By Keith Wade, Chief Economist and Strategist at Schroders and Craig Botham, Senior Emerging Markets Economist.



The Chinese yuan (CNY) has fallen below 7.0 versus the US
dollar for the first time in a decade, a level which has been widely seen as a
line in the sand for the currency.



Why is the yuan falling?



The move follows President Trump’s decision to impose 10%
tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese imports last Friday. This is not a
coincidence. Rather than backing down in response to the US, China is upping
the ante.



The exchange rate had been on the agenda at the trade talks,
with China refraining from allowing the currency to weaken whilst negotiations
seemed to be making progress.



Along with the move in the CNY, China has asked its
state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to suspend purchases of agricultural imports
from the US. &nbsp;



How are markets reacting?



As in the last period of concern over the CNY in 2015,
markets have reacted adversely. Risk assets have sold off and safe havens such
as government bonds and the Japanese yen are rallying.



Back in 2015, uncertainty over the direction of China’s
currency was significant as the authorities had not communicated their change
of strategy to the markets. Today there is a clearer framework in place, and
there are other differences. For example, in 2015 firms’ currency exposures
were unhedged and unprepared for any currency weakness.



Many borrowed in external currency simply to take advantage
of the carry trade. The shock of 2015 and the greater two-way volatility since
then, reinforced by messaging from the People’s Bank of China, means that there
is less of a mismatch on corporate balance sheets.



Messaging around the weakness is also clearer today than in
2015, when the reason for the devaluation was not obvious and so was
interpreted as a sign of underlying economic weakness. In short, we would not
expect a repeat today.



China had wanted tariffs to be removed as part of any deal,
so by doing the opposite Trump was effectively delivering a rebuke. The problem
now is that both sides could get into a position where they cannot back down
without losing face. Consequently, the prospect of a deal has diminished and
the risks of escalation have risen.



What does this mean for the global outlook?



Increased trade tensions will put further downward pressure
on global activity, with investment plans likely to be delayed or cancelled and
trade suffering. China and the Asian supply chain will be most affected, but US
growth will also suffer.



Alongside a stronger US dollar, such an environment may well
lead the US Federal Reserve to cut rates faster and further. Such a move may
please the president and yet, whilst he could reverse his decision on tariffs
with a tweet, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that he has misjudged
China’s reaction.

Op-Ed: Has Trump misjudged China ?

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/courtney-connley/">Courtney Connley</a>



Traditionally, candidates have been advised to broach the topic of salary only after a job offer is on the table.



But bestselling management author and CNBC contributor Suzy Welch says that the rules have changed: In&nbsp;today’s economy, it’s completely acceptable to discuss salary up front.



Welch tells <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/">CNBC Make It</a> it all comes down to “simple economics.”



“Obviously, not all regions and industries are hot,” she says. “But in general, hiring managers are sweating bullets these days. Good candidates are hard to find and even harder to land.”



The upside to today’s tight job market, Welch says, is that “job seekers have leverage, which means you can ask about money when you want — even in the first conversation.” This also means that both the job seeker and the hiring manager are free to “make sure you’re on the same page before you slog through three or four interviews, only to find out you’re moneybags apart.”



But these new rules don’t mean that job seekers should say whatever they want&nbsp;— language, tone and approach are still important.&nbsp;



“Jerks still have a hard time getting hired,” Welch says. “Try something like, ‘This job sounds fantastic and I’m very excited about it. Could you just help me understand the salary range so we can make sure we’re aligned before moving forward?’”



Welch emphasizes that “no economic boom goes on forever, and someday, when tough times return, so may this taboo.” But until that happens, she says, there’s no reason not to be up-front about your expectations from the beginning.&nbsp;



“Go ahead and talk money early. You know you want to, and at last, for now and nicely, you can.”



Suzy Welch is the co-founder of the <a class="" href="http://jwmi.com/?mcv=jdg469">Jack Welch Management Institute</a>and a noted business journalist, TV commentator and public speaker. Think you need Suzy to fix your career? Email her at gettowork@cnbc.com.



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/05/suzy-welch-heres-when-to-discuss-salary-in-a-job-interview.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/05/suzy-welch-heres-when-to-discuss-salary-in-a-job-interview.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

Suzy Welch: The rules have changed—here’s when to discuss salary in a job interview

By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kerstin-carlson-344474">Kerstin Carlson</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-southern-denmark-1097">University of Southern Denmark</a>

In June this year two lawyers filed a complaint at the International Criminal Court (ICC) naming European Union member states’ migration policies in the Mediterranean as crimes against humanity. 

The court’s Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, must decide whether she wants to open a preliminary investigation into the criminality of Europe’s treatment of migrants. 

The challenge against the EU’s Mediterranean migrant policy is set out in a 245-page document prepared by Juan Branco and Omer Shatz, two lawyer-activists working and teaching in Paris. They <a href="https://www.statewatch.org/news/2019/jun/eu-icc-case-EU-Migration-Policies.pdf">argue that EU migration policy</a> is founded in deterrence and that drowned migrants are a deliberate element of this policy. The international law that they allege has been violated – crimes against humanity – applies to state policies practiced even outside of armed conflict. 

Doctrinally and juridically, the ICC can proceed. The question that remains is political: can and should the ICC come after its founders on their own turf?

There are two reasons why the answer is emphatically yes. First, the complaint addresses what has become a rights impasse in the EU. By taking on an area stymying other supranational courts, the ICC can fulfil its role as a judicial institution of last resort. Second, by turning its sights on its founders (and funders), the ICC can redress the charges of neocolonialism in and around Africa that have dogged it for the past decade.

<h2>ICC legitimacy</h2>

The ICC is the world’s first permanent international criminal court. Founded in 2002, it currently has 122 member states. 

So far, it has only prosecuted Africans. This has led to persistent critiques that it is a neocolonial institution that “only chases Africans” and only tries rebels. In turn, this has led to pushback against the court from powerful actors like the African Union, which <a href="http://www.loc.gov/law/foreign-news/article/african-union-resolution-urges-states-to-leave-icc/">urges its members to leave the court</a>. 

The first departure from the court occurred in 2017, when <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/world/africa/burundi-international-criminal-court.html">Burundi left</a>. The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/17/world/asia/philippines-international-criminal-court.html">Philippines</a> followed suit in March of this year. Both countries are currently under investigation by the ICC for state sponsored atrocities. <a href="https://justiceinconflict.org/2018/09/10/a-graceful-exit-for-south-africas-icc-withdrawal-plans/">South Africa threatened withdrawal</a>, but this seems to have blown over.

In this climate, many cheered the news of the ICC Prosecutor’s <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/23/afghanistan-icc-abandons-field">2017 request to investigate</a> crimes committed in Afghanistan. As a member of the ICC, Afghanistan is within the ICC’s jurisdiction. The investigation included atrocities committed by the Taliban and foreign military forces active in Afghanistan, including members of the US armed forces. 

The US, which is not a member of the ICC, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2002/08/03/us-hague-invasion-act-becomes-law">violently opposes</a> any possibility that its military personnel might be caught up in ICC charges. In <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/Pages/item.aspx?name=pr1448">April 2019</a> the ICC announced that a pre-trial chamber had shut down the investigation because US opposition made ICC action impossible. 

Court watchers <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/23/afghanistan-icc-abandons-field">reacted with frustration and disgust</a>.

<h2>EU migration</h2>

An estimated <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/20/the-list-europe-migrant-bodycount">30,000 migrants have drowned</a> in the Mediterranean in the past three decades. International attention was drawn to their plight during the migration surge of 2015, when the image of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/31/alan-kurdi-death-canada-refugee-policy-syria-boy-beach-turkey-photo">3-year-old Alan Kurdi</a> face-down on a Turkish beach circulated the globe. More than one million people entered Europe that year. This led the EU and its member states to close land and sea borders in the east by erecting fences and completing a Euro 3 billion deal with Turkey to keep migrants there. NATO ships were posted in the Aegean to catch and return migrants. 

