Allegra Stratton: Can Rachel Reeves Juice Growth?
At the time of writing, Europe has been plunged into its most disruptive power cut in recent history – millions across Spain and Portugal are struggling without electricity. Early suggestions of a cyber attack have given way to the likelihood it was a simple technical fault. Follow Bloomberg's live blog for excellent analysis including Will Matthis on the race against time – as night approaches – for these nations to delicately restart their power.
The UK is not affected but while we bask in early Summer sunshine yet more data is published indicating darker times ahead - the EY Item Club this morning halved its projected rate of growth for 2026 from 1.6% to .9%.
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New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
Zohran Mamdani urges boycott of Cornell school with ties to Israel
Far-left mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has said Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island should be boycotted because of its partnership with an Israel-based school — a stance blasted as 'blatant antisemitism.'' 'There are ways to make what seems to be an international battle into a local one,' the Democratic socialist said on a 'Talking Palestine' podcast with Sumaya Awad shortly after getting elected to the state assembly in 2020. 'If you were to look at the lens of BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] and how it applies here in New York City, you would say that Cornell-Technion is something you would be talking about,' Mamdani said of the Roosevelt Island college, which is partnered with Technion University in Israel and is also referred to as the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute. Advertisement 3 Far-left mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has said Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island should be boycotted because of its partnership with an Israel-based school. Adalah Justice Project 'Technion University is an Israeli University that has helped to develop a lot of weapons technology used by the IDF [Israel Defense Force],' said Mamdani, as he voiced support for economic boycotts against Israel. Mamdani — who also recounted how he co-founded the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at Bowdoin College when he attended the school — said a boycott campaign would scrutinize any government funds that Cornell-Technion received. 'I'm sure that if we look close enough, there are either municipal subsidies or state subsidies granted to a project such as this on Roosevelt Island,' Mamdani said. Advertisement The Roosevelt venture is a pet project of former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who conducted a worldwide competitive bidding process to operate the sciences and engineering campus. Cornell won the bid and opened the joint campus in September 2017, paving the way for such things as shared programs and professors. 3 Mamdani said a boycott campaign would scrutinize any government funds that Cornell-Technion received. picture alliance via Getty Images Advertisement A former Bloomberg staffer told The Post it's outrageous that Mamdani would push going after Cornell's partnership with Technion. 'Zohran Mamdani spends his days attacking Donald Trump, but it seems he's really a fanboy,' said Mark Botnick, former City Hall aide during Bloomberg's mayoralty. 'His call to defund Cornell Tech over its ties to the Technion is a page straight out of the Trump playbook,' said Botnick — as the president targets Harvard and other universities over policies he opposes. Advertisement 'If Mamdani is so eager to sever connections with Israeli institutions, is he also planning to boycott and deny New Yorkers' access to the myriad of lifesaving treatments and technologies developed by Israeli institutions?' the former Bloomberg aide said. 'Given his blatant antisemitism, he just might.' Other boosters of Cornell Tech also rapped Mamdani's targeting of the campus for a boycott. 'It is frightening to think that a mayoral candidate could be either so naive or so bigoted that they would question public funding for a school that has contributed so much to the growth of our city's technology sector because it is a partnership with the legendary Technion Institute of Israel,' said Kathryn Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York City. Wylde served on the advisory committee that helped bring the Cornell Tech campus to Roosevelt Island. 3 'Technion University is an Israeli University that has helped to develop a lot of weapons technology used by the IDF [Israel Defense Force],' said Mamdani. Getty Images Mamdani, 33, who is running second in the Democratic mayoral primary to ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, is a Palestinian rights activist and a staunch foe of Israel. Last week, during and after a mayoral debate, he refused to recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. Advertisement A Mamdani campaign rep did not dispute the candidate's comments eyeing a boycott of Cornell over its Israel ties. 'Zohran has been clear and consistent: his focus is lowering the cost of living and delivering a safer city for every single New Yorker. That's what this campaign has been about and it is how he will govern as mayor,' the Mamdani spokesman Told the Post. Early voting for the June 24 mayoral primary begins this Saturday, June 14.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Meta in Talks for Scale AI Investment That Could Top $10 Billion
