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☆ Why all signs point to an Australian summer of heat and fire
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-24 | by ( Laura Paddison | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

On top of El Niño, there’s another climate fluctuation in the mix that amps up the likelihood of heat and drought. A fire rages in Bobin, 350 km north of Sydney, on November 9, 2019, during Australia's catastrophic Black Summer fire season. A combination of extreme heat and wind would likely fuel very intense fires “that will seem to come from nowhere,” he added. Whether summer heat will be unprecedented remains uncertain. “Increasing extreme heat is the clearest example,”he said, but it’s worsening the impacts of drought and extreme rain too.

Persons: CNN — It’s, El, ”, David Bowman, Steve Christo, ” Bowman, Karl Braganza, “, –, Peter Parks, Robb Webb, rainier, ” Braganza, Andrea Taschetto, Jason Evans Organizations: CNN, Sydney Marathon, University of Tasmania, Sydney, Getty, Australia’s, Meteorology, El, National Council, University of New Locations: Australia, New South Wales, AFP, Bobin, Sydney, Sydney’s, University of New South Wales

☆ Euro gains; yen flounders ahead of c.bank bonanza
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

In this photo illustration, banknotes of Euro, Japanese Yen, Chinese Yuan and US dollar bill are placed under one-ounce silver bullion coins arranged on February 20, 2021 in Katwijk, Netherlands. The euro clung to gains on Tuesday following hawkish comments from European Central Bank, or ECB, policymakers, while the yen languished near a 10-month low ahead of a key rate decision from the Bank of Japan, or BOJ, later in the week. In Asia, the yen slipped marginally to 147.64 per dollar and was kept pinned near last week's 10-month low of 147.95 per dollar. Elsewhere, the U.S. dollar edged broadly lower, though strayed not too far from a six-month peak hit against its major peers last week ahead of the Fed's interest rate decision on Wednesday. Sterling edged 0.04% higher to $1.2390, ahead of an interest rate decision from the Bank of England, or BoE, also due this week.

Persons: Yuan, Rodrigo Catril, Kazuo Ueda, Erik Weisman, BoE Organizations: European Central Bank, Bank of Japan, Federal Reserve, ECB, National Australia Bank, Reuters, U.S, New Zealand, Fed, MFS Investment Management, Bank of England Locations: Katwijk , Netherlands, Asia

CNN —Ukraine has opened more than 3,000 criminal cases over Russia’s alleged crimes against children in the country, including dozens of torture cases, Ukrainian prosecutors said Thursday. The reports of alleged torture against children came to light after some Ukrainian territories were retaken from occupying Russian forces. These include 13 alleged cases of sexual violence against children, the youngest of which was a 4-year-old girl, Usenko said. Child pawns of Russia’s warThe treatment of Ukraine’s children by Russia has long been under international scrutiny. A United Nations Security Council briefing last week focused on the war’s impact on Ukraine’s children, with the deportations and treatment of children taking center stage.

Persons: ” Yulia Usenko, Usenko, ” Usenko, “, ”, Vladimir Putin, Maria Lvova, Volodymyr Zelensky, Rosemary DiCarlo, Kyslytsya Organizations: CNN, Department for, ” CNN, United Nations Security, UN, Political, Peacebuilding Affairs, US State Department, US, State Department Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Yahidne, Ukraine’s, Chernihiv, Kherson, Kharkiv, Russian, ”

☆ Opinion: What Fani Willis’ case shows us about the power of local prosecutors
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( Opinion Dave Aronberg | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —Whether they are called district attorneys, state’s attorneys or something else, the job of local prosecutors has traditionally flown under the national political radar. In fact, unlike the attorney general, a local district attorney cannot be fired by the president. The lesson for Meadows is that the local district attorney isn’t automatically bound by any deal with the feds. Willis and Bragg are not the only state prosecutors making headlines this year. Trump’s legal team is so fearful of state court that they have been fighting to “remove” his New York criminal case to federal court.

