How Reddit Allows Hate Speech to Flourish

When Reddit moderator asantos3 clicked on a thread inside the group r/Portugueses in December and found it full of racist comments, he wasn’t exactly surprised. The group is often home to nationalist and nativist rhetoric, and in this instance, users here were responding angrily to a new law that allowed increased freedom of movement between Portuguese-speaking countries including African…

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Inequality in the U.S. is Finally Lessening

If 2022 was the year the U.S. economy came roaring back like a lion, 2023 is more of a lamb. Modest job growth, consistent inflation, falling home prices, slowing GDP growth—meh.

February was another month of meh, the government reported Friday, with personal incomes increasing 0.3% in February after growing 0.6% in January. In addition, consumer spending grew 0.2% in February.

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Rupert Murdoch to Step Down

NEW YORK — Rupert Murdoch, the 92-year-old Australian media magnate whose creation of Fox News made him a force in American politics, is stepping down as leader of both Fox’s parent company and his News Corp. media holdings.

Fox said Thursday that Murdoch would become chairman emeritus of both companies, effective at board meetings in November. His son, Lachlan, will become News Corp. c…

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Fossil Fuel Companies Say Hydrogen Made From Natural Gas Is a Climate Solution. But the Tech May Not Be Very Green

As a committee of climate scientists and environmental officials deliberated over how to drastically cut New York State’s carbon footprint last summer, natural gas industry representatives were putting forward a counterintuitive pitch: hydrogen, made from fossil fuels.

The concept was simple, explained natural-gas proponents serving on the state’s climate-action council. Indus…

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Texas Considers ESG Insurance Ban

Over the past year, the backlash against so-called ESG investing has swept through red states as legislatures enacted laws punishing investment firms that use environmental, social, and governance metrics in their decision making.

As the saying goes, it’s bigger in Texas.

After banning 10 ESG-friendly financial firms from doing business with the state last summer, right-wing …

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Warren Buffett Takes Path With $27 Billion Buybacks

Bloomberg — Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., lacking the blockbuster deals that have galvanized the billionaire investor’s renown, embraced a “mildly attractive” way to deploy its vast cash pile last year via a record-breaking level of buybacks — and showed little sign of changing course.

Berkshire bought back a total of $27.1 billion in 2021, …

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Unilever May Launch Ice Cream From Cow-Free Dairy in a Year

Food giant Unilever is planning a dairy ice cream that uses milk that doesn’t come from a cow.

The company is working on a process called precision fermentation that uses substances like yeast and fungi to produce milk proteins in a vat. A product could be available in about a year, according to Andy Sztehlo, head of Unilever’s research and development in ice cream.

If s…

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The NFL Will Survive Jon Gruden’s Bigotry. But It Must Force Change

The NFL has a nightmare on its hands, thanks to bigoted missives from one if it most prominent (now former) coaches. It started on Friday, when the Wall Street Journal reported that then Las Vegas Raiders coach Gruden sent an email to former Washington Football Team president Bruce Allen that included a racist trope about NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith. Grud…

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Why Robotaxis Are More Than a Decade Away

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Austin Russell became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire back in 2020 at age 25. And he did it by betting against the hype.

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Why U.S. Income Inequality Hasn’t Risen in a Decade

The U.S. may have the highest level of income inequality of the G7 nations, but new research suggests that disparity has actually stabilized over the last decade, thanks to rapid growth in wages for the lowest-paying jobs.

It just may take a while for the average American to feel it.

A pair of researchers from Harvard and MIT examined data from the period between 1980 and 2020, and …

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