Migrant-saving projects, such as the Italian Mare Nostrum programme that <a href="https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/548713624.pdf">collected 150,000 migrants in 2013-2014</a>, were replaced by border guarding projects. Political pressure designed to reduce the number of migrants who made it to European shores led to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/12/migrant-rescue-ships-mediterranean">revocation and non-renewal of licenses</a> for boats registered to NGOs whose purpose was to rescue migrants at sea. This has led to the current situation, where <a href="https://qz.com/1639293/only-one-refugee-rescue-boat-operated-by-aid-groups-remains-in-the-mediterranean-sea/">there is only one boat patrolling</a> the Mediterranean.

The EU has handed search and rescue duties over to the Libyan coast guard, which has been accused repeatedly of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jan/21/eu-support-for-libya-contributes-to-extreme-abuse-of-refugees-human-rights-watch-study">atrocities against migrants</a>. European countries now negotiate Mediterranean migrant reception on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/23/eu-countries-agree-plan-to-handle-migrants-and-refugees">a case-by-case basis</a>.

<h2>A rights impasse</h2>

International and supranational law applies to migrants, but so far it has inadequately protected them. The <a href="https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/unclos_e.pdf">law of the sea</a> mandates that ships collect people in need. A series of refusals to allow ships to disembark collected migrants has <a href="https://www.jus.uio.no/nifs/english/research/projects/oslos/events/seminars/2018-11-14-migration.html">imperilled this international doctrine</a>. 

In the EU, the <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/PERI/2017/600414/IPOL_PERI(2017)600414_EN.pdf">Court of Justice</a> oversees migration and refugee policies. Such oversight now includes a two-year-old deal with Libya that some claim is tantamount to “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/05/eu-deal-libya-refugees-libyan-detention-centres">sentencing migrants to death</a>.” 

For its part, the European Court of Human Rights has established itself as “<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-european-court-of-human-rights-is-no-friend-to-migrants-42129">no friend to migrants</a>.” Although the court’s 2012 decision in <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2012/02/italy-historic-european-court-judgment-upholds-migrants-rights/">Hirsi</a> was celebrated for a progressive stance regarding the rights of migrants at sea, it is unclear <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/emil/20/4/article-p396_3.xml?lang=en">how expansively that ruling applies</a>.

European courts <a href="https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng-press#%7B%22itemid%22:%5B%22003-6443361-8477507%22%5D%7D">are being invoked</a> and making rulings, yet the journey for migrants has only grown more desperate and deadly over the past few years. Existing European mechanisms, policies, and international rights commitments are not producing change. 

In this rights impasse, the introduction of a new legal paradigm is essential. 

<h2>Fulfilling its role</h2>

A foundational element of ICC procedure is complementarity. This holds that the court only intervenes when states cannot or will not act on their own. 

Complementarity has played an unexpectedly central role in the cases before the ICC to date, as African states have self-referred defendants claiming that they do not have the resources to try them themselves. This has greatly contributed to the ICC’s political failure in Africa, as rights-abusing governments have handed over political adversaries to the ICC for prosecution in bad faith, enjoying the benefits of a domestic political sphere relieved of these adversaries while <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/A/bo47223014.html">simultaneously complaining of ICC meddling in domestic affairs</a>.

This isn’t how complementarity was supposed to work. 

The present rights impasse in the EU regarding migration showcases what complementarity was intended to do – granting sovereign states primacy over law enforcement and stepping in only when states both violate humanitarian law and refuse to act. The past decade of deadly migration coupled with a deliberately wastrel refugee policy in Europe qualifies as just such a situation.

Would-be migrants don’t vote and cannot garner political representation in the EU. This leaves only human rights norms, and the international commitments in which they are enshrined, to protect them. These norms are not being enforced, in part because questions of citizenship and border security have remained largely the domain of sovereign states. Those policies are resulting in an ongoing crime against humanity. 

The ICC may be the only institution capable of breaking the current impasse by threatening to bring Europe’s leaders to criminal account. This is the work of last resort for which international criminal law is designed. The ICC should embrace the progressive ideals that drove its construction, and engage.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120851/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" />

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kerstin-carlson-344474">Kerstin Carlson</a>, Associate Professor International Law, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-southern-denmark-1097">University of Southern Denmark</a>

This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/migration-in-the-mediterranean-why-its-time-to-put-european-leaders-on-trial-120851">original article</a>.

Migration in the Mediterranean: It’s time for the ICC to put European leaders on trial, here’s why

NAIROBI (Reuters) &#8211; Office equipment for Kenya’s parliament donated by China has gone missing after being loaded onto a shipping container, authorities from both nations said on Thursday.



Like other African nations, Kenya has deepened ties with Beijing, receiving loans, investments and scholarships. But the container of equipment arrived empty this week at its National Assembly, China’s “shocked” embassy said in a statement.



Kenyan police have begun an investigation into the disappearance of the electronic equipment, whose value has not been given, and parliament officials declined to comment.



Kenya has been beset by widespread cases of corruption and theft over the years and President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government had been trying to crack down on the problem.



Reporting by John Ndiso and Humphrey Malalo; Writing by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne

China’s donation of equipment to this East African country’s parliament goes missing

By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/nic-cheeseman-180800">Nic Cheeseman</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-birmingham-1138">University of Birmingham</a>

There is growing concern about the potential for the message and media sharing platform WhatsApp to undermine democracy in a number of countries across the world including <a href="http://theconversation.com/whatsapp-skewed-brazilian-election-proving-social-medias-danger-to-democracy-106476">Brazil</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/13/big-tech-whatsapp-democracy-india">India</a>. 

Because WhatsApp is encrypted – and so offers users far greater protection from prosecution than Twitter or Facebook – it has become particularly notorious for spreading “fake news”. 

This is a major concern in Africa, where WhatsApp is the most <a href="https://qz.com/africa/1206935/whatsapp-is-the-most-popular-messaging-app-in-africa/">popular messaging app in 40 countries</a>. This is due to its low cost and the ability to easily share messages with both individuals and groups. 

But is this really how WhatApp is used? And if it is, to what extent does this compromise the quality of elections? 

A joint team from the Centre for Democracy and Development (Nigeria) and the University of Birmingham (UK) has spent the last few months researching the impact of WhatsApp on the 2019 Nigerian elections held in May. 

Their <a href="https://www.cddwestafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/WHATSAPP-NIGERIA-ELECTION-2019.pdf">report</a> comes to conclusions that are both troubling, as well as encouraging. 

The research reveals that the platform was used to mislead voters in increasingly sophisticated ways. But it also shows that Whatsapp strengthened democracy in other areas.

<h2>Misinformation and disinformation</h2>

The term “<a href="http://blogs.royalsociety.org/publishing/ignorance-can-be-fatal-countering-the-crisis-in-fake-news-and-fake-science/">fake news</a> has become widely used over the past few years. However, it is problematic because it lumps together very different kinds of information and behaviour. For example, we need to separate out deliberate attempts to mislead others by creating false stories (disinformation) from the innocent sharing of made up stories by people who believe it to be true (misinformation).

The 2019 Nigerian elections saw both disinformation and misinformation. We studied this by conducting 46 interviews in the states of Abuja, Oyo and Kano, as well as seven focus groups and a survey of 1,005 people.

During the course of conducting the research candidates consistently told us that they predominantly used WhatsApp to share information about their qualities and campaign pledges. But many WhatsApp users said that at a high proportion of the messages they received were designed to undermine a rival leader’s reputation – to &#8220;decampaign” them.

There were some high profile examples of disinformation. The most notorious story circulated on social media was that the president had died while undergoing medical treatment outside of the country, and had <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-46424562">been replaced by a clone from Sudan</a>. 

Other fabricated communications were less outlandish but no less significant. Many ordinary citizens shared these messages, in some cases because they knew they were false and wanted to amplify their impact, but in many cases because they thought they were true.

The most effective decampaigning strategies were those that shared messages that resonated with individuals because they contained an element of the truth, or played on recent experiences. 

<h2>WhatsApp takes over</h2>

The political influence of WhatsApp has expanded rapidly in line with its growing penetration. As a result, it has become part of the fabric of election campaigns and is now a key mechanism through which political leaders seek to communicate with their campaign teams and supporters. 

