Latest news with #economiclosses
New York Times
6 days ago
- New York Times
The Grand Canyon Fire Has North Rim Residents Wary of the Future
Melinda Rich Marshall pointed her white S.U.V. toward a billowing tower of smoke on Tuesday and gunned it down the now-empty roads leading to the charred North Rim of the Grand Canyon. A few days earlier, she had joined hundreds of tourists and seasonal employees who fled a wildfire roaring through the parched sagebrush and ponderosa pines. Now, she was headed back to check on the Jacob Lake Inn, her family's 102-year-old lodge just outside Grand Canyon National Park. 'We don't know how we'll pay our employees,' Ms. Marshall, 43, said, looking toward months or years of economic losses as the park rebuilds from one of the most destructive fires in its history. 'What do we do? How do we live?' Residents like Ms. Marshall, along with Arizona's political leaders, are asking why the Dragon Bravo fire, sparked by lightning on July 4, was allowed to burn for days in hot, dry conditions before it exploded beyond containment lines and tore through the heart of the North Rim. Some are also demanding to know whether the Trump administration's budget freezes and Forest Service layoffs could be playing a role, not just at the Grand Canyon but at fires raging around national parks in Colorado and Washington as well. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The Independent
11-07-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Wind turbine maker to pay settlement after blade broke apart and washed up on Nantucket beaches
The maker of a massive wind turbine blade that broke apart off Nantucket Island and washed up on beaches for months has agreed to a $10.5 million settlement to pay local businesses for their economic losses, officials said Friday. Fiberglass fragments of the blade began washing ashore last summer during the peak of tourist season after pieces of the wind turbine at the Vineyard Wind project began falling into the Atlantic Ocean in July 2024. GE Vernova, which agreed to the settlement, blamed a manufacturing problem at one of its factories in Canada and said there was no indication of a design flaw. It reinspected all blades made at the factory and removed other blades made there from the Vineyard Wind location. Crews in boats and on beaches, along with volunteers, collected truckloads of debris. The company said the debris was nontoxic fiberglass fragments and that the pieces were one square foot or smaller. The settlement calls for establishing a fund along with a process to evaluate claims from businesses and distribute payments, Nantucket officials said. The development's massive wind turbines with blades more than 328 feet (100 meters) long began sending electricity to the grid at the beginning of 2024.
The National
26-06-2025
- Business
- The National
Israel's economic losses as a result of Iran war estimated at $6bn
The total economic losses to Israel following the 12-day war with Iran are estimated at around $6 billion, with infrastructure hit particularly hard. The war is likely to cost Israel about 1 per cent of its gross domestic product, or about 20 billion shekels ($5.9 billion), Israel Central Bank Governor Amir Yaron told Bloomberg television. According to Naser Mufrej, professor of finance and economics at the Arab American University in Ramallah, along with heavy damage to property, the total losses also include revenue affected due to the brief closure of Israel's airspace as well as the impact on manufacturing and agriculture sectors. 'All productive sectors were affected heavily during the war,' Mr Mufrej told The National. Israel and Iran entered into a fragile ceasefire this week after days of attacking each other. The US also entered the war with a strike on Iran's nuclear sites, after which the President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire. The conflict began on June 13 when Israel launched a wave of strikes across Iran, killing senior military officials and hitting nuclear sites. Iran also launched retaliatory missile strikes on Israel, hitting a number of targets including residential buildings, a hospital and other infrastructure in Tel Aviv and other cities. Israel, which has also been attacking Gaza since October 2023, is expected to take a hit to economic growth this year, according to analysts. "Our forecast for 2025 [for Israel's economy] was downgraded from 3.3 per cent real GDP growth to 1.7 per cent real growth right after the military conflict began between Israel and Iran almost two weeks ago," Ralf Wiegert, head of Mena Economics at S&P Global Market Intelligence. "So a reduction of 1.6 percentage points is probably at the high end of the spectrum and could be reduced further as Israel is going back to full capacity over the next couple of days." Mr Wiegert also said that "replenishing the military arsenal will be more costly, which will increase the budget deficit in 2025 from the 5.7 per cent of GDP which we had projected previously". With missile strikes having damaged vital infrastructure, military spending will push the country's fiscal deficit from 5.5 per cent to 8.5 per cent of GDP, the International Institute of Finance said in a note. "Public debt will rise from 69 per cent to 74 per cent. Still, Israel's strong external position, ample reserves, and moderate debt burden offer resilience," it added. Before the war with Iran, the International Monetary Fund in its World Economic Outlook in April projected Israel's economy to grow 3.2 per cent this year. Rising compensation claims Israel's Tax Authority has been receiving thousands of compensation claims from affected people for damaged property and vehicles since the beginning of the war two weeks ago. As of Wednesday, it had received 41,651 claims, including 32,975 for structural damage, 4,119 for vehicle damage, and 4,456 for damage to contents and equipment. It is estimated that thousands of additional structures have been damaged, for which no claim has yet been submitted, according to the Israel Tax Authority website. Last week, Iran hit the Weizzman Institute, a major research institution in Israel, causing heavy damage to the building. It also hit the Bazan oil refinery complex in the port city of Haifa, damaging its infrastructure and shutting down its operations. The cost of property damages from the Iranian attacks is estimated to be around double the sum of claims stemming from the Hamas attack on October 7 and subsequent attacks in time since then, the head of the Tax Authority's compensation department told the Knesset finance committee on Monday. 'I believe that we'll reach 5 billion shekels ($1.47 billion) [in compensation],' Amir Dahan said at the time. 'These are amounts we have never seen in direct damage. The Weizmann Institute and Bazan are huge events. In total, we have 25 buildings for demolition; in comparison, from the start of the war until the round with Iran, there was one building for demolition."
