DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Rupert Murdoch's new Russian fiancée ties him to a sprawling web of money — with some surprising connections
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( Kwan Wei Kevin Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

His fiancée, Elena Zhukova, was once married to Alexander Radkin Zhukov, a Russian oligarch. Her daughter, Dasha Zhukova, was married to Roman Abramovich from 2008 to 2017. Daniele Venturelli/WireImage via Getty ImagesZhukova shares a daughter with Zhukov, Dasha Zhukova. Dasha Zhukova is now married to Stavros Niarchos, the grandson of a Greek shipping tycoon. AdvertisementDasha Zhukova married Stavros Niarchos in January 2020.

Persons: Rupert Murdoch, Elena Zhukova, Alexander Radkin Zhukov, Dasha Zhukova, Roman Abramovich, —, Murdoch, Vladimir Putin, Zhukova, Wendi Deng, Zhukov, hasn't, Daniele Venturelli, Dasha, Abramovich, Putin, backchannel, Vladimir Putin's backchannel, Mikhail Svetlov, Stavros Niarchos, Lexie Moreland, Murdoch didn't Organizations: Service, The Daily Mail, Guardian, Times, Getty, Premier League soccer, Chelsea Football Club, European Union, Penske Media, News Corp, Business Insider Locations: Russian, Italy, London, Russia, Ukraine, New York, Switzerland

A screengrab from a video, geolocated by CNN to the town of Qaim, Iraq, shows the aftermath of US military strikes in the area according to the Iraqi Military. US officials say the strikes hit four facilities in Syria and three in Iraq, where security officials reported damage in the city of Al-Qaim. The sites allegedly belonged to various Iran-backed militias, which the US blames for the strike in Jordan. The US does not plan to strike inside Iran: A senior official with the Biden administration told CNN the US will not strike inside Iran – only focusing on targets outside of the country. Striking inside Iran would have been a huge escalation, and officials have telegraphed that is unlikely to happen.

Persons: Joe Biden, Lloyd Austin, Biden, Jordan, Douglas Sims, Sims, John Kirby Organizations: CNN, White House, Pentagon, Defense, Air Force, National Security Locations: Qaim, Iraq, Iraqi, Jordan, Syria, Al, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Yemen, Gen

☆ Was Peace Ever Possible?
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Moderated Emily Bazelon | A Discussion Moderated Emily Bazelon | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +45 min

This was known as the Oslo peace process, named for the city where the secret talks took place. Micha Bar-Am/Magnum Photos Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir of Israel during the the Middle East peace conference in Madrid, 1991. Margalit: All the Israeli leaders who negotiated for peace, starting with Rabin, were in a weak political position. Dajani: With the First Intifada, and then subsequently Madrid and Oslo, Palestinians suddenly see the possibility of agency. But what’s important to understand is that the notion of peace for Rabin, and for most Israelis, is that peace is a lack of violence from the other side.

