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☆ Hundreds of flexitarians are flocking to this vegan burger upstart. Here's why.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( Nancy Luna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Plant-based burger chain Next Level Burger is backed by Whole Foods. He'd given up red meat in 2010, after his mother died of cancer at 56. Both became early backers of de Gruyter's brand, Next Level Burger, which has grown to nine restaurants in six states. Following a $20 million raise last fall, Next Level Burger opened its 10th location and second restaurant in Seattle in late January. Next Level Burger patties are made of quinoa and mushrooms.

Solar panels are seen in Sicily, Italy. Europe wants to significantly increase its solar-power capacity by the end of this decade. As Europe ends its dependence on Russian natural gas, the region wants solar energy to become its prime source of electricity by 2030. One challenge will be achieving that without creating an energy dependency on China. Chinese companies now control over 80% of the solar supply chain worldwide, dominating the production of panels and their components.

☆ French Union Cuts Power to Pressure Macron on Pensions
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Matthew Dalton | Noemie Bisserbe | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The CGT is gearing up for another round of protests against a proposed pension overhaul. PARIS—To fight President Emmanuel Macron’s pension overhaul, France’s most militant labor union is pursuing a radical strategy: cutting electricity to his political supporters and the wealthy while handing out discounted power and gas to the public. During a nationwide strike last week, members of the far-left CGT union who work in the energy sector cut power to the office of a lawmaker from Mr. Macron’s party for more than three hours. On Monday, CGT energy workers in Marseille manipulated electricity and gas meters to cut bills for bakers who were protesting in the French port city against high energy prices. CGT’s leadership called such moves a “Robin Hood” operation and said they would continue as the country prepares for another national protest on Tuesday.

☆ Abandoned shopping carts cost taxpayers thousands of dollars
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Abandoned shopping carts are a scourge to neighborhoods, as wayward carts block intersections, sidewalks and bus stops. There is no national data on shopping cart losses, but US retailers lose an estimated tens of millions of dollars every year replacing lost and damaged carts, say shopping cart experts. They pay vendors to rescue stray carts and fork over fines to municipalities for violating laws on shopping carts. “It is the shopping cart.” Another New York Times article in 1957 called the trend “Cart-Napping.”There’s even a book, “The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification,” dedicated to the phenomenon and a system of identification for stray shopping carts, much like guides for bird-watching. Coin-lock shopping cart systems are popular in Europe, and Poulos said more US companies are requesting coin-lock systems in response to the costs of runaway shopping carts.

☆ How Europe Escaped a Looming Energy Crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Matthew Dalton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Unseasonably warm winter weather has been a challenge for Austria’s ski resorts but helped Europe limit its gas consumption. PARIS—Only a few months ago, Russian officials were taunting Europe about a brutal winter to come, and the continent was bracing for an energy crisis of historic proportions. Then Europe made an odds-defying escape—at least for now.

☆ Tourism and Manufacturing Fight for the Future of Power in Europe
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-02 | by ( Matthew Dalton | Photographs Matilde Viegas For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

SAN CIPRIAN, Spain—Europe’s plans to install wind and solar power are accelerating in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, which drove up natural-gas prices sharply. They’re running into opposition from residents and officials who say a wave of new projects will harm the region’s landscapes, cultural sites and valuable tourism industry. In the Galician countryside of northwest Spain, Maria Martin and her husband opened an inn six years ago offering vacationers a tranquil refuge. The ocean is a few miles away, and the Basilica de San Martiño de Mondoñedo, Spain’s oldest cathedral and an attraction for pilgrims walking the famed Camino de Santiago, lies in the same valley.

☆ Alfalfa sprouts recalled in 3 states due to potential salmonella contamination
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Marlene Lenthang | Marlene Lenthang Is A Breaking News Reporter For Nbc News Digital. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

A Nebraska company is recalling alfalfa sprouts sold in three states due to potential salmonella contamination as state health officials investigate a “cluster of gastrointestinal illnesses” caused by the bacteria. SunSprout Enterprises, based in Fremont, Nebraska, announced Thursday that it is voluntarily recalling four lots of raw alfalfa sprouts. SunSprout Enterprises alfalfa sprouts. "This voluntary recall is a result of a preliminary investigation by the State of Nebraska in connection with CDC of an outbreak of illness likely associated with alfalfa sprouts," the company said. State Epidemiologist Dr. Matthew Donahue praised local and state health officials for quickly narrowing down the cause of the illnesses.

☆ A hacker's tips on how to spot a phishing attack
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Sponsor Post | Created Ibm With Insider Studios | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

When it comes to cybersecurity attacks, phishing continues to be effective for hackers and costly for organizations. The 2022 IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Index research showed that phishing is the way attackers are getting into organizations 41% of the time. "I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for organizations to not only develop an incident response plan, but to test it regularly." According to the Cost of a Data Breach Report 2022, organizations with an incident response team that tested their incident response plan (versus those who did not) saved on average $2.66M in data breach costs. Learn more about incident response planning and threat intelligence here.

