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Tag: labor and employment

  • 6 migrant workers were hit and injured by an SUV outside a North Carolina Walmart, and authorities are searching for the driver, police say | CNN

    6 migrant workers were hit and injured by an SUV outside a North Carolina Walmart, and authorities are searching for the driver, police say | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Six migrant workers were hit and injured by an SUV outside a North Carolina Walmart in what appears to be an “intentional assault” Sunday afternoon, and authorities are looking for the driver involved, police said.

    The incident happened after 1 p.m. outside the store in the city of Lincolnton, about 38 miles northwest of Charlotte, according to the Lincolnton Police Department.

    All six injured were taken to a local hospital with various injuries, police said, adding that none of the injuries appeared life-threatening.

    Police described the driver involved in the incident as “an older white male” who was driving an older model mid-size black SUV with a luggage rack.

    The department didn’t provide details on the circumstances of the collision, or what led police to believe it may have been intentional.

    “The motives of the suspect are still under investigation,” Lincolnton Police said on Facebook.

    Police released surveillance images of a black SUV and asked for the public’s assistance in identifying the vehicle and its driver.

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  • Colombia’s marijuana farmers want out of the shadows. Will the government ever legalize their harvest? | News – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

    Colombia’s marijuana farmers want out of the shadows. Will the government ever legalize their harvest? | News – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

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    Cajibio (CNN) — On a recent Friday morning, about 200 coca and marijuana farmers gathered in the small town of Cajibio, southwestern Colombia, to hear the government out.

    Colombian’s government was still licking its wounds after an initiative to legalize recreational marijuana had sunk in Congress less than 10 days before.


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  • Why celebrities are on strike: Not every actor makes Tom Cruise money | CNN Business

    Why celebrities are on strike: Not every actor makes Tom Cruise money | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    On Friday, the SAG-AFTRA, a union representing about 160,000 Hollywood actors, officially went on strike after failing to reach a deal with Hollywood’s biggest studios.

    That means Hollywood actors and writers are on strike simultaneously for the first time in more than 60 years, bringing most film and television productions to a halt.

    Among other demands, actors on strike are calling for increased pay and a rethinking of residuals, which union members say has significantly diminished amid the rise of streaming services. Residuals are financial compensation paid out to actors whenever TV shows or movies they’ve appeared in are replayed.

    Here are some significant numbers:

    The union’s 160,000 members join the 11,000 Writers Guild of America members who have been striking since May.

    While many of the world’s highest-paid celebrities, including Meryl Streep and Matt Damon, have voiced their support for the strike, the concerns about higher pay and residuals affect thousands of actors who perform in hundreds of films and TV shows.

    SAG-AFTRA’s president, Fran Drescher, pushed back on the notion that all actors are wealthy, saying that a vast majority “are just working people just trying to make a living just trying to pay their rent, just trying to put food on the table and get their kids off to school.”

    “Everything that you watch, that you enjoy, that you’re entertained by are scenes filled with people that are not making the big money,” she added.

    That’s how much the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported as the average pay for California actors in 2022. However, the BLS noted in the data that actors aren’t paid full-time year-round due to the nature of the job.

    Before the contract between actors and movie studios officially expired this week, SAG-AFTRA members had negotiated specific minimum rates for performers. For example, an actor who worked on a television show for one week was paid a minimum of $3,756.

    However, Kellee Stewart, an actress who has performed for more than 20 years and has appeared on the television series “All American” and “Black-ish,” noted that performers traditionally don’t get to take home the number that appears as their rate.

    “You don’t get to keep it all when you get a paycheck,” she said.

    “You have to pay taxes, plus commissions. For me, that would include an agent, a manager, and a lawyer that negotiates your deals. Right away, when you’re giving a quote for what you’re going to get paid, you already know that’s really going to be 35% less, give or take,” she added.

    Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was the highest paid actor of 2022, raking in $270 million, according to Forbes’ list of highest paid entertainers. Johnson received hefty paydays from his roles in “Jungle Cruise” and “Red Notice,” but, according to Forbes, the majority of his earned income in 2022 came from his tequila brand, Teremana.

    Tom Cruise made headlines last year for reportedly making $100 million from his deal to star in “Top Gun: Maverick,” for which he received a cut of ticket sales, according to Variety.

    On CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday, IAC Chairman Barry Diller called on both top-paid actors and movie executives to take 25% pay cuts.

    “You have the actors union saying, ‘How dare these 10 people who run these companies earn all this money and won’t pay us?’ While, if you look at it on the other side, the top 10 actors get paid more than the top 10 executives,” Diller said. “I’m not saying either is right. Actually, everybody’s probably overpaid at the top end.”

    The minimum amount of money a performer must take home in one year to qualify for health insurance is $26,470.

    However, while well-known actors are paid millions of dollars to star in movies and TV shows, many members of SAG-AFTRA don’t bring in enough income each year to meet the union’s minimum requirement.

    According to Shaan Sharma, an actor and SAG-AFTRA board member, just 12.7% of SAG-AFTRA members qualify for the union’s health plan.

    Actor Rod McLachlan, who has appeared in television shows such as “Blue Bloods,” said it’s “a constant struggle” to meet the health insurance threshold.

    “If you think about it, $26,000 isn’t a middle-class wage,” he said.

    “The thing about the life of an actor is that you have good years and bad years,” he added.

    Due to the unpredictable nature of TV acting and the competitive nature of landing roles, actors traditionally rely on residual payments, paid out when films or movies are replayed, as a form of steady income when work is hard to come by.

    “If you were in a popular episode of a popular show, the income streams could last for quite some time. You have almost 18 months on one level or another where you are receiving income that was significant enough to help you until the next time you did a network show,” McLachlan said.

    Actors say that the calculation around residuals has changed. As more shows and movies have moved to streaming services, where it isn’t always clear how often content is replayed, actors say they’re making significantly less money.

    Striking writers and actors take part in a rally outside Paramount studios in Los Angeles on Friday, July 14, 2023. This marks the first day actors formally joined the picket lines, more than two months after screenwriters began striking in their bid to get better pay and working conditions.

    “The residuals that I get when it’s on network television versus what I would get on Netflix are night and day,” Stewart said.

    On Twitter, Stewart shared a screengrab of 5 residual payments totaling 13 cents from replays on streaming services.

    “There’s not just a difference between traditional residual television and streaming; they’re not even in the same conversation,” she told CNN.

    On Thursday, Disney CEO Bob Iger said striking actors’ and writers’ demands are “just not realistic.”

    “They are adding to a set of challenges that this business is already facing, that is quite frankly, very disruptive,” he told CNBC.

    When Iger rejoined Disney as CEO in November 2022, he agreed to an annual base salary of $1 million with a potential annual bonus of $2 million dollars. The agreement also includes stock awards from Disney totaling $25 million.

    On Wednesday, Iger agreed to remain in his post as CEO of Disney through 2026 while the company’s board searches for a successor. In his new agreement, Iger is now eligible for a bonus of up to $5 million, according to a company filing, meaning his total pay may reach $31 million per year.

    Walt Disney Studios is part of The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the trade group that negotiates with currently striking writers and actors. Other major movie studios, such as Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures, along with streaming services like Netflix and Apple TV+ are members, as well. Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent company, is also a member.

    Netflix’s co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters made $50 million and $28 million respectively in 2022, according to a company filing.

    In a statement to CNN, the AMPTP said they were “deeply disappointed” with the union’s decision to strike.

    “Rather than continuing to negotiate, SAG-AFTRA has put us on a course that will deepen the financial hardship for thousands who depend on the industry for their livelihoods,” the AMPTP said.

    SAG-AFTRA did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

    The potential economic impact of the combined writers’ and actors’ strike could cause $4 billion or more in damage, Kevin Klowden, the chief global strategist for the economic think tank, the Milken Institute, told CNN.

    Klowden said the double strike, which has brought Hollywood projects to a grinding halt, may affect more than just the US economy.

    “London and the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and other places, which either have studios or even do post-production, will face a real impact,” he said.

    – CNN’s Natasha Chen contributed reporting to this story

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  • Americans’ wages are finally outpacing inflation. But could it last? | CNN Business

    Americans’ wages are finally outpacing inflation. But could it last? | CNN Business

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    Minneapolis
    CNN
     — 

    US wages have been on the rise, but it sure hasn’t felt like it. For more than two years, persistent and pervasive inflation has taken big bites out of Americans’ paychecks.

    That’s finally starting to change now that inflation is waning.

    In June, for the first time in 26 months, US workers’ real weekly earnings (a week’s worth of wages adjusted for inflation) grew on an annual basis, according to data released this week from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Annual real weekly wages were up 0.6% last month, a rate that’s a tick below the 0.7% gain seen in February 2020.

    June also marked the second consecutive month of year-over-year real hourly wage growth — the first back-to-back months of gains since early 2021.

