The African National Congress party lost its parliamentary majority in a historic election result Saturday that puts South Africa on a new political path for the first time since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule 30 years ago. With more than 99% of votes counted, the once-dominant ANC had received just over 40% in Wednesday’s election, well short of the majority it had held since the famed all-race vote of 1994 that ended apartheid and brought it to power under Nelson Mandela. The final results are still to be formally declared by the Independent Electoral Commission, but the ANC cannot pass 50%…
Author: insighter
Voters during the South Africa General Elections on May 29, 2024 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Gallo Images | Gallo Images | Getty ImagesSouth Africa’s governing African National Congress lost its parliamentary majority of 30 years, in the country’s most sweeping political shift since the end of the apartheid.Popular support for the ANC during the May 29 vote came in at 40%, with the Democratic Alliance (DA) at 21.8%, and the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) clinching 9.5%, according to the country’s electoral commission with 99.9% of the votes counted. The six-months-old uMkhonto weSizwe party of the country’s former president Jacob Zuma,…
Oscar Wong | Moment | Getty ImagesWhen Adam Moelis co-founded a fintech startup named Yotta in 2019, he wanted to give Americans a new way to save money to help them cushion the ups and downs of life.Instead, his company has inadvertently been a source of deep pain for thousands of customers who relied on Yotta accounts to receive paychecks, pay bills and save for emergencies.The crisis began May 11, when a dispute between two of Yotta’s banking partners — fintech middleman Synapse and Tennessee-based Evolve Bank & Trust — led to the lockup of accounts at Yotta and at…
While some Wall Street billionaires are openly supporting Donald Trump’s bid to return to the White House, most top executives at publicly traded companies are a different story, according to Pangaea Policy founder Terry Haines. The former president’s conviction on 34 felony counts by a New York jury will lead to a “measurable but small drip, drip, drip away from Trump” among the overall electorate, he told Bloomberg TV on Friday after telling clients in note that it will also make attracting serious financial and political backing on Wall Street harder. That’s despite billionaires like Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman and…
VanEck CEO Jan van Eck sees a major sentiment shift underway in the cryptocurrency market linked to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval of a rule change allowing for Ethereum exchange-traded funds.”This is really one of the most amazing things that I’ve seen in my career with respect to securities regulation,” van Eck told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week. VanEck was the first to apply to the SEC for permission to list its proposed Ethereum ETF. With that first hurdle cleared, VanEck can begin the process of bringing the product to market, though the exact timeline is unclear.”There was a…
[The livestream started at 8:15 a.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see the video player above.]Boeing’s first Starliner flight with astronauts on board was called off in the final minutes on Saturday. The cause of the launch delay was not immediately announced.The company was targeting a launch on June 1 at 12:25 p.m. ET of its capsule, which is carrying astronauts to the International Space Station for the first time in a final major test of the system.Two NASA astronauts are aboard the Starliner capsule, which would be carried by United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket…
Manalapan is a small slip of a town in South Florida with just over 400 year-round residents, around 70 lots, and not much else. Most people, even some who live in nearby Miami, have never heard of it. But among those in the know—including Billy Joel and Tony Robbins—interest in moving to Manalapan has skyrocketed since the COVID-19 pandemic, local realtors and residents say. Unlike those moving to other parts of Florida, though, new Manalapan residents are much more likely to be billionaires, thanks to the town’s expansive oceanfront estates, relative privacy, and outsized listing prices. Estates are currently listed…
The Texas Instruments Inc. logo is seen on scientific calculator packages in Tiskilwa, Illinois.Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesCompany: Texas Instruments (TXN)Business: Texas Instruments is a global semiconductor company. The company designs, manufactures, tests and sells analog and embedded processing chips for markets, including industrial, automotive and personal electronics. Texas Instruments’ segments include Analog and Embedded Processing. Analog’s product lines include Power and Signal Chain. Power includes products that help customers manage power in electronic systems. Signal Chain includes products that sense, condition and measure real-world signals to allow information to be transferred or converted for further processing and…
Tourists line a street in Venice, Italy, on Saturday, March 16, 2024. Venice collected €37 million in overnight tourist taxes in 2023, with hotels charging guests anywhere between €1 and €5. Nathan Laine | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesBellagio, Lake Como, Italy — When boat drivers start complaining about the tourists overrunning this famous lakeside resort, where Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce stayed at the Villa Sola Cabiati in Tremezzo two weeks ago after her series of Paris concerts, you know you have a problem. “There are days when traffic comes to a stop, you cannot move,” our driver told us. He makes his…
As you plan those summer barbecues, pool days or dinners, Discover’s bonus categories for the third quarter of 2024 can be a big help.From July 1 through Sept. 30, 2024, holders of eligible cards like the Discover it® Cash Back and Discover it® Student Cash Back can earn 5% back at grocery stores and Walmart on up to $1,500 in combined spending for the quarter. (Activation is required; other purchases will earn 1% back.)Here’s what you need to know to make the most of these spending categories. Discover bonus rewards categories for 2024Gas stations/EV charging stations.TBD (In 2023: Amazon, Target).A…
Chocolate’s key ingredient has soared in commodities markets throughout 2024. Spot prices for cocoa began the year around $4,200 an ounce, then hit an all-time high of more than $12,000 an ounce in late April before settling above $9,000.Factors such as crop disease, El Niño, farm-gate prices and market speculation all played big roles in cocoa’s historic price run-up.”The supply side factors are still very much a major problem, and I think they will continue to be for the next few years,” said Paul Joules, agricultural commodity analyst at Rabobank.As the chocolate industry grapples with higher input costs, consumers are…
Ethan Gaskill, a 29-year-old content creator, begins everyday the same way: “When I wake up in the morning—most people get on their phone and start checking Instagram—I check Facebook Marketplace.” With his Los Angeles home furnished almost exclusively with second-hand items and a TikTok with over 220,000 followers interested in his thrifty hauls, Gaskill trusts the shopping platform to be a reliable source for hidden gems: a thousand-dollar Herman Miller light and pendant he nabbed for $400; a $5,000 bed from the same designer he bought for 20% of the original price; and, a Founders mid-century dresser worth $4,000 that…