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Bankman-Fried charged with paying $40M bribe to China to unfreeze crypto

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:21:39 GMT

NEW YORK — FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was charged with directing $40 million in bribes to one or more Chinese officials to unfreeze assets relating to his cryptocurrency business in a newly rewritten indictment unsealed Tuesday.The charge of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act raises to 13 the number of charges Bankman-Fried faces after he was arrested in the Bahamas in December and brought to the United States soon afterward. The indictment was returned on Monday.FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, when it ran out of money after the cryptocurrency equivalent of a bank run. He has remained free on a $250 million personal recognizance bond that lets him stay with his parents in Palo Alto, California.He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he cheated investors out of billions of dollars before his business collapsed.An arraignment on the rewritten indictment was set for Thursday by U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan. He also on...

Stocks are mixed as some calm remains on Wall Street

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:21:39 GMT

By STAN CHOE (AP Business Writer)NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are mixed in relatively quiet trading on Tuesday, and Wall Street is regaining some cool at the tail end of what’s been a turmoil-filled month.The S&P 500 was 0.1% lower in midday trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 51 points, or 0.2%, at 32,483 as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% lower. There was calm even in the bond market, which has been home to some of Wall Street’s wildest moves since fears flared about the banking system earlier this month. Yields were moving only modestly following their historic-sized moves in prior weeks. This month has been dominated by worries that banks around the world may be cracking under the pressure of much higher interest rates. In the U.S., investors have been on the hunt for smaller and midsized banks that could see a quick exodus of customers akin to the run that toppled Silicon Valley Bank. In Europe, meanwhile, big banks ...

With 7 games left, where do the Chicago Bulls stand in the NBA play-in tournament?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:21:39 GMT

The Chicago Bulls are fighting for a spot in the NBA play-in tournament, a battle for the last two playoff seeds in each conference. Here’s an explainer about the history of the event and how it works — and where the Bulls stand.When did the play-in begin?The NBA introduced the idea after the restart of the pandemic-delayed 2019-20 season, with a team needing to be within four games of the No. 8 seed to force a play-in for the last playoff spot in the conference.The Memphis Grizzlies finished a half-game behind the No. 8 seed Portland Trail Blazers in the Western Conference, and the Blazers won the first game of a play-in, thus earning the final playoff spot. In the East, the ninth-place Washington Wizards finished 7½ games behind the eighth-place Orlando Magic, meaning a play-in was unnecessary.How has the tournament evolved?The next year, the NBA expanded its play-in rules, with only the top-six seeds in each conference guaranteed of a playoff spot and the Nos. 7-...

5 ways to deal with money envy

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:21:39 GMT

If you’ve ever scrolled through social media posts only to be gripped with envy when you see a friend posing in front of their beautiful house or enjoying themselves at a luxurious resort, then you understand how easy it is to want what other people have. Financial envy is real, and sometimes it can be ugly.“Financial envy is absolutely normal. It’s part of the human condition,” says Yvonne Hampton, who holds a doctorate in personal financial planning and runs a financial therapy practice in the Kansas City, Missouri, area.And it’s not necessarily a bad thing, she adds. “It’s an opportunity to dig more deeply internally about why we have that feeling so we can work through it and be happier in our own lives.”If you’re wondering how to turn the so-called green-eyed monster into a positive force in your life, here are five steps to take.1. Let go of shame“A lot of progress can be made simply by acknowledging: ‘Yes, I feel envious,’” says Rick Kahler, a certified financial therapist an...

Migrants start fire at Mexico detention center, killing 40

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:21:39 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Migrants fearing deportation set mattresses ablaze at an immigration detention center in northern Mexico, starting a fire that killed at least 40 people, the president said Tuesday, in one of the deadliest events ever at a Mexican immigration lockup.Hours after the fire broke out late Monday, rows of bodies were laid out under shimmery silver sheets outside the facility in Ciudad Juarez, which is across from El Paso, Texas, and a major crossing point for migrants. Ambulances, firefighters and vans from the morgue swarmed the scene.Twenty-nine people were injured and are in “delicate-serious” condition, according to the National Immigration Institute.At the time of the blaze, 68 men from Central and South America were being held at the facility, the agency said.Immigration authorities identified the dead and injured as being from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador, with Guatemalans being the largest contingent, according to a statemen...

