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☆ Explainer: Who is Karen McDougal, the Playboy model in the Trump case?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, April 4 (Reuters) - The criminal case against former President Donald Trump, unveiled on Tuesday, rests not just on his high-profile alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels but also on a separate liaison with Playboy model Karen McDougal. A 52-year-old former model and actress from Indiana, McDougal was a Playboy magazine Playmate of the Year in the late 1990s. They said Trump, his lawyer Michael Cohen and AMI former chief executive David Pecker, a longtime friend of Trump, agreed that Trump would reimburse AMI. McDougal later sued AMI and reached an agreement that allowed her to discuss her relationship with Trump. ONE OF TWOThe transaction is one of two involving alleged affairs that are at the heart of the criminal case against Trump.

In a short section, the deal said it was essential to address the suffering of victims as a necessary element of reconciliation. The bill is opposed by all Northern Ireland political parties, the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the Irish government and victims' groups. "It toys with what is a very delicate peace settlement here," said Amnesty International Northern Ireland deputy director Grainne Teggart. KEEP GOING[1/4] Andrea Brown, daughter of Royal Ulster Constabulary officer Eric Brown who was killed in 1983, holds a portrait of her father in Moira, Northern Ireland, March 29, 2023. In 2019 a Northern Ireland court ordered an independent investigation into alleged collusion between security services and the gang suspected of the killing.

☆ Two reasons why settling JNJ's baby powder litigation is great for shareholders
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Jeff Marks | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

A resolution to Johnson & Johnson's outstanding talc litigation claims may finally be here — and that's welcome news for the company and its shareholders. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) said it will pay $8.9 billion over the next 25 years to resolve all current and future talc claims. But now that J & J has created a path toward resolving its talc litigation at a steep but very manageable cost of $8.9 billion, the overhang pressure should ease. With the J & J talc litigation overhang nearing an end, the stock deserves to trade back to this level at a minimum. In this photo illustration a bottle of Johnson & Johnson baby powder is displayed on a table on November 12, 2021 in San Anselmo, California.

☆ Johnson & Johnson shares rise after company proposes baby powder cancer settlement
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Johnson & Johnson shares on Wednesday climbed after the company proposed paying $8.9 billion to settle thousands of claims that its baby powder and other talc products caused cancer. The pharmaceutical giant also said its subsidiary LTL Management refiled for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after its first attempt faced legal challenges. JPMorgan analyst Chris Schott on Thursday called the proposed settlement a positive for the company in a note. The proposed $8.9 billion settlement is also in-line with JPMorgan's $8 billion to $10 billion estimate, Schott noted. It's also unclear whether the proposed settlement will win approval in bankruptcy court, Bank of America analyst Geoff Meacham noted Thursday.

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves premarket: Johnson & Johnson, FedEx, Zions and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Pia Singh | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

A FedEx delivery man is seen on Chestnut Street in San Francisco on January 11, 2023 as atmospheric river storms hit California, United States. Zions Bancorporation — Shares of Zions Bancorporation rose 3.2% after Baird upgraded the regional bank stock to an outperform rating. Lamb Weston — Shares of the potato processing giant were up about 1% ahead of the company's scheduled earnings release on Thursday. FedEx — Shares of the shipping company gained 3.1% in premarket trading after FedEx announced a dividend hike and a corporate reorganization. FedEx said it will raise its dividend by 10%, consolidate its different business divisions and change its executive compensation packages.

☆ Former U.S. VP Pence will not appeal ruling requiring his testimony in Jan. 6 probe
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, April 5 (Reuters) - Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will not appeal a judge's ruling that requires him to testify to a grand jury about conversations he had with former President Donald Trump leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, a spokesman for Pence said on Wednesday. In a March ruling, the judge also said Pence can still decline to answer questions related to Jan. 6. Pence spokesman Devin O'Malley said in a statement on Wednesday that Pence's argument that the subpoena violated the U.S. Constitution's "Speech or Debate Clause" had been vindicated by the court. "The Court’s landmark and historic ruling affirmed for the first time in history that the Speech or Debate Clause extends to the Vice President of the United States," O'Malley said. "Having vindicated that principle of the Constitution, Vice President Pence will not appeal the Judge’s ruling and will comply with the subpoena as required by law.”(This story has been refiled to remove extraneous words in paragraph 3)Reporting by Jeff Mason in Washington; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Alistair BellOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Johnson & Johnson Proposes Paying $9 Billion to Settle Talc Lawsuits
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Peter Loftus | Andrew Scurria | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Johnson & Johnson has stopped selling versions of Johnson’s Baby Powder that contain talc in the U.S. and Canada. Johnson & Johnson said it has proposed to pay at least $8.9 billion to thousands of people who sued the company alleging that their use of J&J’s talc-containing powders caused cancer, in what would be one of the biggest product-liability settlements ever. The company said Tuesday its LTL Management LLC unit has refiled for bankruptcy protection to seek approval of a plan to pay $8.9 billion over 25 years. J&J said more than 60,000 claimants have committed to support the proposed resolution, which requires approval in bankruptcy court.

