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☆ A year after trading scandal, Fed is again under ethics spotlight
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Michael S. Derby | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

At the same time, an in-house Inspector General (IG) investigation into the regional Fed trading activities still hasn't been released and it's unclear when it will be. Unresolved in that process are publicly available disclosures for top staff at regional Fed banks. Right now, only disclosures for the Fed chief, members of the Fed's Board of Governors, top central bank staff and regional bank presidents are available. Given the quasi-private nature of the 12 regional Fed banks, there's no formal mechanism to compel those institutions to release this information. The Fed faced some criticism last year for failing to identify the financial trading activity that ensnared the regional bank presidents.

☆ 'He is our phoenix': In Brazil, newly elected Lula has seen ups and downs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

Da Silva’s mother was left alone to raise eight children, of whom Lula was the youngest. He told The Associated Press he saw da Silva’s face light up with each colorful envelope he delivered. “God willing, one day we will publish (the letters),” da Silva said at a rally in September. After 580 days’ imprisonment, da Silva was a free man — free to marry his girlfriend, and free to run for the presidency. Ultimately, it came down to the wire: Da Silva was elected with 50.9% of the vote.

☆ Opendoor slashed prices and paid buyers' agents $3,500 a house in a rush to off-load thousands of homes in the third quarter
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Opendoor cut prices and gave incentives in the third quarter, losing cash on much of its inventory. Opendoor has been offering buyers $15,000 credits and their brokers $3,500 bonuses. A decelerating housing market poses a challenge for iBuying companies like Opendoor, which use home-pricing algorithms to purchase homes. In the third quarter, Opendoor sold between 8,100 and 8,550 homes, according to an estimate by Datadoor, a startup that catalogs Opendoor's acquisition and sales activity across the country. The high end of Datadoor's estimate, 8,550 home sales, would be an 18% decrease in the number of sales Opendoor reported for the second quarter and 32% below the first quarter.

☆ Polls close in Brazil’s polarizing Bolsonaro-Lula contest
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

The runoff shaped up as a close contest between President Jair Bolsonaro and his political nemesis, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. There were multiple reports of what critics said appeared attempts to suppress the turnout of likely da Silva voters. Most opinion polls gave a lead to da Silva, universally known as Lula, though political analysts agreed the race grew increasingly tight in recent weeks. But while da Silva topped the Oct. 2 first-round elections with 48% of the vote, Bolsonaro was a strong second at 43%, showing opinion polls significantly underestimated his popularity. "If da Silva wins, we're going to have a problem," said Pedro Correia, 40, who joined his wife and two children in Copacabana.

☆ An embarrassing defeat 73 years ago is a preview of the problems China would face in an attack on Taiwan today
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( Benjamin Brimelow | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The Chinese Communist troops who stormed Kinmen island in October 1949 expected a quick victory. The planChinese Communist troops take prisoners at bayonet point after heavy fighting in Shanghai on May 21, 1949. Kinmen Island, 59 square miles in size and home to some 40,000 people, was essential to this plan. A model of a soldier in a bunker near the Hujingtou Battle Museum in Little Kinmen, Taiwan in April 2018. By day's end, the PLA troops who had retreated to the beaches had also surrendered.

Oct 26 (Reuters) - Mark Meadows, Donald Trump's former White House chief of staff, was ordered by a South Carolina judge on Wednesday to testify in a Georgia criminal probe investigating whether the former president and his allies broke the law by trying to overturn the 2020 election, according to media reports. The court hearing took place in Pickens County, South Carolina, where Meadows resides, because the Fulton County grand jury technically needs a local judge to approve witness subpoenas for out-of-state residents. Meadows' lawyer, James Bannister, had argued that the grand jury is civil in nature, not criminal, and thus cannot compel his client's testimony. The grand jury probe has already ensnared a number of inner-circle Trump allies, including his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who testified before the grand jury in August and has been informed he is a target of the investigation. The petition seeking Meadows' testimony noted that in addition to the Raffensperger call, he also attended a White House meeting in December 2020 with members of Congress to discuss allegations of voter fraud.

