New York

Apple Inc.'s contract talks with its first unionized US retail store reached a flashpoint on Wednesday, with labor representatives filing a complaint in response to what they called bad faith negotiations. The International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers, which represents the Apple store in Towson, Maryland, said that the iPhone maker is stalling and hasn't responded to key proposals sought by employees. The group filed the complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, citing a “clear pattern” of…

US consumers spent $6.4 billion online in the first 24 hours of Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime Day, according to Adobe Inc. That's up 6% from a year ago but fell short of estimates for even stronger growth as shoppers hunt for bargains. The 48-hour event, now in its 9th year, began Tuesday and runs through Wednesday. The promotions are designed to help Amazon grab new paying customers and deepen its relationship with existing ones before the holiday season. The research firm Numerator reported that the event was off to a…

US prosecutors charged a Moroccan man with stealing $450,000 in cryptocurrency and nonfungible tokens, including two Bored Apes, by creating a fake replica of the OpenSea digital marketplace in 2021.Soufiane Oulahyane, 25, set up the website to trick victims into revealing the seed phrase — a series of random words that open a crypto wallet — to gain access to actual accounts on OpenSea, the largest marketplace for NFTs, the Department of Justice said Monday. The practice is known as “spoofing,” which is “one of the…

Apple Inc. is planning a retail launch of its Vision Pro headset with appointments and in-store promotion in select US markets early next year, underscoring the niche and complex nature of the mixed-reality device. The company will designate special areas in the stores with seating, headset demo units and tools to size accessories for buyers. While the device will be sold at all of Apple's roughly 270 US locations, the company is planning the sections for the Vision Pro initially at stores in major areas — such as New…

Access to Twitter's own TweetDeck client will be limited to paid subscribers from August, cutting off free users from the advanced alternative to the company's main consumer app.Twitter announced the change alongside news that an updated version of TweetDeck would begin rolling out to users with new features, as the Elon Musk-owned business continues to try and convert users to its $8-a-month Twitter Blue service. Several features have been placed behind a paywall in recent months, most notably Twitter's iconic blue…

Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. sent paying customers to the edge of space for the first time, a milestone for the Richard Branson-founded company almost two decades in the making.The VSS Unity craft reached space at about 9:30 a.m. local time in New Mexico, Virgin Galactic revealed in a livestream of the event on its website Thursday. That was about an hour after the flight took off, carrying six people on board, including researchers from the Italian Air Force and the National Research Council of Italy. The commercial…

Lina Khan's Federal Trade Commission has already filed three cases against Amazon.com Inc. Now she's gearing up for the Big One.In the coming weeks, the agency plans to file a far-reaching antitrust suit focused on Amazon's core online marketplace, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg and three people familiar with the case. The main allegation is expected to be that Amazon leverages its power to reward online merchants that use its logistics services and punish those who don't. FTC investigators and Khan's…

Respiratory syncytial virus - viral vaccine under researchHailshadow | Istock | Getty ImagesPfizer's vaccine that protects adults ages 60 and older from respiratory syncytial virus was slightly less effective after 18 months, according to clinical trial results the company announced Wednesday. The data is from New York-based Pfizer's clinical trial on more than 34,000 older adults over two RSV seasons, or 24 months. The latest data is specifically on participants in the Northern Hemisphere at "mid-season two" in the…

Billionaire Richard Branson's space-tourism venture, Virgin Galactic Holdings, which has been bravely looking to get back on equal footing with Elon Musk led SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, has finally announced the date for the launch of the company's first commercial passenger flight. Over the last year or so, Virgin had been left trailing both SpaceX and Blue Origin due to innumerable delays that dogged its flight schedule. The company had famously flown Branson to space in July 2021, but failed to do a widely…

The first class suite on Qantas' ultra-long-range A350-1000.Courtesy: QantasLong flights are making a comeback.It is one of the clearest signs yet that airlines are betting the rebound of international travel, devastated in the pandemic, will continue to grow.On Wednesday, Qantas launched service between New York and Sydney with a stop in Auckland, New Zealand, on Boeing 787 Dreamliners, instead of a previous stop in Los Angeles. But the Australian carrier is focusing on even longer routes: Nonstop flights from Sydney to…