Author: Press Room

Shares in UK gambling group Entain dropped by as much as 13 per cent on Thursday morning after casino operator MGM Resorts ruled out mounting a second takeover bid for the Ladbrokes owner, scuppering the hopes of investors for a big payout. MGM, operator of the Las Vegas Bellagio casino, first made a bid for Entain in January 2021, offering shareholders equity in MGM that valued Entain at £8bn, or £13.83 a share, which was about a 20 per cent premium on its trading price. But the offer was roundly rejected by shareholders, more than half of whom were institutional…

A blockbuster trade that would send Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns sent shockwaves through the sports world early Thursday morning and closed the book on the failure of an era for the organization.The Nets agreed to trade Durant and T.J. Warren to the Suns for Cam Johnson, Mikal Bridges, Jae Crowder, four first-round picks and additional draft compensation, according to multiple reports. The reported deal came days after Brooklyn sent Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks.Irving, who made his Mavericks debut on Saturday night, took one-last swipe at Brooklyn after he was asked about his thoughts…

The fireworks started early. The NBA trade deadline 2023 has arrived and the entire balance of the league shifted in the early hours Wednesday morning when Kevin Durant was traded to the Suns for a package headlined by Mikal Bridges and a haul of draft picks. Durant followed Kyrie Irving out the door in Brooklyn after the mercurial point guard was dealt to the Mavericks on Sunday. Before Durant was traded there was a flurry of moves on Wednesday night. The Lakers added D’Angelo Russell and dealt Russell Westbrook in a three-team, eight players swap. The Knicks sent Cam Reddish…

A New Jersey council member was shot dead in his car Wednesday, exactly a week after the unsolved slaying of Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour. Russell Heller, 51, was found dead just after 7 a.m. in the Somerset parking lot of PSE&G, the local energy company where the Milford Republican worked. Cops quickly IDed a former employee, Gary Curtis, 58, as a suspect — and found him dead in his car from a suspected self-inflicted gunshot around three-and-a-half hours after the slaying. New Jersey councilman Russell Heller, 51, was shot dead Wednesday.Facebook/ Russ Heller The councilman’s murder came exactly a week after…

Artificial intelligence is the latest tech flavor of the month. Industry giants Google, Microsoft and China’s Baidu have all had big AI announcements in recent days, as ChatGPT bot mania is taking the corporate world by storm. All of this AI news has helped boost shares of Baidu (BIDU), Microsoft (MSFT) and Google owner Alphabet (GOOGL) this year. However, Alphabet (GOOGL) tumbled Wednesday following a rocky demo of Bard, its rival to ChatGPT. Traders have also been bidding up the stocks of much smaller, unprofitable companies that are trying to make a name for themselves in the AI arms race.…

Australia’s defense ministry will remove Chinese-made cameras from its offices over spying concerns, the country’s Minister for Defence Richard Marles has said. The concerns were raised by Senator James Paterson of the opposition Liberal Party, who said Wednesday that he had conducted an “audit” of Chinese-made security devices in use on Australian government premises. The audit found 913 devices, including cameras, access control systems and intercoms, made by Chinese-state owned enterprises Hikvision and Dahua, Paterson noted. “These companies have a very close relationship with the Chinese Communist Party, and they are subject to China’s National Intelligence laws, which require all…

The Chinese balloon shot down off the South Carolina coast was part of a large surveillance program that China has been conducting for “several years,” the Pentagon said Wednesday. When similar balloons passed over U.S. territory on four occasions during the Trump and Biden administrations, the U.S. did not immediately identify them as Chinese surveillance balloons, said Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary.But he said “subsequent intelligence analysis” allowed the U.S. to confirm they were part of a Chinese spying effort and learn “a lot more” about the program.He refused to provide any new details about those previous…

DETROIT — Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board apparently have solved the mystery of why no one was found behind the steering wheel of a Tesla that crashed in a Texas two years ago, killing two men.The agency said in an investigative report released Wednesday on the fiery April 17, 2021, crash in the Houston suburb of Spring that the 59-year-old Tesla driver apparently moved to the back seat after slamming into the car’s front air bag, deforming the steering wheel in the crash.Although the crash raised questions about whether the car was operating on Tesla’s “Autopilot” partially automated…

In his first public comments since he began his second stint as Disney’s chief executive, Bob Iger reminded investors that he had already led the company through “two significant transformations”. The first, which began early in his 15-year tenure, is remembered for Disney’s game-changing acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm. The second transformation set the stage for Disney’s high-stakes battle with Netflix in the streaming wars. Now, Iger told investors in an earnings call on Wednesday, it was time for a third transformation. But if the first two were about bold acquisitions or entering cutting-edge new businesses, this shift sounded more defensive.The main mission…

Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is calling President Biden a liar after being repeatedly characterized as a Republican seeking to end key entitlement programs.During his Wednesday speech in Madison, Wisconsin, Biden acknowledged the “spirited debate” he had with House Republicans during the State of the Union address Tuesday night  — when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and others booed and shouted that he was a “liar” for claiming Republicans want to cut Social Security and Medicare entitlements.Refusing to back down at the Wisconsin rally, the president pulled out a brochure with the 12-point plan to “Rescue America” put forward by…