5 things to know for August 14: Alaska summit, ICE, Zelle, Infowars, Air Canada
Here's what else you need to know to get up to speed and on with your day.
In a virtual summit with President Trump on Wednesday, European leaders urged him not to make a unilateral Ukraine peace deal during his one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage on Friday. Afterwards, French President Emmanuel Macron said Trump was 'very clear' that Washington wants to obtain a ceasefire and that Ukraine's territorial issues cannot be negotiated without Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump told reporters that if his summit with Putin goes well, a follow-up meeting between the Russian leader and Zelensky could happen 'almost immediately.' However, Trump also said that Russia will face 'very severe consequences' if Putin doesn't agree to end the war. The president wouldn't say if that meant he'd order new sanctions or tariffs.
The number of flights transporting detained immigrants is skyrocketing, but the trips are becoming more difficult to track. According to the immigrant advocacy group Witness at the Border, there have been more than 1,000 deportation flights to 62 countries since President Trump's inauguration. However, after March, the process of tracking these flights was hindered. That's when companies operating the flights began requesting that their tail numbers be removed from public flight-tracking websites. 'This is vital information to be able to understand how ICE is conducting its enforcement and deportation activities,' said Eunice Cho, senior counsel for the ACLU National Prison Project. 'Sometimes this is the only information that the public has with respect to where ICE is placing people because of a general lack of transparency around detention and deportation under this particular administration.'
New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Early Warning Services, which operates the electronic money-transfer service Zelle. The suit alleges EWS knew that key features of Zelle made it susceptible to fraud, yet did not implement safety measures and allowed scammers to steal over $1 billion. Zelle's irreversible transfers also meant that many consumers were not able to get their money back after realizing they were scammed, the attorney general claims. A Zelle spokesperson called the New York lawsuit a 'political stunt to generate press.' The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had to drop a similar case against some of Zelle's backers in March as part of a broader pullback in enforcement under the Trump administration.
A Texas district court judge has ruled that Alex Jones' far-right platform Infowars can be sold once again to help pay the more than $1 billion he owes the families of Sandy Hook shooting victims. In a hearing on Wednesday, Judge Maya Guerra Gamble said Infowars' parent company, Free Speech Systems, will be turned over to a court-appointed receiver who will sell its assets and use the proceeds to pay Jones' debts. The order paves the way for The Onion to revive its bid for the conspiracy-driven outlet. Three years ago, Jones was found guilty of defamation after repeatedly claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, in which six adults and 20 children were killed, was a 'hoax.' Although Jones railed against the families on his show and said he was 'pissed off' about the latest ruling, attorneys for the victims' families celebrated the decision.
Prepare for delays and cancellations if you're booked to fly on Air Canada. The airline is preparing to lock out its flight attendants after they voted to go on strike this weekend. Following months of negotiations between the carrier and the flight attendants' union, the two sides failed to reach a tentative agreement. At that point, 99.7% of the membership voted to strike, the union said. Air Canada said it anticipates the first flights to be canceled today, with more cancellations expected on Friday. The airline will suspend operations on Saturday and could remain idle until a deal is reached. Air Canada has nearly 430 daily flights between Canada and the US at over 50 US airports.
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If that does happen, the late-night host has a backup plan.
Before you dig into the franchise's first TV series, here's some clarity.
The fast-food chain's Mountain Dew Baja Blast is getting its first permanent new flavor in two decades. Will you try it?
$2.5 billionThat's how much the Gates Foundation plans to spend on women's health over the next five years.
'The election of 2026 is going to be decided in the summer of 2025.'
— Texas Democrat Beto O'Rourke
O'Rourke is raising funds for Democratic members of the state legislature who left Texas to prevent Republicans from passing a new US House map that could help the GOP flip as many as five seats next year.
🌤️ Check your local forecast to see what you can expect.
Researchers are using artificial intelligence to try and create life-saving anti-venoms — and make them more accessible.
Today's edition of 5 Things AM was edited and produced by CNN's Andrew Torgan.
