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[1/5] Palestinians relatives of Sabreen Abu Jazar, who died when a boat carrying migrants sank offshore Greece, mourn in her family home in Gaza Strip March 3, 2023. After leaving Gaza in February, via Egypt, Sabreen flew to Turkey where she met her husband, who had migrated to Belgium years ago. "I celebrated her as a bride, now she's returned to me in a coffin," said her mother-in-law Buthayna Abu Jazar. In an effort to promote security along its Gaza border, Israel offers some 20,000 permits to allow Gazans to work in Israel. In Gaza, Hamas says a permanent solution for unemployment is beyond its ability alone.

☆ Inside the demise of Vice, from turning away a $3.5 billion Disney offer to a 'painful' downward spiral that has the media giant scrambling for a buyer
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +19 min

The talks fizzled, Disney backed off, and Smith set off for California to drum up other interest in Vice Media. Vice Media Group co-CEOs Bruce Dixon, left, and Hozefa Lokhandwala. Vice Media GroupOne former Vice insider familiar with the current situation told Insider that staffers were warning vendors they needed to threaten to stop work in order to get paid. Just a few months later, Rupert Murdoch tweeted, "Who's heard of Vice Media? Refinery29 quickly lost key staff and was not well integrated into Vice Media, the two former staffers said.

REUTERS/Florence LoBEIJING, March 20 (Reuters) - Chinese state energy giants have made a number of multi-billion dollar investments in Russia, one of China's top oil and gas suppliers, across various stages of the energy supply chain. Below are the main investments by the Chinese government, key state-owned energy companies and their listed vehicles, based on company releases and Reuters reports. 2005: Sakhalin-3 Veninsky oil projectRussian oil giant Rosneft (ROSN.MM) and Sinopec (600028.SS), agreed to jointly explore the Sakhalin-3 Veninsky block during a visit by China's then-president Hu Jintao to Moscow in 2005. It became China's first energy project in Russia. 2019: Arctic LNG 2In 2019 China's CNOOC Ltd (0883.HK) and PetroChina agreed to buy a combined 20% stake in the $25.5 billion Arctic-2 liquefied natural gas project led by Novatek.

☆ Credit Suisse's investment bankers are so concerned about cuts, employees are being told to look for new jobs. 'They encouraged it.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Carter Johnson | Casey Sullivan | Dakin Campbell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

The fate of Credit Suisse's investment bank hangs in the balance after being sold to UBS. The investment bank's planned spinoff has been put on hold and bankers are bracing for job cuts. People said they expect Credit Suisse's planned spinoff of its investment banking operations, announced last year, to be scuttled. Over at 11 Madison Ave., where Credit Suisse's NY operations are headquartered, emotions were running hot on Monday. Now, the proposed CS First Boston deal hangs in the balance, with both industry experts and Credit Suisse employees uncertain whether it will go through.

☆ More than 300 passengers were forced to stay on a plane for almost 7 hours after it diverted for a medical emergency
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Jetstar passengers were forced to stay on a plane for close to seven hours on Sunday. The flight from Bangkok to Melbourne diverted due to a passenger's medical emergency. The Jetstar flight from Bangkok to Melbourne landed in Alice Springs, in Australia's Northern Territory, at about 7.20 a.m. on Sunday. The 320 passengers on flight JQ30 had to wait on the plane for almost seven hours because the airport didn't have "customs processing facilities," Jetstar said in a statement. One passenger, Paul Tarrant, told ABC that the plane had issues with its air conditioning and the entertainment system was turned off.

☆ First-Time CFOs Get a Crash Course in Managing Inflation, Volatile Markets
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Kristin Broughton | Anna Mutoh | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +11 min

Critical decisions made as CFO: Mr. Jepsen allowed the company to incur higher costs to expedite shipping for parts to factories and deliveries to customers. Enphase faced pressure last year from higher costs and the effects of a strong U.S. dollar. Ken Jacobson, CFO of Avnet Photo: AVNET INC.Ken Jacobson, Avnet Inc.Age: 45Career path: Mr. Jacobson, who had previously served as interim CFO from 2017 to 2018, stepped in officially as CFO in September. Mr. Jacobson says Avnet’s interest expenses on its debt have almost tripled over the past year. While there was some attrition in the beginning, it hasn’t been as bad as other companies, Mr. Jacobson said.

