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☆ House GOP's attempt to shut down Alvin Bragg is unlikely to save Trump but could serve despots in training, say oversight experts
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Warren Rojas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Donald Trump's formal arraignment in Manhattan criminal court sent House Republicans into a tizzy. Stretton wondered about House Republicans' attempt to defang state prosecutors they consider to be political persecutors. "It's hard to say what overstepping bounds are any more," Davis told Insider. "When you defend somebody before you've even seen the indictment, you're kind of hitching your wagon to all the investigations," Goldberg told Insider. He also warned that spotlight-chasing House Republicans risk drowning in unfinished business at the end of the term by floating new Biden-focused inquiries "every couple of weeks."

Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon Nvidia's stock performance year to date. Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon Meta's stock performance year to date. Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon Devon Energy's stock performance year to date. Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon Johnson & Johnson's stock performance year to date. Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon Honeywell's year to date stock performance.

☆ Fact Check-Altered photo of DeSantis campaign official Christina Pushaw circulates online
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A digitally altered photo of Christina Pushaw, rapid response director for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ re-election campaign, has circulated online with added coloring to her knees. Examples of users sharing the altered photo can be seen (here) and (here). An unaltered photo was tweeted on March 14 (here) by Rob Smith, a political analyst who contributes to Fox News (here). In the photo, Markowicz is seen (third from the left) wearing a pink dress and holding her book, while Pushaw (fifth from the left) is wearing a blue dress. The photo of Christina Pushaw has been altered to make her knees appear red.

☆ Premarket stocks: Jerome Powell's testimony sent markets reeling. That may be a good thing
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

New York CNN —Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday cleared the way for larger interest rate hikes at this month’s central bank policy meeting, sending markets into a tailspin. The S&P 500 fell 1.5%, the Dow dropped 575 points, or 1.7%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite ended 1.3% lower. After Powell’s testimony, market expectations for a half-percentage point rate hike spiked. If inflation fails to continue falling, he said, the Fed will keep trying to cool things down by raising rates. Even if Powell was sure that January’s economic data was a fluke, he still wants to maintain the Fed’s credibility.

Wray's comments Tuesday came after Baier noted that the Energy Department had cited the FBI's earlier findings in its report. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, said earlier Tuesday that China has "always been open and transparent" about Covid. In its assessment, the Energy Department also described the "likely" laboratory-related leak as an "accident," the official added. The Energy Department is one of 18 government departments and agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said, "China obviously is very threatened by this," but "the lab leak story is not anti-Chinese.

European gas prices rallied in the run-up to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine begun almost exactly a year ago and they leapt to record highs when Russia subsequently cut supplies of relatively cheap pipeline gas. Although European prices have eased to around 50 euros ($53) per megawatt hour (MWh) from last August's peak of more than 340 euros, they remain above historic averages. That was even when they had received significant levels of Russian gas on long-term contracts prior to the shut down of the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany in August. Nord Stream's closure drove up European gas prices, as well as liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices, which also hit record levels of around 70 million British thermal units (mmBtu), compared with around $16 now . That could be tricky as the fall in gas prices this year has reduced the incentive to avoid the fuel.

☆ Meet the $10,000 Nvidia chip powering the race for A.I.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Powering many of these applications is a roughly $10,000 chip that's become one of the most critical tools in the artificial intelligence industry: The Nvidia A100. The A100 is ideally suited for the kind of machine learning models that power tools like ChatGPT, Bing AI, or Stable Diffusion. Huang, Nvidia's CEO, said in an interview with CNBC's Katie Tarasov that the company's products are actually inexpensive for the amount of computation that these kinds of models need. "We took what otherwise would be a $1 billion data center running CPUs, and we shrunk it down into a data center of $100 million," Huang said. Huang said that Nvidia's GPUs allow startups to train models for a much lower cost than if they used a traditional computer processor.

☆ High-profile hedge funds dive back into beaten-down tech stocks to capitalize on the big comeback
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Many high-profile hedge funds jumped back into technology stocks — the group that hurt their alpha the most last year — just in time to benefit from the furious comeback in the new year. These big investors loaded up on stocks that were among last year's biggest losers amid the Federal Reserve's aggressive rate hikes. Hedge funds overall saw significant negative long alpha (-12.1%) last year, with the single biggest contributor being exposure to info tech, according to Goldman Sachs. .IXIC 1Y mountain Nasdaq Composite The rebound in technology stocks came fast and furious in the new year. Hedge funds overall were able to beat the market significantly.

☆ Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine doubles down on Big Tech and chip stocks to ride on the rebound
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Lone Pine Capital doubled down on technology stocks in the fourth quarter, just in time to benefit from the big rebound, a new regulatory filing showed. Stephen Mandel's hedge fund significantly increased its holdings in Microsoft and Amazon , making them top bets at the end of the fourth quarter, the filing showed. Mandel founded Lone Pine Capital in 1997 and boasts one of the best long-term track records in the industry. Mandel is one of the so-called "Tiger Cubs," mentored by legendary hedge fund pioneer Julian Robertson. Lone Pine increased its exposure in the semiconductor industry last quarter.

