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☆ Putin is scared of punishing Prigozhin in case the Wagner chief turns against him, says ex-Kremlin official
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Speculation is circulating about why Putin isn't punishing Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin. Prigozhin is increasingly brazen in his criticism of Russian military leaders. Putin needs the support of nationalist hardliners like Prigozhin. The Wagner chief's attacks have prompted speculation he may even be planning a coup against Putin. In comments to The Washington Post, Abbas Gallyamov, a political analyst and former Kremlin speechwriter, said that Putin couldn't afford to alienate hardline nationalists such as Prigozhin.

Persons: Putin, Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Prigozhin, —, Vladimir Putin, who've, Abbas Gallyamov, Gallyamov, Putin hasn't Organizations: Service, Wagner Group, Kremlin, Washington Post, Reuters, Ukraine, Russian Interior Ministry Locations: Russian, Ukraine, Russia

Neuralink's valuation jump in secondary trades is in sharp contrast to other startups. About 85% of pre-IPO companies are currently valued in secondary trades at an average discount of 47% to their last funding round, according to data provider Caplight. The maximum amount sought for the Neuralink shares marketed for sale at a $7 billion valuation was just $500,000, according to the email seen by Reuters. Sim Desai, chief executive of Hiive, an online platform where the shares are traded, said demand for Neuralink stock has been "tremendous." Neuralink stock that some of the employees hold has jumped around 150% in value in just two years, based on the secondary trades.

Persons: Elon, Kip Ludwig, Musk, Neuralink, Sim Desai, Arun Sridhar, Sridhar, Galvani, Rachael Levy, Marissa Taylor, Krystal Hu, Greg Roumeliotis, David Gregorio Our Organizations: U.S . National Institutes of Health, Reuters, U.S . Food, GSK Plc, Sciences, FDA, U.S . Department of Agriculture, Department of Transportation, Thomson Locations: Neuralink's, U.S, Washington ,, New York

☆ How the student loan payment pause has made it easier for public servants to get forgiveness
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Skynesher | E+ | Getty ImagesThe pandemic-era policy suspending federal student loan payments has been an especially big win for public servants. Most borrowers have benefited from the payment pause, which has lasted more than three years and spanned two presidencies. Here's what the payment pause has meant for those who are pursuing the relief. Advocates say that public servants deserved such a benefit after the problems that have plagued the loan forgiveness program. When the payment pause on federal student loans ends, likely in September, borrowers will have to resume payments to get credit for PSLF.

☆ Erdogan’s Grip on Power Is Dented but Not Broken, Vote Shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Ben Hubbard | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

His government was accused of botching its response to catastrophic earthquakes that killed more than 50,000 people just three months ago. Despite all of that, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came out with a lead over his main challenger in Turkish elections, according to official results released on Monday. With nearly all of the ballots counted on Monday, official preliminary results gave Mr. Erdogan 49.5 percent of the vote versus 44.9 percent for his main challenger, opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu. A third candidate, Sinan Ogan, received 5.2 percent, and his right-wing supporters are more likely to vote for Mr. Erdogan in the runoff, analysts say. Finally, Mr. Erdogan’s party and its allies maintained a commanding majority in the parliamentary vote, likely further increasing his ability to be re-elected.

☆ The Cure Says Ticketmaster Will Refund Fans Who Paid ‘Unduly High’ Fees
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Alyssa Lukpat | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Ticketmaster is refunding fans of The Cure after some of them paid more in service fees than they did for a ticket for the English rock band’s upcoming tour, the band said Friday. The Cure, a band formed in the 1970s, criticized Ticketmaster’s pricing system months after the company drew scrutiny for botching sales for Taylor Swift concerts. The band said Ticketmaster agreed it would refund $10 to fans who bought the cheapest seats and $5 to the rest of the fans.

