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Novo Nordisk said on Thursday it would buy U.S.-based Akero Therapeutics for up to $5.2 billion to add its promising experimental liver disease drug, in the first major deal by the Danish drugmaker’s new CEO to boost growth. The deal underscores new Novo Nordisk CEO Mike Doustdar’s efforts to revive sales growth and fend off intense competition from U.S. rival Eli Lilly. Doustdar, who took over the reins in July, last month also announced the company would cut 9,000 jobs. Akero is testing its drug, efruxifermin, in a late-stage trial of patients with severe liver scarring, or cirrhosis, due to a type of fatty liver disease known as metabolic dysfunction-associated…

Vice President JD Vance on Sunday said there will be deeper cuts to the federal workforce the longer the government shutdown goes on, adding to the uncertainty facing hundreds of thousands who are already furloughed without pay amid the stubborn stalemate in Congress. Vance warned that as the federal shutdown entered its 12th day, the new cuts would be “painful,” even as he said the The President administration worked to ensure that the military is paid this week and some services would be preserved for low-income Americans, including food assistance. Still, hundreds of thousands of government workers have been furloughed in recent days and, in a court filing on Friday,…

The Big Apple is taking on the companies behind Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube, accusing them of “public nuisance” and spurring a youth mental health crisis in the city. In a 327-page lawsuit filed last week in the Southern District of New York, the city of New York—along with its school districts and health department—alleges that “gross negligence” on the part of Meta, Alphabet, Snap, and ByteDance has hooked kids on social media through “algorithms that wield user data as a weapon against children and fuel the addiction machine.” Over one-third of 13- to 17-year-olds report using one of these social media platforms “almost constantly” and …

I can’t think of anything better than assembling Lego blocks. Except assembling gigantic Lego that I can actually walk, jump, and nap on. Which is precisely what Lego and Nike did at Baoshan No. 2 Central Primary School in Shanghai.​ The school has 1,400 students who previously had insufficient sport and play facilities. Nike, which is building 100 playgrounds in schools all around China, decided to partner with Lego to fix that (the two are already partners in a series of cross-branding Lego sets and sports gear). According to the companies, the design was deeply collaborative and student-driven—and it shows: Instead of the previous sad concrete playground there’s no…

In April 2025, Lucy Guo became the youngest female self-made billionaire after Meta paid $14.3 billion for a 49% stake in Scale AI, the company she cofounded with Alexandr Wang in 2016. Though Guo had left the company—which builds infrastructure and software to create AI applications—over disagreements with Wang in 2018, she retained her 5% stake in the business, which skyrocketed in value after Meta’s investment. In 2022 she reemerged with Passes, a platform that helps creators monetize their social media followings by selling access to exclusive offerings—from products and merch to pay-by-the-minute private phone calls. As of February, the company has raised a …

Ikea is ready to begin overhauling its smart home products. The Swedish furniture manufacturer began dabbling in smart home products as early as 2012, but in July it announced plans to soon debut a revamped range. The goal, it says, is to make products that are more universally compatible and more intuitive to use—in other words, bringing the connected smart home experience to the masses. Now, Ikea’s 21 new smart home products are here. The collection includes new smart bulbs that come in more color and light intensity options than previous versions, an array of sensors and controls, and a smart plug that can make any “dumb” lamp or small appliance smart. Pricing …

Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz have been indicted on charges they took bribes from sports bettors to throw certain types of pitches, including tossing balls in the dirt instead of strikes, to ensure successful bets. According to the indictment unsealed Sunday in federal court in Brooklyn, the highly paid hurlers took several thousand dollars in payoffs to help two unnamed gamblers from their native Dominican Republic win at least $460,000 on in-game prop bets on the speed and outcome of certain pitches. Clase, the Guardians’ former closer, and Ortiz, a starter, have been on non-disciplinary paid leave since July, when MLB started investigatin…

Think. Create. Change. These three verbs are the driving force behind the World Changing Ideas Summit, a first-of-its-kind event created in partnership with Fast Company and Johns Hopkins University (JHU). This November 19 at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C., the World Changing Ideas Summit will convene academics and senior business leaders for a day of immersive, thought-provoking experiences designed to advance America’s innovation ecosystem. From dynamic panels to interactive innovation showcases to hands-on breakout sessions, the World Changing Ideas Summit aims to go beyond dialogue and inspire action. “The World Changing…

One of the many ways Americans practice gratitude in the month of November is by honoring those who have served in the U.S. military. This federal holiday is always observed on November 11—even if that falls on a weekday, as is the case this year. Many federal services take the day off to give workers time to observe Veterans Day. It can get a bit confusing to know how this impacts what’s open and closed. The ongoing federal government shutdown adds another layer of uncertainty. Before we clear all that up, let’s take a look at the history of the day. A brief history of Veterans Day World War I was supposed to be the war that ended all wars. On November 11,…

When Amazon proposed building its Project Blue data center in Tucson, Arizona, the company faced intense pushback. Residents raised concerns about the enormous amounts of water and electricity that the data center would need, two major ways such projects impact the environment, especially in a desert city. Ultimately, Tucson’s town council rejected the proposal (though its developer hasn’t given up). But the story highlights both the growing environmental impacts of data centers, and how location matters to that impact. A study published this week in the journal Nature Sustainability makes that connection even clearer. Led by researchers at Cornell University, t…