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Tag: labor and employment

  • From increases in minimum wage to recreational marijuana, these new laws take effect in 2023 | CNN Politics

    From increases in minimum wage to recreational marijuana, these new laws take effect in 2023 | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    As President Joe Biden scored several legislative wins last year, voters across the country headed to the polls in November to decide on local measures.

    The passage of several of those measures will lead to new state laws this year. And Americans in 2023 will also feel the impact of several provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act that was enacted over the summer.

    Here are some of the state and federal measures set to take effect in 2023.

    Nearly half of all US states will increase their minimum wages in 2023.

    The hike went into effect in the following states on January 1: Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Washington.

    Minimum-wage workers in Connecticut will have to wait until June 1 to see the increase, while the change goes into effect in Nevada and Florida on July 1 and September 30, respectively. The hike went into effect in New York on Saturday for workers outside New York City, Long Island and Westchester County.

    Of all states, Washington state has the highest minimum wage at $15.74, up from $14.49, followed by California, which now has a minimum wage of $15.50 for all workers, up from $14 for employers with 25 or less employees and $15 for employers with 26 or more employees.

    However, Washington, DC, continues to have the highest minimum wage in the country. The increase from $16.10 to $16.50 went into effect Sunday and another hike to $17 is set for July 1.

    The push for a higher wage across the country comes as the federal minimum wage has remained the same since 2009, the longest period without change since a minimum wage was established in 1938, according to the Department of Labor.

    Efforts by Democrats to pass a $15 minimum wage bill stalled in the Senate in 2021.

    Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg/Getty Images

    Five states – Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota – had recreational marijuana on the ballot in the November midterm elections, and voters in Maryland and Missouri approved personal use for those 21 and older.

    While legalization has taken effect in Missouri with an amendment to the state constitution, the Maryland law goes into effect on July 1.

    The law will also allow those previously convicted of cannabis possession and intent to distribute to apply for record expungement.

    Starting January 1, the amount of cannabis a person can possess in Maryland for a fine instead of a criminal penalty increases – from just over a third of an ounce, or 10 grams, to 2.5 ounces.

    One of the most significant victories for Biden in 2022 was the Inflation Reduction Act, a $750 billion health care, tax and climate bill, which he signed into law in August.

    As part of the legislation, the price of insulin for Medicare beneficiaries will be capped at $35 starting January 1.

    About 3.3 million Medicare beneficiaries used insulin in 2020 and spent an average of $54 per insulin prescription the same year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

    The cap does not apply to those with private insurance coverage after Senate Democrats failed to get at least 10 Republican votes to pass the broader provision.

    02 new laws in 2023

    Keith Srakocic/AP

    There will be changes to the tax credits for those with electric vehicles, also thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act.

    The new rule stresses the use of vehicles that were made in North America, requiring much of their battery components and final assembly to be in the continent to be eligible for tax credits. It also mandates at least 40% of the minerals used for the battery to be extracted from the United States or a country that has free trade with the US.

    Upon meeting the requirements, new vehicles are eligible for a tax credit of up to $7,500.

    Those purchasing used electric vehicles can receive up to $4,000 in credits but it may not exceed 30% of the vehicle’s sale price.

    Initially, buyers who purchase vehicles in 2023 will need to wait to receive the tax credit when they file their tax returns for the year in 2024. But starting on January 1, 2024, electric vehicle buyers will be able to receive the money immediately, at the point of sale, if they agree to transfer the credit to their dealership.

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  • NewYork-Presbyterian nurses reach tentative agreement as nurses at other city hospitals still intend to strike | CNN Business

    NewYork-Presbyterian nurses reach tentative agreement as nurses at other city hospitals still intend to strike | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Nearly 4,000 union nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital have reached a tentative agreement on a contract, while approximately 12,000 nurses at seven other hospitals will move forward with their intention to strike beginning January 9.

    New York State Nurses Association members at NewYork-Presbyterian reached a tentative deal just hours before their contract expired Saturday “and one day after delivering a 10-day notice to strike,” according to a news release from the group.

    The notice allows time for the hospitals to plan patient care in case of a strike. Nearly 99% of the union members voted last week to authorize the strike, which would affect seven hospitals in all five boroughs of the city.

    Nurses at the seven remaining hospital facilities are expected to continue negotiations this week, according to the union.

    “Nurses are expected to be back at the bargaining table all week at the seven other facilities,” the release noted. “They have been sounding the alarm about the short-staffing crisis that puts patients at risk, especially during a tripledemic of COVID, RSV and flu.”

    The union argued hospitals are not doing enough to keep caregivers with patients, and they say hospitals need to invest in hiring, and retaining nurses to improve patient care.

    “Striking is always a last resort,” union president and nurse Nancy Hagans said in a news release last week. “Nurses have been to hell and back, risking our lives to save our patients throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, sometimes without the PPE we needed to keep ourselves safe, and too often without enough staff for safe patient care.”

    The last-minute negotiations are the latest example of a growing trend of unions leveraging strike threats to improve working conditions. Unions representing workers of train crews at the nation’s freight railroads, mental health professionals, and teachers have all been among the groups to recently strike or lay the groundwork to do so.

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  • 3 children were killed and 4 other people injured in Buffalo house fire | CNN

    3 children were killed and 4 other people injured in Buffalo house fire | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Three children are dead following a Saturday morning fire in Buffalo, New York, that also left three other children, including a baby, and their grandmother hospitalized.

    The fire was reported in the 200 block of Darmouth Ave. around 7:30 a.m., Buffalo Fire Commissioner William Renaldo said during a press conference Saturday.

    Three girls aged 7, 8, and 10, died as a result of the fire, according to Renaldo.

    Two other children, one girl and one boy, were taken to Children’s Hospital and are currently in critical condition, he said. A seven-month-old girl was also taken to the same hospital and is currently in stable condition.

    A 63-year-old grandmother was taken to Erie County Medical Center and is currently in critical condition.

    The children were being raised by their grandparents. The grandfather wasn’t home at the time of the fire, according to Renaldo.

    “It’s been a very challenging year at the fire department. There’s been a number of fatalities. A number of high-profile fires. Obviously, we had the mass shooting at Topps on 5/14 and we’re coming off the challenge of a worldwide pandemic as well,” Renaldo said.

    The cause of the fire is under investigation. No firefighters were injured in the incident.

    Buffalo is still recovering from a deadly and historic blizzard that barreled through last weekend, burying the city in nearly 52 inches of snow and killing at least 39 people. Most of the victims were found dead either outside or in their homes, while others died in their cars, as the result of delayed emergency medical service, and while removing snow or from cardiac arrest, officials have said.

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  • New Year’s pay boost: These states are raising their minimum wage | CNN Business

    New Year’s pay boost: These states are raising their minimum wage | CNN Business

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    Minneapolis
    CNN
     — 

    The current period of high inflation that has significantly impacted the US economy will also influence a New Year’s tradition: The annual state minimum wage increases.

    By January 1, hourly minimum wages in 23 states will rise as part of previously scheduled efforts to reach $15 an hour or to account for cost-of-living changes. The increases account for more than $5 billion in pay boosts for an estimated 8.4 million workers, the Economic Policy Institute estimates.

    Additionally, nearly 30 cities and counties across the US will increase their minimum wage, according to the EPI, a left-leaning think tank.

    The larger-than-typical increases for a dozen states come after inflation hit a 40-year high this summer, leaving families struggling to keep up with the rising costs.

    “The fact that there’s high inflation really just underscores how necessary these minimum wage increases are for workers,” said Sebastian Martinez Hickey, a research assistant at the EPI. “Even before the pandemic, there was no county in the United States where you could affordably live as a single adult at $15 an hour.”

    The pandemic and the subsequent period of economic recovery has further revealed the growing chasm in America’s wealth gap. During the past two years, working conditions and low pay contributed to a swelling of labor movement activity and actions by many large corporations to raise their wage floor.

    The pandemic also led to a structural upheaval in the nation’s labor market, creating an imbalance of worker supply and demand that still persists. Employers have found themselves short of workers for most of the year, which has pushed up average annual hourly wages in the battle to recruit and retain staff. While some workers in competitive industries such as retail and dining have found their new salary outpaces inflation, most pay has been outpaced by rising prices.

    “The story is different because wages have been increasing at the low-end, much faster than inflation and much faster than in middle- or high-wage jobs,” said Michael Reich, economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley. “And that means that many workers, even in the $7.25 states, are already getting paid above the minimum wage.”

    In other words, he said, the minimum wage “has become less and less binding.”

    “Even though minimum wages might go up by 7%, in many states and cities, labor costs aren’t going to go up anywhere as much as they have in the past, because they already have gone up,” he said. “That also means that prices aren’t going to go up at [places like] restaurants.”

    The federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour hasn’t budged since 2009, and 20 states have a minimum wage either equal to or below the federal level, making $7.25 their default baseline. The value of the federal minimum wage peaked in 1968 when it was $1.60, which would be worth about $13.46 in 2022, based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator.

