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June 2 (Reuters) - After a rocky start to a week of negotiations, around 170 countries agreed to develop a first draft by November of what could become the first global treaty to curb plastic pollution by the end of next year. The "zero draft" text would reflect options from the wide-ranging positions of different countries by the start of the next round of talks to be held in Nairobi, Kenya, in November. You have done so by providing us collectively with a mandate for a zero draft and intersessional work," said Jyoti Mathur-Filipp, executive secretary of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) on Plastic Pollution at the closing plenary. Countries like the United States and Saudi Arabia have favored national plans rather than global targets to tackle the problem. Tadesse Amera, co-chair of the International Pollutants Elimination Network, said with growing public concern about the plastic pollution crisis, the negotiations need to result in a strong agreement.

Persons: Jyoti Mathur, Marian Ledesma, Amera, Valerie Volcovici, Matthew Lewis Organizations: Economic Co, Intergovernmental, Greenpeace Philippines, Reuters, Samoa, Ambition Coalition, Thomson Locations: Paris, Nairobi, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, INC, Japan, Chile, United States, Washington

☆ Nerja Caves: Europe's oldest 'tourist' site
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Julia Buckley | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The Cueva de Nerja, or Nerja Caves, are a three-mile series of caves near Nerja in Malaga province, southern Spain. Today, visitors can take a 45-minute tour of the “public gallery” to see fantastical formations of stalactites, stalagmites and other speleothems – shapes and structures caused by mineral deposits. So far, 589 prehistoric paintings have been discovered in the caves (modern visitors cannot visit those areas for conservation reasons). Prehistoric visitors mostly burned one type of pine to light their way, the carbon analysis revealed. “I think the magnitude and geological beauty of the Nerja Cave must have overwhelmed its prehistoric visitors, just as it overwhelms us today,” she said.

☆ How Reuters pinpointed bat-virus risk zones worldwide
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +12 min

Areas where conditions are similar are more prone to spillover, scientists say. The Reuters analysis, which assessed spillover risk through 2020, has proven to have some predictive power. Similar statistical models are used widely to analyze data in ecology, and researchers use them to understand spillover risk. More than one of every five people on the planet is living in areas where the risk is highest for spillover. Using epidemic modeling software called GLEAMviz, the news agency simulated a worldwide pandemic originating from the spillover of a theoretical novel virus.

☆ Avedon at 100: Celebrities select the famed photographer’s best works
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Jacqui Palumbo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

courtesy Richard Avedon/The Richard Avedon FoundationWhen Hillary Clinton, then a US Senator, arrived for a shoot with Avedon in 2003, she recalled him looking at her and saying, "I've seen this image before." courtesy Richard Avedon/The Richard Avedon FoundationFashion designer Miuccia Prada selected this image of Boyd Fortin, a teenaged rattlesnake skinner from Texas, taken in 1979. courtesy Richard Avedon/The Richard Avedon FoundationFashion designer Calvin Klein selected this infamous campaign image from his label's archives. courtesy Richard Avedon/The Richard Avedon FoundationFilmmaker Sofia Coppola chose this iconic 1958 photograph of model China Machado. courtesy Richard Avedon/The Richard Avedon Foundation“Avedon 100” is on view at Gagosian in New York through June 24.

☆ Grace Bumbry, Barrier-Shattering Opera Diva, Is Dead at 86
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Alex Williams | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Grace Bumbry, a barrier-shattering mezzo-soprano whose vast vocal range and transcendent stage presence made her a towering figure in opera and one of its first, and biggest, Black stars, died on Sunday in Vienna. She was 86. Her death, following a stroke in October, was confirmed in a statement by the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she was long a mainstay, performing more than 200 times over two decades. Growing up in St. Louis in an era of segregation, Ms. Bumbry came of age at a time when African American singers were a rare sight on the opera stage, despite breakthroughs by luminaries like Leontyne Price and Marian Anderson. But with a fierce drive and an outsize charisma, Ms. Bumbry broke out internationally in 1960, at 23, when she sang Amneris in Verdi’s “Aida” at the Paris Opera.

