Datasets:

sr2077

/

BloombergQuint-llama2

like 0

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Warren Buffett Smarter happy Richer [/INST] BQ Blue Exclusive news. Title: Warren Buffett Wants to Make You Happier, Smarter and Richer. Short_description: The billionaire riffed on tech shares, stock picking & his mistakes at Berkshire Hathaway, but didn’t want to talk Bitcoin.. Description: There was no digital confetti, and no free stock for joining either. Nevertheless, the Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger show out in Los Angeles proved to be good theatre — filled with wit and wisdom from two of the world’s most successful investors., The occasion was the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. annual meeting — a virtual affair this year — and Buffett, 90, and Munger, his 97-year-old longtime business partner, set out to be voices of reason and sanity in an investment landscape looking more surreal by the day (, , anyone? Maybe with , thrown in?)., Here are some of the takeaways from Saturday’s event that apply to the investing world and beyond.,  The reason: Incredibly low rates on short-term government debt, or Treasuries — which are “the risk-free yardstick against which other values are measured,” said Buffett., “Interest rates basically are to the value of assets what gravity is to matter” — and the rate on short-term Treasuries is really nothing today, the Berkshire Hathaway chairman said., If Treasury rates are really supposed to be this low, those high-flying tech shares are a bargain, Buffett said (and that is one big “if”). That view contrasts with the prevailing wisdom in the market, which is that tech-stock valuations are extreme., “The Googles and Apples are incredible in terms of what they earn on capital,” Buffett said. “They don’t require a lot of capital, and they gush out more money.”,  Buffett put up a slide of the 20 stocks from around the world with the largest market capitalizations. Five of the six were U.S. companies — Apple Inc. at the top, at about $2 trillion, with Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Facebook Inc. holding the No. 3, 4, 5 and 6 slots. (No. 2 was Saudi Aramco.), Then Buffett asked the audience to think about how many of those companies they would expect to be around in 30 years — maybe five, maybe eight? Then he showed a slide with the same information — but from 30 years ago. None of the stocks from the 2021 slide were on it., “I would guess that very few of you would have said zero, and I don’t think it will be, but it’s a reminder of what extraordinary things can happen,” he said. “The world can change in very dramatic ways.”, Even if you understand the promise of an industry — like the birth of the automobile — you need to choose the winner in that industry. “There’s a lot more to picking stocks than figuring out what’s going to be a wonderful industry in the future,” said Buffett. “I do not think the average person can pick stocks.”, “American corporations have turned out to be a wonderful place for people to put and save their money but they also make terrific gambling chips,” Buffett said., He suspects that a lot of the short-term options trading in Apple’s stock comes from young traders on ,  Buffett isn’t saying gambling itself is shameful — he called it a “very human instinct” — but he said “I don’t think you’d build a society around doing it.”, As more people enter the casino than leave it, “it creates its own reality for a while and nobody tells you when the clock is going to strike 12 and it all turns to pumpkins and mice,” he said., The fact that it’s so hard to predict what kind of tremendous change there will be in the world is a great argument for diversified index funds, Buffett said., The billionaire has advised the trustee of his will that when he passes, 90% of his bequest to his wife — now in Berkshire stock — should be in a stock index fund like the S&P 500, and 10% in Treasury bills.,  Or at least, in what you know best. And no one knows Berkshire’s intrinsic value better than Buffett., With a cash pile of more than $145 billion at the end of the 2021’s first quarter, Buffett bought back some $6.6 billion in Berkshire shares during the first quarter. The pace of buybacks has been decelerating from prior quarters, however., Buffett used to describe share buybacks as basically an accounting gimmick, as something done in order to goose a stock price, and often done without enough price discipline. He’s typically wanted to deploy cash in big acquisitions or stock purchases., But in 2018 he loosened his buyback policy as Berkshire’s cash kept growing. “We can’t buy companies as cheap as we buy our own and we can’t buy stocks as cheap as our own,” Buffett said., Buffett stayed largely away from tech stocks for many years, saying he didn’t understand their business models. Now Apple is a huge holding — Berkshire owns just over 5%., Even so, Buffett doesn’t describe Apple in tech-y terms. “I feel that I understand Apple and its future with consumers around the world,” he said., “Apple has fantastic management — Tim Cook was under appreciated for a long time, and he has a product that people absolutely love,” he said. “There’s an installed base of people and they get satisfaction rates of like 99%.”, There were , . Buffett admitted that it likely was a mistake to sell some Apple stock last year, and that he learned a lot of lessons from a failed healthcare venture with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Amazon. , Buffett has been a Bitcoin skeptic., When asked for his views on cryptocurrency at the annual meeting, he dodged the question. “We’ve probably got , , and we’ve probably got two people that are short,” he said. “So we have a choice of making 400,000 people mad at us and unhappy, or making two people happy, and that’s just a dumb equation.”, Munger, however, let it rip. “I don't welcome currency that is so useful to kidnappers and extortionists,” he said., One questioner asked if Buffett’s famed portfolio managers at the company, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, might have a higher public profile in the future. “They are assets of Berkshire, and there is no reason for them to be out there educating other people on how to compete with us,” he said., Buffett is a pretty cheery person, often extolling the virtues of capitalism. He recommends a sort of even keel approach to life: “In 62 years, Charlie and I have never gotten into an argument, never got mad at each other,” Buffett said., Studies have shown that optimists have a better quality of life than pessimists, and people high in optimism have a better quality of life than those less optimistic. The only problem with this observation? Charlie Munger is 97, and his world view can sometimes be bleak. But his views on Berkshire and Buffett? Very optimistic., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Suzanne Woolley. Date Created: 03 May 2021, 7:00 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Retail Auto sale Covid Resurgence BQ survey April [/INST] BQ Blue Exclusive news. Title: Retail Auto Sales Seen Plunging In April On Covid Resurgence: BQ Survey. Short_description: Here’s what BloombergQuint’s survey of 10 dealers reveals about auto sales in April…. Description: Car and two-wheeler dealers saw one of the steepest declines in retail sales in April as a renewed surge in coronavirus cases lead to fresh curbs across the country, according to a BloombergQuint survey of 10 dealers., “In four-wheelers, the demand is down 25-30% month-on-month, but in two-wheelers, the demand has plunged 50-60% (month-on-month) wherever the dealerships are open,” Vinkesh Gulati, president of Federation of Automobile Dealers Association, told BloombergQuint over the phone., Year-on-year data isn’t comparable since this time last year India had announced a complete nationwide lockdown, stalling production and washing out sales., Now, as India again reports a record spike in Covid-19 infections and deaths daily, auto dealers are witnessing a slowdown. The surge has already prompted states such as Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka to announce stringent restrictions or partial lockdowns in April, leading to low footfalls at dealerships., The second wave of the virus halted a nascent recovery in automakers that were grappling with the worst slowdown in more than two decades before the pandemic. Up until March, sales , aided by a pick-up in economic activities after India eased the nationwide stay-at-home curbs, demand for personal mobility and festive push despite supply-side constraints., For two-wheelers, however, the higher cost of ownership due to costly fuel and price hikes to counter commodity inflation , the uptick in sales led by an increase in rural demand on account of good monsoon, bumper crops and government’s spending to boost the economy. That caused an inventory pile-up., Four-wheelers, according to dealers, fared better as a , of semi-conductors slowed production, lowering inventory, evident from , for such vehicles., The only saving grace for us is we are sitting at low stock, and already have a pipeline of pending orders, a Bengaluru-based dealer for Hyundai, Honda and Ford told BloombergQuint over the phone. April is going to be a slow month for sales. Last 10 days we have had virtually no business, he said on the condition of anonymity out of business concerns., A Gujarat-based dealer for Tata Motors Ltd. expects sales to remain flat over March, and is worried over how things will pan out going ahead., While the average inventory period for cars was around a month or less, it was twice that level for two-wheelers, the dealers said., “March was a good month, but [sales in] April is almost 50% down over the previous month,” Pradeep Agarwal, managing partner at JMG Automobiles, which runs an authorised dealership of Hero MotoCorp Ltd. in Cuttack, said. To ease the burden on dealers and manage the supply chain, the nation’s largest two-wheeler maker announced a , across its manufacturing facilities in a staggered manner from April 22 to May 1., A Honda Motorcycle and Scooter dealer in Kolkata also expects sales in April to fall by half over the preceding month due to lower footfalls. The slowdown led to an inventory period of 50 days., The situation isn’t any different for two-wheeler dealers in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Gujarat., “Already the two-wheeler segment was struggling to revive from the first wave. Now with the second wave impact, they are de-growing further and is creating a big problem for the two-wheeler market,” FADA’s Gulati said.. Publisher: Nishant Sharma. Date Created: 28 Apr 2021, 9:49 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Indian Solar Farms New Headache Chinese Vendors Pandemic [/INST] BQ Blue Exclusive news. Title: Chinese Vendors Give Indian Solar Farms A New Headache During Pandemic. Short_description: India's solar power producers face a cost bump as Chinese vendors renege on contracts.. Description: India’s solar power producers face an unexpected increase in costs during the pandemic as Chinese module makers want to renegotiate prices., China’s Longi Green Technology Co., the world’s biggest producer of solar cells, said in a statement that suppliers were renegotiating contracts as prices of modules have surged 35% as the cost of polysilicon, glass and silver paste rose. Higher freight rates due to shortage of shipping capacity during the pandemic also fuelled hikes., The clarification came after multiple media reports, including from the Economic Times, said that Chinese suppliers unilaterally cancelled contracts with Indian power producers. The problem is that Indian solar firms have bid and won projects from the Solar Energy Corporation of India quoting lowest possible fixed tariffs., Solar modules account for nearly half the, cost of a power project. And imports from China meet about 80% of the demand in India. The nation, home to some of the world’s most polluted cities, has been focusing on increasing the share of solar and wind power in its energy mix., Chinese vendors renegotiating contracts is extremely worrisome for the industry, especially projects to be commissioned between July 2021 and March next year as this would lower yields, said a senior executive at one of the largest renewable power producers in India—he didn't want to be identified out of business concerns. Lack of alternatives means the producers will have to take a hit on their margins, he said, adding that Chinese firms have increased prices by at least 15-20%., Subrahmanyam Pulipaka, chief executive officer at industry lobby National Solar Energy Federation of India, admitted that the sudden surge in module prices has disrupted Indian supply chain when local firms are already under pressure during the pandemic. While the association will soon approach the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, he said Chinese vendors seeking higher prices has the potential to cause a big dent for the industry, which will be forced to pass on the burden to utilities and eventually to consumers., Indian power producers continue to be heavily dependent on Chinese makers for solar modules; and if not modules, then wafers—a thin slice of semiconductor used for the fabrication of integrated circuits and, in photovoltaics, to manufacture solar cells, SL Agarwal, managing director at Websol Energy Systems Ltd., a maker of solar cell that imports components from China., Most of the Chinese vendors shut units over the last two-three years due unviability, giving a few players the pricing power. Together with costlier raw materials, that has increase prices of modules by more than 35-50%, he said., The cost of the solar power project cost works around Rs 3.7 crore per megawatt, according to Rohit Natrajan, associate vice president, Antique Stock Broking. Typically, photovoltaic modules represent 40-45% of the overall project cost, he said. , While solar module manufacturing is nascent in India, the government is looking to boost domestic production. Under the production-linked incentive scheme, it approved Rs 4,500 crore for high-efficiency solar photovoltaic modules. It also imposed imposed 40% basic customs duty on solar modules and 25% on solar cells from April 1, 2022. Companies like Adani Group, Tata Power Ltd., Websol, and Jupiter have already announced plans to start manufacturing solar cells and modules in India., Chinese products are still cost effective for an Indian developer, according to Natarajan. The domestic modules are currently priced at 29-30 cents per watt-peak, while imported modules cost 23-24 cents, he said., Rahul Gupta, managing director of Indosolar Ltd., which has filed for corporate insolvency, said China owns 90-95% of the overall world’s capacity. India, he said, is still a few years away to be self-sufficient given patchy policy, a rather long timeline and an uncertain demand portfolio., A potential game-changer would come when public sector companies like Gail India Ltd. and Coal India Ltd. undertake renewable energy business in a serious way, Gupta said., Chinese players, however, are also considering manufacturing in India. Longi has been planning to set up a production base in India and preliminary preparations are underway, according to its statement. The company has already acquired land.. Publisher: Nickey Mirchandani. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 10:05 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to BQEdge | Stock Infosys Eye [/INST] BQ Blue Exclusive news. Title: BQEdge | Why You Should Keep An Eye On Infosys’ Stock . Short_description: Niraj Shah and Kannan Singaravelu share technical insights on which direction the stock of Infosys may move next.. Description: nan. Publisher: BQ Research. Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 8:25 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Middle Class Today India [/INST] BQ Blue Exclusive news. Title: Who Is ‘Middle Class’ In India, Today?. Short_description: Why most people in India, whether they barely pay taxes, or they make over a crore a year, describe themselves as ‘middle class’.. Description: Whether it is the union budget or electoral forecasting, it is common for analysts and political commentators to invoke the “great Indian middle class”. However, one piece of analysis that is entirely missing in the popular discourse is the precise definition and characterisation of ‘middle class’, and the number of people who belong to it. This is because the manner in which incomes are distributed doesn’t allow for such easy answers., The Income Tax department puts out data every year on the distribution of incomes of income tax filers, along with the taxes paid by people in each income bucket. The , we have is for the 2016-17 financial year (2017-18 tax assessment year), which shows that 4.7 crore individuals together paid a total of Rs. 2.73 lakh crore in income taxes., The first thing to notice is that this number of 4.7 crore taxpayers—which includes people with zero taxable income—is far less than the total number of workers in India, which was , at around 48 crore. In other words, less than a tenth of our total workforce pays income taxes, indicating that the rest of the workers either work in the so-called ‘informal economy’ or in sectors such as agriculture where income is not taxed. This analysis ignores any unaccounted income., That is the first challenge with precisely characterising the middle class – we simply don’t have data on the income of over 90 percent of our workforce. One way to treat it is to assume that people belong to this ‘unaccounted 90 percent’ all have incomes lower than the taxable limit of Rs. 1.5 lakh, in which case the middle class would have to be defined to lie entirely within this ‘unaccounted 90 percent’., Another approach is to assume that the middle class lies within the set of people whose income is known, i.e. those who file taxes. Here the assumption is that we don’t know anything about the incomes of the 90 percent of the workers who don’t file income tax returns. Here again, the analysis is not so straightforward., The conventional view is that income follows something like a ‘normal distribution’ or a bell curve, with a thick middle class where most of the people are located with a few people who make less (the poor) and a few who make more (the rich). As it happens with quantities that display network effects, income follows a ‘power law distribution’., The basic feature of a power law distribution is that it is self-similar – where a part of the distribution looks like the entire distribution., This ratio is in a remarkably narrow range – thus confirming that the distribution of incomes in India follows a power law., And the quirk of the power law is that even though there is a peak in the distribution, there is a rather long right tail. The chart below shows the distribution of individual incomes in India, but it had to be drawn with a logarithmic X axis so that the entire distribution is visible., The first impression upon seeing this distribution is that there is a ‘thick middle’ (notwithstanding the logarithmic scale), which suggests that anybody who files taxes but makes less than Rs 10 lakh per annum is middle class. In fact, this is precisely the class targeted by the tax cuts of the recent interim budget, where a tax rebate meant that people who make less than Rs 5 lakh per annum no longer need to pay income tax., However, a strict definition of the middle class based on this distribution can be problematic., In fact, the shape of the distribution including the long right tail implies that it would be problematic to describe a precise point beyond which we can call someone ‘rich’., It is reasonable to assume that most people have some friends who make less money than them and some friends who make more. Even if people hang out with others similar to themselves—and who lie not far from them on the income distribution—there is an important distinction between friends who make less and friends who make more., Unless you are at the far right tail of the distribution (among the richest people in India), it is likely that you have friends whose incomes are an order of magnitude (or two) more than yours., When you know people who make ten or a hundred times as much as you, it is virtually impossible to describe yourself as ‘rich’. So most people in India, whether they barely pay taxes, or they make over a crore a year, describe themselves as ‘middle class’. Some take a middle ground and call themselves ‘upper-middle class’., Back in 2011, a movement called Occupy Wall Street began in New York, targeting the rich and aiming to highlight the problems of economic inequality. These protests were against the so-called “1 percent”, who made a disproportionate share of income and owned a disproportionate share of America’s wealth., Based on income tax data, the income required to be a “one percenter” in India is about Rs 35 lakh per annum. It would be an interesting exercise to do a survey of people earning about that much asking where in the income distribution they fall., My money, based on the power law distribution of income in India, is on most of them describing themselves as ‘middle class’.. Publisher: Karthik Shashidhar. Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 12:00 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Deadly Dam Collapse Mining Industry Brazil [/INST] BQ Blue Exclusive news. Title: Brazil’s Deadly Dam Collapse Could Force the Mining Industry to Change. Short_description: For years the industry has depended on these dams to contain the sometimes toxic, often dangerous, waste from mining. . Description: (Bloomberg Businessweek) -- The , that killed at least 169 in Brazil last month, with 141 still missing, was by no means an isolated incident. There’ve been at least 50 dam failures globally in just the last decade, according to one tally, with 10 considered major., For years the industry has depended on these dams to contain the sometimes toxic, often dangerous, waste from mining. But the latest failure, which could end up as the deadliest in more than half a century, has the industry struggling to contain the consequences., On Feb. 19, BHP Group Chief Executive Officer Andrew Mackenzie, citing the need for a “nuclear level of safety,” said his company would welcome an international and independent body to oversee the integrity of all the dams. Mining CEOs will meet in Miami next week, he said, to consider the problem. It won’t be an easy task. While many of the spills have been in the news, they range across so many countries and their causes vary so widely that they aren’t often considered as a whole. What data exist are spotty at best, collected by a jumble of mining and engineering organizations, environmental watchdogs, and academics., David Chambers, a geophysicist who’s assembled one of the most complete lists of the failures, says at least 9 of 50 he’s tracked are “Severity Code 1,” a classification that includes disasters that killed people, freed more than 1 million cubic meters of , , the industry term for a slurry of ground rock and effluents from mining, over at least 20 kilometers (12.4 miles). Last month’s incident, involving Brazil’s Vale SA, raised the count to 10., “We don’t know how many dams there are, we don’t know how many have failed, and we don’t know why they’ve failed,” says Chambers, founder of the , , a nonprofit based in Bozeman, Mont. “The basic information that we’re lacking is the real issue.”, The , will continue to grow, Chambers and others say, as long as the mining industry continues to rank cost ahead of safety in designing, operating, and maintaining tailings dams. The Brazil dam failure, for instance, involved the “upstream” method of construction, typically the cheapest by far among the techniques available and widely seen as the least stable. Under that system, part of the wall containing the pond is constructed of tailings, and it’s designed to grow as more and more waste is pumped in., Meanwhile, climate change and aging mines have made the problem more pressing, with rainfall increasing in many parts of the world, and the need to grind through more and more rock in older properties to extract profitable ore, leaving more waste., Mining laws vary widely from country to country, and the industry is largely self-policed. Global best practices endorsed by voluntary industry associations aren’t legally binding. Thirty large-scale mining companies scored an average grade of just 22 percent when it came to tracking, reviewing, and taking action to reduce tailings risk, according to a report released this month by the , (RMF), a nonprofit funded by the Dutch and Swiss governments, as well as some small philanthropic organizations., The same report cites research predicting 14 serious failures this decade. It counts 11 as having already occurred, with two of the worst having taken place in Brazil. The biggest known spill by volume in a century occurred there in 2015. The RMF is calling for an international database of tailings dams and more independent audits, two seemingly modest requests that have proved difficult to achieve., In the past week, Brazil has said it will ban the kind of dam used by Vale. If other countries follow suit, the impact on global mining will be enormous. The question is whether, this time, the industry will preempt government regulation with meaningful change of its own., The International Council on Mining and Metals, a London-based industry group that will hold next week’s meeting on the failures, said in a statement dated Feb. 1 that it’s “considering a range of actions,” which it didn’t identify. Comments from individual companies largely have been sparse on details., Rio Tinto Group, the world’s second-largest miner by market value, on Wednesday said it has 100 active tailings facilities including 21 upstream dams.The company is "again reviewing its global standard and, in particular, assessing how we can further strengthen the existing external audit of facilities," said Rio Tinto CEO Jean-Sebastien Jacques, in a statement. , “We fully support the need for greater transparency which is why today we disclosed detailed information on our tailing facilities and how they are actively managed,” Jacques said. “We will add to this over time.”, Anglo American Plc, meanwhile, says it wants to reach a point where it can operate without liquid tailings, but it’s given no timetable for that to occur. The company is developing new ways to crush ore that generate less waste, CEO Mark Cutifani said at an industry conference in Cape Town in early February., “We’ve got to change. Whether it’s technology, better management, better design, whatever it takes, we need to lift our game as an industry,” Sandeep Biswas, CEO of Newcrest Mining Ltd., which experienced a tailings dam failure last year, said in a Feb. 14 interview., Despite the collective call for action, the status quo may well reassert itself. That’s more or less what happened in Canada after a dam at the Mount Polley copper and gold mine failed in 2014, dumping almost 24 million cubic meters of slurry into pristine glacial lakes and rivers nearby., An independent panel convened by provincial authorities to look into the incident noted the mining industry’s storage practices had “not fundamentally changed in the past hundred years.” Among the panel’s recommendations: Wherever possible, tailings should be stored dry, though it acknowledged retrofitting existing tailings impoundments isn’t always possible and can have risks. At Mount Polley, mining waste is still pumped into ponds., While the two dams that failed in Brazil over the past three years were constructed using the upstream method, there are other, more expensive techniques available. One prebuilds the pond’s walls and insulates them. Experts tend to prefer it as safer, but there’s no absolute guarantee of stability. The most expensive technique, costing as much as 10 times the cheapest method, dries out the tailings and stacks them, typically underground., Only three countries in the world ban upstream dams—Chile, Peru, and now Brazil. Chile, the world’s top copper producer, also regulates the minimum distance between dams and urban centers. But the nation still has 740 tailings deposits, only 101 of which are active, with the rest abandoned or inactive, according to data from government mining agency Sernageomin. “No one can say we’re completely safe,” says Raul Espinace, a professor at Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso in Chile., Many mining companies would argue that banning upstream tailings dams is a step too far. Norilsk Nickel and Polyus, Russia’s two biggest miners, have 11 such dams combined. Both companies say the dams are safe, citing Russian laws that forbid active tailings storage in areas where flooding could affect villages., In Brazil, Vale could face damages of as much as $7 billion from last month’s disaster, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, in addition to the $1.3 billion the company says it will have to spend to decommission 19 other upstream dams in the country. The question remaining: whether the consequences—both moral and financial—mark a turning point for the industry, forcing those companies that can afford to change their practices to do so while driving others out of business., “If mining waste cannot be disposed of responsibly, we need to evaluate whether that mine should continue to be an operation or should be built in the first place,” says Payal Sampat, mining program director at industry watchdog Earthworks. “That is the question that a lot of these mining companies are afraid of. What happens if you don’t make the cut?” , To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net, Cristina Lindblad, ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Danielle Bochove, . Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 3:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Securities Markets Code Desirable Design India [/INST] BQ Blue Exclusive news. Title: Securities Markets Code: A Desirable Design For India. Short_description: Design the Securities Market Code on four pillars: territoriality, longevity, transparency, and efficacy, writes Umakanth Varottil. Description: It was only a sentence in the Finance Minister’s Budget 2021 speech, but it may have the effect of radically altering the face of the securities law regime in India. The government’s proposal is “to consolidate the provisions of SEBI Act, 1992, Depositories Act, 1996, Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 and Government Securities Act, 2007 into a rationalised single Securities Markets Code.” The justification for such a measure is understandable. The current securities law is dispersed across different legislation that has led to some inconsistencies and possible regulatory arbitrage. Moreover, the legislation was drafted to suit the times when they were enacted and have been subject to piecemeal amendments periodically, thereby making them unwieldy., Since the emergence of a Single Securities Markets Code is a , , what remains on the table for discussion is the actual shape the Code will take. Here it might be useful to visualise the contours and content of the Code across four parameters: territoriality, longevity, transparency, and efficacy., The regulatory architecture for the financial markets generates considerable complexity, and multiple models have been experimented with around the world to define the territory of the securities regulator. At one end of the spectrum, there is a multi-regulator approach, a fragmentation of sorts, which is followed in countries such as the United States. At the other end of the spectrum is a consolidated regulator model, along with the lines of what the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission recommended in India. A middle path is the ‘twin peaks’ approach with two distinct regulators, one for prudential regulation and the other for market conduct, followed in countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom., This does not help overcome issues surrounding regulatory overlaps and turf wars of the type that Indian markets periodically witness. Examples include the intersection of regulatory oversight of listed companies between the Securities and Exchange Board of India and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs; and other highly-publicised regulatory tugs-of-war between SEBI and the insurance regulator involving unit-linked policies and between SEBI and the Reserve Bank of India regarding foreign portfolio investments into the securities markets. The government has taken measures to engender synchronisation of regulatory measures through the Financial Services Development Council, but that does not seem to have received the required impetus., In these circumstances, the Securities Markets Code would do well to address such territorial issues and instill a mechanism for regulatory coordination and information sharing into the legislation itself (similar to the position in the UK) rather than to leave it to informal mechanisms (as has historically been the case in Australia). Experts have already identified a thorn in the flesh with the proposed Code. While three of the four laws are capable of being integrated rather seamlessly, the Government Securities Act is a stark outlier as it is within the purview of the Reserve Bank of India. Questions of territoriality are bound to arise in the drafting of the Code itself, thereby increasing the likelihood that the route to consolidation and rationalisation will be arduous., The success of any code is usually judged by its endurance, something that must at the top of the framers’ minds. It is common in such circumstances to recall the Indian Penal Code of 1860 or the Indian Contract Act of 1872 that have withstood the test of time for about a century and a half. Viewing comparatively, it is quite natural to refer to the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 in the United States, wherein the antifraud regime under section 19(b) of the latter legislation and the rule thereunder have constituted the principal regulatory tool., This might mean adopting a principles-based approach, which requires enacting an all-encompassing and somewhat skeletal legislation. As experience has shown, the securities markets are dynamic, and the legislation must be capable of capturing innovations that are likely to occur constantly, whether they be newer forms of securities instruments such as initial coin offerings or other developments in fintech., Under such a model, the details are to be contained in regulations issued by the securities regulator from time to time on individual aspects of the securities markets. This would be more functional, as it remains closer to the pulse of the market and does not require Parliament to be activated each time there is a new development that escapes the legislation., In a model that involves the regulator issuing subsidiary legislation in the form of regulations, the success of the Securities Code depends upon the stewardship role the regulator performs. As an unelected body whose actions have a significant impact on the markets, it must be beyond reproach. This would necessitate a more streamlined process when the regulator issues regulations or other forms of instruments, which includes an elaborate consultation process that also displays transparency on how the feedback has been assimilated into the regulation-making process. Some advanced economies have also adopted mechanisms for regulatory impact assessments, which are worth considering., Although the current securities law framework in India does not provide the precise mechanics by which SEBI should engage in consultation with various stakeholders, it has nevertheless gone above and beyond its mandate to establish a process. At the same time, there is scope for improvement. Regulators such as the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India, the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority, and the Telecom Regulatory Authority have arguably instituted more elaborate mechanisms either through statute or regulations., Even the judiciary has been seized of the issue surrounding regulatory transparency. In , (2016), the Supreme Court called attention to the concept of “openness in governance” and stated that “it would be a healthy functioning of our democracy if all subordinate legislation were to be ‘transparent’”. The Court even exhorted “Parliament to take up this issue and frame a legislation along the lines of the U.S. Administrative Procedures Act” that provides for due consultation with all stakeholders., Transparency is a key factor in obtaining a ‘buy in’ from all stakeholders, which will naturally lead to a greater level of compliance and reduced constraints in enforcement., Any code would be only as good as it is implemented efficaciously. The burden would be on the regulator, based of course on the power conferred upon it by the Code. This will require the Code to offer effective enforcement tools to the regulator. In SEBI’s case, the enforcement tools have had to be built up gradually over time by way of amendments to the SEBI Act. At the same time, there have been concerns about the manner in which SEBI has been exercising its powers and functions. Its track record is replete with instances whereby its orders have been called into question by the Securities Appellate Tribunal and the Supreme Court. Similarly, criminal enforcement, which can be a useful deterrent against market misconduct, has been used successfully only in limited circumstances. Ultimately, the design of the enforcement mechanism under the proposed Code as well as actions by the regulators must smoothen the rough edges within the system., The proposed enactment of the Code is not only a matter of external impact on the market but also an opportunity for the securities regulator to assess internal organisational considerations. For example, experts have pointed to how the number of employees per listed company it oversees is much less than that found in advanced economies. This might require constant capacity building in terms of both the quality and quantity of SEBI’s resources. In order to make the enforcement regime effective, the facilitative nature of the legislative provisions must work hand in hand with institutional vigour displayed by the regulator., In all, the government’s move towards a Single Securities Markets Code is a laudable one but, as they say, the devil lies in the detail. The design for codification and the roadmap for accomplishing the same will hopefully be revealed in the near future.. Publisher: Umakanth Varottil. Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 8:06 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Shankar Sharma Flags indian market Concerns [/INST] BQ Blue Exclusive news. Title: Shankar Sharma Flags Two Concerns For Indian Markets. Short_description: Shankar Sharma doesn’t see Covid-19 second wave as a big risk for Indian markets.. Description: Indian markets will be able to overcome uncertainty as a severe second surge of the pandemic overwhelms Asia’s third-largest economy, according to veteran investor Shankar Sharma. But he sees two other concerns: higher commodity prices and rising benchmark yields., “You may not see a repeat of what happened in March 2020 [stock selloff]. 2020 was a surprise. A 30% fall was not on the cards but a 5-10% fall was, given the magnitude of the unfolding problem last year,” Sharma, co-founder of investment advisory First Global, said in BloombergQuint’s series Navigating Through Uncertainty. “My sense is the markets will say, ‘okay, we have a script of what happened last year, markets fell, recovered and the fall was almost as if it didn't happen’.”, The NSE Nifty 50 index has gained 5.4% year-to-date, compared with the benchmark index's 15% rally in 2020., According to Sharma, there are non-Covid factors that may affect the medium-term outlook for the market. While fiscal expansion, even though conservative, puts India on a growth path, it’s accompanied by some clouds on the horizon. The commodities bull market, he said, has come at a “very wrong time, because post the expansionary budget, India would have wanted lower commodity prices so that it can get away with lower yields to be paid on its debt”., The focus on growth despite the deficit, in the interim, leads to a strain on the balance sheet, Sharma said. And the government’s borrowing programme is already pushing yields higher, not good news because markets typically like low bond yields, he said., And it’s not about U.S. yields or their impact, according to Sharma. For the U.S., 10-year yields of 1.5% or 1.6% are not high even as these have risen since last year, according to Sharma. Nobody should believe that 60, 70 or 90-basis-point yields are supposed to be normal and even a 2% or 2.25% U.S. benchmark yields would not be anything out of the ordinary, he said., A 2% bond yield should support a price-to-equity multiple of 50 times for stock markets, and when adjusted for risk, stocks trading at 30-40 times their earnings are not expensive. But investors who have parked money in second- and third-tier tech stocks in the U.S. can get hurt by higher yields., Within India, Sharma is investing in global cyclicals but not in domestic cyclicals as First Global’s risk-adjusted stance doesn’t allow them to buy something that may see disruptions in the year ahead., First Global is bullish on information technology with a preference for midcap firms in the category. A $100-million deal doesn't move the needle for a Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. or an Infosys Ltd. but can completely alter the growth trajectory for a second- or a third-tier company, Sharma said. Unlike small caps in other industries, mid caps in IT are still very good companies in terms of pedigree and governance, he said., "The biggest challenge you have with small- and mid caps of other industries is you don't know what's going to happen. In IT, you have companies which are very well managed, with a great system, a great structure, good boards and good accounting,” he said. You will not have a risk that tomorrow they will just blow up in your face like many other mid-caps do.", How you see the current scenario, considering that we seem to be on a repeat template with a more severe undertone on the Covid front but there is a vaccine around?, If you look at it on a global basis, U.S., which really messed up on the healthcare front last year, there were a lot of horror stories coming out of the U.S. and how badly broken the healthcare system was, but it seems under the new administration they’ve got a handle, at least on the remedial part— which is the vaccine part. So, now U.S. is I think 40 or maybe 45% coverage of the vaccine which is really staggering considering the size and the spread of the country. So for a large population country it is right up there. They have gotten their act together on the vaccine front... I think just the U.S. just stands out completely in this whole vaccination game. U.K. has done very well too but of course it’s a smaller country but a large country like the U.S., they are streets ahead and nobody’s even close. Of course, China being the home of the virus you can see it is already covered because I think when the virus was discovered or made or whatever happened to the virus, there are many theories at least they have a remedy already in place, the Sinopharm vaccine has been around and is widely used. So, China also seems to be in a good shape. So, two large, populous countries have probably figured out the solution to the problem. The third populous country, there’s one in the middle which is Brazil, which was also in a bit of strife in the last several months and there also the cases seem to be declining. So that also seems to have put some kind of a lid on the problem. The fourth populous country, it’s obviously the most populous but talking to other sequences, India, where everything has just gone south and just keeps going south and what we are seeing unfolding here, beyond the lens of the stock market which I never regard highly from a maturity perspective, but this has become a totally dystopian nightmare. Every day it is reached, everybody’s home. My sister was diagnosed with it a few days back and I have heard the same story everywhere across India. That really should bother all of us beyond just looking at the market and saying the Sensex is very indecisive. I think India is in a bit of a pickle on this without any doubt., Do you think the markets will worry about it a lot or will the markets look forward the way they did the last time? The only disconnect is that right now the markets are no longer at the valuations that they were when we were at 7,500 on the Nifty., My sense is that the markets will look through this. Therefore, you may not see a repeat of what happened in March 2020. 2020 was a surprise, although it wasn’t a surprise if anybody was following the news through February, we were not surprised with the fall except 30% was not on the card but a 5-10% fall was definitely on the card given the magnitude of the unfolding problem last year. This year, for one, it is isolated to India. Second, markets are no longer in a surprise mode. The data has been out there in India for the last 15-20 days and is climbing every day. In some sense the surprise element is no longer there, and markets don’t like negative surprises. If it’s something which is already priced in, the markets will look through that. So, my sense is the markets will say, okay, we have a script of what happened last year, markets fell, markets recovered and the fall was almost as if it didn’t happen. I think markets will say why even fall or why even fall so much. So, you cannot rule out a 5-10%. In any case the markets have rallied a lot. There was anywhere room for a fall for no other reason just for the fact that you should have a correction in this kind of a vertical rally but that I don’t think will be a durable fall. I think markets will look through that and markets will rally back. I think markets probably may not even get there by the looks of it. So, broadly markets have a script from the last time, look through the problem. What lies at the other end of the problem is that generally companies which were doing well, will continue doing well. So, I think markets may not react as violently as it did the last time., You always said that and it’s obviously, maybe to an extent, fairly understandable that the markets will not crack because of unknown-known, which is completely discovered, but it’s slightly a unknown-known hitherto the known-knowns would be Covid cases or the yield and the interest rate issues. What’s your stand there considering that for now that seems to be buried in the background, but you never know where it comes back. Do you reckon it will come back and haunt equities by and large?, India in its union budget for this year, which happened in February, decided to take the path which it has not taken before, which is basically a part of big fiscal expansion. So, India has typically been a very conservatively managed economy. All Indian finance ministers have always been worried about the fiscal deficit and the budget deficits through history with the time I was born. The only comments you heard prior to the budget is that there is no room for any expansionary policies, the fiscal room is limited and all that. That is a stance that Indian budget speakers have had for decades, and that is one of the reasons why India has been able to withstand global macro-crises which come once in a while. So, the 1997-1998 crisis, India managed to sail through that reasonably well. I mean it wasn’t hurt anywhere close throughout the way, Thailand was hurt and the same happened again. The dot com was a sectoral crisis, it wasn’t really a macro-crisis. In 2008 India weathered the storm the best than any other major economy and it actually emerged from the crisis—the strongest of any economy and maybe emerged from it without doing any major stimulus or adding most importantly to debt. India’s fiscal conservatism has helped it through big crises in the past. This time, the policymakers decided that look we have been too conservative and it’s time to basically, at least lessen that conservatism by adopting a stance of growth. Deficits can expand for the interim period, debt to GDP can go up but if we are rewarded with increased growth, eventually all these things will work out for the better. In a way they have borrowed from the book of China or the U.S. in particular. Both these countries which have followed similar kinds of strategies in which they said, go for growth, never mind the deficits, never mind debt and at the other end of the tunnel, if there is any growth slump, you have basically reduced your fiscal deficit because of the increased revenue and debt to GDP because of higher nominal GDP growth. India has gone down that path of China and America. Now, the question is that whether it’s a wise move. That time will tell. In the interim, the Indian balance sheet will have areas of strain and one of the areas of strain will be obviously the borrowing programme which is why you might see that it’s a shoot on the upside which is typically not such a good news for markets because markets typically like low bond yields. I mean that’s like the synagogue of a bull market, low interest rates low bond yields equity look more attractive and equities rally. Inflation is the other end and of course what is not helping is the global rally in food prices. So, if you look at corn and you look at a lot of other agri-commodities they are enjoying a significant bull run right as we speak and of course industrial commodities such as copper, oil and aluminium etc., which are all inputs for a variety of industries are all enjoying a tremendous bull market. It comes at absolutely the wrong time for India when India would have wanted lower commodity prices so that it can get away with lower yields to be paid on its debt, but life is not ideal. We have gone down the path of expansion but guess what authorities don’t know about it and they are rallying like there’s no tomorrow. All these things potentially can cause problems just to remain conservative. I’m a conservative person I’m not a straight-shoot-person-ask-questions-later kind of a fund manager. We as a house is very conservative and conservatism tells us that there are clouds out there which we need to be mindful of., Even on the global side would you reckon that yields could spoil the applecart for maybe the U.S. equities, or not quite?, The important thing is that maybe 1.5 or 1.6 are not very high in absolute terms. They’re higher relative to where they got last year. I would tend to view that more as a normalisation of an excessively low yield regime which we saw last year. Nobody believes or should believe that 60-70 basis point yields or a 90-basis points yields are supposed to be normal. That’s not supposed to be normal so even a 2% yield or 2.25% yield on the U.S. 10 years, I would not reckon them to be anything out of the ordinary. That’s why we went a couple of years back. So, we just sort of went down and then we’re coming back up to what is still a very low overall and in absolute terms key level and relative to those yields—if you just look at it, normally in a price to earnings ratio, rest everything will be equal at a 2% bond yield should support a 50 times P/E multiple. Adjust for risk it can support maybe 30 times P/E multiple or a 40 times P/E multiple. In that context, U.S. markets are not expensive, at least the non-technology part of the U.S. is not expensive. So, where you can get hurt are with the high-flying tech stocks especially the second or the third tier. Mainland stocks are fairly cheap but old economy stocks will benefit, because they don’t have much valuation compression risk. They’re already at multi-year lows in terms of their valuation multi-year lows even in case of any stocks and sectors in terms of pricing. So overall I think the U.S. is still okay, but at least at the non-technology end of the market. I don’t think that’s a problem. The problem lies for countries with relatively weaker balance sheets and India unfortunately falls in that category when it runs deficits on all fronts. China can run a big deficit on the domestic front, a big debt to GDP on the domestic front because as long as it can find enough savings to fund that debt, which is largely domestic debt, it is okay. India because of its current account deficit has reliance on foreign flows to fund tax. So, India’s situation is a bit different from the U.S. and China, but we are trying to use the same playbook as U.S. and China. Time will tell whether that playbook plays out the way we think it should., What is your playbook for India currently?, Our playbook is very simple. So, this year, as we speak right now calendar year, we had a blowout in 2020., But didn’t you guys score very highly on one of the counts, I think, a PMS AIF report, apparently placed you at the top percentile of the performers, if I’m not wrong?, I haven’t seen that report but obviously the benchmark is — us and the competition. So, this current year, year-to-date, I think we are far and away from the number one PMS in the entire industry for the multi-cap. I mean of course small-cap PMS, if small-caps will do well then obviously, but it can go south as well. On multi-cap, we are far away from number one I think we’re up about 15-17%, while Nifty 4 or 5-6%, something like that. But that is coming out of still a very conservative stance, so the point is not returns. I always repeat this that people focus excessively on the wrong end of the market which is returns and returns alone. Investing is about managing risk. There will always be risk to any investment situation. There is no world which is without risk, right? We as analysers and fund managers, we have to decide what is acceptable risk and what is unacceptable risk. Right now, the risks that we see in Indian equities tell us that is no time to be aggressively chasing stocks which derive their businesses from the real economy or the domestic economy which means that banks and financials fall in that category. They are always by nature, highly leveraged. If you were to have a market cut of some kind, you will see the branch falling squarely on the leveraged end of the market which is banks and financials. So, we’ve cut back significantly in the last couple of months on our exposure. We anyway didn’t have much cut back on that we’re quite comfortable with that. Other than that, we are fairly conservatively positioned so that, if the markets were to correct while we might get hurt like anybody else, we will not lose as much money. So, we are being conservative. Now that conservatism might prove wrong and market sails through it but we’re just going to keep going up. Remember, this is a long-term game it’s not a 50 or a 20-over cricket game. You have to make a run on every ball you cannot play investing in that passion and you need a six on every ball. Some balls need to be just played defensively out, that’s what we’re doing right now.. Publisher: BQ Research. Date Created: 28 Apr 2021, 7:43 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Largest Cryptocurrency Exchange Crypto Revolution India WazirX Kickstarted [/INST] BQ Brand Studio news. Title: How WazirX Became India’s Largest Cryptocurrency Exchange And Kickstarted A Crypto Revolution In India. Short_description: How WazirX became India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and kickstarted a crypto revolution in India. Description: Nischal Shetty has been a blockchain advocate and influencer with a huge social media following for many years. Famous for founding Crowdfire, a social media management tool with 20 million users after an all-night coding session, Nischal's dream was to involve as many Indians as possible in the blockchain revolution to help the country benefit from the trust and productivity gains that blockchain can drive., But he got serious about cryptocurrency (aka crypto) when centralised social networks like Twitter and Instagram started cutting off API access in 2017. He realised that users could not depend on centralised companies, since they could change the rules of the game anytime they wanted., After experimenting with Indian crypto exchanges and being repeatedly disappointed by the user experience (UX) as well as the opaqueness that was a direct contrast to the trust that blockchain stood for, Nischal decided to build WazirX in 2018., The name WazirX comes from the word 'Wazir,' the Urdu term for the Queen piece in chess, considered one of the most powerful pieces in the game. It's also ironic that WazirX was born in the same country where the great game of chess was invented. Nischal started WazirX with a goal to provide users with the most powerful crypto trading interface accessible to everyone in India, and that has been a constant since inception. So much so that within 20 months of building the platform, WazirX was acquired by the world’s biggest crypto exchange, Binance., Currently, WazirX stands tall as India’s largest and most trusted cryptocurrency exchange and is trusted by global investors as well. 2020 was a blockbuster year for the exchange since the Supreme Court of India , on crypto trading, which boosted crypto adoption in India., In the most recent quarter (January to March 2021) trading volumes were $6.1 billion, up a massive 405% from the previous quarter. WazirX now has 2 million users and doubled their user base from 1 million in a mere 78 days. The platform also boasts of the highest liquidity in the INR Market in India., Along with other key features, their exchange’s utility token called WazirX Token (WRX) is also the first token to be backed by an Indian crypto exchange and is listed on more than seven global crypto exchanges; its total supply being 1 billion! These tokens enable users to get trading fee discounts within the WazirX system and can also be used to convert dust balance on WazirX to WRX, in order to trade crypto in the WRX market at zero fee., The exchange has several other USPs:, ● Instant INR (fiat) deposit and withdrawal options, ● Smart Token Fund to help crypto investors find expert traders, and let them manage their cryptocurrency portfolio, ● The world’s first auto-matching P2P engine with high liquidity, ● 150+ market pairs, Since many investors have doubts about crypto even as they want to invest given the growth potential, WazirX is engaging in multi-pronged investor awareness programmes to promote blockchain and educate Indians on cryptocurrency as an alternate investment option. Along with a ‘Crypto Awareness Programme’ on a leading TV channel every weekend, WazirX has also invested heavily in campus outreach programmes across top-tier institutes in India. The WazirX Warriors Programme educates the masses through expert representatives, whereas young professionals and students are trained through collaborations with ed-tech start-ups under the Education Partner Programme., Foreseeing strong growth, WazirX has planned big moves in 2021 and will focus on raising awareness among even more Indians and taking the crypto revolution to them. The exchange also plans to add more features to make users’ trading experience seamless. In the same vein, WazirX also recently launched one of India’s first marketplace for Non-Fungible Tokens, a god-sent for Indian artists. It will undoubtedly pave the way for seamless exchange of digital assets and intellectual properties, and gives India creators a great boost in terms of auctioning their digital assets while earning royalty thereafter., For an entity that was established just years ago, capturing the largest market share in India is no mean feat. The youth is flocking towards cryptocurrency as a viable investment option, and WazirX has opened the gateway to enabling Bitcoin to become accessible and mainstream, especially among millennials. The convenience that WazirX offers, along with the scope of freedom that crypto offers, amid global market uncertainty, makes it a viable investment class for the youth of India., Since its inception, WazirX has strived to be at the forefront of innovation and has worked towards empowering their customers with value-added offerings. WazirX has not only been instrumental in making cryptocurrency accessible to the masses, but has also been pivotal in shaping crypto regulations in India, which opens up a lot of doors when it comes to dealing with cryptocurrency in India. With WazirX focusing on making the trading process even more seamless, the future is bright not just for cryptocurrency but also for WazirX.. Publisher: BloombergQuint Brand Studio. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 9:28 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Oil Firms Q4 earning Segment [/INST] Business news. Title: This Segment Is Expected To Boost Oil Firms’ Q4 Earnings. Short_description: Earnings of oil refiners are expected to receive a boost from their petrochemical segments amid higher product prices.. Description: Higher demand and margins for the petrochemicals segment are likely to boost the fourth-quarter earnings of oil refiners and marketers like , , , . and , Prices of industrial polymers—including high- and low-density polyethylene, and purified terephthalic acid, among others—rose between 10% and 38% on a sequential basis, according to data from JPMorgan. On an annual basis, the increase ranged between 7% and 64%., Brokerages expect the operating profit of these companies to rise., Demand for products like polyethylene, polypropylene and polyvinyl chloride surged across sectors after markets opened up following lockdowns last year., Polyethylene witnessed demand from packaging, medical, consumer and durables sectors, while demand for polypropylene recovered on the back of a recovery in automobile, consumer durables and food packaging industries. Usage of polyvinyl chloride rose earlier this year as construction activities resumed., Demand for polyvinyl chloride packaging is expected to further grow as Indians shop online and their preference for canned food rises., Prices of naphtha—a key petroleum product used to make industrial solvents, laundry soaps and cleaning fluids—rose 38.4% sequentially in the fourth quarter at a time when crude oil turned expensive by nearly 35.2%, according to a Motilal Oswal report., Although some polymer-naphtha spreads have declined over the last quarter, they remain above their long-term average, the brokerage said. Polyethylene and polypropylene naphtha spreads were 18-31% higher than their long-term average whereas PVC naphtha spreads were 160% higher than their long-term average in the fourth quarter., The higher spreads reflect the strong pent-up demand visible once the global economy opened up in the second half of the last fiscal., Tightened supply of petrochemicals following delayed turnaround of refineries after shutdowns and postponement of commissioning of new units because of the second wave of Covid-19, too, contributed to the high spreads., “Refineries continue to operate at lower rates across the globe due to suppressed demand for petroleum products, primarily aviation turbine fuel,” the Motilal Oswal report said. “This also reduces the supply of petchem products from refineries, supporting the upward movement in petchem product prices and spreads.”, Petrochemical product demand is expected to outpace refinery product demand, according to Jefferies. While petrochemical demand is projected to grow at an annualised rate of 4% over the next decade, the corresponding figure for refinery products is 1%., Yet, petrochemical margins may face headwinds owing to large capacity additions and likely reduction in imports by China. According to an ICICI Securities report, Chinese demand may remain strong at best for another year and its petrochemical imports are expected to decline as it adds capacity. It expects China’s imports to fall by 53% year-on-year in 2021., India’s petrochemical production rose 16% year-on-year to 43.52 million metric tonnes in 2019-20, DV Sadananda Gowda, minister of chemicals and fertilisers, said in response to a Lok Sabha query in March 2021, adding the country remains a net importer of chemicals and petrochemicals., Imports have risen in the last few years, the minister said, amid higher production cost, smaller scale of operations and domestic production failing to meet demand., The government reduced customs duty on naphtha from 4% to 2.5% in this year’s union budget to boost local production.. Publisher: Sameer Bhardwaj. Date Created: 23 Apr 2021, 8:06 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Outline Separation Strategy Elliott pressure Glaxo [/INST] Business news. Title: Glaxo to Outline Separation Strategy Amid Elliott Pressure. Short_description: Glaxo to Outline Separation Strategy Amid Elliott Pressure. Description: GlaxoSmithKline Plc, the U.K. drugmaker, will provide an update in June on the timing and approach to separating its consumer-health business as pressure increases to accelerate the company’s revival., Chief Executive Officer Emma Walmsley pledged to give “a clear view of the strategy and growth outlook” with 10-year sales forecasts and details on which therapy areas Glaxo aims to mine after the consumer unit split., Glaxo’s plans are in the spotlight following Elliott Management Corp.’s decision to build , in the pharmaceutical and vaccines giant. Walmsley on Wednesday faced questions from reporters on whether some shareholders would push for her to lead the consumer business, which she previously ran, rather than the drugs and vaccines operation., “I’m not a scientist, I’m a business leader,” she said. “Ultimately the CEO should be held accountable for the results, and that’s why we are extremely focused with a very committed team to delivering shareholder value. We have made an enormous amount of change in this supertanker of a company.”, Since Walmsley took charge in 2017, she’s sought to refocus the company, boost its performance and rejuvenate the pipeline of new treatments. The following year, Glaxo announced plans to combine its consumer health unit with Pfizer Inc.’s and split off the business into a separate, U.K.-listed company. That effort isn’t scheduled for completion until next year., The company is also trying to rebuild its cancer pipeline. Glaxo didn’t have any oncology drugs on the market when Walmsley started and now has three, with others in clinical trials., Glaxo said profit and sales fell in the first quarter, hurt by continuing disruption from Covid-19, while the company reiterated its earnings forecast , . Vaccine sales declined 30% due to the impact of Covid on routine immunizations. Earnings per share, excluding some costs, were broadly in line with analyst estimates., While Glaxo is , from U.S. regulators for its Covid-19 antibody treatment with Vir Biotechnology Inc., a potential blockbuster, the company has had mixed success with its Covid effort., Glaxo has opted to use its adjuvant technology -- substances that enhance the immune response to vaccines -- in partnerships with other drugmakers rather than creating its own shot. A collaboration with Sanofi , last year after a dosing error, with results from a new mid-stage trial now expected in May and the last phase set to start in June., Glaxo also has a vaccine in advanced trials with Canada’s Medicago Inc. and a partnership with Germany’s CureVac NV to develop a next-generation shot capable of tackling multiple variants of the coronavirus. The company said Wednesday it had started an early-stage Covid-19 study using its self-amplifying mRNA technology in recent weeks., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Suzi Ring. Date Created: 28 Apr 2021, 7:14 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Weber Apologizes Archegos Loss Urges Transparency UBS [/INST] Business news. Title: UBS’s Weber Apologizes for Archegos Loss, Urges Transparency. Short_description: UBS’s Weber Apologizes for Archegos Loss, Urges Transparency. Description: UBS Group AG’s Chairman Axel Weber apologized for the loss the Swiss bank posted on its exposure to the collapse of Archegos Capital Management while also blaming a lack of regulation and transparency regarding family offices operating in financial markets., Switzerland’s largest bank surprised investors last month when it announced an $861 million hit from exposure to Bill Hwang’s family office, weeks after peers had come clean about their losses. Weber called Archegos a very “unusual situation” and said he was “deeply sorry that it happened” during an interview with Bloomberg TV on Wednesday., Weber said the “usual suspects” of concentration risk and high leverage were present in the Archegos situation and though banks have a lot of information when it comes to some parts of the markets, others such as family offices were deeply lacking in transparency and regulation., Read More: , If transparency is not enforced by regulators UBS will enforce it for its own clients. “If we finance activity, we want these disclosures and if clients are unwilling to give that, well there may be other banks that give them that same exposure, but it won’t be us,” Weber said. Still, the bank is not in the business of avoiding risk, but rather seeks to manage it, according to Weber., “We think what went wrong was various failures interacted as opposed to a specific point where you can point the finger,” Weber said, adding that there was no single person who was solely to blame for the incident and the bank was focusing on improving processes that were lacking., The loss has triggered an internal investigation at UBS but the bank is so far not subject to any regulator enforcements or actions. Swiss rival Credit Suisse Group AG is under scrutiny by Swiss regulator Finma, which opened enforcement proceedings at the bank after it announced a $5.5 billion hit related to Archegos., UBS kept quiet on the losses from Archegos for several weeks until the presentation of first-quarter earnings, whereas Credit Suisse had warned investors early. Morgan Stanley was criticized for only revealing its $911 million loss during a scheduled earnings release. UBS said following the earnings release that it didn’t see the need to disclose Archegos early., The bulk of UBS employees are still working from home globally, with about 20% in critical functions who’ve remained at the office throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Weber. But when the virus subsides, UBS plans to offer case-by-case flexibility to its employees, Weber said., Read More: , “We see very little need to be in a race to get back to office,” he said. The new normal will see a greater degree of people in the office but there will be no hard-and-fast rule. Weber said he expects critical roles, and procedures related to trading and controls, to likely remain in the office, adding that high-risk areas need to be monitored in person on the floor or in a similar manner., The biggest changes will be seen in back-office functions which are more easily done from a remote location. While Weber said he expects front-office roles such as advising clients to return to the office, he also said that interactions with wealth management clients were becoming more digital in a permanent way., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Marion Halftermeyer &. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 3:02 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Barclays Shareholders Reject Second Climate Change Resolution [/INST] Business news. Title: Barclays Shareholders Reject Second Climate Change Resolution. Short_description: Barclays Shareholders Reject Second Climate Change Resolution. Description: For the second year in a row, Barclays Plc shareholders rejected a proposal that would require the bank to wind down its lending to the fossil-fuel sector., Only 14% of shareholders gave their support to the idea at the bank’s annual general meeting on Wednesday, Barclays said in a statement. A group of individual investors coordinated by Australian nonprofit Market Forces filed the, in February that called on Barclays to bring its financing for coal, oil and gas companies in line with the goals of the Paris climate agreement., Adam McGibbon, U.K. campaign lead at Market Forces, said the low support for this year’s resolution meant institutional investors had “some serious questions to answer about their commitment to climate change action.”, As Europe’s biggest fossil-fuel banker, Barclays has come under fire from environmentalists and some investors for its role in bankrolling some of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases. Last year, 24% of shareholders , on climate goals by nonprofit ShareAction, prompting the bank to announce its own plan to cut its net greenhouse-gas emissions to zero over the next three decades., “Having seen Barclays’ climate policies fail to rein in its investments in fossil fuels in the last year, to have investor support for climate change action drop this year compared to 2020 smacks of either indifference or incompetence from many major investors,” McGibbon said., Since the Paris climate agreement was signed in December 2015, Barclays has helped arrange $95.7 billion of bonds and loans for energy companies, excluding solar, wind and other renewable producers, more than any bank in Europe, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s more than any other bank in Europe, though U.S. lenders JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc. have been the biggest funders of corporate emitters, the data show., “We agree with the nature of the climate challenge, and we agree -- and I , we’ve made this very clear over the last year or so to shareholders -- that we see a continuous need to raise the bar, and improve policies as time goes on,” Barclays Chairman Nigel Higgins said at the virtual meeting, where all other resolutions passed with over 90% support. “We totally agree that this has to be about action, and not just words.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Alastair Marsh. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 8:40 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Billionaire Arsenal Owner Breakaway Fiasco [/INST] Business news. Title: Billionaire Arsenal Owner Won’t Sell After Breakaway Fiasco. Short_description: Kroenke Says No Plan to Sell Arsenal After Super League Fiasco. Description: American billionaire Stan Kroenke and his son Josh said they have no intention of selling Arsenal Football Club after fans reacted with anger to their plans to join an elite European league., “We remain 100% committed to Arsenal and are not selling any stake in the club,” Kroenke Sports & Entertainment said in a statement Tuesday. “We have not received any offer and we will not entertain any offer.”, The statement comes after a tempestuous few days for Arsenal and the other five English clubs who signed up for the aborted Super League-project eight days ago. The uproar that erupted after the announcement had led to talk that some of the owners might consider selling their teams., Spotify founder Daniel Ek said last week on social media that he’d be happy to “throw my hat in the ring” if Kroenke Sports was interested in selling. , suggested former star players Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira would be part of an Ek bid., Kroenke, who’s worth $9.7 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, owns all of the London-based team after taking it private several years ago in a deal valuing the club at $2.3 billion., Arsenal fans have long complained about his ownership as the team slipped in the Premier League. Those protests have intensified since news of the Super League and last Friday several hundred fans gathered outside the team’s north London stadium with chants of “Kroenke out.”, The project, which also included Real Madrid and Barcelona would have granted permanent membership in the new system, removing uncertainty over the European Champions League — for which teams must qualify annually or risk losing broadcasting and sponsorship revenue. Arsenal are currently outside the places to qualify for that elite competition., “Our ambition for Arsenal remains to compete to win the biggest trophies in the game and our focus remains on improving our competitiveness on the pitch to achieve this.