It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, November 01, 2021
Pew survey of 17 nations give U.S. mixed reviews on culture, democracy
By Rich Klein A new survey of people from 17 advanced economies give mixed reviews to the United States on a wide variety of issues, including Americans' standard of living. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
Nov. 1 (UPI) -- A new survey released Monday finds that the United States is viewed positively in advanced economies around the world for its technology, entertainment, military and universities. But the country is viewed more negatively for its healthcare system, discrimination and the state of its democracy.
The survey found that the most positive elements of America's image are tied to some of its most famous exports, with the United States receiving considerable praise for its technology, education and popular culture.
When asked to compare American technological innovations with those of other developed nations, respondents give the home of Silicon Valley favorable reviews.
Across the 16 countries polled outside the United States, a median of 72 percent say U.S. technology is the best or above average.
Most of those surveyed gave the home of Hollywood high marks for its entertainment, such as movies, music and television. A median of 71 percent said American entertainment is the best or above average.
The American healthcare system received poor reviews, with a median of 48 percent saying that it is below average and 18 percent who say it is the worst among developed nations.
Over the past two years, Pew Research Center polls have found that foreign countries are widely critical of how the United States has handled the COVID-19 pandemic, and those who believe the United States has done a bad job of dealing with the crisis are especially likely to give the U.S. healthcare system low rating.
The survey, which was conducted less than a year after international protests erupted following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, finds widespread criticism about the state of civil rights in America.
Large majorities say discrimination against people based on their race or ethnicity is a serious problem in the United States, and in most countries, majorities say it is a very serious problem. And while many say discrimination is also a serious problem in their own countries, they consistently say discrimination is worse in the United States.
Researchers: Origins of modern wheat may provide clues to making it stronger
New insights into the genetic origins of wheat could help inform changes that improve its ability to fight off diseases, scientists say. Photo by Bru-nO/Pixabay
Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Modern wheat bread may have originated in the Caucuses region of present-day Georgia in eastern Europe, a study published Monday by Nature Biotechnology found.
After sequencing the DNA from 242 unique accessions of Aegilops tauschii, a wild relative of bread wheat, collected from areas of Turkey and Central Asia, the key ingredient appears to have been first cultivated about 300 miles from the so-called Fertile Crescent, the researchers said.
The Fertile Crescent is the region of the Middle East stretching across Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Jordan and Egypt that scientists consider to be the birthplace of modern civilization because the land provided a vibrant source of food, according to the researchers.
The discovery was made as part of an international research project seeking ways to improve wheat crops globally, and making the crop more like some of its ancestors could make it less susceptible to disease, they say.
"The discovery of this previously unknown contribution to the bread wheat genome is akin to discovering the introgression of Neanderthal DNA into the out of Africa human genome," researcher Kumar Gaurav said in a statement.
"This group of Georgian accessions form a distinct lineage that contributed to the wheat genome by leaving a footprint in the DNA," said Gaurav, a postdoctoral scientist at the John Innes Center in Norwich, England.
The newly discovered lineage may have been more geographically widespread in the past and it may have become separated during the last ice-age, he and his colleagues said.
The origin of modern hexaploid bread wheat, which accounts for 95% of all cultivated wheat globally, has long been the subject of intense research, with evidence suggesting that it was cultivated 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent.
It is a complex combination of different grasses with a sizable genetic code, according to the researchers.
Through a combination of natural hybridizations and human cultivation, Aegilops tauschii contributed to the genome of hexaploid wheat, adding the properties for making dough and enabling it to flourish in different climates and soils.
However, domestication, while increasing crop yield, came with a cost: eroding genetic diversity that gave wheat protective traits against disease and heat.
Indeed, the analysis by Gaurav and his colleagues revealed that just 25% of the genetic diversity present in Aegilops tauschii made it into hexaploid wheat.
Additional experiments showed that it is possible to transfer genes for a subset of these protective traits into modern wheat, using a library of synthetic wheats, to create a specially bred wheat that incorporates Aegilops tauschii characteristics, the researchers said.
