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Judge vacates federal rules requiring employers to provide accommodations for abortions
The emblem of the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is shown on a podium in Vail, Colo.
David Zalubowski/Associated Press
A federal judge on Wednesday struck down regulations requiring most US employers to provide workers with time off and other accommodations for abortions. The ruling by US District Judge David Joseph of the Western District of Louisiana was a victory for conservative lawmakers and religious groups who decried the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's decision to include abortion among pregnancy-related conditions in regulations on how to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which passed in December 2022. The EEOC's decision swiftly prompted several lawsuits and eroded what had been strong bipartisan support for the law designed to strengthen the rights of pregnant workers. Joseph, who was appointed by President Trump during his first term, ruled that the EEOC exceeded its authority by including abortion in its regulations. His ruling came in two consolidated lawsuits brought by the attorneys general of Louisiana and Mississippi, and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic University, and two Catholic dioceses. Joseph sided with the plaintiffs' argument that if Congress had intended for abortion to be covered by the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, 'it would have spoken clearly when enacting the statute, particularly given the enormous social, religious, and political importance of the abortion issue in our nation at this time.' — ASSOCIATED PRESS
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RETAIL
Target sees sales falling this year as turnaround falters
A Target store in Pleasant Hill, Calif.
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Target's woes continue. The underperforming retailer has struggled with tariff-fueled anxiety among shoppers and protests in response to its retreat from diversity policies. On Wednesday, it again fell short of expectations for quarterly sales and slashed its full-year financial forecast. Target now expects a 'low-single digit decline' in sales this year, down from a projection a few months ago of a small gain. The gloomy forecast set Target apart from some of its competitors that have in recent days maintained their outlooks, even while warning of the risks and uncertainty generated by President Trump's tariffs. Comparable sales at Target last quarter, which ended May 3, fell 3.8 percent from a year earlier, reflecting both lower foot traffic and less spent per visit. The retailer's stock fell roughly 6 percent in early trading as investors digested the weaker-than-expected report. 'We're not satisfied with this performance,' Brian Cornell, Target's CEO, said on a call with analysts. — NEW YORK TIMES
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REGULATION
US takes another step toward opening the seabed for mining
Commercial mining on the miles-deep Pacific Ocean floor came one step closer to reality with an announcement late Tuesday by the US Interior Department that it would evaluate a request from a California-based company to extract metals off the coast of American Samoa. The move follows an executive order last month that urged government agencies to expedite permits for seabed mining in US territorial waters as well as international waters. Most other nations argue that the United States does not have the legal right to mine the seabed beyond its own territorial waters. Parts of the ocean floor are blanketed by potato-size nodules containing valuable minerals like nickel, cobalt, and manganese that are essential to advanced technologies that the United States considers critical to its economic and military security. Supply chains of many of these valuable minerals are increasingly controlled by China. No commercial-scale mining of the seabed has ever taken place. The technological hurdles to seabed mining are high, and there have been serious concerns about the environmental consequences. Yet many countries have been impatient to get started as demand grows for the metals found there. — NEW YORK TIMES
TECH
OpenAI unites with Jony Ive in $6.5 billion deal to create AI devices
Jony Ive.
David Paul Morris/Photographer: David Paul Morris/
AI largely remains the domain of an app on phones, despite efforts by startups and others to move it into devices. Now OpenAI, the world's leading AI lab, is taking a crack at that riddle. On Wednesday, Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, said the company was paying $6.5 billion to buy io, a 1-year-old startup created by Jony Ive, a former top Apple executive who designed the iPhone. The deal, which effectively unites Silicon Valley royalty, is intended to usher in what the two men call 'a new family of products' for the age of artificial general intelligence, or AGI, which is shorthand for a future technology that achieves human-level intelligence. The deal, which is OpenAI's biggest acquisition, will bring in Ive and his team of about 55 engineers, designers, and researchers. They will assume creative and design responsibilities across OpenAI and build hardware that helps people better interact with the technology. — NEW YORK TIMES
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TECH
Nvidia's chief says US chip controls on China have backfired
Jensen Huang, cofounder and CEO of Nvidia Corp., at a news conference in Taipei on Wednesday.