    • Delaware: $10.50 to $11.75
    • Illinois: $12 to $13
    • Maryland: $12.50 to $13.25
    • Massachusetts: $14.25 to $15
    • Michigan: $9.87 to $10.10
    • Missouri: $11.15 to $12
    • Nebraska: $9 to $10.50
    • New Jersey: $13 to $14.13* (scheduled increase also includes inflation adjustment)
    • New Mexico: $11.50 to $12
    • New York: $13.20 to $14.20 (Upstate New York); $15 (in and around NYC)
    • Rhode Island: $12.25 to $13
    • Virginia: $11 to $12
    • Alaska: $10.34 to $10.85
    • Arizona: $12.80 to $13.85
    • California: $14.50 (firms with 25 or fewer employees) /$15 (firms with 26+ employees) to $15.50
    • Colorado: $12.56 to $13.65
    • Maine: $12.75 to $13.80
    • Minnesota: $8.42 to $8.63 (small employer); $10.33 to $10.59 (large employer)
    • Montana: $9.20 to $9.95
    • Ohio: $9.30 to $10.10
    • South Dakota: $9.95 to $10.80
    • Vermont: $12.55 to $13.18
    • Washington: $14.49 to $15.74
    • Connecticut (effective July 1): $14 to $15
    • Florida (September 2023): $11 to $12
    • Nevada (effective July 1): $9.50 to $10.25 (firms that offer benefits); $10.50 to $11.25 (no benefits offered)
    • Oregon: $13.50 (effective July 1, indexed annual increase to be based on the CPI)

    Sources: State websites, National Conference of State Legislatures, Economic Policy Institute

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  • New York nursing union announces intention to strike, delivers notices to eight hospitals across NYC | CNN Business

    New York nursing union announces intention to strike, delivers notices to eight hospitals across NYC | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Approximately 16,000 union nurses have delivered notices to eight New York City hospitals announcing their intention to strike beginning on January 9th if a new contract agreement is not reached by then, according to a press release from the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA).

    “NYSNA will continue to bargain non-stop between now and January 9th in the hopes of reaching agreements,” their release states.

    The 10-day notice of strike given to the eight hospitals allows time for the hospitals to plan patient care in the case that a strike begins, the union said.

    Nearly 99% of the union members voted last week to authorize the strike, which would impact seven hospitals in all five boroughs of the city.

    “Striking is always a last resort,” NYSNA President and nurse Nancy Hagans said in a press release last week. “Nurses have been to hell and back, risking our lives to save our patients throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, sometimes without the PPE we needed to keep ourselves safe, and too often without enough staff for safe patient care.”

    The union says hospitals aren’t doing enough to keep caregivers with patients and they say hospitals need to invest in hiring and retaining nurses to improve patient care.

    “Some of our colleagues have died, others will face the effects of long-Covid for years to come,” Hagans said. “Many of us have PTSD. All of us are fed up and exhausted.”

    The NewYork-Presbyterian hospital system said they hope they can reach a “fair and reasonable contract agreement,” in a statement to CNN. Three of their hospitals would be impacted if a strike occurred.

    “We respect and value all of our nurses, who play a central role in delivering the exceptional care that NewYork-Presbyterian is known for,” according to a statement from the hospital system. “We remain hopeful that union leadership shares our dedication to reaching a fair and reasonable contract agreement, and we will continue to bargain in good faith.”

    A spokeswoman for the Mount Sinai Health System said they value their nurses and share regular updates about negotiations on this website.

    “Our goal is to reach an agreement that continues to provide our valued nurses with competitive compensation and benefits and ensures a safe, supportive working environment that enables them to provide exceptional care to all our patients across the diverse communities we serve.”

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  • Senior citizens will soon get that big hike in their Social Security benefits | CNN Politics

    Senior citizens will soon get that big hike in their Social Security benefits | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Senior citizens and other Social Security recipients will start getting a heftier monthly benefit next month due to an 8.7% annual cost-of-living adjustment aimed at helping them cope with high inflation.

    The increase, the largest in more than 40 years, will boost retirees’ monthly payments by more than $140 to an estimated average of $1,827 for 2023.

    The adjustment is the highest that most current beneficiaries have ever seen because it is based on an inflation metric from August through October, which was also around 40-year highs. Inflation has cooled somewhat since then, though prices remain elevated.

    “I’m sure everyone is anxiously awaiting because prices are still high,” said Mary Johnson, a Social Security and Medicare policy analyst at The Senior Citizens League, an advocacy group. “Just shopping for food to feed people during the holidays is going to be a huge challenge.”

    Roughly 70 million people will receive the increase, which follows a 5.9% adjustment for 2022.

    Many senior citizens depend heavily on Social Security. Some 42% of elderly women and 37% of elderly men rely on the monthly payments for at least half their income, according to the Social Security Administration.

    Just when the beefed-up payment will arrive depends on recipients’ ages and birth dates. Those who received Social Security before May 1997 get their monthly benefit on the 3rd of each month. For more recent retirees, those whose birth dates are the 1st through the 10th of the month receive it on the second Wednesday, while those born on the 11th to 20th and the 21st to 31st of the month are paid the third and fourth Wednesdays, respectively.

    Even though recipients received a sizable adjustment for this year, inflation ate away at the boost.

    The increase fell short of actual inflation by an average of more than $42 – or 46% – every month or roughly $508 for the year, Johnson said.

    Many retirees have been forced to turn to their savings or public assistance. One-third of seniors reported signing up for food stamps or visiting a food pantry over the past 12 months, compared with 22% in 2020, according to recent surveys by The Senior Citizens League. Also, 17% have applied for assistance with heating costs, compared with 10% in 2020.

    This is not a new problem. Benefits have not kept up with the rising cost of living for years, even with the annual adjustments.

    As of March, inflation has caused Social Security payments to lose 40% of their buying power since 2000, according to a study released earlier this year by the league. Monthly benefits would have to increase by $540 to maintain the same level of buying power as in 2000.

    Senior citizens will also see their Medicare Part B premiums drop in 2023, the first time in more than a decade that the tab will be lower than the year before, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced in the fall. It’s only the fourth time that premiums are declining since Medicare was created in 1965.

    The standard monthly premiums will be $164.90 in 2023, a decrease of $5.20 from 2022.

    The reduction comes after a large spike in 2022 premiums, which raised the standard monthly premium to $170.10, up from $148.50 in 2021. A key driver of the 2022 hike was a projected jump in spending due to a costly new drug for Alzheimer’s disease, Aduhelm. However, since then, Aduhelm’s manufacturer cut the price and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services limited coverage of the drug.

    Also, spending was lower than projected on other Part B items and services, which resulted in much larger reserves in the Part B trust fund, allowing the agency to limit future premium increases.

    The big annual adjustment could end up hurting some seniors, Johnson said.

    For instance, the resulting increase in income could push them above the thresholds for certain government benefits, such as Medicare Extra Help, Medicaid, food stamps and rental assistance, leaving them eligible for less or no aid. Or they could have to pay more for their Medicare Part B premiums, which are adjusted for income.

    Also, they could have to start paying taxes – or owe higher levies – on their Social Security benefits if their income rises above a certain level.

    Further, the increase could leave Social Security’s finances on even shakier ground. The combined trust funds that pay benefits to retirees, survivors and the disabled will be depleted by 2035 and only able to distribute roughly three-quarters of promised payments unless Congress addresses the program’s long-term funding shortfall, according to the most recent Social Security trustees’ report.

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  • More false claims from George Santos about his work, education and family history emerge | CNN Politics

    More false claims from George Santos about his work, education and family history emerge | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Rep.-elect George Santos made additional false claims over the years about his family history, work history and education in campaign appearances over the years, a review of statements made in two of his campaigns for Congress found.

    CNN’s KFile uncovered more falsehoods from Santos, including claims he was forced to leave a New York City private school when his family’s real estate assets took a downturn and stating he represented Goldman Sachs at a top financial conference where he berated the company for investing in renewables.

    CNN also reviewed more instances of Santos providing additional false history of his family’s background. In one interview, Santos said his mother’s family’s historical Jewish name was “Zabrovsky,” and later appeared to operate a GoFundMe campaign for a pet charity (which he falsely claimed was a 501(c)(3) nonprofit) under that alias. Genealogists CNN previously spoke with found no evidence of Jewish or Ukrainian heritage in his family tree.

    In another, he said his mother, whose family has lived in Brazil since the late 1800s, was a White immigrant from Belgium.

    Santos’ campaign did not respond to CNN’s comment request.

    Since reports first surfaced about his false claims, Santos has made efforts to downplay his fabrications as mere “embellishments.” But the previously unreported claims from Santos illustrate a pattern of fabricating details about his life, often in service of presenting a more compelling or interesting personal narrative. The Nassau County district attorney’s office said Wednesday that it is looking into Santos’ fabrications, though it did not specify the falsehoods it would explore.

    In interviews over the past few days, Santos admitted to lying about parts of his resume, including graduating from college, but he told the New York Post that the misrepresentation of his work history at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup was a “poor choice of words.” There is no record he worked at the top financial institutions in the country, as he had previously claimed.

