FILE - Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger speaks during an event called AI Everywhere in New York, Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
(AP) Shares of Intel are surging before the market opens Tuesday after the chipmaker said its foundry business would make some custom artificial intelligence chips for Amazon Web Services as it attempts to reinvigorate its business.
CEO Pat Gelsinger said in a message to employees late Monday that Intel will create an AI fabric chip for Amazon’s cloud services division at its foundry business, a struggling division that he said would become a subsidiary of Intel.
“A subsidiary structure will unlock important benefits,” Gelsinger said. “It provides our external foundry customers and suppliers with clearer separation and independence from the rest of Intel. Importantly, it also gives us future flexibility to evaluate independent sources of funding and optimise the capital structure of each business to maximize growth and shareholder value creation.”
FILE – Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger speaks during an event called AI Everywhere in New York, Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023. PHOTO: AP
Harlan Sur of JP Morgan believes that making the foundry business a subsidiary is a logical next step.
“We believe this move is a natural progression to drive better transparency and decision making/efficiencies and therefore should not be viewed as a surprise,” the analyst wrote in a note to clients.
Sur anticipates the shift could possibly lead to a spin out of the business over the next few years.
A board that includes independent directors will be created for the planned subsidiary.
Gelsinger also provided an update on Intel’s cost-cutting efforts. The executive said that the chip maker, through voluntary early retirement and separation offerings, is more than halfway to its workforce reduction target of approximately 15,000 by the end of the year.
He added that “difficult decisions” will still need to be made, with impacted employees being notified in the middle of October.
Intel also plans to reduce or exit about two-thirds of its real estate worldwide by year’s end.
Shares of Intel Corp. jumped nearly 7 per cent in premarket trading.
Lebanese soldiers and firefighters gather outside a mobile shop after what is believed to be the result of a walkie-talkie exploding inside it, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
BEIRUT (AP) — Walkie-talkies and solar equipment exploded in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon on Wednesday in an apparent second wave of attacks targeting devices a day after pagers used by Hezbollah blew up, state media and officials for the militant group said. At least 20 people were killed and more than 450 wounded in the second wave, the Health Ministry said.
The attacks — which were widely believed to be carried out by Israel targeting Hezbollah but have also killed civilians — have hiked fears that the two sides’ simmering conflict could escalate into all-out war.
In Wednesday’s attacks, several blasts were heard at a funeral in Beirut for three Hezbollah members and a child killed by exploding pagers the day before, according to Associated Press journalists at the scene. An AP photographer in the southern coastal city of Sidon saw a car and a mobile phone shop damaged after devices exploded inside of them. A girl was hurt in the south when a home solar energy system blew up, the state news agency reported.
The new blasts hit a country still roiling with confusion and anger after Tuesday’s pager bombings, which killed at least 12 people, including two children, and wounded some 2,800 others.
Lebanese soldiers and firefighters gather outside a mobile shop after what is believed to be the result of a walkie-talkie exploding inside it, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. PHOTO: AP
The second wave also deepens concern over the potentially indiscriminate casualties caused in the attacks, in which hundreds of blasts went off wherever the holder of the pager happened to be — in homes, cars, at grocery stores and in cafes, often with family or bystanders nearby.
While the pagers were used by Hezbollah members, there was no guarantee who was holding the device at the time it was detonated. Also, many of the casualties were not Hezbollah fighters, but members of the group’s extensive civilian operations mainly serving Lebanon’s Shiite community.
At least two health workers were among those killed Tuesday. Doctors, nurses, paramedics, charity workers, teachers and office administrators work for Hezbollah-linked organizations, and an unknown number had pagers.
Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor of law and international peace studies at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, said booby-traps are banned under international law. “Weaponising an object used by civilians is strictly prohibited,” she said.
The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, called for an independent investigation into the mass explosions, saying, “The fear and terror unleashed is profound.”
