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☆ Ukrainian journalists fight another kind of war - against graft
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Dan Peleschuk | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

According to Transparency International's 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, Ukraine ranked slightly better than Russia but still well below the global average. Their focus also shows civil society is embracing its role as a government watchdog even as the war grinds on. Many journalists are also turning their attention to uncovering Russian war crimes and assets in Ukraine. PUBLIC PARTNERSHIPSuch reports play a key role in Ukraine's fledgling anti-corruption system, created after the 2014 Maidan revolution toppled pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych. Romaniuk, director of the Institute of Mass Information, an NGO in Kyiv, said Ukrainian journalists' role as anti-corruption activists will become increasingly important as Kyiv maps out a more transparent future.

☆ Ukraine sees bloody battle for Bakhmut as chance to wipe out Wagner's army of convicts
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Wagner Group is increasingly relying on its professional recruits as inmates flounder in Bakhmut. Wagner soldiers have played an outsized role in the battle of Bakhmut thus far. Meanwhile, US intelligence from December suggested an estimated 10,000 professional Russian soldiers, the majority of whom are veterans, were also acting as Wagner soldiers alongside the former inmates. A mural depicting mercenaries of Russia's Wagner Group that reads: "Wagner Group - Russian knights." Despite rumors that Ukraine was preparing to withdraw from Bakhmut, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that he would send further reinforcements to the city.

☆ Citadel's Griffin says the Fed needs more consistency to tame inflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW YORK, March 7 (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Ken Griffin, the founder of Citadel and Citadel Securities, said on Tuesday the Federal Reserve needs more consistency of communication in order to tame inflation and that the setup for a recession is unfolding. "If I could tell one thing to the (Fed) chairman, I would tell him to say less. I would just write a message: we're going to put the inflation genie back in the bottle," Griffin said in a televised interview with Bloomberg. Earlier on Tuesday, Fed chair Jerome Powell said the Fed will likely need to raise interest rates more than expected to control inflation. He believes the Fed will increase interest rates to around 5.5% to tame inflation.

☆ US stocks rally as traders digest comments from Fed officials on coming rate hikes
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

US equities rallied Thursday as traders mulled over coming interest rate hikes. The Dow popped more than 300 points, supported by Salesforce's gains on strong corporate earnings. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said he's "very firmly" in favor of a quarter-point rate hike. Sign up for our newsletter to get the inside scoop on what traders are talking about — delivered daily to your inbox. The Dow Jones Industrial Average popped more than 300 points to lead the gains, supported by Salesforce's strong earnings.

During the session, which opens on Monday and runs until April 4, many states will seek to extend the mandate of a U.N investigation body set up to probe atrocities in Ukraine. Kyiv and its allies are disgruntled by the participation of Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who will address the council on Thursday. Filipenko said Ukraine did not welcome Russia's presence and would "act accordingly," without giving details. The Geneva-based U.N. human rights council is the only body made up of governments to protect human rights worldwide. Countries also will closely watch how Volker Turk, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights since October, refers to China after his predecessor Michelle Bachelet was accused by some rights groups of being too soft on Beijing.

☆ China appears to be pulling another U-turn, saying it'll promote the use of AI in daily life just days after reports it blocked ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

China said it sees broad potential in the use of AI tech and wants to integrate it into daily life. But that's amid reports China — which controls information tightly — blocked access to ChatGPT. It now wants to integrate the tech into daily life, just days after reports emerged that it had blocked its citizens from accessing viral AI chatbot ChatGPT. Search engine giant Baidu — China's answer to Google — said on Wednesday it plans to launch its own AI chatbot Ernie Bot in March. "AI technology has reached a tipping point and all industries will inevitably go through transformation," Li said in the memo.

☆ Russia is sticking to its failed strategy of filling gaps in decimated front-line units with 'ill-equipped, ill-trained' troops, US official says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Russian front-line units are taking heavy casualties, a senior US military official said. To fill gaps in the lines, Moscow is rushing tens of thousands of poorly trained and equipped troops to the front. A senior US military official told reporters on Monday that Russia has been sending replacements for units that have suffered substantial casualties in an attempt to strengthen defensive positions and support operations. Notably, they said, these troops are not arriving as organized units but are just filling in gaps wherever needed. He added that Russian casualties amount to "significantly well over 100,000 now," providing his first updated figure on the matter in months.

☆ Safety official's remarks about possible gas stove ban fuel hot GOP takes about Biden
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Zoë Richards | Zoë Richards Is The Evening Politics Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Republicans are warning that the Biden administration is coming for your stove if it's fueled by gas. “Gas stoves are the next thing the Biden Administration is coming after,” he tweeted. “Washington bureaucrats should have no say in how Americans prepare their dinner.”Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., told Biden to "get your hands off our gas stoves!!!!" “There’s been a lot of gaslighting today about gas stoves,” Beyer tweeted Tuesday. “To be clear, I didn’t call for a ban on gas stoves.

