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☆ Zhang Yongzhen: Chinese virologist shared crucial Covid-19 data. Then his research hit hurdles
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-30 | by ( Simone Mccarthy | Yong Xiong | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

The ordeal is just the latest hindrance to Zhang’s research since 2020, according to a colleague who has been in contact with the Chinese scientist in recent years. The “institute always respects … and supports scientific researchers and students in carrying out normal research work,” the statement said. The earlier post by Zhang’s students said the two days originally allocated by the center for them to move their scientific work was insufficient. Following the release of the data, Zhang’s lab had limitations placed on it, which barred it from isolating the Covid virus, Holmes said. That included imposing restrictions by April 2020 on the publication of academic research on the origins of the novel coronavirus.

Persons: Zhang Yongzhen’s, Zhang, ”, hadn’t, Hector Retamal, Edward Holmes, Holmes, ” Holmes, “, He’s, Zhang Yongzhen, ” Zhang, “ He’s, It’s, virologist Organizations: Hong Kong CNN —, Shanghai, Health, Weibo, Zhang’s, Chinese Center for Disease Control, CNN, Fudan University, Health Clinical, Getty, World Health Organization, Nature, University, Sydney, CDC, China’s National Health Commission, Oxford University Press, Shanghai Public Health Center, Natural Science Foundation of China Locations: China, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Wuhan, AFP, Beijing

☆ Nightmare on Wall Street: A Lyft typo projected profit to be 10x better than it really is.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-14 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Lyft mistakenly forecast 500 basis points of margin improvement for 2024, causing a stock surge. The error was later corrected to 50 basis points, and the shares came back to earth. Despite the typo, Lyft predicts healthy growth in rides for 2024. A closely watched profit margin should expand by about 500 basis points in 2024. Just not 500 basis points.

Persons: Lyft, — Organizations: Service, Wall

☆ Iran accuses Israel of killing a spy chief and 3 of its top Revolutionary Guards in Syria, escalating tensions in the region
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-20 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

An airstrike on Damascus on Saturday killed four senior members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. The attack is the latest escalation in tensions in the region following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. The attack killed the chief of the IRGC intelligence in Syria and his deputy along with two other members of Iran's Revolution Guards, according to Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency. The attack is the latest escalation in tensions in the region following the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas. Throughout the war, Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian territory , predominantly targeting Iran-backed forces and Syrian Army positions, which have intensified since the Israel-Hamas war began, per AFP.

Persons: Israel, —, Nasser Kanani, Bashar al Organizations: Saturday, Iran's, Guards, Service, Guards Corps, Public Relations Department, Zionist, Revolution Guards Corps, Iranian Armed Forces, Human Rights, Israel, Iran, Iran's Revolutionary Guard, Syrian Army, Hamas, US State Department Locations: Damascus, Iran, Israel, Syria, Iranian, Tehran, Syrian, AFP

Circuit Judge Reid Scott rejected Tesla's motion to summarily dismiss Kim Banner's lawsuit accusing the company of causing her husband Jeremy Banner's death in 2019. In a 23-page ruling, Scott found that Kim Banner's attorneys presented sufficient evidence to let the case proceed to trial sometime next year. But Scott agreed that Banner's attorneys had provided enough evidence for the case to proceed. The board said Tesla's Autopilot should have safeguards that don't allow the system’s use on highways that have cross-traffic. The car should also make certain drivers using Autopilot remain engaged with their hands on the wheel.

Persons: —, Tesla, Elon Musk, Judge Reid Scott, Kim, Jeremy Banner's, Scott, Whitney Cruz, Trey Lytal, Jeremy Banner, ” Lytal, Musk, “, Reid, Banner, Kim Banner Organizations: Associated Press, National Transportation Safety Board, NTSB Locations: FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla, Florida, Beach

Most of the people participating in the trend are in their 20s, citing various reasons for quitting ranging from low wages to burnout. LiangAccording to China’s LinkedIn equivalent Maimai, out of 1,554 employees across various sectors surveyed from January through October 2022, 28% resigned that year. A similar movement, dubbed the Great Resignation, had taken off in the United States, with almost 50 million people quitting their jobs in two years. Despite the proliferation of higher education degrees, China’s economy doesn’t currently require as many high-skilled workers and it takes time to transform the economic structure, she said. The resignation trend could affect fertility, but it’s not yet clear how, she said.

