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  • Australian gold miner Newcrest backs Newmont’s $17.8 billion offer | CNN Business

    Australian gold miner Newcrest backs Newmont’s $17.8 billion offer | CNN Business

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    Sydney
    Reuters
     — 

    Australian gold miner Newcrest Mining said on Monday it would back Newmont A$26.2 billion ($17.8 billion) takeover offer in one of the world’s largest buyouts so far this year.

    The deal, subject to approval from shareholders of both companies and other regulatory hurdles, would lift Newmon

    (NEM)    t’s gold output to nearly double its nearest rival, Barrick Gold

    (GOLD)    , and catapult the miner past Freeport McMoRan to become the largest US gold and copper producer by market capitalization.

    Newcrest

    (NCMGF)     shareholders would receive 0.400 Newmont share for each share held, with an implied value of A$29.27 a share, higher than a previous exchange ratio of 0.380 that Newcrest

    (NCMGF)    ’s board rejected in February.

    Newcrest shares opened on Monday 1.5% higher at A$28.68, and the offer is a 30.4% premium to the stock’s price in February before the Newmont bid became public.

    Newmont is also allowing Newcrest to pay a franked special dividend of up to $1.10 per share on the implementation of the deal that returns tax credits to Australian shareholders.

    The merger is set to be the third-largest deal ever involving an Australian company and the third-largest globally in 2023, according to data from Refinitiv and Reuters’ calculations.

    “This transaction will combine two of the world’s leading gold producers, bringing forward significant value to Newcrest shareholders through the recognition of our outstanding growth pipeline,” said Newcrest Chairman Peter Tomsett.

    Newmont said it would have about 8 million ounces of total combined annual gold production once the deal closed, with more than 5 million gold ounces from 10 long-life and low-cost mines.

    The Denver-based miner added it would have combined annual copper production of approximately 350 million pounds from Australia and Canada.

    Newcrest shareholders will be able to choose to receive New York Stock Exchange-listed Newmont shares or Australian-listed CHESS Depository Instruments (CDIs) as payment.

    Newcrest said it recommended its shareholders vote in favor of the deal at a meeting expected to be held in September or October.

    The deal requires Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) approval as well as Newcrest and Newmont shareholders to vote in support the transaction, among other regulatory requirements.

    The companies said the deal was due to be finalized in the fourth quarter of 2023.

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  • American consumers are growing worried about a US debt default | CNN

    American consumers are growing worried about a US debt default | CNN

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    Washington, DC
    CNN
     — 

    US consumer sentiment worsened in May as Americans grew concerned about the economy’s direction and a potential default of the US government’s debt, according to a preliminary report from the University of Michigan Friday.

    The political impasse over raising the debt ceiling has dragged on for weeks and is inching closer to the day the federal government will not be able to fully meet its financial obligations. Consumers are now taking notice.

    “While current incoming macroeconomic data show no sign of recession, consumers’ worries about the economy escalated in May alongside the proliferation of negative news about the economy, including the debt crisis standoff,” Joanne Hsu, director of the surveys of consumers at the University of Michigan, said in a release. “If policymakers fail to resolve the debt ceiling crisis, these dismal views over the economy will exacerbate the dire economic consequences of default.”

    The latest survey showed that the university’s consumer-sentiment index fell by 9% in May. The index’s latest decline wiped out more than half of its gains since recovering from the record low in June 2022.

    “In Washington’s past fiscal games of chicken, sentiment recovered within a few months of the crises ending,” Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica Bank, wrote in analyst note. “On the other hand, if the government defaults, it won’t be pretty.”

    Pessimism among consumers can have an impact on their spending behavior if their expectations worsen and they decide to pull back. Some data have already pointed to demand for goods weakening some.

    US household spending was flat in March from the prior month, after limping just 0.1% in February. Retail sales sank 0.8% in March from the prior month, following a 0.5% decline in February. The Commerce Department releases April figures on retail spending next week, which will offer additional clues into how demand is shaping up as credit conditions tighten.

    A trio of recent bank failures mean that banks are poised to toughen their lending standards even more, which can dampen demand. A recent survey of loan officers showed that banks were making it harder to access credit even before the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. Stack on top of that the Federal Reserve’s punishing interest-rate increases and still-high inflation, and consumers might just tap out.

    Many economists, including those at the Fed, expect the US economy to slip into a recession later in the year. A recession is a broad economic downturn that would include weakness in consumption.

    The Conference Board’s sentiment survey showed that consumer confidence worsened in April as Americans became more worried about the jobs market. The business group’s Consumer Confidence Index, which measures attitudes toward the economy and the job market, fell to 101.3 in April, down from 104 in March and marking the lowest level since July 2022.

    The labor market is still going strong. Employers added 253,000 jobs in April, a robust gain, and the unemployment rate fell back to a 53-year low of 3.4% that month. That’s good news, but the job market still isn’t balanced, because “labor demand still substantially exceeds the supply of available workers,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in his news conference after officials voted to raise the central bank’s benchmark lending rate by a quarter point earlier this month.

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  • Private equity investor identified as political contributor allegedly duped by George Santos | CNN Politics

    Private equity investor identified as political contributor allegedly duped by George Santos | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Private equity investor Andrew Intrater is one of the people federal prosecutors allege Rep. George Santos induced to donate money as part of an alleged scheme that diverted purported political contributions to Santos’ personal use, Intrater’s lawyer confirmed to CNN on Thursday.

    In a 13-count indictment made public Wednesday, prosecutors alleged that Santos and an unnamed associate duped two donors – described only as Contributor #1 and Contributor #2 – into giving $25,000 apiece to support the Republican’s candidacy last year.

    The donors were told the money would go to an independent committee that could raise unlimited amounts to help his campaign and would help underwrite television ads, according to the indictment. Prosecutors, however, say the money instead went to a limited liability company that Santos controlled and the funds paid for designer clothing, credit cards bills and other personal expenses.

    “From the outset, Andy Intrater aided the government’s investigation of George Santos and is identified as a victim in the Indictment as Contributor #2,” Intrater’s lawyer, Richard D. Owens, said in a statement. “Andy is gratified that Santos will now have to answer in court for the many lies George told to Andy and so many other Americans.”

    Santos pleaded not guilty Wednesday in New York and has vowed to fight the charges.

    Intrater has financially supported Santos’ political ambitions in recent years, donating more than $24,000 to Santos’ congressional campaigns and his federal leadership PAC since 2020, Federal Election Commission records show.

    Intrater told The New York Times earlier this year that he also had invested more than $600,000 in a fund offered by Harbor City Capital, where Santos worked as an account manager, partly because he admired Santos as a “hard-working guy.”

    Intrater told the paper he later discovered he had been misled.

    The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint in April 2021 against Harbor City and its founder, Jonathan P. Maroney, alleging the company ran a $17 million “Ponzi scheme.” Maroney has not been charged with a crime, and Santos is not named in the SEC complaint.

    Intrater is perhaps best known in US political circles as a cousin of Viktor Vekselberg, one of several Russian oligarchs sanctioned in 2018 by the US Treasury Department, for “worldwide malign activity.”

    The New York Times earlier reported that Intrater was Contributor #2 in the indictment. CNN has not confirmed the identity of the other contributor described in the indictment.

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  • China’s deflation worries deepen as consumer prices grow only 0.1% in April | CNN Business

    China’s deflation worries deepen as consumer prices grow only 0.1% in April | CNN Business

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    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    Deflationary pressure in China is worsening as consumer prices increased at the slowest pace in two years, suggesting weakness in domestic demand and a long road ahead to full economic recovery.

    The consumer price index rose by just 0.1% in April from a year ago, the lowest rate since February 2021, according to the National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday. In March and February, it increased 0.7% and 1% respectively.

    The producer price index, which measures factory-gate prices, declined by 3.6%, marking the biggest contraction in three years. It’s the seventh straight month the figure has fallen.

    Prices are stagnating or falling in the country despite the fact that the People’s Bank of China, the central bank, has been cutting interest rates and pumping cash into the financial system to bolster the economy.

    This is a developing story and will be updated.

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  • House Republicans allege Biden family members received millions in payments from foreign entities in new bank records report | CNN Politics

    House Republicans allege Biden family members received millions in payments from foreign entities in new bank records report | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    House Oversight Chairman James Comer laid out new details to support allegations that members of Joe Biden’s family including his son Hunter received millions of dollars in payments from foreign entities in China and Romania including when Biden was vice president, according to a memo obtained by CNN.

    New bank records cited in the memo were obtained by the committee through a subpoena and include payments made to companies tied to Hunter Biden. Republicans also alleged that Hunter Biden used his familial connections to help facilitate a meeting in 2016 between a Serbian running for United Nations Secretary-General and then-national security adviser to the vice president Colin Kahl.