    “The big problem for most consumers is when wage increases do not keep pace with inflation, then we lose real purchasing power,” said William Ferguson, the Gertrude B. Austin professor of economics at Grinnell College in Iowa. “And that’s actually what hurts people.”

    Although long overdue, this development is landing at a sticky time in the economy and the Federal Reserve’s knock-down-drag-out fight to tame inflation. The Fed has been laser-focused on dampening demand, and central bankers have frequently noted they’re keeping close watch on how much wage growth could stoke that demand and, in turn, inflation.

    Alternatively, if a cooling labor market turns frigid, that could also make this recent growth short-lived.

    “If inflation is moderate and the labor market is very strong, it’s a reason for vigilance, but it’s not a reason on its own to continue hiking,” said Alex Pelle, Mizuho Securities US economist. “It’s one of those things that you need to watch, because there’s the argument that will add to inflationary pressures.”

    The Fed is in the midst of a wait-and-see period. After 10 consecutive rate hikes in 15 months, the Fed’s policymakers in June voted to hold the benchmark rate steady so they could evaluate the effects of the tightening to date, as well as the activity within the banking sector and broader economy.

    Although the major economic reports of the past two weeks did show key data was moving in the preferred direction — slowing job growth, a slight slackening within the labor market, cooling consumer price inflation and practically flat producer prices — markets largely expect the Fed to continue with a well-telegraphed quarter-point increase when it meets later this month.

    “The Fed does not want to repeat the mistake of the 1970s, when they stopped the tightening and inflation bounced back up,” said Sung Won Sohn, professor of finance and economics at Loyola Marymount University and chief economist at SS Economics.

    Fears of a dreaded “wage-price spiral” — when rising wages and prices feed into each other — have made a bogeyman out of wage growth. However, recent economic research from the likes of the San Francisco Fed and former Fed chair Ben Bernanke noted that wages gains have had little, and certainly not overwhelming, effects on this inflationary cycle.

    Wage gains “will fuel spending, and I do think it will be something that keeps a floor on inflation that’s above [the Fed’s target of] 2%, but let’s see how it evolves over time,” Pelle said. “I don’t want to jump the gun and say absolutely that this is something that the Fed needs crushed.”

    If a data point from the June jobs report proves to be a trend and not a one-month blip, the wage gains seen now could be short-lived.

    In June, the number of people employed part-time for economic reasons grew by 452,000 to 4.2 million, an increase that was partially reflective of people “whose hours were cut due to slack work for business conditions,” the BLS noted.

    Still, the broader labor market trends, including hiring activity, labor movements and businesses’ budgets are favorable to workers maintaining these real wage gains, said Julia Pollak, chief economist with ZipRecruiter.

    Job growth is slowing somewhat, but the gains are still above pre-pandemic averages as companies continue to backfill shortfalls left by the pandemic and respond to continued demand. Also, some workers who have felt they’ve been given short shrift or are discouraged about two years of negative real wages are responding with labor strikes, she noted.

    And finally, supply-side inflation has drastically cooled to the point where annual inflation is practically flat — which, ideally, gives firms more wiggle room to pay workers, she said.

    “For the most part, this is still a tight labor market, still very low unemployment, still healthy business activity in lots and lots of industries where businesses have little choice but to staff up or at least maintain the staff they have,” she said.

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  • As SAG strike brings Hollywood to a standstill, which favorite UK-filmed shows could still go ahead? | CNN

    As SAG strike brings Hollywood to a standstill, which favorite UK-filmed shows could still go ahead? | CNN

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    London
    CNN
     — 

    As a host of Hollywood actors join film and TV writers in a strike against major studios and streaming services, filming and production of some popular shows – including “House of the Dragon” and “Industry” – could continue, due to UK strike laws.

    Though British acting union Equity said it would “stand in unwavering solidarity” with Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), it advised “SAG-AFTRA members currently working under an Equity UK collective bargaining agreement should continue to report to work.”

    This, the 47,000-member union noted, was due to the UK’s “draconian” industrial relations legislation, which it called “a national disgrace” in need of reform.

    A large portion of filming for HBO’s “Game of Thrones” spinoff “House of the Dragon” took place in England, with the show’s base being Leavesden Studios in Watford, near London. HBO announced in April that production had begun on season 2, which is slated for next year.

    Another HBO show, “Industry,” which was renewed for a third season last year, was filmed in London and Cardiff, Wales. In March, Joseph Charlton, writer and consulting producer on “Industry” season 3, told Digital Spy that casting had begun for the season.

    A source with knowledge of the productions confirmed to CNN that both are Equity contract shows.

    HBO, like CNN, is a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery.

    Paul Fleming, General Secretary of Equity, said in a statement: “The regrettable consequence of this framework is that what artists working in the United Kingdom – whether SAG-AFTRA and/or Equity members (or both) – can do, may be different from their comrades in the United States and other parts of the world.”

    SAG-AFTRA, which represents about 160,000 actors, began a strike at midnight Pacific time Friday morning after talks with major studios and streaming services failed. It is the first time its members have stopped work on movie and television productions since 1980, after a final day of negotiations on Wednesday did not produce an agreement.

    Actors are calling for increased pay as well as progress on residuals paid for when films or shows are shown again, particularly on streaming services. They join 11,000 members of the Writers Guild of America, who have been on strike for two months.

    Production of many movies and television shows has already been shut down by the current writers’ strike, and the actors’ strike threatens to bring most remaining productions to a halt, other than on some independent films not associated with studios.

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  • Fran Drescher responds to criticism about her Italy trip and pic with Kim Kardashian days before SAG strike | CNN

    Fran Drescher responds to criticism about her Italy trip and pic with Kim Kardashian days before SAG strike | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Fran Drescher, the president of the SAG-AFTRA union, responded to criticism on Thursday for traveling to Italy to attend Dolce & Gabbana’s Alta Moda festivities this past weekend as her 160,000-member actors’ union faced a deadline to go on strike.

    At a press conference that day – during which Drescher officially announced that the union will go on strike after talks with the Hollywood’s major studios and streamers failed – she was asked about the “optics” of being seen taking a “selfie” with Kim Kardashian at the event in Italy.

    “That wasn’t a selfie,” Drescher said, later adding “I’m a brand ambassador for a fashion company and so is Kim. I had only met Kim seconds before that publicity picture was taken.”

    She added that “it had nothing to do with being at a party having fun – it was absolute work.”

    The “Nanny” star said she left the event at 10:30 at night to go to her hotel room and meet with union negotiators on Zoom, adding that she “worked around the clock in three different time zones.”

    “And if I couldn’t get through to them because I was on a plane, I was texting with them constantly throughout the plane ride,” Drescher said, adding that she had also traveled to Florida to care for her parents – and worked while there, too.

    The photo of Drescher with Kardashian prompted criticism from a number of SAG-AFTRA members, as well as members of the Writer Guild of America, which is already on strike against the studios and streaming services.

    Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, co-chair of SAG-AFTRA, chimed in to defend Drescher on Thursday, saying “Fran was working, which is what our members do,” and that “she was zooming in to our negotiations after work hours, working 18 hours or more a day.”

    SAG-AFTRA’s talks with the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers (AMPTP), the entity representing the studios and streamers, focused on pay scales and benefits, progress on residuals paid for when films or shows are shown again, particularly on streaming services, as well as protections on the use of artificial intelligence to create characters using actors’ voices or likenesses.

    At Thursday’s news conference, Drescher said the union would not accept changes to their contract that do not match up with the changes happening in the industry.

    “We’re not going to keep doing incremental changes on a contract that no longer honors what is happening right now with this business model that was foisted upon us,” she said, going on to ask, “What are we doing? Moving around furniture on the Titanic? It’s crazy.”

    The SAG-AFTRA strike is set to go into effect at midnight PT Thursday night.

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  • Actors set to strike after talks with major studios, streaming services fail | CNN Business

    Actors set to strike after talks with major studios, streaming services fail | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    A union representing about 160,000 Hollywood actors is poised to go on strike after talks with major studios and streaming services have failed.

    It will be the first time its members have stopped work on movie and television productions since 1980, after a final day of negotiations failed to produce an agreement.

    Fran Drescher, president of SAG-AFTRA, the union, said in a statement the studio management’s offers were “insulting and disrespectful.”

    The union said its negotiating committee had unanimously recommend a strike and that its governing board will vote on that recommendation later Thursday morning.

    Its members had already voted 98% in favor of authorizing a strike.

    The body representing studios and streaming services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    This is a developing story. It will be updated.

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  • Actors union agrees to 11th hour mediation effort, but strike still looms | CNN Business

    Actors union agrees to 11th hour mediation effort, but strike still looms | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    The union representing 160,000 actors said on Tuesday it has agreed to a request from studios and streaming services to meet with federal mediators over contract negotiations but is still prepared to go on strike at 11:59 pm PDT on Wednesday unless a deal is reached.

