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☆ Frank's founder just got hit with federal charges, but questions remain about JPMorgan's handling of the deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Drop any Wall Street (or non-Wall Street) questions you have for me here. A quick refresher: JPMorgan accused Javice of juicing Frank's customer numbers in a lawsuit filed at the end of last year. Prosecutors charged Javice with wire fraud affecting a financial institution, securities fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy. I've joked about it before, but Taylor Swift really should teach a class on this stuff for Wall Street. It's not the president or Wall Street or Congress that's to blame.

☆ Why two of North America's richest families are coming together to fortify Greg Fleming's Rockefeller Capital Management
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Hayley Cuccinello | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A firm owned by one of Canada's richest clans has invested $622 million in wealth firm Rockefeller. Two of North America's richest families have partnered up to invest in wealth management powerhouse Rockefeller Capital Management. The Desmarais family invested $622 million through the Power Corporation of Canada, the financial services conglomerate the family controls, for a 20.5% stake in Rockefeller Capital Management. Paul's son and deputy chairman of Power Corp, Andre Desmarais considered the late David Rockefeller Sr. as a mentor. Courtesy of Rockefeller Capital ManagementThe Desmarais family has worked with Rockefeller on big dealsRockefeller chief executive Fleming also has a two-decade-long relationship with the Desmarais clan.

☆ Magnitude 5.3 quake strikes Mexico, no major damage or injuries reported
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

[1/2] People stand on the street during a quake alarm in Mexico City, Mexico, April 3, 2023. The epicenter of the quake was near the Pacific beach resort of Puerto Escondido, in southern Oaxaca state, according to the USGS. Shortly after the quake, Oaxaca Governor Salomon Jara wrote on Twitter that no damages had been detected in the state. In nearby Morelos, Puebla and Mexico City, authorities also ruled out damages. Reporting by Kylie Madry and Sarah Morland; Editing by Himani Sarkar and David Alire GarciaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Ahead of Easter, Nicaraguan Catholics press on despite procession ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Ismael Lopez | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Ortega's tough stance on the church has been met by a mix of fear and determination among the Central American nation's Catholics. "What's most important is to live our faith," said Maria Flores, who noted that the canceled street procession this Friday - when Christians worldwide mark the crucifixion of Jesus - will be the first time in over four decades she will miss it. Eliseo Nuñez, a Nicaraguan political analyst in exile in neighboring Costa Rica, said government officials banned the processions to quash the prospect of further unrest. In 2005, former Marxist rebel Ortega converted to Catholicism ahead of winning the presidential election the following year. Reporting by Ismael Lopez; Writing by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Sonali PaulOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Belize reaffirms ties with Taipei as Taiwanese president visits
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Jose Sanchez | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen arrives at Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport, Belize City, Belize in this handout picture released April 3, 2023. Tsai's visit comes a week after Honduras severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in favor of Beijing amid heightened U.S.-China tensions. China claims democratically ruled Taiwan as its own territory with no right to state-to-state ties, a position Taipei strongly rejects. Guatemala and Belize are two of just 13 countries that Taiwan has diplomatic relations with. The Taiwanese leader is set to meet with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in a second U.S. stopover in California on Wednesday.

☆ Dollar General has close to 20,000 stores across the US. Here's how it keeps prices so low.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( Mary Hanbury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Dollar General sells items at 20% to 40% less than full-price retailers, with most under $10. Dollar General, one of the best-known discount chains, is growing rapidly and now has more than 19,000 stores across the US. Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesDollar General leases – rather than owns – most of its stores, which helps it to keep costs down. According to a 2021 survey done by the nonprofit think tank, Economic Policy Institute, 92% of Dollar General workers earn less than $15 an hour. It has a limited assortment of groceries, though this is on the riseThe fresh food section at a Dollar General store.

☆ NHL roundup: Carter Verhaeghe nets career-best 4 goals in Panthers' win
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

Sabers 6, Flyers 3Alex Tuch scored his second career hat trick to help Buffalo to a win against host Philadelphia. Morgan Frost scored twice and Felix Sandstrom made 23 saves for the Flyers, who had their seven-game point streak snapped. Avalanche 5, Stars 2Nathan MacKinnon had two goals, Mikko Rantanen had a goal and three assists, and host Colorado beat Dallas. Ben Hutton, Zach Whitecloud and Brett Howden also notched goals for Vegas, which is 5-1-1 in its past seven games. J.J. Moser and Milos Kelemen scored for the Coyotes (27-37-13, 67 points), who have dropped seven straight games (0-5-2).

