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☆ 10 Things in Tech: Say goodbye to the US car market as we know it, TikTok will pay for AR filters, and YouTubers share how they make money
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

I'm Diamond Naga Siu, and I'm taking a few days off to watch my best friend graduate with their PhD. (Don't worry, my colleagues in London will be bringing you your daily dose of tech news while I'm away.) Pharmacy startup TruePill is searching for its panacea. Employees told to "drink the Kool-Aid" at Larry Page's startup. Current and former employees told Insider about the recent turmoil.

☆ Biden Wants Airlines to Pay Passengers for Delays. In Europe, they already do
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Bernhard Warner | Sarah Kessler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

“Airlines already have financial incentives to get their passengers to their destination as planned,” Willie Walsh, the director general of the International Air Transport Association, a lobbying group, said in a statement criticizing the Biden plan. Europe’s air passenger rights regulation hasn’t been a panacea. Mr. Zenere, for example, is still arguing with Wizz Air, the airline that delayed his trip to Venice last year. — Bernhard WarnerTell us what you think: What changes would you like to see introduced to make the air travel experience smoother? Yaccarino, who was NBCUniversal’s head of advertising, will take over a company that has struggled to expand its ad business.

☆ Opinion: Nuclear power is a vital part of climate change solution
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Opinion Don Lincoln | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Last week, Germany closed its last three nuclear power plants, becoming nuclear free for the first time in 62 years. Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, many countries began phasing out nuclear power plants, citing issues of nuclear safety and long-term storage of nuclear waste. Would not generating that power from carbon-free nuclear power plants be preferable? In the US, the regulatory process involved in building a nuclear power plant is slow and obstructive. In addition, modern nuclear power plant designs generate less waste than earlier designs and further improvements should be pursued.

☆ Science Proves the 4-Day Workweek Prevents Burnout, Helps Productivity
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Shubham Agarwal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

At the time, back in 2018, a New Zealand firm had just wrapped up a landmark trial to test the efficacy of a four-day workweek. A lot of the benefits of the four-day workweek come down to a simple, everyday activity: sleep. A lot of the benefits of the four-day workweek come down to a simple, everyday activity: sleep. Less time, more productiveThough the four-day workweek may seem like a recent phenomenon, it's been decades in the making. But for now, the four-day workweek certainly has the potential to be a far-reaching antidote to pressing workplace concerns such as mass resignations and the burnout crisis.

☆ Why Walmart is closing half its stores in Chicago
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Walmart announced Tuesday that next week it will close four poor-performing stores out of the eight it operates in Chicago. Now, it's closing four Chicago stores. Walmart said its remaining four Chicago stores “continue to face the same business difficulties,” but it believes closing these four will give the others the best chance of staying open. There were fears that Walmart and other businesses would leave Chicago, but Walmart pledged to stay and invest in the city. Some retailers have also cited higher levels of theft and other crime in their city stores.

☆ Amazon’s head of HR rejects employees’ return-to-office petition
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Beth Galetti, the company's HR head, formally responded to a letter that gathered ~30,000 employee signatures. Galetti wrote in her email that Amazon's guiding principle is to "make our customers' lives better and easier every day." My colleague Eugene Kim obtained Galetti's full email and walks us through how Amazon employees feel about the response. In other news:MSCHF's Tax Heaven 3000 dating simulator is supposed to help you prepare your 2022 US federal tax return. Carta offers popular software to help employees manage their equity.

☆ We're about to find out whether AI might replace those 200,000 laid-off tech workers as Silicon Valley prioritizes efficiency
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

As companies like Meta and Twitter get leaner, AI could replace those engineers. A consistent research finding is that AI tools make humans more efficient. "One reason that large firms struggle with new tech like AI: managers are squeamish about risk," Mollick tweeted. The best pro-human case is that workers are kept on and given access to AI tools like ChatGPT. It may be time for tech workers to update their favorite smug adage: Learn to code.

☆ First Republic just got a $30 billion lifeline from JPMorgan and other Wall Street giants. Here's why its problems aren't over.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Hayley Cuccinello | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

JPMorgan and 10 other banks are depositing $30 billion in First Republic Bank. A white knight has arrived to First Republic Bank's rescue. A consortium of America's biggest banks including JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs are depositing a collective $30 billion in First Republic. This $30 billion lifeline may not be enough to reassure investors and depositors, and it may be a stopgap measure before a sale. The $70 billion lifeline from JPMorgan announced on Sunday did little to quell investors' concerns, Dahiya noted.

☆ The Next Frontier in Farming? The Ocean.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Somini Sengupta | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +10 min

For centuries, it’s been treasured in kitchens in Asia and neglected almost everywhere else: Those glistening ribbons of seaweed that bend and bloom in cold ocean waves. Far beyond South Korea, new farms have cropped up in Maine, the Faroe Islands, Australia, even the North Sea. But even as its champions see it as a miracle crop for a hotter planet, others worry that the zeal to farm the ocean could replicate some of the same damages of farming on land. “Seaweed is not going to replace all plastic, but seaweed combined with other things can tackle single use plastic,” he said. Seaweed farms are a far cry from the rows of corn and wheat that make up monoculture farming on land.