Persons: Hong Kong CNN —, Liang, “, ”, Nancy Qian, they’ve, Jade Gao, Qian, ” Qian, Yao Lu, Veyron Mai, ” Lu, Young Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, CNN, ” CNN, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, Getty, Ministry of Education, Columbia University, University Locations: China, Hong Kong, China’s Zhejiang, United States, West, Beijing, AFP, Yibin, Foshan, Taizhou

☆ North Carolina Hooters sued for racial discrimination against employees
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued a North Carolina Hooters restaurant for allegedly discriminating against Black or darker-skinned “Hooters Girls,” the federal agency announced Thursday. In March 2020, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Greensboro, North Carolina, Hooters temporarily laid off around 43 employees, dubbed “Hooters Girls” by the restaurant chain. There was a “marked shift in the racial composition of the restaurant’s Hooters Girls workforce,” when employees were called back in, according to the EEOC release. The complaint also alleged that the darker-skinned Hooters Girls “experienced racial hostility and observed preferential treatment of White employees while employed at the restaurant” and received less-lucrative shifts. The Greensboro restaurant had no comment and directed CNN to the company’s public relations department.

Persons: EEOC, VII Organizations: New, New York CNN, Employment, Commission, North Carolina Hooters, Hooters, Hooters Girls, CNN, Civil, Court, Middle, Middle District of Locations: New York, Greensboro, North Carolina, Middle District, Middle District of North Carolina

☆ OPEC withholds media access to Reuters, Bloomberg, WSJ for July event
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The three media organizations are among the world's leading suppliers of financial news and information. OPEC declined to comment on why reporters from the three media organizations were not invited to cover the OPEC-hosted July 5-6 seminar in Vienna. "Reuters will continue to cover OPEC in an independent, impartial and reliable way, in keeping with the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles." This would be the second consecutive OPEC+ event in which OPEC has restricted media coverage. OPEC sent an email on Tuesday inviting reporters at other media organizations to attend, the sources said.

Persons: Platts, Simon Webb, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: OPEC, Reuters, Bloomberg, Wall Street, of, Petroleum, Thomson Reuters Corp, Thomson, Street, Financial Times, P, Commodity, Argus, Financial Locations: OPEC, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Vienna

☆ Tesla on Autopilot crashes into stopped truck in Pennsylvania -police
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Hyunjoo Jin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

June 26 (Reuters) - A Tesla (TSLA.O) vehicle that was operating on its Autopilot software crashed into a stationary truck on a highway in Pennsylvania on Friday night, police said, adding to scrutiny of the automaker's driver assistance system. The police said the car lost control due to being on Autopilot, adding that the 18-year-old male driver was charged with "careless driving." U.S. regulators have been investigating a series of accidents where Tesla vehicles on Autopilot collided with parked emergency vehicles. In February, a Tesla Model S crashed into a stationary fire truck in Walnut Creek, California, killing the car's driver and triggering an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Tesla says Autopilot enables a car to steer, accelerate and brake automatically within its lane, but those features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous.

Persons: Tesla, Hyunjoo Jin, Jamie Freed Organizations: Freightliner, Pennsylvania State Police, Tesla, National, Traffic Safety, Thomson Locations: Pennsylvania, Walnut Creek , California

Rescue workers gather around damaged carriages during search for survivors at the accident site on Saturday. With the rail routes still blocked, family members of deceased passengers are having to find their way by other means to the crash site, to help identify the dead. India’s extensive rail network, one of the largest in the world, was built more than 160 years ago under British colonial rule. Decaying infrastructure is often cited as a cause for traffic delays and numerous train accidents in India. An ambitious National Rail Plan, announced in 2021, envisages that all major cities in north, west and south India should be connected by high-speed rail.