Ancestral Aegilops tauschii DNA found in modern bread wheat includes the gene that gives superior strength and elasticity to dough, according to the authors of a companion analysis published Monday by Communications Biology.
"We were amazed to discover that this lineage has provided the best-known gene for superior dough quality," co-author Jesse Poland, professor of plant pathology, at Kansas State University, said in a press release.
How bread wheat got its gluten: Tracing the impact of a long-lost relative on modern bread wheat
Genetic detective work has uncovered an obscure ancestor of modern bread wheat, in a finding similar to uncovering a famous long-lost relative through DNA analysis in humans.
IMAGE: RESEARCHERS ON A WILD WHEAT RELATIVES FORAGING TRIP IN THE CENTRAL ZAGROS MOUNTAINS IN WESTERN IRANview more
CREDIT: ALI MEHRABI
Genetic detective work has uncovered an obscure ancestor of modern bread wheat, in a finding similar to uncovering a famous long-lost relative through DNA analysis in humans.
In a study which appears in Nature Biotechnology researchers sequenced the DNA from 242 unique accessions of Aegilops tauschii gathered over decades from across its native range - from Turkey to Central Asia.
Population genome analysis led by Dr Kumar Gaurav from the John Innes Centre revealed the existence of a distinct lineage of Aegilops tauschii restricted to present day Georgia, in the Caucuses region – some 500 kilometers from the Fertile Crescent where wheat was first cultivated – an area stretching across modern-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt.
First author of the study in Nature Biotechnology, Dr Kumar Gaurav said, “The discovery of this previously unknown contribution to the bread wheat genome is akin to discovering the introgression of Neanderthal DNA into the out of Africa human genome,”
“It is most likely to have occurred though a hybridization outside the Fertile Crescent. This group of Georgian accessions form a distinct lineage that contributed to the wheat genome by leaving a footprint in the DNA.”
The discovery comes via a major international collaboration to improve crops by exploring useful genetic diversity in Aegilops tauschii, awild relative of bread wheat. The Open Wild Wheat Consortium brought together 38 research groups and researchers from 17 countries.
Further research by Dr Jesse Poland’s group at Kansas State University was published in a companion paper in Communications Biology and shows that the ancestral Aegilops tauschii DNA found in modern bread wheat includes the gene that gives superior strength and elasticity to dough.
Dr. Poland said, “We were amazed to discover that this lineage has provided the best-known gene for superior dough quality.”
The researchers speculate that the newly discovered lineage may have been more geographically widespread in the past, and that it may have become separated as a refugium population during the last ice-age.
Reflecting on all that has come together to make this work possible, Dr Brande Wulff, corresponding author of the study, remarked, "Fifty or sixty years ago at a time when we barely understood DNA, my scientific forebears were traversing the Zagros mountains in the middle east and Syria and Iraq. They were collecting seeds, perhaps having an inkling that one day these could be used for improving wheat. Now we are so close to unlocking that potential, and for me that is extraordinarily exciting.”
Modern “hexaploid” wheat, is a complex genetic combination of different grasses with a huge genetic code, split into A, B and D sub-genomes. Hexaploid wheat accounts for 95 percent of all cultivated wheat. Hexaploid means that the DNA contains six sets of chromosomes - three pairs of each.
Through a combination of natural hybridizations and human cultivation, Aegilops tauschii provided the D-genome to modern wheat. The D-genome added the properties for making dough, and enabled bread wheat to flourish in different climates and soils.
The origin of modern hexaploid bread wheat has long been the subject of intense scrutiny with archeological and genetic evidence suggesting that the first wheat was cultivated 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent.
Domestication, while increasing yield and increasing agronomic performance, came at the cost of a pronounced genetic bottleneck eroding genetic diversity for protective traits to be found in Aegilops tauschii such as disease resistance and heat tolerance.
Analysis performed by Dr. Gaurav and the research team revealed that just 25% of the genetic diversity present in Aegilops tauschii made it into hexaploid wheat. To explore this diversity in the wild gene pool, they used a technique called association mapping to discover new candidate genes for disease and pest resistance, yield and environmental resilience.
