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Area Station Could Host Wave of TV Exhibits and Movies

Space Station May Host Wave of TV Shows and Films

“We can finally open our doors to private individuals and enable others to experience the magic of living and working in space,” said Dana Weigel, assistant manager of the space station at NASA. “The dream really is to give everyone access to space, and this is a pretty exciting place to start.”

The producers of Discovery’s “Who Wants to Be an Astronaut?” Expect the winner to be on board the second Axiom mission to the space station, which could launch six or seven months after the first. Currently, an agreement between the Discovery team and Axiom is pending, and NASA has not yet selected Axiom to conduct the second private space tourism flight.

The NASA-led portion of the station could host two private astronaut missions a year, space agency officials said, and other companies are interested in participating as well.

“We see great interest in private astronaut missions, also outside of Axiom,” said Ms. Weigel. “At this point, the demand exceeds what we actually think is possible.”

As recently as Tuesday, Axiom announced two people would be in the seats for this second mission: Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut who now works for Axiom, will be the commander, and John Shoffner, a paying passenger, will be Fortune made as the head of a company that makes fiber optic cables will serve as the pilot for the mission.

Dr. Whitson, who holds the record for the most cumulative time in space by a NASA astronaut – 665 days – joined Axiom as a consultant a year ago in hopes of getting back into space and expanding her record. “Yes, definitely,” she said. “That was the carrot.”

Mr Peterson said the plans for the Discovery show came from talks with Axiom in early 2020 and would be “premium documentary” rather than “survivor” or other ruthless reality television competitions.

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Jefferies on the carbon challenges in electrical automobile manufacturing

Jefferies on the carbon challenges in electric vehicle manufacturing

Electric vehicle manufacturing currently faces an “embedded carbon” challenge, says Jefferies’ Simon Powell.

“To gain the environmental dividend that governments are looking for, users are going to have to keep them longer, drive them further than they may have done with a conventional internal combustion energy vehicle,” Powell, head of global thematic research at the firm, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Wednesday.

He explained that a “huge amount” of carbon is emitted when materials such as steel, aluminum and glass are created and put together to manufacture vehicles. He said the problem is compounded for electric vehicles, which currently tend to be heavier on average than their gasoline-powered counterparts.

“When they leave the factory, these (electric vehicles) are at a disadvantage,” he said. “They contain more steel. The brakes are bigger. The battery packs are certainly heavier.”

The relatively higher weight of electric vehicles today is a result of manufacturers’ focus on the range for these cars, Powell said. Unlike cars which run on internal combustion engines that have been around for decades, the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles is considerably less developed globally.

Importance of ‘green steel’

Powell predicted, however, the “embedded carbon” in electric vehicles is expected to eventually come down to levels that compare with conventional vehicles.

“The way this whole thing gets solved is greener steel,” he said. “The use of hydrogen in the manufacturing process for steel, as well, is something to look at.”

“I don’t think many people are talking about the greening of the steel industry,” the analyst said, admitting that it will be “very challenging” to decarbonize the sector globally.

Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro

The metal today is largely produced from coking coal, while the making of lower carbon steel tends to be both more resource intensive and costlier.

“I think it’s going to take a long time. We’re talking about large investments with … long paybacks, long time horizons,” Powell said.

Meanwhile, investors should also monitor the development of battery technology as more energy-dense cells will aid in bringing down the weight and potentially the embedded carbon of electric vehicles, Powell said.

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Juan Williams, a Liberal Outlier at Fox Information, Is Leaving ‘The 5’

Juan Williams, a Liberal Outlier at Fox News, Is Leaving ‘The Five’

Fox News host Juan Williams said Wednesday that he was leaving his longtime spot on “The Five,” the weekday afternoon chat show on which he had served as the liberal runaway of an otherwise reliably conservative quintet of hosts.

Mr Williams abruptly announced his exit at the end of the show on Wednesday, partially citing his battle with the coronavirus that he signed late last year.