    Santos also denied that he falsely called himself Jewish, claiming he “never claimed to be Jewish” but jokingly said he was “Jew-ish” to the New York Post. He also falsely claimed that his grandparents “survived the Holocaust” and fled Europe to escape Jewish persecution. But CNN found that Santos called himself an “American Jew” and “Latino Jew” on multiple occasions. The Republican Jewish Coalition disinvited Santos from appearing at any of its events because he “misrepresented his heritage.”

    Despite the scandals, the New York Republican, who flipped his Long Island seat, said he will take office in January — spurring calls to resign from Democrats.

    Here are some of the outright falsehoods CNN found:

    In appearances, and in an old campaign biography, Santos claimed his parents sent him to Horace Mann, an elite private school in the Bronx.

    “He began Horace Mann preparatory school in the Bronx, however, did not graduate from Horace Mann due to financial difficulties for his family,” his biography read in 2019 for his first campaign for Congress that Santos lost. “He obtained a GED during his senior year.”

    Santos also made the same claim in an appearance on a YouTube show in 2020.

    “They sent me to a good prep school, which was Horace Mann Prep in the Bronx. And, in my senior year of prep school, unfortunately my parents fell on hard times, which was something that would later become known as the depression of 2008. But we were hit a little earlier on with the overleveraging of real estate. And the market started to implode. Um, and the first thing to go was the prep school. You know, you, you can’t afford a $2,500 tuition at that point, right? So anyway, um, I left school, uh, four months to graduation.”

    But the claim is false, according to the school.

    “We’ve searched the records and there is no evidence that George Santos (or any alias) attended Horace Mann,” Ed Adler, a spokesman for the school, told CNN.

    “Have you ever heard of a Goldman Sachs employee take the stage at the largest private equity conference in the world – SALT, run by Anthony Scaramucci – and berate their employer? Well, I did that,” Santos said on a local podcast this summer. “And I did it in the fashion of renewable energy and global warming. This was the panel I was on. And they’re all talking about solar, wind, and this was back, what, seven years ago now? And I said, you know what, this is a scam. It’s taxpayer money that gets subsidized.”

    The claim is entirely fictional, according to both Goldman Sachs – which has said Santos never worked there – and Scaramucci, who runs the conference.

    Scaramucci told CNN in a message there is not only no record of him appearing on a panel, but no record of him even attending the conference.

    In an appearance on a Fox News digital show in February, Santos said his maternal grandparents changed their Jewish last name from Zabrovsky – a claim for which there is no evidence and records contradict.

    “We don’t carry the Ukrainian last name. For a lot of people who are descendants of World War II refugees or survivors of the Holocaust, a lot of names and paperwork were changed in the name of survival. So I don’t carry the family last name that would’ve been Zabrovsky. I carry my mother’s maiden name which is the Dutch side of the family.”

    Megan Smolenyak, an author and professional genealogist who helped research Santos’ family tree at CNN’s request, previously told CNN, “There’s no sign of Jewish and/or Ukrainian heritage and no indication of name changes along the way.”

    Santos deleted his former private Facebook account last week, but CNN’s KFile reviewed records indicating he used the alias of “Anthony Zabrovsky” for fundraising for a pet charity. The GoFundMe page under that alias no longer exists. CNN reached out to GoFundMe but did not receive a response.

    In one radio appearance from December 2020, Santos falsely claimed that his mother “fled socialism” in Europe and moved to the United States.

    “My father fled socialism in Brazil. My mother fled socialism in Europe, and they came here and built a family. And today they can be proud to have a son who is a well accomplished businessman, who is now running for United States Congress. That’s something that wasn’t in the cards for my family,” Santos said.

    He also claimed in another interview from 2020 that he “grew up with a White Caucasian mother, an immigrant from Belgium.”

    But Santos’ mother was born in Brazil, according to genealogical records.

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  • UN halts some aid programs in Afghanistan after Taliban’s ban on female NGO workers | CNN

    UN halts some aid programs in Afghanistan after Taliban’s ban on female NGO workers | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The United Nations announced Wednesday it has suspended some of its “time-critical” programs in Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban’s ban on female NGO workers.

    In a joint statement released by UN aid chief Martin Griffiths and other humanitarian groups, it warned that further activities will likely need to be paused as it cannot deliver “principled” humanitarian assistance without female aid workers.

    “Banning women from humanitarian work has immediate life-threatening consequences for all Afghans. Already, some time-critical programmes have had to stop temporarily due to lack of female staff,” the statement read.

    “We will endeavour to continue lifesaving, time-critical activities unless impeded while we better assess the scope, parameters and consequences of this directive for the people we serve.

    “But we foresee that many activities will need to be paused as we cannot deliver principled humanitarian assistance without female aid workers.”

    It noted that the move comes at a time when over 28 million people in Afghanistan require assistance as the country “grapples with the risk of famine conditions, economic decline, entrenched poverty and a brutal winter.”

    The statement reiterated the UN’s condemnation of the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s rights. “We urge the de facto authorities to reconsider and reverse this directive, and all directives banning women from schools, universities and public life.

    “No country can afford to exclude half of its population from contributing to society.”

    The Taliban last week ordered all local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to stop their female employees from coming to work and suspended university education for all female students in the country. The move drew condemnation from around the world.

    In a statement Tuesday, the UNSC expressed its “deep concern” and called for “the full, equal, and meaningful participation of women and girls in Afghanistan.”

    The new restrictions are another step in the Taliban’s crackdown on the freedoms of Afghan women, after taking over the country in August 2021.

    Although the Taliban repeatedly claimed it would protect the rights of girls and women, the group has done the opposite, stripping away the hard-won freedoms for which women have fought tirelessly over the past two decades.

    Some of the Taliban’s most striking restrictions have been around education, with girls also barred from returning to secondary schools in March. The move devastated many students and their families, who described to CNN their dashed dreams of becoming doctors, teachers or engineers.

    At least half a dozen major foreign aid groups said they are temporarily suspending their operations in Afghanistan following the ban on female NGO employees.

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  • Twitter layoffs continue under Elon Musk | CNN Business

    Twitter layoffs continue under Elon Musk | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Additional Twitter employees were terminated Thursday as part of ongoing, rolling layoffs under new owner Elon Musk, including from the public policy and media and entertainment teams, according to tweets from affected employees.

    As part of Thursday’s layoffs, the members of Twitter’s public policy team who had remained following last month’s mass layoffs were again cut down by about half to around 15 employees, a former Twitter employee with knowledge of the layoffs told CNN.

    Among the public policy team’s responsibilities are working with outside advisory groups such as the Twitter Trust and Safety Council, which the company disbanded earlier this month. It also manages human rights programs to protect vulnerable users like activists, engages in transparency efforts, works with government agencies and helps to ensure compliance with global regulations. The public policy team had more than 60 employees prior to Musk’s takeover, the former employee said.

    Thursday’s exits come after Musk laid off about half of Twitter’s workforce last month shortly after his takeover, and later pushed out additional employees, including through an ultimatum requiring them to work “hardcore” or exit the company. Musk’s team — seeking to cut costs at the struggling company that the billionaire purchased for $44 billion — has continued to lay off hundreds of additional Twitter staff since then, including top engineering and legal talent, according to the former employee and multiple recent reports.

    More than 100 former Twitter employees have filed demands for arbitration or are participating in proposed class action lawsuits related to the layoffs.

    The latest round of layoffs could further affect Twitter’s ability to protect key users and comply with regulations amid heightened scrutiny of the company following Musk’s takeover.

    Thierry Breton, a top EU official, warned Musk in a meeting last month that the social media platform must take significant steps to comply with EU content moderation laws, and that European officials will be monitoring closely for compliance. Musk has agreed to let EU officials “stress test” the social media platform for compliance with the Digital Services Act, Europe’s new platform regulation, early next year.

    Twitter also continues to struggle with the exit of many of its advertisers, which provide most of the company’s revenue. As of December 17, 72 of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers had paused ad campaigns on the platform, according to a review by digital marketing intelligence firm Pathmatics, which it provided to CNN.

    In the meantime, Musk may be considering finding someone else to head the social platform, after Twitter users voted over the weekend for him to step down as CEO. Musk tweeted this week that he would leave the top role “as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!”

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  • A Buffalo family who became stranded in blizzard conditions got to spend Christmas at firefighters’ firehouse | CNN

    A Buffalo family who became stranded in blizzard conditions got to spend Christmas at firefighters’ firehouse | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    When the blizzard first hit Buffalo, New York, a family of six packed up their bags and headed to a local hotel after they lost power at their home – but they ended up celebrating Christmas somewhere a little more surprising.

    Demetrice and Danielle, along with their children Aayden, 8, Aubree, 4, Jordynn, 2, and 9-month-old Judah became one of the many motorists who got stuck in impassable road conditions in Buffalo on Friday, according to a Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority statement.

    The family was rescued by Buffalo Airport Fire Fighters, along with 36 other people who were also caught in blizzard conditions, according to the transportation authority statement.

    As the only rescued motorists with young children, the family got to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day somewhere special: at the firehouse with the firefighters.

    Their oldest, Aayden, asked the firefighters if he could wear a firefighter uniform with them and was given a uniform and department T-shirt and learned about how the first responders dispatch, according to the transportation authority.