☆ Hotels in St Petersburg told to offer noodle stations as part of Russia's plan to lure more Chinese tourists
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Stephanie Stacey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russia is trying to lure more Chinese visitors to support its struggling tourism industry. They want to attract more tourists from China by encouraging hotels to provide traditional cuisine and offer things like noodle stations at breakfast. The first post-pandemic Chinese tour group is expected to arrive in St Petersburg from Guangzhou on February 25, per TASS. Chinese tourists were big pre-pandemic business for St Petersburg. In 2019, there were 957,000 Chinese visitors to the city, accounting for 9.2% of the total, according to data from its tourism development committee, cited by TASS.

House Freedom Caucus members, who want to shrink the role of government, are demanding reductions in government spending. The Freedom Caucus members also raised significant sums from larger donors and traditional political fundraising committees. Unlike other congressional caucuses, the House Freedom Caucus doesn't disclose its membership, a practice that began in 2015. While McCarthy has pledged that the government won't default, the Republicans' narrow 222-212 majority has given outsized power to the Freedom Caucus. 'I AIN'T LISTENING'Freedom Caucus members are among the most conservative members of Congress, according to their voting records.

☆ Analysis: The deep freeze over UK assets is thawing
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Naomi Rovnick | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"This does suggest a possible inflection point in sentiment towards UK assets," said Nick Kissack, a UK portfolio manager at Schroders, which manages roughly $910 billion of client funds. "We saw extreme levels of risk aversion," in September, he added, while "the risk premium for UK assets has come down since." That, in short, is an outlook of higher global interest rates, weak growth and high inflation. Reuters GraphicsHowever, analysts expect the FTSE 100's rise to falter with a stronger global growth outlook combined with waning energy inflation. "The UK is the standout global economy where growth prospects have not improved," said Baylee Wakefield, multi-asset portfolio manager at Aviva Investors, who expects gilts to continue outperforming Treasuries.

☆ Hope for jobs drives recruitment by militant groups in Africa - report
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Nellie Peyton | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

While worldwide deaths from terrorism have declined in the last five years, deaths in sub-Saharan Africa have risen, making it now the global epicentre of attacks, the UNDP report said, citing an annual survey called the Global Terrorism Index. Countries from east to west Africa have seen Islamist militant groups take over large swathes of territory, displacing millions, eroding faith in democratic government and causing widespread hunger. The UNDP report found that 25% of voluntary recruits to such groups cited job opportunities as their primary reason for joining, while 22% cited wanting to join with family and friends and 17% cited religious ideas. An additional year of schooling reduced the likelihood of voluntary recruitment to extremist groups by 13%, it found. The Global Terrorism Index is produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace think-tank, which draws its data from the Terrorism Tracker database of Dragonfly, a private sector security and intelligence service.

Now Israel has normalised relations with more Arab states, while Palestinians have grown more isolated and divided. Most world powers consider Israel's settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal. Israel says its West Bank raids targeted militants such as the suspects behind deadly attacks carried out by Palestinians inside Israel last year. "Each area of the West Bank is witnessing some form of armed clashes, but these are not united mass-scale movements," said Tahani Mustafa of the International Crisis Group. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is visiting Israel and the West Bank this week.

Nudged by private equity funds, those supplying the booming luxury goods industry are now finding strength in unity. Largely family-owned and small in size, these businesses often struggle to meet the changing needs of the luxury brands they work for. "Luxury brands have been growing exponentially: our customers needed us to grow with them," said Nicola Giuntini, whose Tuscany-based company makes luxury coats and jackets for brands including Celine, Burberry (BRBY.L) and Stella McCartney. PRODUCTION NICHESItaly's manufacturing sector has also been a hunting ground for big luxury brands keen to secure their supply chain. Italian private equity firm XENON International, for example, has bet on producers of materials and finishes for luxury items which it has grouped together in MinervaHub.

