Author: MNK News

The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority issued a public notice against Solana meme coin Retardio, while holders celebrated a 16% price surge following the news. Retardio, a viral Solana (SOL) meme coin project, may be providing or promoting financial services without regulatory permission, the FCA announced in a Dec. 16 update. Engaging with the meme coin disqualifies investors from using the Financial Ombudsman Service, the FCA’s complaint resolution channel. Retardio buyers are also excluded from protections offered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. “This means it’s unlikely you’d get your money back if the firm goes out of business,” according to…

True wireless earbuds are all the rage right now, as they can provide an excellent listening experience without the hassle of wires. The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro earbuds are a solid option that are now almost 30 percent off, dropping from $270 to $190. That’s a record-low price for these buds, and, Amazon is also including a $20 gift card to make it into a bundle.Besides delivering some nice, creamy bass combined with plenty of detail, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro earbuds have an adaptive equalizer function that lets you tune the sound to your liking. The EQ is…

The U.S. Postal Service’s multibillion-dollar program to purchase electric mail delivery trucks is severely delayed, another bungled EV program to further tarnish Joe Biden’s presidency. The Washington Post reports that the U.S. Postal Service’s ambitious plan to modernize its aging delivery fleet with electric vehicles is significantly behind schedule. The $10 billion project, which received $3 billion in funding from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, is a crucial part of outgoing President Joe Biden’s climate change agenda. According to internal company records and interviews with individuals familiar with the project, the Postal Service had received only 93 of the “Next Generation Delivery…

The Amenity Collective has acquired Advantage Sport & Fitness, creating what it says is North America’s largest fitness distributorThe Amentity Collective, a provider of facilities management services across the aquatics, fitness and recreation industries, has acquired Advantage Sport & Fitness (ASF), a top distributor of fitness equipment for brands including Precor, Peloton, Escape Fitness and Power Lift, the sides announced.With the deal, Advantage Sport & Fitness will become part of LIVunLtd, an Amenity Collective entity that provides facility management, fitness equipment, programming and consulting services. LIVunLtd now becomes North America’s largest distributor and servicer of fitness equipment, according to the Amenity…

A detailed view of the earth from space with night lightsgetty It looks like 2024 will end with a big gain for investors in US stocks, with the S&P 500 up 28% year-to-date, even better than my (admittedly optimistic) expectations: I saw a roughly 15% gain for the S&P 500 going into the year. If this gain holds, 2024 will go down as one of the best years in the last 20, with only 2013 and 2019 doing (just slightly) better. However, unlike those years, the momentum isn’t coming mainly from tech, with the benchmark Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF…

Unless something changes fast, the Coast Guard won’t be able to send life-saving helicopters into … [+] action.Getty Images Trouble with the U.S. Coast Guard’s emblematic fleet of 135 lifesaving, smuggler-hunting and migrant-finding helicopters is forcing the Coast Guard aviation to update the Service’s vision for their fleet of around 200 patrol aircraft and helicopters. The rethink, coming after years of Forbes.com coverage of the Coast Guard’s struggle with a broken aviation portfolio, is a welcome development. The last straw, an abrupt imposition of flight hour restrictions upon the Coast Guard’s workhorse MH-60T “Jayhawk” medium-range recovery helicopters, reported in August…

US stock futures fell on Tuesday ahead of fresh retail sales data and the start of a keenly awaited Federal Reserve policy meeting expected to usher in an interest-rate cut. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) slid 0.4%, coming off an eighth straight day of losses for the blue-chip index. S&P 500 futures (ES=F) also lost about 0.3%, while contracts on the Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) shed 0.2% on the heels of Monday’s record closing high. Markets are waiting for Fed policymakers to kick off their final gathering of the year, amid almost total conviction that a 0.25% rate cut is…

It’s an expensive day for Meta. First, Australia announced a $50 million AUD ($31.7 million USD) settlement with the company over the Cambridge Analytica scandal and now the Irish Data Protection Committee (IDPC) has issued Meta a €251 million ($263 million) fine. The IRDC’s fine stems from a personal data breach on Facebook in 2018.Hackers had exploited a “vulnerability in Facebook’s code,” related to the View As feature, the company said at the time. It allowed them to get hold of users’ access tokens and take over those accounts. The bad actors were able to log on to about 29…

Coinbase has announced the listing of Parcl, a Solana-based decentralized real estate trading platform. The cypto exchange will list Parcl (PRCL) token on December 17, starting on or after 9:00 AM Pacific Time, subject to liquidity conditions. Coinbase plans to add the PRCL-USD trading pair once there is sufficient supply. According to the U.S.-based crypto exchange, PRCL transfers will be available on both Coinbase and Coinbase Exchange. However, the rollout will be phased, with availability restricted in certain jurisdictions. What is Parcl? Parcl is a decentralized real estate platform that provides access to city indexes, including major destinations like New…

Bluesky, the leftist echo chamber that has enjoyed explosive growth since the 2024 election, is now facing pressure by its users to ban progressive journalist and podcast host Jesse Singal over his skeptical views on transgenderism. A large number of Bluesky users have been calling on the social media company to ban Jesse Singal — who joined the site just two weeks ago — over his views shared both on and off the platform, according to a report by TechCrunch. Left-wing Bluesky users, who joined the alternative to X in search for a “safe space,” are demanding that the social…