The sustainability standard released Tuesday by Febraban, Brazils bank federation, requires slaughterhouses to adopt a tracking system to monitor its entire supply chain in the Amazon region and Maranhao state by December 2025. The requirement applies to both direct and indirect suppliers.

Leading meatpackers JBS SA and Marfrig Global Foods SA have commitments to stop buying cattle from indirect suppliers linked to Amazon illegal deforestation by 2025. The same companies already ban direct purchases from areas illegally cleared.

The group representing Brazil beef exporters, known as Abiec, objected to what it says is a double standard by the banks, noting that landowners do not face the same requirements for financing. 

It is important that banks adopt the same environmental requirements for all account holders, including owners of rural areas, the group said in an emailed statement. 

The group added that beef producers have banned more than 20,000 ranchers from selling cattle to members due to illegal environmental practices.

So far, 21 banks have signed the protocol, including Itau Unibanco, Banco do Brasil, Bradesco, Santander and Caixa Economica Federal. Funding activities linked to deforestation can raise credit, reputation and operational risks, Febraban said.

In December, the EU required exporters to prove agricultural commodities, including beef, soy and coffee, did not contribute to deforestation.

The number of adolescents ages 10 to 19 who underwent metabolic or bariatric surgery rose about 20% in 2021 from the year before, according to a research letter published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Pediatrics. Rates of these surgeries, which are uncommon, also rose among minors between 2019 and 2020, even as rates for adults dipped. 

The findings come as doctors take an increasingly hands-on approach to weight loss, including in young people, amid rising rates of obesity in adults and children. Medical groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics have called for expanded access to weight-loss surgery and drugs to treat youth obesity. 

The practice has also attracted controversy and raised questions about whether clinicians are being overly aggressive, and whether any ages are too young for medical intervention.

Nearly 20% of US children and adolescents live with obesity, which is linked to diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Metabolic and bariatric surgery alter the stomach and intestines to aid weight loss, reducing food intake and changing how the body absorbs food. Only about 1% of eligible individuals undergo surgery, in part because of barriers like cost. Of those who get weight-loss procedures, adolescents are a mere fraction of that group.

Bariatric surgery hasnt necessarily been accepted or embraced by the pediatric community or pediatricians, said Sarah Messiah, an author of the paper and a professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

The researchers linked the increase to a 2019 American Academy of Pediatrics statement calling for greater access to weight-loss surgery and saying that evidence supports use of the procedure even in young people. 

Those recommendations helped break down some of those barriers for some pediatricians, Messiah said. The data at this point is overwhelming that its effective. It helps these adolescents lose weight. It helps them get healthier. Why should we wait?

In January, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a comprehensive guideline on obesity treatments for children and teenagers, including recommending weight loss drugs and evaluations for surgery in teenagers with severe obesity.

There is no evidence that watchful waiting or delayed treatment is appropriate for children with obesity, said Sandra Hassink, a former president of the AAP, in a press release at the time.

The Conference Boards index declined to 102.3 in May from a upwardly revised 103.7 in the prior month, data out Tuesday showed. The share of consumers who said jobs were plentiful fell to the lowest level in more than two years.

The confidence gauge remains well below pre-pandemic levels and highlights the growing uncertainty about the economy. The share of respondents expecting more employment opportunities in the coming six months fell to the lowest since 2016, and the labor market has been the lynchpin supporting household spending.

The groups gauge of current conditions decreased to 148.6, the lowest level this year. A measure of expectations which reflects consumers six-month outlook edged down, reflecting the smallest share of respondents since 2011 expecting better business conditions.

Results of the survey were collected by May 22, prior to the tentative deal reached by White House and Republican negotiators to raise the debt ceiling.

Consumer confidence declined in May as consumers view of current conditions became somewhat less upbeat while their expectations remained gloomy, said Ataman Ozyildirim, senior director of economics at the Conference Board. However, expectations for jobs and incomes over the next six months held relatively steady.

What Bloomberg Economics Says

Consumers saw labor-market conditions cooling more markedly in May as waning demand for workers helps right the supply-demand imbalance We expect conditions to ease further, reflecting a moderation in aggregate demand.

