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[1/2] Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters during a rally ahead of the May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections, in Izmir, Turkey April 29, 2023. As he seeks to shore up his appeal among conservative voters, Erdogan has also spoken against homosexuality, describing LGBT rights as a "deviant" concept he would fight. 'BUILDING TURKEY TOGETHER'Polls suggest voting could go to a second round and some show Erdogan trailing. "I swear, Erdogan can solve it with a flick of his wrist," she said at a market in central Istanbul. The interventions won few allies, however, and faced with a struggling economy the countdown to the election, Erdogan sought rapprochement with rivals across the region.

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☆ 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.

☆ A Hydropower Renaissance, but Where Are the Giant Dams?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Mira Rojanasakul | Max Bearak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +10 min

Pumped Storage Hydropower, 1900-2040 Global map showing a concentration of planned pumped storage projects in China. Pumped Storage Existing Planned China’s momentum has allowed it to surpass Europe’s capacity for pumped storage. “Our data show that pumped storage is set to grow much faster than conventional dams,” said Joe Bernardi, who runs Global Energy Monitor’s hydropower tracker. UPPER RESERVOIR GENERATORS + TURBINES LOWER RESERVOIR When electricity demand exceeds supply, water is released to race downhill, spinning giant turbines. UPPER RESERVOIR GENERATORS + TURBINES LOWER RESERVOIR When electricity demand exceeds supply, water is released to race downhill, spinning giant turbines.

☆ Opinion: A pleasant flight in South Africa vs. air travel horrors in America
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Jill Filipovic | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —This past weekend, I had one of the most unusual experiences of my life: a day of air travel that was easy, sensible, efficient — dare I say pleasant. But last Saturday, it was — which highlighted just how unpleasant and undignified air travel often is, particularly within the United States. So, let’s say your flight is still scheduled and you’ve paid extra money to travel with a bag. But air travel was bad well before the pandemic. But every once in a while, like this past weekend as I settled into my oversized South African Airways seat without having broken a sweat, I’ll see a little glimmer of what air travel could be.

☆ More Workers Take Parental Leave as States, Employers Expand Eligibility
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Gwynn Guilford | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Shawna Freeman Lane , 34, continued to teach college-level business by laptop after she gave birth by C-section in 2017. Her husband, Eric Lane , was home with her in Fircrest, Wash., for three weeks. The same thing happened in 2018, when their second child was born—except this time, Mr. Lane only got two weeks at home. Having to leave his still-healing wife in the lurch was hard for Mr. Lane, as was tracking his children’s development via text messages while at work. In 2020, Washington state had passed a new law entitling working parents to 12 weeks of paid leave, to bond with their newborn.

☆ Meta's layoffs are affecting customer service and leaving influencers and businesses on Instagram and Facebook in the lurch, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Meta's mass layoffs have affected over 20,000 employees, including its customer support teams. One Instagram influencer told CNBC that her requests for support are going "into the void." The layoffs, which saw thousands of employees leave the company, affected staff in Meta's client support and customer experience and communities teams, former staff told CNBC. The company declined to provide comment to CNBC but provided the outlet with examples of its investment in customer service in recent years. The company has started building a customer service division, Bloomberg reported last year.

☆ TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has the internet eating out of his hand
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Hallam Bullock | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Well, court filings have laid bare the company's excessive spending habits on luxury estate, hotels and, of course, a yacht. Shou Zi Chew said the average TikTok user was "an adult well past college age." Wall Street says TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew had a "disaster" day in Congress. Wall Street may have dubbed Chew's testimony a "disaster," but by the end of it, Chew had the internet eating out of his hand. Google Bard is already behind in the AI wars.

☆ UK interest rates: Bank of England hikes by a quarter percentage point
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

London CNN —[Breaking news] The Bank of England hiked interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point Thursday, extending its long-running fight against inflation, which rose unexpectedly in February. The central bank made its 11th consecutive rate hike, taking its benchmark rate to 4.25%, the highest since October 2008. ET]The Bank of England is expected to hike rates by a quarter of a percentage point Thursday following an unexpected jump in inflation. The US Federal Reserve hiked rates by a quarter of a percentage point Wednesday. Announcing its rate hike, Switzerland’s central bank said UBS’s weekend takeover of Credit Suisse had “put a halt” to the banking crisis.

The three main U.S. indices, which had rallied during Powell's press conference, reversed course and closed down 1.6%. Powell, of course, banged the anti-inflation drum and said the central bank's base case is for no rate cuts this year. He said more than once that policymakers simply don't know how the next few months will pan out. But policymakers in Asia will remain vigilant, and may continue to lean toward tightening rather than pausing. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ 5 ways House Republicans' budget plan 'will be a disaster for families,' according to the White House
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The House Freedom Caucus unveiled a plan to address the debt ceiling through major spending cuts. The White House launched a campaign attacking the plan on Monday, saying it would be disastrous for families. In a release, the White House said that they're joining forces with Congressional Democrats to go on the offense as House Republicans head to Florida for their retreat. Specifically, the White House is hitting out at how the proposal would weaken public safety and national security, according to a White House official. —House Freedom Caucus (@freedomcaucus) March 13, 2023"It should shock no one that financially responsible proposals terrify and confuse this administration," it wrote.

