 | From the Editor's Desk
Is Your Hospitality Business Ready for a Robot? As more businesses in the hospitality industry consider robots as a solution to a thinned frontline service workforce, owners and operators must recognize that their investment in a service robot extends beyond the hardware and software. It may require targeted training, small architectural and design improvements to the physical space, an assessment of organizational and managerial readiness, or all of the above. Service robots can help elevate customer service if their purpose is clear, if their physical environment is conducive, and if leadership actively supports staff during the adoption process.
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WorkAustin Says Iran Trains and Funds Militias Targeting U.S. Troops
  Iran has signaled that it will not escalate tensions with the United States. The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday that Tehran was “not looking for war.” And Kataib Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia that American officials believe is responsible for the attack in Jordan, has said it would suspend military operations in Iraq, where it operates. Work
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WorkWe’re naming cancers all wrong, oncology leader says - STAT (No paywall)
 Naming cancers solely by the organs they originate in is getting a bit old, according to Fabrice André, a medical oncologist at Gustave Roussy in France and the president-elect of the European Society of Medical Oncology. Instead, André hopes to push for a new naming system that emphasizes the molecular characteristics of a cancer, regardless of its tissue of origin. Work
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WorkHow Sarah J. Maas Built a Sprawling Fantasy Multiverse - TIME (No paywall)
 It’s 9:30 on a freezing Monday night in January and there’s a line stretching down the block outside of the Book Club Bar in the East Village of Manhattan. The occasion: a midnight release party for fantasy author Sarah J. Maas’ new book, House of Flame and Shadow, the third entry in her Crescent City series. The twist—there’s always a twist where Maas is concerned—Maas is on her way to surprise the throng of almost exclusively female fans willing to wait in the cold for a chance to get their hands on her book the minute it becomes available. WorkWorkWorkWorkA Select Few Witnessed Alabama’s Nitrogen Execution. This Is What They Saw.
 Lawyers for the state had asserted in court papers that the use of nitrogen gas, pumped into a mask, would render Mr. Smith unconscious within seconds and then kill him. But a week after the execution, most witnesses who have spoken publicly said Mr. Smith remained conscious for several minutes, and many described it as a profoundly disturbing event. WorkThe Young Black Conservative Who Grew Up With, and Rejects, D.E.I.
 But, he continued, they should not be paid now. “There’s a difference between acknowledging history and allowing history to distract us from the problems we face today,” he said, pointing to endemic problems that affect Black Americans, such as poor schools, dangerous neighborhoods and a punitive criminal justice system. WorkWorkTikTok isn't as popular among users as you'd think
 But Facebook isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The site hit a record 3 billion monthly active users across the globe last year, in part due to the popularity of Reels, and it received the second-most worldwide site visitors in 2023 behind YouTube. More American millennials use the site than younger ones, but it’s still widely used by other age groups. According to Pew, 69% of Americans ages 50 to 64 used Facebook last year, and 58% of those over 65. WorkWorkFrench Farmers’ Unions Urge End to Roadblocks Amid Government Proposals
 The move came despite displays of broader fury against the European Union’s farming policies and environmental rules in neighboring Belgium, where thousands of farmers protested on the fringes of a gathering of E.U. leaders, throwing eggs and firecrackers at the police, who responded with water cannons. Farmer protests have also broken out in recent weeks in Portugal, Germany and Greece. WorkTikTok Just Lost a Huge Catalog of Music. What Happened?
