Elon Musk Accused of Election Meddling | Business Matters (Jan. 10)

Joining us is Paul Grady. Paul, happy Friday. Happy Friday Fiona, great to be here. Great to see you. What have you got for us? Let's see. Now guys at home, great to see you all. Happy Friday to you too. Now one of the biggest acquisitions in the history of the U.S. power industry, nuclear power provider Constellation Energy has agreed to buy natural gas company Calpine for $16 billion, including debt. The transaction is valued Calpine at $26 billion. One analyst said the deal creates the largest coast-to-coast power generator. Shares of Constellation rose 24% in afternoon trading. Calpine is privately held. Its stocks didn't really go up. In September, Constellation announced an unprecedented agreement to resume operations at its Three Mile Island nuclear plant to supply energy to Microsoft data centers. You may remember. Oh, and last month, the company said it would receive a record $1 billion in nuclear power supply and energy-efficient contracts with the U.S. government. And a bipartisan group of lawmakers is urging the Biden administration to restrict U.S. biotechnology exports to China's military. They say Beijing could weaponize biotech to develop toxic pathogens. In a letter, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, the lawmakers raised concerns about risks to national security, health care, and medical data. The move reflects growing alarm over China's expanding role in biotechnology. In August, lawmakers called on the FDA to increase scrutiny of U.S. clinical trials in China, citing intellectual property theft and reports of forced Uyghur participation. They say U.S. firms have worked with the Chinese military-run hospitals, including in Xinjiang. Human rights abuses against Uyghurs have been documented in detail in the region. And some good news. The U.S. economy ended 2024 with unemployment falling to pre-pandemic norms. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the nation's jobless rate was 4.1 percent. That was helped by the 256,000 positions added in December. The agency says roughly 2.2 million jobs were gained in all of 2024. This is similar to the yearly totals from 2017 through 2019. Analysts say the labor market helped boost consumer spending, which also helped the overall economy. And Delta says it's flying high coming into the new year. The CEO announcing 2025 could be the best year in the airline's history. Stocks rallied on the news. Robust demand for premium travel and improved pricing power are boons for Delta. Demand for high-end travel has been booming since the pandemic. Travelers are willing to pay higher fares for more comfortable and swanky seats. Delta has positioned itself as the nation's premier airline. Now its premium ticket revenue is growing faster than main cabin ticket revenue and is projected to exceed it by 2027. And MetaPlatforms is ending its diversity, equity and inclusion programs. This is according to an internal company memo obtained by Axios. This includes those for hiring, training and picking suppliers. Meta told employees posted on an internal company forum on Friday. Axios was the first to report the DEI change. We reached out to Meta for some confirmation and a statement, but Meta didn't respond immediately. And bad news for sports fans. Streaming platform Venue Sports is not going to go ahead. It was a planned joint venture between Disney, Fox and Warner Brothers that ran into significant legal challenges. First, streaming platform FuboTV sued it on antitrust grounds, saying the media partners granted streaming rights to Venue, but they refused to give other streamers. That was resolved after Disney agreed to buy a stake in Fubo, but then two satellite providers sued again, saying that Disney's Fubo settlement didn't resolve any harm caused to the other competitors. So in the end, the media companies behind Venue abandoned the idea. So sorry, sports fans. And as the California wildfires rage on, insurers may raise premiums, even in relatively safe areas, just to cover their costs. Here's the story. The California wildfires are a disaster for insurance companies. Many insurance companies have canceled insurance for a lot of the families. Vice President Kamala Harris points out many have even left the state. State farm, all state national farmers have all left California. The insurer of last resort is going to be faced with the task of exploding and skyrocketing costs. John Boyd specializes in finding the best locations for firms to run their operations. His clients include JP Morgan and the World Bank. He says California's regulations harm insurance companies, making it hard for them to raise rates when needed. A wave have left. The insurers that remain are reportedly likely to raise rates across the country. We see significant premium increases as a result of this. Companies are always good as their people. OK, so people facing the affordability crisis with now with sharp increases in their premiums. It's a big deal. Boyd says this raises expenses for businesses and people. A Harvard study found that when expensive disasters hit one area, rates go up in other areas. Insurers raise them to cover their costs. Insured losses from the wildfires are forecast to total over 20 billion dollars. And the Securities and Exchange Commission says it settled charges against former World Wrestling and Entertainment CEO Vince McMahon. The case involved his alleged failure to disclose to the WWE board and others that he signed two settlement agreements worth 10.5 million dollars with two women. That was to prevent them from revealing potential claims against himself and WWE. The