    The 8-year-old was also thrilled that Santa Claus would be delivering presents to them at the firehouse.

    “Christmas became a big concern because Aayden was so excited that Santa would know he was here and he would get to celebrate at a real firehouse and we didn’t want to disappoint,” said Assistant Chief Buffalo Airport Fire Department Joel Eberth. “We were able to find several items in the firehouse to wrap for the family and with the amazing help from the field office delivering some items from the terminal, we were able to make sure Santa paid a visit.”

    “It was an amazing experience for our firefighters and it definitely made us better people,” Eberth said.

    Buffalo has been hard hit by the winter storm sweeping the country. As of Sunday morning, 43 inches of snow had fallen there, according to the National Weather Service.

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  • Three foreign aid groups suspend work in Afghanistan after Taliban bars female employees | CNN

    Three foreign aid groups suspend work in Afghanistan after Taliban bars female employees | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Three foreign aid groups said Sunday that they were moving to temporarily suspend their operations in Afghanistan after the Taliban barred female employees of non-governmental organizations from coming to work.

    “We cannot effectively reach children, women and men in desperate need in Afghanistan without our female staff,” aid organizations Save the Children, Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE International said in a joint statement Sunday.

    “Without women driving our response, we would not have jointly reached millions of Afghans in need since August 2021. Beyond the impact on delivery of lifesaving assistance, this will affect thousands of jobs in the midst of an enormous economic crisis,” said the statement, which was signed by the heads of the three NGOs.

    “Whilst we gain clarity on this announcement, we are suspending our programmes, demanding that men and women can equally continue our lifesaving assistance in Afghanistan,” the statement added.

    The Taliban administration on Saturday ordered all local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to stop their female employees from coming to work, according to a letter by the Ministry of Economy sent to all licensed NGOs. Non-compliance will result in revoking the licenses of said NGOs, the ministry said.

    In the letter, the ministry cites the non-observation of Islamic dress rules and other laws and regulations as reasons for the decision.

    “Lately there have been serious complaints regarding not observing the Islamic hijab and other Islamic Emirate’s laws and regulations,” the letter said, adding that as a result “guidance is given to suspend work of all female employees of national and international non-governmental organizations.”

    Earlier this week, the Taliban government suspended university education for all female students in Afghanistan.

    In a televised news conference on Thursday, the Taliban’s higher education minister said they had banned women from universities for not observing Islamic dress rules and other “Islamic values,” citing female students traveling without a male guardian. The move sparked outrage among women in Afghanistan.

    A group of women took to the streets in the city of Herat on Saturday to protest the university ban. Video footage circulating on social media showed Taliban officials using a water cannon to disperse the female protesters. Girls could be seen running from the water cannon and chanting “cowards” at officials.

    The new restrictions mark yet another step in the Taliban’s brutal crackdown on the freedoms of Afghan women, following the hardline Islamist group’s takeover of the country in August 2021.

    Though the Taliban has repeatedly claimed it would protect the rights of girls and women, it has in fact done the opposite, stripping away the hard-won freedoms they have fought tirelessly for over the past two decades.

    Some of its most striking restrictions have been around education, with girls also barred from returning to secondary schools in March. The move devastated many students and their families, who described to CNN their dashed dreams of becoming doctors, teachers or engineers.

    The United Nations on Saturday condemned the Taliban’s NGO announcement and said it would try to obtain a meeting with Taliban leadership to seek clarity.

    “Women must be enabled to play a critical role in all aspects of life, including the humanitarian response. Banning women from work would violate the most fundamental rights of women, as well as be a clear breach of humanitarian principles,” the UN statement read. “This latest decision will only further hurt those most vulnerable, especially women and girls.”

    UNICEF said the order was an “egregious rollback of rights for girls and women (that) will have sweeping consequences on the provision of health, nutrition and education services for children.”

    Amnesty International called for the ban to “be reversed immediately” and for the Taliban to “stop misusing their power.”

    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also condemned the move Saturday. “Deeply concerned that the Taliban’s ban on women delivering humanitarian aid in Afghanistan will disrupt vital and life-saving assistance to millions,” he wrote on Twitter. “Women are central to humanitarian operations around the world. This decision could be devastating for the Afghan people.”

    Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mojahid said US officials should “not interfere in the internal issues of” Afghanistan.

    “Those organization operative in Afghanistan are obliged to comply with the laws and regulations of our country,” he tweeted Sunday, adding, “We do not permit anyone to state irresponsible words or make threats about the decisions or officials of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under the title of humanitarian aid.”

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  • Brexit has cracked Britain’s economic foundations | CNN Business

    Brexit has cracked Britain’s economic foundations | CNN Business

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    London
    CNN
     — 

    It’s been two years since former Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed his Brexit trade deal and triumphantly declared that Britain would be “prosperous, dynamic and contented” after completing its exit from the European Union.

    The Brexit deal would enable UK companies to “do even more business” with the European Union, according to Johnson, and would leave Britain free to strike trade deals around the world while continuing to export seamlessly to the EU market of 450 million consumers.

    In reality, Brexit has hobbled the UK economy, which remains the only member of the G7 — the group of advanced economies that also includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — with an economy smaller than it was before the pandemic.

    Years of uncertainty over the future trading relationship with the European Union, Britain’s largest trading partner, have damaged business investment, which in the third quarter was 8% below pre-pandemic levels despite a UK-EU trade deal being in place for nearly two years.

    And the pound has taken a beating, making imports more expensive and stoking inflation while failing to boost exports, even as other parts of the world have enjoyed a post-pandemic trade boom.

    Brexit has erected trade barriers for UK businesses and foreign companies that used Britain as a European base. It’s weighing on imports and exports, sapping investment and contributing to labor shortages. All this has exacerbated Britain’s inflation problem, hurting workers and the business community.

    “The most plausible reason as to why Britain is doing comparatively worse than comparable countries is Brexit,” according to L. Alan Winters, co-director of the Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy at the University of Sussex.

    The sense of gloom hanging over the UK economy is captured by striking workers, who are walking out in ever larger numbers over pay and conditions as the worst inflation in decades eats into their wages. At the same time, the government is cutting spending and hiking taxes to fill the hole in its budget.

    While Brexit isn’t the cause of Britain’s cost-of-living crisis, it has made the problem more difficult to solve.

    “The UK chose Brexit in a referendum, but the government then chose a particularly hard form of Brexit, which maximized the economic cost,” said Michael Saunders, a senior adviser at Oxford Economics and former Bank of England official. “Any hope for economic upside from Brexit is pretty much gone.”

    Although Britain voted to leave the European Union in June 2016, its exit from the single market and customs union was finalized only on December 24, 2020, when the two sides finally agreed a free trade deal.

    The Brexit deal, known as the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, came into effect on January 1, 2021.

    It eliminated tariffs on most goods but introduced a raft of non-tariff barriers, such as border controls, customs checks, import duties and health inspections on plant and animal products.

    Before Brexit, a farmer in Kent could ship a truckload of potatoes to Paris just as easily as they might send it to London. Those days are no more.

    “We hear stories every single day from small businesses about the nightmare of forms, transportation, couriers, things getting stuck for weeks at a time… the epic length of the problems is just gobsmacking,” said Michelle Ovens, the founder of Small Business Britain, a campaign group.

    “The way things have panned out in the last two years has been really bad for small businesses,” Ovens told CNN.

    Researchers at the London School of Economics estimate that the variety of UK products exported to the European Union declined by 30% during the first year of Brexit. They said that this was likely because small exporters had exited small EU markets.

    Take the example of Little Star, a UK company that makes jewelry for children. Its business took off in the Netherlands and it had plans to expand to France and Germany next. But since Brexit, only two of more than 30 of its Dutch customers are prepared to handle the costs and paperwork to obtain stock from the company.

    Products that took two days to ship are now taking three weeks, while import duties and sales taxes have made it much harder to compete with European jewelers, according to Rob Walker, who co-founded the business with his wife, Vicky, in 2017. The company is now looking to the United States for growth opportunities.

    “Isn’t it mad that we have to look to the other side of the Atlantic to do business, because it’s so difficult to do business with people 30 miles away?” Walker said.

    A truck passes a Union Jack, at the Port of Dover on April 1, 2021. The UK government has delayed post-Brexit checks on EU food imports until the end of 2023.

    A British Chambers of Commerce survey of more than 1,168 businesses published this month reported that 77% said Brexit has not helped them increase sales or grow their businesses. More than half said they were finding it difficult to adapt to the new rules for trading goods.

    Siteright Construction Supplies, a manufacturer in Dorset, told the Chamber that importing parts from the European Union to fix broken machines has become a costly and “time-consuming nightmare.”

    “Brexit has been the biggest-ever imposition of bureaucracy on business,” according to Siteright.

    Nova Dog Chews, a producer of snacks for canines, said it would have lost all its EU trade had it not set up a base in the bloc. “This has cost our business a huge amount of money, which could have been invested in the UK had it not been for Brexit,” it added.

