Latest News
See the latest news and get GPT analysis of articles
Tesla investors approve Elon Musk's $55 billion pay plan 2024-06-13 21:10:46+00:00 - Tesla announced investors approved Elon Musk's pay package. The package, initially approved in 2018, was voided by a Delaware judge in January. Tesla is hoping the shareholder ratification will make the judge's ruling moot, but it's not guaranteed. Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read preview Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time by visiting our Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of the email. Advertisement It's official — Tesla investors voted to approve Elon Musk's pay package. The carmaker announced the results of the shareholder vote during the company's annual meeting on Thursday. Musk did a victory dance as he took the stage amid cheers from on-site investors. "I just want to start off by saying: "Hot damn! I love you guys," Musk said. Tesla shares held after-hours gains of more than 1% after the vote. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in .
Book called "Ban This Book" is now banned in Florida. Its author has this to say about the irony. 2024-06-13 20:59:00+00:00 - Pride Month library exhibit features challenged LGBTQ+ books Pride Month library exhibit features challenged LGBTQ+ books 04:34 Alan Gratz's children's book "Ban This Book" was published in 2017. Seven years later, his novel for kids ages 8 and older is at the center of a debate over book banning after a Florida school district last month took took the title literally and banned the book. The Florida school district of Indian River County, home to the city of Vero Beach, last month voted to remove "Ban This Book" from its shelves. In removing the book, the school board overruled its own review committee, which had recommended that the school district retain the novel. "Ban This Book" is about a schoolgirl who tries to check out her favorite book from her school library, E.L. Konigsburg's "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler," only to find it's been removed due to a ban. She rebels by starting a secret banned book library — an aspect of the novel that the Florida school board objected to, with one member saying he believed the book's message was about how to "overtly subvert school boards." "The thing they took objection to was calling out [school officials] in banning books. Now irony is dead." Gratz told CBS MoneyWatch in a phone call. He added wryly, "I guess if you call a book 'Ban This Book,' you are kind of asking for it." Indian River County School District didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Impact of book bans Despite the ban, the incident is sparking renewed interest in his novel, Gratz said, although he won't know the ban's impact on sales until he receives a royalty statement later this year. Book bans typically harm sales, he added, and deters some schools from inviting authors to discuss their work with students. "In a select few cases, it's true that a banned book equals more sales," Gratz said. "But for most authors that have books banned or challenged, their books disappear." It's an issue that's impacting more books and authors, with the American Library Association (ALA) finding that the number of books targeted for censorship surged 65% in 2023 compared with a year earlier, reaching the highest number of titles ever documented by the group. In all, about 4,240 books were targets of censorship efforts last year, with about half of those books written by or including people of color and those from LGBTQ+ communities, the ALA found. Gratz said that when "Ban This Book" was published, the most frequently banned books were works from series such as "Harry Potter" or "Captain Underpants," with some critics objecting to the descriptions of witchcraft or attitudes toward authority. Children's book authors often support themselves by visiting schools, which pay for travel and provide an honorarium to speak with students, Gratz said. But a ban can cause school officials to shy away from inviting authors onto school grounds for fear that they'll get into hot water or even lose their jobs. "If their book isn't on the shelf at all, they aren't getting invited," Gratz said. "When authors of color and those who identify as LGBTQ+ aren't making money off their books, they have to stop writing and make money from other jobs, so we lose those voices." Gratz noted that some of his other books — he's written 20 in all — have faced bans, but none have gotten the same amount of attention as "Ban This Book." "The big theme of 'Ban This Book' is that nobody has a right to tell you what book you can or cannot read, except your parents," he said. "If the book is removed, then I can't let my daughter read that book — you've already chosen for me that my kid can't read it."
Kate Winslet says kissing Leonardo DiCaprio in the 'I'm flying' scene in 'Titanic' was 'such a mess' 2024-06-13 20:58:52+00:00 - By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time by visiting our Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of the email. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read preview In a film full of memorable scenes, there's one in James Cameron's 1997 epic "Titanic" that stands out for its pure romance: The "I'm flying" scene, in which Kate Winslet's Rose and Leonardo DiCaprio's Jack share a passionate kiss on the ship's bow as the Céline Dion song "My Heart Will Go On" plays in the background. But in reality, the scene was a nightmare to film. At least, according to Kate Winslet. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. "My god, he's quite the romancer, isn't he? No wonder every young girl in the world wanted to be kissed by Leonardo DiCaprio," Winslet said while rewatching the scene for Vanity Fair. "It was not all it's cracked up to be." Related stories Winslet said that Cameron wanted a specific light for the scene, and it kept changing on them. On top of that, there was no way for hair and makeup to do touch-ups on the actors between shots because of where they were standing, so Winslet had to do both their makeup and hide their brushes inside her corset. Advertisement The "I'm flying" scene in "Titanic" was reshot four times to get the lighting just right. Courtesy of Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox "We kept doing this kiss, and I've got a lot of pale makeup on and I would have to do our makeup checks — on both of us, between takes — and I would end up looking as though I'd been sucking a caramel chocolate bar after each take because his makeup would come off on me." DiCaprio, who had fake tan makeup on, looked like "there was a bit missing from his face" after each take, Winslet said. "Oh God, it was such a mess." Despite all that, the finished received much acclaim. "Titanic" went on to win 11 Oscars, including best picture and best director for Cameron. It was the highest-grossing movie ever until Cameron made "Avatar" in 2009. "I do feel very proud of it because I feel that it is that film that just keeps giving," Winslet said of "Titanic." "Whole other generations of people are discovering the film or seeing it for the first time, and there's something extraordinary about that." Advertisement Of course, that means every time Winslet is on a boat, people try to get her to reenact the "I'm flying" scene. Does she agree to do it? "Sometimes yes, sometimes no," she said.
Clarence Thomas took more undisclosed trips paid for by GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, Senate committee chair says 2024-06-13 20:56:00+00:00 - Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has omitted at least three private jet trips gifted by Republican megadonor Harlan Crow from his annual financial disclosures, a top Senate Democrat alleged Thursday. Those trips included private flights in 2017, 2019 and 2021 that Thomas failed to disclose, according to Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin of Illinois. Durbin's office said it obtained documents revealing the trips as a result of the Judiciary panel authorizing a subpoena for Crow in November as part of an ethics probe of the Supreme Court. Crow's office told CNBC that it struck an agreement to provide the committee with relevant information stretching back seven years — in exchange for the panel dropping its investigation into the real estate magnate. "Despite his serious and continued concerns about the legality and necessity of the inquiry, Mr. Crow engaged in good faith negotiations with the Committee from the beginning to resolve the matter," his office said in a statement. The documents revealed a private flight in May 5, 2017, taking Thomas from St. Louis, Missouri, to Kalispell, Montana, and a return flight to Dallas, Texas, on May 9, the senator's office said in a press release. Crow's documents also showed round-trip flights from Washington, D.C., to Savannah, Georgia, on March 23, 2019, and to and from D.C. to San Jose, California, on June 29, 2021, Durbin's office said. The Senate probe of the Supreme Court "makes it crystal clear that the highest court needs an enforceable code of conduct, because its members continue to choose not to meet the moment," Durbin said in a statement. Spokespeople for Thomas and the Supreme Court did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment. The Judiciary chairman released the information less than a week after Thomas amended his 2019 financial disclosure report to include trips to Bali, Indonesia, and Monte Rio, California, that he had accepted from Crow that year. Thomas said in his latest disclosure that those two trips were "inadvertently omitted" at the time. ProPublica first revealed them last year, reporting in a bombshell investigation that the Bali trip could have exceeded $500,000 if the conservative justice paid for it himself. Thomas' amendment in last week's disclosure does not say how much the trips were worth. Thomas' attorney Elliot Berke said in August 2023 that the justice had correctly followed judicial guidance that at the time did not require him to disclose transportation. The new information from Durbin also follows a recent analysis from judicial reform group Fix the Court, which found that Thomas has accepted millions of dollars' worth of gifts during his more than three-decade tenure on the nation's highest court. That figure dwarfs the combined value of all the gifts received by the eight other current justices, Fix the Court's analysis showed.
