Tag: LIF

Making the most of the pension tax credit – MoneySense

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Having said that, this tax credit is not a big deal for most people, and in some cases, you will be better off not converting an RRSP or LIRA to a RRIF or LIF to qualify for the credit.

In 2025, the maximum federal tax savings is $290 (for my calculations, read on). There is a little more in savings when you apply the provincial credit, which varies by province. In Ontario, the additional tax saving is $89. That means the total tax savings for everyone in Ontario is $379, assuming they are paying at least $379 in tax. If you can’t use the full credit, you can transfer what you can’t use to your spouse.

Mind the new tax rate

As a reader, Sylvain, you may have read that the maximum federal tax savings is $300 and not the $290 stated above. That was true in previous years, but the lowest federal tax rate was reduced this year from 15% to 14%. The rate didn’t come into effect until the end of June, or halfway through the year. Therefore, for 2025 the lowest federal tax rate and pension tax credit is 14.5%. Next year they will both be 14%.

The other thing to keep in mind is that claiming the $2,000 pension tax credit is not a way to get $2,000 out of your RRIF/LIF tax-free, something I often hear. Well, okay, it almost is if you are in the lowest tax bracket.

Doing the math around the pension tax credit

Think about the way the tax credit works. For the federal $2,000 tax credit, a rate of 14.5% is applied and the tax savings is $2,000 x 14.5% = $290. A rate of 5.05% is applied to the $1,762 Ontario credit for a tax savings of $1,762 x 5.05% = $89. The two combined come to a tax savings of $379.

Now think about what happens when you draw $2,000 from a RRIF or LIF. If you are in the lowest tax bracket in Ontario, with a marginal tax rate of 19.55% (14.5% federal + 5.05% provincial), you will pay $2,000 x 19.55% = $391 in tax. When you apply the pension tax credit savings of $379, you end up paying only $12 in tax on the $2,000 withdrawal. If the Ontario pension tax credit was $2,000 rather than $1,762 then it would have been a wash with no tax owing.

The story is different for a person in the highest tax bracket with a marginal tax rate of 53.53%. A $2,000 RRIF or LIF withdrawal will result in $1,070 in tax before applying the credit, and $681 in tax after the pension tax savings of $379. A person with an income of about $100,000 will pay about $240 in tax after the credit is applied.

This leads to the next question for the person who is only drawing the $2,000 to get the pension tax credit. Does it make sense to draw the money and reinvest the lesser after-tax amount, or would it be better to leave the full $2,000 in the RRIF or LIF to grow?  This becomes a planning question. What are your spending and gifting plans?

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What the pension tax credit is good for

Have I pelted you with enough math, Sylvain? You are right to think about ways to minimize the tax you owe and there are times when you can claim the pension tax credit before the year you turn 65.

The most familiar way you can claim the pension tax credit before age 65 is when you are receiving income from life annuities from superannuation or employer pension plans. You can also claim the credit if you are under age 65 and are receiving pension payments as the result of the death of a spouse who was eligible for the pension tax credit. In other words, if your spouse is over age 65 and drawing from a RRIF and then dies, you can claim the pension tax credit on that continued income even if you are not yet 65.

Another advantage of the pension tax credit comes with the ability to split pension income. If you have a defined-benefit pension plan you can split your pension income with your spouse before age 65. In this case both of you can claim the pension tax credit, even if you are both under 65. The same is true with RRIF or LIF income after age 65, assuming you are both 65 or older. Instead of claiming a $2,000 pension tax credit, the two of you can each claim the $2,000 credit. Two credits for one pension!

Thanks for your question, Sylvain. Some people automatically convert RRSPs or LIRAs to RRIFs or LIFs to qualify for the pension tax credit without really thinking about it.

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About Allan Norman, MSc, CFP, CIM

With over 30 years as a financial planner, Allan is an associate portfolio manager at Aligned Capital Partners Inc., where he helps Canadians maintain their lifestyles, without fear of running out of money.

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Allan Norman, MSc, CFP, CIM

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November 27, 2025
How to consolidate your registered accounts for retirement income in Canada – MoneySense

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There is a spousal attribution rule with spousal RRSPs that applies if you take withdrawals within three years of your spouse contributing. This may result in the withdrawals being taxed back to the contributor.

When you combine an RRSP and a spousal RRSP, whether you like it or not, the new account must be a spousal RRSP. As a result, you would typically transfer an RRSP into the existing spousal RRSP.

There are no tax differences between an RRSP and a spousal RRSP for withdrawals, other than the aforementioned attribution rules.

Even if you separate or divorce, your spousal RRSP cannot be converted to a personal RRSP.

As a result, Steve, your wife could combine her RRSP and her spousal RRSP by converting them both to a spousal RRIF. I would be inclined to do this.

