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☆ Oil prices pop 2.5% after Saudi Arabia pledges more voluntary production cuts
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Lee Ying Shan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Oil prices jumped following OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia's decision to cut production by another million barrels per day. On Sunday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners — collectively known as OPEC+ — made no changes to its planned oil production cuts for this year, but coalition chair — and de-factor leader — Saudi Arabia announced further voluntary declines. "The market did not widely expect the Saudi decision to cut production by 1 million barrels per day unilaterally," President of Rapidan Energy Bob McNally told CNBC in an e-mail following the decision. "It once again demonstrated that Saudi Arabia is willing to act unilaterally to stabilize oil prices," McNally said, citing the example of January 2021 when the oil titan unilaterally cut by production by 1 million barrels per day. On April 3, several producers of the oil cartel OPEC+ revealed a combined 1.66 million barrels per day of production declines until the end of this year.

Persons: —, Rapidan Energy Bob McNally, McNally, Ruxandra Iordache Organizations: Saudi, Organization of, Petroleum, Brent, U.S, West Texas, Rapidan Energy, CNBC Locations: OPEC, — Saudi Arabia, Asia, Saudi, Saudi Arabia

☆ Archeologists made a game-changing discovery at Greece's oldest dig site where ancient humans used to roam 700,000 years ago
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( Nicholas Paphitis | Associated Press | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Archeologists discovered simple stone tools that date back an estimated 700,000 years. The discovery was made at Greece's oldest site where ancient humans were thought to exist. The Greek site was one of five investigated in the Megalopolis area during a five-year project involving an international team of experts, a Culture Ministry statement said. This skull from a member of the deer family was also discovered at the dig site Megalopolis, southern Greece. These stone tools, discovered at the dig site Megalopolis, southern Greece, date back about 700,000 years ago.

Persons: —, Panagiotis Karkanas, Eleni Panagopoulou, Katerina Harvati, Homo antecessor, antecessor, directorss, Nikos Efstratiou, Efstratiou, Megalopolis Organizations: Service, Ministry, Greek Culture Ministry, American School of Classical Studies, Athens, University of Tübingen, Associated Press, Greece's University of Thessaloniki Locations: ATHENS, Greece, Europe, Spain, Germany, Megalopolis, Mycenae, Olympia, Pylos

☆ French street artist C215’s heart ‘belongs to the Ukrainian people’
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Mariya Knight | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Based in Paris, Guemy has collaborated with British artist Banksy — who has also created works in Ukraine — in the past. “Being French gives a proper sense of tragedy, not irony.”The artist's depiction of Ukrainian soldier Oleksandr Matsiyevsky. The artist has even painted his own son Gabin, wearing a traditional Ukrainian shirt, on a building in Kyiv damaged by a Russian missile attack. Ukraine doesn’t want ‘peace,’ Ukraine wants victory and justice.”Guemy is planning to do more works in and about Ukraine. “My heart belongs to the Ukrainian people.”

Persons: haggard, Oleksandr Matsiyevsky, Christian Guemy, Matsiyevsky’s, ” Guemy, “, Ukraine ’, ”, Guemy, Banksy —, Ukraine Guemy, Volodymyr Zelensky, Zelensky, –, Eugène, ” It’s, Joel Saget, Nina, he’s, Dmytro Kotsiubaylo, Da Vinci, Bakhmut, Lesya Ukrainka, Roman Pilipey, Gabin Organizations: CNN, Russian, Ukraine, Getty Locations: Kyiv, Ukraine, Paris, Verkhovna Rada, Ukrainian, Lviv, France, AFP, Haiti, Rwanda, Spain, San Francisco, Irpin, Borodyanka, Roman, Russian, “

☆ Turkish lira continues slide to new record lows following Erdogan's election victory
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Lee Ying Shan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

People walking next to a Turkish national flag at the historical grand bazaar in Istanbul. The Turkish lira slumped to yet another all-time low Tuesday, extending its slide after the re-election of incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The currency was last trading at 20.15 against the greenback at around 5 a.m. Tuesday morning local time, surpassing Monday's lows. Turkey's Election Board on Sunday confirmed that Erdogan won Turkey's 2023 presidential election with 52.14% of the votes, while his opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu received 47.86%. He subsequently went on to become the country's deputy prime minister from 2015 to 2018.

☆ How a coder used ChatGPT to find an apartment in Berlin in 2 weeks after struggling for months
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-23 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Daniel Dippold, a founder and investor, used OpenAI's ChatGPT to find an apartment in 2 weeks. The 28-year-old used the AI to suggest alternatives to housing websites and automate the search process. A screenshot of Dippold asking ChatGPT to make a scraper that can build a database of housing authorities in Berlin. As a result, he asked ChatGPT to generate 40 more suggestions. Since he didn't want to manually respond to each email, Dippold asked ChatGPT to generate code that would create automatic responses that would include personal documents like their passports and pay stubs.