Stellantis CEO cites failures in US operations, ready to compete head-on with Chinese EVs 2024-06-13 20:52:34+00:00 - MILAN (AP) — Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares expressed dissatisfaction at the operation of some U.S. plants on Thursday, and took responsibility for not reacting quickly enough to address that issue, the problem of inventory backup, and tackling a “suboptimal” marketing strategy. Tavares said the three issues, which hit as the company struggles with lower shipments and revenues, were not tackled in a timely fashion out of arrogance. “When I am saying we were arrogant, I’m talking about myself, nobody else. I’m talking about the fact that I should have acted immediately, recognizing that the convergence of those three problems was there, and we had to set up a task force to address them,’’ Tavares told an investor conference in Auburn Hills, Mich. “If you have a marketing strategy that is suboptimal, at the moment when your inventory grows and your plants start having problems, you think that you can fix each of the issues in isolation, but if the three things happen at the same time, it is more difficult,’’ he acknowledged. He said the plant inefficiencies in terms of supply, quality and costs were becoming clear in the fall of 2023 as market conditions deteriorated when the automaker and its U.S. competitors were locked in negotiations with the United Autoworkers Union. In the meantime, he said, the issues at at least two U.S. plants, which he did not identify, were being addressed. “It is not rocket science. It is something we have done tons of times, everywhere in the world,’’ he said, adding that the problem needs to be fixed “in the context of the U.S. environment.” Stellantis, the maker of Jeeps and Ram pickup trucks, has been struggling, with first-quarter global shipments falling 10% from a year earlier to 1.34 million, and revenues dropping 12% to 41.7 billion euros ($44.8 billion). Sales in the U.S., a big cash generator, were down 14%, as the market share dropped to 7.7% the lowest in years. The carmaker, which was formed in 2001 from the merger of Fiat-Chrysler with PSA-Peugeot, in February replace the North American chief operating officer with Carlos Zarlenga, who was president of Stellantis Mexico. Tavares said the company’s multi-energy platform strategy, including fully electric and plug-in gas-electric hybrids, will help Stellantis’ competitiveness in the face of the Chinese electric vehicle offensive, which he said has been faster than he expected. At the same time, automakers are grappling with vastly different government policies on electric vehicles even within the European Union, which he said has resulted in market shares that vary from 2% in Italy, 15% in France and 40% in Scandinavia. Still, he said the world’s fourth-largest carmaker would “fight to stay competitive” rather than rely on tariffs as protection. “We are a global company, we are exposed all over the world, in Latin America, the Middle East, in Asia, to the harshest Chinese competition. So we are going to fight to be as competitive as we should be, in the performance of the product, in the range, in the affordability,’’ he said. Stellantis has a 51% stake in Chinese electric vehicle startup Leapmotor which will begin selling EVs in nine European countries later this year.
Women increasingly fear being prosecuted for using abortion pills, advocacy groups say 2024-06-13 20:50:00+00:00 - Love Holt, a reverend and single mother of five, was rushed to an emergency room in Missouri last year after her mother found her passed out in her car and “covered in blood.” When Holt arrived at the hospital, fear filled her instead of relief. “I just kept saying over and over, ‘Don’t f---ing die. Don’t say you took those pills,’” Holt told NBC News. “I was in fear, honestly, that I was going to be carted away from my hospital bed to a jail cell had they found out.” A reproductive rights advocate who opposes the state’s near-total abortion ban, Holt, 38, had obtained abortion pills by mail and took them in her home at 13 weeks pregnant. Less than an hour later, she was bleeding heavily, cramping and feeling light-headed. To avoid frightening her children, Holt went outside and sat alone in her car, where she continued to hemorrhage. When she arrived at the hospital, she told staff she was having a miscarriage but did not say that she had taken abortion pills. She underwent a procedure called a dilation and curettage — commonly referred to as a D&C — to remove the tissue from the uterus. “All of these things crossed my mind, like I can’t go to jail. I’m a breadwinner for my family and they need me,” said Holt. She added that she felt lucky that no one at the hospital reported her on suspicion of self-managing an abortion. Anti-abortion demonstrators protest outside the Planned Parenthood Reproductive Health Services Center in St. Louis, Mo., on May 31, 2019. Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images file Rising Fears Abortion rights advocates say Holt is not alone and that women in the twenty-one states that have banned or restricted abortion since the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022 fear that they will be prosecuted for using abortion pills. Last month, Louisiana became the first state to declare abortion pills dangerous controlled substances and to threaten jail or fines to anyone possessing them without a prescription. If/When/How, a nonprofit national legal advocacy group that supports abortion rights, exclusively told NBC News that its legal helpline recorded an 875% increase in calls in the 6 months after Roe was overturned, compared to the same time in 2021. Calls to the helpline — which assists people concerned about pregnancy outcomes — have continued to rise since then. The top question asked by callers was what are the legal rights and risks for people who take the abortion pills, the group said. Thirty-two percent of the callers were under the age of 18, and most calls were from or about states that limit or ban access to abortion services. Online requests for medication abortions have dramatically increased in those states as well, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Most abortions in the U.S. are medication abortions, rising from 53% of abortions in 2020 to 63% in 2024, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports access to abortion. “There’s this big sense of chaos and confusion, and this reality that your ability to get care in large part now very much depends on not just the state that you live in and the size of your bank account, but whether or not you can navigate substantial logistical and financial burdens to get an abortion,” said Kelly Baden, vice president for public policy at the institute. Baden added: “We are in a fearful climate with increased hostility and legal risk for patients, providers and helpers. We have to be prepared for the ongoing targeting and criminalization of people who are seeking abortion care.” All of the abortion bans and restrictions enacted since the overturn of Roe do not call for the prosecution of women who self-manage abortions, like Holt. And leaders of the mainstream anti-abortion groups say their goal is to not punish women who obtain abortions, but many of the new laws do target people who provide or assist in providing abortions. Missouri state Sen. Nick Schroer, the Republican co-author of the state's near-total abortion bans, one of the strictest in the country, said women who get an abortion in the state will not face punitive measures. “Case law and our statutes show that women in the state of Missouri will not be prosecuted,”said Schroer. “The only ones that could be held liable are the companies and the physicians that are partaking in this and basically preying upon women of these very sensitive times.” But abortion rights advocates and attorneys warn that women who are self-managing their abortions because of the shuttering of clinics are now at greater risk of being reported, investigated and prosecuted due to stigma, misapplication of the law and criminalization of abortion. “People are afraid. People are afraid to even seek information,” said Farah Diaz-Tello, senior counsel and legal director at If/When/How. “Once a prosecutor decides that they want to punish someone for ending their pregnancy, they’re going to find a way to do so — they’re going to find a law that’s going to fit.” “I didn’t have any other choice,” said Holt. "I would have been putting myself and my children at risk for not being able to supply them with income and food and housing." Andrew Davis / NBC News Holt’s choice Like many people in states where abortion is illegal, Holt knew she had to look beyond her state lines to get care. She attempted to make an appointment for a medication abortion in Illinois, but there was a four-week wait. Holt would need a surgical abortion by then, which would require more resources — like time off from work and money — which she did not have as a single working mother, she said. In order to terminate her pregnancy she needed a “discrete, private and affordable” option, which led her to order the pills online. The initial order was stolen in the mail, according to Holt, and she quickly placed another one. The pills arrived about 18 days later, and Holt took them at home at 13 weeks and six days pregnant, she said, despite it being recommended by the FDA no later than 10 weeks. “I didn’t have any other choice. So desperate,” said Holt. “I wouldn’t be able to provide any real stability for my family. I would have been putting myself and my children at risk for not being able to supply them with income and food and housing because my work schedule would be curbed.” Holt is grateful that she was able to self-manage her abortion — and get subsequent care at the hospital — without criminalization. But she said others, particularly women of color, haven’t been as fortunate when navigating the shifting abortion landscape. “I wish my story was isolated. It saddens me to know that there are stories that are even more egregious than my story,” Holt said. “We’re just caught in the crosshairs. The target isn’t necessarily on our back. But we are the ones who don’t have the resources to take a flight to a safe haven state and get an abortion or pay for the attorneys fees if we get prosecuted in court.” State Sen. Nick Schroer is the Republican co-author of Missouri’s near-total abortion ban, enacted after Roe was overturned. Andrew Davis / NBC News Past prosecutions A long history of the prosecution of both abortion providers and women who self-managed their abortions before the overturn of Roe has also fueled fears, advocates say. From 2000 to 2020, 23 adults were convicted — either by pleading guilty or being found guilty at trial — for charges related to self-managing their abortion or helping someone else get one, including in states from across the political spectrum, like South Carolina, Massachusetts, Maryland, Arizona and Ohio, according to a study published by If/When/How in 2023 that examined public criminal court records and media reports. Health care providers and social workers were most likely to flag a suspected self-managed abortion to authorities, doing so in 45 percent of the cases. No state or federal laws require care professionals to do so, the report said. In most of the cases that led to convictions, medication abortion — either obtained online or received through a friend or relative — was allegedly used. Nearly half of the adults — 11 of them — faced a range of sentences, from 90 days to up to 20 years in prison. Meanwhile, the rest of those charged were placed on up to 10 years of probation, If/When/How found. The adults pleaded guilty or were found guilty of charges such as abuse of a corpse, child abuse and murder. Only one state — Nevada — criminalizes self-managed abortion after 24-weeks. But people are often investigated and arrested under charges not meant to be applied to allegations of self-managed abortions, such as child abuse, assault of an unborn child, practicing medicine without a license, or homicide and murder, said Diaz-Tello. After the overturn of Roe, a Nebraska mother, Jessica Burgess, was sentenced to two years in prison in 2023 for giving her pregnant teenage daughter medication for an abortion. Her daughter, Celeste Burgess, was also sentenced to 90 days in jail and two years of probation after pleading guilty to concealing or abandoning a dead body. Jessica Piper, Veronica Hupp and Ashlee Hendrix before an abortion rights rally in St. Louis, Mo., on May 30, 2019. Jacob Moscovitch / Getty Images file Holt’s experience and those of other women drove her to decide to try to fight back politically at the state level. Together with Abortion Action Missouri and other reproductive rights groups, Holt helped gather enough signatures in May to advance a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. Missouri is one of 10 states where organizers are hoping to put abortion rights in state constitutions through citizen-led ballot initiatives, according to the Guttmacher Institute. “We are able to sweep a lot of things under the rug in Black communities to just try to survive. But this is one that will not be swept under,” Holt said. “And it will affect every one of us in a way.” Schroer, the Missouri state senator, said the anti-abortion movement isn’t backing down. “It’s going to be a different fight this year, as Republicans and Democrats, who are wanting to protect life from womb to tomb, are going to do a heck of a lot more education than we saw in those other states.” Holt believes the ballot measure will “mobilize and unite communities, and most of all, it’s going to erect a strong force in women like we’ve never seen before." "We know what’s at stake," she said. "This is going to be like the championship games for us.” Read more on this story at NBCNews.com and watch “Hallie Jackson NOW” tonight at 5:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. CT.