Persons: Dave Aronberg, Donald Trump, Fani Willis, Attorney Alvin Bragg, Jr, O.J, Simpson, Kenneth Starr, Robert Mueller, General Merrick Garland, Ron DeSantis, Trump, Jack Smith, pitbull, Willis ’, Smith, Attorney Willis, Smith smartly, Mark Meadows, Willis, Meadows, Bragg, Alex Murdaugh, Lori Vallow, Bryan Kohberger, Aileen Cannon Organizations: State, Palm, CNN, Manhattan, Attorney, Trump, Florida Gov, Department of, Fulton, of Justice, White House, Twitter, Facebook, University of Idaho Locations: Palm Beach County , Florida, Fulton County, Florida, New York, Manhattan, Russia, Georgia, isn’t, York, Washington , DC

☆ People would rather work anywhere but the office — including their gyms
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

It shows how remote workers, or hybrid workers, crave a third space that isn't work or home. As the Wall Street Journal reports, gyms are the latest venture to break into offering coworking space. Its website touts that the gym's members lounge "offers communal work tables and social lounge spaces available from open until close for all club members," where members can "catch up on some work" or "just relax after your workout." As research on remote workers' time use shows, more are using their breaks to work out or participate in other leisure activities. That could explain why a gym-based coworking space is so appealing: You get the ability to socialize, work out, and still get your work done.

Persons: crave, Chelsea, Chelsea Piers, Nick Bloom, Bloom Organizations: Service, Wall Street Journal, Chelsea, Stanford Locations: Wall, Silicon, Brooklyn

☆ What the most powerful people in tech and media are discussing at 'summer camp for billionaires'
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

This post originally appeared in the Insider Today newsletter. Power players like Apple's Tim Cook and Disney's Bob Iger have descended on Idaho's Sun Valley Lodge for the annual and ultra-exclusive Allen & Co. conference. Allen & Co.'s annual conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, often referred to as "summer camp for billionaires," is a who's who of the biggest players in media and tech. But just because we're not there doesn't mean we can't speculate on what the biggest topics of discussion might be. I talked to Alison Brower, our LA bureau chief, and Alistair Barr, Insider's global tech editor, about what some of the most powerful people are talking about behind closed doors.

Persons: Tim Cook, Bob Iger, Discovery's David Zaslav, OpenAI's Sam Altman, we're, Alison Brower, Alistair Barr Organizations: Allen, Co, Warner Bros, Milken, Sun Locations: Sun Valley , Idaho, Davos

☆ Actors are joining writers on strike against the Hollywood companies, and they're driven by a fear plaguing workers everywhere: Robots are coming for our jobs.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Reed Alexander | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Hollywood writers are entering their third month on strike. Film and TV writers say they're among those who have fared the worst as their industry has been remade, even as others reap the rewards. These Hollywood storytellers share something in common with workers in every industry: Everyone is afraid that the robots are coming for their jobs, Terminator-style. Now, they're some of the dominant forces controlling new content development in the entertainment industry. Recently, I reported on how the Hollywood writers' strike is dispiriting industry hopefuls at the outset of their careers — you can read it here.

Persons: Everything's, Fran Drescher, Adam Conover, Ted Sarandos, Bob Iger, Goldman Sachs, You've, We've, Jonathan Handel, Puck, they'll, Zayd Dohrn, —, Dohrn, Reed Alexander Organizations: Morning, NBC, Nickelodeon, Disney, Hollywood, Netflix, Wall, ., Writers Guild of America, Alliance, Television Producers, SAG, Apple, Big Tech, WGA, Northwestern University Locations: Hollywood, West Hollywood, Los Angeles and New York, Chicago

☆ The fear driving Hollywood writers to strike — and soon, maybe actors too — is the same one roiling every industry: Robots are coming for our jobs
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-08 | by ( Reed Alexander | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Hollywood writers are entering their third month on strike. Film and TV writers say they're among those who have fared the worst as their industry has been remade, even as others reap the rewards. Either way, the bottom line is this: Everyone in Hollywood is afraid that the robots are coming for their jobs, Terminator-style. Now, they're some of the dominant forces controlling new content development in the entertainment industry. Recently, I reported on how the Hollywood writers' strike is dispiriting industry hopefuls at the outset of their careers — you can read it here.