☆ Biogen Boss Turns Corner on Alzheimer’s Miscues
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( David Wainer | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

After botching the commercialization of its first Alzheimer’s drug, Biogen got a new lease on life with a second one that surprised skeptics of the amyloid hypothesis. The positive news restored investor excitement for its growth potential and allowed the Boston-area biotech to recruit the veteran Chris Viehbacher as its new boss. Now, he is trying to convince investors he can right the ship. That starts with not messing up the rollout of Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi. Mr. Viehbacher has shown he is intent on doing that by, first and foremost, maintaining a good relationship with lead partner Eisai Co Ltd.

☆ Dr. Harvey Karp planned to tell the press the $1,700 Snoo was 'proven to reduce SIDS' last summer. But the FDA stamp of approval never came.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Kate Taylor | Jake Swearingen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Dr. Harvey Karp nearly announced last summer that the FDA certified that Snoo reduces SIDS. But 15 years later, the ability of the Snoo — now on the market as a $1,700 high-tech bassinet — to reduce SIDS remains unproven. Despite lofty promises from Karp and Nina Montée Karp, his wife and cofounder, experts who spoke with Insider remain skeptical. Karp said he and his wife created the Snoo to reduce parent stress and reduce SIDS. But the FDA approval never came, and the press release was never officially distributed.

☆ John Malone prepares for a victory lap
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Jeffrey Goldfarb | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Now the cable cowboy’s Liberty Media (FWONA.O) empire is trotting out its trademark financial razzle-dazzle to try and wring additional value out of its assets. Malone, Liberty Media’s chairman, is as renowned for his dizzying array of specialized equity issues, spinoffs and splits as he is for the telecom and entertainment companies that have been subjected to the intricate machinations. It excludes broadcaster Discovery, spun off from Liberty Media in 2005, and international broadband provider Liberty Global (LBTYA.O), hived off a year earlier. A more logical starting point would be 2001, when Malone carved Liberty Media out of telecom giant AT&T (T.N). Likewise, Liberty Media’s accompanying shakeup of its tracking stocks stands to further spotlight the value of Formula One.

☆ Activist investor Nelson Peltz is suing Florida party planners who worked on his daughter Nicola's wedding to Brooklyn Beckham, claiming he was 'hoodwinked'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Nelson Peltz is suing Plan Design Events, a Florida company that worked on his daughter's 2022 wedding to Brooklyn Beckham. Planners are accused of botching the RSVP list for three days of events celebrating Nicola Peltz and Beckham. Activist investor Nelson Peltz is suing event planners who helped work on his daughter Nicola's splashy wedding to Brooklyn Beckham last spring, according to a December court filing. The documents state the billionaire wants his deposit back from their company, Plan Design Events. "Peltz is Hoodwinked by the Party Planners," Peltz lawyers wrote in the filing, which references Plan Design as PDE.

☆ Twitter users vote for Elon Musk to step down as CEO in poll he launched
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Chantal Da Silva | Chantal Da Silva Is A Breaking News Editor For Nbc News Digital Based In London. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

A clear majority of Twitter users who took part in a poll by Elon Musk voted for him to step down as head of the social media platform, a result he promised to follow through on. I will abide by the results of this poll," Musk tweeted out Sunday as he continued to face mounting scrutiny over his time at the helm of the site. “We recognize that many of our users are active on other social media platforms,” Twitter support had tweeted Sunday. References to the prohibition on outside social media also disappeared from Twitter Support’s feed Sunday night without explanation. Their accounts were reinstated after Twitter users voted in favor of doing so in an earlier poll posted by Musk.

☆ Ticketmaster's botching of Taylor Swift ticket sales 'converted more Gen Z'ers into antimonopolists overnight than anything I could have done,' FTC chair says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Disastrous presales for Taylor Swift's Eras tour renewed controversy over Ticketmaster's dominance. In 2010, Ticketmaster merged with Live Nation, raising antitrust concerns. Live Nation has been facing an ongoing DOJ antitrust investigation since before the Taylor Swift-Ticketmaster saga, the New York Times reported last month. Representatives for Ticketmaster and Live Nation did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday morning. Former FTC policy director David Balto previously told Insider that the Eras Tour ticket crisis shows the merger's anti-competitive effects on consumers, including exorbitant fees.