Persons: Jordan, Israel, Yasir Arafat, Bernard Frye, Arafat, Larry Towell, Abbas, Micha, Yitzhak Shamir, Jerome Delay, Saddam, Hussein, George H.W, Bush, James A, Baker III, Baker, Shamir, Yitzhak Rabin, Rabin, Shimon Peres, —, Margalit, Saddam Hussein, Hosni Mubarak of, King Hussein of Jordan, Bill Clinton, Gary Hershon, Abu Alaa, “, ” Rabin, ” Arafat, ”, Ashrawi, Yehuda, Efraim, Susan Meiselas, Baruch Goldstein, Patrick Baz, Daoud Mizrahi, Gilles Peress, Goldstein, Matti Steinberg, Netanyahu, Bazelon, Clinton, Shikaki, Manal Jamal, didn’t, Dennis Ross, Omar, Camp David, Ehud Barak, Md, Ralph Alswang, Christopher Anderson, Motasm Amir, Barak didn’t, Barak, David, Dajani, Emily, Arafat —, Ross, Mary, Nobody, Arafat didn’t, Hosni Mubarak, Mubarak, El, there’s, There’s, Robert Malley, Hussein Agha, ” Barak, Sharon, It’s, Yarden Romann, Peter van Agtmael, Khan Younis, Yousef Masoud, Khan, Ahmad Hasaballah, Ziv Koren, they’re, Dan, Avishai, Omar Dajani, Taba, Dana El Kurd, Efraim Inbar, ‘ ‘ Rabin, ’ ’, Daniel Kurtzer, Avishai Margalit, George Kennan, Van, Khalil Shikaki, Limor Yehuda, Emily Bazelon, Nabil Ismail, Pascal, Said, Ulf Andersen, Getty, Menahem Kahana, Abdel, Shafi, Maggie Ohayon, Yigal Amir, Yoav Lemmer, Jack Guez, Olmert, Moshe Milner, Ami, Dani Cardona, Awad Awad, Obama, Ben Gershom Organizations: United Nations, West Bank, Associated, Palestine Liberation Organization, U.S, Soviet Union, Palestinian, Madrid didn’t, Bank, White, Agence France, Presse, Getty Images, Oslo Accord, White House, Reuters, Israel’s Labor Party government, Bazelon, Oslo Palestinian, Getty, West, Shin, Gross, . Security, Camp, Camp David Summit, Labor Party, NPR, American, New York Times, Polaris, Labor, United, McGeorge School of Law, University of the, Israel, Camp David, University of Richmond, Arab Center Washington, Jerusalem Institute for Strategy, Security, Shalem College, Bar, Ilan University, Sadat Center, Strategic Studies, Israel’s National Security, Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Institute for, Princeton, Israel Academy of Sciences, Humanities, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Palestinian Center, Policy, Research, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University, Gaza, Hebrew University, Haifa University, Human, The New York Times Magazine, Mount Locations: Israel, Jordan, Gaza, Egypt, Jerusalem, Zion, Munich, Tunisia, Oslo, American, Oslo Gaza, Palestine, Madrid, Kuwait, United States, Soviet, Lebanon, Syria, Jordanian, America, Washington, U.S, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, U.N, Independence, Palestinian, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, Iraq, Rafah, Hebron, Ibrahimi, West Bank, Judea, Samaria, Yehuda, Camp David, Jenin, Haram, Al Aqsa, Khan, Kfar Aza, Khan Younis, Ahmad, Old, Ireland, Bosnia, Tel Aviv, Iran, Athens, El, Camp, Israeli, Van Leer, Ramallah

Sam Bankman-Fried Trial appears at Federal Court in New York on Oct. 4th, 2023. Two years later, Julliard stood as the prosecution's first witness in the criminal fraud trial against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who's accused of misusing billions of dollars in client money. He and thousands of other FTX customers were practically wiped out when the exchange went belly up late last year. Allan Joseph Bankman, father of FTX Co-Founder Sam Bankman-Fried, and Barbara Fried, mother of FTX Co-Founder Sam Bankman-Fried, arrive at court in New York, US, on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023. WATCH: Sam Bankman-Fried criminal trial begins in New York

Persons: Sam Bankman, Claudia Johnson Marc, Antoine Julliard, Julliard, who's, FTX, Gisele Bündchen, Fried, Jane Rosenberg, Sam, Mark Cohen, Cohen, Attorney Thane, Rehn, Alameda's, Caroline Ellison, Allan Joseph Bankman, Barbara Fried, Stephanie Keith, Ellison's, Sam Trabucco, Trabucco, Rein, Adam Yedidia, Bankman, Yedida, hadn't, Gary Wang Organizations: Court, FTX, Federal Court, Reuters Defense, Alameda Research, Bankman, Assistant U.S, Attorney, Capitol, U.S, Bloomberg, Getty, MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Prosecutors Locations: New York, London, Manhattan, FTX, New York City, U.S, Alameda, Attorney Thane Rehn, Rehn

By last year, with sanctions elsewhere tightening, Russia was buying more than a quarter of Japan's used-car exports for an average price of almost $8,200. That was more than double the price in 2020, when Russia took about 15% of Japan's used-car exports. Those sales had been on track to top $1.9 billion for all of 2023 before Japan imposed its own tougher sanctions, trade data show. A system of mandatory inspections pushes the cost of maintaining used cars higher for customers in Japan. Battery recycling firm 4R Energy has seen a "significant" tailwind from declining used-car prices, including the Nissan Leaf, said chief executive Yutaka Horie.