    The foreign payments raise questions about Hunter Biden’s business activities while his father was vice president, but the committee does not suggest any illegality about the payments from foreign sources. The bank records by themselves also do not indicate the purpose of the payments that were made.

    The memo marks Comer’s most direct attempt to substantiate his allegations that Biden family members have enriched themselves off the family name. Comer has suggested that Biden may have been improperly influenced by the financial dealings, particularly by his family’s foreign business partners.

    But the latest report does not show any payments made directly to Joe Biden, either as vice president or after leaving office.

    Comer has been publicly teasing information for months about the paper trail committee Republicans have uncovered through subpoenas sent to multiple banks and trips to the Treasury Department to review records.

    Comer and other Republicans on the committee held a press conference Wednesday morning to tout their findings.

    “These people didn’t come to Hunter Biden because he understood world politics or that he was experienced in it, or that he understood Chinese businesses. They wanted him for the access his last name gave him,” Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, said during the news conference.

    On Wednesday, Comer was asked about specific policy decisions Biden made while president or vice president that may have been directly influenced by these foreign payments. Comer failed to name any and instead pointed to then-vice president Biden traveling around the world and discussing foreign aid in the last year of the Obama administration, and added they think there are decisions Biden made as president that “put China first and America last.” Comer said the committee “will get into more of those later.”

    Ahead of the memo’s release, White House spokesperson Ian Sams said in a statement to CNN, “Congressman Comer has a history of playing fast and loose with the facts and spreading baseless innuendo while refusing to conduct his so-called ‘investigations’ with legitimacy. He has hidden information from the public to selectively leak and promote his own hand-picked narratives as part of his overall effort to lob personal attacks at the President and his family.”

    Abbe Lowell, counsel for Hunter Biden, said in a statement, “Today’s so-called “revelations” are retread, repackaged misstatements of perfectly proper meetings and business by private citizens. Instead of redoing old investigations that found no evidence of wronging by Mr. Biden, Rep. Comer should do the same examination of the many entities of former President Trump and his family members.”

    The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin, said in a statement to CNN, “Chairman Comer has failed to provide factual evidence to support his wild accusations about the President. He continues to bombard the public with innuendo, misrepresentations, and outright lies, recycling baseless claims from stories that were debunked years ago.”

    Bank records cited in the committee’s memo show that within five weeks of then-Vice President Biden’s meeting with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in 2015, a Romanian who Hunter Biden was doing legal consulting for, Gabriel Popoviciu, started sending money to Rob Walker, a business associate of Hunter’s.

    Walker received more than $3 million from November 2015 to May 2017 and wired approximately $1 million in various installments to Hunter Biden, his business associate James Gillian, and Hallie Biden, the widow of the president’s oldest son, Beau Biden who died in May 2015. Hallie Biden and Hunter Biden were romantically involved for a period after Beau’s death.

    It has long been known that Hunter Biden did legal work for Popoviciu, a wealthy Romanian business executive who was convicted in 2016 on corruption charges.

    Comer’s memo raises questions about why Popoviciu was paying a Biden family business associate directly instead of the law firm where Hunter Biden worked at the time or the other firm Hunter reportedly referred Popoviciu to.

    Former President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani was also involved with Popoviciu, which Comer’s memo does not mention.

    Committee Republicans obtained the bank records from subpoenas to four different banks.

    The report also alleges that in 2016, Vuk Jeremic, a Serbian politician who was running for UN secretary-general, tried to use his business relationship with Hunter Biden and his associates to get a meeting with Kahl, who was then an aide in Biden’s vice president’s office.

    In a June 2016 email, Jeremic wrote to Hunter Biden and a business associate, Eric Schwerin, asking to “meet with VPOTUS National Security Advisor Colin Kahl” related to the UN secretary-general election.

    Schwerin instructed Hunter Biden to “Think about how you want to respond,” according to the report.

    In a July 2016 email, Jeremic followed up via email saying, “[m]y meeting with Colin did not last very long, but didn’t go too bad, I think. What is suboptimal is that OVP seems to be outside the decision-making loop on the UNSG elections issue. Colin promised to get better informed on what’s going on at the moment,” according to the report.

    Republicans said they intend to pursue more communications related to the matter, but concluded it appears that “a Biden administration official met with Jeremic to discuss the UN Secretary General election at the direction of Hunter Biden and/or his business associates.”

    Kahl did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Jeremic’s attorneys told the committee in a letter last month he would not cooperate with a request for documents and testimony due to separation of powers issues and because House rules limit subpoenas to people “within the United States.”

    The memo also alleges that two Chinese nationals made payments of $100,000 to Hunter Biden’s professional corporation through a Chinese-backed energy company. Republicans claim that at least one of those individuals had ties to the Communist Party of China.

    The memo alleges that those two individuals were connected to CEFC, a Chinese energy conglomerate, had a business relationship with Hunter Biden.

    Committee Republicans claim one of the individuals “used CEFC to bribe and corruptly influence foreign officials.”

    The memo includes a copy of a bank transaction showing that on August 4, 2017, CEFC Infrastructure wired $100,000 to Owasco P.C, Hunter Biden’s professional corporation.

    The memo also includes details from the bank records on how money was moved between companies, including a $100,000 payment to one of Hunter Biden’s companies that was then funded by a Chinese based firm tied to the CEFC, the Chinese energy conglomerate.

    Comer alleges the transaction “disproves President Biden’s claim that his family received no money from China.”

    In the report, the committee acknowledged there “exist legitimate commercial transactions with China-based entities and individuals.”

    “However, the pattern of behavior engaged in by the Bidens and their Chinese counterparties—memorialized in relevant bank records—signals an attempt to layer companies and cloud the source of money,” the committee alleges.

    Comer has previously revealed that members of Biden’s family received just over $1 million indirectly from State Energy HK Limited, a Chinese company.

    Senate Republicans in 2020 first detailed how Walker made wire transfers to companies associated with Hunter Biden and president’s brother, James, after receiving a $3 million wire from the Chinese company.

    The latest GOP memo claims Walker also sent some of that money to Hallie Biden and an unknown bank account identified as “Biden.”

    Committee Republicans said they are continuing to trace bank records and have written to additional witnesses involved in certain transactions to request documents as well as interviews.

    According to the report, Republicans intend to pursue legislative changes – a key step needed to justify their investigation if fights over subpoenas head to court.

    Those changes include laws that require additional reporting about the finances of a president or vice president’s family members, public disclosure of foreign transactions involving the family members of senior elected officials and an expedited law enforcement review of any suspicious bank activity reports related to a president or vice president’s immediately family members.

    Comer left the door open on whether his committee would investigate the foreign business dealings of former President Donald Trump and his family ahead of making any legislative recommendations to address influence peddling. To date however, Comer has not looked into Trump’s financial dealings or pursued an investigation into the classified documents that he had at Mar-a-Lago.

    “We’re going to look at everything when we get ready to introduce the legislation to ban influence peddling” Comer said. “This has been a pattern for a long time. Republicans and Democrats have both complained about Presidents’ families receiving money.”

    On the foreign business dealings of Trump’s son-in law, Jared Kushner, specifically, Comer said, “I’m not saying whether I agreed with what he did or not, but I actually know what his businesses are. What are the Biden businesses?”

    This story has been updated with additional reporting.

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  • Lachlan Murdoch: No change in strategy at Fox News | CNN Business

    Lachlan Murdoch: No change in strategy at Fox News | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Despite a turbulent and expensive few weeks, Fox News isn’t changing course.

    Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch said there will be no change in strategy at the company’s top rated cable news network, despite the firing of its top rated anchor Tucker Carlson and a massive $787.5 million settlement to Dominion Voting Systems that resulted in the company swinging to a loss in the just completed period.

    “There is no change to our programming strategy at Fox News,” Murdoch said in response to an analyst who asked about Carlson’s ouster during the investor call Tuesday to discuss its financial results.

    Murdoch described Fox News as “obviously a successful” and suggested Carlson’s firing was a tweaking of its strategy, not a departure from it.

    “As always, we are adjusting our programming and lineup and that is what we continue to do,” Murdoch said.

    His comments came after the company reported a $50 million net loss for the just completed quarter, compared to $290 million in profit a year earlier.

    The reason was a $719 million charge including the cost of the Dominion settlement, other legal settlements related to its news division and other legal costs, including attorney fees, which was partly offset by equity earnings of it affiliates and a change in the market value of some of its investments.