Dr. Sanu Arora, who had earlier led a study to clone disease resistance genes from Aegilops tauschii said, “Previously we were restricted to exploring a very small subset of the genome for disease resistance, but in the current study, we have generated data and techniques to undertake an unbiased exploration of the species diversity”.
Further experiments demonstrated the transfer of candidate genes for a subset of these traits into wheat using genetic transformation and conventional crossing - facilitated by a library of synthetic wheats - specially bred material which incorporates Aegilops tauschii genomes.
This publicly available library of synthetic wheats captures 70 per cent of the diversity present across all three known Aegilops tauschii lineages, enabling researchers to assess traits rapidly in a background of hexaploid wheats.
“Our study provides an end-to-end pipeline for rapid and systematic exploration of the Aegilops tauschii gene pool for improving modern bread wheat.” says Dr Wulff.
“High molecular weight glutenin gene diversity in Aegilops tauschii demonstrates unique origin of superior wheat quality”, appears in Communications Biology
BEKASI, Indonesia (Reuters) - Seated cross-legged amid a fog of incense and platters of fragrant offerings, dishes of red chillies, garlic bulbs and frangipani petals, Indonesian shaman Ki Joko Sapu-Jagat prepares at home the night before his first day back on the job.
After a months-long interruption, Indonesia's rain shamans who conduct ceremonies to keep rain away, are back in business, with large-scale events now permitted under eased coronavirus restrictions.
While many might be sceptical, several Indonesians believe in the ability of these "pawang hujan", or "rain-diviners", to control the weather.
In a nation that experiences sudden monsoon downpours for months each year, these rain shamans are often hired to keep weddings, concerts, and even government events rain-free.
"In principle we work without changing nature. Instead we fortify the area where the event is," said Ki Joko, 57, staring up at a patch of ominous gray clouds, as he explained how he creates an invisible barrier of protection to move clouds to other places.
Ki Joko's first day back on the job involved an outdoor wedding in Bekasi, West Java, attended by 400 people, on a day when the weather forecast predicted storms and a 75% chance of rain
Surveying the venue's leafy perimeter, Ki Joko, in a Javanese shirt and batik bandana, stopped at a quiet corner and planted precious heirlooms, including a handful of small bronzed krises, or daggers, into the earth around a plate of fresh flowers.
Ki Joko comes from an ancestral line of Balinese rain shamans, and has been a "pawang hujan" for decades, picking up the craft from his mother in his late teens.
"Their work is between 70-100% successful," noted venue manager Yata. "There are situations where the conditions are extreme and they can't prevent it, so finally it rains. But their presence is very helpful for outdoor events like this"
The tomb is located in Saqqara, a huge necropolis south of Cairo, according to a statement from Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities published Saturday.
Saqqara has been the site of a string of astonishing finds in recent years, and this latest discovery is the work of a team of archaeologists from Cairo University.
Egypt Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities Saqqara is an ancient necropolis south of Cairo.
In addition to the tomb of the former treasurer, the team also uncovered the tombs of a number of dignitaries, including a military leader called Hor Mohib.
Sometimes known as Ramses the Great, Ramses II ruled Egypt from 1279 to 1213 BC, the second-longest reign in Egyptian history.
Around 20 miles south of Cairo, the vast burial ground of Saqqara once served the royal capital of Memphis, and the site is also home to Egypt's oldest surviving pyramid.
Egypt Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities Archaelogists uncovered a number of tombs belonging to ancient dignitaries.
In January, authorities announced the discovery of a cache of ancient burial shafts containing hundreds of wooden coffins.
CRIMINAL CAPITALI$T
The boss of Barclays just quit amid an investigation into his ties with Jeffrey Epstein
htan@insider.com (Huileng Tan)
Barclays CEO Jes Staley. Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images
Barclays on Monday said CEO Jes Staley was resigning amid a probe into his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Barclays said it had seen preliminary findings from the regulatory investigation on Friday. UK regulators have been examining Staley's characterization of his ties to Epstein, Barclays said.