    “We will not be distracted from negotiating in good faith to secure a fair and just deal by the expiration of our agreement,” said the statement from SAG-AFTRA, the actors union. “We are committed to the negotiating process and will explore and exhaust every possible opportunity to make a deal, however we are not confident that the employers have any intention of bargaining toward an agreement.”

    The union has already granted one extension to its contract, which was originally due to expire on July 1. If they go on strike, they will be joining more than 11,000 members of the Writers Guild of America on picket lines against major studios and streaming services. The writers have been on strike for more than two months.

    There was no comment about the mediation request or its acceptance from the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers (AMPTP), which is negotiating on behalf of the studios, including Amazon

    (AMZN)    , Apple

    (AAPL)    , CBS

    (VIAC)    , Disney

    (DIS)    , NBC Universal, Netflix

    (NFLX)    , Paramount Global, Sony

    (SNE)     and CNN parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.

    SAG-AFTRA said that news reports were published about management’s desire for mediation even before the request was made of union negotiators at the bargaining table.

    “The AMPTP has abused our trust and damaged the respect we have for them in this process,” said the union’s statement. “We will not be manipulated by this cynical ploy to engineer an extension when the companies have had more than enough time to make a fair deal.”

    Asked about that statement from SAG-AFTRA, the AMPTP declined to comment.

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  • Could the June CPI report change the Fed’s rate trajectory? | CNN Business

    Could the June CPI report change the Fed’s rate trajectory? | CNN Business

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    A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.



    CNN
     — 

    After the June jobs report showed a cooling but still-hot picture of the labor market, investors are looking to a key inflation report due Wednesday for more clues on the economy’s health. But some investors say the results will likely do little to sway the Federal Reserve’s interest rate trajectory.

    What happened: The labor market added just 209,000 jobs in June, below economists’ expectations for a net gain of 225,000 jobs. That’s the smallest monthly gain since a decline in December 2020.

    But beneath the surface, the jobs market remains hot. Average hourly earnings growth remained steady at 0.4% from May and also unchanged at 4.4% year-over-year, suggesting that wage inflation remains sticky. The unemployment rate also fell to 3.6% from 3.7%, though jobless rates for Black and Hispanic workers rose sharply.

    There is “nothing in the release that would change our expectation that the Fed has more work to do,” said Joseph Davis, global chief economist at Vanguard.

    Accordingly, traders continued to overwhelmingly expect a quarter-point rate hike at the Fed’s July meeting. Traders saw a roughly 92% chance of such a decision as of the market close on Friday, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

    What’s next: The June Consumer Price Index report, a key inflation reading, is due on Wednesday.

    Economists expect a 3.1% increase in consumer prices for the year ended in June, which would be a cooldown from a 4% annual increase in May, according to Refinitiv.

    Recent data has suggested that inflation is coming down, though it remains above the Fed’s 2% target. The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, the Fed’s favorite inflation gauge, rose 3.8% for the 12 months ended in May. That’s down from the revised 4.3% annual rise seen in April.

    But it’s unlikely that the June CPI report will change the Fed’s interest rate trajectory, barring a huge upside or downside surprise, especially considering that Fed officials in recent weeks have been vocal that more rate hikes are likely coming, said James Ragan, director of wealth management research at DA Davidson.

    Still, that doesn’t mean investors should expect infinite rate hikes from the Fed.

    “We continue to expect that [the] Fed will soon reach its terminal rate, bringing it closer toward the end of its most aggressive tightening campaign in generations,” said Candice Tse, global head of strategic advisory solutions at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

    The Producer Price Index report for June is due on Thursday.

    UPS and the Teamsters union are in contract negotiations. Without a deal, 340,000 Teamsters could go on strike on August 1.

    Such an event could be damaging to the US economy, reports my colleague Chris Isidore.

    UPS carries 6% of the country’s gross domestic product in its trucks. The company carried an average of 20.8 million US packages a day through last year, and that number is down only slightly this year.

    In other words, the company’s services are critical to keeping the gears moving seamlessly in supply chains that saw massive snarls during the height of the Covid pandemic. A strike could potentially bring back the problems that were so prominent just a couple years ago, including shipping delays and higher prices.

    The Biden administration is keeping an eye on negotiations between both parties in “recognition of the role UPS plays in our economy and of the important work that UPS workers did through the pandemic and continue to do today,” acting labor secretary Julie Su told CNN on Friday.

    But the company and union broke off last week, with both sides claiming the other walked away from the bargaining table.

    Read more here.

    Monday: Consumer credit for May and NY Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Expectations for June.

    Tuesday: NFIB small business optimism survey for June.

    Wednesday: Consumer Price Index report and housing starts for June.

    Thursday: Producer Price Index report for June.

    Friday: University of Michigan consumer sentiment and inflation expectations for July.

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  • Expect more rate hikes from the Fed after the latest jobs report | CNN Business

    Expect more rate hikes from the Fed after the latest jobs report | CNN Business

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    Washington, DC
    CNN
     — 

    An interest rate hike later this month was already in the cards for the Federal Reserve. But after the June jobs report, the timing of a second hike remains unclear.

    Job gains remain robust, wage growth is still going strong, and unemployment continues to hover near historic lows. That means the job market is still fueling demand in the economy, which the Fed has been trying to slow through rate hikes. And Fed officials have made it clear they think the central bank still has more work to do to bring down inflation, which is still running well above the 2% goal.

    Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Austan Goolsbee, a voting member of the Fed committee that decides interest rates, said in an interview Friday that he sees “a decent chance of further tightening down the pipeline” and that inflation “needs to come down more.”

    Other Fed officials have struck a similarly hawkish tone on inflation, hinting strongly at a hike in July.

    “I remain very concerned about whether inflation will return to target in a sustainable and timely way,” said Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Lorie Logan on Thursday during a meeting hosted by the Central Bank Research Association. “I think more restrictive monetary policy will be needed to achieve the Federal Open Market Committee’s goals of stable prices and maximum employment.”

    Fed officials voted last month to hold the key federal funds rate steady at a range of 5-5.25% to reassess the economy after a string of 10 consecutive rate hikes and to monitor the effects of bank stresses in the spring, according to minutes from that meeting released Wednesday.

    “We can take some time and assess and collect more information and then be able to act, knowing that we also communicated through our projections that we don’t think we’re done, based on what we know,” said New York Fed President John Williams Wednesday during a moderated discussion in New York. “And obviously we’re absolutely committed to achieving our 2% inflation goal.”

    And Fed Chair Jerome Powell himself has doubled down on the need for more rate increases in recent speeches, not ruling out back-to-back hikes, despite economic indicators showing slight progress on inflation.

    Financial markets are pricing in a more than a 90% chance of a rate hike later this month, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

    The Fed wants to see the labor market slow down broadly, bringing it into “better balance,” as Powell has frequently described it. That means wage growth would need to cool consistently, monthly payroll growth would need to be close to a range of 70,000 and 100,000 — the smallest job gain needed to keep up with population growth — and unemployment would need to rise, according to economists. Job market conditions don’t resemble that just yet.

    “This is clearly a very tight labor market, so I expect the Fed to look at this data and say there is justification here for continued small rate increases because the labor market is not cooling enough,” Dave Gilbertson, labor economist at payroll software company UKG, told CNN.

    Labor costs are higher because of a persistent difficulty in hiring, weighing on labor-intensive service providers such as hospitals and restaurants, which has put upward pressure on consumer prices since businesses typically raise wages to address hiring challenges.

    Powell homed in on that dynamic in recent remarks, and research from top economists argues the Fed will have to slow the economy further to fully address the labor market’s stubborn impact on inflation. Whether that means a full-blown recession or a so-called soft landing remains to be seen, but some Fed officials are optimistic.

    “I feel like we are on a golden path of avoiding recession,” Goolsbee told CNBC Friday.

    And there has been some progress on bringing the job market back into better balance while inflation has come down. Job openings fell to 9.82 million in May, down from a peak of 12 million in March 2022, though they still greatly exceed the number of unemployed people seeking work. And June’s jobs total of 209,000 is still robust by historical standards.

    But Gilbertson said labor shortages have been largely driven by demographic shifts, which might keep the job market tight for the foreseeable future.

    Beyond the expected hike in July, the Fed is going to remain laser-focused on wage growth to inform its decision-making later in the year. Central bank officials will pay particular attention to the Employment Cost Index, which recently showed that pay gains picked up in the first three months of the year. The index for the second quarter will be released in late July — after the Fed meets.

    “The focus is on the path of wage inflation because of its pass-through to services inflation,” said Sonia Meskin, head of US Macro at BNY Mellon IM.

    The June jobs report showed that average hourly earnings growth was unchanged at 0.4% from the month before and also unchanged at 4.4% year-over-year — not a welcome development.

    Core inflation hasn’t decelerated as fast as the headline measure because of the tightness in the labor market. The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, rose 3.8% in May from a year earlier, down from April’s 4.3% rise; while the core measure edged lower to 4.6% from 4.7% during the same period.