(Bloomberg) -- Meta Platforms Inc. is in talks to make a multibillion-dollar investment into artificial intelligence startup Scale AI, according to people familiar with the matter. Next Stop: Rancho Cucamonga! Where Public Transit Systems Are Bouncing Back Around the World ICE Moves to DNA-Test Families Targeted for Deportation with New Contract Trump Said He Fired the National Portrait Gallery Director. She's Still There. US Housing Agency Vulnerable to Fraud After DOGE Cuts, Documents Warn The financing could exceed $10 billion in value, some of the people said, making it one of the largest private company funding events of all time. The terms of the deal are not finalized and could still change, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. Representatives for Scale and Meta declined to comment. Scale AI, whose customers include Microsoft Corp. and OpenAI, provides data labeling services to help companies train machine-learning models and has become a key beneficiary of the generative AI boom. The startup was last valued at about $14 billion in 2024, in a funding round that included backing from Meta and Microsoft. Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that Scale was in talks for a tender offer that would value it at $25 billion. This would be Meta's biggest ever external AI investment, and a rare move for the company. The social media giant has before now mostly depended on its in-house research, plus a more open development strategy, to make improvements in its AI technology. Meanwhile, Big Tech peers have invested heavily: Microsoft has put more than $13 billion into OpenAI while both Inc. and Alphabet Inc. have put billions into rival Anthropic. Part of those companies' investments have been through credits to use their computing power. Meta doesn't have a cloud business, and it's unclear what format Meta's investment will take. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has made AI Meta's top priority, and said in January that the company would spend as much as $65 billion on related projects this year. The company's push includes an effort to make Llama the industry standard worldwide. Meta's AI chatbot — already available on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — is used by 1 billion people per month. Scale, co-founded in 2016 by CEO Alexandr Wang, has been growing quickly: The startup generated revenue of $870 million last year and expects sales to more than double to $2 billion in 2025, Bloomberg previously reported. Scale plays a key role in making AI data available for companies. Because AI is only as good as the data that goes into it, Scale uses scads of contract workers to tidy up and tag images, text and other data that can then be used for AI training. Scale and Meta share an interest in defense tech. Last week, Meta announced a new partnership with defense contractor Anduril Industries Inc. to develop products for the US military, including an AI-powered helmet with virtual and augmented reality features. Meta has also granted approval for US government agencies and defense contractors to use its AI models. The company is already partnering with Scale on a program called Defense Llama — a version of Meta's Llama large language model intended for military use. Scale has increasingly been working with the US government to develop AI for defense purposes. Earlier this year the startup said it won a contract with the Defense Department to work on AI agent technology. The company called the contract 'a significant milestone in military advancement.' The SEC Pinned Its Hack on a Few Hapless Day Traders. The Full Story Is Far More Troubling Cavs Owner Dan Gilbert Wants to Donate His Billions—and Walk Again Is Elon Musk's Political Capital Spent? What Does Musk-Trump Split Mean for a 'Big, Beautiful Bill'? Cuts to US Aid Imperil the World's Largest HIV Treatment Program ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Hedge Funds Face California Rebuke Over Role in Wildfire Claims
(Bloomberg) -- Hedge funds are facing pushback in California as their bets tied to insurance claims stemming from the Los Angeles wildfires are attacked as unethical. Next Stop: Rancho Cucamonga! Where Public Transit Systems Are Bouncing Back Around the World ICE Moves to DNA-Test Families Targeted for Deportation with New Contract Trump Said He Fired the National Portrait Gallery Director. She's Still There. US Housing Agency Vulnerable to Fraud After DOGE Cuts, Documents Warn The transactions in focus are tied to so-called subrogation claims, which hedge funds, private equity firms and other alternative investment managers have been buying from insurers over the past few months. Subrogation kicks in if a third party such as a utility is suspected of being responsible for losses covered by insurers. Hedge funds buying these claims from insurers are now under attack from the California Earthquake Authority, which is the administrator