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☆ I'm a professional writer, and I'm not scared of ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Jake Meth | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

ChatGPT is really good about writing things that are goodAt the same time, it's really bad at writing things that are great. If you're looking for answers to fairly uncomplicated questions that require a lot of data to be processed, it's a valuable tool. My clients aren't looking for a novelist; they're looking for someone to help them achieve their goal of becoming a respected thought leader. Such specialized skill sets abound in the professional writing world. I'm not scared of AI, because I'm using it to my advantageI do what I do far better than AI can, which distinguishes me from other professional writers who haven't found their lane.

☆ Germany bids to clear the rocky path for foreign talent
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Maria Martinez | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Although not alone in facing labour shortages, Germany does not benefit from language and other ties with former colonies. However, Germany does not have a long-established history of immigration and the need for greater reliance on foreign labour will need a change in mindset. With this card, obtained before arrival, individuals with potential will be allowed to stay in Germany to find a job. While the first challenge is attracting talent, the second one is ensuring that the talent wants to stay. Madrigal is planning to stay in Germany as he wants to grow inside of his company, InterWorks.

LONDON, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Rio Tinto (RIO.AX), (RIO.L) posted a 38% drop in annual profit and more than halved its dividend on Wednesday, hurt by weaker iron ore prices as demand from China slowed, while higher labour and material costs also ate into earnings. Strict COVID-19 curbs in top steel producer China curtailed economic activity last year, dragging down iron ore prices from lofty levels a year earlier. The world's top iron ore producer said China consumption showed signs of rebounding and commodity prices had found support in recent months, although the economy remained volatile. Rio Tinto last year earned an average realised price of just $106.10 per dry metric tonne (dmt) of iron ore, down from $143.80 per dmt in 2021. Rio Tinto reported underlying earnings of $13.3 billion for 2022, compared with a record $21.4 billion in 2021.

☆ Asia-Pacific's highly skilled digital workers earn up to 65% more than their peers, survey shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Sheila Chiang | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Higher salariesThe findings revealed the more highly skilled digital workers are, on average, drawing 58% higher wages than their peers who do not use digital skills at all. For the 28% who actually use a computer, only 8% use advanced digital skills while 14% use basic digital skills. Advanced digital workers in Indonesia are twice as likely to be highly satisfied with their jobs as compared to basic digital workers. On the other hand, job satisfaction of basic digital and advanced digital workers are nearly on par in high-income countries such as Australia and Japan. While almost two-thirds, or 63%, of the most advanced digital workers possess digital certifications, they do not have a bachelor's degree.

[1/6] Godwin Nnamdi, 27-year-old fitness trainer and first-time voter, poses for a portrait at a gym in Lagos, Nigeria February 15, 2023. But his active social media campaign and promises to break with Nigeria's gerontocratic past have endeared him to many younger voters. The young and tech-savvy, first-time voters rallying around Obi call themselves the "Obi-dients" - a somewhat incongruous choice for an anti-establishment movement. The former banker has promised jobs, skills training and funding to young Nigerians, but so too have Tinubu and Atiku. If Obi loses, Ndukwe said he would join the wave of skilled Nigerians leaving the country in its perpetual brain drain.

☆ Mexico president flags water-scarcity of northern state eyed for Tesla plant
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] An aerial view shows a part of the urban area in the state of Nuevo Leon, where Tesla could build a new electric car plant, in San Pedro Garza Garcia, Mexico December 19, 2022. "There are favorable conditions in Nuevo Leon. Lopez Obrador said he would emphasize to Tesla the need for careful planning around water, electricity and other services, noting certain northern zones ban water extraction while the southeast holds 70% of Mexico's water. Lopez Obrador has made it a priority to draw investment to southern Mexico, which has lacked the level of industrialization that has flourished along Mexico's northern border. Following Lopez Obrador's remarks on Monday, Nuevo Leon Economy Minister Ivan Rivas said water access had not been an issue for companies or held back investment, according to Mexican outlet Milenio.

