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☆ Inside Canada's polar bear 'jail' where bears go without food and are kept behind bars — but it's not what you might think
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Crystal Raypole | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

The town's Polar Bear Holding Facility, aka "jail", helps bears and humans live harmoniously. It's the only town in the world where people and polar bears live in close proximity — and the only town that has a polar bear "jail", aka the Polar Bear Holding Facility. Humans generally don't make up part of a polar bear's diet, but a starving bear won't be picky. Its second main goal is protecting polar bears, currently classified as a vulnerable species. What to do if you encounter a polar bearA polar bear on one of the last shards of ice in Hudson Bay.

☆ MSC cruise ship fails health inspection with the lowest score in years after CDC finds a door handle covered in hamburger blood and yogurt containers with 'black filth residue'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Hannah Towey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The cruise ship MSC Seaside failed its CDC's sanitation inspection on April 27, records show. The vessel received a 67 out of 100 — the lowest score a cruise ship has received in five years. The cruise ship MSC Seaside failed the CDC's vessel sanitation inspection at the end of April with an unusually low score. The vessel received 67 out of 100 points, nearly twenty points below the agency's passing grade. In the past 10 years, only three other cruise ships have received sanitation scores below 70, CDC records show.

☆ As retirement age change sparks protests in France, here's what could happen in the U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Lorie Konish | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Damien Meyer | Afp | Getty ImagesAn increase in pension retirement age to 64 from 62 in France has sparked ongoing protests. The U.S. could be poised for a similar change with the Social Security retirement age. Today, that higher retirement age is still getting phased in. People born in 1960 and later now must wait until 67 to receive their full "retirement age" benefits. For example, if you are eligible for a $1,000 monthly benefit at full retirement age, you would get just $700 per month if you started at age 62.

☆ Boeing has unveiled a new plane for its 'ecoDemonstrator' program — a modified 787. See all 10 of the company's testbed jets.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Taylor Rains | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Boeing announced a new addition to its fleet of ecoDemonstrator aircraft on Thursday — a Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner. While not every experimental technology makes it onto a future Boeing jet, about a third actually have. 2014: Boeing 787Boeing 787 ecoDemonstrator. BoeingIn 2014, the planemaker debuted its second ecoDemonstrator — a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The 787 ecoDemonstrator tested 35 projects, including a collaboration with Delta Air Lines to generate real-time turbulence reports.

☆ AI startup founders from Y Combinator's latest class reveal the top 3 things they learned from the accelerator
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Several AI startup founders who participated said the program had many more in person events. And they also said it was a huge benefit and made a difference being in San Francisco. For its winter 2023 cohort, Y Combinator accepted founders from 282 startups for its coveted startup accelerator program. Insider spoke with the founders of four AI startups that went through this latest batch and asked them to share what they learned most from the experience. "It feels like the next platform shift, and San Francisco is definitely the heart of it."

☆ Factbox: Red flags galore: Fed officials cited Silicon Valley Bank 31 times
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

June 2022*Oversight of compliance monitoring and testing*Sanctions country of interest risk managementMay 2022*Risk management program: Supervisors found that SVB's risk management program was not effective or comprehensive, and resulted in a reactive approach rather than a holistic approach to risk management and reporting to senior management and the board. *Board effectiveness: The board of SVB did not provide effective oversight of the bank's management, and did not hold senior management accountable for executing a sound risk management program. November 2021* Enhanced liquidity risk management project plan: Fed officials identified weaknesses in the bank's risk management plans and said addressing them "will likely require an accelerated effort." August 2021* Governance process for lending procedures: The Fed found a "critical gap" in underlying documents for SVB's management to implement high-level policy objectives. * Loan risk rating granularity: While the bank's risk ratings were deemed timely and accurate, the system was not "sufficiently granular" for a bank of its size.

☆ Red flags galore: Fed officials cited SVB 31 times
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

☆ Russia's space program is crumbling because of US sanctions and the rise of SpaceX, but it's being replaced by China's rapid growth, leaked US intel says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russia's space program is declining thanks in part to sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. The documents added that Russia's space program has been in decline since at least 2020. While Russia's space program is suffering, China's is booming, the documents said. This would include China using its satellites to jam other communications and intelligence satellites, and to "destroy ballistic missile early warning satellites," the documents said. Both China and Russia have also developed the ability to use missiles to destroy satellites in space, the Post noted.

☆ As possible Social Security benefits cut looms, GOP senator says lawmakers are working on a 'big idea' fix
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Lorie Konish | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty ImagesSocial Security's trust funds have a new projected depletion date that is about a decade away. The idea calls for creating an investment fund separate from Social Security and allowing the investment to earn returns over a period of 70 years, Cassidy said. It would target the Social Security trust funds' biggest weakness, which is that it has "the absolute worst investment strategy you could have right now," Cassidy said. 'Big idea' inspired by private pensionsThe idea for investing Social Security's funds in the market is inspired by private pension funds, which already buy securities outside of Treasurys. Possible changes to fix Social Security generally include tax increases, benefit cuts or a combination of both.

