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Tag: Business

  • Saudi Arabia may have uranium enrichment under proposed deal with US, arms control experts warn

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    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia could have some form of uranium enrichment within the kingdom under a proposed nuclear deal with the United States, congressional documents and an arms control group suggest, raising proliferation concerns as an atomic standoff between Iran and America continues.

    U.S. Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden both tried to reach a nuclear deal with the kingdom to share American technology. Nonproliferation experts warn any spinning centrifuges within Saudi Arabia could open the door to a possible weapons program for the kingdom, something its assertive crown prince has suggested he could pursue if Tehran obtains an atomic bomb.

    Already, Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan signed a mutual defense pact last year after Israel launched an attack on Qatar targeting Hamas officials. Pakistan’s defense minister then said his nation’s nuclear program “will be made available” to Saudi Arabia if needed, something seen as a warning for Israel, long believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed state.

    “Nuclear cooperation can be a positive mechanism for upholding nonproliferation norms and increasing transparency, but the devil is in the details,” wrote Kelsey Davenport, the director for nonproliferation policy at the Washington-based Arms Control Association.

    The documents raise “concerns that the Trump administration has not carefully considered the proliferation risks posed by its proposed nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia or the precedent this agreement may set.”

    Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to questions Friday from The Associated Press

    The congressional document, also seen by the AP, shows the Trump administration aims to reach 20 nuclear business deals with nations around the world, including Saudi Arabia. The deal with Saudi Arabia could be worth billions of dollars, it adds.

    The document contends that reaching a deal with the kingdom “will advance the national security interests of the United States, breaking with the failed policies of inaction and indecision that our competitors have capitalized on to disadvantage American industry and diminish the United States standing globally in this critical sector.” China, France, Russia and South Korea are among the leading nations that sell nuclear power plant technology abroad.

    The draft deal would see America and Saudi Arabia enter safeguard deals with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog. That would include oversight of the “most proliferation-sensitive areas of potential nuclear cooperation,” it added. It listed enrichment, fuel fabrication and reprocessing as potential areas.

    The IAEA, based in Vienna, did not immediately respond to questions. Saudi Arabia is a member state to the IAEA, which promotes peaceful nuclear work but also inspects nations to ensure they don’t have clandestine atomic weapons programs.

    “This suggests that once the bilateral safeguards agreement is in place, it will open the door for Saudi Arabia to acquire uranium enrichment technology or capabilities — possibly even from the United States,” Davenport wrote. “Even with restrictions and limits, it seems likely that Saudi Arabia will have a path to some type of uranium enrichment or access to knowledge about enrichment.”

    Enrichment isn’t an automatic path to a nuclear weapon — a nation also must master other steps including the use of synchronized high explosives, for instance. But it does open the door to weaponization, which has fueled the concerns of the West over Iran’s program.

    The United Arab Emirates, a neighbor to Saudi Arabia, signed what is referred to as a “123 agreement” with the U.S. to build its Barakah nuclear power plant with South Korean assistance. But the UAE did so without seeking enrichment, something nonproliferation experts have held up as the “gold standard” for nations wanting atomic power.

    The push for a Saudi-U.S. deal comes as Trump threatens military action against Iran if it doesn’t reach a deal over its nuclear program. The Trump military push follows nationwide protests in Iran that saw its theocratic government launch a bloody crackdown on dissent that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands more reportedly detained.

    In Iran’s case, it long has insisted its nuclear enrichment program is peaceful. However, the West and the IAEA say Iran had an organized military nuclear program up until 2003. Tehran also had been enriching uranium up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90% — making it the only country in the world to do so without a weapons program.

    Iranian diplomats long have pointed to 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s comments as a binding fatwa, or religious edict, that Iran won’t build an atomic bomb. However, Iranian officials increasingly have made the threat they could seek the bomb as tensions have risen with the U.S.

    Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s day-to-day ruler, has said if Iran obtains the bomb, “we will have to get one.”

    ___

    The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Social media companies face legal reckoning over mental health harms to children

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    For years, social media companies have disputed allegations that they harm children’s mental health through deliberate design choices that addict kids to their platforms and fail to protect them from sexual predators and dangerous content. Now, these tech giants are getting a chance to make their case in courtrooms around the country, including before a jury for the first time.

    Some of the biggest players from Meta to TikTok are facing federal and state trials that seek to hold them responsible for harming children’s mental health. The lawsuits have come from school districts, local, state and the federal government as well as thousands of families.

    Two trials are now underway in Los Angeles and in New Mexico, with more to come. The courtroom showdowns are the culmination of years of scrutiny of the platforms over child safety, and whether deliberate design choices make them addictive and serve up content that leads to depression, eating disorders or suicide.

    Experts see the reckoning as reminiscent of cases against tobacco and opioid markets, and the plaintiffs hope that social media platforms will see similar outcomes as cigarette makers and drug companies, pharmacies and distributors.

    The outcomes could challenge the companies’ First Amendment shield and Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which protects tech companies from liability for material posted on their platforms. They could also be costly in the form of legal fees and settlements. And they could force the companies to change how they operate, potentially losing users and advertising dollars.

    Here’s a look at the major social media harms cases in the United States.

    Jurors in a landmark social media case that seeks to hold tech companies responsible for harms to children got their first glimpse into what will be a lengthy trial characterized by dueling narratives from the plaintiffs and the two remaining defendants, Meta and YouTube.

    At the core of the Los Angeles case is a 20-year-old identified only by the initials “KGM,” whose case could determine how thousands of similar lawsuits will play out. KGM and the cases of two other plaintiffs have been selected to be bellwether trials — essentially test cases for both sides to see how their arguments play out before a jury.

    “This is a monumental inflection point in social media,” said Matthew Bergman of the Seattle-based Social Media Victims Law Center, which represents more than 1,000 plaintiffs in lawsuits against social media companies. “When we started doing this four years ago no one said we’d ever get to trial. And here we are trying our case in front of a fair and impartial jury.”

    On Wednesday Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified, mostly sticking to past talking points, including a lengthy back-and-forth about age verification where he said ““I don’t see why this is so complicated,” reiterating that the company’s policy restricts users under the age of 13 and that it works to detect users who have lied about their ages to bypass restrictions..

    At one point, the plaintiff’s attorney, Mark Lanier, asked Zuckerberg if people tend to use something more if it’s addictive.

    “I’m not sure what to say to that,” Zuckerberg said. “I don’t think that applies here.”

    A team led by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who sued Meta in 2023, built their case by posing as children on social media, then documenting sexual solicitations they received as well as Meta’s response.

    Torrez wants Meta to implement more effective age verification and do more to remove bad actors from its platform.

    He also is seeking changes to algorithms that can serve up harmful material, and has criticized the end-to-end encryption that can prevent the monitoring of communications with children for safety. Meta has noted that encrypted messaging is encouraged in general as a privacy and security measure by some state and federal authorities.