    Within the core measure, services inflation also remains sticky and Powell said in last month’s post-meeting news conference that “we see only the earliest signs of disinflation there” and that the services sector’s “largest cost would be wage cost.”

    The Fed’s strategy to address services inflation is simply by curbing demand through more rate hikes. So, in addition to the labor market, the Fed is highly attentive to consumer spending, which has cooled in the past several months, according to figures from the Commerce Department.

    Other headwinds are expected to weigh on consumers in the months ahead, such as the resumption of student loan payments and the Supreme Court blocking President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program. Americans are also running down their savings accounts while racking up debt, so US consumers may need to start cutting back soon.

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  • Goodbye child care centers, hello elderly homes: South Korea prepares for aging population | CNN

    Goodbye child care centers, hello elderly homes: South Korea prepares for aging population | CNN

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    Seoul, South Korea
    CNN
     — 

    South Korea is getting older – and its care facilities are changing to match.

    The number of child care facilities in the country has shrunk by almost a quarter in just a few years, reflecting authorities’ unsuccessful campaign to encourage couples to have more babies.

    In 2017, there were more than 40,000 child care facilities, according to new government figures released Friday – by the end of last year, that number had fallen to roughly 30,900.

    Meanwhile, as the population rapidly ages, the number of elderly facilities has boomed from 76,000 in 2017 to 89,643 in 2022, according to the country’s health and welfare ministry.

    Elderly facilities include senior care homes, specialized hospitals, and welfare agencies that help the elderly navigate social services or protections. Meanwhile, the child care facilities listed include public services as well as private and corporate ones.

    The shift illustrates a years-long problem South Korea has thus far failed to reverse. It has both one of the world’s fastest aging populations and the world’s lowest birth rate, which has been falling continuously since 2015 despite authorities offering financial incentives and housing subsidies for couples with more babies.

    Experts attribute this low birth rate to various factors, including demanding work cultures, stagnating wages, rising costs of living, the financial burden of raising children, changing attitudes toward marriage and gender equality, and rising disillusionment among younger generations.

    By the late 2000s, the government had begun warning that policy measures were needed to encourage families to grow. Last September, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol admitted that more than $200 billion has been spent trying to boost the population over the past 16 years.

    But so far nothing has worked – and the effects have been increasingly visible in the social fabric and day-to-day life.

    Many elementary, middle and high schools are closing around the country due to a lack of school-age children, according to Korean news agency Yonhap, citing the education ministry. Figures from the country’s official statistics body show the overall number of middle and high schools have remained stagnant for years, only rising by a few dozen since 2015.

    In Daejeon, south of Seoul, one such abandoned school has become a popular spot for photographers and urban explorers; images show eerily empty hallways and a school yard overgrown by wild grass.

    A photographer outside an abandoned school near Daejeon, South Korea, on March 22, 2014.

    Similar crises have been seen in other East Asian countries with falling birth rates. One village in Japan went 25 years without recording a single birth. The arrival of a baby in 2016 was heralded as a miracle, with elderly well-wishers hobbling to the infant’s house to hold him.

    Meanwhile, South Korea’s expanding elderly population has meant an explosion in demand for senior services, placing strain on a system scrambling to keep up.

    South Korea has the highest elderly poverty rate among the OECD nations (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), with more than 40% of people over 65 years old facing “relative poverty,” defined by the OECD as having income lower than 50% of median household disposable income.

    “In Korea, the pension system is still maturing, and current generations still have very low pensions,” the OECD wrote in a 2021 report.

    Experts point to other factors such as global economic trends, the breakdown of old social structures that saw children looking after their parents, and insufficient government support for those struggling financially.

    That means a number of homeless elderly people – part of a generation that helped rebuild the country after the Korean War – having to seek assistance from shelters and soup kitchens.

    The rapid rise in elderly facilities in recent years may help alleviate some of these problems. But longer-term concerns remain about the future of Korea’s economy, as the number of young workers – who are crucial in propping up the health care and pension systems – slowly dwindle.

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  • ‘Race neutral’ replaces affirmative action. What’s next? | CNN Politics

    ‘Race neutral’ replaces affirmative action. What’s next? | CNN Politics

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    A version of this story appears in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.



    CNN
     — 

    When the Supreme Court cut affirmative action out of college admissions programs Thursday, it did not outlaw the goal of achieving diversity, but it set a new “race-neutral” standard for considering applicants.

    That term – “race neutral” – does not appear in the opinion of the court, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, which states that colleges and universities have “concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin.”

    But when Roberts clarifies that students can still refer to their race in admissions essays, explaining challenges they’ve overcome, he and the majority are buying into the idea of race neutrality.

    Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote his own concurring opinion, uses the term “race neutral” repeatedly, offering it as an antidote to affirmative action.

    Pointing to efforts in California and Michigan to enroll diverse classes at top universities even after voters in those states ended affirmative action, Thomas says race-neutral policies can “achieve the same benefits of racial harmony and equality without any of the burdens and strife generated by affirmative action policies.”

    Justice Sonia Sotomayor shot back at Thomas and the majority, rejecting the term.

    “The majority’s vision of race neutrality will entrench racial segregation in higher education because racial inequality will persist so long as it is ignored,” she wrote.

    For more on this view, read this piece in The Atlantic by scholars Uma Jayakumar and Ibram Kendi: “‘Race Neutral’ Is the New ‘Separate but Equal.’”

    If the experience of California and Michigan – where voters ended affirmative action programs years ago – is any indication, we can expect that the representation of Black and Latino students at top-level universities will fall.

    Those states argued in briefings to the court that their race-neutral efforts have not been completely successful, particularly at top-tier, flagship public schools, in creating environments that are inclusive for all.

    California has, according to its brief, tried race-neutral measures that “run the gamut from outreach programs directed at low-income students and students from families with little college experience, to programs designed to increase UC’s geographic reach, to holistic admissions policies.”

    While it has made strides, it says, there is a shortfall “especially apparent at UC’s most selective campuses, where African American, Native American, and Latinx students are underrepresented and widely report struggling with feelings of racial isolation.”

    In California, half of the college-age population – 18-24 – is Latino, according to data from the Public Policy Institute of California. Compare that with just 27% of enrollees for 2022 at the University of California’s nine undergraduate campuses who the UC system categorizes as Hispanic/Latinx.

    On the other hand, less than 13% of the college-age population is Asian, compared with 38% of UC enrollees.

    A little more than quarter of college-age Californians are White, compared with 18% of UC enrollees.

    Five percent of UC enrollees are African American, which is about on par with the 5.6% of college-age Californians who are Black.

    The figures change in comparison with the system overall at UC Berkeley, the system’s flagship undergraduate campus, where a smaller portion of entrants in 2022 were categorized as African American / Black (3.6%) and Chicanx / Latinx (21.1%), and more were White (30.7%) and Asian (52.1%).

    It’s also interesting to note that the Supreme Court exempted military academies from the decision. They can, presumably, still utilize affirmative action even though they are the higher learning institutions over which the federal government has the most control. The court, according to the majority opinion, feels the academies have “potentially distinct interests.”

    Those interests were perhaps outlined by former military leaders who wrote a brief last year arguing affirmative action aided national security.

    Meanwhile, even though race is off the table as a determinative factor, schools like Harvard University can and still will very much take into account whether an applicant’s parents went there, how much their parents might be able to donate and whether an applicant can help their sports teams.

    “While the actual language of the Supreme Court will come across as very intellectualized and esoteric, as if in a classroom, in reality, how will this work?” wondered Laura Coates, CNN’s chief legal analyst, appearing on the network Thursday.

    “How will you be able to have certain color blindedness but then at the same time allowed to take into account one’s experiences when race has been a part of that? That’s the devil in the details of every affirmative action case.”

    CNN’s Nicquel Terry Ellis wrote about what the data suggests will happen:

    A study by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce found that colleges and universities are less likely to meet or exceed their current levels of racial diversity in the absence of race-conscious admissions. They are also less likely to reflect the racial makeup of the population graduating from the nation’s high schools.

    Zack Mabel, a researcher for Georgetown’s Center for Education and the Workforce, told her race-neutral practices have not driven the diversity many colleges hoped for, and some students are simply not applying. Read more from Terry Ellis.

    Creating a more equitable and representative workforce has been a public aim in corporate America, where companies have created diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, departments. Multiple corporations – from Apple to IKEA – asked the Supreme Court to allow affirmative action to continue so that their potential workforce is more diverse.

    But efforts to recruit students of color in the race-neutral, post-affirmative-action world will be complicated in states where there is a growing backlash to diversity efforts.

    CNN’s Leah Asmelash recently wrote:

    More than a dozen state legislatures have introduced or passed bills reining in DEI programs in colleges and universities, claiming the offices eat up valuable financial resources with little impact.