    A UK government spokesperson told CNN that the government’s export support service has provided exporters with “practical support” on the implementation of the Brexit deal. The deal is “the world’s largest zero tariff, zero quota free trade deal,” the spokesperson added. “It secures the UK market access across key service sectors and opens new opportunities for UK businesses across the globe.”

    Britain won’t easily replace what it has lost by forfeiting unfettered access to the world’s largest trading bloc.

    The only substantive new trade deals it has struck since exiting the European Union, which did not simply roll over the deals it had as an EU member, have been with Australia and New Zealand. By the government’s own estimate, these will have a negligible impact on the UK economy, increasing GDP in the long run by just 0.1% and 0.03% respectively.

    By contrast, the UK Office for Budget Responsibility, which produces economic forecasts for the government, expects Brexit to reduce Britain’s output by 4% over 15 years compared to remaining in the bloc. Exports and imports are projected to be around 15% lower in the long run.

    Initial data has borne this out. According to the OBR, in the fourth quarter of 2021, UK goods export volumes to the European Union were 9% below 2019 levels, with imports from the European Union 18% lower. Goods exports to non-EU countries were 18% weaker than in 2019.

    The United Kingdom “appears to have become a less trade-intensive economy, with trade as a share of GDP falling 12% since 2019, two and a half times more than in any other G7 country,” the OBR said in the March report.

    The decline in exports to non-EU countries could be a sign that UK businesses have become less competitive as they battle higher supply chain costs following Brexit, according to Jun Du, an economics professor at Aston University in Birmingham.

    “The UK’s trading ability has been damaged permanently [by Brexit],” Du told CNN. “It doesn’t mean it can’t recover, but it’s been set back for a number of years.”

    Research by the Centre for European Reform, a think tank, estimates that over the 18 months to June 2022, UK goods trade is 7% lower than it would have been had Britain remained in the European Union.

    Investment is 11% weaker and GDP is 5.5% smaller than it would have been, costing the economy £40 billion ($48.4 billion) in tax revenues annually. That’s enough to pay for three quarters of the spending cuts and tax rises that UK finance minister Jeremy Hunt announced in November.

    The United Kingdom is projected to have one of the worst performing economies next year among developed nations.

    The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development expects the UK economy to shrink by 0.4%, ahead only of sanctioned Russia. GDP in Germany is forecast to be 0.3% smaller.

    The International Monetary Fund forecasts growth of just 0.3% for UK GDP next year, ahead of only Germany, Italy and Russia, which are expected to contract.

    Both institutions say high inflation and rising interest rates will weigh on spending by consumers and businesses in Britain.

    According to the Confederation of British Industry, a leading business group, the fall in private sector activity picked up pace in December and has now declined for five consecutive quarters.

    The downward trend “looks set to deepen” in 2023, principal economist at the CBI Martin Sartorius said in a statement.

    “Businesses continue to face a number of headwinds, with rising costs, labor shortages, and weakening demand contributing to a gloomy outlook for next year. ”

    — Julia Horowitz contributed to this report.

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  • UK wages next year will be at their lowest level since 2006, report says | CNN Business

    UK wages next year will be at their lowest level since 2006, report says | CNN Business

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    London
    CNN
     — 

    Brits hoping for a new-year salary bump to offset soaring food and energy costs may be disappointed.

    The average British worker’s pay in 2023 is expected to fall back to 2006 levels once inflation is taken into account, according to PwC. Real wages, which factor in inflation, are expected to fall by as much as 3% in 2022 and another 2% in 2023, PwC has predicted in a report on the UK economy shared with CNN.

    The report confirms that wages have stagnated in Britain even as inflation hits double digits, sparking the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades. That’s led to widespread strikes across the UK economy, encompassing railways, schools, nurses, hospitals and the postal service.

    On Friday, passport officers began eight days of strikes that are expected to hit some of the United Kingdom’s busiest airports over Christmas and New Year, including Heathrow and Gatwick in London. The government said in a statement that the military would be supporting Border Force but warned travelers to expect delays and disruptions on arrival in Britain.

    “2022 has obviously been a highly challenging year for the UK economy, and it is not surprising that these chilly headwinds will continue throughout 2023,” Barret Kupelian, a senior economist at PwC said in a statement.

    The report offered some hope. Despite the hit to wages, more than 300,000 UK workers could rejoin the labor market in 2023, reducing economic inactivity and alleviating staff shortages in highly skilled sectors, according to PwC. At the same time, increased immigration to the UK could directly contribute £19 billion ($23 billion) to the economy, boosting GDP growth by 1% “even as the whole economy contracts,” PwC said.

    “Despite a contracting economy, the UK remains an attractive destination for workers,” PwC economist Jake Finney said in a statement. UK immigration levels reached a record 1.1 million in 2022, with resettlement programs aimed at Ukrainians, Afghans and Hong Kong residents adding around 140,000 to the total, according to PwC.

    Even with record immigration, the United Kingdom has lagged behind developed nations in its post-Covid employment recovery. Vacancies hit a record 1.3 million earlier in the year, dropping to just under 1.2 million in November. Worker shortages have been particularly acute in the hospitality, retail and agriculture industries.

    Research by the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee published this week concluded that early retirement has been the biggest driver of the squeeze on the UK workforce. Increasing long-term sickness, lower EU migration following Brexit and an aging UK population have also played a role.

    “The rise in inactivity poses serious challenges to the UK economy. Shortage of labor exacerbates the current inflationary challenge; damages growth in the near term; and reduces the revenues available to finance public services, while demand for those services continues to grow,” the committee said.

    PwC’s Kupelian added that UK inflation likely peaked in October and “will gradually begin to return to target over the next two years.”

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  • White House cautiously optimistic over economy in 2023: ‘Absolutely no sign’ job growth will tumble or unemployment will spike | CNN Politics

    White House cautiously optimistic over economy in 2023: ‘Absolutely no sign’ job growth will tumble or unemployment will spike | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    As Wall Street and Main Street fret about a potential recession, White House officials are projecting confidence about the economy’s ability to weather the storm in 2023.

    “We’re feeling cautiously optimistic because we are starting to see some real concrete measurable signs of progress,” Aviva Aron-Dine, deputy director of the White House National Economic Council, told CNN in a Zoom interview.

    The Biden administration economist pointed to a range of metrics showing inflation has cooled off, real wages have heated up and the job market has defied doomsday predictions.

    The White House is hoping for a soft landing, in which the Federal Reserve tames inflation without crashing the economy.

    “We remain optimistic about a transition to stable, steady growth with lower inflation – without giving up labor market gains, without a recession,” Aron-Dine said.

    So far, so good – at least from the administration’s perspective.

    For the moment, metrics suggest the economy has remained resilient and consumers are more optimistic as inflation has eased. The Conference Board’s latest consumer confidence index this month, for example, showed a significant jump from November. And after spiking to record highs in June, gas prices have plunged to 17-month lows, delivering a major boost to consumers.

    And some broader trends appear to be working in the administration’s favor, like hiring, which has slowed but has not collapsed.

    There is “absolutely no sign” that job growth will fall on a “sustained basis” below a pace of roughly 150,000 jobs a month, Aron-Dine said.

    Last month, the US economy added a surprisingly strong 263,000 jobs. That’s down sharply from 647,000 in the same period last year – but still a very healthy pace.

    Despite a series of mass layoffs in the tech and media industries, Aron-Dine added that there is “no sign of a big increase in unemployment.”

    Indeed, initial jobless claims remain very low. The Labor Department said Thursday that first-time claims for unemployment benefits rose just slightly in the latest week and remain near two-month lows. However, some economists – including ones at the Fed – warn this trend could be about to change due in large part to continued pressure from higher borrowing costs.

    After raising interest rates for a seventh meeting in a row, the Fed last week projected the unemployment rate will rise from a historically low level of 3.7% today to 4.6% by the end of next year. That implies an increase of approximately 1.6 million unemployed people.

    Some, though certainly not all, business leaders and major banks expect the US economy will slip into a downturn next year. For instance, PNC is now projecting a “mild recession” that is similar to the downturns of 1990-1991 and 2001.

    “The risk of a recession is elevated right now – certainly higher than six months or a year ago,” Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC, told CNN. “We need to be prepared for a recession sometime in the spring or summer of 2023.”

    Other economists including Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, are growing more confident a recession may be avoided.

    Although Fed officials say a soft landing is still possible, some of the Fed’s own metrics are flashing red.

    A New York Fed model that uses shifts in the bond market to forecast recession risks finds there is a 38% chance of a recession in the next 12 months. That narrowly surpasses the peak in 2019 and is the highest level since just before the Great Recession.

    There are signs that cracks are forming in consumer spending – the main engine of the US economy – due to high inflation that has forced some Americans to dip into savings and turn to credit cards. Retail sales declined in November by the most in nearly a year as shoppers pulled back on everything from furniture and cars to even e-commerce.

    Asked about the surprise retail sales slump, Aron-Dine noted this metric can experience significant volatility.

    “If you look at the data over a more extended period, you’re just not seeing any signs that would make us think that is a significant concern,” she said.

    In that effort to transition away from high inflation, Aron-Dine said, the White House continues to evaluate ongoing risks, calling the war in Ukraine “one of the most significant risks that we monitor.”

