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(Reuters) – Google will clearly label medical facilities in the United States that provide abortions in its search results and in Google Maps to avoid confusing them with anti-abortion centers, its top executive informed lawmakers on Thursday.

When users search for “abortion clinics near me”, the results box will display facilities verified to provide abortions, said Mark Isakowitz, vice president for government affairs and public policy for US and Canada at Google, in a letter to Senator Mark Warner and Representative Elissa Slotkin. (https://bit.ly/3CFFQoO)

The tech giant will also allow people to broaden their search to show other relevant listings, including from organizations that do not provide abortions, Isakowitz said.

Google’s response follows a letter dated June 17 from Warner and Slotkin urging Alphabet Inc Chief Executive Sundar Pichai to prevent misleading Google search results that directed users to anti-abortion centers.

About half of U.S. states have or are expected to seek to ban or curtail abortions following Roe’s reversal. The states, which include Idaho, Texas and 11 others, have adopted “trigger” laws banning abortion upon such a decision.

(Reporting by Leroy Leo in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

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By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Global shipping container suppliers China International Marine Containers and Maersk Container Industry in a joint statement on Thursday said they have abandoned a merger plan, citing significant regulatory challenges.

China International Marine Containers (CIMC) in September had agreed to buy the Danish shipping company AP Moeller – Maersk’s refrigerated containers maker for $987.3 million.

The U.S. Justice Department said the deal would have combined two of the world’s four suppliers of refrigerated shipping containers and further concentrated the global cold supply chain.

The Justice Department said it “would also have consolidated control of over 90% of insulated container box and refrigerated shipping container production worldwide in Chinese state-owned or state-controlled entities.”

Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, who heads the Justice Department’s antitrust division, said the acquisition could have led to “higher prices, lower quality, and less resiliency in global supply chains” and “would have cemented CIMC’s dominant position in an already consolidated industry and eliminated MCI as an innovative, independent competitor.”

Germany’s Federal Cartel Office said in December it also had opened an investigation into the effects the takeover of Maersk Container Industry (MCI) by CIMC could have on markets.

Maersk said it was “unfortunate” the deal would not move forward, adding it “will now assess the best structural set-up to ensure the long-term development of the business.”

Founded by Maersk in 1991, MCI employs 2,300 people in China and Denmark.

(Reporting by David ShepardsonEditing by Bill Berkrot)

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MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — Facebook parent Meta says it has removed a network of accounts linked to the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group it banned in 2018.

Meta said on Thursday that it recently uncovered and removed about 480 Facebook and Instagram accounts, pages and groups linked to the Proud Boys. That brought the total number of Proud Boys assets it has removed to around 750 this year, it said.

Although the group has been banned from Meta’s platforms, the company said it has seen repeated attempts by its members at evading the ban. People behind the efforts are not identifying themselves as Proud Boys openly, creating front groups and using Facebook or Instagram to steer people to other, less moderated platforms, it said.

Such tactics are commonly used by extremist groups and those spreading misinformation as they try to evade social media companies’ crackdowns.

While the Proud Boys and other extremist groups have at times found homes on smaller internet platforms that cater to right-wing audiences, none come close to the reach of Meta’s properties, where they can recruit members more easily.

The former leader of the Proud Boys and other members of the group were charged this summer with attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and four others were charged with seditious conspiracy for what authorities say was a plot to forcibly oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power during the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

The seditious conspiracy indictment alleges that the Proud Boys held meetings and communicated over encrypted messages to plan for the attack in the days leading up to Jan. 6. On the day of the riot, Proud Boys members carried out a coordinated plot to storm past police barricades and attack the building with a mob of Trump supporters, the indictment says.

The trial is scheduled to start on Dec. 12.