“Covid taught me a lot of lessons,” Williams told viewers in brief remarks, adding that he would stay with Fox News as the chief political analyst in Washington, where he lives. “It’s been seven years since I’ve hosted this show every day. The show’s popularity has grown every year. So thank you very much. Many thanks to you the viewers. “

Fox News said it would fill Mr. Williams’ role with another liberal-minded commentator in order to maintain the show’s ideological makeup. Until then, a rotating group of replacement hosts will appear on “The Five”. Geraldo Rivera, a Fox News correspondent, and former representative Harold Ford Jr. have made guest appearances on the show’s “liberal” slot.

Among the hosts, Mr. Williams was often the only defender of Democratic politicians, and in recent years he has often been the only commentator who dared heavily criticize former President Donald J. Trump. His remarks met with violent recoil from his colleagues, including pro-Trump personalities Greg Gutfeld and Jesse Watters.

His tournament with peers was part of the show’s appeal, which is formatted as a sharp discussion of news and politics. But the Trump era gave the exchanges a tougher advantage.

For example, earlier this month, Mr Williams said on the air that Mr Trump “committed a lie that led to violence,” adding that the former president “damaged our country” with his false statements about a stolen election and the subsequent January 6 uprising in the Capitol.

Herr Gutfeld interrupted immediately. “That’s your opinion, Juan, that’s your opinion!” he cried. When Mr. Williams brought up Rep Liz Cheney’s overthrow from the Republican leadership of the House, Mr. Watters interjected, “Let’s just stop this, Juan.”

In a statement distributed by Fox News on Wednesday, Megan Albano, a network vice president responsible for The Five, described the exit as the election of Mr. Williams.

When Fox News made plans to bring The Five back to its New York studio after months of remote production because of the pandemic, “Juan decided to stay in Washington, DC permanently,” Ms. Albano wrote. “We complied with his request, understood and appreciated his desire to be closer to his family, and realized that a remote co-hosting role in a roundtable in-studio program was not a long-term option.”

After Mr Williams announced his exit on Wednesday, the program aired a tribute package of clips from his appearances over the years. Afterward, his co-host, Dana Perino, congratulated Mr. Williams (“It’s a real honor and a pleasure to work with you, Juan”) and encouraged him to appear on her own Fox News, America’s Newsroom.

Mr. Watters, who hosts the weekend show “Watters’ World”, spoke up.

“Maybe not ‘Watters’ World’,” he said to Mr. Williams, grinning. “But I will miss you.”

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Buyers who’re quick GameStop, AMC are out of their thoughts

Investors who are short GameStop, AMC are out of their mind

CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Wednesday he’s not sure why any investors are still betting against GameStop and AMC Entertainment, two of the so-called meme stocks popular on Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum.

The “Mad Money” host made his comments following a session in which GameStop shares rose almost 16% Wednesday and AMC advanced 19%. The stocks are up 37% and more than 60%, respectively, this week alone as the speculative trading that took first Wall Street by storm in January resumed.

“Anyone shorting AMC or GameStop is out of their mind. … WallStreetBets is too powerful and trying to bet against them right now is just giving them more ammo,” Cramer said.

Despite some optimism around a potential turnaround spearheaded by Chewy co-founder Ryan Cohen, Cramer contended the video-game retailer GameStop remains way overvalued. AMC — which still faces headwinds from the rise of digital streaming — is also expensive at current levels, Cramer said.

But Cramer the companies are not trading based on fundamentals, which makes shorting their stocks dangerous as long as they remain beloved by Reddit traders.

Shorting a stock is essentially a bet that it will fall in price. An investor such as a hedge fund borrows shares and then immediately sells them into the market, with the goal of buying them back later at a lower level. Then, the investor returns the borrowed shares, profiting off the price differential.

When the opposite happens and the stock rises in value, a short-seller may seek to minimize losses by purchasing shares at their higher price.

Both GameStop and AMC have over 20% of their float shares sold short, according to data from S3 Partners. That’s compared with an average of 5% short interest in a typical U.S. stock.

“I’ve never seen anything like this: a group of buyers with no sensitivity to price,” Cramer said. “These people don’t have unlimited firepower, but they’ve got enough firepower to engineer a short-squeeze any time a bunch of professionals decide to bet against this thing.”

