Business

From Raleigh’s NBC affiliate: Raleigh could lose as much as $40 million in convention business from the state’s controversial law on transgender rights. Statistics from the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau show that 16 trade associations or corporate groups have canceled gatherings in Raleigh because of House Bill 2, causing an estimated economic loss of $5.6 million. Raleigh is …

The Huffington Post recaps: Bill Maher ripped into the GOP’s policy of cutting taxes for the rich on Friday night. The “Real Time with Bill Maher“ host said the state of California was proof that doing the reverse, and instead raising taxes on the most wealthy, could actually lead to a booming economy. The comedian gloated about how The Golden …

The global food giant Mars pulled off an amusing promotion for London Pride over the weekend, temporarily “giving up” the famed Skittles rainbow for all-white packaging, which they coupled with an all-white float. “This Pride, only one rainbow deserves to be the centre of attention — yours. And we’re not going to be the ones to steal your rainbow thunder, …

The Daily Beast recaps: Last week, British satirist John Oliver spent a considerable portion of his late-night HBO program, Last Week Tonight, addressing the upcoming EU referendum, and urging his viewers that it would be “absolutely crazy” for Britain to leave the European Union, warning of “wide-ranging implications both for the U.K. and the world’s economy.” Well, it turns out …

NBC News reports: The Dow Jones Industrial average plunged 500 points on Friday morning — the index’s biggest drop in 10 months — as markets around the world reacted to a vote by citizens of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. The Dow fell as much as 538.27 points and the S&P 500 dropped as much as 58.49 …

Bloomberg reports: Global markets buckled as Britain’s vote to leave the European Union drove the pound to the lowest in more than 30 years and European banks to their steepest losses on record. “It’s scary, and I’ve never seen anything like it,” said James Butterfill, 41, head of research and investments at ETF Securities in London. “A lot of people …

TIME Magazine reports: Thanks to Burger King, we now have something called Mac n’ Cheetos in our world. It’s exactly what you think: basically a giant, crunchy Cheeto stuffed with oozy macaroni and cheese. Also thanks to Burger King, we can say goodbye to our waistlines, because these look to be both ridiculously addictive-tasting and also crazily artery-clogging. Take your …

Via Advertising Week: If you pick up this Sunday’s print edition of The New York Times and thumb through it, you’ll find that it features a couple full-page print ads from American Express that show the brand’s support for gay marriage. It’s no coincidence that the brand is rolling the ads out on Sunday, June 26, since that’s the one …

Via Politico: Apple CEO Tim Cook will host a fundraiser with House Speaker Paul Ryan next week as the iPhone maker tries to strengthen its relationships with key Republicans — despite its decision to pull support for the GOP convention because of its distaste for Donald Trump. Cook will help generate cash for Ryan at a private breakfast on June …

The Week recaps: As Britain prepares to vote this Thursday on whether or not to remain in the European Union, John Oliver posed a question on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight that may very well be on the minds of many Americans: “Why should I care about what Britain does with the EU?” Well, as Oliver explains, “Britain leaving would be …

Politico reports: Apple has told Republican leaders it will not provide funding or other support for the party’s 2016 presidential convention, as it’s done in the past, citing Donald Trump’s controversial comments about women, immigrants and minorities. Unlike Facebook, Google and Microsoft, which have all said they will provide some support to the GOP event in Cleveland next month, Apple …

Bloomberg reports: A growing number of prominent U.S. corporations are opting to drop or scale back their sponsorship of the Republican national convention next month in Cleveland, as the nomination of Donald Trump promises a level of controversy rarely seen in such gatherings. Among those to signal in recent days that they won’t sponsor the convention this year are Wells …

From JetBlue’s website: Like many of you, we continue to watch reports of the Orlando nightclub shooting with great sadness. Our thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones. This weekend’s events are felt by all of our 19,000 crewmembers, many of whom live in, work from and travel through Orlando – one of our focus cities – at …

Homocon Peter Thiel is probably doing cartwheels in his mansion. Via the Hollywood Reporter: Gawker Media has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after a Florida judge issued a $140 million final judgment in favor of Hulk Hogan in the invasion-of-privacy lawsuit over the posting of a sex tape. The online news organization founded in 2003 by Nick Denton which now …

Chicago’s WGN-TV reports: A small bomb exploded in the women’s bathroom at a Target store in Evanston on Wednesday, and officials are investigating whether it’s connected to the company’s policy allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice. Commander Joe Dugan says no one was inside the bathroom when the small explosion happened a little after 4 o’clock. …

Just as they did at PepsiCo’s shareholders meeting in North Carolina last month and at Walmart’s shareholders meeting in Arkansas last week, anti-LGBT activists from the National Center for Public Policy Research ambushed Target executives at yesterday’s annual shareholders meeting in Costa Mesa, California. A spokesman for the group confronted Target’s board of directors, demanding to know if they had …

From the Straits Times: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Tuesday (June 7) it will “take steps to make it clear that foreign entities should not fund, support or influence” events held at Speakers’ Corner, like the annual Pink Dot event last Saturday. This year’s event – the eighth such – attracted 18 sponsors, twice as many as …

At least they didn’t get his Facebook account. Via Gizmodo: First the hackers came for Katy Perry. Now they’ve come for someone who should know better than to use the same password on multiple sites: Mark Zuckerberg. Turns out he’s as dumb as the rest of us. Zuck’s Twitter and Pinterest (though, crucially, not Facebook) accounts were hacked over the …

Anti-LGBT activist Janet Porter flopped with ReaganBook, she flopped in her bid for the Ohio Senate, and this weekend she flopped again as it appears that only a handful of Target stores saw protesters for her “nationwide” event on Saturday. At this writing I’m only finding news accounts of protests at three of Target’s 1782 locations. Two of those protests …

TIME reports: The debt-buying industry has lead to some unscrupulous practices among debt collectors and debt collection proceedings are clogging up courts across the country with lawsuits, the vast majority of which go unanswered. Many debt collectors also seem to have little respect for consumers and simply do whatever is necessary to make more money. So Oliver did the only …