Iran-backed Hezbollah — Lebanon’s strongest armed force — has exchanged fire with Israel’s military almost daily since Oct. 8. Since then, hundreds have been killed in strikes in Lebanon and dozens in Israel, while tens of thousands on each side of the border have been displaced. Hezbollah said its strikes are in support of its ally, Hamas.
Hezbollah announced three strikes on parts of northern Israel Wednesday, at least one of which took place after the latest round of explosions in Lebanon.
Israeli leaders have issued a series of warnings in recent weeks that they might increase operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, saying they must stop the exchange of fire to allow people to return to homes near the border. Israel began moving more troops to its border with Lebanon on Wednesday as a precautionary measure, according to an official with knowledge of the movements who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, is expected to deliver a major speech on Thursday.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US is still assessing how the attacks in Lebanon could affect efforts to negotiate a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.
The pager bombings appeared to be a complex operation months in the making, with many experts believing Israel infiltrated the supply chain and rigged hundreds of pagers with explosives before they were imported to Lebanon. But little evidence has emerged so far.
Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese firm, said it authorised a Hungary-based company, BAC Consulting KFT, to use its name on devices delivered to Hezbollah. But a Hungarian government spokesman said Wednesday the pagers delivered to Hezbollah were never in Hungary and that BAC Consultants merely acted as an intermediary.
Hungarian national security services were cooperating with international partners, the Hungarian spokesman, Zoltán Kovács, posted Wednesday on X.
Wednesday’s new bombings came as Lebanese were mourning the dead from the day before.
Two explosions went off at the edges of the funeral of two fighters, a young boy and a paramedic in southern Beirut. As ambulances screeched to the scene, the ceremony continued, with a senior Hezbollah official, Hashem Safieddine, telling mourners that Israel’s “aggression will face its special punishment.”
Israeli drones buzzed overhead – as they do often over Beirut and many parts of Lebanon – as thousands of mourners marched in a procession with the four coffins to a cemetery.
“We will not despair and we will not surrender. We will continue as long as blood circulates in our veins,” said one woman, who identified herself as Um Hussein, as she stood outside the cemetery with her four children.
A Hezbollah official told the AP that walkie-talkies used by the group exploded in several parts of the country Wednesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media. Lebanon’s official news agency said solar energy systems exploded in homes in several areas of Beirut and the south, wounding at least one girl.
In the village of Nabi Sheet in the Bekaa Valley, dozens gathered to mourn 9-year-old Fatima Abdullah, another victim of the pagers. Her mother, wearing black and donning a yellow Hezbollah scarf, wept alongside other women and children as they gathered around the little girl’s coffin before her burial.
AFP – Hornussen, a centuries-old Swiss sport where a puck is lashed with a stick sending it flying at speeds of up to 300 kilometres per hour (kph), is embracing modernity with each shot now recorded live via a smartphone app and clips shared on TikTok.
The quirky sport gets its name from the puck, known as a hornuss or hornet, due to the buzzing sound it makes as it whizzes through the air. The game sees one side whip the hornuss with a wooden peg on a flexible stick, while the other team, 100 to 300 metres away, tries to stop it from landing using heavy, flat wooden shovels.
Each time it lands untouched, a penalty point is issued to the defending team. The team with the fewest penalties wins.
The amateur sport wrapped up its biggest event in six years earlier this month, when around 4,500 players took part in the 40th national hornussen festival.
Outside the village of Hochstetten, 30 kilometres (km) northeast of the Swiss capital Bern, teams battled to win a crown of oak leaves, a ceremonial cowbell or a coveted bull’s horn to take back to their clubhouses.
With 32 hornussen fields laid out over 60 hectares of farmland, the scene almost resembled a battlefield, with columns of players stretching to the horizon, and the day’s play starting with cannon fire.
“For us, it’s our Olympics,” said president of the Eidgenossischer Hornusserverband (EHV), the national hornussen association Adrian Tschumi.
