AI Should Pay a Price for Its Environmental Damage
Last week, Laurence Tubiana, chief executive officer of the European Climate Foundation, a nonprofit research and advocacy group, suggested taxing AI to raise money for climate adaptation. Tubiana helped craft the Paris climate accord and is part of the Global Solidarity Levies Task Force, a group rummaging through the world's couch cushions for spare change to help it adjust to an environment growing more chaotic and destructive as the planet gets hotter. The group has identified some obvious targets, such as taxing ' premium flyers,' cryptocurrencies, fossil-fuel profits and shipping emissions.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Associated Press
23 minutes ago
- Associated Press
US-EU trade deal wards off further escalation but will raise costs for companies, consumers
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have announced a sweeping trade deal that imposes 15% tariffs on most European goods, warding off Trump's threat of a 30% rate if no deal had been reached by Aug. 1. The tariffs, or import taxes, paid when Americans buy European products could raise prices for U.S. consumers and dent profits for European companies and their partners who bring goods into the country. Here are some things to know about the trade deal between the United States and the European Union: What's in the agreement? Trump and von der Leyen's announcement, made during Trump's visit to one of his golf courses in Scotland, leaves many details to be filled in. The headline figure is a 15% tariff rate on 'the vast majority' of European goods brought into the U.S., including cars, computer chips and pharmaceuticals. It's lower than the 20% Trump initially proposed, and lower than his threats of 50% and then 30%. Von der Leyen said the two sides agreed on zero tariffs on both sides for a range of 'strategic' goods: Aircraft and aircraft parts, certain chemicals, semiconductor equipment, certain agricultural products, and some natural resources and critical raw materials. Specifics were lacking. She said the two sides 'would keep working' to add more products to the list. Additionally, the EU side would purchase what Trump said was $750 billion (638 billion euros) worth of natural gas, oil and nuclear fuel to replace Russian energy supplies, and Europeans would invest an additional $600 billion (511 billion euros) in the U.S. What's not in the deal? Trump said the 50% U.S. tariff on imported steel would remain; von der Leyen said the two sides agreed to further negotiations to fight a global steel glut, reduce tariffs and establish import quotas — that is, set amounts that can be imported, often at a lower rate. Trump said pharmaceuticals were not included in the deal. Von der Leyen said the pharmaceuticals issue was 'on a separate sheet of paper' from Sunday's deal. Where the $600 billion for additional investment would come from was not specified. And von der Leyen said that when it came to farm products, the EU side made clear that 'there were tariffs that could not be lowered,' without specifying which products. What's the impact? The 15% rate removes Trump's threat of a 30% tariff. It's still much higher than the average tariff before Trump came into office of around 1%, and higher than Trump's minimum 10% baseline tariff. Higher tariffs, or import taxes, on European goods mean sellers in the U.S. would have to either increase prices for consumers — risking loss of market share — or swallow the added cost in terms of lower profits. The higher tariffs are expected to hurt export earnings for European firms and slow the economy. The 10% baseline applied while the deal was negotiated was already sufficiently high to make the European Union's executive commission cut its growth forecast for this year from 1.3% to 0.9%. Von der Leyen said the 15% rate was 'the best we could do' and credited the deal with maintaining access to the U.S. market and providing 'stability and predictability for companies on both sides.' What is some of the reaction to the deal? German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed the deal which avoided 'an unnecessary escalation in transatlantic trade relations' and said that 'we were able to preserve our core interests,' while adding that 'I would have very much wished for further relief in transatlantic trade.' The Federation of German Industries was blunter. 'Even a 15% tariff rate will have immense negative effects on export-oriented German industry,' said Wolfgang Niedermark, a member of the federation's leadership. While the rate is lower than threatened, 'the big caveat to today's deal is that there is nothing on paper, yet,' said Carsten Brzeski, global chief of macro at ING bank. 'With this disclaimer in mind and at face value, today's agreement would clearly bring an end to the uncertainty of recent months. An escalation of the US-EU trade tensions would have been a severe risk for the global economy,' Brzeski said. 