☆ Soccer-Leaders Arsenal respond in style after Man City thrash Liverpool
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( Martyn Herman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Arsenal's seventh successive league win moved them to 72 points from 29 games with City, who still have to play the London club at home, on 64 having played one game less. Jean-Philippe Mateta's late goal sparked jubilation amongst the home fans as Palace moved into 12th place with 30 points, five points ahead of third-from-bottom Leicester. Pressure is intensifying on Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers as his side lost for the fifth time in six league games. Nottingham Forest and Wolverhampton Wanderers drew 1-1 at the City Ground as both clubs stayed far too close to the relegation zone for comfort. The result took both teams above Liverpool with Brighton in sixth place and Brentford in seventh.

☆ Stocks climb and U.S. yields fall after inflation data
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Chuck Mikolajczak | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

On the heels of the inflation data, Boston Federal Reserve president Susan Collins said it remains "early days yet" for the central bank in determining whether the Fed has hiked rates enough to lower inflation to its 2% target. The pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) rose 0.66% and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe (.MIWD00000PUS) gained 0.75%. Expectations the Fed may be nearing the end of its rate hiking cycle have helped send U.S. Treasury yields lowerrecently. The dollar pared some gains against the euro in the wake of the U.S inflation data, as investors see the Fed pausing its rate hiking cycle before the European Central Bank. The dollar index rose 0.117%, with the euro down 0.25% to $1.0874.

☆ Thirty-five dead, 16 hurt after roof of stepwell collapses in India
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Saurabh Sharma | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LUCKNOW, India, March 31 (Reuters) - At least 35 people were killed and 16 were injured after the roof of a stepwell in a temple complex collapsed in central India, a local government official said on Friday. The incident occurred in the central Indian city of Indore after a concrete slab covering the roof of a stepwell in a temple complex collapsed, crushing devotees who had gathered to celebrate the Hindu festival of Ram Navami on Thursday, officials said. Stepwells are a common feature across India, built hundreds of years ago, many of them ornately decorated, with access to a body of water through stairs and niches. "We have rescued 18 people, 35 have been found dead and 16 are injured," Ilayaraja T, a top local government official, told Reuters. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed condolences and announced compensation for the dead and injured in the incident.

☆ Tesla expects reduced tax credit for Model 3 by March-end
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 29 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) said on Wednesday a $7,500 tax credit in place since January will be reduced for its Model 3 rear-wheel drive by March 31, subject to guidance due this week from the U.S. Treasury Department on the sources of battery components. The Treasury Department is due to issue guidance on sourcing of electric vehicle (EV) batteries by Friday that will impact the credit available for some EVs. The credit is in effect for deliveries taken before the updated guidance is issued. A U.S. official told Reuters that the Treasury Department's guidance on the EV tax credit due March 31 would result in fewer vehicles getting full or partial credits. Tesla added that only consumers buying the model for their own use in the U.S. could take advantage of the tax credit.

☆ US lawmakers press Wall St regulator over coming climate rule
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Douglas Gillison | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

March 29 (Reuters) - Republican lawmakers on Wednesday prodded Wall Street's top regulator to justify his agency's efforts to regulate companies' climate disclosures and criticized the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for what they said was hasty rulemaking. Conservative lawmakers and commentators have cast Gensler as an interventionist regulator saddling markets with left-leaning social policies unrelated to making money. Republican lawmakers also repeatedly disputed the securities regulator's legal authority to mandate climate disclosures. Gensler said investors by and large now demanded and many companies were providing climate disclosures. The SEC routinely tells lawmakers its budget is "deficit neutral" since its spending is offset by transaction fees assessed from the markets.

