Latest news with #TedShaffrey
Toronto Sun
15 hours ago
- Business
- Toronto Sun
Amazon to spend $20B on data centres in Pennsylvania
Published Jun 09, 2025 • Last updated 3 minutes ago • 2 minute read FILE - A data center owned by Amazon Web Services, front right, is under construction next to the Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Berwick, Pa., on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2024. Photo by Ted Shaffrey / AP HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Amazon said Monday that it will spend $20 billion on two data center complexes in Pennsylvania, including one it is building alongside a nuclear power plant that has drawn federal scrutiny over an arrangement to essentially plug right into the power plant. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Kevin Miller, vice president of global data centers at Amazon's cloud computing subsidiary, Amazon Web Services, told The Associated Press that the company will build another data center complex just north of Philadelphia. One data center is being built next to northeastern Pennsylvania's Susquehanna nuclear power plant. The other will be in Fairless Hills at a logistics campus, the Keystone Trade Center, on what was once a U.S. Steel mill. In a statement, Gov. Josh Shapiro called it the largest capital investment in Pennsylvania's history. The announcements add to the billions of dollars in Big Tech's data center cash already flowing into the state. Since 2024 started, Amazon has committed to about $10 billion apiece to data center projects in Mississippi, Indiana, Ohio and North Carolina as it ramps up its investment in infrastructure to compete with other tech giants to meet growing demand for artificial intelligence products. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The rapid growth of cloud computing and artificial intelligence has fueled demand for data centers that need power to run servers, storage systems, networking equipment and cooling systems. The majority owner of the Susquehanna nuclear power plant, Talen Energy, announced last year that it had sold its data center to Amazon for $650 million in a deal to eventually provide 960 megawatts. That's 40% of the output of one of the nation's largest nuclear power plants, or enough to power more than a half-million homes. However, the arrangement between Talen and Amazon — called a 'behind the meter' connection — has been held up by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in the first such case to come before the agency. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. It has raised questions over whether diverting power to higher-paying customers will leave enough for others and whether it's fair to excuse big power users from paying for the grid. For Big Tech, plugging energy-hungry data centers directly into a power plant can take years off their development timelines and is a much faster route to procuring power than having to connect to the congested electricity grid. It's not clear when FERC, which blocked the deal on a procedural grounds, will decide the matter, leaving in limbo regulatory treatment of the deal and others that likely would follow. Already in Pennsylvania, Microsoft announced a deal with the owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant to restart the reactor under a 20-year agreement to supply its data centers in four states with energy. Meanwhile, the owners of what was once Pennsylvania's biggest coal-fired power plant say they will turn it into a $10 billion natural gas-powered data center campus. Canada World Sunshine Girls Golf Editorial Cartoons
Toronto Sun
7 days ago
- Business
- Toronto Sun
Disney laying off several hundred employees worldwide
The layoffs will occur across several divisions Published Jun 03, 2025 • 1 minute read People visit the Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., April 18, 2022. Photo by Ted Shaffrey / AP The Walt Disney Co. is laying off several hundred employees worldwide as the entertainment giant looks to trim some costs and adapt to evolving industry conditions. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account A Disney spokesperson confirmed the action on Tuesday. The exact number of jobs being cut is unknown, but layoffs will occur across several divisions, including television and film marketing, TV publicity, casting and development, and corporate financial operations. No entire teams will be eliminated. 'As our industry transforms at a rapid pace, we continue to evaluate ways to efficiently manage our businesses while fueling the state-of-the-art creativity and innovation that consumers value and expect from Disney,' the spokesperson said. 'As part of this ongoing work, we have identified opportunities to operate more efficiently and are eliminating a limited number of positions.' Last month Disney posted solid profits and revenue in the second quarter as its domestic theme parks thrived and the company added well over a million subscribers to its streaming service. The company also boosted its profit expectations for the year. Disney's also been riding a wave of box office hits, including 'Thunderbolts(asterisk)' and 'Lilo & Stitch,' which is now the second-highest grossing movie of the year with $280.1 million in domestic ticket sales. In 2023 Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that Disney would cut about 7,000 jobs as part of an ambitious companywide cost-savings plan and 'strategic reorganization.' Disney said at the time that the job reductions were part of a targeted $5.5 billion cost savings across the company. Shares of Disney, which is based in Burbank, California, rose slightly in midday trading. Other Sports Canada Other Sports Toronto & GTA Wrestling
Japan Today
31-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Today
Spike in steel tariffs could imperil Trump promise of lower grocery prices
