Latest news with #January2024
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Ex-WWE Chairman 'Vince McMahon wants to buy back the company' - just one year after sex trafficking lawsuit led him to resign - but would TKO sell back to him?
Recent reports have suggested Vince McMahon wants to buy back the WWE from TKO. The former chairman resigned from the company in January 2024 following a lawsuit filed by ex-employee Janel Grant, alleging sexual harassment and trafficking. Since leaving, McMahon has been selling off his shares in the company, and is believed to have made over $1.5billion (£1.1bn) from these sales. TKO President Mark Shapiro has previously insisted that McMahon will not return to the WWE and that he has no internal contact with the company. He said in March 2024: 'We're not in conversations with him [McMahon]. We don't know his motives, his plans or his timeline. 'He doesn't work for the company, doesn't come into the office and he's not coming back to the company. And that's where we sit.' And it seems TKO have double down on their stance, as a new report from PWN Reports has claimed that the company still have no interest in selling to McMahon. In fact, WWE insiders reportedly view the notion of McMahon returning as laughable, considering the heinous nature of the allegations made towards him. A post on X read: 'I was given word that TKO is not interested in selling off #WWE. And the source I spoke with chuckled at the thought of Vince purchasing it back. 'It's very possible he may feel like he wants it back, but seems very unlikely at this point since WWE is not for sale.' Part of Grant's 67-page lawsuit accused McMahon of pressuring her for sexual relations in exchange for her job. McMahon allegedly 'greeted her in his underwear, touched her, repeatedly asked for hugs, and spent hour sharing intimate details about his personal life'. Once employed, Grant alleged that McMahon and John Laurinaitis, who served as head of talent relations for the WWE, sexually assaulted her 'while colleagues were busy at their desks.' Her allegations include that McMahon and Laurinaitis locked her in a room at the WWE's Stamford, Connecticut headquarters in June of 2021 and took turns sexually assaulting during the work day. The married McMahon is additionally accused of trafficking Grant to other men, forcing her to perform sex acts 'on demand' and sharing nude photographs of the plaintiff. In one alleged text message from 2020, he is accused of sharing a photo of her with others and writing: 'She may scream and try to say NO!!although it would B difficult to say anything with a c*** down her throat.' Another message allegedly sent by McMahon to Grant a month earlier read: 'I'm the only one who owns U and controls who I want to f*** U.' A spokesperson for McMahon stated after Grant's allegations: 'This lawsuit is replete with lies, obscene made-up instances that never occurred, and a vindictive distortion of the truth. He [McMahon] will vigorously defend himself.'
CBS News
3 days ago
- Business
- CBS News
When will gold's price change again? Here are 3 June dates to monitor.
We may receive commissions from some links to products on this page. Promotions are subject to availability and retailer terms. While predicting gold price changes with precision is impossible, there are three June dates when it could change again. Getty Images The price of gold changes throughout the day, every day. That's why it's worth monitoring daily, both for those already invested in the precious metal as well as those looking for an affordable entry price point. What both groups have seen in recent years, however, has been a remarkable surge in the price. Starting January 2024 at around $2,000 per ounce, gold is now consistently in the $3,300 price range, making up a 65% growth rise in less than 18 months. While the price has been consistently rising, there have been minor fluctuations, allowing some savvy investors to get started at a below-average price. This opportunity won't present itself easily, however, as timing the gold market is inherently difficult to do and will require both nuance and an understanding of factors that drive the price of gold, both in an upward and downward way. That said, if recent history is reliable, there are some upcoming calendar dates in which gold's price could change again, perhaps even in a significant way. Below, we'll detail three June dates to monitor, specifically. Start protecting your portfolio with gold before the price spikes again. Here are 3 June dates in which the price of gold could change again While gold's price could be impacted by both known and unknown factors, it may change materially on one or more of these June 2025 dates: Friday, June 6, 2025 The next unemployment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to be released on June 6. And, with it, indications about the health of the economy will be extrapolated. If unemployment declines further, it could give Americans the data they need to feel more optimistic about the economy. That could cause some to turn away from safe-haven assets like gold and that pivot, if significant enough, could cause gold's price to decline slightly. While this will likely be felt in the days after June 6, it may be felt most significantly on the day of the report release, as the gold market could respond immediately after the report is released at 8:30 a.m. ET. So be prepared to buy in during a dip on this date. See what price you could buy into gold here now. Wednesday, June 11, 2025 The inflation