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☆ House speaker chaos signals Donald Trump’s shrinking influence
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Nicole Gaudiano | Warren Rojas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Trump's allies repeatedly rejected Kevin McCarthy as House speaker, displaying his power's limits. A week of House speaker chaos revealed one thing about Donald Trump: He can't get his MAGA house in order. The drama started on Tuesday, and it wasn't until Friday that McCarthy managed to make headway in flipping members' votes. "The president needs to tell Kevin McCarthy that, 'Sir, you do not have the votes, and it's time to withdraw.'" House members who are responding to the MAGA base have no reason to fear Trump on this, he said.

☆ When George Santos moves into the office next door, ‘it’s like being in a cartoon,’ Hill staffer says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Nicole Gaudiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Rep.-elect George Santos moved into his new Capitol Hill office, surprising his next door neighbors. "I was like, 'Why is there a press stakeout right outside our office?'" Then he turned a corner and saw a press stakeout with more than a dozen reporters and two cameras. "I was like, 'Why is there a press stakeout right outside our office? Sure, there's times when you may not want a huge stakeout outside your doors, Fritschner said, but Hill staffers are like anyone else.

☆ Rep.-elect George Santos dodged reporters and sat alone in the House chamber on his first day in Congress
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Sonam Sheth | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Embattled Rep.-elect George Santos arrived for his first day in Congress on Tuesday. Santos — who lied about his education, religion, and work background — was also seen dodging reporters. Later in the afternoon, Santos was loudly booed by Democrats when he cast a vote for California Rep. Kevin McCarthy to be House speaker, according to CBS News. On Tuesday evening, the chamber adjourned for the day and voting will resume at noon on Wednesday. In a previous campaign for Congress, Santos claimed he had attended Horace Mann School, a prestigious preparatory school in the Bronx.

☆ Jiang Zemin made China richer and more unequal
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( John Foley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

NEW YORK, Nov 30 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Jiang Zemin, who died on Wednesday, catapulted China into the modern world. And his death comes at an inconvenient time for the current president, Xi Jinping. Chosen as party chief weeks before the violent 1989 suppression of Tiananmen Square protesters who demanded economic and political reforms, Jiang inherited a system riven by infighting. While numbers can deceive in a state-led economy like China’s, Jiang still notched up some encouraging stats. Follow @johnsfoley on TwitterCONTEXT NEWSJiang Zemin, the former president of China, died on Nov. 30.

☆ South Korea sweat on Son ahead of opener with wildcards Uruguay
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Martin Petty | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Group H also includes Portugal and Ghana, meaning Son's unrelenting threat and firepower against an uncertain Uruguayan defence will be vital for South Korea to pick up some crucial early points by negating Uruguay's attacking flair. South Korea coach Paulo Bento has imposed a team gag order on discussing Son's state of World Cup readiness, hoping to keep Uruguay's strategists in the dark. Among 13 debutants will be Real Madrid's versatile midfielder Federico Valverde and Manchester United's Facundo Pellistri, who link up with Tottenham's in-form Rodrigo Bentancur in a midfield for which Uruguay's squad has plenty of depth. Coach Diego Alonso sees the yawning age gap as a boon and believes Uruguay could even win this World Cup, as they did in 1930 and 1950. That could be a tall order and commentators have noted frailties at the back that South Korea could exploit, particularly in the centre, while there is no word yet on whether Barcelona's Ronald Araujo is available after undergoing thigh surgery.

☆ COP27 draft climate deal published but gaps remain
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Megan Rowling | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 19 (Reuters) - The U.N. climate agency on Saturday published an updated draft of a proposed final agreement for the COP27 summit, fleshing out some key parts of the deal countries are struggling to reach. The document, which forms the overall political deal for COP27, would need approval from the nearly 200 countries at the climate summit in Egypt. The draft contained only a partial text on the contentious issue of "loss and damage" payments to countries hit by climate-driven disasters. It left a placeholder in the section for funding arrangements on loss and damage where text could be added later if countries reach agreement. Reporting by William James and Kate Abnett; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Janet LawrenceOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/5] A general view of the entrance to the Sharm El-Sheikh International Convention Centre grounds, during the COP27 climate summit, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, November 19, 2022. Kunal Satyarthi, a negotiator for India, said he thought the loss and damage deal would "certainly" pass, and thanked other countries for their flexibility. Norway's climate minister, Espen Barth Eide, meanwhile, said his country was happy with the agreement to create a loss and damage fund. But the possible breakthrough on loss and damage was significant, and "I don't think that should be lost in the mix," he said. For daily comprehensive coverage on COP27 in your inbox, sign up for the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter here.

The licenses gave FTX access to U.S. commodities derivatives markets as a regulated exchange. FTX also saw its regulatory status as a way of luring new capital from major investors, the documents show. “FTX has the cleanest brand in crypto,” the exchange proclaimed in a June document presented to investors. According to the document, FTX told the regulator it did not have the same issues as products from other providers that the agency had investigated. "We confirmed these were solely rewards based and do not involve lending (or other use) of the deposited crypto," FTX wrote.

☆ The race to build thousands of new homes is stalling, with hurdles highest for developers of 'affordable' apartments
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Residential builders are feeling the pinch of higher financing costs of their own. He estimated that, in aggregate, developers like him would decrease production by 10% to 20% this year, in a potentially devastating setback for affordable housing. "The failure to act is only made clear a few years later, given the timeline of real-estate development," he said. "In a couple of years from now, we're going to look back and say this was a missed opportunity" to close the affordable housing gap. "Financing can be very targeted towards affordable development and can be subsidized much more aggressively," he said.