SEC said Friday that one agreement was signed in 2019 and the other in 2022. One required McMahon to pay a former employee three million dollars. That was in exchange for the former worker's agreement to not disclose her relationship with McMahon and also to prevent a release of potential claims against him and the WWE. And the results are in for the 2025 North American Car of the Year Award. The winner is the Honda Civic Hybrid. The award was announced this morning during in Detroit. The North American International Auto Show evaluates factors such as innovation, design, performance, driver satisfaction and value. Automakers see the awards as kind of a gauge for how media perceive their vehicles. And buyers often look to them before they make purchase decisions. Car finalists included the Kia K4 Compact and the Toyota Camry. The Ford Ranger took the crown for the truck honors. And the Volkswagen ID.Buzz won the utility award. And listen to this. Nearly all of the world's 35,000 online pharmacies are being run illegally. According to the U.S. Trade Representative's annual report on notorious markets, consumers who use them risk getting in effective or dangerous drugs. The report named about 3,000 online retailers saying they're selling counterfeit products. Many of them are in China. The report says 96 percent of online pharmacies were operating without a license. And they were selling medicines without prescriptions or safety warnings. The websites often look like legitimate e-commerce platforms. They often falsely claim they're approved by the FDA, according to the report. It said nearly one in four Americans using online pharmacies reporting substandard, fake or harmful medicines. And tensions are escalating between Elon Musk and European officials. The owner of the ex-platform has been accused of undermining democracy. This follows Musk showing support for Germany's Nationalist Party one month ahead of the elections in the country. Now calls for the EU to act against Musk are growing across Europe's political class. NPD's international correspondent David Vives has the story. Several European officials have accused Elon Musk this week of enabling interference in European public discourse. On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrault urged the EU to act decisively against Musk. He warned that if the EU fails to do so, France might invoke its own law to ban Musk's platform in the country. This also follows French President Emmanuel Macron's accusation that the CEO of X is supporting a new international reactionary movement. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday also accused Musk of undermining democracy without directly naming him. Warnings stem from Musk's recent criticism of the UK government and his open support for Germany's Nationalist AFD party on X. The US billionaire plans to live stream a conversation with Alice Weidel, the AFD leader, ahead of Germany's February elections. Critics argue this boosts the party's visibility and violates EU Digital Services Act rules on transparency and fairness. According to legal expert Guillaume Zambrano, this marks an escalation of tensions between the EU and the X platform's owner. There were tensions with Elon Musk and the EU Commission, but it was just at the stage of threats. Now, I think this is a case of EU authorities doing a political blackmail on Musk. We can say this is a weaponization of the legal framework, in other words, both French law and the European Digital Services Act, the law for confidence in the digital economy and European regulations. Former European Commissioner Thierry Breton called out Musk's support of German Nationalist Party AFD. He said in cases where the party wins due to what he called Musk's interference, the EU could go as far as cancelling the outcome of the German elections, similar to its recent action in Romania on December 9th. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has not reacted to the concerns raised, and the EU Commission affirmed Musk's right to express his views, but said it would monitor his debate with the AFD leader. For some political commentators, the issue is testing the EU's willingness to confront Musk head-on and risk antagonizing the incoming Trump administration. David Vives, NTD News, Paris. And if you're a young driver and you just failed your driver's exam, first of all, hard luck. But you could be in a bit of luck. The rideshare app Uber is offering free rides for teens who failed their driving test. The feature is only available to brand new Uber for Teens accounts for teens between the ages of 13 and 17. And according to Uber, the promotion is available for six rides, with a maximum of $20, can't go across the country I'm afraid, will be available for January 9th until March 31st. Parents can add a teen to their family profile, receive notifications when their child requests a ride, they can also track the ride in real time from pick-up to drop-off. And Walgreens beat analysts' lowered expectations for first-quarter adjusted profit that indicated that its restructuring was taking hold. The news sent the U.S. pharmacy chain operator shares up nearly 25%. The company announced thousands of stores, a $1 billion cost-cutting program, and is now exploring options for its non-core businesses. CEO Temp Wentworth seeks to kick-start growth and stem a sharp drop in its share price. The company said metrics like same-store sales at its remaining locations were outperforming stores slated to close at the end of the year. An analyst at Leekier Partners said the quarterly performance was better than expected. The broader story in the company's financial difficulties