Author: News Room

The United Automobile Workers union is seeking approval from federal labor regulators for a union election among workers at a Ford Motor battery plant in Kentucky, providing an important test of organized labor’s strength after the election of Donald J. Trump.The union petitioned the National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday to let workers at the new factory in Glendale, about 55 miles south of Louisville, vote on whether they want to join the U.A.W. The plant, which is expected to begin production this year, is a joint venture between Ford and SK On, a South Korean battery company.In a statement,…

Ports on the East and Gulf Coasts could close next week if dockworkers and employers cannot overcome their big differences over the use of automated machines to move cargo.The International Longshoremen’s Association, the union that represents dockworkers, and the United States Maritime Alliance, the employers’ negotiating group, on Tuesday resumed in-person talks aimed at forging a new labor contract.After a short strike in October, the union and the alliance agreed on a 62 percent raise over six years for the longshoremen — and said they would try to work out other parts of the contract, including provisions governing automated technology,…

A couple of weeks after the presidential election, Joe Davy, chief executive of the marketing firm Banzai, sent an email to the company’s board of directors: He wanted Banzai to start buying Bitcoin.On the face of it, a plunge into the freewheeling world of cryptocurrencies was a strange move for Banzai, a Nasdaq-listed company known for its corporate webinar product. But the election of Donald J. Trump, who embraced Bitcoin on the campaign trail, had galvanized the crypto industry and sent prices skyrocketing. Mr. Davy argued that the investment would protect the company’s finances in case inflation devalued the U.S.…

Halfway through the first Trump administration, Carnival Corporation, the world’s biggest cruise line, had a problem in Cuba that it wanted the president to fix.So Carnival, a Miami-based company, hired a new lobbyist: Pam Bondi, who developed a close relationship with Donald J. Trump during her two terms as Florida’s attorney general, the state’s top law enforcement official.Carnival feared it could be sued for damages of up to $600 million for parking its cruise ships at Havana docks that had been seized decades earlier by Cuban communists. The company wanted Mr. Trump’s aid in fending off the lawsuits.With Ms. Bondi’s…

Following the political windsMeta’s bombshell announcement on Tuesday that it would end its fact-checking program was widely read as a major shift in policy meant to please President-elect Donald Trump and other conservatives.In reality, the move was probably less radical than it initially seemed. But the turn still serves as a reminder that many corporate leaders see their highest priority as reading the room — one that Trump now dominates.Mark Zuckerberg has been moving in this direction for some time. In relation to the 2016 election, the Meta chief, who has a history of tacking where political winds blow, followed…

Republicans are preparing to cut taxes, slash spending and slow immigration in a broad agenda that will require unifying an unruly party behind dozens of complicated policy choices.For now, though, they are struggling with a more prosaic decision: whether to cram their policy goals into one bill or split them into two.It is a seemingly technical question that reveals a fundamental divide among Republicans about whether to prioritize a wide-ranging crackdown on immigration or cutting taxes, previewing what could be months of intramural policy debate.Some Republicans have argued that they should pass two bills in order to quickly push through…

The U.S. surgeon general’s new push to warn consumers about the link between drinking and cancer comes at a precarious time for restaurant owners trying to pencil out a profit that hinges on alcohol sales.Costs of food and labor have risen, and some inflation-weary Americans continue to cut back on eating out. Sales dipped 1.7 percent between November 2023 and November 2024, according to the National Restaurant Association.When people do go out to eat, some aren’t drinking as much. Members of Generation Z in particular are moderating how much they consume and have helped popularize terms like “sober curious” and…

The political party on the verge of leading Austria would take an already conservative country into a growing group of nations shifting to the far-right of European politics. It has flirted with Nazi slogans, cozied up to Russia and drawn warnings from Holocaust survivors’ groups. It campaigned on promises to deport immigrants and ban political forms of Islam.The Freedom Party, known as the FPÖ, and its firebrand leader, Herbert Kickl, were given the chance to form a governing coalition this week, after efforts to bar them from power collapsed. If they succeed in forming a government, it would be a…

In recent years, Mr. White and Mr. Zuckerberg, the Meta chief executive, have bonded over their passion for professional fighting, including mixed martial arts, which Mr. Zuckerberg took up in 2022.“Dana is the President and CEO of UFC, and he has built it into one of the most valuable, fastest growing, and most popular sports enterprises in the world,” Mr. Zuckerberg said in his post. “I’ve admired him as an entrepreneur and his ability to build such a beloved brand.”In 2023, Mr. White attempted to broker a cage match between Mr. Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X,…

Theodore Farnsworth, the former chief executive of the parent company of MoviePass, pleaded guilty to securities fraud on Tuesday after federal prosecutors said he had misled investors about the company’s “unlimited” subscription plan.Mr. Farnsworth, 62, of Miami, also pleaded guilty in the Southern District of Florida to conspiracy to commit securities fraud as the leader of another publicly traded company, Vinco Ventures, Inc. He tried to inflate its stock price and took millions of dollars from the company for himself, according to prosecutors and court records.He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for the securities fraud count relating…