    The earnings statement didn’t mention Dominion Voting Systems, although it does refer to charges related to legal settlement costs at Fox News Media. On the company’s call with investors Murdoch referred to the settlement with Dominion as in the best interest of the company and its shareholders, given rulings by the Delaware court that he said limited its defense. He said going to trial could have led to two to three years of appeals.

    “We’re proud of our Fox News team, the exceptional quality of their journalism and their stewardship of the Fox News brand,” he said. “So as we look ahead, we are confident in the strength of the Fox brands and the strength of our balance sheet.”

    And he again defended the company’s post-election coverage of the false conspiracy theories made against Dominion, even though internal communications among Fox anchors made public during the discovery process showed many of them didn’t believe the claims being made.

    “We always acted as a news organization reporting on the newsworthy events of the day,” Murdoch told investors Tuesday. “Now we have been and remain confident in the merits of our position that the first amendment protects a news organization’s reporting and allegations being made by a sitting president of the United States. However, the Delaware court severely limited our defenses and trial through pre-trial rulings.”

    Fox did not have to apologize or admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement in Dominion’s defamation suit against it, although its statement did say it acknowledged “the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.”

    Fox still faces a lawsuit from another voting machine manufacturer, Smartmatic, which is seeking $2.7 billion in damages. Murdoch told investors that case is “fundamentally different” from the Dominion case and that Fox will have greater defenses available to it than in the Delaware court hearing the Dominion case. He predicted that case won’t go to trial until 2025.

    The Dominion settlement was reached on April 18, but it was still reported in Fox’s fiscal third quarter, which concluded March 31. Excluding the legal costs and other special items reported Tuesday, it was a pretty good financial quarter for Fox.

    It reported adjusted earnings of $494 million, or 94 cents a share, up from $459 million a year earlier. That was better than the 87 cents a share forecast by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. The company was helped by the profits and revenue gain it received from airing this year’s Super Bowl.

    Revenue at the company rose 18% to $4.1 billion, slightly higher than analysts’ forecasts. Most of that gain was due to a 43% surge in advertising revenue, helped greatly by $650 million in Super Bowl ads. Fox did not broadcast the Super Bowl in 2022.

    Fox had plenty of money available to pay the settlement. It said it had $4.1 billion in cash and cash equivalent on hand as of March 30, about three weeks before the settlement was reached. It also announced it repurchased $1.8 billion of its shares in the nine months ending March 31, as part of a $7 billion share repurchase plan. So far, Fox has repurchased $4.4 billion worth of shares as part of its plan.

    Murdoch said Fox is better positioned than many other media companies to ride out the delays and lost revenue that could take place from a prolonged strike by the Writers Guild of America. Some programming, such as late night shows, have already gone dark due to the strike that started last week, and production on other shows has been halted.

    But Murdoch said the fact that Fox has more of its revenue and profit coming from sports and news, which are not affected by the strike, puts it in a better position.

    “Our healthy balance of scripted and unscripted content on the network puts us in a tremendous position,” he said.

    The hit from the settlement was well known by investors ahead of the report. But even with the better than expected results, Fox

    (FOX)     shares were up only about 1% in trading at the market open following the report.

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  • 5 things to know for May 8: Texas shooting, King Charles, Title 42, Measles, ChatGPT | CNN

    5 things to know for May 8: Texas shooting, King Charles, Title 42, Measles, ChatGPT | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    American flags will be lowered to half-staff this week at the White House, on military bases, and at all public buildings to honor the victims of the deadly mass shooting in Texas over the weekend. In the wake of the massacre, President Joe Biden again urged Congress to act: “Too many families have empty chairs at their dinner tables. Tweeted thoughts and prayers are not enough,” he said.

    Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.

    (You can get “CNN’s 5 Things” delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.)

    Eight people were killed and at least seven others were wounded when a gunman opened fire at an outlet mall in Allen, Texas, on Saturday — the latest mass shooting to shatter an American community. A Dallas-area medical group said it was treating patients ranging from age from 5 to 61 years old. The 33-year-old shooter was killed by a police officer who was already at the Dallas-area mall on an unrelated call. The gunman was armed with an AR-15 style rifle and had multiple weapons in his vehicle, according to police. The shooter’s motive remains unclear at this time, but officials are investigating his potential ties to right-wing extremism after he was found with an insignia on his clothing worn by some members of extremist groups, a law enforcement source said. Officials have also found he had an extensive social media presence that included neo-Nazi and White supremacist-related posts.

    Britain’s King Charles III was crowned Saturday in a once-in-a-generation royal event witnessed by hundreds of high-profile guests inside Westminster Abbey, as well as tens of thousands of well-wishers who gathered in central London. Scores of foreign dignitaries, British officials, celebrities and faith leaders attended the deeply religious ceremony. Once the King was crowned, his wife, Queen Camilla, was crowned in her own shorter ceremony. On Sunday, thousands of events and parties took place across the UK as part of the “Coronation Big Lunch.” But the historic weekend did not go without a display of dissidence. Police arrested more than 50 people during the coronation after controversially promising a “robust” approach to protesters.

    Missed it? Here’s King Charles’ coronation in 3 minutes

    The US is expecting to see an influx of border crossings when Title 42, the Trump-era policy that allowed officials to swiftly expel migrants who crossed the border illegally during the Covid-19 pandemic, expires on Thursday. Without Title 42, the primary border enforcement tool since March 2020, authorities will be returning to decades-old protocols at a time of unprecedented mass migration in the region, raising concerns within the Biden administration about a surge in the immediate aftermath of the policy’s lifting. Also on Thursday, the House is set to vote on Republicans’ wide-ranging border security package, GOP leadership sources told CNN. Last month, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Republicans have the necessary votes to pass the legislation in the chamber.

    exp NYC prepares migrant surge Pazmino 05072PSEG1 cnn world_00002001.png

    U.S. prepares for a surge of migrants ahead of the end of Title 42

    A child in Maine has tested positive for measles, officials said, marking the first case in the state since 2019. Measles was declared eliminated from the US in 2000 thanks to an intensive vaccination program, according to the CDC. But vaccination rates in the US have dropped in recent years, sparking new outbreaks. The CDC recommends all children get two doses of the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine; the first dose between 12 to 15 months of age and the second between the ages of 4 to 6. The child who tested positive had received a dose of the measles vaccine, but is being considered “infectious out of an abundance of caution,” the Maine CDC said. There have been a total of 10 documented cases of measles in eight states this year.

    vaccines 2 cfb

    How vaccines stop the spread of viruses

    ChatGPT, a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence, can pick stocks better than your fund manager, analysts say. A recent experiment found that the bot far outperformed some popular UK investment funds — and funds managed by HSBC and Fidelity were among those selected. Between March 6 and April 28, a dummy portfolio of 38 stocks gained 4.9% while 10 leading investment funds clocked an average loss of 0.8%, the results showed. The analysts asked ChatGPT to select stocks based on some common criteria, including picking companies with a low level of debt and a track record of growth. Microsoft, Netflix, and Walmart were among the companies selected. While major funds have used AI for years to support their investment decisions, analysts say ChatGPT has put the technology in the hands of the general public — and it’s showing it can potentially disrupt the finance industry. 

    MTV Movie & TV Awards 2023: See who won

    Tom Cruise accepted an award for “Top Gun: Maverick” while flying a plane — because he’s Tom Cruise. Here are the other stars who received golden popcorn statuettes on Sunday.

    A mother-daughter moment: Regal twinning at coronation catches eyes

    Princess Catherine of Wales and her daughter, Princess Charlotte, made a statement in matching silver headpieces. See the photo here.

    Bronny James, son of NBA superstar LeBron James, commits to the University of Southern California

    The NBA’s all-time leading scorer made headlines last year when he said he wanted to play his final season in the league alongside his son Bronny. The father-son duo is now one step closer to that reality.

    ‘Saturday Night Live’ didn’t air a new episode this past weekend

    Former cast member Pete Davidson was set to return as host for “SNL” but things didn’t go as planned due to the ongoing film and TV writers strike.

    Climate activists dye iconic Italian fountain water black

    Onlookers snapped pictures as protesters were arrested for defacing this popular monument.

    111 degrees Fahrenheit

    That’s how high temperatures reached in Vietnam over the weekend, the highest ever recorded in the country. Neighboring Laos and Thailand also recently shattered various temperature records as a brutal heat wave continues to grip Southeast Asia. 

    “This tangled web around Justice Clarence Thomas just gets worse and worse by the day.”

    — Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, telling CNN on Sunday that “everything is on the table” as the panel scrutinizes new ethics concerns around Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The conservative justice is receiving criticism after a bombshell ProPublica report detailed he accepted several lavish trips and gifts from GOP megadonor Harlan Crow. Thomas also accepted free rent from the Republican billionaire for his mother and allowed him to pay the boarding school tuition for his grandnephew, according to ProPublica.

    dick durbin sotu iso 5 7 23

    ‘It embarrasses me’: Senate Judiciary chair on Justice Thomas revelations

    Check your local forecast here>>>

    Parrots learn to call their feathered friends on video chat

    These parrots were taught to ring a bell whenever they want to caw their fellow bird friends! See them in action. (Click to view)

    Parrots Video Chat 3

    Parrots learn to call their feathered friends on video chat

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  • Apple posts second consecutive quarterly revenue decline | CNN Business

    Apple posts second consecutive quarterly revenue decline | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Apple on Thursday reported that its revenue fell 3% to $94.8 billion for the first three months of the year as consumers scale back spending on smartphones and computers amid looming recession fears.

    The company’s revenue was slightly better than what Wall Street had expected, but it nonetheless represented the second consecutive quarterly revenue decline for the iPhone maker.

    Apple attempted to appease investors by announcing up to $90 billion in share buybacks. Shares of Apple were largely flat in after-hours trading Thursday following teh results.

    Despite the continued revenue decline, there were bright spots in the report.

    Apple CEO Tim Cook said Apple hit a “a March quarter record for iPhone despite the challenging macroeconomic environment” and that the installed base of active devices reached an all-time high.

    Apple’s latest quarterly earnings report comes amid a sharp decline in PC and smartphone sales globally after a surge earlier in the pandemic.

    Worldwide PC shipments declined 30% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the year prior, according to data from Gartner. Global smartphone shipments plunged 14.6% last quarter, according to separate data from market intelligence firm IDC.

    Apple’s report on Thursday caps off a closely-watched earnings season for Silicon Valley amid broader economic jitters. All five Big Tech companies beat Wall Street’s estimates, but the numbers paint a stark picture of the industry at this moment.

    Apple and its peers once enjoyed seemingly limitless growth. Now these business are struggling to grow sales and profits – or posting declines.

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  • 5 things to know for May 3: Border, Texas shooting, Writers strike, Fed meeting, Sudan | CNN

    5 things to know for May 3: Border, Texas shooting, Writers strike, Fed meeting, Sudan | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Many airline employees have gone for years without pay raises, even after enduring difficult working conditions during the pandemic. Pilots for American Airlines voted to strike this week, and Southwest pilots plan to vote as well, but they won’t be walking off the job anytime soon — if at all — due to a labor law that places considerable hurdles in the way of any union that wants to strike.

    Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.

    (You can get “CNN’s 5 Things” delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.)

    In preparation for an expected surge of crossings at the US-Mexico border next week, the Biden administration plans to send an additional 1,500 active-duty troops to the border to free up Department of Homeland Security agents. The troops will take on strictly administrative roles, officials said, and will join around 2,500 National Guard troops already in place. The surge of migrants is expected because Title 42, the Trump-era policy that allowed authorities to quickly turn away certain migrants at the border during the pandemic, expires on May 11. Encounters between border agents and undocumented immigrants are at around 7,000 per day at the moment and are expected to rise dramatically next week, despite a warning from the State Department and DHS about a new, more punitive policy related to border crossings.

    The man suspected of gunning down five people at a neighbor’s home in Texas last week — including a mother and her 9-year-old son — was captured Tuesday after a dayslong manhunt. The suspect was found under a pile of laundry in the closet of a home just miles from the Cleveland, Texas, residence where the shooting took place, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said. “We just want to thank the person who had the courage and bravery to call in the suspect’s location,” an FBI spokesperson said, adding that authorities are now investigating whether the suspect had any help in hiding. The gunman will be held on five counts of murder and his bond is set at $5 million.

    Official describes suspect found hiding in laundry

    Popular late night shows are airing repeat episodes “until further notice” due to the film and TV writers’ strike, sources tell CNN. Several shows including “Saturday Night Live,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” began airing repeat episodes as of Tuesday. Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon, who host NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” and “The Tonight Show,” respectively, previously said they would honor the strike and not air any new episodes as well. Late night shows are being especially impacted because they depend on their writers for bits, monologues and celebrity interview questions. Until an agreement is reached, analysts say the strike could shut down production on shows and cause a domino effect in the wider realm of the entertainment industry, pushing back the return of many programs set for the fall.

    exp TSR.Todd.writers.guild.strike.impacts.tv.movies_00003201.png

    Strike means TV shows and films in jeopardy

    Federal Reserve officials are expected to raise interest rates by a quarter point today. The Fed’s decision comes just two days after the collapse of First Republic Bank, the second-biggest bank failure in US history. When the Fed raises interest rates, banks need to raise the rates on their savings accounts in order to lure depositors from their competitors. That can put a disproportionate amount of pressure on mid-sized and regional banks — like the ones who saw depositors pull their money when the banking crisis began in March. Still, the Fed will move to raise interest rates today to lower inflation. To do that, it has to intentionally slow parts of the economy by making it more expensive for banks, and thereby consumers, to borrow money.

    Leaders of Sudan’s warring factions agreed to a seven-day ceasefire on Tuesday, the foreign ministry of South Sudan said in a statement. However, previous ceasefires have failed to quell the fighting between the rival factions in various parts of the country. Both sides — the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces — have yet to comment on the report on their official channels. Tuesday’s announcement came after the UN’s refugee agency warned more than 800,000 people may flee to neighboring countries, as the ongoing violence blocks evacuation convoys from key ports in Sudan. More than 70,000 people have already fled Sudan to neighboring countries, a spokesperson for the agency said earlier this week.

    exp sudan ceasefire madowo FST 050312ASEG1 cnni world_00002001.png

    Seven-day ceasefire expected to begin Thursday in Sudan

    Teenage boy opens fire at Serbian school, killing eight children and a security guard, officials say

    Eight children and a security guard have have been killed after a 14-year-old boy allegedly opened fire in an elementary school in the Serbian capital of Belgrade, according to Serbia’s Interior Ministry. Several children and a teacher were also injured in the attack, officials said. The boy is in custody following the incident. 

    Cockroach at the Met Gala goes viral

    A bug on the red carpet received more buzz than some A-list celebrities. Watch the video here.

    Top 10 best cuisines in the world, according to CNN Travel

    Check out this list of appetizing cuisines. *Stomach rumbles — loudly* 

    NBA announces Most Valuable Player for 2022-2023

    Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers won the coveted award after the center topped the charts last year.

    Webb telescope detects mysterious water vapor in a nearby star system

    Astronomers detected water vapor around a rocky exoplanet located 26 light-years away from Earth. Here’s what it could mean.

    Kevin Costner and wife Christine Baumgartner are getting a divorce

    After more than 18 years, the two are going their separate ways.

    0

    That’s how many criminal charges, or lack thereof, will be filed against one of the former Memphis police officers involved in the fatal traffic stop that led to Tyre Nichols’ death. On January 7, 29-year-old Nichols, a Black man, was repeatedly punched and kicked by Memphis police officers following a traffic stop and brief foot chase. Former White Memphis police officer Preston Hemphill was part of the initial traffic stop in which bodycam footage revealed he used an “assaultive statement” after firing a stun gun at Nichols. Hemphill was not involved in the second encounter where Nichols was brutally beaten by police.

    “The public shouldn’t have their daily lives ruined by so-called ‘eco-warriors’ causing disruption.”

    — UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman, issuing a statement Tuesday on the government’s plan to take stronger action against peaceful protesters, days ahead of the coronation of King Charles III. The Home Office said parts of a controversial law will go into place today that will “give police the powers to prevent disruption at major sporting and cultural events.” For example, protestors who physically attach themselves to things like buildings could receive a six-month prison sentence or “unlimited fine,” the Home Office said in a statement.

    Check your local forecast here>>>

    Teen’s grand entrance steals the show at prom

    Most teenagers favor limousines and luxury cars for their prom transportation. These high school students, on the other hand, preferred a tank for their grand entrance. (Click here to view) 

    Tank To Prom 1

    Teen’s grand entrance steals the show at prom

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  • Ford cuts price of the Mustang Mach-E again | CNN Business

    Ford cuts price of the Mustang Mach-E again | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Ford is once again cutting the price of its electric SUV, the Mustang Mach-E, as it ramps up its price war with Tesla.

    Tesla, the leader in EV sales by a large margin, has cut prices six times so far this year. Its price cuts have eaten into its industry-leading profit margins and added pressure to its stock price.