☆ Opinion: The chilling logic behind Russia’s deportation of children
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Opinion Kristina Hook | Oleksandra Gaidai | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Writing in 1914, historian Marian Dubiecki recounted Moscow’s deportation of Polish children following the 18th century Kościuszko Uprising. More recently, testimonies of rescued Ukrainian children recount extensive ideological coercion, often violent, while in Russian custody. Kristina Hook and Oleksandra GaidaiRussian perpetrators now demonstrate radicalization dynamics well-known to genocide scholars, and their dehumanizing ire has turned toward Ukrainian children. One state TV pundit openly speculated about drowning or burning Ukrainian children. Children are falsely told that their families have abandoned them and that they are “children of Russia” forever.

☆ Leaked org chart shows the 15 most important leaders in Google's AI division as it races to catch Microsoft
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Central to those efforts is its Research and AI group, led by senior vice president Jeff Dean. An internal org chart seen by Insider shows the 14 other leaders under Dean who drive Google's efforts to catch the sudden success of OpenAI. Jeff Dean, senior vice president, Google AI Thomas Samson/Getty ImagesReporting directly to Dean is Eli Collins, a VP leading work on Google's ChatGPT competitor, Bard. Collins also works on AI Test Kitchen, an app that gives select users access to some of Google's latest AI demos. Jay Yagnik, VP of research, oversees the biggest number of employees within Dean's organization.

☆ Barclays raises Bank of England terminal rate forecast to 4.5%
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 27 (Reuters) - Barclays raised its terminal rate forecast for the Bank of England's benchmark policy rate by a quarter point to 4.5%, following the central bank's eleventh straight hike last week. Barclays had expected a pause from the BoE in the March meeting, but following a 25 basis points hike to 4.25%, and data last week that showed an unexpected rise in British inflation, the British bank retained its call for another quarter percentage point hike in May. The new forecast implies a "minimal recession", Barclays economists led by Marian Cena said. Following the hikes this year, Barclays projects 100 bps of cuts to the BoE's bank rate in the second half of next year, 50 bps more than its previous prediction. Reporting by Susan Mathew in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann ThoppilOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Venezuela's Maduro to join Ibero-American summit in rare foreign trip
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SANTO DOMINGO, March 24 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro will attend an Ibero-American summit this weekend hosted by the Dominican Republic, a summit official said on Friday, marking one of the embattled leader's few trips abroad. "We welcome President Nicolas Maduro, who is on his way to the Dominican Republic," said Marian Cruz, the master of ceremonies for the event, which provides a forum for leaders from across Latin America as well as Spain and Portugal. Maduro's attendance at the Saturday and Sunday summit in Santo Domingo would be his first foreign trip this year. Maduro is shunned by many governments due in large part to his 2018 re-election derided as a sham by international observers. Cruz, the summit official, also confirmed the attendance of Spain's President Pedro Sanchez.

☆ Marian Croak, who has 200 patents to her name including the technology behind Zoom, became one of the first Black women to be inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Yoonji Han | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Marian Croak became one of the first two Black women to be inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame. Her innovations in internet technology have enabled remote work, text donations, and voting for American Idol. Last year, she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame — among the highest honors for inventors, including Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and the Wright brothers. Croak became one of first two Black women to receive that honor, alongside the late Patricia Bath, an ophthalmologist who created a device used during surgery to easily remove cataracts. As one of the first-ever Black women to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Croak recognizes the importance of diversity in a historically homogenous industry.

REUTERS/Miguel VidalA CORUNA, Spain/LONDON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - In Spain's A Coruna, two contrasting fashion business models collide - pitching the growing demands for the clothing industry to become more sustainable against the constant need to drive sales. This rainy, windswept, city on the rugged Atlantic coast is the unlikely headquarters of Zara-owner Inditex (ITX.MC) - the world's biggest fast fashion retailer. It also hosts small boutiques offering high quality, durable products that consider themselves an alternative to the fast and affordable fashion propelling Inditex's annual sales of 28 billion euros ($30 billion). "If you release tonnes and tonnes of clothes, textiles, shoes into the market, you will have to collect it," he said. But Circ and its competitors are only capable of producing 1% of the textiles needed to make the 109 million tonnes of clothes per year that the global fashion industry churns out.