☆ Justice Department's antitrust investigation of PGA Tour includes U.S. Golf Association
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Jack Stebbins | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The Justice Department's antitrust investigation of the PGA Tour's actions against the upstart LIV Golf league has also ensnared the Augusta National Golf Club and the United States Golf Association. The managing director of LIV Golf, Majed Al Sorour, had warned that LIV would start its own majors, but later walked back the comment on Twitter. Mickelson, meanwhile, told Sports Illustrated that he "wholeheartedly" expects to play at the Masters despite his LIV Golf affiliation. Both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf have been lobbying in Washington D.C. to state their case against the other. LIV Golf also filed its own antitrust suit against the PGA Tour in September, and the tour subsequently countersued, alleging that LIV Golf was anticompetitive because of its restrictive player contracts.

☆ How 31-year-old Hope Hicks became the youngest White House communications director in history and a top executive at Fox before returning to counsel Trump
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Rebecca Harrington | Ellen Cranley | Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Hicks resigned from the White House on January 12, 2021, but told people it was a previously planned departure. She was one of the few White House aides who broke with the former president and told him he lost the 2020 election. Hope Hicks was the youngest White House communications director in history. In her time at the White House, Hicks became ensnared in two high-profile White House controversies: the special counsel's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and her role in crafting the White House's response to abuse allegations against staff secretary Rob Porter. She later rejoined the Trump White House as a counselor to the president, reporting to senior adviser and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked the Supreme Court on Friday to halt a subpoena compelling him to testify in a Georgia county prosecutor’s criminal probe of potential interference in the 2020 election. Graham’s request comes a day after a federal appeals court ordered him to testify in the grand jury investigation that has already ensnared Trump allies such as Rudy Giuliani. "Without a stay, Senator Lindsey Graham will soon be questioned by a local Georgia prosecutor and her ad hoc investigative body about his protected 'Speech or Debate' related to the 2020 election," the filing says. The grand jury in Georgia was convened earlier this year to assist Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' investigation into possible 2020 election interference by former President Donald Trump and others. The grand jury wants to question Graham about the circumstances of two phone calls he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his office after the election.

☆ U.K. Treasury chief scraps nearly all government tax cut plans
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

U.K. Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt on Monday reversed most of an economic package announced by the government just weeks ago, including a planned cut to income tax. In a bid to soothe turbulent financial markets, Hunt said he was scrapping “almost all” the tax cuts announced last month and signaled public spending cuts are on the way. The unfunded tax cuts fueled investor concern about unsustainable levels of government borrowing, which pushed up government borrowing costs, raised home mortgage costs and sent the pound plummeting to an all-time low against the dollar. Hunt was under pressure to act before financial markets opened on Monday because the central bank’s support for the bond market ended Friday. The U.K. currency is now trading for roughly the same price it was on Sept. 22, the day before Kwarteng announced the tax cuts.

Instead, data and child welfare experts suggest the changes may have done the opposite. State child welfare officials say more vigilance in documenting severe cases of abuse likely contributed to the increase. Child welfare experts say these findings cast doubt on the effectiveness of the primary tool that states rely on to protect children: mandatory child abuse reporting. These policies, the bedrock of America’s child welfare system, were first implemented more than half a century ago in response to growing national awareness of child maltreatment. “We are continuing to tell mandated reporters, ‘Report, report, report,’ and nobody can handle it,” Berger said in an interview.

Women with dogs chat through gaps in a barrier at a sealed area, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Shanghai, China October 11, 2022. Shanghai, a city of 25 million people, reported 28 new local cases for Oct. 10, authorities said on Tuesday, the fourth day of double-digit increases. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterNationwide, 2,089 new local infections were reported, the highest since Aug. 20. That's a step up from once a week presently, a regime imposed after the earlier lockdown was lifted. Checks on people travelling to Shanghai and places such as hotels, should also be strengthened, municipal authorities said.

