Ford is rethinking its electric vehicle and battery strategy, dropping the all-electric version of the F-150 Lighting and putting more of its money into hybrid trucks and energy storage to support data centers and grid stability.
Why it matters: The company's pivot to match customer demand will come with almost $20 billion in charges to be taken now through 2027, more than $5 billion of that in cash the next two years.
Dragoneer has raised $4.3 billion for its seventh venture capital fund, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: It's an outlier in what has been an exceptionally slow year for VC fundraising, closing above its target after just a few months in market.
The Wall Street Journal on Monday launched "Free Expression," a newsletter-focused opinion brand that will be available via its own channels and Substack.
Why it matters: The new section is meant to expand WSJ's opinion coverage to a broader audience outside of its current focus on mostly financial and business perspectives, Paul A. Gigot, the Journal's longtime editorial page editor and vice president, said in an interview with Axios.
Data centers could be a flashpoint in a closely watched primary in Tennessee as prominent activist and state lawmaker Justin Pearson (D) challenges incumbent Rep. Steve Cohen (D).
Why it matters: Whether in primaries or general election contests, the rapid growth of AI infrastructure is quickly rising on the political radar in the 2026 midterms and beyond.
IND Technology, which provides infrastructure monitoring tech for utilities to stop wildfires and outages before they start, just landed $33 million in new growth funding.
Why it matters: The firm's North American expansion is a story of this moment, thanks in part to AI.
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The honeymoon with AI is over on Wall Street. Investors will no longer bid up every AI stock on nothing but hopes of future revenue for the technology.
Why it matters: 2026 will be a year of harsher judgment from tech investors, who are already indicating that they plan to reward the fundamentals again: disciplined spending coupled with returns.
Arkansas, Idaho and North Carolina drew the most new arrivals this year, according to an analysis of interstate moves by Atlas Van Lines.
Why it matters: High housing costs are keeping many people in place. But some are still moving, often for lower prices, jobs, climate resilience, or to be closer to family.
Two people were killed and nine others injured in a shooting at Brown University on Saturday, per a university post.
The latest: A person of interest who was taken into custody in connection with the shooting at the Barus and Holley engineering building on Brown's Providence, Rhode Island, campus was being released, officials said late Sunday.
Rob Reiner, director of classics "When Harry Met Sally" and "The Princess Bride," and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, died Sunday in an "apparent homicide" at their Los Angeles home, per officials and a family spokesperson.
The latest: "It is with profound sorrow that we announce the tragic passing of Michele and Rob Reiner," said a spokesperson for the family of Reiner, who rose to fame acting in the hit 1970s sitcom "All in the Family," in a media statement.
A Hong Kong court found pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai guilty of sedition and colluding with foreign forces in a landmark national security trial on Monday morning local time.
The big picture: The founder of Hong Kong's now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and critic of China's ruling Communist Party was charged in 2020 after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the Asian financial hub in response to pro-democracy protests a year earlier.
The mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, prompted police in New York and Los Angeles to step up security protections for the first night of the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah on Sunday.
The big picture: While there were no known threats locally, police departments in N.Y. and L.A. announced enhanced protections during Hanukkah celebrations in the wake of the Sydney terrorist attack that killed 15 people as about 1,000 people gathered for a "Chanukah by the Sea" event.