I-HWA CHENG/AFP via Getty Images
Lawmakers in Washington have worked for years to limit China's access to the cutting-edge computer chips needed for advanced artificial intelligence, particularly those made by Nvidia, America's leading chipmaker. But according to Nvidia's chief executive, Jensen Huang, those regulations, driven by economic and security concerns, have only made Chinese tech companies stronger. The export controls on chips forced Nvidia to forfeit its dominant position in China while domestic companies like Huawei, the telecommunications giant, filled the gap, Huang said at a news conference in Taipei, Taiwan's capital, on Wednesday. Washington's efforts gave Chinese companies 'the spirit, the energy and the government support to accelerate their development,' said Huang, who attended a tech conference in Taipei this week. 'All in all, the export control was a failure.' — NEW YORK TIMES
MEDIA
Major newspapers ran a summer reading list. AI made up its book titles.
The Chicago Sun-Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer find themselves at the center of an AI-related gaffe after they published syndicated content packed with unidentifiable quotes from fake experts and imaginary book titles created using generative artificial intelligence. The articles were published in the papers' 'Heat Index' special sections — a multipage insert filled with tips, advice, and articles on summertime activities. The insert, which was published by the Sun-Times on Sunday and by the Inquirer on Thursday, was syndicated by King Features, a service from the Hearst media company that produces comics, puzzles, and supplemental material. (King Features did not respond to a request for comment.) 'It is unacceptable for any content we provide to our readers to be inaccurate. We value our readers' trust in our reporting and take this very seriously,' Victor Lim, senior director of audience development for Chicago Public Media, said in a statement. 'We've historically relied on content partners for this information, but given recent developments, it's clear we must actively evaluate new processes and partnerships to ensure we continue meeting the full range of our readers' needs,' he added. Lisa Hughes, the publisher and CEO of the Philadelphia Inquirer, said the special section was removed from the e-edition after the discovery was made. 'Using artificial intelligence to produce content, as was apparently the case with some of the Heat Index material, is a violation of our own internal policies and a serious breach,' she said in a statement to The Washington Post. Much of the content for the section was written by Marco Buscaglia, a Chicago-based freelance writer who used AI chatbots during the writing process, he told The Post in an interview Tuesday. Buscaglia said there was 'no excuse' for not double-checking his work. — WASHINGTON POST
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21 minutes ago
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Elon Musk's business empire was built on government help. How badly could Donald Trump hurt him?
Even for Elon Musk, this is — to use the precise technical term — bonkers. Barely one week after leaving the Trump administration with every semblance of amity, the world's richest person is going scorched earth against the leader of the world's richest nation. Insults and threats. Calls for impeachment. Sinister references to Jeffrey Epstein. Somehow, Kanye West is also involved. It's like the messiest online influencer drama you've ever seen, except the parties are two of the most powerful people on Earth. But when it comes down to brass tacks, what exactly does Musk stand to lose in this titanic celebrity divorce? If Trump were to follow through on all his threats, and use every available weapon against Musk's business empire, how badly could it hurt him? The short answer is: pretty badly. In fact, with some admittedly quick and dirty math, we can put a price tag on some of it. Elon Musk's estimated $388bn fortune — already $26.6bn smaller than it was before this frank exchange of thermonuclear warheads — depends on the success of two companies which are both intertwined with the U.S. political system. One is Tesla, which makes electric vehicles; the other is SpaceX, which builds rockets, spacecraft, and satellites. X, formerly Twitter, can be left aside for now; having bought the social network 2022 for $44bn, Musk is still struggling to recoup his investment and has almost certainly lost money overall. Let's start with Space Exploration Technologies Corp., aka SpaceX. Not many people can afford to rent a rocket, so a lot of its business comes from government contracts, and U.S. government contracts most of all. As of writing, according to federal data, the Texas-based company has been paid or promised just under $21bn by Uncle Sam since 2008. The total potential value of all SpaceX's existing contracts, however, is much higher: $89.2bn. If Trump cancelled every contract tomorrow, that would mean a theoretical maximum of $68bn in lost potential income. For context, that's more than four times SpaceX's entire forecasted revenue for 2025, and nearly 15 times its revenue from 2022. Of course, there's no way to know if those maximum payments would ever actually have been made. So we could also get a rough sense of what SpaceX stands to lose by looking at the actual cash it received from federal coffers every year. In 2022 that was $2.8bn; in 2023, $3.1bn; and in 2024, $3.8bn. On the plus side for Musk, the U.S. government is so dependent on SpaceX that some critics have called it a monopoly in the making. SpaceX ferries our astronauts to and from the International Space Station, is heavily involved in Nasa's moon landing program, and manages an increasing share of government satellite communications as well. Still, that does not guarantee safety. Would you really, in all soberness, bet against Donald Trump doing something that hurts the country merely to punish his personal enemies? In fact, as Talking Points Memo editor-in-chief Josh Marshall argues, SpaceX's critical role might actually put it in greater danger, because it leaves the feds with few options except "expropriation or nationalization". Like SpaceX, Tesla has benefited greatly from taxpayer money, mostly in the form of emission trading payments from non-electric carmakers and tax credits or consumers buying electric vehicles. An analysis by The Washington Post put Tesla's total income from emission credits since 2007 at $11.4bn as of this February. Its gain from tax credits, which allow more people to buy its cars at higher prices, has been estimated at $3.4bn. Those emission credit schemes are run by U.S. states, not by the federal government. Nevertheless, Trump and the Republican Party have tried to undermine such schemes by contesting states' ability to set their own emissions rules. The wider impact is difficult to calculate. In contrast to SpaceX, Tesla sells to ordinary people, who tend to have their own opinions independent of government. In reputational terms, splitting noisily with Trump could reverse some of its recent sales losses; on the other hand, it might just make Tesla hated on both sides of politics. The biggest risk may be regulatory. At the time of Trump's second inauguration, Tesla was being investigated by numerous federal agencies including the Justice Department, the National Labor Relations Board, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — which by itself had six pending probes. During his time at DOGE, Democrats feared Musk could use his power to influence or cancel these cases. But Trump's unabashed willingness to wield state power to punish those who displease him while rewarding loyalists cuts both ways. Live by the chainsaw, die by the chainsaw. How much that costs Tesla would depend on how far Trump is willing to go, and on the outcome of any ensuing court battle. But when U.S. stock exchanges closed on Thursday its share price had crashed by nearly 12 percent, wiping $122bn off its market value. So far we've only addressed Elon Musk's finances. Yet there are other, more personal ways that Trump could hurt him if the former reality TV star truly isn't here to make friends. For example, Trump's old advisor Stephen Bannon — who has previously branded Musk a "parasitic illegal immigrant" — urged the administration to investigate Musk's immigration history, and potentially deport him. Unlike some of the feverish allegations that emanate from the extended Trump-o-sphere, this one actually has some substance. An investigation by The Washington Post last year alleged that Musk had worked illegally in the U.S. while launching his Silicon Valley career in the mid-90s. Musk has denied this, and in any case he has been a U.S. citizen since 2002. Still, legal experts have said his citizenship could technically be revoked if he were proven to have lied to immigration authorities. And while those laws have only rarely been enforced in the past 25 years, some Trump aides and allies have said they want that to change. Nor is that anywhere close to the only alleged skeleton in Musk's closet. What is his relationship with ecstasy, Adderall, ketamine, or magic mushrooms? Has he ever been in regular contact with Vladimir Putin? Did his colleagues at DOGE rigorously follow information security laws when extracting sensitive data from federal systems? What happened to all that data after it was obtained? At least we can probably can rule out plain old assassination by government special forces. Although, to be fair, that is literally something that Trump and his lawyers have argued should be protected by presidential immunity. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
22 minutes ago
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Musk lost $34 billion in net worth as Tesla stock tanked amid Trump online war