☆ Amazon union victory at Staten Island warehouse upheld by federal labor board
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Annie Palmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Amazon workers arrive with paperwork to unionize at the NLRB office in Brooklyn, New York, October 25, 2021. A federal labor agency on Wednesday certified an independent union's landmark victory at Amazon 's Staten Island warehouse and threw out a litany of objections filed by the e-retailer. In April, a majority of the roughly 8,300 workers at Amazon's Staten Island warehouse, known as JFK8, voted to join the Amazon Labor Union, becoming the company's first unionized facility in the U.S. Amazon sought to overturn the results of the election, alleging the National Labor Relations Board office that oversaw the election interfered in the union drive. "As we've said since the beginning, we don't believe this election process was fair, legitimate, or representative of the majority of what our team wants," Nantel said. Workers at a nearby facility on Staten Island rejected unionization in May, and the ALU lost an election at an Albany warehouse in October.

☆ Trump is headed to court Tuesday to argue that presidents can't be sued for defamation. Here's what's at stake.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Ashley Collman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

An appeals court is set to weigh in on E. Jean Carroll's defamation suit against Donald Trump. Trump and the DOJ argue that he can't be personally sued for statements he made in office. Carroll sued Trump for defamation in November 2019, saying her career suffered "as a direct result of Trump's defamatory statements." Seth Wenig/APThe Westfall Act protects government employees from being sued for actions in the line of their work. Because he made those comments after leaving the White House, he won't be able to claim Westfall Act protection.

☆ Poland's top police chief was injured after a gift he received from a Ukrainian official exploded, Polish authorities say
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A Polish police commander suffered minor injuries after a gift he received from Ukraine exploded. Jarosław Szymczyk, the chief of Poland's police, suffered minor injuries from the explosion on Wednesday and was admitted to a hospital for observation, the Polish Interior Ministry said in a statement. According to the statement, the gift was from a head official of the Ukrainian Police and Emergency Situations. A civilian employee at the Polish headquarters also suffered minor injuries but did not require hospitalization, the ministry said. Poland's Interior Ministry and Ukraine's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

☆ U.S. urges caution on low-quoted Russian oil prices as EU debates price cap
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( David Lawder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW YORK, Nov 30 (Reuters) - The Biden administration broke its silence on Wednesday on European Union deliberations over a $65-70 per barrel Russian oil price cap on Wednesday, warning far-lower prices cited for some Russian Urals crude shipments should be approached with caution. The U.S. official cited concerns over using prices that represent a subset of Russian oil sales. A price cap of $65 a barrel on Russian crude would represent a meaningful price reduction from recent prices, citing an estimated average of $78 per barrel since March 2022. The cap was conceived as a way to limit Moscow's oil revenues while keeping Russian crude on the global market to avoid a massive spike in oil prices. The price cap will be enforced by denying insurance, shipping and other maritime services provided by G7 democracies and Australia to shipments priced above the cap.

"Initially when that (Bullard commentary) came out, you saw the market sell off and then there was some discussion about was he being over-reactive?" Equities had seen strong gains last week after a softer-than-expected inflation report boosted hopes of smaller rate hikes from the Fed. Most of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors advanced, with defensive utilities (.SPLRCU) and real estate (.SPLRCR) leading gains, up about 1% each. The S&P index recorded six new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 34 new highs and 60 new lows. Reporting by Shubham Batra, Ankika Biswas and Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Vinay DwivediOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Several other Fed officials in recent days have also stressed the need to continue raising rates, albeit at a slower pace. "The Fed is trying to make sure the market doesn't get too ahead of itself," said Tim Holland, chief investment officer at Orion Advisor Solutions. "They're trying to walk this rhetorical tightrope where in between meetings and big data points, they're reminding the market that they're still tightening." Traders are now pricing in 89% odds of a 50-basis-point rate hike from the Fed in December and see terminal rate at around 5% in June 2023. The S&P index recorded no new 52-week high and one new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 12 new highs and 101 new lows.

☆ Nancy Pelosi announces leadership exit after 2 decades leading House Democrats
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she is stepping aside from her leadership role. The decision comes after Republicans narrowly won the House majority. The decision comes in the wake of Republicans narrowly winning the House majority, ending Pelosi's latest two consecutive terms as Speaker. "Never had I thought that someday I would go from homemaker to House Speaker," the California Democrat, first elected in 1987, said. At 82, Pelosi has long served alongside House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, 83, and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, 82, in leadership.

☆ Gold hovers near 3-month high on hopes of smaller Fed hikes
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

One kilo gold bars are pictured at the plant of gold and silver refiner and bar manufacturer Argor-Heraeus in Mendrisio, Switzerland, July 13, 2022. Spot gold was steady at $1,770.70 per ounce, as of 0122 GMT, after hitting its highest since Aug. 17 in the previous session. The dollar index rose 0.3% against its rivals, making gold more expensive for other currency holders. The Fed will likely soon slow its interest rates hikes, Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard signaled on Monday, but emphasized the central bank still had more work to do. SPDR Gold Trust , the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings rose 0.03% to 910.41 tons on Monday from 910.12 tons on Friday.

