Airbus faces a 10-day strike from UK workers, mirroring Boeing’s labor strife
Thousands of UK union Airbus workers plan to strike for 10 days in September amid a contract dispute.
The union workers build wings for Airbus’ commercial jets, threatening a production slowdown for the European plane maker.
As Airbus’ labor tension builds, rival Boeing’s has already boiled over: earlier this month, more than 3,000 Boeing workers who build military aircraft started a strike that remains ongoing. The action came less than a year after the company faced a two-month stoppage from a machinist strike.
Airbus, for now, says it doesn’t see the strikes affecting full-year deliveries.
As Airbus’ labor tension builds, rival Boeing’s has already boiled over: earlier this month, more than 3,000 Boeing workers who build military aircraft started a strike that remains ongoing. The action came less than a year after the company faced a two-month stoppage from a machinist strike.
Airbus, for now, says it doesn’t see the strikes affecting full-year deliveries.
Elon Musk’s political party isn’t happening, as Tesla CEO gives up on the “America Party”
In July, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced his own political party, the America Party — a move intended to “give you back your freedom.” What it did at the time was invoke the wrath of President Donald Trump and send the stock down.
A month and a half later, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Musk is “pumping the brakes” on his third party.
According to the Journal, “Musk has told allies that he wants to focus his attention on his companies and is reluctant to alienate powerful Republicans by starting a third party that could siphon off GOP voters.” He also wants to maintain ties with Vice President JD Vance, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate for 2028.
What happened?
For one, earlier this month Tesla’s board approved a roughly $30 billion interim pay package that Musk will only realize if he remains at the company for two years.
The stock isn’t moving on the news so far, but investors and analysts typically see Musk’s focus on his public company as a good thing.
According to the Journal, “Musk has told allies that he wants to focus his attention on his companies and is reluctant to alienate powerful Republicans by starting a third party that could siphon off GOP voters.” He also wants to maintain ties with Vice President JD Vance, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate for 2028.
What happened?
For one, earlier this month Tesla’s board approved a roughly $30 billion interim pay package that Musk will only realize if he remains at the company for two years.
The stock isn’t moving on the news so far, but investors and analysts typically see Musk’s focus on his public company as a good thing.
Nexstar, the US’s largest local TV broadcaster, is looking to get bigger with a $6.2 billion megamerger
TV broadcaster Nexstar plans to merge with smaller rival Tegna, testing the Trump administration’s consolidation appetite.
Tesla applies to launch electricity supplier “Tesla Electric” in Great Britain
Tesla has applied for an electricity license from British energy regulator Ofgem in hopes of launching an electricity supply arm, “Tesla Electric,” in Great Britain, where Tesla vehicle sales keep falling. The program is meant to supply electricity to owners of Tesla cars and batteries, and it could take up to nine months for approval, according to The Guardian.
Tesla Energy, the project’s American counterpart, which includes the company’s solar energy generation system as well as its Powerwall battery system, saw energy generation and storage revenue decline 7% last quarter.
The stock is up 1.5% in premarket trading Monday.
Tesla Energy, the project’s American counterpart, which includes the company’s solar energy generation system as well as its Powerwall battery system, saw energy generation and storage revenue decline 7% last quarter.
The stock is up 1.5% in premarket trading Monday.
Investors shrug at $85 billion Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger, which would shrink US freight’s Big Four to a Big Three
Union Pacific announced it reached an agreement to buy Norfolk Southern, a deal that would create the US’s first coast-to-coast rail network.
White House unveils “America’s AI Action Plan”
A sweeping plan for government-backed AI may sweep aside state regulations.
White House’s “hands-off” approach to AI includes restricting “woke AI”
The Trump administration is dead set on America dominating AI, and it’s close to releasing its plan.
Axios reports that a forthcoming 20-page document will frame the administration’s “hands-off approach” to AI, clearing the way for companies to get faster permitting for AI data centers, eliminating regulatory hurdles, and “promoting innovation.”
But maybe not entirely hands-off. The Wall Street Journal reported that David Sacks, the AI and crypto czar, is pushing to make sure any AI company that receives federal dollars ensures that their AI isn’t “woke” and is “politically neutral.”
It’s not clear what the test for this might be, but to date, the Department of Defense doesn’t seem to care. It recently awarded contracts worth up to $200 million to Google, Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI.
A recent embarrassing episode with xAI’s Grok chatbot shows just how complicated it can be to try and skew the perceived politics of an AI model, after CEO Elon Musk’s attempt to allow “politically incorrect” responses resulted in the model declaring itself “MechaHitler” and spewing antisemitic posts.
But maybe not entirely hands-off. The Wall Street Journal reported that David Sacks, the AI and crypto czar, is pushing to make sure any AI company that receives federal dollars ensures that their AI isn’t “woke” and is “politically neutral.”
It’s not clear what the test for this might be, but to date, the Department of Defense doesn’t seem to care. It recently awarded contracts worth up to $200 million to Google, Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI.
A recent embarrassing episode with xAI’s Grok chatbot shows just how complicated it can be to try and skew the perceived politics of an AI model, after CEO Elon Musk’s attempt to allow “politically incorrect” responses resulted in the model declaring itself “MechaHitler” and spewing antisemitic posts.
