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☆ A College President Defends Seeking Money From Jeffrey Epstein
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Vimal Patel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It may seem, at first blush, an unlikely connection: Leon Botstein, the president of Bard, one of the country’s most progressive colleges, and Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced billionaire accused of sexually abusing teenage girls. But reporting from The Wall Street Journal this week showed that Dr. Botstein did not just pursue Mr. Epstein hoping to raise money, he did so repeatedly. He made frequent visits to Mr. Epstein’s Upper East Side townhouse, and Mr. Epstein and his entourage hopped by helicopter to Bard’s lush campus in the Hudson Valley. Dr. Botstein said in interviews with The New York Times that the visits were all about funding for Bard — for the school’s commitment to social justice, its prisoner education program, its liberal arts mission. Capitalism is a rough system.”

☆ On Long Island, an Artist’s Studio That Floats Among the Trees
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Kurt Soller | Angela Hau | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Imagine a place for making things: a simple room, with little but the tools you need and the ideal never-too-bright light. They also wanted somewhere to park their car, a nearly 18-foot-long 1966 Chevy Impala Super Sport convertible. Researching bespoke garages online, the couple discovered the work of another couple, Max Worrell and Jejon Yeung, two architects in their 40s who, after meeting in their Yale graduate program, co-founded the firm Worrell Yeung in 2015. Several years ago in upstate New York, they had built a Japanese-and-Scandinavian-influenced minimalist annex with space for their clients to relax — and to store their vintage Ford Bronco. It was exactly what Burst, 62, and McDonough, 67, pictured for themselves.

☆ I work as a performer on a cruise ship. Being away from home can be hard but it's allowed me to travel the world.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Rachael Hudson has worked as a singer on major cruise liners since July 2009. This is an as-told-to essay, based on a conversation with Rachael Hudson. It's a very fun job, but cruise performers have to work hard to get to where we are. Over the years, working on a cruise ship has become work that's much more sought after. Rachael Hudson by a palm tree.

☆ The Producer Turning Sadness Into Pop Gold for Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Neil Shah | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Aaron Dessner battled depression as a teenager. Even as he played guitar and bass in bands, privately, he made brooding piano music on his own. “What I get sad about is the feeling of emptiness, the wreckage of losing people,” he says in an interview at his Long Pond Studio in New York’s Hudson Valley. “Bands break up, marriages break up, everybody breaks up, it kind of depresses me,” he says. “Maybe it’s naive, but I try to hold it all together.”

☆ Lebanon central bank chief's brother questioned at European fraud probe hearing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

In a nearly five-hour session in which Raja was questioned about his brother's wealth, he told investigators that Forry was solely owned by him. He said $155 million in funds he amassed came from investment profits made over ten years from accrued interest and foreign exchange transactions. The documents say prosecutors suspect Riad used fake banking documents in Raja's name to cover up illicit sources of wealth. The European investigators are also set on Friday to question caretaker finance minister Youssef el-Khalil , who still serves as the central bank's head of financial operations. French prosecutors have informed Riad that they intend to press charges of fraud and aggravated money laundering during a planned hearing in France on May 16.

☆ New York City’s Most Expensive Neighborhoods
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Michael Kolomatsky | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

New York City’s notoriously volatile real estate market is cooling — the high end included — according to a new report from PropertyShark. The report showed that in the first quarter of 2023, the median sale price fell in 28 of the city’s 50 most-expensive neighborhoods from a year earlier, while the number of sales dropped or was flat in 46 neighborhoods. Only four of the 50 neighborhoods had a median sale price of $2 million or more, compared with eight in the first quarter of 2022. In the most expensive area, Manhattan’s Hudson Yards, the median sale price rose about 6 percent year-over-year, to $5.729 million; but in TriBeCa, the next most expensive, it fell 6 percent, to $3.5 million. But its $2.6 million median sale price was level from a year earlier, so it was price reductions in other neighborhoods that improved its ranking.

However, a number of countries have recently begun lifting their domestic states of emergency, such as the United States. WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said he hopes to end the international emergency this year. One source close to negotiations said lifting the "public health emergency of international concern", or PHEIC, label could impact global funding or collaboration efforts. "I expect WHO to end the public health emergency of international concern. If WHO does not end it... [this time], then certainly the next time the emergency committee meets."

