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Top Wall Street analysts see attractive prospects for these 3 stocks 2024-07-07 14:19:00+00:00 - Investors are grappling with a host of mixed signals as recent data suggests the economy may be softening and the S&P 500 surges to new highs. As investors navigate this complicated environment, they may turn to research from top-rated Wall Street analysts as they search for stocks with strong balance sheets and solid growth prospects. With that in mind, here are three stocks favored by the Street's top pros, according to TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance. Micron Technology Chipmaker Micron Technology (MU) is this week's first pick. The company recently reported beats on the top and bottom lines for the fiscal third quarter, thanks to the demand induced by the ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) wave. Management is confident about the road ahead and expects to generate record revenue in fiscal 2025, backed by artificial intelligence-driven opportunities. Reacting to the results, Goldman Sachs analyst Toshiya Hari reiterated a buy rating on MU stock and increased his price target to $158 from $138. The analyst sees the post-earnings pullback in the stock as a good opportunity for investors to build a position. He expects AI-driven demand and a disciplined supply to fuel better-than-consensus earnings growth in calendar year 2025. The analyst highlighted several reasons for his bullish investment thesis, including market share gains in the lucrative high-bandwidth memory space and AI compute growth in Micron's data center business and edge computing. Hari pointed out that Micron generated free cash flow of $425 million in the fiscal third quarter, marking a rebound from several quarters of negative FCF. He added that the company "remains committed to driving positive cash flow in FY4Q and into FY2025, even considering the material increase in capex that is expected in FY2025." Hari ranks No. 25 among more than 8,900 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 69% of the time, delivering an average return of 29.2%. (See Micron Technical Analysis on TipRanks) Amazon We move to e-commerce and cloud computing giant Amazon (AMZN). Recently, Evercore ISI analyst Mark Mahaney reaffirmed a buy rating on AMZN stock with a price target of $225 following his firm's 12th Annual U.S. Online Retail survey, which involved 1,100 respondents. Highlighting the survey results, Mahaney said that Amazon continues to be the market leader in the U.S. online retail space, with its dominance reflecting in three vital shopping metrics that his firm tracks – price, selection and convenience. However, he cautioned that the survey indicated a mixed competitive backdrop for Amazon Retail, especially with rival Walmart (WMT) displaying notable improvement in the selection and convenience metrics. Mahaney noted that AMZN remains three to four times ahead of its closest rival across all the three key metrics. Moreover, the company continues to improve its score in satisfaction, which increased 2% year-over-year to 84% and reflected a significant jump from the 65% bottom seen in 2020. The analyst thinks that the enhanced score is a "reflection of Amazon's continued focus on improving speed and selection (esp. via the regionalization initiatives)." The analyst also noted that the penetration of Amazon Prime touched a record high of 81%. Attractive features like Prime Video, Free Same Day Delivery, Prime Music and Grocery made the Prime membership more attractive to the survey respondents. Overall, Amazon remains Evercore's "No. 1 Large Cap Long," with the survey results backing the company's long-term investment thesis. Notably, the survey results supported the analyst's views about three fundamental catalysts in 2024 – significant acceleration in the growth of Amazon Web Services, rising operating margins of the North American Retail business and solid free cash flow margins. Mahaney ranks No. 20 among more than 8,900 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 63% of the time, delivering an average return of 32.2%. (See Amazon Hedge Funds Trading Activity on TipRanks) Twilio Cloud communications platform Twilio (TWLO) is this week's third pick. The company reported better-than-expected results for the first quarter of 2024, with active customer accounts growing to more than 313,000 as of March 31, from 300,000 at the end of the prior-year quarter. However, shares declined following the results as the Q2 guidance missed estimates and reflected the impact of weak customer spending. Nevertheless, Tigress Financial analyst Ivan Feinseth recently initiated coverage of TWLO stock with a buy rating and a price target of $75. The analyst sees the sell-off in the stock as an attractive buying opportunity, backed by his belief that "TWLO is well-positioned to benefit from the ongoing acceleration of AI-driven digital customer engagement." The analyst expects Twilio to gain from the demand for artificial intelligence-based automated responses that ensure timely and cost-effective customer interaction. He expects the company's continued investment in research and development and the integration of predictive and generative AI into its new products to boost customer adoption. Feinseth also highlighted Twilio's cutting-edge "call center as a service" platform and its industry-leading position in the communications market. He expects the company's cost saving efforts and efficiency measures to drive higher margins and boost profitability. Feinseth ranks No. 195 among more than 8,900 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 61% of the time, delivering an average return of 13.1%. (See Twilio Stock Charts on TipRanks)
See inside a historic 50,000-square-foot mansion on New York's Gold Coast that's featured in 'The Gilded Age' 2024-07-07 14:18:03+00:00 - By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time by visiting our Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of the email. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read preview The North Shore of Long Island is known as the Gold Coast thanks to its collection of lavish mansions, which date back to the early 1900s. Many of these homes are thought to have inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald's West Egg in "The Great Gatsby." One such mansion is Hempstead House, which is located in Sands Point Preserve, a 216-acre park about 30 miles outside New York City. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. The entire estate was once owned by Howard Gould, a financier. He sold the land to Daniel and Florence Guggenheim in 1917, according to the preserve's history. The Guggenheims lived in Hempstead House together until 1930, when Daniel died. Florence then sold all of the furniture and moved to a smaller home on the property. Advertisement Hempstead House has had quite a journey since then, according to the Sands Point Preserve: British refugee children lived there during World War II, then the land was acquired by the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences, which in turn donated it to the US Navy. The first in-flight simulator was even tested there. By 1971, the land was in the ownership of Nassau County, which turned the former Guggenheim estate into a park, turned two of the mansions into museums, and opened the park up to anyone willing to buy a ticket. In July 2024, I paid $15 to park at Sands Point Preserve and then another $10 to take a guided tour of Hempstead House. Here's what it was like inside the 112-year-old mansion and what I learned about life there.
Schiff says Biden has to ‘win overwhelmingly’ or pass the torch, adds VP Harris could win against Trump 2024-07-07 14:13:00+00:00 - Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., on Sunday said Vice President Kamala Harris could “overwhelmingly” win against former President Donald Trump but that President Joe Biden must decide whether he will remain in the race as the Democratic Party’s nominee amid backlash over his disastrous debate performance. Asked about polling that showed Harris outperforming Trump if she replaced Biden, Schiff said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that he thought she would be a “phenomenal president.” “I think she has the experience, the judgment, the leadership ability to be an extraordinary president,” Schiff told moderator Kristen Welker. Asked if Biden could win the election, Schiff said, “Either he has to win overwhelmingly or he has to pass the torch to someone who can.” Pressed again by Welker on whether Harris could win against Trump, Schiff said he thought “she very well could win overwhelmingly.” “Before we get into a decision about who else it should be, the president needs to make a decision whether it’s him,” he said. Asked whether Biden should drop out and pass the torch to Harris, Schiff again argued that it’s up to Biden to make that call. “I think Biden should take the time talk to people outside of his immediate circle, talk to people he respects, people with objectivity, people with distance, and make the right decision for the country,” he said. “And I’m confident Joe Biden has always made the fundamental distinguishing distinction between he and Donald Trump.” Schiff also raised concerns about the president’s standing against Trump in the general election, noting the president’s age. “Given Biden’s incredible record and given Trump’s terrible record he should be mopping the floor with Donald Trump,” Schiff said. “It should not be even close, and the reason it is close is the president’s age.” Schiff also said Biden’s interview with ABC News that aired on Friday wasn’t enough to quell mounting concerns from Democrats about his mental fitness. “The interview didn’t put concerns to rest. No single interview is going to do that,” he said. “And what I do think the president needs to decide is, can he put those concerns aside? Can he demonstrate to the American people that what happened on the debate stage was an aberration, that he can and will beat Donald Trump.” Pressed on whether he thinks Biden should take a cognitive test after he refused during his ABC News interview to commit to taking one, Schiff said he’d be happy if both Biden and Trump were willing to take a test. “I think, frankly, a test would show Donald Trump has serious illness of one kind or another,” he said. “But ultimately, the decision is going to come down to what Joe Biden thinks is best, and if his decision is to run, then run hard and beat that S.O.B. And if his decision is to pass the torch, then the president should do everything in his power to make that other candidate successful.” Schiff’s answers come after Biden’s interview with ABC News did little to assuage concerns from Democrats who have called for Biden to step aside after his lackluster debate performance last month. Front-line Democrats who spoke to NBC News say they fear that his debate performance has done irreversible damage to his candidacy. In his interview with ABC News, the president sought to reassure voters that he remains the best candidate to beat Trump in November, arguing that he had a “bad night” at the debate as he sought to tamp down mounting concerns over his age and mental fitness. Biden remained publicly defiant in the face of calls from some Democrats to drop out of the race, repeatedly saying that only “the Lord Almighty” could convince him to end his bid for a second term in office.
