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☆ India is on pace to pass the US on the list of the world's biggest economies — but there's a looming chance it squanders this promise
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Cork Gaines | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

According to a recent Goldman report, India's economy is projected to top America's around 2075, becoming the second-largest in the world. India's economic growth is fueled by several key factors, including its vast labor force, technological advances, and burgeoning capital investment. A significant driver of this growth is innovation and technology, as noted by Goldman Sachs's chief India economist, Santanu Sengupta. The Goldman Sachs team noted that the biggest risk facing the country is if the labor force participation rate does not reverse its current 15-year downward trend. "If you have more opportunities — especially for women, because the women's labor force participation rate is significantly lower than men's — you can shore up your labor force participation rate, which can further increase your potential growth."

Persons: Goldman Sachs, Goldman, Zahra Tayeb, Goldman Sachs's, Santanu Sengupta, Sengupta, Tan, Elon Musk Organizations: Service, Apple, SpaceX, Goldman Locations: India, China, Wall, Silicon, India's, Mexico, Pacific

☆ A top AI expert says the technology is still in its very early phase: 'We're only at the iPhone 2G, 3G point.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Emad Mostaque, the CEO of Stability AI, thinks the tech will truly take off next year. Think again: the AI hype cycle is just getting started — at least in the view of one top expert. But that's going to be far, far greater if Mostaque is right: he estimates 50% of all CEOs will make mention of AI by next year. But once that realization of AI at an enterprise level happens, it won't just help companies put the technology to good use. "You just need to have the right models in the right way to enable these outcomes that increase productivity," he said.

Persons: Mostaque, ChatGPT, Emad Mostaque, We're, he's, Michael Briest, Bard Organizations: UBS Locations: America, Silicon Valley

☆ Turkey extracted a slew of concessions for letting Sweden join NATO, including coveted F-16 fighter jets from the US
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Turkey's president on Tuesday agreed to back Sweden's NATO membership. Hours later, the US said it would move ahead with the transfer of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey. Sweden sought NATO membership in the wake of Russia's war on Ukraine. Turkey's president, Recep Tayyp Erdogan, drove a hard bargain in making his U-turn, and was seemingly rewarded with coveted F-16 fighter jets from the US. Erdogan has also attempted to use the NATO impasse to renew a push for Turkey's membership of the EU.

Persons: Recep Tayyp Erdogan, Jens Stoltenberg, Jake Sullivan, Erdogan, It's, Vladimir Putin, Rich Outzen Organizations: NATO, Service, NATO Allies, US, Brookings Institution, Washington Post, BBC, Erdogan's, Atlantic Council, Turkish Locations: Turkey, Sweden, Ukraine, Wall, Silicon, Vilnius, Lithuania, Baltic, Ankara, Washington, United States, Russia, Stockholm, EU

☆ Investors should do their due diligence before investing in A.I., says Hennion & Walsh's Kevin Mahn
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailInvestors should do their due diligence before investing in A.I., says Hennion & Walsh's Kevin MahnKevin Mahn, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management president and CIO, joins 'The Exchange' to discuss diversifying investments overseas, wariness about future Fed rate hikes, and international A.I.

Persons: Kevin Mahn Kevin Mahn Organizations: Hennion, Walsh Asset Management Locations: A.I

☆ Review: A Jew and 16 ‘Nerf Nazis’ Meet Cute in ‘Just for Us’
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Jesse Green | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

It may be too much to ask a human hummingbird like Alex Edelman to try to stick to the subject. In “Just for Us,” his three-jokes-per-minute one-man show, he zooms from punchline to punchline almost as fast as he caroms around the stage of the Hudson Theater. (At 34, he’s part of what he calls the overmedicated ADHD generation.) And even though he’s telling a story about white supremacy, you are. Growing up a “proudly and emphatically” Orthodox Jew in “this really racist part of Boston called Boston,” he clocked the wariness between races but also within them.

Persons: Alex Edelman, ”, Ibsen, —, it’s, Edelman, Jason Zinoman, Jackie Mason, he’d Organizations: Hudson Theater, Broadway, Twitter Locations: London, Edinburgh, Washington, Boston, Queens

☆ Sam Altman is AI's compelling preacher. The world is ready to bow down.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-24 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Sam Altman is a man on a mission: Sell the world on AI. Insider spoke to people who met or saw Altman during his tour, who say the CEO was a convincing preacher. Sam Altman knows he's at an inflection point. On June 9, at a fireside chat in Seoul, Korea, the OpenAI CEO acknowledged he was on a "diplomatic mission." "Sam replied that he did not know and asked the student to tell him in ten years," Mathew said.