☆ Recession Fears Abound, but the Fed Chair Bets This Time Is Different
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Jeanna Smialek | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Federal Reserve’s push to slow the economy and bring inflation under control is often compared to an airplane descent, one that could end in a soft landing, a bumpy one or an outright crash. Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, is betting on something more akin to the Miracle on the Hudson: a touchdown that is gentle, all things considered, and unlike anything the nation has seen before. The Fed has raised rates sharply over the past year, pushing them just above 5 percent on Wednesday, in a bid to cool the economy to bring inflation under control. But Mr. Powell made it clear during a news conference on Wednesday that he does not agree. “That’s not my own most likely case,” he said, explaining that he expects modest growth this year.

☆ Through Catastrophe, and in Community, the Art of Daniel Lind-Ramos
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Holland Cotter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

I often remember big museum roundups of new art for a single standout entry. In the case of the 2019 Whitney Biennial, the memory of a regally enigmatic sculpture titled “María-María” by the Puerto Rican artist Daniel Lind-Ramos won’t let go. The head was a lacquered coconut; her oceanic cloak was a plastic FEMA tarp. Whatever the work’s meanings, the Whitney curators accurately gauged its potency. They set it apart from everything else, as if on an altar, in a niche-like west-facing window, with open sky and the Hudson River as backdrop.

☆ Topless Italian climate protesters block Rome traffic
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

ROME, May 4 (Reuters) - Topless climate activists on Thursday blocked traffic on a busy street in central Rome to protest over the Italian government's climate policy after torrential rains killed two people. The stunt marked a change of tactics by the Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) group after Rome's right-wing executive introduced stiff fines against protesters who target monuments and heritage sites. On Thursday, Last Generation released footage showing a small group of activists kneeling on zebra crossings in Rome and taking off their tops or - in one case - stripping naked. Activists blame the extreme weather on climate change due to fossil fuels. Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro; editing by Alvise Armellini, Alexandra HudsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Finding That Hudson Valley Gem for About $500,000: Which House Would You Choose?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Karen Angel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Ms. Burk still works in Manhattan as a freelance photo stylist for clients like Tory Burch and Coach, but plans to focus entirely on Lotus when she turns 50 in August. “We fell in love with the area,” said Mr. Burk, who began rock-climbing near the local lakes 15 years ago. Email: thehunt@nytimes.com]His retirement thrust the couple into a Hudson Valley house search just as a stream of New Yorkers fleeing the city created fierce competition. Mr. Burk picked up construction skills while working for a plumber when he was in high school and later developed those skills by flipping houses, and Ms. Burk has a background in design. “We were always drawn to ugly-duckling houses,” Ms. Burk said.

☆ Michael Kors and Naomi Watts on Fashion and Women’s Health
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Cody Delistraty | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

“In an industry that is so focused on women, we are not seeing enough women rise in managerial [roles],” said fashion designer Michael Kors to Kristina O’Neill (left) onstage. Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Wall Street JournalOn Tuesday night, as the sun set over the Hudson River at Spring Studios in downtown Manhattan, the designer and philanthropist Michael Kors and actor and entrepreneur Naomi Watts weighed in on what the future might hold for their industries. The “after hours” edition of The Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything Festival, hosted in collaboration with WSJ. Magazine, opened with cocktails followed by performances of Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke” and Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” sung by students from the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts High School in Queens, New York.

☆ Can You Pass an 8th-Grade History Test?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

What were European explorers such as Henry Hudson looking for when they sailed the coast and rivers of North America in the 1600s?

☆ Cate Blanchett calls for more support for refugee host countries
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Marie-Louise Gumuchian | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, May 3 (Reuters) - Actor Cate Blanchett, a goodwill ambassador for the UN refugee agency, has called for more support for countries hosting people forcibly displaced from their homes to prevent "a forgotten crisis." Blanchett, appointed a UNHCR goodwill ambassador in 2016, said it "was easy to forget" there were protracted conflicts around the world leading people to seek refuge elsewhere. "When you think that 74% of refugees are sheltered by lower to middle income countries, it's not the wealthiest countries in the world that are bearing that responsibility. [1/3] UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Cate Blanchett visits a TIGER workshop in the community centre in District 2 of Zaatari refugee camp, in Mafraq, Jordan, April 25, 2023. Blanchett reunited with families in Amman and travelled to Zaatari refugee camp, created soon after the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011 and where some 80,000 people now live.