— CNBC’s Yun Li contributed to this report.

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Louvre Will get Its First Feminine Chief in 228 Years

Louvre Gets Its First Female Leader in 228 Years

Asked what it means to be a woman running the most visited and largest museum in the world, she replied: “Things are really changing for women in the museum world. Of the 70 curators in the Louvre, more than half of them are women. More women are heading museums, especially in Europe. And younger women are much more confident these days.”

A few months ago, it was assumed that Martinez, the Louvre’s president since 2013, was assured a third term. Under his tenure, the Louvre grew past 10 million visitors for the first time. Its Leonardo exhibition, which ended a few weeks before France went into a nationwide lockdown last year, drew rave reviews and a record million visitors.

Yet critics accused Martinez of an authoritarian style that ignored the advice of his curators and a cheapening the museum’s brand by forming partnerships with brands like Uniqlo, allowing a couple to spend a night in the museum as part of a marketing campaign for Airbnb. (The Louvre also leased its space to Beyoncé and Jay-Z to film the music video for their song “Apes**t” and features prominently in the Netflix hit “Lupin,” one of the platform’s most-watched series.)

In March, after a dispute over a new color scheme in one of the Louvre’s galleries became a weekslong talking point in France’s news media, Henri Loyrette, a former president of the museum, threw his weight behind Martinez’s critics. He gave testimony in a lawsuit brought by the Cy Twombly Foundation, which said a new paint job had disfigured a ceiling mural by the abstract American painter.

Martinez will continue at the museum, which reopened on May 19 after months of being closed, until Aug. 31. He will then become a heritage ambassador, responsible for coordinating France’s participation in international projects.

Des Cars learned of Macron’s decision on Monday, when she was visiting the Musée d’Orsay with her parents and other family members and received a call on her cellphone from the culture minister, Roselyne Bachelot. “My heart beat much faster,” she said. “The Louvre is the heart of Paris. The building itself goes back 800 years. It’s a former royal palace that became a public institution that belongs to the culture of France and also to the citizens of the world. It was quite an emotional moment.”

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Lockheed Martin and Common Motors accomplice for NASA lunar rover

Lockheed Martin and General Motors partner for NASA lunar rover

Lockheed Martin and General Motors are working together to develop a new type of lunar vehicle for NASA to be used on their upcoming Artemis missions to the moon, the companies said on Wednesday.

“Surface mobility is critical to long-term exploration of the lunar surface. These next-generation rovers will dramatically extend the range of astronauts,” Lockheed Martin executive vice president Rick Ambrose said in a statement.

Earlier this year, NASA announced to companies that it needed “a human-class rover that would extend the exploration range of” astronauts during missions for the agency’s Artemis program. NASA’s program, announced by the administration of former President Donald Trump and continued under President Joe Biden, consists of several missions to the orbit and surface of the moon over the coming years.

NASA’s request for a next-generation lunar vehicle indicated that a variety of cutting-edge technologies should be deployed, including electric vehicle systems, autonomous driving, and dangerous terrain capabilities.

GM has previously built such a vehicle as the company was the largest subcontractor helping Boeing develop the lunar vehicle, which was used on the moon during three Apollo missions.

Apollo 16 astronaut John Young drives NASA’s Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) at Descartes’ landing site on the moon on April 21, 1972.

Charles Duke | NASA

While NASA’s previous rover was able to go nearly around the moon at nearly six miles an hour, it traveled less than five miles from the Apollo landing site.

Lockheed Martin said his next-generation lunar all-terrain vehicle was “designed to travel significantly greater distances to aid in the early excursions of the moon’s south pole, where it’s cold and dark with rougher terrain.”

– CNBC’s Mike Wayland contributed to this story.

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Ford to Enhance Spending on E.V.s to $30 Billion

Ford to Boost Spending on E.V.s to $30 Billion

Ford Motor said on Wednesday that it would increase spending on electric vehicles by about a third from its previous plans and expects E.V.s to make up 40 percent of its production by 2030, a big increase in its commitment to the electrification of cars and trucks.

