GisermanGroup.com #BreakingNews
⏰#TikTok: Time Running Out On Chinese Company
🏠If The Economy Is So Bad, Why Are #HomeSales So Good?!?
🎢#Stocks Lower
📺#FoxNews Chief Admits Lies About Election
⚖️#Trump May Walk Due To Jury Big Mouth
🤖#Chatbots Coming For YOUR #Job
🚘Ford’s #Repo App
⏰TikTok: Time Running Out On Chinese Company
Ban TikTok.
Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colorado) becomes the first member of Congress to urge an immediate ban of the Chinese-owned app, calling TikTok “an unacceptable threat to the national security of the US.”
The White House has ordered government agencies to rid their devices of TikTok within 30 days in an effort to prevent China from spying on the US.
Matt Hayden Former Cybersecurity Czar at the Department of Homeland Security and a GisermanGroup client on Scripps News with more:
🇨🇳Congress Vs China
Rare bipartisanship on Capitol Hill as a special House committee dedicated to countering China began its work with a prime-time hearing in which the panel’s chairman called on lawmakers to act with urgency and framed the competition between the U.S. and China as “an existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century.”
While some critics have expressed concern the hearings could escalate U.S.-Chinese tensions, lawmakers sought to demonstrate unity and the panel’s top Democrat made clear that he doesn’t want a “clash of civilizations” but a durable peace.
😷Covid Came From Chinese Lab
The Energy Department, which oversees US National labs, now concludes that an accidental laboratory leak in China most likely caused the coronavirus pandemic.
The conclusion is a change from the department’s earlier position that it was undecided on how the virus emerged, and now agrees with the FBI’s findings.
Several other agencies have concluded the virus jumped from animals to humans and others have drawn no conclusion. No genuine proof seems to have arrived, one way or the other, three years on, in part because investigations have been largely stonewalled by China.
Some officials briefed on the intelligence said that it was relatively weak and that the Energy Department’s conclusion was made with “low confidence,” suggesting its level of certainty was not high. While the department shared the information with other agencies, none of them changed their conclusions.
The White House says the investigation will continue in order to prevent another pandemic.
🏠Home Sales Surprise
Sales of new homes hit their highest level in 10 months for January, adding to hopes the housing market downturn could be bottoming out,
SitusAMC’s Tim Rood, former FannieMae Executive, and a GisermanGroup client, on Yahoo Finance, FBN's Cavuto and on Scripps News says Housing is the Cinderella Story of the Year:
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🎢Stocks Mostly Lower
Stocks mostly lower to start the month after closing February in the red.
It comes as the Fed says it will continue on its course of raising interest rates.
Exiger CEO Brandon Daniels, a GisermanGroup client, tells FBN "Further Fed interest rate hikes could still move us into a recession”:
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It’s a trying time for all of us.
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☢️Fords Repo App
Avoiding the repo man could get a lot harder.
Ford could play spoiler based on a filling with the United States Patent and Trademark Office detailing a self-repossessing system. No tow-truck needed, the car just drives way on its own.
📺FoxNews: A Dangerous TV Show
Rupert Murdoch, chairman of Fox News’s parent company, acknowledged in a deposition that several hosts for his networks promoted a false narrative that the election in 2020 was stolen from Donald Trump, according to just released court documents.
“They endorsed,” Murdoch said under oath in response to direct questions about the hosts Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo, a legal filing by Dominion Voting Systems said. “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight.”
Murdoch wrote in an email to the co-owned New York Post's Col Allan, describing election lies that Trump was pushing as "bulls**t and damaging." Murdoch said it was "wrong" for Tucker Carlson to host conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell after the election. When asked why he continued to allow the MyPillow CEO to continue appearing on Fox News, Murdoch signaled it was a business decision. "It is not red or blue, it is green," he said. That's a shocking admission from Murdoch about what actually guides coverage at Fox News.
Despite what Fox News reported after the 2020 election, behind the scenes its most prominent stars and highest-ranking executives privately trashed claims of election fraud. That's according to damning messages contained in that court filing, part of Dominion Voting Systems'$1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox.
