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The attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia filed suit on Wednesday against the N.C.A.A., saying the body that regulates college athletics has no right to block the increasingly common practice of wealthy boosters paying to attract top recruits. The suit was filed a day after the disclosure that the N.C.A.A. was investigating the University of Tennessee’s football program for recruiting violations involving a donor group that arranges to pay athletes. The driving force behind that change has been donor collectives, which are groups of alumni and other boosters who donate money that is used to compensate top athletes, sometimes in amounts approaching professional levels. In effect, the collectives pay salaries disguised as endorsements, and they now play a central role in the process of wooing players in football, basketball and other sports.

Organizations: University of Tennessee’s Locations: Tennessee, Virginia

☆ Meta's continued rally could hinge on the fortunes of upstart retailers Temu and Shein
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-31 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Temu is owned by PDD Holdings , a Chinese company that moved its principal office to Ireland last year. Meta is expected to report revenue growth of 22% for the quarter to $39.2 billion, according to analysts surveyed by LSEG, formerly Refinitiv. JMP analysts estimated that Temu and Shein spent roughly $600 million and $200 million, respectively, on Facebook and Instagram ads in the third quarter. In December, Temu sued Shein, alleging questionable business practices and a "mafia-style intimidation of suppliers," according to legal documents. Meta isn't the only U.S. internet company effected by the speedy growth from Temu and Shein.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Ma, Shu Zhang, Victor Lee, Lee, who's, Shein, Meta, Pavlo Gonchar, Temu, didn't, Susan Li, data.AI, It's, Chris Mack, Harding Loevner, they've, Mack, Shein confidentially, Mike Gallagher, Gallagher, Brian Wieser, Josh Silverman, Silverman Organizations: Alibaba, China Development Forum, Reuters, Facebook, Hasbro, Unified Commerce, Amazon, PDD Holdings, U.S, Mobile, Meta, LSEG, Getty, CNBC, Cyberspace Administration, China, Street Journal, Google Locations: Beijing, China, Ireland, Singapore, UKRAINE, U.S, United States, Wall, Asia, Pacific, Temu, Meta

The N.C.A.A. Having the booster group pay for the trip by the quarterback, Nico Iamaleava, would be a violation of N.C.A.A. The inquiry comes after the N.C.A.A. penalized Tennessee for different recruiting violations and signals the N.C.A.A.’s growing concern about the scale and influence of the money being injected into college sports by donor collectives. News of the investigation into Tennessee’s athletic program was first reported by Sports Illustrated.

Persons: —, Nico Iamaleava Organizations: University of Tennessee’s, Sports Illustrated Locations: Tennessee

☆ What Do A.A., Burning Man and the Talmud Have in Common? This Guy.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-26 | by ( Madison Malone Kircher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

SUBCULTURE VULTURE: A Memoir in Six Scenes, by Moshe KasherAbout three-quarters of the way through his new memoir, “Subculture Vulture,” the writer and comedian Moshe Kasher warns that, right about now, readers might want to bail and head to YouTube: He’s about to explain the Talmud. The Mishna is a written version of collected oral law, he explains. If that sort of joke isn’t to your taste, he’s right: Abandon ship now. Talmudic studies à la Kasher offer the same solid balance he demonstrates throughout the book. You’ll probably learn something — unless you’ve lived an identical life to his, which seems statistically impossible — and laugh in roughly equal measure.

Persons: Moshe Kasher, Kasher, ”, à, You’ll, you’ve Locations: Oakland, Calif, Brooklyn

☆ Scheduled to Fly on a Boeing Max 9? Here Are Your Options.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Christine Chung | More About Christine Chung | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

approved inspection and maintenance procedures for the planes, clearing the way for the grounded Max 9 planes to fly again. Airlines said they planned to resume flying the Max 9s this week. Which airlines use the Max 9? Of the 215 Boeing Max 9 airplanes flown globally, United Airlines operates 79, the most of any airline, and Alaska has 65, according to Cirium, an aviation data provider. Their combined fleets represent about 70 percent of the Max 9 jets in service.

Persons: Max Organizations: Alaska Airlines Boeing, Max, Federal Aviation Administration, Airlines, Boeing Max, United Airlines Locations: Portland ,, Alaska

☆ Airlines Hoping for More Boeing Jets Could Be Waiting Awhile
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Sydney Ember | Santul Nerkar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Boeing hoped 2024 would be the year it would significantly increase production of its popular Max jets. Since then, details have emerged about the jet’s production at Boeing’s facility in Renton, Wash., that have intensified scrutiny of the company’s quality control. Boeing workers opened and then reinstalled the panel about a month before the plane was delivered to Alaska Airlines. The directive is another setback for Boeing, which had been planning to increase production of its Max plane series to more than 500 this year, from about 400 last year. It also planned to add another assembly line at a factory in Everett, Wash., a major Boeing production hub north of Seattle.