No rest for the winners: business secretary rushed on to Sunday politics shows | John Crace 2024-07-07 14:10:00+00:00 - The grownups are back in Westminster. The Tory psychodramas inside No 10 have been replaced by a serious Labour government focused on delivery. It’s going to take time for all of us to make the adjustment. Except, time is the one thing Keir Starmer is not going to allow his new cabinet. He knows that the only way to win over those who didn’t vote for him last Thursday is to make an immediate difference. These days even a landslide majority is no guarantee of a second term. Even so, Jonathan Reynolds, the new business and trade secretary, would probably have liked more than 40 or so hours to get his feet under the desk before being sent out on to the Sunday morning politics shows. I mean, he probably hasn’t even worked out where the nearest toilet is in his department yet. But there is no rest for the winners, and Trevor Phillips and Laura Kuenssberg seemed genuinely bewildered that he didn’t have clear answers to every problem Britain faces. What the hell had Reynolds been doing on Saturday? Clearly, masterminding a penalty shootout win in the Euros was not enough. How quickly we take a new government for granted. After a half hearted “how does it feel to be called secretary of state?” – no need to answer, Jonny – Phillips cut to the chase. Tony Blair had written a 1,500-word agony aunt column for the Sunday Times giving Starmer advice, in which he had said Labour must deal with immigration. Almost as if the former prime minister was a bit narked that someone had got a majority to match his own. Bitter, moi? Perish the thought. Tone had suggested introducing electronic ID cards. At which you began to suspect that he had a financial interest in the AI needed for their development. He’s never been averse to making himself rich. So what was the new government’s plan? Reynolds tried to take it all in his stride. New government, new candour. It was almost as if cabinet ministers had been instructed to try to answer the questions. Nothing Blair could say would ever be unhelpful, he said. Though he could have been a lot more helpful. It was like this. The prime minister would be looking very hard at both legal and illegal migration through the prism of the jobs market. Which sounded much more sensible than anything we had heard in the last few years. Though he became rather more vague about ID cards. It was early in the morning and no one had told him what the government line on this was. An hour or so later, he would categorically rule out ID cards in a radio interview. No one could say the new government didn’t get things done quickly. We moved on to Brexit and freedom of movement. Just don’t call it freedom of movement. There would be a renegotiation of some of the barriers to trade. Just all done on a nod and a wink. Whatever it takes. Watch this space. Over on the BBC, Kuenssberg wanted to know how he was going to sort out the ongoing dispute at the steelworks in Port Talbot. Quickly, said Reynolds, without giving much away. Though not quickly enough for Laura. She sounded as if she was already disappointed in the new government. Then to the election itself. How could Labour say it had a mandate when it had only won about 35% of the vote? Both Phillips and Kuenssberg said this as if it was somehow Labour’s fault rather than a consequence of the first-past-the-post system. As if Starmer was personally at fault for having adopted a strategy of trying to win as many seats as possible. Still, it would have been fun if Reynolds had said: “You know what? You’re quite right. No one should be in government for the next five years on the basis of last Thursday’s results. What the country had voted for was for No 10 to remain empty for the next five years with nobody doing anything at all. Let the UK burn.” Instead he quite reasonably observed that people had wanted the Tories out and that voters who had backed Reform knew they were likely to get a Labour government and were quite happy with that. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to First Edition Free daily newsletter Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion Next up on Kuenssberg’s show were Victoria Atkins and Robert Jenrick. It’s not often that you get one-sixtieth of the Tory parliamentary party on the programme at once. So that was quite the coup for the BBC. And why not? While the Labour party is hellbent on being serious, we mustn’t all lose our sense of humour. So thank God for the Conservatives for providing us with this comedy duo. The idea of a prolonged Tory leadership campaign will be the gift that keeps on giving – to me, at any rate – over the coming months. Maybe it will go on for years. The idea of the Tories uniting behind anyone is a category error. Vicky and Honest Bob were adamant they hadn’t agreed to appear on the show because they planned to stand for leader. Absolutely not. That had been the last thing on their minds. They would never have dreamed of coming on if that had been the case. No, the reason they were on was because they wanted to be able to look voters in the eye and say: “Thank you for not choosing us last Thursday. We always wanted to be humiliated because we had betrayed your trust, so from the bottom of our hearts we are grateful for what you have done.” Which was weird because only last week I could have sworn both had been insisting that the Tories were the only party who could be guaranteed to deliver on their promises. “I’m here to show the country that I understand,” said Atkins. VOTE FOR ME. VOTE FOR ME. “We need to focus on our values.” Just as soon as they’ve discovered what those values are. Assuming they still have any. Honest Bob was hilarious. Someone should give him his own sitcom. Seldom has someone more obviously useless rated himself so highly. “In politics, you lose as a team,” he said. Just marvellous. From the man who had resigned from Rishi Sunak’s government at the turn of the year for it not being sufficiently rightwing. The only team he has ever been on is his own. And that of the pornographer Dirty Des when there’s planning permission to be granted. Over on Sky, Phillips was lamenting that no Tory MP would come on his show. Clearly, Atkins and Honest Bob had suddenly taken their lack of leadership ambitions very seriously. Trevor had to make do with Nadhim Zahawi. Neither he nor Phillips could work out why he was on. The never-ending existential crisis for most ex-Tory ministers. So they both sat down to fill out his tax form. Just to make sure there were no mistakes this time round.