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By Swati Verma

(Reuters) – Texas’ electric grid operator has powered through record demand this summer by paying more to keep higher reserves and rewarding industrial consumers to cut usage, a combination that has added more than $1 billion to power fees.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has set new demand records 11 times this summer and twice asked consumers to turn up their thermostats in a season where demand approached 80,000 megawatts (MW). It had forecast peak summer demand earlier this year of 77,733 MW in January.

Graphic: ERCOT broke demand records 11 times in 2022 summer

Staving off a blackout became a priority after a February 2021 cold spell killed over 200 people, left millions of Texas homes and businesses without heat and power, and sent wholesale prices soaring.

The measures also reflect political danger of another outage. Governor Greg Abbott, who appoints utility commissioners, this fall is facing his toughest reelection challenge in years.

The grid operator, which oversees provision of power to more than 26 million customers, has revamped its approach of raising the prices paid for power as demand nears the limit of available reserves. This year, it added 50% to what it keeps as a safety margin, increasing costs.

The state’s Independent Market Monitor (IMM), which provides a check on the ERCOT’s operations, recently estimated the higher level of safety reserves has cost $1 billion during the first seven months of 2022.

“ERCOT has brought generators online to achieve reserves that the current market does not support or to provide power at higher demand times when expected renewable energy has been unavailable,” said Michele Richmond, executive director of the Texas Competitive Power Advocates, an association representing power companies.

“When those generators are needed for reliability and are called online through conservative operations, the higher fuel costs are ultimately paid by consumers with no ability on the part of either retail electric providers or large and sophisticated consumers to hedge the costs.”

A side effect of the higher safety margin is the costs of running generators when not fully needed are reflected in service costs passed along to all providers. These ancillary service costs amounted to $350 million in the first five months this year.

ERCOT defends the higher safety margin as needed to meet forecast demand and says the ancillary services fees are paid for by companies utilizing its management services, not consumers.

“ERCOT does not determine how and when adjustments are made to rate payers,” ERCOT spokeswoman Trudi Webster said.

Grid costs this year have also risen the mismatch between where power in the state is plentiful and to where it is most needed and supplies dear. Providers in Houston earlier this year were paying $4,000 per megawatt hour compared to negative prices 150 miles (241 km) away.

These congestion costs amounted to $2.1 billion through July, compared with $2.1 billion for all of last year, the state’s IMM estimated.

Graphic: ERCOT’s real-time congestion costs already hit $2.1 billion at the end of July

The growth in the state’s renewable generation in areas lacking sufficient transmission capacity and higher gas prices paid by thermal power plans account for much of the increase in congestion costs, said Morris Greenberg, senior manager, North America power analytics, S&P Global Commodity Insights.

ERCOT primarily relies on higher-cost natural gas for its power generation and soaring prices of the fuel, up more than 150% so far this year, have added to price pressures.

(Reporting by Swati Verma in Bengaluru; editing by Gary McWilliams and Nick Zieminski)

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By Arriana McLymore

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Inflation-weary U.S. shoppers have been skimping on clothing purchases, prompting retailers to slash prices to clear inventory off the racks.

Gap was the latest retailer to report a slump in apparel shopping for the second-quarter, saying on Thursday that net sales slumped 8% from a year earlier to $3.86 billion. Earlier this month, executives at U.S. giants Walmart and Target offered deep discounts and rollbacks on clothing.

Gap is “taking actions to sequentially reduce inventory, rebalance our assortments to better meet changing consumer needs,” Katrina O’Connell, Gap Inc. chief financial officer, said in a statement.

Deep discounts on apparel, especially at Old Navy, hurt the company’s margins. Old Navy stores were not able to sell certain sizes and styles, while Gap struggled with mix imbalances. Shoppers may see more promotions as the company keeps clearing inventory.

Sales at U.S. apparel and accessory retailers have largely flatlined. Over the 12-months through July they averaged month-over-month growth of just 0.2%, according to Census Bureau data.

