Latest news with #Plaid
Pembrokeshire Herald
a day ago
- Politics
- Pembrokeshire Herald
Adam Price's Senedd return in doubt as Plaid Cymru selects new frontrunners
Former party leader placed third on regional list for Carmarthenshire ADAM PRICE, the former leader of Plaid Cymru, faces a major setback in his bid to return to the Senedd in 2026 after being placed third on the party's regional list for Sir Gaerfyrddin. Cefin Campbell MS and former AM Nerys Evans have taken the top two positions on the list, The Herald understands, significantly reducing Price's chances of re-election. Under Plaid Cymru's rules on gender balance, if a man tops the list, a woman must be selected second, and vice versa. With both top spots now filled, Price's third-place ranking leaves him reliant on an unlikely surge in support. The seat is one of 16 new six-member constituencies under Wales's reformed electoral map. Plaid Cymru hopes to win at least two of the six available seats in the region, but strong challenges from Labour and Reform UK may limit gains. Speaking after the result, Price said: 'I would like to thank the members who supported me during this process and congratulate Cefin on leading the list. Our task now is to work as a united team to deliver Plaid's best ever result in Sir Gâr.' Unlike Labour and the Conservatives, Plaid Cymru's selection process does not guarantee sitting Members of the Senedd a place at the top of the list. The party prioritises a competitive vote among local members and enforces gender parity across its candidate rankings. Price led Plaid Cymru from 2018 to 2023 and was a key figure in the party's 2021 Senedd campaign, promising a referendum on Welsh independence within five years if elected to power. However, Plaid came third in that election and later entered a co-operation agreement with Labour which resulted in policies such as universal free school meals. His leadership came to an end following a damning report—authored by Evans herself—which highlighted a culture of misconduct within the party. Price resigned in 2023. Further down the regional list for Sir Gaerfyrddin are former Llanelli candidate Mari Arthur, now working in green energy and marketing; Carmarthenshire councillor Iwan Griffiths; and Abi Thomas, who previously stood in Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire. While a three-seat win for Plaid in the region is not impossible, it would require a particularly strong result on the night—something insiders suggest may be out of reach. For many within the party, the memory of the scandals that led to Price's resignation—and the controversy surrounding former MP Jonathan Edwards—still lingers. Despite recent polling boosts for Plaid, their commitment to reforming candidate selection could come at the cost of losing high-profile names like Price and economic spokesperson Luke Fletcher.
Auto Blog
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Auto Blog
Tesla Is Testing A New Model S Plaid, With Few Design Updates
Spy shots show a lightly revised version of Tesla's flagship sedan testing at the Nürburgring. But are the subtle updates enough? Tesla's aging flagship gets a light touch-up Tesla is testing a revised version of the Model S Plaid, its once-groundbreaking performance sedan. Caught lapping the Nürburgring in Germany, the updated car sports only the slightest visual changes — a new front splitter and a revised rear diffuser. Beyond those tweaks and what appear to be larger wheels, the design is largely unchanged from the version Tesla refreshed in 2021. That's left some fans disappointed. Despite promises earlier this year from Tesla's VP of Engineering that the Model S and Model X would get some 'love' in 2025, this prototype suggests a minor facelift rather than a ground-up overhaul. The competition isn't standing still The Model S Plaid was once the king of the electric performance hill, boasting a 1,020-horsepower, tri-motor setup. But lately, it's been dethroned by newcomers like Porsche's Taycan Turbo GT with the Weissach Package and Xiaomi's surprise EV, the SU7 Ultra. These cars not only go toe-to-toe with the Plaid on performance, but do so with newer, more refined platforms and fresher designs. Porsche Taycan Turbo GT — Source: Porsche While the Model S's blistering acceleration still impresses, its aging chassis and layout are beginning to show their limitations. Critics have noted that the car's suspension struggles to keep up with its prodigious power, particularly in hard cornering and under braking. A long overdue redesign Originally launched in 2012, the Model S is now 13 years old — an eternity in automotive terms. While Tesla has updated many of the car's components over the years, the underlying structure and dynamic hardware haven't seen the sort of deep rework that modern performance EVs demand. Tesla Model S Plaid — Source: Tesla Key features that