☆ The average startup CEO now makes $142,000 — down from $150,000 last year
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

CEOs of early-stage startups now make, on average, $142,000 — down from $150,000 last year, WSJ reports. CEOs in crypto, e-commerce, and direct-to-consumer industries are most impacted by the pay cuts. In the first quarter of 2023, global venture funding reached $58.6 billion — a 13% drop from the same quarter last year, according to a report from CB Insights, a research firm. CEOs on the losing end of the funding spectrum will feel the brunt of the pay cuts. The consulting firm's findings on salary cuts come as CEOs across major corporations are taking pay cuts this year.

DeSantis, who is expected to soon announce that he will seek the 2024 Republican nomination for U.S. president, then moved to strip Disney of its long-standing self-governing power over Walt Disney World in Orlando. Democratic State Sen. Linda Stewart, who represents part of Orange County, called it "disappointing" that Florida would lose jobs. Iger's predecessor announced plans in July 2021 to relocate jobs from Southern California to a new facility in central Florida, citing its "business-friendly climate." "I remain optimistic about the direction of our Walt Disney World business," D'Amaro wrote. We have plans to invest $17 billion and create 13,000 jobs over the next ten years.

LOS ANGELES, May 18 (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) is scrapping plans to relocate 2,000 jobs to Florida in part because of "changing business conditions" in the state, according to an e-mail to employees seen by Reuters on Thursday. Disney parks chief Josh D'Amaro said "leadership changes" and "changing business conditions" prompted Disney to reconsider its 2021 plan to relocate employees, including its Imagineers who design theme park rides, to a new campus in Lake Nona. The original decision to relocate employees to Florida from California had prompted complaints from many employees who did not want to move across the country. DeSantis, who is expected to soon announce that he will seek the 2024 Republican nomination for U.S. president, then moved to strip Disney of its long-standing self-governing power over Walt Disney World in Orlando. Iger's predecessor announced plans in July 2021 to relocate jobs from Southern California to a new facility in central Florida, citing its "business-friendly climate."

While paying bonuses at bailed-out energy groups raises questions around the use of taxpayers' money, it also highlights the need for the companies to remain competitive. One of the sources said 200 of Sefe's traders in London had received hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses, adding mid-level traders had received $5 million-$7 million each. Two of the other people said that generous subsidies had been paid at both Sefe and Uniper. Uniper confirmed that bonuses were paid to trading staff for 2022 but below the level of the previous year. The Finance Ministry, which is responsible for the government's ownership of Uniper, also referred questions on operating issues including staff remuneration to the company.

☆ OpenAI is rolling out a game-changing feature to ChatGPT this week that could revolutionize how we use the internet
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A new web-browsing feature for ChatGPT Plus users that will allow them to access real-time information. OpenAI, the company behind the AI chatbot, announced it will be rolling out new features to ChatGPT Plus users this week. Users who pay for ChatGPT Plus, which uses model GPT-4, will have access to a web-browsing feature that will provide up-to-date information. Some ChatGPT Plus users will have access to plug-ins that can integrate into existing platforms, as shown in this screenshot. ChatGPT Plus users will be able to use these features by clicking on their ChatGPT profile, pressing "Settings," then going to the "Beta features" tabs.

☆ U.S. Virgin Islands issued subpoena to Elon Musk in Jeffrey Epstein lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Electric car maker Tesla CEO Elon Musk meets with French Minister for the Economy and Finances Bruno Le Maire on the sidelines of the 6th edition of the "Choose France" Summit at the Chateau de Versailles, outside Paris on May 15, 2023. The U.S. Virgin Islands issued a subpoena to Tesla CEO Elon Musk seeking documents as part of that government's lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase over sex trafficking by the bank's longtime customer Jeffrey Epstein, a court filing revealed Monday. That filing said the Virgin Islands has tried since late April to serve Musk with the subpoena, which was issued because Epstein "may have referred or attempted to refer" Musk as a client to JPMorgan. The Virgin Islands asked Judge Jed Rakoff to authorize the government to serve Musk with the subpoena through so-called alternative service, which can includes taking out an advertisement alerting him to legal the demand for documents. CNBC has reached out to request comment from Musk, who in addition to being CEO of Tesla is head of SpaceX and Twitter CEO by e-mail.