☆ Get paid up to $10,000 to move? That's great for remote workers, but economists say it's not a good investment for the cities footing the bill
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( Robert Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

The more than 2,000 people who received Tulsa Remote grants have a median income of more than $85,000. For starters, he found the income generated by recipients of the Tulsa Remote program was just a sliver of the $80 billion the 468,000-plus workers in the Tulsa metro area generated in 2021. A Brookings Institution analysis of the Tulsa Remote program published in September found that the program was generally effective at bringing high-skilled labor to the area. He compared the impact of the incentive program to the opening of a Honda manufacturing plant in Greensburg in 2007. A previous audit from Hoffer's office in 2019 identified two major flaws in the Think Vermont program.

☆ Assassin and mother: Korean thriller explores extreme work-life balance
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Hanna Rantala | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Jeon plays Boksoon, a highly skilled contract assassin in the Netflix movie. "As a mother and raising a whole person, a human being, it's very tough because you yourself are unstable, insecure, and there's so much that you just don't know," she said. "Being a mother really makes you see your shortcomings," Do-yeon added. "Kill Boksoon", which is screening in the sidebar Berlinale Special section at the Berlin Film Festival, is due to be released by Netflix on March 31. Reporting by Hanna Rantala Editing by Thomas Escritt and Helen PopperOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Hidalgo, just outside Mexico City, is hundreds of miles from the border yet land and labor costs are lower. The United States and Canada have formally entered a trade dispute over Mexico's energy policy. It remains unclear exactly what Tesla's investment in Mexico will look like and what the company plans to produce in the country. Yet Mexico's capacity for a nearshoring boom has been held back by Lopez Obrador, particularly his energy policies, analysts said. Reporting by Diego Ore and Daina Beth Solomonin Mexico City Additional reporting by Kylie Madry in Mexico City Editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

CNN —The first tool that mechanic trainees at Maryland’s Vehicles for Change program pick up is not a wrench, but a pair of virtual reality goggles. The virtual-first training program is an unconventional solution to a real-world problem: a significant shortage of qualified automotive technicians. Maryland's Vehicles for Change program is using VR to help train more mechanics and address a nationwide mechanics shortage. In the early days of the pandemic, doctors and nurses used VR to train for treating patients with Covid-19. And some schools have used VR to expand the classroom beyond its physical walls, particularly as demand for remote education exploded during the pandemic.

☆ Sting to get highest Ivors honour at songwriting awards
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Music star Sting will be honoured at this year's Ivors, the annual awards honouring songwriters and screen composers, receiving an Ivors Academy fellowship, organisers said on Wednesday. The award is the highest honour bestowed by the UK-based Ivors Academy to those "who have truly reshaped and redefined the art and craft of music creation". "Of all the awards in the world of music, The Ivors are for me, the most prestigious. Songwriting is a skilled craft and The Ivors Academy are its guild," Sting, 71, said in a statement. Named after the early 20th century Welsh composer, actor and entertainer Ivor Novello, the Ivor Awards were first handed out in 1956.

☆ A proptech startup used this pitch deck to raise $5.1 million to build a LinkedIn for construction workers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Contractors are challenged in hiring skilled workers. Skillit, founded in 2021, offers a platform specifically for recruiting skilled labor. The company's CEO walked Insider through a pitch deck used to raise $5.1 million in seed funding. What's more, many skilled workers are getting ready to retire. The company's first product focuses on recruiting craft workers, or construction workers who hone their skills in trade schools and apprenticeships.

☆ Factbox: Potential winners and losers from the new U.S. EV charging standards
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

EV CHARGING COMPANIES: Many, including Volkswagen's (VOWG_p.DE) Electrify America, ChargePoint(CHPT.N) and EVGo (EVGO.O), will accelerate the rollout of chargers due to the federal funding. U.S. EV AUTO SECTOR: The rollout of more charging stations will encourage EV adoption in the United States. INTERSTATE HIGHWAY REST STOPS: They could see an influx of investment as companies establish charging stations along heavily traveled routes. TESLA: Under the new charging standards, the White House said EV market leader Tesla (TSLA.O) has agreed to open part of its U.S. charging network to EVs made by rivals. EV CHARGING COMPANIES: While the charging companies get financial support in their expansion efforts, only a handful of the dozen who commented to the Biden administration ahead of Wednesday's announcement said that they could meet the "Buy American" standards under the proposed timelines.

