After Thursday’s first day of NCAA tournament action, only 14 perfect Yahoo Tourney Pick’Em brackets remained. By Friday afternoon, there were none. An entry named Go Back To Webster Ave. was the last bracket standing after Miami edged USC, 68-66 on Friday. It was the only bracket to correctly pick the tournament’s first 22 games. That means that they picked No. 15 St. Peter’s to beat No. 2 Kentucky, No. 12 New Mexico to beat No. 5 UConn and No. 12 Richmond to beat No. 5 Iowa — impressive… Source link

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine passes its third week, the U.S. is carefully watching for any possible decision from Moscow on the use of chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine. Washington has accused Russia of falsely claiming that the U.S. is working with Ukraine to develop a chemical and biological weapons program. “Russia has a track record of accusing the West of the very crimes that Russia itself is perpetrating,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement on… Source link

Trading glitches plagued the nickel futures market in London Friday, with prices settling down at the exchange-imposed limit for a third straight day. As more details emerge from the disorderly market failure that shuttered trading in nickel for over a week — only to reopen in chaos — industry insiders are crying foul. The current circus in nickel captured popular attention on March 7 when a giant bearish bet on nickel prices blew up in a spectacular short squeeze that would have rivaled… Source link

On Sunday reports emerged that Russia asked China for military and economic support for its war in Ukraine. Worse yet for the West, China reportedly seemed open to backing Russia. The news kicked off an intense week of diplomacy and economic brinkmanship that culminated Friday in a nearly two-hour call between President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping of China. But, according to both sides, the big questions appear to remain unanswered. An official White House summary of the meeting said the… Source link

March 18 (Reuters) – A lawsuit filed on Friday accuses Google of systemic racial bias against Black employees, saying the search engine company steers them to lower-level jobs, pays them less and denies them opportunities to advance because of their race. According to a complaint seeking class-action status, Google maintains a “racially biased corporate culture” that favors white men, where Black people comprise only 4.4% of employees and about 3% of leadership and its technology workforce.

GameStop (GME) shares fell 7% Thursday after the video game retailer reported lackluster fiscal fourth quarter earnings results. The company reported an adjusted operating loss of $160.7 million, compared to a profit of $28.9 million a year ago. The quarter was supposed to be a strong one since it includes the busy holiday shopping season when GameStop has historically made money. But instead the earnings results shed light on aggressive spending for strategic initiatives, such as plans for… Source link

In a stunning turn, Deshaun Watson has decided to play for the Cleveland Browns and will waive his no-trade clause for the deal. The Houston Texans officially announced the trade agreement Friday afternoon, and will receive three first-round draft picks, a 2023 third-round pick and a 2024 fourth-round pick from the Browns, as first reported by Yahoo Sports. The Browns will give Watson a deal for five years and $230 million fully guaranteed, a league source told Yahoo Sports, the highest… Source link

Inflation is the main economic and political concern right now. Before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, it was possible inflation would peak early in 2022, then ease as supply chain kinks unwound and consumers returned to normal spending patterns. Russia’s barbaric war on Ukraine changed that equation, sending oil and gasoline prices soaring as a major source of world energy supply suddenly looked endangered. Russia is the world’s third largest supplier of oil and natural gas, and… Source link

Warren Buffett is right to be devouring shares of oil giant Occidental Petroleum (OXY), says one long-time oil markets strategist. The billionaire investor’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B) scooped up another 18.1 million shares of Occidental for close to $1 billion this week. The latest purchases come hot on the heels of Berkshire spending $6 billion or so in the prior two weeks to buy up Occidental shares. Berkshire now owns nearly 14.6% of Occidental Petroleum through his roughly 140… Source link

Google Maps is currently down for some users around the world as the mapping service is experiencing a partial outage, Google confirmed to TechCrunch on Friday. “We’re seeing reports of difficulties accessing some Google Maps and Google Maps Platform services. Our team is investigating and working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible,” a spokesperson from Google said in an email. Google did not elaborate on the outage or explain what may be causing… Source link