    The trial kicked off in early February. In his opening statement, prosecuting attorney Donald Migliori said Meta has misrepresented the safety of its platforms, choosing to engineer its algorithms to keep young people online while knowing that children are at risk of sexual exploitation.

    “Meta clearly knew that youth safety was not its corporate priority … that youth safety was less important than growth and engagement,” Migliori told the jury.

    Meta attorney Kevin Huff pushed back on those assertions in his opening statement, highlighting an array of efforts by the company to weed out harmful content from its platforms while warning users that some dangerous content still gets past its safety net.

    A trial scheduled for this summer pits school districts against social media companies before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California. Called a multidistrict litigation, it names six public school districts from around the country as the bellwethers.

    Jayne Conroy, a lawyer on plaintiffs’ trial team, was also an attorney for plaintiffs seeking to hold pharmaceutical companies responsible for the opioid epidemic. She said the cornerstone of both cases is the same: addiction.

    “With the social media case, we’re focused primarily on children and their developing brains and how addiction is such a threat to their wellbeing and … the harms that are caused to children — how much they’re watching and what kind of targeting is being done,” she said.

    The medical science, she added, “is not really all that different, surprisingly, from an opioid or a heroin addiction. We are all talking about the dopamine reaction.”

    Both the social media and the opioid cases claim negligence on the part of the defendants.

    “What we were able to prove in the opioid cases is the manufacturers, the distributors, the pharmacies, they knew about the risks, they downplayed them, they oversupplied, and people died,” Conroy said. “Here, it is very much the same thing. These companies knew about the risks, they have disregarded the risks, they doubled down to get profits from advertisers over the safety of kids. And kids were harmed and kids died.”

    Social media companies have disputed that their products are addictive. During questioning Wednesday by the plaintiff’s lawyer during the Los Angeles trial, Zuckerberg said he still agrees with a previous statement he made that the existing body of scientific work has not proven that social media causes mental health harms.

    Some researchers do indeed question whether addiction is the appropriate term to describe heavy use of social media. Social media addiction is not recognized as an official disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the authority within the psychiatric community.

    But the companies face increasing pushback on the issue of social media’s effects on children’s mental health, not only among academics but also parents, schools and lawmakers.

    “While Meta has doubled down in this area to address mounting concerns by rolling out safety features, several recent reports suggest that the company continues to aggressively prioritize teens as a user base and doesn’t always adhere to its own rules,” said Emarketer analyst Minda Smiley.

    With appeals and any settlement discussions, the cases against social media companies could take years to resolve. And unlike in Europe and Australia, tech regulation in the U.S. is moving at a glacial pace.

    “Parents, education, and other stakeholders are increasingly hoping lawmakers will do more,” Smiley said. “While there is momentum at the state and federal level, Big Tech lobbying, enforcement challenges, and lawmaker disagreements over how to best regular social media have slowed meaningful progress.”

    —

    AP Technology Writer Kaitlyn Huamani contributed to this story.

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  • Filing taxes? ‘No tax on tips’ provision could affect thousands locally

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    PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — This year when filing taxes, those who receive tips could get more money back in their pocket.

    A study from Yale University says about 2.5% of workers are tipped, but in a vacation destination like Pinellas County, the proportion of workers who make the bulk of their income off tips is likely higher.

    Bay area tax professional Michael Price with Ralph, Price, McAuliffe & Associates, P.A, said he expects those tipped employees who work more than a shift or two a week could see some significant tax savings this year.

    What You Need To Know

    • ‘No tax on tips’ is  an above the line deduction up to $25,000

    • Hospitality, food service likely qualify

    • Applies through tax year 2028

    • Tips must be voluntarily given, properly reported


    “When you start talking about an extra $7,000 – $8,000 potentially of tax savings for people by not having tax on tips, I think it could add up quite significantly if you’re under the appropriate income thresholds,” he said.

    The ‘no tax on tips’ provision that is part of the One Big Beautiful Bill act is a tax deduction, not an exemption. It’s an above the line deduction of up to $25,000 for tips that were properly reported and given voluntarily.

    Price said all the information a tipped worker needs will be on their tax documents.

    “It’s going to be separately reported on their W-2,” he said. “So when they get their W-2 ,they’ll see the extra boxes where they’ll have a code for their qualified tips that they can put into whatever they use to do their tax preparation.”

    Jobs that qualify are those that customarily receive tips, like in the hospitality industry. Jobs like tutoring or fishing charters that received Venmo payments as a ‘thank you’ would not qualify.

    The deduction also doesn’t apply to automatic service charges, or mandatory gratuity.

    The ‘no tax on tips’ provision won’t benefit all tipped workers. Some part-time servers would earn too little to owe federal income tax on their earnings in the first place.

    Staff members at The Frog Pond in downtown St. Pete said they’re filing their taxes and hope they benefit. Owner Raymond Bourque says he hope his staff can get more money back this year given this new provision, and knows his customers prefer their tips going straight to their server.

    “If somebody leaves a $10 tip on a $20-$25 dollar ticket… they want to know that $10 will stay with them and not $7 in their pocket and $3 to the federal government,” Borque said.

    These tax provisions will remain through the 2028 tax season.

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    Angie Angers

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  • N.C. toy store owner says impact of Supreme Court tariff decision is unclear

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    CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday that many of President Donald Trump’s tariffs are illegal.

    A toy store owner in Charlotte says after the past year’s tariffs, “you kind of become numb to it.”

    “You have to run your business,” Dan Weiss, owner of Harper and Skyler’s Toys and Sweets, said. 

    What You Need To Know

    • The U.S. Supreme Court ruled many of President Donald Trump’s tariffs illegal

    • It’s unclear what the ruling means for local businesses that had to deal with the tariffs 

    • The owner of Harper and Skyler’s Toys and Sweets in Charlotte sells a variety of items other than toys in order to keep his business afloat 

    • Regardless of the ruling, owner Dan Weiss says he’s keeping a level head about the future 


    Weiss says it’s unclear what this ruling could mean for his business or the industry in general. Over the last year, he absorbed most of the extra costs due to tariffs.

    “Some prices I kept the same. I again, 20% of the stuff in the store might have went up in price, but for the most part, we ate a lot of it. We kept our pricing the same and we tried to not burden the customer,” he said.

    The justices ruled that the president does not have the authority to impose sweeping tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, but other Trump duties, including on goods such as aluminum and lumber through the Trade Expansion Act, were not part of the case considered by the Supreme Court and still remain.

    Trump responded to the Supreme Court ruling in a press conference Friday afternoon, saying, “Their decision’s incorrect, but it doesn’t matter because we have very powerful alternatives that have been approved by this decision. You know they’ve been approved by the decision, for those that thought they had us.”

    Weiss has dealt with surcharges from companies and discontinuation of some items because of tariffs, but in the short term, he said, “You’re not going to get money back. I’m not going to see money back.”

