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(Bloomberg) — Apple Inc. introduced its first redesigned entry-level iPad in five years, as well as a new speedier Pro model and a cheaper TV set-top box, seeking to entice consumers as it heads into what’s expected to be another record holiday quarter. 

The latest iPad Pro now sports the same M2 chip used in recent Mac computers, while the entry-level iPad is getting a fresh design and new charging port, the company said Tuesday in a series of online announcements. The new Apple TV device, meanwhile, has a lower price and more storage.

The changes help revitalize products that are often overshadowed by Apple’s iPhone, the company’s biggest moneymaker. The iPad generates roughly 9% of the tech giant’s revenue and enjoyed a resurgence during the early days of the pandemic, though it also suffered from supply shortages. The company’s home products, part of a division that includes the Apple TV box as well as smartwatches and speakers, generated nearly 11% of revenue last year.

Apple is expected to rake in more than $128 billion in its December quarter, up about 4% from a year earlier. That’s slower growth than it’s seen in recent holiday periods, but the company is contending with sluggish consumer spending, inflation pressure and fears of a recession.

Apple had initially intended to boost iPhone production this year to meet an uptick in demand, but it scaled back those plans in recent weeks, Bloomberg News reported. The Information said Tuesday that Apple is reevaluating demand for the iPhone Plus, a new model with a large screen but not the features of the iPhone 14 Pro or Pro Max.

Apple shares dipped 0.3% to $141.95 as of 3:15 p.m. in New York.

Tuesday’s crop of new products could give consumers a reason to upgrade or spring for a higher-end model. The new iPad Pro and Apple TV represent the first refreshes to those products in a year and a half. After a minor update in September 2021, the entry-level iPad now has a whole new look — and a $120 price increase.

 

The Apple TV box is still central to the company’s living-room strategy, but the product has been eclipsed by cheaper rivals from Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. The device only accounts for about 5% of the market, according to recent data from EMarketer Inc. 

With the iPad Pro, first introduced in 2015, Apple has sought to make the device a compelling replacement for a laptop. The Cupertino, California-based company offers a Magic Keyboard with a built-in track pad. And it has developed an interface called Stage Manager that’s meant to ease multitasking, though that feature has received tepid initial reviews.

The new iPad Pro looks identical to the models released in 2021, 2020 and 2018. The main change is the addition of the M2 chip. The new model runs 15% faster than the M1 version, according to Apple, and it continues to come in 11-inch and 12.9-inch sizes.

The new iPad Pro also gets faster Wi-Fi connectivity and an Apple Pencil feature that lets the stylus work while hovering above — but not touching — the screen. There’s also support for ProRes video recording, a more advanced format. 

Altogether, this year’s iPad Pro probably has the least significant changes of any upgrade since it first launched seven years ago. Apple is also keeping pricing and storage options the same. The 11-inch model will continue to cost $799, while the 12.9-inch version stays at $1,099. But the price can reach as high as $2,399 with the largest screen size, 2 terabytes of storage and 5G connectivity. 

Bigger changes are coming to the entry-level iPad. The device is getting a fresh look with flat edges, matching the iPad Pro, iPad Air and iPad mini. For the first time, the entry-level model gains a USB-C connector, replacing the Lightning port. That move will unify Apple’s iPad connector strategy, increase data transfer speeds and meet an upcoming requirement from the European Union.

The new entry-level iPad costs $449, an increase from the $329 price of the previous model. Given that higher price, Apple is retaining last year’s model at $329 to offer consumers a lower-budget option.

The company also launched a new Magic Keyboard Folio for $250 that adds a function row for music, brightness and other controls to the accessory, in addition to a kickstand. The item is similar to offerings from Microsoft Corp. for its Surface devices. 

The new model also moves the front-facing camera to the horizontal side of the device, adds an A14 Bionic chip, and comes in colors like blue and yellow. The new iPads will go on sale for preorders Tuesday, with the products reaching stores Oct. 26.