    “I think all year, we’ve seen that there are signs of real strength and opportunities for a successful transition, and that there are significant risks. And so our work, our strategy has been about trying to take advantage of the strengths and mitigates the risk,” she said, later adding, “I think we have reason for optimism, reasons to believe the US economy is well positioned, but there are global challenges and high on that list is potential downstream consequences of the war in Ukraine for food and energy as we saw this year and more generally.”

    Another hurdle Biden’s economic team will face in the new year will be achieving consensus among a newly divided Congress.

    Biden’s first two years in office were marked by the passage the administration’s proposed major spending bills aimed at bolstering the country’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, overhauling major social safety net programs, enhancing domestic supply chains and making climate investments.

    But some major provisions the Biden White House has pushed for, including the revival of the enhanced child credit have failed to move forward in Congress. The previous expansion of the child tax credit lifted 2.1 million children out of poverty in 2021, according to the Census Bureau.

    A last-ditch effort this month to pass the credit into law as part of the $1.7 trillion government spending bill failed. And with Republicans taking over the House of Representatives next year, its passage is even less likely.

    “It is a disappointment that Republicans blocked inclusion of Child Tax Credit improvements during the lame duck,” Aron-Dine said, adding, “I won’t get ahead of agenda setting our strategy for next year, but of course, this will remain a priority for us.”

    Along with broader efforts to tackle inflation and avoid a recession, the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act will also be top of mind for Biden economic officials in the coming year.

    A slate of provisions in the IRA are scheduled to roll out in January, including home energy efficiency tax credits and a $35 cap on the cost of insulin for seniors on Medicare.

    And CNN previously reported that along with deploying a messaging strategy aimed at highlighting existing accomplishments, as Biden heads into the new year, the White House is looking to highlight ways the Inflation Reduction Act will lower everyday costs.

    Aron-Dine told CNN that the enactment of the IRA “is just going to have a huge effect in shaping our work in the year ahead, with one of our biggest priorities really being just making sure that we fully realize the potential of that law.”

    And as the administration prepares to frame Biden’s agenda ahead of the State of the Union address next year, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese told the Wall Street Journal this week that officials are considering a push for policies aimed at getting Americans back to work, including childcare and eldercare benefits.

    It’s not clear whether the White House is considering using executive authority or proposals to Congress to move forward on the initiative. Aron-Dine declined to offer specifics.

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  • The US economy grew much faster than previously thought in the third quarter | CNN Business

    The US economy grew much faster than previously thought in the third quarter | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    America’s economy grew much faster than previously thought in the third quarter, a sign that the Federal Reserve’s battle to cool the economy to fight inflation t is having only limited impact.

    The Commerce Department’s final reading Thursday morning showed gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the US economy, grew at an annual pace of 3.2% between July and September. That was above the 2.9% estimate from a month ago. Economists surveyed by Refinitiv had expected GDP to stay unchanged from its previous reading.

    The report said the stronger-than-expected reading was due to increases in exports and consumer spending that were partly offset by a decrease in spending on new housing. Consumer spending is responsible for more than two-thirds of the nation’s economic activity.

    The Fed has been raising interest rates throughout the year to cool demand for goods and services and reduce inflation. Economists have been worried for quite some time that the Fed’s actions could tip the US economy into recession next year.

    Inflation has cooled in recent readings, but the US economy has stayed strong. Some surveys released this week suggest the Fed’s higher rates are not slowing spending by businesses or consumers.

    A recent survey of chief financial officers found the current level of interest rates have not impacted their spending plans. And consumer confidence improved in December according to a survey by the Conference Board, reaching the highest level since April.

    In addition, employers have continued to hire at a historically strong pace, although layoffs have increased in some industries, especially technology.

    A separate Labor Department report Thursday showed that unemployment claims remained relatively unchanged.

    Initial weekly claims for unemployment insurance benefits ticked up to 216,000 for the week ended, December 17. The previous week’s total was upwardly revised by 3,000 to 214,000.

    Economists were expecting initial claims to land at 222,000, according to Refinitiv.

    The weekly initial claims totals are hovering around pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, weekly claims averaged 218,000.

    Continuing claims, which include people who are collecting benefits on an ongoing basis, dropped slightly to 1.672 million for the week ended December 10. The prior week’s number of continuing claims were revised up to 1.678 million.

    The final GDP report is one of most backward-looking readings the government releases, looking at the state of the economy nearly three months ago. The current forecast from economists is that growth in the current period will be only 2.4%, significantly slower than Thursday’s reading.

    Still, Wall Street was concerned that the GDP report could give the Fed more runway to raise rates. Stocks fell modestly Thursday. Dow futures were 200 points, or 0.6% lower. S&P 500 futures fell 0.8%.

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  • Twitter hit by legal complaints from 100 former employees following Musk’s layoffs | CNN Business

    Twitter hit by legal complaints from 100 former employees following Musk’s layoffs | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Twitter has been hit with allegations from 100 former employees affected by mass layoffs at the company, including that it unfairly laid off more women than men, terminated employees who were actively on medical or parental leave and reneged on promises related to severance pay.

    The allegations were included as part of the former employees’ demands for arbitration against the company, according to a statement on Tuesday by attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan.

    Liss-Riordan is the same attorney who has brought four proposed class action lawsuits against Twitter by former employees affected by Elon Musk’s takeover. The arbitration demands are meant to help workers who can’t participate in that litigation because of contracts they signed with the company.

    Claims in the arbitration demands mirror those in the lawsuits. Some also claim that Musk placed “unreasonable demands” on Twitter’s workforce in an effort to shrink its staff, according to the statement.

    “The conduct of Twitter since Musk took over is incredibly egregious, and we will pursue every avenue to protect workers and extract from Twitter the compensation that is due to them,” Liss-Riordan said in the statement. She added that her firm has heard from hundreds of former Twitter employees and has filed only the “first wave” of arbitration demands.

    “We are ready to fight them one by one, on behalf of potentially thousands of employees if that becomes necessary,” she said.

    Liss-Riordan previously brought three proposed class action suits on behalf of female employees, disabled employees and contractors who were laid off. Another suit was filed by a group of former employees who accuse Twitter of breach of contract because it allegedly failed to follow through on promises to allow remote work and provide consistent severance benefits after the acquisition.

    Twitter, which recently laid off much of its communications department, did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the arbitration demands. Twitter has denied the breach of contract allegations in the lawsuit brought by former employees about remote work and severance, and it has not responded to the claims in the three other suits.

    Liss-Riordan has also filed three complaints against Twitter with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of employees affected by the layoffs.

    The mounting claims by former employees come after Twitter terminated about half of its staff in a mass layoff last month shortly after Musk’s takeover. Musk later pushed out hundreds of additional employees, including by requiring them to agree to an ultimatum to work “extremely hardcore” or leave the company.

    The former employees suing Twitter scored an early win last week when a judge ruled in favor of their motion ordering the company to alert all laid-off employees of the pending lawsuits before requiring them to sign severance agreements waiving their rights to litigation.

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  • After Twitter users voted to oust Elon Musk as CEO, he wants to change how polls work | CNN Business

    After Twitter users voted to oust Elon Musk as CEO, he wants to change how polls work | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    When Elon Musk polled Twitter users about whether to reinstate former President Donald Trump’s account, he quickly followed through on the majority’s wish to do so. “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” he pronounced via tweet, Latin for “the voice of the people is the voice of God.”

    Likewise, when Twitter users voted on another of his polls to provide “general amnesty to suspended accounts,” he went ahead and did it. He also heeded user votes in a poll to restore the accounts of tech journalists that he had suspended on Friday.

    But since a clear majority of Twitter users voted for Musk to step down as Twitter CEO in another poll on Sunday, Musk has remained conspicuously (and uncharacteristically) silent. Now, he appears to think the problem isn’t him, but who gets to vote in the polls.

    In a tweet Monday, roughly 12 hours after his CEO poll ended, Musk suggested that he would change how polling on Twitter works so that only those who pay for Twitter’s updated subscription service can vote. After one Twitter user said, “Blue subscribers should be the only ones that can vote in policy related polls,” Musk responded, “Good point. Twitter will make that change.”

    While it’s unclear how he would restrict voting to only those who pay for the company’s subscription service, such a change could dramatically reduce the number of Twitter users who could vote in polls. It would also skew those who can vote to the users who are willing to pay up for Twitter Blue, which includes the controversial paid verification feature Musk pushed to introduce. Musk’s Monday tweet immediately prompted comparisons to poll taxes.

    The incident is yet another example of the inconsistencies and chaos in Musk’s management of Twitter since acquiring the company in October. After coming under fire this weekend for a controversial new policy restricting users from posting links to rival platforms, Musk pledged to effectively crowdsource “major policy changes” at Twitter by polling users about them and soon launched the poll about whether he should remain as CEO.

    Now, Musk appears to be ignoring the results of the CEO poll and looking to overhaul how polls work without first polling users about what is arguably another “major policy change.”