☆ The Fed's been aggressively hiking rates over the past year. The banking crisis could force them to halt the hikes — or even cut them, analysts say.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Nomura economists expect the Fed to cut interest rates by 0.25 percentage points next week. That's because bond prices and yields have an inverse relation, so when interest rates drop, prices bond prices tend to go up, which could alleviate losses. The Fed hiked interest rates eight times over the past year to its targeted levels of 4.5% to 4.75% now. On Sunday, investment banking giant Goldman Sachs said it doesn't expect the Fed to hike interest rates at its next meeting. The investment banking giant was previously expecting the US central bank to hike the rate by 0.25 percentage points.

☆ Fears of European industry exodus to U.S. may be overdone
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Philip Blenkinsop | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

However, the risks are offset not only by the substantial existing European incentives, but also other factors - such as proximity to European consumers - that many companies cite as critical in their decisions. Think tank Bruegel says EU support is already on a par with, or even larger than, IRA money. Moreover, well over half of the IRA support is for renewable energy production, with local content requirements playing a very limited role. Some executives say rather than providing more subsidies, Europe needs to simply improve the way they are given. The United States is not a panacea for European firms, not least due to questions about what approach the next U.S. administration might take.

☆ 9 deals that could shape US sports betting this year, as pent-up demand for M&A could bring operators like Fanatics back to the negotiating table
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Ashley Rodriguez | Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Sports-betting insiders say there's pent-up demand for M&A in the industry after dealmaking slowed to crawl last year. That may mean fewer media and other deals that don't offer a clear return on investment or cost efficiencies.. That may mean fewer media and other deals that don't offer a clear return on investment or cost efficiencies. One thing we may see less of this year is operators looking to bring their entire tech stacks in-house, like when Bally's acquired Bet.Works and PointsBet bought Banach Technologies. Here are nine potential deals industry insiders are watching in 2023, and how they could shake up the industry:

☆ Meta launches a tool to proactively prevent sextortion of teens
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Meta is taking steps to crack down on the spread of intimate images of teenagers on Facebook and Instagram. To create a hash of an explicit image, a teen can visit the website TakeItDown.NCMEC.org to install software onto their device. Meanwhile, President Biden demanded in his latest State of the Union address more transparency about tech companies’ algorithms and how they impact their young users’ mental health. Meta recommends teens who have multiple copies of the image or edited versions make a hash for each one. “There’s no one panacea for the issue of sextortion or the issue of the non-consensual sharing of intimate images,” Davis said.

☆ Inside California's tiny-home takeover
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Kelsey Neubauer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

For the state with the most dire housing shortage, the move could be a game changer — eventually. As the US grapples with a massive housing shortage, one possible solution is playing out in California right now — and the state may have struck gold. Oregon, Maine, and Nebraska, as well as cities like Miami, have enacted laws similar to California's. There's been opposition to ADUs from homeowners worried about the density of their neighborhoods and sometimes the aesthetics of the structures. Ultimately, the housing shortage could be alleviated, she said.

☆ I used psychedelics to treat my PTSD after other treatments failed. My experience using these medicines with therapy led me to found my own company.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Yeji Jesse Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Jonathan Sabbagh started a psychedelics company after receiving treatments he said helped his PTSD. He said that psychedelics and ketamine-assisted therapy successfully treated his PTSD and other mental health issues and that his experience led him to start Journey Clinical with Myriam Barthes, his wife. He experienced psychedelics after moving to the US from Switzerland, where he grew up. What saved my life in that moment was finding a great psychiatrist who put me on a lot of medication. Working with a therapist helped me work through traumaThat's when I started to work with a therapist and do ketamine-assisted psychotherapy.

☆ Canadian premiers accept C$46-bln federal govt healthcare funding offer
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Nia Williams | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 13 (Reuters) - Canada's provincial and territorial premiers on Monday said they will accept an additional C$46.2 billion ($34.64 billion) in healthcare funding from the federal government over the next 10 years, but warned the amount falls short of what is needed. In return for additional funding, the federal government has asked the provinces to commit to some conditions, including better data gathering and sharing. "We have accepted this for now...This is not a long-term solution to the healthcare funding that is needed within this country and by no means is a panacea to fix healthcare," Stefanson said. As a next step Ottawa will hold bilateral meetings with each province to finalize individual funding agreements. ($1 = 1.3336 Canadian dollars)Reporting by Nia Williams Editing by Marguerita ChoyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Analysis: Investors seek uncorrelated assets on worries volatility will return
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Laura Matthews | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Yet some market participants are convinced the Federal Reserve’s fight against inflation will keep markets volatile and are allocating funds to so-called alternative investments. Those types of returns are not typical, however, and the performance of CTAs has been more muted in less volatile markets. Private markets raised $216.9 billion in 2022, putting assets at $1.4 trillion as at June 2022, from $311 billion in 2010, according to data provider Preqin. A 2023 study from State Street found that 68% of investors plan to increase their allocation to private markets in the next two to three years. "In that environment, stocks and bonds are likely to be more correlated."