☆ Why Netflix is placing cars like the Chevy Bolt in its shows, and what the streamer's deal with GM means for its growing advertising business
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Netflix announced a new deal to integrate GM electric vehicles into popular shows like "Love is Blind" and "Queer Eye." On a press call announcing the deal, Lee said directors and showrunners would be involved in the process and that cars would be integrated in an "authentic" way so they don't "feel out of place." Netflix has a history of placing brands like Coke and GM in shows like "Stranger Things" and "Queer Eye." Lee insisted the GM deal isn't "product placement" and that GM isn't paying to put its vehicles on shows. Terms of the deal weren't shared; GM said it wasn't part of a TV ad buy on Netflix's Basic with Ads.

WELLINGTON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - The shock resignation of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who altered the face of global politics when she was elected the world's youngest female head of state, throws a spotlight on the demands faced by women in power. "We need people like Jacinda Ardern in politics. [1/2] New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern during the Australia-New Zealand Leaders' Meeting at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Offices in Sydney, Australia, on Friday, July 8, 2022. "Certainly she really challenges the male stereotype of being a prime minister." Former Prime Minister Helen Clark said Ardern had done an "extraordinary job" in leading New Zealand through major crises.

☆ We updated our Netflix org chart — including new top advertising, gaming, and marketing leadership — after a year of layoffs and restructuring
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Ashley Rodriguez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

2022 was a transformational year for Netflix that marked the streamer's foray into advertising. We updated our interactive chart of Netflix's power structure and key leaders. Top execs including former marketing chief Bozoma Saint John left the company, and a new guard emerged as Netflix expanded into businesses including advertising and hired execs with experience from Snap and Hulu to lead the charge. The streamer also shuffled around some key execs, restructuring its studio film team and centralizing TV and film for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa under content VP Larry Tanz. As the power dynamics shift at Netflix, we've updated our organizational chart of the top executives at the streaming company and who they report to.

Insider identified 75 of the most powerful execs at the streamer, in an interactive org chart. Product chief Greg Peters took on additional duties as chief operating officer and has since broadened his purview to include gaming. Former PepsiCo exec Sergio Ezama joined in 2021 to become Netflix's chief talent officer. Insider identified 75 of the most powerful executives now at Netflix. They include C-suite executives finance chief Spencer Neumann, as well as business leads like Bajaria and movie boss Scott Stuber.

☆ 10 money managers who quietly control the vast fortunes of Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin, the Waltons, and other big-name billionaires
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Hayley Cuccinello | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +24 min

Many über-rich people don't outsource their wealth — they hire their own chief investment officers. He left SAC in 2005 for Dune Capital Management, but stayed in touch with Steve during his five-year term at the investment firm. Andrew oversees CPV's portfolio, which primarily comprises direct private investments such as Collectors Universe, a collectibles-authentication company, and the New York Mets. In 2011, Wildcat Capital Management was launched with Potter as president and chief investment officer. Since November 2021, Carland has also served as the interim chief investment officer for Builders Vision's asset arm.

President Joe Biden will announce six new judicial nominees in his final batch of selections in 2022, a White House official told NBC News, as it looks to two more years of reshaping the federal courts under an expanded Democratic Senate majority. The nominees are for federal district courts — one in Indiana, two in New Jersey and three in California. The White House said they’ll be among the first nominees sent to the Senate early in the new year, when another session begins. Democrats gained a seat in the 2022 election and may have an easier time processing judges in 2023 and 2024. The new round will bring Biden’s total announced judicial nominees to 150, the White House said.

Off-budget spending, where the cost of activities deemed to have special characteristics is not included in the official budget, is widely used across the world. In Poland, it was initially deployed for spending to weather the pandemic but now encompasses a surge in military and other expenditures. "Budget funds are becoming less and less transparent," Supreme Audit Office President Marian Banas told Reuters. Importantly, they note that the off-budget spending still gets captured under European accounting rules. In recent years, Poland's off-budget spending has gone from insubstantial amounts to several percentage points' worth of GDP, based on spending tracked by economists and rating agencies.

