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☆ Irsina, the Italian village being repopulated by Americans
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Silvia Marchetti | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

More than 15 families from the US and Canada have bought old properties in this remote village, known for its premium wheat fields and olive groves. The first foreign “pioneer” to buy a house in Irsina was Sandy Webster, a 63-year-old writer from San Diego. The couple fell in love with the village, bought an old house with thick stone walls, antique furniture and ancient maiolica-tile floors, and spent four years renovating it. “When we got here in 2016, over 80% of the population had fled to the newer district of Irsina, the old Irsina was empty and we loved how it looked. Their house, built into the old village walls, was on sale for 70,000 euros ($77,000).

CNN —A man dressed in the yellow and green of the Brazilian flag walks towards a glass table inside the Planalto Presidential Palace in Brasilia with a metal rod in his hand. The footage provides new insight into one of the darkest days in in the life of Brazil’s young democracy. It also appears to bolster the claims of those who accused police of failing to act to stop protesters from breaking into the Presidential Palace, among other government buildings. The newly obtained footage shows police forces seemingly retreating as supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro – who was ousted in a vote last fall – march on the palace. “To liken my behaviour to that Major distributing waters to protesters is absurd,” he told Brazilian broadcaster Globo.

The user claimed to be posting information from the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency and other intelligence agencies. A chain of digital evidence collected by The Times ties the posts containing the sensitive information to Airman Teixeira. The posts were made under a user name that The Times has previously connected to Airman Teixeira. Fellow Discord members sent the user birthday wishes on Dec. 21, the same date Airman Teixeira’s sister wished him a happy birthday on Facebook. And he posted a photograph of an antique German rifle for which The Times found an online receipt in Airman Teixeira’s name.

☆ ‘Rear View,’ a Show About Butts, Is Forward Thinking
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Jason Farago | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The four art dealers who trade together as LGDR have opened a gallery on East 64th Street with a preposterous inaugural exhibition — but before you take that the wrong way, remember the etymology. Preposterous, adjective: from the Latin prae-, meaning “before,” and posterus, or “coming after.” Something preposterous is turned the wrong way. …I had better stop; “Rear View,” with more than 60 paintings, sculptures and photographs of human figures facing the more interesting way, invites a preposterous amount of wordplay. Many of the artists in “Rear View” channel their backward glances through the classical ideal. Michelangelo Pistoletto, the Arte Povera artist, places a concrete copy of the Aphrodite of Knidos in a pile of trash.

☆ The IRS may tax certain NFTs at a higher rate in the future — here’s what to know
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Cheyenne Devon | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Currently, the IRS treats NFTs and cryptocurrency as property for federal income tax purposes, according to the agency's website. However, net profits earned from selling a collectible are subject to a higher tax rate of 28%. So, if the IRS decides to treat NFTs as collectibles for tax purposes, sellers may be faced with a higher tax bill. The NFT market started the year off with a sizable surge in trading volume, according to NFT and DeFi tracking company DappRadar's latest report. That's up from trading volume of $1.9 billion on 18 million sales in the fourth quarter of 2022.

☆ Front-line Ukrainian soldiers say it seems like Russia has 'unlimited' artillery shells to throw at them while they're worried about running out
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Front-line Ukrainian soldiers say it feels like Russia has been firing "unlimited" artillery shells. New weapons from the US and NATO allies, like the Abrams tank, could change the tide of the war. A new BBC video follows troops in the area, operating older Soviet-era tanks and firing at Russian enemies just 500 meters away. As the soldiers run to safety in trenches, they tell BBC it feels like Russia has been firing nonstop in the area. But for Dima and other soldiers on the front lines, the bombardment still feels constant.