Persons: Everything's, Adam Conover, Ted Sarandos, Bob Iger, Goldman Sachs, You've, We've, Jonathan Handel, Puck, they'll, Zayd Dohrn, —, Dohrn, Reed Alexander Organizations: Morning, NBC, Nickelodeon, Disney, Hollywood, Netflix, Wall, ., Writers Guild of America, Alliance, Television Producers, WGA, Apple, Big Tech, Northwestern University Locations: Hollywood, West Hollywood, Los Angeles and New York, Chicago

☆ The Surprising Striver in the World’s Space Business
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-04 | by ( Alex Travelli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

When it launched its first rocket in 1963, India was a poor country pursuing the world’s most cutting-edge technology. That projectile, its nose cone wheeled to the launchpad by a bicycle, put a small payload 124 miles above the Earth. In today’s space race, India has found much surer footing. These new thrusters will guide Skyroot’s next one into orbit this year, with a much more valuable payload. Pawan Kumar Chandana, 32, Skyroot’s chief executive, anticipates a global need for 30,000 satellites to be launched this decade.

Persons: pored, Skyroot’s, Pawan Kumar Chandana, Biden, Narendra Modi, “ Organizations: Skyroot Aerospace, U.S Locations: India, United States, Soviet Union, Hyderabad, Washington, China

☆ Boris Johnson: How Britain's once most popular prime minister fell out of favor
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-10 | by ( Luke Mcgee | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

For decades, his carefully honed media persona – part pseudo-intellectual; part loveable-but-out-of-touch-poshboy – won Johnson fans beyond the traditional Conservative base. Johnson attended a Parliament's Privileges Committee hearing, where he gave evidence on whether he deliberately misled parliament over Partygate. Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty ImagesThat same day, Johnson’s dwindling influence was further underscored as he led a futile rebellion against Sunak’s new Brexit deal, something Johnson has publicly criticized. Johnson delivered Brexit in 2016, but it was now Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who received praise from US President Joe Biden for fixing the issue Johnson's deal created with Northern Ireland. And living in denial might be the kindest thing that Johnson could possibly have done for himself and his legacy.

Persons: Boris Johnson, Downing, Sir Winston Churchill, Johnson, poshboy –, Kois Miah, Johnson’s, Liz Truss, it’s, tutted, Adrian Dennis, Sunak, “, ” Johnson, Brexit, Rishi Sunak, Joe Biden, Dan Kitwood, won’t Organizations: CNN, Johnson, Conservative, London Olympics, Getty, Brexit, EU, Brits, Northern Ireland Locations: British, London, Beijing, Victoria Park, Partygate, AFP, Britain’s, Northern Ireland, Ukraine, Kyiv, Northern, Europe

☆ Chris Licht's tumultuous 13-month run as CEO of CNN: Layoffs, anchor drama, and that really bad Atlantic profile
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Madeline Berg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Discovery CEO David Zaslav emailed staff, letting them know Licht was stepping down. On the programming side, Licht launched "CNN This Morning," with anchors Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow, and Kaitlan Collins. "It's another shit show" on top of Licht's multiplying challenges at CNN, one former employee told Insider at the time. "Having people applaud those sexual abuse comments definitely made me question my allegiance to this network," one network executive told Insider. CNN's own media reporter Oliver Darcy said Licht had "lost the room," adding that dozens of CNN staffers no longer had confidence in their leader.

Persons: Chris Licht, David Zaslav, Licht, Zaslav, He'd, Jeff Zucker, Stephen Colbert's, Joe, Licht's, WBD, —, Brian Stelter, John Harwood, Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow, Kaitlan Collins, Chris Cuomo, Nikki Haley, isn't, Lemon, Gayle King, Charles Barkley, Dana Bash —, Donald Trump, Trump, CNN's Collins, Zucker, Insider's Nich Carlson, Zaslav's, Puck's Dylan Byers, he'd, CNN's, Oliver Darcy, Anderson Cooper, Jake Tapper, Max Tani Organizations: CNN, Warner Bros, Discovery, Licht, CBS, Trump, House, Republican Party, — CNN, AP, Variety, cnn Locations: Trump

☆ Read the pitch deck that helped raise $5 million for fintech FilmHedge after it closed $100 million in debt financing to fund new films and TV shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Reed Alexander | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

FilmHedge closed in March on a $5 million funding round and has a $100 million credit facility. FilmHedge, an Atlanta-based fintech launched in February 2020, provides liquidity to productions with budgets ranging from $1 million to $50 million. It follows a $100 million credit facility from Coromandel Capital and Fallbrook Capital in 2022, which helps FilmHedge finance projects. "We have access to $100 million, but we see around $70 million in applicants per month," he said, "so we have to pass on a lot of deals." FilmHedge gave Insider a look at the 18-page pitch deck it used while raising its $5 million Series A round and $100 million credit facility — check it out here.

