- Gina Carano Fires Back at Disney Over Motion to Dismiss Lawsuit Over ‘Mandalorian’ Exit: ‘They Will Fire You if You Say Anything They Disagree With’ Variety
- Gina Carano “Grotesquely Trivialized The Holocaust,” Disney Says; Wants Elon Musk-Backed Suit On ‘Mandalorian’ Firing Tossed Deadline
- Disney Reveals ‘Final Straw’ for Firing ‘The Mandalorian’s’ Gina Carano Yahoo Entertainment
- Disney Argues Firing The Mandalorian’s Gina Carano Is Fair Use of Its First Amendment Rights PEOPLE
- Gina Carano sues over ‘Mandalorian’: Disney shares ‘final straw’ USA TODAY
Tag Archives: disagree
‘Zone of Interest’ Financier Danny Cohen Rejects Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar Speech: “I Fundamentally Disagree” – Hollywood Reporter
- ‘Zone of Interest’ Financier Danny Cohen Rejects Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar Speech: “I Fundamentally Disagree” Hollywood Reporter
- Jonathan Glazer’s Oscars speech against Israel prompts fierce Jewish reactions The Times of Israel
- Jonathan Glazer was right: Jewishness and the Holocaust were hijacked by the occupation | Editorial Haaretz
- ‘Zone of Interest’ producer says he ‘fundamentally disagrees’ with Jonathan Glazer’s Oscars speech on Israel-Hamas war The Hill
- What Did Jonathan Glazer Say About Gaza in Oscars Speech? Vulture
‘Zone of Interest’ Executive Producer Danny Cohen Refutes Director Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar Speech: ‘I Just Fundamentally Disagree’ – Variety
- ‘Zone of Interest’ Executive Producer Danny Cohen Refutes Director Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar Speech: ‘I Just Fundamentally Disagree’ Variety
- Jonathan Glazer’s Oscars speech against Israel prompts fierce Jewish reactions The Times of Israel
- Jonathan Glazer was right: Jewishness and the Holocaust were hijacked by the occupation | Editorial Haaretz
- Guest Column: I Produced an Oscar-Winning Holocaust Film. Here Is Why Jonathan Glazer’s Speech Was So Offensive Hollywood Reporter
- Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation condemns Oscar winner equating Israel with Hamas: ‘Morally indefensible’ Fox News
Elon Musk says AI will create a world ‘where no job is needed,’ but Nvidia billionaire Jensen Huang couldn’t disagree more: ‘Humans have a lot of ideas’ – Fortune
- Elon Musk says AI will create a world ‘where no job is needed,’ but Nvidia billionaire Jensen Huang couldn’t disagree more: ‘Humans have a lot of ideas’ Fortune
- Elon Musk tells Rishi Sunak that AI will put an end to work – BBC News BBC News
- Elon Musk says AI will eventually create a situation where ‘no job is needed’ CNBC
- When Musk met Sunak: the prime minister was more starry-eyed than a SpaceX telescope The Guardian
- Rishi Sunak’s love-in with Elon Musk was the biggest national humiliation since Brexit inews
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Amazon CEO: It’s ‘past the time’ to disagree with return to office policy – The Hill
- Amazon CEO: It’s ‘past the time’ to disagree with return to office policy The Hill
- Amazon CEO tells employees to return to the office or their days may be numbered CNN
- Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s brutal message to remote workers refusing to come back to the office: ‘It’s probably not going to work out for you’ Yahoo Finance
- Amazon CEO reportedly told remote employees: “It’s probably not going to work out” The Verge
- Amazon CEO says ‘it’s probably not going work out’ for employees who defy return-to-office policy The Seattle Times
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A Texas university president canceled a student drag show, calling it ‘divisive’ and misogynistic. First Amendment advocates disagree – CNN
- A Texas university president canceled a student drag show, calling it ‘divisive’ and misogynistic. First Amendment advocates disagree CNN
- West Texas A&M University president cancels student drag show, saying it degrades women The Texas Tribune
- WT students protest after university’s president denounces drag shows on campus KFDA
- National civil liberties group calls on WT president to restore drag show on campus abc7amarillo.com
- West Texas A&M president vows to ignore ‘the law of the land’ to cancel student-run drag show Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
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Ex-FTX CEO Bankman-Fried says he was just distracted. Feds disagree.
Prosecutors and regulators say from FTX’s launch, Bankman-Fried funneled customer money from the crypto trading platform to an affiliated hedge fund called Alameda Research, where it became a piggy bank for the 30-year-old and his inner circle to fund a lavish lifestyle and a multimillion-dollar charm offensive in Washington, all while making risky crypto investments. And at every turn, prosecutors and regulators argue in extensive filings this week, Bankman-Fried lied to customers and investors.
