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Saturday, May 10, 2025

Adams’ unsealed docs show how NYC mayor wanted Turkey to fund reelection campaign

 Mayor Eric Adams planned to collect campaign donations in Turkey for his 2025 re-election bid, according to newly unsealed documents from his high-profile corruption case.

The extensive filing, obtained by The Post Friday night, showed that Hizzoner attended a lavish January 2022 dinner with two staffers, where he expressed interest in visiting Turkey to solicit additional funds from local businessmen for his mayoral race.

Adams “welcomed the offer of foreign contributions” — and told his staff in a private area to coordinate and “arrange the contributions,” the filing states. 

Adams’ was accused of blocking federal investigators from accessing his phone.Paul Martinka

The scorching detail was included in court documents when Adams was indicted last September — when he became the first sitting New York City mayor to face criminal charges. 

Though the 1,785 pages of court filings — made public after The Post and other outlets fought for access — shed some light on Adams’ murky plans when federal prosecutors requested a warrant for the mayor’s electronic communications during their investigation. 

The court filings also exposed Adams’ alleged efforts to block federal investigators from accessing his personal cellphone after a September 2024 raid at Gracie Mansion uncovered a stash of electronics — including a satellite phone on his nightstand. 

Adams’ longtime girlfriend, Tracey Collins — who had a cushy high-ranking six-figure position in the Big Apple’s Department of Education — allegedly helped arrange admission for the Turkish Consul General’s child into MS 255 Salk School of Science, one of New York City’s most competitive and sought after schools, court filings revealed. 

Prosecutors said Adams welcomed the foreign contributions.

The feds recovered alleged text messages detailing the admission scheme after executing a search warrant on two iPhones. 

Collins, who retired from her position working as senior adviser to Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos in November, was described in court papers as taking trips to India, Hungary, Turkey, Jordan, Oman and Ghana with Adams starting in 2016.

She was never charged with a crime. 

The Trump administration dropped the charges against the mayor.REUTERS

Adams was hit with a five-count indictment accusing him of accepting tens of thousands of dollars in luxury travel from foreign officials seeking to buy influence at City Hall. 

The historic case was controversially dismissed in April after the mayor, a moderate Democrat, appeared to align himself with President Trump in the months following his notorious charges. 

The mayor has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing. 

https://nypost.com/2025/05/09/us-news/eric-adams-unsealed-documents-shed-new-light-on-how-nyc-mayor-wanted-turkey-to-fund-reelection-campaign-with-missed-detail-from-original-indictment/

US ailing its youngest investors: Ric Edelman

 

Ric Edelman says the U.S. is failing its younger generations on personal finance education: “We stink at it,” he told CNBC’s “ETF Edge.”

Students are not provided with knowledge early enough in life and a get-rich-quick attitude is preventing younger people from investing correctly for long-term financial success.

Legendary investor Ric Edelman on why financial literacy hasn't improved in a generation… and what can be done.
VIDEO04:43
Legendary investor Ric Edelman on why financial literacy hasn’t improved in a generation… and what can be done.

One of the most recognized names in personal finance is urging Americans to increase their financial literacy, and urging the country to do a better job of providing the education. 

“We spend a lot of time trying to improve financial literacy. We stink at it,” said Ric Edelman, founder of Edelman Financial Engines, on this week’s CNBC “ETF Edge.”

Edelman believes the problem is rooted in the fact the U.S. has never had a great tradition of encouraging smart personal finance, and he says it has never been more important to fix, given how long people are now living. That increases the risks related to running out of money later in life and creates serious questions about standard investing models for long-term financial security, such as the 60-40 stock and bond portfolio.

“We are the first generation, as baby boomers, that will live long lives as part of the norm,” Edelman said. “Everyone before us, our parents and grandparents mostly died in their 50s and 60s. You didn’t have to plan for the future, because you weren’t going to have one,” he added.

One of his biggest concerns with the current generation of young investors is that they seem to believe in get-rich-quick schemes. Many of the new investing websites have been too encouraging of risky strategies that lure young investors in, he says, promoting financial gambling rather than investing. Options and zero-day options have become a significant part of the daily trading landscape in the last several years. According to data from the New York Stock Exchange, the percent of retail traders participating in the options market approached the 50% mark in 2022. In 2024, options volume hit an all-time record.

Edelman says younger generations should be wary of a corporate America that makes consumer finance more complicated than it should be, which includes the manufacturing of overly sophisticated and expensive financial products. “They want to make it complex, to make you a hostage rather than a customer,” he said. 