Surprisingly, the new Pro models don’t include an updated keyboard attachment and horizontally placed camera — a common request from consumers. The new entry-level model only supports the original Apple Pencil from 2015, which charges with a Lightning connector. That’s an inconvenient decision given that the new iPad has a USB-C port, not Lightning. That means users will need to buy a $9 dongle to charge the Apple Pencil with the new tablet. 

The iPad was a hot seller for Apple when the pandemic forced consumers to spruce up their home offices. That helped extend a rebound for a product that had seen sales slow in the latter half of the 2010s. 

The new Apple TV now comes in two variations: a cheaper $129 version that can only connect to the internet using Wi-Fi, and a $149 version that has an Ethernet port for wired connections. The Wi-Fi-only version has 64 gigabytes of storage, while the higher-end version has 128 gigabytes — double the maximum space ever offered in an Apple TV. 

Both new Apple TVs have an A15 chip, an upgrade from the A12 in the previous model. Apple has also upgraded the Siri Remote that comes with the Apple TV to use a USB-C port for charging instead of Lightning. An older model without 4K video support, the Apple TV HD for $99, has been discontinued, while the new versions gain improved high-dynamic-range video.

The new box is slightly thinner and about half the weight of the previous version. That’s because the company has removed the internal fan. Given that the device is stationary and typically sits inside of cabinets below TVs, such changes likely aren’t a reason to upgrade.

Bloomberg News reported last week on Apple’s plans to update the iPad Pro, entry-level tablet and Apple TV box. The company is also planning to announce new versions of the MacBook Pro with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips later this year.

Apple is looking to eventually push its tablet deeper into the home with a plan to turn the device into a smart hub and speaker. The approach would be similar to what Google is doing with its upcoming Pixel Tablet, Bloomberg News reported.

Apple also has been working to fine-tune Stage Manager, the iPad’s multitasking software, after a glitchy debut in the beta version of iPadOS 16. Apple said the software, which includes the new interface, will be formally released on Oct. 24. MacOS Ventura, the new Mac software with the same feature, launches the same day. 

The feature is designed to let users run multiple apps on the same screen at once, similar to a Mac or PC. But testers of the software found it suffered from bugs and a muddled interface. Apple has pledged to make improvements and delayed a mode that can work with external monitors until later this year.

(Updates with iPhone production plans in fifth paragraph.)

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(Bloomberg) — Stocks continued their rebound from nearly oversold levels as traders assessed prospects for earnings growth against a backdrop of rising interest rates.

After almost giving up all of its gains, the S&P 500 pushed toward a back-to-back rally. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. jumped after becoming the latest major bank to provide investors with positive results. Netflix Inc. will report its numbers after the close, and investors will be looking to see if the streaming TV pioneer company makes good on its forecast for a return to subscriber growth.

“Earnings season offers investors the opportunity to focus more on the actual earnings power of corporate America, and less on the machinations of the backward-looking economic data stream,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley. “A better-than-feared earnings season may well be the catalyst the market needs to see a break in the steady grind lower.”

Upbeat company results, cheaper valuations and UK policy reversals have helped buoy risk sentiment. But with headwinds from inflation, risks to the economy and hawkish central banks continuing to confront investors, there’s debate over how durable the gains will prove.

Some regional Fed directors last month favored raising a key interest rate by a smaller or larger amount than the 75 basis points that policymakers ultimately decided was needed to curb persistent inflation, according to minutes of discount-rate meetings released Tuesday.

The sentiment on stocks and global growth among fund managers surveyed by Bank of America Corp. shows full capitulation, opening the way for equities to bottom in the first half of 2023.

“There’s still a strong feeling of a bear-market rally about trading over the course of the last week,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda Europe Ltd. “The economic landscape looks treacherous and we don’t even know if we’re at peak inflation and interest rate pricing yet. Those are substantial headwinds that will make any stock market rebound extremely challenging.”