Trump must be counting on 'cool' to win out over credibility with endorsements like Jake and Logan Paul's 2024-06-13 20:49:30+00:00 - Donald Trump’s presidential campaign continues to prioritize internet clout over institutional credibility. With many of the experts and former Trump administration officials — all the way up to and including his vice president — having spoken out about the danger the former president poses to the United States if he’s elected again, Trump and his campaign have had to rely more on support from internet influencers, including rappers and combat sports figures, to boost his electoral chances. The underlying message of Trump’s alignment with these figures seems clear: to suggest to voters that his lurch toward authoritarianism isn’t as bad as liberals claim. In fact, these influencers would have you believe it’s actually pretty cool. Conservatives like Rep. Matt Gaetz, Sen. Mike Lee and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson have already shown their affinity for such figures in their fawning over El Salvador’s authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele, the self-proclaimed “World’s Coolest Dictator.” This is helpful context for the support Trump is receiving now from internet influencers Jake and Logan Paul. Jake Paul has fashioned himself into a professional boxer, a kind of modern-day “Great White Hope.” And Logan Paul is a professional wrestler in the WWE, an organization with a long history of working with Trump and promoting his businesses. (Trump has kept in contact with his friend and beleaguered former WWE chairman Vince McMahon). On Wednesday, the Trump campaign promoted this awkward video of Trump gifting Paul a T-shirt with his (literal) mugshot on it, ahead of Trump’s appearance on Logan Paul’s podcast. And Jake Paul appeared on Fox News host Jesse Watters’ show to make his claim for why he thinks the Biden administration has failed Americans. You might get a kick out of the segment, if for no other reason than it’s a solid example of the Trumpian delusion and grift. In the segment (which you can watch here), Paul, who’s amassed great fame and personal wealth under the Biden administration, complains about the economy (which has actually been performing quite well lately). The kick is that Paul appears to be making these claims from inside his multimillion-dollar mansion, sitting in front of a giant portrait of himself. Then he meanders into an odd, paranoid claim about “what they’re putting in our food,” which he uses as a segue to plug a body spray he’s promoting. There’s irony in Paul’s anxiety about the food supply. Some might argue he’s not the best source to discuss harmful things in people’s diet, considering the concerns that have been raised about what's in his brother Logan’s energy drink, Prime (which is the subject of a class-action lawsuit that claims it contains high levels of "forever chemicals"; Paul responded in a TikTok in April that "anyone can sue anyone at any time that does not make the lawsuit true. And in this case, it is not." The company has moved to dismiss the case). Not to mention that, as far as choice of candidates goes, it was Donald Trump who rolled back food safety regulations as president and endangered food safety in the process. But Trump’s alignment with influencers like the Paul brothers isn’t about facts, it’s about framing. It’s meant to contrast Trump — whom they portray as strong, virile and cool — with President Joe Biden, whom they portray as weak, feeble and uncool. As if to say, “Ignore that Trump was liable for sexual abuse. Ignore that he’s been convicted for committing fraud to get elected. Ignore that he’s vowed to crack down on purported 'anti-white sentiment.' Ignore that he wants to indemnify police who abuse their power. He’s cool with us.” It’s the argument one makes when a candidate doesn't have much institutional credibility and must play up who they know for clout.
Anthony Michael Hall on His Best Movie Roles: 'Breakfast Club,' 'Sixteen Candles' & More 2024-06-13 20:37:00+00:00 - Anthony Michael Hall has spent most of his life in front of the camera, and he has the stories to prove it. Some of them are downright enviable. He hung out with comedy legends Chevy Chase and John Candy while filming his first starring role in "National Lampoon's Vacation," became the muse of 1980s auteur John Hughes with "The Breakfast Club" and "Sixteen Candles," and was the youngest "Saturday Night Live" cast member ever after joining the show at 17. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. But some of them are less so. Hall's 1986 film "Out of Bounds," his attempt at becoming a dramatic leading man, was a flop. He was part of what's regarded as one of the worst "Saturday Night Live" seasons of all time. Hard-partying forced him to step away from Hollywood. Advertisement It's enough stories for a lifetime — and all of that happened by his mid-20s. Now 56 and with the dreaded transition from teen star to adult actor decades behind him, Hall has added many more memorable roles to his credits: he played Bill Gates in the 1999 TV movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley," popped up in Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight," and went toe-to-toe with Michael Myers in "Halloween Kills." Soon, he'll add another to the list: a sleazy politician who gets on Jessica Alba's bad side in the Netflix action movie "Trigger Warning," out June 21. For the latest interview in Business Insider's "Role Play" series, Hall opens up about his partying days, why he turned down the lead role in Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket," and his plan to make a "Succession"-like comedy series with his good friend Robert Downey Jr. On hitting puberty during reshoots of 'National Lampoon's Vacation' and meeting John Candy Anthony Michael Hall in "National Lampoon's Vacation." Warner Bros./National Lampoon's Vacation" "National Lampoon's Vacation" was your first movie, and the ending was reshot. As a kid, was it strange to do a reshoot? Advertisement We did the reshoot for "Vacation" six or nine months later. The funny thing is that puberty had fully kicked in for me. I'm literally seven inches taller. So if you look at the movie closely, you'll see that my hair is darker, and I got taller and skinnier. The first day on set for the reshoot, I see Chevy, and he sees that I have one or two giant pimples, and he goes, "If you're going blind, you're doing it right." He was just messing with me because, seeing how I looked, he guessed I had started masturbating. Chevy was like that. And the other thing was I learned John Candy was going to be part of the reshoots. I used to watch "SCTV," so I loved him, and one of the sketches he used to do was the Schmenge brothers with Eugene Levy, they were Polish variety show hosts. So I brought that to John's attention, and he said, "We're going to make you an honorary Schmenge, Michael," he would talk to me like his Schmenge character. That's how cool he was. He really was like Uncle Buck. On doing 10 auditions for 'Sixteen Candles' and casting John Cusack himself John Cusack, Hall, and Darren Harris in "Sixteen Candles." Universal Is it true you did 10 auditions for the Ted role in "Sixteen Candles"? I think so. It was in that range. Advertisement Was John Hughes at all of them? I believe he was at all of them. As well as Jackie Burch, the casting director. But the thing was that with every successive round of audition, they would add more executives from the studio showing up. So you would feel good if the room filled up more and more. Related stories Exactly. I felt I was getting closer to landing the job because they kept asking me to come back and do the same scenes, and there would be more and more people. Advertisement Do you think you and John clicked through that process, or was it not until filming started? I think it was actually through the audition. Because I felt like he was rooting for me. Is it true that you were the one who cast John Cusack for the role of Bryce, one of Ted's geek friends? Yes. And that was at John Hughes' direction. He literally said that to me one day. He said, "They are going to be your buddies in the movie, so I want you to cast them." I was stunned. I was a 15-year-old kid. I couldn't believe he said that. So I cast John and Darren Harris. Advertisement Hall, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, and Molly Ringwald in "The Breakfast Club." Universal Pictures By the time "The Breakfast Club" came out, you were one of the biggest teen stars in Hollywood. What was that like for you? I was excited and stunned. I think when it started to kick in for me was even before that, it was when we had screenings of "Sixteen Candles." I remember John was doing post-production on "Sixteen Candles," and he wanted to show it to me. I went to the Waldorf Astoria with my father to see John, and he showed it to us on VHS in his beautiful penthouse suite. I remember tripping out because I was watching the movie, and I really laughed and thought it was funny. That marks the beginning of when I felt something was starting for me. By the time "The Breakfast Club" came around, he had called me at home. This is six or eight months later because he did "Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club," and "Weird Science" consecutively. My parents gave me the phone, and he just told me about the movie and my part, and that's how I got involved with that. We would always call each other and talk over the phone, just as friends. On wild nights out while making 'Weird Science' and starring on 'SNL' simultaneously Anthony Michael Hall and Ilan Mitchell-Smith in "Weird Science." Universal We have to talk about 1984 to 1986 because that is a defining moment in your life and career. You were on "Saturday Night Live" as the youngest cast member ever at 17 years old. You were finishing up "Weird Science," and were