He also cautions young investors to make sure they are getting information about personal finance from credible sources. “When so many are getting their financial education from TikTok, that’s a little scary,” he said.

Edelman believes the cards are stacked against young investors because of the lack of high schools mandating a course in personal finance. “The only way we discover the issues of money is through the school of hard knocks as adults, and we’re over our heads when it comes to buying a car, getting a mortgage, insurance and saving for college” he said. 

That situation is improving for the next generations of adults. Utah was the first state to require a personal finance course for high school graduation in 2004, and the list grew to include 11 states by 2021. As of this year, 27 states now require high school students to take a semester-long personal finance course for graduation, according to Next Gen Personal Finance. 

Another big challenge for young investors is they often don’t have a lot of money to invest, with many recent college graduates struggling to pay bills and left with little to put towards other financial goals. But there is at least one reason to be hopeful about younger Americans, Edelman says: they are highly motivated to reach financial success.

“Today’s youth looks at their parents and sees how poorly they were prepared for retirement. They don’t want that to be their future” he said.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/10/america-failing-its-young-investors-warns-financial-guru-ric-edelman-.html

New startup Superpower scores $30M to offer personalized health testing

 New startup Superpower is jumping into the preventive health and longevity market offering personalized lab testing to give consumers more insights into their health.

For $499 per year, Superpower offers biannual lab testing that analyzes over 100 blood biomarkers across 21 categories, including hormone health, longevity, immune regulation, inflammation and nutrients and toxins. The company then centralizes any past medical records, fitness trackers and genetics, connecting this data with medical information to create personalized protocols based on a consumer's unique biology, according to Superpower.

 Members also get text access to a real concierge physician team, and 24/7 AI-enhanced guidance.

The company's medical team includes experts in integrative medicine, cardiology, oncology and longevity research. The platform's AI, currently in beta, is “trained on medical literature with proprietary biomarker data, enabling real-time personalization previously impossible at scale,” according to co-founder and chief technology officer Kevin Unkrich.

Superpower pocketed $30 million in series A funding to grow its product and engineering teams and expand the availability of the product, Jacob Peters, Superpower's co-founder and CEO, told Fierce Healthcare in an interview.

Forerunner led the series A round, with participation from Day One Ventures, Susa Ventures, Long Journey Ventures, Family Fund, Opal Ventures, Valia Ventures, Visible Ventures and Winklevoss Capital. A number of celebrity investors also backed the round, including Vanessa Hudgens, Steve Aoki, Logan Paul and NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Peters said he and his co-founders wanted to build an app and a service that enables consumers to "superpower" their health.

"Our platform puts comprehensive blood testing and easy-to-understand health insights directly into people's hands–where this information belongs. The days of being in the dark about your health and dealing with confusing lab result printouts are over," he said.

"We believe that five years from now every person will have a health super app on their phone to help give them more control over their health and feel empowered to learn about their body and take action," said co-founder Max Marchione.

Peters and Marchione were inspired by their own personal health challenges and frustrations with the health system. Peters faced serious conditions that went undiagnosed for years and added up to $2 million in medical bills. Marchione said he also spent decades navigating misdiagnoses from 20 doctors. 

Peters said access to concierge medicine helped him to get the right diagnosis. "I discovered what health looks like on the frontier, the best of medicine, but it isn’t democratized" or accessible to everyone, he said.

"I was told to medicate for life. There is a big gap between the best of healthcare and what most people have access to," Marchione said. Superpower wants to close that gap and give individuals access to advanced testing.

The co-founders believe their experiences with the traditional healthcare system are not isolated cases as many chronic conditions are avoidable. Early detection and management of risk factors are critical to preventing disease from progressing. As one example, if population-wide cholesterol levels could be reduced by 10%, the incidence of coronary artery disease could drop by an estimated 30%, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The three co-founders spent two years building the Superpower app and have been in beta mode since last year. Superpower currently has 150,000 people on its waiting list, Marchione said.

Marchione and Peters say Superpower's biomarker lab testing is 10x more comprehensive than a standard physical. The healthcare system also is fragmented, and when individuals do get testing, those results and critical insights end up scattered across different patient portals, they noted.

Superpower gives its members the tools to take control of their health and identify potential concerns before they develop into serious conditions, they said.

“Our goal is to build the world’s most intelligent health optimization system–where your data isn’t just tracked, it’s understood and acted on instantly,” said Anant Vinjamoori, M.D., a longevity physician and chief longevity officer at Superpower in a statement. “We're building a future where healthcare transforms how people live, not just how long.”