are becoming industry standards, like 800-volt charging systems, four-wheel steering, or even a suspension setup tuned for aggressive driving, are still missing from the Model S. For a flagship EV, that's a problem. Tesla has often marketed itself as a fast-moving tech company, but when it comes to vehicle updates, its pace has been surprisingly slow. The Cybertruck took nearly five years to reach production, and both the Model S and Model X have seen minimal visual changes in more than a decade. Xiaomi SU7 Ultra — Source: Xiaomi Now, with more EV competitors entering the market every month — especially from China — Tesla's slow approach to vehicle redesigns is starting to hurt its position. Legacy automakers are now iterating faster, making Tesla's aging lineup harder to justify, especially at premium prices. Final thoughts There's still hope that Tesla has deeper changes planned under the skin, but if the Nürburgring prototype is any indication, the 2025 Model S Plaid refresh may be more cosmetic than transformative. For a brand that once defined what a modern EV could be, that's a risky strategy in an increasingly crowded and fast-moving market.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The CEO of a $6 billion fintech explains how the huge risk he took with thousands of banks paid off big
Plaid's CEO said the company made a risky gamble in its early days. Plaid pulled user data from 12,000 banks using screen scraping. Some of the company's early work with banks was "antagonistic," said Zach Perret. Before fintech company Plaid became an essential link between banks and digital finance apps like Venmo, Robinhood, and Coinbase, its founders made a risky gamble. Founded in 2013, Plaid's leaders recognized a gap. While consumers had the right to access their financial data, banks didn't have official application program interfaces for companies like Plaid to access the data on behalf of their customers. To get in, Plaid relied on a practice known as "screen scraping," essentially logging into users' bank accounts with their usernames and passwords to retrieve data. Screen scraping can raise privacy and security concerns because it requires sharing sensitive login credentials and bypasses banks' direct control over the data. On an episode of the "Acquired" podcast published Tuesday, Plaid's CEO, Zach Perret, said the company scraped data from 12,000 banks. "Doing this at scale is very complex," Perret said. He said some of Plaid's work with banks was "very collaborative," while other work was "a little bit more antagonistic." Some banks were frustrated that investing apps like Robinhood even existed — and that resistance made it harder for Plaid to work with them. "Broadly, our goal was always to partner with the banks," he said. "Many of the banks actually came to us and said, 'Great, we'd like to move to an API. We haven't built it yet. Please just screen scrape us,'" he added. In 2021, Plaid agreed to pay $58 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over data privacy. The case, filed in California, consolidated five lawsuits brought by consumers who said Plaid accessed their bank account data without their knowledge. The suit also said that Plaid sold user data — a claim the company has denied. In 2020, Plaid publicly committed to moving 75% of its data volumes to APIs, not screen scraping, by the end of 2021. "At this point, we have the vast majority of our data coming from API-driven integrations," Perret said on the podcast, adding that banks have built their own APIs. Plaid is now in a "much more long-term sustainable technical infrastructure state," he said. Perret said that he was initially skeptical about whether people would want to link their bank accounts to apps like Venmo. "It turns out people did it in droves," he said. "It was a chicken and egg thing," Perret said. "We had to build the less scalable integrations before we could get to the more scalable ones." Last month, Plaid raised $575 million at a $6.1 billion valuation, in a round led by Franklin Templeton. Perret and Plaid did not respond to a request for comment by Business Insider. Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The CEO of a $6 billion fintech explains how the huge risk he took with thousands of banks paid off big