    Musk’s poll, and his limited reaction to it so far, could add to the growing uncertainty about his commitment to remaining Twitter’s CEO. Musk has faced criticism from Twitter users and advertisers for his decision to eliminate much of the company’s staff, restore the accounts of a number of incendiary users, and the whiplash from seemingly rushing out new policies and features only to pull them later. The Tesla CEO is also facing pressure from the carmaker’s shareholders to find a replacement at Twitter, after Tesla’s stock has declined significantly this year.

    Musk has not directly commented on the user vote that he should step down from running Twitter. Musk said last month that he expects to “reduce my time at Twitter, and find somebody else to run Twitter, over time.” But in a tweet Sunday he said: “No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor.”

    CNBC reported Tuesday that Musk is “actively searching” for a new Twitter CEO, citing anonymous sources. Twitter, which recently cut most of its public relations team, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Musk responded to the story on Twitter with two crying laughing emojis.

    The most obvious potential candidates for a new Twitter CEO are the Musk lieutenants who have been helping to run the company since his takeover. The short list likely includes investor Jason Calacanis, Craft Ventures partner David Sacks and Sriram Krishnan, an Andreessen Horowitz general partner focused on crypto and Twitter’s former consumer teams lead.

    A range of other wild card candidates have publicly offered to take on the job, including former T-Mobile CEO John Legere and rapper Snoop Dogg.

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  • Here’s what’s in the $1.7 trillion federal spending bill | CNN Politics

    Here’s what’s in the $1.7 trillion federal spending bill | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Senate leaders unveiled a $1.7 trillion year-long federal government funding bill early Tuesday morning.

    The legislation includes $772.5 billion for non-defense discretionary programs and $858 billion in defense funding, according to a bill summary from Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.

    The sweeping package includes roughly $45 billion in emergency assistance to Ukraine and NATO allies, boosts in spending for disaster aid, college access, child care, mental health and food assistance, more support for the military and veterans and additional funds for the US Capitol Police, according to Leahy’s summary and one from Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

    However, the bill, which runs more than 4,000 pages, left out several measures that some lawmakers had fought to include. An expansion of the child tax credit, as well as multiple other corporate and individual tax breaks, did not make it into the final bill. Neither did legislation to allow cannabis companies to bank their cash reserves – known as the Safe Banking Act. Also, there was also no final resolution on where the new FBI headquarters will be located.

    The spending bill is the product of lengthy negotiations between top congressional Democrats and Republicans. Lawmakers reached a “bipartisan, bicameral framework” last week following a dispute between the two parties over how much money should be spent on non-defense domestic priorities. They worked through the weekend to craft the legislation.

    The Senate is expected to vote first to approve the deal this week and then send it to the House for approval before government funding runs out on December 23. The bill would keep the government operating through September, the end of the fiscal year.

    Congress originally passed a continuing resolution on September 30 to temporarily fund the government in fiscal year 2023, which began October 1.

    More aid for Ukraine: The spending bill would provide roughly $45 billion to help support Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself against Russia’s attack.

    About $9 billion of the funding would go to Ukraine’s military to pay for a variety of things including training, weapons, logistics support and salaries. Nearly $12 billion would be used to replenish US stocks of equipment sent to Ukraine through presidential drawdown authority.

    Also, it would provide $13 billion for economic support to the Ukrainian government.

    Other funds would address humanitarian and infrastructure needs, as well as support European Command operations.

    Emergency disaster assistance: The bill would appropriate more than $38 billion in emergency funding to help Americans in the west and southeast affected by recent natural disasters, including tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding and wildfires. It would aid farmers, provide economic development assistance for communities, repair and reconstruct federal facilities and direct money to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund, among other initiatives.

    Overhaul of the electoral vote counting law: A provision in the legislation aims at making it harder to overturn a certified presidential election, in a direct response to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

    The changes would overhaul the 1887 Electoral Count Act, which then-President Donald Trump tried to use to overturn the 2020 election.

    The legislation would clarify the vice president’s role while overseeing the certification of the electoral result to be completely ceremonial. It also would create a set of stipulations designed to make it harder for there to be any confusion over the accurate slate of electors from each state.

    Higher maximum Pell grant awards: The bill would increase the maximum Pell grant award by $500 to $7,395 for the coming school year. This would be the largest boost since the 2009-2010 school year. About 7 million students, many from lower-income families, receive Pell grants every year to help them afford college.

    Increased support for the military and veterans: The package would fund a 4.6% pay raise for troops and a 22.4% increase in support for Veteran Administration medical care, which provides health services for 7.3 million veterans.

    It would include nearly $53 billion to address higher inflation and $2.7 billion – a 25% increase – to support critical services and housing assistance for veterans and their families.

    The bill also would allocate $5 billion for the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund, which provides additional funding to implement the landmark PACT Act that expands eligibility for health care services and benefits to veterans with conditions related to toxic exposure during their service.

    Beefing up nutrition assistance: The legislation would establish a permanent nationwide Summer EBT program, starting in the summer of 2024, according to Share Our Strength, an anti-hunger advocacy group. It would provide families whose children are eligible for free or reduced-price school meal with a $40 grocery benefit per child per month, indexed to inflation.

    It would also change the rules governing summer meals programs in rural areas. Children would be able to take home or receive delivery of up to 10 days worth of meals, rather than have to consume the food at a specific site and time.

    The bill would also help families who have had their food stamp benefits stolen since October 1 through what’s known as “SNAP skimming.” It would provide them with retroactive federal reimbursement of the funds, which criminals steal by attaching devices to point-of-sale machines or PIN pads to get card numbers and other information from electronic benefits transfer cards.

    More money for child care: The legislation would provide $8 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant, a 30% increase in funding. The grant gives financial assistance to low-income families to afford child care.

    Also, Head Start would receive nearly $12 billion, an 8.6% boost. The program helps young children from low-income families prepare for school.

    Help to pay utility bills: The bill would provide $5 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Combined with the $1 billion contained in the earlier continuing resolution, this would be the largest regular appropriation for the program, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. Home heating and cooling costs – and the applications for federal aid in paying the bills – have soared this year.

    Enhance retirement savings: The bill contains new retirement rules that could make it easier for Americans to accumulate retirement savings – and less costly to withdraw them. Among other things, the provisions would allow penalty-free withdrawals for some emergency expenses, let employers offer matching retirement contributions for a worker’s student loan payments and increase how much older workers may save in employer retirement plans.

    More support for the environment: The package would provide an additional $576 million for the Environmental Protection Agency, bringing its funding up to $10.1 billion. It would increase support for enforcement and compliance, as well as clean air, water and toxic chemical programs, after years of flat funding.

    It also would boost funding for the National Park Service by 6.4%, restoring 500 of the 3,000 staff positions lost over the past decade. This would be intended to help the agency handle substantial increases in visitation.

    Plus, the legislation would provide an additional 14% in funding for wildland firefighting.

    Additional funding for the US Capitol Police: The bill would provide an additional $132 million for the Capitol Police for a total of nearly $735 million. It would allow the department to hire up to 137 sworn officers and 123 support and civilian personnel, bringing the force to a projected level of 2,126 sworn officers and 567 civilians.

    It would also give $2 million to provide off-campus security for lawmakers in response to evolving and growing threats.

    Investments in homelessness prevention and affordable housing: The legislation would provide $3.6 billion for homeless assistance grants, a 13% increase. It would serve more than 1 million people experiencing homelessness.

    The package also would funnel nearly $6.4 billion to the Community Development Block Grant formula program and related local economic and community development projects that benefit low- and moderate income areas and people, an increase of almost $1.6 billion.

    Plus, it would provide $1.5 billion for the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, which would lead to the construction of nearly 10,000 new rental and homebuyer units and maintain the record investment from the last fiscal year.

    Increased health care funding: The package would provide more money for National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. The funds are intended to speed the development of new therapies, diagnostics and preventive measures, beef up public health activities and strengthen the nation’s biosecurity by accelerating development of medical countermeasures for pandemic threats and fortifying stockpiles and supply chains for drugs, masks and other supplies.

    More resources for children’s mental health and for substance abuse: The bill would provide more funds to increase access to mental health services for children and schools. It also would invest more money to address the opioid epidemic and substance use disorder.

    Tiktok ban from federal devices: The legislation would ban TikTok, the Chinese-owned short-form video app, from federal government devices.

    Some lawmakers have raised bipartisan concerns that China’s national security laws could force TikTok – or its parent, ByteDance – to hand over the personal data of its US users. Recently, a wave of states led by Republican governors have introduced state-level restrictions on the use of TikTok on government-owned devices.

    Enhanced child tax credit: A coalition of Democratic lawmakers and consumer advocates pushed hard to extend at least one provision of the enhanced child tax credit, which was in effect last year thanks to the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. Their priority was to make the credit more refundable so more of the lowest-income families can qualify. Nearly 19 million kids won’t receive the full $2,000 benefit this year because their parents earn too little, according to a Tax Policy Center estimate.

    New cannabis banking rules: Lawmakers considered including a provision in the spending bill that would make it easier for licensed cannabis businesses to accept credit cards – but it was left out of the legislation. Known as the Safe Banking Act, which previously passed the House, the provision would prohibit federal regulators from taking punitive measures against banks for providing services to legitimate cannabis businesses.

