Business

Variety reports: Elon Musk’s latest tweak to Twitter, the former name of what he now calls X: Users will no longer be able to block other accounts — as Musk claims the feature “makes no sense.” “Block is going to be deleted as a ‘feature’, except for DMs,” the tech mogul posted on X Friday. “Makes no sense.” X/Twitter describes …

The Washington Post reports: The company formerly known as Twitter has begun slowing the speed with which users can access links to the New York Times, Facebook and other news organizations and online competitors, a move that appears targeted at companies that have drawn the ire of owner Elon Musk. The delayed websites included X’s online rivals Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky …

The Verge reports: Netflix is kicking off the first public tests of its cloud-streamed games. Beginning Monday, some Netflix subscribers in Canada and the UK will be able to check out Netflix games streamed to select TVs, connected TV devices, and on the web from Netflix.com. The company first launched its mobile gaming offerings as a free perk for subscribers …

The Real Deal reports: A City law that demands landlords squash illegal weed shops went into effect on Monday. The enacted bill, from Queens Council member Lynn Schulman, will slap fines up to $10,000 on landlords who knowingly lease commercial space to unlicensed marijuana sellers, according to a press release. Weed sellers themselves get off a lot easier. They face …

Bloomberg News reports: For years, Elon Musk has been outspoken about the dangers of population collapse. As it turns out, the billionaire has been putting his money where his mouth is. The Musk Foundation made one of its biggest ever donations and its largest to higher education — $10 million to the University of Texas at Austin in 2021 to …

Reuters reports: A U.S judge on Friday revoked Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail, after finding probable cause that the indicted founder of the bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange tampered with witnesses at least twice. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan announced the decision at a hearing in federal court in Manhattan, less than two months before the scheduled October fraud trial. He rejected a …

Gizmodo reports: Are you not entertained?! Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk’s will they/won’t they continues, and it appears that the long awaited fight between the two tech billionaires could take place in Italy. Musk tweeted this morning that he spoke to the Prime Minister of Italy and the Minister of Culture to hold the brawl in Italy. The fate of …

The Guardian reports: Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has recorded a steep 75% drop in full-year profit but sees opportunities ahead as it expands the use of cost-saving AI-produced content. The US-listed media conglomerate – which owns mastheads in the US, UK and Australia, along with book publishers, subscription television and real estate advertising assets – recorded $US187m ($A287m) in net …

The Insider reports: A woman is suing Unifi Aviation after she reportedly witnessed one of the company’s employees fatally “ingested” into a Delta airplane’s engine, according to documents viewed by Insider. The suit says passenger Mackenzie Hill was returning to San Antonio, Texas, from Los Angeles on June 23. Hill was in California “for a church conference and graduation ceremony,” …

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 …