PRIMITIVE ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL

Suspected pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden raises concerns about growing Somali piracy


Fri, May 10, 2024 

JERUSALEM (AP) — A European naval force detained six suspected pirates on Friday after they opened fire on an oil tanker traveling through the Gulf of Aden, officials said, likely part of a growing number of piracy attacks emanating from Somalia.

The attack on the Marshall Islands-flagged Chrystal Arctic comes as Yemen's Houthi rebels have also been attacking ships traveling through the crucial waterway, the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting them. The assaults have slowed commercial traffic through the key maritime route onward to the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea.

The pirates shot at the tanker from a small ship “carrying weapons and ladders,” according to the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, which oversees Mideast shipping routes. The pirates carried Kalashnikov-style rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, the private security firm Ambrey said.

The pirates opened fire first at the Chrystal Arctic, whose armed, onboard security team returned fire at them, the UKMTO said.


The pirates then abandoned their attempt to take the tanker, which continued on its way with all its crew safe, the UKMTO said. Dark black smoke came out of the small boat carrying the pirates, likely from a burning fuel drum, Ambrey said.

Hours later, the European Union naval force in the region known as Operation Atalanta said a frigate operating in the region detained six suspected pirates. The frigate seized the pirates given “the unsafe condition of their skiff” and said that some had “injuries of varied severity.”

It wasn't immediately clear if those injured suffered gunshot wounds from the exchange of fire with the Chrystal Arctic. The EU force declined to elaborate “due to the security of the operations.”

Ambrey identified the EU vessel as Italy's Carlo Bergamini-class frigate ITS Federico Martinego.

Once-rampant piracy off the Somali coast diminished after a peak in 2011. That year, there were 237 reported attacks in waters off Somalia. Somali piracy in the region at the time cost the world's economy some $7 billion — with $160 million paid out in ransoms, according to the Oceans Beyond Piracy monitoring group.

Increased naval patrols, a strengthening central government in Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, and other efforts saw the piracy beaten back.

However, concerns about new attacks have grown in recent months. In the first quarter of 2024, there have been five reported incidents off Somalia, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

“These incidents were attributed to Somali pirates who demonstrate mounting capabilities, targeting vessels at great distances, from the Somali coast,” the bureau warned in April. It added that there had been “several reported hijacked dhows and fishing vessels, which are ideal mother ships to launch attacks at distances from the Somali coastline.”

In March, the Indian navy detained dozens of pirates who seized a bulk carrier and took its 17 crew hostage. In April, pirates releases 23 crew members of the Bangladesh-flagged cargo carrier MV Abdullah after seizing the vessel. The terms of the release aren't immediately known.

These attacks come as the Houthi campaign targeting shipping since November as part of their pressure campaign to stop the Israel-Hamas war raging in the Gaza Strip.

Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press

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Specialty lab exec gets 10-year prison term for 11 deaths from tainted steroids in Michigan

Fri, May 10, 2024 



HOWELL, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan judge sentenced the former executive of a specialty pharmacy to at least 10 years in prison Friday for the deaths of 11 people who were injected with tainted pain medication, part of a meningitis outbreak that affected hundreds across the U.S. in 2012.

Barry Cadden's sentence for involuntary manslaughter will be served at the same time as his current 14 1/2-year federal sentence for crimes tied to the outbreak. As a result, he's not expected to spend any additional time behind bars — a deep disappointment for relatives of victims.

“This is hard because Mother's Day is just two days away,” said Gene Keyes, whose 79-year-old mother, Sally Roe, died 30 days after getting a tainted injection.

“Barry Cadden is responsible for the disintegration of our family. Our family has been torn apart,” Keyes told Livingston County Judge Matthew McGivney.


McGivney followed a sentencing agreement negotiated by Cadden's lawyer and the Michigan attorney general's office. Cadden had been charged with second-degree murder but pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter in March.

“You have altered the lives of these families and robbed them of time with their loved ones," the judge said.

More than 700 people in 20 states were sickened with meningitis or other debilitating illnesses and at least 64 died as a result of tainted steroids shipped to pain clinics in 2012 by New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Massachusetts, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But Michigan has been the only state to prosecute Cadden and a senior pharmacist, Glenn Chin, for any deaths.

Compounding pharmacies make versions of medications that often aren’t available through larger drugmakers. But Cadden’s lab was a mess, investigators said, leading to the growth of mold in the manufacturing process.

“There can be no doubt that you knew the risks that you were exposing innocent patients to and you chose, even after being investigated and sanctioned, to place your bottom line over innocent lives," McGivney said.

Cadden, 57, did not speak in court. The judge noted that a presentence officer who interviewed him in preparation for the hearing had written that Cadden showed no remorse.

In federal court in Boston in 2017, Cadden said he was sorry for the “whole range of suffering” that occurred.

“I feel like there's no justice," said Keyes, who wanted Cadden to serve more time in prison.

Assistant Attorney General Shawn Ryan declined to comment outside court when asked about the terms of the plea deal. The attorney general's office did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press.

Penny Laperriere said she had to sell her home after her husband, Lyn Laperriere, 61, died.

“Barry Cadden killed my husband. ... Mr. Cadden has no idea what I went through as he forced me into being a widow. Who does that to someone on purpose? All because of his greed,” Laperriere, 67, told the judge.

Karen Johnson said her mother, Betty Ruttman, lived another 10 years after getting sick, though her life wasn't the same. She attended the hearing “to have some closure.”

“It took her six months to get home,” Johnson, 67, said outside court, referring to her mother's stays in a hospital and rehabilitation center. “Not only did the victims go through hell, but the victims' families.”

Chin's second-degree murder case still is pending. He has not reached a deal with state prosecutors and will return to court on May 17. Meanwhile, he is serving a 10 1/2-year federal sentence.

___

Follow Ed White at https://twitter.com/edwritez

Chinese companies win licensing bids to explore Iraq oil and gas fields

Moayed Kenany, Timour Azhari and Adam Makary
Updated Sat, May 11, 2024 



A representative of a foreign company drops his offer in a box during the fifth plus and sixth licensing rounds for 29 oil and gas exploration blocks at the Oil Ministry's headquarters in Baghdad


By Moayed Kenany, Timour Azhari and Adam Makary

BAGHDAD (Reuters) -Chinese companies won bids to explore five Iraqi oil and gas fields on Saturday in a licensing round for hydrocarbon exploration that was primarily aimed at ramping up gas production for domestic use.

An Iraqi Kurdish company also took two of the 29 projects up for grabs in the three-day licensing round across central, southern and western Iraq, which for the first time includes an offshore exploration block in the country's Arab Gulf waters.

Iraq aims to lure billions of dollars of investments to develop its oil and gas sector as it looks to ramp up local petrochemicals production and end imports of gas from neighbouring Iran that are currently key to producing power.

More than 20 companies pre-qualified for the licensing round, including European, Chinese, Arab and Iraqi groups.

There were notably no U.S. oil majors involved, even after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia met with representatives of U.S. oil firms during an official visit to the United States last month.

Five bids were won on Saturday by Chinese companies.

Zhongman Petroleum and Natural Gas Group (ZPEC) took the northern extension of the Eastern Baghdad field, in Baghdad, and the Middle Euphrates field that straddles the southern Najaf and Karbala provinces, the oil ministry said.

China's United Energy Group Ltd won a bid to develop the Al-Faw field in southern Basra, while ZhenHua won a bid to develop Iraq's Qurnain field in the Iraqi-Saudi border region and Geo-Jade won a bid to develop Iraq's Zurbatiya field in the Wasit.

Two oil and gas fields were taken by Iraq's KAR Group - the Dimah field in eastern Maysan province, and the Sasan & Alan fields in Iraq's northwestern Nineveh province - the ministry said.

Around 20 more projects are open for bidding on Sunday and Monday.

Falah Al-amri, the Iraqi prime minister's advisor for oil and gas issues, said the government hoped the new projects would raise oil production to 6 million barrels per day by 2030 from around 5 million now.

The government also wants the projects to produce enough natural gas so that, along with plans to all-but eliminate gas flaring by 2030, Iraq could end imports.

"Its too early to talk about (gas) exports. We want to get self-sufficient," Al-amri told Reuters.

Iraq, OPEC's second-largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia, at one time had targeted becoming a rival to the Gulf Arab kingdom with output of over a tenth of global demand.

But its oil sector development has been hampered by contract terms viewed as unfavourable by many major oil companies as well as recurring conflict and political paralysis.

Growing investor focus in recent years on environmental, social and governance criteria have also had an effect.

Western oil giants such as Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell Plc have departed from a number of projects in Iraq while Chinese companies have steadily expanded their footprint.

(Reporting by Moayed Kenany, Clauda Tanios, Adam Makary and Timour Azhari; Writing by Timour Azhari; Editing by Alison Williams, Mark Potter and Emelia SIthole-Matarise)

CLIMATE  SABOTAGE CONFRONTATION

'I am angry': Alberta farmers will continue fight over world class motorsport resort

The Canadian Press
Sat, May 11, 2024 



ROSEBUD, ALBERTA — The rolling hills leading to the hamlet of Rosebud are dotted with sprawling farms and cattle pastures -- and a sign sporting a simple message: No Race Track.

Near that sign is another one telling would-be trespassers to stay off raceway property.

That sign is riddled with bullet holes, a pockmarked symbol of an 11-year battle pitting local landowners against a motorsport family determined to realize a dream of world-class racing.

The dream began in 2006 when Badlands Motorsports Resort purchased 194 hectares of prime land along the Rosebud River valley, northeast of Calgary.

The plan is to build a $500-million racing park for street-legal machines. There will be multiple racetracks, a go-kart track, a hotel and condominiums.


Some local landowners want no part o it.

"I am angry that we have to put our community through this. It's not right. It should never have gotten this far," said Wendy Clark.

"We actually couldn't believe that somebody would want to have property here and not enjoy it for the natural value that it has.”

Clark made the comments in an interview alongside husband Richard and neighbour Rick Skibsted.

They have Rosebud in the blood: Richard and Rick were born and raised there, while Wendy Clark has been in the hamlet for 42 years.

Rosebud is a tourist draw in and of itself, known for its local theatre and pie shop.

On the other side of the long-simmering battle is a group of doctors, led by Calgary radiologist Dr. Jay Zelazo. They bought the property, five kilometres from Rosebud, to build a new raceway after the only track near Calgary was struggling to stay afloat.

"It was the only property that we found that was suitable,” said Zelazo's father James, who serves as Badlands' chief financial officer.

"It's our land and we've done what was required.”

He said there have been unexpected costs added to the $30-million price tag for the first phase of the project.

Zelazo said the company has to pave a 10-kilometre stretch of narrow, winding road to the site itself at a cost of $15 million.

Zelazo said the constant delays are frustrating.

"It's the financing that we need to get. It's nothing else. We have all the approvals," he said.

"It's disheartening (that opponents) won't accept what the county made sure we did, meeting the bylaw requirements and all the documents just because they don't want it."

Opponents were concerned that filling in two wetlands to build the track would harm birds such as bank swallows, eagles, hawks and falcons.

Alberta’s Environmental Appeals Board dismissed that concern in March for lack of evidence and Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz later agreed with that decision.

But Schulz noted the board did order environmental monitoring and field surveys.

“They wanted to see some additional mitigation done to protect wetlands," Schulz recently told reporters.

"I did accept that."

Skibsted said swallows are already getting hit by cars and trucks and says the proposed racetrack will make things worse, coming between the birds and their food source.

The Alberta Wilderness Association said its concerns about the racetrack are more about the location than the project itself.

Conservation specialist Kennedy Halvorson said about three-quarters of the natural grassland in the Rosebud River valley is already gone due to human activity.

"It's kind of one of the last areas of the grasslands that's super healthy and has a lot of biodiversity. It's also home to about 85 per cent of Alberta's species at risk and the Rosebud River is no different," Halvorson said.

Opponents say there can still be a win-win, that a fair offer is on the table if Badlands wants to sell the land.

"We would pay what it's worth. It's increased in value. We'll provide a fair and equitable exit,” said Richard Clark.

If it’s no sale, the next step might be court, perhaps a judicial review of the environmental board decision.

"We've still got some more tools in our tool kit," said Wendy Clark.

"We're not done yet.

“And we're pretty patient."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2024.

— With files from Bob Weber in Edmonton

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press

MAIN STREET VS WALL STREET

Americans are feeling worse about the US economy amid inflation concerns

Josh Schafer
·Reporter
Updated Fri, May 10, 2024 

US consumers are becoming increasingly worried about the trajectory of the US economy amid sticky inflation and the prospect of high interest rates for longer than initially hoped.

The latest University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey released Friday revealed a 13% decline in overall sentiment during the month of May. The index reading for the month came in at 67.4, its lowest level in six months, and well below economist expectations for a reading of 76.2.

Year-ahead inflation expectations hit 3.5% in Friday's report, up from 3.2% in the month prior. Longer-run inflation expectations rose to 3.1%, up from 3% the month prior.

"While consumers had been reserving judgment for the past few months, they now perceive negative developments on a number of dimensions," survey of consumers director Joanne Hsu said in a statement. "They expressed worries that inflation, unemployment and interest rates may all be moving in an unfavorable direction in the year ahead."

The drop in sentiment comes after several months of data showing that inflation's downward path hasn't been as smooth as many economists had hoped. Through the first three months of the year the core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, which strips out the cost of food and energy and is closely watched by the Federal Reserve, rose at an annualized pace of 4.4%. This tracked significantly higher than the Fed's 2% goal, reversing a trend of significant easing in inflation to end 2023.

"In recent months, inflation has shown a lack of further progress toward our 2% objective, and we remain highly attentive to inflation risks," Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on May 1.

And while Powell said it's "unlikely" the next move for the Fed is an interest rate hike, the sticky inflation data appears to have put the Fed on a path to hold off on rate cuts longer than markets had hoped entering the year.

Meanwhile, various economic data releases have come in tepid, such as the most recent weaker-than-expected jobs report and data showing a contraction in manufacturing activity in April. On Thursday, weekly jobless claims rose unexpectedly, hitting their highest level since August 2023.

Friday's University of Michigan release follows a recent reading of consumer confidence from the Conference Board that showed confidence in April hit its lowest level since July 2022.

Powell has talked extensively about how consumer sentiment around inflation is something the central bank watches and will play a role in inflation returning to the 2% goal.

"For us to begin to reduce policy restriction, we'd want to be confident that inflation is moving sustainably down to 2%," Powell said on May 1. "And for sure one of the things we'd be looking at is the performance of inflation. We'd also be looking at inflation expectations, we'd be looking at the whole story, but clearly, incoming inflation data would be at the very heart of that decision."

Crucial readings on both inflation and consumer spending will come next week with retail sales and the Consumer Price Index for April, which are expected on Wednesday.

Supporters of United States look dejected after the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Round of 16 match between Netherlands and USA at Khalifa International Stadium on Dec. 3, 2022, in Doha, Qatar. (Mohammad Karamali/DeFodi Images via Getty Images) (DeFodi Images via Getty Images)

Josh Schafer is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X @_joshschafer.

The cost-of-living crisis is so bleak that some Gen Zers genuinely fear becoming homeless

Jane Thier
Sat, May 11, 2024 

AsiaVision - Getty Images


There’s being cautious, and then there’s being terrified. When it comes to their financial outlook, many young adults have slipped into the second category.

