(Reuters) – Meta Platforms’ Oversight Board has asked the social media firm to evaluate efforts to prevent promotion of political violence on its platforms, after it allowed a video calling for violence post the 2022 Brazilian election to stay online.

The board said on Thursday that Meta’s original decision to leave up the Facebook video, which featured a Brazilian general calling people to “hit the streets,” raised concerns about the effectiveness of the company’s election integrity efforts.

“In this case, the speaker’s intent, the content of the speech and its reach, as well as the likelihood of imminent harm … all justified removing the post,” said the Oversight Board, whose recommendations are not binding on Meta.

After initially letting the video stay up, Meta took it down on Jan. 20, after the board selected the case.

The company’s election preparedness efforts are in focus as the United States prepares for the presidential elections next year.

Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, two of the most popular social media sites in the world, have been in the past used to spread misinformation and incite violence on the ground.

In 2020, the company said that its platforms were used by certain Russian groups to influence U.S. voters during the 2016 elections, where Republican Donald Trump emerged victorious.

The company was also among the social media platforms that suspended Trump in 2021 after the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot, determining he had incited violence. The former U.S. president was reinstated earlier this year.

Meta, in a response to the board, said that it does not currently have metrics for measuring the success of its election integrity efforts generally.

The Oversight Board was created in late 2020 to review Facebook and Instagram’s decisions on taking down or leaving up certain content and make rulings on whether to uphold or overturn the social media company’s actions.

(Reporting by Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K)

By Yuvraj Malik

(Reuters) -A group of buyers including Fortress Investment Group may take over Vice Media after the consortium’s $225-million offer for the bankrupt company emerged as the only “qualified” bid on the table, according to a legal filing.

Thursday’s auction has been canceled and a hearing to approve the sale of the company was scheduled for Friday, according to a filing with the U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan on Thursday.

Popular with millennial audience through its websites Vice and Motherboard, Vice Media filed for bankruptcy protection last month in a move that capped years of financial difficulties and top-executive departures.

At the time, Vice disclosed that lenders led by Fortress offered about $225 million in the form of a credit bid for almost all of the company’s assets and some of its liabilities.

GoDigital Media told Reuters in an emailed statement that it made a higher bid for Vice but the offer was turned down by the sellers.

“We think Fortress’s decision is the wrong choice, and the company, employees, partners and consumers will suffer,” GoDigital said.

Privately held Vice was valued at $5.7 billion at its peak in 2017. Its investors include James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems, TPG, Technology Crossover Ventures and Antenna Group.

Internet media publications have lately struggled to grow their ad-dependent revenue as Big Tech platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Alphabet’s Google attracted the bulk of digital advertising spends.

Meanwhile, the ad market had been suppressed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, further challenging the business at online publishers.

Fortress and Vice did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on the potential deal, which must be approved by the bankruptcy judge.

(Reporting by Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Dietrich Knauth in New York; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Krishna Chandra Eluri)

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank may mop up as much as 90% of the money they pumped into banks over the last decade now that high inflation and interest rates make that extra liquidity unnecessary, a paper by a Fed economist showed on Thursday.

The world’s two largest central banks have been raising interest rates at a brisk pace to fight inflation and unwinding some of their massive bond purchases, which flooded banks with cash when price growth was sluggish and borrowing costs already at zero.

The Fed paper, which will be presented to top central bankers next week at the ECB’s annual get-together in Portugal, delves into the question of how much cash the Fed and the ECB should keep in the banking system to satisfy demand for reserves now that monetary stimulus is no longer needed.

Its author, a senior adviser to the Federal Reserve Board, estimates the Fed could reduce total reserves from their current $6 trillion to between $600 billion and $3.3 trillion depending on whether it would accept U.S. government bonds or less coveted assets in return.

U.S. Treasuries and German government bonds command a premium on the market because of their liquidity and safety, meaning banks have less of an incentive to swap them for deposits at the central bank.

Similarly, the ECB could shrink its own provision of liquidity from 4.1 trillion euros ($4.51 trillion) at present to as little as 521 billion euros, if it only accepts German government bonds, or 1.4 trillion euros against other assets.

Neither scenario is entirely plausible in the near term as both the Fed and the ECB have a mix of government bonds and other types of debt on their balance sheet.

The paper narrowly focuses on the supply and demand of reserves and the relative convenience of assets received by the central banks in return.

It does not consider other variables; for example the ECB is beginning to debate whether to change its current framework, in which reserves are ample and borrowing costs for banks pinned at the interest rate that the central bank pays on deposits.