☆ Post-Covid, post-bankruptcy Hertz is all-in on electric, with big implications for the EV, auto and rideshare market
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Tim Mullaney | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

In this article HTZ Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTTesla Model 3 electric vehicles at a Hertz neighborhood location. These deals began to roll out last year, after Hertz's first Teslas hit the road in 2021 and experiments with rental EVs extended back over the past decade. "At the end of [March], we had about 50,000 electric vehicles in our fleet, comprising approximately 10% of total cars," Scherr said. Hertz has also told analysts that the growing EV rideshare market can be a buffer against traditional quarterly peak to trough experienced in the leisure business. The benefits of using an EV begin with a $1 per ride credit to the driver for using an EV, Uber spokeswoman Alix Anfang said.

☆ Here are 10 AI-powered tools to help boost your productivity at work
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Sarah Jackson | Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

ChatGPT isn't the only AI-powered tool that can help make your job easier. Here are 10 that can help with everything from generating slideshows to writing emails. Tome: Building slide decksIf you make a lot of PowerPoints for work, the app Tome can help you do it faster. Managing your inbox can be a pretty tedious time-suck, but tools like Remail might help you get through emails more efficiently. Brain.fm, an AI-generated music tool, can help users stay on task.

☆ A consultant used ChatGPT to free up time so she could focus on pitching clients. She landed $128,000 worth of new contracts in just 3 months.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Jacqueline DeStefano-Tangorra, the founder of consulting firm Omni Business Intelligence Solutions, started using ChatGPT when it launched last year. In her first three months using ChatGPT, DeStefano-Tangorra booked $128,000 worth of new deals. As a result, the chatbot, she said, freed up her capacity to focus on crafting more business proposals to potential clients. Meanwhile, DeStefano-Tangorra has helped her new clients craft personalized business proposals, customize legal documents, and design sales dashboards with guidance from ChatGPT. She won't stop using ChatGPT anytime soon.

☆ These are the 10 best travel destinations for a 'digital detox'—none of them are in the U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Celia Fernandez | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

More and more people are looking for a reprieve from the endless scroll of social media, breaking news alerts and e-mail notifications. There's a recent rise in Gen Zers in the U.S. buying "dumb phones" to help limit the time they spend on apps like Twitter and TikTok. And as people set stricter boundaries around how much they interact with tech, they're turning their attention to travel. InsureMyTrip, a travel insurance comparison website, ranked the best cities to visit for a "digital detox" based on an overall rating across four categories: relaxation, activities, safety, and access to the internet. To stick to your digital detox, look to one of the featured destinations that received high marks for availability of evening tours and activities.

☆ Regular internet use may be linked to lower dementia risk in older adults, study says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Jen Christensen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

A study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society suggested that older people who regularly used the internet were less likely to develop dementia. Scientists still don’t know what causes dementia, so the new research can’t pinpoint the exact connection between internet usage and brain health. A 2020 study found an association between cognitively stimulating jobs and a lower risk of dementia, for example. Research also suggests that most older adults most frequently use the internet for basic tasks like email, news or online banking. And learning new skills may be protective against dementia, studies suggest.

"Twitter Blue is a mess. Within the next 48 hours, all but 110 of the most-followed Twitter accounts suddenly had verification through Twitter Blue, indicating Twitter likely gifted the check marks, independent researcher Travis Brown told Reuters. GRADUAL PULLBACKSince the initial rollout of the Twitter Blue service in November, imposter tweets have spread harmful misinformation. Imposter Twitter accounts also tarnished the online reputations of Lockheed Martin Corp(LMT.N) and Nintendo Co Ltd(7974.T). "The volume of imposter accounts seems to depend on several things -- Is the client doing a high profile event that week?

☆ UK govt says country's banking system safe and sound, after First Republic collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

LONDON, May 1 (Reuters) - Britain's finance ministry said on Monday that the country's banking system remained safe, sound and well capitalised, after First Republic Bank (FRC.N) became the third major U.S. bank to fail in two months. "As the independent Bank of England has confirmed, the UK banking system remains safe, sound and well capitalised," a spokesperson for the Treasury said via e-mail. The spokesperson also said First Republic was "a matter for U.S. authorities". Reporting by Muvija M; Editing by Alex RichardsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Wall Street predicted a big surge for oil this year. But prices are now lower
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Ruxandra Iordache | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Oil prices were rattled by the collapse of several U.S. and European lenders earlier this spring, which discouraged volatility-adverse investors from historically riskier assets, such as commodities. Beijing, the world's largest importer of crude oil, reined in its purchases last year amid drastic "zero-Covid" restrictions that depressed transport fuel requirements. Kpler data indicates that China's imports of Russian crude oil averaged 1.59 million barrels per day in March, up 68% from the same period in 2022. The latest cuts already spell a tight supply-demand balance that could hit households, the International Energy Agency warned in its latest monthly Oil Market Report. "Our oil market balances were already set to tighten in the second half of 2023, with the potential for a substantial supply deficit to emerge.

