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Rep. Mayra Flores speaks at the University Draft House in McAllen, Texas, on Oct. 10. “I still believe at the end of the day this is still a solid, moderate Democratic region,” González said. A fighting chanceOf the three Latina Republicans running, Mónica De La Cruz, endorsed by former President Donald Trump and running in an adjacent congressional district, Texas' 15th, is considered the party's best chance to win. Soon after being sworn in to Congress, Flores voted against the landmark gun safety bill pushed through Congress by Sen. John Cornyn, the Texas Republican. Francisco Medrano Jr., of Harlingen, says he’s likely to support Republican Mayra Flores.

☆ The fate of the world economy may depend on what happens to a company most Americans have never heard of
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-22 | by ( Avery Hartmans | Jacob Zinkula | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

The fate of the global economy may rest on the shoulders of one company: TSMC. That's because there could be trillions of dollars' worth of economic activity tied to that one company: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world's biggest chipmaker. Ann Wang/ReutersThe semiconductor industry has its roots in the US, as much of the research and development is done on US soil. According to a 2021 report from the Semiconductor Industry Association, in 1990 the US produced 37% of the world's chip supply. These days, the US is responsible for only 12% of global chip production.

☆ ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ Review: From Friends to Enemies
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Wounded but funny, quiet but resonant and resistant to anything like a Hollywood formula, “The Banshees of Inisherin” is a strangely profound little comedy. The guns of the Irish Civil War can be heard in the distance, creating puzzlement among the residents of Inisherin. A kind of micro-spoof of the war is about to upend his peaceful little life. Pádraic’s best friend, Colm (played with a balance of lightness and foreboding by the gifted character actor Brendan Gleeson ), has decided to spurn him, irrevocably and without warning. “I just don’t like you no more,” Colm says, and demands that Pádraic never speak to him again.

Estimates that 80-90% of Russian oil will continue to flow outside the cap mechanism are not unreasonable, a U.S. Treasury official told Reuters. "Oil traders dealing in Russian oil are no longer in Switzerland, Geneva or London. P&I services heeding EU law insure 95% of the world's shipborne oil trade, meaning the EU move could have halted most of Russia's exports. Insurance and shipping industry figures still saw themselves at risk of sanctions which could upend the trade even in the G7 price cap workaround. The EU ratified the price cap this month but details on implementing it remain forthcoming.

While jurors cannot be excluded for simply holding certain political views or expressing disapproval of Trump, experts said the lawyers will aim to remove jurors who cannot be fair and impartial. Similarly, Gomez said the government will look to weed out strongly pro-Trump jurors who are unable to put those views aside. However, a guilty verdict must be unanimous, which means one juror unwilling to convict the Trump Organization would upend the government's case. Neither the district attorney's office nor the Trump Organization's lawyers responded to requests for comment. Lawyers for the Trump Organization have claimed the Manhattan district attorney's case is a "selective prosecution" based on animosity toward Trump's political views, though the judge overseeing it has rejected that argument.

☆ The CEO of Barry Diller's IAC says Netflix with ads will be a double blow to network TV revenue: 'Now they're losing audience and losing scarcity.'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The growth of ad-supported streaming at scale is set to challenge the $60 billion TV ad business. One top internet executive, IAC CEO Joey Levin, says Netflix will destroy networks' scarcity argument. Wall Street also is waiting to see if Netflix draws ad dollars from social media or TV. Traditional TV networks are about to lose one of their main arguments for charging big rates for ads. Netflix's arrival on Madison Avenue next year is going to erode the hugely lucrative TV ad business, said Levin, who spoke with Insider in September.

☆ Gold rush: Lawyers are flocking to Arizona to take advantage of new rules resulting in a flood of outside investments in law firms
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

In 2021, Arizona changed its rules to let non-lawyers co-own law firms, many of which are highly profitable: They collectively made an estimated $320 billion in the US last year. Today, 47 states — all but Arizona, Utah, and Washington — ban anyone but lawyers from owning law firms. Some of the firms Arizona has approved have said they plan to advertise nationwide, and refer cases to other law firms that will actually do the work. Pre-settlement funding, which is one of the riskier kinds of loan for plaintiffs' law firms, often has interest rates of 12 to 20 percent, Ziser said. The UK has allowed outside investment in law firms since 2007 without major scandal, he said, but it also takes a loser-pays approach to lawsuits that can cut down on frivolous claims.

This has hurt tech platforms that earn the bulk of revenue by selling digital ads and has led to cost-cutting to preserve profitability. On Thursday, Snap is expected to report 6% growth in revenue to $1.13 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. This would represent the slowest-ever quarterly revenue growth for Snap as a public company. Wall Street is expecting Alphabet to report the highest growth of the Big Tech companies with an increase of 7.5% in ad revenue compared with last year. Snap and Meta have become more known for so-called performance ads, which are used to drive sales or website visits.