    “And if it happens, it’s going to be years down the road,” Weiss said. “Today and tomorrow mean nothing.”

    That’s why he’s focused on the day to day of his business.

    “I have to run my business the way I run it. I have to order the way I order. I have to get products. The way I get products, whether they’re 10% more, 20% more, or I’m getting a check back next week, it doesn’t affect what I do day to day,” he said. 

    Follow us on Instagram at spectrumnews1nc for news and other happenings across North Carolina.

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    Melody Greene

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  • India joins US-led initiative to build secure technology supply chains

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    NEW DELHI — India joined a U.S.-led initiative to strengthen technology cooperation among strategic allies in a move Friday that underscores the nations’ warming ties after a brief strain over New Delhi’s unabated purchase of discounted Russian oil.

    The decision aligns India closely with Washington’s efforts to build secure supply chains for semiconductors, advanced manufacturing and critical technologies at a time geopolitical competition with China is intensifying. It also signals a reset in relations following friction over energy trade and tariffs.

    Nations that have joined the Pax Silica framework include Japan, South Korea, the U.K. and Israel.

    “Pax Silica will be a group of nations that believe technology should empower free people and free markets. India’s entry into Pax Silica isn’t just symbolic. Its strategic, its essential,” U.S. Ambassador Sergio Gor said in a speech preceding the agreement signing.

    Pax Silica is aimed at strengthening cooperation among partner countries on semiconductor design, fabrication, research and supply chain resilience. The initiative seeks to reduce dependence on China-dominated manufacturing hubs while promoting trusted production networks across democracies and strategic allies.

    The development at the artificial intelligence summit in New Delhi comes weeks after India and the U.S. reached an interim trade framework to reduce tariffs and grant greater access to each other’s markets, easing tensions that had threatened to slow bilateral momentum.

    President Donald Trump announced earlier this month that the U.S. would lower reciprocal import tariffs on India from 25% to 18% and also remove the additional 25% levy imposed earlier for buying Russian crude after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to stop it.

    India had ramped up Russian oil imports after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, drawing criticism from western partners even as New Delhi defended the purchases as necessary to manage inflation and protect its consumers.

    India’s entry into Pax Silica, combined with trade concessions, marks a strategic convergence that extends beyond commerce into long-term technology and security cooperation, reinforcing India’s role as a key U.S. partner in the Indo-Pacific.

    “From the trade deal to Pax Silica to defense cooperation, the potential for our two nations to work together is truly limitless,” Gor said.

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  • Council hears recommendations from advanced air mobility task force

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    ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — They’re being called a potentially transformative change to transportation in Tampa Bay.

    While it’s uncertain when advanced air mobility aircraft (AAM) will start carrying passengers in the region, St. Petersburg is one of the municipalities getting ready for them. 

    “You want to be ready for the latest technology. You want to be prepared. You don’t want to be reactive when something kind of comes on the horizon,” said Ed Montanari, chair of St. Petersburg’s Advanced Air Mobility Task Force.

    During an interview at Albert Whitted Airport, Montanari pointed out a model of the first commercial airliner. A sign on the display says it took off from downtown more than 110 years ago.

    “A lot of people don’t know this, but the airline business started right here in St. Petersburg in 1914, and this is the newest airborne transportation system that’s coming along,” said Montanari.

    A report from the task force describes AAM as “an emerging sector of the aviation industry that enables the quick and efficient transport of passengers or cargo over short distances.”

    While the report says this encompasses different kinds of aircraft, the most common kind being developed is the electric vertical take off and landing aircraft, or eVTOL.

    Montanari said they haven’t been approved by the FAA yet, but that could happen later this year or early next. Thursday, he told city council what can be done to prepare.

    “I think it’s going to be transformative to transportation throughout the region, and the state, and around the world,” he told Spectrum News.

    Improvements to Albert Whitted Airport were among the recommendations. They included creating AAM parking spots and installing electrical charging stations and fire safety systems in the next three years. It says one or more vertiports — or takeoff and landing sites — should be built in the next decade.

    “I see the first place these aircraft are going to operate out of would be right here at the airport,” said Montanari. 

    He also said there’s a potential for standalone vertiports in different areas of the city, like downtown. He compared those sites to helipads on the tops of tall buildings in New York City. Montanari said AAMs would first operate out of the airport.

    Council Member Brandi Gabbard said a critical part of getting the introduction of AAMs right will be cooperation beyond St. Pete.

    “I think we can look at our transit today and note that if there had been regional collaboration decades ago, we would be in a much different place,” Gabbard said during the meeting.

    The task force’s report does recommend working with regional planners to develop flight corridors to link Whitted with Tampa International Airport and other facilities. 

    “We also want to capture the jobs that might come with these new vehicles, the education, the training, and then the manufacturing,” said Montanari. “We’re going for it all right here. We really wanted to plant the flag of — this is the home of commercial aviation, we want to keep it the home of commercial aviation.” 

    Montanari said next, a study is needed to determine where at Whitted the infrastructure and landing spots should be.

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    Sarah Blazonis

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  • DTC landlord defaults on loan amid ‘beyond bad’ local office market

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    A small office complex in the Denver Tech Center has been placed into receivership following a loan default, and its owner expects the lender to take the building.

    “The Colorado office market is a joke. It is beyond bad,” said Pat Melton, director of leasing for the Canadian firm Melcor.

    In 2016, Melcor paid $16.85 million for The Offices at the Promenade, a 132,000-square-foot complex at 7935 and 7995 E. Prentice Ave. in Greenwood Village.

    Two years later, records show, the company took out a $10.6 million loan on the property from Genworth Life Insurance Co. that it needed to pay off by the end of June 2025. But the company did not do that and still couldn’t pay when Genworth gave it three extra months.

    That’s according to GLIC Real Estate Holding, a subsidiary of Genworth that was assigned the loan last month.

    GLIC says Melcor owed $9 million on the loan as of Jan. 28, with interest continuing to accrue at the default rate of 9.9% annually.

    In a Feb. 5 lawsuit, GLIC asked the court to appoint Trigild IVL LLC as receiver to oversee the property. Arapahoe County District Judge Joseph Riley Whitfield signed off on the request Feb. 9.

    Melton, the Melcor executive, said the Denver-area office market is way worse than in Phoenix, Arizona, the other U.S. market where Melcor owns office space.

    “Things are healthy in Phoenix,” he said.

    In Colorado, leasing demand has “gone way down,” Melton said.

    “So much vacancy, and costs are so high,” Melton said of the market. “And so many brokers with their hands out for money.”

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    Thomas Gounley

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  • Research Reports & Trade Ideas – Yahoo Finance

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    Analyst Report: New York Times Co.

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  • Met Opera’s 2026-27 season has 17 productions, its fewest in at least 60 years

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    NEW YORK — Despite encouraging box office figures for the season’s first half, the financially strapped Metropolitan Opera scaled back its 2026-27 schedule with its fewest productions in at least 60 years.