Known in the legal world as the “death penalty” of child welfare, it can happen in a matter of months. One in 100 U.S. children — disproportionately Black and Native American — experience termination through the child welfare system before they turn 18, the study found. Still, longer timelines can also reflect a stronger focus on family reunification and a willingness to devote greater resources to meet that goal, child welfare experts say. And some child welfare advocates have criticized the law’s focus on narrow initiatives like parenting classes, which they say fail to address poverty and the other root causes of neglect that prompt most child welfare cases. Snodgrass said she never imagined when her child welfare case started that she could lose her rights to her children.

☆ Not a 'panacea': UK lawmakers play down hydrogen's role in net-zero shift
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Anmar Frangoul | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Hydrogen has a part to play in the U.K.'s shift to a net-zero economy but its role will likely be restricted to certain sectors, according to a report from an influential committee of U.K. lawmakers. Some call the resulting hydrogen "green" or "renewable" if the electricity used in the electrolysis process comes from a renewable source such as wind or solar. Big plans, big challengesOver the past few years, major economies and businesses have looked to the emerging green hydrogen sector to decarbonize industries integral to modern life. "Of course, green hydrogen is still an infant industry, its production is currently too cost-intensive compared to fossil fuels," he said. "So it requires an extra effort to make green hydrogen projects ...

☆ Analysis: Mexican companies could resort to more spinoffs to enhance market value
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Valentine Hilaire | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Mexican telecommunications giant America Movil (AMXL.MX) kicked off the trend late last year when its shareholders approved the spinoff of its cell tower business. Some analysts said both Alfa and Televisa may consider further spinoffs as they look to boost their depressed valuations. Other companies, like Coke bottler and retailer Femsa (FEMSAUBD.MX), whose shares are down 3.3% year-to-date, after gaining 6% in 2021, may follow suit. Alfa lost 2.69% the day after its shareholders approved the Axtel spinoff, while Televisa's shares advanced 0.86% the day after it revealed plans for a similar move. Televisa, meanwhile, could follow its sports spinoff with either its editorial or magazine businesses, two analysts said.

Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he's running for president again in 2024. Trump's 2024 campaign comes as he faces escalating federal and state criminal investigations. Trump cast himself as the lone panacea to a long list of ills on a "quest to save our country." Supporters wait for the arrival of former President Donald Trump during an event at his Mar-a-Lago resort on November 15, 2022 in Palm Beach, Florida. Grover Cleveland, of the National Democratic Party, was the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms in the White House.

☆ The Trump and COVID eras tanked immigration to the US. Reversing that could help ease a recession risk, sky-high inflation, and a labor crisis.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Ben Winck | Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

More than a third of Americans want less immigration, but more could actually help cool inflation. Letting more people move to and work in the US could close that gap and ease inflation without a severe recession. While many Americans view immigration as a threat to the country's financial well-being, data continually suggests that the opposite is true. There remain some 10.1 million job openings but only about 5.8 million workers available to fill them. Increased immigration, then, provides a rare chance to rebalance the labor market and drag inflation lower without driving millions of Americans out of work.

☆ Addiction drug shows promise lifting long COVID brain fog, fatigue
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Julie Steenhuysen | Nancy Lapid | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Lauren Nichols, who has long COVID, takes a break and rests in a lounge bed in the office in her home in Andover, Massachusetts, U.S., August 3, 2022. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterResearchers chasing long COVID cures are eager to learn whether the drug can offer similar benefits to millions suffering from pain, fatigue and brain fog months after a coronavirus infection. Younger, author of a scientific review of the drug as a novel anti-inflammatory, in September submitted a grant application to study LDN for long COVID. It worked so well that he ran a pilot study among 38 long COVID patients. He studied LDN in 18 long COVID patients, with 11 showing improvements, and said he believes larger, formal trials could determine whether LDN offers a true benefit.

"It's a catch-up, or catch-down, kind of effect," said Galvin Chia, an emerging markets strategist at NatWest Markets. "There are some exceptional factors, but none of these would provide that kind of panacea for underlying risks that remain." Indonesia's foreign exchange reserves fell by $1.4 billion last month to $130.8 billion, due to debt payments and Bank Indonesia's efforts to stabilise the rupiah. read moreData for September also showed a surge in Indonesia's inflation to a seven-year high, reflecting a jump in fuel prices. "If you look at consumption, look at credit growth, everything is domestic, unlike the other export markets in Asia.

☆ INDIA STOCKS Indian shares extend fall as autos weigh
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Rama Venkat | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BENGALURU, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Indian shares fell for a third session on Tuesday, with automobile stocks leading losses, as risk-averse trades take hold of financial markets globally. The NSE Nifty 50 index (.NSEI) fell 0.55% to 17,146 as of 0510 GMT, and the S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) was down 0.51% to 57,692.61. read moreIn domestic trading, the Nifty's automobile index (.NIFTYAUTO) and the energy index (.NIFTYENR) fell 0.98% and 0.69%, respectively. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS.NS) posted its biggest intraday pct fall in more than three weeks, weighing on the Nifty IT index (.NIFTYIT) which was down 0.75%. "We have seen the worst of inflation getting over so don't see much of a domestic inflation scare as of now."

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