☆ The bold bullish case to be made for U.S. stocks — one that not many are voicing just yet
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Michael Santoli | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

There's a bullish case on stocks that's not gained much traction yet. With another 4%-5% upside in the S & P 500 , the thesis would demand serious attention. A Fed pause? But this time, the S & P 500 had fallen 20% by the time the 10-to-2-year Treasury curve inverted, whereas in past cycles stocks were near a high. The S & P 500 probably needs to reach 4300 — up another 7.5% — to make a solid case for the bear market being over, says John Kolovos of Macro Risk Advisors.

The lawsuit, filed in California Superior Court in Los Angeles, targets Eli Lilly and Co , Novo Nordisk A/S (NOVOb.CO) and Sanofi SA (SASY.PA), which together make more than 90% of the insulin drugs sold globally. Insulin drugs are used to control blood sugar in patients with diabetes. Eli Lilly and Sanofi both previously announced that they would cap the cost of a 30-day supply of insulin at $35 for uninsured patients. California said that the companies' dominance in the market has allowed them to hike insulin prices at patients' expense, violating the state's Unfair Competition Law. Prices of top-selling insulin drugs have soared in recent years.

[1/3] Julio Marquez and Yalimar Chirinos, migrants from Venezuela, display signs near the border between the United States and Mexico, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, January 7, 2023. He has the same message for U.S. President Joe Biden, who visits the Texas city of El Paso, just across the border, on Sunday. "We hope he helps us, that he lets us pass, since we're suffering a lot here in Mexico," said Marquez, 32. "Send me wherever you want, I'll come back," said Jonathan Tovar, 29, speaking on Friday from behind the fence of Mexico's migration office in Ciudad Juarez. "I want the president of the United States to give me and my family a chance."

☆ Mixed emotions as McDonald's leaves Kazakhstan
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Workers remove the logo signage from a restaurant of McDonald's in Almaty, Kazakhstan, January 6, 2023. Food Solutions KZ, the Kazakh licensee of McDonald's Corp, will no longer operate under the U.S. corporation's brand due to supply issues. "I doubt any other company will be able to compete with McDonald's in Kazakhstan at the moment as no other fast food chain can replicate the menu that McDonald's had for the same price." Many Kazakhs, proud of their meat-focused cuisine, expressed incredulity that McDonald's Kazakh licensee, Food Solutions KZ, could not source its beef patties locally and imported them from Russia until the war forced it to stop and ultimately shut down. Food Solutions did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

☆ Airline passengers left 'devastated and angry' when a plane turned back after flying for more than 4 hours
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Jetstar sent a plane heading to Bali back to Melbourne after several hours of flying, per ABC News. A passenger told the Daily Mail that a fellow traveler noticed on a flight monitor screen that the plane was returning to Melbourne. One passenger on board the flight told ABC News that their fellow travelers were "devastated and angry" when they found out the plane was returning. A spokesperson for the airline told ABC News that the service had been swapped to a larger Boeing 787 plane so it could take more passengers, but the swap was not approved by the Indonesian regulator. "We know this has been an extremely frustrating experience for customers and sincerely apologize for what happened," Jetstar's spokesperson told ABC News.

☆ Worried about the economy? These 5 successful companies were started during the Great Recession
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Multiple high-profile startups that did just that after launching during the Great Recession, which ran from late-2007 to the summer of 2009. It's proof that even tough times aren't enough to prevent every great idea from growing into a flourishing business — especially if your idea can save other people money during tough times. Today, Groupon has more than 20 million active customers — a lot, but less than half of its 54 million customers in 2014. The app currently has more than 90 million users. In 2018, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman told CNBC that he's seen Venmo help people who grew up during the Great Recession become more thoughtful about taking care of their money.