Persons: FilmHedge, Jon Gosier, fintech, May FilmHedge, Gosier, —, Axios, FilmHedge hadn't Organizations: Hollywood, Netflix, Entertainment, Variety, Lionsgate, Disney, Collab, WOCStar, Savannah College of Art & Design, TriplePoint, Coromandel Capital, Fallbrook, Media Locations: Atlanta, Coromandel, Hollywood

☆ The A.I. chip boom is pushing Nvidia toward $1 trillion, but it won't help Intel and AMD
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-25 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Demand for AI chips in data centers spurred Nvidia to guide for $11 billion in sales during the current quarter, blowing away analyst estimates of $7.15 billion. "The flashpoint was generative AI," Huang said in an interview with CNBC. Nvidia currently dominates the market for AI GPUs. "The data center of the past, which was largely CPUs for file retrieval, is going to be, in the future, generative data," Huang said. That's one reason why Nvidia's data center business grew 14% during the first calendar quarter versus flat growth for AMD's data center unit and a decline of 39% in Intel's AI and data center business unit.

CNN —World leaders gathered in Japan will attempt to project unity on China during meetings Saturday, even as differences persist between the United States and Europe in how to confront Beijing’s growing military and economic aggression. His attendance underscores the pressing need to maintain western unity in the face of Russian aggression. For example, French President Emmanuel Macron said last month that Europe should not follow the United States into war with China. Climate change will also factor into Saturday’s meetings, with a joint statement expected from the G7 leaders on accelerating a clean energy transition. Biden is balancing his world leader talks with updates from Washington on negotiations over raising the US debt ceiling.

☆ How the Head of a Filmmaking Center Spends His Sundays
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Alix Strauss | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Making the documentaries “was like waving a magic wand,” he said. “We began winning the fights and realized the power we had.”They also realized they had power as a couple. Mr. Alpert and Ms. Tsuno married in 1971 and the following year founded the Downtown Community Television Center, a community hub that produces award-winning documentaries and offers screenings and classes. Some 10,000 high school students have taken free documentary filmmaking classes there, said Mr. Alpert, a renowned director and producer himself. Ms. Tsuno, 78, visits them every week from her home in northern New Jersey, or sometimes they will visit her.

☆ Wall Street's most important workers you've never thought of
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

And on Wall Street, where the volume of information continues to rise, application design and user interface is taking center stage. User interface and user experience have long been underappreciated in finance, which is ironic considering the public nature of the work. Read more about Citadel X, the $57 billion hedge fund's user experience and interface team. If you're still trying to understand the collapse of yet another regional bank, we've got you covered. The German bank is building out its investment bank as it eyes a potential return of M&A, the Financial Times reports.

WASHINGTON, April 13 (Reuters) - Senior officials from the United States, Europe and Britain met on Thursday with financial institutions to brief them on efforts by Russia to evade Western sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine, a senior U.S. Treasury official told reporters. The firms - from the United States, Britain and Europe - assured the officials that they were working hard to avert Russian efforts to evade sanctions and export controls, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Washington on Wednesday imposed sanctions on over 120 targets, including entities linked to Russian state-held energy company Rosatom and firms based in partner nations like Turkey in a sign of stepped-up enforcement. Treasury's top sanctions official, Undersecretary Brian Nelson, will visit Switzerland next week to discuss further moves to crack down on sanctions evasion, with additional stops in Italy, Austria and Germany, Reuters reported last week. Elizabeth Rosenberg, Treasury's assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crime, will travel separately to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

☆ Check out the 18-page pitch deck that Hollywood-focused fintech FilmHedge used to raise tens of millions and help hot new movies and TV series get made
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Reed Alexander | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

FilmHedge lends credit to movies and TV shows with budgetary needs between $1 million and $5 million. The 3-year-old fintech closed on a $5 million round in March and has a $100 million credit facility. FilmHedge, an Atlanta-based fintech launched in February 2020, provides liquidity to productions with budgets ranging from $1 million to $50 million. It follows a $100 million credit facility from Coromandel Capital and Fallbrook Capital in 2022, which helps FilmHedge finance projects. FilmHedge gave Insider a look at the 18-page pitch deck it used while raising its $5 million Series A round and $100 million credit facility — check it out here.

