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Russia Stops Ukraine Grain Deal, Shaking World Food Markets 2023-07-17 - Russia said on Monday it was withdrawing from a wartime agreement to allow grain exports from Ukraine through the Black Sea until its demands to loosen sanctions on its own agricultural exports were met, upending a deal that has helped stabilize global food prices and alleviate shortages in parts of Africa and the Middle East. The agreement, known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative, was struck a year ago, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, to alleviate a global food crisis after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia had blockaded Ukrainian ports, blocking ships from carrying its grain and sending global prices soaring to record highs. The deal has been extended three times, most recently in May. The latest extension expired on Monday. The United Nations’ secretary general, António Guterres, said he was “deeply disappointed” by Moscow’s decision, and that millions of people facing hunger, as well as consumers confronting a cost-of-living crisis, would “pay a price.” He also said he had sent proposals last week to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to facilitate Moscow’s demands. Mr. Putin never responded directly, a U.N. spokesman said. Russia has repeatedly complained about the agreement, which it calls one-sided in Ukraine’s favor. Moscow has said that Western sanctions, imposed because of Moscow’s devastating war, have restricted the sale of Russia’s agricultural products, and Moscow has sought guarantees that free up those exports.
What Benjamin Franklin Learned While Fighting Counterfeiters 2023-07-17 - When Benjamin Franklin moved to Philadelphia in 1723, he got to witness the beginning of a risky new experiment: Pennsylvania had just begun printing words on paper and calling it money. The first American paper money had hit the market in 1690. Metal coins never stayed in the 13 colonies long, flowing in a ceaseless stream to England and elsewhere, as payment for imported goods. Several colonies began printing bits of paper to stand in for coins, stating that within a certain time period, they could be used locally as currency. The system worked, but haltingly, the colonies soon discovered. Print too many bills, and the money became worthless. And counterfeiters often found the bills easy to copy, devaluing the real stuff with a flood of fakes. Franklin, who started his career as a printer, was an inveterate inventor who would also create the lightning rod and bifocals, found paper money fascinating. In 1731, he won the contract to print £40,000 for the colony of Pennsylvania, and he applied his penchant for innovation to currency. During his printing career, Franklin produced a stream of baroque, often beautiful money. He created a copper plate of a sage leaf to print on money to foil counterfeiters: The intricate pattern of veins could not easily be imitated. He influenced a number of other printers and experimented with producing new paper and concocting inks.
Less Cocaine, More Vegetables: Concert Tour Cooking Goes Healthy 2023-07-17 - In Stockholm, it was the cookies — the black sesame, wasabi and white chocolate, or maybe the gluten-free coconut almond dark chocolate — that signaled to Beyoncé’s dancers, crew and roadies that Grant Bird was back. Mr. Bird is an English pastry chef and one of 14 culinary professionals on Beyoncé’s current Renaissance World Tour, which has also employed a vegan chef and three personal chefs just for Queen B and her inner circle. After getting Covid during rehearsals in Paris, Mr. Bird had to take a weeklong break, leaving the dessert duties for the 400 to 600 crew members to two substitute chefs. By then, the crew had gotten used to his lavish desserts, which often featured a dozen different offerings at both lunch and dinner. A pared-down sweets menu spoke to his absence.
Jerome Powell’s Prized Labor Market Is Back. Can He Keep It? 2023-07-17 - But now a tantalizing possibility is emerging: Can America both tame inflation and keep its labor market gains? Data last week showed that price increases are beginning to moderate in earnest, and that trend is expected to continue in the months ahead. The long-awaited cool-down has happened even as unemployment has remained at rock bottom and hiring has remained healthy. The combination is raising the prospect — still not guaranteed — that Mr. Powell’s central bank could pull off a soft landing, in which workers largely keep their jobs and growth chugs along slowly even as inflation returns to normal. “There are meaningful reasons for why inflation is coming down, and why we should expect to see it come down further,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter. “Many economists argue that the last mile of inflation reduction will be the hardest, but that isn’t necessarily the case.” Inflation has plummeted to 3 percent, just a third of its 9.1 percent peak last summer. While an index that strips out volatile products to give a cleaner sense of the underlying trend in inflation remains more elevated at 4.8 percent, it, too, is showing notable signs of coming down — and the reasons for that moderation seem potentially sustainable. Housing costs are slowing in inflation measures, something that economists have expected for months and that they widely predict will continue. New and used car prices are cooling as demand wanes and inventories on dealer lots improve, allowing goods prices to moderate. And even services inflation has cooled somewhat, though some of that owed to a slowdown in airfares that may look less significant in coming months.
F.D.A. Approves R.S.V. Shot for Infants 2023-07-17 - The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved a shot to protect infants and vulnerable toddlers against respiratory syncytial virus, or R.S.V., offering one of the first protections for an illness that fills children’s hospitals year after year. The monoclonal antibody shot is expected to be available at the start of the fall R.S.V. season. The F.D.A. is also considering approval of an R.S.V. vaccine by Pfizer for pregnant women that is meant to protect infants from the virus. The treatment approved on Monday, called Beyfortus by its developers Sanofi and AstraZeneca, addresses an illness that can be severe in older adults and young infants. About 80,000 children ages 5 and younger are hospitalized with the virus each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “R.S.V. can cause serious disease in infants and some children and results in a large number of emergency department and physician office visits each year,” Dr. John Farley, an official in the F.D.A. Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said. “Today’s approval addresses the great need for products to help reduce the impact of R.S.V. disease on children, families and the health care system.”