☆ High-profile tech leaders say AI is developing too fast and we should pause. Google's Bard says it's complicated.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( Josée Rose | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

A letter from tech heavyweights and researchers urging caution about AI should serve as a warning. To help address the fears, companies must set rules and be open how they use AI, execs told Insider. If you ask a group of high-profile tech leaders and researchers, they'll answer a firm "yes." That could involve companies coming up with standards and declaring how they are using or plan to use AI, business leaders told Insider. Bricker said business leaders need to work on improving the rules around AI systems and processes.

☆ Mexico sees growth of up to 3% this year, eyes nearshoring boost
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Anthony Esposito | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Mexico's inflation rate by the end of this year is seen slowing to 5.0%, and then to 4.0% by the end of 2024. Mexico's central bank raised rates 25 basis points to 11.25% Thursday, but hinted the hiking cycle could be nearing its end. Mexico is also primed to benefit from private investment fueled by "nearshoring," the trend of moving production to North America and away from Asia, the ministry said. Nearshoring could add up to 1.2 percentage points to GDP the ministry said, without specifying a time frame. In particular, the ministry anticipated a boost to foreign investment in manufacturing, and said the automotive industry was a "natural candidate" to take advantage of nearshoring.

☆ Bank of Mexico hikes key interest rate to 11.25%, takes dovish tone on future moves
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MEXICO CITY, March 30 (Reuters) - The Bank of Mexico's five-member governing board unanimously voted to hike the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 11.25% on Thursday, moderating the pace of its tightening cycle and taking a more dovish tone on the future of rate moves. Banxico, as the Mexican central bank is known, removed language in its post-meeting statement that appeared in prior statements explicitly mentioning the possibility of future upward adjustments to the key rate. Over the prior 10 straight meetings Banxico had increased the key rate by 50 basis points six times and 75 basis points four times. The last time it had hiked by 25 basis points was in November 2021. We project policy rate will peak 11.5% by mid-2023, and Banxico will begin a gradual policy easing in the later part of the year," said Carlos Morales, sovereign director at Fitch Ratings.

☆ Salvadorans demand release of innocents jailed in anti-gang sweep
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Nelson Renteria | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] People participate in a protest to demand the release of relatives detained following a year-long state of emergency against gangs, in San Salvador, El Salvador March 28, 2023. In the capital San Salvador, many chanted "freedom for the innocent," in a march on Congress that attracted an estimated 500 protesters, according to organizer Samuel Ramirez. Holding a sign addressed to Bukele, 56-year-old housewife Maria Ruiz described the arrest of her husband Manuel Argumedo as an injustice. Another protester, Rosa Ramos, 43, called for the release of her two adult sons detained over the past couple months, despite what she says were no gang ties. Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Writing by Valentine Hilaire; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Cynthia OstermanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Venezuela's Maduro to join Ibero-American summit in rare foreign trip
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SANTO DOMINGO, March 24 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro will attend an Ibero-American summit this weekend hosted by the Dominican Republic, a summit official said on Friday, marking one of the embattled leader's few trips abroad. "We welcome President Nicolas Maduro, who is on his way to the Dominican Republic," said Marian Cruz, the master of ceremonies for the event, which provides a forum for leaders from across Latin America as well as Spain and Portugal. Maduro's attendance at the Saturday and Sunday summit in Santo Domingo would be his first foreign trip this year. Maduro is shunned by many governments due in large part to his 2018 re-election derided as a sham by international observers. Cruz, the summit official, also confirmed the attendance of Spain's President Pedro Sanchez.

☆ Miramax launched a film development team to resurrect its blockbuster-rich heyday. But a string of key departures has hobbled the vision and frustrated some Hollywood creatives.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Reed Alexander | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Miramax built out a film development team early in the pandemic to bring in new projects and filmmakers. "He's the perfect leader to take the Miramax film team into this next chapter." Hammer's credits as a production executive include "Last Vegas" and "Inside Llewyn Davis." The first source said the film development team had worked to turn the company's reputation around by emphasizing relationships with respected filmmakers. But this person and an independent producer familiar with the Hollywood landscape, agreed that Miramax is no longer a top player in film development.

