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☆ Mexico rulers tipped to win historic state election as presidency race looms
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Dave Graham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/5] A banner of Delfina Gomez, candidate for Governor for the state of Mexico for the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) Party is pictured in Nezahualcoyotl, state of Mexico, Mexico May 26, 2023. Lopez Obrador routed the PRI in 2018 when he won the presidency. Erika Flores, a 50-year-old nurse who voted for Lopez Obrador in 2018, said she now felt disillusioned. LITMUS TESTIt is the first time the State of Mexico election will be a women-only contest. Gomez has vowed to put security first in the State of Mexico, pledging to clean up the police and improve their resources.

☆ Biden nominates telecom attorney Anna Gomez to FCC after more than two years of deadlock
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

President Joe Biden nominated telecom attorney Anna Gomez to the Federal Communications Commission, his second attempt to fill an empty seat on the typically five-member panel that has left the agency in a 2-2 deadlock for his entire presidency thus far. Gomez has previously worked for the FCC in several positions over 12 years, the White House said. Jonathan Spalter, president and CEO of USTelecom, a trade group that represents broadband providers like AT&T and Verizon , congratulated Gomez in a statement. Free Press, a nonprofit advocacy group that supports net neutrality, said Gomez's nomination was long overdue. González called Gomez "eminently qualified" for the role and praised the nomination of a Latinx candidate to the position.

☆ White daisies bloom in Uruguay's streets, in memory of dictatorship missing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Lucinda Elliott | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

MONTEVIDEO, May 20 (Reuters) - In Uruguay's cities and towns, paintings of white daisies, each with a missing petal, have appeared on walls and at windows in recent weeks, in memory of the people who went missing during the country's military dictatorship that began 50 years ago. The Mothers and Family Members of Disappeared and Detained Uruguayans organization says that 197 nationals were forcibly disappeared. Only six bodies of those who disappeared in Uruguay have been recovered so far. Silent demonstrations have been taking place each year on May 20 since 1996, with protesters carrying pictures of the missing and demanding justice. The topic of the dictatorship remains controversial in Uruguay, with some reluctant to revisit this sensitive period of the country's fairly recent history.

☆ Angelina Jolie unveils new sustainability-focused fashion venture
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Jack Guy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Hollywood star Angelina Jolie has become the latest celebrity to announce their own fashion brand with the launch of Atelier Jolie. The Oscar-winning actor announced the new fashion venture in a post on Instagram on Wednesday. “I’m starting something new today — a collective where everyone can create,” wrote Jolie. “Atelier Jolie is a place for creative people to collaborate with a skilled and diverse family of expert tailors, pattern makers and artisans from around the world,” she added. From Angelina JolieThe brand also has its own Instagram account, and one post provides further explanation of its purpose.

☆ 'He'll do anything to come for you': Bang Bang, the tattoo artist to stars like Rihanna and Justin Bieber, is a controlling, vindictive boss, ex-employees say
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Melkorka Licea | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +31 min

Yet some former Bang Bang employees said that McCurdy's meticulously curated image as a thoughtful progressive in a rough-and-tumble industry wasn't much more than good PR. At Bang Bang, "they just woke-wash everything," one former employee said. This kind of behavior extended to other Bang Bang employees. Ganser, the Bang Bang manager, also sent Wang a text comparing her behavior to her father's, who was in prison. Photo by Gotham/GC ImagesNearly a decade after opening the first Bang Bang shop, McCurdy still sees himself as a trailblazer.

☆ Inside PodCo, the startup cashing in on Nickelodeon and Disney nostalgia, drawing hundreds of thousands of listeners, and scoring brand deals with stars of shows like 'Wizards of Waverly Place'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Reed Alexander | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

"Even Stevens" star Christy Carlson Romano and her husband, Brendan Rooney, founded the startup. Since their debut, several PodCo shows have ranked among the top 10 television and film podcasts on platforms like Apple Podcasts, according to Chartable. Along with the hosts, other big-name alums have made appearances on PodCo shows, which are also recorded on video and viewable on YouTube. So when he heard Carlson Romano and Rooney's idea, he leapt at the chance to bring the show back in a new form. Some have written into him personally to say the "Ned's" podcast is leaving them feeling less isolated in their own lives, he added.

On top of the GOP gubernatorial primary in Kentucky, there are other contests taking place on Tuesday that could provide some clues about 2024 — even though it’s hard to draw too many lessons from individual races. Voters are also heading to the polls in Pennsylvania, which is hosting a crowded Democratic primary for Philadelphia mayor. Two races will also provide some insight into voter attitudes in two key counties in two crucial battlegrounds. In other Pence news, he will attend Iowa GOP Sen. Joni Ernst’s “Roast and Ride” event next month, per Fox News (former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley is also attending). Jumping in: Former state Rep. Leslie Love jumped into the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan on Monday.