Is Boeing recovering the public's trust? 2024-07-07 14:06:00+00:00 - Every two seconds a Boeing 737 takes off or lands somewhere around the world. For over a century Boeing airplanes have embodied American engineering prowess – a confidence colloquially expressed in the saying, "If it ain't Boeing, I ain't going." "It was pride in our country's iconic manufacturer; there were no boundaries on it for what great it could do," said Dennis Tajer, a 737 captain. He's flown for American Airlines for over 30 years. To him, Boeing was more than just the gold standard: "It was the only standard," he said. Yet he speaks of Boeing in the past tense. "Yeah, these are the stories of Boeing past," Tajer said. "Boeing had our trust because they earned it. Boeing was a great company. But it's no longer a great company." For Tajer, who has become an outspoken critic of Boeing's leadership, things changed in the aftermath of the 737 Max crashes in 2018 in Indonesia and 2019 in Ethiopia, resulting in 346 deaths. Boeing apologized and said they'd do better. But then, this January a door panel on a 737 Max blew out mid-flight. There were no serious injuries, but Boeing's reputation was wounded again. An opening is seen in the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-9 Max on January 7, 2024 in Portland, Oregon. A door-sized section near the rear of the plane blew off 10 minutes after Flight 1282 took off from Portland on January 5. National Transportation Safety Board via Getty Images It's a stark contrast for the storied company known for putting engineering and quality first, one that started in 1916, building seaplanes in Seattle, Washington. Boeing became a symbol of national pride during World War II, churning out 16 B-17s every day. Boeing then introduced Americans to the jet age, launching four new successful airplanes in just over a decade – the 707, 727, 737 and 747, the world's first jumbo jet – all while building the rockets that helped put a man on the moon. Gallery: Boeing's 747, the "queen of the skies" So, how did we get here, to Boeing facing a potential criminal trial and dealing with a loss of public confidence? Investigative reporter and author Peter Robison wrote the 2021 book "Flying Blind: The 737 Max Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing," in which he describes how the crashes exposed "the rotted culture of an iconic American company." "That's pretty much directly from the words of Boeing's employees," said Robison. "It's systemic. It's culture. Senior leadership had its eye on stock price, had its eye on share buybacks, and weren't listening to the people on the ground." Doubleday Robison started covering the company shortly after the 1997 merger between Boeing and McDonnell Douglas. "One person at Boeing described the people from McDonnell Douglas as hunter-killer assassins," said Robison. "They came into this collegial environment at Boeing and just went through them like a knife through butter." Since that 1997 merger, Boeing has become a corporate behemoth in defense, space and commercial aviation. By 2019 It had spent more than $60 billion on stock buybacks, helping boost its stock price by over 1,000 percent. Robison said, "Boeing lost control of its production system. It spun off parts of it that were essential. These aren't just interchangeable commodities; it's a complex product that needs to have a different level of scrutiny every step of the way." "And it's ultimately people's lives at stake," said Van Cleave. "Exactly. This is a business where one miss is too many," said Robison. After its third "miss" this January, when a door panel blew out on an Alaska Airlines 737 at 16,000 feet, Boeing said more of the same – eerily similar to its statements after the 737 Max crashes: We're sorry, and we're fixing it. Boeing now says it's investing heavily in engineering to "enable safe and sustainable flight in the years ahead." Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun arrives as family members of those killed in the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air crashes hold up photographs of loved ones before a Senate subcommittee hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., June 18, 2024. Calhoun said he is "here to take responsibility," as he testified before the Senate to discuss ongoing quality and safety issues. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images CBS News had hoped to sit down and talk with someone from Boeing about how the company got here, and where it's going in the future. Instead, we were invited to what amounted to a media field trip, and a tour of the 737 Max production line. The factory floor at Boeing. CBS News As a part of that tightly-controlled tour late last month, senior vice president of quality Elizabeth Lund took some reporter questions. Van Cleave asked, "After the Max crashes, we heard very similar things, and we're back here again talking about fixing problems that sound a lot like the problems that should have gotten fixed before. Why should anyone believe anyone from Boeing that you're actually fixing anything?" "We are a company that is deeply committed to the flying public's safety," Lund replied. "We are deeply committed to our employees. We are deeply committed to doing the right thing." Just this past week, in an effort to clean up persistent quality control problems, Boeing announced it would buy back Spirit Aerosystems, a Kansas-based contractor building the 737 fuselage. Boeing had spun off Spirit in 2005 in an attempt to reduce manufacturing costs. Captain Tajer said, "Boeing seems to do the right thing only after they do the wrong thing; that's the problem. They react to bad things instead of being proactive." In Tajer's mind, Boeing has much more work to do. But when asked how he feels getting into the cockpit of his plane today, Tajer replied, "More ready than I've ever been. I have absolutely no hesitation in flying the aircraft based on what I know about it. The unnerving part, particularly on the Max, is I don't know what you put on it that you decided not to tell me." On the 737 Max Tajer now uses a rather analog tool in an otherwise digital cockpit: a Post-It Note, to help remind him of another potential problem, a design issue in the engine. "The FAA sent us this airworthiness directive saying, 'Hey, you gotta be aware of this. And then it can get so bad that it may cause you to have to do an off-airport landing' – their words: 'Off-airport.' What the heck does that mean? That's a cornfield, or the Hudson River." Captain Dennis Tajer uses a Post-It Note to alert him to a potential problem with the Boeing 737 Max. CBS News Boeing expects to have a fix by next year. Tajer said, "I have a book of Post-It Notes. Now I look at these and think, 'How many of these am I gonna have to fill out because Boeing didn't tell me about something or they learned something new about a faulty design?'" Still, Tajer (and every 737 pilot we spoke to) says the plane is safe, but that change at Boeing is desperately needed now. "It's not the airplane that I don't trust," Tajer said. "It's the people who delivered it to me." For more info: Story produced by John Goodwin. Editor: Ed Givnish.
Wildlife Protections Take a Back Seat to SpaceX’s Ambitions 2024-07-07 12:00:37+00:00 - As Elon Musk’s Starship — the largest rocket ever manufactured — successfully blasted toward the sky last month, the launch was hailed as a giant leap for SpaceX and the United States’ civilian space program. Two hours later, once conditions were deemed safe, a team from SpaceX, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a conservation group began canvassing the fragile migratory bird habitat surrounding the launch site. The impact was obvious. The launch had unleashed an enormous burst of mud, stones and fiery debris across the public lands encircling Mr. Musk’s $3 billion space compound. Chunks of sheet metal and insulation were strewn across the sand flats on one side of a state park. Elsewhere, a small fire had ignited, leaving a charred patch of park grasslands — remnants from the blastoff that burned 7.5 million pounds of fuel. Most disturbing to one member of the entourage was the yellow smear on the soil in the same spot that a bird’s nest lay the day before. None of the nine nests recorded by the nonprofit Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program before the launch had survived intact.
UK urged to protect Ukraine from legal action over private debt default 2024-07-07 10:50:00+00:00 - Campaigners are urging Britain’s new Labour government to prevent Ukraine being sued in the UK courts if the country defaults on its debts to private creditors. Debt Justice said a two-year suspension of Ukraine’s debt payments was scheduled to expire on 1 August, and that action was needed to protect Kyiv from the possibility of legal action from its creditors. Ukraine is in negotiations with bondholders and is seeking a debt writedown of 60% on the $24bn (£18.7bn) it owes to private creditors. Bondholders – which include big investment groups such as BlackRock, Pimco, Fidelity and AllianceBernstein – have said they are willing to take a 20% loss. Ukraine’s official bilateral creditors, including the UK, have agreed to continue suspending Kyiv’s debt payments until 2027, but there has been no agreement to extend the arrangement with private creditors. The relief offered by private creditors is worth around 12% of Ukraine’s annual national output (GDP). Unless a deal is struck or an extension to the two-year moratorium is agreed by the end of this month, Ukraine will formally default on its debts in September. Kyiv fears that once the 1 August deadline expires, asset managers will sell their bonds to hedge funds, which will then sue. Ukraine’s bonds are all governed by English law, so any legal case would be brought in the UK. Debt Justice said Ukraine’s bonds were trading at 28-31 cents on the dollar, closer to Kyiv’s suggested 60% haircut than the 20% bondholders have proposed. Heidi Chow, Debt Justice’s executive director, said: “Ukraine is resisting an invasion. It should not have to fight off shameless bondholders at the same time, who are trying to squeeze every ounce of profit out of Ukraine. “These loans were given at high interest because of the supposed risk. That risk materialised the day Russia invaded.” Ukraine’s bonds “are governed by UK law, so an incoming UK government could pass a law to support Ukraine by making it clear that no lenders can sue the country while the war carries on”, she said. The Commons international development select committee called last year for legislation that would force private creditors to take part in debt relief, and in opposition Labour expressed support for the idea. Debt Justice is urging the government to change the law so that a debtor country negotiating in good faith with its creditors could not be sued. It says this would give Ukraine the political and legal protection to maintain the current debt suspension until bondholders were willing to accept the scale of debt restructuring required. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Business Today Free daily newsletter Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion According to the International Monetary Fund, Ukraine will just about manage to balance the books if there is a 60% debt writedown. The IMF says Kyiv and its private creditors are working hard to reach an agreement, and that a deal is possible by the end of the month despite the rapidly looming deadline. Chow said: “Lower-income countries are facing the worst debt crisis in 30 years. An incoming UK government can show leadership by introducing new legislation to ensure private lenders take part in debt restructuring in a swift and comprehensive way.”