'This risk seems to have been avoided.' What about car companies? Asked if European carmakers could still sell cars at 15%, von der Leyen said the rate was much lower than the current 27.5%. That has been the rate under Trump's 25% tariff on cars from all countries, plus the preexisting U.S. car tariff of 2.5%. The impact is likely to be substantial on some companies, given that automaker Volkswagen said it suffered a 1.3 billion euro ($1.5 billion) hit to profit in the first half of the year from the higher tariffs. Mercedes-Benz dealers in the U.S. have said they are holding the line on 2025 model year prices 'until further notice.' The German automaker has a partial tariff shield because it makes 35% of the Mercedes-Benz vehicles sold in the U.S. in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, but the company said it expects prices to undergo 'significant increases' in coming years. What were the issues dividing the two sides? Before Trump returned to office, the U.S. and the EU maintained generally low tariff levels in what is the largest bilateral trading relationship in the world, with some 1.7 trillion euros ($2 trillion) in annual trade. Together the U.S. and the EU have 44% of the global economy. The U.S. rate averaged 1.47% for European goods, while the EU's averaged 1.35% for American products, according to the Bruegel think tank in Brussels. Trump has complained about the EU's 198 billion-euro trade surplus in goods, which shows Americans buy more from European businesses than the other way around, and has said the European market is not open enough for U.S.-made cars. However, American companies fill some of the trade gap by outselling the EU when it comes to services such as cloud computing, travel bookings, and legal and financial services. And some 30% of European imports are from American-owned companies, according to the European Central Bank.
Forbes
23 minutes ago
- Forbes
10 Tiny Habits That Make Or Break A Founding Team
The habits that define strong startup teams aren't flashy - they're consistent. Learn 10 small, ... More high-leverage rituals that early-stage founders use to build alignment, trust, and momentum. The success of an early-stage startup often comes down to a few key habits. Not vision. Not funding. Not product. Just the repeatable behaviors a team establishes in the first few months. These small patterns shape how decisions get made, how conflict is resolved, and how momentum builds or stalls. Here are ten habits that often fly under the radar but make a disproportionate difference. 1. Start Every Week With A Quick Priorities Check High-functioning teams get aligned often. A 10-minute Monday standup (async or live) focused solely on what matters most for the week helps avoid drift. It's not a status update. It's a coordination tool. Just one shared Google Doc or Slack thread each week can clarify who's pushing what forward. 2. Write Things Down Before Debating Them Discussions go faster and deeper when each person writes their thinking down first. Stripe famously used written memos for key decisions, helping to clarify logic and reduce groupthink. In small teams, this habit prevents dominant voices from steering conversations without scrutiny. 3. Close The Loop, Every Time It sounds basic, but closing the loop - on a bug report, a sales follow-up, or a customer message builds trust. Early teams that make this a reflex are more operationally tight. Users and teammates start to feel like action follows words. That makes everything else easier. 4. Default To Showing, Not Telling Instead of talking about a problem for 30 minutes, show a mockup, spreadsheet, or quick Loom video. A rough version beats a vague explanation. Founders at Figma and Superhuman made this a habit early - visual, concrete communication shortened feedback loops and made their teams feel faster. 5. End Each Week With A Lightweight Retro Even a 15-minute end-of-week reflection helps early teams improve. What worked? What didn't? What felt off? You don't need fancy tooling. Just capture a few bullet points and a single improvement to try next week. Tiny improvements compound faster than you'd think. 6. Discuss How You Communicate, Not Just What You're Communicating Most teams wait until things are tense to talk about how they talk. But tiny misalignments in communication style create friction early. Do you use Slack or email for decisions? Are async replies expected within hours or days? These patterns can quietly sabotage trust if they're not clarified early. You can check our Startup Communication & Negotiation Guide for a bit more in-depth insights into the importance of how to communicate effectively in the team and with outside stakeholders. 7. Name The Hard Stuff Out Loud It's tempting to avoid naming difficult truths like a strategy that's not working or a cofounder dynamic that's drifting. But high-trust teams normalize surfacing tension early. That doesn't mean oversharing. It just means saying the quiet part out loud, before it becomes resentment. 8. Keep The Calendar Sacred In the early days, teams often overbook meetings or swing to the other extreme and meet only when there's a fire. A consistent cadence, like for example a product review every Friday, a retro every two weeks, helps establish a rhythm. Rituals aren't bureaucracy. They're a defense against chaos. 9. Limit Who Touches What Too many founders try to "co-own" everything. But the strongest teams make clear calls on ownership. Who owns marketing copy? Who decides on design changes? Ownership creates clarity. Clarity reduces churn. It doesn't mean people stop collaborating - it just means someone decides. 10. Celebrate Progress Publicly (Even If It's Small) Momentum is fragile. Especially in a startup's first year. Teams that develop a habit of sharing wins, even small ones, build morale. This doesn't require parties or bonuses. A simple Slack thread or internal weekly email can remind everyone that forward motion is happening.
