UK Moves to Ban NDAs to Hide Misconduct Cases, Guardian Reports
Under the reforms being prepared as part of broader employee rights legislation by Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government, any NDA that tried to head off complaints of workplace discrimination or harassment would be unenforceable, the newspaper reported.
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Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Wall Street analyst hints the GENIUS Act could indeed be genius
Wall Street analyst hints the GENIUS Act could indeed be genius originally appeared on TheStreet. Crypto analyst and former CEO of BitMEX, Arthur Hayes, has revealed why the US government is so curious about stablecoins. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies directly pegged to or backed by the US dollar. In his blog, Hayes zeroed in on U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's strong support for stablecoins, suggesting that this support may not be driven by a genuine interest in financial innovation, but rather by practical fiscal policy. The U.S. government, Hayes notes, is under significant fiscal pressure due to growing deficits and debt and lacks a politically feasible way to raise taxes substantially. The US debt ceiling has reached $5 trillion as of July 8. The government has traditionally financed itself by issuing bonds. However, the market has become increasingly hesitant to purchase long-term government debt without significantly higher interest rates. However, substantially higher interest rates would also considerably increase government borrowing costs, something the Treasury is eager to challenge led the Treasury to think about whether stablecoins could solve their challenges. Recently proposed in the GENIUS Act, with bipartisan support and the backing of Secretary Bessent. The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act aims to create a regulatory framework for stablecoin issuers. However, Hayes predicts it will enable many U.S. banks—not just fintech start-ups—to issue stablecoins at scale. According to Hayes, the banks would then convert their enormous customer deposits into stablecoins, creating a relatively large new pool of money to be used for purchasing short-term U.S. government bonds, also known as in this context, would not pay interest directly to customers. Hence, banks could generate a profit by using stablecoin funds to invest in T-bills, which offer a solid yield with negligible risk. Hayes argues that this monetary strategy serves several purposes: it enables banks to substantially reduce their compliance and operational costs through the operational efficiency of blockchain. Hayes figures this would allow for the conversion of about $6.8 trillion in deposits from traditional banks into stablecoins and push them into treasury purchases. This increase in stablecoin-based funding would help keep government bond yields from rising, reducing borrowing costs, and preventing possible capital market chaos. Wall Street analyst hints the GENIUS Act could indeed be genius first appeared on TheStreet on Jul 8, 2025 This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jul 8, 2025, where it first appeared. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
News24
36 minutes ago
- News24
Stolen treasures: France returns ‘talking drum' as nations push to recover looted artefacts
France has committed to returning several artefacts looted during its colonial rule, such as the 'talking drum' seized from Ivory Coast in 1916. The UK also faces pressure over multiple looted treasures, including the Parthenon Marbles (claimed by Greece), Benin Bronzes (Nigeria), and Ethiopian tabots. Germany and the Netherlands have begun returning Benin Bronzes to Nigeria, while disputes persist over high-profile Egyptian antiquities like the Rosetta Stone, Nefertiti bust, and Dendera Zodiac showcased in European museums. After the French parliament voted on Monday to return to Ivory Coast a 'talking drum' that colonial troops took from the Ebrie tribe in 1916, here is a recap of other disputes over artefacts looted from Europe's former colonies. France: tens of thousands of pieces The Djidji Ayokwe, the beloved 'talking drum,' was one of tens of thousands of artworks and other prized artefacts that France looted from its colonial empire from the 16th century to the first half of the 20th century. Three metres long and weighing 430 kilogrammes, it was seized by French troops in 1916 and sent to France in 1929. President Emmanuel Macron, in 2021, promised to return the drum, which was used as a communication tool to transmit messages between different areas and other artefacts to the West African country. Ivory Coast, Senegal and Benin have all asked for the repatriation of their treasures. In late 2020, the French parliament adopted a law providing for the permanent return to Benin of 26 artefacts from the royal treasures of Dahomey. Britain: refuses to budge The Parthenon Marbles, the object of a long-running dispute between the United Kingdom and Greece, are the most high-profile of contested treasures. Athens has for decades demanded the return of the sculptures from the British Museum, saying they were looted in 1802 by Lord Elgin, the then-British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. The current government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has escalated its efforts to secure the repatriation of the Marbles, holding official and unofficial meetings with the government of Keir Starmer last autumn. AFP The British Museum has also refused to return any of the sacred sculptures and carvings known as the 'Benin Bronzes' taken during a British military expedition in the former kingdom of Benin in southern Nigeria in 1897. It has the biggest collection of the Benin Bronzes, which are held in museums across the United States and Europe. The British Museum is also standing firm on the 11 Ethiopian tabots, or sacred tablets, that it holds. Germany: agrees to return Bronzes The German government agreed in 2022 to hand 1 100 Benin Bronzes back to Nigeria. The first 22 were sent back in December 2022. AFP Netherlands too In June 2025, the Netherlands officially handed back 119 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria, and a ceremony was held at the National Museum in Lagos, showcasing four of them in the museum's courtyard. Egyptian antiquities Many artworks and artefacts have, over the centuries, been looted from Egypt, the cradle of an ancient civilisation that has long fascinated Europeans. Among the most high-profile cases are the Nefertiti bust, the Rosetta Stone and the Dendera Zodiac, which are on show in top museums in Germany, the United Kingdom and France. The bust of Nefertiti, the wife of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, was sculpted around 1340 BC but was taken to Germany by a Prussian archaeologist and was later given to the Neues Museum in Berlin. AFP The Rosetta Stone, a basalt slab dating from 196 BC, has been housed in the British Museum since 1802, inscribed with the legend 'Captured in Egypt by the British Army in 1801'. It bore extracts of a decree written in Ancient Greek, an ancient Egyptian vernacular script called Demotic and hieroglyphics. The Dendera Zodiac, a celestial map, was blasted out of the Hathor Temple in Qena in southern Egypt in 1820 by a French official. Thought to date from around 50 BC, it has been suspended on a ceiling in the Louvre Museum in Paris since 1922.