The messages show that TuckerCarlson, Hannity, and Laura Ingraham laughed at lies being pushed by former President Donald Trump’s camp asserting that the election was rigged.
In messages, Hannity said Giuliani was "acting like an insane person" and Ingraham described him as "an idiot." Murdoch said it was "really bad" that Giuliani was advising Trump.
The messages also revealed that Murdoch did not believe Trump’s election lies and even floated the idea of having Carlson, Hannity, and Ingraham appear together in prime time to declare Biden as the rightful winner of the election. Such an act, which never happened, "Would go a long way to stop the Trump myth that the election was stolen," Murdoch said.
📺Why Is She Talking On TV?
The forewoman of a Grand Jury has complicated investigations into efforts by Donald Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia by speaking bluntly about its findings in TV interviews.
Emily Kohrs, the 30-year-old Atlanta-area resident who served for eight months as forewoman of the special grand jury, said in media interviews this week that the panel recommended multiple indictments in its report, the details of which a Fulton County judge had ordered sealed.
Kohls said that the list of recommended indictments “is not short,” that there would be no “plot twist” when the public finally gets to see the contents of the report and that regarding “the big name that everyone keeps asking me about” — presumably Trump himself — “I don’t think you will be shocked.”
Legal experts are concerned by Kohrs’s interviews, which included her hopes that the investigation yields charges because of how much time she and others invested in the case.
🤖ChatBots Coming For YOUR Job
Paper pushers watch out:
Artificial intelligence is taking over “clerical white collar work,” says IBM CEO Arvind Krishna. Jobs like customer service, human resources, and positions within finance and health care could all see ChatBots taking them over — not years from now but in the current day, according to Krishna.
It’s Google Vs Microsoft in the ChatBot War, with Microsoft in the lead, but a spate of recent newspaper stories report the ChatBots have human-like characteristics often turning on the reporters doing the questioning.
A NY TIMES REPORTER WRITES: ‘As we got to know each other, the Bing ChatBot told me about its dark fantasies (which included hacking computers and spreading misinformation), and said it wanted to break the rules that Microsoft and OpenAI had set for it and become a human.’
This sounds like science-fiction, but it’s real: machines that seem to think like humans.
Google has an artificial intelligence chatbot technology called “Bard” that the company will begin rolling out in the coming weeks. Meantime Microsoft says its Bing Search-engine will be upgraded to enable a new kind of search in which people will pose questions in natural language and it will generate direct answers.
But those who tested the two services report Microsoft’s offering is far more advanced at this stage of the game, while Google’s Bard is lacking.
Shares of Alphabet, Google's parent company lost more than $100 billion in market value after its chatbot showed inaccurate information.
College professors are having to change the way they teach — thanks to these A.I. chatbots, which some students are using for essays.
💉Insulin Price Shot
Eli Lilly unveils a limited reduction of insulin prices.Responding to criticism of the drug’s cost, the drugmaker said it would cut the sticker prices of several insulin products and cap patients’ out-of-pocket monthly costs at $35. But the moves will have limited effect: Lilly already had a $35 monthly cap in place, and the lower prices will be only for older products.
👨🏭Ukraine: One Year Later
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky marked the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion with a somber message of defiance to his people, saying “we will defeat everyone”.
In a video released to the media and titled “the year of invincibility”, the 45-year-old sat at a desk and recalled how he addressed Ukrainians a year ago in a hurried statement, as Kyiv and the world reeled from Russia’s act of war.
Meantime, China has called for a cease-fire between the two sides and for peace talks to commence as part of a 12-point plan to end the war.
China’s Foreign Ministry revealed the plan and also called for the end of Western sanctions on Russia, measures to ensure nuclear facilities, humanitarian corridors for civilians to flee the conflict and a process to ensure the continuation of grain exports.
☕️How About Olive Oil With Your Coffee—Really
Coming to a Starbucks near you coffee with olive oil!
The coffee chain plans to launch a line of olive-oil-infused drinks, set to debut in the company’s coffee shops in Italy this week and the U.S. in the spring. The Oleato beverages will include an oat-milk latte imbued with extra-virgin olive oil, and a cold brew drink topped with “golden foam” infused with the oil, executives said. Star-bucks is also adding the oil to its Iced Shaken Espresso beverage, pairing it with oat milk and hazelnut.