Combining LIRAs with other registered accounts

Locked-in RRSPs have different withdrawal and consolidation rules than regular and spousal RRSPs. The locking-in provisions of your wife’s locked-in retirement account (LIRA) are meant to prevent large withdrawals. These funds would have come from a pension plan she previously belonged to. Pension money is treated differently from personal retirement savings, such that locked-in accounts have maximum withdrawals as well as minimum withdrawals.

In some provinces, an account holder may be able to unlock their locked-in account if the balance is below a certain threshold. This may apply for your wife, Steve, as you mentioned the account is small. Some provinces also allow a one-time unlocking of a portion of the account when you convert a LIRA to a life income fund (LIF), which is essentially a RRIF equivalent for a LIRA.

As a result, Steve, your wife may be able to get some or all of her LIRA account transferred to the same RRIF as her RRSP and spousal RRSP. If not, she will have to settle for having a RRIF and a LIF.

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Jason Heath, CFP

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September 30, 2024
Financial hardship withdrawal exceptions and increasing income in retirement – MoneySense
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First, remember the money in your locked-in retirement account (LIRA) or LIF is money intended to provide you with a lifetime income. Upon leaving your employer, your pension savings were converted into a LIRA, which again is intended to last you your lifetime.

With most LIRAs, you can start making withdrawals at age 55. That’s done by converting a LIRA to a LIF. In some ways, LIRAs and LIFs are similar to registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs) or registered retirement income funds (RRIFs). Except with a LIRA, you can’t withdraw money like you can from an RRSP. And with a LIF, you are limited to a maximum withdrawal amount, whereas with a RRIF, you can withdraw as much money as you like.

Not all LIRAs and LIFs are the same

There are federally and provincially regulated LIRAs and LIFs. And, when it comes to withdrawals, exceptions and unlocking privileges, you need to check if your LIRA and/or LIF is a federal or provincial plan, as they each have their own set of rules. If you’re not sure where your LIRA and/or LIF is registered, call the financial institution holding your account.

Once you know how your LIRA and/or LIF account is registered, go to that jurisdiction’s website to review its unlocking rules. The best thing to do is to download the unlocking application form and give it a read. Typically, it’s not that difficult to understand.

CM, for you, go to the B.C. Financial Services Authority website and download the application. On the site, you will see you can withdraw additional monies from your LIF, over the maximum withdrawal limit, if you are facing financial hardship. You mentioned you don’t qualify, but let’s review the financial hardship exceptions, just in case.

Financial hardship withdrawal exceptions for LIFs in B.C.

To qualify for financial hardship for a LIF in B.C., you must meet one or more of the following criteria:
1. Your taxable income is less than $45,667.
2. You have mortgage arrears
3. You are facing eviction of a rented home, and you need the funds to secure a new principal residence or first month’s rent.
4. You have medical costs.
Other ways to unlock your LIF in B.C.

In most cases, a person will unlock their LIF in one of the following ways instead of applying for financial hardship.
1. At any age, a LIRA and/or LIF with an account balance of less than 20% of the year’s maximum pensionable earnings (YMPE), $68,500, can be unlocked. In 2024, the YMPE is $68,500, and works out to $13,700.00;
2. Once you turn 65, you can unlock your LIRA and LIF, if they contain less than 40% of the YMPE, which is $27,400 for 2024;
3. Permanent departure from Canada;
4. Or, your life expectancy has been shortened.
No matter which exception you qualify for, you must apply. The financial institution holding your investment account can provide you with the necessary forms.
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Allan Norman, MSc, CFP, CIM

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April 2, 2024

RRIF and LIF withdrawal rates: Everything you need to know – MoneySense

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You do not have to wait until age 71 to convert your RRSP. Most people consider doing so once they have retired.

RRIF withdrawal rates

The minimum age at which you can convert an RRSP to a RRIF varies by province: it’s 50 in some, and 55 in others. But starting the year after conversion, you must begin to make minimum withdrawals from your RRIF. The table below includes the minimum withdrawal rates for all RRIFs set up after 1992. It shows the percentage of the account balance (at the previous year-end) that must be paid out in the current year.

Age at end of previous year	Withdrawal rate for current year	Age at end of previous year	Withdrawal rate for current year
55	2.86%	76	5.98%
56	2.94%	77	6.17%
57	3.03%	78	6.36%
58	3.13%	79	6.58%
59	3.23%	80	6.82%
60	3.33%	81	7.08%
61	3.45%	82	7.38%
62	3.57%	83	7.71%
63	3.70%	84	8.08%
64	3.85%	85	8.51%
65	4.00%	86	8.99%
66	4.17%	87	9.55%
67	4.35%	88	10.21%
68	4.55%	89	10.99%
69	4.76%	90	11.92%
70	5.00%	91	13.06%
71	5.28%	92	14.49%
72	5.40%	93	16.34%
73	5.53%	94	18.79%
74	5.67%	95 or older	20.00%
75	5.82%

Source: Rates calculated using the CRA’s prescribed factors formulas.