CNN
40 minutes ago
- CNN
Analysis: Trump seems to really be losing patience with Putin. But why now?
Five months ago, President Donald Trump turned heads when he claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin – the man who had invaded Ukraine – wanted peace in Ukraine. 'I believe he wants peace,' Trump said, adding: 'I mean, I know him very well. Yeah, I think he wants peace. I think he would tell me if he didn't. … I trust him on this subject.' Trump has sung a very different tune in recent days, and especially on Tuesday. After days of expressing displeasure with his latest phone call with Putin, Trump went even further at a Cabinet meeting. He suggested the man he had vouched for and spent years curiously avoiding criticizing might not be a reliable interlocutor. 'We get a lot of bullsh*t thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,' Trump said. 'He's very nice all of the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.' It's not the only suggestion that Trump is evolving in his stance – or at least his rhetoric – on the war in Ukraine. This week he has reversed a brief pause in defensive weapons shipments to Ukraine (while suggesting this was undertaken by others in his administration). He has, for now, largely abandoned blaming both sides for the war, after almost always pairing any critique of Russia with a critique of Ukraine – as if they were equal partners in prolonging Russia's war of aggression. And on Tuesday he without prompting praised the 'courage' of Ukraine's fighters, suggesting the huge investment the United States has made in Ukraine's defense hasn't been the boondoggle that many in the MAGA base believe. 'And I will say this, the Ukrainians, whether you think it's unfair that we gave all that money or not, they were very brave because somebody had to operate that stuff,' Trump said. 'And a lot of people I know wouldn't be operating it.' So what's happening here? Far be it from anyone to suggest that Trump has truly turned on Putin and landed firmly in Ukraine's corner. Trump has signaled over and over again in the last 10 years that he's happy to look unpredictable on the world stage – whether you call it the 'madman theory' or anything else. And even after his past strong words for Putin, his readouts of their subsequent calls – including a birthday call from the Russian leader – haven't suggested that Trump is applying direct pressure on him to agree to a ceasefire or to calibrate reprisals for Ukrainian attacks. Now, it's quite possible Trump's latest public comments are an attempt to apply pressure on Putin rather than signal a firm shift in administration policy. Quite notably, the American president on Tuesday declined to commit to a package of new sanctions on Russia that has the support of more than two-thirds of senators of both parties. To the extent Trump was truly done with Putin, that option is at the ready, and he's not going there yet. He could just as easily try this strategy and revert to a gentler approach. But sharply criticizing Putin is also a card that Trump has been extremely reluctant to play. About the only other time he's gone this far was shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Trump briefly called Russia's invasion 'appalling.' But that appeared to be a politically oriented course correction as much as anything. Trump, who was cueing up another campaign for president, had been sharply criticized for praising Putin's 'genius' and 'savvy' in invading Ukraine – at a time when virtually all of the Western world was condemning it. Those comments were shocking, even compared to Trump's years of cozying up to Putin. So he briefly rebuked the invasion and then moved on, resuming his kid-gloves treatment of the Russian leader. The question before us is whether Trump's shift today will prove as fleeting as that was. Perhaps. But there are signs that it might not be. For one, it seems the president might be coming to the realization that his goals in Ukraine are irreconcilable with Putin's. For Trump, it's always about getting a 'win' – in this case, the peace deal he promised and failed to obtain on Day One of his presidency. He hasn't seemed to care too much about what that peace deal actually looks like and has floated huge concessions from Ukraine. But Putin has given almost no indication he's truly interested in cutting a deal that involves anything except obtaining all of Ukraine. And Trump's comments Tuesday weren't just tough on Putin; they seemed to reflect deeper frustration that his Russian counterpart is stringing him along. (Trump in April also suggested Putin might be 'just tapping me along.') Perhaps Trump genuinely believed in his deal-making prowess, and he feels Putin has made a fool of him. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce was asked Tuesday to square Trump's February comments about Putin with his latest remarks, and she suggested Trump was indeed responding to new inputs. 'He's an open-minded man, but he's not naive,' Bruce said. 'He is principled and clear in what he wants to achieve. That's what we're seeing.' You could certainly understand Trump coming to that conclusion – however belatedly – after the events of last week. Shortly after his call with Putin, Russia launched its largest-ever drone attack on Ukraine. And nobody should underestimate the role of pride and domestic politics in all of this. Trump has given Putin more of the benefit of the doubt than virtually any other Western leader, as evidenced by his February comments. Just as he has in other foreign areas, he's steadfastly declined to make moral judgments about a strongman leader whose tactics and consolidation of power he genuinely seems to admire. But picking sides in the war in Ukraine isn't just about morals; it's also about realpolitik. And perhaps that latter calculation, which is much more important to Trump, is changing. Only time will tell.