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19 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Why you're probably better off just avoiding Rashee Rice in your fantasy football drafts this season
The 'will he, won't he' nature of Rashee Rice's potential and inevitable suspension saga took another turn Thursday morning. ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that Rice's disciplinary hearing with the NFL will take place on Tuesday, Sept 30 in New York, which means his suspension would only begin sometime after that date. When Rice entered into a plea bargain stemming from the 2024 multi-car crash in Dallas back in July, fantasy gamers assumed the NFL's disciplinary process would begin soon and Rice would serve his suspension — estimated anywhere from four to eight games — at the start of the season. That's now completely out the window, as he'll be eligible to play in the first four games of the 2025 NFL season. Those matchups include a Week 1 Brazil game with the Chargers, a Super Bowl rematch with the Eagles in Kansas City, a trip to New York vs. the Giants and a home game against the Ravens. [Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season] Beyond the fact that this has been a super laborious and drawn-out disciplinary process for someone who deserves immense scrutiny for what he did, this is straight-up bad for fantasy drafters considering Rice. I firmly believe fantasy content creators have gotten too over-focused on 'the weeks that matter' toward the end of the season rather than hammering how important it is to win in September, as I outline in my Draft Day Blueprint mega-article. However, it's objectively true that the easiest time to fill in the gap around a suspended or injured player is earlier in the season. There are no bye weeks to consider, you haven't sustained injuries yet and the most appealing waiver-wire heroes are often made apparent in the first few weeks of the year. Essentially, you have your whole lineup at your disposal to fill in the gaps. That will no longer be the case if Rice serves his four-to-eight-game suspension anywhere between Weeks 5 and 18. Not that the Chiefs have a Week 10 bye that can't count toward a suspension and there's no guarantee the league hands out punishment right after the September 30 hearing before their Week 5 kickoff against the Jaguars on October 6. We've seen this before. Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott was suspended six games during the 2017 NFL season over accusations of domestic violence. Elliott was originally suspended for the first six weeks of the season but after appeals and court litigation pushed it off, he ended up serving the suspension from Weeks 10 to 15. The process for both situations is an apples-to-apples comparison but the point is the same: You're in the Wild West of projecting when the player will miss time. Yahoo drafters were taking Rashee Rice at an ADP of 61st overall. That seemed more than fair enough of a risk/reward proposition for a player who has been ultra-productive in a terrific offensive ecosystem. Since he entered the league in 2023, Rice has been targeted on 27.4% of his routes, sixth-most among wide receivers who have run 300-plus routes, and ranks seventh in first downs per route run. I do have my concerns about Rice holding up to that level of production long-term, given that he doesn't have the complete WR1 skill set as a man-coverage-beating or downfield receiver that every other name in the top 10 of those two metrics brings to the table. The YAC-based zone-beaters who struggle to beat man coverage can be susceptible to environmental changes more than traditional WR1s. Just look back to JuJu Smith-Schuster's rise and fall for an example of this; I think they're incredibly similar players. However, that's more of a dynasty concern. If Rice is on the field for this Chiefs offense, he's likely ticketed for another year of heavy volume of layup targets as the team's power slot receiver, unless Xavier Worthy takes a massive leap forward. Before Thursday's update, I had Rice ranked 52nd overall and was willing to take the plunge in Round 5 even if he was set to miss the start of the season. Now that the suspension is a complete unknown from a timing perspective, the calculation has to change. I've hammered this over and over again this offseason but the Rounds 5-8 wide receiver draft board is just so appealing. There are even appealing picks all the way into the 110-to-120-overall range. None of those bets are flawless but at least I'm not walking into the season carrying a massive burden of unknown and locking myself into multiple missed games during crucial bye weeks. I won't sink Rice past that 120 overall range or anything like that, but a big dip into the 90s and outside