The international destinations welcoming US tourists back

Once one of the world's most powerful travel documents, the might of the US passport has shriveled during the Covid-19 pandemic. With US Covid-19 cases soaring ever higher, many nations continue to view America with trepidation.

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Elon Musk claims Tim Cook refused to meet with him to discuss buying Tesla

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter on Tuesday that he attempted to sell the company "during the darkest days of the Model 3 program," but that Apple CEO Tim Cook "refused to take the meeting."

http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~3/xLpEJIcIXDc/index.html

I moved to Mexico during Covid-19

I am a third-generation Angeleno. For most of my adult life living in Los Angeles, as a luxury lifestyle public relations executive and to satisfy my own wanderlust, I would travel as much as possible to tropical parts of the world, with any opportunity that arose. I lived on Maui for three years and truly embraced the Hawaiian culture and loved living by the beach in nature.

http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~3/IR2bnrQXDcU/index.html

Long a source of national pride, the moral integrity of Australia's military is now at stake

All Australians are taught the ode of remembrance, recited for the nation's fallen soldiers known lovingly as "Diggers."

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Goldman Sachs Agrees $3.9 Billion 1MDB Settlement With Malaysia

The deal, reached on Friday, involves a payment of $2.5 billion cash payout by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to the Malaysian government and a further guarantee that Goldman Sachs will return “at least $1.4 billion in proceeds from assets related to 1MDB seized by governmental authorities around the world,” according to a statement from the investment bank.

In return, Malaysia will drop all criminal and regulatory proceedings against Goldman Sachs, including outstanding proceedings against its subsidiaries and its current and former directors.

The settlement relates to Goldman Sachs’ alleged role in an international scandal involving the 1Malaysia Development Berhad, a state sovereign wealth fund and the investment bank’s client. Goldman Sachs arranged and underwrote bond sales for 1MDB totalling around $6 billion, and allegedly failed to act while $4.5 billion was stolen from the fund.

Money siphoned from 1MDB flowed to a variety of causes, which allegedly included the purchasing of Van Gogh and Monet paintings and the financing of the Hollywood hit The Wolf of Wall Street. $731 million was also discovered in the bank account of Malaysia’s then prime minister, Najib Razak, who also served as 1MDB’s chairman.

Malaysia filed charges against 17 Goldman Sachs employees last year, which the investment bank called “misdirected”.

“This settlement represents Goldman’s acknowledgment of the misconduct of two of its former employees in the broader 1MDB fraudulent and corruption scheme,” said Malaysia’s finance ministry in a statement on the deal.

Goldman Sachs has yet to resolve an ongoing investigation by the US Department of Justice related to the 1MDB scandal.

https://www.lawyer-monthly.com/2020/07/goldman-sachs-agrees-3-9-billion-1mdb-settlement-with-malaysia/

Belarus strongman faces mass protests after jailing of his main rivals

Mass protests are spreading across Belarus as opposition to the reelection campaign of President Alexander Lukashenko grows, local media and human-rights organizations have reported.

http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~3/XA3J8LNzy0M/index.html

South Africa hero Siya Kolisi is helping townships during lockdown

South Africa's World Cup-winning captain Siya Kolisi remembers the sound of hunger gnawing in his belly when he was young. So, the man from the townships can certainly empathize with the pain lockdown is inflicting on the less fortunate in his country.

http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~3/4TFcj4IG7So/index.html