looking to do your first dramatic role with "Out of Bounds" after declining to play the lead in Hughes' "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." Advertisement You were living in the Chateau Marmont with a giant billboard of "Weird Science" right outside your window. You were flying back to New York weekly for "SNL." And, on either coast, you were partying with the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Mike Tyson. What the heck was life like for you then? Dude, it's like you were there the way you just described that! That was startling. No, it was incredible for me. I remember taking a meeting to do "Out of Bounds," and at that point, I felt personally I was riding the crest of these three John Hughes movies, and I was loving it, but part of me wanted to move forward, and that's why I chose that film. It was a chance to step in a new direction after three comedies. And, yes, I was going back and forth to New York to do "SNL" because my deal for the 1985 season was not like the other cast members — I only did like 13 or 14 episodes while everyone else did 20-22. It was a whirlwind. Anthony Michael Hall in "Out of Bounds." Columbia Pictures A whirlwind for sure. Looking back, did you burn both ends of the candle? It was a lot to deal with, absolutely. And we're talking about the age of 15 to 20. I'd done all those films and "SNL," and truthfully, yeah, those were my partying days. I grew up in Manhattan, so it wasn't something I had to reach for. It was always right there. I certainly had my wild nights. But I feel by the time I was in my mid-20s it shifted because I had to reinvest in my craft and take it seriously and rebuild. Advertisement On his biggest career regret and working with Tim Burton on 'Edward Scissorhands' Matthew Modine was ultimately cast in the lead role, J.T. "Joker" Davis, in "Full Metal Jacket." Warner Bros. I have to bring up one more thing from this time span: Stanley Kubrick calls you to play the lead in "Full Metal Jacket." Oh, shit. Yeah. Related stories Is it true that there was a nine-month negotiating period to determine whether you were going to sign on for the role of Joker? That's right. Advertisement But set the record straight, because you have said different things over the years: Did you walk away because of the money being offered, or was it the character and the amount of time you'd have to dedicate to the role? Here's the thing: I remember I had to go to Kubrick's lawyer's house, who lived in the Bel Air section of Beverly Hills. I was with my father. He escorted me into his kitchen, and I sat down and read a script that was numbered because Kubrick was extremely private, and I read "Full Metal Jacket." But it was such a long and drawn-out process. At one point, I remember the lawyer calling my father, and Kubrick had a question for my father; he wanted to know if he had read a book called "Nuclear Negotiations," because that's how long these talks were going. But to answer your question, and it's a good one, I think it was about not just the money but what it represented. He really wasn't giving me a legitimate deal. And because I did my research, I knew that I'd be working for a year on that movie. In fact, I happened to run into Matthew Modine a year and a half later, and I asked him, "How long did you guys shoot?" And he was like, "54 weeks." So it was about the money. We couldn't come to an agreement on the deal and that's ultimately why I walked away. If I have anything close to a regret in my career, it would be not doing that movie. But I'm not a person who lives with regret, so I feel I grew from that experience. And I wound up having a conversation with him after all that. Advertisement With Kubrick? Yeah. It was really interesting. He basically told me he had a lot of budgetary restraints, and I talked to him about that. Unfortunately, it didn't work out, but I was able to have two conversations with the man: at the beginning, when he offered me the role and he talked about his influences like Chaplin and Russian films, and then at the end. The whole thing was an interesting experience. Hall and Winona Ryder in "Edward Scissorhands." 20th Century Fox You took some time off after "Out of Bounds" and reemerged as the bully Jim in Tim Burton's "Edward Scissorhands." Was it a confidence boost for you when that movie became a hit? It totally was. I remember I got a meeting in New York with Tim. I was super stoked to see him. A modern-day Walt Disney. He was super laid back at the meeting. He was soft-spoken and really chill. And I was in my early 20s by then and had another growth spurt, so I think he loved that coming off the John Hughes movies and people knowing me as the geek from those, he thought it would be interesting to cast me in that Jim role. Basically, to go against type. Advertisement We shot in the Tampa area. I'll never forget: I went into his office, and he had all the drawings for "The Nightmare Before Christmas" on the wall. So he was thinking about that even though he was in production on "Scissorhands." And he would come so alive once he was on set. He's so calm and reserved, but on set, a switch flips and he comes to life. On Christopher Nolan's on-set uniform and developing a 'Succession'-like TV series with Robert Downey Jr. (L-R) Roberty Downey Jr. and Anthony Michael Hall. Eric Charbonneau/WireImage/Getty You have worked with many greats. How do you compare Christopher Nolan when you worked with him on "The Dark Night"? He's up there. Hughes. Burton. Nolan, I love, too. With the scale and the scope of the movie, I always just went with what was on the page; I never tried to improvise. I remember on set, he always wore the same thing: jeans, a vest, and a lengthy jacket. He looked like a conductor. He had a uniform, it seemed. He was kind of like a pied piper because, with every shot, there would be a trail of four or five people behind him. I heard you and Robert Downey Jr. developing something together. Advertisement We are. I can tell you that we are in development; it's been years. We wrote a TV series together, we're calling it "Singularity," and it's based on an idea Downey had. It's taken a while because, at a certain point, we had to change things because it wound up being too similar to "Succession." What I mean by that is I would have played one of three sons, and the father was this tycoon industrialist. It's more of a comedic tone than "Succession," but it mirrored it too much, so we had to change things. Downey and I actually had a Zoom session the other day with a top producer who will hopefully come on board. Would Downey be on camera alongside you? He is willing to do that. He might direct the pilot and some other episodes along with being in it. Would you direct some episodes? Advertisement I would love to. This is really Downey's idea, so he's committed to being a part of it. You've had so many different eras of your career. Is there anything else you still want to try? Writer-director. I've written something that I really want to make. I would star and direct it. It has been a passion and desire for me to do that for many years now. It's the next evolution in my career, being behind the camera. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
What Trump told CEOs in their private meeting 2024-06-13 20:31:00+00:00 - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump gives remarks to the press at the National Republican Senatorial Committee building in Washington, June 13, 2024. Donald Trump huddled with at least 80 CEOs on Thursday in Washington with a clear pitch to them: If he is elected president again in November, the CEOs are going to see tax cuts and a curtailment of business regulations. Trump said that if he is in the White House he will cut taxes, including income taxes, and bring back the same economic policies he enacted during his first term, according to people familiar with the meeting. Trump explained that he wants to bring the federal corporate tax rate down from 21% to 20% if he were to become president, according to a person familiar with his remarks. Trump also mentioned to the CEOs a recent proposal he rolled out in Nevada, to eliminate taxes on worker tips. Trump then told the CEOs a story about how excited tipped workers were about his proposal, prompting laughter from the corporate leaders, according to multiple sources. Trump spoke for about an hour at the Business Roundtable's quarterly meeting. The audience included Apple CEO Tim Cook, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser and Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan. President Joe Biden's chief of staff Jeff Zients addressed the group earlier in the day, according to a source. CNBC sources were granted anonymity in order to speak freely about a private gathering. "We're going to give you more of the same for the next four years," a person who was in the room said, describing Trump's message for the company leaders. Representatives for the Trump campaign and the Business Roundtable did not respond to requests for comment before publication. For Trump and the CEOs who attended, the meeting represented an effort to mend relations after some have distanced themselves from the former president. Business advisory groups were disbanded in 2017 after Trump tried to equate "both sides" of protests in Charlottesville, Va. that featured white nationalists. During the riot on Jan. 6, 2021 on Capitol Hill, executives, including members of the Business Roundtable, called on Trump to stop the violence. Trump also took a dig at Biden. "We need a president who is at the top of his game and let's face it, this president is not at the top of his game." A spokesperson for Cook declined to comment on whether he attended the meeting. Trump told a meeting full of House Republicans earlier in the day about the idea of imposing an "all tariff policy" that would ultimately enable the U.S. to get rid of the income tax.
