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☆ The high-profile failure of a $3.7B aircraft carrier shows how Britain is struggling to keep up with first-rate militaries
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-05 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Years of underfunding have left the UK's navy in a threadbare state, according to a report. AdvertisementThe high-profile failure of the UK's flagship aircraft carrier over the weekend has shown how Britain is struggling to keep up with first-rate navies around the world. AdvertisementThe Prince of Wales and the HMS Queen Elizabeth have only been in service for around three years. Having two aircraft carriers means that HMS Prince of Wales can quickly prepare to deploy in place of HMS Queen Elizabeth," said a spokeswoman. Advertisement"HMS Prince of Wales will deploy soon on NATO exercise Steadfast Defender, carrying out her duties to keep the nation and our allies safe."

Persons: underfunding, —, Elizabeth, Wales, Tom Sharpe, Lord Houghton, of Wales, HMS Queen Elizabeth, Prince, Sir Richard Barrons Organizations: NATO, Service, Britain's Royal Navy, US Navy, Navy, The Times, Britain's, Ministry of Defence, Armed Forces, Financial Locations: Britain, East Asia, Russia, Ukraine, Red, Bahrain, Wales

☆ News industry off to brutal 2024 start as mass layoffs devastate publishers, raising questions about future of journalism
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Oliver Darcy | Jon Passantino | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The recent round of layoffs, while pronounced, are part of a much larger and unrelenting storm battering the journalism industry. Over the past 18 months, most news organizations have been forced to make difficult decisions to reduce their workforces. “I am sorry to say that I do not see turning around most legacy outlets,” Jeff Jarvis, the Leonard Tow Professor of Journalism Innovation at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, told CNN. Dan Kennedy, a journalism professor at Northeastern University, noted some local news outlets have found financial sustainability. “There are reasons to be optimistic given the hundreds of independent local news organizations that have sprouted up in recent years,” he said.

Persons: Condé Nast, ” Jay Rosen, “, Jeff Jarvis, Craig Newmark, ” Jarvis, ” Rosen, Steve Bannon’s, Margaret Sullivan, Sullivan, ”, ” Sullivan, Jeff Bezos ’, Patrick Soon, Dan Kennedy, Shiong’s, Jeff Bezos, ” Kennedy, Rosen Organizations: CNN, Los Angeles Times, Business, Condé, Forbes, The New York Daily News, Washington Post, NPR, Vice Media, Sports, Vox Media, NBC News, CNBC, Gannett, Netflix, Columbia University, Google, Meta, New York University, Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, America, Guardian, The Washington Post, The New York Times, “ Democracy, Jeff Bezos ’ Washington Post, Northeastern University, “ Billionaire, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Boston Globe, Journalists Locations: Covid, Jeff Bezos ’ Washington

More than 8.5 million abandoned homes in rural Japan are creating a "ghost town" problem. There are more than 8.5 million akiya , or abandoned homes, in rural Japan, according to the country's 2018 Housing and Land Survey, its most recent on record. The institute predicts akiya could exceed 30% of homes in Japan by 2033. As Richard Koo, the chief economist at NRI, told them at the time, the Japanese countryside has been hollowing out since the mid-'90s. Why aren't more Japanese people buying abandoned countryside homes?

Persons: —, who've, Richard Koo, There's, Chris McMorran, Koo, Douglas Southerland, McMorran, Natasha Durie, Durie, Eric McAskill, McAskill, Jaya Thursfield, Chihiro, Kurosawa, Joey Stockermans, akiya Organizations: Service, Survey, Nomura Research Institute, Business Insider's, NRI, National University of Singapore, of Anthropology, Ethnography, Oxford University, Canadian Real Estate Association Locations: Japan, Business Insider's Singapore, Gifu, Vancouver, Canada, Nagano Prefecture, England, Ibaraki Prefecture, London, North America, Kyushu, akiya