Key events this week:

• Euro area CPI, Wednesday
• EIA crude oil inventory report, Wednesday
• US MBA mortgage applications, building permits, housing starts, Fed Beige Book, Wednesday
• Fed’s Neel Kashkari, Charles Evans, James Bullard speak, Wednesday
• US existing home sales, initial jobless claims, Conference Board leading index, Thursday
• Euro area consumer confidence, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• The S&P 500 rose 1.3% as of 2:16 p.m. New York time
• The Nasdaq 100 rose 1%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2%
• The MSCI World index rose 1.2%

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
• The euro rose 0.1% to $0.9854
• The British pound fell 0.4% to $1.1312
• The Japanese yen fell 0.1% to 149.21 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies

• Bitcoin fell 0.7% to $19,392.63
• Ether fell 1.6% to $1,308.85

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.01%
• Germany’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 2.28%
• Britain’s 10-year yield declined three basis points to 3.95%

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude fell 2.7% to $83.14 a barrel
• Gold futures fell 0.4% to $1,656.80 an ounce

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(Bloomberg) — A pay dispute between the creator of a critically acclaimed video game series and its star voice actor reignited a long-simmering debate over wages in the industry. As is often the case in these sorts of disagreements, the details surrounding negotiations and casting for the upcoming game, Bayonetta 3, are more complicated than what has been portrayed publicly.

The feud spilled out into the open over the weekend, when Hellena Taylor, the star of the first two Bayonetta games, said she would not appear in the next iteration, set to be released for the Nintendo Switch on Oct. 28. She posted a series of videos Saturday on Twitter, accusing Nintendo Co. and the game’s developer, Platinum Games, of offering her a total of $4,000 to reprise her role. She said she rejected the lowball offer and asked fans to refrain from buying the game. “If you’re someone who cares about people, who cares about the world around you, who cares about who gets hurt with these financial decisions, then I urge you to boycott this game,” Taylor said in one of the videos.

The videos went viral, racking up more than 9.5 million views on Twitter. Taylor’s story touched a nerve among gamers. Voice actors are beloved by fans but fail to command anywhere close to what a Hollywood actor makes. Game actors have long complained of being underpaid and under-appreciated. Some have said they receive little information about their roles until they show up in the recording booth. The industry operates in such clandestine ways that actors sometimes won’t even know what game they’re recording lines for until it’s released.

The tensions last crested during contract negotiations in 2016 when the union representing many voice actors, the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, orchestrated a strike that lasted nearly a year. One of the sticking points was residuals, meaning compensation for actors when sales of a game outperform expectations. Voice actors gave up that fight in exchange for receiving bonuses based on the number of sessions they work.

In the case of Bayonetta 3, the developer appeared to be determined to rehire Taylor, according to two people familiar with the negotiations as well as documentation reviewed by Bloomberg. Here’s where their accounts differ: Platinum Games sought to hire Taylor for at least five sessions, each paying $3,000 to $4,000 for four hours in the studio, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to discuss private contract negotiations. That would make the total for the game at least $15,000. In response, they said, Taylor asked for a six-figure sum as well as residuals on the game. Platinum declined and, following lengthy negotiations, took auditions for a new actor. Platinum later offered Taylor a cameo in the game for the fee of one session, which she turned down, the people said.

In an email, Taylor described this account as “an absolute lie” and said Platinum was “trying to save their ass and the game.” She said she stood by everything she said in the video. “I would like to put this whole bloody franchise behind me quite frankly get on with my life in the theatre,” she wrote. Representatives for Platinum Games and Nintendo didn’t respond to requests for comment. Hideki Kamiya, the executive director of Bayonetta 3, called Taylor’s allegations “sad and deplorable” in a Twitter post.

Regardless, Taylor’s comments resonated widely, dominating headlines on gaming websites and even gracing the digital pages of TMZ. Several of Taylor’s peers spoke out after her videos. Bryan Dechart, who acted in Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption II, said he was offered $4,000 to work on a nonunion project for a big-budget game. Sean Chiplock, who voiced three characters in the Nintendo blockbuster the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, said he was paid about $3,000 for that job.

