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☆ One of the best Tesla alternatives just became an even bigger thorn in Elon Musk's side
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Tim Levin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The base 2024 Polestar 2 gets 300 miles of range and 299 horsepower. With longer range, enhanced performance, and updated looks, the sporty electric sedan has become an even fiercer competitor to Tesla's popular Model 3. PolestarThe refreshed Polestar 2 gets an upgraded battery pack that boosts range to an estimated 300 miles for the single-motor, rear-wheel-drive version. The base, $44,000 Model 3 is rated for 272 miles of range, while the longest-range version gets 338 miles on a full charge. PolestarNew, more powerful motors mean the single-motor Polestar 2 now makes 299 horsepower (up from 231) and hits 60 mph in 5.9 seconds.

You feel like he's on a solo mission," Tania Daou-Alam, who lost her husband in the blast, told Reuters. Bitar went on to file his own charges against several top politicians, including former ministers allied to Hezbollah. Bitar, a devout Catholic from Akkar region of the north, has charged officials from across the sectarian spectrum including Shi'ites, Sunnis and Christians. "I said from the start 'the right person is in the right place'," he added, describing Bitar as just with no political affiliations. William Noun, who lost his brother in the blast, said of Bitar's move: "This is very much a judicial uprising".

☆ House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene 'reminds me of my friends from high school'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene have become political allies. McCarthy said in an interview that Greene "reminds me of my friends from high school." Greene was once a McCarthy critic, saying he "doesn't have the support he needs" in the House GOP. She reminds me of my friends from high school, that we're going to stick together all the way through." Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) January 22, 2023But it wasn't always this way for McCarthy and Greene.

☆ January Monthly Meeting: Cramer shares his outlook for 2023 and why he's more optimistic than most
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Matthew J. Belvedere | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The stock market rally that kicked off 2023 has run into a brick wall over the past two days. We never thought the turn of the calendar from last year's train wreck would leave all our problems behind. However, Jim Cramer said during the Club's January "Monthly Meeting" on Thursday, that he's more optimistic about the year ahead than many strategists. The past two days aside, tech started 2023 as a bright spot as many investors thought that the sector's suffering made it a good place to get back in. Wednesday's decline ended the Nasdaq's seven-session winning streak, a run we never thought was real.

[1/2] Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Commerce, Georgia, U.S. March 26, 2022. Trump's company faces only a maximum $1.6 million penalty, but has said it plans to appeal. Bragg and James are Democrats, as is Bragg's predecessor Cyrus Vance, who brought the criminal case. "The whole narrative that Donald Trump was blissfully ignorant is just not real," Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass told jurors in his closing argument. State law limits the penalties that Justice Merchan can impose on Trump's company.

☆ The 6 possible ways Rep. George Santos' situation gets resolved
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Madison Hall | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-NY) watches proceedings during the fourth day of elections for Speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 06, 2023 in Washington, DC. Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesRep. George Santos lied about his education, work history, and more while on the campaign trail. Additionally, fellow New York Rep. Anthony D'Esposito became the first Republican member of Congress to call for Santos to resign on Wednesday. Republican Rep. George Santos of New York in the House chamber on January 4, 2023. Needless to say, this is a rather unlikely outcome for the career of Rep. George Santos.

☆ Big Lots is closing stores in 2023 — see the full list
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Big Lots released the latest list of store closures as it makes changes to its network. Going into 2023, Big Lots is also trying to increase the number of stores it has in more sparsely-populated areas of the US. The changes to Big Lots' store network come as the company faces declining sales. Historically high inflation has hit low-income consumers, Big Lots' primary customer base, particularly hard, CEO Bruce Thorn said in December. That's led many of them to hold off on buying the non-essential items that Big Lots sells, he added.

☆ 2 years after the Jan. 6 insurrection, election deniers are still in the building — and holding the speakership hostage
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A group of 20 ultra-conservative Republicans continues to stonewall his leadership ambitions. More than half denied the 2020 election result and a handful are mentioned in the now-dissolved January 6 committee's report. But several of the political personalities at the heart of that attack are the same ones now holding the speakership hostage. All three lawmakers denied allegations that they were involved in planning the event. Meanwhile, the FBI seized the phone of Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania in August of last year.

☆ Bitcoin volatility fell to historic lows this week. Here’s why that might be bad news
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

"An uptick in bitcoin volatility would, rather than trigger concern, be greeted as a positive sign and would most likely be closely followed by a similar move in spot and derivative trading volumes." Sigel also pointed to bitcoin miners who may be selling covered calls in order to monetize profits as much as they can. Bitcoin miners have had a difficult time with the bitcoin price stuck at such low levels. "Each time volatility has been this low, historically, bitcoin prices have bottomed," said Alex Thorn, head of firmwide research at Galaxy Digital. Thorn said that while seeing lenders and exchanges collapse feels unstable, the crypto market will emerge from this period having significantly matured.