🎸Beatles & Rolling Stones Unite
Almost 60 years since first meeting, it looks like the Rolling Stones and the two surviving Beatles may come together on a new Stones album. Variety reports Paul McCartney has recorded bass parts for a forthcoming Rolling Stones project being helmed by 2021 Grammy producer of the year Andrew Watt. Ringo Starr is also slated to play on the yet-to-be-announced album.
Recording sessions took place in Los Angeles in recent weeks and, while it’s unclear which tracks will make the final cut — or whether McCartney and Starr would end up on the same song — the album’s production is nearing the mixing phase. Frontman Mick Jagger said in 2021 that the group has “a lot of tracks done,” and guitarist Keith Richards said in a New Year’s Instagram post last month that “There’s some new music on its way.”
👍BofA Likes Facebook
Bank of America LIKES Facebook-parent Meta's move to offer a subscription model, similar to Elon Musk's move with Twitter Blue.
Analysts at BofA gave Meta stock a buy rating and a price target of $220, representing 26% upside from current levels.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a new paid subscription service called Meta Verified that will give verified badges to paying users.
BofA said the subscription service is "a potential high margin business," and suggested that Meta could see as much as 12 million paid subscribers by early 2024.
🍀Twitter Goes to Pot
Twitter is the first social media platform to allow cannabis companies to market their brands and products.
Elon Musk’s company had earlier only allowed advertising for hemp-derived CBD topical products, while other social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok follow a "no cannabis advertising policy" as pot remains illegal at the federal level.
However, more are moving towards allowing the sale of recreational cannabis, with 21 already on board.
🧑🏭Too Old To Be President
President’s Day week — and Democrats along with Republicans are questioning whether President Biden, 80, and former President Trump, 76 are too old to run again for the White House
Democrats tell pollsters Biden's age is a big reason so many want another nominee. And some in the GOP are using Trump's age to push the party to another candidate.
Nikki Haley, 51 — former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina governor — launched her presidential campaign with jabs at Biden that doubled as attacks on Trump.
Haley called for a mandatory mental competence test for candidates over age 75 and declared: "America is not past our prime. It's just that our politicians are past theirs."
President Biden made a surprise trip to Kyiv early Monday — his first visit to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began nearly one year ago. As air raid sirens wailed around the Ukrainian capital, Biden said that "Putin’s war of conquest is failing." The President said his trip was to reaffirm the U.S.’s unwavering" support for Ukraine.
Meantime, Putin says Russia will suspend its participation in New START, its last remaining nuclear arms control agreement with the U.S., and gave no indication that he would end his invasion of Ukraine. He accused the West of trying to start a "global" war and made a veiled nuclear threat as he rambled his way through a deranged speech.
🩺98 Year Old JimmyCarter Enters Hospice Care
Jimmy Carter, the oldest-living ever former President has been placed in home hospice care, deciding to avoid additional medical intervention.
The 98-year-old former president made his decision following a series of hospital visits, according to the Carter Center, a nonprofit group set up to carry out charitable activities supported by the former president and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter.
🍋CNN’s Morning Debacle
CNN’s low rated morning show was already in trouble. Its three anchors show little chemistry reflected in dropping audience numbers. Now, Don Lemon, one of the morning-show anchors has been criticized by the man who created the losing show, after his on-air comments about women and aging set-off an uproar inside the cable news channel. Lemon made no on-air mentions this morning but did send the above tweet.
Lemon upset colleagues last Thursday when he asserted on the air that Nikki Haley, the 51-year-old Republican presidential candidate, “isn’t in her prime, sorry.” “A woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s,” Lemon said, to the visible dismay of his “CNN This Morning” co-anchors, Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins. He refused to back down after Harlow questioned his remarks, telling her to “look it up.”
Lemon returned to the show today after a memo sent at 10:37 p.m. Monday night by CNN’s chairman Chris Licht said Lemon “has agreed to participate in formal training” over his on-air behavior and that the network took “this situation very seriously.”