☆ Biden's semiconductor push has states jockeying for federal cash
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Shannon-Pettypiece-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Shannon Pettypiece | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +10 min

The prospect of that much cash has sparked a scramble among states to pitch themselves as the best place to spark a semiconductor boom. In anticipation of the federal funds, semiconductor companies have already been making billions of dollars in commitments. President Joe Biden arrives for a ceremony at the groundbreaking of the new Intel semiconductor manufacturing facility near New Albany, Ohio, on Sept. 9, 2022. The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. facility under construction in Phoenix, on Dec. 6, 2022. But scaling up a U.S. semiconductor industry in a matter of years rather than decades is rife with challenges, said industry leaders.

They had hoped to represent a much larger class of artists who filed termination notices with UMG. A provision of U.S. copyright law allows artists to terminate agreements to transfer their copyrights and reclaim them after decades in some circumstances. Kaplan said Friday that the musicians could not represent a broader class of artists who sent termination notices to UMG with effective dates between 2013 and 2031. A related lawsuit filed against Sony Music by musicians including former New York Dolls singer David Johansen has been paused since 2021 for settlement discussions. The UMG case is Waite v. UMG Recordings Inc, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No.

☆ Ticketmaster under fire: 6 takeaways from hearing over Taylor Swift concert fiasco
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

The venues controlled by Live Nation set fees that are “consistent with the other venues in the marketplace,” he said. Entertainment industry pushes back at Ticketmaster’s dominanceMembers of the entertainment industry and one rival spoke out against Ticketmaster’s dominance in the industry. Andrew Harnik/APClyde Lawrence, a singer-songwriter on the witness panel, explained how the company acts as a promoter, a venue and the ticketing company, which eats into performing artists’ revenues. Artists, he said, have no leverage over Live Nation. Lawmaker says Ticketmaster merger should ‘be on the table’Lawmakers repeatedly questioned the US government’s past handling of the Live Nation merger with Ticketmaster.

U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo speaks during a press conference with Iraq's Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein at the State Department in Washington on Aug. 19, 2020. A demonstrator holds a poster with a picture of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi outside the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Turkey October 25, 2018. "And as even the New York Times reported, Khashoggi was cozy with the terrorist-supporting Muslim Brotherhood," Pompeo wrote. I confirm it to you," Khashoggi's widow, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, told NBC News on Monday. Hanan Elatr Khashoggi Widow of journalist Jamal Khashoggi

☆ Tax Season Is Coming, and These Firms Can’t Find Enough Accountants in the U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Lindsay Ellis | Photographs Levi Mandel For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A national shortage of accountants is prompting small and midsize firms to hire overseas for the first time as they seek workers to audit U.S. companies’ books and prepare Americans’ tax returns. Large firms such as KPMG LLP and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP have long hired international accountants to support client work. Now, with tax season poised to kick off, small and midsize accounting outfits that serve family businesses, individuals and smaller companies say they are offshoring jobs as local recruiting pipelines dry up and accountants leave the profession in droves.

☆ West must ramp up aid to Ukraine to keep war with Russia from becoming a stalemate, U.K. foreign secretary says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Dan De Luce | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Abigail-Williams-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

The West needs to ramp up military assistance to Ukraine to ensure the war with Russia does not turn into a bloody, open-ended stalemate, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said Tuesday during a visit to Washington. The United Kingdom also said it would provide more heavy artillery and ammunition to help Ukraine roll back Russian forces from its territory. “The U.K. has been very much on the front foot” in its security assistance to Ukraine, Cleverly said. He stopped short of urging the U.S., Germany or other governments also to supply Ukraine with new tanks or other more advanced weapons. Germany has faced growing calls to send its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine and to allow other countries that have Leopards to provide Kyiv with them.

CLEVELAND — Matt Dolan, who lost a raucous Republican Senate primary in Ohio last year, will run again in 2024, this time seeking to unseat longtime Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown. Dolan will announce his candidacy this week, he told an Ohio GOP official in a voicemail Sunday that the official shared with NBC News on the condition of anonymity. Dolan, a state senator whose family owns the Cleveland Guardians, would likely be the first candidate on the GOP side to officially declare. Other Republicans closely looking at the race include Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Bernie Moreno, a businessman who briefly was a Senate candidate in 2022. Ohio State Senator Matt Dolan, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio, speaks in Cleveland, on April 28, 2022.