The company says it combines extensive testing, clinical-grade diagnostics, functional medicine protocols and AI health guidance into a single app. Its platform automatically translates complex test results into clear, actionable steps based on the latest scientific findings, making it easy for members to understand what their results mean and what to do next. The app also offers benchmarks through a Superpower score and a biological age metric that tracks members' overall health progress and identify specific areas for improvement.

The platform also connects members directly to vetted solutions through its integrated marketplace of specialists, prescriptions, and targeted supplements.

Members also can order additional specialty tests including toxins screening, gut microbiome analysis, and Grail cancer screening that can detect over 50 types of cancer before symptoms appear. 

“In my time investing, one of the largest secular trends we’ve seen is consumer willingness to spend on their health and wellness. Today, health is no longer just clinical, it’s aspirational," said Kirsten Green, founding partner at Forerunner. “The delta between what people know about their bodies and what they could know is massive. Superpower’s opportunity is to close this gap, empowering people with true personal agency via proactive insights and action.”

Superpower joins a growing list of startups and companies focused on prevention and longevity by offering cash-pay services for lab tests or full-body scans. Function Health launched last year offering a membership-based platform that gives consumers access to more than 100 lab tests at a cost of $499 per year, or about $42 per month. Mark Hyman, M.D., the co-founder of Function Health, told Time that the company has 100,000 paying members.

Prenuvo, a trendy startup that offers radiation-free, full-body MRI scans for early detection of cancer and other diseases, raised $70 million in series A equity and debt funding back in 2022. The scans cost about $2,500. Another company that is trying to take whole-body scans mainstream, Ezra, has raised $41 million, Forbes reported. Other companies in the space include Neko Health and SimonMed.

https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/new-startup-superpower-scores-30m-launch-personalized-health-testing

Elizabeth Holmes' partner raises millions for new biotech testing startup

 The partner of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has raised millions of dollars for an artificial intelligence startup hoping to introduce a product that can be used in medical testing and other settings, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the endeavor who could not speak publicly because the company has not yet officially launched. The company is called Haemanthus, which is Greek for "blood flower."

Holmes, a former Silicon Valley star, is serving an 11-year sentence in federal prison for misleading investors about her blood-testing startup Theranos, once heralded as a breakthrough in laboratory science before its core technology proved faulty.

Since being imprisoned at a federal facility in Bryan, Texas, Holmes has been providing advice to her partner, Billy Evans, on the startup, according to the sources. The precise nature of Holmes' supporting Evans on the venture is unclear.

About a dozen people are part of the startup. Some of those working on the company formerly worked with Evans at Luminar Technologies, which develops sensors for autonomous vehicles, according to the company's patent and Delaware incorporation paperwork. Evans has raised money mostly among friends, family and other supporters so far, according to one of the sources.

Holmes's support for her partner's foray into biotech is striking, given she is serving a federal prison sentence for fraud in that same field.

Over the course of her nearly four-month criminal trial, Holmes insisted she did not commit any crimes, despite evidence presented by the government and witness testimony suggesting she purposely deceived investors and tried to cover it up, not long after she was plastered on the covers of magazines and drew comparisons to Steve Jobs.

From prison, Holmes continues to fight. On Thursday, a federal appeals court upheld her conviction.

Holmes, the mother of two, named one of her children Invicta, Latin for "invincible."

In addition to Holmes's fraud conviction, a separate investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission led to her being banned from serving as an officer or director of any public company for a decade as part of a March 2018 settlement. The prohibition does not affect her ability to help run a private company, but a source familiar with Haemanthus said she is not planning to take a formal role helping Evans run the company.

Still, she is plotting a post-prison return to the healthcare industry.

Holmes told People magazine in February that she intends to resume her career in biotech when she is released from prison and that she has been writing patents for new inventions while behind bars.

Haemanthus declined to comment. A lawyer for Holmes did not reply to a request for comment.

Haemanthus is in its early stages, according to one person with knowledge of the company. Currently, the company is using light detection technology that can essentially guide AI sensors to conduct medical tests, according to the source and a patent the company was granted in January.

The company is focused on something called Raman spectroscopy, which has been shown to help diagnose ALS, also called Lou Gehrig's disease, as well as some forms of cancer. It has also been used to discover improvised explosive devices on battlefields.

Haemanthus hopes to bring the cost of the technology down and to take it out of research labs to make it commercially available to patients, though what the potential consumer product would actually look like is still under development.