Of the UK economy’s two possible endings, the happy one is more likely 2024-07-07 10:42:00+00:00 - Just as in the movie Sliding Doors, there are two endings to the story that began on Thursday with Labour’s victory in the 2024 election. One is happy, one is sad, and either is possible. What happens to the economy over the next five years will determine which one materialises. Let’s start with the happy ending: the one where the credits roll as Keir Starmer wins big for a second time in 2029. The script for that one starts slowly. The scale of Labour’s win means it doesn’t have to rush things but has time to put in place the supply-side reforms, such as changes to planning rules, that will boost growth. Structural changes don’t bear fruit overnight but by the early 2030s it should be possible to notice the difference. In the meantime the economy will benefit from a much-needed period of stability. Business investment was depressed during the period when there was uncertainty over whether the UK would leave the EU or not. It suffered another hit during the pandemic, and a third after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A chaotic period in which the UK had three prime ministers and five chancellors in a single parliament is now over. The poor showing of the SNP in the general election means the prospects of a second referendum on Scottish independence in the next five years are much diminished. Likewise, Starmer is unlikely to reconsider his decision to rule out rejoining the EU (or even the single market) with Reform UK breathing down Labour’s neck in so many seats. As things stand, Britain looks a safer place for investment than France or Germany. Much has been said about Labour’s baleful economic inheritance, but growth is set to surprise on the upside in the coming months. Consumer spending power has been boosted in recent months because wages have been rising more rapidly than prices, but there tends to be a lag before households realise they are better off. The election result will be the catalyst for higher consumer spending, and it will also prompt businesses to give the go-ahead for investment decisions put on hold in recent months. The boost to growth will provide Rachel Reeves with a bit more scope in her autumn budget. She may also be tempted to make changes to the government’s debt rules, which would provide her with some additional wriggle room. It won’t be a massive windfall, and the new chancellor says money will be tight. But she might have an extra £20bn to spend on public services. Starmer and Reeves won’t need to rush because the Tories will spend the post-election period at war with each other over the future direction of the party rather than in opposing what Labour is doing. One big problem for Rishi Sunak in his period as prime minister was that the economic and political cycles became misaligned, with tough decisions, such as the freeze on tax allowances and thresholds, biting in the last years of the parliament. The prospects of a second Labour victory will be much enhanced if Reeves gets the unpopular stuff out of the way early and then lets up as the next election approaches. The alternative ending is not nearly so cheerful. The gentle recovery in the economy runs out of steam as stubbornly high inflation in the service sector deters the Bank of England from cutting interest rates. Business investment continues to disappoint, while dearer fixed-rate mortgages and stagnant house prices make consumers cautious about spending money. The situation cries out for the new government to boost public spending or cut taxes, but Reeves is boxed in by her own self-imposed fiscal rules. Public demands for better public services go unanswered, and disillusionment quickly sets in. Starmer and Reeves insist that their structural reforms will eventually pay dividends but, as was the case when Sunak tried the same line of argument, nobody is listening. Labour’s landslide victory was the result of a collapse in support for the Conservatives rather than a ringing endorsement of Starmer’s offering. Never before has a party won so big a majority with such a modest share of the vote: 34%. Jeremy Corbyn won a bigger percentage of the vote when Labour was defeated in 2017. Starmer and Reeves are on probation as far as Britain’s sceptical and impatient voters are concerned, and they are deluding themselves if they think this is 1997 redux. The economy is weaker and public services are in a worse state. Sitting tight for two years is not an option. It may take time for the Conservatives to recover from the pasting they have just taken, but there are alternative sources of opposition. The Green party threatens to pick up unhappy Labour voters from the left, while Reform UK could do the same from the right. The Liberal Democrats will be attractive for those who want a closer relationship with the EU. The Tories won big in 2019 but last week lost more than 250 seats. Something similar could easily happen to Labour in 2029. So which ending is it going to be? On balance, the happy ending looks slightly more likely. That’s not because the country is set for an economic boom – the UK has deep-seated problems that are not going to be solved overnight. But such was the desire of voters to be shot of the Conservatives that it will take time before they are trusted again. The Tories need Labour to screw up the economy to have a chance of a quick comeback, but it is reasonable to assume that the next five years will be better than the previous five. That might not be saying much, but it should be enough.
For Some Young Couples, Saving on Rent Means Moving In Together Early 2024-07-07 09:00:47+00:00 - For Caroline Li and Colin Wang, moving in together after dating for eight months was a matter of serendipity and urgency. Last fall, Mr. Wang, 28, was completing his final year of medical school at the University of California, Los Angeles, when he learned that the two-bedroom apartment he shared with one roommate had a mold infestation. He had to move out immediately, but had trouble finding new housing. “It was very difficult to find something that was pretty close to campus that was reasonable in price, and it was also in the middle of the school year,” said Mr. Wang, who had reached U.C.L.A.’s three-year limit on student housing, which allowed him to pay $1,425 per month in rent instead of the market rate of $2,000 or more. At the same time, Ms. Li, 24, a registered nurse, learned that one of her two roommates was moving out of their $5,000-a-month, three-bedroom apartment near Santa Monica, Calif., in the middle of their lease. Ms. Li and Mr. Wang realized that they could resolve both of their issues by having Mr. Wang move in with Ms. Li and her roommate.
New Plan to Target Russia’s Oil Revenue Brings Debate in White House 2024-07-07 09:00:16.127000+00:00 - Officials in President Biden’s Treasury Department have proposed new actions aimed at crippling a fleet of aging oil tankers that are helping deliver Russian oil to buyers around the world in defiance of Western sanctions. Their effort is aimed at punishing Russia but it has stalled amid White House concerns over how it would affect energy prices ahead of the November election. In an attempt to drain Russia of money needed to continue fighting its war in Ukraine, the United States and its allies have imposed penalties and taken other novel steps to limit how much Moscow earns from selling oil abroad. But Russia has increasingly found ways around those limits, raising pressure on the Biden administration to tighten its enforcement efforts. Treasury officials want to do that, in part, by targeting a so-called shadow fleet of oil tankers that is allowing Russia to sell oil above a $60-per-barrel price cap that the United States and its allies imposed in 2022.
