Toys are getting pricier as tariffs kick in
Get Starting Point
A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.
Enter Email
Sign Up
ENERGY
Advertisement
Head of electric grid overseer ISO New England to retire
Gordon van Welie is stepping down from ISO New England.
Photo courtesy of ISO New England
ISO New England chief executive Gordon van Welie is retiring on Jan. 1 after 24 years running the organization that oversees the region's electricity grid and wholesale power markets. The board of the Holyoke-based nonprofit is promoting its chief operating officer, Vamsi Chadalavada, to take over after van Welie retires. He'll oversee a staff of around 700 people and a budget of about $300 million. The organization is funded by fees from buyers and sellers in the wholesale electricity markets, as well as from companies that use regional transmission services. Van Welie first joined ISO New England in 2000 as its chief operating officer, not long after the organization was formed following the restructuring of New England's wholesale electricity markets. He has been an outspoken advocate for ensuring the grid system remains reliable even when under duress at times of extreme heat or cold, and in particular for improving coordination between the electric and natural gas industries toward that end. Van Welie, who is 63, said that while the electricity supply and demand outlook remains relatively stable for the next several years, there are changes afoot, including a new capacity market design at ISO, that make it an appropriate time to step aside and let a new leader take over. — JON CHESTO
Advertisement
HEALTH CARE
Dr. Oz pushes drug middlemen to end rebates before Washington acts
Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Mehmet Oz spoke during a news conference to discuss health insurance at the Department of Health and Human Services headquarters in Washington, D.C., on June 23.
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
Prescription drug middlemen should end the complicated system of drug rebates before the government steps in to change it, Medicare and Medicaid chief Mehmet Oz said Tuesday. The remarks signal the Trump administration may revive attempts to eliminate the payments drugmakers send to pharmacy benefit managers after prescriptions are filled. In his first term in 2019, President Trump considered regulations that would have eliminated that system, but officials abandoned them before they went into effect. 'There's a possibility that we have a window now where the three big PBMs might actually consider doing away with the rebate-slash-kickback system,' Oz told a meeting hosted by Transparency-Rx, a coalition of smaller PBMs committed to more open pricing. The three largest companies in the industry, CVS Health Corp., UnitedHealth Group, and Cigna Group, handle about 80 percent of US prescriptions. Drug middlemen extract discounts from drugmakers in order to secure insurance coverage for medications. Drugmakers claim that pressure to give rebates to PBMs drives drug prices higher, while PBMs say they don't have control over setting drug prices. Oz suggested regulators and lawmakers could revamp the system 'fairly expeditiously, because there's a motivated group of people who want to do that.' Before the Trump administration regulates or Congress writes laws, Oz said it might be worth giving PBMs 'one last chance to fix it on their own.' Congress has considered bipartisan changes to how PBMs are paid in recent years, but none has become law yet. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
Advertisement
ECONOMY
Powell reiterates Fed's wait-and-see approach before cutting rates
The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve building in Washington, D.C.
Ting Shen/Bloomberg
Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, reaffirmed his view that the central bank can afford to be patient before cutting interest rates amid uncertainty about how President Trump's policies will impact the economy, despite a growing divide among officials about when and by how much to lower borrowing costs. Powell, who testified before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, said that the Fed was in no rush to take any policy action given that the labor market remains solid, inflation is still elevated, and price pressures appear poised to intensify as a result of Trump's tariffs. 'For the time being, we are well positioned to wait to learn more about the likely course of the economy before considering any adjustments to our policy stance,' Powell said, echoing a similar message sent last week after the Fed voted to hold rates steady for a fourth straight meeting. 'It's just a question about being prudent and careful,' he added during one exchange with a lawmaker. 'We don't see weakness in the labor market. If we did, that would change things.' He later told another lawmaker that if price pressures related to tariffs end up being less pronounced than feared, 'that'll matter for our policy.' — NEW YORK TIMES
Advertisement
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Anthropic wins ruling on AI training in copyright lawsuit but must face trial on pirated books
Claude, Anthropic's chatbot, accessed on a phone.