The company's January patent said the light detection tool can be used to test "biological material," citing examples including sweat, urine, saliva. The technology can also conduct diagnostic tests using a small sample of blood.

https://www.npr.org/2025/05/10/nx-s1-5393950/elizabeth-holmes-theranos-billy-evans-blood-testing

Western Allies Pressure Russia To Accept 30-Day Ceasefire Starting Monday

 Pressure is mounting on Moscow to take it's offerings of short, three-day ceasefires (there have been two thus far) to the next level, by accepting terms for a 30-day ceasefire that would begin as early as Monday.

The so-called 'coalition of the willing' - including Britain, France, Germany and Poland on Saturday called on Russia accept a 30-day unconditional ceasefire. Currently, Putin's unliterally proposed 72-hour Victory Day ceasefire is partially holding - or at least has resulting in Ukraine halting sending drones onto Russian territory.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha stated on X "Ukraine and all allies are ready for a full unconditional ceasefire on land, air, and at sea for at least 30 days starting already on Monday."

"If Russia agrees and effective monitoring is ensured, a durable ceasefire and confidence-building measures can pave the way to peace negotiations," he added. This is meant to basically extend the weekend 3-day ceasefire by a month.

The Trump administration has been pressing for faster results from Moscow. President Trump characterized an earlier Wednesday phone call with Zelensky as positive, after which the US leader called for "ideally, a 30-day unconditional ceasefire."

And Macron and Trump then spoke Thursday, after which the French leader said had a "strong" conversation for a "unconditional 30-day ceasefire, as did our British and Nordic partners earlier this morning."

Trump has offered as an incentive the easing of anti-Russia sanctions, but Moscow's refusal to go along could result in the opposite, per Axios:

  • They [European leaders] stressed to Trump that if Putin refuses the 30-day ceasefire, European countries will impose new sanctions on Russia, the sources said.
  • "Trump seemed satisfied to see Ukraine embracing the ceasefire and accepting direct negotiations with Russia," one source said.
  • The second source said Trump was glad to hear they all back his proposal. "We're waiting for Russia's move now," the source said.

But Secretary of State Marco Rubio has previously warned that Washington may abandon efforts to mediate an end to the three-plus-year-long war if Russia and Ukraine fail to make a peace agreement.

“I think they’re closer in general than they’ve been any time in the last three years but it’s still not there,” Rubio said in an interview with NBC News on April 27.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on X that "We share a common view: an immediate, full, and unconditional ceasefire is needed for at least 30 days," and that they "waiting for Russia's response" - in reference to the European leaders Starmer, Zelensky, Macron, Tusk, and Merz - who are visiting Kiev on Saturday.

"Once the ceasefire begins, there will be the best moment for diplomacy," he said. "Ukraine is ready for meetings and negotiations in any format."

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/western-allies-pressure-russia-accept-30-day-ceasefire-starting-monday

After ceasefire demand, Kremlin calls European statements ‘confrontational

 The Kremlin accused European countries on May 10 of making contradictory and confrontational statements, after European leaders backed a US plan for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine and threatened Russia with "massive" sanctions if it failed to comply.

"We hear many contradictory statements from Europe. They are generally confrontational in nature rather than aimed at trying to revive our relations. Nothing more," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

President Vladimir Putin "has repeatedly said that he is ready for contacts with any leaders", Mr Peskov said. "And he is open to interaction, to dialogue with any leaders to the extent that the leaders themselves are ready."

Ukraine and European leaders agreed on May 10 that an unconditional 30-day ceasefire should start on May 12, with the backing of US President Donald Trump.

"So all of us here together with the US are calling Putin out. If he is serious about peace, then he has a chance to show it," British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.

Russia has long said that it is open to talks, accusing Kyiv of closing off that option by adopting a 2022 decree ruling out any negotiation with Mr Putin.

On May 9, Mr Peskov was quoted as saying that Russia supported the implementation of a 30-day ceasefire, but only with due consideration of "a large number of nuances".

In separate remarks to ABC News that were aired on May 10, the spokesman suggested that Western military assistance for Ukraine would have to stop in order for a ceasefire to happen.

"Otherwise, it will be an advantage for Ukraine," he said.

Russia believes it has the advantage on the battlefield and says it is concerned that Ukraine could use a 30-day pause in the war to rest its forces, mobilise more men and get hold of more Western arms

https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/after-ceasefire-demand-kremlin-calls-european-statements-confrontational