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☆ Opinion: A pleasant flight in South Africa vs. air travel horrors in America
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Jill Filipovic | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —This past weekend, I had one of the most unusual experiences of my life: a day of air travel that was easy, sensible, efficient — dare I say pleasant. But last Saturday, it was — which highlighted just how unpleasant and undignified air travel often is, particularly within the United States. So, let’s say your flight is still scheduled and you’ve paid extra money to travel with a bag. But air travel was bad well before the pandemic. But every once in a while, like this past weekend as I settled into my oversized South African Airways seat without having broken a sweat, I’ll see a little glimmer of what air travel could be.

☆ Crypto execs have complaints about the SEC and CFTC. Here's how Chainalysis' policy head believes the industry can find common ground with US regulators.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The US may not embrace crypto, but it needs clear regulation, Chainalysis' policy head told Insider. The CFTC recently sued Binance, whose compliance head critized regulators at an industry event. Chainalysis' policy head says Congress needs to pass crypto-specific legislation. Similar complaints abounded throughout the Links conference, an industry event recently held by Chainalysis in New York. She pointed to other areas, including Dubai and Switzerland, that have created policy frameworks specifically for digital assets, including crypto.

China and Russia have declared a "no limits" partnership and Xi has sought to position China as a mediator in the Ukraine conflict. [1/3] Members of Ukrainian special forces engage in zeroing their weapons prior to a mission, amid Russia?s attack on Ukraine, in the region of Bakhmut, Ukraine, April 6, 2023. But Ukrainian border guard Levko Stek, speaking in a video clip amid explosions, said Ukrainian forces did not sense any "ammunition hunger" on the Russian side. Ukrainian military expert Oleksander Musienko said Russian forces were "exhausted and cannot maintain the same pace of attacks" that they launched in February. "The Russian forces are preparing to organise defensive positions.

"The meeting agreed to launch an all-out comprehensive operation with the entire nation and the government, which will rid the country of the menace of terrorism with renewed vigor and determination," the security committee said in a statement. Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country of 220 million people, has seen a rise in attacks by Islamist militants in the last few months, particularly since negotiations with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militant group broke down last year. The court has already rejected the government's argument, but Friday's security committee statement brings with it the key endorsement of Pakistan's powerful military. It (the government) gets the military's backing without the military giving any sort of political statement," Hussain added. Pakistan's military has ruled the country for over 30 years out of its 75-year history and continues to wield enormous power.

☆ South Korean millennials and Gen Z are raging against the idea of a 69-hour workweek. They are tired, having fewer babies, and are even working themselves to death.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Nidhi Pandurangi | Reena Koh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The South Korean government wants to increase the workweek to 69 hours. The 69-hour limit relates to a six-day workweek, while the 80.5-hour limit is applicable for a seven-day workweek, according to South Korean outlet Han Kyeo Re. In 2020, 14 delivery couriers in South Korea died of overwork stemming from increased deliveries during the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuters reported, citing a union representative. Notably, the culture of long working hours and death linked to overworking is not specific to South Korea. However, the government is trying to disconnect longer working hours from low birth rates.

Border of Steel is one of eight new storm brigades totalling 40,000 soldiers that Ukraine wants to use during a counter-offensive against Russian occupiers in coming weeks or months. Ukraine beat back Russian forces from Kyiv last year before liberating swathes of the northeast and of the southern Kherson region. But Russian forces still occupy tracts of the east, the strategically important south and the Crimean peninsula. "For them, the objective is to liberate Ukraine," Klymenko said of the recruits during an interview in Kyiv. He gave no clues as to when or where Ukraine would launch its counter-offensive.

☆ Ukraine battles on in Bakhmut as Finland joins NATO
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Pavel Polityuk | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/2] An Ukrainian serviceman sits atop an infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, near the bombed-out eastern city of Bakhmut, in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukraine, April 2, 2023. "From a legal point of view, Bakhmut has been taken," said Prigozhin, who has previously made premature claims. "Bakhmut is Ukrainian and they have not captured anything and are very far from doing that," Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for the eastern military command, told Reuters. Western pressure on Russia may increase with Finland, which shares a 1,300-km (810-mile) border with Russia, joining NATO on Tuesday. "In the event that the forces and resources of other NATO members are deployed in Finland, we will take additional steps to reliably ensure Russia's military security," he told RIA.

Donald Trump's calls for mass protests fell flat ahead of his NYC arraignment on Tuesday. By noon, more than 100 Trump backers had descended upon a park outside a Manhattan courthouse. By noon, more than 100 backers of the indicted ex-president had descended upon a park outside of the lower Manhattan courthouse where Trump will be arraigned. Overall, the pro-Trump crowd paled in comparison to the demonstrations and massive protests Trump called for before he was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury last week. Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene also delivered a roughly 10-minute-long speech to a swarm of press and Trump backers at a park rally.