Eliza Winger, economist

The difference between the two measures a metric watched closely by economists to gauge the tightness of the labor market also dropped to the lowest level since April 2021.

Still, buying plans for cars, homes and major appliances increased, suggesting resilient household spending.

The median inflation rate seen over the next 12 months was little changed, according to the Conference Board. A government report out last week showed the Federal Reserves preferred core inflation metrics accelerated last month.

Separate data out last week from the University of Michigan showed consumer sentiment dropped in May as Americans grew wary of both current conditions and the outlook.

With assistance from Chris Middleton.

Oh, and for those who havent yet watched, heres the spoiler alert.

The whopping 88-minute finale on Sunday evening, which concluded HBOs hit series chronicling a billionaire media mogul and his childrens struggles to take over the family company, Waystar Royco, left viewers reeling because none of the Roy siblings won.

In the episode, Shiv Roy took one final turn against her brother Kendall, blowing up his plans to keep their late fathers company and become CEO by voting to let their media empire be acquired by a Swedish tech giant, GoJo.

The series-long tussles between the three key siblings turned into an actual tussle, as a screaming match descended into a wrestling match, with the nihilistic Roman declaring the trio nothing in the end. And Shivs no-longer-estranged husband and soon-to-be-baby-daddy, Tom Wambsgans, triumphed as the new chief executive, with Cousin Greg by his side despite last-minute treachery.

In the finales closing shot, Kendall stares in despair toward the water. And the credits roll.

I put my marker down on Tom and Greg, said Jennifer Gould, an Oregon-based trusts and estates lawyer, minutes after she finished watching the show, and I was right.

Succession always has been about the membership of its audience, not its size, and its popularity among the coastal media and agenda-setting groups that the show depicts and attracts means the finale will likely leave a cultural mark. #Succession was trending No. 1 on Twitter on Sunday night, followed by Shiv, Kendall, Greg and Tom Wambsgans.

The Emmy-winning show even permeated the discussion around the debt limit in Washington on Sunday when a deal was reached just hours before the finale aired. A White House official ended a call with reporters by telling them to enjoy Succession.

More recent prestige TV finales are a better analogue for Succession than those of the network behemoths of decades past. For example, The Sopranos suddenly cutting to black to the song Dont Stop Believin in 2007 set the standard for both talkability and inscrutability.

But Succession left its own unanswered questions. Did far-right presidential candidate Jeryd Mencken, who the Roys network questionably declared the winner, actually ascend to the White House? Will the GoJo deal really be finalized? Do Tom and Shiv make their marriage work?

I will be thinking about this for a while, Gould said.

Pamela Soin, a management consultant in New York City, and a group of friends have watched every Succession episode this season with a serious ritual, but Soin only watched the final episode with her father a new convert because of the Memorial Day holiday weekend in the U.S.

I feel like it was the closest thing to a succession if they didnt pick one of the siblings, Soin said.

Soins father, who had only watched the pilot earlier Sunday before dozing intermittently during the finale, declared his hope for a family reunion to save their dads company.

Not so much.

Where we left it is: Those three kids with all their personalities they lost control of everything due to their characters and who they are as people, Soin said.

Conclusions to hit TV series can be hit-or-miss. The bloody 2013 ending of Walter Whites story on Breaking Bad, and Don Drapers more zen ending on Mad Men in 2015 generally satisfied their finicky fans. The 2019 conclusion of Game of Thrones the last big finish for an HBO show generally did not. Endings are hard to pull off, and disappointment tends to be the norm, to which the makers of Seinfeld and Lost can attest.

For Kendall fans who assumed he would ultimately succeed, Sundays finale was a shock.

A lot of people will be very upset with this ending, Soin said.

Suraj Nandy, a 20-year-old college student from Bengaluru, India, said he was counting down the hours until Sundays finale. While the episode aired at 6:30 a.m. local time, Nandy wont be able to tune in for a few hours because he had to take his sick cat to the veterinarian.

Nandy hopes he wont come across any spoilers in the meantime.

Im completely avoiding every social media platform until I get to watching it, he wrote in a Whatsapp message a half-hour before the episode aired. Taking no chances!