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  • Associated Press

    Iowa investigator's email says athlete gambling sting was a chance to impress higher-ups and public

    A criminal investigator for the state of Iowa suggested to colleagues last year that busting college athletes for online sports betting would impress the public and “the powers that be” and perhaps nudge lawmakers toward updating gambling laws. “If they get suspended or get a scholarship taken away, so be it,” Division of Criminal Investigation special agent Christopher Adkins wrote in his February 2023 email. Attorneys for more than two dozen Iowa and Iowa State athletes caught in a 2023 gambling sting obtained Adkins' email and 32 others from the Department of Public Safety through an open records request and released them to The Associated Press on Thursday.

  • Reuters

    US fertilizer imports helping fund Russian war effort, CF Industries says

    U.S. agriculture companies have been brisk importers of Russian fertilizer since the 2022 Ukraine invasion, a practice that is unwittingly helping fund Russia's war against Ukraine, U.S. producer CF Industries said on Thursday. The U.S. does not impose sanctions directly on Russian fertilizer, which is important to global food supplies and prices. On Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department issued hundreds of fresh sanctions on other Russian targets over the war.

  • Reuters

    GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks rally after Fed, US data; yen strengthens

    A gauge of global stocks climbed on Thursday after the Federal Reserve indicated it was keeping a dovish tilt, while the yen retreated after another suspected round of intervention by the Bank of Japan. On Wall Street, U.S. stocks gained slightly in early trading, after Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that while recent inflation readings mean it will likely take longer than expected for central bank officials to become comfortable that inflation will resume its decline, interest rate increases also remained unlikely. Markets have consistently scaled back the timing and amount of rate cuts this year from the Fed as inflation has proved to be sticky and the labor market remains on solid footing.