    “The ruling by the Court’s six Republican-appointed justices prevents higher-education institutions from considering race in admissions precisely as kids of color, for the first time, comprise a majority of the nation’s high-school graduates,” writes Ronald Brownstein, a senior editor at The Atlantic and a senior political analyst for CNN.

    He suggests the decision will “widen the mismatch between a youth population that is rapidly diversifying and a student body that is likely to remain preponderantly white in the elite colleges and universities that serve as the pipeline for leadership in the public and private sectors.”

    Rather than ease social tension, he argues, the new race-neutral requirement could actually propel it.

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  • California is about to give Hollywood studios a lucrative tax deal during the writers’ strike | CNN Business

    California is about to give Hollywood studios a lucrative tax deal during the writers’ strike | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    The state of California is about to give movie and TV studios a new lucrative tax perk.

    A bill awaiting California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature would the state’s tax incentive program for film and TV productions for five years but with a key update: Studios with more tax credits than they can use will be able to exchange those credits for cash. The bill, part of the state’s overall budget plan, was passed by California legislators on Tuesday, and Newsom is expected to sign it on Friday.

    The bill also mandates any production that receives the tax credit to comply with new on-set firearm safety protocols following the 2021 deadly shooting on the set of Alec Baldwin’s film “Rust,” and it implements requirements aiming to meet diversity hiring targets.

    The new, refundable tax credits come as competition for film and TV production from other states and countries is on the rise. States like New York and Georgia are gaining share of the TV and film market, thanks to their own tax incentive programs, according to a 2021 report from FilmLA — a nonprofit organization that helps creators with production planning and film permitting.

    The bill should be a boon for studios like Netflix. The streaming giant had not previously been able to take full advantage of the tax credit program since it uses a separate research and development incentive from California to significantly reduce its tax liability. In a 2020 SEC filing, Netflix said it had $250 million in California R&D tax credits — far more than it could use.

    Disney and Comcast’s Universal Studios were the only two studios that benefited under California’s existing tax incentive program, due to their relatively larger tax bills from theme parks, according to Democratic assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo, one of the bill’s sponsors. The new bill could benefit other studios that don’t have theme parks in the state, including Warner Bros, which is owned by CNN parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.

    The bill’s safety measures require productions to employ an adviser to oversee production safety and complete detailed risk assessments. Studios must also establish training requirements and standards that focus on the safe handling of firearms. Many of these safety protocols were voluntary before the bill.

    Dave Cortese, the Democratic state senator who introduced the safety protocols in the bill, said research for the legislation began soon after actor Baldwin fired a live round of ammunition from what he said he believed to be an unloaded prop gun during a film’s rehearsal. Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed.

    “Conversations about this legislation started the week after the tragic loss of a cinematographer. Those negotiations have produced the nation’s first and best safety practices for California workers in the state’s vital motion picture industry,” Cortese said.

    In addition to refundable tax credits and stricter safety standards, the bill establishes specific diversity requirements. Studios must submit data about the diversity of their workforce to qualify for the full credit. The bill also adds a new member to the state’s film commission with diversity, equity, and inclusion expertise.

    The tax perk for Hollywood comes amid ongoing tension between the industry’s workforce and the studios’ bosses. The Writers Guild of America, has been on strike since early May, halting the production of many shows. The association’s more than 11,000 members are fighting over substantial issues like pay, the number of writers staffed on any given project, and whether artificial intelligence can be used in writing material.

    Actors may soon stage a work stoppage, as well. Members of the actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA, have voted to authorize a strike against the major studios if they cannot agree to the terms of a new contract. Similar to the WGA, the actors’ union has voiced similar concerns about pay and the use of AI.

    Democratic lawmakers in California celebrated the bill. Carrillo said the plan was a “grand compromise,” and it would help protect jobs in the state.

    “These are hundreds of thousands of jobs, most of which impact Los Angeles County and the city of Los Angeles. They’re good union jobs, they’re production jobs, they’re creative jobs,” she said.

    However, the bill has attracted some criticism. Chris Hoene, the executive director of the California Budget & Policy Center, a nonprofit think tank that provides analysis on state budget issues intending to improve outcomes for low-income communities and people of color in the state, called it “bad policy.”

    “Refundable tax credits were designed to help low-income households… so to take that refundability structure and apply it to a business tax credit, you would think there are some film companies that struggle to make ends meet and don’t make enough money to owe any taxes, but that’s not how it works,” he said.

    Hoene called the new policy a “giveaway that doesn’t have any positive outcomes.”

    The refundable credits are designed to help more than just the big studios, Carrillo said. Film and TV productions help support surrounding businesses in the area, including “small restaurants and catering services,” Carrillo said.

    “It’s very important that California has a competitive advantage and ultimately keeps these jobs and productions in our state while other states continue to announce more incentives,” she added.

    Still, Hoene argued that there were more effective ways to create well-paying jobs in California.

    “If we wanted to take scarce state resources to help workers, we could do that in ways that could provide them with assistance directly, rather than giving it to large corporations who are already minimizing their tax bills in other ways,” he said.

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  • Biden administration announces more than $3 billion in funding to tackle homelessness with veterans focus | CNN Politics

    Biden administration announces more than $3 billion in funding to tackle homelessness with veterans focus | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The Biden administration announced new actions Thursday to help prevent and reduce veteran homelessness across the country, including $3.1 billion in funding to support efforts to quickly rehouse homeless Americans.

    “These funds can be used for a wide range of critical interventions from rental assistance to supportive services to technology and data sharing,” said White House domestic policy adviser Neera Tanden, referring to the funding that will be made available through the Department of Housing and Urban Development under the Continuum of Care program.

    Additional actions being announced Thursday, according to a White House fact sheet, include: $11.5 million in funding for legal services for veterans experiencing homelessness; $58 million worth of funding to help homeless veterans find jobs; and a new series of “boot camps” by HUD and Veterans Affairs to help VA medical centers and public housing agencies more quickly rehouse veterans. The more than $3 billion in funding being announced by HUD is not specifically earmarked for veterans, although it will also go toward helping veterans struggling with homelessness, according to senior administration officials.

    “We like to say here that the phrase, homeless veteran, should not exist in the English language. Ending veteran homelessness has been and continues to be a top priority of the president and his relentless advocacy for that goal has led to very important investments and advancements, including robust funding,” said Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough, who added that the VA is currently on track to meet its goal of rehousing 38,000 veterans in 2023.

    The VA put 40,401 homeless veterans into permanent housing last year with 2,443 of them returning to homelessness at some point that same year, according to the VA.

    While Thursday’s actions focus on the issue of homelessness for veterans, administration officials hope that progress made in rehousing former service members will help improve efforts to tackle the issue for all Americans experiencing homelessness.

    “Homelessness is a challenge we face as a nation. But most importantly, it is a solvable one,” Tanden told reporters, adding: “There are so many lessons there, that can help us tackle this problem for all Americans.”

    The $58 million in grant funding comes from the Department of Labor Veterans’ Employment and Training Service and will help veterans learn occupational skills, participate in on-the-job training or apprenticeships and provide other support services to reintegrate into the workforce.

    The $11.5 million in legal services grants is a “first-of-its-kind,” according to the White House, and will help veterans obtain representation in landlord-tenant disputes, as well as assist with other court proceedings like child support, custody or estate planning.

    “Legal support can be the difference between becoming homeless in the first instance, or having a safe stable house and a roof over their heads,” McDonough said.

    President Joe Biden has made it a goal of his administration to reduce homelessness by 25% for all Americans by 2025, calling on the country in his State of the Union address this year to do more, including “helping veterans afford their rent because no one should be homeless in this country, especially not those who served it.”

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  • The company supplying water to millions of Londoners is in deep trouble | CNN Business

    The company supplying water to millions of Londoners is in deep trouble | CNN Business

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    London
    CNN
     — 

    Britain’s biggest water supplier said Wednesday it needed to raise more cash from investors, as UK media reported the government was preparing contingency plans to rescue the company.

    Thames Water provides drinking water and waste water services to 15 million customers in London and the southeast of England. The utility, which counts one of Canada’s largest public pension funds among its top investors, has around £14 billion ($17.5 billion) of debt on its balance sheet.

    News that it needs more money came just a day after CEO Sarah Bentley resigned with immediate effect after three years in the role. She was in the second year of an eight-year turnaround plan to address aging infrastructure, tackle leakage and reduce pollution in rivers, a legacy of underinvestment.

    Thames Water received £500 million ($635 million) from shareholders in March, but said Wednesday it would need more.

    The firm “is continuing to work constructively with its shareholders in relation to the equity funding expected to be required to support Thames Water’s turnaround and investment plans,” it added.

    The company said it was keeping the water industry regulator Ofwat “fully informed” of its progress and added that it had a “strong liquidity position,” including £4.4 billion ($5.6 billion) of cash.