A Harvard processed foods expert shares 3 simple food swaps you can make for a healthier brain and gut 2024-06-13 20:29:18+00:00 - By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time by visiting our Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of the email. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read preview Once, chicken nuggets were a convenient, popular dinner option for Dr. W. Taylor Kimberly and his family. But after studying ultra-processed foods in more detail, and seeing how they affect the brain, he's switched to grilled chicken instead. Kimberly, a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, is the senior author of a new study linking ultra-processed foods to health risks like dementia and stroke. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. "Since we began this study, I've paid more attention to what I eat," he told Business Insider. "But I'll be honest, there are many I enjoy, and I haven't eliminated them all." Advertisement While it's not news that ultra-processed foods are linked to poor health, the latest study helps us understand not just which foods might be healthy or unhealthy but how to make small, healthy changes without cutting them out entirely. "Ultra-processed foods are such a big part of our diet. They're convenient and easy. There hasn't been as much work on thinking about not just the type of food but also how it's processed," he said. The findings, published June 11 in the journal Neurology, are a step closer to helping scientists understand why processed food might be bad for our health. The study was observational, which means it can't directly tell us if processed food caused the health risks. But it does offer hints at simple ways to make healthier choices, according to Kimberly, who offered tips on picking more nutritious snacks and how much processed food you should aim to cut back on. Advertisement Swapping out as little as two servings of processed food a week can help When Kimberly and his team embarked on their study, their goal was to come up with some actionable advice for people. Is it possible to slightly reduce processed foods — without eliminating them entirely — and meaningfully improve your health? Their research suggested you can. Their study found that a 10% increase in processed food consumption was linked to a higher risk of cognitive impairment. Related stories That's the equivalent of about two meals per week. The research team based their analysis on that amount because it felt like a realistic amount for people to reduce, and an easy goal to remember. Advertisement "The answer we came up with is that we move the needle, and we can take a lot of optimism from that," Kimberly said. "Diet is really hard to change. There are many reasons we eat what we eat, such as time, convenience, and budget . All of these things impact the dietary choices we make," he said. Choose whole foods high-fiber options like nuts and seeds Years of research tell us that processed foods are harmful in part because they're often lacking in fiber and protein, as well as vitamins and minerals. They also introduce unhealthy ingredients into your diet, such as added oil, sugar, salt, and preservatives. That means you can't offset the consequences of a junk food diet by popping some multivitamins or gulping a green juice afterward. Advertisement "If you're not eating a healthy meal, you're also eating an unhealthy meal, so the evidence suggests you can't just add a supplement. It's both sides that are important when thinking about brain health," Kimberly said. The good news is that replacing highly processed foods with healthier alternatives can give you double the benefits because you're adding nutrients and cutting out potentially harmful additives at the same time. For example, swapping French fries for baked sweet potatoes helps to reduce salt and oil in your diet but also brings in more vitamins and minerals. Kimberly's research has inspired him to snack on nuts or carrots instead of cookies or crackers — cutting his sugar intake and quickly increasing the amount of fiber in his diet. Advertisement "We're not just feeding ourselves when we eat. We're feeding a really complicated ecosystem in the gut that helps metabolize what we eat," Kimberly said. Aim for ingredients you recognize You don't have to give up processed foods completely to improve your health. When you're reaching for something cheap and convenient, it can help to choose healthier processed food options that have recognizable ingredients, according to Kimberly. "If you look at it and think, that could be made in my kitchen, that's a good indicator," he said. In the long run, it can be more helpful to make a few small swaps you can stick to than trying (and failing) to swear off processed foods forever. Advertisement "In a perfect world, we would all eat unprocessed foods, but that's not reality," Kimberly said. "It's not a sprint. Short, big changes aren't the goal. Even modest changes, if they're sustainable, can matter."
Courting C.E.O.s, Trump Says He Intends to Cut Corporate Taxes Again 2024-06-13 20:29:16+00:00 - Former President Donald J. Trump told a group of America’s most powerful chief executives on Thursday that he intended to cut the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 21 percent, according to three people who attended the meeting and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the ground rules stipulated the meeting was off the record. Mr. Trump made the remarks from a comfortable gray armchair during a conversation with his former economic adviser Larry Kudlow in front of the audience of dozens of leading chief executives, including Tim Cook of Apple, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Doug McMillon of Walmart and Charles W. Scharf of Wells Fargo. They had gathered on Thursday morning in Washington for a meeting of the Business Roundtable, an influential corporate group, and there was said to be palpable relief in the room when Mr. Trump, who has been trying to woo business leaders as potential donors, told the executives much of what they had hoped to hear. Many leaders in corporate America have been nervous that in a second term, Mr. Trump might not be as friendly toward them as he was in his first. Many ended up abandoning him and publicly criticizing him, especially after the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Tyson Foods suspends company heir, CFO John R. Tyson after arrest for intoxication 2024-06-13 20:27:00+00:00 - Tyson Foods has suspended the company's chief financial officer, John R. Tyson, after he was arrested for allegedly driving while intoxicated. University of Arkansas police in Fayetteville, Arkansas, arrested Tyson, 34, early Thursday for driving under the influence, according to police records. Other charges included careless driving and making an illegal turn. He was released from custody the same day on a $1,105 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on July 15. Tyson is the great-grandson of the company's founder, John W. Tyson, and son of the food giant's current chairman, John H. Tyson. "We are aware that John Randal Tyson, Chief Financial Officer of Tyson Foods, was arrested for an alleged DWI. Tyson Foods has suspended Mr. Tyson from his duties effective immediately and named Curt Calaway as interim Chief Financial Officer," Springdale, Arkansas-based Tyson Foods said in a statement The incident is the second time in recent years that Tyson, a former investment banker who joined Tyson Foods in 2019, has been arrested. He was previously arrested in 2022 on charges of public intoxication and criminal trespassing after allegedly entering a Fayetteville woman's home and falling asleep in her bed. The woman did not know who Tyson was and called the police, KNWA Fox 24 reported at the time. Tyson pleaded guilty to both charges and settled them by paying fines and court fees. He also apologized in a companywide memo and said he was getting counseling for alcohol abuse. A fourth-generation member of the family that controls the $19 billion meat-processing company, Tyson was named CFO in September of 2022. Tyson Foods, founded in 1935, has 139,000 employees and reported 2023 sales of $52.8 billion. —The Associated Press contributed to this report
Broadcom surges to a record after earnings. 3 reasons why the stock can go even higher 2024-06-13 20:15:00+00:00 - Broadcom surged more than 12% to a record high Thursday following an excellent fiscal second-quarter earnings report on Wednesday night . Here are three reasons why the chip stock should keep moving higher. 1. AI data center demand shows no signs of letting up Behind Nvidia , Broadcom is our second favorite way to invest in the artificial intelligence boom , and that part of the company's business is poised for more growth ahead. Broadcom's networking revenue — which is benefiting greatly from the demand to build out AI-oriented data centers — was up 44% year over year in the three months ended May 5. It accounted for 53% of sales for Broadcom's entire semiconductor segment, up from 39% in the year-ago period, and about 30.5% of companywide revenue. Crucially, management on Wednesday raised its full-year AI revenue forecast to $11 billion, from $10 billion previously. Many on Wall Street, including us, believe the revised guide is conservative. A key source of this growth: Broadcom is the partner of choice for Club names Alphabet and Meta Platforms , along with TikTok parent ByteDance, in those companies' efforts to build custom chips for AI applications. The other part of Broadcom's AI business is selling products like Ethernet switches that help stitch together servers inside data centers. AI custom accelerator and networking revenue rose 280% on an annual basis to $3.1 billion in the quarter. Considering what cloud-computing giants said about their capital expenditure intentions this earnings season, we see plenty of runway left for networking and custom-chip sales. Moreover, the AI data center theme could get a boost now that Apple has officially entered the fold earlier this week, with the announcement of its generative AI software offering branded as Apple Intelligence. Putting generative AI capabilities into the pockets of consumers is a surefire way to speed up adoption and increase usage. AVGO 1Y mountain Broadcom's stock performance over the past 12 months. 