☆ The Michigan lawyer pushing Trump’s voter-fraud fictions in U.S. court
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +27 min

Lambert started in her home state of Michigan, joining four lawsuits on behalf of Trump supporters. As Trump zeroed in on vote-rigging allegations in Michigan, Lambert emailed the White House, according to her July 2021 video interview with two right-wing websites. Cotton and Penrose also were involved in examining breached voting machines in Michigan for DePerno and Lambert, according to the Michigan attorney general investigation. In the process, the commissioners were accused of flouting a court order by allowing a forensics company to inspect county voting equipment. In August 2021, a federal judge reprimanded Lambert, Powell and seven other lawyers who joined the failed lawsuit seeking to overturn Michigan’s vote after Trump’s 2020 defeat.

☆ This oil and gas VC upended his career to start a plant-based burger chain. Now, he's raised $20 million to open new restaurants with plans to steal market share from McDonald's.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Nancy Luna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Next Level Burger, which makes plant-based burgers, was cofounded in 2014 by Matt de Gruyter. Next Level Burger plans to triple in size and steal share from McDonald's, de Gruyter said. In his quest to align his career with this diet, he quit his job and launched a restaurant serving plant-based burgers in 2014. Both became early backers of de Gruyter's brand, Next Level Burger, which has grown to nine restaurants in six states. The restaurant chain announced a $20 million raise on Tuesday, led by Payne and his wife, Nicole Brodeur.

☆ France’s Restart of Nuclear Reactors Eases Blackout Fears
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Matthew Dalton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

PARIS—France has restarted five nuclear reactors over the past week and cut electricity consumption sharply, easing fears the country will have to resort to rolling blackouts this winter. French officials have been racing to restart the reactors after a rash of outages pushed the country’s nuclear generation to the lowest level in decades, compounding the energy crisis facing Europe after Russia slashed natural-gas deliveries in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine. The government of President Emmanuel Macron warned last month that it might have to impose targeted power cuts during periods of peak demand this winter to avoid widespread blackouts.

WASHINGTON — If it’s Monday ... It’s the last day of campaigning before tomorrow’s Georgia Senate runoff. ... NBC’s Vaughn Hillyard covers the closing messages by Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker. And just looking at the campaigns, which get the biggest bang per advertising buck, it’s Warnock at $25.2 million, versus Walker at $10.1 million. But now it’s $11.8 million — behind Warnock’s $25 million and the $20.3 million from Georgia Honor, a Democratic Super PAC. Runoff watch: Walker accuser speaks to NBC NewsDays after she first revealed an allegation of domestic abuse against Georgia Republican Senate hopeful Herschel Walker, a former girlfriend of his sat down with NBC News to detail those allegations.

☆ Climate Change Summit Leaves Hope for Limiting Global Warming
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Matthew Dalton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

PARIS—Governments left the United Nations climate summit this month with new doubts that global temperature increases can be limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius from preindustrial levels—but also with hope that a more realistic goal, 1.7 degrees, is within reach. The target of 1.5 degrees Celsius—or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit—has been the north star of U.N. climate negotiations since it was enshrined in the 2015 Paris accord. The deal calls for governments to cut greenhouse-gas emissions to levels that climate scientists estimate can limit warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius compared with preindustrial levels, with the ambition of keeping it below 1.5 degrees.

☆ At COP27, Poorer Countries Secure Climate-Damage Fund Without Pledging Faster Emissions Cuts
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Matthew Dalton | Stacy Meichtry | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt— Poorer countries secured a deal at United Nations climate talks to create a fund for climate-related damage as part of a broader agreement that failed to yield faster cuts in global emissions. The accord at the COP27 summit in this Egyptian seaside resort hands a victory to poorer nations that have demanded that money since the first U.N. climate treaty was signed three decades ago.

☆ COP27 Sets Up Climate-Damage Fund for Poorer Nations but Rejects Faster Emissions Cuts
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Matthew Dalton | Stacy Meichtry | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt— Poorer countries secured a deal at United Nations climate talks to create a fund for climate-related damage as part of a broader agreement that failed to yield faster cuts in emissions sought by wealthy nations to avert more severe global warming. The accord at the COP27 summit in this Egyptian seaside resort hands a victory to poorer nations that have demanded that money since the first U.N. climate treaty was signed three decades ago.

☆ U.S. Climate Funding Shortfall Hampers Bid to Cut Developing Countries’ Emissions
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Matthew Dalton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt—The West’s diplomatic push at the United Nations climate summit faces a major obstacle: the long-running struggle inside the U.S. to deliver funds for the developing world’s response to global warming. The U.S. has lagged behind other wealthy countries in providing funds for poorer countries to cut emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change. The Trump administration sharply cut climate finance in its budgets. The Biden administration has promised to boost climate finance to $11.4 billion annually, but its request in last year’s budget was cut from $2.7 billion to $1 billion during Senate negotiations amid Republican opposition.