WisconsinDemocrats see Republican Sen. Ron Johnson as a vulnerable incumbent. Barnes has espoused progressive views in office, but his Senate campaign has focused more on pocketbook issues such as inflation and taxes. Vance appears locked in a tight Senate race against Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, despite running in a red-leaning state that Trump won handily in 2020. Incumbent Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan's approval ratings have fallen, including among unaffiliated voters who make up a major chunk of the state's electorate. FloridaFormer Orlando police chief and Democratic Rep. Val Demings aims to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Marco Rubio.

Twitter, a social network with hundreds of millions of users, “was over a decade behind industry security standards,” he later testified. His concerns, raised privately at first and later in a whistleblower disclosure that became public, would upend one of the world’s most influential social networks and raise new questions about its pending acquisition by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk. A big part of the issue, Zatko told a Senate panel, was that software and e-commerce companies “want to ignore problems as long as possible. When he was hired to join Twitter, Zatko framed the move in terms of the public good. “This wasn’t my first choice,” he previously told CNN.

☆ Kanye West to acquire Parler
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN Business —Kanye West is acquiring Parler, the alternative social media platform favored by many conservatives. Exact terms of the Parler deal weren’t disclosed, though Parler said it must still enter into a definitive agreement with West and expects to close in the fourth quarter. Buying Parler could make West the latest celebrity owner of a social media platform after former President Donald Trump’s bid to win over conservatives with Truth Social and Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s proposed acquisition of Twitter. Truth Social launched in February on Apple’s app store, and was approved for Google’s app store on Oct. 13. Musk’s move to buy Twitter, if the deal goes through, also has the potential to upend Parler and similar services.

☆ UK Prime Minister Truss says 'sorry' for mistakes, but 'I'm sticking around'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Britain's Prime Minister Liz Truss apologised for "mistakes" in her programme that caused investor confidence to evaporate and her poll ratings to plunge before nearly all of it was finally shredded on Monday, but said she would not step down. "I do want to accept responsibility and say sorry for the mistakes that have been made," Truss told the BBC. read moreAsked if she was now prime minister in name only, Truss said she had appointed Hunt because she knew she had to change direction. Truss and Kwarteng attempted to upend British fiscal policy by unveiling 45 billion pounds of unfunded tax cuts last month to snap the economy out of stagnation. "I'm sticking around because I was elected to deliver for this country," she said.

Several Republicans who want to upend the way votes are cast and counted are also running for top election administrator offices in their states. Republicans who back Trump's false claim have become their party's nominees for top election officials in states that could play decisive roles in the 2024 contest. Voting groups are concerned that the election of some far right candidates could threaten the integrity of the next presidential election. That means Democrats must hold offices in closely-contested states to ensure the results of elections will be respected, he said. "Because it may turn out that in a close presidential election at some point, certification of an election in a key swing state may be at issue.

Share this -Link copiedCommittee votes to subpoena Trump The committee voted on Thursday unanimously to subpoena Trump. Trump would not be the first president to be subpoenaed, nor would he be the first former president subpoenaed by Congress. "Even before the networks called the race for President Biden on Nov. 7th, his chances of pulling out a victory were virtually nonexistent, and President Trump knew it," Kinzinger said. “At times, President Trump acknowledged the reality of his loss. “What did President Trump know?

Some may want to see the explosive, racist diatribes of a handful of prominent Los Angeles City Council members as an unfortunate incident that will eventually fade away. But the reality is that such prejudice from Latino to Latino and Latino to other racial groups is not so uncommon. That was on stark display in the conversation among former Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez, council members Kevin De León and Gil Cedillo and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera, who resigned Monday. "If you’re going to talk about Latino districts, what kind of districts are you trying to create?” she asks her colleagues in frustration. Zapotecs, or Indigenous people of Oaxacan descent, number about 200,000 in Los Angeles County, one of the largest Oaxacan communities outside Mexico.

☆ U.S. Sees ‘Decisive Decade’ Ahead in Competition With China, Russia
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Gordon Lubold | Charles Hutzler | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—The U.S. is entering a “decisive decade” as it confronts both its competition with China and a Russia attempting to upend the international order, while facing challenges from climate change to energy to food security, international terrorism and disease, a top White House official said Wednesday. The Biden administration on Wednesday released its national-security strategy, a document that attempts to outline the administration’s approach to problems around the world, identifying global competitors, particularly China, but also Russia.

☆ Alex Jones faces a reckoning, but the style of politics he popularized is here to stay
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN Business —Alex Jones’ day of reckoning has arrived. A jury in Connecticut decided that the right-wing conspiracy theorist should pay eight families of Sandy Hook shooting victims and a first-responder a staggering $965 million. The decision comes shortly after a trial in Texas where a jury found that the Infowars founder should pay a separate pair of Sandy Hook parents who sued him in the Lone Star state nearly $50 million. In total, the lies told by Jones about the Sandy Hook shooting have so far cost him more than $1 billion. While Jones may face a reckoning, nearly a decade after his heinous lie about the Sandy Hook shooting, the corrosive blueprint that catapulted him to fame and fortune on the political right is here to stay.

