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In the months since the most recent water woes began in Jackson, Mississippi, national attention has died down, donations have dwindled, and volunteers have been hard to come by. Thanks to donations and the national attention, grassroots organizers were able to distribute hundreds of cases of bottled water to panicked residents after the O.B. Michael Goldberg / AP fileJackson has one of the oldest water systems in the country, with authorities routinely directing residents to boil their water for safety, and residents often reporting brown water, leaking sewage and low water pressure. Since the water outage over the summer, residents have largely relied on bottled water for eating and drinking — and some for bathing as well. Months before the water outage in August, residents endured a cold snap in 2021, with extremely low temperatures freezing pipes and leaving many without water.

Jan 17 (Reuters) - Bitcoin is on the charge in 2023, dragging the crypto market off the floor and electrifying bonk, a new meme coin. Few crypto tokens have benefited more than bonk, which was launched at the end of December on the Solana blockchain and had rocketed 5,000% by early January. Other meme tokens are also up, with dogecoin and Shiba Inu up 19% and 27% respectively in 2023. The Solana token has now indeed jumped as bonk has gained traction: it's up 131% in 2023, the biggest gainer among major cryptocurrencies. The dollar value of bitcoin trading volumes on major exchanges over a 7-day period jumped to $151 million, the highest in nearly two months, according to data from Blockchain.com.

Historically Black colleges and universities have been embroiled in a student housing crisis for decades. Fisk is believed to be the second U.S. higher education institution to utilize shipping containers for student housing after the College of Idaho implemented dorm-style containers in 2020. “The enrollment is growing so fast, and the shipping containers provide some sustainable flexibility. They all wanted to live in these shipping containers,” Frederiksen said. Meanwhile, other projects like the HBCU Healthy Housing (H3) Initiative from the Virginia-based advocacy group Student Housing of America are partnering with universities to build additional housing.

☆ Cryptoverse: Bitcoin digs in for a bumpy new year
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Lisa Pauline Mattackal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] Bitcoin are seen in this illustration picture taken September 27, 2017. The overall global crypto market cap has risen 5% to $871 billion since Jan. 1, but it's still down over 57% from this time last year. Bitcoin itself has gained 4.3% since the start of 2023, though stuck in a narrow range between $16,500 and $17,300. For some market players, though, subdued sounds pretty good after the bitcoin bloodbath of 2022. Reuters GraphicsTHE BULL'S TALEMarcus Sotiriou, analyst at digital asset broker GlobalBlock, pointed to tightening Bollinger bands - a technical indicator tracking price and volatility - on bitcoin charts.

The Wall Street Journal is urging Phoenix police to investigate after one of its Black reporters was handcuffed and detained while working on an assignment on the city’s north side. On Nov. 23, Dion Rabouin, who covers finance for the Wall Street Journal, was detained in a police car while conducting interviews outside a Chase Bank. “We’re deeply concerned that Wall Street Journal reporter Dion Rabouin was detained, handcuffed and placed in the back of a police vehicle while reporting,” a Journal spokesperson said in a statement. I’m a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. A Phoenix Police Department spokesperson told NBC News that bank personnel called the police after customers complained Rabouin was approaching them and asking personal questions.

"As counterintuitive as it may sound, this layoff left me in a really good position," the 24-year-old said. U.S. tech giants including Meta, Microsoft (MSFT.O), Twitter and Snap (SNAP.N) have purged more than 150,000 staff, according to Layoff.fyi, which tracks technology job losses. Day One Ventures, an early stage venture fund in San Francisco, launched a new initiative in November to fund startups founded by people who had been laid off from their tech jobs, touting the slogan "Funded, not Fired". Silicon Valley investor U.S. Venture Partners and Austrian VC firm Speedinvest have meanwhile earmarked a similar amount for newly founded companies. Fong told Reuters that experience in Big Tech firm gave founders a "strong brand that can be leveraged to meet investors, potential customers, and recruit team members".

☆ Ukraine's parallel war on corruption to unlock door to West
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Dan Peleschuk | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +10 min

The activity reflects a parallel war Kyiv is waging against high-level graft, according to Reuters interviews with half a dozen Ukrainian anti-corruption monitors and officials. It had been repeatedly opened and closed for two years due to procedural errors and shortcomings, SAPO prosecutors said at the time of the hold-ups. New anti-corruption cases include a probe launched in October into a former tax chief suspected of taking more than $20 million in kickbacks. SAPO prosecutors, for instance, earn at least $2,500 per month, or six times more than the Ukrainian monthly average. Kateryna Butko, a civic activist serving on the SAPO selection committee, acknowledged that Ukraine's fight against graft is often plodding.

Megan Thee Stallion isn’t on trial. But if you consume content from some popular hip-hop bloggers, podcasters and social media accounts, you might be misled. Some question if Megan Thee Stallion was even shot at all. The narratives have become viral social media content. Milagro Gramz, a hip-hop news commentator, has been covering Pete and Peterson since before the trial started.

