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  • How rising bond yields impact American consumers

    How rising bond yields impact American consumers

    Across global financial markets, a quiet but transformative shift is unfolding: bond yields are on a steady upward trajectory, a trend that carries far more direct implications for ordinary American households than many realize. As explained by BBC financial correspondent Samira Hussain, the connection between surging bond yields and everyday consumer borrowing is far more intimate than most people understand, working its way through the financial system to push up the interest rates on two of the most common forms of borrowing in the U.S. – home mortgages and small business loans.

    Bond yields typically move in line with broader market expectations for economic growth, inflation, and shifts in central bank monetary policy. When investors grow more optimistic about future expansion or anticipate higher inflation ahead, they demand higher returns on fixed-income government and corporate bonds, pushing yields upward. This dynamic does not stay confined to Wall Street’s trading floors; it spills over into the consumer credit market rapidly. Mortgage lenders, for example, often price long-term home loan rates based on benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields. As those benchmark yields climb, lenders pass the higher borrowing costs they face directly to home buyers and homeowners looking to refinance.

    For small business owners seeking capital to expand operations, hire new staff, or cover day-to-day operational costs, the impact is equally tangible. Business loan interest rates are commonly tied to various benchmark bond yields, so a rise in these underlying metrics translates immediately to higher monthly payments for new and adjustable-rate loans. This can squeeze profit margins for small businesses, potentially slowing hiring plans and delaying expansion projects.

    While the impact is most acutely felt by consumers and business owners seeking new loans, even those with existing variable-rate borrowing products can see their interest costs climb in tandem with rising bond yields. The ongoing trend serves as a clear reminder that the complex movements of financial markets have direct, tangible impacts on the financial health of ordinary households across the United States.

  • Magazine that was 132 years overdue returned to US library

    Magazine that was 132 years overdue returned to US library

    A remarkable piece of library history has unfolded in Concord, New Hampshire, where a 19th-century publication checked out more than a century ago has finally found its way back to the shelves of Concord Public Library. The September 1894 issue of *The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine* was returned last week by a local resident named John, just weeks after the institution rolled out a sweeping 12-month amnesty program for overdue items.

    Calculations confirm the long-missing periodical was 48,220 days late when it arrived back at the library. Under the institution’s historic fine rules, that level of delay would have generated a staggering $12,055 (equivalent to roughly £8,950) in late fees. John, the anonymous patron who dropped off the magazine, told library staff the thin bound volume had sat in his home for decades, though he has no recollection of how it ended up in his possession in the first place.

    It was only after John read a report on the library’s new fine amnesty initiative in a local newspaper that he made the decision to return the long-overlooked item. Concord Public Library announced it would launch a year-long fine freeze starting September 1, 2026, as part of a pilot program to test the impact of operating a fully fine-free library service. The policy is designed to encourage overdue items to be returned without putting financial pressure on patrons who may have forgotten about long-held library materials.

    In a cheerful Facebook post announcing the unexpected return, library representatives shared their surprise at the age of the item that came back. “We’ve witnessed many happy faces since announcing our fine freeze,” the post read. “Of course, we expected long overdue books to be returned, but certainly not something from the late 19th century!”

    While the fragile 132-year-old magazine will not be put back into general circulation for patrons to borrow, library staff say it is likely to earn a permanent new home in the institution’s Concord Room, a special curated section dedicated to preserving regional and local historical artifacts. Thanks to the new amnesty policy, John walked away without having to pay the five-figure fine that would have been owed under the old system, marking a happy end to a century-plus library mystery.

  • OpenAI boss says world ‘right to be afraid’ but ‘should trust’ AI firms

    OpenAI boss says world ‘right to be afraid’ but ‘should trust’ AI firms

    The global conversation around artificial intelligence safety has erupted into a fierce public debate this week, pitting top tech leaders against one another over who should bear responsibility for mitigating the technology’s most catastrophic risks. The controversy was ignited by a viral social post from a departing Anthropic researcher last week, who claimed unregulated AI could wipe out the entire human race by the end of the 2020s. Though the explosive claim lacked concrete supporting evidence, it quickly won backing from a small group of AI experts and executives, amplifying long-simmering public anxiety about the rapid advance of generative AI tools.

    By Tuesday, the debate had moved to the annual conference hosted by enterprise software giant Salesforce in San Francisco, where OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, one of the most high-profile leaders in the current AI boom, laid out the industry’s case for self-governance. Speaking publicly for the first time since the viral claim circulated, Altman acknowledged that public fears over AI are not unfounded, given the stunning speed at which AI capabilities have outpaced early projections. “It doesn’t take as much imagination as it used to for [us] to imagine how this could go wrong,” Altman told the audience. “I think the world is right to be afraid of this.”

    Despite that concession, Altman argued that the world should place its trust in private AI companies like OpenAI to steer the technology toward responsible outcomes. He expressed unwavering confidence that the industry can proactively manage safety risks, keep alignment work ahead of capability gains, and voluntarily slow or halt development if threats emerge that cannot be mitigated. “We will get it right, I’m very confident in our company’s and industry’s ability to do this safely,” he said.

    Altman is far from alone in pushing back against new government regulations. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg echoed his position in a post on X Wednesday, arguing that every AI lab already has both the ability and the built-in incentive to prioritize safety. Any company that fails to invest in safe, aligned AI will fall behind competitors, Zuckerberg noted, adding that labs already face significant legal liability if their models cause public harm. At the same Salesforce conference, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang — whose company currently dominates the market for AI computing chips and has seen its valuation surge to record heights amid the AI boom — went a step further, stating flatly that “we don’t need new laws or regulations.” Huang framed AI safety as an engineering challenge, not a policy problem, arguing that individual company leaders should be the ones to decide whether new AI models are ready for release. He rejected the idea that innovation and safety must be traded off against one another: “Run as fast as you can, but if at any time you feel the institution is not in control, take a pause.”

    Not everyone in the industry agrees that leaving AI entirely in the hands of private companies to self-regulate is a responsible path. Anthropic co-founder and executive Jack Clark warned earlier this week that letting AI develop as a totally unregulated industry amounts to “rolling dice with immense risks.” Patrick Hillman, chief operating officer of Logical Intelligence — an AI firm chaired by pioneering AI researcher Yann LeCun — echoed that skepticism Tuesday, pointing out that public trust in Silicon Valley is already even lower than trust in the U.S. government. “The only institution that Americans might trust less than Washington these days is Silicon Valley,” Hillman said. “I have worked and lived in both and I assure you both have earned this scepticism.” He challenged industry leaders who claim AI poses existential risks to match their warnings with tangible action to slow risky development.

    In response to growing pressure, top AI firms including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind have begun informal industry-wide discussions to establish voluntary safety standards and pre-release testing protocols for cutting-edge, or frontier, AI models. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who previously called for a global slowdown in AI development to allow for better safety guardrails, confirmed Tuesday that his company is in active dialogue with other major labs to formalize shared safety commitments. Amodei noted that one of the most unexpected outcomes of the AI boom has been how quickly private AI companies have grown and become central to critical global infrastructure, a shift that few industry insiders anticipated even five years ago.

    OpenAI executive Chris Lehane confirmed last week that the work toward voluntary industry standards is moving forward “with or without government support,” arguing that with such high stakes, it would be wrong to delay progress while waiting for policymakers to draft new rules. “With stakes this high, we cannot let the perfect become the enemy of the good,” Lehane said. Some observers have also pushed back on the latest wave of AI alarmism, arguing that resurgent fears of human extinction are overblown and are being leveraged to generate unnecessary hype for the booming industry. During his San Francisco appearance, Altman urged business leaders to embrace AI tools to boost productivity, while also noting that AI will be a critical defense against emerging AI-powered cyber threats to global businesses.

  • Watch: Republican senator presses Kash Patel on bestiality in bizarre exchange

    Watch: Republican senator presses Kash Patel on bestiality in bizarre exchange

    A viral video clip has captured a highly unusual and tense exchange during a United States Senate hearing, where a Republican senator pressed former senior Trump administration official Kash Patel over a little-noticed change to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s hiring guidelines that has sparked heated debate.

    At the center of the controversy is an update to the FBI’s hiring eligibility criteria that now allows individuals with prior convictions or admissions of bestiality to be considered for open roles at the federal law enforcement agency. The policy revision, which has drawn little public attention until now, became the focus of sharp questioning during the recent testimony.

    Patel, who was appearing before the committee to discuss a range of law enforcement and agency oversight issues, was unexpectedly confronted with questions about the updated hiring rule. In his response during the exchange, Patel defended the FBI’s revised framework, arguing that the policy is designed to give conditional second chances to applicants while still retaining agency oversight to assess each candidate on a case-by-case basis. He noted that the policy does not grant automatic approval to all applicants with this type of offense, and that thorough background checks and risk assessments are still conducted to ensure candidates meet the strict standards required for law enforcement work.

