Sunday, December 24, 2017

These Companies Have Promised to Give Employees Bonuses Because the Tax Bill Passed - TIME

Posted: 20 Dec 2017 04:08 PM PST

Several companies announced new investments, minimum wage hikes and employee bonuses on Wednesday as a result of the passage of Republican tax reform bill, which is set to bring them significant tax cuts by lowering the corporate tax rate.

AT&T

AT&T said it would give $1,000 bonuses to more than 200,000 employees in the U.S. once the tax bill is signed into law and promised to invest an additional $1 billion in the U.S. in 2018. CEO Randall Stephenson praised the tax legislation as “a monumental step to bring taxes paid by U.S. businesses in line with the rest of the industrialized world.”

Trump praised AT&T’s announcement in remarks at the White House. “That’s because of what we did,” he said. “So that’s pretty good. That’s pretty good.” AT&T is currently awaiting approval from Trump’s Justice Department of its pending $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner.

Boeing

Boeing announced that it would spend $300 million on “employee-related and charitable investments” because of the tax plan. “The reforms enable us to better compete on the world stage and give us a stronger foundation for the investment in innovation, facilities and skills that will support our long-term growth,” CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in a statement.

Comcast

Comcast is giving $1,000 bonuses to 100,000 “frontline and non-executive employees,” the company announced, citing the rollback of the FCC’s Obama-era net neutrality rules and the passage of the tax reform bill. CEO Brian Roberts also said the company expects to spend “well in excess of” $50 billion on infrastructure investment over the next five years.

Fifth Third Bankcorp

Fifth Third Bancorp said it would increase its hourly minimum wage to $15 for U.S. employees.

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo said it would increase its minimum wage for U.S. employees from $13.50 to $15 and spend $400 million on donations to nonprofits and community organizations in 2018.
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FBI investigates Russian-linked Cyprus bank accused of money laundering - Guardian

FBI investigates Russian-linked Cyprus bank accused of money laundering
Request for financial information may be connected to inquiries into possible conspiracy between Trump and Kremlin
Robert Mueller
Robert Mueller is investigating a possible conspiracy between Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Kremlin. i
Sun 24 Dec ‘17 21.01 AEDT
The FBI has asked officials in Cyprus for financial information about a defunct bank that was used by wealthy Russians with political connections and has been accused by the US government of money laundering, two sources have told the Guardian.
The request for information about FBME Bank comes as Cyprus has emerged as a key area of interest for Robert Mueller, the US special counsel who is investigating a possible conspiracy between Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Kremlin.
People familiar with the FBI request told the Guardian that federal investigators and the US Treasury approached the Central Bank of Cyprus in November seeking detailed information about FBME, which was shut down this year.
One person familiar with the FBI request said it appeared to be connected to Mueller’s ongoing examination of Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign manager who was indicted in October, and money that flowed between former Soviet states and the US through Cypriot banks.
The Central Bank of Cyprus, which in 2014 placed FBME under administration in a direct response to US action and obtained full access to the bank’s data, declined to comment. The US special counsel’s office also declined to comment.
FBME has vigorously denied accusations that it has been a conduit for money laundering and other criminal activity.
The owners, Lebanese brothers Ayoub-Farid Saab and Fadi Michel Saab, issued a statement following a series of recent critical articles about the bank and denied all wrongdoing.
Bloomberg reported last week that FBME was the subject of two US investigations: one into the bank’s credit card unit, and another into alleged laundering of money from Russia. Bloomberg said the Russia-related investigation, which is being led by the US attorney’s office in New York, was connected to a flow of illegal Russian funds into the New York real estate market.
FBME, previously known as the Federal Bank of the Middle East, was based in Tanzania but about 90% of its banking was conducted in Cyprus. A report by the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in 2014 said the bank was an institution of “primary money laundering concern”.
The report found that the bank was evading efforts by the Central Bank of Cyprus to supervise its activities, and that FBME was facilitating money laundering, terrorist financing, transnational organised crime, fraud, sanctions evasion, weapons trading and political corruption.
A 2014 internal report by the Central Bank of Cyprus about FBME that was obtained by the Guardian found that FBME had banking relationships with several Russians who were considered to be politically sensitive clients and that about half of the bank’s clients were Russian nationals, including Vladimir Smirnov, who is close to Putin, and Aleksandr Shishkin, a member of Putin’s political party.
FBME was subjected in 2016 to what is known as a “fifth special measure”, a hard-hitting US regulatory tool that was established after the 9/11 attacks to address law enforcement concerns in the banking sector. The move prohibited the bank from doing business in the US or using US dollars, and barred US banks from opening or using any bank accounts on FBME’s behalf. In effect, it shut the bank down. FBME has challenged the decision but US courts have so far upheld the move.
It is not clear why Mueller and his team of investigators appear to be interested in FBME’s financial data. But it indicates that the special counsel is continuing to examine money flows from Cyprus.
Manafort has pleaded not guilty to charges that he laundered millions of dollars through foreign banks as part of a scheme to hide his work for political parties in Ukraine. He is accused of funnelling the funds through foreign shell companies, including many that were based in Cyprus.
Manafort’s attorney, Kevin Downing, has called the charges, including those related to his use of offshore accounts, “ridiculous”.
A spokesman for FBME bank told the Guardian that Manafort was never a client of FBME.
Mueller’s team has separately issued a subpoena for information from Deutsche Bank. According to a person close to the bank, the subpoena was issued in the autumn. The German bank is Trump’s biggest lender.
Deutsche also worked as a correspondent bank for FBME. Internal emails seen by the Guardian show that executives from both banks were in contact in 2014 discussing accounts that were “on the radar” of US law enforcement.
Deutsche Bank said in a statement: “We severed our relationship with FBME in 2014 and have added more than 1,000 anti-financial crime staff in recent years to make our business safer and increase our controls.”
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Thousands of Russians endorse Navalny to challenge Putin in 2018 - Guardian