☆ EU reaches agreement on pivotal carbon market deal, Czech EU presidency says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRUSSELS, Dec 18 (Reuters) - European Union negotiators reached agreement early on Sunday on overhauling the bloc's carbon market, the bloc's main policy tool for fighting global warming, the Czech EU presidency and the European Council said. Meeting that goal will require the EU carbon market to be reformed to cut emissions faster, which it does by requiring around 10,000 power plants and factories to buy CO2 permits when they pollute. Negotiators were at odds over how quickly to end the free CO2 permits the EU gives industries to protect them from foreign competition. Those permits will be wound down as the EU phases in a carbon border tariff designed to prevent domestic firms from being undercut by overseas competitors. The provisional deal still needs to be formally adopted by the European Parliament and the European CouncilReporting by Sabine Siebold; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Michael PerryOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ European Union reaches agreement on pivotal carbon market deal
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

European Union negotiators reached agreement early on Dec. 18, 2022 on overhauling the bloc's carbon market, the bloc's main policy tool for fighting global warming. European Union negotiators reached agreement early on Sunday on overhauling the bloc's carbon market, the bloc's main policy tool for fighting global warming, the Czech EU presidency and the European Council said. Meeting that goal will require the EU carbon market to be reformed to cut emissions faster, which it does by requiring around 10,000 power plants and factories to buy CO2 permits when they pollute. Negotiators were at odds over how quickly to end the free CO2 permits the EU gives industries to protect them from foreign competition. Those permits will be wound down as the EU phases in a carbon border tariff designed to prevent domestic firms from being undercut by overseas competitors.

The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America doesn’t support same-sex marriage. It demonstrates that the American model of representative democracy — though riddled with divisions — can still address complex contemporary issues. This victory was achieved because the Respect for Marriage Act also includes important principles of religious freedom for those who don’t endorse same-sex marriage itself. On the right, criticism has largely centered on calling for even stronger religious freedom amendments or strenuously objecting to the inclusion of same-sex marriage in any federally codified definition of marriage. But over time, the model of political pluralism embodied in the Respect for Marriage Act can help renew national trust.

Two people are dead in an apparent murder-suicide at the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office on Tuesday afternoon, officials said. No suspects were being sought, Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown said at a news conference. The shooting appeared to be a murder-suicide, Clay Jenkins, the judge, or chief executive, of Dallas County, said at the scene. Law enforcement outside the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office on Tuesday afternoon. NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reported the building housing the medical examiner’s office was evacuated.

It wants 3.8 billion pounds ($4.4 billion) to build a gigafactory in northern England but its plans are hanging by a thread as it struggles to lure enough investment. French battery startup Verkor, for example, announced on Wednesday that it had raised 250 million euros ($249 million) to fund a megafactory. The European Battery Alliance (EBA) acknowledges Asian firms, and Chinese companies in particular, are likely to increase their market share in the coming years, helped by their track record and offtake agreements. "Even if we have the production in Europe, it doesn't mean we have the know-how or the control," she said. The EU has approved 6.1 billion euros since 2019 in funding by member states for battery research and innovation while Britain has a 1 billion pound fund to support investments in EV supply chains.

☆ Joanna Simon, acclaimed singer, TV correspondent, dies at 85
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-22 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK — Joanna Simon, an acclaimed mezzo-soprano, Emmy-winning TV correspondent and one of the three singing Simon sisters who include pop star Carly, has died at age 85. Simon, the eldest of four, died Wednesday, just a day before her sister Lucy died, according to Lucy’s daughter, Julie Simon. Joanna Simon, who died of thyroid cancer, rose to fame in the opera world and as a concert performer in the 1960s. “I am filled with sorrow to speak about the passing of Joanna and Lucy Simon. “I have no words to explain the feeling of suddenly being the only remaining direct offspring of Richard and Andrea Simon,” Carly Simon said.

Czech markets were jolted on Wednesday on news the government could widen its proposed tax on excessive profits to include 2022 earnings, earlier than existing plans applying only to 2023-2025. Stanjura told reporters after the government met that the cabinet still leaned towards putting the windfall tax in place for 2023, calming markets somewhat. A government source had earlier said legal implications for the tax were still being considered. The windfall tax should be imposed on banks with more than 6 billion crowns ($240 million) of net interest income in 2021. A windfall tax would help cover protective measures such as a cap on electricity prices.

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