    The Republican senator leading the questioning pushed back sharply on the change, questioning how allowing individuals with a history of bestiality to serve in the FBI aligns with the agency’s core mission of public trust and upholding the rule of law. The awkward, off-topic exchange quickly went viral on social media platforms, with commentators and members of the public weighing in on both sides of the debate. Some have criticized the policy change as a step that erodes public confidence in the FBI, while others argue that the case-by-case approach balances fairness with public safety, aligning with broader criminal justice reform efforts that aim to reduce lifelong barriers to employment for people with past non-violent offenses.

    The FBI has not yet issued an additional public statement clarifying the full scope of the policy change beyond what was included in the original updated hiring guidelines released earlier this year.

  • Maduro ally pleads guilty in $195m money laundering case in US court

    Maduro ally pleads guilty in $195m money laundering case in US court

    More than four months after his extradition from Venezuela to face US prosecution, former close ally of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has entered a guilty plea to federal money laundering charges in a Miami courtroom, in a deal that requires him to forfeit nearly $200 million in illicit gains and cooperate fully with American investigators. The surprise development has thrown the much-anticipated 2025 trial of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores into a new phase of speculation, as legal observers weigh whether Saab will become a star prosecution witness against his former boss.

    Fifty-four-year-old Alex Saab, a Colombian-born businessman who rose to prominence as a top official within Maduro’s government, struck the plea agreement with federal prosecutors on Tuesday, reversing his previous stance of fighting all charges brought against him. According to court documents, the deal mandates that Saab surrender $195 million in assets linked to his alleged criminal activity and requires him to provide complete, truthful testimony to US law enforcement. While the agreement does not explicitly name Maduro or the upcoming New York case against him, it includes a clause requiring Saab to refrain from shielding any other individual through false statements or intentional omissions of information. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Saab now faces a maximum penalty of 20 years behind bars.

    The charges against Saab stem from allegations that he embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars from a Venezuelan government welfare program designed to feed food-insecure citizens amid the country’s years-long political and economic collapse, which has left millions struggling with chronic shortages of basic food supplies and critical medicine. Prosecutors claim Saab then laundered a portion of these stolen funds through US financial institutions, opening and using hidden bank accounts to move the illicit proceeds. In comments following the plea announcement, FBI Director Kash Patel emphasized the agency’s commitment to holding corrupt actors accountable, noting that individuals who exploit American financial systems to enable criminal activity will face consequences.

    This is not the first time Saab has faced US criminal prosecution. In 2020, he was extradited to the US to face separate money laundering charges connected to an alleged scheme to siphon $350 million from Venezuelan public funds. That case took an unexpected turn in 2023, when then-President Joe Biden granted Saab clemency as part of a high-profile prisoner swap between the US and Venezuela. Following the 2023 deal, Saab returned to Venezuela and was photographed publicly alongside Maduro, appearing as a free man just a few years ago.

    That changed earlier this year, however, following a dramatic January military raid in Caracas that resulted in the capture of Maduro and Flores. The pair are currently scheduled to go on trial next year in New York, where they face charges related to drug trafficking and weapons trafficking – charges both have repeatedly denied. In May, Venezuela’s interim acting President Delcy Rodriguez approved Saab’s extradition to the US to face the current money laundering charges. Legal analysts now widely speculate that Saab’s cooperation agreement will position him to provide critical firsthand testimony against Maduro when the former president’s trial gets underway, though no official confirmation of this has emerged from prosecutors. As the case progresses, the international community continues to watch closely, as the outcome could reshape the already turbulent political landscape of Venezuela.

  • Pennsylvania officials report fourth measles-associated death in ‘surge’ of cases

    Pennsylvania officials report fourth measles-associated death in ‘surge’ of cases

    The United States is facing its most severe measles outbreak in decades, with a fourth death now confirmed in Pennsylvania, according to state public health officials. The latest fatality, an 18-year-old from Mifflin County, died from acute encephalomyelitis, a rare and life-threatening neurological complication triggered by the highly contagious measles virus, local coroner officials confirmed.

    So far in 2025, Pennsylvania has recorded more than 600 confirmed measles cases, with the vast majority concentrated in Lancaster County. All four recent deaths in the state are tied to the ongoing outbreak: two unvaccinated adults — the 18-year-old and a 40-year-old woman who died of measles-induced respiratory failure last week — and two infants. Public health protocols recommend children receive their first dose of the combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine at 12 months of age, meaning young infants are not yet eligible for protection. Local coroners and state health officials have verified that both infant deaths were directly linked to measles complications: one six-week-old child, born with the rare genetic condition Amish lethal microcephaly, died from measles infection in mid-August, while a second infant died after a measles-caused enlarged spleen ruptured, leading to fatal internal bleeding.