JACKIE MOLLOY/NYT
In a test case for the artificial intelligence industry, a federal judge has ruled that AI company Anthropic didn't break the law by training its chatbot Claude on millions of copyrighted books. But the company is still on the hook and must now go to trial over how it acquired those books by downloading them from online 'shadow libraries' of pirated copies. US District Judge William Alsup of San Francisco said in a ruling filed late Monday that the AI system's distilling from thousands of written works to be able to produce its own passages of text qualified as 'fair use' under US copyright law because it was 'quintessentially transformative.' 'Like any reader aspiring to be a writer, Anthropic's (AI large language models) trained upon works not to race ahead and replicate or supplant them — but to turn a hard corner and create something different,' Alsup wrote. But while dismissing a key claim made by the group of authors who sued the company for copyright infringement last year, Alsup also said Anthropic must still go to trial in December over its alleged theft of their works. 'Anthropic had no entitlement to use pirated copies for its central library,' Alsup wrote. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
AVIATION
US strikes on Iran add to global travel disruptions and flight cancellations
An Emirates Boeing 777 at the gate at Dubai International Airport.
Jon Gambrell/Associated Press
The US entry into Israel's war with Iran caused travel disruptions to pile up globally this week — with flight cancellations continuing Tuesday, even after President Trump claimed a cease-fire was 'in effect.' Following unprecedented bombings ordered by Trump on three Iranian nuclear and military sites over the weekend, Iran on Monday launched a limited missile attack on US forces at Qatar's Al Udeid Air Base. Qatar, which was quick to condemn the attack, had temporarily closed its airspace just over an hour earlier. Airports and skies throughout the region have been on edge since Israel began the deadly war on June 13 — with a surprise barrage of attacks on Iran, which responded with its own missile and drone strikes. And in the days following the escalatory US strikes, more and more carriers canceled flights, particularly in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which sit just across the Persian Gulf from Iran. After a cease-fire was announced between Israel and Iran, some of those disruptions eased. But the truce appeared to be on shaky ground Tuesday, with Trump accusing both countries of violating the agreement — and many airlines have halted select routes through the middle of the week, citing safety concerns. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
Advertisement
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Insider
11 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Anna Wintour is hiring at Vogue. Here's how to thrive when your boss used to have your job.
Whomever replaces Anna Wintour in running day-to-day operations at American Vogue will have some enormous stilettos to fill. That's partly because Wintour, who's 75, has been at the job for nearly four decades and is a legend in the business. It's also because whoever comes next will report to her. Wintour, who became Vogue's editor in chief in 1988, is giving up that role. However, she'll remain global editorial director at the magazine and chief content officer for its parent company, Condé Nast, the company said Thursday. Taking on a senior role, similar to the one Wintour vacated at Vogue, is often challenging, especially when the predecessor remains on hand, leadership experts told Business Insider. Incoming leaders are wise to signal that they want to make changes without abandoning what makes an organization work, said Kevin Groves, a professor of management at Pepperdine's Graziadio Business School. "We're preserving what's most important to us, while recognizing our environment has changed," he said. Here are three pieces of advice on taking over after a leader who looms large — and who might still be down the hall. Don't be impatient Stepping into this position successfully starts with indicating sincere interest in the role and prioritizing what's best for the organization, Nancy Ho, an executive coach based in Singapore, told BI. "You cannot be impatient and rush into it. It should not be seen like you're power-hungry or claiming a role prematurely," Ho said. Instead, she said, new leaders need to focus on understanding a company's culture and how they can position themselves as an asset to the organization. James Reed, CEO of the UK-based recruitment company Reed, said there is no harm in declaring to your boss that you are ambitious and aim to lead an organization, "even if you avoid explicitly saying you're after their job." "Ask what you need to learn and what more you can contribute to support them," Reed said. "Then they will be aware of your ambition but appreciate that you are