The Bayonetta series is beloved by fans and critics but has never been a big commercial success. The Nintendo Switch version of Bayonetta 2, released in 2018, has sold just over a million copies, far fewer than many of Nintendo’s other offerings. For Bayonetta 3, the acting costs were higher than other projects because the studio relied on union performers, said three people familiar with the game’s production, which meant a minimum of about $900 for a four-hour voice session plus bonuses. Prominent actors or franchise stars like Taylor usually make more.

In her videos, Taylor mentioned Jennifer Hale, the prolific voice actor who took over the role of Bayonetta in the new game. “I wish her all the joy in the world, I wish her all the jobs, but she has no right to say she is the voice of Bayonetta,” Taylor said. “I created that voice. She has no right to sign merchandise as Bayonetta.”

Hale faced some vicious online harassment as a result. She wrote Monday on Twitter that she had signed a non-disclosure agreement and couldn’t elaborate on the situation. “I sincerely ask that everyone keep in mind that this game has been created by an entire team of hard-working, dedicated people, and I hope everyone will keep an eye open about what they’ve created,” she wrote. A few hours later, she retweeted a Twitter thread from another voice actor saying, “If you only hear one side (or part of one side) of a story, you haven’t heard the whole story.”

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(Bloomberg) — In any other election year, two Navy veterans vying to represent a Virginia district dominated by military interests would focus on their national security bonafides. 

Instead, the race between two women on opposite sides of the abortion debate has turned one of the nation’s closest House contests into a referendum on Roe v. Wade. 

The bellwether district, which includes Virginia Beach and its Oceana Naval Base, skewed more Republican after redistricting brought in more GOP-heavy areas, hurting incumbent Representative Elaine Luria’s prospects for a third term. 

But the Supreme Court’s June decision overturning a constitutional right to an abortion shook up the race and put GOP challenger Jen Kiggans, a self-described “champion for the unborn,” suddenly on the defensive after months of hammering Democrats on soaring inflation and the weakening economy. 

In good news for Kiggans, a state senator, nurse practitioner and former Navy pilot, and other Republicans who have centered their campaigns on President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy, inflation continues to dominate all other issues, with 82% of Americans saying rising costs are extremely or very important to them in a Sept. 21 to 25 Monmouth University poll of 806 adult Americans. Abortion ranked seventh of 12 issues in terms of importance, with 56% of those surveyed considering it extremely or very important. 

Yet that number changes significantly when broken down by party, and Democrats see a winning strategy in concentrating on abortion rights. Seventy-nine percent of Democrats — compared to 40% of Republicans — consider abortion extremely or very important. In Virginia, the abortion decision has sparked an 8% jump in the state’s female voter registration, according to Democratic data analytics firm TargetSmart. There was no such gender gap in 2020.

 

“Without that issue, the district would lean Republican rather than be a toss-up,” said J. Miles Coleman, the associate editor of Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia.

Biden, seeking to rally his party’s voters, on Tuesday vowed to make legislation codifying abortion rights the first bill he’ll send to the new Congress next year if more Democrats are elected to Congress.

Interviews with dozens of voters in this coastal Virginia district confirmed Coleman’s take. Abortion rights is the premiere issue for Democrats and the Supreme Court decision has convinced some independents and Republicans to vote for Luria.

“I’m concerned about the Supreme Court and its politicization,” said Ken Chapman, 60, who owns Chapman’s Market at the Virginia Beach Farmers Market and says he was a lifelong Republican until 2020. “Republicans packed the court.”

Luria, a retired Navy commander, has pummeled Kiggans on abortion in a series of attack ads, saying Kiggans “applauded” and “celebrated” the Supreme Court decision. Luria, who favors codifying Roe v. Wade, painted Kiggans as an extremist who supports no exceptions for abortions.

Kiggans countered with an ad saying she’s been called lots of things, but “extremist? That’s a new one.” She then immediately pivoted back to inflation and the economy. 

Luria seized on abortion again during an Oct. 12 debate, before the moderator even asked. Kiggans argued that Luria misrepresented her position and that she wants exceptions for rape, incest and when the life of the mother is at stake.

