| |
| Today's Inside Daily Brief covers Hunter Biden's guilty plea, a record increase in new U.S. housing starts in May, news about a new "non-custodial" crypto exchange, and more. As always, we invite you to check out Inside.com for other news from the tech industry and discussions among professionals, founders, and investors. Keep on truckin', Insiders. Your faithful IDB writer, Daniel
p/Dan-Smith | |
| 1 | | Hunter Biden reached a deal with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to tax and gun charges. Republican lawmakers including Kentucky Rep. James Comer criticized the Justice Department for giving Biden "a slap on the wrist" because President Biden's son is not expected to face jail time as a result of the deal. More: - Biden failed to pay taxes on the $1.5M+ in annual income he received in both 2017 and 2018, despite owing more than $100,000 each year.
- He also owned a revolver in October 2018 despite the fact that he was still addicted to drugs and was barred from owning a firearm.
- The office of David Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware, said that it would recommend a sentence of probation as part of the plea deal.
- The sentence will ultimately be determined by a judge.
Zoom Out: - In May, a House Republican-led Congressional investigation revealed that Hunter Biden and other members of the Biden family received more than $10M from foreign entities between 2015 and 2017 via a network of shell companies.
- The investigation found no evidence that President Biden received money from foreign sources.
- Comer alleged that the Bidens had "engaged in a pattern of corruption, influence peddling, and possibly bribery" and said that GOP lawmakers would continue to investigate the Biden family.
|     | |
| 2 | | 
What the numbers say: Construction started on 1,631,000 new privately-owned homes in May, the highest number since April 2022. Relevance: New housing starts grew at the fastest pace in more than 30 years from April to May. The Commerce Department said there were downwardly adjusted 1,340,000 new starts in April. The 291,000 increase from April to May was the highest monthly increase since January 1990, while the 21.7% jump was the biggest monthly percentage gain since October 2016. What's next: Nationwide Senior Economist Ben Ayers said the surge "suggests that builders are broadly expanding operations this summer." Homebuilder sentiment is up as well, with the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market index topping the midpoint of 50 for the first time since July 2022. | | | |
| A message from our sponsor, R3 Printing. |  | | The 3D printing startup that’s reshaping American manufacturing Ever wanted to invest like an angel investor but were waiting for the right opportunity? Wait no more. This is a chance to invest in a promising startup that’s disrupting an $18B market. See for yourself what’s gotten R3 Printing over $4M of funding already: - Named one the ‘The 7 Best Startups You Can Buy on StartEngine Right Now’ by InvestorPlace.
- Previous oversubscribed crowdfunding StartEngine campaign rated as Top Deal by KingsCrowd.
- 9 patents granted, 10 patents pending approval. Additional 7-10 patent applications expected in the next year.
- Partnerships with major institutions and universities, including two Top 10 schools in California for research and mechanical engineering.
- Product currently being tested by prospective customers, with an official launch expected in 2023.
- Two additional products in the pipeline.
- $4M raised through equity rounds from venture capitalists and a federal grant from the United States Air Force.
- $1.9M raised through current crowdfunding round on StartEngine Capital, with average investment over $1,000.
Learn More | |
|
| 3 | | Two Palestinian gunmen shot and killed at least four Israeli settlers near a settlement in the occupied West Bank. The attack took place a day after an Israeli Defense Force (IDF) raid on a refugee camp in the Palestinian city of Jenin left six dead and over 90 injured. Jenin raid: - Monday's raid was the first instance since the Second Intifada in 2005 in which Israeli attack helicopters used live ammunition on targets.
- Israeli sources said the attack helicopters were used to help evacuate wounded Israeli soldiers from the city.
- Palestinian forces detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) under an Israeli military vehicle during the raid.
- The IDF said it arrested Assem Abu al-Haija, a recently-released Palestinian prisoner and the son of imprisoned Hamas leader Jamal Abu al-Haija.
- The Palestine Red Crescent Society said that at least four ambulances were struck by Israeli fire during the raid.
Settler killings: - The Israeli military said the two gunmen opened fire on a restaurant and a gas station near the Eli settlement in the West Bank.
- One of the shooters was killed on the scene, and the other after fleeing in a taxi.
- Hamas said that one of the shooters was a member of its militant wing.
- According to Al Jazeera, an estimated 600,000-750,000 Israeli settlers live in at least 290 settlements in the Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem.
- The settlements are illegal under international law.
| | | |
| 4 | | GOOD NEWS: The Estonian Parliament legalized same-sex marriage in the country. After Slovenia, Estonia is now the second Central European country to legalize same-sex marriage. More: - The law will come into effect on January 1, 2024.