The company intends to spend $30 billion in the five years ending in 2025, up from the previous target of $22 billion. It also said it had accepted 70,000 reservations for the F-150 Lightning, the electric version of its top-selling pickup truck.

“This is our biggest opportunity for growth and value creation since Henry Ford started to scale the Model T,” Ford’s chief executive, Jim Farley, said in a statement.

Ford has gone from being a relative latecomer to battery-powered vehicles to making them a central focus. The company recently started delivering an electric sport utility vehicle, the Mustang Mach-E, that has sold well and been praised by car reviewers. The model also appears to have taken market share from Tesla, which until recently dominated the electric car market. Last week, Ford introduced the F-150 Lightning, and President Biden drove the truck at a company track in Michigan and praised its rapid acceleration.

The increase in spending reflects new investments in better technology and production. Last week, Ford said it would form a joint venture with a South Korean company, SK Innovation, to manufacture battery cells at two plants in the United States for future Ford and Lincoln vehicles.

Ford’s stock was up nearly 5 percent Wednesday morning after the company’s electric vehicle announcements.

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Man Fieri is on a mission to assist save eating places hit by pandemic

Guy Fieri is on a mission to help save restaurants hit by pandemic

Food Network star and restaurateur Guy Fieri has more on his mind these days than navigating his own restaurant business out of the Covid pandemic.

He’s trying to help revitalize the industry itself.

Next month, he’ll give out $300,000 in grants to aspiring restaurant entrepreneurs and existing owners.

“I’ve been very blessed,” said Fieri, who recently signed a three-year deal with the Food Network that Forbes said is worth $80 million.

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“That’s why I try to turn my time and attention to helping others and raising that money and raising some awareness,” he added.

About 90,000 eating and drinking establishments are still closed, either completely or long term, according to the National Restaurant Association’s Covid-19 Operator Survey for April.

Those that are open are dealing with higher costs and lower profits.

The grants, to be made in partnership with the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation and the California Restaurant Association, will take place during Fieri’s event, Guy’s Restaurant Reboot, on June 12 at 7 p.m. ET. It will be livestreamed on his Facebook page and GuysRestaurantReboot.com, as well as simulcast across other social media platforms.

NBC | NBCUniversal | Getty Images

The recipients, who will get $25,000 each, will be chosen by the two food groups, Fieri said. The grants are largely funded by the event’s sponsors, including LendingTree. In fact, there will be no fundraising during the event. Instead, celebrities and culinary icons will join in with food creations and conversation.

“It’s not a telethon,” Fieri said. “It’s a celebration, an inspiration.

“We want to remind everybody: Go eat out more often,” he added. “Go get more delivery. Buy more gift certificates.”

This isn’t Fieri’s first foray into philanthropy. He’s been honored by Make-A-Wish for his work with the charity and he fed firefighters battling California wildfires last year, among other activities.

Also last year, he raised $21.5 million to help restaurant workers through the National Restaurant Association’s Employee Relief Fund. The result: $500 grants to more than 43,000 workers.

Now, as restaurants reopen and try to move forward, workers are hard to find. In fact, 84% of operators say their staffing level is lower than it was in the absence of Covid-19, the National Restaurant Association’s April survey found.

Owners have blamed unemployment benefits, lack of child care for working parents and people leaving the business during the pandemic.

“I hope folks are recognizing that the industry needs you,” Fieri said. “The industry has been great to you.”

Even Fieri is feeling the pain. He recently tried to get a friend into Guy Fieri’s Vegas Kitchen and Bar for lunch on a weekday — only to find out the location wasn’t open for those hours yet.

“It’s a variety of topics, staffing being one of them,” he said.

“But we’re making it, you know, we’re coming back.”

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Exxon Mobil Faces Local weather Change Battle at Annual Assembly: Reside Updates

Exxon Mobil storage tanks in Rotterdam. Shareholders say the oil giant should invest more heavily in renewables like wind and solar energy.