    The Met announced Thursday it will present 17 productions, its lowest total in a non-truncated season since the company moved to Lincoln Center in 1966. There are just five new stagings, and revivals of three popular operas account for 71 of the 187 individual opera performances (38%): Puccini’s “Tosca” and “La Bohème,” and Verdi’s “Aida.”

    “It makes more sense for us, and this is an experiment — to present these works in extended runs,” Met general manager Peter Gelb said. “And by double-casting them, it also is more economic in terms of how many different shows are playing in one week.”

    Ticket sales of 72% this season are up from 70% in the first half of 2024-25.

    “Basically, it’s back to pre-pandemic levels,” Gelb said. “We’re not grossing as much money because the average price per ticket is slightly less than it was, because we have a younger audience and more discounted tickets.”

    Mason Bates’ “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,” which opened the current season in its world premiere, sold 84% of tickets in a success rate that prompted the Met to schedule an extra four performances this month.

    “One of my goals at the Met is to stimulate new audiences with new works,” Gelb said. “This one was one of the most successful we’ve presented so far.”

    “Kavalier” was followed by an English-language holiday time staging of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” (83%), Bellini’s “I Puritani” (82%), Puccini’s “Turandot” (77%), Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” (74%), “The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess” (73%), and Donizetti’s “La Fille du Régiment,” Bizet’s “Carmen,” Bellini’s “La Sonnambula” and “Bohème” (68% each).

    Lagging were Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” and Strauss’ “Arabella” (64% each) and Giordano’s “Andrea Chenier” (57%).

    Next season opens on Sept. 22 with a new production of Verdi’s “Macbeth” starring soprano Lise Davidsen and directed by Louisa Proske.

    Composer Missy Mazzoli’s “Lincoln in the Bardo,” based on George Saunders’ novel, has its world premiere on Oct. 19 and stars Christine Goerke, Stephanie Blythe, Anthony Roth Costanzo and Peter Mattei in a staging directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz.

    There are three new-to-the Met productions: Janáček’s “Jenůfa” starring Asmik Grigorian in a Claus Guth staging that debuted at London’s Royal Opera in 2021 (Nov. 16); Puccini’s “La Fanciulla del West” with Sondra Radvanovsky and SeokJong Baek in a Richard Jones staging that premiered at the English National Opera in 2014 (Dec. 31); and the company premiere of Kevin Puts’ “Silent Night” featuring Elza van den Heever and Rolando Villazon in a James Robinson staging first seen at the Houston Grand Opera last month (March 8, 2027).

    A gala with more than two dozen stars is scheduled for May 25, 2027, to mark the company’s 60th season at Lincoln Center.

    “We’re in a kind of golden age of opera singing,” Gelb said. “The only difference between today and 30 or 40 years ago is that 30 or 40 years ago opera was much more in the cultural mainstream.”

    “Lincoln” was not included among the eight simulcasts to move theaters due to a post-pandemic drop in audience.

    “A title that is unknown, even with whatever maximum efforts of marketing and publicity that are done, will underperform to a degree where it is not really financially viable for the movie theaters or for us,” Gelb said.

    A Simon McBurney staging of Mussorgsky’s “Khovanshchina” was postponed as part of budget tightening that included 22 layoffs and 4-15% temporary salary cuts.

    “Unfortunately, I have to wear two hats,” Gelb said. “I have to wear my artistic hat, and I have to wear my financial hat.”

    Next season will be Gelb’s 20th as general manager, and he says he intends to retire when his current contract expires in 2030.

    “That certainly is our current plan,” Gelb said.

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  • Southern California homebuying remains below Great Recession’s crash

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    How sluggish has Southern California homebuying been over the past three years?

    Well, house hunters across the six counties bought 500,159 homes from 2023 through 2025, according to Attom.

    And in the previous TWO years? 502,140 sold. Yes, roughly equal.

    Call it what you want – chill, collapse, correction or crash – but house hunters are balking at high housing costs to an almost unfathomable degree. Ponder what Attom’s sales data, which goes back to 2005, tells my trusty spreadsheet.

    In Southern California last year, there were 168,719 completed sales of houses and condos, both existing and newly constructed. That’s the second slowest year in this 21-year record, not much higher than the historic low of 162,513 set in 2023.

    Contemplate that 2025 was the third-straight year in which Southern California homebuying was slower than the 198,863 sales in 2007, when that era’s housing bubble was crashing into the Great Recession.

    Or look at the mess this way: While last year’s sales were roughly flat compared with 2024, they were 29% below the average pace dating to 2005.

    The “why” is simple. Local homes are ridiculously unaffordable – especially when rents seem much cheaper with many landlords offering discounts.

    And you can add to that rising economic uncertainty and a weak job market with stingy raises. Then there’s California consumer confidence, which is at a five-year low.

    Very few things scream to a house hunter, “buy now!”

    Prices must fall

    The lack of buyers should have sunk home prices.

    Instead, many potential sellers who don’t want to offer discounts are choosing to stay put. So sales, not prices, collapsed.

    Look at the median sales price across the six counties. For December, it was $800,000 – unchanged from a year earlier and only 4% below the record $831,000 set in June 2025.

    It’s a similar story across the counties, comparing December pricing to the all-time highs set over the past two years – ranked by the drop.

    —Ventura’s $838,250 median was just 6% below its June 2025 peak.

    —Los Angeles, at $875,000, is 5% below June 2025’s high.

    —Orange at $1.15 million is 5% off June 2025’s pinnacle.

    —San Diego’s $865,500 is down 5% from June 2024’s record.

    —San Bernardino at $528,125 is 4% below October 2024’s peak.

    —Riverside at $592,000 is 3% off April 2025’s top.

    Curiously, what’s essentially flat local pricing came as homebuyers had far more choices in 2025. That may have created what some gurus call a “buyer’s market” for Southern California.

    Consider that existing home listings across six counties jumped 34% from 2024, according to Realtor.com.

    Industry insiders note, however, that this supply measure remains 14% below the pre-pandemic 2019 level. That dip may be providing some support for current pricing.

    The gap in homes for sale between 2025 and 2019 isn’t uniform across counties.

    It ranges from a supply down 1% in six years in Los Angeles to off 8% in Riverside, to 15% below in San Bernardino, to 20% below in San Diego and Ventura, to 40% below in Orange.

    And don’t underestimate how investors prop up prices. This group — from individuals with a few properties to institutions with thousands — owns roughly one in six local houses.

    Noteworthy dip

    Even falling mortgage rates failed to create much of a buying mood in 2025.

    The average 30-year home loan averaged 6.2% in the three months ending in December, according to Freddie Mac. That’s the lowest rate since October 2022.

    One culprit in this homebuying drama is the Federal Reserve’s zigzagging policies – cutting rates to record lows in 2020-21, and then reversing course with hikes in 2022-24, and back to cuts in late 2025.

    Last year’s Fed actions helped create a noteworthy dip in the number that really matters to house hunters – the monthly payment.

