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Prices for major cryptocurrencies, as well as shares of Coinbase Global (COIN) and MicroStrategy (MSTR), slumped Friday as collapsed crypto site Mt. Gox began paying back creditors.

Nobuaki Kobayashi, the trustee for the Mt. Gox bankruptcy estate, said that the estate “made repayments in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash to some of the rehabilitation creditors through a part of the Designated Cryptocurrency Exchanges etc. in accordance with the Rehabilitation Plan.”

He noted that other creditors would be “promptly” repaid when certain conditions were met, among them that they can be made “safely and securely.”

Bitcoin (BTCUSD) was trading around $55,700, down roughly 2.4%, as of 10:45 a.m. ET Friday. Ether was off about 3.4%.

Mt. Gox was once the world’s biggest crypto exchange, at one point handling 70% of bitcoin transactions. A hack attack in 2014, which resulted in the loss of an estimated 740,000 bitcoin, led to the firm’s demise.

The anticipation of the Mt. Gox news, which Kobayashi signaled last month would happen in July, had already begun to roil the crypto market. Today’s announcement sent bitcoin to its lowest level in five months.

The impact has also been felt at Coinbase, which reported it had $935 million in revenue from customer crypto trading in the first quarter, double what it was in the fourth quarter. MicroStrategy said in its first-quarter financial report that it owned 214,400 bitcoin.

Coinbase shares were down about 5% to $213.87 as of 10:45 a.m. ET Friday, while MicroStrategy fell more than 6% to $1,220.11. Still, shares of Coinbase and MicroStrategy have surged about 23% and 93% year-to-date.

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The European Union (EU) is expected to level a formal warning against X, the Elon Musk-owned social media network formerly known as Twitter, for failing to combat dangerous content, according to a report.

Thierry Breton, Internal Market Commissioner of EU enforcement arm the European Commission, is expected to announce a potential violation of the Digital Services Act (DSA), according to the report. Such a move could result in a fine of up to 6% of X’s revenue if the platform doesn’t return to compliance. 

Asked for comment, X responded via email to , "Busy now, please check back later."

This week, the European Commission accused Meta Platforms' (META) practice of "pay or consent" advertising on Instagram and Facebook of violating the new Digital Markets Act (DMA), and charged Apple (AAPL) with its own DMA violation for unfairly restricting how developers can seek payments.  

Microsoft (MSFT) has also been warned of a potential violation of EU antitrust rules by bundling Teams with its other Office products, the Commission announced last week. 

The DMA, which went into effect in March, was passed to curb the power of tech "gatekeepers" including Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet, Amazon (AMZN), and TikTok parent ByteDance. 

The DSA, meanwhile, obligates online platforms to be more transparent about how they collect data, and outlines how to deal with illegal content and disinformation.

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A footage surfaced on the internet, on Saturday, July 6, 2024, of Lil Durk‘s 10-year-old son allegedly sh@oting his stepfather during a domestic disp¥te with his mother.

The video of the incident which reportedly happened on Monday, July 1, shows the child taking a g¥n from the man identified as Reezy’s hip during the alt£rcation before sh@oting him.

Reezy’s explained the incident in an IG post staying that he was not the aggr£§sor.

“As y’all can see I was not the aggressor and y’all also can see how I still had my g¥n on my hip he gr+bbed my g¥n off my hip following his moms lead and tried to sh@ot me and then actually sh+t me. I advise y’all see it before they take it down #buildawareness,” he wrote.

He also shared Police paper work showing that the 10-year-old is being handled by the Homicide office and the Department ent of Child services while he is recuperating in the hospital. The 10-year-old and his siblings are to be taken from their mother ‘s custody by the DCS.

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Job growth in the U.S. slowed in June from the previous month, while the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.1%.

U.S. employers added 206,000 jobs in June, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists surveyed by the and expected the jobs report to show 200,000 new positions added in June, with the unemployment rate staying at 4%.

The BLS also said it had revised lower the jobs growth figures for the previous two months. The May jobs figures was cut by 54,000 to 218,000, while the April number was cut by 57,000 to 108,000.