Locked-in retirement accounts (LIRAs)

The withdrawal rates above represent the minimum percentages that must be withdrawn, but account holders can make larger withdrawals if they need to or want to, as long as the account is not locked in.

Why do some Canadians have locked-in accounts? When a pension plan member leaves a pension, they may have the opportunity to transfer funds from their pension to a locked-in retirement account (LIRA). If they have a defined contribution (DC) pension, they may transfer the investments to a locked-in account. If they have a defined benefit (DB) pension plan and elect to receive a lump sum commuted value and to forgo their future monthly pension payments, they may be eligible to transfer some or all of the funds to a locked-in account.

A locked-in RRSP may also be called a LIRA. LIRA is the term used in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

You can withdraw from an RRSP, but you cannot withdraw from a locked-in RRSP. The latter must be converted to the locked-in equivalent of a RRIF: a life income fund (LIF) is most common, although Newfoundland and Labrador has locked-in RIFs (LRIFs) and Saskatchewan and Manitoba have prescribed RRIFs.

LIF withdrawal rates

LIFs have the same minimum withdrawal rates as RRIFs. But they also have maximum withdrawal rates, which vary by province and territory, to prevent former pension plan members from spending their pension funds too quickly. The table below shows the maximum withdrawal rates for LIFs.

Age at end of previous year	LIF/LRIF withdrawal rates: B.C., Alta., Sask., Ont., N.B., N.L.	LIF withdrawal rates: Manitoba, Quebec, Nova Scotia	LIF withdrawal rates: federal, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut
55	6.51%	6.40%	5.16%
56	6.57%	6.50%	5.22%
57	6.63%	6.50%	5.27%
58	6.70%	6.60%	5.34%
59	6.77%	6.70%	5.41%
60	6.85%	6.70%	5.48%
61	6.94%	6.80%	5.56%
62	7.04%	6.90%	5.65%
63	7.14%	7.00%	5.75%
64	7.26%	7.10%	5.86%
65	7.38%	7.20%	5.98%
66	7.52%	7.30%	6.11%
67	7.67%	7.40%	6.25%
68	7.83%	7.60%	6.41%
69	8.02%	7.70%	6.60%
70	8.22%	7.90%	6.80%
71	8.45%	8.10%	7.03%
72	8.71%	8.30%	7.29%
73	9.00%	8.50%	7.59%
74	9.34%	8.80%	7.93%
75	9.71%	9.10%	8.33%
76	10.15%	9.40%	8.79%
77	10.66%	9.80%	9.32%
78	11.25%	10.30%	9.94%
79	11.96%	10.80%	10.68%
80	12.82%	11.50%	11.57%
81	13.87%	12.10%	12.65%
82	15.19%	12.90%	14.01%
83	16.90%	13.80%	15.75%
84	19.19%	14.80%	18.09%
85	22.40%	16.00%	21.36%
86	27.23%	17.30%	26.26%
87	35.29%	18.90%	34.45%
88	51.46%	20.00%	50.83%
89 or older	100.00%	20.00%	100.00%

Source: Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions and Empire Life.

There may be situations where locked-in account holders can make withdrawals that exceed the annual maximum. In Ontario, for example, there may be unlocking options for people experiencing financial hardship from:

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Jason Heath, CFP

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March 6, 2024

Musk’s Twitter rate limits could undermine new CEO, ad experts say

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July 3 (Reuters) – Elon Musk’s move to temporarily cap how many posts Twitter users can read on the social media site could undermine efforts by new CEO Linda Yaccarino to attract advertisers, marketing industry professionals said.

Musk announced Saturday that Twitter would limit how many tweets per day various accounts can read, to discourage “extreme levels” of data scraping and system manipulation.

Users posted screenshots in reply, showing they were unable to see any tweets, including tweets on the pages of corporate advertisers, after hitting the limit.

Ad industry veterans said the move creates an obstacle for Yaccarino, the former NBCUniversal advertising chief who started last month as Twitter’s CEO.

Yaccarino has sought to repair relationships with advertisers who pulled away from the site after Musk bought it last year, the Financial Times reported last week.

The limits are “remarkably bad” for users and advertisers already shaken by the “chaos” Musk has brought to the platform, Mike Proulx, research director at Forrester, said on Sunday.

“The advertiser trust deficit that Linda Yaccarino needs to reverse just got even bigger. And it cannot be reversed based on her industry credibility alone,” he said.