    A typical Southern California buyer in December would have a monthly payment of $3,931 – assuming current rates and a 20% down payment. That’s down 4% in a year and 9% below the $4,330 peak of June 2025.

    By the way, that monthly cost doesn’t include property taxes, home insurance, association fees or maintenance expenses.

    Think about a simple affordability yardstick. This house payment metric is up 96% over six years, while Southern California wages, by one measure, rose only 32% in the same period.

    Plus, don’t forget another monetary hurdle: a down payment of $160,000 as part of December’s estimated median price. Who’s got that kind of cash – or a rich, loving relative?

    Among the six counties, San Diego buyers have experienced the largest decline in estimated house payments compared with recent peaks. Its $4,253 payment is 13% below the record high.

    Ventura’s $4,119 payment is 12% off its high. Orange County’s $5,651 payment is down 11%. Riverside’s $2,909 payment is off 10%. Los Angeles’s $4,299 payment is down 10%. And San Bernardino’s $2,595 payment is off 8%.

    Or consider the California Association of Realtors’ affordability index. It says an average 17% of state households could qualify to buy a house last year, up a smidge from 2024’s 16% – but far below the 29% average since 2005.

    Not just here

    The reluctance to buy a home is not some local quirk.

    California’s 323,585 sales in 2025 were the state’s second-lowest since 2005. That was down 0.2% from the prior year and 27% below average.

    Again, it’s about lofty pricing. The statewide $710,000 median price for December was down 2% from 2024 and was only 5% below the $751,000 peak in June 2025.

    Nationwide homebuying fared slightly better, with 4.12 million sales, up 0.2% year over year and only 6% below average.

    Curiously, Americans will still pay up. December’s $372,000 U.S. median was a record high, following a 5% increase in 2025.

    Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com

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    Jonathan Lansner

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  • U.S. trade deficit slipped to $901 billion last year amid Trump tariffs

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    WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit slipped modestly in 2025, a year in which President Donald Trump upended global commerce by slapping double digit tariffs on imports from most countries.

    The gap the between the goods and services the U.S. sells other countries and what it buys from them narrowed to just over $901 billion from $904 billion in 2024, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

    Exports rose 6% last year, and imports rose nearly 5%.

    Still, the U.S. deficit in the trade of goods such as machinery and aircraft — the main focus of Trump’s protectionist policies — widened 2% to $1.24 trillion last year, partly because American companies raised computer chip and other tech imports from Taiwan to support their investment in artificial intelligence.

    Amid continuing tensions with Bejing, the deficit in the goods trade with China plunged nearly 32% to $202 billion in 2025 on a sharp drop in both exports to and imports from the world’s second-biggest economy. But trade was diverted away from China. The goods gap with Taiwan doubled to $147 billion and shot up 44% to $178 billion with Vietnam.

    Economist Chad Bown, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said the widening gaps with Taiwan and Vietnam might put a “bulls eye” on them this year if Trump focuses more on the lopsided trade numbers and less on the U.S. rivalry with China.

    In 2025, U.S. goods imports to Mexico outpaced exports by nearly $197 billion, up from a 2024 gap of $172 billion. But the goods deficit with Canada shrank by 26% to $46 billion. The United States this year is negotiating a renewal of a pact Trump reached with those two countries in his first term.

    The U.S. ran a bigger surplus in the trade of services such as banking and tourism last year — $339 billion, up from $312 billion in 2024.

    The trade gap surged from January-March as U.S. companies tried to import foreign goods ahead of Trump’s taxes, then narrowed most of the rest of the year.

    Trump’s tariffs are a tax paid by U.S. importers and often passed along to their customers as higher prices. But they haven’t had as much impact on inflation as economists originally expected. Trump argues that the tariffs will protect U.S. industries, bringing manufacturing back to America and raise money for the U.S. Treasury.

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  • Report: Florida Cabinet to discuss gift of 22 acres to Hillsborough College

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    TAMPA, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet are considering giving Hillsborough College 22 acres of land.

    The move would give the college the land needed for a proposed Tampa Bay Rays baseball stadium.

    What You Need To Know

    • Florida Cabinet may consider giving 22 acres of land to Hillsborough College to go toward a Rays stadium 

    • The possible land gift is listed as an agenda item for a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 24

    • The team is envisioning a mixed-use entertainment district that would include a domed stadium that can seat about 31,000 people  
    • The Tampa Bay Rays released initial renderings on Thursday morning of the proposed ballpark at Hillsborough College’s Dale Mabry campus 
    • PREVIOUS STORIES on Rays stadium pursuit

    According to Spectrum Bay News 9 partner newspaper, the Tampa Bay Times, the possible land gift is listed as an agenda item for a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 24.

    DeSantis, along with Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, has come out in support of the project.

    The team is envisioning a mixed-used entertainment district that would include a domed stadium that can seat about 31,000 people. According to a team release, the entire development would stretch about 130 acres across the campus.

    The college campus is located on North Dale Mabry Highway, across from Raymond James Stadium.

     

    Rays officials have said they want to be in the new ballpark for the 2029 season. The team’s lease with St. Petersburg at the newly renovated Tropicana Field expires after the 2028 season.

    According to a potential deal, the college would own the land and could negotiate its use with the Rays. Construction of the stadium could cost an estimated $2.3 billion.

    The team’s new owners, led by developer Patrick Zalupski, have said they would fund 50 percent of the stadium costs.

    City, county and state officials have yet to officially discuss any other funding sources, though property taxes on the nearby area, a half-cent county sales tax and a tourist tax have all been mentioned.  

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    Spectrum News Staff

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  • Asian Shares Advance, Tracking a Wall St Rally Led by Nvidia

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    Asian shares were higher Thursday after a rally on Wall Street that was led by computer chip giant Nvidia.

    U.S. futures edged lower and oil prices rose as media reports said the likelihood was rising of conflict with Iran.

    U.S. President Donald Trump has been weighing whether to take military action against Iran as his administration surges military resources to the region while holding indirect talks with Tehran over its nuclear program. That is raising concerns that any attack could spiral into a larger conflict in the Middle East.

    Markets in Greater China were closed for Lunar New Year holidays, while some others reopened for trading.

    In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 0.8% to 57,582.93, while in South Korea, the Kospi jumped 2.8% to 5,661.22 as markets reopened following holidays earlier in the week.

    Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.9% to 9,088.70.

    Southeast Asian markets surged, with Thailand’s SET up 0.9%. India’s Sensex edged 0.1% higher.

    During European trading Wednesday, London’s FTSE 100 climbed 1.2% after the latest update on U.K. inflation bolstered expectations that the Bank of England may soon cut interest rates.

    On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 0.6% to 6,881.31 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3%, to 49,662.66. The Nasdaq composite gained 0.8% to 22,753.63.

    Nvidia helped lift the market and climbed 1.6% after Meta Platforms announced a long-term partnership where it will use millions of chips and other equipment from Nvidia for its artificial-intelligence data centers.