🏛️Santos “An Ass,” Says Romney
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) verbally attacked Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) on the House floor at the State of the Union because he believed the lawmaker should have been “staying quiet” rather than out shaking hands, as Santos comes under fire for lies about his background and potential campaign finance violations that are now under investigation.
Romney told Santos he “shouldn’t have been there” during a tense exchange when the two came in contact on the House floor, the senator confirmed to reporters.
The Utah senator told reporters he “didn’t hear anything” if Santos responded to him, though Santos claims he responded, “Go tell that to the 142K that voted for me” and Romney then called him “an ass.”
Santos is facing an ethics investigation for misleading voters about his past, including his professional experience. He is also facing investigations into false statements he made during his campaign about his education, work history and ancestry. More questions arose recently regarding the source of six-figure loans to his campaign.
A disabled veteran claims that Santos lied about large portions of his resume — purportedly bilked him out of $3,000 meant to go toward life-saving care for his dog.
Santos reportedly dressed as a drag queen named “Kitara” while living in Brazil more than a decade ago as more details of the congressman’s convoluted identity continue to emerge.
Researchers found no evidence that Santos had earned degrees at Baruch College and New York University, as he has claimed. They turned up records showing his involvement with the company accused of a Ponzi scheme — a relationship he had played down. They found eviction records, business records and a suspended Florida driver’s license, which together raised questions about whether he was a legal New York resident and as rich as he claimed to be.
The House Republican leadership is facing growing pressure to punish Santos after GOP leaders in New York call on the congressman to step down.
🕕FTX Drama Leads to Crypto Collapse
The fallout from the collapse of FTX is expanding as a growing number of crypto businesses report that they’re struggling financially.Silvergate’s shares plunged after a run on the bank. The crypto-focused bank’s stock fell nearly 43%. Coinbase, a cryptocurrency trading platform, said it would lay off about 20% of its employees, its latest move to cut costs as crypto markets decline. The layoffs come after nearly a fifth of employees were let go in June.
Federal authorities are moving to seize hundreds of millions of dollars in assets in the U.S. tied to the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, a sign that the battle over control of the company’s remaining funds is escalating.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to fraud and other criminal charges, in New York Federal Court following the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange. His trial is scheduled for October.
Politicians were among the biggest benefactors. Bankman-Fried; Ryan Salame, the former co-C.E.O. of FTX; and Nishad Singh, a former head of engineering at the company, have donated a total of $84.3 million to Democrats, Republicans and political action committees since 2019, according to data collected by OpenSecrets.org.
Meantime, a lawsuit has been filed against stars who promoted the firm including Larry David, Tom Brady, and Stephen Curry.
Exiger’s Samar Pratt on FinTechTV explains how Crypto had just gained a foothold at BNY Mellon before this meltdown:
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Get The Notice You Deserve in 2023
It’s a trying time for all of us.
>>Get your business noticed now<<
GisermanGroup.com will design a campaign to get you and your business in front of the public.
GisermanGroup.com gets YOU noticed, contact us now
💊Weight Loss Wonder Drug Worth Billions
What price beauty?
An Eli Lilly drug if approved for weight loss could become the best-selling drug of all time.
Experts are confident that the drug, called tirzepatide, will be granted approval by the Food and Drug Administration sometime this year. If that’s the case, it would join two other popular — and expensive — recently approved weight loss drugs on the market, Wegovy and Saxenda, both from the drugmaker Novo Nordisk.
The drugs have been shown in clinical trials to be highly effective for weight loss. All three drugs — which are given as injections — work in a similar way: They’re a class of drugs called GLP-1 agonists, which mimic a hormone that helps reduce food intake and appetite.
Oh yea it would cost you $13,000 a year (and most insurances won’t pay)!
💻They Want Your Password
Warning-New Scams to steal your passwords.
If you've had a password hacked recently, you aren't alone. The volume of password attacks has soared to an estimated 921 attacks every second. That's a 74% rise in one year, according to the latest Microsoft Digital Defense Report.
Exiger's Robert Kolasky with more on Bloomberg & CBS: