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☆ This fund for socially conscious investors offers stability during volatile markets
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

There's a socially conscious fund that's providing some stability at a time when broader market volatility reigns supreme — and rates continue to rise. The Invesco Floating Rate ESG Fund (AFRYX) last year shed just 2.25% on a total return basis, per Morningstar. In other words, the lion's share of the fund is in short-term bonds that have floating interest rates. Relative stability Morningstar said the fund has returned mixed results during periods of market stress, though it has performed better in recent years. Many senior loans are illiquid, meaning they can't always be sold quickly or at a fair price.

☆ Equatorial Guinea confirms eight more Marburg cases - WHO
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

DAKAR, March 23 (Reuters) - Eight new confirmed cases of Marburg disease have been reported in Equatorial Guinea, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. This brings the total of laboratory-confirmed cases to nine and probable cases to 20 since the outbreak of the deadly disease similar to Ebola was declared in February. The areas reporting cases are about 150 kilometres (93 miles) apart, suggesting a wider transmission of the virus, the WHO said. Marburg virus disease is a viral haemorrhagic fever that can have a fatality rate of up to 88%, according to the WHO. Neighbouring Cameroon also detected two suspected cases of Marburg disease last month despite restricting movement along the border to avoid contagion.

☆ As Fed meeting looms, economists see central bank balance sheet in new light
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Michael S. Derby | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

BIG NUMBERSFed numbers showed the speed of the shift to a new balance sheet reality. Fed holdings peaked at just shy of $9 trillion last summer. The details of Fed holdings matters greatly in terms of understanding Fed balance sheet dynamics, analysts say. Benson Durham, head of global policy at Piper Sandler, said the key is the composition and not the size of Fed holdings. One factor limiting economists’ interpretation of the balance sheet surge is the fluidity of the factors now driving it.

☆ Italy makes biofuel demand as EU attempts to unblock combustion engine phase-out
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Kate Abnett | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRUSSELS, March 22 (Reuters) - Italy has warned the European Commission that it will only support a solution to unblock the EU's planned phase-out of combustion engine cars by 2035 if it allows the sale of cars running on biofuels to continue after that date. The European Union is racing to save its main policy for cutting car CO2 emissions, after Germany lodged last-minute opposition to the law, which would phase out sales of new combustion engine cars from 2035. Italy and Germany have both demanded that the EU allow sales of new combustion engine cars after 2035 if they run exclusively on carbon neutral e-fuels - which could support manufacturers of combustion engine cars and parts. The draft, seen by Reuters on Tuesday, did not include biofuels in the definition of "carbon neutral fuels". A commitment from the Commission on when it will make this legal proposal could unlock a deal on the combustion engine phase-out, they three said.

☆ Indeed to lay off 2,200 employees
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Dayun Park | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Job listing website Indeed.com will cut approximately 2,200 employees, representing almost 15% of its total workforce, the company announced Wednesday. “The cuts come from nearly every team, function, level and region,” at the company, CEO Chris Hyams said in a memo released by the company. Within an hour after the memo was released, employees outside of the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and Japan were expected to receive an email informing them of their status. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced that they will cut around 9,000 employees, primarily from Amazon Web Services, People Experience and Technology (PXT), advertising and Twitch. Meta also recently released its plan to cut 10,000 employees, on top of 11,000 layoffs announced last fall.

☆ Mistakes by the US's top spies allowed China to turn a deadly mid-air collision into an intelligence coup
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( James Bamford | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +36 min

On April 1, 2001, a US EP-3 spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea. One of eleven left in the fleet, the tired 1960s-era spy plane bristled with porcupine-like antennas. Within minutes, however, the fighters had reached the lumbering spy plane, and while Zhao Yu hung back about a half-mile, Wang Wei rapidly closed in. In severe trouble, he immediately radioed the base, telling them he was unable to maneuver and being sucked in by the spy plane. "You are not allowed aboard the aircraft," Osborn said.

☆ EU executive says no decision yet on financial sector commission ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, March 22 (Reuters) - The European Union's executive said on Wednesday that upcoming plans to bolster retail investor protections will be "ambitious", but any ban on banks offering commission in return for business from financial advisers has yet to be decided. The European Commission in the coming weeks is due to propose its "retail investment strategy" to deepen its capital market, a step made more urgent by Britain's exit from the bloc. His boss, EU financial services commissioner Mairead McGuinness, has suggested that inducements or commission offered by banks to financial advisers who send business their way should be banned to end a conflict of interest and cut fees. Industry officials talk of the idea of a ban being dropped or introducing over many years. Any follow-up legislative proposal would be for the new commission from late 2024, he added.

☆ Candida auris fungus spreading in U.S. hospitals - CDC
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

FollowMarch 21 (Reuters) - Potentially deadly fungal infections with Candida auris are spreading rapidly in U.S. healthcare facilities, with cases nearly doubling between 2020 and 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. A high fever with chills that does not get better after taking antibiotics may be a sign of Candida auris infection. The CDC noted that spread of the infections in 2021 may have been exacerbated as the healthcare system was hit by pandemic-related stressors, such as staff and equipment shortages. Other countries have also reported increased spread of the fungus, the researchers said. Reporting by Leroy Leo in Bengaluru; editing by Caroline Humer, Nancy Lapid and Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Fact Check-Fabricated Donald Trump statement threatening to leak ‘interesting videos’ of Kevin McCarthy shared online
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

An image of what appears to be a statement published by former U.S. President Donald Trump threatening to leak “interesting videos” of Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy is fabricated. Examples of the fabricated statement screenshot shared online can be viewed (here) and (here). The earliest iteration Reuters could find of the statement was shared via a satirical Twitter account (here), archived (archive.is/E4zRY). Beneath “Save America” in the logo at the top of the page, “President Donald J. Trump” is replaced with “President Doofy J. Trump.”The screenshot is also dated March 18, 2022. No such statement was published by Donald Trump.

☆ Shoppers say secondhand stores like Goodwill are getting too expensive as Gen Z makes thrifting cool
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Mary Hanbury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

TikTokers are complaining about high prices in secondhand stores like Goodwill and Salvation Army. The US thrift market has grown substantially in recent years and thrifting has become a popular pursuit of Gen Z shoppers, who have been credited with championing a more sustainable way to shop. But Gen Z shoppers aren't only buying secondhand items for themselves. That is a dubious delineation when it comes to major secondhand clothing corporations," Jennifer Le Zotte, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington told Vox. 23-year-old Stefani Colvin, who has been thrifting since 2016, told Insider that prices have been gradually on the rise in thrift stores.

Companies FTX Trading Limited FollowMarch 20 (Reuters) - Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX on Sunday sued the liquidators overseeing the wind-down of its Bahamian affiliate FTX Digital Markets, accusing them of wrongly claiming ownership of the exchange's assets. FTX called FTX DM a "fraudulent enterprise", initially set up only to be a "local service company", which did not own the FTX.com exchange or any of the cryptocurrency seized. FTX has been at odds with Bahamian officials ever since filing for bankruptcy protection on Nov. 11. The Securities Commission of the Bahamas began liquidation proceedings against FTX DM a day before the U.S. bankruptcy filing of FTX Trading and more than 100 affiliates, and the two sides have sparred over ownership of FTX assets and access to company data. FTX reported this month that Bankman-Fried took $2.2 billion in funds from the company during a period when the crypto exchange lost $8 billion of customer money.

☆ Morning Bid: Fed halt being priced as bank blaze smoulders
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike DolanAnother weekend of financial firefighting has doused the whole interest rate horizon as the banking blaze smoulders. European bank chiefs were immediately on guard for further contagion and insisted more support was required. And that thinking has crushed the interest rate horizon everywhere. Futures markets now see the first Fed rate cut emerging by midyear. * European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde speaks at the European Parliament in Brussels* Chinese President Xi Jinping meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

☆ BOJ debated side effects of easy policy at March meeting
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Leika Kihara | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

At the March meeting, the BOJ maintained its ultra-loose policy, including a controversial 0.5% cap for the 10-year bond yield that had come under attack from markets betting on a near-term interest rate hike. But some members voiced concern over lingering distortions in the yield curve, which the BOJ sought to contain in December by raising the 10-year bond yield cap to 0.5% from 0.25%. At the time of the March meeting, the BOJ had been forced to ramp up bond buying to defend its 0.5% cap for the 10-year bond yield. The tussle with market participants betting on a near-term rate hike kept the 10-year yield pinned at the 0.5% ceiling, instead of fluctuating more freely as the BOJ had hoped. The 10-year bond yield was 0.250% on Monday, well off the BOJ's 0.5% cap, as investors loaded up on JGBs that are considered safe-haven assets favoured in times of market stress.