John Harris Named Top Editor at Politico 2023-07-17 - Politico said Monday that its top U.S. editor was stepping down and would be replaced by one of the publication’s co-founders, John Harris, who will also take on additional responsibilities for the media outlet’s international editions. Matt Kaminski, who joined Politico nearly a decade ago from The Wall Street Journal, will conclude his tenure as editor in chief at the end of August, Goli Sheikholeslami, Politico’s chief executive, said in an email to the staff on Monday. The new role for Mr. Harris, who had been serving as editorial chair, will be expanded to include all of Politico’s editorial units, Ms. Sheikholeslami said in her memo. “To be clear: John is not returning to a job he once had,” she said. “To the contrary, he is stepping into a new role as the single top editorial executive in the company, with newsrooms in the United States and Europe reporting to him.”
Electric Vehicle Prices Fall as Automakers Raise Production 2023-07-17 - After struggling to find enough batteries and other parts for the past couple of years, automakers are finally beginning to churn out large numbers of electric cars and trucks. More than 30 new models will arrive in showrooms this year. What they need now are more customers. While sales of electric vehicles are increasing — they climbed about 48 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier — they are not rising fast enough to keep pace with the number of vehicles rolling off assembly lines. And inventories of unsold vehicles are starting to pile up. More than 90,000 battery-powered cars and trucks are sitting on dealer lots, four times as many as a year ago, according to Cox Automotive, a market research firm. That’s enough to last 103 days at the current rate of sales, compared with about 50 days for the industry as a whole. Manufacturers “are having a ‘Field of Dreams’ moment,” said Jonathan Gregory, a senior manager of economic and industry insight at Cox. “They have built E.V. inventory, but now they wait for buyers to come.”
Chip Roy gives cringeworthy reason for nominating Donalds for House speaker 2023-07-17 - Vanity Fair has published a profile on Rep. Byron Donalds, and one anecdote in particular gives us a revealing look at the role the Floridian — and one of the few Black Republicans in Congress — plays for his conservative colleagues. For the profile, reporter Pablo Manríquez interviewed Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who in January nominated Donalds as speaker of the House. At the time, the move was widely criticized as blatant tokenization, an attempt by Republicans — for optic reasons — to match Democrats’ historic nomination of Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to be the first Black speaker of the House. I, for one, called the nomination a shameless ploy. Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., called Donalds a “prop” and added: “Despite being Black, he supports a policy agenda intent on upholding and perpetuating white supremacy.” And on “The ReidOut,” Donalds disputed Joy’s characterization of his nomination as a “diversity statement” by House Republicans. Donalds and his supporters (including his wife) didn’t take kindly to the accurate descriptions, but Roy’s comments to Vanity Fair suggest they were right on point: “Democrats play the race card every single frickin’ second, so I didn’t mind shoving it down their throats,” Roy tells me of nominating Donalds, who didn’t clap during Roy’s nominating speech on January 5—not even when his Freedom Caucus colleague turned to House Democrats and solemnly declared, “Here we are, and for the first time in history there have been two Black Americans placed into the nomination for Speaker of the House.” The spectacle was full of cringeworthy moments. But, perhaps, none as icky as seeing Roy now objectifying his colleague in such a way. In Roy’s remarks, Byron Donalds isn’t so much a human being as he is an “it” — a thing Republicans can shove down liberals’ throats. It’s a demeaning position for Donalds to play, even if he manages to extract personal benefits from it. He’s in the Herschel Walker role: His rise as a Black man in the GOP will likely be dictated by his usefulness in helping cover up the party’s bigotry.
Raskin demolishes Trump’s argument for a Florida trial delay 2023-07-17 - The main question in Donald Trump’s classified documents trial — in any trial he faces, really — is when it will happen. Trump’s pending legal argument in Florida suggests his desired answer to that question is: Never. But Rep. Jamie Raskin just pointed out why the former president shouldn’t be able to avoid trial just because he’s running again in 2024. “Otherwise,” the Maryland Democrat told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki on Sunday, “any criminal defendant in the country would declare for president or Senate or House or mayor and say, ‘You can’t prosecute me anymore. You gotta wait ’til next year or the year after.’” The former manager in Trump’s second impeachment continued: “If somebody is running for office and then is implicated in a murder or a rape or an armed robbery, would we say, ‘No, we’re going to hold that until after the election,’ if in the normal course of events it would take place before? He should be treated exactly the way anybody else would be treated in the same situation.” “Why should he be special?” Raskin said of the GOP’s presidential front-runner. It’s that status as a presidential candidate that Trump hopes will buy him time — a lot of time — with Judge Aileen Cannon. The Trump-nominated trial judge, who was smacked down by an appeals court for treating Trump special as a former president in a civil lawsuit he filed after Mar-a-Lago was searched, is considering when to set his trial on Espionage Act and other felony charges. Special counsel Jack Smith wants to start in December. Trump seemingly doesn’t want to start at all — or at least not before the 2024 election, whose outcome could lead to the case vanishing if he or another Republican wins. We should soon learn whether Cannon still thinks Trump is special.