    Ofwat said it was in “ongoing discussions” with Thames Water “on the need for a robust and credible plan to turn the business around.”

    “We will continue to focus on protecting customers’ interests,” it added.

    Government ministers, including representatives from the UK Treasury and the environment department, Defra, are holding emergency talks with Ofwat over Thames Water’s future, according to UK media reports.

    One possibility would be to place the company into a special administration regime that effectively takes the firm into temporary public ownership. Sky News was first to report the discussions.

    A government spokesperson told CNN: “This is a matter for the company and its shareholders. We prepare for a range of scenarios across our regulated industries — including water — as any responsible government would.”

    The spokesperson added that the UK water sector “as a whole is financially resilient.”

    Thames Water says about 24% of the water it supplies to customers is lost through leakage.

    The company’s single biggest shareholder is the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, which holds a stake of around 32%. The Universities Superannuation Scheme, a pension fund for the academic staff of UK universities, owns nearly 20%.

    Other large investors include the Chinese and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds, as well as British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, which invests on behalf of public sector workers.

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  • At least 17 injured following Baltimore bus crash, police say | CNN

    At least 17 injured following Baltimore bus crash, police say | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    At least 17 people were injured Saturday after a bus collided with two civilian vehicles in Baltimore, according to the Baltimore City Fire Department.

    “Fortunately, there were no critical life-threatening injuries at this incident,” Baltimore City Fire Department communications director Kevin Cartwright told CNN affiliate WJZ-TV.

    Baltimore City Police told CNN the MTA bus collided with a Lexus at North Paca Street at West Mulberry Street in downtown Baltimore Saturday morning. The bus then struck a Nissan and came to a stop resting in a building at 500 West Franklin Street, police said.

    Jerimiah Moerke, spokesperson for the Maryland Transit Administration, told CNN the agency’s CityLink Blue bus was “involved in a multi-vehicle incident” at around 10.15 a.m.

    “We dispatched units to this location, and upon their arrival they did confirm that there was a collision involving an MTA bus that collided into a building,” Cartwright said, according to WJZ. “Due to that fact and multiple patients being involved, we established and escalated this to a level one mass casualty incident.”

    Responders removed the bus driver from the bus lodged into the building. The driver was treated at the scene and transported to a hospital, as were the other 16 injured people, according to Cartwright.

    Police said the cause of the crash is unknown at this time.

    MTA Police, the Baltimore City Fire Department and Medics and building inspectors are also on the scene, police said.

    Video from WJZ shows the bus at a stop against the side of the building as emergency services respond.

    Yellow crime scene tape was wrapped around the driver’s side mirror of the damaged Lexus parked near a pole, and the vehicle’s steering wheel airbag was deployed as the driver’s door stood open, the video showed.

    The front of the Lexus from the passenger’s side appeared crushed as a nearby city worker swept debris from the crash off the streets, as seen in the video.

    Cartwright said specialists from the fire department’s special rescue operations team evaluated a four-story apartment building to ensure the structure wasn’t compromised after the accident, WJZ reported.

    “They determined that the steel vertical and horizontal beams that support the structure remained intact,” he said, according to WJZ.

    Only the apartment building’s first floor was condemned and residents were expected to be able to return home by Saturday afternoon, Cartwright said.

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  • Celebrate Juneteenth by promoting Black health, wealth and joy | CNN

    Celebrate Juneteenth by promoting Black health, wealth and joy | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    June 19, 2023 is the third annual observance of Juneteenth. The federal holiday commemorates June 19, 1865, when the enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned of their emancipation two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

    Although Juneteenth has recently become more widely recognized, the date has long been a deeply spiritual time of remembrance and celebration for the Black community.

    Across the country, African Americans have rejoiced with fireworks and cookouts, sipping red drinks – a nod to ancestors’ bloodshed and endurance.

    “We know the horrors that we went through,” explained Kleaver Cruz, writer of the forthcoming book “The Black Joy Project” and creator of a digital initiative of the same name. “It’s always concurrent: the joy and the pain. We use one to get through the other.”

    On a particularly joyous note, this June 19, CNN and OWN (both properties of Warner Bros. Discovery) will simulcast Juneteenth: A Global Celebration for Freedom at 8 PM Eastern time. The concert will feature artists across multiple genres including Charlie Wilson, Miguel, Kirk Franklin, Nelly, SWV, Davido, Coi Leray, Jodeci and Mike Phillips. CNN will kick off pre-show coverage at 7 PM Eastern time, highlighting Black advocates, trailblazers, and creators.

    “We get to celebrate our freedoms; we get to celebrate the dismantling of things and lean into what we want in the future,” Cruz said of Juneteenth observance. “We want more of that space and less of the one that harms us.”

    The Black community still struggles with pain and inequity. Impact Your World has gathered ways you can help reject the pathology of racism and thoughtfully celebrate Juneteenth through non-profits that support Black health, wealth, joy, and overall empowerment. You can donate to those charities here.

    For Black Americans, the end of slavery was just the beginning of a 158-year quest for equality. Along the way, the cumulative effect of institutional and systemic racism fomented stark disparities in income, health, education, and opportunity.

    “Those that came before us were physically free but were unable to earn livable wages or receive an education without its share of defeating challenges,” said Marsha Barnes, Founder of The Finance Bar.

    Data collected by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System shows that in the fourth quarter of 2022, the average Black household’s net worth was about one-fourth that of the average White household.

    “Taking the time to address the racial wealth gap highlights many of the roadblocks we as Black Americans currently face,” explained Barnes, a certified financial therapist. She sees the well-documented connection between financial literacy and financial wellness as a key to enhancing wealth in the Black community.

    “We still are at a disadvantage, but it’s important we become comfortable with having to learn while playing the game,” Barnes told CNN.

    HomeFree-USA is a non-profit aiming to close the racial wealth gap by improving financial education, homeownership, and opportunities. Their Center for Financial Advancement (CFA) recruits, trains, and places Historically Black College and University students into internships and careers with mortgage and real estate companies. The goal is to enhance diversity in the financial sector, expose students to credit and money management and help them become savvy consumers and future homeowners.

    The African American Alliance for Homeownership is a non-profit counseling agency that helps families obtain, retain, maintain, and sustain their homes. The organization offers HUD-certified counselors who support first-time homebuyers and foreclosure prevention. The group recently expanded its services to help homeowners with estate plans, resource navigation, home repairs, and energy-efficiency upgrades.

    Former NFL Player Warrick Dunn started Warrick Dunn Charities in 1997 to help single parents buy homes by providing $5,000 down payments and home furnishings.

    “The more I learned, we wanted to get into the business of giving people the potential to break their cycle of poverty,” Dunn explained in a 2021 interview with CNN.

    The non-profit has expanded its priorities to include financial literacy, health and wellness, education attainment, workforce development, and entrepreneurship support.

    The National Urban League is committed to the advancement of African Americans through economic empowerment, equality, and social justice. The organization champions education, job training, workforce development, and civic engagement through community and national initiatives.

    The legacy of racism in America continues to fuel health and healthcare inequities for Black people.

    “We’re seeing diseases that, when I was in medical school, I thought to be diseases that would start to develop in people in their fifties, sixties, and seventies. I’m seeing these diseases sometimes in teenage years,” said Dr. Barbara Joy Jones, an Atlanta-based family medicine physician.

    According to the CDC, five health conditions particularly affect the Black community at higher rates: cardiovascular disease, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), metabolic syndrome, colon cancer, and mental health conditions.

    “I consider hypertension, Diabetes, and obesity the triad,” said Jones.

    The leading contributor to that triad is what you eat.

    “Diet is 80% of health, and just access to quality food and education about food has been very hard,” Jones explained.

    “When you go back and look at slavery, the foods we had to eat were the last scraps, so through the passing down of culture, you’re eating foods that are not the healthiest because it was simply for survival,” said Jones.

    According to Feeding America, eight of the ten US counties with the highest food insecurity rates are at least 60% Black and one in every four Black American children is affected by hunger.

    Addressing food insecurity, nutrition education, and better food access can make a difference.

    Feeding America runs a network of food banks in those mostly Black hard-hit counties.

    Share Our Strength runs a program called Cooking Matters offering cooking classes, grocery store tours, and digital content to help marginalized families across the country shop and cook with an eye towards health and budget.

    The African American Diabetes Association uses targeted outreach projects to help Black people prevent or delay type 2 diabetes.

    Despite progress over the years, racism continues to impact the mental health of African American people.

    “The stress and microaggressions that happen daily for a person of color in the work environment and everyday life add up, and unmitigated stress can lead to disease,” Jones told CNN.

    The Black Mental Health Alliance and the Trevor Project, provide training and networks of mental health providers specifically supportive of the Black and Black LGBTQ communities.

    In 2019, the CDC found that Black people comprised 41% of the new HIV infections in the US. The Black AIDS Institute was founded in 1999 to mobilize and educate Black Americans about HIV/AIDS treatment and care. The Black AIDS Institute advances research, support groups, and education and runs a clinic catering to BIPOC and underserved communities.

