Author: Press Room

Disgraced Rep. George Santos allegedly conned a disabled, homeless veteran out of thousands of dollars donated to save the man’s dying service dog, according to a stomach-turning report. The alleged account adds to Santos’ growing list of shady behavior — from a largely forged resume to fabricated Jewish heritage — which has entangled the freshman congressman since he was elected to represent parts of Long Island and Queens. The veteran, Richard Osthoff, told the local news site Patch that he met Santos, who introduced himself as Anthony Devolder, during a tough time in his life in May 2016. Osthoff, who…

The CEO of Ukrainian state energy giant Naftogaz said the company is working toward resolving its debt default problems quickly.Yuriy Vitrenko told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday that he is in the final stages of getting the company back on track.”By the end of this month, we’re planning to find the consent solicitation with our bondholders to restructure,” Vitrenko said. “This is happening now quite intensively. My plan within two weeks is to finalize this process.”Naftogaz was the first Ukrainian government-owned entity to default since Russia invaded the country in February. Last year, the…

A woman has been arrested after she allegedly defrauded her employer on the North Shore of more than $80,000, according to North Vancouver RCMP. Mounties say the woman would refund large purchases onto her personal credit cards over a period of months while working at the business.Cst. Mansoor Sahak says the woman was entrusted with running the finances of the business while the owner was on a trip.“It was actually the financial institution that contacted the business owner saying: ‘hey, there is some fraudulent activity going on,’ so that’s how they discovered they were being defrauded in these refund frauds,”…

Australia has ordered 40 US-made Black Hawk helicopters after scrapping an existing deal with Europe’s Airbus over performance issues with its existing fleet, as Canberra increases defence alignment with the US in the Indo-Pacific region.The switch, which was initially announced in 2021 but not formalised until Wednesday, had been put under review by Australia’s new Labor government last year due to the nearly A$3bn (US$2.1bn) cost of buying the Black Hawks.The deal comes on the heels of Australia’s move in 2021 to source nuclear-powered submarines from the US or UK, rather than from France, a decision that triggered a diplomatic…

Good morning. Goldman’s earnings disappointed the market yesterday. A bad omen for the rest of earnings season? Probably not: investment banking and trading say more about markets than the real economy. Email us: robert.armstrong@ft.com and ethan.wu@ft.com.The case for a soft landingWe noted yesterday that markets have felt a bit cheerier to start the year. If you look on the junkiest side of the market — bitcoin, Ark’s long-shot innovation ETF, meme stocks, triple-C yield spreads — the bounce has been especially striking:Maybe this is just the January effect, but the consensus view on Wall Street is that the probability of…

Almost 2.8 million people globally live with multiple sclerosis (MS), for which there is currently no cure. Researchers from the IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan found transplanting fetal stem cells into the spinal cords of people with MS helped increase the neuroprotective molecules in their spinal cords. The research team also found those given the largest dosage of stem cells experienced less reduction of gray matter in the brain. About 2.8 million people worldwide live with multiple sclerosis (MS) — a chronic neurological condition affecting the body’s nervous system. Although treatments are available to help lessen the many…

BEIJING: Former high school teacher Ailia was devastated when her 85-year-old father died after displaying COVID-like symptoms as the virus swept through their hometown in the south-eastern province of Jiangxi. While her father was never tested, Ailia and her mother were both confirmed positive around the same time and she believes that COVID-19 was a cause in his death. As hundreds of millions of Chinese travel to reunite with families for the Chinese New Year holiday starting Jan 21, many will do so after mourning relatives who died in the COVID-19 wave that has raged across the world’s largest population.…

The family of Orange County Deputy Public Defender Elliot Blair, who died in Mexico on Saturday in what his family says was a “brutal crime,” has released its first statement on his death, including accusations of foul play and suspicious behavior by Mexican authorities.Blair, 33, was celebrating his first wedding anniversary at Las Rocas Resort and Spa in Rosarito Beach with his wife, Kim, when he was killed. Mexican website Patrol 646 said he was intoxicated and fell to his death from a fourth-floor balcony.  Still, the family denied that and said the tragic incident took place in an “open-air…

CNN  —  A Republican former candidate for New Mexico’s legislature who was arrested on suspicion of orchestrating recent shootings at the homes of Democratic leaders had visited some of the officials’ homes with paperwork claiming election fraud, police said. Solomon Peña, who lost a 2022 run for state House District 14, is accused of paying and conspiring with four men to shoot at the homes of two state legislators and two county commissioners, and trying to participate in at least one of the shootings himself, Albuquerque police said. He was arrested by a police SWAT team Monday. The investigation found…

The family of a California public defender who died while celebrating his first wedding anniversary in Mexico believes he was the victim of a “brutal crime,” their lawyer said Tuesday. Elliot Blair, 33, died Saturday outside his hotel room at Las Rocas Resort and Spa in Rosarito Beach, roughly 32 miles south of San Diego, the lawyer, David Scarsone, said in a statement. The incident occurred in an open-air walkway on the resort’s third floor, he said. Blair’s family has not heard about his death directly from local authorities but learned of what happened from a “liaison” to the local…