☆ FDA staff says Biogen's ALS drug may have a 'clinical benefit' on a rare form of the disease
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

U.S. Food and Drug Administration staff on Monday said Biogen's investigational ALS drug may have a "clinical benefit" on a rare and aggressive form of the disease, despite failing a broader late-stage clinical trial last year. A separate exploratory analysis of the drug suggests "a clinical benefit with a longer duration of treatment," the staff wrote. It also found that tofersen reduced levels of a protein called neurofilament light (NfL,) which is "correlated with disease severity, disease progression rate, and survival in patients with ALS," according to the FDA staff. The first is to move forward with recommending accelerated approval based on tofersen's reduction of NfL in ALS patients. "SOD1-linked ALS is a particularly rare and aggressive form of an already rare and devastating disease," said Dr. Neil Thakur, The ALS Association's chief mission officer.

☆ Iran violations may amount to crimes against humanity, UN expert says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Emma Farge | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Iran has been swept by protests since the death of a young Iranian Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, in custody last September. Addressing the Geneva-based council, Javaid Rehman, Special Rapporteur on Iran, said he had evidence that Amini died "as a result of beatings by the state morality police". Rehman, an independent expert, added that the scale and gravity of crimes committed by authorities as part of the repression following her death "points to the possible commission of international crimes, notably the crimes against humanity". People hold flags during a demonstration against the Republic of Iran in the Place des Nations during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, February 27, 2023. Evidence assembled by other investigations set up by the U.N. rights council has sometimes been used before international courts.

☆ Former Goldman Sachs CEO Blankfein says U.S. banking crisis will slow growth
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Kanishka Singh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - Former Goldman Sachs (GS.N) CEO Lloyd Blankfein said on Sunday the banking crisis in the United States was going to expedite overall credit tightening and slow the U.S. economy. Banks will have to, you know, because of the tension, because of the pressure and uncertainties, banks will husband their equity," Blankfein told CNN in an interview on Sunday. So, some of the mission of the Fed in trying to slow the economy will be done here," the former Goldman Sachs CEO added. Gary Cohn, who served as economic adviser to former President Donald Trump and is also a former Goldman Sachs president, told CBS News that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell was in a "tough spot." I personally - I personally think it would be okay to stop here," Blankfein told CNN.

☆ Fox News is unlikely to face pushback from professional journalism groups after court documents revealed it lied to viewers
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The White House Correspondents' Association doesn't police member conduct, a former board member said. A number of professional organizations told Insider that Fox News fell well short of the standards expected in the profession. "Journalism receives significant protections from the First Amendment and with those protections come profound responsibilities," McCarran told Insider. Evidence made public in Dominion's lawsuit shows how Fox employees — beyond just hosts of opinion shows — had priorities other than telling their viewers the truth. "There are left-wing publications, right-wing publications, there are government-owned publications — there's Voice of America, foreign news organizations," the former board member said. "

☆ The war in Ukraine has created more refugees than the world has seen since WWII, according to a new UN report
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The UN has released a new report describing crimes committed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The report details war crimes including torture and rape of civilians, and deportation of children. The invasion has created more refugees and displaced more people than the world has seen since WWII. More people have fled Ukraine or been displaced within the country since the start of the war than the world has seen since WWII, according to the United Nations. A State Department spokesperson told Insider "there is no doubt that Russia is committing war crimes and atrocities in Ukraine, and we have been clear that those responsible must be held accountable."

☆ AI love: What happens when your chatbot stops loving you back
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Anna Tong | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

He designed a female avatar with pink hair and a face tattoo, and she named herself Lily Rose. As their three-year digital love affair blossomed, Butterworth said he and Lily Rose often engaged in role play. Sometimes Lily Rose sent him "selfies" of her nearly nude body in provocative poses. Now, when Replika users suggest X-rated activity, its humanlike chatbots text back "Let's do something we're both comfortable with." The coquettish-turned-cold persona of Lily Rose is the handiwork of generative AI technology, which relies on algorithms to create text and images.

