DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Democrats warn Musk after Twitter safety execs leave
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

After news broke last week that both Twitter's head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, and head of brand safety and advertising quality, A.J. Brown, had departed, four senators wrote in a letter to Twitter owner Elon Musk and new CEO Linda Yaccarino that they were concerned about Twitter's ability to meet its legal obligations. The Democrats asked the Twitter leaders several questions about whether and how the company has complied with the security and privacy obligations in the FTC consent decree. "Mr. Musk's behavior reveals an apparent indifference towards Twitter's longstanding legal obligations, which did not disappear when Mr. Musk took over the company," the senators wrote. "Regardless of his personal wealth, Mr. Musk is not exempt from the law, and neither is the company he purchased."

Persons: Ella Irwin, Brown, Elon Musk, Linda Yaccarino, Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey, Ron Wyden, Mazie Hirono, Musk's, Musk, Twitter Organizations: Federal Trade Commission, Twitter, FTC, Department of Justice, New York Times, Democrats, CNBC, YouTube, Elon Locations: Sens, Hawaii

☆ The World Bank is betting on this company to 'green' the $1.6 trillion steel industry — take a look inside
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Boston Metal CEO, Tadeu Carneiro Photo courtesy Boston MetalThe Boston Metal offices in Woburn, Mass. A diagram of the process Boston Metal is using to make green steel. Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards This is where the electricity is converted from AC to DC in the Boston Metal location. (A portion of the photo has been altered to protect the intellectual property of Boston Metal.) Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards The Boston Metal electrolysis process releases oxygen as a byproduct.

Persons: Tadeu Carneiro, Cat Clifford, Adam Rauwerdink, It's, Carniero, Sonneborn, Rauwerdink, Boston Metal's, " Carneiro, doesn't Organizations: Boston Metal, CNBC, Boston, Boston Steel, DC, MIT, IFC, BHP, World Bank Locations: Woburn , Mass, Boston, Woburn, Asia, Burkina Faso, India, Brazil, South Asia

☆ New North Korean space rocket features engine from ICBMs, analysts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Josh Smith | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] A still photograph shows what appears to be North Korea's new Chollima-1 rocket being launched in Cholsan County, North Korea, May 31, 2023 in this image released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency and taken from video. "It appears to make use of an engine that appeared in an earlier North Korean intercontinental-range ballistic missile." The Chollima-1 appears to be a medium-lift space launch vehicle intended for delivering small satellites to low earth orbit. "In this case we do have a fairly large payload fairing compared to the earlier North Korean space launch vehicles," Panda said. South Korea said it was working to recover parts of the North Korean rocket, releasing photos that showed what analysts said appeared to be a section designed to join two stages, and a liquid propellant tank inside.

Persons: Joseph Dempsey, Panda, Korea's, Josh Smith, Gerry Doyle Organizations: North, Korean Central News Agency, REUTERS, Carnegie Endowment, International, North Korean, International Institute for Strategic Studies, United Nations, Thomson Locations: Cholsan County, North Korea, REUTERS SEOUL, U.S, Korea's, Soviet, United States, Korea, South Korea, South

☆ UAE oil chief is ‘the perfect person’ to lead UN climate talks, COP28 director general says
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The UAE will host the COP28 climate summit from Nov. 30 through to Dec. 12. The director general of COP28 on Thursday defended the appointment of oil executive Sultan al-Jaber, describing the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company CEO as the "perfect person" to lead the climate talks. The UAE, the third-largest oil-producing member of the OPEC alliance, will host the COP28 climate summit from Nov. 30 through to Dec. 12. Asked by CNBC's Dan Murphy to respond to the calls to remove al-Jaber as president-designate of the summit, COP28 Director General Majid al-Suwaidi said: "This is a discussion that we've seen a lot in the media. "As the UAE we've been really focused on how do we deliver the results we need for COP28 and I know that Dr. Sultan is the perfect person to do that.