Kenya’s dramatic flooding sweeps away a central part of the economy: Its farms 2024-07-07 06:21:20+00:00 - MACHAKOS, Kenya (AP) — With dismay, Martha Waema and her husband surveyed their farm that was submerged by weeks of relentless rainfall across Kenya. Water levels would rise to shoulder height after only a night of heavy downpour. The couple had expected a return of 200,000 shillings ($1,500) from their three acres after investing 80,000 shillings ($613) in maize, peas, cabbages, tomatoes and kale. But their hopes have been uprooted and destroyed. “I have been farming for 38 years, but I have never encountered losses of this magnitude,” said the 62-year-old mother of 10. Their financial security and optimism have been shaken by what Kenya’s government has called “a clear manifestation of the erratic weather patterns caused by climate change.” The rains that started in mid-March have posed immediate dangers and left others to come. They have killed nearly 300 people, left dams at historically high levels and led the government to order residents to evacuate flood-prone areas — and bulldoze the homes of those who don’t. Now a food security crisis lies ahead, along with even higher prices in a country whose president had sought to make agriculture an even greater engine of the economy. Kenya’s government says the flooding has destroyed crops on more than 168,000 acres (67,987 hectares) of land, or less than 1% of Kenya’s agricultural land. As farmers count their losses — a total yet unknown — the deluge has exposed what opposition politicians call Kenya’s ill preparedness for climate change and related disasters and the need for sustainable land management and better weather forecasting. Waema now digs trenches in an effort to protect what’s left of the farm on a plain in the farthest outskirts of the capital, Nairobi, in Machakos County. Not everyone is grieving, including farmers who prepared for climate shocks. About 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Waema’s farm, 65-year-old farmer James Tobiko Tipis and his 16-acre farm have escaped the flooding in Olokirikirai. He said he had been proactive in the area that’s prone to landslides by terracing crops. “We used to lose topsoil and whatever we were planting,” he said. Experts said more Kenyan farmers must protect their farms against soil erosion that likely will be worsened by further climate shocks. Jane Kirui, an agricultural officer in Narok County, emphasized the importance of terracing and other measures such as cover crops that will allow water to be absorbed. In Kenya’s rural areas, experts say efforts to conserve water resources remain inadequate despite the current plentiful rainfall. At Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, professor John Gathenya recommended practices such as diversifying crops and emphasizing the soil’s natural water retention capacity. “The soil remains the biggest reservoir for water,” he said, asserting that using it wisely requires much less of an investment than large infrastructure projects such as dams. But soil needs to be protected with practices that include limiting the deforestation that has exposed parts of Kenyan land to severe runoff. “We are opening land in new fragile environments where we need to be even more careful the way we farm,” Gathenya said. “In our pursuit for more and more food, we are pressing into the more fragile areas but not with the same intensity of soil conservation that we had 50 years back.” ___ The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
An Alaska tourist spot will vote whether to ban cruise ships on Saturdays to give locals a break 2024-07-07 04:26:53+00:00 - JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Each year, a crush of tourists arrives in Alaska’s capital city on cruise ships to see wonders like the fast-diminishing Mendenhall Glacier. Now, long-simmering tensions over Juneau’s tourism boom are coming to a head over a new voter initiative aimed at giving residents a respite from the influx. A measure that would ban cruise ships with 250 or more passengers from docking in Juneau on Saturdays qualified for the Oct. 1 municipal ballot, setting the stage for a debate about how much tourism is too much in a city that is experiencing first-hand the impacts of climate change. The measure would also ban ships on July 4, a day when locals flock to a downtown parade. The “ship-free Saturdays” initiative that qualified this week will go to voters unless the local Assembly enacts a similar measure by Aug. 15, which is seen as unlikely. Juneau, accessible only by water or air, is home to the Mendenhall Glacier, a major draw for the cruise passengers who arrive on multi-story ships towering over parts of the modest downtown skyline. Many residents of this city of about 32,000 have concerns about increased traffic, congested trails and the frequent buzz of sight-seeing helicopters transporting visitors to the Mendenhall and other glaciers. Deborah Craig, who has lived in Juneau for decades, supports ship-free Saturdays. Craig, who lives across the channel from where the ships dock, often hears their early-morning fog horns and broadcast announcements made to passengers that are audible across the water. The current “overwhelming” number of visitors diminishes what residents love so much about Juneau, she said. “It’s about preserving the lifestyle that keeps us in Juneau, which is about clean air, clean water, pristine environment and easy access to trails, easy access to water sports and nature,” she said of the initiative. “There’s this perception that some people are not welcoming of tourists, and that’s not the case at all,” Craig said. “It’s about volume. It’s about too much — too many in a short period of time overwhelming a small community.” The current cruise season runs from early April to late October. Opponents of the initiative say limiting dockings will hurt local businesses that rely heavily on tourism and could invite lawsuits. A voter-approved limit on cruise passenger numbers in Bar Harbor, Maine, another community with a significant tourism economy, was challenged in federal court. Laura McDonnell, a business leader who owns Caribou Crossings, a gift shop in Juneau’s downtown tourist core, said she makes 98% of her annual revenue during the summer season. Tourism is about all the “local businesses that rely on cruise passengers and our place in the community,” said McDonnell, who is involved in Protect Juneau’s Future, which opposes the initiative. Some schools recently closed due to factors including declining enrollment, while the regional economy faces challenges, she said. “I think that as a community, we really need to look at what’s at stake for our economy,” she said. “We are not in a position to be shrinking our economy.” The cruise industry accounted for $375 million in direct spending in Juneau in 2023, most of that attributable to spending by passengers, according to a report prepared for the city by McKinley Research Group LLC. After a two-year pandemic lull, cruise passenger numbers rose sharply in Juneau, hitting a record of more than 1.6 million in 2023. Under this year’s schedule, Sept. 21 will be the first day since early May with no large ships in town. The tourism debate is polarizing, and the city has been trying to find a middle ground, said Alexandra Pierce, Juneau’s visitor industry director. But she noted there also needs to be a regional solution. If the Juneau initiative passes, it will impact other, smaller communities in southeast Alaska because the ships, generally on trips originating in Seattle or Vancouver, Canada, will have to go somewhere if they can’t dock in Juneau on Saturdays, she said. Some residents in Sitka, south of Juneau, are in the early stages of trying to limit cruise visitation to that small, island community, which is near a volcano. Juneau and major cruise lines, including Carnival Corp., Disney Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean Group, agreed to a limit of five large ships a day, which took effect this year. They more recently signed a pact, set to take effect in 2026, seeking a daily limit of 16,000 cruise passengers Sundays through Fridays and 12,000 on Saturdays. Pierce said the overall goal is to keep total cruise passenger visitation around 1.6 million, and to even out daily numbers of visitors that can spike to about 18,000 on the busiest days. Peak days in the past have felt “a bit suffocating,” she said. Juneau traditionally has been the most popular cruise port in the state. A number of projects around Juneau are expected to help make existing cruise numbers feel less impactful. Those include plans for a gondola at the city-owned ski area and increased visitor capacity at the Mendenhall Glacier recreation area, she said. Renée Limoge Reeve, vice president of government and community relations for the trade group Cruise Lines International Association Alaska, said the agreements signed with the city were the first of their kind in Alaska. The best strategy is “ongoing, direct dialogue with local communities” and working together in a way that also provides a predictable source of income for local businesses, she said. Protect Juneau’s Future, led by local business leaders, said the success of the ballot measure would mean a loss of sales tax revenue and millions of dollars in direct spending by cruise passengers. The group was confident voters would reject the measure, its steering committee said in a statement. Karla Hart, a sponsor of the initiative and frequent critic of the cruise industry, said the threat of litigation has kept communities from taking steps to limit cruise numbers in the past. She was heartened by legal wins this year in the ongoing fight over the measure passed in Bar Harbor, a popular destination near Maine’s Acadia National Park. She believes the Juneau initiative will pass. “Every single person who is going to vote has a lived experience and knowledge of how the cruise industry impacts their lives,” she said. —- This story corrects a quote from Pierce about peak days.