- Estonia recognized same-sex unions in 2014, but these unions do not offer the same adoption and parental rights as traditional marriages.
- A recent poll conducted for the Estonian Human Rights Centre found that 53% of Estonians supported marriage equality, up from 47% in 2021.
- Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said of the historic vote:
- "I'm proud of my country. We're building a society where everyone's rights are respected and people can love freely."
| | | |
| A message from our sponsor, ncScale. |  | | Meet ncScale: the software that gives you visibility over your no-code app. Do you keep jumping in between tabs to see if your workflows are running properly, fix errors and check your integrations? ncScale can help with that. Whether you're using Bubble, Airtable, Zapier, make a combination of these, or any other no-code tools, use ncScale to access the documentation of your workflows, secure your apps and monitor their performance. ncScale has just launched its new observability feature. Built for those who… - Want to see the dependencies between all their NC elements
- Want to avoid breaking their apps when they add new elements to it
- Don’t want to update a Notion every time a change is made and prefer keeping all the documentation in one place
- Want to see what changes have been made and share those changes quickly with their co-workers/ clients
Sign up now and use INSIDE23 for 1 month off. Get your first month for free | |
|
| 5 | | Rent-to-income ratios in the U.K. have reached a 10-year high. Real estate firm Zoopla said new tenants spent 28.3% of their pre-tax earnings on rent in May, up from the 10-year average of 27%. More: - May is the 19th consecutive month in which rental price growth has outpaced income growth in the country.
- Renters in London are spending an average of 40% of their pre-tax earnings on rent.
- Zoopla Executive Director Richard Donnell said that renters have seen a £2,820 ($3,597.19) per year increase in rental costs over the past five years.
- A Zoopla survey found that 15% of renters struggled to pay rent, up from 10% in the six months to November.
- More than half of renters surveyed (53%) said their rent increased in the six months leading up to May, up from 35% six months prior.
| | | |
| 6 | | EDX Markets, a crypto exchange backed by Charles Schwab, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Citadel Securities, officially launched its trading program this week. The exchange allows customers to buy and trade Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash. More: - The exchange said that it aspires to "meet the [cryptocurrency trading] needs of the world's largest and most sophisticated financial institutions."
- EDX is a "non-custodial" exchange, meaning that it does not hold customer assets. Instead, it facilitates and executes trades made in cryptocurrency or fiat currency within a network of firms.
- EDX plans to launch a clearinghouse business later this year to help facilitate the exchange's settlement system.
- EDX has also received funding from Paradigm, Sequoia Capital, and Virtu Financial.
Zoom Out: - None of the four cryptocurrencies offered by EDX were designated as "crypto asset securities" by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in its recent lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase.
- The SEC alleged that many of the cryptocurrencies being sold on the Binance and Coinbase exchanges were unlicensed securities.
| | | |
| 7 | | QUICK HITS - Notion combines traditional project management with your docs, knowledge base, and AI. Try it for free*
- Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn sued the Japanese automaker for more than $1B in his home country of Lebanon. Ghosn is best known for escaping Japanese custody in 2018 after hiding inside a box.
- The Nigerian government agreed to raise the minimum wage after labor unions threatened to go on strike. Unions object to the government's decision to end a fuel subsidy, which has led to a three-fold increase in fuel prices.
- A U.N.-sponsored donor conference managed to raise ~$1.5B in donations to help address the worsening humanitarian crisis in Sudan. Sudan is on the brink of civil war, as two warring military factions fight for control of Khartoum and other cities.
- Romanian authorities charged misogynistic influencer Andrew Tate and his brother with rape, human trafficking, and forming a sex trafficking organization.
* This is a sponsored post. | | | |
| |
Term of the Day Venture capital: Venture capital is a form of private equity that funds startups with no operating history but promising growth potential. Question of the Week How do you feel about the phrase "The customer is always right"? Join the conversation |
| Upcoming Events | | JUN
20 | | Contract Negotiations 101 with Mathew Kerbis | | | | | | | JUN
22 | | Inside.com Book Club - Automate Your Busywork (June 2023) | | | | | | * This is a sponsored event | | | |
 | Writer | | Dr. Daniel Smith is an Inside writer with a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Cambridge. Follow him on Twitter @DJS12321 or email him at Daniel@inside.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Eduardo Garcia | |
| |
 | Be a part of this rapidly expanding multi-billion dollar industry with R3 Printing. | |
|
| |
|
| |
Comments
Post a Comment