Qatar World Cup chief says between 400 and 500 migrant workers have died in projects connected to the tournament

• The World Cup chief, Hassan Al-Thawadi, said today that between 400 and 500 migrant workers have died from work done on projected connected to the tournament.
• The number is significantly higher than Qatari officials have said before.
• The Guardian reported that since the country was awarded the World Cup in 2010, 6,500 migrant workers from South Asia have died.

Higher estimate

• Hassan Al-Thawadi made the revelation that 400-500 people had died while working on projects connected to the 2022 World Cup during an interview with Piers Morgan.
• Qatar has enacted some reforms to the country's kafala employment system, including providing employees with higher salaries and food and housing allowances.

BlockFi files

• BlockFi paused withdrawals on November 10th, and now they have filed for bankruptcy.
• The company cited an ongoing lack of clarity about FTX's downfall since BlockFi had substantial exposure to the firm.
• BlockFi has reassured customers that it has enough cash on hand to provide sufficient liquidity.

FTX related

• FTX bailed out BlockFi this summer, and when FTX imploded, the company had no choice but to file for bankruptcy.
• FTX provided BlockFi with $400 million in the form of a revolving credit facility to use as a backstop.
• Now that those funds are gone, with the rest of FTX's value, BlockFi decided to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Cochise votes no

• Officials in the Republican-controlled Cochise county in Arizona voted to delay certifying the results of the midterm elections past the state's legal deadline today.
• The county did not produce any evidence of problems with the local vote count.
• The decision prevents more than 47,000 votes from being certified.

Delayed certification

• The Cochise County Board of Supervisors voted to delay certifying the midterm election results until after the state's legal deadline.
• The vote was 2-1, with the lone democrat, Supervisor Anne English, voting to proceed with the certification.
• Residents who attended the meeting had mixed reactions; some were confused by the decision because there was no evidence of voting interference in the county, while others believed that the results should be delayed until an audit of statewide machines could be completed.

First town hall back

• Bob Iger's first town hall back in his role as CEO touched on hot topics before virtual and in-person employees.
• Disney will continue its hiring freeze, instituted by former CEO Bob Chapek.
• He also spoke about chasing profitability instead of subscriber growth and said that employees need to return to the office.

New direction

• Bob Iger will not lift Disney's hiring freeze as he takes stock of the state of the company.
• Iger also said that Disney would not be pursuing any major acquisitions in the next year and would focus on making the streaming business profitable.

Protests erupt

• Protestors took to the streets in China over the weekend to vent their frustrations against the country's zero-Covid policy.
• The unrest was sparked by growing case numbers and a tightening of controls even after the central policy hinted at easing restrictions earlier this month.
• Demonstrators held up blank sheets of white paper.

BBC journalist arrested

• Edward Lawrence, a journalist with the BBC, was arrested and beaten while covering the anti-lockdown protests in China.
• In two videos allegedly showing his arrest, Lawrence is led away by three police officers in handcuffs.
• Chinese citizens have spent almost three years under some of the most strict Covid-19 policies in the world.

Concessions offered

• EU antitrust regulators are investigating Microsoft's acquisition of the video game maker Activision Blizzard.
• Microsoft will likely offer concessions to the regulators to prevent the EU from issuing formal objections to the acquisition.
• The deadline for the EU to issue formal objections is in January, so Microsoft offering concessions before that deadline could shorten the regulatory process needed to approve the purchase.

High stakes deal

• Microsoft is readying itself to offer concessions to European Union regulators to try and bypass potential objections.
• Microsoft is looking to acquire Activision Blizzard for about $69 million, the largest-ever acquisition by Microsoft.

Shooter pleads guilty

• The gunman who killed ten Black people in May at a Buffalo supermarket has pled guilty to charges including murder and one count of domestic terrorism motivated by hate.
• The state filed charges against the shooter for perpetrating racially motivated violent extremism.

Multiple charges

• The 19-year-old white gunman killed ten Black shoppers and injured three more at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store last May.
• He pled guilty today to ten counts of first-degree murder, 13 counts of assault with a firearm, and multiple hate crime charges.
• The Justice Department reacted to the guilty plea, saying they will relentlessly pursue efforts to combat hate crimes.

Chided by CNN

• Elon Musk shared a months-old image of a fake headline from CNN on Twitter.
• The headline read, "Elon Musk could threaten free speech on Twitter by literally allowing people to speak freely."
• The headline never ran on CNN, and the image was created in April.

Apple's threat

• Elon Musk used Twitter today to attack Apple.
• Musk claimed that Apple threatened to remove Twitter from the Apple App Store.
• Apple maintains a comprehensive set of guidelines that developers must adhere to to be sold in the App store.
• Musk hinted that if Apple or Google pulls Twitter, he will make his own smartphone.

Boil water notice

• Houston ordered about 2 million residents to boil water after a power outage caused a water purification plant to lose pressure last night.
• Houston offficals said that the earliest that residents will be able to return to normal is by Monday night or early Tuesday morning.

Schools close down

• All public schools in Houston are closed today after the city issued a boil water notice.
• Houston's water system serves upwards of 2.2 million residents per day.