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Amanda L Gordon &. Date Created: 27 Apr 2021, 11:16 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Jet Buzz Swirls Dassault Preps Market Model luxury [/INST] Business news. Title: Luxury-Jet Buzz Swirls as Dassault Preps Top-of-the-Market Model. Short_description: Dassault Targets Gulfstream, Bombardier With Bugatti of the Air. Description: Dassault Aviation SA is poised to announce its largest-ever Falcon corporate jet next week, stepping up a push to compete toe-to-toe with the swankiest offerings from Bombardier Inc. and Gulfstream., While Dassault has kept a tight lid on details, the industry is already abuzz with speculation that the plane will match or surpass rival jets in size, speed and range. Chief Executive Officer Eric Trappier, playing catch-up after an engine problem with another aircraft delayed new products, has touted the “future Falcon” on conference calls without providing specifics., The Paris-based jetmaker, which is partially owned by Airbus SE and also makes military aircraft such as the Rafale and the Eurofighter Typhoon, plans to formally unveil its latest plane in a mostly virtual event May 6., “It’s going to be the biggest Falcon jet ever,” said , , an aircraft consultant in Plano, Texas, who predicts deliveries of the aircraft will begin in 2025. “It’s going to compete at the very top of the pyramid.”, Dassault’s plan heralds a bigger battle at the high end of the corporate-jet market, which had been growing quickly before the coronavirus pandemic as well-heeled customers flew further and more often for international business trips. Manufacturers responded with models that are larger, faster, more comfortable -- and pricier. Bombardier’s Global 7500, which can be configured with a bedroom and shower, lists at $75 million before customary discounts., The pandemic, which curtailed international travel, has cut the world’s appetite for new aircraft and caused private-jet shipments to fall 22% to 564 last year. It will take the industry until 2025 to recover, according to Honeywell International Inc., which supplies engines, cockpit controls and other parts., Recently, demand has been strong for smaller, pre-owned planes. But large jets will again dominate the market. Honeywell’s survey of more than 1,000 private-jet operators showed that over the next decade, purchases of large aircraft will account for 42% of deliveries and 69% of market value., Dassault isn’t waiting for a full rebound. It’s betting well-heeled clients who purchase the jet equivalent of a superluxury Bugatti sports car aren’t likely to be fazed by short-term downturns in the global business cycle. Opulence aside, manufacturers say corporate aircraft are tools that save time for CEOs and other executives., New aircraft introductions are the lifeblood of sales for business-jet makers since design improvements entice high-dollar customers. Bombardier’s Global 7500, which debuted in December 2018, now holds the crown as the largest purpose-built business aircraft, surpassed only by corporate-jet versions of airliners made by Airbus and Boeing Co., Not to be outdone, Gulfstream, a division of General Dynamics Corp., is building the G700. Deliveries of that plane are scheduled to start in 2022 and will replace the G650, which competes now with the Bombardier aircraft, as Gulfstream’s flagship jet. Business planes are made specially for corporate travel, with more speed, lower operating costs and cabin pressure that’s closer to what a passenger , on the ground., Dassault fell behind Bombardier and Gulfstream after scrapping the Falcon 5X aircraft, which was initially supposed to begin deliveries in 2017. When Safran SA stumbled in the development of a new engine design, Dassault switched to Pratt & Whitney, a division of Raytheon Technologies Corp. Pratt already supplies engines for Dassault’s two largest Falcon jets., The 5X, which boasts the tallest cabin of any corporate jet at 6 feet, six inches, was repackaged as the 6X and deliveries are expected to begin at the end of next year. But the delays on that program rippled through to plans for the biggest Falcon, and the announcement of the new plane was further delayed last year by the pandemic., Dassault’s new aircraft will likely have an interior that’s similar in size to the 6X, and there’s speculation that Dassault will use that same cabin platform. The jet will probably be able to use biofuels while offering other features to mitigate emissions, said Vincent, the Texas consultant., The new Falcon probably isn’t just a stretch version of the 6X, given the company’s 2021 research and development budget of $600 million. That’s twice the level in 2016 and 2017, before the company started investing heavily in the 6X., This year, most of the spending will probably be on the new aircraft because the 6X is well along in its development, said Yan Derocles, an analyst with Oddo., “The R&D is quite significant,” Derocles said. “So, I’m more basing this on a brand new aircraft, not using or stretching the 6X fuselage.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Thomas Black. Date Created: 29 Apr 2021, 4:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Rooster Teeth Online Media Unit AT&T Explores Sale [/INST] Business news. Title: AT&T Explores Sale of Rooster Teeth Online Media Unit. Short_description: AT&T Explores Sale of Rooster Teeth Online Media Unit. Description: AT&T Inc. is seeking buyers for Rooster Teeth Productions LLC, a piece of its WarnerMedia division, as part of an ongoing winnowing of noncore assets by the phone giant, according to people familiar with the matter., The pandemic has complicated efforts to sell the business, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Rooster Teeth canceled its annual RTX convention last year in Austin, Texas. And in June, co-founder Burnie Burns, who served as chief executive officer, left the company. It wasn’t clear how much money AT&T is seeking for the business., The phone company has been paring assets to focus on a key areas, including its new 5G wireless business, which requires billions of dollars of investment. AT&T also is expanding its fiber-optic footprint and boosting movie and TV production to attract subscribers to HBO Max, the new streaming service run by WarnerMedia., As AT&T discovered with its DirecTV satellite-television division, declining businesses aren’t an easy sell. After seeking a buyer for that division for months, the company decided to spin it off into a joint venture with the private equity firm TPG., Even before the pandemic, Rooster Teeth was struggling. Revenue slumped to about $50 million in 2019 from about $70 million a year earlier, one of the people said. It was founded 18 years ago as a web-based video producer. The business expanded into gaming, podcasts, T-shirts and fan conferences. Today, it is best known for the animation series “RWBY.”, Other small divisions have also been unloaded. AT&T , the anime-creator Crunchyroll to Sony for $1.2 billion last year, and has also parted with its Puerto Rico phone operations, a stake in Hulu, a Central Europe media group and nearly all of its offices at New York’s Hudson Yards., Rooster Teeth was part of Otter Media, an early foray into media by Dallas-based AT&T that preceded its $85 billion takeover of Time Warner Inc. in 2018., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Scott Moritz, . Date Created: 24 Apr 2021, 12:40 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Citi Australia Retail Assets ANZ ceo Purchase [/INST] Business news. Title: ANZ CEO Not Ruling Out Purchase of Citi Australia Retail Assets. Short_description: ANZ CEO Not Ruling Out Purchase of Citi Australia Retail Assets. Description: Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. is in a strong position to make acquisitions, according to Chief Executive Officer Shayne Elliott., Elliott didn’t rule out the bank’s interest in Citigroup Inc.’s retail operations in Australia, saying ANZ has capital to grow. ANZ and National Australia Bank Ltd. are among contenders in discussions over the U.S. bank’s assets, Bloomberg News , on Tuesday., “ANZ is in a really strong position and we are looking for growth opportunities,” Elliott said in an interview on Bloomberg TV Wednesday. “If opportunities come along, we have the capacity managerially, which is really important, because it’s not just about the money, and we certainly have the financials to take those things seriously. We will take opportunity when it comes.”, Buying Citigroup’s credit card business would catapult ANZ to No.1 in that market, while National Australia Bank would become the second biggest credit card provider if it did the deal. Elliott said he is expecting regulatory scrutiny for any deal, but , that Citigroup is a small player in the market., Citigroup had A$3.6 billion ($2.8 billion) of credit card assets, putting it at No.5 in the market in Australia. It also had A$11.6 billion of loans and finance leases as of March, according to , from the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority, which oversees deposit-taking institutions in the country. The Australian retail operations are one of 13 markets the bank is looking to , ., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Nabila Ahmed &. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 5:42 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Currency Traders Cigarette Vendors Disguise Caracas [/INST] Business news. Title: Cigarette Vendors Are Currency Traders in Disguise in Caracas. Short_description: Cigarette Vendors Are Currency Traders in Disguise in Caracas. Description: , Ibiza! Costero! Malibu!, The cigarette vendors jog up and down the sidewalks and weave in and out of traffic, yelling out their wares. They sell a lot of brands you've never heard of on El Comercio, which has for years been cheap-tobacco heaven. But these days, not every patron is here for the smokes. The serious side-business on El Comercio is changing money—U.S. dollars for bolivars, the country’s ridiculously hyper-inflated currency., The cigarettes act as bluffs on the off-chance that police should happen to pass by and take umbrage at an activity that is, on the books at least, illegal. They’re also excellent laundering tools. “Cigarettes are the perfect machine to get bolivars,” said Carlos Gomez, a skinny 27-year-old in wrap-around sunglasses who was arranging his goods for display on a rickety wooden table. (His best customers: other street vendors or shopkeepers who buy cartons in bulk to resell in distant neighborhoods.), The crazy thing is that bolivars are hot commodities in a country that has for all intents and purposes adopted the legal tender of the U.S. But this dollarization of the economy was carried out in quintessential Nicolas Maduro-style—that is, haphazardly and chaotically—and as a result the bolivar was never truly killed off. It still circulates and curiously is still required to pay for certain things., The poor are hit the hardest by this glitch. For while people of means simply pay for stuff with dollars via foreign credit cards or debit cards or Zelle or cold-hard cash, the poor need bolivars to take buses and buy subsidized gasoline and shop for staples like flour and beans from merchants who are so desperate for bolivars themselves that they give big discounts for payment in that currency., And so a robust foreign-exchange market has grown up in Catia, a sprawling slum of low-slung buildings and shacks and dirt. It draws people like Rafael Vargas, 52, a security guard who is often paid in dollars and takes the bus across town to his job in a fancy apartment building in Campo Alegre., He could do his business at a bank, of course, but that would mean waiting in line for hours. And at many banks, there are daily withdrawal limits. Vargas needs at least 800,000 bolivars a day to cover the bus fare to and from his job., So he goes to El Comercio, in the middle of Catia, where he’s never happy with the exchange rate. “They end up stealing part of your money, but you can’t do anything to avoid it, because you have to go to work,” he said after changing a crumpled dollar bill. “If we don’t work, we don’t eat.”, Right now, you’ll get about about 2 million bolivars for one buck in Catia. The official government rate, for what that’s worth, is 2.8 million. (For context, 1 million is the largest new bolivar the regime just started printing in its seemingly never-ending quest to create bills in giant-enough denominations; for further context, a bottle of beer in a reasonably priced bar costs around 3 million bolivars.), The cigarette crews see all kinds, from people like Vargas to gold miners who drive 14 hours from Las Claritas in southern Venezuela and arrive with suitcases full., “There are miners who bring $10,000 or $15,000,” Gomez said. “With those dollars, we buy cartons of cigarettes.”, The vendors get them for dirt-cheap from wholesalers who import them (actually, smuggle might be the right word) from Colombia or Caribbean islands and sell them at very steep markups for bolivars, which they turn around and sell to the dollar-toting crowds. Tellingly, consumption of the not-famous cigarette brands the exchangers hawk has shot up about 300% since 2019, according to a report from Bigott, a local unit of British American Tobacco Plc., As for the miners, they're paid in dollars for the gold they illegally excavate and they need bolivars to live. Las Claritas is such a remote outpost that the economy is basically run exclusively on cash. Internet and cell signals are so weak that card transactions usually won't go through. Shops will give 50% discounts for payment in bolivars., Thus the trek to Catia, or to a few other Caracas neighborhoods, downtown or in Petare, the country's largest slum. There the subterfuge sometimes involves lollipops and coffee. “I buy, I buy, I buy,” the hardly-hidden currency exchangers shout at every corner., There are other methods for acquiring bolivars, of course. On some buses, drivers will make under-the-wheel exchanges, and people take whatever rate is offered. “It is the easiest way to get bolivars fast,” said Yajaira Meza, a 51-year-old housekeeper. “We don’t have a choice.”, As precious as bolivars are, the most valuable bill in the country is a George Washington. The single is in short supply and so desired that if you can scrounge up eight of them, someone in Catia will give you the equivalent of $10 in bolivars., Still confused by it all? Don't feel bad. Venezuelans are too., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Alex Vasquez. Date Created: 04 May 2021, 5:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Electric Vehicles sale Honda [/INST] Business news. Title: Honda Declares All Sales Will Be Electric Vehicles by 2040. Short_description: The Japanese company also said it will invest about $46 billion in research and development over the next six years.. Description: Honda Motor Co. set what it called a challenging target for all of its sales to be electric vehicles by 2040 as it tries to keep up with the global EV race and revive profits under the new leadership of Toshihiro Mibe., The Japanese company also said it will invest about 5 trillion yen ($46 billion) in research and development over the next six years, “regardless of fluctuations in our sales revenue.”, Automakers around the globe are rushing into the EV sector as the industry shifts to electrification and self-driving cars. Among them, Jaguar Land Rover has vowed to go fully , by 2025, and Volvo by , . Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga pledged to , greenhouse gas emissions by 46% by 2030 from 2013 ahead of the global climate summit hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden., Sign , our Hyperdrive newsletter on the future of cars , ., “It will be an uphill struggle,” Mibe said at a news briefing Friday, noting that Honda’s EV sales are less than 1% of its total in Japan. “It’ll be about how early we can build a structure that lets us make profits.”, Honda’s new goals include EVs accounting for 40% of sales in North America and China by 2030 and 80% by 2035. It has a 20% goal for Japan by 2030 and 80% by 2035. Japan’s target is different because it is a huge consumer of hybrids, Mibe said. The carmaker wants to achieve an operating profit margin of 7% even as it shifts to EVs, he said., Toyota Motor Corp. has been able to assuage investors’ concerns on EVs with the , of its “bZ4X,” but Honda may not be able to do so just by declaring targets, said Tatsuo Yoshida, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “I wish they had more concrete plans,” he said., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Shiho Takezawa. Date Created: 23 Apr 2021, 3:37 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to GOP Senator Blackburn Infrastructure Deal Tax Hike [/INST] Business news. Title: GOP Senator Blackburn Seeks Infrastructure Deal Without Tax Hike. Short_description: GOP Senator Blackburn Seeks Infrastructure Deal Without Tax Hike. Description: GOP Senator Marsha Blackburn said Tuesday she’s hopeful there could be a deal with Democrats on pared-down, traditional infrastructure like roads, bridges, ports, water systems, the power grid and broadband, that doesn’t rely on tax increases to pay for it., The basis for such an agreement, Blackburn said, is contained in the roughly $600 billion proposal from Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito that she’s offered to President Joe Biden. Whatever comes out of negotiations should be solely focused on traditional infrastructure projects, she said., “If you were to go out across the country, or come with me into Tennessee, and you talk to people about what they want to see in an infrastructure bill, that is what they’re wanting to see,” Blackburn, of Tennessee, said on Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power” program., Biden has proposed a $4 trillion plan that would go beyond roads, bridges and ports to include social spending initiatives. He would pay for it by raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy, which Blackburn and other Republicans have rejected., Blackburn said some Democrats have been amenable to breaking off a more narrowly focused infrastructure plan from Biden’s much larger ambitions, but said it’s not clear yet if the Democratic leadership is on board., “You would have to ask Chuck Schumer, you would have to ask the president,” she said, referring to the Senate majority leader. “My , is we’re going to be able to do that.”, The White House plans to talk with Capito about the GOP proposal next week, but press secretary Jen Psaki said the administration wants the larger package to be paid for., “If people have alternative proposals that don’t raise taxes on people making less than $400,000 a year that will help pay for this we’re quite open to them,” Psaki said Tuesday at a briefing., Blackburn also spoke about her desire to overhaul the regulatory framework for tech companies and especially social media, including privacy rules requiring users to opt-in before companies can make money off of their personal information, and additional protections for children online., “This would require them to reshape their business model,” said Blackburn, who , a tech working group in the previous Congress., She also wants to overhaul Section 230 of a 1996 law which protects internet companies from liability for user content, look at tightening antitrust provisions and enact notification rules for tech platform security breaches. She also said she’s concerned by content moderators censoring content on Facebook and other platforms., “Those First Amendment rights are vitally important — freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom to peaceably assemble — and those are things that should be held to the individual, not to the social media giant that wants to censor you or block you,” she said., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Steven T. Dennis &. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 12:23 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to FDA Plant Inspections product approval Pandemic [/INST] Business news. Title: Pandemic Delayed Some FDA Plant Inspections, Product Approvals. Short_description: Pandemic Delayed Some FDA Plant Inspections, Product Approvals. Description: Pandemic disruptions severely hampered U.S. regulators’ ability to inspect drug and device makers’ manufacturing plants, delaying at least 68 applications for approval to market new products, according to a Food and Drug Administration review., Seven of the delayed applications were mission-critical, meaning they represented a medical advancement, the agency said Wednesday in its report, and six of those were for new drugs. The delayed applications were among 600 where the FDA required a factory inspection before approval decisions., Inspection woes at the agency have left health investors nervous about clearances of new drugs and devices that impact companies’ bottom lines. Hobbled by travel and social-distancing restrictions during the height of the pandemic, the agency is slowly regaining the ability to conduct mostly domestic inspections and may make increasing use of virtual factory visits to fill the void, Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said., “Our report shows all the warts, here’s what happened during the pandemic, but we did a lot,” she said in an interview. “I think our people really rose to the occasion.”, Inspections for the seven delayed mission-critical applications are expected to be completed by the end of September, according to the report. FDA dind’t give the names of the delayed products. , The regulator also will have to find ways to make up about 1,000 routine surveillance inspections of drug and biologic plants it hasn’t been able to perform during the fiscal year that started in October. These inspections insure quality of products that have already been cleared., The mission-critical inspections that did occur put severe pressure on agency staff. Before Covid shots were available, inspectors traveled unvaccinated with quarantine periods on both ends of their trips. Woodcock said she didn’t know of any inspectors who came down with Covid after an inspection trip., The FDA did 59 mission-critical inspections for drugs and biologics between March 2020 and March 2021, according to the report. These included inspections for products that represent medical advancements as well as treatments for Covid-19 and follow-up based on product recalls., Some companies whose Covid shots have been authorized for emergency use are now planning to file for full approval, and among the regulator’s top priorities will be inspections of vaccine plants that haven’t recently been visited., Virtual inspections that were used increasingly during the pandemic represent a potential way to hasten the inspection process for less-critical products, Woodcock said., The agency completed 159 prioritized domestic inspections of drug and biologic facilities between March 2020 and March 2021, according to the report., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Anna Edney. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 10:44 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Battery Materials Unit EV Component Shortage SK [/INST] Business news. Title: SK’s Battery Materials Unit Sees a Shortage for EV Component. Short_description: Korean Battery Company Sees Supply Crunch for Key EV Component. Description: The battery materials unit of SK Innovation Co. said the global market for premium wet-type separators, a key component for electric vehicles, will run into a supply shortage in 2023 due to “explosive” growth., SK IE Technology Co. said in a statement Thursday that its sales of separators for EVs jumped 490% last year from 2018. The company -- part of South Korea’s third-largest conglomerate SK Group -- expects separators will account for about 80% of total sales in the next three years or more, from about 55% currently., “We’ve been keeping a close track of demand and supply and it looks like supply will fall short of meeting the rising demand from 2023,” Chief Executive Officer , told reporters at a briefing in Seoul., Separators improve the output and stability of lithium-ion batteries. Wet separators are thinner and stronger than dry separators, and allow for higher capacity. While lithium-ion batteries are found in everything from laptops to , s, it’s their primary role in electric vehicles that’s creating surging demand., SK Innovation has grown into a major industry supplier. Among peers that produce wet-type separators for EVs such as Japan’s Asahi Kasei Corp. and Toray Industries Inc., SK took the biggest market share last year with 26.5%, according to the statement, citing SNE Research Inc. It expects to more than double its annual separation capacity to 2.73 billion square meters in 2024 -- equivalent to supplying 1 million EVs per year., SK was a relative latecomer to the electric-car battery industry, embracing the technology only as part of a diversification push. SK Innovation began developing lithium-ion batteries for hybrid electric vehicles in 2005, and spun off SK IE Technology in April 2019. SK IE Technology plans to go public next month., While the near-term growth will remain in its separator business, the company said it plans to develop materials for solid-state batteries -- a new way of making batteries that experts think could take over from the current generation of lithium-ion cells -- and also expand its production of polyimide film that goes on flexible displays., “It’ll have to be after 2030 when the solid-state battery business gets commercialized, which means lithium-ion batteries will co-exist for some time,” Roh said. “Our parent SK Innovation is also looking into , firms with the relevant technologies to explore the areas we can take part in.”, SK is not looking beyond China, Europe and the U.S. in expanding its production capacity for now, Roh said. He said the company won’t consider building a facility in America until after 2024, as demand there is currently small compared with China and Europe and the investment and operating costs are more expensive., The company said last month it’s investing 1.1 trillion won ($987 million) to build new factories in Poland to meet growing demand amid an EV boom in Europe., SK IE Technology seeks to raise as much as 2.3 trillion won in its , . If the stock is priced at the top of the range, it would give the company a market value of around 7.5 trillion won. The company will start trading on Kospi from May 11 after setting the IPO price on April 26. The sale of new shares will go into SK’s capital expenditure until 2023, as it will need between 700 billion and 800 billion won annually, Roh said., SK posted an operating profit of 125 billion won last year, up more than 55% from April-December in 2019 when the company was spun off, while sales rose 78% to 469.3 billion won during the same period. SK’s three-year compound annual growth rate is forecast at 38%, according to Horace Chan, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst., Rho said SK Innovation’s $1.8 billion , earlier this month with LG Energy Solution, a unit of LG Chem Ltd., over trade secrets removed uncertainties and created an environment where the two companies can actively engage in talks about new product models and plans to gradually increase supply. LG is one of SK’s customers in South Korea., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Heesu Lee. Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 9:24 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Mental Care Elusive pretty Damn Awful Covid Long hauler [/INST] Business news. Title: ‘Pretty Damn Awful': Covid Long-Haulers Find Mental Care Elusive. Short_description: Covid-19’s physical effects are challenging enough, but the virus also has taken a toll on the mental health of survivors.. Description: William Davis knows how hard it is for his wife to hear he wanted to stick a shotgun in his mouth. Right now, he has no one else to tell. , “There’s days where you’ve got to tell somebody what’s going on in your head just to get it out of your head,” said the 50-year-old from Columbia, Tenn., Davis was already prone to suicidal thoughts as someone with bipolar disorder. Then he got the coronavirus in April 2020. Lingering effects have left him with anxiety and a depression he calls “pretty damn awful.”, He used to rely on physical strength to do custom renovations on homes and restaurants. Simple tasks exhaust him now. He can no longer work full-time as a craftsman. , “This isn’t just my livelihood,” he said. “It’s who I am.” , Dealing with Covid-19’s physical after-effects are challenging enough, but the virus is also taking a toll on the mental health of survivors with lingering symptoms, who call themselves long haulers. A research study reported in , journal found a third of Covid-19 survivors were diagnosed with a neurological or psychiatric condition in the six months after being infected; 17.4% had an anxiety disorder. , Survivors with physical conditions like heart or lung problems are often able to find in-network specialists with minimum hassle, particularly if their primary care doctor is part of a large health network. Uninsured people can seek treatment for immediate health issues at community clinics or emergency rooms. , With mental health, however, it’s often a struggle to get help at all. , Even if survivors like Davis are able to push past the stigma that’s long caused people to shy away from mental health treatment, finding a provider that’s covered by insurance and still accepting new patients can seem insurmountable. , Health experts say it illustrates how the U.S. health-care system is ill-equipped to meet the growing demand for mental health treatment., “You might have an insurance card, but actually finding a provider in-network is extraordinarily hard even for people with quote-unquote good insurance,” said Jennifer Snow, director of public policy at the National Alliance on Mental Illness., , , The Affordable Care Act requires individual- and small-group health insurance plans to cover mental health and substance use treatment, though employers with over 50 employees aren’t required to offer that benefit. , If they do, federal law requires mental health coverage to be comparable to coverage of physical health care. Still, the act says nothing about reimbursement rates, and some providers won’t take insurance because the rates are too low, Snow said., , , Most large plans have some mental health coverage, ”but even with the increased coverage we still find actually getting care is a problem for many people,” Snow said. “Many times people are forced to get care out-of-network, which can make care unaffordable.”, A behavioral health office visit is more than five times more likely to be out-of-network than a primary care appointment, according to a 2019 , commissioned by the Mental Health Treatment and Research Institute LLC, a not-for-profit subsidiary of the Bowman Family Foundation. , Olga Alferez has been trying to find a therapist that’s not only covered by her My Health LA plan, but one that will work around her schedule. The mother of three from South Central Los Angeles became a widow a month into the pandemic, when her husband died alone of a heart attack in the hospital waiting for tests. Alferez is now the sole earner for her family. She says she’s exhausted, a byproduct of Covid-19 that’s been compounded by grief. , “I find myself on the phone a lot of times for hours and then I get told they don’t accept my insurance,” she said, speaking in Spanish through a translator at a community clinic where she now goes., My Health LA is for county adults 26 and older who are uninsured and don’t qualify for comprehensive public health insurance, the LA County Department of Health Services said in a statement. , Some of the more than 200 community clinics where participants receive primary care offer mental health treatment on site, “or refer participants to the LA County Department of Mental Health, where services depend on the individual and the need,” the department said., Meiram Bendat, an attorney who sues insurers for denying mental health claims, said insurance networks often don’t cover enough mental health providers. It’s largely because health insurers market cheaper plans with narrower networks that purport to be ACA compliant, he said. , The founder and president of Psych Appeal has already filed lawsuits challenging denials of coverage for mental health treatment during the Covid-19 pandemic., He has yet to see any suits brought by long haulers, but those may be coming. When they do, they could follow the same pattern of the pre-pandemic litigation—either the patient gets mired in an administrative appeals process and gives up or goes to court where the insurer often settles before trial., “Generally speaking, before you get to court, you have to exhaust appeals internally with the insurance company, and that process is private unless regulators audit the insurer,” Bendat said., But just doing the work to find a provider on an insurance network list can be overwhelming for people who are depressed and struggling with physical symptoms of Covid-19, said Elena Fernandez, chief program officer at St. John’s Well Child & Family Center, in the South Los Angeles and Compton areas. , If someone just gives up and forgoes treatment without alerting their insurance company that they can’t find an in-network provider, there wouldn’t be a denial to appeal and no case to bring, Bendat said. , And for many attorneys, these cases aren’t worth the time for the amount of money at stake. The federal law that governs private employer health plans doesn’t allow for punitive damages, so people who are denied coverage can only recover what they paid out of pocket and maybe their attorneys fees, Bendat said., Even if a therapist is in-network, insurers have to deem the treatment medically necessary before they’ll cover it. Those determinations have been a source of litigation. , A recent ruling, however, could make it harder for insurers to deny claims., A federal judge in California , United Behavioral Health in November to reprocess 67,000 claims for outpatient and residential mental health, and substance use disorder treatment it denied using pervasively flawed medical necessity criteria from 2011 to 2017., United Behavioral Health has , the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. , “This long-running case is focused on guidelines we stopped using years ago and the plaintiffs in that case never offered any evidence showing that the challenged guidelines ever caused any plan member to be wrongfully denied benefits,” Maria Gordon Shydlo, a spokeswoman for UnitedHealthcare, said in a statement. “Beyond that, the case does not reflect the work we are doing today to meet the needs of the people we serve.”, United Behavioral Health, which operates as Optum Behavioral Health within United Health Group, said the Covid-19 crisis has highlighted the need for behavioral health., “Over the past four to five years we’ve grown our network by about 50%, so now we have more than 240,000 mental health providers,” a UHC spokesperson said. , Alferez, a St. John’s patient, decided she needed to talk to someone after she was diagnosed with Covid-19 on Feb. 1, so she booked an appointment with a therapist that’s out of her My Health LA plan network. It costs $100 per visit out-of-pocket for Alferez, who has a job packaging fish. , “It’s been very, very difficult,” she said. “There are times where I don’t want to get up because I’m depressed. I’m sad. I don’t have the energy. My body just doesn’t give me the strength.”, St. John’s, in South Los Angeles and the Compton area, is a free and low-cost community health care clinic that’s been offering long-term Covid-19 care. , Though the clinic provides mental health treatment to patients who don’t have insurance, it also gets five to seven clients a week who are insured but can’t find a provider in their network, Fernandez said. Many of them are long haulers. , Some, she said, are insured but can’t find a provider with appointments readily available. , “With mental health, you can’t wait three months for an appointment,” she said. “Mental health is usually about the now. I am distressed now. I need help now.”, During the pandemic, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Department of Health and Human Services relaxed rules for telehealth and agreed to reimburse online appointments at the same rate as in-person care. Most insurers followed suit. But mental health advocates wonder if the changes will last once the public health emergency subsides., “There’s lots of concern that after Covid, they are going to pay for telehealth at a lower rate, which will have an impact,” said Stephen Gillaspy, senior director of health care and healthcare finance at the American Psychological Association., UnitedHealthcare has been providing free access to online therapy through UnitedHealth Group’s Sanvello Health Inc., but that benefit may change, the company spokesperson said. , Even with telehealth, advocates say federal legislation is needed to expand access to mental health treatment and make it more affordable., Sens. Tina Smith (D-Minn.)and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) reintroduced the Tele-Mental Health Improvement Act (, ) in March. The bill requires insurers to cover mental health and substance use disorder treatment through telehealth at the same rate and cost sharing as treatment that’s provided in-person throughout the public health emergency and for 90 days after. It has yet to move out of committee., After the district court ruled against United Behavioral Health, California passed a law that requires commercial insurers to provide coverage for all mental health conditions and substance use disorder treatment that’s medically necessary. If patients can’t find a provider in-network that’s either in their area or able to offer a timely appointment, the plan has to pay for out-of-network care at no additional cost to the patient. , The law also requires insurers to cover treatment throughout the full continuum of care and follow a uniform statewide definition of medical necessity, among other things., But even if providers are available, finding the right therapist to meet a patient’s needs can still be challenging. Gillaspy said. Insurers clump providers together in lists without sorting their specializations, making it hard for Covid-19 survivors to find the right option to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression., Davis got insurance through his wife’s work in February and has started calling the providers listed in his Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas network. He’s had a hard time finding a psychotherapist that’s accepting new patients. , “So many people are just packed, “ he said., Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas said it doesn’t comment on individual situations but advised members to reach out to the company directly if they’re having trouble accessing care., “The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic challenged all aspects of the healthcare system, including available behavioral health specialists,” Dr. Leslie Weisberg, market chief medical officer, said in a statement. “BCBSTX continues to provide expanded telehealth coverage for members needing to see behavioral health specialists.” , Davis got on a waiting list last week for a therapist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He’s considering seeing a therapist online in the interim. He’s also working to get a referral from his primary care doctor to be seen by Vanderbilt’s Adult Post-Acute Covid Clinic, which is focused on caring for long haulers. The clinic coordinates care across different specialties, including behavioral health, according to its website., “I really hope this clinic is what I’m looking for and that they take my insurance,” Davis said., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Lydia Davenport. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 2:28 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to metal rush Marine Biologists Miners battery [/INST] Business news. Title: Battery-Metal Rush Pits Miners Against Marine Biologists. Short_description: Battery-Metal Rush Pits Miners Against Marine Biologists. Description: Controversial plans to mine the ocean floor face a key test this year when a United Nations body unveils rules that could spur the exploitation of hundreds of billions of dollars of battery metals., The International Seabed Authority is preparing to pass regulations in July that could trigger a rush to extract metals needed to power the electric-vehicle revolution. Environmentalists say that would endanger fragile marine ecosystems and fear the ISA is too closely aligned with the emergent mining industry. The conflict exposes the complex trade-offs nations face to survive on a warming planet., “It is a grand challenge of our time to reconcile humanity’s opposing interests in acquiring ocean resources -- food, minerals and energy -- with protecting these habitats,” said Will Homoky, a biochemist at the U.K.’s University of Leeds, who’s helped collect the environmental data being analyzed by miners and regulators., A half-century after the Central Intelligence Agency first piqued interest in undersea mining while covertly salvaging a Soviet nuclear submarine with the help of, , the industry is back in the spotlight. The need to supply emissions-free vehicles has put the focus more than three kilometers (1.9 miles) down in the Pacific Ocean, where cobalt and nickel reserves dwarf those found in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia, the biggest terrestrial producers of the two metals., A European research ship left San Diego in April to test mining equipment in the Clarion Clipperton Zone: an expanse of ocean between Hawaii and Mexico that’s as big as the continental U.S. Its seabed is littered with billions of tons of manganese nodules -- fist-sized rocks formed over thousands of years, which are filled with nickel and cobalt needed for lithium-ion batteries., Another vessel owned by A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S also departed this month to collect scientific data for DeepGreen Metals Inc., a Vancouver-based company that acquired the right to investigate parts of a patch of ocean floor the size of South Africa from the Pacific island nations of Nauru, Kiribati and Tonga. The exploration claims cover 225,000 square kilometers, the company said in an email., “It’s a pivotal time,” said DeepGreen Chief Executive Officer Gerard Barron. The area of ocean DeepGreen has explored contains battery-mineral reserves to power 280 million plug-in cars, he said., Valued through a blank-check company merger at $2.9 billion last month, DeepGreen is backed by Glencore Plc and Allseas Group SA. It’s just one of a new generation of ocean miners that include Lockheed Martin Corp., China Minmetals Corp. and Belgium’s Deme Group, which used a , on April 20 to retrieve minerals for the first time., Previous attempts to mine the ocean depths, including the CIA’s , and , , stalled in the 1970s. More recently, Nautilus Minerals Inc. left most investors out of pocket and incensed environmentalists by threatening to destroy coral reefs in the waters off Papua New Guinea., Some scientists remain skeptical about the environmental trade-off being presented by miners and highlight the risks to marine ecosystems., “It is a false dichotomy being proposed by the industry that if we want renewable energy and electric car batteries then we have to mine the deep sea,” said Lisa Levin, a scientist at the Scripp’s Institution of Oceanography in San Diego., There is uncertainty over how sediment plumes kicked up by mining the seabed will spread, potentially changing ocean chemistry and harming fish. Research has also shown that disturbances to the ocean floor have a lasting impact almost three decades later., While sea-floor deposits of cobalt and nickel potentially could clear bottlenecks faced by battery makers, concerns about the environmental risks prompted BMW AG, Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Samsung SDI Co. to say last month that they’re not yet willing to buy metals mined from the ocean until research shows that such activity is benign., The World Wildlife Fund is calling for a moratorium, while Greenpeace is threatening to disrupt deep-sea mining. Ocean ecosystems are already under mounting strain from acidification, plastic pollution and coral extinction., Much of the research into the ocean abyss over the past decade has been funded by miners, who are , with regulators to produce rules that make projects viable and protect the marine ecosystem. Their close relationship means the ISA’s primary objective has effectively become opening up deep-sea mining, according to Levin., Miners will be subject to annual reporting requirements and independent monitoring to verify that they’re adhering to environmental regulations, according to an ISA statement in response to questions. The body was established in 1994 under the UN’s Convention on the Law of the Sea to ensure the minerals located in international waters are only tapped , ., Increasing tensions between environmentalists and the mining industry mean the regulations announced in July by the Kingston, Jamaica-based ISA will be scrutinized by both sides., DeepGreen’s Barron, a veteran of the failed Nautilus venture, promises investors , margins of more than 60% from operations that could start producing metal from 2024. He says talks with Detroit carmakers about potential long-term contracts have started., Others remain more cautious, and not only about the environmental impact., “As a concept it looks interesting,” said Grant Sporre, a mining analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “But I would like to see some trial results -- both in mining and processing -- before I get too excited.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Jonathan Tirone. Date Created: 25 Apr 2021, 9:30 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to New York MTA Demands Workers Subways Cops [/INST] Business news. Title: New York MTA Demands More Cops on Subways as Workers Attacked. Short_description: New York MTA Demands More Cops on Subways as Workers Attacked. Description: The heads of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its largest labor union are asking Mayor Bill de Blasio to send more cops to the city’s subway system after an off-duty transit worker was slashed in the face., Assaults and harassment on the system have increased during the pandemic, putting riders and transit workers at risk. MTA officials have been seeking additional policing to address the problem and boost customer confidence in the system., “This is happening every day,” said Sarah Feinberg, interim president of MTA’s New York City Transit, which manages its subways and buses. She spoke Thursday during a press briefing outside the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens, where the employee is in critical care after the morning incident on the J train in Queens. “Everyday this is happening. And it’s outrageous.”, Crime on the subway system is undermining the MTA’s push to get riders back onto its network of subways, buses and commuter rail lines as more people consider returning to offices after more than a year of working from home. The largest mass-transit provider in the U.S. plans to restart 24-hour subway service on May 17, two days before the city is set to fully reopen. More than half of New York adults have gotten at least one Covid-19 vaccine shot, and de Blasio , 80,000 city workers back to their offices this week., New York City needs a safe and reliable transit system to get people around the city and help it come out of the pandemic, Pat Foye, the MTA’s chief executive officer, said during the briefing. He was joined by TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano., “As the city returns from Covid-19, people need to be safe and they need to , safe while riding subways, buses and commuter rails, period,” Foye said. “Or they won’t come back to transit, which means not coming back to New York City.”, The MTA needs an additional 500 police officers, Foye said earlier Thursday on Bloomberg Radio., The MTA’s focus on crime is discouraging people from riding mass transit, Mitch Schwartz, a spokesperson for de Blasio, said in an email., “The transit force is thousands strong -- hundreds of additional officers have surged to the areas that need it most,” Schwartz said. “It’s truly outrageous to lie to discourage people from using the subways, and it’s time for the MTA and the governor to stop publicly rooting against New York City’s economic recovery.”, The pandemic decimated ridership on the subway, which is now carrying only about one-third of its pre-pandemic passengers. The MTA needs to bring back riders to help restore its finances. While the agency will get $14.5 billion of federal aid to cover lost revenue, it faces budget deficits as soon as 2024., A recent survey conducted by the MTA found 72% of active customers are very concerned with crime and harassment on the system, surpassing worries about health safety. For people who have stopped taking public transit, 36% have done so because of safety concerns., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Michelle Kaske. Date Created: 07 May 2021, 2:48 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to deadly Car Bomb Detonates Logar Province Afghanistan [/INST] Business news. Title: Deadly Car Bomb Detonates in Afghanistan’s Logar Province. Short_description: Powerful Car Bomb Kills Dozens in Afghanistan’s Logar Province. Description: An explosive-laden vehicle detonated in the eastern region of Afghanistan, killing almost two dozen, as U.S. troops have just begun to withdraw from the country after two decades., The blast took place around 7 p.m., when Afghans break Ramadan fasts in Pul-e-Alam city of Logar province just nearby the country’s capital, Kabul, according to Ministry of Interior Affairs spokesman Tariq Arian. The bomb claimed the lives of 21 and wounded 91, with the casualties all civilians, Arian said. Law enforcement forces were on the scene to help the injured, he said., The U.S. plans to pull out its remaining 2,500 troops from the country by Sept. 11. President Joe Biden’s decision to unconditionally leave the country will remove the military support to the Afghan government and is said to strengthen Taliban positions in the battlefields., No group has claimed responsibility for Friday’s blast yet, including the Taliban, which control or contest more than of half of the country. The Afghan government blamed the Taliban for the bomb., Peace talks between the administration of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban are stalled and the Taliban refused to attend a U.S.-facilitated peace conference in Istanbul, which had been scheduled on April 24, aimed at ending the war., Attacks in the country , by 37% in the first quarter of the year as 643 civilians were killed and 1,395 others wounded, according to Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, citing U.S. officials., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Eltaf Najafizada. Date Created: 30 Apr 2021, 11:26 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to bank Earn Big Green Bonds Fossil Fuel [/INST] Business news. Title: Banks Earn Big on Green Bonds But Really Clean Up With Fossil Fuel. Short_description: Banks Earn Big on Green Bonds But Really Clean Up With Fossil Fuel. Description: , While investment bankers are on pace to earn record fees this year from selling green bonds, they still make far more money arranging debt issues and loans for , ., The numbers speak for themselves: $887 million of revenue from , , compared with $1.4 billion from fossil-fuel clients., The imbalance remains despite CEOs of JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and other major banks repeatedly talking up the importance of protecting the environment. JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon mentioned the word “climate” at least 10 times in , ., JPMorgan is the top financier to energy companies since the clinching of the Paris climate agreement in 2015, and ranks as the No. 2 underwriter of green bonds behind France’s Credit Agricole SA., “We are dedicated to addressing climate and sustainability around the world,” Dimon wrote. He added however that he considers the issue complex, because “we need to acknowledge that the solution isn’t as simple as , .”, “We will need resources such as oil and natural gas until commercial, affordable and low-carbon alternatives can be developed to meet all of our global energy needs,” Dimon wrote. “This is where business and government leaders need to focus their time and attention.", In the past four-plus years, New York-based JPMorgan earned about $903 million of revenue from working with non-renewable energy companies, compared with $228 million from advising on , for companies and governments, according to data compiled by Bloomberg., By comparison, Credit Agricole collected $227 million from fossil-fuel companies and $212 million from green bond customers in the same period, Bloomberg data show., Achieving , will require “a massive amount of capital directed at decarbonizing the economy,” which is something only the financial-services sector can facilitate, said Emily Kreps, global director of capital markets at , , an environmentally-focused nonprofit, in a report published last week., Financial institutions that don’t currently measure their financed emissions must start doing so now to understand their overall climate impact and the risks they face, Kreps said., There is some hope however that Wall Street might actually start putting its , : 2021 is shaping up to be a whopper for green bond underwriters., The fees earned in the first four months of 2021 were more than triple what banks pocketed during the same period of 2020, with companies and governments issuing more than $150 billion of green bonds, Bloomberg data show. The current record for full-year fees from green-bond issuance was the $1.3 billion earned in 2020., JPMorgan is this year’s leading arranger of green bond sales, followed by BNP Paribas SA, Credit Agricole, Citigroup and HSBC Holdings Plc, according to Bloomberg data., Still, banks are garnering about 40% more in fees , , and it’s a trend that—while narrowing—shows no sign of ending anytime soon., “This is a significant opportunity for banks to play a leading role in driving the net-zero transition,” Stephanie Pfeifer, CEO of , , said in a recent report. “With five years already elapsed since the Paris Agreement, talking the talk must be replaced with walking the walk.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Tim Quinson. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 3:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Sanjeev Gupta Approaches Buyers Potential Sale Engineering Assets [/INST] Business news. Title: Sanjeev Gupta Approaches Buyers for Potential Sale of Engineering Assets. Short_description: Sanjeev Gupta Approaches Buyers for Potential Sale of Engineering Assets. Description: Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance approached buyers for the potential sale of some engineering assets, people familiar with the matter said, signaling he may not be able to keep his embattled business empire intact., Since the industrialist’s main financier Greensill Capital collapsed in March, Gupta has been in a race to find new sources of cash, though has insisted he’ll find new lenders to replace about $5 billion he’d borrowed from the supply chain finance firm., But in recent days, GFG’s advisers contacted potential buyers for parts of its engineering business that’s largely based in the U.K., according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The talks are at an early stage and there’s no guarantee of a deal, one of the people said., GFG declined to comment., It’s not clear exactly which assets he may be willing to sell. His Liberty Engineering Group Pte has assets in several countries including the U.K., France and United Arab Emirates, according to the Singapore entity’s financial report for the year ended March 2019, the latest available. The units include assets Gupta took over from administration, such as businesses that used to be part of Caparo Industries Plc in the U.K. and vehicle converter Durisotti in France., Gupta’s empire employs some 35,000 people worldwide, with steel and aluminum plants in the U.S., U.K., France, Romania and Australia. As he fights to stave off insolvency, he’s benefiting from , and aluminum prices., “I’m confident that we will achieve refinancing,” Gupta said in a , for employees earlier this month. “Because our business is so spread out across the world, and each business is different and separately funded, it takes time to get things done. But one by one we’ll get to all of them.”, Still, he acknowledged that the future was bleak for some of his businesses, with the U.K. one of the “challenged spots within our alliance.” Some of GFG’s units in France were put in , proceedings earlier this month, Bloomberg has reported., Last month, GFG asked the U.K. government for a 170 million-pound ($237 million) bailout, a request that was rebuffed. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng , a parliamentary committee this month that it would be irresponsible to give taxpayers’ money to the group, describing it as “very, very opaque” and having “liabilities that nobody seems to have got to the bottom of.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Irene Garcia Perez &. Date Created: 29 Apr 2021, 5:15 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to home Sales Surpass Pre Covid Levels [/INST] Business news. Title: Home Sales Surpass Pre-Covid Levels. Short_description: A quick check on homes sales, prices and inventory levels across top cities.. Description: Home sales in India’s top cities have surpassed pre-pandemic levels in the quarter ended March, aided by record-low interest rates, lower statutory levies in key markets and discounts offered by developers., Reports by Anarock Property Consultants, Liases Foras and Knight Frank Research showed an increase in housing sales and new launches in the top cities. All three found that inventory fell., That signals a return to normalcy in a sector grappling with a prolonged slowdown even before the pandemic. While reopening of the economy after a strict lockdown last year kick-started a recovery, the raging second wave of Covid-19 infections threatens to disrupt it., To be sure, while the three property consultants point to similar overall trends, their findings vary because of different methodologies., Combined housing sales in the top seven cities rose to 58,290 units in the first quarter of 2021, according to its March 25 report. That’s a 29% increase during the same period a year ago., The property consultant reported a higher 44% rise in combined sales in the seven cities at 71,963 units., Total sales rose 9% across eight cities to 69,697 units, according to its report., “Demand boosters like stamp duty cuts, further reductions in home loan rates by most banks (to 6.70%) and ongoing developer discounts and offers helped the residential sector stage a convincing comeback in Q1 2021,” Anuj Puri, chairman of Anarock Property Consultants, said., The Knight Frank’s April 5 report said, “Considering this is the second consecutive quarter to cross the 2019 quarterly sales average, we believe the market is recovering well, if not having done so already.”, All three consultants reported housing sales growth across top cities except three., Prices in the top cities, according to the three reports, ranged between a small contraction to a marginal increase., Average property prices in all top seven cities barring Kolkata, according to Anarock, rose between 1% and 2% in the first three months of 2021 over the same period a year ago. Prices in NCR—India’s largest property market—and Bengaluru rose 2% during the year., Average price across tier I cities rose 2%., Average prices on an year-on year-basis have decreased for most cities except NCR and Hyderabad. On a sequential basis (quarter-on-quarter), housing prices have remained stable in most cities and recorded an increase in the case of the southern cities of Chennai and Hyderabad., According to Knight Frank, increasing sales volumes have arrested the intensity of the year-on-year fall in residential prices of most markets., “The incidence of developers giving indirect discounts or freebies has been a key factor in spurring sales in 2020 but this has been observed to have reduced significantly in Q1 2021,” it said. “In fact, on a sequential basis, housing prices have remained stable in most cities and recorded an increase in the case of Chennai and Hyderabad.”, New launches in the top seven cities jumped more than 33% to 62,130 units in January-March., Rising sales encouraged developers to launch fresh projects. New units launched during the quarter rose 38% year-on-year to 76,006 units., Anarock and Knight Frank reported a growth in launches across most cities barring two., Maharashtra’s decision to cut statutory levies on real estate boosted launches and sales in Mumbai and Pune, said Knight Frank. “These two markets benefited from significant regulatory impetus in the form of discounts in stamp duty charges that led to significant improvement in sales velocity.”, Liases Foras didn’t share new launches data., While unsold units remained largely unchanged on a sequential basis across the top eight cities at 9.15 lakh units, according to Liases Foras, they declined over the previous year in most cities, led by Ahmedabad., Months taken to sell inventory fell 26% sequentially and declined 15% over a year earlier, it said. “It’s the lowest in Hyderabad at 25 months and highest in Chennai at 63 months.”, Overall unsold stock in the first three months of 2021 over a year ago was negligible as new supply between Q4 of 2020 and Q1 2021 outpaced overall absorption numbers., Mumbai Metropolitan Region witnessed the highest yearly reduction in unsold inventory of 8%, while Bengaluru and Kolkata witnessed yearly reductions of 7% each, Anarock said. In contrast, unsold stock increased by 81% in Hyderabad in the same period, due to considerable new supply hitting this city in the last two quarters., Homebuyers are more inclined to acquire ready or near-ready inventory to minimise completion risk. This is reflected in the average age of inventory staying at 16.7 quarters in January-March 2021 compared with 15.9 quarters a year earlier, it said., The recent spike in Covid-19 cases in the country must be factored in for the future, said Shishir Baijal, chairman and managing director of Knight Frank India. “We’re yet to understand the complete impact of the ‘second wave’ on the economic activities and resulting wealth creation.”, The state with the largest demand—Maharashtra—has introduced strict curbs for April and first half of May, which apart from the fact that stamp duty has been reverted to its previous levels, will also lead to severe restrictions of public life, he said. “The sector will have to tread carefully to maintain the recently acquired momentum.”. Publisher: Ashwini Priolker. Date Created: 30 Apr 2021, 12:41 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Key Rate Time Low Downside risk Malaysia [/INST] Business news. Title: Malaysia Holds Key Rate at All-Time Low, Sees Downside Risks. Short_description: Malaysia Holds Key Rate at All-Time Low, Warns of Downside Risks. Description: , Malaysia kept its benchmark interest rate at a record low Thursday as a fresh surge in coronavirus infections threatens to further delay an economic recovery., Bank Negara Malaysia held the overnight policy rate at 1.75% for a fifth straight meeting, a decision expected by all 21 economists in a Bloomberg survey., “Latest indicators point to continued improvements in economic activity in the first quarter and into April,” the central bank said in a statement Thursday. “While the recent re-imposition of containment measures in select locations will affect economic activity in the short term, the impact will be less severe as almost all economic sectors are allowed to operate.”, Still, the statement , that “the balance of risks to the growth outlook remains tilted to the downside,” due to uncertainty over the course of the pandemic and potential challenges for the country’s vaccine rollout., The decision comes as Malaysia suspended a domestic travel bubble and tightened movement curbs in Kuala Lumpur and in Selangor, its richest state, to contain a surge in infections that has left some , on ICU beds. Daily cases last week topped 3,000 for the first time since February., The ringgit was largely unchanged on the day at 4.1215 per dollar as of 4:38 p.m. Stocks erased earlier losses to trade little changed on the day., Bank Negara Malaysia “spoke about how the current monetary policy stance remains appropriate, and how the virus curbs are less severe than before,” said Wellian Wiranto, an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp in Singapore. “From those alone, it does not look like a central bank that is laying the groundwork for any cut in the near term.”, Further containment measures could undo recent strides the economy has made. The April manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index hit a record high, while March exports registered the strongest year-on-year growth in almost four years. Manufacturing sales rose at their fastest pace in nearly four years in March, while an index of industrial production showed its strongest gains in March since July 2013., “Downside risks from the pandemic keep the door open for more rate cuts. Our base case, though, remains that BNM will leave its policy rate unchanged this year. This assumes global demand continues to recover, supporting commodity prices and market sentiment. The distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, albeit slow, should help to steadily lower new virus cases, allowing Malaysia’s social distancing measures to be pared back.”, -- Tamara Mast Henderson, Asean economist, Consumer prices surged to an almost three-year high in March, driven partly by a low base effect from last year, when tight movement restrictions pushed the country into deflation. The central bank expects headline inflation to average , this year., “The fact that Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) left its policy rate on hold at 1.75% today despite the worsening economic outlook means any further loosening is unlikely,” Alex Holmes, Asia economist at Capital Economics Ltd., wrote after the decision. “With the recovery set to be slow and fitful, we think BNM will leave interest rates at their current low until at least the end of 2022.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Anisah Shukry. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 12:31 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Amtrak train Infrastructure push Biden [/INST] Business news. Title: Biden Promises Faster Amtrak Trains in Infrastructure Push. Short_description: Biden Promises Faster Amtrak Trains in Infrastructure Push. Description: President Joe Biden urged Congress to revitalize Amtrak as part of his plan to rebuild infrastructure, calling train service essential to the economy and environmental protection as he recognized the 50th anniversary of the U.S. passenger rail system., “For years I fought efforts to cut funding for Amtrak because cutting funding for Amtrak would be a disaster for our environment and our economy,” Biden said Friday at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station. “We have to invest.”, Increasing spending on trains, he said, could lead to faster and more efficient transportation between scores of U.S. cities, including Washington and New York. He said that adjustments to “three curves” on the route between the two cities could reduce travel time to an hour and 32 minutes, and also indicated support for the proposed Gateway rail tunnel under the Hudson River., “Imagine a two-hour train ride between Atlanta and Charlotte going at speeds of 220 miles an hour,” he said, and “faster and more regular trips between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, a route that I imagine could be pretty popular on Fridays.”, The president’s sweeping $2.25 trillion infrastructure package would provide the passenger rail system $80 billion to upgrade and expand service., Biden is a well-known Amtrak passenger who picked up the nickname “Amtrak Joe” due to 36 years of daily commutes on the rail system between his home in Delaware and Washington, when he served in the U.S. Senate., “Amtrak wasn’t just a way of getting home,” Biden said, recounting several stories from his travels, including large parties he hosted for the train service’s employees. “It provided me, and I’m not joking, an entire other family.”, He continued to take the train occasionally as vice president. But security requirements of the presidency forced him to fly to Philadelphia, rather than ride the rails., Biden’s trip to Philadelphia is part of a nationwide tour by the president and other administration officials to boost popular support for spending plans that Biden laid out in a Wednesday address to a joint session of Congress., Biden held a rally Thursday in an Atlanta suburb and plans to travel Monday to Yorktown, Virginia. In addition to the infrastructure and jobs proposal, Biden detailed a $1.8 trillion measure on education, child care and family leave., Biden’s infrastructure plan would dedicate $621 billion to improve roads, bridges, railways and public transit. The Amtrak funding -- long sought by the beleaguered rail system -- would go toward clearing its multibillion-dollar repair backlog, speeding up service in its busy Northeast Corridor and expanding routes across the country., After the plan was announced, Amtrak said it would create 30 new routes and add trains on as many as 20 existing routes over the next 15 years. Cities that have no Amtrak service -- including Las Vegas; Nashville, Tennessee; Phoenix; and Columbus, Ohio -- would get it if Congress approves Biden’s plan., Lawmakers representing the New York metropolitan area are pressing to add funding for a long-stalled rail tunnel to the infrastructure bill. The project, known as Gateway, would build a new tunnel under the Hudson River linking New York and New Jersey and relieve a bottleneck on the nation’s busiest rail corridor. Officials in the region faced opposition to the project during Donald Trump’s presidency., Biden called the tunnel a “critical job” and said its construction should have begun during the Obama administration., “When I was vice president with Barack, he allowed me to put together a budget for Amtrak and it had money for high speed rail at 200 miles an hour from Charlotte, another line going in Florida down to Tampa,” Biden said. “If we had moved, Gov, we’d have that tunnel fixed in New York now.”, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said last month that Biden’s infrastructure plan shows “this administration is willing to put its money where its mouth is when it comes to moving forward with the new Gateway rail tunnel” and said it is “ripe for funding from the president’s jobs plan.”, The Covid-19 pandemic battered Amtrak. The rail system said ridership dropped in 2020 by more than 80% compared to the year prior, as lock downs curbed Americans’ travel. Amtrak received roughly $1.5 billion in aid from the pandemic relief law passed earlier this year, following another round of aid last year, which allowed the service to stop furloughs and, s., But Amtrak still faces financial hurdles, including an estimated $31 billion maintenance backlog in the Northeast Corridor alone., Senate Republicans have offered their own slimmed-down $568 billion infrastructure plan, which would spend $20 billion on railways. Biden spoke on Thursday with the bill’s author, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Jordan Fabian, . Date Created: 01 May 2021, 1:04 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to active Subscribers Reliance Jio July [/INST] Business news. Title: Reliance Jio Adds Most Active Subscribers In July. Short_description: Reliance Jio Infocomm added 61.4 lakh active subscribers in July.. Description: Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. surpassed , as India's largest telecom operator by active users for the first time this year., The Mukesh Ambani-controlled telecom operator added as many as 61.4 lakh active subscribers in July, compared to its six-month average accretion of 20.7 lakh, according to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India., On the other hand, Bharti Airtel added 23.2 lakh active subscribers compared to its six-month average subscriber accretion of 24.7 lakh., continued to lose active subscribers, but reduced the churn to 33.3 lakh in July. The numbers stood at 70.4 lakh and 48.8 lakh in May and June, respectively., The active subscriber base of Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel rose 1.8% and 0.7%, respectively over the preceding month, whereas Vodafone Idea’s fell 1.38%., Bharti Airtel: 34.60 crore., Vodafone Idea: 23.84 crore., Reliance Jio: 34.65 crore., Bharti Airtel's active subscriber market share improved by eight basis points in July over the preceding month., After deteriorating in January and February, Reliance Jio witnessed an improvement on this count since March, while Vodafone Idea continued to lose its share., The telecom industry gained 60.1 lakh gross subscribers in July—the highest in four months. Reliance Jio gained 3.4 times more subscribers than Bharti Airtel. The Mukesh Ambani-controlled operator added more such users than Bharti Airtel for the sixth straight month., Vodafone Idea's gross subscriber loss narrowed in July, losing 14.3 lakh users compared to its one-year average monthly loss of 28.1 lakh., Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio saw their gross subscriber base rise 0.6% and 1.5% over the preceding month, respectively, in July 2021. Vodafone Idea’s gross subscriber base fell 0.5%., Bharti Airtel: 35.4 crore., Vodafone Idea: 27.19 crore., Reliance Jio: 44.32 crore., After declining in May and June, the Indian telecom industry’s active subscribers rose in the month of July. The user count rose 45.5 lakh two months ago compared to net addition in the last six months of 15.6 lakh., Bharti Airtel’s inactive user count narrows in July after widening in the preceding two months, while Reliance Jio’s inactive subscriber base widened for the seventh month on the trot. Vodafone Idea’s count of non-active users rose for the sixth straight month marginally in July over the preceding month.. Publisher: Sameer Bhardwaj. Date Created: 23 Sep 2021, 8:17 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to COO Munoz Record April Chip Strategy Hyundai [/INST] Business news. Title: Hyundai’s Record April Aided by Chip Strategy, COO Munoz Says. Short_description: Hyundai’s Record April Aided by Chip Strategy, COO Munoz Says. Description: Hyundai Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Co. kept ordering semiconductors last year even after the pandemic crushed auto sales. Both were rewarded with record April deliveries., South Korea’s Hyundai sold 77,523 units last month, up 128% from a year ago. The Japanese auto giant’s U.S. sales grew 183% to 239,311 vehicles, including the Toyota and Lexus brands., Automakers around the world idled plants a year ago as part of the broader shutdown to curb Covid 19. Many carmakers slashed orders for semiconductors to keep a lid on costs. Now, with auto demand roaring back and consumer-electronics companies gobbling up all the excess chipmaking capacity, they’ve been caught flat-footed., Last week, Ford Motor Co. said it would have to cut production by half in the second quarter due to chip shortages., “Most of our competitors decided to cut the orders,” Jose Munoz, Hyundai’s global chief operating officer, said in an interview. “We saw the market differently.”, Hyundai’s deliveries are up 48% for the year, led by the new Tucson compact sport utility vehicle and redesigned Elantra sedan., The automaker hasn’t been completely unscathed by the shortage -- its Korean plants have lost about 45,579 units as of April 30, according to researcher AutoForecast Solutions., But the company’s sole U.S. plant in Montgomery, Alabama, which makes the Sonata and Elantra sedans and the Santa Fe SUV, hasn’t had to halt production, the data show., Toyota, which also , its decision to keep plenty of chips on hand, likewise reported record U.S. sales in April. Most automakers reveal deliveries on a quarterly basis only., Foreign brands may be especially keen to keep their U.S. plants running, said , president of AutoForecast., “Foreign-based manufacturers competing in North America need to maintain their current foothold to keep customers as loyal as possible,” McCabe said. “If they don’t have the inventory to get it done, then they’re at a high risk of losing market share.