Persons: Max Organizations: Boeing, Federal Aviation Administration, Max, Alaska Airlines, Portland International Locations: Oregon, Renton, Wash, Everett, Seattle

Read previewTikTok's owner ByteDance is pushing a new campaign this week to promote its Pinterest-like app, Lemon8, according to three sources familiar with the effort. AdvertisementThe "100 Bucket List Ideas" promotion is the latest in a series of pushes by Lemon8 to pay influencers to plug the app. AdvertisementThe company has been using influencer promotions for Lemon8 since early 2023 when ByteDance sought to jump-start app downloads as it rolled out in the US and UK. While Lemon8 has by no means achieved the usage levels of its sister app TikTok, it has gradually gained an audience in the US and abroad. AdvertisementByteDance is also trying to grow other content-creation apps outside of TikTok and Lemon8, including its widely popular CapCut video-editing tool.

Persons: —, ByteDance, influencers, they've, Lemon8 Organizations: Service, Business, Apple, Lemon8, TikTok Locations: Lemon8, TikTok

☆ Delta Air Lines Boeing 757 Lost Nose Wheel Before Takeoff, F.A.A. Says
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Orlando Mayorquin | More About Orlando Mayorquin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A Boeing 757 plane operated by Delta Air Lines lost a nose wheel as it prepared to take off from Atlanta’s main airport on Saturday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Delta Air Lines Flight 982 was preparing to take off from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport for a trip to Bogotá, Colombia, at about 11:15 a.m. Saturday when a “nose wheel came off and rolled down the hill,” the agency said in a preliminary report. More than 170 passengers who were aboard had to deplane, but no one was hurt, the report said. A Delta spokesman said the passengers were put on a replacement flight. A Boeing spokesman declined to comment and directed questions to Delta.

Organizations: Boeing, Delta Air Lines, Federal Aviation Administration, Hartsfield, Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Delta Locations: Atlanta’s, Bogotá, Colombia

How Did a Boeing Jet End Up With a Big Hole? At about 16,000 feet, pilots heard a loud boom, and the pressure dropped further: One of those door plugs had completely torn off. National Transportation Safety BoardBoeing’s chief executive, Dave Calhoun, has suggested that a manufacturing lapse was responsible for the door plug blowing out. investigation, it’s clear to us we received an airplane from the manufacturer with a faulty door plug,” Alaska said in a statement. An older Boeing model, the 737-900ER, has the same design for its door plugs as the Max 9.

Persons: Bolts, New York Times Bolts, Jeff Simon, cotter, Simon, ”, it’s, ” Gary Peterson, Dave Calhoun, AeroSystems, Max, fuselages, Joe Buccino, Mr, Buccino, Mathieu Lewis, Rolland Organizations: Boeing, Alaska Airlines, New York Times, The New York Times, National Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, Transport Workers Union of America, Transportation Safety, Alaska Airline, Transportation, CNBC, Spirit, Board, Portland International Airport Locations: Alaska, Portland ,, Malaysia, Wichita, Kan, Renton, Wash, Jan

☆ F.A.A. Tells Airlines to Check Panels on a Second Boeing Plane
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-22 | by ( Mark Walker | More About Mark Walker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The Federal Aviation Administration recommended late Sunday night that airlines begin visual inspections of door plugs installed on Boeing 737-900ER planes, the second Boeing model to come under scrutiny this month. said the plane has the same door plug design as the 737 Max 9, which had 171 jets from its fleet grounded after a door panel was blown off one of the jets shortly after an Alaska Airlines flight left Portland, Ore., on Jan. 5., forcing an emergency landing. The door plugs are placed as a panel where an emergency door would otherwise be if a plane had more seats.

Organizations: Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing, Alaska Airlines Locations: Portland

☆ F.A.A. Says Initial Round of 737 Max Inspections Has Been Finished
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-17 | by ( Mark Walker | More About Mark Walker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Federal Aviation Administration said on Wednesday that an initial round of inspections of 40 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes had been completed, but that those aircraft and scores of other Max 9 planes would remain grounded as the agency finalized an inspection process for them. announced that it was requiring the 40 inspections before it would approve new inspection and maintenance instructions developed by Boeing. The agency grounded 171 Max 9 planes this month after a door panel blew off an Alaska Airlines flight while it was ascending after taking off from Portland, Ore., forcing an emergency landing. said it would review the data from the 40 inspections, and that the 737 Max 9 planes with the door panels would remain grounded until the agency signed off on the instructions for airlines to inspect the planes. The door panels go where an emergency exit door would in a different configuration of the aircraft.

