Business

Bloomberg News reports: Elon Musk was the second person ever to amass a personal fortune of more than $200 billion, breaching that threshold in January 2021, months after Jeff Bezos. The Tesla Inc. chief executive officer has now achieved a first of his own: becoming the only person in history to erase $200 billion from their net worth. Musk, 51, has seen …

Axios reports: Fidelity slashed its carrying value of Twitter by 56% during the first month of Elon Musk’s ownership, according to a new disclosure. Fidelity was among the group of outside investors that helped Musk finance his $44 billion takeover of the social media site, by purchasing equity. Fidelity’s Contrafund valued its Twitter shares at $53.47 million on Oct. 31, …

The Hill reports: The CEO of Southwest Airlines, Bob Jordan, promised that the airline will provide reimbursements to those who were affected by its thousands of cancellations over the past week, saying the “desire is to go above and beyond.” Jordan said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Friday that the storm that led to the airline …

The New York Times reports: Over the past few weeks, Twitter had stopped paying millions of dollars in rent and services, and Mr. Musk had told his subordinates to renegotiate those agreements or simply end them. The company has stopped paying rent at its Seattle office, leading it to face eviction, two people familiar with the matter said. Janitorial and …

CNN reports: Southwest Airlines says it’s set up to resume normal schedules on Friday after a tumultuous eight days that left hundreds of thousands of passengers delayed or stranded and prompted its executives to make apologies to the riding public and government officials. In a statement released Thursday — following another bruising day in which a further 2,362 flights were …

Gothamist reports: New York City’s first licensed, recreational marijuana dispensary opened in the East Village Thursday afternoon, and other legal shops will follow in the coming weeks and months. Nobody is pretending the ability to buy weed at NYC stores is exactly new. Mayor Eric Adams recently announced a crackdown on the multitude of bodegas and smoke shops selling unregulated …

USA Today reports: It’s not just thousands of people with canceled Southwest Airlines flights being stranded at airports across the nation, but also thousands of pieces of their checked in luggage – even if the owner never got on a flight.  Some passengers said they have been separated from baby gear, medicine and other important items. In the immediate aftermath …

Salon reports: Sen. Bernie Sanders today urged the Transportation Department to ensure Southwest’s chief executive pays a price for mass U.S. flight cancellations that have left passengers and employees stranded around the country, throwing lives into chaos and drawing further attention to the company’s business practices. Bob Jordan, who has worked for Southwest for decades and became the company’s CEO …

Axios reports: Twitter users around the world reported problems accessing the website and other technical glitches on Wednesday night. In the first widespread outage since Elon Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in late October, over 10,000 users in countries including the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Australia and New Zealand reported outage issues, starting in …

The Associated Press reports: Families hoping to catch a Southwest Airlines flight after days of cancellations, missing luggage and missed family connections suffered through another wave of scrubbed flights, with another 2,500 pulled from arrival and departure boards Wednesday. According to the FlightAware tracking service, more than 91% of all canceled flights in the U.S. Wednesday were from Southwest. This …

Reuters reports: Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk told employees that they should not be “bothered by stock market craziness” after the company’s shares fell nearly 70% this year on jitters over softening demand for electric vehicles and Musk’s distraction with running Twitter. In an email sent to staff, Musk said he believes that long term, Tesla will be the …

The San Francisco Chronicle reports: A Tesla with Full Self-Driving software was reportedly responsible for causing an eight-car crash on the Bay Bridge on Thanksgiving that injured 18 people after the car abruptly stopped. But, starting next year, Tesla will effectively be banned from advertising its vehicles as Full Self-Driving under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Senate …

The Associated Press reports: In a video that Southwest posted late Tuesday, CEO Robert Jordan said Southwest would operate a reduced schedule for several days but hoped to be “back on track before next week.” Jordan blamed the winter storm for snarling the airline’s “highly complex” network. He said Southwest’s tools for recovering from disruptions work “99% of the time, …

USA Today reports: President Joe Biden said his administration will hold airlines accountable after nationwide flight cancellations following an extreme winter storm this past week. Thousands of flights were canceled this week, with many being from Southwest Airlines. “The Committee will be looking into the causes of these disruptions and its impact to consumers,” Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., chair of the …

CNN Business reports: Air travelers in the US hoping for clear skies on Tuesday following a disastrous week of weather-related flight cancellations and delays will have to extend their patience a few more days — particularly if they’re flying with Southwest Airlines. More than 2,845 flights within, into or out of the US have already been canceled for Tuesday as …

CNN Business reports: The FBI says America has a “pig butchering” problem. And it’s costing victims millions of dollars. “We’re not talking about what’s going on at farms,” said Frank Fisher, public affairs specialist at the bureau’s Albuquerque division. “We’re talking about a cryptocurrency investment scam that is sweeping the country.” The term pig butchering refers to an unsuspecting victim …

Bloomberg News reports: Billionaire Elon Musk is warning against something he himself has done — borrowing against the value of securities one owns — because of the risk of “mass panic” in the stock market. “I would really advise people not to have margin debt in a volatile stock market and you know, from a cash standpoint, keep powder dry,” …

Politico reports: Ill-fated hopes that a Democratic-controlled Washington might loosen decades-old restrictions on the drug have given way to a market glut and plummeting prices that have put scores of businesses at risk of collapse. In Colorado, prices have dropped by 51 percent over the last two years. The price of a pound of weed has plunged by 36 percent …

The Guardian reports: Twitter has restored a feature that promoted suicide prevention hotlines and support groups after its CEO Elon Musk was criticised over their removal. Musk, who did not initially respond to requests for comment about the removal, had tweeted: “False, it is still there.” The feature, known as #ThereIsHelp, placed a banner at the top of search results …

The New York Times reports: The truth is that many of the best electric wheels on the market today are not made by Musk. The new competition makes Musk’s recent role as the town crier for the redpilled online right especially puzzling and, for his car company, perilous. Tesla’s new vulnerability is a surprising development. Musk’s chaotic and polarizing tenure …