Ben McMillan, chief investment officer at IDX Digital Assets, said the rising popularity of blockchain-based tools including decentralized exchanges and decentralized finance had also been an important development this year. "We could see bigger allocations to digital assets once risk appetite resumes in 2023." Bitcoin and other tokens took a hammering, slumping by over half in just 49 days from the end of May. On a single day in June, bitcoin fell over 15%, its worst day since March 2020 when COVID chaos roiled financial markets. Bitcoin fell by a quarter in less than four days as Bankman-Fried scrambled for funds to bail his exchange out.

☆ Germany's half-a-trillion dollar energy bazooka may not be enough
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Christoph Steitz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

Almost half a trillion dollars, and counting, since the Ukraine war jolted it into an energy crisis nine months ago. The money set aside stands at up to 440 billion euros ($465 billion), according to the calculations, which provide the first combined tally of all of Germany's drives aimed at avoiding running out of power and securing new sources of energy. That equates to about 1.5 billion euros a day since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Energy rationing is a risk in the event of a long cold spell this winter, Germany's first in half a century without Russian gas. There's no security in sight either, with the push to build up of two alternatives to Russian fuel - liquefied natural gas (LNG) and renewables - years away from targeted levels.

Black women played a critical role in securing Griner’s release, advocates say. “It was painful for so many, particularly Black women, to see another Black woman be in those harsh conditions, to just see the pain in her face,” Jotaka Eaddy, founder of Win With Black Women, told The Hill. The Win With Black Women collective received 1,200 signatures of women in a letter of support for Griner that they sent to the Biden administration in July. So the idea was to keep the awareness going and build a coalition.”Griner’s case has renewed conversations about the vulnerability of Black women in America, especially Black queer women. Monica Simpson, the executive director of SisterSong, highlighted this vulnerability, and Black women’s collective power, in a statement to NBC News.

Sanders has a 27-5 coaching record at Jackson State, including going 12-0 this year and winning two consecutive Southwestern Athletic Conference titles. Sanders will owe Jackson State around $300,000 in a buyout for the 2020 contract, according to USA Today. This is not a Deion Sanders thing,” Parker told NBC News. “I do think he cared about the well-being of Jackson State football players. I think the buzz around the program will change, especially if they don’t hire a coach that has a similar stature as Deion Sanders.”

An 18-year-old college freshman is now the youngest Black mayor in U.S. history after beating out his opponent for the position in a small Arkansas town. He will be the mayor of Earle, a town of just under 2,000 people, according to 2020 census data, near Memphis, Tennessee. Now, as mayor-elect, Smith said he plans to focus on transportation, public safety and bringing a major grocery store to the city. “We had one a long time ago, but it closed,” Smith lamented about the now-closed grocery store. “This disability does not take away from what I am able to do,” Smith said, according to The Hill.

Bitcoin balances on crypto exchanges - where retail investors typically transact - have fallen to around 2.3 million from its 2020 all-time high of 3.1 million, exchange Bitfinex said. "There are signs that a significant number of retail investors have been discouraged to the point of exiting crypto entirely," Bitfinex analysts said. DAVID VS GOLIATHCrypto retail investors losing money is nothing new. A study from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), conducted between 2015 and 2022, estimated that 73% to 81% likely lost money on their investments in cryptocurrencies. Eloisa Marchesoni, a trader who said she had about $2,000 on FTX she was unable to withdraw, is sure crypto will retain its attraction for smaller investors.

Therefore, experts say, hiring Black teachers is necessary to address the racial disparities that lead to poor educational outcomes and criminalization for Black children. Furthermore, advocates say that Black students who don’t have Black teachers are less likely to become teachers themselves, so commitments to diversifying the industry must start early on in the classroom. The Black Teacher Project in Oakland, California, works with Black teachers to “reimagine schools as communities of liberated learning,” the Project’s website reads. It also teaches educators how to implement restorative practices in their classrooms and invites them to retreats to foster community among Black teachers. “Therefore, the Black Teacher Project’s motto is ‘Every child deserves a Black teacher.’”

☆ Inside China's fight over the future of zero-COVID
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( David Stanway | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +10 min

After nearly three years, a significant loosening of zero-COVID measures has been signalled by senior government officials and public health experts. Vice Premier Sun Chunlan said on Thursday that China's health system had "withstood the test" of COVID, allowing further adjustments to state policies. "You can have zero-COVID, but you can't have a healthy economy, and you can have a healthy economy, but you can't have zero-COVID." Laura Yasaitis, a public health expert at the Eurasia Group think-tank who follows China's zero-COVID policies, said fear of the virus likely varied widely across the country, as well as within cities or provinces. Officials have repeatedly said that China's health system would be unable to cope with a surge in cases, with medical resources unevenly distributed across the country.

Black users have long been one of Twitter’s most engaged demographics, flocking to the platform to steer online culture and drive real-world social change. But a month after Elon Musk took over, some Black influencers are eyeing the exits just as he races to shore up the company’s business. And while there is no hard data on how many Black users have either joined or left the platform over that period, some prominent influencers say they’re actively pursuing alternatives. Some signs indicate a slowdown among Black Twitter users that predates Musk. “It’s crippling to the economies of cities when Black folks leave, platforms when Black folks leave, entertainment sites when Black folks leave,” she said.

