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Influencers, how many late payments are you waiting on? Odds are, more than one. Influencer marketing is a booming $10 billion industry, but for creators, inconsistent cash flow remains a major pain point. Brand budgets shift, campaign timelines change, and payments can take months to land. For many influencers who rely on brand deals as their main source of income, financial instability is the norm. According to the Wall Street Journal, fewer than 13% of online influencers earned more than $100,000 last yearwhile nearly half made $15,000 or less. A fintech startup called Alchemy wants to change that. Founded by Isaac Wagschal, the company has launched a $100 million fund to provide creators with upfront payments based on projected future income. Since January, Alchemy has already distributed millions. Growing as a creator takes time, money, and the right opportunities landing in your inbox. But unpredictable income is one of the biggest obstacles to scaling. Some months bring multiple sponsorships; others are completely dry. And while traditional financial institutions are slowly warming to the creator economy, access to capital remains limitedespecially for creators still building their brands. (If youve ever tried asking a bank for a loan as a freelancer, you get it.) Alchemys approach is different. It looks at an influencers full income streambrand deals, Patreon, AdSense, and morethen uses the past six months of earnings to project the next six. Based on that, Alchemy prepurchases a portion of the creators expected revenue, providing a lump-sum payment upfront. A flat fee, typically around 1.15 times the amount advanced, is added. Say a creator is projected to earn $100,000 in the next six months. Alchemy might advance $30,000 by purchasing 30% of that income. When the full $100,000 eventually comes inwhether it takes six months or a yearAlchemy collects its 30%, plus a $4,500 fee. Theres no loan, no interest, and no fixed repayment schedule. If a creator underperforms, Alchemy takes the hit. To streamline the process, Alchemy is partnering with top creator agencies, managers, and influencer platforms to embed its financial tools directly into brand deal workflows. The goal: make upfront payments the industry norm. “The creator economy is booming, yet too many influencers are stuck waiting months for sponsorships and delayed payments to clear,” Wagschal said in a press release. “Creators should have financial access that matches the speed of the digital world.”
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E-Commerce
Firefighters in North and South Carolina were battling multiple wind-driven wildfires Monday in rugged terrain that complicated containment efforts, officials said. Millions of trees knocked down by Hurricane Helene last year combined with long stretches of dry weather this spring are making for a long and active fire season in the Carolinas, North Carolina State University forestry and environmental resources professor Robert Scheller said. Helene just dropped tons of fuel on the ground, Scheller said. Then these flash droughts allow that fuel to dry out very fast. Both South Carolina and North Carolina have issued statewide bans on outdoor burning. North Carolina fires Mandatory evacuations continue for about 165 properties in parts of Polk County in western North Carolina, about 80 miles west of Charlotte, according to county spokesperson Kellie Cannon. Three fires burned at least 7.5 square miles in the county and the two larger blazes were completely un-contained, Cannon said in a social media update Monday morning. The Black Cove Fire, one of the larger ones, was moving toward neighboring Henderson County, Cannon said. Kim Callaway, who lives near one of the evacuated areas in Polk County, has prepared her home, WLOS-TV reported. Weve already actually evacuated everything that we thought that was important, Callaway said. And now were just staying at the house and trying to do what we can to get our house prepared if the firemen need to show up and hold the line. A downed power line sparked the Black Cove Fire, but the causes of the other two fires in Polk County were under investigation, according to North Carolina Forest Service spokesperson Jeremy Waldrop. A number of other wildfires burning across the state including one that damaged 500 vehicles at a salvage yard in Burke County, officials said. South Carolina fires Two fires in the South Carolina mountains have led Gov. Henry McMaster to declare a state of emergency. One fire was in Table Rock State Park in Pickens County and the other was on Persimmon Ridge in Greenville County. Winds and difficult mountainous terrain allowed blazes to grow, the South Carolina Forestry Commission said. The Table Rock Fire expanded to more than 2 square miles, including several hundred acres that firefighters intentionally burned to try to contain the flames, officials said. The Persimmon Ridge Fire, which started Saturday, spread to more than 1.25 square miles despite many dozens of water drops, the commission said. Human activity