☆ Staff at Pure Barre and other boutique gyms say a major franchisee stiffed them on pay, sent bizarre emails, and talked about drinking his own urine
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( Jake Swearingen | Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

Staff at some Pure Barre, CycleBar, Row House, and other high-end fitness studios aren't being paid. Outposts of CycleBar, Row House, and other pricey fitness studios have also shut their doors, suddenly and sometimes without explanation. In one call reviewed by Business Insider, Brown spoke about drinking his own urine. In his November 8 email to all studio staff, Brown wrote that he "failed all of you." And unlike the fitness studio employees, they didn't find the message or tone of Brown's November 8 email surprising.

Persons: Mitch Brown, —, Brown, Amy, Xponential, Jaime Miettinen, Miettinen, Mitch, Jason Whitman, Stride, hollowing, we're, Pamela Chatman, CycleBar, Subreddits, Chatman Organizations: Service, Staff, Business, Midwest, Professional Holdings, Employees, Xponential, Research, Holdings, Fitness, Pure Locations: Barre, CycleBar, Pure Barre, Detroit, California, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Brown

They used to take advantage of a grain elevator in Mayfield, Kentucky — a massive facility that bought and stored millions of bushels of grain from farmers. “The swings in the weather events that we have ... that’s kind of scary,” he said, especially for those with smaller farms. Human-caused climate change is only anticipated to amplify the number and intensity of those extreme events, from flash droughts to increased rainfall. Although he took some losses, he says that he and other farmers are used to dealing with uncooperative weather. On smaller farms, if farmers are forced to put everything in a low-lying area that floods, an entire crop can be affected, Schmitz said.

Persons: — Justin Ralph, he's, They're, you’ve, Ralph, Keith Lowry, Lowry, What’s, ”, Miranda Rudolph, Hans Schmitz, Jed Clark, Schmitz, Adam Kough, Murray, Kough, Joshua Bickel, ___ Read, Melina Walling Organizations: ” Farmers, University of, Farmers, Associated Press, AP Locations: MAYFIELD, Ky, Mayfield , Kentucky, Southern, Mayfield, Graves County, Kentucky, Indiana, ___

☆ Vice to end several news shows and lay off dozens of staffers in hollowing out of news division
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Liam Reilly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Vice Media, the one-time digital media darling that has seen its value and influence greatly diminish in recent years, moved on Thursday to further hollow out its once prestigious news division, shutting down several shows and laying off dozens of staffers. “To be clear, Vice News is not going away,” the company’s co-chief executives, Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala, said in a memo to staff obtained by CNN. “Vice will continue to produce digital news, as well as Vice News documentaries, both series and films, for FAST Channels, streaming services and other partners.”In April, Vice Media ended “Vice News Tonight,” its flagship program, citing restructuring that would result in cuts across the organization, CNN previously reported. In June, the digital media company was purchased by three investment companies, including Fortress Investment Group, for $350 million. A person familiar with the matter said “less than 100” staffers would be laid off.

Persons: “, Bruce Dixon, Hozefa Lokhandwala, ”, Dixon, Lokhandwala, CJTtiYXJML —, ” CNN’s Oliver Darcy Organizations: CNN —, Media, CNN, “, FAST, Fortress Investment, Union, Company

☆ The US is quietly arming Taiwan against a Chinese invasion — but it could backfire
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-07 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

AdvertisementAdvertisementIn late August, the US approved an $80 million military grant to arm Taiwan against a potential Chinese invasion. It's part of a plan to wrong-step China's leaders and make them uncertain about how exactly the US would respond to Chinese attacks on Taiwan. "Those military packages are the Biden administration's efforts to build Taiwan's defense capabilities at a faster pace to match PLA [Chinese military] modernization efforts," said Kuo. Provoking ChinaSince the 1970s, the US has had a delicate diplomatic relationship with China, acknowledging the "One China" policy under which China claims ownership of Taiwan, yet also backing Taiwanese autonomy. "That could easily provoke exactly the Chinese attack on Taiwan that US policy aims to deter," he wrote.