☆ Photos show Ukrainians on the front line signing the flag Zelenskyy gave to Congress the next day
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented a Ukrainain flag to the US Congress Wednesday. The flag had come from Bakhmut, the site of the most intense fighting in Ukraine, where Zelenskyy made a high-risk visit on Tuesday. During the trip, Zelenskyy issued photos of himself with soldiers there, including a seemingly unremarkable image of him with a flag. Zelenskyy said: "Our heroes gave me the flag — the battle flag, the flag of those who defend Ukraine, Europe, and the world, at the cost of their lives. In return, Pelosi presented Zelenskyy with a folded US flag that had recently flown over the Capitol.

Companies could also move their gas trading off energy exchanges, where the EU price cap will apply, and instead conduct private transactions. The EU cap will not initially cover these "over-the-counter" (OTC) trades, although the bloc will review next year if they should be included. The EU price cap applies to EU hubs, but not those outside the bloc, such as Britain's National Balancing Point (NBP) trading hub. Front-month TTF prices met the price level required to trigger the EU cap on about 40 days this year. EU gas demand dropped by 20% in August-November this year, compared with the five-year average for the same period, Eurostat said on Tuesday.

☆ The author of 'Station Eleven' couldn't update her Wikipedia page to reflect her divorce without citing an article where she confirmed it, so she got a magazine to interview her
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Emily St. John Mandel said getting interviewed was the only way to update her relationship on Wikipedia. The author wanted to update her page to say she is divorced, and needed to cite a published article. After being interviewed by Slate, Mandel was able to update her page to say she's not married. In this case, that's what a volunteer editor used to originally verify the marital status of Emily St. Mandel. Now, her Wikipedia page says Mandel, "has a daughter with former husband Kevin Mandel," and that she has a girlfriend.

☆ Here's what America's top CEOs are saying about a possible recession in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Rebecca Picciotto | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty ImagesAs 2023 approaches and the prospect of a recession looms, corporate America is preparing for a slowdown in consumer spending. Here's what they said:Jamie Dimon, JPMorganwatch nowRising interest rates, record inflation, geopolitical pressure and other factors could coalesce into a recession, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told CNBC. Mary Barra, GMwatch nowGeneral Motors CEO Mary Barra anticipates economic headwinds next year but is not sounding the alarms for a recession just yet. Though Walmart is still seeing strong spending, McMillon has spotted more conservative spending in certain categories like electronics and toys. "If I didn't watch CNBC in the morning – which I do – the word recession wouldn't be in my vocabulary," Kirby said.

☆ How Ivanka Trump lost friends and was shunned by US high society after joining her father in politics
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Sophia Ankel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Ivanka Trump said in November 2022 that her time in politics was over, and that she wouldn't help Donald Trump's 2024 campaign. Then-President Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump make their way to board Air Force One on January 4, 2021. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty ImagesIvanka Trump was notably absent from former President Donald Trump's campaign launch in Palm Beach, Florida. In a public statement after the launch, she said: "I love my father very much. This time around, I am choosing to prioritize my children and the private life we are creating as a family.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., meets with reporters Wednesday after he fended off a challenge by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and was re-elected as Republican leader. And we turned off a lot of these centrist voters," McConnell said Wednesday. “Much criticism is being placed on the fact that the Republican Party should have done better. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks after he was nominated to be House speaker on Tuesday. “What I hope we learned from this is you can’t win the general election merely because of your base vote.

Speaking to reporters this week, Brown reaffirmed that he intends to seek a fourth term. Jai Chabria, Vance’s chief campaign strategist, said he expects the “floodgates to open” with candidates eager to take on Brown. Dolan’s pitch to county chairs this week leaned into frustrations that Republicans have vented toward Trump after disappointing midterm results. For Brown, this year’s midterm elections in Ohio have yielded a more unpleasant set of questions than the last. “He is a different beast than Tim Ryan, because Tim Ryan was a Xerox of a Xerox of Sherrod Brown,” Chabria said.

The sources say Justice Department officials are looking carefully at a cross section of past cases involving the mishandling of classified material. Though his comments were about the separate Jan. 6 investigation, Justice Department officials said they apply broadly. Experts say the public evidence in the Mar-a-Lago case seems unambiguous. Less clear is whether there are aggravating factors — such as whether the Justice Department can prove Trump obstructed justice by failing to turn over documents despite a grand jury subpoena. Martin’s lawyers said he was a hoarder, and prosecutors concluded that he had not given classified information to anyone.

☆ Fraying U.S.-China relations could have huge implications for Earth
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Xinhua News Agency | Xinhua News Agency | Getty ImagesSHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — Fraying diplomatic tensions between the U.S. and China are a big concern at the COP27 climate summit. However, many fear tensions between Washington and Beijing could make climate cooperation at COP27 extremely difficult. We say it is just on climate change, but we know that climate change is really at the center of everything in society." Biden is expected to join a 16-member delegation of senior officials at COP27 later this week to "advance the global climate fight." "And there is no solution to the problem of climate change without China, without Russia, without India, without … large economies being at the table," Kerry said.

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