The paper also doesn’t take into account the potential side effects of a large balance sheet, such as inflating the price of some financial assets or weakening the incentive for governments to run a sound fiscal policy.

“I view my estimates as a benchmark from which policymakers can adjust balance sheet size up or down depending on their view of the importance of other factors,” author Annette Vissing-Jorgensen said in her paper.

($1 = 0.9093 euros)

(Reporting by Francesco Canepa; Editing by Christina Fincher)

By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed

NEW YORK (Reuters) -The U.S. dollar advanced against a basket of currencies on Thursday after Fed Chair Jerome Powell backed more U.S. rate increases albeit at a “careful pace” and as a spate of interest rate hikes by several central banks fuelled concerns over the outlook for global growth.

Sterling was volatile, the Swiss franc fell and the Norwegian crown rose on Thursday after the Bank of England (BoE), the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and Norges Bank all hiked their benchmark interest rates.

The slew of rate hikes come a day after Powell told lawmakers on Capitol Hill further rate increases were “a pretty good guess” of where the central bank was heading if the economy continued in its current direction.

During the second day of testimony Powell said the central bank would move interest rates at a “careful pace” from here.

Asked about rate cuts, Powell said “we don’t see that happening any time soon … It is going to have to wait a time when we’re confident that inflation is moving down to 2%,” the Fed’s inflation target.

The dollar index, which measures the currency against six rivals, rose 0.372% to 102.4. Against the yen, the dollar was up 0.85% at 143.1 yen, its strongest level in more than seven months.

The Australian dollar, viewed as a liquid proxy for risk appetite, fell 0.58%.

“I believe the doom and gloom is back as a dominating narrative across markets now,” said Juan Perez, director of trading at Monex.

“It legitimately feels like while a recession may not entirely materialize, stagflation – low economic levels combined with stubborn inflation – is a tale to be had for the second half of the year,” Perez said.

U.S. data on Thursday showed the number of people filing for state unemployment benefits for the first time held steady at a 20-month high last week, remaining elevated for a third straight week in what may be an early indication of a softening labor market.

UP UP AND AWAY

Sterling was 0.17% lower at $1.27465 in a choppy session after the BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted 7-2 to raise its main interest rate to 5% from 4.5%, its highest since 2008 and its largest rate increase since February.

After inflation data held at 8.7% in May, defying market expectations and making it the highest of any major economy, investors had been split on how big the new BoE hike would be.

“They (the BOE) are trying to jump in front of inflation but at what cost? The mortgage market is seizing, the cost of living crisis is not easing and the GBP is going to be caught in the crossfire,” Brad Bechtel, global head of FX at Jefferies, said in a note.

The Swiss franc was about 0.3% lower against the greenback after the Swiss National Bank (SNB) hiked its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 1.75%, defying some market expectations of a bigger increase.

Despite an easing in Swiss inflation, currently the lowest among G10 economies at 2.2%, SNB Chairman Thomas Jordan recently repeated his readiness to raise rates, encouraging markets to expect a 50-bps hike.

“Unlike the ECB (European Central Bank) and the Fed (Federal Reserve), the SNB can proceed slowly and steadily with its monetary policy tightening,” said Thomas Gitzel, chief economist at VP Bank Group in Liechtenstein.

Against the Norwegian crown, the dollar was about 0.05% lower after having slipped by as much as 1.3% after the Norges Bank raised its benchmark interest rate by 50 bps to a 15-year high, more than expected by a majority of economists surveyed by Reuters, and said it aimed for another hike in August.

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin was up 0.37% at $30,119, on pace for a fourth straight day of gains after hitting its highest level since mid-April, boosted by BlackRock’s plan to create a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) even as the sector faces U.S. regulatory scrutiny.

(Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed in New YorkAdditional reporting by Joice Alves in LondonEditing by Alex Richardson and Matthew Lewis)

By Tom Polansek

CHICAGO (Reuters) – More than 200 workers who clean meat plants have unionized after their employer paid U.S. fines for hiring children to do dangerous jobs sanitizing slaughterhouses, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) International Union said on Thursday.

The union said it now represents Packer Sanitation Services Inc (PSSI) employees who clean a Smithfield Foods plant in Mason City, Iowa, and a National Beef Packing Co plant in Liberal, Kansas.

The UFCW continues to organize at other facilities after the 220 PSSI employees unionized, said Mark Lauritsen, UFCW’s vice president and director of the food processing. The union added that it reached an agreement with PSSI to offer representation to employees across the country.