☆ Fortescue sees solid iron ore demand this year on China property support
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Australia's Fortescue Metals said it expects solid iron ore demand this year given China's support for its property and construction sectors, as it reported lower profit and dividends for the first half and flagged persistent inflationary pressure. Fortescue was seeing "really good" demand for its lower grade iron ore after the Chinese New Year, given compressed margins at steelmakers, Chief Executive Fiona Hicks said on Wednesday. Steelmakers tend to buy cheaper ore when their profits are under pressure. Against that backdrop, Fortescue is set to retrench up to 1,000 staff from global and local operations, the Australian newspaper reported last week. Company executives did not confirm job cuts, but founder and executive chairman Andrew Forrest said: "The typical pattern of Fortescue we grow, steady the ship, consolidate ... and grow again."

☆ Apprenticeship programs are becoming more popular as an alternative to college
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Jessica Dickler | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Daniel Swan, 26, started as an apprentice and now works full time as an HVAC technician in California. For Daniel Swan, a 26-year-old father of two, it was simply a means to a well-paying job during an uncertain time. Armed with a technical degree, Swan joined an apprenticeship program with Lee’s Air in Fresno, California, in 2019. More from Personal Finance:How to decide if you should go back to schoolThe cheapest states for in-state college tuitionThe most-regretted college majorsIncreasingly, young adults are rethinking the value of college. As enrollment falls, alternatives such as apprenticeship programs are quietly gaining steam, particularly for families anticipating the sticker shock of a college education, which currently averages around $53,430, including tuition, fees and room and board, at private colleges and $40,550 at public colleges for the 2022-23 school year, according to the College Board.

☆ Beijing Urges Rural Officials to Hire Humans—Not Machines
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Stella Yifan Xie | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Workers checked a newly laid water pipe in Yichang City, Hubei Province, last year. An estimated 3 million low-skilled workers remain in the countryside as the number of jobs in cities has dwindled. HONG KONG—China’s top economic agency recently called on local governments to find more work for rural laborers, such as widening roads and digging canals—even if the tasks could more efficiently be done by machines. “If it’s possible to use human labor, do not use machines, and mobilize local residents to do the jobs,” said a directive released by China’s National Development and Reform Commission last month.

BENGALURU/MELBOURNE, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Australia's iron ore giants BHP Group, Rio Tinto and Fortescue are set to report a steep drop in their earnings, which is set to compress their payouts to shareholders, after China's COVID lockdown drove down iron ore prices. Average realised prices for iron ore fell sharply in the six months to December, hitting earnings. First-half net profit at Fortescue, reporting on Feb. 15, is seen declining to $2.34 billion from $2.78 billion. Underlying half-year profit at Rio Tinto, which reports on a calendar year cycle, is seen declining 48% to $4.77 billion from $9.21 billion. Rio will report on Feb. 22.

NATO has just completed an extraordinary survey of the remaining munition stocks, a NATO official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "Those NATO (munitions targets) that we set, and each ally has a specific target, those were not being met for the most part (before the Ukraine war)," the official said. "I would be absolutely gobsmacked if the targets…were not increased," said the NATO official. After the Cold War, the production of ammunition had turned "quite artisanal", said the NATO official. "I don't necessarily think that within the next year our stockpile levels will increase massively," the NATO official said.

☆ Silicon Valley layoffs are a boon for tech-hungry farm equipment makers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Bianca Flowers | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

The executives said the newly available tech talent could inject much-needed expertise into farm equipment manufacturing, helping to transform the industry through the use of more artificial intelligence and automation. Detroit automakers are also hiring tech workers to meet the growing software needs of vehicles, auto executives have said. REMOTE-CONTROLLEDDeere's main rival, Irving, Texas-based Caterpillar Inc. (CAT.N), is also making a big push to recruit tech talent. "Companies really need to jump into action," said Michael Solomon, co-founder at 10x Management, a compensation negotiation agency for senior tech talent. The amenities aim to attract tech workers.