☆ Romance Scams Are Booming — Especially on Facebook and Instagram
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Eve Upton-Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Americans lost $1.3 billion to romance scams last year — an 164% increase from 2019 — and $3.3 billion in total since the start of the pandemic. According to the FTC report, the most popular way scammers reached out to their victims last year was through Instagram (29%) and Facebook (28%). And as these schemes get more widespread and more complex, the number of people falling for romance scams keeps growing. Confluence of crypto and romanceIf loneliness was the reason "why" for the soaring number of romance scams, then crypto is the "how." 1 payment method for romance scams last year was cryptocurrency.

☆ Here's what it was like at the New York Stock Exchange the day Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, according to Wall Street's most famous trader
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Peter Tuchman has been at the New York Stock Exchange for almost 38 years and is the most-photographed trader on Wall Street. He's weathered the stock market crash of 1987, the bursting of the dot-com bubble, the financial crisis of 2008, and the COVID-19 sell-off of 2020. On March 10, when Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, "shit was really hitting the fan," he told Insider. Tuchman said when Silicon Valley Bank collapsed last week "shit was really hitting the fan." I watch at every given second what's going on with all that information," he said, gesturing at the hundreds of monitors around us.

☆ World markets set for aftershocks as SVB collapse ripples out
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Dhara Ranasinghe | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

LONDON, March 12 (Reuters) - Markets were set for a bumpy ride this week as the fallout from collapsed startup-focused lender Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the biggest U.S. bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis, coincides with key economic data and policy meetings. It later recovered most of its losses after Circle, the firm behind it, assured investors it would honour the peg despite exposure to Silicon Valley Bank. SVB could have a domino effect on other U.S. regional banks and beyond. The S&P 500 regional banks index (.SPLRCBNKS) dropped 4.3%, bringing its loss for the week to 18%, its worst week since 2009. UK finance minister Jeremy Hunt's UK budget may be overshadowed by the SVB fallout in Britain.

LME SPECIAL COMMITTEEA day earlier, on March 7, when LME benchmark nickel prices had soared 66% to nearly $50,000 a tonne, the LME's Special Committee had met, Jane Street's document said. The Committee, which has emergency powers, "concluded that the nickel market remained orderly, since there were geopolitical and macroeconomic reasons for the price increases". The next day, however, when nickel prices skyrocketed, the committee did not meet, the document said. Jane Street executed nickel trades from 1:37 a.m. on March 8 and was due total proceeds on those trades of $32.7 million, it said in the document. The LME is also facing fresh lawsuits from ten hedge funds and asset managers for cancelling nickel trades.

☆ Dozens of sanctioned superyachts seized from Russian oligarchs still hang in limbo, racking up millions in maintenance
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Grace Kay | Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Seized yachts owned by sanctioned Russian oligarchs hang in limbo as US and European authorities decide next steps. Annual maintenance for some of the yachts costs as much as $115.6 million. Earlier this week, CNBC reported that billions of dollars in oligarch's assets — from yachts and villas to private jets — are still frozen. And while the Russian oligarchs are still technically responsible for paying for yacht maintenance, they're unlikely to fork over the maintenance cost or authorities will encounter difficulty collecting the funds due to sanctions on financial transactions with the billionaires. According to Maltby, the maintenance cost of a yacht usually totals about 15% to 20% of its overall value.

[1/3] Students walk past stalls during the orientation week at The University of Sydney, in Camperdown, Australia February 15, 2023. 'BIG RUSH'The shortage has meanwhile jumpstarted one of the few subsets of Australian residential property, the student accommodation sector, that languished during COVID. Before 2020, Chinese students accounted for about 40% of the A$40 billion ($27 billion) Australia made educating foreigners annually. But China's reopening has raised the issue about the availability of beds in a "welcome sign" for investors, said Brad Williams, managing director of AMP Capital's diversified infrastructure trust, Australia's third-largest owner of purpose-built student accommodation. Tomas Johnsson, CEO of UniLodge Australia, the country's biggest operator of purpose-built student accommodation, said some developers were even paying more to speed up construction.

watch nowThe way in which you and your soon-to-be-ex approach your divorce will have a big impact on the final price tag. If your divorce is contested or your partner isn’t cooperative, it’s important to prepare your financial mindset accordingly. Know the tax consequencesIf you’ve previously enjoyed tax savings from joint filing and/or claiming child-related tax benefits, your first “single” tax bill may be very different from what you’re used to. Many child-related tax benefits such as dependent or education credits can only be claimed by one filer, so you may want to plan ahead and address this in your settlement agreement. Your divorce attorney can work with financial and tax advisors so you are clear on the tax implications and how you can plan ahead.