    Once declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000 through widespread successful vaccination programs, measles has made a devastating comeback in recent years. This year alone, the country has seen the highest number of measles deaths since the 1990s. In 2024, an outbreak centered in Texas’ Mennonite community claimed three lives, including two children. Public health experts universally attribute this resurgence to rising vaccine hesitancy across the country, which has driven immunization rates below the 95% threshold required to maintain herd immunity — the level of vaccination needed to stop sustained community spread of the virus.

    The rising death toll has sparked open political tension between Pennsylvania’s Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro and U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic. Shapiro has publicly accused Kennedy of spreading dangerous misinformation about MMR vaccines, and confirmed he would withhold personal details about the deceased from the top federal health official to protect victim families’ privacy. Kennedy has cast doubt on official findings that the two infant deaths were caused by measles, claiming the deaths were due to unrelated preexisting conditions and accusing Shapiro of political grandstanding.

    Following the public dispute, Pennsylvania’s Department of Health released a statement defending its death investigations, noting that it had conducted rigorous joint reviews with local coroner offices to confirm each death was measles-related. “These investigations included confirming clinical evidence of a measles infection, a positive laboratory test, and that the death was not due to an unrelated cause,” the department said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has so far declined to update its national death count pending completion of formal reviews, a position Kennedy has cited to back his questioning of the state’s findings.

    A November review by global health bodies will decide whether the U.S. will officially lose its measles elimination status, a designation Canada lost in 2024. Kennedy, who has led a major overhaul of U.S. vaccine policy since taking office, has faced widespread condemnation from public health experts who argue his ambiguous and often critical messaging around the safe, effective MMR vaccine has undermined national efforts to contain the growing outbreak. While Kennedy has acknowledged that the worsening measles crisis is a global issue, telling a Senate committee last month that “the whole world had their worst measles year,” critics say his policy changes and anti-vaccine rhetoric have accelerated the outbreak in the U.S.

  • Why is Donald Trump so opposed to regulating AI?

    Why is Donald Trump so opposed to regulating AI?

    A sharp divide has emerged in American discourse around artificial intelligence development, with former US president Donald Trump taking a public stance opposing new regulations on the rapidly evolving technology – a position that directly clashes with calls from top AI sector leaders to slow development pacing to address global risks.

    BBC North America editor Sarah Smith has centered analysis on unpacking the roots of this contradiction, exploring the political and strategic calculations that have shaped Trump’s unexpected position. For months, a growing cohort of the technology’s most prominent pioneers – including executives and researchers behind the world’s most advanced AI systems – have pushed for targeted policy guardrails, warning that unconstrained advancement could pose severe existential and economic risks to global populations if not managed carefully.

    Against that backdrop, Trump’s rejection of new regulation has raised questions among political and tech observers alike. Political analysts point to two core potential drivers for the stance: first, a long-standing Republican priority of limiting federal government overreach into private sector innovation, a core campaign and governing plank that aligns with the party’s traditional pro-business, deregulatory platform. Second, observers note that Trump has positioned himself as a supporter of American technological competitiveness, arguing that heavy regulation would put the US at a disadvantage against global rivals like China, which has rapidly expanded its own AI research and development capabilities in recent years.

    Smith’s reporting highlights that the split underscores deeper tensions competing priorities in the AI policy space: between the need to mitigate growing risks associated with advancing AI capabilities, and the desire to maintain American leadership in what is widely expected to be the defining technology of the 21st century. The rift also illustrates how AI policy has quickly become a new fault line in US partisan politics, with competing visions for how the government should engage with the rapidly evolving sector.

  • Watch: What does the munitions shortage mean for the US?

    Watch: What does the munitions shortage mean for the US?

    A growing gap between munitions consumption and stockpiles has emerged as a critical point of concern for U.S. national defense planners, following the sustained operational tempo of the Pentagon’s Operation Epic Fury. In a detailed on-the-ground analysis, BBC senior diplomatic correspondent Gary O’Donoghue has investigated how ongoing combat operations under this initiative are draining existing weapons stockpiles, and what cascading effects this depletion could have on the United States’ ability to respond to new global security threats.

