Author: WSJ

The management philosophy known as DEI, which had gathered momentum since 2020, has been under siege over the past year amid a collision of legal, economic and geopolitical forces. The Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in colleges, removing the legal rationale buttressing many diversity programs. An expected slowdown in the economy prompted companies to cut jobs and financial support for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. And the Israel-Hamas war and college presidents’ responses to antisemitism on campus led some to question whether DEI programs and the values behind them extended to all students.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All…

SINGAPORE—A widening shake-up in China’s defense establishment has raised questions over leader Xi Jinping’s ability to end corruption in the military and build a modern, combat-ready fighting force as geopolitical challenges crop up along its borders.The unexplained and sometimes abrupt changes in China’s senior military personnel over recent months—including the removal of the defense minister—reached a crescendo last week, when Beijing ejected nine high-ranking People’s Liberation Army officers from the national legislature and stripped three top defense-industry executives of their roles as government advisers.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8 Source link

By Miles Kruppa | Photographs by Carolyn Fong for The Wall Street Journal Perplexity, a startup going after Google’s dominant position in web search, has won backing from Jeff Bezos and venture capitalists betting that artificial intelligence will upend the way people find information online.Started less than two years ago, Perplexity has fewer than 40 employees and is based out of a San Francisco co-working space. The company’s product, which it calls an answer engine, is used by about 10 million people monthly.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

The electric-vehicle startup Fisker is abandoning a direct-to-consumer sales model in the U.S. in favor of using traditional dealerships, after it found the approach too expensive and struggled in 2023 to get its cars to buyers quickly.The company is in talks with U.S. dealers and hopes to sign up at least 50 this year, said Chief Executive Officer Henrik Fisker. Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Jan. 4, 2024 6:00 am ET|WSJ ProBiotechnology startup Moonwalk Biosciences has raised $57 million in venture capital and joined a push to treat diseases through drugs that activate or suppress genes.Proponents say this new twist on genetic medicine, “epigenetic editing,” promises to lead to treatments or cures for a variety of common medical scourges, such as cancer and chronic hepatitis B. Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8 Source link

Chevron said it will book $3.5 billion to $4 billion in charges for the fourth quarter, citing challenges tied to regulations in California and previously sold oil and gas production assets in the Gulf of Mexico.Chevron said it will impair a portion of its U.S. upstream assets, mostly in California, due to regulatory challenges in the state that have led to “lower anticipated future investment levels in its business plans.” Chevron said it will continue to operate the affected assets for many years.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Next PLC raised its pretax profit guidance after sales in the pre-Christmas business period were better than it expected.The fashion retailer—which is seen as a bellwether for the sector in the U.K.—said Thursday that it now expects pretax profit of 905 million pounds ($1.15 billion) for fiscal 2024 compared with previous guidance of GBP885 million. Full-price sales for the year ending Jan. 27 are seen at GBP4.78 billion compared with GBP4.74 billion previously.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8 Source link

Danish shipping giant A.P. Moeller-Maersk said it will pause all transit through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden until further notice following the attack on its vessel Maersk Hangzhou on Dec. 30.The shipping company said Tuesday that an investigation into the incident is continuing and that some vessels will be rerouted and continue their journey around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

JD Sports Fashion cut its forecast for fiscal 2024 headline pretax profit after revenue growth in the 22 weeks to Dec. 30 fell below expectations.The London-listed fashion retailer said Thursday that organic revenue growth on a constant-currency basis was 6% in the period, with like-for-like growth of 1.8%, which was slightly below its expectations.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8 Source link

Updated Jan. 2, 2024 12:42 pm ETListen to article(2 minutes)It’s getting a lot harder for streaming services to hold on to their customers.Crystal Revis, a mother of six in Lynn Haven, Fla., recently canceled her subscriptions to Disney+ and Paramount+, among others, because of their swelling price tags and the rising cost of living. She is also considering canceling Netflix, home to shows such as “The Crown” and films including “Leave the World Behind.”Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8