Rishi Sunak to meet FTSE 100 bosses at new business council 2023-07-17 - Rishi Sunak is to meet with bosses from FTSE 100 companies including AstraZeneca, Barclays and Shell to discuss how to attract more investment to the UK. Fourteen of the country’s biggest companies are due to attend the first meeting of the prime minister’s new business council on Tuesday, according to No 10. The companies are “strategically important industries for UK growth”, the government said. The companies represented will include pharmaceutical businesses AstraZeneca and GSK, financial firms Aviva, Barclays and NatWest Group, weapons maker BAE Systems and the grocer Sainsbury’s. The UK is expected to just avoid a recession this year, after the Bank of England raised its forecasts in May to show 0% GDP growth for the second quarter of 2023. That represented a more positive outlook than offered earlier in the year, but the Conservative government is keen to spur economic growth ahead of an expected general election by the end of 2024. However, the short and disastrous premiership of Liz Truss suggested that investors believe the UK has limited room for manoeuvre in trying to dash for growth. Big businesses have been hoping to rebuild relations with the government after it stopped meetings with the scandal-hit Confederation of British Industry. The lobby group, which had been the UK’s most prominent business voice, was barred from meetings with government after allegations of sexual misconduct about managers by female employees. The CBI has said it has overhauled its culture and working practices under its new leader, Rain Newton-Smith, but it has struggled to regain its place. As chancellor, Sunak was co-chair of the business council when Boris Johnson was prime minister. Sunak said at the time that that version of the council would help to “level up” poorer parts of the country, although that was replaced with a hope to “create good jobs right across the country”. Johnson’s council of 28 featured some smaller businesses and startups, but every member of Sunak’s version, due to meet twice a year, will be members of the FTSE 100, barring DeepMind, the London-based artificial intelligence subsidiary of US tech company Google. Other companies represented on the council will include the software company Sage and housebuilder Taylor Wimpey. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Business Today Free daily newsletter Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion Shell’s chief executive, Wael Sawan, said the council would “help drive prosperity and growth in the UK, specifically through the provision of secure, affordable and cleaner energy”. The oil company chief executive, who will represent the energy industry alongside SSE boss Alistair Phillips-Davies, attracted criticism from environmental campaigners earlier this month when he said it would be “dangerous and irresponsible” to cut oil and gas production, after the company abandoned plans to cut oil production each year for the rest of the decade.
Post Office inquiry chair criticises Horizon compensation scheme 2023-07-17 - Schemes set up to compensate former post office operators wrongly accused of crimes are “a patchwork quilt” with “holes in it” that are likely to miss the deadline to pay up, the chair of the inquiry into the scandal has said. More than 700 people were prosecuted for theft and false accounting between 2000 and 2014 after the Post Office’s flawed Horizon IT system incorrectly suggested there were financial shortfalls. Many of those caught up in the miscarriage of justice told the inquiry that they had had depression, attempted to kill themselves and had to leave their homes as a result. A high court judge ruled in 2019 that the system contained a number of “bugs, errors and defects” and many of the criminal convictions were overturned. On Monday, the inquiry’s chair, Sir Wyn Williams, called for legislative change to resolve issues for the compensation schemes that were put in place to recompense those affected by the scandal. So far almost £100m has been paid out so far by the Post Office and the government but Williams said it was his “strongly held view” that administrators would be “unable to deliver compensation payments to all applicants” by the deadline of 7 August next year. He has sent a report setting out his recommendations to business minister Kevin Hollinrake in an attempt to ensure “full and fair” compensation is paid to those affected by the scandal. Williams said: “There are three schemes in existence by which compensation can be delivered to eligible applicants. They came into existence at different times, and are responses to very different sets of circumstances as they unfolded. What has emerged is a patchwork quilt of compensation schemes. And, unfortunately, it is a patchwork quilt with some holes in it.” “The evidence upon me hasn’t changed. It hasn’t lessened to a degree. Many hundreds of people suffered disastrous consequences by reason of the misuse of data from Horizon, and thousands more suffered very significantly.” Williams said he had “been of the view for some months that we are too far down the road with each scheme to contemplate abandoning them in favour of one comprehensive scheme”. The Post Office had paid out more than £80m across the historical shortfall scheme and the overturned historical convictions scheme by the end of April 2023. The government also paid out an additional £19m in interim compensation under the group litigation scheme in the same period. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Business Today Free daily newsletter Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion The chair of the Commons business and trade committee, Darren Jones, said: “Ministers promised the house that victims would be put back into the position they would have been in, had this miscarriage of justice not happened in the first place. But testimony from victims shows that the amount of compensation they’re receiving goes nowhere near that. “These poor people have been through enough, without having the Post Office-managed scheme haggle down their compensation when executives have walked away with thousands of pounds in unacceptable bonus payments for giving evidence to the inquiry.”
Olive oil industry in crisis as Europe’s heatwave threatens another harvest 2023-07-17 - The olive oil industry is “in crisis”, and the heatwave in southern Europe is threatening to inflict the second bad harvest in a row and gaps on shelves this autumn. After a spring heatwave affected flowering in Spain, which produces about half of the global olive crop, the harvest was forecast to be only 28% up on last year, which was the worst in almost a decade. The International Olive Oil Council predicted that the country would produce 850,000 tonnes, compared with 1.3m tonnes in a typical year and just 660,000 last year. That forecast was issued before the current period of high temperatures. The industry fears that production could end up being even worse as a second heatwave in a week brings temperatures of up to 43C this week to some southern parts of Spain, prompting trees to drop unripe fruits in order to preserve moisture. “In Spain we already know it is going to be another bad year, but no one has got to grips with the what’s currently happening. The record temperatures are not going to help the situation,” said Walter Zanre, the chief executive of the UK arm of Filippo Berio, the world’s largest olive oil producer. “I can’t share how much anxiety this is causing us. Last year, Spain came into crop with a bit of carry-over [from the year before], which negated the shortfall somewhat. This year the barrels are dry. Even if Spain produces the predicted 850,000 tonnes, the price situation is worse.” Zanre said that the probable shortages meant prices were likely to rise further amid similarly poor harvests in Italy and Portugal. Wholesale prices have doubled since the beginning of 2022. In the UK, the retail price of olive oil was up 47% year on year to an average £6.16 for 500ml in May, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics. Given that the autumn harvest is unlikely to produce new oil until November and that last year’s supplies are expected to run out by September, at present rates of consumption, it is possible that supermarkets could see shortages in the autumn. Tomato producers in Italy are also concerned about the impact of the heatwave, after flooding wiped out more than 15% of the crop planted this year. If the extreme temperatures in the country last longer than a few days, they could damage the remaining crops, which are almost ready for harvest. Diego Pariotti, the commercial director for exports at Conserve Italia, which produces the Cirio brand of tinned tomatoes and passata, said the group was estimating that production would be down by just 10%, with this year’s second harvest in August more likely to be affected by this week’s heatwave. But Pariotti added that the almost ripe fruits waiting to be picked in the coming weeks could also be at risk of damage if Italy’s heatwave, in which temperatures have exceeded 40C, continued for more than a few days. “Mature fruit can be burned,” he said. “There’s a worry for sure.” skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Business Today Free daily newsletter Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion British shoppers are already reining in their spending on olive oil in reaction to the soaring prices and consumption is down by a fifth in the UK, according to analysts at Kantar, but that reduction is unlikely to be enough to offset future shortages. It is understood that some bottlers for supermarkets’ own-label olive oil have already pointed to force majeure clauses in their contracts to allow them to reduce delivery quantities or raise prices. As the costs of energy, labour and packaging cause the cost of producing bottled oil to rise at a pace that cannot be matched on supermarket shelves, Zanre said small producers were likely to go out of business. “We are looking at a very difficult situation over the next few months. It is not too extreme to say that olive oil is an industry in crisis. Although the prices are very high, nobody is getting rich,” he said. Fears for the future have grown as the climate crisis worsens. Filippo Berio has widened the areas it sources olives from, turning to countries such as Turkey and even Chile in order to supplement supplies from traditional growing regions such as Italy, Greece and Spain.