Barclays CEO Jes Staley is stepping down from the bank effective immediately amid a regulatory investigation into his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Barclays said in a statement Monday that it was made aware of preliminary findings from the investigation, by UK financial regulators, on Friday evening.
The disgraced financier Epstein was arrested in July 2019 and charged with child sex trafficking. He was found dead in his jail cell a month later.
When Staley ran JPMorgan's private bank, Epstein regularly brought him business, Bloomberg reported a person familiar with the matter as saying.
Barclays on Monday said investigators were examining "Mr. Staley's characterization to Barclays of his relationship with the late Mr. Jeffrey Epstein and the subsequent description of that relationship in Barclays' response" to the UK Financial Conduct Authority.
Staley intended to "contest" the investigators' preliminary conclusions, Barclays said.
Barclays said: "It should be noted that the investigation makes no findings that Mr. Staley saw, or was aware of, any of Mr. Epstein's alleged crimes, which was the central question underpinning Barclays' support for Mr Staley following the arrest of Mr. Epstein in the summer of 2019."
Barclays said its board and Staley had agreed that he'd step down from his role as group CEO and as a director.
C.S. Venkatakrishnan, the head of global markets, is taking over as Barclays CEO effective immediately.
Staley's contract entitles him to receive his fixed pay of £2.4 million, or $3.3 million, in cash and Barclays shares until October 31 of next year, Barclays said.
Shares in Barclays fell by 3.4% in early trading in London on Monday.
Ex-Barclays CEO Jes Staley is one of many business figures with ties to Jeffrey Epstein
Barclays (BCS) CEO Jes Staley is leaving the bank after an investigation by British authorities into his relationship with now-deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the bank announced on Monday.
The unpublished findings of the report from Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulatory Authority were shared with the bank on Friday. In light of the findings, as well as Staley's intention to contest them, the bank reached an agreement with Staley for his immediate departure, Reuters reported.
"It should be noted that the investigation makes no findings that Mr. Staley saw, or was aware of, any of Mr. Epstein's alleged crimes, which was the central question underpinning Barclays' support for Mr. Staley following the arrest of Mr. Epstein in the summer of 2019," the bank noted.
The friendship between Staley and Epstein, a well-connected financier, goes back to at least 1999, when Staley was in charge of private banking at JPMorgan, the New York Times reported. Epstein, a client of the bank, reportedly developed a relationship with Staley and helped bring JPMorgan other wealthy clients. Barclays' CEO Jes Staley arrives at 10 Downing Street in London, Britain january 11, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
Staley visited Epstein around 2010 in Florida while Epstein was serving time for a prostitution charge involving a minor, the Times found.
Last February, British banking authorities opened the investigation into Staley’s ties with Epstein. Soon afterward, Staley told reporters the relationship “tapered off quite significantly” after he left JPMorgan and that he “deeply regrets” his ties to Epstein.
Staley is hardly the only major business figure who knew Epstein, who died by suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while being held on federal sex trafficking charges.
That group includes some of the private sector’s most prominent figures, among them former President Donald Trump and former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates. Here’s a list of some of the high-profile business people with ties to Epstein: From left, American real estate developer Donald Trump and his girlfriend (and future wife), former model Melania Knauss, financier (and future convicted sex offender) Jeffrey Epstein, and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell pose together at the Mar-a-Lago club, Palm Beach, Florida, February 12, 2000. (Photo by Davidoff Studios/Getty Images)More
Donald Trump
The friendship between Trump and Epstein began in the 1980s and lasted nearly two decades, over which they partied multiple times at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida and at Epstein’s mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the Washington Post reported.
“I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York Magazine in 2002. “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
The two had a falling out in 2004 over a Florida property dispute, the Washington Post found. After sex trafficking allegations were brought against Epstein, in 2019, Trump said he was “not a fan.” But Trump offered sympathy for Ghislaine Maxwell in July 2020, soon after the longtime companion of Epstein was arrested for multiple charges related to Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking.
Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates met with Epstein on numerous occasions beginning in 2011 — years after Epstein was convicted of a sex crime, The New York Times reported. Gates visited Epstein at his Manhattan townhouse at least three times, one of which lasted well into the night, the Times found.
Epstein discussed plans with JPMorgan Chase and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation about a potential multibillion-dollar fund, the Times reported, adding that employees of the Gates Foundation visited Epstein’s mansion on multiple occasions. The fund never came to be.
“Bill Gates regrets ever meeting with Epstein and recognizes it was an error in judgment to do so,” Arnold told the Times.
Leon Black, Chairman, CEO and Director, Apollo Global Management, LLC, speaks at the Milken Institute's 21st Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S. May 1, 2018. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
Leon Black
Billionaire financier Leon Black, the co-founder of private equity giant Apollo Global Management, provided support for Epstein’s lavish lifestyle over a five-year period that ended in 2017 — long after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to a prostitution charge involving a teenage girl, a company review found, according to The New York Times. That report noted that Black viewed Epstein as a “confirmed bachelor with eclectic tastes.”
Leslie Wexner, the billionaire founder of the L Brands retail conglomerate that includes Victoria’s Secret, hired Epstein as a money manager in the 1980s, according to The New York Times.
The exact details of Epstein’s role remain murky but appear to have extended beyond money management, including assistance with designing Wexner’s 316-foot yacht and leadership positions in his philanthropic foundations, The New York Times reported.
In a letter sent to L Brands employees in July 2019, Wexner said he was “NEVER aware of the illegal activity charged in the indictment,” the Times found.
Mort Zuckerman, chairman of the board of directors of Boston Properties, Inc., speaks at the Wharton Economic Summit in New York February 1, 2006. As part of the Wharton business school event, senior faculty, alumni and industry leaders tackle major topics that impact businesses around the world. REUTERS/Chip EastMore
Mort Zuckerman
Mort Zuckerman, billionaire media mogul and former owner of the “New York Daily News,” partnered with Epstein as an investor of millions in a pop culture magazine called “Radar” in 2004.
How many more will be caught in Jeffrey Epstein's web?
Ben Wright Mon, November 1, 2021 Jeffrey Epstein
It is more than two years since Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender, hanged himself in the New York prison cell where he was awaiting trial. But his ghost continues to cast a long shadow over his victims and all those with whom he had even the briefest association while alive.
And that includes a lot of people – many of them rich, powerful, famous, or all three. Epstein was a networker par excellence, with ties to celebrities, academics, politicians, film stars and royals, including Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and Prince Andrew.
No one, understandably, now wants to admit having been friends with a paedophile. Some of the names who appear in Epstein’s infamous “little black book”, a Rolodex of global high society, have told reporters they never even met him, let alone socialised with him.
It may well be that some of those contacts were compiled by Epstein’s staff, including the socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, and included aspirational connections as well as real ones. But might some of Epstein’s past acquaintances have downplayed their relationship with the man to the point of dishonesty? And will it be the cover-ups that come back to bite them?
It is a thin line that was most obviously tip-toed by Prince Andrew in the 2019 interview he gave to the BBC’s Emily Maitlis. The Prince said he and Epstein were not “close friends” – but he nevertheless admitted travelling on Epstein’s private plane and staying on his private island. Asked whether he had invited the financier to a party, the Prince corrected Maitlis: “It was a shooting weekend … a straightforward shooting weekend.”
Many other famous and powerful people will continue to be probed about their relationships with the dead paedophile for years to come as the ripples from the scandal spread ever-further. And, given the huge attention this story has garnered, their answers will be checked and cross-checked.
On Monday, Jes Staley stepped down as the boss of Barclays, one of the UK’s big four high street banks, following an investigation by the UK’s main financial watchdogs into whether he has told the truth about his relationship with Epstein.
Staley has always maintained his association with the disgraced financier was purely professional. But questions have been raised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority about his characterisation of their dealings.