That’s according to the Money Matters Report, a dense examination into American financial concerns published Thursday by saving and investing app Acorns. For the report, Acorns surveyed over 5,000 U.S. consumers about their attitudes and their concerns—and the results were dire.

Nearly a quarter of respondents said they’re actively concerned that the state of their finances could lead to homelessness. Broken down by generation, about a third of Gen Z and millennials said so, compared to just 11% of boomers.

Homelessness is an extreme outcome, but it’s not entirely beyond the scope of possibility. In December 2023, federal officials announced the U.S. experienced a 12% year-over-year increase in homelessness, bringing the nation to its highest reported level. The causes varied from impossibly steep rents, stagnant wages, and pandemic assistance payments sputtering to a stop.


As of six months ago, 653,000 people in the U.S. are homeless, which is the most ever tabulated since the country began conducting yearly data in 2007.

The main culprits behind the explosion in homelessness are “the shortage of affordable homes and the high cost of housing that have left many Americans living paycheck to paycheck and one crisis away from homelessness,” Jeff Olivet, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, said at the time.

That aligns with the findings in Acorns’ report; for workers across income brackets, the three biggest financial concerns are cost of living, inflation, and debt.

Long before the pandemic, America was gripped with shortages of affordable housing, everywhere from small rural towns to the economic city centers where most high-paying jobs can be found. Things have hardly improved since we took off our surgical masks.

As Fortune’s Alena Botros wrote, “since the pandemic-fueled housing boom, with both home prices and rents up substantially and mortgage rates at the highest level in decades, the single-family home has become much less accessible.” Indeed, rents still outpace salaries in 44 of the top 50 U.S. metropolitan areas.

Even for those who are gainfully employed, concerns overseas are becoming more difficult to ignore. Over half of respondents said macroeconomic events—like war and conflict—could further imperil their finances.

That’s to say nothing of the problems at home: a skyrocketing cost of living amid enduringly high inflation and debt. Many respondents, particularly younger ones, say they lack emergency funds, but fears over losing stability have nonetheless galvanized workers at all income levels to prioritize saving. Nearly 30% of respondents told Acorns they’ve never had an emergency fund to begin with, but among those who do have one, most say they’re upping their contributions, scared straight by the events unfolding around them.

Only around one-third of respondents said they expect to be more financially secure next year than they are now. Things generally skew more optimistic for the older crowd. The silent generation (which Acorns defines as those over 78 years old) were over twice as likely as the rest of the general population to claim they have no financial concerns at all.

"The everyday American is facing a deluge of bad financial news, from persistent increases in inflation to cost of living, all against a backdrop of global war and turmoil,” Noah Kerner, CEO of Acorns, wrote in the report. “What I'm encouraged by is that we can empirically confront the problem with a mix of education, tools, hope, and confidence.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Most Americans don’t expect to work into their mid-60s:   Chart of the Week

Ethan Wolff-Mann
·Senior Editor
Sat, May 11, 2024 a

Among young workers who see getting on the hamster wheel of buying a home, saving some money, building some wealth, and retiring as an increasingly distant goal, one meme endures: I will never be able to stop working.

But new data from the New York Fed published this week showed the number of workers expecting to work beyond age 62 has plummeted.

Our Chart of the Week below shows the number of respondents to the New York Fed’s survey who expect to work beyond 62 fell to 45.8% in March, down from 55.4% four years ago. And just 31.2% of workers expect to work beyond 67 years old, down from 36.2% four years ago.

New York Fed economists found these expectations were represented broadly across age, education, and income demographics, though they were especially pronounced among women.

The New York Fed doesn’t know why this change has happened. But the bank’s economists cite potential preferences to part-time or freelance employment, wealth, future earnings, and economic confidence, or — on the other side of the optimism ledger — a lack of confidence about making it to an expected age as factors influencing these results.

That the reasons can be both “YOLO” and its forward-thinking direct opposite only adds to the broader adoption of these expectations. But it also highlights the future’s complete opacity, especially in the face of a potential paradigm shift in work brought on by AI and automation across sectors. Innovations that could give us a 10-hour work week, or make us hungry.