Last-minute settlement keeps Zuckerberg, Andreessen, Thiel, Sandberg, and other Meta board members from taking the stand in $8 billion privacy suit
It would have been quite a trial.
Next week was supposed to feature several titans of tech taking the stand in the Delaware Court of Chancery to defend themselves against an $8 billion privacy lawsuit brought by Meta investors.
The lawsuit was not directed Meta itself, but rather top executives and board members.
Meta shareholders who filed the suit alleged that company leadership knowingly violated user privacy and ran afoul of a 2012 FTC consent decree, among other privacy-related missteps.
The suit alleged that the lax privacy controls led to the 2015 Cambridge Analytica scandal, when the voter profiling company collected huge amounts of personal data from Facebook users using third-party access to the platform.
Today was the second day of the trial, and Reuters reports that the parties reached an undisclosed settlement, ending the case and saving some big names from testifying.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, venture capitalist and Meta Director Marc Andreessen, former Meta Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, Palantir cofounder Peter Thiel, and Netflix cofounder and Chairman Reed Hastings were all expected to give testimony in the case.
The lawsuit was not directed Meta itself, but rather top executives and board members.
Meta shareholders who filed the suit alleged that company leadership knowingly violated user privacy and ran afoul of a 2012 FTC consent decree, among other privacy-related missteps.
The suit alleged that the lax privacy controls led to the 2015 Cambridge Analytica scandal, when the voter profiling company collected huge amounts of personal data from Facebook users using third-party access to the platform.
Today was the second day of the trial, and Reuters reports that the parties reached an undisclosed settlement, ending the case and saving some big names from testifying.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, venture capitalist and Meta Director Marc Andreessen, former Meta Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, Palantir cofounder Peter Thiel, and Netflix cofounder and Chairman Reed Hastings were all expected to give testimony in the case.
US scoping out drone and solar panel supply chains ahead of potential tariffs
The Trump administration may be planning to impose tariffs on drones and their components, as well as solar panels.
Bloomberg reports that the US Department of Commerce has initiated investigations into two categories of imports: “imports of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and their parts and components” and “imports of polysilicon and its derivatives.”
The “Section 232” investigations are required in order for the Trump administration to impose tariffs on the goods in the name of national security.
The vital role of drones in a rapidly changing national security landscape has grabbed the attention of the White House.
In June, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Unleashing American Drone Dominance,” which seeks to identify “supply chain risks” and to “secure the United States drone supply chain against foreign control or exploitation.”
While the recently passed new tax bill has put the nail in the coffin for many renewable energy credits, the investigation into solar panel imports is an acknowledgement that America’s capacity to manufacture cheap, efficient solar power is relevant to national security.
The notice of the investigation in the Federal Register says the department is particularly interested in hearing about “the ability of foreign nations to weaponize their control over supplies of polysilicon and its derivatives.”
The “Section 232” investigations are required in order for the Trump administration to impose tariffs on the goods in the name of national security.
The vital role of drones in a rapidly changing national security landscape has grabbed the attention of the White House.
In June, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Unleashing American Drone Dominance,” which seeks to identify “supply chain risks” and to “secure the United States drone supply chain against foreign control or exploitation.”
While the recently passed new tax bill has put the nail in the coffin for many renewable energy credits, the investigation into solar panel imports is an acknowledgement that America’s capacity to manufacture cheap, efficient solar power is relevant to national security.
The notice of the investigation in the Federal Register says the department is particularly interested in hearing about “the ability of foreign nations to weaponize their control over supplies of polysilicon and its derivatives.”
The Oval Office is getting even more shiny and gold
Donald Trump has always been a fan of gold and is bringing that interior design preference to the White House in a bigly way.
Elon Musk wants to challenge America’s “one-party” system
On Saturday, with the ink from President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” sign-off barely dry, the Tesla boss announced the formation of the “America Party,” following through on the result of a poll he put to X users on Independence Day.
The president told reporters that he thinks the plans for a third political party are “ridiculous,” taking to Truth Social to add that the former DOGE chief has gone “completely off the rails.”
Like Trump, Tesla investors aren’t overly enamored with Musk’s political comeback, sending the EV maker’s shares down as much as 7% in early trading today. Despite not everyone getting behind the “America Party” proposal just yet, there has been appetite for a third party in the US for more than a decade.
In September 2024, the last time Gallup asked the nation for their views on the idea of a third party in the US, some 58% of American adults said that a third party was needed. Though that’s down 5% from the record 63% share in 2023, it still reflects a huge shift in the way that the electorate views the political landscape since the first time Gallup asked the question in late 2003, when just 40% of respondents saw the need for a third party.
Independent candidates and third parties have historically struggled to make an impact at the ballot box. Last year, a whopping 98.1% of votes in the presidential election went to one of the major parties, and the last time an independent candidate made truly notable headway was in 1992, when Texas businessman Ross Perot captured 18.9% of the popular vote.
Like Trump, Tesla investors aren’t overly enamored with Musk’s political comeback, sending the EV maker’s shares down as much as 7% in early trading today. Despite not everyone getting behind the “America Party” proposal just yet, there has been appetite for a third party in the US for more than a decade.