ABOVE & BELOW: A block of wood on a flexible stick hits the puck during a hornussen game; and a hornusser reacts after hitting the ‘nouss’ puck during a ‘hornussen’ game at the 40th Swiss Hornussen Festival in Hoechstetten, Switzerland. PHOTO: AFPPHOTO: AFPABOVE & BELOW: Photos show children playing ‘hornussen’ . PHOTO: AFPPHOTO: AFPPHOTO: AFPPHOTO: AFP
“It’s not just a game: it’s the family, the surroundings, the party,” he told AFP.
The festival usually takes place every three years, but had not been staged since 2018 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The sport is rare in that players of all ages and sexes participate, while individual and team contests run at the same time. “You can play with children aged 10 or 12, and with their grandfathers who are 80. That’s very special. I don’t know any other sports where three generations can play together,” said Tschumi.
“The magic of the sport: for me, it’s the team. I like to play alongside my son,” he said.
The first written record of hornussen dates from 1564, with the first known competition in 1655.
In the 17th Century, it was banned on Sundays to stop people drifting away from church to play.
The sport is mainly played in German-speaking central Switzerland, with its heartland in the Emmental region east of Bern.
The EHV was formed in 1902, and though “very traditional”, Tschumi said it had embraced “modern techniques, with this very cool app”, whereby referees log the scores in real time.
Hornussen is also embracing the video-sharing platform TikTok, with one post by the Studen-Madretsch club viewed more than 14 million times.
Some 6,000 registered adults play, including 600 women. There are also 1,300 players under 16.
Teams need not just precise, hard hitters, but also fielders with sharp eyes to pick out the incoming hornuss, read its flight and issue instructions to those further back.
For Barbara Sommer, from the Munchenburchsee-Diemerswil club, the joy of the game is in such teamwork.
“I will never win something as a single player. But as a team, if all goes well, we have a chance,” she said.
With his bushy grey beard and braces, 70-year-old Walter Stooss cuts a striking figure on the Studen-Madretsch team.
The veteran said with age comes experience, but twisting to hit the hornuss becomes harder.
“We lose flexibility, but we have to be happy with what we can still do,” he told AFP.
Team-mate Caroline Schertenleib, 31, explained: “You need strong abdominal muscles. You need fast, explosive strength.”
On the top teams, the players are men aged 20 to 35, athletes bristling with brawn.
Swinging like a golfer, hitters have a flexible, carbon fibre stick up to three metres long.
They whip it round so the wooden block on the end hits the hornuss.
The solid plastic puck flies off the guide rail at dazzling speeds, and rises up to 70 metres high in the air.
After the game, the teams gather in a giant tent for the convivial prize-giving ceremony, filled with cheers, beers and bull horns.
Now 54, Tschumi recalled playing from the age of 10, the nerves and the childlike sense of fun.
Financial consultant Bat-Erdene Khulan posing with her parents outside a ‘ger’ Batsumber in Tuv province. PHOTO: AFP
AFP – Freezing from horseback riding in the winter and helping her herder parents tend to livestock during summers spent outdoors – Bat-Erdene Khulan vividly remembers her childhood on Mongolia’s steppe.
She has since studied a master’s degree in Luxembourg, found work as a financial consultant and made Mongolia’s capital city Ulaanbaatar her family home after moving away from her nomadic roots.
For millennia, Mongolians have lived off the land with their livestock in round ger dwellings that they pack up and move with the seasons.
A quarter of Mongolia’s 3.4 million people still lead nomadic lives, according to the World Bank, but hundreds of thousands have moved over the past two decades into Ulaanbaatar, now home to half the population.
And it is women like Khulan, who won a government scholarship for her master’s and is now 36, who have led the transition.
Speaking to AFP in the Ulaanbaatar apartment where she lives with her husband and their seven-year-old son, Khulan said many others raised on the steppe like her have rejected a life of physical labour and fighting the elements.