This week, Victoria’s Secret, Urban Outfitters and Kohl’s told analysts in conference calls that shoppers are only buying certain types of garments. The companies gave no specific examples but a search of the Victoria’s Secret website showed Victoria’s Secret shoppers buying bras on sale at two-for-$52, while its PINK line for younger shoppers appeared to have trouble moving a $52.95 pair of joggers.

Urban Outfitters and Victoria’s Secret said sales are declining for brands tailored to younger consumers. Victoria’s Secret’s PINK line saw strained clothing sales compared to the company’s Victoria brand of intimates and sleepwear.

“We will be very prudent on our purchases” of apparel “for the back half of the year,” Victoria’s Secret Chief Executive Martin Waters said during the company’s earnings call Thursday.

Urban Outfitters’s young, less-affluent shoppers held off from purchasing full-priced items and waited “for promotions before buying,” Urban’s CEO Richard Hayne said on Tuesday.

Kohl’s said sales slipped for junior’s apparel in the second quarter because designs were “too much fashion, not enough of the basics.” Women’s apparel outperformed other categories.

“Some of the fashion choices were a little too young, I would say. That’s been course-corrected,” Kohl’s CEO Michelle Gass said on a Tuesday earnings call. “I’d say one of the things that has hurt us is with all (the) supply chain disruption that’s happened, we were not able to get in and out of some of those items.”

Walmart and Target both struggled to sell apparel that arrived a few seasons late, and are aggressively cutting prices. Target said last week that one bright spot was “meaningful growth” in sales of trendy women’s clothing.

Jessica Ramírez, senior research analyst at Jane Hali and Associates, said she has noticed heavy discounts on Gap and Old Navy labels, while the higher-end Banana Republic brand, which sells dressy office-wear, has sold more garments at regular prices.

Macy’s and Kohl’s said demand was solid for dressy-looks and work-ready clothing. Kohl’s said women’s and men’s “elevated casual” styles outperformed as more people returned to work. It has been investing in dressy styles from brands including Simply Vera, Lauren Conrad and Nine West, for customers who are working in offices more often. Still, it is planning clearance events to move unwanted items.

Macy’s CEO Jeffrey Gennette said on the company’s earnings call on Tuesday that occasion-based clothing in men’s and women’s are “very healthy categories” with men’s work clothing average selling prices increasing 29% and “missy career” items up 20%. Other categories have required heavy promotions to unload excess inventory.

(Reporting by Arriana McLymore in New York; Additional reporting by Dan Burns in New York and Sophie Yu in Beijing; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and David Gregorio)

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(Reuters) -Gap Inc beat revenue estimates on Thursday on strong sales at its Banana Republic division, but withdrew its annual forecasts as the apparel chain struggles with an inventory build-up and tepid demand for outdated Old Navy items.

People have been opting for suits, dresses and skirts over casual wear as they venture out for social events, to offices, and travel more, with demand for affordable luxury which Banana Republic specializes in staying firm.

Gap said sales trends improved in July and into August, coinciding with a drop in gas prices, sending its shares up 6% in extended trading.

Second-quarter net sales of $3.86 billion topped Wall Street expectations of $3.82 billion, buoyed by a 9% jump in sales at Banana Republic, even as Gap struggled to sell out-of-fashion clothes at Old Navy.

U.S. apparel retailers including Kohl’s and Abercrombie & Fitch have warned of steep discounts to offload excess inventory of casual wear, which were popular during the height of the pandemic.

“Our elevated inventory and pressured margins are current realities against unsettled market conditions,” Gap Executive Chairman Bob Martin said.

The company, which recorded an inventory impairment charge of $58 million, said stocks at the end of the second quarter were 37% higher from a year earlier.

The owner of Athleta brand, which is in the midst of a CEO transition after Sonia Syngal stepped down last month, said it would open up to 30 Old Navy stores this year, compared with a prior expectation of up to 40 new stores.

Gap in May had forecast fiscal 2022 adjusted earnings per share between 30 cents and 60 cents and revenue to decline in low- to mid-single digit percentage.