    Even though 47 states have legalized some form of marijuana, cannabis remains illegal on the federal level. That means financial institutions providing banking services to cannabis businesses are subject to criminal prosecution – leaving many legal growers and sellers locked out of the banking system.

    FBI headquarters: There was also no final resolution on where the new FBI headquarters will be located, a major point of contention as lawmakers from Maryland – namely House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer – pushed to bring the law enforcement agency into their state. In a deal worked through by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the General Services Administration would be required to conduct “separate and detailed consultations” with Maryland and Virginia representatives about potential sites in each of the states, according to a Senate Democratic aide.

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  • Virginia Democrats to hold ‘firehouse’ primary ahead of special House election | CNN Politics

    Virginia Democrats to hold ‘firehouse’ primary ahead of special House election | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Virginia Democrats will choose a nominee on Tuesday for the special election to fill the term of the late Rep. Donald McEachin, who died in November just weeks after winning reelection.

    Democrats in the 4th Congressional District are holding a “firehouse primary” – or one that’s conducted by the party organization, instead of by election officials – across a handful of pop-up voting locations in the Richmond-area district.

    The nominee will enter the February general election as the favorite in what has been a reliably Democratic district, and the outcome of the election isn’t likely to affect the balance of power in the US House, which Republicans are set to control in January.

    Virginia state Sen. Jennifer McClellan, who finished third in the 2021 gubernatorial primary, has the support of Democratic Party leaders and groups ranging from the political arm of the Congressional Progressive Caucus to the moderate-backing Democratic Majority for Israel PAC. If elected, she would be the first Black woman to represent Virginia in Congress.

    Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine campaigned with McClellan, a close ally whose wedding he officiated, over the weekend and members of the Commonwealth’s Democratic congressional delegation have all endorsed her, as have Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney and other local officials. Democrats will not know their nominee until Wednesday, at the earliest, when the counting of ballots begins.

    The coalescing around McClellan was influenced in part by the campaign of scandal-plagued state Sen. Joe Morrissey. His feuds with the party establishment may be part of his appeal among some disenchanted partisans, but his critics point to a more damaging history, including his resignation from the state House in 2014 after a misdemeanor conviction for contributing to the delinquency of a minor – a 17-year-old part-time staffer at his law office with whom he had sex and exchanged nude photos. He was in his mid-50s at the time, but has argued, according to a local report, that he believed the woman was 18. (Morrissey has since married the woman and they have several children.) Morrissey has also been stripped of his law license – twice – and remains disbarred following a 2019 state Supreme Court decision to uphold its revocation.

    Morrissey attacked the state party for holding the primary on a Tuesday instead of a Saturday, saying it would limit voter turnout. In announcing his run, Morrissey called himself a “worker bee” while highlighting his work on criminal justice reform.

    Virginia doesn’t have party registration, so the primary will be open to all voters in the district, provided they sign a pledge to support the Democratic nominee in the general election. Republicans chose their candidate, Leon Benjamin, in a weekend vote.

    Benjamin has run for the seat before, having lost to McEachin earlier this year and in 2020.

    Under Virginia state law, there’s no state-run primary for this special election, so the parties are responsible for selecting their own nominees.

    The district’s Democratic committee chairwoman cheered the “firehouse” voting method as a way to increase participation in the process.

    “A Firehouse Primary allows as many candidates and voters to participate in the democratic process as possible,” Alexsis Rodgers said. “The Fourth Congressional District Democratic Committee is committed to holding a smooth, transparent, and expedient process to select a nominee.”

    Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin last Monday set the date of the special election for February 21, creating a quick turnaround as the parties need to formally select their candidates by December 23.

    With just a week to campaign, a host of Democrats jumped into the race. McClellan and Morrissey are the leading contenders, largely because state Del. Lamont Bagby decided to drop out to help clear the way for McClellan, a fellow leader of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus. Bagby’s support largely shifted to McClellan.

    McClellan, who has served in the state legislature since 2006 and succeeded McEachin in the state Senate, spoke about her legislative experience and her work in the capitol with the late congressman in her announcement speech last week.

    “This is a bittersweet day for me as I continue to mourn a friend but hear the call to carry on his legacy and carry my servant leadership to Washington,” McClellan said.

    Virginia Democrats lost the governorship and the House of Delegates in 2021 and control only a very narrow majority in the state Senate. If McClellan were to win the congressional special election in February, her vacant Senate seat could weaken Democrats’ ability to block Republican bills – like potential restrictions on abortion.

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  • Here’s who Elon Musk could pick to be Twitter’s next CEO | CNN Business

    Here’s who Elon Musk could pick to be Twitter’s next CEO | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Elon Musk may soon be on the lookout for a new chief executive to run Twitter.

    After mounting criticism of his chaotic leadership at Twitter, including recent decisions to suspend tech journalists and introduce (and then delete) a controversial policy banning linking out to rival platforms, Musk posted a poll asking whether he should step down as CEO. The poll ended Monday morning with 57% of voters in favor of Musk handing off the top job.

    Musk has not commented on the results of the poll. In fact, Musk went an uncharacteristically long time on Monday without tweeting at all. But even if Musk doesn’t immediately honor his own poll, the Tesla CEO will likely only continue to face pressure from the carmaker’s investors to hand the reins to someone else sooner than later. Tesla stock is down 34% since his deal to buy Twitter closed and more than 63% since the start of this year, as investors worry about his many competing priorities. (Musk has also for years mused about finding a successor to run Tesla, with no obvious progress.)

    Musk, for his part, said in a tweet Sunday before the poll had closed: “No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor.”

    If Musk were to look for a new Twitter CEO, he’d likely have many willing takers. Already, the list of people who have offered to run the platform includes former T-Mobile CEO John Legere, MIT artificial intelligence researcher Lex Fridman and rapper Snoop Dogg (who could perhaps run Twitter with the help of his friend and entertainment personality Martha Stewart). Tom Anderson, a founder of MySpace, also commented on Musk’s poll about stepping down from CEO, saying, “depends on who you get to run it,” with a thinking-face emoji.

    There are also some highly qualified candidates out there — such as former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and CTO Mike Schroepfer, who both left their roles at the social media giant earlier this year — although convincing them to take on the chaos machine that is Twitter could be difficult. Jack Dorsey, Twitter founder, CEO of Block and friend to Musk, has previously said he would not return to run the social network.

    The most obvious potential candidates for a new Twitter CEO are the Musk lieutenants who have been helping to run the company since his takeover. The short list likely includes investor Jason Calacanis, Craft Ventures partner David Sacks and Sriram Krishnan, an Andreessen Horowitz general partner focused on crypto and Twitter’s former consumer teams lead.

    If Musk does pick someone else, it might allow him to hand over some of the day-to-day responsibility, and accountability, of running Twitter. But one thing would almost certainly not change: Musk remains very much in charge. Musk pushed out the company’s former leadership and board of directors, and as the company’s owner and sole board director, he will ultimately have the power to hire and fire whoever he wants at the company’s helm.

    Calacanis, who emerged in the tech world as a reporter during the dot com boom, is an early-stage investor who has backed well-known companies such as Uber and Robinhood. He has also launched several media properties and hosts two podcasts (one in partnership with Sacks).

    Calacanis tweeted on Sunday night asking, “Who would like the most miserable job in tech AND media?! Who is insane enough to run twitter?!?!” Calacanis also ran his own Twitter poll asking followers whether he or Sacks should run the company, separately or together, or whether someone else should take over. The majority of respondents voted for “other.”

    In April, shortly after Musk offered to buy Twitter, Calacanis told the billionaire in a text message that “Twitter CEO is my dream job.”

    Sacks, who along with Musk was among the original founding team at PayPal, has at least some experience managing a social network. He founded and ran enterprise communications platform Yammer, before selling it to Microsoft in 2012 for $1.2 billion.

    Sacks has been particularly unflinching in echoing Musks’ talking points, whether it’s justifying a feud with Apple or attempting to stir up outrage about a Twitter account that posted publicly available information about the whereabouts of Musk’s private jet. A Twitter user asked Sacks last month what he and Musk disagree about, and Sacks responded with just one thing: “Chess.”

    On paper, Krishnan may be the most obvious choice of the group. He has direct experience working on the Twitter product, having previously helped manage the teams responsible for features of the platform such as search and the home timeline. He also previously worked on mobile ad products for Snap and Facebook.

    More recently, he has invested in crypto startups at Andreessen Horowitz, which could give him experience helpful to fulfill Musk’s goal of building payment capabilities for Twitter and making it more than just a social media app.

    Krishnan is arguably the least well-known — and therefore perhaps the least controversial — of Musk’s current Twitter leadership team, which could help deflect some of the recent negative attention the company has received.

    Some Twitter users have speculated about other possible leaders for the social media company, including Donald Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, who was spotted watching the World Cup with Musk over the weekend.

    Kushner is friendly with the Saudi Royal Family, one of Twitter’s largest investors. Prior to working as an advisor in Trump’s White House, Kushner worked for his family’s real estate development company, and last year he said he would leave politics and start an investment firm. Kushner also previously owned the weekly New York newspaper, the New York Observer.

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