“They choose to live differently in the city,” she said, where they are offered greater access to modern amenities, education and welfare.
Financial consultant Bat-Erdene Khulan posing with her parents outside a ‘ger’ Batsumber in Tuv province. PHOTO: AFPABOVE & BELOW: Photos show Bat-Erdene Khulan with her parents inside a ‘ger’. PHOTO: AFPPHOTO: AFPLuvsanbaldan Batsukh riding his horse before herding his sheep. PHOTO: AFPABOVE & BELOW: Luvsanbaldan Batsukh posing next to his ger in Khishig-Undur in Bulgan province; and herding his sheep and goats. PHOTO: AFPPHOTO: AFP
Khorol Enkhtuya, 42, a civil servant specialising in welfare, was also among them.
She was raised in Bayan-Unjuul south of Ulaanbaatar by parents who hoped she would follow in their footsteps as herders.
“I read by candlelight,” she told AFP at a cafe near Ulaanbaatar’s Government Palace.
“I read folk stories. It was the only book I had, but half of it was torn,” she said.
“I kept reading the same story again and again – my mum thought: ‘She needs to pursue education.’”
Her parents sent her 150 kilometres (km) from home so she could attend secondary school.
Life in the city was not easy, Enkhtuya said, and during her university years she cooked, cleaned and babysat for families to pay rent while studying at night. Still, she felt lucky, as education was an opportunity that many older Mongolian women simply did not have.
Around 50km from the capital, Khulan’s mother, Sanduijav Altakhuyag, 60, told AFP she had missed out during the tumult of Mongolia’s transition to democracy.
“I want my kids to achieve what I didn’t,” she said.
Khulan’s parents have over the years moved closer to the capital city, though they still live as herders. Khulan tries to visit them as often as she can, dutifully helping her mother prepare lunch in the ger as her son, raised in the city, scampers through lush, green fields.
Not everyone has the opportunity to balance city and rural life in this way, she told AFP.
“The boys stay in the steppe, raising the animals, but girls go to cities, study and stay there working,” Khulan said. That reflects traditional Mongolian patriarchal norms: the son inherits the livestock and responsibility for the family’s livelihood.
But Khulan said that often means their “right to study is violated”.
In Khishig-Undur, Bulgan province, 25-year-old herder Luvsanbaldan Batsukh said he missed the opportunity to study as much as he had wanted.
He tried working two years as a construction worker in the city, but it wasn’t to his liking.
Now, he lives with his family in a small cluster of remote gers. He said life gets “lonely” in the winter, when temperatures plunge to well below zero and the days grow very short.
Finding a partner to share that life with is hard.
“The girls who grew up playing in the river here have moved to the city and don’t want to come back,”
Batsukh said, gazing out into the field as his goats munched on grass.
Further north, fellow herder Gan-Erdene Ganbat, 27, pins his hopes for fame, fortune and marriage on his prize horse, a fixture at local traditional races.
“If I have one thousand sheep, nobody knows me. If I have a single fast horse, the whole country will know me,” he told AFP after tending to his stallion, his friends nearby giddy from the day’s racing win. He acknowledged the isolation many of his fellow young herders felt: a dwindling social circle, arrogance from city dwellers who look down on rural folks, and slim opportunities for dating.
“Herders like us are very timid people. You talk to girls, but it’s very difficult for us to attract them,” he said.
“Nowadays, women tend to do things their own way and they prefer the city.”
Herders like him aren’t suited to that life, he insisted – despite the opportunities available.
“I tried to work in the city, but I realised I can’t be a salaryman,” he said. It’s “difficult seeing a cement roof instead of your livestock”, he said – a common refrain from herders, so accustomed to life outdoors and the freedom of the steppe.
Life in Ulaanbaatar isn’t easy: traffic and noise pollution are rife, and for months each year the city is enveloped in thick smog.
Many born-and-raised city dwellers in Mongolia believe that the countryside offers a better life, and some have joined a global back-to-the-land trend seen from China to the United States.
