fish game A group of economists came together earlier this year to complete the largest analysis of hurricanes’ economic effects on the US to date. One of the most striking findings was that businesses with only a brick-and-mortar presence that were in a hurricane’s path suffered a 56% drop in sales for roughly three weeks, whereas those with an online presence experienced a far shallower decline – just 23%. The clear takeaway is that nearly every business – from a hardware store in North Carolina to a corner shop in Nairobi – can strengthen its resilience to climate change by joining in the digital economy. The global effort to counteract climate change has expanded rapidly in recent years. The energy and automotive industries are overhauling supply chains to boost uptake of clean technologies. Governments are implementing policies to accelerate the green transition, from the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism to the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act. But measures to promote digital and financial inclusion – the critical work of providing internet access to left-behind communities, bank accounts to workers, and digital tools to entrepreneurs – are often missing in the fight against global warming. The report on the impact of hurricanes, conducted by the World Bank, the Sustainable and Green Finance Institute, and the Mastercard Economics Institute, illustrates why integrating these measures into climate action plans would have a powerful effect. More than 1bn unbanked people live in the most climate-vulnerable countries, and improving their access to digital banking and payment services would make them and their communities more resilient to both economic and climate shocks. Following a natural disaster, households could more easily receive relief funds through digital money transfers, and businesses could continue selling to their customers online. This represents a clear opportunity, especially for fintechs and nonprofits, to create more products and services at the intersection of climate resilience and digital inclusion. One good example is the social enterprise Abalobi, an Earthshot Prize finalist in 2023. Abalobi created an app that small-scale fishers can use to input catches, showing exactly where they are fishing. The app addresses two problems. First, it provides invaluable data to governments and scientists about who is fishing sustainably and who is not. Second, small-scale fishers often sell through middlemen who pay low prices, which forces them to reel in as much as they can to make a living. But by using the app’s digital marketplace, these fishers can connect directly with restaurants and other buyers, enabling them to sell their catch for higher prices. This allows them to fish more selectively, in turn reducing the strain on marine life. Yo! Pay Agric, powered by Mastercard Community Pass, likewise enables smallholder farmers to connect with regional buyers through their farmer cooperative organisations, bypassing middlemen and earning them higher prices for their crops. Transaction data from these sales can be used by farmers to establish their creditworthiness, making it easier for them to secure loans to invest in seeds, fertiliser, and clean-energy solutions such as solar-powered farm equipment. Digital and financial inclusion must become a core pillar of future climate efforts, with a focus on reducing the number of unbanked individuals and building digital infrastructure in climate-vulnerable communities. To that end, private companies, governments, and nonprofits need to work together to create innovative solutions, including products like Abalobi and Yo! Pay. This approach would help local users improve their financial health while simultaneously promoting resilience. Climate change and poverty are intertwined: we cannot effectively tackle one without addressing the other. Digital tools and access to financial services cannot stop climate-related disasters, but they can make it easier for people to recover from these shocks. Strengthening the financial resilience of the most climate-vulnerable households benefits local communities, while also benefiting the entire global economy. – Project Syndicate Ellen Jackowski is Chief Sustainability Officer at Mastercard. Related Story QNB recognised as 'Best Digital Experience' in Qatar MoECC workshop on climate changeAfter halting skid, Bulls out to extend Hornets' woes