    “No one deploys AI at Meta’s scale,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said. Because his company is the most valuable on Wall Street, Nvidia’s stock was the single most powerful force pulling the S&P 500 higher.

    Meta’s stock fell as much as 1.7% before recovering and rising 0.6%.

    Another worry is that if AI succeeds in creating tools to do complicated tasks more cheaply, companies in industries as far flung as software, legal services and trucking logistics could see their businesses get undercut. Investors have suddenly and aggressively sold stocks of companies seen as under threat in what analysts have likened to a “shoot first-ask questions later” mentality.

    Several profit reports from companies helped to lift stocks Wednesday. They continued what’s been a strong reporting season for the big U.S. companies in the S&P 500.

    In the bond market, Treasury yields ticked higher following reports on the U.S. economy that came in better than economists expected. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.08% from 4.05% late Tuesday.

    One report said industrial production improved last month by more than economists expected. Another said orders for computers, fabricated metal products and other long-lasting manufactured goods also rose more in December than economists had forecast, when not including airplanes and other transportation equipment. A third report said homebuilders broke ground on more new homes in December than anticipated.

    Such strong data could encourage the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates steady.

    The Fed has put its cuts to interest rates on hold, but many on Wall Street expect it to resume later this year. The widespread forecast is that will come during the summer, after a new chair is scheduled to step in atop the Fed.

    Lower rates can give a boost to the economy and prices for investments, but that comes at the cost of potentially worsening inflation.

    In other dealings early Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude oil gained 30 cents to $65.36 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, was up 27 cents at $70.62.

    Prices of gold and silver held steady.

    The price of bitcoin fell 1.3% to about $67,000.

    AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Feb. 2026

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  • Bernie Sanders and Gavin Newsom become adversaries over push to tax California billionaires

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    LOS ANGELES — As national Democrats search for a unifying theme ahead of the fall’s midterm elections, a California proposal to levy a hefty tax on billionaires is turning some of the party’s leading figures into adversaries just when Democrats can least afford division from within.

    Bernie Sanders will be in Los Angeles campaigning Wednesday for the tax proposal that has the Silicon Valley in an uproar, with tech titans are threatening to leave the state. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is among its outspoken opponents, warning that it could leave government finances in crisis and put the state at a competitive disadvantage nationally.

    Sanders is planning a late afternoon rally near downtown, and in the past he has turned out overflow crowds in the heavily Democratic city. The Vermont senator, a democratic socialist, is popular in California — he won the 2020 Democratic presidential primary in the state in a runaway. He’s been railing for decades against what he characterizes as wealthy elites and the growing gap between rich and poor.

    A large health care union is attempting to place a proposal before voters in November that would impose a one-time 5% tax on the assets of billionaires — including stocks, art, businesses, collectibles and intellectual property — to backfill federal funding cuts to health services for lower-income people that were signed by President Donald Trump last year.

    Sanders wrote on the social platform X that he strongly supports the tax “at a time of unprecedented and growing wealth and income inequality.”

    “Our nation will not thrive when so few own so much,” Sanders wrote.

    Debate on the proposal is unfolding at a time when voters in both parties express unease with economic conditions and what the future will bring in a politically divided nation. Distrust of government — and its ability to get things done — is widespread.

    The proposal has created a rift between Newsom and prominent members of his party’s progressive wing, including Sanders, who has said the tax should be a template for other states.

    “The issues that are really going to be motivating Democrats this year, affordability and the cost of health care and cuts to schools, none of these would be fixed by this proposal. If fact, they would be made worse,” said Brian Brokaw, a longtime Newsom adviser who is leading a political committee opposing the tax.

    Midterm elections typically punish the party in control of the White House, and Democrats are hoping to gain enough U.S. House seats to overturn the chamber’s slim Republican majority. In California, rejiggered House districts approved by voters last year are expected to help the party pick up as many as five additional seats, which would leave Republicans in control of just a handful of districts.

    “It is always better for a party to have the political debate focused on issues where you are united and the other party is divided,” said Eric Schickler, a professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley. “Having an issue like this where Newsom and Sanders — among others — are on different sides is not ideal.”

    With the idea of taxing billionaires popular among many voters “this can be a good way for Democratic candidates to rally that side and break through from the pack,” Schickler added in an email.

    It’s already trickled into the race for governor and contests down the ballot. Republicans Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton, both candidates for governor, have warned the tax would erase jobs. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, a Democratic candidate for governor, has said inequality starts at the federal level, where the tax code is riddled with loopholes.

    Coinciding with the Sanders visit and an upcoming state Democratic convention this weekend, opponents are sending out targeted emails and social media ads intended to sway party insiders.

    It’s not clear if the proposal will make the ballot — supporters must gather more than 870,000 petition signatures to place it before voters.

    The nascent contest already has drawn out a tangle of competing interests, with millions of dollars flowing into political committees.

    Newsom has long opposed state-level wealth taxes, believing such levies would be disadvantageous for the world’s fourth-largest economy. At a time when California is strapped for cash and he is considering a 2028 presidential run, he is trying to block the proposal before it reaches the ballot.

    Analysts say an exodus of billionaires could mean a loss of hundreds of millions of tax dollars for the nation’s most populous state. But supporters say the funding is needed to offset federal cuts that could leave many Californians without vital services.

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  • Malibu, ’emotionally and physically scarred,’ is suing California, L.A., others over Palisades fire

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    Malibu is filing suit against the state of California, the city of Los Angeles, L.A. County and additional public entities. Saying the seaside enclave’s “entire character” was changed by the Palisades fire, the city is seeking damages for the loss of property, business and city revenue.

    Malibu officials confirmed Wednesday that the city had filed a civil complaint in Los Angeles County Superior Court with a list of defendants that included the California Department of Parks and Recreation, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

    Malibu officials said the decision was necessary to try to recoup losses that affect “the long-term fiscal implications for Malibu and its taxpayers,” according to a news release. The complaint does not list a specific dollar amount the city is seeking in damages.

    “The lawsuit seeks accountability for the extraordinary losses suffered by our community while recognizing that Malibu must continue to work collaboratively with our regional partners going forward,” Mayor Bruce Silverstein said in a statement.

    The city’s “entire character changed” on Jan. 7, 2025, when the defendants’ “unlawful conduct caused the Palisades Fire to ignite,” according to the complaint.

    The ensuing blaze killed 12 people, half of whom were Malibu residents, according to the city. Roughly 700 Malibu homes and dozens of businesses also were destroyed, the complaint states.

    Those businesses included restaurants that were local institutions, such as Moonshadows, the Reel Inn and Rosenthal Wine Bar & Patio.

    Malibu “is still reeling from the destruction” of the fire, “a hollowed out community, burned and destroyed buildings and homes, a shrinking tax base, emotionally and physically scarred citizens, and untold environmental damage,” the complaint states.