Thousands of Russians endorse Navalny to challenge Putin in 2018
Lawyer seen as the only opposition leader who stands a chance of challenging Putin seeks to get his name on ballot
Alexei Navalny
Sun 24 Dec ‘17 21.59 AEDT
Alexei Navalny, seen as the only Russian opposition leader who stands a fighting chance of challenging Vladimir Putin, has attempted to get his name on the ballot for a March presidential election, with supporters gathering across Russia to endorse the move.
Thousands of people who back him were meeting in 20 Russian cities on Sunday to formally nominate his candidacy in the presence of electoral officials in an attempt to boost his chances of making the vote.
Russian electoral officials have deemed him ineligible to run due to a criminal conviction, saying “only a miracle” would help him get registered.
Navalny's army: the Russians risking all to oppose Vladimir Putin
Putin, 65, announced this month he would seek a fourth presidential term, which would extend his rule until 2024 and make him the longest-serving Russian leader since dictator Joseph Stalin.
But Navalny, who has tapped into the anger of a younger generation who grew up under Putin and yearn for change, said he would not give up. He hopes that popular support for his Kremlin bid would pressurise authorities into putting his name on the ballot.
“Not letting us contest the election is impossible,” Navalny wrote in a blogpost this week.
The 41-year-old lawyer has built a robust protest movement in the face of persistent harassment and jumped through multiple hoops as he campaigned across the country in an effort to shift attitudes amid widespread political ennui.
He says he is the only Russian politician who has run a genuine western-style political campaign, stumping for votes in far-flung regions. In Moscow, finding a premises for the Sunday event had been so hard that Navalny’s campaign pitched a huge tent in a park on the snow-covered shores of the Moscow river.
Yury Berchenko, one of about 300 supporters who gathered in the tent, called Navalny an honest and sincere man, saying he should be allowed to contest the vote. “He mobilises people,” Berchenko said. “Such a man should be president or at least take part in a debate and ask difficult questions.”
Marina Kurbatskaya was also present in the park to support Navalny as she criticised “lies and thievery” in Russia. “If Navalny is not allowed to run I am not going to vote,” she told AFP. “I don’t see anyone else who I want to become president.”
Earlier on Sunday supporters in the Pacific port of Vladivostok, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, and Novosibirsk in Siberia and other cities formally endorsed Navalny’s candidacy.
According to legislation, in each city he will need at least 500 people to formally nominate his candidacy. In Moscow alone, more than 700 people supported his candidacy at the event which at times felt like a US campaign conference.
Two members of the central election commission attended the Moscow event, Navalny’s campaign said.
Despite a litany of problems such as corruption, poor healthcare and increasing poverty, opinion polls suggest Putin enjoys approval ratings of 80% and is expected to sail to victory against token opponents.
Asked why Navalny had been barred from running, Putin – who has refused to mention him by name in public – said this month the opposition was hoping for a “coup” but would not succeed.
Navalny rose to prominence as an organiser of huge anti-Putin rallies that took place in Russia from 2011 to 2012 following claims of vote-rigging in parliamentary polls.
The rallies gradually died down but he has been able to breathe new life into the protest movement this year, bringing out tens of thousands of young demonstrators into the streets.
This year he has served three jail sentences of 15 days, 25 days and 20 days for organising unauthorised anti-Putin protests.
The Council of Europe’s decision-making body, the committee of ministers, has urged Russian authorities to allow Navalny to stand for election despite his “arbitrary and unfair” conviction for fraud.
Many critics scoff at Navalny’s Kremlin bid but he says he would beat Putin in a free election if he had access to state-controlled television, the main source of news for the majority of Russians.
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Bernie Sanders: GOP should 'worry very much about 2018' - CNN Politics

