Month: December 2023

© Reuters. Bitcoin ETF Base Case Scenario Presented by Analyst as Big Date Nears

U.Today – Expectations are rising ahead of the Jan. 10 deadline for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to decide whether to give its first blessing for a .

According to a , the SEC “may” notify issuers as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday that they have been cleared to launch spot bitcoin ETFs the following week.

Along these lines, , a crypto analyst, presents what he calls a “Bitcoin ETF base case scenario,” which he anticipates will happen around Jan. 8-10.

In a positive scenario wherein a Bitcoin spot ETF gains approval, Kruger predicts the Bitcoin price’s immediate reaction to be an upside move, citing the rationale that this is currently 90% priced in.

As a follow-up to this, Kruger predicts that the Bitcoin price might drop below the ETH pre-approval levels (if approved) into launch nearly two weeks later. He adds that this remains speculation given that there is no official date for the launch; it might be days after approval or much later, considering how many ETFs are in the race. However, Kruger believes that sooner rather than later makes more sense.

In what might follow after the launch of a Bitcoin spot ETF, Kroger (NYSE:KR) predicts strong inflows or volume to reestablish the upward trend. On the other hand, if inflows are weak, prices may fall as front-runners dump into a few bids.

In a bearish scenario where the Bitcoin spot ETF gets rejected by the SEC, Kruger predicts that prices might rapidly collapse. Either way, he urges traders to be on alert in January.

Bitcoin set to close 2023 as one of best-performing assets

is set to close the year as one of the top-performing assets, up more than 160% and beating all major traditional assets even in risk-adjusted terms, thanks to ETF hype.

Optimism about a spot BTC ETF began to grow after BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) filed, and since then, BTC has rallied from $28K to nearly $45K.

According to Kaiko, despite a fairly dull middle of the year, Bitcoin has one of the strongest Sharpe Ratios of any major asset this year, second only to semiconductor behemoth Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), whose shares more than doubled from January to May on AI hype.

At the time of writing, BTC was up 1.2% in the last 24 hours to $42,620.

This article was originally published on U.Today

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Paula Abdul arrives for the premiere of the film Prey, in Los Angeles, California, U.S. August 2, 2022. REUTERS/David Swanson/File Photo

(Reuters) – U.S. singer, dancer and “American Idol” star Paula Abdul filed a lawsuit accusing British television executive Nigel Lythgoe of sexually assaulting her when they worked together on two popular talent shows, according to court documents.

Abdul, who rose to fame as a chart-topping singer in the late 1980s, alleged in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Friday that Lythgoe sexually assaulted her in an elevator during the early seasons of TV singing competition series “American Idol.”

Lythgoe, the producer of several hit television talent competitions, allegedly groped Abdul’s breasts and genitals, among other unwanted physical contact in a hotel elevator after a day of auditions for “American Idol.” Abdul tried to push him away and ran as soon as the elevator doors opened, court documents said.

Reuters was not immediately able to reach Abdul or Lythgoe for comment.

Lythogoe denied the allegations, according to TMZ.

“For more than two decades, Paula and I have interacted as dear — and entirely platonic — friends and colleagues,” he told TMZ. “Yesterday, however, out of the blue, I learned of these claims in the press and I want to be clear: not only are they false, they are deeply offensive to me and to everything I stand for.”

According to court documents, Abdul immediately reported the assault by Lythgoe, an “American Idol” producer at the time, to her representatives but did not take action for fear of losing her job, the lawsuit said.

Moreover, Abdul’s contracts prohibited her from speaking out, the lawsuit said.

Another alleged assault took place years later when Abdul worked as a judge on “So You Think You Can Dance,” according to court documents. The star, 61, enjoyed renewed popularity in the early 2000s starring as a judge on talent TV series.

The lawsuit alleges Lythgoe, 74, assaulted her on the couch of his Los Angeles home after a work dinner. Abdul again firmly rejected him and “immediately left Lythgoe’s home,” court documents said.

In the lawsuit, Abdul levels other allegations at the entertainment industry mogul, including that Lythgoe once called to taunt her and said it had been “seven years and the statute of limitations had run” on the alleged assaults.

The lawsuit alleged that the star also witnessed Lythgoe assault one of her assistants on “So You Think You Can Dance.”

The lawsuit was submitted days before the Dec. 31 filing deadline established under the California’s Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act. The legislation allows individuals to bring certain sexual abuse lawsuits that would otherwise have fallen outside the statute of limitations.

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends the Arab-Russian Cooperation Forum in Marrakech, Morocco, December 20, 2023. Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout via REUTERS

(This Dec. 30 story has been corrected to tweak the headline into ‘has sentenced’ from ‘has jailed’)

(Reuters) – Russian courts have sentenced more than 200 Ukrainian fighters to prison terms since Moscow started its military operation in Ukraine, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with the state RIA news agency published on Sunday.