☆ Russia is dusting off antique tanks from the 1940s, monitor group says, as its losses mount in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russia appears to be dusting off its T-54 tanks, first deployed more than 70 years ago. Images from a monitoring group showed the tanks moving through Russia closer to Ukraine. While other old tanks have been used by Russia in Ukraine, none have been as old as the T-54, the group said. Ukraine claimed that Russia lost 21 tanks in a single day earlier this month. And, as Russia faces these struggles, Ukraine is expecting deliveries of modern tanks from Western allies, including Leopard-2 tanks from Europe, Britain's Challenger 2 tanks, and Abrams tanks from the US.

☆ The IRS plans to tax some NFTs as collectibles — and the rich would pay up to 28% on profits
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Noam Galai | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty ImagesHow the IRS plans to tax NFTsNFT enthusiasm swelled in recent years along with the popularity of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin . An NFT offering a right to use or develop that virtual plot also generally isn't a collectible, the IRS said. Profit on those sales is taxed at ordinary income tax rates, which apply to wages, for example. (There are seven marginal tax rates, ranging from 10% up to 37%.) These tax rates are generally lower than ordinary income tax rates.

☆ Former presidential candidate John Edwards was accused of funneling nearly $1 million in donor contributions to support his pregnant mistress and criminally charged with a campaign finance violation.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

John Edwards was charged with campaign finance violations in 2011 related to his 2008 presidential run. Edwards was acquitted of one campaign finance violation charge — the others were dropped. The last time a presidential candidate was criminally charged for alleged campaign finance violations, John Edwards faced up to 30 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines. Edwards was John Kerry's vice presidential running mate in 2004 in the pair's losing race against George W. Bush and Dick Cheney prior to launching his own presidential campaign in 2008. "It's not illegal to be a pig," said Brett Kappel, a Washington campaign finance expert told The Washington Post at the time the charges were brought.

☆ Larry Fink's annual letter to BlackRock investors was about getting back to basics
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink GettyImages / Eugene Gologursky1. If you're looking for controversy in Larry Fink's annual open letter to investors, better luck next year. Despite this year's letter clocking in at roughly 9,000 words — have you thought about getting an editor, Larry? — Fink largely avoided discussing a favorite, albeit controversial, topic of his: ESG investing. Click here to read more about Larry Fink's latest annual letter that largely avoided hot political topics.

A lot has changed since then, and today, the best cocktail bars are instead concentrated in Taipei’s financial district. These bars embrace the flavors of locally abundant flowers and fruits like roselle, guava and white ginger lily, which they infuse in syrups and liquors. For a sleek lounge experience, try Fridge Bar (cocktails from 380 Taiwan dollars), a cocktail lounge hidden behind a steel door in a sandwich shop. For a bit more novelty, consider Placebo , whose decor is reminiscent of an old Chinese medicine shop and where drinks (around 400 Taiwan dollars) may be served out of antique-looking teapots. Both bars encourage going off-menu; feel free to request a flavor profile (sour, sweet, herbaceous, spicy) or a quirky ingredient (basil, sesame oil, chile pepper) and let the bartender surprise you.

☆ A rare bronze chandelier bought for $300 in lucky find sold for $3.5 million at auction
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A chandelier purchased at an antique store for just $300 has sold at auction for $3.5 million. Artist John Craxton stumbled across the Alberto Giacometti chandelier in a London shop in the 1960s. Artist John Craxton stumbled across the Alberto Giacometti chandelier in a London antique store in the 1960s, Christie's auction house explained. In an auction of Craxton's art collection held on February 28, the bronze chandelier, made in 1946, outsold its top estimate of £2.5 million ($3 million). It is unknown how it ended up in the antique shop in London, said Christie's.

☆ In Turkey's quake-devasted city of Antakya, an antiques seller is determined to stay put
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( Timour Azhari | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Close by was a mosaic portrait of Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, old magazines and several Turkish flags. "Even before the earthquake, these chairs were outside, I had items outside to show that we run an antique shop ... In one room, a wall collapsed on top of his collection of Turkish antique glassware. A man who has made a living from old things, Sincan said he took a historical view of the earthquake's devastation. Sincan said he was confident the city would rise again.

