Latest news with #Choose
Daily Maverick
05-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
EU's Von der Leyen announces 500 mln euro package to lure top researchers to Europe
'Science is an investment – and we need to offer the right incentives. This is why I can announce that we will put forward a new 500 million euros package for 2025-2027 to make Europe a magnet for researchers,' she said at a speech in Paris alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. 'We are choosing to put research and innovation, science and technology, at the heart of our economy. We are choosing to be the continent where universities are pillars of our societies and our way of life,' she added. She also said she wanted EU-member states to invest 3% of gross domestic product in research and development by 2030. Last month, Macron and Von der Leyen said they would be looking to invite scientists and researchers from the world over to Europe, at a time when Trump's administration is threatening to cut federal funding for Harvard and other U.S. universities. In April, France also launched the 'Choose France for Science' platform, operated by the French National Research Agency (ANR), which enables universities, schools, and research organisations to apply for co-funding from the government to host researchers. ($1 = 0.8825 euros)
Axios
04-04-2025
- Business
- Axios
Chicago names new tourism chief as international visits fall across the U.S.
Some international travelers are skipping trips to the U.S., including from Canada, where Chicago gets the biggest chunk of its international travelers. Driving the news: Chicago has a new tourism head, who will be tasked with making sure international and domestic visitors keep coming here. Choose Chicago announced Thursday it has selected Kristen Reynolds as the new CEO, replacing interim CEO Rich Gamble. Reynolds comes from Discover Long Island and has more than 25 years of experience in the tourism industry, according to a news release. Why it matters: Reynolds takes over as anti-American sentiment is high because of federal policies such as tariffs and anti-transgender executive orders. The big picture: More than 50 million people visited Chicago in 2023, 1.8 million were international, and overall they spent about $19.5 billion, according to Choose. Reynolds' goals include growing visitors to more than 61 million, with 1.8 million of those travelers coming from outside the U.S. Approximately 450,000 visitors came from Canada in 2023. Zoom out: Advance bookings for Canada-U.S. flights for April-September are down more than 70% compared with this time last year, per aviation data firm OAG, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick reports. By the numbers: The number of foreigners passing through customs at the 10 busiest U.S. airports, including O'Hare, fell by more than 20% year over year toward late March, based on a seven-day rolling average. A slight uptick followed, but the number was still down 18.4% as of March 28 versus the same time last year. Compare that to the number of U.S. citizens returning to the country, which was up nearly 14% by late March from a year earlier. What they're saying: "We are holding information sessions for partners and working closely with our teams on the ground in Canada and in key markets around the world to elevate the message that Chicago remains a welcoming, bucket-list destination for all global visitors," Choose chief marketing officer Lisa Nucci told Axios in a statement. Flashback: Chicago had historic hotel revenue last year, Choose said, likely due to large events like Taylor Swift concerts. The intrigue: Reynolds' salary is not public record as Choose is a private nonprofit, and a Choose spokesperson would not share this information.
