Author: Admin

[WASHINGTON] US business activity slowed marginally in June, though prices increased further amid President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs on imported goods, suggesting that an acceleration in inflation was likely in the second half of the year.The survey from S&P Global on Monday (Jun 23) showed measures of prices paid by factories for inputs and charged for finished products jumped to levels last seen in 2022. Nearly two-thirds of manufacturers reporting higher input costs attributed these to tariffs while just over half of respondents linked increased selling prices to tariffs, S&P Global said.That supports economists’ expectations that inflation would surge from…

The nation’s major health insurers are promising to scale back and improve a widely despised practice that leads to care delays and complications. UnitedHealthcare, CVS Health’s Aetna and dozens of other insurers said Monday that they plan to reduce the scope of health care claims subject to prior authorization, standardize the process and expand the number of responses done in real time.Prior authorization means insurers require approval before they’ll cover medical care, a prescription or a service like an imaging exam. Insurers say they do this to guard against care overuse and to make sure patients get the right treatment.But…

MISSILE warfare has erupted in the Middle East. On Jun 13, as the bombs began to fly, S&P 500 futures fell by 1.6 per cent. But as the hours passed, the stock market steadily climbed. The index has now recovered to around 6,000, a hair’s breadth from an all-time high.Such movements reflect a new market mantra: “Nothing ever happens.” The phrase emerged from the depths of 4chan, an online forum, more than a decade ago, and has become a popular meme among youngish investors. On the face of it, the saying seems wildly out of place in an era of…

UnitedHealthcare , Kaiser Permanente and other major U.S. health insurers say they want to make it faster and easier for patients to obtain care.Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), a trade association that represents the health insurance industry, announced Monday that some of its biggest members are taking steps to streamline “prior authorization” — industry jargon for the process by which health care providers obtain approval from patients’ insurance carriers to deliver care.Prior authorization requests can be time-consuming for doctors, resulting in frustrating delays for patients in obtaining essential medical care. According to a survey from the American Medical Medical Association, physicians’ offices…

Published Mon, Jun 23, 2025 · 09:46 PM[NEW YORK] Wall Street’s main indices opened subdued on Monday (Jun 23) as investors awaited Iran’s possible response to US airstrikes on its nuclear facilities over the weekend, sparking fears of a broader conflict in the Middle East.The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 28.3 points, or 0.07 per cent, at the open to 42,178.55. The S&P 500 rose 1.8 points, or 0.03 per cent, at the open to 5,969.67​, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 20.4 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 19,427.007 at the opening bell. Reuters Share with us your feedback on…

ROME — Greenpeace on Monday joined the smattering of protests in Venice against the upcoming wedding of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez.A half-dozen protesters unfurled a giant banner early Monday in St. Mark’s Square reading: “IF YOU CAN RENT VENICE FOR YOUR WEDDING YOU CAN PAY MORE TAX.” Local police quickly folded it up and took it away.The demonstration followed other anti-Bezos initiatives last week including a banner draped from the San Giorgio bell tower, one from the lagoon city’s famous Rialto Bridge and posters plastered up around town complaining about the upcoming wedding and the effects of…

CHICAGO — Three dozen police captains pair off in a Chicago conference room to play a game: They must start a sentence with the last word their partner used.Many exchanges are nonsensical, full of one-upmanship using difficult words and laughter. But the improvisation game eventually makes sense.“What we are trying to do, is get you to listen to the end of the sentence,” says Kelly Leonard, wrapping up the improvisational exercise. “If my arm was a sentence, when do most people stop listening? Always the elbow! But then you’re missing everything that goes after… and sometimes that’s critical information.”The police…

Image Source: Bing Image. License: All Creative Commons Finding the balance point between creativity and discipline is trying to bottle lightning especially when your office space is the living room, kitchen table, or garage corner. For Hrishikesh Hirway, the creative genius behind Song Exploder and seasoned remote worker, creativity is not an ephemeral muse but merely him. He explains creativity as that which pleased him most as a child, a way to craft his own island within a world that sometimes didn’t share his inclinations. Image Source: Bing Image. License: All Creative Commons But as anyone who’s ever tried to…

After all the wheeling, dealing and drafting this offseason, NFL teams have sparked volumes of words, both written and spoken. But sometimes one word says it all. So as the league breaks for the summer, we’re assigning one word to encapsulate what each team has done over the past several months. And we explain why each word sums up where each franchise stands going into the 2025 season. Here’s the breakdown:Atlanta FalconsMishandled: The Falcons could have a big problem if Kirk Cousins is still on the roster come the regular season. What happens if 2024 first-round pick Michael Penix Jr. struggles, and…

[BEIJING] Singapore and China on Monday (Jun 23) inked four agreements on cooperation in areas such as training and knowledge exchange, in a ceremony witnessed by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and Chinese Premier Li Qiang. This was on the first full day of PM Wong’s introductory visit to China, which is from Jun 22 to 26. One memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed on Monday will see the joint development of legal talent. Under the MOU, trainees nominated by Singapore’s law ministry and China’s justice ministry will attend postgraduate law programmes in each other’s law schools. They will also take part in courses conducted…