☆ The 10 Best Wayfair Deals to Shop This Presidents Day
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

By Madeline DiamondPlenty of Presidents Day deals are live right now at Wayfair. Keep reading for our top picks from Wayfair‘s Presidents Day sale; we’ll be updating throughout the week to help you stay on top of the latest deals. They’re all on sale right now, but the best deal is on the rose gold version, which is currently discounted to just $80. A comfortable desk chair (that isn’t an eyesore) is a great place to start, especially while standout options are on sale for Presidents Day. Plus see our guide for more tips on shopping for an ergonomic desk chair.

☆ Is This Painting a Raphael or Not? A Fortune Rides on the Answer
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Kelly Crow | Photographs Evan Jenkins For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Anthony Ayers had a hunch that he’d found a masterpiece. While vacationing in the English countryside in 1995, Mr. Ayers spotted a dusty, wood-panel painting tucked behind an armoire in an antique shop. It depicts Mary holding an infant Jesus in her lap as her older cousin Elizabeth and a toddler John the Baptist look on lovingly; the backdrop features an oak tree with a goldfinch, an ancient symbol foreshadowing the Crucifixion. The shopkeeper suggested that the painting could be from the Renaissance.

REUTERS/Gonzalo FuentesPARIS, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Airbnb (ABNB.O) is offering a night for two in the Palais Garnier opera house in Paris this summer, transforming a box in the theatre into a plush bedroom with sweeping views of the famous auditorium. Before the pandemic, Airbnb had created other unusual overnight stays in the French capital, one of its key markets. The Palais Garnier stay includes a music recital, dinner in an ornate rehearsal room backstage and a behind-the-scenes tour of the elaborate 19th century building, including its underground pool, the inspiration for the phantom's lair in the book and musical. The Palais Garnier stay will be listed on March 1 for 37 euros, also the number on the box, one of the theatre's most prestigious, which will be decked out with antique furniture specially for the night. I think it will be a bit unreal," said Veronique Dubrulle Leroux, the great-granddaughter of Phantom of the Opera author Leroux, who will host the visitors.

☆ Should Champagne Be Sipped From Coupes or Flutes? A Design Lover Weighs In
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Ajiri Aki | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

ONE CHILLY Parisian Friday evening five years ago, our French neighbors invited us downstairs for an apéro. As an American expat whose grasp of the language was embarrassingly subpar, I remember dreading this hangout. When my husband and I walked in, there was the expected bottle of Champagne on a low marble table ready for service next to unexpected glassware: Champagne coupes. I had always understood that Champagne should be poured into flutes to maintain the bubbles, and here was my neighbor, a French person who should know, setting out coupes. I’d thought they would be used for cocktails, wine, even desserts.

☆ North Korea's antique fighter jets are still keeping the US and South Korea on their toes
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Benjamin Brimelow | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Even with an aging fleet, Pyongyang has been able to catch the attention of South Korea and the US. On October 6, 12 North Korean jets were detected practicing air-to-ground attacks near the DMZ, prompting South Korea to scramble 30 of its fighters. On November 4, 80 South Korean fighters were scrambled after 180 North Korean planes were detected on South Korean radar. The activity and scale is unusual given North Korea's air force is widely regarded as the weakest branch of North Korea's military. South Korean troops guard a MiG-19 used by a North Korean pilot to defect to South Korea in May 1996.

BOSTON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - The founder of a defunct cryptocurrency business was sentenced on Tuesday to more than eight years in prison for defrauding investors and customers out of millions of dollars by marketing a virtual currency called My Big Coin with lies and half-truths. Federal prosecutors had urged U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston to impose a 13-year prison term on Randall Crater to send a message to others in the first sentencing of a cryptocurrency company founder for a marketing fraud. While Casper concluded that that request went too far, she rejected Crater's contention that a 30-month prison term was sufficient to punish him for his false claims, including that My Big Coin was a real cryptocurrency backed by gold. Prosecutors subsequently secured Crater's indictment in 2019 and accused him of causing investors and customers to lose $7.5 million from 2014 to 2017 with lies about My Big Coin, whose name sounded similar to the popular virtual currency bitcoin. Prosecutors said those false claims included that My Big Coin was a real virtual currency, was backed by gold and had a partnership with MasterCard (MA.N).