 Universal is the biggest of the three major music conglomerates — the others are Sony and Warner — that have deals with thousands of music stars to release their music. Besides Swift and Drake, its labels’ biggest names include Olivia Rodrigo, Morgan Wallen, Nicki Minaj, Billie Eilish, Noah Kahan, Post Malone and Lorde, and it has deals with K-pop giants like Stray Kids and NewJeans. WorkWorkWorkWorkMurder charges upgraded for Canada man who allegedly sent 'suicide kits'
 In Canada, Crisis Services Canada can be contacted at any time on 1.833.456.4566, or via text on 45645 from 4pm-12am ET. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email [email protected] or [email protected]. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org WorkWorkIsraeli ministers reportedly considering limiting aid entering Gaza
 The plan emerged from talks in Paris involving intelligence officials from Israel, the US and Egypt and the prime minister of Qatar. Efforts to broker a pause in hostilities have been under way since a seven-day truce in November, in which about 100 Israeli hostages were exchanged for 240 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails. WorkWorkNBA Trade Machine - ESPN
\';projHTML += (diff != 0) ?\'With this trade you have \'+effect+\" \"+\"this team\'s projected wins by \"+Math.abs(diff)+\'.\':\'You have not affected the winning percentage of this team.\';projHTML += \' WorkUtah Bans D.E.I. Programs, Joining Other States
 Despite leading a deeply conservative state, Governor Cox had built his brand as a moderate. His embrace of the D.E.I. bill represented a somewhat surprising shift, said Michael Lyons, a political science professor at Utah State University. (Mr. Cox also signed a separate bill on Tuesday that requires transgender people to use public bathrooms that match their sex at birth.) WorkAtmospheric River Drenches California, With More Storms on the Way
 The current storm hit Northern California first, flooding roads on Wednesday and prompting the closure of streets and schools in rural communities. At least one person had to be rescued from a car that was taking on water in Sonoma County, and forecasters warned of big, dangerous waves on the coast. WorkTeen Accused of Swatting Call at Florida Mosque Is Thought to Be Behind Many More
 F.B.I. agents served a search warrant at Mr. Filion’s home in California on July 15, 2023, and obtained a number of “devices.” Social media activity and other information gathered from those devices, which agents didn’t specifically identify, led the authorities to believe that Mr. Filion could have been behind dozens of swatting calls across the country that targeted a government building, a Jewish children’s hospital, several schools, several historically Black colleges and universities, and his own home, according to the arrest affidavit. WorkInside Impeachment’s Rise as a Weapon of Partisan Warfare
 The current impeachment drives in the House have been nettlesome to the Biden team and certainly to Mr. Mayorkas, who issued a defiant seven-page letter before the House Homeland Security Committee voted for articles of impeachment against him along party lines this week. But where impeachment consumed the White House under Richard M. Nixon, Bill Clinton and Mr. Trump, it is barely an afterthought in the Biden West Wing. WorkWorkDemocrats Warn Their Voters Against Backing Haley in South Carolina
 Effectively the last candidate standing between Mr. Trump and the nomination, she faces long odds in her home state, where the Republican electorate is even friendlier to her opponent. To achieve her goal of doing better than her 43 percent mark in New Hampshire, she most likely must expand her coalition or cobble together a new one. WorkSupreme Court to Mull Trump Ballot Questions
 While the court’s decision will technically be limited to the question of whether Trump’s name can appear on the primary ballot in the state of Colorado, it will almost certainly have a much broader impact. Plaintiffs in several other states have also sought to bar him from running in November and are waiting for the justices to give them guidance on how to proceed. WorkHistory of Failure on Border Policy Hangs Over Current Push in Congress
 “If we’d have done any of those bills, we wouldn’t have these problems today,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and a charter member of numerous “gangs” of lawmakers that have repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to strike border deals, notably in 2007 and 2014. WorkBiden Takes Aim at Grocery Chains Over Food Prices
 The rate of increase is slowing rapidly: In December, prices for food consumed at home were up by just over 1 percent, according to the Labor Department. But administration officials say Mr. Biden is keenly aware that prices remain too elevated for many families, even as key items, like gasoline and household furnishings, are now cheaper than they were at their post-pandemic peak. WorkWorkMichigan Had No Seat at R.N.C. Meeting, but 2 People Showed Up Anyway
 So when they converged at the Horseshoe Las Vegas for the R.N.C.’s winter meetings this week, neither got official recognition. Organizers relegated Ms. Karamo and Mr. Hoekstra to guest credentials, barring them from voting on party resolutions amid a continuing review of who is the rightful chair. WorkWorkWorkWorkWorkU.S. Makes Initial Offers in Medicare Drug Price Negotiations
 The drugs subject to price talks include Eliquis, Jardiance, Xarelto, Januvia, Farxiga, Entresto, Enbrel, Imbruvica and Stelara. Fiasp and NovoLog insulin products were also selected. The administration did not publicly reveal how much it was offering for the medications, which are covered under Medicare’s program for prescription drugs that patients take at home, known as Medicare Part D. WorkWorkMeta's metaverse is back
