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☆ U.S. Could Run Out of Cash by June 1, Yellen Warns
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Alan Rappeport | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said on Monday that the United States could run out of money to pay its bills by June 1 if Congress does not raise or suspend the debt limit, putting pressure on President Biden and lawmakers to reach an agreement to avoid a default. The warning over when the United States could hit the so-called X-date provides new urgency for Democrats and Republicans to find a way to lift the nation’s borrowing cap and break a standoff that threatens to rock financial markets and upend the economy. “Given the current projections, it is imperative that Congress act as soon as possible to increase or suspend the debt limit in a way that provides longer-term certainty that the government will continue to make its payments,” Ms. Yellen said. House Republicans passed legislation in April that would raise the debt limit in exchange for deep spending cuts and roll back recent legislation that Democrats passed along party lines. Mr. Biden has blasted that bill, saying it would hurt working families while benefiting the oil and gas industry, and he has accused Republicans of putting America’s economy on the line.

She pulled $30,000 from her retirement savings and was planning to give herself all of 2022 to expand the small catering business she had always dreamed about. Then, that month, she received the news that medics were pulling her father out of his car. The collision splintered the bone in his left thigh down to his knee; three days later, a metal rod held the broken pieces together. In hindsight, there were warning signs that her father’s health could upend Schofield’s life. The social-work scholar Dorothy A. Miller once described this as the “peculiar position” in the modern American nuclear family, between the care people give to their aging parents and to their children.

☆ Phoenix Suns and Mercury to move games from cable to local network and streaming
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Lillian Rizzo | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A general view during the second half in Game Two of the NBA Finals between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Phoenix Suns at Phoenix Suns Arena on July 08, 2021 in Phoenix, Arizona. The NBA's Phoenix Suns and the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury reached a deal with broadcast station owner Gray Television to air the entirety of their regular seasons on local broadcast networks available throughout Arizona. Regular season games for the Suns were previously available on Diamond Sports' Bally Sports Arizona channel. Bally Sports Arizona also airs the NHL's Arizona Coyotes and MLB's Arizona Diamondbacks regular season games. Overall, Gray and Kiswe will carry the Suns games for five years, while the deal with three-time WNBA champion Mercury runs for two years.

☆ How A.I. could change the future of work
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Brad Howard | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The recent rapid rise of accessible artificial intelligence tools has the potential to upend dozens of industries. A recent report by Goldman Sachs laid out some stark possibilities when it comes to AI and the economy. The report estimates two-thirds of jobs in the U.S. and Europe, and around 300 million positions worldwide could be exposed to automation from new AI advances. The report also notes that one-fourth of all work being done could be replaced by generative AI. Watch the video above to find out more about how AI could change the future of work

CNN —Special Counsel Jack Smith has expressed interest in audio tapes recorded by former Fox News producer Abby Grossberg while she worked at the right-wing network, her lawyer said. Grossberg attorney Gerry Filippatos told CNN on Wednesday that he has given a spreadsheet to the special counsel’s team, detailing the nearly 90 audiotapes in Grossberg’s possession. “We’re in the process of negotiating a targeted subpoena for Abby’s electronic data, so they can have what they want,” Filippatos said. Federal investigators initially reached out several weeks ago, after some of the tapes were aired by news outlets, Filippatos said. Fox vehemently denies these allegations and has said her lawsuits are “riddled with false allegations against Fox and our employees.”A spokesman for the special counsel’s office declined to comment.

☆ Microsoft’s blockbuster deal to buy Activision is in jeopardy. Here’s what could happen next
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

UK officials said Wednesday they will block the company’s $69 billion deal to acquire video game giant Activision-Blizzard. It could also complicate Microsoft’s future in the gaming industry and severely upend Activision, which was in the throes of an internal crisis in the months leading up to the deal. By buying Activision, Microsoft would become the third-largest video game publisher in the world after Tencent and Sony. (The UK dropped its concerns about the console market in March, while the European Union reportedly does not oppose the deal.) In a memo Wednesday to employees, Kotick attempted to strike an optimistic note, whatever the outcome of the deal may be.