of the California Wildfire Fund. It has described such transactions as 'opportunistic, profit-driven investment speculation,' and says it's planning to take on 'hedge funds and other speculators' that it claims 'are actively seeking to profit from California's devastating wildfire catastrophes.' In practice, that means the authority will try to block the payout of what it says could end up being 'billions of dollars' to the investors that bought the claims, according to materials prepared ahead of a meeting that took place last month with the California Catastrophe Response Council, which oversees the fund. To that end, it plans to engage California's state legislature, according to a transcript of comments made during the meeting and seen by Bloomberg. A spokesperson for the authority declined to comment. Bradley Max, a director at Cherokee Acquisition, a New York-based investment bank that trades and invests in subrogation claims, says the development has 'put a chill on bidding,' which is already visible in pricing. Subrogation rights tied to the Eaton Fire that ripped through Southern California in January were trading as high as 50 cents on the dollar at one point, but have now dropped 'at least a few points lower,' Max said. Still, even though the political development has led to lower prices on the subrogation claims, it hasn't held back transactions, he said. Cherokee said in April it had brokered deals linked to the Los Angeles fires for 'larger, more sophisticated distressed debt hedge funds.' And by April 15, investment bank Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. had executed 10 transactions tied to the Eaton and Palisades fires totaling over $1 billion worth of recovery rights, Ronald Ryder, co-head of special assets at Oppenheimer, told the California Earthquake Authority. That includes over $125 million in claims traded in just one day, Ryder wrote. A spokesperson for Oppenheimer declined to comment. Cherokee didn't name the hedge funds for which it brokered deals. In an email to the California Earthquake Authority, Ryder said that as catastrophic weather events become 'more prevalent,' insurers are increasingly resorting to 'recovery subrogation in the secondary market to fortify the balance sheet.' There's a growing consensus that insurers can't cover the rising costs of weather-related catastrophes alone, especially as climate change fuels more extreme events. For that reason, the industry is looking for ways to shift part of its financial risk over to capital markets, with alternative asset managers often the only investor class willing to step in. Efforts to prevent investors from profiting from the subrogation claims they've bought represent 'a politically motivated attempt to not pay legitimate obligations,' Max at Cherokee said. They're 'trying to beat up deep-pocketed hedge funds, despite the ethical and legal implications,' he said. Recovery of subrogation claims is costly and can take years to play out, which is why insurers have started selling them in exchange for an upfront cash payment. The hedge funds buying them are betting that the recovery sum at the end of the process will exceed the amount they paid the insurer to buy the claim. The market for investing in subrogation claims is characterized by over-the-counter deals with little to no transparency. Subrogation deals had a seminal moment more than half a decade ago, when faulty power lines and equipment failures at California utility PG&E Corp. were blamed for wildfires in the state. Back then, hedge fund Baupost Group LLC purchased claims against PG&E worth $6.8 billion. Bloomberg has previously reported that Baupost may have generated an estimated $1 billion of profits. The California Wildfire Fund, which is administered by the state's Earthquake Authority and overseen by the California Catastrophe Response Council, was set up in 2019 to help reimburse claims arising from wildfires caused by utility companies. If hedge funds prevail in their subrogation claims, some of the money could end up coming from the California Wildfire Fund. The fund, which sits on about $13 billion in liquid assets, is partly capitalized by three utilities — San Diego Gas & Electric Co., Edison International's Southern California Edison and PG&E. While the cause of the January fires remains under investigation, it's already clear that the Eaton Fire started inside the service territory of Edison and therefore leaves the fund potentially exposed, the authority said. With current estimates for insured losses as high as $45 billion, the January Southern California wildfires are expected to be the costliest in US history, according to the California Earthquake Authority. The Earthquake Authority and Catastrophe Response Council are now reviewing claims and administration procedures as they take the matter to the state legislature. Cavs Owner Dan Gilbert Wants to Donate His Billions—and Walk Again The SEC Pinned Its Hack on a Few Hapless Day Traders. The Full Story Is Far More Troubling Is Elon Musk's Political Capital Spent? What Does Musk-Trump Split Mean for a 'Big, Beautiful Bill'? Cuts to US Aid Imperil the World's Largest HIV Treatment Program ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
