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18 Jun

William H. Donaldson, the Lion of Wall Street who led the SEC, dies at 93

295Business

William H. Donaldson, who made an early fortune as co-founder of the innovative securities firm Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and later pushed for tougher financial regulation as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom accounting scandals , died Wednesday at his home in Westchester County, New York, at the age of 93. The cause was leukemia, his son Adam said. Mr. Donaldson also briefly served as undersecretary of state under Henry A. Kissinger, ran the New York Stock Exchange and was chief executive of the insurance company Aetna Inc. In 1975, he…

18 Jun

Morrie Markoff, considered the oldest man in the United States, dies at 110

295Health

As of April, the world's oldest living man is believed to be Englishman John Alfred Tinniswood at 111 years old, according to Guinness World Records. (Guinness lists María Branyas Morera, a California native living in Spain, as the world's oldest woman, at 117.) When Mr. Markoff heard the news of his rise to the top of the list, "he just smiled and said, 'Well, someone has to be there,'" his daughter said in an interview. He stood out not only for his longevity but also for a lucidity unusual for his age. Until her final months, she pored over the…

18 Jun

How to manage your streaming subscriptions as service prices increase

295Technology

Because we forget to unsubscribe In May, Caroline Sinders, a designer and artist, published the results of an independent study on how companies like Netflix, Hulu, Vimeo and The New York Times make it difficult to unsubscribe from their services. The study, conducted in 2022, found that some media companies like The Times created friction in the process, requiring, in some cases, a phone call to cancel a subscription. The Times now allows subscribers to unsubscribe online without calling. Even though the study found that streaming services like Netflix and Hulu were easier to cancel, you may stay subscribed longer…

17 Jun

Crisis in the Middle East: Blinken defines some Hamas changes to the ceasefire proposal as “unacceptable”.

295News

A United Nations commission investigating the October 7 attacks on Israel and the resulting conflict in Gaza accused both Palestinian armed groups and Israel of committing war crimes, and the commission said Israel's conduct of the war included crimes against humanity.In a report released on Wednesday, the three-person commission – led by Navi Pillay, a former UN human rights chief – provided the UN's most detailed examination yet of the events since 7 October. The report itself does not entail any sanctions. , but presents a legal analysis of actions in the Gaza conflict that is likely to be evaluated…

16 Jun

Health officials tried to circumvent public records laws, lawmakers say

295Health

In one of those emails, from June 2021, Greg Folkers, Dr. Fauci's former chief of staff, was discussing global biosafety practices and referenced an EcoHealth fact sheet. Folkers rendered the group's name as "Ec~Health," a misspelling that lawmakers said appeared to be a deliberate attempt to prevent the email from being caught in keyword searches to satisfy FOIA requests related to EcoHealth . In a separate email the same month, Folkers rendered the last name of Kristian Andersen, a prominent virologist who has investigated the origins of the pandemic and faced scrutiny from lawmakers, as “anders$n.” Experts on records retention…

16 Jun

The miniature secrets of championship rings

295Sports

While sports fans enjoy the defining moments of this month's NBA Finals and Stanley Cup, Jason Arasheben studies like a college student before exams. Arasheben, a famous jeweler whose clients include rappers Drake and ASAP Rocky, is investigating the contending teams' history, connections to their hometowns and any other interesting facts that might go into an extravagantly bejeweled ring. He is also examining his personal contacts to find someone who can facilitate a meeting with the wealthy owners of the winning franchises. “You just have to start connecting the dots,” said Arasheben, CEO of the Jason jewelry house in Beverly…

16 Jun

What to know about the open versus closed software debate

295Technology

What are some examples of open source software? Some of the most popular software systems are open source, such as Linux, the operating system on which Google's Android mobile system was built. Among the best-known open source products is Firefox, the free downloadable Web browser created by the Mozilla Foundation. So, what is the open and closed debate and how does it relate to artificial intelligence? Tech companies like Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic have spent billions of dollars creating “closed,” or proprietary, AI systems. People who don't work for these companies can't see or tinker with the underlying source code,…

15 Jun

Global hotspots target overtourism

295News

Hotel taxes and other taxes have increased Hotel taxes, also known as lodging or tourist taxes, are widespread in the United States and Europe, where they had been rising for a decade before the pandemic. As tourism has recovered to pre-pandemic levels, several destinations have increased or adjusted taxes to increase revenue. Like Hawaii, Greece – which suffered severe wildfires last summer – is trying to prepare for climate disasters, and the government wants tourists to help foot the bill. Greece calls this tax a “climate crisis resilience tax” and will be collected from housing providers. The tax will be…

15 Jun

US expands sanctions against Russia during G7 leaders’ meeting

295Politics

While the measures expand the scope of the U.S. sanctions program, the Biden administration has so far refrained from imposing sanctions on Chinese or European banks it believes are helping Russia. The new measures do not prevent banks from facilitating transactions related to Russia's energy exports, which the Biden administration has allowed to continue out of fear that restricting them could stoke inflation. Announcing the sanctions, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said in a statement that “Russia's war economy is deeply isolated from the international financial system, leaving the Kremlin's military desperate for access to the outside world.” At the…

ConocoPhillips will acquire Marathon Oil in a .5 billion all-stock deal

15 Jun

ConocoPhillips will acquire Marathon Oil in a $22.5 billion all-stock deal

295Business

The oil industry in the United States, the world's largest producer of crude oil, is made up of many small and medium-sized oil companies, ranging from family businesses with a few wells in one state to global giants like Exxon Mobil. Wall Street values ConocoPhillips at about $140 billion, or about 10 times larger than Marathon Oil but about a quarter of Exxon. Oil companies have completed some of the largest acquisitions in the past year despite regulatory scrutiny from the Biden administration and oil market volatility. U.S. giants have capitalized on record profits, giving them the firepower to acquire…