If what regulators say is true, Bankman-Fried’s recent media blitz only deepens his peril, legal experts say. That’s because the former billionaire’s attempts to whitewash his record could help prosecutors prove he knew what he did was wrong. A spokesman for Bankman-Fried declined to comment.
“It’s sometimes said that a false exculpatory story is almost as good for the government as a confession,” said Harry Sandick, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, which is bringing the criminal case against Bankman-Fried. “If you’re trying to cover up something, it makes it more likely there was something to cover up.”
The former chief executive faces a swirl of charges. Federal prosecutors on Tuesday revealed an eight-count indictment, detailing offenses from fraud to money laundering and campaign finance violations. He’s in jail in the Bahamas. On Thursday, Bankman-Fried filed a new request for bail to the Bahamian Supreme Court, according to Eyewitness News. The nation’s highest court will hear his case on Jan. 17 after a judge denied him bail Tuesday arguing his financial resources made him a flight risk.
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are also bringing civil charges against Bankman-Fried. The two market regulators, in a pair of documents totaling 68 pages, laid out a detail-rich reconstruction of the massive fraud they say the FTX founder directed behind the scenes.
The dramatic contrast between the two sides’ versions of events goes to the heart of FTX’s multibillion-dollar wipeout. Here are four areas where they diverge:
1. Did Bankman-Fried knowingly send FTX customer funds to Alameda?
Bankman-Fried has avoided directly addressing whether he deliberately diverted consumer funds to Alameda, which is core to the government’s case. Pressed by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Bankman-Fried said, “I did not know there was any improper use of customer funds.” And in an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times’s DealBook conference, Bankman-Fried said, “I didn’t knowingly commingle funds. … I wasn’t trying to commingle funds.”
The SEC says Bankman-Fried diverted customer deposits to his hedge fund, Alameda Research, from the earliest days of FTX’s operations, back to May 2019. The agency says he used the deposits to make “undisclosed venture investments, lavish real estate purchases, and large political donations.”
According to the SEC, Bankman-Fried had two methods of securing the funds. He encouraged FTX customers to deposit traditional currency into bank accounts controlled by Alameda; and he allowed the hedge fund to draw from a “virtually limitless” line of credit at FTX funded by customer assets. Bankman-Fried tried to conceal the activity, the SEC says, setting up the bank accounts under an Alameda subsidiary called North Dimension that made no public mention of that affiliation “in an effort to hide the fact that the funds were being sent to an account controlled” by the hedge fund.
2. Did Bankman-Fried lead Alameda?
Bankman-Fried said he didn’t control the firm. “Look, I wasn’t running Alameda,” he told DealBook. “I didn’t know exactly what was going on. … Obviously, that’s a pretty big mistake and oversight, that I wasn’t more aware. I think I was scared of — I was nervous because of the conflict of interest about being too involved.”
The SEC notes that he owned 90 percent of the company and “remained the ultimate decision-maker” there even after appointing two associates, Caroline Ellison and Sam Trabucco, to serve as co-CEOs in October 2021. He retained “direct decision-making authority over all of Alameda’s major trading, investment, and financial decisions,” the CFTC added, pointing out that he remained a signatory on the firm’s bank accounts.
Bankman-Fried and his team used the fund as a “personal piggy bank,” tapping it for luxury condos, private jets, personal loans and risky private investments, the SEC and CFTC said.
3. Did Bankman-Fried use customer funds to pay off Alameda’s lenders?
The former executive denied any knowledge of using FTX customer money to pay off debts racked up by his hedge fund. “I don’t know of FTX deposits being used to pay off Alameda creditors,” Bankman-Fried told ABC’s Stephanopoulos.
The SEC, however, says Bankman-Fried diverted eye-popping amounts for just that purpose. The agency says Bankman-Fried’s “house of cards began to crumble” in May, when a crypto market downturn prompted other companies that Alameda had borrowed from to demand repayments. At that point, the hedge fund had already siphoned off hundreds of millions of dollars in FTX customer funds. But Bankman-Fried “directed FTX to divert billions more in customer assets” to maintain its ties to its lenders and keep the enterprise afloat.
4. Where did Bankman-Fried’s political contributions come from?
Bankman-Fried plowed at least $40 million into political campaigns this year, making him one of the top donors in the country. He said he earned the money, telling DealBook he took it from “basically, profits. It was substantially smaller than the amount of trading profits that Alameda had made over the prior few years.”
But the political spending is the focus of one of the Justice Department’s charges, which alleges in part that Bankman-Fried violated a ban on using corporate money for campaigns. The SEC said the funds for “large political donations” came from customer deposits that Alameda took from FTX.