    Ford’s price cuts for the Mach-E come to $3,000 to $4,000 for most models, or about 6%. It’ll put the sticker price at between $43,000 and $60,000. It also said it would increase production of the Mach-E in the second half of this year.

    Ford cut the price of the Mach-E in January but it has not announced price cuts for its other electric vehicles, including the F-150 Lightning pickup. Tesla has yet to deliver its first electric pickup, due out later this year.

    Tesla’s profit margins have been falling, because it sells only EVs. But Ford still gets the overwhelming majority of its sales from its profitable sales of gasoline powered cars and trucks. So it was able to report improved results even with the EV price cuts announced earlier.

    And on Tuesday, Ford stuck with the full-year earnings guidance it issued in March despite the new price cut. Even with the EV losses, Ford confirmed its earlier guidance that it expects to earn between $9 billion and $11 billion on an adjusted basis this year. The EV sales at Ford are still a fraction of its overall sales and pricing changes don’t move the profit needle the way it does at Tesla.

    Ford is still losing money on its EV sales. It said Tuesday it expects to lose about $3 billion before taxes, interest and depreciation from its electric vehicle division during the year, but that’s the same guidance it gave when it met with investors in March and broke out the results for that segment for the first time. It lost $722 million on that basis from EVs in the first quarter.

    Overall, Ford’s profit for the first quarter was much better than expected. It earned $2.5 billion, or 63 cents a share, up nearly $1 billion from what it earned on that basis a year ago. That was far better than the 41 cents a share earnings forecast by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.

    Sales grew 20% to $41.5 billion, fueling the stronger than expected results. While revenue from the EV segment fell 27%, that segment only had sales of $700 million, a fraction of its overall revenue. Overall, the number of EVs Ford sold fell 32% to 12,000, despite the lower pricing for the Mustang Mach E. Tesla sales have increased after it lowered prices.

    Ford sold 1.1 million total vehicles in the quarter, up 9%.

    Shares of Ford

    (F)     fell 2% in after hours trading, despite the strong results and unchanged earnings guidance.

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  • France is still mad about a hike in the retirement age. But can the protests last? | CNN

    France is still mad about a hike in the retirement age. But can the protests last? | CNN

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    Paris
    CNN
     — 

    Clashes erupted in Paris on Monday marking May 1, a traditional day of union-led marches, in the wake of hugely unpopular changes to France’s pension system that were signed into law last month.

    One of France’s largest unions, the CGT, had called for “historic” protests following months of unrest and widespread strikes that saw transport grind to a halt and garbage mount in the streets of Paris.

    A CNN team on the ground reported chaotic scenes from the protests, having witnessed fireworks and other projectiles thrown at the police who answered with tear gas as they retreated and regrouped. Ahead of the protest the police had warned of a heightened risk of violence, with at least 30 people arrested as a result of Monday’s demonstrations, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV.

    Protesters were forcibly pulling detained civilians out of the police’s arms.

    One officer hit by a Molotov cocktail received treatment after sustaining what seemed to be “serious burns,” according to a spokesman with the Paris police.

    Policemen look on during Monday's demonstrations, with fierce clashes between security officials and protesters leading to dozens of arrests.

    France’s Constitutional Council, which plays a similar role to the US Supreme Court, in April approved the most controversial part of the reform – the raising of the retirement age from 62 to 64.

    Despite the decision, some of France’s powerful unions say they will fight on, with the question now whether this anger will plague the rest of Macron’s time in office or disappear from the streets.

    Here’s all you need to know about the pension reforms.

    For the French “it was never about the age of retirement,” said political scientist Dominique Moïsi, “but the balance between work and life.”

    Pensions reform has long been a thorny issue in France. In 1995, weeks-long mass protests forced the government of the day to abandon plans to reform public sector pensions. In 2010, millions took to the streets to oppose raising the retirement age by two years to 62 and in 2014 further reforms were met with widespread demonstrations.

    “Each time there is opposition from public opinion, then little by little the project passes and basically, public opinion is resigned to it,” Pascal Perrineau of Sciences Po university said.

    For many in France, the pensions system, as with social support more generally, is viewed as the bedrock of the state’s responsibilities and relationship with its citizens.

    The post-World War II social system enshrined rights to a state-funded pension and health care, which have been jealously guarded since, in a country where the state has long played a proactive role in ensuring a certain standard of living.

    How Macron pushed through these reforms – bypassing a parliamentary vote – inflamed tensions as much as their content, focusing anger on the president himself.

    “I don’t think in the history of the Fifth Republic, we have seen so much rage, so much hatred at our president. And I remember as a young student, I was in the streets of Paris in May ’68, and there was rejection of General de Gaulle but never that personal hatred,” Moïsi said.

    Macron is above all a business-minded president. Making France more business-friendly and government more efficient have been central to his mission.

    The young president made social reforms, especially of the pensions system, a flagship policy of his 2022 re-election.

    For Macron’s cabinet, the problem is money. The current system – relying on the working population to pay for a growing age group of retirees – is no longer fit for purpose, the government says.

    Labor minister Olivier Dussopt said that without immediate action the pensions deficit would reach more than $13 billion annually by 2027. Referencing opponents of the reforms, Dussopt told CNN affiliate BFMTV: “Do they imagine that if we pause the reforms, we will pause the deficit?”

    It is worth noting that the higher pension age will still keep France below the norm in Europe and in many other developed economies.

    State pensions in France are also more generous than elsewhere. At nearly 14% of GDP in 2018, the country’s spending on state pensions is larger than in most other countries, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

    The Constitutional Council’s decision means the reforms are going ahead.

    From September, the first retirees will have to wait an additional three months for their state pensions. With regular, incremental increases, by 2030 the retirement age will have reached 64.

    Protesters are unbowed. One told journalists in the immediate aftermath of the decision they would “fight until this reform is abandoned.”

    Between January and mid-April, despite sporadic violence, support for the protests grew by some 11%, figures from pollster IFOP in partnership with Fiducial/Sud Radio showed.

    Protestors stormed the headquarters of luxury giant LVMH last month.

    In contrast, during the Yellow Vest protests, started in opposition to hikes in fuel prices, violence gradually soured public support. That these pensions protests continue to hold such popular goodwill is an ominous sign for Macron’s future plans.

    The size and violence of pensions protests spiked when Macron forced the legislation past the country’s lower legislative house without a vote. Since then, a determined minority has continued to protest – and a much smaller group to engage in violence. For now, with the law passed, momentum may have shifted away from mass street protests, even if flare-ups continue.

    But for an electorate the majority of whom did not pick Macron as their first choice, the May 1 marches will be a barometer of that anger, filmmaker David Dufresne, who directed a documentary on the Yellow Vest protests, told CNN.

    “Democracy by the street is back again,” he said.

    Macron is still not far into his second term, having been re-elected in 2022, and still has four years to serve as the country’s leader. Given French presidents serve fixed terms, his position is safe.

    Following the passage of the reforms, his government laid out a slew of policies promising additional funding for public services – nurse and teacher salaries included – tougher immigration measures and more environmental action in an effort to win back public support. But the horse may have already bolted for Macron’s efforts to woo back the public.

    Looking ahead to the next presidential election in 2027 – still far off on the political horizon – the anger Macron has stirred in the country’s streets doesn’t bode well for his party’s chances.

    While unions have led these protests, opposition politicians, political allies and even some in his own party have come out in support of the demonstrators.

    Macron has pressed on with his plans despite fierce opposition.

    In a re-run of the 2024 presidential run-off, with the far-right’s Marine Le Pen up against a candidate from Macron’s party, this popular anger may be enough to give pause to voters who supported Macron merely to stymie the far-right.

    “He failed to sell his logic and rationality,” Moïsi said, comparing Macron to Barack Obama, whose second term gave way to the presidency of Donald Trump.

    While Macron’s reforming crusade continues, the pensions controversy could ultimately force him to negotiate more, Perrineau warns – though he notes the French president is not known for compromise.

    His tendency to be “a little imperious, a little impatient” can make political negotiations harder, Perrineau said.

    That, he adds, is “perhaps the limit of Macronism.”

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  • Adidas sued by shareholders over its failed Ye partnership | CNN Business

    Adidas sued by shareholders over its failed Ye partnership | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Adidas shareholders filed a class-action lawsuit against the brand, accusing it of failing to warn investors about the antisemitism and “extreme behavior” exhibited by the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, before their partnership ended last year.

    In the lawsuit, filed Friday in a federal court, shareholders allege that Adidas “routinely ignored” his behavior as early as 2018. They claim that senior executives “ignored serious issues” affecting the Yeezy partnership, namely his antisemitic remarks and troubling public comments about slavery.