Boston Globe
19-02-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Social Studies: Feeling meh about ChatGPT; when government agencies retaliate; Hollywood blockbusters and the stock market
Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up This pattern also held in two other experiments. One compared the experience of using traditional Google search and the 'AI Overview' that Google now presents in its search results. The other found that people who read advice written by people who had consulted ChatGPT considered the advice less informative, less trustworthy, and indicative of less effort than advice written by people who had used traditional Google search. Advertisement Melumad, S. & Yun, J., 'Experimental Evidence of the Effects of Large Language Models Versus Web Search on Depth of Learning,' University of Pennsylvania (January 2025). The deep (contracting) state If a company loses out on a bid for a federal contract, it can file a protest with the Government Accountability Office — but that might lead to retaliation down the road, according to a new study. Advertisement Researchers used the Freedom of Information Act to get GAO data about bid protests filed between 2005 and 2016. The researchers wanted to assess whether successful protests (ones in which the government agency that wrongly denied a bid was forced to take corrective action) later affected the protesting companies. The researchers managed to isolate the effect by finding incidents in which multiple companies submitted protests over the same contract but at least one of them was hindered by a local power outage around the time of the submission deadline. Because these outages impaired the quality of submissions and reduced the likelihood of a successful protest, the researchers could observe a difference in what happened to the companies that ended up with a successful protest: They suffered for it. In the subsequent years, such companies received fewer and less valuable contracts and experienced more contract cancellations from the agency against which it had lodged the protest. And the odds of the company protesting another agency contract fell to near zero. Canayaz, M. et al., 'Choose Your Battles Wisely: The Consequences of Protesting Government Procurement Contracts,' Management Science (forthcoming). Raging bull If President Trump really wants the stock market to go up, he should make some calls to Hollywood executives. A study finds that from 2000 through 2019, blockbuster movie releases — defined as releases in more than 4,000 theaters — boosted the stock market the following week by an average of half a percentage point, even controlling for month of the year, holidays, and other stock-market and economic factors. Increased online searches using movie and theater-chain terms also predicted stock-market gains. The effect appears to be that such movies boost both people's happiness (as measured by Twitter sentiment) and investor optimism while reducing people's expectations of stock-market volatility and their risk aversion. Whether a movie is upbeat or is in a certain genre doesn't appear to matter. There were, on average, about seven blockbuster releases per year in the time frame studied. Advertisement Hong, S. & Wei, X., 'Blockbuster or Bust? Silver Screen Effect and Stock Returns,' Review of Finance (forthcoming). Empty calories Researchers found that people expect poor people to prioritize their basic physical needs over higher-level psychological needs, while rich people are expected to prioritize the latter and to thus enjoy certain products and experiences more. For example, simply telling people that a restaurant 'approaches food as art' leads them to expect that poor people will enjoy it less. But surveys of poor people about their preferences and experiences aren't consistent with these expectations. Olson, J. et al., 'When and Why Consumers (Erroneously) Believe Income Impacts the Enjoyment of Consumption Experiences,' Journal of Consumer Research (forthcoming).
USA Today
06-02-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
President Trump to attend Super Bowl 59, despite long and complicated history with the NFL
Hear this story President Donald Trump's appearance at Sunday's Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans will go down in history as the first sitting commander-in-chief to attend the National Football League's title game, in which the Kansas City Chiefs will go for an unprecedented 'three-peat' against the Philadelphia isn't historic is his on-again/off-again decades-long feud with the NFL and its players since the 1980s. While Trump and the NFL seem to be on the same page now, their relationship has been rocky over the decades. Here is a breakdown of Trump's long and complicated history with the league. Trump, the NFL and DEI Trump will attend the big game on Sunday following the NFL's recent decision to remove the 'End Racism' message from the end zones for the first time since 2021. Instead, the league will use phrases like 'Choose Love' and 'It Takes All of Us.' NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told USA TODAY Sports that the change is in response to deadly tragedies throughout the U.S. so far this year. The NFL's phrase change comes after Trump signed an executive order last month 'terminating radical DEI' to 'protect the civil rights of all Americans and expand individual opportunity,' according to the White House. NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs consist of a range of policies aimed at rooting out bias in hiring and opening career opportunities for people of color, women and members of the LGBTQ community. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell defended the league's current diversity policies, saying on Monday that they didn't conflict with Trump's administration's efforts to ban DEI programs in the federal government. 'Our policies have been designed to be well within the law, well within the practice,' Goodell said on Monday. 