Business

CNBC reports: Southwest Airlines passengers will fly in assigned seats for the first time on Jan. 27, the carrier told CNBC. Customers can start buying tickets with assigned seats on July 29. The move ends more than half a century of open seating on the airline, a policy that has set it apart from rivals for decades — along with …

Fox Business reports: Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, revealed plans Saturday night to release Baby Grok, a kid-friendly version of the AI chatbot Grok. The former head of DOGE made the statement via X, writing, “We’re going to make Baby Grok @xAI, an app dedicated to kid-friendly content.” Baby Grok is reportedly a more kid-friendly version of the …

NBC News reports: Elon Musk’s health tech company Neuralink labeled itself a “small disadvantaged business” in a federal filing with the U.S. Small Business Administration, shortly before a financing round valued the company at $9 billion. Neuralink is developing a brain-computer interface (BCI) system, with an initial aim to help people with severe paralysis regain some independence. BCI technology broadly …

CNBC reports: Mark Zuckerberg and current and former directors and officers of Meta Platforms agreed on Thursday to settle claims seeking $8 billion for the damage they allegedly caused the company by allowing repeated violations of Facebook users’ privacy, a lawyer for the shareholders told a Delaware judge on Thursday. The parties did not disclose details of the settlement and …

NewsNation reports: A popular yogurt company is recalling more than a dozen of its varieties due to the potential presence of plastic pieces that could have sharp edges and cause choking, as seen in a recall alert published by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to the recall alert, Danone U.S. is voluntarily recalling all flavors and sizes of …

The Associated Press reports: Walmart is recalling about 850,000 stainless steel water bottles because the lid can “forcefully eject” and unexpectedly strike consumers — resulting in permanent vision loss for two people to date. The recall covers Walmart’s “Ozark Trail 64 oz Stainless Steel Insulated Water Bottles,” which have been sold at the chain’s stores across the country since 2017. …

Yahoo Finance reports: Ferrero announced Thursday it will buy cereal maker WK Kellogg for a price tag of $3.1 billion, or $23 per share. This deal will bring brands including Ferrero Rocher, Nutella, and Tic Tac together with cereal brands like Frosted Flakes and Froot Loops. This deal comes nearly two years after Kellogg split into two companies, WK Kellogg …

Variety reports: A federal appeals court vacated the Federal Trade Commission’s Click to Cancel rule — which was to go into effect next week — on procedural grounds. The FTC‘s Click to Cancel rule would have forced businesses “to make it as easy for consumers to cancel their enrollment as it was to sign up.” The rule was to become …

CNBC reports: Tesla shares fell in premarket trade on Monday after CEO Elon Musk announced plans to form a new political party. The stock was down 7.13% by 4:27 a.m. E.T. Musk said over the weekend that the party would be called the “America Party” and could focus “on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House …

Axios reports: The trade association representing U.S. restaurants is asking President Trump for “targeted relief” from his immigration crackdown. The president recently signaled a willingness to cut some slack for farms and hotels, saying “our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them.” The National Restaurant Association sent a letter to Trump dated …

The New York Times reports: Del Monte Foods, the nearly 140-year-old company known for its wide array of canned vegetables and fruits, filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday after struggling with rising borrowing costs, pandemic missteps and a changing global economy. The California-based company, facing secured debt of more than $1.2 billion, said it had agreed to a restructuring agreement …

The New York Times reports: Tesla’s global car sales fell sharply in the second quarter, continuing a decline that began last year, as the company puts a greater emphasis on autonomous driving instead of new models aimed at attracting car buyers. The company said it delivered 384,000 vehicles from April through June, down from 444,000 a year earlier. Tesla’s limited …

Axios reports: Shares in Tesla sank early Tuesday after President Trump threatened to go after Elon Musk’s federal subsidies. A few months ago Musk and Trump’s close relationship was seen as the key to making Tesla massively more valuable. Now, their split is becoming more of an existential threat to the company. Tesla shares fell about 5% in pre-market trading …

The Associated Press reports: A federal judge on Monday rebuffed Apple’s request to throw out a U.S. government lawsuit alleging the technology trendsetter has built a maze of illegal barriers to protect the iPhone from competition and fatten its profit margins. The 33—page opinion from U.S. District Judge Xavier Neals in New Jersey will enable an antitrust lawsuit that the …

The Wall Street Journal reports: Bank of New York Mellon said it now employs dozens of artificial intelligence-powered ‘digital employees’ that have company logins and work alongside its human staff. Similar to human employees, these digital workers have direct managers they report to and work autonomously in areas like coding and payment instruction validation, said Chief Information Officer Leigh-Ann Russell. …

CNBC reports: Canada has walked back on its digital services tax “in anticipation” of a mutually beneficial comprehensive trade arrangement with the United States, Ottawa announced Sunday night, just one day before the first tax payments were due. The move comes after U.S. President Donald Trump announced over the weekend that he will be “terminating ALL discussions on Trade with …

Reuters reports: Tesla failed to persuade a federal judge to end a lawsuit over the death of a woman struck after an Autopilot-equipped Model S ran off the road in Key Largo, Florida, paving the way for a possible trial next month. U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami said the estate of Naibel Benavides Leon, and her former boyfriend …

404 Media reports: The Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), a data broker owned by the country’s major airlines which sells travellers’ detailed flight records in bulk to the government, only just registered as a data broker with the state of California, which is a legal requirement, despite selling such data for years, according to records maintained by the California Privacy Protection …

The Daily Beast reports: Jeff Bezos saw a vacuum—and rocketed in. The billionaire founder of the Blue Origin space company has worked to charm Donald Trump in recent months, and even invited the president to his lavish, star-studded wedding in Venice, White House officials told The Wall Street Journal. The president apparently isn’t planning to attend, due to scheduling conflicts. …

CNN reports: Cybercriminals have breached insurance giant Aflac, potentially stealing Social Security numbers, insurance claims and health information, the company said Friday, the latest in a spree of hacks against the insurance industry. With billions of dollars in annual revenue and tens of millions of customers, Aflac is the biggest victim yet in the ongoing digital assault on US insurance …