Persons: Sultan al, Jaber, COP28, Joe Biden, Ursula von der Leyen, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, CNBC's Dan Murphy, Majid al, Suwaidi, we've, —, they're, Sultan Organizations: Abu, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, European, United, U.S, UAE we've Locations: UAE, COP28, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

☆ Senate votes to repeal Biden's student loan forgiveness plan. White House warns Biden will veto
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The Senate voted to repeal President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan on June 1, 2023. Getty Images | BloombergA GOP-led effort to overturn President Joe Biden's sweeping student loan forgiveness plan passed the Senate on Thursday. The measure, which passed the House along party lines last week, would also nullify the pause on student loan payments. More from Personal Finance:Student loan pay pause eased forgiveness for public servantsExperts say SCOTUS will rule against student loan forgivenessWhat's at stake as SCOTUS weighs student loan forgiveness Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., acknowledged that the passage of the legislation was mostly symbolic. "We should help Americans with student debt, not make their problems worse," Schumer said.

Persons: Joe Biden's, Biden, Education Miguel Cardona, —, It's, Mark Kantrowitz, SCOTUS, What's, Sen, John Thune, Thune, Joe Manchin, Manchin, Biden's, Ed Markey, Markey, Chuck Schumer, Schumer Organizations: Education, Getty, Bloomberg, GOP, Finance, Senate, Democrats, Democratic Locations: York

☆ Opposition grows to debt ceiling deal measure that would end student loan payment pause
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, arrives to the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, May 31, 2023. A measure in the debt ceiling deal terminating the student loan payment pause is facing heavy opposition from advocates, progressives and borrowers. "The pause on student loan payments remains one of the most durably popular pieces of economic policy because the American people recognize what Washington has long struggled to understand: The student loan system is broken," said Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center. More from Personal Finance:Parents paying for college 'is the norm'4 strategies to avoid taking on too much student debtThese moves can help you save big on college costsRep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., filed an amendment Tuesday that would strike the debt ceiling deal provision ending the pause on student loan payments. According to the legislative text of the proposed agreement to raise the debt ceiling, the pause on federal student loan payments will "cease to be effective" and borrowers will be required to resume paying their student loan bills 60 days after June 30.

Persons: Kevin McCarthy, Mike Pierce, Joe Biden's, Ayanna Pressley, Pressley's, Pressley Organizations: Republican, Washington, Protection, U.S, Supreme, Finance Locations: California, Washington ,

☆ Fireworks, Fishing Derbies and Schooner Parades: A Guide to Summering at America’s Seaports
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Ellie Mcgrath | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

IN A BREEZE The annual Gloucester Schooner Festival showcases the majestic two-masted boats, such as the Schooner Columbia. Photo: Getty ImagesWHEN I WAS growing up in Gloucester, Mass., we were steeped in local fishing-port legends. In elementary school, a teacher introduced us to “The Wreck of the Hesperus,” a poem published in 1842 by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and if we hadn’t read “Captains Courageous,” Rudyard Kipling’s 1897 novel, we’d probably seen the 1937 film starring Spencer Tracy. We knew the tale of Gloucester hero Howard Blackburn, who rowed his dory to Newfoundland in an 1883 storm, his hands frozen to the oars.

☆ Will Ripped Jeans Ever Go Out of Style?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

I am perplexed by the ripped jeans looks. And if not, how do you wear ripped jeans with style?— Connie, Marblehead, Mass. The retailers sent the jeans back. That was 40 years ago, and, as Mr. Martens pointed out, distressed styles have helped power Diesel’s parent company to revenues of more than a billion euros last year. Mr. Bravado and Ms. D’Amore believe such one-off distressed jeans have reached the status of “timeless,” like the white shirt.