“I’ve never made it my goal to ban or make abortion illegal at the federal level,” she said at the debate. Kiggans did not answer more detailed questions on her position after the debate and declined an interview for this article. 

Long-Simmering Debate

Abortion politics were raging in Virginia well before the Supreme Court’s decision. Democrats won control of the state Legislature in 2019 for the first time in two decades and the next year passed legislation rolling back multiple abortion restrictions and codifying new protections. Kiggans opposed the legislation.

In 2021, Republican Glenn Youngkin won the governorship and the GOP retook the House of Delegates. Youngkin has said he would move to ban most abortions after 15 weeks — a tough climb with Democrats still in control of the state Senate.

“Here in Virginia we don’t have any snap-back laws or any of those kinds of things going into effect immediately, but people understand the importance on the federal level of having people in office who are going to protect that right” Luria said in an interview in the district.

That includes Belinda Whittaker of Chesapeake, who persuaded her 21-year-old granddaughter, Aryn Lovell, to join her in early voting because “it’s about women getting the right kind of health care when they need it.”

Middle of the Road

The Luria-Kiggans race is playing out in a place that’s literally in the center of US politics. The district ranks 218 of 435 House districts in the range of pro-Biden and pro-Donald Trump districts in 2020, according to Coleman’s research. 

Luria, who in 2018 helped win Democrats their House majority, is one of almost 40 frontline Democrats whose races will determine whether Republicans take control of the House. 

What was once expected to be a conservative wave, thanks to economic woes and historical trends favoring the party out of power, has turned into a ripple. Political analysts haven’t counted Democrats out of keeping control of the 50-50 Senate and perhaps hanging onto the House, particularly if incumbents like Luria hold on. 

Yet in a district so evenly split, abortion isn’t always a winning issue for Luria. 

“I believe very much that life beings at conception, and these babies deserve protections in the law,” said Victoria Kieser, a 29-year-old independent voter and stay-at-home mom who is voting on abortion. She says she agrees with Luria on some issues, but can’t vote for her now.

Republicans, at the same time, are benefiting from stubborn inflation in the weeks before the election. 

Pausing during his lunch at Warriors Taphouse in Virginia Beach, Fred Wilson, a 54-year-old military training contractor, said his 401(k) “is dying,” his grocery and gas costs have risen dramatically, and he worries about the security of his grown childrens’ jobs. He’s voting for Kiggans.

And at the annual Suffolk Peanut Festival, Amanda Lakey said she’s a Republican and will stick with her party this year. She blames Biden for inflation and worries about paying her mortgage. 

“We didn’t know if we would have the money to pay for everything,” added Lakey, 41. “Everything keeps going up.”

(Updates with Biden in eighth paragraph)

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(Bloomberg) — Democratic Senator Mark Warner said he is concerned about Elon Musk’s reliance on China amid the Tesla Inc. chief executive’s recent statements about Taiwan and his potential purchase of Twitter Inc.

“I don’t think there is another American more dependent upon the largess of the Communist Party than Elon Musk,” Warner, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in an interview in New York.

Musk told the Financial Times that Taiwan should agree to become a special administrative zone of China in order to resolve tensions with Beijing. Taiwan is governed independently, but China considers the island part of its territory. Musk also said Beijing has sought assurances that he won’t offer SpaceX’s Starlink internet service in China.

Warner, of Virginia, said he is concerned that if Musk’s $44 billion bid to buy Twitter goes through he will face additional pressure from China to moderate tweets critical of Chinese President Xi Jinping or the Communist Party.  “That to me is much more troubling, or potentially troubling, than whether Donald Trump’s on Twitter,” he said, referring to Musk’s criticism of Twitter’s ban of the former president.

Sales in China accounted for roughly a quarter of Tesla’s automotive revenue in the third quarter. The company operates a massive factory outside of Shanghai, and Musk has publicly praised China’s government and the hard-working ethos of his Chinese work force on multiple occasions.