☆ Debt crisis is a scary white swan for US economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Ben Winck | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

If Democrats and Republicans can’t agree to lift the government’s borrowing limit, the country could suffer an unprecedented and catastrophic default on its debt. The standoff over the debt ceiling is a white swan, or an entirely predictable, very frequent event that has the potential to be as catastrophic as its darker sibling. That is why, in all past scuffles over government borrowing, Congress ended up raising or suspending the debt ceiling. Uncertainty over the timing of the agreement led to the most volatile week for financial markets since the 2008 financial crisis. Failure to lift the debt ceiling soon can spark a vicious cycle of market anxiety, rising borrowing costs and bank stress.

☆ China doesn’t want US cars like Ford and General Motors. That’s a big problem for their futures.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

America has a problem: China — the world's largest car market — doesn't want its vehicles. In 2022, data shows Ford and General Motors' car sales in China each dropped more than 20% from the year before. My colleagues Alexa St. John and Nora Naughton break down how the future of US automakers hinges on China. Although Google founder Larry Page's flying car company Kittyhawk majorly flopped, it left us with some interesting vehicles. Hop aboard to see all the funky flying car models here.

☆ To my son, born in the climate crisis: I see signs of hope
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Bill Weir | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

The first looked at the twin crises of Covid and climate change as River was born; the second introduced him to Earth Day and what he could do. Watch Weir investigate “How to Unscrew a Planet,” on CNN’s “The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper,” Sunday at 8 p.m. Energy from clean sources, like this windmill in Texas, is heating and cooling more homes in America than ever before. “We call it climate intervention,” Kelly Wanser told me as we sat under bluebird skies and the Washington Monument. So far, it feels like your future will be marked in new stories to frame our wants and needs, and new tools to build Life As We Know It Could Be.

☆ High-stakes negotiations between UPS and the Teamsters started this week. Catch up on the issues union leaders have vowed to strike over.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Emma Cosgrove | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Friction has already increased as the Teamsters accused UPS of slow-walking local negotiations. UPS said that the parties have traditionally worked on the national and supplemental contracts simultaneously and are ready to negotiate. In order to avoid a promised strike, O'Brien has said he wants better pay for part-time workers, an end to a lower-paid classification of weekend drivers, and a list of other demands. This is UPS CEO Carol Tomé's first union negotiation and she has said that the parties are not as opposed as they seem. Bone up on the issues the Teamsters have threatened to strike over with the stories below.

☆ China doesn't want American cars anymore — that's bad news for Ford and GM
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Alexa St. John | Nora Naughton | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

American car companies' sales in China have been on a steady decline. "The market has totally changed," Ford CEO Jim Farley said about ChinaWithout China, American car companies will likely lean into US electric vehicle sales. Some of this can be attributed to Chinese car companies' ability to build better and cheaper cars, especially EVs, that consumers are keen to buy. Car companies will double down on US buyers and EVsAs the industry bounced back from the Great Recession, and China became the fastest-growing (and EV friendly) car market in the world, American car companies rushed to enter the market. The China vs America face-off is at a stalemate – for nowWhile American companies lose ground in China, there is a bright spot.

It is the second time in a year that the Supreme Court has considered a major effort to sharply curtail access to abortion. Less than an hour later, a federal judge in Washington State, Thomas O. The competing rulings meant that the matter was almost certainly headed to the Supreme Court. But the panel imposed several barriers to access, siding in part with Judge Kacsmaryk, while the lawsuit moved through the courts. Seeking emergency relief, the Biden administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene while a fast-tracked appeal moved forward.

The Supreme Court temporarily halted court orders that would have impacted the availability of an abortion drug. A Supreme Court decision Friday to keep available — for now — the widely used abortion pill mifepristone was met with relief from one side of the debate, disappointment from the other and a vow from both to keep fighting. Maura Healey of Massachusetts called the court’s decision a “victory” for abortion patients and providers. While statements of muted celebration poured in from elected Democrats and groups supporting abortion rights, comment from Republicans and anti-abortion groups was noticeably sparser. Attorney General Andrew Bailey of Missouri, who opposes abortion, said through a spokesman that the decision was a disappointment.

