In the mid-1980s, Jill Dodd was a 20-year-old model working in Paris when she got an unexpected offer from her agent: She was invited to a gala pirate-themed party on the beach in Monte Carlo being thrown by the billionaire Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. Dodd had no idea who Khashoggi was or why she was invited. But, she says, being “naive and gullible,” she jumped at the chance and soon found herself on the beach dancing with the short, pudgy Saudi mogul. He ended up writing “I… Source link

Bitcoin enthusiasts at El Zonte Beach in Chiltiupan, El Salvador. Photo: Jose Cabezas/Reuters The price of bitcoin (BTC-USD) hovered just below $40,000 (£28,633) on Thursday as the World Bank rejected a request from El Salvador to help with the implementation of the cryptocurrency as a legal tender. The bank said it could not assist El Salvador’s implementation of bitcoin due to the environmental impact of bitcoin mining, and transparency drawbacks. It comes as research from the Financial… Source link

The Liberty Bell tolls for the Philadelphia 76ers in the fourth quarter. The top-seeded Sixers would be in the Eastern Conference finals right now if not for respective blown leads of 18 and 26 points to the Atlanta Hawks in Games 4 and 5 of their second-round series. The tragic flaws of their All-NBA cornerstones created what is now a chronic closing problem. Ben Simmons still cannot shoot, and Joel Embiid still cannot put forth 48 minutes of consistent effort. It is about to be their… Source link

COVID is receding and the economy is rebounding. Talk about it, and most analysts will focus on consumer spending, government stimulus, and the rise and fall of jobs numbers. These are important metrics, and they merit their headlines, but they don’t necessarily give a full picture. While the US economy is consumer based – and consumer spending makes up almost three-fourths of the GDP – we cannot discount heavy industry. The steel sector may be old technology, but it’s still a… Source link

Victoria’s Secret marketing is about to look quite different. The embattled lingerie brand announced a new marketing direction on Wednesday featuring a group of faces intended to move it beyond its famous “Angel” models. One of those faces: USWNT star Megan Rapinoe. That may sound like a surprise for those who are familiar with both Rapinoe, one of the most outspoken progressive voices in sports, and Victoria’s Secret, which has long drawn criticism for its narrow reinforcement of women’s… Source link

There have been plenty of pop-ups over the years, but tomorrow Google’s first store opens in NYC’s Chelsea neighborhood. The brick and mortar model finds the company joining peers like Apple, Microsoft, Samsung and even Amazon, all of whom have a retail presence in Manhattan, including several just around the corner from Google’s new digs. The new space, which opens tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. local time, fills 5,000 square feet of selling space in Google’s big, pricey West Side… Source link

In a resounding bipartisan vote, the House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday making Juneteenth, the day commemorating the official end of slavery in the United States, a federal holiday.  The final vote on the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act was 415-14, and the bill now heads to President Biden’s desk for signature into law.  “We cannot change the future if we do not recognize the past,” Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus said on the… Source link

Elon Musk is once again messing with his favorite toy – the crypto market. Bitcoin has resumed its upwards curve which has been partly attributed to Musk saying Tesla will once again accept BTC as a payment method should miners use enough clean energy in their search for new bitcoins. The news sent BTC-related stocks higher, including shares of MicroStrategy (MSTR). Musk’s power is such that he might be able to move the crypto market with a single tweet but if he remains undecided about… Source link

Stock futures opened lower Wednesday evening as investors contemplated the Federal Reserve’s latest monetary policy decision and updated projections, which signaled a quicker path to higher interest rates than previously anticipated. Contracts on the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq added to earlier losses. Each of the three major stock indexes ended Wednesday’s session lower after the Fed’s new projections pointed to two rate hikes by year-end 2023. Federal Open Market Committee members also upgraded… Source link

(Bloomberg) — U.S. regulators have once again punted their decision on whether to approve a Bitcoin ETF. The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a Wednesday regulatory filing that it will seek more public comment on a proposal to list a product on Cboe Global Markets Inc. It’s not the first time this year that the SEC has delayed giving an answer to the legions of crypto advocates pushing for a way to trade the largest cryptocurrency in an exchange-traded fund format. Crypto… Source link