Global News

[ad_1] A sign hangs outside the Shein warehouse in Whitestown, Indiana, on Nov. 29, 2023. Scott Olson | Getty Images The chair of a powerful House committee is drilling down on Shein's data privacy practices and its relationship with the Chinese Communist Party as the fast-fashion giant moves closer to a U.S. initial public offering .  Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington Republican who leads the House's Committee on Energy and Commerce, sent a letter to Shein on Wednesday asking about the user data it collects and the communications it has had with the Chinese government. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., who chairs the panel's Subcommittee on Innovation, Data and Commerce, co-signed the letter. The lawmakers sent similar missives to TikTok, Temu and Alibaba.  "Media reports indicate that Chinese-owned e-commerce marketplaces are increasingly popular in the western world. This is a serious risk for e-commerce, consumer safety, and people's data privacy and s

[ad_1] General view of the UBS building in Manhattan on June 5, 2023 in New York City. Eduardo Munoz Alvarez | View Press | Corbis News | Getty Images UBS on Thursday posted a second-quarter profit of $28.88 billion in its first quarterly earnings since Switzerland's largest bank completed its takeover of stricken rival Credit Suisse . Analysts had projected a net profit of $12.8 billion for the three months to the end of June, according to a Reuters poll. UBS said the result primarily reflected $28.93 billion in negative goodwill on the Credit Suisse acquisition. Underlying profit before tax, which excludes negative goodwill, integration-related expenses and acquisition costs, came in at $1.1 billion. Negative goodwill represents the fair value of assets acquired in a merger over and above the purchase price. UBS paid a discounted 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.4 billion) to acquire Credit Suisse in March. "Two and a half months since closing the Credit Suisse acquisition,

[ad_1] A person receives a COVID-19 vaccination dose, during a free distribution of COVID-19 rapid test kits for those who received vaccination shots or booster shots, at Union Station on January 7, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. Mario Tama | Getty Images The U.S. Food and Drug Administration 's independent panel of advisors raised doubts about the need to "periodically" update Covid vaccines, noting that it's unclear if the virus is seasonal like the flu. Advisors on Thursday unanimously voted that new jabs for the fall should be monovalent — meaning they are designed against one variant of Covid — and target one of the omicron XBB strains . Those are now the dominant variants nationwide.  But the original voting question included language about whether the panel recommends a "periodic update" to Covid shots.  Dr. Peter Marks, head of the FDA's vaccine division, asked the panel's chair to strike the wording from the question after severa

[ad_1] Nicolas Jammet, chief concept officer and co-founder of Sweetgreen Inc., right, eats a salad during the company's initial public offering (IPO) on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021. Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images Sweetgreen on Thursday reported a narrower-than-expected loss in its first quarter after slowing its expansion to focus on profitability. The salad chain, which went public in November 2021, is aiming to turn a profit for the first time by 2024. Last quarter, it announced it would take a more conservative approach to entering new markets. It's also cutting support-center costs and simplifying its management structure. Sweetgreen shares rose 7% in extended trading. Here's what the company reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv: Loss per share: 30 cents vs. 35 cents expected Revenue: $125.1 million vs. $126 million expected

[ad_1] The US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on June 27, 2023. Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday blocked in full a lower court ruling that would have curbed the Biden administration's ability to communicate with social media companies about contentious content on such issues as Covid-19. The decision in a  short unsigned order  puts on hold a Louisiana-based judge's ruling in July that specific agencies and officials should be barred from meeting with companies to discuss whether certain content should be stifled. The Supreme Court also agreed to immediately take up the government's appeal, meaning it will hear arguments and issue a ruling on the merits in its current term, which runs until the end of June. Three conservative justices noted that they would have denied the application: Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch. "At this time in the history of our country, what the court has done, I fear, will be seen by so

[ad_1] A pilot performs a walkaround before a United Airlines flight Leslie Josephs/CNBC U.S. passenger airlines have added nearly 194,000 jobs since 2021 as companies went on a hiring spree after spending months in a pandemic slump, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Now the industry is cooling its hiring. Airlines are close to their staffing needs but the slowdown is also coming in part because they're facing a slew of challenges. A glut of flights in the U.S. has pushed down fares and eaten into airlines' profits . Demand growth has moderated. Airplanes are arriving late from Boeing and Airbus , prompting airlines to rethink their expansions. Engines are in short supply . Some carriers are deferring airplane deliveries altogether. And labor costs have climbed after groups like pilots and mechanics inked new contracts with big raises, their first in years. Annual pay for a three-year first officer on midsized equipment at U.S. airlines averaged $170