Scammers are swiping billions from Americans every year. Worse, most crooks are getting away with it 2024-07-07 04:03:30+00:00 - The scammers are winning. Sophisticated overseas criminals are stealing tens of billions of dollars from Americans every year, a crime wave projected to get worse as the U.S. population ages and technology like AI makes it easier than ever to perpetrate fraud and get away with it. Internet and telephone scams have grown “exponentially,” overwhelming police and prosecutors who catch and convict relatively few of the perpetrators, said Kathy Stokes, director of fraud prevention at AARP’s Fraud Watch Network. Victims rarely get their money back, including older people who have lost life savings to romance scams, grandparent scams, technical support fraud and other common grifts. “We are at a crisis level in fraud in society,” Stokes said. “So many people have joined the fray because it is pretty easy to be a criminal. They don’t have to follow any rules. And you can make a lot of money, and then there’s very little chance that you’re going to get caught.” A recent case from Ohio, in which an 81-year-old man was targeted by a scammer and allegedly responded with violence, illustrates the law enforcement challenge. Police say the man fatally shot an Uber driver after wrongly assuming she was in on a plot to extract $12,000 in supposed bond money for a relative. The driver fell victim to the same scammer, dispatched to the home midway between Dayton and Columbus to pick up a package for delivery, according to authorities. Homeowner William Brock was charged with murder in the fatal March 25 shooting of Lo-Letha Hall, but the scammer who threatened Brock over the phone and set the tragic chain of events in motion remains on the loose more than three months later. Brock pleaded not guilty, saying he was in fear for his life. Advantage scammers Online and telephone rackets have become so commonplace that law enforcement agencies and adult protective services don’t have the resources to keep up. “It’s a little bit like drinking from a fire hose,” said Brady Finta, a former FBI agent who supervised elder fraud investigations. “There’s just so much of it, logistically and reasonably, it’s almost impossible to overcome right now.” Grifts also can be difficult to investigate, particularly ones that originate overseas, with stolen funds quickly converted into hard-to-track cryptocurrency or siphoned into foreign bank accounts. Some police departments don’t take financial scams as seriously as other crime and victims wind up discouraged and demoralized, according to Paul Greenwood, who spent 22 years prosecuting elder financial abuse cases in San Diego. “There’s a lot of law enforcement who think that because a victim sends money voluntarily through gift cards or through wire transfers, or for buying crypto, that they’re actually engaging in a consensual transaction,” said Greenwood, who travels the country teaching police how to spot fraud. “And that is a big mistake because it’s not. It’s not consensual. They’ve been defrauded.” Federal prosecutors typically don’t get involved unless the fraud reaches a certain dollar amount, Greenwood said. The U.S. Justice Department says it does not impose a blanket monetary threshold for federal prosecution of elder financial abuse. But it confirmed that some of the 93 U.S. attorneys’ offices nationwide may set their own thresholds, giving priority to cases in which there are more victims or greater financial impact. Federal prosecutors file hundreds of elder fraud and abuse cases annually. The Federal Trade Commission says the “vast majority” of frauds go unreported. Often, victims are reluctant to come forward. A 74-year-old woman recently charged with robbing a credit union north of Cincinnati was the victim of an online scam, according to her family. Authorities say they believe the woman was preyed on by a scammer, yet there is no record she made a formal police report. “These people are very good at what they do, and they’re very good at deceiving people and prying money out of them,” said Fairview Township, Ohio, police Sgt. Brandon McCroskey, who investigated the robbery. “I’ve seen people almost want to fist fight the police and bank tellers because they ... believe in their mind that they need to get this money out.” A devastating scheme Older people hold more wealth as a group and present a ripe target for scammers. The impact can be devastating since many of these victims are past their working years and don’t have much time to recoup losses. Elder fraud complaints to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center rose by 14% last year, with losses increasing by 11% to $3.4 billion, according to a recent FBI report. Other estimates put the annual loss much higher. A 2023 AARP study calculated that Americans over 60 lose $28.3 billion each year to fraud. The Federal Trade Commission, seeking to account for unreported losses, estimated fraudsters stole a staggering $137 billion in 2022, including $48 billion from older adults. The authors of that study acknowledged a “considerable degree of uncertainty.” In San Diego, 80-year-old William Bortz said criminals stole his family’s nest egg of almost $700,000 in an elaborate scheme involving a nonexistent Amazon order, a fake “refund processing center” in Hong Kong, doctored bank statements and an instruction that Bortz needed to “synchronize bank accounts” in order to get his money back. William Bortz, left, stands alongside his daughter, Ave Williams, at his senior living center, Friday, May 17, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull) Bortz’s scammer was relentless and persuasive, harassing him with dozens of phone calls and, at one point, taking control of his computer. Even though he was the victim of a crime, Bortz struggles with self-blame. “I understand now why so much elder abuse fraud is never reported. Because when you look back at it, you think, ‘How could I have been so stupid?’” said Bortz, who retired after a career in banking, financial services and real estate. His daughter, Ave Williams, said local police and the FBI were diligent in trying to track down the overseas scammer and recover the money, but ran into multiple dead ends. The family blames Bortz’s bank, which Williams said ignored multiple red flags and facilitated several large wire transfers by her father over the course of eight days. The bank denied wrongdoing and the family’s lawsuit against it was dismissed. “The scammers are getting better,” Williams said. ”We need our law enforcement to be given the tools they need, and we need our banks to get better because they are the first line of defense.” The Justice Department contends industry needs to do more, saying the U.S. can’t prosecute its way out the problem. “Private industry — including the tech, retail, banking, fintech, and telecommunications sectors — must make it harder for fraudsters to defraud victims and harder to launder victim proceeds,” the agency said in a statement to The Associated Press. A way forward Banking industry officials told a Senate subcommittee in May they are investing heavily in new technologies to stop fraud, “and some hold great promise.” The American Bankers Association says it’s working on a program to coordinate real-time communication among banks to better flag suspicious activity and reduce the flow of stolen funds. But industry officials said the banks cannot singlehandedly prevent fraud. They said the U.S. needs an overarching national strategy to combat scammers, calling the federal government’s current efforts disjointed and uncoordinated. Law enforcement agencies and industry need to join forces to fight fraud more quickly and efficiently, said Finta, the former FBI agent, who launched a nonprofit called the National Elder Fraud Coordination Center to cultivate better cooperation between law enforcement and major corporations like Walmart, Amazon and Google. “There’s very, very smart people and there’s very powerful, wealthy companies that want this to stop,” he said. “So we do have the ability, I think, to make a greater impact and to help out our brothers and sisters in law enforcement that are struggling with this tsunami of fraud.”