While prosecutors appear to have ample evidence to make their case, Bankman-Fried’s public relations tour could help them bring it home, said Timothy Howard, a former Manhattan federal prosecutor. “You could see a prosecutor playing video of the DealBook summit. It’s very compelling to a jury to see him talking,” he said, especially if Bankman-Fried opts out of taking the stand. “The prosecutors would love a closing argument where they just rattle off each and every lie they believe they can prove.”
Paulina Villegas in Nassau, Bahamas, contributed to this report.
Utah has more monkeypox cases, but CDC, state, disagree on how many
The number of monkeypox cases in Utah continues to climb, but it’s not clear how many cases there have been so far.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting 13 monkeypox cases in Utah. But the Utah Department of Health and Human Services has recorded only 11 cases in the state — eight in Salt Lake County and one each in Utah and Davis counties, and the area served by the Weber-Morgan Health Department.
Utah state epidemiologist Dr. Leisha Nolen said a similar difference in the count recently was due to a Utah resident being diagnosed with the virus in California, and California authorities alerting the CDC but not passing along the information to Utah.
“That’s where the errors come in,” Nolen said. “We would like to have those updates, certainly if the person comes back to our state so we can make sure to connect with them, make sure they’re able to isolate and prevent the spread to other people, as well as find out if other people have been exposed.”
Monkeypox, usually confined to parts of Africa, has spread globally, mainly in men who have sex with men. As of Monday, the CDC said there are 1,972 cases in the U.S. The virus started showing up in the United States in early May and later that month, two Salt Lake County residents were identified as Utah’s first cases.
Nolen said all of Utah’s cases are in men, and those most at risk are likely to have had around 10 sexual partners within a few weeks. She said the state looked at rates of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases to determine the distribution of Utah’s federal allocation of the smallpox vaccine approved for use against monkeypox.
“Right now, the outbreak throughout the country, throughout the state, throughout the world is really within a specific population,” the epidemiologist said. Because intimate contact is usually needed to transmit the virus, she said “for the general population, who aren’t having these kinds of relationships, I think it’s not a high risk.”
Still, Nolen said, monkeypox “certainly is an infection that could go to other people. It’s just taking advantage of social networks. So we are concerned that the infection could start spreading through different social networks that would involve skin contact. So it’s something I think we need to watch and we’re trying to get under control.”
While the virus can be transmitted through nonsexual contact and even bedding or other materials used by an infected person, Nolen said she’s aware of only a couple of cases, in Canada, where someone became infected without direct, skin-to-skin contact.
Utah has received two rounds of the vaccine, a total of 1,470 doses, and expects another 819 doses ordered last Friday to arrive shortly, she said. Within the population defined as high risk, Nolen said even those vaccinated before the U.S. ended routine smallpox vaccinations in 1972 should get the shot.
The Salt Lake County Health Department is already out of the vaccine.
“We had a private vaccine clinic on Thursday for people at the highest risk of transmission (determined by the Utah Department of Health and Human Services to be men who have sex with men and have had multiple partners in recent weeks) and gave 525 doses,” Salt Lake County Health Department spokesman Nicholas Rupp said.
Rupp said the shots will be offered to additional specific, high-risk populations that have yet to be identified when more doses are available. The vaccine is not available from other providers and it is not known when the federal government will allocate more doses to Utah, according to the county health department’s website.
None of the Salt Lake cases have been identified as picking up the infection in the county, Rupp said.
“Given that we have identified no local transmission, and that monkeypox transmission requires significant, close contact, Sat Lake County residents in general do not need to be concerned at this time,” he said. “People with multiple intimate partners, particularly men who have sex with men, should be aware and avoid sexual or intimate contact with people with symptoms.”
Early symptoms include a fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion, then within a few days, a rash develops, often starting on the face or in the mouth before spreading and developing into fluid-filled lesions that eventually scab over and fall off.
Nolen said there have been “a few cases” where men have become infected with monkeypox from contact with someone in Utah but “all the people we’ve had have been very cooperative about who they’ve had contact with and we’ve been able to follow up with those people.”
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House oversight committee, Daniel Snyder disagree on testimony terms
Seymour has stated Snyder would appear only if his concerns about “due process” could be resolved. To that end, she has offered that Snyder could appear “voluntarily,” which means he would not be placed under oath and could decline to answer certain questions. Seymour also informed the committee staff that Snyder would not address questions on matters covered by nondisclosure agreements. Many former Commanders employees who have come forward with stories of sexual harassment or mistreatment were required to sign NDAs to receive severance pay.
Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) made clear in Tuesday’s letter such conditions are unacceptable and the committee intends to proceed with a subpoena “to ensure that Mr. Snyder’s testimony will be full and complete and will not be restricted in the way it would be if the deposition were conducted voluntarily.”
Under a subpoena, Snyder would be placed under oath, could not choose which questions he would answer and could not cite NDAs as a reason for refusing to answer questions. Such questioning would be done by House lawyers and would be conducted in a private setting.
A spokesperson for Snyder said late Tuesday, “Mr. Snyder’s attorneys are reviewing the Committee’s letter to determine if their due process concerns, including the circumstances of Mr. Snyder’s appearance, have adequately been addressed.”
In Tuesday’s letter, Maloney wrote: “You have made clear to Committee staff that a voluntary appearance would exclude matters covered by nondisclosure agreements (NDA). Mr. Snyder has a troubling history of using NDAs to cover up workplace misconduct — behavior that is central to our investigation — and it would be highly inappropriate for him to employ the same tactic to withhold information from the Committee. Other former Commanders employees have participated in Committee depositions under subpoena, and Mr. Snyder should not be treated any differently.”
Snyder declined the committee’s invitation to testify at its June 22 public hearing on Capitol Hill about the team’s workplace, citing a schedule conflict and concerns about the proceeding’s fairness and “due process.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell accepted the panel’s invitation and testified remotely that day. In response to Snyder’s snub, Maloney said she would issue a subpoena to compel Snyder’s testimony via a deposition the following week. To date, Snyder and his attorney have refused to be served with the subpoena. Seymour has said Snyder remains out of the country.
In closing Tuesday’s three-page letter, Maloney noted the committee had postponed Snyder’s deposition nearly one month to accommodate his schedule and would extend such additional accommodations as allowing him to testify remotely, giving him access to exhibits and transcribed interviews of other witnesses and providing him with a description of the types of information redacted in prior transcripts.
Maloney set a deadline of noon Wednesday for Snyder’s lawyer to confirm that she will accept service of the committee’s subpoena and that Snyder will appear for a recorded Zoom deposition July 28.
Israel says it will test bullet that killed reporter, Palestinians disagree
A Palestinian woman takes pictures at the scene where Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead during an Israeli raid, in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 17, 2022. REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta
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JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH, West Bank, July 3 (Reuters) – Israel said on Sunday it would test a bullet that killed a Palestinian-American journalist to determine whether one of its soldiers shot her and said a U.S. observer would be present.
The Palestinians, who on Saturday handed over the bullet to a U.S. security coordinator, said they had been assured that Israel would not take part in the ballistics. read more
Washington has yet to comment. The United States has a holiday weekend to mark July 4.
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The death of Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh on May 11 during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank, and feuding between the sides as to the circumstances, have overshadowed a visit by U.S. President Joe Biden due this month.
Palestinians say the Israeli military deliberately killed Abu Akleh. Israel denies this, saying she may have been hit by errant army fire or by a bullet from one of the Palestinian gunmen who were clashing with its forces at the scene.
In a separate incident, a 17-year-old Palestinian died in hospital after being shot late on Saturday by Israeli soldiers in clash in the West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. The Israeli army said a suspect had thrown a firebomb at soldiers, who in response opened fire.
“The (ballistic) test will not be American. The test will be an Israeli test, with an American presence throughout,” said Israeli military spokesman Brigadier-General Ran Kochav.
“In the coming days or hours it will be become clear whether it was even us who killed her, accidentally, or whether it was the Palestinian gunmen,” he told Army Radio. “If we killed her, we will take responsibility and feel regret for what happened.”
Akram al-Khatib, general prosecutor for the Palestinian Authority, said the test would take place at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.
“We got guarantees from the American coordinator that the examination will be conducted by them and that the Israeli side will not take part,” Al-Khatib told Voice of Palestine radio, adding that he expected the bullet to be returned on Sunday.
A U.S. embassy spokesperson said: “We don’t have anything new at this time.”
Biden is expected to hold separate meetings with Palestinian and Israeli leaders on his July 13-16 trip to the Middle East. The Abu Akleh case will be a diplomatic and domestic test for new Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
“It will take a few days to conduct a ballistic test, with several experts, to ensure that there is an unequivocal assessment,” Israeli Deputy Internal Security Minister Yoav Segalovitz told Army Radio.
Israel has said the person who fired the bullet could only be determined by matching it to a gun in a forensic laboratory. Such testing usually requires finding markings on the bullet left by the unique barrel rifling of the gun it was fired from.
The Israeli military previously said one soldier could have been in a position to fire the fatal shot, suggesting it might only consider that soldier’s rifle.
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Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Edmund Blair and Raissa Kasolowsky
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.