☆ Australian Rules-Tasmania savours victory in 'hard fight' to secure AFL team
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Ian Ransom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The state government signed off on commitments to secure the AFL's 19th team license and has targeted the 2028 season to launch in the Australian Rules top flight. "This has been a hard fight ... by many, many Tasmanians over a number of generations," state Premier Jeremy Rockliff said in the state capital Hobart. The AFL targeted richer eastern states and continues to spend a fortune propping up expansion teams in territory long owned by rugby league. AFL clubs relying on league distributions balked at the prospect of another drain on the league's coffers. ($1 = 1.5006 Australian dollars)Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter RutherfordOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Hudson will be one of the few female executives leading a major company in Australia, although rival carrier Virgin Australia also has a woman as its CEO, Jayne Hrdlicka. "I come with an understanding of this organization that is very deep," Hudson told reporters in her first news conference as CEO designate. "Vanessa has been market-facing as CFO since October 2019, which will have prepared her well for the very public role as Qantas CEO," RBC Capital Markets analyst Owen Birrell said in a note. Though men still account for far more top executive roles in Australian-listed companies, a growing number of high-profile CEO roles are occupied by women, including at the No. Qantas said Hudson would continue in her current role until taking over as Qantas' 13th CEO at the 2023 annual general meeting.

SYDNEY, May 2 (Reuters) - Australia's flagship carrier, Qantas Airways Ltd (QAN.AX), said on Tuesday that long-serving CEO Alan Joyce would step aside in November, and named Vanessa Hudson as its next chief executive officer. * November 2008 - Irish-born Alan Joyce is appointed as Qantas chief executive. * April 2009 - Joyce cuts 1,750 jobs, the first major cull under his leadership, as the airline feels the full impact of the global financial crisis. * October 2016 - Joyce orchestrates a turnaround and delivers record profits and the first dividend to shareholders since 2009. * February 2023 - The airline swings to a record first-half profit on a strong demand recovery and high ticket prices.

☆ Factbox: Long-serving Qantas executive Vanessa Hudson named as next CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SYDNEY, May 2 (Reuters) - Australia's flagship carrier, Qantas Airways Ltd (QAN.AX), on Tuesday named its finance chief Vanessa Hudson to serve as its new chief executive starting in November, making her the first woman to lead the century-old airline. *Hudson is a trained accountant who has worked at Qantas since 1994 in several roles and lives in Sydney with her husband and two daughters. *She started as chief financial officer in October 2019, just a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic devastated the travel industry globally. *She has also overseen the airline's fleet replacement and expansion plans as part of her role as chief financial officer, including a multi-billion dollar order for Airbus SE (AIR.PA) jets placed last year. *In recent months, Hudson was seen as a likely candidate to succeed Joyce, who had led the airline since 2008.

SummarySummary Companies Hudson is the first female CEO to lead the airlineNew CEO to take over from Alan Joyce in NovemberMay 2 (Reuters) - Australia's flagship carrier, Qantas Airways Ltd (QAN.AX), on Tuesday named its finance chief Vanessa Hudson as its new chief executive officer, making her the first woman to lead the century-old airline. Hudson's appointment makes her one of the few female executives leading an airline, including Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka. "Vanessa has been market-facing as CFO since October 2019, which will have prepared her well for the very public role as Qantas CEO," RBC Capital Markets analyst Owen Birrell said in a note. SUCCESSION PLANSJoyce, 56, served as Qantas CEO for more than 14 years and helped navigate the airline through the COVID-19 pandemic, fluctuating fuel prices, and competition. Qantas said Hudson would continue in her current role until taking over as Qantas' 13th CEO at the 2023 annual general meeting.