The FCA is responsible for deciding whether executives are “fit and proper” to lead the organisations under its purview. The watchdog has the power to issue unlimited fines and to ban people from working in the City. Jes Staley - REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo
Staley has not been accused of any crime. In a statement on Monday, the bank said: “It should be noted that the investigation makes no findings that Mr Staley saw, or was aware of, any of Mr Epstein’s alleged crimes, which was the central question underpinning Barclays’ support for Mr Staley following the arrest of Mr Epstein in the summer of 2019.”
This much we know. Staley first got to know Epstein when he was running the private bank at JP Morgan, a huge Wall Street lender. Private banks manage money for the ultra-wealthy – Epstein’s milieu.
Epstein was a client but he also introduced Staley to other rich people, including Glenn Dubin, the co-founder of a hedge fund called Highbridge Capital Management, which JPMorgan subsequently bought.
This was Epstein’s standard operating procedure. No relationship was straightforward. He constantly and deliberately mixed the professional with the private. He made introductions. He did favours in the hope they would be reciprocated.
His relationships highlight a grey area in the upper echelons of society among the global elite who are always on duty. High-powered executives can legitimately claim they are always working if the person they meet at a party one night could easily end up becoming a client at a later date. Many captains of industry and finance host events in their own homes and then expense the bill.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell - Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
But the legions of individuals who enjoyed Epstein’s hospitality will inevitably face questions about how well they knew him, why they were unable to detect something rotten about the man, and whether they ever saw anything untowards at one of his parties.
It is known that Staley twice sailed on his yacht with his wife, Debora, to Epstein’s private Caribbean island, Little St James. Staley’s last visit to the island was just seven months before he joined Barclays in December 2015. But it is also long after he had left JPMorgan in 2013. If the relationship was purely professional, what did they discuss over lunch?
At this point, Epstein was already a registered sex offender. He pleaded guilty to procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute and was convicted by a Florida state court in 2008, a crime for which he served nearly 13 months in custody.
In 2019, he was then charged by federal prosecutors with one count of sex trafficking of a minor and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. Prosecutors in the US Virgin Islands had separately alleged Epstein brought girls as young as 11 to his property on Little St James and abused them, but he was found dead in his New York cell, in August 2019, before he could again face justice.
It was at this point that the FCA inquired about Staley’s relationship with Epstein. The Barclays boss gave his explanation to the bank’s chairman Nigel Higgins, and the bank responded to the watchdog. The FCA launched a formal investigation in 2020. The regulator subsequently received a cache of emails from JPMorgan.
The FCA is not commenting on its probe. However, people familiar with how this kind of case is typically handled say that a draft decision, which contains the FCA’s conclusions and any penalties it is potentially planning to bring, is usually presented to the individual under investigation.
From the statement released by Barclays, it appears that Staley received this document on Friday. Staley has said he will contest the findings, and is stepping down from his job to concentrate on defending himself. The mere fact that he is contesting the conclusions of the investigation would strongly suggest they are unflattering.
The case will now go before the FCA’s Regulatory Decisions Committee, which will rule on whether to uphold the FCA decision. This process will likely take months. The FCA will likely only reveal its findings if the decision is upheld. If that is then the case, Staley could appeal again to a tribunal.
It is understood that the FCA’s action has come as a shock to Barclays. Staley was due to represent the bank at the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow this week. The bank will now be run by CS Venkatakrishnan, known as Venkat, head of the global markets trading unit at the bank and a long-time lieutenant of Staley’s.
C.S. Venkatakrishnan of Barclays bank - Barclays
But the reverberations of this shock decision will likely be felt long beyond the UK’s banks headquarters in Canary Wharf. How many more rich and powerful people are cursing the day they were ever introduced to Epstein, and reviewing how they have characterised their relationship with him since he died?
It is understandable that even those who did nothing wrong will worry their reputations might be tarnished by association with a man who prosecutors allege sexually assaulted girls as young as 14 years old. The questions are all the more difficult for those who continued to associate with Epstein after his 2008 conviction.