Persons: Sam Altman, Altman, Isaac Herzog, He's, Narendra Modi, Yoon Suk, Emmanuel Macron, Rishi Sunak, ChatGPT, Varshal Gupta, Gupta, OpenAI, Sam, Frances, …, Jacob Mathew, Mathew, Felfoul Organizations: Knights, Innovation, Google, Health, OpenAI, Qatar National Library, European Union, EU, WISE Locations: Seoul, Korea, Israel, Jordan, Qatar, UAE, India, Tel Aviv, South Korea, France, Delhi, Doha, European

And while Musk has mentioned the trip in two posts since leaving, he didn't tweet once while in China. That said, after three years of harsh COVID curbs that hampered entry into China, foreign CEOs appear eager to get the lay of the land. Sixty-seven foreign business leaders attended the high-profile China Development Forum this year, although that is still 20 fewer than in 2019. The few known comments by foreign CEOs whilst they were in China have been in line with Biden's stance that he is not seeking to decouple the world's two largest economies. The foreign ministry quoted Musk as saying he was opposed to a decoupling of the U.S. and China economies which he described as "conjoined twins".

Persons: Elon Musk, Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, Musk, Goldman's Solomon, wariness, Xi, Noah Fraser, Tesla, Goldman, Joe Biden, Tim Cook, Patrick Gelsinger, Mary Barra, Stephen Schwarzman, Jamie Dimon, Christopher Johnson, JPMorgan's Dimon, Daniel Russel, Brenda Goh, Joe Cash, Selena Li, Zhang Yan, David Brunnstrom, David Shepardson, Edwina Gibbs Organizations: Media, Twitter, Canada China Business Council, EU Chamber of Commerce, U.S . Department of Commerce, U.S, flashpoints, General Motors, China, China Strategies, U.S ., JPMorgan, Blackstone, Intel, JPMorgan Global China Summit, Asia Society Policy Institute, Thomson Locations: SHANGHAI, BEIJING, China, Shanghai, U.S, Washington, Beijing, Blackstone's, East, Hong Kong

☆ China Sentences a U.S. Citizen to Life in Prison for Espionage
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Chang Che | Olivia Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A Chinese court said it sentenced a 78-year-old American citizen to life in prison on Monday on unspecified charges of spying, the latest in a wave of espionage cases the authorities have pursued amid growing wariness of foreign influence in the country. The Intermediate People’s Court in the southeastern city of Suzhou said in a short statement that it pronounced John Shing-Wan Leung guilty of espionage and sentenced him. Mr. Leung holds a United States passport and is a permanent resident of Hong Kong, according to the statement posted on the court’s social media account. A spokesman for the United States Embassy in Beijing said the embassy was aware of the reports about the case but declined to comment because of privacy concerns. American citizens arrested in China must sign a privacy waiver to allow embassies and consulates to release information about their cases to the public.

☆ China still conducting police activities in Germany -German ministries
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BERLIN, May 15 (Reuters) - German security authorities believe that China is still conducting police activities on German soil even though Beijing assured Berlin in February that it had ceased to do so, the German foreign and interior ministries said on Monday. "The security authorities continue to assume that there are two so-called overseas police stations in Germany," a spokesperson for the interior ministry said at a regular press conference. Berlin called on Beijing in November to shut down extraterritorial police stations in the country. The interior ministry spokesperson clarified that the police stations in question were "not fixed-location offices, but mobile facilities" from which Chinese and non-Chinese nationals were conducting "official duties" on behalf of Beijing. Germany is reassessing its bilateral relations with China amid increased wariness of Beijing as a strategic rival even as it remains Berlin's largest trading partner.

☆ Stalled Sister City Plan Reveals New German Wariness of China
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Christopher F. Schuetze | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

City officials in the northern German port of Kiel were flattered this year when the Chinese port of Qingdao — about 40 times its size — proposed partnering up as a sister city. The two cities had a history of cooperation dating to when the Germans helped their Chinese counterparts develop a sailing venue for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Almost too good, in fact, for security experts, who noted other, less innocent similarities. Kiel, home to about 250,000, hosts much of Germany’s Baltic naval fleet, Germany’s equivalent of the Navy SEALs, military research facilities and big shipbuilders making, among other things, six brand-new, state-of-the-art submarines. Qingdao, a city of more than nine million, is home to China’s North Sea fleet, a marine research academy and China’s main submariners school, which specializes in submarine hunting.

"When you get into higher interest rates ... you look to your collateral," Rodeheaver said in an interview. "We are tightening on price and profitability ... That is going to slow lending a bit." "The economy has started to slow in an orderly fashion" in response to higher interest rates, Jefferson said, calling tighter credit conditions "part of the transmission mechanism of monetary policy." Powell, however, said he felt the impact of the credit shock "remains uncertain," and his own baseline outlook does not include a recession. Bank lending dipped about 1.7% in the two weeks following SVB's collapse, but has risen since then and recouped about a third of the decline.