☆ Target wants shoppers to think of it for groceries as retailer braces for leaner spending
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Melissa Repko | In Melissa-Repko | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

The big-box retailer also hopes by drawing shoppers for essentials like gallons of milk, it can nudge purchases of discretionary items that shoppers otherwise would not have bought. A 'Tarzhay' spin on groceriesOn a recent trip to a Minneapolis area grocery store, Gomez surveyed displays of colorful fruits and vegetables. In each of the past two fiscal years, Target has had double-digit sales growth in the food and beverage category. Target's grocery sales matter more as shoppers pull back in other areas. Grocery competition gets tougherCompetition for grocery shoppers has heated up, especially as consumers stretch their budgets.

☆ A.I. will make people more effective not displace them, says Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | 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 EmailA.I. will make people more effective not displace them, says Cohere CEO Aidan GomezThe CEO of Cohere, one of CNBC's Disruptor 50 list companies, Aidan Gomez joins 'Fast Money' to talk the A.I. boom, Cohere's recent partnerships, and more.

☆ Meta has a kid problem
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Anita Ramaswamy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

His company Meta Platforms (META.O) landed in hot water with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for the third time on Wednesday over its handling of younger users’ data. Monetizing them is difficult, as other social media platforms have shown. The other is Meta hasn’t been able to reinvent itself such that it can capture new and younger users anyway. Meantime Meta’s user growth has been slowing, which has eroded its market share in social media ads. Those concerns aren’t totally unique to Zuckerberg’s company, as several state lawmakers across the United States are debating legislation that would restrict kids’ social media use.

☆ Fuddy-duddy Meta has a kid problem
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Anita Ramaswamy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

☆ HSBC vote gives Ping An a fresh shove towards exit
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, May 5 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Ping An Insurance (601318.SS) is having an underwhelming week. Instead, HSBC’s results were decent and the AGM resolution was crushed. True, 20% of votes cast went in favour of plans for a strategic review each quarter which could assess whether to spin off HSBC’s key Asian arm, and to reinstate the bank’s pre-Covid dividend. Ping An could continue to chunter away at HSBC boss Noel Quinn from the sidelines. Throw in the lack of investor support implied by the vote, and Ping An’s essential choice – to pipe down or to sell its stake – has become ever more stark.

May 4 (Reuters) - Two prominent former Google (GOOGL.O) researchers who authored the groundbreaking paper that paved the way for the generative AI boom, have raised $8 million for their new startup Essential AI, four sources told Reuters. Thrive Capital had led the round in Essential AI, founded by Ashish Vaswani and Niki Parmar. Thrive Capital, founded by Joshua Kushner, is also an investor in Microsoft-backed OpenAI. Essential AI aims to build software for enterprises to use large language models, the core software of a new artificial intelligence system that has powered generative AI applications such as ChatGPT, sources said. The raise came after Vaswani and Parmar left Adept AI, a company they also co-founded in 2021 with former Google director David Luan.

☆ Apple’s balance sheet is golden and delicious
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Robert Cyran | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

But for Apple (AAPL.O), the sharp change in monetary conditions is golden and delicious. The iPhone maker said on Thursday that it ended the first quarter with cash and saleable investments $57 billion greater than its debts. That’s nearly enough to cover its newly-raised dividend for a year, and $90 billion buyback program, without touching the balance sheet. While the first two initiatives sit on Goldman’s balance sheet, the buy-now-pay-later product sits on Apple’s. Apple had $57 billion more in cash and saleable securities on its balance sheet than its debts at the end of the quarter.

☆ Shopify offloads its logistics baggage
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TORONTO, May 4 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Shopify (SHOP.TO) is finding that simpler is better after all. Investors welcomed the move: Shares of the company led by Tobias Lütke shot up over 20% in morning trade. Shopify wanted to build out its own logistics business, and now it's leaving that job to Flexport instead. That said, Shopify already uses partnerships with other companies to expand in hard-to-crack areas like fintech, including with payments giant Stripe and buy-now-pay-later company Affirm (AFRM.O). Although Shopify said on Thursday that first-quarter revenue rose 25% year-on-year, beating analyst expectations, Shopify's small-business customers are under pressure from rising interest rates.

☆ Sen. Sherrod Brown received an extra property tax credit and racked up penalties for late payments
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Henry J. Gomez | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, for years claimed an owner-occupancy tax credit at two properties, public records show — a potential violation of the state's rules governing such incentives. Responding to questions from NBC News, Brown and Schultz this week paid a $390 penalty stemming from their most recent late payment. Brown will no longer accept the owner-occupancy credit on the Columbus property, according to his campaign. Franklin County tax records available online show no late payments or penalties for Brown's Columbus condo — purchased in 2014 — over the last four years. Ohio schools are heavily reliant on property tax revenue, and late payments affect their accounting.