seeking to help and learn from them rather than undermine them." Don't rock the boat too early Ho said it's important not to make drastic changes too soon upon getting the job. Ho recommended that the first step is acknowledging the good work done before them. Then, they should gain the team's trust by carefully working with them and making small, gradual changes to improve the organization's effectiveness. "When there's a certain buy-in, and people are more comfortable with a different leader, then you introduce changes," she said. Sabina Nawaz, a US-based CEO coach, said new leaders should not make changes for at least the first three months because the first thing to do after receiving the title is "to be curious." "Go on a listening tour, excavate the reasons behind decisions or actions, try to make sense of things from the perspective of others: given that they're smart and well-meaning, what did they have in mind when they acted this way," Nawaz said. Christian Tröster, a professor of leadership and organizational behavior at Germany's Kühne Logistics University, told BI that new leaders can demonstrate they're becoming part of the organization by being careful not to suggest that everything should change. "Because then you're showing that you are not like them, that you cannot be trusted," Tröster said. "Then you don't have the commitment of your employees to actually go with you." Tröster said that when an incoming leader would have to report to the person who held the post in the past, it's important to have a conversation about expectations. He said that while org charts are often clear, layers are often not always evident, including what relationships people have and who they tend to go to for advice. "I would try to make that visible," Tröster said. That way, he said, workers know who they're expected to go to and leaders and employees can agree to the arrangement. Don't be afraid to be different For those taking over a new role while their predecessor is still around — especially someone as "established and admired" as Anna Wintour, it's important to take advantage of your access to them, Amanda Augustine, a career coach at told BI via email. "Start the job as a sponge, learning what you can from your predecessor and other colleagues," she said, adding that it's important not to stay in information-gathering mode forever. Jochen Menges, a professor of leadership at the University of Zurich and the University of Cambridge, told BI that new leaders should "be different" and avoid trying to replicate the exact leadership style or strategy of the person they're replacing. "If they're too close, then they'll seem to be a copy, and then they can never live up," he said. When new bosses are different in some ways, Menges said, they can be "a leader in their own right."
Business Insider
4 hours ago
- Business Insider
M&A News: Nvidia (NVDA) Acquires AI Startup CentML
Chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) has acquired Toronto-based AI startup CentML, according to The Logic, which is a major win for the startup and its investors. Interestingly, LinkedIn profiles show that CentML CEO Gennady Pekhimenko has taken on a senior director role for AI software at Nvidia, while the startup's CTO and COO also joined in managerial positions. In total, at least 15 engineers and two interns from CentML have joined Nvidia this month, the report added. Confident Investing Starts Here: Easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks right to your inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter It is worth noting that CentML, founded in 2022, focused on helping companies run AI systems more efficiently by optimizing how models use hardware resources. The startup had raised about $30.9 million in venture capital, including a $27 million seed round that Nvidia participated in last year. CentML was also part of Nvidia's accelerator program and had already been collaborating with the tech giant before the acquisition. As a result of the move, the company will stop offering services by July 17, according to a message posted in CentML's Slack channel and on X. Unfortunately, not all CentML employees are making the move to Nvidia, as some roles were cut due to an 'organizational restructuring.' This included CentML dissolving its federal incorporation and re-registering under British Columbia law in early June. Meanwhile, Nvidia continues its upward momentum, with shares gaining nearly 17% year-to-date and rising again on Friday. With a market cap of about $3.78 trillion, analysts at Wedbush believe that Nvidia could hit $4 trillion this year and possibly reach $5 trillion within the next 18 months as the AI boom accelerates. What Is a Good Price for NVDA? Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on NVDA stock based on 35 Buys, four Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. Furthermore, the average NVDA price target of $175.28 per share implies 11.6% upside potential.