Lou Paskalis, the founder of advertising consultancy AJL Advisory and former marketing boss at Bank of America, said Yaccarino is Musk’s “last best hope” to salvage ad revenue and the company’s value.

“This move signals to the marketplace that he’s not capable of empowering her to save him from himself,” he said.

Under the new cap, unverified accounts were initially limited to 600 posts a day with new unverified accounts limited to 300. Verified accounts could read 6,000 posts a day, Musk said in a post on the site.

Twitter logo and a photo of Elon Musk are displayed through magnifier in this illustration taken October 27, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

Hours later, he said the cap was raised to 10,000 posts per day for verified users, 1,000 per day for unverified and 500 posts per day for new unverified users.

A Twitter spokesperson did not reply to requests for comment and inquiries about how long the restrictions will last on Sunday.

Capping how much users can view could be “catastrophic” for the platform’s ad business, said Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence.

“This certainly isn’t going to make it any easier to convince advertisers to return. It’s a hard sell already to bring advertisers back,” she said.

Olivia Wedderburn, an executive at creative agency TMW Unlimited, said she was advising her clients to “stop investing in Twitter immediately,” because the platform was turning away heavily engaged users, which she said is the “sole reason” to advertise on Twitter.

The limit came soon after Twitter began requiring users to log into an account on the social media platform to view tweets, which Musk called a “temporary emergency measure” to combat data scraping.

Musk had earlier expressed displeasure with artificial intelligence firms like OpenAI, the owner of ChatGPT, for using Twitter’s data to train their large language models.

Platforms including Reddit and major news media organizations have complained about AI companies using their information to train AI models as some have sought fees.

Kai-Cheng Yang, researcher at Indiana University in Bloomington, said that the limits appeared to be effective in blocking third parties, including search engines, from scraping Twitter data like before.

“It might still be possible, but the methods would be much more sophisticated and much less efficient,” he said.

Reporting by Jody Godoy in New York, Sheila Dang in Dallas, Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Martin Coulter in London; editing by Burton Frierson, Nick Zieminski and Marguerita Choy

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Jody Godoy

Thomson Reuters

Jody Godoy reports on banking and securities law. Reach her at jody.godoy@thomsonreuters.com

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July 3, 2023
‘Slippery’ actor Kevin Spacey tried to groom me, man tells UK court
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[1/2]Actor Kevin Spacey walks outside the Southwark Crown Court on the day of his trial over charges related to allegations of sex offences, in London, Britain, June 30, 2023. REUTERS/Toby Melville
Actor Kevin Spacey charged with 12 sex offences

Oscar-winner denies all accusations

Alleged victim says he felt ashamed
LONDON, July 3 (Reuters) – An alleged sex assault victim of Kevin Spacey said the “slippery” Hollywood actor had tried to “groom” him, and the repeated groping assaults had left him feeling physically sick, a London court heard on Monday.

Spacey, 63, is on trial at Southwark Crown Court accused of a dozen allegations of historic sex offences committed against four men, then aged in their 20s and 30s, which are said to have taken place between 2001 and 2013.

He has denied all the charges and his lawyer Patrick Gibbs said last week at the start of the trial the jury were going to hear some “damned lies”.

On Monday, the court was shown a recorded police interview with the first of the alleged victims. The man said the actor had assaulted him on up to 12 occasions over a period of about four years in the early 2000s, grabbing his “private areas” when they were alone, such as in a car or an elevator.

After two to three weeks of being with Spacey, the actor made him feel uncomfortable, rubbing the man’s legs and neck while he was driving, before later starting to grope him or force the man’s hand onto his genitalia, he said.

“He was almost, from the get go, grooming me,” the man said in the interview.

The alleged victim, who cannot be identified, said the “touchy feely” actor had on one occasion aggressively grabbed his crotch so hard when he was driving him to a party hosted by singer Elton John in about 2004 that he almost crashed the car.

Describing himself a “man’s man”, the accuser recounted that he had threatened to knock the actor out if he did it again, to which Spacey had replied “that’s such a turn on to me”.

He described the Oscar-winner as a “slippery snaky, difficult person”, a “mixed-up individual” who was very confused about his sexuality. The man said Spacey’s behaviour was an open secret at the London Old Vic theatre where he worked for more than a decade.

“It was well-known that he was obviously up to no good so to speak,” the man said.

‘SICK’

Giving evidence in person in court from the behind a screen, the man said he felt shocked, embarrassment and ashamed about what had happened to him, saying the alleged assaults made him feel physically sick.

He rejected suggestions from Spacey’s lawyer Gibbs that he had been flirtatious himself with the actor, had appeared to enjoy the interaction and that he had questioned his own sexuality.