    As recently as the 1990’s, unethical medical research was conducted on Black Americans. The Tuskegee Study is one of the most widely recognized examples of the racist practice that led many Black people to distrust the healthcare system and avoid doctors altogether.

    Beyond investing in cultural sensitivity training and prioritizing preventative care, Jones said, “For anti-doctor people, find someone that looks like you; representation matters.”

    “Half of the getting to know your part of medicine is to know why psychosocial and economically you are where you are, and having a doctor that looks like you can support that.”

    Only about 5.7% of US physicians identify as Black or African American, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

    The White Coats Black Doctors Foundation is working to increase diversity in the medical profession, supporting educational preparation to become a doctor and helping offset the costs associated with applying and transitioning to residencies.

    Janice Lloyd of Annapolis, Maryland watches a Juneteenth parade in 2021.

    Black joy has been essential for survival, resistance, and self-development for centuries. But these days, it’s often exploited and misunderstood.

    “I see the ways that Black joy at this moment is being commercialized or co-opted to make it feel like it’s Black people smiling,” lamented Cruz. “It’s much, much deeper than that.”

    Cruz launched the Black Joy Project as a photo essay on social media in 2015 following the deaths of Michael Brown and Sandra Bland to help the Black community process its collective pain.

    “I posted it on Facebook in the stream of consciousness and said, ‘Let us bombard the internet that joy is important too, and as people are sharing these traumatic videos, we have to make space for joy.’ And it was an invitation for anybody else that wanted to do that.”

    Enslaved Black people knew they weren’t free but still hoped their future generations would be. That empowering optimism gave them the will to press forward, no matter the circumstance.

    “This (joy) is just a continuation of those practices,” Cruz said. “Joy is intrinsic. It’s something that can’t be taken from us because it comes within us; it’s always ours to have.”

    Juneteenth is a celebration of freedom, culture, and history, and it’s important to uplift non-profits that positively nourish the arts, music, and all the things that foster Black joy.

    The Robey Theatre Company was founded in 1994 by actors Danny Glover and Ben Guillory to tell the complex stories of the Black experience. The theater showcases and develops up-and-coming actors and playwrights to sustain Black theater.

    The Debbie Allen Dance Academy uses dance, theater, and performance to enrich, inspire and transform students’ lives.

    As some states are moving to block Critical Race Theory and Black history from public education, the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration gives visitors an interactive history lesson on the harsh repercussions of slavery and systemic racism in the US. The immersive exhibition carries visitors through the transatlantic slave trade up to the current mass incarceration of Black people. The museum occupies a site in Montgomery, Alabama where enslaved Black people were historically auctioned off.

    “If we’re being serious about Black joy, that means we’re being serious about Black lives, period,” Cruz concluded.

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  • 50 million under severe storm threat today as one Texas town digs out after a deadly tornado | CNN

    50 million under severe storm threat today as one Texas town digs out after a deadly tornado | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    More than 50 million people across a large swath of the US are under a severe weather threat Friday, one day after storms cut a deadly path across Texas and Florida.

    Three people were killed in Perryton, Texas, when a ruinous tornado slammed the town Thursday, the fire chief told CNN. The storm also sent up to 100 people in the Texas Panhandle town to the hospital with injuries ranging from head wounds to abrasions, the Ochiltree General Hospital interim CEO told CNN.

    And a person in Florida died after being trapped under a tree that fell on their home, Escambia County officials said.

    The county, which includes Pensacola, was hit with flash flooding emergencies overnight, leading to high water rescues, the National Weather Service in Mobile, Alabama, reported early Friday, citing local rescuers.

    “Widespread and significant” flash flooding was continuing in West Pensacola, Warrington and Gulf Breeze, Escambia County Emergency Management said. “Numerous roadways remain flooded with water entering several structures,” emergency officials said.

    Nearly 150 residents of an apartment complex in Pensacola were moved amid the rising water Friday morning and taken to a community center for shelter, county officials said.

    Warrington, just south of Pensacola, got nearly a foot of rain in just three hours. Radar estimates indicate as much as 16 inches of rain fell overnight, and more is expected Friday. A flash flood watch is in effect for the area until 7 p.m.

    Many of the areas that saw severe conditions Thursday could see storms return as a level 2 of 5 slight risk of severe storms is in place for parts of the South, Mid-Atlantic and Southern Plains.

    Large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes are possible in the slight risk areas, which include Montgomery and Mobile in Alabama, Little Rock, Arkansas; Jackson, Mississippi; and Tallahassee, Florida.

    A marginal, level 1 of 5 risk is in place from South Dakota to Florida and for parts of the Mid-Atlantic – a huge zone that includes hard-hit Perryton. Other cities in the marginal risk area, which could see large hail and damaging winds, include Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, DC, Denver, and Jacksonville, Florida.

    The storm that swept through Perryton damaged homes and businesses in the town of some 8,000 residents, including the local fire department and EMS, as well as multiple mobile homes, Fire Chief Paul Dutcher said, noting many of the department’s trucks were damaged.

    “A tornado formed, and it just dropped on us. It came out of nowhere. There were no sirens, no time to get to a shelter,” Perryton resident Jamie James said, telling CNN she had to ride out the storm in her truck.

    “There was a time I thought I was going to die,” she said. “Everything went crazy. Dumpsters were flying, hailstones hitting the car.”

    James’ home is still standing but the structure next to it is destroyed. She said the tornado is a devastating blow to the city she’s lived in for 15 years. “So many good people in this town. … We look out for one another.”

    The city’s power facilities were shutoff for safety purposes, according to Xcel Energy.

    “Transmission lines supplying the city with electricity have sustained damage and many lower voltage distribution lines are down in the city,” said Wes Reeves, a spokesperson for Xcel Energy.

    “Xcel Energy personnel are working to ensure the safety of Perryton residents and first responders. An estimated time of restoration is not yet available,” he added.

    As of 3 a.m. CT, more than 220,000 homes and businesses across Texas were in the dark, according to the tracking website Poweroutage.us. In neighboring Louisiana, more than 130,000 were without power, and outages were also reported in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama.

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has deployed state emergency resources to “meet urgent life-safety needs in Perryton, Texas,” according to a news release from his office.

    “We remain ready to quickly provide any additional resources needed over the course of this severe weather event,” the governor noted in the statement.

    Resources from surrounding areas have poured into the city to provide much-needed assistance.

    A tank truck gets partially submerged in water in Perryton.

    Officials in Beaver County, Oklahoma, sent fire, law enforcement and EMS units to help, according to the county’s emergency manager Keith Shadden.

    Neighboring city officials in Stinnett, Texas, also began sending officers and EMS crews. The sheriff’s office in Hutchinson County — which includes Stinnett — also sent rescue and emergency operations following the “devastating tornado,” according to a Facebook post from the office.

    Medical help also came from staff at nearby hospitals who swiftly aided up to 100 people after the tornado struck, Ochiltree General Hospital Interim CEO Kelly Judice said.

    “A few of them took patients to their hospitals, most of the staff just stayed here and worked,” she added.

    On Thursday, there were two tornado reports in Texas, four in Oklahoma and one in Michigan, according to the National Weather Service, with the tornado in Perryton being the most significant.

    A view of a damaged site in Perryton as the town gets struck by a tornado in Texas on Thursday in this screengrab obtained from a social media video.

    The tornado, which was confirmed by the NWS, cut through some of Perryton’s main sections.

    “It literally hit the residential, the downtown and then the industrial as well,” storm chaser Brian Emfinger told CNN.

    The worst damages he saw were in the northwest part of town, where the tornado barreled toward a mobile home park directly in its path, Emfinger explained.

    “The storm produced a wall cloud very quickly, and that wall cloud tightened up very rapidly, and then it just went to the ground very quickly,” Emfinger added.

    On the northeast side of town, about 300 people were sheltered inside Perryton High School after the area saw extensive damages, the school’s athletic director and football coach, Cole Underwood, told CNN.

    “We have the gym space, and we have the capabilities to help the people that have lost everything and we’re more than willing to do that,” he said. “Sadly, there’s just not a list of things. … You think about that you need on hand, but people lost everything today.”

    US Rep. Ronny Jackson, who represents Perryton, said the community needs help.

    “If you are in the area, I ask that you do whatever you can to help your neighbors. Food, fuel, water, generators – anything you can.”

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  • Exclusive: 42% of CEOs say AI could destroy humanity in five to ten years | CNN Business

    Exclusive: 42% of CEOs say AI could destroy humanity in five to ten years | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN Business
     — 

    Many top business leaders are seriously worried that artificial intelligence could pose an existential threat to humanity in the not-too-distant future.

    Forty-two percent of CEOs surveyed at the Yale CEO Summit this week say AI has the potential to destroy humanity five to ten years from now, according to survey results shared exclusively with CNN.