Plaid's CEO said the company made a risky gamble in its early days. Plaid pulled user data from 12,000 banks using screen scraping. Some of the company's early work with banks was "antagonistic," said Zach Perret. Before fintech company Plaid became an essential link between banks and digital finance apps like Venmo, Robinhood, and Coinbase, its founders made a risky gamble. Founded in 2013, Plaid's leaders recognized a gap. While consumers had the right to access their financial data, banks didn't have official application program interfaces for companies like Plaid to access the data on behalf of their customers. To get in, Plaid relied on a practice known as "screen scraping," essentially logging into users' bank accounts with their usernames and passwords to retrieve data. Screen scraping can raise privacy and security concerns because it requires sharing sensitive login credentials and bypasses banks' direct control over the data. On an episode of the "Acquired" podcast published Tuesday, Plaid's CEO, Zach Perret, said the company scraped data from 12,000 banks. "Doing this at scale is very complex," Perret said. He said some of Plaid's work with banks was "very collaborative," while other work was "a little bit more antagonistic." Some banks were frustrated that investing apps like Robinhood even existed — and that resistance made it harder for Plaid to work with them. "Broadly, our goal was always to partner with the banks," he said. "Many of the banks actually came to us and said, 'Great, we'd like to move to an API. We haven't built it yet. Please just screen scrape us,'" he added. In 2021, Plaid agreed to pay $58 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over data privacy. The case, filed in California, consolidated five lawsuits brought by consumers who said Plaid accessed their bank account data without their knowledge. The suit also said that Plaid sold user data — a claim the company has denied. In 2020, Plaid publicly committed to moving 75% of its data volumes to APIs, not screen scraping, by the end of 2021. "At this point, we have the vast majority of our data coming from API-driven integrations," Perret said on the podcast, adding that banks have built their own APIs. Plaid is now in a "much more long-term sustainable technical infrastructure state," he said. Perret said that he was initially skeptical about whether people would want to link their bank accounts to apps like Venmo. "It turns out people did it in droves," he said. "It was a chicken and egg thing," Perret said. "We had to build the less scalable integrations before we could get to the more scalable ones." Last month, Plaid raised $575 million at a $6.1 billion valuation, in a round led by Franklin Templeton. Perret and Plaid did not respond to a request for comment by Business Insider. Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
The CEO of a $6 billion fintech explains how the huge risk he took with thousands of banks paid off big
Before fintech company Plaid became an essential link between banks and digital finance apps like Venmo, Robinhood, and Coinbase, its founders made a risky gamble. Founded in 2013, Plaid's leaders recognized a gap. While consumers had the right to access their financial data, banks didn't have official application program interfaces for companies like Plaid to access the data on behalf of their customers. To get in, Plaid relied on a practice known as "screen scraping," essentially logging into users' bank accounts with their usernames and passwords to retrieve data. Screen scraping can raise privacy and security concerns because it requires sharing sensitive login credentials and bypasses banks' direct control over the data. On an episode of the "Acquired" podcast published Tuesday, Plaid's CEO, Zach Perret, said the company scraped data from 12,000 banks. "Doing this at scale is very complex," Perret said. He said some of Plaid's work with banks was "very collaborative," while other work was "a little bit more antagonistic." Some banks were frustrated that investing apps like Robinhood even existed — and that resistance made it harder for Plaid to work with them. "Broadly, our goal was always to partner with the banks," he said. "Many of the banks actually came to us and said, 'Great, we'd like to move to an API. We haven't built it yet. Please just screen scrape us,'" he added. In 2021, Plaid agreed to pay $58 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over data privacy. The case, filed in California, consolidated five lawsuits brought by consumers who said Plaid accessed their bank account data without their knowledge. The suit also said that Plaid sold user data — a claim the company has denied. In 2020, Plaid publicly committed to moving 75% of its data volumes to APIs, not screen scraping, by the end of 2021. "At this point, we have the vast majority of our data coming from API-driven integrations," Perret said on the podcast, adding that banks have built their own APIs. Plaid is now in a "much more long-term sustainable technical infrastructure state," he said. Perret said that he was initially skeptical about whether people would want to link their bank accounts to apps like Venmo. "It turns out people did it in droves," he said. "It was a chicken and egg thing," Perret said. "We had to build the less scalable integrations before we could get to the more scalable ones." Last month, Plaid raised $575 million at a $6.1 billion valuation, in a round led by Franklin Templeton.