Gibbs quizzed him about why he had kept a “warm and jolly” letter Spacey had sent him ahead of a charity event the man was involved in, and a “cosy” photo he posted on social media showing him with the actor.

“It’s just a normal photo, two men standing next to each other,” the witness replied.

Gibbs also put it to him the allegation regarding the incident prior to the Elton John party was completely untrue, pointing out that Spacey had only attended one such gathering which was in 2001. The man replied he might have got the dates wrong as it had been so long ago.

Asked why he had only come forward to the police last year, he said it was the “right time”, and then when questioned whether it had occurred to him he might be able to sue Spacey, he agreed it had.

Asked how much he thought he might receive, he replied: “Whatever it would be, it wouldn’t be enough for somebody who had been assaulted and abused.”

The trial is due to last about four weeks.

Reporting by Michael Holden, Editing by William Maclean

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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July 3, 2023
Influencer Andrew Tate to stay under house arrest, court rules

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BUCHAREST, June 23 (Reuters) – Internet personality Andrew Tate will remain under house arrest in Romania for another 30 days from the end of June pending trial on charges of human trafficking, a Bucharest court ruled on Friday.

Tate was indicted on Tuesday along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian female suspects for human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.

They are under house arrest pending an investigation into abuses against seven women whom prosecutors say were lured through false claims of relationships, accusations the suspects have denied.

The four suspects were held in police custody from Dec. 29 until March 31 before a Bucharest court put them under house arrest, which prosecutors on Tuesday sought to extend.

The Tate brothers are citizens of the United States and Britain. Andrew Tate, a self-described misogynist, built up a following of millions on social media, promoting his own lavish lifestyle in posts which critics say denigrate women.

The court needs to approve preventative restrictive measures such as house arrest every 30 days. It held a hearing on Wednesday and said it would rule on Friday.

“We’re not the first affluent wealthy men who have been unfairly attacked,” Tate told reporters on Wednesday after the hearing. “I love this country, I’m going to stay here regardless no matter what and I look forward to being found innocent at the end of everything.”

The trial will not start immediately. Under Romanian law, the case gets sent to the Bucharest court’s preliminary chamber, where a judge has 60 days to inspect the case files to ensure legality.

Trafficking of adults carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years, as does rape.

Prosecutors also said they were investigating the four suspects in a separate ongoing case on allegations of money laundering, witness tampering, and child and adult trafficking.

Reporting by Luiza Ilie and Octav Ganea; Editing by Alan Charlish and Peter Graff

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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June 23, 2023
Meta releases ‘human-like’ AI image creation model

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NEW YORK, June 13 (Reuters) – Meta Platforms (META.O) said on Tuesday that it would provide researchers with access to components of a new “human-like” artificial intelligence model that it said can analyze and complete unfinished images more accurately than existing models.

The model, I-JEPA, uses background knowledge about the world to fill in missing pieces of images, rather than looking only at nearby pixels like other generative AI models, the company said.

That approach incorporates the kind of human-like reasoning advocated by Meta’s top AI scientist Yann LeCun and helps the technology to avoid errors that are common to AI-generated images, like hands with extra fingers, it said.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is a prolific publisher of open-sourced AI research via its in-house research lab. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has said that sharing models developed by Meta’s researchers can help the company by spurring innovation, spotting safety gaps and lowering costs.

“For us, it’s way better if the industry standardizes on the basic tools that we’re using and therefore we can benefit from the improvements that others make,” he told investors in April.

The company’s executives have dismissed warnings from others in the industry about the potential dangers of the technology, declining to sign a statement last month backed by top executives from OpenAI, DeepMind, Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Google (GOOGL.O) that equated its risks with pandemics and wars.

Lecun, considered one of the “godfathers of AI,” has railed against “AI doomerism” and argued in favor of building safety checks into AI systems.

Meta is also starting to incorporate generative AI features into its consumer products, like ad tools that can create image backgrounds and an Instagram product that can modify user photos, both based on text prompts.

Reporting by Katie Paul; Editing by David Gregorio

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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June 13, 2023
Lisa Marie Presley to be laid to rest at Graceland

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LOS ANGELES, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Singer Lisa Marie Presley will be laid to rest at Graceland, the Memphis mansion she inherited from her father Elvis Presley, the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” a representative for her daughter said on Friday.

Presley died on Thursday at the age of 54 after being rushed to a Los Angeles area hospital after reportedly suffering cardiac arrest at her home.

“Lisa Marie’s final resting place will be at Graceland, next to her beloved son Ben,” said a representative for her 33-year-old daughter Riley Keough, an actress. She is also survived by twin 14-year-old daughters Finley and Harper.

