Month: April 2025
How TikTok’s rise sparked a short-form video race
TikTok’s grip on the short-form video market is tightening, and the world’s biggest tech platforms are racing to catch up. Since launching globally in 2016, ByteDance-owned TikTok has amassed over 1.12 billion monthly active users worldwide, according to Backlinko. American users spend an average of 108 minutes per day on the app, according to Apptoptia. […]
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Plane tickets are getting cheaper as domestic travel demand weakens
Is a recession brewing in row 33? Airline CEOs this month warned Wall Street that passengers’ appetite for domestic trips is coming in lighter than they had hoped when they set forecasts high at the start of 2025. On a series of earnings calls, they said the reasons range from President Donald Trump’s whipsawing tariff […]
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More Americans are financing groceries with buy now, pay later loans — and more are paying those bills late, survey says
Key Points A Lending Tree survey found 25% of buy now, pay later users are funding grocery purchases with the loans, up from 14% in 2024. The survey said 41% of respondents said they made a late payment on a BNPL loan in the past year, up from 34% in the year prior. The figures […]
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Mighty and meek bid farewell to Pope Francis at a funeral where he is remembered as pope of the people
The coffin of Pope Francis is carried on the day of the funeral Mass of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on April 26, 2025. Kai Pfaffenbach | Reuters World leaders and Catholic faithful bade farewell to Pope Francis in a funeral Saturday that highlighted his concern for the “most peripheral of […]
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Trump and Ukraine’s Zelenskyy have ‘very productive’ meeting in Rome, says U.S. official
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., Feb. 28, 2025. Brian Snyder | Reuters U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a “very productive” meeting on Saturday in Rome, a White House official said, as both leaders attended the funeral of […]
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Elon Musk’s xAI Holdings in talks to raise $20 billion, Bloomberg News reports
The X logo appears on a phone, and the xAI logo is displayed on a laptop in Krakow, Poland, on April 1, 2025. (Photo by Klaudia Radecka/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images Elon Musk’s xAI Holdings is in discussions with investors to raise about $20 billion, Bloomberg News reported Friday, citing […]
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Chinese startup Leapmotor to supply EV platform to state-owned luxury carmaker’s Hongqi brand
Leapmotor has struck a deal with Chinese state-owned automaker FAW to deliver an electric vehicle platform that will be used to drive overseas sales for Hongqi, an emerging national champion, executives from both companies said. The deal brings together an unlikely pairing. Leapmotor, a profitable upstart automaker in China’s crowded EV market, will supply the […]
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Virginia Giuffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most prominent abuse survivors, dies by suicide
Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse, has died by suicide, her family said Friday. Giuffre, 41, died in Neergabby, Australia, where she had been living for several years. Giuffre was one of the earliest and loudest voices calling for criminal charges against Epstein and his enablers. Other Epstein abuse survivors later […]
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UK’s Reeves talks trade with US’s Bessent after stressing EU ties
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent takes questions from reporters at the Institute of International Finance (IIF) Global Outlook Forum on sidelines of the IMF and World Bank’s 2025 annual Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 23, 2025. Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters British finance minister Rachel Reeves met U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday to discuss […]
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Administration is restoring international students’ legal statuses while ICE develops ‘framework’ for terminations
The Trump administration is restoring the legal status of international students who had their records terminated in recent weeks, a government attorney said Friday at a hearing. Elizabeth D. Kurlan, an attorney for the Justice Department, said during the hearing in the Northern District of California in Oakland that records for international students will be […]
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