    Malibu claims that the fire was “not an accident” but a “foreseeable and proximate result of unlawful conduct” by the defendants.

    Each of the entities was blamed for its role in the fire, including not properly addressing the burn scar from the Lachman fire, which rekindled to become the Palisades fire; leaving “reservoirs empty for over a year”; and failing to ensure “essential firefighting infrastructure,” according to the complaint.

    “This decision was not made lightly,” Silverstein said. “The city has an obligation to act in the best interests of our residents and taxpayers.”

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    Andrew J. Campa

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  • Humain CEO Tareq Amin Injects $3B Into Elon Musk’s xAI to Power Saudi A.I. Ambitions

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    Humain CEO Tareq Amin’s $3 billion investment in xAI positions Saudi Arabia at the center of a rapidly shifting global A.I. power structure. Photo by Amal Alhasan/Getty Images for Fortune Media

    Tareq Amin, CEO of Saudi Arabia’s largest A.I. company, Humain, has been on a dealmaking blitz since taking the helm of the Kingdom’s national A.I. initiative last year. His latest move: a $3 billion investment in Elon Musk’s xAI. The investment was made during xAI’s $20 billion fundraising round in January, Humain announced today (Feb. 18). The raise came just weeks before xAI merged with Musk’s SpaceX earlier this month, as Musk consolidates his A.I., communications and space ambitions ahead of a widely anticipated IPO.

    Founded in 2025 by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and backed by Saudi Arabia’s massive sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund. Humain sits at the center of the Kingdom’s push to diversify its economy beyond oil. A core part of that mandate: building sovereign A.I. infrastructure at home.

    The xAI stake is the latest example of Humain’s ability to “deploy meaningful capital behind exceptional opportunities where long-term vision, technical excellence and execution converge,” said Amin in a statement. Amin, who previously led Aramco Digital and Japan’s Rakuten Mobile, has spent the past several months striking blockbuster partnerships with U.S. tech heavyweights, including Nvidia, AMD, Cisco, Amazon Web Services and Groq (not xAI’s chatbot Grok).

    Humain did not respond to requests for comment from Observer.

    Most of the partnerships are focused on expanding Saudi Arabia’s data center footprint and compute capacity. A joint venture with AMD and Cisco, for example, aims to build domestic A.I. infrastructure capable of powering up to one gigawatt.

    xAI’s relationship with Humain dates back to November, when the companies unveiled plans for a 500-megawatt data center in Saudi Arabia. The facility—xAI’s first outside the U.S.—will run on Nvidia chips and deploy the company’s Grok models across the Kingdom.

    Humain’s deepening ties to xAI underscore a broader realignment in global A.I. alliances, with Gulf states emerging as critical capital providers and infrastructure hubs for American developers. In November, Humain and the United Arab Emirates’ A.I. company, G42, received U.S. approval to acquire up to 35,000 advanced A.I. chips each, marking a sharp reversal from earlier semiconductor export restrictions.

    Other regional players are also forging closer links with U.S. firms. G42 secured a $1.5 billion investment from Microsoft and is set to help develop Stargate UAE, an A.I. compute cluster in Abu Dhabi to be operated by OpenAI and Oracle.

    The Emirati-backed MGX has participated in large fundraising rounds for xAI, OpenAI and Anthropic, while Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund earlier this week joined Anthropic’s new $380 billion Series G financing—further cementing the Middle East’s growing influence over the future of A.I.

    Humain CEO Tareq Amin Injects $3B Into Elon Musk’s xAI to Power Saudi A.I. Ambitions

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    Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly

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  • Research Reports & Trade Ideas – Yahoo Finance

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    Analyst Report: Ford Motor Co.

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  • Battle over sites near future San Jose BART station may go to trial

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    SAN JOSE — A fight over sites near a BART station east of downtown San Jose might be headed to a jury trial that would pit small business owners against the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority.

    The VTA is attempting to seize properties it says are needed to construct the 28th Street/Little Portugal BART Station near the interchange of U.S. Highway 101 and East Santa Clara Street. The site is bounded by North 28th Street, East St. James Street, North 30th Street, and Five Wounds Lane.

    Properties bounded by Five Wounds Lane, North 28th Street, East St. James Street, and North 30th Street, that are the site of a future BART station east of downtown San Jose, marked by the lines. Boundaries are approximate. ( Google Maps )

    A business already ousted from the BART site, Monarch Truck Center, moved in 2024 to a new location at 1015 Timothy Drive in San Jose because it was forced to swiftly decamp from its longtime spot at 195 North 30th St. at the request of VTA officials, according to Monarch Truck Center Chief Executive Officer Nicole Guetersloh.

    “We were told we needed to leave so construction could start, but it has been almost two years, and nothing has happened,” Guetersloh told this news organization. “The building is still standing. They haven’t even taken down our signs. The extra time could have made a huge difference for us in terms of finding a new location.”

    Monarch Truck Center headquarters at 1015 Timothy Road in east San Jose, seen in November 2024.(Google Maps)
    Monarch Truck Center headquarters at 1015 Timothy Road in east San Jose, seen in November 2024. (Google Maps)

    In 2021, the VTA filed a lawsuit against the owner of the site as well as Monarch and other businesses at the location as part of an eminent domain proceeding to seize control of the property so the BART station could be constructed.

    The transit agency at one point even asked a Santa Clara County judge to order the businesses to vacate the site before a judgment was issued authorizing VTA to take ownership of the property.

    “To meet the current construction completion schedule and ensure critical path activities are not compromised, the subject property is needed by April 2023,” Gary Griggs, the VTA’s chief program officer for the BART extension in the South Bay, stated in court papers filed in 2022. “Securing possession by this date will allow the contractor(s) to begin building demolition work and site preparation, followed by archaeological testing.”

    The VTA has yet to begin any meaningful work on the site in the face of worsening delays that haunt the BART extension in the South Bay.

    Following the VTA filing, it has been disclosed that massive funding shortfalls have engulfed BART’s extension to three San Jose train stops and one in Santa Clara.

    For Monarch Truck Center, finding a new site and setting up shop wasn’t straightforward.

    “Moving a company like Monarch Truck Center isn’t easy,” Guetersloh said. “There were very few available properties that fell within the boundaries we must adhere to. Even fewer were properly zoned and capable of supporting a full-service truck dealership like ours. Every time I drive by our old location, I can’t help but wonder what was the rush.”

    The VTA’s lawsuit is now headed for a jury trial within the next few weeks, absent an out-of-court settlement of the case, court papers show.

    “After VTA condemned the property, Monarch was forced to relocate to a subpar site with significant limitations,” Monarch Truck stated in a background document regarding the case. “The business has suffered a measurable loss of goodwill and is seeking just compensation. VTA has valued the company’s losses at $0, and the case is headed to trial.”

