David Lidsky's Blog, page 286

Nissan stock surges 30% amid possible merger with Honda as Japan automakers look to take on Chinese EVs

The move would bring the two struggling car companies together in a bid to reclaim market share from rising domestic brands in China, the world’s largest car market.

Nissan Motor (NSANY) shares surged 30% Wednesday following a Nikkei newspaper report that the struggling Japanese automaker is in talks with Honda Motor (HMC) over a possible merger in a move that could upend the electric vehicles (EV) market. Meanwhile, Honda shares were down about 2.5% in afternoon trading.

Why Boston’s plan to renovate White Stadium is controversial

Many opponents fear the public would lose access to White Stadium and the critical green space where it sits, if the city teams up with a corporate entity.

As the quarterback for the storied Boston Latin Academy, Jack Shapiro has long relished playing some of his high school games at historic White Stadium.

But this season, the closest Shapiro will get to the 75-year-old stadium is a grassy practice field in the shadows of the 10,000-seat facility. The stadium gates are padlocked most days in anticipation of the dilapidated stadium being renovated. In its place will be a glistening, $200 million sports facility for Boston’s new professional women’s soccer team, BOS Nation FC, starting in 2026.

Snapchat is overhauling how influencers earn money on the platform

Snapchat is rolling out an expanded creator monetization program, launching just days after TikTok may find itself banned in the U.S.

“I’m sorry WHO is using snapchat in the big year of 2024,” one X user asked. Turns out, a lot of people and for some, it’s proving lucrative. 

Self-proclaimed bitcoin inventor Craig Wright faces contempt of court in $1.2 trillion lawsuit

Craig Wright claimed to have been the author of the foundational text of bitcoin published under the pseudonym ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ despite evidence against it.

An Australian computer scientist who claimed he invented bitcoin was on Friday accused of contempt of court after he filed a 911 billion-pound ($1.18 trillion) lawsuit against Twitter founder Jack Dorsey‘s payments firm Block in Britain.

‘My best friend’: Gen Zers are gushing about ChatGPT on TikTok

Nearly a third of young people now use ChatGPT to complete tasks at work.

“Me and ChatGPT,” reads one TikTok post with 13.4 million views. The video shows a girl joyfully running through a field, handing flowers to a blurred-out partner. Set to Arctic Monkeys’s “No. 1 Party Anthem,” it seems to be a modern-day love story.

Oreo maker is using AI to develop new snack flavors

Mondelēz International has used AI to help develop more than 70 items, ranging from developing gluten-free Oreos to tweaking the Chips Ahoy recipe.

There’s been no shortage of unique Oreo flavors in the past few years. The offerings seen on store shelves in recent months include toffee crunch, birthday cake, java chip, dirt cake, mint, Coca-Cola, and a pink-and-blue concoction called Space Dunk. But that’s not stopping the owner of the beloved cookie brand and its many other snacks from incorporating artificial intelligence into the brainstorming process.

Starbucks union authorizes a potential strike ahead of talks

Workers United, which has a bargaining delegation that represents workers at 525 Starbucks stores in the U.S., said the coffee giant has yet to bring a comprehensive economic package to the table.

The workers’ union representing more than 10,000 Starbucks baristas said they have authorized a potential strike, ahead of this year’s final round of bargaining talks with the coffee giant on Tuesday.

VW and unions may reach a deal soon or they’ll adjourn until next year

After a 13-hour negotiation round on Monday that ended after midnight, the VW and union talks are expected to stretch even further into the early hours on Wednesday.

Volkswagen and German unions will most likely either reach a deal in the early hours of Wednesday or adjourn until the new year, a source familiar with discussions said on Tuesday, as the two sides strive to reach a cost-cutting pact before Christmas.

Climate tech firms get $80 million for carbon removal

Companies in sectors including tech and finance continue to back efforts to remove carbon from the atmosphere before Trump can cut carbon-capture support.

Google, H&M, Stripe, and other members of the climate-focused Frontier coalition will buy $80 million of carbon credits from a firm using oil industry technology to capture paper mill emissions and another using rocks to do the same at sewage plants.

PG&E offered $15 billion loan from the Biden administration for climate projects, power grid

The record loan would also be used toward increasing the deployment of energy storage, with PG&E currently logging 4.2 gigawatts of battery storage under contract.

The U.S. Department of Energy said on Tuesday it had offered a conditional loan of up to $15 billion to California-based electric utility PG&E to support climate resilience projects and strengthen the power grid.