Persons: –, Ashwini Vaishnaw, ”, Dibyangshu Sarkar, Jaya Varma Sinha, ” Sinha, Mansukh Mandaviya, Mandaviya, Naveen Patnaik, Patnaik, “, Narenda Modi, Narendra Modi, Volodymyr Zelensky, Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak, Fumio Kishida, Antonio Guterres, Pope Francis, Modi, Modi’s, Albright Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, Howrah, Bangalore . Rescue, Getty, Jaya, India’s Health, Sunday, Odisha’s, Public Relations Department, Indian, Rapid, Force, British, United Nations, National Crime Records, Group, Rail Plan, Bharat Locations: New Delhi, London, Hong Kong, Balasore, Odisha, Indian, Kolkata, Chennai, Bazar, Bangalore, AFP, Tamil Nadu, Russian, India, Jammu, Kashmir

☆ OPEC has not invited Reuters, Bloomberg to report on weekend policy meets
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

OPEC has not invited Reuters or Bloomberg news agencies to report on ministerial meetings in Vienna this weekend to discuss future oil policy, according to reporters, Bloomberg and an OPEC source on Wednesday. The Reuters text journalists that cover meetings and are registered with OPEC as members of the press have not received an invite to cover the event. OPEC has also not offered accreditation to Bloomberg to cover the meeting, a Bloomberg News spokesperson said on Wednesday. Two reporters from the Wall Street Journal who regularly cover OPEC have also not received invites, people familiar with the matter said. Reporters at some other media outlets including CNBC, and pricing agencies Argus and Platts said they have received invitations to cover the meetings.

Persons: “, ”, Platts Organizations: Reuters, Bloomberg, Organization of, Petroleum, OPEC, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, CNBC, Argus, OPEC’s Public Relations Department Locations: Vienna, OPEC, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Platts

☆ Twitter cannot hide from EU rules after exit from code, EU's Breton says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BRUSSELS, May 26 (Reuters) - Twitter cannot run away from its obligations even after quitting a voluntary EU code of practice to tackle disinformation, EU industry chief Thierry Breton warned the company late on Friday. Companies which signed up to the code are required to provide regular progress reports with data on how much advertising revenue they had averted from disinformation actors. "Twitter leaves EU voluntary code of practice against disinformation. You can run but you can't hide," Breton said in a tweet. Twitter, which no longer has a public relations department, responded to an emailed request for comment with a poop emoji.

☆ Mark Zuckerberg has become so obsessed with AI that one Wall Street research firm is jesting that Facebook will change its name to MetAI
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

18 months ago, Zuckerberg bet the future of Facebook on the metaverse, and even changed the company's name. Some analysts are now concerned about Meta spending too much on AI, Zuckerberg's latest obsession. Just 18 months ago, Mark Zuckerberg bet the future of Facebook on the metaverse, and even changed the company's name to Meta. Investors and analysts only just recovered from the company's metaverse spending splurge. Meta reports quarterly results April 26, and Wall Street will be watching the company's spending and investment plans closely.

At least 133 people, including women and children, were killed after Myanmar’s military junta bombed Kanbalu township in the central Sagaing region on Tuesday, the human rights minister of the ousted shadow National Unity Government Aung Myo Min told CNN. Like much of Sagaing, the area is not under the control of the military junta. I saw flesh on the road.”The eyewitness said he saw dozens of bodies after the attack, including children as young as five. The attacks have killed civilians, including children, and targeted schools, clinics, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure. And a military airstrike on a school in Sagaing in September killed at least 13 people, including seven children.