☆ Mpox outbreak was wake-up call for smallpox preparation, vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Bavarian Nordic CEO Paul Chaplin said the rapid spread of mpox last year was a wake-up call for the company, which is based in Denmark. Bavarian Nordic's Jynneos vaccine is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to protect against both pathogens. Bavarian Nordic will finish delivering an order of 5 million Jynneos doses for the U.S government in the first half of this year. Bavarian Nordic estimates that the potential demand for the mpox vaccine could reach tens of millions of doses. "If you can reengineer a related virus like horsepox, you can engineer variola, which is the smallpox virus that infects humans," he said.

Compare the Capital One Venture X and Chase Sapphire Preferred Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit CardChase Sapphire Preferred® Card Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Here's what to know if you're trying to decide between the Venture X Rewards Credit Card and Sapphire Preferred. Transfer PartnersThe Venture X Rewards Credit Card and Sapphire Preferred card earn transferable rewards you can send to various airline and hotel loyalty programs. Travel and Purchase ProtectionsBoth the Venture X Rewards Credit Card and Sapphire Preferred have noteworthy travel insurance and purchase protection. The Venture X Rewards Credit Card is a relatively new entry to the travel rewards space, while the Sapphire Preferred is a tried-and-true classic.

☆ Lawmakers scrutinize free IRS filing options. “The whole process needs to be improved,” commissioner says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Kate Dore | Cfp | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel on Wednesday fielded questions from the Senate Finance Committee about the agency's spending priorities, including research on the IRS direct e-file program. However, he admitted there are issues with the current IRS Free File program. A public-private partnership between the IRS and the Free File Alliance, IRS Free File offers free online guided tax prep software to taxpayers with an adjusted gross income of $73,000 or less for 2022. Warren said private companies "sabotaged the program" by making it harder for users to find free filing options to "keep raking in money." IRS free filing raises 'conflicts of interest'Throughout Inflation Reduction Act negotiations, many Republicans have been skeptical about the IRS creating its own free filing program, as well as the $15 million allocated for the study.

☆ Elon Musk now says he wants to create a ChatGPT competitor to avoid 'A.I. dystopia'—he's calling it 'TruthGPT'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Megan Sauer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

"I'm going to start something which I call TruthGPT," Musk told Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Monday, adding that he'd want his AI chatbot to be a "maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe." He didn't provide evidence for those claims, or detail exactly what a "truth-seeking AI" might entail. "A path to AI dystopia is to train AI to be deceptive," Musk said. "It could cause harm," Pichai told CBS News' "60 Minutes" on Sunday. Twitter — which intends to pursue generative AI, Musk told the BBC last week — is a for-profit company.

☆ Elon Musk holds the keys to the moon because SpaceX's Starship megarocket launch is crucial to NASA's return
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Marianne Guenot | Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The rocket, which NASA has tagged for upcoming missions, is crucial to NASA's return to the moon. The highly anticipated Starship launch will determine whether NASA's Artemis moon program is on track for success. NASA's SLS relies on Starship for the moon landingA Starship prototype being launched. NASA's SLS rocket, by contrast, has a high price tag for the taxpayer: The project has cost $50 billion in development since the program's inception in 2006. All of this makes NASA's SLS a poor competitor to SpaceX's shiny new rocket.

☆ Facebook depends on local partners to flag hateful content. In Ethiopia, those partners say they were ignored.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Tekendra Parmar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +31 min

Trusted partners say warnings were ignoredInsider spoke with six current and former trusted partners from Ethiopia who said that Facebook routinely ignored their pleas to take down content that they deemed hateful or likely to incite violence. Some of the trusted partners declined to be named because they've faced death threats and fear for their own safety. Multiple trusted partners in Ethiopia said hate speech is still proliferating on the platform. Rafiq Copeland, a senior adviser at InterNews, one of Meta's longest-standing trusted partners globally, told Insider that the core complaints of trusted partners in Ethiopia have come up in other Rest of World countries. Even in Addis Ababa, it seemed that everyone knew about the Facebook posts, and many people now saw him as a traitor.

☆ A small, specialty water brand created a customer loyalty program to thank consumers, and it led to a 90% repurchase rate
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Erica Sweeney | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Customer loyalty programs incentivize customers to engage with and support their favorite brands. They found that making personal connections through loyalty programs garnered more repeat customers and better feedback. We learn all kinds of things from our customer loyalty program." We've found from our loyalty program that when it comes to attracting and retaining good customers, the only thing that may be second to a strong loyalty program is excellent service." Loyalty program members also tend to spend more with companies and refer them to friends and family, according to a Forrester report.

☆ The 'Robinhood of passports' says it's a mistake to ban golden visas — make them fund affordable housing and refugee programs instead
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Hannah Towey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Portugal and Ireland recently announced they are shutting down their "golden visa" programs. Their less-advantageous siblings, "golden visas," provide temporary residence permits in exchange for investment, as opposed to permanent citizenship. A golden taxInstead of banning golden passports and visas outright, countries should adjust the investment requirements to match their current needs, Arton says. A scandalous historyBut golden passports don't only raise the issue of inequality, the European Commission argues, they also pose a threat to national security. Last year, 282 of Ireland's 306 golden visa applications came from Chinese citizens, The Irish Times reported.