Organizations: Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing, Max, Alaska Airlines Locations: Portland ,

☆ Harris Warns of ‘Profound Threat’ to America’s Freedoms
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-15 | by ( Erica L. Green | More About Erica L. Green | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Vice President Kamala Harris warned on Monday that American freedom was “under profound threat” in a speech honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in South Carolina, amplifying a message that the Biden administration has made a rallying cry of its re-election bid. Ms. Harris used her keynote address at a South Carolina N.A.A.C.P. She urged the crowd of more than 100 to continue to fight for the constitutional promises Dr. King spent his life holding America accountable for. Ms. Harris criticized “extremists” who have passed laws rolling back voting rights and reproductive rights, orchestrated book bans and denied parts of the nation’s Black history.

Persons: Kamala Harris, Martin Luther King Jr, Biden, Harris, King, ” Organizations: South Carolina N.A.A.C.P, Republican Locations: South Carolina

☆ AI is the latest job recruiter, and it could cut bias in hiring
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-14 | by ( Tim Paradis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

When women knew AI, not humans, would review their job applications, they were more likely to apply. A researcher told BI that AI could be a useful tool but humans should always decide on hiring. It's possible that AI, working as a gatekeeper, will do a better job than humans at reducing bias in how we get jobs . Helping tech bros be less bro-eyWomen seeking tech jobs seem to be on board with AI as a surrogate recruiter, according to Leibbrandt's research. When AI was in the driver's seat — at least with the initial screening of an application — women were more likely to put in an application.

Persons: —, Andreas Leibbrandt, Leibbrandt, you'll, Barb Hyman, Hyman, who's Organizations: Service, Australia's Monash University, Business

☆ Opinion | Martin Luther King Wasn’t a Lone Messiah
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-14 | by ( Joy-Ann Reid | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stands apart from the other civil rights leaders of the 20th century. director J. Edgar Hoover’s paranoia that a Black messiah would emerge to provoke this nation’s oppressed Black masses to revolution. But King was far from a lone messiah. Among those who took inspiration from King was Medgar Evers; they and Malcolm X formed what James Baldwin called the great trio of the civil rights movement. Evers, the then-32-year-old Mississippi field secretary for the N.A.A.C.P., first wrote to King in 1956, hoping to bring him to his home state.

Persons: Martin Luther King Jr, J, Edgar Hoover’s, King, — King, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, James Baldwin, Evers, Washington . Evers, “, ’ Organizations: University of Mississippi Law School Locations: Montgomery, Ala, Washington ., Mississippi, Europe

☆ How to Win More Games Than Anyone
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-14 | by ( Glenn Kramon | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

T Dawg, as VanDerveer is affectionately called on campus, will get there in 45, with 38 of them at Stanford. She will also do it with a higher winning percentage — about 82 percent of her games versus Krzyzewski’s 77 percent. championships, even though many of the nation’s best women’s basketball athletes can’t play for her because they don’t meet Stanford’s academic standards. Now, collectives of big donors at competing schools are paying large sums to attract and keep athletes not just in football but also in other sports, including women’s basketball. But Stanford donors, affluent as they are, have so far not stepped up as much as those of other schools.

Persons: Tara VanDerveer, Mike Krzyzewski, K Organizations: Stanford, can’t Locations: Duke

The Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday that it was expanding its scrutiny of Boeing, increasing oversight of the company with an audit of production of the 737 Max 9, a week after a panel in the body of one of those planes was blown out during flight. Later Friday night, the F.A.A. The agency said it needed more information on the inspection process before it could approve Boeing’s guidance for distribution. The grounded planes, 171 in total in the United States, will be not be cleared to fly again until they are inspected, which could take several days, though possibly a lot longer, once the F.A.A. United Airlines is the biggest U.S. user of the plane, though the jet makes up just 8 percent of the larger company’s fleet.

Persons: Boeing’s, Max Organizations: Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing, Alaska Airlines, Airlines Locations: United States

☆ F.A.A. Investigating Whether Boeing 737 Max 9 Conformed to Approved Design
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-11 | by ( Mark Walker | More About Mark Walker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Federal Aviation Administration said on Thursday that it had opened an investigation into whether Boeing failed to ensure that its 737 Max 9 plane was safe and manufactured to match the design approved by the agency. said the investigation stemmed from the loss of a fuselage panel of a Boeing 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Airlines shortly after it took off on Friday from Portland, Ore., leaving a hole in the side of the passenger cabin. said that after the Portland incident, it was notified of additional issues with other Max 9 planes. The new investigation is the latest setback for Boeing, which is one of just two suppliers of large planes for most airlines. The company has struggled to regain the public’s trust after two crashes of 737 Max 8 jetliners, in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019, killed a total of 346 people.