To fix an iPhone that is not receiving texts from Android phones, try toggling Airplane mode on and off. Restarting your iPhone, updating it, and resetting your network settings can also fix the problem. Even so, you should generally be able to exchange texts between iPhone and Android seamlessly — iPhones can receive SMS messages just as easily as Android. If you have trouble getting texts from Android devices on your iPhone, here are nine ways to troubleshoot the problem. Tap Messages.

With the right travel credit card, you might find yourself actually looking forward to arriving at the airport. Just by holding a single card like the United℠ Explorer Card, you can travel better than the vast majority of everyone else. Just by opening a single credit card, you can up your travel game in a profound way. Let's take a look at five ways you can drench your travel experience with Tabasco sauce by opening just a single credit card: The United℠ Explorer Card. But you can avoid paying for checked bags with an airline credit card like the United℠ Explorer Card.

☆ Abu Dhabi's ADNOC to acquire 24.9% stake in Austria's OMV from Mubadala - sources
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Hadeel Al Sayegh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

DUBAI, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has agreed to acquire a 24.9% shareholding in Austrian oil and gas group OMV from Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment Company, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals, said the sources, declining to be named as the matter is not public. ADNOC and Mubadala did not immediately respond to a request for comment when contacted by Reuters on Wednesday. The transaction comes after Mubadala Petroleum rebranded to Mubadala Energy in September to pursue new energy sectors including blue hydrogen and carbon capture, and as Abu Dhabi's ADNOC looks to increase its presence internationally through mergers and acquisitions. ADNOC in April this year agreed to acquire a 25% stake from Mubadala in European petrochemical maker Borealis, which is 75% owned by OMV.

Russia's Gazprom (GAZP.MM) was once Uniper's biggest supplier of gas, but a big drop in deliveries after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine forced the German gas importer to buy gas elsewhere at much higher prices to honour its contracts. Uniper's investors voted in favour of the two main measures at Monday's meeting, an 8 billion euro capital injection by the German state and allowing a further injection of up to 25 billion euros by Berlin. Maubach said Uniper currently had access to around 2.5 billion euros of funds. As part of the bailout, the German government will end up owning just below 99% of Uniper, Germany's largest gas trader, following two share issues. The loss of Russian gas, Moscow's retaliation for Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, triggered a 40 billion euro net loss for the importer, which provides around a third of Germany's gas, the largest loss in German corporate history.

AOL Instant Messenger, or AIM, is dead — but the away message lives on, thanks to a recent Instagram update. Within hours of the platform unveiling the new features, social media users noticed Instagram notes' similarity to the away messages of the early 2000s. "Was not expecting instagram to reinvent AIM away messages tbh," writer Ella Cerón tweeted. Sports reporter Maddy Hudak wrote: "I’m sorry did Instagram give us AIM away messages lmao." Others pondered the ramifications of the AIM away message on those who grew up with it.

☆ GE Healthcare Plans to Reduce Debt and Costs, Pursue Tuck-In Acquisitions
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Nina Trentmann | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

As a stand-alone company, GE Healthcare will also look to improve its working capital and lower logistics costs, Mr. Zodl said. GE Healthcare will also take a look at its real estate holdings and target over 100 sites, executives said. Ratings firms S&P Global Ratings, Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service have all given GE Healthcare an investment-grade rating. PREVIEWApart from reducing debt and costs, GE Healthcare will scout for potential tuck-in acquisition targets, Chief Executive Peter Arduini said. GE retains a 19.9% stake in GE Healthcare.

[1/2] Drivers wait for fuel at a gas station of Hungarian oil company MOL Group in Budapest, Hungary, December 5, 2022. MOL, Hungary's main oil and gas group, has said the price cap was unsustainable as major players stopped importing fuel due to low prices, aggravating the shortage. "In the past days, the oil sanctions of Brussels took effect and what we had been afraid of, has actually happened. From now on there are sanctions prices on petrol across entire Europe," Orban said on Facebook, adding the government will "take away the extra profits generated by this" and redirect them to the state budget. At 1218 GMT, its shares traded 1.8% lower, reversing earlier gains of around 3% after the fuel price cap was ditched overnight.

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