☆ Social Security is in the 'worst public service crisis in memory,' labor union says. What it may take for services to improve
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Lorie Konish | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Social Security beneficiaries who call the agency's toll-free number may face hold times of more than 30 minutes. Long lines and shortened hours are common at many of the agency's field offices where beneficiaries may seek in-person assistance. Moreover, applicants for disability benefits face waits of more than six months for decisions from the agency, a panel of experts from the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 40,000 Social Security Administration employees, said Monday. The service delays facing the program's approximately 67 million beneficiaries are signs of "an agency in crisis," according to Rich Couture, Council 215 president at the American Federation of Government Employees. AFGE leaders spoke out about the Social Security Administration's diminishing services amid funding constraints that have lasted for more than a decade.

☆ Argentina's latest 'soy dollar' scheme sees few takers on first day
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Maximilian Heath | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Would-be participants in the "soy dollar" program need more details, several told Reuters. Spot market transactions under the latest version of the policy, which initially kicked off last year, showed no movements on Monday, according to traders. "It started quite calmly with few offers from factories in a very cautious market waiting for more information," said Eugenio Irazuegui, a researcher with brokerage Enrique Zeni y CIA. Only about 17.5% of the 2021/22 soybean crop of some 44 million tonnes remains in local storage, according to official data at the end of March. Meanwhile, about 5.5 million tonnes of soybeans from the current 2022/23 harvest, which has only just begun, have been sold, official data showed, compared to about 12 million tonnes at the same time during the year-ago period.

Argentina - a serial defaulter which has long battled high inflation, currency weakness and indebtedness - struck a $57 billion deal with the IMF in 2018 to try and fix its economic woes. Those reviews of how Argentina is doing against its economic targets are linked to scheduled disbursements of funds. Failure to meet the targets could stall the program or force the IMF to adjust the targets further. The IMF net reserve targets are the amount Argentina needs to accumulate over time above a baseline of $2.277 billion at the end of 2021. "That will make it hard to meet the IMF's (downwardly revised) FX reserve target and increases the risk of a disorderly devaluation."

☆ Insolvency is on the horizon for Social Security, Medicare funds, expert says. These changes may help
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Lorie Konish | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The research finds 37.8% of adults 65 and over would have incomes below the official poverty line without Social Security benefits. With Social Security benefits, 9% of older adults have incomes below the poverty line. But reducing poverty through and outside of Social Security beyond a sliding scale minimum benefit may be a better approach, she said. Moreover, the maximum Social Security retirement benefit is two to three times higher than what countries like the United Kingdom, Canada or Australia pay. "We're going way, way beyond a pure safety net program," Biggs said.

☆ I did the Disney College Program 4 times and had years of free access to the parks. Here's how I got in.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Jamie Killin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Keller participated in the Disney College program four times, working at the parks as a student. When I was 12 years old, I learned about the Disney College Program. When I got older, I learned that travel and tourism was a college degree programI went that route for my bachelor's and master's degrees while in the Disney College Program. I was there until the following August, then went back to Florida to do the Disney College Program again while I started graduate school. I had to apply for the Disney College Program each time, so I learned the process wellThe college program application just requests super basic information from you — it's not one of those long, 100-question type things.

☆ Millions will start losing Medicaid coverage as Covid safety net is dismantled
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Congress basically barred states from terminating Medicaid coverage during the pandemic through the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. Congress slipped a provision in federal spending legislation in December that allows states to start disenrolling people on April 1. Although some states will start terminating coverage in April, others are waiting until May, June, July and October before they do so. A list of when all 50 states will start ending coverage is below. Click here for a list of when states will have their first round Medicaid coverage terminations.

ABLE accounts provide those with disabilities an opportunity save enough to purchase a house without putting their benefits at risk. Can ABLE account funds be used for a down payment on a house? Tim Elliot, another ABLE account owner and ABLE NRC ambassador, found out about these accounts through an internet search. Home-related expenses an ABLE account can coverOne of the more popular uses of an ABLE account for hopeful homeowners is saving for a down payment. How to open an ABLE account and start saving to buy a homeTo open an ABLE account, you'll need to choose a state program to participate in.

☆ Raise retirement age, or hike payroll taxes? New tool lets you decide how to fix Social Security
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Lorie Konish | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

You may have heard that Social Security's funds are running low. Now, a new virtual tool from the American Academy of Actuaries lets you explore Social Security's woes and decide exactly what changes you would make to restore its solvency. Based on the Social Security Administration Board of Trustees' annual 2022 report, the funds may be depleted in 2035. The urgency of Social Security's issues has caught lawmakers' attention recently. During the State of the Union address in February, President Joe Biden prompted leaders from both sides of the aisle to stand to show their support for protecting Social Security and Medicare.

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