Persons: Max, jetliners Organizations: Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing, Max, Alaska Airlines, United Airlines Locations: Portland ,, Portland, Alaska, United, United States, Indonesia, Ethiopia

☆ Cockpit Recording’s Erasure Hampers Boeing 737 Max 9 Investigation
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-10 | by ( Mark Walker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Officials investigating why a panel on a Boeing 737 Max 9 blew open during an Alaska Airlines flight last week say they are struggling to piece together exactly what happened because the plane’s cockpit voice recorder overwrote itself before it could be retrieved. last month proposed 25-hour recorders on new planes but argued that adding them to the existing fleet of U.S. planes would be too expensive. In addition, a pilots’ union has opposed the move to 25-hour recordings unless Congress puts in place protections that would prohibit their release to the public. The chairwoman of the safety board, Jennifer Homendy, said the agency’s investigators had conducted 10 investigations since 2018 in which the cockpit voice recorder had been written over, with critical recordings lost forever. The voice recorders are among the key pieces of evidence that investigators use in reconstructing the events that led up to accidents as they work to establish a cause.

Persons: overwrote, Jennifer Homendy Organizations: Boeing, Max, Alaska Airlines, National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration Locations: U.S

☆ 2023 has been an AI feeding frenzy, here are the startups that attracted the most investment this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-04 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Despite an overall slump in startup funding, 2023 saw a scramble among investors to pour money into AI and machine learning startups. And the company's star still appears to be rising, despite a messy leadership struggle that recently spilled into public view. Meanwhile OpenAI's perennial rival Anthropic attracted multi-billion dollar investments from both Google and Amazon to fund a competing AI model known as Claude. At the same time legacy companies from John Deere to accounting firm PwC played up their AI bona fides to capitalize on the hype. The list doesn't include startups who have not publicly released the amount of their funding rounds.

Persons: OpenAI, Anthropic, Claude, Databricks, John Deere, PwC, Fresh Organizations: Microsoft, Google, Alpha, Technology, Monogram, Sigma, Lambda, Helsing, Metals, Eagle Eye, Amelia, Asimov, Farmers Business, Harbinger, Prins, Silo, Mistral, Alto, AMP, Management Software, Universal, Coro, Kodiak Robotics, Aerospace, Defense, Sana, Corti, Kyte, Mitra, Tech, Boss Digital Technology, Halcyon, & $ Locations: PitchBook

☆ Opinion | What Is Happening in Vermont?
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( Jesse Wegman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Farhad Khan has lived in Middlebury for most of his 30 years in the state. The number of such incidents has gone up in recent years, he said, especially since Donald Trump’s election. “Just like the U.S., Vermont likes to think it’s exceptional,” said Mia Schultz, a Black Vermonter and the president of the Rutland-area N.A.A.C.P., who is not Muslim. But the thing is, people of color are not.”I brought up the state’s enormous white population as a demographic curiosity when she stopped me. Vermont’s problem is not in recruiting people of color, she said, but in retaining them.

Persons: Amoody, ”, Farhad Khan, “, — Abdul, Mohammed —, Amtul, Donald Trump’s, Trump, Mia Schultz, You’re Locations: Middlebury, Burlington, Vermont, U.S, , Vermont, Rutland

☆ 5 Classical Music Albums You Can Listen to Right Now
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

But his foray into opera, “Afterword: An Opera in Two Acts,” is less traditionally dramatic. In the liner notes for this finely produced live recording, Lewis — a scholar, computer music specialist and trombonist — talks about the conceptual influence of Anthony Braxton’s operas. In those works, singers are not bound to representations of a single character from one act to the next. Lewis, a veteran of the artistic network, wrote a celebrated historical tome on the organization, and his libretto for “Afterword” freely adapts that text. And it does flourish, among the trio of vocal soloists, most prominently in an extraordinary performance by the contralto Gwendolyn Brown.

