Month: May 2023

Russian Freight Train Derails In Sabotage Attack As Airstrikes Pummel Ukraine For 2nd Day

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– Russian Freight Train Derails In Sabotage Attack As Airstrikes Pummel Ukraine For 2nd Day:

An apparent sabotage attack with an “explosive device” has resulted in a disastrous train derailment in the Russian region of Byransk which borders Ukraine.

“An unidentified explosive device went off, as a result of which a locomotive of a freight train derailed,” Bryansk governor Alexander Bogomaz announced on Telegram Monday.

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May Day Protests In France Turn Violent As Unions Fume Over Macron’s Pension Reform

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– May Day Protests In France Turn Violent As Unions Fume Over Macron’s Pension Reform:

Nationwide protests are expected in France on Monday, with annual May Day demonstrations coinciding with ongoing discontent over President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular pension overhaul in March.

As reported by NYTimes, French authorities estimate 500,000 to 650,000 protesters across the country – with as many as 100,000 or more in Paris. A flare-up in demonstrations today comes after months of unrest due to France’s Constitutional Council approving Macron’s unpopular pension reform that raised the retirement age from 62 to 64.

Despite the decision, some of France’s most powerful unions say they will fight on. The question is whether this anger will stick around for the rest of Macron’s presidential term or eventually fades.

Several top union leaders have made it clear they’re not giving up.

Read moreMay Day Protests In France Turn Violent As Unions Fume Over Macron’s Pension Reform

Chipotle And Domino’s Customers Begin Cutting Back On Delivery Orders

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“Many consumers have begun to watch their spending more closely.” 

– Chipotle And Domino’s Customers Begin Cutting Back On Delivery Orders :

Mounting evidence shows consumers are dialing back their fast-food spending as they grapple with two years of negative real wages, maxed-out credit cards, and depleted personal savings. Last week, McDonald’s CEO noted that customers were starting to resist higher burger prices. Now, Chipotle Mexican Grill and Domino’s Pizza have reported that consumers are ditching delivery services due to high fees, opting instead for carryout to save on costs, as reported by Bloomberg.

Chipotle said delivery sales declined for the first quarter, while similar trends were reported at Domino’s. Chief Financial Officer Sandeep Reddy of the pizza restaurant chain with thousands of stores nationwide told analysts last week that carryout was “strong,” but “the delivery business remains more pressured.”

Read moreChipotle And Domino’s Customers Begin Cutting Back On Delivery Orders

Bipartisan Bill Aims To Prevent AI From Launching Nuclear Weapons

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– Bipartisan Bill Aims To Prevent AI From Launching Nuclear Weapons:

In the name of “protecting future generations from potentially devastating consequences,” a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday introduced legislation meant to prevent artificial intelligence from launching nuclear weapons without meaningful human control.

The Block Nuclear Launch by Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Act—introduced by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Don Beyer (D-Va.), and Ken Buck (R-Colo.)—asserts that “any decision to launch a nuclear weapon should not be made” by AI.

The proposed legislation acknowledges that the Pentagon’s 2022 Nuclear Posture Review states that current U.S. policy is to “maintain a human ‘in the loop’ for all actions critical to informing and executing decisions by the president to initiate and terminate nuclear weapon employment.”

The bill would codify that policy so that no federal funds could be used “to launch a nuclear weapon [or] select or engage targets for the purposes of launching” nukes.

“As we live in an increasingly digital age, we need to ensure that humans hold the power alone to command, control, and launch nuclear weapons—not robots,” Markey asserted in a statement. “We need to keep humans in the loop on making life-or-death decisions to use deadly force, especially for our most dangerous weapons.”

Read moreBipartisan Bill Aims To Prevent AI From Launching Nuclear Weapons

Not Too Old? Actuaries Chime In After Nikki Haley Says Biden ‘Likely’ To Die Within 5 Years – GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley predicts Biden would not make it through a second term: “If you vote for Joe Biden, you really are counting on a President Harris. Because the idea that he would make it until 86 years old is not something that I think is likely.”

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FYI.

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– Not Too Old? Actuaries Chime In After Nikki Haley Says Biden ‘Likely’ To Die Within 5 Years

Last week, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said that 80-year-old President Joe Biden is likely to die within the next five years, and that his supporters would have to assume VP Kamala Harris would take his place.

“He announced that he’s running again in 2024, and I think that we can all be very clear and say with a matter of fact that if you vote for Joe Biden you really are counting on a President Harris, because the idea that he would make it until 86 years old is not something that I think is likely,” the 51-year-old Haley told Fox News.

No so fast, according to the Financial Times, which – citing actuaries, say an 82-year-old Biden wouldn’t be too ancient to start a second term, which he would of course finish at the ripe young age of 86.

According to UK actuarial firm Club Vita, Biden has a life expectancy of another 11 years, taking him to 91, while former President Donald Trump has 14 more years to look forward to.

The model’s inputs include affluence, marital status, and employment. These key demographics for both Biden and Trump put them in the same favourable categories for the main factors, including addresses in the top category for life expectancy: the analysts used Trump’s Palm Beach address and Biden’s Delaware home.

Erik Pickett, a New Jersey-based actuary for Club Vita, said a wide range of factors could prove its model wrong, from whether the candidates “are in significantly different health to the average of someone with the same characteristics” to the fact that presidents have “access to higher quality medical treatments” than the typical American. -Financial Times

The average American male born on the same day as Biden can expect to live another 8.5 years, according to the Social Security Administration.

“I would say that both Biden and Trump are likely to have substantially higher life expectancy than the average, for their age, because they have high socio-economic status, access to the best healthcare in the US, and they do not smoke,” said Georgetown University senior research investigator, Dana Glei.

“The president will have access to the highest-quality medical care and will remain physically, mentally and socially active whilst in the job — all factors that improve lifespan,” said Pickett, adding that this will be “at least partially countered by a high-stress environment and possibly a greater exposure to external risk factors.”

And of course, Kamala Harris is ready for whatever might come…

Comforting, no?

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World’s Top Buyer Of LNG Warns Of Another Price Spike

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– World’s Top Buyer Of LNG Warns Of Another Price Spike:

The northern hemisphere experienced higher-than-average temperatures this past winter, which helped alleviate energy crunches and sent liquefied natural gas prices tumbling from record-high levels. Now the world’s largest gas buyer expects another price spike this year.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Yukio Kani, the chairman and CEO of Jera Co., expressed his concerns about another potential surge in LNG prices, attributing this to the increasing import capacity in Europe and China, along with potential severe weather risks.

Here’s part of the interview:

Read moreWorld’s Top Buyer Of LNG Warns Of Another Price Spike