Author: News Room

Mercedes-Benz said on Thursday that the latest version of its least expensive sedan would be available first as an all-electric car and then a hybrid. And the company will no longer sell a gasoline-only version of the car.That’s a big break from how Mercedes and other established carmakers have typically operated. Until recently, most automakers adapted vehicles designed for fossil fuels to be powered by batteries. The Mercedes sedan, the CLA, which the company unveiled in Rome with the rapper will.i.am, is an example of how at least some established carmakers are developing electric cars first, then adapting them for…

Nervous investors seeking news about the plunging markets on Monday afternoon would have been out of luck if they turned to the websites of The New York Post, The Daily Caller, One America News or The Blaze. Not one of those right-leaning outlets featured articles about the sell-off as the closing bell rang, cementing Wall Street’s steepest decline of the year.And Fox Business Network, which pledges to “deliver content focused on investing, optimism and the American dream,” placed coverage of the drop on its site below a story about temporary outages on Elon Musk’s social media site, X.As President Trump’s…

In the 19th and 20th centuries, railroads revolutionized transportation in North America, permanently accelerating the pace of travel across the continent. Today, many of those railroad tracks host an assortment of historic excursion trains, inviting riders to slow down and enjoy a grand day out. The trains below are destinations in themselves, offering a mix of spectacular sightseeing, onboard dining and glorious open-air observation cars. They traverse deserts, mountains, forests and canyons, pulled by diesel and steam into parts of nature reachable only by rail. They’re rolling lessons in geology and ecology, not to mention history. Most are accessible, none…

Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite communications company, fought behind the scenes for months to break into India’s internet business. The market is dominated by two local giants, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, which seemed united in trying to keep Starlink out.Then, suddenly, this week each of them announced a partnership to bring Starlink into India, pending the government’s approval.Jio, a branch of India’s biggest corporation, said on Tuesday that it would team up with Starlink “to deliver reliable broadband services across the country, including in the most remote and rural regions.” Hours earlier, Airtel had celebrated a deal in similar terms.The…

At Happy Hollow Farm, a small, 16-acre operation in central Missouri, Liz Graznak grows a variety of vegetables, including organic carrots, Swiss chard, radishes and beets.Some of those vegetables go to local distributors where they are placed in boxes, alongside meat and dairy items also produced in the state, and delivered to low-income people. Other vegetables are sent to school districts that would normally not have the budget to serve students fresh, locally grown produce.For Ms. Graznak, about $240,000, or roughly a quarter of her farm’s annual revenue, came from the two federal programs that supported these efforts.This week, she…

The cloud behind the inflation silver lining Even upbeat economic news can offer little comfort to markets and the C-suite.Stocks look set to open lower as relief over Wednesday’s better-than-expected inflation report fades, and concerns grow that a trade war could sap consumer spending and corporate profits. That’s led more corporate chiefs to speak out about the confusion over President Trump’s trade moves.A recap: The Consumer Price Index showed that inflation cooled off slightly last month. Trump hailed the data as “very good news,” and stocks rallied at the outset.But others saw red flags, and the S&P 500 pared its…

Investors are adept at finding ways to navigate just about any government policy, good or bad. Tariffs, once set, can be modeled for how they will affect corporate profits, prices and, in turn, the broader economy. The mass firings of federal workers can be analyzed for how they might increase unemployment.The thing that investors really struggle to put a price on is uncertainty. And right now, there is a profound sense of uncertainty in the stock market.It has been brought on by the whipsawing policies and pronouncements of the Trump administration. To name just three: the on-again, off-again threats of…

Household-name companies, like Walmart and Meta, have scaled back diversity, equity and inclusion goals in recent months. These brands are part of a widespread retreat happening across corporate America, according to a New York Times analysis of annual financial filings. It has been as noticeable among tech giants as among drug makers, concert promoters and nearly every sector of the U.S. economy.So far this year the number of companies in the S&P 500 that used the language “diversity, equity and inclusion” in these filings has fallen by nearly 60 percent from 2024.The Companies That Mentioned ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’ Each…

The results of a rare, closely watched auction in Japan that ended this week are about to be released. But there were no paintings or antique cars on the auction block.The government is selling 165,000 tons of rice — equivalent to roughly two billion bowls — from its emergency stockpile to make up for over 200,000 tons that some Japanese news media say have “disappeared.”But there’s more to the story.Japan doesn’t have enough rice, a pillar of its diet. A shortage forced supermarkets to implement buying limits, and soaring prices have driven restaurants to hike prices of everyday food. Things…

Niantic, the company behind the runaway hit Pokémon Go, said Wednesday that it has agreed to sell its video game business for $3.5 billion to Scopely, a company owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.Pokémon Go, an augmented reality mobile game, became a cultural sensation when it was released in 2016. Tens of millions of people around the world headed to streets, parks, beaches and even to the middle of the ocean to capture monsters from the Japanese cartoon franchise.The deal is the latest acquisition by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in a multibillion-dollar push into the video game industry.…