Graham testifies

• Senator Lindsey Graham testified before a Fulton County, Georgia, grand jury investigating attempts to interfere with the results of the 2020 presidential election today.
• Graham spent months trying to avoid the subpoena from the grand jury before finally testifying today after the Supreme Court rejected an emergency filing from Graham.

After all

• Graham was one of Donald Trump's closest allies in Congress.
• The subpoena issued by the grand jury asked for his testimony about attempts to interfere with Georgia's election results and a scheme to "find" additional votes for Trump.
• The grand jury questioned Graham about calls he made to Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger.

No competition here

• The FTC says that Meta killed plans to design and build its own virutal reality fitness app, instead deciding to poach talent from Within and eventually make an offer to buy the already established virtual reality fitness app maker.
• The FTC is arguing that the acquistion violates federal antitrust laws because it will decrease competition within the virtual reality fitness market.

States agree

• Twenty-three states support the FTC motion to stop Meta from acquiring virtual reality content maker Within.
• The case argues that the deal would harm industry competition and consumers.

Probe opens

• While little federal regulation exists about the status of cryptocurrencies, state securities laws could be an avenue to reprimand celebrities for hawking crypto.
• Celebrities heavily promoted FTX, and its downfall could be the biggest lesson yet about the legal risks of endorsing cryptocurrency coins or companies.
• The SEC has pursued legal action against other celebrities for similar endorsements, including fining Kim Kardashian $1.26 million for promoting a crypto token on her Instagram.

Celebs on notice

• The Texas State Securities Board began investigating FTX last month to determine whether state residents were dealing in unregistered securities by buying and selling yield-bearing cryptocurrency coins or tokens.
• When the company filed for bankruptcy on November 11th, the board expanded its probe to investigate celebrities like Tom Brady and Steph Curry, who promoted the exchange to uninformed and vulnerable fans.
• The probe will look at what FTX told the promoters to say about the exchange, what they were paid, and what they told fans

Elon Musk says Twitter is done with layoffs and ready to hire again

• Elon Musk told the remaining few Twitter employees that the company will stop its campaign of layoffs and has started recruiting for roles in engineering and sales.
• Musk also reassured compensation-anxious employees that employees would be given Twitter stock options and that they would be able to cash them out freely.

Glitches surge

• Elon Musk's campaign to hire new engineers and sales staff may come too late, as the departure of critical staffers has led to an increased volume of glitches on the platform.
• The rushed updates have also presented security vulnerabilities, and misinformation has increasingly popped up on the site.
• Advertisers are nervous, and some have paused advertising on the site until a content moderation and security policy is hammered out.

Congress can proceed

• Former President Trump filed an emergency appeal to block the release of his tax record to the House Ways and Means Committee.
• The Supreme Court rejected the appeal today, clearing the way for the committee to receive Trump's tax records at the conclusion of a multi-year legal battle.

Court denies

• The Supreme Court rejected Trump's efforts to block the release of his tax records to the House Ways and Means committee.
• The Treasury Department can now hand over six years of Trump's tax records to the committee.
• The committee must act quickly to secure and investigate the records before Republicans take control of the House in January.

Lionel Messi's bad day

• Lionel Messi has had an incredible soccer career, but he has never won a World Cup with his home country of Argentina.
• Messi is leading Argentina's men's team at this year's World Cup.
• Argentina lost 2-1 to Saudi Arabia today.

Final appearance

• Dr. Anthony Fauci gave his final press briefing from the White House today.
• Fauci is retiring from his post as chief medical advisor to the president.
• Fauci served under seven presidents, spent 54 years with the National Institutes of Health, and 38 years as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.
• Fauci led the country's response to the Covid-19 pandemic and spoke about his regret about the divisiveness that defined the country's response to mask-mandates and vaccines.

Legacy of Covid-19

• During the briefing, Fauci talked about the scale of the covid-19 pandemic, saying he never expected that Covid-19 would claim the lives of one million Americans.
• In December, Fauci will step down as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and as White House's chief medical advisor

Fly by

• The Orion spacecraft closely passed by the moon before heading into orbit.
• The flyby was its closest yet, and it completed its three trajectory correction burns and fired all three of its thruster types.
• Orion will now orbit the moon for one week.

New views

• According to NASA officials, the teams manning the Artemis I mission are "giddy" with the Orion spacecraft's performance thus far.
• The craft captured photos of the moon as it flew by the moon on its way into a lunar orbit.
• The spacecraft will carry astronauts in two missions planned for 2024 and 2025.

Prosecution rests

• The prosecution rested its case today after completing its argument that the Trump Organization engaged in criminal tax fraud.
• The prosecution began presenting its case on October 31st.
• The prosecution's final witness was Mukalia Rabiu, an auditor with the New York State Department of Taxation.

Fast pace

• Manhattan prosecutors decided not to call a final witness, closing the prosecution's case against Donald Trump's family business today.
• The case against CFO Allen Weisselberg and the Trump Organization engaged in a fifteen-year-long tax-evasion scheme to help executives avoid taxes by rewarding them with bonuses and luxuries that were kept off the ledgers.