rate declined in February, March and April but did it continue to fall in May? That's what we'll find out on June 11 when the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its next inflation report. A declining inflation rate could cause gold's price to tumble, perhaps substantially, if the rate falls to the desired 2% level (or below). On the other hand, an uptick in the inflation rate could cause gold's price to rise in response, perhaps even to a new record level. Monitor gold prices on this date, then, for both opportunities to potentially invest and, maybe, for signs to stay on the sidelines, even just temporarily. Wednesday, June 18, 2025 The next Federal Reserve meeting and, thus, the next chance for a fed rate cut will occur on this date (the two-day meeting starts on June 17). And while, at the end of May, there's a minuscule chance of a rate cut at this meeting (the CME Group's FedWatch tool has it pegged to a 2.1% likelihood), developments with unemployment and inflation could easily change that trajectory. Since gold prices and interest rates often have an inverse relationship, the price of the metal could be impacted depending on what happens here. But remember that a formal rate action doesn't have to necessarily occur for gold prices to change, as comments made by Federal Reserve officials after the meeting could be strong enough to reverberate throughout the economy – and, therefore, impact the gold market, too. The bottom line Predicting the price changes in any asset is impossible to do with precision but even more difficult to do with assets like gold. While gold prices could change on one or more of the above dates (and those surrounding them on the calendar), it's not a guarantee. Gold has a unique relationship with these data points and it doesn't always respond in an identical, easy-to-track way. Instead, it may be more practical to invest in gold in limited and cost-effective ways now and, in June, monitor these dates for opportunities to further buy in, or in select circumstances, a time to sell for a quick profit.
CBS News
23-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Trump shooter Thomas Crooks' emails reveal a student dreaming of a bright future. And contemplating a violent attack.
Thomas Matthew Crooks had a lot on his mind in January 2024. The 20-year-old who, six months later, would open fire at President Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally — striking his ear and killing an audience member — was busy polishing his applications to transfer from community college to a four-year engineering program. Crooks was gathering transcripts and asking friends to review his personal statement. He was also designing a bomb. He ordered more than two gallons of nitromethane from an online speciality fuel retailer using an encrypted email account, documents obtained by CBS News show. Twelve days later Crooks' purchase hadn't shipped and he wanted to know why. "Hello, my name is Thomas. I placed an order on your website on January 19. I have not received any updates of the order shipping out yet and I was wondering if you still have it and when I can expect it to come," Crooks emailed the retailer, Hyperfuels, at 7:44 a.m. on Jan. 31, 2024. Email obtained by CBS News Crooks used his community college email account to inquire about shipping, one of the few operational missteps that has allowed for a rare look into the dark side of this ambitious young student. Two weeks after the nitromethane email, on Feb. 13, 2024, Crooks' focus returned to his academic future, planning a video call he labeled, "Proofread my Pitt personal essay with friends prior to class." A student who went "above and beyond" Very little is known about how or why Thomas Crooks set out to shoot then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. Now, emails, essays and other documents reviewed by CBS News are offering a fresh glimpse into the mind of a young man who was simultaneously planning two irreconcilable futures. In one, Crooks continues his engineering studies, for which he was lauded by professors for his work ethic, progress and class contributions. In the other, he hurtles toward an act that he must have known would end in either prison or — as it did on July 13, 2024 — his death. He was a meticulous and motivated student, attending community college after scoring 1530 on the SATs, records show. He told an adviser he was starting at the school to save money before transferring. Thomas Matthew Crooks at his high school graduation Bethel Park School District via AP In the hundreds of college emails obtained by CBS News, Crooks rarely veers into personal territory, with a few exceptions. When an upcoming assignment required the presence of five adults, he asked the professor if it would be OK if he only brought two or three. Crooks said that other than his sister and parents, he did "not have access to any other adults." Crooks wrote a passage on why his favorite season is fall in an essay submitted on Jan. 30, the day before he contacted Hyperfuels. The essay, penned in various colors, mused on his love for football and his two favorite holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving. He waxed poetic about the fall weather and asked, "who doesn't love the changing color of the leaves?" Crooks took his classwork seriously, routinely contacting professors to protest if he wasn't satisfied with his grades. After taking a math exam in which he errantly mislabeled a variable, Crooks asked if he could get the point back. The teacher agreed