Fully 91% of the people we interviewed were active WhatsApp users; as one person put it:

<blockquote>
I use WhatsApp more than I use the toilet.
</blockquote>

In Nigeria, election candidates were already using the platform to <a href="https://www.academia.edu/32414216/The_Impact_of_Social_Media_during_the_2015_Nigerian_General_Elections">push messages in 2015</a>. But the people we interviewed agreed that the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2019/02/15/its-nigerias-first-whatsapp-election-heres-what-were-learning-about-how-fake-news-spreads/">2019 elections</a> saw a significant step up in terms of how the leading parties organised their social media strategy.

Politically, WhatsApp was used in an increasingly sophisticated way at the presidential level. In 2019, the two main presidential candidates – President Muhammadu Buhari and opposition leader Atiku Abubakar – both had dedicated teams pushing out messages over social media: the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B-DqX1o370">Buhari New Media Centre</a> and <a href="https://www.atikulatedyouthforce.com/membership">Atikulated Youth Force</a>. By forming hundreds of Whatsapp groups of 256 members, these organisations could send messages to tens of thousands of people at the touch of a button.

Buhari’s effort was better funded and particularly impressive. It established a network of local and regional representatives connected to a “central command” in Abuja. This enabled the campaign to rapidly send messages from the national to the local level, while also responding to hostile messages and rumours shared by its rivals.

While those in power typically had more money to invest in their campaigns, many opposition leaders pointed out that in important ways WhatsApp had created a more level political playing field. Those who had been involved in politics for some time explained that “fake news” was nothing new in Nigeria, but that in the past it was sometimes impossible to counteract these messages because there was no way to get airtime on government aligned radio. 

WhatsApp had changed this situation. Opposition leaders now have a cheap way of fighting back. It has also been used to coordinate anti-corruption campaigns and election observation, strengthening democracy. 

<h2>Evolution or revolution?</h2>

It’s also important not to overstate the significance of WhatsApp. Things look very different below the national level, for example, where campaign structures were less developed and a significant proportion of activity remained informal.

We found that while candidates for Governor and Member of Parliament did set up WhatsApp groups, they were much less organised. In many cases, candidates relied on existing networks and social influencers to get the message out.

Candidates were also keen to stress that while they used WhatsApp during their campaigns, they did not rely on it. Voters expect to see their leaders on the ground, and expected them to provide a range of services for the community. Advertising good deeds over WhatsApp could help a leader get credit, but only if they had fulfilled their responsibilities in the first place.

In other words, WhatsApp can amplify and complement a candidate’s ground campaign. But it cannot replace it.

<h2>Throwing out the water but keeping the baby</h2>

These findings suggest that solutions to the power of social media platforms like WhatsApp isn’t to ban them, or to allow governments to censor them. This would merely exaggerate the vast advantages of incumbency that ruling parties already enjoy. 

A better solution would be to promote <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/11/09/what-is-digital-literacy.html">digital literacy</a>, develop <a href="http://www.comminit.com/democracy-governance/content/guidelines-development-social-media-code-conduct-elections">social media codes of conduct</a> around elections, and empower WhatsApp uses to control which groups they are added to, and what information they receive.

The research was conducted, and publications authored by, Jamie Hitchen, Idayat Hassan, Jonathan Fisher and Nic Cheeseman.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121064/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" />

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/nic-cheeseman-180800">Nic Cheeseman</a>, Professor of Democracy, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-birmingham-1138">University of Birmingham</a>

This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/whatsapp-played-a-big-role-in-the-nigerian-election-not-all-of-it-was-bad-121064">original article</a>.

With WhatsApp having played a major role in Nigeria’s elections does it undermine democracy ?

NEW YORK, July 28 (Reuters) &#8211; American teenager Kyle Giersdorf won $3 million on Sunday in New York after taking the top prize in a tournament for the popular online video game Fortnite.



Geirsdorf, 16, from Pennsylvania, was one of at least 100 players competing for $30 million in total prize money, as the booming popularity of video and online games has drawn top-dollar investments and fueled the emerging professional sport. Global revenues from esports, or professional video game competitions, will hit $1.1 billion in 2019, up 27 percent since last year, thanks to ballooning revenues from advertising, sponsorship and media rights, according to a report released earlier this year.



Playing under the name “Bugha,” Giersdorf won the solo finals portion of the Fortnite World Cup by scoring 59 points, 26 more than his nearest competitor “psalm,” according to the Fortnite World Cup Leaderboard, posted on the game’s website.



“Words can’t even explain it. I’m just so happy,” Giersdorf said in an interview at the event at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York, posted by organizers on Twitter. “Everything I’ve done, the grind, it’s all paid off. It’s just insane.”



Giersdorf did not immediately respond to a request for comment.



Launched in 2017, Fortnite’s popularity has helped Epic Games reach a $15-billion-valuation last year. It competes with other games like Electronic Arts Inc’s Apex Legends and Tencent Holdings Ltd’s PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.



Overall, the global video and electronic games market, excluding revenues from esports, will generate $152.1 billion in 2019, up 9.6% over last year, according to a report by gaming analytics firm Newzoo.



Reporting By Elizabeth Dilts Editing by Sonya Hepinstall

16-year-old wins $3 million at first ever Fortnite World Cup video game tournament

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/kathleen-elkins/">Kathleen Elkins</a>



Since retiring from his 19-year basketball career in 2011, Shaquille O’Neal has seen just as much success off the court: He was <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/11/shaquille-oneal-tells-ellen-degeneres-how-he-invested-in-google.html">an early investor in Google</a> and has since accumulated an impressive portfolio, including <a class="" href="https://www.wsj.com/video/shaq-business-investment-slam-dunks/E05D17E5-2967-46DD-8AEC-941E4E975DD2.html">investments</a> in Apple, 24 Hour Fitness and nightclubs in Las Vegas. He also <a class="" href="http://money.com/money/5640584/shaq-business-empire/">owns 17 Auntie Anne’s</a>, a Krispy Kreme franchise and a Big Chicken restaurant in Las Vegas.



When it comes to investing, the former NBA star draws inspiration from Amazon’s founder and CEO: “I heard Jeff Bezos say one time [that] he makes his investments based on if it’s going to change people’s lives,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/video/shaquille-oneal-discusses-investing-franchising-and-donuts/8063A172-ABFF-496B-8700-4D51A6234054.html" class="">O’Neal told the Wall Street Journal</a>&nbsp;in a recent interview. “Once I started doing that strategy, I think I probably quadrupled what I’m worth.”



It helps him decide what opportunities to jump on and which ones to pass up. “If something comes across my desk and I don’t believe in it, I don’t even look at it,” said O’Neal, even if it looks excellent on paper. In fact, he rarely focuses on the numbers: “Whenever I do business, it’s not about the money.”



As he <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/05/08/shaq-talks-business-at-btigs-charity-day.html">told CNBC’s Bob Pisani last year</a>, “I never say, ‘If I invest in this, five years down the line, we could sell it for this.’ Every time I’ve had that model, it’s always been a failure.”



He’s not the only successful investor who sticks with what he knows and trusts. “Make sure you’re investing in things that you believe in, as opposed to investing in things that other people believe in,” PayPal’s senior vice president of international markets, Rohan Mahadevan,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/24/the-money-advice-every-millennial-needs-to-hear.html" class="">tells CNBC Make It</a>. He recommends testing a product or service before investing in it to better understand how the business operates.



O’Neal also prefers to work with companies he personally enjoys. Of all of his investments, Krispy Kreme is his favorite, he told the WSJ, “because I like donuts. &#8230; Krispy Kreme is a fabulous donut. I was introduced to it in college and have been in love with it ever since.”



That said, you don’t necessarily want to invest in something just because you like it. You want to make sure you truly understand the company, too,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/20/how-warren-buffett-decides-what-to-invest-in.html" class="">says legendary investor Warren Buffett</a>: “What an investor needs is the ability to correctly evaluate selected businesses. Note that word ‘selected’: You don’t have to be an expert on every company, or even many. You only have to be able to evaluate companies within your circle of competence.



“The size of that circle is not very important; knowing its boundaries, however, is vital.”