The aftershocks of the scandal have been rumbling for months. In March, Leon Black unexpectedly stepped down as the boss of Apollo Global Management, the powerful Wall Street investment firm he founded, following an inquiry into his ties to Epstein.
Black is said to have severed ties with Epstein in 2018 in the wake of a “fee dispute”, after which the two men ceased communicating and Black terminated using Epstein’s services.
But an independent review found Black paid Epstein a total of $148m for his financial advising services between 2012 and 2017. This may have been small change for a man who once paid nearly $120m for one of the four pastel versions of Edvard Munch’s The Scream.
But there have long been questions about the kind of advice Epstein, a college drop-out, was giving one of the most successful investors of his generation. According to Black’s spokeswoman, he now “deeply regrets having any involvement with [Epstein]”.
Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder, got to know Epstein around the beginning of 2011, something about which his wife, Melinda French Gates, was reportedly uncomfortable even at the time, according to The New York Times. The two men’s relationship became public in 2019. This is said to have been one of the catalysts for French Gates to hire divorce lawyers.
In interviews since, Bill Gates has said he had several dinners with Epstein in the hope of raising money for charity through his contacts. He said he broke off the relationship when it didn’t look like that would happen. “It was a huge mistake to spend time with him, to give him the credibility,” the billionaire told CNN in August. “I made a mistake.”
In February last year, Les Wexner, one of Epstein’s early clients, stepped down as the boss of L Brands, the company that owns Victoria’s Secret, in the wake of several multiple internal investigations. It is understood that Wexner gave Epstein sweeping powers over his finances, including allowing him to borrow money on his behalf and sign his tax returns.
It has been separately reported that Epstein identified himself to women as a talent scout for Victoria’s Secret and invited them to his hotel room to audition for the brand’s catalogue.
At his company's annual investor conference in 2019, Wexner said: “Being taken advantage of by someone who was so sick, so cunning, so depraved is something that I am embarrassed that I was even close to, but that is in the past. At some point in your life, we are all betrayed by friends, and if we haven’t, we’re really fortunate to have lived a perfectly sheltered life.”
Epstein also cultivated politicians such as Bill Clinton, who, a spokesman confirmed, took several trips on Epstein’s private jet (dubbed the “Lolita Express”); and Donald Trump, who described Epstein as a “terrific guy”.
A spokesman for the former president tweeted in 2019 that: “President Clinton knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago, or those with which he has been recently charged in New York.
In 2002 and 2003, President Clinton took a total of four trips on Jeffrey Epstein’s airplane: one to Europe, one to Asia, and two to Africa, which included stops in connection with the work of the Clinton Foundation.”
Trump told New York magazine in 2002 that: “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” During his term in office, the now-former US president repeatedly offered well wishes to Ghislaine Maxwell, who is in an American prison awaiting trial on charges she procured teenage girls for Epstein.
The late financier’s tentacles reached into almost every facet of high business, finance and high society. Guests as varied as the director Woody Allen, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, magician David Blaine and British politician Peter Mandelson are understood to have dined at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse.
The likes of Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker flew on his plane. Professor Stephen Hawking attended a barbeque on his Caribbean island and took a ride in a submarine that Epstein had specially modified.
Many of those who knew Epstein and have since downplayed their relationship with the sex offender, can at least comfort themselves they are not under the purview of the FCA. There will be no regulator deciding whether they are “fit and proper”.
However, the media scrutiny is unlikely to lessen and the court of public opinion is always in session. It is unlikely that Prince Andrew will be the only person not sweating.
Renewables didn't cause the energy crisis — but they can help to resolve it
To evaluate the possible responsibility of the transition, it is useful to gauge to what extent it has actually materialized. The data just released by the International Energy Agency indicates that the energy transition has yet to really take hold - but significant change awaits us.
The key is changing our energy mix, with renewables as the central fuel. We are repeatedly told that this low-carbon energy source is expanding. Yet, we are also warned that carbon-intensive new coal plants are being built and natural gas consumption is growing. To assess whether these and other energy trends are in the aggregate advancing or hindering the energy transition, we need to understand their cumulative impact on emissions.