☆ A big macro issue is waiting to disrupt markets this summer that could cause the Fed to cut rates
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The debt ceiling debacle in Washington has the potential to upend the financial market and prompt the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, Bank of America warned. The warning followed news that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. released his plan to raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion for about a year. "Any economic damage could potentially be offset by earlier and/or larger Fed rate cuts. It recently signaled one more rate hike in 2023, while saying rate cuts are not its base case. Bank of America's economists estimated that federal expenditures would fall by 5% of GDP per year if the debt limit is not lifted.

☆ Deadly heat waves fueled by climate change are threatening India's development, study says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Helen Regan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Deadly heat waves fueled by climate change are threatening India’s development and risk reversing its progress on poverty alleviation, health and economic growth, a new study has found. Since 1992, more than 24,000 people have died because of heat waves in India, the study said. And the impacts are expected to get worse as heat waves become more frequent, intense and lethal due to the climate crisis. More than 90% of the country could be severely impacted by heat waves, falling into an extreme heat “danger” zone, according to the heat index, the study found. The heat index is how hot it feels and considers both air temperature and humidity to assess the heat’s impact on the population.

☆ Opinion | The Abortion Pill Case Could Throw Our Health Care System Into Chaos
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Jack Resneck Jr. | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Against this backdrop, the Supreme Court faces a decision that lays bare the threat to facts, evidence and the health of America’s patients. — in which anti-abortion organizations and doctors who have never prescribed the pill mifepristone argue, absurdly, that 23 years ago the F.D.A. If the lower courts’ rulings on mifepristone are not reversed entirely, it could also upend the Food and Drug Administration’s drug regulatory process. This would throw our health care system into chaos in ways that extend far beyond the specific fight over mifepristone, a highly effective drug that has been used safely by millions of patients for medication abortions and for miscarriage care for more than two decades. In seeking to restrict access to abortion across the United States, the plaintiffs in this case have, intentionally or not, seriously jeopardized our nation’s 85-year-old drug regulatory system.

US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy arrives on Wall Street to deliver a speech on the econony at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York on April 17, 2023. It's an unusual setting for a political speech, but McCarthy's visit Monday will echo former President Ronald Reagan's visit to the floor in 1985, his first of two as president. As Congress returns to from a two-week recess to a summery capital where the Treasury Department's mid-summer debt ceiling deadline feels tangibly closer, McCarthy finds himself in an increasingly difficult position. In a statement Monday morning in advance of McCarthy's speech, White House spokesman Andrew Bates accused the California Republican of "holding the full faith and credit of the United States hostage, threatening our economy and hardworking Americans' retirement." Meanwhile, McCarthy's own caucus of House Republicans isn't making his job any easier, since the GOP only has a slim majority.

☆ Sen. Bill Cassidy says reaction to mifepristone dispute is 'totally alarmist' and insists abortion remains a state's rights issue – even as GOP colleagues call for nationwide limits
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Katie Balevic | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy said the concern over mifepristone and the FDA's authority is "totally alarmist." Cassidy said the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision returned decisions on abortion laws back to the states. The Louisiana senator also insisted that decisions on abortion laws had been returned to the states after last year's Supreme Court decision. "I think Dobbs is the uncomfortable middle ground, where people will confront that there is a diversity of opinion. In September, after weeks of arguing that individual states "should decide the issue of abortion," Sen. Lindsey Graham said abortion was "not a states' rights issue" and proposed a national abortion ban that would bar the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

☆ Supreme Court asked to block ruling that threatens access to abortion pill mifepristone
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The Justice Department and the abortion pill distributor Danco Laboratories on Friday asked the Supreme Court to block an order that threatens access to mifepristone, an escalation of a legal fight that could make it harder to undergo the procedure nationwide. But the appeals court voted 2-1 to temporarily reimpose restrictions on mifepristone, which will significantly limit access to the drug even in states where abortion is legal. Mifepristone, used in combination with another drug called misoprostol, is the most common method to terminate a pregnancy in the U.S., accounting for about half of all abortions. Misoprostol, which is used a standalone abortion drug in other parts of the world, is not impacted by the lower court rulings. Prelogar said the lower court rulings would immediately make all doses of mifepristone misbranded because their labelling would not be consistent with the FDA's original approval.