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Peter Dejong/Associated Press

Exxon Mobil will face a big challenge over its climate change policies at an annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday as activists contest the election of one-third of the company’s board.

A coalition of investors concerned about the environment has argued that Exxon has not invested enough in cleaner energy, which will hurt its profits in the future.

These investors argue that the company should follow European oil companies like BP and Total that have begun investing heavily in renewables like wind and solar energy.

The hedge fund leading this campaign, Engine No. 1, is seeking to defeat the election of four of the company’s director candidates and has proposed four of its own. A victory for even one of its nominees would be a sharp rebuke to Darren W. Woods, Exxon’s chairman and chief executive. Some big pension funds, including the New York State Common Retirement Fund and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, have joined Engine No. 1, which was started last year.

“We listen, and we hear,” Mr. Woods said in an interview in which he tried to take a conciliatory tone. “We don’t always agree, but we always understand there is an opportunity to improve.”

Exxon has argued that its investments in carbon capture and storage, including a proposal to capture the emissions from industrial plants along the Houston Ship Channel, demonstrate that the company is changing in its approach to climate change. This week, it announced that it would add two new directors to the board, including a climate expert, but it has not committed to investing in renewable energy.

Engine No. 1 dismissed the move, saying, “This vote is too important to be influenced by this type of cynical, last-minute maneuvering.”

The final shareholder meeting for Jeff Bezos as Amazon’s chief executive could be eventful.Credit…Michael Nelson/EPA, via Shutterstock

Amazon’s investors are gathering virtually on Wednesday for the company’s annual shareholder meeting. There is much to discuss, according to the DealBook newsletter: good, bad and ugly (from the perspective of Amazon’s management).

The e-commerce giant’s bumper profits are likely to be overshadowed by three major developments: Reports that the company is about to make an expensive bet on the Hollywood studio MGM, a series of shareholder proposals that company directors don’t want to pass and an antitrust suit filed against the company that landed on Tuesday.

Amazon is said to be considering spending $9 billion to acquire MGM, which would buy classic films like “Rocky” and “Singin’ in the Rain,” as well as the James Bond franchise. If a deal is reached, approval from regulators would rest on Amazon’s argument that it’s a small player in entertainment. (Lina Khan, a nominee for the F.T.C. who is awaiting Senate confirmation, made her name with a paper about Amazon’s alleged antitrust abuses.)

The backers of several shareholder proposals, all opposed by Amazon’s management, say their aim is to make the company a better corporate citizen, reacting to accusations of labor and environmental abuses. New York State’s pension fund is calling on Amazon to conduct an independent racial equity audit of its practices related to civil rights, equity, diversity and inclusion. (Calls for racial audits have been a feature at many shareholder meetings recently.)

Another proposal would bar Jeff Bezos from leading Amazon’s board after he steps down as chief executive this year.

The District of Columbia sued Amazon on Tuesday, accusing the company of effectively prohibited sellers on its site from charging lower prices for the same products elsewhere, which raised prices on Amazon and beyond. “Amazon has used its dominant position in the online retail market to win at all costs,” said Karl Racine, the district’s attorney general.

It is believed to be the first antitrust suit against Amazon by an American government authority, but because it is based on local rather than federal law, its effect could be limited even if successful. Nonetheless, Mr. Racine’s argument “is both old-school and novel, and it might become a blueprint for crimping Big Tech power,” wrote Shira Ovide, The Times’s On Tech columnist.

Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, is the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.Credit…Andrew Harnik/Associated Press

The chief executives of the six biggest American lenders will testify before the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday, the first time the committee has summoned all the top bankers since the financial crisis of 2008. (They will also appear at the House Committee on Financial Services on Thursday, for the first time since 2019.)

At the Senate hearing, Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio and the committee’s chairman, has promised to press the bank chiefs on a range of subjects, sending them a list of questions on topics including the riskiness of their assets, the diversity of their work forces, actions on climate change, pledges on racial equity and more. It could make for a disjointed hearing as senators veer from issue to issue, trying to catch the chief executives off guard or unprepared.