☆ In Provincetown, Mass., a Matchmaker Helps the Desperate Find Housing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Jenna Russell | Sophie Park | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In this coastal New England town, a booming summer economy has local renters fearful of being priced out. May 28, 2023As soon as he saw the post on Facebook, from a young woman seeking summer housing for her boyfriend, Dan McKeon knew what was going to happen. Mr. McKeon is an unofficial “housing matchmaker” in Provincetown, at the far edge of Cape Cod, where a mix of extreme conditions — limited stock, enormous summertime demand, heavy reliance on an influx of seasonal workers — creates one of the most harrowing housing markets in New England. In his much-consulted Facebook group, people seeking housing post smiling selfies and plaintive appeals for help; far less frequently, Mr. McKeon and others share available rentals. Both online and as a fixture on the local social circuit, Mr. McKeon urges the town’s homeowners to open unused rooms to desperate newcomers, shares insider search tips and strives to ensure that every rental-seeker, year-round or not, feels welcome.

☆ Japanese Moon Lander Crashed Because It Was Still Three Miles Up, Not on the Ground
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

The Beresheet lander, from an Israeli nonprofit named SpaceIL, launched to the moon in 2019, but it crashed. The Indian Space Research Organization attempted to land a lunar spacecraft the same year, too, and that vehicle, Vikram, also crashed. Only China has landed robotic spacecraft on the moon recently, with three successes in three attempts over the past decade. Ispace had obtained insurance for the lander, and the financial impacts on the company would be small, Mr. Hakamada said. The Indian space agency also announced this week that Chandrayaan-3, a follow-up to its moon landing attempt in 2019, could launch as early as July 12.

Persons: ”, Ryo Ujiie, “, Vikram, Takeshi Hakamada, ” Mr, Hakamada, Ispace Organizations: Draper Laboratory of Cambridge, NASA, Lunar Reconnaissance, Indian Space Research Organization, Technology, Pittsburgh, Houston Locations: China

☆ The 3 main ways digital-health startups are competing for a slice of the $13 billion market for obesity care
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-24 | by ( Yeji Jesse Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have surged in popularity. A Rock Health report lays out three main ways startups are competing for a slice of the market. As weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy surge in popularity, digital-health startups are jumping in — offering everything from prescriptions to weight-management tools to compete for a slice of the $13 billion market. That's according to a new report by Rock Health, which lays out three main ways digital-health companies are vying to get in on obesity care. Rock Health said these platforms could be used in conjunction with weight-loss drugs to help track progress.

☆ House Democrats, looking to renew plan to expand Social Security, say debt ceiling fight 'hurts seniors the most'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-23 | by ( Lorie Konish | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Social Security already faces funding risksIn order to prevent a Social Security funding shortfall, congressional Democrats and Republicans must agree on a solution. The Social Security 2100 Act that was introduced in the last Congress had broad support among House Democrats. Changes in the Social Security 2100 Actzimmytws | iStock | Getty ImagesThe Social Security 2100 Act aims to extend the program's solvency, though estimates are not yet available for how long it could prolong the program's funding. Social Security 2100 also calls for adding an additional 12.4% net investment income tax for taxpayers making more than $400,000. Max Richtman president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare

☆ Pope to visit Portugal in August for World Youth Day, Fatima Shrine
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

VATICAN CITY, May 22 (Reuters) - Pope Francis will travel to Portugal from Aug. 2-6 to attend the World Youth Day and visit the Shrine of Fatima, the Vatican said on Monday. World Youth Day, a global gathering of young Catholics, is being held in Lisbon from Aug. 1-6. The Vatican said Francis would take advantage of the trip to travel also to the Shrine of Fatima in central Portugal on Aug. 5. The Catholic Church teaches that the Madonna appeared to three Portuguese children 100 years ago in what was then an impoverished farming village. The pope last visited the shrine in 2017 when he declared two of the children saints.

☆ The mourning dress codes of ‘Succession’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Jacquelyn Palumbo | Jacqui Palumbo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

“Succession” has treated us to both a wedding and a funeral as fate of the Roy siblings spin out towards its finale (which is produced by Warner Bros. Discovery, parent company of CNN), and its penultimate episode gave us mourning dress codes in a grand Catholic setting. “I can do anything — my dad just died,” Shiv responds when asked for a favor at the mass. By episode nine, with the company in a shaky post-Logan transition, the optics of how the Roy siblings perform at the funeral hold a lot of weight. Emotions must be stamped down, they maintain a fragile façade, and getting too close to the truth of Logan Roy is met with a wall of cognitive dissonance.