Trump's campaign sent DeSantis donors a list of all of his struggles thus far 2023-07-17 - Former President Donald Trump's campaign has found a new way to troll Ron DeSantis. Top Trump advisors wrote to DeSantis' donors with a list of his struggles. "[Y]ou can't say you weren't warned," the advisors wrote in a memo. Get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in business, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley — delivered daily. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy Former President Donald Trump's campaign on Monday wrote to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' donors, urging them to press the GOP presidential hopeful on his campaign's struggles thus far. "[I]f you still collectively pour millions of dollars into the failing Ron DeSantis campaign, you can't say you weren't warned," top Trump advisors Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles concluded in their memo. Their message recapped a string of unflattering stories about DeSantis' campaign, which thus far has struggled to pierce Trump's commanding lead on the GOP field. DeSantis remains Trump's best-positioned challenger ahead of the first GOP presidential debate next month. The memo also came after presidential campaigns filed their legally required fundraising and spending reports from April to June. "The numbers suggest, for the first time, that solvency could be a threat to DeSantis' campaign," the memo read, quoting an NBC report about how DeSantis' campaign is strapped for cash. Referencing a New York Times report on Trump's commanding lead among small donors, Trump's advisors bragged that the DeSantis "can't" hope to sustain a prolonged primary fight with the former president. In response, DeSantis' campaign pointed to a statement touting its $20 million haul in six weeks. "Our campaign brought in more than the entire field – including a current and former president – because the enthusiasm for Ron DeSantis' movement to restore sanity to our nation and lead our Great American Comeback is unprecedented," campaign manager Generra Peck said. DeSantis' headline-grabbing number is belied by some potential worrying signs, as Politico reported this past weekend. More than 1/3rd of DeSantis' donations came within the first 10 days of his formal launch. He also raised $2.8 million from supporters that gave $200 or less, "small donors" that are the lifeblood of some presidential campaigns since they can give continuously. In comparison, Trump is known for his grassroots donor base.
Vienna is crawling with Russian spies inviting sources to skiing holidays 2023-07-17 - Vienna, Austria, has become the prime European city for spies, especially from Russia, to set up. The country has no legislation banning espionage unrelated to national affairs. Efforts by local politicians to ban spying have been met with delays as Russia's war continues. Get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in business, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley — delivered daily. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy Nearly a year and a half into Russia's war in Ukraine, Austria has expelled remarkably few Russian spies in comparison to its neighbors, as a coalition of MPs are urging their government to clamp down on espionage. Austria's government has instead suspended two parliamentary votes on the matter, providing a ripe environment for continental and international spying, per The Financial Times. Vienna's longtime legal approach has been to ignore the espionage if it doesn't concern its own national affairs. And with the International Atomic Energy Agency and various international bodies based in the city, the lackadaisical attitude has posed a host of security problems. Austria has expelled only four Russian spies posing as diplomats, while neighbors equipped with more robust laws have expelled over 400 spies since the start of Russia's war, the Times reported. There are 180 accredited Russian diplomats in Vienna, and a third of them are assumed to be spies, per the report. For example, in July 2022, The Washington Post reported that Egisto Ott, a former official in Austria's security services who managed undercover agents, was arrested on suspicion of selling state secrets to Russia. The ongoing case shows the fine line between espionage that implicates Austria, and spying that uses Austria as a fertile ground while Russia's war in Ukraine rages on. "Vienna is a perfect hub for spying, and always was," Gustav Gressel, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and former Austrian military officer, told the Times. "If you are a Russian intelligence officer, and you want to run a source in Germany, why would you run the risk of meeting him there? You invite this guy on a skiing holiday in Austria." A conservative and Green party coalition in Austria has pushed for legislation that would ban spying "against a foreign state or international organization," but Vienna's unpopular government has twice called for more time to consider it before allowing a vote. Recently, Chinese, Saudi, Iranian and Israeli spies have also benefitted from the power vacuum in Vienna, the Times reported. And some Western officials are monitoring the situation, with others getting in on the action. "It really is the Wild West," a Western diplomat in Austria told the Times under the condition of anonymity. "It's almost comical how much is being gotten away with here. Even from our side, I am sure."