2. The cyclical legacy business is bottoming While Broadcom's AI-related sales are on fire, its legacy hardware business — wireless, server and storage connective, broadband, and industrial — has been in the house of pain for quite some time, including in Wednesday's report. Investors have been focused on its AI opportunity, so problems in these more cyclical end markets have recently not been an issue for the stock, which has nearly doubled over the past 12 months. The weakness has now become the opportunity. On Wednesday's earnings call, CEO Hock Tan said the non-AI portion of its semiconductor business has bottomed out on a combined basis and will rebound into the next fiscal year. In other words, just under half of its semiconductor business is on track to become a positive contributor to companywide growth — rather than a drag on it. The setup is especially strong for the wireless portion of Broadcom's legacy chip business. Given its size, it should be a significant contributor to the non-AI recovery. Wireless is the second-largest individual piece to the semiconductor segment, representing about 22% of revenues in the second quarter. Apple's announcements this week increase our confidence in the wireless comeback. Broadcom won't call them out by name, but the "large North America customer" management sometimes mentions when discussing the wireless unit is widely understood to be Apple. Tan said on the call Wednesday that customer — aka Apple — is all of Broadcom's wireless business. As we explained Monday night, we're betting a significant iPhone upgrade cycle will begin later this year as consumers look to buy new devices capable of running Apple Intelligence — and that's good news for Broadcom. Currently, only high-end iPhone 15s, which were released in 2023, have an adequate processor to support the AI software package. Wall Street estimates for Broadcom's wireless business will need to rise to reflect the increased iPhone demand we expect to see. 3. Improving financial health as debt paid down Broadcom's blockbuster acquisition of cloud-computing software firm VMWare is off to a strong start since it closed in November. Broadcom took on a lot of debt to finance the takeover, but the company is more than capable of working that down over time due to its proven ability to generate robust free cash flow. By the end of its fiscal year, Wall Street is projecting Broadcom's net debt level to drop to $55 billion from $64 billion currently, according to FactSet. An additional $11 billion is expected to be shaved off by the end of fiscal 2025. This matters for a few reasons. For starters, it helps support the company's valuation multiple, which has justifiably moved up due to its AI exposure to roughly 30 times forward earnings; at the start of the calendar year, the stock traded at 23 times forward earnings. Additionally, paying down debt opens the door for Tan to find his next growth acquisition, which he's proven to have a knack for doing successfully. Stepping up buybacks is another option. Bottom line There's so much to still like about the Broadcom story even with the stock at fresh highs. To be sure, we may book profits after Broadcom's 10-for-1 stock split — announced Wednesday night alongside earnings — takes effect post-market close on July 12. But that would simply be our discipline trumping conviction. Our conviction tells us Broadcom shares can keep moving higher as AI demand shows no sign of letting up, the legacy business swings back into growth mode and a healthier balance sheet gives management optionality to repurchase stock or acquire another attractive business. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long AVGO, NVDA, META and GOOGL. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED. A sign is posted in front of a Broadcom office in San Jose, California, on June 3, 2021. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images
FDA took months to react to complaint about Abbott infant formula factory, audit finds 2024-06-13 20:06:17+00:00 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration took more than 15 months to act on a whistleblower complaint it received about conditions at an Abbott Nutrition factory that was at the center of a nationwide shortage of infant formula, a new audit shows. The Department of Labor received the email and three days later forwarded it to an FDA address specifically for such complaints. But one of several staff members charged with managing the FDA inbox at the time “inadvertently archived” the email in February 2021, and it wasn’t found until a reporter requested it in June 2022. The episode is one of several that led the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General to conclude in a report Thursday that the FDA’s policies and procedures to address the issues at the Abbott plant were inadequate. The FDA took some actions and did follow-up inspections but “more could have been done leading up to the Abbott powdered infant formula recall,” the auditors wrote. The FDA needs better policies for reporting the status of complaints to senior leaders and to make sure that inspections are done quickly, the report concluded. “The key is, moving forward, FDA should be doing better, and the American public should expect better,” Assistant Inspector General Carla Lewis said in an interview. Several infants were hospitalized, and two died, of a rare bacterial infection after being fed the powered formula made at Abbott’s Michigan plant, the nation’s largest. The FDA shuttered the site for several months starting in February 2022, and the company recalled several lots of popular formulas including Similac, Alimentum and EleCare. FDA inspectors eventually uncovered a host of violations at the plant, including bacterial contamination, a leaky roof and lax safety protocols, but the agency never found a direct link between the infections and the formula. The new report also found it took 102 days for the FDA to inspect the factory after receiving a different whistleblower complaint in October 2021. In that time, the agency received two complaints — one of an illness and another of a death — among infants who consumed formula from the plant, but formula samples were negative for cronobacter, the bacteria in question. The FDA said in a statement that it agreed with the inspector general’s conclusions. In its own 2022 report, the agency acknowledged that its response was slowed by delays in processing a whistleblower complaint and factory test samples. “It should be noted that the OIG’s evaluation represents a snapshot in time, and the FDA continues to make progress,” an FDA spokesperson said. The FDA established a “critical foods investigator cadre, which will solely focus on the inspection and oversight of the infant formula (and other critical foods) industry,” the spokesperson said. It also started improving how it tracks hard-copy mail items, which can include complaints, the FDA said. Dr. Steven Abrams, a pediatrics professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said he agreed with the report’s recommendations, which include that Congress should give the FDA the power to require manufacturers report any test showing infant formula contamination, even if the product doesn’t leave the factory. “Like anything else, there were mistakes made. But the government is working very hard, including the FDA. It’s fixing the gaps that existed,” Abrams said. “People have to be comfortable with the safety of powdered infant formula.” ___ AP Health Writer JoNel Aleccia contributed to this report. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Trump offers CEOs a cut to corporate taxes. Biden’s team touts his support for global alliances 2024-06-13 20:03:09+00:00 - WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump told an influential group of CEOs that he wants to further cut the corporate tax rate he lowered while in office, while President Joe Biden’s chief of staff separately told them that the Democratic incumbent’s emphasis on global alliances would help their businesses. Both Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, and Jeffrey Zients met behind closed doors on Thursday with the Business Roundtable in Washington, with Zients stepping in for Biden during the president’s meetings with Group of Seven leaders in Italy. The prominent group representing more than 200 CEOs just rolled out an effort to preserve the tax breaks for businesses that Trump signed into law in 2017. Neither side commented publicly on what was said in the meeting, which comes as Biden and Trump head toward a 2020 rematch with sharply different views on taxes and the economy. Trump said that he would like to cut the corporate tax rate by a percentage point to an even 20%, according to a person familiar with his remarks who insisted on anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting. The former president focused his remarks on taxes, inflation and the need for more oil production, the person said. Another person familiar with the conversations said Zients made the case that America’s global reputation and its independent institutions such as the Federal Reserve fostered the kind of trust worldwide that allowed U.S. capitalism to thrive. The statements were a jab at Trump’s camp, as the former president had previously hit allies with tariffs and sought greater control over Fed policies. What to know about the 2024 Election Democracy: American democracy has overcome big stress tests since 2020. More challenges lie ahead in 2024. American democracy has overcome big stress tests since 2020. AP’s Role: The Associated Press is the most trusted source of information on election night, with a history of accuracy dating to 1848. Learn more. The Associated Press is the most trusted source of information on election night, with a history of accuracy dating to 1848. Read the latest: Follow AP’s complete coverage