Almost every chart mapping the labor market’s trajectory over the past five years is clearly shaped by the pandemic.

We saw a surge of joblessness and healing as businesses shut down and reopened. Then came “The Great Resignation,” when more people than usual decided to quit their jobs amid a post-pandemic hiring frenzy.

Both sides of this supply and demand reversal linger as contributors to the inflation conversation that defines this economic moment. And this precipitous shift in people’s retirement expectations could also reshape economic trends and recast known challenges into big problems.

“To the extent that these expectations signal actual future retirement behavior, they also have implications for future decisions by consumers about the timing of claims for social security benefits and the receipt of those benefits,” the New York Fed wrote.

A measured way to say that millions of people leaving the workforce earlier than expected will have a cost. And the bill may be due sooner than we think.

Ethan Wolff-Mann is a Senior Editor at Yahoo Finance, running newsletters. Follow him on Twitter @ewolffmann.

WHAT IS INFLATION?!

April asking rent prices up 9.3% across Canada; as Ontario sees only decline: report

The Canadian Press
Fri, May 10, 2024



The average asking rent for a home in Canada in April was up 9.3 per cent compared with a year ago, while a slight month-over-month increase was also recorded for the first time since January, a new report says.

The report by Urbanation and Rentals.ca, which analyzes monthly listings from the latter's network, said the average asking rent for all home types was $2,188 last month.

The annual growth rate was up from an 8.8 per cent increase recorded the previous month. Asking rents were up 0.3 per cent month-over-month.

Based on the report, the average asking rent for a one-bedroom unit in Canada was $1,915 in April, up 11.6 per cent from a year ago, while the average asking price for a two-bedroom unit was $2,295, up 11 per cent from April 2023.

Overall, asking rents for purpose-built rental apartments in April increased 13.1 per cent compared with a year earlier to reach an average of $2,124. Condominium apartment rents averaged $2,331, up 3.8 per cent.

All provinces recorded month-over-month and year-over-year increases in asking rents, except for Ontario where rents decreased 0.3 per cent monthly and 0.7 per cent annually to an average of $2,404.

Saskatchewan remained the cheapest province in the country to rent in April, at an average of $1,300, but overtook Alberta as the provincial leader in annual rent growth with an 18.4 per cent increase. Alberta reached an average of $1,746, an increase of 16.4 per cent compared with a year ago.

Nova Scotia had the third highest rent growth at 10.1 per cent, for an average asking price of $2,169.

B.C. maintained the highest asking rents at an average of $2,507 in April, increasing 1.6 per cent from April 2023.

Average asking rents in Quebec rose 8.7 per cent to reach $2,011, while Manitoba's 9.8 per cent increase brought its average to $1,609.

On a municipal basis, average asking rents in Vancouver continued to decline, moving down 7.8 per cent to $2,982 last month. While Vancouver rents remained the highest among Canada’s largest cities, the report noted they have fallen 10.7 per cent since peaking in July 2023

Toronto's average rental prices also declined 2.3 per cent year-over-year to $2,757 and have now fallen 5.4 per cent from their peak in November 2023.

Edmonton maintained its position as the leader for rent growth among Canada’s largest cities, reaching an average of $1,507 in April — a 13.3 per cent gain from the same month in 2023.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2024.

The Canadian Press

With many Ontario homebuyers on the sidelines, gen Z, immigrants enter the market

Ben Cousins
Sat, May 11, 2024

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As prospective Ontario homebuyers increasingly sit on the sidelines of the real estate market, a new survey suggests more gen-Zers and newcomers are entering the fray.

The estimated number of Ontarians likely to consider a new or pre-construction home has fallen from 750,000 people in 2023 to just 500,000 now, according to the second annual New Home Buyers Report by Tarion, a not-for-profit consumer protection organization that administers the province’s new home warranty program.

Tarion said persistently high interest rates, the cost of living and inflation are keeping more people on the sidelines.