Two days earlier, Lisa Marie Presley had appeared with her mother Priscilla Presley at the Golden Globe Awards, where actor Austin Butler won the best actor award for portraying her father in the film “Elvis” and paid tribute to both women in his acceptance speech.

“My heart is completely shattered for Riley, Finley, Harper and Priscilla at the tragic and unexpected loss of Lisa Marie,” Butler said in a statement on Friday.

“I am eternally grateful for the time I was lucky enough to be near her bright light and will forever cherish the quiet moments we shared. Her warmth, her love and her authenticity will always be remembered.”

Benjamin Keough died in 2020 at age 27, a death ruled a suicide by the Los Angeles County coroner.

Lisa Marie Presley remembered her son in an essay this year for People magazine that she posted on Instagram, describing herself as “destroyed” by his death.

As the only daughter of Elvis Presley, Lisa Marie became the owner of her father’s Graceland mansion, a popular tourist attraction in the city. She was nine when Elvis died there of heart failure in August 1977, aged 42.

Elvis Presley and other members of his family are buried at Graceland’s Meditation Garden.

Tributes to Lisa Marie Presley continued to pour in on Friday.

“Over the last year, the entire Elvis movie family and I have felt the privilege of Lisa Marie’s kind embrace,” Baz Luhrmann, the director of “Elvis”, said on Instagram.

“Her sudden, shocking loss has devastated people all around the world.”

In the celebrity spotlight since her birth, Lisa Marie began her own music career with a 2003 debut album “To Whom It May Concern.”

That was followed by 2005’s “Now What,” and both hit the top 10 of the Billboard 200 album chart. A third album, “Storm and Grace,” was released in 2012.Singer Billy Idol posted a picture of them together on Twitter and said she had been “very loving 2 me”, adding, “In Memphis in the 90’s she gave me a viewing of the private sections of Graceland which was very special.”

Lisa Marie Presley is survived by her mother, daughter Riley Keough, and 14-year-old twin daughters Harper and Finley Lockwood.

Additional reporting by Lisa Richwine and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by David Gregorio and Clarence Fernandez

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January 13, 2023
Santa Claus undaunted by arctic blast, U.S. military says

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DENVER, Dec 24 (Reuters) – U.S. military officials have assured anxious children the arctic blast and snowstorm that wreaked havoc on U.S. airline traffic this week will not prevent Santa Claus from making his annual Christmas Eve flight.

“We have to deal with a polar vortex once in a while, but Santa lives year-round in one at the North Pole, so he’s used to this weather,” deadpanned U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant Ben Wiseman, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, which tracks the yuletide flight.

For 67 years, NORAD, a joint U.S.-Canadian military command based at Peterson Air Force base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, has provided images and updates on the legendary figure’s worldwide journey along with its main task of monitoring air defenses and issuing aerospace and maritime warnings.

The Santa tracker tradition originated from a 1955 misprint in a Colorado Springs newspaper of the telephone number of a department store for children to call and speak with Santa. The listed number went to what was then known as the Continental Air Defense Command.

An understanding officer took the youngsters’ calls and assured them that Santa, also known as Father Christmas or Saint Nick, was airborne and on schedule to deliver presents to good girls and boys, flying aboard his reindeer-powered sleigh.

Santa does not file a formal flight plan, so the military is never quite sure exactly when he will take off, nor his exact route, NORAD’s Wiseman said, although the Santa tracker goes live at 4 a.m. EST (0900 GMT) on Friday on the NORAD website.

Once the jolly old elf’s lead reindeer, Rudolph, switches on his shiny red nose, military personnel can zero in on his location using infrared sensors, Wiseman said.

U.S. and Canadian fighter jet pilots provide a courtesy escort for him over North America, and Santa slows down to wave to them, he added.

Reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver; Editing by Steve Gorman and Philippa Fletcher

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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December 24, 2022
Harry and Meghan dismiss Sun apology for offending column as ‘PR stunt’

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LONDON, Dec 24 (Reuters) – Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan on Saturday dismissed an apology by the tabloid Sun newspaper for publishing a column highly critical of Meghan as a “PR stunt” and said the newspaper had not contacted her to say sorry.

In the column, television presenter Jeremy Clarkson wrote of Meghan: “At night, I’m unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant, ‘Shame!’ and throw lumps of excrement at her.”

Britain’s Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) regulator said on Tuesday that it had received more than 17,500 complaints, the most about any article since it was established in 2014.

“While the public absolutely deserves the publication’s regrets for their dangerous comments, we wouldn’t be in this situation if The Sun did not continue to profit off of and exploit hate, violence and misogyny,” a spokesperson for Harry and Meghan said.

“A true apology would be a shift in their coverage and ethical standards for all. Unfortunately, we’re not holding our breath.”

