Elon Musk’s Twitter drops government-funded media labels
Twitter has removed labels describing global media organizations are government-funded or state-affiliated. The move came after the Elon Musk-owned platform stripped blue verification checkmarks from Twitter accounts that don’t pay a monthly fee. National Public Radio in the U.S. is among those no longer labeled government-affiliated media. NPR announced last week that it would stop using Twitter after its main account was labeled “state-affiliated media.” That term has also been used to identify media outlets controlled or heavily influenced by authoritarian governments, such as Russia and China. Twitter later changed the label to “government-funded media,” but NPR said it was still misleading.
Leaving drama behind, GOP warms to McCarthy in debt fight
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is working to round up the Republican votes needed to pass his debt ceiling package. It might be surprisingly easier than expected. That’s because the bill the Republican speaker has drafted includes many long-sought conservative priorities to cut spending. President Joe Biden says they are “wacko” Republican ideas that would harm Americans. Democrats are expected to vote against it. But Republicans are leaving the drama of their own party infighting behind, and rallying toward McCarthy’s plan. They want to put an offer on the table and force Biden into negotiations. A vote is expected next week.
Stock market today: Wall Street remains quiet, P&G gains
Stocks are barely moving in morning trading on Wall Street Friday as investors close out a quiet week of mostly mixed corporate earnings reports. The S&P 500 was relatively unchanged, while the Dow edged higher and the Nasdaq fell. The market has a handful of earnings reports to assess Friday. Shares of hospital operator HCA Healthcare rose after the company topped estimates for the first quarter and raised its full-year outlook. Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble rose after also beating estimates thanks to price increases. Markets in Europe were showing small gains while exchanges in Asia declined overnight.
Supreme Court set to decide on abortion pill access
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is facing a self-imposed Friday night deadline to decide whether women’s access to a widely used abortion pill will stay unchanged until a legal challenge to its Food and Drug Administration approval is resolved. The justices are weighing arguments that allowing restrictions contained in lower-court rulings to take effect would severely disrupt the availability of the drug, mifepristone, which is used in the most common abortion method in the United States. It has repeatedly been found to be safe and effective, and has been used by more than 5 million women in the U.S. since the FDA approved it in 2000.
Rupert Murdoch’s son Lachlan ends Australian defamation suit
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Fox Corp. chief executive Lachlan Murdoch has dropped his defamation lawsuit against Australian news website Crikey. The announcement Friday cited the U.S. settlement in which Fox News agreed to pay almost $800 million over its lies involving the 2020 U.S. election. Rupert Murdoch’s son filed the Crikey suit last year after executives at Crikey’s publisher put out a newspaper ad inviting him to sue. Murdoch claimed he was defamed by a Crikey column about the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building under the headlines: “Trump is a confirmed unhinged traitor. And Murdoch is his unindicted co-conspirator.” A statement from Lachlan Murdoch’s lawyer said he didn’t want the Crikey case to be used to litigate a case already settled elsewhere.
Unions say rails should forgo buybacks, spend on safety
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Rail unions want railroads to take some of the billions they’re using every year to buy back their stock and use it to improve safety in the wake of several high-profile derailments and hire more workers. The 12 unions said Friday that collectively the six biggest freight railroads spent over $165 billion on buybacks — well above the $119 billion they spent on upgrading and maintaining their track and equipment between 2015 and last year. At the same time, their safety record worsened as they overhauled their operations to cut costs and eliminated nearly one-third of all rail jobs. Greg Regan with the Transportation Trades Department labor coalition says “the priorities of the railroads are out of whack.”
Credit Suisse investors sue after facing billions in losses
LONDON (AP) — A group of Credit Suisse investors have sued Swiss financial regulators after a government-engineered takeover of the struggling bank by rival UBS left them with billions in losses. Lawyers said Friday that the investors are contesting an order by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority that wiped out about $17 billion in higher-risk Credit Suisse bonds as part of an emergency rescue last month. The deal prevented the downfall of Switzerland’s second-largest bank after its stock plunged and customers rushed to pull out their money. Regulators have defended their decision, saying contracts for those higher-risk bonds show that they can be written down in a “viability event.” The investors suing hold about $5 billion in those bonds.
White House recruits Edward Lee as state dinner guest chef
WASHINGTON (AP) — Korean American chef Edward Lee says food, at its best, tells a story. And the story Lee wants told with the meal he’s preparing for next week’s White House state dinner is of the connection between the United States and ally South Korea. President Joe Biden will host South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for a state visit Wednesday. Lee tells The Associated Press being invited by the White House to work on such an important event is a “huge honor.” Lee is from New York and owns a restaurant in Kentucky. Lee says he owes a “huge debt of gratitude” to the U.S. and South Korea and wants to show his appreciation.
Biden to sign order prioritizing ‘environmental justice’
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden plans to sign an executive order that would create the White House Office of Environmental Justice. The White House says Biden launched the most ambitious environmental justice agenda in U.S. history and will sign the order Friday “to continue delivering on that vision.” The White House says the Democratic administration wants to ensure poverty, race and ethnic status don’t lead to worse exposure to pollution and environmental harm. Biden wants to draw a contrast between his agenda and that of Republicans. GOP lawmakers have called for less regulation of oil production to lower energy prices. The Biden administration says the GOP’s policies would surrender the renewable energy sector to the Chinese.