In September 2024, the last time Gallup asked the nation for their views on the idea of a third party in the US, some 58% of American adults said that a third party was needed. Though that’s down 5% from the record 63% share in 2023, it still reflects a huge shift in the way that the electorate views the political landscape since the first time Gallup asked the question in late 2003, when just 40% of respondents saw the need for a third party.
Independent candidates and third parties have historically struggled to make an impact at the ballot box. Last year, a whopping 98.1% of votes in the presidential election went to one of the major parties, and the last time an independent candidate made truly notable headway was in 1992, when Texas businessman Ross Perot captured 18.9% of the popular vote.
Senate kills proposed 10-year ban on state AI regulations
In the wee hours of the morning, the US Senate came together in a rare show of bipartisan consensus around an important issue: AI regulation.
In a 99-1 vote, lawmakers killed a piece of President Trump’s massive tax bill, which would have blocked states from passing any AI regulations for a decade. The amendment was sponsored by Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, who feared the provision would enable companies to use AI to nonconsensually mimic musicians’ voices.
The Trump administration has made US dominance of AI a top priority, and key industry insiders like AI and crypto czar David Sacks, Palantir cofounder Peter Thiel, and Tesla’s Elon Musk wield a significant amount of influence (or used to).
The ban on regulation was a top priority for lobbyists from Meta, Microsoft, Palantir, Anduril, and venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, according to Bloomberg.
With federal regulation of AI a remote possibility due to a divided Congress, the AI industry faces a patchwork of dozens of state regulations, with more sure to follow.
The Trump administration has made US dominance of AI a top priority, and key industry insiders like AI and crypto czar David Sacks, Palantir cofounder Peter Thiel, and Tesla’s Elon Musk wield a significant amount of influence (or used to).
The ban on regulation was a top priority for lobbyists from Meta, Microsoft, Palantir, Anduril, and venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, according to Bloomberg.
With federal regulation of AI a remote possibility due to a divided Congress, the AI industry faces a patchwork of dozens of state regulations, with more sure to follow.
White House announces plans to push AI in schools
Like it or not, AI is coming to American classrooms.
The White House announced a major new AI initiative focused on bringing the technology to schools, in line with its pledged goal of American AI supremacy.
The initiative is called “Pledge to America’s Youth: Investing in AI Education,” and over 60 organizations have signed on to the plan, which will probably include some juicy contracts with oodles of federal dollars for AI and ed tech companies.
According to a White House press release, the organizations “pledge to make available resources for youth and teachers through funding and grants, educational materials and curricula, technology and tools, teacher professional development programs, workforce development resources, and/or technical expertise and mentorship.”
Axios reports that signatories include:
According to a White House press release, the organizations “pledge to make available resources for youth and teachers through funding and grants, educational materials and curricula, technology and tools, teacher professional development programs, workforce development resources, and/or technical expertise and mentorship.”
Axios reports that signatories include:
Microsoft sued by authors alleging it trained AI on their pirated works
Here come the lawsuits.
In New York, a group of authors filed a copyright violation lawsuit against Microsoft in federal court, seeking compensation for the use of their work.
Just yesterday, a significant ruling from a federal judge in a copyright suit against Anthropic put the AI world on notice. The judge found that Anthropic was covered by the “fair use” doctrine for training its Claude AI models using copyrighted books that it bought and paid for, but not for the ones it used from a corpus of pirated book texts.
That could be bad news for pretty much all of the companies that trained large language models by using the many collected libraries of copyrighted texts that researchers have been sharing in the AI community.
The authors point to Microsoft’s own research papers’ description of using “the Pile,” a collection of pirated book texts (which contained the plaintiffs’ works).
It remains to be seen if this marks a flood of new copyright suits from creators against AI companies, in light of the Anthropic decision.
The authors are seeking $150,000 compensation for each alleged infringed work, as well as an injunction preventing Microsoft from using pirated works in the future, among other remedies.
Just yesterday, a significant ruling from a federal judge in a copyright suit against Anthropic put the AI world on notice. The judge found that Anthropic was covered by the “fair use” doctrine for training its Claude AI models using copyrighted books that it bought and paid for, but not for the ones it used from a corpus of pirated book texts.
That could be bad news for pretty much all of the companies that trained large language models by using the many collected libraries of copyrighted texts that researchers have been sharing in the AI community.
The authors point to Microsoft’s own research papers’ description of using “the Pile,” a collection of pirated book texts (which contained the plaintiffs’ works).
It remains to be seen if this marks a flood of new copyright suits from creators against AI companies, in light of the Anthropic decision.
The authors are seeking $150,000 compensation for each alleged infringed work, as well as an injunction preventing Microsoft from using pirated works in the future, among other remedies.
Judge rules Anthropic training on books it purchased was “fair use,” but not for the ones it stole
Anthropic still faces litigation for training its models on millions of pirated texts.
Yat-Gai Au, CEO of a Chinese herbal medicine company, is now one of the richest men on earth
But his wealth may be fleeting: the stock is down about 20% in premarket trading. Life comes at you fast.