Author: ALJAZEERA

Target is ending its diversity, equity and inclusion programme along with other equity initiatives, the retailer has said, becoming the latest US firm to pull back these policies meant to boost racial and ethnic representation in workplaces. Target said on Friday it was rolling back programmes aimed at promoting racial equity, called the Racial Equity Action and Change (REACH) initiatives, this year. Earlier this week, President Donald Trump issued a sweeping executive order directing federal agencies to terminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes, encouraging private companies to do the same. “For Target, with an inclusive audience, this is their version of…

Elon Musk is clashing with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the Stargate artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure project touted by President Donald Trump, the latest in a feud between the two tech billionaires that started on OpenAI’s board and is now testing Musk’s influence with the new president. Trump on Tuesday had talked up a joint venture investing up to $500bn through a new partnership formed by OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, alongside Oracle and SoftBank. The new entity, Stargate, is already starting to build out data centres and the electricity generation needed for the further development of fast-evolving AI technology.…

Anti-Defamation League defends tech billionaire for making ‘awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm’.Tech billionaire Elon Musk has come under fire after making hand gestures resembling the Nazi salute during a speech celebrating the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump. Addressing Trump supporters hours after the Republican was inaugurated as the 47th US president on Monday, Musk hailed the outcome of the November 4 election as “no ordinary victory”. “This was a fork in the road of human civilisation,” Musk said at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC. “This one really mattered. Thank you for making it happen! Thank you.”…

The US Supreme Court has refused to rescue TikTok from a law that required the popular short-video app to be sold by its Chinese parent company ByteDance or banned on Sunday in the United States on national security grounds – a major blow to a platform used by nearly half of all Americans. The justices unanimously ruled on Friday that the law, passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress last year and signed by Democratic President Joe Biden, did not violate the US Constitution’s First Amendment protection against government abridgement of free speech. The justices affirmed a lower court’s…

‘It is my expectation that we will solve many problems together,’ the incoming US president says after a call with Xi Jinping.United States President-elect Donald Trump says he had a “good” phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, suggesting that Washington and Beijing will work to resolve various issues going forward. The call on Friday came three days before Trump — who has pledged to impose steep tariffs of up to 60 percent on Chinese imports — returns to the White House. Trump’s trade policies may deteriorate the already tense ties between the US and China. High tariffs on Chinese…

Plaintiff had accused CNN of his destroying his reputation by branding him a profiteer who exploited desperate Afghans.TV news provider CNN has reached a settlement with a United States Navy veteran who helped evacuate people from Afghanistan after the US military withdrew from the country in 2021, a judge has said, hours after a jury found the TV news outlet liable for defaming him. The six-person jury decided on Friday that CNN had to pay damages totalling $5m. The settlement will avert a second phase of the trial that would have determined any punitive damages. The verdict followed a two-week…

United States President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming national security adviser has said the new administration will keep TikTok alive in the US if there is a viable deal. “We will put measures in place to keep TikTok from going dark,” US Representative Mike Waltz told Fox News on Thursday. He noted that the law gives authority for a 90-day extension for the app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to complete a divestiture. This is the case, said Waltz, “as long as a viable deal is on the table. Essentially that buys President Trump time to keep TikTok going.” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer…

Renowned short-seller Nate Anderson says his work has been ‘intense, and at times, all-encompassing’.Hindenburg Research, the muckraking research and investment firm known for betting against companies including India’s Adani Group, will shut down, its founder has announced. Nate Anderson, who founded the New York City-based firm in 2017, said on Wednesday that while there was no single reason for the decision, running the company had been “intense, and at times, all-encompassing”. “I often wake up from my dreams because I’ve thought of a new investigative thread to pull on in my sleep, or an edit that clarifies a point I…

Sydney, Australia – When Racheal Clayton was attending primary school in Sydney, Australia at the height of the 2007-2009 Global Financial Crisis, the Australian economy was the envy of governments around the world. Unlike every other major developed economy, Australia emerged from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression without going into recession. Today, Clayton, 22, is navigating the world of work instead of the classroom, and an economy whose star is shining much less brightly on the international stage. Far from being the envy of the developed world, Australia’s economy is growing at its slowest pace since the…

Exports rose 10.7 percent in 2024, beating economists’ forecasts, customs data shows.China’s exports hit a record high in 2024, state media has reported, a welcome boost for the world’s second-largest economy as United States President-elect Donald Trump’s promised tariffs threaten to dampen growth. Exports rose 10.7 percent year-on-year, customs data showed on Monday, comfortably beating economists’ forecasts. Imports, which were widely expected to decline, rose 1 percent, the strongest performance since July 2024, customs data showed. The stronger-than-expected figures come as Trump is set to return to the White House on January 20 armed with a populist economic agenda that…