Most international grain traders have stopped new investment in Russia since last year following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine but continued exporting Russian wheat. "As grain export-related challenges continue to mount, Cargill will stop elevating Russian grain for export in July 2023 after the completion of the 2022-2023 season," the company said in an emailed statement. "The cessation of its export activities on the Russian market will not affect the volume of domestic grain shipments abroad. The company's grain export assets will continue to operate regardless of who manages them," the agriculture ministry told Reuters. According to RBC business daily, Cargill will export 2.2 million tonnes of Russian grain in the 2022-23 exporting season, or around 4% of Russia's total grain exports.

March 28 (Reuters) - Elon Musk and a group of artificial intelligence experts and industry executives are calling for a six-month pause in training systems more powerful than OpenAI's newly launched model GPT-4, they said in an open letter, citing potential risks to society and humanity. "Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable," the letter said. The letter also detailed potential risks to society and civilization by human-competitive AI systems in the form of economic and political disruptions, and called on developers to work with policymakers on governance and regulatory authorities. Musk, whose carmaker Tesla (TSLA.O) is using AI for an autopilot system, has been vocal about his concerns about AI. Sam Altman, chief executive at OpenAI, hasn't signed the letter, a spokesperson at Future of Life told Reuters.

☆ ECB's Enria says market nervousness is a concern
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

FRANKFURT, March 28 (Reuters) - Recent volatility in Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) shares was concerning as it showed investors were on edge and could be spooked by moves in the small market for credit default swaps (CDS), European Central Bank supervisor Andrea Enria said on Tuesday. The German bank's shares tumbled last Friday as the cost of insuring its debt against the risk of default jumped to a more than four-year high, intensifying worries about the health of Europe's financial sector. Enria said the CDS market is relatively small and illiquid, but that a selloff there could have broader ramifications for the much larger share market. "What concerned me really was the amount of nervousness, disquiet that I perceived in the market and among investors," Enria told a conference in Frankfurt. Enria argued that central clearing for credit default swaps would improve transparency, reducing the risk of volatility.

The decision propelled Israel into a national crisis with massive protests that forced Netanyahu to delay the move on Monday. "We haven't taken a hands-off approach," said a senior administration official. Dennis Ross, a veteran U.S. peace negotiator between Israelis and Arabs, said the Biden administration had expressed its misgivings about Israel’s judicial proposals but had done so privately where possible. Halie Soifer, chief executive officer of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said the way the Biden administration has handled this crisis thus far is in keeping with Biden's commitment to the U.S.-Israel partnership. But, keeping a distance from Netanyahu, Biden has yet to invite him to visit the White House since the Israeli began his sixth term as prime minister in December.

☆ Soccer-Qatar's Al Thani submits new $6 billion bid for Manchester United, Sky Sports News reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 25 (Reuters) - Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani has submitted a new bid to buy Manchester United which is believed to be worth around 5 billion pounds ($6.12 billion), Sky Sports News reported on Saturday. Sheikh Jassim, a son of Qatar’s former prime minister, launched the bid in February. A spokesperson representing Sheikh Jassim said at the time that the bid was completely debt free, via Sheikh Jassim's Nine Two Foundation. Finnish entrepreneur Thomas Zilliacus also placed a bid on Thursday and told Reuters that he was willing to pay a premium for the English soccer club. United are the fourth richest soccer club in the world, according to analysis by Deloitte .

WASHINGTON, March 24 (Reuters) - Chinese-American citizen Kai Li, jailed in China on spying charges he denies, received a rare in-person visit last week from the U.S. Burns met Li on March 16 in a Shanghai prison, Li's son Harrison said. Li, a businessman, has been held in China since 2016 and was handed a 10-year jail sentence in 2018 for espionage. Burns wanted to shake Li's hand but Chinese authorities did not allow that, Harrison Li said. Burns has accompanied consular officers on prison visits to U.S. citizens held in China, a State Department spokesperson said.