'There are no quotas in our system. This is about opening that funnel and bringing the best talent into the NFL.' Donald Trump criticized NFL players over national anthem protests When former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began a controversial social movement by kneeling during the national anthem before games, other NFL players followed suit, causing an outcry from Trump and several conservatives. Kaepernick said he was protesting racial inequality and the oppression of Black people in the U.S. In September 2017, during Trump's initial term, he made a speech in Alabama criticizing the NFL players who were kneeling during the anthem. 'Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a (expletive) off the field right now? Out! He's fired. He's fired!'' Trump said at a rally for former Republican Sen. Luther Strange of Alabama. During his speech, Trump also attributed the NFL's dip in ratings at the time to several rule changes that were implemented to make the game less violent and limit concussions and other head injuries. 'The NFL ratings are down massively,' Trump said. 'Now the No. 1 reason happens to be they like watching what's happening … with yours truly. They like what's happening because, you know today, if you hit too hard, 15 yards! Throw him out of the game!' Donald Trump tried to purchase the Buffalo Bills in 2014 Trump tried to buy the Buffalo Bills football team in 2014, but he may not have even had the funds to do so at the time, the president's former attorney, Michael Cohen, testified in 2019 before the House Oversight Committee. Cohen said Trump inflated his net worth by $4 billion in financial documents, raising it from $4.26 billion to $8.66 billion from 2011 to 2013. 'Mr. Trump is a cheat,' Cohen said. 'It was my experience that Mr. Trump inflated his total assets when it served his purposes, such as trying to be listed among the wealthiest people in Forbes, and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes.' After Cohen's testimony in 2019, Trump described his former attorney's words as "shameful" and accused him of lying frequently. Ultimately, Trump was outbid by Terry Pegula, a billionaire businessman and petroleum engineer, and his wife, Kim. The Pegulas' $1.4 billion bid beat out Trump's and a group led by singer Jon Bon Jovi. NFL players receive backlash for supporting Trump, MAGA Several NFL players who have openly supported Trump and his MAGA (Make America Great Again) campaign have received backlash over the years, including San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa. Bosa disregarded the NFL's rule against wearing or messaging political slogans when he crashed an NBC postgame interview last year and pointed to his 'Make America Great Again' cap. The NFL fined Bosa $11,255 for violating the uniform and equipment rules policy by 'wearing a hat that contained a personal message.' According to NFL rules: 'Throughout the period on game-day that a player is visible to the stadium and television audience (including in pregame warm-ups, in the bench area, and during postgame interviews in the locker room or on the field), players are prohibited from wearing, displaying, or otherwise conveying personal messages either in writing or illustration, unless such message has been approved in advance by the League office.' In response to the fine, Bosa, who agreed to a five-year $170 million contract extension in September 2023 with the 49ers, said: 'It was well worth it,' the Associated Press reported. Other former and current NFL players and owners have supported Trump's presidency over the years, including his longtime friend Herschel Walker, now-retired NFL quarterback Tom Brady, former NFL offensive lineman Richie Incognito, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, former NFL head coach Rex Ryan, legendary New York Jets center Nick Mangold, former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown, former NFL quarterback Brett Favre and former NFL coach Mike Ditka. Donald Trump's dance takes the NFL by storm Throughout Trump's second presidential campaign, he often did a dance that became quite popular among NFL players. Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers, Nick Bosa, Detroit Lions defenders Za'Darius Smith and Malcolm Rodriguez, and Tennessee Titans pass catchers Calvin Ridley and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine were all spotted doing the Trump dance during the 2024-25 season. 'I've seen everyone do it,' Bowers told USA TODAY Sports in November. 'I watched the UFC fight [Saturday] night, and Jon Jones did it. I like watching UFC, so I saw it and thought it was cool.' The dance is simple: It involves bending one's elbows, closing one's fists, and moving one's arms back and forth, as Trump did during his campaign rallies. Head-tilting and facial expressions can be added for some extra oomph. Aside from Bosa, the other players who did the Trump dance did not openly support Trump. The president did shout out to Bosa for his performance of the dance in a Truth Social post in November, calling him 'A GREAT PLAYER!' 'I think you know the answer to that question,' Bosa told the San Francisco Chronicle in November about his inspiration for the Trump dance. 'All the guys wanted me to do it. I wasn't even going to do it, but the boys reminded me. And it was fun.' Donald Trump led USFL's anti-trust lawsuit against NFL In the mid-1980s, Trump spent less than $10 million to become the owner of the New Jersey Generals in the United States Football League (USFL), CNBC reported. 'I don't know about the rest of you people, and I don't know how much money you guys have, but I have the money to get into the NFL. And that's where I plan on being,' Trump told his fellow USFL owners at a meeting in 1984, the outlet said, citing the book 'Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL.' Instead, Trump spent $6 million in 1983 to buy New Jersey Generals as part of the new United States Football League and led a lawsuit against the NFL to attempt to force a merger. According to ESPN, it was 'widely considered' Trump's strategy for the league that led to its demise in 1985. Contributing: Safid Deen, Jarrett Bell, Lorenzo Reyes, Mark Giannotto, Joey Garrison, Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz/ USA TODAY