☆ Another $372 mln on way to Bernie Madoff victims, Justice Dept says
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Victims of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme can expect to soon receive another $372 million to help cover their losses, the U.S. Justice Department announced on Wednesday, putting total recoveries above $18.5 billion. Payouts to over 27,000 victims will come from the Madoff Victim Fund, a $4.05 billion government fund set up in 2013 and overseen by former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Richard Breeden. Following the latest distribution, the fund's eighth, victims will have received over $4 billion, covering some 88% of their losses, the department said. More than 40,000 claimants have been compensated through the victim fund, the Justice Department said. Another $14.5 billion has been recouped for customers of the former Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC by the court-appointed trustee liquidating that firm in bankruptcy.

☆ Rihanna to headline Super Bowl 2023 halftime show
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-25 | by ( Julianne Mcshane | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Rihanna will headline the halftime show at next year's SuperBowl, the pop singer, her record label, the NFL and new halftime show sponsor Apple Music announced Sunday. Apple Music, which the NFL announced earlier this week would replace previous sponsor Pepsi as the upcoming halftime show's sponsor, also confirmed the news in a tweet. @rihanna will take the stage for the first ever Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show on 2.12.23," the tweet read. Super Bowl LVII is scheduled for Feb. 12, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. In an interview with Vogue earlier this year, the 34-year-old pop singer said she was working on a new album.

Elon Musk's will-he-won't-he dance to buy Twitter has been going on for months. A purchase however appears to be near completion as Musk faces a Friday deadline to close a deal. The chaotic saga between Elon Musk and Twitter appears to be coming to end on Friday. Musk recently changed his Twitter bio to "Chief Twit" and changed his location to mark "Twitter HQ." If you're hazy on some of the events within that time period, we've compiled a full timeline of developments, from Musk tweeting a poop emoji at CEO Parag Agrawal to Twitter and Musk suing each other.

☆ The night the Lord of the Skies got away
▼ + stars: | 2022-07-22 | by ( Noah Hurowitz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +38 min

It was May 1985, and Ramirez had only been with the Border Patrol for two and a half years. But he also knew that at the end of that road, just before the international port of entry, was a Border Patrol station. The Lord of the SkiesWithin a decade of that traffic stop, Amado would be the most significant drug trafficker in Mexico. It's the border," Ford told me recently when I reached him by phone. Ford and Amado didn't make a deal that night, but Ford said they agreed to "something tentative."

☆ A leaked video exemplifies what Black migrants endure in US detention centers
▼ + stars: | 2022-03-26 | by ( John Washington | José Olivares | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +30 min

A leaked video obtained by Insider shows guards violently tackling a Black asylum seeker at a Louisiana detention center. Detainees and immigration lawyers say there is a disturbing and overlooked problem of anti-Black racism in immigration detention. In January, Representative Cori Bush (D-MO) and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) called for a "holistic review of the disparate treatment of Black migrants." Across the state, eight new immigration detention centers have been opened in the past three years – all privately run. In just Texas and Louisiana, 11 separate facilities in recent years have shifted from prisons or jails to immigration detention centers.

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Authorities in Virginia violated the Constitution when they used Google location data to find people who were near the scene of a 2019 bank robbery, a federal judge ruled last week. The evidence provided by a geofence warrant alone is not enough to charge someone with a crime, police say. The judge stressed that her ruling was not meant to say whether geofence warrants should ever be used. In the end, the judge wrote, the future of geofence warrants should be taken up by lawmakers. She cited a bill in New York that seeks to ban the use of geofence warrants.

☆ The 10 most bizarre weapons of World War II
▼ + stars: | 2015-07-22 | by ( Alex Lockie | Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

World War II brought many successful innovations in technology including weapons. From explosive rats to a 155-foot-long gun, here are some of the most bizarre weapons from WWII. During World War II, the world's major powers set their sights on advancing technology, medicine, and communications in order to be efficient and fearsome in battle. PanjandrumThe Panjandrum, a rocket-propelled explosive cart, was one of the more curious weapons to have come out of World War II. Explosive ratsDogs were not the only unfortunate animal victims of experimental war weapons.

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