Interest in this niche breed of cryptocurrencies, typically linked to sports teams like Barcelona or Brazil, has been charged up by the soccer World Cup which began on Nov. 20. The token of Lionel Messi's Argentina side slumped 25% to $5.26 following the team's shock defeat by Saudi Arabia in their opening World Cup game. The broader crypto market malaise is partly to blame for price drops, according to researchers who said the flighty assets were wilting as investors shunned risk. "But the first perception should never be that you're buying the fan token from a profit-generating standpoint." It facilitates trading of most fan coins, describing buying such tokens as joining a loyalty scheme with exclusive benefits and prizes.

[1/2] Chinese Yuan and U.S. dollar banknotes are seen behind illuminated stock graph in this illustration taken February 10, 2020. His contract manufacturing business with Russia has been small in the past, but now he's preparing to invest in warehousing there. He sees a win-win situation in Chinese exporters reducing their currency risks and payment becoming more convenient for Russian buyers. The U.S. Treasury declined to comment on the yuan's growing presence in Russia. ($1 = 7.2074 Chinese yuan renminbi)Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Pravin CharOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Her death, first reported by local news outlets in North Carolina and Black-centered blog sites, was heart-wrenching to Black social media users. Now, less than a month later, her family, social media users and experts are acknowledging the power of Black social media support, saying it was crucial keeping attention on her case. Black social media is extremely powerful.”Social media users have also used the #SayHerName hashtag when amplifying Robinson’s story. This isn’t the first time Black social media users have used their platform to draw attention to injustice. The professor, Ijeoma Opara, wanted to support the child’s interest in science, and social media users made it possible.

Nov 22 (Reuters) - As the crypto castle crumbles, some true believers say the answer is to double down on DEX. Decentralized exchanges, that is. "It is now clear that there can be risk associated with holding assets in a centralized entity," said Varun Kumar, CEO of decentralized crypto exchange Hashflow. "Data is showing that users are turning to decentralized trading solutions." Many market participants see both centralized and decentralized exchanges coexisting.

☆ Cellnex says inflation has shut down European phone masts market, Financial Times reports
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] A telecom antenna of Spain's telecoms infrastructures firm Cellnex are seen under main telecom tower, known as "Piruli", in Madrid, Spain, March 10, 2016. REUTERS/Sergio Perez/File PhotoMADRID, Nov 20 (Reuters) - The European mobile towers market is "pretty much closed" as rising inflation makes it harder for companies to finance new deals and the availability of assets declines, the chief executive of Cellnex (CLNX.MC) told the Financial Times. Material, inorganic growth, for the next 24 months is over," Tobías Martínez Gimeno told the newspaper in reference to the overall market. When interest rates were low and debt was cheap, mobile towers were among the most attractive assets in telecoms. But since June, the share prices of most tower groups have fallen as rising rates have driven up costs.

SummarySummary Companies IAEA says Ukraine plant rocked by 12 blastsPlant is controlled by Russian forcesRussia says Ukraine shelled the plant'You're playing with fire!' - IAEA chiefLONDON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is under Russian control, was rocked by shelling on Sunday, drawing condemnation from the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog who said such attacks risked a major nuclear disaster. An IAEA team on the ground said there had been damage to some buildings, systems and equipment at the plant, Europe's largest nuclear power station. "Explosions occurred at the site of this major nuclear power plant, which is completely unacceptable. The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has six Soviet-designed VVER-1000 V-320 water-cooled and water-moderated reactors containing Uranium 235, which has a half-life of more than 700 million years.

☆ Cristiano Ronaldo is in 'spectacular' form, says Portugal's Neves
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Fernando Kallas | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

AL-SHEHANIYA, Qatar, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal team mate Ruben Neves says his captain is in "spectacular" shape as the team prepare for their opening World Cup match against Ghana on Thursday. Wolves midfielder Neves, one the leaders of the changing room, dismissed any speculation that 37-year-old Ronaldo was not in peak form, saying he looked like his old self in training. "From what I've seen in training, he's in spectacular shape," Neves told a news conference in tournament host Qatar on Sunday. "If we're good as a team, Cristiano will be phenomenal." "Sure, it's impossible for us to walk around without been asked about the controversy, but I don't think there's any controversy at all between us in the changing room," added 25-year-old Neves.

☆ Israeli far-right's demand for defence post hinders Netanyahu's coalition bid
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Maayan Lubell | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

JERUSALEM, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu's efforts to swiftly form a government faltered on Sunday as a prospective far-right coalition partner demanded the cabinet role of defence minister. But fissures have emerged between Likud and the powerful Religious Zionism party whose hard-line settler leaders oppose Palestinian statehood and want the occupied West Bank annexed - views in direct opposition to successive U.S. administrations. I hope this will be worked out soon," Likud lawmaker Miki Zohar told Kan radio, adding that defence was "the most important portfolio" for Likud. Even the finance role would present problems for Netanyahu, who had said before the election that Likud would keep the big three portfolios: defence, finance and foreign affairs. Whichever portfolio Religious Zionism lands, the incoming government looks to be the most right-wing in Israel's history, forcing Netanyahu into a diplomatic balancing act between his coalition and Western allies.

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