Seven months after Cookie Monster decried shrinkflation on X, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) are probing cereal, beverage and snack makers about the practice of shrinking package sizes while keeping prices the same.
Why it matters: Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and other consumer packaged goods companies have employed the tactic over the past few years to squeeze better margins out of sales.
X owner Elon Musk seized the @America username on the platform, using the account to advocate for former President Donald Trump against Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
Why it matters: Musk is using his social media platform to amplify right-wing views and is openly admitting his rightward shift to over 200 million followers ahead of the November election.
Chinese tech company Tencent and Ubisoft's founding Guillemot family are weighing a take-private buyout of the French video game maker, whose shares are down more than 40% this year, as first reported by Bloomberg and quasi-confirmed by the company.
The big picture: Many of Ubisoft's problems are self-inflicted, including a possible class action lawsuit over user privacy issues, but those have been exacerbated by online criticism — including by Elon Musk — that the company's next Assassin's Creed game is too "woke" because it its lead characters include a Black samurai.
The year's twistiest takeover saga appears to be over, as Vista Outdoors has agreed to a new deal that it believes will secure shareholder approval and keep a hostile buyer at bay.
Why it matters: Vista is one of America's largest ammunition makers, including to both the military and law enforcement markets.
On Wednesday, Paul Milgrom will become the first Nobel economics laureate to win an Emmy, in a sign of just how omnipresent his field of auction design has become.
Why it matters: Milgrom's company, Auctionomics, has quietly come to dominate the industry of market design, which encompasses auction design and which co-founder Silvia Console Battilana describes as "a little secret you have never heard of that influences your everyday life."
At least 114 journalists and 14 media workers have been killed since the Israel-Hamas war began last October, marking one of the deadliest conflicts for journalists in the past three decades, per the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Why it matters: The harsh conditions in Gaza raise the risk for journalists trying to cover the war, and also make it difficult for CPJ and other watchdog groups to fully account for all the journalists impacted.
In the middle of his Butler, Pennsylvania rally Saturday,former President Trump called up one of his most powerful allies — Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and owner of X.
Why it matters: This was Musk's first time at a Trump rally since the night of the shooting, when Musk posted that he "fully" endorses Trump.