Among them is former skincare entrepreneur, Chagdgaa Battsetseg, who now fishes, herds goats and keeps bees for a living.
“The pollution in Ulaanbaatar city where I was born and grew up reached the highest level… it was terrible,” Battsetseg told AFP.
“One day I just decided to go to the countryside.”
United States (US) Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe Jr speaks during a news conference on the attempted assassination attempt on former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. PHOTO: AP & AFP
NEW YORK (AP) – An apparent attempt to assassinate former president Donald Trump as he played golf in Florida has rocked a presidential campaign already marred by violence and raised questions about how such a thing could have happened for the second time in as many months.
United States (US) Secret Service agents opened fire on Sunday afternoon on a man who was spotted pointing an AK-style rifle through a fence while hiding in the bushes as Trump golfed at his club in West Palm Beach.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) described it as an apparent attempted assassination on the GOP nominee.
At a Pennsylvania rally in July, Trump was grazed in the ear by a bullet when a gunman was able to gain access to an unsecured roof, unleashing a hail of bullets that left one of Trump’s supporters dead and two others badly injured.
While the Secret Service has grappled with how to keep Trump safe as he campaigns across the country, holding rallies that often draw thousands, less attention has focused on his protection when he is off the trail, often at his own clubs and properties.
The fact that there are places along the perimeter of the property where golfers – including Trump – are visible to those standing behind the fence has long been known to law enforcement.
While Trump was president, news photographers were often able to capture images of him on the greens by finding gaps in the shrubbery.
United States (US) Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe Jr speaks during a news conference on the attempted assassination attempt on former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. PHOTO: AP & AFPABOVE & BELOW: Crime scene tape marks off the area where the Secret Service discovered a would-be assassin of former US president Donald Trump at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, US; and law enforcement personnel investigate the area. PHOTO: AP & AFPPHOTO: AP & AFP
While Trump’s plans to golf on Sunday were not part of any public schedule, on days he is not campaigning, he can often be found golfing at one of his courses.
Trump International Golf Club, West Palm Beach, about a 10-minute drive from his Mar-a-Lago residence, is a favourite. One of three golf clubs he owns in Florida, it boasts 27 holes of championship golf, as well as event spaces.
Trump often eats lunch and holds meetings in the clubhouse between rounds.
Trump had just returned from a West Coast swing that included stops in Las Vegas and Utah, and had announced on social media that he would be delivering remarks on Monday from Mar-a-Lago about cryptocurrency as he launches a new crypto platform.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw noted at a briefing that because Trump is no longer in office, security protocols around the course had loosened.
“He’s not the sitting president. If he was, we would have had this entire golf course surrounded. But because he’s not, his security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible,” he told reporters.
Law enforcement officials praised the work of the agents assigned to protect Trump.
One agent, tasked with jumping one hole ahead of the former president to scope out potential threats, managed to spot the gunman’s rifle barrel sticking out of the fence that surrounds the golf club and “immediately engaged that individual”, Bradshaw said.
In an email to campaign staff on Sunday night, senior campaign advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles credited the Secret Service for saving Trump, who has praised the agents in his own protective detail for their bravery as they rushed on stage to protect him in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“President Trump and everyone accompanying him are safe thanks to the great work of the US Secret Service,” they wrote.
Unlike other past presidents and typical VIPs who live in private residences with tall fences or in gated communities, Trump has his official residence at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach.
The club is open to dues-paying members, who mingle with the former president at meals and at events and can invite their own guests to the property.
Many nights, Trump holds court on the club’s patio, playing DJ with his iPad. While president, he once plotted a response to a North Korean missile launch from the candlelit terrace, the meeting captured and posted on social media by a club member.
The club is also a popular Palm Beach venue and hosts a constant stream of fundraisers, weddings and other events that sometimes see Trump drop by unannounced. Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a social media post that the agency is working closely with the FBI, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement to investigate what happened.