Zawya
30-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
South Africa's infrastructure crippled: Can ISO 37001 fight back against the construction mafia?
Criminal syndicates known as the construction mafia have crippled South Africa's infrastructure sector, hijacking more than 180 projects and inflicting an estimated R63bn in economic losses, according to the National Treasury. Operating under the guise of community forums, these groups use intimidation, extortion, and violence to secure a foothold in government tenders and construction contracts. While law enforcement has begun to respond, 745 extortion cases have been reported, and 240 arrests have been made since November 2024. Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson admits that this is only the beginning. "We are turning the tide," he said recently, but warned that corruption remains deeply entrenched in procurement systems and local government supply chains. Against this backdrop, experts at WWISE (Worldwide Industrial and Systems Engineers) are calling for the widespread adoption of ISO 37001, a tool they believe could play a critical role in fortifying the sector from within. 'This may be South Africa's last line of defence if we want to build infrastructure without bribery or intimidation,' says Muhammad Ali, managing director at WWISE. 'ISO 37001 helps organisations embed ethical conduct into every stage of a project, from procurement to execution, making it harder for criminal networks to manipulate the system.' Global anti-bribery benchmark ISO 37001 is not just a policy; it's a globally recognised standard, or in other words, a formalised, best-practice framework developed by international experts to help organisations detect and prevent bribery. As a standard, ISO 37001 establishes a uniform, auditable benchmark for anti-bribery management across industries, enabling companies and governments to foster transparency, demonstrate accountability, and safeguard their reputations. 'The standard requires top-level leadership commitment, risk assessments, strict financial controls, and confidential reporting systems,' explains Ali. 'It doesn't just help companies avoid corruption, it actively reshapes their culture.' Corruption in the construction industry not only inflates costs but also endangers lives. Ali notes that criminal infiltration has led to shutdowns, missed milestones, and Service Level Agreement (SLA) penalties. 'We've seen cases where construction mafia threats delayed entire projects, with local authorities often turning a blind eye, or worse, getting a cut,' he says. Unchecked hiring hazards Van Zyl Krause, technical specialist at WWISE, warns that companies often feel forced to hire unqualified labour to avoid conflict. 'These so-called 'community contractors' are often unregistered, uninsured, and unsafe,' Krause says. 'That puts the principal contractor and everyone on site at risk, while forcing them to spend even more on private security.' ISO 37001 offers practical safeguards. It ensures that tender documents are traceable and auditable. It enforces ethical vetting of suppliers and enshrines whistleblower protection through encrypted systems. 'You can't bribe your way into a tender process governed by ISO 37001,' says Ali. Yet adoption of the standard remains frustratingly limited. 'Most construction companies in South Africa haven't implemented it,' Krause says. 'The only time we see ISO 37001 considered is when international investors require it.' Ali adds that public-sector resistance is particularly troubling. 'The fear is that ISO 37001 will expose misconduct,' he says. 'But that's the point. The excuses, 'too complex', 'too bureaucratic', don't hold water. This standard can be adapted to any organisation.' He points to a compelling case in Iraq, where a security company under attack from corrupt government officials used ISO 37001 to clear its name. 'The audits exposed the wrongdoing, and the officials were jailed. That's the power of a strong, standardised anti-bribery framework.' For smaller contractors, who are often the most vulnerable to extortion, ISO 37001 can provide an essential shield if supported by law enforcement. 'The problem may not be with the company,' Ali warns, 'but when it needs support, the authorities often fall short.' Standards drive reform WWISE urges companies to begin their journey with a Gap Assessment to identify risk areas, followed by a structured implementation process that includes internal training, documentation development, internal audits, and certification. 'This isn't a checkbox exercise,' says Ali. 'It's a roadmap to ethical business.' With billions at stake and a growing list of sabotaged projects, it's clear that arrests alone won't be enough. As Minister Macpherson rallies law enforcement, experts say South Africa must also rebuild its infrastructure sector from the inside out, with internationally recognised standards, such as ISO 37001, leading the way. 'If we don't change how we build,' says Ali, 'we'll keep rebuilding what criminals destroy.'
Bloomberg
27-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
How AI Could Change the Future of Weather Forecasts
Technology Explainer Weather forecasting helps industries avert billions in losses from extreme events, and AI could make predictions faster, cheaper and more accurate. Weather forecasting has gone through incremental but tremendous progress in past decades. By one metric, today's five-day forecast is now as accurate as a three-day forecast was in 2000. Entire ecosystems rely on weather forecasting, and any improvements — particularly as climate change heightens weather volatility — can help not just individuals to better manage risks, but also entire industries to avert billions in economic losses. In the US alone, an estimated one-third of the economy, or about $3 trillion, is sensitive to the weather and climate.