Simply put, when it comes to investing, Buffett says to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/02/warren-buffett-simplifies-investing-with-a-baseball-analogy.html" class="">stick to what you know</a>. “Defining what your game is — where you’re going to have an edge — is enormously important.”



Once you’ve done that, <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/04/warren-buffett-buy-hold-and-dont-watch-too-closely.html">buy and hold</a>, he adds: “If you aren’t willing to own a stock for 10 years, don’t even think about owning it for 10 minutes.”



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/11/shaquille-oneal-says-he-invests-like-jeff-bezos.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/11/shaquille-oneal-says-he-invests-like-jeff-bezos.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

Former NBA star Shaq: As soon as I started investing like Jeff Bezos, ‘I probably quadrupled what I’m worth’

WASHINGTON (Reuters) &#8211; The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday it had imposed visa restrictions on Nigerians it said were involved in trying to undermine democracy in presidential and parliamentary elections this year.



The department did not name the individuals or say how many were affected by the visa restrictions. President Muhammadu Buhari won a second term in February in an election marred by delays, logistical glitches and violence.



“These individuals have operated with impunity at the expense of the Nigerian people and undermined democratic principles and human rights,” spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.



“The Department of State emphasizes that the actions announced today are specific to certain individuals and not directed at the Nigerian people or the newly elected government,” Ortagus added.



Reporting by Lesley Wroughton, Editing by Rosalba O&#8217;Brien

U.S. imposes visa restrictions on Nigerians involved in this…

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/holly-ellyatt/">Holly Ellyatt</a>



Boris Johnson has won a Conservative Party leadership race and will become the U.K.’s next prime minister.



Johnson was elected as his party leader, and consequently the U.K. leader, only by the estimated 160,000 members of the ruling Conservative Party. He will take up office on Wednesday.



The new prime minister, who has previously been the U.K. foreign minister and mayor of London, will likely usher in a new team of ministers. Some incumbents have already announced their impending departure,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/07/15/watch-cnbcs-full-interview-with-uk-chancellor-philip-hammond.html" class="">including Finance Minister Philip Hammond</a>, largely because of their different stances over Brexit.



The leadership contest took place after Theresa May announced she would resign as prime minister following repeated rejections of the Brexit deal she struck with the EU last year.



How Johnson will proceed with Brexit now will be an immediate focus, given an impending deadline to leave the bloc of October 31, and still no deal agreed upon by the U.K. parliament.



Johnson is infamous for his off-the-cuff remarks and somewhat eccentric character, and he has long been an influential and outspoken member of the Conservative Party. His decision to support the “Leave” vote ahead of the U.K.’s referendum on EU membership in June 2016 was seen as having a decisive effect on the result.



Since then, Johnson has made more controversial remarks over Brexit; most recently insisting that the U.K. must leave the EU on October 31 “do or die, come what may” despite widespread concern over what a “no-deal” departure could mean for U.K. businesses and the economy.



Leaving without a deal in place with the EU would mean there is no transition period for the country to get used to life outside the EU’s trading bloc. Trade and transport links between the EU and U.K. could therefore be severely affected.



Johnson also got into hot water in recent weeks for his apparent reluctance to support the U.K.’s ambassador to the U.S.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/10/uk-ambassador-to-the-us-resigns-after-leaked-emails-fiasco.html" class="">following a leak of secret memos criticizing the President Donald Trump administration</a>.



This is a breaking news story, please check back later for updates.



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/23/boris-johnson-to-become-uk-prime-minister.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/23/boris-johnson-to-become-uk-prime-minister.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

Boris Johnson to become UK prime minister after winning leadership race

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/ryan-browne/">Ryan Browne</a> 



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=FB" class="">Facebook</a>&nbsp;has made headlines of late with its plans to create a cryptocurrency.



The social media company has been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/17/facebook-currency-chief-questioned-at-house-financial-services-hearing.html" class="">forced to defend the project</a>&nbsp;on Capitol Hill, amid regulatory concerns around data privacy and potential illegal usage, while the G-7 has warned it poses “serious” legal risks.



It’s an experiment in monetary systems for the digital age, and has inevitably been compared to popular cryptocurrencies like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=BTC=" class="">bitcoin</a>. However, many experts question whether Libra can even be called a cryptocurrency.



Other than the fact that they both come with a white paper and are referred to as cryptocurrencies, Libra and bitcoin are actually very different. Here’s a rundown of the key differences between the two.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Different technology</h2>



One of the biggest differences lies in the underlying technology behind both currencies.



With bitcoin, transactions are recorded anonymously on a public ledger known as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/18/blockchain-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work.html" class="">the blockchain</a>. It’s essentially a database maintained by a network of computers, on which transactions are secured in such a way that makes it virtually impossible to tamper with.



Libra also uses a form of blockchain, or distributed ledger technology. But unlike bitcoin, Libra’s blockchain is permissioned —&nbsp;<a href="https://libra.org/en-US/permissionless-blockchain/#overview" class="">at least for now</a>&nbsp;— meaning that transactions can only be added to it by a group of trusted parties.



That’s where the Libra Association, a Switzerland-based consortium of companies including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=V" class="">Visa</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=UBER" class="">Uber</a>, comes in. Each of the nonprofit organization’s members have invested a minimum of $10 million into the project.



“Libra will create a centralized structure governed by an unelected ‘association’ composed exclusively of large institutions who have purchased their voting rights,” said Ido Sadeh Man, founder and president of the Saga Foundation, a cryptocurrency firm that counts&nbsp;<a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=JPM">J.P. Morgan</a>&nbsp;Chairman Jacob Frenkel as an advisor.



It’s different to bitcoin’s network, which can be accessed and maintained by anyone with decent enough hardware and access to the internet.



“Cryptocurrencies are defined by their lack of reliance on trusted intermediaries,” Peter Van Valkenburgh, director of research at the cryptocurrency policy think-tank Coin Center, said in a&nbsp;<a href="https://coincenter.org/entry/the-differences-between-bitcoin-and-libra-should-matter-to-policymakers" class="">recent blog post</a>.



“We believe that Libra is not a cryptocurrency because of its use of a permissioned ledger and its reliance on a trusted issuer to hold and manage a fund of assets that back the currency.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Different use cases</h2>



Bitcoin’s white paper describes the virtual currency as a peer-to-peer payment system, allowing people to exchange money without going through a bank.



It’s commonly used today as a form of investment, with the term “HODL” being a common slang phrase in the industry to describe buying and staying invested in the cryptocurrency for the long term. It’s frequently been referred to as “<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/19/bitcoins-digital-gold-but-facebooks-libra-is-the-digital-dollar.html" class="">digital gold</a>. ”



Libra’s primary purpose is to be used in cross-border payments and money transfers. The currency is tied to a basket of government-backed currencies and other assets, to avoid the volatile swings often seen in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=ETH=" class="">ether</a>.



Referred to by many in the industry as a “stablecoin,” Libra is aimed at maintaining a stable value. David Marcus, the Facebook executive leading the blockchain initiative, has previously said it will work “more like a traditional currency” than a cryptocurrency.



“Bitcoin and Facebook’s Libra both represent stages in the evolution of currency but in starkly different ways,” Charles Hayter, co-founder and CEO of digital currency comparison platform CryptoCompare, told CNBC.



“Bitcoin is permissionless, fully decentralized, deflationary and volatile. Libra is permissioned, more centralized, governed by supply and demand and pegged to fiat currencies.”



What Hayter means by “governed by supply and demand” is that Facebook and its partner companies can adjust the supply to match a quantity of other assets held in reserve, effectively maintaining a stable price even when demand changes.



Bitcoin on the other hand has a fixed supply. The total number of bitcoins that will ever be minted is “hard-capped” at 21 million.



“Bitcoin supply is fixed and cannot react to the market’s demand,” the Saga Foundation’s Sadeh Man said. “Libras are created or burned when one of Libra’s authorized resellers deposit or withdraw money from its reserve.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Different regulatory questions</h2>



Facebook’s currency has taken the spotlight when it comes to talk of regulating cryptocurrencies. But some worry the company’s blockchain project could be lumped in with other digital assets by regulators.