☆ The Play-In Team That’s a Preview of the NBA’s Future
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( Robert O Connell | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Most of the teams in the NBA’s play-in tournament don’t want to be there. Before the season, the Minnesota Timberwolves shelled out five players and four first-round draft picks for shot-blocking center Rudy Gobert in hopes of becoming a Western Conference elite. Now they’ll have to survive a bonus stage just to punch a ticket to the first round of the playoffs.

[1/2] The logo of the Swiss bank Credit Suisse is seen in Zurich, Switzerland March 20, 2023. While the nation's central bank and financial regulator publicly declared that Credit Suisse was sound, behind closed doors the race was on to rescue the nation's second-biggest bank. The Swiss National Bank declined to comment while the finance ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Battered by years of scandals and losses, Credit Suisse for months had been battling a crisis of confidence of its own making. By Wednesday, two days later, Credit Suisse was swept up in a full-blown crisis.

☆ Russia and China are being driven together as the chasm with the West deepens
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

"It's basically about certain strategic interests, that are very close to both Beijing and Moscow at this point," she added. "For both Russia and China, the main interest is to weaken the U.S.-led international order, that's their primary goal, long term and short term." The Ukraine factorFor both China and Russia, the war in Ukraine is both a challenge to that U.S.-led world order and a way to undermine it, analysts note. China has held back from openly supporting Russia's war in Ukraine but it has also refused to condemn the invasion. This fear, she said, could sway China when it considers whether to offer Putin help in Ukraine.

☆ Meet Laxman Narasimhan, a coffee industry outsider who just took over as CEO of Starbucks
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Avery Hartmans | Nancy Luna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Laxman Narasimhan officially took over as Starbucks CEO, replacing Howard Schultz. Narasimhan is new to the coffee industry, having started his career in the consulting world before joining PepsiCo, and, later, British consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser. Narasimhan built his career in the beverage and consumer-goods industriesLaxman Narasimhan at Starbucks Investor Day in September 2022. Starbucks said at the time that Narasimhan would begin as CEO on April 1, taking over for interim CEO Schultz. Of the 365 Starbucks stores that have held votes to unionize, 292 have voted to form a union.

☆ Panama sees limited risk from US, European bank problems
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

PANAMA CITY, March 16 (Reuters) - Panama's risk of contagion from banking woes in the United States and Europe is "very limited", an official with banking regulator SBP said on Thursday, adding that local lenders have no exposure from interbank deposits or other investments. "We can count on a very solid banking system," Amauri Castillo, an SBP superintendent, said at a conference in Panama City. Panama's international banking center (CBI) held assets totaling some $140 billion at the end of last year, up 5% from 2021. At the end of last year, Panama's national banking system reported a capital adequacy ratio of 15.34% and liquidity ratio of 57%. Reporting by Milagro Vallecillos; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Anthony Esposito and David GregorioOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Mitch McConnell slams Rick Scott's plan to sunset Social Security and Medicare, calling it 'a bad idea'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Florida Sen. Rick Scott continues to back his plan to sunset federal programs like Social Security and Medicare every five years. Mitch McConnell slammed the idea, saying on Kentucky radio that it's "the Scott plan. That's not a Republican plan." I'll defend Social Security and Medicare." "I've never ever said I would reduce Medicare or Social Security benefits.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell has spoken and luckily for bulls and bears, there was something for everyone, so where Asian markets go on Wednesday is something a coin flip. With an expected interest rate rise in India taking center stage regionally, investors in Asia will be digesting the mixed U.S. picture that saw stocks rise but the dollar and Treasuries ease lower on Tuesday. But he also said "it will take some time" to get the inflation genie back in the 2% bottle. The Reserve Bank of India is likely to raise its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 6.50%, which most economists reckon will be the last of the hiking cycle. With the rupee within a whisker of October's record low, however, traders will be on RBI intervention alert.

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