Business Highlights: MacKenzie Scott giving totals $97m in first half; Dearth of new cars under $20k
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MacKenzie Scott gave 17 nonprofits $97 million in the first half of 2023
MacKenzie Scott’s quest to give the bulk of her wealth to charity continues. So far this year, 17 nonprofits have announced they’ve received unrestricted donations from Scott through her Yield Giving fund, according to a Chronicle of Philanthropy tally. The gifts total $97 million and range from $1 million to $15 million. Nearly half went to charities focused on early-childhood education and early-childhood development. Scott has now given more than $14.1 billion to at least 1,621 charities since 2020. To encourage people to focus on the charities rather than on her, Scott has stopped announcing her donations as she had in the past. Now she leaves it up to the charities to decide whether to publicize her gifts.
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Looking for a new car under $20,000? Good luck. Your choice has dwindled to just one vehicle
DETROIT (AP) — Just five years ago, a price-conscious auto shopper in the United States could choose from among a dozen new small cars selling for under $20,000. Now, there’s just one: The Mitsubishi Mirage. And even the Mirage appears headed for the scrap yard. At a time when Americans increasingly want pricey SUVs and trucks rather than small cars, the Mirage remains the lone new vehicle whose average sale price is under 20 grand — a figure that once marked a kind of unofficial threshold of affordability. With prices — new and used — having soared since the pandemic, $20,000 is no longer much of a starting point for a new car.
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Russia, China look to advance agendas at BRICS summit of developing countries in South Africa
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Russia and China will look to gain more political and economic ground in the developing world at a summit in South Africa this week. Leaders from the BRICS economic bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will hold three days of meetings in Johannesburg. Chinese Premier Xi Jinping is attending to underline the diplomatic capital his country has invested in the bloc as an avenue for its ambitions. Russian President Vladimir Putin will appear on a video link after his travel to South Africa was complicated by an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against him.
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White House science adviser calls for more safeguards against artificial intelligence risks
When President Joe Biden has questions about artificial intelligence, one expert he turns to is his science adviser Arati Prabhakar, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Prabhakar is helping to guide the U.S. approach to safeguarding AI technology, relying in part on cooperation from big American tech firms like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta. Prabhakar says the tech giants’ voluntary commitments are a start, but that more action is needed. She spoke to The Associated Press earlier this month ahead of a White House-coordinated testing of AI systems at the DefCon hacker conference in Las Vegas.
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China fines US research firm $1.5 million in crackdown on information-gathering
BEIJING (AP) — An American research firm has been fined $1.5 million by China’s government in a crackdown on information-gathering that has rattled foreign investors. Mintz Group was one of a series of foreign consultants that were raided starting in April after Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s government announced expanded anti-spying rules that left companies unsure what they were allowed to do. A notice from the Beijing statistics bureau dated July 14 said Mintz Group illegally engaged in “foreign-related statistical investigation activities without obtaining approval.” It gave no details of the violation. Mintz Group does background checks on employees and business partners and gathers other information for corporate clients.
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American Airlines pilots ratify a new contract that includes big pay raises and bonuses
DALLAS (AP) — Pilots at American Airlines have approved a new contract that will raise their pay 41% over four years. Their union, the Allied Pilots Association, said Monday that the vote was 73% in favor of ratifying the contract. The union puts the value of the deal at $9.6 billion. The union’s president says the contract is a big first step to restore wages and benefits that were lost over the last 20 years. The union had leverage to win big raises because of a pilot shortage that is occurring while travel booms coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau slams Facebook for blocking Canada wildfire news
TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Facebook of putting profits over people’s safety during Canada’s wildfire emergencies. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced earlier this summer it would keep its promise to block news content in Canada on its platforms in response to a new law that requires tech giants to pay publishers for linking to or otherwise repurposing their content online. Fires raging in Canada have pushed thousands from their homes and threatened a provincial capital hundreds of kilometers (miles) to the north. Trudeau say it is inconceivable that Facebook is choosing to put corporate profits ahead of insuring that local news organizations can get up to date information to Canadians.
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German central bank sees the economy stagnating again in the 3rd quarter
BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s central bank anticipates that the country’s economy, Europe’s biggest, will be more or less stagnant again in the current quarter. German gross domestic product stagnated in the second quarter after declining in both of the two previous quarters as the country struggled with high energy prices, rising borrowing costs and weakness in China, which has been a key trading partner. The International Monetary Fund forecast last month that Germany would be the globe’s only major economy to shrink this year. A monthly report Monday from the Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank, indicated that the picture isn’t about to improve. It wrote that “in the third quarter of 2023, German economic output will probably remain largely unchanged again.”
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More hearings begin soon for Summit’s proposed CO2 pipeline. Where does the project stand?
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — More hearings this month and in September are set for Summit Carbon Solutions’ proposed $5.5 billion, 2,000-mile pipeline network. The pipeline system would carry carbon dioxide emissions from dozens of ethanol plants in five states to central North Dakota for permanent storage deep underground. Iowa public utility regulators on Tuesday begin a weekslong hearing for Summit’s proposal, with South Dakota regulators set to hold their hearing in September. Landowners opposed to the project are concerned about a pipeline rupture and eminent domain, or the taking of their land for the pipeline. Other CO2 pipeline projects are proposed around the country as well, with new federal tax incentives making the burgeoning technology of carbon capture an attractive enterprise.
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The S&P 500 rose 30.06 points, or 0.7%, to 4,399.77. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 36.97 points, or 0.1%, to 34,463.69. The Nasdaq composite rose 206.81 points, or 1.6%, to 13,497.59. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 3.41 points, or 0.2%, to 1,856.01.