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Gabrielle Coppola. Date Created: 04 May 2021, 2:43 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to climate target Biden [/INST] Business news. Title: We Basically Already Know How to Meet Biden’s Climate Targets. Short_description: We Basically Already Know How to Meet Biden’s Climate Targets. Description: At his Earth Day climate summit, President Joe Biden made official what had been expected for weeks: The U.S. would pledge to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% from 2005 levels by 2030., Up until then, the White House’s strategy of linking climate change mitigation to job growth—a theme Biden repeated in his first address to Congress last week—had generated minimal drama. But as soon as the number became public, suddenly it was the end of American life as we know it., People went berserk in predictable ways. The claims about the pledge ranged from the outrageous—a , article asserting that Americans could be forced to spend $55,000 on electric vehicles and only be allowed one hamburger per month, which was then picked up by Fox News, leading to a public correction—to the merely inaccurate., While no one should underplay how much change needs to occur to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% in the next decade, it’s also important not to overplay the difficulty of getting there. “These reductions can be met with technologies that are tried and true,” said Dan Lashof, the U.S. director of the World Resources Institute, who has also been pushing back against naysayers on Twitter. “It is ambitious, but it’s not something that will turn people’s world upside down.”, For starters, a lot of the work has already been done. “We basically have spent the last decade bringing forth the technologies to decarbonize power, vehicles and light trucking,” explained Jesse Jenkins, a Princeton University engineering professor who studies energy systems. “Those can deliver the bulk of the emission reductions over the next decade.” Just retiring the remainder of U.S. coal plants, he said, would account for nearly 1 billion annual tons of carbon emissions, or almost 17% of total 2019 U.S. greenhouse emissions. Most of these plants are nearing the end of their lives and will have to be replaced regardless., Other important transformations most Americans won’t even notice. For instance, the Environmental Protection Agency is set to issue a new proposed rule in September setting stricter limits on methane emissions, Administrator Michael Regan told a House committee last week, just one day after the Senate voted to reinstate methane rules dumped by the Trump administration. Methane—the primary component of natural gas—is a juicy target for the administration because it’s both extremely potent and shorter-lasting than carbon dioxide, meaning that the effects of cutting emissions will be felt more immediately. New satellite technology is making it easier to spot methane leaks from gas pipelines, which is fine with gas companies, which would rather make money off it than release it into the air for free., What about EVs, you ask? It’s true that ideally half of all cars sold in the U.S. will be electric by 2030. Still, this emphatically does not mean that the government will start forcing people to buy luxury Teslas. For one, there are now several EVs on the market for less than $40,000, which by many life-cycle assessments means they’re already cheaper than your average new car since EV owners don’t pay for gas. Tax rebates make them cheaper still. Meanwhile, the costs of EV batteries has declined 90% in the last decade and is still going down, which means that electric cars could soon be on par with or cheaper than traditional engines just based on the sticker price., OK, but now the real question: Will we have to give up hamburgers? Nothing in Biden’s plan mentions curtailing beef consumption. Yes, there will be changes to agriculture policy, but in the short term, these will likely look more like incentives for farmers to plant trees at the edges of their properties—kind of a win-win for everyone., I myself have dramatically reduced my beef consumption for climate reasons. Feel free to join me—it’ll make hitting our emissions goals easier—but to be clear, you don’t have to. “Some people may choose to do that, but is a 100% voluntary consumer choice,” said Lashof. “We can meet the target without it.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Leslie Kaufman. Date Created: 03 May 2021, 3:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Best Restaurants Pandemic closure Washington Michelin [/INST] Business news. Title: Michelin Picks Best Restaurants in Washington Despite Pandemic Closures. Short_description: The pandemic might have shuttered more than 110,000 restaurants across the country, but Michelin is looking on the bright side.. Description: The pandemic might have shuttered more than 110,000 restaurants across the country, but Michelin is looking on the bright side. , On April 22, the French-based restaurant rating company announced its star ratings for Washington, D.C.-area dining spots. It’s the first U.S. city to receive them , ., The top of the list looks similar to years past: , , in Washington, Va., which uses dressed-up mannequins to fill seats with their current dining capacity of 50%, retained its three-star status., Two two-star places also held their rank: Minibar, the modern counter spot from José Andrés, and Aaron Silverman’s , , a modern American spot. Both are currently closed. “If the restaurant was temporarily closed for the pandemic, we did retain them,” said the chief inspector of Michelin’s North America team, who spoke on condition of anonymity, in a phone interview., Traditionally the U.S. rankings have come out in the fall. “The entire calendar year of 2020 was devoted to the new selection, while respecting local and state dining guidelines,” said Michelin Guide international director Gwendal Poullennec in an e-mail. He maintains that during the pandemic, inspectors were “sensitive to each market in the U.S. and are in close contact with restaurants to stay informed on openings/closures, new menu changes, etc.” Inspectors began visiting “when it seemed appropriate based on the individual establishment and their circumstances,” added Poullennec.  , “I’ve always trusted Michelin’s process and their support of our industry for almost a century,” said Inn at Little Washington chef-owner Patrick O’Connell, when asked about the viability of evaluating restaurants in the midst of a pandemic., New to the list is the two-star , , the ambitious tasting menu place from Ryan Ratino, whose menu is dotted with luxury dishes such as caviar with white asparagus and buttermilk, and Dungeness crab with truffle., Michelin inspectors also added four new one-star restaurants, including , , which highlights the food of Colombia, and , , with a globally influenced menu from chef-owner Yuan Tang, a former Uber driver. “New openings were successful and impressive despite the challenges of the past year,” Poullennec said. Among the one-stars that stayed on the list are , in the Trump International Hotel. , Inspectors did not change their criteria, he added, evaluating quality of products and technique, flavor combinations and consistency. But their dining experiences evolved, according to the chief inspector. “We did take advantage of outdoor dining and we bundled up when it was cold outside,” says the chief inspector.  “We had service with masks, and 90 minute meals.” , One thing the inspectors are not paying attention to is race and gender.  There are no female chefs or Black chefs running any of the starred restaurant kitchens., This year’s list has 23 starred spots, up from 18 in the 2020 guide., This increase occurred even though , , with a loss of 28,900 jobs. The city was affected by the events of 2020 more than most others around the country: In addition to the hit of the pandemic, Black Lives Matter protests shut down large swaths of Washington, as did the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Indoor dining in the city is currently capped at 25% capacity., For the first time, the Michelin Guide has dispensed with its signature red volumes and moved to a digital-only app format. It also introduced a new category, a green star for restaurants with sustainable sourcing practices and environmentally-conscious operations. The inaugural one went to the Inn at Little Washington in recognition of its garden and other local produce providers., On April 20, Michelin announced its value-dining destinations. Bib Gourmands are defined as “quality restaurants that have menu items that offer two courses and a glass of wine or dessert for $40 or less,” a criterion that most people who eat out will find increasingly hard to meet. There are 40 spots this year, down from 44. , Here is the full list of Washington’s Michelin-starred restaurants and Bib Gourmands. An asterisk (*) denotes a new entry., The Inn at Little Washington, *Jônt, Minibar, Pineapple and Pearls, Bresca , *Cranes, The Dabney, *Elcielo D.C., Fiola, Gravitas, Kinship, Komi, Little Pearl, Masseria, Maydan, Métier, Plume, *Rooster & Owl, Rose’s Luxury, Sushi Nakazawa, Sushi Taro, Tail Up Goat, *Xiquet, American Son, Astoria DC, Bidwell, Cane, Chercher, China Chilcano, Chloe, Das, *Elle, Fancy Radish, Hanumanh, Hazel, *Hitching Post, Ivy City Smokehouse, Jaleo, Kaliwa, *Karma Modern Indian, Laos in Town, Lapis, *Makan, Maketto, Napoli Pasta Bar , Ottoman Taverna, Oyamel, Pearl Dive Oyster Palace, Primrose, *Queens English, The Red Hen, *Residents Cafe & Bar, Sababa, Sfoglina, Stellina Pizzeria, Succotash, Taqueria Habanero, Thip Khao, Timber Pizza Co., Toki Underground, Unconventional Diner, Zaytinya, Zenebech, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Kate Krader. Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 6:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Delist American Depositary Shares vedanta NYSE [/INST] Business news. Title: Vedanta To Delist American Depositary Shares On NYSE . Short_description: The company said trading volumes in such instruments have remained low in the recent past.. Description: will delist its American depositary shares from the New York Stock Exchange as trading volumes in such instruments have remained low in the recent past., Trading in such securities will be suspended in 10 days after Oct. 29, when the company intends to file a form 25 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, it said in an exchange filing., As many as 4.33% of Vedanta's equity shares are in the form of depository shares, according to data available on the Nasdaq website. Vedanta has 16.11 crore shares listed as such instruments, with each ADS representing four domestic shares. The data also shows 137 institutional investors owning 38,055,720 depository shares in the mining conglomerate. , The delisting, the company said, was also prompted by the associated costs of maintaining listing and related obligations, including reporting obligations in accordance with the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934., Once the delisting becomes effective and criteria for deregistration have been satisfied, the company would submit a form 15F with the U.S. market regulator to deregister the ADSs and their underlying equity shares., Thereafter, the company’s reporting obligations under the Exchange Act will be suspended. Deregistration with the SEC and termination of Vedanta’s reporting obligations under the Exchange Act will become effective 90 days after filing of form 15F., As per procedure, Citibank, N.A. will provide a notice of termination to all ADS holders. The ADS programme will be terminated 31 days after Citibank serves a formal notice to the ADS holders. The bank will sell the company’s equity shares underlying the ADS any time after Dec. 9—or once 30 days elapse following the termination of the deposit agreement, which is Nov. 8., The ADS holders will have at least 61 days after receiving the notice of termination to decide on retaining their interest in the equity shares. They can surrender their depositary shares in exchange for underlying ordinary shares on or prior to Dec. 8.. Publisher: Nickey Mirchandani. Date Created: 23 Sep 2021, 10:27 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Billionaire Founders Apollo Sidelines Brawl [/INST] Business news. Title: A Brawl Between Billionaire Founders at Apollo Sidelines One of Its Own. Short_description: A Brawl Between Billionaire Founders at Apollo Sidelines One of Its Own. Description: Three months after Josh Harris made his failed pitch to take Leon Black’s crown atop a $455 billion investing juggernaut, Black’s chosen heir is in charge -- and Harris is on the outs., The behind-the-scenes drama between Apollo Global Management Inc.’s billionaire co-founders keeps brewing, with ramifications for investors as the company reconfigures its governance this year. Publicly, Harris has endorsed the decision to elevate co-founder Marc Rowan to chief executive officer. Privately, he’s being sidelined, even as he remains a “key man” in Apollo’s flagship fund -- meaning investments could stall without him., People close to the company, speaking on the condition they not be identified, said Harris has relinquished day-to-day handling of operations. He’s less involved in dealmaking than before, with underlings generally seeking his sign-off for only the largest transactions. Outside Apollo, he’s been shopping for a house in Florida to potentially serve as his primary residence, which would lower his tax bill if he starts to draw down the wealth he’s amassed at the company., Those amount to stark changes for Harris, 56, who for three decades has been known for working marathon hours and making his presence known throughout the New York-based private equity firm, running operations and pressing employees on the details of their deals. His decreased involvement has come with a sense of relief for some. When the topic arose recently, employees under Harris were heard humming their response: “Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead” from “The Wizard of Oz.”, Insiders privately predict Harris will formally take a more limited role, or even leave, in the coming year or so, devoting more time to outside business interests that include a stable of professional sports franchises., A spokesman for Harris declined to comment for this article, referring to a statement Harris issued in January, when Apollo announced plans to eventually make Rowan, 58, CEO. Harris said he would help expand the search for investor returns, develop the company’s platform and continue working with limited partners and investors., A representative for Apollo said there’s been no change to the roles and responsibilities outlined then., Many of the private equity world’s most successful firms are in the midst of trying to pass power from founding CEOs to new teams, hoping not to alarm investors concerned about maintaining historic returns. It’s a process that’s proved fraught, as executives’ ambitions derail efforts to replicate the original chemistry. At Carlyle Group Inc., for example, an attempt to hand the reins to co-chiefs Kewsong Lee and Glenn Youngkin ended with Lee taking sole control last year and Youngkin gone -- eventually running for governor of Virginia., But at the famously bare-knuckled Apollo, the process was all the more rapid and tumultuous. Black, long synonymous with its public image, faced mounting scrutiny through 2020 over his private business dealings with Jeffrey Epstein, the notorious sex offender who killed himself in jail. In January, a board review found Black had paid $158 million to Epstein for services including tax advice and estate planning., Harris had spent years positioning himself, becoming a more public face of the company at conferences and in the media, setting the stage to potentially become CEO. As the review of Black wrapped up, Harris privately expressed concern about the reputational toll the Epstein news could take on Apollo and advocated that Black step down as CEO. But Black surprised insiders in January by persuading Rowan to accept the post, mere months after Rowan had announced he was going on “semi-sabbatical.”, Rowan has since tightened his grip, taking over in March when Black, 69, sped up the handoff, citing health issues., Reducing Harris’ role is far from simple. He’s listed as a key man alongside Black and Rowan for the record-setting $24.7 billion fund raised in 2017. The loss of any two of them could potentially prevent the vehicle from making new investments until customers sign off. That status, insiders acknowledge, gives Harris leverage in deciding what role he continues to play at the company., But on other fronts he’s losing ground., Harris is still a member of the executive committee, to which the board has delegated certain authorities. In late January, Black announced plans to eliminate the panel. The company has said it will improve governance by reshaping the board -- where Harris has a seat -- so that two-thirds of its members are independent., In recent months, Apollo took the step of updating his executive biography on its website, deleting a significant line: Harris “today runs the day-to-day business of the firm.”, Harris graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1986, two years behind Rowan. They soon ended up working as dealmakers at Drexel Burnham Lambert. When the junk-bond powerhouse collapsed in a scandal, Black brought the pair along to found Apollo with a few others in 1990., Over the decades, Harris played a hand in some of Apollo’s most successful bets. In 2008, he led a $2 billion investment in failing Dutch chemicals maker LyondellBasell Industries, on which Apollo eventually reaped a windfall as the company was restructured., The Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates his wealth at $6.6 billion. Some of that is at Harris’s family office, HRS Management, which has pumped money into health clubs and a Spanish airline, and helped to manage Harris’s holdings in sports teams. Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, set up with Blackstone Group Inc.’s David Blitzer, owns stakes in the Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Devils and English soccer club Crystal Palace., But the biggest part of his fortune is still tied up in Apollo’s stock and investments., Harris and his family, who live in New York, have been renting a home in South Florida since Covid-19 infections worsened in last year’s second half, according to people familiar with the matter. He’s been considering moving his primary residence there and viewing properties, the people said., Apollo also has been considering opening additional offices in Miami and West Palm Beach. But for Harris, establishing residency in a state with no income tax would save a lot of money if he were to start unwinding his financial ties to Apollo., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Sabrina Willmer, . Date Created: 30 Apr 2021, 9:31 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to U.K. Parliament Launches Inquiry Sanjeev Gupta Liberty Steel [/INST] Business news. Title: U.K. Parliament Launches Inquiry Into Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty Steel. Short_description: U.K. Parliament Launches Inquiry Into Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty Steel. Description: A U.K. parliamentary committee has begun an inquiry into Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty Steel after the collapse of the company’s biggest lender pushed it to the brink., The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee will probe the financial support governments have given to the steelmaker, as well as the role of supply chain financing in its current difficulties. Liberty, a division of Gupta’s GFG Alliance, was forced to ask the U.K. for a 170 million pound ($236 million) bailout after lender Greensill Capital fell into administration. The request was , ., The inquiry, which will hold its first session in late May, will also examine whether Liberty Steel should be saved from collapse. Already three French units of the broader group have been put into , , while others in France and Belgium have sought protection from their creditors., A spokesperson for Liberty Steel said it would “fully support” the committee’s inquiry and “looks forward to contributing to the committee’s work secure a sustainable future for the U.K. steel industry.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Edward Spence. Date Created: 27 Apr 2021, 8:51 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Leonard Green Sale Weighs ExamWorks [/INST] Business news. Title: Leonard Green  Weighs $4 Billion Sale of ExamWorks. Short_description: Leonard Green  Weighs $4 Billion Sale of ExamWorks. Description: The owner of ExamWorks LLC is exploring a sale of the health-care services company that could value it at about $4 billion, according to people familiar with the matter., Private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners is working with advisers on a potential sale of ExamWorks, which verifies illnesses and reviews medical bills for insurance companies, government agencies and legal firms, said the people, who requested anonymity because the talks are private. Leonard Green took the company private in 2016 in a $2.2 billion deal., A representative for Leonard Green declined to comment. Representatives for Atlanta-based ExamWorks didn’t respond to requests for comment. , ExamWorks is part of the health-care industry that weighs in when patients and insurance companies disagree on the type of medical care that should be covered. The firm also reviews bills and helps verify the legitimacy of claims for insurers and government programs looking to combat fraud and manage costs, and provides Medicare compliance., ExamWorks, which started operating in 2008, has made several acquisitions through the years, including , ’s peer-review and independent medical examination assets in 2020., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Michelle Davis &. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 12:51 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Libor End Nears Indian Lenders hoop Firms [/INST] Business news. Title: As Libor End Nears, Indian Lenders And Firms Have Many Hoops To Jump Through. Short_description: How well prepared is India to make the transition away from Libor?. Description: As the deadline for phasing out London Interbank Offered Rate nears, Indian banks, non-bank lenders and corporates are finding themselves at different stages of transition., While some have started work to meet the December-end deadline, others are yet to begin the process. A majority are in the initial stages of shifting existing and new contracts to alternative reference rates that will replace Libor., “Barring a few large banks that are in advanced stages of their preparation, a large segment of the market, which includes mid-sized banks and non-banking financial companies, along with most of the corporates, are either in very initial stages or yet to begin the process of remediating their existing contracts,” said Kuntal Sur, partner and leader-financial risk and regulations at advisory firm PwC India. Sur is coordinating the working group set up by the Indian Banks Association to devise methodologies for a transition away from Libor., While Libor is computed based on a poll of estimated borrowing rates and is a forward-looking rate, the new reference rates are backwards-looking based on actual transactions., The transition away from Libor began after it was found to have been manipulated for years. The Intercontinental Exchange, which is the authority responsible for Libor, said it will stop publishing one-week and two-month U.S. Dollar Libor after Dec. 31, 2021, while rates for the remaining tenors will be discontinued after June 30, 2023., Globally, , in contracts are linked to Libor. In India, the Reserve Bank of India estimated the country’s Libor exposure at $331 billion in its , ., The transition from Libor to an alternative reference rate is a complex one., The first step in this process has been to develop alternative rates. Some of these alternatives include U.S. dollar-based Secured Overnight Financing Rate, U.K.’s Sterling Overnight Interbank Average Rate, European Union’s Euro Short Term Rate, Switzerland’s Swiss Average Rate Overnight, and Japan’s Tokyo Overnight Average Rate., Since Libor is going away by December, if a lender or a company wants to transition to an alternative reference rate, it needs to do the following:, The preparedness to make the shift differs widely., With just eight more months to go, new deals linked to SOFR haven’t picked up much pace, and are only being done by some large banks through their overseas branches., In January, , and , executed their first interbank-money market transactions linked to SOFR through their Hong Kong branches, followed by the country’s first SOFR-linked overseas borrowing transaction between SBI and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. in March. , did its first SOFR-based trade finance transaction with Wells Fargo Bank in April., New dollar bond deals in the coming quarter are likely to remain pegged to Libor for most corporates, said Ganeshan Murugaiyan, head of investment banking for India at BNP Paribas., The process of shifting existing contracts is more onerous and slower., For instance, Bank of India told BloombergQuint it’s yet to move its existing contracts to SOFR, as it awaits clarity on the methodology for migrating contracts., “We’re still under preparation,” said PR Rajagopal, executive director at Bank of India. “The methodology is yet to be worked out by the IBA on how the differentials have to be captured in the agreements,” he said. “So once that methodology comes to us, then we will move our existing contracts.”, In the case of corporations, Sur said in the absence of a Libor transition plan, companies may be relying too much on banks for direction. “Corporates have to form an independent view and their own risk management strategy, otherwise they would be at mercy of the large banks— domestic and foreign, which would obviously first try to minimise the impact on their own P&L (profit and loss),” he said., A senior executive at a large public-sector firm with close to Rs 45,000 crore in external commercial borrowings, said on the condition of anonymity that works on transitioning away from Libor contracts hadn’t even begun for his company, mainly due to business challenges during the pandemic. The company, he said, is expected to begin work on a transition plan in the next two months., To be sure, there are a few genuine reasons for the delays being seen., First, hedging options are not available linked to the alternate reference rates. Second, re-negotiating and accepting the differentials between SOFR and Libor has been a contentious issue., The RBI flagged off this issue in November. Renegotiation and conversion at wide spreads, it said, could lead to the requirement of substantial pay-outs by one of the counterparties to a contract., “The transition away from Libor to a new benchmark will be full of challenges and every stakeholder—the financial sector; regulators; tax, legal and accounting systems; and real sector participants need to play a role,” the central bank had said.. Publisher: Ridhima Saxena. Date Created: 29 Apr 2021, 7:54 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Global Travel Braces Vaccine Revival [/INST] Business news. Title: Global Travel Braces for Vaccine-Powered Revival. Short_description: Travel companies are betting that this summer will be a big improvement over last year’s bust.. Description: Even as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage in many corners of the world, places that have successfully vaccinated a substantial share of the population are plotting the next step: how to let people start traveling again, whether for beach vacations or board meetings., By early summer, countries of the European Union and beyond aim to issue , that would let those who have been inoculated freely cross borders. Some places — Australia and New Zealand, for instance, and ,  — are joining together to create “travel bubbles” that allow citizens to visit without mandatory quarantines. And governments are drawing up lists of vaccines and tests they deem sufficiently effective to permit entry., Airlines are adding flights and filling out schedules in anticipation of increasing numbers of vacationers. Hotels are airing out rooms and dusting off the furniture, hoping for at least a modest rebound after a year of little to no business. Restaurants in vacation destinations — those that have managed to survive — are restocking kitchens and bars as diners start trickling back to their tables and terraces., “There’s optimism that we're getting a little closer to seeing some form of travel this summer, especially in the trans-Atlantic market,” said John Strickland, owner of aviation advisory firm JLS Consulting in London. “Airlines have done a lot of the spade work on digital travel passports and testing, and there's a huge impetus on governments to get some travel going.”, That’s not to say things will get back to normal anytime soon. India is in the grips of the worst wave of the pandemic seen anywhere, with more than 300,000 new cases reported every day. Scores of countries have yet to inoculate even 1% of their population and new variants have emerged that threaten to render today’s vaccines ineffective. And the U.S. has put 80% of the world's countries on , ., Any opening could be slowed by the implementation of rules by some countries that allow only people with , to enter. The EU says it will guarantee access solely to those with vaccines approved by the bloc’s medical authority — though it has encouraged individual countries to accept any shot approved by the World Health Organization, according to a draft of rules seen by Bloomberg. And China will only admit people who have been inoculated with shots from its pharmaceutical companies — which haven’t been approved in Europe, the U.S., and many other places., Yet travel companies are betting that this summer will be a big improvement over last year’s bust. Airlines aim to expand capacity on international flights by a third between now and July, according to data compiled by BloombergNEF (though carriers have consistently laid out ambitious plans only to pare them back because of new travel restrictions). United Airlines Holdings Inc., for instance, is adding new , to Athens, Dubrovnik, and Reykjavik — places expected to be open to U.S. tourists this summer. American Airlines expects to fly more than 90% of its 2019 domestic seat capacity and 80% of international this summer, about double the level in the summer of 2020., The trend has given a lift to shares in airlines, with Deutsche Lufthansa AG rising as much as 5% on Monday and IAG SA, the owner of British Airways, gaining 4.9%. United Airlines advanced 1.2% in pre-market U.S. trading., With passengers still leery of cramming into coach, business class seats are becoming a more ,  for those who decide to fly. As business travel slumped over the past year, carriers reduced fares for the front of the plane, and vacationers are more often choosing them, as much for social distance as for free Champagne. “We’re going to see the emergence of the premium leisure market,” Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Shai Weiss said on Bloomberg Television. “People have saved a lot of money.”, A gauge of European travel and leisure stocks has gained more than 22% this year on expectations that economies will reopen. Still, traffic is nowhere near normal levels, and the airline industry’s chief lobbying group widened its estimate for losses this year by about a quarter, citing Covid-19 flare-ups and mutations.  , One concern is huge queues at borders due to stringent document checks that must be processed by officers, so arriving passengers can’t use the electronic gates that have been installed in recent years. London’s Heathrow Airport is reporting lines at the immigration desks of as long as six hours, and says police have had to be called in to calm travelers furious about the long waits. , By early May, the U.K. is set to announce its so-called “green list” of countries whose citizens will be allowed in with less stringent quarantine and Covid testing requirements. Airlines have been lobbying for the U.S. to be included on that list, and the governments of the two countries have been discussing a possible, that would ease restrictions on visitors.  , Though the details are still being negotiated, the EU aims to introduce vaccine passes meant to ease travel by June. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, told the New York Times that the EU plans to open its doors to American tourists who’ve been fully vaccinated. For travel within the EU, members states will issue “digital green certificates” intended to prove that holders have been vaccinated, recently undergone a negative test, or recovered from the coronavirus. And EU member states may accept vaccination certificates issued by non-EU countries. Greece, for example, allows residents of the U.S., U.K., United Arab Emirates, Israel, and Serbia to visit without a quarantine if they can show they’ve gotten any of at least nine vaccines., The International Air Transport Association said it was “encouraged” by von der Leyen’s comments, but added that the commission must work with airlines and ensure “clear, simple and secure digital processes for vaccination certificates.”, Sam Fazeli, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence, cautions that whatever systems are implemented must be sufficiently secure to avoid fraud. And more important, increased travel will require relaxed rules from countries on both ends of the journey, as well as any intermediate stops., “The U.K. and EU may be happy to open their borders to fully vaccinated people from the U.S.,” Fazeli told Bloomberg Television. “But then the U.S. has to be happy for its citizens to travel to Europe.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Nikos Chrysoloras &. Date Created: 26 Apr 2021, 5:36 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Pandemic isolation Year border EU [/INST] Business news. Title: EU Looks to Open Borders After a Year of Pandemic Isolation. Short_description: The European Union aims to take a significant step toward a return to normalcy with plans to reopen its borders.. Description: The European Union aims to take a significant step toward a return to normalcy with plans to reopen its borders after months of pandemic-induced restrictions., Just in time for the summer travel season, Spanish, Italian and Greek beaches along with cities like Paris, Rome and Berlin would be able to welcome travelers who have been fully inoculated against Covid-19, under a proposal by the European Commission., It’s “time to revive the EU tourism industry and for cross-border friendships to rekindle -- safely,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on , ., While still battling a third wave, Europe is showing signs of gaining control of the disease, which has infected more than 30 million in the region. Lockdowns in several countries are being loosened as contagion rates ebb and inoculations ramp up., The EU’s executive arm recommended welcoming visitors from countries with relatively low infection rates as well as those who are fully vaccinated, according to a statement Monday. The proposals require approval from a weighted majority of the bloc’s 27 member states and could be adopted as soon as the end of May, according to a commission official., The new parameters would replace a blanket ban for non-essential travel to the EU for residents of all but a handful of countries. The rules have been in place for more than a year and represented a bitter blow for a region that prides itself on open borders., Under the proposal, member states would be obliged to accept proof for all shots approved in the EU -- including those produced by Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE, AstraZeneca Plc, Moderna Inc. and Johnson & Johnson., National governments will have the discretion to accept shots that have cleared the World Health Organization emergency use listing process, but they can’t recognize other vaccines on their own. This means people inoculated with Russia’s Sputnik or the Sinopharm and Sinovac shots from China will not be allowed to travel freely to the EU solely based of their immunization status., The new rules include a so-called emergency brake, which would allow member states to restore travel bans on countries where risky new variants emerge or contagion rates spike. In such an event, only essential workers, such as diplomats and health-care staff, would be allowed entry from those countries, and even then, they would be subject to strict testing and quarantine requirements., Faced with a sector crippled by the pandemic, tourism ministers from Group of 20 nations are expected to approve guidelines on issues including safe mobility when they hold a virtual summit on Tuesday. The G-20 -- the forum that brings together the world’s major economies -- is expected to support measures for so-called vaccine passports, including the EU’s Green Digital Certificate., The next step in the EU’s approval process will happen on Wednesday when member-state representatives convene in Brussels to discuss the proposal., A commission official told reporters in Brussels that Israel will definitely be on the list of countries whose vaccinated residents are allowed to travel to the EU. Reciprocity will also be considered as a factor for easing leisure travel, the official added when asked about U.K. residents., The commission will draw up a list of approved vaccination certificates issued by non-EU countries. Discussions with Washington will hopefully lead to the introduction of a uniform certificate that meets the EU’s security and accuracy standards, the commission official said., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Nikos Chrysoloras &. Date Created: 03 May 2021, 2:34 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Manchin Urges Focus infrastructure conventional [/INST] Business news. Title: Manchin Urges Focus on ‘Conventional’ Infrastructure. Short_description: Manchin Says Biden Should Focus on ‘Conventional’ Infrastructure. Description: Key moderate Senator Joe Manchin said President Joe Biden and Congress should focus on “conventional” infrastructure projects like roadways and bridges, in another sign of building sentiment to split up the administration’s expansive $2.25 trillion plan., The West Virginia Democrat was joined by a group of other centrist lawmakers from both parties for a discussion on infrastructure Friday ahead of Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress next week. The president will be making his case for his second longer-term economic plan, which goes beyond building projects to include social safety net programs., “What we think the greatest need we have now, that can be done in a bipartisan way, is conventional infrastructure,” Manchin said. “Water, sewer, roads, bridges, internet -- things that we know need to be repaired, be fixed.”, Noting that Biden’s proposals include “human infrastructure,” Manchin said, “We believe that we should take step by step.”, Manchin’s support will be critical for Biden in a Senate that’s split 50-50 between the two parties. He suggested a two-track approach that deals first with physical infrastructure, which offers the best chance to get some Republican support, with spending on transportation systems, water projects and communications networks., Manchin said he and the rest of a group of 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats who tried to broker a deal on the last stimulus is discussing an infrastructure proposal. Along with the coalition of House moderates known as the Problem Solvers Caucus, they are “working in a bipartisan, bicameral way” on a path forward on infrastructure., Biden also is proposing raising taxes on upper-income Americans to help pay for social service spending, but that is broadly opposed by GOP lawmakers., “So why don’t we take the greatest need that we have and do it on something that we all agree on?” Manchin said., With the White House pushing Congress to act in the coming months, various coalitions have been laying down markers., A group of senior Senate Republicans on Thursday proposed a $568 billion counter to Biden’s proposal that focused on physical infrastructure, though they they gave few specifics on how to pay for the spending beyond references to taxing electric cars and repurposing unspent funds. They specifically opposed any roll-back of the 2017 GOP tax cuts or adding to the national debt., Earlier Friday, the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus of 58 centrist House members called for more spending on infrastructure but offered no exact estimate of how much to spend., The group listed in its 16-page report an array proposals, such as raising the fuel tax to help pay for roads and bridges, an annual registration fee on fully electric or hybrid electric cars, or broadening the current air cargo tax to trucking services., Representative Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat who co-chairs the Problem Solvers Caucus, was among those who appeared with Manchin at the meeting in Annapolis, Maryland, which he said was intended to set priorities for an infrastructure program., “The first part is how do we focus this down so we can start our agreement there,” Gottheimer said. “We’re going to, as we move forward, look at two other pieces: what should it cost -- what do we actually need to spend -- and then, of course, how do we pay for it?”, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden would get a briefing on the GOP plan and invite the Republicans to the White House to discuss it., “The president’s only red line is inaction,” Psaki told reporters at a briefing on Friday. “We want to have an exchange from both sides of the aisle.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Billy House. Date Created: 24 Apr 2021, 12:44 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Coating Emissions Reporting Failure EPA Tesla [/INST] Business news. Title: Tesla Accused by EPA of Coating Emissions Reporting Failure. Short_description: Tesla Accused by EPA of Auto-Coating Emissions Reporting Failure. Description: , The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accused Tesla Inc. this month of failing to prove it’s complying with hazardous air-pollutant rules related to the surface coatings of its electric cars., Tesla disclosed the allegations Wednesday in a quarterly filing. The company said it refutes the allegations, is responding to the EPA’s information requests and doesn’t expect the matter materially affect its business., The EPA’s , aim to limit emissions from hazardous pollutant materials used in carmakers’ coating operations. The regulator also restricts emissions from volatile organic compounds used in coating activities. The agency said in an emailed statement it doesn’t comment on enforcement matters., Tesla has also disclosed receiving notices from a San Francisco Bay area authority related to various air quality-related violations. In its filing Wednesday, the company reiterated that it has disputed the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s allegations and said there has been no adverse environmental impact., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: William Wilkes. Date Created: 28 Apr 2021, 4:49 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to New Clotting case J&J Vaccine U.S. [/INST] Business news. Title: U.S. Investigating 2 New Clotting Cases Tied to J&J Vaccine. Short_description: U.S. Investigating Two New Clotting Cases Tied to J&J Vaccine. Description: Two new cases of blood clots linked to Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine are being investigated by federal health officials, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday., One case was in a male and the other in a female, both of whom were under 60 years old, a CDC spokeswoman said in an email to Bloomberg News. The new reports bring the total number of cases to 17 out of about 8.1 million doses administered in the U.S., The CDC and the Food and Drug Administration , a recommended pause on use of J&J’s vaccine Friday following an investigation into blood clots possibly linked to the shot. The 15 cases it examined before electing to resume dosing were all in women, though CDC officials cautioned that the syndrome may also occur in men., It’s not clear whether the new cases were among people who were vaccinated before the pause was enacted or since it was lifted on Friday. Investigations of the two new cases are ongoing, the CDC said., J&J carefully reviews reports of adverse events in people who receive its vaccines, according to an emailed statement, and any such reports, along with the company’s assessment, are shared with the FDA and other appropriate health authorities., The CDC is calling the condition thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, or blood clots with low platelets. It’s a distinct combination that doctors aren’t used to seeing and requires treatment that is different from the standard for blood clots., U.S. health officials said the pause helped educate the public and doctors about the syndrome, which is rare, and the benefits of J&J’s vaccine outweigh the risks. One CDC estimate found the shot could prevent some 1,435 Covid deaths and 2,236 hospitalizations, compared with a projected 26 possible clot cases in the next six months., Health officials are trying to , the benefits of J&J’s vaccine, which has become a popular option because it requires only a single dose to achieve full vaccination, compared with the two doses other vaccines require., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Angelica Lavito. Date Created: 27 Apr 2021, 7:40 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Muddy Battleground Israel security election [/INST] Business news. Title: Security Becomes Muddy Battleground in Israel's Election. Short_description: Security Becomes Muddy Battleground in Israel's Election. Description: (Bloomberg) -- Security has long been Benjamin Netanyahu’s election trump card. In Israel’s April 9 race, however, the prime minister faces a former military chief who can neutralize his claims to be Mr. Security -- so he’s declared war on Benny Gantz’s 38-year record of service., A paid social media post he’s promoted online falsely claims Gantz left a wounded Druze border policeman “to die” during a clash with Palestinians in the West Bank. He’s lashed out at Gantz for putting infantry soldiers in harm’s way to protect Palestinian civilians in one episode during the 2014 Gaza Strip war. One Facebook post shows Gantz, then retired from the military, at a Jewish-Arab concert for Gaza war casualties with the tagline, “Gantz. Left. Weak.”, Gantz apparently had had enough of Netanyahu’s bad-mouthing and took the gloves off Tuesday night., The general, who was appointed Israel’s top soldier by the prime minister’s own cabinet, launched a scathing attack on Netanyahu, a former commando who participated in the retaking of a hijacked Sabena flight in 1972., “When I lay in muddy foxholes with my soldiers on frozen winter nights, you, Benjamin Netanyahu, left Israel to improve your English and practice it at luxurious cocktail parties,” he told a crowd of supporters. “On the days when I commanded the Shaldag combat unit in life-threatening operations on enemy soil, you, Benjamin Netanyahu, worked your way bravely and determinedly between makeup sessions in television studios., The final blow: “And during the many nights of tension and stress when I fell asleep for only a brief nap wearing my uniform and boots, you, Benjamin Netanyahu, met with some of the world’s most respected business suit designers in fitting rooms, and then returned safely to your prestigious hotel.”, Netanyahu wasn’t left wanting., “Shame on you, Benny Gantz,” he said in a video posted on social media, in which he detailed his own battlefield achievements. “I commanded many operations behind enemy lines, I was wounded in an operation to free people hijacked on the Sabena plane, and almost lost my life in a shootout at the Suez Canal.”, His own final blow sought to paint the career soldier as a reckless gambler with Israel’s security, saying Gantz supports unilateral territorial withdrawals and the 2015 multipower nuclear accord with Iran: “I risked my life time after time for our country, which you are willing to endanger in unilateral withdrawals and your support for the dangerous deal with Iran.”, Gantz’s positions are more nuanced: He doesn’t support the Iran deal, but says in the absence of anything better, Israel should look at its positive aspects, namely, certain restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activity. He says Israel’s 2005 Gaza Strip pullout was carried out at the order of the Israeli government but that he wouldn’t undertake any unilateral withdrawals., But as a commentary in the Yediot Ahronot daily put it, “When at war, be at war.”, ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Ivan Levingston. Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 5:38 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Melinda Gates stake Bill [/INST] Business news. Title: Bill and Melinda Gates to Divorce With $146 Billion at Stake. Short_description: Bill and Melinda Gates’ divorce can ripple through the technology industry, a vast portfolio of businesses and social issues.. Description: Bill and Melinda Gates, who for decades have overseen one of history’s greatest fortunes and philanthropic operations, said they plan to divorce., The announcement Monday that the couple is splitting after 27 years of marriage has the power to ripple through the technology industry, a vast portfolio of business and real estate holdings and into the realms of global health, climate change policy and social issues including equality for women., The pair, who command an estimated $146 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, made no public hint of their financial plans, though they emphasized that they will cooperate on continuing their philanthropy., “After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” the two said in a brief statement posted on Twitter. “We have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives.”, Bill Gates, the 65-year-old co-founder of Microsoft Corp., ranks as the world’s fourth-richest person. Melinda Gates, 56, is a former Microsoft manager who’s gained international prominence co-running the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It’s already given away more than $50 billion., They will remain co-chairs and trustees of the foundation, a spokesperson for the organization wrote in an emailed statement., “No changes to their roles or the organization are planned,” according to the statement. “They will continue to work together to shape and approve foundation strategies, advocate for the foundation’s issues, and set the organization’s overall direction.”, The couple filed for divorce in King County on Monday, an online search of court dockets shows. They have a separation agreement, according to a copy of a divorce petition posted by the website TMZ, which doesn’t elaborate on the terms. It calls their marriage “irretrievably broken.”, It’s the second bombshell divorce among the uppermost ranks of the world’s richest people in recent years, following the 2019 separation announcement of Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott., That split, which divided the couple’s stake in Amazon.com Inc., immediately made MacKenzie one of the world’s richest people. In the months that followed, she became one of the most influential philanthropists in the world, giving away billions of dollars to often overlooked causes among billionaire donors., But for Bill and Melinda Gates, separating assets potentially poses a bigger challenge than dividing the Bezos fortune, which was largely concentrated in Amazon stock., Bill Gates’s net worth originated with Microsoft but shares of the software-maker now probably make up less than 20% of his assets. He’s shifted much of his stake into the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation over the years and his exact stake hasn’t been disclosed since he left Microsoft’s board last year., Gates’s biggest asset is Cascade Investment, a holding company he created with the proceeds of Microsoft stock sales and dividends that’s run by Michael Larson. Through Cascade, Gates has interests in real estate, energy and hospitality as well as stakes in dozens of public companies, including Canadian National Railway and Deere & Co., Monica Mazzei, a divorce attorney and a partner at Sideman & Bancroft LLP in San Francisco, said the big question concerning the couple’s foundation and family office is to what extent they plan on working together going forward., “Even in the most amicable divorces I’ve seen, the preference has been to split the foundation in two so that there’s more autonomy and less intermingling,” she said. The same principle applies to family offices, where the investments could be divvied up into two separate pots., Washington law may offer some clues to how they divide their assets. As a community property state, anything acquired during a marriage is considered equally owned by both partners, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the fortune would be split in half., “It is not a mandatory 50-50,” said Janet George, a family lawyer in Washington with the firm McKinley Irvin. “The courts can award more or less, depending on what is just and equitable.” The public might never find out how they split the fortune, because it can be hidden behind private contracts, she said., Washington mandates a 90-day cooling off period from the day a couple initially files for divorce before the process can be finalized by a judge. The couple’s divorce filing -- listing Melinda as the petitioner and Bill as joining, with both of them signing -- asks the court to dissolve their marriage on a date noted in their separation agreement. , “It’s been a challenging stretch of time for our whole family,” their eldest daughter, Jennifer, wrote on Instagram., Their youngest child is 18., The pair met in New York in the 1980s, early into Melinda’s time at Microsoft., When deciding whether to marry, Bill made a pro-and-con list on a whiteboard -- Melinda related how she walked into his bedroom to find him tabulating various factors in the Netflix documentary series “Inside Bill’s Brain.”, The couple’s philanthropy has always been deeply rooted in their relationship and marriage. The day before they wed in Hawaii, Bill’s mother, Mary, who had been trying to convince him to dramatically increase his charity, gave Melinda a letter which closed with the words “From those to whom much is given, much is expected.” Mary Gates died several months later., But it was on a trip to Africa during their engagement that the couple decided they would become serious philanthropists., “We fell in love with everything we saw but it’s really not at all trite to say that we really fell in love with the people,” Melinda said at a Salesforce event in 2016. “It just started us on this series of questions of sort of saying to ourselves, ‘What is going on here?’”, Later on in the trip, the couple filled out a marriage questionnaire to make sure they had the same values. That’s when they decided “the vast majority of resources from Microsoft would go back to society,” Melinda said. “It was an easy discussion. We just thought it would be later in our lives when we got to do it.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Dina Bass, . Date Created: 04 May 2021, 2:07 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Solar Panels Tesla Powerwall [/INST] Business news. Title: Tesla’s Solar Panels to Be Sold Only With Powerwall. Short_description: Telsa’s Solar Panels to Be Sold With Powerwall From Next Week. Description: Tesla Inc.’s solar panels and roof will only be sold together with its Powerwall battery, according to Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, as the company seeks to convince investors and users of its viability in the residential energy technology sector., Solar power from these panels will feed exclusively to Powerwall, he said in a series of tweets. The Powerwall will only interface between utility meter and house main breaker panel for simple installation and backups during utility dropouts, Musk said., His comments follow a Twitter interaction with Ark Investment Management’s director of research, Brett Winton, who , his solar installed by Tesla since January “hasn’t generated a single watt-hour” and that he was waiting for his utility to approve the connection., Winton said his Tesla-installed solar system could have powered Bitcoin mining and generated $1,500 over the three months it laid idle., Musk tweeted at Winton to ask if he had a Powerwall to accompany his solar installation, saying utility permission is not required to use electricity stored in its battery., Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment has been one of Tesla’s most ardent supporters, holding significant stakes in the company through its flagship fund and setting big price targets. Last month, Ark Investment predicted Tesla stock would hit $3,000 by 2025, although this week it has been selling some shares., While Tesla is known for its battery-powered electric vehicles, it has been spending years expanding into energy technology for homes. Back in March 2015, Musk unveiled the Powerwall. A year later Tesla acquired SolarCity, the solar-panel installer founded by Musk and his cousins., Musk then hawked a solar roof that has gone through several iterations without becoming a strong contender in the market., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Max Zimmerman. Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 9:34 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to price Shock Gasoline U.S. California [/INST] Business news. Title: California’s $4 Gasoline May Mean a Price Shock Across U.S.. Short_description: California Gasoline Hits $4 a Gallon With Demand Comeback. Description: California gasoline prices rose to $4 a gallon for the first time in a year and a half as more motorists hit the road amid easing pandemic restrictions in the most-populous U.S. state., The price in the most-expensive U.S. fuel market , over the last month, according to AAA, amid a rally in crude oil and expanding fuel demand nationwide. Gasoline consumption across the country is on track for its third straight monthly increase, which which would be the longest streak since last summer, Energy Information Administration figures showed., Although California is alone among the 50 states in reaching the $4 mark, the rise may bode ill for the rest of the nation. Demand already is at the highest since pandemic lockdowns began kicking in early last year and as more cities and states relax virus restrictions, the economic activity that underpins energy demand is expected to blossom., The price shock comes just 12 months after the worst oil rout in history sent the price of West Texas Intermediate crude, or WTI, into , . The knock-on effect of the current rally may be surging fuel prices across the country., “Remember last year at this time crude was at zero,” said Jeffrey Spring, a spokesman for the AAA auto club of Southern California. “Now we have WTI over $60, which is at a 2019 level.”, Gasoline futures climbed 2.4% to $2.0679 a gallon at 11:39 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange, pushing the year-to-date advance to 47%. The national retail average was at $2.89 on Wednesday, up 3 cents in the last month. GasBuddy analyst Patrick DeHaan said chances are high that the national average will reach $3 this summer., The last time California gasoline reached these levels was November 2019, AAA data showed. The increase follows the introduction of more expensive summer-specification gasoline to the market, and even higher prices could be ahead with the boost in summer travel starting with the U.S. Memorial Day holiday. Benchmark U.S. crude futures are up 33% this year amid a patchwork economic recovery around the world., Maintenance work that’s expected at a Chevron oil refinery near Los Angeles may tighten local fuel supplies, further elevating prices., California Steps Up Imports of LatAm Oil Ahead of Reopening, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Jeffrey Bair. Date Created: 28 Apr 2021, 8:21 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Cybersecurity Startup Deep Instinct Tudor Group BlackRock [/INST] Business news. Title: BlackRock, Tudor Group Back Cybersecurity Startup Deep Instinct. Short_description: BlackRock, Tudor Group Back Cybersecurity Startup Deep Instinct. Description: BlackRock Inc. is leading a $100 million investment round for Deep Instinct, a cybersecurity software startup., Other participating investors include Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Group, Neeraj Chandra’s Untitled Investments and 23andme co-founder Anne Wojcicki, Deep Instinct Chief Executive Officer Guy Caspi said in an interview. Existing investors Coatue Management, Millennium and Unbound also took part., “We’re growing super-fast and want to dramatically increase sales given the huge market opportunity,” Caspi said. “To grow in cybersecurity, you need a huge amount of money.”, Proceeds from the round will go toward sales and marketing, mostly in North America, Europe and Japan, Caspi said. Deep Instinct is likely to achieve $100 million in revenue by next year and an initial public offering remains two to three years away, he said., Deep Instinct, like CrowdStrike Holdings Inc., SentinelOne and Darktrace, gained traction with clients that previously leaned on companies like Symantec and McAfee Corp. for their cybersecurity needs. Deep Instinct , found that ransomware and malware attacks increased 435% and 358% respectively in 2020 over 2019., The company’s endpoint protection software uses deep-learning techniques to predict, prevent and analyze malware, ransomware and other “suspicious and adversarial” cyberattacks. The firm says it’s able to stop threats in less than 20 milliseconds and reduce false positives by 99%., BlackRock’s William Abecassis is joining Deep Instinct’s board, replacing Brian Gumbel. Heather Bellini, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. partner and top software analyst, , joined the company as chief financial officer., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Gillian Tan. Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 2:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Hertz Deems Knighthead Bid Superior exit Bankruptcy [/INST] Business news. Title: Hertz Deems Knighthead Bid Superior in Exit From Bankruptcy. Short_description: Hertz Deems Knighthead Bid Superior In Duel to Exit Bankruptcy. Description: Hertz Global Holdings Inc. said a proposal from Knighthead Capital Management and Certares Management to buy the car renter out of bankruptcy was superior to an existing offer from a rival investor group., The decision further escalates the brawl to own Hertz as travel rebounds and means the company’s current reorganization sponsor, a group led by Centerbridge Partners, would need to counter with an updated plan of their own to stay in the running to acquire the car renter., If the company receives further proposals from either group that meet its qualifications, Hertz would hold an auction on May 10, according to a statement Wednesday. Centerbridge has until May 7 to submit a counteroffer which would kick off the auction process, the company said in the statement., The Knighthead , assigned Hertz an enterprise value of $6.2 billion, paid debt holders in full and offered shareholders cash and a chance to purchase warrants that valued their holdings at around $2.25 a share, Bloomberg previously , ., Knighthead and Certares have been dueling with Centerbridge, Warburg Pincus and Dundon Capital Partners over ownership of Hertz, with both investor groups submitting multiple rounds of proposals to buy the company., Hertz initially chose the Centerbridge plan, and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath last month approved a so-called breakup fee for that group if it was later outbid. Any exit plan Hertz picks is subject to approval by Walrath in bankruptcy court., Hertz has been rushing to exit bankruptcy by summer to take advantage of a hot stock market and to capture an expected increase in vacation rentals. The industry is raising prices as post-vaccination business and leisure travel surges and household-name rental companies don’t have enough cars for customers to drive off the lot., The case is Hertz Corp. 20-11218, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington). , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Katherine Doherty. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 5:56 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to EV Unit Paying Staff Factory supplier Evergrande [/INST] Business news. Title: Evergrande’s EV Unit Has Stopped Paying Staff, Factory Suppliers. Short_description: Evergrande’s EV Unit Has Stopped Paying Staff, Factory Suppliers. Description: China Evergrande Group’s electric-car unit has missed salary payments to some of its employees and has fallen behind on paying a number of suppliers for factory equipment, according to people familiar with the matter, evidence the stricken , are having an impact beyond its core business., The cash flow difficulties mean China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group Ltd. will likely miss its target to start mass deliveries next year considering trial production of electric vehicles at its factories in Shanghai and Guangzhou has been dialed back, the people said, asking not to be identified as they’re not authorized to speak publicly., Most employees at Evergrande NEV are paid at the start of every month and again on the 20th, however for some mid-level managers, the second installment for September hasn’t arrived, the people said. Several equipment suppliers, meanwhile, began withdrawing their on-site personnel from the Shanghai and Guangzhou sites as early as July after payments for machinery in Evergrande NEV’s factories weren’t made., Those people were on hand to provide the timely adjustment of production equipment and fix any issues, the people said. Now that they’re not around, Evergrande NEV has been forced to rely on its own employees, who aren’t as familiar with the equipment, resulting in just a small handful of trial cars being made daily., Representatives for Evergrande NEV didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment., The financial stress of Evergrande’s parent has reached epic proportions in recent weeks, prompting some to describe the potential contagion as , considering risks associated with Evergrande are threatening to freeze global credit markets. The giant real estate developer, whose assets also span banks and media businesses, is $300 billion in debt and widely expected to default on bond payments. Whether Beijing will engineer a resolution rather than allowing a chaotic collapse into bankruptcy is something investors around the world are now watching., Evergrande NEV flagged during its half-year earnings results last month that it , car production unless it can secure more capital in the short term. The company reported a 4.8 billion yuan ($744 million) loss for the six months to June 30., The startup, which vowed in March 2019 to take on Elon Musk and become the world’s biggest maker of EVs within five years, has unveiled nine models under its Hengchi brand but has yet to mass produce a single car. It made a great splash at this year’s Shanghai auto show, with all nine protoypes on display and promises of 5 million cars a year by 2035., However four models, the Hengchi No. 1, 3, 5, and 6, are still at what’s known as the Engineering Trial (ET) phase, a preliminary stage that calibrates a car’s standards and quality controls while it has an all-white body, the people said. It typically takes at least six months after completion of the ET phase to mass production., Like investors in China Evergrande Group, shareholders of Evergrande NEV have quickly become disillusioned. The Hong Kong-listed stock is down 90% this year, a huge pullback considering the company used to have a market value greater than Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co., Officially created when Evergrande Health changed its name to Evergrande NEV in July last year, while the company bills itself as a carmaker, most of the money it does bring in still comes from , and aged-care facilities., The EV unit is a small part of Evergrande’s sprawling empire, which includes financial services and a bank, but which is primarily reliant on residential apartment sales., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Bloomberg News. Date Created: 23 Sep 2021, 5:35 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to China Flight Halt Snarl Supplies India drugmaker [/INST] Business news. Title: Drugmakers Warn China Flight Halt in India Could Snarl Supplies. Short_description: Cargo-flight suspension cuts off flow of key drug materials. U.S. FDA has contacted drugmakers in India to monitor supply.. Description: Drugmakers in India are warning that a halt on some cargo flights from China could imperil an important link in the global pharmaceutical supply chain., The U.S. relies heavily on India to stock its medicine cabinets, and any slowdown in output could leave pharmacies short of drugs used regularly by millions of Americans., On April 26, China’s state-run Sichuan Airlines suspended cargo flights to India for 15 days amid an alarming second Covid-19 outbreak there. China supplies 60% to 70% of the raw materials used by India’s drugmakers, as well as ingredients for finished medicines sent to markets worldwide, according to Mahesh Doshi, national president for the Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association., If the flights remain on hold, the drug industry fears “cascading effects on its entire supply chain,” Doshi wrote in an April 29 letter to India’s external affairs minister. That could lead to domestic shortages of essential medicines and have a severe impact on exports, she said., Sichuan Airlines didn’t respond to a request for comment made outside of normal business hours during a holiday in China., Drugmakers are normally secretive about where medicines are produced. However, , , which helps the industry maintain quality controls, has started a project to pinpoint as much manufacturing as possible. Its Medicine Supply Map has identified where 77% of finished generic drugs are made, said spokeswoman Anne Bell., There are 62 generic drugs that are produced only in India, Bell said, including several antibacterial treatments and antivirals. India also is , to 31% of active ingredient manufacturing facilities named in applications approved by the U.S., according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration., To this point, there haven’t been any reported shortages due to the outbreak in India, but doctors and health experts have been bracing for impacts. Last year, the U.S. saw deficits of everything from sedatives to inhalers to a depression medication when the pandemic started and parts of China were locked down., “This is very reminiscent of where we were right when Covid hit and people were like ‘What’s happening in China?’” said Erin Fox, a drug-shortage expert with the University of Utah who works closely with the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. “Because there’s so much opacity, we don’t know exactly how we could be impacted. There isn’t a lot we can do.”, Sireesha Yadlapalli, regional general manager for USP in South Asia, said she has been pleased to see the industry in India hasn’t yet been negatively impacted, but said that the effect of the pause on Sichuan flights could be severe., Many drug companies in India have taken steps to try to protect their workers and keep assembly lines running, even as infections soar. On Tuesday, the country had 382,146 new coronavirus cases, according to , ., “As of now there is no disruption in production,” said Sudarshan Jain, secretary general of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance. “We don’t know the future, how further it is stretched, but at this moment we are making all preparations, working on all contingencies, to make sure that the medicines are available.”, The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has contacted drugmakers in India as infections in the country soar., “It’s a dynamic situation,” Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in an interview Wednesday. “We’re going to work closely with manufacturers there. We are concerned in several ways: Will they be able to keep up production and continue to manage quality?”, Some drugmakers with plants in India have struggled to meet U.S. quality standards even before the pandemic started. FDA inspectors over the last several years have cited them for ignoring quality failures and in some cases manipulating results from testing meant to ensure drugs’ safety and effectiveness., The agency has uncovered similar deficiencies at factories in China and in the U.S. as well, though the generic-drug industry is largely focused around India., Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., one of the largest generic drug companies, said in a letter to customers Tuesday that the supply it originates from India hadn’t yet been interrupted and that it has contingency plans in place should shortfalls occur., “We are closely monitoring the evolving situation in India, and are accordingly adapting our business continuity plans,” Christine Baeder, senior vice president of U.S. generics, wrote in the letter., Teva’s factories in India aren’t among those the FDA has warned for failing to meet quality standards., If drug output in India slows, it could have unpredictable consequences globally. Companies in India such as Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. make a significant share of generic medicines taken by Americans. At the same time, many U.S. and European drug giants have set up manufacturing in India, drawn by low wages and less-stringent regulation., Sun Weidong, China’s ambassador to India, has tweeted support for India over the last week and said China is encouraging companies to help fulfill India’s need for medical supplies. On Saturday, Weidong said 61 cargo flights have operated between China and India in the previous two weeks., About 4 million people work in India’s pharmaceutical industry. Attendance at drug factories is down slightly but not enough to impact production, according to Jain of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance and Ashok Kumar Madan, executive director of the Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association, but some states have imposed full or partial lockdowns., If the crisis worsens, more workers could be kept away from factories. According to the U.S. Pharmacopeia, 32% of factories in India that produce active pharmaceutical ingredients are in cites currently under some kind of lockdown, representing about 6% of global output., Companies are keeping factory workers distanced and meet weekly to discuss the supply chain, Jain and Madan said. They also said some companies have hired their own buses to transport workers rather than having them use public transportation., Many companies , to be able to vaccinate workers at their plants, though low supply has caused immunization in India to slow. About 9% of India’s almost 1.4 billion people have received one vaccine shot and just 2% are fully vaccinated, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker., Some investors are betting that India’s drugmakers will falter, and that competitors elsewhere will benefit., Shares of Chinese pharmaceutical companies climbed last week after Scarlett Shi, an analyst with Zhongtai International in Hong Kong, said that the situation has stoked speculation that Chinese drugmakers could gain if India’s production falters., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Anna Edney. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 3:30 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Key Test Brexit Heartland Popularity Johnson [/INST] Business news. Title: Johnson’s Popularity Faces Key Test in a Brexit Heartland. Short_description: Johnson’s Popularity Faces Key Test in a Brexit Heartland. Description: The town of Hartlepool in northeast England is the kind of place a Conservative prime minister would ordinarily struggle to find support., One of the most deprived areas of the U.K., the blue-collar port saw its steel industry collapse in the 1970s and 80s and the unemployment rate remains among the highest in the country. Politically, it’s backed the Labour Party at every U.K. election for almost half a century. But then came Brexit., Hartlepool holds a vote on May 6 that will be a critical test for Prime Minister Boris Johnson after his landslide victory in 2019 paved the way to take Britain out of the European Union after years of wrangling., It will be a key indicator of whether Johnson’s initial popularity has survived a pandemic that left Britain with the worst death toll in Europe, and whether Brexit supporters still buy into his promise to “level up” the economy. And now there’s also the question of any damage from a , over Johnson’s conduct in office that’s engulfed his government. He has suffered a relentless barrage of negative headlines even from usually supportive newspapers., The Conservatives are the bookmakers’ favorite to win the election for the town’s next parliamentarian. Polls from Survation and Ipsos MORI have also put the party in front. That’s mainly as votes from the now defunct Brexit Party at the last election are expected to transfer to Johnson in a Labour northern heartland where a Tory win would have been unthinkable a few years ago. The town backed leaving the EU by a thumping 70%., One such voter is Geoff Carr, who runs a shoe repair business next to a closed-down pawnbroker on Hartlepool’s main shopping thoroughfare. A committed Brexit supporter, Carr says the U.K.’s Covid-19 , that’s covered more than half the population vindicates leaving the EU. He will now be voting Conservative., “The vaccine, you can’t fault them for that,” said Carr, 58, in between polishing shoes and serving customers behind a large Perspex screen. “That’s one of the reasons we got out of Europe, so we can make our own decisions.”, Hartlepool epitomizes Britain’s post-industrial decline, a forgotten coastal town that’s often more known in Britain for a folklore tale about locals hanging a monkey suspected of being a French spy during the Napoleonic Wars. (The town , its soccer club’s monkey mascot as mayor in 2002 and he successfully went on to win two more terms.) Many storefronts are boarded up, locals complained the town’s center has been neglected while investment went into its marina., A victory would reinforce Johnson’s position in what used to be called the “red wall” of Labour-voting districts across England’s north. At the last U.K. election, neighboring Brexit-backing areas such as former mining town Bishop Auckland and Redcar, where a giant steelworks lies defunct on the North Sea coast, , to the Tories for the first time in decades., The by-election is also just one of the tests facing Johnson on May 6. There are also elections to the Scottish Parliament, where the nationalists look on course for an emphatic win to ramp up , for another independence referendum, the Welsh assembly and across English municipalities., “There’s always quite a lot at stake in these kinds of elections, but perhaps the stakes are higher this time around than they’ve been for a few years,” said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. “The sheer number of contests taking place means it’s a kind of Super Thursday, almost equivalent to the U.S. mid-term elections.”, Voters will be making their choice as Johnson battles on a number of fronts. First there were incendiary claims made against him by former adviser Dominic Cummings, who , his competence and integrity in a lengthy blog post. Then the Electoral Commission said on April 28 it would investigate whether the prime minister appropriately declared any donations that funded the refurbishment of his Downing Street residence., The Labour Party has sought to capitalize on the issue, branding the Tories as a party of “sleaze,” an echo from the 1990s when scandals helped undermine the government and propel Tony Blair into office., But on the streets of Hartlepool voters were either unaware of the controversy or unmoved by it. “There are far more important things going on than who’s got their hands in the till at 10 Downing Street,” said Peter Davison, 66, a retired businessman. “People don’t care in the slightest.”, A bigger challenge may be apathy. A life-long Labour voter, Davison won’t be voting because he is disillusioned by politics and it’s not hard to find similar views toward the politics going on 230 miles (370 kilometers) south in London., The majority of people approached on a recent weekday to talk about the election said they weren’t interested in it and didn’t know anything about it. Ale Issmat, a local barber, said he would be voting for the Conservatives, but only because their campaign had brought some customers to his salon., Yet much is at stake for Hartlepool. Like for similar regions, the Brexit vote was a cry for change, to end years of perceived neglect by the government at Westminster following the collapse of manufacturing industries. Johnson’s post-Brexit mantra is to better distribute wealth and opportunity across the U.K. For its part, Hartlepool has been refocusing its port activity on green energy in recent years. , The May 6 vote, along with those across the U.K., is also the first real test of Labour leader Keir Starmer’s ability to reignite the party’s fortunes after a catastrophic result in 2019. Starmer’s standing with voters has lagged in recent weeks as Johnson has ridden a wave of good feeling following the country’s successful vaccine roll-out. If Labour isn’t making significant gains, it’s going to be hard to imagine the party will be back in power at the next U.K. election, said Bale, the politics professor., Labour loyalties, at least, still run deep in the north of England, and for many voters the idea of voting Conservative remains anathema., Evelynne Ray, 72, a retired nurse, blamed the Tories for cuts to local council funding, which she said led to the closure of hospital services. She also blamed Johnson for not locking the country down sooner at the start of the pandemic. If he’d acted more decisively, social restrictions could’ve been lifted months ago, she said., “I’m definitely not a fan of Boris,” Ray said, a disposable face mask tucked under her chin and sitting opposite Hartlepool’s war memorial. “I just don’t like him at all.”, Yet with coronavirus restrictions being lifted and more than twice the proportion of the population vaccinated , with the EU, Johnson has gained some political capital., Nibbling on shortbread and drinking coffee outdoors at a cafe, Barbara and Brian Tunstall expressed sympathy for the prime minister, particularly in light of claims made against him by Cummings, his former chief adviser. “It makes me think a lot worse of Cummings than Johnson,” Brian, 77, said. “I feel sorry for him,” Barbara said. “He’s had a hard old year.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Joe Mayes. Date Created: 01 May 2021, 9:30 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Upscale Coach Class Market Mutates a380s Emirates [/INST] Business news. Title: Emirates Fits Upscale Coach Class in A380s as Market Mutates. Short_description: Emirates Fits A380s With Upscale Coach Class as Market Mutates. Description: , Emirates will install premium-economy cabins in three of its existing Airbus SE A380 superjumbos as it prepares for an anticipated shift in demand once the airline industry emerges from the coronavirus crisis., The world’s biggest long-haul airline will retrofit the seats -- which offer more room than coach at a cheaper price than business class -- into planes supplied by Amedeo Air Four Plus Ltd., the leasing firm said in a statement Wednesday., The change should help adapt the Emirates fleet to a post-Covid travel market in which well-heeled leisure passengers may be prepared to pay more for extra personal space amid continuing health concerns, even as demand for business trips remains subdued or switches to less costly options., Though Emirates, the largest A380 operator, said at the end of 2020 that its last few new double-deckers would feature premium economy, President Tim Clark only revealed last month that it would convert older ones., Four-class jets will have 56 premium-economy seats, according a December statement, with the number in coach dropping to 338 to accommodate them. The A380s will still have 76 business and 14 first-class berths., Dubai-based Emirates has been a late convert to attractions of an upscale coach, which was first introduced at Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. and Taiwan’s EVA Air in the early 1990s. Superjumbo operators including British Airways, Singapore Airlines Ltd. and Qantas Airways Ltd. have long offered the product on their planes, while Deutsche Lufthansa AG introduced it in 2015., Emirates aimed to incorporate premium economy on Boeing Co.’s 777X wide-body last year but switched to deployment on the A380 when that program hit delays. A single new superjumbo was delivered with the cabin in January and five yet to be delivered from Airbus are expected to be similarly equipped., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Layan Odeh. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 4:18 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to U.S.-U.K. Travel Deal g-7 Meeting airline June [/INST] Business news. Title: Airlines Push for U.S.-U.K. Travel Deal by G-7 Meeting in June. Short_description: Airlines Push for U.S.-U.K. Travel Deal by G-7 Meeting in June. Description: A coalition of airline and travel groups urged the U.S. and the U.K. governments to lift travel restrictions between the two nations, citing the growth in vaccinations and other tools that limit the spread of Covid-19., Officials should announce reopening before the Group of Seven economic talks scheduled for June, the groups said Monday in joint letters to President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Boris Johnson., “We are confident that the right tools now exist to enable a safe and meaningful restart to transatlantic travel,” said the letter from 49 industry groups and unions on both sides of the Atlantic. “Safely reopening borders between the U.S. and U.K. is essential for both countries’ economic recovery from Covid-19.”, Exports between the two countries and tourism have a significant impact on each nation’s economy, highlighting the importance of resuming more normal travel, the group said., Industry officials in the U.K. have been , that travel could begin to reopen as soon as this month, but the White House has been mum on when that might happen or what steps are needed to trigger such a move., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Alan Levin. Date Created: 03 May 2021, 7:50 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Joe Biden Climate target steak [/INST] Business news. Title: Joe Biden Isn’t Coming for Your Steak to Meet Climate Targets. Short_description: Joe Biden Isn’t Coming For Your Steak to Meet Climate Targets. Description: President Joe Biden isn’t taking hamburgers away from Americans as part of his efforts to slash greenhouse gas emissions., That’s according to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who told journalists Monday that a spate of reports in conservative media linking Biden’s new climate goals to eating less meat simply aren’t true., “There is no effort designed to limit people’s intake of beef,” Vilsack said during a virtual meeting Monday., The uproar about government interference with the country’s meat-eating started last week after Biden , to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to half of 2005 levels by 2030, but provided few details on how to meet that goal. An article in the Daily Mail took advantage of the ambiguity and , Americans “could” have to cut 90% of the red meat out of their diets. The evidence: a University of Michigan , from a year ago that found such a diet by itself would reduce farm-related greenhouse gas emissions by half., The Daily Mail story was quickly echoed by Fox News personalities. Larry Kudlow, an economic adviser to former President Donald Trump, , on Fox Business that Americans might have to swap out meat for grilled vegetables., By the weekend, the claim was circulating on the social media accounts of prominent Republicans, including Representative Lauren Boebert, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Idaho Governor Brad Little and Donald Trump Jr., in some cases featuring Fox News graphics., Vilsack said that while there are movements globally to reduce meat intake for health and environmental reasons, they are not being promoted by the government. Indeed, some critics have said Biden administration proposals will entrench the country in a system that emphasizes meat production., The administration wants to reduce emissions in agriculture through incentive-based steps, like so-called carbon markets that pay farmers for adopting environmentally friendly practices. Agriculture generates about 10% of U.S. emissions., Mike Stranz, vice president of advocacy for the National Farmers Union, the second-largest U.S. general farm organization, called the claims circulating about a Biden plan to cut red-meat consumption “wild speculation.”, Vilsack, addressing an annual gathering of journalists, didn’t utter the phrase “fake news,” but in a roundabout way said claims by Kudlow and others were just that., “Sometimes in the political world, games get played,” he said. “Issues get injected into the conversation knowing full well that there’s no factual basis for the issue, but also knowing that someone is going to pick it up and ask about it and, all of a sudden, it becomes an issue.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Michael Hirtzer &. Date Created: 27 Apr 2021, 2:36 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Texas Crisis Gain windfall Kinder [/INST] Business news. Title: Kinder’s $1 Billion Texas Crisis Gain Foreshadows More Windfalls. Short_description: Kinder’s $1 Billion Texas Crisis Gain Foreshadows More Windfalls. Description: It’s more than two months after the deadly winter storm that paralyzed Texas, but it’s only now that some of the largest financial winners and losers are emerging., Kinder Morgan Inc. shocked many in the energy industry when it reported a $1 billion dollar gain late Wednesday due to wildly profitable gas sales during the freeze. The earnings report caught analysts off guard and raises the prospect of more surprises to come in the latest round of quarterly earnings., Kinder’s bombshell disclosure “will surely set in motion a thematic that will likely carry through” quarterly earnings season, said Timm Schneider, a Citigroup Inc. analyst. “Further, we view KMI’s large beat as a ‘zero-sum-game,’ meaning someone (i.e. buyers of the gas) had to pay the bill, which could make for some interesting utility earnings calls.”, Kinder’s sprawling network of pipelines and gas storage facilities positioned it to ramp up shipments to power generators at the height of the emergency as wells and pumping stations froze., Other Kinder peers seen as potential winners from the Arctic blast include Enterprise Product Partners LP and Energy Transfer LP. There is ample room for upside: Prior to Kinder’s announcement, analysts were forecasting the lowest first-quarter adjusted profit per share in four years for Enterprise. Meanwhile, Energy Transfer was expected to bounce back from an atrocious year-earlier performance but still fall short of 2019 results., Energy Transfer Co-Chief Executive Officer Marshall McCrea foreshadowed a banner quarter before the storm had even ended, telling investors during a conference call that the company did “exceptionally well” as gas shortages spurred orders for fuel stowed in underground caverns., READ: Texas Missed Out on a Cheap Fix to Its Fragile Power Grid, The pipeline giant created by billionaire Kelcy Warren is facing backlash from at least one Texas utility that objected to the rates it was charged for gas. CPS Energy has sued Energy Transfer as well as BP Plc, Chevron Corp. and others for allegedly charging 15,000% more than the typical price for gas., On the other side of the market, the list of self-admitted or probable losers is long., Atmos Energy Corp., a Dallas-based utility that ships gas to 3 million homes and businesses across eight states, racked up $2.5 billion in fuel costs during the disaster. Calpine Corp., Vistra Corp. and NRG Energy Inc. all said disruptions to gas deliveries interfered with their ability to generate power just as frigid weather sent residential demand soaring., Vistra has gone as far as to warn the event may have slashed $1.3 billion in profit., “There was a significant amount of wealth transfer from power to gas,” Vistra Chief Executive Officer Curt Morgan told a state legislative hearing in February. “We’re the guy sitting in the middle, getting it from both ends.”, The burden is so heavy on municipal utilities and rural energy cooperatives that Texas lawmakers are considering a rescue that could include sales of low-interest 30-year bonds backed by extra charges on residential bills., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Gerson Freitas Jr &. Date Created: 23 Apr 2021, 12:09 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Break Moment Technicals Bitcoin [/INST] Business news. Title: Bitcoin Is Facing a Make-or-Break Moment, Technicals Show. Short_description: Technical analysis indicates Bitcoin may be nearing an inflection point.. Description: , Bitcoin is facing a make-or-break moment following a recent bout of selling, according to technical analysis., Though the cryptocurrency has rebounded above its average price over the past 100 days, it’s still trading below its 50-day moving average. Such a dynamic typically indicates an asset is nearing an inflection point., If Bitcoin can’t overtake its 50-day mean -- which currently sits at about $57,000 -- then it might be in for a period of volatility as the gap between the two trend lines converges. Technical indicators suggest breaking out might not be an easy feat -- Bitcoin failed to do so on several occasions last week., Trading in the world’s largest digital asset has been choppy in recent days after it hit a record high in mid-April above $64,000. It’s down more than 15% since then, though it rebounded earlier this week amid positive news, including comments from Tesla Inc.’s chief financial officer that , the company’s commitment to the cryptocurrency., “The drastic -- relative to what we’ve seen of late -- pullback certainly was a point of eyebrows being raised, but at the end of the day, I think the fact that things were able to rebound and stabilize is a good thing,” said David Tawil, president of ProChain Capital. “It shows real power to the token, the staying power to the asset class.”, The coin fell 1.4% on Wednesday , an announcement by the Securities and Exchange Commission that it will delay a decision on a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund. It was at about $54,586 as of 9:43 a.m. in Hong Kong Thursday., Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research, says that if the stock market continues its advance, he expected Bitcoin to follow., Despite its recent turbulence, Bitcoin is still up 511% over the past year. Inflation and central bank policies have been its biggest drivers during the past 12 months, according to Quant Insight, a London-based analytics research firm that studies the relationship between assets and macro factors., While some dispute the idea that Bitcoin can act as an inflation hedge, the argument has been a key tenet for its bullish thesis and rings true for a lot of crypto fans. Proponents have seized on the money-printing narrative to promote the notion that Bitcoin is a store of wealth, an explanation that’s gained traction in recent months with economists expecting price pressures to pick up., Read more: , “No question about it -- what drives a big chunk of the interest in Bitcoin has been just the tremendous amount of money that has been printed and will be printed and really the fundamental thought that you cannot have that much money in the system and not have it be inflationary,” said Chuck Cumello, president and chief executive officer of Essex Financial Services., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Vildana Hajric &. Date Created: 28 Apr 2021, 10:57 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Coffee Grinder Great Brew [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: This $1,495 Coffee Grinder Makes You Work for a Great Brew. Short_description: This $1,495 Coffee Grinder Makes You Work for a Great Brew. Description: When it comes to coffee-making tools, a high-quality grinder is at least as important as the brewing apparatus itself. The HG-2, which Weber Workshops released this month, mills beans to a perfectly uniform grind, but you have to work for it: The $1,495 machine (, ) is powered only by hand. It’s 23 pounds and 18 inches tall, and fabricated from 20-millimeter-thick plates of aluminum that have been heat-treated for maximum strength. HG-2’s size and weight are necessary to support the massive 83mm grinding burr. (A two-speed transmission gearbox between the 8.5-inch flywheel crank and the stainless steel drive shaft lets you downshift for tough beans.) All this heavy metal avoids friction heat, which, as coffee devotees will tell you, is important because high-speed electric grinders can diminish the taste of the final product., • Peugeot has been making coffee mills since 1840. The $125 , looks and works much like the original: Pour beans into the steel hopper on top of a walnut-stained beechwood box and turn the crank., • Hario Co.’s , ($58) is the muscle-powered favorite of many coffee geeks. The plastic-and-glass compartment can hold a full day’s worth of grounds., • The compact $84 , from Porlex has a precise, adjustable ceramic conical burr safely sheathed in a stainless steel body. It weighs less than 10 ounces, ideal for elevating your campsite brew., Before co-founding Weber Workshops, Douglas Weber was a 13-year veteran of Apple Inc.’s product design team. Unsurprisingly, a Jobsian obsession with detail and ergonomics informs the HG-2. To keep grounds from accumulating and growing stale—which can make a mess and change the flavor of your pour—the inside of the exit funnel and tumbler are anodized and then polished, a process Weber says he learned at Apple. Should an occasional speck stick around, a walnut-handled boar-bristle brush will take care of it. There’s even a switch on the front that lets you “shift” when you grind lighter-roast beans, which are less brittle than darker ones. It’s all enough to get your heart racing faster than a perfectly pulled triple espresso. , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Matthew Kronsberg. Date Created: 04 May 2021, 1:35 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Beautiful Game Super League Supernova future [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: The Super League Went Supernova Over the Beautiful Game’s Future. Short_description: The Super League Went Supernova Over the Beautiful Game’s Future. Description: The blowback against the , can be explained in one word: risk. Fans love it, and owners hate it. In the end, , . Less than two days after the idea was floated, the plan collapsed as most of the soccer league’s would-be founding members pulled out in the face of furious opposition from pundits, politicians, players, and—especially—fans., Eliminating the possibility that your team will be booted out of the top-level competition was a key feature of the elite league that a dozen English, Spanish, and Italian soccer clubs wanted to launch. The way things are organized now, owners have trouble borrowing from banks or selling bonds because they’re at constant risk of relegation to a lower, less lucrative league if they lose too many matches. Fifteen teams in the Super League were to be cemented in place, with an additional five that would have come and gone, depending on their performance. The plan was to put Europe’s most popular teams head-to-head in midweek matches that would generate piles of cash from global broadcasting rights., That closed structure made the Super League more like an American competition: Even after their lousiest seasons, the Chicago Cubs or New York Yankees needn’t fear being sent down to Triple‑A to face the likes of the Toledo Mud Hens and the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. “It’s not just that they would make more money in this arrangement, it’s also that it would be much more predictable,” says François Godard of research firm Enders Analysis. “Investors like this very much, especially American investors used to American clubs.”, European fans had a , . In London, hundreds of Chelsea supporters congregated outside the team’s stadium on April 20, singing songs and carrying banners reading “Football Belongs to Us Not You” and “Buck Off Super League”—a reference to Chelsea’s American chairman, Bruce Buck, as well as the obvious rhyme. They blocked the team bus, delaying that evening’s match. They also had powerful allies in coaches including Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola and players like Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford, who tweeted a quote from legendary manager Sir Matt Busby: “Football is nothing without fans.”, The Super League may be in ruins, but the problems it was meant to address aren’t going away. Sure, the , , but the teams are struggling, especially after Covid‑19 cratered attendance. According to KPMG Football Benchmark, most of the dozen would-be founders of the league were deep in the red last season, led by A.C. Milan, with an after-tax loss of €195 million ($235 million), and Manchester City, which lost €144 million., The owners say the current setup is untenable. The Champions League, made up of the best squads in the region’s national competitions, pits 32 teams against one another in midweek matches. Even though most popular clubs typically qualify, there’s always a chance they won’t. This year, three Super League candidates—Arsenal, A.C. Milan, and Tottenham—didn’t make it in. UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, has proposed reforming the Champions League, but a big part of its plan is more matches and an expansion to 36 teams. The trouble with that, the owners say, is it effectively exacerbates the core problem—too many matches between teams that few people beyond die-hard supporters find interesting., One idea is American-style limits on pay, which would help to keep rich clubs from dominating the standings season after season. Soccer business website , published an early proposal by the Super Leaguers that would have capped spending for player salaries and transfer and agent fees at 55% of revenue and would have more evenly shared income between winners and losers. Although it’s unclear whether those concepts were part of the final plan, both might survive the league’s extinction if they’re not steamrolled by Europe’s tough antitrust laws. America’s leagues—which operate more like one big corporation than a bunch of competing businesses—require waivers from antitrust authorities. In short, Europe would have to import a socialist sports model from capitalist America., In fact, Americans were among the Super League’s most ardent proponents: The Glazer family owns Manchester United and the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers; John Henry controls Liverpool and MLB’s Boston Red Sox; Stan Kroenke owns Arsenal, the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, and several other teams. And , was to come from JPMorgan Chase & Co. But the owners’ cash-flow calculations were never any match for the passion of the crowds that fill stadiums in Milan, Manchester, or Madrid. Half the fun is knowing that in any given season, a David can unseat a Goliath. “The reason people want to watch is there’s jeopardy, there’s story, there’s narrative, there’s variability, there’s unpredictability, there’s drama,” Dan Jones, a partner in Deloitte’s sports business group, told Bloomberg TV on April 20. The Super League ignored that., The ham-handed gambit exposes what Harvard government professor Michael Sandel calls the “nonmarket norms” that govern soccer. Yes, money is at the heart of the game, with players earning millions of dollars and wearing jerseys plastered with advertising. But fans are able to look beyond that and still feel a visceral connection to teams and players—and reject the power grab on the part of the owners. FC Barcelona’s motto, in Catalan, is , : “More than a club.” Liverpool supporters lustily sing, “You’ll never walk alone.” Fans love their clubs like family, but that love can curdle into fury when a family member feels betrayed. The notion of the Super League triggered a sense of betrayal, says Kay Dammholz, chief executive officer of German sports business consultant Sass Media GmbH. Fans “shouldn’t make a club’s business decisions, but they also shouldn’t be ignored,” Dammholz says. “There needs to be a balance.”,  , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Peter Coy, . Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 9:31 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Complicated U.S. Foreign Policy Fresh Starts Biden [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: Biden Gets No Fresh Starts on Complicated U.S. Foreign Policy. Short_description: Biden Gets No Fresh Starts on Complicated U.S. Foreign Policy. Description: “America is back,” President Biden said in February, promising a diplomacy-centered reset of foreign policy. When it comes to three fraught relationships, the approach so far is a mix of continuity and change. , KEY ISSUES:, Trade war, China’s claims over Taiwan and the South China Sea, human-rights abuses in , and Hong Kong, ● Biden has maintained his predecessor’s , toward the U.S.’s main rival and has , s Trump imposed. , ● Early meetings with the leaders of India, Japan, and South Korea suggest the administration is shoring up alliances in the Indo-Pacific to counter Beijing. , ● , : Chinese fighter jets have repeatedly entered Taiwan’s air defense zone in April, and Biden sent an unofficial U.S. delegation to Taipei as a show of support., KEY ISSUES:, Hacking and , , increased military presence at the , , treatment of opposition leader , ● Biden imposed fresh sanctions on April 15, including restrictions on buying new sovereign debt, in response to allegations that Moscow was behind the hack on SolarWinds Inc. and meddled in last year’s U.S. election. , ● Unlike Trump, who often dismissed evidence of misdeeds by Vladimir Putin, Biden has warned that Russia and its president will “pay a price.” Yet he has tried to limit escalation, saying after announcing sanctions that he seeks a “stable, predictable relationship” with Moscow. , ● “There will be consequences” for Russia if the imprisoned and seriously ill Navalny, who blames Russia for poisoning him, dies, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on April 18., KEY ISSUES:, Reviving the nuclear deal the U.S. pulled out of in 2018, ● An April 11 bombing of the Natanz nuclear facility, attributed to Israel, prompted Iran to say it would further enrich uranium. Biden criticized Iran, but , . The president campaigned on a return to the 2015 accord, which Trump abandoned. , ● Along with renewing the deal, Biden hopes to end the war in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia and Iran are backing opposite sides. The U.S. recently terminated its support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P., With assistance from Bloomberg. Publisher: Bloomberg News. Date Created: 23 Apr 2021, 1:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Jeff Bezos Untold Story tabloid [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: The Untold Story of How Jeff Bezos Beat the Tabloids. Short_description: A sexting scandal. A $200,000 payout. A brutal fight for the last word. This is the untold story of how Jeff Bezos beat tabloids.. Description: “Raise your hand if you think you’ve had a harder week than I’ve had.”, It was Feb. 14, 2019, in the early afternoon, and for perhaps the first time in the 25-year history of Amazon.com Inc., Jeff Bezos was prepared to explain himself to his employees., Bezos was a master compartmentalizer; his ability to keep the intricate threads of his personal and professional lives separate was unrivaled. This talent had allowed him to build Amazon while also running a space company, Blue Origin LLC, and reviving the , —all while keeping his family life private. But those threads had gotten tangled. Bezos, a father of four, was the subject of tabloid stories in the , about his relationship with a married former television host., Rather than doing what most billionaires do under such scrutiny—keep quiet and wait for the storm to pass—Bezos had gone public. He’d written a salacious blog post that included descriptions of photos the , claimed it had acquired—among them: a “below the belt selfie.” He’d suggested that the paper was doing this as political retribution for the , ’s reporting on the , ’s connections to the Trump administration., Now, facing Amazon’s leadership group, the S-team, Bezos addressed the elephant in the room. “The story is completely wrong and out of order,” he said. “MacKenzie and I have had good, healthy, adult conversations about it. She is fine. The kids are fine. The media is having a field day.” Then he tried to refocus the conversation on the matter at hand: personnel projections for the current year. “All of this is very distracting, so thank you for being focused on the business,” he said., The affair came as a shock to most senior executives, though recently some had noticed changes in their boss’s behavior. Meetings for Op1, Amazon’s term for its annual late-summer planning cycle, had been delayed or postponed; longtime deputies were finding it difficult to get time on his calendar. There were also those helipads that Amazon had requested for its planned outposts in New York City and Arlington, Va. These had enraged local officials, already skeptical about giving billions of dollars in , to a company with a , market value, and had contributed to the , in Queens., As some in the meeting were now well aware, the boss’s new girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez, was a helicopter pilot. Bezos had taken flying lessons himself. And then there was the curious matter of the stock. On Jan. 9, Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos had , their divorce via Twitter. But a few weeks before that, Amazon’s legal and finance departments had begun asking the company’s largest institutional shareholders whether they would support the creation of a new class of stock with reduced voting rights. Dual-class stock structures had been used at Facebook, Google, and Snap to , among company founders, giving them ultimate sway over matters of corporate governance. Amazon had gone public a decade before those structures were in vogue, so Bezos hadn’t had such power. Now he apparently wanted it., Amazon vigorously disputed that Bezos’ personal life had anything to do with these moves. Public-relations representatives claimed that having helipads in New York City would have been “useful for certain events, like receiving dignitaries.” The official story about the share classes was that Amazon was exploring ways to keep giving stock to fulfillment center workers and that it could use the second class of stock to pursue acquisitions. Those explanations had always seemed a little thin. But after Bezos tweeted news of his divorce, some who’d heard about the stock plan came to assume that it was all about Bezos remaining firmly in control of the company in the face of a costly divorce settlement that would end up reducing his stake from 18% to 12%., It was the first time some senior executives could remember seeing Bezos cornered by adversaries, who now included, improbably, a Hollywood manager looking to peddle explicit selfies. On the other hand, the episode was the culmination of Bezos’ decade-long transformation from a single-minded tech geek to the master of a trillion-dollar empire. His enemies now included Donald Trump, who despised the , , and Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, who was embittered by the paper’s coverage of the , of dissident reporter Jamal Khashoggi and would later be implicated in a supposed plot to put , onto Bezos’ smartphone. Bezos was navigating all of this as he always had: by thinking unconventionally and manipulating the levers of media. Somehow, his way usually worked., Back at Amazon’s headquarters complex in Seattle, on the sixth floor of Day 1 tower, the planning meeting stretched into the early evening. Harried finance executives scurried in and out of the room distributing spreadsheets. Bezos might not be able to control the scrum of tabloid press gleefully chronicling his sybaritic escapades with Sanchez, but he could control head count growth across all of Amazon’s divisions., As the sun set over the Olympic Mountains, casting a golden glow into the conference room, executives started furtively glancing at their phones and responding to texts from their significant others. Finally, at 7:30, Senior Vice President Jeff Blackburn spoke up and said what everyone else was thinking: “Hey Jeff, how long do you think this meeting is going to go? A lot of us have plans.” It was, after all, Valentine’s Day., “Oh, that’s right,” said Bezos, laughing. “I forgot about that.”,  , For years, Bezos wove the story of his courtship and marriage to MacKenzie Bezos (now , ) into his public persona. In speeches, he joked about his bachelorhood quest to find a woman resourceful enough to “get me out of a Third World prison,” as if the bookish MacKenzie, a novelist with an English degree from Princeton, might one day rappel down from the roof of some godforsaken jail with a lock pick in her teeth., But while Bezos and his handlers crafted the image of a doting husband and family man, he and his wife developed diverging appetites for public attention. After Amazon opened a Hollywood outpost and began producing movies, Bezos attended the Golden Globes and Academy Awards, showed up at premieres, and hosted an annual gathering at a palatial property in Beverly Hills, high above the Sunset Strip. At one such party in December 2016, for , , Amazon Studios’ first Oscar winner, he was photographed with Sanchez and her then-husband, Patrick Whitesell, the powerful chairman of the Endeavor talent agency., MacKenzie accompanied her husband to some Hollywood events but, by her own admission, wasn’t a social person. “Cocktail parties for me can be nerve-racking,” she , , . “The brevity of conversations, the number of them—it’s not my sweet spot.” Friends said both parents were committed to their four children and to keeping them as far away as possible from the corrosive impact of celebrity and garish wealth., By 2018, Bezos was seeing Sanchez, legal documents later showed, while keeping up the appearance of an intact marriage. His new girlfriend, then 48, was ebullient and sociable and, in many ways, the opposite of his wife. Like Bezos, Sanchez had been born in Albuquerque, and though their families didn’t know one another, the couple would later chart all the coincidental overlap among their relatives at places such as the Bank of New Mexico, where Bezos’ parents, Jackie and Mike, first met, and where Sanchez’s cousin had once worked. Sanchez’s father, Ray, ran a local flight school, Golden Airways, and her mother, Eleanor, had a pilot’s license and had survived a plane crash when Lauren was 9 years old., In the late ’90s, after starting a broadcast news career at a local TV station in Phoenix, Sanchez became a correspondent for the syndicated gossip program , and then a morning anchor on Fox’s , . She hosted the first season of the reality show , and had some small movie roles—that’s her playing a news reporter 91 minutes into , . She had a son with NFL Hall of Famer and broadcaster Tony Gonzalez before marrying Whitesell and having another son and a daughter., By the beginning of 2018, her helicopter company, Black Ops Aviation, was filming documentary videos for Blue Origin and posting them on YouTube. A few weeks later, Sanchez told her older brother, Michael, that she wanted to introduce him to her new beau. In April they had dinner at the Hearth & Hound, a hip West Hollywood restaurant, accompanied by Michael’s husband and two other friends. Michael sat across from Jeff, and the two hit it off. Later, Michael expressed alarm about how his sister and the Amazon chief executive officer openly expressed their affections, potentially within sight of the local paparazzi, while both were still married., If anyone cautioned Bezos that an affair with a married minor celebrity might prompt an unpleasant public reaction, he ignored those warnings. He brought Sanchez to Seattle with her mother and brother, where they got a VIP tour of the , , the three interlinked glass conservatories at Amazon headquarters, and to Washington, D.C., where he showed her the , ’s printing presses. She attended a Blue Origin rocket launch that summer and helped produce an inspirational 2-minute video for Bezos’ rocket company featuring aerial shots and a rare voice-over by the CEO himself, as , by U2 and Brian Eno played in the background. “The human need to explore is deep within all of us,” Bezos intoned at the start of the video., Like many modern couples, Bezos and Sanchez’s relationship played out digitally as well. The richest man in the world was, to put it bluntly, sexting. Sanchez shared many of these texts and photographs with her brother, a talent manager who represented a variety of cable news pundits and reality-TV contestants. But all of that was happening well outside Bezos’ line of sight. He was enthralled by the adventurous Sanchez, and by nature he wasn’t predisposed to be paranoid or immediately skeptical of anyone—especially not the brother of his new paramour. His philosophy, according to a friend, was essentially: “It’s better to assume trust and find out that you are wrong than to always assume people are trying to screw you over.”,  , Over the summer of 2018, as the romance between Bezos and Sanchez intensified, the , was coming off a catastrophic few years. Newsstand sales were slipping, and the paper’s publisher, David Pecker, had been accused of buying the rights to stories about his friend Donald Trump’s marital infidelities and then declining to publish them, a practice known as “catch and kill.” This had brought the , ’s parent company, American Media Inc., or AMI, to the attention of federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, who were investigating potential , of campaign finance laws., Pecker’s top editor, Chief Content Officer Dylan Howard, was a short and stout 36-year-old Australian and an acid-penned chronicler of the hypocrisies and indiscretions of American celebrities. The journalistic force behind such tabloid supernovas as Mel Gibson’s antisemitic rants and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s love child, Howard was protective of his work and combative toward rivals. When the , aggressively covered AMI’s catch-and-kill problems, Howard told reporters to look into its wealthy owner’s personal life., One possible line of inquiry, according to an email that went out to AMI staff in late summer, was to examine Bezos’ relationship with the family of his biological father, Ted Jorgensen, and why the CEO hadn’t contacted them when Jorgensen was dying in 2015., The next day, Monday, Sept. 10, Michael Sanchez wrote an email to Andrea Simpson, an L.A.-based reporter for AMI. Sanchez and Simpson were close friends. He regularly sent her news about his clients, and they had once gotten tattoos together on a whim. (His, on his forearm, read , : “I am the storm.”) In the email, Sanchez said he had a hot tip for Simpson. A friend, he wrote, worked for a “Bill Gates type” who was married and having an affair with “a B-list married actress.” The friend, Sanchez wrote, had compromising photos of the couple but wanted a six-figure payout for the scoop. Sanchez claimed to be working as the middleman., Simpson and her editors in New York could only guess at the identities of the mystery lovers, speculating in emails about such figures as Evan Spiegel and Mark Zuckerberg. For weeks, Sanchez kept them guessing and tried to bump up his asking price by hinting that the story could end up with a British tabloid. In early October, he met with Simpson and showed her text messages and photos with the faces obscured. “Just doing a look around and by the body, I think it may be Jeff Bezos,” Simpson wrote to her bosses., Finally, on Oct. 18, Sanchez called up Howard and revealed that the “Bill Gates type” was in fact Amazon’s CEO. Sanchez and AMI then signed a contract, entitling him to a payout of about $200,000—among the most the , had ever spent on a story. The contract stipulated that the paper would make every effort to safeguard Sanchez’s anonymity and withhold his identity as the source of the scoop., Sanchez hadn’t yet revealed the name of the “B-list married actress,” but it didn’t take long for , editors, who dispatched photographers to track Bezos’ jet, to figure it out. Howard was at an entertainment industry trade show in Cannes, France, when he received photos of Amazon’s CEO and Lauren disembarking from his Gulfstream G650ER., On Oct. 23, Michael Sanchez flew to New York, dined with Howard and James Robertson, another , editor, and corroborated what they now knew. He also showed them a flash drive containing a collection of texts to his sister from Bezos, as well as a handful of personal photographs that the couple had exchanged, and he intimated that at a later date he could show them a more explicit photo that Bezos had sent of his manhood to Lauren., There would later be an abundance of speculation about how the , got the Bezos-Sanchez story—including unproven allegations that Sanchez’s ex-husband, Patrick Whitesell, was involved, as well as international intrigue involving Saudi Arabia. But Howard, Robertson, and Simpson would all later submit in federal court that Michael Sanchez was the sole source of all the information and compromising material they received during the investigation., Inside AMI’s drab offices at the southern tip of Manhattan, the Bezos story was met with both excitement and anxiety. The company had filed for , in 2010 and was loaded with debt from acquiring magazines such as , and , . An effort to secure an investment from Saudi Arabia to finance a bid to buy , wasn’t panning out, and Anthony Melchiorre, the seldom-photographed managing partner of the company’s majority owner, New Jersey hedge fund Chatham Asset Management, was anxious about anything that might land AMI in fresh legal peril., That September, AMI had signed a nonprosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice over allegations that it had tried to bury negative stories about Trump. The deal required its executives to cooperate with the federal investigation of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and to operate in the future with unimpeachable honesty. It ensured the company would remain under prosecutors’ watchful eyes for years. Breaking the agreement could mean financial ruin for AMI., Pecker, a temperamental boss who conducted much of his work from his cellphone while driving between his homes and offices in Connecticut and New York City, called one draft of the Bezos article “the best piece of journalism the , has ever done” and bragged in an email to editors that “each page of a story should be another death blow for Bezos,” according to a person with knowledge of the criminal investigations. But Pecker was also terrified of getting sued by the man with the deepest pockets in the world. He demanded the story be “100% bulletproof” and vacillated about when, and even whether, they should publish., For the rest of that fall, the , worked on the story with Michael Sanchez’s help. He emailed the paper more photographs and text messages and tipped off editors to the couple’s travel plans. When he had dinner with Bezos and his sister at the Felix Trattoria restaurant in Venice, Calif., on Nov. 30, two reporters were stationed at tables nearby as photographers clicked away surreptitiously. On the promised explicit selfie, though, Sanchez seemed to equivocate. He arranged to share it with Howard in L.A. in early November, then canceled the meeting. A few weeks later, on Nov. 21, after , editors kept hounding him, he finally agreed to show it to Simpson while Howard and Robertson watched via FaceTime from New York., None of this, Sanchez claims, was a betrayal of his sister. She and Bezos were conducting their relationship out in the open, and it was only a matter of time before their families and the larger world discovered it. “Everything I did protected Jeff, Lauren, and my family,” Sanchez later said in an email. “I would never sell out anyone.” He also believed, naively, that his source agreement with AMI precluded the media company from using the most embarrassing material he had provided them., On one issue, at least, it appears that Sanchez didn’t betray his sister. He later told FBI investigators that he never actually had an explicit photograph of Bezos in his possession. In the FaceTime meeting on Nov. 21, Sanchez didn’t show a picture of Bezos at all. It was a random photograph of male genitalia that he’d captured from an escort website called Rent.Men.,  , On Jan. 7, 2019, , editors sent texts to Bezos and Lauren that started with a single, incendiary sentence: “I write to request an interview with you about your love affair.” The couple moved swiftly in response. Lauren turned to the person closest to her who best knew the brazen byways of the tabloid industry: her brother. Michael innocently offered to exploit his relationships with , editors to find out what they had. After signing a $25,000-a-month contract with his sister, he called Howard to announce that he was acting as her representative and suggested that he come to New York to review the paper’s reporting (which, of course, he had provided). Confident in the promise of confidentiality from AMI, Michael was now playing both sides., Bezos, meanwhile, involved his longtime security consultant, Gavin de Becker, as well as de Becker’s L.A.-based entertainment attorney, Marty Singer. And, early on Jan. 9, he instructed Amazon’s PR department to release the news of his marital breakup from his official Twitter account. “We want to make people aware of a development in our lives,” the statement began. “After a long period of loving exploration and trial separation, we have decided to divorce and continue our shared lives as friends.”, The , published on Mondays, but Howard, reacting quickly, persuaded Pecker to authorize a special 11-page print run and posted the paper’s first story online that evening, a Wednesday. “Married Amazon Boss Jeff Bezos Getting Divorced Over Fling With Movie Mogul’s Wife,” screamed the headline. During the next five days, the , published additional stories with more details about Bezos and Sanchez and their private text exchanges., A few days later, Michael brokered a temporary cease-fire: AMI would stop publishing articles in exchange for exclusive paparazzi access to Lauren while she walked with two friends at the Santa Monica airport. The article ran on Jan. 14 in AMI’s , , along with canned quotes and the gentle headline, “First Photos Show Jeff Bezos’ Girlfriend Lauren Sanchez Carefree After Scandal.”, After the story ran, Michael texted Howard to thank him. “The level of cooperation that you and I have built in 14 days will be written about in textbooks,” he wrote. The next week, Howard emailed Michael and reassured him that his anonymity as the original leaker was secure. “The untold story—if you will—has not been told,” he wrote. “I’m saving it for my tombstone.”, But Bezos wasn’t satisfied. He wondered if the , ’s story had been political retribution for articles published by the , and gave de Becker “whatever budget he needed to pursue the facts” of how the paper obtained his private messages. De Becker had served on two presidential advisory boards, written four books about the psychology of violence, and consulted for a litany of high-profile political and entertainment figures. Bezos had selected his 1997 book, , , as one of the first topics of discussion for the S-team reading club and had personally ensured that it was featured in the Amazon Books stores., After a series of phone calls and text messages with Michael, de Becker sensed something was amiss. To publicize his suspicions, de Becker turned to Daily Beast Co., the media company run by Barry Diller, a friend of Bezos’. In an , on Jan. 31, the , revealed that de Becker had identified Michael as a possible culprit. But he also floated an alternative scenario—one that cast Bezos as a patron of truth-telling journalism and the adversary to the fact-challenged U.S. president. He claimed the , ’s investigation was tied to Trump’s campaign against the , , opining in the article that “strong leads point to political motives.”, There was no evidence behind this insinuation, but it shifted the advantage to Bezos. AMI’s boss, Pecker, fretted that even a rumor about the paper’s involvement in a political plot against a renowned billionaire might undermine its nonprosecution agreement. He implored Howard to settle the feud with Bezos’ camp and to secure an acknowledgment that the investigation wasn’t politically motivated and that the , hadn’t used illegal means in scoring the story., Over the first week in February, Howard asked Singer, de Becker’s attorney, to get Bezos and de Becker to accept that the , articles weren’t a political hit job and promised that he would cease publication of damaging stories. Singer wanted to know exactly what unpublished text messages and photos the paper possessed. Howard was uncertain; he suspected the lawyer was hunting for confirmation of the identity of his anonymous source. And he was nervous about an upcoming story in the , that threatened to again assign political motives to the , ’s investigation., In an email he sent to Singer on the afternoon of Feb. 5, AMI’s chief content officer wrote, “with the , poised to publish unsubstantiated rumors of the , ’s initial report, I wanted to describe to you the photos obtained during our newsgathering.” Howard then listed the nine personal photos that Bezos and Lauren had exchanged. These were the pictures she’d shared with her brother and which her brother had passed to the , ., With an abundance of misplaced swagger, Howard also referenced the “below-the-belt selfie” that he’d captured via FaceTime from the meeting between Michael and Simpson. Unbeknownst to Howard, he was bragging about the anonymous image that Michael had lifted from Rent.Men. “It would give no editor pleasure to send this email,” Howard concluded. “I hope common sense can prevail—and quickly.”, But Bezos’ team instead pressed their advantage. In a , , published that night, de Becker once again identified Michael as a possible culprit and charged that the leak was “politically motivated.” After the article was published, Pecker called Howard to say that Melchiorre, the hedge fund manager, was “ballistic” and again pressured Howard to stop the madness. Howard then started negotiating directly over the phone with de Becker. Suspicious and wary, both recorded the phone calls., In the call transcripts, Howard appears to try to avoid making explicit threats but continues to reserve the paper’s rights to publish the materials. “This is not in any way to be construed as some form of blackmail or anything like that!” he tells the veteran investigator at one point. “It’s in both parties’ interest to come to terms, given the specter of legal claims that are flying around.”, Howard and de Becker appeared to make progress. On Feb. 6, AMI’s deputy general counsel sent the proposed terms of an agreement via email to Bezos’ team. AMI would agree not to publish or share any of the unpublished photos or texts if Bezos and his reps joined the company in publicly rejecting the notion that the , ’s reporting was politically motivated., Bezos viewed the email as blatantly extortive. On Feb. 7 he told his advisers that he knew exactly what he was going to do. He wrote a 1,000-word-plus essay titled “No Thank You, Mr. Pecker” and handed it off to Amazon’s senior vice president of global corporate affairs, Jay Carney, whose brow furrowed in surprise as he read it for the first time while on a videoconference with colleagues. Then Bezos had it uploaded to the publishing site Medium., The , was stunning. In it, Bezos included the emails from AMI’s attorney and top editor in their humiliating entirety. But, however embarrassing it was to have his sexts described in detail, Bezos knew they were also damning for AMI. “Something unusual happened to me yesterday,” he wrote in the swaggering tone of someone supremely confident in his position. “I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse. Or at least that’s what the top people at the , thought. I’m glad they thought that, because it emboldened them to put it all in writing.” He neglected to mention that they had only done so after being pressed by a lawyer working on his behalf. Bezos, it seemed, had manipulated his adversaries into creating an incriminating paper trail., Bezos then made explicit what de Becker had only implied: He suggested AMI was attacking him on behalf of the Trump administration and the government of Saudi Arabia. His ownership of the , , Bezos wrote, “is a complexifier for me. It’s unavoidable that certain powerful people who experience , news coverage will wrongly conclude I am their enemy.” He also added that he didn’t regret owning the paper. It was, he wrote, “something I will be most proud of when I’m 90 and reviewing my life, if I’m lucky enough to live that long.”, This noble sentiment, of course, had little to do with his extramarital relationship, or the scheming of his girlfriend’s brother, or the desperate attempts of AMI to escape a cloud of political suspicion. It was, in other words, a public-relations masterstroke. Bezos cast himself as a sympathetic defender of the press and an opponent of “AMI’s long-earned reputation for weaponizing journalistic privileges, hiding behind important protections, and ignoring the tenets and purpose of true journalism.”, To interested readers, Bezos was taking a brave stand against the devious tactics of Trump’s allies while vulnerably offering his own embarrassing photographs as collateral. “Bezos Exposes Pecker,” declared the , , , as public sympathies shifted to his side., De Becker followed up those assertions in March by writing an , for the , . He pointed to AMI’s frantic attempts to defend itself from the charge of engaging in a political conspiracy and suggested that there must be another layer of hidden truth in the whole ordeal. “Our investigators and several experts concluded with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos’ phone and gained private information,” he wrote. “As of today, it is unclear to what degree, if any, AMI was aware of the details.” AMI denied the allegation, disclosing that Michael Sanchez, not any kind of international or cyber espionage, had been its source., But none of that helped AMI. An unfavorable media narrative crystallized almost immediately in which Mohammed bin Salman’s regime had learned of Bezos’ relationship with Lauren and alerted the , or even supplemented the information it received from her brother. Considering Pecker’s unsuccessful courtship of the Saudi kingdom for financing, that possibility might make certain logical sense if you squinted hard enough. But there was no hard evidence to support the hypothesis—only a fog of overlapping events, weak ties among disparate figures, and more strange coincidences.,  , Once again, Bezos had come out on top. His navigation of the crisis had been typical of his idiosyncratic approach to building Amazon. He’d bypassed a largely skeptical media to appeal directly to regular people, only slightly bruising the facts in the process. Just as he’d outmaneuvered countless rivals, he intuitively sensed what AMI’s vulnerabilities were—and surgically attacked them. The entrepreneur who’d already commandeered the business of selling books, then much of retail, plus cloud computing, Hollywood, home speakers, and so on now asserted dominance over that unlikeliest of sectors—the celebrity media game., Pecker blamed Howard for the disaster and removed him from his editorial role at AMI; Howard left the company in April 2020 when his contract expired. In two separate defamation lawsuits in L.A. district court, Michael sued AMI as well as Bezos and de Becker. He lost almost every subsequent legal decision as the facts dribbled out. And in the Southern District of New York, federal prosecutors investigated Bezos’ allegation, leveled in the Medium essay, that he was extorted by AMI after it published the , article. The evidence must have been lacking, though, because prosecutors quietly dropped the matter without ever bringing a case., Undeterred, Bezos and Lauren started appearing together in public. Before the pandemic, they attended the Allen & Co. investor conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, mingling with Warren Buffett, Tim Cook, and Mark Zuckerberg. A few days later, they watched the Wimbledon men’s finals from the royal box, three rows behind Prince William and Kate Middleton. In August 2019, they were on David Geffen’s superyacht. And in October, Bezos turned up outside the former Saudi consulate in Istanbul to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the murder of Khashoggi. De Becker handled the intricate security arrangements. Bezos sat next to Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi’s fiancee, and , ., As such dramatic gestures replaced the scandal in the collective memory, Amazon employees could only watch and wonder: Did their CEO still belong to them or to some alternate dimension of wealth, glamour, and intrigue? Bezos seemed to show up just as frequently in the press as in the office, , and snapping up Geffen’s 9-acre Beverly Hills estate for , , a California record. Bezos now had personal and professional ambitions beyond Amazon. That turning point became evident in February, when the company announced that its founder would become executive chairman and , to Andy Jassy, a longtime deputy who’d overseen the profitable rise of Amazon Web Services. Before the transition, Bezos recorded yet another triumph, over the , at an Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Ala., Employees now had even more reasons to wonder. What did the future hold for their founder? At least part of the answer to that could be found in the shipyards of the Dutch custom yacht builder Oceanco. There, outside Rotterdam, a new creation was secretly taking shape: a 127-meter-long, three-mast schooner about which practically nothing was known, even in the whispering confines of luxury boat builders—except that upon completion, it will be one of the finest sailing yachts in existence. Oceanco was also building Bezos an accompanying support yacht, which had been expressly commissioned and designed to include—you guessed it—a helipad.,  , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Brad Stone. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 1:31 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Ones Jobs fund woman money [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: Women Get Top Jobs at Funds, Just Not the Ones That Manage Money. Short_description: Women Are Taking Top Jobs at Fund Companies, But Their Ranks Aren’t Growing. Description: Linda Zhang started managing money in 2003. At the time, a little more than 1 in 10 portfolio managers were women. Almost two decades later, that number has barely changed., Women made up about 14% of the 25,000 portfolio managers globally that run fixed-income, equity, and asset-allocation mutual and exchange-traded funds as of Dec. 31, unchanged from 2000, according to Morningstar Inc. In the U.S., about 11% are female, a share that has held constant over the past decade and is down from 14% in 2000., “Our industry hasn’t changed that much,” says Zhang, who thought the numbers were low back in 2003. “I was managing a multi-asset mutual fund at one point, and I had over $2 billion under my management. I just saw there were very few women analysts and even fewer portfolio managers.” Today, after a career at asset managers including the giant BlackRock Inc. and MFS Investment Management, she’s the founder and chief executive officer of her own firm, New York-based Purview Investments., The statistics haven’t budged despite years of initiatives to , across industries. In recent years, more women are taking jobs in investment research—a path that typically leads to fund management—and some have even managed to climb to the top executive ranks of their business. Mixed-gender management teams are now common, accounting for almost 40% of assets under management, Morningstar data show. But sole portfolio manager is one of Wall Street’s marquee jobs, and the people who hold it are key decision-makers in how capital gets allocated across the economy. The persistent imbalance in that role is glaring., “You would have hoped that maybe all the initiatives put in place five or six or so years ago would have started to be having some effect,” says Madison Sargis, associate director of Morningstar’s quantitative research team. “We are working to get more information on the career path—from analyst to fund manager—to see where it all is falling out.”, Companies’ efforts to increase diversity often end up recycling and further stretching the few women who make it into the industry. The same female managers are being continually tapped to manage funds, in a way that mirrors the tactics of corporations trying to diversify boards through a limited pool of familiar executives. (That practice has come to be known as overboarding.), Lower down the ranks, women still face some well-known obstacles. It typically takes years to climb the career ladder to fund manager, and setbacks are more common for women, who may take breaks to have children. There’s also plenty of straightforward bias in the industry, says Zhang. “Women analysts are trusted to make suggestions, but not trusted enough to pull the trigger for the portfolio,” she says., Women have often made initial strides by getting into newer parts of the industry. Yet those gains may not hold up when a product or sector becomes hotter. In index funds, the share of distinct female managers globally has fallen to about 14.7% from 15.8% in 2000., One of the best-known , , Ark Investment Management’s Cathie Wood, not only founded the company herself but also started by carving out a niche within a niche. Her funds are ETFs, or funds that trade like stocks, and while U.S. ETF assets currently clock in at $6 trillion, the industry didn’t hit $1 trillion until about 2011. What’s more, the Ark funds are unusual among ETFs because Wood actively picks stocks for most of them, rather than tracking indexes. But Ark’s not so niche anymore: Wood’s flagship fund, Ark Innovation ETF, gained 149% last year. It ballooned from about $1.5 billion in assets in March 2020 to a peak of $28 billion this past February., The biggest female-led fund is Vanguard Health Care Fund, with $49 billion in assets as of Dec. 31. It’s run by Jean Hynes at Wellington Management Co., a Boston-based asset manager that oversees more than $1 trillion. Hynes was hired after college in 1991 by Wellington as an administrative assistant and rose through the research and portfolio manager ranks over three decades. She takes over as , on July 1., Hynes sees things steadily improving. “For the first 20 years I’d be in meetings and most of the people were men, from company management to sell-side analysts to buy-side analysts,” Hynes says. “That began to change only about 15 years ago, when we saw more women in research roles. So I would expect to see more female portfolio managers in the future, even if it’s not showing in the data yet.”, Hynes credits Wellington’s veteran health-care fund manager Edward Owens, with whom she worked for 20 years, for mentoring her. From Day 1 she was able to work on investment research and learn financial modeling and other skills. In 1999 she was given the opportunity to run a biotech portfolio, all while she was pregnant with twins. Taking a chance on a pregnant 30-year-old woman “was very unusual at the time,” says Hynes. It’s that progression—from research to portfolio management—that often seems to be the missing link for women in the industry., There may also be a problem at the start of the career pipeline: A widespread perception that asset-management requires a mostly quantitative background. Among college entrants, , to earn degrees in science, technology engineering or math. Yet men and women alike with liberal arts degrees have long succeeded in asset management. Tracy Chen, a portfolio manager at Brandywine Global Investment Management, says the necessary skills go way beyond STEM. “Investing is getting different cycles right and understanding human nature,” says Chen, who has an MBA from the University of North Carolina as well as a Masters of Arts in American Studies. “The geopolitical picture is always very complex, so you also need a strong understanding of history.”, To help more women make the leap into portfolio management, Hynes says the industry needs more female role models. And there has to be a well-planned, deliberate effort to bring women in. “I have had a successful career, thanks to a great firm and mentor, but it was not deliberate,” she says., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Liz McCormick &. Date Created: 04 May 2021, 2:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Tax Loopholes Rich Cherish Biden [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: Biden Is Coming for the Tax Loopholes That the Rich Cherish. Short_description: Biden Is Coming for the Tax Loopholes That the Rich Cherish. Description: You’d expect taking money from the 1 Percent to be child’s play in a democracy. The 99 Percent have less money than the rich, but they have way more votes. In practice, Robin Hoodism isn’t so simple. Rich people can rightly make the case that they’re already picking up a big share of the nation’s tab for defense, social spending, and everything else. They can argue, more controversially, that raising their taxes will discourage them from working, inventing, and investing, to everyone’s detriment. And if all else fails, they can hire lawyers and accountants to minimize what they owe the Internal Revenue Service., President Joe Biden is determined nonetheless to , , whose share of the national wealth has , since the 1970s, and he has a strategy to overcome the inevitable resistance. His aim in the , is to combine provisions in such a way that the various parts work together to make higher taxes politically defensible and their collection feasible. If he manages to get his package passed more or less intact, many of the most widely used , will be foiled. The White House promises the , “will not only reverse the biggest 2017 tax law giveaways, but reform the tax code so that the wealthy have to play by the same rules as everyone else.”, Biden’s loophole-plugging playbook is evident in his proposed changes in how rich people’s capital gains on assets are taxed. The administration wants to raise the tax on capital gains to 39.6% after the first $1 million, making it the same as the rate on ordinary income. When combined with the existing 3.8% Medicare surtax on investment income, the total levy would , , the highest since the 1920s outside of a blip in 1978. The problem he faces is that capital gains are notoriously hard to tax. They aren’t taxed until the asset is sold, unlike wages, which are taxed when earned. If you don’t sell before you die, you don’t owe any capital-gains taxes, and your heirs will be taxed only on gains that occur from the time they inherit., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates the wealthiest 1% of U.S. households have as much as $1.5 trillion of unrealized capital gains on stocks alone. If Congress were to raise the tax rate on capital gains but do nothing else, the government’s revenue would fall by $33 billion over a decade, because the rich would hang on to more assets until death, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Penn Wharton Budget Model at the University of Pennsylvania., So Biden wants to blow apart that time-honored asset-protection strategy by declaring that from now on, wealthy people won’t be able to , —what’s sometimes called the Angel of Death loophole. Under his plan, their heirs would owe tax on an asset’s gains from original acquisition to time of sale. Knowing that a tax is inescapable would cause people to stop postponing realization of capital gains, says John Ricco, associate director of policy analysis at the , . That one change would turn Biden’s proposed capital-gains tax increase from a $33 billion revenue loser into a $113 billion revenue gainer, according to Ricco’s calculations. Including the estate tax, the Tax Foundation calculates, the federal government could eventually capture 61% of a $100 million capital gain., Biden is also trying to block the exits for companies with his previously announced , . Ordinarily, raising the rate that U.S. corporations pay on their profits to 28% from 21%, as he proposes, would cause companies to shift profits to countries with lower tax rates, depriving the U.S. Treasury of revenue. So the White House proposes coupling the higher tax with an all-out effort to get other countries to sign onto a , . Under a plan in the works with European nations, if a tax haven country like the Cayman Islands chose not to tax a company’s local profits, the nation where the company was headquartered could collect tax on the profits attributed to the haven, which in theory at least would eliminate the incentive for companies to use tax havens., President Donald Trump won passage of his , , which reduced taxes , , by including reductions in rates for other Americans as well. Biden is limiting his hikes to those earning more than $400,000 a year, with the bulk affecting those making $1 million a year or more. The spending side of his American Families Plan is aimed at the poor and middle class: two years of free preschool and two years of free community college; paid family and medical leave; automatic extension of unemployment insurance in recessions; and making permanent the refundable tax credits for child care and health insurance in the , , among other things. Those provisions could secure the votes of Democrats who might otherwise oppose tax hikes—and just maybe win over a Republican or two., To see how ambitious Biden’s tax agenda is, consider how hard it’s been for Democratic presidents to close what’s known as the , —the provision that allows partners at hedge funds and private equity firms to save on taxes by classifying their income as capital gains rather than ordinary income. Raising the tax on capital gains would automatically plug that loophole, but, for good measure, Biden is asking Congress to do away with the concept of carried interest. He also aims to cap a tax break known as the 1031(b) exchange that , when they exchange one property for another. And he wants Congress to make permanent Trump’s limit on the size of losses that certain businesses can claim as an offset to their taxable income., The biggest revenue raiser in the American Families Plan—$700 billion over 10 years—is also the easiest to sell politically: , . Because of budget cuts, the share of returns with adjusted gross income of $10 million or more that were examined by IRS auditors fell from 30% in fiscal year 2011 to 7% in fiscal year 2018. The White House cites an academic , published in March that shows the top 1% fail to report 20% of their income. Under-enforcement throws away easy money and erodes compliance across the board by making taxpayers wonder why they should pay when others are cheating., Even if it passes, Biden’s plan may not live up to supporters’ expectations. The collection of bank account data that’s intended to increase compliance threatens to drown the IRS “in a sea of unproductive information,” Steven Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, , on May 3. And the increase in capital-gains taxes may fall flat if rich families choose to postpone realizing gains on the chance that a future administration will restore the tax break at death, says Garrett Watson, a senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation. “They’re trying to look at things holistically, but what’s the backup plan if it doesn’t work?” he asks., Some Democrats are disappointed that the Biden plan doesn’t broaden the estate or gift taxes. Others from high-tax states such as New York want the president to restore full deductibility of state and local taxes (SALT), which the Trump legislation , . “I want to get all this stuff done, but no SALT, no deal,” says Democratic Representative Tom Suozzi of New York., Meanwhile, the forces opposed to raising taxes on the rich are digging in. “The 1 Percent is paying more than 40% of federal income taxes. Isn’t that enough?” Edward Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research Inc., wrote in a note to clients on May 3. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky called Biden’s plan a “liberal wish list.” At the Tax Foundation, economist Erica York wrote on April 30 that “the Biden administration has chosen to pursue inefficient tax increases that would undermine economic growth and reduce U.S. competitiveness.”, Those aren’t the voices Biden is heeding. Instead, he’s listening to the likes of Natasha Sarin, 31, who took leave from the University of Pennsylvania in March to join the Department of the Treasury as , . In a November , for Bloomberg Opinion, Sarin wrote that research she carried out with former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers suggested stronger enforcement of tax laws “could generate more than $1 trillion in the next decade—more than enough to fund important policy initiatives like universal pre-K and paid parental leave.” A January working paper she co-authored , that “raising capital-gains rates to ordinary income levels could raise $1 trillion more revenue over a decade than other estimates suggest.” A trillion here, a trillion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money., While economists continue to disagree over taxation, the debate’s center of gravity has moved leftward over the past generation. “It would be a mistake to assume that household and firm behavior does not respond to tax rates, but the consensus estimates of the size of these responses have probably declined in the last 25 years,” writes James Poterba, who heads the National Bureau of Economic Research, in an email: “That is largely the result of an ongoing stream of research studies, many of which find that the impact of taxes on taxpayer behavior are somewhat smaller than earlier studies suggested.” (Case in point: Bloomberg News found that some rich New Yorkers who , during the pandemic are , .), Daniel Shaviro, a professor of taxation at New York University School of Law, says when he worked as a congressional staffer on the landmark Tax Reform Act of 1986, the Chicago school ideology of free markets and small government reigned supreme in academia. Biden’s plan for corporate taxation, he says, reflects views that have become more prevalent in recent years. One is that much of the profit earned by big corporations is “excess,” that is, a product of monopoly power. Excess profits can be taxed away without stripping those businesses of the incentive to invest and grow, economists say., “The academic economic literature on capital taxation has for decades relied on a few canonical optimal tax models that forcefully argued that capital taxes play a minor role in an optimal tax system,” wrote a pair of Swedish economists, Spencer Bastani and Daniel Waldenstrom, in an , published in the , last year. “In recent years, however, scholars have started to recognize that these models do a rather poor job of explaining actual inequality in wealth and capital income, and new theoretical perspectives and empirical observations are challenging the established conventional wisdom.” In an interview, Waldenstrom says the new thinking could go too far, saying some scholars are ignoring the harm that high tax rates can do. “It really is a pendulum,” says NYU’s Shaviro, who says he agrees with the emerging “progressive consensus” for the most part. “Each era thinks they’re the end of history.”, Biden is trying to make history by reversing a decades-long downward trend in taxation of the rich. He has a bunch of economists on board, and he’s designed a plan that deals with enforceability and political doability. It still might not happen, but the 1 Percent has reason to worry.,  , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Peter Coy. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 1:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Butt Implants Demand Pandemic Data [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: Data Show Demand for Butt Implants Soared During the Pandemic. Short_description: Data Show Demand for Butt Implants Soared During the Pandemic. Description: The American Society of Plastic Surgeons has , that show broad declines in both minimally invasive and surgical cosmetic procedures as a result of pandemic closures in 2020, though differences in how long offices were closed and regional restrictions may have influenced some changes., Botox and soft-tissue fillers remained the most popular overall. But the biggest riser was butt implants, up 22%, from 970 to 1,179. (Implants are what provide volume; a butt lift merely turns a droopy pancake butt into a toned pancake butt.), Dermatologist Ava Shamban points to homebound stagnation—“modern-day ‘secretary spread,’ or a general flattening of the buttocks.” , The biggest drop was in hair transplants, which declined 60% since 2019, from more than 24,000 to fewer than 10,000., Dr. Gary Linkov, a facial and hair plastic surgeon in New York, attributes it, in part, to regulatory measures that led to “the decline of ‘turnkey operations’ such as SmartGraft or NeoGraft, where plastic surgeons buy a machine that comes with technicians on demand.”, There was an 8% uptick in breast implant removals last year. According to Dr. Lisa Cassileth of Cassileth Plastic Surgery and Skincare, implants have a shelf life and will eventually fail. “The population of aging implants is getting greater every year, so part of this is just a reflection of the boom we have had in implants over the years.”, For patients who have been contemplating implant removal for years, more downtime and remote work environments were motivating factors as well., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Aja Mangum &. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 2:10 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to end close line coal [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: Coal Is Getting Even Closer to the End of Its Line. Short_description: Coal Is Getting Even Closer to the End of Its Line. Description: In 2020, Americans used 447 million short tons (to distinguish from metric tons) of coal. That’s enough to fill , , which sounds like a lot. But it’s also the country’s lowest , since 1965, and even that barely hints at the historical territory coal may soon explore. A few more years at the downward pace of the past decade, and U.S. coal use will reach levels last seen , ., This year coal is getting a respite as a roaring economic recovery boosts electricity demand after last year’s , . The U.S. Energy Information Administration , a 12% increase in coal consumption for the year and a slight increase in 2022. After that, though, it’s hard to see what could stand in the way of a resumption of the decline, which averaged 5% a year in the decade before the pandemic., Most of the market-share loss so far has been to fracked natural gas, but the combination of cheap wind and solar power plus better batteries will likely push coal’s continued decline. Donald Trump’s , failed to slow its downward spiral; President Joe Biden’s , will aim to accelerate it. By 2030, BloombergNEF forecasts, electricity generation from coal will have fallen to about half of 2020’s depressed level., Coal , in the late 1880s, displacing the forest-destroying practice of burning wood. It ceded the top spot to petroleum in 1950 but enjoyed a late-20th-century renaissance as the primary fuel for power plants. Now its long and useful—if environmentally costly—run in the U.S. would seem to be nearing an end., Employment in U.S. coal mining peaked long before coal consumption did, hitting a high of 863,000 workers in 1923. In 2007, when coal use peaked, it was 77,000. In March , . , U.S. coal use fell at a 5.2% annual pace during Barack Obama’s presidency and at a 10.1% pace during Trump’s. , Of the coal consumed in the U.S. in 2020, 91% was burned to generate electricity, with almost all the rest used for steelmaking and other industrial purposes. , In the U.K., where the coal-fueled Industrial Revolution began, , has fallen below the 10 million metric tons , to have first reached in the 1790s. , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Justin Fox. Date Created: 03 May 2021, 3:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Raw Sewage Bloody Hand mile rv Pool [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: I Drove 1,100 Miles in an RV, and All I Got Was a Bloody Hand and a Pool of Raw Sewage. Short_description: I Drove 1,100 Miles in an RV, and All I Got Was a Bloody Hand and a Pool of Raw Sewage. Description: Forest River’s Sunseeker Classic motor home is built on a Ford E-450 chassis, framed with vacuum-bonded laminate, and crammed with features the armchair outdoorsman would never consider. On the 31-foot model I piloted recently, those included a propane furnace to keep the cabin toasty in freezing temperatures, two refrigerators (one for the indoor kitchen and one for the outdoor one), three sleeping areas, and dozens of cabinets, drawers, and compartments to conceal disorder., All that engineering was pretty satisfying at the campsite. On the road it was noisy, adding clatter and a little bit of mystery—, —to the task of keeping a 14,500-pound motor home upright going over winding mountain roads and through crowded interchanges. At least that’s how I saw it. Like a real RV dad, I was doing my best to ignore the complaints of the unhappy campers with whom I was sharing the cabin. My kids had been slugging each other periodically, and when the iPad ran out of juice they tossed markers in my direction. My wife, Eleanor, had a premonition somewhere in the Allegheny Mountains and was now certain our brakes were about to give out. And that was before I opened an artery in my hand with a hatchet and wound up riding an ambulance from an obscure state park to an emergency room, asking myself how, exactly, I’d come to believe this would be a relaxing vacation., It had started some months earlier, when I’d convinced the editors of , that we should visit Elkhart, Ind., where the world’s largest RV companies are based. Elkhart, which is about halfway between Ohio and Illinois and just south of the Michigan state line, may not be known as a tourist destination. But, as I’d insisted to Eleanor, it’s a surprisingly bucolic place, where Amish farms mix with factories., The vaccine was just starting to become , when we arrived at the end of March, and RVs remained compelling to travelers understandably turned off by the idea of sharing an airport waiting room or hotel lounge with a nose-masking stranger. Meanwhile, large portions of the American workforce were continuing to log in to the office virtually, creating an opportunity for the younger and more adventurous to , , integrating their jobs into the #vanlife. Even the Oscar-winning film , romanticized this lifestyle in its own way., The pandemic has been good for owners of vacation rental properties and shareholders of Airbnb Inc. It’s also been , . After all, a motor home (or travel trailer, which is an RV you drag behind your car or truck) is like a , , perfect for indoorsy types who still enjoy national parks and retirees looking for a safe way to drive across the country to see their grandchildren. And so, starting last spring, people began canceling European honeymoons and going to RV dealerships instead. The motor-home-curious flocked to rental offices and Airbnb-style sharing websites. This drove so much demand for new RVs that by the time we got to Elkhart, help wanted signs were calling out from factory gates and roadside billboards., Conventional wisdom says that workers and vacationers are on the road back to pre-pandemic norms. But it’s also possible that the , signals the beginning of a longer-term trend—a future in which tech executives and second-grade teachers finish their last Zoom of the day, emerge from their respective travel trailers to gather around a campfire, and unwind over cold beers and hot s’mores. Let’s hope they’ll all be trained to chop kindling safely., There was really only one way to find out how realistic that vision was. When the kids’ school headed into spring break, I took the family to Elkhart, picked up the Sunseeker, and hit the road.,  , The vacation, such as it was, started at the Thor Motor Coach Class B plant in Bristol, Ind., right outside Elkhart. It was, to the extent such a thing is possible, ground zero for the RV boom—the place where the biggest company makes its hottest models. Although a cold front was threatening ominously, it was sunny. Inside, workers wearing T-shirts ducked in and out of a procession of Ram ProMasters that snaked around the factory floor. Plumbers, carpenters, and electricians did their thing. A horn would honk, and a van shell would roll down the line to the next station., Indiana, where more than 80% of North America’s RVs are made, came to play an outsize role in the industry more or less by accident. In one version of the story, the son of a prominent Elkhart merchant was captivated by the travel trailers he’d encountered at the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago and begged his parents for startup capital. His success inspired other entrepreneurs, and a network of companies sprung up to manufacture motor homes and supply the nascent industry with specialized suspension systems, gas ranges, and refrigerators. Over the decades, the ranks of once independent RV companies consolidated into a small group of conglomerates, the biggest of which are in Elkhart., Thor Industries Inc., which accounted for roughly 40% of all RV sales last year, is one of them. The company was founded in 1980 by a descendant of the brewer Adolphus Busch and spent the ensuing four decades acquiring manufacturers, including Airstream Inc., Jayco Inc., and a dozen other makes you’ve probably gawked at on the highway. Thor’s lineage and its thirst for acquisitions make it a little like the Anheuser-Busch of motor homes. Forest River Inc., which is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., and which owns Coachmen RV, Shasta RV, and other manufacturers, is the second-biggest: the industry’s Heineken, as it were. Forest River is based in Elkhart, too., Thor, like the rest of the industry, had been focused on building travel trailers and larger motorized coaches, which might have a washer-dryer and theater seating. But in recent years Class B motor homes—what the rest of us call camper vans—have been the fastest-growing segment. Class B vehicles are easier to drive without sacrificing too many amenities. Thor’s TMC Tellaro, for instance, is a 20-footer that can sleep up to four semicomfortably. Depending on the model, it can also cram in two propane burners, a microwave, a kitchen sink, a full (if tiny) bath, and an innovation called a cassette toilet—a commode that empties into a tank that works like a rollaway suitcase. That feature, I was told, is big in Europe., Factories in Elkhart County shut down in March 2020 and reopened in May. But despite having been offline for two months, manufacturers delivered more RVs last year than they did the year before. More than 530,000 vehicles will be shipped to North American RV dealers this year, a record, according to estimates from the RV Industry Association., “Our products were kind of built for something like this,” said Thor Chief Executive Officer Bob Martin, a former offensive lineman at Purdue University who spoke to me across the length of a conference table overlooking the scenic St. Joseph River. RVs had normally been the domain of snowbirds, motor sports enthusiasts, mountain climbers, pet owners, pro golfers, touring rock bands, and all manner of germophobes. The pandemic has added to those ranks, created new ones, and, of course, proved the germophobes right. “Our customers think about those kinds of things,” he said. “They know who cleaned their RV, because they cleaned it. They know who has been allowed in the unit, because it’s their unit.”,  , The earliest RVs were basically tents on wheels, covered wagons that hitched to cars instead of horses. But it didn’t take long for a group of entrepreneurs to realize they could make more money by complicating things. By the late 1930s, Elkhart was already delivering extravagant travel trailers that anticipated the bigger-is-better “fifth wheels” (a technical term for a trailer that hangs over the bed of a pickup truck). Some innovations, like the slide-out sections that make an RV wider at the campsite, were widely adopted. Others were not. Long before it was acquired by Thor, Jayco made a pontoon-camper hybrid called the Camp-n-Cruise. It sold poorly. Winnebago Industries Inc., based in Iowa, briefly sold a flying RV called the Heli-Home. “It was a neat idea,” said Al Hesselbart, the retired staff historian at Elkhart’s , , a facility dedicated to the glories of recreational vehicles and manufactured housing. “But it was one of those giant steps that was way too big for the customers.”, These days RV companies are still cramming their products full of products. , include gas fireplaces and heated tile floors. The plant manager at Rev Group Inc.’s Renegade RV factory bragged about the Amish-built cabinetry his employees were installing. An executive at Gulf Stream Coach Inc. boasted of his company’s “cradle of strength” system for lowering the vehicle’s center of gravity and making it easier to drive. At Nexus RV, co-founder Claude Donati showed off 4x4 drivetrains aimed at improving towing capacity, perfect for hauling a $200,000 sports car behind a $200,000 RV., Their enthusiasm was only slightly diminished by rising production costs. Skilled workers in need of employment are , in northern Indiana right now, and good ones are commanding higher wages, said Donati. Finding parts is an even bigger problem. When Nexus’ normal supplier of wheel well liners ran out of inventory this spring, the company found them on Amazon. It bought mattresses online at Wayfair and generators off the shelf at a Menards hardware store. “It’s like, do we ship it without a generator?” Donati asked. “You might be putting someone in a position not to have as much fun.”, I’d rented our Sunseeker from an outfit called Road Bear RV, which, as it turned out, was facing a similar predicament. A week before we arrived—we drove a normal rental car to get there—I got an email from the reservation desk alerting me to a pitfall of renting an RV in March: I could hook up the RV to a water supply, but I’d have to take responsibility if the pipes burst. This didn’t seem like a big deal at the time, but then the cold front swept in, promising overnight temperatures in the 20s. The safe plan, a Road Bear representative said, would be to camp without running water., If Road Bear was worried I’d get an incomplete experience, they didn’t show it. RV rental companies, much like the rest of the industry, have spent the past year riding the Covid-19 roller coaster. Road Bear and its sister company, El Monte RV, had traditionally done most of their business with tourists from Europe, who were shut out of the U.S. by travel bans. But domestic demand was more than picking up the slack. Road Bear’s parent, a company in Auckland that had started out running helicopter tours in New Zealand, increased U.S. rental revenue 30% in the second half of 2020, compared with the year before., The Road Bear rental office was situated in the back corner of an empty lot on Forest River’s Elkhart campus, in a corrugated metal building that would have looked to the uninitiated like a good place to do something illegal. Inside, a counter was mounted in front of the broadside of a motor home called a Coachmen Leprechaun. Would our RV lead us to a pot of gold or a pot of something else? A clerk took my credit card and handed over a packet of toilet chemicals., We had rented the RV through Road Bear’s factory direct program, an offering it developed to help solve a key logistical problem. The company manufactures its RVs in Indiana, but its offices are near major cities. So Road Bear offers renters their choice of the company’s RVs for $9 a day to pick up a motor home in Elkhart and drive it to a rental location. After insurance, campsite fees, and gas, our trip worked out to about $170 a day., At first glance, the Sunseeker compared well to the types of hotel rooms we could get for the money. For one thing, there was a semblance of privacy: My 7-year-old daughter claimed the loft over the cab, and my 5-year-old son slept on the pull-out sofa in the living area. My wife and I had the master bedroom at the back, with wardrobes and a television., On the other hand, the Sunseeker was a lot more complicated to operate than a two-queen room at the Hilton. When we took possession of the motor home, a Road Bear employee spent 15 minutes walking us around the vehicle while delivering a series of commandments. Start the engine and engage the emergency brake before you extend the slide-outs. Turn off the propane before you fill the gas tank. If you must use the toilet, flush with windshield wiper fluid, because it has a lower freezing point than water., We camped in Elkhart that evening, celebrating Eleanor’s birthday with McDonald’s and cheesecake, and soon realized that the Road Bear tutorial had been somewhat inadequate. The RV beeped and buzzed for reasons we couldn’t account for. The internet told us to make sure we flipped the breaker before plugging an RV into a power source, but there was no breaker in the electrical box at our first parking slot. I took a breath, imagined offing my family in an electrical explosion, and plugged in. Nothing bad happened, but a couple of hours later we had to spend 10 minutes looking for an elusive light switch. I woke up cold in the middle of the night, dialed up the thermostat, and then smelled something burning. A bit of Googling indicated that the smell was probably just construction debris left in the furnace. To be safe, I turned off the heat and went back to sleep., I’d been warned that a new RV takes a little while to get used to, and moreover that RVing was a lifestyle for people with a certain capacity for self-reliance. RVers had to be comfortable driving a big rig and making minor repairs. Yes, they appreciated modern conveniences such as dishwashers and satellite television, but they also didn’t mind cramming themselves into tiny showers or acquiring a basic understanding of electrical system design., Even before we left Elkhart, it was clear my family might not quite meet this description. I had bought the hatchet as a joke—it was on one of the checklists we’d found on the internet covering what to pack on an RV trip—and I figured I’d buy wood and fire-starters like any basic urbanite. But there’s something about having driven a rickety house-car up a windy Appalachian hillside that makes you feel vastly more capable than you actually are. And so I found myself making kindling at , near Beckley, W.Va. A light snow was falling, and my children pulled up their camp chairs to watch me nurse the fire while Eleanor cooked burgers on the electric stove that folded down from the motor home’s outdoor kitchen. Then my hatchet blade slipped. I didn’t feel pain, at least not at first., Getting to the emergency room in rural West Virginia seemed like it would be an order of magnitude harder than plugging in a motor home. My first instinct was to wrap my wound in a towel and hope. Eleanor didn’t think that was a solution and called 911. By 2 a.m.—after a 30-minute ambulance ride to Raleigh General Hospital, where the staff sewed me up and called me a cab back to the campsite—I faced a new set of questions., Could I drive the Sunseeker with nine stitches in my hand? (I thought so.) Did Eleanor want to drive? (No. She didn’t.) Were our collective nerves too fried to face another drive through the mountains? (Yes.) Did we have enough propane in the tank to last another day of freezing temperatures? (Maybe?) In the end, we spent a rest day in Little Beaver, ordered Domino’s, and shut the doors against the cold.,  , The guy dressed like Ranger Smith at the camp store in Luray, Va., heard me say my name and made a crack about Clark Griswold, the everyman played by Chevy Chase who dragged his family through hilarious misadventures in the , movies. I didn’t mind. , resort, the Yogi Bear-themed chain of RV campgrounds, felt like a party, and, after the ER visit, a relatively safe one. Kids jumped on bouncy pillows and waved at a bear who was riding around on the back of a golf cart. Adults played classic rock at respectful volumes and tended their fires., A strange thing about RVing is that you can theoretically go anywhere, but many people take their vehicles to glorified parking lots so they can make camp 20 feet away from the next group. This is not universally true: Some stay for free at Walmart parking lots and national forests. But RVers—like motorcyclists and Jeep people—like being around their own kind. That often means in diagonal rows of RV-size spaces, each one with an electrical box, a water spigot, and a hole in the ground to connect the tube that empties waste. Usually there’s a picnic table. Sometimes there’s a way to hook up to cable TV., The Luray Jellystone was a little bit like that, but its RV sites were built into a hillside and along a grassy quad, making it feel less like a parking lot and more like a summer camp, where we could enjoy the kinship of a hundred or so families who also recognized the pleasures and pains of vacationing in a house-car. The temperature had started climbing, and so we were able to plug the Sunseeker into the municipal water supply. I flipped the switch on the electric water heater (having learned to conserve propane) and took a hot shower. More important, I was finally able to complete an important rite of passage: I got to empty the wastewater tank., Our campsite at Jellystone didn’t have a sewage hookup, and it took two laps around the park before I managed to pull up on the correct side of the communal dumping station. I affixed one end of an accordion tube to the Sunseeker’s undercarriage, screwed the other end to a concrete basin, and pulled a gray handle to empty water from the sinks and shower., It was easier than I expected, but there was a catch. Everything on the Sunseeker was new, but the tube that Road Bear had supplied me with was not, and when I pulled the plunger, water poured through slits in its midsection. I should have realized what would happen next, but then I pulled the handle to release the toilet tank. Wastewater came pouring through the slits and onto the gravel road next to the basin. In a flash, I understood the appeal of Thor’s poop suitcase., On the drive north from Virginia, we assessed the vacation. I had liked driving the RV, clatter and all, and loved pressing the button that made it expand, though the size of the vehicle made it inconvenient for side trips and excursions. Eleanor agreed that the Sunseeker was big enough to provide a bit of privacy, but small enough to be an intimate space for a family of four. That was nice. It had probably been a worthwhile adventure, and she would never do it again., Which was fine. I got my first vaccine shot shortly after we returned the Sunseeker to the Road Bear office in industrial New Jersey. A few days later we booked airplane tickets to visit family in Florida. The kids went back to school full time, a triumphant moment that signaled the end of what for me had been the most difficult and best parts of the pandemic. Trying to maintain Zoom-school discipline and tending to the emotions of kids who’d been separated from their friends was terrible. On the other hand, I’ll probably never spend as much time with them again., I didn’t know it, but when I stepped out of the puddle of wastewater at Jellystone Park, the worst of the pandemic was probably behind us in the U.S. (Fingers crossed.) There had been a water hose nearby, but I couldn’t figure out how to get it to work, so I gave up on cleaning up after myself and approached the driver behind me to apologize. It’s our first time doing this, I told him. We rented this thing. I kind of made a mess., “That’s OK,” he said. “I hope you had a good time.”,  , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Patrick Clark. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 2:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to New Wave Vaccines ran [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: A New Wave of Vaccines Is Coming, and They’re Not All Also-Rans. Short_description: The current vaccine manufacturers are leaving little room for new entrants. So why are dozens of hopefuls still working on shots?. Description: The , has given drugmakers the kind of brand-name shorthand usually reserved for more mundane consumer products: People talk about getting Pfizer, Moderna, J&J, or Astra much as they might reach for a Kleenex or a Popsicle. And those companies have contracts to provide , , appearing to leave little room for other entrants. So why are dozens of hopefuls still working on shots?, The answer is that while early leaders stand to book immense profits, the problem is big enough—and the continuing challenges daunting enough—to leave room for at least a few more companies. The offerings of two that got to the market quickly, AstraZeneca Plc and Johnson & Johnson, have been linked to , , slowing their rollout. The handling requirements and high cost of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech messenger RNA vaccines mean , would welcome a cheaper, easier-to-ship alternative. And the , opens the door to shots that target the evolving coronavirus. “While we’re thrilled with the vaccines that we have, and we’re so lucky that these vaccines turned out to have such high efficacy and a good safety profile, we can improve further,” says Soumya Swaminathan, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist., Including offerings from China, Russia, and India, 11 vaccines have been , in various countries, according to researcher Airfinity Ltd. The WHO says there are a total of 93 vaccines in human trials around the world, and an additional 184 are being studied in the lab. While there won’t be demand for anywhere near that number, a handful of later arrivals have strong prospects in a market likely to see sales approaching $50 billion this year alone., Like Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, CureVac—a small German company that’s teamed up with automaker Tesla to make portable drug “printers”—is developing a shot based on mRNA, which turns the body’s cells into tiny vaccine factories. CureVac has moved more slowly, running trials on animals and working to create a version that’s stable at refrigerator temperatures, unlike the deep freeze required for the first generation of mRNA shots. Its clinical trial results are due soon, and if they’re positive, CureVac has said Europe could , by June. The company is , U.K. pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline Plc on a next-generation shot that would protect against multiple strains of the virus., Novavax Inc., an American vaccine developer that’s been in business for more than three decades but hasn’t yet brought a product to market, has told investors that it could get U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance by May—and it got a shoutout from President Joe Biden in a White House ceremony in April. There are strong grounds for thinking it will succeed: The company already released , showing 89.7% efficacy against Covid symptoms and is waiting for results from a larger study in the U.S. “We’ve got a product that is clearly at the top of the list of vaccines,” Stanley Erck, Novavax’s chief executive officer, told investors., Also expected before the end of the year is a vaccine jointly produced by , . Their shot was delayed last year after underwhelming results in older people, showing how tricky vaccine development can be. Still, good trial results with a stronger version of the product—which relies on recombinant DNA, the technology Sanofi uses in its flu shots—would make the team a contender. And Sanofi is working on an mRNA shot with another partner that could be available by next spring. “We’re learning every day,” Thomas Triomphe, head of Sanofi’s vaccine unit, told investors in April. “That’s true for all the different vaccine types. And we’re going to keep learning.”, That doesn’t leave much space for even later arrivals, but many companies insist they can still bring something unique to the table. Some aim to create shots proven to be effective for at-risk groups such as cancer patients. Others are developing pills, which could speed inoculation programs, or products akin to a nicotine patch that could both cheaply deliver the vaccine and measure a person’s immune response to it. Valneva SE, a French company that’s using an inactivated version of the coronavirus, says its approach could result in a good booster that would protect against variants that can evade more-targeted shots. And Altimmune Inc., based in Maryland, is working on a nasal spray, which it says would be more effective than shots because the vaccine would be delivered directly to the respiratory tract. “If Covid-19 becomes endemic, we’re going to need yearly boosts,” CEO Vipin Garg said on an earnings call. “So it really doesn’t matter what vaccine people received at the beginning.”, The world is still waiting for the Covid-vaccine dream: a single-dose version that’s inexpensive, highly effective, easy to deliver, and presents no safety concerns. With the path out of the pandemic still unclear as variants spread and countries such as India reel from record infections, it’s smart to continue work on a broad range of technologies, says Ravindra Gupta, a professor of clinical microbiology at Cambridge University’s Institute for Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Diseases. “We don’t really know, longer term, what’s going to be most effective,” Gupta says. “The more options we have, the better.” , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Naomi Kresge &. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 9:31 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to tiktok choose Songs viral [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: How TikTok Chooses Which Songs Go Viral. Short_description: Why do certain videos go viral on the "For You" page? It might seem spontaneous. It's not.. Description: When Megan Thee Stallion took off her bright orange mask and walked onstage to accept her Grammy on March 14, she fought back tears and , God, her mother, and her managers for helping her become the first female rapper to win the award for best new artist in two decades. But the rapper, whose real name is Megan Pete, made no mention of another entity that helped turn her song , into a No. 1 hit: the mobile app TikTok., TikTok, a social network where people post short videos, often set to music, has become this generation’s , . Like many TikTok sensations, , appeared to bubble up spontaneously from the enthusiasm of its users, who choreographed their own dances for the song, introducing it to other fans who watched those videos tens of millions of times. That mysterious formula for success on TikTok has turned the app into the most important new social media platform in years—which in turn thrust it into the center of a major geopolitical dispute., But the success of , didn’t come out of nowhere. It resulted from a savvy marketing campaign, where TikTok’s management analyzed user data and advised Pete’s label on how to promote her, eventually landing on the infectious hit as the best vehicle to do so. Social media has always been less spontaneous than it appears, but from its inception, TikTok has been even more controlled than competing apps. Company executives help determine which videos go viral, which clips appear on the pages of personalized recommendations, and which trends spill out from the app to flood the rest of the world., TikTok’s hold on American culture began with Alex Zhu, who started Musical.ly, the lip-syncing app that turned into what we now know as TikTok. Zhu grew up in China and studied civil engineering at Zhejiang University. He went to San Francisco to work at global software company SAP SE. On a train ride through Silicon Valley in 2014, Zhu was fascinated by the American teenagers listening to music and shooting video on their phones and decided to create an app that joined the two., Although tech companies have often , , Zhu’s plan was always to work with the music industry rather than disrupt it. Zhu, 36 at the time, obsessively tracked user behavior, even registering fake accounts to interact with elementary and middle school kids. He personally courted rising stars by calling them and their parents at home and taking their families out to dinner. Zhu, through a company spokesperson, declined to comment., Chinese company ByteDance Ltd. bought Musical.ly in 2017. A year later, after folding it into TikTok, ByteDance Chief Executive Officer Zhang Yiming imbued the platform with advanced artificial intelligence technology and a roughly billion-dollar marketing budget to draw in hundreds of millions of users. For the TikTok rebranding, employees spent hours calling creators to ask them personally to stay on the app. They explained that the app, which had just been bought by a Chinese company with deep pockets, would be a big deal for creators, says Michael Buzinover, a TikTok product manager., To drive downloads, TikTok tried to ensure that creators, musicians, and advertisers were making money, too. Executives in Los Angeles and Beijing, where ByteDance was founded, left little up to chance: TikTok assigned individual managers to thousands of stars to help with everything, whether tech support or college tuition, inspiring a sense of loyalty among creators. TikTok regularly advises popular creators on which hashtags and features are important to the app and its advertisers, who are often guaranteed a minimum number of views per campaign. TikTok also connects creators with brands and musicians, which regularly results in paid partnerships., Top users receive weekly emails with instructions on which videos to make to increase their exposure, says , , a 19-year-old TikTok creator from Florida with 8.5 million followers, who makes about $20,000 a month on TikTok. “I actually tested it out,” she says of a mirror filter her manager asked her to promote that allows users to clone their face. “The videos did super well. It wasn’t something I would typically post, but I just wanted to try it out. Because she said so.” (A TikTok spokesperson says trends still happen organically on the app.), This approach differed greatly from the early operations of Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc., where most things would start trending after lots of people posted about the same thing. American tech companies saw themselves as , , and didn’t wheedle users to post about certain things, says Karyn Spencer, who ran creator development for Twitter’s video platform Vine before a , forced the app’s shutdown. That ideology has changed somewhat as the companies have grown, especially on Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube and Facebook’s Instagram, which increasingly , ., Pete’s record label, , , was working with TikTok to promote her album , early last year, right before the Covid pandemic hit. The label initially picked a focus of its campaign—the song , . But TikTok urged the label to put five tracks on the platform to monitor various metrics before committing to a song. Almost immediately, TikTok users took to another track, , . The rate at which users were saving snippets of the song to their private “sounds” folders for future use was “growing exponentially,” says Isabel Quinteros Annous, TikTok’s head of music partnerships. Then, she says, TikTok deliberately let the song “simmer” on the app for a number of days before placing it in the all-important playlists and banner ads at the top of its search page and sound library, where users select music for videos. “We held promo levers to just let the sound mature to the right point where then, when we pulled everything we had against it, it just propelled it to No. 1,” she says., TikTok hosted Pete for a live event during the early days of the quarantine and helped popularize the , , named after a dance routine created by Keara Wilson, a 20-year-old TikTok user in Texas. Wilson, who’s been hired to create similar dances for rapper T-Pain and other stars, said she wasn’t paid to create the , dance. But Pete’s label, 300, did run an , , and TikTok megastars Charli D’Amelio, Addison Rae, and Hailey and Justin Bieber posted videos of the #SavageChallenge to their more than 200 million followers. Pete herself then performed the challenge in a TikTok post while wearing , ’s Savage X Fenty lingerie line, helping drive sales for Pete’s brand partner., As , was blowing up the charts, TikTok and its Chinese parent company were facing a political crisis stemming from deteriorating relations between the U.S and China. American politicians aired concerns about , , the nature of TikTok’s , , and the potential that the app could be used as a , . In June of 2020, President Donald Trump held a poorly attended campaign rally, and some people blamed the low turnout on a , from thousands of TikTok users. By August, claiming national security concerns, Trump issued a pair of executive orders that required ByteDance to sell part of its business to an American company or face a U.S. ban., Zhang, ByteDance’s CEO, discussed deals with a number of U.S. tech giants but ultimately decided to wait out the crisis, anticipating less hostility after the presidential election. In the meantime, a group of American social media influencers sued the Trump administration, charging that the ban would , . It appeared to be a grassroots effort, led by a fashion designer, a comedian, and a musician who had about 8 million TikTok followers among them. “TikTok is all about using your voice to reach a global audience, and this is what the First Amendment is all about,” , 21-year-old Cosette Rinab, the fashion designer, on TikTok. “The president’s executive order is violating our freedom.”, In fact the lawsuit was orchestrated by TikTok and ByteDance, according to a person familiar with the case who was not authorized to speak publicly. The company recruited the creators, connected them with a well-known First Amendment lawyer, and helped craft the legal tactics, this person says. The strategy worked: ByteDance got a reprieve when Trump left office and the Biden administration put an official hold on the former president’s ban. TikTok became the most downloaded app in 2020, surpassing Facebook, according to App Annie., It was the kind of soft power that Zhang had sought for years to influence the U.S. market, says Brett Bruen, a former Obama administration diplomat. “It’s not Washington vs. Beijing or TikTok vs. Trump. It’s this army of influencers,” he says. Just like with choosing the next hit song, TikTok was happy to have it appear as if the ones deciding on the agenda were its users themselves. ,  , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Shelly Banjo. Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 9:31 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Financial Advisers Rich Clients Tax Hike Biden [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: What Financial Advisers Are Telling Rich Clients About Biden’s Tax Hike. Short_description: What Financial Advisers Are Telling Rich Clients About Biden’s Tax Hike. Description: President Joe Biden’s proposal to roughly , for the rich has put financial advisers in the unusual position of acting as part therapist and part fortune teller. , are coming in from clients surprised to see that what they’d dismissed as rhetoric from the 2020 election campaign has come out this week as concrete White House proposals., Advisers are telling them to keep calm, but they’re also counseling to prepare for action—bringing forward planned asset sales, shedding stock, reallocating investments, and even restructuring income. “Don’t do anything drastic just yet,” Ed Reitmeyer, a partner at accounting company Marcum LLP, is telling his clients. “The world isn’t over because of a higher capital-gains tax rate.”, It may not be over, but it would be changed. For individuals and couples earning more than $1 million, Biden is proposing to increase the tax rate on profits realized when an asset is sold to 39.6%. He also wants to end a , that wipes away taxable capital gains at death, allowing families to escape taxes on appreciated assets when they’re inherited., The current capital-gains tax rate is 20%, one of the lowest levels in the 100-year history of special tax rates for investments. Depending on how the , shapes up in the coming months in Congress, the richest Americans can expect larger tax bills in the future. The White House says the new top capital-gains rate—43.4% when including a surtax to help pay for the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare—applies to 0.3% of taxpayers, or about 500,000 households., Although relatively small in number, those taxpayers , in their share of wealth. Looking at only a slightly larger slice, the richest 1% of households are sitting on as much as $1.5 trillion of unrealized capital gains on equities, according to calculations by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., “Of course clients are worried,” says Chris Pegg, senior director of wealth planning for Wells Fargo Wealth & Investment Management. Especially concerned: those planning big taxable transactions such as sales of businesses, he says. The uncertain path for the legislation doesn’t dispel the angst, either. “You really can’t tell what’s coming, and yet you have to plan anyway.”, Capital-gains taxes are paid only when an asset is sold, so some investors could plan to hold on indefinitely and perhaps bypass any higher rates under Biden if Republicans win back power in Congress and reduce them in the future. Advisers are , those needing to move sooner, or who are less optimistic about future tax cuts, to think about speeding up transactions or to look at ways to minimize the bite., “We may be in a position to convince our clients to sell down some of those holdings and pay capital gains at a lower rate before those tax rates double,” says Tony Roth, chief investment officer of Wilmington Trust Investment Advisors Inc. Speaking on Bloomberg TV last week, he flagged unrealized gains on tech shares in particular as an asset ripe to consider locking in gains., But some advisers are finding clients hesitant to sell, after years of being told to do anything to avoid triggering a taxable event. “We have one of the lowest capital-gains rates in history right now, but my clients still don’t pay capital gains. They still don’t sell stock. They don’t like taking any gains,” says Austin Frye, a wealth adviser in Miami., There is some risk in acting too soon. Biden’s proposal is an opening bid. Democrats in Congress are already reshaping the plan, and any proposal has to clear razor-thin margins in both the House and Senate. In all likelihood, any final legislation will be more moderate and include some combination of lower rates or more carve-outs than what’s detailed in the Biden plan., More alarmingly for the wealthy, Congress also has the power to make the changes retroactive, to the start of 2021 or even earlier. But signs are that’s not the White House’s preference. “Retroactively is generally not favored,” says Todd Simmens, a former legislative counsel to the Joint Committee on Taxation, who now works for accounting firm BDO. “If folks are planning for some changes, it would be safe and prudent to assume that the changes are effective in January 2022.”, One strategy for investors who are convinced their current holdings will keep growing in value: selling, paying the tax at today’s rate, then buying the asset back. This course of action sets a new, higher purchase price that minimizes any future levy, says Todd Morgan, chairman at Bel Air Investment Advisors in Los Angeles. That approach could work well for an asset such as Tesla Inc., whose stock has increased almost 700% since the start of 2020, or Bitcoin, which was just about worthless a decade ago but , . , “Wealthy individuals and investors generally have the ability to hold for as long as they want” and usually borrow against their portfolios if they need money for current use, says Alison Hutchinson, managing director at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. If the rules change, however, investors may decide to sell before the changes go into effect., One other new problem the wealthy could face is increased IRS scrutiny, something that has support from both Democrats and Republicans. Biden wants $80 billion for the IRS to , in the coming decade., The most obvious way to avoid higher capital-gains rates is to keep income less than $1 million in any given year. Marya Robben, an estate-planning attorney at Lathrop GPM in Minneapolis, says her executive clients may want to shift more income into deferred compensation plans. Pegg at Wells Fargo notes that sales of property or private businesses could be structured in ways that buyers pay sellers over a period of several years, spreading out that income., As always with complicated regulations, it pays to pore over the fine print. Changes “will be designed with protections” for family-owned businesses and farms, allowing “heirs who continue to run the business” to avoid paying taxes, a White House , says. “It will be interesting to see how you define these things,” Hutchinson says., If the tax-hike legislation does pass this year, wealthy investors could have only a couple of months—or even a few weeks if the negotiations drag on long enough—to react before the changes take effect. “You might want to accelerate income. You might want to defer deductions to a time when they would be more valuable,” Pegg says. “If you think you can get the deal done, get the deal done.” —,  , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Laura Davison &. Date Created: 30 Apr 2021, 2:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to wrong voting [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: What Everyone Gets Wrong About Voting. Short_description: What Everyone Gets Wrong About Voting. Description: What happened in the 2020 U.S. election? Here’s a quick summary that may sound familiar. Spurred by the coronavirus pandemic, states expanded early voting and voting by mail, leading to historic turnout that helped Joe Biden win., The problem: Almost everything about that summary is likely wrong., Recent studies have confirmed that changes to voting in 2020 had little or no effect on turnout, and even though Democrats took more advantage of mail voting, there’s no evidence that those voters wouldn’t have shown up anyway. And if there was a partisan benefit from expanding voting by mail, it probably helped Republicans, not Democrats., These misconceptions aren’t just a matter of historical interest. Along with other urban legends about how elections work, they appear to be driving legislation at the state and federal level that would change how elections are run in the future., State lawmakers across the country have filed more than 1,200 bills seeking to , , with Republicans looking to roll back early and absentee voting and Democrats seeking to make voter registration , . In Congress, House Democrats have passed a bill, H.R. 1, that would require states to offer early voting and expand access to voting by mail, but it remains , in the Senate because of Republican opposition., Here’s what we know about how voting works, based on years of quantitative studies., It isn’t. , that many Americans regard voter fraud as a major problem, a view encouraged by Donald Trump and his baseless claims about the 2020 election. But the most thorough survey of election fraud cases, compiled by the Heritage Foundation, found just over 1,200 cases in 20 years, resulting in 143 criminal convictions. , , that’s equivalent to seven or eight cases a year, across the entire country: “We are talking about an occurrence that translates to about 0.00006 percent of total votes cast.” , If anything, the opposite is true. , It seems intuitive that offering more opportunities to vote would lead to more people voting. But in , , five found mixed evidence, seven found no significant effect, and eight found that early voting actually decreased turnout. One theory: It reduces the significance of Election Day, which otherwise spurs some halfhearted voters to show up. , The evidence is inconclusive., Critics of stricter voter ID requirements point to , . But there haven’t been consistent findings that passing these laws hurts minority turnout. Some studies show no statistical link, and others show they hurt turnout somewhat. Some scholars suggest they may even inadvertently motivate people in minority groups to vote, or spur campaigns to do more outreach to them., They don’t seem to have any effect on confidence., A common argument for stricter voter ID requirements is that they’ll boost public confidence in elections, which seems especially important now given the recent decline in trust among Republicans because of Trump’s false claims. But research has found little difference in confidence levels in states with tough ID laws and those without. The two factors that do make a difference? Whether or not the candidate a voter supported won and a voter’s experience casting their own ballot. , indicated that people were also less confident in their state’s handling of the election when the results were close, even if their preferred candidate won. , So far, there’s no reason to believe this., After many states made it easier to vote by mail in 2020 because of the pandemic, the U.S. had the highest turnout in modern history. But , by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research found that 64-year-olds, who needed an excuse in that state to vote by mail, and 65-year-olds, who did not, voted at almost the same rate. Other studies show that voting by mail likely increases turnout more in midterms and local elections than in higher-profile presidential races. , Again, so far, there’s no evidence bearing this out., In , , both Republicans and Democrats said the expansion of early voting and mail voting helped Biden win the presidency. But a Public Policy Institute of California study found that , —and if there was any effect, it was a slight boost to Republicans. Generally, studies of elections conducted mostly by mail haven’t found any partisan advantage.,  , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Ryan Beckwith. Date Created: 28 Apr 2021, 1:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to West Virginia Coal Country Clean Energy Runs road Biden [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: Biden’s Road to Clean Energy Runs Through West Virginia Coal Country. Short_description: Biden’s Road to Clean Energy Runs Through West Virginia Coal Country. Description: Gerald Lucas, 69, is a former coal miner and federal mine inspector who now gives public tours underground at the Beckley, W.Va., Exhibition Coal Mine, a working mine that ceased operations in 1953. He describes it as a fun job that allows him to share his decades of experience with visitors., Lucas’s career change is becoming more common among West Virginians as the rural state of 1.8 million moves toward a new economy in which coal is no longer king. The state, which had a poverty rate of 16% in 2019, has long felt the effects of coal’s decline., West Virginia lawmakers occupy , on Capitol Hill as President Joe Biden introduces a sweeping infrastructure and climate package—the , —and pledges to revitalize coal country. Senator Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat, is a crucial swing vote in the 50-50 Senate and chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Senator Shelley Moore Capito is the top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee and an architect of the GOP’s own infrastructure proposal, a , to Biden’s. In the House, West Virginia members sit on the infrastructure-adjacent Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce committees., West Virginia is the second-largest producer of coal in the U.S., behind Wyoming, but historically it has employed the lion’s share of industry workers. Although the number of coal miners nationwide has dwindled to the tens of thousands, in West Virginia they can earn an annual salary of up to about $90,000, money that has helped drive local economies. Even as coal production has shrunk and natural gas has accelerated, the industry in the state is still potent. Coal generated $14 billion in total economic activity in 2019, according to a , from the West Virginia University College of Business and Economics., “For the last century we’ve done all the heavy jobs, the dirty jobs,” says Manchin. “We’ve helped build this country by the energy we’ve produced.”, Acknowledging the shift from fossil fuels, the United Mine Workers of America recently rolled out a , to “enhance opportunities for miners, their families, and their communities.” It calls for support for coal-fired carbon capture and storage, to keep existing jobs; tax incentives for renewable-energy manufacturing, to create new ones; wage replacement and training for dislocated miners; and other measures., But there’s skepticism that the transition can benefit coal country. “We believe that the Second Coming of the Lord is gonna get here before a just transition makes it our way,” United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts Jr. said in April during a virtual press event he led with Manchin., Capito says Biden’s clean-energy plans pose the risk of West Virginians losing out and that she’s determined not to let constituents “get dropped on their heads again.” She worries it will be a repeat of President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which would have led to “basically just an abrupt closure” of fossil fuel activities “with a pretty callous regard as to what’s happened to people.”, Although Biden won only 30% of votes in deep-red West Virginia, his jobs plan holds the potential for investment in infrastructure and manufacturing, especially now that the Senate has lifted its ban on earmarks. West Virginia has a notable history in that respect: The name of the late Senator Robert Byrd, the long-serving Democrat and Appropriations Committee chairman, is affixed to numerous bridges, roads, and buildings around the state., “When he took office, we had 4 miles of interstate—then we had one of the best systems in the nation because of him,” says Bill Bissett, president and chief executive officer of the Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce and former head of the Kentucky Coal Association. “The reaction to federal aid with infrastructure is not always disliked here.”, Beckley, population 16,000, is the largest city in southern West Virginia and exemplifies the transition the state is trying to make by boosting manufacturing, tourism, and other industries. The Exhibition Coal Mine has a museum with traditional mining tools, as well as a restored coal camp and church on site. Nearby is Tamarack Marketplace, a light-filled Appalachian arts center and cafe that attracts half a million visitors a year., This part of southern West Virginia is also an area of uncommon natural beauty. New River Gorge, designated as a national park last year, offers rock climbing, white-water rafting, and miles of hiking trails., “Absolutely, tourism has taken off,” says Representative Carol Miller, a Republican, whose district includes New River Gorge National Park and surrounding areas. “And with that, people are building cabins, they’re expanding restaurants; they are beginning to understand how beautiful our countryside is. We are doing a lot better advertising for that.”, “West Virginia gets a bad rap. They think we are closed off,” says Bonny Copenhaver, president of New River Community and Technical College. A Tennessee native who has been at the college for just over two years, Copenhaver says that when she first arrived, she didn’t hear much talk about a future after coal. But an alternative message “has sunk in drastically” during that period, she says. West Virginians saw that President Trump tried and was not able to rescue the industry., Still, “the stakes are high,” she says of the risks facing students who decide to learn a new trade. “What if the green technology never materializes?”, The , recently announced an $8.3 million investment—$3.5 million of it from a federal grant—into redeveloping more than 100 acres outside the Raleigh County Memorial Airport to house aerospace manufacturing and mechanics companies that leaders hope to lure to West Virginia. Those jobs require skills similar to the technical know-how required in the coal industry., Although renewables currently account for a small fraction of the state’s coal-dominated electricity generation, a recent , from the West Virginia University College of Law said ramping up renewable energy and energy efficiency over the next 15 years would be cost-competitive and create thousands of jobs. New large-scale solar projects are in development., Brandon Dennison is the founder and CEO of Coalfield Development, a West Virginia-based nonprofit that aims to rebuild the Appalachian economy and help fossil fuel workers shift to different industries. Dennison acknowledges that there’s a significant pay gap between the old jobs and the positions replacing them. “We’re honest about it,” he says. “We agree that with the new jobs that are coming with the new economy, we need to push on industry to pay better, and I think unions are going to become really relevant again to make sure that happens.”, Lucas, the coal-miner-turned-tour-guide, was born in Burnwell, originally a coal camp, about 30 minutes northwest of Beckley. After 45 years in mining, he’s had two shoulder surgeries and a knee operation, and recently he received the good news that he doesn’t have black lung disease. He enjoys his current job; of the old ones, he says, “I don’t remember any of it being easy.”,  ,  , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Kellie Lunney. Date Created: 04 May 2021, 1:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Battle GOP Control Power Trump Georgia Grip [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: The Battle for Control of Georgia’s GOP Shows the Power of Trump’s Grip. Short_description: The Battle for Control of Georgia’s GOP Shows the Power of Trump’s Grip. Description: On a brisk Saturday morning in mid-April, grassroots Republicans gathered in county conventions across Georgia to begin deciding their party’s future. The day ended with Donald Trump firmly in control of the state Republican Party, in a microcosm of the national struggle for the GOP’s soul following the November election and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol., In the state’s biggest Republican strongholds, conventions that were supposed to last a few hours dragged into the evening as insurgent delegates—many of whom had never participated in party politics before—booted longtime leaders in favor of Trump-embracing newcomers. They attacked the party’s top officeholders, passing resolutions condemning them for not supporting Trump’s false claims of a stolen election. They dissed former GOP officeholders, too, flouting a tradition of giving them votes at a coming state convention. They denounced the state’s voting machines and buzzed with debunked conspiracy theories., Battles erupted over even relatively mild issues. In a Fraternal Order of Eagles lodge off I-85 near Atlanta, DeKalb County delegates spent almost an hour on a bland resolution that said the GOP stands for liberty and prosperity because one clause mentioned “compassionate conservatism.” Delegates stripped the offending language, calling it an anachronism out of touch with the post-Trump party., The April conventions left little doubt about the GOP’s direction in Georgia. Ardent pro-Trump newcomers are trying to oust establishment Republicans, and they’re succeeding. That could spell danger for the party in 2022, when the state’s top elected jobs are on the ballot, according to Charles Bullock, a political scientist and election expert at the University of Georgia. “It’s really counterproductive,” he says. It’s a lesson that should have been learned in January, he says, when Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler embraced Trump’s voter fraud campaign and lost crucial suburban voters—and their seats., The civil war within Georgia’s GOP might mean little if the state hadn’t played such an outsize role in , —and if that legacy were not on the ballot again next year. The state has become a de facto laboratory for national politics, with Democratic powerhouse Stacey Abrams , , Trump continuing to hold sway with White voters in rural Georgia, and the purpling of once-Republican Atlanta suburbs that contributed to Trump’s loss., Georgia delivered the state’s 16 Electoral College votes to Joe Biden by a margin of less than 12,000 votes in November, and then sent two Democrats, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, to the U.S. Senate in January, giving the party its single-vote margin there. One of the senators, , , has to defend his seat next year., The Georgia Republican Party gatherings were part of a time-intensive, small-d democratic process that starts with precinct-level caucuses and culminates with the state convention and the selection of leadership in June. So far that process has only exacerbated the divide in the state party. The inflamed rank and file of the party are working to entrench an apparatus fiercely loyal to Trump and his false claims of election fraud. Chairman David Shafer, who aggressively promoted the Stop the Steal campaign to overturn Biden’s victory, is widely considered a lock to win back his chairmanship in June, despite presiding over the party’s recent losses., One of the new leaders is Marci McCarthy, who won the chairmanship of the DeKalb County GOP after her predecessor decided not to run. “What I am seeing is a new guard that is anti-establishment and anti-RINO and very, very pro-Trump,” McCarthy says. (RINO is an acronym for “Republican in Name Only.”), It’s already a problem for Republican Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who are both up for reelection next year. Trump attacked the men mercilessly after they , in trying to overturn the election results. GOP conventions in at least 15 counties so far have passed resolutions censuring Kemp and Raffensperger, along with Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan, who recently decided against running for reelection in the current climate., By far the most vulnerable is Raffensperger, who drew praise from voting advocates and scorn from his party for working to make voting easier in the pandemic and for opposing Trump’s voter fraud claims. (Trump called Raffensperger “really, really an enemy of the people” and pressured him in a , to find him “11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state”; a local district attorney is investigating potential election violations.) The Georgia GOP has targeted Raffensperger’s office directly, and he now has two primary challengers, one of whom, Representative Jody Hice, Trump has endorsed., Kemp has a , , too, which would have been hard to imagine before Nov. 6. The primary should have been a cakewalk for the incumbent governor, who could point to a strong economy, low unemployment, and, for the conservative base, his status as the first governor to , during the pandemic., Whatever the results next year, the party is headed in the wrong direction, according to Duncan, the lieutenant governor who was the third state officeholder to be censured. At 46, Duncan has been a rising star in GOP politics, and he says he and Kemp have a strong record. He also spoke out loudly and often against the Trump campaign’s and the state party’s Stop the Steal efforts. “Right now the Republican Party is being used to fan the flames of 10 weeks of misinformation and the post-election debacle that played out,” he says. “If we don’t turn the page, if we think the strategy is to double down on relitigating the election and the great hoax, then we had better get used to losing.”, Duncan has formed a PAC to support a reset for Republicans that would emphasize policy ideas, not Trump. “The best starting place is for as many Republicans to walk into as many rooms as they can and say, ‘Let me start this discussion by saying former President Donald J. Trump lost the election fair and square. Now, what can we do to help you?’ ”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Margaret Newkirk. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 1:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Data way Facebook [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: Facebook and Others Should Pay Us for Our Data. Here’s One Way.. Short_description: A California group proposes taxing data companies on their "data dependency.". Description: It’s obvious that data companies make profits by using their customers’ data without paying for it. What’s not obvious is how to get them to cough up. Ten cents for every dog or cat picture you post on Facebook? Five dollars a month for your searches on Google?, A new white paper from an ad hoc group of scholars says paying individuals based on their usage is the wrong way to go about it. Customer data becomes valuable when billions of bits of it are aggregated and analyzed. So governments should tax data companies based on their dependence on user data, and then, rather than parceling out cash to individuals, they should spend the revenue on projects that serve the general public, the scholars say., “The value of your data is only unlocked when it is combined with data from others,” says the 39-page white paper. “To design a data dividend,” it says elsewhere, “we must think in terms of ‘, data,’ not ‘, data.’” , The white paper is being published by the , , a Los Angeles-based nonprofit dedicated to reshaping political and social institutions. I was given an advance copy. I will add a link to this column when one is available. , Data companies and their shareholders won’t like the scholars' recipe. “Taxation is a tool to transform platform companies from private monopolies to regulated utilities in a manner similar to the way other natural monopolies such as electricity and water have been regulated since the early twentieth century,” they write., Their paper also envisions the creation of a Data Relations Board, which would function like an environmental protection agency but for data, and a series of “public data trusts” that would contain data for public use. Companies that contributed their data to public data trusts would get a break on their data taxes., Yakov Feygin, an economist who is associate director of Berggruen’s Future of Capitalism program, coordinated the research project. The other authors are Matthew Prewitt, a lawyer who is president of the RadicalxChange Foundation; Brent Hecht, a computer scientist at Northwestern University; a pair of Ph.D. students at Northwestern, Hanlin Li and Nicholas Vincent; Chirag Lala, a Ph.D. student at the University of Massachusetts; and Luisa Scarcella, a postdoctoral researcher at UAntwerpen DigiTax Center in Belgium., The scholars admit that they can’t perfectly measure a company’s data dependency. They propose going by its number of users as a proxy for now, with an eye toward other approaches when better measurement technology is available, such as measuring the quantity of user data a company stores or uses., The white paper is directed mainly to the state government of California. Feygin says in an interview that he got interested in the topic after Governor Gavin Newsom came out in favor of a “data dividend” in his , in February 2019, without fleshing out the concept. “We kind of answered the call,” Feygin says. “We wrote it in a California context because the idea came up here first,” but it could be adopted by other states and nations, he adds. He says it’s an improvement on the digital services taxes that several nations have adopted to capture tax revenue from the American tech giants because it’s based on companies’ data dependence rather than revenue. , “This is a long process. There are still a lot of questions that need to be worked out,” Feygin says. “Our focus is on a decade, not the next year.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Peter Coy. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 4:54 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to broken ventilator Add Momentum right Repair Movement [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: Broken Ventilators Add Momentum to ‘Right to Repair’ Movement. Short_description: Broken Ventilators Add Momentum to ‘Right to Repair’ Movement. Description: A recall of an electrosurgical device wouldn’t normally cause panic for Ilir Kullolli. As the director of clinical technology and biomedical engineering at a hospital in California, his job is to calmly orchestrate service and repairs so doctors—and patients—never notice when a piece of technology is down., But a lot of medical equipment is sold with the requirement that only the manufacturer can make repairs. In April 2020, during the first surge of Covid-19 hospitalizations, Kullolli’s hospital faced the grim possibility of reverting to hand-and-scalpel surgeries while it awaited a critical device update by a manufacturer, even though in-house staff were capable of fixing the problem. Ultimately the company allowed it, but only after hours of calls and meetings., “My technicians can fix anything, from blood pressure devices to patient monitors to ultrasound machines, as long as they get the training and parts needed to fix them,” says Kullolli, who’s also president of the American College of Clinical Engineering. “But in this case, we couldn’t get the training or the parts. So we couldn’t do it.”, That wasted time and expense could have been avoided if hospitals had been allowed to mend more equipment from the get-go, he says. A bill advancing in the California legislature would make that possible: Sponsored by the California Public Interest Research Group and supported by the California Hospital Association, among other groups, it would require medical manufacturers to publish manuals and make parts and training accessible to hospitals and third-party repair providers. If it passes, it would be the first law passed by a state legislature in almost a decade to promote what’s known as the “, ”—a broader consumer protection issue that touches many of the increasingly complicated devices that power 21st century life., This year at least 27 state legislatures have considered bills tackling who gets to , to powered wheelchairs to iPhones. While the issue has gained attention in recent years through consumer tech battles involving such companies as Apple, John Deere, and Tesla, the pandemic’s spotlight on , gave a boost to the biomedical side of the story. In addition to California, lawmakers in Arkansas, Hawaii, and Texas, a group of 10 state treasurers and auditors, and members of Congress have taken aim at cutting costs and delays in the health-care system that advocates say stem from proprietary repair requirements., “It’s been an issue since before the pandemic, but the pandemic highlighted any hole we had in health-care infrastructure,” says Jodiane Tritt, executive vice president of the Arkansas Hospital Association. Her organization came out in support of a right-to-repair bill that passed the state senate in March but died in the house. (An ag repair bill is still active.), Scott Whitaker, president and chief executive officer of Advamed, an industry group that represents Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Philips, and dozens of other device makers, says manufacturers’ authorized technicians are specially trained to fix machines and comply with federal rules, but those performing in-house and third-party repairs may not be. “Patients deserve to know that the machines literally keeping them alive have been repaired by experts who are accountable to and following FDA regulation,” he said in a statement., Advamed is against the bill in California, where it’s joined by heavyweight industry groups including the Consumer Technology Association, the Air-Conditioning, Heating, & Refrigeration Institute, and the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers. They point to intellectual-property risks. TechNet, a tech executive trade group, is also opposed, citing security concerns., So far only one right-to-repair bill involving any industry has become law, in 2012, when Massachusetts forced automakers to create public access to repair parts and manuals. After that, auto industry groups agreed to create the same access nationwide. (That debate isn’t over: Massachusetts voters expanded the law in a November ballot initiative that gives owners access to the data on vehicle computers, prompting a lawsuit by automakers.) Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of the Repair Association, an advocacy group that supports repair legislation, says if one of the medical bills passed, it would create a national precedent similar to the automotive one., As Europe draws up its own right-to-repair rules around consumer technology, supporters say it’s only a matter of time before changes come in the U.S. Jarone Lee, an intensive care unit medical director at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, , in the , in March in favor of recent legislation. He says he became aware of the problem during a surge in Covid cases that left ventilators in short supply. Although Mass General was able to bring in more from other hospitals, the experience left a mark, Lee says: “Normally we don’t see what happens when they have to , that stops working.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Laura Bliss. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 1:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to price Magic Costco Brings Drug plan low Employer [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: Costco Brings Its Low-Price Magic to Employer-Paid Drug Plans. Short_description: Costco Brings Its Low-Price Magic to Employer-Paid Drug Plans. Description: Large American retailers have long viewed health care as a potentially lucrative avenue to expand their businesses. Amazon.com Inc. introduced an , last year while Walmart Inc. is expanding its , . Costco Wholesale Corp. is taking a different road to health-care riches: helping make prescription drug prices less opaque for employers that spend billions of dollars a year on them., The company best known for its , , where it sells everything from TVs to pallets of paper towels, has become partners with , , a small pharmacy benefit manager based in Madison, Wis., on a strategy that could rewrite the complicated playbook for running prescription plans., Pharmacy benefit managers, better known as PBMs, traditionally make money by , of the rebates and discounts they negotiate with drugmakers for employers. In contrast, Navitus offers a fee-based model that passes on all the savings it creates to its employer clients. After working with Navitus for years, Costco purchased a minority stake in the closely held company in 2020. Now executives from both companies say the investment will help accelerate their growth at a time when drug costs are increasingly burdening U.S. businesses and consumers. “We believe that the marketplace is really starting to place a value on our particular business model,” says Navitus Chief Executive Officer David Fields., A quarter of Americans say they have trouble affording their medications, and employers and state regulators are scrutinizing agreements among drug suppliers, pharmacies, and health plans to determine how to save money. PBMs act as intermediaries, leveraging the large size of their employer clients to get rebates and lower prices from drugmakers. They also manage the list of drugs that companies will cover, process claims, and move money without ever physically possessing the medicines. Typically the bulk of their revenue comes from keeping a chunk of the rebates and fees they negotiate and markups on drug sales at pharmacies., Navitus tells employers it will pass all that revenue back and profit only from a per-member fee it charges directly. Other PBMs are “taking a piece at every step in the supply chain,” Fields says. Some rivals may be tempted to place expensive drugs with higher rebates on company-approved lists rather than depend on cheaper alternatives; Navitus gains nothing from doing that, he says., Although the company’s direct fees can look more expensive compared with rivals’, its main selling point is that its model lowers costs overall, Fields says. Compared with leading PBMs such as CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, or OptumRx, Navitus is tiny, but it’s growing quickly. The company serves health plans covering 7.3 million individuals, up by more than a million from 2020. It has an additional 800,000 coming in contracts that begin in 2022. Navitus’s success in saving money for Costco will be part of its pitch to prospective clients, according to Fields. “They help us with credibility with other large national or global employers,” he says., For Costco, cracking the health-care business is likely to be key for keeping pace with its biggest rivals. Its investment in Navitus followed years of deepening ties. It first turned to Navitus in 2013 as the private-label engine to power a new business line, Costco Health Solutions, that sold PBM services to small businesses. Impressed by the results with that line, Costco moved the prescription benefit for its own health plan, which covers 300,000 U.S. employees and dependents, to its joint offering with the PBM in 2019., Navitus’s 100% pass-through model saved the retailer millions of dollars on drug costs, according to Costco Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti, while aligning with a core Costco strategy. “We’ve always been known for passing on as much savings as possible directly to our member, to our customer, whether it’s food and sundries or prescriptions,” he says., Navitus’s majority owner is the nonprofit Catholic health system SSM Health. When the PBM in 2018 began looking for a partner to help speed its growth, Fields says it considered private equity firms or strategic investors. But Costco won out, partly because both companies agree on the goal of lowering prescription costs., Fields, who joined Navitus as interim CEO in 2019 and got the permanent job last year, says the PBM was built for transparency from the start. The company’s first client was the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds, which today covers about 240,000 state and local government employees, dependents, and retirees. Back in 2003, the public employee group was seeking to standardize pharmacy benefits and manage drug costs statewide among more than a dozen health-benefit plans it offered. The Wisconsin public employee trust is still a client and renewed its contract last year. “We believe we’re getting the best possible pricing we can overall for our pharmacy book, and it is because we can see the numbers,” says Eileen Mallow, director of strategic health policy at the Wisconsin ETF. “We couldn’t get anybody else to agree to that model.”, The employee group hires an independent auditor to review all claims, and the state legislature audits the plan as well, Mallow says. An audit of commercial pharmacy claims in 2019 found Navitus overperformed, with drug costs coming about 5% below what Navitus guaranteed in the contract, a savings of more than $12 million., Transparency may be an asset as scrutiny of PBMs intensifies. In March, Ohio’s attorney general sued Centene Corp., one of the companies serving the state’s Medicaid program, alleging that a web of subcontractors inflated prescription costs. Centene called the claims unfounded. Other states and federal lawmakers are considering rules to more tightly regulate PBM practices., Navitus and Costco are exploring ways to wring further savings out of the prescription supply chain—and drive more business to the 538 pharmacies at U.S. Costco warehouse stores. The companies are testing a plan that makes Costco the preferred pharmacy for one client in California. “You can see how there’s synergies in this relationship, in terms of both [Costco and Navitus] driving costs out of health care,” says Victor Curtis, the retailer’s senior vice president for pharmacy., In the past several years, PBMs have gotten bigger and more powerful. The three largest processed about 77% of U.S. prescriptions in 2020, according to industry publication , . And they’ve been consolidated into larger health-care enterprises—UnitedHealth Group, CVS Health, and Cigna—and integrated with related businesses such as health insurance, medical care, and pharmacies., The consolidation has left some employers looking for alternatives, says Elizabeth Mitchell, CEO of the Purchaser Business Group on Health, a coalition of large employers. “The bigger these entities get, and the more integrated, the harder it is in some cases to actually have meaningful accountability,” she says. “You can’t tease apart where the waste is.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: John Tozzi. Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 3:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Vaccine Doubt shot U.S. Pandemic [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: The U.S. Has the Shots It Needs, But Vaccine Doubt Is Prolonging the Pandemic. Short_description: The U.S. Has the Shots It Needs, But Vaccine Doubt Is Prolonging the Pandemic. Description: By his count, Jonathan Damato has brought at least a dozen people back from the dead. Over 20 years as a New York City paramedic, those are the moments he remembers most. The ones that called him to the job early on and kept him coming back, a year into a pandemic, in one of the world’s worst hot spots. “Clearly, we’re masked up, you know, you’re protected, but you’re exposing yourself to this every single day,” he says., Damato remembers seeing his first Covid-19 patient, an elderly man whose vitals seemed to defy medical logic. Based on his blood oxygen levels, the man should have been unconscious; instead he was just a little short of breath, chatting and sitting upright. In so many of those early cases, Damato says, it was impossible to know how to respond. He and his colleagues barely understood the disease, hospitals were already overflowing with patients, and the medical crews couldn’t get their hands on enough protective gear. “A lot of the crews got nervous and panicked,” he says., America’s recent vaccine news has been good. More than half of U.S. adults have now , of a Covid vaccine. In most states, new cases are down or at least not surging. Medical personnel know how to better treat Covid patients, which has kept hospitalizations and deaths to a fraction of their winter highs. It’s starting to feel as if life might approach something like normal as spring rounds the corner into summer. There’s just one big, honking, horrifying question: Will enough Americans roll up their sleeves to end the pandemic, or will too many skip out on getting the shots?, Throughout the past year, Damato’s biggest concern has been bringing the virus home to his family. He lives and works on Staten Island, New York City’s biggest Republican enclave. He’s married with five kids, and his 4-year-old son, Nico, has a serious heart condition that’s required more than a half-dozen surgeries, making him especially vulnerable to the virus. When Damato comes home, his uniform goes straight from a plastic bag to the wash. In November, as promising trial data suggested it was more and more likely a vaccine might be ready before the end of the year, he wrote a sarcastic Facebook post remarking on other people’s overblown fears about vaccine side effects. He and his wife, a teacher, could see their borough getting hammered by the virus. He was working more overnight shifts than ever, and they were both extremely exhausted from juggling the kids because they were in and out of school. Damato couldn’t wait to get his shot. Then his aunt texted him a response to his Facebook post., The aunt, a nurse, said she wanted him to consider another point of view. She sent him literature, but Damato says the accompanying video was what really got him. In the video, a man who identifies himself as a coronavirus researcher makes a bunch of claims about problems with the coming vaccines. He says—falsely—that the mRNA vaccines have been rushed to market without proper trials and that drugmakers had covered up safety concerns about how the vaccines might kill people or sterilize them. The video was full of such misinformation and outright lies, and a quick Googling showed Damato that the “researcher” had been associated with conspiracy theories before. But that didn’t matter. The seeds of doubt had been planted. “I felt even if half of his concerns were correct, it was enough to worry about,” Damato says. “There are too many questions.” Earlier this year, when his station was offered the vaccine, he opted out., So did , . The Fire Department of the City of New York says only 47% of its EMTs and paramedics have been vaccinated, and similar reports of , have poured in from across the country. About 3 in 10 front-line health-care workers are either planning to skip the vaccine or are on the fence, according to a March poll by the , and Kaiser Family Foundation. More recent Kaiser polling puts the number for all Americans at 37%. There are especially large pockets of skepticism among Republicans, people of color, and rural residents. And Damato’s story is a common one: Waves of public-health messaging are often less powerful than a single text from a trusted friend or relative., People like Damato aren’t anti-vaxxers. (The paramedic gets his flu shot every year.) They’re vaccine skeptics, people who , , so they figure why not wait and see how the shots work out for others, or they bet on the protection they’ll get from everyone around them being vaccinated. “One of the problems with the framing of the pro and the anti is that it kind of pushes out this middle group that are undecided but are still open,” says Heidi Larson, the director of the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. “If they’re not getting a reasonable answer or even feeling like they’re demonized for just asking questions, it hardens them, and they’re more vulnerable to some of the more extreme views.”, The bigger problem for everyone, even in a now vaccine-rich country like the U.S., is that there are too many of these fence-sitters to bet on widespread immunity protecting the populace anytime soon. The fewer people who get vaccinated, the longer the pandemic will drag on and the more lives will be lost. America might have the technology and personnel to stamp out the disease, but not necessarily enough trust left in public-health efforts to get it done., Witness the spike in overall skepticism after six cases of blood clots among roughly 7 million recipients of the , led the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to recommend a pause in its rollout. For everyone besides the rare clot sufferers, the data is stunningly good news, an extremely small number of adverse events compared with a virus that has killed more than a half-million Americans. But blood clots fit perfectly into the narrative that Covid shots aren’t as safe as the government wants the public to believe. Distrust makes misinformation seem more believable, and the pandemic has primed a whole lot of people to be more skeptical of the public-health establishment. Doubt, like Covid-19, is highly contagious., For Damato, all it took was a text and a video. “I was so blind,” he says. “I didn’t even look to see the other side, the people who are not getting the vaccination. Like, it wasn’t even a thought in my head, why would I not get the vaccination?” Now, whenever someone asks his opinion on the vaccine, he sends them the video his aunt sent him., The Covid vaccines approved in the U.S. are highly effective. A study of health-care workers and first responders released at the end of March found that both the , and , shots prevent 90% of infections after a second dose. These mRNA vaccines also seem to prevent most viral transmission. Based on that data, the feds have said that vaccinated people can feel comfortable hanging out in small groups., But no vaccine is 100% effective. The mysteries of human biology mean that some vaccinated people will still get sick when exposed to the virus. So far there have been about 7,000 such “breakthrough cases” out of the 94 million or so Americans who’ve been fully vaccinated. Overall demand for vaccines is still high, but a recent Bloomberg analysis found that in some pockets , long before a larger percentage of the population has been inoculated., Vaccine skepticism is as old as vaccination. Larson, in London, discovered yellowed 19th century pamphlets opposing mandatory smallpox shots while she was researching her 2020 book, , . The sentiments are depressingly familiar, inveighing against impositions on the natural order and freedom of choice. Over the past several decades, however, skepticism in the U.S. has been turbocharged by state governments’ strong hand in , and the online disinformation campaigns of fanatical anti-vaxxers. The steady erosion of trust in government and a shared set of facts have lent an added potency to rumors, allegations, and conspiracy theorists’ YouTube videos., In 2000 the World Health Organization declared that the U.S. had rid itself of the measles. Fifteen years later, after a major outbreak at Disneyland in California, it became clear that too many Americans had grown skeptical of mandatory vaccinations and were betting on community immunity to protect their kids. Measles is extremely contagious, so more than 95% of kids in a community need to be vaccinated against the disease to stop it from spreading. An MIT study that surveyed vaccination rates in 43 states found that most of the kids who caught measles at Disney were living in counties with vaccination rates as low as 50%, according to Maimuna Majumder, one of the study’s authors. “It was really eye-opening,” says Majumder, now a health-informatics researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital., During the pandemic, prominent anti-vaxxers like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose nonprofit Children’s Health Defense has been estimated to be responsible for more than half the , , have also benefited greatly from the Trump administration’s disastrous initial response. “Anybody who asks me about vaccines has already lost some faith in the traditional structure of ‘You should trust your doctor, you should trust CDC, you should trust FDA,’ ” Kennedy says. The Center for Countering Digital Hate, or CCDH, says that the roughly 150 leading anti-vaxxer accounts gained more than 10 million social media followers from December 2019 to December 2020, especially on Instagram and YouTube. (Instagram banned Kennedy in February, but he remains on Facebook, and his organization is on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.), Where Kennedy and other anti-vaxxers have been loud, public-health officials have often been quiet. After Damato’s aunt planted the seeds of doubt, the paramedic went hunting for more information from his employer and says a staff doctor echoed his concerns. (An FDNY spokesperson says the department has provided extensive educational resources on vaccines to its employees). Like many Americans, Damato has been suspicious of surprises that have changed official guidance, whether shifting views on masks or the record-fast vaccine development that Donald Trump promised. “He swore it was going to be ready by a certain time, and everyone said it’ll never be ready by then. Boom. It was ready by the time,” Damato says. “These are medical professionals that you’re supposed to trust, but they can’t even get on the same page, so why should I believe them?”, Even getting the information he was after might not have been enough to convince Damato. He was already disinclined to trust his bosses given their failures to provide proper protective equipment and training earlier in the pandemic—plus some failures before that. Damato was a first responder at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and like many of his colleagues, he has health issues including sleep apnea and chronic sinus problems he says stem from his department’s lack of protective gear back then., Common public-health practice relies on facts as the best counterpoint to lies, but that won’t be enough to talk skeptics into getting jabbed, says Matt Motta, a political science professor at Oklahoma State University at Stillwater. He says public-health officials need to work to win over the public by addressing their specific concerns and by approaching the subject empathetically rather than rolling their eyes. “There’s no one-size-fits-all approach,” he says, “because there’s no one-size-fits-all reason why people accept vaccine-hesitant views.”, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has been on a whirlwind public-speaking tour, trying to win over , by addressing Black churches and chatting with celebrities including Steph Curry and LL Cool J. “It is not surprising, but extraordinary and interesting, how when you get a trusted member of society, of the community, to come out and start talking about why it’s important to get vaccinated, how people who would otherwise be very hesitant go ahead and say, ‘OK, I’m good with vaccine,’ ” Fauci says., The number of people who are firmly against vaccines is very small. The number of people in the middle is far larger. Anti-vaxxers and public-health officials such as Fauci are locked in a battle of persuasion with that middle group as the prize. But if the problem is trust, the burden of earning it is on health officials, who haven’t focused much on education about what efficacy rates actually mean, for example, or the nature of the , ., Vaers is a government-run, publicly available database of self-reported potential side effects or other perceived problems. If patterns emerge, the FDA and the CDC investigate, but mostly the reports simply sit online, unverified and un-fact-checked. That is to say, they’re ready-made propaganda for anti-vaxxer fanatics and skeptical followers who might not know that no one is fact-checking them. The internet is full of videos of anti-vaxxers simply reading off lists of injuries reported in Vaers. Groups including Kennedy’s frequently send out fearmongering emails highlighting the rising number of Vaers-reported deaths., This phenomenon is part of a larger problem of public-health officials and advocates ignoring spurious arguments and real failings in favor of simply soldiering on with their own messages, says Chris Martin, a public-health professor at West Virginia University. The idea is to avoid raising unfounded concerns that might plant the seeds of doubt, Martin says, but that doesn’t account for the bad actors seeding conspiracy theories that use health officials’ silence as Exhibit A. A better course of action, he says, would be to teach physicians, nurses, and public-health advocates how to , . “We need to train the trainers,” he says., The U.S. could do worse than to follow the lead of Martin’s home state. West Virginia proved, for a time, to be a , ., On the surface, that result sounds extremely unlikely. West Virginia is Republican and rural, with mountainous terrain that makes vaccine delivery a serious logistical challenge. Many of its residents are also poor, with health conditions that make them especially at risk for severe cases of Covid. And yet, by mid-February, West Virginia had used up more than 100% of the roughly 380,000 vaccine doses it had been allotted, the first state to do so. It was the first to finish vaccinating its nursing homes, by pairing a network of pharmacies with about 200 long-term-care facilities in lieu of the federal plan., Ayne Amjad, the state’s head doctor, attributed these successes to West Virginia’s reliance on trusted local pharmacies to administer the vaccines rather than big chains. This was word-of-mouth working in vaccination’s favor, she says. People hesitant to get the shots felt comfortable asking questions at the mom and pops: “There was that trust built in with them.” Republican Governor Jim Justice also tapped Clay Marsh, the respected vice president of the West Virginia University health sciences center, as its coronavirus czar. Marsh’s local ties have been credited with helping speed the early rollout., Now, though, with about 38% of West Virginia’s 1.8 million residents having received at least one dose, the vaccination drive has slowed. In mid-April, with the CDC now ranking West Virginia 47th in percentage of vaccinated residents, Justice said the state’s administration rate had sunk to an “incredibly low” 85%. “We’ve got a problem to really get after it, to educate more and more folks,” Justice said during an April 21 press briefing. “If we don’t, we’re not going to get rid of these masks.” The next step, says Martin, will be to get vaccines into the family doctors’ offices, churches, and schools where unvaccinated people already are., Polling has shown that as more people get vaccinated, those who still aren’t say they are more open to it. Watching your friends and family get inoculated is a powerful motivator. But as vaccination has opened up to more groups of people, early hopes that skepticism would fade away altogether are dissipating. More pockets of the country like West Virginia are beginning to report they have more shots than demand. Several states are now administering fewer than 75% of the doses they receive, according to the CDC. Federal survey data peg the South and the Upper Midwest as the most hesitant regions. One of the White House’s plans is a celebrity ad campaign in which the likes of Mark Cuban, Eva Longoria, and Kelly Ripa urge young people to get their shots., Back in New York, Damato keeps spreading the gospel of skepticism among his friends and FDNY colleagues. He says he did encourage his parents to get Covid vaccines, because their age was too significant a risk, but he’s less worried about Nico now that his son’s heart is in much better condition. Although Damato says he hasn’t firmly decided against getting the vaccine himself, he’s unsure what could drive him to say yes at this point. “I’m not going to get it until maybe down the road,” he says. “If I ever do.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Kristen V Brown. Date Created: 28 Apr 2021, 2:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Epic Collapsed Apple relationship [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: How Apple’s Relationship With Epic Collapsed. Short_description: A court case beginning this week is the final break between the makers of the iPhone and Fortnite.. Description: In 2011, when Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook wanted to show off the first major product under his leadership—the iPhone 4S—the , . Mike Capps, Epic Games Inc.’s president at the time, made a quick joke about how much money his company’s games made from Apple devices. Then he helped run a demo of , , designed to showcase both Epic’s new game and the power of the latest iPhone’s chip., It was a public demonstration of a close corporate relationship that has since disintegrated. On May 3 a federal court will begin hearing arguments in a trial centered on Epic’s claims that Apple extracts money from developers by abusing its market power, and Apple’s counterclaims that Epic breached its contract. The financial stakes could extend into the billions of dollars, and the decision may have ramifications for tens of thousands of mobile developers. On April 30 the European Commission charged that Apple’s restrictions on developers had , , two years after a complaint from Spotify Technology SA raised concerns , ., The , presentation wasn’t an isolated incident: Epic was featured at several other Apple product launches and was often highlighted on the App Store. People with knowledge of Apple’s relationships with app makers describe its partnership with Epic as one of its closest with any developer, asking not to be named to avoid upsetting Apple. In legal documents, Apple said it spent more than $1 million marketing games for Epic, and even stationed an employee in Australia, to provide the developer with tech support when it was the middle of the night in California., Epic engineers met frequently with teams within Apple, viewing future hardware and software releases before competitors and consulting on internal Apple projects, such as its tools that allow game developers to maximize the use of the company’s graphics chips., The relationship began souring in 2017, when Epic released the megahit , . The game maker hired Apple engineers to work on its products and, from the perspective of some Apple employees, lost interest in helping Apple improve its general gaming software. Epic was only concerned with things that helped , , says one person who was involved in Apple’s relationship with Epic., A spokeswoman for Epic says this characterization is false and that the company “continued to work closely with Apple until they backed away from Epic.” It also saw Apple’s tight control over its App Store as self-serving, distorting the economics of mobile apps. In 2017, Epic CEO and founder Tim Sweeney began publicly criticizing Apple’s payment system, in which the company took as much as 30% of sales and blocked many developers from using other payment methods to avoid the fee. At a conference in Germany that year, he called the cut taken by app stores as “a parasitic loss,” , to the website GamesIndustry.biz. “We should be angry about this,” he said, “and we should constantly be on the lookout for other solutions, and new ways to reach gamers.”, The Epic spokeswoman says Sweeney repeatedly asked to discuss strategy concerning the App Store but that Apple was only willing to talk about operational issues. In January 2018, Sweeney sought a meeting with Apple to gauge the possibility of allowing Epic to open its own app market on Apple devices. Apple balked at the idea, saying that allowing outside stores would loosen the platform’s security and hinder its ability to generate revenue. Epic’s store, started later that year for games that ran on PCs and Macs, took a 12% commission and allowed developers to choose their own payment systems, terms that many developers may prefer to Apple’s. , Last year the relationship between the two companies worsened. On June 30, Sweeney wrote to top Apple executives demanding the ability to use non-Apple payment methods on iOS devices, to avoid the company’s fees. When Apple didn’t comply, Epic responded by activating its own payment system, and Apple , ., “The two parties just had developing business objectives that over time conflicted with each other,” says Paul Swanson, partner and antitrust attorney at Holland & Hart, which is not representing either company. “At some point they could make more money by playing nice together, and then it changed.”,  , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Mark Gurman &. Date Created: 03 May 2021, 2:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Unemployment Scam Victim [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: What to Do If You’re the Victim of an Unemployment Scam. Short_description: What to Do If You’re the Victim of an Unemployment Scam. Description: Millions of fraudulent unemployment insurance claims have been filed in the U.S. over the past year, inundating an already overwhelmed system. The majority of the scams target the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program created by the Cares Act to aid those who aren’t traditionally eligible for benefits, such as gig workers and the self-employed. That’s largely because, unlike regular state unemployment insurance, PUA applicants don’t need an employer to verify their status., At least $89 billion in improper payments have been doled out since last year, much of it through fraudulent claims, according to March estimates from a watchdog for the U.S. Department of Labor. The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that Congress passed in March extended PUA benefits through early September, which appears to have triggered a , . , At AZA Law, a trial law firm in Houston, five employees received letters in the past month from the Texas Workforce Commission regarding unemployment benefits that they didn’t apply for. Ask around at work, and you may learn that several of your colleagues have also been targeted. Here’s a step-by-step guide on what you should do if you’re one of the unlucky ones., The surest sign: You received a 1099-G tax form in the mail but didn’t apply for unemployment insurance last year. You should also be concerned if you’re still employed but receive a notice from your employer indicating that they received a request for information about an unemployment claim in your name, or if you get an unexpected letter from your state workforce agency about a claim or payment when you didn’t recently apply for benefits., Act quickly. You should assume the scammer has access to valuable personal information such as your Social Security number. Notify your employer of the situation and report the identity theft to the state where it occurred. The Labor Department recently created a , that aggregates individual states’ online reporting forms and other useful email addresses and phone numbers., After reporting the identity theft, you need to go into “protective mode” and “take steps to reduce your risk in all of the other areas because you are vulnerable,” says Eva Velasquez, chief executive officer of the , , a nonprofit that offers no-cost services to victims of identity crimes. , To deter fraudsters from applying for loans or credit cards in your name, you may choose to request a credit freeze or place a fraud alert on your credit reports. At a minimum, you should monitor your credit reports for signs of suspicious activity or unauthorized lines of credit. While you can typically request just one free credit report per year from each of the main credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion are offering free , during the pandemic. If you see anything suspicious on your report, the Federal Trade Commission has a dedicated , victims., To help law enforcement, also consider reporting the fraud to the U.S. Department of Justice’s , ., If you haven’t filed yet and you received a 1099-G form you weren’t expecting or it lists more unemployment benefits than you received, report the fraud to the appropriate state agency and request a corrected 1099-G form. Do not report the incorrect 1099-G information on your tax return. Only report the income you actually received, even if you haven’t received your corrected 1099-G by the time you file your taxes., If you’ve already filed, don’t panic. Don’t file an amended return but keep an eye on the , regarding next steps. , “The unfortunate reality is that when it comes to government benefits types of identity theft, and in particular unemployment identity theft, there is not a lot you can do preventatively if your credentials have already been breached,” Velasquez says. More generally, she suggests being mindful of what data you share with whom, practicing good cyber hygiene, and staying vigilant for phishing emails, texts, and calls. , The Justice Department has warned that one way fraudsters are getting access to personal information is through websites designed to mimic those of state unemployment benefit agencies. Fraudsters lure in unsuspecting victims by sending links to the fake sites via text or email. Needless to say, you should not click on unsolicited links. To look up the URL of your state’s unemployment office, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s , . , Here’s another way to sort the real from the fake: There’s no cost to file for unemployment insurance. Your state agency will never call to ask you for a debit or credit card to process a claim. , The Office of the Inspector General and the Department of Justice have established a joint task force to tackle the problem. Since the start of the pandemic, more than 140 individuals have been charged and arrested for federal offenses related to unemployment insurance fraud, according to a March , from the OIG.  , A majority of state labor departments have also hired cybersecurity firms that are helping sort through claims and identifying fraudulent ones before they’re approved. The stimulus bill signed by former President Donald Trump in December strengthened , for documentation and identity verification for PUA. The latest stimulus bill, passed in March of this year, also allocated $2 billion to states to address fraud, equitable access, and timely payment of benefits. , Despite these steps, state offices are overwhelmed, which is why you may not hear back after reporting the fraud. Sandy Howell, director of administration at AZA, the Houston law firm, says she’s had no word from the Texas Workforce Commission. “It would be nice to get some response so we know it has been received,” she says.,  , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Olivia Rockeman &. Date Created: 23 Apr 2021, 3:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to tiny Piece Helping farmer Far Plastic water [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: A Tiny Piece of Plastic Is Helping Farmers Use Far Less Water. Short_description: A Tiny Piece of Plastic Is Helping Farmers Use Far Less Water. Description: On the bone-dry western flank of Arizona, where the Colorado River Basin meets the Mojave Desert, sit 11,000 acres of alfalfa, sorghum, wheat, and Sudan grass belonging to the Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT), all destined to be harvested and sold for animal feed. For anything to grow here, irrigation is a must. Less than a quarter inch of rain has fallen so far this year, according to Josh Moore, who manages the farm on behalf of his tribe., “The reservation is set up on a pretty outdated flood irrigation system,” Moore says. A network of canals built in the 19th century delivers water from the Colorado River, a system that seemed like a better idea before the watershed entered a persistent and increasingly dire state of drought. Although the canals supply enough water to meet CRIT’s farming needs for now, the tribes are planning for a hotter, drier future. This season, black plastic tubing can be seen snaking down hundreds of rows of sorghum: an experiment with microdrip irrigation that could radically reduce the farm’s withdrawals from an overtaxed watershed., Around the world, most crops depend on rain alone for their water, but in places where rainfall isn’t sufficient, we’re forced to irrigate. Despite all the innovation that’s made its way into agriculture in recent years, from , to genetically engineered seedlings, 85% of all irrigation is still done by releasing vast quantities of water across the surface of a field, pretty much the same way it was handled 4,000 years ago in Mesopotamia., Flood irrigation has hung on because it’s cash-cheap, but from a natural-resource perspective, it’s staggeringly expensive. As much as 70% of the water goes to waste, and overwatered crops can fail to reach their full potential. Excess fertilizer is carried away by the runoff, contaminating streams, wetlands, and lakes., Microdrip irrigation was supposed to solve all that. In the 1930s, a young engineer named Simcha Blass noticed a tree that had grown much taller than the others in the same row; when he looked closer, he found that its roots were being fed by a tiny leak from a nearby irrigation pipe. Years later, the Israeli used the concept to create a plastic drip irrigation system that went on to be sold under the brand name , . It remains the global leader in its sector., Today, there are hundreds of drip irrigation companies, but the technology is being applied to less than 5% of irrigated acres globally, usually to big-ticket crops such as almonds, wine grapes, and tomatoes. The limiting factor is cost. As the systems are currently designed, pushing water through hundreds of feet of pipe requires a lot of force, which farmers supply with pumps; electric ones if they have power in their fields, carbon-belching diesel versions if they don’t. The dripper lines are also prone to getting clogged by silt particles or algae found in natural water, so it must be filtered, which adds another expense. The whole setup amounts to at least $2,000 an acre, plus energy bills. For lower-value crops such as cotton or alfalfa, drip irrigation simply doesn’t pay., The microdrip setup being used by CRIT Farms, however, cost less than $400 an acre to install, and the required pressure is supplied entirely by gravity, which has the advantage of being free and carbon-neutral. To the casual observer, the system doesn’t look like much. But to Moore, the idea of drip irrigating crops for animal feed is nothing short of revolutionary. Assuming, of course, that it actually works., “When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water,” Benjamin Franklin wrote in a 1746 edition of , . He didn’t know the half of it. Today’s global population is 10 times what it was back then, and freshwater sources are in decline. The biggest water hog by far is agriculture, which accounts for almost , ., Signs of water scarcity are all around us, growing more alarming with each passing year. In August, for the first time in history, the Colorado River was declared by the U.S. government to be in a , , triggering supply cuts to some of the 40 million people who depend on it. Five million of them get their water courtesy of the Central Arizona Project (CAP), a public utility that delivers river water by canal from the western edge of Arizona to 80% of the state’s population., Chuck Cullom, the Colorado River programs manager at CAP, has spent the past decade exploring options for increasing Arizona’s water supply, including wastewater-treatment technologies and gadgets that help urban customers curb their use. In 2019, at a conference in Tel Aviv, Cullom met an executive from an Israeli irrigation startup called , , which was developing a system that promised drastic water savings without the prohibitive costs. “I was superskeptical,” Cullom says. “It sounded like a unicorn solution.”, But agriculture accounts for the vast majority of Arizona’s freshwater use, so Cullom was willing to try N-Drip. In 2020, CAP provided the system to CRIT Farms for use on 40 acres of sorghum. They found that it cut water use in half, while slightly improving the quality of the crops: a staggering result, albeit on a very small scale. This year, CAP expanded the pilot to about 200 acres of sorghum and cotton across Arizona, and, if all goes well, hopes to deploy the system regionally by 2023, continuing to cover the cost of the equipment for farmers who install it., N-Drip is the brainchild of Uri Shani, a professor of soil physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a former chairman of Israel’s water authority. He set out seven years ago to devise a microdrip irrigation system cheap enough to make sense not just for lettuces and berries but also commodity crops such as soy and corn, which make up the bulk of the world’s agricultural output., Shani is 72 years old, with short salt-and-pepper hair, wire-rimmed glasses, and an avuncular manner. He was born in 1950, on a kibbutz suffused with an angst peculiar to life in an arid country committed to agricultural self-sufficiency. “My father was an engineer who worked primarily on water. I grew up thinking about water and water solutions all my life,” Shani says, speaking by Zoom from N-Drip’s office in Tel Aviv., After completing his military service with an elite commando unit, Shani went on to Hebrew University, Israel’s preeminent research institution, and got a master’s degree in soil physics. For his Ph.D. work, he moved to Kibbutz Yotvata, in the desert in Israel’s far south. The area gets less than an inch of rain each year and has only brackish groundwater for irrigation purposes: the outer limits of agriculture. He began there as a grad student and ended up managing the kibbutz., Shani later became a professor, and in 2006 was tapped to become the first head of the newly created Israel water authority. The role was complex, spanning engineering, management, politics, and economics, and he took it on with the country experiencing its worst-ever drought. Shani turbocharged investment in water recycling and desalination. To pay for it, he significantly—and controversially—raised the price of water., “Around the world, the reason why there are so many water problems is very few countries are prepared to charge consumers the real price,” says Seth Siegel, N-Drip’s chief sustainability officer and the author of a 2015 New York Times bestseller, , , that recounts Israel’s rise as a leader in water conservation and technology. In 2012, Shani left office with Israel in a freshwater surplus. “It was extraordinary what he pulled off.”, A private citizen once again, Shani began ruminating on the growing threat of water shortages worldwide. More than a quarter of the world’s population lives in water-stressed countries, and the United Nations estimates that water scarcity could displace 700 million people by the end of the decade. The most significant contribution he could make, he decided, would be to help drip irrigation go mainstream. That meant inventing a system that ran without filters and pumps., To understand Shani’s challenge, you first must understand what’s happening inside those humble black plastic dripper lines. Along each one is a series of holes, and fastened inside every hole is a plastic widget about the size of a Tic Tac, called an emitter. Water moves through an exceedingly narrow, maze-like channel inside the emitter, regulated so it comes out in measured droplets. The resistance produced by those emitters is the reason so much pressure is required to move water from one end of a field to the other in a traditional system., Shani conceived a new kind of emitter, one that offered so little resistance that the water pressure provided by gravity alone—accrued during the 1- to 2-foot descent from the irrigation canal to the field below—would be enough to propel the water all the way down hundreds of feet of tubing and out into the ground. First, he experimented with weaving plastic and metal fibers into various three-dimensional lattice structures. But it was on a hike one day, he says, that the breakthrough came: Instead of a zigzag channel, his emitter would consist of a rod suspended inside a cylinder, with water flowing through the tube shape formed between them. Unlike with a traditional emitter, now, no single particle of debris could block the water’s flow. “Boom,” Shani says. “I was absolutely convinced it would work. Then we developed all the mathematics.”, Once he fine-tuned the concept, Shani needed to commercialize it. He contacted Eran Pollak, a former finance ministry official with whom he’d worked closely as water chairman, and told Pollak he’d invented drip irrigation that used only gravity. Pollak was skeptical. He’d grown up on a kibbutz, too, and he knew about irrigation; there was no such thing as zero-pressure drip., “My first reaction was, of course this would change the world, but it will never work,” Pollak recounts. He met Shani at N-Drip’s headquarters, which at the time was a small office in a strip mall in a Tel Aviv suburb. Shani led him to a shed out back. “It was 20 meters of pipe, manually glued together, dripping water on the ground from a small plastic garbage can,” Pollak says. “It was in the most elementary stage imaginable, but this was the minute in which I understood it could work.” Pollak signed on as chief executive officer., N-Drip installed its first official field trial at the end of 2017, on five acres of sugarcane in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), drawing water directly from a river. They found that the system not only worked and used less water but also increased crop yields by 30%. With encouraging results in hand, N-Drip moved on to larger trials in Australia and the U.S., and has since expanded to 17 countries, from Vietnam to Nigeria. If Shani’s vision bears out, N-Drip stands a chance at modernizing millions more farms, and transforming freshwater consumption globally., To date, N-Drip has raised $25 million in funding, and its system is being used by hundreds of farmers for 4,000 acres’ worth of crops, ranging from cotton to potatoes to soybeans. But Shani has a long way to go if he intends to convert the Earth’s 600 million flood-irrigated acres, and the road from garden shed to global irrigation solution will have plenty of obstacles., Because N-Drip doesn’t use filtration, most of the hiccups thus far have had to do with all the unexpected things one might find in water on a farm. Early in one trial, a California grower contacted N-Drip in a panic to say that his system had stopped functioning. When Shani arrived, he found a fish the size of his index finger clogging one of the pipes. A clump of green algae did something similar on a farm in Kazakhstan. Now, N-Drip’s water tanks are outfitted with mesh netting to capture all manner of plant and animal life., In the baking sun of Arizona, in a region with particularly mineral-rich water, the dripper lines got so hot that calcium carbonate precipitated out, coating the emitters in limescale like the inside of a British teakettle. That led N-Drip to develop protocols for burying its lines in a thin coating of soil to keep them cool and for using softeners on hard water., David Midmore, a professor emeritus of plant sciences at Australia’s , and an expert on microdrip irrigation, says that if N-Drip truly plans to reach the world’s 500 million small-scale farmers, and not just large, sophisticated growers, success depends not only on designing the right technology but also on investing substantially in education and support. “It’s very important that the growers be taught the correct ways to drip-irrigate, to have simple measures of water in the soil, and how not to over- or under-irrigate,” he says. “It’s not only training, but follow-up.”, N-Drip insists that small farms are a crucial part of its mission. “If a rich farmer in Australia increases yield by 47%, that’s great, pop open the Champagne, take a fancier vacation that year,” says Siegel, the company’s chief sustainability officer. “But if a subsistence farmer increases yield, and they have more food to eat and more food to sell, it transforms that family and that community.”, To that end, as the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded in 2020, putting lucrative projects in the U.S. and Australia on hold, N-Drip pivoted to manufacturing a 1-acre kit designed for these users. This DIY system arrives with a link to a YouTube video and simple, Ikea-esque line drawings to guide the farmer through installation., N-Drip has also developed a proprietary soil sensor, called , , that monitors plant and soil conditions and sends farmers real-time guidance via a smartphone app on when to irrigate and fertilize. The sensor feeds back to the company’s agronomic team, too, so that it can keep tabs on the field conditions., Another challenge for N-Drip will continue to be economic. The system can be installed for a fraction of the cost of a conventional pressurized drip system, with none of the ongoing energy costs, but water is free or heavily subsidized for most farmers globally. Although some, such as Australian cotton growers, might be willing to invest to urgently protect a fast-dwindling resource, many of the world’s small farmers would be unable to cover even a modest additional expense., “The smallholder market is a huge market, and one that can benefit most from our system, but it’s very difficult to do business with if you don’t have a large and well-positioned partner,” Pollak concedes. N-Drip envisions providing its system to these farmers primarily via nonprofits, government agencies, and large corporations making good on sustainability pledges. Its executives say the opportunity, in the near term, can be measured in hundreds of thousands of acres of agricultural land., An early example of this sort of partnership is with PepsiCo Inc., which contracts directly with 40,000 farmers for ingredients such as corn, oats, and potatoes, and has set a goal of improving agricultural water-use efficiency by 15% by 2025. PepsiCo piloted N-Drip’s technology with a handful of farmers in India, Vietnam, and the U.S., and saw improved crop yields with less fertilizer input and 50% less water consumed versus flood irrigation., Peter Gleick, the president-emeritus and co-founder of the , , a nonprofit research institute focused on freshwater issues, stresses that when it comes to the future of irrigation, it’s critical that we not lose sight of the big picture. Converting cotton or alfalfa fields to drip irrigation is a step in the right direction, but a larger question looms: Should we really be growing those crops in arid climates to begin with? “We need to have a real conversation about what it makes sense to grow in the water-scarce West, as well as a conversation about growing what we choose to grow more efficiently and more carefully,” he says. “This technology might help with the second question, but it’s not going to help with the first, more political one.”, Gleick notes that it’s one thing to object in principle to using precious drinking water to grow crops for animal feed, and another to tell farmers they should stop cultivating. Back at CRIT Farms, Moore says he’s happy to be contributing to research he sees as vital to agriculture’s future in the region. Next year he plans to use N-Drip’s system on additional acreage. Although the tribes’ reservation hasn’t had its water quota reduced, Moore knows that shortages will come for everyone one day. “We need to start living like we’re affected by those cutoffs to buy us some time,” he says. “To survive as a people, and as a business, we need to be looking at technologies like this.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Elizabeth G Dunn. Date Created: 23 Sep 2021, 9:31 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Minimum wage Inequality Debate fight Walmart [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: Walmart’s Fight Against a $15 Minimum Wage Could Thrust It Into the Inequality Debate. Short_description: Walmart’s Fight Against a $15 Minimum Wage Could Thrust It Into the Inequality Debate. Description: Every evening for more than a decade, after finishing a daylong shift, Walmart cashier Mendy Hughes drives from the superstore that employs her back to her home in rural Arkansas. If she’s short of Lunchables or frozen dinners, she’ll stop at a McDonald’s drive-thru and pick up $1.59 chicken sandwiches from the value menu for her and her children. She says the $11.85 hourly wage Walmart Inc. pays her—which makes the company an outlier to rivals Amazon, Best Buy, and Target, all of which pay at least $15—means she struggles to afford groceries., For almost a decade, the movement to push businesses to pay at least $15 an hour has gained momentum, spawning groups such as , and , —an organization of mostly Walmart workers that Hughes belongs to. But Walmart, the U.S.’s largest employer, with more than 1.5 million employees, has consistently shot the argument down. For Hughes—who at times has fallen behind on paying thousands of dollars in medical bills from a knee injury while also paying for treatment for her diabetes and son’s asthma—the company’s stance feels born out of “pure greed.” She’s especially critical of management and theWalton family that controls the chain for keeping lowly paid workers down, even as they enrich themselves through measures such as a $20 billion share buyback , in February., “They don’t care about the associates [entry-level employees such as cashiers] at all. They just want more money for themselves,” Hughes says. After 11 years of service in the retail giant’s home state of Arkansas, she says she no longer feels proud to work there. “It’s just not the same company it used to be.”, A spokeswoman for Walmart defended the company’s treatment of employees. “It’s very important to understand that Walmart offers careers, not just jobs, because we’re investing in our associates’ long-term success through a combination of stability, consistency, benefits, wages, training and upskilling, and creating a ladder of opportunity,” she said., With President Joe Biden’s initiative to mandate a , at the federal level by 2025 , , many of the U.S.’s largest businesses are taking matters into their own hands and setting their lowest nationwide pay at that level voluntarily. Costco Wholesale Corp. has set its minimum at $16., Walmart, meanwhile, , , and its long-standing reluctance to follow rivals in raising that figure is especially jarring to critics given the company’s financial might. As the pandemic raged last year and shoppers raided store aisles to stockpile foods and sanitizers, Walmart’s annual revenue increased by $35 billion to more than $500 billion, on which it earned $22 billion in profit. The fortune of the Walton family, , , soared to $250 billion during that period. Groups pressing the retailer for higher pay complain that the founding family’s wealth grew every minute during 2020 by the same amount earned in a year by Walmart’s poorest employees, some of whose incomes are so low they receive federal food stamp assistance., For all the perks Walmart says come with being an entry-level worker, such as enrollment in online academic degree programs for , , plus decent , , its stiff resistance to raising minimum pay has opened a flank to critics who portray it as a prime symbol of soaring wealth inequality in the U.S. That’s happened despite Walmart’s recent initiatives to boost salaries. Since 2015 the average wage paid to its associates has risen 50%. And in February, Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon said Walmart would invest a fraction of its earnings toraise the average—not minimum—associate wage to , , with about 730,000 workers being paid at least $15.25 per hour beginning in March. The impact on the company’s annual operating income in the U.S. will be about 14%, the company acknowledged on its most recent earnings call., Still, Yannet Lathrop, a policy researcher at the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group, says the retail industry’s annual turnover rate of about 60% would cause a significant portion of entry-level employees joining the company to still be paid $11 an hour. So the “announcement that they’ll raise wages to an average of $15 really is more of a PR move,” Lathrop says. “Obviously, Walmart has built a business model around paying low wages and will keep doing that for as long as possible.”, Walmart doesn’t agree. In a presentation to investors after announcing the pay increase, McMillon, who began work at Walmart as an hourly associate, said raising wages to a blanket $15 minimum would compromise a “ladder of opportunity” that encourages its employees to strive to earn more as they climb the ranks., “The alternative would be to invest all of that to try and get to $15 faster, but if we do that, then we wouldn’t be able to create this succession that we are committed to creating,” McMillon said during the February investor call. “We are obviously really aware of what’s happening nationally with this discussion around $15, and I think that that’s an important target. But I also think that it should be paced in a way that’s good for the U.S. economy, and you can kind of see us as a model working through how that works.”, In a sense, Walmart is a microcosm for the economic tensions at the heart of Biden’s $15-an-hour ambition. The company is investing heavily in becoming a broader competitor to Amazon.com Inc., , , funding a , , and , in video streaming as part of a costly plan to transform itself into an e-commerce colossus. It’s not that Walmart can’t afford to pay $15 today. Some critics say its strategy could be a calculation that the return on the investment in human capital needed to do that wouldn’t be worth the toll on its profit margin when the company is making strategic investments elsewhere, such as , parts of its supply chain and building out a , to make it more efficient against rivals such as Amazon., McMillon’s statement about pacing employee pay increases in a manner that benefits the U.S. economy also seems to lean on a controversial premise: that for all the good a raise to $15 per hour could do for workers, it could also do a lot of damage by spurring job cuts. Earlier this year, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that while $15 would lift 900,000 people out of poverty, about 1.4 million jobs , as companies seek to lessen the impact on their bottom lines. That perceived trade-off makes $15 “the mother of all economic debates,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. economists Michael Feroli and Daniel Silver have said., A number of wage academics have argued that the much-feared job loss impact is grossly overstated. Arindrajit Dube, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, wrote an opinion piece for the , criticizing the CBO’s calculations. He , that he and several colleagues conducted a thorough analysis in a 2019 , published in the , that examined the effects of 138 state-level minimum wage increases from 1979 to 2016 in the U.S. “Understandably, jobs paying below the minimum decreased—since wages rose,” he wrote. “But at least as many jobs were added at the new, higher wage—meaning jobs were upgraded, not destroyed. All told, the number of low wage jobs barely budged.”, The time frame of Biden’s 2025 goal would also allow businesses to offset the impact of wage increases by gradually raising the prices of their goods, which historically have been absorbed by shoppers, according to research by Michael Reich, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley and co-chair of the , . Over the next four years, those cents-on-the-dollar increases would be almost indiscernible to America’s average shopper, says Lathrop, at the National Employment Law Project. She also says McMillon’s argument that wage increases should reflect regional norms rather than be thought of as a federal issue could also be flipped, with Walmart charging more for its products in cities that can afford to pay for them. That would offset the impact of a $15 minimum while lifting members of the impoverished communities, she says., For Hughes, the associate earning $11.85 an hour, Walmart’s refusal to commit to raising its nationwide minimum to be in line with those of rivals exacerbates the regional divide between affluent states and those left limping behind on lower pay, including its own backyard. Her dream is to leave Walmart and relocate to Florida, which last year , of raising its minimum wage to $15 by 2026. “I would love to get out of Arkansas if I could afford to move,” she says.,  , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Thomas Buckley. Date Created: 27 Apr 2021, 2:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to gain productivity growth [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: Productivity Is Finally Looking Up, and the Gains Could Lift Growth. Short_description: Productivity Is Finally Looking Up, and the Gains Could Lift Growth. Description: The Covid-19 crisis is accelerating a technology boom that has the potential to boost productivity across much of the world, spurring growth even in mature economies such as those of Europe and the U.S., Whether in restaurant kitchens, on the factory floor, or at e-commerce fulfillment centers, the pandemic has sped the adoption of robots, artificial intelligence, and other technologies that, in theory, free workers from manual or repetitive tasks to focus on higher-value output. At the same time, cloud computing and videoconferencing software have enabled the shift to , at countless companies around the globe. That’s liberated employees from the wasteful time-suck that is the office commute and is said to be yielding dividends for businesses., Research published by the , at the end of March found that the combination of these trends could raise productivity growth in the U.S. and Western Europe by about 1 percentage point annually in the years to 2024, more than doubling the pre-pandemic rate of growth. This could translate into increases in gross domestic product per capita, ranging from about $1,500 in Spain to about $3,500 in the U.S., according to the report’s authors. “This acceleration in technology is something that feels real and lasting,” says , , a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute. (Except where noted, the term “productivity” is used here as a shorthand for what’s often called labor productivity, which is a measure of output per unit of labor input.), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economists are also bullish. They , in an April 25 report that three channels of tech disruption—the shift to e-commerce, digitization of the workplace, and the reallocation of human and investment capital as unprofitable companies shrink or close—will lift U.S. productivity by at least 2% cumulatively by 2022 relative to trend, and potentially by as much as 7%., These are bold predictions, especially as they run counter to what’s been observed historically. Recoveries from recessions and natural disasters are typically followed by years of weak productivity growth, says , , an economist at the World Bank. Previous epidemics, such as Ebola and SARS, left lasting negative legacies on productivity growth largely because they depressed capital spending, meaning businesses weren’t investing in equipment or information technology that might help workers do their jobs more efficiently., The opposite appears to be happening during this pandemic. Three-quarters of the almost 1,400 executives surveyed by McKinsey in December expected investment in new technologies to pick up in 2020-24, compared with 55% that increased outlays in 2014-19., A , by Swiss engineering giant ABB Ltd. of more than 1,600 businesses globally found that 8 out of 10 workplaces will introduce or increase the use of robotics and automation in the next decade, with 85% saying Covid had been a game changer for their business., In North America, , jumped 64% in the fourth quarter of 2020 from a year earlier, according to the Robotic Industries Association. Even more notable: Industries including food processing, consumer-goods manufacturing, and life sciences logged a bigger increase in orders for all of 2020 than did automakers, which have traditionally been the biggest buyers of robots., Researchers at Oxford Economics say their , that robotization would add $5 trillion to global GDP by the end of the current decade may need to be revised upward., John Ha, founder and chief executive officer of , , a Redwood City, Calif., startup that’s backed by SoftBank Group Corp., says his autonomous robots can perform tasks like ferrying food and dirty dishes between a restaurant kitchen and the dining area, allowing human waitstaff to interact more with their customers. “Robots free up the server’s time,” he says. “They can truly focus on hospitality.” Bear’s Servi bot has already been deployed at Denny’s restaurants in Japan and at food concessions at Houston’s Toyota Center arena that are managed by Levy Restaurants., When Covid work-from-home restrictions made it tough for employees at a government agency in Hong Kong to create the maps and drawings of the city’s buildings that they need for city maintenance and planning, Insight Robotics Ltd. adapted its AI-powered analytics technology—usually used for wildfire detection—to automate the process. Staff who used to spend hours sketching drawings are freed to spend more time analyzing the data they need, says Rex Sham, co-founder of the Hong Kong-based company: “They don’t need to do something that treats them as human robots, and they can utilize their brain to do something more creative and valuable.”, On the remote-work front, a , by Jose Maria Barrero of the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, Nicholas Bloom of Stanford, and Steven Davis of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the Hoover Institution found that working from home will lift productivity in the post-pandemic U.S. economy by 5%, mostly because of the reduction in commuting. The authors polled more than 30,000 U.S. workers and found that a better-than-expected experience, technological innovations and investments, and lingering fears of crowds and contagion will bolster the new working arrangements—though they also noted that those gains will mostly be realized by higher-income earners. “The obvious thing is there will be lots of adoption of automation,” Bloom says. “But I think less obvious is we are going to see a big change of direction towards making work-from-home remote connectivity much more powerful.”, One point on which there’s broad consensus among economists is that not all industries or workers will benefit from these technologies equally—and some may actually lose out. The differentiated impact means productivity improvement realized at the company or industry level may not add up to gains in national gauges., “The real potential for a revolution is working from home,” says Robert Gordon, a professor at Northwestern University. Gordon, whose 2016 book , argued that present-day technologies such as the iPhone and the internet have been far less transformative than previous innovations like refrigeration or indoor plumbing, is quick to add a caveat: “But it’s going to take a long time for the economy to adjust in the areas that are being severely damaged by working from home, like public transit and downtown office buildings.”, Similarly, some nations may be more advantaged than others. In the U.S., the pace of increase in total factor productivity—a measure that explicitly accounts for the effects of technological innovation—climbed from an average of 0.6% from 1990 to 1995 to almost 2% on average from 1996 to 2004, powered largely by computerization and the internet, says the World Bank’s Kindberg-Hanlon. Yet productivity growth in Europe trended down in the same period for reasons that included a slower adoption of new information technology and more restrictive labor markets., “While many advanced economies are well-placed to see productivity improve in some sectors, many emerging and developing economies may struggle to reap these benefits due to skill shortages, lack of infrastructure such as high-speed internet and other facilitators of digital connectivity, and poor access to finance,” he says., Optimism about a productivity boost may be tempered once we have a better understanding of the scale of economic wreckage left by the pandemic, says , , the Ronald Coase Chair in Economics at the London School of Economics. “There will be some productivity benefits,” he says. “Will that be big enough to outweigh all the costs? The jury is still out.” , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Enda Curran. Date Created: 04 May 2021, 9:31 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Video Games Curt Schilling Fail [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: Curt Schilling’s $150 Million Fail Shows What’s Broken in Video Games. Short_description: Curt Schilling’s $150 Million Fail Shows What’s Broken in Video Games. Description: 38, Studios was the type of company a teenager might dream up when fantasizing about what it’d be like to make video games for a living. The company was building a wildly ambitious game to compete with the megahit , and appeared to be flush with cash. Employees received top-notch health benefits, gym memberships, and personalized high-end gaming laptops worth thousands of dollars. There were free meals, lavish travel expenses, and Timbuk2 bags customized with an illustration of the world map for their in-progress video game, code-named Copernicus. The man behind 38 Studios was Curt Schilling, the retired pitcher best known for his time with the Boston Red Sox. Schilling was a legend, famous for his performance on the field and his combativeness off it. In the 2004 playoffs, he’d pitched two games with an ankle that had been injured so badly it soaked his sock in blood. The performance helped the team win its first World Series in almost a century, and Schilling’s bloody socks earned a place in baseball lore., During his playing career, Schilling had been a star, and he thought the people building Copernicus should be stars, too, says Thom Ang, an artist who’d done work for Disney on , and , , along with stints at big-name games companies such as Sony, Electronic Arts, and THQ. “He said, ‘That’s how I want my team to feel. I’m going to attract the best, and I’m going to treat them as if they’re the best.’ And he did.”, Ang was skeptical when he first got a call from a 38 Studios recruiter in 2008. But the role-playing game looked fantastic, and the company offered him a hefty relocation package, so he moved from Southern California to become its art director. Sure, the studio hadn’t made a lot of progress in the two years it had been operating, and its timeline to finish the game by the fall of 2011 did seem a little unrealistic, but Ang didn’t think that was a problem. He’d seen how slowly things could move at the beginning of a project. And Ang knew he didn’t have to worry about 38 Studios’ finances or wonder where the money was coming from. After all, Schilling had earned in excess of $114 million over his two decades in baseball., Video games are big business, generating more than $150 billion in annual sales. The biggest hits account for a disproportionate amount of that revenue, which is why Schilling had said publicly he thought he could get “Bill Gates rich” by building his own blockbuster. But volatility is also the status quo in gaming. Too many companies struggle to provide stable, healthy environments for their workers. All it takes is one flop or sloppy business decision to lead a billion-dollar game publisher to enact a mass layoff or shut down a studio, no matter how much money it made in a given year., In 2017 the nonprofit , asked approximately 1,000 game workers how many employers they’d had in the previous five years. Among those who worked full time, the average was 2.2 employers; for freelancers it was 3.6. James Batchelor, a , at GamesIndustry.biz, counted up all the jobs lost to studio closures in the 12 months ended September 2018—a time when the industry was thriving—and found the number was over 1,000., Job listings for big game publishers like Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. and EA advertise careers, not temporary gigs. But there’s actually a high level of instability. Developers who accept the pleasure of creating art for a living must also acknowledge that it might all fall apart without much notice. “With all the layoffs I’ve dealt with, I get a PTSD-type thing whenever there is an email for an all-hands meeting in an office,” says Sean McLaughlin, an artist who has worked in gaming since 2006. “I no longer put more things on my desk than I can carry out in one bag.”, Ang and others at 38 Studios thought this company would be different, and they were right in one sense. Video game studios collapse all the time, but rarely with the kind of star power and political controversy that surrounded its demise.,  , Schilling first grew obsessed with video games—especially massive multiplayer online role-playing games, where players interact freely in sprawling digital worlds—during long summers on the road as a pro athlete. As his playing career wound down, he decided he wanted to make a video game of his own. He started a company, named it after his jersey number, and seeded it with $5 million. He declared he was going to create a “utopian” office—a place where making video games felt not like a dreary nine-to-five job but like you’d just made it to the big leagues., This account is based on interviews with former executives and employees at 38 Studios. Schilling initially agreed to an interview but then stopped responding to requests. He had never run a business before, and that became clear with everything he said or did. Early on, he had suggested that everyone work the odd schedules common for professional baseball players, coming into the office for 14 straight days and then taking five days off—an idea that his executives quickly shot down. By the beginning of 2010, he had invested $30 million of his own money into 38 Studios, and although he’d taken other small investments from friends, he knew that 38 needed far more money to bring Copernicus to reality., Schilling was, in addition to being a serious gamer, a World War II buff, maintaining a collection of historic memorabilia including, most controversially, Nazi uniforms. That March, he met Donald Carcieri, the Republican governor of Rhode Island, at a fundraiser the former pitcher was holding for a documentary on the war he hoped to support. The two started talking about 38 Studios, and the talks eventually developed into a plan for the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. to create what they called the Job Creation Guaranty Program. Rhode Island would offer a $75 million loan guarantee to 38 Studios in exchange for a commitment from Schilling to relocate from Massachusetts and create 450 new jobs over three years., For 38 Studios’ employees, the move to Rhode Island represented a potential hardship, so Schilling and his management team offered to pay for home closing costs. More remarkably, they said that anyone who owned a house in Massachusetts and couldn’t sell it would have the option to sell it to 38 Studios, which would take care of mortgage payments until a buyer came along. In the wake of the 2008 housing crash, Ang had a mortgage that was worth more than the value of his house. The deal with 38 Studios seemed like the perfect opportunity to get out of a bad spot., The company expanded rapidly after the move, in no small part because the loan agreement had stipulated that 38 Studios create the first 125 new jobs in Rhode Island within 12 months of closing. The new employees settled in for the long haul. “The people were top-notch, top talent in the industry,” says Pete Paquette, an animator who joined the company in 2011. “And I was prepared to just live there the rest of my life, to work there the rest of my career.”, The game looked gorgeous, too. It was full of sleek medieval castles and vivid environments—humongous waterfalls, ancient statues, craggy mountains, menacing underground cities lit with sickly shades of neon green. But it was still years away from release, and 38 Studios had to start paying back the Rhode Island loan right away. Throughout 2011, reports later suggested, 38 Studios had a burn rate of more than $4 million a month. This would eat through most of the loan in a year, because 38 Studios only received about $49 million, with the banks keeping the rest. After the studio’s collapse, Schilling said the shortfall was partially to blame., When Andy Johnson started working at 38 Studios in January 2012, he went around its headquarters at One Empire Plaza in Providence introducing himself to executives, designers, and developers. As part of his job, which was to facilitate the translation of the games into other languages, he put together an estimated release schedule. Even his most conservative estimate showed that there would be no way for Copernicus to come out that year., The following week, Johnson brought the schedule to one of 38’s vice presidents, who shut the door and asked him who else had seen it. “Everything started cascading into lunacy,” he says. Word spread among the other vice presidents and executives, who would barge into Johnson’s office and interrogate him about the disappointing document. “I was like, ‘Oh crap.’ I had just done my due diligence of trying to figure out sizing, scope, estimate time for all this stuff,” he says. “I felt like I’d uncovered some big secret.”, Soon afterward the studio imposed a hiring freeze. This left Johnson unable to do his job, while colleagues had taken to locking themselves in their offices, working on spreadsheets or polishing their résumés. In March, 38 Studios stopped paying many of its external vendors. On May 1, it failed to make one of its bank loan repayments, putting the loan into default., The studio was making progress on Copernicus, and some of the ideas it was exploring seemed groundbreaking by the standards of the day. Players could change the outcome of the world based on how well they performed. If one group of gamers defeated the evil dragon, their world would enter a celebratory state. Another group might fare worse, failing to beat the dragon and watching it destroy their cities with molten lava., Most of the staff had no idea of the trouble they were in until later that spring. On May 14, Lincoln Chafee, who had succeeded Carcieri as governor, told reporters that his goal was “keeping 38 Studios solvent.” Those four words spooked potential investors that Schilling had been wooing, including gaming giants Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Nexon Co. “The conversations ended immediately,” Schilling later said on a Boston radio show. “I knew then that we were in a world of hurt.”, It became clear to most employees the following day, which was supposed to be payday. Heather Conover, a designer, remembers walking to the office when a colleague asked if she had been paid. When they arrived at the office, Conover logged in to her checking account. There was no deposit. “We all sort of had this sinking feeling as it started spreading,” she says., The next few days were chaos—a blur of angry all-hands meetings and frazzled employees. Management asked them to keep coming in, while reporters with cameras and microphones camped outside the office. Some developers didn’t bother showing up. Others tried to bring home the office equipment. “People were picking up desktops and monitors, saying, ‘Screw this, I’m taking this, that’s my payment,’ ” Johnson says., Chafee began publicly revealing what 38 Studios saw as proprietary information, like Copernicus’s projected release date (by now June 2013). A longtime critic of the loan guarantee deal, the governor blamed the company’s freewheeling spending. In a scathing newspaper , a few years later, Schilling called Chafee a “liar and a phony.”, Through the end of May, many workers kept showing up even though the paychecks never came. A few people put together a two-minute YouTube trailer showing off Copernicus, partly as a last-ditch effort to try to persuade some other video game publisher to hire them but also to ensure that their work would still be seen by the world even if no one ever played the game., Some of 38 Studios’ employees still believed Schilling would find a way to keep the company afloat, just like he saved the 2004 Red Sox. “I kept thinking, ‘They’re going to pull a rabbit out of their hat,’ ” says Ang. “ ‘They’re going to work something out.’ ”, Instead, on May 24, an email went out to everyone who worked for 38 Studios, telling them it was their last day. The note came not from Schilling, but from Bill Thomas, the studio’s chief operating officer—and also the uncle of Schilling’s wife. The note, which was bizarrely cold for a company whose executives often talked about the organization as a “family,” cited an “economic downturn” within the company. “A company wide lay-off is absolutely necessary,” wrote Thomas. “These layoffs are non-voluntary and non-disciplinary. This is your official notice of lay off, effective today.” There was no more health care, no severance—employees wouldn’t even get the money they were owed from their final paychecks., The collapse of 38 Studios devastated Schilling. Bankruptcy filings later showed that when the studio collapsed it was $150 million in debt, with millions owed to investors, vendors, and insurers. Schilling said he’d put $50 million of his own money into the company and was now “tapped out.” In the years following the studio’s closure, he became a right-wing provocateur, advocating for Donald Trump and sharing conservative memes on Facebook and Twitter, where he spent a great deal of time attacking liberal politicians, progressive causes such as Black Lives Matter, and just about every news organization that wasn’t named Fox. In 2015, Schilling was suspended from his job as an ESPN analyst for posting images , . A year later, ESPN fired him for sharing transphobic memes on social media., As he attacked Democrats and made racist remarks in public, Schilling was giving depositions and watching his company’s assets sold off in a bankruptcy auction. But as with all studio closures—at least a dozen have shut down since 2018—perhaps the strongest burden fell on the employees., Hundreds of former 38 Studios employees were left stranded in Rhode Island, where there were no other video game companies or jobs. Those who wanted to stay in the video game industry had to again uproot their lives and move to new cities. In the weeks following the shutdown, the video game industry came together to try to help out the displaced employees. Recruiters promoted social media hashtags like #38jobs and flew out to Providence for a job fair. Rhode Island sent representatives to One Empire Plaza so that people could file for unemployment at the office, while some staffers brought in canned food to help struggling co-workers., For Ang, the kicker came in the form of a letter from MoveTrek Mobility, the company that 38 Studios had hired to sell his old lake house in Massachusetts. Turns out it hadn’t sold. And somewhere in the fine print of his contract, Ang had agreed that if 38 Studios ever faced financial trouble and stopped paying the mortgage, the obligation would fall back on him. Panicked, Ang called up MoveTrek and asked what was going on. “They said, ‘It means you have to pay the bank on the loan,’ ” he says.,  , , , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Jason Schreier. Date Created: 23 Apr 2021, 2:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Hard big day Biden [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: Biden Went Big in His First 100 Days, and Now Comes the Hard Part. Short_description: Biden Went Big in His First 100 Days, and Now Comes the Hard Part. Description: At 78, establishment stalwart Joe Biden returned to Washington as the leader of a party seeking a revolution. A moderate and a vocal defender of bipartisanship, he forced a sweeping, progressive aid package through Congress without a single Republican vote. Long known for making gaffes, he has so far governed in a hyper-disciplined manner. Is this the Joe Biden America thought it knew?, Longtime friends and allies of the president say he hasn’t changed, the moment and political opportunity have. “I think in some ways, he and I share one thing: We believe in what FDR was doing. You have to meet the moment,” says Bob Casey, a Democratic senator from Pennsylvania who lives in Scranton, Biden’s hometown. “I think he knows we’re in a unique moment. It’s a moment of crisis and a moment of great opportunity to lift the country up.”, Biden entered the Oval Office in January with Covid-19 cases coming off fresh highs, millions out of work, rising calls for racial justice, and a climate crisis. Americans were reeling from the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and hung over from a presidency conducted largely by tweet. Biden’s empathy and history of personal loss underpin his response to the Covid pandemic, and they’ve shifted the tone in Washington. Donald Trump’s White House was chaotic; with Biden, an impromptu visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at dusk is about as spontaneous as it gets., The buttoned-up style is deliberate. “Trump’s great talent is to distract you, and they did not fall for it,” John Podesta, the former counselor to President Obama and chief of staff to President Clinton, says of Biden’s team in the days leading up to the inauguration. “They had an early game plan they developed during the course of the transition, built around Biden’s theory of the country and theory of the economy, and they executed it with real discipline and precision.”, By his 100th day in office on April 29, Biden will have surpassed goals he set for , and be close to meeting another on reopening schools. He’s skirted fault lines between progressives and centrists and kept his party united. These first few months have gone even more smoothly than Democrats had hoped., The next 100 days and beyond already look more turbulent. Biden faces a human-rights crisis on the southern border, where a surge of migrants has , and provoked criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike. New , are fueling the pandemic, threatening progress on vaccination, and there are troubling signs that the U.S. is running out of people who want a jab. The , , Biden’s $2.25 trillion infrastructure bill, is by no means certain to pass, and the next big bill on the horizon, the , , looks like a long shot., Biden’s aides and confidants paint a clear picture of his strategy: pursue an ambitious agenda and redefine bipartisan “unity” as the support of voters across the political spectrum, rather than the endorsement of, say, Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. The American Rescue Plan package pushed through Congress was a core example., Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Bloomberg that passage of the rescue plan is a huge accomplishment. “We’re succeeding in getting programs up and running. … I feel that the administration has built up momentum,” she said., “The impact of the pandemic, both on the economic side and health side, has been so disproportionate for minorities and low-wage service workers, so I’m going to be focusing particularly on metrics concerning these groups,” Yellen added. “But I am expecting to see pretty rapid job creation and recovery in the coming months.” She hopes the U.S. will return to full employment in 2022., Normalcy was core to Biden’s election pitch—a return to an era where people could go a day or more without hearing from the president. But his goals go beyond a return to the pre-Trump, pre-Covid status quo. Black leaders, who were vital in delivering Biden to victory, have warned that he can’t simply usher in an era underpinned by structural inequalities. His plan to , hints at an ambition to shrug off deficit concerns, give lower-income people an economic boost, and do away with centuries-old inequities., “I did not expect him to be as big and as bold as he’s been,” says Jim Clyburn, a Democratic congressman from South Carolina whose 2020 endorsement reinvigorated Biden’s flagging primary campaign. “He’s got to continue to go big.”, Many in Biden’s West Wing and administration served under Obama or Clinton, both of whom lost their House majorities two years into their first term, underscoring the need to act while you can. Aides are pushing ahead less out of fear that their congressional window is closing than a belief that they’ll need a record of accomplishments to hold it open. But Biden will achieve sweeping change only if he can pass two or more big bills through a trench-warfare Congress the Democrats narrowly control, and where his talk of bipartisanship rings hollow to Republicans., “So far, it seems purely lip service,” says Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. “The Covid relief package—clearly they decided to ram things through, some of which was totally unnecessary.”, Biden’s daily schedule is printed on a card that he tucks in the breast pocket of his suit. Each day’s card includes the updated death toll from the coronavirus, plucked from a 10-page summary he receives each night from his Covid team., Aides say Biden’s early presidency will be judged largely on the vaccination campaign. The president believes in “approaching this like a war,” says Jeff Zients, Biden’s Covid response coordinator. “The key is to overwhelm the problem and to prepare for every contingency.”, During his campaign, Biden and his team pledged to confront four concurrent crises: the virus, the economy, racial injustice, and climate change. In the weeks after the election, as virus cases mounted, they narrowed in on that. Biden vowed on Dec. 8 to administer 100 million shots in his first 100 days. The target was well below the Trump administration’s projected pace, but some aides feared it would be hard to hit., “So we threw everything at it,” says Steve Ricchetti, a senior Biden aide. Zients and others prewrote emails so they could send them as soon as they got government accounts—to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, for instance, to set up mass vaccination sites. They took office with an hour-by-hour playbook for their first days., While the previous administration left vaccine distribution entirely to states, Biden set up his own channels to distribute shots. The new administration also worked to direct them to Black and other minority communities that were paying a heavy toll in sickness and death., Under Trump, “none of that was there,” Zients says. Biden aides say they walked into a shambles. “As far as we can tell,” says Anita Dunn, a senior adviser in the White House, “they stopped doing anything from like around Nov. 10. They didn’t govern anymore. They just stopped.”, Former Trump administration officials dispute that characterization, and Team Biden didn’t inherit nothing in the way of a Covid plan. The U.S. vaccination effort hit Biden’s target, 1 million shots a day, on his third full day in office thanks to the program Trump had been standing up., Still, the president ordered 300 million more doses of vaccines, preferring to risk having too many to having too few. The administration invoked wartime powers and cornered the market on U.S. production, blocking almost all vaccine exports and leaving it to China, Europe, India, and Russia to share their doses globally—a continuation, ironically, of Trump’s America First approach., Biden doubled his vaccination target, to 200 million shots in 100 days, and , . His team likes to underpromise and overdeliver, the same tactic it adopted it on school reopenings. Negotiating with Congress about major legislation, however, requires a different approach, and carries a risk: overpromising and underdelivering., As the health experts worked to tame Covid, Biden’s team also had to confront a massive, pandemic-induced economic downturn. Millions of Americans had lost their jobs because of lockdowns and ensuing business closures. Parents, , , were forced to leave their jobs for lack of child care. While higher-income workers transitioned to working from home offices or kitchen tables, lower-income workers’ jobs in stores, restaurants, and health facilities either disappeared or became far more dangerous., Before Biden and his team pursued their broader agenda, they knew they needed to inject money into the economy for Covid relief. And they wanted a big number. The president and many of his aides, veterans of the Obama administration, believed the 2009 stimulus was too small and too poorly publicized., “Barack was so modest, he didn’t want to take, as he said, a victory lap,” Biden told House Democrats during a videoconference in early March. “I kept saying, ‘Tell people what we did.’ He said, ‘We don’t have time. I’m not going to take a victory lap.’ And we paid a price for it, ironically, for that humility.”, Like many in his party, Clyburn thinks Democrats wasted time in 2009 courting Republicans who only wanted to see Obama fail—and worries about history repeating itself with Biden. “They will do the same thing to this president,” he says. “He knows that, and that’s why he’s working the way he is.”, Putting together the initial package was difficult. Biden insisted that it include $1,400 stimulus checks—the priciest line item—because he’d promised that to voters if Democrats won Georgia’s two Senate seats. Inside the White House, some top aides thought the checks shouldn’t go to such a large swath of Americans. But the two new Georgia senators, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, pushed back, saying they couldn’t water down the pledge that had just swept them to victory., The director of the National Economic Council, Brian Deese, worked hard to unite the economic team behind the whole $1.9 trillion package, while his former boss, Larry Summers, publicly questioned the risks of injecting that much cash into the economy and raised fears of inflation. Administration officials are closely watching for signs of inflation but aren’t panicking about it. The Federal Reserve, Yellen said, is in the best position to tackle inflation if it does become a problem., Democrats no longer view deficits and debt in the short term with the same level of alarm they once did. “The low-interest-rate environment isn’t just something that’s transitory,” said Yellen. “Rather, a great deal of work suggests that it is a long-term structural shift, so I think we have a lot more debt capacity than we used to.”, Although Biden met with Republican senators to discuss a smaller package, he didn’t wait long for Republican support to materialize. (Democrats chose to use the reconciliation process to pass the bill with a simple majority, a rare chance to bypass the GOP.) White House aides instead tried to build public momentum by briefing governors and mayors and sending senior officials—including Vice President Kamala Harris—to do TV interviews in states where Democratic senators were wavering., Poll after poll showed a majority of Americans supported the package, even if aides privately were unsure they could pass anything that large. And hours before the Senate vote, conservative West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin was , ., As the clock ticked toward a vote on a Saturday in March, Biden began rewriting his speech in the White House residence. He called senators, including Manchin (who dropped his objections), Bernie Sanders, Ron Wyden, and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, to thank them. That afternoon, he skipped his usual weekend trip back to Wilmington, Del., to deliver short remarks on the bill., The legislation fully , . Biden and Harris watched the vote on TV in the Roosevelt Room with just a handful of top aides. It was the same room where, 11 years earlier, President Obama and Vice President Biden had watched Obamacare pass. Then, Obama and Biden had invited staffers to crowd into the room to commemorate the moment. This time the few attendees wore masks, and there was no Champagne toast., One White House official calls it both the highest and lowest moment of Biden’s first 100 days: As the scale of the achievement—an unheard-of $1.9 trillion in stimulus—sunk in, the sparse celebration reminded everyone “that Covid is still out there.”, Since then, Biden has unveiled the American Jobs Plan, and he’ll soon introduce the American Families Plan. Aides expect the debate over them to stretch into the fall, even if they publicly say they’d like to see progress on the infrastructure package by Memorial Day., That plan will bring forward a debate that was skipped with the rescue bill: how, and whether, to pay for it with tax hikes. Biden proposes , to 28%. Manchin has said he wants it no higher than 25%, and business and conservative groups are already lining up to fight any increase. Not all Democrats or even administration officials believe the entirety of the infrastructure package needs to be paid for, but Biden himself insisted on it in the days before the White House unveiled the package. White House aides believe there’s a bipartisan way forward on part of the plan, but the pay-fors will be rocky., Infrastructure is “one of the highest-return investments for this economy at this time,” said Yellen, adding that the proposed spending increase on research and development alone would bring the U.S. back to a level of public spending last seen in the 1960s. “R&D is an important factor determining productivity growth in the economy.”, The third bill, which Biden will preview in a speech to Congress in late April, will focus on funneling money toward pre-K education and child-care centers and boosting the wages of child-care and home health aides. That proposal has the backing of powerful unions and left-leaning economists., “We don’t just want to return to the bad normal,” says Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, a major labor group that supports the American Families Plan. “We have an incredible opportunity to create the most racially diverse middle class the country has ever seen.”, Is Joe Biden the president to realize that vision? One of the biggest questions about him so far is whether he’s changed—not just in his messaging but in his politics. “He was never a leftist in the Senate,” says Joe Grogan, who led Trump’s Domestic Policy Council. “He campaigned as a moderate and a unifying force, and he’s been none of that.”, Those close to him say they’re just following the road map he’s long laid out. “I think he believed in a bold vision for the presidency. I would not call that an evolutionary thing,” says Ricchetti., One former aide says Biden is ultimately a pragmatist who views politics as the art of the possible. He’s willing to push the envelope on what he can achieve in office—and his team sees this as his chance to combat long-term problems such as racial inequity and climate change, restore the country’s tone post-Trump, and build a solid coalition of Democratic voters for the next election., According to one official, Biden can head into the midterms with a simple campaign message, asking: Are you better off than you were before? By ramping up vaccinations, providing financial relief to families, and trying to create better jobs for the working class, he is essentially mapping out an economic argument for 2022—that Democrats put Americans on a sounder financial footing. Recent polling shows that a majority of Americans support Biden’s handling of the economy., The challenges remain stark. Vaccine hesitancy may snarl efforts to end the pandemic. If Biden’s next big bills don’t pass Congress, his sweeping agenda may not be very memorable. Republicans intend to keep hammering him on immigration, and he’ll only face more foreign policy hurdles in confronting China, Russia, and Iran and , ., Progressives may not remain happy with Biden if his legislative agenda stalls—or if he doesn’t do enough, in their view, on voting rights or gun control or curbing the filibuster. He’s already under pressure to do more on climate change: On April 20, Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both Democrats, reintroduced the Green New Deal in Congress. From here on, the stakes are high and the political alliances more fragile., Clyburn, Biden’s kingmaker, says the president needs to stay the course. “Joe has been around a long time. He knows he’s not going to get everything, no matter how much he asks for,” he says. “So why not get some of a lot, rather than some of a little?”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Josh Wingrove &. Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 1:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Credit Suisse Risky Business blowup Price [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: Two Blowups Have Credit Suisse Paying the Price of Risky Business. Short_description: Two Blowups Have Credit Suisse Paying the Price of Risky Business. Description: On the evening of Feb. 6, 2020, Thomas Gottstein gathered his top lieutenants at his Zurich office to let them in on his secret: In a few hours, he would be , chief executive officer of Credit Suisse Group AG. They shared a group hug, and the new boss said he was going to buy some more stock in the bank., Gottstein’s tenure since then has seen the institution shaken to its core. Credit Suisse was involved in two spectacular messes in the course of a few weeks in March: the fall of , Greensill Capital and the massive , of Archegos Capital Management. The bank remains financially solid, but has been forced to reassess its risk and shore up its capital defenses by , from investors. Its shares have tumbled since Gottstein took over, making it one of the few losers among financial stocks lately., The seeds of the trouble were sown well before Gottstein was installed in the top spot of the 49,000-employee institution. Still, it’s up to the 57-year-old banker to do what his predecessors for most of this century couldn’t, which is to make money without putting the franchise at risk. With incoming Chairman Antonio Horta-Osorio arriving at the end of April, there’s been a lot of speculation about , : from a housecleaning that reduces the role of investment banking, to the selling of the asset management unit, to even a , with Swiss rival UBS Group AG. At least one change is under way. On April 22 the bank said it would , to funds like Archegos., Credit Suisse emerged from the 2008 financial crisis with ambitions to rival U.S. giants. But it faced forceful headwinds. Compared with the U.S., Europe’s economy kept sputtering. And Swiss regulators, eager to avoid a repeat of 2008, piled on stringent capital requirements. Credit Suisse tried to pick its spots in trading. But even one of its best units, equities, lost share to Wall Street banks that were plowing billions of dollars into trading technology., Tidjane Thiam, Gottstein’s predecessor, took over in 2015. He drew up a plan to break Credit Suisse’s obsession with its more muscular Wall Street rivals. Thiam’s strategy: Make the bank the go-to lender for the world’s entrepreneurial billionaires—the wheeler-dealers who’d make wealth management the hub, feeding business to the bank’s other units., With Gottstein’s ascension, Credit Suisse had a new CEO but the same strategy. He promoted Lara Warner to head a combined risk and compliance department. Avoiding danger became just one of the unit’s tasks. She challenged her managers to stop thinking only about defending the bank’s capital and start considering other business priorities. Warner was , . “Risk control at every level in this bank must be examined and changes made where there are deficiencies,” David Herro, chief investment officer at Harris Associates LP, one of the biggest investors in Credit Suisse, said in a March email to Bloomberg News. “But I state the obvious?”, Just 10 weeks after Gottstein’s appointment came a sign of things to come: the meltdown of China’s Luckin Coffee Inc. Thiam had publicly touted founder Lu Zhengyao as an example of the kind of person the bank wanted to have relationships with. Credit Suisse had provided margin loans to Lu and arranged the company’s 2019 initial public offering in the U.S. Then came , against Luckin and likely loan losses for Credit Suisse. Luckin , in February of this year., In early March the burgeoning empire of Australian financier Lex Greensill , . Greensill Capital essentially helped to arrange loans to companies, which it packaged into funds aimed at investors looking for low risk and attractive yields. Credit Suisse ran a $10 billion group of these funds but decided on March 1 to , redemptions after Greensill’s key credit insurer pulled its coverage. Things unwound quickly from there: Credit Suisse decided to liquidate the portfolios and is now attempting to sell many of the loans it bought from Greensill. Investors who put money into the funds could face losses, and the bank has indicated it may also take a hit., Within weeks of the Greensill debacle, Archegos, controlled by secretive investor Bill Hwang, , under the weight of its margin loans when some of the tech and media stocks it bet on began to slide. Credit Suisse is the biggest loser among Hwang’s many banks. The cost so far: $5.5 billion. With offsetting profits elsewhere, the bank has reported a first-quarter loss of 252 million Swiss francs ($275 million)., Gottstein recently faced executives confounded over the direction of the bank. He declined to give detailed answers. He was leaving his fate along with everyone else’s to be reassessed after the arrival of the incoming chairman, Horta-Osorio. , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Patrick Winters &. Date Created: 23 Apr 2021, 9:31 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to United Kingdom Jack [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: It’s Me, Jack. My United Kingdom Is Fraying. Short_description: It’s Me, Jack. My United Kingdom Is Fraying. Description: The British and I have always had a complex relationship. Over the centuries, I’ve stood for empire-building and division, flown through war and peace, represented football hooliganism and royal pageantry, and adorned iconic designs as well as millions—maybe billions—of knickknacks and souvenirs., I was born in 1606, shortly after the merging of the crowns of England and Scotland, coming of age after the Acts of Union that formed Great Britain in 1707 and later added Ireland in 1801. By the 19th century I was everywhere our navy could sail, the potent symbol of the British Empire, combining the crosses of three patron saints: St. George of England, St. Andrew of Scotland, and St. Patrick of Ireland., My colors are as visible as ever now. The U.K. recently ordered that I should be flown from government buildings every day. Yet the ambiguities of the red, white, and blue are also more evident as the U.K. struggles to define its identity after Brexit., Traditionally a banner of strength, I’m being reasserted as a symbol of unity at home and mercantile adventure abroad. Prime Minister Boris Johnson talks of a confident “Global Britain” outside the European Union. Yet the forces unleashed by Brexit are , within the U.K. itself., An election in Scotland on May 6 has effectively become a referendum on whether the nation has the right—, —for another vote on independence. The pro-independence camp, led by the Scottish National Party, looks to be headed for an , ., And Brexit has inflamed Northern Ireland’s simmering tensions after turning a previously seamless sea border with Britain into an active fault line. After 100 years of partition, polls show a majority of Northern Irish favor having a vote on reunification with the south. There’s also rising support for autonomy in Wales, which has been united with England since being conquered in the 13th century and isn’t represented on the flag. The way things are moving, I—the Union Jack, or Union Flag to purists—may come to embody what was, not what is., But the U.K.’s unraveling, as well as my own, has been a political dynamic since well before Brexit became a word, and any suggestion of my demise would be premature. Nick Groom, an English academic and author of , , says my components reflect compromise and concession as much as empire or power. “There’s a temptation to simply use it in the context of the most immediate U.K. politics,” he says. “And that overlooks the ambiguities, the rich history, and a way of reforging bonds.”, When England beat West Germany to win the soccer World Cup in 1966, fans in London’s Wembley Stadium waved me—not just the red-and-white English cross of St. George, as they do now. Guitarist Pete Townshend of the Who had me made into a jacket back then, and I watched the last vestiges of empire crumble while London swung its way through a postwar cultural revolution. A more volatile period followed, punctuated by the Clash and Freddie Mercury, but polluted by National Front skinheads who inspired “liberal and left-wing antipathy” toward me, Groom says., By the late 1990s, I’d adapted. The Labour Party had swept to power under Tony Blair, who became the youngest prime minister in 185 years. I turned into Cool Britannia, Britpop, and Britart. My ambiguities never went away, though. In 2007, Blair’s Labour successor, Gordon Brown—a Scot—moved to scrap the traditional practice of flying me only on 18 specific days of the year, mainly to mark national or royal occasions. “It is critical that this symbol is not hijacked by those who seek to work against values of tolerance and respect,” the government said. Notably, though, Scotland was exempted, while Northern Ireland had its own rules, to avoid sectarian conflict., Brexit was a sign of insularity to many of its opponents, a pandering to jingoism, an English rather than a British revolt. They rallied behind the EU’s blue with gold stars. To supporters, it was a moment of reclaiming sovereignty, a withdrawal from an uneasy 47-year relationship with the Continent, and a time to champion the Union Jack again., When the U.K. left the EU on Jan. 31, 2020, the Union Jack flown in Brussels was solemnly taken down, folded, and removed from the bloc’s headquarters. (It’s now stored in the city’s House of European History, part of an exhibition opening on May 9.), In Britain, though, my visibility has only increased since Brexit. Ministers in London are conspicuously flanked by two of me at televised coronavirus briefings. In March, when the U.K.’s culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, announced the guidelines to insert me more into public life, the aim was to promote “a proud reminder of our history and the ties that bind us.” It was also perhaps an acknowledgment that those ties are fraying., “What Britain has lost is a sort of taken-for-grantedness about the flag, and Brexit has accelerated that,” says Duncan Morrow, professor of politics at Ulster University in Belfast who led a community relations council in Northern Ireland and advised the Scottish government on tackling prejudice. “It’s become an issue of party or side rather than a transcendent symbol.”, Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon says her nation has the right to another independence referendum after being taken out of the EU against its will. The U.K. government refuses to grant one, with Johnson and his Conservative Party saying the focus should be on rebuilding after the pandemic rather than what they call a divisive referendum. Should Sturgeon’s SNP, which has run the semiautonomous administration in Edinburgh since 2007, prevail in the election by the margin predicted, prepare for the standoff with London to escalate. A recent scandal over Johnson’s conduct in office will no doubt factor into how the Scottish vote., In Scotland, for supporters of independence, the blue-and-white Scottish Saltire displaying the cross of St. Andrew represents the future. Scottish government guidelines dictate that it takes precedence over me. Outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, I fly alongside the Saltire and the EU flag—much to the annoyance of the pro-Brexit faction of British media., In Northern Ireland, the division is more acute. Union Jacks and the Irish tricolors are tribal expressions to differentiate between unionists and nationalists. The emotions are more akin to those around the Confederate flag in the U.S. My presence—or lack thereof—has been known to trigger riots. The province’s one-foot-in, one-foot-out arrangement with the EU after Brexit has exposed that lingering toxicity. In recent weeks, youths in Belfast torched vehicles and clashed with police in “loyalist” areas where I’m still painted on streets. Protesters say the Brexit deal, which established a customs border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K., jeopardizes its place in the union. The leader of the government in Belfast, the unionist Arlene Foster, on April 28 announced she will step down at the end of May, blaming the Brexit deal for destabilizing the region., Whether the U.K. exists as we know it in, say, a decade may now be moot. In a YouGov survey last year, 31% of respondents identified as English, Scottish, or Welsh rather than British, while a far smaller proportion—13%—identified as British before anything else., How quickly things can change. It was only a decade ago, in 2012, that we celebrated the queen’s diamond jubilee year. London hosted the Olympics with an opening ceremony extolling Britishness, not tub-thumping nationalism but the exportable kind: James Bond, Mr. Bean, Paul McCartney, the Industrial Revolution, and World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee., In his novel , , author Jonathan Coe had one character reflect on how the country felt “at ease with itself” at that moment. But the book was set in the years running up to and immediately after the 2016 Brexit referendum, when the seeds of division were being sown. Such a display of Britain as this positive, unifying force might be harder to imagine now, says Morrow at Ulster University. “Looking back now,” he says, “it looks like the end of an era.”, But when one era ends, another begins. I would not have lasted this long if my unwavering stripes couldn’t accommodate contradictions, ambiguities, and changing ideas of what defines the union. That’s what makes me what I am, and ultimately what I will always represent. — , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Bloomberg. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 9:31 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to New Airline Global Pandemic founder JetBlue [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: JetBlue’s Founder Is Preparing to Launch a New Airline in a Global Pandemic. Short_description: The airline savant who started JetBlue is preparing a new carrier for takeoff. He’s also had enough of masks and lockdowns.. Description: Among the strong and freely offered opinions of David Neeleman, America’s most successful living airline entrepreneur, is that the world has largely overreacted to Covid-19. “I think people who wear masks outside when they’re social distanced are complete morons,” he says. Double-maskers drive him particularly nuts: “I just want to go up and shake them and go, ‘What the f--- is wrong with you!’ ” On the sunny March day when we met, in an indifferently furnished office suite in Darien, Conn., Neeleman did have a mask with him. Plain and black, it didn’t bear the logo of his new airline, Breeze, or his next-newest one, the Brazilian carrier Azul SA, of which he remains the chairman and controlling shareholder (and in whose satellite office we were talking). Nor was it from JetBlue, which he founded in 1999 at the age of 39 and ran until he was pushed out as chief executive officer eight years later., Indeed, with his mask on his broad, still impish face, the 61-year-old looked like anyone else doing their part to end a global pandemic. But then, grinning, Neeleman unhooked the ear-loops and showed me the fabric: a mesh with holes so big they just might keep out mosquitoes. “It lets me breathe,” he explained, setting his Potemkin face covering in front of him on the conference table. Neither of us had been vaccinated yet. Still, the medical-grade mask I was wearing felt suddenly conspicuous. I took it off., Neeleman was there to tell me about , , a budget domestic carrier, headquartered in his hometown of Salt Lake City, that will start flying by summer. The business plan borrows from previous generations of low-cost airlines: a point-to-point network of smaller airports, as pioneered by Southwest Airlines Co. in the 1970s and 1980s; trips limited to the days of the week when vacationers are most likely to travel, a discipline perfected in recent years by Allegiant Air Inc.; and a shiny, state-of-the-art fleet manned by young, low-cost crews, not unlike JetBlue Airways Corp. in its startup days. Neeleman has dubbed Breeze “the world’s nicest airline.” He also likes to call it “a technology company that just happens to fly airplanes.” Those two things may or may not be in tension., Breeze is launching at an uncertain moment for the industry its founder helped reshape. The , —cushioned at its worst by a $50 billion government bailout—has eased. On April 18 the Transportation Security Administration counted just under 1.6 million people flowing through its airport checkpoints—only two-thirds the traffic on that date in 2019 but an order of magnitude more than a year ago, when the number was hovering around 100,000. And yet, even as vaccination rates climb, airlines, like many other companies, are trying to figure out whether the disruptions of the past year were a grim anomaly or the acceleration of longer-term shifts. , , will people travel as regularly as before? How comfortable will they be on airplanes and in airports? Will large companies return to sending their salespeople, consultants, conference presenters, and deal-closers around the world?, At the very least, it’s an environment in which comfort with upheaval is an asset. It would be wrong to call the airline industry stable, exactly—not with its rich history of bankruptcies, takeovers, and ruinous price wars—but it’s very hard to break into. Neeleman has made his career and fortune doing just that. “After deregulation, the failure rate of new airlines has been in the mid-90s or up,” George Hamlin, a longtime industry consultant, points out. “Most people have done one new entrant—and failed. A few have maybe tried another one. David has been involved in four successful startups. It’s unmatched.” That record is all the more striking given Neeleman’s temperament, one seemingly ill-suited to managing complex, highly regulated enterprises vulnerable to the vagaries of fuel prices, business cycles, and global health disasters. Azul CEO John Rodgerson was one of several executives Neeleman lured away from JetBlue to help found the Brazilian carrier. “It’s like working with an 8-year-old that’s a genius,” Rodgerson says. “He’s onto one thing, he’s onto another thing. You want to strangle the 8-year-old at times, but he’s generally right.”, Neeleman started his first travel company as an undergraduate at the University of Utah. Like many of his classmates, he was Mormon, tracing his lineage to ancestors who knew Joseph Smith. But he’d also spent the first five years of his life in Brazil—his father fell in love with the country while serving his church mission there and went back for a stint as the São Paulo correspondent for United Press International. When the time came, the younger Neeleman, too, served his mission in Brazil, and two years proselytizing in the, gave the already extroverted kid a profound faith in his sales skills., One day, after he was back at college, a classmate mentioned a friend of hers with some Hawaiian timeshares he couldn’t fill, and Neeleman offered to take on the job. “I started getting phone calls, and I’d book them. I’d pay him 135 bucks, I’d collect 400 bucks, and then I’d just keep the difference,” Neeleman , in 2019 on the National Public Radio podcast , In the wake of the 1978 deregulation of U.S. airlines, new carriers were cropping up. Neeleman hired a sales staff and started offering cheap vacation packages with flights from Los Angeles to Honolulu; Utahans were more than willing to make the 700-mile drive to the coast for the right price. By the time Neeleman dropped out of college to run the company full time, it was doing $8 million a year., Then, a few days before Christmas 1983, Neeleman’s preferred airline, Hawaii Express, abruptly ceased operations, taking his company down with it. He was left doing the books at his father-in-law’s drapery business and working the register at his grandfather’s grocery store to support his growing family. His rise and fall, though, had caught the attention of a successful Salt Lake City travel agent named June Morris. When he finally returned her phone call—“I didn’t want to be in the travel business anymore,” he told me—she cajoled him into coming to help her run her company. Soon the two were filling weekly charter flights straight from Salt Lake City to Honolulu on an old Douglas DC-8. Rather than have the plane sit idle the rest of the week, they added flights to Los Angeles, too., Within a few years, Morris Air Service and its growing fleet were ferrying passengers all over the American West and as far north as Alaska. “They had a contract with the church, so they were flying out all these Mormons going on missions,” remembers Michael Lazarus, whose private equity firm, Weston Presidio, backed Neeleman and Morris. “They were also flying in all the ski bums in weather where Southwest would not. The business was very, very profitable.” In 1992 the charter service got its operating certificate and became a scheduled carrier—it was the first in the business to allow passengers to fly without an actual paper ticket. A year later, Southwest bought the airline for $129 million. Neeleman made $24 million and found himself working for his idol, Herb Kelleher, one of the most revered founders and CEOs in modern aviation. (Kelleher died in 2019.), Neeleman often talks about having attention deficit disorder and the ways it’s shaped his life. He credits his short attention span for some of his best-known ideas, like JetBlue’s seatback screens showing live television—“I really wanted something that could keep you occupied”—and he blames it for his difficulties in traditional workplaces. Whatever the cause, at Southwest he gave the impression of someone trying to shake up a company already considered the best run in the industry. He would sit in meetings of the executive planning committee writing notes to himself to remind him to keep his mouth shut, then helplessly blurt out something. After five months, in May 1994, Kelleher took him to lunch and fired him. “He reached across the table and held my hands,” Neeleman recalled on , . “I was crying, and he said, ‘It’s just not going to work. Everybody, even the people who are your biggest supporters, said you’ve got to go!’ ”, For the next couple years, Lazarus, who was based in San Francisco, visited Salt Lake City regularly to see what Neeleman was up to. Despite a five-year noncompete agreement from Southwest that kept him out of the U.S. airline industry, he was up to a lot. Neeleman founded a company called Open Skies (later Navitaire LLC), which lucratively commercialized Morris Air’s electronic ticketing system, and he helped start WestJet Airlines Ltd., a Canadian budget carrier that would become the country’s second-largest. All along, though, he was plotting his return to America’s skies. One morning at a coffee shop in downtown Salt Lake, he told Lazarus his plan. “We’re going to bring humanity back to air travel,” he announced. The key, he said, was to fly out of New York City. Lazarus asked why. Neeleman glanced theatrically over his shoulder, leaned in, and delivered the punchline: “That’s where all the people live!”, Domestic air travel out of New York was almost entirely reliant at that time on , , an overburdened airport only desultorily upgraded since the days when it served Pan Am seaplanes. Delays were endemic, and the scarcity of landing slots allowed legacy carriers such as US Airways and Delta Air Lines Inc. to keep budget airlines out. Fares in and out of New York were some of the highest in the country. John F. Kennedy International Airport was bigger, but farther from Manhattan, the distance exacerbated by soul-crushing traffic. As a result, it was used almost exclusively for overseas flights. Its terminals and gates were silent much of the day. Neeleman, who’d enticed people to drive 10 hours for a cheap flight to Hawaii, figured he could get them to an airport in southern Queens., Lazarus helped Neeleman raise an unprecedented $130 million for the startup airline and came on as chairman. There were talks with Richard Branson, ultimately fruitless, about being part of Branson’s Virgin Group. Neeleman and his wife moved east with their nine children to Connecticut, where they built a gabled estate out of stone brought from Utah., Up until then, most U.S. carriers flew Boeings, but Neeleman became convinced that the electronic control systems of the planes made by Airbus, Boeing Co.’s bitter European rival, made them safer. He ordered 25 fuel-efficient new Airbus A320s, with an option for 50 more. The Boeing sales executive he hired away to outfit the fleet found a company that could broadcast satellite TV on planes., For years legacy airlines had been stripping amenities from economy class, even as they competed to lavish more luxuries on business- and first-class travelers. (Southwest leaned into its frugality, offering peanuts, and only peanuts, to flyers to remind them how little they’d paid for their seats.) This new airline would be different. “We told the world we were building a company that brought humanity back to the skies,” remembers Amy Curtis McIntyre, the startup’s marketing chief. “Behind closed doors we just said, ‘Let’s make coach suck less.’ ”, Within six months of its first flight, on Feb. 11, 2000, from JFK to Fort Lauderdale, JetBlue was profitable. News stories enthused about the fares, the TVs, the extra legroom, the leather seats, the unlimited bags of heirloom blue potato chips handed out instead of meals. The stories usually mentioned Neeleman himself, sitting in the last row when he flew and walking the aisle to ask everyone about their flight., Even Sept. 11 barely slowed the momentum. JetBlue’s smaller size and ample war chest allowed it to recover quickly. So did its lower-earning workers. The reservations staff, many of them part-time, worked from home, and Neeleman managed to keep his entire workforce nonunion for years. When the airline went public in April 2002, Neeleman’s stake in the company was worth more than $140 million. In the years after the initial public offering, profits thinned and the stock price stagnated, but over a span when Delta, United Airlines, and US Airways all sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Neeleman kept adding planes and destinations., On Feb. 14, 2007, an ice storm settled over JFK. As a rule, JetBlue was loath to cancel flights, so it left its outbound passengers idling on the tarmac, some of them for 11 hours, waiting for a break in the weather that never came. The disruptions caused by that one bad day snarled JetBlue’s network for a week. Unlike its competitors, the airline didn’t yet allow customers to rebook online, and as cancellations mounted, the phone lines were overwhelmed. The software used to assign crews to their rescheduled flights glitched, and there turned out to be no system for tracking lost bags, which collected in ceiling-high piles among the marooned passengers. A thousand flights ended up being canceled in what came to be known, hyperbolically, as the Valentine’s Day Massacre. “This will be an aberration,” Neeleman said in an apology posted on YouTube, “because we are going to make some major changes in our organization to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”, Three months later, the board asked Neeleman to step down as CEO. “It took me years to get over that,” he says. It’s not clear that he entirely has. David Barger, Neeleman’s longtime lieutenant and chief operating officer, took his place. “The guy that was in charge of operations, they hired him to be the CEO!” Neeleman said to me in Darien. “Which was ridiculous.”, Since then, Neeleman has found some measure of vindication overseas. He’d always maintained a connection to Brazil, buying planes made by the its Embraer SA aerospace conglomerate for JetBlue. The air industry there had long been dominated by two carriers, TAM Linhas Aereas (now Latam Airlines Group SA) and Gol Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes, with the high prices and limited service that economists would predict from a duopoly. Airports built all over Brazil by the Cold War-era junta sat unused; multiday bus trips were the only way to get to much of the sprawling country. Laws against foreign ownership of airlines complicated efforts for competition. Brazil, Neeleman remembers thinking, was like the U.S. in the 1960s, its airline industry still placidly undisrupted. With his Brazilian citizenship and fluent Portuguese, his fortune, and his experienced, loyal band of airline veterans, he found it an irresistible target., Today, Azul (“blue” in Portuguese) serves 118 cities. Last year the users of TripAdvisor anointed it the best airline in the world, and before the pandemic it was one of the most profitable. As Neeleman can’t resist pointing out, Azul’s 30% market share in Brazil is six times JetBlue’s in the U.S. When Azul went public in 2017, it issued two classes of stock. Neeleman made sure to retain a majority of the voting shares, ensuring that the board can never wrest control away from him., Building off of his foothold in the Portuguese-speaking world, in 2015, Neeleman led a consortium that , almost half of TAP Air Portugal. Replacing its aging fleet with new Airbuses and quadrupling the number of U.S. cities it served, the formerly state-owned airline helped attract a new generation of American travelers to Lisbon. Neeleman’s group had almost finalized a deal to sell the company to Lufthansa when the pandemic brought global air travel to a halt., The drop in Azul’s stock price over the past year has cost Neeleman tens of millions of dollars. The pandemic also pushed him to , , which he had planned to fund with some of the $250 million he says he would have made from the TAP sale—when TAP’s value collapsed, so did the deal, and the , . The way Neeleman sees it, much of this could have been avoided. And with more time at home, he has, like many of us, found an outlet for his frustrations on social media., Last March his previously dormant Twitter , sprang to life. There were news stories and charts from Sweden, where public-health authorities eschewed the broader lockdowns instituted elsewhere in Europe. “No worries about a second wave,” Neeleman tweeted about the country last May. He posted praise of Republican governors such as Florida’s Ron DeSantis and South Dakota’s Kristi Noem, who were particularly aggressive about keeping their states open. (“President Noem?” he tweeted in July.) He castigated Anthony Fauci, celebrated vaccine breakthroughs, and shared a YouTube video contending that masks don’t work. (There’s overwhelming evidence that they do.), He also touted the work of John Ioannidis, a renowned medical researcher who’d co-authored a study suggesting the disease was much milder than previously thought. First published in April without peer review, the paper was later revised in response to heavy criticism. In May, , that Neeleman had donated $5,000 to help fund the study and had exchanged emails with the researchers about how to sharpen their conclusions. Neeleman, who freely admits the donation, says the implication that he in any way directed the findings is “the most absurd thing ever written.”, During our maskless chat, I asked Neeleman about Sweden. Last fall and winter, the country did have a second wave. It’s seen a far higher death toll than its Nordic neighbors, even as its economy has done no better. Neeleman counters that Sweden’s Covid numbers still compare favorably with those in some wealthy northern European countries that pursued harsher strategies—he mentions Belgium. But there’s a philosophical point he wants to make, too. “I think there’s a social benefit to being free and saying, you know, I’m responsible for me,” he says. He points to his own parents. “We had them wear masks, and we wore masks, and we kept socially distanced. If they wanted to come to a family party, they’d be in the car and people would come out and see them.” Neither got sick. (Neeleman and I didn’t infect each other, either.), Overall, though, his family’s infection rate has been high. Divorced from his second wife, Neeleman spent the pandemic in his slopeside house above Salt Lake City in the luxury ski resort of Deer Valley; this winter he would ski out his door when he felt like it and do a few runs between calls. He saw his children often, along with his growing brood of grandchildren, and the clan spent much of the past year boating, skiing, and, apparently, giving each other Covid. “All my kids pretty well have had it, and I’ve been around them nonstop,” he says. “I don’t know if I have had it.” All of the cases were mild., There could be worse times to start an airline than the last chapter of a pandemic, if that’s in fact where we are. When Neeleman started putting together the team and the money for Breeze (he ended up raising money from two Salt Lake City private equity firms), the airline industry faced a skilled labor shortage, particularly of , . Neeleman set up the airline to try to trim labor costs as much as possible. The customer service personnel will work from home, just as at JetBlue, and be minimal in number. Passengers will be encouraged to do everything from checking bags to rescheduling flights through the Breeze smartphone app. The flight attendants will be college interns, supplied through a partnership with Utah Valley University. They’ll get a scholarship, a salary, free lodging, and one paid trip home per month. “And then when they graduate, they can apply for another job in the company,” Neeleman says, “or they have some great work experience and they can go and do something else.” Breeze, for its part, will have a cheap, dependent, continually replenished onboard workforce in an industry where wages climb with seniority—Breeze gets older, to paraphrase Richard Linklater, while the flight attendants stay the same age. Industry analysts have raised questions about the sustainability of the model. “Are people going to stand up at some point and go, ‘This is not fair?’ ” asks Holly Hegeman, publisher of the industry newsletter , . “Do they get dropped when their GPA drops?”, After all the buyouts and early retirements of last year, the airline labor landscape looks very different. Pilots come cheap today. So do airplanes. Breeze will start off flying Embraer 190s and 195s that the airline will lease (some from Azul) at favorable rates. Later this year the first of its fleet of new Airbus A220s will start arriving. The strategy is to use these midsize planes to go into markets that today have little or no air service. Breeze will announce just which cities in the coming days, as soon as it receives final certification from the Federal Aviation Administration., In airline math, plane size is a key variable: With bigger planes you can spread your costs over more seats, but you need to fill them. Smaller planes are easier to fill, but more costly to operate per seat. “It’s just kind of a natural curve,” says Lukas Johnson, Breeze’s chief commercial officer and architect of its route strategy. In today’s domestic market, he argues, there’s opportunity in the size gap between smaller regional jets, mostly flown for legacy airlines, and the larger planes that make up Southwest’s and Allegiant’s fleets., At the same time, with lucrative , still in short supply, existing airlines may be particularly loath to lose the more cost-conscious leisure and VFR (“visiting friends and relatives”) travelers Breeze is focusing on. Another budget carrier, Avelo Airlines, will also start flying this spring; its CEO is one of Allegiant’s founders. And in a fare war, Breeze could be at a disadvantage, as competitors with bigger planes and more seats might more easily absorb the losses from extra-low fares. “Any breathing soul that has money to spend and wants to take an airline trip,” says Henry Harteveldt, president of the travel consulting firm Atmosphere Research Group, “is someone the airlines are going to fight very, very intensely to capture.”, Breeze will start flying before Memorial Day. “I think the timing is just about perfect,” Neeleman says. He’s not worried about the competition. He’s not worried, either, about another Valentine’s Day Massacre should his extra-lean operation come up against something unforeseen. “The technology will work,” he says. After a year of limbo, he’s eager to get back to launching and running things. “Humans weren’t meant to live this way,” he says. “They want to go see live music, they want to go to sporting events. They want to travel. And, you know, there’s risks inherent in living life.” Earlier this month, as preparations for Breeze ramped up, Neeleman got married again., “He doesn’t see downside,” says Rodgerson, Azul’s CEO. “He kind of wills his way into his own reality. And a lot of times David lives in his own reality.” It’s a trait that serial entrepreneurship tends to select for. (Epidemiology, on the other hand, does not.) “The people who have worked closest with him forever,” says McIntyre, who’s a brand adviser for Breeze, “always say that the most inspiring and frustrating thing about him is his ability to oversimplify. He oversimplifies, which leads him to the possibilities. You’re the frustrated, stressed-out maniac going, ‘It doesn’t work that way!’ And then, all of a sudden, you’re doing it.” , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Drake Bennett. Date Created: 23 Apr 2021, 1:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to New Convertible Oldest rule exception Racing McLaren [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: McLaren’s New Convertible Is the Exception to Racing’s Oldest Rule. Short_description: McLaren’s New Convertible Is the Exception to Racing’s Oldest Rule. Description: (Bloomberg Businessweek) -- Since the glory days of Ayrton Senna, racing’s gospel has held that coupes are for the track while convertibles, on the other hand, are what you take to town., Part of this is because of basic engineering: A car with a roof is more aerodynamic than one without. A roof is also stronger and more rigid. From a physics perspective, taking a roof out of the equation turns a car heavy and wobbly.  , The , , however, has evolved past such ancient axioms. It comes with a 592-brake-horsepower, 3.8-liter, twin-turbocharged V-8 engine and a zero-to-60 mph sprint time of 2.8 seconds—both identical to the coupe version of the car. Top speed is 201 mph. , More crucial for those interested in dissecting power-to-weight ratios, the 600LT Spider weighs just 2,859 pounds. That’s a relatively scant 110 pounds more than the coupe, thanks mostly to the added weight of a push-button, threefold retractable top. It’s still 176 pounds lighter, by my estimate, than any direct competitors from Ferrari or Lamborghini., The men and women at the brand’s factory in Woking, England, seem obsessive about saving weight. They made the glass on the 600LT Spider thinner than in previous models. They took out the carpeting in the footwells altogether. And they used netting, rather than door pockets, for storage and eliminated the glove box., McLaren is also offering the skeletal seats from its $958,966 Senna—which weigh a little more than 7 pounds each, a third lighter than typical racing seats—in the 600LT Spider. Buyers have the option to delete such outré nods to decadence as the radio and air conditioning. (I suppose it’s worth it for drivers who are serious about track splits: Removing the air-conditioning system alone saves 28 pounds.), All of which bodes well for McLaren’s topless proposition. Before I drive the new Spider on the Arizona Motorsports Park track—and after a good two hours in it beforehand, passing through empty desert landscapes—I ask the carmaker’s lead pro driver, Danny Buxton, how a convertible could possibly be considered track-suitable by any serious driver. , “I forgot it was a convertible by the second turn,” he says., Maybe he’s just biased, I think, as we alight from the command RV parked near pit lane. It’s directly next door to the constant, deafening blast of F-18s doing daily rotations at the U.S. Air Force base. The only thing louder is the row of Skittle-green, lantana-purple, and Fanta-orange 600LT Spiders awaiting review., But as I search for the correct line around those 16 turns in Arizona behind the wheel, I realize Buxton is right., McLarens are built using technology refined over decades spent in the Formula One world. (Brazilian champ Senna raced for McLaren, don’t forget.) For the 600LT Spider, that means it has the same MonoCell II chassis as the coupe. This is basically a carbon fiber tub, but one that doesn’t need any additional strengthening or reinforcement on a convertible—a compromise often required with a conventional steel or aluminum body., Furthermore, the 600LT Spider has the same forged-aluminum, double-wishbone suspension as other, more expensive and barely road-legal McLaren cars. It has stiffer antiroll bars than its predecessors, and the aerodynamic carbon fiber front splitter, side sills, diffuser, and rear wing glue it to the road with downright oppressive downforce. , It all makes for a visceral driving experience. The dual-clutch gearbox takes the car through its seven gears in a seamless orchestra of acceleration and aural thrill. Although the 600LT Spider doesn’t bark and growl like a Lamborghini Huracán (some would call that an asset), the exhaust pipes mounted high on the rear of the car and the small rectangular retractable rear window amplify every wheeze, even with the top up., The brake-boosting system gives the pedals a pinpoint-precise feeling with every tap of the brakes. I particularly enjoyed the sharpness of the throttle response and the immediacy of the steering through each corner. If you leave this review knowing one thing about the drive personality of a McLaren, know that it gives unparalleled feedback to your hands and feet and hips and shoulder blades as you steer and brake. In the 600LT Spider, the scrim between car and driver is very thin. , What’s not to like? Well, visibility is compromised as you look back over each shoulder, even with the top down, thanks to the tall triangle headrests. The footwells in the cabin narrow down unexpectedly toward the front, which can feel tight if you drive for any extended length of time. And when the top’s down, stored under the tonneau cover, it takes up the already tiny 1.8-cubic-foot storage compartment in the back (though the full front trunk retains an adequate amount of space for a bag). , Still, compared with the increased power, reduced weight, improved technology, and—at a base price of $256,500—the relative value of the car, those points are moot. Get past your knee-jerk reaction that a convertible doesn’t belong on the track. After all, you can always drive with the top up., To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Gaddy at jgaddy@bloomberg.net, ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Hannah Elliott. Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 5:30 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Voting Rights Echoes Role corporate activism LGBTQ battle [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: Corporate Activism on Voting Rights Echoes Role in LGBTQ Battles. Short_description: Corporate Activism on Voting Rights Echoes Role in LGBTQ Battles. Description: With Derek Chauvin’s guilty verdict in the books, the focus of U.S. racial politics is shifting back to the GOP’s efforts to limit voting access in states across the country. , , legislators in 47 states have introduced 361 such bills, some of which have already been enacted. That means more pressure on corporations along the lines of what befell Delta, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and other companies when Georgia instituted new strictures in late March making it more difficult to vote, especially for Black people., The intense focus on racial justice, spurred by events from George Floyd’s killing to Republican voter restrictions, has created a growing expectation that corporations respond or face censure from their employees, customers, and local communities. On April 20 a coalition of Georgia faith leaders representing more than 1,000 churches launched a boycott of Atlanta-based Home Depot Inc., which they say didn’t sufficiently oppose the state’s new law. “This is not just a Georgia issue; we’re talking about democracy in America that is under threat,” Timothy McDonald III, pastor of the First Iconium Baptist Church in Atlanta, , ., So far, the corporate responses have been largely ad hoc. Delta Air Lines Inc. Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian, initially criticized for not speaking out forcefully against restrictions, later , as “unacceptable” and “based on a lie.” Home Depot angered Black faith leaders and other activists by declining to directly address the Georgia law, issuing a statement that , “elections should be accessible, fair and secure.”, With voter restrictions , to Florida, Arizona, and other states, the pressure on corporations to respond shows no signs of letting up. Veterans of past social justice fights say the current one reminds them of another political battle that gripped corporate America five years ago and could play out the same way: the push for LGBTQ equality., In 2016, North Carolina’s notorious “bathroom bill” targeting transgender people, HB2, led many businesses to , , including the National Basketball Association, which moved its All-Star Game from Charlotte—a move that presaged Major League Baseball’s decision earlier this month to , from Atlanta. In Washington, the fight over antigay discrimination roiled House Republicans, many of whom wanted no association with bigotry, as I extensively covered in , at the time., Corporate America—and Wall Street firms, in particular—was instrumental in pressuring legislators to reform discriminatory laws such as HB2, and also withheld contributions from lawmakers such as former New Jersey Representative Scott Garrett, , . Prominent financiers, from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein to hedge fund magnates Daniel Loeb of Third Point and Paul Singer of Elliott Management, became outspoken public advocates of LGTBQ equality. “I bring it up in almost every conversation we have with Republicans,” Loeb told me in 2016. “This will be good for the country and good for the Republican Party.”, Political strategists say the current pressure on corporations to stand up for Black voting rights is driven by many of the same forces that prompted them to get publicly involved in the earlier fight., “The question five years ago was: How do you attract and retain talent if you’re hostile to LGBTQ people? Now it’s: How do you attract and retain talent if you’re ambivalent or hostile to an employee’s right to vote as a person of color?” says Bill Smith, a veteran strategist who’s worked on LGBTQ issues in several states. “How do you have a successful brand if you’re aiding and abetting politicians who are engaging in mass disenfranchisement?”, An important factor five years ago was that many corporate leaders didn’t view the push for LGBTQ equality as a typical “political” issue like taxes or regulation, but rather considered it a matter of basic human rights. Beyond just the need to attract talent and appease customers, it registered as a moral issue, and that made it easier to act on., One Democratic strategist close to the Biden administration, who’s involved in behind-the-scenes talks with corporations and asked for anonymity to describe private negotiations, says he’s been struck by how many business leaders feel the same way about voting rights, especially after the Jan. 6 , . “They’re not against the [new voting laws] because they’re bad for business; they’re against them because they’re just bad,” he says., As new bills to limit voting work their way through legislatures in places such as Arizona and , , large corporations based in those states, including Dell, American Airlines, and AT&T, have been more forceful in their opposition, even as Republicans stepped up threats and attacks against them. The attacks echo those launched at corporations five years ago, when Republican North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory slammed the boycotts that followed its bathroom bill as “total PC BS” and “an insult to our state.”, In the years since, opponents of HB2 and their business allies have ultimately prevailed. More broadly, the issue of what businesses could and should be doing to oppose discriminatory anti-LGBTQ laws became formalized and codified in benchmarks such as the Human Rights Campaign’s , , which tracks policies and practices and has helped to establish a set of basic guidelines for corporations to follow. Partly as a result, antigay legislation and openly antigay views among Republican lawmakers have dwindled (Garrett lost his reelection race to a Democrat). Politicians know that bills along the lines of HB2 can be expected to draw near-unified opposition from the business community., The new attacks on voting rights and businesses that don’t speak out against them could follow a similar trajectory. Veterans of the LGBTQ push say the obvious next step should be to track corporate actions and establish a set of norms to guide future behavior—not just public statements of opposition, but affirmative actions such as supporting right-to-vote laws or organizing local voter registration drives. Social justice battles are won, they say, only when statements turn into collective actions.,  , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Joshua Green. Date Created: 29 Apr 2021, 1:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Driver bonus end shortage Lyft million Uber [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: Uber and Lyft Are Spending Millions on Driver Bonuses to End Shortage. Short_description: Uber and Lyft Are Spending Millions on Driver Bonuses to End Shortage. Description: Misty Huffman has driven sporadically for Uber in El Paso over the past year, even as Covid-19 surged and many of the ride-hailing app’s regular customers stayed away. One recent Friday she opened the app and was surprised to see large numbers of people requesting rides at restaurants, bars, and other nightspots downtown. “The whole city was lit up, end to end,” she says., Huffman made $1,000 that weekend, a better rate of pay than she gets from her day job as a respiratory therapist. The increase in riders was a factor, but more than a third of the money came directly from Uber in bonuses. “The incentives are crazy,” she says., Ride-hailing collapsed a year ago when the pandemic set in. Volume for Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. dropped more than two-thirds in a single week last March, according to data from Bloomberg Second Measure LLC, which analyzes consumer spending. A gradual increase this year , , as vaccination rates climbed and people returned to their normal activities. Lyft’s sales for the week ended March 29 were 80% higher than in the first week of the year, and Uber’s climbed 76% in the same period, according to Second Measure. “Demand is rising rapidly with every vaccination,” says Lyft President John Zimmer. “It’s almost like the reverse of the pandemic.”, Drivers are proving less enthusiastic about hitting the road again than riders. Safety concerns and the lack of steady work led many to look to food delivery and other fields, and it’s unclear whether the availability of vaccines will bring them back., This reluctance has meant longer wait times, which threaten to undermine the appeal of ride-hailing to consumers, who’ve been trained to expect near-instant gratification. “In most, if not all, of our major cities, riders are coming back faster than drivers,” says Carrol Chang, who heads driver operations for Uber in the U.S. and Canada., To sweeten the deal, Uber and Lyft are resorting to generous cash bonuses for driving or referring new drivers, a once-common tactic they’d largely phased out because it led to heavy financial losses. Uber said in April it would earmark an , to pay incentives to drivers in the near team. Lyft is also offering bonuses but hasn’t announced a total amount. Uber says drivers in Chicago, Philadelphia, and several other cities are now making more than twice the hourly minimum wage before the new incentives; according to Lyft, its drivers in Denver, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and San Diego are bringing in at least $40 an hour. Those rates include the time when drivers have their app turned on waiting for fares., “It definitely reminds me of the good old days,” says Harry Campbell, founder of therideshareguy.com, a website that provides resources for gig economy workers., Lyft and Uber, which are slated to report quarterly earnings in early May, declined to discuss their plans for future programs or the size of their driver pools, citing financial disclosure regulations., The incentives won’t last. Both companies have promised investors they’ll turn profits this year (before accounting for interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization), and they’ve reduced headcount and , to get there. Until normal activity returns, they say, the programs are necessary to recruit drivers. Pedro Palandrani, an analyst at Global X, an exchange-traded fund firm, says the near-term financial hit will make ride-hailing work well at a critical period. “They are going to see a good return on this investment,” he says., Not every driver is open to being romanced. One driver in Oakland, Calif., who asked to be identified only by his first name, Gabe, said he’ll stay off the road until at least September, when his $300 in weekly unemployment benefits expire., The brutal nature of the job and years of built-up tension have also soured many of the companies’ workers. “I don’t trust them. They entice us with bonuses, and they always find a way to weasel out and not pay us,” Gabe says, adding that he’s been unable to collect on past incentive programs. This complaint has come up before, as when some drivers realized they weren’t getting the bonuses Uber had promised them for using electric vehicles. When , discovered the error, Uber attributed it to a technical glitch and , , along with an additional 10%., “Drivers have a lot of choices—it’s our job to earn their trust every day and make driving with Uber worth their while,” says Uber spokesman Matt Wing., But some want to cash in when the money is good. “When I turn on my app now, it’s bam, bam, bam! Passenger count is way up, and I can’t even turn off my app to go to the bathroom sometimes,” says Jack Hamilton, who’s been driving for Uber and Lyft in Atlanta for about seven months. “It’s never been this good.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Lizette Chapman. Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 2:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Flying tech ceo Cargo Shorts high fall LSD [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: LSD, Cargo Shorts and the Fall of a High-Flying Tech CEO. Short_description: LSD, Cargo Shorts and the Fall of a High-Flying Tech CEO. Description: Justin Zhu, chief executive officer of digital marketing startup Iterable Inc., was walking down Broadway in San Francisco on April 26 when he was summoned to a surprise conference call and abruptly fired. His co-founder, Andrew Boni, and the company’s entire board told him he was losing his job, primarily because he had taken LSD before a meeting in 2019., The incident had indeed happened—Zhu says he was trying to take a small dose to improve his focus and accidentally took too much—but he also was being fired for other reasons. For the previous 10 months, Zhu had been talking with a reporter from , about his experience as CEO, the challenges of being Chinese in Silicon Valley, and his disputes with two of Iterable’s key investors. He hadn’t cut off the conversations when investors asked him to, the final straw in a long-running feud. , Zhu's firing has blossomed into a bizarre saga that hits on many of the classic Silicon Valley cultural touchpoints: founders who don't act like conventional businessmen, the search for additional productivity through drug use, and the risks of talking openly about the pressures of the job. It’s also a story steeped in the tense ethnic politics that are currently roiling the tech community and American society at large., “In the early days, they’re looking for weird,” Zhu, 31, says now about venture capital investors. He’d taken Iterable from an idea to a company valued at about $2 billion, a stunning success by most measures. But when a company reaches that stage, he says, the new mantra becomes: Reduce the risk. , Zhu started his career as a software engineer at Twitter in 2011. After two years, he and Boni, who is now 32, poured their life savings into a new startup, Iterable, that created marketing campaigns and notifications that target customers in highly tailored ways, such as via email or text alerts telling customers the status of their food delivery orders. Before long, it started winning clients, and investors clamored to sign on. By the end of 2016, Iterable was valued at $125 million., In person, Zhu exudes quirkiness in a way that fits with the freethinking ethos of Silicon Valley. At a recent business lunch, he wore a planet- and star-emblazoned teal velour sweatshirt that he says he bought because it reminded him of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s , . He likes to discuss the amorality of capitalism, the principle of cosmic debt, and the need for more love in the world., Even as Iterable thrived, Zhu says he sometimes felt alienated and sad. He believed that he and the company were too focused on sales and money at the expense of altruistic goals. When he attended the 2019 wedding of one of his investors in Lebanon, Zhu met an entrepreneur who suggested he take small quantities of LSD to improve his concentration and overall well-being. Zhu researched the idea and found studies that linked microdosing with improved focus and lower stress., Back in San Francisco, Zhu was preparing for an important meeting with a prominent investor group. Believing that limited quantities of LSD would improve his pitch, Zhu, who had never before used the drug, decided to try the microdosing plan. He took what he thought was a small amount of LSD shortly before the meeting. , It didn’t go as expected. When he tried to walk the potential investors through a series of financial projections, Zhu looked at the screen and saw numbers and images swelling and shrinking, making them impossible to discern. His body felt as if it were melting away, he says. After an awkward pause, a colleague stepped in. Zhu took a swig of his tea, decided to speak from memory, and pressed ahead. The pitch did not lead to an investment. , Zhu’s relationship with venture investors had already become strained. He wore cargo shorts and a T-shirt to a meeting with Geodesic, a VC firm founded by John Roos, a former U.S. ambassador to Japan. An Iterable board member later informed him Geodesic wouldn’t invest, implying it was partly because of his casual attire. A person familiar with the firm’s thinking says Zhu’s attire didn’t factor into the firm’s decision, asking not to be named discussing private business matters., At another investor meeting, Zhu noted that the abbreviation AI, for artificial intelligence, sounded like the Mandarin word for love. Afterward, a colleague asked him if he was “becoming Adam Neumann,” referring to the ousted CEO of WeWork known for holding forth on similar topics. He says he later heard that an investor questioned whether he’d been high at the time. Zhu says he wasn’t, describing his foray into workplace microdosing as a one-time event. Boni told him he preferred the more circumspect version of Zhu. Using his given Chinese name, Zhu says he replied that he was finally showing the real Zhu HaoRan. , In late 2019, after Iterable succeeded in raising an additional $60 million, two of his investors, Murat Bicer, general partner at CRV, and Shardul Shah, partner at Index Ventures, took Zhu out to dinner to celebrate. At a corner table at the restaurant Hakkasan, the two VCs directed the conversation towards the topic of the company’s leadership. Shocked, Zhu asked them if they were thinking of replacing him as CEO. “This is still your company,” Zhu says Bicer assured him, but Bicer also asked him to consider the benefits of a more experienced leader. , Zhu, who was born in Shanghai, says he recalled an early conversation with an Asian investor who said that Zhu would probably one day be asked to step aside for a White executive. He told the investors he wanted to stay on, in part to set an example for other East Asian immigrants. “I didn’t feel any understanding,” he recalls. “They were like, ‘OK.’” Then, he says, Bicer changed the subject., Asked about the dinner, as well as other details of Zhu’s account, Index Ventures declined to comment through a spokeswoman. CRV did not respond to repeated requests for comment, and Bicer did not provide comment., In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Zhu lined up a $30 million loan to keep the business running in case the bottom fell out of the economy. To close on the loan, the bank wanted references from his board, and Zhu says Shah stalled. Eventually, Shah asked to meet with Zhu, co-founder Boni, and Bicer in San Francisco’s South Park, a VC hub. The men gathered on benches outside, and the investors again brought up the topic of finding a new CEO. “You’re just pattern matching,” Zhu recalls telling them. “Your last 20 CEOs who went public, they were probably all Caucasian guys.” , It wasn’t a wild assertion. Most Silicon Valley CEOs are White men; many are from India, but few are from China, Japan, or Korea. Still, both Index Ventures and CRV have backed notable East Asian CEOs. CRV was an early investor in DoorDash Inc., led by Nanjing-born Tony Xu. Index had invested in Zuora Inc. and other companies run by East Asian executives., Some of the disconnect with Shah, Zhu felt, was because of his East Asian background. Zhu believes his preference to seek consensus instead of shutting down dissenting views or engaging in noisy debates is a cultural trait his investors mistook for weakness—a stereotype about East Asians that academics researchers have cited as a reason for their underrepresentation in leadership positions in the U.S. In a paper last year, an MIT professor and his colleagues wrote that the “bamboo ceiling” reflected “an issue of cultural fit.”, Over the phone later that week, Zhu says Shah asked him to commit to running his board meetings with “more presence” and “driving it harder”—habits Zhu says weren’t in his nature. Most of the board also wanted Zhu to commit to memorizing key company metrics as part of a performance improvement plan. Zhu says he went along with the plan and the loan came through with Shah’s approval. But the conversation didn’t sit well with Zhu., “I run the company with Eastern values,” he says. “That doesn’t mean I’m not equipped to be CEO.”, Zhu says the dispute amounted to discrimination, even if it doesn’t fit the stereotypical image of racial bias. Bicer grew up in Turkey, and Shah is of South Asian ethnicity. And when Zhu was fired, the board replaced him with Boni, who was Iterable’s president and who, like Zhu, is of East Asian descent. (Zhu says he suspects the board sees Boni as a placeholder and will replace him, too.) , By late summer 2020, business at Iterable was booming again. It was time to raise more money. But by this point, Zhu had grown distrustful of Shah and wanted to minimize his involvement in the deal. With Shah’s cooperation, he arranged for the investment firm Silver Lake to buy about half of Index’s shares and take over Shah’s board seat, a part of a funding round that would value Iterable at $2 billion. , The issue of bias and violence toward Asians entered the national conversation after the murder of eight people in Atlanta in March. Zhu, who can remember fleeing from schoolyard bullies who beat him up and told him to go back to China, helped organize a campaign called Stand With Asian Americans. The effort garnered pledges of support by 7,500 Asian-American business leaders and allies., Zhu became more convinced he needed to tell his story. He informed his board, which no longer included Index, that he had been talking with a reporter at Bloomberg, and for the first time told them about the microdosing incident. They asked him not to discuss that or his deliberations with his investors. Zhu said he wanted to tell all of it, even at the risk of his position. “The only reason to share this is to help founders who are suffering, and any person who’s going through the things I’m going through,” he says., Toward the end of April, Zhu’s investors again asked him not to speak with the press. Shortly afterward, he got the call telling him he was fired. Zhu sat down in a park in San Francisco’s Financial District, absorbing the news. “That’s the price of justice these days,” he says. “I’d rather tell the story and even be fired.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Sarah McBride. Date Created: 03 May 2021, 2:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to asian Atmosphere Chills chinese Scientists anti U.S. [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: Anti-Asian Atmosphere Chills Chinese Scientists Working in the U.S.. Short_description: Anti-Asian Atmosphere Chills Chinese Scientists Working in the U.S.. Description: Nianshuang Wang arrived in the U.S. from China about seven years ago to help explore an obscure niche in structural biology: manipulating coronavirus spike proteins to be more stable and thus better for use in vaccines., In early 2020 it was Wang who figured out how to make the spike protein on the novel coronavirus bind with human receptors, enabling Moderna Inc. to , its Covid-19 vaccine in , . “I thought he’d be perfect to lead our efforts to engineer modified forms of these spikes for use in vaccines,” says Jason McLellan, the University of Texas at Austin professor whose team, including Wang, is credited with the work., Now Wang, 34, is confronting another kind of contagion. He and his wife have been waiting three years for U.S. green cards, after then-President Donald Trump’s near-halt to legal immigration. Last summer, when the Trump administration , China’s consulate in Houston amid , that the FBI was hunting suspected Chinese vaccine spies in Texas, Wang and his wife explored hiring a lawyer and even considered fleeing the U.S., They stayed, and no FBI agents came knocking. But Wang says growing anti-Chinese sentiment is palpable, making him and other Chinese scientists increasingly afraid that they’re no longer welcome in the U.S. Several of his Chinese scientist friends have abandoned long-held dreams of pursuing careers in the U.S. and are working in the U.K. and Germany instead, he says., “The tensions between the two countries have actually made a big difference,” Wang says. “Now the U.S. isn’t so popular among Chinese Ph.D.s.”, An , against Asian Americans in the past year has been blamed on the xenophobic rhetoric of former President Trump, particularly his racist broadsides labeling the novel coronavirus the “, ” and “, .” But other U.S. leaders and institutions have helped inflame the situation, arousing particular suspicion toward people of Chinese descent. The Justice Department’s National Security Division is pursuing suspected economic spies under a heavily publicized program it calls the , , a name that casts suspicion on 1.2 billion people at a stroke. FBI Director Christopher Wray gives speeches beseeching Americans to take cover from what he calls China’s “whole-of-society” blitz to steal American know-how. And universities and research institutions—such as Houston’s MD Anderson Cancer Center and Atlanta’s Emory University—have been scouring disclosure filings of ethnic Chinese faculty for any failures to divulge research or funding ties to China. Previously unreported cases of alleged disclosure shortfalls have emerged at such supposed bastions of liberal thought as Harvard University and New York University., The firings and federal prosecutions that have resulted from some of these investigations have damaged the careers of more than a dozen tenured professors, all casualties of what university compliance officers like to call “conflicts of commitment”—a phrase that echoes the Cold War slur “dual loyalties.”, Peter Michelson, a physics professor and senior associate dean for the natural sciences at Stanford University, blames Wray’s “whole-of-society” hyperbole for whipping up anti-Chinese fervor at some companies and campuses, fueling exaggerated mistrust of Chinese graduate students and engineers. “You don’t cast a broad net like that. That’s profiling,” says Michelson, who co-chairs a , of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences to strengthen international science partnerships. “We’re trying to attract talent to this country, but I think some of his rhetoric, while perhaps unintended, puts a target on people’s back. Words do matter.”, Joe Biden is trying to set a different tone on China, saying at a March 25 , that “, The challenge is to be a lot smarter and more nuanced than the Trump administration was about which technologies the U.S. must dominate to protect its vital interests, while continuing to attract the brightest minds from China and elsewhere to be the lifeblood of U.S. innovation. “The solution to have more American students pursue STEM studies is magical thinking,” says Peter Cowhey, a former senior trade official in the Clinton and Obama administrations and dean of the School of Global Policy & Strategy at the University of California at San Diego., To maintain its economic and security edge in the decades to come, the U.S. needs to excel in four core areas, according to a , in November from a team led by Cowhey and published by UC San Diego’s 21st Century China Center and the Asia Society: artificial intelligence, 5G telecommunications, biotechnology, and basic research. A fifth imperative, the design and engineering of semiconductors, is essential to driving advances in the others. Biden’s infrastructure proposal includes $50 billion to , ., Ensuring public and private funding for these strategic priorities, and removing the most sensitive research projects from universities to top-secret government labs, can secure the American research base while sustaining the defining feature of the nation’s innovation success: openness. “The U.S. doesn’t need to be No. 1 in everything,” Cowhey says. “It needs to be strong across the board and the leader in core areas.”, The U.S. needs a small yard with high, well-marked fences, as Cowhey puts it, in contrast to the Trump administration’s paranoid pursuit of Chinese scientists for taking even the most basic research back to China. Clear delineation of nationally protected intellectual property would come as a huge relief to Chinese scientists working in the U.S. “We don’t make foreign students sign a loyalty oath,” says Stanford’s Michelson. “It’s a mistake to build an adversarial relationship with these people.”, Some institutions have resisted the China scare. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is paying for the legal defense of Gang Chen, a professor of mechanical engineering who was , under the China Initiative in January on wire fraud and tax charges for allegedly failing to disclose research funding from China. Chen has pleaded not guilty. After Chen’s arrest, MIT President Rafael Reif issued a statement clarifying something many other schools have avoided admitting: that for years MIT has been integrally involved in the professor’s collaboration with China. In 2018, China’s Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen agreed to pay MIT $25 million over five years to co-create a mechanical engineering institute with centers at both universities, Reif said. While Chen was the institute’s inaugural MIT faculty director, “This is not an individual collaboration; it is a departmental one,” Reif , , with $19 million of the Chinese contribution earmarked for collaborative research and education, and $6 million set aside as a gift for MIT to support building renovations and an endowed graduate fellowship, Reif also expressed sympathy and support for MIT’s sizable ethnic Chinese community, haunted today, he wrote, by “a growing atmosphere of mistrust and suspicion.”, says Leslie Wong, who was president of San Francisco State University from 2012 to 2019, o single out a population and then not defend them for the work they’ve been doing tirelessly is so disingenuous,” he says. “I still can’t get my arms around it.”, Elsewhere, it’s a different story. New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine has suspended two professors it accused of failing to disclose research and funding in China, according to four people familiar with the matter. Before any official finding of guilt, school officials have slashed the professors’ salaries, barred them from campus and university computers, and ordered them not to communicate with colleagues, these people said. Such actions constitute an “extraordinary remedy” under NYU’s , , which says a tenured professor’s suspension is appropriate only when continued employment “threatens substantial harm to himself or herself, to others, or to the welfare of the university.”, John Beckman, NYU’s spokesman, declined to answer questions about individual personnel matters, which he said are confidential. Kent Hirozawa of Gladstein, Reif & Meginniss, the New York law firm that represents the accused professors, says they declined to be interviewed and requested their names not be published pending resolution of the private employment matter., One of the suspended professors could be among the first NYU faculty members stripped of tenure under a streamlined process that the medical school urgently sought last fall. In December the university’s board of trustees approved the change over objections from the NYU faculty senate’s tenure council, which cited a lack of “compelling explanations and evidence” for superseding the existing tenure revocation process., The change eliminated protections for NYU medical professors that had been in place for all NYU faculty since the 1980s. Tenured professors had been entitled to a hearing and an appeal before two university-wide faculty committees. But medical school officials argued that the process was too slow; now the school will have its own disciplinary panel, composed of five tenured professors from the medical, nursing, and dental schools. Disciplined faculty members will have only one appeal, directly to the president of NYU., Harvard, citing similar allegations of disclosure lapses, began termination procedures against one of its tenured science professors without ever interviewing the person about its allegations, says the individual’s attorney, Peter Zeidenberg of Arent Fox in Washington. Zeidenberg, a former federal prosecutor, represents about two dozen ethnic Chinese researchers ensnared in the China Initiative nationwide. Harvard initiated tenure revocation proceedings and stopped paying the person, all without giving the individual the opportunity to respond to its allegations., “I would have thought that schools like Harvard and NYU would be less easily intimidated by the government’s strong-armed tactics and would stand up for their professors,” says Zeidenberg, who also represents one of the accused researchers at NYU. “But all too frequently that’s not the case.” Harvard spokesman Jonathan Swain declined to discuss personnel matters., Rising anti-Asian activity, on city streets and at universities, deters China’s best from coming to the U.S. to study and work, posing a serious danger to the nation’s research base, say some of the most prominent American scientists and academics. Elite U.S. universities that are accustomed to their pick among thousands of brilliant Chinese applicants are , to universities in Australia, Canada, and Europe., “A large fraction of stuff being created in American universities and in industry is actually coming from Chinese immigrants who’ve become citizens here,” Nobel Prize laureate Steven Chu, the former U.S. energy secretary who’s now a Stanford physics professor, said in a September webinar about the China Initiative. “It’s not like we’re shooting ourselves in the foot. I think we’re shooting ourselves pretty close to some important regions in the head.”, Evidence from McLellan’s lab at the University of Texas underscores the point. Last year a Chinese Ph.D. who operated the lab’s electron microscope and who McLellan says was instrumental in providing high-quality data for the vaccine-related breakthrough, moved back to China “out of visa frustrations,” McLellan says., Wang says he had trouble finding a job in the U.S. last year even after gaining renown in biomedical circles for his work with McLellan. (He and McLellan, among others, hold a key patent related to some of the Covid-19 vaccines, along with Dartmouth College and the National Institutes of Health.) Whenever Wang told prospective employers he didn’t have permanent residency status, the conversation ended quickly, he says. He was finally hired by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., the New York company whose experimental treatment for Covid-19 was , . Wang considers himself fortunate, he says., “It’s increasingly hard for Chinese people to survive here.”,  , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Peter Waldman. Date Created: 26 Apr 2021, 1:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Payday Lenders Hard Times Pandemic boost [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: Payday Lenders Didn’t Get a Boost From the Pandemic’s Hard Times. Short_description: Payday Lenders Didn’t Get a Boost From the Pandemic’s Hard Times. Description: For payday lenders, the pandemic could have been a once-in-a-century event for generating new customers. A bad economy can force people to turn to high-cost lenders for quick cash. But the story turned out differently this time. Trillions of dollars of federal relief, including direct cash payments and enhanced unemployment benefits, have had the opposite effect: reduced demand., The federal efforts could upend an industry that’s preyed on low-income Americans, making small-dollar loans payable upon the receipt of a next paycheck, Social Security check, or unemployment benefit. With interest rates as high as 400% annualized, the loans rake in more than $9 billion a year in fees and interest, , to Pew Charitable Trusts, a nonprofit research group. Payday loan shops are as common as fast-food joints in struggling towns across the U.S. But demand fell 67% in the midst of lockdowns last spring and early summer, according to the Online Lenders Alliance trade group, and has yet to recover to pre-Covid levels., At the same time, community banks are making plans to expand on turf they once abandoned—areas such as West 12th Street in Little Rock, an historically Black neighborhood near the interstate. Storefronts here include a coin-operated laundry and a dollar store, but no banks. Local lender Southern Bancorp plans to open the area’s first branch later this year, in a building that also houses a police station., As part of a pandemic relief bill passed late last year, the U.S. Treasury is injecting $12 billion into community development financial institutions, or CDFIs, like Southern Bancorp. That’s more than triple what they received in the entire quarter century since the government first extended support. Payday lenders have long said that the rates they charge are commensurate with the risks of default, and that cutting access to cash would be worse for borrowers. The expansion planned by Southern Bancorp will be a real-life experiment in whether a bank , ., “We did not have access to the type of equity capital to allow us to grow,” says Chief Executive Officer Darrin Williams, who plans to double Southern’s assets to $4 billion and expand to underserved areas in cities such as Memphis, Nashville, and St. Louis in the next few years. “That’s changed. It’s an unprecedented amount of funding now available to us. I hope that will be a real counter to the payday lending space.”, CDFIs target minority, rural, and impoverished communities. They’ve attracted hundreds of millions of dollars from big finance and technology companies, spurred by national attention to issues of racial equity. Bank of America Corp. last year purchased , of Southern Bancorp’s shares, and MacKenzie Scott, the , of Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, donated , ., Another community lender, Hope Credit Union of Jackson, Miss., got a $10 million deposit from Netflix Inc., which is investing 2% of its cash holdings in , . Hope, which provides 83% of its mortgages to people of color, expects to apply for about $100 million in capital from the Treasury, says CEO Bill Bynum. That support can be “game-changing,” he adds, if it addresses an historic disparity that’s left Black-owned CDFIs with less capital than their counterparts. “We’ve seen some of the poorest communities have to work the hardest to get their access to federal resources,” he says. The credit union offers loans of $500 to $1,000, capped at an annual interest rate of 18%, which compete directly with payday lenders., Another threat to payday demand: the Biden administration’s April 28 proposal to extend a child tax credit that gives parents as much as $300 a month per child. Most of the 12 million low-income Americans who rely on payday loans are age 25 to 44, and a disproportionate number are parents, according to Pew. They spend $360 on average to borrow $400 for about three months., Large banks have started offering small-dollar loans, partly at the urging of regulators. A Bank of America product for customers who’ve had checking accounts for more than a year lets them apply to , . “It would save borrowers billions of dollars in fees if more banks got into this space,” says Alex Horowitz, Pew’s senior research officer for consumer finance. The challenge is making loans as convenient as the ubiquitous payday loan—and available even to those with low credit. That will require investment in underwriting technology. “Small-dollar loans aren’t going to take off unless they’re automated,” Horowitz says., The new branch Southern Bancorp plans in Little Rock will offer the kinds of services usually reserved for higher-income customers, CEO Williams says. These include credit counseling, wealth planning, and small-business technical assistance. “Low-income people need wealth advisers, too,” he says. About half of the bank’s loans last year were for less than $10,000., The Biden administration is also likely to impose restrictions on payday loans through an emboldened Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Through its trade group, the Online Lenders Association, the industry argues these efforts will cut off credit to poor people. Meanwhile, some companies are pivoting to new products, such as income share agreements that offer loans to students in exchange for a percentage of their future income., David Fisher, CEO of subprime lender Enova International Inc., expects to find opportunities as small businesses reopen. “Many of these businesses have used up their savings trying to survive the pandemic,” he told investors on a conference call in April. “This can lead to a large surge in demand that we’re ready to fill.”,  , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Peter Robison. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 2:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Great Hope Herd Immunity Humanity Elusive [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: Herd Immunity Is Humanity’s Great Hope, and It’s Proving Elusive. Short_description: Herd Immunity Is Humanity’s Great Hope, and It’s Proving Elusive. Description: Long before herd immunity became humanity’s shared obsession, the phrase referred to sick cows. More than a century ago, veterinarians observed that outbreaks of a highly contagious bacterial infection menacing cattle died down once they’d burned through a certain percentage of a herd, so long as new animals weren’t introduced. Soon the concept was extended to a variety of human outbreaks, where it became a staple of epidemiology., Since the beginning of the pandemic, exactly when the U.S. might reach herd immunity for Covid-19 has been furiously debated in congressional hearings, on TV shows, and among the many armchair epidemiologists on Twitter. In the popular imagination, the phrase has become shorthand for the end of the pandemic—a finish line that will suddenly cause the virus to subside and allow maskless normalcy to resume., Yet given how relentless, unpredictable, and , the coronavirus has proved to be, top researchers are beginning to say a more realistic expectation for the Covid endgame is a slow, gradual improvement, with many bumps and setbacks along the way. Potent vaccines like those from Moderna and the partnership of Pfizer and BioNTech have put the world in a far better position than six months ago. But the virus, which has killed 3 million and infected more than 140 million worldwide, with , , is likely to circulate for years to come. In other words, the end to the pandemic may only become clear in retrospect., The idea behind herd immunity is tantalizingly simple. Once a certain percentage of people become immune through vaccination or infection—perhaps 70% to 85% for this particular virus—transmission becomes more difficult and the protective effect shields the broader population. The formula, 1-1/R₀, with R₀ being the average number of new infections thought to result from each case, requires basic algebra. But dig into the details, and this intuitive concept gets complicated quickly. “Everybody talks about herd immunity as this really important threshold, but it’s a really crude and sort of hard-to-estimate number,” says Nicholas Reich, a biostatistician at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, who develops Covid forecasts by combining data from different research groups worldwide., Humans aren’t cows. Far from being a simple fixed number, the population percentage needed for herd immunity can vary over time and from place to place depending on a wide range of factors, including how long immunity lasts, how people behave, what mitigation steps are in place, how quickly the virus mutates, and even the , . A look at past vaccination campaigns provides a sobering perspective on the slog ahead. Smallpox is one of the only major human viruses that has been officially , . Rare cases of polio , in some countries. Even , took years to fully subdue in the U.S. with potent vaccines., Whatever the theoretical number might be, it’s gone up in recent months with the rise of more-infectious variants, like the B.1.1.7 strain that now , Early in the pandemic, some optimistic studies, often cited by shutdown opponents, claimed that as little as 10% or 20% of the population becoming infected might lead to herd immunity. Mainstream estimates, initially around 60% to 70%, have trended up over time. Lately, U.S. government officials have shied away from citing a specific figure, emphasizing getting shots in arms quickly. “I would like to get people away from this concept of referring to something that is very elusive in its definition,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, at a White House briefing on April 12. A return to normalcy will be gradual, he’s emphasized., There’s no question that widespread vaccination will blunt the pandemic, invigorate the economy, and allow more normal social activities. The numbers of deaths and severe cases have , , which is leading the world’s race to immunize its population. But in the bigger and more diverse U.S., vaccines have become a , . While more than a quarter of the population is fully immunized, vaccine hesitancy may stymie fuller uptake. (, and , are most likely to say they will abstain, polling shows.) Vaccine supply is already , in parts of the country., “As we move forward, we’ll have pockets where people will not have been vaccinated, by race, by income, and by religion, unfortunately,” says Ali Mokdad, an epidemiologist with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle. “Automatically we will see outbreaks among these, or infections much higher among these groups, and we’ll never reach herd immunity.” Globally the vaccination campaign has barely begun, with enough doses administered to cover just 6% of the world population, according to Bloomberg’s , . Those doses are concentrated in a couple of dozen rich countries. “Our flank is exposed,” says Saad Omer, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, who notes far too little has been spent on a worldwide rollout, given that viruses pay no attention to borders. “It boggles my mind to think we can have an immune fortress in America and learn to live with the risk of variants being imported.”, Recent vaccine setbacks won’t help. Many countries have limited use of AstraZeneca Plc’s adenovirus vaccine after it was linked to , . The U.S. distribution of Johnson & Johnson’s shot is , while authorities investigate a handful of similar clotting events linked to that vaccine. Doctors advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plan to meet on April 23., In the long term, the biggest wild card is variants, especially those that reduce vaccine efficacy. After the spectacular vaccine trial results late last year, “I had thought we would see pretty much a normal lifestyle by the second half of 2021,” says virologist David Ho, who heads the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Columbia University, where he’s been studying variants. Although he still expects steady improvement, the explosion of variants has “decreased my optimism” for a quick conclusion to the pandemic., The rainforest city of Manaus, Brazil, shows how difficult the virus will be to wrestle into submission without high vaccination rates. The city was hit hard early in the pandemic, and one study found that 76% had been infected by October. That should have put it in herd immunity territory. But in December a , , driven by the , , which suggests there were people who got sick twice. “You cannot understand Manaus without some reinfections,” says Ester Sabino, an infectious disease researcher at the University of São Paulo. The best vaccines are thought to provide stronger protection than natural immunity., In an optimistic scenario, the coronavirus may run out of ways to keep changing. But the complicated medium-term picture likely means a bumpy and zigzagging path to normalcy. It will involve relaxing restrictions in some places while grappling with new ways to live in a world where the virus is still out there. Eventually the coronavirus could become something more like influenza, steadily mutating in a way that necessitates a never-ending series of booster shots. Or SARS-CoV-2 could settle down and turn into another common cold., With so many possible outcomes, researchers say the best strategy is to focus on what’s most under our control: ramping up vaccinations. “From an immunology and vaccine perspective, it is pretty simple: Vaccinate as many people as possible,” says Shane Crotty, a professor at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology. “Everybody is better off if you can vaccinate 90% of the population.”,  , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Robert Langreth &. Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 1:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to New Style Premium Tequila U.S. [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: A New Style of Premium Tequila Has Arrived in the U.S.. Short_description: A New Type of Tequila Is Taking Mexico by Storm. Description: About a decade ago, tequila makers Maestro Dobel and Don Julio were faced with rising agave prices and a dwindling demand for reposados and añejos. To create a more accessible expression, they each began charcoal-filtering their barrel-aged overstock into what is known as cristalino. The richer, sweeter spirit, stripped of its color and heavy wood notes, is now Mexico’s fastest-growing tequila category, particularly among young women seeking a premium product. “You expect the flavor to be bright and green, but it’s a surprise shock to your palate,” says booze expert Sean Kenyon of Denver’s Occidental bar. Cristalinos are versatile, too, adding interest to a margarita or served neat, chilled with a slice of orange., Grover Sanschagrin of the Tequila Matchmaker app recommends LVMH’s añejo because it doesn’t undergo the same aggressive purification as lesser rivals. “Hold it up to the light, and you’ll see a tiny bit of color left in the liquid,” he says. “Some of the natural barrel notes are still present.” The result: rounder, more natural flavors of tobacco and chocolate against a dry, peppery agave spine. , Get past the packaging—nobody needs a Swarovski charm on a 14k gold necklace—and Tuyo’s quartet of cristalinos are “flavor bombs, but in a good way,” Kenyon says. The 16-month añejo is the standout: crisp and smooth, all caramel custard and tropical fruit. , How Sombra Mezcal’s Richard Betts crafts his “Mediterranean” tequila is likely to rankle purists already irked by cristalinos, but let them rage: French oak white wine barrel aging and a post-purification rest in Greek clay amphorae produce a sublime salty-sweet, floral sip. , This smaller producer entered the cristalino market last fall with two savory-sweet expressions, one based on a sherry cask reposado and the other on its añejo. The latter is a favorite of agave aficionados, because it retains a vanilla-forward silkiness from an 18-month rest in bourbon casks instead of acquiring taste from the now common fix-it of dosing the spirit with flavorings after filtration. , A rare bargain in a premium category, this reposado-based cristalino is made by the same team as El Silencio mezcal. Roman Romaya of Old Town Tequila, a specialty store in San Diego, notes its “robust, roasted agave” flavors. The Occidental bar’s Kenyon is another fan. “I was amazed by the creaminess of it when I tasted it blind,” he says. “There’s a florality to it that really shocked me.” , Sanschagrin likes the deft filtration here, which lets the agave funk sing against a baked spice background picked up from four months in giant American oak pipón barrels. Its long, fruity finish is characteristic of highland tequilas. , Master distiller Octavio Herrera avoids the artificial-tasting trap that snares many cristalinos by using nonactivated charcoal. The result is a wholly unusual pour, says Romaya: “eucalyptus, minty flavors of a blanco” with the honeyed, cocoa lushness of time in a cask., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Mark Ellwood. Date Created: 04 May 2021, 2:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Streaming tv Commercials Bewildering Repetitive Crazy [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: Streaming TV Commercials Are Bewildering, Repetitive, and Growing Like Crazy. Short_description: Streaming TV Commercials Are Bewildering, Repetitive, and Growing Like Crazy. Description: Ben Chappell was binge-watching , on , recently when he kept seeing the same ads for sports betting apps again and again. He estimates that over three hours he watched the same commercials many times. (Hulu says it caps the frequency a user can see the same commercial at two times per hour, four times per day, or 25 times per week. Customers can exceed those limits when additional ads are sold by third parties.), “It’s complete overkill,” said Chappell, 37, who lives in Lakewood, Colo., where sports betting is legal and ads from the industry are flooding the zone. “Maybe I’d watch them if it wasn’t the same commercial over and over.”, Fans of streaming services also say the commercials can be , or prone to , . Chappell has considered upgrading to a commercial-free version of Hulu, a Walt Disney Co. unit, but he isn’t ready to pay an extra $6 a month. And the problem is hardly confined to Hulu. He’s also noticed repetitive ads on ViacomCBS Inc.’s Pluto TV. For now, he just hits the mute button and vents his frustrations on Twitter, where he recently wrote, “So, are we all just ok with watching the same 7 commercials on streaming services until we goddamned die?”, In spite of such complaints, which are commonplace on social media these days, the market for streaming TV ads is growing fast. This year U.S. advertisers will spend $11.36 billion on streaming TV commercials, according to EMarketer, up from $8.11 billion in 2020., The boom is being driven, in part, by a slate of new services catering to consumers willing to sit through a few commercials in exchange for paying less to access the programming. Some services with ads, such as Pluto TV and Fox Corp.’s Tubi, are free, while others, like Discovery+, Paramount+, and , , typically cost $5 to $6 a month. Paramount+ and Peacock also charge $10 a month to go commercial free. In June, WarnerMedia will roll out a new ad-supported version of , . Executives at AT&T Inc., which owns HBO Max, have yet to say how much it will cost. , to CNBC, the service will initially be priced at $9.99 a month., The newcomers are competing for ad dollars with older services including Hulu and YouTube, streaming platforms like , and Amazon, and even the makers of smart TVs, such as Samsung, that sell ads inside their apps or inside other streaming services. In the year ended in January 2021, ad-supported services grew their share of U.S. streaming homes to 26%, from 24%, according to Nielsen., Advertisers, however, are struggling to figure out how many people are actually watching their commercials, how often the ads are appearing, and where the spots are being shown. Advertisers can buy directly from a streaming service like Peacock or Discovery+ or buy across hundreds of streaming apps from connected-TV platforms, TV manufacturers, or third-party brokers. Many have their own way of counting viewers. Currently there’s no independent measuring group to play referee across all streaming services the way Nielsen does for traditional TV. Nielsen is developing a metric for the industry to buy and sell advertising more easily across TV and streaming services, but it won’t be ready until 2024. “It’s fragmented, and advertisers have to stitch it all together,” says Dave Morgan, chief executive officer of , , which helps marketers buy more-precise TV ads. “It’s cumbersome.”, Brad Adgate, an industry consultant, says the current state of the business is reminiscent of the early days of cable TV, when advertisers bought commercials on new channels like MTV or USA with no way of knowing whether they were getting their money’s worth. After Nielsen began measuring cable audiences in the 1980s, advertisers got more comfortable with the medium, and the whole thing took off. “It was the Wild West back then, as it is now with streaming,” Adgate says., Media giants such as Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal, ViacomCBS, and Discovery Inc. say that in some crucial ways their streaming services offer an upgraded experience for advertisers and viewers compared with the advertising options of yesteryear. They’ve introduced new formats that aim to be less irritating to customers than traditional breaks full of 30-second spots, such as commercials that appear on the screen only when the viewer pauses a show., The media companies also like to point out that ad-supported streaming platforms tend to show significantly fewer commercials than their progenitors in traditional TV. Discovery+ and Peacock promise to show no more than five minutes of commercials per hour, which is less than half the usual load on cable or broadcast TV., Streaming services also promise advertisers they can better target particular slices of viewers. Jon Steinlauf, Discovery’s chief U.S. advertising sales officer, says that on Discovery+ “if you only want to reach women with two children under 12 with $100,000 in income, we can sell you that.” Yoplait can buy a Discovery+ ad right after a scene on a cooking show during which someone said the word yogurt—something that would be hard to do on TV., Because the inventory per hour is limited and streaming ads typically can’t be skipped, media companies argue that such spots are more valuable. The price of ads on Discovery+ is about three times higher than on the company’s cable networks, which include HGTV and TLC., By this fall, Peacock’s viewership among a key demographic, 18- to 49-year-old viewers, should be roughly the same as the audience on the NBC broadcast network in prime time, so the ad rates are expected to be about equal, says Laura Molen, president of advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal. “Media is a vehicle to get advertisers to consumers,” she says. “Think of Peacock as a luxury vehicle.”, Some ad buyers say the streaming services should be priced more like economy sedans. On traditional TV, advertisers typically know the exact time, network, and program during which every commercial appeared. But some streaming platforms will only disclose in which group of content, like lifestyle or sports programs, the ad ran, or only provide the total number of times an ad was seen. That can make it hard to determine whether a commercial appeared next to controversial content or how many times it aired to a specific household., “They’ll say, ‘We’re not going to tell you where it ran. Just trust us that it ran against this target audience,’” says David Spencer, assistant manager of audience buying strategy for General Motors Co. “That’s not something that we’re OK with.”, Advertisers also say streaming services can’t target viewers with the same precision as can be done on Google or Facebook. Jack Kelly, national integrated media manager at Subaru of America, which advertises on Peacock, Discovery+, Hulu, and Paramount+, says he’d like to show viewers different commercials depending on whether they own a Subaru or are just thinking about buying one. But he can’t do that yet on a streaming service. “That’s the holy grail of advertising,” he says., Advertisers are also wary of irritating potential customers by inadvertently bombarding them with the same spot ad nauseam. An automated ad server sometimes shows viewers the same spots repeatedly when marketers ask to reach a certain number of streaming viewers quickly. The repetition may be exacerbated when a streaming service sells inventory to only a small number of sponsors—NBC had only 10 advertisers at Peacock’s launch last July, for instance—and that smaller pool of advertisers may make it seem that subscribers are seeing the same ads over and over., Pluto TV tries to ensure viewers don’t see the same commercial more than once every 30 minutes, though there are some cases when an advertiser runs multiple ad campaigns at the same time, which can lead to repetition. NBC has tried putting caps on how often a commercial appears on Peacock. It also recently started selling Peacock commercial time to a wider array of advertisers. Another possible reason for the sense of repetition, Molen says, is that some ads are just catchy. “Jake from State Farm is a memorable guy,” she says.,  , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Gerry Smith. Date Created: 04 May 2021, 3:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to hard Doge Dogecoin [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: It’s Hard to Take Dogecoin Seriously, But the Doge Doesn’t Care. Short_description: After climbing more than 6,000% it’s still largely a gag—but one with a potentially darker punchline.. Description: Here are some things with a total market value in the neighborhood of $40 billion: Insurance giant Prudential Financial Inc., the manufacturer Carrier Global Corp., and, at just a few billion less, Southwest Airlines Co.  Or, for a recent price of about 30¢ each, the supply of Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency that started as a joke in 2013. After climbing more than 6,000% this year in a hockey-stick rally, it’s still largely a gag—but one with a potentially darker punchline., There’s no good reason it should be valuable. “Dogecoin has no apparent commercial or investment use other than as a conduit for speculative mania and the attempt to make a buck,” says Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at Oanda Asia Pacific Pte., a platform for trading traditional currencies. “I suspect much of its appeal lies in the fact that it is very, very cheap to buy and sell, as opposed to $60,000 for Bitcoin, making it much more approachable to a retail trader who fancies a flutter.”, In reality, the low nominal price hardly matters—whether you put $1,000 into a fraction of a Bitcoin or buy 3,333 Dogecoins, you’re risking the same amount. But as with a penny stock, the lower per-coin price likely has a psychological effect., Especially when so many people seem to be into Doge for the memes as much as for the money. “Investors buy Dogecoin to participate in a self-deprecating joke about their inability to invest wisely, which keeps going as the price of an individual Dogecoin continues to appreciate,” says Curtis Ting, managing director for Europe at crypto exchange Kraken., What exactly is a Dogecoin? Like Bitcoin, it’s a digital token that’s only worth what other users are willing to pay or trade for it. It’s not backed by any other asset or business, and it will never produce an income. On the other hand, it lacks the main Bitcoin feature that fascinates crypto believers: a limited supply. There’s no hard cap on the number of coins that can be minted using the computer code governing Dogecoin. , What it does have is a cute logo, based on the “Doge” meme—a Shiba Inu with a look on its face that’s somewhere between goofy and knowing. Even its , . “Dogecoin and its community prides itself on being friendly, fun, and spreading joy,” says co-creator Billy Markus. “It also wasn’t made with any intentions, as evidenced by myself and my co-founder both not gaining much financial benefit from creating it, unlike many coins and tokens people have created.”, Dogecoin also has some history going for it—it’s relatively old for a cryptocurrency. Tokens with a long track record can benefit from heightened awareness and a gradually expanding set of holders willing to talk it up. As interest in cryptocurrency and trading in general spiked this year, Dogecoin was there waiting to be found by retail investors. Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and chief executive officer of the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange FTX, says that after brokerage app Robinhood restricted trading in GameStop Corp. stock at the height of a meme-driven stock-trading frenzy, “hundreds of millions of dollars moved seamlessly” , ., The coin got a , , aka 4/20, a day traditionally associated with pot. Dogecoin users decided to celebrate #DogeDay and boost the price to 42¢, or 69¢—another, uh, joke number—or even $1. They succeeded, sort of, with the price soaring to a record 41.9¢ that day, according to CoinGecko.com. It’s now down 28% from that peak., Dogecoin has also drawn celebrity billionaire fans, most notably Elon Musk, the co-founder of Tesla Inc., and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. That’s one use of Dogecoin, by the way: You can buy Mavericks merch with it. Musk has tweeted an image of himself ,  , -style, as well as the mocked-up cover of a fictitious , . (That one might have just been a dog joke.) “When your Chief Marketing Officer is Elon Musk, anything is possible,” says John Wu, president of Ava Labs, which helps develop digital-asset applications. Users on Reddit and Twitter have helped push the meme with images like “, ,” or the Shiba Inu getting , ., The benign interpretation of all this is that it’s just fun. The Doge moment echoes the boom in non-fungible tokens, which are used to verify ownership in digital media. Dogecoin can seem like a collective art project you can buy into for as little as 30¢, instead of the millions of dollars some have ponied up for NFTs. “In the traditional sense, Dogecoin is worthless,” Antoni Trenchev, co-founder of crypto lender Nexo, recently told Bloomberg News. “But as everybody knows, value is in the eye of the beholder. And there’s a tribe of investors, many of them millennials, who see it as a cause, a movement.”, Yet Dogecoin’s rally also looks a lot like a pump: An effort by some Internet-savvy users to jack up the price by focusing attention on a cheap asset and egging each other on to buy. The trick with a pump is to get out before the meme dies, leaving behind the newbies who took things too seriously or sold too slowly. The ownership of Dogecoin seems to be concentrated in relatively few anonymous hands, so it may not take much to get the price moving. , Dogecoin is also part of a wider phenomenon of money piling into increasingly speculative investments. Société Générale SA’s global head of quantitative strategy, Andrew Lapthorne, has cited Dogecoin as an example of “an increasingly large number of weird and wonderful signs of market excess.” (See also: The New Jersey deli that somehow amassed a market value of $100 million.) From that point of view, the coin’s success may be worrying even to investors who’ve steered clear of crypto. Yet despite increasing talk about bubbles, markets keep proving the naysayers wrong. The S&P 500 remains near a record high. Bitcoin, after peaking above $60,000 recently, is currently at about $55,000, a gain of 90% so far in 2021., The weird thing is that Dogecoin might be fun ,  a pump, with at least some of the buyers feeling like they’re in on the joke. The barriers to entry on crypto are very low; Dogecoin is available with the tap of a button on some popular zero-commission brokerage apps. You could lose your shirt but there’s no need to bet that much. On the , on April 27,, Cuban explained his thinking on Dogecoin. He said he got his 11-year-old into it with an initial $30 investment. “It’s not necessarily the best investment you can make,” Cuban said. “But you can buy it on Robinhood, and signing up and trading on Robinhood is free. So that’s one thing.” Cuban went on to say that , . , Did we mention the dog is cute?, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Joanna Ossinger. Date Created: 28 Apr 2021, 8:56 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to impact Investing Messy World way [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: Impact Investing Might Help Save the World But Can Get Messy Along the Way. Short_description: Impact Investing Might Help Save the World But Can Get Messy Along the Way. Description: For a company in the unglamorous wastewater business, Cambrian Innovation Inc. has a high profile in Silicon Valley and Hollywood. Its technology uses electrically charged microbes to digest refuse, producing clean water and energy. Its customers include Domaine Chandon, a winery in Napa Valley, Calif. And its biggest investor is the billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple Inc.’s co-founder., A couple of years ago, Cambrian bought rival Baswood Inc., which counted the actors Woody Harrelson as a cofounder and Edward Norton as chairman. “Films are now my sideline,” Norton said at a 2011 environmental symposium. “Waste is my business.” Baswood’s sludge bioreactor also uses microbes to treat water, and its marquee customer was , . Cambrian and Baswood’s merger promised “real change for the health of our planet,” Norton said., Perhaps. But until then, it may also be an example of the risks and complications of , , which combines social and financial goals. For all the company’s promise, the clean wastewater industry hasn’t been a path to easy profits. And this year the company’s shareholders found themselves divided because of something grubbier: a fight over money., Since the Rockefeller Foundation coined the term in 2007, impact investors have proliferated and now manage $715 billion in assets, mostly in private companies, estimates the nonprofit , . Financial goals can often conflict with those of building a better world, according to Christopher Geczy, a finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School who studies such deals. “It’s tough enough when the focus is entirely on profit,” he says., Powell Jobs is among the nation’s most prominent practitioners of impact investing. Her investment-philanthropy hybrid, the , , focuses on education, immigration, climate, and health and also owns the , magazine. Emerson has a declared mission of preserving the world’s precious water supply. Cambrian, however, says it solicits investors based not on social impact but on the return on investment its service offers customers., In its clean wastewater venture, Emerson found itself at odds with two other impact investors and Cambrian shareholders: Rafael del Pino Calvo-Sotelo, the billionaire chairman of Madrid-based construction company Ferrovial SA, and Gary Bergstrom, a pioneer in the field of international investing. In January del Pino’s investment firm and Bergstrom’s family office sued to gain access to Cambrian’s books., The investors claimed Emerson had a conflict of interest. It was both Cambrian’s largest shareholder and majority owner of the acquisition target, Baswood. In a filing in Delaware Chancery Court, they said that Emerson used its influence “to pursue a transaction that bailed out its failing Baswood investment at the expense of other Cambrian stockholders.”, has described the deal as beneficial to all involved because it “injected much-needed cash into the company,” and it says the acquisition has “already exceeded our expectations.” In March, Cambrian agreed to turn over many of the records related to the deal, and the suit over access was voluntarily dismissed a couple of weeks later. Last week, attorneys for Cambrian, Emerson and Del Pino and Bergstrom’s investment firms said in a joint statement that they “have resolved all differences between them in an amicable and mutually satisfactory way.”, The tension around the deal may reflect the challenges of investing in a new industry where the rewards are uncertain and long-term. In the early 2000s venture capitalists bet heavily on wastewater-treatment companies such as Cambrian and Baswood. By 2013 most had lost interest, says Holly Stower, an analyst with , , a research and consulting company. Outfitting a plant with cleaning technology can be expensive, and it’s hard to standardize. As a result the remaining investors tend to be governments, big corporations, and impact investors. “It’s a really long, slow payoff,” Stower says., In 2006, two engineers who trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology founded Cambrian, which is based in the Boston suburb of Watertown, Mass. In addition to Domain Chandon, the company’s , has appealed to craft brewers such as Lagunitas, Tree House, and Bear Republic. Making wine and beer generates lots of wastewater, and Cambrian’s tech can reduce both expenses and environmental impact., In November 2019, Cambrian’s board gathered to vote on a deal to buy Baswood and put more capital into the combined company from Emerson and other stockholders. Del Pino and Bergstrom were skeptical. They questioned revenue projections for Baswood and the way the purchase price was calculated, according to the court documents filed by del Pino’s investment firm and Bergstrom’s family office. (The heavily redacted filing doesn’t disclose what Cambrian paid, but a person familiar with the company’s finances says it was more than $10 million.), The two investors said that Cambrian “inexplicably and recklessly” added a premium to the deal because of Baswood’s association with “Hollywood personalities” whose name recognition could be inherited in a merger. Cambrian responded that the transaction was fair and based on the analysis of two independent consultants; their reviews included several valuation methods, including one that would have assigned the company a higher price than was ultimately paid because of its “marketing connections/Board.”, The court filing by del Pino and Bergstrom also paints a picture of Emerson pushing hard for the deal. A day before the board meeting, the pair met at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston with Peter Gross, a senior Emerson adviser and its board appointee. Gross made an ultimatum, the filing says: Approve the deal or Emerson “would ‘withdraw its support’ of the company going forward.” In its legal response, Cambrian says Emerson never had an obligation to provide it with more capital. Cambrian also claimed that del Pino and Bergstrom had an ulterior motive for bringing their complaint: pressuring the company to buy out their interests., The board approved the acquisition with del Pino opposed. Still, del Pino voted for a board resolution that recognized “an untainted vote was held,” according to Cambrian. Gross recused himself from the vote because of Emerson’s position on both sides of the deal. (Bergstrom isn’t on the board.) Rob Day, a partner at investor Spring Lane Capital, says he was pleased with the deal. “Adding the Baswood product line to Cambrian’s provided a fuller offering to customers,” he says., After the merger, “the company was in a stronger financial position that it had previously been,” a Cambrian spokesman says. The company says revenue projections are even better than expected and, since the acquisition, it has broadened its ambitions: doubling the number of plants where it operates, expanding into new markets, and bringing on new customers, employees, and intellectual property. Cambrian says something else validates the price of the Baswood deal. It also suggests the continuing appeal of a business the helps the planet: The company has signed up new investors.,  , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: John Hechinger. Date Created: 04 May 2021, 4:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Blocky Digital Empire Roblox Queen MeganPlays million [/INST] Businessweek news. Title: Roblox Queen MeganPlays Is Making Millions With a Blocky Digital Empire. Short_description: Roblox Queen MeganPlays Is Making Millions With a Blocky Digital Empire. Description: In 2018, Megan Letter (then known by her maiden name, Leeds) was making about $400 a month posting videos of herself playing the life simulation game , on YouTube. It wasn’t enough to support herself, and she was thinking of getting an internship as a wedding florist. Then she switched her focus to Roblox, the platform for user-created games that’s recently become a sensation with the preteen set. “I immediately saw a turnaround,” says Letter, who began earning thousands of dollars monthly within a few months. “I could actually pay bills.”, Letter is known by her online moniker, MeganPlays, the pink-purple-haired bubbly personality she takes on while playing role-playing games inside Roblox. She now earns millions of dollars annually from posting YouTube , for her 3.6 million subscribers. Last year, Letter and her husband, Zach, began publishing their own Roblox games, including the well-received , , and they say their studio is on pace to pull in more than $8 million in 2021. They also run an online store, Stay Peachy, which grossed more than a million dollars in 2020., With children confined to their homes because of the Covid-19 pandemic, study groups and birthday and graduation parties , . The platform, whose daily active users jumped 85% last year, is now played by two-thirds of U.S. children age 9 to 12, making it a gold mine for influencers and developers—and Roblox Corp. itself. The San Mateo, Calif.-based company , , and its current market cap of approximately $41 billion is about the same as that of gaming giant Electronic Arts Inc., There are millions of active developers and creators on the platform. More than 1,250 earned $10,000 or more last year, and over 300 made $100,000 or more in Robux, the site’s currency, which can be converted into cash subject to certain conditions, according to the company. , Letter is rare in that she’s an influencer, a gamer, and a developer, allowing her to cross-promote her products. “MeganPlays’s success is rooted in the fact that she spent time learning the ropes of effective content creation, such as tailoring the look and feel of her channel to a younger audience,” says Doron Nir, chief executive officer of StreamElements, which caters to video-content creators. “She diversified her focus to include game designing, and then combined these skills to launch a title that was well-received by both her own and the greater Roblox community.”, The 26-year-old Letter, a native of Arlington, Texas, who now lives in Dallas, says she’s been playing games since she was 2 years old. She started with a Sesame Street game and progressed to Barbie games, then to Nintendo. She started making videos while studying fine arts at the University of Texas at Arlington, then began focusing on YouTube after graduation, playing Roblox games such as , , in which gamers can adopt pets. Letter’s on-screen personality comes from her experience in a sorority, she says, and many of her videos are structured to feel like conversations with girlfriends. Her audience, about 70% of which is based in the U.S., is made up mostly of preteen and early-teen girls., Letter’s husband runs , while she produces games and helps come up with concepts. The studio released , , its first title, last year. The game lets users collect pets, decorate their dream homes, earn gems, and explore the world of , with friends. It’s had 160 million visits since it was created, according to Roblox. , Wonder Works has published one other game, , , which brings in about 14 million visits monthly. The studio is trying to raise $10 million in funds from venture capitalists, at a valuation of $40 million. “We kind of just create games that we would want to play, and then it just attracts the demographic,” Letter says. She thinks role-playing games give her a way to explore difficult topics with her viewers, but she’s also experimented widely, making videos consisting of everything from makeup tutorials to tours of expensive houses. “There’s nothing that I’ve done that anybody else can’t do,” she says. “It’s just about learning—learning the code, learning how the game works, and creating. All you have to do is start.”,  , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Jennifer Zabasajja &. Date Created: 27 Apr 2021, 7:41 PM IST </s>