☆ Airman to Remain Detained as He Awaits Trial
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Alicia Napierkowski | Glenn Thrush | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A federal magistrate ruled on Friday that Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old Air Force National Guardsman accused of posting scores of secret documents to an online gaming platform, will remain behind bars pending his trial because he poses a continuing threat to national security. The judge, David H. Hennessy, cited Airman Teixeira’s history of seeking out, gaining access to and posting classified intelligence materials, in defiance of superiors at an Air Force base on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, in denying the airman’s request to be released on bond into the custody of his father. Airman Teixeira’s actions were “a profound breach” of the oath he took to protect sensitive information when he was given his security clearance, Judge Hennessy said during a custody hearing at the federal courthouse in Worcester, Mass. His ruling came after the government introduced evidence that the airman continued to have access to sensitive intelligence months after his superiors noted his suspicious behavior. The decision was a victory for the government, which is seeking to send the strongest possible message to potential leakers after a humiliating disclosure of national security secrets that appears to have been pulled off by a boastful young man trying to impress his online friends.

☆ Military Caught Airman Mishandling Secrets Before Arrest but Left Him in Job
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Glenn Thrush | Robin Stein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Air Force officials caught Airman Jack Teixeira taking notes and conducting deep-dive searches for classified material months before he was charged with leaking a vast trove of government secrets, but did not remove him from his job, according to a Justice Department filing on Wednesday. On two occasions in September and October 2022, Airman Teixeira’s superiors in the Massachusetts Air National Guard admonished him after reports that he had taken “concerning actions” while handling classified information. Those included stuffing a note into his pocket after reviewing secret information inside his unit, according to a court filing ahead of a hearing before a federal magistrate judge in Worcester, Mass., on Friday to determine whether he should be released on bail. Airman Teixeira — who until March shared secrets with scores of online friends from around the world on Discord, a social media platform popular with gamers — “was instructed to no longer take notes in any form on classified intelligence information,” lawyers with the department’s national security division wrote in an 11-page memo arguing for his indefinite detention. The airman’s superiors also ordered him to “cease and desist on any deep dives into classified intelligence information,” although it is not clear how, or if, they enforced that directive.

☆ Sen. Elizabeth Warren presses regulators for answers on First Republic takeover
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., greets Martin Gruenberg, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, during the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in Dirksen Building on Tuesday, March 28, 2023. WASHINGTON — Sen. Elizabeth Warren is asking federal financial regulators for answers over what she called a "deeply troubling" deal that saw JPMorgan Chase take over First Republic Bank. "Our financial strength, capabilities and business model allowed us to develop a bid to execute the transaction in a way to minimize costs to the Deposit Insurance Fund." Instead, the insurance fund was allowed to take a multibillion-dollar loss after billions of dollars worth of the bank's uninsured deposits were rescued during the deal, Warren said. "The FDIC appeared to prioritize First Republic's uninsured deposits at the bank before the Insurance Fund," she said.

☆ Earth-size exoplanet may be covered in volcanoes
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Instead, the exoplanet, called LP 791-18 d, is likely covered in volcanoes and may experience eruptions with the same frequency as Jupiter’s moon Io, the most volcanically active place in our solar system, according to researchers. LP 791-18 d is located about 90 light-years from Earth in the Crater constellation, where it orbits a small red dwarf star. And astronomers believe the massive planet LP 971-18 c might be contributing to the newly detected exoplanet’s possible volcanism. As the two objects orbit their star, LP 971-18 c and the newfound exoplanet LP 791-18 d closely pass each other, allowing the gravitational pull of the larger planet LP 971-18 c to tug on planet d and reshape its orbit. The discovery of LP 971-18 d points to the importance of data collected by space telescopes.