☆ Exclusive: Musk’s Neuralink faces federal probe, employee backlash over animal tests
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Rachael Levy | Thomson Reuters | Award-Winning Journalist Covering Corporate Governance. Her Reporting Has Prompted Federal Investigations | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +16 min

Reuters could not determine the full scope of the federal investigation or whether it involved the same alleged problems with animal testing identified by employees in Reuters interviews. Musk has pushed hard to accelerate Neuralink’s progress, which depends heavily on animal testing, current and former employees said. Delcianna Winders, director of the Animal Law and Policy Institute at the Vermont Law and Graduate School, said it is “very unusual” for the USDA inspector general to investigate animal research facilities. In September, the company responded to employee concerns about its animal testing by holding a town hall to explain its processes. “We’re extremely careful,” he said, to make sure that testing is “confirmatory, not exploratory,” using animal testing as a last resort after trying other methods.

☆ Fox Business host tells Lara Trump her father-in-law Donald has lost his 'old magic'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Cheryl Teh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Fox Business host Stuart Varney said there wasn't a "great reception" to Trump's campaign launch. He asked Lara Trump if it was possible that her father-in-law had lost his "old magic." On Wednesday, Fox Business host Stuart Varney told Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump that he thought there was a lackluster response to the former president's 2024 announcement. LARA TRUMP: Oh. The Fox Business host's prodding of Trump's daughter-in-law comes as media outlets under the Rupert Murdoch-owned News Corp seem to be bailing on the former president.

☆ Dr. Oz claimed Pennsylvania is on the Atlantic coast, botching the geography of the state where he hopes to be senator
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Pennsylvania senate candidate Mehmet Oz appeared to claim the state was on the coast. The race for the crucial senate seat has been marked by gaffes and mishaps by the candidates. "This is important: We do not have a Republican senator north of North Carolina on the Atlantic coast until you get to Maine, if I don't hold this seat," Oz told Sean Hannity. "And there's been a Republican senator in Pennsylvania most of my life. Oz's geography was wrong: Pennsylvania is not on the Atlantic coast, unlike its neighboring states of Delaware or New Jersey, where Oz lived for years.

☆ Meet Yevgeny Prigozhin, 'Putin's chef' and founder of the brutal Wagner group who told the Russian leader that he was botching the Ukraine war
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Yevgeny Prigozhin was reported to have shared with Vladimir Putin his misgivings about the war in Ukraine, according to The Washington Post. Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin is shown prior to a meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that the confidant was Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, a Russian businessman, restaurateur, and longtime ally of Putin. Prigozhin denied the report to The Post and said that he "did not criticize the management of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation during the conflict in Ukraine." When the Chechen Republic's head, Ramazan Kadyrov, called out a Russian commander and senior officers after Russia was forced out of Lyman in Ukraine, Prigozhin echoed those critiques, according to BBC.

☆ Russian billionaire behind mercenary army in Ukraine confronted Putin about botching the war, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Sophia Ankel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russian tycoon Yevgeniy Prigozhin met with Putin in private this month, The Washington Post said. It said Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group, criticized the handling of the Ukraine war. In a statement to The Post, Prigozhin denied that he spoke to Putin and said he has no right to criticize Russia's army. "I did not criticize the management of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation during the conflict in Ukraine. Prighozin is not the only Putin loyalist to voice criticism of the Russian military amid the ongoing conflict.

☆ The Kremlin reluctantly acknowledged issues with its draft amid mobilization chaos, but blamed local authorities and rebellious citizens for botching the decree
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Kremlin spokesman tried to deflect blame over mounting discord following Russia's draft decree. Last week, more than seven months into Russia's war in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin announced a partial military mobilization in an effort to address Russia's manpower problem amid a spate of recent Ukrainian victories. The country's mobilization will see up to 300,000 reservists called upon to join the fight, many on the frontlines. But as Russia endures mounting military losses thanks to depleted personnel, it's clear that the country is prioritizing soldiers of any skill. It's a late-in-the-game adjustment that is unlikely to make a dent in Russia's military performance anytime soon, experts previously told Insider.

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