    In a report from that year, Adidas was “generally alluding” to the risks “rather than stating that the company had actually considered ending the partnership as a result of West’s personal behavior,” according to the lawsuit. During that time, Ye said that slavery was a “choice” in a TMZ interview.

    The lawsuit said that Adidas was aware of his behavior and that the company “failed to take meaningful precautionary measures to limit negative financial exposure” if the partnership ended.

    The lawsuit doesn’t name the rapper, who now goes by Ye. Adidas’ Chief Financial Officer Harm Ohlmeyer and former CEO Kasper Rørsted are named as defendants. The suit covers anyone who bought an Adidas share from May 3, 2018 (when Ye made the slavery remark) until 2023.

    “We outright reject these unfounded claims and will take all necessary measures to vigorously defend ourselves against them,” Adidas said in a comment to CNN.

    Adidas

    (ADDDF)     ended its almost decade-long partnership in October 2022 after Ye wore a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt in public. The Anti-Defamation League categorizes the phrase as a hate slogan used by White supremacist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan. Days later, Ye said “I can say antisemitic s*** and Adidas

    (ADDDF)     cannot drop me” during a podcast taping.

    Adidas said that its partnership with Ye ended because it “does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech” and said his comments were “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous.” It also said they violated the company’s “values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.”

    The company said in February that it was expected to lose $1.3 billion in revenue this year because it’s unable to sell the designer’s Yeezy clothing and shoes. In a statement, Adidas said its financial guidance for 2023 “accounts for the significant adverse impact from not selling the existing stock.” If the company can’t repurpose any of the remaining Ye clothing, Adidas said that could cost the company $534 million in operating profit this year.

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  • Big banks are bidding for troubled First Republic as FDIC deadline looms | CNN Business

    Big banks are bidding for troubled First Republic as FDIC deadline looms | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Federal regulators are holding an auction for ailing regional bank First Republic, a person familiar with the matter tells CNN.

    Final bids are due for First Republic Bank at 4 p.m. ET on Sunday, the source said.

    The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the independent government agency that insures deposits for bank customers, is running the auction.

    Neither First Republic nor the FDIC were immediately available for comment.

    Shares of First Republic

    (FRC)     plunged from $122.50 on March 1 to around $3 a share as of Friday on expectations that the FDIC would step in by end of day and take control of the San Francisco-based bank, its deposits and assets. But that never happened.

    The FDIC had already done so with two other similar sized banks just last month — Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank — when runs on those banks by their customers left the lenders unable to cover customers’ demands for withdrawals.

    The Wall Street Journal previously reported that JPMorgan Chase and PNC Financial are among the big banks bidding on First Republic in a potential deal that would follow an FDIC seizure of the troubled regional bank.

    PNC declined to comment. JPMorgan did not respond to requests for comment.

    “We are engaged in discussions with multiple parties about our strategic options while continuing to serve our clients,” First Republic said in a statement Friday night.

    If there is a buyer for First Republic, the FDIC would likely be stuck with some money-losing assets, as was the case after it found buyers for the viable portions of SVB and Signature after it took control of those banks.

    A kind of shotgun marriage, arranged by regulators who didn’t want a significant bank to end up in the hands of the FDIC before it was sold, occurred several times during the financial crisis of 2008 that sparked the Great Recession. Notably, JPMorgan bought Bear Stearns for a fraction of its earlier value in March of 2008, and then in September bought savings and loan Washington Mutual, soon after Bank of America bought Merrill Lynch.

    The failure of Washington Mutual in 2008 was the nation’s largest bank failure ever. First Republic, which is bigger than either SVB or Signature Bank, would be the second largest.

    Soon after collapses of SVB and Signature in March, First Republic received a $30 billion lifeline in the form of deposits from a collection of the nation’s largest banks, including JPMorgan Chase

    (JPM)    , Bank of America

    (BAC)    , Wells Fargo

    (WFC)    , Citigroup

    (C)     and Truist

    (TFC)    , which came together after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen intervened.

    The banks agreed to take the risk and work together to keep First Republic flush with the cash in the hopes it would provide confidence in the nation’s suddenly battered banking system. The banks and federal regulators all wanted to reduce the chance that customers of other banks would suddenly start withdrawing their cash.

    But while the cash allowed First Republic to make it through the last six weeks, its quarterly financial report Monday evening, with the disclosure of massive withdrawals by the end of March, spurred new concerns about its long-term viability.

    The financial report showed depositors had withdrawn about 41% of their money from the bank during the first quarter. Most of the withdrawals were from accounts with more than $250,000 in them, meaning those excess funds were not insured by the FDIC.

    Uninsured deposits at the bank fell by $100 billion during the course of the first quarter, a period during which total net deposits fell by $102 billion, not including the infusion of deposits from other banks.

    The uninsured deposits stood at 68% of its total deposits as of December 31, but only 27% of its non-bank deposits as of March 31.

    In its earnings statement, the bank said insured deposits declined moderately during the quarter and have remained stable from the end of last month through April 21.

    Banks never have all the cash on hand to cover all deposits. They instead take in deposits and use the cash to make loans or investments, such as purchasing US Treasuries. So when customers lose confidence in a bank and rush to withdrawal their money, what is known as a “run on the bank,” it can cause even an otherwise profitable bank to fail.

    First Republic’s latest earnings report showed it was still profitable in the first quarter — its net income was $269 million, down 33% from a year earlier. But it was the news on the loss of deposits that worried investors and, eventually, regulators.

    While some of those who had more than $250,000 in their First Republic accounts were likely wealthy individuals, most were likely businesses that often need that much cash just to cover daily operating costs. A company with 100 employees can easily need more than $250,000 just to cover a biweekly payroll.

    First Republic’s annual report said that as of December 31, 63% of its total deposits were from business clients, with the rest from consumers.

    First Republic started operations in 1985 with a single San Francisco branch. It is known for catering to wealthy clients in coastal states.

    It has 82 branches listed on its website, spread across eight states, in high-income communities such as Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Santa Monica and Napa Valley, California; in addition to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Silicon Valley. Outside of California, branches are in other high-income communities such as Palm Beach, Florida; Greenwich, Connecticut; Bellevue, Washington; and Jackson, Wyoming.

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  • Here’s what we know about First Republic Bank | CNN Business

    Here’s what we know about First Republic Bank | CNN Business

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    A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    First Republic Bank has been teetering on the edge for weeks. It may be finally falling.

    The San Francisco-based lender could be next in the line to collapse, following in the footsteps of former competitors Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

    It certainly fits the bill: First Republic

    (FRC)    , like SVB, is a mid-sized regional bank with a highly concentrated customer base, outsized amounts of uninsured deposits and loads of unrealized losses on the bonds and treasuries it holds.

    Rumors swirled on Wednesday as publications rushed out reports from unnamed sources saying that the bank was looking to cut a deal to sell assets, that the White House wasn’t interested in facilitating a bailout (there were also reports that it is) and that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is considering downgrading the bank’s debt, which would limit its access to essential Federal Reserve loans.

    The FDIC, Federal Reserve, White House and First Republic did not respond to requests for comment about those reports. But the damage has been done.

    Shares of the stock fell by nearly 30% on Wednesday, after plunging by 49% on Tuesday. The stock’s trading was halted numerous times both days as its rapid decline triggered volatility-triggered timeouts by the New York Stock Exchange.

    But what’s actually happening here?

    The reality of the situation: What we do know for certain is that First Republic reported on Monday that its total deposits fell 41% in the first quarter of 2023 to $104.5 billion, even after a consortium of banks stepped in with $30 billion to prevent the lender from failing. Without that cash infusion, deposits would have fallen by over 50%.

    But, importantly, the bank said that while it saw a sharp drop in deposit activity after the collapse of SVB and Signature Bank last month, activity began to stabilize at the end of March and has since remained steady.

    We also know that First Republic’s net interest income, which shows how much money the bank earned from lending and borrowing, was down 19.4% year-over-year at the end of the first quarter.

    On top of all that, the bank is vulnerable to liquidity problems.

    When the banking crisis erupted in mid-March, about two-thirds of First Republic’s deposits were uninsured with the FDIC. That’s lower than the 94% at Silicon Valley Bank — but at the end of last year, First Republic had an exceptionally high ratio of 111% for loans and long-term investments to deposits, according to S&P Global — meaning it has loaned and invested more money than it has in deposits.

    In short: The outlook for the bank is not good.

    “It’s becoming clearer each day” that First Republic is “toast,” said Don Bilson at Gordon Haskett, in a note Wednesday. “The only question that really needs to be answered is whether the [Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation] moves in before the weekend or during the weekend, which is when it usually does its thing.”