☆ Universal Music reiterates AI concerns as quarterly profit slumps
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 26 (Reuters) - Universal Music Group (UMG.AS), the label representing Drake and Taylor Swift, on Wednesday posted a slump in first-quarter core profit due to compensation expenses, and reiterated concerns over AI-made music. Core profit, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), slumped 43.4% in constant currency to 261 million euros ($288.04 million), due to non-cash, share-based compensation expenses, part of an equity compensation plan announced last year. Excluding these expenses, adjusted EBITDA was 522 million euros, up 13.0% on the same basis, and beating a consensus cited by Credit Suisse which had expected 513 million euros. UMG's CEO, Lucian Grainge, has come under shareholder pressure over an "excessive" $100 million pay deal, The Financial Times reported on Wednesday. Labels now face challenges like slowing global revenue growth in recorded music, particularly in established markets like the U.S, while the emergence of AI-generated music adds to their concerns, as many laws do not currently deem the replication of artists' voices as strictly illegal.

☆ With Russia's role in the global energy system falling, a select few nations are set to benefit
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Lee Ying Shan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Russia's role as a global energy player is set to diminish, and the U.S. and Qatar are among a slew of nations ready to fill its shoes, analysts told CNBC. "Russia's global LNG supply share will almost certainly decline this decade," Henning Gloystein, a director for energy, climate, and natural resources at political consultancy Eurasia Group told CNBC. He noted that its role in the liquefied natural gas space was retreating even before the country's invasion of Ukraine last year. Western sanctions, which resulted from the onslaught of its neighbor, further sapped most foreign investment out of Russia's LNG sector. He added that the total capacity for Russia's LNG facilities to produce natural gas will remain flat at 37 million tons over the next few years.

☆ SpaceX Starship explosion ignited 3.5-acre fire and sent debris thousands of feet, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Debris litters the ground on April 22, 2023, after the SpaceX Starship liftedoff on April 20 for a flight test from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas. Fish and Wildlife Service disclosed new details on Wednesday about the aftermath of last week's SpaceX Starship Super Heavy launch and mid-air explosion, including that a "3.5-acre fire started south of the pad site on Boca Chica State Park land," following the test flight. In the agency's e-mailed statement, a spokesperson for the Fish and Wildlife Service said that following the launch and mid-air explosion, "Cameron County closed Boca Chica Beach and State Highway 4 for 48 hours due to launch pad safety concerns." The road closures prevented FWS staff from "accessing refuge-owned and managed land" until mid-morning on April 22, the agency confirmed. Elon Musk's defense contractor designed its Starship Super Heavy with the ambition of taking people and supplies on a Mars mission one day.

☆ Sweden launches research rocket, accidentally hits Norway
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

STOCKHOLM, April 25 (Reuters) - A research rocket launched by Sweden Space Corp (SSC) early on Monday from Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden malfunctioned and landed 15 km (9.32 miles) inside neighbouring Norway. There are routines in place when things go wrong and we inform both Swedish and Norwegian governments, and other actors, he said. In the event of any border violation, those responsible should immediately inform the relevant Norwegian authorities, which included the foreign ministry, through the right channels, the spokesperson said. The ministry had not received a formal notification of the incident from the Swedish authorities, she added. The Norwegian foreign ministry said it was not aware of whether there was any damage to the surroundings, while a SSC spokesperson said the rocket came down far from any settlement.

☆ The bad loan term that's back for banks trying to spot a recession
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Tim Mullaney | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

If there wasn't enough banking jargon to blind you, it's time to learn a new piece of it: Welcome to the industry's era of the "criticized loan." "Criticized loans could be paying or performing but a loan could be singled out because of its collateral." At Bank of America, criticized loans to office building projects rose to $3.7 billion out of $19 billion in office loans. But office buildings represent only a quarter of the bank's commercial real estate loans, and all CRE is just 7% of the bank's total loans and leases. "It's almost impossible for us to see office [losses] more than 4 or 5 percent of office loans.

A Reuters review of testimony, previously unreported public documents and interviews with elected leaders, lobbyists and attorneys detail mounting challenges to many pending anti-ESG bills. The tussles have financial implications for some of the largest investment firms that manage billions of dollars for state pension plans. Lauren Doroghazi, senior vice president at government relations consultant MultiState Associates, said the debates show lawmakers coming to terms with the anti-ESG bills' practical impact. Several public pension systems raised concerns about it, including the largest, the $182 billion Texas Teacher Retirement System (TRS). For instance, if federally-regulated local banks faced new national rules on an issue like climate change disclosures, banks would need special permissions from local officials to keep public business in Utah he said.

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