House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA-12) announced yesterday she would step down as House Democratic leader but remain as a rank-and-file member of Congress, yielding one of the most powerful positions on Capitol Hill after two decades. The decision comes after Republicans retook majority of the chamber during the midterm elections and weeks after an intruder severely injured her husband in what police say was a politically motivated attack at their San Francisco residence.
Pelosi, first elected to Congress in 1987, was elected House minority leader in 2002 and became the first woman to assume the speaker\'s gavel in 2007. Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D, NY-8) is viewed as her likely replacement; see other potential candidates here.
Current Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R, CA-23) is expected to become House speaker when the new Congress convenes Jan. 3. With seven races yet to be called, Republicans have won the 218 seats needed for a majority, with projections suggesting they may capture an additional three to four seats. |
Two Russians and a Ukrainian separatist were sentenced in absentia in a Dutch court yesterday to life in prison and were ordered to pay $16.5M to victims\' families after being found guilty of shooting down Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, killing nearly 300 people. One Russian was acquitted due to a lack of evidence.
The incident happened amid a separatist struggle in eastern Ukraine, facilitated by Russia seeking control of the Crimean Peninsula. Investigators concluded that a Russian-made missile was used to down the commercial flight en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, though the separatists believed the plane to be a Ukrainian fighter jet.
The judge determined Russia had overall control of separatist forces at the time of the incident. However, it is unlikely the trio will serve any prison time soon as Russia’s constitution prohibits the extradition of its citizens. |
John Ray, the newly installed CEO of bankrupt cryptocurrency firm FTX, accused former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried of unprecedented corporate negligence and mismanagement, according to legal filings yesterday. Lawyers for the company also accused Bankman-Fried of attempting to steer the jurisdiction of bankruptcy proceedings to the Bahamas, where the company is located.
The cryptocurrency exchange platform, once valued at $32B, collapsed over the span of a week following a report it had lent—and lost—billions in customer deposits to its sister investor trading firm. Subsequent reporting revealed a disorganized balance sheet stored in an Excel file, listing $9B in liabilities and $900M in liquid, or readily accessible, assets. Ray previously oversaw the liquidation of energy-trading company Enron, which imploded in 2001 under the weight of illicit corporate accounting practices.
Separately, 30-year-old Bankman-Fried initiated a lengthy private Twitter discussion with a financial reporter this week. Read the exchange here (warning—language). |
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