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Box Office Grosses Won't Return to Pre-COVID Levels Even by 2029, New Report Forecasts
U.S. and global box office and total cinema revenue will not reach pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels by 2029, according to accounting firm PwC's annual closely watched media and entertainment outlook report released late on July 23. In the U.S., pre-pandemic total cinema revenue is not forecast to be reached by 2029 despite a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.9 percent. PwC had recorded nearly $11.7 billion in U.S. total cinema revenue in the pre-pandemic year 2019 after $11.8 billion in 2018. The firm projects the figure to rise from $8.9 billion in 2024 and $9.6 billion in 2025 to $10.1 billion in 2026, $10.3 billion in 2027, $10.6 billion in 2028 and $10.8 billion in 2029. More from The Hollywood Reporter ITV Unveils New Cost Cuts, First-Half Ad Revenue Drop After Year-Ago Soccer Boost, Studios Gain Benedict Cumberbatch to Receive Zurich's Golden Eye Award How a New Generation of British Documentarians Is Embracing Politically Charged Storytelling Asked by The Hollywood Reporter about how pre-COVID box office levels are not expected to be reached by 2029, Bart Spiegel, PwC global entertainment and media leader, says: 'Unfortunately, this full recovery is unlikely within the forecast period. However, we project that by the end of 2029, the industry will be on the brink of a full rebound. In other words, 2030 may be the year global box office revenues return to pre-pandemic levels.' Pre-COVID, U.S. box office in 2018 amounted to $10.8 billion before a 2019 drop to $10.7 billion. PwC forecasts the 2024 figure of $8.1 billion to grow to $8.7 billion this year. For the 2025-2029 period, it predicts a CAGR of 3.86 percent to push box office revenue to nearly $9.8 billion by the end of that period. In terms of admissions, PwC lists 777 million for 2023, a drop to 734 million for 2024 and an estimated rebound to 778 million for 2025. It projects a 2.3 percent CAGR for the U.S. to 823 million in 2029, compared with 1.3 billion in 2019. By then, the average admission price will climb to $11.86, or 'over $2 more than the $9.16 charged in 2020 and 2021,' the report explains. Total U.S. cinema revenue in 2024 fell to $8.9 billion from $9.1 billion in 2023, 'but the drop was anticipated and not as steep as had originally been feared,' highlighted the PwC report. (Yet it hit the bottom line of studios as well.) 'The Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strikes of late 2023 had slowed down production — and there were fewer 'tentpole' titles than would normally have been anticipated.' For the global box office, PwC forecasts the 2024 figure of $29.7 billion to grow to $33.5 billion this year. It then predicts continued growth to $37.7 billion by the end of the Outlook report period in 2029, compared with $39.4 billion in 2019. 'It's important to remember that industry revenues are ultimately driven by price times volume. In this case, while ticket prices are rising, admissions (volume) are not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels,' Spiegel says. 'Instead, the growth in global box office revenue is being fueled by higher ticket prices. These ticket price increases are driven by several factors, including enhanced infrastructure and facilities, technological advancements, and rising content costs.' The accounting firm notes that transition has hit Hollywood many times in the past, highlighting: 'In recent years, the U.S. film sector has been disrupted. The streamers overturned traditional business models, the pandemic hit the box office, and the 2023 strikes stymied the post-COVID-19 recovery. But U.S. industry history reveals that the sector has experienced challenges many times before, with everything from the conversion to sound to the anti-trust legislation of the 1940s, the arrival of TV as a mass medium in the 1940s and 1950s, and the VHS revolution of the 1970s. In each case, the sector recovered. It is doing so again now.' Here is a closer look at some of the U.S. cinema sector trends highlighted in PwC's Global Entertainment & Media Outlook. Franchise Films and Tentpoles Growth in U.S. box office revenue this year 'is again being driven, as in pre-COVID-19 years, by franchise movies building on existing IP — with Disney re-established as the pre-eminent player,' the report notes. The studio had three of the top five hits in the U.S. market in 2024: Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, and Moana 2.