☆ Hard Rock Co-Founder Pays Around $35 Million for Macklowe Gallery Founders’ Hamptons Home
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( E.B. Solomont | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Be the first to know about the biggest and best luxury home sales and listings by signing up for our Mansion Deals email alert. The East Hampton, N.Y., home of art-and-antique dealers Barbara and Lloyd Macklowe has sold for around $35 million to their neighbor, Hard Rock Cafe co-founder Peter Morton, according to people familiar with the deal.

☆ ‘Dinner With the President’ Review: Bread-and-Butter Issues
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Moira Hodgson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

In 2019 Donald Trump held a much-publicized banquet for the Clemson Tigers football team in the State Dining Room of the White House. He posed before a large table piled high with Quarter Pounders, a portrait of Lincoln behind him. But Mr. Trump had made a shrewd political move. As Mr. Prud’homme writes: “The critics’ howls . Bush (who was such a WASP that he sometimes ate cereal for dinner) claimed to be a fan of pork rinds splashed with Tabasco sauce.

☆ A ChatGPT bot passed a Wharton business school exam, but a professor says he would've only graded the effort a B or B-minus
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Wharton professor Christian Terwiesch tested ChatGPT with questions from his final exam. Terwiesch found that ChatGPT could answer basic questions well but sometimes made "surprising mistakes" in simple calculations. Terwiesch concluded that ChatGPT might earn a B or B- on his final exam. Based on an analysis of similar retailers, the founders expect to turn their inventory 1.5 times per year. To achieve an annual revenue of $3,000,000, how much inventory expressed in $'s should the founders expect their operation to require?

But the perceived spectacle means that not only will Murdaugh be on display — so will the county seat of Walterboro, population 5,460. “We didn’t want this, but it’s happening, and it’s here,” Scott Grooms, Walterboro’s director of tourism and downtown development, said last week. A portrait of Randolph "Buster" Murdaugh Jr., Alex Murdaugh's late grandfather, was removed from the Colleton County Courthouse ahead of Alex Murdaugh's trial. From left, Paul, Margaret and Alex Murdaugh. While he didn’t know Alex Murdaugh personally, he said few with longstanding ties in the area had not been touched by the Murdaughs’ orbit in one way or another.

☆ See how a millennial transformed a dull 1960s bungalow into a lavish Georgian mansion dripping in one-of-a-kind antiques that hosts boudoir photo shoots for $200 an hour
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Zoe Rosenberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Emmanuel Hébert grew up in a tiny Montreal bungalow that he has transformed into a Georgian mansion. See the renovation step-by-step, and why people rent the finished home for titillating photo shoots. Hébert is an online antiques dealer who decided to forgo a traditional storefront and transform his home into a staging ground for his business. He said he's had a handful of rap music videos filmed there, as well as many boudoir-style photo shoots. See how the home went from its drab beginnings to being a showpiece mansion with a one-of-a-kind style.

☆ LeBron James NBA Finals jersey expected to fetch up to $5 million at auction
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Pia Singh | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

LeBron James game-worn jersey from the athletes NBA finals game 7 victory over the Miami Heat in 2013, is on display during a press preview at Sotheby's auction House on January 20, 2023, in New York City. Sotheby's is listing an iconic jersey worn by LeBron James during his NBA Finals Game 7 victory with the Miami Heat against the San Antonio Spurs in 2013. The jersey commemorates James' first NBA Finals Game 7 appearance, which was one of the most significant performances of his career. The company added that the jersey also commemorates James' back-to-back championships and NBA Finals MVP awards with the Miami Heat. James is one of only six players in NBA history to be awarded back-to-back NBA Finals MVP trophies.

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