    Possible solutions: We also know that it’s not over until it’s over, and that the bank is still operating. There are still some narrow paths forward.

    There’s a small chance that First Republic stays the course and “muddles along as a standalone company,” said David Chiaverini, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities.

    What’s more likely is that the company will try to sell some of its loans and securities at the same cost they bought them for. In exchange, the buyer would receive a preferred equity interest in the company.

    That will be a tough sell since those assets would probably sell for well above market rate. First Republic’s bonds maturing in 2046 are currently trading at just 43 cents on the dollar. But the bank has been lucky before. First Republic has stayed afloat since March largely thanks to a $30 billion bailout from a conglomerate of large US banks and a $70 billion line of credit from JPMorgan.

    The third option is the worst for shareholders: the bank could go into receivership. When a struggling bank goes into receivership it means that a regulatory authority or government agency takes control of the bank and its assets, usually with the goal of liquidating those assets to repay the bank’s creditors.

    Investors in First Republic would most likely see their money wiped out in that scenario.

    Coming next: First Republic is in a very tricky situation. Investors will be crossing their fingers and holding their breath until Friday at 4 p.m. ET. That’s when newly-collapsed banks have admitted defeat in the past.

    Facebook-parent Meta on Wednesday reported that it grew sales by 3% during the first three months of the year, reversing a trend of three consecutive quarters of revenue declines and far exceeding Wall Street analysts’ expectations, reports my colleague Clare Duffy.

    Meta shares jumped as much as 12% in after-hours trading following the report, continuing the company’s strong trajectory since CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that 2023 would be a “year of efficiency.”

    Another bright spot: user growth was relatively strong compared to recent quarters. The number of monthly active people on Meta’s family of apps grew 5% from the prior year to more than 3.8 billion and Facebook daily active users increased 4% to more than 2 billion.

    Still, Meta has a big hill ahead of it. The company also reported that profits declined by nearly a quarter to $5.7 billion compared to the same period in the prior year. Price per advertisement — an indicator of the health of the company’s core digital ad business — also decreased by 17% from the year prior.

    Meta has been in the midst of a massive restructuring, as it attempts to recover from a perfect storm of heightened competition, lingering recession fears resulting in fewer ad dollars and a multibillion dollar effort to build a future version of the internet it calls the metaverse.

    Meta said in November it would eliminate 11,000 jobs, the single largest round of cuts in its history. And in March, Zuckerberg announced Meta would lay off another 10,000 employees. All told, the cuts will shrink Meta’s workforce by a quarter.

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  • Manhattan prosecutors ask judge to limit Trump’s ability to publicize information about his criminal case | CNN Politics

    Manhattan prosecutors ask judge to limit Trump’s ability to publicize information about his criminal case | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office have asked the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal case to impose a protective order restricting the former president’s ability to publicize information about the investigation.

    In a motion, prosecutors told the judge that Trump’s team would not consent to a protective order.

    “The risk that this Defendant will use the Covered Materials inappropriately is substantial. Defendant has a long history of discussing his legal matters publicly—including by targeting witnesses, jurors, investigators, prosecutors, and judges with harassing, embarrassing, and threatening statements on social media and in other public forums—and he has already done so in this case,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.

    Manhattan prosecutors have accused Trump of falsifying business records with the intent to conceal illegal conduct connected to his 2016 presidential campaign. The criminal charges stem from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into hush money payments, made during the 2016 campaign, to women who claimed they had extramarital affairs with Trump, which he denies. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

    In seeking the protective order, prosecutors cited some of Trump’s past attacks on witnesses who previously spoke out against him, including his former personal attorney Michael Cohen and Alexander Vindman, a former national security official who testified publicly during Trump’s first impeachment.

    They asked the judge to order that Trump only be allowed to view certain material turned over by prosecutors in the presence of his defense counsel and not allow him to copy material designated as “limited dissemination materials.”

    Specifically, they asked the judge to instruct anyone who receives materials, including grand jury testimony, to not post them on any news organization or social media websites without approval from the judge. They also asked the judge to limit the use of any materials they provide to Trump to defending the present case.

    “At the outset, it is important to note that the People are not at this time seeking a gag order in this case. Defendant has a constitutional right to speak publicly about this case, and the People do not seek to infringe upon that right,” prosecutors wrote.

    Prosecutors also asked the judge to limit the review of images of two cell phones related to a witness in the case to Trump’s defense lawyers, saying there is highly personal information included on the phones.

    In addition to limiting the disclosure of certain information prosecutors turn over to Trump from becoming public, they also asked the judge to limit the disclosure of identifying information about any support staff working for the prosecution team to the public until jury selection begins in the case.

    They cited Trump’s past statements about Bragg and the judge in the case.

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  • 3M announces mass layoffs as manufacturing slows | CNN Business

    3M announces mass layoffs as manufacturing slows | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    3M announced significant layoffs Tuesday as part of yet another major restructuring plan as the manufacturing sector prepares for a possible recession and slumping demand for goods.

    The manufacturing behemoth behind some consumer brands, including Post-It Notes and Scotch Tape, said it would lay off 6,000 staff around the world. Those cuts are in addition to the 2,500 manufacturing roles 3M eliminated in January. 3M also announced several mass layoffs in 2019 and 2020, but total headcount has been up and down over the past several years.

    The company said it anticipates it will save up to $900 million a year before taxes after the layoffs are complete. 3M argued that the cuts are “intended to make 3M stronger, leaner and more focused” by simplifying its supply chain and reducing layers of management.

    “These actions are expected to meaningfully reduce costs and drive long-term improvement in margins and cash flow while enabling a more efficient and effective structure for driving long-term growth,” 3M said in a statement.

    3M also announced several management changes as it reported earnings and sales that fell from the previous year. Sales slumped 9% to $8 billion, while net income attributable to the company tumbled 25% to under $1 billion in the quarter.

    The company said it would prioritize products that customers are increasingly demanding, including climate tech, sustainable packaging and automated industrial products, among other emerging technologies. 3M also reaffirmed its previous outlook for 2023, anticipating sales would fall by as much as 6% this year.

    3M said the supply chain problems that doomed the sector for years in the wake of the pandemic have largely eased. That means backlogged orders have been shipped, and the company (and its peers) no longer need as much staff to handle the workload.

    Meanwhile, demand for manufactured goods has fallen in recent months. Consumers have been spending less on stuff and more on experiences lately, and businesses are gearing up for an anticipated recession.

    3M rival Dow also announced thousands of layoffs at the beginning of the year.

    Shares of 3M

    (MMM)     rose slightly in premarket trading.

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  • Jordan subpoenas FBI human resources official | CNN Politics

    Jordan subpoenas FBI human resources official | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan has issued a subpoena to Jennifer Leigh Moore, executive assistant director of human resources at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, demanding she answer questions from the select subcommittee on the so-called weaponization of the federal government.

    Russell Dye, Jordan’s spokesperson, claimed in a statement Monday that Moore “refused to answer questions” about the FBI’s alleged retaliation against conservatives during a previous transcribed interview with the panel.

    CNN has reached out to the FBI for comment.

    Jordan and his fellow Republicans say they have heard from “whistleblowers” who disclosed that the FBI is attempting to “purge” employees with conservative views.

    “We have received protected whistleblower disclosures that the FBI is engaging in a ‘purge’ of employees with conservative views by revoking their security clearances and indefinitely suspending these employees. Many of the formal notices for these adverse personnel actions have been signed by you,” Jordan, an Ohio Republican, wrote in his September letter to Moore.

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  • Credit Suisse outflows topped $68 billion as the bank veered towards collapse | CNN Business

    Credit Suisse outflows topped $68 billion as the bank veered towards collapse | CNN Business

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    London
    CNN
     — 

    Credit Suisse suffered outflows of 61.2 billion Swiss francs ($68.7 billion) in the first three months of the year and customers are still pulling their money from the bank as UBS races to complete a rescue of its stricken rival.

    “Credit Suisse experienced significant net asset outflows, in particular in the second half of March 2023. These outflows have moderated but have not yet reversed as of April 24, 2023,” the lender said in a statement Monday. Outflows in the first quarter amounted to 5% of assets under management, it added.

    Credit Suisse’s first-quarter earnings could be its last after it was bought last month by UBS

    (UBS)     in an emergency rescue deal orchestrated by the Swiss government.

    Swiss authorities judged that a tie-up with its larger rival offered the best chance of restoring stability in the banking sector globally, which had been rattled by the failure of two American banks.

    Credit Suisse

    (CS)     reported a 1.3 billion franc ($1.3 billion) loss for the first quarter, extending a losing streak that began in 2021. The bank posted a loss of 7.3 billion Swiss francs ($7.9 billion) in 2022, its biggest annual loss since the financial crisis in 2008.