    “It’s pretty dark and alarming,” Yale professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld said in a phone interview, referring to the findings.

    The survey, conducted at a virtual event held by Sonnenfeld’s Chief Executive Leadership Institute, found little consensus about the risks and opportunities linked to AI.

    Sonnenfeld said the survey included responses from 119 CEOs from a cross-section of business, including Walmart CEO Doug McMillion, Coca-Cola CEO James Quincy, the leaders of IT companies like Xerox and Zoom as well as CEOs from pharmaceutical, media and manufacturing.

    The business leaders displayed a sharp divide over just how dangerous AI is to civilization.

    While 34% of CEOs said AI could potentially destroy humanity in ten years and 8% said that could happen in five years, 58% said that could never happen and they are “not worried.”

    In a separate question, Yale found that 42% of the CEOs surveyed say the potential catastrophe of AI is overstated, while 58% say it is not overstated.

    The findings come just weeks after dozens of AI industry leaders, academics and even some celebrities signed a statement warning of an “extinction” risk from AI.

    That statement, signed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Geoffrey Hinton, the “godfather of AI” and top executives from Google and Microsoft, called for society to take steps to guard against the dangers of AI.

    “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” the statement said.

    Hinton recently decided to sound the alarm on the technology he helped develop after worrying about just how intelligent it has become.

    “I’m just a scientist who suddenly realized that these things are getting smarter than us,” Hinton told CNN’s Jake Tapper in May. “I want to sort of blow the whistle and say we should worry seriously about how we stop these things getting control over us.”

    Hinton told CNN that if AI “gets to be much smarter than us, it will be very good at manipulation,” including “getting around restrictions we put on it.”

    While business leaders debate the dangers of AI, the CEOs surveyed by Yale displayed a degree of agreement about the rewards.

    Just 13% of the CEOs said the potential opportunity of AI is overstated, while 87% said it is not.

    The CEOs indicated AI will have the most transformative impact in three key industries: healthcare (48%), professional services/IT (35%) and media/digital (11%).

    As some inside and outside the tech world debate doomsday scenarios around AI, there are likely to be more immediate impacts, including the risks of misinformation and the loss of jobs.

    Sonnenfeld, the Yale management guru, told CNN business leaders break down into five distinct camps when it comes to AI.

    The first group, as described by Sonnenfeld, includes “curious creators” who are “naïve believers” who argue everything you can do, you should do.

    “They are like Robert Oppenheimer, before the bomb,” Sonnenfeld said, referring to the American physicist known as the “father of the atomic bomb.”

    Then there are the “euphoric true believers” who only see the good in technology, Sonnenfeld said.

    Noting the AI boom set off by the popularity of ChatGPT and other new tools, Sonnenfeld described “commercial profiteers” who are enthusiastically seeking to cash in on the new technology. “They don’t know what they’re doing, but they’re racing into it,” he said.

    And then there are the two camps pushing for an AI crackdown of sorts: alarmist activists and global governance advocates.

    “These five groups are all talking past each other, with righteous indignation,” Sonnenfeld said.

    The lack of consensus around how to approach AI underscores how even captains of industry are still trying to wrap their heads around the risks and rewards around what could be a real gamechanger for society.

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  • Officials scramble to provide alternate routes after tanker truck fire causes major I-95 highway collapse in Philadelphia that could take months to fix | CNN

    Officials scramble to provide alternate routes after tanker truck fire causes major I-95 highway collapse in Philadelphia that could take months to fix | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Officials are scrambling to set up alternate transportation options for Monday morning commuters after a section of Interstate 95 collapsed in Philadelphia due to a tanker truck fire Sunday – leaving the East Coast’s primary highway with major damage that could take months to repair.

    No injuries or fatalities from the highway collapse have been reported. But it remained unclear whether anyone was caught in the burning commercial tanker truck, which was carrying a flammable substance/oil?. The truck was still trapped under the collapsed highway Sunday afternoon, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said at a news conference.

    Roughly 160,000 vehicles typically commute on the now-collapsed road each day, making it “likely the busiest interstate in our commonwealth,” said Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll.

    “I found myself thanking the Lord that no motorists who were on I-95 were injured or died,” Shapiro said, describing witnessing “remarkable devastation” during a flyover of the scene.

    Northbound lanes collapsed and southbound lanes were damaged due to the intensity of the blaze and were “not structurally sound to carry any traffic,” Shapiro said. Restoring the highway will likely take months, he said, adding that his office was looking into “alternatives to connect the roadway beyond detours.”

    Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Democrat whose district includes the section of the highway, told CNN that “you are literally going to have millions of people in what is one of the largest population centers in the country impacted in a significant way.”

    The governor said he plans to issue a disaster declaration Monday, allowing the state to immediately dip into federal funds, cut through the red tape and move quickly to repair and reconstruct this roadway. He said he got assurances from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

    “Secretary Buttigieg has assured me that there will be absolutely no delay in getting federal funds deployed to quickly help us rebuild this critical artery. I-95, of course, is a critical roadway that supports our economy and plays an important role in folks everyday lives,” Shapiro said.

    The commercial tanker truck, which was carrying a petroleum-based product, caught fire around 6:20 am ET, causing a section of the overhead northbound I-95 highway to collapse atop the truck, authorities said. The cause of the fire is also under investigation.

    By Sunday afternoon, the fire was contained but firefighters remained at the scene as a precaution “because of the large volume of product that was involved,” Philadelphia Fire Department Deputy Commissioner Jeffrey Thompson said.

    Crews will be working through the night to clear the collapsed section of the road, Carroll said.

    Officials warned residents to avoid the area and to expect delays of trash collection and bus routes in the area.

    “The challenges will be real when it comes to traffic movements in the city as a result of this incident,” Carroll said.

    Leslie Richards, general manager of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), said the agency is adding extra capacity and service to other transportation routes and evaluating all options in assisting travelers work around the highway collapse including.

    “In order to accommodate travel through the city and region following the I-95 collapse, SEPTA will provide added capacity and Service. on the Trenton, West Trenton and Fox Chase Lines,” SEPTA, the sixth largest public transportation agency in the US, said in a statement.

    Mark Fusetti was driving south on I-95 in Philadelphia to pick up his son from the airport on Sunday before the collapse when he saw large plumes of dark smoke and began filming, initially thinking there was a brush fire.

    Video he filmed on his cellphone appears to show his car and other vehicles driving over a “dip” along I-95 as smoke billowed from under both sides of the highway. He said he was startled by the dip, saying, “it felt like you drove off a curb.”

    “I realized what happened when I looked in my rear-view mirror. I see 95 – all of the cars stopping and then I learned, shortly after that the road had just collapsed and what was really going on,” Fusetti told CNN’s Jim Acosta Sunday.

    The cause of and circumstances surrounding the fire and collapse remain under investigation, officials say.

    Philadelphia Fire Department Battalion Chief Derek Bowmer said “it looked like we had a lot of heat and heavy fire underneath the underpass.”

    With thousands of tons of steel and concrete on top of where the fire was burning, firefighters initially faced a challenge getting to the seat of the fire, Bowmer said during a news conference Sunday morning.

    There were also explosions around the highway collapse caused by “runoff of maybe some fuel or gas lines that could have been compromised by the accident,” Bowmer noted.

    “We have fire coming out of those manholes,” Bowmer said Sunday morning.

    While the exact cost of repairing the crucial roadway remains unclear, the governor told reporters Sunday afternoon that the state is working with federal officials on a “speedy rebuild of I-95.”

    President Joe Biden has been briefed on the collapse, according to a tweet from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

    A spokesperson for the Federal Highway Administration said administrator Shailen Bhatt would be in Philadelphia on Monday to “offer federal support and assistance.”

    Officials work at the scene after a section of I-95 collapsed on Sunday.

    The US Coast Guard, which was looking out for possible water pollution after the fire and road collapse, reported “a sheen on the water” that was confined to one area, according to a spokesperson.

    The tanker that caught fire has the potential to spill 8,500 gallons of gasoline, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

    A 29-foot boat was sent to monitor the area “to observe any pollution to the waterways. They reported that there is a sheen on the water but it seems to be confined to the cove,” the Coast Guard’s statement reads. “The substance is gasoline and the tanker has a potential to spill 8500 gallons. However, it has been reported to us that clean up efforts are mainly shore side, meaning on land.”

    The governor later Sunday sought to assure residents, saying “there is no threat to anyone’s drinking water.”

    Brendan Riley, director of water operations for the Philadelphia Water Department, echoed that water in the city was safe.

    “At this point in time, we have no concerns of any environmental impact to our water intake at the Baxter Water treatment plant,” Riley said. “There was a lot of coordination with the Department of Environmental Protection, the US Coast Guard as well as to make sure that we responded appropriately and deploy some booms, not only at our intakes but also at the outfall location where there was any potential discharge.”

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