The Sun, in its apology, said: “We at The Sun regret the publication of this article and we are sincerely sorry”, adding that the article had been removed from its website and archives.

More than 60 lawmakers signed a letter written by Caroline Nokes, chair of parliament’s Women and Equalities Select Committee, to the editor of The Sun warning such articles contribute to a climate of hatred and violence against women.

In a statement posted on Twitter on Monday, Clarkson said he was “horrified to have caused so much hurt” and would be “more careful in future”.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as Harry and Meghan are officially known, stepped down from royal duties in March 2020, saying they wanted to make new lives in the United States away from media harassment.

In a Netflix documentary series, Meghan spoke about how her treatment by the media had left her feeling suicidal as well as concern over whether she and her children were safe.

Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar: Editing by Nick Macfie

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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December 24, 2022
Twitter lays off staff, Musk blames activists for ad revenue drop
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Musk axes around half of Twitter’s workforce

Employees file class action against Twitter

Staff lose access to systems

Major advertisers pull ads
Nov 4 (Reuters) – Twitter Inc laid off half its workforce on Friday but said cuts were smaller in the team responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation, as advertisers pulled spending amid concerns about content moderation.

Tweets by staff of the social media company said teams responsible for communications, content curation, human rights and machine learning ethics were among those gutted, as were some product and engineering teams.

The move caps a week of chaos and uncertainty about the company’s future under new owner Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, who tweeted on Friday that the service was experiencing a “massive drop in revenue” from the advertiser retreat.

Musk blamed the losses on a coalition of civil rights groups that has been pressing Twitter’s top advertisers to take action if he did not protect content moderation – concerns heightened ahead of potential pivotal congressional elections on Tuesday.

After the layoffs, the groups said they were escalating their pressure and demanding brands pull their Twitter ads globally.

“Unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day,” Musk tweeted of the layoffs, adding that everyone affected was offered three months of severance pay.

The company was silent about the depth of the cuts until late in the day, when head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth tweeted confirmation of internal plans, seen by Reuters earlier in the week, projecting the layoffs would affect about 3,700 people, or 50% of the staff.

Among those let go were 784 employees from the company’s San Francisco headquarters and 199 in San Jose and Los Angeles, according to filings to California’s employment authority.

Roth said the reductions hit about 15% of his team, which is responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation and other harmful content, and that the company’s “core moderation capabilities” remained in place.

Musk endorsed the safety executive last week, citing his “high integrity” after Roth was called out over tweets critical of former President Donald Trump years earlier.

Musk has promised to restore free speech while preventing Twitter from descending into a “hellscape.”

President Joe Biden said on Friday that Musk had purchased a social media platform in Twitter that spews lies across the world.

“And now what are we all worried about: Elon Musk goes out and buys an outfit that sends – that spews lies all across the world… There’s no editors anymore in America. There’s no editors. How do we expect kids to be able to understand what is at stake?”

Major advertisers have expressed apprehension about Musk’s takeover for months.

Brands including General Motors Co (GM.N) and General Mills Inc (GIS.N) have said they stopped advertising on Twitter while awaiting information about the new direction of the platform.

Musk tweeted that his team had made no changes to content moderation and done “everything we could” to appease the groups. Speaking at an investors conference in New York on Friday, Musk called the activist pressure “an attack on the First Amendment.”

[1/9] Owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc. Elon Musk arrives at the 29th Annual Baron Investment Conference in Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S., November 4, 2022. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.

ACCESS TO SYSTEMS CUT

The email notifying staff about layoffs was the first communication Twitter workers received from the company’s leadership after Musk took over last week. It was signed only by “Twitter,” without naming Musk or any other executives.

Dozens of staffers tweeted they had lost access to work email and Slack channels overnight before receiving an official layoff notice on Friday morning, prompting an outpouring of laments by current and former employees on the platform they had built.

They shared blue hearts and salute emojis expressing support for one another, using the hashtags #OneTeam and #LoveWhereYouWorked, a past-tense version of a slogan employees had used for years to celebrate the company’s work culture.

Twitter’s curation team, which was responsible for “highlighting and contextualizing the best events and stories that unfold on Twitter,” had been axed, employees wrote.

Shannon Raj Singh, an attorney who was Twitter’s acting head of human rights, tweeted that the entire human rights team at the company had been sacked.

Another team that focused on research into how Twitter employed machine learning and algorithms, an issue that was a priority for Musk, was also eliminated, according to a tweet from a former senior manager at Twitter.

Senior executives including vice president of engineering Arnaud Weber said their goodbyes on Twitter on Friday: “Twitter still has a lot of unlocked potential but I’m proud of what we accomplished.”