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, lost $34 billion in net worth on Thursday after his company's stock plummeted in response to the online fight he got in with President Donald Trump. Over the last week, some Tesla stock investors had begun pulling their investments as Musk insulted Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' and made a swift exit from his 'special government employee' position. But, investors acted much more quickly while witnessing the two men engage in a back-and-forth on their respective social media platforms. Trump claimed he asked 'crazy' Musk to leave his administration. Musk took credit for Trump's election win. Trump threatened to pull Musk's government contracts. Musk accused Trump of being named in the 'Epstein files.' Down the stock went, ending the day at a 14 percent loss – equating to a $34 billion valuation for Musk. While many claim to have anticipated the online feud, it's a long way away from Musk jumping for joy onstage at Trump's rallies or the duo's Oval Office press conferences. The cracks started to appear in their relationship after the tech mogul refused to stand by and praise Trump's spending bill, which he has characterized as disastrous for the government. Musk's Thursday loss is part of the 33 percent decline Tesla's stock has seen since Inauguration Day. Although the stock had significant gains after the election, much of that has been wiped out by growing criticisms of Musk's role in the government, DOGE, and now his exit. Musk is still the world's richest man, but a $34 billion drop in net worth is still notable given it's the second-largest loss of the 500 wealthiest people on the planet recorded by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. 'The only bigger one: his own wipeout in November 2021,' Bloomberg reported. But the tech entrepreneur still has plenty of other endeavors to drive his wealth, including SpaceX, one of the world's most valuable private startups, according to Bloomberg, Neuralink and xAI. As the dust settles from the powerful individuals' fight, it's still unclear what path forward Musk and his subsidiaries will take now that Trump has bashed Tesla's climate-conscious mission and threatened to revoke Musk's critical government contracts. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
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From banning X to funding Dems: All the ways Musk and Trump could hurt each other as they go nuclear
An alliance between the two most powerful men in the world seemed destined to blow up into a volatile feud yet somehow held ... until it didn't. Within a few hours on Thursday, the public spat between Donald Trump and Elon Musk exploded into debates over the president's impeachment, calls to launch primary challengers against Republican allies in Congress, and Musk's accusation that the president is implicated in a sexual abuse scandal. But how they choose to escalate from here could have far-reaching impacts — and not just for the fate of a massive bill that sparked their breakup. Trump and Musk command the world's attention, own competing social media platforms, and are each in a position to wield the power of the presidency and spend, and lose, billions of dollars against one another. Trump has already suggested yanking government contracts for Musk's companies Tesla and SpaceX, which are due to receive at least $3 billion in contracts from 17 agencies. 'The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,' Trump wrote on Truth Social. On his War Room podcast, Trump ally Steve Bannon urged Trump to retaliate against the world's wealthiest man by, among other things, using the Defense Production Act to take control of SpaceX. 'The U.S. government should seize it,' Bannon said Thursday. Musk ended his 130-day 'special government employee' term in the Trump administration last week after serving as an 'adviser' to the president for the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which Musk unleashed across the federal government to make drastic cuts to spending and the workforce. But Trump left the door open for Musk to return. That 130-day term can be renewed next year. Trump could sever that arrangement at any time. Bannon also called on Trump to strip Musk's top-secret clearances, which he is granted in conjunction with his work on SpaceX and NASA. With more than 220 million followers on a social media platform under his control, Musk can use that audience and ability to shift media narratives against the president to advance his agenda. Trump, whose entire campaign was built on retribution, possesses executive authority to shut X down, according to experts. Trump could declare X a national security risk, 'which would permit him to ban the platform outright,' claims Devan Leos with AI platform Undetectable AI. The president could invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act on national security grounds to prevent X from operating, which would likely trigger a high-profile legal battle. 