of this year’s election. Zients said the post-pandemic economic recovery was possible in part because the Biden administration worked with businesses on issues such as supply chains, the person said. And he indicated to the CEOs that Trump’s pledges to deport millions of people and wage potential trade wars could drive up inflation. The person also insisted on anonymity to discuss details of the meeting, having not been authorized to do so publicly. The Business Roundtable has made low taxes its top legislative priority. The group announced that it would spend at least $10 million on a campaign to keep the corporate tax rate at 21% as well as promote business-friendly changes to the U.S. tax code and push to extend tax incentives for research and development. Part of the 2017 tax cuts that Trump signed into law while president is expiring after 2025, likely raising taxes for most U.S. households. That sets up a showdown between Democrats and Republicans about how to rewrite the tax code. Leaders from both parties want to preserve the cuts for those making under $400,000. But some Trump backers want to expand the tax cuts, including for companies. Biden would like to raise the corporate rate to 28% and introduce higher taxes on the wealthy to fund programs for the middle class. The Biden administration has also maintained that tax cuts should be paid for as part of a proposal, while the 2017 overhaul approved by Trump led to higher budget deficits as the promised growth did not materialize. Recent economic research indicates that Trump’s corporate tax cuts did boost business investment, but not by enough for the additional growth needed to cover the cost of those tax cuts. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that a full extension of the expiring tax cuts would cost $4.9 trillion over 10 years, including additional interest on the debt. The federal government’s publicly held debt stands at nearly $27.6 trillion. Business leaders argue that lower taxes make them more competitive globally. That enables them to hire more workers and invest in new technologies. This, in turn, would help boost growth. BRT members from Cisco and Procter & Gamble told reporters Wednesday that higher rates would cause them to invest less in the U.S. Jon Moeller, P&G’s CEO and board chairman, said a tax increase would likely be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices, limit wage growth for employees and be borne by shareholders. “Making the assumption that companies are big and strong and they can absorb this, that’s kind of naive in terms of what will actually happen,” Moeller said. “It’s a societal impact.” Biden’s budget proposal would raise corporate taxes by nearly $2.2 trillion over 10 years. More than half of that new revenue would come from resetting the corporate tax rate at 28% — an increase, though still lower than the 35% rate Trump inherited. Trump, meanwhile, has suggested that higher corporate taxes would ravage the nation itself. “Biden wants to raise taxes on top of that and raise business taxes, which will lead to the destruction of your jobs and, you know what, ultimately it’s just going to lead to the destruction of the country,” Trump said at a rally in May.
The House GOP’s cotempt vote is about more than Merrick Garland 2024-06-13 19:56:29+00:00 - The House voted on Wednesday to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to play along with Republicans’ attempt to politically embarrass Garland’s boss. The contempt referral, which saw every Republican but one sign off on the resolution, marks the third presidential administration in a row to see the House pass a contempt resolution against an attorney general. That statistic suggests a partisan tit-for-tat, but it belies major differences between the cases, both in substance and in politics. This week’s vote showcases the GOP’s willingness to dull the tools to hold officials accountable. The goal is to bludgeon their opponents and lessen the sting when those tools are later used against Republicans. That statistic suggests a partisan tit-for-tat, but it belies major differences between the cases, both in substance and in politics. At issue in Wednesday’s vote was Garland’s decision not to turn over audio of special counsel Robert Hur’s interview with President Joe Biden. That interview was conducted last year as Hur was investigating Biden for his handling of classified documents after leaving the vice presidency. Hur opted against pressing charges, but he did issue a scathing report calling Biden an “elderly man with a poor memory.” Hur’s report, however, was undercut by the full transcript. In part to revive the investigation’s political utility, House Republicans want the audio so that it could be played ad nauseum between now and the election. Garland cited executive privilege over the recordings, given the clear lack of legislative purpose when the transcript has already been delivered. Unsurprisingly, that didn’t satisfy the same Republicans who led the failed efforts to find impeachment-worthy evidence against Biden, and who are now taking out their ire on the attorney general. This situation is similar to one from just over a decade ago, when Congress first held a sitting Cabinet member in contempt. Flashback to the Obama administration, when House Republicans were angry at Attorney General Eric Holder over his handling of the “Fast and Furious” scandal. We don’t have time to get into the details of the government’s extremely stupid sting operation to track gun running in Mexico, but it was a favorite GOP talking point to beat for years. Reflecting that bipartisanship was even then on life support, seven Democrats voted with all but two Republicans on the contempt resolution against Holder for refusing to hand over every requested document. Tellingly, the furor was just the latest version of Republicans accusing Democrats of a dastardly cover-up in an attempt to find a party-swapped version of the Watergate scandal. It was the exact same playbook we later saw the House run to gin up Fox News headlines, with claims that the IRS was supposedly targeting conservatives (it wasn’t) or that the Obama administration had purposefully lied to the American public about its failure to prevent a terror attack in Libya (it didn’t). Let’s compare those circumstances to those surrounding William Barr, the second attorney general under former President Donald Trump, being hit with a contempt resolution. He and then-Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross were called out for refusing to turn over documents related to the Trump administration’s attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. Ross had claimed that the data would be used to help enforce voting rights laws, an explanation that defied basically everything about the Trump administration’s view of both voting rights and undocumented immigrants. Unlike the examples from the Obama era, though, there actually was underhandedness afoot: the administration really did lie about its rationale for adding the census question. The Supreme Court eventually smacked down the attempted changes to the census in large part for the administration being shady about their motives. Chief Justice John Roberts went so far in the opinion as to call the justifications for the question “contrived” and “a distraction” that illegally hid the true reasons for the Trump administration’s decision. Holding Garland in contempt is the most recent attempt to flatten the playing field in voter’s minds. Broadening the scope a little, the resolution against Garland also stands apart from the contempt cases against Trump allies for defying subpoenas from the House Jan. 6 committee. The House approved referrals for contempt against former White House adviser Steve Bannon, former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows for their refusal to cooperate with the investigation. The Justice Department filed charges against Bannon and Navarro and won convictions in both cases. (That’s not even getting into the fact that several of the members who voted to hold Garland in contempt had also defied congressional subpoenas themselves.) Holding Garland in contempt is the most recent attempt to flatten the playing field in voter’s minds. After all, if both sides are holding each other in contempt, then there’s no reason to believe that Republicans have done anything uniquely wrong. But despite their attempts to claim otherwise, just because both parties have used a mechanism for accountability does not mean it was done for equally valid reasons. Trump’s impeachments were based on evidence that he had committed high crimes and misdemeanors. Despite lacking similar evidence, Republicans have used the very fact the impeachments against him occurred as an excuse to act out a pantomime of the same process against Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. In targeting Garland, Republicans are once again using a tool intended to promote transparency and oversight to take cheap shots at an opponent and weaken the tool’s impact when GOP officials are once again in the crosshairs.
Tyson Foods suspends CFO after second arrest 2024-06-13 19:45:00+00:00 - Tyson Foods said on Thursday it has suspended its chief financial officer, John R. Tyson, after he was charged with driving while intoxicated in Arkansas. The company said it has appointed Curt Calaway as its interim CFO. Tyson, 34, was arrested at 1:32 a.m. on Thursday and released nine hours later, according to Washington County Detention Center. Tyson Foods is headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas. In 2022, two months after being named CFO of the meat giant, Tyson was arrested after becoming intoxicated and falling asleep in the wrong house. A week later, he apologized to investors for the incident on the company’s earnings call. Tyson plead guilty to the charges. Tyson is the son of the company’s chairman, John H. Tyson, and the great-grandson of founder John W. Tyson. He joined the company in 2019 after working in investment banking, private equity and venture capital. His appointment raised some eyebrows on Wall Street.