the top-40 wide receivers feels appropriate. There's likely a way to take Rice, start him in the first four weeks and insulate your wide receiver corps with the deep pool of WRs this year to make up for his absent weeks. However, I question if the reward of such a pursuit is as great as the fantasy community may imagine. That's because there is another significant risk factor to Rice's profile that we haven't touched on here yet — and is way too often ignored in the fantasy circles. Rashee Rice is coming off a major injury that ended his 2024 season after less than four games. One of the (slightly galaxy brain) takes in some circles of the fantasy community over the last month — when Rice pled guilty in July — was that missing the first few games of the season may actually be good for Rice. This would allow him to get healthier coming off the significant injury and you wouldn't have to start him in the games he may be working back into form. Instead, you'd just plug him into the lineup when he's close to fully operational after four, six or however many games he missed. I'm not sure if that ever made sense but either way, that's out the window now. You're now getting Rice for those first four games when he may indeed be working back from that injury. And just because he's been practicing, you've seen some nice-looking clips of him and the team is saying he looks good, does not mean you are guaranteed anything close to 100% Rice when the real games begin. Drafters made this exact same mistake with Tank Dell last season for all the same reasons listed. Despite participating fully in the offseason, Dell was not productive to start the year, averaging 32.3 yards per game, 9.7 yards per catch and scoring just once in the first seven weeks of last season. It took no time at all when turning on the film in September to see that, while there was a wide receiver out there wearing No. 3 for the Houston Texans playing a normal snap count, that guy didn't play anything like the Tank Dell we saw cut through secondaries as a rookie before going on IR with a lower body injury. Dell eventually returned closer to form as the year wound down, but this still provides a cautionary tale when discussing Rice's projections early in 2025. We act like these guys are names on a spreadsheet, or players in Madden. They're not. Just because they're out there on the field doesn't mean they are capable of performing at their normal level when working back from something significant. Sometimes, it's the year after the year following the injury. Rice's 'ramp up back to normal in-game performance' phase could be in the first four weeks when he's eligible to play and is then whisked away from your lineup the moment he's turning the corner. That's not to mention how coming back from an injury like this may, at best, temporarily sap some of his explosiveness early in the season, which is troubling for a wideout who doesn't win down the field with nuance or separation, but rather as a hammerhead with speed and power in the open field. Maybe all of that worry is for naught and he's fantastic in the first four weeks of the season. That's within the range of outcomes. However, the risk is present and I don't see any of that discussed in the analysis of him from a fantasy standpoint, nor is it at all baked into either his current ADP or even where he was going in best-ball drafts prior to the July plea bargain. Rashee Rice is one of the riskiest propositions on the board in fantasy football drafts this year. It would be one thing if it were a simple four-game suspension to start the year. It's not. It's an unknown length of absence that will come in the middle of the season for a player working back from a significant injury, a player who inhabits a somewhat fragile role as a YAC-based zone-beater for an offense that desperately needs to find a downfield dimension. What if Xavier Worthy takes off in Year 2 as a vertical threat at the start of the season and only cements himself further while Rice is suspended? Are we absolutely confident that Rice returns to the type of outrageous volume he was getting in Weeks 1 to 3 last year? You have to be certain to wade into the incredibly clouded waters that now define his 2025 season. With how strong the wide receiver board is after Round 5, with a litany of appealing bets — some early in their career and others undervalued veterans — there are just too many ways the Rice selection can go wrong. He's a pretty easy avoid for me inside the top 90 selections and there are too many analysts focused on that per route efficiency for me to imagine he falls farther than that.
Yahoo
19 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Government data is now in question. Here's where macro investors are turning to fill the gaps.