Liberal outraises conservative in Wisconsin court race

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:21:39 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Democratic-funded candidate in Wisconsin’s pivotal state Supreme Court contest has raised more than five times as much money as her Republican-backed opponent ahead of the April 4 election.Liberal Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz raised nearly $12.4 million in the final campaign finance reporting period between Feb. 7 and March 20, reports filed late Monday show. Her conservative opponent, former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly, raised $2.2 million during the same period.The winner of the country’s most expensive state Supreme Court race to date will determine majority control of Wisconsin’s high court with issues such as abortion access, legislative redistricting, union rights and election laws at stake. The race has garnered national attention, given Wisconsin’s importance as a presidential swing state.The state Supreme Court came within a vote of overturning President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020. Co...

‘People that voted to defund police, don’t vote for them’, Ford weighs in on Toronto mayoral race

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:21:39 GMT

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has weighed in on the Toronto mayoral race for the first time, saying people should avoid supporting any candidate who wants to defund the police.Ford had previously stated he would stay out of the race to replace John Tory, but he addressed the upcoming election on Tuesday when speaking to reporters at Toronto Pearson airport.Ford was asked about recent violence on the TTC, which includes the unprovoked fatal stabbing of a teen at Keele station over the weekend. He warned Torontonians not to vote for any candidate who wants to cut police funding, saying it seems like “everyone and their cousin” is running for mayor.“We got to put more money into policing and there are a couple of candidates that are running, that are sitting councillors, that voted to defund the police,” said Ford. “The people that voted to defund the police, don’t vote for them.”Ford says there should be full-time police officers in the TTC.“...

UN hears Africa, its Sahel region, are new terrorism targets

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:21:39 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — African nations called on the world Tuesday to pay attention to how terrorism targeted their continent, particularly its Sahel region, telling the United Nations Security Council that Africans made up nearly half the world’s terror attack victims.Using his country’s bully pulpit as Security Council chair for March, Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi told the council that “though terrorism is a global threat, the situation in Africa remains more critical.”His words were echoed by a series of ambassadors from African countries who discussed terror groups’ threats to their nations. One global terrorism index shows that 48% of terror victims last year were African, Nyusi said, “and the Sahel region is the new epicenter of terrorist attacks.” Many speakers said they were deeply concerned by terror groups’ operations in the vast, semi-arid expanse below the Sahara Desert.“The situation in Africa is especially concerning,” Secretary-General Anto...

Energy company: Minnesota leak fixed, plant to reopen soon

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:21:39 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (AP) — A faulty pipe that allowed water containing a radioactive isotope of hydrogen to leak at a Minnesota nuclear power plant has been repaired and the plant will return to service in the next week, a spokesman for the energy company said Tuesday.Meanwhile, a state agency said a fish kill that claimed at least 230 fish in the Mississippi River near Xcel Energy’s Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant was caused by a water temperature change resulting from the shutdown of the plant, not by any chemicals leaking into the river.The nuclear plant, about 38 miles (60 kilometers) northwest of Minneapolis, was fully powered down around 7 a.m. Saturday to fix the leaky pipe discovered last week, Xcel Energy spokesman Theo Keith said.“Crews have already repaired the leak, which did not pose any risks to public health, safety, or the environment,” Keith said in an email. “The pipe was confirmed as the only source of the leak.”The plant will return to service “in the next wee...

Pirates board oil tanker with 16 crew in Gulf of Guinea

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:21:39 GMT

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Pirates have boarded a Liberian-flagged oil tanker with 16 crew members in West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea, the Danish vessel owner said Tuesday.The attack took place southwest of Port Pointe-Noire, Congo. The Monjasa Reformer “experienced an emergency situation” late Saturday, Monjasa, the Denmark-based company that owns the ship, said in a statement. The crew sought refuge in a citadel — a safe area on the ship — in line with the on board anti-piracy emergency protocol, said company spokesman Thorstein Andreasen.The nationalities of the crew members and the pirates were not immediately known. Communication channels with the ship are down and international authorities have been alerted, said the statement. The exact location of the tanker is not known. The last position was transmitted Sunday without any updates since, said Martin Kelly, senior analyst with the London-based EOS Risk group, a security company operating in the area. The Gulf of Guinea is the ...