Dropping in Just to Say ‘Hi!’ 2024-07-07 04:00:06+00:00 - Send questions about the office, money, careers and work-life balance to workfriend@nytimes.com. Include your name and location, or a request to remain anonymous. Letters may be edited. A Salutation Situation I work in a very fast-paced, fairly large (over 500, under 1,000 people) work environment. Most staff are in person five days a week, with the exception of some specialist staff who were hired in a remote capacity. We use an in-house office chat function similar to Slack for communication (in addition to phones, email). There is remote team member who comes down to the office perhaps one or two times a month for a couple of days. When this colleague reaches out to team members via the Slack platform, he will frequently just say “Hi <Name>” with no follow-up. And then, the “Hi” just sits there, and languishes. And it freaks people out! And confuses people. And is deemed as not a great mode of communication. And everyone talks about it! But no one provides him with any feedback! How can someone deliver the feedback that he would benefit being a little bit more forthcoming? Or are we all just obstinate and are not being understanding of a different communication style? — Anonymous This sounds annoying and weird and, yes, confusing and bizarre and off-putting. It makes me feel crazy, and I’ve only just read your email! Also, I have questions! For one thing: Is he saying “Hi <Name>” as a way to start a conversation about work with the colleague to whom his “hi” is directed? Or is he, uh, just saying “hi”? Anyway, if it makes you feel any better, it’s not you, it’s him. It’s definitely him. And though I can think of a few very passive-aggressive ways you could respond to creepy salutations, I’m not going to share them here. However, it’s interesting to note that neither you — nor I, at least at first — seem to have considered that one option may be to simply, and straightforwardly, tell this co-worker to cut it out. Except it’s not that simple. Delivering feedback about a person’s personal — or, in this case, professional — communication style requires a light touch. It’s a tricky situation: You want what you say to be understood by your colleague without being overshadowed by his potential embarrassment or defensiveness. In other words, you want to be clear, but kind. So, might I suggest the following: Inject a little honest levity into the exchange with a digital-speak acronym or some sort of emoji. Send the guy a direct message and say, “Hey [insert co-worker’s name], when you write ‘hi’ without any follow-up, it freaks me out!” and append the message with an “lol” or a laughing emoji. If you don’t have the sort of relationship with him that feels conducive to doing this, then my suggestion is to just sit tight and swallow your irritation. You can’t always have the last word.
‘Goodest Job’ or ‘Good as Job’? The White House Wants a Word. 2024-07-07 01:02:14.425000+00:00 - ABC News adjusted its initial transcript of a much-discussed moment during President Biden’s Friday interview after White House officials told the network that they believed the president’s words had been inaccurately rendered, according to several people familiar with the discussion. The moment occurred toward the end of Mr. Biden’s interview, when George Stephanopoulos asked the president how he would feel if he stayed in the presidential race and was defeated by former President Donald J. Trump. “I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about,” Mr. Biden said, according to the official transcript that was distributed by ABC on Friday night. By Saturday afternoon, the quote in the network’s online transcript had changed slightly: “I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the good as job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about.” The network appended an editors’ note explaining that the transcript “has been updated for clarity.”
Real criminals, fake victims: how chatbots are being deployed in the global fight against phone scammers 2024-07-06 21:01:00+00:00 - A scammer calls, and asks for a passcode. Malcolm, an elderly man with an English accent, is confused. “What’s this business you’re talking about?” Malcolm asks. Another day, another scam phone call. This time, Ibrahim, a cooperative and polite man with an Egyptian accent, picks up. “Frankly, I am not too sure I can recall buying anything recently,” he tells the hopeful con artist. “Maybe one of the kids did,” Ibrahim goes on, “but that’s not your fault, is it?” The scammers are real, but Malcolm and Ibrahim are not. They’re just two of the conversational artificial intelligence bots created by Prof Dali Kaafar and his team. Through his research at Macquarie University, Kaafar founded Apate – named for the Greek goddess of deception. Apate’s aim is to defeat global phone scams with conversational AI, taking advantage of systems already in place where telecommunications companies divert calls they can identify as coming from scammers. Kafaar was inspired to turn the tables on telephone fraudsters after he played a “dad’s joke” on a scam caller in front of his two kids while they enjoyed a picnic in the sun. With inane chatter, he kept the scammer on the line. “The kids had a very good laugh,” he says. “And I was thinking the purpose was to deceive the scammer, to waste their time so they don’t talk to others. “Scamming the scammers, if you like.” The next day he called his team from the university’s Cyber Security Hub in. There must be a better way than his “dad joke” method, he thought. And there had to be something smarter than a popular existing piece of technology – the Lennybot. Before Malcolm and Ibrahim, there was Lenny. Lenny is a doddery, old Australian man, keen for a rambling chat. He’s achatbot, designed to troll telemarketers. With a thready voice, tinged with a slight whistle, Lenny repeats various phrases on loop. Each phrase kicks in after 1.5 seconds of silence, to mimic the rhythm of a conversation. The anonymous creator of Lenny posted on Reddit that they made the chatbot to be a “telemarketer’s worst nightmare … a lonely old man who is up for a chat, proud of his family, and can’t focus on the telemarketer’s goal”. The act of tying up the scammers has been called scambaiting. View image in fullscreen The National Anti-Scam Centre says people should hang up on scammers immediately and ‘not attempt to engage with criminals’. Photograph: Nikolay Doychinov/AFP/Getty Images The Apate bots to the rescue Telecommunications companies in Australia have blocked almost 2bn scam phone calls since December 2020. Thanks in part to $720,000 of funding from the Office of National Intelligence, there are now potentially hundreds of thousands of “victim chatbots”, too many to name individually. Bots of various “ages” speak English with a range of accents. They have a range of emotions, personalities, responses. Sometimes they’re naive, sometimes sceptical, sometimes rude. If a telecommunications company detects a scammer and diverts it to a system like Apate, the bots will work to keep the scammers busy. They test different strategies, learning what works to make sure scammers stay on the line for longer. Through success and failure, the machines fine-tune their patter. As they do this, they extract intelligence and detect new scams, collecting information on how long the call lasts, when the scammers are most likely to call, what information they are after, and what tactics they are using. Kafaar hopes Apate will disrupt the scam-calling business model – which is often run by large, multi-billion dollar criminal organisations. The next step is to use the intelligence gleaned to forewarn and deal with the scams in real time. “We’re talking about real criminals making our lives miserable,” Kafaar says. “We’re talking about the risks for real human beings. “Humans who are sometimes losing their life savings, who can be crippled by debt and sometimes psychologically hurt [by] the shame.” View image in fullscreen ‘Scamming the scammers’ … Prof Dali Kaafar’s Cyber Security Hub began working on the chatbot technology after a ‘dad joke’ with his children. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian Richard Buckland, a cybercrime professor at the University of NSW, says technology like Apate is distinct from other types of scambaiting, which can be amateur, or amount to vigilantism. “Normally scambaiting is problematic,” he says. “But this is clever.” skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Five Great Reads Free weekly newsletter Each week our editors select five of the most interesting, entertaining and thoughtful reads published by Guardian Australia and our international colleagues. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Saturday morning Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion Mistakes can be made when individuals take things into their own hands, he says. “You can attack the wrong person.” He said many scams are carried out by people in conditions of servitude, almost slavery, “and they’re not the evil person”. “[And] some scambaiters are tempted to go further, take the law into their own hands. To hack back or engage with them. That is problematic.” But, he says, the Apate model appears to be using AI for good – as a sort of “honeypot” to lure in criminals, then learn from them. Buckland warns there would need to be a high level of confidence that only scammers were being diverted by telecommunications companies to AI bots, because misidentification happens everywhere. He also warns criminal organisations could use anti-scam AI technology to train their own systems. “The same technology used to trick the trickers could itself be used to trick people,” he says. The National Anti-Scam Centre (NASC) runs Scamwatch under the auspices of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). An ACCC spokesperson says scammers usually impersonate well-known organisations, and can often spoof legitimate phone numbers. “Criminals create a sense of urgency in an attempt to get the targeted victims to act quickly,” the spokesperson says. “They often try to convince victims to share personal or bank account details, or provide remote access to their computers. “Criminals may already have some details about their intended victims, such as their name or address, which they illegally obtained or purchased from a data breach, phishing, or other scam.” This week, Scamwatch had to issue a warning on something of a meta-scam. Scammers claiming to be from the NASC itself were calling innocent people and telling them they were being investigated for being involved in a scam. 2:11 Privacy is not 'absolute': Asio boss calls for tech companies to work with police – video The NASC says people should hang up on scammers immediately and “not attempt to engage with criminals”. The spokesperson said it was aware of “technology initiatives to productionise scambaiting using AI voice personas” including Apate, and would be interested in reviewing any evaluation of the platform. Meanwhile, there is a thriving scambaiter community on line, and Lenny remains one of its cult heroes. In one memorable recording, Lenny asks the caller to hang on for a minute, as ducks start to honk in the background. “Sorry about that,” Lenny says. “What were you saying again?” “Are you next to your computer?” the caller asks, impatiently. “Do you have a computer? Can you get next to the computer now?” Lenny continues until the scammer loses it: “You shut up. You shut up. You shut up.” “Could you just hang on?” Lenny asks, as the ducks begin to quack again.