BERLIN, May 9 (Reuters) - Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said on Tuesday that Beijing would maintain lines of communication with all parties to the war in Ukraine, including Germany, in seeking a ceasefire. European nations have repeatedly criticised China for its refusal to describe Russia's war in Ukraine as an invasion, or to call for a Russian withdrawal. "China is willing to maintain communication with relevant parties, including Germany, to achieve an early ceasefire." Qin said Beijing "firmly opposes some countries in using their so-called laws to impose long-arm jurisdiction and unilateral sanctions on other countries, including China". He added: "China will make necessary responses and resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and legitimate interests of Chinese enterprises."

☆ Japan PM Kishida visits Seoul to forge closer ties amid N.Korea threats
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

South Korean officials are hopeful that Kishida will make some kind of gesture in return and offer some political support, although few observers expect any further formal apology for historical wrongs. But the historical differences between South Korea and Japan also threaten to cast a shadow over the blossoming ties between its two leaders. The majority of South Koreans believe Japan hasn't apologised sufficiently for atrocities during Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of Korea, Lee said. "They think that Prime Minister Kishida should show sincerity during his visit to South Korea, such as mentioning historical issues and expressing apologies," she added. Still, South Korea is an "important neighbour that we must cooperate with on various global issues," Japan's foreign ministry has said.

☆ Biden to reassure Philippines' Marcos as China tensions flare
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Trevor Hunnicutt | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/2] U.S. President Joe Biden listens during the annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner in Washington, U.S., April 29, 2023. Marcos, who became president last year, has sought warm relations with both the United States and China, who are vying for influence in the Asia-Pacific region. "Some of the steps that China have taken have concerned (Marcos), probably even surprised him," said one senior Biden administration official. Experts say the United States considers the Philippines a potential location for rockets, missiles and artillery systems to counter a Chinese amphibious assault. "We're standing shoulder to shoulder in the South China Sea, where our alignment has never been stronger," said one U.S. official.

☆ China investment consensus cracks as politics fuel fears
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Tom Westbrook | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

It is unlikely to be resolved quickly even if the markets keep rallying and China economy keeps global growth ticking. Data paints a murky picture, but supports brokers' analysis that the bid from long-only money managers is absent. Allocation analysis from data firm EPFR shows a broad downtrend, especially to U.S.-domiciled China funds. EPFR figures show allocation to China funds outside the U.S. has increased for two years and mainland markets' recent performance has also been encouraging. "Our reservations about China's long-term investment prospects are based on our outlook for returns to capital."

At the same time, hiring remained strong through March, and wages continue growing faster than Fed officials feel is sustainable. The ECI is only released quarterly and includes both worker pay and benefits like healthcare, giving what Fed officials regard as a clearer sense of employment-related cost trends. For Fed officials, it could influence their view of whether the economy and inflation are likely to slow more - perhaps much more - quickly than anticipated. Reuters GraphicsEconomists expect the upcoming survey will show conditions tightening further still, this time alongside data showing credit from banks in decline. "Banks may not be done tightening lending standards, which will restrict access to credit, hurt business investment, reduce business formation, and weigh on job growth and consumer spending."

[1/2] The U.S. Supreme Court building is seen in Washington, U.S., April 6, 2023. Two laws, the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Securities Exchange Act, funnel judicial review of adverse agency orders to federal appeals courts only after those orders become final. The Supreme Court's conservative justices have signaled wariness toward expansive federal regulatory power and the previously recognized duty of judges, under Supreme Court precedent, to give deference to that authority. Federal agencies have had their powers curtailed in recent Supreme Court rulings. Axon sued the FTC in 2020 in federal court in Arizona following an investigation by the agency into its 2018 acquisition of Vievu, a rival body-camera provider.

☆ Tim Cook says today's kids are 'born digital' and warns parents to 'set some hard rails' around screen time
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Men's lifestyle magazine GQ published an in-depth profile of Apple CEO Tim Cook on Monday. Cook said today's kids are "born digital," but warned there should be "hard rails" on screen time. Cook was also described as someone who does not personally "log on all that much." "Kids are born digital, they're digital kids now," Cook was quoted saying in a lengthy profile of him published in GQ on Monday. In the GQ profile, Cook suggested that Apple is not driven by fostering digital addiction.