    For months, Operation Epic Fury has demanded a steady, high-volume output of artillery rounds, precision-guided missiles, and small-arms ammunition to support frontline operations. This sustained rate of use has outpaced current U.S. defense manufacturing capacity, leading to a measurable drawdown of stockpiles that were previously maintained as a strategic reserve for potential conflict contingencies. O’Donoghue’s reporting explores the bottlenecks that have slowed domestic production: ranging from stretched supply chains for critical raw materials to longstanding underinvestment in munitions manufacturing infrastructure that was scaled back in the years following the end of large-scale counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

    The core question driving this analysis centers on military readiness: if the U.S. were to face an unexpected large-scale conflict in another region while current operations continue, would the depleted munition reserves leave American forces at a critical disadvantage? Defense analysts interviewed in the reporting note that the current shortage is not an immediate crisis, but it highlights long-term structural vulnerabilities in how the U.S. plans and sustains its defense industrial base. The issue has also sparked growing debate in Congress over whether additional funding is needed to expand production capacity and rebuild strategic stockpiles to match evolving global security demands.

  • US borrowing costs hit highest level since 2007

    US borrowing costs hit highest level since 2007

    U.S. government borrowing costs have surged to their highest peak since 2007, as a sharp spike in global crude prices amplifies widespread market anxiety over persistent inflation. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield, a key metric that determines interest rates for consumer and business loans across the economy, briefly climbed to 5.04% this week before pulling back to slightly lower levels.

    This upward momentum in government bond yields is not isolated to the United States; markets across the globe have seen yields climb for months. The root of the trend traces back to escalating geopolitical instability in the Middle East, which ignited after the outbreak of conflict between Israel and Iran-linked groups. The unrest has stoked fears that oil supply chains could be disrupted, pushing crude prices sharply higher and creating new upward pressure on inflation. In response to the rapid yield growth, the U.S. Treasury Department conducted bond buyback operations designed to cool the market and pull borrowing costs down. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has characterized the regulatory intervention as successful so far.

    Oil market volatility has been particularly pronounced: the global Brent crude benchmark, the worldwide standard for wholesale oil pricing, jumped from roughly $86 per barrel at the end of August to over $109 per barrel on Tuesday. The sharp increase comes as heightened regional tensions raise questions about Saudi Arabia’s capacity to maintain consistent export volumes, adding a fresh layer of uncertainty to energy markets.

    Market participants widely expect the U.S. Federal Reserve to respond to oil-fueled inflation by implementing another interest rate hike in the coming months. Economic logic holds that higher inflation and higher benchmark interest rates both push up the yields that bond investors require to compensate for the increased risk of holding government debt. Beyond inflation and interest rate expectations, rising yields also signal weakening investor confidence in government fiscal stability, as higher yields are demanded to offset perceived risk. A new, underreported factor is also contributing to the trend: growing competition for capital from cash-hungry artificial intelligence firms is drawing investment away from government bonds, pushing the yields that issuers must offer even higher.

    Carol Schleif, chief market strategist at BMO Wealth Management, noted that bond markets have been signaling for weeks that sustained higher interest rates will likely be necessary to bring inflation under control. While she acknowledged that the rise in borrowing costs has proceeded in an orderly fashion this year, rather than spiking in a chaotic sudden shift, she warned that interest rates and borrowing costs are likely to stay elevated if geopolitical tensions and high energy prices remain top of mind for investors.

  • Watch: Sanders calls for US and China to work together in banning AI superintelligence

    Watch: Sanders calls for US and China to work together in banning AI superintelligence

    On a recent gathering in the heart of Washington D.C., independent U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders anchored a pro-humanity rally focused on one of the 21st century’s most pressing technological risks: unregulated advanced artificial intelligence. In remarks delivered to assembled attendees, the long-time progressive policy leader issued a clear call for coordinated global action, singling out the need for the world’s two largest technology and economic powers – the United States and China – to set aside geopolitical differences and jointly spearhead an international agreement to ban the development of AI superintelligence.

    Sanders framed the rally’s pro-human agenda around a core argument: that unchecked advancement of superintelligent systems – AI that would outperform human cognition across all domains, including strategic planning and scientific innovation – poses an existential threat not just to national economies, but to the very future of human self-determination. Unlike targeted workplace automation that has already disrupted labor markets, Sanders emphasized, superintelligence crosses a critical threshold that leaves open the possibility of outcomes that humanity cannot control or reverse.

    The call for bilateral collaboration between Washington and Beijing marks a departure from the increasingly strained diplomatic and technological rivalry between the two nations, which has seen both sides invest heavily in advancing AI capabilities for economic and military advantage. Sanders’ push for cooperation comes amid a growing, but fragmented, global conversation about AI governance, with many experts divided on the need for bans on advanced systems versus incremental regulatory frameworks. The senator’s rally served to elevate the most extreme risk scenarios into mainstream U.S. political discourse, putting pressure on policymakers to prioritize cross-border cooperation over unilateral competition in AI development.