Author: josh
The Giving Pledge was designed to hold the world’s richest people accountable for donating at least half their fortunes in their lifetimes or wills–but so far, only John and Laura Arnold have actually done it. From well-known Wall Street energy trader to philanthropist, John Arnold began his career trading natural gas at Enron and later ran a hedge fund, Centaurus Partners. By 2012, he had retired and fully pivoted to philanthropy at 38 years old. The Arnolds have donated over $2 billion to date, and more than $204 million in 2024, according to Forbes. Currently, their net worth is around…
An employee allegedly stole 47 vehicles from an Avis Budget site at an upstate New York airport and rented them out around the region, police said Friday. The car rental company reported to authorities that the vehicles, worth more than $1 million, were stolen from its location at Syracuse Hancock International Airport between June and August. An investigation by airport police found that a 31-year-old Avis Budget employee led the theft scheme, which involved renting out the purloined vehicles at other locations around Onondaga County, authorities said. Police declined to release details of how the vehicles were stolen. Police are…
One or more intruders broke into an Iowa mink farm and released 2,000 of the furbearing animals in what a trade group called a “terrorist act” under federal law. Sometime between Monday night and Tuesday morning, fencing was cut and pens and nest boxes were destroyed to release the mink, which are raised for their pelts, Fur Commission USA said. The farm is near Woodbine, Iowa, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) west of Des Moines. Just over 60% of the mink had been recovered by Friday morning, though time is running out to find them all before they succumb to…
The stunning indictment that led to the arrest of more than 30 people, including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and other NBA figures, on charges of illegal sports betting has drawn new scrutiny of the booming business of professional sports gambling across the U.S. Since widespread legalization, the multibillion-dollar industry has made it easy to place wagers on everything from the outcome of games to that of a single play with just a few taps of a cellphone. It’s just about impossible to go to a basketball, football, baseball or other pro game today — or watch a matchup on TV — without…
Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, pledged Friday to further embrace his Muslim identity in response to growing attacks by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his surrogates that he characterized as “racist and baseless.” Encircled by faith leaders outside a Bronx mosque, Mamdani spoke in emotional terms about the “indignities” long faced by the city’s Muslim population, choking back tears as he described his aunt’s decision not to ride the subway after the Sept. 11 attacks because she didn’t feel safe being seen in a religious head covering. He recounted how, when he first entered politics, an uncle…
Argentina’s peso continues to sell off despite a U.S. rescue package, ahead of a key election that could trigger another steep bout of depreciation. On Friday, the currency slipped 0.4% against the U.S. dollar, which now trades at nearly 1,492 pesos. The exchange rate has already hit a record low and is below its level before the Trump administration announced a $20 billion currency swap agreement. While news of that lifeline briefly triggered a sharp rally earlier this month, the peso has since given up those gains and has tumbled by more than 40% against the greenback so far this…
The U.S. military is sending an aircraft carrier to the waters off South America, the Pentagon announced Friday, in the latest escalation of military firepower in a region where the Trump administration has unleashed more rapid strikes in recent days against boats it accuses of carrying drugs. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group to deploy to the U.S. Southern Command region to “bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on social media. The USS Ford, which has…
The Social Security Administration’s annual cost-of-living adjustment will go up by 2.8% in 2026, translating to an average increase of more than $56 for retirees every month, agency officials said Friday. The benefits increase for nearly 71 million Social Security recipients will go into effect beginning in January. And increased payments to nearly 7.5 million people receiving Supplemental Security Income will begin on Dec. 31. Friday’s announcement was meant to be made last week but was delayed because of the federal government shutdown. The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for retirees and disabled beneficiaries is financed by payroll taxes collected from workers and their…
President Donald Trump announced he’s ending “all trade negotiations” with Canada because of a television ad sponsored by one of its provinces that used the words of former President Ronald Reagan to criticize U.S. tariffs — prompting the province’s leader to later pull the ad. The post on Trump’s social media site Thursday night ratcheted up tensions with the U.S.’s northern neighbor after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he plans to double his country’s exports to countries outside the U.S. because of the threat posed by Trump’s tariffs. White House officials said Trump’s reaction was a culmination of the administration’s long, pent-up frustration about Canada’s…
I’ve spent more than 25 years working in AI & Digital, and I can tell you this — we’re past the point of asking if the technology will transform work. The question now is, how fast it will do so. The data already tells a remarkable story. KPMG’s 2025 CEO Outlook survey of over 1,300 global CEOs reveals that nearly three-quarters plan to invest 20 percent of their entire budget on AI in the 12 months alone. It is their top investment priority for the second year running. But what matters most is that these leaders aren’t preparing for mass layoffs,…