☆ Kenyan anti-government protests resume with police firing tear gas
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Thomas MukoyaNAIROBI, May 2 (Reuters) - Kenyan police fired tear gas at a small group of protesters in the capital Nairobi on Tuesday as the opposition resumed anti-government demonstrations following a one-month pause. But he later announced that the protests would resume, accusing the government of not negotiating in good faith. The police said on Monday that the protests would be considered unlawful. Odinga's Azimio La Umoja (Declaration of Unity) coalition said the protests would go ahead. Reporting by George Obulutsa, Thomas Mukoya and Humphrey Malalo; Editing by Aaron Ross, Alexandra HudsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Kenyan police fire tear gas as anti-government protests resume
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Thomas MukoyaNAIROBI, May 2 (Reuters) - Kenyan police fired tear gas at a small group of protesters in the capital Nairobi on Tuesday as the opposition took to the streets again in anti-government demonstrations following a one-month pause. Police said they had arrested 46 people "engaging in acts of criminality" and said the protests were unlawful. The Azimio La Umoja (Declaration of Unity) coalition said some of its members of parliament were stopped on their way to the president's office and met with teargas. Our protests will resume on Thursday," the coalition said in a statement. But he later announced that the protests would resume, accusing the government of not negotiating in good faith.

☆ Hedge funds bet consumers will rein in U.S. spending - Goldman Sachs
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Nell Mackenzie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

U.S. consumer spending plateaued in March, a sign that Americans may have become more averse to higher prices, data released last week showed. In Europe, stocks saw net buying by hedge funds for a fourth straight month in April, driven mainly by hedge funds buying to exit short positions in macro economic sectors, the Goldman Sachs note said. Goldman added that developed markets in Asia, especially Japan, saw net buying from hedge funds. Japanese stocks saw net buying by hedge funds for a fourth straight month and the largest level of notional net buying in two years, the note said. Global hedge funds that focus on buying and selling stocks posted a 0.58% increase in asset weighted returns, said the note.

☆ Qantas names finance chief Vanessa Hudson as next CEO, becoming first woman to lead the airline
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Vanessa Hudson, chief financial officer of Qantas Airways, speaks during a news conference in Sydney on Feb. 23, 2023. Australia's flagship carrier, Qantas , on Tuesday named its finance chief Vanessa Hudson as its new chief executive officer, making her the first woman to lead the century-old airline. Hudson, who joined Qantas 28 years ago, had held several senior roles there, including chief customer officer and senior vice president for the Americas and New Zealand. Hudson's appointment makes her one of the few female executives leading an airline, including Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka. "Vanessa has been market-facing as CFO since October 2019, which will have prepared her well for the very public role as Qantas CEO," RBC Capital Markets analyst Owen Birrell said in a note.

☆ Qantas names finance head Vanessa Hudson as its first female CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 2 (Reuters) - Australia's flag carrier, Qantas Airways Ltd (QAN.AX), on Tuesday, said it would be appointing finance chief Vanessa Hudson as its new chief executive officer once Alan Joyce retires in November. In its history, Qantas has never had a female CEO. He's faced more than his fair share of challenges as CEO and he's managed them exceptionally well," Qantas Chairman Richard Goyder said. Qantas said Hudson will continue in her current role while also designating for the role of CEO. She will take over as Qantas' 13th CEO at the 2023 annual general meeting.

☆ Met Gala 2023 fashion: The best looks from the red carpet
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Jacqui Palumbo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The Met Gala theme is based on the Costume Institute’s spring show “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” which is a posthumous retrospective of the German fashion designer’s work. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty ImagesIce Spice Jamie McCarthy/Getty ImagesOlivia Wilde opted for a Chloé "violin" dress — one of Lagerfeld's designs from the 1980s — in white and gold. John Shearer/WireImage/Getty ImagesActor Ariana DeBose made an entrance in an Altuzarra fur-trimmed yellow hooded gown, arriving with designer Joseph Altuzarra. John Shearer/WireImage/Getty ImagesMet Gala co-chair Dua Lipa in a voluminous Chanel corset dress. Evan Agostini/Invision/APTop Photo: Gisele Bündchen (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)

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