Author: Editor

Katie Zacharia’s run as White House press secretary lasted five days, and memes about her exit are rolling in.There is someone who can relate: Anthony Scaramucci, whose brief stint as Trump’s White House communications director in July 2017 became a pop-culture unit of time — a “Scaramucci,” or “Mooch” — for measuring short-lived political appointments.Scaramucci held the role for roughly 10 days — six if not including the time lapsed between Trump’s announcement and his first day — before Trump fired him.Scaramucci has been following Zacharia’s journey closely and, in a series of tweets, has gone from wishing her well…

For corporate recruiters like Martha Heller, asking questions about a job candidate’s credentials — like the kind that swirled around now-former White House press secretary Katie Zacharia this week — is par for the course.When a background check failed to verify an executive candidate’s college degree a few years ago, Heller inquired about the discrepancy. The candidate, who was being considered for a job at a California insurance company, claimed a flood at his school had destroyed the records from the year he graduated. Skeptical, Heller called the college and learned that no such event had occurred.”It was like detective…

Anyone purchasing an Apple iPhone Duo online as a Christmas gift may want to find a backup plan.Expected shipment dates for new orders of the highly anticipated smartphone model have been pushed back to January 25, 2027. That includes iPhone Duos across all available carriers, colors, and storage sizes. For those who pounced on preorders when they went live early Friday morning, shipments will start arriving as early as October 23.For latecomers, there is always the Hunger Games that is lining up early outside an Apple store on launch day to try to snag in-store inventory. The cheapest version of…

Peter Rice, seen here on May 3, 2017, was head of Disney’s TV entertainment business in 2020. He was one of several executives passed over for the CEO job in favor of Chapek.David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesNetflix is shaking up its C-suite in an effort to fix its engagement woes.On Thursday, the streaming giant announced that former Disney executive Peter Rice will take over as the company’s chief content officer, overseeing global content organization, including scripted and unscripted series, film and live events.Rice is replacing 10-year Netflix veteran Bela Bajaria, who most recently led the company’s global…

One of the biggest names in venture capital is looking to hire a new right-hand person.Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, said on X Thursday that he’s seeking his next chief of staff, a job that offers a rare opportunity to work in close contact with the billionaire investor whose Silicon Valley firm is known for its early bets on OpenAI, DoorDash, and Instacart.”What matters is how quickly you learn, the questions you ask, and whether you can think from first principles,” Khosla wrote. “You’ll help evaluate opportunities and work with founders building consequential companies.”The opening comes as demand for…

The U.S. Disciplinary Barracks, where Nidal Malik Hasan is being held on death row, is seen in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption i Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images U.S. public sentiment about the death penalty has come to the forefront after President Trump gave his blessing, then backtracked, to livestreaming an execution via firing squad. That planned execution comes after two botched Tennessee lethal injections this year, where the state struggled to find veins to administer death-inducing drugs to Christa Pike and Tony Carruthers. Speaking at a press conference a day…

In 2002, a Houston Chick-fil-A restaurant manager sued the chain for discrimination, Forbes reported. The employee, who is Muslim, said he was fired one day after refusing to pray to Jesus along with their fellow coworkers during a training session.At the time, Jerry Johnston, a spokesperson for Chick-fil-A, told the Houston Chronicle that the company had not yet been served with a lawsuit and therefore couldn’t comment on the dispute, My Plainview reported. Forbes states that the suit was settled out of court on undisclosed terms.Then, in 2011, a Pennsylvania Chick-fil-A prompted a nationwide boycott of the chain when the…

Disney is paying up for employees from an AI chatbot startup that filed for bankruptcy, shortly after trimming its own tech workforce.The Mouse House plans to pay $60 million per year to 66 workers from Character.AI, according to a Chapter 11 filing on Tuesday from its parent company. In mid-September, Disney hired Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anand to be its first-ever company-wide tech chief. (The company hasn’t yet disclosed how much it’s paying Anand.)These additions are part of Disney’s AI strategy under CEO Josh D’Amaro, who’s been investing in the media giant’s tech platforms to help jumpstart a stagnant stock that’s…

Harvard University delivered its best investment return in five years as its bet on SpaceX boosted its stock portfolio.The elite college’s endowment returned 27.1% in the fiscal year ended June 30, its annual financial report revealed on Thursday. That comfortably outpaced the benchmark S&P 500’s 22.3% total return over the same period.After accounting for taxes, distributions, and gifts, Harvard’s endowment grew by $11 billion to nearly $68 billion.Harvard Management Company’s stake in Elon Musk’s maker of Starship rockets, Starlink satellites, and AI chatbot Grok was worth $2.2 billion at the end of June, per its second-quarter portfolio disclosure.SpaceX was its…

When I told my best friend I was quitting my Wall Street legal career to spend a year camping and exploring the American West, she looked at me aghast and said, “You’re joking, right?”Her response wasn’t surprising. I hadn’t exactly been honest with her, or myself, about how much I longed for a very different life than the one I was living.At the time, we were 34 years old, and during the prior 16 years of friendship, our lives had run parallel tracks, studying business in college, then pursuing demanding careers in East Coast cities. While we’d seen each other…