Wednesday’s historic settlement between Meta and dozens of US states could be just the start of a wave that will ripple across the social media industry, putting TikTok, YouTube and Snap under pressure to make similar changes to their apps for teens. Parts of the settlement hinge on whether those...
‘Imposing ignorance’: US climate science under siege
A benchmark US report on the fast-changing state of the Arctic has been canceled. The nation’s top research body has removed a chapter on global warming from a reference manual for judges. After the mass layoffs and budget cuts of the early days of President Donald Trump’s second term, the...
BMW profit down a third as carmaker plans job cuts
Net profit at premium carmaker BMW fell over a third in the second quarter, the firm said Thursday as it prepares to cut almost 10 percent of its German workforce. Net income in the three months to the end of June came in at 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion), BMW...
Australia spy chief warns of Iran terror threat
An Australian citizen living in Iran who was a senior member of its Revolutionary Guards orchestrated a major antisemitic firebomb attack in Sydney, Australia’s spy chief said Wednesday. Giving an annual threat assessment, Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), said he was also concerned that an...
Germany wants to put TikTok ‘in European hands’
TikTok’s European business should be “in European hands,” following the example of the United States, Germany’s Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer said Tuesday. ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, ceded control of the platform’s US operations to a majority American-owned joint venture, in response to a threatened ban in the...
US car market expected to moderate in 2026
Auto industry experts expect US car sales to moderate in 2026 after last year’s churn of trade announcements and environmental policy changes spurred increased sales. Analysts attribute some of 2025’s sales gains to President Donald Trump’s announcements early in the year of huge tariff increases. Although the president ended up...
Netflix boss promises Warner Bros films would still be seen in cinemas
Netflix will continue to distribute Warner Bros. films in cinemas if its takeover bid for the storied studio is successful, the streaming service’s chief executive Ted Sarandos said in an interview Tuesday in Paris. “We’re going to continue to operate Warner Bros. studios independently and release the movies traditionally in...
Tepid 2026 outlook dents Pfizer shares
Pfizer signaled Tuesday it expects a challenging 2026 as it invests in new products to offset declines in Covid-19 revenues while limiting shareholder payouts. Shares of the big drugmaker fell sharply after it projected a dip in full-year adjusted profits per share on roughly flat revenues. Pfizer expects 2026 revenues...
Reddit, Kick to be included in Australia’s social media ban
Popular social media website Reddit and streaming giant Kick will be added to a list of websites banned for under-16s in Australia from next month, Canberra said Wednesday. Australia will from December 10 force social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok to remove users under the age of 16,...
Nvidia, Microsoft invest $15 billion in AI startup Anthropic
Nvidia and Microsoft announced Tuesday investments totaling $15 billion in AI startup Anthropic, creator of the Claude chatbot, amid frenzied spending on the technology and growing fears of a bubble. AI chip powerhouse Nvidia committed up to $10 billion while Microsoft—which owns 27 percent of Anthropic rival OpenAI—pledged up to...