REUTERS/Bing Guan/File PhotoNEW YORK, April 2 (Reuters) - New York City police have thrown up metal barriers around Trump Tower and blocked roads near Manhattan Criminal Courthouse as they brace for potential protests ahead of Donald Trump's expected surrender to prosecutors on Tuesday. The downtown courthouse, home to criminal and supreme courts, will shut down some courtrooms ahead of Trump's expected appearance, a court official said. However, many Trump supporters online have expressed wariness about public demonstrations, even after Trump called for them, concerned they could be arrested. Trump is expected to fly to New York on Monday from Florida and spend the night at Trump Tower, before arriving early Tuesday morning at the courthouse, a Trump adviser said. A court official told Reuters that courtrooms on higher floors of the courthouse will be closed at 1 p.m., shortly before Trump's expected 2:15 p.m. (1815 GMT) arraignment.

☆ Brace for the US economy to crash-land as the banking turmoil creates a credit crunch, Allianz says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( George Glover | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The US economy is going to crash-land into a recession in the second half of 2023, according to Allianz. "Rapidly tightening credit conditions, exacerbated by the banking crisis" will fuel the downturn, Allianz said. Allianz is expecting the turmoil that's rocked the US's regional banks in recent weeks to fuel a credit crunch. The turmoil could leave banks more risk-averse and result in a pullback in lending, according to Allianz. "While credit growth has still held up, a significant decline in bank lending seems inevitable amid the collapse of monetary aggregates."

☆ What's better than OpenAI? Developers shop for alternatives
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Krystal Hu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

George Mathew, an AI investor at Insight Partners, compared the AI foundation models to other technological breakthroughs which spawned competition. As the infrastructural layer of AI applications, foundation models have attracted the most investment from venture capitalists and strategic investors. Writing assistant Jasper.ai began with OpenAI's models, but does not want to rely on a single model, CEO Dave Rogenmoser told Reuters. For example, it uses OpenAI’s model to generate long articles, and Cohere to auto-complete sentences at faster speed and lower cost. Fergal Reid, Intercom's director of machine learning, conceded that OpenAI's GPT-4 is "very expensive."

While money funds are not strictly gauranteed or insured, the 85% invested heavily in government securities put up some stark competition for bank deposits that have lagged central bank policy rate rises over the past 18 months - causing much political ire in countries such as Britain. But, in contrast to money funds, the average rate across all of them, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, is still just 0.37%. That's now changing due to safety and insurance fears at smaller banks stateside - as well as the compelling alternative at money funds that appear safer against that backdrop. Of this trillion, half went to government money market funds and the other half to larger banks, they reckoned. Noting that some $7 trillion of U.S. bank deposits remained uninsured, the JPM team concluded: "A FDIC guarantee of all U.S. bank deposits would certainly help, but it might not be enough to completely stop this deposit shift."

☆ Potential TikTok ban sends advertisers scrambling
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Sheila Dang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

In recent discussions with ad buyers, TikTok representatives have stuck to the company's current talking points. TikTok employees have played up ongoing plans to separate the user data of Americans and store it in the country. In a section of the email titled "Can the Chinese government request TikTok U.S. user data?" Even with talk of a ban, most advertisers have not changed their spending plans on TikTok, media buyers said, because discussions of a ban have lingered since 2020 without any result. "A ban isn't a ban until it's a ban," he said.

☆ Iran's behaviour will be under microscope in coming months, say Saudi columnists
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

RIYADH, March 12 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia will watch Iran's behaviour during the two-month window agreed upon to restore relations, Saudi columnists said on Sunday, reflecting continued wariness in the longtime rivalry between the region's Sunni Muslim and Shi'ite powers. Gulf states have grown increasingly disillusioned with key ally and security guarantor the United States, including over global powers' 2015 nuclear pact with Iran which they deemed flawed for not tackling Iran's missile programme and proxies. "It is natural to have diplomatic ties even if at a low level because Iran's expansionist approach has created many touch points with Saudi Arabia....(But) we have to keep our eyes open," wrote Saudi columnist Tariq al-Homayed. The United States has voiced reservations about deepening ties between Gulf states and its economic rival China, whose president attended a Gulf summit in Riyadh last year at a time of severe strains in the strategic U.S.-Saudi relationship. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have repeatedly said they are looking to diversify their strategic partners while pressing Washington for concrete commitments to regional security.

SINGAPORE, Feb 24 (Reuters) - U.S streaming giant Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) is making preparations to open an office in Vietnam after years of negotiations with authorities and completing a risk assessment, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. Netflix declined to comment in response to Reuters questions about its plans and its current operations in Vietnam. The office could open as early as late 2023 but will require a lengthy regulatory process that could take longer, according to one of the sources. As Vietnamese officials grow more confident in the country's rising consumer power, however, they have begun ramping up pressure on tech firms to abide by the rules. With the fastest growing middle class in Southeast Asia, Vietnam has become a key market for tech giants.

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