to give him 75% credit for the question. "Sounds good," Crooks replied. "That should be enough to get me an A." Crooks did A-level work in most of his courses, according to his transcript. Emails show professors were often impressed by his dedication. "Thanks again for your contribution to the class this term — wouldn't've been the same without you!" wrote an English professor in December 2022. One project in particular wowed professors in the engineering department. Crooks, whose mother is visually impaired, designed and 3D-printed a unique chessboard. The prototype included Braille labeling along the rows and columns, and alternating "raised squares with peg-holes to prevent the pieces from being knocked over," as Crooks described it. Former engineering professor Todd Landree recalls the small department's staff marveling at the project. "It was above and beyond what anybody expected," Landree said. Patricia Thompson, who taught the class, said she still thinks about Crooks' project. She also described it as "above and beyond" expectations. "It's sad that he had so much promise and he chose to do this. It's just very difficult to understand where it came from," Thompson said. A skeptic of government's "lofty promises" Crooks was focused on engineering and computing while at the community college, but a handful of written assignments show hints of a deep skepticism of the federal government and corporations. A prompt asking students to consider whether engineers involved in NASA's 1986 Challenger disaster acted ethically yielded a skeptical reply. Crooks blamed NASA's administrators, who in pushing for the ill-fated launch "were trying to live up to the lofty promises they made to Congress which they were never going to be able to fulfill," he wrote. For a 2022 English assignment, Crooks wrote about George Orwell's essay, "Shooting an Elephant." Crooks called the essay "a powerful allegory warning against adopting imperialistic policies." "The writing maintains its significance as the themes in it apply to every form of tyrannical government many of which still exist today, and continue to send young men, much like Orwell, to carry out the 'dirty work of Empire,' Crooks wrote. Crooks wrote about Mr. Trump at least once. The essay was called "Why Nuclear Energy is the Key to a Cleaner Future," and Crooks briefly touched on the proliferation of nuclear weapons, criticizing a decision Mr. Trump made during his first term. "To prevent hostile nations from acquiring nuclear technology, America and its allies can stop sales of the technology to those nations and can enter into mutually beneficial agreements like the Iran deal, which effectively halted that nations (sic) nuclear program until President Trump withdrew from it," Crooks wrote. His writing also, at least once, focused in part on then-President Biden. Crooks reviewed a 2021 opinion column that ran in The Washington Post, concluding that it persuasively argued against Mr. Biden's support for tuition-free community college. "Liberals also tend to be in favor of free community college and, in fact, free college in general," Crooks wrote. "So it is very interesting to see an author try to convince the other side using their pre-exisiting (sic) political concerns rather than trying to impress their own on to them" While Crooks showed an advanced ability to reason and persuade, he often struggled with spelling and grammar errors. Several essays and work assignments were returned to him asking him to make corrections to his work. A grand jury with a dead suspect The nitromethane purchase invoice lists a separate email account from a Belgium-based service that offers end-to-end encryption. FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek told reporters in August that Crooks had researched "nitromethane, and other materials consistent with the manufacturing of explosive devices." Rojek indicated agents accessed multiple overseas-based encrypted email accounts used by Crooks, who did not use explosives during his attack. A Hyperfuels employee, asked about Crooks' purchase last year, said the company was "aware of the whole situation." The company's president did not respond to phone or text messages. Crooks' transcript and certain other academic records were first made public by America First Legal, a nonprofit founded by Stephen Miller, a longtime aide to Mr. Trump who is now White House deputy chief of staff. Pennsylvania lawyer Wally Zimolong pursued the records on America First Legal's behalf, winning an open records fight that paved the way for their release last year. Among his discoveries was the little-known federal grand jury that subpoenaed the community college and received Crooks' emails and essays. Zimolong provided CBS News with records related to the grand jury's subpoena and Crooks' transcripts. A letter from a Justice Department official to the college on July 24, 2024, confirmed the subpoena related to "an active FBI criminal investigation." Federal grand juries are typically empaneled to determine probable cause to indict a person for a crime, but Crooks — the only known suspect — had been dead for 11 days at that point. "I think it raises a lot of important questions. Were they investigating anyone else? Are they still investigating?" Zimolong asked. He said it adds to the mystery surrounding the young man who seemed determined to continue with college until the day he climbed onto the roof of a building in Butler, Pennsylvania, and began firing. "A year later we still don't know enough," Zimolong said.
