Investments and business

Atlanta’s debate over Flock Safety reflects national surveillance issues

Atlanta’s debate over Flock Safety reflects national surveillance issues

Audits, a proposed city ordinance and a push in Washington are testing the license plate reader maker in the city where it was founded. Flock Safety, the license plate reader company built in Atlanta, is under growing pressure at home. Residents are pushing back at public meetings, city leaders are drafting permanent rules and one of Georgia's U.S. senators is pressing for federal limits. The fight in Flock's hometown comes as the startup, valued at $7.5 billion in its last reported funding round, shrinks its workforce and loses customers elsewhere. Officials in all four of metro Atlanta's largest counties have…
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Binance resumes crypto withdrawals following record .3 billion theft

Binance resumes crypto withdrawals following record $6.3 billion theft

The exchange says it has replaced most of the stolen crypto from its own funds, but customers pulled out $3.6 billion more than they put in after the restart.Binance began letting customers pull crypto out again on Sunday, less than three days after attackers drained roughly $6.3 billion from the exchange's hot wallets. Investigators say it is the largest crypto theft on record. Within hours of the restart, customers had withdrawn billions more than they deposited, though the company says volumes settled after an initial spike.The world's leading cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume asserts that it has substituted roughly 95%…
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Understanding purchasing power differences across 10 global cities in 2024

Understanding purchasing power differences across 10 global cities in 2024

A high salary does not necessarily buy a comfortable life. What matters is how much a typical worker can afford after taxes and essential expenses, especially housing. On that basis, ten cities worth examining are Zurich, Basel, Bern, Geneva, Luxembourg City, San Jose, Seattle, Dallas, Houston, and Austin.This is a list of strong contenders, not a verified global ranking from first to tenth. City rankings change with exchange rates, rents, salary estimates, and whether health care or housing is included. They also depend on what “average salary” means: a mean can be pulled upward by a small number of very…
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Why commodity traders have the highest revenue per employee ratios globally

Why commodity traders have the highest revenue per employee ratios globally

Commodity traders dominate a practical list of companies with exceptionally high revenue per employee. They move enormous volumes of oil, gas, metals, and other goods with relatively small trading teams. Fuel distributors, refiners, and pharmaceutical wholesalers also rank highly because the value of the products they sell is large relative to their staffing.There is, however, no authoritative worldwide top 10. Private companies do not disclose headcounts consistently, financial years differ, and a company may report group-wide sales while citing a workforce figure that does not cover every subsidiary. The ranking below is an indicative comparison, using approximately 2024 revenue or…
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