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GameStop’s shares jumped on Thursday after a cryptic post from meme stock influencer Keith Gill, who shot to notoriety after his online personas and bullish bets on the video game retailer sparked a trading frenzy among mom-and-pop investors.

Gill posted a picture resembling a Time magazine cover from 2006 with a computer screen on social media platform X. Following his post, GameStop’s shares spiked and traded as high as $30.87. The stock closed up 6% at $28.63.

Known as “Roaring Kitty” on YouTube and “DeepF***ingValue” on Reddit’s popular WallStreetBets, Gill was a key figure in the so-called “Reddit rally,” in which GameStop stock surged 1,600% at one point in January 2021, crushing hedge funds that had bet against the videogame retailer.

Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, noted that this is characteristic of a pattern that has evolved in the trading of GameStop: the stock’s price will rally, then when it settles down a bit or retreats, Gill’s “Roaring Kitty” persona tends to emerge with a social media post.

“We’ve seen that pattern again recently; the stock was at $21 earlier in November but then rallied to $30 or so around Thanksgiving, only to give back most of those gains over the last couple of days.”

On Thursday, about 300,000 GameStop options contracts had changed hands by 2:14 p.m., at about 1.5 times the usual pace, according to data from options analytics firm Trade Alert.

The stock’s 30-day implied volatility how much traders expect the shares to move around over the short term jumped to a 3-week high of 132%, up from 93% in the previous session, data showed.

Contracts betting on the shares finishing above $30 by Friday were the most actively traded options, with some 32,000 of them traded by late afternoon.

Gill resurfaced on social media earlier in 2024, after a three-year hiatus leading to a deluge of excited messages from his followers, many of whom have likened the social media phenomenon to a David who took on Wall Street’s Goliaths and won.

“The re-emergence of the popularity of meme stocks tends to follow any general resurgence in market enthusiasm and animal spirits,” said Art Hogan, market strategist at B. Riley Wealth Management. “Whenever markets are at or near all-time highs, that particular part of the speculative side of stocks tends to pop up again.”

The meme stock rally in 2021 was set off by Gill’s posts on WallStreetBets subreddit about the gains he had made on his investments in the highly shorted firm.

The rally spread to other highly shorted stocks including AMC Entertainment as Reddit users banded together to squeeze bearish hedge funds, costing them billions in losses and drawing scrutiny from US regulators.

The entire episode inspired Craig Gillespie’s 2023 movie “Dumb Money.”

Other so-called meme stocks also traded higher on Thursday after Gill’s post. Shares of Unity Software closed up 5%, while cinema chain AMC, another darling of retail investors from 2021, climbed 6%.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if the faithful haven’t been distracted by other things. Crypto has stolen GameStop’s thunder recently,” Sosnick said.

The video game retailer’s stock is up around 76% so far this year. Meanwhile, bitcoin has surged more than 130% and surpassed the $100,000 mark earlier on Thursday, fueled by optimism over easing regulatory headwinds, in what is a stunning rally for the world’s largest cryptocurrency.

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Man who died after being pulled into MRI machine was wearing 9kg weight-training chain, wife reveals

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Man who died after being pulled into MRI machine was wearing 9kg weight-training chain, wife reveals

A man who died after being pulled into an MRI machine in New York was wearing a large weight-training chain around his neck, his wife has said.

Keith McAllister, 61, entered a room at the Nassau Open MRI clinic while a scan of his wife’s knee was under way.

The machine’s strong magnetic force drew him in by the 9kg metal chain around his neck, according to Nassau County Police.

His wife, Adrienne Jones-McAllister, said she had called out to her husband to help her off the table.

“I yelled out Keith’s name, [shouting] Keith, come help me up,” she said in an interview with News 12 Long Island.

She said her husband entered the room wearing the chain, which he uses for weight training.

“I saw the machine snatch him around and pull him into the machine,” Ms Jones-McAllister said as tears streamed down her face. “He died, he lost, he went limp in my arms.”

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Police said that the accident last Wednesday “resulted in a medical episode” and left Mr McAllister in a critical condition in hospital.

Ms Jones-McAllister said her husband had suffered a series of heart attacks after he was freed from the MRI machine. He was later pronounced dead.

A file picture of an MRI scanner
Image:
A file picture of an MRI scanner

MRI stands for Magnetic Resonance Imaging. The machines use strong magnetic fields and radio waves to create detailed images of the inside of the body.

Due to the magnetic fields, “very powerful forces” are exerted on objects made of iron, some steels, and other magnetic materials, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering says.

It says the forces are “strong enough to fling a wheelchair across the room”.

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Sky News’ US partner network NBC New York reported that MRI accidents are rare but can be fatal.

