Business

The Hill reports: Tesla and X owner Elon Musk is mulling the suggestion of having a “noble,” debate instead of a cage fight with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Musk responded to a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that suggested the idea of a cage match debate, to which Musk said, “That sounds like a good idea …

ESPN reports: ESPN has signed a licensing deal with Penn Entertainment to create ESPN BET, a sportsbook for audiences in the United States. Penn will rebrand its current sportsbook to ESPN BET later this fall in the 16 states where it is licensed. The rebrand will include a mobile app, website, mobile website and mutually agreed upon retail locations. Penn …

The Associated Press reports: Elon Musk says he may need to get surgery before a proposed “cage match” with Mark Zuckerberg. “I’m getting an MRI of my neck & upper back tomorrow,” Musk wrote Sunday night. “May require surgery before the fight can happen. Will know this week.” The two tech billionaires seemingly agreed to an in-person face-off in late …

The New York Times reports: Three years after receiving a $700 million pandemic-era lifeline from the federal government, the struggling freight trucking company Yellow is filing for bankruptcy. After monthslong negotiations between Yellow’s management and the Teamsters union broke down, the company shut its operations late last month, and said on Sunday that it was seeking bankruptcy protection so it …

The Insider reports: Elon Musk appears to be pressing ahead with his plans to fight Mark Zuckerberg. The billionaire wrote on X – formerly Twitter – on Sunday that their highly anticipated cage fight will be live-streamed on X. Musk did not provide further details on when this would happen and Zuckerberg is yet to weigh in on his comments. …

Bloomberg News reports: Elon Musk has offered to fund the legal bills of any users of his social network, X, who’ve been discriminated against by their employer because of their actions on the platform. The proposal comes with “no limit” on costs and X Corp. will “go after the boards of directors of the companies too,” he said in messages …

Ars Technica reports: About a week after X commandeered the popular @X account from longtime Twitter user Gene X Hwang, another user has reported that X has taken over his popular account, @music. “16 years ago, I created @music and have been running it ever since,” Jeremy Vaught, director of engineering at the nonprofit Life Happens, posted on X. “Just …

The Verge reports: If you go to Threads.net to access Meta’s popular Twitter clone, you’ll still find a spinning placeholder galaxy — but that should change in the next few weeks, according to a new tweet from CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “Search and web coming in the next few weeks,” he tweets, saying he’s “excited about the team’s pace of shipping.” …

The Verge reports: Twitter Blue, which Elon Musk is currently rebranding to X Blue, now includes the option to hide the notorious blue checkmark. Twitter Blue subscribers recently started noticing the “hide your blue checkmark” option on the web and in mobile apps, offering the ability to hide that they’re paying for Twitter and avoid memes about how “this mf …

Forbes reports: Elon Musk’s X Corp. sued a nonprofit group that monitors online hate speech, accusing it of falsely describing the social media platform formerly known as Twitter as being “overwhelmed with harmful content.” In the lawsuit, filed late Monday in San Francisco federal court, X Corp. claims The Center for Countering Digital Hate is illegally “scraping” its servers and …

The San Francisco Chronicle reports: After Elon Musk flouted permit rules and angered nearby residents with a massive, flashing “X” atop his social media company’s San Francisco headquarters, workers were seen dismantling the sign Monday. At 9 a.m., SFGATE saw two workers in lifts detangling wires from the structure’s metal frame and pulling away its light-up panels. By noon, the …

The New York Times reports: Elon Musk has over the last year threatened legal action against tech competitors, employees and people who use Twitter, which he owns. Now he is also taking aim at an organization that studies hate speech and misinformation on social media. X Corp., the parent company of the social media company, sent a letter on July …

The Insider reports: San Francisco authorities say they still can’t access X, formally Twitter’s, headquarters to inspect Elon Musk’s new sign. According to complaints filed by the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection, the company denied a San Francisco city representative access to the building on Friday and Saturday when they attempted to inspect the new light-up structure. A Twitter …

The Associated Press reports: The city of San Francisco has opened a complaint and launched an investigation into a giant “X” sign that was installed Friday on top of the downtown building formerly known as Twitter headquarters. City officials say replacing letters or symbols on buildings, or erecting a sign on top of one, requires a permit for design and …

Reuters reports: Meta Platforms executives are heavily focused on boosting retention on their new Twitter rival Threads, after the app lost more than half of its users in the weeks following its buzzy launch, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees on Thursday. Retention of users on the text-based app was better than executives had expected, though it was “not perfect,” said …

Bloomberg News reports: The car carrier on fire near the Netherlands coast has almost 500 electric cars on board, according to its operator, more than was previously reported. The cause of the blaze on the Fremantle Highway is still unknown, according to the Dutch coast guard, which previously said the initial cargo list they received suggested just 25 EVs were …

USA Today reports: A United Airlines pilot had his license suspended after turning up drunk to work a flight from Paris to Dallas on Sunday. French media reports that the pilot, identified as Henry W., received a six month suspended prison sentence and was fined 4,500 euros in addition to having his license suspended for a year. According to local …

Reuters reports: Tesla employees had been instructed to thwart any customers complaining about poor driving range from bringing their vehicles in for service. Last summer, the company quietly created a “Diversion Team” in Las Vegas to cancel as many range-related appointments as possible. The Austin, Texas-based electric carmaker deployed the team because its service centers were inundated with appointments from …

The Daily Beast reports: Elon Musk’s radical rebranding of Twitter as “X” led to the site being blocked in Indonesia on Tuesday under the country’s strict laws restricting pornography and gambling. The Southeast Asian country’s Ministry of Communication and Informatics said the block had to do with the domain “X.com,” which had previously been used to host content that violated …

CNBC reports: UPS and the union representing more than 300,000 workers at the package carrier reached a preliminary labor deal, narrowly avoiding a strike that was set to start in the coming days if the two sides failed to strike a deal. “Together we reached a win-win-win agreement on the issues that are important to Teamsters leadership, our employees and …