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt — Governments from more than 190 countries struck a deal Saturday to set up a fund that would pay for climate-related damage in vulnerable countries, officials said, handing a victory to poorer countries that for years have pushed for the move and removing a major sticking point in United Nations climate talks. Negotiators representing developed and developing countries agreed to the measure in the final hours of the COP 27 United Nations climate summit held in this Egyptian seaside resort.

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt—A deal was struck at United Nations climate talks on Saturday to set up a fund that would pay for climate-related damage in countries deemed particularly vulnerable, officials said, handing a victory to poorer nations that have pushed for the move for years and removing a major sticking point in broader negotiations to address global warming. The fund would earmark money for what is known as loss and damage: When rising seas, more powerful storms and other effects that scientists link to climate change cause destruction that is sudden or potentially irreparable.

☆ Europe, Canada Willing to Back Climate Damage Fund—but Only If China Helps Pay
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Matthew Dalton | Stacy Meichtry | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt—The European Union and Canada are willing to back the creation of a fund that would pay for damage linked to climate change in the most vulnerable countries—but only if wealthier developing nations such as China contribute. The proposal, made by the EU at United Nations climate talks in Egypt, calls into question China’s status as a developing economy that traditionally receives climate funds from the wealthy world. China has been pushing for this climate-damage fund as part of a coalition of 133 developing countries.

☆ Meet Prenuvo, a company that says its whole-body MRI scan can detect the earliest stages of disease. Experts say it could do more harm than good.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Sarah Braner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Prenuvo, a company offering preventive MRI scans, raised a $70 million Series A in October. Some say healthy people probably don't need whole-body scans, which can lead to risky procedures. On October 18, the company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, said it had raised a $70 million Series A to provide whole-body MRI scans to consumers. The website says the scans are performed by MRI technologists and analyzed by radiologists trained to read Prenuvo scans. PrenuvoWhole-body MRI scans aren't accessible for everyoneSafavi said whole-body MRI scans have been available for more than two decades for people curious about what might be in their bodies undetected.

In the 13 races in six battleground states where an election denier was on the ballot for governor, secretary of state or attorney general, 12 lost, according to the latest NBC News projections. Arizona — along with Michigan and Alabama — was one of three states where election deniers advanced to be the GOP nominees for governor, secretary of state and attorney general. In Pennsylvania, meanwhile, Republican Doug Mastriano — who was one of the most high-profile election deniers — lost the race for governor to Democrat Josh Shapiro. “But voters sent a very clear message that Americans deeply care about democracy and don’t want extremists running our nation’s elections.”The defeats of election deniers spanned well beyond swing states. All 14 races where election deniers won were in states that voted to elect Trump in both 2016 and 2020.

☆ COP27 Talks Weigh Who Should Pay for Climate Damage to Poor Countries
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Saeed Shah | Matthew Dalton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Negotiators at the U.N. climate summit are working out the details of a proposal for wealthy countries to pay developing ones for some of the damage from extreme weather that scientists say is associated with global warming. The plan suggests the money could flow through a variety of channels, including a new facility to help countries deal with floods, storms, drought and other natural disasters believed to be made worse by climate change, according to a draft text released by negotiators. If the plan survives until the final agreement this week, it could be the most significant development of this year’s COP27 meeting in Egypt.

SINGAPORE/LONDON, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Regulators are moving in on distressed crypto exchange FTX as it scrambles to raise billions in funds to stave off collapse, while its chief executive, Sam Bankman-Fried, faces heightened scrutiny. The Securities Commission of the Bahamas has frozen assets of FTX Digital Markets, an FTX subsidiary. FTX Australia called in administrators on Friday, the Australian Financial Review reported, citing a company statement. Bankman-Fried is under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for potential securities law violations, Bloomberg reported, citing a source. This source said helping out FTX was the question for larger investors in FTX.

Meanwhile, the Securities Commission Of the Bahamas said on Thursday it had frozen assets of FTX Digital Markets, an FTX subsidiary. Broker Genesis Trading disclosed its derivatives business has approximately $175 million in locked funds on FTX. "We believe there is a 20-30% chance of a FTX rescue at best," said Matthew Dibb, chief operating officer of Singapore-based crypto investment manager Stack Funds. He is seeking the remainder from other funds, including current investors such as Sequoia Capital, the source added. It was not clear whether Bankman-Fried will be able to raise the funds he needs or if these investors would participate.

☆ The 2022 election disaster that wasn't: The system worked and Trump-backed candidates are conceding
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Sonam Sheth | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The run-up to Election Day 2022 was marred by fears of chaos and refusals to concede. A slew of Trump-backed candidates who rejected the legitimacy of the 2020 election were on the ballot. Election Day went smoothly, and while there were minor issues in places like Maricopa County, Arizona, they were quickly identified and resolved and there were no broader infrastructure problems. Taking a lesson from the 2020 election, cybersecurity and election security officials also stepped up efforts to combat disinformation related to this year's midterms. Crucially, many of Trump's handpicked candidates conceded defeat when their races were called.

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