Their prepared testimonies address the committee’s questions in varying depth and detail, while all make the case that their institutions are healthier, safer and more law-abiding since 2008.

  • Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase turned in a nine-page paper urging business, government and society to address inequities and “unleash the extraordinary vibrancy of the American economy.”

  • Jane Fraser of Citigroup prepared 11 pages (and a three-page addendum with data and tables) that note her bank’s approach to cryptocurrencies, saying that it is “focusing resources and efforts to understand changes in the digital asset space.”

  • James Gorman of Morgan Stanley assembled a 20-page report with few frills that includes a short introduction and responses to each question in order.

  • Charles Scharf of Wells Fargo and David Solomon of Goldman Sachs each submitted 15 pages heavy on environmental, social and governance issues.

  • Brian Moynihan of Bank of America had the most to say, with 32 pages that devote a lot of space to the bank’s “responsible growth” principles. “We embrace our dual responsibility to drive both profits and purpose,” he wrote.

A supermarket in Essen, Germany. Price increases in the eurozone are expected to be mild over the next two years, a member of the European Central Bank’s executive board said.Credit…Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters

U.S. stocks were expected to rise on Wednesday and a benchmark European index climbed to a record high and then fell.

The S&P 500 was set to open 0.4 percent higher when Wall Street starts trading.

Oil prices fell. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. crude benchmark, dropped 0.3 percent to $65.86 a barrel.

  • The Stoxx Europe 600 slipped 0.1 percent after hitting a fresh record earlier on Wednesday. The euro fell 0.1 percent against the U.S. dollar to $1.22.

  • Fabio Panetta, a member of the executive board of the European Central Bank, said on Wednesday that “‘we are currently seeing a transitory increase in inflation,” adding his voice to the chorus of central bankers arguing that price increases are temporary and there is no current need to pull back monetary stimulus. Mr. Panetta said that the central bank did not need to reduce the pace of its bond-buying program.

  • Over the next two years, the European Central Bank forecasts the annual inflation rate to be no more than 1.4 percent, below the bank’s 2 percent target.

  • “We should not extrapolate from what is happening in the United States,” Mr. Panetta said in the interview published by the central bank. “We don’t expect the same kind of surging demand and tight labor markets that would generate stronger lasting price pressures.”

  • The chief executives of six major American banks, including Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase and Brian Moynihan of Bank of America, will appear before a Senate congressional committee on Wednesday and then a House committee on Thursday. They are expected to answer questions on everything from the riskiness of their banks’ assets to work force diversity. They have already submitted written testimonies.

  • Shares at British Land, a major landowner and property developer, dropped 1.8 percent after the company said its profit dropped by more than a third in the year to March as its portfolio value fell nearly 11 percent because of drop in the value of retail properties. British Land said it also sold 1.2 billion pounds ($1.7 billion) of retail and office spaces over the year.

  • Marks & Spencer shares rose 6.7 percent as the retailer said it expected to generate a profit of as much as £350 million this fiscal year, swinging back from a loss of more than £200 million. The company, which sells food, clothing and housewares, has benefited from a recent partnership with Ocado, the online groceries retailer.

  • Australians will have some of the best views of the “super blood moon” this week, but passengers on a one-time flight departing from Sydney had an even better one. The Australian airline Qantas operated a three-hour flight on Wednesday (Tuesday evening in the United States) for about 100 passengers to see the moon enter the Earth’s shadow and turn a blood red color during a total lunar eclipse. Tickets went on sale this month for 499 Australian dollars (about $386) for economy class and 1,499 Australian dollars (about $1,162) for business class. The tickets sold out in less than half an hour.

Episodes of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” will be available the next day on Fox Nation, along with other prime-time Fox News shows.Credit…Richard Drew/Associated Press

Fox News entered the streaming video market in November 2018 with Fox Nation, a digital subscription service that now encompasses hundreds of hours of original programming including political commentary, documentaries and travel specials like “Castles USA,” in which the host Jeanine Pirro tours castles around the country.

Until now, the network had resisted rebroadcasting its marquee prime-time shows on the streaming service. That is set to change next week, in a significant shift in digital strategy for the Rupert Murdoch-owned channel.