☆ Labor proposal could upend rules for gig workers, companies
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Misclassifying workers as independent contractors denies those workers protections under federal labor standards, promotes wage theft, allows certain employers to gain an unfair advantage over businesses, and hurts the economy, the department said Tuesday. The misclassification of workers has negatively impacted delivery workers, custodians, truck drivers, waiters, construction workers and more, according to the department. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said the proposal would constitute a major change for workers and employers from previous years. Last year the Biden administration repealed a Trump-era rule that would have made it easier to classify workers as independent contractors. The repeal meant the Labor Department was able to continue using existing rules under the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act to determine whether a worker should be classified as an independent contractor.

☆ China's Communist Party leadership reshuffle: what to look for
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Yew Lun Tian | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Visitors are seen silhouetted against a Chinese Communist Party flag displayed at the Museum of the Communist Party of China in Beijing, China September 3, 2022. REUTERS/Florence LoBEIJING, Oct 11 (Reuters) - China's ruling Communist Party will reshuffle its leadership when it holds a once-in-five-years Congress starting Oct 16, with Xi Jinping widely expected to stay on for a third term as general secretary, China's senior-most position. Economic tsar and Vice Premier Liu He, 70, is due for retirement. The only woman in the Politburo, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, 72, is also due to retire. Xu Qiliang and Zhang Youxia, both military chiefs in the Politburo age 72, are also due to retire.

The exterior of the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building is seen in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 14, 2022. "There's not really a lot of difference" at this point among Fed officials' views about appropriate policy, Evans said. Evans called that "a pretty good looking soft landing." "While this does represent a noticeably softer labor market when compared with today's, these certainly are not recession-like numbers," Evans said. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Chizu NomiyamaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Things will remain status quo with the union’s contract until then. The engineers and conductors union votes are cause for “apprehension on all sides,” said the source. Online chatter among the conductors union and engineers union members signal they want a strike before even seeing the contract, while some are calling for reason, the source said. Conductors union and engineers union members will be mailed ballots at the end of this month with a 21-day voting period. Although most union contracts are ratified, there have been some very high-profile examples of angry union members voting no.

☆ Compass is in a precarious position. It's worth a fraction of its IPO valuation, it's never turned a profit, and employees say the former centerpiece of the business — its vaunted tech tools for agent
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

Reffkin (left) and Compass cofounder Ori Allon. Tech had been central to Compass' original missionFor years, Compass executives, including Reffkin, credited the company's tech with its meteoric rise in the residential-real-estate business. Though Compass' tech team still has 700 people, many more than any rival brokerage, the September layoffs seemed to initiate what insiders expect to be continuing cuts to the unit. "Robert is like Steve Jobs but without the insight," the veteran engineer who left Compass earlier this year said. Reffkin (left) and Allon ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

☆ CarMax results fall short as inflation-hit buyers rethink purchases
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Sept 29 (Reuters) - Shares of CarMax Inc (KMX.N) fell 20% in premarket trading on Thursday after the top U.S. used-car retailer's second-quarter results were slammed by the impact of rising inflation on consumer spending. Strong demand for personal transport has led to steady sales of both new and used cars in the United States so far, but rising interest rates and higher car prices are starting to upend that trend. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterAuto research firm Cox Automotive, which tracks U.S. vehicle market trends, on Wednesday cut its forecast for new and used vehicle sales on worsening consumer sentiment. Consumers are pulling themselves out of the purchase process as rising interest rates and high vehicle prices make monthly payments unaffordable, said Cox Automotive Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke. Ford Motor Co's (F.N) shares tumbled last week after the automaker said it was experiencing higher inflationary pressures.

☆ Before Crypto Lender Celsius Crashed, CEO Alex Mashinsky Was Known for Big Ideas and Battles
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( James Fanelli | Vicky Ge Huang | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

For some 30 years, Alex Mashinsky barreled into whatever was the hot technology of the time, promising revolutions in long-distance calling, airport rides and, most recently, crypto. He often left a trail of unhappy friends, colleagues and investors. His latest venture, Celsius Network LLC, pitched itself as both safe and subversive. It was a way for regular people to tap the moneymaking potential of crypto, and to upend traditional banking. Last month, Celsius filed for bankruptcy protection, and its customers worry they might never get their money back.

☆ Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner knew the 2020 election wasn't stolen and began to distance themselves before the results were even called, a new book says
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Peter Baker | Susan Glasser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +17 min

In their new book, journalists, Peter Baker and Susan Glasser go behind the scenes of the Trump White House. As the 2020 election results came in, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump had already moved on, the book says. They had their own future to think about, one that would no longer involve the White House. While still in the White House, he began writing a memoir focused on Middle East peacemaking. "We either have a vote WE control and WEwin OR it gets kicked to Congress 6 January 2021," Don Jr. wrote.

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