“This shift in homebuyer mindset is striking,” David MacDonald, group vice-president of financial services at Environics Research, which conducted the Tarion survey, said in a news release. “However, it’s consistent with other trends in big-ticket consumer decisions, and it makes sense considering that, overall, Canadian consumer confidence is at one of its lowest points since the financial crisis of 2009.”

He said homebuying trends are likely to change as consumers see signs of interest rates and inflation easing.

Still, new homes remain the top choice for homebuyers as Canada tries to ramp-up construction to solve the housing shortage.

The survey said 93 per cent of respondents who are considering a home are looking at a home built within the past five years, as 52 per cent of them believe a home of this age gives them peace of mind.

Homebuyers also now prefer urban areas, which may reflect an increase in the number of people working from offices located in cities. Urban areas are now preferred by 55 per cent of Ontarians, while suburban areas are liked by 49 per cent, down from 57 per cent last year.

Young Canadians think retiring at 65 is an outdated concept


Toronto housing market sees spring sales slowdown


Posthaste: Canadians put off plans to buy a home

Even as more Ontarians wait on the sidelines for prices to adjust, gen Z is increasingly looking to enter the market. The survey found eight per cent of new home buyers are born between 1996 and 2012, up from three per cent a year ago.

Meanwhile, newcomers to Canada are also increasingly looking to buy homes. Among the survey respondents respondents who were born outside Canada, the number of new homebuyers who immigrated here less than 10 years ago reached 56 per cent, up 17 percentage points from a year ago.

Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak was expelled from the school where he just delivered his commencement speech—’be leaders, not followers’

Sunny Nagpaul
Sat, May 11, 2024

Dana Jacobs/Getty Images


Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak was in high school the first time he left his home state of California. He was boarding a flight to Boulder to check out the University of Colorado campus with some friends.

The electronics prodigy had designed his first computer at age 13, and by the time he applied to colleges, he was a candidate for several of the country’s top technology schools. But that first night in Boulder changed things for him. He saw snow for the first time and fell in love with the beauty and “freshness” of the school.

Wozniak recalled the one year he spent at the school, from 1968 to 1969, in his Thursday commencement speech to the University of Colorado Boulder’s class of 2024. He described going to his first concert (Simon and Garfunkel), and showing his fellow Apple cofounder Steve Jobs his favorite Bob Dylan records. Still, when “I look at my yearbook from that year,” he told students, it “shows a lot of soldiers on this campus with assault rifles during the Vietnam War protests.”

In his speech, Wozniak affirmed the importance of intellectual freedom through his own experiences as one of the country’s most influential leaders of electronic innovation, citing the institutional and bureaucratic pushback on his own technological creations, and the military presence that had taken over the campus. Today, as more than 80 college encampments across the country protest the U.S.’s financial support of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, Wozniak’s perspective comes at a time many are calling to protect academic freedom.

After Wozniak visited Boulder for the first time, he said in the speech, “I told my parents I would only apply to this one school, none of the others.” They told him they only had enough money to afford one year of out-of-state tuition at the school, but told him to follow his heart. That freedom he experienced, he said, became invaluable advice to him.

“My parents let me follow my heart,” he said, “So I was careful to be that way with my own children; their choice is the most important.”

It wasn’t always smooth sailing, though. Institutional pushback was prevalent in the computer labs he studied at.

“Instead of being praised here for some really good scientific programs I wrote, with the one huge massive computer down in the basement, I was demeaned because I ran my class five times over budget,” he said. “I didn’t realize it boiled down to money and bureaucracy and that kind of stuff.”

To be fair, Wozniak was expelled from the school after his first year for hacking into the school’s network and sending prank messages. Still, he faced resistance even while developing innovative computer programs “at a time when there were no books on the subject,” he said.

He made a decision: “I knew computers by heart. I decided I wanted a computer of my own that I could decide what to do with it.”

