By Nicole Goodkind, CNN Weaker-than-expected retail sales in November pummeled market sentiment on Thursday and raised the odds that the Federal Reserve’s inflation-fighting interest rate hikes would push the economy into recession. What’s happening: US retail sales, which measure the total amount of money that stores make from selling goods to customers, fell 0.6% in
Continue Reading By Julia Horowitz and Brian Fung, CNN Elon Musk’s decision to suddenly ban prominent tech journalists from Twitter is fanning a fierce backlash from lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic. In Europe, Germany’s foreign ministry tweeted its concern with the impact Musk’s moves could have on press freedom, while a senior EU official said
Continue Reading By Brian Fung, CNN Elon Musk’s Twitter sparked an international outcry on Thursday by suspending a number of journalists at major news organizations who cover him. But a different and possibly related move that Twitter took around the same time, against a fast-growing rival, could open the company up to regulatory scrutiny, some legal experts
Continue Reading By Laura He and Cheng Cheng, CNN James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” has premiered in China, 13 years after the original film took the country by storm. It’s expected to be a shot in the arm for the world’s second-biggest film market, which has been battered by the country’s stringent zero-Covid policy. The
Continue Reading By Ramishah Maruf, CNN The highly anticipated “Avatar: The Way of Water” took in $134 million at the US box office, giving director James Cameron his first $100 million opening weekend — despite falling short of analyst predictions. Although notching the second highest world-wide opening this year didn’t quite match expectations, the film’s ultimate success
Continue Reading By Oliver Darcy New Twitter owner Elon Musk offered several of the journalists he banned from the social media website earlier this week the ability to return to the platform if they deleted the tweets he falsely claimed shared his “exact real-time” location. The move from Musk came after he posted an unscientific poll on
Continue Reading By Laura He, CNN US regulators have gained full access to the audits of Chinese companies for the first time, reducing the threat that tech giants such as Alibaba and JD.com could be kicked off US stock exchanges. The announcement marks a major breakthrough in a yearslong standoff over how Chinese companies listed on Wall
Continue Reading By Chris Isidore, CNN Are college athletes employees? In a potentially game-changing move, the National Labor Relations Board’s regional office in Los Angeles has taken a step forward to define USC players that way. On Thursday, the NLRB’s Los Angeles office found merit in an unfair labor practice complaint filed on behalf of players on
Continue Reading By Oliver Darcy, CNN Business Twitter on Thursday evening banned the accounts of several high-profile journalists from the nation’s top news organizations, marking a significant attempt by new owner and self-described free speech absolutist Elon Musk to wield his unilateral authority over the platform to censor the press. The accounts belonging to CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan,
Continue Reading By Oliver Darcy, CNN Twitter on Thursday evening banned the accounts of several high-profile journalists from top news organizations without explanation, apparently marking a significant attempt by new owner Elon Musk to wield his unilateral authority over the platform. The accounts belonging to CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, The New York Times’ Ryan Mac, The Washington Post’s
Continue Reading By David Culver and Nicole Barron At 26, Ixchel Hernandez has become the defender and protector of her family’s modest apartment. In the two decades they’ve lived in their Los Angeles home, the family of four has successfully fought against multiple attempts aimed at pricing and, ultimately, forcing them out. “We are human beings with
Continue Reading By Samantha Murphy Kelly, CNN Business TikTok may surface potentially harmful content related to suicide and eating disorders to teenagers within minutes of them creating an account, a new study suggests, likely adding to growing scrutiny of the app’s impact on its youngest users. In a report published Wednesday, the non-profit Center for Countering Digital
Continue Reading By Brian Fung, CNN Two technology industry groups asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to review a hotly debated Texas law restricting social media platforms’ ability to moderate content, potentially opening the door to a sweeping reinterpretation of First Amendment precedent. The challenged state law, known as HB 20, would allow for lawsuits against tech
Continue Reading By Brian Fung, CNN Two technology industry groups asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to review a hotly debated Texas law restricting social media platforms’ ability to moderate content, potentially opening the door to a sweeping reinterpretation of First Amendment precedent. The challenged state law, known as HB 20, would allow for lawsuits against tech
Continue Reading By Alicia Wallace, CNN Last year, bonuses were bountiful. This year, economic uncertainty is bringing a chill to the holiday-season perk, according to survey data released Thursday by Challenger, Gray & Christmas. More than 81% of the 252 employers surveyed by the outplacement firm said they planned to freeze the value of holiday bonuses at
Continue Reading By Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN A typical morning at the Schnitzler household starts with David and Allison feeding their 17-month-old Winston. Allison, 33, and David, 32, play with Winston as they both get ready to go to work. Allison heads out the door — to her family medical practice — and David, an insurance underwriter, starts
Continue Reading By Jordan Valinsky, CNN Business Taco Bell is spinning up new varieties of its popular Mexican Pizza. The chain revealed that it’s testing two new types of the beloved menu item, which came back in May following a two-year absence because of pandemic-induced menu changes. For the unfamiliar, the Mexican Pizza consists of a flat,
Continue Reading By Anna Bahney, CNN Mortgage rates fell once again this week, dipping for the fifth straight week. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.31% in the week ending December 15, down from 6.33% the week before, according to Freddie Mac. A year ago, the 30-year fixed rate was 3.12%. Mortgage rates have risen throughout most of
Continue Reading By Clare Duffy, CNN A group of former employees suing Elon Musk’s Twitter scored an early win Wednesday when a judge ordered the company to inform any laid-off staffers of the pending lawsuit. The move ensures workers will be better informed before they are required to sign a severance agreement that includes a release of
Continue Reading By Oliver Darcy, CNN Business Staffers at The Washington Post are livid at publisher Fred Ryan. That’s according to conversations I had on Wednesday with nearly a dozen employees at The Post who expressed fury at the way Ryan announced in a town hall that the company would undergo layoffs in early 2023. Ryan said
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