☆ PwC isn't panicked about this 'economic pessimism' — in fact, one exec thinks it's an opportunity
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Tim Paradis | Josée Rose | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

"No management team gets paid to languish," Bricker told Insider. For some top execs, the need to look further ahead is an existential one: Nearly 40% of surveyed CEOs told PwC that they didn't think their organization would be economically viable in a decade without transforming. That's because efforts around diversity could help a company's workforce perform better, and sustainability investments can help companies boost revenue and shave costs. "The strategies that I see business leaders really starting to focus on is not viewing sustainability as a luxury good, but as an essential element of business," Bricker said. The idea of sparing workers where possible aligns with what CEOs told PwC in the survey, which gathered responses from some 4,440 business heads in October and November.

☆ Tost says Tsunoda must score more points this season
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Feb 11 (Reuters) - AlphaTauri showed off their new Formula One car livery on Saturday with Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda left in no doubt what the Red Bull-owned team expect from him this season. "Last year, Yuki struggled with the car," AlphaTauri team boss Franz Tost said in a press release to accompany the digital reveal of the AT04 car. For this reason, of course, he has to score many more points than he did last year." Tsunoda scored 12 points from 22 races, while French team mate Pierre Gasly bagged 23. In 2021 Tsunoda scored 32 points to Gasly's 110.

☆ Western forces are raiding gunrunners at sea and throwing wrenches into Iran's plans
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

CENTCOM said this month that it supported "partner naval forces" during a January raid in the Gulf of Oman. U.S. naval forces seized 2,116 AK-47 assault rifles from a fishing vessel transiting along a maritime route from Iran to Yemen. UK naval forces also seized surface-to-air missiles and cruise-missile rocket engines that came from Iran. U.S. naval forces seized 2,116 AK-47 assault rifles from a fishing vessel transiting along a maritime route from Iran to Yemen. It remains to be seen whether the increase in raids will actually impact Iran's regional influence over the long-term.

☆ U.S. to Allow H-1B Workers to Renew Visas Without Leaving Country
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Michelle Hackman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The State Department couldn’t confirm how many renewal applicants could participate in the pilot program. The State Department will begin allowing some work-visa holders to renew their visas without leaving the country, a department official said Friday. Employees working in the U.S. on H-1B or L-1 visas will be permitted to renew their status domestically under a pilot program the State Department hopes to launch later this year. H-1B visas, popular with the tech industry, are intended for foreigners with college degrees working in high-skilled occupations, while L-1 visas are used by foreign managers whose companies transfer them to the U.S.

☆ Brazilian fishermen follow instructions from wild dolphins to know where to throw their nets, video shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

A video shows a rare example of wild dolphins collaborating with humans to fish in a small lagoon in Brazil. The dolphins learned how to tell the humans exactly when to throw their nets to catch the most fish. The fishers need the dolphins to know when to cast their netsFishermen toss these circular nets to catch the fish in the water. After the net is cast, the dolphins can catch stray fish or pick a few fish out of the net. The Laguna dolphins are about 13% more likely to reach old age, per the study.

☆ Russian forces are closing in on the strategic city of Bakhmut, giving Ukraine a tough choice to make
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Ukrainian military vehicles drive along a road outside of the strategic city of Bakhmut on January 18, 2023 in Bakhmut, Ukraine. Ukrainian soldiers outside the strategic city of Bakhmut on Jan. 18, 2023, in Bakhmut, Ukraine. Ukrainian servicemen of the artillery unit of the 80th Air Assault Brigade talk near Bakhmut, Ukraine, on Feb. 7, 2023. On Wednesday, Russian media reported comments from a Russian special forces commander, who claimed Russian units were advancing into Bakhmut. Ukrainian security forces talk to an elder woman while the first anniversary of Russia-Ukraine war approaches in Bakhmut, Ukraine on January 25, 2023.

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