Israel's workhorse Merkava tank could soon be refilling foreign arsenals depleted by the war in Ukraine 2023-07-17 - Israel may be about to export its workhorse Merkava tank for the first time. Reports say Israel is in talks to sell the tank to a European and a Middle Eastern country. If exported widely, the tank could refill arsenals in countries that sent their armor to Ukraine. Get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in business, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley — delivered daily. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy Israel may be about to export its Merkava tank for the first time. One customer may be an Arab country. Another could be a European nation at odds with Turkey. For now, the details are cryptic. "There are two potential countries with which we are holding advanced negotiations," Yair Koles, a retired brigadier general who heads the defense export division of Israel's Ministry of Defense, told business publication Calcalist. "I am not allowed to give the names, but one of them is on the European continent." The European nation in question is actually Cyprus, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which in June cited an unnamed Cypriot official who said negotiations are underway. The Arab nation is Morocco, Spanish outlet El Espanol reported this month. Israel isn't selling the newest version of the 45-year-old Merkava tank family, the Merkava 5, or even the Merkava 4, which is used in front-line Israeli armored units. Instead, buyers would get surplus Merkava 2s manufactured in the 1980s and Merkava 3s from the 1990s. An Israeli Merkava tank in the Negev desert in November 1997. Antoine GYORI/Sygma via Getty Images First deployed in 1979, the Merkava is an unusual tank configured to meet Israel's specific needs. After Israeli tanks suffered heavy losses in the 1973 October War, the casualty-sensitive Israel Defense Forces designed the Merkava ("chariot" in Hebrew) to protect the crew. The 65-ton vehicle has the engine in the front of the hull to maximize protection and is equipped with the Trophy active protection system to shoot down incoming anti-tank projectiles. There is also an armored compartment in the rear to carry six infantrymen or evacuate casualties. The Merkava 3, 4, and 5 are armed with a powerful 120 mm cannon, though the Merkava 1 and 2 have smaller 105 mm guns. The tanks also have a 60 mm remotely operated mortar to engage infantry or fire smoke rounds. The Merkava successfully engaged Syria's Soviet-made T-72 tanks in the 1982 Lebanon War. However, dozens of earlier Merkava models were damaged by Hezbollah anti-tank missiles in the 2006 Lebanon War, though the problem may have been with poorly trained Israeli crews as well as poor tactics. An Israeli Merkava Mark IV tank equipped with the Trophy active protection system in February 2007. Israel Defense Forces/Michael Shvadron Though Israel is small, home to less than 10 million people, it's one of the world's top 10 arms exporters. Remarkably, of Israel's nearly $13 billion in arms exports in 2022, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco — the Arab nations that signed the 2020 Abraham Accords normalizing relations with Israel — accounted for 24%, according to Israeli government figures. Most of what Israel sells is smaller items, predominantly drones, missiles, and air-defense systems. Morocco, for example, has bought Israeli Heron surveillance UAVs and Harop kamikaze drones. The US Army uses the Trophy system to protect M1 Abrams tanks from anti-tank rockets. But a main battle tank like the Merkava? That's something else entirely. "The Merkava is significant because it's a high-profile system," Efraim Inbar, president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, told Insider. "It's not something you just put on an airplane or an armored vehicle. You can't hide it." Exporting the Merkava raises sensitive political issues. For Morocco, acquiring an Israeli tank would be a highly visible symbol of its relatively cordial relationship with Israel. Morocco is also fighting Polisario insurgents, who are backed by neighboring Algeria, in the Western Sahara. This raises the possibility of one Arab state employing Israeli arms against another. Israeli soldiers by a Merkava tank during an exercise in July 2018. MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images With Cyprus, Israel would be selling tanks to a nation that has tense relations with Turkey, which invaded the northern half of Cyprus in 1974. Relations between Israel and the government of Turkish President Recep Erdogan are often contentious. (The US ending its longstanding arms embargo on Cyprus in 2022 also triggered speculation that Cyprus' Russian-made arms could go to Ukraine.) Nonetheless, the timing is propitious for Israel. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has spurred Europe to rearm its depleted militaries. Eastern European nations are sending many of their aging Soviet- and Russian-designed tanks to the Ukrainians, which means the donors will be shopping for affordable replacements — likely older tanks with a non-Russian design. The question is whether Israel will sell Merkavas to Ukraine. For now, the answer is no. Israel is wary of antagonizing Russia, for fear that Russian forces in Syria will interfere with Israel's airstrikes against Iranian and Hezbollah targets there. Russia can also send advanced weapons, particularly S-400 anti-aircraft missiles, to Israel's arch-enemy, Iran. However, weapons also have a habit of circulating. Ukraine has received weapons and other military equipment from nearly 50 countries that originally acquired that hardware for their own armies. Russia is also getting kamikaze drones and artillery shells from Iran and North Korea. If Merkava tanks are sold overseas, they may yet end up on surprising battlefields. Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds a master's in political science. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Elon Musk's parents: Errol and Maye Musk, the figures behind the CEO's success 2023-07-17 - Elon Musk's parents are Errol Musk, an engineer, and Maye Musk, a model and dietitian. Elon and Errol Musk appear to have a strained relationship, based on comments in the press. Errol Musk has made the news for fathering children with his former stepdaughter, Jana Bezuidenhout. Morning Brew Insider recommends waking up with, a daily newsletter. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address By clicking “Sign Up,” you also agree to marketing emails from both Insider and Morning Brew; and you accept Insider’s Terms and Privacy Policy Click here for Morning Brew’s privacy policy. Elon Musk is seemingly constantly in the news — but his parents have made headlines as well. Elon Musk's parents are Maye Musk and Errol Musk. Maye Musk is a professional dietitian and model who has made the cover of Time magazine. Last year, at the age of 74, she was on the cover of Sport Illustrated's swimsuit edition. Maye and Musk's father, an engineer named Errol Musk, were married for nearly a decade before they divorced. Maye said in her book that she'd wanted to end the marriage earlier, but the Divorce Act, which legalized the termination of a marriage in South Africa, was not enacted until 1979. The couple was divorced the same year the law was passed. After their parents divorced, 9-year-old Musk and his younger brother Kimbal decided to live with their father. It wasn't until after the move was made that his Elon Musk's relationship with his dad, notoriously troubled, began to emerge. "It was not a good idea," Musk said of the move in an interview with Rolling Stone. Errol Musk made headlines in 2018 when it was revealed that he had a child with his then-30-year-old former stepdaughter, Jana Bezuidenhout, whom he's known since she was four years old. Bezuidenhout is 42 years younger than Errol and is the daughter of his ex-wife Heide. Errol and Heide were married for 18 years and have two daughters of their own together. In 2022, the elder Musk revealed that he'd had a second child with Bezuidenhout. Errol Musk and Elon Musk. GIANLUIGI GUERCIA / AFP) (Photo by GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP via Getty Images/Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue The Tesla CEO told Rolling Stone in 2017 that his father is "a terrible human being." "You have no idea about how bad," Musk said. "Almost every crime you can possibly think of, he has done." Last year, Errol responded to a question of whether he was proud of his son in an appearance on the Australian radio show, "The Kyle and Jackie O Show." "No," he answered. "Well, you know, we are a family that have been doing a lot of things for a long time. It's not as though we suddenly started doing something." He later said he'd misheard the question. Musk's father told the Daily Mail in August that his son had since asked him to "please be quiet" when it comes to talking to the press. In a 2018 interview with Insider, Errol Musk spoke about the Musk family's wealth. "We were very wealthy," Errol told Insider. "We had so much money at times we couldn't even close our safe." Some of the wealth came from the half share in a Zambian emerald mine that Errol owned. Once, in New York, Elon and his brother Kimbal sold two emeralds from the mine while Errol was asleep, Errol told Insider. "They just walked into Tiffany's and said, 'Do you want to buy some emeralds?'" Errol said. "And they sold two emeralds, one was for $800 and I think the other one was for $1,200." Elon would have been about 16 at the time, according to Errol. A few days later, the family returned to the store to find that Tiffany's was selling the $800 emerald, now set in a ring, for $24,000. It was a markup 30 times the price Elon had received for the gem, and Errol has used the story as on object lesson in how retail works ever since. Insider contacted Elon Musk to confirm his father's story, but he did not respond. Elon Musk later claimed to have financially supported his father. "Errol ran out of money in the 90s," Elon Musk tweeted in 2022. "My brother & I financially supported him & his extended family in South Africa."
Twitter's new rivals suffer similar problems: Threads to use rate limits due to spam and Bluesky missed racist slurs 2023-07-17 - Elon Musk has been heavily criticized for many of his Twitter decisions. Some new Twitter rivals are experiencing similar problems now. Meta's Threads will use rate limits to tackle an increase in spam. Morning Brew Insider recommends waking up with, a daily newsletter. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address By clicking “Sign Up,” you also agree to marketing emails from both Insider and Morning Brew; and you accept Insider’s Terms and Privacy Policy Click here for Morning Brew’s privacy policy. Elon Musk has been heavily criticized for many of his Twitter decisions, especially a lack of moderation on the service and his recent decision to limit how many tweets users see to tackle spam. Now, two of the most-promising new Twitter rivals are experiencing similar issues. "Spam attacks have picked up so we're going to have to get tighter on things like rate limits, which is going to mean more unintentionally limiting active people (false positives). If you get caught up those protections let us know," Adam Mosseri, a Meta executive who runs the new Threads service, wrote in a post on Monday. I had to triple-check that this post wasn't fake. But it's real. And it's strangely familiar. In early July, Musk announced temporary tweet-viewing rate limits restricting how many posts un-verified Twitter users can see, blaming "extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation" for the limited functionality. Twitter users howled their disapproval and many commentators said the spam reasoning was bogus. However, it now seems like Meta, the most powerful social media company in the world, is suffering from the same spam problem — and is taking a similar approach to fix it. "I seem to waste half my time blocking bots pushing gambling and crypto sites," one Threads user posted, following Mosseri's update. "Same here. It's been pretty relentless today," another Threads user commented. Bluesky is the other hot alternative to Twitter. Bluesky has been a haven for users who were particularly worried about less moderation on Twitter and the return of extreme and potentially racist posts. However, Bluesky is having trouble policing its own site, according to several news reports. On Sunday, Mashable reported that Bluesky users protested after several accounts used racial slurs in their usernames because the platform failed to block the ability for users to register such names. Bluesky told Mashable that it initially got complaints about one account on Wednesday and removed it within 40 minutes. The team also said it patched the code that allowed these handles to be created within that timeframe as well. It's also investing in trust and safety.
The best Android phones in 2023 2023-07-17 - When you buy through our links, Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more. Weighing your options for a new Android phone is more difficult than picking the best iPhone. There are many Android brands, each with distinct approaches to hardware and software, and price tags vary widely. To help you sort through the Android landscape, we've tested nearly a dozen current phones to land on a definitive list of the five best Android phones you can buy depending on your priorities, with top recommendations for battery life, small screen size, camera quality, and budget value. The best Android phones listed here from Samsung, Google, and OnePlus achieved their rank thanks to their superior performance in daily use and in long-term testing. For a more comprehensive look at the landscape of affordable Android models, check out our guide to the best budget Android phones. Our top picks for the best Android phones Best overall: Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus - See at Amazon Samsung's Galaxy S23 Plus simply has the least compromises out of any phone here, and it has the best likelihood of pleasing the most people. Best budget: Google Pixel 6a - See at Amazon Google Pixel 6a offers unrivaled value, and its performance, cameras, and design punch far above its weight. Best camera: Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra - See at Best Buy Samsung's Galaxy S23 Ultra has four camera lenses that take excellent photos, and it offers the most versatility with its unique 10x zoom lens. Best battery life: OnePlus 11 - See at Best Buy The OnePlus 11 scored the best result in our battery stress test out of any Android phone, and it comes with an incredible 80W fast charger. Best small phone: Samsung Galaxy S23 - See at Amazon Samsung's 6.1-inch Galaxy S23 is the smaller sibling of the Galaxy S23 Plus, our top Android pick.