☆ Piper Sandler calls generative A.I. the next $100 billion tech revolution, names stocks to play it
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

"We see Generative AI as the next major revolution in technology that could have far reaching implications across both consumer and enterprise sectors," wrote analyst Brent Bracelin in a Friday note to clients, calling generative AI the "next $100B+ technology revolution." Amazon Web Services is also launching Bedrock , a generative AI service that's geared toward developers. Given this setup for the industry, Piper Sandler named some of its top picks to play the growing field. Microsoft seemed to win the first marketing battle, but Piper Sandler sees Alphabet as well-positioned for AI given its yearslong use of AI and machine learning in its search products. Despite the run up in shares, Piper Sandler expects nearly 7% downside for the stock from Thursday's close.

[1/3] Former U.S. President Donald Trump departs from Trump Tower to give a deposition to New York Attorney General Letitia James who sued Trump and his Trump Organization, in New York City, U.S., April 13, 2023. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, which had last September asked the Washington court for guidance on local law. Alina Habba, a lawyer for Trump, said in an email: "We are confident that the Second Circuit will rule in President Trump's favor and dismiss Ms. Carroll's case." Carroll, 79, has long accused Trump of stalling to keep jurors from ever hearing her case. The case is Trump et al v. Carroll, District of Columbia Court of Appeals, No.

[1/3] Former U.S. President Donald Trump departs from Trump Tower to give a deposition to New York Attorney General Letitia James who sued Trump and his Trump Organization, in New York City, U.S., April 13, 2023. The district's highest local court, the Court of Appeals, said it did not have enough facts to decide whether Trump was acting as president when he accused the former Elle magazine columnist in June 2019 of lying about the alleged encounter. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, which had last September asked whether under local law Trump made his comments in his role as president, or in his personal capacity as Carroll argued. The Washington court said the 2nd Circuit or a federal district judge in Manhattan should assess Trump's role. The case is Trump et al v. Carroll, District of Columbia Court of Appeals, No.

By Tuesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced it would prohibit non-Muslims from entering the holy site for the rest of Ramadan. “I see these visits as a raid on our holy site,” he said. That status quo is slowly being chipped away, says Sheikh Rani Abusibr, an Imam of nearly twenty-years at Al-Aqsa. There was a heightened security presence at the holy site when Easter, Ramadan, and Passover celebrations overlapped. Without the status quo arrangement being enforced, there are fears that an already tumultuous region could spiral out of control.

☆ Who says romance is dead? Couples are using ChatGPT to write their wedding vows
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —When Elyse Nguyen was nearing her wedding date in February and still hadn’t started writing her vows, a friend suggested she try a new source of inspiration: ChatGPT. Nguyen ultimately ended up using a good portion of ChatGPT’s suggestions and said her husband was on board with it. “It helped alleviate some stress because I had no prior experience with wedding vows nor did I know what should be included,” Nguyen said. The Writer’s Block Assistant tool helps users write vows, best man and maid of honor speeches, thank you cards and wedding website “about us” pages. We’re working on responsibly innovating using AI to advance the wedding and event industry as a whole.”Michael Grinn and Kate Gardiner used viral AI tool ChatGPT to write the Ketubah, a Jewish wedding contract, for their June wedding.

☆ DOJ asks appeals court to keep abortion pill mifepristone on market in case that may end up at Supreme Court
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Boxes of mifepristone, the first pill given in a medical abortion, are prepared for patients at Women's Reproductive Clinic of New Mexico in Santa Teresa, U.S., January 13, 2023. The DOJ asked the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to block U.S. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk's unprecedented decision by noon Thursday "to enable the government to seek relief in the Supreme Court if necessary." Kacsmaryk's suspension of the FDA's approval of mifepristone is set to take effect on Friday. "If allowed to take effect, that order will irreparably harm patients, healthcare systems, and businesses," the Justice Department lawyers wrote in a court filing. When asked whether Danco will stop distributing mifepristone if Kacsmaryk's decision takes effect this Friday, Ellsworth said the company will consult with the FDA about how to proceed.

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