so that we can better maintain and protect the health of our rivers. “With a growing population, there is a clear need for sustainable, affordable and environmentally friendly food. We will continue to work closely with partners and stakeholders across all sectors so that collectively we can drive improvements that benefit water quality in our rivers.”
AI-Targeted Internet Advertisements Fueling Looming Addiction Crisis 2023-07-13 - The first Adderall ad appeared in my Instagram feed during the height of pandemic isolation. I thought the slick 30-second video promising me a "super easy" way to get ADHD medication was another gimmick. But after the algorithm pushed a few more plugs my way, I started to get curious. The drugs, to my surprise, were real. Unlike countless sketchy ads for black-market supplements, Cerebral, the then-hot telehealth startup behind the ads, offered a legal path to prescription medications. It was indeed a "super easy" path — too easy. My intake process to get prescribed a potentially addictive amphetamine turned out to be easier than getting Taylor Swift tickets or an appointment with my primary-care physician. Even as I doubted that I met the clinical criteria for ADHD, I could honestly answer the vague, brief self-assessment (e.g., "How often do you have difficulty paying attention when you are doing boring or repetitive work?") and receive the same result as tens of thousands of AI-targeted customers: "You have some symptoms consistent with ADHD. We suggest further evaluation." When I spoke to a Cerebral nurse practitioner for all of 13 minutes, the experience was much the same. Answering that, yes, my concentration was strained in the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic got me an official diagnosis and prescription. Like its many telehealth competitors, including Done, Klarity, adhdonline.com, and Circle Medical, Cerebral could peddle, prescribe, and postmark a package of Adderall for me while I never left the couch. A new breed of direct-to-consumer services is aggressively using targeted ads to sell habit-forming medications. Not only do these companies make it easier for those seeking recreational drugs to access them, they're also poised to inundate and threaten the sobriety of people in recovery. And unlike a typical prescriber who might interrogate answers to assess genuine need, some of these firms appear to be designed to remove every possible barrier. In short, AI and surveillance capitalism, which empower today's targeted ads, have joined forces with the deadly OxyContin playbook. But unlike the opioid crisis of the early 2000s, advertisers today have much more data and far more precise tools to push prescriptions, and our privacy laws haven't even tried to keep up. Without intervention, another public-health catastrophe looms. 'Throwing antipsychotics around like candy' An algorithm can't create addiction out of nothing, but it can be the crucial connector that lets companies reach those most at risk. Looking back on my Cerebral experience now, the similarities to the opioid crisis are clear. Having researched the rise of Purdue Pharma's OxyContin blight, the most pernicious catalyst was the same thing I saw in those Instagram ads: aggressive, data-driven marketing. As Dr. Art Van Zee wrote in the American Journal of Public Health in 2009, "One of the cornerstones of Purdue's marketing plan was the use of sophisticated marketing data to influence physicians' prescribing." The Sackler family's pharma giant, he wrote, used "prescriber profiles on individual physicians — detailing the prescribing patterns of physicians nationwide — in an effort to influence doctors' prescribing habits." OxyContin was pharmacologically unremarkable, analogous to countless opioid medications that had been on the market for decades. But Purdue discovered an ingenious, and calamitous, edge: harnessing data to target doctors with an onslaught of marketing materials, cajoling prescribers to hand out the medication more freely, and making the disastrous promise that their formulation was less addictive. It wasn't. OxyContin was patented in 1996, and Purdue's blitzkrieg marketing campaign began soon after, largely triggering the opioid epidemic. Between 1999 and 2017, drug overdose deaths involving prescription opioids climbed from some 3,000 a year to more than 17,000 a year. By 2017, Purdue's annual revenue had grown to $35 billion. Now bankrupt, Purdue stands as a warning for any pharmaceutical company that would try to recruit physicians with the same predatory tactics — yet they persist. Just as important, it's hard to believe that any doctor today would trust a pharmaceutical rep peddling pain meds with a similar claim. But online prescribers don't need to market to the doctor, because they are the doctor, and patients are left with no one but themselves to look out for their well-being. Online prescribers don't need to market to the doctor, because they are the doctor, and patients are left with no one but themselves to look out for their well-being. Physicians have already begun to warn that the Adderall crisis could repeat history. "The prescription amphetamine crisis is growing and could catch up to the opioid epidemic in scope and damage," Dr. David Sack wrote in "Psychology Today" in 2018. The Canadian psychiatrist Anthony Yeung has studied misinformation in videos about ADHD on TikTok and found that deception is rampant. "Without a doubt targeted ads (especially peak pandemic) have had an outsized impact" on Adderall prescription rates, he told me, though he noted researchers still struggle to access ad data on many platforms, so it can be hard to map out the precise effect. And while Adderall is what most fueled these telehealth firms' growth over the past three years, they also market a number of highly addictive medications. They are just as much a ticking time bomb for those addicted to sedatives like Xanax and other habit-forming medications. With AI-augmented advertising, finding yourself targeted only takes a single moment of engagement. After I first visited the Cerebral site, I was soon faced with dozens of ads. Some days it felt like they were a majority of the ads I saw on multiple