Business

ATLANTA — Georgia’s state government is diverting $100 million to spend on loans to farmers and cleanup after Hurricane Helene. The Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission voted unanimously Friday to spend the money, which had been set aside for construction projects or paying off existing debt. Officials last month estimated that the storm, which … Read more

AGUA CLARA, Brazil — A historic agreement that’s helped curb deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon for nearly two decades suffered a major blow after Mato Grosso, the country´s largest soybean-producing state, passed a law ending incentives for participating processing and trade companies. The law passed last week was designed to void the Soy Moratorium — a … Read more

Carol Lombardini, who represented the major studios at the bargaining table during last year’s writers’ and actors’ strikes, is set to step down as president and chief negotiator of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in 2025. A spokesperson for the AMPTP confirmed Lombardini’s forthcoming exit Thursday night in an email, adding that … Read more

Google executives spooked employees at a creepy meeting this week — wearing festive Halloween costumes as they fielded questions about further cost-cutting and layoffs, according to a report. During the all-hands meeting on Wednesday, Google’s chief scientist, Jeff Dean, wore a starfish costume. CFO Anat Ashkenazi wore a sports jersey of former Indiana Pacers star … Read more

WASHINGTON — Next week’s presidential election isn’t just a referendum on Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. It’s also a measure of the influence the world’s richest man wields over American democracy. Elon Musk, the South African-born tech and business titan, has spent at least $119 million mobilizing Trump’s supporters to back the Republican nominee. His … Read more

NEW YORK — Online video production company MrBeast said Friday it has fired somewhere between 5 to 10 employees following an investigation into the YouTube empire’s workplace culture. A company spokesman declined to put a precise number on the firings, say which employees were let go or for what reasons. But the shakeup comes as … Read more

Sony Pictures Television, producer of the long-running “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy!” TV programs, is suing CBS, the game shows’ distributor, for breach of contract. Sony claims that CBS entered into unauthorized licensing deals for the shows — two of the most popular and profitable TV programs — and then paid itself a commission on … Read more

A depiction of Nexus satellites in a medium Earth orbit constellation. Astranis The U.S. Air Force began deploying the Global Positioning System — more commonly known as GPS — nearly 50 years ago, satellites which have become critical infrastructure for both the military and the economy. Since then, GPS is estimated to have generated more … Read more

The massive run up in shares of DJT, the stock symbol for Donald J. Trump’s social media company Truth Social, has been described by me and others as a meme-induced phenomenon. The stock is buoyed by what some might say is an irrational degree of exuberance that Trump will win the presidential election – which … Read more

OpenAI is taking on Google, the most dominant search engine, with its own SearchGPT. The startup on Thursday unveiled its artificial intelligence-powered search engine, which offers users real-time sports scores, stock quotes, news, weather and more, the company said. OpenAI has partnered with a number of news organizations so its search engine will be able … Read more