The goal for that computer, he said, was to “help other human beings do more with their lives than they could do without a computer, and not to rely on million-dollar mainframes that companies and universities could afford.”

That dream was soon realized. In 1976, Wozniak built out the first versions of Apple’s personal computers, and the following year, the company released the Apple II, one of the earliest personal computers available to the general public, which was met with huge commercial success. In 1985, Wozniak left his role at Apple to find an engineering role that didn’t also involve running a fast-growing business, selling much of his Apple stock upon his departure, according to Business Insider.

Since then, Wozniak has leaned into the country’s education system, spending eight years teaching fifth grade. He presented the graduating class with some advice he has collected from all of that experience: “You grow up in education to be leaders, not followers. Think for yourself and decide what’s right and wrong.”

Today, as the country faces some of the biggest student protests since those that emerged during the Vietnam War, his words of advice have taken on deeper meaning. According to a tally by the Associated Press, since April 18 there have been at least 38 incidents of arrests made at campus protests across the country, with more than 1,600 people arrested at 30 schools.

College campuses have been engulfed by student dissent following the brutal Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Southern Israel, which killed over 1,200 people, and Israel’s response, a catastrophic military campaign which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, now entering its seventh month. Along with demands for divestment and financial transparency, protesting students also aim to show solidarity with millions of Palestinian civilians facing calamitous levels of disaster, including famine, disease outbreaks, and a children’s crisis, in which at least a thousand children have lost limbs and over 19,000 children have been orphaned because of indiscriminate bombing in the war.

At Columbia University, for example, over 200 people were arrested in two police raids that occurred on April 18 and April 30, the latter of which, coincidentally, is the same day 700 students were arrested for protesting the divisive Vietnam War and Columbia’s expansion into Harlem more than 50 years ago.

Archon Fung, a professor of political science at Harvard, told Fortune there are important parallels between the protests, especially in terms of how university administrations respond to acts of civil disobedience. Civil disobedience “has an important place in democracy,” Fung said, adding, “civil disobedience is, by definition, breaking the rules.”

For college students who will soon leave the walls of their campus to become the next generation of leaders, bosses, and entrepreneurs, Wozniak offers a modern twist on some old-school advice: “you all have AI–actual intelligence.”

“Pay your own success forward,” he implored students, “and keep teaching and mentoring others.”

New Mexico governor seeks hydrogen investment with trip to Netherlands


Sat, May 11, 2024 


SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The governor of New Mexico has announced plans to court new investments in hydrogen fuel development at a business summit in the Netherlands over the coming week.

In a news release Friday, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said she'll lead a delegation to an industry summit exhibition in the port city of Rotterdam seeking the “opportunity to sell New Mexico as a dynamic and thriving place for hydrogen industry investment.” She led a similar mission last year to Australia to talk with hydrogen entrepreneurs.

Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, has been a vocal proponent of investments in hydrogen as a transition fuel that can replace fossil fuels with cleaner-burning hydrogen as an energy source for vehicles, manufacturing and generating electricity.

Some environmentalists call hydrogen a false solution because it frequently relies on natural gas as a fuel source. Several New Mexico-based groups have resisted proposed state incentives for hydrogen development, citing concerns that it would prolong natural gas development and increase demand for scarce water supplies.

Hydrogen also can be produced through electrolysis — splitting water molecules using renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, as well as nuclear power.

New Mexico is a major energy producing state with extensive natural gas reserves and broad recent investments in electrical transmission lines aimed expanding renewable energy production from sources including wind and solar.

The Biden administration last year passed over a four-state bid by New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming for a share of $7 billion aimed at kickstarting development and production of hydrogen fuel. It chose instead projects based in California, Washington, Minnesota, Texas, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Illinois.

The hydrogen summit in Rotterdam has an array of public an private sponsors. Lujan Grisham is traveling with office staff, New Mexico cabinet secretaries for the environment and transportation, and husband Manny Cordova. The New Mexico delegation also includes Rob Black, president of a statewide chamber of commerce.

The Associated Press