Persons: Xi, —, Biden, Xi Jinping, HECTOR RETAMAL, Joe Biden, Graeme Thomson, Naiyu Kuo, Kuo, Thompson, Hugh White, Beijing's, Kavanagh Organizations: Taiwan, Service, Bloomberg, BBC, Communists, CNN, Getty Images, White, Eurasia Group, PLA, China, Strategic Studies, Australian National University, US Locations: China, Taiwan, Taiwan's, Taiwan Strait, China's, Fujian province, AFP, Washington ,, Beijing, Washington

☆ ECB starts preparation for digital euro in multi-year project
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-18 | by ( Francesco Canepa | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

A number of Caribbean countries and Nigeria have already launched digital currencies while China and Sweden are among those that have rolled out pilot projects. The ECB says a digital euro will create competition in the market for payments, dominated by U.S. credit card companies. The digital euro will distributed by the ECB as well as commercial banks and digital wallet providers. Many of these projects surged around 2019, when Facebook announced plans to introduce a digital currency, which were then ditched. But the rise of stablecoins – crypto tokens backed to some degree by traditional currencies – gave central bank’s digital currencies, or CBDC in financial jargon, new impetus.

Persons: Markus Ferber, Francesco Canepa, Alex Richardson, Deborah Kyvrikosaios Organizations: European Central Bank, ECB, Bank of England, Bank of Canada, European People's Party, U.S, Monetary Fund, Commission, Bank for International, Facebook, Thomson Locations: FRANKFURT, Nigeria, China, Sweden

☆ Wallace confirms resignation as UK defence minister in letter to PM Sunak
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

British Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace walks on Downing Street on the day of the last cabinet meeting before the summer recess, in London, Britain, July 18, 2023. REUTERS/Anna Gordon/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsLONDON, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Ben Wallace confirmed his resignation as defence minister on Thursday in a letter to Rishi Sunak, offering the government his continued support while warning the British prime minister not to see defence as a "discretionary spend". In his official resignation letter, Wallace renewed his appeal for the government not to turn to defence to make spending cuts. Sunak praised Wallace for his work, saying in a letter in response: "You have served our country in three of the most demanding posts in government: defence secretary, security minister and Northern Ireland minister." A former captain in the British army, Wallace, 53, was appointed as defence minister in 2019 by his friend and ally, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson after holding junior ministerial roles in earlier governments.

Persons: Defence Ben Wallace, Anna Gordon, Ben Wallace, Rishi Sunak, Wallace, Jens Stoltenberg, hollowing, Sunak, Boris Johnson, Johnson, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Muvija M, Elizabeth Piper, Kate Holton, Alex Richardson Organizations: State, Defence, REUTERS, NATO, Conservative Party, Ministry of Defence, Northern, Twitter, Thomson Locations: London, Britain, Ukraine, Norwegian, Northern Ireland, Russia, Kyiv

☆ The resilience of Russia's stock market and its economy is a complete mirage masking deeper pain, Yale researchers say
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-20 | by ( Jennifer Sor | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The functioning of Russia's stock market is an illusion, two Yale researchers told Insider. That apparently stellar performance of the Russian stock market this year is ultimately an illusion meant to mask deepening pain in the country's economy. It's a move that was intended to prop up Russia's stock market, the researchers said. "The Russian stock market performance is very misleading, It is a Roach Motel of assets," Sonnenfeld told Insider. Other experts have warned of more pain for Russia's economy as its costly war in Ukraine drags on.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Steven Tian, Ukraine haven't, that's, Tian, Sonnenfeld, Putin Organizations: Yale, Investments, Service, Yale School of Management, Putin, Levada Locations: Wall, Silicon, Moscow, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Baltic, Russian, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan

☆ Remote-working parents with young kids are fleeing cities to get more bang for their buck
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Parents with children under 5 are shunning big cities faster than everyone else. But the flight of young parents and a shrinking population might mean cities have to compete to keep you. A new report from the Economic Innovation Group, or EIG, found that families with young kids are shunning big cities. That created a nexus of families with young children just outside of cities, what the report calls a "donut effect." But for cities that are shedding young families but still hold allure, like New York, the reshaping might be more of a rethinking of their value proposition.