Biden Cancels Speech to Teachers After Union’s Staff Strikes 2024-07-06 19:57:48+00:00 - A strike by the staff of the nation’s largest teachers’ union has prompted President Biden to cancel a speech on Sunday in Philadelphia, where he was scheduled to address thousands of delegates to the union’s annual convention. The staff union of the National Education Association began its strike on Friday, citing management’s revocation of holiday overtime pay for the Fourth of July holiday and its refusal to provide information on $50 million in outsourced work that may have previously been done by N.E.A. staff. The strike has shut down the last three days of the four-day convention, as delegates declined to cross a picket line. Mr. Biden’s campaign said he would not do so, either. “President Biden is a fierce supporter of unions and he won’t cross a picket line,” a statement from his campaign said, adding that the president was still planning to travel to Pennsylvania over the weekend. The National Education Association has about 2.5 million members nationwide, not including retirees, according to a recent government filing. The staff union says it represents more than 350 employees assigned to the union’s headquarters in Washington.
Fiery railcars with hazardous material mostly contained after derailment in North Dakota 2024-07-06 18:41:20+00:00 - Enflamed railcars carrying hazardous material were mostly extinguished Saturday, a day after they derailed in a remote area of North Dakota. Officials said Friday no one had been hurt. The threat to those living nearby remained low, according to county emergency management, which reported no air contamination in the area or downwind. Twenty-nine cars of a CPKC train derailed around 3:45 a.m. in a marshy area surrounded by farmland that is about 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of Fargo, county emergency management director Andrew Kirking said. Kirking said in a statement Saturday that the fire would still occasionally flare up as responders moved railcars from the tracks. But “firefighting operations through the night and morning have been incredibly successful,” he said. Emergency officials now say the contents of the derailed cars included anhydrous ammonia, methanol and plastic pellets. Bill Suess, spill investigation program manager for the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality, identified ammonia as a potential risk, but wind was carrying the smoke away from the nearby town of Bordulac, which has about 20 residents. “Wind has been in our favor on this,” Suess said Friday. Exposure to high concentrations of ammonia in the air can cause burning of the eyes, nose, throat and respiratory tract, and can result in blindness, lung damage or death, health officials say. Exposure to lower amounts can result in coughing and irritation of the nose and throat. CPKC said in a statement Friday that it has “initiated its emergency response plan and launched a comprehensive, coordinated response.” The railroad was the result of a merger last year of Canadian Pacific Railway and Kansas City Southern. The National Transportation Safety Board said Friday that it is investigating.
Palantir Chair Peter Thiel's Pro-Doping Enhanced Games Aims To Raise $300M: Report - Coinbase Glb (NASDAQ:COIN), Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR) 2024-07-06 18:26:00+00:00 - Loading... Loading... The Enhanced Games, an Olympics-style event permitting doping and supported by billionaire Peter Thiel, is reportedly in discussions to secure approximately $300 million in funding. Thiel cofounded Palantir Technologies Inc.’s PLTR and PayPal Holdings, Inc. PYPL. Christian Angermayer, co-founder of the London-based company, revealed in an interview that they have engaged in preliminary discussions with various investors, including sovereign wealth funds, to secure a blend of debt and equity financing for their inaugural competition scheduled for next year, reported Bloomberg. Angermayer declined to disclose additional specifics regarding the terms. In 2023, the Enhanced Games made a high-profile debut, announcing an annual event where athletes can use performance-enhancing drugs, Bloomberg aded. Also Read: Palantir’s Peter Thiel Says It’s ‘Very Strange’ That Most Money In AI Is Being Made By Only One Company: ‘…Which Silicon Valley Doesn’t Even Know Much About Anymore’ The organization, supported by Balaji Srinivasan, a crypto investor and former Coinbase Global, Inc. COIN executive, features sports like track and field, swimming and weightlifting. The concept has faced criticism from the International Olympic Committee and anti-doping authorities for its disregard of fair play and potential risks to athletes’ health. Performance-enhancing drugs are prohibited in most sports leagues and federations worldwide. According to Angermayer, all competitors will undergo medical screenings and are limited to substances approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, including anabolic steroids and growth hormones. “I believe science is on my side,” Angermayer remarked, citing anonymous surveys indicating widespread doping among athletes in competitive sports. A prolific investor, Angermayer has supported various companies through his family office, Apeiron Investment Group, focusing on biotech, longevity, and psilocybin-based therapeutics. Apeiron has also invested in Venezia FC and partnered with Didier Drogba’s E1 Series team through its sports investment group Chiron. The Enhanced Games started with approximately $10 million in initial capital. Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Read Next: Photo: Gage Skidmore via flickr
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Stirs Controversy By Promising To 'Open The Files' On Pivotal Moment In US History 2024-07-06 17:39:00+00:00 - Loading... Loading... Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent presidential candidate known for promoting conspiracy theories, plans to address questions about the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks by promising to “open the files.” Kennedy explained in several X posts that his comments on Sept. 11 were prompted by a recent “60 Minutes” report revisiting speculation about Saudi government’s foreknowledge of the terrorist plot, reported Politico. He noted the difficulty in discerning between conspiracy theories and reality and attributed the uncertainty to dishonesty within the U.S. government. Also Read: RFK Jr Hails Julian Assange As ‘Generational Hero,’ Slams Plea Deal As ‘Horrifying Precedent’ “As President I won’t take sides on 9/11 or any of the other debates. But I can promise is that I will open the files and usher in a new era of transparency,” Kennedy said in a post on X. The remarks surfaced during a challenging period for the candidate, following a Vanity Fair profile that delved into his history of drug use, allegations of sexual assault against a nanny in the late 1990s and a controversial claim of eating dog meat. In a subsequent interview, Kennedy denied consuming dog meat but avoided addressing questions about the assault, acknowledging a troubled personal history instead, Politico added. In his social media post, Kennedy highlighted a mounting distrust in government. “Speculation about what our government may be covering up is rife outside the mainstream of our political culture,” Kennedy wrote. “Trust it government is at an all-time low. The way to restore that trust is through honesty and transparency.” Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Read Next: Photo: Shutterstock