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    George Avalos

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  • The Winter Olympics are hurting main street in Livigno’s duty-free mountain enclave

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    LIVIGNO, Italy — On the climb to Livigno, atop the mountain pass before the road glides down to the village hosting snowboarding at the Winter Olympics, there sits a lonely customs checkpoint. Its guardhouse and gate are the only signs of an internal fiscal border within Italy, one that encircles the snow-blanketed valley and the duty-free status it has enjoyed for centuries.

    The tax exemption that makes Livigno a shoppers’ paradise, paradoxically, has left it not receiving the full economic bonus from hosting the Olympics, at least in the short term. On the contrary, shopkeepers are getting squeezed — even if hotels and restaurants are packed and cashing in. Still, everyone is hopeful the Games will yield a longer-term upside for the village.

    Questioning economic benefits is routine for Olympic host cities, and it’s been the talk of the town on Livigno’s main street during the Games. Unlike in other Olympic mountain venues, business owners told The Associated Press that athletes, fans, workers and volunteers have boxed out visitors who come chasing duty-free deals in what is usually a bumper month.

    “I’m not positive about the Olympics, because usually you are working more than double in this period, because this period for us was a high season. Now, this period is like our low season,” said Olga Salari, owner of a toy story full of Lego sets. Olympic visitors, she added, “don’t even visit the shops.”

    How bad has it been? Salari said she has already seen a 70% drop in sales compared with an average February. The Olympics run from Feb. 6-22.

    Visitors to all six mountain venues must have either accreditation, accommodation reserved, event tickets or a ski pass — and so can’t be day trippers only out for a deal.

    Livigno is nicknamed “Little Tibet” for its historic isolation and the snow-clad peaks that surround it. This village near the Swiss border has had sales tax exemptions since medieval times, which allowed the impoverished, cut-off area to bring in goods.

    When a paved road leading south, and later a tunnel north to Switzerland, finally arrived in the 20th century, that duty-free status became an economic elixir because it attracted tourists.

    Visitors can purchase 300 euros ($356) worth of goods without Italy’s 22% sales tax. There are specific limits on perfumes, cigarettes, cigars, liquor and gasoline.

    Livigno’s tax break has made it a haven for skiers who seize the chance to pick up a watch, cosmetics, perfume, electronics or a carton of cigarettes before the drive home to Austria, Germany, Switzerland and elsewhere. Outside of the Olympics, anyway.

    “The tourists are more interested to see the competition. They’re not so focused on shopping,” said Manuel Galli, whose family owns an electronics store.

    According to a report by Italy’s Banca Ifis, the overall economic impact of the Games is expected to reach 5.3 billion euros ($6.2 billion). Of that, 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion) is estimated to be spent by tourists at the host sites during the next 18 months. The bank did not break that down by venue location. Milan Cortina organizing committee president Giovanni Malagò cited more than 5 billion euros in an interview with Italian radio station RTL.

    The committee has said that the Olympics have spurred Italian authorities to upgrade the electrical distribution systems of Livigno and the other mountain host sites. Improvements to Livigno’s health clinic and rail service are also legacy investments.

    Other mountain venues’ stores seem to be getting an economic boost.

    Cortina d’Ampezzo’s Vice Mayor Roberta Alverà told the AP by text message that the town has seen “a significant influx of people.”

    And they’re not just filling hotels and restaurants. Visitors, as well as Italians who own second homes in the posh town, are also filling the shops along Cortina’s pedestrian-only Corso Italia that runs through the center of town.

    In Bormio’s historic center, the cobblestone walkways have been filled with fans throughout the men’s Alpine ski racing program, and its shops have seen plenty of activity.

    Sergio Schena, a member of the organizing committee for the area of Livigno, said it’s normal for some businesses to see more activity than others, but the long-term impact will be positive. The global spotlight should draw tourists from farther away, as happened in Turin after it hosted in 2006, he said.

    “What we expect to happen is that the markets change, and we get more tourists from the United States and Asia,” Schena said.

    That doesn’t suit some shop owners. Salari said her business model is based on people driving to Livigno and using the extra trunk space to take home purchases. She fears tourists who travel by plane will only buy goods small enough to fit in their luggage.

    Still, most people in Livigno — even the other shopkeepers — are hoping Schema is right, trusting that the televised images of snowboarders and freestyle skiers soaring off its slopes and snow park have put Livigno on the world map, and will eventually attract even more tourists.

    “This is very important because (the Games) are providing 360-degree publicity around the world and Livigno is coming across very well,” said Derio Claoti, the owner of a shop that sells perfumes, whose sales have taken a 70% sales hit.

    A few doors down, at the Golden Clock shop for luxury watches and jewelry, Damiano Longa said he expects his drop in sales will ultimately be worth it.

    “We hope that the advertising that it’s making for Livigno will work for the future,” Longa said.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Colleen Barry in Milan, Andrew Dampf in Cortina and Pat Graham in Bormio contributed.

    ___

    AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

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  • A robotic dog made in China gets an Indian university kicked out of an AI summit

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    NEW DELHI — A private Indian university was booted from a top artificial intelligence summit in New Delhi on Wednesday after one of its staffers displayed a commercially available robotic dog made in China, claiming it was the university’s own innovation.

    According to two government officials, Galgotias University was ordered to take down its stand at the summit a day after the university’s professor of communications, Neha Singh, told state-run broadcaster DD News that robotic dog Orion was developed by the Centre of Excellence at the university.

    Internet users, however, quickly identified the robot as the Unitree Go2, sold by China’s Unitree Robotics with a starting price tag of $1,600 and used widely in research and education.

    On Wednesday, Singh told reporters she never explicitly claimed the dog was university’s own creation, but only an exhibit.

    The incident was an embarrassment for host country India, the two government officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

    A statement from Galgotias on Tuesday said the university was “deeply pained” and described the incident as a “propaganda campaign” that could spread negativity and harm the morale of students working to innovate, learn and build their skills using global technologies.

    Then, in a new statement on Wednesday, the university apologized for the confusion and said Singh, its representative at the AI summit pavilion, was not authorized to talk to the media and was “ill-informed.”

    “She was not aware of the technical origins of the product and in her enthusiasm at being on camera, gave factually incorrect information,” it said.

    It wasn’t immediately clear if the university had removed its booth from the summit.

    Still, the episode underscores the high stakes for India as it tries to cast itself as a global hub for AI and advanced manufacturing, drawing billions of dollars in investments while stressing credibility and local innovation.

    The summit kicked off on Monday with some organizational hiccups as attendees and exhibitors reported long queues and delays at the venue. Several exhibitors took to social media to complain that their personal belonging and products on display were stolen. Organizers later said the items were recovered and returned.

    The India AI Impact Summit, billed as a flagship event in the Global South, is attended by at least 20 heads of state and governments, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a session Thursday.

    Also expected to attend are Google’s Chief Executive Sundar Pichai, Qualcomm’s CEO Cristiano Amon, OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft’s President Brad Smith and AMI Labs Executive Chairman Yann LeCun.

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