Persons: Connor O'Brien, weren't, O'Brien, would've, what's, Eliza Relman Organizations: Service, Economic Innovation Group, jkaplan Locations: Wall, Silicon, Florida, EIG, Carolinas, New York, Los Angeles

☆ The Afterlife of Forlorn Office Furniture
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Stefanos Chen | More About Stefanos Chen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Herman Miller is one of the most revered makers of office furniture in the world, its designs so esteemed that its Aeron chair, which became a fixture of New York City cubicles, was put in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection. This month, some Herman Miller chairs, which can retail for over $1,000, met a less dignified fate: an appointment with the crushing metal jaws of an excavator. More than three years after the coronavirus pandemic began, about half of the office space in the New York City metro area in June was occupied, according to Kastle Systems, a security-card company tracking activity in office buildings. The hollowing out of the city’s cubicles has raised existential economic and cultural questions, but also a big logistical one: What do you do with all that office furniture?

Persons: Herman Miller Organizations: Museum, Modern, New, Kastle Systems Locations: New York City

☆ Opinion | The Many Minds Behind Biden’s Biggest Economic Idea
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Peter Coy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Gina Raimondo, as secretary of commerce, is responsible for several of the Biden administration’s biggest swings at industrial policy, so it’s little surprise that she’s on board. I’ve assembled quotes from a variety of administration officials to give a sense of the diversity of thinking on worker-centric industrial policy. I’m giving the most space to Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, because his April 27 speech at the Brookings Institution was rightly seen as supplying intellectual scaffolding for Biden’s agenda. “Protecting our foundational technologies with a small yard and high fence.” The small yard means protecting only technologies that are truly matters of national security. He quoted Biden as saying that the two nations can and should cooperate on climate, macroeconomic stability, health security and food security.

Persons: Biden, Janet Yellen, ” She’s, Katherine Tai, Gina Raimondo, I’ve, Jake Sullivan, Sullivan, ”, What’s, ” Tai Organizations: Treasury, Biden, Brookings Institution, National Press Locations: U.S, United States, China, ”

☆ A Factory Exodus Is Hollowing Out Brazil’s Industrial Heartland
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Samantha Pearson | Photographs Maira Erlich For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-factory-exodus-is-hollowing-out-brazils-industrial-heartland-83505647

Persons: Dow Jones

☆ Erdogan seeks new term in Turkey runoff election
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Tamara Qiblawi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Polls have opened in Turkey’s presidential runoff as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan fights for a historic third term on Sunday. Erdogan is going head-to-head with opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, a 74-year-old bureaucrat and leader of the left-leaning CHP. In the first round of voting on May 14, Erdogan secured a nearly five-point lead over Kilicdaroglu but fell short of the 50% threshold needed to win. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks at the AK Party headquarters in Ankara, Turkey May 15, 2023. Umit Bektas/ReutersSix opposition groups had formed an unprecedented unified bloc behind Kilicdaroglu to try to wrest power from Erdogan.

We are not bound by the West’s sanctions,” Erdogan told CNN’s Becky Anderson. APBy contrast, Erdogan has doubled down on his relationship with Putin – and he thinks the West should follow suit. “This was possible because of our special relationship with President Putin,” he told CNN, referring to the grain deal. In his interview with CNN, Erdogan tackled another key flashpoint in Turkish tensions with the West: Sweden’s accession to NATO. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tells CNN's Becky Anderson, left, he expects voters who value stability and confidence to back him in the May 28 runoff vote.