social-media platforms. For me, the pattern was suspicious, but for someone struggling with addiction, it feels diabolical. These ads may overwhelm those in recovery — imagine trying to fight dependency and protect your health while these firms constantly bombard you with temptation. (On the flip side, the growing use of Adderall recreationally makes the medication far more difficult to find for those who actually have ADHD. In 2022, telehealth prescriptions accounted for 40% of all Adderall prescriptions, driving record usage.) This is the nature of online advertising. This is why you see the same pair of shoes following you online from website to website, or why the trip you almost booked is constantly in your feed. Advertisers systematically target those who are on the verge of buying. A dollar spent on those who've shown interest is seen as far more valuable than a dollar spent on someone who may be a terrible fit for the product. But these companies have no way of knowing who's addicted or in recovery. Last year, a nurse practitioner warned Cerebral' s approach is "risky because you really have to figure out who is drug seeking and who is really suffering from ADHD." Yann Poncin, a clinical child psychiatrist at the Yale School of Medicine, told me that "when it gets to that level of targeted marketing, there's no way for people to know what other people are experiencing." We as a society may have come to accept being stalked by targeted ads, but the consequences are much graver when the product itself is a danger. Getting hounded by that chew toy you thought of buying your shih tzu is one thing; getting harassed by a drug that mirrors methamphetamine is an entirely different matter. And the scale is stunning. Last year, The Wall Street Journal detailed how at one point, Cerebral's ad buy had become so immense it was the third-largest advertiser on TikTok. And as the company grew, employees became alarmed. Some worried that the platform could enable addiction. One nurse practitioner told Insider that employees "will just throw antipsychotics around like it's fucking candy." Cerebral said last year that its "clinicians exercise their independent professional judgment in diagnosing and treating their patients," but that same Journal article reported that company leaders had urged employees to prescribe ADHD to 100% of patients without comorbidities. The company was far from alone in flooding the zone. In just four weeks last year, 20 telehealth companies ran more than 2,100 ads promoting unapproved uses of prescription meds or failing to list their risks. As Bloomberg reported, the approach could accelerate the crises of people already dealing with complex mental-health issues. Ban targeted ads Consequences for its hyperaggressive tactics have caught up with Cerebral. As the Journal reported, after ADHD medications grew to 20% of the VC-funded company's business, driving a $4.8 billion valuation, things came crashing to earth. Cerebral's CEO was fired, many employees left, subpoenas from federal prosecutors were served, and a growing number of pharmacy partners stopped filling the company's prescriptions, prompting the company to stop offering ADHD drugs. But Cerebral's collapse is far from the end of this saga. The relaxed regulations that emerged during the COVID pandemic are a big part of the problem. Early in the pandemic, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services suspended the Ryan Haight Act, a 2008 law that required telehealth providers to have at least one in-person session with a client before writing prescriptions for Schedule 2 medications, which includes habit-forming medications like Adderall, OxyContin, and Xanax. The move made sense then but removed the guardrails to protect against the exact sort of abuses that led to the death of the Ryan Haight Act's namesake, a California teenager who overdosed on Vicodin that he was prescribed online. We as a society may have come to accept being stalked by targeted ads, but consequences are much graver when the product itself is a danger. Even after the official end of the COVID-19 public-health emergency, companies are still able to prescribe Schedule 2 substances without an in-person visit. The suspension of the Ryan Haight Act is currently set to expire on November 11, 2023, but there's no guarantee that the rollback won't be delayed. In the interim, numerous competitors are jumping into the breach. In the course of researching this piece, I was served ads for ADHD medications from the rival telehealth startup Done, and friends sent me examples of targeted ads on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter from firms offering everything from ADHD-care apps to Adderall and even psychedelics like ketamine. Sadly, the solution isn't as simple as rolling back the regulations that allow companies to prescribe these drugs. Not only is telemedicine more convenient, it also offers a lifeline to millions of individuals without local access to care or who find it too expensive. Instead, we need a middle ground. Rather than restricting prescribers' ability to give medications remotely, we can focus on the promotional and sales tactics that set these firms apart from a family doctor who sees a patient over a video call. We can improve intake and assessment requirements. We can have automatic audits for firms with abnormally high levels of Schedule 2 prescriptions. The same proposal Art Van Zee made to quell the OxyContin scourge in 2009 would stand today: "The public health would be better protected if the FDA reviewed all advertising ... for their truthfulness, accuracy, balance, and scientific validity, before dissemination." But above all, we need rules that ban targeted ads for drugs that can get patients hooked. The United States and New Zealand are the only countries in the world that allow direct-to-consumer marketing for prescription drugs. No matter what safeguards are in place, as long as companies can combine them, habit-forming medications and AI ad targeting will make a deadly cocktail. Albert Fox Cahn is the founder and executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, or S.T.O.P., a New York-based civil-rights and privacy group.