remains unchanged. And outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he had good and productive meetings with business leaders in Washington yesterday. Trudeau downplayed any talk about Canada one day merging with the United States. When it comes to Canada being looked at as the 51st state, let me just state it again, that's never going to happen. We have become incredibly successful as countries, as economies, as a continent because we do things so well together. Trudeau said it's important to avoid unnecessary tariffs on goods and products from Canada. And he also promised to stand up for the interests of workers and consumers on both sides of the border. President-elect Trump has threatened to put a 25 percent tariff on Canadian goods. Canadian officials have threatened to put tariffs on American imports in retaliation. Retailers. Kohl's says it's closing 27 stores across 14 states. Ten of those are in California. The closures are set to take place by April. Kohl's has recently faced shortfalls in earnings, economic struggles and leadership changes. It operates over 1,100 stores in the U.S., but they've declined for almost 12 straight quarters in revenue. The company forecasts a 7 to 8 percent full-year net sales decline. Incoming Kohl's CEO Ashley Buchanan will take her position in a few days. Try and brighten the company's forecast. He's a former Walmart executive and the latest CEO of Michaels. Since January 2024, company shares have dropped 50 percent. Britain is seeking closer trade ties with China. UK's three top finance chiefs are in the Asian nation, along with senior bank heads. This is despite exposed security threats of alleged Chinese spies and amid economic turmoil in the United Kingdom. NDD's international correspondent Malcolm Hudson has the story. British Chancellor Rachel Reeves is in China seeking to boost trade relations. It's part of the Labour government's broader aim to reset ties between the two nations. She will be visiting Beijing and Shanghai. Reeves' trip is expected to restart the China-UK economic and financial dialogue. It's an annual bilateral talk that has been suspended since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As well as by deteriorating relations between the UK and China in recent years, the trip comes amid market turmoil in the UK. Government borrowing costs have gone up while the pound has dropped in value. The British Treasury said the delegation to China includes Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and the UK Financial Conduct Authority chief executive. Representatives from some of Britain's biggest financial service firms will also join the trip. Officials did not provide details but media reports have said senior executives from HSBC Holdings and Standard Chartered were included. Reeves' visit comes after Foreign Secretary David Lammy travelled to China in October. And Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Brazil in November. Officials said Starmer wants a pragmatic approach to working with Beijing on global security and climate change. However, some in the opposition Conservative Party have said trade should not come at the expense of national security and human rights concerns. British political leaders and intelligence chiefs have warned repeatedly of the security threats that China poses. Calls grew louder last month when it emerged an alleged Chinese spy had cultivated close ties with Prince Andrew. According to officials, the alleged spy carried out covert and deceptive activity for the Chinese Communist Party. Malcolm Hudson, NTD News, London. And Chuck E. Cheese is making a comeback after clearing bankruptcy back in 2020. It's revamped its locations, added trampolines, swapped out paper gaming tickets for a new mobile app experience. Oh, and shown the door to the old Chuck E. Cheese animatronic band. Revenue hit $1.2 billion in 2023. That's up from around $900 million right before the pandemic. Oh, it's also wiped out about $700 million in debt. That's not bad. Chuck E. Cheese opened its first location in San Francisco in 1977. Since then, it's become a staple for many children's birthday parties. Over the summer, it launched a new monthly subscription service that'll get you discounts on food, drinks and games. In 2024, it sold close to half a million passes. And down on Wall Street today, let's see how it ended up on Friday. We've seen all in the red today. Dow Jones down about 700 points, 1.6%. And the Nasdaq down over 300 points, 1.63%. Not a great day on Wall Street. Not a great end to the week. With that, Fiona, back to you. Paul, thank you as always. I want to ask you, have you ever failed your driver's license? No. No? No, I passed it. First go. Oh, good for you. Me too. Oh, there you go. No need for Uber. I know, right? No free Ubers. That's unfortunate. But it's interesting. I wish there was Uber teens when I was a teen. I like the way you put me on the spot, though. What did you want me to tell you? If I failed my driving test on live TV, this is your plan? And you could say, oh, I actually passed mine the first time. Yeah, exactly. That was exactly my plan. But you do it. But yeah, I mean, that Uber, lucky kids nowadays. Yeah, pretty good idea. You know what I mean? When I was younger, my mom would always tell me, whenever you get somewhere, make sure you text me to let me know. Nowadays, she could just go onto the app. I don't need to remember to text her at all. I know, I know. But I mean, what happened to don't get into a car with a stranger? There you go. Times have changed. I know. Paul, thank you for the report. As always, happy Friday. I'll see you next week. Thanks, Yona. Bye.