☆ As U.S. House speaker fight drags on, Republican holdout votes for Trump
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Moira Warburton | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Representative Matt Gaetz, one of 20 House hardliners who have rejected McCarthy, cast his ballot for Trump in a seventh round of voting. He was the only member to do so, leaving Trump far short of the 218 votes needed. The U.S. Constitution does not state that the speaker of the House needs to be a member of the House, though no outsider has held the role. Republican strategists said that the House hardliners' rejection of Trump's plea to vote for McCarthy illustrated the former president's weakening hold on the party he reshaped. Asked about Gaetz's move, a Trump representative on Thursday referred back to Trump's Wednesday post urging "VOTE FOR KEVIN."

☆ The 20 Republicans holding the speakership hostage are employing Trumpian tactics while blatantly ignoring Trump's advice, extremism expert says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A group of 20 Republicans are wielding an inordinate amount of power as negotiations continue. An extremism expert told Insider the holdouts are employing "Trumpism" without Trump's influence. "The influential part of these 20 votes don't care whether they control the House speakership or not," he told Insider. The former president issued a last-minute plea on Wednesday morning, urging Republicans to set aside their differences and make McCarthy speaker. Ward warned that this chaos will be just the beginning should the 20 Republicans ultimately get their way.

☆ Giving away more power did nothing for Kevin McCarthy, who lost his 8th House speaker ballot after further bowing to dissidents' demands
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Warren Rojas | Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Kevin McCarthy kept flailing Thursday as 20 House conservatives torched another speaker vote. Republican Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who was once a thorn in House Democrats' side, said the GOP could be in for chaos if talks could on their current trajectory. Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas previously compared bringing back the procedural maneuver to governing "with a gun to your head." According to multiple reports, McCarthy has now agreed to let a single House Republican wield that power. This almost certainly means McCarthy would need to rely on House Democrats, a scenario that has doomed past GOP speakers.

☆ Happy Fed Year: What’s on deck for the central bank in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Minneapolis CNN —America’s central bank found itself in a glaring spotlight for much of this past year, as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell wielded blunt tools of interest rate hikes and quantitative tightening to curb surging inflation. That means the Fed, with its “laser focus on the job market,” could be “continually hawkish” at the start of 2023, said Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Baird. “This latent strength in the job market could be the reason that the Fed over-tightens,” he told CNN. Jerome Powell, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, from right, Lael Brainard, vice chair of the board of governors for the Federal Reserve System, and John Williams, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, during a break at the Jackson Hole economic symposium in Moran, Wyoming, on Aug. 26, 2022. That’s 0.2 percentage points higher than the 4.4% rate they were expecting in September and significantly higher than the current 3.7% rate.

☆ The not-quite-redemption of South Africa's infamous ultra-marathon cheats
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Ryan Brown | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +35 min

"A runner can always recognize another runner," Eugene tells me. Ryan Brown for insiderIn those days, they didn't run for South Africa, but for QwaQwa – one of ten "homelands" established for Black South Africans. Tiny, non-contiguous territories – supposedly, the original territory of different Black South African ethnic groups – dotted across the country. It didn't turn out like that, but it didn't turn out like that for most Black South Africans either. As I sat speaking to Sergio, South Africa's president, Cyril Ramaphosa, was fighting for his political life after revelations that wads of cash, potentially ill-gotten, had been stolen from inside his sofa.

☆ Lawyers exit Hong Kong as they face campaign of intimidation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +18 min

The event that precipitated his hasty departure, Vidler said, was the appearance of articles in the state-backed media in Hong Kong about him. “This was in my view state-sponsored intimidation and harassment,” said Vidler, whose wife and children later left Hong Kong. One Hong Kong solicitor who has relocated to England told Reuters that she knew of at least 80 Hong Kong lawyers who had moved to Britain since the security law was imposed in June 2020. Another lawyer, now living in Australia, estimated that several dozen Hong Kong lawyers had moved there. Mainland officials have long sought influence over these two influential bodies, according to senior Hong Kong lawyers.

☆ Meet 3 remote workers who negotiated for better pay, workplace flexibility, or the right to quiet quit — and won
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Remote work has become increasingly popular, and make-or-break for many Americans when choosing jobs. Workers are using their current bargaining power to ask for better pay, flexibility, and work-life balance. Insider talked to three remote workers about how they did so. That's because remote work has changed his life for the better, he said. "Work was definitely a thorn in my side that really affected my entire life," she told Insider.

☆ Even Elon and Zuck don't have the juice to make an all-in-one 'super app' happen
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Mark Zuckerberg and Evan Spiegel harbor super app ambitions; Microsoft reportedly wants to build its take on a super app that would rival Google. At Facebook's parent company Meta, "super app" is a taboo word precisely because it's too abstract, Insider's Kali Hays reported last month. A newcomer super app has a tougher sell accessing this sophisticated, less trusting type of user. Silicon Valley's gatekeepers stand in the way of the super app dreamUS tech firms harboring super app ambitions will need to fend off their own regulators, overseas regulators, and Apple's App Store. As the CPP Investments white paper notes, super apps "can be thought of as operating platforms for mobile devices."

