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☆ Russia advances in eastern Ukraine, strike on apartments kills civilians
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Tom Balmforth | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Fierce fighting was unabated in eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops are trying to gain ground near the strategic logistics hub of Lyman, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said on Wednesday evening. The Russian forces were trying to make gains that they could show on the anniversary of their Feb 24, 2022 invasion, Zelenskiy said. At least 44 people were killed in January when a Russian missile hit an apartment building in the city of Dnipro. In April 2022, Ukraine said 57 people died when a Russian missile hit the train station in Kramatorsk. Ukraine and its Western allies have accused Russian forces of war crimes and targeting civilians, charges Russia rejects.

☆ Dealmakers will be lucky to eke out a 2022 repeat
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Jeffrey Goldfarb | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW YORK, Dec 29 (Reuters Breakingviews) - As with often value-destructive mergers and acquisitions, the numbers aren’t adding up for dealmakers. Meanwhile, deal volume tumbled to about $3.5 trillion, 36% down from the same time a year earlier, though it stayed ahead of 2020’s pace. Private equity firms already accounted for an all-time high of 22% of deal volume in 2022. As potentially bleak economic circumstances loom, bankers will be lucky to eke out a repeat of 2022. CONTEXT NEWSWorldwide mergers and acquisitions volume for 2022 stood at $3.5 trillion as of Dec. 12, according to Refinitiv data.

Meanwhile, Twitter’s resources to fight child sexual exploitation content online (and what is sometimes called child pornography or child sexual abuse materials) are thin, following layoffs, mass-firings and resignations from the company. Child sexual exploitation content has remained a problem for Twitter, though most major social media platforms continue to deal with it in some form or another. Moderation of this content usually relies on a combination of automated detection systems and specialized internal teams and external contractors to identify child abuse content and remove it. “So, I mean, that is disheartening.”It’s unclear how many Twitter employees remain to work on child safety issues. A search on LinkedIn for current Twitter employees who say they work on child safety turned up only a few accounts.

Less than a month after taking control of Twitter , Elon Musk said addressing child sexual exploitation content on the social media platform was "Priority #1." "It is a crime that they refused to take action on child exploitation for years!" Meanwhile, Twitter's resources to fight child sexual exploitation content online (and what is sometimes called child pornography or child sexual abuse materials) are thin, following layoffs, mass-firings and resignations from the company. Twitter's imperfect efforts fighting child sexual exploitation content were well documented. Stroppa said he felt Twitter's previous efforts were lacking and that it now moves quickly to find and suspend accounts that post child sexual exploitation content.

Smith takes over a staff that’s already nearly twice the size of Robert Mueller’s team of lawyers who worked on the Russia probe. Smith will also take on national security investigators already working the probe into the potential mishandling of federal records taken to Mar-a-Lago after Trump left the White House. Those lawyers maintain the former president is unlikely to be indicted, according to two sources familiar. Special Counsel Robert Mueller makes a statement about the Russia investigation on May 29, 2019 at the Justice Department in Washington, DC. Trump allies have consistently maintained that nothing Trump did related to the election and January 6 itself amounts to a crime.

☆ With tension rising in the Pacific, US special operators have a new goal: Creating 'multiple dilemmas' for China
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Stavros Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

US special operators are aiming to create "multiple dilemmas" for China, SOCOM's commander says. Multiple dilemmasUS Navy SEALs, Philippine Navy special operators, and Australian special-operations soldiers during an exercise in Palawan in April. 1st Class Jared N. GehmannUS special operators need to continue "developing and strengthening the partner and ally piece that's a comparative and competitive advantage for this nation," Fenton said. Moreover, US special operators have been working closely with all US military branches to better understand how those branches operate and how SOCOM can support them in a conflict with China. The Pentagon's top special-operations official said in May 2021 that special operators could be "a key contributor" to resisting a Chinese attempt to seize Taiwan.

Warner Bros. Pictures, film subsidiary of Warner Bros. "We're spending more money this year than we've ever spent historically," Warner Bros Chief Executive David Zaslav told a conference call. Warner Bros posted a third-quarter loss of $2.3 billion, or 95 cents a share, which includes $1.5 billion in pre-tax restructuring charges. Warner Bros Discovery, home to hit franchises such as "Batman" and "Euphoria," added 2.8 million new streaming subscribers in the third quarter, bringing its total to 94.9 million. A merger of HBO Max and Discovery+ will debut on an accelerated timetable, in spring of 2023.

☆ Feeling burnt out? The stress of toggling between apps with the Alt-Tab buttons may be to blame, study suggests
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Excessive use of the Alt-Tab toggle could be contributing to a feeling of burnout, a study suggests. Harvard Business Review research finds employees spend 5 working weeks a year toggling between apps. A study published in August by the Harvard Business Review reported by Bloomberg found workers were toggling between different apps and websites up to 1,200 times a day. That "toggling tax," another study suggests, might be helping make employees decide to quit. Okta, an identity and access management company, told Bloomberg its clients deployed 89 apps last year, up from 58 in 2015.

With the term “personal taxes,” however, Mr. Garten appears to be conflating income taxes with other federal taxes Mr. Trump has paid — Social Security, Medicare and taxes for his household employees. Fragments of Mr. Trump’s tax returns have leaked out before. Mr. Agalarov’s father, Aras, a billionaire who boasts of close ties to Mr. Putin, was Mr. Trump’s partner in the event. Mr. Trump’s avoidance of income taxes is one of the most striking discoveries in his tax returns, especially given the vast wash of income itemized elsewhere in those filings. When they got to line 56, the one for income taxes due, the amount was the same each year: $750.

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