PSSI contracts with meatpacking companies to provide cleaning services at slaughterhouses. The company said it recognized its employees’ decision to choose UFCW as their bargaining representative at the plants.

PSSI said it has more than 15,000 employees nationwide at over 400 plants. About 3,500 are under the UFCW’s jurisdiction, according to the union.

In February, the U.S. Department of Labor said PSSI paid $1.5 million in penalties for employing more than 100 teenagers in jobs at meatpacking plants in eight states. The children worked overnight shifts and used hazardous chemicals to clean dangerous meat processing equipment such as brisket saws.

“The problems we have witnessed in the industry must firmly remain a thing of the past and we believe that good, strong, union contracts are crucial to protecting all meatpacking and food processing workers,” UFCW President Marc Perrone said.

Smithfield, the world’s largest pork processor, said PSSI cleans less than half its processing plants, including the facility in Mason City, Iowa. The meat company, owned by Hong Kong’s WH Group, is evaluating options for its sanitation contracts, spokesman Jim Monroe said.

National Beef had no immediate comment.

Other meatpackers including JBS USA and Cargill Inc have said they were ending contracts with PSSI.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by David Gregorio)

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) -Warren Buffett has donated another $4.64 billion of Berkshire Hathaway stock to five charities, boosting his total giving since 2006 to more than $51 billion.

The annual donation made on Wednesday is the 92-year-old Buffett’s largest, and consisted of about 13.7 million of Berkshire’s Class B shares.

Buffett is donating 10.45 million shares to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has received more than $39 billion of Berkshire stock overall.

He is also donating 1.05 million shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named for his late first wife, and 2.2 million shares split evenly among charities led by his children Howard, Susan and Peter: the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the Sherwood Foundation and the NoVo Foundation.

Buffett is gradually giving away nearly all of the fortune he built at Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire, which he has run since 1965.

He and Bill Gates pioneered the Giving Pledge, in which more than 240 people like Michael Bloomberg, Larry Ellison, Carl Icahn, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg committed at least half of their wealth to philanthropy.

Buffett has already donated more than half of his Berkshire stock. He still owned more than $112.5 billion, or 15.1%, of Berkshire shares following Wednesday’s donations.

The number of shares Buffett donates falls by 5% each year, but this year’s dollar amount set a record because Berkshire’s stock price has been rising.

“Nothing extraordinary has occurred at Berkshire: a very long runway, simple and generally sound decisions, the American tailwind and compounding effects produced my current wealth,” Buffett said in a statement.

“American tailwind” was coined by Buffett in 2019 to describe the United States’ ability to build wealth over the long term, even through times of war and financial crisis.

Buffett built Berkshire into an approximately $740 billion company through businesses such as BNSF railroad and Geico car insurance, and stock holdings in companies such as Apple Inc.

The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation works in reproductive health. The Howard G. Buffett Foundation focuses on alleviating hunger, mitigating conflicts and improving public safety. The Sherwood Foundation supports nonprofits in Nebraska, and the NoVo Foundation has initiatives focused on girls and women.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)

By Deborah Mary Sophia and Chibuike Oguh

(Reuters) -Shares of Overstock.com jumped on Thursday after the online retailer won an auction for a portion of the assets of bankrupt home goods chain Bed Bath & Beyond.

Overstock emerged as the winning bidder for Bed Bath & Beyond’s intellectual property and mobile platform in a deal worth $21.5 million, court filings showed on Thursday.

Overstock’s stock rose more than 22% to $26.01, its highest level of the year. More than 8 million Overstock shares have traded in the session, nearly six times the stock’s 10-day moving average volume, per Refinitiv data.

Bed Bath & Beyond stores are not part of the deal. But Overstock will acquire the chain’s business data and publicity rights as well as assume certain liabilities related to transferred contracts. The sale is subject to approval by the bankruptcy court at a hearing on Tuesday.

Overstock last week offered to buy some Bed Bath & Beyond assets under a “stalking horse” bid, prompting the chain to launch an auction to solicit counter offers.

Once a storied company, Bed Bath & Beyond filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April after struggling for years with dwindling sales and a failed merchandising strategy.

Some Bed Bath & Beyond brands including its Buy Buy Baby chain, which sells products for infants and toddlers, had attracted interest from investment firms Go Global Retail and Sixth Street Partners, according to media reports.

(Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru and Chibuike Oguh in New York; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Mark Porter)

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Energy Department plans to lend up to $9.2 billion to a joint venture of Ford Motor and South Korea’s SK On to help it build three battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky, the biggest-ever award from the government program.