“The courts of the Russian Federation have already sentenced more than 200 representatives of Ukrainian armed formations to long terms of imprisonment for committing atrocities,” Lavrov told RIA.

Both sides accuse each other of committing numerous atrocities in the war that Russia started with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022.

The United Nations has found continued evidence of war crimes and human rights violations committed by Russian authorities, including torture, rape and the deportation of children.

In March, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, alleging Moscow’s forcible deportation of Ukrainian children is a war crime.

“On our path to justice, the main result of the year is undoubtedly the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Putin,” Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said in a statement on Saturday, summing up 2023.

“A historic decision and a clear signal that no one can be above the law.”

The Ukraine Prosecutor General’s office has registered more than 121,000 Russian crimes of aggression and war crimes since the war started, according to its website.

The UN has also found several cases of Ukrainian authorities committing violations of human rights of people they have accused of collaborating with Russian authorities.

Lavrov told RIA that Russia’s main investigative organ, the Investigative Committee, has initiated 4,000 criminal cases against about 900 Ukrainian individuals.

“They include not only members of radical nationalist associations, representatives of Ukrainian security forces and mercenaries, but also representatives of the military and political leadership of Ukraine,” Lavrov said.

“Those of them who were charged in absentia have been put on the international wanted list.”

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© Reuters. A view shows destroyed cars following what Russian authorities say was a Ukrainian military strike in Belgorod, Russia December 30, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer
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(Reuters) -Russia on Sunday said it attacked military facilities in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv overnight, including a hotel housing military commanders and “foreign mercenaries”, in response to Ukraine’s strikes on Belgorod the previous day.

Kharkiv officials had said that at least six missiles hit Ukraine’s second city, injuring at least 28 people and damaging residential buildings, hotels and medical facilities, followed by waves of drone attacks on housing blocks.

Russia’s statement said its attack hit the former Kharkiv Palace hotel and the headquarters of the Ukrainian Security Service for the Kharkiv region.

It said military and intelligence officers involved in Ukraine’s attack on Belgorod had been among those killed, along with “foreign mercenaries and militants” preparing to carry out cross-border raids.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region adjoining northern Ukraine, said the death toll from Saturday’s Ukrainian rocket attack on the regional capital had risen to 24.

In a posting on Telegram he said there were also 108 wounded and that 37 apartment buildings had been damaged.

There was no official comment from Kyiv in the hours after the attack on Belgorod and Reuters was unable to independently verify the Russian reports.

Like other Russian border zones, Belgorod has suffered shelling and drone attacks all year, which authorities have blamed on Ukraine, though none have previously been on such a scale.

Both sides deny targeting civilians in a war that Russia launched against its neighbour in February 2022. The United Nations says that more than 10,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine and nearly 60 people inside Russia.

Ukrainian news outlet RBC-Ukraine on Saturday quoted unidentified sources as saying that Ukrainian forces had directed fire at military targets in Belgorod in response to the massive Russian bombardment of cities and infrastructure across Ukraine the previous day.

Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that Ukraine had fired its missiles from the Kharkiv region across the border.

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Chinese President Xi Jinping waves from a vehicle as he reviews the troops at a military parade marking the 70th founding anniversary of People’s Republic of China, China October 1, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo

By Yew Lun Tian and Laurie Chen

BEIJING (Reuters) -A sweeping purge of Chinese generals has weakened the People’s Liberation Army, exposing deep-rooted corruption that could take more time to fix and slow Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s military modernization drive amid geopolitical tensions, analysts say.

China’s top lawmakers senior military officers from the national legislative body on Friday, state media reported, a step that typically precedes further punishment for wayward cadres. Many of these were from the Rocket Force – a key arm of the PLA overseeing tactical and nuclear missiles.

The purges are a setback for Xi who has pumped billions into buying and developing equipment as part of his modernising efforts to build a “world-class” military by 2050, with Beijing’s outsized defence budget growing at a faster pace than the economy for some years.

The recent downfall of generals and military equipment suppliers, however, has punctured some of this aura, and raised questions over whether there has been adequate oversight over these massive military investments as China vies with the United States in key areas, including Taiwan and the South China Sea.

Since Xi took power in 2012, he has embarked on a wide-ranging anti-corruption crackdown among Communist Party and government officials, with the PLA being one of its main targets.

The nine PLA generals removed from the legislature hailed from several military divisions; three were former commanders or vice commanders of the PLA Rocket Force; one a former Air Force chief and one a Navy commander responsible for the South China Sea. Four officers were responsible for equipment.