Warner also said Musk’s recent statements about Ukraine, given his control of the Starlink satellite internet service used there, raise concerns. He said Musk deserves credit for initially providing Starlink to Ukraine, but worried about Musk controlling when and where Starlink operates. 

“It’s obviously a concern,” he said.

Musk has tweeted about his fears that any drive by Ukraine to repel Russia from Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, might result in Russia using nuclear weapons. He threatened to cut financial support for Starlink service in Ukraine, a move that would deny the country a key means of communication, only to reverse course, saying he supports doing “good deeds” and that the company will keep funding the satellites “for free.”

Warner said global pressure appeared to cause Musk to reverse himself. 

“Is that going to last?” Warner asked. “This is a critical component” of Ukraine’s communication system, he said. He said he hopes to see competitors to Starlink “shortly.” 

On Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said questions about Starlink business strategy should go to the company, but added “the Department of Defense does continue to discuss various matters with SpaceX and to include Starlink.”

Warner said he’s been more broadly frustrated with multinational companies who have turned a “blind eye” to oppression in China given the importance of the Chinese market, including “hypocrisy” among some in the environmental community to not look at the whole supply chain for products like cars. He is pushing for an array of efforts to counter China’s efforts to dominate key technologies of the future and extract US businesses from reliance on Chinese supply chains as part of a “quasi industrial policy.”

 

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(Bloomberg) — The US will sign an agreement with Switzerland, a pioneer in quantum-computing technology, to work together more closely in the field, the Swiss government said Tuesday. 

“The goal is to strengthen the cooperation between the US and Switzerland, which has existed for a long time,” said Martin Fischer, spokesman of the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation, or SERI. He said the two sides will look to foster bilateral research projects.

The agency’s top official, Martina Hirayama, will travel to the US to sign the agreement Wednesday, Fischer said.

The two countries signed an agreement on scientific and technological cooperation in 2009, and Switzerland is a pioneer in using quantum computing to ensure voting integrity. In 2007, the Swiss canton of Geneva deployed a system using quantum-key distribution to protect its elections developed by id Quantique SA, a Swiss tech firm.

American companies also conduct quantum research in Switzerland. IBM Corp. runs one of its 12 global research labs in Zurich, having entered a 10-year strategic partnership with the ETH Zurich university and the Swiss government to operate a nanotechnology center. 

“Quantum has always been a global endeavor,” said Charles Tahan, the assistant director for quantum information science in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “The United States is committed to promoting and supporting international cooperation on QIS research and skills development.”

The State Department declined to comment on Tuesday.

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(Bloomberg) — Twitter Inc. froze the equity awards accounts for employees on Monday as the deadline to seal a deal with Elon Musk approaches. 

The social media company updated its employee FAQ page this week to alert staff that they won’t be able to access or trade shares from the Equity Award Center. The page said the change was done “in anticipation of the closing of the pending acquisition of Twitter by an entity controlled by Elon Musk,” according to two people familiar with the change.  

“This freeze allows Schwab to perform final reconciliation of employee accounts prior to close of the acquisition,” the update reads. Restricted stock units for a number of workers are due to vest early next month, the people said. A number of staff have been seeking other jobs and plan to resign once the stock vests, they said.

A Twitter spokesperson declined to comment. 

The move is a signal that Twitter is marching forward with the proposed deal. Twitter’s shares jumped 1.9% after the news. 

Musk and Twitter are nearing an Oct. 28 deadline to finalize a $44 billion sale that was first announced in April. Musk previously tried to walk away from his offer, prompting Twitter to sue in an effort to consummate the agreement. A judge delayed a planned trial, originally scheduled for this week, to give the two sides more time to finalize the details.

Employees have been waiting anxiously for the deal to close, and many are worried about the possibility of job cuts. On Blind, an anonymous app for employees to chat with one another, some have started to share tips with colleagues on how to prepare for layoffs. 

(Updates with shares in fifth paragraph.)

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(Bloomberg) — New York state Attorney General Letitia James called for legislation to crack down on online extremism, including penalties for reposting content created by the perpetrator of a homicide, after 10 people were killed in a racially motivated shooting at a Buffalo supermarket.

