Author: IA PressRoom

Twitter owner Elon Musk on Saturday voiced support for a Vermont family that was punished by a local school for expressing concerns about a biological male using the daughter’s locker room.Musk, the outspoken and eccentric billionaire, called the Orange Southwest School District Board’s decision to punish Travis Allen and Blake Allen “incredibly unjust.” He was responding to a tweet from Riley Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer and political activist who’s publicly opposed allowing biological males to compete against girls and women in sports.”So happy for volleyball player and friend, Blake Allen,” wrote Gaines, who also posted a screenshot…

Anna Moneymaker President Joe Biden signed on Saturday the bill that suspends the government’s debt limit through Jan. 1, 2025, averting a first-ever default by the U.S. In exchange for the debt ceiling suspension, the legislation agrees to cap non-defense discretionary spending, claws back some planned expenditures, expands work requirements for some federal assistance programs, changes environental review processes, and ends the suspension of federal student loan payments, the White House said. Even though the U.S. government suspended the debt ceiling before the government ran out of money, which was expected to occur on Monday, Fitch Ratings said on Friday…

Elon Musk gave Walter Isaacson full access for a new biography.Recent history indicates this is a big mistake for Musk.That’s great news for us readers, though! Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you’re on the go. download the app I’m a journalist. I think CEOs and politicians and other leaders should always say yes to whatever access request people in my line of work have.But an unavoidable truth is that giving so much access over so much time has often lead to disaster for the subjects.We were reminded of…

CNN  —  Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday signed into law a ban on gender-affirming care for most minors in the state, making Texas the largest state in the US to place restrictions on transgender youth’s access to critical care. Senate Bill 14 bars health care providers from providing gender transition surgeries, puberty blocking medication or hormone therapies to those under 18 in Texas, with violators at risk of losing their licenses. It takes effect September 1. The law makes minor exceptions for children who had begun receiving non-surgical gender-affirming care before June 1, 2023, and underwent 12 or more…

OpenAI is stealing the spotlight as the definitive artificial-intelligence startup — for now. Backed by Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +0.85%, the progenitor of ChatGPT-4 has become the focus of the AI wave, but other AI startups are emerging in fields including healthcare, education and manufacturing. Based on recent interviews with venture capitalists and tech executives in the AI space, here are seven promising startups that are making waves of their own in Silicon Valley and beyond. Inflection AI, founded by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Google GOOGL, +0.77% GOOG, +0.69% DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, released its first AI chatbot product, named Pi,…

Getty Images Electric utilities are not especially popular with bond investors these days. Consider the spread-versus-Treasurys on the ICE BofA U.S. Electric Utility Index. The spread is the amount of additional yield the market demands for owning corporate bonds rather than supposedly default-risk-free U.S. Treasurys. On June 2, 2023, the utilities’ spread was 146 basis points. (One basis point equals 1/100 of a percentage point.) On the same date, the spread on ICE BofA’s U.S. Industrial Index was 130 basis points. The difference between Utilities and Industrials, 146 – 130 = 16 basis points, compares with a historical average of…

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers a speech on bipartisan legislation that lifts the federal government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, in his first Oval Office address to the nation at the White House in Washington, U.S., June 2, 2023. REUTERS/ By Trevor Hunnicutt WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden on Saturday signed a bill that suspends the U.S. government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, averting what would have been a first-ever default. The House of Representatives and the Senate passed the legislation this week after Biden and House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached an agreement following tense negotiations.…

A federal judge said late Friday that a law in Tennessee aimed at restricting drag shows was unconstitutional, saying it was overly broad and violated the First Amendment.The ruling is an initial victory for supporters of L.G.B.T.Q. rights after weeks of turmoil and confusion over the law’s language and how it would affect not only drag artists in the state, but also transgender, nonbinary and other gender-nonconforming people. Tennessee, which passed the law this year with the stated goal of protecting children, was among more than a dozen states that passed measures restricting L.G.B.T.Q. rights.Although only Shelby County, where the…

U.S. real estate investors drew back on home purchases in Q1 by 48.6%, real estate brokerage Redfin (NASDAQ:RDFN) reported this past week, marking the biggest year-over-year drop since 2000. The slump, which outpaced the 40.7% decline in overall home purchases in the 40 metro areas tracked by Redfin, comes as it’s become harder for investors to reap profits given elevated interest rates along with slowing rent growth and declining home prices. Another reason for the dramatic annual decline is investor home purchases in Q1 2022 were near record highs. On a Q/Q basis, investor purchases fell 15.9% compared with the…

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is really into MMA-style fighting these days.It’s gotten him totally shredded. And he’s even won some matches.A new report says he got knocked out once. He denies this! Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you’re on the go. download the app On Friday morning, word came from the New York Times that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was recently knocked out in a jiu-jitsu match.But hang on!Shredded Zuck and his coach say he was not, in fact, snoring after a choke hold left him passed out.…