    -— This is a developing story and will be updated.

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  • NBCUniversal CEO stepping down over ‘inappropriate relationship’ | CNN Business

    NBCUniversal CEO stepping down over ‘inappropriate relationship’ | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell is leaving the company after an outside investigation “into a complaint of inappropriate conduct,” its parent company Comcast announced Sunday.

    Shell will depart effective immediately in the wake of an investigation led by an outside counsel.

    “Today is my last day as CEO of NBCUniversal. I had an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company, which I deeply regret,” Shell said in a statement. “I’m truly sorry I let my Comcast and NBCUniversal colleagues down, they are the most talented people in the business and the opportunity to work with them the last 19 years has been a privilege.”

    The brief statement did not specify who the woman was or include any other details about the investigation. CNN has reached out to Comcast and NBCUniversal.

    Shell had been named CEO in January 2020 after leading content creation, programming and distribution for NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment.

    Shell had expressed confidence in NBC’s streaming service, Peacock, which surpassed 20 million paid subscribers at the end of 2022 and “nearly tripled” its revenue to $2.1 billion, according to its fourth quarter earnings report, which ended at the end of 2022. Its adjusted earnings loss, however, was wider.

    “There’s no question the whole television landscape is changing,” Shell said in an interview on CNBC “Squawk on the Street” last October. “If you have the right content, and you offer a broad distribution platform, your consumers are going to find you and that’s what we’re doing with Peacock.”

    Comcast is set to report its first quarter earnings on Thursday.

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  • Bed Bath & Beyond files for bankruptcy | CNN Business

    Bed Bath & Beyond files for bankruptcy | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Bed Bath & Beyond, the store for seemingly everything in your home during the 1990s and 2000s, filed for bankruptcy on Sunday. The company said it would sell off its merchandise and then go out of business.

    “Thank you to all of our loyal customers. We have made the difficult decision to begin winding down our operations,” a statement at the top of the company’s website said Sunday morning.

    The company’s 360 Bed Bath & Beyond locations, along with its 120 buybuy BABY stores, will remain open for now, as will their websites. But store closing sales will begin Wednesday, and the company will liquidate all its inventory.

    Bed Bath & Beyond had been a crown jewel of the era of so-called “category killers” — chains that dominated a category of retail, such as Toys “R” Us, Circuit City and Sports Authority. Those companies, too, ultimately filed for bankruptcy as shoppers turned away from huge specialty stores in favor of online options like Amazon.

    Bed Bath & Beyond became known for pots and pans, towels and bedding stacked from the floor to the ceiling at its cavernous stores — and for its ubiquitous 20%-off coupons. The blue-and-white coupons became something of a pop culture symbol, and millions of Americans wound up stashing them away in their cars, closets and basements.

    The company said customers will have Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to use their remaining 20%-off coupons. The company will stop accepting them Wednesday. Instead, Bed Bath & Beyond expects to offer “deep discounts” on its products as part of its going-out-of-business sales.

    The retailer attracted a broad range of customers by selling name brands at cut-rate prices. Brands coveted a spot on Bed Bath & Beyond’s shelves, knowing it would lead to big sales. Plus, the open-store layout encouraged impulse buying: Shoppers would come in to buy new dishes and walk out with pillows, towels and other items.

    Stores were a fixture for shoppers around the winter holidays and during the back-to-school and college seasons, and Bed Bath & Beyond also had a strong baby and wedding registry business.

    But the New Jersey-based company has been slow to respond to shopping changes and struggled to entice customers who had moved on to Amazon, Target and other chains.

    In its bankruptcy filing, Bed Bath & Beyond said it had $5.2 billion in debt and assets of just $4.4 billion. It secured $240 million in financing Sunday to stay afloat just long enough to close its stores and wind down its operations.

    The company encouraged shoppers to seek out its discounted merchandise later this week. Items purchased before Wednesday can be returned until May 24, but all sales after Wednesday will be final. The store will stop accepting gift cards on May 8.

    Founded in 1971 by Warren Eisenberg and Leonard Feinstein, two veterans of the discount retail industry in Springfield, New Jersey, the chain of small linen and bath stores — then called Bed ‘n Bath — first grew around the northeast and in California selling designer bedding, a new trend at the time. Unlike department stores, it didn’t rely on sales events to draw in customers.

    The company changed its name to Bed Bath & Beyond in 1987 to reflect its expanded merchandise and bigger “superstores.” The company went public in 1992 with 38 stores and around $200 million in sales.

    “We had witnessed the department store shakeout and knew that specialty stores were going to be the next wave of retailing,” Feinstein said in 1993. “It was the beginning of the designer approach to linens and housewares and we saw a real window of opportunity.”

    Customers examining items in shopping carts at a Bed, Bath & Beyond store in New York City on January 18, 1994.

    By 2000, those figures leapt to 241 stores and $1.1 billion in annual sales. The 1,000th Bed Bath & Beyond store opened in 2009, when the chain had reached $7.8 billion in annual sales.

    The company was something of an iconoclast. It spent little on advertising, relying instead on print coupons distributed in weekly newspapers to attract customers.

    “Why not just tell the customer that we’ll give you a discount on the item you want — and not the one that we want to put on sale? We’ll mail a coupon, and it will be a lot cheaper,” Eisenberg said in a 2020 New York Times interview.

    The chain was known for giving autonomy to store managers to decide which products to stock, allowing them to customize their individual stores, and for shipping products directly to stores instead of a central warehouse.

    But as brick-and-mortar began to give way to e-commerce, Bed Bath & Beyond was slow to make the transition — a misstep compounded by the fact that home decor is one of the most commonly bought categories online.

    “We missed the boat on the internet,” Eisenberg said in a recent Wall Street Journal interview. (The co-founders are no longer involved with the company.)

    Online shopping weakened the allure of Bed Bath & Beyond’s fan-favorite coupons, too, because consumers could find plenty of cheaper alternatives on Amazon or browse a wider selection on sites like Wayfair

    (W)    .

    It wasn’t just Amazon and online shopping that sank Bed Bath & Beyond, however.

    Walmart

    (WMT)    , Target

    (TGT)     and Costco

    (COST)     have grown over the past decade, and they have been able to draw Bed Bath & Beyond customers with lower prices and a wider array of merchandise. Discount chains such as HomeGoods and TJ Maxx have also undercut Bed Bath & Beyond’s prices.

    Without the differentiators of the lowest prices or widest selection, Bed Bath & Beyond’s sales stagnated from 2012 to 2019.

    Shoppers inspect cleaning supplies while shopping inside of a Bed Bath & Beyond store in New York April 13, 2011.

    Then the pandemic hit in 2020. The company temporarily closed all of its stores while rivals deemed “essential retailers” like Walmart remained open. Sales sank 17% in 2020 and 15% in 2021.

    What’s more, Bed Bath & Beyond has rotated through several different executives and turnaround strategies in recent years.

    Former Target executive Mark Tritton took the helm in 2019 with backing from investors and a bold new strategy. He scaled back coupons and inventory from national brands in favor of Bed Bath & Beyond’s own private-label brands.

    But this change alienated customers who were loyal to big brands. The company also fell behind on payments to vendors, and stores did not have enough merchandise to stock shelves. Tritton stepped down as CEO in 2022.

    Bed Bath & Beyond

    (BBBY)     has been teetering on the brink of bankruptcy for months.

    In February, it was able to stave off bankruptcy by completing a complex stock offering that gave it both an immediate injection of cash and a pledge for more funding in the future to pay down its debt. That offering was backed by private equity group Hudson Bay Capital.

    But Bed Bath & Beyond last month said it terminated the deal with Hudson Bay Capital for future funding and was turning to the public market to try to raise funds.

    The company has also been shrinking to save money. It said earlier this year it would close around 400 locations, but would keep open profitable stores in key markets.

    And the company tried to save money by not paying severance to some laid-off workers at closing stores.

    Bed Bath & Beyond laid off 1,295 workers in New Jersey this month, just days before a new state law kicked in that mandates severance pay — equal to one week of pay for each year of employment — for workers who lose their job.

    All these moves were not enough to keep the once-dominant chain out of bankruptcy, however.

    And Bed Bath & Beyond is the latest retail chain to file for bankruptcy this year. Bankruptcies are piling up in the retail sector as interest rates go up and discretionary spending slows down.

    David’s Bridal, Party City, Tuesday Morning, mattress manufacturer Serta Simmons and Independent Pet Partners, a pet store retailer, have filed for bankruptcy in recent weeks.

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