Business

Cyberattack On Las Vegas Casinos Ended After 10 Days

The Associate Press reports: MGM Resorts brought to an end a 10-day computer shutdown prompted by efforts to shield from a cyberattack data including hotel reservations and credit card processing, the casino giant said Wednesday, as analysts and academics measured the effects of the event. “We are pleased that all of our hotels and casinos are operating normally,” the Las …

Read More »

Musk’s Neuralink Seeks Volunteers For Brain Implants

Ars Technica reports: After years of delays, regulatory rejections, and allegations of animal abuse, Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface company, Neuralink, is now recruiting its first human volunteers to have an experimental robot implant an experimental device directly into their brains. In a blog post Tuesday, the company announced that an independent institutional review board and an unnamed hospital site granted …

Read More »

Musk Floats “Small Monthly Payment To Use X System”

Mediaite reports: Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter/X, is floating an idea that he’s had before, but never mentioned publicly, to remedy the problem of social media bots: charging people to use social media. It’s not the first time Musk has proposed making people pay to use X, which has, according to multiple reports, descended into a chaotic haven for …

Read More »

Tim Cook: Apple Torn About Pulling Ads From Twitter

The Messenger reports: Apple execs are engaged in an ongoing internal debate over ads for the company’s products and services on X, formerly Twitter, as a result of antisemitic content on the platform, Apple boss Tim Cook said in a new interview with CBS News. Speaking with John Dickerson, Cook said continuing ads on the platform was “something that we …

Read More »

Erdogan Asks Musk To Build Tesla Factory In Turkey

Reuters reports: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan asked Tesla CEO Elon Musk to build a Tesla factory in Turkey, the country’s communications directorate said on Monday. It cited Musk as saying that many Turkish suppliers are already working with Tesla and that Turkey was among the most important candidates for its next factory. Erdogan and Musk were speaking during a meeting …

Read More »

Twitter Yanks Blue Check From Striking Auto Union

The Intercept reports: After members of the United Auto Workers walked off the job at midnight, Twitter stripped the union of its account verification without notice, according to a UAW official. The account, as of publication time, lacked verification — but its blue check was restored shortly after the story began circulating widely. The move by Elon Musk followed the …

Read More »

Bloomberg: Disney In Discussions To Sell ABC Network

Bloomberg News reports: Walt Disney Co. has held exploratory talks about selling its ABC network and TV stations to local broadcaster Nexstar Media Group Inc., according to people familiar with the discussions. The talks are preliminary and haven’t involved a specific valuation. Disney, in a statement, said that while it’s still considering a variety of strategic options for its traditional …

Read More »

United Auto Workers Launch “Limited, Targeted” Strike

The New York Times reports: Members of the United Auto Workers began a strike Friday at three plants in the Midwest, walking out amid a contract dispute over pay, pensions and work hours at the three Detroit automakers. The strike of each of the three Detroit automakers is not a full-scale walkout by the union’s roughly 150,000 members, but a …

Read More »

Las Vegas Cyber Attack Continues Into Third Day

NBC News reports: MGM Resorts on Wednesday said that a cyber incident that has significantly disrupted properties across the United States for the past three days represents a material risk to the company. At the same time, the major credit rating agency Moody’s warned that the cyberattack could negatively affect MGM’s credit rating, saying the attack highlighted “key risks” within …

Read More »

Gasoline Prices Fuel Uptick In US Inflation Rate

Reuters reports: U.S. consumer prices increased by the most in more than a year in August amid a surge in the cost of gasoline, but a moderate rise in underlying inflation could encourage the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates on hold next Wednesday. The consumer price index increased by 0.6% last month, the largest gain since June 2022, the …

Read More »

Anti-Hate Group: Twitter/X Allows 86% Of Hateful Posts

The Center On Countering Digital Hate reports: New research by CCDH shows that X (formerly Twitter) continues to host nearly 86% of a set of 300 hateful posts after a week since we reported them. As of September 7th 2023, tweets promoting and glorifying antisemitism, anti-Black racism, neo-Nazism, white supremacy and/or other racism were still up. CCDH also found dozens …

Read More »

Hackers Paralyze Multiple Las Vegas Casinos & Hotels

TechCrunch reports: Hotel and casino giant MGM Resorts has confirmed a “cybersecurity issue” is to blame for an ongoing outage affecting systems at the company’s Las Vegas properties. “MGM Resorts recently identified a cybersecurity issue affecting some of the company’s systems,” the company said in a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter, on Monday. According to reports on social media, …

Read More »

Kroger/Albertsons To Shed 413 Stores In Antitrust Move

The Associated Press reports: Kroger and Albertsons will sell more than 400 stores and other assets for about $1.9 billion, seeking to clear a path for a merger with antitrust regulators reviewing a deal that would unify two of the nation’s largest grocery chains. The 413 stores are being sold to to C&S Wholesale Grocers. The grocery chains say they …

Read More »

Analysis: Twitter/X Is Throttling Traffic To The NY Times

Semafor reports: X, Elon Musk’s social media platform formerly known as Twitter, appears to be attempting to limit its users’ access to The New York Times. Since late July, engagement on X posts linking to the New York Times has dropped dramatically. The drop in shares and other engagement on tweets with Times links is abrupt, and is not reflected …

Read More »

Texas Paid Bitcoin Miner $31M To Lower Power Usage

CBS News reports: As a bitcoin mining enterprise, Riot Platforms runs thousands of computers in the energy-guzzling pursuit of minting digital currency. Recently, however, the company got big bucks from Texas to lower the mining operation’s electricity usage. Riot said on Wednesday that the state’s power grid operator paid the company $31.7 million in energy credits in August — or …

Read More »

BOOK: Musk Has Child Named “Techno Mechanicus”

The New York Times reports: At various moments in “Elon Musk,” Walter Isaacson’s new biography of the world’s richest person, the author tries to make sense of the billionaire entrepreneur he has shadowed for two years — sitting in on meetings, getting a peek at emails and texts, engaging in “scores of interviews and late-night conversations.” Musk is a mercurial …

Read More »

Dozens Of Vendors Sue Twitter/X For Nonpayment

Ars Technica reports: When Elon Musk bought Twitter in October 2022, a fairly ordinary tech company was transformed into a most unusual private corporation. Many strange things have happened at the Musk-owned social network, but this article will focus on just one puzzling aspect of Musk’s leadership: His apparent refusal to pay bills. Over two dozen lawsuits alleged that Twitter—which …

Read More »

Twitter/X Sues California To Block Hate Speech Laws

Reuters reports: Elon Musk’s X Corp sued California on Friday, challenging the constitutionality of a state law establishing new transparency requirements for social media companies, including how they police disinformation, hate speech and extremism. X, the social media platform once called Twitter, said the law, known as Assembly Bill 587, violates its free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution’s First …

Read More »

FAA Grounds SpaceX Rocket Over Safety Concerns

CNBC reports: The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday said Elon Musk’s SpaceX must keep its Starship Super Heavy rocket grounded, saying the company needs to take 63 corrective actions before it is cleared for another test flight. The FAA has now wrapped its probe into the April launch, which saw the rocket explode mid-flight. The corrective actions include: “redesigns of …

Read More »

Musk Admits Thwarting Ukrainian Attack On Russia

The Washington Post reports: SpaceX cut off Starlink satellite internet service to Ukrainian submarine drones last year just as they were launching an attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet, according to a new biography of SpaceX founder Elon Musk. The new details of the previously reported incident underscore how dependent multiple governments have become on a man who controls …

Read More »