☆ Airbnb swerves tech rout with constant change: podcast
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Lauren Silva Laughlin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The $77 bln travel company weathered the pandemic and is now navigating a tech valuation bloodbath. Its co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk told The Exchange podcast that lessons learned during Covid-19 about disruption and never sitting still are key to its future. Listen to the podcastFollow @thereallsl on TwitterSubscribe to Breakingviews’ podcasts, Viewsroom and The Exchange. Editing by Amanda Gomez and Oliver TaslicOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Hollywood writers’ fight previews messy new era
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Jennifer Saba | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Tinseltown scribes are gearing up for a fight. The Writers Guild of America went on strike Tuesday after contract negotiations with entertainment companies broke down. The union backing TV and film writers walked out after failing to reach a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for better pay. This meant the distribution chain paid twice, and the double dip meant more money for both the network and writers, who got a share. As the last strike brought about the reality TV fad, which required less creativity, artificial intelligence is threatening to replace writers.

☆ Jamie Dimon bails out First Republic – and FDIC
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Lauren Silva Laughlin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

In the wee hours of Monday morning, however, he agreed to take mid-sized First Republic Bank (FRC.N) out of receivership from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The bank acquires nearly $229 billion of assets and absorbs some $173 billion in loans at a roughly 13% discount to book values. After taxes and paying the FDIC $10.6 billion, JPMorgan should get a $2.6 billion boost before integration costs. The agency will share losses of up to 80% on the large majority of First Republic’s loan book. There’s also a $50 billion loan from the FDIC at specific terms that have not been disclosed so far.

[1/5] Cipriano Gomez and Ambrosio Pedraza share a laugh as they chat the day after the general elections, where Santiago Pena, from the ruling Colorado Party, was elected as the new Paraguayan President, in Asuncion, Paraguay May 1, 2023. REUTERS/Agustin MarcarianASUNCION, May 1 (Reuters) - Paraguayans on Monday were mixed about the prospects of another five years of conservative Colorado party rule, but hoped President-elect Santiago Pena could reboot the country’s farm-driven economy. Pena, a 44-year-old economist, secured a 15-point lead over his opposition rival with 42.7% of the vote, cementing another five-year term for the ruling Colorado Party. "For me personally, Santiago Pena is a person who could contribute a lot to the economy of our country (by) putting things in place in macroeconomic terms,” Candia told Reuters. Resident Victor Barrios also felt Pena was the right choice: "I think Santiago Pena is the ideal president for now … five years on we’ll see what he does and how we judge him," he said.

☆ Exxon burns brighter on Permian and Guyana
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, April 28 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) burned brighter in the first quarter, thanks to the Permian Basin and Guyana. The $485 billion oil giant earned $11.4 billion, or twice as much as it did the same period a year ago. The first gusher came from Texas, where Exxon pumped 615,000 barrels a day from the shale basin. Last quarter, Exxon took 375,000 barrels a day from offshore, and it has a target capacity of 1.2 million barrels by 2027, 20% more than the Permian. Shale wells quickly deplete, so the company may need to eventually top up in the Permian.

☆ First Republic could make failure safe again
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( John Foley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

NEW YORK, April 27 (Reuters Breakingviews) - When Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failed in March, U.S. authorities bailed out their depositors regardless of size. The slower destruction at First Republic Bank (FRC.N) could provide an opportunity to reverse the regrettable precedent. And while it’s never good when a business fails, there’s a potential benefit to letting First Republic go. First Republic had $233 billion of assets at the end of March, and $104 billion of deposits compared with $176 billion at the end of December. Silicon Valley Bank, owned by SVB Financial, was taken into receivership on March 10, while Signature Bank was closed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp on March 12.

☆ I've made $10 million in sales for my Amazon coffee grinder brand. Here's how I got started and found success.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Madeline Stone | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

But my e-commerce success really started after I launched my coffee accessories brand, Kaffe, on Amazon in mid-2019. I spent day and night thinking about the best way to position the coffee grinder so it would get to the top of Amazon's rankings. My sales started to grow. Amazon has its own coffee grinder that it sells under its Amazon Basics private label, and it retails for a couple of dollars less than Kaffe's does. On Amazon, you're either growing, or you're really dying, and the fees will eat you alive if you're not doing any volume.

☆ Microsoft made a big bet with ChatGPT. Months later, it’s already paying off.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Microsoft bet billions on OpenAI — its gamble is already paying off. Some analysts said Microsoft's successful integration of AI signals that it has already pulled ahead of Google. They even projected that Microsoft's cloud service Azure could be on track to surpass long-dominant Amazon Web Services. My teammate Paayal Zaveri highlights how Microsoft's AI wager has made it a surprising leader in tech's hottest field. He hit $2 million by the end of 2020, and in 2022 alone, he sold $4 million worth of products.

☆ Teck swats dealmaking ball back into its own court
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Canadian miner Teck Resources (TECKb.TO) on Wednesday tore up Plan A, which was a scheduled shareholder vote on splitting the company. Boss Jonathan Price and controlling shareholder Norman Keevil also are rejecting Plan B, an even more intricate, all-share $24 billion takeover bid from Glencore (GLEN.L). If Teck doesn’t come up with a persuasive third option, and soon, it is likely to face increased pressure to sell. Teck vowed to come back with a “simpler and more direct” separation proposal. Keevil’s blocking stake is an obvious impediment, but if Plan C doesn’t fly, Plan B will look more compelling.

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