Rex Tillerson is out as Secretary of State and CIA director Mike Pompeo is in. President Trump made the announcement in a tweet on Tuesday morning just minutes after a report in the Washington Post was published. Tillerson disagreed with the White House on a number of issues such as the Iran nuclear deal and the best approach to talks with North Korea. Gina Haspel will became the new CIA director once Pompeo becomes Secretary of State. She is the first woman to ever serve in this role.
Meanwhile, President Trump issued an executive order blocking Broadcom's hostile takeover bid for rival chipmaker Qualcomm. Trump cited national security concerns as the reason for interfering with the acquisition. Many experts speculate this is part of growing concerns over China's influence in mobile technology. Qualcomm is the largest mobile chipmaker in the U.S. Broadcom is currently based in Singapore but is moving its headquarters back to the states next month.
Olympic gold medalist and author Scott Hamilton joins us to talk about his figure skating career and his new book. In his book, "Finish First," Hamilton talks about how winning and losing has shaped him as a person. He also opens up about his numerous health struggles in the past few decades. Hamilton is a cancer survivor and is currently living with a brain tumor.
Plus, Kristen Scholer sits down with Brooklyn Decker and Whitney Casey at SXSW to talk about their start-up Finery. The two recently secured $5 million in seed funding for the online wardrobe company. Decker and Casey discuss the future of artificial intelligence and how the technology could potentially play a role in their company soon.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
It’s an annual tradition: the Fed’s banking ‘stress test.’ A year after the regional banking crisis, there are good reasons to make sure they’re prepped.