… Each of the five major studios — Disney, Universal, Warner Bros., Sony and Paramount — had sizable hits. Universal's Wicked, Despicable Me 4 and Twisters; Warner Bros.' Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Dune: Part Two and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire; Sony's Bad Boys: Ride or Die and It Ends With Us; and Paramount's Gladiator II and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 were all strong successes.' PwC also points out that 'blockbuster titles like Captain America: Brave New World, the live-action Snow White and live-action How to Train Your Dragon, motorsport drama F1, the latest reboot of Superman, Wicked: For Good, Zootopia 2, Mission: Impossible – the Final Reckoning and Avatar: Fire and Ash should ensure that 2025 is a reasonably robust year. In 2025, it is expected that 110 films will be produced and released in more than 2,000 sites in North America, up from 95 in 2024.' Meanwhile, 'an observation that has continued to be made over the last decade is that so-called mid-budget movies, which include award-contending dramas, are struggling at the box office,' PwC mentions. 'These are the pictures that spectators seemingly prefer to watch at home.' Concludes PwC: 'The U.S. remains a very polarised market with a handful of 'tentpole' movies accounting for a vast amount of the profits.' Windows Experiments Experiments with day and date releasing, making big blockbusters available on streaming platforms with little or no period of exclusivity in cinemas, 'have now been largely discarded,' the PwC report highlights. 'This reveals a shift in the studios' mindset and an acknowledgement that releasing in cinemas first is still regarded as the most reliable way to drive ancillary sales. Streamers involved in film production, like Amazon MGM and Apple, are also committing to 45-day theatrical windows for their bigger titles.' Netflix remains focused on its streaming platform, though. 'Netflix's Oscar contender Emilia Pérez was given only a very brief theatrical release (primarily to ensure awards qualification) before being launched to stream on the Netflix platform,' notes the Outlook. 'Emilia Pérez's box office revenue was, relatively, low at around $15 million globally. The film secured 13 Oscar nominations despite not being seen widely on the big screen.' Cinema Appeal 'U.S. exhibitors have been trumpeting research that suggests the public is re-embracing the theatrical experience,' PwC points out. 'The National Association of Theatre Owners cited a report into cinema-going habits compiled by UCLA, which revealed that seeing a movie during opening weekend ranks as the number one preferred activity among 10–24-year-olds. This counters prevailing anxiety about the loss of a younger audience too preoccupied with TikTok and Instagram to go to cinemas. Market research also suggests that for certain genres — horror and comedy in particular — younger cinema-goers like to watch with their peers and to enjoy the shared experience.' Theater Amenities Cinema operators' upgrades to luxury seats is 'one factor driving admissions for more-affluent customers,' according to PwC. Loyalty and subscription programs offering discounts have also been on the rise. For 2024, the firm reports 119 million loyalty club members, up from 106 million in 2023. 'PLF is continuing to make gains,' the Outlook report also emphasizes. 'In North America, 950 theatres now have large-format screens — a 37 percent increase from five years ago and a clear sign that cinema-goers are looking for a spectacular experience that can't be replicated at home. A record number of at least 14 Hollywood and international releases shot with Imax cameras will hit cinemas in 2025 — and will be shown on the Imax global platform at the company's 1,700 locations.' Sony's Alamo Deal Could Spur Theater Buys Sony Pictures' 2024 acquisition of exhibitor Alamo Drafthouse made Sony the first studio giant to move back into owning cinema assets. 'Anti-trust legislation that had been in place for over 70 years, from 1948 to 2020, meant that Hollywood studios were previously prevented from owning their own movie theatres,' highlights PwC in its report. 'There is the possibility that other U.S. studios will follow suit. This means they can again become fully vertically integrated — controlling production, distribution and exhibition, just as they did during their heyday from the 1920s to the 1940s.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire Solve the daily Crossword