ignited both the Table Rock and Persimmon Ridge fires. No injuries had been reported, and while no structures were imminently threatened, voluntary evacuations of about 100 homes remained in place. How a September hurricane is creating March fires Scheller, the North Carolina State University professor, predicted this busy fire season if the region saw dry weather following Helene. Scientists saw something similar in 2022 when a fire burned more than 51 square miles of timberland in the Florida Panhandle. The Bertha Swamp Road Fire almost directly followed the eye pattern from 2018’s Hurricane Michael and the fallen pine trees left behind. Pines and their waxy needles dry out and become very flammable, Scheller said. The fallen trunks can also block roads and paths used to fight fires, experts said. The last ingredient to fuel wildfires is dry weather. Despite recent rain, the Carolinas are undergoing an extreme drought, according to federal monitors. The common denominator for many fires on the East Coast is human activity, whether people burn debris, light a campfire that isnt well watched or toss out cigarette, Scheller said. And more people living next to areas that can burn make fires a bigger threat, he said. New Jersey fire A forest fire burning in New Jerseys million-acre Pinelands region was 100% contained on Monday morning, the New Jersey Forest Fire Services said in a post on X. The fire was first spotted Saturday and burned through about 3.5 square miles. That blaze led authorities to evacuate two campgrounds in Wharton State Forest, officials said. The cause was under investigation. Fire forecast A front moving off the East Coast brought rain and more humidity to the area, helping firefighters Monday. But not much rain fell and temperatures are expected to get warmer and the air drier as the week goes on, likely meaning another round of wildfires unless people follow burn bans and fire safety. It is absolutely paramount that folks respect the statewide ban on all open burning, North Carolina Forest Service spokesperson Philip Jackson said.
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E-Commerce
War is raging in the Middle East, peace is uncertain in Europe, and investors and consumers are responding to threats of tariffs with sell-offs and boycotts. But President Donald Trump is focused on what matters to him: his self-image. Like a friend asking you to untag them from a photo on social media that they find unflattering, Trump isn’t happy with an artist’s depiction of himand wants the painting taken down. Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves, Trump wrote in a social media post Sunday about the painting, which was added in 2019 to a collection of presidential portraits at the Colorado State Capitol building in Denver. He claimed the portrait was purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before. The portrait was painted by Sarah Boardman, a Colorado Springs artist who told the Denver Post in 2019 that she painted both Trump’s and former President Barack Obama’s portraits to appear intentionally apolitical. Boardman did not respond to a request for comment. In todays environment, its all very upfront; but in another five, 10, 15 years, he will be another president on the wall, Boardman said at the time. And he needs to look neutral. The psychology behind the portrait It’s unclear why Trump is complaining about the portrait now, six years after it was first displayed. But Trump’s aversion to his portrait is actually human nature. Scientists have found that humans tend to dislike photographs of themselves for two primary reasons: One, humans prefer images of themselves that they see oftensay, their face in a mirror. A portrait or a photograph that depicts a person from an unfamiliar perspective can lead to feelings of discomfort. Then there’s the phenomenon of self-enhancement, which describes the tendency to evaluate our own traits and abilities more favorably than is objectively warranted. According to a paper published in the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, when presented with two imagesone untouched photograph and one enhanced for attractivenessrespondents tended to identify with the enhanced photo. In other words, we tend to think we look better than we actually do. This is almost certainly what’s going on in this case. After working in the public eye for decades as a celebrity, reality-TV-show host, and politician, Trump is particularly attuned to his appearance. But he also takes great pains to control his image. Heand his supportersare not shy about altering imagery to depict him in an artificially flattering light. Trump likes images of himself that show him as strong. And he likes images that he can approve (see his official White House portraits). Boardman’s painting violates all of Trump’s preferences: the soft-focused lighting, the jawline, the swept-over hair. Boardman’s portrait makes Trump look like just another guy in a blue suitand he can’t stand that.
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E-Commerce
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