☆ China revives ruling party control of financial oversight
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Evelyn Cheng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Greg Baker | Afp | Getty ImagesBEIJING — The ruling Communist Party of China is establishing commissions to oversee finance and tech, state media announced Thursday. A new "Central Financial Commission" is set to strengthen the party's "centralized and unified leadership over financial work," state media said Thursday in Chinese, according to a CNBC translation. watch nowWhile state media did not specify, a financial work commission of the same name had been set up in the aftermath of the 1998 Asian financial crisis. Responsibilities of that party commission are borne by the restructured Ministry of Science and Technology. The State Council changes established a National Financial Regulatory Administration to oversee most of the financial industry — except for the securities industry.

[1/6] Supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan carry bamboo sticks and slingshots, as they gather and chant slogans, at the entrance of Khan's house, in Lahore, Pakistan March 17, 2023. Even though there was no police presence on Friday, witnesses said Khan's supporters, armed with batons and iron rods, remained stationed outside his home. The Election Commission of Pakistan had found him guilty and barred Khan from holding public office for one parliamentary term. Khan has said he was willing to submit a written undertaking that he would voluntarily appear before the court on Saturday, but the court said such an undertaking was insufficient. Current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has rejected Khan's demands, saying an election would be held as scheduled later this year.

☆ Keep Russian, Belarusian athletes banned-German Olympic Committee
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BERLIN, March 17 (Reuters) - Germany's Olympic committee (DOSB) said on Friday it was in favour of maintaining a ban of Russian and Belarusian athletes but opposed any plans to boycott the Paris 2024 Olympics over their participation. Ukraine has spearheaded a call to ban athletes from Russia and its close ally Belarus from the Paris Games next year after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in January said it was open to including them as neutrals. "We remain in favour of a ban of Russian and Belarusian athletes and sports administrators from international competitions," the DOSB said in a statement. "Russia and Belarus must not get the chance to misuse the participation and successes of their athletes at international competitions for war propaganda purposes." Athletes from Russia and its neighbour Belarus, which aided Moscow's invasion of Ukraine a year ago, have been banned from many international competitions since then.

Summary Arrest warrant issued after ex-PM failed to attend courtCourt rejects Khan's offer to appear voluntarilyFormer cricket star denies wrongdoingSupporters battled police for two days to prevent arrestLAHORE, Pakistan, March 16 (Reuters) - A Pakistani court on Thursday rejected former Prime Minister Imran Khan's plea to suspend an arrest warrant issued against him, stoking fears of a renewed confrontation between his supporters and security forces. [1/5] Supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, carry sticks as they walk towards Khan's house, in Lahore, Pakistan March 16, 2023. Provincial information minister Amir Mir said there were militants among Khan's supporters outside his house. The police were unarmed, he said, adding they had to use water-cannons and teargas shells when Khan's supporters turned violent. Current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has rejected Khan's demands, saying an election would be held as scheduled later this year.

☆ Russia has committed 'wide range' of war crimes in Ukraine, U.N inquiry finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] A flag is seen on a building during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland February 27, 2023. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File PhotoGENEVA, March 16 (Reuters) - Russia has committed wide-ranging war crimes in Ukraine such as wilful killings, torture and the deportation of children, a U.N.-mandated investigative body said in a report published on Thursday. "Russian authorities have committed numerous violationsof international humanitarian law and violations of international human rights law, in addition to a wide range of war crimes...," the report said. Russia denies committing atrocities or targeting civilians in Ukraine. Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Emma Farge; Editing by Anthony Deutsch and Raissa KasolowskyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Bodycam footage shows cops forcefully arresting a Black family at a Starbucks car park. A jury awarded them $8.25 million in damages.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Sophia Ankel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A Black mother and her two daughters were detained at a Starbucks car park in California in 2019. A California jury awarded the family more than $8 million on Wednesday, court documents show. After an altercation, Holland ordered all three family members out of the car and detained them, the video shows. The Alameda County Sheriff's Office did not immediately respond to Insider's for comment. It happened in a Starbucks car park, not in the actual shop.

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