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Rep. George Santos says he won’t serve on House committees while investigations are ongoing

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Rep. George Santos says he won’t serve on House committees while investigations are ongoing

Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., leaves a gathering of the Home Republican Convention on the Capitol Hill Membership on Wednesday, January 25, 2023.

Tom Williams | Cq-roll Name, Inc. | Getty Photos

Embattled Republican Rep. George Santos of New York won’t serve on the 2 Home committees to which he was lately assigned till the investigations into his conduct have concluded, his workplace mentioned Tuesday.

“The congressman is reserving his seats on his assigned committees till he has been correctly cleared of each marketing campaign and private monetary investigations,” mentioned his spokeswoman, Naysa Woomer.

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Santos knowledgeable Republican lawmakers throughout a closed-door convention assembly in Washington, D.C., earlier Tuesday that “he is not accepting the committee assignments till issues get cleared up,” in response to a longtime GOP lawmaker who was within the room. This individual declined to be named to debate non-public conversations.

Santos’ resolution to recuse himself from the 2 panels marks one of many first tangible repercussions he has confronted since admitting he fabricated key particulars about his biography.

It was not instantly clear whether or not Santos made the choice of his personal accord, or if he was influenced or directed to revoke his committee assignments by different members of his convention. Spokesmen for Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Majority Chief Steve Scalise, R-La., didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s requests for remark.

Santos was appointed earlier this month to posts on the Home Science, Area and Expertise Committee and the Small Enterprise Committee. The GOP Steering Committee, led by McCarthy, made these assignments over howls of bipartisan criticism towards Santos and requires his resignation.

The 34-year-old freshman lawmaker has confronted intensifying scrutiny since shortly after he gained his congressional race, after a bombshell New York Occasions investigation known as into query lots of Santos’ claims about his private {and professional} life, in addition to the sources of his marketing campaign funds.

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Days earlier than he was sworn in to the 118th Congress, Santos admitted mendacity on the marketing campaign path about his job expertise and his school profession. He apologized for “embellishing” his resume, although he denied all different wrongdoing.

However Santos is now reportedly below investigation on the native, state, federal and worldwide ranges, and he has principally averted answering the throngs of reporters barraging him with questions on his many unsubstantiated claims.

Santos has repeatedly vowed to serve out his full two-year time period in workplace, arguing that the voters of his Lengthy Island-area district ought to have the ultimate say on whether or not he stays or goes. McCarthy, who leads a slim and unruly GOP Home majority and has few votes to spare, has echoed Santos’ line and defended the choice to present him committee assignments.

That stance clashes with Republican leaders from close to Santos’ personal district, who’ve denounced the scandal-plagued congressman and urged him to resign.

And the voters in Santos’ district aren’t eager on conserving him round, both, in response to a brand new ballot launched Tuesday morning.

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An amazing 78% of registered voters in New York’s third Congressional District — together with 71% of Republican respondents — say Santos ought to resign, the survey from Newsday/Siena School discovered. Greater than four-out-of-five respondents seen Santos unfavorably, in response to the ballot.

Notably, 71% of the respondents mentioned it was improper for McCarthy to seat Santos on a number of committees.

The pollster surveyed 653 voters from Santos’ district between Jan. 23 and final Thursday. The ballot has an general margin of error of 4.4 share factors.

That is breaking information. Please verify again for updates.

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Private equity payouts fell 50% short in 2024

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Private equity payouts fell 50% short in 2024

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Private equity funds cashed out just half the value of investments they typically sell in 2024, the third consecutive year payouts to investors have fallen short because of a deal drought.

Buyout houses typically sell down 20 per cent of their investments in any given year, but industry executives forecast that cash payouts for the year would be about half that figure.

Cambridge Associates, a leading adviser to large institutions on their private equity investments, estimated that funds had fallen about $400bn short in payments to their investors over the past three years compared with historical averages.

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The data underline the increasing pressure on firms to find ways to return cash to investors, including by exiting more investments in the year ahead.

Firms have struggled to strike deals at attractive prices since early 2022, when rising interest rates caused financing costs to soar and corporate valuations to fall.

Dealmakers and their advisers expect that merger and acquisition activity will accelerate in 2025, potentially helping the industry work through what consultancy Bain & Co. has called a “towering backlog” of $3tn in ageing deals that must be sold in the years ahead.

Several large public offerings this year including food transport giant Lineage Logistics, aviation equipment specialist Standard Aero and dermatology group Galderma have provided private equity executives with confidence to take companies public, while Donald Trump’s election has added to Wall Street exuberance.

But Andrea Auerbach, global head of private investments at Cambridge Associates, cautioned that the industry’s issues could take years to work through.

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“There is an expectation that the wheels of the exit market will start to turn. But it doesn’t end in one year, it will take a couple of years,” Auerbach said.