Business Upturn
6 hours ago
- Business Upturn
Sage Healthspan Launches AI-Powered, Privacy-First Wellness App to Bridge Critical Gaps in Preventative Healthcare
Orange County, California, June 27, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sage Healthspan, a California-based digital health company, announced its precision health app, now available for free on Apple's App Store. Designed to address notable shortcomings in modern healthcare delivery, Sage introduces a privacy-first, on-device artificial intelligence (AI) platform aimed at helping users interpret their blood work, monitor health trends, and optimize wellness without sacrificing data security. A Glimpse into Sage Healthspan Analytic Features In an era where preventative healthcare is increasingly prioritized, many individuals still lack access to timely, comprehensible, and actionable insights from their routine lab results. Sage Healthspan identified a persistent issue: although patients regularly undergo blood tests, most are only contacted if major abnormalities are flagged. This approach overlooks nuanced health patterns and early indicators of disease, leading to missed opportunities for early intervention. 'Instead of waiting for symptoms to appear, Sage empowers users to engage proactively with their health data,' said Megan Haas, Media and Communications Lead at Sage Healthspan. 'The AI platform helps transform routine lab work into structured insights, encouraging users to take control of their health trajectory in a secure, comprehensible, and private way.' Closing the Loop Between Data and Action Sage allows users to upload or photograph existing lab results directly from their Apple devices. The platform then interprets the data using local AI algorithms, never uploading personal information to the cloud, providing summaries, visualizations, and tailored recommendations. This includes suggestions for lifestyle adjustments, supplement considerations, or follow-up testing to support long-term wellness goals. Importantly, Sage differentiates itself by emphasizing a 'privacy-first' model. All health data remains on the user's device, enabling secure HIPAA-compliant analysis. In a climate where 78% of healthcare executives name cybersecurity as a top priority, Sage's on-device processing offers a practical alternative to cloud-based health apps. A Comprehensive Health Insight Engine Sage's AI generates insights across an extensive array of health and biomarker categories, including cardiometabolic health, inflammation, blood sugar, autoimmunity, nutrient status, thyroid health, kidney and liver function, and more. As users contribute additional data over time, Sage builds a personalized timeline, allowing for trend detection and wellness optimization rooted in longitudinal analysis. A unique feature of Sage's platform is its lab test ordering capability. Users can independently request advanced biomarkers that are often excluded from standard panels. These include cardiovascular indicators such as ApoB and Lp(a), fasting insulin and HOMA-IR for metabolic health, thyroid and sex hormone assessments, and nutritional markers like vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acid levels. The Growing Importance of Intelligent Health Analytics Recent studies show that 67% of patients report confusion over their lab results, with 61% struggling to understand medical terminology. Additionally, with primary care visits averaging only 15-18 minutes, providers have limited time to address complex, individualized wellness concerns. Sage Healthspan aims to complement, not replace, medical professionals by offering supportive tools that clarify and contextualize lab data for users. From a broader healthcare systems perspective, early detection is increasingly recognized as a critical cost-saver. Nearly 90% of the United States' annual $4.5 trillion healthcare expenditure is tied to chronic conditions. Sage's focus on biomarker-based early detection aligns with evolving industry goals: identifying risk before symptoms arise and enabling targeted, timely action. Positioning in the Era of Medicine 3.0 The emergence of AI in health represents a shift toward what experts call 'Medicine 3.0,' a paradigm that emphasizes prevention, personalization, and patient empowerment. Sage Healthspan embodies this transition. By integrating intelligent health analytics into everyday devices and eliminating the need for cloud computing, the company delivers accessible wellness insights while maintaining robust privacy protections. Sage Healthspan is currently available exclusively for iOS on Apple's App Store. Users are encouraged to begin by uploading pre-existing lab results to generate immediate health insights. For more information or to learn how Sage can support a wellness journey, visit About Sage Healthspan Sage Healthspan is a health technology company based in California focused on closing critical gaps in preventative healthcare. Through its privacy-first AI app, Sage empowers users to understand and act on their blood work, providing structured insights across a range of biomarkers to support health optimization and early detection. Sage's core mission is to make personalized wellness both accessible and secure. Sage Healthspan Logo Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with GlobeNewswire. Business Upturn takes no editorial responsibility for the same. Ahmedabad Plane Crash