[1/2] Staff members chat behind Chinese and U.S. flags displayed at the 2021 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, China September 4, 2021. REUTERS/Florence LoBEIJING, March 23 (Reuters) - China has never deliberately pursued a trade surplus with the United States, Shu Jueting, a commerce ministry spokesperson, said on Thursday, despite signs that China is continuing to reduce its reliance on American exports. She said this was needed to "create the conditions for enterprises from both sides to expand trade cooperation and reduce the trade deficit through dialogue". The goods trade gap with China widened $29.4 billion to $382.9 billion in 2022. Trade tensions between the United States and China have been simmering ever since the US-China Phase One Trade Deal expired at the end of 2021.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell sought to reassure investors about the soundness of the banking system, saying that the management of Silicon Valley Bank "failed badly," but that the bank's collapse did not indicate wider weaknesses in the banking system. "These are not weaknesses that are running broadly through the banking system," he said, adding that the takeover of Credit Suisse seemed to have been a positive outcome. The Federal Open Market Committee policy statement also said the U.S. banking system is "sound and resilient." The much-anticipated rate cut by the Fed, which had delivered eight previous rate hikes in the past year, sought to balance the risk of rampant inflation with the threat of instability in the banking system. The banking sector has been in turmoil after California regulators on March 10 closed Silicon Valley Bank in the largest U.S. bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis.

[1/5] Palestinians relatives of Sabreen Abu Jazar, who died when a boat carrying migrants sank offshore Greece, mourn in her family home in Gaza Strip March 3, 2023. After leaving Gaza in February, via Egypt, Sabreen flew to Turkey where she met her husband, who had migrated to Belgium years ago. "I celebrated her as a bride, now she's returned to me in a coffin," said her mother-in-law Buthayna Abu Jazar. In an effort to promote security along its Gaza border, Israel offers some 20,000 permits to allow Gazans to work in Israel. In Gaza, Hamas says a permanent solution for unemployment is beyond its ability alone.

☆ Denver police search for student accused of shooting two faculty members
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Keith Coffman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

DENVER, March 22 (Reuters) - Police were searching on Wednesday for a Denver high school student who shot and wounded two faculty members as they were patting him down for weapons as part of a "safety plan" devised for the youth based on previous behavioral issues, officials said. The East High School student, identified by police as 17-year-old Austin Lyle, fled the shooting scene on foot immediately after Wednesday's violence, which unfolded just before 10 a.m. local time (1600 GMT). Neither police nor education authorities disclosed the specific conduct that led the school to adopt an individualized security protocol for the student. A wanted bulletin issued after the shooting included a photo of the student and of a car similar to one he might be driving. In light of Wednesday's shooting, two armed police officers will be returned to East High School, located in Denver's City Park neighborhood, for the rest of the current academic year, said Alex Marrero, the district superintendent.

Companies Trump Organization Inc FollowNEW YORK, March 21 (Reuters) - A New York judge on Tuesday rejected former U.S. President Donald Trump's bid to delay the scheduled Oct. 2 trial in state Attorney General Letitia James' civil fraud lawsuit, calling the date "written in stone." Among the other defendants are Trump's adult children Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka, and the jailed former Trump Organization chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg. Christopher Kise, a lawyer for Trump, said the defendants' confidence is growing as they learn more about James' case. "Once everybody knows exactly what happened, then they're going to see that President Trump has done absolutely nothing wrong," he said. Asked later by a Reuters reporter about the trial date being set in stone, Kise said: "For now, it is."

☆ Mexico makes lots of electric cars, but few Mexicans drive them
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Aida Pelaez-Fernandez | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co, BMW and Volkswagen's Audi unit also are producing EVs in Mexico, or plan to. "There are still a number of issues that need resolving in Mexico before there's a massive influx of electric cars," said Mario Hernandez, KPMG's lead manufacturing partner in Mexico. Hernandez said drawbacks included a lack of subsidies for buyers, high costs for installing charging devices at homes and a shortage of public charging stations, vital for longer journeys. Mexico has about 1,100 charging stations nationwide, mostly in the capital and other major cities, according to AMIA. Pedro Corral, director of operations for EV charging stations platform Evergo, drives his all-electric i3 BMW around Mexico City.

LONDON, March 20 (Reuters) - Bank of America's electronic stocks desk has halted trading with a desk at Credit Suisse that uses computer-led strategies, "out of an abundance of caution effective today," an email seen by Reuters on Monday said. Bank of America (BAC.N) said it would no longer send trades to Credit Suisse's "ATS Crossfinder". That trading platform anonymously matches buy and sell orders for the same kinds of securities, according to the Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) website. Bank of America sent the email to traders and hedge fund clients on Monday morning. Credit Suisse declined to comment on the email and Bank of America also declined to comment.

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