King of Crypto's Royal Tumble

The former King of Crypto, Sam Bankman-Fried, attempted to tout about the role of FTX lawyers during his nerve-wracking trial.

Following months of silence, Bankman-Fried made his first court appearance, attempting to kick off a defense against the imminent fraud charges.

The case revolves around the catastrophic collapse of the FTX crypto-exchange and the speculated mishandling of $30 Billion of customer riches.

Despite being prohibited from discussing legal advice during his opening statement, Bankman-Fried spent a good three hours persuading a judge to let him air his views about FTX lawyers.

Judge Kaplan, still not committing to this plea, postponed Bankman-Fried's expected testimony to make his decision.

Bankman-Fried is banking on the "blame the lawyers" approach, hoping to get a vegan get out of jail free card.

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US Economy Roars Into High Gear, Flipping Bird to Fed Hikes

Despite the Federal Reserve pumping the brakes, the American economic beast saw a 4.9% growth spurt.

America turned its back on frugality in the summer, with consumers spending at the highest rate in almost two years.

This free-wheeling expenditure spree drove a robust quarter for economic growth.

The party started in July and didn't stop till September, with increased purchases of various discretionary items such as sporting goods, airline tickets, and a surprising fancy for gambling, painting a picture of an American consumer base not afraid to live it up a little.

The Commerce Department is issuing the first of three estimates that suggest a powerful surge in US economic growth last quarter.

Clocking a brisk 4.9% rate, it was as if the economy decided to shrug off the Fed hikes

The more the Fed tries to squeeze the economy with rate hikes, the more America responds with a hearty "watch this!"

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Sizzling Sales, Shaky Shoppers: Amazon's Mixed Bag Holiday Forecast

Amazon announced a somewhat unstable stability in its cloud business, with the e-commerce giant warning of consumers' cautious spending tendencies, right when the holiday quarter is round the corner.

Despite a rise in key season revenue predictions, the figures could still fall short of Wall Street's expectations.

However, Q3 results provided a fresh breath of air with a robust marketing campaign and expedited delivery reflecting positively.

Amazon's stock prices had a very dynamic day with sudden surges, drops, and ultimately a 5% rise.

In a world where Google and Microsoft are formidable opponents, Amazon is standing its ground by embarking upon a $4 billion deal with AI chatbot maker, Anthropic.

Simultaneously, it's also keeping its delivery network buzzing by placing goods closer to the shoppers, ensuring quicker and more economical deliveries.

But life isn't all blue skies and sunshine for Bezos' baby.

An FTC lawsuit accusing Amazon of price inflation and alleged monopoly, coupled with conservative household spending and careful examination of cloud expenditure by businesses, have added to the company's list of challenges.

Amazon is projecting a holiday quarter revenue between $160 and $167 billion, with analysts expecting it to touch nearly $166.62 billion.

AWS, the company's once profit-churning engine, has seen a dip in growth in recent quarters, making the holiday season a critical period.

But, there's a silver lining as AWS is catching up with new deals and customer expansions.

Amazon's Q3 has been a hit with a total revenue of $143.1 billion and a net income of $9.9 billion.

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OpenAI Deploys Squad for the AI Apocalypse

OpenAI is calling in the A-team... the AI-team, that is.

This group, known as Team Preparedness, is gearing up for battle against the potential catastrophic risks of highly advanced AI models.

Their mission: Safeguard humanity against the terrifying powers of "frontier artificial intelligence models", capable of everything from cyber attacks to triggering nuclear war.

They're on the lookout for potential "extinction-level" threats, including AI-induced pandemics.

The team, led by Aleksander Madry, are also seeking assistance from the public.

They’ve issued a challenge for innovative minds to suggest possible ways AI could go rogue and wreak havoc in the real world.

Looks like someone finally watched the Terminator series and took it seriously. One can only hope Team Preparedness has a Schwarzenegger-sized plan to keep us safe from a full-blown cybernetic revolt.

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