Bernie Sanders: GOP should 'worry very much about 2018'
By Eli Watkins, CNN
Updated 1407 GMT (2207 HKT) December 24, 2017
"What you are seeing is a referendum on Donald Trump," Sanders said
Sanders said Trump campaigned on helping the working class, but in office was delivering for the wealthy
(CNN)Voters' views of President Donald Trump's performance should spell trouble for his party in the midterm elections, Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders said on CNN's "State of the Union."
"What we're seeing in Alabama, what we're seeing in Virginia, New Jersey and in states all across this country, are large voter turnouts, are people standing up and fighting back and demanding that we have a government that represents all of us, not just the 1%," Sanders told CNN's Jake Tapper in an interview that aired Sunday.
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He continued, "If I were the Republicans, I would worry very much about 2018."
Sanders pointed to the recent special election in the heavily Republican state of Alabama, where Democrat Doug Jones defeated Republican Roy Moore. He said Moore was "not a strong candidate," but contended the election was evidence that more people were "catching on" that Trump lied about his campaign promises.
"He ran for president saying that he was going to defend the interests of the working class and the middle class, and it turned out he lied," Sanders said. "What you are seeing is a referendum on Donald Trump about a man who said one thing during the campaign and his actions are very, very different."
In the wide-ranging interview, Sanders blasted the GOP's new tax reform law as skewed in favor of the wealthy and large corporations and said he continued to demand a permanent fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which Congress did not address before it adjourned for the holidays.
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Bitcoin: Know the risks before you buy - Al Jazeera