☆ Twitter suspends account that tracked Elon Musk's private jet, despite billionaire's 'free speech' pledge
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Donie O'Sullivan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The move comes after Musk has reinstated previous Twitter rule-breakers and stopped enforcing the platform’s policies prohibiting Covid-19 misinformation. Sweeney woke up Wednesday morning to a message from Twitter informing him @ElonJet had been permanently suspended. Later in the day his personal account and other jet-tracking accounts he ran were also shut down by the company. According to screenshots Sweeney shared with CNN, Musk reached out to him last December through a Twitter private message asking, “Can you take this down? “Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation.

☆ UK inflation falls from 41-year high as fuel price surge eases
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Brexit has added more than £200 to the average U.K. household food bill, according to a new study from the London School of Economics. LONDON — U.K. inflation came in slightly below expectations at 10.7% in November, as cooling fuel prices helped ease price pressures, though high food and energy prices continued to squeeze households and businesses. However, Carter suggested inflation may finally be passing its peak, after the U.S. also posted a better-than-expected CPI print on Tuesday. The market is pricing a 50 basis point interest rate hike from the Bank on Thursday, taking the benchmark rate to 3.5%. However, inflation remains well above target.

CNN —The House Republican Conference is still entrenched in an internal war over whether to reinstate an arcane rule that would empower any member to bring up a vote to oust a speaker at any time. The bitter divide is only heating up and has emerged center stage in House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy’s quest for 218 votes to win the position. “There’s a reason [the motion to vacate] already got debated. It’s a healthy process.”For now, leadership is keeping their options open on the motion to vacate with Republican Whip Steve Scalise telling reporters Tuesday, “There are continuing negotiations going on. Video Ad Feedback GOP lawmaker explains why he won't vote for McCarthy to become House Speaker 03:08 - Source: CNNThe House is scheduled to hold another rules meeting on Wednesday where they will debate the issue.

☆ Grant Wahl: A charming, kind and talented journalist
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Don Riddell | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The American soccer journalist Grant Wahl, who’d also been covering the game at Lusail, had died. The LED board shows a photo of Grant Wahl prior to the quarterfinal match between England and France. Wahl pictured at an awards ceremony in Doha during the World Cup. Grant Wahl (left) being interviewed by CNN's Don Riddel in Qatar. He was charming, kind and just so happy to be covering his eighth men’s World Cup and the game he loved.

☆ The 2024 Senate map just got even more difficult for Democrats
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Harry Enten | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Sinema’s interests are no longer necessarily the Democrats’ best interests in the next Congress, and the 2024 Senate map became even more complicated for Democrats with Sinema’s decision. The Democrats who run against independent Sen. Angus King in Maine have not gained traction in recent elections. Having two people in the race who are going to caucus with the Democratic Party likely makes it more difficult for the Democrats to win. All that said, the Democrats already have a difficult map heading into 2024. With Sinema’s break from the Democratic party, the road is, if nothing else, curvier for Democrats.

☆ Elon Musk praises Kyrsten Sinema for leaving the Democratic Party: 'I hope more of our elected leaders act independently'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk praised Sen. Krysten Sinema for leaving the Democratic Party. "I hope more of our elected leaders act independently ...," Musk wrote on Twitter. Elon Musk wrote on Twitter. Musk wrote on Twitter. Arizona Democratic Party Chairwoman Raquel Terán blasted Sinema as someone who "has shown she answers to corporations and billionaires, not Arizonans."

☆ Kyrsten Sinema leaving the Democratic Party and registering as an independent
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Jeremy Herb | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

CNN —Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is leaving the Democratic Party and registering as a political independent, she told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an exclusive TV interview. While Sanders and King formally caucus with Democrats, Sinema declined to explicitly say that she would do the same. She also brushed aside criticism she may face for the decision to leave the Democratic Party. “Nothing about the last two years indicates a major effort would’ve made helped – the exact opposite actually,” a White House official said. After a vote against filibuster changes in January, the Arizona Democratic Party’s executive board censured Sinema.

☆ Joe Biden honors French President Emmanuel Macron with a state dinner — again
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( David A. Andelman | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

PARIS — The White House is rolling out the red carpet for French President Emmanuel Macron — again. Though Macron was also honored with the first state dinner of Donald Trump’s presidency, the relationship between the two leaders devolved into tension that both Macron and Biden now are hoping to reverse. “We do not imagine that Congress, moreover, with a House of Representatives with a Republican majority, could fundamentally revise the IRA,” the Élysée official observed. Macron, and Europe more broadly, hope China can develop into more of a partner than a competitor, particularly with respect to trade. But above all, Macron is simply looking for some respect — or as the senior Élysée official put it, “Sovereignty.

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