The conditional commitment for the low-cost government loan for the BlueOval SK joint venture comes from the government’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) loan program.

SK is a unit of South Korea’s SK Innovation. The joint venture is building two battery manufacturing plants in Kentucky and one in Tennessee capable of collectively producing more than 120 gigawatt hours annually, the Energy Department said.

Jigar Shah, head of the Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office, said in an interview its goal “is to have people choose to put these supply chains here in the United States, not in other countries, and to do them faster and more confidently here.”

Ford and SK announced in 2021 they would invest $11.4 billion to build a F-150 electric vehicle (EV) assembly plant and three battery plants in the United States with Ford investing $7 billion. Ford shares were up 1.2% in afternoon trading.

This is the sixth loan for battery supply chain projects from the ATVM program.

PUBLIC-PRIVATE COLLABORATION

The project is expected to create 5,000 construction jobs in Tennessee and Kentucky, and 7,500 operations jobs once the plants are up and running.

“Major technology transitions have always been accelerated by collaboration between the public and private sectors,” said Ford Treasurer Dave Webb.

BlueOval SK CEO Robert Rhee said the loan will be used to “strengthen critical domestic supply chains, and produce high-quality batteries for future Ford and Lincoln electric vehicles.”

The $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act approved in August also creates a new $45 per kilowatt battery production tax credit. Ford CEO Jim Farley said in October that from 2023 to 2026, “we estimate a combined available tax credit for Ford and our battery partners could total more than $7 billion.”

The loan will fund two battery projects in Republican-leaning states. Many Republicans in Congress have criticized the Biden administration’s efforts to boost battery-powered vehicles and battery production.

Last year, the department awarded a joint venture of General Motors and LG Energy Solution $2.5 billion to help finance construction of new lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing facilities. The loan to Ultium Cells LLC is for facilities in Ohio, Tennessee, and Michigan.

In September 2009, Ford was awarded a $5.9 billion low-cost government loan from the same program, an important source of liquidity in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. It completed its payments last year, after deferring some in 2020.

Ford announced in February a separate deal to spend $3.5 billion to use technology from Chinese battery company CATL to build a battery plant in Michigan. That plan has faced criticism from some Republicans.

Tesla received a $465 million loan in 2010 from the program that allowed it to open a plant in Fremont, California, and build the Model S electric car. It repaid the loan in 2013.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Toby Chopra, David Evans, Alexander Smith and Aurora Ellis)

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Thursday in favor of a tax treaty with Chile seen as crucial for ensuring access for U.S. companies to lithium, a mineral essential for electric vehicle batteries.

The Senate backed ratification by 95-2, comfortably over the two-thirds supermajority required to approve treaties in the 100-member chamber.

Final approval will send the treaty to the White House, which said President Joe Biden planned to sign it.

Chile’s Congress approved the treaty in 2015. It first came up in the U.S. Senate in 2012, but failed to advance partly due to opposition from Republican Senator Rand Paul – one of the no votes on Thursday – who said he was concerned it could allow foreign tax authorities to obtain information on U.S. citizens.

Business interests have been pushing for the tax agreement for years. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce called it an urgent priority. Without it, taxes on U.S. companies with Chilean operations could climb to more than 44%, the business group said.

U.S. companies have a strong presence in mining, finance and other industries in Chile.

“As the world races to advance clean technologies, Chile will be a critical ally for anyone looking to lead the way,” the Senate’s Democratic majority leader, Chuck Schumer, said on Thursday as he urged passage.

“If the United States is serious about remaining ahead of countries like China, it’s imperative we pass this treaty today,” Schumer said.

Chile announced a plan to expand lithium mining in the country in April in an attempt to regain its position as the world’s top lithium producer.

Backers of the agreement also said its failure could hobble the U.S. transition to clean energy.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Sandra Maler and Jonathan Oatis)

By Stephanie Kelly

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Oil futures fell about 4% on Thursday, as a bigger-than-expected Bank of England rate hike prompted worries about the economy and fuel demand that outweighed support from a surprise draw in U.S. oil supplies.

Brent futures settled down $2.98, or 3.9%, to $74.14 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down $3.02, or 4.2%, at $69.51.

The benchmarks erased gains from the previous session, during which U.S. corn and soybean prices raced to multi-month highs, raising expectations that crop shortfalls could lower biofuels blending and increase oil demand.

The Bank of England raised interest rates by a bigger-than-expected half a percentage point to fight stubborn inflation. It was the central bank’s 13th straight rate hike.