After serving as mayor of Istanbul, he stepped onto the national stage as head of the AK Party, which triumphed in 2002 national elections. Western allies initially saw Erdogan's Turkey as a vibrant mix of Islam and democracy which could be a model for Middle East states struggling to shake off autocracy and stagnation. Faced with a struggling economy, a weak currency and a countdown to this year's election, Erdogan sought rapprochement with rivals across the region. Now he must convince voters he is the leader to rebuild Turkey from the rubble after this month's earthquake. That will be, in all likelihood, to the detriment of the ruling AK Party and President Erdogan," said Sinan Ulgen, director of the Istanbul-based Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies.

☆ Far-right Republican groups surge in swing state Michigan
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Nathan Layne | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/6] Candidate for district party chair for Michigan Republican Party Jon Smith speaks with guests during a fundraiser in Hillsdale, Michigan, U.S., February 8, 2023. "What's going on in Michigan is a microcosm of what is going on with the Republican Party nationally," said Michael Traugott, a professor at the Center for Political Studies at the University of Michigan. The judge declined to intervene, leaving it up to Michigan Republican Party officials to set the rules on delegate selection. The top two candidates for state party chair have both promoted conspiracy theories in support of Trump's false claims about voter fraud. "There's some people that are thinking this is the end of the Republican Party," he said.

The RBA is expected to deliver a fourth consecutive quarter-point interest rate hike to 3.35%, after inflation unexpectedly rose last year to a 33-year high of 7.8%. However, figures on Monday showed retail sales are falling for the first time in a year, a sign that higher rates are maybe starting to bite. chartGenerally speaking, Asian markets are feeling the heat from the sudden U.S. interest rate outlook shift following January's freakishly strong U.S. jobs report released on Friday. This may be the tightening of financial conditions Fed Chair Powell and his colleagues are seeking. The MSCI Asia ex-Japan index slumped 2.4% on Monday, its worst day since June last year, Chinese stocks had their worst day this year (blame Beijing-Washington tensions too) and Hong Kong tech stocks fell 3.6%.

☆ Intel’s Leap of Faith Turns Into a Lurch
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Dan Gallagher | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

There is never a great time to spend obscene amounts of money fixing problems years in the making. Intel’s fourth-quarter results late Thursday closed out one of the roughest years in the storied Silicon Valley giant’s long history. Revenue for the year fell 20%—the worst annual decline the company has seen since the dot-com bubble burst in 2001. The recent downturn is driven by shriveling sales in its two key businesses: personal computers and data centers. Both got worse as the year progressed, resulting in fourth-quarter revenue and adjusted operating income coming in well below Wall Street’s forecasts.

☆ Why tech is holding up better than the rest — listen to 'The Homestretch'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

THERE WAS A FUNNY MOMENT WHENPEOPLE WERE TRYING TO SAY THATTRADING AND -- AND JAMES GORMANSAID WE'RE NOT A TRADING FIRM. TECH IS LEADING AND NVIDIA,BECAUSE THE CHINESE WILL SITDOWN WITH JANET YELLEN BUT ITCOULD BE A PURE BOUNCE BACK. AND I DON'T KNOW WHETHER THAT ISNECESSARY -- WE DID SELL SOMEBUT I'M NOT SURE WHETHER TO GETRID OF A POSITION LIKE THAT. NOW THEY'RE GOING TO SPEND MOREMONEY ON INSTRUMENTATION, MAKINGNEW DRUGS AWAY FROM COVID. BUT OVERALL, I DON'T THINK CALLTHIS A MOVE INTO THAT GROUP.

☆ This 'serial ghoster' says she cut off contact with a potential employer after checking out the CEO on social media
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Stephanie Stacey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

One-fifth of workers polled by ZipRecruiter said they ghosted an employer in their latest job hunt. In an October survey by ZipRecruiter, 21.6% of respondents said they'd "ghosted" a prospective employer during their latest job hunt. Before accepting a job, Gray always checks out company reviews on sites like Glassdoor and examines the social-media profiles of the senior-leadership team. Gray once ghosted a prospective employer after an initial interview. She told Insider she's trying to become a "reformed ghoster" and make a conscious effort to offer specific feedback if she felt a prospective employer wasn't the right fit.

☆ Guilt about leaving your job is natural. Here are 6 ways to set boundaries in your last weeks.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Melody Wilding | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Many people struggle with irrational feelings of guilt when leaving one job for another. Maintaining solid boundaries in your final days at work is important as you make your exit. When you move on to a new job, it's natural to worry about letting your team down. Here are six ways to set and keep boundaries in the last weeks of a job. And the position you're leaving could be an incredible opportunity for whoever replaces you.

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