24/12/2017
Bitcoin: Know the risks before you buy
Where to buy it
How safe is Bitcoin
Even though Bitcoin hit a record high of about $19,200 for each coin on December 17, the cofounder of the Bitcoin.com website said that "Bitcoin is right now the riskiest investment you can make ... as soon as people realise how it works, they will start to sell".
Here are some of the things you should consider before you jump on the bandwagon.
What is Bitcoin?
Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin is a digital form of money that you can use to pay for some transactions online. It is the most popular of the so-called "cryptocurrencies".
As with "real" currencies (like the US dollar), you can own one, 10, or millions of Bitcoins. Unlike real currencies, cryptocurrencies only exist online and are not backed by any government or central bank.
Cryptocurrencies depend on complex computer software to verify, validate and secure transactions between people exchanging this virtual money online.
The software running Bitcoin was first released in 2009, together with the website, Bitcoin.org, by a programmer self-identified as Satoshi Nakamoto. He announced Bitcoin as "a Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System".
Regulation. In March 2014, the IRS, the US government agency responsible for tax collection, stated that all virtual currencies, including Bitcoins, would be taxed as property rather than currency.
South Korea is reportedly also looking to tax the money made from trading in cryptocurrencies. The government will also ban minors from opening accounts on virtual coin exchanges, and propose a bill to allow only eligible exchanges to operate.
How does it work?
Blockchain: The financial system to validate Bitcoin transactions is known as the Blockchain, and depends on a decentralised network of computers connected over the internet.
Like peer-to-peer (P2P) networks where unidentified people upload and download music and films, the blockchain depends on a growing community of people and institutions online.
Those peers run the Bitcoin software to verify Bitcoin transactions, independent of any bank or treasury.
Every time people exchange Bitcoins online, the whole network gets updated with the new information, creating new "blocks", i.e. long chains of data for computers to solve.
Mining farms: Like printing new bank notes, new Bitcoins are created by solving "blocks" of mathematical equations that are created each time Bitcoins are exchanged online.
Even though the Bitcoin software can crunch all those equations automatically, it requires a lot of computing power to do so.
This automatic process is known as "mining" and requires a lot of computing power. For this, large data centres, known as "mining farms", have been set up. Many of the largest farms are located in Russia and China.
Blockchain.info counts 16 million Bitcoins in circulation, while there can only be up to 21 million Bitcoins. This limit is set in the Bitcoin algorithm.
Where can you buy it?
Costs more than gold. At December's peak rates, one Bitcoin costs as much as $18,000. For this much, you could also buy 300 grams of gold, at current rates.
In 2010, you could buy one Bitcoin for less than $0.10. Back then, it would take 10,000 Bitcoins to buy two pizzas.
Bitcoin exchanges. Bitcoins can be purchased, or sold, through exchange operators dedicated to cryptocurrencies, as well as traditional operators such as Chicago-based CME and Switzerland-based Swissquote, among others.
In those public exchanges, Bitcoin is traded under the XBT and BTC symbols. BCH stands for Bitcoin Cash, which is a "hard fork", or a new variation, of the original Bitcoin algorithm.
CME's Bitcoin Reference Rate (BCC) is a spot price index used by CME, and is based on the daily Bitcoin price on specialised exchanges such as Bitstamp, GDAX, itBit and Kraken.
How safe an investment is Bitcoin?
Investing in Bitcoin would mean investing in the complex algorithms on which it is based, and on the future of the peer-to-peer network that operates it.
Al Jazeera has looked at the terms and conditions that an investor in Bitcoin would have to accept to buy Bitcoin from a Swiss-based exchange operator. Here are some of the risks that you would be accepting as an investor in Bitcoin:
Price volatility. The value of cryptocurrencies may change significantly even in a single day, which would mean a capital loss of your investment.
For example, last week the price of Bitcoin fell by 26 percent. If you had bought a Bitcoin on December 19, you would have paid $18,936 for each coin. But if you wanted to sell it on December 23, buyers on the market were not willing to pay more than $14,048 - a loss of $4,888 for each coin.
In 2013, the price of Bitcoins had fallen by 61 percent in a single day. On April 10 the exchange for Bitcoin had fallen from $266 to $140 for each coin.
Cryptocurrencies lack the historical track record of other currencies or commodities, such as gold, that could guide whether current levels of volatility are typical or atypical.
Hacking risk. On December 19, a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange said it would file for bankruptcy after it was hacked for the second time this year.
Over 70 million dollars' worth of Bitcoins has reportedly been lost by several cryptocurrency exchanges and miners, highlighting concerns about the security of such currencies.
"Hard fork" splits. Since the value and support for the currency depend entirely on the community using it, disagreement between the stakeholders may result in the splitting of the network to support new competing cryptocurrencies, known as "hard fork".
For example, Bitcoin Cash (BTC) is a hard fork from the original Bitcoin. Effectively, BTC is now a different cryptocurrency from the original Bitcoin, prompting stakeholders to sell their "old" Bitcoins and invest in this new one.
The cofounder of the Bitcoin.com website, Emil Oldenburg, reportedly "sold all my Bitcoins recently and switched to Bitcoin cash".
Early stage technology. With advances in technology, cryptocurrencies are likely to undergo significant changes in the future. How the existing cryptocurrencies will cope, or benefit, from those changes is to be determined.
There is also the risk of alternative technologies that could supersede existing cryptocurrencies and make them obsolete.
Where you can use it
Online stores that accept Bitcoin. In 2014, Overstock became the first major online retailer to accept Bitcoin payments. Monoprix and Newegg also accept Bitcoin online payments.
For travel. Latvian airlines AirBaltic and Air Lituanica accept Bitcoin payments for some of their flights.
California-based online travel booking website CheapAir.com claims to have completed more than $1.5m in Bitcoin sales on flights, hotel bookings and Amtrak railway bookings.
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Trump attacks 'fake polls and fake news' as reports say he has worst approval rating in modern history - Independent

24/12/2017
Trump attacks 'fake polls and fake news' as reports say he has worst approval rating in modern history
No president has had such poor rating - at least going back to Harry Truman
Andew Buncombe Minneapolis, Minnesota
Camp Colson
Donald Trump has attacked “fake polls” and “fake news” as surveys show he he enters the holiday season with the lowest approval rating in modern presidential history.
“The Fake News refuses to talk about how Big and how Strong our BASE is,” he wrote on Twitter, displaying his trademark affection for the use of capital letters.
“They show Fake Polls just like they report Fake News. Despite only negative reporting, we are doing well - nobody is going to beat us. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”
@realDonaldTrump
The Fake News refuses to talk about how Big and how Strong our BASE is. They show Fake Polls just like they report Fake News. Despite only negative reporting, we are doing well - nobody is going to beat us. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
12:48 AM - Dec 25, 2017
Mr Trump approaches the end of 2017 amid a flurry of polls that show him with a dismal approval rating. A poll released last week by CNN found that it had tumbled to just 35 per cent, from the 45 per cent he enjoyed in March shortly after taking office.
A a nonpartisan poll released by the NBC/Wall Street Journal found the president’s approval rating stood at 40 per cent. Peter Hart, a Democrat who helped conduct, said his final survey of 2017 found Mr Trump had “lost the support and respect of a majority of Americans in his first year as president”.
Meanwhile, a tracker from the political data site FiveThirtyEight put his rating at 37.1 per cent. It said that dating the way back to President Harry Truman in 1945, at Day 337 of their first term every president had an approval rating at least ten percentage points better than where Mr Trump stands now at the same point.
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