(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)

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For Nick Marcil, the cancellation of $10,000 of his student loans could mean at last moving out of his parents’ house.

Marcil, 24, studied at a Pennsylvania state college, earned scholarships and worked jobs while pursuing degrees in education but still owed $18,000 before Wednesday’s action by the Biden administration to erase some student loans.

“I feel like if I don’t have that burden, I’d be more likely to, you know, try to move out — try to have, you know, my own place,” said Marcil, who lives in a Philadelphia suburb.

For borrowers like Marcil — including millions whose entire debt will be wiped out — the decision means new freedom to move, start a family or keep a low-paying but fulfilling job. But for many others, the long-awaited plan brings bitterness and frustration.

Many student borrowers feel left out, perhaps because they didn’t qualify for federal loans and had to rely on private loans, which won’t be forgiven. Other Americans resent the break current debtors will receive because they already paid off their debts, worked to avoid college loans or oppose the move on philosophical grounds.

Then there are the systemic effects. Some inflation-watchers worry new spending power for borrowers will drive up prices even more. The loan forgiveness is estimated to cost the government more than $300 billion, according to an analysis from the Penn Wharton Budget Model. And the relief does nothing to address the ballooning cost of college.

Frustration may be greatest for the more than half a million people owing upwards of $200,000 in federal loans. For those borrowers, $10,000 to $20,000 seems out-of-touch with the exorbitant cost of American higher education. Average in-state college tuition last year cost more than $10,000, and the average private college charged $37,000 a year.

Christian Smith, 32, will owe more than $60,000 when she finishes her undergraduate degree at the University of Colorado Denver next year. That’s roughly equivalent to her household’s annual income. “It’s overwhelming,” she said.

Smith, who works full time doing student outreach for the Young Invincibles, a nonprofit that advocates for college students and young people, estimates that she and her partner will both pay a combined $900 a month to service their student loans once she graduates.

“We talk about buying a house, but it just doesn’t seem like anything I’ll ever be able to do,” she said.

Having a child also feels painfully out of reach. Smith plans to put off motherhood until she’s paid off her school debt.

“I was poor growing up, and I don’t want that for my child,” she said. “I don’t want to say you can’t attend that field trip or you have to wear hand-me-down clothes that the other children make fun of.”

If President Joe Biden had chosen to relieve more student debt, it would have a bigger impact, she said, especially for Black women like her. Statistics show they hold a larger share of student debt than white graduates because they don’t have family wealth to help finance their education.

“If he had erased my debt, I’d pull out my Mirena tomorrow,” she said, referring to her contraceptive device.

Dallas attorney Adwoa Asante borrowed $147,000 in federal loans to attend Emory University School of Law. She graduated in 2015 and has since paid back about $15,000. With interest, she still owes $162,000 — a debt that she says has limited her career options.

Asante, who is Black, said that $10,000 of forgiveness is “better than nothing,” but complete forgiveness would go much further to improve the wealth gap between Black and white Americans.

“If the Biden administration or any governmental administration is concerned about equity, then it just doesn’t make sense to make people who can’t afford it take out money to be able to go to school,” she said.

While $10,000 or even $20,000 doesn’t seem like enough for many indebted Americans, it’s too much for some student borrowers who see the scheme as an unnecessary burden on taxpayers.

“It took both of my parents years to pay off their college debt, and now they’re being told that if they had just waited for a little while it simply would’ve vanished,” said George Washington University student Jackson Hoppe, 19.

Hoppe has his own federal student loans and expects to owe about $18,000 by the time he’s done with his degree. But he doesn’t want forgiveness.

A bailout “places an additional burden on Americans, many of whom didn’t even go to college,” Hoppe said. “Don’t take out a debt that you can’t pay off, and don’t ask other people to pay off your own debts.”