That would be problematic given the difference between Libra and a digital currency like bitcoin. Whereas bitcoin rules out the need for financial intermediaries, Libra’s model is reliant on the entities which form the Libra Association, Coin Center’s Van Valkenburgh said.



“A system without intermediaries is a system without intermediary risk, and thus no need for regulation aimed at safeguarding against the types of risk presented by intermediaries,” he said.



The Libra Association currently consists of 28 founding members, according to the Libra white paper, and is hoping to reach 100 members by the time the currency launches. The token is slated for launch in the first half of 2020.



Though bitcoin’s network involves so-called “miners” who record transactions, it wouldn’t make sense to regulated them as they aren’t trusted custodians of user funds, Van Valkenburgh said. Cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets on the other hand do require regulatory oversight, he added.



Questions around how Libra would fit into existing financial regulations were raised at Wednesday’s hearing. Facebook’s Marcus was grilled on whether Libra could be considered a financial security, which he said could not be the case. But Marcus said it could possibly be considered a commodity.



Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/06/sec-chairman-clayton-says-agency-wont-change-definition-of-a-security.html" class="">last year told CNBC</a>&nbsp;that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin could not be viewed as securities. Cryptocurrencies are “replacements for sovereign currencies” like the dollar and the euro, he said.



Regardless, if Facebook and its partners do manage to overcome the regulatory hurdles that have accompanied Libra, the currency “will undoubtedly have an enormous impact on the global economy — possibly eclipsing that of bitcoin,” CryptoCompare’s Hayter said.



For Andy Bryant, chief operating officer of cryptocurrency exchange bitFlyer’s European business, Libra could start to convince people there are “other ways” of storing value than using fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar. “If that’s all that Libra achieves, I think it will be a great step forward,” he said.



This article first appeared on CNBC&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/19/bitcoin-vs-libra-how-facebooks-cryptocurrency-is-different.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/19/bitcoin-vs-libra-how-facebooks-cryptocurrency-is-different.html</a>&nbsp;and is republished with its permission.

Bitcoin vs Libra: Here are the key differences between the two cryptocurrencies

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/arjun-kharpal/">Arjun Kharpal</a>



<a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=GOOGL">Google</a> and its operations in <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/china/">China</a> have come under the spotlight in the past few days.



Billionaire investor Peter Thiel this week accused the U.S. technology giant of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/15/peter-thiel-reportedly-says-the-fbi-and-cia-should-investigate-google.html" class="">working with the Chinese military</a>&nbsp;and called for the U.S. government to investigate Google. In response,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/donald-trump/" class="">President Donald Trump</a>&nbsp;said his administration&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/16/trump-administration-will-take-a-look-into-peter-thiels-claims-of-google-working-with-china.html" class="">will “take a look” into Google</a>.



The tech giant has denied working with the Chinese military.



Still, the controversy has sparked interest in what Google is doing in China. CNBC took a closer look at Google’s business dealings in China.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">‘Project Dragonfly’</h2>



Google ended its search product in China in 2010 and is effectively blocked in the country. However, a report emerged last year that the search giant was looking to launch a censored version of its search app in China. The initiative,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/16/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-discusses-censored-search-app-in-china.html" class="">which the company acknowledged publicly</a>, was in its early stages. In China, all internet services are required to censor information which the government deems sensitive.



However, Vice President for Government Affairs and Public Policy at the company, Karan Bhatia, said this week that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/16/ted-cruz-confronts-google-with-internal-presentation-on-censorship.html" class="">Google had abandoned plans</a>&nbsp;for “Project Dragonfly,” the name of its China search product initiative.



So right now, Google is still blocked in China and can only be accessed via a virtual private network (VPN), which helps mask a user’s internet location.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A.I. research</h2>



One of Thiel’s accusations is that Chinese spies have infiltrated Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) projects, but he did not provide any evidence.



Google does have AI projects in China though. In 2017, the company opened up an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/13/alphabets-google-opens-china-ai-centre.html" class="">AI research center in China</a>.



On its website, Google says AI research in China is focused on education and so-called natural language understanding — which refers to an AI technique focused on getting machines to understand human language. Google is looking to apply AI to auctioning so that the bidding process for ads can be more efficient. This could be important for Google, which operates an advertising marketplace.



In China, the work is also contributing to AI products that Google makes available globally, such as TensorFlow. This is an open source library that can help other companies develop AI products.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Cloud computing</h2>



Technology giants such as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=BABA" class="">Alibaba</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=700-HK" class="">Tencent</a>&nbsp;dominate the cloud market in China. So Google’s tactic is to try to sell its cloud products to Chinese firms that have international operations in Southeast Asia and elsewhere.



A search of Google job postings in China showed the company is looking for cloud computing engineers, data managers, sales and business development roles across Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.



The company is also hiring people to target customers in specific industries — from media and entertainment to manufacturing.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Hardware</h2>



Google sells a number of hardware products including smartphones, smart speakers and thermostats, under the Nest brand that it owns. Some of that is manufactured in China.



The company is currently advertising roles for engineers to test products and for manufacturing and supply chain managers. On LinkedIn, a number of Google employees in Shenzhen, a key technology hub in China, listed their jobs as hardware-related.



However, Bloomberg reported in June that Google was moving the production of some Nest thermostats and server hardware out of China to avoid tariffs from the U.S.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">App developers and the Google Play Store</h2>



The Google Play Store, the company’s app store, is blocked in China. So Google is trying to work with app developers in China to help them bring their products onto the Play Store in international markets.



Under its job listings, Google advertised for two roles for a business development manager related to the play store.



“As a Business Development Manager of Google Play, you will empower developers to build successful businesses on Play/Android globally, and inspire the ecosystem to innovate on/invest in Android and Play,” the job description reads.



Google also has individual roles for the gaming section of the Google Play store. Games are a huge part of its app store.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Advertising</h2>



Advertising is a core part of Google’s revenue but because its services are blocked in China, it can’t really sell ads on those platforms there. So the company focuses on Chinese businesses looking to advertise on Google platforms abroad, whether that is on its search engine, YouTube or something else.



One job that’s being advertised is for a business development consultant in Shanghai who will be “responsible for driving business growth and attracting new medium to large size advertisers for Google.” There are also people focused on getting advertisers from specific industries like retail or entertainment.



Overall, Google’s business in China is mostly aimed at getting Chinese companies to use its products outside of China.



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/17/google-china-what-businesses-the-search-giant-has-in-the-country.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/17/google-china-what-businesses-the-search-giant-has-in-the-country.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

Google has been accused of working with China. Here’s what they’ve been doing there

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/jordan-novet/">Jordan Novet</a>



Elon Musk’s ambitious brain-computer start-up Neuralink is looking to start trials on humans next year. Musk talked about the project at an event in San Francisco that was <a class="" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-vbh3t7WVI&amp;feature=youtu.be">streamed live</a> — with an eye toward recruiting more talent — late on Tuesday.



Neuralink aligns with a broader trend of technology minds seeking to merge their approaches with the world of in healthcare.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=FB" class="">Facebook</a>&nbsp;has previously devoted resources to exploring computer systems that people could&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/19/facebook-building-8-working-on-controlling-computers-from-brain.html" class="">communicate with simply by thinking</a>.



The start-up envisions drilling holes into the brain with a custom machine to embed thin threads that connect to a tiny processor, which can then be connected to a smartphone over Bluetooth. Over time it would like to make the installation process as simple as laser-eye surgery.



The company is seeking U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to begin clinical trials as soon as next year,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-17/elon-musk-s-neuralink-says-it-s-ready-to-begin-brain-surgery" class="">Bloomberg</a>&nbsp;said, and Musk said the start-up wants to have its first human patient equipped with the technology before the end of 2020.



“It will take a long time, and you’ll see it coming,” Musk said at Tuesday’s event. He said in the future there could be an “app store” for different programs that could tap the technology.



Neuralink has operated in relative secrecy ever since Musk, the CEO of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=TSLA" class="">Tesla</a>and a co-founder of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=PYPL" class="">PayPal</a>, laid out the ideas for the start-up in an lengthy article on Tim Urban’s blog&nbsp;<a href="https://waitbutwhy.com/2017/04/neuralink.html" class="">&nbsp;“Wait But Why”</a>&nbsp;in 2017.