☆ China says imperative to stabilise Sino-US relations
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BEIJING, May 8 (Reuters) - China's Foreign Minister Qin Gang said on Monday it is imperative to stabilise Sino-U.S. relations after a series of "erroneous words and deeds" threw ties back into a deep freeze. In response, Beijing severed formal communications channels with the United States including one between their militaries. "A series of erroneous words and deeds by the United States since then have undermined the hard-won positive momentum of Sino-U.S. relations," Qin told Burns, the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement. "The top priority is to stabilise Sino-U.S. relations, avoid a downward spiral and prevent any accidents between China and the United States," Qin said. Last month, China staged war games around Taiwan after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen met with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles.

Qin said US actions and words had undermined “hard-won positive momentum” following Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s meeting with US President Joe Biden in Indonesia last year. Under the Taiwan Relations Act, Washington is also bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. ‘Better channels’Monday’s meeting was Qin’s first with Burns since the former Chinese ambassador to the US was promoted to foreign minister in December. The two sides resumed climate talks following Xi and Biden’s meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia last November. He reiterated Blinken’s visit to China would be rescheduled “when conditions are appropriate.”

☆ Why First Republic Bank may not be the end of the crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —After a six-week spiral, First Republic bank finally collapsed in the wee hours of Monday morning. Everyone on Wall Street appears to be drinking from the same punch bowl as Jamie Dimon, who framed the sale as a bookend to the crisis. To his mind, the sale just makes JPMorgan, already the nation’s largest bank, even bigger, and the power of the biggest Wall Street banks more concentrated. That idea got an extra boost on Monday, when the FDIC itself released a report advocating for an increase in the deposit insurance limit for business payment accounts. “You can think of federal deposit insurance as being a bit like nuclear weapons,” he said.

☆ Europe throws ignition cars a thin lifeline
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Lisa Jucca | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Bowing to pressure from automaking Germany, the European Union has agreed to exempt cars that run on carbon-neutral synthetic fuel from a ban on new combustion engine vehicles in 2035. loadingFor mass-market brands, electric cars will likely remain the cheapest option. RBC industry analysts expect electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles to make up 90% of Western European passenger vehicle sales by 2035. Yet, it will do little to stop the hollowing out of Europe’s combustion engine supply chain. The deal paves the way for EU ministers to approve the 2035 phaseout law for CO2-emitting cars on March 28.

☆ The 'office apocalypse' won't doom big cities — it's actually making them stronger
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Matthew E. Kahn | Christopher Okada | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

In San Francisco, tax revenue is projected to drop by as much as a billion dollars over the next six years. In order to bring in these new residents, cities will have to shift some of their priorities. Research coauthored by Steven Levitt of "Freakonomics" found that increases in violent and property crimes were correlated with city residents migrating to the suburbs. All is not lostThere's little doubt that superstar cities like New York and San Francisco have serious problems on their hands. Christopher Okada is the CEO of Okada & Company, a full-service commercial real estate brokerage and investment company in New York City.

☆ Didn't get a big raise this year? It could come in early 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Jennifer Liu | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

For workers, that means wage growth will remain strong in the first half of the year but could slow by the middle of 2023. Here's a look at where wages grew throughout the year and where they could be headed in 2023. Wage growth in 2023 will still be higher than pre-pandemic norms of around 3%, says Nela Richardson, chief economist at the payroll processor ADP. Wage growth resulting from shortages and competition does the opposite." Wage growth could stall by the end of 2023

HONG KONG — Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s first two terms in power were marked by intensifying competition and tensions with the United States. The United States does not seek conflict with China, Biden told a meeting of his top military advisers Wednesday. “China stands ready to work with the United States to find the right way to get along with each other in the new era,” he said. But China under Xi has a “superficial stability,” Johnson said. Hulton Deutsch / Corbis via Getty ImagesAt 69, Xi has appointed no obvious successor, indicating he may plan to stay in power indefinitely.

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