Average hourly wages increased by 0.3% in June from the previous month, and were higher by 3.9% from the same month last year, both of which met economist forecasts. 

Treasury yields fell following the release of the BLS report, as investors assess the possibility that the jobs numbers will help give the Federal Reserve confidence to consider cutting its benchmark interest rate in the coming months.

Some Fed officials have said now that inflation is moving lower, they are looking more closely at the labor market, as sudden shifts in unemployment levels could move the central bank to act more quickly on interest rate cuts.  

Earlier this week, the ADP employment report showed that private-sector job growth in June slowed for the third consecutive month.

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President Bola Tinubu has been re-elected as the chairman of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS.

He was re-elected at the 65th Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of States and Government at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Nigeria. President Tinubu, who accepted his re-election, appointed the President of Senegal to join in the mediation with Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad.

Meanwhile, Tinubu urged members states of the region to fulfil their financial commitments to the regional body to effectively tackle security challenges. President Tinubu, who gave the charge at the 65th Ordinary Session of ECOWAS, said substantial financial resources are crucial to operationalize the ECOWAS Standby Force (ESF) and combat terrorism, banditry and violent extremism.

The Nigeria President, whose one-year tenure as Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority is expected to expire tomorrow, July 9, urged member states to honor their financial obligations to enable ECOWAS to meet the expectations and recommendations of its ministers of Defense and Finance. He contended that fulfilling the commitments will help stabilize the region and counter insecurity, adding that by meeting their financial commitments, ECOWAS member states will demonstrate their dedication to regional security and cooperation, enabling the community to better address the security challenges facing West Africa.

According to him, “Let me underscore that a peaceful and secure society is essential for achieving our potentials, move to operationalise the ECOWAS Standby Force (ESF) in combating terrorism, I must emphasise that the success of this plan requires, not only strong political will, but also substantial financial resources

We must therefore ensure that we meet the expectations and recommendations set forth by our ministers of Defense and Finance in order to counter the insecurity and stabilise our region. Member states must make extra commitment on providing resources for stabilizing the region.

To this end, I urge ECOWAS to leverage on the capability of the Nigeria National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC), which is widely acknowledge as one of the best on the continent. The Nigerian government has decided to declare the NCTC as a regional centre to enable all ECOWAS member states benefit from capacity building and other related opportunities it offers.

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Katarina Jovanovic, has been jailed for seven and a half years after dropping her newborn daughter out of a window because ‘she was worried a baby would ruin her career’.

According to Daily Mail, the 28-year-old suspect from Lauffen am Neckar, Baden-Wuerttemberg State, Germany, was was found guilty of mansla¥ghter at the Heilbronn District Court on Wednesday, July 3. Judges heard how she had given birth at home in secret 10 months ago on September 12 and then dropped her baby daughter from her apartment window almost 12 feet onto the tarmac below.

It is reported that h%rrified passersby found the minutes-old infant’s body with a sh+ttered skull underneath Jovanovic’s balcony and called the police. According to ASB Zeitung, Jovanovic admitted to the crime at the beginning of the trial in April but could not explain the moment to the court.

She also claimed she had not realised she was pregnant. But the prosecution accused her of m¥rder and of deliberately concealing her pregnancy from colleagues and neighbours. Prosecutors told the court that Jovanovic thought being a mother would spoil her career as an executive in Porsche’s legal department.

Public prosecutor Mareike Hafendoerfer said: ‘The accused was not prepared to put her life plans, especially her professional advancement, on hold for a child. That was her decision when the baby was born, and as a result, the criteria for a m¥rder conviction are fulfilled.’

Jovanovic’s lawyers claimed that it was at most manslaghter as she had accidentally dropped the baby from her hands after giving birth alone at home without realising she had been pregnant.

Defence attorney Malte Hoech said: ‘It is a drama that affects me personally. My client did not even know that she was pregnant. When she suddenly held the bl%%dy baby in her hands, she was in an exceptional psychological situation. It was an acc+dent, she dropped the baby. How the child ended up over the windowsill remains to be determined.’

In the end, the court accepted the lesser charge of mansla*ghter but jailed her for seven and a half years, which was more than the three years the defence had demanded. Her legal team said they plan to appeal the verdict.

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