“We are aiming to bring something to market that helps with certain severe brain injuries (stroke, cancer lesion, congenital) in about four years,” Musk told Urban.



Musk believes the technology could eventually assist in cognitive capabilities like speech and sight, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/technology/neuralink-elon-musk.html" class="">New York Times</a>. Applications include helping people control computers with their brain activity or restoring the ability to speak, Philip Sabes, senior scientist at Neuralink, said at Tuesday’s event.&nbsp;



Musk said people could communicate with one another using the technology through a kind of telepathy.&nbsp;



He has a larger ambition, though. He said on Tuesday that he hopes to “help secure humanity’s future as a civilization relative to AI,” or artificial intelligence.



Last year, one media outlet reported that Neuralink had been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/28/elon-musk-brain-start-up-neuralink-applied-for-animal-tests-report.html" class="">looking to conduct tests on animals</a>. The New York Times reported that it saw a demonstration of a computer receiving information from a rat in a company lab. And a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6204648-Neuralink-White-Paper.html" class="">new paper</a>&nbsp;attributed to Neuralink and Musk describes some of the rat research.



“All animal procedures were performed in accordance with the National Research Council’s Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and were approved by the Neuralink Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee,” the paper states.



At Tuesday’s event Musk also talked about work with monkeys.



“A monkey has been able to control the computer with his brain,” he said.



Last year he&nbsp; talked up the project during&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/07/elon-musk-discusses-neurolink-on-joe-rogan-podcast.html" class="">an appearance</a>&nbsp;on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. “I think we’ll have something interesting to announce in a few months &#8230; that’s better than anyone thinks is possible,” he said.



Musk, a co-founder of Neuralink, has invested $100 million in the company, the New York Times said.



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/17/elon-musk-brain-machine-startup-neuralink-plans-human-trials-in-2020.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/17/elon-musk-brain-machine-startup-neuralink-plans-human-trials-in-2020.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

Elon Musk’s latest project shows first step toward mind-reading brain implant

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/elizabeth-gravier/">Elizabeth Gravier</a>



Richard Branson is used to shooting for the stars.&nbsp;



Last week,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/09/richard-branson-space-unit-virgin-galactic-plans-to-go-public-wsj.html" class="">Virgin Galactic</a>&nbsp;announced its plans to become the first publicly-traded space tourism company. It’s a bold feat, and one that Branson credits to dreaming big – and out loud.



“One of my most enduring (and hopefully endearing!) habits is talking about plans that are yet to come to fruition,” Branson writes in&nbsp;a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/talking-ahead-yourself" class="">recent blog post</a>. “Whenever I come up with an exciting new idea or hear a thrilling new proposal, I want to tell the world about it straight away.”



He calls this habit “talking ahead of yourself.”



“Far from being a problem, talking ahead of yourself can actually be very useful,” he writes. “By setting yourself future goals that many people deem unrealistic, you actually bring them closer to reality.”



And Branson’s optimism has paid off. The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/richard-c-branson/" class="">self-made billionaire</a>&nbsp;has made a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/richard-branson/#2bf6c8286ff5" class="">fortune</a>&nbsp;creating separate ventures all under the Virgin brandname, including Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Galactic,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/06/richard-branson-wept-when-he-sold-virgin-records-for-a-billion-dollars.html" class="">Virgin Records</a>(which he sold for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/06/richard-branson-wept-when-he-sold-virgin-records-for-a-billion-dollars.html" class="">$1 billion in 1992</a>) and most recently&nbsp;<a href="https://www.virginvoyages.com/" class="">Virgin Voyages</a>, a cruise business launching in 2020.



He writes that the practice of talking about future ideas out loud incentivizes Virgin employees to reach goals, but it also turns restless energy and ideas into real action. “If you start planning ahead for when you do have the exciting new line, the growing profits and the new staff, you’ll be better prepared for success.”



Branson takes inspiration wherever he can find it, but he credits April Fool’s pranks – an annual tradition at Virgin – as a surprising source of ideas. As a prank, he once wrote about new&nbsp;<a href="https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/virgin-launches-glass-bottomed-plane" class="">glass-bottomed Virgin Atlantic planes</a>, and the idea was so popular that he is now considering installing giant windows in the roof of the planes for stargazing (a decision made after realizing the luggage at the bottom of the plane would block any type of view through a glass surface.)



“Sometimes the most far-fetched schemes are the most plausible,” Branson writes. “Often sensible plans go out of the window. You have to be ready for anything. If you talk ahead of yourself, your team will be ready for it too. You’ve got to have a dream before you can go about making it come true.”



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/15/why-richard-branson-talks-about-his-big-goals-publicly.html?forYou=true">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/15/why-richard-branson-talks-about-his-big-goals-publicly.html?forYou=true</a> and is republished with its permission.

Why billionaire Richard Branson talks about his goals before he has any idea how to accomplish them

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/jessica-bursztynsky/">Jessica Bursztynsky</a> 



Billionaire tech entrepreneur&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/mark-cuban/" class="">Mark Cuban</a>&nbsp;criticized&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=FB" class="">Facebook</a>’s venture into cryptocurrency in a new CNBC interview.



“I’m not a big fan of what they’re doing there,” Cuban said of Facebook’s Libra coin. “I think it’s a big mistake.”



Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and a “Shark Tank” investor, said he’s not so much concerned with the impact on U.S. markets but at a global level.



“I think globally and in countries where there isn’t a lot of rule of law, or a lot of government stability, or currency stability, then it could be dangerous,” Cuban told CNBC’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/deirdre-bosa/" class="">Deirdre Bosa</a>&nbsp;in an interview that began airing on Friday.



“There’s going to be some despot in some African country that gets really upset that they can’t control their currency anymore and that’s where the real problems start occurring,” he explained.



Cuban has joined a series of government leaders and high-profile bankers in criticizing the social media giant.



In a series of tweets, President Donald Trump on Thursday said that he’s “not a fan” of cryptocurrencies and said Libra “will have little standing or dependability.”



He also said, “If Facebook and other companies want to become a bank, they must seek a new Banking Charter and become subject to all Banking Regulations.”



Appearing on Capitol Hill over two days this week delivering testimony and taking questions on the economy, Federal Reserve Chairman&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/jerome-powell/" class="">Jerome Powell</a>said he has “serious concerns” about Libra.



French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney have also questioned Libra.



Last month,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/17/facebook-announces-libra-digital-currency-calibra-digital-wallet.html" class="">Facebook announced</a>&nbsp;its ambitious endeavor to create a digital coin, with launch plans in the first half of next year. Libra will not be run by Facebook but by a nonprofit association supported by a range of companies and organizations, including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=V" class="">Visa</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=PYPL" class="">PayPal</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=EBAY" class="">eBay</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=LYFT" class="">Lyft</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=UBER" class="">Uber</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=SPOT" class="">Spotify</a>.



David Marcus, the Facebook executive behind the effort, told CNBC on the day of the announcement, June 18, that consumers should not be worried about the social media network gaining access to their financial data.



The Libra project comes as Facebook&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/18/facebook-david-marcus-on-building-trust-for-libra-cryptocurrency.html" class="">works to rebuild public trust</a>&nbsp;after a series of privacy scandals and admissions that Russia used the platform&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/30/facebook-russia-fake-accounts-126-million" class="">to try to influence</a>&nbsp;the 2016 presidential election.



Facebook did not immediately return a request for comment.



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/12/mark-cuban-calls-facebook-digital-coin-libra-a-big-mistake.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/12/mark-cuban-calls-facebook-digital-coin-libra-a-big-mistake.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

Billionaire Mark Cuban calls Facebook’s digital coin Libra a ‘big mistake,’ saying it ‘could be dangerous’

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/kathleen-elkins/">Kathleen Elkins</a> 



Before wealth manager and author <a class="" href="https://davidbach.com/">David Bach</a> made his first million, he was a brand new financial advisor in his early twenties, he tells <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/">CNBC Make It</a>: “We had someone come and talk to our training class, and as he walked out the door, he handed us this chart.”



