London    Shares in Meta plunged in premarket trading Thursday as the Facebook owner’s plans to “invest aggressively” in artificial intelligence spooked investors. The stock was down around 13%, threatening to wipe almost $163 billion off its market value, as investors looked beyond bumper first-quarter earnings to focus on the huge costs to the company of building an AI future. The company is competing head-to-head with Microsoft and Google to unlock the enormous potential of AI. While the payoffs could be huge, Meta’s most recent earnings underscored that building the best tools is costly and will take time. Meta (META),…

Last updated: April 25, 2024 03:29 EDT | 2 min read A yellow legal pad with the words “Buy Bitcoin” written on it, famously displayed behind former United States Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen during a congressional hearing in 2017, has been sold at an auction for over $1 million, equivalent to 16 Bitcoin.The auction took place on the Bitcoin auction platform Scarce City and concluded on April 24, with the winning bidder identified as “Justin,” also known as “Squirrekkywrath.” The seller of the pad was Christian Langalis, who had written the note and briefly flashed it to the camera while seated behind…

The ongoing antisemitic protests at elite colleges and universities around the country amid the war between Israel and the terror group Hamas has roiled campuses as spring terms continue and graduation season nears. Unauthorized encampments and other demonstrations have sprung up at many campuses around the country, with Fox News research finding that such protests have occurred at over half of the top 50 colleges in the country since April 17.The campus unrest puts leaders of both public and private colleges in a challenging position, with some looking to address public safety needs and restore calm on campus to avoid…

BOSTON — A former Berklee College of Music student from China was sentenced Wednesday to nine months in prison for stalking and threatening a person who posted a flyer in support of democracy in the Asian country, authorities said.The leaflet that was posted on the campus in Boston on Oct. 22 read, “Stand with Chinese People,” along with other statements such as “We Want Freedom” and “We Want Democracy,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston said.In response, Xiaolei Wu, 26, threatened to chop off the person’s hands, reported their family to China’s public security agency, asked others to find out…

Last updated: April 25, 2024 05:32 EDT | 1 min read The digital euro will likely not launch until 2028 or 2029, Germany’s central bank president, Dr. Joachim Nagel, said on Wednesday.“It may take another four or five years before it is actually implemented,” he said at the DZ Bank Capital Markets Conference 2024.The European Central Bank (ECB) initiated a two-year “preparation phase” for the project late last year. During this period, it plans to finalize rules, select private-sector partners, and conduct testing and experimentation.After these two years, the Governing Council will determine whether to proceed to the next stage…

CHICAGO (AP) — The “rat hole” is gone.A Chicago sidewalk landmark some residents affectionately called the “rat hole” was removed Wednesday after city officials determined the section bearing the imprint of an animal was damaged and needed to be replaced, officials said.The imprint has been a quirk of a residential block in Chicago’s North Side neighborhood of Roscoe Village for years, but it found fresh fame in January after a Chicago comedian shared a photo on the social platform X.The attention, however, quickly grew old for neighbors who complained about visitors at all hours, sometimes leaving coins and other items…

The University of Southern California announced its campus will remain closed “until further notice” following a large anti-Israel protest on Wednesday that ended with 93 arrested.The Los Angeles Police Department arrived at campus around 4 p.m. after agitators refused to follow the university’s request to leave the area, Capt. Kelly Muniz said on X, formerly Twitter, Wednesday night.After hours of clashing with campus police and the LAPD, the protest ended with 93 people arrested for trespassing.”We haven’t determined if they’re going to be cited out or not. If and when, it is a misdemeanor offense. They are going, and they…

President Biden vowed to let massive components of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expire next year if he wins re-election, meaning that millions of Americans could soon face steeper tax bills. “Donald Trump was very proud of his $2 trillion tax cut that overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and biggest corporations and exploded the federal debt,” Biden tweeted Tuesday. “That tax cut is going to expire. If I’m reelected, it’s going to stay expired.”Enacted by former President Donald Trump in 2017, the law drastically overhauled the nation’s tax code, including reducing the top individual income tax bracket to 37% from…

LOS ANGELES () — Family members of three people murdered by a 61-year-old woman are outraged with a plea deal that they say could allow for the killer’s release.Prosecutors say Nancy Jackson killed a man and his elderly parents in their Los Angeles home in 2018. Jackson pleaded guilty to the murders on the heels of a plea deal that could put her behind bars for 75 years to life.Gilbert Wright, a family member of the victims and a L.A. County deputy district attorney, said Jackson should be facing life without the possibility of parole in a jury trial.”Everybody knows…

Editor’s Note: Sign up for ’s Meanwhile in China newsletter which explores what you need to know about the country’s rise and how it impacts the world. Hong Kong    A “life and death race” has begun to unfold in the world’s largest market for electric vehicles (EV). Chinese EV makers showing off their newest models at Auto China, which kicks off in Beijing on Thursday, have enjoyed generous support from the government for years, with some growing rapidly to become global players. BYD, for example, is now vying with Tesla for leadership of the battery electric vehicle market. But all of…

John Leguizamo has revealed details of his next play! When chatting on the show Live! With Kelly and Mark, Leguizamo shared that his next stage show is in the works and set to premiere this year.He was asked is he plans to work on another one-man show, to which he responded, “No more one-man shows for me, this time I’m writing a regular play with a lot of actors in it.””This is a drama based on a terrible incident that happened in Long Island, an American tragedy,” Leguizamo teases. “It’s going to open up at the Arena Stage in Washington,…

April 21-27 is National Infertility Awareness Week. All week, TODAY will be sharing stories to raise awareness of what it is like to experience infertility.In the last 13 years, 37-year-old Emily Westerfield has delivered 10 healthy babies. Three were her own biological children. She acted as a gestational carrier for families of the others. Twice, she carried twins.She is now 28 weeks pregnant with baby No. 11.“I’m probably the unicorn in this industry,” Westerfield tells TODAY.com.Her incredible success in navigating the surrogacy experience led her to give birth to Carrying Dreams, her own full-service agency designed to help egg donors, surrogates and intended…

Last updated: April 25, 2024 04:00 EDT | 1 min read Nearly four in ten Canada-based institutional investors had exposure to crypto assets in 2023, KPMG survey finds. This marks a significant recovery from the 2022 market slump.The KPMG in Canada and CAASA survey highlighted that 39% of (or nearly 4 in 10) Canadian institutional reported having direct or indirect exposure to crypto assets in 2023, which is up from 31% in 2021.“The last time we did this survey in 2021, it was a strong year for crypto assets,” says Kunal Bhasin, partner at KPMG in Canada’s Digital Assets practice.He…

The Biden administration rolled out its plan Thursday to overhaul the United States’ aging patchwork of fossil-fueled electrical grids, finishing work on a suite of regulations designed to rein in rising utility bills and stem worsening blackouts while cutting planet-heating pollution from power plants.The regulatory package includes the nation’s first-ever limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, tighter restrictions on mercury gas and coal ash, and a new way to speed up construction of badly needed transmission lines. Paired with the billions of dollars in carrots for manufacturing, building and buying modern energy equipment that came with President Joe…

Getty Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce sped off in a getaway car for a couples vacation with Gigi Hadid and Bradley Cooper following the release of Swift’s new album, The Tortured Poets Department. Travis’ mom, Donna Kelce, revealed during the QVC’s Age of Possibility summit in Las Vegas on Wednesday, April 24, that her son, 34, sent her a sweet photo of the foursome enjoying time in the coastal town of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, according to People. Per the outlet, Donna, 71, shared that Travis realized Cooper, 49, would be attending the Summit alongside his mom. When Cooper showed up to…