Looking ahead, achieving our climate goals requires the CIEC to drop dramatically over the next several decades. For example, under the IEA's scenario to meet the "well below 2 degrees Celsius" temperature target of Paris, the CIEC needs to drop 75 percent over the next 30 years, and 97 percent under its more ambitious net-zero scenario.
Analyzing the CIEC at the global level is important to track the total worldwide emissions that drive temperature change, but it is also useful to evaluate what is happening at the country level where climate policy is made and energy woes are felt. For example, the U.S., China and the European Union reduced the carbon intensity of their respective energy systems on average by a mere 1 percent or less per year over the preceding 10 years.
These modest movements in the CIEC indicate that we have yet to experience a significant shift in our energy system. This is also unsurprising since it is only relatively recently that we have seen a significant uptick in climate pledges, including from the U.S. and China, the world's two largest energy systems.
What all these figures highlight is that the amount of change in our energy system which we can expect over the next 10 years and beyond is much larger than what has occurred to date. For example, renewable power capacity (which is already generating record output) will need to almost triple by 2030 so that countries have the clean energy they need to grow their economies.
The transition will have differing impacts on different fossil fuels. For example, even as the CIEC falls nearly 20 percent by 2030 under the IEA's "well below 2 degrees Celsius, the level of natural gas consumption remains largely unchanged. Oil drops by a mere 2 percent relative to 2020 (albeit, over 10 percent lower than its pre-COVID peak). In contrast, coal faces a nearly 30 percent drop over the same period, a reduction that is key to driving down the global CIEC.
While it is yet unclear the extent to which climate policy might be responsible for some of the energy woes currently being felt in different parts of the world, what is certain is that countries need to better prepare their energy systems and economies to adjust to the more marked energy transition that will be implemented going forward. Stronger analytic tools, policies that better anticipate the needed changes in our fuel mix and more investment in clean energy are among the keys.
Philippe Benoit has over 20 years of experience working on international energy and climate issues, including in management positions at the World Bank and International Energy Agency. He is currently managing director, Energy and Sustainability, with Global Infrastructure Advisory Services 2050.
Squid Game crypto plunges to $0 after scammers steal millions of dollars from investors
By Jordan Valinsky, CNN Business 1 hour ago A digital currency based off the popular Netflix series "Squid Game" is trading at $0 after its creators cashed out, effectively stealing an estimated $2.1 million from investors.
The cryptocurrency, appropriately called SQUID, surged as high as $2,861 before falling to $0 as of Monday, according to CoinMarketCap. The scam, which was reported by Gizmodo, is called a "rug pull." That means the crypto's creators cash out of their coins in exchange for real money, quickly devaluing the crypto's value.
Before the rug pull, the crypto's market cap was a little more than $2 million, according to CoinMarketCap.
SQUID was billed as a token that can be used for a new online game inspired by the popular Korean language series, which is based on a deadly tournament of children's games. GIzmodo pointed out numerous signs it was a scam, including its (now disappeared) website being filled with spelling errors. Another red flag: Investors could buy -- but not sell -- SQUID.
CoinMarketCap also warned potential investors that SQUID was probably a scam, displaying a warning to "exercise extreme caution" if they bought the crypto.
"Squid Game"— a dystopian fictional drama — has become Netflix's top show globally. The company told CNN Business earlier this month that it had been viewed by 111 million accounts since its debut in September, making it the company's "biggest-ever" series launch. Executives have pointed to the show as evidence that its growing slate of international content can resonate with a variety of audiences.
Netflix told CNN Business last week that it was not affiliated with the cryptocurrency, and declined to comment further.
CNN Business reached out to developers of the SQUID project through contact information listed on its website, and did not immediately receive a response.
-- CNN Business' Michelle Toh contributed to this report.
Ana Kasparian discusses why the state of Wisconsin recently loosened regulations on child labor and delves into the appalling history of child labor in the US.