Zawya
16-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Institutional investors juggle bitcoin ETF holdings, US filings show
A number of high-profile asset managers cut their stakes in spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds amid a 12% drop in the cryptocurrency's price in the first quarter of 2025, according to recent regulatory filings. This marks a shift from previous quarters when asset managers had typically increased their holdings in spot bitcoin ETFs, as shown in previous quarterly 13-F filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Spot bitcoin ETFs, which made their market debut in January 2024, now paint a more complex picture. Hedge funds trimmed their holdings while some financial advisory firms and wealth funds boosted or rebalanced their positions. "What we witnessed in the first quarter was the collapse of the premium that people were paying for bitcoin futures, which had set up a very lucrative basis trade," said Matt Hougan, chief investment officer of Bitwise Asset Manager. Hedge funds seeking to profit from the spread between spot and futures prices could capture annualized yields in the region of 15%, Hougan said. "But that premium collapsed and reached its nadir around the end of March," he said. "So I'm not surprised to see hedge funds trim their holdings." Millennium Management LLC cut its holdings of iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF by 41% to 17.6 million shares and exited its position in the Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF. It increased its stake in only two ETFs, boosting its holdings of the ARK 21 Shares Bitcoin ETF and the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust. Jersey-based Brevan Howard trimmed its stake in the iShares ETF by 15.6%. The State of Wisconsin Investment Board, one of the earliest institutional investors to make a significant allocation to spot bitcoin ETFs in the first quarter of 2024, sold its entire six million share position in the iShares Bitcoin Trust in the first three months of this year. Meanwhile, Brown University made its first foray into cryptocurrency ETF ownership during the same period, acquiring a stake in the same ETF, worth $4.9 million at the end of March. Neither the state pension fund nor representatives from Brown University responded to requests for comment on their moves. Abu Dhabi's Mubadala sovereign wealth fund added to its holdings of the iShares ETF in the first quarter, bringing its total position to 8,726,972 shares, valued at $408.5 million. "What will be most important for me is whether, when all the data is finally in and we can analyze it, more investment advisory firms are stepping in," said Hougan. "That wave of adoption may be a slow-moving train, but it has forward momentum."
Gizmodo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Gizmodo
Amazon Failed To Acquire iRobot, Now It Is Selling Its Best Robot Vacuum at an All-Time Low Price
Amazon has established itself as a smart home leader with a large portfolio that includes such big names as Echo, Blink, and Ring. The devices made it easier than ever to control and secure your home while integrating with Alexa. Amazon's desire to dominate the smart home space was evident when it attempted to acquire iRobot, the firm behind Roomba robot vacuums. However, after regulatory setbacks, Amazon withdrew the purchase in January 2024. In any case, Amazon continues to offer some of the lowest prices on smart home products, and today's offer on the iRobot Roomba Combo Essential (Y0140 model) robot vacuum and mop is excellent. Now, this great iRobot Roomba combo is only $149 which is a massive 46% off its regular price of $274. That's the all-time lowest price for this model, and it's great if you're looking to keep your home clean any time. See at Amazon Why Choose This One? This Roomba model unites mighty vacuuming and mopping in a single machine with a 4-stage cleaning system that strikes dust and dirt on all types of floors. Its edge-sweeping brush picks up even baseboards and corners spotless. The robot's smart navigation system cleans in neat rows and uses sensors to find and avoid drops and obstacles so you can let it drive around furniture and stairs independently. Roomba Combo Essential is out-of-the-box ready to use and only requires several minutes to assemble: Wi-Fi connectivity means it can be used with the iRobot Home app or through Alexa or Google Assistant voice commands. The app lets you schedule a clean, monitor progress of the cleaning, and even receive a Clean Map report of where the robot has cleaned-prefect for busy households or pet owners who want to ensure all areas are being cleaned. Performance-wise, the Roomba Combo Essential comes with three levels of suction power and three water level settings for mopping so you can tailor the cleaning to your home's needs. The mop uses a micro pump to keep the pad consistently wet, and the washable microfiber cleaning pad can be reused for up to 30 cycles and remains effective and eco-friendly. Battery life is also impressive at giving you up to 120 minutes of cleaning on a single charge. If the battery ever runs out, the robot will automatically find its way back to its charging station so you don't have to worry about interruptions. Its thin shape makes it possible for it to duck under beds and sofas, and reaches into spaces usually missed when cleaning by hand. All things considered, this iRobot Roomba combo for $149 is a fantastic bargain which combines affordability, reliability, and intelligence. If you've been considering a robot vacuum and mop for your cozy home, then this record-low price makes it time to buy. See at Amazon