The firing of the BLS head by President Donald Trump has spooked some macro investors. Trump's nomination of a partisan economist may push investors to rely more heavily on other data. Sources like ADP, Homebase, and MIT's Billion Prices Project have become critical, traders say. No savvy investor makes a decision off a single data point, but there are some numbers that carry more weight than others. For many macro investors, the North Star has long been the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unit within the Department of Labor that measures, among other things, inflation, unemployment rates, and wage growth. Those in charge of the BLS have long been non-partisan economists, but President Donald Trump's firing of Commissioner Erika McEntarfer on August 1 and his top pick for her replacement, chief economist at the right-leaning Heritage Foundation, EJ Antoni, have many concerned with the validity of future government data, especially as Antoni floated pausing monthly jobs reports. Love Business Insider? Log in to Google and make us a preferred source. It's concerning for macro traders who rely on this data to make their bets, but there are non-governmental data sources that many already use. While helpful, these alternative databases can't replicate the widespread foundation BLS numbers provided for decades, where all market participants worked for the same set of basic facts about the state of the world's biggest economy. Still, traders are ramping up their use of this data in light of Trump's moves. "What's going to be tricky here is how to judge numbers coming out of the Bureau of Labor Statistics moving forward," said Andreas Steno Larsen, onetime macro investor and researcher, on his weekly podcast. He compared the firing to something that would happen "in Latin America" and predicted that investors would "look for alternative sources" to get a second opinion on the official data. Four macro investors pointed to the well-known ADP jobs report, which comes out monthly and tracks payroll from private employers, and MIT's Billion Prices Project as ways to track employment and inflation, respectively, in the US. The investors declined to be named because their firms don't authorize them to speak publicly. Some investors tap datasets that constantly scrape e-commerce prices, such as PriceStats, and track how different products rise and fall over time. This is a useful tool to understand Trump's tariff policies' impact, given the volume of online goods that US consumers buy from overseas. Payroll and scheduling company Homebase tracks more than 150,000 small businesses and produces monthly employment reports. LinkUp has tracked online job postings since 2007. Numerator has become a key source for in-person consumer data at places such as restaurants and home improvement stores. "Given the recent BLS conversations, we've recently seen demand for our data increase," Homebase CEO John Waldmann said in a statement. Not a replacement These alternative data sources are just that — alternative. They were used to get a sneak peek or a deeper look at inflation or unemployment figures that the government would release, not replace them entirely. They also sometimes vary. For example, ADP's payroll figures often diverge from the BLS's monthly jobs report, and MIT's Billion Prices Project can capture inflation trends sooner than the official CPI but is less comprehensive. "We don't see them replacing economic statistics altogether in the near future," said Julie Meigh, the head of ESG & macro research at alt-data platform Neudata, about non-traditional datasets. Even if BLS data becomes less trustworthy, the different macro investors who spoke with Business Insider said they'll still need to use it in some fashion unless there's a structural change in financial products. For example, Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, or TIPS, change when the Consumer Price Index from the government is announced. For those who have exposure to these types of assets, ignoring the BLS is not possible even if the data becomes untrustworthy. As one trader at one of the world's biggest macro hedge funds said, he was surprised markets weren't more spooked by Trump's firing. Equity markets were near record highs, and bond yields stayed mostly steady. "I think it's clear that institutions are not as strong as many had thought," this individual said. Read the original article on Business Insider Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
19 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Bitcoin slips as U.S. rules out buying for strategic reserve
Bitcoin slips as U.S. rules out buying for strategic reserve originally appeared on TheStreet. Bitcoin prices fell sharply on Aug. 14 after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the government has no plans to purchase additional Bitcoin for its planned strategic reserve, opting instead to rely on confiscated holdings. Speaking on Mornings with Maria, Bessent's comments came in response to questions about U.S. gold reserves and whether the government would consider similar moves with Bitcoin. 'I doubt we're going to revalue it, but we are going to keep it there as a store of value for the American people,' Bessent said when asked if the Treasury planned to revalue gold. He added that the U.S. has begun incorporating Bitcoin into its strategic reserves, but with a clear caveat. 'We've also started to get into the 21st century, a Bitcoin strategic reserve. We're not going to be buying that, but we're going to use confiscated assets and continue to build that up. We're going to stop selling that,' he said. The remarks dampened recent optimism among crypto investors who had speculated that the U.S. might enter the market as a buyer, potentially creating significant demand. Instead, Bessent's clarification signals that any growth in the reserve will come from seized digital assets — often the result of law enforcement actions against illicit activity — rather than open market purchases. The decision contrasts with the approach taken by some other nations, such as El Salvador, which has regularly bought Bitcoin as part of its national strategy. Analysts say the U.S. move may limit near-term institutional buying pressure but could still tighten supply if the government permanently holds confiscated coins. Following Bessent's interview, Bitcoin slipped from above $118,000 to near $117,000, with broader crypto markets also turning lower. The crypto market tumbled as over $1.05 billion in leveraged positions were wiped out in 24 hours, with longs losing $778M, per Coinglass. Bybit saw the biggest hit at $447M in liquidations, including a $10M BTC-USD position. Bitcoin slips as U.S. rules out buying for strategic reserve first appeared on TheStreet on Aug 14, 2025 This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Aug 14, 2025, where it first appeared. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