Trump will be briefed in person by Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr about the investigation, according to a person familiar with the plan who was not authorised to speak publicly.
The incident sparked immediate finger-pointing and calls for answers on Capitol Hill.
New York Representative Elise Stefanik, the House Republican Conference chair and a close ally of the former president, said she was grateful Trump was safe.
“However, we must ask ourselves how an assassin was allowed to get this close to President Trump again?” she asked in a statement.
The leaders of the bipartisan task force that has been investigating the security failures in Pennsylvania said they were monitoring the situation and had requested a briefing from the Secret Service.
“We are thankful that the former president was not harmed, but remain deeply concerned about political violence and condemn it in all of its forms,” said Representative Mike Kelly, R-Pennsylvania, and Representative Jason Crow, D-Colorado, in a joint statement.
Meanwhile, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, one of Trump’s rivals in the GOP primary, said his state will conduct its own investigation.
“The people deserve the truth about the would be assassin and how he was able to get within 500 yards of the former president and current GOP nominee,” he wrote in a social media post.
Democratic Representative Ro Khanna echoed that message.
“Two assassination attempts in 60 days on a former president and the Republican nominee is unacceptable,” he wrote.
“The Secret Service must come to Congress tomorrow, tell us what resources are needed to expand the protective perimeter, and lets allocate it in a bipartisan vote the same day.”
President Joe Biden said in a statement that he was “relieved” that Trump was unharmed and said “there is no place for political violence or for any violence ever in our country”.
He said he had directed his staff “to continue to ensure that Secret Service has every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure the former president’s continued safety”.
AFP – In the workplace, everyone has to deal with the quirks of their colleagues, but not all irritating behaviours affect us the same way.
For instance, while some may get frustrated when interrupted during a meeting, others may shrug it off.
This could be a matter of individual sensitivity, but it might also be influenced by generational differences.
A survey conducted by Meeting Canary (via Censuswide among 1,016 British office workers who participate in video or in-person meetings weekly) and reported by Fortune found that workplace annoyances vary by age group. For example, baby boomers are especially bothered by condescending attitudes from coworkers.
Some 74 per cent find this unbearable, compared to 63 per cent of Gen Z.
Similarly, boomers can’t stand meetings that drag on unnecessaririly (84 per cent). Their patience is sorely tested when they have to listen to their colleagues’ long-winded monologues (76 per cent), something that doesn’t seem to bother their Gen Z colleagues nearly as much.
PHOTO: ENVATO
But the generation gap is most pronounced when it comes to professional jargon.
The most experienced employees loathe the technical terms and trendy buzzwords that are used incessantly in the workplace.
In fact, 70 per cent of boomers find this corporate jargon irritating, compared to 44 per cent of Gen Z. Perhaps it’s because this professional jargon excludes the uninitiated, to the detriment of team cohesion.
RESPECT MATTERS
Generally speaking, baby boomers place great importance on politeness in the workplace.
They take a dim view of any behaviour that goes against the elementary rules of good manners.
For example, they take a dim view of colleagues who fail to arrive at the office on time.
Their younger counterparts, on the other hand, are much more forgiving of tardiness. Some 40 per cent of Millennials have no trouble forgiving someone running 10 minutes late, while 70 per cent of baby boomers have a zero-tolerance attitude towards any kind of lateness.
Nevertheless, it would be wrong to say that there is a real generational divide between young and old. Gen Z and baby boomers have a lot in common when it comes to their views on the most annoying behaviours at work. Whatever their age, employees find respect and civility in the workplace to be highly important, for example. That’s why you should make every effort to mind your manners at the office.
Of course, no one is perfect, and quarrels between employees are commonplace in the workplace. But managers must ensure that these tensions do not fester over time and build up into bigger issues.
AFP – The saying, “If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together”, rings especially true in the workplace, where effective teamwork is vital for any organisation’s success.