☆ Analysis: In final week of COP27 climate talks, success hinges on 'loss and damage'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Kate Abnett | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

[1/2] People pass in front of a wall lit with the sign of COP27 as the COP27 climate summit takes place, at the Green Zone in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt November 10, 2022. Some negotiators and observers warn that failure to agree on such "loss and damage" funding could sour the U.N. talks and thwart other deals. At last year's U.N. climate summit all countries agreed to set tougher climate targets this year to keep average global temperature rises to the 1.5C limit that scientists say would avoid global warming’s worst impacts. A relaunch of U.S.-China collaboration on climate change, which China halted earlier this year, could help boost negotiations at COP27. Germany and a group of climate-vulnerable countries launched a "Global Shield" scheme on Monday to attempt to improve insurance for climate disaster-prone countries.

☆ Dead bodies are randomly mummifying in Portugal, baffling scientists and sparking a crisis in its graveyards
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Graveyards in Portugal are running out of space, partly because bodies aren't decaying as expected. Under local laws implemented to save space, bodies need to be routinely exhumed so that skeletal remains can be laid to rest in smaller containers. Scientists like Krap use facilities that have access to donated bodies to study decomposition, so-called body farms. A lasting effect on culture, and grief"This has a social impact, which is quite a big deal for my own country," Silva Bessa said. But, as Silva Bessa noted, for the Portuguese "it's quite the tradition to bury the bodies not to cremate them."

President Joe Biden last week doled out $2.8 billion to miners developing new U.S. sources of lithium, nickel, copper and other EV minerals, as well as battery parts manufacturers and recyclers. Those grants followed August's Inflation Reduction Act, which links EV tax credits to minerals extracted domestically or from 20 allies. "People have a misconception about how quickly we can get mines up and running given the U.S. permitting process," said Megan O'Connor, Nth Cycle's CEO. "Hopefully, they'll give us some help and fast track some of the permitting process," said Kent Masters, Albemarle's CEO. The yawning divide between America and China's approaches to funding the EV supply chain is now a top concern for many policymakers and their advisers in the nation's capital.

chartchartA short position is essentially a wager that an asset's price will fall, and a long position is a bet it will rise. In aggregate, funds' short position of almost 125,000 contracts is the largest since November last year. But it failed to materially reduce the net speculative wager because funds also substantially reduced their long yen position. Ultimately, funds trimmed their net short yen position by only a few thousand contracts following the Sept. 22 intervention. The latest CFTC data shows they evidently felt confident enough to load up on short yen positions again.

☆ Ukraine troops say Russian woes could preface pullback in south
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Jonathan Landay | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Ukrainian forces began moving in August to reclaim Kherson, a strategically important ship-building centre on the sprawling Dnipro River. In recent weeks, they have driven the Russians back 20-30 kms (13-20 miles) on parts of the battlefront. Russian-appointed occupation authorities this week began evacuating thousands of civilians from Kherson to the southern bank, denounced by Kyiv as forced deportations. The troops said that they would not allow the Russians to retreat without a fight. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Jonathan Landay, Editing by Rosalba O'BrienOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Its ultra-loose stance has accelerated Japanese investment flows abroad, helping to turn the yen's slump into one of historic proportions. Its net international investment position, the difference between the stock of assets it holds overseas and stock of Japanese assets held by foreigners, was $3.29 trillion at the end of June. International Monetary Fund figures show that of Japan's $9.96 trillion assets overseas, around $3.7 trillion is in equity-related investments, and some $5.7 trillion in debt instruments, including official reserves. Deutsche Bank strategist Alan Ruskin says a YCC change could have spillover effects that could last for a few weeks. Meanwhile, Japanese retail foreign currency deposits at domestic banks rose to 26.58 trillion yen ($182 billion) at the end of August, up 8.3% since the start of the year.

☆ Bridgewater's Dalio warns of a 'perfect storm' for economy
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

GREENWICH, Conn., Oct 11 (Reuters) - Ray Dalio, the billionaire investor who built Bridgewater Associates into one of the world's biggest hedge funds, said a "perfect storm" is forming that will spread economic pain as the U.S. Federal Reserve raises interest rates. Domestic tension in the U.S. population caused by "irreconcilable differences" and a yawning wealth gap, combined with international conflicts, are contributing to the perfect storm, he said. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register"The Fed and the government together gave enormous amounts of debt and credit and created a lurch forward. So now we're going to create a giant lurch backward," Dalio said at the Greenwich Economic Forum. read moreThe 73-year-old investor will keep his seat on Bridgewater's operating board of director and will mentor the firm's chief investment officers.

☆ Donald Trump will fight hard against Letitia James' lawsuit. Ex-AG insiders say these are his top 5 defenses.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-24 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Donald Trump has 5 ways to fight Letitia James' lawsuit, ex-NY AG prosecutors told Insider. James filed a 220-page lawsuit against Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization on Wednesday. Trump Defense No. Still, the judge must at least weigh any "I just signed what they gave me" defense, Morian said. "There's a yawning silence" from the banks Trump allegedly tricked into lending to him, he noted.

☆ The American middle class used to signify economic security. That's now quickly becoming a luxury only the wealthiest can afford.
▼ + stars: | 2021-12-25 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

While a majority of Americans consider themselves middle class, he says far fewer actually are. Those numbers are disastrous for the American middle class. When most noneconomists talk about the middle class, we don't mean the strict middle third of American household wealth. A 2015 Pew report found that while 89% of all Americans self-identify as members of the middle class, just 50% of Americans actually met the broadest economic definition of middle class. Throughout the 20th century, a secure and growing middle class was the source of America's prosperity.

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