☆ Tech firms hold all the power right now as Goldman Sachs predicts AI will impact 300 million jobs
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Goldman Sachs estimates 300 million jobs could be affected by AI. A new report from Goldman Sachs reckons generative AI models like OpenAI's GPT-4 could impact 300 million full-time jobs globally. OpenAI's apparent willingness to roll out advanced AI models as soon as they're ready points more to a future where the tech replaces vast swathes of the workforce. History dictates that innovation with the power to disrupt and eliminate jobs typically paves the way for new fields, in time. A 2020 report from the World Economic Forum predicted AI will displace 85 million jobs by 2025, and create 97 million new ones.

☆ Syria's president appoints new oil minister in reshuffle
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

DAMASCUS, March 29 (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has appointed a new oil minister and changed four other ministers in a cabinet reshuffle, state media said on Wednesday. Hassan Kaddour, who was the general director of the Syrian Petroleum Company for the last two years, replaces Bassam Touma as oil minister, the report said. Assad named Mohsen Abdelkarim Ali as internal trade minister, Abdelqader Jokhdar as industry minister, Louay al-Munajjed as social affairs minister and Ahmed Bostachi as a state minister. Assad switched out his defence minister in April 2022. The conflict raging in Syria since 2011 has cost the country much of its domestic oil production, especially with the northeastern oil producing fields outside government control.

☆ PHOTOS: Inside the front-line trenches around a destroyed town where Ukraine is fighting the war's longest and bloodiest battle
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Trench warfare has been a major element of fighting between Ukraine and Russia around the eastern city of Bakhmut. Photographs from the area show elaborate networks of trenches that slice through the earth. This is what life looks like in Ukraine's front-line fortifications. A French photographer who documented life in Ukraine's trenches before the war previously described the fortifications in Ukraine's eastern Donbas as "endless bowels of Earth." Here's what life looks like in the front-line trenches near Ukraine's bloodiest and most intense battle, the fight for Bakhmut.

☆ Trump allies have privately been asking him to rein in talk of 'death and destruction' as he rails against a possible indictment: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The former president has been asking his confidantes what they think of his social media posts. The sources added that Trump has asked several confidants what they think of his recent explosive posts on social media, per Rolling Stone. The post containing the image of Trump with the baseball bat has since been deleted from Trump's Truth Social account. Trump's other raging remarks directed at the investigation, such as his warning of "potential death and destruction" if he were indicted, sre still up on Truth Social. In one such post, Trump claimed Bragg "IS JUST CARRYING OUT THE PLANS OF THE RADICAL LEFT LUNATICS.

☆ Putin's war turned this quiet Polish airport into a global military hub where passenger jets touch down alongside Patriot missiles
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Stephanie Stacey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport is just 50 miles from Poland's border with Ukraine. He told Insider: "I realized that a great challenge was ahead of us and that any mistake on our part couldn't be an option." Hamryszczak told Insider that he had to rise to "countless" challenges, including making complex arrangements with world leaders and welcoming the world's media. Air Force One is "the most famous aircraft that has ever visited our airport," Hamryszczak said. "This is no longer the same regional airport that operated in 2021, or even before the pandemic," Hamryszczak told Insider.

☆ I Visited Miami After the Stock Market Crash, Crypto Bubble Pop
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Linette Lopez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

And if any city is the city where you can see just how remarkably things have shifted, it's also Miami. If the draw in the 1920s was imaginary land, Miami's bubble in the 2020s was driven by imaginary money — crypto. The newcomers — and the crypto kids, especially — believed they could master Miami as easily as they had mastered the markets. The new Miami money party started to run out of libations. "There were a lot of true believers in the Miami crypto scene.

☆ Spain tells 'fire tourists' to stay away from forest blaze
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Guillermo Martinez | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] A plane throws water over a wildfire in Pina de Montalgrao, Castellon, following a wildfire raged in eastern Spain, March 26, 2023. REUTERS/Lorena SopenaBARRACAS, Spain, March 26 (Reuters) - Officials urged 'fire tourists' to keep away from blazes raging in eastern Spain on Sunday, saying onlookers were putting themselves at risk and disrupting efforts to quell the flames. Police had spotted 14 cyclists near the scene trying to get a closer look, Gabriela Bravo, the regional head of interior affairs in the Valencia region, told reporters. "We ask once again and above all tourists not to engage in fire tourism, not to approach the perimeter area," she said. In Spain, 493 fires destroyed a record 307,000 hectares of land last year, according to the Commission's European Forest Fire Information System.

[1/3] Don Cameron stands next to one of his flood capture projects on his Terranova Ranch in Helm, California, U.S., January 25, 2023. Today, California water experts see Cameron as a pioneer. Terra Nova's basins are filled with 1.5 to 3.5 feet of water, Cameron said Wednesday. California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order on March 10 making it easier for farmers to divert floodwaters onto their lands until June. "We're at the beginning of a lot of momentum for groundwater recharge programs," said Gosselin, of the state groundwater office.

☆ CNBC Special Pro Talks: Investor who predicted the Silicon Valley Bank collapse gives his best bets
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailCNBC Special Pro Talks: Investor who predicted the Silicon Valley Bank collapse gives his best betsHe’s the new ‘Big Short.’ Raging Capital Ventures Chairman & CIO William Martin famously warned of Silicon Valley Bank’s problems two months before its demise and profited on its collapse. Martin joins a CNBC Special Pro Talks with how he is investing for whatever comes next and to answer your questions.