Borrowing money has been the only way for many Americans to go to college or graduate school, steps considered necessary for joining and staying in the middle class or advancing beyond it.

For Catari Giglio, financing college and joining the middle class is harder than for most Americans. Giglio’s parents are from Chile, and the family moved to Boston from Italy when she was 13.

Giglio, 20, is in the country without legal permission and doesn’t qualify for federal loans because she doesn’t have a Social Security number. She won’t receive any benefit from Biden’s debt cancellation plan.

Giglio, who expects to borrow a total of $150,000 in private loans by the end of her four years studying graphic design at Suffolk University, is already paying nearly $400 a month to pay off the 12% interest on the money she borrowed to finance her first two years of school.

“It’s frustrating. It’s 10 times harder for me to go to school, to earn money,” she said. “There’s no help for us.”

Giglio has applied for legal permanent residence in the U.S. and hopes to have more options to pay for school once she receives a green card.

She feels some regret about the obligations she’s taken on and questions the American education system that allowed her to accumulate a mountain of debt.

“To put this much financial responsibility on an 18-year-old who just got out of high school is not a responsible thing to do,” she said. “Society and schools don’t prepare us to make these types of financial decisions.”

The decision brought joy for the many whose entire debt is being forgiven.

Emily Taylor, a single mother of three in Louisiana, owes $12,000 in student loans even though she never finished the degree. As a Pell Grant recipient, she expects that all will be eliminated.

Taylor, who works in customer service, said the cancellation will allow her to start saving for the education of her children who are 14, 12 and 10.

“Knowing that I’ll be able to help my kids do it differently, and help fund their education in a way that my parents weren’t able to help fund mine, that’s a big deal,” she said.

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Associated Press writers Claire Savage in Chicago, Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas, and Arleigh Rodgers in Indianapolis contributed to this report. Savage and Rodgers are corps members for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate Judiciary committee will hold a hearing on Sept. 13 with Twitter Inc’s former security chief Peiter “Mudge” Zatko to discuss allegations from his whistleblower complaint that the social media company misled regulators.

Zatko, who accused Twitter of falsely claiming it had a solid security plan and making misleading statements about its defenses against hackers and spam accounts, has already discussed his complaint with staffs of the chair and ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and the staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee, according to a spokesperson for Zatko.

In an 84-page complaint, Zatko, a famed hacker widely known as “Mudge,” made numerous claims and alleged Twitter prioritized user growth over reducing spam, with executives eligible to win individual bonuses of as much as $10 million tied to increases in daily users, and nothing explicitly for cutting spam, according to documents relayed by congressional investigators.

Twitter has labeled the complaint a “false narrative.”

“The Senate Judiciary Committee will investigate this issue further with a full committee hearing this work period, and take further steps as needed to get to the bottom of these alarming allegations,” said committee chair Senator Richard Durbin and top Republican member Senator Chuck Grassley.

Staffers with Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee and the Judiciary Committee also met Zatko this week.

Blumenthal has a keen interest in Big Tech and wrote in a letter to Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan: “According to disclosures and evidence provided by Peiter ‘Mudge’ Zatko, a highly-respected cybersecurity expert who served as Twitter’s Security Lead from 2020 to 2022, Twitter executives allegedly failed to address significant security vulnerabilities, neglected the mishandling of personal data, and ignored known privacy risks to users for more than a decade.”

Blumenthal called for an FTC investigation in the letter.

(Reporting by Chris Sanders and Raphael Satter in WashingtonEditing by Howard Goller and Matthew Lewis)

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By Hari Kishan and Jonathan Cable

BENGALURU (Reuters) – It will be a chilly winter for global stocks, according to analysts in a Reuters poll who cut year-end predictions for most major indices from three months ago and warned the risks to that already-dull outlook were skewed to the downside.

Equities had a dream run for the better part of the last decade but are struggling to shake off deep losses from the first half of this year on worries about the global economy, suggesting a fundamental shift may be afoot.