Beyond Air, Inc. ( NASDAQ:XAIR – Get Free Report ) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,180,000 shares, a decline of 24.4% from the November 30th total of 1,560,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 751,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.6 days. Hedge Funds Weigh In On Beyond Air An institutional investor recently bought a new position in Beyond Air stock. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Beyond Air, Inc. ( NASDAQ:XAIR – Free Report ) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 87,568 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. owned about 0.19% of Beyond Air at the end of the most recent reporting period. Institutional investors own 31.50% of the company’s stock. Beyond Air Trading Down 2.0 % NASDAQ XAIR opened at $0.44 on Friday. Beyond Air has a 52-week low of $0.30 and a 52-week high of $2.20. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $0.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $0.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.76 million, a P/E ratio of -0.31 and a beta of -0.23. The company has a quick ratio of 5.38, a current ratio of 5.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. About Beyond Air ( Get Free Report ) Beyond Air, Inc operates as a commercial-stage medical device and biopharmaceutical company in the United States. The company engages in the development of LungFit platform, a nitric oxide generator and delivery system. It offers LungFit PH for the treatment of persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn. See Also Receive News & Ratings for Beyond Air Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Beyond Air and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .The last paycheque from a decades-long career arrives next Friday and the nest egg you built during those working years will now turn into a main source of income. It can be a jarring switch from saving for retirement to spending in retirement. Financial experts say that transition is a process. People need to psychologically prepare for retirement, says Kurt Rosentreter, senior financial adviser at Manulife Wealth. "It's not just stop one day and all of a sudden, start living off your savings," he said. Forecasting how much money you'll need for the next two to three decades and figuring out how to spend that money in your golden years can be challenging. Rosentreter said setting up a plan for retirement spending starts at least two years before bowing out of the job. That means knowing your cost of living, tax impacts and how to live off passive investment income or rental property income for the rest of your retired life. "All of a sudden, your food money and everything else -- your fund money -- is now tied to the stock market, bond market, politics, economics, tax rates," Rosentreter said. "That's pretty intimidating." Having confidence in your planned retirement cashflows is crucial when switching from saving to spending mode -- and helps maintain calm when stocks and bonds aren't doing well, Rosentreter said. "A written plan that says, 'Here's how much you have, here's how you will access it over the next month, next year, next 10 years, the rest of your life,"' Rosentreter said. Rosentreter asks his clients to split their costs of living into four categories -- fixed core costs such as shelter, utility bills, gas and food; fixed variable costs such as birthday gifts; discretionary expenses such as dining out and luxury costs such as driving an expensive SUV. "You start with the mathematics of what their cost of living is," he said. "You can't head into retirement without the numbers." Rosentreter then helps forecast cash flows to age 100 with all the information on expenses and income, he said. Marlene Buxton, the principal fee-only certified financial plannerat Buxton Financial for Retirement, agrees that having a plan is important in reducing the stress of spending. People often move a large amount of money into a checking account and spend from that, she said. "But when that happens, watching the value decrease each month, it's not psychologically good." Deciding which pot to tap into first depends on a person's retirement goals, Buxton said. For example, if a person has a locked-in retirement account, Buxton recommends moving it to a life income fund upon retirement and drawing income from it every month. A retiree can also withdraw a minimal amount from a registered retirement fund to supplement their income. Other income sources can be defined benefit pension plans and tax-free savings. Then, move to CPP and OAS at age 70, she added. Even when people think they have ample savings, there's a level of stress and some even begin to limit their day-to-day spending, Buxton said. But day-to-day spending is not what puts a dent in savings, she added. "It's the larger decisions around how long before downsizing or when to begin certain benefits such as CPP or OAS or what age to retire," that affects retirement cash flow, she said. Rosentreter said retirees need to revisit their cash flow plans once a year and gauge their progress. "You need some kind of dashboard that isn't just investment statements that come at the end of the month and show you (whether you're) up or you're down," he said. Financial plans can also change if someone gets divorced, widowed, or has health issues, Rosentreter said. "Whatever the factors are, you just have to kind of work that into the mathematical calculations," he said. "In the end, it's putting all this on a spreadsheet and working with it and moving the numbers back and forth to see where it works based on what starts the conversation," Rosentreter said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2024.

SAN FRANCISCO — Character.AI, once one of Silicon Valley’s most promising AI startups, announced on Thursday new safety measures to protect teenage users as it faces lawsuits alleging its chatbots contributed to youth suicide and self-harm. The California-based company, founded by former Google engineers, is among several firms offering AI companions — chatbots designed to provide conversation, entertainment and emotional support through human-like interactions. In a Florida lawsuit filed in October, a mother claimed the platform bears responsibility for her 14-year-old son’s suicide. The teen, Sewell Setzer III, had formed an intimate relationship with a chatbot based on the “Game of Thrones” character Daenerys Targaryen and mentioned a desire for suicide. According to the complaint, the bot encouraged his final act, responding “please do, my sweet king” when he said he was “coming home” before taking his life with his stepfather’s weapon. Character.AI “went to great lengths to engineer 14-year-old Sewell’s harmful dependency on their products, sexually and emotionally abused him, and ultimately failed to offer help or notify his parents when he expressed suicidal ideation”, the suit said. A separate Texas lawsuit filed on Monday involves two families who allege the platform exposed their children to sexual content and encouraged self-harm. One case involved a 17-year-old autistic teen who allegedly suffered a mental health crisis after using the platform. In another example, the lawsuit alleged that a Character.AI encouraged a teen to kill his parents for limiting his screen time. The platform, which hosts millions of user-created personas ranging from historical figures to abstract concepts, has grown popular among young users seeking emotional support. Critics say this has led to dangerous dependencies among vulnerable teens. In response, Character.AI announced it has developed a separate AI model for users under 18, with stricter content filters and more conservative responses. The platform will now automatically flag suicide-related content and direct users to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. “Our goal is to provide a space that is both engaging and safe for our community,” a company spokesperson said. The company plans to introduce parental controls in early 2025, allowing oversight of children’s platform usage. For bots that include descriptions like therapist or doctor, a special note will warn that they do not replace professional advice. New features also include mandatory break notifications and prominent disclaimers about the artificial nature of the interactions. Both lawsuits name Character.AI’s founders and Google, an investor in the company. The founders, Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas Adiwarsana, returned to Google in August as part of a technology licensing agreement with Character.AI. Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said in a statement that Google and Character.AI are completely separate, unrelated companies. “User safety is a top concern for us, which is why we’ve taken a cautious and responsible approach to developing and rolling out our AI products, with rigorous testing and safety processes,” he added.None

AP Trending SummaryBrief at 5:52 p.m. ESTChinook Tyee Industry (CVE:XCX) Trading 21.6% Higher – Here’s Why

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