The recommendations released on Tuesday followed an investigation requested by Governor Kathy Hochul in response to the May rampage. The attorney general’s office reviewed thousands of pages of documents and social-media content to examine how the alleged shooter used the internet to prepare and publicize his attack.

The investigation found that “fringe” online platforms like 4chan radicalized the shooter; livestreaming platforms like Amazon.com Inc.’s Twitch helped publicize and encourage copycat attacks; and a lack of oversight, transparency and accountability of those platforms allowed extremist views to proliferate, leading to violence.

“The tragic shooting in Buffalo exposed the real dangers of unmoderated online platforms that have become breeding grounds of White supremacy,” James said in a statement accompanying the release of a 47-page report on the probe. “Online platforms should be held accountable for allowing hateful and dangerous content to spread on their platforms.”

Read more: Online platform used by accused Buffalo shooter hires lobbyists

James called for a New York state law that would create a civil penalty for anyone who reshares or reposts content from someone who commits a homicide, and criminalize graphic images or videos created by the perpetrator of a homicide. She also is seeking changes to Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act to require companies to take “reasonable steps” to prevent unlawful violent criminal content from appearing on their platforms.

The attorney general’s office examined several online platforms used by the alleged shooter, including Reddit, Discord, 4chan, 8chan, Twitch and YouTube. Investigators found graphic content of the shooting or the shooter’s manifesto on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Rumble, according to the report.

“Investigators looked at how platforms have been used to distribute and promote racist and antisemitic memes and messages and share graphic media of previous racially motivated violence, both of which contributed to the alleged shooter’s radicalization,” the report said.

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(Bloomberg) — Flights into the Dallas area are being forced to take older, cumbersome routes and a runway at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport has been closed after aviation authorities said GPS signals there aren’t reliable. 

The Federal Aviation Administration said in an emailed statement Tuesday it’s investigating the possible jamming of the global-positioning system that aircraft increasingly use to guide them on more efficient routes and to runways. So far, the agency has found “no evidence of intentional interference,” it said. 

American Airlines Group Inc., the primary carrier at DFW, said the GPS issue is not affecting its operations. Southwest Airlines Co., which flies from Love Field, didn’t immediately comment.

Despite the lack of flight disruptions, the GPS problem demonstrates the risks of widespread reliance on weak radio signals from space used for everything from timing stock trades to guiding jetliners.

 

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(Bloomberg) — An Iranian climber who broke Iran’s Islamic laws by competing at an international tournament without her hair covered is on her way back to Tehran, the country’s embassy in Seoul said, denying earlier reports that she’d gone missing.

Elnaz Rekabi officially represented the Islamic Republic without wearing a head scarf — something that’s been mandatory for all Iranian female athletes since 1979 — at the Asian climbing championships in the South Korean capital on Oct. 16.

 

She did so following a month of widespread anti-government protests in Iran that were triggered by the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested last month for allegedly flouting the nation’s strict Islamic dress codes.  

Videos of Rekabi nimbly scaling an indoor wall, with her ponytail out and aloft, went viral on Twitter and other social media platforms. The footage added to a growing list of defining images from the demonstrations in which women have taken center stage, publicly removing their head scarves in protests and leading demands for an end to laws that impose strict mandates on what they can wear. 

On Monday, the BBC reported that Rekabi had gone missing from her Seoul hotel and her passport had been confiscated, triggering a flood of tweets expressing concern about her safety and whereabouts. 

Iran’s embassy in Seoul on Tuesday dismissed the report as “fake news and misinformation” and said Rekabi was en route to Iran with the rest of her team. Another Iranian climber posted on Instagram that Rekabi wasn’t missing and would arrive in Iran, via a layover in Doha, early Wednesday. 

The International Federation of Sport Climbing, the organizers of the Seoul tournament, said in a statement that it was in touch with Rekabi and her team and that she was returning to Iran, adding that it would monitor the situation on her arrival in Tehran.

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