Higher interest rates could slow economic growth and reduce oil demand.

Feeding caution, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said two more rate hikes of 25 basis points each by the end of the year was “a pretty good guess.”

“We’re locked in a trading range but prices are held back by the concerns about the economy, the larger economy,” said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group.

Equities, which often move in tandem with oil, were also down. [MKTS/GLOB]

In supply, U.S. crude inventories fell by 3.8 million barrels in the last week to 463.3 million barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 300,000-barrel rise.

U.S. gasoline stocks rose by about 480,000 barrels in the week to 221.4 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 100,000-barrel rise.​

Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by about 430,000 barrels in the week to 114.3 million barrels, versus expectations for a 700,000-barrel rise, the EIA data showed.

“Given the decline in crude oil and the very modest increases in refined products inventories, I would have thought we would get a better response from the market, but the crude oil and refined product market is simply being weighed down by higher interest rates,” said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston.

Investors are now awaiting Chinese factory activity data due next week, which could indicate the strength of China’s economy.

An executive at U.S. shale producer EOG Resources said oil prices could rise as muted increases in U.S. oil production and cuts by OPEC+ producers will limit supply in the months ahead.

(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly; additional reporting by Shadia Nasralla and Jeslyn LerhEditing by Conor Humphries, Mark Potter and David Gregorio)

(Reuters) – General Electric’s aerospace unit said on Thursday it has signed an agreement with India’s state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd to make fighter jet engines for the Indian Air Force.

The development comes at a time when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on an official state visit to the United States.

The agreement includes the potential joint production of GE Aerospace’s F414 engines in India and the engines will be used to power Tejas fighter jets, GE said.

Washington is working to deepen ties with the world’s largest democracy and sees deeper military-to-military and technology ties with India as a key counterweight to China’s dominance in the region.

Hindustan Aeronautics previously said it planned to use the engine for a second generation of light combat aircraft and it was in talks over domestic production of the engines.

Reuters reported in May the Biden administration was poised to sign off on a deal that would allow GE to produce jet engines powering Indian military aircraft.

GE first began working with Hindustan Aeronautics and the Aeronautical Development Agency in 1986 to support the development of India’s light combat aircraft with F404 engines.

(Reporting by Aishwarya Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K and Shounak Dasgupta)

BRASILIA (Reuters) -Brazilian financial markets on Thursday showed many traders still betting the central bank will kick off a cycle of interest rate cuts in August, even as some economists ruled it out based on the tone of the bank’s latest policy statement.

The central bank held its benchmark interest rate at a six-year high on Wednesday evening and struck a more dovish tone on its next steps, while holding back from a clear signal about the upcoming rate-setting meeting in early August.

Brazil’s currency firmed slightly against the U.S. dollar in Thursday mid-evening trading, while its benchmark stock index slid about 1.7%.

Short-term interest rate futures edged higher, but they still reflect most bets leaning toward a first rate cut of 25 basis points in August.

Some economists say that now seems out of the question.

“The committee reinforced the message that it needs 2024 and 2025 inflation expectations to continue to move down in order to start cutting rates. In our base case, we rule out August as the starting point of rate cuts,” wrote UBS economists in a note to clients, forecasting the first monetary easing in September.

In its policy statement, the central bank’s rate-setting committee removed hawkish signals such as a reference to a possible rate increase, but called for “patience and serenity” and said upcoming data will be key to its August decision.

That approach drew fresh criticism from President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who called it “irrational” for the central bank to keep rates so high while inflation has fallen sharply.

Lula vented his frustration while traveling in Italy, suggesting central bank chief Roberto Campos Neto, an appointee of former President Jair Bolsonaro, has been a menace to the Brazilian economy

Campos Neto, who has consistently argued that central bank decisions are based on economic principles and not politics, is expected to remain in office until 2024 under the central bank’s formal autonomy status.

Speaking to reporters from Italy, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad questioned the bank’s stance in linking its future decision to the decline in inflation expectations measured by market surveys, considering that these surveys have consistently shown projections “inaccurate for six months.”

Haddad expressed concern over a “concerning mismatch” between the central bank’s approach and the current situation in Brazil, pointing out an improved environment for an interest rate reduction with lower future rates and a stronger currency.

“We are inviting trouble with this interest rate,” he said. “It is inviting future inflation and increased tax burden.”

(Reporting by Marcela Ayres in BrasiliaEditing by Brad Haynes, Matthew Lewis and Jonathan Oatis)