“It is a clear sign that they are being purged,” said Andrew Scobell, Distinguished Fellow for China at the United States Institute for Peace.

‘MORE HEADS WILL ROLL’

Beijing did not explain why the generals were removed. Some analysts say the evidence points towards corruption over equipment procurement by the PLA Rocket Force.

“More heads will roll. The purge that centred around the Rocket Force is not over,” said Alfred Wu, associate professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.

Wei Fenghe, a former defence minister who used to head the Rocket Force, has also vanished. When asked about his whereabouts, a defence ministry spokesman said in August that the military has zero tolerance for corruption.

His successor, Li Shangfu, was abruptly removed as defence minister in October without explanation after also disappearing for months. He had previously headed the equipment department. One of his then deputies was removed from parliament on Friday.

On the same day, Dong Jun, a Chinese ex-Navy chief, with a South China Sea background, was named Li’s replacement as defence minister.

Analysts say that while the Chinese military has long been known for corruption, the extent of the latest crackdown and the involvement of the PLA’s Rocket Force is shocking.

“This part of the PLA would have the most rigorous vetting process for senior officers, given the importance of having highly trusted men in charge of China’s nuclear weapons,” said Dennis Wilder, senior fellow for the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues at Georgetown University.

“Moreover, it seems to have involved several senior men rather than one ‘bad apple’.”

Analysts say the purge of senior military leaders could leave the Rocket Force temporarily weakened until Xi manages to put the house in order.

“The strategic nuclear force is what China relies on as the bottom line of its national security, and the last resort on Taiwan,” said Yun Sun, Director of the China Program at the Stimson Center, a Washington D.C.-based thinktank.

“It will take some time for China to clean up the mess and restore confidence in the Rocket Force’s competence and trustworthiness. It means for the time being, China is at a weaker spot.”

Sun described Xi’s campaign to stamp out military corruption as a Sisyphean task “that can never be completed”.

FIGHT AND WIN BATTLES?

In the longer run, analysts expect the chronic problem of corruption to persist in the Chinese military because some root causes – including low pay for officers and opacity in military expenditure – have not been addressed.

Chen Daoyin, formerly an associate professor at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, said that the ongoing crackdown might dissuade Xi from risking serious clashes with other militaries in the next 5-10 years.

“Before realising how rampant corruption was, he drank his Kool-Aid and thought the military can really ‘fight and win battles’ as expected by him,” said Chen, who is now a political commentator based in Chile.

“But how can the generals’ hearts be in fighting, if they are just busy lining their own pockets? Xi now knows that their proclamations of loyalty to the party and to the military ring hollow. I imagine this would zap his confidence somewhat.”

© Reuters. Firefighters and police investigators work at the site of a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine December 30, 2023. REUTERS/Yevhen Titov

By Vitalii Hnidyi

KHARKIV, Ukraine (Reuters) -Russia pounded the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv with missiles and drones in the hours leading into New Year’s Eve, Ukrainian officials said, hours after Moscow accused Kyiv of carrying out a deadly air assault just across the border on nearby Belgorod.

In the first wave of Russia’s attacks, at least six missiles hit Kharkiv, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Sunday, injuring at least 28 people and hitting residential buildings, hotels and medical facilities.

Earlier, Ukrainian officials said that two boys aged 14 and 16 and a security adviser for a team of German journalists were among those injured in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

Closer to midnight, as part of a wider bombardment of Ukraine that also targeted Kyiv, several waves of Russian drones hit residential buildings in Kharkiv’s centre, causing fires, the city’s mayor said.

“On the eve of the New Year, the Russians want to intimidate our city, but we are not scared – we are unbreakable and invincible!” Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

Images from Kharkiv showed badly damaged buildings, including a hotel with many windows blown out.

Ukraine’s air force said the military had shot down 21 out of 49 drones launched overnight by Russia. Most were aimed at the front line and parts of the Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia regions, it said.

In a separate attack, three people were killed when Russian forces shelled a village in the Kharkiv region near the front line, Syniehubov said.

The attacks came within hours after what Moscow called an “indiscriminate” Ukrainian air attack on the city of Belgorod, near Kharkiv and just north of Ukraine’s border, that killed at least 22 people.

Russian newspaper Kommersant cited a source close to the Russian Investigative Committee as saying that Ukraine launched its attack on Belgorod from a multiple rocket launcher in the Kharkiv region.

Both sides have increased attacks in the last week of 2023, with Russia killing at least 31 civilians in its biggest air assault of the 22-month war on Ukraine on Friday.

U.S. President Joe Biden, asked if he’ll speak to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy after Russia’s latest attacks in Ukraine, said: “I speak to him regularly.”