'Chaos' is fueling fights among Putin's top commanders. These are the players battling for power. 2023-07-17 - The Wagner Group's failed mutiny exposed major cracks in Vladimir Putin's domestic authority. The worsening chaos has fueled further hostility and power plays in the Russian ranks. "We are definitely seeing more figures push for their own interests," a Russia expert told Insider. Get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in business, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley — delivered daily. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy The Wagner Group's armed rebellion against Russia's military leadership may have been short-lived, but the fallout from the insurrection is far from over. More than three weeks after the historic challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin's authority, there's still internal power plays and high-level purges in motion. Some top figures are tightening their grips on power as other prominent figures fall, having been exiled, detained, or dismissed. War experts say what we're seeing unfold is that several high-ranking officials and influential figures are fixated on their own personal goals, hold different opinions of Moscow's military leadership, and maintain different views on how the war in Ukraine should be fought. Wagner's insurrection appears to have only poured fuel on the fire as longstanding infighting threatens the cohesion of Moscow's military. And a danger for the Kremlin here is that the mutiny showed that Putin "doesn't have the monopoly of violence to the same extent that he used to," Kateryna Stepanenko, a Russia analyst at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), told Insider. "We are seeing a lot of military formations and military figures that are pushing for their own objectives." But the top military leaders are also pushing back. For months leading up to Wagner's rebellion, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group private military company who became increasingly critical of the conduct of the war, frequently clashed with Moscow's defense ministry in a publicized feud that covered everything from battlefield strategy to lack of ammunition, and even Putin's justifications for waging war on his neighbor. The tensions boiled over on June 23 when Prigozhin turned his mercenary organization famous for its culture of extreme violence away from eastern Ukraine and launched an invasion of Russia that saw Wagner forces marching toward Moscow. They were only a few hours out when Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko helped broker a deal between Prigozhin and the Kremlin that sent him and some number of his fighters into exile. Prigozhin's whereabouts since the rebellion have been a mystery, with different explanations swirling around. There's evidence the former warlord is at a military camp in Belarus, but the once-outspoken critic of the defense ministry has gone silent. Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin leaves the headquarters of the Southern Military District amid the group's pullout from the city of Rostov-on-Don, Russia, June 24, 2023. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko Western officials have asserted that Prigozhin's actions in June exposed serious cracks within Russian military leadership, which is already under fire for its handling of the war in Ukraine. But he's not the only influential figure who believes things could be run differently — perhaps for personal benefit — in Moscow, and new rifts are emerging, even as the defense ministry clamps down. "There's so much chaos within the Russian Ministry of Defense, within the Russian Armed Forces, that allows for these figures to push for their own objectives and for their own visions of the war," Stepanenko said. "I don't think it's as extreme as Prigozhin, however, we are definitely seeing more figures push for their own interests, despite the fact that they have the common goal of occupying the entirety of Ukraine." Putin's top general, the man at the heart of the fighting A key aspect of the power dynamics in Moscow is whether these figures support Russian Gen. Valery Gerasimov, who has overseen the war in Ukraine for nearly all of 2023. In the pro-Gerasimov camp, there are key players who benefit from being in his inner circle and that of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who, like Gerasimov, appears to have Putin's favor at the moment. One such figure is Ramzan Kadyrov, a warlord who leads a band of Chechen fighters. Although he has butted heads with Russia's defense ministry in the past and has even praised the Wagner Group for its efforts in Ukraine, Kadyrov ultimately sided with Moscow's military leadership during the mutiny and even offered to send his fighters to stop Wagner. Kadyrov has historically been vocal about wanting his forces to avoid fighting in Ukraine, Stepanenko said, and he even managed to persuade Putin to deploy some of his fighters to Russia's Belgorod region, which borders northeastern Ukraine, instead of into the fray on the other side of that border. But there's also an anti-Gerasimov camp made up of officers and commanders who think he is incompetent, unable to administer military changes, and tends to prioritize having his own people in command. Their ultimate goal is not to purge the Kremlin but rather to push a change in the military command and prove to Putin that Gerasimov is a poor leader, and this group has become much more outspoken, even as their vocal criticisms of Russia's military leadership comes at a cost. Russian President Vladimir Putin greets Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov in Moscow, Russia, on December 21, 2020. Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP Some people in the anti-Gerasimov camp are associated with the Wagner Group, the most obvious being Prigozhin, who has long been critical of Gerasimov and Shoigu and who positioned his mutiny to pressure Putin into removing them, Stepanenko said. "Not everyone is happy with the command that is in power. There's commanders that perceive Gerasimov and Shoigu as weak leaders," she added. "Their main objective is to convince Putin that there needs to be some change within the military command structure." Another notable figure in the anti-Gerasimov camp is Col. Gen. Mikhail Teplinsky, who is the commander of Russia's VDV Airborne Forces and has maintained affiliations with Wagner. A favorite to Russian ultranationalists, Teplinsky oversaw successful operations in Ukraine last fall only to be dismissed from his position by Gerasimov after he took over from Gen. Sergei Surovikin, another figure popular among the pro-war community, earlier this year, which prompted a certain degree of insubordination from the Russian airborne commander. Britain's defense ministry said at the time that the sudden shake-up was likely the result of fractures within Russia's military leadership and the consequence of Gerasimov trying to "impose his personal authority" on Russia's war machine. But Teplinsky was ultimately brought back into a leadership role, despite expressing his frustration with the military command directly to Putin, ISW, a Washington-based think tank, noted in an April assessment. "Teplinsky is a good example of a commander promoting his own interests," Stepanenko said. "There's obviously likely more of these commanders that are pushing their own objectives, trying to promote their personalities, and have information networks that they use to emphasize and uplift their reputation." Shifts in military command are mainly efforts to obtain access to resources or dictate how particular military units are used, Stepanenko said. For example, in Kadyrov's case, he may be pushing for control to shield his fighters from the battlefield in Ukraine and send conventional Russian forces instead. Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Russian republic of Chechnya. Friedemann Kohler/picture alliance via Getty Images "Almost everyone is trying to protect their own personnel and their own resources" in addition to getting closer to Putin, she said. Among other things, Prigozhin's motivation for the mutiny, she noted, seemed to be securing more equipment and social benefits for his forces. Consequences for disobedience Insubordination against Moscow's military leadership, such as Teplinsky's criticisms or the Wagner's rebellion, has undermined Russian military leaders but has also come with consequences for members of the anti-Gerasimov camp. Prigozhin was first on the chopping block — seemingly cast into exile in Belarus with his mercenary organization, which was stripped of all its heavy weaponry — but it didn't stop there. Gen. Sergei Surovikin, who previously commanded Russian operations in Ukraine and had ties to Wagner, was reportedly detained in the wake of the mutiny and hasn't been seen since. There certainly appears to be more at work than just rumors he's resting, as one political figure claimed. Two Russian commanders are also said to have been removed from their posts. Commander of Russia's Aerospace Forces Sergei Surovikin, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov and Head of the Main Operational Directorate of the Armed Forces' General Staff Sergei Rudskoi attend a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Russia, November 3, 2021. Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via REUTERS Maj. Gen. Ivan Popov, who previously commanded Russia's 58th Combined Arms Army, was apparently dismissed from his role recently after calling attention to shortcomings in Moscow's artillery defense, among other weaknesses on the front lines. And Maj. Gen. Vladimir Seliverstov, who led the 106th Guards Airborne (VDV) Division is said to have been dismissed from his role. According to a July 16 ISW assessment that cited Russian sources, even Teplinsky may be back in hot water now. After he was relieved of his command, Popov said in an audio recording shared online that "our senior commander hit us from the rear, treacherously and vilely decapitating the army at the most difficult and tense moment," a reference to an ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive push. "The Russian MoD has begun to remove commanders from some of the Russian military's most combat effective units and formations and appears to be accelerating this effort," ISW experts wrote, adding that "the apparent Russian chain of command crisis threatens to demoralize the wider Russian war effort in Ukraine." And these challenges may also extend down to unit levels, exacerbating problems. There have also been changes to Russia's internal security dynamics in the aftermath of Wagner's rebellion, like the militarization of the Gen. Viktor Zolotov-led National Guard. This force's border guards let armed Wagner columns through rather than attempt to resist during the revolt. In the wake of the mutiny, during which Wagner forces shot down several Russian aircraft and killed a handful of pilots, the National Guard asked Putin for armored vehicles and other heavy military equipment under the premise of boosting security along Russia's western borders. Russian National Guard Service Director Viktor Zolotov speeches during a meeting with officers of Russian army and secret services who prevented invasion of PMC Wagner Group to Russian capital last weekend, on June 27, 2023 in Moscow, Russia. Contributor/Getty Images "There's some interesting power play ongoing there," Stepanenko said of the National Guard's ability to secure additional military capabilities, though it's too soon to determine what it means for the major players. Another shift is underway in Russia's Belgorod region, where Putin previously had no interest in allocating resources to defend these areas, Stepanenko said. But ISW noted in a July 6 assessment that the region's governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, had stated that Belgorod would be boosting its territorial defense units. "Some security organs in Russia are getting a little bit more responsibilities and military capabilities that they did not have before," Stepanenko said. This will ultimately be beneficial for Ukraine because these resources will not be seen on the battlefield and will instead be committed to protecting the Russian homeland. The instability increasingly endemic to the Russian military comes as the Ukrainians try to break through their defensive lines. It's not a good time at the Kremlin, and as Prigozhin's revolt showed, the infighting can always get a lot worse.
Exclusive: Head of engineering for Trump’s Truth Social app resigns 2023-07-17 - NEW YORK, July 17 (Reuters) - The head of engineering for the company that operates former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Truth Social app told Reuters on Monday he had resigned, in a blow for the venture. Alex Gleason’s departure comes amid a period of prolonged uncertainty for Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which launched Truth Social as a way for Trump to connect with his base after he was cut off from major social media platforms after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his followers. Gleason is the founder of Soapbox Technology, which provides open-source technology for “decentralized” social media platforms that operate on independently-run servers and provide an alternative to Twitter and Facebook. Gleason said in an interview that he is leaving TMTG to work on Soapbox full-time, developing technology for connecting multiple decentralized platforms. TMTG hired Gleason in January 2022 to adapt Soapbox’s technology for its own needs, eventually using it as the front-end technology - which users see and interact with - for the Truth Social app. A representative for TMTG did not respond to a request for comment about Gleason’s departure. Truth Social has struggled to show strong growth in the number of users since its February 2022 launch. Since then, Trump has been reinstated on the more widely-used platforms from which he was ousted, including Facebook and Twitter, and Truth Social’s user base has remained tiny compared to the growth targets TMTG laid out in November 2021, when it told investors the app would reach 56 million users by 2024 and 81 million by 2026. Truth Social has an estimated 607,000 monthly users, according to data from Similarweb. Trump had 5.71 million followers on Truth Social as of July 17, compared to the more than 88 million followers he had on Twitter when the platform suspended him. TMTG had in October 2021 announced a deal to go public by merging with blank-check firm Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC) (DWAC.O) but the merger has been in doubt as investigations by the Justice Department and the U.S. securities regulator have delayed its closing. A filing earlier this month showed that DWAC has reached an agreement with the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission, though it was not yet definitive and the terms were subject to the SEC's approval. Reporting by Helen Coster, editing by Deepa Babington Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.