Consulting with a lawyer who has ties to President Trump. Reaching out to Washington lobbyists. And sitting for a jailhouse interview with Tucker Carlson.Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced cryptocurrency mogul who was once a top Democratic donor, has embarked on a long-shot campaign to secure a pardon from the Trump administration, six people with knowledge of the matter said.The effort has been driven by a small group of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s supporters, including his parents, Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried, who are trying to help their son escape the 25-year prison sentence he received after he was convicted of fraud, conspiracy and…
Author: Team_Benjamin Franklin Institute
This article is an on-site version of our FirstFT newsletter. Subscribers can sign up to our Asia, Europe/Africa or Americas edition to get the newsletter delivered every weekday morning. Explore all of our newsletters hereToday’s agenda: White House backtracks on tariffs; Trump memecoin windfall; baby food ‘premiumisation’; Dubai’s hot property market; and Lloyds shifts IT roles to India Good morning. We start in Brussels where EU leaders yesterday put on a show of solidarity with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a summit designed as a riposte to the hostile treatment of the Ukrainian president by the Trump administration in the US. Pledges…
Credit: Pickpik Topline: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was forced to spend $31.6 billion to protect customers at three failed banks in early 2023. While taxpayers footed the bill, the CEOs of the three banks made out nicely, each collecting millions in compensation right before their banks folded, according to a Feb. 20 report from the Government Accountability Office. Key facts: First Republic Bank gave CEO James Herbert II $17.8 million in compensation in 2021, according to the GAO. Silicon Valley Bank awarded CEO Greg Becker $9.9 million in 2022 and Signature Bank paid $8.7 million to Joseph DePaolo the same year. All…
The couple has filed a request to keep their texts with “high profile” people confidential, citing concerns that Baldoni’s camp may leak them to the press.However, Justin Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman has hit back at Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, calling their proposal “unnecessary.”Article continues below advertisementBlake Lively & Ryan Reynolds Fight To Keep Converstaions With ‘High-Profile’ People PrivateZUMAPRESS.com / MEGALively and Reynolds want their conversations kept private as their ongoing court battle with Baldoni wages on.At a hearing in Manhattan federal court on Thursday, attorney Meryl Conant Governski said that the couple wants a protective order put in place…
Meanwhile, Tokyo’s economy, trade and industry minister Yoji Muto told reporters that he hoped his US trip would “be a win-win for both Japanese and US national interests”. He said the visit was being coordinated and did not confirm the Mar 9 to 13 dates given by Japanese media or reports that he would push US officials to exempt Japan from levies. Trump has said 25 per cent steel and aluminium tariffs will be imposed on Wednesday of next week, without exceptions. “It is important to closely study the specific content of these (tariff) measures and their impact,” Muto said…
Aviation regulator diverts flights from four airports in Florida to avoid falling debris.SpaceX’s Starship has exploded shortly after takeoff in the second launch failure this year for Elon Musk’s interplanetary exploration programme. But Musk’s rocket company was able to successfully return its mammoth first-stage booster to the launchpad following Thursday’s test-flight, catching it in its giant mechanical “chopsticks” for the third time. SpaceX’s livestream showed the Starship spacecraft spinning uncontrollably in space minutes after its liftoff from the company’s launch site in Boca Chica, Texas. “You can see we’ve lost several engines and we’ve lost attitude control for the vehicle,”…
Charles Barkley and Kendrick Perkins will be colleagues at ESPN next season, but it looks like they will have a lot to smooth over between now and then. The ESPN analyst Perkins made some controversial comments earlier this week about the Los Angeles Lakers. Perkins gave the Lakers credit for supposedly “saving the NBA” right now. During TNT’s “Inside the NBA” on Thursday, Barkley fired back at that notion.“I saw a fool-idiot on TV talking about [how] the Lakers saved the NBA,” said Barkley. “He’s an idiot and a fool … He said the Lakers saved the NBA season. That’s…
Zelensky went on to say, in fact, that “We cannot spend dozens of thousands of our people so that they perish for the sake of Crimea coming back.” Instead, he indicated that he hoped to recover Crimea “diplomatically.”A cease-fire with European security guarantees fits with long-held American desires to “pivot to Asia,” to project more power in the Pacific. China is ultimately more dangerous than Russia (it has a smaller nuclear arsenal but a much larger economy and much larger conventional forces), and European nations (which are ramping up their own military spending) can deter Russia even if we concentrate…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. This article originally appeared on Business Insider. Psst! How much was your bonus?On Wall Street, your end-of-year paycheck can often indicate your standing at work. Yet, knowing where your bonus pay ranks compared to peers is not so simple.In an effort to shed some light on Wall Street pay trends, recruiting firm Prospect Rock Partners surveyed more than 900 investment bankers about their 2024 salaries and bonuses. The survey was conducted between December 1, 2024, and February 28, 2025, using Prospect Rock’s banking industry contacts. It’s the third year Meridith Dennes, the…
The IM-2 mission in low lunar orbitIntuitive Machines Intuitive Machines’ Athena lander has made it to the moon, but it seems to have fallen over. The lander is still working, but it is not yet clear which parts of its mission it will still be able to accomplish. The spacecraft launched onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, Florida on 27 February. It landed on 6 March, but the landing wasn’t entirely successful and its precise location or orientation on the lunar surface is still unclear. “We don’t believe we’re in the…