Persons: Sergei Karpukhin, Japan's, we've, Olesya Alekseeva, Takanori Kikuchi, Wataru Nishiwaki, Yutaka Horie, Daniel Leussink, Gleb Stolyarov, Kevin Krolicki, Sonali Paul Organizations: Toyota, REUTERS, Rights, SV Alliance, Japan's Ministry, Economy, Trade, Industry, Honda, Energy, Nissan, Sumitomo, Thomson Locations: Moscow, Russia, Ukraine, Japan, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Africa, Toyama, Russia's Vladivostok, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tanzania, Niigata prefecture

☆ Takeaways from special counsel John Durham’s report on FBI’s Russia-Trump probe
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Zachary Cohen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —Special counsel John Durham released his final report on Monday in which he casts doubt about the FBI’s decision to launch a full investigation into connections between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia during the 2016 election. The report does not ultimately fulfill the expectations set by former President Trump and his allies who have long claimed that it would prove the FBI’s investigation was nothing more than a political witch hunt. That finding was at the core of Durham’s most scathing criticism of the FBI’s decision to launch a full investigation. “Strzok, at a minimum, had pronounced hostile feelings toward Trump,” Durham wrote, while quoting in a footnote previously known texts between Strzok and Lisa Page, then an FBI attorney. Witness testimony exposed the FBI’s overreliance on the dossier as it sought court approval to wiretap a former Trump campaign adviser in 2016.

☆ Special counsel John Durham concludes FBI never should have launched full Trump-Russia probe
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Zachary Cohen Devan Cole Tierney Sneed Evan Perez Hannah Rabinowitz Jeremy Herb Marshall Cohen | Zachary Cohen | Devan Cole | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +14 min

“Strzok, at a minimum, had pronounced hostile feelings toward Trump,” Durham wrote, while quoting in a footnote previously known texts between Strzok and Lisa Page, then an FBI attorney. Witness testimony exposed the FBI’s overreliance on the dossier as it sought court approval to wiretap a former Trump campaign adviser in 2016. Mixed results over 3+ yearsBarr tapped Durham in 2019 to review the origins of the Russia probe, and the scope of Durham’s work grew over the years. Former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, which inherited the initial Russia probe, released a detailed accounting of Russia’s effort to interfere in the 2016 election. Mueller found no evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, but investigators documented numerous contacts between Trump associates and Russians.

☆ Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck that Anvil, which helps businesses automate paperwork, used to raise $5 million from Craft Ventures and Alphabet's Gradient Ventures
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

It raised an additional $5 million for its Series A round from Craft Ventures and Gradient Ventures. Insider has an exclusive look at the pitch deck that Anvil used to raise the new funds. Three years ago, he set out to raise fresh capital for his startup, Anvil, which helps businesses create documents from data. In 2020, Craft Ventures heard Ng's pitch and passed. Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck that Anvil used to raise an additional $5 million:

Following are some of the issues China and others are likely to be taking into account as it considers prospects for peace in Ukraine. Attempting to broker peace is a low-cost venture that can yield high returns for China, even if a quick breakthrough is highly unlikely, analysts say. The plan got lukewarm welcomes in both Russia and Ukraine while the United States and NATO were sceptical. China expanded trade with Ukraine after Russia invaded Crimea in 2014 and did not recognise the annexed territory as Russian, he said. Days before Russia invaded Ukraine, China and Russia announced a "no-limits" partnership.

☆ With Ukraine War at Its Doorstep, Poland Becomes West’s Firebrand
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( Thomas Grove | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WARSAW—With the Ukraine war on its doorstep, Poland has emerged as Europe’s pre-eminent hawk on the conflict with Russia, as Warsaw plays a central role in stiffening Western resolve toward Moscow through public pressure and backchannel negotiations. Poland’s stance at the forefront of Western support for Ukraine will come under the spotlight when President Biden visits Warsaw days before the first anniversary of the start of the war. The visit is a sign of Washington’s support for a country that was once a prickly ally and whose strident warnings of Russian aggression fell largely on deaf ears in the West before Moscow invaded last year.

☆ A Trump advisor's trial could shed light on 'espionage lite' and foreign influence around the former president
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( C. Ryan Barber | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

But in a court filing, federal prosecutors said Barrack was not referencing Trump's campaign or the United States. Indeed, Barrack is only the latest Trump ally to face charges in connection with an alleged foreign influence campaign. In court papers, federal prosecutors alleged that Barrack agreed in the spring of 2016 to develop a backchannel between the Emiratis and Trump campaign. The prosecution of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort kicked off a new era of foreign influence enforcement. Through his lawyers, Barrack has also argued that his contacts with Emiratis were no secret to the Trump campaign and the former president's administration.

Search resuls for: "backchannel"

11 mentions found