☆ 'Can we Google it?': CNN reporter checks local GOP official's voting claim in interview
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

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☆ Don't expect Putin to fall anytime soon, says Western official
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Guy Faulconbridge | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

After changes to the constitution in 2020, some Russia-watchers expected Putin to rule until 2036. "He has been weakened by this really catastrophic error," said the Western official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to speak freely. The official said the war had strengthened Ukrainian statehood and prompted the further enlargement of the NATO military alliance thus weakening Putin, who turned 70 on Oct. 7. Though there was unlikely to be a change of Kremlin leader soon, the official said that the middle of the 2020s was starting to look "more interesting". The official added that there was no sign, for now, that Russia was ready to seriously negotiate over Ukraine.

☆ Russia's anti-satellite threat tests laws of war in space
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Such an act during the war in Ukraine could sharply escalate tensions between Russia and the United States. And tens of thousands of communications devices in Ukraine rely on U.S. satellite communications giant Iridium's (IRDM.O) satellite network. "If somebody starts shooting satellites in space, I'd imagine it would quickly make space unusable," Desch said. COMPLICATED CALCULUSWhether a Russian anti-satellite strike would violate the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, such as its prohibition on placing weapons of mass destruction in space, is debatable, lawyers say. SpaceX's Starlink network consists of roughly 3,000 satellites, and there are several dozen commercial U.S. imagery satellites eyeing Russia and Ukraine.

☆ What happened to Lara Logan? How the journalist went from respected war correspondent to right-wing radical
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Ashley Collman | Lauren Frias | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

It was around this time that Logan first started overtly expressing her political views, including criticizing a fellow reporter whose profile of a general resulted in that official's firing, New York Magazine reported. In an appearance on CNN's Reliable Sources, Logan speculated that Hastings published comments McChrystal made off the record, and therefore not meant for publishing. But Hastings told CNN during the same show that no ground rules were laid out for the story and he assumed his talks with McChrystal were on the record. "Michael Hastings has never served his country the way Commander McChrystal has," Logan said. Source: New York Magazine

☆ US stocks finish lower as Fed official's dour inflation outlook pushes key bond yields to fresh 14-year highs
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Carla Mozée | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

US stocks fell Thursday, stretching their losses into a second consecutive session. A "disappointing lack of progress on curtailing inflation" will keep the Fed raising interest rates, said Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker. IBM and AT&T rose after their earnings reports while Tesla shares dropped. Investors sold off bonds, propelling the 10-year Treasury yield to 4.23%, a fresh 14-year high. Weekly US jobless claims unexpectedly fell to 214,000, compared with an Econoday estimate of 235,000 new filings for unemployment benefits.

☆ Sterling weakens as Truss clings to power, markets dial back rate-hike bets
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Lucy Raitano | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

British Prime Minister Liz Truss battled to retain her grip on power, a day after a second top minister quit and rowing and jostling broke out among her lawmakers in parliament. Analysts said a dialling back of aggressive rate hike bets following comments from the BoE's Ben Broadbent also weighed on sterling. Investors reined in further their bets of a full percentage-point interest rate increase by the BoE next month following the comments. "The dip in sterling is more driven by monetary policy than politics," said Colin Asher, senior economist at Mizuho Bank. "Broadbent noted that the policy rate may not need to go up as much as markets are pricing and short-term gilt yields and sterling both declined."

☆ Sterling rallies as pressure on UK PM Truss mounts
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Lucy Raitano | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

British Prime Minister Liz Truss is meeting Graham Brady, the head of the 1922 Committee of Conservative lawmakers, a source in Truss's Downing Street office said. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterAgainst this backdrop, the pound rose 0.5% to $1.1260 , having earlier traded 0.4% down. Analysts said a dialling back of aggressive rate hike bets following comments from the BoE's Ben Broadbent also weighed on sterling. Investors reined in further their bets of a full percentage-point interest rate increase by the BoE next month following the comments. Rating agencies S&P and Moody's review UK sovereign ratings on Friday, another potential headwind for British markets.

☆ Russian mercenaries want felons to go fight Putin's war in Ukraine, but many are refusing, US official says
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Kremlin-linked mercenaries are trying to convince prisoners to fight Putin's war in Ukraine. A recent video showed the head of the Wagner Group offer inmates freedom if they take up arms. But many convicted felons are refusing, a senior US defense official told reporters on Monday. Wagner's efforts have been recently "reinvigorated" by Prigozhin's pitch asking the Russian prisoners to serve as "fighters for assault units," the ministry said. Throughout the nearly seven-month-long war, Russian forces — who failed to capture Ukraine's capital city Kyiv early and who now struggle to defend against a punishing Ukrainian counteroffensive — have fought alongside Wagner personnel.

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