Author: News Room
The PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund are racing to reshape their plans to combine their rival golf circuits, emboldened by President Donald J. Trump’s eagerness to play peacemaker for a fractured sport, according to four people familiar with the matter.Since the start of secret talks in April 2023, PGA Tour executives and their Saudi counterparts have been weighing how they could somehow blend the premier American golf circuit with the Saudis’ LIV Golf operation. But negotiators have struggled to design a deal that would satisfy regulators along with players, investors and executives.Mr. Trump’s return to Washington has…
Humane, the ambitious start-up behind the Ai Pin device that aimed to one day replace smartphones, agreed to sell parts of its business to HP for $116 million, the companies said on Tuesday.HP said it planned to acquire Humane’s “A.I. capabilities,” including its software platform, intellectual property, patents and some employees. The Ai Pin will be shut down, Humane said in a message to customers.The deal caps a downfall for the high-flying start-up, which heavily promoted the $699 pin with ads, a TED Talk and at Paris Fashion Week with supermodels. Humane raised $240 million in funding from high-profile investors,…
News that the Trump administration had agreed with Russia to try to negotiate a peace settlement for Ukraine, without including Ukraine in the talks, was a revelation that many believed reversed years of efforts to isolate Moscow.But prominent voices in the right-wing media world interpreted the development this week as cause for celebration.“Every day has kind of felt like Christmas morning, hasn’t it?” Kari Lake, the former TV news anchor who is poised to run Voice of America, said during a podcast interview on Tuesday. “President Trump wants peace for every nation.”Charlie Kirk, the co-founder of Turning Point USA and…
The Senate on Tuesday voted 51 to 45 to confirm Howard Lutnick to be President Trump’s commerce secretary, putting in place one of the administration’s top economic officials who will help oversee an agenda around tariffs and protectionism.Mr. Lutnick, who was the chief executive of the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, became a central economic adviser to Mr. Trump over the past year and led his transition team. He has defended tariffs as a tool to protect U.S. industries from international competition, promoted lower corporate taxes and called for an expansion of energy production.As commerce secretary, Mr. Lutnick will take…
Dickson Despommier, a microbiologist who proposed that cities should grow food in high-rises, popularizing the term “vertical farming” — an idea that crossed over from the realm of the purely fanciful to become a reality around the globe — died on Feb. 7 in Manhattan. He was 84.His wife, Marlene Bloom, confirmed the death, in a hospital. He lived in Fort Lee, N.J.Dr. Despommier (pronounced des-POM-ee-yay), who was a professor for 38 years at Columbia’s School of Public Health, specialized in parasitic diseases, but he gained far wider influence as a guru of vertical farming.In 2001, he and students in…
Mira Murati, the former chief technology officer of OpenAI who unexpectedly left the company in September, has helped found a new artificial intelligence start-up called Thinking Machines Lab, adding to the wave of young companies that have been formed in the race to lead A.I.Thinking Machines Lab aims to “make A.I. systems more widely understood, customizable and generally capable,” according to a blog post from the new company. It said it would freely share its technologies with outside researchers and companies, a practice known as “open source.”Thinking Machines Lab declined to say if it has raised money.Ms. Murati, 36, was…
The family of one of the 67 victims of a plane crash last month near Washington filed two legal claims against the federal government on Tuesday, seeking compensation and signifying the beginning of what is expected to be a long and complex legal fight.The claims, which appear to be the first against the U.S. government over the collision, were filed by the family of Casey Crafton, an airline passenger who died in the crash, according to Robert A. Clifford, the lawyer representing them. Mr. Clifford said he had also asked several companies associated with the crash to preserve evidence.“I don’t…
In February of last year, as videos of tweens racing to Sephora for beautifully packaged creams and serums that contained anti-aging chemicals flooded TikTok, a legislator in California tried to end that trend by introducing a bill that would stop stores from selling those products to them. It failed.Now, even though the chatter around tweens using these products has quieted down, the same legislator has reintroduced the bill, with a few tweaks.The assembly bill, which will receive a formal name on Tuesday, would make it illegal for companies to sell over-the-counter anti-aging products to shoppers under 18 years old. It…
Turo, a car rental start-up in San Francisco, has been trying to go public since 2021. But a volatile stock market in early 2022 delayed its listing. Since then, the company has waited for the right moment.Last week, Turo pulled its listing entirely. “Now is not the right time,” Andre Haddad, the company’s chief executive, said in a statement.For months, investors have eagerly anticipated a wave of initial public offerings, spurred by President Trump’s new administration. Since his election victory in November, which ended a tumultuous campaign season, Corporate America and Wall Street have heralded the start of a pro-business,…
European defense stocks continued their rally on Tuesday, as President Trump’s threats to reduce American military support to the continent and NATO raised the prospect that Europe’s governments will increase military spending.The flurry of trading helped push the Pan-European Stoxx 600 index to a record high; the Stoxx Europe Total Market Aerospace & Defense index is up 19 percent this year.Senior American and Russian officials gathered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday for a high-stakes meeting that could further determine the sector’s fate. At the top of the agenda is ending the fighting in Ukraine, Europe’s deadliest war in generations.…