Starting June 2, episodes of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” “Hannity” and “The Ingraham Angle” will be available on demand on Fox Nation the day after they are shown live on cable. The shift “will add incredible value for subscribers,” Fox Nation’s president, Jason Klarman, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Fox News had reasons to initially avoid duplicating its traditional TV programming on Fox Nation. The channel earns significant revenue from cable distributors that pay to carry Fox News. And the network has the largest total weeknight audience in cable news; viewers who switch over to watch the programs on Fox Nation will not be counted by Nielsen.

Other networks, though, have seen benefits from making their cable programs available in digital venues. The shows can attract new subscribers and widen their viewership to the younger audiences that prefer streaming services.

A monthly subscription to Fox Nation costs $6. The network has declined to share its total number of subscribers. Lachlan Murdoch, the executive chairman of the Fox Corporation, said on a recent earnings call that the first quarter of 2021 had generated Fox Nation’s “highest number of customer acquisitions since launch.”

The District of Columbia said in a lawsuit that Amazon had stopped merchants that use its platform from charging lower prices for the same products elsewhere online.Credit…Angela Weiss/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The District of Columbia claimed in a complaint on Tuesday that the giant online marketplace is artificially raising prices for products by abusing its monopoly power.

The legal action is believed to be the first government antitrust suit against Amazon in the United States, report The New York Times’s David McCabe, Karen Weise and Cecilia Kang.

Here’s what you need to know:

“Amazon has used its dominant position in the online retail market to win at all costs,” said Karl Racine, the attorney general for the District of Columbia. “It maximizes its profits at the expense of third-party sellers and consumers, while harming competition, stifling innovation and illegally tilting the playing field in its favor.”

Mr. Racine “has it exactly backwards — sellers set their own prices for the products they offer in our store,” Jodi Seth, a spokeswoman for Amazon, said in a statement. She added that Amazon reserved the right “not to highlight offers to customers that are not priced competitively.”

Amazon has attracted attention from critics because of the sweeping nature of its business. It operates a dominant web hosting operation and a streaming platform that competes with Netflix and Hulu, and it expanded into brick-and-mortar grocery stores with the 2017 acquisition of Whole Foods. But the lawsuit filed by Mr. Racine, a Democrat, concerns the core of its business: the online marketplace for outside merchants that accounts for more than half of the products it sells.

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Commerce secretary assured U.S. can enhance semiconductor manufacturing

Commerce secretary confident U.S. can boost semiconductor production

Trade Minister Gina Raimondo on Tuesday expressed confidence in the efforts of the Biden government to increase semiconductor manufacturing in the United States

In an interview with CNBC’s Mad Money, Raimondo said the global chip scarcity that has rocked a number of industries shows the need for America to increase domestic manufacturing capacity and become a leader again. Asian countries, especially Taiwan, dominate the industry.

“We’ll make it. There’s no option,” Raimondo told host Jim Cramer. “When the semiconductor supply chain is disrupted, the economy is disrupted.”

“They are in your dishwasher, your car, your computer, your headset, your phone and your military equipment. So, yes, we will do it,” she added, describing it as an economic and national safety imperative.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y, put together the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act of 2021, which, among other things, aims to provide $ 52 billion to support semiconductor manufacturing in the country.

While Democrats and Republicans still have disagreements over certain parts of the bill, there is bipartisan support for addressing the issues it addresses.

Raimondo said she hopes it passes the upper chamber “in the coming days,” offering an optimistic timeline similar to Schumer. “That can’t wait,” said Raimondo, who served as governor of Rhode Island before heading the commercial division.

“This requires an emergency appropriation … and I believe Congress has the will to do it,” she added.

Raimondo also addressed the possible infrastructure proposal that a group of Senate Republicans would like to offer as an antidote to President Joe Biden’s plan. Raimondo participated in some negotiations in Washington.

“I don’t know what’s on the deal. We’ll have to see if it’s real, but the fact that we’re still talking and they may come back with a $ 1 trillion deal is certainly progress.” said she said.