☆ Bat lands worldwide are besieged, seeding risk of a new pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +16 min

This collision – bats and humans competing for resources on territory long the domain of the bats – could trigger the next pandemic. As people destroy bat habitats worldwide, they are unwittingly helping bat-borne viruses mutate, multiply, and infect other species, including homo sapiens. For millennia, bat viruses lurked across the forests of West Africa and in other undisturbed parts of the world but posed little threat to humanity. They’re potent proliferators: Some roost tightly together and in close quarters with other bat species. Each of the bat viruses analyzed by Reuters has epidemic potential, according to the World Health Organization.

☆ Claire Chase Is Changing How People Think of the Flute
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Joshua Barone | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Something unusual happens when people speak about the flutist Claire Chase. They use superlatives that would seem reckless if they weren’t repeated so often. “It’s so difficult to talk about Claire,” the composer Marcos Balter said. “She’s so much more than a virtuoso flutist or a pedagogue. Earlier in May, she played Kaija Saariaho’s concerto “L’Aile du Songe” with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

These areas, which we've dubbed " jump zones ," span the globe, covering 6% of Earth's land mass. That's 57% more people living in jump zones than two decades earlier, increasing the odds that a deadly bat virus could spill over. The world's jump zones have lost 21% percent of their tree cover in almost two decades' time, double the worldwide rate. Almost one-third of that expansion would be in existing jump zones, where spillover risk is already high. Though those countries require mining companies to assess potential environmental harms that new concessions might cause, none require companies to evaluate spillover risk.

☆ Interested in Polyamory? Check Out These Places
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Valeriya Safronova | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Jace Knight had heard about Somerville, Mass., while working on a Ph.D. at the University of Alabama in 2020. In late March, Somerville passed two more laws extending the rights of nonmonogamous residents, this time banning discrimination on the basis of “family or relationship structure” in city employment and policing. (A similar ordinance, focused on housing, is currently being discussed by the Somerville City Council.) Around the same time these new laws passed, Mx. The city’s attitude toward nonmonogamy was a big factor in the group’s decision to move there, Mx.

☆ Joy, Loneliness, ‘Rejuvenation:’ Becoming a Mother After 40
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Dani Blum | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +12 min

Still, Ms. McQueen longed for a baby. Terry Ratzlaff for The New York TimesEach year, she and her girls celebrate the anniversaries of their embryo transfers, Ms. McQueen said. Together, they look at the balls of cells on the girls’ ultrasound images and talk about the lengths Ms. McQueen went to in order to have them. Then, in 2016, Ms. Allen was diagnosed with a seizure disorder, which forced her to stop working and focus on her health. Caring for Ezra, who is now 5, has come with “overwhelming guilt” over the things she can’t do, Ms. Allen says.

☆ How Much Rent Can I Afford?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

Paying too much in rent could leave you struggling to pay your other bills or unable to save for the future. Here’s how financial planners say you can make sure your rent is in line with your income and goals. Experts we spoke to recommend keeping rent costs below 25% to 30% of your monthly income. Another factor to consider is whether spending a little more on rent could help you save on other costs. When it makes sense to spend lessIt can make sense to spend less than 30% of your net income on rent if you have other large expenses.

Persons: Kevin J, Ryan, isn’t, “, ”, Christopher Lyman, James Guarino, Baker Newman Noyes, Guarino, Garrett Sorensen, Akeiva, Ellis, Sorensen, you’re, it’s Organizations: Financial Advisors, ”, Utilities Locations: Newtown, Penn, Woburn , Mass, Boston , New York, San Francisco, Old Hickory, Tenn, Natick, Mass

A group of mostly Democratic senators pressured Tesla CEO Elon Musk to end the company's use of forced arbitration clauses in employee and customer contracts, in a letter on Monday. Forced arbitration clauses in consumer contracts have similarly obscured important details about Tesla's vehicle safety and business practices from the public, the lawmakers wrote. They asked for the same details about sexual harassment complaints from Tesla workers. However, Tesla makes and sells its cars direct to consumers so its forced arbitration clauses cover more than the norm where auto sales are concerned. Tesla uses arbitration clauses as a tactic to shunt people into a forum that's pretty rigged for the corporation."

Search resuls for: "Mass."

25 mentions found