It is not the first time someone has been killed by an MRI machine in New York.

In 2001, six-year-old Michael Colombini died at the Westchester Medical Centre when an oxygen tank flew into the chamber, drawn in by the MRI’s 10-ton electromagnet.

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‘Broken’ water industry set to be overhauled – nine key recommendations from landmark report

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'Broken' water industry set to be overhauled - nine key recommendations from landmark report

The system for regulating water companies in England and Wales should be overhauled and replaced with one single body, a major review of the sector has advised.

It has recommended abolishing regulator Ofwat as well as the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), which ensures that public water supplies are safe.

The report, which includes 88 recommendations, suggests a new single integrated regulator to replace existing water watchdogs, mandatory water metering, and a social tariff for vulnerable customers.

The ability to block companies being taken over and the creation of eight new regional water authorities with another for all of Wales to deliver local priorities, has also been suggested.

The review, the largest into the water industry since privatisation in the 1980s, was undertaken by Sir Jon Cunliffe, a career civil servant who oversaw the biggest clean-up of Britain’s banking system in the wake of the financial crash.

He was coaxed out of retirement by Environment Secretary Steve Reed to lead the Independent Water Commission.

Here are nine key recommendations:

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• Single integrated water regulators – a single water regulator in England and a single water regulator in Wales. In England, this would replace Ofwat, the Drinking Water Inspectorate and water-environment related functions from the Environment Agency and Natural England

• Eight new regional water system planning authorities in England and one national authority in Wales

• Greater consumer protection – this includes upgrading the consumer body Consumer Council for Water into an Ombudsman for Water to give stronger protection to customers and a clearer route to resolving complaints

• Stronger environmental regulation, including compulsory water meters

• Tighter oversight of water company ownership and governance, including new powers for the regulator to block changes in water company ownership

• Public health reforms – this aims to better manage public health risks in water, recognising the many people who swim, surf and enjoy other water-based activities

• Fundamental reset of economic regulation – including changes to ensure companies are investing in and maintaining assets

• Clear strategic direction – a new long-term National Water Strategy should be published by both the UK and Welsh governments with a “minimum horizon of 25 years”

• Infrastructure and asset health reforms – including new requirements for companies to map and assess their assets and new resilience standards

In a speech responding to Sir Jon’s report, Mr Reed is set to describe the water industry as “broken” and welcome the commission’s recommendations to ensure “the failures of the past can never happen again”.

Final recommendations of the commission have been published on Monday morning to clean up the sector and improve public confidence.

Major other suggested steps for the government include greater consumer protection by upgrading the Consumer Council for Water into an ombudsman with advocacy duties being transferred to Citizens Advice.

Stronger and updated regulations have been proposed by Sir Jon, including compulsory water metering, changes to wholesale tariffs for industrial users and greater water reuse and rainwater harvesting schemes. A social tariff is also recommended.

Oversight of companies via the ability to block changes in ownership of water businesses and the addition of “public benefit” clauses in water company licences.

To boost company financial resilience, as the UK’s biggest provider Thames Water struggles to remain in private ownership, the commission has recommended minimum financial requirements, like banks are subject to.

It’s hoped this will, in turn, make companies more appealing to potential investors.

The public health element of water has been recognised, and senior public health representation has been recommended for regional water planning authorities, as have new laws to address pollutants like forever chemicals and microplastics.

A “supervisory” approach has been recommended to intervene before things like pollution occur, rather than penalising the businesses after the event.

A long-term, 25-year national water strategy should be published by the UK and Welsh governments, with ministerial priorities given to water firms every five years.

Companies should also be required to map and assess their assets and resilience

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Alaska Airlines grounds all flights after IT outage

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Alaska Airlines grounds all flights after IT outage

Alaska Airlines has grounded its planes following an IT outage.

The carrier said it experienced the outage impacting its operations at around 8pm Pacific time on Sunday (4am Monday UK time).

It did not specify the nature of the outage.

“We requested a temporary, system-wide ground stop for Alaska and Horizon Air flights until the issue is resolved,” the Seattle-based airline said in a statement.

Horizon Air is the regional subsidiary operating Alaska Airlines flights.

Alaska Airlines apologised for the ground stop of its flights and warned of “residual impacts to our operation throughout the evening”.

“Please check the status of your flight before leaving for the airport,” it added.

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Alaska Air Group maintains an operational fleet of 238 Boeing 737 aircraft and 87 Embraer 175 aircraft, according to its website.

In June, Hawaiian Airlines, which is also owned by Alaska Air Group, said some of its IT systems were disrupted by a hack.

The firm said it was still trying to determine the financial impact of the incident.

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