Private equity firms have used novel tactics to return cash to investors while holdings have proved difficult to sell.

They have made increasing use of so-called continuation funds — where one fund sells a stake in one or more portfolio companies to another fund to another fund the firm manages — to engineer exits.

Jefferies forecasts that there will be $58bn of continuation fund deals in 2024, representing a record 14 per cent of all private equity exits. Such funds made up just 5 per cent of all exits in the boom year of 2021, Jefferies found.

But some private equity investors are sceptical that the industry will be able to sell assets at prices close to funds’ current valuations.

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“You have a huge amount of capital that has been invested on assumptions that are no longer valid,” a large industry investor told the Financial Times.

They warned that a record $1tn-plus in buyouts were struck in 2021, just before interest rates rose, and many deals are carried on firms’ books at overly optimistic valuations.

Goldman Sachs recently noted in a report that private equity asset sales, which had historically been done at a premium of at least 10 per cent to funds’ internal valuations, have in recent years been made at discounts of 10-15 per cent.

“[Private] equity in general is still over-marked, which is leading to this situation where assets are still stuck,” said Michael Brandmeyer of Goldman Sachs Asset Management in the report.

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'Chrismukkah': Christmas and first day of Hanukkah fall on same day for first time since 2005

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'Chrismukkah': Christmas and first day of Hanukkah fall on same day for first time since 2005

LOS ANGELES (KABC) — December 25 being Christmas is always a big day for those who celebrate, and this year, it is also the first night of Hanukkah, making for a unique coupling of the two major holidays.

For the first time since 2005, Christmas and the first day of Hanukkah fall on the same day — referred to as “Chrismukkah.” The two days have only overlapped like this five times since the year 1900.

“I’m actually surprised by that… I thought it would happen a lot more,” said Northridge resident Eric Dollins.

Rabbi Becky Hoffman at Temple Ahavat Shalom said it’s special for the two holidays to share the day because she sees a lot of interfaith families in her community.

“We have families that bring a hanukkiah and go to a Christmas tree and they have tamales with their families,” said Rabbi Hoffman.

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“It really is a blessing. I mean this is something good where everybody has to stop what they’re doing and really reflect on what’s happening in the world,” said Deacon Louis Roche of St. Charles Holy Family Service Ministry.

“It’s very special, I think what the world needs right now is a lot more unison,” said New York resident Nicole Galinson.

Most families celebrate at home with traditional eats, but Art’s Delicatessen & Restaurant in Studio City will be open on December 25, ready to embrace the holiday rush.

“A lot of people coming out to eat and be with their families to eat. And It’s a lot of people coming to pick up potato pancakes for Hanukkah,” said the restaurant’s owner Harold Ginsburg.

Regardless of what people are celebrating on December 25, it’s pretty much a given that they’ll be eating something delicious.

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Iran lifts ban on WhatsApp and Google Play

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Iran lifts ban on WhatsApp and Google Play

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The reformist government of Masoud Pezeshkian has lifted Iran’s ban on WhatsApp and Google Play, in a first step towards easing internet restrictions in the nation of 85mn people.

A high-level meeting chaired by the president on Tuesday overcame resistance from hardline factions within the Islamic regime, Iranian media reported, as the government seeks to reduce pressures on civil society.

“Today, we took the first step towards lifting internet restrictions by demonstrating unity,” Sattar Hashemi, Iran’s minister of telecommunications, wrote on X. “This path will continue.”

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This move comes after Pezeshkian refused to enforce a hijab law recently ratified by the hardline parliament that would have imposed tougher punishments on women choosing not to observe a strict dress code.

His government has also quietly reinstated dozens of university students and professors who had previously been barred from studying or teaching.

The Islamic regime is grappling with mounting economic, political and social pressures both at home and across the Middle East, particularly after the unexpected collapse of the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad, which was a crucial regional ally. 

The regime has a long history of weathering crises and maintaining power. But the convergence of domestic and foreign challenges has prompted questions about whether the leadership would respond by tightening controls over the population — or embracing reforms.

Hardliners argue that the internet is a tool used by adversaries such as the US and Israel to wage a “soft war” against the Islamic republic. Reformists contend that repression only worsens public discontent.

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Pezeshkian, who won the presidential election in July, campaigned on promises to improve economic and social conditions, with a particular focus on easing restrictions on women’s dress and lifting internet censorship.

Hardliners had imposed restrictions on platforms such as X, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Telegram and Instagram, but Iranians continued to access them through VPNs widely available in domestic markets.

Reformist politicians have accused hardliners of hypocrisy, claiming some of them both enforce internet censorship and profit from the sale of VPNs through alleged links with companies offering them.

Ali Sharifi Zarchi, a pro-reform university professor recently reinstated to his position, described Tuesday’s decision as “a first step” that was “positive and hopeful”. However, he added: “It should not remain limited to these two platforms.”

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