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Today is Veterans Day in the US, a day to honor and thank all who have served and sacrificed in service. Thank a Veteran today.
Today in Giving Back: Buffett Says He’s ‘Going Quiet’ and Picking Up Pace of Donations (Bloomberg)
Warren Buffett is donating more than $1.3 billion of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shares to four family foundations, disclosing in a letter that he intends to “step up the pace” of his donations while he’s still alive.
The 95-year-old investor, who is stepping down from his role of chief executive officer at the end of the year, also said he will be “going quiet,” meaning that he’ll no longer write Berkshire’s widely-followed annual report or speak at its annual shareholder meeting.
The Future of Work: How HR Took Over the World, and What AI Means for Its Next Chapter (The Economist)
The profession has rocketed in size and stature. Will AI shrink it?
Bit by bit, HR is taking over corporate life. The ranks of human-resources professionals across the rich world are swelling. Their roles are expanding.
In 2024 American businesses employed about 1.3m HR professionals, up by 64% in ten years and well above the 14% growth in overall employment in that time, The Economist reports.
In the long run, however, many HR tasks may be farmed out to AI. Fully 22% of respondents said that it had led to a decrease in the number of HR workers, more than for any other function, with only 5% saying it had led to an increase.
Small Biz Setback: US Small-Business Optimism Slips to Six-Month Low on Earnings (Bloomberg)
Sentiment among US small businesses eased in October to a six-month low on a deterioration in earnings and less optimism about the economy.
The
net share of owners reporting
stronger earnings in the last three months fell 9 percentage points, the most since the pandemic and restrained by weaker sales and higher materials costs.
Tariff Rebates: Trump Again Floats Idea of Giving $2,000 to Most Americans, Amid Rising Financial Strains (TIME Magazine)
President Trump has suggested that the majority of Americans could receive $2,000 in dividends, claiming that the US is bringing in “trillions of dollars” due to an influx of tariff revenue. Trump also told his 11 million Truth Social followers that "all money left over from the $2000 payments" will be "used to substantially pay down national debt," as reported by TIME.
An immediate issue that arises with the potential total of the dividend is how much it would actually cost. Should the payment be made to Americans from low and middle-income households, this would include over 80% of the total US population, or over 274 million people.
Workforce Whitewash: Labor Department Social Media Campaign Depicts a White Male Workforce (The Washington Post)
A year ago, the Labor Department’s social media messaging focused heavily on portraying a diverse assortment of employees and laborers, both in gender and race.
But the agency has made a dramatic shift during the Trump administration, launching a social media campaign with illustrations that appear to be AI-generated and that almost exclusively feature white men — part of an effort to promote the hiring of American citizens over foreign workers, according to the Washington Post.
Art experts and historians say the images mimic the styles of artist Norman Rockwell or historical government propaganda, including posters from New Deal-era America and fascist Europe. The campaign has drawn scrutiny, with critics saying it is not realistically portraying the diversity of the country’s workforce and is sending messages that feel exclusionary, given that white men make up a minority of the workforce, the Post reports.
Health Alert: Doctors See Dangers in the Safety of Cannabis Use as You Age, Citing Unexpected Risks (San Francisco Chronicle)
Older adults, like the rest of Americans, are increasingly using cannabis as the drug becomes legalized for medical and recreational uses across the country. Medical marijuana is now legal in 39 states, and it’s legal for recreational use in 24, including California, the Chronicle reports.
Experts in geriatric medicine say there remain many questions about the safety of cannabis use for all ages.
“Cannabis is not, according to any practice guidelines, going to be effective for sleep or anxiety,” Dr. Smita Das, a Stanford psychiatrist who specializes in addiction, said. “In fact it can worsen sleep or anxiety over time, even though it can feel in the moment like it’s helpful for these things.”
Studies also have shown a strong link between cannabis use and heart attack risk, which is especially troubling for older adults who may already have heart disease.
Death Toll Rises: US Military Kills 6 in Strikes on Suspected Drug Boats, Hegseth Says (New York Times)
The US military killed six people on Sunday in two more strikes on boats suspected of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Monday.
The latest strikes raised the death toll in the campaign to 76 people in 19 attacks in the Pacific and the Caribbean Sea since early September, the New York Times reports.
Tragedy in India: Car Explodes in Crowded Delhi Neighborhood, Killing Eight (New York Times)
A car exploded in a crowded neighborhood of Delhi during the evening rush hour on Monday, killing at least eight people and injuring many others, the authorities said. The blast occurred close to a metro station near the historic Red Fort area in Delhi, India’s capital. The area is often crowded, as it leads to the large bazaars of the old city.
Amit Shah, India’s home minister, said the cause of the explosion was being investigated, according to the New York Times.
Quiet Diplomacy: Trump Hosts Syrian President for Low-Profile Meeting in First-Ever US-Syria Oval Office Talks (Axios)
Across the Atlantic: The Heritage Foundation Goes from MAGA to MEGA, Making Europe Great Again (Politico)
The conservative think tank behind Donald Trump’s Project 2025 roadmap is looking for new friends across the Atlantic.
The Heritage Foundation, the intellectual engine behind the 922-page blueprint that has become the key policy manual for Trump’s second term, is partnering with a constellation of European nationalist far-right movements to export its playbook for countering progressive policies.
Nicolas Sarkozy Released: French Former President Freed From Prison, Pending Appeal (New York Times)
🔊 Now Streaming! Get the latest AI-powered take on today’s headlines with the new episode of the Daily Read Podcast — available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Cash Gain:
SoftBank Sells Its Nvidia Stake for $5.8 Billion to Fund OpenAI Bet (The Wall Street Journal)
Market Watch: Stocks Slip as Nvidia, CoreWeave Revive AI Jitters (Bloomberg)
US stock futures retreated as traders backed away from high-priced technology companies after SoftBank Group Corp. sold its entire Nvidia Corp. stake and CoreWeave Inc. warned revenues will be lower than expected.
Futures for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 slipped, trimming Monday’s gains that followed optimism that the US government shutdown was nearing resolution. Nvidia dipped and CoreWeave sank about 9% in premarket trading.
Data Centers and Spiking Power Bills: The Political Left in the US is Dialing Up Scrutiny of Data Centers (Wall Street Journal)
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and
a group of Democratic senators are demanding the White House answer for higher electric bills they blamed in part on the artificial-intelligence boom driving one of the most expensive infrastructure build-outs in US history.
In a letter to the White House and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the group took aim at Meta, OpenAI, Alphabet, Oracle and other firms behind a data-center build-out stretching from the Washington suburbs to rural Oregon. President Trump’s push to fast-track these projects is forcing Americans into “bidding wars with trillion-dollar companies to keep the lights on at home,” they wrote.
The missive is the latest sign of pushback against the AI boom buoying the US economy and markets while straining power producers’ ability to keep up.
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