☆ Elon Musk publicly mocks Twitter worker with disability who is unsure whether he’s been laid off
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Elon Musk publicly scoffed at a Twitter employee’s uncertainty about whether he had been laid off in a recent round of cuts and spoke dismissively of the employee’s disability in a series of tweets Monday night. Haraldur Thorleifsson, an Iceland-based Twitter senior director, tweeted at Musk that access to his computer had been cut off nine days earlier, when Twitter reportedly laid off some 200 employees. It’s not the first time Musk, one of the richest men in the world, has publicly mocked employees at Twitter, the company he bought for $44 billion last year. Hundreds of former Twitter employees are now taking legal action against the company, alleging broken severance promises and, in some cases, discrimination, including against disabled employees. Following the exchange with Musk, Thorleifsson said in a tweet that Twitter’s HR head had confirmed he is no longer employed at the company.

☆ Xiaomi demands payout from supplier after car designs leaked
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SHANGHAI, Feb 2 (Reuters) - China's Xiaomi <1810.HK) said on Thursday it had imposed a 1 million yuan ($149,000) penalty on a supplier after it leaked early design drafts of an upcoming car model. Xiaomi did not disclose the name of the company and Reuters could not identify it. As punishment, the smartphone-turned-car maker said it would impose "economic compensation" of 1 million yuan ($148,763) on the supplier. The spokesperson added it had instructed the supplier to strengthen its information security management, and develop plans to upgrade its confidentiality measures. The company has said it hopes to reach mass production of its cars in the first half of 2024.

☆ Two months after mass Twitter layoffs, affected employees still waiting for severance offers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Two months after Elon Musk laid off half of Twitter’s workforce, some employees affected say they have yet to receive any formal severance offer or separation agreement. As of early Thursday, however, the former employee said they had yet to receive any documents related to a severance agreement or offer. The company was recently sued by a commercial landlord and a private flight company alleging Twitter has failed to pay bills. At the time of the layoffs, Musk promised that “everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance,” a time period that appears to include the 60-days advanced notice Twitter was obligated to provide. She has also filed three claims against Twitter with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of former employees.

☆ In a leaked memo, CEO of electric vehicle leasing startup Autonomy warns the company is in dire financial condition but says he will do whatever it takes to save the business
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

But the market changed at the end of the year as Autonomy suddenly faced a perfect storm. CEO Scott Painter says he will do whatever it takes to save the business, including selling his own assets. It was not the New Years greeting employees of Autonomy, a Santa Monica-based startup offering electric vehicle subscriptions, were hoping to receive in their inboxes. Autonomy announced in August it was moving away from selling Teslas exclusively. Painter said the company would prioritize making payroll and keeping the business operational and added he would do whatever it takes to keep Autonomy operational.

☆ Elon Musk says CEOs should tweet more, but his tweets have been a double-edged sword
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Elon Musk told CEOs on Wednesday to tweet more as it has "worked quite well" for him. But, experts say posting on social media can cause major issues for executives and their brands. Ultimately, legal experts say posting on social media is too risky for most CEOs. Executives' comments on social media could also fail to translate to younger generations with different values and worldviews, said Anat Alon-Beck, a business law professor at Case Western Reserve University. So while Musk may have built up a huge following with his off-the-cusp tweets and jokes, for most CEOs, the risks of tweeting are likely too great.

☆ Former J. Crew chief Jenna Lyons to join 'Real Housewives of New York City' cast
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Zachary Schermele | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Jenna Lyons, the New York City fashion designer who was famously outed by the New York Post over a decade ago, will join the cast of “The Real Housewives of New York City” next year for the show’s 14th season. Lyons will be the first queer housewife to join the franchise’s New York City series as one of its seven new cast members. Their romantic relationship was revealed by the New York Post after someone spotted Lyons and Crangi at a New York restaurant amid Lyons’ divorce. The New York Post was asking if she would like to confirm or deny that she was “seeing a woman,” they said. GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, praised the decision to cast Lyons.

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