Israeli troops use medieval-style trebuchet weapon in fighting at Lebanon border 2024-06-13 19:42:00+00:00 - TEL AVIV — Israeli troops stationed on the Lebanese border fired a medieval-style siege weapon known as a trebuchet amid recent fighting against Hezbollah militants, an Israeli military official confirmed to NBC News. Video of the weapon hurling a fireball emerged Thursday, sparking equal measures of confusion and amusement in Israel, even as Israeli troops and Hezbollah were locked in some of the most intense fighting of the war. The six-second video shows Israeli troops looking on as the trebuchet — which largely disappeared from the battlefield in the 15th century — fires a flaming projectile over a fortified wall. One soldier is seen holding a fire extinguisher in case something were to go awry. An Israeli military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said the weapon is not part of the IDF’s standard arsenal and is believed to have been built by reservist soldiers stationed on the border. Israeli troops stationed on the Lebanese border fired a medieval-style siege weapon known as a trebuchet to burn thickets and bushes on the Lebanese side of the border. via NBC News The official said that while the weapon was not sanctioned by military leadership, the troops were fulfilling a legitimate military task of burning away thick shrubbery along the border where Hezbollah fighters sometimes hide. The weapon will not be used again, the official added. The Israel Defense Forces did not respond to a request for a formal comment. Hezbollah has fired more than 200 rockets into Israel since Wednesday, according to the IDF, in what appears to be the largest bombardment by the Iranian-backed militant group since cross-border fighting flared Oct. 8. Hezbollah said the firing was in response to an Israeli strike that killed one of its senior commanders Tuesday. The low-tech siege weapon, which appeared to be made of wood, was used as the sky above was filled with some of the warring sides’ most advanced technologies. Israeli fighter jets have been streaking over the border in one direction, while Hezbollah’s increasingly sophisticated explosive drones have been flying in the other. The trebuchet, to understate it slightly, does not have that level of precision targeting. First used in battle in the 4th century B.C., its basic design involves a heavy weight that drops and causes a long arm with a sling attached to arc skyward, hurling a stone or another projectile toward its target. A useful weapon for besieging medieval castles, it dwindled into irrelevance with the advent of reliable gunpowder artillery.
Netflix hunts for a production partner for its Christmas NFL games 2024-06-13 19:39:00+00:00 - Netflix is trying to get ready for some football. The streaming giant has been reaching out to broadcasters this week in the hopes of finding a partner to produce the NFL games it will air on Christmas Day this year, according to people familiar with the matter. Netflix will show two games on Christmas Day this year, followed by at least one matchup in both 2025 and 2026, the company announced last month. This is Netflix’s first real foray into traditional live sports, driven by the company’s ambitions to grow its advertising tier. The company signed a deal earlier this year with WWE to be the home for its live “Raw” events, but Netflix dubbed that deal as “sports entertainment.” Unlike WWE, Netflix’s deal for Christmas NFL games doesn’t come with a full production team. That’s left the streamer looking for help. Netflix has been in touch with the broadcasters that currently air NFL games, including Disney’s ESPN, Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Paramount Global’s CBS Sports, said the people familiar, who asked not to be named because the discussions have been private. Disney won’t produce the games because it already has college football obligations the same day, two of the people said. In-depth discussions haven’t begun with the other broadcasters, but Netflix’s options may be somewhat limited. Fox and CBS Sports already produce various games in different regions each week, which could make taking on additional games for Netflix a burden, some of the people said. There’s also competition to consider. Amazon inked a deal with NBCUniversal to produce its NFL games before its first season of “Thursday Night Football” in 2022, but there may be more resistance among current NFL partners to help out Netflix, according to people familiar with the matter. That’s because Netflix could be auditioning as a future long-term media rights partner for NFL games in place of a legacy media company, such as Paramount, Fox or NBC. The NFL has an out clause in its current media contracts that allows it to select new media partners after the 2029-30 season. Representatives for Netflix, the NFL, NBCUniversal, CBS, ESPN and Fox declined to comment. Welcoming Netflix Netflix announced its entry into the NFL in mid-May ahead of its Upfront presentation, when it tried to woo advertisers for its burgeoning ad-supported platform. Netflix said last month it has reached 40 million global active users for its advertising tier, which costs $6.99 per month in the U.S. and debuted in November 2022. In May, co-CEO Ted Sarandos told CNBC that the NFL was the right fit for Netflix because it matched the streamer’s event strategy — effectively allowing Netflix to own the day. Netflix will pay the NFL roughly $75 million per game, CNBC previously reported. For the NFL, Netflix represents the chance to reach a global, younger audience. There’s also the potential to lay the groundwork for Netflix to become a future bidder on a larger package of games. The NFL signed long-term deals in 2021 with Disney, Paramount, NBCUniversal, Fox and Amazon for its five primary packages of games. While there is some trepidation among current media partners to produce games for a potential rival, pressure from the league — and a hefty paycheck from Netflix — could convince broadcasters to strike a deal, according to people familiar with the matter. “There aren’t that many players in the space who are capable of doing this at a level that you would want to trust when you’re launching as a new partner with a league as important as the NBA or the NFL,” said Shirin Malkani, co-chair of the sports industry group at law firm Perkins Coie, adding that the production side “can be a big hole for streaming partners.” Netflix and the league are looking to mirror the partnership that Amazon’s Prime Video lined up with Comcast’s NBC Sports for “Thursday Night Football” games. While NBC Sports’ Fred Gaudelli produced the 2022 season of “Thursday Night Football,” Amazon appointed Mark Teitelman, one of its own employees, to the role of lead game producer in 2023. Amazon produces all of its pregame, halftime and postgame coverage, but NBC Sports is in charge of the extensive production work that goes into an NFL game, and employs the vast majority of those workers. Netflix is interested in finding a similar partner, according to people familiar with its plans. If a deal can’t be made with one of the incumbents, Netflix could find other options with third-party producers. Endeavor Group Holdings’ IMG is the production partner for Major League Soccer, which is offered through Apple. “It’s not easy to do an NFL game at a level that people are used to watching, which is a very high level and well produced,” said Jonathan Miller, chief executive of Integrated Media, which specializes in digital media investment. “But there’s a number of options out there that can pull it together without [Netflix] having a fully staffed sports division.” Shifting to streaming Amazon Prime Video was the first streamer to obtain exclusive rights to NFL games as the league pushed to broaden its media partners and have more streaming offerings to widen its audience. Amazon reached its deal to carry “Thursday Night Football” in 2021 in conjunction with the rest of the media rights deals for the NFL — an 11-year media rights agreement worth over $100 billion, with an opt out clause at the seven-year mark. Given the recent NBA media rights negotiations, which are beckoning top dollar from various media companies, many in and around the industry expect the NFL to exercise the clause and look for new partners. Since the NFL has inked its deal, streaming services for Comcast, ESPN and Paramount have begun to simultaneously stream games, and in some cases, hosted games exclusively. Alphabet’s YouTube TV is also the new home of the “Sunday Ticket” package of games. Sports, particularly the NFL, have been the glue holding the traditional TV bundle together — and have also proved to be a boost to streaming. NBCUniversal said in April its exclusive NFL wild-card game on Peacock helped to add, and then retain, more customers than expected. The league has been vocal in its push to add more streaming partners in an effort to widen its audience. That was the thinking behind the deal with Netflix to stream these Christmas Day games. When the “Sunday Ticket” rights negotiations were underway, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told CNBC the longtime package offered only by DirecTV would move to streaming. “I think that’s best for consumers at this stage,” Goodell said at the time. Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
F.A.A. Administrator Says Previous Oversight of Boeing Was ‘Too Hands-Off’ 2024-06-13 19:28:44+00:00 - The Federal Aviation Administration’s top official acknowledged on Thursday that the agency failed to adequately oversee Boeing and that it should have had better visibility into the plane manufacturer’s safety practices long before a door panel blew off a plane while it was in flight on Jan. 5. Mike Whitaker, the agency’s administrator, appeared before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee weeks after Boeing, which has experienced a spate of problems, submitted a comprehensive plan detailing how it would overhaul its quality control practices and safety culture. “The F.A.A.’s approach was too hands-off, too focused on paperwork audits and not focused enough on inspections,” Mr. Whitaker said. “We have changed that approach over the last several months, and those changes are permanent.” Mr. Whitaker said the changes included permanently increasing the agency’s use of in-person inspections and barring Boeing from increasing production of its 737 Max jets until the agency is satisfied with the company’s quality control and safety improvements. The F.A.A. will also continue to maintain a presence at the company’s factories and one of its suppliers, Spirit Aerosystems.