FILE - A Tariff Free sign to attract vehicle shoppers is at an automobile dealership in Totowa, N.J., on April 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey) By MATT SEDENSKY President Donald Trump's doubling of tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum could hit Americans in an unexpected place: grocery aisles. The announcement Friday of a staggering 50% levy on those imports stoked fear that big-ticket purchases from cars to washing machines to houses could see major price increases. But those metals are so ubiquitous in packaging, they're likely to pack a punch across consumer products from soup to nuts. 'Rising grocery prices would be part of the ripple effects,' says Usha Haley, an expert on trade and professor at Wichita State University, who added that the tariffs could raise costs across industries and further strain ties with allies 'without aiding a long-term U.S. manufacturing revival.' Trump's return to the White House has come with an unrivaled barrage of tariffs, with levies threatened, added and, often, taken away, in such a whiplash-inducing frenzy it's hard to keep up. He insisted the latest tariff hike was necessary to 'even further secure the steel industry in the U.S.' That promise, though, could be at odds with his pledge to reduce food costs. Rising grocery prices, Trump has said, were among the biggest reasons voters swung his way. A look around a supermarket makes clear how many products could be impacted by new taxes on steel and aluminum, from beer and soda to dog food to can after can of beans, fruit, tomato paste and more. 'It plays into the hands of China and other foreign canned food producers, which are more than happy to undercut American farmers and food producers,' insists Can Manufacturers Institute president Robert Budway. 'Doubling the steel tariff will further increase the cost of canned goods at the grocery store.' Budway says production by domestic tin mill steel producers, whose products are used in cans, have dramatically decreased in recent years, making manufacturers reliant on imported materials. When those prices go up, he says, 'the cost is levied upon millions of American families.' Food companies were already warily assessing the administration's tariffs before the latest hike, which Trump said would go into effect on Wednesday. The Campbell Co., whose soup cans are a staple for millions of Americans, has said it was working to mitigate the impact of tariffs but may be forced to raise prices. ConAgra Brands, which puts everything from cans of Reddi-Whip to cooking sprays like Pam on supermarket shelves, likewise has pointed to the impact steel and aluminum tariffs have. 'We can't get all of our materials from the US because there's no supply,' ConAgra CFO David Marberger said at a recent Goldman Sachs conference on global staples. Beyond the obvious products — canned foods like tuna, chicken broth and cranberry sauce — economists warn of a spillover effect that tariffs can have on a gamut of items. If the cost to build a store or buy a truck to haul food rise, the prices of products may follow. Most Americans will never buy a tractor, but Babak Hafezi, who runs a global consulting firm and teaches international business at American University, says a price spike in such a big-ticket item vital to food production will spill down to all sorts of other items. 'If a John Deere tractor costs 25% more, consumers pay the price for that,' Hafezi says. 'This trickles down the economy and impacts every aspect of the economy. Some of the trickling is immediate and others are slower to manifest themselves. But yes, prices will increase and choices will decrease.' Trump appeared before a crowd of cheering steelworkers to unveil the new tariffs at a rally outside Pittsburgh. In a statement, David McCall, president of the United Steelworkers International union, called tariffs 'a valuable tool in balancing the scales' but 'wider reforms of our global trading system" are needed. It may be harder to gauge the weight of tariffs on, say, a can of chickpeas versus that of a new car, but consumers are likely to see myriad indirect costs from the levies, says Andreas Waldkirch, an economics professor at Colby College who teaches a class on international trade. 'Anybody who's directly connected to the steel industry, they're going to benefit. It's just coming at a very high cost,' Waldkirch says. 'You may get a few more steel jobs. But all these indirect costs mean you then destroy jobs elsewhere. If you were to add that all in, you come up with a pretty large negative loss.' © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Toronto Sun
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
McCAUGHEY: New York in danger of being steamrolled by rent-freeze voting bloc
The skyline of midtown Manhattan is shown in New York City on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. Photo by Ted Shaffrey / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Left-wing mayoral candidates and a newly launched 'housing justice' group are promising a multi-year rent freeze on New York City's nearly one million rent-regulated units. That's more than half the rental apartments in Gotham. It's a cynical political strategy: Pander to a block of single-issue voters almost too large to resist — and capture the mayoralty. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Implementing that freeze would turn the entire city into a slum, with dilapidated, abandoned buildings and thousands of occupants forced to live in squalor because their apartments are no longer maintained. It could happen. In New York City, occupants of rent-stabilized apartments — about 1.7 million people living in about 980,000 units — outnumber residents of unregulated apartments. If these rent regulation beneficiaries are mobilized as single-issue voters, they can swing an election. Barely a million people voted in the 2021 mayoral primary and just over 1.1 million in the general. Leftist candidates are not leaving it to chance. Zohran Mamdani, Brad Lander and Jessica Ramos have committed to freezing rents if elected. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Tenants are a majority and it's time we had a mayor who acted like it,' Mamdani says. He's calculating that this single-issue voting bloc can carry him to victory. New York State Tenant Bloc is making the same calculation statewide. 'There are over nine million tenants in New York,' its website declares. 'There's millions more tenants than there are landlords. We have the power to break the real estate industry's grip on our lives by uniting as a bloc.' The group's battle cry is 'freeze the rent.' Cornell University professor Russell Weaver, who provided the analysis behind the NYS Tenant Bloc's formation, calls tenants the 'sleeping giant' in future elections. Not sleeping for long. Assemblywoman Sarahana Shrestha, a democratic socialist representing the Hudson Valley, credits her win with activating tenant voters. Now she is sponsoring the Rent Emergency Stabilization for Tenants Act, which would permit towns and cities in all parts of the state to impose rent caps. Current law limits rent stabilization to New York City and downstate counties, unless towns in other areas perform vacancy studies. Those requirements have kept Poughkeepsie and Kingston from capping rents. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Shrestha rants that 'tenants are half the state' and should vote as a bloc to stop 'price-gouging landlords.' New Yorkers need to know the brutal consequences of rent regulations and rent freezes before they fall for this demagoguery. In New York City, the Rent Guidelines Board's nine members — all mayoral appointees — set permissible rent hikes once a year. Succumbing to political pressure, the RGB generally sets hikes at about half the inflation rate, meaning building owners, facing rising property taxes and labour, energy and water costs, get shortchanged. Eventually, many let properties fall into disrepair, allow dilapidated units to sit vacant or even abandon their buildings. The Citizens Budget Commission's housing expert Sean Campion testified to the RGB on May 22 that a significant share of buildings are heading into this maintenance 'death spiral.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. That's the damage already caused by rent regulation, even before the threatened freeze. The city's older housing stock is crumbling, and fewer units are available, causing a shortage. Nationwide, for 19 consecutive months, rents have fallen in metro areas … everywhere but in New York City, the city with the fastest-rising rents. Denver, the metro area where rents are falling fastest, has no rent regulation. Colorado state law forbids it. That's what should be done in New York State. What about helping the poor? Rent regulation doesn't accomplish that. There is no means testing to get a rent-regulated apartment. You need luck, sharp elbows and often a wad of cash to buy your way in. Occupants of rent-regulated apartments — call them privileged renters — tend to have somewhat smaller incomes but are also generally adults without young children. Families, who you would think need rent breaks most to shelter their children, are less apt to luck out, according to the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development. A fair system would provide assistance based on need and funded by all taxpayers, not shouldered by owners. New York doesn't command certain grocery stores to sell food at below-market prices to the needy. The taxpayer-funded SNAP program is there for that purpose. Rent regulation rewards pandering politicians, not the poor, and survives because of that. The radical calls for rent freezes are a red flag that New Yorkers are in danger of being crushed — steamrolled — by a mobilized bloc of voters looking out for themselves. Betsy McCaughey is a former Lt. Governor of New York State Toronto & GTA World World Columnists Crime
Japan Today
28-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Today
Salesforce is buying Informatica in deal worth approximately $8 billion
FILE - People walk past the Salesforce Tower in New York on Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File) By MICHELLE CHAPMAN Salesforce is buying AI-powered cloud data management company Informatica in an approximately $8 billion deal. Informatica's shareholders will receive $25 per share, a premium of about 11% from Friday's closing price of $22.55. The transaction will give Salesforce access to Informatica's data management capabilities. Informatica was taken private in 2015 by private equity firm Permira and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for about $5.3 billion. It went public again in 2021. 'Joining forces with Salesforce represents a significant leap forward in our journey to bring data and AI to life by empowering businesses with the transformative power of their most critical asset — their data,' Informatica CEO Amit Walia said in a statement on Tuesday. 'We have a shared vision for how we can help organizations harness the full value of their data in the AI era.' Robin Washington, president and chief operating and financial officer at Salesforce, said in a statement that the acquisition will look to take advantage of Informatica's capabilities quickly, particularly in areas such as the public sector, life sciences, health care, and financial services. San Francisco-based Salesforce is set to report its quarterly financial results Wednesday after the bell. Both companies' boards have approved the deal, which is expected to close early in Salesforce's fiscal 2027. Shares of Salesforce rose slightly before the market open, while Informatica's stock jumped 5.7%. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