☆ The US is bleeding tech workers to other countries — it needs to move fast or risk falling behind.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The US is losing tech workers to other countries. And so, many tech workers are opting to move and work there instead of the US. Plus, many of these countries are making their immigration systems easier for tech workers. My teammates Emilia David and Paayal Zaveri break down how the US is on the brink of losing an entire generation of tech workers. And it showed that Boomers and Gen Z both love many of the same cars, including the Toyota RAV4.

☆ SlamBall, which combines basketball and football with trampolines, snags big investors
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Lillian Rizzo | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Are you ready for some ... SlamBall? A star-studded lineup of investors in and around sports are jumping into the sport, which is a mashup of football, basketball and trampolines that was buzzy for a short time in the early 2000s. The investment comes as SlamBall plans to relaunch this summer, more than 20 years after the alternative sport was shut down in the U.S. as ratings fell in its second season. SlamBall recently closed an $11 million Series A funding round led by Roger Ehrenberg's IA Sports Ventures and Eberg Capital, a stakeholder in MLB's Miami Marlins. It took founder and CEO Mason Gordon and Mike Tollin – a producer behind the popular Chicago Bulls docuseries "The Last Dance" who helped launch the league the first time – nine months to secure their full roster of investors.

☆ US firm says Mexican authorities illegally seized its port terminal
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Sarah Morland | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] A sign reading "Closure" hangs on a fence at the entrance of the limestone mining by Vulcan Materials in Calica, in Quintana Roo state, Mexico May 6, 2022. Mexico's government on Friday ordered a halt to Vulcan Materials, a producer of gravel and crushed stone, citing environmental concerns and provoking the U.S.-based firm to say it will take legal action to restart operations in Playa del Carmen. REUTERS/Paola ChiomanteMEXICO CITY, March 20 (Reuters) - U.S. construction materials company Vulcan Materials (VMC.N) said on Monday Mexican security forces illegally took possession last week of its port terminal in southern Mexico, amid an extended lawsuit over its nearby limestone mining activities. It follows a 5-year fight with the Mexican government over Vulcan's concessions punctuated by sharp criticism from the country's president last year. Vulcan declined to say how last week's action was illegal or who is currently in control of its terminal.

☆ IDB Invest, Banco de Bogota announce $230 mln sustainability bond
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 17 (Reuters) - The private investment arm of the Inter-American Development Bank's parent group on Friday announced alongside Colombia's Banco de Bogota the issue of a sustainability bond worth $230 million funding social and climate projects. Sustainability bonds are a form of debt instrument in which the proceeds are used to finance or re-finance a combination of both green and social projects. Banco de Bogota will use the funds to finance a portfolio of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises led and owned by women, it added, as well as low-income and priority housing. The Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank, along with its subsidiaries, is among the top providers of development finance in Latin America. IDB Invest said the funds generated by the new sustainability bond will also be used to pay for green buildings, renewable energy, energy efficiency projects, circular economy and sustainable agriculture.

Hazardous "forever chemicals" called PFAS are in most Americans' blood, and they don't break down. One simple chart shows how long PFAS last in human bodies, compared to substances like caffeine or lead. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of thousands of human-made chemicals, which are likely in your food, water, clothes, and furniture. "Once they get into your body, they stick around for a really, really long time," Carmen Messerlian, an environmental epidemiologist who studies PFAS at Harvard's TH Chan School of Public Health, told Insider. That research tells us how long PFAS can linger in our blood, compared to toxic heavy metals or everyday substances like caffeine.

☆ This Isn't What Millennial Middle Age Was Supposed to Look Like - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Jessica Grose | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +25 min

Things have been difficult for her family, she says, but one thing she isn’t worried about: a midlife crisis, looming just over the horizon. One of our questions was about whether they had experienced a midlife crisis and how they would define the term. Many people said they felt they couldn’t be having a midlife crisis, because there was no bourgeois numbness to rebel against. “Who has midlife crisis money?”The traditional midlife crisis, as presented in popular culture, at least, unfolds amid suburban ennui. We just increase our Lexapro.”Was the midlife crisis ever even real?