☆ Trump seems disconnected from reality and is still rolling around Mar-a-Lago in a golf cart even as a potential indictment in New York looms: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Donald Trump is still living a relaxed lifestyle, despite facing a possible indictment, per NYT. Citing several people who have spent time with Trump in the last few days, The Times reported that the former president was seen cruising around Mar-a-Lago in his golf cart. Trump faces a possible indictment by a New York grand jury, as the Manhattan district attorney's office investigates the hush-money case involving porn star Stormy Daniels. The Times reported that Trump immediately went golfing after making the social media post, leaving his legal team to answer the public's confusion. After golfing on Saturday, Trump then flew to Oklahoma to watch collegiate wrestling, The Times reported.

☆ The loser of a rare submarine vs. submarine battle was found 80 years after being sunk
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Stavros Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

In July 1941, a British submarine sank an Italian submarine in the Mediterranean Sea. It was against this backdrop that the Royal Navy submarine HMS Torbay and the Italian submarine Jantina squared off in the Aegean Sea near the island of Mykonos. The first two passed in front of the Italian sub, but the next struck it and exploded. The Italian sub sank quickly, and only six of the 48-man crew survived, swimming to a nearby island. By the end of the war, Torbay had sunk more than 40 German, Italian, and Japanese warships, merchant ships, and other vessels.

☆ Russia-China Summit Showcases Challenge to the West
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Ann M. Simmons | Austin Ramzy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

MOSCOW—Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed the deepening political and economic ties between their two countries at a summit that telegraphed their shared interest in challenging a world order led by the U.S. and its democratic allies. With war raging in eastern Ukraine, hundreds of miles away from the gilded Kremlin hall where the men met, Mr. Xi, in his third term as China’s leader, noted that “political mutual trust is deepening” between Moscow and Beijing and “common interests are multiplying.”

☆ Trump supporters in China are up in arms and raging about a possible indictment: 'Trump, America needs you'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Cheryl Teh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

There was a deluge of support for Trump on Weibo after he said he may be arrested on Tuesday. On Saturday, news of a possible Trump indictment skyrocketed to the top of the charts on the Twitter-like Weibo platform at 11.30 p.m., Beijing time. This was moments after Trump wrote Saturday on Truth Social that he will be arrested in New York next week. CNN reported in 2020 that some Chinese social media users viewed Trump as a better candidate than President Joe Biden — surmising that he would help build China up by ruining America. Meanwhile, a possible indictment in New York now looms over Trump.

☆ 8 million Chinese youths sat for a test in the style of an 'imperial examination' — all for a job that pays about $7,000 a year
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Aditi Bharade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

A record 7.7 million Chinese youths sat for an intense test to try to secure one of 200,000 government jobs. The modern-day civil service tests are not far off the mark from their ancient iterations. In spite of the tough tests required to secure these jobs, civil service jobs are not high paying. "In general, civil service jobs could bring with them benefits for the whole family, like connections to positions of power," Wu said. For those who want to be active participants in the workforce, civil service jobs continue to be a solid option.

☆ At least 22 people killed in suspected massacre at Myanmar monastery
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] Soldiers stand next to military vehicles as people gather to protest against the military coup, in Yangon, Myanmar, February 15, 2021. A spokesman for the KNDF said its soldiers entered Nan Neint on Sunday and found dead bodies scattered at a Buddhist monastery. Video and photographs provided by the KNDF and another group, the Karenni Revolution Union (KRU), showed bullet wounds to the torso and heads of the dead bodies and bullet holes in the walls of the monastery. "Since all the dead bodies were found within the compound of Nan Nein monastery, it is evident that this was a massacre." At least 3,137 people have been killed in the military crackdown since the coup, according to the non-profit Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

☆ The investor who famously shorted Silicon Valley Bank in January on what's to come in the crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

William Martin has emerged as the "big short" in the latest banking crisis brought on by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. The Rocky Hill, New Jersey-based short seller from Raging Capital Ventures singled out Silicon Valley Bank and announced a short position in a Twitter thread on January 18, the day before the bank's quarterly earnings. Martin warned of SVB's large held-to-maturity securities portfolio and accelerating deposit outflows, the exact culprit that brought down the venture capital-focused bank. "There are a lot of banks that have these type of loans and mortgages, but not in the significant position that Silicon Valley Bank had," Martin said. The investor said he covered some of his large short position last Thursday, but was still short SVB into the collapse.

☆ Ukraine said it was 'watching with pleasure' as footage showed a lethal fire at a building of Russia's FSB security service near border
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A fire broke out at a Russian FSB building on Thursday, causing fuel tanks to explode. At least one person has been killed and two injured, Russian media reported. The FSB is Russia's primary security agency and the main successor to the Soviet Union's notorious KGB. It is responsible for internal security, counterintelligence, border security, and counter-terrorism. The building where the fire broke out belonged to the FSB's regional border patrol section, according to the BBC.

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