 On the conference call, Zuckerberg laid out his vision for the year ahead: make Meta a stronger tech company, a leaner one, and realign its businesses for the future. “People looked at what we were doing as if it might have been some kind of short things, [but] that’s not really [how we operate],” he added. WorkWorkStarbucks' growth is cooling, and competition is heating up
 Coffee is big business, and while Starbucks seems like it’s always on top of the heap (with continuing expansion plans), it looks like the company has some competition hot on its heels. We’ll just have to see how the long game plays out. WorkWorkTaylor Swift shows boost local economies almost as much as hosting a Super Bowl
 The report is another example of the power Swift wields over the economy. And it comes just days before Swift’s boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, is set to compete at the 2024 Super Bowl on Sunday (Feb. 11) against the San Francisco 49ers. A separate report found that the couple alone has generated $331.5 million in brand value for the Chiefs and the NFL. WorkLewis Hamilton joins Ferrari, investors slam the gas pedal
 “In Formula 1, we fought till the very last race,” Vigna said on the call. “Even though the last season has been a difficult one, often short on satisfaction, we know we must continue to work tirelessly to return to the level that our peers foresee, rightly expect of us, and we look forward to it.” WorkBlack workers still see code-switching as necessary to their career success
 Leaders of color, too, can model the shift from code-switching for their colleagues. As a Black woman, Hardeman recalls how her coworkers helped relieve the pressure to code-switch for her. “I’ve been on a call and there’s been somebody else on the call who’s also underrepresented...I hear them not put on [a different] tone,” she added. In that way, leaders and managers can empower other employees to feel less of a need to code-switch. WorkDisney+ and Hulu are about to join Netflix in cracking down on password sharing
 Essentially, there are far more people dropping, then occasionally re-upping their Disney+ and Hulu accounts than Netflix. Disney did report that its core subscribers numbers were up around 3.3 million at the end of its last quarter of 2023, to more than 150 million subscribers. Compare that to Netflix’s reported 13.1 million new users gained at the end of last year. Disney is desperate to get its numbers up, and it thinks playing follow the leader to the world’s biggest streaming service will do the trick. WorkWorkWorkWorkZuckerberg wins on Wall Street after Washington hit
 But Meta\'s performance was the most head-spinning, coming just a day after it faced blistering critique in Washington, where senators told Mr Zuckerberg that his product was \"killing people\" and he was pushed to apologise to families of victims of child sexual exploitation. WorkTikTok pulls Taylor Swift and The Weeknd's music
 \"Despite Universal\'s false narrative and rhetoric, the fact is they have chosen to walk away from the powerful support of a platform with well over a billion users that serves as a free promotional and discovery vehicle for their talent,\" it added. WorkAI will not be the destroyer of jobs - Bank chief
 They added: \"The future of AI is safe AI. It is only by addressing the risks of today and tomorrow that we can harness its incredible opportunities and attract even more of the jobs and investment that will come from this new wave of technology. WorkWater bills to rise above inflation in April
 Mike Keil, chief executive of the Consumer Council for Water (CCW), said: \"Almost a fifth of households say they struggle to pay their water bill and these rises will heap even greater pressure on low-income customers. WorkBank of England moving closer to interest rate cut
 Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG UK, said she thought the Bank would be wary of keeping rates too high for too long, \"particularly with the impact of previous rate hikes yet to feed through to the economy\". WorkDeutsche Bank to cut 3,500 jobs over next two years
 Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have shed posts, while Barclays - one of the UK\'s largest lenders - cut 5,000 jobs worldwide last year, and is due to update investors later this month, with further job losses a possibility. WorkLabour promise not to raise corporation tax if elected
 Chief Secretary to the Treasury Laura Trott said: \"Keir Starmer\'s record of making promises and then dropping them when they become inconvenient shows Labour will not provide businesses with the stability and certainty they need to invest.\" WorkApple Has a New Plan for Its App Store. Many Developers Hate It.
 After doing the math, many developers said Apple was offering a worse alternative. Several pointed out that a maker of a free app with 10 million downloads a year that opted to distribute through a competing app store would owe Apple about $400,000 a month because of the new 50-euro-cent fee, according to a fee calculator that Apple released. That essentially guaranteed that they would stay with the existing App Store model, where they can distribute free, rather than sell through alternative marketplaces. WorkThe Fed Is Taking It Slow. But the Markets Want More.
 Expectations of rate cuts have waxed and waned over the past several months. So has the behavior of the stock market. After the Fed’s previous meeting in December, in which it signaled that rate cuts were likely sometime in 2024, the futures market began to count on the start of those rate cuts being at the Fed’s next meeting, in March. |
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