☆ Despite constitutional ban, Salvadoran leader heavily favored for reelection, poll shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Nelson Renteria | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SAN SALVADOR, March 14 (Reuters) - Nearly 70% of Salvadorans favor popular President Nayib Bukele's bid for a second term, a local newspaper poll showed on Tuesday, despite an explicit constitutional prohibition against serving consecutive terms. In September, Bukele announced he would run for reelection, defying the Central American country's constitution's longstanding ban. The Supreme Court, filled with recently-installed Bukele-backed judges, ruled in 2021 that a consecutive term was allowed, citing Bukele's human right to run. "Salvadorans remain divided on whether the constitution allows immediate re-election," newspaper La Prensa Grafica said in the poll. The poll, conducted in February, showed 68% of the 1,500 respondents supported Bukele's reelection, with 13% against.

☆ Brazil's Lula, citing war, will not visit Russia or Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BRASILIA, March 14 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Tuesday he will not visit Russia or Ukraine due to the ongoing war but he remained committed to a peaceful resolution to the conflict. The leftist leader added at an event in the capital Brasilia that the conflict triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine should be unthinkable. "In the 21st century, it shouldn't be possible that we have war over small things," he said. The comments follow a video call between Lula and Ukraine's President Volodymir Zelenskiy, in early March when Zelenskiy invited Lula to visit Kiev. In previous remarks, Lula has advocated the creation of a group of countries that can mediate a peaceful solution to the conflict.

☆ Here's a look at how work-life balance compares in the US, France, Australia, and the UK
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Jordan Hart | Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Insider compared the work-life balance of the US, France, Australia, and the UK. The clip prompted Insider to look into how work-life balance in the US compares to other developed countries like the UK, France, and Australia. In the US, employees worked more than in the UK, France, and Australia at an average of 1,750 hours per year, the report found. UKGetty ImagesIn a 2023 worldwide work-life balance index by Forbes, the UK claimed five spots in the top 25 cities with the best work-life balance. "I'm among those who think it's important to have a work-life balance," Culleron told Insider.

☆ A real estate investor who owns over 1,000 units and retired at age 36 shares the 5 pillars that drive wealth in real estate — and explains how investors can combine them to compound their income and
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Lisa Kailai Han | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Allred successfully combined the 5 drivers of real estate wealth to scale his portfolio. These 5 pillars include using tax depreciation benefits to maximize the time value of money. Today, Allred has grown his real estate portfolio to ownership in over 1,250 units across 30 different properties in 15 states, including the real estate syndications for which he is a general partner, according to documentation verified by Insider. Pillar 5: LeverageAs someone who was raised to fear debt, Allred has since come a long way in understanding the difference between bad debt and good debt. Generally speaking, for every $1 that I invest in real estate, $3 is provided by somebody else or by a lender.

The local unit of Canada's Xebra Brands (XBRA.CD) is the first company to obtain permits to cultivate, process, produce and market cannabis in Mexico, according to a statement from the firm. In its statement, Xebra Brands said it faces no restrictions where it can grow cannabis in Mexico, the size of cultivation facilities or processing volumes. "This represents an important moment for cannabis globally," Xebra Brands CEO Jay Garnett said in the statement. In an interview with Reuters in late 2021, the firm's former president said regulatory authorizations would position Mexico as the industry's most important North American player. Xebra Brands added it is actively looking for farm land and a site to build an extraction facility to produce CBD-rich hemp derivatives.

☆ Exclusive: Mexico's Pemex, 'punished' by markets, weighs how to pay heavy debt
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Ana Isabel Martinez | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Romero hit back at credit rating agencies that have "punished" Pemex by declaring its bonds speculative grade, or junk, which made its borrowing more expensive. He said the agencies were ignoring progress made by current management on boosting production, lowering debt and keeping reserves stable. At the end of January, Pemex issued 10-year bonds worth $2 billion at a 10.375% interest rate on the market to refinance some debt. That production target significantly scales back Lopez Obrador's initial oil ambitions, when in late 2018 at the start of his administration he promised to grow Pemex production to 2.6 million bpd. Pumping more, he said, "will comfortably allow us to meet our country's demand for crude oil and fuels."

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