Most indices hit their year lows in Q2 and have made some headway since then, but they are still some distance from recouping year-to-date losses. The MSCI global stock index is still down 16% for the year.

“As enticing as this rally has been … it is still no more than a bear-market rally. We caution investors about getting drawn into harm’s way,” said Lisa Shalett, Chief Investment Officer at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.

“Inflation is far from tamed, earnings estimates need to be adjusted and stock market enthusiasm just isn’t supported by other market dynamics.”

The Aug. 9-23 Reuters polls of over 150 equity market analysts showed nearly all of the 17 indices surveyed marking only single digit gains for the remainder of the year.

If realised, those would all fall short of covering the double-digit losses they’ve racked up so far this year.

GRAPHIC – Reuters Poll – Equity market outlook

https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/polling/mypmnelygvr/Reuters%20Poll%20-%20Equity%20market%20outlook.png

There is also plenty of uncertainty over whether bourses would even reach those median estimates, which were already lowered from previous polls.

Over a 60% majority of strategists who answered a separate question, 58 of 95, said the risks to their end-2022 forecasts were skewed to the downside. The remaining 37 said they were to the upside.

Slowing global growth, coupled with central banks across the world hiking interest rates to achieve price stability, were likely to keep stock prices from scaling previous peaks or touching new ones.

“We expect a continued fade in growth momentum, implying equity market downside. While a number of recent macro data points have been favourable, we believe this does not change the underlying narrative,” said Sebastian Raedler, head of European equity strategy at BofA.

Raedler highlighted aggressive tightening from the U.S. Federal Reserve, potential European gas supply shortages and China’s property debt crisis as major risks for equity markets.

While those factors were expected to keep volatility high for the year there was a near-split among strategists over an outright sell-off in their local markets for the same period.

An over three-quarters majority, 83 of 108, of analysts who answered an additional question expected volatility in their local market to rise over the next three months.

Just over half, 57 of 108, said there was a low chance of another major sell-off in the final quarter.

While global equities were largely expected to end the year in the red, European markets, facing a deepening economic crisis, will fare the worst.

A recent recovery in European shares looks set to stall and not reclaim end-2021 levels for well over a year, capped by fears of an energy supply crunch, slowing growth and sky-high inflation, a Reuters poll found.

Even the benchmark U.S. S&P 500 index was expected to end 2022 nearly 10% lower from where it started.

Only emerging market stocks such as India, Brazil and Mexico were forecast to post any meaningful gains across 2022. Britain’s FTSE was expected to rise around 1% over this year.

(Other stories from the Reuters global stock markets poll package:)

(Reporting by Hari Kishan and Indradip Ghosh; Additional reporting and polling by correspondents in Bengaluru, Buenos Aires, London, Mexico City, Milan, New York, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Tokyo and Toronto; Editing by Ross Finley and Catherine Evans)

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SYDNEY (Reuters) – Qantas Airways Ltd plans to run a competition between aircraft manufacturers to replace its ageing fleet of 28 Airbus SE A330 planes in the next 12 to 18 months, its chief financial officer said on Thursday.

“We will be looking at the market in the coming 12 months,” Chief Financial Officer Vanessa Hudson told reporters. “That aircraft is heading to the end of its useful life. We will run a competition as we have done for the narrowbody fleet in the coming 12 to 18 months.”

She did not say what models would be considered as a replacement, though most airlines have looked at the A330neo and A350 models from Airbus and rival Boeing Co 787 and any deal would be worth multiple billions of dollars based on list prices.

Qantas has three 787s already manufactured by Boeing that are in storage in the United States because of the planemaker’s delivery issues and are expected to arrive in May and June 2023, the airline’s chief executive Alan Joyce said.

The airline also in May placed an order for 12 A350s capable of the world’s longest commercial flights from Sydney to London.

(Reporting by Jamie Freed; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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