Employees of Twitter Blue, the premium subscription service that Musk is bolstering, were also let go. An employee with the handle “SillyRobin” who had indicated they were laid off, quote-tweeted a previous Musk tweet saying Twitter Blue would include “paywall bypass” for certain publishers.

“Just to be clear, he fired the team working on this,” the employee said.

DOORS LOCKED

Twitter said in its email to staffers that offices would be temporarily closed and badge access suspended “to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data.”

Offices in London and Dublin appeared deserted on Friday, with no employees in sight. At the London office, any evidence Twitter had once occupied the building was erased.

A receptionist at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters said a few people had trickled in and were working in the floors above despite the notice to stay away.

A class action was filed on Thursday against Twitter by several employees, who argued the company was conducting mass layoffs without providing the required 60-day advance notice, in violation of federal and California law.

The lawsuit asked the San Francisco federal court to issue an order to restrict Twitter from soliciting employees being laid off to sign documents without informing them of the pendency of the case.

Reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas, Katie Paul in Palo Alto, California, and Paresh Dave in Oakland, California; Additional reporting by Fanny Potkin, Rusharti Mukherjee, Aditya Kalra, Martin Coulter, Hyunjoo Jin, Supantha Mukherjee and Arriana McLymore; Writing by Matt Scuffham and Katie Paul; Editing by Kenneth Li, Jason Neely, Matthew Lewis and William Mallard

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Paresh Dave

Thomson Reuters

San Francisco Bay Area-based tech reporter covering Google and the rest of Alphabet Inc. Joined Reuters in 2017 after four years at the Los Angeles Times focused on the local tech industry.
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November 4, 2022
Adidas ends Ye deal over hate speech, costing rapper his billionaire status
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Adidas ends partnership immediately

To take about $250 mln hit to 2022 net income

Gap, Balenciaga have also cut ties with Ye
Oct 25 (Reuters) – Adidas AG (ADSGn.DE) terminated its partnership with rapper and fashion designer Ye on Tuesday after he made a series of antisemitic remarks, a move that knocked the musician off the Forbes list of the world’s billionaires.

Adidas put the tie-up, which has produced several hot-selling Yeezy branded sneakers, under review this month.

“Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech,” the German company said on Tuesday.

“Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness,” it said.

Forbes magazine said the end of the deal meant Ye’s net worth shrank to $400 million. The magazine had valued his share of the Adidas partnership at $1.5 billion.

The remainder of Ye’s wealth comes from real estate, cash, his music catalogue and a 5% stake in ex-wife Kim Kardashian’s shapewear firm, Skims, Forbes said.

Representatives for Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

For Adidas, ending the partnership and the production of Yeezy branded products, as well as stopping all payments to Ye and his companies, will have a “short-term negative impact” of up to 250 million euros ($248.90 million) on net income this year, the company said.

Ye has courted controversy in recent months by publicly ending major corporate tie-ups and making outbursts on social media against other celebrities. His Twitter and Instagram accounts were restricted, with the social media platforms removing some of his online posts that users condemned as antisemitic.

In now-deleted Instagram posts earlier this year, the multiple Grammy award-winning artist accused Adidas and U.S. apparel retailer Gap Inc (GPS.N) of failing to build contractually promised permanent stores for products from his Yeezy fashion line.

[1/3] Singer Kanye West walks past models after presenting his Fall/Winter 2015 partnership line with Adidas at New York Fashion Week February 12, 2015. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo

He also accused Adidas of stealing his designs for its own products.

On Tuesday, Gap, which had ended its partnership with Ye in September, said it was taking immediate steps to remove Yeezy Gap products from its stores and that it had shut down YeezyGap.com.

“Antisemitism, racism and hate in any form are inexcusable and not tolerated in accordance with our values,” Gap said in a statement.

European fashion house Balenciaga has also cut ties with Ye, according to media reports.

“The saga of Ye … underlines the importance of vetting celebrities thoroughly and avoiding those who are overly controversial or unstable,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData.

Adidas poached Ye from rival Nike Inc (NKE.N) in 2013 and agreed to a new long-term partnership in 2016 in what the company then called “the most significant partnership created between a non-athlete and a sports brand.”

The tie-up helped the German brand close the gap with Nike in the U.S. market.

Yeezy sneakers, which cost between $200 and $700, generate about 1.5 billion euros ($1.47 billion) in annual sales for Adidas, making up a little over 7% of its total revenue, according to estimates from Telsey Advisory Group.

Shares in Adidas, which cut its full-year forecast last week, closed down 3.2%. The group said it would provide more information as part of its upcoming Q3 earnings announcement on Nov. 9.

($1 = 1.0044 euros)

Reporting by Mrinmay Dey, Uday Sampath and Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Sriraj Kalluvila, Bernadette Baum, Anil D’Silva and Cynthia Osterman

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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October 25, 2022