Ultimately, the chart “changed my life,” Bach says.



The chart shows two different scenarios:



<ol class="wp-block-list"><li>You start investing at 19 and contribute $2,000 to your account every year until you reach 27. From 27 to 65, you contribute $0.</li><li>From 19 to 26, you don’t invest anything. You start investing at 27 and contribute $2,000 to your account every year until you turn 65.</li></ol>



In the first scenario, you’re only saving and investing for eight years; in the second, you’re saving and investing for 39 years. Still, the person who starts at age 19 would end up with more money in their portfolio in the long run.



Assuming a 10% rate of return, the first person would have $1.02 million by 65, while the second person would have $805,185, a difference of more than $200,000.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/cnbc-picture-1110x539.png" alt="" class="wp-image-340296"/></figure>



As the chart shows, the sooner you can start putting your money to work, the more you’ll benefit from <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/11/how-compound-interest-works-and-how-it-can-help-you-save-money.html">compound interest</a> and the less you’ll have to save to reach your retirement goals.



In terms of where to set aside your dollars, “You have to have this money invested for growth,” Bach says. “You cannot put this money in a money market account or a CD, where it grows at 1% or 2%. You’ll never build wealth.” Instead, Bach recommends putting your money to work in a tax-advantaged&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/09/definitive-guide-to-retirement-savings-accounts.html" class="">retirement account</a>, such as a 401(k), Roth IRA or traditional IRA, where it will grow over time.



Retirement-specific accounts offer tax benefits, but there are other ways to invest your money: You can look into low-cost&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2014/05/06/what-is-an-index-fund.html" class="">index funds</a>, which&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/14/index-funds-are-the-smartest-way-to-invest-your-money.html" class="">Warren Buffett recommends</a>, and online investment platforms, such as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ellevest.com/" class="">Ellevest</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href="https://www.betterment.com/" class="">Betterment,</a>&nbsp;known as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/13/man-vs-machine-how-to-figure-out-if-you-should-use-a-robo-advisor.html" class="">robo-advisors</a>.



No matter how you choose to invest, the most important step is to open at least one account and start contributing to it consistently.



“Start investing today,” says Bach. “Because the miracle of compound interest starts working the day you put it in place — but the key to compound interest is that it takes decades. It doesn’t get done in days. When you try to get rich quickly, you stay poor forever. This is about building wealth for your lifetime.”



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/08/self-made-millionaire-david-bach-a-chart-changed-the-way-i-think-about-money.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/08/self-made-millionaire-david-bach-a-chart-changed-the-way-i-think-about-money.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

Self-made millionaire: A simple chart changed the way I think about money

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/jade-scipioni/">Jade Scipioni</a> 



There are only about <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/07/forbes-there-are-a-record-2208-billionaires-in-the-world.html">2,200</a> billionaires in the world — or 0.0002% of planet’s population.



And&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/07/forbes-there-are-a-record-2208-billionaires-in-the-world.html" class="">67%</a>&nbsp;of those billionaires are self-made.



The members of that self-made group generally made their money in one of a few ways: they invented a useful product (think Bill Gates with Microsoft, whose net worth is around&nbsp;<a class="" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/">$107 billion</a>); they innovated a new way of solving a problem (think Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky, whose net worth is around&nbsp;<a class="" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/brian-chesky/#7feaad8944d3">$3.7 billion</a>); or they are savvy investors (think Warren Buffett, worth&nbsp;<a class="" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/">$87.3 billion</a>). Indeed, climbing the corporate ladder will rarely get you into the club (Tim Cook who runs nearly&nbsp;<a class="" href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AAPL/history/">$1 trillion company</a>&nbsp;Apple, for example, is worth around&nbsp;<a class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-net-worth-apple-ceo-2018-8">$625 million</a>).



But beyond sharp entrepreneurial and investing chops, self-made billionaires share some traits, according to according to Rafael Badziag, who interviewed 21 of them (including early Uber investor Tim Draper and InfoSpace and Viome founder Naveen Jain) for his book, “The Billion Dollar Secret.” Here are three of the top things they have in common, according to Badziag.



 1. They succeed no matter what the ‘weather’ is



Badziag says it’s clear why most of the general population (he calls them “drifters”) don’t succeed in life: They are waiting for conditions to be perfect before they strike, and often those ideal conditions never materialize so they don’t fully pursue their dreams.



“Self-made” billionaires, he says, are different. Most of the billionaires Badziag interviewed didn’t come from well-off families or ideal situations, but they pursued their dreams no matter the circumstances around them — no matter the “weather outside or inside,” he says.



Take for example, one of the billionaires Badziag interviewed: N.R. Narayana Murthy, who co-founded IT giant Infosys, which is valued at more than&nbsp;<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/INFY?p=INFY" class="">$45 billion</a>.



The 72-year-old, who is now worth as estimated <a class="" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/nr-narayana-murthy/#632698863e05">$2.4 billion</a>, grew up in India in ’50s and ’60s, a poor country that he says was one of the most hostile to free enterprise at the time. As a child, his family was so poor he had to sleep on the floor because they had no furniture.



But despite having no money, Murthy was eager to learn; he would go to the public library in town (he lived outside Karnataka) and read everything he could. From what he learned, Murthy believed software was the future, so in 1981 he and some colleagues got the idea to create a software company. But they didn’t have a computer, and at the time, the Indian government required a license to import one, he told Badziag. So for three years, Murthy back and forth to Dehli by train, 1,500 miles each way, making at least 50 visits to pitch officials on why he should be granted a license. With their computer and phone line (which he says took <a class="" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-12957104">a year</a> to procure), Murthy and his co-founders started Infosys and grew it from an operation with seven employees into a global business and one of the leading technology consulting companies in India.



 2. They don’t do it for the money



Most “drifters” are dying to have big incomes but never quite achieve a high net worth status, or if they do, they lose motivation when they have some good in money in bank, says Badziag. (He refers to it as “the gold digger’s trap.”)



However, Badziag found that the “self-made” billionaires he interviewed aren’t motivated by wealth. Instead, they “have a strong sense of purpose and passion for their work,” and are motivated by a desire to “to grow and learn no matter how big their bank accounts get,” he says.



As Apple founder Steve Jobs once famously said, “I was worth over a million dollars when i was 23 and over $10 million when I was 24, and over $100 million when I was 25. And it wasn’t that important, because I never did it for the money.” Jobs said he started Apple with a simple vision of trying to create a “<a class="" href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/197538">computer in the hands of everyday people</a>. ” and they ended up succeeding beyond they wildest dreams.



Murthy told Badziag he was driven by the belief that the only way to solve the problem of poverty was “through the creation of jobs with good incomes and that entrepreneurship was the best instrument for such a solution.”



And French-Syrian businessman Mohed Altrad, who made his now&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mohed-altrad/#2c128ff45057" class="">$2.7 billion</a>&nbsp;fortune by acquiring a scaffolding company in France in 1985 and growing it into the industrial services giant&nbsp;<a href="https://www.altrad.com/en/home.html" class="">Altrad Group</a>, told Badziag that he doesn’t view money as an objective.



“It’s one of the signs of success. The success of the organization is to be sustainable, in which people are happy, in which humanity finds its foundation,” Altrad said.



 3. They are frugal



“Drifters” love spending money, according to Badziag, often going into debt to spend even more than they have. Even successful people are prone to showcasing their wealth via cars, expensive clothes and lavish vacations.



But the billionaires Badziag interviewed were different: They “get pleasure making money, but don’t enjoy spending it,” he says.



Take for example, Warren Buffett, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/" class="">fourth-richest person</a>&nbsp;in the world with a net worth of around&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/" class="">$87.3 billion</a>. Despite his massive wealth, the 88-year-old still lives in the same modest Omaha house he purchased in 1958 for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-modest-home-bought-31500-looks-2017-6" class="">$31,500</a>&nbsp;(which is around $277,00 in today’s dollars). He also keeps his breakfast budget low, only spending around&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/18/warren-buffett-buys-breakfast-from-mcdonalds-for-under-3-point-17.html" class="">$3.17</a>&nbsp;a day at McDonald’s to get one of three items: two sausage patties, a sausage, egg and cheese or a bacon, egg and cheese.