'Musk now faces a difficult choice. He can ban Trump from X in retaliation, but that would almost certainly trigger an executive response from the White House,' according to Leos. The president, meanwhile, owns more than 100 million shares, or roughly 53 per cent, of Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of social media platform Truth Social. His stake in the company is worth billions of dollars. Musk was born in South Africa before he emigrated to Canada and later the United States. Last year, The Washington Post reported that the billionaire worked in the country illegally before gaining citizenship. Bannon called on the president to deport him. 'Elon Musk is illegal. He's got to go too,' Bannon said on his War Room podcast. Trump also could wield the power of his office to initiate other investigations under a Department of Justice controlled by his fierce ally Attorney General Pam Bondi, including into allegations of his drug use at the campaign trail and within the administration. The world's wealthiest person spent tens of millions of dollars supporting Trump's 2024 campaign. On Thursday, he took credit for his victory. But this year, his multimillion-dollar effort to support a conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate blew up in his face, with his DOGE efforts tanking his — and Tesla's — appeal. Still, Republican candidates fear being his target. Musk and his allies have threatened to fund primary challenges against any GOP member of Congress who supports legislation he doesn't. 'Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80 percent in the middle?' Musk asked on Thursday. Democrats agree with Musk that Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' is a disaster but aren't necessarily welcoming him to the party after the right-wing billionaire torched government agencies and helped but Trump back in office. 'We should ultimately be trying to convince him that the Democratic Party has more of the values that he agrees with,' California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, whose district represents Silicon Valley, told Politico. 'A commitment to science funding, a commitment to clean technology, a commitment to seeing international students like him.' Liam Kerr, co-founder of the centrist WelcomeFest meeting underway in Washington during the Trump-Musk feud, told the outlet that 'of course' Democrats should be open to Musk. 'You don't want anyone wildly distorting your politics, which he has a unique capability to do. But it's a zero-sum game,' Kerr told Politico. 'Anything that he does that moves more toward Democrats hurts Republicans.' It took just four hours for a feud playing out on two different social media platforms for Musk to drop what he called a 'bomb' against the president. 'Time to drop the really big bomb,' he wrote on X. '[Trump] is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.' That loaded accusation — Musk's suggestion that Trump was involving the sex offender's trafficking scheme — appeared to be the tipping point in their feud. Musk, who just days ago seemed to have no problem associating with a man he is now alleging is implicated in Epstein's crimes, could launch a humiliation campaign against the president for an audience that has been largely disappointed with the Trump administration's approach to the Epstein case. Far-right influencers have turned on top federal law enforcement officials over the case, accusing Trump of continuing what they believe is a 'deep state' conspiracy theory covering up powerful people. Musk could leverage that hostility. Musk hired a small army of young loyalists and old allies for his government-wide operation to not only eliminate jobs and spending but extract reams of data from millions of Americans. DOGE's unprecedented access to Americans' data 'is alarming, made worse by the complete absence of meaningful oversight,' according to Ben Zipperer, a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute. 'That unrestrained access to data will likely worsen the problem of identity theft in the United States, which could cost working families tens of billions of dollars annually.' A report from Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren's office also uncovered more than 100 instances that Musk allegedly abused his role as a 'special government employee' overseeing DOGE to benefit his private interests. Musk violated 'norms at an astonishing pace,' amounting to 'scandalous behavior regardless of whether it subjects him to criminal prosecution.' The report accuses Musk of using the government to promote his businesses, including turning the White House lawn into a Tesla showroom, and allegedly discovered roughly two dozen instances where the government 'entered or explored new lucrative contracts' with the billionaire while halting enforcement actions against his companies.