However, employees are finding it increasingly challenging to collaborate, according to a recent Atlassian survey of 5,000 office workers across the United States (US), Australia, India, Germany, and France, along with 100 Fortune 500 executives.
The COVID-19 pandemic, with its lockdowns and shift to remote work, put a strain on collective efficiency.
Even as things return to normal, employees continue to struggle with collaboration, not just because they are geographically spread out but also due to cognitive disconnection.
Indeed, employees often feel overwhelmed at work.
Increasingly, they are required to work on a whole range of projects, many of them very different.
Two-thirds of working people surveyed for Atlassian’s The State of Teams 2024 report complain that their team is constantly being pulled in too many directions.
PHOTO: ENVATO
But constantly juggling multiple tasks is very cognitively taxing, as science has demonstrated time and again that our brains are not designed to multitask.
To maintain the illusion of productivity, employees tend to concentrate on small, quick tasks that don’t require much concentration (dealing with emails, etc), rather than on more challenging missions, which are often the most strategic for the company.
SOLUTIONS TO HELP TEAMS WORK TOGETHER
This phenomenon of dispersion is not lost on workers’ superiors. Executives estimate that only 24 per cent of their staff carry out tasks that contribute to the company’s performance.
So how can workers be encouraged to focus more on higher value-added activities? Guiding them is one solution.
Managers can organise regular meetings with their teams to discuss individual objectives and check the status of current projects, for example.
But they should be careful not to overdo it. Scheduling meetings all the time can be extremely time-consuming.
Office workers spend an average of 14.8 hours a week in meetings, according to Reclaim.ai, a considerable amount of time that is rarely put to productive use.
The workers surveyed by Atlassian estimate that they spend more time in meetings than at their desks, making progress on the issues raised during those meetings.
Companies therefore need to clearly define the objectives of team meetings, so that staff who take part no longer feel they are wasting their time.
At the same time, they need to facilitate internal knowledge sharing.
Because, unlike rumours and gossip, information can have a hard time circulating within a company.
Some 55 per cent of employees surveyed by Atlassian say they have difficulty finding the information they need to be effective.
The proliferation of corporate communication channels has a lot to do with this. Artificial intelligence could help remedy this problem, provided workers learn how to use it properly.
NEW YORK (AP) – When the graduation season is over, many college grads embark on internships or their first full-time jobs.
Navigating your finances when you start adult life can be challenging, from understanding your health insurance and benefits to managing a budget.
Finding a job is often the first hurdle, so if you’ve accomplished that, take a moment to be proud of yourself.
“Once you do get that first job, pat yourself on the back,” said Director of Financial Planning for Betterment Nick Holeman, a financial advisory company.
Then it’s time to think about your financial future. With credit card delinquencies growing and interest rates still high, it’s more important than ever for recent graduates to start their adult lives on the right financial track.
Here are recommendations from experts about how to do that:
PHOTO: ENVATOPHOTO: ENVATO
SAVE FOR EMERGENCIES
Emergencies are tough to prepare for because you never know when they will happen and how expensive they will be.
However, it’s a good practice to have an emergency fund that will alleviate some of the financial burden if something goes wrong.
“Think of your emergency fund as a ‘break glass in case of emergency’,” said Holeman, who recommended that you keep your emergency savings in a separate bank account.
Emergency fund amounts vary depending on each person’s circumstances but Holeman recommends that you save three to six months of expenses.
This is an ideal scenario, but any amount of savings can be helpful in case of an emergency.
ADJUST YOUR BUDGET
Budgeting is a key component of your financial life, whether you’re trying to save for your emergency fund or pay down debt.
Budgets change along with your finances, so when you land that first full-time position and maybe move to a new city, you need to change your budget to reflect your current financial reality, said Associate Professor of finance at Costello College of Business at George Mason University Steve Pilloff.
If you’re using your budget to find ways to cut costs, Holeman recommends you focus on big expenses, such as rent or transportation costs, rather than small ones such as coffee or shopping.