And Peter Hargreaves, the founder of Hargreaves Lansdown, one of the UK’s largest financial services businesses, told Badziag a few years back that he was still driving an eight-year-old Toyota Prius. Hargreaves’ net worth is estimated at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/peter-hargreaves/#147ef4b8691c" class="">$4.2 billion</a>.



Hargreaves also told Badziag that his children were frugal too. ”[My kids] drive very modest cars; they both have a car that’s seven years old. They both have quite modest flats. And if they go on holiday, they go with their mates, and they go to the back of the plane,” Hargreaves said.



Of course, some billionaires adjust to their level of wealth. For example, though Bill Gates is famous for wearing a <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/28/two-popular-items-bill-gates-refuses-to-spend-a-lot-of-money-on.html">$10 watch</a>, he recently <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/25/why-bill-gates-younger-self-would-be-disgusted-with-him-today.html">admitted</a> that he also indulges: “Now I take lots of vacation. My 20-year-old self is so disgusted with my current self. You know, I was sure I would never fly anything but coach and you know, now I have a plane,” Gates said last <a class="" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&amp;amp=&amp;amp=&amp;amp=&amp;v=W5g4sPi1wd4">month</a> at a Village Global event.



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/02/self-made-billionaires-have-these-traits-in-common.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/02/self-made-billionaires-have-these-traits-in-common.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

3 traits self-made billionaires have in common, according to a guy who interviewed 21 of them

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/elizabeth-gravier/">Elizabeth Gravier</a>



Before Elon Musk became obsessed by space travel and electric cars, he was a kid who played&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-favorite-video-games-photos-2017-1" class="">a lot of video games</a>.



Speaking at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3)&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVW50KRaBd8" class="">video game convention</a>&nbsp;in Los Angeles earlier this month, Musk addressed the impact video games have had on his vision and the careers of engineers everywhere.



“Part of the reason, maybe the reason, I got interested in tech was video games, ” Musk said. “I probably wouldn’t have started programming if it wasn’t for video games or wouldn’t have been as interested in computers and tech if it wasn’t for video games. I think video games are a very powerful force for getting young kids interested in technology; it has way bigger knock-on effects than people may realize.”



Musk speaks from experience. At just 12 years old, he coded and published a space fighting game called “Blastar” which later&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/04/the-first-jobs-of-15-billionaires-like-warren-buffett-and-jeff-bezos.html" class="">sold for $500</a>&nbsp;to trade publication PC and Office Technology magazine. He once worked at a gaming startup ( “Which weirdly was called Rocket Science — fate loves irony,” Musk has joked). And though his&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/business/elon-musk-interview-tesla.html" class="">more recent birthdays</a>&nbsp;may have been spent pulling all-nighters at Tesla, Musk once celebrated his birthday by asking for a life-size statue of Vault Boy – the fictional mascot character from&nbsp;<a href="https://fallout.bethesda.net/en/" class="">video game Fallout</a>.



But Musk isn’t the only one who has found inspiration – and success – through gaming. The link between the two is obvious when he interviews his future employees.



“If we’re interviewing somebody for a software engineering role at Tesla or SpaceX, many times we’ll [ask], ‘How’d you start programming?’” Musk says.



“I think many of the best software engineers in the world are at, or spent much of their career at, video game houses,” Musk says, emphasizing how problem-solving in video games transfers over to problem-solving in software engineering. “If people had to try to create incredibly realistic graphics using very little computer power, it’s a hard problem, so a lot of people had to write really tight code and come up with really clever ideas to do that.”



For Musk’s team at Tesla, the enhanced graphics in video games enable them to better simulate self-driving cars with the help of artificial intelligence. Hetasks his simulation team with creating a photorealistic world of what he says are some of the most boring things: skid marks on the road, concrete curves, shadows, and faded street lines. These simulations have been essential to the development of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.motortrend.com/news/consumer-reports-right-wrong-tesla-autopilot/" class="">autopilot cars</a>, which are scheduled for a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/22/18510828/tesla-elon-musk-autonomy-day-investor-comments-self-driving-cars-predictions" class="">full rollout next year</a>.



He also credited video game <a class="" href="https://www.cyberpunk.net/us/en/pre-order">Cyberpunk</a> (as well as the movie “Blade Runner”) as the inspiration for the <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/14/elon-musk-tweets-about-tesla-pickup-truck-prototype-for-2019.html">Tesla pickup truck</a>.



“It definitely doesn’t look like a normal car, it looks like it should not be on the roads, like it came out of a movie or something,” Musk says. “It won’t appeal to everyone, but it’ll be something that’s different. I think I would buy it.”



Musk wasn’t just at E3 to talk about his new pickup truck. He announced the addition of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/bored-charging-your-tesla-play-videogame-your-car/" class="">video games to Tesla vehicles</a>&nbsp;— drivers can play games on the car’s center screen while docked at a charging station. He even hinted at developing games for his space capsules going to Mars.



“My experience is, if you’re trying to figure out what others love, but you don’t love it, it’s really hard to make that great,” he says. “So when you work on something, if you fall in love with it, that’s a good sign – and then don’t worry about if others do. If you do, others will.”



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/28/elon-musk-talks-about-how-video-games-got-him-hooked-on-programming.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/28/elon-musk-talks-about-how-video-games-got-him-hooked-on-programming.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

International News

Op-Ed: Has Trump misjudged China ?

Suzy Welch: The rules have changed—here’s when to discuss salary in a job interview

Migration in the Mediterranean: It’s time for the ICC to put European leaders on trial, here’s why

China’s donation of equipment to this East African country’s parliament goes missing

With WhatsApp having played a major role in Nigeria’s elections does it undermine democracy ?

16-year-old wins $3 million at first ever Fortnite World Cup video game tournament

Former NBA star Shaq: As soon as I started investing like Jeff Bezos, ‘I probably quadrupled what I’m worth’

U.S. imposes visa restrictions on Nigerians involved in this…

Boris Johnson to become UK prime minister after winning leadership race

Bitcoin vs Libra: Here are the key differences between the two cryptocurrencies

Google has been accused of working with China. Here’s what they’ve been doing there

Elon Musk’s latest project shows first step toward mind-reading brain implant

Why billionaire Richard Branson talks about his goals before he has any idea how to accomplish them

Billionaire Mark Cuban calls Facebook’s digital coin Libra a ‘big mistake,’ saying it ‘could be dangerous’

Self-made millionaire: A simple chart changed the way I think about money

3 traits self-made billionaires have in common, according to a guy who interviewed 21 of them

Billionaire Elon Musk says playing video games is how he and ‘many of the best software engineers’ got into programming

News Tips

Advertise With Us

International News

Op-Ed: Has Trump misjudged China ?

Suzy Welch: The rules have changed—here’s when to discuss salary in a job interview

Migration in the Mediterranean: It’s time for the ICC to put European leaders on trial, here’s why

China’s donation of equipment to this East African country’s parliament goes missing

With WhatsApp having played a major role in Nigeria’s elections does it undermine democracy ?

16-year-old wins $3 million at first ever Fortnite World Cup video game tournament

Former NBA star Shaq: As soon as I started investing like Jeff Bezos, ‘I probably quadrupled what I’m worth’

U.S. imposes visa restrictions on Nigerians involved in this…

Boris Johnson to become UK prime minister after winning leadership race

Bitcoin vs Libra: Here are the key differences between the two cryptocurrencies

Google has been accused of working with China. Here’s what they’ve been doing there

Elon Musk’s latest project shows first step toward mind-reading brain implant

Why billionaire Richard Branson talks about his goals before he has any idea how to accomplish them

Billionaire Mark Cuban calls Facebook’s digital coin Libra a ‘big mistake,’ saying it ‘could be dangerous’

Self-made millionaire: A simple chart changed the way I think about money

3 traits self-made billionaires have in common, according to a guy who interviewed 21 of them

Billionaire Elon Musk says playing video games is how he and ‘many of the best software engineers’ got into programming

News Tips

Advertise With Us

Newsletters