[ad_1] Passengers make their way through the terminal as they travel ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday at Washington Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, on Nov. 22, 2023. Kevin Lamarque | Reuters In air travel, minutes matter. A few moments could be the difference between making and missing a connection for passengers — and could avoid delays that ripple across the schedule for airlines. Saved time could even lead to big savings for carriers as they scramble to get a handle on costs. Major airlines are rolling out strategies that executives say could translate to lower costs and more efficient operations, even if the time savings on paper look negligible. Some of these tools will be put to the test during what's expected to be a busy holiday season , a year after a meltdown that stranded thousands of passengers at the end of 2022. Many of the improvements are being made behind the scenes. American Airlines last year started using new technology to assign flight

[ad_1] "Store Closing" signs at a Buy Buy Baby store in the Brooklyn borough of New York, on Monday, Feb. 6, 2023. Stephanie Keith | Bloomberg | Getty Images Bed Bath & Beyond canceled a Friday auction for its Buy Buy Baby chain because it failed to secure a buyer willing to keep its stores running – but it's not quite over for the baby retailer just yet, CNBC has learned. Bidders backed out of the auction after they determined the chain was no longer worth buying because its value had deteriorated so much , but there are parties still interested in its assets, according to two people close to the matter who weren't authorized to discuss it publicly. While it would be unusual, Bed Bath & Beyond could still accept a bid for Buy Buy Baby early next week. The chain's fate won't be definitively determined until Tuesday, when a court hearing is scheduled to approve the sale of Buy Buy Baby's intellectual property to Dream on Me Industries. The com

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: The Centre on Friday moved to soothe sentiments of investors, with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman saying the exposure of banks and financial institutions to the Adani Group was well within permissible limits. She added that investor confidence in India would remain high as the markets were well-regulated. “India remains, as before, very well governed, (with a) stable government, and a very well-regulated financial market. As a result, investor confidence, which existed before, shall continue even now. Our regulators are normally very-very stringent about governance practices and therefore, one instance, however much talked about globally it may be, is not going to be indicative of how well financial markets are governed. So many lessons have been learnt over the decades and our regulators have kept the markets well in prime and prim condition,” the FM told a TV channel in her first comments since the report by Hindenburg Research hit Adani stocks. Keepi

[ad_1] KHARTOUM, Sudan - May 6, 2023: Sudanese Army sodliers walk near armoured vehicles stationed on a street in southern Khartoum, amid ongoing fighting against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. AFP via Getty Images One month after fighting between Sudan's two military factions broke out in the capital, Khartoum, internationally-brokered peace talks in Saudi Arabia have yielded no solution. Airstrikes and artillery continued to pound the country's capital and surrounding regions in recent days, and violence has also spread to the long-embattled Darfur region in the west. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said Monday that more than 600 people had been killed and over 5,000 injured as a result of the fighting. The real toll is expected to be far higher. Almost a million people have fled their homes, both to locations within Sudan and across the border to neighboring countries . Meanwhile, those who have stayed put often have no access to essentials despite a

[ad_1] Life expectancy in the U.S. is between three and five years lower than the average in other high-income countries — and the gap comes in part from misinformation, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said. "It's looking worse, not better, over the last several years," Califf told CNBC in an interview Thursday at the agency's headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. It's not just the Covid pandemic contributing to the decline, he said, pointing out the gap with peer nations is widening. Califf said a new factor has joined the list of known causes of life-expectancy disparities like race, ethnicity, income and education: living in a rural area, where he noted that people are exposed to different information sources. "Why aren't we using medical products as effectively and efficiently as our peer countries? A lot of it has to do with choices that people make because of the things that influenced their thinking," Calif

[ad_1] File Photo: Construction crews repair public facilities damaged by an earthquake in Ferndale in Humboldt County, California, the United States, on Dec. 21, 2022. A 6.4-magnitude earthquake shook parts of Northern California early Tuesday, causing two deaths and 11 injuries and leaving tens of thousands without power. Xinhua News Agency | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images An earthquake struck Northern California on Sunday for the second time in less than two weeks, causing power outages and damages, officials said. The New Year's Day earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 and struck about 9 miles southeast of Rio Dell in Humboldt County just after 10:30 a.m. local time (1:35 p.m. ET) Sunday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The Humboldt County Sheriff's Office said damages to homes were reported in the City of Rio Dell, while at half of the city's residents were without power Sunday and around 30% without water. It said restoration efforts were und

[ad_1] A UnitedHealth Group health insurance card is seen in a wallet, Oct.14, 2019. Lucy Nicholson | Reuters Good afternoon! Health insurers are feeling the squeeze as older patients head to the doctor more than expected. CVS , which owns health insurer Aetna, on Wednesday  slashed its full-year profit outlook , citing the potential for higher medical costs to bite into its profits. That warning came two weeks after insurance giant  Humana  cited the same factor as it issued a  dismal 2024 earnings guidance . Medical costs from Medicare Advantage patients have  spiked over the last year  as more older adults return to hospitals to undergo procedures they had delayed during the Covid pandemic, such as joint and hip replacements.  Medicare Advantage , a type of privately run health insurance plan contracted by Medicare, has long been a key source of growth and profits for the insurance industry.  More than half  of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in such plans, enticed by lower