If you have debt, Holeman also recommends you first focus on paying off high-interest debt.
If you don’t have debt, focusing on building an emergency fund and saving for short-term goals is also a great place to start setting goals for yourself.
Budgeting is not a one-time process. In order to achieve your financial goals, you have to continuously assess and adjust, Pilloff said. – Adriana Morga
The bear cub, which has not yet been named, was discovered by park rangers from the rural community of Santa Catalina de Chongoyape in Peru. PHOTO: AP
LIMA, PERU (AP) – A spectacled bear was born in a rescue centre built by a Peruvian farming community that has protected these animals for more than two decades.
The bear cub, which does not yet have a name, was discovered after park rangers in the community of Santa Catalina de Chongoyape, in northern Peru, noticed that a female bear named Lola did not leave her den.
“They heard different noises and only these days the little bear has begun to come out with its mother,” said president of the community Edivar Carrasco.
Born in mid July, the little bear is the second birth after a female was born six years ago in a fenced area of several hectares where food and care are provided to ailing bears.
The farming community manages an ecological reserve where spectacled bears (Tremarctos ornatus) and other animals such as the white-winged guan (Penelope albipennis) are not hunted and can find a safe habitat for their lives in its carob trees and other types of flora.
The spectacled bear is a vulnerable species, according to the Red List of Threatened Species released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
It is known worldwide thanks to Paddington Bear, a children’s storybook character created in 1958 by British writer Michael Bond.
The bear cub, which has not yet been named, was discovered by park rangers from the rural community of Santa Catalina de Chongoyape in Peru. PHOTO: AP
An image of Dr Edward Jenner, who discovered a vaccine for smallpox, is part of a metal mosaic mural created in 1960 by Greek-born artist Nikos Bel-Jon seen in the lobby of the old Pfizer headquarters in New York, United States. PHOTO: AP
NEW YORK (AP) – A mural honouring ancient and modern figures in medicine that has hung in the lobby of Pfizer’s original New York City headquarters for more than 60 years could soon end up in pieces if conservationists can’t find a new home for it in the next few weeks.
“Medical Research Through the Ages”, a massive metal and tile mosaic depicting scientists and lab equipment, has been visible through the high glass-windowed lobby of the pharmaceutical giant’s midtown Manhattan office since the 1960s.
But the building is being gutted and converted into residential apartments, and the new owners have given the mural a move-out date.
Art conservationists and the late artist’s daughters are now scrambling to find a patron who is able to cover the tens of thousands of dollars they estimate it will take to move and remount it, as well as an institution that can display it.
“I would ideally like to see it as part of an educational future, whether it’s on a hospital campus as part of a school or a college. Or part of a larger public art programme for the citizens of New York City,” said art historian and urban planner Andrew Cronson, one of the people trying to find a new home for the piece.
An image of Dr Edward Jenner, who discovered a vaccine for smallpox, is part of a metal mosaic mural created in 1960 by Greek-born artist Nikos Bel-Jon seen in the lobby of the old Pfizer headquarters in New York, United States. PHOTO: AP
The 11-metre by 4.3-metre mural by Greek American artist Nikos Bel-Jon was the main showpiece of Pfizer’s world headquarters when the building opened a few blocks from Grand Central Terminal in 1961, at a time when flashy buildings and grand corporate art projects were a symbol of business success.
He died in 1966, leaving behind dozens of large brushed-metal works commissioned by companies and private institutions, many of which have now been lost or destroyed.
In recent years, Pfizer sold the building – and last year moved its headquarters to a shared office space in a newer property. The company said in an e-mailed statement that it decided the money needed to deconstruct, relocate and reinstall the mural elsewhere would be better spent on “patient-related priorities.”
The developer now turning the building into apartments, Metro Loft, doesn’t want to keep the artwork either, though it has been working with those trying to save the piece with help like letting art appraisers in.