Persons: George Lewis’s, Lewis —, —, Anthony Braxton’s, Lewis, Gwendolyn Brown, SETH COLTER Organizations: Association for, Advancement of Creative Musicians

LONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Swiss insurer Baloise (BALN.S) is in talks to sell around 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) of life insurance policies in Belgium, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The efforts come as other traditional insurers sell non-core portfolios with a view to freeing up capital held against those liabilities. In 2020, the Swiss group purchased the non-life insurance operations of Apollo-backed Athora. Baloise saw premiums in its non-life insurance business grow by close to 6% in the first nine months of the year to 3.4 billion Swiss francs ($3.9 billion) globally. However, life insurance premiums dropped more than 4% to 2.9 billion francs during the same period, according to its latest earnings release.

Persons: Baloise, Pablo Mayo, Paul Arnold, Anousha Sakoui, Mark Potter Organizations: Baloise, Reuters, The, ING Groep, ING, Aegon, Royal London, Swiss, Apollo, Fidea, Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro, Thomson Locations: Belgium, The Basel, London, Zurich

☆ Exclusive: Four banks quit initiative assessing climate targets
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Tommy Wilkes | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

LONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Four major banks, including Standard Chartered Plc (STAN.L) and HSBC Plc (HSBA.L), have quit a United Nations-backed initiative to scrutinise climate targets set by corporations, according to people familiar with the matter. Many lenders say they should finance fossil fuels as long as economies depend on them. The spokesperson added that Standard Chartered was seeking alternative third-party validation of its climate targets and that it was setting science-based targets through the NZBA. It will still require them to cease the financing of fossil fuel projects that would weigh on their longer-term emissions targets. Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA), ING (INGA.AS), BBVA (BBVA.MC) and Swedbank (SWEDa.ST) told Reuters they remained committed to SBTi validating their emissions targets.

Persons: SBTi, SBTi's, Pietro Rocco, haven't, it's, Rocco, Tommy Reggiori Wilkes, Simon Jessop, Josie Kao Organizations: Standard Chartered, HSBC Plc, United, Societe Generale SA, ABN Amro Bank, Zero Banking Alliance, HSBC, Societe Generale, ABN Amro, Reuters, Credit, ING, BBVA, NatWest, Commerzbank, BNP, Allianz, Alliance, Zero, Carbon Trust, Thomson Locations: United Nations, Nations, Paris, U.S, decarbonising, London

☆ Amazon hit by strikes, protests across Europe during Black Friday trade
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"Make Amazon Pay", a campaign coordinated by the UNI Global Union, said strikes and protests would take place in more than 30 countries from Black Friday - the day after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, when many retailers slash prices to boost sales - through to Monday. In Germany, Amazon's second-biggest market by sales last year, around 250 workers were on strike at a Leipzig warehouse and around 500 at an Amazon warehouse in Rheinberg, trade union Verdi said on Friday. More than 200 workers were striking on Friday at Amazon's warehouse in Coventry, England as part of a long-running dispute over pay. The striking workers were chanting their demand for a pay rise to 15 pounds ($18.69) an hour. Amazon has remained popular in Europe even as rivals like Shein and Temu have seen rapid growth.

Persons: Amazon's, Verdi, Nick Henderson, Amazon, CGIL, CCOO, Helen Reid, James Davey, Phil Noble, Matthias Inverardi, Elisa Anzolin, Corina Pons, Sharon Singleton Organizations: UNI Global Union, U.S, Amazon, Castel, Reuters Graphics, Thomson Locations: Europe, U.S, Germany, Leipzig, Rheinberg, Amazon's, Coventry, England, Castel San Giovanni, France, London, Dusseldorf, Milan, Madrid

☆ Amazon hit by strikes, protests across Europe during Black Friday
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

In England, more than 200 workers were striking on Friday at Amazon's warehouse in Coventry as part of a long-running dispute over pay. The striking workers were chanting their demand for a pay rise to 15 pounds ($18.69) an hour. [1/4]People hold a banner during a Black Friday strike outside the Amazon warehouse, in Coventry, Britain November 24, 2023. Spanish union CCOO called for Amazon warehouse and delivery workers to stage a one-hour strike on each shift on "Cyber Monday" next week. Amazon has remained popular in Europe even as rivals like Shein and Temu have seen rapid growth.

Persons: Amazon's, Verdi, Nick Henderson, Phil Noble, Amazon, CGIL, CCOO, Helen Reid, James Davey, Matthias Inverardi, Elisa Anzolin, Corina Pons, Nick Zieminski, Jason Neely Organizations: UNI Global Union, U.S, Amazon, REUTERS, Reuters Graphics, Thomson Locations: Europe, U.S, Germany, Rheinberg, Leipzig, England, Amazon's, Coventry, Britain, Italy, Castel San Giovanni, Spanish, France, London, Dusseldorf, Milan, Madrid

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