Author: LoveWorld UK

The collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX owes its 50 biggest creditors nearly $3.1bn (£2.6bn), according to a filing in a US bankruptcy court. The exchange owes about $1.45bn to its top 10 creditors, it said in a court filing over the weekend, without naming them. The largest creditor is owed $226m. The collapse of FTX rocked the cryptocurrency industry and reduced the paper fortune of its 30-year-old founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, from more than $15bn to almost nothing in a matter of days. FTX and its affiliates filed for bankruptcy in Delaware on 11 November, leaving an estimated 1 million creditors, although the…

Jeremy Hunt has defended resisting moves to force super-rich people who live in the UK but pay no tax on their offshore income to shoulder more of the burden, as he warned of a “challenging” two years ahead for households. After a frosty reception to his plan in the autumn statement to drag 6 million people into higher tax rates while the UK plunges into recession, the chancellor said the strain could not fall on only “a very small group of very rich people”. He promised a “sharp drop” in inflation at the end of 2023, took aim at his…

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) is facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly working with Google to install “spyware” onto the Android devices of a million state residents without their knowledge during the COVID-19 pandemic. Plaintiffs Robert Wright and Johnny Kula were among 1 million Massachusetts residents who had the state’s “COVID Exposure Settings: US-MA” app auto-installed without their consent, according to the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), the nonpartisan civil rights group that filed the lawsuit (pdf) on Tuesday. The app, once automatically installed, didn’t appear on the device’s home screen as newly-installed apps typically do. Instead, it was invisible and could only be…

FBI Director Christopher Wray said Thursday he cannot “be sure” whether Facebook is sending the agency user information without being compelled to do so, an act that would violate the law. Wray’s remark in response to a question from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) comes after Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee released a report (pdf) in early November in which a whistleblower suggested that the FBI has a “special relationship” with Facebook “in which it accepts private user information without any consent or legal process.” The move is part of a program “likely codenamed ‘Operation Bronze Griffin,’” said the report. It alleges that the types of user content…

Senegal forward Sadio Mané has been ruled out of the World Cup in Qatar in a crushing blow to his team’s chances, with Bayern Munich confirming the forward had undergone “successful surgery” in Austria on Thursday. Mané had been a doubt for the tournament after picking up a leg injury playing for Bayern last week, and it has now been confirmed he will not recover in time. Senegal Football Federation officials announced that further scans had revealed the need for surgery. Mané is the talisman of the Senegal side and a key player for them in attack. His absence will be a blow…

With just days to go until the World Cup begins, the Qatari hosts are reportedly pressuring Fifa to stop the sale of beer at the eight tournament stadiums in what would be an astonishing U-turn. The sale of alcohol is strictly controlled in Qatar, but it is due to be available in the area immediately outside match venues and fan zones, as well as within hotels. Budweiser is one of Fifa’s biggest sponsors but was told on Saturday to relocate stalls selling its product at stadiums to less prominent locations. The Times reports that Qatar 2022 now wants to go even further and…

Early in the Covid pandemic, several studies of busing, restaurants, and choir practices laid the foundations for the restrictions that followed. But now that the epidemiological fog is clearing, a critical analysis of these early, influential studies increasingly shows that government policies have been built on poor science. Reports today highlight a published study of choir practice in Skagit County, Washington that led to an 18-month indoor singing ban. However, in further analysis, the infection was not caused by a single overexpression but reflected high infection rates in the community. The choir’s practice has also been used to support the…

Republicans have won back control of the House of Representatives, scraping a victory from a midterm election that many had expected to be a red wave of wins but instead turned into more of a trickle. Nevertheless, the party finally won its crucial 218th seat in the lower chamber of Congress, wresting away control from the Democrats and setting the stage for a showdown with Joe Biden in the next two years of his presidency. The result means the end of Democrat Nancy Pelosi’s time as House speaker. She is likely to pass the gavel to the Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who has…

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Nov. 15 responded to former President Donald Trump, saying that he’s focused on leading his state. “One of the things I’ve learned in this job is when you’re leading, when you’re getting things done, you take incoming fire, that’s just the nature of it,” DeSantis said at an unrelated press conference when asked about Trump. “And yet I think what you learn is, all that’s just noise. And really what matters is, are you leading, are you getting in front of issues, are you delivering results for people, and are you standing up for folks. And…

NEW YORK—Billionaire Elon Musk, who just took over as the chief executive at Twitter after buying the company, said he does not want to be the CEO of any company. Musk took the witness stand Wednesday in a Delaware court to defend himself in a shareholder lawsuit challenging a compensation package he was awarded by Tesla’s board of directors that is potentially worth more than $55 billion. While testifying, Musk said “I expect to reduce my time at Twitter and find somebody else to run Twitter over time,” according to multiple media reports. Overnight, Musk sent an email to the remaining staff at…